report from the field: the ricta meeting video   cal kenny knet, keewaytinook okimakanak < calkenny@knet.ca >   brian walmark keewaytinook okimakanak research institute < brianwalmark@knet.ca >   susan o’donnell national research council < susan.odonnell@nrc-cnrc-gc.ca >   video location on the web: http://streaming.knet.ca/ricta/ricta_300k.wmv   a short video produced about the founding meeting of ricta has been made available for viewing online. the new canadian research network ricta – research on ict with aboriginal communities – held its first meeting in balmertown, ontario, with videoconference links to 10 locations across the country.   cal kenny, the editor and producer of the video, is a website designer and graphic designer in sioux lookout, ontario. he works for knet, keewaytinook okimakanak, the tribal council that hosted the ricta meeting.   the video includes footage shot on location in balmertown and the remote fly-in community of deer lake first nation, where ricta researchers visited the community e-centre and the telehealth facility. the participants interviewed for the video stress the innovative potential of ict in aboriginal communities – for example encouraging aboriginal community members, particularly young people, to share their stories.   research issues discussed include: the need for participatory methodologies that involve aboriginal communities early in the research process, the need to ensure that research builds capacity in communities, the need to encourage community champions, and changing the conventional rules about how research is conducted. more information about ricta can be found on the website www.ricta.ca.   video title: ricta – research on ict with aboriginal communities. founding ricta meeting and visit to deer lake first nation. march 10-11, 2005   time: 5:52 video captured by: cal kenny and daryl ostamas edited by: cal kenny interviews by: adam fiser and cal kenny music by: blue mason   ricta would like to acknowledge the support of the social sciences and humanities research council’s strategic research cluster design grants in 2004-2005. editorial: putting our work in context   michael gurstein new jersey institute of technology < gurstein@adm.njit.edu >   in february of this year i had the opportunity of participating in the canadian west coast community networking summit, “strategic use of information and communication technology for communities,” in vancouver, canada.   ( http://www.2005summit.ca/  ).  the event was a striking success in that it attracted some 500 participants, almost all from the two western provinces of canada; a very large proportion of canadian aboriginals (first nations); and community technology activists and researchers.  few, if any of those attending indicated any hesitation as to the kinds of changes and opportunities that community icts were providing to their communities.   i attended as a member of the canadian research alliance for community innovation and networking (cracin) and also of the community informatics research network (cirn), both of which sponsored or co-sponsored events as part of the overall “summit”.   a number of things were notable during the 4 days of presentations, meetings, workshops, plenaries, informal chats in corridors and bars, and formal dinners: the positive impact that community-based icts are having in providing opportunities for economic and social development in marginalized and remote communities throughout a vast and diverse region. the powerful vision that is emerging of local empowerment and further advances in such areas as remote health care and local e-governance. the sense that the technology is an enabler for all and not simply for those with existing advantages of education or technical proficiency but that there is a continuing need for creating technical capacity at the local level. the need for research and understanding of the processes and activities as a means for continuing self-understanding and improvement. the role that many canadian first nations are seeing for icts as leveling the playing field for their participation in canadian society (a striking example of this is found in the report from k-net in this issue)   while on the one side there was optimism and enthusiasm for the future, on the other side was a deep concern that the basis for much of this development – a commitment by the canadian government to ensure a degree of “access” (connectivity) for all – was in the process of being declared “achieved” with the result that government support and attention was shifting to other areas.   many practitioners attending the event were particularly welcoming of the participation by we researchers as they were looking to us as a means for identifying and documenting the positive benefits that had been achieved to date and as a source of support in developing the convincing evidence for continued support in these areas from politicians and government policy makers.   and overall, there was a concern for “sustainable” financing models for community based technology initiatives given the long-term instability of current government funding approaches.   there was a considerable interest on the part of the community technology practitioners in the work of the researchers.  the practitioners were looking to us for ways of documenting impacts and outcomes and for methodologies by which they could achieve self-understanding and self-assessment of appropriate and useful operating models and practices. in this way a set of on-going working relationships between researchers and community practitioners were being developed on a broader basis than the specifics of an individual university-based research project and this was being anchored with the background context of quite specific and directed policy processes.   this is the third issue of the journal, and i’m delighted to say that we have been very well received by colleagues worldwide and by a range of researchers, practitioners and policy staff. the most “popular” article from the first issue, scott robinson of the universidad metropolitana, mexico “towards a neo-apartheid system of governance in latin america –implications for the community informatics guild”, has been down-loaded 2200 times; and from the second issue. stephen james musgrave of the fylde college in the uk’s piece “community portals: a false dawn over the field of dreams?” has been downloaded 1200 times.  we now have over 250 registered “subscribers” and some 100 contributors and the equivalent number of signed-up reviewers.   it is probably a bit early to start checking citation indexes, but i am beginning to see references to ci journal articles appearing in some conference and student project papers and we have a bit of a back-log in contributions for up-coming issues and offers to edit special issues on special topic areas.   so, by the various obvious measures we have begun to fill the academic need. by the other, and probably more significant measures, that is whether we are making a contribution to the discipline, to the field, to researchers, to practitioners or to policy development, of course remains to be seen but my hope (and expectation) and i think that of all those involved with this effort are that we will have impacts and outcomes in those areas as well.   this issue reflects the diversity of research (and practice) in the area of ci, including: garth graham’s challenging point of view, “community networking as radical practice.” susana finquelievich and graciela kisilevsky study on an emerging model for community ict governance from argentina “community democratization of telecommunications community cooperatives in argentina: the case of telpin”, chris hagar and caroline haythornthwaite’s fascinating account of the use of community networking as a response to the local foot and mouth crisis in the uk “crisis, farming & community.” anikar haselhoff’s very interesting preliminary look at a field project examining cybercafes in india from a community informatics perspective “cybercafés and their potential as community development tools in india’, anna malina and ian ball’s review of the community technology policy processes in scotland in “icts and community and suggestions for further research in scotland”, larry stillman and randy stoecker’s paper on a case study of a community informatics program in australia looking for its way forward “structuration, icts, and community work.” randy stoecker’s valuable and provocative essay on whether “community informatics is good for communities?” reports from k-net on the development of their ict enabled local high school and on its future in e-health and telemedicine. and. an extremely interesting video report on a workshop on ict research with aboriginal communities from the ricta network (research on icts with aboriginal communities).   a note on these “notes from the field”   michael gurstein  new jersey institute of technology < gurstein@adm.njit.edu >       the three articles in the cluster of “notes from the field,” though representing three very different national and institutional contexts are in fact, remarkably complementary.   klaus stoll’s article on bringing wifi to el chaco is a fine example of how a community is moving forward and overcoming obstacles and “leapfrogging” into advanced methods of connectivity through wifi.  at the same time the community is “appropriating” the technology for its own use and developing a variety of strategies and applications for subsequent “effective use”.   the open letter from the keewaytinook okimakanak brings the activities in el chaco into the wider context of how governments can and should play a role in ensuring the broadest possible access to advanced levels of connectivity.  the letter argues forcefully that access to connectivity and information and communications technologies can be transformative for local opportunities even in the remotest regions.  the benefits that will flow as a consequence suggests that national investment in these areas should be of the highest priority.   the article prepared by sascha meinrath on behalf of the champaign-urbana community wireless network and first national (us) summit for community wireless networks provides a sense of the opportunities which wireless enabled broadband connectivity presents.  writing from the perspective of someone who understands the technology and the directions of its developments, meinrath is implicitly presenting a challenge and a plan of action for realizing these opportunities.   together these three articles represent a very significant “manifesto” for taking the discussion about community based wireless and broadband into all spheres of development, development funding and development policy and give the strongest possible argument of the opportunity and need to incorporate wireless along with broadband into the mainstream of community informatics thinking and applications.       editorial some thoughts on icts in a developing world context michael gurstein, ph.d. editor-in-chief <editori@ci-journal.net > much of the attention concerning ict use in less developed countries (ldc’s) has focused on the issue of “access”, that is the availability of the means to physically link to the internet or to electronically interact via the internet through some technical facilitation of that connection as discussed at some length in ashraf et al’s.article. this is clearly an issue of general significance since in the absence of such a means to “connect”, no other issues concerning the opportunities (or limitations) presented by internet enabled communications or digital processing are feasible. specifically at the level of physical connection the issues of the availability (and usability) of such access through facilities that are geographically convenient and within the financial means of even the poorest presents overwhelming arguments for publicly initiated and supported “access facilities”. arnold et al’s interesting paper in the current issue explores some of the social and organizational issues that might be involved both in developed and less developed countries in achieving widespread ict “access” at the local level. at the larger “system” level, the balancing and realization of equitable costs of regional and national interconnection i.e. the linkage of local service provision to the global telecommunications network remains a cause of concern for many countries particularly in sub-saharan africa as might be explored through adeyinka’s article. these issues are being continuously redefined as the capacity of the global network responds to the ever-escalating requirement for additional capacity (bandwidth) driven both by increased numbers of users and by increasingly bandwidth intensive applications and content. additionally, discussions are increasingly recognizing that the digital divide is often but a symptom of other “divides” limiting the “accessibility” of internet based services such as levels of literacy and numeracy, location and geography (with rural and remote areas being particularly ill-served), education and skill levels, gender and (physical) ability. some, particularly (but not exclusively) in developed countries are using skill or (in some cases privileged) access to knowledge, capital and an existing advanced technology infrastructure to realize enormous benefits for themselves and their organizations through the use of the internet and related technologies. as well, these technologies are providing enormous benefits to consumers and to the range of users. the challenge in less developed countries is to extend to the widest possible range of users the opportunities that icts present. what this means in practical terms is that not only is there the need and the social responsibility for citizens to have ready and equitable “access” to the internet but they must also have access to the means to use the internet in productive and meaningful ways. it must also be recognized that indigenous peoples (ips) represent a significant portion of the “underdeveloped” populations in the world (including in both developed and less developed countries) and that they have exceptional difficulties (and opportunities) in relation to icts. in many cases ip’s suffer a cascade of difficulties in relation to their participation as equal partners in the information society and knowledge economies. ip’s are disproportionately found in rural and remote areas; their traditional groupings often straddle national boundaries; their traditional geographic locales are often in areas of particular environmental or economic vulnerability; while their languages and cultures distinguish them from others in their societies. in these contexts, access to icts and the internet often present signicant barriers and yet it is precisely through the use of icts that impoverished economic and social conditions can most effectively be alleviated. icts provide a means through which ips may participate as equal members in the larger society and realise their aspirations for self-management and self-determination. the internet allows for the distribution of intelligence and empowerment to the edges of the network. there thus is a natural correspondence between icts and opportunities and movements toward local self-management and empowerment. where community informatics in many instances in less developed countries may fit seamlessly into long-standing processes of local self-management ci offers a range of new opportunities for facilitating effective participation by grassroots and other communities in broader regional and national economic, social and political processes. all of which suggests the need that ci strategies be introduced and supported in the design and deployment of technical and related organizational and governance systems as we can infer from the bruce et al article in our current issue. there has been a dramatic decline in the cost of computing hardware in ldcs as elsewhere (including, among other devices, the one laptop per child pc). while this development brings access to personal computing into the income range of a larger number in the developing world, it also serves to highlight the excessive cost of internet access in many of these same countries resulting from in many cases managed pricing or lack of competition. developed countries as part of broader strategies to promote deregulation and development should be targeting these areas both at the national and the global inter-connectivity levels and as well be supporting the development of additional global capacity as a way of competitively driving down access costs to those that can be afforded at the local community level. wong’s article although dealing with the canadian context adds a very useful wifi dimension to this discussion. many of the services which in developed countries have been computer based, are in ldc’s cellular telephone based. electronic funds transfer, electronic purchasing, rapid information transfer concerning local markets and so on have now, through popular use (and popular innovation) become cellular services. these developments can be understood (as is gagnon’s article) as being available for integration and extension within the variety of “more structured” ci development initiatives as cellular services in ldc’s. while not generally understood under the rubric of icts, community radio is nevertheless one of the most effective tools available for information dissemination and community involvement. notably new organizational and technology developments (including linkages with the internet) have extended the capability of community radio. developments in developed countries may provide directions (as suggested by bodnar’s article) as to how community radio and other not for profit media initiatives might usefully be structured so as to support social development and innovation. this issue is wide ranging—moving from australia through nigeria to the two coasts of canada and back to africa again. it covers telecentres and wireless, learning and the theoretical basis for community based technology initiatives. it presents the diversity of community informatics and through the range of discussions including theory, practice and policy the variety of sources and influences that are streaming into the ci discourse. searching for the role of icts in development: a case study of a rural multi-purpose community centre in the dwars river valle   learning from the ldc’s michael gurstein editor-in-chief < editori@ci-journal.net >   as developed countries are retreating from the implicit commitment to their citizens that universal internet access will be available even to those without in-home internet access, so such a commitment appears to be emerging within less developed countries, particularly in asia.  funding programs facilitating widespread public access have recently been cut back or cut completely in canada, the us, australia, and france among others. meanwhile, programs to support widespread public access have been announced recently in india, sri lanka, bangla desh and the philippines. on the one hand, some are saying that the recent cuts are simply policy responses in the developed countries to “mission accomplished”—the divide divide has been defeated (everyone who wants it can get affordable individual in-home access on low cost computers).  while on the other hand, the parallel development in the less developed countries (ldc’s) would seem to be a sign that those countries are willing to make a considerable financial investment in “catching up”. in fact, the situation is somewhat more complicated than that. in the developed countries, rather than the “mission being accomplished”, the forces at work are in more or less full-retreat from the commitment to universal inclusion and what has now become a more or less necessary aspect of full citizenship in a democratic society—that is the ability to engage and connect with government electronically.  what has been happening in developed countries is that the state seems to be giving up on those at the margins—the elderly, the deeply poor, the mentally disabled, recent immigrants—those who lack not simply the financial means to access knowledge for democratic participation via the internet; but who also lack the associated educational, psychological or motivational means to obtain access and realize use with support and facilitation. at the same time and across the world, in the ldc’s the extension of such access should probably not be interpreted as a simple response to a national or global “digital divide”. rather these programs should be seen as pragmatic and calculated attempts at economic and social intervention.  in these instances, ict access and use is being recognized as a fundamental element in the successful achievement of a broad based strategy for economic development and, perhaps more important, for realizing the transformation of traditional and largely rural societies into innovative and productive “knowledge societies”.  the understanding appears to be that if these societies are to truly flourish, economic opportunity and the capacity to innovate and participate in knowledge-intensive activities must be as widely accessible as possible; and this can only be realistically achieved through public (and community) access. so what we see in the developed countries is a retreat from a policy of broad based digital social inclusion.  this seems to be of a piece with the continuing neo-liberal erosion of the notions of inclusive citizenship.  these in turn are seemingly based on an assumption that decisions concerning internet access and use are best left to individuals (and individual resources) rather than being an aspect of social policy. at the same time, in some ldc’s we see an extension of precisely the same processes of broad-based access for pragmatic social and economic reasons.  so which understanding of the role and significance of broad-based internet access is the correct one? in fact, the intension with the programs in the ldc’s is to use the base of “universal access” (the medium term goal for these programs) as a means to enhance the delivery of public services, facilitate a broader base of engagement with governmental activities, provide support to local human resource development, and facilitate the distribution of knowledge as a basis for local innovation, among others. the question of course, is: are these objectives for public access programs already fully accomplished in developed countries, or are they for some reason unnecessary, or perhaps beneath the range of interests of governments and public policy?  there is probably little dispute that the answer to at least some of these questions is no!  rather, as in other areas, the developed countries are, for reasons that can only be described as ideological, abandoning courses of action which would appear to be in the national long term economic and social interests, not to speak of issues of equity and social justice.  others, in some cases the direct economic competitors in ldc’s, are adopting policies whose long term results are likely to be a sturdier base of economic activity and a stronger foundation for moving forward into knowledge societies. thus, while some countries are putting into place the infrastructure for a robust and innovative internet-enabled democracy, others are allowing for structured inequalities to persist and become socially embedded through differential access to knowledge and digitally enabled services and opportunities for participation.  transitions this issue of the journal unfortunately has been delayed due to a variety of unforeseen circumstances and transitions.  the first major transition was that of moving from ojs 1 to ojs 2, which proved to be rather more difficult in a variety of unexpected ways than had been anticipated.  the second transition is a personal one for myself, moving from the east coast and an academic position to the west coast and into “start-up” mode for a ci think-tank. a third transition still being resolved is towards a more formalized organizational and production structure, difficult of course since to date virtually all activities within the journal have been voluntary and thus supported by one or another (mostly academic) infrastructure. hopefully, most of these shifts, and their consequences, have now been absorbed and are past.  we look forward to resuming a regular schedule of publication, with some improvements in process in place. editorial: community informatics with a latin accent editorial: community informatics with a latin accent michael gurstein editor-in-chief, joci, editori@ci-journal.net para el texto en español, por favor avance hasta el final de la versión en inglés. this special spanish language (the english translations will appear in the spring of 2008), latin america issue of the journal of community informatics represents a very significant departure, advance, maturing, and “leap forward” for joci and for community informatics in general. while much of the early practical work in community informatics was done in conjunction with the extremely significant grassroots telecentre movement in latin america (not incidentally, the origins of the community informatics research network can be found in a meeting held in conjunction with the global community network partnership in buenos aires in 2001) much of the writing concerning this work has been unavailable to english speaking audiences. as well, the participation of latin american community informatics researchers in the broader discussions and ci networking has been sporadic and limited by issues of funding, distance, linguistic barriers and the overall silos that continue to exist particularly for grass roots based initiatives even in this age of globalized communications and international travel. so it is with particular delight that i welcome this issue of joci, and congratulate its co-editors eduardo villanueva (peru) and christoph roessner (ecuador). this issue reflects the range of work currently being done both on the ground with community informatics implementations ranging from telecentres to supports for migrants to rural development support systems and including cases and examples from roughly 10 countries in the region. as well, there are presentations of some of the research, practice and policy dilemmas and opportunities including a discussion of the very interesting and innovative programs being implemented currently in brazil. latin america is currently rediscovering its role as an independent player in the global scene and latin america historically has deep traditions of community initiatives and community self-reliance. to a degree the community ict initiatives presented in these papers links into these traditions but ci as a whole, i think, still waits for the development of what could be an explosive force which would emerge from a direct linkage of icts with the powerful grassroots movements that are just now coming to the fore in the region. each community and from there each local area and each nation finds unique ways of adapting and integrating icts into its local concerns and local struggles. the variety of these developments is only just now starting to become visible as the technology moves from being project (and thus externally) driven to becoming locally integrated (“appropriated”) and in this way a natural and naturally evolving resource for community initiatives and empowerment. the strength of this and the power that will be unleashed when icts are “appropriated” by the range of community initiatives in latin america will i think, give ci as a whole a new direction and bring ci much more directly onto the overall stage of ict4d. editorial: la informática comunitaria con un acento latino esta edición especial sobre américa latina, en español (las traducciones al inglés estarán disponibles en el segundo trimestre del 2008) del journal of community informatics representa un cambio muy significativo, un avance, muestra de madurez y “salto adelante” para joci y la informática comunitaria en general. si bien mucho del trabajo práctico temprano en informática comunitaria se realizó junto con muy importante movimiento de bases de telecentros en américa latina (no es casual que el origen de la red de investigación en informática comunitaria puede ubicarse en en una reunión conjunta con la global community network partnership en buenos aires el 2001), mucho de los escrito sobre esta temática en la región no ha estado disponible para el público de habla inglesa. similarmente, la participación de los investigadores latinoamericanos en informática comunitaria en las discusiones más generales, y en el networking de la comunidad profesional, ha sido esporádico y limitado por problemas de financiamiento, distancia, barreras lingüísticas y la separación general que existe particularmente entre las iniciativas de base incluso en esta era de comunicación global y viajes internacionales. es por ello que me resulta particularmente grato darle la bienvenida a este número de joci, y felicitar a sus co-editores eduardo villanueva (perú) y christoph roessner (ecuador). este número refleja la diversidad de iniciativas que están llevando a cabo tanto en el terreno, con implementaciones de informática comunitaria que van de telecentros a apoyo a migrantes, a sistemas de soporte al desarrollo rural. con casos y ejemplos de unos diez países de la region, también se cuenta con exposiciones de parte de los dilemas que la investigación, la práctica y la política plantean, incluyendo la discusión de programas innovadores, de mucho interés, que se están implementando en brasil en la actualidad. américa latina está en un proceso de redescubrimiento de su rol como un actor independiente en la escena global; hay en esta región una larga tradición de iniciativas comunitarias y de autodesarrollo comunitario. hasta cierto punto las iniciativas comunitarias con tic discutidas en estos artículos se enlazan con estas tradiciones, pero a mi criterio, la informática comunitaria, en conjunto, todavía espera el desarrollo de lo que podría ser una fuerza ponderosa que emergería de una relación directa entre las tic con los potentes movimientos de base que están justo ahora tomando un sitio central en en la vida de la región. cada comunidad, cada region y cada nación encuentran formas únicas, originales, para adaptar e integrar las tic en sus preocupaciones y luchas locales. la variedad de estos desarrollos es aparente solo desde hace poco, con la tecnología saliendo de su condición de proyecto, impulsada desde fuera, para convertirse en un recurso integrado a lo local, “apropiado” localmente, y de esta manera un recurso, naturalmente, en evolución natural, para el empoderamiento de las iniciativas locales. la fortaleza de esta situación, y el poder que será desencadenado cuando las tic sean “apropiadas” por el conjunto de las iniciativas comunitarias en américa latina le darán, a mi criterio, una nueva, distinta, dirección a la informática comunitaria, y la pondrán mucho más en el centro del escenario de la ict4d: tic para el desarrollo.   the participant-observer in community-based learning as community bard  john m. carroll the pennsylvania state university < jmcarroll@psu.edu >  mary beth rosson the pennsylvania state university < mrosson@psu.edu >   abstract we reflect on the role that we play, as participatory action researchers, in community informatics projects. we characterize this role using the analogy to "bards" from medeival societies.     during the past three years our civic nexus research group (http://cscl.ist.psu.edu) has been involved in a collection of community learning projects with groups in centre county, pennsylvania, a rural area of about 1,000 square miles with a population of 140,000, including the fairly cosmopolitan college town of state college (population 75,000) and the main campus of the pennsylvania state university. the focus of the project is to investigate, develop, and assess sustainable strategies to help these groups better control their own information technology. we have worked with the county historical society, the regional emergency management coordinator, a sustainable development group, the enrichment program at the local high school, the local chapter of habitat for humanity, the symphony orchestra, the local food bank, an environmental preservation group, a local emergency medical services council, a group that works with at-risk youth, and with a group that trains leaders for community groups. our original project concept was to form participatory action research (par) relationships with these groups, to jointly undertake technology development projects through which our partners would learn by doing, and we could observe how the learning occurred, and how it could be facilitated and sustained (merkel, xiao, farooq, ganoe, lee, carroll & rosson, 2004). we found that, in general, groups in our community already use internet technologies, like email and the web, to carry out their missions, but, also in general, the groups are not satisfied, often feel like they are slipping behind some norm, and do want to consider learning more and doing more. for example, many of the groups are interested in attaining more direct control of their overall web site design, others are interesting in better integrating their information technology (for example, integrating databases with their websites), some are interested in adding special functionalities to their web sites (such as interactive maps), and some are interested in supporting collaborative interactions like discussion forums. our par projects have several distinctive characteristics relative to standard conceptions of participatory technology projects (clement & van den besselaar, 1993): (1) the owners of the project are the community partners. they control the work activity being supported. they authorize the project and the approach taken. (2) the scope of the design concern is fairly broad. it is not limited to a user interface or even an application program; it generally involves adaptations in the work itself, especially including approaches to managing technology and technology training. (3) the scope of the collaboration is also quite broad. these groups are not organized for efficient decision-making and policy implementation, rather they work through consensus building. thus, decisions develop through considerable spans of time and involve mutual trust. (4) finally, these groups are more responsible for their own technology than the workers typically studied in classic participatory technology projects.  for example, participatory projects with office workers hinge on accurately codifying the work that is to be supported. the office workers will not have to maintain the new systems any more than had to personally maintain the old ones. for community groups, this is different. the only sustainable innovations they can make are those they can either pay for or carry out. there is no corporate infrastructure underwriting their activities; no it support department. thus, their expectations about learning and development are that they will assume responsibility for maintenance and further design (merkel, clitherow, farooq, xiao, ganoe, carroll & rosson, 2005). indeed, the community volunteer groups we are working with are quite unlike those in the classic participatory technology projects. in those projects, participation is conceived of as a strategy for mediating and integrating the interests of workers and managers. these different interests were often themselves conceived of as fundamentally adversarial. in the civic sector, the issues manifest differently. most of the activity in a community group occurs through minimally coordinated and highly localized initiatives. the community groups we have worked with have few paid staff members. most of the work activity is carried out by volunteers, who participate how and to the extent that they wish. the characteristics of par projects, and our interest in investigating and developing sustainable community-based learning, impel a different sort of role for us as participant-observers. specifically, we have learned that effective participation requires a substantial and long-term involvement in the community group, but at the same time, relegates us to the active periphery of the community. this may sound contradictory. on the one hand, the fact that the groups are constituted by loose networks of volunteers and managed by a mixture of self-initiative and consensus-building, makes it difficult to quickly understand the groups and earn sufficient trust to work with them. on the other hand, we are ultimately concerned with helping to implement sustainable learning strategies in these groups. but if we have to actually become members in order to do that, it becomes impossible to differentiate the “models” we are developing and investigating, from our own personal identities. (see carroll, chin, rosson & neale, 2000, for a broader version of this argument.) we call this role in the active periphery “the bard”: those fellows with lutes and plumed hats, roaming about, singing ballads in medieval courts. bards were not knights, chancellors, or bishops; they were not even blacksmiths, tailors or farmers. they were not core members of the medieval community at any stratum. however, their songs reminded all the members of the community of their collective exploits, of the folkways, mores, and values that regulate and sustain their practices, and of their future objectives and visions. their songs inspired other actors in the community to undertake great quests, to defend their comrades, or just to be a bit more creative and daring in their farming or whatever else they did. the bard’s tools are themselves fairly unthreatening to the interests and practices of others, and at the same time participatory in the sense that a familiar or rousing ballad asks for sing-along (carroll, 2004). as the bards of community nonprofits in centre county, pennsylvania, we are much more than facilitators. we are much more than occasional visitors. we are continuously involved. we are aware of what is going on in the group, of who is doing what in the group. we understand what the group is about and what it values. we are sounding boards for the group’s analysis and planning. we are on occasion direct technical resources for analysis and planning. we represent the group to itself, in our case from the particular perspective of technology needs and possibilities. but we are also firmly at the edge of the group. we don’t have an operational role. we don’t have power. this role can be uniquely useful: community groups are not about information technology any more than they are about plumbing. they recruit various technologies in the service of their community goals and functions. it is easy for them to lose sight of their own technology needs and goals. the peripheral participant can remind core members of their own needs and goals, and draw connections between current group issues and opportunities and technology plans. if this reminding is done creatively, it can become a vehicle for defining a zone of proximal development, in vygotsky’s (1978) sense, with respect to technology learning and mastery. the zone of proximal development is the set of concepts, skills, and other capacities that a person or an organization can undertake with help. as an individual or an organization successfully operates within the zone of proximal development, it becomes autonomously competent with a larger set of concepts, skills, and capacities. at that point, it can articulate greater ambitions and continue to push the bounds of its own development. if the peripheral participant can remind the core members of their zone of proximal development with respect to information technology, and perhaps even provide some help so that they can operate within this zone and push out its boundaries, then the peripheral participant can become an instrument of learning and development within the community. (see carroll & farooq, 2005, for a more specific and detailed version of this proposal.)   acknowledgements we are grateful to the other members of the civic nexus project team — cecelia merkel, craig ganoe, umer farooq, lu xiao, wendy schafer, michael race, matthew peters, and paula bach. this research is supported in part by the us national science foundation under award iis 03-42547.   references carroll, j.m. 2004. participatory design of community information systems: the designer as bard, in f. darses , r. dieng , c. simone & m. zacklad, (eds.), cooperative systems design: scenario-based design of collaborative systems, volume 107 frontiers in artificial intelligence and applications. amsterdam: ios press, pp. 1-6. carroll, j.m., chin, g., rosson, m.b. & neale, d.c. (2000). the development of cooperation: five years of participatory design in the virtual school.  in d. boyarski & w. kellogg (eds.), dis’2000: designing interactive systems (brooklyn, new york, august 17-19). new york: association for computing machinery, pp. 239-251. carroll, j.m. and farooq, u. (2005). community-based learning: design patterns and frameworks. in h. glllersen, k. schmidt, m. beaudouin-lafon, and w. mackay (eds.), proceedings of the 9th european conference on computer-supported cooperative work (paris, france, september 18-22, 2005), pp. 307-324. dordrecht, the netherlands: springer. clement, a. & van den besselaar, p.  1993. a retrospective look at pd projects. communications of the acm, 36(4), 29-37. merkel, c.b., clitherow, m., farooq, u., xiao, l., ganoe, c.h., carroll, j.m. & rosson, m.b. 2005. sustaining computer use and learning in community contexts: making technology part of “who they are and what they do”.  the journal of community informatics, 1(2), 134-150.    http://ci-journal.net/viewissue.php merkel, c.b., xiao, l., farooq, u., ganoe, c.h., lee, r., carroll, j.m. & rosson, m.b. 2004. participatory design in community computing contexts: tales from the field. proceedings of the participatory design conference (toronto, canada, july 27-31). new york: acm press, pp. 1-10. vygotsky, l.s. 1978. mind in society. cambridge, ma: harvard university press.   joci gender experiences in it@school, an ict enabled education project of kerala, india p r raji research and documentation officer, society for promotion of alternative computing and employment, kerala, india rajipraman@gmail.com arun m secretary, free software foundation of india colonel.m@gmail.com the turn of the century saw the emergence of a global partnership committed to time bound goals for poverty eradication and sustainable development. the millennium declaration signed by over 147 nations recognises the pivotal role of information and communication technologies in accelerating the development process and it resolves to make its benefits available to all. it was followed by a spurt of information and communication technology (ict) based activities across the world. the indian state of kerala broke new ground with the launching of it@school, a project for ict enabled education in schools and akshaya1, a project for e-literacy. kerala and women kerala, the south western state of india is well known through the writings of the nobel laureate amartya sen which discussed its experience of development. the state's performance in social development which is on par with the developed countries has led to countless research. the gender development indicators of kerala, such as sex ratio (1058 females for 1000 males), life expectancy for women (73.1 years) show that the women in kerala have a better status. when we look into women participation in the work place (15.8%) or their political presence (less than 10%), we find that the situation is far from equal2. the norms and restrictions on women make them disadvantaged when it comes to their participation in the social, economic and political spheres. expectations of women to nurture the family through housework, care for the children and the elderly etc. are very rigid in kerala society. reflections in this article need to be read in this social context. gender divide and it@school the government of kerala launched projects like akshaya and it@school with the objective of addressing the digital divide in the state. although there was no perspective on gender, these projects were expected to enable women's access to information society and the information economy. in terms of numbers, both projects show high level of women participation. but what quality of change this has brought about needs to be analysed further. this paper specifically looks into the experience of women in it@school project. it@school is the largest ict education project in india. it was launched based on the recommendations of an expert committee. the recommendation was to empower teachers to use ict as a tool to assist education. since it skills were lacking among teachers and students, the project was started with extensive training programmes for teachers and it was introduced as a subject of study at the high school level. over 80,000 teachers have been trained and each year half a million students are introduced to ict3. the project is also noted for its deployment of free and open source software (foss)4. it@school gave women unprecedented entry into ict by virtue of the fact that women constitute 67% of the teachers in kerala. it was mandatory for all the teachers to gain ict skills. this in turn gave an impetus to the ict awareness and skill development of women teachers in kerala. table 1: gender disaggregated data of high school teachers in kerala (2002-2003) male female total govt. high schools 12335 19919 32254 govt. aided schools 15507 35080 50587 private schools 1333 4583 5916 total 29175 59582 88757 table:2 gender disaggregated data of high school students in kerala (2002-2003) boys girls total 802454 785484 158793 purpose and methods the high level of enthusiasm and involvement shown by women teachers created an interest in studying the gender dynamics of it@school. the study looks into the changes that the project brought in the women teachers and the challenges they faced. interviews and group discussions were held with 22 teachers who are involved in the project. the teachers are in the age group of 30-50 years. discussions were also held with the project leadership. documents relating to it@school were also reviewed for this study. managerial structure and participation of women at different levels kerala state is divided into 14 regions or revenue districts. it@school project is headquartered at the capital city of trivandrum. the project has a pool of school teachers as master trainers (mt) who have been given advanced training in ict. they lead the implementation of the project in different districts under the direction of the state office. each school has designated a school it coordinator (sitc) and a joint school it coordinator, to implement the project at the school level. master trainers have skills that are on par with those of it technicians. their skill sets include basic administration of computers with gnu/linux operating systems, installation and troubleshooting of computer hardware and software, setting up of small office network, connecting to the internet and using various specialised software. they have also developed strong managerial capacity as each of them manage it implementation in 22-30 schools, arrange and execute training programmes for teachers and support the implementation of various e governance programmes of the education department. often they have to plan and execute these activities against great constraints of time and they also feel responsible for all possible outcomes. in terms of skills, sitcs are on par with the mts. they provide the same level of support as that of mts at the school level. while mts work full time in the project, for the sitcs, their responsibilities in the project are in addition to their regular responsibilities in school. reflections “my life has totally changed by way of learning computers. earlier, words like computer, printer, cd etc were mere jargons for me . today these are part of my daily life. i go to my class and use them to introduce my students to great poets and writers in malayalam.” -sujatha, a school it coordinator and malayalam5 teacher this is not an isolated statement. all the teachers we interacted with shared this excitement that it@school had brought into their life. getting into the project “frankly, i came to this project without interest. a senior officer proposed my name for computer training when i was on leave. after i came back to school i heard the shocking news that i should attend a computer training program at trivandrum for 12 days. i had the desire to learn computer but as a women it was difficult for me to stay out of my family. so i requested him to send some other person but he refused. so i had to attend that program”. -one of the early master trainers of it@school in the initial phase of the project, the teachers were hand-picked by the authorities based on the leadership skills they had exhibited. given an option, many of the women would have opted out for reasons similar to that described above. this comment of a woman teacher illustrates the position of an average woman of kerala regarding acquiring ict skills, “in my home we have a computer and my husband and children know how to use it. my husband used to call me several times to teach me but i always escaped.” though the recruitment of teachers by the project can be perceived as undemocratic, this mandatory6 requirement led to more women teachers entering the project. reclaiming technology as the statistics shows (table 3) over 50% sitcs are women. the general notion among the master trainers-male and femaleis that women sitcs perform much better than their male counterparts. this clearly debunks the popular myth that technology is for men. the statistics also bring our attention to the regional variations in women representation, particularly the fact that in the northern districts women participation falls far below 50% mark. at the same time, in central kerala, women participation is over 70%. the social and cultural differences in these regions may account for the difference. this requires further analysis and intervention. it is also noted that among master trainers, women participation is very low. in the early phase of the project, women participation was limited. even though more women were trained in the later phase, they could not become mts because there was no further recruitment at the mt level. table 3: district wise representation of women at sitc and mt levels despite all this evidence that women can perform equally if not better in using ict, the myths continue. “in my class, boys are better than girls when it comes to solving technical problems”, is a common comment heard from teachers. they are not able to understand the reason for this difference. powered by ict improving self confidence and self esteem “earlier my son would not let me tamper with the computer, saying i might do some damage and this greatly disappointed me. when i learnt linux based applications from the project, it was my turn to teach my son how linux works. i felt proud seeing the surprise on his face when i installed linux at home”. -an sitc and mother of an engineering student this interesting quote is not isolated. it illustrates the existing gender relations in kerala society. it@school greatly contributed to creating a leadership quality in women teachers. “my stage fright was cured”, “my patience improved”, “i got the courage to organise training programmes”, “i get more respect from my colleagues including men” were some of the statements made by the women teachers. new age ada lovelace building role models all the women teachers narrated how they were inspired and attracted by the work of women master trainers. the women master teachers enjoy better recognition and respect among their peers. the teachers realise that they too can handle technology and aspire for the same level of recognition. although women are few in number among master trainers, the example set by them has created confidence among other women teachers leading to the very high level of participation of teachers at the school level. given the socio cultural context in kerala, many women teachers have inhibitions in seeking the support of male master trainers. having greater women representation at the master trainers level could address this issue. sailing against the wind the challenges “my children would be waiting for me at the doorstep in the evenings, hungry and famished when i'm busy attending to computer work in my school, because there is no one else to do it”. the biggest challenge for the master trainers and the sitcs lies in striking a balance between the demands of home and work. it@school demands more time including weekly holidays of teachers. they are often held up in the evenings with training or providing service support that returning home at an assigned time is impossible. safe transportation is an issue for those who don't have their own vehicles. arriving late invites the displeasure of the family. for a professional, this may be a routine situation. but in the case of women school teachers who supposedly have regular hours of work with lot of free time for the family, this becomes problematic. teaching is perceived by the family and the society as suitable for women because it fits in with the gender stereotype of women as home makers. in this scenario, it@school presents more challenges for women. “ i cannot switch off the phone even when i am at home. i keep receiving calls day and night from teachers. i cannot ask them to call me in the morning. i feel awkward attending to calls related to work from male teachers at night. it is all it takes to start a quarrel in the family”. while the project helped to expand the network of teachers by making them leaders in the project, it has also led to erosion of their privacy. the civic sense regarding privacy is so weak that the teachers feel bound to attend to phone calls at odd hours. prevailing social norms regarding friendship between opposite sexes also adds to the problem. another serious challenge is that of overburdening of teachers particularly sitcs. since they are not exclusively working for it@school project, they have to manage their regular teaching activities along with additional responsibilities of the project. all computer related activities including data entry are assigned to these teachers. the feeling that they are responsible for the entire it infrastructure in schools, places a mental burden on them. mobility is a concern of the master trainers who have to travel extensively across the district for training and support. leaving families behind for days together and their personal safety while having to use public transport system at odd hours are some of the serious concerns which the project has not addressed. conclusion it@school has played an important role in bridging the digital divide in kerala. beyond ict awareness, the project has created a situation where ict has become a part of the daily activities of the beneficiaries. although the project did not have a focus on women, women became its main beneficiaries. the project also tremendously benefited from their participation. this has been acknowledged by most of the master trainers including men and women. it is important that the project leadership recognises this fact and communicates it to the larger society. the experiences of women in it@school shows that ict projects that aim to build a knowledge society cannot afford a gender blind approach. from the experiences shared by the teachers it is clear that the existing social norms and gender constructs pose additional challenges to them. at a time when even the trade unions of teachers have poor representation of women, it@school project has created 2000-plus future women leaders. the experience from it@school should serve well in the design of ict4d projects and public policy formation. the women teachers of it@school would be rewarded for their pain and trouble if the state would only consider the existing gender divide in the society while planning and implementing its ict4d programmes. 1akshaya is an e-literacy programme of government of kerala, india launched in 2002. under this project, one person from every family in kerala will be familiarized with the basic use of computers. around 2000 community telecentres called akshaya ekendras have been set up across kerala, to provide this training. these centres also act as access points for various ict based services. each centre caters to around 1000-3000 families. 2census 2001; economic review, government of kerala 2002 & 2003; nfhs-2 3it@school project imparts skills in office productive tools like open office, internet based communication tools like browsers, mail clients, edutainment applications and computer programming. 4it@school and free software in education: the kerala model/biju prabhakar and arun m: information society and developmentthe kerala experienceantony palackal, wesley shrum 2007 5the language used in kerala and lakshadweep 6to achieve the vision of it enabled education, it was necessary that all teachers have basic it skills. this made it mandatory for all teachers to participate in the project. it education programmes in schools elsewhere in india do not have this mandatory feature as they don't share the vision of it enabled education.   designing technology for local citizen deliberation  andrea kavanaugh center for human computer interaction, virginia polytechnic institute and state university < kavan@vt.edu >  philip isenhour center for human computer interaction, virginia polytechnic institute and state university < isenhour@vt.edu >   abstract citizen participation in democratic processes in the united states has been facilitated and enhanced since the mid-1990s with the diffusion and adoption of computer networking. in its current form, however, the web strongly favors information consumers over information producers. emerging technologies, such as web logs and wikis, seek to address this deficiency. in a series of focus group interviews, adult residents in blacksburg and montgomery county, virginia reported on their needs, awareness, and other aspects of the use of these new tools.   citizen participation in democratic processes in the united states has been facilitated and enhanced since the mid-1990s with the diffusion and adoption of computer networking (barber, 1984; coleman and gotz, 2002; kavanaugh et al., 2005a, 2005b; rainie, 2005). electronic mailing lists and websites pertaining to political interests grew rapidly in the late1990s. much of this facilitated participation consisted of increased awareness about issues and information, as well as increased capability for coordination, communication and outreach with regard to political activities. despite these positive outcomes, existing tools are largely used to broadcast information from a few-to-many. there is limited interaction, discussion and deliberation online, except in specially designed centralized forums. these special web sites are very helpful in supporting discussion and even deliberation among interested citizens (for example, in the minnesota e-democracy project). yet they tend to attract and retain the most highly motivated and activist citizens. for the less motivated majority of citizens, there is a need for tools that allow easy authoring and editing and intuitive ways to comment and contribute additional content to a group discussion. the advent of web logs (i.e., blogs) provides an opportunity to extend the capabilities of traditional electronic mail and discussion lists toward greater social interaction, discussion, and content production. the simplicity of the tools for blogging and their free availability have lowered the bar for users interested in communicating with others in their social networks, their geographic communities and the greater public. community or group blogs represent a kind of self-organizing social system that allows a number of individuals to interact and learn from each other through the exchange ideas and information, and to help solve collective problems.  components of the optimal systems that community organizations seek are in place, such as servers, network connectivity and technical support. but gaps in software technology persist, which can be closed with applications that can be customized to meet the specific and unique needs of these organizations. for example, authoring, publishing, and archiving information; soliciting feedback from organization members and the community; holding discussions, tutorials, and forums; planning and coordinating organizational activities; and managing group resources. the web, in its current form, strongly favors information consumers over information producers. emerging technologies such as web logs and wikis (searls & sifry, 2003) seek to address this deficiency.  blogs -online journals often used for commentary and content aggregation -have seen an explosive rise in popularity (rainie, 2005). they have been adapted for diverse uses, but maintain the basic format of a column or journal entry, typically linking to external resources, and often supporting direct posting from a web browser and discussion forums attached to each entry. wikis (guzdial, rick, & kehoe, 2001) represent a more flexible and open-ended approach to direct editing. on a wiki, any user can edit the content of any page using a shorthand language that is translated into html. a common element of wiki shorthand is a simplified mechanism for linking, thereby supporting the goal of creating interconnected hypertexts. the popularity of weblogs and wikis, including a growing popularity of weblogs among content producers outside of technical fields, suggests that there is demand for tools that provide more direct and simplified publishing than is available with desktop web page publishing software. such tools seem particularly well matched to the knowledge management needs of nonprofit community organizations and small, but distributed, public sector agencies such as the public health district. these groups will often lack the resources to support full-time web maintenance staff. the relatively primitive nature of blogs and wikis also suggests opportunities for technology innovation. the tools are generally focused on text publishing and often support interactivity only in the form of discussion forums. in this sense, blogs and wikis represent something of a step backwards as end-user development tools when compared to pre-web technologies such as moos and muds (bruckman, 1999; haynes & holmevick, 1998). they also represent two extremes in their enforcement of structure, with blogs (essentially by definition) having a very specific linear structure, and wikis having a sometimes chaotic lack of structure. to address these issues, integrated authoring tools must support flexible representation and organization of content with format and structure based on the requirements of specific groups of users. richer interactive tools will be required to support representation, organization, and sharing of ideas and experiences. tools that integrate synchronous and asynchronous discussion and refinement of content objects, for example, can help capture informal and contextual knowledge that might not be captured in static web pages. in a series of focus group interviews conducted with adult residents of blacksburg and montgomery county, virginia (fall 2005) most citizens seemed only vaguely aware of blogs and wikis. nonetheless, they were clear about the affordances and functionality they wanted from emerging tools. they want to find diverse information such as news that is missing in local newspapers, and to explore different perspectives on issues of national and personal interest.  citizens reported seeking greater usability especially for novices and non-tech savvy users, such as senior citizens. they observed that the local groups with which they affiliate act as important mechanisms for sharing more reliable information and sustaining discussion, since contributors are known to each other. they emphasized the need for balance between offline and online political activities, including deliberation. peer pressure among group acquaintances helps reduce incidences of personal attacks online. peer reviewing helps participants authenticate information, thereby fostering greater trust. the few local community groups that have set up (or converted) their websites to wiki-styles benefit from simpler and easier content updating and editing, but they typically required some support and guidance in order to get started. the small but growing number of local blogs with at least occasional political content could be potentially more effective in educating and stimulating exchange among community members if there were mechanisms to aggregate similar content scattered across multiple blogs. aggregators, search engines, and social bookmarking are examples of ways to facilitate the discovery of these potential connections.    references barber, b. (1984). strong democracy: participatory politics for a new age. berkeley, ca: university of california press. bruckman, a. (1999). the day after net day: approaches to educational use of the internet. convergence, 5(1), 24-46. coleman, s., & gotz, j. (2002). bowling together: online public engagement in policy deliberation. available from: http://bowingtogether.net/. guzdial, m., rick, j., & kehoe, c. (2001). beyond adoption to invention: teacher-created collaborative activities in higher education. journal of the learning sciences, 10(3), 265-279. haynes, c., & holmevick, j . r. (eds.). (1998). high wired: on the design, use, and theory of educational moos. ann arbor:  michigan press. kavanaugh, a., reese, d. d., carroll, j. m., & rosson, m. b. (2005a). weak ties in networked communities. the information society, 21(2), 119-131. kavanaugh, a., carroll, j. m., rosson, m. b., & zin, t. t. (2005b). participating in civil society: the case of networked communities. interacting with computers, 17, 9-33. rainie, l. (2005). the state of blogging. pew internet & american life project. available from: http://www.pewinternet.org. searls, d., & sifry, d. (2003). building with blogs. linux journal 2003(4), 4. available from: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6497.   introduction to the special issue beyond users to communities – designing systems as though communities matter an introduction to the special issue aldo de moor fiorella de cindio guest-editors community informatics was born as an autonomous field of research in the late 1990s from a group of researchers and practitioners concerned to enhance the possibility for communities and individual citizens to contribute to the construction of the information/network society. community informatics researchers are looking to develop a corpus of knowledge and action/research projects for enhancing the possibility of the use of information and communications technologies for enabling and empowering communities and individuals. community informatics (ci) looks at information and communication technologies (ict) from quite a different perspective than more established branches of information science and practice, as for example management information systems. for ci the unit of analysis is not the traditional organization, with its typical transaction processing or enterprise information requirements. rather community informatics is interested in how to use effectively these technologies in evolving communities: communities of practice and interest as well as geographically-based communities. communities cut across traditional organizational boundaries: community informatics has not only promoted the empowerment of communities and their members, according to an emancipatory ideal, but it has also come up with issues such as knowledge creation and sharing which are now of outstanding relevance for the whole ict sector. in this emerging field, much attention has been paid to principles and practices of community development. what makes communities work? how can communities benefit from ict, for example by making their members better informed of news which affects their livelihoods? what are the dangers of such technologies, in terms of, for instance, increasing the digital divide? however, one topic still relatively ignored concerns design in two complementary ways: on the one hand, the design of community information and communication systems; and on the other hand, if and how communities can influence this design process. systems design for communities goes beyond just creating some technologies and offering them to user communities, assuming that they know what to do with them. rather, it entails making explicit the usage context of the technologies: what are the goals, the workflows, the roles community members play? what are the principles, such as legitimacy and transparency, driving their interactions and the articulation of their information and communication requirements? besides understanding the usage context, a designer also requires a thorough understanding of the affordances and constraints of the technologies. also, she needs to know how these tools can be linked, configured, and integrated into wholes that are more than the sum of their technological parts, creating systems effectively supporting the information and communication needs of the community stakeholders who are their users. finally, useful community information and communication systems cannot be created overnight. requirements are fuzzy, and, as with the supporting ict, they are in a continuous state of flux. community information systems’ design thus also requires deep insight into the dynamics of the continuous co-evolution of the social and technological systems. from another perspective, an opportunity, even a necessity, for communities and individuals to play an active role in the design, development and deployment of systems arises from this approach. nevertheless, this involvement puts forward new questions and challenges, as, for example, how to apply participatory systems design methodology (which is relatively resource intensive) in contexts where resources such as time or money are limited or lacking. in addition, there is the need for appropriate strategies for systems usability, “learnability”, and sustainability, among other issues. this special issue was created in response to the “community informatics: beyond users to communities – designing systems as though communities matter”-track of the 2005 human-computer interaction international conference. selected papers from this track have been revised and extended. in doing so, the authors were asked to consider the following questions: what are community information systems? what systems design processes do they require? what are the inputs and outputs of these processes? by which design principles should they be guided? how can communities of users influence system design? bieber et al. discuss the concept of analyzing and designing communities and community support systems and propose a framework for designing “enabling communities”, i.e., communities that enable community members to become more effective, providing opportunities to both realize collective and individual goals and obtain benefits that otherwise would not be possible without such participation. here community design is an attempt to guide the development and use of structures and supportive systems that fit (and expand) the community’s resources in a way that makes a community and its members most effective. dave bourgeois and thomas horan first review the information systems design theory (isdt) framework and then create a framework for applying it to community information system design where three kernel theories are identified: social capital, community centred development and the effective us of community resources.. the paper then presents the application of the proposed framework to the design and implementation of an online social network, namely a community of undergraduate commuter students at a small los angeles-area university, deriving from this experience concrete design recommendations for community information systems. roderick lee and his colleagues consider and conceptualize the concept of effective use, defined as “the capacity and opportunity to successfully integrate icts into the accomplishment of self or collaboratively identified goals” (gurstein, 2003) and discuss how the concept of scenarios often used in human computer interaction (hci) research could inform a design process which in turn would enhance effective use in community information systems design projects. the field context is in this case the underground railroad research community (ugrr) of practice in pennsylvania, a group of users who share a common practice in that they all work in some capacity related to the preservation of ugrr history. aldo de moor examines how the process of constructing community systems design theory could be improved. he outlines a theory construction methodology for building conceptual linkages between the disparate collection of (proto) theories, heuristics, and empirical data available in ci. the aim of such a methodology is to more efficiently define, select, link, and evaluate theoretical insights about which technologies and procedures to use to satisfy particular (community) information or communication requirements. simulation by means of system dynamics is used to operationalize the proposed methodology. nnadi and gurstein explore the idea of community information seeking and use. many traditional information (retrieval) systems focus on satisfying individual information needs. however, information seeking in communities is of a very different nature, as the searching for and evaluation of the quality of information found is a community-driven, collaborative rather than an individual process. the authors examine relevant work in this emerging field, list some challenges of and guidelines for the designing the supporting ict systems. while all the above papers give insight into theories and methodologies which support community systems design, de cindio and her colleagues at the university of milan discuss how communities can help in improving user-centered approaches to online service design. they suggest that citizens’ online communities can be seen as lead users in the design of effective interactive online public services, support this claim with examples taken from the milan community network and suggest a prospective approach to involving community networks in the process of improving the design of innovative online public services. these articles provide a fascinating glimpse into the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats of systems design for communities. they present a collection of theories, methodologies and approaches (including participatory design, social capital, community centered development, scenarios, system dynamics) which are worth considering in community systems design and their application to different real-life communities. we are convinced that they will stimulate debate and inspire the reader to think about how to create appropriate technology systems for communities that are both legitimate and useful.   supporting the appropriation of ict: end-user development in civil societies  volkmar pipek institut für wirtschaftsinformatik der universität siegen < volkmar.pipek@uni-siegen.de > mary beth rosson school of information sciences and technology, center for human-computer interaction, the pennsylvania state university < mrosson@psu.edu > gunnar stevens institute for information systems, university of siegen, germany < gunnar.stevens@uni-siegen.de > volker wulf information systems and new media, university of siegen, germany < volker.vulf@uni-siegen.de >   abstract the more open-ended and less organized contexts of home and social organizations present considerable challenges for the design and application of information and communication technology (ict). an approach that actively supports user communities in their appropriation activities can help alleviate the lack of professional support in home and volunteering settings of use.   introduction   information and communication technology (ict) has become an important factor in our personal lives as well as in our social organizations—at work, at home, in our hospitals, in political institutions and in the public media. while in work settings the dynamics of shared business goals, shared task systems, and professional delegation structures result in a relatively predictable and organized design context, the more open-ended and less organized contexts of home or society present considerable challenges for applications of ict. the goals and interests of the diverse actors in these more general contexts are quite unstable and unpredictable; home and society provide only weak structures of specialization and delegation regarding the use of icts. one approach to these challenges is to cede design power to the participating users, so that they can develop solutions that match problems and intentions for action. there have always been motivations to involve users in the design and development of icts. on the one hand, the quality of products might be improved by involving end users in the early phases of design (the “user-centred design” tradition); on the other hand, end users have claimed the right to participate in the development of icts that affect their (working) environments (e.g., the scandinavian tradition of “participatory design”). beyond these approaches to “change design” by changing design methodologies or other aspects of the setting of professional design work, there have also been approaches to “design for change” by offering technologies and tools that provide the flexibility to be thoroughly modified at the time of use (henderson & kyng, 1991). the latter approaches have been proffered under the label of ‘tailoring support’ and ‘end-user development’ (lieberman, et al. 2005; sutcliffe & mehandijev, 2004), and complement earlier research on ‘end-user computing’ and ‘adaptability/adaptivity’.   active support for technology appropriation   at some point it is no longer sufficient to provide the necessary flexibility for (re-)configuring tools and technologies while in use. it is also necessary to provide stronger support for managing this flexibility. keeping the tool interaction simple, and providing good manuals may be one strategy, but the adaptation and appropriation of tools is often more a social activity than a problem of individual learning and use. knowledge sharing and delegation structures often develop, although in home and other informal usage settings these structure are likely to be much more spontaneous and less organized than in professional environments. end-user development methods can address the social aspects of computing by treating users as a ‘(virtual) community of tool/technology users’, and by providing support for different appropriation activities that users can engage in to make use of a technology. examples of such activities (pipek, 2005) include: basic technological support: building highly flexible systems. articulation support: support for technology-related articulations (real and online). historicity support: visualise appropriation as a process of emerging technologies and usages, e.g., by documenting earlier configuration decisions, providing retrievable storage of configuration and usage descriptions. decision support: if an agreement is required in a collaborative appropriation activity, providing voting, polling, etc. demonstration support: support showing usages from one user (group) to another user (group), provide necessary communication channels. observation support: support the visualisation of (accumulated) information on the use of tools and functions in an organisational context. simulation support: show effects of possible usage in an exemplified or actual organisational setting (only makes sense if the necessary computational basis can be established). exploration support: combination of simulation with extended support for technology configurations and test bed manipulations, individual vs. collaborative exploration modes. explanation support: explain reasons for application behaviour, fully automated support vs. user-useror user-expert-communication. delegation support: support delegation patterns within configuration activities; provide remote configuration facilities. (re-) design support: feedback to designers on the appropriation processes. these are support ideas derived from the observation of activities that users perform to make use of a technology. they have been partially addressed in earlier research, for example by providing flexibility through component-based approaches (morch, et al., 2004), or by offering sandboxes for tool exploration (wulf & golombek, 2001).   supporting ‘virtual communities of technology practice’   pipek (2005) also gave the example of ‘use discourse environments’ as one possibility to support the user community in some of these appropriation activities. these environments tightly integrate communication mechanisms with representations of the technologies under consideration, for instance by integrating discourse processes with the configuration facilities of tools, or by providing easy citations of technologies and configuration settings in online discussion forums. by these means, technology needs and usages become more easily describable by end users, and communication among people sharing a similar use background (typically not the professional tool designer) is eased. however, evaluations of these environments suggest that the problem cannot be solved by offering technological support alone; additional social or organizational measures (establishing/mediating conventions, stimulation of communication) must also be considered to guarantee long-term success. the approach to actively support user communities in their appropriation activities promises to alleviate the lack of professional support in home/volunteering settings of ict usage. it may stimulate the spreading of good practice among users, and it offers a platform to actively deal with conflicts that occur between different stakeholders involved in a shared activity that involves ict use (e.g., conflicts about visibility of actions and about the configuration of access rights).   references henderson, a., & kyng, m. (1991). there's no place like home: continuing design in use. in j. greenbaum & m. kyng (eds.). design at work: cooperative design of computer systems (pp. 219-240). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. lieberman, h., paternó, f., & wulf, v. (eds.). (2005). end user development. berlin: springer. morch, a., stevens, g., won, m., klann, m., dittrich, y., & wulf, v. (2004). component-based technologies for end-user development. special issue: end-user development. communications of the acm, 47(9), pp 59-62. pipek, v (2005). from tailoring to appropriation support: negotiating groupware usage. in faculty of science, department of information processing science (acta universitatis ouluensis a 430) (p. 246). oulu, finland: university of oulu. sutcliffe, a., & mehandjiev, n. (2004). introduction. special issue: end-user development. communications of the acm, 47(9), 31-32. wulf, v., & golombek, b. (2001). exploration environments: concept and empirical evaluation. in proceedings of the international acm siggroup conference on supporting group work (pp. 107-116). boulder, co: acm press.     a comment prompted by andy williamson’s “a review of new zealand’s digital strategy” garth graham victoria, bc canada <garth.graham@telus.net> editors’ note: in december 2005, garth graham wrote the following “comment” to accompany an article in our “notes from the field” by andy williamson (a review of new zealand’s digital strategy. the journal of community informatics, (2005) vol. 2, issue 1, pp. 71-75. http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/263/221). in the midst of the software upgrade, it was lost until recently. when we asked garth if he still wanted to publish it, with or without an update, he said: “i still like it as a "community networking perspective" on such strategies. i was predicting what would be areas of difficulty for the strategy's implementation related to it's stated "community" intentions. obviously, this was "in theory," since i've no idea what it feels like to be a new zealander! i’ve had no involvement in new zealand’s two years of implementation experience, and it would take that to understand how the questions i raised are playing out. however, i notice from the nz strategy web site, that members of the ciresearchers list are actually members of the strategy's national advisory board. why not ask them?” we did that, and in an email, august 20, 2007, here is how andy williamson responded: “this is a very good discussion not least because it is in many ways eerily accurate. i wrote the original piece long before we actually ever did anything, in the early days of the strategy. since then we have had some considerable successes but it is also true that we have missed some opportunities. i laughed a little at the comments on governance, i think we are now at a point where the advisory group has 'clout' but it was not i suspect the intent as you guessed! i also liked the point about involving communities. i had hoped for and actively argued for a more grounded, community centric approach. i think the advisory group has had some success in this area but not enough and the process remains too government centric in all aspects of its implementation and management.” “as a contribution to the debate, i think it would be excellent to publish it and perhaps with a caveat noting when it was written to avoid any criticism of it being out of date time has marched on in one or two areas.” andy asks us to note that, although he is currently deputy chair of the nz digital strategy advisory group, the views expressed are his own. andy williamson expressed the hope that new zealand’s new digital strategy (nzds) represents an opportunity for the practices of community informatics to play a greater role in public policy for development. as someone from away, i am painfully aware that context is everything, and that the context for public participation in new zealand’s policy debate is unknown to me. so i shall try to follow his optimistic lead, and not come between public policy consultants and the governments they must seek to influence. however, i am more suspicious of the intentions of government-based digital strategies than williamson. the main problem i have is that neither the nzds nor williamson give me any sense of where the new zealand focus for community informatics as a practice, or community-based communications initiatives, resides, or even if there is such a focus. and yet, it seems to me that the success of the nzds will depend on the degree to which policies largely internal to government reflect a consensus that has been reached, or may be reached, in the public sphere. my question then becomes – who gets to tell the story of community networking in new zealand? maybe the goals of the strategy grew out of a dialogue with and among communities and the communities agree those are the goals. but this is not evident from the nzds itself. to the degree that the nzds does represent an opportunity for community informatics to shine, what needs to occur in order to grasp that opportunity? to the degree that it does not, what can be done to bring the implications of the absence of a community informatics point-of-view into new zealand’s public policy debate? here’s the pro side of that opportunity: this is a national strategy that has, in fact, set itself up to actually learn what daily life in a knowledge society, mediated by broadband connectivity, will be like. “community” is actually recognized as one of the “critical agents of change.” this does make the nzds an important experiment. and, yes, that acknowledgement of the role of community in a knowledge society may be a world first. although imagined as a key technology component of a national productivity initiative, the goals are societal, rather than sectoral or primarily economic, and therefore horizontal in their implications. not mentioned in the nzds, but flowing from its implementation, there are two government funds, the broadband challenge and the community ict partnership, that support an “open access” network model, and do so in stated competition with new zealand’s prime communications carrier. the nzds states, “communities themselves are best placed to determine their own needs, in partnership with local government and other organizations. …. to be effective, initiatives must come from communities themselves. “(nzds p. 33-34). this is good stuff! here’s the con side: the digital strategy advisory board terms of reference are unclear but likely weak. rather than open public dialogue grounded in the advisory group, it looks as if the “steering group” of senior bureaucrats has firm control of the processes of engaging with stakeholders, thus ensuring that the ministers are not surprised politically. a true knowledge society would be more transparent. the nzds is paternalistic or, more kindly, pessimistic in its expectations for citizens’ embrace. the strategy assumes that citizens have certain deficiencies that only governments can serve to alleviate. its intended actions describe a search for "solutions" to problems (lack of information, lack of skills, lack of access to icts) that are identified and imposed from above. in other words, the key drivers for evoking community initiatives are assumed to be external to the community. maori inclusion is placed in the context of “content.” this risks the appearance of appropriation of culture as a commodity. it is a good idea to remember that concepts of property are artifacts of culture and not the reverse. however, i am reliably informed that the maori are just as capable as anyone else of strategically leveraging off the nzds to gain from any possible advantages it may have for them, and that they probably will. while the open access model calls for aggregation of all local authorities, the potential of using national government ict procurement as an instrument for leveraging policy change towards open access networks doesn’t seem to be anticipated. “connection” means broadband technology or “infrastructure,” not the interactive linking of people to people. so, at the high level of political goals, it would seem that the opportunity to apply community informatics is real. but, at the implementation or public administration level, there is just the faintest whiff of the “yes minister” syndrome. maybe we could label that technocratic avoidance of risk? the antidote to that avoidance is, of course, ongoing and open public debate about development goals and intentions, and about the nzds’s effectiveness in realizing them. the heart and soul of community development lies in the autonomy of the individual to make choices about the future. the nzds summary states, “we can use the power of technology to connect people to the things that matter most to them.” (p. 3). that “to connect people to” is bothersome. the pronoun “we” in that sentence implies that the connectors and the people are somehow separate and that connection is externally supplied, not self-determined. what about the person who is changing or being changed? good digital strategy depends on what we imagine we will be when we become digital. in terms of the nzds, it seems as if we will: have greater access to information as if that were a commodity rather than an aspect of the process of learning or a means to inform ourselves. increase our use of icts because we will have been “made more confident” and that this is something we can and should do and that we will not be harmed in the process. we are going to be persuaded (a form of marketing) as to the benefits. accept that “connection” as “access to affordable, high speed networking” is an “infrastructure” problem, not something to do with human communications and relationships. act differently as consumers in the use of government services rather than interact as citizens. the person imagined as the target of the nzds seems strangely like the worker who got socialized and mobilized for productive behaviour in the industrial society. i’d guess however, that the e-people aren’t going to behave that way. in daily life online, the functions of governance are distributed across autonomous and self-organizing networks. and those networks are dynamic. a digital strategy for governance online cannot function if its implementers imagine that some sort of separation exists between suppliers of government (as services) and consumers of those services. there is a big difference between a knowledge society grounded in knowing what and who it is, and a society grounded in the attempt to package something called “information” as a commodity or “service.” new zealand may find that, through the use of self-referencing feedback loops, a knowledge society informs and structures (or “governs”) the interactions of social networks differently than the nzds anticipates. but, if they do, then they will be way ahead of the rest of us who aren’t setting ourselves up to encounter and learn from that possibility head-on. the idea of a knowledge society as the key to increased economic productivity is seductive for nation states. the idea of a knowledge society as change in the fundamental structures of governance is not usually embraced with the same enthusiasm. however the success of new zealand (or of any nation state) in becoming such a society resides in the degree to which it accepts both inevitabilities. in a democracy, public administrators know they can decentralize to a municipality without fear of loss of control, because a municipality has no powers except those granted to it in law. if they haven’t been told they can do something, they must assume they cannot. but “community” is not a legal entity. for community, as it is for individuals, the law is, “that which is not stated is not implied.” in the absence of specific authorization or prohibition, a community is free to act, whereas a local government is not. the balancing of local autonomy and central power in a knowledge society is not delegated downward. the governors of the shape of networks are self referential, self-organizing and distributed. in a knowledge society, we should expect that communities online will emerge and that, as with corporate entities, they will behave as if they were citizens. public administrators know what they do well now in hanging on to power. they follow the practices of incrementalism and administrative delay. they also pay lip service to the notion of anything “community-based.” in framing the nzds, its authors seem to be saying, “there are things you lack. we will give them to you and you will become more productive in this new socio-economic context.” in my own country canada, when the givers of government grants arrive in community, they frequently find that community hasn’t waited for their arrival in order to innovate, especially in bending the terms of the grant to apply it to their real needs. because local government is close to the ground where community emerges, i suspect the sleeper in this, the intended “supporting action” to watch most closely, is the unfunded “e-local government strategic plan” (nzds p. 49). that plan is a component of the “transforming government” section. to leverage success through that particular component, it will be necessary to connect it with the open access model and to work with local governments to increase their awareness of the need to defend the internet as a public utility and a public good. as being online pushes the nation state towards the non-linear, increasingly the fine-scale texture of the nation, observed more clearly through its local governments, will affect its large-scale behaviour. currently, the federal government of canada does not have a strategy as comprehensive as new zealand’s. what national strategy canada has is closely focused on the “ict sector” as a question of industrial capacity and competitiveness. but there is a governance model in play in the province of british columbia that might bear useful exchange of views, given the comprehensive policy framework that new zealand has defined. in learning and applying the practices of implementing broadband networks in rural and remote communities, the first nations technology council and the bc community connectivity cooperative (bc3) just co-exist informally, with significant overlapping membership, and with those pesky things organized as “partnerships” left to specific community-based projects. the government of bc, through network bc and its digital divide strategy, actively supports what is, in essence, a resilient grassroots understanding of how to implement and operate broadband networks so as to enhance local control of development choices. now if only bc had been as brave as new zealand in challenging the evolution of its own prime telecommunications carrier towards open access. will the nzds work? because of that open access model, probably yes. when it gets to where it’s going, will it meet the intentions implied by its initial goals? probably not as anticipated. but new zealand does seem well set to discover just how much more than “access “, can be open. the success of the nzds will depend on the degree to which evolving public policy debate in new zealand anticipates what daily life in a knowledge society, mediated by broadband connectivity, will be like. december 29, 2005 my experience with the sengerema community multimedia centre (cmc) by mr. felician b. ncheye chair local steering committee, sengerema multipurpose community telecentre introduction the sengerema multipurpose community telecentre turned five years old by january 2006. the objective, the vision and the mission all paint a picture of the role of the centre to its audience. in a nutshell the role of the center is to make the community of sengerema get the knowledge what is demanded for them to realize their proper destinies. launching of the project no wonder the project was initiated in agreement with the most wise king when he said, ‘my people are destroyed because of lack of knowledge’ also, supporting glenn bland’s philosophy that “there is a way to a happy and successful life”. it is true there is a line when one crosses this line enjoys happiness and successful life. this underscores the fact that knowledge is a fundamental aspect of development issues. the question is how one should know that there is this line and the way to cross it. to know the way begins with becoming success conscious which will make one develop a hunger for wisdom and truth and begin to search for everything that will satisfy that hunger. paraphrasing dr. david oyedepo’s statement, “wisdom is all you need to have your needs met. he adds that; “searching wisdom in truth is what makes the journey of life swift and set”. global development initiatives, particularly the world summit on the information society (wsis) and the un millennium project recognize the impact of information and communication technologies as enabler for sustainable development and the achievement of the millennium development goals (mdgs) which have much concern on sustainable human development and poverty reduction. the discourse on ict is changing to emphasize the human and development dimension of information and communication technologies. this implies that ict facilities like the sengerema multipurpose community telecentre are one of the most effective machineries to access the much-needed wisdom to our communities. appropriate method and techniques should be put in place that will contribute in conceptualization and implementation of programmes and projects that through expertise, experience and skills will provide the knowledge through which our communities will be able to realize the ability to access facilities that shall give wisdom needed to satisfy their hunger. our societies, especially, most of the sengerema population have to be imparted with the knowledge which will lead them to access wisdom of the ages like ‘the principles about success has been provided by the creator and are free for the taking’. it is of paramount importance to enlighten our communities that as we search more for the information to satisfy our hunger that is the way we grow. as we grow our understanding grows and more of the wisdom of the ages is gained. we are limited in understanding only by our willingness to abide to principles and to grow. i hope one will agree with me that most of the people in this part of the world are not aware of some of the basic principles like; “men with goals and plans dictate to others, while those who have no goals or plans are dictated to” people should not be drifting, they must have real direction, goals and plans. one should bear in mind that best results are achieved only when you do something you wanted to do and not because you had to do it. do they have the idea that” most of the resources that make the world rich are found in africa”? this kind of wisdom have to be accessed to them, in return they will develop an attitude which will give them the confidence and hope that it is possible for them to change their situations for the better by properly utilizing the resources around, provided they abide to principles. i believe at this level we shall have laid a foundation to support strategies put in place following the agreement finalized by heads of states at wsis – tunis phase 2005 on how to finance infrastructure that will better integrate the poor into the information society and shed light on who should govern the resources and technology infrastructure underpinning the information society. i am convinced that this is the main challenge for the sengerema multipurpose community telecentre. it is imperative that we hold it responsible to transform the sengerema community in the name of the women, men, youth, voters, marginalized, etc, and create opportunities for all citizens to voice their own concern and priorities without mediation by some other person or structure. what i mean is that it has the opportunity to play a key role in imparting the wisdom in question. for the last five years implementation of various activities was carried out on the basis of the objective, vision and mission laid down during conceptualization of the project. amongst were; computer training programmes, with the view of giving the community the knowledge that will enable them to utilize the icts to access crucial information such as surfing the internet to look for agricultural, fisheries, business, educational for development. secondly, the internet café’s service with the aim of giving the community the opportunity of accessing important domestic and international data for sustainable development recognizing that basic access to internet would provide a sound basis for achieving a people–centered and development oriented information society. also community radio programmes mainly for dissemination of information important for enlightening communities about what is happening around and enable them to share knowledge and entertainment. the centre also carried out secretarial services, conferences, hall facilities and video camera shooting as complimentary activities. implementation in 2001, when the project-started, computer was a rare item in the district. only two individuals had computers, while none of the public offices had any. this means emergence of computers in the sengerema community would be a new phenomenon. our project started with 9 dell 486 refurbished computer offered by unesco, i compaq machine (pentium iii), i laserjet 1100 hp printer and a telephone receiver. the modules we started with were four namely; introduction to windows, ms word, ms, excel, ms access and ms power point. we started with 56 students in the first month and at the end of the year 556 persons in the community had been accessed to this important phenomenon. at the end of fifth year (2005) above 2000 (45% male and 55% female) had been accessed, profound achievement is that in addition to youth from districts of the lake zone regions who constitute the biggest number in computer training, staff from all departments of the sengerema district local council have undertaken studies here at our centre. due to some infrastructure problems, internet surfing started a year later where about 12,000 people (14.5% female and 85.5% male) have accessed the internet. however, it is encouraging to find that the community has appreciated these services and they are making use of them by making contacts with either their suppliers or customers outside sengerema district. more interesting is awareness by the 18 economic activity groups under the umbrella of the sengerema informal sector organization that use the internet at the center to look for partnerships and markets for their activities and commodities respectively. some of them have succeeded to obtain customers from the neighboring regions after marketing their products using the internet at the centre. the community radio contributed by unesco became operational by july 2003. it has become a strong force for information dissemination and participation in the community. it has been so popular simply because it serves our community with content that reflects specific needs and characteristics of our society and passes on information about up-to date events relevant to the community’s life patterns and settings the community radio, being supervised by a womens group namely, ”wanawake wa habari na maendeleo sengerema (wahamase)” has the mandate to reach the community with positive information and provide information about methods and techniques that empower both men and women at affordable costs. the community has enjoyed an easily accessible radio where they can, at their convenience, send urgent and important messages like death announcements, wedding and other celebrations arrangements etc. you would be surprised to note that 54% of the announcements are used by the community to exchange greetings, while 35% are issued by the business community. the remaining 11% is used for searching for lost children and relatives. the sengerema local government is using the radio to enlighten the community in various regulations and civic practices and related social issues like, voting, human rights, and proceedings of district local council meetings. the local government is using the centre to train their staff and extract important data from the internet café. the number of students undertaking distance learning is increasing because of easy accessible data on the internet challenges challenges facing the projects include; unreliable internet network because of poor infrastructure, interruptions in the radio programmes due to power cuts and uneven radio coverage due to the height of the radio antennae being not sufficient. in a quick analysis you find that the center has fulfilled its role of making the community aware of the availability of ict facilities and to some extent their potentials for development. i ague that even if they utilize the icts and inputs available, without employing the human ingredient which is necessary for giving fruits we shall see not expected results. way forward from this experience i would like to share with you the following; now the centre is growing. growth likened to the human body, which develops muscles to match its level of growth, it has to grow to match particular weights of function. similarly, for sengerema multipurpose community telecentre and the like to cope with the information revolution as envisaged by the wsis and mdgs, and most importantly the great need to impart wisdom in communities in a most effective way. there must be a building up of objectives, visions and mission in our centres to reflect relevant function. the agreement finalized by heads of state at wsis – tunis phase 2005 will be fruitful only if we aim at greater growth. we should see that these centers are geared to impart wisdom that will give the community faith in their potential. they must be organized and managed in the manner that ensures that the output abides to these principles. practitioners have to put it clear that it is only when you abide to principles that you’re assured of success. they must be made aware of the irrelevant principles. they must have the attitude that these centers are the sources of transformation of our societies. i was very impressed by the comment of the project coordinator of the sengerema multipurpose community telecentre when he advised me to see sengerema mct as an excellence center for the sengerema community. this is the kind of attitude to be cultivated to all stakeholders. management system has to be in line with this am; there must be an ownership sense for supervision and monitoring if we need to be effective. we should not take it for granted and just recruit employees through paper qualifications, entrusting all functions to them while shareholders relax. shareholders should devise structures that ensure involvement in development, close supervision and monitoring for both the centre’s sustainable development and for achieving its aims. this kind of center should play the role of organizing forums that will provide platforms for members and partners to share experiences, develop collaborative programmes and keep abreast of important trends and innovations at the grass roots level. i wish to underscore the need for the focus of the centre’s activities to impart wisdom to our communities, this is simply because, “wisdom” has all what it takes to meet all you need in life e.g. to reduce poverty, corruption, drug abuse, violence and eliminate hiv/aids. hence, achieve sustainable development. i believe most of the population is not aware of the potential of wisdom as you find here below; i, wisdom, give good advice and common sense. because of my strength, kings reign in power. i show the judges who is right and who is wrong. rulers rule well with my help. i love all who love me. those who search for me shall surely find me. unending riches, honor, justice and righteousness are mine to distribute. my gifts are better than the purest gold or sterling silver. my paths are those justice and right. those who love me and follow me are indeed wealth. in this context, wisdom does not mean words said by intellectuals but the power behind success. the centre will have the challenge of identifying what is this power and how to obtain it. devising techniques and methods that will be used in the process without compromising our laws and regulations. one thing i am sure is that, if we succeed to impart this wisdom the global policy debates and action towards improved communications for sustainable development will have achieved fruition. from practical experiences, i believe in its potency. el rol de los telecentros comunitarios en las comunidades indígenas de sololà. vilma tuy jiatz telecentro asodigua, guatemala. gmm@intelnet.net.gt asodigua@intelnet.net.gt resumen desde hace muchos años saber utilizar la computadora en las oficinas era un conocimiento requerido para las personas, en los mercados laborales. en nuestras escuelas rurales, las necesidades básicas aun no están cubiertas, existen muchas escuelas en donde los niños reciben sus enseñanzas en condiciones deplorables. tener una escuela rural en donde exista un laboratorio que permita el aprendizaje sobre los medios electrónicos de comunicación, es sencillamente un sueño que esta lejano a la realidad. en nuestros países tercermundistas, la inversión social se destina a cubrir las necesidades más vitales de la población y la inversión en infraestructura para la enseñanza-aprendizaje de las tecnologías de información y comunicación, ocupan los últimos lugares en la escala de prioridades. la era digital y las comunidades indígenas a las comunidades indígenas actuales nos ha tocado vivir en un mundo globalizado, muy cambiante y las condiciones exigen de nuestros pueblos mayor conocimiento e integración; de otra forma quedamos excluidos mucho más del desarrollo económico, político, social, tecnológico, entre otros. hemos visto lo lejos que nos encontramos de la llamada era digital, la educación en las áreas rurales no responden a las necesidades actuales que demandan profesionales competitivos. muchos hablan de reducir la brecha digital, pero para nosotros en los pueblos indígenas se ha convertido en un abismo digital. de allí ha partido la necesidad de nuestras comunidades indígenas de buscar los medios y las oportunidades que ofrecen las tecnologías de información y comunicación. nuestra comunidad se organizó y con recursos económicos propios, limitados y escasos, ha creado el telecentro en donde llegan las comunidades indígenas para aprender sobre estos medios electrónicos de comunicación. las y los jóvenes capacitados en nuestro telecentro ahora pueden aplicar en los puestos remunerados con la confianza que sienten al utilizar la computadora y la internet. los y las niñas de nuestras comunidades, saben que en el telecentro tienen la oportunidad de aprender estos medios de comunicación sin tener que esperar a ser adultos para alcanzar estos conocimientos. también los docentes de las escuelas rurales pueden encontrar temas actualizados y una enseñanza más dinámica para sus escuelas. el telecentro también ha enfocado su trabajo hacia los pequeños microempresarios de nuestro pueblo, antes no hacía falta la internet para el quehacer comercial, sin embargo ahora la competencia mundial demanda que también los pequeños negocios se involucren en el “comercio electrónico” historia de nuestra organizacion ¿qué es asodigua? la asociación para el desarrollo integral de guatemala maya, “ajsamajel winaq” (gente trabajadora) asodigua, es una entidad privada, de carácter civil, sin finalidades lucrativas, apolítica, integrada por personas individuales, constituida de conformidad con las leyes de la república de guatemala. es una entidad, comprometida a la ejecución de acciones que fortalezcan el desarrollo integral de las comunidades rurales, erradicando la pobreza y extrema pobreza en la que viven. se organizó por iniciativa de varios líderes comunitarios, que conciben el desarrollo como un proceso de transformación cualitativa y cuantitativa en la calidad de vida humana de la persona, la familia y la comunidad, lo cual se logra con la participación esencial de los/as comunitarios/as procurando el equilibrio en la sociedad y la armonía con la naturaleza. filosofia de asodigua asodigua, basa su filosofía en dos elementos claves que interactúan para alcanzar un desarrollo integral: 1. las personas deben ser protagonistas de su propio desarrollo: el desarrollo tiene lugar cuando los hombres, las mujeres y sus comunidades adquieren la capacidad de identificar y resolver sus propios problemas. 2. facilitar un desarrollo sostenible y equitativo: asodigua esta comprometida a estimular, apoyar y realizar acciones para aliviar la pobreza y mejorar las condiciones de vida de la población. implementacion del telecentro comunitario de asodigua el logro más significativo e importante de asodigua, ha sido la implementación de su telecentro comunitario en el departamento de sololà. el telecentro de asodigua, dio inicio con sus actividades realizando un estudio sobre la situación educativa en las áreas rurales, prioritariamente indígenas del departamento de sololá, llegando a conocer la precaria calidad de educación que existe. se consideraron dos aspectos importantes para la implementación del telecentro: la carencia de educación va ligada a la pobreza y en nuestro caso a la extrema pobreza. las comunidades deben ser protagonistas de su propio desarrollo, es decir, identificar sus necesidades y buscar sus propias soluciones. servicios del telecentro: 1. capacitación de las comunidades indígenas. en el telecentro capacitamos a las comunidades indígenas sobre el uso de las computadoras, acceso a la internet, manejo de software y hardware, instalación de sistemas operativos. con el fin de lograr la inclusión digital de las comunidades indígenas. 2. apoyo a los procesos educativos el telecentro ofrece a los niños la oportunidad de conocer un mundo sin fronteras y adquirir conocimientos actualizados. nuestro país como muchos otros que estamos en vías de desarrollo, la educación aun no responde a las necesidades actuales, por tal motivo, asodigua se adelanta al futuro y ofrece a los niños la oportunidad de aprender desde temprana edad a utilizar la computadora y acceder a la internet para sus tareas escolares. 3. apoyo a las artesanas ofrecemos a las artesanas capacitaciones sobre el correo electrónico y estamos en el proceso de diseño de sitios web. con la tendencia mundial y el comercio electrónico es nuestra misión institucional contribuir a que los microempresarios y artesanas/os de guatemala puedan conocer estos medios digitales de comunicación. 4. apoyo a los agricultores ofrecemos a los señores agricultores el apoyo para que ellos puedan acceder a la internet y les ayudamos a buscar técnicas para el mejoramiento de cultivos, información sobre insecticidas y plaguicidas naturales, para el tratamiento de las plagas en sus cultivos. 5. apoyo a las autoridades locales estamos brindando capacitaciones a las autoridades locales sobre la utilización de la computadora y el correo electrónico. sabemos que muchas autoridades logran sus cargos públicos porque son líderes en sus comunidades, pero en muchos casos se hace necesaria la capacitación sobre la informática para que ellos puedan buscar apoyo internacional para sus proyectos locales y para aprender sobre el sistema de gobierno electrónico implementado en nuestro país con guatecompras. 6. apoyo a los activistas de los derechos humanos también hemos brindado apoyo en la denuncia a las persecuciones que han sufrido los activistas de derechos humanos, solicitando a las agencias internacionales acciones urgentes por la vida de nuestros hermanos guatemaltecos que son activistas cuando han estado en situaciones difíciles. 7. buscando un cambio de mentalidad nosotros sabemos que se hace necesario educarnos y capacitarnos para desempeñar un papel más protagónico en la sociedad y por eso siempre hemos capacitados a las comunidades sobre derechos humanos, equidad de género, participación ciudadana, salud reproductiva, violencia intrafamiliar. para nosotros, el cambio es factible cuando nosotros cambiamos nuestra mentalidad de no aceptar las condiciones actuales, sino de luchar para optar a un mejor futuro para nuestros hijos/as. trabajamos solos y de manera aislada durante dos años y nos dimos cuenta que nuestro desconocimiento sobre la computación y la internet era bastante, surgiendo de esa forma la necesidad de buscar apoyo para aprender nuevas y mejores formas de utilizar las tecnologías de información y comunicación para el desarrollo de los pueblos indígenas. las redes sociales y sus aportes en la inclusión digital de los pueblos indígenas la internet ha facilitado la creación de redes sociales, porque a través de la comunicación electrónica, se acortan distancias y se reducen costos, son variadas y muchas las redes sociales existentes, y cada una tiene su contribución social en la búsqueda del desarrollo de los pueblos. asodigua ha sido fundamentalmente favorecida gracias a nuestra incorporación a la red latinoamericana y del caribe somos telecentros. desde diversos países y personas hemos recibido el apoyo para aprender a utilizar estas tecnologías de información y comunicación como valiosas herramientas para alcanzar el desarrollo. el apoyo recibido ha sido variado, hemos recibido apoyo con software, clases virtuales, asesoría profesional, acompañamiento técnico, hardware complementario para nuestros equipos y lo más importante ha sido contar con un espacio de participación en donde podemos aprender de las experiencias de otras organizaciones y personas, así como podemos compartir los logros y limitaciones desde nuestra propia experiencia. como testimonio de su valiosa contribución hacia las comunidades indígenas, nosotros les compartimos los beneficios y oportunidades adquiridas al pertenecer a la red latinoamericana y del caribe somos telecentros. el aporte de somos@telecentros en el fortalecimiento de las comunidades indígenas y rurales de guatemala ha sido: 1. entrelazar y conocer comunidades un aporte significativo de las redes sociales es que nos permite conocernos entre diversas comunidades, saber que existe otros pueblos con las misma limitantes sociales, culturales, políticas, económicas, tecnologías, pero cada quien tiene una historia que contar y una experiencia vivida que compartir. nosotros desde nuestras comunidades podemos conocer otros pueblos e intercambiar con ellos sin necesidad de salir, la internet nos ofrece estas ventajas y la red nos ayuda a conocer y ubicar estos otros pueblos. 2. la creación de un espacio de participación las redes sociales son plataformas donde cada uno tiene su propio espacio. contar con un escenario donde manifestar los ideales, sueños y alcances que deseamos para nuestra gente, es importante. ¿de que otra forma podemos ser ayudados sino tenemos donde contar nuestras necesidades o compartir nuestros logros? 3. puntos de encuentro las redes sociales son puntos donde convergen débiles y fuertes, los que saben mucho y los que conocen poco, los que tienen recursos y quienes no lo tienen, en fin, una variedad de personas que permite que la debilidad de unos sea la fortaleza para otros. crea oportunidades, principalmente para los pueblos indígenas que en su mayoría carecemos de muchas cosas. 4. el acceso de información variada la particularidad de las redes sociales es el intercambio y acceso a información variada. no podemos aprovechar las oportunidades si no tenemos la información. a través de sus listas electrónicas, las redes nos permiten conocer mucha información que puede ser útil para mejorar el trabajo que realizamos o para acceder a recursos que ayuden a nuestras comunidades. 5. la oportunidad de orientación y educación: este es un importante apoyo de las redes sociales, a través de los cursos a distancia que ahora la internet permite. sabemos que la educación es importante para el desarrollo, por tal razón, estas oportunidades de educación fortalecen el trabajo en las comunidades indígenas. 6. intercambio y acceso al conocimiento. la red se convirtió en un espacio donde diferentes actores en base a sus prácticas y experiencias intercambian conocimientos y fortalecen procesos locales. muchas de las comunidades indígenas se encuentran aisladas y no se tiene acceso, los telecentros se constituyeron en espacios para facilitar estos procesos y convertirse en círculos de apoyo que apoyan la gestión del conocimiento. igualmente son centros de encuentro donde se produce el intercambio entre viejos y jóvenes. la recuperación de la sabiduría ancestral e integrarlas usando las nuevas tecnologías para que los jóvenes accedan a ello es una de las practicas que se realiza 7. oportunidad de participación en conferencias y eventos internacionales: la integración a las redes sociales, permite como miembro la participación en eventos internacionales, ya sea que la red los organice o que tenga oportunidad de nombrar a sus delegados. estas oportunidades permiten a las comunidades indígenas incrementar sus contactos, lo que también significa alcanzar mayores oportunidades de apoyo e intercambio. 8. oportunidad de apoyo y solidaridad en desastres naturales. guatemala fue devastada en el año 2,005 por la tormenta stan, muchas comunidades indígenas fueron fuertemente dañadas. nuestra región en el occidente de guatemala, estuvo dentro de las más damnificadas, quedamos totalmente incomunicados con los pueblos más cercanos, las carreteras principales del país fueron socavadas por las fuertes lluvias lo que hizo imposible una reacción inmediata del gobierno central, quienes tardaron en darse cuenta del caos que nuestros pueblos estaban viviendo. desde el telecentro de asodigua, iniciamos el envío de mensajes electrónicos para dar a conocer de la devastación que estaban sufriendo varias comunidades de sololà, hicimos diversos llamados a las organizaciones de emergencia y apoyo inmediato para que ayudaran a guatemala por este desastre vivido. nuestros mensajes también fueron difundidos a través de la red somos@telecentros y desde ahí el apoyo no se hizo esperar, con la ayuda de somos telecentros, www.tele-centros.org y la alianza con telecentros de las americas partnership www.tele-centres.net., se logro canalizar apoyo y ayuda para la compra de víveres que fueron distribuidos en las comunidades indígenas damnificadas. esto es posible si se comparten los mismos valores, se establecen alianzas estratégicas y se fortalecen los procesos comunitarios. hasta ahora, en nuestra comunidad indígena, el telecentro sigue cumpliendo un rol muy importante, se ha convertido en un punto de encuentro y acceso a las tic´s, y estamos seguros que cada día seguiremos aprendiendo nuevas formas de utilizarlas como medio para sacar adelante a nuestros pueblos.   community wireless networking and open spectrum usage:   a research agenda to support progressive policy reform of the public airwaves    sascha meinrath project coordinator champaign-urbana community wireless network urbana, il   policy analyst free press washington, dc   < sascha@cuwireless.net >     the document below is a tale of trinities: facets of an emerging communications revolution that we need both to better understand and to actively support.   wireless technologies and the public airwaves that are this medium's lifeblood are rapidly being cordoned off, made proprietary, and licensed -a process being driven by a desire to maximize profit margins, not serve the public good. a refocusing of priorities on "open infrastructures" that better serve the general public is desperately needed. these systems should be predicated on utilizing open spectrum, open source software, and open architecture hardware.   in addition, a major research initiative needs to be conducted to support "open" technological development, progressive policy reforms, and implementation of these new technologies. thus, this document is both a call to action and a work in progress: over the past half-year, this research agenda has been formulated with the input of scores of the brightest technical geeks, policy wonks, and network implementers, with the goal of collecting information on technical, policy, and social aspects of wireless networking and facilitating far better community networking than is currently the norm. it is clear that a major telecommunications battle is coming -if we do not prepare, the future of broadband will continue to ignore many communities and marginalize vast constituencies. for those of us who are interested in community networking, this is a chance to help mould the future communications systems and information-dissemination processes that will become ubiquitous in the coming decade. nothing less than the future of social networking -and the ways in which people relate, affiliate, and communicate -is at stake.   in august 2004, over 200 wireless developers came together for the first national (us) summit for community wireless networks. on the last day of the summit, a group of policy experts and community wireless network implementers formulated an outline for supporting progressive spectrum policy reforms. while many other uses for unlicensed spectrum exist, community wireless networks are at the forefront of open spectrum usage and policy reform. in the months following the summit, based upon the initial framework, an international team of wireless developers fleshed out a twelve-point research and inquiry program to support open spectrum policy development around the globe. the research falls into three broad areas (policy, technical, and social); these areas are explained briefly below.     policy assessments   identify major research already conducted and the literature being utilized in current regulatory and policy debates.   document in-vivo effects of interference under current spectrum policies.   detail actual and claimed spectrum usage.   ascertain the pros and cons of existing spectrum rules and regulations.   estimate the transnational and international impacts of existing regulatory structures, processes, and regulations of unlicensed and public use spectrum.     technical research areas   test signal propagation characteristics across different frequencies, topologies, and network architectures.   test effects of dynamic transmit power on signal propagation, temperature interference, network architecture, congestion, etc.   gather documentation of community wireless network implementation models, "how-to" resources and guides.   identify security issues and potential technical solutions.     social inquiries   conduct an in-depth asset mapping and needs assessment.   analyze and identify major components that maintain and support the digital divide.   carry out an impact assessment of open source software use.     policy assessments   five policy research areas for supporting open spectrum reform were identified.   first, identify major research that has already been conducted and impacted (or been cited) in regulatory/policy debates, as well as the independent research labs that are most active in contemporary spectrum research areas. this assessment would survey the literature that "counts" -encompassing technical, economic, social, and other domains that should be taken into account and help inform contemporary regulatory/policy debates. this literature could then be used to help set the agenda for future policy debates.   second, document in-vivo effects of interference -including actual interference effects and any possible discrepancies between claimed interference and real-world deployments. in non-technical terms -this would mean conducting research that would help answer questions such as, "how much interference causes interruption of services?"; "how can we lessen interference within a geographic area?"; "how can multiple devices utilize the same spectrum without interfering with each other (i.e., what interference temperature does not cause degradation of service)?"; etc. for community wireless network users, this research would help network implementers solve interference problems. one problem facing community wireless network deployment is that groups and organizations that do not want to share spectrum claim "interference problems," causing an enormous artificial scarcity for spectrum access. to date, no proper independent analyses of interference problems have been conducted. however, researchers should be able to obtain experimental licenses from the fcc to conduct this type of research. in addition, it would be useful to work to set up mechanisms whereby an outside entity could audit the interference claims of licensees.   third, document spectrum usage -both actual and claimed -paying particular attention to possible differentials among geographic areas (e.g., metropolitan vs. rural communities; developed vs. developing economies). for community wireless networks, this would provide a topology of spectrum usage that would be extremely valuable for laying out new systems and/or avoiding areas where spectrum is congested. it has been suggested that this area of research further focus on two specific areas: bands the fcc (or relevant licensing authority) has already identified as possible for sharing; and bands that the community wireless networking community wants to see shared based on their physical characteristics. it would be especially interesting to identify significant differences between the frequencies identified by the fcc or other licensing body and community wireless networking allies.   fourth, a policy and regulatory assessment of the pros and cons of existing rules as well as an unlicensed spectrum/public access growth plan has never been conducted for open spectrum. likewise, with the rise of "voice over ip" (voip) services and the continuing growth of community wireless networking, an estimate of the service costs and feasibility of universal (broadband) wireless service has yet to be conducted. this research should target areas of regulation that are most amenable and/or useful to change and include both a policy assessment and a technical assessment. this would be an ideal location for discussing alternative economic models (e.g., ones that take the externalities ignored by mainstream models into account); but this is also an area where political blowback might be greatest. in many ways, this inquiry area presents a faustian bargain -it could really open up new doors for open spectrum, but one could also seriously harm the movement by creating immense political fallout.   fifth, estimate the transand international impacts as well as the regulatory structures, processes, and regulations of unlicensed and public use spectrum. the international development research centre has already begun this documentation project for the latin american and caribbean region, but much more needs to be done to help identify places where public use of the public airwaves is endangered. this analysis would focus both on cross-border/international-agreement issues as well as on non-u.s. practices generally. wireless communications do not care about borders; thus, the canadian/us boundary (or other spectrum usage-heavy border) would make for an interesting case study. but also, international regulatory practices are extremely important to many peoples, and decisions in one area of the globe can have dramatic impacts on all other areas. the paper presented at the telecommunication policy and research conference is a good case in point -if a single country required that radio manufacturers provide open interfaces to their equipment (which almost none do currently), it would impact open-source wireless development around the globe, allowing for drivers to be programmed and disseminated around the globe. this too is a fairly untapped area -in that most of the focus has been on impacting us telecomm policy; while potential areas where it might make more sense to target other regimes to affect changes in telecommunications policy.     technical research areas   four future technical research areas that would support community networking projects were identified.   first, testing signal propagation characteristics in different frequencies, within different topologies and network architectures. in essence, identify vectors for interference and possible solutions -both existing and areas for future technological development. this is, in many ways related to the policy area focusing on interference issues, but goes straight to the heart of the hardware problems that community wireless network users face. often, the problem has to do with faulty software -even the firmware put out by major corporations, the software that runs wireless cards that millions of users buy at their local "big-box" electronics store, have bugs in them that cause problems. in addition, new devices continue to flood the consumer market without any attention to problems of interference and frequency congestion. a detailed analysis needs to be undertaken before unlicensed spectrum, the lifeblood of community wireless networks, becomes a "junk band."   second, and in a related vein, a technically focused research area to test the effects of dynamic transmit power on signal propagation, temperature interference, network architecture, congestion, etc. by identifying technological development impacts (e.g., for cognitive radios, smart antennas, etc.), researchers could greatly aid open spectrum implementers and help identify the best hardware options available for building dynamic, robust infrastructures.   third, the documentation of implementation models (both successful and unsuccessful) and their attendant "how-to" resources and guides is almost entirely non-existent. open spectrum advocates have identified a need for end-users to have access to more information; and for additional information to be made available to infrastructure implementers. exemplars that span the gamut from private enterprise to municipal ownership to hybrid public/private partnerships are all needed and best practices need to be collected and disseminated. paralleling this, open-source/non-proprietary tools for use by community wireless network and software developers need to be identified and their existence made known to the growing number of groups and individuals who are building these systems. setting up a central library for these resources, where groups can "contribute" as well as find information collected by the research team (and where all participants can update the content) should be a high priority. the association for progressive communications is currently working on a documentation project; however, they have chosen to focus heavily on documentation of proprietary systems -leaving open-source and non-proprietary knowledge and resources fairly unexamined.   fourth, documentation of security issues and solutions affecting open source network deployment has been relatively ignored. with all the fear, uncertainty, and doubt surrounding wireless communications, these technical issues also impact the social aspects of the project. currently, many people have a vague fear of wireless communications (much like people had, and some continue to have, concerning shopping online). the reality is that wireless communications, much like any other mode of communication, are only as secure as end-users make them -which means that both documenting security issues and educating the public about how to best deal with these issues in incredibly important.     social inquiries   three areas for additional social research concerning open spectrum use were also identified.   first, conducting an in-depth community wireless network asset mapping and needs assessment would help identify particular ways in which available resources could be more effectively utilized among developers, implementers, etc. the goal would be to map the current networking community as well as develop a profile of communities to be targeted for future network deployment.   second, analyze and identify major components that impact the digital divide (e.g., access to hardware, access to connectivity, system administration expertise, lack of translated information) with the goal of empirically accounting for a majority of the digital divide variance. identify community wireless network usage characteristics (e.g., demographics, structural constraints). this inquiry area includes components that do not appear, at first glance, to go together -analyzing the economic barriers to deployment as well as conducting user case studies; but they are, in many ways, two sides of the same coin. this analysis would focus not just on economic barriers, regulatory barriers, fear of technology barriers, gender barriers, etc. but also on the multi-faceted, global digital divide. current thinking assumes which aspects are most important to attend to (e.g., access to computers, technical training); but there is little in the way of empirically driven answers to the question of "what are the most important mediators and moderators for the divide?"   third, and finally, a thorough impact assessment of open source software use needs to be conducted. these analyses would ideally include social, economic, and networking capital generated by these systems. especially important is the inclusion of aspects that are often excluded from mainstream economic impact studies (e.g., include a detailed externalities assessment).   taken together, these twelve policy, technical, and social research areas provide a comprehensive (though certainly not exhaustive) list of research areas that would help us understand and support open spectrum at the local, national, and international levels.     ***please forward***   for immediate release   february 1, 2005   press contact: sascha meinrath (217)278-3933 sascha@cuwireless.net cuwin website: http://www.cuwireless.net   cuwin announces public release of free open source wireless networking software:   imagine a free wireless networking system that any municipality, company, or group of neighbors could easily set up themselves. over the past half-decade, the champaign-urbana community wireless network (cuwin) has been developing an open source, turnkey wireless networking solution that exceeds the functionality of many proprietary systems. cuwin's vision is ubiquitous, extremely high-speed, low-cost networking for every community and constituency. following in the footsteps of linux and firefox, cuwin has focused on creating a low-cost, non-proprietary, user-friendly system. cuwin's software will share connectivity across the network, allowing users to buy bandwidth in bulk and benefit from the cost savings. cuwin networks are self-configuring and self-healing -so adding new wireless nodes is hassle-free, and the system automatically adapts to the loss of an existing node. and, because cuwin networks are completely ad-hoc, there's no need for expensive central servers or specialized administration equipment.   to set up a network, all end-users need to do is burn a cd with cuwin's software (which will be available for free at http://www.cuwireless.net), put the cd into an old desktop computer equipped with a supported wireless card, and turn the computer on. once the computer boots from the cd, the rest of the setup is completely automated: from loading the networking operating system and software, sending out beacons to nearby nodes, negotiating network connectivity, and assimilating into the network -all the complicated technical setup is taken care of automatically. unlike most broadband systems, cuwin's software builds a local intranet as well as providing for internet-connectivity -thus, a town that uses cuwin's system is also creating a community-wide local area network over which streaming audio and video, voice services, etc. can all be sent.   cuwin is a cutting edge research and development initiative. cuwin has pioneered the first open source implementation of hazy sighted link state routing protocol (first developed by bbn technologies); thus cuwin's software creates a highly robust, scalable ad-hoc wireless networks. cuwin's route prioritization metric is based on research conducted at mit and will automatically adapt to any network topology and local geography.   cuwin's software is, and always will be, available for free. cuwin is a non-profit organization supported by grants and donations. cuwin's software provides one of the world's most advanced networking solutions available today; and we are now making our software available to the general public to use, test, and help develop. we know that there are features and improvements that people will want to see in future releases -as an open source project, we are counting on the feedback and input from people around the globe.   more information on setting up your own cuwin network is available online now at: http://www.cuwireless.net/documentation   the latest version (0.5.5) of the cuwin software will be available for public download by the end of the week at: http://www.cuwireless.net/downloads   a brief article on the background, history, and ethos of the cuwin project is available at: www.comtechreview.org/article.php?article_id=259   ***   about cuwin:   the champaign-urbana community wireless network (cuwin) has built a communications system using wireless networking equipment. this is essentially the same "wifi" equipment used in homes and offices, but we put it on rooftops to connect neighbors and form a high-speed community network.   cuwin's three-part mission is to: connect more people to internet and broadband services; develop open-source hardware and software for use by wireless projects world-wide; and, build and support community-owned, not-for-profit broadband networks in cities and towns around the globe.   cuwin gives communities a new choice for their communications infrastructure by building a house-to-house wireless "mesh." cuwin makes it possible for neighbors to share broadband internet access and services including voice over ip as an alternative to traditional phone service, and alternatives to radio and cable -such as live broadcasts from grassroots media-makers from independent media centers and "internet radio stations" in subscribers' homes.   as no less a figure than harold innis has shown, the history of canada is very much intertwined with the history of communicat editorial: k-net, community informatics and service delivery: an evolving paradigm michael gurstein editor in chief, the journal of community informatics keewaytinook okimakanak, the council of chiefs serving communities in northern ontario, (ko) and its telecommunications arm—the kuhkenah network (k-net) has been a global leader in the development of approaches to electronically-enabled community-based service delivery for remote and rural areas including in health care, education and governance among others. this special issue of joci presents a range of research and other discussion concerning the ko approach to community-based information and communications technologies (ict)-enabled services. it is the intention of this special issue to begin a more general discussion on ict and services in remote and rural, indigenous and other communities and how the new opportunities presented by ict can transform this towards more efficient and effective services in currently under-serviced communities and overall towards community empowerment. service provision in indigenous communities particularly for those in rural and remote locations has suffered from a range of financial difficulties and inappropriate design penalizing residents because of their choice of residence. ict and particularly broadband internet can overcome the challenges of remoteness and ensure equity of service access; an appropriate level of service quality; effectiveness and efficiency in service delivery; opportunities for participation in service design, delivery and implementation; as well as providing opportunities for communities to more directly benefit from service provision through local employment. k-net has been responsible for some of the most advanced applications (from a community informatics (ci) perspective) of any comparable organization in the world. this does not mean that k-net has been using the most advanced ict although in a number of areas particularly telecommunications it has been a significant pioneer (reflecting the crucial role that telecommunications plays in otherwise physically isolated and remote northern first nations communities); rather it suggests that k-net has been among the most advanced in linking a deep understanding of community processes and the requirements for community-owned applications with effective and intelligent use of existing ict systems to create an advanced ict-enabled infrastructure. this has been combined with a clear understanding (and vision) of how this infrastructure could be used to support service delivery in the region as a supplement to (and even in some cases replacement for) existing services and service delivery approaches. in this k-net has been moving against the dominant tide of electronically-enabled service delivery and particularly e-government services which, while focusing on a perceived “efficiency of service delivery”, have shifted control over service management and deployment increasingly to the centre and away from the local community. in addition, this approach to e-government services has tended to de-emphasize the (citizen) “participation” element in service design and delivery in favour of “e-government” rather than “e-governance” as the organizing principle. k-net’s efforts on the other hand, focus on empowering the communities and their members to own and utilize it resources for local economic and social benefit. the “one service fits all customers” approach doesn’t work for remote and rural communities when it comes to meeting local needs. people in these environments have had to find ways of taking the provision of service into their own hands or consign themselves to doing without. in these instances, having access to electronic means for obtaining otherwise unavailable services (as for example remote access to banking services or training programs) has begun to change the service landscape in potentially significant ways. however, while this remote access may assist in resolving the availability issue these services may be inappropriate, overly expensive, or otherwise unsuitable. of course, communities have always provided a very large range of services for themselves (and the more isolated the community the more they have been self-sufficient in a range of areas). what is new is that ict has now begun to enable local communities to provide for themselves a range of more sophisticated and technology intensive services which previously had been denied to them while also adapting and re-engineering those services so as to be appropriate to the specific resources and needs of these local communities. k-net has developed within the “community informatics” paradigm. k-net’s efforts and initiatives have focused on the use of the technology as a means to enable and empower local communities to realize benefits and exert a degree of control over the range of services being provided. in high school education, rather than relying on centrally developed materials distributed electronically as the paradigm for the use of the infrastructure, k-net has enabled communities to provide locally-based education using significant components of locally developed curriculum with digital linkages between highly dispersed local sites for their young people rather than having them being forced to relocate to a central location for post-primary education. k-net has taken on the difficult task of undertaking a critique of the structure and to a degree the content of existing services from an ict-aware perspective. that is, it looked at existing services not as necessary elements in their resource landscape but as something contingent on certain approaches and assumptions, many of which could be challenged or even discarded in an ict-enabled environment. the notion for example, that skilled teaching or learning resources are scarce commodities which requires that students be aggregated centrally for access, is directly challenged by electronically-enabled distance teaching and infinitely reproducible and distributable electronically-formatted learning resources. k-net can further be regarded as a research and development agency undertaking leading edge research and most especially service development and redevelopment on behalf of and in association and collaboration with its constituencies. k-net stands between two worlds, the traditional world of top-down centralized hierarchical institutions – and the new world of peer-to-peer relations, of networks where the intelligence lies at the periphery and where community-based processes and the power to manage and direct the network is distributed through the network as the norm rather than the exception. this difference in approach is not simply the traditional one of local control vs. central control which is an on-going theme in first nations interactions with the federal government, although there are elements of this. k-net is deeply informed by an advanced understanding of what is possible through the use of ict in service design and delivery; how the use of ict can transform the nature of the services which can be made available; how ict impacts on the potential benefits and effectiveness which can be gained from these services; and the overall significance of ict in the efficient use of resources in support of service delivery. perhaps the greatest opportunity for k-net is to move forward and to begin to extend and re-develop the community informatics paradigm which it has so well articulated. this would, in this instance begin to take the form of challenging the current funding/administrative/management/development structures of the services in which it is engaged; extending the range of services in which it is active; and moving subtly from the “supply” side to becoming involved with and supportive of development in the “demand” side for ict in its local context. k-net has focused on developing the supply side of the overall “development” equation. it has obtained funding for the development and provision of end user services—in education and training programs; in health care; in ict and community development activities. in conjunction with this, numbers of northern residents and particularly young people have received training in the use of ict and job-related ict skills; and overall there has been ict sensitization through the development of its youth-focused social networking infrastructure (myknet). a significant (and in the context of the limited population base of the region, highly significant) number of particularly, young people, have been made job-ready for ict based jobs. however, in the context of the current north, with the exception of the limited opportunities available either directly or indirectly through k-net and the service delivery infrastructure it is providing, there are relatively few employment or business related opportunities to use these skills in a financially productive way and still retain residence in northern communities. thus while the “supply” of “human resources” in support of ict-related economic activity is available in the north, the “demand” for such a resource has not yet developed to the same level. k-net has only to a limited degree worked to develop the “demand” side except in relation to the specific requirements of its various service support programs such as the k-net high school or the tele-health programs. the broad range of economic activity throughout the north appears to not have been addressed by k-net as yet as for example towards up-dating local it systems and approaches, or in influencing how these activities might be restructured so as to take advantage of the human resource potential which k-net is working to provide in the north. there is thus an opportunity to re-examine existing operations and practices both in the public and private sectors from a “k-net/ci” perspective to determine whether there are additional opportunities for new ict-enabled economically beneficial goods or services. areas such as mapping, road maintenance, environmental testing and management, public administration at the band level and so on, all lend themselves to being ict-enabled and not incidentally to providing employment to ict-savvy northerners. what, for example, might a ci oriented retail store look like in its sourcing of products; utilization of local purchasing power for collaborative purchasing; restructuring of logistics so as to support local development (something of considerable potential significance in rural and remote areas); and so on. equally, what might the effect be if for example, the department of indian and northern affairs redesigned its sourcing of ict activities toward ict-enabled communities with the ict savvy human resources now available in rural and remote first nations communities.i k-net as a leading edge organization in the area of community informatics has an opportunity to move the ci paradigm forward into new areas. these new areas would include incorporating leading edge ict-enabled business models and practices which can provide the basis for a further challenge to models for ict-enabled services and enterprises and away from the current default position of increased centralization and top-down decision making. i why for example, should the inac website be designed and maintained out of ottawa when resources are available in the north to provide equal or better service and moreover one that would be both adapted to local requirements and have the additional advantage of contributing to the local economy and employment base in the north. cannibalism, creolization and baroque mobile use apropiación de las tecnologías móviles desde una espejo lejano: infiltración barroca, creolización y canibalismo: una reseña alejandra davidziuk adavidziuk@comunica.org en este trabajo, los autores1usan la evocativa sugerencia del manifiesto antropófago brasileño para considerar la apropiación de las tecnologías móviles y sus contribuciones a fin de repensar el impacto público de esos dispositivos en américa latina. el argumento central del manifiesto entiende “felicidad” como un motor de desarrollo comunitario (llamado también “cultura viva”) que debería ser transformado en política pública efectivamente apropiada por su gente. en ese sentido, bar et al. sugieren analizar cómo la gente usa los teléfonos móviles a fin de demostrar que esos dispositivos tecnológicos pueden ser considerados como herramientas para el desarrollo y el cambio cultural. este trabajo de investigación del lado de la demanda no sólo examina cómo la apropiación tecnológica tiene lugar bajo diferentes circunstancias históricas, culturales y económicas en américa latina, sino que realiza otros esfuerzos conexos para explicar la importancia de la apropiación tecnológica y diversos enfoques para analizarla. luego de primeramente considerar y comparar los pro y contra de los tres enfoques tradicionales de apropiación (pro-social; discursivo; y técnico), profundiza una línea teórica alternativa basada en la noción de “aprender mediante el hacer” y “aprender mediante el uso”. el segundo esfuerzo es la presentación de diferentes modos de apropiación cultural en américa latina, relacionando su diversidad con una multiplicidad de estrategias de resistencia y apropiación. en dicha sección, los autores introducen tres modos culturales arquetípicos de apropiación tecnológica (barroquismo, creolización y canibalismo) que se remontan a hechos específicamente brasileños pero intentan ser aplicados a un contexto más amplio. el tercer y último esfuerzo propone un marco teórico para conectar los modos culturales de apropiación tecnológica con un proceso cíclico de tres niveles, que sucesivamente pasa por fases de adopción, apropiación y re-configuración. esta conexión integra el propuesto enfoque de apropiación tecnológica basado en la noción de “aprender mediante el hacer” y subraya que el proceso de apropiación es fundamentalmente una negociación de poder y control sobre los artefactos. a modo de conclusión, los autores afirman que, a fin de conocer más sobre los mecanismos de innovación y el impacto de los teléfonos celulares, sería conveniente seguir analizando en detalle sobre la apropiación tecnológica en vez de concentrarse en las tasas de consumo. estudiar la penetración tecnológica en forma aislada, dicen, sólo puede explicar una parte de la historia. este artículo contiene varias referencias a interesantes e informativas fuentes de investigación teórica sobre cómo la apropiación de teléfonos celulares en américa latina construye – re-produce – expresiones culturales específicas. de ese modo, los autores presentan un particular marco teórico para analizar el impacto social, económico y político de los teléfonos móviles en la región – basándose en tres modos culturales de apropiación tecnológica: barroquismo, creolización y canibalismo. de acuerdo a los autores, estos tres modos exhiben diferentes niveles de confrontación y evolución durante el proceso cíclico que comprende tres instancias: adopción, apropiación y re-configuración entre el usuario y el proveedor de la tecnología. esta confrontación supone negociar “poder y control sobre la configuración de la tecnología, sus usos y la distribución de sus beneficios.” aunque el artículo explica que los dos grupos de tres componentes están interconectados, hubiera sido sumamente importante distinguir mejor que cada uno está basado en factores diferentes y apuntan a distintos objetivos. mientras los modos culturales de apropiación tecnológica están relacionados con los diversos antecedentes individuales y el potencial creativo que los individuos y comunidades tienen, el proceso cíclico de evolución tecnológica está conectado con un diálogo social que, a su vez, está redefinido por ciertas relaciones de poder y control. la forma en que estos tres modos de apropiación tecnológica tiene lugar es arbitrario y depende de las capacidades y estrategias de innovación que cada individuo o comunidad pueda desarrollar. por ejemplo, los usuarios barrocos tenderían a seguir manuales y personalizar sus teléfonos de acuerdo a las recomendaciones de los proveedores. los usuarios creolizados irían un poco más lejos, recombinando los artefactos originales con otros componentes dando por resultado algo nuevo (una suerte de bricolage). los usuarios caníbales, en cambio, desmantelan, destruyen y/o ocultan el artefacto original para crear algo nuevo que represente mejor quiénes son y qué sienten. el punto central del marco teórico apunta al momento de apropiación y re-invención, en el que la tecnología es alterada en un proceso de “aprender haciendo”. esto puede ser un momento tranquilo o una escalada confrontación para ganar poder. usar el teléfono celular para realizar llamadas o enviar mensajes de texto, por ejemplo, es el primer paso para conocer lo que los fabricantes de tecnología han dejado en las góndolas de los negocios. luego, según los autores, los usuarios deberían estimular su ingenio para plantear “relaciones cooperativas” entre ellos y los fabricantes para establecer un espacio de aprendizaje que beneficie a ambos. la alegría no es sólo brasileña – américa latina en perspectiva el artículo resulta muy interesante en términos de revisión bibliográfica y el modo en que los autores justifican los canales de negociación en cada modo de apropiación, sin embargo, el marco teórico necesitaría ser complementado con más estudio empírico que permita analizar y evaluar el impacto de la tecnología en la región. los datos cualitativos son muy valiosos pero imposibles para generalizar y emplear en estudios comparativos. una posible solución podría ser establecer bases para un estudio de caso sobre los usos de telefonía celular en lugares remotos y marginales de américa latina. dichos estudios deberían explorar cómo esta tecnología de telefonía celular impacta en los diferentes tipos de “felicidad” o “cultura viva” que cada comunidad o grupo detenta. américa latina cuenta con una diversa población con desigual acceso a las oportunidades para apropiarse de los servicios básicos. pobres y ricos tiene modos de apropiación tecnológica completamente diferente. aunque ambos comparten la fascinación por nuevos equipos y participan de distinta forma en las tres etapas de evolución tecnológica que los autores presentan, más allá del consumo, los grupos económicamente más carenciados no tienen posibilidad de negociar con las corporaciones u obtener beneficios del diálogo de aprendizaje. a mi juicio, los hackers son uno de los únicos grupos privilegiados en poner la fase de canibalismo en práctica debido a sus habilidades particulares y el gran interés que las corporaciones tienen en lo que ellos pueden llegar a hacer o producir. un ejemplo de esto fue el iphonedevcamp, donde 300 hackers se dieron cita en julio de 2007 en san francisco, estados unidos, para descifrar entre todos los misterios del iphone en un entorno libre de sanciones de apple. como lo describió el sitio aboporu, la reunión de hackers fue una vívida reunión antagonista de variedad caníbal2. es evidente que los teléfonos celulares ya no son más un artefecto de lujo ni de elite (debido a su altas tasas de penetración3) pero no quedan claros los diferente beneficios sociales, económicos y políticos que los mismos pueden producir. esa es la razón, sumada a los patrones diversos y asimétricos latinoamericanos, para realizar diferentes tipos de estudios e investigaciones complementarias para echar luz en cómo la tecnología móvil puede impactar en la vida de la gente y, a su vez, las distintas formas en que la gente incorpora las tecnologías a su vida, negociando dinámicas culturales y de poder en el proceso. el artículo también invita a pensar acerca de qué tipo de implicaciones de política podría tener la apropiación de tecnología móvil en general y de la telefonía celular en particular. desde el lado de la oferta, pareciera mucho más claro imaginar las acciones a implementar por funcionarios y los reguladores de telecomunicaciones a fin de maximizar una industria que crece cada año. promover la inversión para que los operadores expandan sus redes y concentrarse en aquellas políticas que faciliten la penetración son las acciones principales que han sido aplicadas en la región en la última década. ¿cómo esas decisiones impactan en la apropiación cultural individual y comunitaria de los teléfonos móviles en américa latina? sería interesante explorar las implicancias que el proceso cíclico de tres fases de evolución tecnológica podría tener. las preguntas claves a realizar incluirían: ¿cómo se establecen las negociaciones de re-configuración? ¿quiénes participarían de esas negociaciones y bajo qué condiciones? ¿quién controlaría las nuevas ideas y descubrimientos (copyright o creative commons)? ¿la re-configuración tecnológica es una acción individual o colectiva? ¿cómo esos intercambios podrían evolucionar para terminar confirmando un proceso de aprendizaje? el único obstáculo que encontré en el artículo para analizar las implicaciones de políticas es que un actor clave está complemente ausente: el sector público. ¿qué clase de rol tendrían los estados en esas “negociaciones” entre usuarios-proveedores que los autores proponen? ¿los consumidores latinoamericanos estarían preparados para tomar un rol activo en esa clase de confrontación? ¿las corporaciones estarían preparadas para recibir las opiniones de consumidores y reguladores sobre sus productos? nota * este artículo está basado en un documento anterior “cannibalism, creolization and baroque mobile use,” escrito por alejandra davidziuk y publicado en regulateonline.org el 16 de agosto de 2007 1françois bar, francis pisani, matthew weber, preparado para discusión en el seminario sobre desarrollo económico, desarrollo social y comunicaciones móviles en américa latina. organizado por la fundación telefónica en buenos aires, abril 20-21, 2007. françois bar y matthew weber pertenecen a la annenberg school of communication, university of southern california. francis pisani es parte del instituto tecnológico autónomo de méxico. 2ver el sitio abaporu (http://abaporu.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/agonantagon-appropriation-as-theater/) 3en américa latina, 300 millones de personas eran propietarias de un teléfono celular en 2005 (sólo 4 millones en 1995). las redes inalámbricas suministraron una cobertura del 80% durante ese mismo año. “en américa latina, la telefonía celular suministra la única fuente de acceso a algunos de los segmentos más pobres de la población y se ha convertido en el modo de comunicación predominante.” justamente, la telefonía celular ha sido la que ha crecido más en los últimos cinco años. http://www.regulateonline.org/content/view/898/69/   a review of new zealand’s digital strategy  andy williamson wairua consulting limited < andy@wairua.co.nz >   abstract the advent of new zealand’s world-leading digital strategy underpins the increasing importance of icts in community settings. it also marks a significant change in government policy and the first time a government has adopted a whole of government approach to icts. this article provides a personal view of the policy process for creating the digital strategy, presented by one of the participants in that process. it contextualises the digital strategy in ci initiatives in aotearoa/new zealand, and identifies important issues attending its implementation and future.   introduction the advent of new zealand’s world-leading digital strategy underpins the increasing importance of icts in community settings. it also marks a significant change in government policy and the first time a government has adopted a whole of government approach to icts. as the introduction to the digital strategy says, it is about aotearoa/new zealand becoming “a world leader in using information and technology to realise its economic, social, environmental and cultural goals, to the benefit of all its people” (new zealand government, 2005, p. 4). in order to contextualise the digital strategy, this article will look briefly at the context for community informatics (ci) initiatives in aotearoa/new zealand, identifying the issues facing such projects. it then goes on to position the new digital strategy from its evolution as a draft strategy, through a consultation process to the final release. it will describe some of the ideas behind the strategy, the processes for its implementation (where these are known) and some of the potential limitations, including a project-centric focus and a lack of framework for implementation. finally, the funding made available to ci initiatives through the strategy is discussed.  by necessity, this is a brief (and personal) review of the digital strategy. you can read the strategy for yourself at www.digitalstrategy.govt.nz. you can also read another perspective, by williams, sligo and wallace, in this issue of the journal of community informatics.   the aotearoa/new zealand context many local ci initiatives exist in aotearoa/new zealand, including literacy and training, access to websites, telecentres, management tools and discussion forums. many of these appear highly successful and some world-leading and local research indicates that icts are improving outcomes for stakeholders of community organisations by making services more inclusive and accessible (craig, dashfield, & thomson, 2003; craig & williamson, 2005). research indicates that local ci initiatives tend to be over-reliant on goodwill and voluntary resources and, because of this, their existence can be perilous (day, 2004). this is certainly the case in new zealand and a primary issue must be workforce development (using the term in its broadest sense). in a recent summary of four of my own ci research projects (williamson, 2005), i identified key themes across the projects: funding; access; planning and partnerships.   funding funding is a significant concern for most community-based projects. problems associated with funding have a flow-on effect in terms of the sustainability of the project and with regards to staffing, training and the acquisition of appropriate and up-to-date equipment. icts are now considered to be ‘core business’ by many community-based organisations, yet funding is still in most cases only available on a project-by-project basis.   access appropriate and timely access to icts is an obvious need and there is a clear requirement in new zealand to provide solutions that can bridge socioeconomic divides, allowing all citizens who wish to use icts to be able to access them. it is not simply access that is important but the immediacy of that access in terms of fully utilising icts for both personal and community activities.   planning planning is seen as important to the success of ci projects. however, the over-reliance on volunteers coupled with a lack of funding means that there is seldom the time or skills available in a ci project to do sufficient planning. solutions must be planned and outcomes described and agreed upon at the community level. a top-down approach does not work well for community icts. this points to an obvious need to share knowledge and information about initiatives; not only those that are successful but the lessons to learn from those that are not. it suggests a need for a ‘knowledge base’ or ‘toolkit of ideas’ but does not promote the flawed idea of ‘best practice’ or a one-size-fits all approach.   partnerships if resources are limited, then sustainability is difficult to obtain. a solution to this is to encourage the sharing of ideas and resources and to support the building of partnerships that can offer sustainability. such partnerships can exist between community-based organisations, local government, central government and the ngo sector. where communities can work together, additional benefits and economies of scale can be realised (williamson, 2003). if the digital strategy is to succeed, it must address these four themes.   locating ci in a policy context the potential value of ci was first recognised at a policy level through the connecting communities strategy (community employment group, 2002), which aimed to improve access to, and the effective use of, icts amongst communities. more recently, the draft digital strategy and, evolving from that, the newly released digital strategy (new zealand government, 2004, 2005) have been developed to “provide an integrated framework for existing and future initiatives to encourage the uptake and effective use of icts for economic, social and cultural gain”(new zealand government, 2004, p. 2). it is significant because it sets the policy and funding agendas for ci initiatives in aotearoa/new zealand. the digital strategy signals a realisation that a whole of government approach to ict is required and that, even in a ‘developed’ country such as new zealand, ubiquity and sustainability of ict, or innovation through ict, cannot be assumed. the model used in the strategy is internationally significant because it is has emerged after the first world summit on the information society (wsis, 2004) and adopts the wsis tri-sectoral model of government, business and civil society (or community). the draft digital strategy (new zealand government, 2004) was a discussion document, setting out what the government thought it needed to do. publication of this document was followed by significant consultation with business, government and community stakeholders through meetings, presentations and the opportunity to make written submissions. it was my personal opinion that the draft digital strategy was an excellent first step but that it was weak in a number of areas. particularly, an overt focus on replicating ‘best practice’ risked being paternalistic and limiting, and no attempt was made to address the ongoing sustainability of ci initiatives. perhaps the greatest omission was the lack of any tangible delivery mechanism. these issues are addressed to some degree in the final digital strategy (new zealand government, 2005).   the digital strategy the final version of the digital strategy is surprisingly brief. it (rightly) refrains from repeating much of the background information present in the draft strategy, instead focussing on the way forward. the digital strategy addresses social and cultural good, however, there is significant emphasis on economic benefit. in this regard it differs from traditional approaches to the digital divide, which identify exclusion as a primarily social problem (thomson & craig, 2004). the digital strategy builds on the draft strategy by describing an ongoing funding mechanism for project-based initiatives. whilst it is not clear how the fund will operate at this early stage, an advisory group has been formed and it is evident that a framework will need to be developed to manage the allocation of funding. whereas, in this regard, the draft strategy appeared laissez-faire and subjective, the final strategy is a significant improvement but still fails to explicitly promote frameworks for evaluating outcomes or effectiveness. however, it appears anecdotally that this might be remedied in the implementation. the naïve and somewhat flawed assumption that what works in one location will be successful in another, inherent in the draft strategy, is gone in the final version. this is fortunate since ci initiatives generally disprove the myth of ‘best practice’; they are not the result of technological determinism but of the appropriate social construction of technology in a specific and localised context (williamson, 2003). one problem remaining in the digital strategy is the lack of any distinction between projects and icts as a ‘business as usual’ component of communities. whilst the digital strategy does provide project-based funding, it still does little to address how projects can become operationalized and sustainable. unfortunately, the economic model privileged in the digital strategy reinforces a short-term approach to competitive funding and the high risk of technocratic/bureaucratic intervention on a project basis at the expense of sustainability and operationalisation. as day (2004) cautions, this short-term approach has historically been detrimental to ci initiatives and it is hoped that this issue can be resolved in the implementation. particularly significant in this regard is the appointment of an advisory board who can promote the importance of long-term sustainability.   funding for ci projects words and grand ideas are one thing. money is quite another. fortunately, the digital strategy does contain significant new funding allocations for ci related initiatives. it is evident that new zealand lacks the fiscal and economic resources to fund projects on the same scale as canada and the uk; we are simply too small. however, it is often said that what we lack in dollars we can make up for in ingenuity and commitment. this is, perhaps, the key driver behind the funding component of the digital strategy. the key here is partnership: partnership is a key component underpinning the new digital strategy and is perhaps the best opportunity for individual communities to achieve effective solutions with limited resources.  funding will be provided to projects that can demonstrate working partnerships between communities, government agencies or the private sector. this implies that funding is to seed what has already been evaluated as a viable initiative and will hopefully ensure that sustainability can be achieved. for ci initiatives, there are two key funds: broadband challenge: nz$24m of contestable funding to support partnerships to deploy open-access fibre networks. community partnership fund: nz$20.7m of contestable funding to build capacity in communities and develop strong local partnerships. in addition, nz$1.44m is available for remote areas to access broadband and some funding remains in the connecting communities strategy. this is significant and real money going into ci initiatives for the first time in new zealand.   impact on research the digital strategy will require an evaluation framework to monitor money spent and this presents ci researchers both locally and internationally with an opportunity to influence what good ci research means. successful community informatics projects are embedded within communities and support the aspirations of the community that they serve (day, 2003). research and evaluation is important for learning and sharing. it is itself an aspect of partnership. however, it is of critical importance in a community-based setting that the researchers are seen as participants in the process as well as observers within the study. this process is like “paddling a waka [canoe] alongside [the community]” (williamson & desouza, 2003, p. 20), acknowledging our own role as guests but also developing relationships with the participants. this approach is consistent with that recommended by guba and lincoln, who promote that “participants [are] accorded the privilege of sharing their constructions and working toward a common, consensual, more fully informed and sophisticated, joint construction, [where] they [are] accorded a full measure of conceptual parity” (guba & lincoln, 1989, p. 11). in particular, we need to promote the value of rigorous qualitative research and the use of participant’s stories as being equally as important as more traditional quantitative studies.   conclusion whilst it is still early days the digital strategy is an exciting document that offers significant potential for ci practitioners and researchers in aotearoa/new zealand. the digital strategy is a whole of government approach to icts and the advisory group will advise and, hopefully, influence a number of ministers and ministries. this presents us with a serious opportunity to increase the importance and knowledge of icts in developing our communities through a broader policy setting. at the grassroots, the strategy appears to support locally emerging solutions and partnerships that can lead to sustainability. it contains funding for access and education, which are critical if all sectors of society are to be brought along. whilst there are some limitations, this is to be expected in such a new and wide-ranging strategy. the pattern so far has been one of evolution through consultation and it is hoped that this process will continue, allowing the strategy to be fine tuned as it is rolled out. this digital  strategy clearly has the potential to position aotearoa/new zealand as a world leader in ci initiatives. it offers direct solutions to issues of funding and access and, through the promotion of partnerships that can lead to increased collaboration and better skills, it supports long-term sustainability. whilst only time will tell whether this works, i suspect that what we do next will be watched very closely.   references community employment group. (2002). connecting communities: a strategy for government support of community access to information and communications technology. wellington, nz: department of labour. craig, b., dashfield, b., & thomson, i. (2003). community information and communication technology research report. wellington, nz: victoria university of wellington. craig, b., & williamson, a. (2005). survey of new zealand community ict organisations and projects. wellington, nz: victoria university of wellington/department of labour. day, p. (2003). community (information and communication) technology: policy, partnership and practice. in s. marshall, w. taylor & y. xinghuo (eds.), using community informatics to transform regions. melbourne, vic: idea group. day, p. (2004, sept 29 oct 1). building and sustaining health communities: the symbiosis between community technology and community research. paper presented at the community informatics research network conference and colloquium, prato, italy. guba, e., & lincoln, y. (1989). fourth generation evaluation. california: sage publications. new zealand government. (2004). digital strategy: a draft new zealand strategy for consultation. wellington, nz: new zealand government. new zealand government. (2005). the digital strategy: creating our digital future. wellington, nz: new zealand government. thomson, i., & craig, b. (2004, sept 29 oct 1). new zealand’s digital strategy – a case study workshop. paper presented at the community informatics research network conference and colloquium, prato, italy. williamson, a. (2003). shifting the centre: the internet as a tool for community activism. in s. marshall & w. taylor (eds.), proceedings of the 5th international information technology in regional areas (itira) conference (pp. 149-155). rockhampton, qld: central queensland university. williamson, a. (2005, june 21). what we've learned from community informatics research in new zealand. paper presented at the 2020 communications trust's thematic seminar on community ict research, victoria university, wellington, nz. williamson, a., & desouza, r. (2003). evaluation of the otara digital opportunities project. auckland, nz: citrus/wairua consulting ltd. wsis. (2004). world summit on the information society. retrieved aug 21, 2004, from http://www.itu.int/wsis   joci rural e-governance: exploring the gender gaps and its impact on women (a case study of e-gram suraj scheme of chhattisgarh state of india) anupama saxena guru ghasidas university anupama66@rediffmail.com abstract use of ict in rural governance is an emerging phenomenon in india. in the present paper, citing various grass root realities and incidents, the author establishes a correlation between the existing gender gaps and gender discriminations in the rural society and consequent marginalization of rural women from emerging rural e-governance. in this context the author also examines the existing rural e-governance agenda of the state government and concludes that currently the gender issues are not given adequate attention and representation in it. the findings are based on a study of a rural e-governance scheme of one of the most socially and economically challenged states of india: chhattisgarh. introduction india is a country dominated by rural population. the condition of women in rural areas is worse as the gender based discriminations with strong socio cultural roots are entrenched and pervasive. in 1993, the panchayati raj1(village level local self governance) system was introduced as an instrument of rural self governance. described as a "revolution based on maximum democracy and maximum devolution", a key feature of the system is that 33% of elected seats are reserved for women. so far, all the studies have shown that even with 33% reservation the women sarpanchas2 have not been able to equally participate in the process of rural governance. due to the patriarchal character of the society, ability to participate equally in the process of governance has been a big challenge for the rural women. so far, this process has been undoubtedly male centric. introduction of icts is expected to bring in changes in the whole process of rural governance with sarpanchas being the users. e gram suraj(e-good rural governance) is a flagship e governance project of indian state chhattisgarh where ict is used in panchayati raj system to improve its functioning .in this scheme simputers3 are provided to sarpanchas(village level heads of local self governance) to enable them to plan their activities scientifically and to enable the rural citizen especially the weaker section such as women to get their rightful share in development using ict tools as an engine. the use of simputers for the village population can be described in following points4 : simputer is an indigenously developed alternative to computer low cost technology: to cost about rs 9000 when the volumes are upwards 100,000 units. suited for rural environment: long battery life: three aaa batteries. it can also use rechargeable batteries. small size , portable(pocket computer) text to speech and speech to text features :it ensures that illiteracy is no longer a barrier to handling a computer. multilingual in panchayati raj system village panchayat is the most important body and sarpanchas as its head is responsible for its working. in e-gram suraj project sarpanchas are primarily responsible for keeping the simputers and using it. with 33% seats reserved for women sarpanchas (and recently the government of chhattisgarh has increased this quota to 50%) they are getting the simputers and are entrusted with the responsibility of using them. the present study evaluates this scheme from a gender perspective. the present case study appreciates such initiatives for rural population. the paper emphasizes upon the need for proper implementation of the scheme to benefit the women sarpanchas and to integrate gender perspective in such schemes. the paper also makes suggestions for those who plan and implement such schemes. methodology gender evaluation methodology (gem)5 is used for evaluation. gem is a methodology that integrates a gender analysis into evaluations of initiatives that use information and communication technologies (icts) for social change. it provides a means for determining whether icts are worsening or really improving women’s lives and gender relations, as well as for promoting positive change at the individual, institutional, community and broader social levels. gem has seven steps and all seven steps have been adopted in this study. a detail description on how gem is used for the present study is as following, defining intended users and intended use intended user department of political science, guru ghasidas university, bilaspur, chhattisgarh, india women’s studies and development centre, guru ghasidas university, bilaspur, chhattisgarh, india intended use designing a workshop for creating awareness among various stakeholders including government officers, ngos, academia about gender issues in rural e governance.  writing articles for newspapers and giving radio talks with the same purpose as is mentioned in point 1. writing a reflective piece over the experiences of using gem. preparing a research report to be available for university library for use as a reference identifying gender and ict issues: availability access and control use proposes of using the technology barriers access and use of support system perception impact finalizing evaluation question : whether men and women are equally participating in e-gram suraj scheme? whether men and women are equally benefited by e-gram suraj scheme? setting gender and ict indicators: availability: number of men and women to whom technology is available access and control: number of men and women having actual access to technology use: number of men and women actually using the technology proposes of using the technology: personal, official barriers: language content literacy technology personal access and use of support system: training, maintenance and repair of simputers perceptions of men and women about the effectiveness of technology in their work as sarpanchas in their daily lives effectiveness of technology on capacity of men and women for decision making in rural governance effectiveness of technology on capacity of men and women to influence the decision making process in rural governance selecting data collection methods: document review: chips, rural development department personal interview: users : structured questionnaire, government officers: nonstructured questionnaires focused group discussions: users case studies: some special cases observation: team members daily diaries: team members online interaction: software and technological developers analyzing data from a gender perspective: the present report is the output of this analysis. putting evaluation to work: a report is prepared and shared with the government officers at state level. the findings and suggestions are shared with government officers and others in a national conference on e-governance organized by department of public reforms, government of india. full paper is published in the compendium, published by the conference organizers. a combination of methods were adopted to collect data that included personal interviews, story telling and focused group discussions with various groups of informants. the questionnaire based survey with 56 sarpanchas in dongargaon block6 of chhattisgarh state was carried out during 31st may-6th june 2008. the second section consisted of project related questions, based on six indicators. focused group discussions, separately for male and female sarpanchas, were carried out during 16th-19th october 2008 with the selected sarpanchas. information from other informants like technology developers, software developers and government officers is also collected through personal interviews and online discussions. to understand the context and to analyze the data, earlier researches, government policy documents and reports have also been reviewed. findings the e-gram scheme with the help of simputers in the hands of elected representatives sarpanchas, has the potential to change the process of rural governance and thus to bring in the positive changes in the lives of the rural people specially the poor and the marginalized. we appreciate the initiative taken by the state government. during our study we have found that the sarpanchas are quite happy, enthusiastic and optimistic about the use of such technology at the gram panchayata level. but so far there have been no visible impacts of the scheme in the lives of the people because the scheme is not implemented properly. it is clear by the following information and analysis most of the simputers are not in working condition the simputers that were deposited for repair are not yet repaired most of the simputers have wrong/incomplete/not updated information no internet connectivity has been provided yet no use of text to speech feature of the simputer our evaluation also indicates that women sarpanchas are not able to participate equally in rural e-governance. because firstly out of total sarpanchas, to whom simputers are available and have thus attained a chance to participate in rural e-governance, only 33% are women. these 33% women are also those who are elected from the reserved seats for women. not a single woman is able to contest from unreserved seat. this clearly indicates that in the sphere of rural e-governance equal availability of technology to women can be ensured only with the adequate protection such as reserved allocations for women. secondly, the percentage of women who are actually using the simputers and thus participating in rural e-governance is much less than the male sarpanchas. 32.25% of male sarpanchas have used the simputer to download information from it. 09.67% have transferred the data from their simputers to the computers at janpad panchayat office through pen drive and 16.12% have uploaded the data in their simputers. gender gaps are quite visible. not a single woman has transferred the data. only one woman has downloaded information. no woman has uploaded the data. a large number of male sarpanchas are using/ have used simputers for their personal works like playing games, calculating, listening to songs etc. but only 40% female sarpanchas have shown any interest in all this. this unequal participation of women sarpanchas in rural e-governance is the result of prevailing social cultural discriminations against women. it is obvious by the analysis of the factors responsible for their less participation: language, literacy, and prior exposure to technology: the content of the simputer has many words of english. only 29% of women sarpanchas have a working knowledge of english whereas more than 66% of men posses this. the content of the simputer is mostly in hindi. 17% of men and almost 30% of women are not even fluent in hindi. most of them are fluent in local dialect chhattisgarhi. hence women are not able to understand the content. language skill is closely linked with the educational level. on this indicator also there is a wide gender gap. 11.7 % of women and 2.56% of men are illiterate. 20.51% men have received education higher than class 12th. the percentage of women in this category is nil. 17.94% men have received education up to the level of senior secondary (12th pass), the percentage of women in this category is 05.88. our evaluation shows that prior exposure to technology helps in handling the other technologies in a better manner. on this indicator also the gender differences are very obvious. 39% men and 23% women do have any prior exposure to technology. this is because women have less outside exposure than the men. content of the simputer: many of the women do not find the content of the simputer useful and this is one of the reasons why they are not interested in using the simputers. the main reason for not finding the content of the simputers useful is that currently the content include the information only related to gram panchayatas and most of the women are not able to actually perform the work of the sarpanchas hence they do not find the content useful. the other reasons for not finding the content useful is women’s lack of command over english and hindi languages. technical problems: there are many technical problems that sarpanchas are facing while using the simputers like broken parts, problems with software, and discharged batteries. women are facing more problems because of their low education level, less exposure to technology and their less mobility. access to support system: training and maintenance: more than 53% of female sarpanchas faced problems during the training. the problems included the problem of transportation, lunch, language, not any interest etc. many of the women couldn’t understand anything. 90% women sarpnachas went to attend the training with a male member of the family or with sachiv (secretary of gram panchayata) because being a woman they did not find themselves able to attend the training alone. it is found that male because of their better exposure to new technologies such as mobile and in some cases computers also, are more comfortable in understanding the functioning of simputers. more over as they are better educated and better skilled as far as language is concerned it is easier for them to grasp whatever is explained during the sessions. another advantage with men is that they can learn with fellow men whereas women do not have any such chance and training is the only place where they do have a chance to learn the technology. but the women found the duration of training not sufficient, they were not able to understand the language of the trainers, all trainers were male so women felt hesitant in asking questions there were no separate provisions for women for training hence they felt shy in asking questions. training session should be well planned and be very simple, supported by visuals wherever is necessary, the duration of training should be longer, the language should be understandable. one to one attention should be paid to women sarpanchas. the lack of proper training certainly has resulted in lack of interest in using the technology. with a new technology like simputers, repair and maintenance services are very important. because of being a new technology and because of the very little exposure of the users to any type of technology and lack of adequate training it is but natural that the simputers go out of function very frequently. no support system at the local level has been provided for repair of the simputers. the only option left to the sarpanchas at the time of any malfunctioning of the simputers is to rush to the janpad panchayata office that is located more that 30 kms away from some of the villages. at present, only 17.58% of total simputers are in working condition. gender gap is quite clear even in this. 20.5% simputers owned by male sarpanchas are in working condition and only 11.76% of simputers owned by female sarpanchas are in working condition. male domination in the public domain (rural governance): this is a very important factor. there are clear indications that women are getting representation but they are not actively participating in rural governance. they are playing a proxy role for their family members. the representation of women has not automatically led to empowerment of women. after several years, it is a big challenge for women to function in formal spaces, dominated as they are, by men. they still face considerable handicaps to their involvement in politics for example: inadequate education, the burden of reproductive and productive roles, lack of financial independence or control of assets & the opposition of entrenched cultural & religious views. during our survey we could note almost negligible role of women sarpanchas in rural governance. husband of one of the woman sarpanchas successfully denied our access to his wife. he repeatedly told us over the phone that there was no use and no need to meet his wife as she just stayed at home that was far away from the panchayata she was representing and she never visited the panchayata and it was he who performed all the duties of sarpanchas. he said that the villagers did not have any problem in this arrangement. one of the women sarpanchas avoided meeting us alone. she said that she had not done any thing so far without her husband. she was so adamant and so convinced with the righteousness of this stand that she got angry at us when we tried to convince her to talk to us alone in her house and finally she denied talking to us at all and her husband challenged us to publish this incident anywhere and to make any complaints in this regard to anyone. one of the women told us that she was quite interested in actually working as sarpancha and she felt that she could work well at her own but her husband would never allow her to do so and also that she felt very frustrated because of this. in most of the villages when we entered the village and asked the villagers, “who is the sarpancha”, in most of the cases it was the name of the husband that was told to us and only after asking a second time and insisting on the actual name of the sarpancha did the villagers informed about the women sarpancha. same thing had happened when we had started contacting sarpanchas over telephone. in most of the cases it was the husband of the women sarpancha who himself told that “myself sarpancha speaking” and only after we insisted that according to our official records it should be the seat of a women sarpancha he accepted that his wife was sarpancha. afterwards also they kept on insisting that whatever information we needed should be asked to them, as their wives did not know anything. the family member, the village community, even most of the women all seemed to be most comfortable with the situation. in case of some influential husbands, even the officers at janapad panchayata (bloc level rural self government) do not insist upon the presence of women sarpancha during the official work and let the husbands do all the work. even in the unofficial gatherings of sarpanchas, their husbands represent most of the women sarpanchas and a few who attend the meetings and make suggestions are not taken seriously. this patriarchal culture of restricting women to family domain restricts their access to new technology also. it’s clear with another data. male family members of 89% of total women sarpanchas (who do not own a mobile phone themselves) own a mobile phone. this clearly indicates that the family can afford a mobile phone but women are not considered needy enough to own one even though they are holding a responsible constitutional post. the reason is quite clear: the work related to sarpancha is performed by the male member of the family, in most of the cases husband. in one case the eagerness of one woman sarpancha to own a mobile of her own led to the conflicts with her husband and finally to the divorce. the factor of independency that is associated with the availability of new technology is becoming an issue of conflict between the male and female members of the women sarpanchas families. many incidents can be quoted to show that how the same patriarchal culture is reinforcing itself in the rural e-governance. most of the women did not go alone to receive the simputers, to attend the training, to understand the functioning of the simputers or to deposit the simputers when out of function. they have to depend upon the help of the male family members. icts, can thus also pose a potential threat to women for increased dependence on men. icts can have unintended negative impacts also. many of the women we surveyed do not appreciate the potential of technology to facilitate the work from their houses or from their villages. for them the necessity to visit the janpad panchayat office provides them with an opportunity to get out of their houses and villages and to feel a sense of power while meeting the concerned officers in their offices personally. according to most of the women this potential of simputer if exploited fully would actually, help the male members to take control of all the work and would actually snatch away even the very little opportunity that women sarpanchas are getting to get out of their houses and villages, to meet others and to learn from others or be exposed to new learnings and experiences. suggestions and conclusion we believe that this scheme has very good potential. it enabled icts to reach the hands of the rural people and it is already half correctly implemented after spending a budget of 2.5 crores. hence the implementation of the scheme according to its stated objectives should be ensured at the earliest. following are some suggestions: equal emphasis should be given to application side. possibilities of using simputers for other official activities should be explored like monitoring of gender budgeting. information on the simputer could be expanded to include health data so that health services and information could reach the most rural of areas in india. there must be a monitoring mechanism to ensure that expected impacts are achieved. to some extent the accountability should be ensured. the whole process of rural e-governance should be participatory. prior surveys to learn about the skill level, willingness, needs and aspirations of the users and expected beneficiaries should be made compulsory. in the absence of this generally the male perspective dominates the programmes planning, as the planners are mostly males. there must be well-planned coordination among the various departments involved. training should be very well planned and should be gender sensitive. local expertise for repair, maintenance and training should be developed, women sarpanchas should be sufficiently trained and encouraged to do this. simputers certainly have the strength to improve the performance of sarpanchas but due to their inferior status the women feel that the simputers cannot be useful in empowering them as sarpanchas. whereas the male sarpanchas feel that if use of simputers is ensured they will be able to perform better. women feel that they are not able to deliver their duties as sarpanchas due to social cultural reasons and simputers cannot bring in any change in this social cultural sphere. we, therefore, strongly recommend the use of ict for rural population and along with this a gender evaluation of ict for development initiatives should be incorporated to investigate whether icts are being used in ways that change gender biases and roles and do not simply reproduce and replicate existing ones. as more and more of today's development work and money is channeled into projects that employ icts, their effects on women are of great importance. integrating icts in rural governance, without integrating gender dimension, may threaten the rural women office bearers finding themselves more marginalized. hence a gender-integrated approach to rural e-governance is needed. following are some suggestions: like rural governance the rural e-governance agenda should ensure integration of gender component at each aspect like, planning, choosing the technology, language, content development, training, monitoring, evaluation, budgeting etc. gender sensitization activities should be conducted for those who are involved in the planning and implementation of rural e-governance. the participation of people and organizations that are involved in the empowerment efforts for rural women should be ensured while implementing the rural e-governance schemes. the simputers have an unprecedented potential of changing the lives of the rural women. but to achieve this, the needs of women, their problems and the issues that are responsible for their inferior status in the society should be taken into consideration and the use of simputers should be planned in such a way as to address those issues also. changing the existing gender relations should be integrated in the whole agenda of use of icts for rural governance. only then rural e-governance will have significant meaning for women. to conclude, we say that use of icts can certainly improve the performance of sarpanchas and planning and implementation of the schemes as well. scheme like e-gram suraj can certainly help in the empowerment of sarpanchas. such type of efforts should be encouraged to ensure that benefits of icts reach to the rural people. but in indian context, where rural women are already less visible in the public sphere due to socio–cultural factors and men already dominate, e-governance is more available and accessible to men. hence to avoid the emergence of a gender based digital divide in rural governance that would further marginalize the rural women, it is necessary that the potential of icts is exploited in such a manner as to address the existing gender issues in rural governance, which are still obstructing women’s way to participate equally in the process. women’s abilities, needs, perceptions and building women’s capacities to use the icts are other important factors that should be given due consideration while planning for rural egovernance to make it meaningful to women. 1 village level self governance in india, the panchayat is a south asian political system. ‘panchayat’ literally means assembly (yat) of five (panch) wise and respected elders chosen and accepted by the village community. traditionally, these assemblies settled disputes between individuals and villages. modern indian government has decentralised several administrative functions to the village level, empowering elected gram panchayats now its a constitutional entity in india 2 sarpancha is the directly elected head of the village level self government unit. s/he is the key person for the planning and implementation of the all developmental scheme for the village. 3 http://www.simputer.org/ 4 for more details on use of simputer for rural development please visit following websites http://www.jansamachar.net/display.php3?id=&num=299&lang=english http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci/tech/1560771.stm 5 http://www.apcwomen.org/gemkit 6dongargaon is a block in rjnandgaon district of chhattisgarh state of india .it has an area of 471.82 kilometers and a population of ninety-nine thousand one hundred and seventy four people. the whole block is a rural area .and is represented by the chief minister of the state dr. raman singh, in the state legislative assembly. for location in india please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dongargaon   the “learning community" as a local development strategy  bernard sévigny university of sherbrooke < bernard.sevigny@usherbrooke.ca >  paul prévost university of sherbrooke < pprevost@adm.usherbrooke.ca >   abstract the phenomenon of connected communities shows that the internet can be a powerful tool in promoting cohesiveness between community players. since a community's capability to initiate development projects depends to a significant degree on the quality of the relational framework in which the players operate, we maintain that it is possible to go beyond the instrumental character of internet applications and to give a developmental character to processing for designing and developing a collective portal. a learning community is a completed form of connected community that promotes local players to develop a creative synergy that can yield ideas, collaboration, and development projects.   introduction   generally speaking, authors writing about local development acknowledge that a community's capability to initiate development projects depends to a significant degree on the quality of the relational framework in which the players operate (vachon, 1994; prévost, 1999, 2000, 2003; pecqueur, 2000; joyal, 2002; greffe, 2002). in fact, this relational framework, which comprises all formal and informal ties linking members of a community, is a complex matrix through which learning flows (information and knowledge). moreover, empirical models and local development strategies, such as clusters, science parks, local productive systems and new industrial districts, highlight the importance of a community's relational framework as it applies to development. the framework allows players to develop a synergy capable of producing “anchored” knowledge that can yield a collective competitive advantage. seen from this standpoint, action enables a community to influence the course of its development from within. the quality and scope of daily occurring local activities relate to the competence, style, personality, and commitment of the people who perform them. however, it is the players, not the programs or structures, that manage the community's assets and who determine who works there. therefore, they are the people to see about guiding or enhancing community development. even if the ideas, projects, and visions regarding the community stem from individuals, it is through the political, institutional, professional, and social networks that they are discussed, debated, structured, and implemented. the development of information technologies has greatly accelerated the dissemination of information. while the internet is obviously quite effective for conveying information, it has prove less so in disseminating knowledge. in this context it has given rise to the concept of the learning community, which aims to strengthen and stimulate the community's relational framework by developing a collective portal. the internet stands out as a powerful tool for fostering cohesiveness amongst community players, making it possible to act on the predispositions of local development, which, for the most part, are comprised of intangibles. this paper presents findings from a research project conducted between 2001 and 2004 within the context of activities of the centre francophone d´informatisation des organisations (cefrio or francophone center for the computerization of organizations) and a doctoral research project at the université de sherbrooke (canada). this article comprises three parts. the first deals with the distinction between the phenomenon of the connected community and the concept of the learning community. the second focuses on the typological model, which is a tool designed to perform diagnoses of communities and position them within the framework represented by the learning community. the third part presents the development model for a learning community. the models therein presented were developed from the analyses of the documentation and collective portals, as well as from the research conducted within the framework of the “bromont – connected city” project http://www.bromont.com   towards a learning community public and nonpublic initiatives with the aim of networking members of a community through a virtual platform, and attempts to federate existing local initiatives through a collective portal are multiplying in the developed countries. this has given rise to expressions such as “connected city,” “intelligent city,” and “digital city.” however, uses developed from internet applications have remained primarily instruments limited to information dissemination or service delivery. certain communities in europe and the united states have carried out projects that benefit the general public in terms of service delivery, transparency of public affairs management, territorial marketing and local democracy. it is also true that experimentation with information and communication technologies (icts) in local and regional communities as a learning and development vector has not delivered anticipated results. the true impact of the internet on the wellness of local populations is therefore far from being cut-and-dried. it does, nevertheless, provide a basis for devising new means for modulating the flow of information that would allow citizens to participate in public activities, develop communities of interest or practice, promote the networking of players and decision-makers, and assist the emergence of a true user-culture centered around the development of knowledge, capabilities, and competences. in short, to preside over the emergence of renewed development capability. table 1. “connected community” vs “learning community”             connected  community          learning community instrumental approach developmental approach ict access (computer and internet access) community development strategy ( cohesive action ) development of citizen use capabilities development of citizen capabilities (participation) information dissemination  and community promotion redefinition of local governance delivery of online services (municipal and others) networking of players player (communities of interest or practice   pressure groups)   it is therefore important to distinguish between connected community and learning community. the connected community is instrumental in nature and emerges through practice, whereas the learning community is a more complete form of ict usage and incorporates a community development strategy. a learning community is a territorial entity in which the population--individuals as well as public/nonpublic organizations--is mobilized to foster a state of permanent alertness. members of the general public undertake discussions, through icts and other means, then try the most productive approaches to development, which as a consequence contributes to collective knowledge. in addition to promoting the use of icts, a learning community project can stimulate public participation in community activities, redefine community governance, and give rise to a relational strategy that can generate the knowledge, distinctive competences, and collective capabilities that influence the direction of community development.   typological model: a categorization tool the typological model we are presenting is a conceptual framework elaborated from documentation dealing with the concept of the connected city, analyses of collective portals, field surveys, the action-research conducted in the town of bromont (canada), and research into cyberdemocracy. consequently, the iterative process characterizing our research led to the identification of six dimensions that constitute the pillars on which a proposed learning community rests: management, the portal, governance, networking, citizen capability, and local development. these dimensions have been grouped together and arranged into a conceptual framework. each of these dimensions has been transposed onto two axes (vertical and horizontal) that serve to measure the variable intensity, which is then used to analyze connected community experiences. the tool is then used to characterize empirical experiences and identify their development trajectory. each of the conceptual framework's dimensions includes a comfort zone indicating the ideal position of an experience based on the definition of the learning community. consequently, the comfort zones provide means for specifying the variables in the learning community model and to position the empirical experiences in respect to the variables. the typological model is designed for three main functions: it is a diagnostic tool since it can be used to sketch a situational portrait of the community in relation to the six identified dimensions; it is a positioning tool as it makes it possible to position empirical experiences along the two axes; and lastly, it is a strategic tool when used to determine a trajectory leading to the identified objective.   the six dimensions of a learning community   1) project management. the management dimension provides the setting for initiating, developing, and implementing a collective portal. it aims at qualifying the portal's degree of integration, strategic choices, development directions, selection of functionalities, managerial flexibility and organizational culture. the management dimension rests on two axes that make it possible to determine the position of public powers in developing and managing the project on the one hand, and the degree of manager openness to community expectations on the other. the vertical axis represents the first distinction between a public initiative and a nonpublic initiative. local government or a nonprofit organization can undertake project management. numerous management models lie between the two extremities of the continuum. to illustrate, most of the virtual cities in france were initiated by local public government (municipalities or communes, which are french territorial divisions), whereas community networks in the united states have result for the most part from the efforts of institutional and community players. in either case, their start-up required the injection of public funds. the financial assistance either comes from supra-national (such as the european commission), national, regional or local authorities, with the amount varying depending on the partnership agreements. the same holds true for project management. it is important to determine management type. figure 1. the management dimension                   moreover, such projects can be initiated by public authorities and managed by another type of organization. this is the case of the issy-les-moulineaux project (france) http://www.issy.com, which was initiated by the municipal government, but managed by a private-sector firm. likewise, the bromont ville branchée (bromont—connected city; canada) http://www.bromont.com was initiated by the mayor of bromont, but is being managed by a not for profit organization (npo) whose board of directors is comprised of local individuals. lastly, the ennis project (ireland) http://www.ennis.ie was initiated by the country's telephone utility, but is managed by a board of 14 members of the business community. analysis of experiences at the national and international levels shows that both the instigator and manager of the project need to be identified as these variables inherently influence the development trajectory. the second axis (horizontal) relates to the degree of transparency in management. specifically, this axis refers to the work of van bastelaer et al. (2000) on the directions taken or to be taken during the deployment phase of a virtual city project and during its subsequent management. on the one hand, it has been observed that “closed management” does nothing to promote project appropriation by community members, as they feel excluded from the selection process. on the other hand, “open management” is characterized by a lack or near-lack of direction  resulting in  project direction being  subject to the most dynamic or informed elements of  the community. such an intuitive management model fails, however, to promote citizen participation and cohesiveness amongst community players. once again, the continuum embraces a variety of management methods. our opinion is that, in this regard, flexible management (see the comfort zone in figure 1) is the most appropriate for a learning community, since it offers a balance between flexibility and direction. 2)  the portal.  in addition to conveying a local identity, the collective portal showcases the fabric of solidarity woven into the community, and demonstrates the support local government and regional institutions offer community organizations. as a result, the positions occupied by community organizations—whether public, private, community, recreational, or cultural, as well as online functionalities (informational, transactional, and relational), characterize the portal and determine its scope. the portal becomes a veritable community information system and the confluence of informational currents. in this sense, the portal is the hub of the typological model. figure 2. the portal dimension                   the horizontal axis illustrates the community's level of integration in the project. for our purposes, a high level of integration means any portal project that offers a variety of content and services that can  be useful to citizens (for example the brisbane – australia http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au and parthenay – france http://portail2005.cc-parthenay.fr/ccparthenay, web sites). the vertical axis refers to the nature of the information and functionalities integrated into the portal. as a result, the portal information content produced and put online for citizens reveals the unidirectional nature of the relationship. in this case, the user consults the information yet has no recourse for interacting with the information's manager. this relationship takes in the passive supply of information resulting from citizen requests, as well as the active measures to disseminate information to citizens (oecd, 2001, 23). on the other hand, the inclusion of transactional (the individual uses an online resource) and relational (the individual takes part in online consultation) functionalities indicates the portal provides multidirectional flow. these relationships promote the development of active citizen participation (see parthenay – france – web site). consequently, the position of the comfort zone takes into account both the degree of integration of community components and the portal's transactional and relational potential. 3) local governance. for our purposes, governance means the process by which organizations, whether private, public, or civic, choose to govern themselves.[1] the nature or type of local governance is reflected in the collective portal, as it illustrates the level of integration of community components, conveys the composition of the board of directors of the organization managing the portal, and presents the mechanisms enabling community members to voice their opinions in the development of policy and decision-making at the local level. it goes without saying that the local government, whose authority is legitimized by community members as a whole, must play a predominant role in ensuring the cohesiveness of actions taken throughout its jurisdiction. the governance dimension is therefore based on two axes: influence on decision-making and influence on policy development (prévost et al. 2004, 153). the notions of decision-making and policy development go significantly beyond those allotted to public authorities. they include directions and decisions relating to all collective projects, whether initiated by local government, a development agency, or any other type of collective body. figure 3. the governance dimension                   the information content relating to collaboration, cohesion, and co-management activities accessible through a portal inherently hints at the type and quality of governance in a community, as do the available interactive functionalities (consultation, surveys, forums) (for example, issy-les-moulineaux – france –  web site http://www.issy.com ). since it reveals the participation of citizens in the deliberation process of topics of collective interest, the comfort zone embraces participatory and active types of governance. 4) citizenship. the fourth dimension, inspired by the work of longan (2001) and prévost et al. (2004), deals with the issue of developing citizenship in the community. indeed, it concerns describing the user citizen for whom a learning community project is intended and by whom it is often borne. citizen capability is expressed along two axes. the vertical axis illustrates the citizen's degree of commitment to community affairs, especially through citizen participation in democratic processes. in this respect, technologies offer citizens additional means for consolidating their position in networks, as well as an  opportunity to take part in public debates (for example, faches-thumesnil – france –  web site http://www.ville-fachesthumesnil.fr ). the horizontal axis illustrates access and accessibility. the first element recalls the availability of the telecommunications infrastructure and the competences needed to use icts (poland, 2001, 9). it refers to the digital divide that needs to be minimized in order to make exercising citizenship easier through training, the number of public access points throughout the territory, measures to promote the connection of households, and computer purchasing programs). the second item illustrates the ease with which citizens can obtain and understand relevant information about community issues and public policies. figure 4. the citizenship dimension                   this dimension highlights four types of citizen behavior found in a community (prévost et al., 2004, 156). client residents (lower left quadrant) get information and take advantage of services through traditional channels without committing themselves. in contrast, active residents (upper left quadrant) get involved at various levels in the community while staying aloof from new technologies for any number of reasons. connected residents (lower right quadrant) are internet users who use the web to stay informed and access services without getting involved in the community's business. cybercitizens (also known as netizens) are active, knowledgeable, and connected. in addition to accessing services online, they don't hesitate to take part in online consultations or participate in virtual communities (interest, practice, and pressure groups, and so on). it goes without saying that the comfort zone lies within the cybercitizen space. 5) networking. the concept of network refers to the formal and informal links through which information flows between community players (channels, relays, and nodes). it should be clear that networks present variable geometries. according to vachon, “these structures involved no concentration of power. they tied together players, that is to say, people who have the capability and desire to take initiatives, to strengthen them, and to create amongst themselves a closeness that pushes them to act together” (translated from vachon, 1994, 205). figure 5. the networking dimension                   while institutional and professional networks lend themselves to observation, the opposite is true of personal networks, which are more difficult to define but, undoubtedly, more effective (pecqueur, 2000, 42). reality shows us that network quality and intensity are not consistent from one territory to the next. the fifth dimension therefore aims at qualifying networking in the community based on two variables: one dealing with networking intensity (horizontal axis); the other, with network location (vertical axis.) the latter refers to the types of networks in which community players are active. local networking means the aggregate of networks in the community that have the objective of promoting community development. this includes players that work on the regional, national, or international level, but are involved locally. on the other hand, players can be active in regional or national (global) networks, while maintaining poor relations with other community players. 6) local development. a learning community project is, first and foremost, a local development strategy based on communication. we assume that this approach can be based on the use of icts. the learning community fits into the debate on local development within the perspective of network logic as inspired by pecqueur (2000). moreover, klerk and peugeot   (2002) specified that it is important to stimulate the emergence of local virtual information and proximity exchange communities in order to initiate a scheme of network operation. figure 6. the local development dimension                   for a community, the internet represents both an open window on the world (accessibility) and a storefront on the web (visibility). the vertical axis depicts the intensity of efforts deployed in community promotion. the collective portal serves, on one hand, as a promotional tool within the community that can strengthen the general public's feeling of belonging to the community. on the other hand, it serves as a promotional tool for and by the community, since it provides the means for developing the image and message that the community wants to project on the internet. in practice, some experiences run over into territorial marketing, proposing highly developed canvassing tools (brisbane – australia http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au ). others focus almost exclusively on uses that are local in nature (bromont – canada http://www.bromont.com and parthenay – france http://portail2005.cc-parthenay.fr/ccparthenay  ). figure 7. the typological model the horizontal axis positions a project with respect to the level of strategic intent expressed by the players. positioning at the extreme left indicates that the project does not fall under a particular local development strategy. this does not mean that the project doesn't promote development, only that no development objective has been identified. the strategy is therefore emergent. on the other hand, projects positioned at the far right are inherently local development strategies. various degrees of strategic intent lie between the two extremities. for example, in practice, putting portals online can be part of supporting a development strategy. the configuration of the six dimensions (see figure 1) illustrates that the collective portal is the hub of the typological model, since it reveals the presence, level of development, or the absence of the other dimensions arranged peripherally. the collective portal does not strive to reproduce reality, but rather to foster the emergence of structuring territorial dynamics for the community. to illustrate, the fact that a portal has no online consultation mechanisms does not necessarily indicate a lack of community consultation. conversely, the presence of development organizations on the portal does not necessarily indicate their actions are consistent.   development system of a learning community the development system of a learning community (dslc) is a learning system that aims at developing player capabilities and distinctive collective competences by implementing conditions that lead to the emergence of projects that can add value to the community's heritage (prévost, 2000). a system's developmental reach is much greater than the implementation of the collective portal, which remains basically instrumental in functional terms. consequently, the activities that can  directly or indirectly generate networking between community players, especially through the emergence of practice-based communities, as well as the influence  these activities can have on territorial dynamics, inherently result in practices (cooperation, partnership, grouping, association), behaviors (player involvement in community affairs), and projects (interest communities, citizen training, and territorial marketing) that serve to develop the community. the effects are manifested as an upward spiral in which collective learning increases the community's heritage, which, due to the added value, has an impact on networking and territorial dynamics. we define the development system of a learning community as being “a learning system that takes advantage of the potential generated through the use of icts. the network underlying the collective portal drives territorial dynamics by creating conditions that allow development projects to sprout. implementing a dslc goes beyond calling on and developing specific capabilities in community players: it promotes the development of distinctive collective competences. since it aims at achieving sustainable and permanent growth of the community's heritage, the dslc stands out as a genuine local development strategy based on communication.” the development system of a learning community comprises five components. : 1) collective assets.  these form the community's capital. in other words, the set of resources that a community needs in order to develop. this module embraces community attributes and system-generated results. we distinguish five types of collective assets: the community's social capital; human capital; physical capital; economic capital; and the junction between the first four types, which is the community's strategic capital. the community's capability to generate its own development finds its roots in this last notion. strategic capital is a community's capability to organize itself in order to implement actions to achieve objectives shared by the community player as a whole. the notion of strategic capital brings out two components: community assets (capital) and the implementation (process) of strategic action. the former precedes the latter in a strategic formulation. the notion of strategic capital can be defined as an intent, an orientation, a direction, a behavior, or process aimed at progressing from the current situation to a future one (desired). figure 8. development system of a learning community formulating a collective strategy requires, on the one hand, the capability to collectively generate a consistent intent and, on the other hand, the capability to pool the ingredients necessary for its implementation. these capabilities comprise the strategic capital, regardless of whether or not they are used. strategic capital is intangible, and the notion sometimes hard to grasp. it is nevertheless possible to detect its presence or absence (leadership, for example, is one of the features constituting the strategic capital of a community). the example of italian industrial districts or clusters appears to be the result of strategic capital that has been judiciously exploited. 2)  networking of players illustrates the relational framework for the generic players in a community, namely the municipality, general public, companies, institutions, and intermediate organizations (the left portion of the model). in reality, the composition of players in a community is much more complex. for purposes of illustration, this short list is as restrictive as it is representative of the players in a community. the mere presence of generic players in a system makes it possible to identify many interrelations. it makes sense to tie the notion of capability to the concept of generic player. indeed, each generic player is endowed with a capability. grant's definition (1991, 118) makes it easier to grasp the concept of capability by stating that “capabilities involve those complex patterns of coordination between people and between people and other resources” that are acquired through the repetition of routines. the kernel of grant's definition resides in what he calls “complex patterns of coordination.” consequently, the capability of generic players will be proportional to the nature of the local culture (political, citizen, entrepreneurial, institutional, and developmental). how the capability of each generic player is arrayed as a system component will define collective capability. the design strategy and development strategy for a collective portal impacts the community's relational framework because the networking required to attain a certain level of integration requires genuine links between community players (depending on player location, business lines, interests, etc.). the exercise therefore is supposed to generate formal and informal networks giving rise to reflections, initiatives, and projects that go far beyond the implementation framework of the information system. these networks will likely promote the emergence of the practice-based communities that wenger, mcdermott and snyder defined as : “groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on a ongoing basis” (2002, 4). in fact, implementing a collective portal serves as a catalyst or a starting point for the emergence of a local development strategy. 3) territorial dynamics. the third module, much more tangible, illustrates the process driving the community (the right side of the model). we define dynamics as being “the driving physical, moral, or intellectual forces of any kind or the laws that relate to them.”[2] the nature of the territorial dynamics depends on the availability, capability, and arrangement of the community's collective assets. in the portal analyses we have conducted[3], we have identified eight specific territorial dynamics that can be supported by icts, namely, political citizen, economic, social, cultural, recreational, community, and tourist dynamics. let's take the example of the tourist dynamic. because some people in the community start up projects here and there to attract the attention of tourists, we can assume that the tourist industry has its own dynamic. this dynamic is driven by the municipality's desire to develop this sector of activity, by the businesses involved in the recreational/tourism sector, by the availability of venture capital, by tourism development agencies, groupings of hotels and restaurants, the local chamber of commerce, the warmth and friendliness of citizens, and so on. the presentation of tourist information and available services on the portal must be arranged so that users have an easy time browsing the site. in this regard, the way in which the tourist information is arranged on the portal reflects the level of dynamism and cohesion of the players involved (to illustrate: the various tourist packages offered by different players). the same applies to the other territorial dynamics. as a result of implementing a collective portal, these dynamics reveal patches of individual and collective initiatives.  territorial dynamics are obviously subject to pressures exerted by exogenous variables. the relations between the system and its surrounding environment are essential to ensuring its development because they constitute its life breath. moreover, donnadieu and karsky (2002,  31) state that, in societal terms, systems with little communication are doomed to repetitive structural fixedness at best or, in the worst-case, to a regression towards a rapid decline or decadence. obviously, exogenous players are not alone in exerting influence on the system. indeed, the system constantly remodels itself as a result of endogenous forces. integrating the two preceding modules (networking of players and territorial dynamics) into a one produces the community information system (cis). the cis is a collective portal whose function is to support and sustain the relational framework of community players. 4) learning. this module illustrates the process by which the networking of players and territorial dynamics generate development projects. it relates to player capacity and promotes the emergence of distinctive collective competences. the concept is similar to managerial approaches such as core competencies (hamel and prahalad: 1990; tampoe: 1994), resource-based theory (grant: 1991; barney: 1991[4]) and dynamic capabilities (teece et al.: 1997), which favor a strategic process based on the development of competences, capabilities, and resources within the organization before turning to the market in which the organizations operate. the notion of core competencies associates the capability of adjusting to market changes to the organization's collective learning. the idea of identifying the community's core competencies and to develop endogenous capabilities in order to engage in local development derives from this managerial approach. that being the case, it is possible to associate the capability of adapting a community's development in the context of market globalization to collective learning. we claim that the impact of implementing a collective portal on the flow of information in a community is to open the door to development of communities of practice and the acquisition of collective competences since it requires players to develop the capability of working within networks. as castells (1997) put it, “the presence of a network is a dynamic and powerful entity that serves to regulate the transfer of information and knowledge.”[5] moreover, the resource-based theory, according to which the competences and capabilities developed within an organization yield a competitive advantage in strategy formulation, is clearly reflected in the discourse on local development. the attractiveness of this theory lies primarily with its five-stage procedure (grant, 1991), which can be readily transposed to the territorial scale: identifying and classifying the community's resource base; identifying the capabilities underlying these resources; analyzing the profit-earning (developmental) potential of the capabilities; selecting a strategy exploiting these resources and capabilities; and upgrading the pool of resources and capabilities. as for the dynamic capabilities theory, teece et al. (1997) it states that the competences  and capabilities that give a company a competitive advantage in a given market are essentially based on organizational processes (coordination, learning, and transformation), tangible and intangible assets (technological, financial, reputation, formal and informal structures, etc.), and the firm's response to the opportunities that occur. the exclusive character of the dynamic capabilities is based on organizational routines and skills (tacit knowledge) that are difficult, even impossible to replicate. the relevance of the managerial paradigm could also be transposed to the community since these processes (informational in nature: coordination, learning, and transformation) are precisely what the concept of learning community embraces in terms of formulating territorial strategies.  authors writing about local development have already integrated the development of collective competences into their discourse. greffe (2002, 14) has expressed its importance to a community's development in the following terms: “the existence of a collective learning process becomes a matter of local development by enabling territories to determine and maintain their position in the overall economy. this process can only be structured and implemented in proximity to the players and through their partnerships so as to sprout the required means of communication and bonds of trust.” this learning process lies at the core of the concept of the learning community. 5) manage the development of a learning community. simply providing a community with a portal will not generate collective competences, any more than technologies impose usage. “like most users of technology, communities come together for a purpose, which is rarely a fascination with technology for its own sake” (wenger, white, smith and rowe, 2005, 10). the resources required to sustain the development and implementation process for collective networking must be present and committed. analysis of collective portals using the six dimensions described in the typological model illustrates the necessity of having the support of leadership recognized in the community, an inclusive implementation strategy, and sustained guidance throughout the community.   conclusion   over the last two decades, information technologies have pervaded the internal processes of public, private, and nonprofit organizations. while the relational potential offered by the web to these organizations is undeniable, it requires the redefinition of relationships, links, and accessibility with respect to their suppliers, partners, clients, citizens, members, and beneficiaries. this results in a veritable virtual net of new communication channels that constantly grow tighter to the point that icts tend to conjure away the concepts of territory and space (langevin, 1997). it is within the context of this irreversible tide that “connected city” and “community network” projects aimed at federating information and, eventually, windows for delivering services to citizens and receiving their feedback on a collective virtual platform have emerged. we believe that it is possible to go beyond the instrumental character of internet applications, despite the fact that this step is an indispensable component of the appropriation process, and to draw more deeply on the process to design and develop a collective portal in order to foster the emergence of a creative synergy between players that would generate ideas, cooperation, and development projects. local dynamics remain at the core of the development process. it should be remembered that, while icts do not create synergy, they nevertheless provide a fertile ground for it and support its development to the extent that appropriate activities are carried out in the community. under such circumstances, the technology can help create renewed cohesiveness between networks, which stimulates the circulation of knowledge. this remains a process involving proximity on local territory and therefore fosters the development of distinctive territorial competences. the explosive growth of the internet within local communities has been occurring at the same time as the barriers to global trade have been dropping, which has created shock waves that have reached local communities. while icts can't remove spatial constraints, they do redefine the relationship between local and global geography. what has been referred to as globalization reveals the connection between spaces and different territorial connections. furthermore, it demonstrates the interweaving of trends in globalization and territorial activity (deschamps, 2001). if global and local are two sides of the coin, then each technological advance makes the coin that much thinner (gibbins, 2000). in short, the debate is no longer whether communities have the means to invest in information technologies, but rather whether they can afford not to. moreover, information technologies may actually be the target of a specific development strategy in the community. the experience of blacksburg, virginia, demonstrates that even if icts are not a determining localization, their absence most definitely impedes development. according to cohill (2001), the emergence of the knowledge economy has resulted in changes to the three main players that companies take into consideration in choosing locations. factors such as accessibility of raw materials, abundance of labor, and access to road networks have given way to quality of life, availability of qualified labor, and high-speed internet access. since blacksburg acquired broad-band infrastructure, occupancy at its industrial park (new-technology companies for the most part) grew from 15 in 1993 (300 jobs) to 90 in 2001 (2000 jobs).[6] therefore, a local economic development strategy based on icts is also a policy for innovation (deschamps, 2001). the so-called exemplary territorial projects appear to have a 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(2002). cultivating communities of practice. boston, massachusetts. harvard business school press.    [1] j. kooiman, “findings, speculations and recommendations” in j. kooiman (dir.) modern governance, london, sage, 1993, at http://agora.qc.ca/mot.nsf/dossiers/gouvernance [2] merriam-webster's unabridged dictionary 2000, electronic version 2.5. [3] amos (canada) http://www.ville.amos.qc.ca, asbestos (canada) http://ville.asbestos.qc.ca, arrondissement.com – montréal (canada) http://www.arrondissement.com, baie-comeau (canada) http://www.ville.baie-comeau.qc.ca, bécancour (canada) http://www.becancour.net, blacksburg (unites states) http://www.bev.net, brisbane (australia) http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au, bromont (canada) http://www.bromont.com, ennis (ireland) http://www.ennis.ie, faches-thumesnil (france) http://www.ville-fachesthumesnil.fr, gatineau (canada) http://www.ville.gatineau.qc.ca, hackney london (united kingdom) http://www.hackney.gov.uk,  hyderabad (india) http://www.ourmch.com , issy-les-moulineaux (france) http://www.issy.com, joliette (canada) http://www.ville.joliette.qc.ca, montreuil (france) http://www.mairie-montreuil93.fr, namur (belgium) http://www.ville.namur.be, ouagadougou (burkina faso) http://www.mairie-ouaga.bf, parthenay (france) http://portail2005.cc-parthenay.fr/ccparthenay, rivière-du-loup (canada) http://www.ville.riviere-du-loup.qc.ca, rouyn-noranda (canada) http://www.ville.rouyn-noranda.qc.ca, sept-iles (canada) http://www.ville.sept-iles.qc.ca, sherbrooke (canada) http://www.ville.sherbrooke.qc.ca, singapore http://www.gov.sg. [4] in a retrospective dealing with the concept after a decade, barney (2001) revised his position by stating that if the value of a competency derives from market forces, the resource-based theory is merely an extension of ricardo's neoclassical theory of microeconomics (1817). the author affirms that the so-called inelasticity of competencies and capabilities in the general model (since they develop over a long period of time and they have a specific character, they cannot be sold or purchased on the market) is therefore debatable and he restates his faith in the theory of equilibrium. [5] taken from madon, s. & sahay, s., (2001) cities in the developing world: linking global and local networks, information technology & people, 14(3). [6] these figures were given by andrew m. cohill during a conference at the university of sherbrooke in november 2001. icts and latin america: an overview from the grassroots until t tic y américa latina: una revisión desde las bases hasta la torre de marfil introducción al número especial sobre américa latina y la informática comunitaria. eduardo villanueva mansilla evillan@pucp.edu.pe christoph roessner christoph@chasquinet.org guest editors, special issue on latin america and the caribbean, journal of community informatics. for english version please scroll forward en este número especial, joci pone su atención en américa latina, una región llena de diversidad por un lado y problemas y desafíos estructurales similares por el otro. una de los logros de esta edición especial es que fue posible abarcar no solamente temas desde méxico hasta chile y argentina, sino también recibir contribuciones directamente desde el campo escritas por activistas de base del sector público y social por un lado, contando también con trabajos de análisis científicos de los investigadores de informática comunitaria en toda la región por otro. de esta manera, esta edición especial revela percepciones de varias “culturas de negocios” de los diferentes sectores que emplean las tic en beneficio de las comunidades marginadas. las iniciativas del sector público como las descritas por eugenia vallejo montoya de colombia, cristina kiomi mori y rodrigo ortiz assumpcao de brasil siguen una cierta lógica de arriba hacia abajo, mientras las iniciativas de base descritas por vilma tuy de asodigua en guatemala y por luis caceres de cotahuasi en peru tienen características opuestas. por su parte, susana y daniel gustavo finquelivich proveen un análisis profundo del caso argentino desde la perspectiva de investigación. la conclusión es simple: ninguna estilo es mejor que el otro. simplemente “son” porque no existe la famosa regla de oro. es más bien un logro de parte de la informática comunitaria que se entienda que cada comunidad es diferente y cada iniciativa de trabajo debe responder a la realidad local y acorde a la cultura de los actores que la ejecutan. no obstante es una fortaleza de esta edición especial presentar varias aproximaciones, un vocabulario diferente y patrones conceptuales diferentes, por ejemplo en el área de telecentros. esto crea un valor especial porque provee un espacio de encuentro no únicamente para métodos diferentes sino también para activistas de base y científicos. el valor de este espacio de encuentro es de especial importancia para américa latina donde la brecha entre los dos “mundos” es mucho mayor que en otros lugares debido a muchos factores tales como la geografía y la segmentación social de la mayoría de sociedades de américa latina. la siempre joven discusión sobre la “sostenibilidad” es otra parte importante de este especial del joci. mientras juan fernando bossio, analiza como lograr la sostenibilidad permanente de telecentros rurales en perú, la discusión desde mexico de laura porras, bertha salinas, jose manuel ramos y guadalupe huerta lleva el tema de sostenibilidad al nivel nacional. un papel importante acerca de la discusión sobre sostenibilidad lo ha jugado siempre el trabajo en red. la experiencia de los ejecutores de proyectos como la descrita por oscar maeso sobre el programa de intercambio para operadores de telecentros, llevada a cabo a través del hemisferio por los telecenters of the americas partnership (tap) y el estudio de víctor gonzalez y luis castro-quiroa acerca de comunidades en línea desarrollada y mantenida por migrantes y sus familias en sus hogares, prueban que el trabajo en red juega un papel importante para las comunidades de américa latina. el trabajo en red tiene un impacto positivo para la sostenibilidad de las iniciativas basadas en el uso estratégico de las tic, particularmente porque son espacios aceptados para compartir conocimiento que sobrepasan las fronteras geográficas y culturales. vilma tuy lo describe en una forma muy pintoresca a través de su nota desde el campo contando la historia de cómo el telecentro guatemalteco se involucró en somos@telecentros, la red de trabajo de telecentros para américa latina y el caribe y cuales han sido los beneficios recibidos a partir de este involucramiento. la apropiación social, punto crucial para lograr la sostenibilidad, es discutida por sofia medellín urquiaga y erick huerta velásquez. cualquier proyecto que promueva el uso de las tic con objetivos como, por ejemplo, mejorar la educación, acceso local a los mercados de la información y la salud, necesita invertir en la apropiación social. sin apropiación social la tecnología permanecerá como un ente extraño a cualquier comunidad, tanto en america latina como en cualquier otra parte del mundo. existe una amplia trayectoria de las mejores prácticas de cómo esta apropiación ha sido lograda1: tiene que ver con la organización de la comunidad, con generar el desarrollo de capacidades locales, la capacitación continua, el liderazgo local y la creación de redes para compartir el conocimiento. la necesidad de compartir el conocimiento es otro descubrimiento de esta edición especial. están sucediendo muchas cosas en américa latina, pero la integración del trabajo de campo de los activistas de las comunidades de base con la investigación científica a nivel regional ha empezado apenas. en este sentido confiamos en que esta edición especial sea un paso alentador para fortalecer este encuentro bajo el paraguas de informática comunitaria. icts and latin america: an overview from the grassroots to the ivory tower introduction to the special issue on latin america and community informatics this special issue of the joci puts the spotlight on latin america, a region full of diversity on the one hand, and similar internal structural problems and challenges on the other. one of the strengths of this issue is that it was able to span the rainbow not only from mexico to chile and argentina, but also from notes from the field directly written by grassroots activists, all the way to reflections of program implementers from the public and the social sectors all the way to scientific analyses from a range of ci researchers from throughout the region. in this way, this issue reveals insights of the different “business cultures” of the many sectors all trying to employ icts for the benefit of underserved communities. public sector initiatives as described by eugenia vallejo montoya from colombia, and cristina kiomi mori and rodrigo ortiz assumpção from brazil follow a certain top-down logic, while grassroots initiatives as described by vilma tuy for asodigua in guatemala and by luis caceres for cotahuasi in peru have different characteristics. susan finquelivich and daniel gustavo finquelievich provide a profound analysis of the argentinean case from the researcher’s perspective. the conclusion is simple: no approach is better than the other. they simply “are”, because there is no golden rule. it is rather a finding of ci that every community is different and every approach must be shaped responding to the local reality and according to the cultures of the implementing actors. however, it is a strength of this special issue to present different approaches, a different vocabulary and different conceptual patterns, for example, in the area of telecenters. this creates a special value, because it provides a space of encounter not only for different approaches, but also between grassroots activists and scientists. this space of encounter is of special importance in latin america, where the gap between both “worlds” is bigger than elsewhere, because of several factors such as geography and the social segmentation of most latin american societies. the perennial discussion of “sustainability” is another important part of this special issue. while juan fernando bossio analyses how to keep rural peruvian telecenters sustainable, the discussion from mexico of laura porras, bertha salinas, jose manuel ramos and guadalupe huerta deals with sustainability on a national level. networks have always played an important role in the discussion of sustainability. the experiences of implementers such as the description of oscar maeso about the exchange program for telecenter operators, carried out throughout the hemisphere by the telecenters of the americas partnership (tap), and the study of victor gonzalez and luis castro-quiroa about online communities developed and maintained by migrants and their families at home, prove that networks do play an important role for latin american communities. thus networks do have a positive impact on the sustainability of ict based initiatives, particularly because they are accepted spaces for knowledge sharing across geographical and cultural borders. vilma tuy describes the latter in a striking way in her note from the field, by telling the story how a guatemalan telecenter got itself involved with somos@telecentros, the telecenter network for latin america and the caribbean and what benefits resulted from this involvement. social appropriation, the crucial element for achieving sustainability is discussed by sofia medellin urquiaga and erick huerta velazquez. any project promoting the use of icts for community based objectives such as improving education, local access to market information or health, needs to invest in its social appropriation. without social appropriation, technology will remain something alien to any community, in latin america as in any other place. there exists a rich reservoir of best practice how this appropriation can be achieved.2 it has always to do with community organization, local capacity building, on-going training, local leadership and the creation of networks for knowledge sharing. the need for knowledge sharing is another finding of this special issue. there is much going on in latin america, but the integration of the field work of activists from grassroots communities with the scientific research taking place on a regional level has just began. in this sense, we hope that this special issue is an encouraging step for strengthening this encounter under the umbrella of community informatics. 1revisa el centro de recursos de somos@telecentros (www.tele-centros.org) e otros ediciones del joci. 2 see the resource center of somos@telecentros (www.tele-centros.org) and other issues of the ci journal. how wi-fi came to el chaco   klaus stoll   fundacion chasquinet quito, ecuador   < klaus@chasquinet.org >   what happens in the following story is nothing out of the ordinary; it is just how wi-fi came to the community of el chaco.   el chaco is a small town about 2 ½ hours by car east of quito on the edge of the ecuadorian amazon rainforest. its 6,000 inhabitants earn a living mostly from agriculture or small businesses when they have not left to seek their fortune in quito or in other countries. el chaco is neither rich nor poor, nobody is starving and nobody has riches, the people of el chaco have learned to make do with the basics. the same is true for the town’s infrastructure. el chaco has schools but they are in a bad state, el chaco has a health station but no hospital and a doctor is often hard to find, el chaco has access to the phone but the lines are rare and calls expensive, el chaco has roads, some good, mostly bad, sometimes impassable. el chaco   the only special features that el chaco has to offer, (besides the outstanding natural beauty that so often can be found in ecuador), is an oil pipeline that runs straight through it and the river nearby which is a paradise for all kinds of water sports like rafting and kayaking and ranks as one of the best in the world.   fundacion chasquinet is a small ngo based in quito ecuador. the work chasquinet does can be simply described as supporting the strategic use of the available information and communication technologies in the social sector, working on a national and international basis with telecenters, schools, hospitals and ngo’s. chasquinet has established over the years an “open door” policy, meaning that chasquinet will not go into communities and establish its own projects but will wait until the communities come to chasquinet and ask for support. in this way it is ensured that the work chasquinet is doing is based on the real needs of the communities and not the needs perceived by chasquinet for a community. chasquinet enters a partnership with the communities and the goal of these partnerships is community development.     in 2003 the canadian international development research center (idrc) and the institute for connectivity in the americas (ica) contacted chasquinet to ask if we would be able and willing to pilot wi-fi equipment in ecuador. the equipment was from the canadian company eion and consisted of three wi-fi sets with surround coverage of 5 km with one set having an additional 25 km point to point connection.   at the same time the community of el chaco contacted chasquinet asking us not only to help with their internet connectivity problem but also to help to make their information and communications technology (ict’s) work for the social and economic development of the whole community.   el chaco already had experience with the internet, consisting of a single computer at a restaurant. the connection was expensive and slow but it already had convinced many in el chaco of the potential of the new ict’s and the first question the community was looking to answer was: how can we connect el chaco to the internet in a cost efficient way?   single computer telecenter in el chaco   what better place to test the wi-fi equipment then el chaco. but installing the equipment is of course, just a small part of a successful project. the most important question that needed answering was: connectivity for what?   a series of community meetings was arranged and it soon became clear that what the people of el chaco wanted to know was: how can the internet help us in our schools, in our local government, in the small and medium enterprises, in the ecology, the health services and tourism? how can we make it sustainable not only in a financial but also in a technical, social, cultural and political sense?   to find the answers to these questions and to develop a strategic plan for the implementation of the new ict’s, chasquinet undertook a number of training and planning workshops in el chaco. however, the training did not just concentrate on the technical aspects of using computers. more important was the training on the strategic use of these technologies: how to use the internet in schools, how could the local government take advantage, how to document the environmental treasures and how to protect them, how to support the local enterprises, how the local health station could use it, and how could the internet be used to organize and promote local tourism?   one lesson chasquinet has learned in the years since it was formed is that social transformation can only come through personal transformation so in addition to the more internet concentrated workshops a “healing touch” workshop was organized for the community. healing touch is a medical technique that combines traditional indigenous healing traditions from north and south america; and this proved to be a vital step in the sustainable community development of el chaco as it responded to deeply rooted medical and cultural needs in the community.   healing touch in el chaco   after six month of training and consultations the community came up with their plan for implementing the internet in el chaco. the main points of this plan where:   the creation of a community telecenter at a community center managed by a local group. in the first phase to only connect the telecenter, the local government and the health center via wi-fi to the internet. the telecenter would offer not just connectivity services to the community but concentrate on offering training particularly to teachers and pupils, local government officials and local businesses. additional connections (schools, hotels, businesses, police station and so on) to the wi-fi network would be made but only after the respective users had received training at the telecenter.   the plan was immediately put into action. the telecenter was created, and the workshops were implemented and soon the telecenter was a focal point of the community. however, there was still one problem. it was a telecenter without “tele” ie. without internet connectivity. even if wi-fi were to be installed at this point, it still needed to be connected to the internet. dial-up and any cable based solutions were out of the question due to their very high costs. a technical investigation was undertaken with the conclusion that a combination of vsat and wi-fi would be the best and most cost-effective approach. however, the initial and running costs were still very high. a further solution was found when the local government and the semi-governmental development agency for the ecuadorian amazon region, ecorai, decided to share the connectivity costs.   telecenter el chaco   the installation of the eion wi-fi equipment turned out easier than we first expected. everybody involved was nervous as to whether this new technology would do what it promised but after just a day and a half of installation the wi-fi worked just fine. throughout the installation local technicians from the telecenter took part in order to learn how the system worked. in this way they would be would enabled to maintain the system in the future and to act as “experts” for further installations.   health station with vsat and wi-fi antennas   local technicians during installation.     el chaco was now on the net and even with only three initial connection points the impact could be felt immediately.   for the first time teachers and pupils had access to high quality teaching materials; families could communicate at a low cost with their loved ones working abroad; the mayor and his staff could now access relevant governmental resources; the nurse could get advice from doctors in quito; and traders could offer their goods outside the local market—just a few examples among many. as one local woman expressed it: “i feel like el chaco is for the first time on the map”.   this is a perfect example of a how relatively simple and cheap project like wi-fi in el-chaco can have a very big impact.   the main lessons learned from the project are: wi-fi in particular in combination with vsat technology can be a cost effective way to connect rural communities but this connectivity will only have an impact if the system is implemented by the respective community and used by them according to their needs. training, strategic use and community involvement are more important then the technology itself.   david, a very happy telecenter manager. searching for the role of icts in development: a case study of a rural multi-purpose community centre in the dwars river valle youth interns and the strategic deployment of icts for public access   rachel gurstein masters student, political science, university of toronto rachelg@resist.ca   susan pell phd candidate, interdisciplinary studies, simon fraser university smlpell@hotmail.com   abstract this paper connects discussions of ict use as developed through the canadian government community access program, with the experiences of the cap youth initiative. while it is argued by policy designers that youth internships would bring needed human resources in the form of social and training skills to the technical infrastructure provided by cap, it was unfortunately the case that the necessary oversight resources, networking opportunities and effective reporting mechanisms were insufficient to support this and as a result the programs have not achieved the degree of success which might otherwise have been possible at the community level.   introduction understanding the problem posed by rapid technological change has occupied a large part of the attention of community network activists and the canadian federal government over the past decade.  much of the discussion that has occurred in this area has centred on the theme of ‘universal access’ and ways in which to address the ‘digital divide’. community networks for their part have been attempting to democratize the internet and allow for meaningful access to, and use of, information and communication technologies (icts).  many of their struggles have been in an effort to sustain their operations in the face of funding cuts while their burdens of servicing those who lack technological means are ever expanding.  the federal government for its part has also has been working toward increasing access and creating the conditions for a competitive economy within our digitized world. much of the dissatisfaction that community networks have felt surrounding federal initiatives, such as the information highway advisory committee (ihac) and its resulting community access program (cap), has already been well documented.[1]  the dominant theme in these discussions has been the schism between government conceptions of access, which tend to focus on the technological infrastructure, and those of community networks, which stress socio-economic factors along with the technical.  cap, in its creation and continuance, has featured prominently in these discussions as evidence of a lack of ability or willingness by the federal government to adequately address universal access in any sort of sustainable way, outside of one-off grants to build a technological infrastructure. a noticeable absence in the discussions on the government’s shortcomings in the realm of ‘universal access’ has been cap’s associated internship program, the cap youth initiative (cap yi).  this has been the federal government’s attempt to address the need for training and social interaction around icts to help further integrate their use by those people facing barriers to connectivity. as it stands, the different conceptualizations of how the term access is understood has fundamentally affected the implementation of federally funded programs, such as cap and cap yi, at the local level of community networks. due to a lack of networking and reporting built into these initiatives, much of the work of bridging the digital divide has fallen onto the shoulders of community networks. however, because community networks in many ways lack the resources necessary to promote, even sustain, a program of universal access, these organizations have frequently lacked the experience or the knowledge to effectively use the monies and resources available through this type of contingent funding. this paper hopes to bring the training and social dimension of cap yi into the conversation about the digital divide and universal access. we argue that the strength of cap yi is its ability to bring forward the social dimension needed to train marginalized groups on icts.  this dimension has to this been point been largely neglected in the current economistic model of access reflected in the design of the cap. as will be further discussed below, each cap site could through the use of cap yi be enabled to develop its own unique practices and capacities based on the needs of their users. to actualize this potential, an effective networking of cap sites and a means for the retention within individual sites and the overall network of the knowledge gained is required. however, before we can achieve this ideal, it is important to assess the present realities of the use of cap yi in community networking. in the following section we discuss icts within the canadian context. after that we outline the various federal and community actors involved in universal access. we then move into a specific discussion of the limitations of current networking and reporting mechanisms within cap yi through a reflection of our experience as regional coordinators (rcs) based in the vancouver community network (vcn). we conclude by returning to a broader look at how communities can leverage federal initiatives to serve the ends of icts and social development. laying out the concepts and context: the digital divide, universal access and the canadian information highway before directly addressing the strategic use of cap yi in organizations such as vcn, context in relation to the debates and concepts used in discussion of icts is needed.  in this section, ‘universal access’ will be briefly discussed through an outline of the historical tension between government and community networks’ approach to these terms.  in laying out this debate, it becomes clear that negotiating agreement concerning the underlying values of programs, such as cap and cap yi, within vcn and community network organizations in general can be a difficulty process. the ‘digital divide’ is the current term to describe what is in many ways, the raison d’etre of community networks and federal initiatives, such as cap and cap yi.  it is the recognition that with the transition to an information society there are those who have the technology to participate and those who do not.  the digital divide then describes the split between the ‘have’s’ and the ‘have not’s’ in terms of information and communication technology.  in our current context, the digital divide can be said to trace the level of ‘connectedness’ of canadians on the ‘information highway’.[2] though computers and the internet are far from being a novelty anymore, there persists a gap between those who have access, use and are comfortable with these technologies and practices.  a survey of canadians in 2000 revealed that 42 percent of the population had never used the internet (longford, 2005: 10).  rideout and reddick further explain that in terms of access from home, the digital divide continues to be a reality (rideout and reddick, 2005: 3).  the digital divide, as can be expected, overlays already existent socio-economic realities of marginality, which include class, ethnicity, gender, and geographical location.  as tends to be the case, first nations people, those in rural areas, women, the undereducated, the elderly, and people with disabilities are the least connected (rideout and reddick, 2005; pigg and crank, 2004; clement and shade, 1996). while it is important to understand the map of the ‘digital divide’, it is as important to understand how the use of this language has bounded discussion of universal access to icts.  ‘bridging the digital divide’ means making icts accessible.  accessibility, at the most basic level, translates into having the availability of technology, which would include at a minimum a computer and the ability to get online.  however, if access is to mean more than just being a possible consumer of information, goods, and services on the internet; there is good reason to believe that accessibility needs to be thought of beyond the technical level, to include the social aspects that affect the use of icts (clement and shade, 1996; graham and shade, 1996; gurstein, 2003, 2004). equitable access (an already watered down ideal of universal access) requires more than an infrastructure based on equity, affordability, and ubiquity; it requires access to be understood in terms of physical, technical, economic, and social factors that come into play with shifts in technology (clement and shade, 1996: 2).  thought of in this sense, access is defined as having the resources, both technical and social, to use the technology available for self-directed means.  this conceptualization moves away from a definition of access that has been predominant in market and government articulations of access as simply ‘use’, and highlights the users needs and desires. the concept of ‘effective use’ has been utilized to emphasize this non-commercial, self-defined, and participatory understanding of ‘access’ to technology.  gurstein has defined ‘effective use’ as, “the capacity and opportunity to successfully integrate icts into the accomplishment of self or collaboratively identified goals” (gurstein, 2003: 10).  this statement stresses that access not be understood as simply access to technology, but as the ability to use the technology in a way that is meaningful to the individual or group involved.  it calls attention to the fact that having icts available does not assure that people will use them or that they will use them in ways that are meaningful.  as gurstein, suggests, “the challenge, therefore, is to ensure not simply ‘access’ but ‘effective access’ or ‘use’ – i.e., access which can be used and made effective to accomplish the purposes that individuals might set for themselves within electronic environments” (gurstein, 2004: 230).  this type of definition has much more applicability for community organizations that are struggling to expand the democratic capabilities of icts than simply a focus on the availability of technology. community networking organizations, local and national, have actively tried to influence canadian federal policy concerning understandings of, and initiatives taken, to address issues of access.  these groups and organizations, as already mentioned, are committed to universal access, in the sense of ‘effective use’, and tend to approach the use of icts in a social and community development sense, where the technology serves as a tool for participation within neighbourhoods, nations, and the globe (longford, 2005: 4).  to this end, these organizations have tried to lobby the federal government to adopt policy and create an information infrastructure, in the shape of a what has been described as an e-commons, that would enable citizens to be actors, not simply recipients, in the development, implementation, and practical use of icts within their localized communities (longford, 2005; gurstein, 2003, 2004; clement, et al, 2001; moll and shade, 2001; clement and shade, 1996; graham and shade, 1996). while participation within an e-commons was the goal of community networks, federal policy in most instances went the route of market-minded initiatives that privileged competition and passive consumerism on the internet.  this has been evident in the limited effectiveness of such programs as cap and cap yi in addressing universal access for those individuals and organizations that are most restricted in their means for using icts. our experience as regional coordinators (rcs) enabled us to see how the federal government’s emphasis on economic development through icts led to a misaligned relationship between industry canada and human resources and development canada on the one hand and the community networks, such as vcn, with the responsibility for implementing cap and cap yi on the other. we experienced the frustrations of this disconnection most pointedly in the realm of the networking and reporting mechanisms imposed by the various federal structures which had the effect of restricting local autonomy, and thus the implementation of locally appropriate approaches to the access and use of icts within individual local communities. with an understanding of ‘effective access,’ the next part of the paper moves into a discussion of the strategic use of cap yi in community networks, such as the vancouver community network. we compare the goals of the federal initiatives (cap, cap yi), and the community network, (vcn), in the context of the experience as the regional coordinators of the cap yi internship at vcn between july 2004 and march 2005.  during this period we were in a unique position to witness and participate in the successes, failures, and contradictions of the disjunction between cap, cap yi, and vcn.[3] cap, cap yi, and vcn discussions of the varying definitions of access, encourages us to examine the current practices of both government and community networks in applying their understandings of the concept in the realm of policy creation and program implementation. in the following section we will discuss the various interests at stake in providing access for canadians. government programs and community impacts cap was initially designed to assist in the installation of, and access to the infrastructure of the ‘information highway’ in rural communities[4] for the industry canada mandated purpose of fostering the conditions for economic development. by the time the first phase of the program came to an end in 1999, industry canada had succeeded in establishing over 5000 public internet access centers across the country. the second phase of cap, launched in december 1999, began to target urban communities. while the first phase of cap focused on reaching all canadians, regardless of their geographic location, income, or social status, the second phase of the program had a slightly different mandate, which saw a targeting of specific population groups. in 1996, in response to the demand for training on the technology recently implanted in cap sites, industry canada and what was then human resources and development canada (hrdc) came together to create the community access program youth initiative (capyi). the program was designed with the interests of both organizations in mind. industry canada wanted an inexpensive way to provide ict training to people in local communities, while hrdc sought ways to give youth job opportunities while increasing employment numbers. falling in line with the objectives of the 1997 connecting canadians initiative,[5] cap began to consciously target sites that serviced segments of the population for whom access to icts was largely blocked. these groups included aboriginals, seniors, people with low income and low education, and new canadians. though the new mandate targeted specific marginalized demographic groups, the program remained economically and rurally focused. the change of mandate did not bring about a change in the structure or implementation of cap and this oversight resulted in a lack of consideration for the specific needs of cap sites and their users located in urban and inner city communities where issues such as marginalization due to poverty and mental health are prominent rather than a lack of access to information technology or the internet. a tension can thus be seen as arising between the initial cap focus that addressed issues of regional economic development and renewal within a rural context with its later (and un-adapted) application to urban areas and urban issues of neighborhood and individual rehabilitation and integration into a knowledge based society. managing this mismatch between the expectations of industry canada and the realities of urban communities inevitably thus fell disproportionately on the largely unprepared and ill-resourced) shoulders of urban community networks such as vcn. this lack of foresight into the local implementation of icts is most blatantly obvious in the case of the various programs for putting the activities of governments on-line. as an example, various government forms, such as the british columbia social assistance application form, became only available on-line with the responsibility being placed on cap sites to provide access to the forms and to introduce welfare recipient to the process.[6] however, the resources needed to bridge this gap which inevitably includes issues such as literacy and an understanding of bureaucratic procedures, which had earlier been the responsibility of government, and which had now been “downloaded” to the sites was neither in the cap nor cap yi mandates or budgets. as a result, by participating in cap, urban sites are taking on the responsibility for the delivery of these services, the supporting technology (and its upkeep) and for training the public in all of this, in addition to maintaining their already existing services.[7] this work is largely done without a corresponding increase in resources, including social, economic, or technological, from the cap or cap yi programs. examples of this lack of structural support and acknowledgement of offloading social welfare programs and services by government onto under-funded community organization is evidenced in many of the cap sites within vcn’s network.[8] a recent example is the case of the ubc learning exchange, located in vancouver’s inner-city. a welfare office previously located across the street from the site closed its doors referring its clients to the cap computers in order to fill out their social assistance applications. the ubc learning exchange, a site dedicated to basic skills development in the community such as language programs for new canadians, found that their space, resources, and limited computer terminals were suddenly overloaded with people who had previously been using the designated (and direct government funded) governmental social assistance site (both for its technical and human resources). the ubc learning exchange found themselves in an impossible situation being committed (and required) to providing public access to icts as a cap site, while at the same time take up the slack from what had previously been a government provided and without any additional resources or training to support these areas. the vancouver community network:  as industry canada’s community partner, the vancouver community network (vcn) is responsible for overseeing, at a local level, the implementation of both cap and cap yi according to the goals and guidelines set out by industry canada. vcn’s role in the delivery of these programs is critical both for the “success” of the program by industry canada’s standards, but also for fulfilling vcn’s own objectives of acting as the “regional freenet” for british columbia’s lower mainland. vcn was founded in 1993 with the mission to “operate[...] and promote[…] a free, publicly accessible, non-as commercial, community computer utility in the lower mainland of bc which provides a public space on the internet” with the goal of supporting “free, accessible electronic creation and exchange of the broadest range of information, experience, ideas and wisdom.”[9] vcn became involved with cap from the outset of cap’s expansion into urban communities, acting as the regional hub for community organizations in the lower mainland who were being funded through the program. vcn managed the administration for cap for at first 7, then up to 250 and more recently 99 different sites spread across a geographical area which encompasses vancouver and its suburbs, and extending inland to a radius of 100 km. currently, cap sites are located in schools, libraries, community centres, churches, low income housing developments and employment and training centres. vcn receives a large part of its operational and project funding through administering industry canada programs like cap, but it has also been engaged in projects with the vancouver foundation, the united way, hrdc, health canada, and the bc ministry of multiculturalism, among others. local cap networks like vcn have an interest in acquiring funding, but also to shape the program to serve their local needs, which at time may or at other times may not be congruent to the goals of cap as laid out by industry canada. often, community networks will take these goals, and expand upon them, and personalize them to include the specific requirements for success in their local community. as an illustration of the ability of community networks to shape the priorities of cap as it is delivered on the ground, vcn has targeted sites like spartacus books, (a small, volunteer-run bookstore and community education centre which hosts a 2 computer cap lab)[10], the gallery gachet (an art gallery and studio space in the downtown eastside for people with mental health issues)[11] and the purple thistle centre (an alternative education centre for street-involved youth)[12].  these sites among others indicate a move away from strictly economic to social or personal development priorities. vcn, as the network hub, has communicated back the demands from the urban cap environment to industry canada by recommending these sites for funding and by placing cap yi interns in the sites to liaise between the community organizations in question and vcn as the network hub. vcn’s position as a sort of “broker” between the communities as represented by the cap sites and the cap government administrators has been beneficial, in so far as they have managed to achieve some leeway in shaping the program to be responsive to the needs expressed at the local level. since 2001, vcn has been responsible for hiring and deploying interns participating in the community access program youth initiative (cap yi) to the cap sites across the lower mainland. unlike other cap yi networks, vcn has the exceptional opportunity to interview and hire youth interns directly, and place them in cap sites. the close geographical proximity of vcn to the cap sites in its network has allowed the interns hired by vcn to have direct and personal contact with vcn for meetings and training. the cap yi regional coordinators (rcs) housed within vcn, were able to visit most of the sites at which interns were placed.[13] in other capyi networks in bc, interns were hired directly by the site in which they worked and had minimal contact with their rcs and very little to no contact with other interns working in their region. despite all of its best intentions, the various initiatives that involved vcn and youth interns only saw moderate successes. as will be discussed in greater depth in the networking and reporting sections, vcn suffered from the lack of continuity in program funding, as well as an evident inability to retain vital information from one year to the next, which would have allowed the building upon of previous knowledge and strengths. generally speaking, the structure of the funding available through the government program contract system did not allow for a continuity in staffing and a related transfer of knowledge, as the previous year’s project staff were already gone by the time the funding was available to contract with the succeeding year’s staff.  thus there was almost no possibility of building up an organizational memory for the program. case study: cap yi in the context of vcn and cap other observers have already discussed the lack of networking and feedback mechanisms of cap.[14]  this analysis can be extended to cap yi in terms of the need for transparent feedback channels that would connect practices on the ground with policy makers in ottawa. the need to use cap yi strategically is of course, very considerable as the interns are the face of the community network, industry canada, and hrsdc to the public. their visibility and access in/to the community is, in a certain sense, key to the adoption and success of the cap program, in all its aspects, in the community. as will be discussed in the following sections, cap yi can and has been used strategically by community networks like vcn. though there has been moderate success in this regard, there are several problems endemic to the program, which need resolution before these successes can be considered sustainable benefits for the community. policies for developing programs such as cap and cap yi when designed at the national level may bear little resemblance to how they are articulated with and respond to the needs at the local level. the result is often a discrepancy between the expectations and outcomes anticipated (and desired) by the funders and the results as realized by the on the ground administrators. the implication for the authors, as regional coordinators at vcn, was the reality of having to manage the difference in the requirements and expectation of program and how we were able to implement it, when dealing with interns, cap site operators, and industry canada. this was most evident where issues of access and employment were concerned. industry canada’s mandate is clear about being concerned to find ways to enhance the performance of business. when it became evident that in this program this would not be possible with only once-off grants to enhance local technology infrastructure (which is how industry canada had first conceptualized the program), cap was expanded to include a social aspect by bringing in cap yi interns as community-based youth computer trainers. however, though cap yi is co-located with cap, it is funded through a separate agency that has its own objectives. indeed, one of the more substantial hurdles encountered during our time as regional coordinators was that cap and cap yi were not structured so as to run concurrently. this meant that interns might be working at cap sites which had not yet received cap funding, or alternatively, when sites had received funding and were in need of an intern to provide training and technical support, none was available because the capyi work term had come to an end. another problem stemming from the disconnection between cap and cap yi contracts was the non-congruent mandates of the several funding bodies. industry canada, which funds cap and administers cap yi, sees the youth interns as merely working towards the same strategic (cap) goals of enhancing opportunities for businesses by either enabling local businesses to go online, or by training community members on the internet in order that they may become better electronic consumers. however, hrsdc, which is the funder for cap yi, has as its goal the creation of work experience opportunities for young people in order to support them in their career development. in addition hrsdc has an interest in decreasing national unemployment numbers. moreover, this latter goal is most easily accomplished by funding short-term positions at minimum wage which, though they do temporarily boost employment figures, do not tend to lead to long-term employment for the youth involved in the program, or contribute substantially to the community in which the youth are employed. dealing with these discrepancies between objectives requires much of the effort of the cap and cap yi to be placed in the mediating of the mandate goals, which has the potential to be accommodated through strengthening network and reporting mechanisms. networking community development projects like cap are based on networks. the obvious benefits of sharing information, resources and best practices between similar organizations within a network are enhanced when many sites have the potential to speak together and support each other on the issues of universal access, and for servicing digital divide communities. the varying, and at times conflicting, values found in the different bodies that organize, fund, and administer cap and cap yi, including industry canada, hrsdc and vcn, the success of the programs has had the likely result of limiting the success of the program. the ability of vcn to realize and harness the power of the community networks which it seeks to build and sustain, has also been limited by the flawed connections between cap and cap yi, including the inability to retain information and the lack of continuity of projects undertaken and then given up when the funding comes to an end. these types of unresolved issues have had a negative impact on the process of community building. industry canada’s early vision for cap assumed a reliance upon and development of community networks. indeed, the cap mandate states that: by combining strengths, assets and resources from all their partners and participants, community resource networks can address local and regional issues and concerns that they must deal with in canada’s new knowledge-based economy. these collaborative efforts are a cost-effective way to help a community access the tools and gain the skills it needs.[15] there are two assumptions behind this declaration. the first is that community networks were already in existence prior to cap, and simply needed to be tapped and augmented through the use of icts. the second assumption is that community networks are primarily useful as a “cost-effective” means to promote economic development. concerning the first assumption, we found that among the large number of sites nominally included in the lower mainland network, many had different goals than those being assumed above, and some “communities” being relied on as “partners” did not in fact exist in such a form as is being assumed and had to be created for the purposes of the program. the second assumption overlooks the importance of the common values shared between sites, where participants came together to form networks from the ground-up around shared goals, and actions directed to meet those goals, but where these goals were somewhat beyond or outside the exclusively economic goals pointed to in the cap mandate. in order to respond to this mandate in fact, some networks were created specifically to meet the requirements of the program.  these networks were of course, ”top-down” from the outset, and thus completely lacked access to local resources to support implementation of the program.  the result of this was that there was the need to rechannel available resources, particularly human resources in order that the program be implemented as required even though one of the essential assumed sources of local resources was completely absent.. all of the lower mainland networks, whatever their type, came together in this instance specifically for the common purpose of obtaining funding from the federal government to assist in the provision of internet access for their clients, which is to say that the network was formed in order to fit into the government policy scheme. as the cap sites were so diverse in their services and orientations, they did not necessarily share a vision or a common purpose.  such a common purpose would have had the effect of giving them a stake in the program from the beginning, and would have encouraged them to be more actively involved in shaping the network to be something of sustainable value outside of cap and industry canada funding requirements. that these were not self-created networks, but networks of convenience, contingent on government money limited the possibility for long-term success and sustainability from the very beginning. the lack of cohesion between the sites in the network is partially the result of cap having what appeared to be three different approaches over time: one emphasizing access to ict infrastructure for economic development; a second concerned with providing access to training and skills building for youth; and third directed toward enabling marginalized communities to become active participants in society. these only partially over-lapping and consistent set of goals translated into a lack of common understanding among the 99 sites about what their involvement in cap could and should be. a second reason for the weak nature of the lower mainland network was the structure of the funding process itself, which had the effect of inhibiting cooperation between sites, and continuity from one year to the next. this can be seen in the basic numbers of sites involved in the lower mainland network, which initially included up to 250 cap sites, but which in response to funding restrictions and administrative decree was drastically reduced to only 99 sites within the period of one fiscal year. the result of this “slaughter of the sites” was that individual sites that wanted to participate had to, in practice, compete against each other for funding and thus overwhelming for their very existence. also, the cap funding was structured in a manner which necessitated that sites were required to spend their allotted money and invoice for it in a very short period of time, (as for example over 6 weeks during the christmas period). the result was that sites were not able to spread their funding out over the full year, or develop projects which would contribute to the community because of the uncertainty about funding deadlines, restrictions and continued support from the program. the downtown eastside cap network includes 15 sites, plus 4 additional independent sites, that are all situated within 10 city blocks of each other.[16] this neighbourhood, being one of the poorest in canada, displays the concentration of all of society’s ills. the cap sites in the downtown eastside were housed within a variety of community organizations, all of which are providing service to “digital divide” populations in some manner. issues of illiteracy, drug addiction, mental illness, and homelessness are prevalent at all sites, and many of the site users are unemployed or underemployed, seniors, aboriginals or new canadians. the high concentration of cap sites in this neighbourhood was a result of the way in which industry canada chose which sites to fund. drawing on census information, demographic maps were created based on average income. all sites that were located in the zones of lowest per capita income were funded. no sites west of main street, the city’s dividing line between relative poverty and affluence, were included on this list.[17] as a result of the concentration of cap sites in the downtown eastside, many cap yi youth were placed at sites in this area. due to a failure to provide resources or incentives there was a remarkable lack of coordination between sites that were ostensibly neighbours, and that undoubtedly served the same clientele. one example of the kinds of benefits that could be achieved through such coordination was the connection that was established between the vancouver native health society positive outlook, a cap site housed within a health drop-in site for people who are hiv positive and living in and around the downtown eastside, and tradeworks training society, an organization offering job training to people re-entering the workforce from welfare dependence. at the time, tradeworks was also host to the reboot program, a national computer recycling and repair initiative[18]. during a site visit conducted at the positive outlook, it was noticed that only one computer was available for public use, and that this computer was heavily used by the site’s users for such purposes as researching personal health information and keeping in touch with friends and relatives. the intern placed at the site indicated that this location was for many of the site users the only private access they had to computers and the internet. an additional computer was desired, but the funds provided by cap had to cover connectivity for the year, as well as human resource costs, meaning that there was not enough left over to cover the expense of a new computer. in response to this situation, it was possible to contact the intern at tradeworks, who had taken over the administration of reboot who was able to assemble a computer for donation to the positive outlook. this was accomplished within a matter of days. the lesson to be drawn from this example is very simple. networks of mutual support and cooperation, be it in close geographical areas such as the downtown eastside or further afield as for example the entire lower mainland network, are not spontaneously created through the provision of technology to certain pre-selected sites meeting government identified standards. in order for such linkages to be made, interested and knowledgeable people have to be present. this linking function was provided by the cap interns, with the assistance and guidance of the regional coordinators. in practice, the interns themselves became the most important and successful networking tool available to both vcn as well as the industry canada sponsored cap network. however, this type of activity—the facilitation of inter-networking within the network--however much its value, has been left completely to the initiative of the individual interns and the other contract employees and thus fluctuates year to year. it cannot thus be relied on to provide a basis for creating or strengthening networks among the individual sites that are being funded. reporting the reluctance of the federal government to engage in consultative processes with community networks during the formation of its information highway policy can be seen to be mirrored in the ineffectiveness of the reporting mechanisms which were built into cap yi program[19]. lacking useful internal feedback and evaluation procedures, the internship program has not been able to adequately adapt to the changing technological environment and the youths involved have not that they had a means to provide input into the on-going activities of the program with the result that have not felt invested in nor rewarded for the “social” work that they have done in helping to bridge the digital divide. while reports were a requirement of the internship, their ability to communicate the richness of the activities (and of their experiences) of the cap site to industry canada was limited to responding within the limited dimensions prescribed by latter’s predetermined priorities and interests. the expectation for cap yi was basically that it would complement cap’s technical mandate with a social training component. based on the cap objectives of ‘economic and social development at a community level’, the interns were encouraged to set up a website for their cap site, assist cap users to access government online forms, promote e-commerce for local businesses, and host ‘cybercamps’.[20]  the forms provided for activity reporting by the interns reflected these priorities. the top of the monthly impact report form states: in order to help the community access program (cap) evaluate the impact of its youth initiative, all cap youth interns are requested to provide information on the types of community clients served and the specific services provided.  this report is to be completed on a monthly basis.[21] the ‘deliverables’ of the cap yi program consisted of a start-up report, monthly impact reports, a success story, and a youth report. the reports however, were not structured in a way which would allow for open-ended responses nor provided space to write in such things as jobs done, activities accomplished, successes or setbacks. instead it used a fill-in-the-blank format, with little opportunity to respond outside of the prescribed areas. these survey-like forms, with their lines to indicate that a specific activity was performed, did not provide means to describe work accomplished beyond the specific and narrow interests of hrdc.  hrdc thus determined the information that it would receive about the program within a very narrow scope and left any other aspect of the program and the youth’s employment activities “off the radar”. the reports could be seen as simply a quantitative compliment to the ‘success stories’ that were also required of interns. these ‘success stories’ in turn were solicited but with associated no guidelines, hence no identified expectations, and no indication how or if at all these fitted into a feedback chain upwards into the policy levels in the administration. most often these stories ended up reporting little information about the work and impact of the interns at their cap sites, or in their communities. more often than not, the interns had little means to conceptualize the significance of the work that they were performing or its value because the form of the ‘youth’ and ‘monthly reports’ acted so as to limit an understanding of community and economic development issues and the contributions that might be made through their work in the cap site. if for example, the interns introduced children to learning games on computers, or helped fill out welfare forms, or typed out the resume of someone with low literacy skills, or if they soothed someone who was paranoid about surveillance on the internet in order that they could email an estranged family member,[22] these necessary social interactions and training were denied significance and thus ‘legitimacy’ through the failure of the reporting mechanisms both formal and informal to provide a means for identifying these as activities undertaken and communicating these, particularly beyond their own cap site and vcn. as well, without mechanisms being in place to capture this frontline knowledge, best practices were lost, and the possibility for continuity in successful initiatives was disrupted. in order to fill in these gaps of knowledge, as a way of obtaining feedback to support program improvement and as a means to ensure accountability (and acknowledgement) concerning the performance of the interns a further reporting requirement for interns was instituted at vcn. these were (web) blogs to be completed after each shift, weekly timesheets, monthly meetings, and additional success stories.  the blog was an individual space where information and experiences could be posted for other interns to learn from, as well as an opportunity for developing design and communications skills. monthly meetings were established so as to provide opportunities for intern-to-intern training sessions, informal interaction between the interns, and a roundtable where cap sites were described, as well as to discuss the work done, the problems encountered, and successes achieved.  often at these meetings, challenges at one site were responded to by the provision of resources from another site or by another intern’s knowledge and skill. in this way the cap sites were networked and projects collaboratively initiated.  all of this, was of course, outside of the formal identified program activities or deliverables of either federal funding agency[23]. from these two approaches to reporting – that of the federal program and that implemented by the field managers from vcn, different priorities and understanding of communication processes could be seen. vcn seems to understand that feedback in terms of program implementation and growth requires knowledge from those that are active in the cap sites, and in the community.  this is particularly true of work being done in the technology field where there are continuing and rapid changes.  it is also an approach that gives priority to the ‘effective use’ of technology over that of simple ‘access’ to technology.  as gurstein states, “the opportunity for defining and developing strategies for ‘effective use’ should become a dialogue between those responding to the perceived inequalities of the dd [digital divide] and end users who understand most clearly what applications or uses would be most beneficial in particular local contexts” (gurstein, 2003: 14).  without this ‘dialogue’, in this case undertaken through the reporting mechanisms, the programs are unable to address the issues that are of most significance in specific local contexts—that is, those who are on the other side of the digital divide have little means to influence the activities and programs which are meant to lessen those inequalities. making capyi effective and strategic: linking networking and reporting generally the experience with implementing and administering cap and cap yi through vcn has highlighted the importance of networking and reporting, as the vital links for communication between loosely affiliated and ill-coordinated organizational structures such as the lower mainland network.  as was noted in a contribution to a final report from the regional coordinators submitted to industry canada, “reporting is networking and networking requires reporting”.[24]  reporting can complement and strengthen networks through the sharing of best practices, resource manuals, skills and general know-how of the individual members and users.  this information sharing can also lead to a more permanent linkage of the sites by creating networks around commonly agreed upon goals, such as universal access or online databases. these long-term social goals extend beyond economic considerations and can allow for the meaningful participation and inclusion of organizations by cementing relationships between people and groups who are moving towards a shared vision of a just society. this collective participation in societal change is a strong motivation to stay within and be invested in a network which can to be a tool to this end. the link between networking and reporting, has been identified as a necessary means for building network strength through communication. bibliography clement, a., moll, m., & shade, l.r. (2001). debating universal access in the canadian context: the role of public interest organizations. in m. moll, l.r. shade (eds.). e-commerce vs. e-commons: communications in the public interest (pp. 23-48). ottawa: canadian centre for policy alternatives clement, a. & shade, l.r. (1996). what do we mean by ‘universal access?’ social perspectives in a canadian context. retrieved april 15, 2005 from http://www.isoc/net96/proceedings/f2/f2_1.htm graham, g. & shade, l.r. (1996). rhetoric and reality in canadian community networking,” in proceeding of inet 96 (the internet society), montreal: june 25-28. retrieved april 15, 2005 from http://www.isoc.org/inet96/proceedings/e5/e5_2.htm. gurstein, m. (2004). effective use and the community informatics sector: some thoughts on canada’s approach to community technology/ community access. in m. moll & l.r. shade (eds.). seeking convergence in policy and practice: communications in the public interest (pp. 223-243). volume 2. ottawa: canadian centre for policy alternatives. gurstein, m. (2003). effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. first monday: peer-reviewed journal on the internet, 8(12). retrieved april 15, 2005 from http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/isse8_12/gurstein/index.html. longford, g. (2005). community networking and civic participation: a background paper. (abridged version). cracin working paper (unpublished). moll, m., & shade, l.r. (2001). community networking in canada: do you believe in magic?” in m. moll, l.r. shade (eds.). e-commerce vs. e-commons: communications in the public interest (pp. 165-181). ottawa: canadian centre for policy alternatives. pigg, k. e. & crank, l.d. (2004). building community social capital: the potential and promise of information and communication technologies. the journal of community informatics, 1(1), 58-73. rideout, v. n. & reddick, a.j. (2005). sustaining community access to technology: who should pay and why! the journal of community informatics, 1(2). retrieved april 18, 2005 from www.ci-journal.net/viewarticle.php?id=39 industry canada. (1994). agenda: jobs and growth, building a more innovative economy. retrieved july 7, 2005 from http://www.ic.gc.ca/cmb/welcomeic.nsf/532340a8523f33718525649d006b119d/c9da8a8af0409435852569f4006c88b6!opendocument [1] see, for example: andrew clement and leslie regan shade (1996) “what do we mean by ‘universal access’?:  social perspectives in a canadian context,” url: http://www.isoc/net96/proceedings/f2/f2_1.htm. accessed april 15, 2005; garth graham and leslie regan shade (1996) “rhetoric and reality in canadian community networking,” in proceeding of inet 96 (the internet society), montreal: june 25-28. url: http://www.isoc.org/inet96/proceedings/e5/e5_2.htm, accessed on april 15, 2005; michael gurstein, (2004) “effective use and the community informatics sector: some thoughts on canada’s approach to community technology/community access,” in marita moll and leslie regan shade, eds., seeking convergence in policy and practice: communications in the public interest, volume 2, ottawa: canadian centre for policy alternatives, 223-243; marita moll and leslie regan shade, eds., (2001) e-commerce vs. e-commons: communications in the public interest, ottawa: canadian centre for policy alternatives; marita moll and leslie regan shade, eds., (2004) seeking convergence in policy and practice: communications in the public interest, volume 2, ottawa: canadian centre for policy alternatives. [2] “information highway” refers to the internet and online communication technologies, particularly as it was used during the initial phases of government research, consultation, and policy formation in the mid-1990s. [3] note that vcn is an exceptional case as far as being a participant in both cap and cap yi. vcn acts as the coordinator of the lower mainland network, of which there were 99 cap sites in 2004-2005. as for cap yi, vcn was the employer of the youth interns, which is an anomaly in british columbia since most cap sites directly employ their interns. it is because of vcn’s pivotal position with both cap and cap yi that we were able as regional coordinators, to experience the synergies and breakdowns between the goals and practices of these programs. this tension, of course, will be returned to throughout the course of this paper, particularly in the section on vcn. [4] defined as communities in remote or northern locations and communities with less than 50,000 residents. [5] in the 1997 speech from the throne, the government reiterated its commitment to make canada the world’s most connected country. this policy direction took shape under the now defunct connecting canadians initiative, whose pillars included canada on-line, smart communities, canadian content on-line, electronic commerce, canadian governments on-line, and connecting canada to the world which were supported by new and existing industry canada activities and programs, which included cap. <http://www.ic.gc.ca/cmb/welcomeic.nsf/icpages/milestones#connectedness1> [6] see rideout and reddrick (2005) for a discussion on the significance of government forms going exclusively online, and the government online consultation process where the unanimous opinion of those involved was that this would be bad policy and practice. it should be noted that while we see this as an issue within cap sites, it also points to the lack of coordination between federal, provincial, and municipal government in the move to put essential services online. [7] while not within the scope of this paper, this “downloading” in this way of government services raises questions of privacy and security of personal information, particularly when thinking about the skills and resources of the generally very youthful cap yi interns who are placed in cap sites with only limited training and are expected to assist users in filling out what should in practice be confidential on-line forms and in handling other such sensitive materials. [8] one of the ways in which community organizations have dealt with this on-going downloading of social responsibility has been to rely on short term funding programs like cap and cap yi in order to respond to the increasing demand and particularly in response to the need for access to technology. the way cap sites were created when the cap mandate expanded in 1999, involved pre-existing community organizations of all kinds, applying to industry canada for funding under the cap program. initially, this funding was slated to be spent primarily on infrastructure like computer terminals and printers, and high speed internet connections. however, the amount allotted to each cap site did not allow for the hiring of a permanent full-time (let alone part-time) administrator, technician or instructor to support the functioning of the cap site. rather, it was expected that the host organizations would support the running of the cap sites from their own often-meagre human resources. of course, it was quickly realised by the community organizations participating in the program as well as by cap's administrators that this was not enough and caps and cap organizations have been lobbying government for funding adequate to the demands placed on them ever since. [9] http://www.vcn.bc.ca [10]http://www.spartacusbooks.org [11]http://www.gachet.org/ [12]http://www.purplethistle.ca/ [13] for an article written about the site visits we conducted, see the article written by aurelea mahood “the bicycle girls” <http://bcyk-tech.net/the-bicycle-girls#vwtsdx7p3jexr4y46qbrdg> [14] gurstein’s comments about cap, easily apply to cap yi.  he states: a consequence of this [lack of a research or program evaluation/assessment activity] has been that the program had very little capacity for self-criticism or adjustment, or for effectively evolving in response to very rapidly changing technologies and accumulating experiences with the technologies as they became globally dispersed. the result was a program that was top-down and ill-adaptive (gurstein, 2004: 235). also see clement, et al, 2001; moll and shade, 2001; and graham and shade, 1996. [15] http://www.ic.gc.ca/cmb/welcomeic.nsf/icpages/mandate [16] http://www.dtes.ca/index.cfm?group_id=3353 [17] this way of funding sites based on the per-capita income of the neighbourhood it is in has meant that cap sites are concentrated in often small geographic areas, like the downtown eastside, while more affluent neighbourhoods are ignored, despite the presence of individuals in those communities who would stand to benefit from a public access site. [18] tradeworks lost a major source of their funding in the spring of 2005 and were forced to downsize their operations. they have since given up their large space which included a wood shop and construction area, a large warehouse for storing palates of computers, and the reboot computer repair workshop, along with their classrooms and administrative offices. tradeworks has moved to a new location still within the downtown eastside, though they do not provide near the level of services they used to, including reboot. for more information about reboot, see their website at <http://www.reboot.on.ca/> [19] see graham and shade 1996 for a discussion of a lack of meaningful consultation with communities for the creation of federal policy. [20] see community futures, the delivery host of vcn’s cap yi http://www.communityfutures.ca/bc/cap/info/scope.html#3 [21] http://www.communityfutures.ca/bc/cap/info/reports.html a cybercamp was the term used for any group based training session. [22] these are all anecdotal stories from the different interns. though encouraged, few of these stories ever made these into a coherent report to industry canada, nor even to vcn. [23]however, it was commonly known to all that these were not demanded by the cap and cap yi program itself, and in many ways not taken as seriously. the schism between the mandates of vcn and cap yi and the needs of the cap site were never adequately addressed, and in a sense, led to confusion on all parts as there were three levels of reporting required and only a minimum wage attached to all of this work [24] it should be noted that this was the first year that rcs and the two provincial coordinators jointly created and submitted a report to industry canada, from their unique position of witnesses to the programs successes and failures. recommendations that we submitted to this report are reflected in this paper.  it should further be noted that the rc report sucked. it was watered down and did not adequately represent our experiences as an urban cap network which was not solely focused on economic development or youth training and employment gaining. as we have stated, the dtes is not really about prosperity.   kihs: bridging the traditional and virtual classroom in canada's first nation schools brian walmark keewaytinook okimakanak < brianwalmark@knet.ca >   abstract ko's internet high school (kihs) provides grade nine and ten students from remote and isolated first nation schools in ontario's far north with the opportunity to receive a high quality secondary school education without having to leave their families and communities.  until kihs, students as young as fourteen had to leave home and attend school in urban communities.  with kihs, these students can remain home during these critical years and are better equipped both academically and socially to cope with the challenges of city life when they choose to complete their high school education in the south.   introduction in 2002, indian and northern affairs, a department of the canadian government, released a long awaited final report by the national working group on education.  aboriginal educators, hand selected by the minister of indian affairs, were mandated by the federal government to examine the challenges that prevent many first nation students from succeeding in elementary school, high school and beyond.  while there was little new in the report, the working group brought national attention to the crisis of first nation education in canada.  what the final report did not highlight were some of the innovative ways in which icts have been used to improve the quality of education on some of canada's first nations communities.  one such application is kihs, the internet high school created by keewaytinook okimakanak in ontario's far north. in 1999, keewaytinook internet high school (kihs) was established by keewaytinook okimakanak (ko), one of the seven tribal councils in nishnawbe aski.  ko chiefs mandated the creation of a pilot project to determine whether the internet could be an effective tool to deliver education.  the purpose of the project, as directed by the ko chiefs, was to find a method for grade nine and ten students to remain at home in their community while earning accredited high school courses.   in the past, students had to leave their families to continue their secondary school education at an urban centre in the south such as sioux lookout or thunder bay.  many of these students were as young as fourteen years of age when they had to leave home for the first time.  following a successful evaluation, the first intake of thirty grade 9 students was admitted to kihs from three ko communities.  by 2001, kihs expanded to eight communities and had an enrolment of 79 students.  expansion continued the following year with the addition of five new first nation communities with a total of 134 students.  in 2003 kihs began its fourth year of operation with 142 students in 13 communities.  currently, there are kihs classrooms in the following first nation communities: cat lake, deer lake, eabametoong, fort severn, fort william, bearskin lake, keewaywin, kejick bay, north spirit lake, poplar hill, sachigo, webequie and weagamow. kihs is not a distance education program.  it represents a unique departure from both traditional classroom models and conventional models of distance education.  unlike other internet based secondary school programs, kihs requires students to attend a classroom in their community from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. under the direction of an accredited teacher who is responsible for classroom management, tutoring, and mentoring as the students complete their assignments online.  in addition to the normal classroom responsibilities, each kihs teacher is a specialist responsible for delivering two courses to classes across the network.  the kihs teacher for example in eabmatoong first nation is a specialist in computer science and, while he is responsible for classroom management in his home community, he teaches computer science to all 148 students attending the 13 kihs classrooms across ontario's far north. kihs does not use blackboard or any other learning management system. rather, kihs has developed its own platform that has been created to suit the needs of aboriginal students and teachers.  the kihs platform has been adapted for use by other aboriginal educational organizations including oshki-pimache-o-win, nishnawbe aski's post-secondary institute.  the faculty of education at lakehead university in thunder bay, canada is considering using the platform for delivery of its proposed community-based bachelor of education degree. kihs is currently seeking funding to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the program.  there are no plans to expand kihs to include the final two years of high school.  some of the political leadership and many parents have indicated that they would like kihs to include the final two years of high school while others argue that the youth should complete their education in the larger well-equipped institutions in the south.  discussion involving future growth focuses on expanding kihs to grade 7 and 8 classrooms where the grade gap between first nations and mainstream elementary students begins to widen. like most first nations controlled educational organizations in canada, the greatest challenge to kihs is achieving sustainable funding from the federal department of indian affairs.  currently in ontario, the department provides the same per capita funding for elementary school students and secondary school students attending first nations schools.  there is no additional funding available for icts other than what is found in the per capita grant, nor is there any additional funds available to conduct a comprehensive independent evaluation to assess the quality of education kihs students receive during their terms in grades nine and ten. kihs provides students from remote and isolated first nation schools in ontario's far north with the opportunity to receive a high quality secondary school education without having to leave their families and communities.  until the establishment of kihs, students as young as fourteen, if they wanted to graduate with a high school diploma, had to leave home and attend school in urban communities.  with kihs, these students can remain home during these critical years and are better equipped both academically and socially to cope with the challenges of city life when they choose to complete their high school education in the south.  for more information, see www.kihs.knet.ca.   mapping the virtual in social sciences: on the category of “virtual community”  serge proulx université du québec à montréal < proulx.serge@uqam.ca >  guillaume latzko-toth université du québec à trois-rivières < guillaume.latzko-toth@uqtr.ca >   abstract lately the term "virtual" has been used more and more frequently by both scholars and journalists to refer to social phenomena and entities. quite representative of this trend is the phrase "virtual community" which has been rapidly accepted in common language. however, its use by social scientists raises many questions. since the words "virtual" and "community" are both polysemic, what exactly might the term "virtual community" mean? and what new kind of collectivity is it supposed to circumscribe? doesn't it imply a sort of nostalgia for a mythical form of community, along with an idealization of face-to-face interactions? this paper attempts to offer some elements of solution to these questions by means of a critical examination of recent social science texts.     the virtual, so often praised, is becoming more and more used as a term, tending to replace the vernacular use of “the network”. in so doing, it is undergoing the same variations and shifts. like the network it is a gateway notion which serves to join opposites, to render them a single entity, in a formula which faithfully reproduces the behaviour of the contemporary network in its internet form. lucien sfez[1]   introduction this article is triggered by what appears to be a growing tendency in both academic and popular discourse: recourse to the notion of the “virtual” as a way of describing social phenomena and, indeed, social realities. particularly in recently published english-language work, but also in much that is published in french, we find the adjective attached to notions and concepts as diverse as culture, society, community, democracy, university, enterprise, territory, and geography—to cite only the most striking. emblematic of this tendency is the rapid diffusion of the expression “virtual community” through media channels, whose pervasiveness is such that it has almost become a cliché. this naturalisation of the neologism popularized by howard rheingold (1993) accompanied others, such as “virtual reality” and “cyberspace”. drawing on a statistical study of the occurrence of the phrase “virtual reality” in the print media between 1988 and 1993, for example, biocca, et al. (1995, pp. 5-6) talk of a “meteoric trajectory”, seeing it as a symbol of “both our enthusiasm and ambivalence about social and cultural transformation through technology.” it is as though the discursive inflation aiming at the promotion of what phillippe quéau (1993) called the techniques du virtuel (virtual technologies) had stimulated the opening, or at least reopening, of vast theoretical worksites across the social sciences, including sociology, anthropology, political science, history, geography and urban studies, linguistics, literary studies, and communication, as well as philosophy (holmes, 1997a). virtual reality, virtual community, and social reality are the recurring themes of these reflections, often critiques or polemics, which propose to re-examine old problematics in light of “the virtual”. yet in comparison to the sheer volume of such writing, little work appears to have been done on the usefulness or even pertinence of constantly referring to this notion as a way of shedding light on the social field. do said notions really offer something that was missing? if so, are they deployed appropriately? do we not risk becoming slaves to fashion, mouthing computer science jargon preprocessed by marketing specialists? how might the notion of virtuality be articulated as a detailed description of the new social uses that are linked to the technological reticulation of human territories? this article represents a first effort to sketch out a response to these questions, via an initial cartography of the uses of virtuality in a corpus of recent writing which, to us, appeared significant within the field of the social sciences.[2] the first difficulty in developing a critical approach to this corpus was that, while the various authors’ definitions of the virtual relied on one another so as to be mutually reinforcing, only rarely were these definitions or their sources made explicit. hence, most of the articles in our corpus which dealt with virtual communities defined the expression vaguely at best, deferring to a notion of virtuality that was even blurrier—to the point that it is tempting to speak of “virtuality” in the social sciences as, indeed, a virtual concept. fernback and thompson’s observation (1995) remains pertinent: “virtual community as a concept is still amorphous due to a lack of shared mental models about what exactly constitutes community in cyberspace.” if we have chosen to concentrate on the expression “virtual community”, it is precisely because that term appears to crystallize the key misunderstandings and ambiguities that litter the linkage between social and virtual. that situates our investigation at the heart of a debate operating at several levels, because it intersects with a line of questioning which continues to haunt sociology—the very definition of community as a form of social organisation and figure of life in society. indeed, if we return to the traditional definition for community (gemeinschaft) formulated by tönnies (1992 [1887]), we are confronted by a collective founded on geographic and emotional proximity, involving direct, concrete, and authentic interaction between its members. it is, then, paradoxical in the first instance to associate with “community” the qualifier “virtual”, linked as it is the ideas of abstraction, illusion, and simulation. some have openly wondered (tremblay, 1998) about the usefulness of coining a new concept and of the words selected to name it. what new social phenomenon is being described and illuminated? certainly, a context in which discourses underlining the radically new character of computer communication technologies invites caution (markley, 1996; mosco, 1998). and the terminological haze generated by the coexistence of various related phrases often employed as synonyms—online or computer-mediated communities, electronic communities, teleand cyberand techno-communities, techno-sociality, and so forth—contrasted with the prudence with which certain authors tiptoe around the term “virtual communities” betrays a certain malaise. but we have no wish to act as linguistic referees and are utterly disinterested in legitimating or denouncing how the notion of “virtual community” is used. the opposite, in fact: we believe that, beyond its intrinsic qualities or failures, the persistence of this expression—which is moving beyond the status of neologism to emerge as a field of research—may be explained precisely by its problematic character (wilbur, 1997); similarly, its performative aspect must not be neglected. rather than staking out a position in this debate, then, we attempt to delve into it transversally, hoping to dislodge the motivations behind, and key challenges awaiting, this recent propensity to consider the social through the dawning of the virtual.   between the ersatz and the sublime: three ways to conjugate the virtual the etymology of the adjective “virtual” brings up more ambivalence than clarification, which partly explains the wide variations in its meaning and the confusion it engenders (wood, 1998, p. 4). blaise galland (1999) notes[3] that “the history of the term ‘virtual’ depends upon the social uses which we make of it.” and pierre lévy (1995, p. 13) points out that the word comes from the medieval latin virtualis, itself a derivation of virtus, literally “force, potential”. according to the french dictionary le petit robert, to be virtual is thus to “not be so except potentially”—“potentially”, with regard to an actualisation which may or may not take place. in this sense, the virtual is real but “not present”. yet virtus also signifies virtue (cadoz, 1994, p. 8; granger, 1995) in its archaic sense of “quality” or “power”. it is interesting to note that it is particularly in english-language writing that the ethical implications of this “semantic overlap between the terms ‘virtue’ and ‘virtual’” are underlined (keown, 1998, p. 76). shawn wilbur (1997, p. 9), for example, considers this notion of virtuality profoundly rooted in “a religious world view where power and moral goodness are united in virtue.” as gilles-gaston granger (1995) and jean-michel besnier (1995) explain, it is the physico-mathematical sciences which, from the 18th century, helped spread the use of the word “virtual” and diversified its meaning considerably according to its field of application. its use in mechanics, the theory of forces and of movement, refers to non-observable phenomena, but in an etiological or explanatory manner. hence dirac’s notion of “virtual particles”, so fleeting that they cannot be detected individually, yet whose influence can be statistically measured (see iliopoulos, 1995). in other cases the virtual realities of physics are purely imaginary constructs, underscoring the idea that the empirical world is but one actualisation from within “the matrix of possible [worlds]” (besnier, p. 6). “quite naturally, it is the notion of model which positively connotes that of virtual,” in besnier’s summation (1995, p.13). that the model’s status is ambiguous, however, is as obvious to common sense as it is to philosophers, for if it connotes a sense of “purification” or of “ideal” which underlies empirical phenomena, it can also evoke the reduction through abstraction of a richer reality. the fundamental ambiguity of the virtual may also be linked to its use in optics: an image is said to be virtual when it appears to form between a real object and a divergent lens (magnification). unlike the real image produced by a convergent lens, the virtual image cannot be materialized on a screen, because it exists only on the retina. this “image”, in other words, is but a subjective perception. it does not exist independently of the subject-spectator. to a certain extent, optics assimilates virtuality to illusion. we see, then, the outlines of two very distinct methods of imagining the relationship between the virtual and the real in the physical sciences, each of which has influenced the epistemology of the virtual in its own manner. while the theory of forces opposes the virtual to the actual or present, two modalities of being each as “real” as the other, the theory of light—closer to ordinary intuition—opposes the virtual and the real. it is therefore unsurprising that philosophy and the social sciences have also diverged. in these interpretations of the notion of the virtual; the “new technologies” linked to the virtual have helped both to reveal and to catalyze these divergences. marcus doel and david clarke (1999) offer a particularly useful synthesis of these different thought streams, noting that “the most important error [generally committed] is the reduction of reality to actuality and virtuality to possibility: as if the actual and the virtual were the given and the pre-given, respectively” (p. 262). they continue: “it is the need to rethink space-time rather than any new-fangled technologies, which poses the most pressing challenge”. starting from doel’s and clarke’s observations, themselves based on a vast theoretical corpus, we have retained three principal approaches to virtuality for categorising the different discourses on “virtual communities”. in preparing a schematic, these approaches may be distinguished by the types of relationship they pose between the real and the virtual and by the shifts in meaning which they favour. in the first approach, the virtual is “subordinated to (...) the real” and refers to re-presentation; in other words, to the simulation and therefore the “false approximation” of reality constituted by virtual images and computer-generated virtual reality (p. 262). the latter is perceived as a “facsimile of the real” (p. 265)—a copy, but “necessarily degrade[d]” (p. 263), “a reality divorced from the world” (slouka, 1995, p. 13), a “false reality” (lebrun, 1996), a “simulacrum” or a “double” of the real (baudrillard, 1981, 1996), to be considered pejoratively given the inherent “duplicity” of any duplicate (doel & clarke, 1999, p. 264). diametrically opposed to this discourse of denigration, the second approach sees virtuality as the “resolution” of a world overwrought by imperfection as the very consequence of its presence, which is but a subset of the universe of possibilities—and therefore an unavoidable impoverishment. “in this case, the virtual is to the real as the perfect is to the imperfect”, in doel and clarke’s formulation (1999, p. 268). those adopting this approach inverse the relationship between the virtual and actual-present invoked above. for pierre lévy (1995), to virtualise an entity or a process is to return to its essence, to its abstract and general being, and in so doing, to the matrix of its possible actualisations. here, computer simulation is no longer considered a degradation but a tool for exploration, to “auscultate reality” (weissberg, 1999, p. 49), even to amplify or reduce it. as for global communication networks, they emancipate human activity from the constraints of materiality, space, and time, opening onto unprecedented opportunity. in this sense, the virtual is “fuller” than the actual, it is “hyperreal”, and the technologies of the virtual are perceived as liberatory to the extent that they offer a portal to the richness of the real: “the real world has always been marked by scarcity. on this basis, evolution figures as a painfully slow attempt to ‘fill out’ the world a little, and to realise a few more of its possibilities” (doel & clarke, 1999, p. 267). as we see, the two schools of thought discussed above “rest upon a strict [though fallacious] separation of the real and the virtual” (doel & clarke, 1999, p. 263). we might add that each is imprinted with technological determinism, since in each case, the irruption of the virtual into the everyday coincides with technological progress. yet we might usefully imagine a far more complex relationship between virtuality and actuality by considering the virtual as something more than the derivative of a technical apparatus: “everyday life itself is always already a virtual reality” (p. 279). the third approach we have gleaned from doel and clarke is thus strongly deleuzian. it harks back to the hybridisation of the real and of the virtual, or more precisely, to the immanence of the virtual in the real and a conception of the real in which the actual and the virtual are in a circular and productive relationship. from their perpetual interaction springs a real which is in constant “creation and experimentation” (p. 280). to better schematise this reading of contemporary discourses on virtuality, we might note that our grid oscillates between two extreme visions, the ersatz and the sublime. the first, “paranoid” (boal, 1995, p. 9), tends to discredit the virtual as an “artificial reality”, opposed somewhat naively to a “mythical” nature (woolley, 1992, p.8). even brook and boal (1995), who talk of resisting any simplistic idealisation of the “natural life”, wind up calling for “resisting the virtual life”, for “virtual technologies are pernicious when their simulacra of relationships are deployed societywide as substitutes for face-to-face interactions, which are inherently richer than mediated interactions” (p. viii). the second version of the virtual is, in contrast, utopian, even euphoric (bardini, 1996; robins, 1996; weissberg, 1996). it apprehends virtual worlds as the pioneers of the american old west talked of the “frontier” (eudes, 1996; wilbur, 1997, p. 8), or again as the “quest for the holy grail” of technology (heim, 1993, p. 124). kevin robins cannot resist waxing ironic in his description of these “dithyrambic discourses […] about virtual reality” (bardini, 1996) that participate in an ideology that typically accompanies new information and communication technologies (breton & proulx, 1989): a faith that (...) a new technology will finally and truly deliver us from the limitations and the frustrations of this imperfect world. (...) the utopian space – the net, the matrix – will be a nowhere-somewhere in which we shall be able to recover the meaning and the experience of community (robins, 1996, p. 2). some authors do speak out against what they see as a spurious dichotomy posing virtual against real, proposing instead a third way “towards more textured understandings of the varying forms of virtuality worked through different technologies in different times and places” (crang et al., 1999, p. 3). similarly, michael ostwald (1997, p. 127) notes that “the rise in virtual technologies is a natural extension of the way in which twentieth-century urban communal spaces already constitute virtual environments.” he further points out that “there is often little or no gap between the so-called ‘real world’ and the ‘virtual world’ ” and consequently, declares it urgent to pay closer attention to “that zone where the boundaries between the physical and the virtual are completely blurred” (p. 128).   simulated communities or stimulated communities? in picking up the three perspectives laid out above, we shall try and show that they underpin the principal viewpoints expressed in the literature on virtual communities. first, however, we shall dally on the context in which this notion emerged within public space. if the origins of the expression “virtual reality” may be situated with relative precision—the term was worked out by computer engineer jaron lanier around 1989 (pimentel & teixeira, 1993; woolley, 1992)—the origin of “virtual community” remains as nebulous as its definition. sandy stone (1991) attributes the moniker to a group of networking pioneers who created one of the first bulletin board services[4] (bbss), communitree: “[they] had developed the idea that the bbs was a virtual community, a community that promised radical transformation of existing society and the emergence of new social forms” (p. 88). we might surmise that the expression “virtual community” appeared as a synthesis between, on the one hand, the growing fascination with the very word virtuality—as much in the popular imagination of engineers as in the imagination of “gurus” like timothy leary—and on the other hand, the term online community. the latter was introduced toward the end of the 1960s by two of the “fathers” of computer-mediated communication, j. c. r. licklider and robert w. taylor (1968 [1990]), in a visionary text entitled “the computer as a communication device”, and described as follows: “they will consist of geographically separated members (...). they will be communities not of common location, but of common interest” (pp. 37-38). in all cases, it was through the sausolito, california-based bbs called the well (whole earth ’lectronic link), founded in 1985, that the notion of virtual community gained rapid notoriety (hafner, 1997), thanks especially to the widely-discussed book written by one of its most famous members, howard rheingold (1993). rheingold defined virtual communities as “social aggregations that emerge from the net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace” (p. 5). in another passage, he describes them more vividly, and more concretely: people in virtual communities use words on screens to exchange pleasantries and argue, engage in intellectual discourse, conduct commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play games, flirt, create a little high art and a lot if idle talk. people in virtual communities do just about everything people do in real life, but we leave our bodies behind (p. 3). also a well-known well user or “member”, john perry barlow (1995) saw the online community as an anchor—virtual or not—which might restore to the u.s. a social contract under attack from a growing nomadism:  “once again, people (...) had a place their hearts could remain as the companies they worked for shuffled their bodies around america. they could put down roots which could not be ripped out by forces of economic history. they had a collective stake. they had a community.” but the electronic frontier foundation co-founder, author of a “declaration of the independence of cyberspace” (barlow, 1996), was also inspired by the idea that virtual communities could permit civil society to re-appropriate a governmental function monopolized by an omnipresent state. in this sense, he positioned himself within a political tradition associated in the united states with thomas jefferson, a figure to whom mitch kapor, eff’s other co-founder, referred explicitly[5]: “life in cyberspace seems to be shaping up exactly like thomas jefferson would have wanted: founded on the primacy of individual liberty and a commitment to pluralism, diversity, and community” (1993, p. 53). for stone (1991), the constant mention of trees in barlow’s discourse and in names like communitree are significant, referring not only to the logical tree structures used in computer science, but “also the organic qualities of trees as such appropriate to the 1970s” (p. 89). as should be clear, the notion of virtual community was directly inspired by the values of the californian counter-culture of the 1970s, presenting itself as a new federating myth capable of regenerating the communitarian dream: “the conferencees saw themselves not primarily as readers of bulletin boards or participants in a novel discourse but as agents of a new kind of social experiment” (p. 90). stone goes on to underscore the fact that these socio-technical experiments were built upon the use of shareware software similar to what is now called “free software”: “the idea of shareware, as enunciated by the many programmers who wrote shareware programs, was that the computer was a passage point for circulating concepts of community” (p. 88). yet sherry turkle (1995) picks out a significant ambiguity in these communitarian aspirations. comparing microcomputing’s first users to the first users of muds (multi-user domains)—virtual realities shared via a text-based interface—turkle notes that where the former saw in “their relationships with the computer—building safe microworlds of transparent understanding—(...) a political metaphor” transposable to society at large in order to install “a more participatory political system”, the mud world started out quite differently: “when nearly twenty years later, another group of people has turned to computation as a resource for community building, the communities they are thinking of exist on and through the computer” (p. 243). developing this idea, turkle notes that “if the politics of virtuality means democracy online and apathy offline, there is reason for concern” (op. cit., p. 244). her remarks highlight a distinction between virtual community and community networks[6]. while “virtual community” refers to social forms built upon communities of interest rather than geographic proximity, “community networks” translates citizen appropriation of interactive networks into the context of local democratic development (schuler, 1996). this distinction vis-à-vis virtual communities poses the problem of their “reality”. what is their sociological “consistency”, and especially, what is the scope of the role that such communities can play at the macro-social level? in other words, “to what extent do most virtual communities provide individuals with opportunities to contribute to the greater collectivity?” (fernback, 1997, p. 42). a review of the three conceptions of the relationship between virtual and real noted above—representation, resolution, and hybridisation—helps establish a framework for thinking through these questions. let us start with representation, which conjures forth several notions. one is fiction: margaret morse, for example, imagines mediatised relations as “fictions of presence” (1998, p. 17) without denying them an obvious efficiency. but representation also evokes the idea of imitation, or—to slip into computerese—of emulation. that is the meaning that the word “virtual” has acquired in computer science, notes benjamin woolley (1992, p. 58), following ibm’s commercialisation in 1972 of a product called virtual memory, “a simulation (...) that is perfect in every detail, except that it might be slower than ‘real’ memory” (p. 60). in this sense, a virtual community might be interpreted as the “functional simulation” of community—with the accompanying danger of a certain loss of meaning in translation. such an idea might seem overly exaggerated. note, however, turkle’s thesis (1995) that the “culture of simulation” has penetrated our civilization, and restructured our daily lives, as profoundly as have the computer and the television before it. she calls this process a “disneyland effect” (p.236) that promulgates the aberrant belief in shopping malls and other recreational complexes as convincing replies to the small villages of yesteryear, with their marketplaces and church towers. that leads into a highly critical charge against virtual communities: “is it really sensible to suggest that the way to revitalize community is to sit alone in our rooms, typing at our networked computers and filling our lives with virtual friends?” (p. 235). others go further, abhorring the notion that “simulacra of community” might replace “real” communities. fernback and thompson (1995) reproduce the remarks of ed schwartz, for example, advanced in an online discussion forum on the topic of “communet”: “[computer bulletin boards] add the final mechanism needed to insure that we never talk to people beyond our immediate friends and family on a personal level about anything. the global community, linked by terminals, replaces community where we are.” frank weinreich (1997) makes a similar argument: “i don't see that we have already gone so far that we have lost ‘real’ contact to each others. but the danger is imminent if we go on believing that we might constitute and run communities solely in the virtual world.” to complete the portrait, note michael heim’s position (1993), very much inscribed in what is a dark and, ultimately, determinist vision of the virtual: computer communication cuts the physical face out of the communication process. (...) even video conferencing adds only a simulation of face-to-face meeting, only a representation or an appearance of real meeting. (...) face-to-face communication, the fleshly bond between people, supports a long-term warmth and loyalty, a sense of obligation for which the computer-mediated communities have not yet been tested (p. 102). if the second, opposing approach to the virtual is that of resolution—that is, a virtuous role in which the virtual provides what the real lacks—it is easily recognized in the enthusiastic and even proselytising discourse of rheingold (1993). though he acknowledges an absence of critical distance triggered by ongoing immersion in the experience, he nonetheless assigns to virtual communities some “liberating potentials” (p. 4), since cmc “enables people to do things with each other in new ways, and to do altogether new kinds of things—just as telegraphs, telephones, and televisions did” (p. 6). pierre lévy (1997) goes further in this direction, proposing a vision which might be called promethean: mexican cuisine fans, angora cat lovers, fanatics of a given programming language, or passionate readers of heidegger, once dispersed across the planet, now have a familiar place to meet and to talk. we may therefore support the notion that so-called ‘virtual communities’ do in fact manage a veritable actualisation (by putting them in touch effectively) of human groups which existed only in potential before the coming of cyberspace (p. 154). it is unsurprising to see this brand of discourse prophecying the dawn of a new era each time a new communications technology arrives on the scene (carey, 1989). indeed, in a text translating a rare skepticism on the part of its author, barlow (1995) admits that his enthusiasm for virtual community has cooled. that said, the conception of virtual communities as instances of liberation persists, and with it a subtler version of utopia. this conception does not restrict itself to spatio-temporal considerations, of course, and extends to gender, ethnic attachment, social class, sexual identity, and various physical conditions. in short, virtual community is seen by some authors as a means for setting individuals free of the prisons which are their bodies and, by extension, of equalizing disadvantages and emancipating social minorities (plant, 1996; willson, 1997), notwithstanding the statistical studies computer-mediated communication which continue to reveal significant divides in terms of social class and ethnic origin in internet access, notably in the united states, and reports showing the persistence of gender and race indicators (smith and kollock, 1999), the reproduction of relations of dominance (herring, 1993), and forms of elitism (gimenez, 1997). the approaches to virtual communities described here have to this point placed special emphasis on two aspects in particular: correlation between virtual communities and the emergence of computer networks, and the essentially “abstract” nature (willson, 1997) of these communities from which bodies are absent. these two propositions are the object of a growing critique which is supported by at least three epistemological arguments. the first concerns the weak articulation between theory and fieldwork. “there have been few detailed ethnographic studies of virtual communities”, lament wellman and gulia (1999, p. 170), while beckers (1998) notes that “although the interest on virtual communities is large, the overall quality and depth of the research can be questioned”. smith and kollock (1999, p. 16) consider that “opinion rather than analysis and evidence characterizes much of” the academic discourse on virtual communities. the second epistemological critique of the ersatz and sublime arguments sets its sights upon the over-emphasised relationship between virtuality and actuality that permeates much work on virtual communities. in this vein, wellman and gulia (1999) recall that: both enthusiasts and critics of virtual community usually speak of relationships as being solely online. their fixation on the technology leads them to ignore the abundant accounts of community ties operating both online and offline, with the net being just one of several ways of communicating. despite all the talk about virtual community transcending time and space sui generis, much contact is between people who see each other in person and live locally (p. 179). sandy stone (1991, p. 112) broadens this perspective, suggesting that participants in the electronic virtual communities of cyberspace live in the borderlands of both physical and virtual culture (...). their social system includes other people, quasi people or delegated agencies that represent specific individuals, and quasi agents that represent ‘intelligent’ machines, clusters of people, or both. this third figure of the virtual community is characterized by hybridity. indeed, and this is the third epistemological critique, virtual communities may be said to transcend particular technologies or even eras. stone distinguishes between four eras, each characterized by a typical form of “virtual community”, since the formation of the first intellectual and scientific communities in the 17th century, through radio and television publics, and on to the internet’s muds. in developing this framework, stone defines virtual communities as “incontrovertibly social spaces in which people still meet face-to-face, but under new definitions of both ‘meet’ and ‘face’ ” (stone, 1991, p. 85).   conclusion a close examination of current internet events makes it difficult to avoid the conclusion that new collective forms are in the process of being invented. in these new communities, communal resources are framed, not simply by information, but by the very “presence” of others, be this presence abstract, mental, or paradoxically distant, to borrow a title from jean-louis weissberg (1999). the virtual context of these communities might be grasped through the metaphor of a desert watering-hole, or a “passage point”, in sandy stone’s term (1991). it is a precarious pole of attraction where individuals of diverse and divergent provenances “meet”, allowing “unfocused interaction” favourable to the development of collective dynamics to take form. unlike classical communities, which are constrained to remain bound by a promiscuity without alternatives, the commitment of electronic collectives is (generally) more fluid. the boundaries are blurred, and so, in a certain sense, their reality may be considered virtual. but let us not fool ourselves: virtuality should not be understood as a distortion of the social, but as one of its aspects, an optical effect of its growing complexity, amplified by its own technological artifacts. that, at least, is one of the ideas that we hope to have pried loose in this brief and limited review of the various uses to which the virtual might be put as a category for thinking through contemporary societies.   references bardini, t. 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(1999). présences à distance: déplacement virtuel et réseaux numériques, pourquoi nous ne croyons plus la télévision. paris: l'harmattan. wellman, b, & gulia, m. (1999). virtual communities as communities: net surfers don't ride alone. in m. smith & p. kollock (eds.), communities in cyberspace (pp. 167-194). london: routledge. wilbur, s. p. (1997). an archeology of cyberspaces: virtuality, community, identity. in d. porter (ed.), internet culture. new york: routledge. willson, m. (1997). community in the abstract: a political and ethical dilemma? in d. holmes (ed.), virtual politics: identity & community in cyberspace (pp. 145-162). london: sage. wood, j. (1998). preface: curvatures in space-time-truth. in j. wood (ed.), the virtual embodied: presence/practice/technology (pp. 1-12). london: routledge. woolley, b. (1992). virtual worlds: a journey in hype and hyperreality. oxford: blackwell. [1] sfez (2001, p. 103). our translation. [2] this study is to a large extent inductive. inspired by qualitative methodology, it is based on an exploratory sample of current work in the social sciences, rather than an exhaustive sampling. we have attempted to achieve a certain coherence in retaining mostly academically-oriented writing (monographs, chapters in edited books, peer-reviewed articles, conference presentations) which had set out to take stock of the new social spaces issuing forth from the intersection of digital technologies and communication networks as emerging objects of investigation. we believe that, despite of its exploratory nature, our sample is in this sense quite representative of intellectual production in this field. [3] most citations of french-language texts here are our own translations. [4] computers offering asynchronous messaging, to which users connect directly via modem. bbss were successful in canada and the u.s. due to the flat-rate pricing of local telephony, but their local “enclosure” and drastic limits on the number of users connected simultaneously—each user monopolising a telephone line and modem—were their chief disadvantages in comparison to distributed networks such as usenet. [5] also founder of software firm lotus. [6] sometimes referred to in french using the recently-coined adjective “communautique” (harvey, 1995). community portals – the uk experience a false dawn over the field of dreams? stephen james musgrave blackpool and the fylde college < smu@blackpool.ac.uk >     abstract this paper considers the attributes of community portals; questions the sustainability of such portals, and suggests a likely direction that portal evolution may take. the context is that of uk local government portals, over the period from 1999-2004.research has been undertaken to investigate the extent to which locally deployed uk community portals are capable of supporting citizen services interactive with local government departments. the study finds that few existing portals enable on-line access to back office systems thus enabling self-service interactivity for citizens. also, along with problems in joining-up technology there are also problems with joining-up people. current activities are analogous with a false dawn for community portal development, due to gaps and current inadequacies in portal capability. this ”field of dreams” future suggests an alignment between the emerging development in enterprise portals in the commercial sector; grid computing emanating from the escience community; and the need for community/civic portals in the public sector. the paper concludes that sustainable development will only be achieved when joined-up people and joined-up technology become a reality. suggests are given of solutions for remedying the present situation which could result in a joining-up of technology systems along with a joining-up of people. introduction this paper focuses on specific problems identified within a wider review of community portals deployed by local government in the uk. in two concurrent strands of people and technology issues, inadequacies are discussed and potential solutions explained. portals are evolving as one-stop information service gateways, with increased interactivity enabling on-line service channel transactions. a portal is displayed to the user as a desktop that enables presentation of information and interactive services from multiple sources, and hides from the user the complex interactions required to search and discover resources from different and disparate sources. complexity in searching multiple and heterogeneous resource bases is kept invisible to the user and the aggregated results are presented as a unified display. many definitions of community portals exist, e.g. ‘a community portal is a web portal tailored to cater for the specific needs of a community. this could be any type of community, such as a business community, or a local community’.[1] it remains a telling indictment of community portal development in the uk in 2005 that existing definitions are relatively limited, deterministic, and lacking in precision. definitions exist for enterprise portals in the commercial sector (gartner, 2000), with an emphasis on strong linkage between front-end and back-office portal systems. similarly, definitions exist for academic portals (jisc, 2004), and progress is being made towards a typology for portals (miller, 2003). in the academic portal domain the requirements emphasise resource discovery, and content aggregation. within this paper the term community portal is used generically to describe the two distinctive types of community and civic portals. the categorisation of community portal is now viewed as those portal instances developed by activists (i.e. bottom-up driven) within a community network, owned and operated by a non-governmental organisation (typically a sub-regional geographic neighbourhood group). the term civic portal then refers to government sponsored (top-down driven) portals (national, regional, or local government), within the scope of what is termed a civic network. accepting the semantic differences above, the term community portal is used here to capture‘ community’ and ‘civic’ portals and including the different functionalities (especially in the integration of office applications). having identified the two different classes it is argued that both types currently demonstrate the same lack of interactivity and therefore holistically they possess similar needs for a whole system consideration of people and technology issues. a problem for community/civic portals, (deployed in the context of uk political local authorities), when benchmarked against the functionality of enterprise portals, is that few community portals possess the capability for transactional service through integrated back office systems. this lack of interactive service channel functionality is a serious drawback that is limiting the effectiveness of the first generation of community/civic portals. the reality is that existing community portal development in the uk would generally be categorised with advanced website functionality, rather than being closely analogous to the characteristics of an enterprise portal (oglethorpe, 2003) or an academic institutional portal (ucisa, 2003). community networks are a longstanding form of social organisation that have been transformed by the emergence of ‘new media’ (flew, 2002, p. 24), enabling on-line communication and discovery/harvesting of information. garton (1997) asserts that “when computer networks link people as well as machines, they become social networks”, generally referred to as community networks. since the inception of the internet, community portals have been increasingly deployed to support citizen services and virtual community networking. virtual communities are depicted by rheingold (1994, 2000) as social groupings facilitated by community networking and supported by community portals (steinmueller, 2002). they are said to hold the possibility of a “reinvigorated sense of community-building and citizen participation in public life” (flew, 2002, p77), and community portals are seen to be an enabler of the interaction of citizens with government (curthoys and crabtree, 2003). whilst many community web sites call themselves portals their under-developed functionality hampers their effectiveness and limits their impact on the delivery of interactive services for citizens. in many cases community network and portal development projects have been viewed as a wholly technical endeavour (romm and taylor, 2000). however, it is increasingly recognised that the process of establishing and sustaining a community portal contains many sophisticated issues that shift attention away from a technology deterministic approach (day, 2002).   people and technology the components of a community network include distributed and disparate on-line systems, giving access to information through a gateway portal, but the network is more than an aggregation of technology elements and infrastructure. technology on its own is not a panacea for citizen access to government services and citizen-citizen interactions. mumford (2003) explains that ‘technology is only one piece of a very complex puzzle’, and in this context technology is not the only driver. the need to understand portal requirements from a citizen user perspective is essential. the ‘people element’, especially as used by local champions, is a critically important factor in the development, implementation, adoption, and sustainability of community networks, and should therefore be a prime driver of community portal development. these arguments preclude an analysis of community portals based solely on technological determinism, but until recently there has been a relative lack of academic research that straddles the domains of telematics and social systems. in particular, there has been a paucity of evaluation of the technical architecture of community portals. according to bannon & griffin (2001, p 40) commenting on community network projects, ‘while there is a wealth of anecdotal material as to the successes and failures of such experiments, there is, unfortunately, a lack of objective evaluation studies’. bannon & griffin, 2001. consideration of community portals necessarily takes account of the three strands of social, technical, and information systems that are inexorably intertwined, giving linkage between people and technology in a socio-technological system. (see fig.1). the development of information systems involves a complex interaction between the user and the technology (buscher and mogensen, 1997) and this is the case with community portals. community network developers and content providers range from a single person to large teams that are often dispersed and with an eclectic mix of backgrounds – some paid, others unpaid volunteers – some working alone, others in self-forming groups. the management of relationships and development methodologies in dispersed teams (including the effects of differing content requirements and support needs) will often result in conflict and contention. such development becomes increasingly problematic when extended across wider geographic communities (cawood and simpson, 2000), particularly if technical and content development teams are faced with a need to meet the disparate requirements of users from different cultural backgrounds. it is a challenge is to retain the citizen in the heart of the portal environment; through self-service access to government departments (edwards, 2004).   a false dawn a significant political driver for local government portal development is the uk e-government deadline of mid-2005 for electronic service delivery. this deadline is fast approaching and further development is needed to meet the target. progress statistics for electronic service delivery report 74% (489 out of 664) of services e-enabled (egovmonitor, july 2004). to investigate the characteristics and salient features of uk government portals, a research survey was undertaken. the uk portal research survey, conducted in 2002 (musgrave, 2004), identified ‘gaps’ in portal functionality that limit effective community engagement. separate evidence from surveys undertaken by the society of it managers (socitm) in 2001, 2002, and 2003 corroborates the uk portal survey 2002 findings that the existing local/regional government web-site portals are lacking in functionality (socitm, 2002, 2003, 2004); in particular interactivity between front-office web presence, and back-office database services. the majority (98% in 2002) of community portals hosted in the uk currently are found to lack interactive service capability, and evidence indicates that the complexity of development of integrated portal services is beyond the resources and capability of many local and regional government authorities (musgrave, 2004). a technology barrier is found to exist for many local government departments currently engaged in community portal development. the in-depth surveys by socitm are based on observation and analysis of web-sites and portals of each of the 467 local authorities in the uk, and have been undertaken in each of the past three years giving a profile of change. survey results placed each of the sites in one of four categories: promotional: sites providing information but little interaction. content: sites providing more sophisticated information and some interaction. content plus: sites providing very useful content and more advanced on-line self-service features. transactional: sites that are accessible, complete, thoughtful, and coherent; with more than one type of on-line interaction (e.g. payment, application, consultation, bookings). the socitm 2003 survey results show only 2% (10 sites) have reached ‘transactional’ status, (1% 4 sites – in 2001). the low percentage of ‘transactional’ sites is mainly attributable to difficulties in systems integration and lack of middleware development capability. findings of the uk portal survey 2002 (musgrave, 2004) indicate that this is mainly due to lack of technical expertise (and staff) at local government levels. overall, the research identifies significant gaps in portal delivered services. most local / regional government sites feature ‘brochure’ style information that categorises them as ‘content’ sites (49% of total sites surveyed), but lacking in portal functionality. problems in connecting the front-office web presentation portal to the existing back-office database systems are a significant factor hindering community portal development. inability to access databases via the portal front-end denies citizens the self-service interactivity that could result in the transformative use of on-line technology. the issues that prevent the front / back office systems integration are mainly attributable to disparate data formats and lack of common standards by system vendors. the result is that many services that claim to be community portals possess functionality that mainly would be categorised as advanced web-site features, rather than the transactional capability and facilities that are typified by commercial enterprise portal products. compromise solutions adopted nowadays use an intermediate system to handle the data conversion for front-back office system integration. based on customer relationship management (crm) systems developed in the commercial sector (and re-named as citizen relationship management systems), these large software applications enable existing back-office databases to be accessed by users for on-line transactions. such integration will be simplified by the adoption of common standards and the use of web services (barry, 2003) for sharing data between different systems. the fundamental need for systems integration will be a continuing attribute of second-generation portal products.   people and technology issues the problem of technology resources is compounded by the people issues, and in the uk attributable to cultural difference between central government and local government departments. interview evidence with local government portal proponents revealed gaps in understanding, and lack of collaboration, between officers in local and central government services. these findings are symptomatic of a cultural divide between local and central government departments. the culture of non-cooperation across uk government is seen as the most substantial obstacle to sharing services, more so than legal or it issues (kablenet, 2004a). examples exist where competing interests between central and local government departments skew the capability of systems and polarise individual service providers and service consumers. a recent warning regarding the new on-line student loans system of the department of education and skills (dfes) known as ‘protocol’ typifies the need for closer liaison and collaborative work on project planning, development and implementation. wandsworth borough council (uk) sent a written complaint to the dfes (egov monitor, 28 june 2004), claiming that the software has been “slow, unreliable, buggy, and at times totally inaccessible”. the dfes countered that “the system has been meticulously planned and tested, and suggests that the problems are largely due to the way councils’ it networks are configured”. anecdotal information from dfes it personnel found no evidence that councils’ were involved in planning system specifications, or that user testing was conducted with a range of councils and in a systematic way. similarly, with the introduction of the new criminal justice it (cjit) system in 2004; although the uk home office proclaimed the extensive capability of the cjit (pitcom, 2004), other observers (suffolk, 2004) explain that obstacles are not just in the form of integrating the it systems of a large number of organisations, although this provides a significant challenge in itself. an underlying problem is the fact that the uk does not have a single criminal justice system. there are a plethora of police forces, agencies, legal bodies, and processes, each with their own demands. competing factors mean that an efficiency measure for one body could be a short-coming or even a legal violation for another (kablenet, 2004). the large number of conflicting demands makes it unlikely that a unified set of business processes and a single it framework can be achieved in the near future. the existence and use of different data-sets, with requirements for secure authentication, and data-protection impinge on arguments for adaptation of local systems to operate within a national portal framework. as in the previous example, this highlights the fact that tensions are created by different organisational cultures. local priorities often crowd out a contribution to national efforts, and in this example the demands of the legal system combine as resistors to effective implementation. gaved (2004) points to jain’s suggestion that there is a divide between “…the envisioners who dream about what technology can do, the technologists who understand what technology can do, the funders who have the money but do not necessarily know how best to spend it, and the implementers in the field who know what solutions are needed.” (jain, 2003). these traits are evident in uk government portal initiatives and account for many of the difficulties encountered in community portal development. through these examples it can be seen that centralisation of development and support of community network services at the national government level would be unsustainable and a distributed development is envisaged. to achieve this there is a critically important need for joined-up thinking, planning, and development between central, regional, and local government departments, and cascading to individual officer level. such joining-up at the people level ranges from politician (echampion) to government officer; government officer to citizen groups; and citizen – citizen interactions. a concurrent need is to join-up the technology, giving interoperable systems and modules that easily plug together. a harmonising factor is the government’s commitment to extend the electronic government interoperability framework (egif) and the electronic government metadata schema (egms). egif is already extensive, giving common standards in the different technical areas of the framework, such as extensible mark-up language, metadata and web services, and is constantly being updated (version 6.1 due out autumn 2004). the extensive nature requires competent people with the right skills for the job. an accreditation programme in egif is to be run by the uk national computing centre (ncc) (contract awarded may 2004), to certificate people with appropriate levels of competence (government computing, 2004). research analysis of people and technology issues finds a lack of ‘joined-up technology’, and a further need to ‘join-up people’; in particular for systemic linkages between central and local government portal developers, or the citizens that the portals serve. the research finds that community portals are difficult to implement, and that software currently available is still in its relative infancy (musgrave, 2004a). individual community portals at the uk local authority level are generally found to be insular developments that are not readily transferable or capable of easy replication across government departments. fig. 1 show two concurrent strands where problems currently exist in not having joined-up people systems, and not having joined-up technology systems. it is imperative that interactive capability is developed to support transactional service channels, and absence of this functionality leads to a conclusion that this first generation of portals constitutes a ‘false dawn’ in community portal development. the requirement for joined-up people, and joined-up technology is postulated to realise the integration ‘dream’, through evolution of a second generation of portal systems.     figure 1   the field of dreams as the internet enables the government to publish citizen information quickly, a challenge is to harness the many outputs of different government departments and turn them into consumer-friendly and easily navigable sites. in this context “the government needs to be at least as good as any other sector in communication, and arguably should set new standards”. (phillis, 2004). phillis (january, 2004) endorsed the recommendation of the e-envoy that there should be one central government website (a portal), within which the output of the various different departments and agencies can be found. the current uk online portal helps by providing navigation for the maze of government websites, but this falls a long way short of providing a single site for all government services. it is critical that the design of such a site be driven by the needs and perceptions of the users, and that individual departments are only “visible” when this makes sense to the users. our research suggests that information on local public services is most important to individuals, which would invert the usual pyramid of information offered by departments”. (phillis, january, 2004) since the phillis (2004) report, the uk online portal (supported by an unsustainable funding stream (new opportunities fund (nof)) has been superseded in may 2004 by directgov (www.direct.gov.uk). the change to directgov has been a fundamental shift in approach, with a business structure where directgov becomes the overarching brand-name for a range of services operated by a distributed network of intermediary organisations, each of which are operating as ‘customer segmented franchises’ (edwards, 2004). it is claimed by the office of e-government that directgov is “designed around the needs of customers, not the structure of government” (edwards, 2004). the use of intermediaries is said to give a more sustainable model aiming towards viable levels of paid services income. (e-envoy, 2004). (the office of e-government replaced the former office of the e-envoy in the uk in 2004). in this context the intermediaries are franchise organisations, with responsibility devolved to them as agents to operate a specific service to agreed service standards on behalf of the uk government. an issue in this process of electronic service delivery is for the uk government to replace the strategic target of having all services on-line by 2005 with a new set of criteria for success. according to kearns (2004) the thinking to do this has already been started within the uk government itself. the cabinet office strategy unit paper ‘creating public value’ (cabinet office, 2003) gives a framework for assessing the real value of government activity, which can be seen as the elements of a new set of success criteria for e-government. this framework sets the scene for replacement of the blunt instrument of counting numbers of services that are e-enabled and focuses on the citizen experience of interaction with government services, including consultation with users, identification of services that are valued by people, and subsequent prioritisation of service development. cultural differences that exist between central and local government departments are creating a gap in understanding, and an absence of collaborative development. the government aims to bridge this gap through improved dialogue between the office of the deputy prime-minister (odpm), and the office of e-government (oeg) (egovmonitor, march 2004). improvement is evident through recent uk initiatives such as the citizen relationship management programme, with its ‘integrated e-government delivery roadmap framework’ (devin, 2004). this uk national programme is aimed at saving time and resources through central development of tools, components and best practice standards which may be lost in re-inventing the wheel (www.crmnp.org). leicester (2001) argues for a radical change with new models of service delivery and a new model of politics and organisation to match. outlining a vision for local service delivery based on the concept of the ‘community portal’ he argues that “local government should and could be leading this revolution rather than trailing in the wake of whitehall.” contiguous with political and organisational changes to improve the ‘people’ element, there is a need to improve the ‘technology’ through adoption of common standards and common components that simplify interconnectivity of software systems. since the era when the gramophone didn’t easily connect to the wireless, audio-video equipment now readily inter-connect via standard plugs. similarly with computer hardware components; base units, monitors, printers, scanners and other peripheral items use common standards and protocols for connectivity, enabling equipment of different manufacturers to connect as systems. applying this analogy to software, it is currently difficult to integrate bespoke back-office database systems with portal front-end websites, but software development is now shifting in the same way with adoption of common standards, common components and software objects. adoption of ‘plug compatible’ software, and the use of new elements called web services will create the same transformation, enabling connections between systems that although different and disparate, comply to common standards for web service connection. the use of web services for business-to-business transactions is gaining ground in many organisations, and this technology will become the standard by which portal services will be integrated with different applications (barry, 2003). this is part of a larger transformation along with a shift to a service oriented architecture (soa) for systems development. in simple terms soa is an approach to system development using ‘lego’ style building block electronic modules and software components to create complex systems, importantly using common standards for inter-connectivity. the goals of a service oriented architecture using web services, are the adoption of common standards (including web services and extensible markup language (xml)); and the use of common components (in particular open source software). in a service oriented architecture, rather than interconnecting different systems with interfaces at the top portal/presentation level, or alternatively integrating data in a single large database at the bottom level, the new way is to expose the middle tier application logic level as a service (web service). information (as messages) is then in a format that can be used (consumed) by other and different applications. (olivier, 2004). enterprise portals in the commercial sector have been developed with a strong linkage between front-office functions and back-office systems. software products include plumtree, hummingbird and sap as market leaders. a discourse on the classification of enterprise portal features and functions is given by raol et al (2003). the global e-science community has developed grid computing for sharing large data resources on-line. research and development in the area of grid computing has significant potential application in the development of enterprise portals in the commercial sector, and community portals in the public sector. applying research and development output products from grid computing will accelerate the evolution of a second generation of enterprise portal, and community portal functionality. the grid is the computing and data management infrastructure that will provide the electronic underpinning for a global society in business, government, research, science and entertainment (hey et al, 2003). the technology of grid computing components, developed to support the distributed computing paradigm, now gives solutions to remedy problems of connectivity between distributed information sources and data repositories. the same grid components are relevant to the future development of second generation community portals. the evolution of enterprise portals through use of grid concepts utilises technology that was developed to enable resource sharing with scientific collaborative communities working across the globe. the same concepts are now relevant as a solution to the challenges relating to the construction of reliable, scalable, and secure distributed systems in the commercial sector. today’s enterprise portals will be transformed from separate computer resource islands to integrated, multi-tiered, distributed systems, where service components can be integrated dynamically and flexibly, both within and across various organisational boundaries (foster et al, 2003). extending this argument, service providers are now adopting grid architecture techniques to transform standard e-business processes, such as the creation of a web portal presence, and providing this to multiple customers as an e-utility. exploiting the economies of scale that are enabled by eutility structures is a further decomposition and distribution of enterprise computing functions. grid development is now being used to design a new generation of enterprise systems, and this will cascade into the community portal arena. the uk government approach to common standards is expressed through the egovernment interoperability framework (egif). this is applied to the national portal directgov where a distributed architecture connects databases, repositories, and systems for interactive on-line service transactions hosted by disparate ‘intermediary’ franchise organisations, using common standards and components. the national directgov portal environment includes portlets that can be embedded into local authority portal gateways as the user presentation interface. this approach will enable a blend of local content, backed by access to centrally hosted services. the user ‘view’ can still retain the look and feel of being in a local environment, whilst accessing advanced central service functions. citizen-centric self-service interactions would thus be achievable, in a way that may otherwise be undeliverable.   joined-up people and joined-up technology misquoting donne (donne, 1631) ‘no portal is an island’ the argument for adoption of common standards and use of plug-compatible common components is to give connection between ‘islands of technology’. research and development to produce, expose, and curate open source software objects, (to be lodged in a repository), will support developers of local community portals with ready made components to add functionality at the ‘local’ level. it may appear naïve to focus on basic principles of communication between people, and inter-operability between technical systems, when global agendas on egov are tackling weighty topics such as ‘a generic architectural framework of municipal information systems (neskovic, 2004); but the reality is that fundamental ‘people and technology’ issues need to be resolved, and cultural differences acknowledged and circumvented. central-local relations requires partnership between local and central agencies (odpm, 2004). collaboration on egovernment between central and local government departments is visualised in (fig. 2) from the office of the deputy prime-minister (odpm), using central-local partnership as a catalyst to improve co-operation on the development of services.     figure 2 (odpm, 2004)   in departments of both central and local government, ‘vision’ leaders need to communicate their planned development in detail to ‘people’ who will be expected to undertake the operational implementation and system development. improved collaboration between government departments, and better communication between those driving the vision at both central and local government levels, and their operational teams, will manifest itself in improvements through joined up people and joined up technology. improved communication between the egovernment office (formerly eenvoy) representing central egov development, and the office of the deputy prime representing local government is only a start point and the need is for central government not only to talk to local government and overcome issues of culture difference but to work collaboratively on project planning, development and implementation.   sustainability research evidence (musgrave, 2004) indicates that the majority of uk community portal development is based on project-like ‘windfall’ capital and revenue funding streams that are time limited. it is often the case that project ‘architects’ and developers may themselves be operating on a ‘hobbyist’ basis, perhaps with only ephemeral ties to each other due to other commitments. staffing issues may therefore be a significant risk factor in portal development. sustainable portal initiatives require a trajectory towards, (and strong linkage to), mainstream service development. evidence exists over each of the two past years (socitm 2003, 2004) identifying a correlation between top-tier councils in england within the comprehensive performance assessment (cpa) process, and high ranking web-site/community portal presence. to date there has not been explicit reference to e-government and community portal preparation or implementation in the cpa process, but socitm predict that this linkage will be established in the near future (socitm, 2004). the necessity to meet new criteria linked to such a cpa process would aid sustainability through improved resource allocation. linking to this process, the uk implementing egovernment (ieg) phase 4 plans (following the gershon review), and called for by central government from each local authority in december 2004, ask for statements on ‘efficiency gain’ in this funding round[2]. in this community portal context sustainability is about culture, not just mechanics and processes, and is more than simply technology. it is about the environment and the fluid landscape in which community networks operate, and where community portals are developed. the portal must be sustainable, and some desiderata are: ·       management structures to implement and achieve strategic and operational objectives. ·       a technology architecture based on common standards and common components (including open source software with support). ·       strong linkage between portal developers and the citizens’ (users) they are intended to serve. ·       an organisation to secure stable sources of income at sufficient levels to enable sustainable operation. ·       organised and accountable forms of quality control, in particular where aspects of editorial control of content is devolved to developers in the community. ·       lowering of cultural barriers between central and local government. to increase the sustainability of portal projects there is a need to “work towards establishing common frameworks that will enable applications and services, from different sources, to work together” (olivier, 2004). this supports the arguments for a service oriented architecture as an element of sustainable development. a model for sustainability of community portal development is offered by the maleny community (australia) (mena, 2004) based on engagement and community informatics, and which is a portal project that is owned and managed by the community and based on open source software[3]. the portal-in-a-box solution deployed by maleny has been developed by the maleny enterprise network association (mena)[4]. considering innovation as a ‘community process’, it is asserted by gurstein that as well as cascading knowledge downwards there is a need to “trickle-up” innovation (gurstein, 2004). this has resonance in the community portal context in the application of research from enterprise portal development and grid research in the central and local government development of portal services. in this context feedback from local government development projects to central government developers and their agents, is needed to engage exemplars of good practice in citizen service delivery. such iterative cyclical feedback – cascading down and trickling up – is essential to sustainable development, through central / local government collaboration. a ‘sustaining networks’ review gives actions to build knowledge, and support skills development, for those engaged in community networks (macdonald, 2003).   conclusions community portal development is complex in the tasks involved, and daunting in scale. the challenges should not be under-estimated, in particular when interfacing portals with existing ‘legacy’ database systems, which are largely bespoke software products from different and disparate vendors. allied to the technology challenge, the success or failure of such ‘information age’ reform depends crucially on the conception-reality gap: the gap between the conception of reform initiatives and the reality of public sector organisations into which they are introduced (heeks, 1999). there is a need to span the gulf between the visionaries and the operational implementers through explicit communication and effective planning (jain, 2004). the uk portal research survey (2002) finds evidence that development is beyond the capability of many local authorities. dissonances exist in relationships between central and local government in the uk that are fundamentally culture clashes (kablenet, 2004a). it is argued that best value will be achieved through central research and development to specify common standards for community portal models that support interactions with centrally accessed services, via local gateways. people and technology improvements addressed in this narrative are required to enhance portalised delivery of citizen-centric services through the adoption of common standards, and the development of common components. technology improvement through systems integration is required to achieve the interactivity demanded by users; giving services that will in turn be valued by users. the use of open source software with vendor support is likely to become a ‘middle way’ that gives ownership of core elements to the portal developer community; minimising problems with vendor lock-in, whilst enabling industrial strength portal products to be deployed. people changes, in particular a culture shift in government are detectable through new dialogue between the office of egovernment and the office of the deputy prime-minister, and are evidenced through collaborative initiatives such as the national project portal – the local e-democracy project [5]. this bridge-building between the government department responsible for central egov development and the department responsible for local authority development is significant. returning to mumford (2003) we see that “we are now moving into the era of what is called soft technology”. socio-technical design always saw people and technology as part of a single system, but still tended to treat them separately. nowadays, social needs often stimulate technical innovation, and these create a sequence of activities of which technology is only one part (durand & dubreil, 2001). social sciences can no longer be kept away from technical innovation, and they are increasingly the stimulants that create its use. mumford (2003) urges a ‘participative’ approach by enabling those affected by the new systems “to contribute to the design of their own futures by actively participating in, and influencing, the change processes”. it is suggested that this will create better futures for the organisation in which they work and for the communities in which they live. the challenge for local government is to establish itself as the community portal, the natural access point for all citizens to the full range of local services, but it is not a foregone conclusion that local government will play that role. other agencies could easily take up the challenge and establish the portal, or another local body could claim first mover advantage as for example, an enterprise council, health authority, or private sector service provider. one of the lessons of the internet is that familiarity is all: once a site is established as the access point of choice it will be difficult to shift perceptions. a clear message for local government is that unless they respond to the challenge of portal development and engage with central government to achieve this, “local government could be left shopping on someone else’s network”. 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(2002). virtual communities and the new economy. in inside the communication revolution. mansell. r. oxford press. suffolk, j. (2004). home office criminal justice it programme. joining up criminal justice it. government computing. july/august 2004. kable publications. www.kablenet.com. ucisa. (2003). ucisa-jisc portals conference proceedings, june 2003. oxford. available at: https://www.ucisa.ac.uk/events/2003/forum/forum-1-review.htm#papers   [1] http://www.chester.gov.uk/chester-portal/main_portal_04_about.htm [2] government computing, october 2004. [3] http://docs.communitye.net/engage_adopt_sustain/), [4] a further open source portal project solution is cocoon and available from http://cocoon.apache.org.   [5] www.e-dem.info/desktopdefault.aspx?tabid=1 representation and participation of first nations women in online videos representation and participation of first nations women in online videos1 sonja perley university of new brunswick and government of new brunswick <sonja.perley@gnb.ca> introduction “from the first arrival of missionaries in our lands the status and autonomy of first nations women was attacked. when colonial authorities, later the federal government of canada, assumed authority over first nations peoples the attack on first nations women was institutionalized” (stevenson, p. 74, 1999). the representation and participation of first nations women in online videos is the focus of this article. since the time of contact with the europeans to the present day, first nations people have been living under and resisting the oppressive legislation and policies imposed on them by the colonial and canadian governments; legislation such as the 1876 indian act, has governed and continues to govern all aspects of a first nations person’s life in canada (miller, 2000, rcap, 1996). the historical impact of colonization and the imposition of a colonial government and its legislation have resulted in the near destruction of the cultures and lifestyles of first nations people in canada, especially of first nations women. most mainstream media contain biased or one-sided information with many inaccuracies and misrepresentations of first nations people (valaskakis, 1993) as a means of creating awareness of their realities, first nations people have produced various types of alternate media such as newspapers, radio, and television (avison & meadows, 2000). with the increasing availability of information and communication technologies, first nations people are also increasing their use of these technologies in their communities, including the streaming of online videos on the internet. with the rise in websites for video-sharing on the internet and the increasing availability of resources to create and upload videos, there is potential for first nations people to make use of this type of media technology as an alternate public sphere for representing issues they can not normally address through mainstream media. further, first nations women also have the means and are now utilizing online videos for their specific use. a critical analysis of the representation and participation of first nations women in online videos provides some insight into the ways in which first nations women are currently using new information and communication technologies. a critical analysis of online videos in this article reveals the underlying assumptions promoted by mainstream media regarding the representation and stereotypical portrayals of first nations women. the article explores the potential of online videos by and for first nations women to represent themselves and their perspectives. the online videos analyzed in this paper were found through a search of three websites; www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nishnawbe, http://firstnationhelp.com, and http://www.knet.ca/, chosen because they contain numerous videos by and about first nations people. the analysis is drawn from themes identified in a literature review on race, gender, and representation, as well as media communication, public sphere and participatory video use. a qualitative analysis illustrates the current use of online videos with first nations women as participants. it explores the image, positioning and voice of the women in the video as well as the context of each video in terms of its political, historical and social implications in reference to representation of first nations women. finally, the discussion explores the potential for online videos as an avenue for first nation women to represent themselves and their perspectives as a type of alternate public sphere to promote social change. race, gender and representation a review of the literature specific to race, gender and representation provides a framework for analyzing how first nations people, especially first nations women, are represented in online videos. the literature also points to how media technology such as online videos has the capacity to assist first nations women in challenging mainstream assumptions and misrepresentations, thereby having an impact on public perception and effecting social change. as discussed later during the video analysis, these stereotypes depict first nations women as, for example, exotic, wild, overtly and overly sexual, not refined and cultured like white women. critical theory looks at understanding the dynamics of power and the creation of inequality based on dimensions such as class, gender, and race, and how ideologies and social institutions support this social construction. critical theory also seeks to understand how social constructions shape and dominate our perspectives. in their analysis of critical theory, kincheloe & mclaren (1994) utilize gramsci’s concept of hegemony, which suggests that certain institutions in society such as media, religion, schools and others reinforce power dynamics or social constructions as a way to maintain dominance in society. colonialist ideology or colonialist discourse reflects the perspective of the colonizers through the language used which often refers to their assumption of superiority to people indigenous to the lands they sought to colonize (tyson, 1999). this colonialist ideology and discourse is reflected in the historical writings that portray negative stereotypes about first nations people and most specifically first nations women, stereotypes which served many functions for the colonizers. stevenson (1999) states that missionaries used the negative representations and conditions of first nations women to justify the religious practice of assimilation. further, since the time of contact with colonial and early canadians colonizers, missionaries and government authorities, the status and role of first nations women has been undermined and supported through various government policies such as the indian act. although historically first nations peoples have resisted these colonialist policies and there have been challenges and modifications to the laws, the impact of this assault has resonated in all aspects of first nations women’s lives, from community membership, status as a first nations person, property ownership and community politics to violence and poverty. colonialist ideology is not a thing of the past but has manifested itself and continues to resonate in all areas and aspects of society and the lives of indigenous people, although it may not be easily recognized. the stereotypical portrayal of indigenous people, especially indigenous women, in various forms of media including literature, academic research texts, newspapers, children’s books, movies, and videos are a testament to the dominance of colonialist ideology. mcgillivray & comaskey (1999) state that colonialist ideology creates a power dynamic that results in domination and is reflected in relationships of abuse in first nations communities. colonialist ideology working at multiple levels – economic, legalistic, political, organizational and psychological has destroyed first nations women’s autonomy and role within their communities, making them dependants of their male relatives, a reflection of western colonial society. valaskakis (1993) emphasizes the struggle over the representation of first nations people and the appropriation of their culture by non-first nations people. she further points out that the representation of first nations people tends to draw from past images and ideology of what is perceived to be the real first nations people by the general public. this type of misrepresentation of first nations people moves the focus away from the experiences and material realities of today’s first nations people. it takes away from a deeper analysis of the issues around power and the positioning of first nations people as “other” which marginalizes them from mainstream society. in a review of feminist theory tyson (1999) states that the male experience has been the benchmark by which all human experience has been and is judged. this universality of male experience has largely dismissed women’s experiences. feminist writers have explored the issues of marginalization and the representation of women (valaskakis, 1993). tyson (1999) states that patriarchal ideology defines women in one of two ways, either good or bad, the madonna or the whore, depending on how she accepts the gender roles constructed by a patriarchal society. patriarchal ideology also influences how first nations women were and are portrayed. first nations women face not only gender oppression but also oppression based on racist ideology. tyson (1999) highlights how african american and black feminists have brought attention to the limitations of mainstream feminism, most specifically how it has largely ignored the experiences of women of color through the essentialization of all women’s experiences of oppression without taking into consideration the experience of women further oppressed by racism. early colonial society dichotomized the representation of first nations women as either a princess or a beast of burden (mullings, 2004; stevenson, 1999; valaskakis, 1993). these representations have remained to the present day in written texts and visual images of first nations women. images depicting first nations women as either princesses or beasts of burden can be seen in popular films, books for adults and children, and in other media forms (valaskakis, 1993). these representations are defined by white western male standards, which used constructed patriarchal gender roles projected on white western females as the benchmark through which first nations women were judged and perceived (stevenson, 1999; valaskakis, 1993; weedon, 1999). media representations have an impact on the way we perceive the world. kellner and share (2005) state that mainstream media representations depict dominant groups favourably, while disadvantaging other groups in society. this has been linked to, but is not exclusive to a select few dominant groups, such as large media corporations controlling and creating these socially constructed representations. these representations vary over time to reflect the different or changing political and economic goals or agendas of the dominant culture (rakow & wackwitz, 2004). as well, the use of feminist communication theory helps to recognize the various issues relating to “the complexity of reality, representation, ideology, and politics” (p. 181). kellner & share (2005) state that there is an extensive impact from the various media such as the internet in the construction and understanding of our world, to the point that we are unaware of how we are educated by the media because “its pedagogy is frequently invisible and unconscious” (p. 372). developing an aboriginal public sphere and critical media literacy jurgen habermas' theory of the public sphere ([1962] 1989) has become central to the field of media and communications. public sphere theory is used by researchers to explain how public opinion is formed. in habermas' conception, a single public sphere exists where all citizens can participate as equals and have an opportunity to access and deliberate about issues that concern them. public sphere theory has been debated and deconstructed by many theorists. fraser (1992) outlines an alternative concept of public sphere that has relevance to present capitalist societies and democracy. fraser examines the underlying assumptions of the public sphere described by habermas and moves beyond this to suggest an alternative that would include the need to eliminate inequalities based on race, class, gender and others, as well as the need for multiple publics or “subaltern counterpublics” (p. 123) rather than a single public sphere where dominant groups would be at an advantage. finally, she states that “the private” needs to be brought to these public spheres for deliberation. miller (2004) suggests a public sphere that includes small group discussions or deliberations on issues via face to face communication. other types of telecommunications such as audio or videoconference – could then be expanded to a larger public sphere though a website for a wider audience. he suggests telecommunication for public sphere deliberations because its interactive communication “seems to have more in common with aspects of oral-centric cultures” (miller, p. 11, 2004) as opposed to the one-way broadcast communication used by print media, radio and television. fraser’s examination of habermas’s theory and the underlying assumptions of the public sphere resonate with critical theory concerns such as the limitations in present democracy and the power dynamics within society that create subordinates, i.e., groups oppressed and marginalized because of race, class, gender, sexuality and other dimensions of their lives. fraser’s and miller’s concept of an alternative public sphere can provide a framework for developing a first nations or aboriginal public sphere. avison & meadows (2000) point out that an “aboriginal public sphere” allows for the engagement of aboriginal people in areas that concern them which have been absent from mainstream media. it is an avenue for first nations people to discuss, debate, and represent their own realities and experiences. this concept of an aboriginal public sphere can have implications for the use of communication technologies by first nation groups. communication technology has the capacity to provide alternate avenues for communicating and information sharing via emails, chats, webcams, videoconferences, and online videos. although access to technology by first nations is an ongoing struggle (perley & o’donnell, 2006), online videos can provide an alternative public sphere for first nations women to represent themselves, share information, and educate and deliberate on the issues concerning them. a step in this direction would demand some knowledge and training in communication technologies. however, knowledge and training should not be limited to technology learning alone. it should also incorporate critical media literacy that would assist in analyzing the mainstream media that supports the status quo thus allowing for power imbalances in society, and the marginalization and stereotyping of groups of people based for example on gender, race, sexuality, and class. kellner & share (2005) recognize the need for critical media literacy, which they describe as an approach that would build the skills to understand, recognize and analyze mainstream media’s socially constructed representation, messages, values and stereotypes and to resist and challenge them constructively. it would encourage disadvantaged or marginalized groups to deconstruct misrepresentations and possibly to create their own representations through alternate media sources such as the internet and “to use the media as modes of self-expression and social activism” (p. 372). further, developing critical media literacy skills can assist those who use the internet to examine mainstream media through a critical lens. the internet can be used to publicly expose the power dynamics and inequalities in society as well as challenge the misconceptions, assumptions, and stereotypes of mainstream media representations. participatory video and online videos communication technology such as participatory and online video has been used to give voice to individuals and groups, enabling people to discuss issues and tell their own stories in a public space (bery, 2003; dudley, 2003; kindon, 2003; white, 2003) white (2003) describes this as “participatory communication” (p. 9) a process that involves dialogue and partnership between all stakeholders rather than a hierarchal relationship. participatory communication can connect outside knowledge with indigenous knowledge. people engage in a process of self-awareness of their situation and use this knowledge to transform or find ways to improve their lives through possible social action. kindon (2003) describes participatory video as a tool that can be utilized in research to help break down the power relationship between the researcher and the research participants as long as the relationship has gone through a process of negotiation. she further describes the concept of gaze within the context of geography research that traditionally tends to be a process of “looking at” rather “than alongside” (p. 143). this can also be true for research with indigenous communities where the power relationship has historically been hierarchial. kindon (2003) has attempted to challenge this imbalance of power in her research using participatory videos with maori people. bery (2003) states that participatory video is a medium through which people can tell their stories in a relatively safe environment, and it can also lead to personal growth and social action. bery charts different types of participation, linking each with the level of involvement of the local people in the process as well as the application of participatory video used for each type. videos produced by individuals through a participatory process rather than from external influences can convey powerful messages that can empower the community to take action and make changes in their own lives. using video to present injustice provides an avenue to challenge the power structures that have marginalized and isolated people (dudley, 2003). bery (2003) points out that the mass media has influence over the story and therefore influences the audience’s perception of stories, so the viewers need to become more aware of the context and background of the story and to ask critical questions rather than passively accept a story as truth. although participatory video can offer an alternative message or representation to that found in mainstream media, it too must be looked at through a critical lens. some of the challenges to participatory video recognized by researchers include confidentiality, access, and ownership of the information (kindon, 2003). further, despite the potential of participatory video there remains the challenge of access to the communication technology as an avenue to share the video through the internet where access may be expensive, limited or non-existent (perley & o'donnell, 2006; white 2003b). rieken et al. (2006), in their participatory research project with first nations youth on health and wellness, describe digital video production and process as a form of resistance. they state that “video is a language of transcendence” (p. 275) because it is an alternate form of literacy that may incorporate the experience and realities of those utilizing it better than the use of textual literacies predominately privileged by the mainstream educational system. they further state that the digital video process helps develop the critical skills necessary to challenge mainstream media. rieken et al. further describe video as “a medium for connecting ideas with messages” (p. 277) and state that the students who participated in the research project “acted upon their ideas through the development of critical media literacy skills” (p. 277), in the process of creating, producing, presenting and sharing their videos. participatory videos that engage the participatory communication process and incorporate critical media literacy by first nations women have the capacity to raise awareness of their realities and experiences, challenge the misconception and misrepresentations found in mainstream media, engage with a global audience and promote social change. online video provides an avenue for first nations women to have a real voice from their own perspectives and to effectively represent themselves as never before on a global scale. research methodology for this research i conducted an analysis of three online videos from a critical/feminist perspective. to select the videos, i conducted a search of videos relating to first nations in two regions of canada – northern ontario and atlantic canada from three websites, k-net, atlantic canada’s first nations helpdesk and youtube. k-net and the atlantic canada’s first nation helpdesk are both first nations organizations providing broadband services to the first nations communities in their respective regions of northern ontario and atlantic canada. youtube is the most popular online video sharing website. i searched for all the videos from both the k-net and atlantic helpdesk websites. to find the relevant videos on the youtube website i used keywords specific to first nations and the appropriate geographic regions, including the state of maine, us, which has historical and geographical links with atlantic canada. from this overall search i found 213 videos from the three websites. the three videos for this analysis were selected based on my perceived impression of first nations content within the video, participation by female actors and the context of the video. the qualitative method involved an in-depth analysis of each video from a critical theoretical perspective, specifically feminist theory. i based my analysis on the literature review, which raised issues significant to first nations women’s representation in media (bery, 2003; dudley, 2003; kindon, 2003; rieken et al., 2006; white, 2003). the analysis is also rooted in my personal experience as a first nations woman who is aware of many of the issues that challenge first nations women. however, i do not make any claims to authority or to speak for all first nations women in this research article. in my analysis i explore the representation of first nations women in each video through an analysis of their image, positioning, and power relationship in both the visual representation and the text. i organize my findings into the following categories: video, image, voice or script and resistance. the category video describes the actual context of the video in respect to its political, historical, cultural and social aspects, as well as the concept being deployed in the video. it also includes the placement of the video on the website i.e., where it was stored. the category image describes the visual positioning of women and the extent to which they appear in the video. it also describes how first nations women are depicted with respect to their political, historical, cultural and social context. the category voice describes the extent to which first nations women speak in the video and what the women say, especially about the political, historical, cultural and social contexts of their lives. the last category resistance describes the overall political / power struggles evident in the context of the video. this includes the attitudes, values, lifestyles, worldviews, assumptions, myths or stereotypes being maintained, reinforced or challenged. description of the online videos for the qualitative analysis the first video that i selected for the qualitative analysis is north america’s next top indian model, available on the youtube website http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nishnawbe. the video is a satire of the show “america’s next top model” from the nishnawbe or indian perspective. the second video is the people vs mary moses, available on the atlantic first nation help desk website http://firstnationhelp.com/fasd/fasdvideo.php. this is an educational video based on a play highlighting the effects of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. the actors include first nations youth from the atlantic canada region. the third video is the k-net story – sandra, lac seul first nation and joanne, windigo first nations council (the names of the women in the video have been changed to protect their privacy) available on the k-net website http://www.knet.ca/ under the title smart keewaytinook okimakanak and smart communities. this is a video of an interview with two women who are involved with and contribute to the k-net communities. research findings of the video analysis north america’s next top indian model the video begins with images of first nations people while first nations and traditional chanting provides background music. the first image shows a landscape scene with teepees. another image shows a caricature of a first nations woman with a childlike face wearing a very short tight dress that emphasizes her adult curves and legs. she is also holding an apple outwards as if to give it to someone, bringing to mind the temptation of the biblical eve. there is also a picture of a first nations warrior wearing traditional first nations dress holding an american flag in front of a dream catcher symbol. other images in the video include first nations women posing in sexualized poses and silhouetted women’s bodies. north america’s next top indian model is described on youtube as a satire from a first nations or nishnawbe perspective of the television program “north america’s next top model”. the video is a re-enactment of the tv program with three models, a host and three judges. the setting is an office or classroom environment with furniture in the room arranged in a panel for the judges to sit and view the models, while the host stands in front of the judges speaking with each actor-model in turn. the judges make comments to each of the models based on their performance during the staged competition. throughout the video various traditional first nations symbols are used to portray first nations people, such as eagles, feathers, braids, as well as symbolic traditional first nationsnames. there is no specific emphasis on the judge’s appearance in the video, however all three judges are women and have character names that are associated with first nation traditionalnames such as cheyenne “tight-braids”, katherine “soaring-eagle” and paula “talking-duck”. the judges are in a panel seating arrangement behind a long table towards the back of the room. the host “shaneeka” appears in front of the judges with the camera focused primarily. she is wearing first nations style jewellery and regalia with her hair braided and tied with leather fringes. the three models are shown in a photo competition which displays them posing in various natural settings that include symbolic displays often stereotypically associated with first nations culture. “lisa” poses next to an eagle, “katie” poses with a stoic look wearing her hair in braids, “coral” is depicted in an erotic pose hugging a tree. there is an over-emphasis in the video linking nature with first nations women. the script emphasizes historical and present mainstream stereotypes typically associated with first nations people. some of the words included are “stoic”, “braids”, “fried bread”, and “pensive”. as well, character names for the judges typify names linking first nations with aspects of nature, animals or traditional cultural symbols. the host shaneeka does most of the talking as she engages with both the judges and models. the judges make comments in turn to each of the models on their participation during the competitions. the models on the other hand say very little much in response other than passively nodding and accepting the comments of the critics. however, at the end of the video, the model coral who lost the competition and asked to leave, makes an angry comment to the camera about the host and says she would “show them”, be back next year and would be displayed on billboards. the video is an overly dramatic satire that emphasizes the typical stereotypes associated with first nations people. the video directly challenges these stereotypes by making a parody of a popular tv program “america’s next top model” to show not only the ridiculous nature of these stereotypes but also the negative stereotypes of first nations women. the video overtly exposes the way first nations people are portrayed in popular mainstream media such as magazines (which rarely have images of first nations people and when they do it is stereotypical), advertisements, newspapers, tv, books and movies. the people vs mary moses the video is an educational resource that highlights fetal alcohol syndrome and its effects (fasd). a first nations youth drama group, who participate as actors in the video, also developed the video. i viewed the video on dvd because of difficulty accessing it on the website. the primary character, mary, is on trial for negligence as a result of drinking alcohol during her pregnancy 30 years ago, causing the baby to be born with fasd. the video begins with a scene depicting mary getting into the passenger side of a car with a song playing in the background. the image changes to a courtroom setting where the remainder of the video takes place. several actors in the video play roles such as judge, prosecutor, translator, doctor and the audience in the mock courtroom. mary is positioned at a front table before a judge indicating the defendant’s location. she is dressed casually in a shirt and jeans. the judge is played by a boy who sits at the front of the courtroom dressed in a legal robe. a boy wearing the top part of a police uniform plays a court constable and a girl wearing a legal robe plays a prosecutor. other actors include two girls who play a doctor and a translator for mary. they are dressed more formally indicating a professional appearance. there are several boys and girls in an audience sitting behind the prosecutor and defendant’s table. other visual effects include puppet dramas and graphic-type visuals. one of the puppet dramas shows mary at a party drinking alcohol. another visual image is a graphic display outlining a pregnant woman drinking. this depicts the effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy. another actor is shown through a tv screen set up as a teleconference link. the actor plays mary’s son, the child who was born with fasd. the visual images change throughout the video as the story goes through the motions of a court trial. although mary seems to be the main character in the play, the camera does not focus on her entirely. after an introductory song the video moves to the courtroom setting. mary, the mother on trial declines a defense counsel to represent herself. mary speaks throughout the video in her mi’kmaq first nations language. another actor acts as her translator after she speaks. mary speaks frequently. she responds to questions, asks questions, gives testimony to the prosecutor and provides a closing statement in her defense. other women in the video include the prosecutor, doctor and the translator. they speak occasionally but do not have primary roles in the video. this video is an excellent educational tool that implements various styles of visual effects throughout to entertain the audience, including puppet dramas and other creative graphic visual displays. it also sheds light on other issues important to first nations people such as the use of first nation language and the need for more sensitivity toward those unfamiliar with them in formal institutional settings. this is indicated in the sections of the video when mary speaks in her mi’kmaq language as well as when she is asked to stand as a witness. she accepts as long as she can remain sitting where she was rather than being displayed on the witness stand. although the video raises numerous important issues it did miss an opportunity to highlight the historical oppression of first nations people and some of its long-term and intergenerational effects on first nations people including alcoholism and substance abuse. rather than individualize the problem of alcohol the video could have brought attention to these issues to help viewers who have no familiarity with first nations people and the history of colonization and the oppression they face as a result. the k-net story – sandra, lac seul first nation and joanne, windigo first nations council the video takes place in a kitchen of a home. it is not apparent whose home it is or if it takes place in a first nations community. although the website states that there were many people involved in the creation of the k-net story, the purpose of the video is not readily apparent. there does not seem to be a specific topic being discussed; and the focus moves from topic to topic with no consistent flow. the video concludes with the topic of technology use in first nations communities. two women participate in the video but it is not stated how or why they were chosen to participate. the image posted on the website for this video is in color but the video itself is in black and white. it is not apparent if more than one camera is used but there are several angle shots throughout the video with occasional close-ups of one woman who does the talking throughout the video. the video pauses or breaks occasionally with the subject of discussion changing or occasionally causing an abrupt break in the woman’s dialogue. this may indicate editing of the video. two women are seated at a kitchen table set with coffee cups and food. the camera is focused primarily on both of them. both woman are dressed informally and appear to be relaxed and comfortable in this surrounding. the other people are, for most of the video, out of the camera’s view. on a couple of occasions a girl makes an appearance by sitting on one woman’s lap. occasionally, we hear a man’s voice in the background. a man appears towards the end of the video talking to one of the women and later talking to the young girl. one woman (sandra) does the talking while the other woman (joanne) sits beside her and engages by listening and looking at sandra speaking. the women are the central focus as the camera is angled almost entirely on them throughout. the angle does adjust occasionally to focus on sandra then readjusts to include both women. sandra’s attention is not on the camera but on someone who does not appear in the video. sandra provides her own perspective in the video. she shares her knowledge and experience of her first nations culture as she discusses the impact of imposed residential schooling on first nations people and the resulting loss of culture, language and parenting skills. it is apparent sandra is a professional person who works with her community and other first nations. it is also apparent that she is a resource person in the community as she discusses participating in as well as providing training for community members through the use of ict. she also discusses the benefits of technology and its capacity to assist and benefit first nations communities. joanne the other woman in the video does not talk but engages throughout by listening and looking at sandra as she is speaking, providing support to sandra. it is not clear if she was actively encouraged to talk during the video, even though the camera was focused on both women during most of the video. sandra speaks from her knowledge and personal experience during the video, mainly about the loss of culture and the impacts it has had on her and other first nations people. she discusses the avenues she has sought to help herself and others deal with the effects of oppression. she describes use of technologies such as the internet to find educational resources for herself and others, the use of videoconferences for training and workshops, and website development as a source for networking and sharing with other first nations communities as beneficial ways to help improve first nations communities. she adapts to the technology and the resources but also makes them appropriate to her culture and useful to her community members. sandra challenges the stereotypes of first nations women often found in popular movies as silent, passive and part of the background scenery or landscape. these clearly do not show the complexity, reality and extent of first nations women’s roles in their communities as demonstrated by sandra in this video. sandra expresses knowledge of her culture and the impacts of colonization and oppression gained through her academic education as well as her personal experience and position in her community. discussion and conclusions each of the three online videos analyzed in this paper demonstrate the different styles and ways first nations women are currently using online videos to make a point, educate, challenge and resist mainstream assumptions and misconceptions regarding first nations people. each video provides a unique style. the first video is a re-enactment of a popular television program that uses humour and satire to expose the outrageous stereotypes of first nations people. the second video is an educational resource presented in a drama style, with first nations youth creating and acting in the drama. this drama style video is a creative way to introduce and educate on a serious topic as well as keeping the audience entertained and engaged in the video. the third video is presented in an interview style but without the interviewer and interview questions apparent in the video. it focuses primarily on the women in the video, giving complete attention to them and their perspectives. the video “north america’s next top indian model” presents a creative alternative in challenging and exposing mainstream stereotypes and racism in relation to first nations people, especially first nations women. it further challenges the mainstream perspectives and portrayals of women in the media and television by presenting an alternative perspective of the specific program. through satire and the perspective of these first nations women, the video challenges the way females and their body images are exploited through mainstream media as well as the outrageous stereotypes associated with first nations people. the video “the people vs mary moses” could be considered to be a helpful resource to understanding fasd. it also provides a sensitive and creative way to raise this issue among first nations people. it incorporates the native mi’kmaq language and challenges mainstream institutions such as the judicial system from a first nations perspective. however the video does not provide an understanding of the historical impacts related to alcohol and substance abuse among first nations people. a brief and general overview of the historical implications could improve awareness and address misconceptions around first nations people especially for an audience that is not familiar with their history of oppression. the audience does not relate this issue specifically to first nations women, but provides an understanding that this is an issue that can affect all women and that there are historical implications as well. the video “the k-net story – sandra, lac seul first nation and joanne, windigo first nations council” provides an insight into the issues first nations people are dealing with and the ways they are addressing and challenging them, especially through the use of technology. it not only provides a first nations perspective but also provides a first nations woman’s perspective on the issues important to them. while the video does raise many important issues it only touches on each of them briefly. it is apparent that the women in the video have a wealth of knowledge that could be shared with other first nations women but the context of this video does not seem to be directed towards this. many of the issues that the woman in the video raised could be explored through the production of a series of several online video produced by these and other first nations. the potential for online video is increasing as more people are using websites to upload videos and exchanges ideas about them. online videos can be viewed globally by those who have access to internet technology. they are an avenue for education on the realities of first nations people in canada as well as other indigenous groups around the world and for informing the public from a grass-roots perspective that may otherwise not be available through mainstream media. access to video technology and the internet are making it increasingly possible for the general public to view or share information on events or issues that in the past would not have been widely available. if this type of technology had been available during specific past first nations events it could have made the public aware of the issues and realities of first nations people in canada. the creation of online videos by first nations people about for example the events in quebec in 1990, often referred to as the “oka crisis” where a confrontation between the first nations people at kanehsatake and the nearby community of oka took place over first nations traditional land territory being developed into a golf course by non-first nations people (roth, 1992) would have provided these first nations with the opportunity to present to the public their own perspective rather than relying on mainstream media sources. online videos have the capacity to demonstrate the reality of first nations people such as the living conditions in communities with contaminated water. they also have the potential to capture the stories of the elders and residential school survivors in order to preserve culture and history from the first nations perspective.. other potential benefits of online videos for first nations women in canada as well as for indigenous women globally include connecting to resources that they may otherwise not have access to locally, including educational videos made available on websites such as k-net or atlantic first nations helpdesk as well as accessing information or creating awareness with other indigenous women’s groups globally. issues that first nations women are raising now have the potential to reach a wider audience than ever before. first nations women producing and disseminating their own online videos capture their perspectives much better than a reporter from the outside writing for the mainstream media. online videos have the potential to reach an audience that does not always tap into the mainstream media. this type of technology can be utilized now by first nations women who are trying to send a message and gain support. online videos are an alternate avenue of representation by first nations people and especially first nations women because they allow easy access to technology that can be used to create or produce videos that voice their own reality and experiences as demonstrated by the video “north american next top indian model”. they can share their stories, educate their audience and have an impact on how a mainstream audience views them. as well, online videos have the potential to contribute or create an alternative or aboriginal public sphere that would allow indigenous people as well as the general public to access information on indigenous issues and organize around issues, take action and inform others of what is going on. building critical media literacy skills provides the essential tools to challenge and question the authority of all media and the assumption that it represents reality and accurately portrays or represents others. first nations women using critical media literacy skills to create online videos and distribute them in an alternative or aboriginal public sphere can challenge mainstream media information and provide information from an aboriginal women’s perspective that would otherwise not be available to the mainstream public. video-sharing online for public access challenges the authority of what is made public for viewing. no longer can issues be hidden or presented from only one perspective. it creates an avenue that brings forth voices and images that are normally invisible as well as the reality of first nations experiences that could have an impact on public perceptions. the use of online video is in its infancy and first nations women are just beginning to realize the powerful potential of this new visual media. future research should focus on how first nations women are tapping into this potential to create new possibilities for themselves as individuals and as a collective force that can shape a new reality for first nations people in canada. acknowledgement this research was conducted as part of the videocom project (firstnation.videocom.ca), a partnership of the national research council, the university of new brunswick, keewaytinook okimakanak, atlantic canada’s first nation help desk, and the first nations education council. the project is supported by in-kind contributions from the project partners and grants from the social sciences and humanities research council of canada (sshrc). references avison, s., & meadows, m. (2000). speaking and hearing: aboriginal newspapers and the public sphere in canada and australia. canadian journal of communication, 25(3), 1-16. bery, r. (2003). participatory video that empowers. in s. white (ed.), participatory video: images that transform and empower (pp. 102-121). new delhi: sage publications. dudley, m. j. (2003). the transformative power of video: ideas, images, processes and outcomes. in s. white (ed.), participatory video: images that transform and empower (pp. 145-156). new delhi: sage publications. fraser, n. (1996). rethinking the public sphere: a contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy. in c. calhoun (ed.), habermas and the public sphere. cambridge: mit. habermas, j. (1989 [1962]). the structural transformation of the public sphere: an inquiry into a category of bourgeois society. cambridge: polity. kellner, d., & share, j. (2005). toward critical media literacy: core concepts, debates, organizations, and policy. discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 26(3), 369-386. kincheloe, j. l., & mclaren, p. (1994). rethinking critical theory and qualitative research. in n. denzin & y. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks: sage publications. kindon, s. (2003). participatory video in geographic research: a feminist practice of looking. area, 35(2), 142-153. mcgillivray, a., & comaskey, b. (1999). black eyes all the time: intimate violence, aboriginal women, and the justice system. toronto, buffalo, & london: university of toronto press. miller, e. (2004). the public sphere, folklore, and interactive telecommunication in rural india. in m. d. muthukumaraswamy & m. kaushal (eds.), folklore, public sphere and civil society. chennai: national folklore support centre. miller, j.r. (2000). skyscrapers hide the heavens: a history of indian-white relations in canada. toronto: university of toronto press. mullings, l. (2004). images, ideology and women of color. in l. f. rakow & l. a. wackwitz (ed.), feminist communication theory (pp. 237-253). thousand oaks california: sage publications. perley, s., & o'donnell, s. (2006). broadband video communication research in first nation communities, canadian communication association annual conference. york u., toronto. rakow, l. f., & wackwitz, l. a. (2004). "representation in feminist communication theory". in l. f. rankow & l. a. wackwitz (ed.), feminist communication theory (pp. 171-186). thousand oaks california: sage publications. riecken, t., conibear, f., michel, c., lyall, j. et. al. (2006). resistance through re-presenting culture: aboriginal student filmmakers and a participatory action research project on health and wellness. canadian journal of education, 29(1), 265-268. roth, l. (1992). “media and the commodification of crisis”. in m. raboy & b. dagenais (ed.), media, crisis and democracy (pp. 144-161). london: sage publications. royal commission on aboriginal peoples. (1996). report of the royal commission on aboriginal peoples: government of canada. stevenson, w. (1999). colonialism and first nation women in canada. in e. dua & a. robertson (eds.), scratching the surface: canadian anti-racist, feminist thought (pp. 49-75). toronto: women's press. tyson, l. (1999). critical theory today: a user friendly guide. new york & london: garland publishing. valaskakis, g. g. (1993). parallel voices: indians and othersnarratives of cultural struggle. canadian journal of communication, 18(3), 1-10. weedon, c. “feminism, theory and the politics of difference”. oxford: blackwell publishing, 1999 white, s. a. (2003). involving people in a participatory process. in s. a. white (ed.), participatory video: images that transform and empower (pp. 33-62). new delhi: sage publications. white, s. a. (2003b). participatory video: a process that transforms the self and the other. in s. a. white (ed.), participatory video: images that transform and empower (pp. 63-101). new delhi: sage publications. white, s. a. (ed.). (2003). participatory video: images that transform and empower. new delhi: sage publications. 1 online videos are videos available for viewing on the internet. first nations is a term commonly used in canada to refer to one of the three founding indigenous peoples of this land; the others are inuit or métis. joci creating community, rejecting community: migrant women in beijing elisa oreglia school of information uc berkeley elisa@ischool.berkeley.edu introduction in the summer 2007, i conducted a 2-month research1 on the social lives of six young chinese rural-to-urban migrant women in beijing and their use of information and communication technologies (ict). i did a series of semi-structured interviews, and spent considerable lengths of time participating to their social activities, as well as observing them while at work. between 2007 and 2009, i remained in more or less regular contact with three of the interviewees, through occasional emails and online chats, and i have had a chance to observe from afar some of the changes that were occurring in their lives and in their ict use. in the summer 2009, back in beijing, i was able to meet again five of the six original interviewees, to again interview and spend time with them. a longitudinal analysis is particularly useful when taking the use of ict as an entry point to understand people’s lives, because it allows the researcher to be aware of the greater context of her findings. in 2007, there was virtually no internet use among my interviewees, and i was not expecting the dramatic change i found in the summer 2009, when everybody was using social networking websites. although i cannot point to specific factors that have caused this change, if indeed they exist, the existence of the change itself has been an important lesson on the necessity to take a long-term approach when developing policies or programs based on ict. in discussing the discipline of social informatics and its objectives, rob kling states that “our point… is to understand how (people and groups) behavior can help us develop empirically-grounded concepts that help us to predict (or at least understand) variations in the ways that people and groups use information technologies.” (1999). understanding changes in behaviors through time can help us grasp better the relationship between people and information technologies. ‘change’ is, in fact, the main theme of this paper, and the lives of the women i interviewed are more in flux than more established segments of the population. they are part of what in china is known as ‘the floating population,’ that is migrants who move back and forth between the countryside and urban areas, and find themselves as ‘in-betweeners,’ as tamara jacka defines them, people who are neither urbanites nor locals (jacka 2006, solinger 1999). their use of ict is in constant flux. the communities to which they belong are ever-changing: they are caught between home-based communities, embodied by family and former classmates, and newly-created urban communities that are made of other migrant workers. both communities are alternatively embraced and rejected. meanwhile, their urban experience is characterized by failed attempts at joining communities of urbanites, who are typically unwelcoming. in this paper, i explore the existence of different communities, and how ict are, can be, or are not, tools to support them. in 2007, i interviewed six women: three who worked at a university (ms wang, ms long and ms xie), and three who worked in the private sector, in beauty and massage parlors (ms wei, ms song and ms wu).2 they were all in their early twenties, from different provinces, and had been in beijing for three to seven years; some of them had boyfriends, a couple of them were transforming their jobs into careers. only one of the women had family in the city, while all the others came alone or with friends from their various hometowns. they chose beijing because it is the capital, and they all thought that they would find many more opportunities there than back home. they all found jobs right away, and although these jobs often turned out to be less than ideal, nobody was planning to go back home in the near future. they all went back home for more or less regular visits, at least once a year and more often if time and money allowed, and a couple of them said that their families wanted them to go back to get married. the interviewees belong to two distinct groups: one that represents a more established pattern of migration, where young, unmarried women go (or are sent) to work in the city in order to help financially their families. ms xie, ms long and to a certain extent ms wang belong to this group: they moved to the city to help support their families, and are sending part of their wages back home. the second group represents a different type of migration, where young women move to urban areas mainly to see the world and fulfill their ambitions, and do not need to send money back home. ms wei, ms song, ms wu moved to beijing with this self-realization goal in mind, to find good jobs and improve their chances in life, and without any financial obligation toward their family of origin.3 as i will describe more in detail later, the shift from the former “need-based” to the latter “desire-driven” migration shapes the way these women perceive their jobs and their income. even though the two groups are very similar in terms of how they live, their work conditions and hours, their ambitions, and even their spending patterns (most of their disposable income goes towards fashion items and ict), the women who do not need to send money home are readier to change jobs and take risks, as well as less concerned about saving money. the following short biographical sketches might be useful to understand better the lives of these women as individuals, rather than as simply part of the group of anonymous chinese internal migrants that are notable mostly for their numbers.4 ms wang (25 years-old in 2009) is from shanxi, and has been in beijing since 2000. when she was in her early teen, her parents and elder brother moved to beijing to work at a university, and she joined them as soon as she finished middle school. she has worked at the same university first as a waitress, and then in the foreign students building. in 2007, she made about 1,500 renminbi per month, and gave all her earnings to her father, who then gave her an allowance. in 2009, she is still working at the university; she has been promoted and is now in charge of the daily managing of the international students building, under an administrator. in theory, her shifts are quite regular, but in practice she is on call whenever there are other people’s shifts to cover, or events that require a certain degree of decision making, such as guest registration. she is now earning about 2,800 renminbi per month, which she considers quite good, especially compared to current wages outside. in 2007, she lived in a shared room in the university dorms for staff. she recently married, and is now living with her husband at her in-laws house. ms long (23) and ms xie (24) also work at a university, ms long at the reception of the international students building, and ms xie as a cashier in one of the campus supermarkets. their family situations are very similar: they are both the eldest daughters, ms long of three and ms xie of four children, they were both sent by their families to beijing as soon as they finished middle school to earn money to keep their younger siblings in school, and they are both supposed to send half of their pay back home. both women like shopping very much, and struggle with the fact that, as ms xie puts it, “pressures (to buy clothes and keep up with others) are high, and money is not enough.” in 2009, ms long is still at the university, and has been promoted to a position of more responsibility. the wage is about 1,700 renminbi per month, a substantial increase since 2007. she still lives in the dormitory at the university, sharing her room with seven other colleagues. her parents still expect her to send half of her pay home, but, as in 2007, she still sends less because “there is so much to buy in the city!” and because now her sister works, so there is less need for her money. ms xie has left the university, and i have not been able to talk to her, but her former colleagues told me that she is still in beijing. ms song (25) is from anhui, and has been in beijing since 2004. in 2007, she worked as receptionist /supervisor/accountant for an upscale nail salon, which also provided her with a room, shared with three other colleagues. she had a boyfriend, for whom she had found a job at the same salon, and was saving money to get married; she did not need to send money to her family. she got married in october 2007; in 2008 she was promoted to manager of the nail salon; in early 2009 she moved out of the dorm to rent a small apartment; in august of the same year she had a baby, and was planning to go back to work as soon as possible. ms wu (27) is from shanxi, has been in beijing since 2001 and works as a masseuse. she arrived with a few middle school friends, to see the world rather than to make money for her family. she is the youngest of six children, the only female, and by her own admission rather spoilt. in beijing she soon realized that she was working hard, but her boss was the one making money, so she decided that she wanted “to be the boss.” in may 2007 she and five colleagues opened their own massage parlor. they were making less money than when they were employed, but enough to live on, and, they all agreed, worth the freedom. the shop closed early this year, but all the partners are still in beijing, some back to salaried work, some unemployed. ms wu is currently unemployed, but is not looking for a job. she has gone back to school to study japanese. for the time being she says she is happy “resting” and has enough money to get by without a job. she rents a room in an apartment, which she shares with one of the friends with whom she came to beijing and with whom she set up the massage parlor. she has a boyfriend and he wants to get married, but she wants to wait, because “after you get married, there is a lot of pressure to have children, and children are expensive.” ms wei (20) is from shaanxi, and has been in beijing since 2004. she came “to see the capital,” and to become a beautician. she has three siblings, one of whom is in beijing, but does not need to send money back home. in 2007 she spent most of her earnings in shopping and fun, and she says that this is still true in 2009. in 2007, she really liked her job as manicurist, but now is bored and is not sure what to do in the future. she has changed workplaces a few times in the past two years, and has moved to different neighborhoods, unlike the other interviewees who have stayed in the same area where they first found a job. she goes home every few months, often after quitting a job, but always comes back to beijing. she says that her future will be here. all these women work in the service industry, rather than in factories, and this is significant for at least three reasons. firstly, women in the service sector work and live according to a very different schedule than women working in factories. while the latter’s lives are dominated by the clock (lee 1998), the patterns in the service sector were – and still are much more fluid. waiting for clients in a beauty salon – at work, but not working – sometimes takes most of the day (and incidentally those are moments of intense ict usage); if there are clients at closing time, then work continues until the clients leave. passing time, in the sense of not doing productive work, but rather sitting around at the workplace and waiting, in a sense defines these women’s working lives. their working hours are as long if not longer than women working in factories, and they cannot leave their workplaces as they please. downtime, however, is interwoven with work time. secondly, women working in factories live away from the city center, in peripheral areas where there are only other factories and a few basic shops. they spend most of their time there, among other migrant workers, and away from the everyday of city life. women working in the service industry live everywhere in the city; even when they live in dorms provided by their employers (as all but one of my interviewees did in 2007), these are close to their workplace. they live in the city in a manner that is inaccessible to their colleagues living in factories, and although they do not intermingle very much with urban dwellers, they build stronger and more lasting ties with urban life than other migrants. indeed, as i found in 2009, they are very likely to stay in the city and become a new type of urban resident, who maintains family ties with the countryside, and creates a new life and a new network of ties within the city proper, rather than in the ‘cities of migrants’ that grow around industrial areas. finally, the fact that most of my interviewees came to the city on their own, and that once in the city they live in small groups, with more freedom than factory workers, means that they are freer from the (despotic) localistic networks that still characterize most internal female migration (lee 1998).5 in other words, once in the city they are not tied to their co-villagers as factory workers often are, and they can create new networks and new communities with migrant workers who come from other provinces and work in different sectors. ms wu is a good example of someone who has maintained links with co-villagers by choice rather than because forced by the circumstances (she has known the woman she currently lives with since they were little girls), and at the same time has created new, strong ties with women from other provinces: the women with whom she set up the massage parlor are all from different provinces, and they all met while working in different massage places in beijing. urban life and multiple communities migrant workers in the city belong to several communities at once. one is composed by their co-workers, with whom they spend most of their time (migrant workers usually live in dormitories provided by their employers). one can be made of co-villagers, who, as discussed above, are often also co-workers. then there are virtual communities of people who are geographically distant: former classmates and friends; family back home, or family members who are also migrant workers. and finally there is the general community of ‘migrant workers,’ the ‘club’ they would prefer to not be part of, and which segregates people coming from the countryside from urban dwellers. this latter ‘community’ is defined as such by the government, which originally created it by enacting rules on residency (hukou) that tied people to their place of birth and made it extremely difficult for rural people to move permanently to urban areas.6 the perception of migrants as separate from the urban population is reinforced, among other things, by the existence of non-profit/non-governmental organizations dedicated to serve migrant workers (fu 2009). organizations such as the well-known beijing cultural development center for rural women in beijing offer migrants training, legal rights counseling, and opportunities to socialize with other people – other migrant workers – in what can be a very lonely life. i call the communities that are formed through the intermediation of these organizations ‘communities of convenience,’ or communities whose members come together in order to obtain specific services (e.g. computer training), or for a specific purpose (to meet other people) – as opposed to the ‘communities of choice,’ that is family, friends, or groups of people to whom migrants like my interviewees choose to belong. ‘communities of convenience’ can also be communities of co-workers who are thrown together because of work and living arrangements. all the women who lived in dorms shared their bedrooms with four to six other colleagues, and bathrooms and kitchens with dozen others. roommates, who are often workmates as well, cannot be chosen, and this forced, prolonged proximity can result in long-lasting friendships, but can also be a source of constant tension. even when a woman does not like or get along with her co-workers and roommates, they are often the only group of urban acquaintances she has access to, since meeting and befriending urban residents is very difficult. ms long and ms xie did not like to spend their free day with their roommates, but often did it anyway, because they did not have other friends. ms wei often changed jobs and dorms to escape this situation, until she decided to spend more money on her accommodation so that she could share her room with only one roommate. ms wu, on the other hand, made the transition between ‘community of convenience’ to ‘community of choice’ by keeping in touch with a few of her former co-workers with whom she got along, and by starting her own shop with them. clearly, these communities are part of a continuum that is highly dependent on time, place, and circumstances. what was, in the past, a ‘community of convenience’ like a group of classmates, becomes a ‘community of choice’ once one lives away from it, in a urban environment that is often not welcoming towards migrants. family is not chosen, and indeed the rejection of family can play an important part into some women’s decision to migrate (gaetano 2004). but once one is away, family can become the community that offers acceptance and reliability. similarly, people met through ‘communities of convenience’ can become fast friends. ict play a role in both communities. in the case of ngos for migrant women like the beijing cultural development center for rural women, this role is, as far as migrant women are concerned, rather marginal.7 the organization’s website serves mostly to present its work and mission to the external world, to provide information to potential supporters and increasingly as a fund-raising tool. the emphasis in the activities for migrant women is on face-to-face encounters, since one of the goals of the organization is to provide a place where isolated women can meet. however, the unpredictable work schedule of women in the service sector can make attendance to any kind of planned event difficult. my interviewees often had their weekly day off cancelled, cut short, or rescheduled at the last moment, and their work day would end when there were no more clients, rather than at a fixed time. moreover, a strong desire to become part of the urbanized community can result in a certain reluctance to participate to these encounters and be identified, even if only to oneself, as explicitly belonging to a group that caters to migrant women (the “groucho marx” club). women who could benefit from the services of the organizations, but cannot or will not participate to the meetings, are therefore excluded. ms long often talked about her desire to go back to school, but always ruled out attending a class for workers like herself. conversely, ict play a strong role in supporting ‘communities of choice,’ however shifting they may be. all the women i interviewed said that in their first years in beijing, the link with family, and even more with friends from back home was very important. ms xie mentioned that going back home for spring festival, and meeting a group of former classmates for an impromptu dinner, was one of her most cherished memories, because she felt she was among friends and people who really understood her. these ties were supported by mobile phones – occasional calls, frequent text messages – and, in the case of ms song, by chats on qq, an instant messaging software very popular in china. asynchronous communication is very important, because it is a non-intrusive way of maintaining relationships alive despite different schedules and the demands of work. as ms song noticed, “i use text with my friends who work, so that if they are busy they can just answer when they have time.” in my interviewees’ first years in beijing, these home-networks were crucial in providing friendship and familiarity, and this made the adaptation to the new environment easier. as cara wallis points out, “the cell phone emerges… as an “expansive communication tool” used for maintaining ties with friends and lovers who are spread all over china (wallis, 2008). in other words, many migrants have a number of close relationships that are maintained almost strictly through their mobile phone.” (wallis 2009). as the women have become more integrated in the city, their social networks have changed. all my interviewees have now lived in beijing for several years; they have changed jobs, or met new people at their old jobs; they know more people who are staying permanently in the city, and they have more friends, although mostly migrant workers rather than urban residents. ms wang is marrying a beijing resident, but she is the exception, and her in-laws made it clear to her that they are disappointed that their son would marry a migrant woman. at the same time, ties with people back home weaken after a few years away. ms xie went back home for a visit in the summer 2007, and when she came back earlier than expected she confessed that she had been at home with her mother most of the time, and had become very bored. her friends and classmates who were still in the village had a life that was completely different from hers: they had married, had children, and were too busy to hang out with her. paradoxically, when at home she spent a lot of time texting friends living in other places. ms song remarked in 2007 that she often called or text messaged her friends from back home, both those who had stayed and those who were migrant workers themselves, because it was hard to find friends in beijing. now she has many more friends who also live in beijing, some colleagues, some former colleagues, and some friends of friends who have become her friends, again all migrant workers. most of her calls and text messages are now for this new group of friends, and she does not maintain her ties with old friends very actively. occasionally, she says there is a group chat on qq of old classmates, but much less often than before. these new ‘communities of choice’ are built upon face-to-face experiences, and then kept alive through mobile communication and increasingly, as i will discuss below, social networking websites. in 2007, i found that these communities were always a ‘lost mobile phone away’ from disappearing: it was enough for a woman to lose her mobile phone (a very frequent occurrence especially if she lived in dorms and did not have any place to store her possession securely) to lose touch with all the members of her network with whom she was not in daily, face-to-face contact. now, however, it is possible to get one’s phone number back from the phone company, so even though the address book is lost, one can still be reached (and in fact, when i came back in 2009 all my interviewees still had the same phone number, even though they all had new phones, often because they lost the old ones). mobile phones are not the only ict that supports these ‘communities of choice.’ the ict that remains the most familiar, and the most trusted, is television, the omnipresent and constantly referenced source of information, entertainment, and education. television is a medium that can easily disappear in the background, and that allows for intermittent attention, which fits well the professional lives of women working in the service sector. television also contributes to create a shared language of daily life, dreams and aspirations. watching television is often a social activity. ms wang says that what is showing is not as important as the communal experience and the discussion that goes along with it. she has some favorite programs (korean soap-operas in particular, which are very popular among all the interviewees), but she will usually let the younger colleagues decide what to watch. if other people are not joining in, she would rather listen to music. in 2007, ms wu and her colleagues had the television on constantly in their shop. their tv-watching was very fluid: there were a couple of programs they tried to follow, but in general they watched during lulls in the flux of work. two or three of the colleagues were dedicated tv-watchers, the others came and went, or did something else while watching. in 2009, watching television was still a favorite activity, in fact more pervasive than ever. tv programs were accessible almost everywhere: buses had screens streaming television programs and advertisements, as did underground stations and trains; mobile phones with a built-in application to watch television were common and quite cheap (starting at about rmb 600), dvd players doubled as television players. but despite the pervasiveness of television screens, for most of my interviewees television watching is an activity characterized by its communal aspect, something to do with other people. the commenting of the shows was as important as the show itself. in contrast with 2007, the internet-connected laptop had become very popular and very intensively used. in 2007, all the interviewees except ms xie had or could have easily had regular access to a networked computer, at work or in internet cafes, but they scarcely used the internet. ms wang explained: “i did take a 2-week course on how to use the internet, but then i forgot everything. when i look at it, it just doesn’t seem so interesting.” internet cafes were not popular: all interviewees agreed in considering them ‘dirty places,’ literally, because everybody smoked, and figuratively, because the majority of patrons were men, making the places uncomfortable and unwelcoming for women alone. only two of the interviewees, ms song and ms wei, went to internet cafes with a certain regularity. ms song went with her then boyfriend, now husband, who liked to play videogames (she tried, but was not interested); she usually stayed for rather extended periods of time, minimum two hours, but rarely surfed the web. she watched movies, used instant messaging, and sometimes checked her email, but she did not consider this an important activity, so much so that when she wanted to tell me her email address she could not remember it. ms wei was the only woman i met who would visit an internet café by herself, although only during the daytime – at night, she did not feel it was safe, and she would go only with other friends. she used the internet for entertainment purposes, but also to find websites related to her job. in 2009, four of the six interviewees had a laptop: ms song and ms wang shared their husbands’, ms wu bought herself a new one, which she shares with her friends, and ms long bought a used one, which was not connected to the internet but which she used to play games and to watch dvds. ms long started to go to the university internet café with her boyfriend, and all the others had internet access at home, through dsl lines. their computer use is very social, and similar in many ways to their television use. several people shared a computer, and played or searched together. activities were often collective, with one or two people playing, or chatting, and the others watching, commenting, offering suggestions and criticizing search strategies or game preferences. everybody used the computer almost and exclusively as a way to access the internet. in addition to a browser (everybody used internet explorer, and was familiar with multi-tabbing and applications like kingsoft dictionary, which allows to translate chinese to english), the only programs that were used regularly were the instant messaging programs qq and msn chat. email was still not very popular, and was always accessed online. photos were downloaded from digital cameras to the computer, but only to be uploaded to social networking sites. the two most popular social networking websites were 51.com and kaixin001.com these sites have the usual features that are found on social networking websites such as photostream, friends, messages from friends, a diary. kaixin001, however, is best known for its very popular games, and, although targeted at white collars and university students – people who spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen – was very popular among my interviewees. ms wang, ms song and ms wu all had an account, but they did not use its traditional social networking features such as photo streams and messaging. the main point of being on kaixin001 was to play its most popular games. they were all recent users, who started playing sometimes in 2009, out of curiosity, with their boyfriends. but they soon became regular visitors to the site. 51.com is similar to myspace.com, and seems to be particularly popular among migrant workers.8 ms long showed me her profile, the photos she had uploaded, the video she had created using online tools, and her friends’ pages. she is ‘friend’ with a few pop stars, but mostly with other migrant women who are or were colleagues. internet and community: from access, to use, to effective use the evolution in the use of computers and internet among the my research participants, and the way the communities they maintain through the use of mobile phones and internet is changing, might hold some lessons for ngos who are attempting to integrate more ict into their activities, in order to reach more people, to make their work more permanent, and to create more stable communities. as mentioned above, in 2007 most of my research participants had reliable access to computer and the internet. and yet, they mostly remained on the wrong side of the digital divide. they were not like the “have nots” first featured in the 1995 report by the american national telecommunication and information administration (ntia), which pointed out that in the united states, in the early days of the internet “many of the groups that are most disadvantaged in terms of absolute computer and modem penetration are the most enthusiastic users of on-line services that facilitate economic uplift and empowerment. lowincome, minority, young, and less educated computer households in rural areas and central cities appear to be likely to engage actively in searching classified ads for employment, taking educational classes, and accessing government reports, on-line via modem.” (ntia 1995). the only ‘educational’ use of the internet that i witnessed in 2007 was ms wang being forced to learn one english word per day, which her boss sent every morning by email to all the staff. the idea that access was all that was needed to make the leap to job security and empowerment was short-lived, and a more nuanced view emerged, that interpreted digital divide as a wide range of objective and subjective difficulties in using new technologies. warschauer (2002, 2003) suggests that factors such as content, language, literacy, education, community and institutional structures are crucial if people are to use ict in meaningful ways. in particular, he argues that the if lack of access to ict harms life chances, the reverse is true too. in the same vein, gurstein points out that ““access” in all its various components is a pre-condition and an enabler of “effective use” but is not a substitute for it” and that “effective use means that end users can make use of what it is they have access to – in the current form, much of what is currently available (i.e. accessible) is of little use or benefit and some may even be harmful.” (gurstein 2003). my interviewees started out uninterested in the internet, or unable to discover what would be interesting for them there, and evolved into competent users of search engines and websites in two years. their use of the technology to play, chat, and watch movies, was an intermediate but crucial step between access and effective use. use can occur in different ways, depending on the people, the circumstances, the need, and it definitively includes anything to do with entertainment, or with social purposes – that is, not linked to ‘useful’ activities such as looking for jobs or education. in early 2008, ms wu decided together with her colleagues to buy a laptop, because they thought it could be useful for work. soon after the computer was connected to the internet, she wrote to me to announce the news. a few weeks later, she wrote back again to say that they had concluded that computers were worthless for work-related purposes, but that they had all started to see if they could find boyfriends online instead. the use of internet for entertainment purposes has created enough familiarity with the tools needed to play online games, or find a favorite soap opera on a video-sharing website, or tracking down old acquaintances in order to steal their virtual rabbits in one of the most popular games on kaixin001, to allow the users to move to other, more ‘effective’ activities. ms wu, for example, has found the room she currently rents online. her roommate is job hunting online: she has uploaded her resume on the website 51jobs.com, and a few potential employers have called her on her mobile and done a first interview by phone. as she says “it’s very convenient, now: i don’t even have to leave the house to look for a job!” ms song also mentions that when the nail salon she works at needs to hire new people, it relies both on word-of-mouth and on a vacancy notice posted on the shop’s website. shopping is still a real-world activity, but websites are increasingly used to compare prices. in the summer 2009, ms long’s mobile phone broke, and i accompanied her around shops and online as she was looking for a new one. she went first to a store to see the actual phone, and then checked online if it was available for cheaper.9 ms long said that this time she wanted to research well her phone (her third one), and compare prices, because the last one was an impulse buy and she spent more than she should have. and indeed, after looking at the model she liked at the store and noting down its price, she found it on an online store which a colleague had recommended as reputable, and bought it there. conclusions the changes in the lives of the young rural-to-urban migrant women i interviewed in beijing in 2007 and 2009 were accompanied and in part reflected by changes in their use of ict. they moved between ‘communities of convenience,’ that is communities to which they belong by chance, or for practical benefits, or for lack of choice – for example, group of co-workers with whom they also shared living accommodations – and ‘communities of choice,’ initially embodied by their families and friends back home, and subsequently by urban co-workers who become friends. mobile phones played a role in supporting both kind of ties. they were used to keep in touch with colleagues, or with work, as well as to maintain contact with their communities of choice. what initially did not play a role in any of these communities was the internet. although everybody had more or less convenient access to the internet, it was not used very much, partly because it was not perceived as something very interesting. the exception were instant messaging programs such as qq, used, again, to keep in touch with friends. in 2009, the five women i interviewed again are loaded with ict and connectivity. they all still own mobile phones, now internet-enabled camera-phones; four of them own their own laptop; three of them have access to the internet in their living places, and the fourth goes often to an internet café. social networking websites are where most of their online activity is concentrated, but their newly acquired fluency with the use of a browser and with performing searches, partly due to their use of the internet for entertainment purposes, is put to use into more ‘valuable’ activities such as looking for jobs, searching for accommodation, and price comparison when going shopping. i am not suggesting a teleological trajectory in the use of ict, that sees the online role-playing game world of warcraft as the gateway to taking educational classes and accessing government reports online, in a modern-day replay of the early american public libraries debates on whether or not fiction books would open the world of serious literature to the uneducated masses (garrison 2003).10 but looking at ict use as a dynamic rather than a static event, and enlarging the definition of ‘meaningful use’ to include entertainment, can provide a very different picture of how ict fit in people’s lives. search for information is a matter of problem solving (bates 1979), and people adapt their strategies to their circumstances, their needs, and their goals. in other words, information seeking is driven by motivation, not only by ict access, and shaped by previous experiences. going back to the idea of communities, and how they are supported by ict, in 2007 the networks that my interviewees created in the city were rather temporary and short-term oriented. everything was seen in a ‘here and now’ perspective, and once a colleague moved to a new job or back home, she was ‘lost.’ mobile phones were the key tool to support these temporary networks and to support ties with home, but they did not create a wider support network, for example to look for a new job by contacting former colleagues. in 2009, online social networks which require users to have a vast number of contacts in order to play successfully their most popular games have encouraged all my interviewees to rekindle old contacts and find people they knew in the past but who had not remained in touch. ms wang has looked for all the people she has met since arriving at the university nine years ago; with some she just plays, but with a few she has re-established a certain degree of friendship. whether this represents a real change in social relationships or simply a temporary fashion that will be replaced by something else in a few months remains to be seen. but these newly established online identities, combined with retrievable cell phone numbers and with an increased integration in the city, have created a more traceable, less ‘floating’ urban identity, which might be one step closer to creating a less discriminated migrant population. what lessons are there for ngos whose goal is also to help migrants integration in urban areas, as well as to increase right awareness and facilitate the creation of new communities? how can ict be integrated into their activities in a way that targets the people they serve, and not only their donors and supporters? two aspects stand out when looking at my interviewees use of ict. one, ict are equally part of their social and their working lives, and increasingly include the internet, accessed both through computers and mobile phones. two, use of ict complements and supports existing communities and existing ties, many of which are the ‘weak links’ that lead to better jobs and to social mobility (granovetter 1981). it does so by integrating entertainment and social moments into work-related tasks. colleagues will text each other about switching shifts, but will also forward jokes and make plans for free days. on a day off, while out shopping, ms song saw some items that she thought would be appropriate for the nail salon, so she called her boss and then proceeded to buy them on her behalf. boundaries are fluid, and do not respect the division between workand free-time that characterizes the activities that ngos organize for migrant workers. ict can bring some of these activities to workers who cannot attend, for example through online classes or instructional videos. more importantly, it can help to foster a sense of community by letting organizations keep in touch with their constituencies in informal ways, and by letting migrant workers remain in touch socially after they participate to training and workshops. if people who meet in person in a class find entertaining ways to keep in touch afterwards, for example through social networking websites, they might be more likely to develop a sense of positive community. warschauer identifies several strategies critical to promoting social capital in community technology projects, implying that an increase in social capital will allow a more effective use of ict in supporting weak ties. among them are leveraging community resources and mapping and connecting community resources and organizing new social alliances (2003). however, it is difficult to leverage community resources when people are so disconnected from the communities where they live, and have jobs and schedules that do not facilitate the creation of face-to-face, physical communities. ict, and specifically ict for ‘entertainment’ and for social purposes, could be an important step in transforming communities of convenience into more sustainable and long-lasting communities of choice that can have a real impact on the society into which they are embedded. references bates, m. j. (1979). information search tactics. journal of the american society for information science. 30 (4), 205-14. cartier, c., castells, m., & qiu, j. l. (2005). the information have-less: inequality, mobility, and translocal networks in chinese cities. studies in comparative international development (scid). 40 (2), 9-34. chan, k.w., & buckingham, w. (2008). is china abolishing the hukou system? *. the china quarterly. 195 (01), 582-606. davin, d. (1999). internal migration in contemporary china. new york, n.y.: st. martin’s press. fu, d. (2009). a cage of voices: producing and doing dagongmei in contemporary china. modern china. 35 (5), 527-561. gaetano, a. m. (2004). filial daughters, modern women: migrant domestic workers in post-mao beijing. in a. m. gaetano and t. jacka (eds.), on the move: women and rural-to-urban migration in contemporary china. new york: columbia university press. garrison, d. (2003). apostles of culture: the public librarian and american society, 1876-1920. madison, wis: university of wisconsin press. granovetter, m. (1981). the strength of weak ties: a network theory revisited. albany: state university of new york, department of sociology. gurstein, m. (2003). effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. first monday. 8(12). retrieved october 28, 2009, from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1107/1027 jacka, t. (2005). rural women in urban china: gender, migration, and social change. armonk, n.y.: m.e. sharpe. kling, r. (2007). what is social informatics and why does it matter? the information society. 23 (4), 205-220. lee, c. k. (1998). gender and the south china miracle: two worlds of factory women. berkeley: university of california press qiu, j. l. (2009). working-class network society: communication technology and the information have-less in urban china. cambridge, mass: mit press. solinger, d. j. (1999). contesting citizenship in urban china: peasant migrants, the state, and the logic of the market. berkeley: university of california press. united states. (1995).falling through the net: a survey of the “have nots” in rural and urban america washington, d.c.: u.s. dept. of commerce, national telecommunications and information administration.retrieved november 4, 2009, from http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fallingthru.html wallis, c. (2009). new media practices in china, part 2: mobile phones. blog post on futures of learning. retrieved november 5, 2009, from http://futuresoflearning.org/index.php/firda_08/comments/new_media_practices_in_china_mobile_phones/ warschauer, m. (2002). reconceptualizing the digital divide. first monday 7(7). retrieved november 6, 2009, from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/967/888 warschauer, m. (2003). technology and social inclusion rethinking the digital divide. cambridge, mass: mit press. 1 the 2007 research was supported by a grant from intel. the 2009 research was partially supported by a grant from intel. i am very grateful to barbara woodward, suzanne l. thomas and the people and practice research group at intel. 2 names have been changed, provinces of origin have not. phrases in quotation marks are from both 2007 and 2009 interviews. 3 from the earliest days of the recent wave of internal migration, female migrants mentioned “see the world and have a taste of freedom” as an important motivation for leaving their place of origin, much more so than male migrants, who put “earning more money” as their primary reason (jacka 2005). however, until recently, even women who migrated ‘to see the world’ sent money back home, contrary to what half of my interviewee in 2007 and all but one in 2009 do. 4 in 2006, the chinese national statistics bureau counted 131.81 million of migrant workers, but unofficial estimates hover around 200 million (cartier et al. 2006) 5 in her study of southern china factory women, ching-kwan lee noticed that the workforce in a shenzhen factory was organized strictly along ‘localistic networks,’ where people from the same village and often same family stuck together. these networks, always dominated by men, are crucial to bring workers to a factory, to provide identity papers and other documents necessary to work, to find out information about other jobs, etc, and are very similar to the localistic networks that characterized the chinese (and other countries’) international diaspora through the years. 6 before 1978, movement within china was strictly regulated through a household registration system (hukou). people could get a job and access social services only in the place where they were registered, which ensured that the state maintained a strict control over who could move where (davin 1999:5). the establishment of a ‘socialist market economy’ put the population in motion, as the booming industrial sector in coastal areas required extra labor. the state changed slightly the rules on residency, and people with a rural hukou were allowed to enter cities, although they could not (and still usually cannot) officially move their residence. the lack of access to housing, education, and social safety net has been very effective in guaranteeing that most migrants return permanently to their homes, regardless of how many years they have been away (qiu 2009). however, recently there has been a considerable relaxation of these rules. for example, since 2001, there have been several pilot projects in different towns that have allowed migrant workers to register as urban residents under certain conditions, and some provinces have been experimenting with the devolution of regulations pertaining residency to local entities, rather than the provincial government (chan 2008). 7 i had first-hand experience on the organization’s use of ict since i volunteered there in 2005-2006 to help their webmaster on web design issues. 8 jack qiu, personal communication, 2009 9 since chinese websites offer many ways to pay that do not depend on having credit or debit cards (e.g. paying at the post office with a money order, at a store on delivery, or directly on home delivery), buying online is accessible even to people who do not have bank accounts or bank cards. 10 i am grateful to elisabeth jones of the information school, university of washington for this observation.   community networking and public benefits  arthur cordell industry canada / mass communication, carleton university < cordell.arthur@ic.gc.ca >  paula a.romanow mass communication, carleton university < paularomanow@ns.sympatico.ca >   abstract in general, healthy networks seem to result in improved community welfare i.e., they are characteristic of public benefits. the converse is true of unhealthy networks. this paper explores if healthy networks are where limited government funding should be focused in order to get the greatest social payback, or if these funds should be spent helping to improve the strength of less healthy networks and communities, in order to improve the well-being of the country as a whole. it will do so by examining if community networks, both virtual and place-based, create public benefits on both the macro and micro levels.   introduction everywhere one turns today, one is bombarded with talk of community, and networks, and computers, and often all three things at once. from the first glimmerings of the economic potential inherent in the new information and communication technologies (icts), the rhetoric from governments, academics, business, and community economic development (ced) organizations has held that if a community has access to and uses icts, then economic well-being is sure to follow. however, as experience has shown, this is not necessarily the case. for while icts do hold a great potential for immense positive benefits, not just in economic terms, but in broader applications for creating community networks to deal with civic engagement, education, health and other social services, as well as overall general knowledge and connectivity, they are tools, and the potential lies in how they are used, not their mere presence. however, if government is going to fund community networks, it is important to identify which of these networks are more likely to generate positive externalities (that whole range of benefits from the somewhat tangible to the quite intangible such as community self-worth); these externalities are often referred to as social capital, and it is in this special sense that "public benefit[1]" aspects are attributed to community networks. some community networks are healthy[2], i.e., they generate lots of external or social benefits. some are less healthy, i.e., they generate few or no external benefits. in fact, unhealthy networks might be found to generate external or social costs, (e.g., putting or keeping in place undemocratic ways of governing). in general, it seems evident that healthy networks result in improved community welfare. they have more of a "public benefit" characteristic. the converse is true with unhealthy networks. therefore, is it towards healthy networks that limited government funding should be focused in order to get the greatest social payback? or should these funds be spent helping to improve the strength of less healthy networks and communities, in order to improve the well-being of the country as a whole? this paper sets out to try and answer these questions by exploring whether or not community networks, both virtual and place-based, create public benefits on both the macro and micro levels. for if government can distinguish between healthy and unhealthy network investment situations, then there is the possibility for wiser spending on the part of government and increased welfare for the general community. in an attempt to facilitate this decision-making process, this article will set out to determine which investment decisions are likely to yield the greatest benefits. it will do so by, first of all, ascertaining to what extent the concept of "public benefit" arising from community networks has been addressed to date; this will take the shape of an exploration of the concept of social capital, followed by a discussion of whether or not icts help to generate positive social ties. secondly, drawing upon the existing literature, the paper will attempt to create a "taxonomy of public benefits" by identifying both tangible and intangible indicators of both healthy and less healthy community networks. finally, we offer some recommendations for funding models that will ensure that the public goods aspects of community networks are optimized. this sounds simple enough, but there are a number of issues that come to light when one starts to delve beneath the apparently obvious concepts of healthy and less-healthy communities. for instance, what exactly is a community? is it a place-based geographical entity? a group that comes together to share similar interests? a group which engages in similar practices and beliefs? individuals who never actually meet in person, but only interact in cyberspace? or indeed, all of the above? further, what is a useful definition of community network? for the purposes of funding, should community networks be solely defined by technology? what about other types of networks found within communities such as those of kinship, friendship, business associates, religion, practice, shared interests, education and so on? for a community, no matter how it is defined, is made up of an immense number of networks, a multi-dimensional series of interconnections between people, organizations, macro-entities such as government and global corporations, and indeed the technologies with which all of these things interact. it is, of course, of prime importance that these networks function in such a way as to create well-being in a community, i.e., that they generate social capital. it seems easy at first glance to see if a community is functioning in such a way as to provide the greatest possible set of public benefits to its members; is there a feeling of civic pride, community cohesion, sustainability, etc.? but sometimes what appears on the surface to be working well, may in fact harbour deep-rooted problems. so what indicators can be used to tangibly measure what is often intangible? how to measure the unmeasurable? further, how exactly do we determine what is beneficial? what may be of great public benefit to one community may well be of no public benefit to another. therefore, is it possible to extrapolate any given set of indicators across all cases? and how do we fit icts into this discussion of what exactly constitutes public benefits? all of these questions are of prime importance to government because it is their job to allocate a finite number of resources in such a way as to provide the largest number of benefits to the greatest number of citizens. but what if funding could be "fine-tuned?" what if funding could be allocated so that it is targeted at those communities where there is a greater potential for social benefits? either the community in question possesses such characteristics already, or the creation of a community network is likely to create social benefits. such knowledge would lead to "smarter" funding. thus, having a sense of such indicators would benefit not just government, but also those communities in search of funding. before considering just what these indicators might be, however, it is important to first explore the concepts of social capital, and community.   the role of social capital in determining public benefits social capital, which putnam (2000) defines as “social networks and the trust and reciprocity that arise from them” (p. 19), is increasingly being understood as perhaps the most significant factor in determining a community’s resilience. indeed, australian social commentator eva cox suggests that “social capital should be the pre-eminent and most valued form of any capital as it provides the basis on which we build a truly civil society. without our social bases we cannot be fully human. social capital is as vital as language for human society” (in cavaye, 2004, p. 2). as alejandro portes (1998) points out, social capital is a term imported from the sociological literature into everyday language. in the process, however, it has “evolved into something of a cure-all for the maladies affecting society at home and abroad…[and] the point is approaching at which social capital comes to be applied to so many events and in so many different contexts as to lose any distinct meaning” (p. 2). portes traces the term social capital to pierre bourdieu[3], who briefly discussed the concept first in 1980, and then at more length in his chapter “the forms of capital”, which appeared in a 1985 text on the sociology of education. bourdieu’s definition of social capital is more detailed than the more generally used one by putnam seen above; bourdieu suggests that it is “the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance or recognition” (in portes, 1998, p. 3). this definition goes one step beyond putnam’s in that it emphasizes the quality and quantity of the resources, e.g., trust and reciprocity, that arise from social networks. bourdieu also stresses the inherently economic outcomes of social interactions, and indeed, of all forms of capital, although he acknowledges that the processes that create various forms of capital do not necessarily arise from an economic base. indeed, bourdieu considers these processes to be the opposite of market exchanges in that they tend to lack clarity and well-defined time-lines, and the reciprocal obligations inherent in them are usually unspecified and have the potential to be violated. however bourdieu’s discussion makes plain how easily the idea of social capital could be adopted by business and government and translated into purely economic terms. as portes shows, economists such as loury, coleman, and ben-porath (in portes, 1998), did indeed adopt the idea of social capital and develop its connections with other kinds of capital from an economic basis rather than a sociological one. nonetheless, unlike financial or physical capital, social capital has been both interpreted and applied in a wide variety of situations.[4] portes, in his extensive review of the literature, identifies three basic functions of social capital: 1) as a source of social control and rule enforcement; 2) as a source of family support; and 3) as a source of benefits through extra-familial networks, which he suggests is by far the most common use, a finding supported by much of the community development literature (see, for example, healy & hampshire, 2003; odasz, n.d.; onyx & bullen, 2000; and of course, putnam, 2000). but virtually all of the literature surveyed for this paper agrees that there is no single, clear definition of social capital; one could even go so far as to say that this is one of its hallmarks. however, following cavaye (2004) and others, social capital has the following general characteristics: participation in networks of various kinds (e.g., family, neighbourhood, friends, business), reciprocity, trust, social norms, a sense of the “commons”, and pro-activity and cooperation. further, cavaye (2004, p. 4-5) lists the following established understandings of social capital: it consists of three related forms i.e., bonding (relations between relatively homogenous groups such as family), bridging (ties across heterogeneous groups such as friends and colleagues), and linking (ties across social strata and community members accessing resources and information beyond the community itself). it interacts with other forms of capital. communities have large reserves of latent social capital, evidenced in times of crisis as the community comes together without question to solve problems (e.g., in the face of a natural disaster). it is both a means and an end, i.e., it can mediate both relationships and participation that can, in turn, lead to concrete outcomes; while at the same time the relationships and networks that mediate these actions become strengthened. it fundamentally involves values, and what is considered to be “good” social capital cannot help but be a value judgment. it must be considered in the larger community context. it is a public good that increases as people within a community “use” it and decreases if they don’t[5]. it is also important to note that we must be cautious in considering social capital as a panacea for all problems concerning community. while it is true that the more social capital a community has, the more resilient it is, it is not a given that this resilient community will function in a positive manner. for instance, strong social networks also may support things like racism, bigotry, chauvinism, or a culture of poverty, drugs and/or crime. in instances such as these, social capital may well serve to ostracize those trying to change the culture in any way. in the same way, it can support unjust power structures at the macro level, and bolster dysfunctional familial ties at the micro level. "social capital can consist of not only trust but also mistrust; information transferred between people can also be misinformation; and unjust norms can be perpetuated. strong bonding social capital can reduce tolerance of outsiders, stifle innovation and disagreement, support unhealthy norms, and cause people to reject alternatives” (cavaye, 2004, p. 5). as onyx and bullen (2000) demonstrate in their study of five australian communities, both bonding and bridging forms of social capital are just as likely to have a negative impact on a community as a positive one, especially where issues of diversity are present. on the other hand, communities that have strong linking social capital tend to be more outward-looking, and often more resilient in a positive and sustainable manner. despite the body of literature that focuses on the “dark side” of social capital (e.g., cohen & prusak, 2001; portes, 1998; portes & sensenbrenner, 1993; uzzi, 1997), there is a tendency to consider social capital within a communitarian perspective, and it is in this sense that icts and social capital are discussed in this paper.             the role of icts in developing social capital it would appear at first glance that icts, and especially the internet, being inherently about interconnections and networks, should support and facilitate social and communal networks. indeed, until fairly recently, icts have been enthusiastically held up as generators of social capital. this is particularly true in the mainstream, non-academic literature, where the rhetoric often outstrips real-world experience, occasionally with worrying results[6] (see, for instance, odasz, n.d.; association for community networking, n.d.; national civic league, 2003). but it is also seen in the work of the so-called cyberutopians, those academics such as lévy (1997), heim (1998) and de kerckhove (1997) who claim that the internet has created new and better ways to communicate. indeed, academic research has found some empirical support for this view. for instance, there is evidence that the internet enhances social networks at a distance, especially with friends and relatives, through the use of e-mail (see, e.g., boneva, kraut & frolich, 2001; hampton & wellman, 2001; haythornthwaite, 2001b; kavanaugh & patterson, 2001; kazmer & haythornthwaite, 2001; wellman, quan hasse, witte, & hampton, 2001). further, researchers studying wired communities such as blacksburg, virginia, and “netville”, a suburb of toronto, also found that increased levels of civic involvement corresponded with higher internet usage (hampton & wellman, 2001; kavanaugh & patterson, 2001). tied to this, and of particular interest to the question of whether or not funding communities to help them develop ict networks is an efficient use of government resources, is the finding that existing connectivity levels off-line appear to increase the potential for positive on-line connectivity. for instance, kavanaugh and patterson (2001) note that the blacksburg electronic village project may well have been as successful as it was because it was located in a place-based community where high levels of social interconnectivity already existed. they suggest that high levels of social capital may be a prerequisite condition for, rather than a result of, effective computer-mediated communication. wellman, et al. (2001) also found that those who had frequent contact with others via the internet also had frequent contact with them off-line. their survey of 39,211 visitors to the national geographic society website found that the internet supplemented the participants’ face-to-face and telephone communication rather than either increasing or decreasing it. they also found that heavy internet use can be associated with increased civic engagement, but concluded that for the most part, this did not mean that people became more engaged. rather, those already engaged are increasingly using the internet as another tool in their work. a number of other studies echo this finding. as haythornthwaite puts it, “connectivity seems to go to the connected, that is, greater social benefit from the internet accrues to those already well situated socially. as nie (2001) pointed out, connectivity already goes to those with higher levels of income and education” (2001a, p. 376). in other words, those with strong social ties off-line were more likely to have strong ties on-line; the converse also appears to be true[7]. so it might well appear that an efficient allocation of funds for icts would be to support place-based communities that already show strong evidence of positive social capital. the danger of this argument however, is that such a strategy can’t help but to reinforce the so-called digital divide. according to statistics canada (2004), in 2003, 7.9 million[8] canadian households had at least one individual who used the internet regularly, an increase of 5% from 2002[9]; however, the same survey also showed that internet adoption was highest in households with higher income levels, those which had members in the workforce, and those which had higher levels of education. in contrast, in 2003, 3.6 million canadian households had never used the internet, 49% of which were found in the lowest income group. as haythornthwaite (2001a) points out, “great though these numbers are, they indicate a large proportion of people who are not connected to the internet, do not know about it, have no interest in using it, have no affordable access to it, or have poor infrastructural support for it. the large social phenomenon of the internet is passing some by, and for better or worse, that sector is failing to gain access to the resources available to those with access to the internet” (p. 366). thus the question is, would government better serve the population as a whole by putting in place funding to help support initiatives that increase a community’s positive social capital in ways that don’t necessarily involve technology, before allocating funds specifically for ict and connectivity projects? the answer to this question may come, in part, from more critical consideration of the relationship between icts and social capital. one of the overall findings of this body of literature is that it is simply too early in the development of the internet to determine with any authority whether or not icts increase social ties in any lasting or meaningful way; in part, this is because of the way that research has positioned. a number of researchers are very explicit in their warning that setting one type of communication against another, i.e., face-to-face against computer-mediated, is counterproductive, especially as icts become more and more integrated into our everyday lives. caroline haythornthwaite (2001a, p. 363-378) perhaps says it best: much existing research on computer-mediated communication (cmc) and online behaviour has laid out differences between cmc and face-to-face communication and provided in-depth reports on online communities. whereas important research has been done from this perspective, its concentration on cmc versus face-to-face, online versus offline, and virtual versus real has perpetuated a dichotomized view of human behaviour. these dichotomies pit one form of cmc against another … as well as one category of human endeavour against another…. in considering the integration of the internet into our daily lives, we also need to remember that, as many point out, the internet is a new social phenomenon that has been in place for fewer than 11 years. we already see that experience and time online changes behaviour; we are watching an emerging phenomenon, not a mature one. other researchers echo this caution. pigg and crank (2004), in their exploration of the functionality of various icts and resulting ties to social capital formation, conclude that “more research and further documentation is necessary before we can say for certain that icts can and do create social capital and, thereby, build community. enhancing social networks is obviously necessary, but this analysis suggests it is certainly not sufficient to support the claim of ict advocates” (p. 69-70). anderson & tracy (2001), blanchard (2004), huysman and wulf (2004) and kavanaugh & patterson, (2001) echo this sentiment. at the present time, it is safe to say that icts, as they are being assimilated into society, tend to be used as an adjunct to other older technologies, such as the telephone, and should be considered in this light.   community is as community does however, if the jury is still out on whether or not icts generate the social ties that constitute positive social capital, and vice versa, the same may not be said about computer-mediated community networks. overwhelmingly, the literature suggests that where community networks exist, they prove beneficial to some extent (see, for instance, casapulla, de cindio & ripamonti, 2001; day, 1997; gurstein, 2001; jones, 2003; london, 1997; odasz, n.d.; schuler, 1996; silver, 2003). for the purposes of this article, community networks can be defined as “a network of computers with modems that allow users to connect to a central computer which provides community information and a means for the community to communicate electronically…. unlike ‘virtual communities’ community networks are based in a physical place…. the common element of users of community networks is their physical proximity and interest in local issues that affect them all” (hall, n.d., ¶12). in general, community networks have three characteristics that separate them from other forms of computer based communication: 1)    they focus on local issues, culture, and ownership, as well as providing forums for community discussion and problem solving; 2)    they strive to reach all groups and individuals in a community, stressing public access and computer skills acquisition (e.g., the community access program in canada, as well as the many freenets found in various cities) for not just the computer literate, but also marginalized groups and non-traditional users of technology; and 3)    they emphasize democratic participation and community development. to this might be added a fourth characteristic, if not of the network itself, then of the individuals who run it: they believe implicitly that “community networks can build and strengthen community identity and ties” (hall, n.d., ¶ 27). this is borne out in some of the more common aims underlying the creation of most community networks: providing otherwise inaccessible services and information to the community, stimulating local economic development enterprises, providing training to marginalized groups, etc. the fundamental element of community networks, however, is that they are developed by the local people for the local people, with an understanding of just what the local needs are. the question needs to be asked however, in determining whether or not such community networks provide public benefits, is exactly how they compare to other types of non-computer mediated community networks in this regard. this is because while place-based communities are still considered as the primary unit in terms of funding allocation, increasingly, there are other types of communities that may well be more suited to development in terms of icts, and perhaps it is these that may be more appropriate for funding. what exactly constitutes a community has engendered a great deal of debate in the social sciences literature. the complexities inherent in the idea of community reach across almost all disciplines and theoretical variations (for some thorough reviews of the literature in this area, see cohen, 1985; connell, 2000, 2002; and liepins, 2000). and just as academics struggle with the concept of community, so do governments. as noted above, this is a crucial question for governments, because how funding is allocated depends in many ways on determining the constitution of a community. a potentially useful breakdown of types of communities may be found in the new zealand government’s recent draft digital strategy. it suggests that “there are a number of ways of defining communities and together they make up the interconnected systems of society” (government of new zealand, 2004, p. 96, emphasis added). some of these approaches to community include: geographic communities; communities of interest such as those for business, research; hobbies, sports or politics; communities of identity or circumstance, such as youth, seniors or the physically or mentally challenged; non-profit and voluntary sectors, also known as the community sector; and ethnic and cultural communities. in canada, however, as david connell notes, while “references to community remain dominant in today’s social policy” (2000, p.2), a hard and fast definition of what exactly is meant by community is absent.[10] the one point of agreement seems to be that the root of community in the latin communis, meaning common or shared, is a good place to start. as we saw in our discussion of social capital, the stronger the social ties, the more resilient the community. place-based communities consist of a myriad of such ties, which perhaps can better be thought of as networks, although the idea of network is as rife with complexity as the idea of community. there is a tendency to think of networks as hierarchical entities, a series of connections able to be delineated in a flow chart. this is too simplistic. for, while the root concept of the network is undoubtedly that of connections, rarely (outside perhaps of organizational theory) are these able to be defined hierarchically, or indeed linearly, because networks are also defined by their context. a rural community is a good illustration of this: depending on the context, the network of social relations is constantly shifting, thinning out in some places while deepening in others: a person is a farmer within a certain set of relationships, while at the same time being the mayor, or a parent or a spouse or a member of a church, etc. but not all members of the church are family, nor are all those involved in the public sphere necessarily farmers or involved in agriculture. strong ties in some directions, weaker in others. the important notion here is context. in many ways, context is what defines a community’s boundaries and needs to be considered in the allocation of funding. a given community of the homeless for instance, may find the ability to access the internet much less useful than a community of tourism operators; on the other hand, another community of homeless may be able to upgrade literacy skills, or seek employment or health information with the help of icts. it depends on a number of things, such as familiarity with the technology, access, willingness to learn and even physical locale. funding decisions must be made in a context-specific way, and from a bottom-up approach. certainly, the individuals and groups requesting funding know what their needs are, and generally have a fairly good idea how they can best be met.[11] and sometimes these needs aren’t centred in a physical locale, e.g., groups that advocate for health-related issues, literacy, and other social justice matters. funders need to consider communities in ways other than simple geography.   measuring the unmeasurable: indicators of health in a community as we mentioned above, determining the health and resilience of a community is not an easy task. one purpose of this paper, however, is to try to come up with a taxonomy of indicators that funding agencies might use as guidelines when evaluating requests for funding. however, before embarking on this task, it is important to stress again that a cookie-cutter approach to resource allocation is not only counterproductive, but may well be harmful to the communities that governments wish to help. as spigelman (2001) notes, “not everything that counts can be counted. some measures can only be judged” (p. 2). he adds “perhaps the most definitive characteristic of the ‘new public management’ is the greater salience that is given to what is called the ‘three e’s’–economy, efficiency and effectiveness–in competition with other values of government activity, such as accessibility, openness, fairness, impartiality, legitimacy, participation, honesty and rationality” (p. 3). we need to be reminded that quantitative measurement, whether funding formula or performance indicator, is as value-laden as more qualitative methods[12]. again, every application must be taken on its own merit, and evaluated within its specific context. thus, the following discussion is meant as a guideline and not as a checklist. over the last 20 years, there has been an increasing interest in being able to articulate indicators of civic well-being, arising mainly from decreasing resources for community support. of particular use to this paper was the work done by warren dow, who has pulled together a review of many of the existing assessment resources both in canada and around the world (dow, 2003). it is impossible to outline all of them; the 96 pages of his report contain hundreds of annotated links and portal sites where assessment tools can be found. however, drawing on this work, as well as others, we shall attempt to outline a few of the most effective tools, ending with a list of what appears to be the most common and useful indicators in assessing community well-being[13]. healey and hampshire discuss community well-being indicators in terms of community resilience, which they define as “the individual and collective capacity to respond to adversity and change” (2003, p. 1). they conducted a three year study of four geographically diverse communities in australia to determine whether or not social networks do in fact contribute to community resilience, and what the implications of their findings might be for government policy. they found that personal resilience is an important factor in overall community resilience. further, they list the following indicators (p. 4-9): a positive outlook on the future, arising from such things as a large supportive friendship network, feeling part of the local community, volunteering in local groups, the involvement of local businesses in the community, and a belief that government institutions seek to benefit the community[14]; the capacity to be proactive in the face of adversity; and the feeling among residents that “life is manageable”, which arose from higher income levels, being older, and having large friendship and family networks. however, in their conclusion, they note that different institutions are important to different communities, and stress that each must be looked at in context. this finding backed up by stoll, et al. (2001), who note that the use of indicators can be helpful, but that each indicator must be considered in the overall context of the community in question. one of the most well-known and widely used set of indicators can be found in the oregon benchmarks. they are described by lewis and lockhart (n.d.) as “simple, holistic, yet transparent—oregon’s approach to state-wide planning gets different sectors and interests tracking change in terms of a common set of specific outcomes. having agreed on what they wish to achieve, people can turn to more constructive issues—what is effective and what is not” (p. 1). one of the most useful things about this process is its longitudinal study over 20 years, with a feedback loop that allows all levels of participants to learn as they go, and make adjustments accordingly. the benchmarks themselves are drawn from the economic, social and environmental factors that oregonians believe are most important to their quality of life, and fall under the following seven categories: economy education civic engagement social support public safety community development environment. some of the specific indicators found within these categories are: employment dispersion (economic); teen pregnancy rates social support); and wetland preservation percentages (environment). in an australian study, pepperdine (2000) provides an in-depth discussion of indicator development. in it, she notes that the following key indicators of community well-being and successful functioning were derived directly from the community’s residents: political representation sense of the future maintenance of services and facilities maintenance of population (numbers) even age structure sense of community of belonging community-mindedness neighbourliness co-operation accepting of difference communication community activities availability of meeting places active participation presence of leaders and vibrant people employment opportunities economic viability environmental issues. interestingly, she concludes that contrary to the traditional emphasis on economics as the underlying element of (in this case, rural) sustainability, her respondents identified indicators that highlighted social sustainability as more important, a key finding, one might think, for policy makers. (the experience of the nova scotian town of canso, which has been continuously threatened with closure because of the failure of the local fishing catch, but whose local population is very actively resisting, appears to back up this finding.) in his report on how researchers might best develop civic indicators in canada, paul reed (2000) noted 100 potential civic indicators in 16 categories: economic resources work situation of children situation of young people situation of adults families population stability destabilizing and social stress conditions institutional resources and capacities community physical facilities environment time use civic participation social participation caring and contributing to the community trust and confidence in institutions. what is particularly evident from this set of indicators is the importance of the mix of both civic and personal features. reed also notes that “the great majority of these projects [development of community indicators] are more output-oriented than input-oriented. far more is known about ‘where we are at’ or ‘where we want to go’–be they objectives for water quality, health care, educational attainment, economic development–than about the capacity and resources required to produce those results” (2000, p. 44). he also points out that while many canadian and international publications outlining social indicators exist, few of these national level compendia have “developed a systematized or core methodology of the kind that could be disaggregated or easily replicated at the community level” (p. 45), which speaks again to the need for context at the community level. there are a number of quality of life indices being used to measure community well-being, many of which came into being as government funding for social services began to erode. in general, these measure four things: social, health, economic and environmental well-being, and are used to track the perceived growth or decline of a community through determining the overall satisfaction among its residents. of particular interest is the federation of canadian municipalities’ quality of life reporting system (in reed, 2000), which tracks nine areas and is one of the most comprehensive assessment tools used in urban canada: population resources community affordability quality of employment quality of housing community stress health of community community safety community participation strategic and sustainable well-being. this particular assessment focuses on the effects of the downloading of public services from a national or provincial level to the municipal, and is one of the first to do so on a nation-wide basis. overall, what is evident from this brief survey is that while most of these tools are developed by various levels of governance, and are being used either to track social trends, or to conduct cost-benefit analyses of various funding projects and there is a mix of the personal and the private (especially from those developed with public consultation). and, strikingly, what appears to be most important to communities are close interpersonal relationships, rather than external environments, as the primary source of satisfaction. thus it may well be that community networks, with the emphasis on social ties, may prove to be important as public benefits.   conclusions as we have seen, while community networks may well both be and produce public benefits, there is currently not enough data to state this with certainty. further, the emphasis on social capital from a communitarian standpoint must be tempered with caution; it is not enough to say that by developing social capital, we are improving our communities. finally, while having some guidelines for indicators of community well-being will be of benefit to funding agencies, there are so many contextual concerns that for the most part, such lists may prove detrimental to the very communities that funding agencies are trying to help.           thus, we offer the following recommendations: funding agencies should consider providing support for the development of strong linking types of social capital, as this is what appears to create the most resiliency within communities. when allocating funds for icts, the best results may be achieved when such funds are directed to those place-based communities that already show evidence of strong positive social capital; the development of computer-mediated networks in and of themselves will not necessarily generate community well-being because high levels of social capital may be a prerequisite condition for, rather than a result of, effective computer-mediated communication. funding agencies might better serve their over-all population by supporting those initiatives that increase a community's positive social capital in ways that don't necessarily involve technology, before allocating funds specifically for ict and connectivity projects. however, it should be recognized that there is a danger in funding only those place-based communities that already exhibit strong positive social capital, as this may serve to strengthen the so-called digital divide. funding agencies should pay particular attention to individual community context. to this end, attention should be paid to the needs of individual local applications, rather than applying a one size fits all approach. place-based communities are not necessarily ideal for investing the bulk of funds for ict for development. other types of communities might benefit more from ict use, especially on-line or virtual communities. it appears evident that adding ict to a community characterized by strong social cohesion (a healthy community) will enhance the social infrastructure of the community and add to the public good. it is equally clear that where the community is unhealthy, i.e., where there is little social cohesion, it is unlikely that the addition of ict will bring about a change in the community—and thus, few public good benefits can be expected to be realized. the authors thus conclude that incremental investments in ict in communities should be targeted at those communities that are likely to benefit, that is those communities which are most likely to use the technology to enhance the public good. the ict investments that would have gone into unhealthy communities should be re-directed directly into the community itself. by targeting investments, we are not abandoning those communities with low social cohesion. rather we are saying that scarce resources should be directed where the pay-offs are greatest. putting ict into unhealthy communities, i.e., communities with low social cohesion, is not a good use of public funds.   references anderson, b., & tracey, k. 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(2004, july 8). household internet use survey. retrieved october 1, 2004 from http://www.statcan.ca/daily/english/040708/d040708a.htm stoll, k., chasquinet, f., menjou, m., camacho, k., acesso, f., & khellady, y. (2001). learning about ict’s role in development: a framework toward a participatory, transparent and continuous process. ottawa: irdc. the internet makes good neighbours, according to a recent study. (2004, september 13). the toronto star. retrieved 15 september, 2004 from cracin-discussion listserve. uzzi, b. (1997). social structure and competition in interfirm networks: the paradox of embeddedness. administrative science quarterly, 42, 35-67. wellman, b., quan hasse, a., witte, j., & hampton, k. (2001). does the internet increase, decrease, or supplement social capital? social networks, participation, and community commitment. american behavioral scientist, 45(3), 436-455. who’s knocking at the door? check your e-mail first. (2004, august 26). the new york times. retrieved 12 september, 2004 from cracin-discussion listserve [1] this article was initially entitled “community networks and the public good.” however, the authors felt that the term “public good” is too limiting to this exploration, since it has a very specific definition in economics, to whit "...goods that may be enjoyed by any number of people without affecting other peoples' enjoyment" (www.ecosystemvaluation.org/glossary.htm). or alternately, "a good which can only be supplied to all if it is supplied to one and the availability of which is not diminished by any one consumer's use of it" (www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reak/eco100/glosslist.htm). for example, an aesthetic view is a pure public good. no matter how many people enjoy the view, others can also enjoy it. this paper however, will keep separate the discussion of classical public goods and public benefits (although in many ways, it might be noted that creating a public good might in itself be one of the parameters indicating a healthy network). for our purposes here, however, although closely related to public goods, a public benefit is a somewhat looser concept, which we are defining as “something accessible to all members of a community, which has a healthy or good effect on the community as a whole.” [2] the authors realize that the terms “healthy” and “unhealthy” come with a whole set of value-laden inferences. however, no other terms seem to accurately capture the idea of fully functioning networks that operate for the public benefit. for instance, a specific network may be totally functional, yet not operate in the best interests of the larger community as a whole e.g., the drug trade. or a given community could also be said to be resilient, in the sense of long-lasting and self-sustaining, but this doesn’t necessarily indicate well-being, e.g., generations who have lived on social assistance. and so we are using the term healthy in the biological sense, i.e., showing full strength and vigor, and free from any signs of disease. [3] however, portes also acknowledges that the concepts underlying social capital, i.e., involvement in groups and the benefits of such involvement, are as old as sociology itself, and can be traced back to durkheim and marx. [4] portes (1998) identifies, among others, school attrition and academic performance, children’s intellectual development, sources of employment and occupational attainment, juvenile delinquency and its prevention, and immigrant and ethnic enterprise. to these might also be added such things as engagement in civil society, community economic development, rural vs. urban communal networks, and the effects of an aging population on such things as health and other social services, among others. [5] this latter characteristic is of primary interest to this paper, and will be discussed at more length below. [6] for instance, recent newspaper articles have discussed the i-neighbors project at the massachusetts institute of technology (mit). this project set up a neighborhood web-site which let participants establish an e-mail address list, post personal profiles and then connect to other residents of their suburban community with similar interests. over three years, those who used the site came into contact with more new neighbors than those who didn’t. keith hampton, the lead researcher on the project, noted that by meeting those with similar interests through the website, people formed more diverse social ties. however, he also found that these new on-line relationships typically lacked strength, and tended to be weaker social ties (the internet makes good neighbors, 13 september, 2004; who’s knocking at your door?, 26 august, 2004). this type of connection is reminiscent of on-line dating services or other types of chat-rooms; where the potential for false, or at the least misleading, information being posted, has been well-documented. in general, it is easier to mislead others when no physical cues are present to help the receiver process the information being sent. even telephone conversations provide verbal cues such as tone of voice, accents, etc. [7] however, a number of studies also found that very high internet usage appears to contribute to higher rates of depression among individuals (e.g., kraut, lundmark, kiesler, mukhopadhyay & scherlis, (1998); larose, eastin & gregg, 2001). of particular concern is a case in winnipeg concerning the death of a 53 year-old man. because he had few social ties, suffered from a disability and so was rarely seen outside his apartment, and had all of his day-today banking deposits and withdrawals set up on-line, it was two years before anyone discovered his body (george, 2004). as george goes on to point out, “new technologies like electronic banking have created a system in which it’s possible to become so physically disengaged from the day-to-day administration of your own affairs that your life can effectively go on without you, perhaps indefinitely” (2004, p. 32). [8] of a total of 12.3 million households. [9] and substantially down from increases of 19% in 2000 and 24% in 2001. these individuals accessed the internet at home, work, school and/or a public library or other location. [10] when conducting research for his doctorate, connell had “the opportunity to listen to a presentation by a senior, federal bureaucrat that included many references to community, e.g., community capacity. following the presentation, [he] asked the presenter if community was defined for these policies. the presenter replied there was no definition” (2000, p. 2n). [11] for instance, the canadian research alliance for community innovation and networking’s (cracin) case study sites have indicated that this is indeed the case. the implementation of ict is helpful, but not necessarily the answer to all of their prayers. the authors have also heard, in the course of other community-based research, the frustration that arises when funding requests are met with a cookie-cutter approach by government. for while funders must of course be careful of risk, it can equally be said that without risk, nothing creative and positive can take place. [12] this is backed up by a number of municipal studies into ict use and their communities. for instance, the city of seattle’s community technology program, in its report 2000-2001 information technology indicators for a healthy community notes that “…there are areas where defining the indicator is extremely difficult or where there remain significant barriers to collecting reliable and valid information…. statistical data doesn’t always tell the whole story. there are qualitative measures that could be included or refined. for example, measuring culturally relevant content continues to be a challenge. some issues and benefits are most relevant when told in stories….” (2002, p. vii). [13] because of the community-specific nature of these, we will not attempt to draw up a definitive list of indicators, but rather show a sample of some studies and tools most applicable within the canadian context; indeed, as sharpe and osberg (in reed, 2000) correctly point out, the level of these indicators are less important than the trends they show. further, because many of these assessment tools deal with specific areas of community such as health, aboriginal concerns, education and so on, we have concentrated on those tools which try to get an overall picture of a community. it goes without saying that should funders be looking in specific areas; then some of these other tools would be of more value; however, since the purpose of this article is to evaluate the overall public benefits arising from community networks, it makes more sense to look at some of the more general ones. [14] interestingly, respondents felt that government involvement in the community was more beneficial than that of big business. this case study collection concerns the work of k-net (a program of keewaytinook okimakanak), an aboriginal network that is pr the journal of community informatics, (2004) vol. 1, issue 1, pp. 5-6 the k-net story: community ict development work brian beaton keewaytinook okimakanak (k-net) < brian.beaton@knet.ca > the kuhkenah network (k-net) provides information and communication technologies (icts), telecommunication infrastructure and application support in first nation communities across a vast, remote region of north-western ontario as well as in other remote regions in canada. this private telecommunications network supports the development of online applications that combine video, voice and data services requiring broadband and high-speed connectivity solutions. k-net is a program of keewaytinook okimakanak (ko), a first nations tribal council established by the leaderships of deer lake, fort severn, keewaywin, mcdowell lake, north spirit lake and poplar hill bands to provide a variety of second level support services for their communities. kuhkenah is an oji-cree term for everyone, everywhere. the ko first nation communities are part of nishnawbe aski nation (nan), located in northern ontario, across an area roughly the size of france. nan includes a total population of approximately 25,000 people. the majority of this population is aboriginal and lives in remote communities with 300-900 inhabitants. for most of these communities, the only year-round access into or out of their area is by small airplane. the accompanying video (http://streaming.knet.ca/fednor/brian_beaton3_300k.wmv) provides a brief overview of some of the work that has gone into building and sustaining the regional network that supports local community based networks (cbns). the video was produced by members of the k-net team working in partnership with george ferreira, a phd candidate at the university of guelph who is completing his thesis work using video material as a medium to present evaluation documentation as well as influence policy and program development (ferreira, 2004). this video was created as part of a larger collection of video material that is being used for a variety of applications. on a saturday morning in december, we went for a drive around my community of sioux lookout and spent time to talk about our work, our partners and our understanding about how these networks can develop and why they are important in remote and rural communities. in the video there is a scene where the base of the new 7.3 metre satellite earth station is being built. today that satellite dish is operational and the pictures and the video story documenting the construction of this infrastructure are now on-line at http://tech.knet.ca/photos/satellite. the production of these videos resulted in several other significant multi-media presentations being produced and shared on-line. the resulting work and presentations are helping others around the world understand the potential and the possibilities for these types of local ict developments in their own communities. one important product of this work was a multi-media presentation that was produced with the institute for connectivity of americas (http://icamericas.net) and other partners and presented at the world summit of the information society (wsis) in geneva. the entire presentation is available on-line at http://smart.knet.ca/kuhkenah_flash.html and consists of a collection of case studies that include an introduction to k-net and four specialized case studies covering network development, education, health and economic development, along with accompanying video material for each chapter of the production. community vision and need have been the driving forces behind k-net’s development. the results impact local communities and the entire region’s health, education and economic opportunities. these video productions provide an explanation of the network’s history, some of the key players, partners and mailto:brian.beaton@knet.ca http://streaming.knet.ca/fednor/brian_beaton3_300k.wmv http://tech.knet.ca/photos/satellite http://icamericas.net/ http://smart.knet.ca/kuhkenah_flash.html 6 the journal of community informatics accomplishments to date. the videos and accompanying print material demonstrate how first nations people are finding ways to harness these new technologies to strengthen and support the entire community, including their traditions, language and cultural heritage. the ko first nation communities have experienced an impressive amount of development in a relatively short time period. two of the communities have gone from having one phone for 400 people four years ago, to accessing broadband services from individual homes today. this rapid development of knet’s technical infrastructure and services, and its impact on local health, education, and economic development is introduced in these videos. the k-net experience and the stories from the communities and the people involved in this work demonstrate how local needs and demands can drive technology and network infrastructure development. references cited beaton, b. & fiddler, j. (1999, 13-16 october). living smart in two worlds: maintaining and protecting first nation culture for future generations. local knowledge/global challenge: smart community development. summerside, prince edward island, canada. ferreira, g., ramirez, r., walmark, b. (2004, 18 september). connectivity in canada’s far north: participatory evaluation in ontario’s aboriginal communities. measuring the information society: what, how, for whom and what? workshop. brighton, u.k. keewaytinook okimakanak northern chief council. (1999) the kuh-ke-nah network of smart first nations. sioux lookout, ontario: k-net, http://smart.knet.ca additional k-net video stories are available at http://smart.knet.ca/ict.html, http://smart.knet.ca/fednor_video_list.html, fort severn traditional land use videos ramirez, r. (2000) rural and remote communities harnessing information and communication technology for community development. guelph: university of guelph, rural extension studies. http://smart.knet.ca/ http://smart.knet.ca/ict.html http://smart.knet.ca/fednor_video_list.html http://fortsevern.firstnation.ca/washaho/ towards a neoapartheid system of governance – some thoughts for the community informatics guild the journal of community informatics, (2004), vol. 1, issue 1, pp. 74-75 towards a neo-apartheid system of governance in latin america –implications for the community informatics guild scott s. robinson universidad metropolitana, méxico, d.f. < ssr@laneta.apc.org > governance today is being reconfigured by the evolving global demand for unskilled labor in the north and elite intransigence linked to limited capital inflows in the south. the emerging profile is one of dual economies wherein the wealthy dominate decision-making systems and strategic sectors while struggling to sustain a return on their investments, and the poor either emigrate or administer meager resources in the informal sector of their respective national economies. remittance transfers now sustain this growing corpus of diaspora communities throughout the region. this grim scenario is now widespread in the context of states under reconfiguration, moving toward a “ritual and virtual fiction” of e-governance orchestrated by shrewd and skilled elites who have responded adaptively to the challenges that information technologies represent to their historical leadership and hegemony while astutely orchestrating an “apertura democratica” that is more form than substance. latin america with its pronounced income distribution inequities is the region where this process is quite visible. and its current intensification should belie illusions about enhancing democracy via top down, “government as online citizen administrative chores and tax payment systems” and kindred supply side information technology initiatives. e-government programs in this context may only exacerbate the current class and ethnic polarities. students and practitioners of “community informatics” need take this scenario into account when either designing research protocols or consulting with activist ict non-governmental organizations who are committed to a rustic, ingenuous “better connectivity=enhanced democratic culture” strategy. the latter today too often ignores the power of national elites who have configured their regulatory regimes to favor quasi-monopolistic market dominance in cahoots with foreign it hardware and software interests. at the same time, this innocence fails to lead to a critical perspective on the design and impact of official connectivity programs too often tailored without critical, public input in the ministries’ chambers and much attuned to the interests of corporate hardware and proprietary software suppliers. today, many government subsidized connectivity projects languish in schools, libraries and public health centers where community “buy-in” is scarce, training limited, maintenance infrequent and content often irrelevant to the needs and aspirations of the local, young it consumers. this growing population has already been weaned at the town or village cybercafe, a regional network of mom and pop connectivity shops whose self-sustaining human and technical resources are largely ignored by the state programs. this profile of the latin american connectivity and ineffective use pattern, suggests community informatics in this region of the south requires distinctions and caveats in any general arguments meant to apply globally, an urgent priority for forthcoming conferences on the topic. as we slouch toward the second world summit on the information society (tunis, november 2005), latin american states emerge from a lengthy and costly reconfiguration of public assets. now largely privatized, these resources allow national and regional elites and capital groups (plus their foreign allies) to sustain their historical controls via modern it-anchored mechanisms, whereby partnerships with “privatized” public entitites and foreign capital partners effectively concentrate power in the key media, telecommunications and energy sectors of the respective national economies; such societies already being dramatically polarized between rich and poor. as a result, the emerging privatized latin american state may be a ritualized fiction that sustains a democratic drama while power is increasingly concentrated and constrains any radical democratizing process (recent events in venezuela are indicative). mailto:ssr@laneta.apc.org neo-apartheid system of governance in latin america 75 in these states there is no civil service, little or no due process, limited transparency re public contracts and government budget disbursements, an elite-controlled media and telecommunications sectors, and the remittance economy has become the social safety net for the poor. the scale of the latter today permits these same elites to applaud the growing remittance flows while attenuating pressures on national social service budgets whereby “the poor appear to be able to pay their own way”. add to this the discourse about decentralized municipal authority and it is not difficult to perceive the ruse that camouflages the concentration of effective power in these countries. plans for the delivery of key government services via online portals may portend a “virtual state” where the programming protocols of the servers remain in the discretionary hands of a few. this is not the model of e-governance some of us may have in mind. title: internet, power and politics: gender and icts in the movement against cafta. margarita salas cooperative sulá batsú <margarita@sulabatsu.com> introduction during this past decade, the united states of america (us) has been developing a strategy of negotiating bilateral free trade agreements (fta) with several countries of the latin american and caribbean region. this strategy is a response to the massive resistance carried out by the social movements in the region when the us tried to develop the free trade area of the americas (ftaa). in 2002 the us started the process to implement a free trade agreement with central america and dominican republic (cafta). by may 2004 all the countries except costa rica had signed the agreement. costa rica participated in 10 rounds of negotiation, which were deemed as insufficient and not transparent by the social movement, since the negotiating body in the us was its congress and in costa rica it was an ad-hoc commission appointed by the president1. during the negotiations the government claimed that since it was a matter of commercial interest the text under negotiation could not be made available to the public. this had very serious consequences since the issues under negotiation went further in depth than the commercial relationship between the countries and touched upon sensitive topics such as environment, social security, education, intellectual property and biodiversity, among others. the text of the agreement was only available after it had been drafted, hence when the costa rican congress received the agreement it was faced with the option of approving or rejecting the agreement in whole, but did not have the right to modify or negotiate its terms. this in itself already established a power imbalance between the parts. also, once the agreement was in place for costa rica it would be above the country's constitution, since it is considered an international treaty, but for the us it would only be a regular law, since the us is not a signatory of the vienna convention2. from the beginning cafta met the resistance of the different expressions of the social movement, including the 4 public universities, since it steered away from the historical conquests that conformed to what could be called a socially conscious state, that is, a state that provides its population with conditions that contribute fundamentally to the people´s well being, such as affordable access to water and energy, solidair health systems, public education, protection of nature and environment, etc. the agreement was over 2500 pages long, full of legal loopholes and written in very complicated technical terms. fortunately, as soon as the text was available the scholars and specialists of the different universities took it upon themselves to study the terms of the agreement and assess the risks and benefits it posed. also the different social organizations and movements dedicated countless efforts and time to analyze the agreement as well as mediate these analyses with formats and languages that were understandable for the wider population. in april 2007, given the heavy polarization of opinions around the agreement --the government and the larger enterprises in favor and the social movement against it –a referendum was called. the people of costa rica would vote to decide whether the agreement was ratified by the country or not. although one could anticipate that the balance of power and economic resources would favor the government and enterprises, the social movement embraced this as a legitimate opportunity to defend the socially conscious state and the different sectors (women's movement, environmentalists, cultural movement, native populations, workers unions, academics) all came together to fight against cafta. this paper will not analyze the benefits and dangers of cafta, as there is broad documentation3 on the matter, as well as several studies currently analyzing and describing the struggle against cafta in costa rica. this article wants to focus on two issues: the way the women's movement strategically used information and communication technologies during the struggle and the role these technologies enabled women to have within the social movement as a whole. the article will focus on the participation of women because their contribution was fundamental to the process of social transformation, but also because the process had consequences in the gender dynamics of the social movement and the communities. on some key concepts a social movement before analyzing the role of women within the movement as well as the role of the feminist movement we'd like to clarify our understanding of what a social movement is and why we believe that the movement against cafta not only brought together the agendas of several movements but is an expression of a movement in itself. srilata batliwala defines a social movement as “an organized set of constituents pursuing a common political agenda of change through collective action” (batliwala, pg. 10, 2008). the author then numbers the following characteristics: 1. a visible constituency base or membership. one of the issues that was most significant in the struggle against cafta is that it brought together individuals and organizations who all identified strongly and conformed an interest group. moreover, they dedicated time, efforts and even voted to support their cause. 2. members collectivized in either formal or informal organizations; although the movement against cafta was characterized for having a flexible structure, there were coordinating entities and one can even pinpoint the patriotic committees as the community organizational unit, because even though they were self-convened, they grouped people to coordinate actions, had spokespeople and contact information. 3. some continuity over time (i.e., a spontaneous uprising or campaign may not be a movement in itself, though it may lead to one); the movement against cafta had the strength and scope it had due to the fact that it stood on the shoulders of giants. the costa rican social movement had come together before to fight against specific threats to what we've called the “socially conscious state4, including struggles against oil drilling, privatization of health systems, water supply or electricity and telecommunications. however, even if one didn't accept these previous fights as predecessors, after the referendum vote in 2007 the movement continued, several of the patriotic committees have kept functioning and the networks among regions that started in the movement against cafta have remained operating, with the objective of advocating to defend the rights and social conditions that cafta threatens. 4. engage in collective actions and activities in pursuit of the movement’s political goals and 5. use a variety of actions and strategies the years 2004-2007 saw an unprecedented display of creativity, coordination and use of icts and alternative media as the movement against cafta fought to spread its message and progressively gained more and more affiliates. the actions and activities ranged from community level initiatives, to lobby at congress and finally even a national referendum. 6. engage clear internal or external targets in the change process the most clear issue through the whole movement building process was that all the people involved wanted to stop the agreement from being signed. people and organizations had very diverse motivations for joining the cause, but the collective common point was rejecting cafta as a whole. a feminist movement in the public eye, the feminist movement has been traditionally associated with reproductive rights and stopping violence against women. hence, when feminist groups started raising the flags against cafta some people wondered why the feminists were pounding war drums. it must be said that this view of the feminist movement is very shallow, and a simple historical review would clearly demonstrate how feminism has been linked to diverse social issues, ranging from women's right to vote, to struggles against racism and participation in peace building initiatives. it's important to clarify that although the feminist movement was born raising the issue of gender inequity, through the years it has grown and evolved to become a much richer ideology and analytical framework, as batliwala explains: “feminism stands not only for gender5 equality, but for the transformation of all social relations of power that oppress, exploit, or marginalize any set of people, women and men, on the basis of their gender, age, sexual orientation, ability, race, religion, nationality, location, class, caste, or ethnicity. (...) feminism stands for economic policies based upon food security, clean renewable energy, and ecological soundness, in order to ensure a sustainable future for the planet, all its species and its natural resources. (...) for economic transformation that creates greater social equity and human development (...) for political transformation that guarantees full citizenship rights, the full body of human rights, and for secular, plural, democratic regimes that are transparent, accountable and responsive to all their citizens, women and men”. (batliwala, p. 12, 2008) therefore, the struggle against cafta was essential to the feminist movement, because it threatened basically everything feminism stands for to push the neo-liberal capitalist regime even further and destroy the conditions that have provided wellness to costaricans over the years. of course cafta would have an even stronger effect on women as they are the poorest among the poor and the elimination of health care and basic services falls back on the caretakers of the families, who are mostly women. however, the analysis of the feminist movement went a lot further than the differentiated impact analysis, it was clear that they rejected the development model as a whole. there were several statements on behalf of the feminist movement that reflected this vision. the group called consejo de mujeres de los 12 puntos (women's council of the 12 issues) published an article that analyzed the process and content of cafta and compared it to what they would have expected, raising issues such as sovereignty, equity among the negotiating parts, labor rights, environment, protection of local producers and intellectual property regimes: “we denounce that when the effects of cafta can be seen, in terms of more poverty, exclusion, social gaps and human costs there will be no congressmen or congresswomen, no governors, mayors or negotiators to face and assume the consequences of their actions6”. the feminist movement did not just oppose cafta, they also had a vision of how they would like the country to be and the referendum also proved to be a space for them to share this vision with all the men and women they met in the different activities and spaces they developed. in a very symbolic manner the group called mujeres contra el tlc started a quilt, they called it the quilt of dreams and it was made up of squares hand painted, embroidered or sown by women, children and men from different communities and in each square images and phrases represented the reasons people opposed cafta, but also the type of country they wanted. the group issued a statement titled “the quilt of dreams: another costa rica, another world is possible”: “we demand a true human development, where people can enjoy their full potential. we demand the development of love, solidarity and the respect for all forms of life. a development of sensibility and senses, where harmony and diversity prevail. we want a society where there's no lack of food as well as no excess, a world where the whole human rainbow can have a place to be, with dignified conditions, without slave production and excessive consumption of unnecessary things whose fabrication costs valuable resources for the present and future of humanity7 (...)”. a movement that makes strategic uses of ict “information and communication technologies have always existed print, telephones, radio, tv are some of them. however, in the current context when one speaks about icts it's usually referring to digital technology, a combination of hardware, data processing software and the connectivity to link them.”8 the social movement against cafta was one that employed icts very strategically to accomplish its needs and overcome the obstacles that the power imbalance posed. the government had in its hands all the formal power to communicate with the population and the support of the large enterprises also meant more economic resources to support promoting and organizing in favor of cafta. however, the no movement had creativity, conviction, heart...and it also had icts. since the mainstream media was openly in favor of the agreement the social movement used a combination of online and offline communication strategies9. they embraced the concept of internet as a network of human networks10 and started creating alliances and organizing in a very organic manner. the internet became a virtual meeting point where content was uploaded by academics and downloaded, printed and distributed in communities for all to read; where podcasts of rural women stating their ideas would be uploaded by local organizations and be broadcast through radio channels. the fight against cafta proved that you don't need to be connected to harvest benefits from the internet, as long as there are collective uses in place. this situation played in favor of women and of the feminist movement, because if there had been enough resources to communicate through the mainstream media and the formal structures it would have been unlikely for women to have the key role that they had. but since this was a battle of creativity on an uneven playing field, women felt right at home, and opened up their own spaces and made their voices and opinions heard, without asking anyone's permission. the feminist movement was not very technologically savvy, but it knew enough to use the technologies it needed and to participate in the more sophisticated spaces developed by the communication specialists within the broader movement. also, the struggle raised a flag within the feminist movement regarding the need to learn more about the uses of technology for advocacy. in this struggle, the social movement gave a whole new meaning to the phrase “information is power”. using icts to struggle against cafta: the women's movement and the women within the movement. as sulá batsú points out, the struggle against cafta “took place as a phenomenon of citizen participation, that for the first time was supported by information and communication technologies – icts (...) the use of technology in this context answered to the needs of various social sectors and helped to crystallize strategies in different ways” (sulá batsú, 2009, p.1). once the referendum was convened, the decision of approving or rejecting the agreement was moved from congress to the people by direct vote, which inevitably led to a nation-wide campaign. although the regulations established that it was forbidden to use public resources, the government spent an enormous amount of money in publicity favoring the agreement. the mainstream media also published a one-sided story. hence, the social movement had to rely on alternative media, and work directly with the communities to explain its concerns and reasons for rejecting the agreement. within the campaign conducted by the social movement, women had a key role, both through the feminist movement as well as individual women integrated in other sectors. for the purpose of this article we'd like to focus on four of the many initiatives that used icts strategically, as examples of how women disrupted the matrix by overcoming the unbalanced power field of the referendum as well as by achieving important changes in the role and position of women within social struggles. a. patriotic committees since there was a pressing need to have presence in the whole country a key figure was created: the patriotic committees11. the pcs were a community entity where people from different political tendencies, different ages, professions and beliefs came together to fight against cafta. over 150 patriotic committees (pc) were formed, they were all independent, open and self-convened by community leaders. a very important issue is that since the patriotic committees (pc) were a community level entity that met in any neighbour's house and had to raise resources creatively, women had an important leadership in them. several of the pcs were convened and led by women, who raised important concerns on the consequences the agreement could have on their livelihoods, their access to health services and the well being of families and children. the women's knowledge of the community dynamics made them the perfect promoters of the cause at the community level: they knew their neighbors and were respected figures not that closely linked with the political parties. the significative presence of women in the cps also had consequences on the types of strategies used to get the message across, which became very closely tied with everyday community life. they organized town faires, bingos, went door to door and visited farmer markets, among others. since the patriotic committees were spread throughout the country, many of the women that led them had to learn how to use e-mail and other internet tools to communicate. it's important to highlight the role young people had in advocating for the use of these tools in the struggle. the fact that many women within the pcs were having such a key role as well as the presence of the women's movement meant that in every general assembly or decision-making body of the patriotic committees there was an explicit request for equal participation of men and women. although this is a very preliminary step towards gender equity it's important to point out that since many of these committees were from the rural areas it was very important for these female community activists to be recognized and supported by those they now considered their peers. b. radio program women of no, a space for analyzing cafta from the voices of women. “mujeres del no12” (women of no) was a space that broadcast the voices of dozens of women that opposed cafta. the program ran continuously every weekday from june to december 2007. over 120 broadcasts were carried out, produced by a group of 20 activists with over 100 guests. it was the only space where the expertise and knowledge of women was given such a central space. the radio program was broadcast through am radio and also uploaded to the website of feminist radio international13, which provided valuable human and technical support in this process. this program was an important reference in the struggle because it made visible the fact that there were many women in the country who had important ideas to share about cafta and its consequences. women from all over the country participated, from a great variety of backgrounds: native women, rural women, congresswomen, academics, engineers, social scientists, community leaders, artists, writers, farmers, union workers and activists among others. the audience also called in to participate, raise questions and congratulate them for this initiative. after the referendum when the show was cancelled the radio station kept getting phone calls from people asking about the show. also, since the programs were uploaded online people who could not listen to the show or were outside the country could hear it. this was an important element also within the movement because often enough when there are public debates it's mostly the male representatives of the social movement that attend and frequently it's been said that it's because there are no female experts or leaders available. this show demonstrated that it's possible to interview a different woman every day during 120 days and one would still not run out of expertise and knowledge. hence, this program contributed to a change in the perception of people about the role of women within social struggles. the other important issue was that many of the women brought concerns regarding cafta that had a lot to do with the reality of women that is often overlooked by male activists. issues such as access to health care in the communities, increases in the costs of water and electricity, the quality of the environment in marginalized communities, the protection of indigenous knowledge and access to generic pharmaceutical products were all very pressing issues for women, given their role as family caretakers as well as their lower income. c. blogher: las hijas del pueblo there were many strategic uses of icts carried out by groups and organizations, but there was one initiative in particular that. although it brought together over 100 women, was started thanks to the initiative of an individual blogger. julia ardón14 is one of the most prominent bloggers of costa rica, she's a middle aged woman who lives in the outskirts of the metropolitan area and runs a restaurant with her family. this bit of information is not irrelevant, because julia steers away from the usual demographics of an intensive blogger: young urban male professional or university student. during the struggle against cafta julia started a blog called las hijas del pueblo15 (the daughters of the nation) which is a reference to a patriotic song that calls upon the sons of the country to defend it. she opened the blog as a space for women to express their thoughts, concerns and proposals and although she's a heavy content producer she chose for the blog to be collective, hence the content was produced by different women. this space was very valuable, because since there were several initiatives of the women's movement as well as women participating in the social movement this was a meeting point for the different female activists and it was also a space to document and for others to see what women were doing and thinking. this experience also strengthened julia ardón as a virtual activist. as the process advanced she became more keen in the use of technological tools and went from using a free blogspot account to having a hosted website where she writes about several national topics. her role in the struggle positioned her as a key reference and she continues today to be one of the most read writers and opinion builders on political issues, in a format that has been traditionally male-dominated, at least in costa rica. d. iii observatory of feminist transgression and the women's peace prize initiative.16 mujeres contra el tlc carried out a joint initiative with colectivo petateras, the observatory of feminist transgression, just associates and feminist international radio endeavour. they established a virtual observatory with presence of delegates from us, mexico and central america, with the objective of supporting the struggle of the women's movement, sharing information about the impacts cafta and other fta's have had in their countries of origin and diffuse information at an international level of the actions and strategies the costa rican feminist movement was implementing to reject cafta. through the observatory of feminist transgression there was participation from the women's nobel peace prize initiative (www.nobelwomensinitiative.org). as international virtual observers, they issued a public statement supporting the struggle and affirming their opposition to cafta. this declaration received coverage by several mainstream tv channels, radio stations and newspapers in the country. by establishing this possibilities of virtual participation, the feminist movement opened a two way channel between the local and international arena, so that the world could know that there was a struggle in costa rica against cafta and also the country could know that the international community was watching. “we the mexican women have come to this process because we want to share with the costarican population the terrible experience of the fta between mexico and north america. (...) we've come to be a part of this historical landmark, this is the first time that citizens in this continent will decide whether or not they want an fta” marusia lópez, observatory of feminist transgression final reflections: reaping your losses. the social movement lost the referendum against cafta (51% vs. 48%), hence the agreement was signed and the complementary legislation was approved. this is an important problem for costa rica which we don't want to undermine, a problem that will have bad consequences in the quality of life of costaricans, in the development model, unless the social movement is able to revert some of its regulations and dispositions. however so much was won in the process that it's difficult to consider it a loss. for the first time in its history, there was community organization that went beyond political party interests. people of different ages, professional backgrounds and political tendencies came together in the patriotic committees. the communities valued and recognized the leadership of women, not for an issue concerning only women (such as violence, health tests, etc) but for an issue of national importance that affected both men and women. also, some of the issues that affect women more directly or that were seen as important by women were given a place as part of the problems the community faces as a whole. the leadership of the social movement was enriched, making visible the presence of female leaders, raising their voices and establishing them as figures of knowledge. in recent visits to rural communities we've heard activists that fight for land talk with respect regarding the local women's organizations, because in the fight against cafta they saw their capacities and strength and understood it's important for women to have their space. the feminist movement also came out stronger from this fight and developed alliances with other sectors, who had the opportunity to listen to them and see that the feminist vision of the world very much coincides with the vision of many social movements and it's a very comprehensive and holistic approach. finally, perhaps one of the largest benefits established in the struggle is the existence of strong alternative communication channels. people in costa rica have learned that the mainstream media can be very one-sided and that they shouldn´t rely on it completely, so they've started to value and use other means of information. after the process, other daily online newspapers have been created, the radio stations that started programming from the social movement have kept going and this has been specially important in new social struggles that are arising after cafta, such as the cases of water supply threats is sardinal and open pit mining in crucitas. this is also important to women and to the feminist movement since it opens up new spaces for making their issues visible and disseminating their ideas. references batliwala, shrilatha. (2008) changing their world: concepts and practices of women’s movements. association for women’s rights in development (awid). www.awid.org camacho, kemly (2003) internet ¿cómo vamos cambiando? international development research center (idrc). http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-s/11375244421004434.pdf consejo de mujeres de los 12 puntos (2007) ¿es el tratado de libre comercio entre estados unidos y costa rica, una oportunidad para las mujeres? http://www.alforja.or.cr/centros/cep/documentos/mujeresfrentetlc.htm mujeres contra el tlc (2007). la manta de nuestros sueños: otra costa rica, otro mundo es posible. http://www.radiofeminista.net/junio07/notas/fire_mantasuenos.htm mujeres del no. (2008). memoria de la lucha de mujeres contra el tlc. san josé, costa rica. unpublished document. 90 pages. sulá batsú (2009). the role of web 2.0 in the opposition to cafta-dr in costa rica. unpublished document. 20 pages. konrad-adenauer-stiftung (2008). economía social de mercado y estado social de derecho. http://www.kas.de/upload/auslandshomepages/kolumbien/esm_08-09-22.pdf http://mujerescontraeltlc.blogspot.com/ http://lashijasdelpueblo.blogspot.com http://www.radiofeminista.net/estacion_paralela/notas/programas_no.htm 1details about the position of social movements regarding the negotiation process: http://www.ircamericas.org/esp/4012 (in spanish). 2http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/1_1_1969.pdf. the vienna convention on the law of treaties regulates general terms and conditions for application of treaties between states. 3101 reasons to oppose cafta, by economist henry mora: www.iis.ucr.ac.cr/publicaciones/tlc/doc-academicos/2004mora-101razonesparaoponersealtlc.pdf reasons why both the us workers and the central american workers oppose cafta: http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/?q=node/view/182 4http://www.kas.de/upload/auslandshomepages/kolumbien/esm_08-09-22.pdf the socially conscious state (estado social de derecho): “seeks to guarantee social rights by recognizing them in its legislation (work, home, health, education, environment, etc) and through active policies of social protection towards children and elders in cases of sickness and unemployment, compensating inequalities and avoiding exlucion and marginalization of vulnerable populations, redistributing rent through taxes and public investment (...) this model of state tends to intervene the market and plan the economy, which overturns the principles of clasic liberalism”. 5http://www.who.int/topics/gender/en/ gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviour, activities and attributes that a particular society considers appropriate for men and women. 6consejo de mujeres de los 12 puntos. 7mujeres contra el tlc 8camacho, kemly (2008) information society glossary. unpublished. 9see sulá batsú (2009) the role of web 2.0 in the opposition to cafta-dr in costa rica, for a more in depth treatment of this issue. 10 camacho, 2003, p.14 11http://www.comitespatrioticos.com 12information taken from the memoirs of women against cafta 13the programs are available at: http://www.radiofeminista.net/estacion_paralela/notas/programas_no.htm 14http://www.juliaardon.com 15http://lashijasdelpueblo.blogspot.com/ 16information taken from the memoir of women against cafta, see references.   community networking as radical practice garth graham < garth.graham@telus.net >   abstract the practitioners of community networking sense that its nature as a “movement” is ending.  but what does that mean?  as daily life online becomes ordinary, and as capacity to engender community online becomes an ordinary function of daily life, what is effective in advancing community networking as a community of practice?  how can we get a clear view of community networking as radical practice in social change?   finding answers to these questions requires, in part, defining the roles of technologies and individuals in the structuring of social networks in unexpected ways.  effective community networking then occurs when individuals act cooperatively to make the internet "happen" more rapidly in support of the need for community and the need for change in local governance.   introduction in a way, this essay is going to be about the end of the community networking movement, but it’s more about the start of something else.  in a networked world, where the connections we have to each other are infinitely reconfigurable, how can someone who is committed to social action align themselves with an emerging and radically different form of practice? recently, i poked around on the web to check up on the status of "community networking guides.” here’s the pattern i found: all of the so-called guides assume that a dense structure of icts is already in place or accessible.   they are not useful in the context of starting from zero in a “digital divide.” in essence, people stopped writing community networking guides in approximately 2001. most of them are more "historical" than useful, and the majority of urls that my search revealed were inactive. at their last global meeting in montreal, october 2002, the members of the global community networking partnership (gcnp) did not come to any agreement on how to represent the community networking movement at the world summit on the information society (wsis).  in follow-up reflections on the consequences of that disengagement, one person on a gcnp list concluded, "the real issue in gcnp, i feel, is not so much about whether an organization exists or not, but whether enough of us share the same political and social vision to take it forward." looking back now, it is apparent we did not. this essay grew out of an earlier paper that attempted to explore what we knew about the practices of community networking and its relationship to those defining qualities of what i am going to call an informed society that the wsis process has not and does not address.  from the perspective of community networking as a practice, all members of the drafting team for that earlier paper had concluded, “the core wsis process is a waste of time.” but then, in january 2004, a split occurred in the discussion of what that conclusion meant.  some of the team were not convinced that gcnp itself was all that relevant to the essential questions posed by the practices of community networking either.  but we all did agree with the concept that community as it moves online becomes the critical structural element of an informed society.  we believe that development and community development have become synonymous. the question then became – now that we have moved into that society and community online is evident in many aspects of daily life, what is effective in advancing community networking as a community of practice? i shelved that earlier paper while i thought about this.  that thinking has now stretched over more than a year.  what time and distance now allows me to see more clearly is that gcnp is dead, not just dormant.  anyone attempting to revive it under that name would really be starting from zero.  why did gcnp not surface in the first round of wsis?  because it no longer existed.  but that begs the question – what caused it to disappear? i have been an actor, more than minor although somewhat less than important, in the dialogue to define community networking as a movement on a world stage.  for me personally, as that movement fades there is an essence of belonging that also disappears.  at first, i felt that disappearance as a puzzle and a loss.  but i have come to accept it.  the end of community networking as a movement is not the end of community online.  anything but!  here is an example of what i mean.  somewhere among the mountains of british columbia, in one of those places where the rivers all run god knows where, there is a community that owns its own broadband telecommunications backbone.  i asked them, “how did you do that?  why does it work so well?"  their answer was, "we just practice the politics of small minds.” this essay then is not a lament.  it is about acceptance of a change.  and, since community online continues everywhere to flow into the nooks and crannies of daily life, this essay has to be about the politics of small minds. technology is the way things are done to get to a clear view of community networking as radical practice in social change, first we have to put the damn technologies in their place.  here are two of my key assumptions about what the use of technology actually means: according to ursula franklin, technology is the “the way we do things around here.”   this is a process definition – relating technology to practice rather than to objects, products or tools.  i think it’s reasonable to modify her definition to include “the way we see things around here.” internet protocol (ip) is a symptom of a shift in emergent global culture toward the autonomy of individuals to define themselves.  it is not a cause of that shift.  it is a change in the way of seeing that has consequences for how technologies are expressed.  and, although that change in perception first surfaces in european arts and science at the end of the 19th century, it is not particularly western. i have tested these assumptions by experience in the sense of t.s. eliot’s “these fragments i have shored against my ruin.”  when you see ip as symptom, you see cultural transformation in a particular way.  that view has certain useful consequences for the ways in which you can approach practice.  you can: completely bypass the kind of technological determinism that sees the tools themselves as the cause of transformation. see the “uses” half of the question of the uses of icts for development in the context of acculturation processes (remembering that two cultures encountering each other modify each other in both directions). look at what people actually do in daily life online as the path to a deeper understanding of transformative processes and social change. see that the drive to individual autonomy through self-definition creates a conflict between open systems that learn and closed systems that are taught. see indigenous knowledge (what our system here knows) as the critical element in the capacity for self-definition and self-organization. accept that seeking neutrality or objectivity will rapidly take you into the absurd.  you are either online in the system, or you are not.  in participant observation, if you define yourself as an observer, then you must realize that the system must define you as a problem to be learned around. it lets you examine that word “global” in a particular way.  if by global you make whole/part assumptions about the structure of society, then you are not being fractal enough to encompass the structural implications of distributed systems.  in permeable dynamic networks, there is no centre.  and if you inhibit the capacity of any to connect to any, you won’t stay open enough for the “edges” to get smart.  (the distribution of nodes will, however, follow a power law.  but that’s another story.) there are three significant and converging changes in the way things are done that have social consequences we can only dimly anticipate: internet protocol (ip) is the harbinger of a radical shift in the nature of structure toward self-organization. within that altered structure, the human-machine interface is evolving to a point where many of the machines can act as autonomous social agents. in the context of rapidly evolving groupwares, all social agents--human or machine--are steadily increasing their capacity to alter the context of social interaction at will by simulating the real world of experience. in effect, in the industrial society, we externalized our hands.  in the informed society, we are in the process of externalizing our imaginations.  if society depends on the way we see it, and the way we see it is infinitely re-configurable, not only within the limits of human imagination but in concert with machines that anticipate behaviour acting as autonomous agents, then the default setting on reality becomes optional. rebel administration to get to a clear view of community networking as radical practice in social change, next we have to think about the nature of what opposes us.  some communities of practice have more trouble adjusting to the informed society than others once upon a time, a wise person told me that community was the antithesis of public administration, and that i should not give the managers of technocracy a road map to oppose the consequences of taking community online.  in my passion to understand, and to share that understanding, i suspect that i have sometimes ignored that very good advice.  but i don't think advice about hiding the road maps matters too much longer. it seems as if the sleep of managers in public sector administration is over.  some of them at least can now be seen sending their mapmakers out into that previously unknown and unsuspected territory that they call e-governance and i am calling the informed society. when the mapmakers return (the ones who don't go native), the administrative immune system still eats most of them. but not all.  for an example of extreme change in the technocrats’ changing view of the way things are done, google the military's use of the concept "network centric warfare." most public policies for addressing "digital divides" continue to define the relation between community online and the internet as merely an issue in the introduction of technologies in the management of institutions, a sort of bringing of digital civilization to the unelectronic. they assume the technologies in isolation, and then ask, in effect, "is an institutional response to them called 'community networking' sustainable? or, are there other forms of institutional or market-based response to the "problem" of introducing technologies at the community level that have greater utility and effectiveness in achieving goals for bridging digital divides?" but, because the question you ask will shape the answer you get, continuing to address only the introduction of icts seems precisely the wrong place to start.             a digital strategy for governance online cannot function if its implementers imagine that some sort of separation exists between suppliers of government as services and consumers of those services.  when all actors are of equal value in sustaining the dynamics of open systems then anyone who interacts (anyone who speaks) can alter the structure of interaction.  unless that can happen, the systems become static (i.e. they die).  in such "structures," (in such communities) the solutions will only emerge from the edges, never from the centre.  after all, isn't that what tcp/ip was designed to do, and will continue to do until governments destroy it, push the smarts to the edges?             to put that another way, both the emperor and the little boy who criticized his nakedness are equally capable of creating a circumstance in which the empire will learn. community networking, on the other hand, assumes a set of social and cultural changes of which the internet is a symptom and then asks: "what new social forms are the most viable in that altered environment?" community networking's answer is that the form or process called "community," re-defined by being online, is the one most viable. in that view then, community networking is not defined institutionally but as the shared experiences of communities of practice related to understanding how community is achieved in the online context as a public good and an essential socio-economic goal. the public in highly connected societies, and even some of their politicians, do understand the need for community-based approaches to ict use as an issue of the public good.  the obstacle for the inclusion of that concept in public policy must reside in the intransigence of management in public sector administration. since now even most public administrators understand that technology is always social before it is technological, we must assume that their intransigence is a form of conscious resistance. that idea of the centre they cling to cannot hold.  up to the point of its failure, everything they do will be predicated on the need for control to ensure its survival.  even their efforts to “decentralize” are merely efforts to retain control in changing circumstances. a distributed system on the other hand, has little need to waste energy in control because the key to its survival is its capacity to learn.  to hang on to control in a networked online world, governments are just going to have to learn to get into a new way of doing things ... because there are many communities, even disadvantaged communities, that are busy learning their way around them. who do you want to be today? to get to a clear view of community networking as radical practice in social change, we also have to think about how the role of the individual in society is changing and how that affects the question of identity. the responsibilities of an individual acting as a citizen of a nation state are not the same as the responsibilities of an individual acting as a member of a social network. nation states are rational constructs, not systems.  they see the act of membership in terms of mobilization.  that is to say, membership is inherently imposed as a condition external to inclusion. for the individual as a component of a dynamic network, membership is inherently an inward act of self-identification.  a degree of individual autonomy is required before a social network can emerge by self-organization. online processes will work to mediate the formation and interactions of social networks.  they will not work to mobilize the formation and actions of nation states.  this is not to say that online social network process opposes the actions of nation states (although the “content” of a particular network may have that objective).  they are merely indifferent to such purposes. yes, in either condition, individuals may have internalized the belief that they are members. but a nation state orders the internalization of that belief and sustains institutions intended to socialize for that result. in effect, like reading science fiction, participation requires "a willing suspension of disbelief.”  a network, on the other hand, does not impose a necessity to believe in membership. either that quality of self-identification is inherent in every individual so connected, or no network emerges. while many of the individuals now living daily life online in self-organizing social networks may not be fully conscious of what exactly has changed, they do know that you are either "on" the net or you are not.  they easily recognize and dismiss actions to impose a duty on them, or to organize their direction, as antithetical to the structures of social networking they inhabit. they treat the imposition of order, as opposed to the emergence of order, as an obstacle that the network, to survive, must learn its way around. but, you declaim, doesn't that rejection of authority replace something valuable, a sense of duty, with the rhetoric of self-interest?"  no, it does not.  a citizen in a democracy has a right to peace, order and good government and a corresponding responsibility to say what that is. an individual in a network has an absolute responsibility to act authentically in the representation of themselves. they are responsible for cooperation in relationship, because a network is a non-zero sum game or it is nothing.  the authority of structure inherent in self-organization is that the network exists and nothing else.  the social contract of social networks is not defined outside of the fact of relationship. when we are able to make our social networks then every single action in relationship re-negotiates the social contract as our social networks make us. it is, therefore, more than the “community networking movement" that has died.  it is that the community of practice called community networking is the most likely zone of re-socialization to recognize that the constituents of social structure have changed so as to render the very idea of "movements" as irrelevant to individual action on social change. in daily life online, bye-bye nation state.  bye-bye movements. hello state of mind. being online represents a change in the deep structure of daily life.  in that new structure, the practices through which an individual participates in social networks are altered in the direction of increased autonomy to define who they are.  their personas multiply as a function of their connections.  the more sociable they are, the greater networking power they gain. identity formation is not static.  what i am, i continuously learn in the context of evolving interactions with others.  in fact, it is not too strong to speculate that consciousness and the informing of identity are one and the same thing. while it is true that creation of the new disturbs the past, so does memory.  memory is one aspect of consciousness, the point of reference that supplies our way of seeing.  learning occurs dynamically as an entanglement of our present experience with everything we have known up to now.  it alters both what we can see, and what we cannot. as conscious beings, we have an inherent capacity for self-reference.  one thing that internet protocol does as a “tool” is to externalize that capacity for self-reference.  does that make the “groupness” of a group of highly connected human beings conscious?  maybe.  but, if it were, how would we know?  when a group learns (i.e. the expressed patterns of behaviour of the group is visibly modified by its experience), then at least one of the functions of consciousness, memory, is present. self-determination of identity, or the actions that increase the capacity of an individual or a community to decide what is inside and outside the boundary between self and other, allows for control of the choices of how self relates to the wider world around it.  in other words, it ensures that, just as in internet protocol, any-to-any connections in the formation of identity can always occur.  this is because the node in the social network, the self, can then reconfigure its message router default settings at will. we are no longer lonely and afraid in a world we never made.  we are in as many worlds as we can imagine.  there is nothing absolute or complete about identity.  our being in the many worlds we can inhabit dynamically alters the way those worlds feel.  we learn continuously within the experience of relationship who we, in the present moment, are.  we (in) form our worlds, and they in turn (in)form us. if perception is reality and reality is perception, what better way to play the game of life than by rules that grow from your direct experience?  the person who is connected by reference to internet protocol is neither a stone age hunter, nor an agrarian farmer, nor a capitalistic worker.  that person is a dreamer who finds that the waking state and the dreaming state are the same.  we are a play on our own words, a transubstantiation that makes our words flesh for our consumption. in the informed society, the capacity to imagine what might be (the simulation of possible futures) is valued.  that society’s social networks are not going to agree to being rendered either realistic or unified. any person who chooses to participate in an open and networked community has both a right to be there and a responsibility to speak, at least towards the maintenance of the internal rules that structure that community.  this is a pragmatics of an entirely different order. we are the authors of our own fate.  we express our own stories and then those stories express us.  the best stories are the ones that survive.  those are the stories that inform the informed society. but what's sociability as machines become social agents? to get to a clear view of community networking as radical practice in social change, we also have to see how we are re-creating the mechanical extensions of ourselves in our own image by making them behave as if they were social actors. "code is the only language that is executable, meaning that it is the first discourse that is materially affective." (alexander r. galloway. protocol: how control exists after decentralization. mit press 2004, p244). if you want an example of the future of machine agents as social actors, consider a recent newspaper ad for the 2005 cadillac sts. it lists a gps-based dvd navigation system, computer assisted suspension, and blue tooth compatibility. then it says, "pray it doesn't become self-aware." this is more than an anthropomorphic metaphor.  the ad is playing to an expectation that the monster lives but that now is the time that it can be owned.  and then its owner will control the fear that it commands.  i cannot resist pointing out that rule by fear is the antithesis of the cooperative rules that structure self-organizing systems.  so the ad’s apparent surface appeal to modernity is actually completely reactionary, quite in keeping with the inherent conservatism of the market for cadillacs. our internet, our selves? not quite. yes, we make our networks and our networks make us. but the "we" in that phrase now includes encoded agents that interact autonomously in the dynamic alteration of culture. those agents sense, experience and learn from the environment, modifying it in the process, just as "we" do. all of us now inhabit dynamic systems of human-machine interaction. this represents an increase in the complexity of society and the capacity for radical practice in social relation.  in effect, the temporary autonomous zones (taz) of hakim bey are multiplying towards infinity. those are the spaces into which the practitioners of community networking have disappeared. where are the grass roots in such networks and in what do they root?  in terms of what we have become, not of what we have been, where are the spaces for addressing social exclusion that are political?  what is disruptive in an era of disruption? . . so that our technologies of coping with life (as the way we do things) become different? the tools do what the culture that designed them intended them to do ... we make our networks and our networks make us. the tools make the dynamic and organic nature of cooperative systems explicit.  they embed into themselves a recursive and selfreferential capacity to have the use of the tool modify the tool.  the ultimate beneficiary of that “practice” is an individual in a community of similar individuals whose capacity to benefit from socio-economic and political development has increased as a function of being online. we’re not citizens.  we’re connected how then can we get a clear view of community networking as radical practice in social change when the functions that make society possible are not organized at all?  they are distributed. the mobilization of a movement assumes a role for organizers who intervene from outside of existing social systems in order to achieve changes inside those systems. networks self-organize by incorporating into themselves a few simple relational rules. there are no roles in them for mobilizers, organizers, or even enablers. in fact, networks tend to treat attempts at playing such roles as a problem to learn a way around. networks encode practice as collective memory of how interaction works. when ideas and memories can connect themselves, what need for association to organize persons having a common interest"? there is a historical context for the time when we reached the take-off point in public access to the internet. we elders of those tribes that were present at the creation were specialists in organization.  and so we applied what we knew forms of association to accomplish our goals in the uses of icts for community development. that was then. but, even then, the programmers were saying, "it's the internet, stupid ...why not just connect?" now, organization as a method for radical practice seems at odds with daily life online. as daily life online becomes ordinary, and as capacity to engender community online becomes an ordinary function of daily life, where then is the locus of radical practice?  in code?  in use? as we all know, the groupwares used to create and sustain community online are far from perfect.  but all sorts of people are applying those groupwares to accomplish ordinary collaborative tasks of daily life, without reference to goals for social change. the communities of practice about community networking contain people with a lifetime of experience in community development and social action. they know that the attempt to co-opt them into "representation" also makes them a more visible target.  they know that confrontation with authority is always a win/lose game. they know that you don’t organize or mobilize a network.  a network self-organizes, informed through its own becoming.  you identify with and participate in a network. distributed self-organizing systems (ie. systems where the choice of connection for any participating element is freely available) behave as a common.  in a common, the "best" long term strategy is to act (to choose) as if it were an iterative non-zero sum game.  you cooperate until the other defects, then defect until the other cooperates.  yes, that works as math, but it's also a moral statement. in the daily experience of end-to-end connectivity, what governs my decisions to connect?  what influences my decisions to form and sustain weak and strong ties?  the attempt to connect, whether through weak or strong ties, is always a movement towards morality and responsibility in relationship. the individual is a self-organized system.  the community is a self-organized system.  but the active and willing participant in the life of community, the responsible person, the integrated self makes no assumptions about the system's capacity to self-organize. to me, this brings humanity, tolerance, and humility with respect to that state of openness.  if i am open to my experience and you are open to your experience, then the "we" that occurs through the cooperative [non-zero sum game] sharing of experience emerges more coherently that it would through the noise of prior assumptions. what has deepened is relationship. in society structured by autonomous individuals and machine-based agents, we gain, should we chose to use it, increased capacity in the expression of the self.   we gain what the people of the book would call, "the connection to a human mind and heart that we only experience when we enter into a world that someone else has created..." except that now, as authors of our fate, we are that someone else.  as the novel writers once were, we are now quite able to proliferate many worlds in our own image. we can demand that the authenticity of our worldviews at least be discussed, if not accepted. we were never going to organize a movement of people who intuitively understand that "p" for protocol in tcp/ip means a redefinition of ethical relationship. the tcp/ip protocols are the result of the action of autonomous agents (including computers!) and comprise a new system of distributed control. so what? richard lowenberg recently noted: "the changing (nature) of community networks (formalized organizations) to community networking (the diverse process by which an increasing number of communities are taking steps to become inter-networked and to apply this technical level to their economic, civic, cultural, educational and political betterment.)." a community network, as a form of association, and a community online, as a form of augmented social network, are not the same thing.  when you are not yet in the informed society, you need forms of association to organize or "mobilize" to get you there.  when you are there, the internet (or rather internet protocol) becomes ubiquitously available to sustain cooperative action in creating online social spaces where community can emerge.  what you then need are better and better groupwares to augment or sustain forms of social networking.  the point of community networking, then, is for individuals to act cooperatively to make the internet "happen" more rapidly in support of the need for community. community networkers do not see icts as a "problem" that can be "fixed."  we consider community networking to be much more than a "tool" for the use of communities.  we see it as a pointer toward a new form of social structure. as a working hypothesis, our actions and practices in design are grounded in that assumption.  to date, this assumption remains unconventional. a distinction can be made between those entities that are organizations that find themselves "in" the informed society and those entities beyond organization that are "of" the informed society.  community networking as a practice is part of the second group. the first group is formed by the organizations that consider the net only a tool for the management of their organizations, rather than as a social context to which the form of their organization must adapt. eventually, those entities that are "of' the informed society will predominate over those that have arrived "in" it unexpectedly and usually still hope that radical change in their practices is unnecessary. to illustrate this distinction by example, the hosting agency for wsis, the itu, is not an organization that is of the information society.  it is the oldest international organization born as a consequence of, and in response to, the postal and telecom technologies of the industrial era.  it is an organization trying to survive “in” the information society as it emerges. so too are all of the rest of the un’s organizations.  by contrast, the internet society is a network disguised as an organization that is of the information society. and the conflict between organizations like the itu and networks like isoc is just starting. there are critical elements of an understanding of the nature of an informed society that are not addressed within the context of wsis, even in the civil society position.   a vision of access to open systems, as the basis for open knowledge sharing, open decision making, open values creation, is the key basis for the achievement of social justice.  the informed society should be seen as a society of learning communities that self-organize and “internetwork” into open patterns of local-global relationships.  the fractal shapes of its economic and ecological zones emerge out of the complexities of its networks.  the word that describes the patterns of interaction made by such zones is not “boundaries;” rather it is “flow.”  based on that understanding, there are four structural principles shaping the social networks of a learning society and the realities of daily life online: the importance, and the absence, of the role of “community” as an essential element of public policy. in community, it is a person’s authentic response to the situation, not their professional authority that contributes to the social glue of trust. the importance of self-organization in dynamic systems as a completely different aspect of governance. the concept of “communities of practice” is at the heart of an understanding of how the dynamics of informing, knowing, and learning shape a political economy of ideas.  governance in self-organizing systems that are open and that learn is different from governance in hierarchical systems that control. the absolute need to defend (non-negotiable) the internet as a commons. in essence, the internet’s code layer, the software that runs the servers, links and connections, is in the public domain because it is written in the languages of open source systems.  to continue to function as designed, it must stay there. effective use beyond the digital divide. the challenge with icts is not to provide simple and passive “access” to the icts.  rather, it is to provide the means by which individuals in their communities can make effective use of these technologies for productive as well as other processes.  what they know, that which informs them, governs their capacity to make effective choices both about what they produce and what they consume. the disparate elements of the community networking movement have trundled off into the specifics of what made them disparate – social justice, academic research on social change, community-based approaches to socio-economic development, writing code for groupware, and the technological challenges of applying new media and communications in actual communities.  but that “movement” never was a tree and branch structure.  being of the internet, and viscerally getting it about self-organized and distributed systems, we all just knew from the beginning that draining energy and resources from the leaves and branches to fatten a trunk at the centre was never going to happen.  we know that the scales that shape self-organization are fractal. the reason that nobody is writing community networking guides any more is that the locus of community-based radical practice for social change has moved to evolving the state of the art of the groupwares available to augment social networks.  but, oddly enough considering what we've learned, the question of the uses of those groupwares remains largely unaddressed.  even among the most aware, the communities of practice about community networking, technological determinism still rules! now that we have crossed the desert and are standing on the edge of that promised land of infinite broadband at zero cost, now what? can we keep our blogs afloat, while all around us others are losing theirs? can we cause a flash mob to emerge to carry mock coffins through the streets of new york (are flash mobs mobilized?)? can we amortize the cost of a community-owned open backbone before a prime communications carrier can yell, "deregulate?" can we be every when and why while being nowhere at all?  because we understand that code is protocol, can we act autonomously in the context of now to resolve the tensions that now has created? can we tell the governors, who still believe that control is something external to systems and imposed upon them, what good government in self-determined and organized systems actually is? can our communities reclaim the development process for themselves? can we embrace connectedness and interaction as fostering diversity... and reject universality and the global? do we know that participation, especially in webs of association, will follow small world theory and power laws? have we looked deeply into what is happening in art? if you really need a network and one is not there how do you get one? in effect, the mere acceptance of a transition to an informed society and an awareness of what that means creates a medium in which the yeast of new open social networks can grow.  that involves recognizing certain kinds of skills that the informed society values and requires that are not present in the industrial society.  when parts of community becomes community online, the human catalysts for community formation need to be conscious of a different kind of presence inside the social networks out of which community online emerges.  in a society of autonomous individuals who choose to act so that self-organizing community emerges, radical practice becomes any act that moves community away from the rational and closer to the sacred.  the act of connecting changes the mix of connections and therefore changes the context in which connection learns.  there is no way into such a process without action.  just do it.  as they still say, “rough consensus and write code.” there is not going to be a cookbook or primer for community networking.  we are going to imagine it as we go. yes, this essay is mostly questions, even when i sound like i am making a statement.  i do not have an answer for any of this yet that fully squares my actions with my convictions.  however, to end with a pointer toward a positive direction, here is one small scenario: when being online increases the capacity for identity to self-organize, the social fabric of daily life online is woven from community.  ideas of governance grounded in the notion of the nation state cannot absorb the fact of community online as an essential structural principle guiding public policy without radical change in their understanding of the nature of authority and control.  it is, therefore, unlikely that nation states will accept the necessity of change.  however, it is possible that local governments can and will change more rapidly. and, after all, that’s where your communities are.  that’s where your most intense shared social context is going to be when it’s on its home page.  as the broadband networked weirdness intensifies, if you don’t look after them, face-to-face, who will?  i did warn you this was going to be about the politics of small minds.   open letter to prime minister paul martin: broadband connectivity in aboriginal communities   to the editor:   the document available from the link below is a copy of a letter that has been sent to prime minister martin and the federal cabinet members by geordi kakepetum, keewaytinook okimakanak executive director.   the letter documents the need for industry canada programs to complete the work which has already begun in developing local broadband infrastructure solutions in aboriginal communities across canada. as well, the letter highlights the need for other federal government departments including indian and northern affairs canada, health canada, heritage canada, and human resource development canada to support the ongoing operation and development of applications that use these community networks.   the social and economic impact of these types of strategic investments support first nations in developing health, education, business and governance opportunities for their membership.   please forward this letter to other appropriate people who are working on addressing first nation issues. thank you in advance for your support.   brian beaton k-net / on-rmo coordinator keewaytinook okimakanak < brian.beaton@knet.ca > open letter to minister paul martin: broadband connectivity in aboriginal communities       historical discrimination, racism, and social injustice have left first nations with a lower quality of life than most canadian out from the edges: multi-site videoconferencing as a public sphere in first nations fenwick mckelvey ryerson university, toronto, canada <mckelveyf@gmail.com> susan o’donnell national research council, fredericton, canada <susan.odonnell@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca> abstract the paper examines multi-site videoconferencing in northern ontario as a public sphere. the theory of the public highlights the political effect of multi-site videoconferencing and how the technology contributes to the well-being of the community. to analyze the political effects of videoconferencing, the paper describes a case of the community use of multi-site videoconferencing based on video analysis and semi-structured interviews. the case occurred in 2007 and connected a number of first nation communities across canada for simultaneous audio-visual exchange. k-net services in ontario hosted the meeting to gauge the feasibility of public meetings through videoconferencing and to document an example of community uses of the technology. k-net services works to develop their videoconferencing infrastructure as a public space. our findings suggest k-net’s activities have developed a media institution best understood as a counter-public sphere for their service region. the case meeting shows a potential new opportunity to further integrate videoconferencing into community development. introduction there are more than 600 first nation (indigenous) communities in canada, many in remote and rural areas. over the past decade, a handful of first nation organizations has led the development of broadband infrastructure to these communities and provides network and internet services for their residents, schools, health centres, band council administrations, local businesses and other community organizations. videoconferencing is one of the network applications offered by these first nation service providers. videoconferencing – high-quality synchronous audio and video communication among people separated by distance – is used by both community residents and organizations for a variety of purposes. this paper compares the use of multi-site videoconferencing (connecting three or more geographic locations) by first nation communities to theories of the public sphere. the public sphere is a way of thinking about how media practices and institutions have a political effect and how they contribute to the well-being of the community. the public sphere is often used in media studies to evaluate the contribution of icts to political practices and cultures (bimber, 1998; dahlberg, 2004, 2005; papacharissi, 2004). scholars emphasize how the construction of the space allows public participation, facilitates deliberative decision-making, and enacts collective decisions (fraser, 1992; garnham, 1992; joss, 2002). while multiple theories of the public sphere exist, the discussion of the findings relates the usage of multi-site videoconferencing to the concept of a counter-public sphere (fraser, 1992), which best captures the particular context of first nations. our analysis uses video analysis and semi-structured interviews to describe a case of community use of multi-site videoconferencing that connected a number of communities across canada for simultaneous audio-visual exchange in 2007. the case exemplifies the many multi-site videoconferences happening between first nations in northern ontario. the core organization involved k-net – is the leading first nation provider of broadband network services to remote and rural first nations communities in northern ontario. many of the communities on its network are fly-in communities with no road access, and many are served by satellite networks. in july 2007, k-net hosted a public meeting by multi-site videoconference with the title "advancing the green agenda via videoconferencing." our research project is partnered with k-net, and we supported the organization of the event to study the feasibility of public meetings through videoconferencing and to document an example of community uses of the technology. research and case study context our research uses a community informatics approach. icts, to be effective, need to be adapted to suit the target community. community informatics practitioners develop programs and concepts to appropriate new icts for community needs (keeble & loader, 2001) and community informatics researchers study icts in their community context. jankowski, van selm, & hollander (2001) suggest that practitioners should develop community communication through the development of local public spheres. their work links the mandate of community informatics with the theory of the public sphere. here communication is used to share knowledge, rather than transmit information (carey, 1989). many argue that the creation of regional public spheres through icts can help in local development through regional cooperation (alkalimat & williams, 2001; gurstein, 2001; jankowski, van selm, & hollander, 2001). our use of the public sphere refers to the work of jürgen habermas and subsequent academic discussion, particularly by nancy fraser. in theory, the public sphere creates an institutional space where private citizens can act collectively. citizens’ ideas circulate through an assemblage of physical and media spaces, such as coffee houses and newspapers. importantly, the spaces are public because all citizens have access to the space and citizens treat each other as equals within the space. through a critical-rational discourse, citizens deliberate on public matters and through the ‘unforced force of the better argument’ make collective decisions. thus, the public sphere contributes to a community by encouraging deliberative and participatory democracy (calhoun, 1992; habermas, 1989 [1962], 2000 [1974]). problematically, the original theory of the public sphere did not address the possibility of the conflict between mass media and marginalized groups, like women, and plebeian society (habermas, 1992). other theorists revisited the public sphere to provide an account for how alternative spheres could assist marginalized groups in their struggle. fraser’s theory of the counter-public sphere describes alternative institutions for groups excluded from the mass public sphere, more accepting of alternative values and allowing members to advocate their causes. the strength of a counter-public would depend on how well it enacts its collective decisions (fraser, 1992). downey & fenton (2003) posit that counter publics function by pushing their matters of concern into the greater public sphere. the transference of a concern from a counter-public to the public would be regarded as a successful action. in relation to first nations, some authors argue that indigenous newspapers in canada and australia created an aboriginal public sphere (avison & meadows, 2000; hartley & mckee, 2000). in our paper, videoconferencing presents a new media institution for research into an aboriginal public sphere. historical discrimination, racism, and social injustice have contributed to a situation in which first nations have a lower quality of life than most canadians (royal commission on aboriginal peoples, 1996). first nations have mobilized, in response to their socio-economic conditions, through political and community projects to push their development agenda (miller, 2000; author, 1995). in 1994, keewaytinook okimakanak (ko), a tribal council, started k-net services. ko mandated that k-net develop, provide, and support icts for community needs. the organization began by managing an electronic bulletin board system (bbs) as an after-school program. through successful management and lobbying, the organization won government and industry support to create a regional broadband network for remote communities that would not otherwise have this access. today, k-net is a leading first nation broadband network providing connectivity solutions with local community networks in remote and rural indigenous communities across canada. it services more than 60 remote northern communities in northern ontario and quebec. k-net’s work includes supporting videoconferencing in the region (beaton, 2004; fiser, clement, & walmark, 2006; ramirez, aitkin, jamieson, & richardson, 2004 authors, 2007). our observations and analysis suggests that videoconferencing creates a public sphere in first nations communities in northern ontario. k-net works to develop their videoconferencing infrastructure to better support this public space. most of the literature regarding the uses of videoconferencing among first nations focuses on telehealth and distance education (aitkin, jamieson, ramirez, & richardson, 2004; bale, brooks, grummett, & tymchak, 2005; care, 2001, 2003; downing, 2002; elias, o'neil, & sanderson, 2004; masum, spence, & brooks, 2005; muttitt, vigneault, & loewen, 2004). however, an increasing number of studies focus on using video in community development (ferreira, 2006; fiser et al., 2006; author, 2007; author 2006; ramirez et al., 2004; author 2005). this research tends to focus on k-net as it has the most developed infrastructure among aboriginal broadband providers (author, 2006). ferreria (2006) used participatory video to connect remote communities to federal policy-makers. author (2007) completed a major content analysis of k-net’s video server and found that 62 % of video activity at k-net supported some type of community development. the findings, along with other research, suggest the linkage between broadband video and the theory of the public sphere. our research continues to build on this developing literature by emphasizing how videoconferencing develops a first nation public sphere. the success of multi-site videoconferencing in the region served by k-net has little to do with the specific technology and more to do with k-net's sustained support and appropriate use of the technology. k-net is a community-led internet and broadband network service provider. it is important to remember that the success of broadband video in remote communities in northern ontario depends on k-net. their infrastructure developed, in part, after the organization lobbied for a new network that addressed the inadequate provision of government services. today, videoconferencing allows for remote communities to access previously inaccessible medical and educational resources (fiser et al., 2006). by allowing government services to operate on their network, k-net funds other community services. simply put, k-net uses the existing broadband infrastructure tactically for community development (garcia & lovink, 2001). k-net manages the network first and foremost as a community resource. bandwidth sharing is an interesting example of how community values manage network resources. as k-net struggles with limited bandwidth, there is not enough space on the network for many simultaneous videoconferences, especially in satellite-served communities. under commercial service provision, price would dictate access to the network. k-net, conversely, uses a scheduling system and managed network where users need to book ahead to access the network. the managed network system gives more bandwidth to scheduled activities over other non-scheduled ones. when a telehealth worker books a consultation, the network administration reserves them bandwidth on the network. in this way, k-net is not a neutral network as it deliberately promotes activities that are engaged in sharing and cooperation by scheduling their time on the network. the scheduling system is an important example of how community values manage the network. it both guarantees quality of service for paid uses, and also allows k-net to identify when the network is free for other public activities. k-net’s sustainable use of the resource means that the technology is well-supported in the community, but it walks a fine line between pushing the technology and responding to community needs (author, 2007). while k-net wants to promote the technology, they do not want to push the technology on the communities. when a community does not choose to participate, k-net does not push videoconferencing in the community. many communities in k-net’s service region choose to participate and remote communities in northern ontario typically have at least three videoconferencing units one each in the school, health centre and band office and some have an extra unit in a public area. access is not ubiquitous, but k-net has focused on improving access to the best of its ability. k-net works to provide, promote, and expand videoconferencing access in remote northern communities. the term "multi-site videoconferencing" refers to using broadband networks, ip protocols, videoconferencing hardware and software, and a videoconferencing bridge (an mcu) to communicate by synchronous audio and video among multiple geographic sites. for the multi-site videoconference discussed in this report, the use of the broadband networks, ip protocols and bridge were controlled by k-net, with the videoconferencing hardware and software controlled by each of the participants at the different sites. during the meeting k-net also streamed the audio-video feed to its streaming server and to the research project website on a k-net server. videoconferencing in this case, then, includes both an actual meeting and a public record of the meeting. the multi-site videoconference event discussed in this paper is a paradigmatic case of videoconferencing (flyvbjerg, 2006). analysis consisted of participant observation during the event, interviews with key participants after the meeting, and video analysis of the transcripts that involved editing the archived meeting into four thematic segments and making them publicly accessible on the project website on k-net. the four themes of the meeting were community uses of videoconferencing, personal experiences of videoconferencing, challenges and solutions, and future uses. after the event, we conducted semi-structured interviews with three meeting participants to explore the four themes. the multi-site videoconference event on july 12, 2007, k-net hosted a videoconference advertised as a public meeting to discuss the relationship between videoconferencing and the green agenda. the researchers, working in partnership with k-net, decided to support the organization of this event and chose the topic of the meeting during its regular research partnership meeting the previous month. the green agenda event tested how videoconferencing facilitates public meetings. the organization has planned to continue this research and application of the technology. multi-site videoconferencing has recently attracted more attention as a green technology. the technology allows multiple people to meet in a shared mediated space. organizations could cut down on carbon emissions related to travel and decrease their carbon footprint by using videoconferencing. k-net suggested that organizations could bank their emissions savings and trade them on the carbon market. the meeting hoped to discuss methods of calculating these savings, as well as discussing best practices for videoconferencing. k-net posted an announcement of the event on their web portal (http://media.knet.ca/node/2859). the post seemed to attract attention. during the meeting, one participant mentioned that he saw post on the k-net website and joined the meeting. the announcement also included links for participants to learn more about the subject. posters advertising the event were circulated by email to first nation communities in the k-net and atlantic helpdesk regions. the main bridge linking the videoconference sites was operated by k-net in sioux lookout. the k-net bridge linked into the atlantic helpdesk bridge, which was linking the first nation participants in the atlantic region. the authors participated in the meeting from our research institute on a university campus in atlantic canada, more than 1,000 kilometres from the central meeting location in northern ontario. on the day of the meeting, we gathered around the desk of the videoconferencing room. the chairs had been arranged in a semi-circle facing the two blank monitors of the tandberg videoconferencing unit. at the given time, we turned on the equipment and, once connected, we found ourselves in the midst of a virtual room full of people busy preparing for the meeting. participants adjusted their cameras, talked with each other, and organizers tried to help anyone with technical difficulties. although we were physically still in our meeting room in the research institute, we felt like we had entered a large meeting hall. the meeting demonstrated how multi-site videoconferencing technology allows remote locations to connect to key resources and to assemble into one meeting space for simultaneous audio-visual exchange among participants. figure 1 illustrates the location of meeting participants. the meeting brought twenty-two different communities from across canada into one mediated space, with seven sites in the atlantic region, thirteen sites in ontario, one site from alberta, and one site from british columbia.1 in relation to other videoconferences, the event was quite large. (typically, organizers like to have smaller meetings with around five sites participating in order to have more interactive discussion (molyneaux et al., 2007.) figure 1: map showing location of participants in the july, 2007 event estimating the exact number of participants is difficult because many participants were off camera.2 we estimate that more than 40 people participated in the videoconference. the participants clustered in northern ontario and atlantic canada, the areas covered by the two first nations partners in our research project. in northern ontario, the participants were three individual telehealth workers in three different remote first nation communities, four participants at the ko research institute in thunder bay, members of k-net community services in sioux lookout, participants at the administration offices of keewaytinook okimakanak in balmertown, a worker in a band office in remote nibinamik first nation, and band members from two first nations on lake huron. the three sites participating in ottawa were from two federal government departments: environment canada, and indian and northern affairs canada. in atlantic canada, the participants were telehealth workers from four first nations, members of the atlantic help desk administration in membertou first nation, cape breton, and five participants at the site of our research institute. there was also one participant in edmonton, alberta and one on salt spring island, british colombia. a meeting over multi-site videoconferencing requires facilitation to guide presentations and to moderate discussion. as the meeting began, the two meeting chairs, in sioux lookout, ontario and fredericton, new brunswick introduced the structure of the meeting. they divided the 1.5-hour meeting into three phases. the meeting followed their schedule accordingly. we began with a round of introductions with each site introducing themselves in turn. following the introductions, the organizers had arranged for three speakers to talk about videoconferencing, and finally the chairs opened the floor for a moderated discussion about videoconferencing and the green agenda. the three presenters were a northern telehealth worker, a member of first nations school-net and a consultant who has worked with k-net to develop their videoconferencing strategy. the presentations focused on how they have introduced the multi-site technologies to the communities and some of the results. these efforts involved lobbying, promoting, and training. the consultant summed up these experiences when he reflected on seeing the use of videoconferencing in the well-supported community of sioux lookout. he said: i noticed when i was up in sioux lookout that people were quite used to it, and this is one of the challenges that we’re facing now. you had mentioned a change management process where people get used to adopting these technologies; using them, and getting them to think that making a videoconference is just as quick and easy to do as a phone call. we’re not quite there yet, however, i think sessions like this are a perfect example as to how coordinate and use this sort of technology. beyond implementation, the presenters also expressed how the technology was helping communities. the telehealth worker spoke of the community benefits of videoconferencing. she described the real benefit as follows, “patients don’t have to leave home. they don’t have to leave their families. they don’t have to leave work.” access to medical support allows the sick to receive medical advice without having to leave behind the support of their family and home. the technology also allows the delivery of services that were once inaccessible to the community. through a dramatic example, the telehealth worker explained how she helped to deliver a baby with the support of some physicians from sioux lookout who guided her through the process over a videoconference connection. as she had no training on this procedure, she normally could not have successfully delivered the baby. the final part of the meeting opened the floor for discussion. the time was an opportunity for everyone to speak about his or her experiences with the technology. with a large group, sites took turns presenting their interests and concerns. discussion was diverse and topics varied between sites. many groups discussed how videoconferencing had benefited their respective organizations. one participant mentioned that they conducted job interviews by videoconferencing saving the travel costs for applicants. other participants used the technology for community development. as one explained: i’ve done a lot of community engagement work through videoconferencing, training ctcs [community technology coordinators working with the health centre], talking to ctcs and also, i’ve done presentations on kotm, which is ko telemedicine. i’ve done presentations across canada. and also i’ve delivered a seven-module course on tobacco prevention. one module that i thought we wouldn’t be able to complete was role playing. and it turned out to be the best part of the course, because in each of our communities, we would pick a character from different communities, and because they were within their own space within their own environment, and people there knew they were able to ham it up a bit, so we ended up doing an extra day just on role modelling, because they were having so much fun. some meetings take place in the native languages (in these regions, cree, oji-cree and mi'kmaq), allowing participants to express themselves in their mother tongue. the technology has also been used to nurture local culture and history. one participated in an ongoing event using videoconferencing to connect elders in different communities: the most successful program we have is our elders gathering. we have an elders gathering once a month and the elders really look forward to this… and we usually get over 100 elders in one session communities and regional service providers have taken up videoconferencing. one captured this point nicely by saying: i use videoconferencing almost every day of the week, now, since i started working here, just with the various committees and meetings with the different organizations. so it’s really helpful. i really enjoy using it, and sometimes we double-book ourselves, because it’s so easy. (laughter) it's really easy to do that. in sum, the presentations made in the videoconference validate claims made elsewhere that videoconferencing assists communities development in first nations (author, 2006). despite the various successful appropriate uses of technology, several participants discussed how to better integrate videoconferencing into their organization. training remains a means of improving the usage of videoconferencing. training ranges from technical explanations of placing a call to proper conduct during the meeting. potential users need to know how to present themselves during a meeting. one person explained these challenges: some of the other things are making sure they’re aware of the etiquette. many times i’ve watched different videoconferences where, you know, you only see part of a face, or you know, people don’t realize they don’t have to stand up and shout into the microphone, shuffling papers….so you sit with them and you talk to them about what that would change, explaining the different equipment that you have available, and try and come up with a plan to alleviate that from happening, and assist them with that. aside from training, participants also discussed how to integrate videoconferencing into their organizations. these challenges lessen as more people become aware of the technology. as one participant stated: i do the basic training to the staff, and then i really want to see the light bulbs go on and the eyeballs get big, because once you introduce them to this, i think they’ll get creative and just take it over, because we have a lot of creative people on staff once people become aware of the technology and its capacities, they can find their own appropriate uses. to conclude, participants remained confident that the major obstacles to videoconferencing could be overcome through training and support. discussion about the green agenda tended to focus on promoting the usages of videoconferencing. by traveling less to attend meetings, communities reduced their carbon emission— the more people using the technology, the greater the savings. these savings could be banked for possible exchange on a carbon market. measuring theses savings remains a challenge for banking carbon credits. one participant’s work focused on developing measures to calculate savings. these savings could be used to justify investment and bank credits. as part of the project, we prepared four videos that summarized the themes of the discussion. these can be accessed and viewed online. they are: future uses (http://media.knet.ca/node/2977) experiences with videoconferencing (http://media.knet.ca/node/2976) community uses of videoconferencing (http://media.knet.ca/node/2975) challenges and solutions (http://media.knet.ca/node/2974) these videos act as a public archive of the event and we posted them on the k-net server. we hope that readers will watch these videos in addition to reading this paper. after the meeting, one of the authors opened a discussion board on the research project website to allow further discussion of the issues that arose. notably, there was little discussion in the online forum; this is not surprising, given the poor participation record of many online discussion boards. in the future, videoconferences will need to address better integration of discussion boards and online participants, but this theme is beyond the scope of our paper. in summary, the meeting involved more than 40 of diverse people from across canada. most participants already had institutional access to videoconferencing and prior experience with the technology. although advertised as a discussion of videoconferencing and the green agenda, the meeting mostly focused on the use of the technology in first nations communities. the meeting succeeded in giving participants a time to share their experiences and learn about how other communities were using the technology. during the meeting, several people stated they enjoyed the meeting and hoped that similar meetings would be organized in the future. conclusion: re-thinking the public sphere and public space in conclusion, we will explore some of our thoughts about how communication technology changes public space in the regions. for anderson (1991), the printed word facilitated the transition from feudal states to nations. the newspaper and the book re-conceptualized the public's sense of time and space.  through shared rituals, like reading the newspaper, future citizens could imagine their place in a shared time. this imagined time allowed the public to think of themselves as citizens bonded together in a nation (p. 33-36). anderson's work demonstrates the media's role in creating shared space for regional communities. as wilson describes, anderson’s work explores how community bonding includes a “perceptual, emotive dimension” (2006, p. 26). anderson and his imagined communities guide a research direction on the community usage of multi-site videoconferencing. multi-site videoconferencing reconfigured the space of first nations. unlike newspapers, videoconferencing is a space-biased medium not a time-biased medium (slack & wise, 2005). it overcomes the challenges of distance but does not directly address the problems of time. videoconferencing is a more temporal medium and does not suspend time to allow for mass rituals, like newspaper reading.3 the technology encourages people to feel temporarily as though they exist in the same space. like a map, videoconferencing connects remote communities so they can think regionally. as one speaker emphasized, “videoconferencing, one of the enablers, is like you’re walking into an office that feels like it’s next door and it can be like 3,000 kilometres away, so that’s a very good feeling.” k-net’s efforts to implement, support, and grow videoconferencing create a media space dedicated to overcoming distance and creating a regional forum for deliberation. individuals using the technology are less concerned with distance. participants often describe the technology as convenient. they do not have to travel to attend a meeting. a single office can work throughout an entire region. for example, at the administrative level, the technology allows different first nations to hire shared employees, organize regional actions, and share knowledge. to be clear, videoconferencing does not overcome all the problems of space and time, but it does allow bands to conceptualize their place in a shared networked space, instead of a geographic space. the video analysis for the july meeting supports the author’s (2007) statement that the technology “fosters many community development initiatives”. during the conference, participants shared the ways they use videoconferencing for their communities. as one participant stated: we also realized there that communicating amongst ourselves would be facilitated by this type of technology and we really do need to communicate on these types of issues to coordinate strategy. so i think from that sense, that was where my interest arose, and you can imagine there’s many other uses for this technology, especially working amongst various communities. videoconferencing creates a networked space for bands to interact. this space minimizes the cost of distance. gurstein argues that flexible community networks encourage “distributed social, economic, and political organization and development” (gurstein, 2001: 274). the public sphere offers a lens to address the political implications of this shared networked space. the theory of the public sphere raised important questions for community informatics to question how media empowers citizens (jankowski et al., 2001). the public sphere describes how an ideal configuration of media space and public processes create institutions for deliberative decision-making. habermas (2000 [1974]) defines the public sphere as “a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed” (p. 509). similar to anderson, habermas uses the newspapers and the coffeehouses of the 18th century to describe the bourgeois public sphere. by enabling collective decision-making and action, these spaces allowed private citizens to make the monarchy more accountable and develop the principles of representative democracy (habermas, 2000 [1974]). as garnham (1992) points out, the theory focuses upon “the indissoluble link between the institutions and practices of mass public communication and the institutions and practices of democratic politics” (p. 360). the theory links a society’s politics to the media environment where politics occurs. fraser’s theory of the counter-public sphere best describes k-net’s involvement with videoconferencing. fraser argues that media environments exclude certain interests or values. while meant at first as a critique of the bourgeois public sphere, fraser finds that exclusion is constructive. exclusion requires some consensus among participants over common values and goals. if, as she argues, theory rejects the necessity of a singular public sphere, then it can become an extremely useful means of describing alternative media and media democracy. just as the mainstream sphere excludes certain groups, these marginalized groups can create their own spheres. these counter-public spheres would theoretically provide a better voice to their concerns and lobby for better recognition within other spheres, and technology can facilitate that voice (fraser, 1992; van vuuren, 2006, author, 2001). the k-net region suffers from a double exclusion. first nations are marginalized in mainstream culture (voyageur, 2002) and the remoteness of the region distances it from geographic hubs. exclusion, however, does not entail the homogenization of identity; rather, exclusion means finding commonalities (willson, 2006). as fraser highlights, exclusions can become productive and progressive. the k-net region’s exclusion from commercial internet service providers allowed k-net to create a community-oriented network that allows bands to cooperate and share. their exclusion from power resulted in the creation of a regional network. k-net constitutes an institutional media space for a counter-public sphere (garnham, 1992). one participant in the july event summed the hopes as: i think this meeting is a great example of the opportunities that we have to be able to come together and to be able to allow people on the edges… to participate in an equal way, being able to do e-work, how we start to be able to distribute the resources in an equitable manner rather than the people like us being left out on the edges waiting for decisions to be made or programs to be made. the results are similar to first nation newspapers where the papers “provide sites for public opinion formation; sites where citizens can engage in collective efforts to bring their issues to the dominant public sphere; and sites where aboriginal people can attempt to influence the policies of various governments through the pressure of public opinion” (avison & meadows, 2000). the network completes a major goal of community informatics: to use technology in a way that benefits the community (gurstein, 2001; jankowski et al., 2001; keeble & loader, 2001). the case demonstrates how a group of first nations and other researchers assembled to discuss and to share their perspectives on videoconferencing as a green technology. the technology facilitated a space, like a counter-public sphere, where excluded communities could have their own-shared space. the case exemplifies a growing number of implementations of videoconferencing in the political practices of first nations in the k-net region4. in the future, more research is needed to explore the relationship between these theories and videoconferencing. a longer window of study might allow for a more informed discussion of the community uses of videoconferencing as a public sphere. this report from the field documents how videoconferencing was used to hold a public meeting. the authors hope that in the future more multi-site videoconference meetings will be held that would allow more thorough exploration of the links between the technology and its political usages. acknowledgements the authors wish to thank everyone who participated in the videoconference event in july 2007 and the three participants who agreed to be interviewed. this research project is a partnership of the national research council of canada, the university of new brunswick and first nations organizations: atlantic canada's first nation helpdesk & mi'kmaw kina'matnewey in cape breton, nova scotia; k-net in sioux lookout, ontario; and the keewaytinook okimakanak research institute in thunder bay, ontario. the research is supported by a standard research grant (2006-2009) from sshrc – the social sciences and humanities research council of canada with in-kind support from the partners. fenwick 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(2005, august 22-27). research on ict with aboriginal communities: report from ricta 2005. paper presented at the community informatics research network 2005 conference, cape town, south africa. willson, m. a. (2006). technically together: rethinking community within techno-society. new york: peter lang. 1 the complete list of sites: atlantic helpdesk, membertou first nation, ns (2 sites), chapel island first nation, ns, wagmatcook first nation, ns, waycobah first nation, ns, elsipogtog first nation, nb, national research council, fredericton, nb, ottawa, on (3 sites), wikiwemikong first nation, on, m'chigeeng first nation, on, kori, thunder bay, on, sioux lookout, on (2 sites), lac seul first nation, on, ko, balmertown, on, poplar hill first nation, on nibinamik first nation, on, bearskin lake first nation, on, edmonton, ab, and salt spring island, bc 2 in one case, we had only heard one speaker from a certain site and we assumed that he was the only participant. then this participant readjusted the camera and we saw that he was in a board room filled with other people who had been watching off camera. 3 online video archives, such as the one operated by k-net, might offset this bias, by turning the video transcripts of the meetings into public archives. such possibilities would need to be addressed in future research. 4 videoconferencing is beginning to connect to policy-makers. the policy development process for the northern table for land utilization between nishnawbe aski nation and ontario provincial government uses videoconferencing to host focus groups with remote communities. community members are asked to give input and their responses help craft the resulting power. as more first nations and governments agencies – like environment canada and indian and northern affairs canada – increase their use of videoconferencing, community members can become better connected to power. most of the federal government participants at the july meeting suggested that the technology allowed better access to first nations. potentially, videoconferencing could facilitate more deliberative policy making (hajer & wagenaar, 2003). such an outcome remains an important goal for videoconferencing as fraser relates the efficacy of a public sphere to its ability to execute its decisions.   social reproduction and its applicability for community informatics  lynette kvasny school of information sciences and technology, center for the information society, the pennsylvania state university < lkvasny@ist.psu.edu >   abstract digital divide rhetoric is generally utopian, touting innovative models for collaboration, economic activity, learning, and civic engagement. however, as information and communication technologies (ict) become more widely available, we cannot naively assume that historically underserved communities are reaping these benefits. social reproduction theory provides a basis fo understanding how ict may in fact serve to reproduce, rather than alleviate, inequality.   introduction   for the past decade, committed researchers, politicians, policy makers, investors, and community-based organizations made concerted efforts to redress the digital divide, but the solution has remained somewhat elusive. information and communication technologies (icts) have been portrayed in digital divide discourses as the great equalizer that may be leveraged by local communities to combat economic deprivation and foster social inclusion. thus, there exists a sense of urgency in “bridging the digital divide.” ict rhetoric is generally utopian, touting innovative models for collaboration, economic activity, learning, and civic involvement. however, as icts become more widely available, we cannot naively assume that historically underserved communities are reaping these highly touted benefits. the rhetoric that celebrates the “bridging of the digital divide” may in fact ring hollow in communities where questions of material existence, not ict, prevail. people in underserved communities are often consumed with meeting basic human needs such as earning a livelihood, finding comfortable and affordable housing, and creating safe neighborhoods. in light of these persistent economic hardships and related social issues like drugs, crime, discrimination, and homelessness, our well-intended efforts for redressing the digital divide are indeed challenged. in what follows, i present social reproduction theory as a basis for understanding how ict may in fact serve to reproduce, rather than alleviate, inequality. when digital divide interventions are informed by western economic and technological rationalities, they tend to rely on the financial resources and the expertise of external entities. the people experiencing economic hardships and social ills are often portrayed as passive objects, with little agency. by examining the role of ict in perpetuating these systems of inequality, we are then able to posit transformative ways of thinking about ict as enabling the resourcefulness of historically underserved communities in meeting their self-determined needs.    social reproduction theory   social reproduction theories are fueled by the central question of how and why relationships of inequality and domination are reproduced. this theory can be usefully appropriated by community informatics scholars interested in probing the relationship between class interests and power as exerted through the seemingly democratic practice of providing free or low-cost computer and internet access and training. adopting a social reproduction standpoint, one may start from the premise that digital divide discourses tend to categorize and legitimize the power relations between those social agents with (the haves) and those without (the have nots) computing skills and access. researchers identify and measure those who do and do not have access. interventions based on this research seek out those without access, and provide them with opportunities to learn and acquire computing skills for little or no financial cost. thus, one may conclude that the digital divide is a powerful discourse for socialization into a given social order (the information society). how then does this socialization into a given social order take place? reproduction theory provides some conceptual models for investigating this process. there is no single general reproduction theory, but reproduction processes constitute a fundamental problem that has been tackled in contemporary sociology, mostly in the study of educational institutions. in what follows, i posit three major approaches in reproduction theory. first, bowles and gintis (1976) debunk the century-old ideal of public education as "the great equalizer" among disparate social classes in the u.s. bowles and gintis instead argued that public schooling reproduces social and class-based inequities. they adopt a marxist perspective and argue that schools are training young people for their future economic and occupational position according to their current social class position. on the one hand, students of working-class origin are trained to take orders, to be obedient, and are subject to more disciplinary interventions. on the other hand, children of professionals are trained using more progressive methods, which give them internal discipline and self-presentation skills. the schools and their curriculum structure education so as to produce workers who will fill various socially stratified occupations, thereby maintaining class-based inequities and benefiting the means of capitalist economic production and profit. while this theory has been criticized because it assumes that futures are largely determined by the economic structure and agents place within it, it does help to raise questions about the implications around the intensity, purpose, autonomy, quality and length of training and access found in public access centers, libraries, universities, workplaces and homes. human agency and resistance form the second explanation for social reproduction. from this perspective, dominated agents' resistance to school is a political response to oppression and limited life chances. resistance theories privilege human agency with dominated agents being able to act, interpret, and exert some power in their lives. this agency, however, tends to keep dominated agents in the lower levels of the economic structure. in paul willis' (1997) study of working class male culture in the uk, he found that these males are talented enough to do school work, but they choose not to. self-exclusion from an educational setting, which was associated with feminine qualities, was experienced as affirming a strong masculine identity. instead of school, the youths engaged in practices such as theft, smoking, fighting, and consuming alcohol, which they perceived as masculine. the youths also engage in factory work, which became another site for expressing masculinity. while resistance was initially seen as positive, after five or so years of factory work, the young men felt locked into this working-class position and unwittingly reproduced the social structure. this resistance-oriented approach would be useful for examining “internet drop-outs” and those who simply refuse to adopt ict, and to understand how and why this rejection of ict may fact place folks at a disadvantage. the digital divide is founded on the implicit assumption that access and use provide distinct advantages, and those who fail to adopt ict will be somehow left behind. reproduction theory provides a lens for empirically examining this premise. culture represents the third explanation for social reproduction. for bourdieu (1984), culture plays a paramount role in structuring life chances. each class has its own cultural background, knowledge, dispositions, and tastes that are transmitted through the family. however, the culture of dominant groups forms the knowledge and skills that are most highly valued, and the basis of what is taught in schools. to possess these ways of knowing and skills, which bourdieu calls cultural capital, means that one is considered educated or talented. to not have this cultural capital means one is considered ignorant or uneducated. academic performance and educational credentials such as diplomas, certificates, and degrees are largely based upon the congruence between what is taught in school and the cultural capital possessed by students. thus, those students coming from more affluent homes have greater chances of excelling in school and obtaining credentials that expand occupational opportunities because they posses larger quantities of cultural capital that are privileged in educational settings. in this way, cultural capital inculcated by families and schools plays a large role in structuring access to desirable employment and broader life chances. research informed by bourdieu can provide explanations for how the dominant ideas of a society (i.e., economic development and digital divide) are related to structures of socio-economic class, production and power, and how these ideas are legitimated and perpetuated through ict. this theoretical framework also provides answers to the question of how advantages fail to be passed on to dominated groups, and how we come to perceive the status quo as natural and inevitable (i.e., legitimacy through powerful institutions such as the media as well as schools). in summary, social reproduction theories problematize taken-for-granted assumptions about the digital divide and the “people on the wrong side of the divide.” these theories may inform studies of how and why social agents conceptualize, appropriate, and perhaps resist ict, and how these practices may unwittingly lead to continued social exclusion. these theories are perhaps most useful for enabling researchers to challenge notions about the ability of ict alone to redress uniquely human problems of social justice and equity. for instance, bourdieu’s theoretical perspective informed empirical studies of how and why the proliferation of “free” computers and internet access regardless of mode of access (home or public) may be problematic for public life, and thus provided a rich understanding of the challenges faced by underserved groups (kvasny, forthcoming; 2005; kvasny & keil, forthcoming). these empirical studies also explain the conflicts that may limit icts’ role in contributing to broadly desirable social outcomes. these conflicts include socio-economic class, history, race, and legitimate uses of ict.   breaking the reproductive cycle   reproduction theories would see the digital divide as creating docile bodies and reinforcing people’s place in society. humanity is stolen from historically disadvantaged people as they come to be seen as have-nots, the unemployed, and the urban poor. this loss of humanity creates a “fear of freedom” in which people acquiesce to an unfair system. bourdieu argues that the status quo is preserved because it is essentially unquestioned and naturalized. agents go about their business and they tend not to pose the theoretical questions of legitimacy because the social world is embodied in both their practices and in their thoughts (i.e., habitus). they reproduce it without active reflection. this does not mean that the oppressed do not reflect on their position, but their perception of themselves as oppressed is often impaired by their submersion in the reality of being oppressed (freire, 1970). however, education can be a “practice of freedom” with the potential to transform rather than conform (freire, 1970). to promote transformative uses of ict, community informatics scholars should enter into dialogue with communities to construct alternative representations of working class subjects and uses of ict. the working class should not tacitly accept the dominant class values, but critically interrogate their class position and engage in self-actualizing activities that will enable them to integrate ict in their everyday lives. the awakening of class-consciousness is often bound up within a process of rehabilitating and rebuilding self-esteem, and reaffirming cultural dignity (freire, 1970; giroux, 1983; hooks, 1994). this type of critical, participatory research is transformative in that it may help communities to critically reflect upon the structures that repress their ability to thrive. communities can then resist these structural forces by creating innovative ways of using ict to support the issues that are important to their social life situations. thus, we must respect the particular worldview as well as the social and cultural capital found in historically underserved communities. we must genuinely engage with them so as to understand the nature of their material situation, raise critical awareness of their situation, collaborate to realize alternatives, and create localized interventions for bringing about change. engagement along the lines advocated by freire provides a path for how community informatics researchers can promote uses of ict that upset reproductive processes.   references bourdieu, p. (1984). distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. bowles, s., & gintis, h. (1976). schooling in capitalist america: educational reform and contradictions of economic life. new york: basic books. freire, p. (1970). pedagogy of the oppressed, new york: continuum international publishing group. giroux, h. (1983). theory and resistance in education: a pedagogy for the opposition. new york: bergin and garvey. hooks, b. (2000). feminist theory: from margin to center. cambridge: south end books. kvasny, l. (forthcoming). the cultural (re)production of digital inequality. information, communication and society. kvasny, l. (2005). the role of the habitus in shaping discourses about the digital divide. journal of computer mediated communication, 10(2). available at http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue2/kvasny.html; last accessed april 2005. kvasny, l., & keil, m. (forthcoming). the challenges of redressing the digital divide: a tale of two us cities. information systems journal. willis, p. (1997). learning to labor: how working-class kids get working-class jobs. farnborough: saxon house.     welcome to the first issue of the journal of community informatics the journal of community informatics, (2004) vol. 1, issue 1, pp. 2-4 editorial: welcome to the journal of community informatics welcome to the first issue of the journal of community informatics! community informatics (ci) – enabling communities with information and communications technologies (ict) – is a very new development in the academic world, but in reality a very old one in the daily life of communities. it is very new in that only since the arrival of the internet and low-cost personal computing could those without a direct professional or financial interest begin to engage with and appropriate information technology. it is very old, in the sense that information and communications, and using technologies to support these, are as old as communities themselves. equally new, of course, are the range of opportunities (and risks) which communities confront for technology-enabled change, development, and ultimately for empowerment (or for the loss of power and an increase in dependency). and these opportunities (and risks) arise in relation to both the community’s immediate political and social environment and to their larger national and global context. the technology, for better or worse, binds, links and networks communities into a larger world, and as the larger world is transformed with ict, so communities must evolve and adapt in response. in this there are choices, and communities can either anticipate and through effective use realize their goals and objectives by means of these immensely powerful tools or they can adapt and adjust themselves as best they can to a technology-enabled future imposed on them by others. ci is concerned with these processes of communities adapting and transforming, networking and binding, responding to and becoming the authors in the unending and increasingly rapid flow of information within and among communities and between communities and the larger society. ci addresses this process of adaptation and transformation through a systematic concern with the “how” — the infrastructure, the devices, the connectivity of enabling and empowering; the “how to” — the training, the community and organizational development; the “necessary conditions” — the funding, regulatory environment, the policy frameworks; and finally and perhaps most importantly the “why” — the goals and objectives of enabling and empowering communities. ci represents a confluence between theory, practice and policy — between those who research and those who implement; between the theory and findings, and the policy and funding frameworks that in large part determine the available strategies for supporting ict in communities as elements of development and innovation; and between the practice and policy of enabling communities and others to feed-back and feed-forward into strategies for sustainability and supportive regulatory regimes. equally, ci is a disciplinary hybrid — linking hardware, software and telecommunications as infrastructure (and superstructure); with the social sciences, social and community development; and the professional activities of law, politics, accounting and administration. communities are the bedrock of human development. they ensure the transmission of language and culture. they provide for human security through knowing one’s neighbours. they are the crucible for effective democracy through inculcating values of civic responsibility and active and effective citizenship. as the technology supports an aggressive, even manic globalization, so community and communities become of even greater importance. and in this, social and community development becomes the practice through which communities become enabled, self-organized and self-transformed, with research and selfunderstanding as necessary resources in this process. editorial 3 the journal of community informatics (joci) has as its mission to present the work of those concerned with enabling communities with ict, to provide a forum for the creation of a professional and critical discourse on the strategies and impacts of this enterprise; to help create a framework and a legitimation for those who choose this as the focus of their professional efforts; and to act as one hub among many for linking the various networks of those with interests related to community-based technologies. the journal will include an identified section for professional peer-reviewed papers as a means to create and carry-forward a tradition of the highest quality and broadest base of systematic research. it will also include an opportunity for discussion and feedback from practitioners and policy analysts as to the application and significance of this research for practice and policy. the journal finally, will look to act as a focal point for the broader range of professional but non-academic research with a concern for ci. much of the most interesting and valuable materials in this area (as in other areas where there is a confluence of the researcher and the practitioner) are produced not by academic researchers but by practitioners working for and through agencies and enterprises directly engaged in the practice of enabling communities. our intention is to provide a means for making this available to the academic and practitioner communities and a structured opportunity to comment on and critique this work as appropriate. in the definition of community, the journal will not be restrictive. we consider the issue of how virtual or electronic communities can or do function as communities to be one which is open and an object of research including in and through this forum. in the larger frame, it is my personal belief that there is a necessary convergence between enabling physical and virtual communities through ict and that the ultimate power of the technology for communities arises when the use of the technology as between the physical and the virtual becomes seamless and invisible… but more of this in later issues… also, as we go forward with this most exciting undertaking, i am reminded of a speech i gave a couple of years ago introducing community informatics to a technical audience. a young academic came up to me afterwards and was extremely critical of an approach which gave communities additional power through technology. as we discussed further, it emerged that he was from a minority community in europe which had experienced and was currently experiencing significant discrimination at the hands of the dominant community particularly at the local level. the last thing that he wanted was to see that majority community have access to additional power to identify and create obstacles to the social development of his ethnic minority. i pointed out to him that the technology equally could empower him and his compatriots but that issue has remained with me and does, i think, reinforce the significance of the continued awareness of the ethical dimensions of our work. this inaugural issue of joci is special in that all of the articles are a response by the editorial group to an invitation to give a context to our enterprise through position papers, scholarly papers and other materials. and this i believe it does. in the issue that follows we have from our editors: • a pointer and introduction (in part through video) to the work of k-net, an aboriginal group in northern canada which is innovating in the use of ict for education, for administration, for health and perhaps most importantly, is demonstrating the way in which ict truly can enable and empower communities to move beyond traditional barriers and impediments to find a new and more equitable role in the information society. (beaton) • a description of an ambitious current research project examining the impacts and outcomes of government support for community technology with an overall objective of providing insight toward the future of such programs and their impact on the larger society (clement, gurstein, longford, luke, moll, and shade) • a presentation of a most important rural ict initiative whose current success is transforming large areas of rural india (jhunjhunwala, ramachandran, and bandyopadhyay) • an analysis and plan for using a major university in a less developed country as a base for a highly innovative program of ci for community transformation (erwin and taylor) • a highly significant analysis of the current state of the art with respect to telecentre development in latin america and where it might go from here (menou, delgadillo and stoll) 4 the journal of community informatics • a fine paper examining the theoretical background to community use of ict and giving most useful directions for future research as well as community practice towards this end. (pigg and crank) • a most original and insightful critique of current thinking and approaches to ict for development (robinson) • a path breaking approach to applying an analysis drawn from the methods and insights of social anthropology to ict design and development as a response to rural poverty (salvador) • a brave and insightful analysis of the opportunities and risks that are attendant to ict in a most important but largely unknown part of the world. (stafeev) and • a document presenting the current “state of play” for a leader in supporting ict use by women in local communities (webb and jones) overall we see joci as a “knowledge” enterprise and it will be our intention as the journal evolves to integrate “knowledge “ techniques and technologies as might be appropriate to support our collective ci efforts. it should also be noted, that the joci is using the public knowledge software produced by the public knowledge project at the university of british columbia. our intention is that the journal have the widest possible reader (and user) ship and it was felt that an on-line and open source journal would most closely achieve this. equally, we see the journal as an element and a resource for the evolving ci community of researchers and practitioners and as such we welcome feedback and suggestions as to how the journal may be more useful and useable by this community. to conclude, thanks should be given to david ley, without whose steady and effective work this enterprise would not have reached the current level of maturity; to john willinsky (of pkp) for giving us support and encouragement beyond the call of duty; to the canadian research alliance for community innovation and networking for providing financial support when it was most needed; to sergei stafeev for the layout and design; to the other members of the editorial team for their feedback and support; and finally to you for having given us your time and attention as we move forward with this collective effort. michael gurstein new jersey institute of technology, newark, nj editor-in-chief, the journal of community informatics < editor@ci-journal.net > mailto:editor@ci-journal.net   editorial: enabling the local as a fundamental development strategy  michael gurstein editor-in-chief < editori@ci-journal.net >     the fundamental transformation that was ushered in by the advent of the personal computer and personal computing gave the end-user the electronic tools by means of which they could accomplish the information intensive tasks which they determined were of value and benefit to them. where previously computing had been the preserve of the few—and operationally was limited to specialists—the personal computer put the power of computing into the hands of the many. the rise of open source software is additionally shifting the balance away from centralized operational management (of software design and functionalities) to a much more dispersed approach to operational control over systems. the success of personal computing and now open source represents a fundamental shift towards putting the end-user at the centre of managing the operations, identifying the goals, and selecting and implementing the applications for information systems—making systems, according to the latest jargon, “user-centric”. the lesson in this of course, is that success with systems comes not from attempting to determine for others what they might need or want or how they might achieve this, but rather in giving them the tools and letting them get on with the job at hand. the fundamental insight of community informatics in this context is to recognize that the “end-users” in much of the world and for many of the most significant areas of application are not in fact individuals operating in isolation from their fellows but rather are communities of individuals often, but not always, linked by a shared geography and/or shared values, shared histories, shared cultures, shared goals. the design and development of systems that enable communities in the pursuit of identified goals, is neither a substitute for nor in competition with individual (personal)-oriented computing. rather it is the obvious but often overlooked recognition that many if not most activities are undertaken in relation to and in common cause with like-minded others—sometimes in groups, often in families, and very frequently in communities. creating and implementing systems and structures of effective use where communities are the users is as necessary (and likely to be as successful) as the creation of systems to support large-scale organizational applications and, more recently, the activities of individuals through personal computing. the approach to system development of enabling and empowering the end-user has of course been astonishingly successful from all perspectives—in the depth and breadth of penetration of these practices and approaches; in the organizational and even social transformations that have been set in motion; in the wealth that has been created at all levels in conjunction with these systems. so it must be seen as quite remarkable that in an area as significant to the well-being of many, that is, in the broad areas of economic and social development through the use of information and communications technologies (generally abbreviated as ict4d), that there has been so little recognition of this end-user orientation as a suitable strategy. rather what has dominated this field and the actions of donors, policy makers, and governments has been an attempt to reproduce outmoded “top down” and centrally-driven, expert-led approaches. in the ict4d area, rather than, for example, using available resources to enable end-users (in this case local communities and those responsible for the various functions and activities within these) to accomplish their objectives with icts; the strategy has been to attempt to direct from above and outside what goals should be pursued, how systems should be deployed and used and by whom and in what manner.   the world summit on the information society (wsis)[1] which concluded its deliberations some six months ago was in a real way a mark of the failure of the ict4d strategies which have been pursued over the last ten years. rather than being able to point to the wide dispersal and active and effective use of icts, all that could be identified were individual and isolated and for the most part “pilot” project “successes” (and ignoring the possibly even larger number of those that had not succeeded). and implicit in all these discussions was the question as to why ict4d has not succeeded in achieving sustainable implementations when cellular telephony with neither central planning nor non-commercial financial support been such a break-away success. the major failures in the use of icts for development have not been failures in technology, nor in software nor even in funding; rather the failures have been in the implementations, the identification of applications, the project management and the dispositions of systems—all of which has been driven from the top and generally in ignorance of what might (or might not) work or be of value or interest at the grassroots. and these failures continue. the widely-touted global alliance for ict4d (gaid)[2], is now being presented as the continuation of the un’s ict task force and the overarching body within the un (and thus the global) system in the area of ict4d. yet this new body presents an agenda, has an organizational and decision-making structure, and articulates a vision that completely ignores and by-passes those who will ultimately have to implement ict4d systems and whose acceptance and effective use will ultimately determine whether these systems and approaches are successes or failure.[3] in fact, it is inconceivable that the larger objectives for ict4d which wsis among others has articulated could succeed given the current approach. the linkage which is suggested for example, between the un’s millennium development goals (mdgs)[4] and icts implies that icts will be used at the local level for a range of applications including health, education and poverty reduction.  and yet, each of these application areas requires resources which, given the current levels of local capacity and national investment or overseas development assistance, are extremely unlikely to be available at the local level. thus, given the current very expensive and wasteful pattern of top-down ict investment (including, it should be noted, proposals such as the $100 laptop where the fundamental issues of local capacity for support and application have been almost completely ignored), little is likely to accomplished. only when ict4d is able to access the breadth and depth of skills and ingenuity (in the technical terminology, the human resources and human capital) which are available when the grassroots have been effectively engaged and mobilized will there be any possibility of achieving these objectives. that is, only by mobilizing those at the local level to “own” and “operate” their own ict applications and implementations will there be sufficient resources for icts to have any real impact locally beyond the “pilot” and “demonstration projects” which have characterized most of ict4d investment to date. and here of course, is where community informatics becomes the necessary strategy, as it is only through integrating ict and community enablement strategies that communities in the broadest sense will become engaged in these on-going efforts and thus will provide the means for the broader ict4d goals to be achieved. unfortunately, the failure of the wsis and the almost certain failure of the follow-ups to wsis are a demonstration of the unwillingness of those with responsibilities in these areas to recognize that only by radically transforming their approaches and their theories will they have any likelihood of success. this issue of joci is privileged to complete the publishing of the prize winning papers presented at cirn 2005[5] in cape town. it is notable that two of these papers were prepared by ict practitioners working directly in community contexts and developing and applying systems and applications in support of community processes.  one of these is a first and important attempt to develop a code of cyber-ethics for community informatics as applied in a typical workplace, addressing such questions of everyday use as ‘can i copy that file’ (averweg); the second is a method of assessing the opportunities for the financial sustainability of ci projects in the developing world (lochner); while the third is a somewhat related paper by foth and adkins which presents a research methodology for examining the significance of electronically-enabled community processes in the context of planning and local development.  in other papers, de moor and weigand present a method of analysis for understanding (and potentially resolving) conflict within electronically enabled (virtual) communities but one which presumably could be applied to conflicts which might arise in the electronic community elements of physical communities (communities of place in foth and adkins terminology) as well. buré in turn presents a very interesting insight into how technology, in this case mobile telephony, acts as a highly significant means for linking the homeless into their “communities of place”. the issue should also be seen as a “double issue” in that it includes a special section presenting the results of a workshop hosted at penn state university by prof. john m. carroll on the topic of “learning in communities”. this collection of short papers, even think pieces, takes us full circle in that it represents the challenge and opportunity that technology affords for enabling or re-enabling the process(es) of learning at the local level. it also presents arguments and background analyses for the re-possession of learning locally as a means, in some cases, for responding to the challenges of the “digital divide”, in other cases for supporting local development and innovation, in still others for re-invigorating processes of local democracy and finally in others simply for providing a means to enhance creativity and full learned expression through accessing (and enabling) distributed intelligence. taken together, the papers in this issue provide some initial pointers to international policymakers about how and why ict4d can spring from the authentic assets, needs, and learning processes of end-users who make their lives in communities around the world.  [1] http://www.itu.int/wsis/ [2] http://www.un-gaid.org/ [3] http://www.unicttaskforce.org/perl/documents.pl?id=1583 [4] http://www.un.org/milleniumgoals/ [5] http://www.cirn2005.org trapped in the digital divide: the distributive paradigm in com trapped in the digital divide: the distributive paradigm in community informatics virginia e. eubanks state university of new york at albany (suny), usa veubanks@albany.edu abstract this paper argues that over-reliance on a “distributive paradigm” in community informatics practice has restricted the scope of the high tech equity agenda. drawing on five years of participatory action research with low-income women in upstate new york, i explore the ways in which distributive understandings of technology and inequality obscure the day-to-day interactions these women have with ict and overlook their justified critical ambivalence towards technology. finally, i offer unique insights and powerful strategies of resistance suggested by my research collaborators in a drawing exercise intended to elicit alternative articulations of digital equity. if we begin from their points of view, the problems and solutions that can and should be entertained in our scholarship and practice look quite different. it is becoming fairly common to argue that many of the efforts to ameliorate inequality in the information economy grouped under the rubric of the “digital divide” were misguided, both empirically and practically (see, for example, gurstein 2003). as a salient issue, the digital divide has faded from public consciousness and disappeared from the priorities of funding agencies in the united states. this is largely an effect of the bush administration’s decision to eliminate critical digital opportunity programs. moreover, as i argue below, as community practitioners, scholars, and activists, our focus on universal access and internet ubiquity is not sufficient to provide for a more just technological present. as an illustration, i describe my experiences attempting to construct popular technology education programs at the ywca of troy-cohoes, a residential facility in a small urban community in mid-new york state for about 90 highly resourceful women living in transitional circumstances and seeking to craft the lives they want for themselves. in particular, i discuss a sketching exercise used to illustrate low-income women’s alternative articulations of inequality in the information society. their unique visions suggest that our myopia has limited the scope of what might be called the “high-tech equity agenda” and has trapped us in the digital divide. following iris marion young, i argue that there is a “distributive paradigm”, which “defines social justice as the morally proper distribution of social benefits and burdens among society’s members” (young 1990: 18)1, and which is at the heart of much of our work in community informatics. this distributive paradigm acts to restrict the scope of the high-tech equity agenda because: 1) its demographic cast cannot account for the complex inequalities of the information economy; 2) its commodity focus precludes understanding ict as a “technology of citizenship”; and 3) it forces us to conceive of all high-tech equity issues as “access” issues. these oversights are an effect of the mismatch between the lived reality of low-income people’s interactions with information technology and the normative solutions suggested by ict policy and activism. in this article i explore that the ways in which digital divide interventions have been framed acts to obscure the kinds of day-to-day interactions low-income women have with technology; and how the powerful symbolism equating computers with technological and social progress contradicts these women’s experiences, resulting in a critical ambivalence towards technology; and finally present some of the unique insights and powerful strategies of resistance suggested by my community research collaborators. if we begin from their points of view, the problems and solutions that can and should be entertained in ict policy and activism look quite different from those that remain trapped in the digital divide. background: the digital divide lloyd morrisett, founder of the sesame street workshop and then president of the markle foundation, is credited with inventing the term the “digital divide” in 19962 to describe the chasm that purportedly separates “information haves” from “information have-nots”. though the u.s. national telecommunications and information administration (ntia) began in 1995 releasing a series of reports entitled “falling through the net” -which outline how access to the national us information infrastructure varies across geographical, racial, and income lines – the “digital divide” did not begin to fire the popular (and policy) imagination until 1998. in 1998, the agency’s second report (“falling through the net ii: new data on the digital divide”) included the “digital divide” phrase in its subtitle, and current president bill clinton promised to aggressively pursue wiring every classroom in the nation by the year 2000 and every home by the year 2007 (netday 1998)3. but it was the agency’s third report (“falling through the net: defining the digital divide”) that most alarmed and activated the public and policy-makers. the report concluded that, contrary to popular opinion which held that market forces would eventually provide universal access on their own, the data reveal that the digital divide -the disparities in access to telephones, personal computers (pcs), and the internet across certain demographic groups -still exists and, in many cases, has widened significantly. the gap for computers and internet access has generally grown larger by categories of education, income, and race (ntia 1999: 2). the release of the ntia reports mobilized scholars, politicians, local com munity-building organizations and international ngos to inquire whether or not ict could address the needs of the poor, and how exactly to ‘fit’ low-income people into the information society (attali 2000; brown 2001; rischard 1996; yunus 2001). between 1999 and 2003, there were a slew of publications that sought to examine, support, go beyond, or do away with the concept of the digital divide. some (like compaine 2001) are critical of digital divide approaches because they represent “welfarist” strategies of governance, promote unfair and opaque forms of wealth redistribution, or stand in the way of robust commercial competition and the “natural and inevitable” market mechanisms of distribution. some seek to expand the “access” rhetoric of the digital divide beyond simple physical access. these scholars and activists insist that issues such as the production of relevant, useful, appropriate, and affordable content; language and literacy barriers; effective use of information; the role of the user as a producer rather than a passive consumer; infrastructure; community control; and sustainability of programs have to be addressed simultaneously (besser 2001; children’s partnership 2002; servon 2002; wilhelm, et al. 2002). still others insist that the digital divide is simply the most visible manifestation of new forms of “virtual” inequality: these following and reinforcing the social and economic stratification that already exists -and is worsening -in the united states today (mack 2001; mossberger et al. 2003; norris 2001). these scholars insist that the digital divide responds and contributes to other kinds of “divides,” naming the democratic divide, the global divide, the information divide, the opportunity divide, the racial divide, and the social divide among them. critical ambivalence and critical theory as debate raged around whether the digital divide exists, its causes, its effects, and its potential solutions, community technology centers around the country and the world were tirelessly wiring communities, providing them with affordable access to information and communication resources, nurturing generations of trainer/activists and preparing the ground from which community-produced content could grow. but the basic assumption of much digital divide policy -“if you build it, they will come” -is partially contradicted by my research described below. one class offered at the ywca -“how does the d@mn thing work?” -illustrates why. the workshop was very loosely structured around the demolition of an unusable donated computer. we took the cover off the machine, handed out screwdrivers, told participants that it was going to the dumpster anyway, and then let them do whatever they wanted to it. as parts came out of the computer, we passed them around and told everybody what each part did. for a few minutes, the women in the workshop carefully extracted cards and drives from the pc and gingerly passed them around the room. after a bit of time and some convincing (women were particularly concerned about waste -they wanted to be absolutely sure that no one in the ywca or elsewhere could use the computer before they took it apart), they started to believe that they could actually demolish the computer, and the mayhem began. people hacked at the computer. broke pieces off and then broke them into smaller pieces. they tore apart bundles of wires, wedged off covers to see the motors and chips, all with a palpable sense of glee. this was not just the excitement of “opening the black box” and discovering what makes a computer work. it was an act of resistance, of rebelling against the tyranny of the box itself (and of the institutions it represents and enables). this gleeful destruction was a sign of women’s complicated experiences of technology, a marker of women taking power back from a symbol of the system. in a later interview, meredith vary, a participant in the workshop, commented, mv: that taking apart the computer thing really helped [engage women who feel out of the technology loop]. because i know patti... v: got into it… m: ...yeah! i never saw her at any computer type stuff before and that seemed to help her get into it…what’s in the inside guts? i can break it apart! it’s not this big scary thing, i can kick it and things come off. that helped. stuff like that that shows that computers are not these big infallible immortal objects (vary 2003: 20). this complicated symbolism of computers is profound, yet it is rarely considered in the context of “accessibility” for low-income people (with the notable exception of mack 2002). the technology itself seems simultaneously too fragile and utterly infallible -the face of “the system” in contexts ranging from the low-wage workplace to the welfare office. low-income women in the united states disproportionately bear the negative effects of high-tech development. they are more likely to be subject to intense technologically-mediated surveillance on the job via technologies like keystroke counters and practices like phone and email monitoring (sewell 1998, sewell and wilkinson 1992). their interactions with technologies of state administration, including criminal justice technologies like “offender management” systems (virtual arrest 2002), and social service technologies like electronic benefits dispersal (newcombe 1993). they often live in the most technologically degraded environments, suffering higher rates of asthma and environmental cancers (bullard 2000; svtc 1997; weact 2002). they are most likely to lose jobs to technological change and worker deskilling, and are the last to be rehired or retrained after sustained unemployment (barney 2000; buckberg and thomas 1995; gans 1995; gibbs 1995). experiences with technology in their everyday lives often contradict the powerful stories about it that pervade popular media and policy discourse. the mismatch between the stories these women hear about the potential for ict to change their lives for the better and their disproportionate experience of its negative effects creates critical ambivalence. critical ambivalence, i realized over time, is a sign of incipient analysis. i noticed, for example, that women would repeatedly and enthusiastically sign up for classes in a newly created community technology lab, and simply not show up. this was a symptom of the mismatch between the image of computers as the route to social and economic progress and these women’s own experience of technology as exploitative, intrusive, and limiting. rather than being “information poor” in any simple way, participants in popular technology education programs at the ywca had copious direct experience with large-scale bureaucratic it systems. my collaborators provided extremely articulate and astute critiques of the ways that ict is deployed within the social service system to limit their dignity, freedom, and opportunities. for example, many believed that ict is one thread that binds together with the local department of social services (dss) and broader socioeconomic strands of injustice to create a net of constraint they commonly refer to as “the system.” because of this, it is often difficult to separate views about dss, racism, poverty, or sexism—more generally—from views on information technologies and computers specifically. the insight that ict, state service offices, and structural inequality combine to create a system of disempowerment proved enormously productive for our collaborative educational processes, both in conversation and in collaborative project design.4 this was particularly the case when we re-examined what is often misread as adult women’s “reluctance” or “inability” to engage with technological training, and when we puzzled through participants’ resistance to viewing ict as a tool for social change and justice. i use critical ambivalence here in feenberg’s sense it is a part of an emergent critical theory of technology that popular technology education is intended to unleash. “critical theory,” feenberg writes, “argues that technology is not a thing in the ordinary sense of the term, but an ‘ambivalent’ process of development suspended between different possibilities. this ‘ambivalence’ of technology is distinguished from neutrality by the role it attributes to social values in the design, and not merely the use, of technical systems. on this view, technology is not a destiny but a scene of struggle” (feenberg 1990). for feenberg, critical theories of technology can be realized by rewriting "technical code," by using theory in a freirian sense to both inspire action that changes society and technology for the better, and to see the relationship between technology and people as intrinsic to modern social justice goals. the goal of popular technology education is to undermine the myth of technological neutrality by finding “tipping points” that can guide development and design out of its “suspension between possibilities” and towards social justice5. it is important to note, however, that despite their ambivalence, women in the ywca community showed remarkable perseverance when trying to access ict tools, and even some optimism describing the possibilities of technological change. when i asked the women i interviewed to finish the sentence “a computer is like a...,” they responded with “a window,” “the future,” “a lifesaver.” they consistently disproved reports like the “ever-shifting internet population” by the pew internet and american life project, which claims that “technological pessimism” is a significant barrier to participation in the “information age” (pew 2003: 41). in this context it is urgent to nurture optimism that ict can be used as a tool of social change, even though the commitment to digital equity has waned under president bush’s administration. as the bush administration began to call for the elimination of funding for critical digital opportunity programs in 2002, the digital divide was still a significant problem, but community technology investments were beginning to pay off (benton foundation 2002). national funding to bridge the digital divide peaked in 2001. that year, the technology opportunities program (top) received $42.5 million and the community technology centers program (ctc) received $65 million. in president bush’s fiscal year 2003 budget request, both programs were slated for elimination (omb watch 2002)6. i hope to make it clear that i am deeply committed to, and supportive of, the critical work being done by community technology centers around the country as they struggle to provide the most basic access to technological tools for the nation’s poorest citizens. not surprisingly, we have yet to reach the clinton administration’s goal of wiring every classroom, every library, every hospital, and every clinic to the national and global information infrastructures. we are even less likely to do so under current political conditions. however, as my collaborators richly illustrate, the question of access alone does not prove sufficient to provide for a more just technological present. as activists and organizers, many of our own strategies and tactics left us vulnerable to attack as the political winds changed under bush. the disaggregated demographic sources we relied on to argue for a widening technology gap left us unprepared to counter the complex forms of inequality inherent in the information economy. the commodity focus of many government efforts (putting hardware and cable into schools without teacher training or software support under e*rate, for example) undermined our ability to argue that the market alone cannot provide adequately for the public interest. even ngos occasionally fell prey to the commodity-focus of digital divide understandings, limiting opportunities for social mobilization by privileging elite use patterns and focusing on technological fixes. our myopic commitment to the organizing concept of “access” has left us unable to articulate high-tech equity issues that are not distributive in nature. the distributive paradigm the demographic approach favored by the ntia and the commodified understanding of citizenship favored by government and ngos alike do not capture the experiences of low-income women in the information economy. even extremely well-developed, multifaceted, holistic models of access, like clement and shade’s “access rainbow” (2000, 2002) -which includes seven overlapping dimensions of access, including carriage, devices, software tools, content/services, service providers, literacy/social facilitation, and governance -are caught in the distributive paradigm. the provision of material, social, and “informational” goods in the face of many women’s severe deprivation is certainly an imperative issue. as iris marion young attests, there are certainly pressing reasons...to attend to...issues of the distribution of wealth and resources. in a society and world with vast differences in the amount of material goods to which individuals have access, where millions starve while others can have anything they want, any conception of justice must address the distribution of material goods. the immediate provision of basic material goods for people now suffering severe deprivation must be a first priority for any program that seeks to make the world more just (1990: 19-20). however, in contemporary welfare capitalist societies, insurgent social movements’ calls for justice include many concerns that are not of a distributive nature, including, for example, demands to be free of cultural imperialism, to work in safe and fulfilling environments, and to end gender-based violence. in the information economy, non-distributive social justice issues include demands for increased transparency and accountability in the use of data in the social service and criminal justice systems, opportunities to design and produce culturally and socially sensitive software and hardware, freedom from excessive surveillance in the workplace, and proper attention to health and welfare issues in high-tech work. other issues like childcare, transportation, healthy communities, self-sufficiency wages, educational equity and prison reform may seem incongruent with a “high-tech equity agenda,” but are also necessary to provide for a more just and sustainable information society7. some, but not all, of these issues are distributive in nature. young argues that “a focus on the distribution of material goods and resources inappropriately restricts the scope of justice” (ibid: 20). it fails to bring social structure and institutional contexts--like decision-making procedures, the sexual division of labor, and culture--under evaluation. it presupposes social atomism and self-interest, or “possessive individualism.” in addition, the distributive paradigm misrepresents nonmaterial “goods” and resources--like power, self-respect, rights and opportunity--when its logic is extended to them. power and rights, like citizenship, are learned and practiced in relationship with others in the context of specific institutions. they are relational practices, not possessions. like darrin barney (2000), who argues that the moral imperative of “access” to technology corresponds to the particular demands of late-capitalist information economies, young argues that the distributive paradigm of justice, [c]orresponds to the primary formulation of public debate in [welfare capitalist] societies. processes of interest-group pluralism restrict public conflict primarily to distribution; issues of the organization of production, public and private decision-making structures, and the social meanings that confer status or reinforce disadvantage go unraised (ibid: 66). the distributive paradigm “privatizes the citizen” by defining her primarily as a client-consumer, and fragments and depoliticizes public life by discouraging deliberation about collective decisions. even the best calls to broaden the definition of it equity still center on the concept of access. lisa servon, for example, argues that it access is a weak solution to persistent poverty and inequality, but her solution is to broaden the idea of access beyond narrow ideas of “possession or permission” to include opportunities for resources, education, and skills (servon 2003). mossberger, et al. advocate moving beyond the narrow boundaries of current definitions of the digital divide, writing that the access divide is only one dimension of a problem that also includes a skills divide, an economic opportunity divide, and a democracy divide. these authors council increased attention to the skills divide at public access points, limited experiments with an educational technology subsidy, and equal educational opportunity and an investment in lifelong learning as solutions to these distributive dilemmas (mossberger, et al. 2003). the distributive paradigm in it policy and community informatics practice acts to restrict the scope of the high-tech equity agenda. it relies on a deficit orientation that underestimates the considerable resources, skills, and experiences of low-income communities to interact with, design and produce “popular technologies,” rather than being passive recipients of elite-produced technology tools. it underestimates the considerable (but often negative) interaction low-income women already have with technology at work and in their everyday lives. it obscures the operation of powerful institutions like the criminal justice system, the social service system, and the low-wage workplace to structure women’s relationship to it (eubanks 2006). it privatizes and individualizes digital equity issues, limiting opportunities for social mobilization. these limitations have left digital equity programs unable to counter the free-market enthusiasm of conservative critics. unlike many critics of digital divide policy (e.g., compaine 2001), i have little faith that market mechanisms will rapidly--or even eventually--provide for increased economic and social equality in the age of it. in fact, i think digital divide policy does not go too far, but rather not nearly far enough. the over-reliance on the distributive paradigm by policy makers and organizers alike is at the heart of contemporary u.s. public policy’s inability to articulate technological citizenship as if low-income women mattered. alternative articulations: revisioning digital equity when i started interviewing women at the ywca of troy-cohoes in the summer of 2003, i had been working in the community for two years. ruth delgado gutzman and i met through the women’s economic empowerment series, held in the ywca’s sally catlin resource center the previous summer. ruth is an engaged and articulate puerto rican woman who was completing her masters in education at russell sage college in troy. deeply committed to the well-being of children, and hoping to become a high school counselor, she possesses a sharp wit and an abiding interest in social justice issues. the sally catlin resource center was flooded with sunlight on july 29, 2003. the windows were open over state street and oscillating fans worked to move the air in the room when we met to talk about ict and social justice. other members of the yw community typed quietly on the public computers, and the intercom cut in and out of our conversation, announcing phone calls and visitors for yw residents and staff. ruth was quick to name the goal she feels we both share: creating a “technology for people.” she described her experiences with technology as generally ”very, very positive,” and explained that she believes very strongly that technology can be used as a tool of social change. however, she expressed disappointment with current means for producing information for the internet and assessing its validity, as well as reservations about most scholarship describing women’s technological inequality, and with the public policy geared towards alleviating it. she insisted, people who say that women are afraid of technology, or don’t know how important it is, are missing the point...when you’re just surviving, you’re in survival mode. you don’t think about technology, you don’t think about the latest anything. you are surviving. and that takes your whole life just to survive...especially women! women love to learn and are able to learn. they really like technology and want technology. if you offered women a system that they created, for everyone, they would want it, they would engage with it. but it’s not like that (gutzman 2003: 17). computers, software and internet architecture are designed for financial people and for business people, for professionals, she said. “but where are the mothers,” she asked, “or people who work and struggle to stay afloat? the homeless?” “technology for people” would be different from universal access to existing computer systems, she argued. it would mix systems “designed by women, for everybody” with educational programs that combine practical/functional goals with technology skills training in order to increase people’s well-being financially, emotionally, socially, and intellectually. the prospect of brainstorming just such systems had been her primary reason for joining women at the ywca making social movement (wymsm), our participatory design group. as we talked, we doodled pictures to try to reach a mutual understanding. i sketched a quick rendition of the popular concept of the digital divide: figure 1. my drawing of the digital divide, during interview with ruth delgado gutzman, july 29, 2003. ruth admitted that she did sometimes feel out of the loop, “like a dinosaur,” because she doesn’t have a laptop, but she thought that “digital divide” rhetoric was also missing the point. if policymakers just aren’t getting it, i asked, could we describe the problem -and its potential solutions -better? she insisted, “it’s not technology that will make our lives better. that will make us ‘haves.’ it’s social conditions, financial conditions, the environment. technology is just a little part of it...it’s not justice” (ibid: 36). though inexpensive or free computers and internet access would be a fundamental step toward “technology for people,” she took the pen out of my hand and re-drew the picture to correct the ‘deficit model’ of digital divide policy. figure 2: a copy of ruth delgado gutzman’s re-articulation of the digital divide, reproduced for clarity the original was drawn by her in the margin of her informed consent form. july 29, 2003. she explained that people on both sides of the putative “divide” have skills, strengths, and resources to share with each other. technology, in the best-case scenario, should connect people -strengthened by their diverse experiences, across levels of social stratification -in systems of equal barter and exchange. after she finished drawing, she said to me, “if you take one message from our conversation to policymakers, it’s this. we don’t need to look at the hole. we need to look at the net’” (ibid: 47.5, emphasis mine). this early exchange was an important site of both empirical and methodological insight: after i interviewed ruth, i worked the process of “doodling the divide” into many of my interviews. it proved to be an enormously productive technique for breaking through pat responses to interview questions (“computers are the future,” etc.) to point towards the structural and interpretive questions at the heart of the critical ambivalence that characterized many women’s interactions with technology. figure 3: cathy roylance’s articulation of the digital divide. she was speaking, i was drawing. from our interview, january 19, 2004. these sketches illustrate three major critiques of digital divide rhetoric. first, women i spoke with argued that the characterization of “haves” and “have-nots” is overly simplistic; it does not describe their experiences and obscures structural inequality. for example, cathy roylance renamed the “haves” technology “hoarders” and the “have-nots” technology “survivors” (or, “the man” and “the rest of us”). others explained that people in different social and structural positions have access to different kinds of material and intellectual resources. while it may be true that folks on the “have-not” side lack the consumer power that folks on the “have” side possess, they insisted that “have-nots” possess many different kinds of local knowledge: community knowledge, knowledge of ‘the system,’ double consciousness, more finely attuned social geiger counters, as well as social networks, navigation skills, and an ethic of sharing. following this insight, most women argued that the have/have-not divide should be re-imagined and renamed. jes constantine, for example, renamed it the “people divide,” arguing that the medium was irrelevant, and that thoughtful participation, action, and figure 4: jes constantine’s “people divide” collaboration is the only route to the openness and respect that makes communication across difference possible. secondly, several women pointed out that the “divide” was actually a product of social structure. for example, jenn rose renamed it “systemic inequality,” and cosandra jennings renamed it “a crack in the system.” amanda demers, jennings, and roylance all argued that systemic inequality would not persist if someone was not profiting from it. jennings pointed out, for example, that both labor and money go from the “have-not” to the “have” side in order to support technological development, and wrote across the crack in the system “systemic payoff in [the] disconnect.” exploitations—extraction of resources from the poor to profit the wealthy—is represented in jennings’ drawing by the red circle of the system, the money and labor arrows that point from left to right (see figures 5 and 6). figure 5: cosandra jenning’s articulation of the digital divide: a crack in the system. she was speaking, i was drawing. from our interview, january 24, 2004. figure 6: cosandra jennings, detail. figure 7: amanda demers’ articulation. the green lines at bottom represent the “grassroots.” she was speaking, i was drawing. from our interview, february 2, 2004. amanda demers described the persistence of this structural inequality when she explained that “have-nots come from have-nots” and “haves come from haves.” almost all of the women who sketched the divide with me argued that for all these reasons, technology alone had little chance of significantly impacting social inequality. more pressing, they argued, were issues of racial prejudice, greed, classism, economic exploitation, basic needs, education, and other social supports. finally, women offered alternative solutions that leveraged technology and diverse local knowledges to build networks based on truth, trust, reciprocity, and reconciliation. the problems they described, while daunting, are not insurmountable. some even saw a role technology could play in creating positive social change, seizing on ict’s ability to act as an interface across social differences. jennings argued that ict can be used to educate people on the “have” side of the divide about the realities of life on the “have-not” side. this is represented by the solid line leading from “knowledge of system,” through a computer, onto the “haves” side. as the dotted line labeled “maybe” shows, she was less optimistic about the possibility of creating social networks via computers (see figure 6). figure 8: jenn rose’s articulation of one solution to the digital divide: creating nodes of equal exchange across social stratification. she was speaking, i was drawing. from our interview, january 11, 2004. constantine, demers and roylance offered more people-centered than network-centered solutions. roylance suggested person-to-person mentoring and exchange. constantine wrote in large capital letters across her drawing, for example, that “technology won’t do a single thing unless the people on either end can work together.” demers called for a grassroots social movement that bridges the gap, overcoming blame and ignorance through each person’s willingness to share their own experience and reciprocal desire to understand the experiences of others. jenn rose, like gutzman, had more faith in the networking potential of ict. in her drawing, she used technology as one of four nodes -in addition to “neutral” space, education and trust building, and media -that can mediate across social structure by creating a network of equal exchange (see figure 8). conclusion all of the women who participated in these sketching exercises with me expressed dissatisfaction with digital equity being expressed through the metaphor of a “bridge” stretching over a “digital divide.” ruth delgado gutzman looked at her drawing: a computer balanced between the putative “haves” and the putative “have-nots,” providing a node in a network that can support all people. she pointed out that ict can play into the strengths of low-income communities -particularly their ability to network resources and skills. rather than focusing on the digital divide, she argued, we should be focusing on creating a “technology for people” that uses ict as an interface across levels of social stratification. “have-nots,” she argued, actually have a wealth of knowledge and skills, as well as their labor, to trade and barter. traditional “haves” have technology and financing at their disposal, as well as a different but valuable set of skills. technology for people can translate and connect needs to assets across different realms of experience. ict is particularly well suited to this purpose, because of its openness and capacity to support networks. as ruth remarked, “if you offered women a system that they created,” she said, “for everyone, they would want it, they would engage with it. but it’s not like that” (gutzman 2003: 20.1). if it was, technology might become part of low-income people’s set of tools for survival. she remarked, rdg: hey, we all need salaries, so i’m not going to say that everything should be free. but for less cash, or for services rendered bargaining, barter! that would be the perfect way for people who are in the middle [the gap in the digital divide] to get services, to get technology, to get access to a lot of different things. let’s barter. ve: then, is one of the things technology for the people can do connecting up these points? so it’s not at all like a bridge. rdg: yeah, it’s not going to happen like that. remember that these people are not going to want to share. people [on the “haves” side of the divide], socially, are used to being comfortable here. it might be racial, or economic...and they don’t recognize all the things that people on the other side have! (ibid: 45.5) a bridge across the digital divide is an inadequate metaphor on which to base a high-tech equity agenda. a bridge can connect only two points: white to black, rich to poor, “haves” to “have-nots.” a bridge over the digital divide can only create equity in terms of the demographic profiles of internet users. rather than look solely at the composition of users--or potential users--of ict, scholars and activists should turn our attention to underlying structures of inequality in the information economy, like workplace and labor market restructuring and the gender and racial divisions of labor (mccall 2001: 8). a bridge over the digital divide underestimates the skills and resources of the people on the “deficit” side of the divide. it also distorts the very qualities of networked communication that can make it a powerful tool for social change: its flexibility, its openness, and its ability to connect people to people. acknowledgements this material is based upon work supported, in part, by the national science foundation under grant no. 0322535, a dissertation improvement grant on “popular technology: participatory strategies for nurturing community-relevant it expertise,” and through a research assistantship with the community outreach partnership center at rensselaer. any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the national science foundation or the rensselaer-troy copc. works cited attali, j. 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(2001). microcredit and it for the poor. new perspectives quarterly, 18(1). 1i should note here that i use the phrase “distributive paradigm” to describe a particular regime of (re)distributive policies within the context of the market-oriented representative democracy of the contemporary united states. there are, of course, many other varieties of distributive government policies, some of which provide for the needs of citizens quite a bit better than do that of the us (for example, in the social democracies of scandinavia and much of western europe). nevertheless, i argue that there are vital social justice issues that cannot be articulated within a distributive paradigm of any kind: the freedom of women to be free of sexual violence, for example. 2some credit donna hoffman and tom novak with inventing the phrase. novak and hoffman (2000) and compaine (2001) credit morissette. morissette himself expresses doubts about the term’s origin in compaine 2001. nevertheless, the phrase reached popular currency after the ntia’s 1998 report used it in its subtitle. 3the clinton administration’s attention to universal access to it considerably anticipated the “digital divide” rhetoric, however. at the g7 information summit in early 1995, vice president al gore explained that the clinton administration’s position on universal access was a commitment “to wire every classroom, every library, every hospital, and every clinic to the national and international information infrastructure.” at the international telecommunication union world telecommunication development conference later that year, he “called for all nations of the world to co-operate in building the global information infrastructure founded on principles of universal access, the right to communicate, and diversity of expression.” (gore 1995 and tarjanne 1995, quoted in compaine 2001:162-3). 4this experience tends to support the claims of freire, horton, and other popular educators, who insist that radical, “problem-posing” education truly starts when facilitators reflect back to participants the contradictions that shape their lives for analysis and action. i argue, therefore, that my collaborators’ critical ambivalence in the face of technology is a sign of incipient analysis rather than apathy, fear or ignorance. 5like freire, feenberg sees critical theory as the rejection of value neutrality in analysis, and the move towards more coherent and engaged understandings of the world. 6in 2002, the ctc program was funded at $32.5 million and top was funded at $15.5 million. bush eliminated the program, but requested level funding of hud’s neighborhood networks program (at $20 million in fy 2002 and 2003). the technology opportunities program was eliminated outright. in july 2002, the senate restored the ctc and top programs to fy 2002 levels in its fiscal year 2003 labor-health and human services-education appropriations bill (national institute for literacy 2002). the bush administration called again for both programs’ elimination in the fiscal year 2004 budget proposal (civilrights.org 2003). 7all of these issues are action items on arise’s (a regional initiative supporting empowerment) agenda. arise is a faith-based organization dedicated to developing a “high-tech equity agenda” for the capital region of upstate new york.   developmental learning communities  mary beth rosson the pennsylvania state university < mrosson@psu.edu >  john m. carroll the pennsylvania state university < jmcarroll@psu.edu >     introduction   research over the past two decades has emphasized the importance of learning communities — self-organizing groups of learners who work together on authentic tasks, describing, explaining, listening to, and interpreting one another’s ideas.  learning communities often structure their learning by scaffolding embedded both in the activities and in the tools of the community (bruner, 1960). learners also develop by participating in the discourse of their community, where they encounter and contribute to the situated negotiation and re-negotiation of meaning (dewey, 1910). we define a developmental learning community as a group of learners who organize their learning activity into phases and their members into roles. the learning in such communities is developmental in the sense that members successively traverse phases and roles. an example would be a university research group including undergraduate students, graduate students, post doctoral students, and faculty. a key feature of a developmental learning community is its members’ understanding—whether implicit or explicit—of phases that they progress through as they gain community-relevant knowledge and skills. often these communities emphasize mastery of skills (e.g., a martial arts community), where different skill levels are labeled to acknowledge members’ progress (for instance “apprentice”, “practitioner”, or “master”). progress through such phases is accomplished by meeting a community standard or practice that often also includes a change in status for members, perhaps a skill test of some sort, cumulative knowledge or experiences that are judged in some fashion, a prescribed level of insight that is expressed by the member, or a critical episode that persuades the community of the member’s progress. another characteristic of developmental communities is the relationships among members at different developmental phases. that is, we assume that members share an understanding of what is expected from them at any given phase—for example, how they should relate to less-developed members (outreach, scaffolding, other forms of mentoring); those at their same level (sharing, comparison, synthesis of experience); and those at higher levels (requesting help or mentoring, respect for suggestions). members of developmental learning communities also share a motivational orientation about their own and others’ development. we suggest that one criterion for membership in a developmental community is a commitment to its developmental goals, that is, a willingness to spend effort in “bringing others along.” one factor that may be important in creating this motivation and commitment is social ties—beyond those arising from the community’s developmental activities—that cause members to care about others in the community, enough so that they work to enlist new members and encourage the growth of existing members. a developmental community may also provide rewards for members’ efforts to promote co-members’ learning, such as increased social capital or more explicit forms of recognition.   examples of learning communities   developmental learning communities often emerge through everyday activities and lifelong learning. children who learn from older siblings, parents and other relatives are a simple example (see the discussion in dewey, 1910); another is a research group populated by members in very different phases of their professional life—senior faculty, junior faculty (e.g. pre-tenure), post-docs, advanced phd students, junior phd students, masters students, undergraduate research students, and wage-payroll assistants. in other cases, the community may be formed explicitly to support one another’s development of some knowledge base or skill set (e.g., a gardening club). in table 1, we summarize the developmental characteristics of several community computing projects with which we have been working over the past few years. table 1.  examples of developmental learning communities in community computing learning community learning activities developmental phases civic nexus analysis of, planning for, and implementation of it needs in a nonprofit organization intern, volunteer, web designer, technology committee member, technology committee chair teacher bridge creating web-based lessons in science and math, using a variety of interactive tools lurker, member, re-user, adapter, author, coach, program developer women in ist problem-based learning of the architecture and programming of web-based collaborative systems high school friend, college recruit, pre-major, major, alumna   the learning communities in civic nexus are nonprofit organizations; we are helping them to create sustainable informal learning processes for meeting their own it needs (merkel et al., 2004; merkel et al., 2005). most of the nonprofits have little if any articulated knowledge about their own it needs or trajectories, and little organizational infrastructure for recruiting or developing members who can meet these needs. we help them to reflect about their history and status of it use, hoping that as the groups come to realize what they have been doing and what their needs are, they will be able to design a sustainable process for meeting and evolving their own it requirements. these groups have a number of existing roles (intern, volunteer, etc.), but are not oriented toward recruiting and developing members through the role; if they are able to initiate a long-term process of it learning, such an orientation may become part of their community mission. the teacher bridge project (carroll, choo et al., 2003; kim et al., 2003) is a group of teachers learning to build online materials. when we began the project, we deliberately recruited teachers who were already sophisticated computers users; subsequently these teachers have recruited their own peers and acquaintances and others have discovered the project and joined through word-of-mouth. the community is socially and culturally grounded through co-inhabitation of a geographical region (two contiguous counties), so many teachers join with existing place-based friendships and shared interests. these ties help to motivate peer mentoring and coaching. a typical developmental path starts with a teacher looking around at other projects for ideas; s/he may then join the group (become a member) so as to directly reuse or adapt a peer’s work; after s/he has experimented in this fashion, s/he may move to more ambitious implementation projects; some teachers take on a coaching role to help others make these moves; we have even observed teachers taking a supervisory role, where one mission is to look across the whole community for opportunities to advise. in this community, the phases and activities that assist in transitions are defined only informally and anecdotally. however one way to see this community is as a developmental community in formation. in contrast to the other two examples, the women in ist (information science & technology) group is developmental at its core—by design. women join the community with the explicit aim to attract, mentor, and otherwise aid the development of less-expert members. it differs from similar communities (e.g., a typical chapter of the association for women in computing) in that undergraduates leverage personal social ties they have maintained with their high schools, using these to contact girls with quite varied interests (e.g., sports, theater) so as to increase general awareness of computing among young women. alumni members contact and interact with undergraduates on a similar basis.  this project illustrates an effort to apply our concept of developmental community as a guiding pattern for learning community design.   supporting developmental learning communities   we are exploring two facets of developmental learning communities that might be aided by social or technical interventions: (1) recognition and acceptance of phases in community members’ development, and (2) reinforcement of the social ties that motivate developmental activities within the community. in some cases the developmental structure may already be in place but not yet organized as a community vision. for instance the women in ist project is grounded on a very familiar set of phases associated with career development and as researchers our contribution has simply been to articulate these phases as a mechanism for forming a new learning community. in contrast, our work with the nonprofits has roles, but they are not associated with development of it skills. thus we have focused on a more bottom-up approach, carrying out extensive technology assessment activities and fieldwork aimed at understanding the it needs and current understandings of each group. our hope is that by taking this step the organizations can at least see some of the potential for articulating and planning a more systematic it learning process. with respect to social ties that might motivate members’ developmental goals toward one another, one intervention is to simply highlight existing opportunities. the students and alumni at the core of women in ist do not see “outside” friendships (e.g., from shared interests unrelated to ist) to be a key element of the learning community. but when the potential role of such relationships was outlined to them, it became obvious. the community recognition that members receive for helping (or being helped) with learning activities can also be reinforced in an online system. making mentoring relationships is one approach; reputation tools that capture individuals’ contributions to different sorts of activities could also facilitate these recognition processes.   final words   our ideas about developmental communities are preliminary, inspired by our recent work with women in ist and the perspective it has offered for thinking about our other community learning projects. clearly development is an inherent component of any learning community and we offer these reflections as a way of exploring the structure and dynamics of a community’s developmental activities, including the implications this might have for socio-technical design in such contexts. at the same time we recognize the possible negative consequences of emphasizing the developmental goals of a learning community. for example suchman (1995) discusses the tradeoffs in making “invisible” aspects of activities visible; an organization that documents employee roles and responsibilities is in a better position to track and evaluate (whether fairly or unfairly) employees’ routine performance. reifying the developmental phases within a community might convert a tacit learning process into an explicit one; perhaps it would encourage over-zealous junior members or mentors to obsess over developmental goals. members might focus so much on skills or achievement levels that they become closed to other more interesting or unexpected learning opportunities. coaches might compete for recognition of the “best” or the “most” successful mentoring accomplishments. although such downsides are real concerns for any community, we anticipate that the same social ties that prompt members to engage in developmental efforts will also prevent or at least minimize competitive and individualistic tendencies. if people contribute to one another’s development not just for the good of the community, but also because they like and care about each other, then the social capital they earn through their developmental activities will be its own reward.   references bruner, j. s.  (1960).  the process of education. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. carroll, j. m., choo, c. w., dunlap, d. r., isenhour, p. l., kerr, s. t., maclean, a., & rosson, m. b.  (2003).  knowledge management support for teachers.  educational technology research and development, 51(4), 42-64. dewey, j. (1910). how we think. new york: d. c. heath. kim, k., isenhour, p. l., carroll, j. m., rosson, m. b., & dunlap, d. r. (2003). teacher bridge: knowledge management in community networks. home and office information technology: hoit3.  april 2003, irvine, california. lave, j., & wenger, e. (1991).  situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. merkel, c., xiao, l., farooq, u., ganoe, c., lee, r., carroll, j. m., & rosson, m. b. 2004. participatory design in community computing contexts: tales from the field. proceedings of pdc 2004 (pp. 1-10). new york: acm press. merkel, c. b., clitherow, m., farooq, u., xiao, l., ganoe, c. h., carroll, j. m., & rosson, m. b. (2005). sustaining computer use and learning in community computing contexts: make technology part of “who they are and what they do.” the journal of community informatics, 1(2), 134-150. suchman, l.  (1995).  making work visible.  communications of the acm, 38(9), 56-64.     puertas alternativas a la sociedad de la información: accesos n sistemas comunitarios de satisfacción a necesidades de conectividad en la sociedad de la información: el caso de argentina susana finquelievich susana@finquel.com.ar daniel finquelievich daniel@finquel.com.ar este artículo se focaliza en la capacidad de las comunidades, mediante las iniciativas y acciones de diversos actores sociales, tanto privados como provenientes de la sociedad civil, para satisfacer sus necesidades con respecto al acceso a las herramientas de la sociedad de la información mediante innovaciones sociales y/o tecnológicas, en ausencia o insuficiencia de estrategias estatales. la hipótesis central de este trabajo es que, del mismo modo que steven johnson (2001) plantea que las sociedades poseen la posibilidad de autoorganizarse en sistemas emergentes, hallando las mejores soluciones a sus problemas y sus necesidades, al igual que las comunidades participan en las innovaciones socio-técnicas que les conciernen, los emprendimientos que han dado lugar a la conectividad por medio de los cibercafés y las cooperativas serían una forma de autoorganización social para satisfacer una necesidad social no completamente resuelta por el estado, por las instituciones educativas ni por otras organizaciones comunitarias. para sostener este argumento, se analizan dos tipos de estrategias en argentina: una proveniente de pequeños emprendimientos del sector privado, los cibercafés, y otra que se origina en la sociedad civil, las cooperativas comunitarias de telecomunicaciones. de la propiedad de los bienes al acceso, de la invención a la co-creación este artículo se focaliza en la capacidad de las comunidades, mediante las iniciativas y acciones de diversos actores sociales, tanto privados como provenientes de la sociedad civil, para satisfacer sus necesidades con respecto al acceso a las herramientas de la sociedad de la información mediante innovaciones sociales y/o tecnológicas, aún en ausencia o insuficiencia de estrategias estatales. los autores sostienen que el estado, en los países latinoamericanos en general, y en argentina en particular sin merma de su papel de estimulador y regulador de los mecanismos de conectividad debe poner el énfasis en la generación de medios productores de bienes y servicios de la sociedad de la información, porque el estímulo al consumo de estos bienes está generado por otros agentes sociales. para sostener esta hipótesis, se analizan dos tipos de estrategias en argentina: una proveniente de pequeños emprendimientos del sector privado, los cibercafés, y otra que se origina en la sociedad civil, las cooperativas comunitarias de telecomunicaciones. el estudio de este fenómeno cualitativo de adopción, generación y provisión de acceso a tics por parte de diversos actores, incluida la sociedad civil, requiere de una revisión al menos en dos aspectos fundamentales: la mutación que madura dentro del sistema económico capitalista, referente al pasaje de la propiedad de los bienes al acceso a los mismos (ver rifkin, 2000) el proceso por el cual se crean las innovaciones y el camino que recorre hacia su adopción por parte de la sociedad, contemplado desde una óptica de co-creación (ver tuomi, 2002). en “la era del acceso”, rifkin (2000) sostiene que el camino desde un régimen de propiedad de bienes hacia un régimen de acceso, sustentado en garantizar el uso limitado y a corto plazo de los bienes controlados por redes de proveedores, transforma radicalmente nuestras actuales nociones sobre cómo se ejercerá el poder económico en el futuro cercano. un número creciente de parcelas del comercio están ya ligadas a la mercantilización de una extensa gradación de experiencias culturales en vez de a los bienes y servicios relacionados con la industria tradicional. entre ellos, el juego, la música, los mundos virtuales del ciberespacio, todo tipo de entretenimiento o de utilización mediada electrónicamente “se convierte rápidamente en el centro de un nuevo hipercapitalismo que comercia con el acceso a las experiencias culturales” (rifkin, 2000, p.17). la importancia del acceso sobre la propiedad sugiere que en la sociedad de la información, sería relativamente irrelevante la posesión de equipamientos para lograr la conectividad. el cambio se esta dando en la comercialización del tiempo, mas que en la propiedad de los objetos. en cuanto a las innovaciones sociotécnicas para la satisfacción de necesidades sociales relativas a la sc, ilkka tuomi (2005, in haddon et. alt., 2005) se focaliza en la comprensión social del “uso”, de un modo menos estrecho y utilitario del que es utilizado por varias empresas de tecnología de informática y telecomunicaciones. este autor, que se concentra, más que en usuarios individuales, en las relaciones entre los usuarios, en particular comunidades de usuarios, examina las prácticas sociales, registrando de qué maneras las máquinas, los bienes y servicios de base tecnológica son usados socialmente en la gestión de las relaciones entre las personas.  tuomi (2002) distingue la innovación de la invención. tradicionalmente, se ha definido a la invención como un proceso de insight creativo y de esfuerzos heroicos para resolver un problema, mientras la innovación era descripta como un proceso que redefine las invenciones y que las traduce en objetos utilizables. en este enfoque clásico, era fácil definir tanto al inventor (sujeto del proceso de invención) y a la invención (objeto): el momento de la invención creaba simultáneamente al inventor y a la invención. coherentemente con esto, el desarrollo tecnológico fue conceptualizado como compuesto por dos fases cualitativamente diferentes: la invención y su subsiguiente desarrollo como producto (finquelievich, 2007). el enfoque propuesto por tuomi (2002) es otro: sostiene que las “nuevas” tecnologías son activamente interpretadas y apropiadas por actores existentes, en el contexto de sus prácticas existentes. en esta misma línea, claude fischer (1992) argumenta que los promotores (productores y diseminadores) de una tecnología no necesariamente saben ni deciden sus usos finales. ellos detectan las necesidades o problemas que la tecnología puede resolver, pero son los usuarios mismos los que desarrollan nuevos usos, y que deciden finalmente qué usos van a predominar. puestos ante una tecnología, son los usuarios los que crean nuevos usos. por esta razón, la tecnología existe en tanto en que la tecnología es usada. en general, no es posible encontrar un único uso de fondo, estable, que defina absolutamente la naturaleza de un artefacto tecnológico. desde los artefactos tecnológicos más antiguos: un trozo de sílex, la construcción y conservación del fuego, un martillo, hasta la informática, las telecomunicaciones y la energía nuclear, casi todos los objetos tecnológicos poseen muchos mas usos que el pensado originalmente por sus inventores o descubridores. “la tecnología en uso se refiere al uso de tecnología con sentido. a su vez. el uso con sentido esta enraizado en la práctica social” (tuomi, 2002). a su vez, la práctica social se basa en el sentido colectivo. por lo tanto, el uso con sentido de la tecnología es inherentemente social y relacionado con las prácticas sociales. ahora bien, ¿cómo se aplican estos conceptos a una sociedad como la argentina, sacudida por periodos de gravísimas crisis y bonanzas económicas significativas, pero no acompañadas de una eficaz redistribución del ingreso? según stiglitz (2002) “el colapso de argentina (de los años 2001-2002) dio lugar a la suspensión de pagos más grande de la historia”. la crisis social siguió a la económica: con un desempleo que pasó de 6% a más del 18% en el 2002, se pasó de 16.1% de población por debajo de la línea de pobreza en 1993 a 30% en el 2002. la economía argentina ha crecido entre 2003 y 2004 a una tasa anual del 9%. pero en un país que en el pasado mostraba un "equilibrio social" alto, similar a los países desarrollados (en 1983 solo ostentaba el 6% de desempleo en y 12% de la sociedad en la pobreza), hoy el 26,9% de la población está por debajo de la línea de pobreza. según indicó el instituto nacional de estadística y censos, el nivel de indigencia –medido en los 31 aglomerados urbanos más importantes de la argentinaquedó en 8,7%, por debajo del 12,2% de fines de 2005 (indec, 2007). ¿qué iniciativas de uso con sentido de las tic se encuentran en este contexto? steven johnson (2001) plantea que las sociedades poseen la posibilidad de autoorganizarse en sistemas emergentes1 no jerárquicos, encontrando las mejores soluciones a sus problemas y sus necesidades. de acuerdo con este concepto, sostenemos como hipótesis central de este trabajo que, de la misma manera que las comunidades participan en las innovaciones socio-técnicas que les conciernen, también generan formas de autoorganización social para satisfacer necesidades –como la de apropiación de las ticno completamente resuelta por el estado, por las instituciones educativas ni por otras organizaciones comunitarias. esta hipótesis será ilustrada por medio de in estudio de los emprendimientos que han dado lugar a la conectividad colectiva por medio de los cibercafés2 y las cooperativas comunitarias de telecomunicaciones. los usos de tic en argentina en lo que se refiere al desarrollo del acceso a la sociedad de la información en américa latina, en enero del año 2007, existían en norteamérica 232 millones de consumidores de internet; en asia, 389 millones, y en europa, 313 millones de usuarios. américa latina cuenta con 89 millones de usuarios, lo que representa la menor cantidad de consumidores de todas las regiones, con una tasa de utilización de internet de sólo 16 por ciento. sin embargo, el mercado de internet de américa latina se expande más rápidamente que la de otras regiones: 391.3 % del 2002 al 20073. el crecimiento mundial en el mismo periodo fue del 202.9 %. argentina muestra un crecimiento de 150 % por ciento desde el año 2002 al 2006: existen actualmente 13 millones de usuarios de internet en el país, es decir, personas físicas distintas que se conectan al menos dos veces por semana: una penetración del 34%4. de éstas, el 50% es de nivel socioeconómico alto y el resto pertenece a los niveles medio y bajo5. si bien el perfil se fue desdibujando desde uno relacionado con una elite a otro más parecido a la población argentina, el ingreso que comenzó en el 2000 todavía está lejos del nivel socioeconómico del país. el hogar sigue siendo el principal lugar de acceso, seguido por los locutorios y cibercafés, que potencian la entrada de nuevos usuarios en los últimos tiempos. un estudio de d’alessio irol (2006) indica que, con respecto al año 2005, hay más de 2.700.000 usuarios nuevos. la incorporación de esos "nuevos conectados" es mucho más marcada en el interior del países, donde el crecimiento fue del 47,5%. en la zona de capital federal y gran buenos aires, en tanto, el incremento de usuarios fue del 26,8%. por su parte, un estudio de prince & cooke (2006) indicaba que a partir del 2002 los usuarios de internet muestran un crecimiento superior al 30% sostenido. se estimaba que el año 2006 finalizaría con 13 millones de usuarios en argentina las características del usuario de internet han cambiado desde un perfil inicial más relacionado a una elite, con estudios universitarios y altos conocimientos de informática, y con una significativa mayoría de hombres, al usuario actual, caracterizado por los siguientes rasgos: i) mayor penetración de niveles medios-bajos, quienes comenzaron su ingreso entre el 2000 y 2001; ii) niveles educacionales que descienden año a año (un 35% tiene nivel máximo alcanzado de secundario); iii) migración histórica del lugar de acceso: en los primeros tiempos (en el período previo al 2000) fue el trabajo, luego el hogar y por último la mayor parte del acceso se produjo en los lugares públicos de acceso privado (cibers y locutorios); iv) equiparación de géneros en internet: la relación entre mujeres y varones llegó al 50%, debido principalmente a la masificación de internet y la aparición de contenidos exclusivos para las mujeres; v) ingreso de edades extremas: los menores de 18 años representan el 17.7% de los usuarios actuales. la edad promedio se redujo a 28 años; vi) ingreso de usuarios con menores conocimientos tecnológicos (prince & cooke, 2005). si bien el hogar es el lugar preferido de conexión de los usuarios argentinos en el año 2005 (59.3%), los cibers ocupan el segundo puesto (46%), seguidos de lejos por el trabajo (19.4%), y las instituciones educativas (2.2%. esta preferencia se debe a diversas razones; entre las positivas: los bajos costos de los cibers, que rondan 1,50$ (u$0,50) por hora; la frecuencia del uso de la banda ancha en ellos y la velocidad de las conexiones; la no necesidad de encargarse de la vigilancia de virus, spywares, y del mantenimiento de las computadoras. las razones negativas son el alto costo de la mayoría de servidores de cable o adsl; la vigilancia creciente hacia el uso del e-mail y de internet por las empresas hacia sus empleados; y la infrecuente existencia de laboratorios de informática o de telecentros al servicio de los estudiantes en los establecimientos educativos. los niveles socio-económico medios, y sobre todo los bajos, hicieron su ingreso a través de cibercafés y locutorios: han hallado en estos lugares el sustituto a la compra de una pc y a la conexión de banda ancha, costosas a partir de la crisis. los usuarios que sólo se conectan desde lugares privados de acceso público representan el 26% de la población de internet. el hogar es la principal ubicación donde los usuarios acceden a internet, con el 46%. a continuación se describen las estrategias desarrolladas por dos tipos de organizaciones no estatales (empresas y microemprendimientos del sector privado, y cooperativas que reúnen a diversos actores sociales en sus respectivas comunidades) para avanzar en la inclusión informacional. un nuevo espacio social: los cibercafes los cibercafés son equipamientos extendidos a nivel mundial, aunque tienden a concentrarse en las grandes ciudades, las localidades en las que el acceso hogareño a internet aun no es masivo, y los lugares turísticos. un cibercafé (también llamado cyber, internet café, pc café, etc.) es típicamente un emprendimiento comercial en el que las personas acceden a internet por medio de un pago, generalmente equivalente a una fracción de tiempo de una hora o minuto. un número creciente de cafés ofrecen acceso inalámbrico ilimitado. en muchos cibers también se venden bebidas, papelería, insumos de computación, cigarrillos y golosinas, o se ofrecen servicios como fotocopias y envío y recepción de faxes6. en américa latina y el caribe se han extendido los llamados telecentros, financiados por el estado, por empresas o por organismos internacionales; estos telecentros ofrecen con frecuencia cursos sobre tics, y otras facilidades para la vida comunitaria. en este trabajo, cuando nos referimos a los lugares privados de acceso público, englobamos en este concepto tanto a los locutorios o franquicias de telefónica y telecom, como a los microemprendimientos independientes. para comodidad del lector, nos referiremos a este conjunto como a “los cyber”. los números del mercado argentino de internet han mostrado a lo largo del período de crisis económico-social de 2001-2003 crecimientos bajos pero sostenidos, que llevaron en el 2004 a crecer el doble que el promedio de dicho período, revelando porcentajes superiores al 27% en conexiones y 33% en usuarios7. el crecimiento de los cibercafés permitió que el nivel de usuarios siguiera creciendo a pesar de la crisis. los grupos sociales de ingresos más bajos encontraron la forma de ingresar al mundo de la web desde lugares donde por $1 o $1,50 (desde u$0,30 a u$0,50) pueden navegar durante una hora, a alta velocidad y sin tener que comprar una computadora. el caso del uso de los cibers en argentina es también una nueva manera de reconceptualizar las relaciones de propiedad, uso y nueva economía. durante los últimos veinte años, se ha originado en internet un espacio social de interacciones en red. el espacio social producido por estas comunicaciones reticulares se interpenetra con las redes sociales presenciales, y ambas de modifican mutuamente. en este espacio social, ¿cuál es el rol de los cibercafés? no –siempreson, como los cafés tradicionales, lugares de encuentro físicos: aunque las personas estén sentadas en incómoda proximidad, la relación no se da entre ellos, sino con las personas que están “al otro lado” de las redes electrónicas, ya sea en otra ciudad, país o continente. nunes (1999) sugiere que, en vez de servir como lugares de reunión, los cibers funcionan como “espacios de otro lugar”, en los cuales el potencial de desplazamiento en el ciberespacio resulta ser un modo de membresía. lo que se comparte en ellos es el nomadismo electrónico entre lugares geográficamente dispersos, en lo que manuel castells llama “el espacio de los flujos”. esta circulación virtual y (en el caso de los viajeros) transgeográfica explicaría por qué, tanto en argentina como en el resto del mundo, los cibercafés son lugares donde los diversos grupos socio económicos coexisten. un relevamiento realizado por el equipo de operadores de calle de la dirección general de niñez y adolescencia del gobierno de la ciudad de buenos aires (gcba)8 asevera que en el año 2006, los chicos en situación de calle gastaban hasta el 70% del dinero que ganan vendiendo flores, limpiando ventanillas de coches y otras tareas, en los cibercafés. así como la calle es un espacio paradigmático para determinar las condiciones de vida y desarrollo de miles de niños y niñas, hay espacios urbanos marginales donde también se expresa la fragilidad social a través de contextos crónicos de pobreza y exclusión infantil. uno de ellos es el barrio ejército de los andes, más conocido como fuerte apache (por razones de violencia, abuso policial e institucional, delincuencia y tráfico de drogas), localizado al oeste del gran buenos aires. allí viven 35.000 personas. el 20% de la población del barrio no tiene empleo ni recibe asistencia social alguna. casi el 10% tiene entre 15 y 19 años y se estima que el 20% de los menores de 14 morirá antes de cumplir los 19, por cuestiones de violencia o drogas. en el cibercafé luna9, por ahora único cibercafé del barrio, su propietario calcula que “deben venir alrededor de 100 chicos por día”. y añade: si los mandás a aprender computación, capaz que nunca van. sin embargo, aquí vienen y aprenden: todo lo que existe está en internet”. algunos cafés de la recoleta (uno de los barrios de mayores ingresos de buenos aires) reciben chicos de la calle en los horarios más vacíos, del mismo modo que algunas personas sin techo utilizan los cibers para “recibir” y “visitar” desde sus direcciones electrónicas. de alguna manera, la “clase cibernauta” se superpone, por unos minutos o una hora, a las clases sociales. en los cibers, los hombres de negocios, los intelectuales, los estudiantes, los turistas internacionales, pueden compartir los productos tecnológicos de esta sociedad con cibernautas menos favorecidos, como los niños que habitan la calle, aunque esta coexistencia no está libre de prejuicios de clase, de género o de edad. no sólo para los grupos económicamente menos favorecidos, sino también para las mujeres, los adultos mayores y los habitantes del interior del país, los cibercafés sirven para despegar a las computadoras y las conexiones a internet del clásico paradigma de la propiedad y el uso individual del hardware y de las conexiones. los cibercafés se contraponen a este modelo, dado que no se basan en la propiedad de la tecnología, sino en la compra de tiempo para usarla. los cibercafés hacen que las personas compartan tecnología en espacios privados de uso público, en vez de en lugares individuales. al favorecer la presencia virtual en la red -a través de una dirección de e-mail o de messenger, de la participación en un foro o en un chat-, antes que la presencia física (la propiedad de la computadora), también estimulan un modelo “redcéntrico” de apropiación y utilización de las tic. los cibercafés son también, con frecuencia, el lugar donde se accede a internet por primera vez, donde el usuario inexperto se vuelve cibernauta. los cibercafés parecen ser el lugar por excelencia de iniciación en el ciberespacio: el número de personas que aprendió pragmáticamente el uso de internet en los cibercafés (con frecuencia, guiados por comprensivos dueños o empleados de los mismos) es superior al de quienes se instruyeron en sus hogares, y supera largamente a los que lo aprendieron en sus lugares de trabajo, dejando en un lejano cuarto lugar a las instituciones educativas. el fenómeno del crecimiento de internet en argentina, relacionado en gran parte con el auge de los cibers, ilustra los conceptos de rifkin y de nunes: los cibercafés cumplen (involuntariamente) un rol social, dado que facilitan la transición desde un régimen de propiedad de bienes hacia un régimen de acceso de productos y servicios, basado en facilitar el uso limitado y a corto plazo de los bienes controlados por redes de proveedores. por otro lado, son también, siguiendo a nunes, los cibercafés son equipamientos que, desde su anclaje territorial, barrial, permiten la movilidad: la movilidad de los usuarios “tecnologizados”, no desde dispositivos que lleven consigo, como los teléfonos celulares o las palm tops, sino porque les facilita múltiples puntos fijos de conexión dispersos en el territorio, tanto en su ciudad o país como en el extranjero. internet, el mundo de los jóvenes rifkin (2000, pág. 23) opina que para los jóvenes de principios del siglo xxi, que él llama “la generación proteica”, el acceso es una forma de vida, y aunque la propiedad de bienes –como el hardwarecontinúa siendo importante, lo es más estar conectados: “las personas del sigo xxi se perciben a sí mismas tanto como nodos insertos en una red de intereses compartidos como agentes autónomos en un mundo darwiniano de supervivencia competitiva. para ellas la libertad personal tiene menos que ver con el derecho de posesión y la capacidad para excluir a otros, y más con el derecho a estar incluidos en las redes de interrelación. son la primera generación de la era del acceso”. los jóvenes son los consumidores más frecuentes de los cyber: los usuarios que tienen hasta 25 años de edad sumaban en 2004 el 48,75 del total relevado. no obstante, en los últimos años se ha registrado la incorporación de edades muy bajas: los menores de 18 años representan el 26% de los usuarios actuales. además de actividades muy visibles, como las “de ocio”, como chat y juegos en red, las razones que explica la presencia mayoritaria de jóvenes en los cibers son las siguientes: i) mayor familiaridad con la tecnología, que ha entrado como una presencia ineludible en sus vidas desde hace unos quince años, convirtiéndose en un ítem de uso irrenunciable; ii) necesidad de uso de internet para sus estudios, ya sea para buscar información, interactuar con otros estudiantes, cursar carreras o cursos virtuales, buscar becas, etc.; iii) aún si algunos de estos jóvenes poseen computadoras en sus casas, las familias pueden limitar el uso de internet debido a costos telefónicos, uso compartido de computadoras u otras razones; iv) los cyber se han transformado en lugares donde se pasa el tiempo libre, socializando a través de la red, en soledad, o acompañados por amigos. la carencia de computadora en el hogar es la primera razón para usar los cibers. esta tendencia se acentúa aún más entre los que tienen entre 36 y más de 45 años. estos usuarios también aprecian factores como la comodidad y la facilidad para controlar gastos. por el contrario, no tener conexión a internet es una razón para empujar a los cibers a los que tienen entre menos de 18 años hasta los 35 años. esta franja etaria también privilegia la velocidad, y hasta los 25 años, no estar en su hogar. los mayores de 45 años usan mayoritariamente la conexión hogareña, doblando al uso de los cibers, salvo cuando están de viaje, tienen problemas con sus conexiones, u otras razones. sin embargo, en los últimos años se ha incrementado el uso de los cibers por personas mayores. un grupo de usuarios de internet que casi se duplicó en el 2002 fue el de las personas mayores de 50 años, alcanzando el 10% de los usuarios10. la observación directa en cibers de buenos aires denota cierta segregación por edad: los jóvenes y los adultos no suelen elegir computadoras cercanas. inclusive muchos cibers que han optado por un público adulto no han colocado juegos en sus computadoras, para evitar los usuarios más jóvenes y ruidosos, que pueden molestar a los adultos que van a utilizar el e-mail. en los años post-crisis socio-económica, los cibercafés y las cooperativas comunitarias de telecomunicaciones han provisto a las comunidades de la conectividad que ni el estado ni los establecimientos educativos les proporcionaban. cooperativas comunitarias para la democratización de las comunicaciones el caso de las cooperativas comunitarias de telecomunicaciones ilustra un ejemplo de satsfacción de necesidades de al comunidad ejercido por una asociación entre entidades de la sociedad civil y privadas, con en algunos casos, participación del estado. para tuomi, la comunidad crea usos potenciales específicos de la tecnología. por lo tanto, el “usuario” de una tecnología no es una persona individual, sino un miembro de la comunidad de practica que utiliza la tecnología en cuestión. si tomamos el caso de una biblioteca, el usuario no es solo cualquier individuo, sino el bibliotecario, o lector habitual que practica el uso de la tecnología en cuestión, que conoce sus códigos y que mediante sus demandas y necesidades ha contribuido a que la tecnología se adapte a las necesidades de esta comunidad específica y que a su vez descubre usos diferentes para una tecnología dada. este concepto puede aplicarse a las cooperativas de telecomunicaciones argentinas. una cooperativa de telecomunicaciones, que provee telefonía e internet, es básicamente una asociación autónoma de individuos, que unen fuerzas para resolver necesidades y aspiraciones comunes, económicas, sociales o culturales, a través de una empresa de propiedad común y administrada democráticamente. en argentina, las cooperativas comunitarias de telecomunicaciones (ccts) fueron creadas en los años 1960s por ciudadanos que deseaban llenar el vacío comunicacional creado por la empresa de telefonía del estado, entel, que no podía proveer servicios en las áreas alejadas o de baja densidad poblacional. en 1989, entel fue privatizada, pero las cooperativas continuaron funcionando, y se expandieron hacia comunidades que, por su localización geográfica o por su escasa población, no resultaban rentables para las grandes empresas telefónicas privadas. hasta la privatización de los servicios telefónicos en 1989, éstos fueron administrados por entel, la empresa estatal monopólica, que proveía servicios con preferencia a áreas urbanas rentables, y eludía las complejidades de áreas de bajos recursos, baja densidad poblacional, o remotas. una regulación especial permitió la creación de cooperativas telefónicas, organizaciones sin fines de lucro calificadas para suministrar servicios de telefonía en sus áreas geográficas, con la condición de que estas áreas fueran declaradas por entel como no rentables. en 1960 un decreto estatal autorizó a entel a construir conexiones telefónicas para éstas. las cooperativas retuvieron sus concesiones cuando entel fue finalmente privatizada, junto con otras empresas estatales, en 1989. como todas las empresas cooperativas, las de telefonía están regidas por la legislación que las define como “empresas sociales”, para diferenciarlas de las empresas tradicionales, orientadas al mercado estas cooperativas se desarrollaron y prosperaron, introduciendo nuevas tecnologías, como internet, para proveer a sus miembros de nuevos servicios con costos a su alcance. en argentina, las dos federaciones de cooperativas más importantes que existen actualmente son: fecotel (federación de cooperativas de telecomunicaciones ltda.), y fecosur (federación de cooperativas del servicio telefónico de la zona sur). entre las dos, representaban en el año 2004, 350 ccts. la federación más grande, fecotel, tiene más de 40 años de antigüedad. el sector cooperativo sirve a más de 2.5 millones de argentinos – aproximadamente el 8% de la población total del país con 600.000 líneas telefónicas, factura alrededor de us$100 millones por año, y emplea a 3,500 personas. las fuentes de financiación más importantes para las cooperativas provienen de sus miembros o accionistas, que incluyen empresas locales interesadas en tener servicios eficientes y económicos de telecomunicaciones locales. mientras algunas cooperativas piden créditos a bancos nacionales o locales, algunos de los informantes clave entrevistados para este trabajo plantean las dificultades enfrentadas por las cooperativas para obtener préstamos importantes. fecotel (2004) es muy estricta con respecto al comportamiento ético de las cooperativas. sus asociados deben “siempre y en todas sus acciones, respetar los principios cooperativos: membresía abierta y voluntaria; control democrático de la organización por sus miembros; participación económica de sus miembros; autonomía e independencia; educación, formación permanente e información; cooperación entre cooperativas; y compromiso con la comunidad”. servicios y expansión de las cooperativas el grado en el que las ccts utilizan las tecnologías de última generación varía de acuerdo a las necesidades específicas de sus comunidades, y de sus posibilidades económicas. tanto su autonomía, como, en muchos casos, el pequeño tamaño de la organización, las torna flexibles y les permite adaptarse a las nuevas tecnologías a un ritmo relativamente rápido. muchas cooperativas están usando redes de datos sobre ip y transportan voz sobre ip, aunque las centrales de conmutación digitales seguirán en servicio aún por muchos años11. también utilizan ip inalámbrico en áreas de baja densidad poblacional que aún no han sido alcanzadas por las redes de cables de cobre. algunas cooperativas usan cordect, una tecnología inalámbrica de loop local desarrollada por el indian institute of technology. cordect fue diseñada para prestar conectividad simultánea de alta calidad en voz y datos con buena relación costo-efectividad, en áreas rurales. las ccts proporcionan a sus comunidades servicios de telefonía e internet, con conexión dial-up y/o de banda ancha (adsl o wifi), así como telefonía sobre ip, con tarifas significativamente menores que las grandes compañías privadas que actúan en argentina (telefónica y telecom). muchas cooperativas proveen servicios gratuitos a l comunidad, como cursos sobre tecnologías de información y comunicación (tics), acceso gratuito a internet para escuelas públicas, bibliotecas e instituciones públicas (cuarteles de bomberos, policía, hospitales, etc.). según las autoridades del comfer, (comité federal de radiodifusión), la nueva legislación de radiodifusión propuesta en argentina permitirá a las cooperativas proporcionar también televisión por cable, lo que las tornará actores poderosos en el mercado de las telecomunicaciones. las tv. ccts están prontas para ofrecer un paquete que incluye tv por cable, telefonía y acceso a internet por una tarifa mensual de us$16 (precios de 2004). el uso con sentido como se mencionó más arriba, tuomi (2002) sostiene que los promotores de una tecnología no son los que necesariamente conocen sus usos finales ni deciden sobre ellos. los creadores de la tecnología, sus productores, detectan las necesidades o problemas que la tecnología puede resolver, pero son los usuarios mismos los que desarrollan nuevos usos, y que deciden finalmente qué usos van a predominar. si, puestos ante una tecnología, son los usuarios los que crean nuevos usos, entonces, la tecnología existe en tanto en que la tecnología es usada. en general, no es posible encontrar un único uso de fondo, estable, que defina absolutamente la naturaleza de un artefacto tecnológico. se plantea que las prácticas sociales estructuran y organizan la vida social, y proveen los cimientos para el procesamiento del sentido colectivo. el sentido (lo que luego determinara el uso con sentido de las innovaciones tecnológicas) se produce y reproduce en las comunidades especificas, que a su vez producen y reproducen el sentido (el uso determinado de ciertas tecnologías). el sentido se origina entonces en las actividades prácticas colaborativas. la comunidad que reproduce sentidos o significados específicos es la que reproduce las prácticas relativas a ellos. las cooperativas comunitarias de telecomunicaciones están cumpliendo un rol social pionero en los países de américa latina y el caribe12, no sólo en tanto que proveedoras de servicios, sino también de generadoras de empleo, de factores de apropiación comunitaria de las tic, y de democratización de las comunicaciones. en nuestra investigación hemos identificado las siguientes ventajas de las cooperativas: las ccts constituyen herramientas potentes para la democratización de las comunicaciones, dado que la comunidad se transforma en propietaria y administradora de su propia infraestructura de telecomunicaciones. el compromiso hacia la comunidad es un factor fundamental para el éxito de las cooperativas. esta responsabilidad implica esfuerzos continuos para implementar nuevas tecnologías, eficiencia y transparencia gerencial y administrativa, servicios mejores y más baratos que las demás empresas, y servicios superiores a los usuarios. la creación de ccts necesita que la comunidad realice contribuciones financieras importantes – esto no se refiere sólo a los usuarios potenciales, sino también y sobre todo a las empresas locales – así como necesita también de créditos blandos de bancos nacionales o provinciales. las comunidades de bajos ingresos pueden experimentar dificultades para implementar ccts, a menos que puedan negociar las inversiones de bancos o de organizaciones internacionales. asimismo, la participación activa de “campeones” o líderes locales lúcidos y entusiastas es esencial para el éxito de las iniciativas de creación y funcionamiento de las ccts, no sólo en las primeras etapas, sino para la sustentabilidad en el largo plazo. el en caso de las cooperativas, “ser muchos” es mejor. las cooperativas pueden obtener mejores resultados, tanto cuando negocian con gobiernos, como con empresas privadas, si conforman redes o federaciones nacionales. la construcción de capacidades es esencial para la realización a largo plazo: la formación continua del personal técnico y administrativo de las cooperativas es un factor clave para su éxito. las cooperativas pueden proporcionar los medios tecnológicos (acceso, formación) y la información necesaria para que en las comunidades surjan emprendimientos que relativos a la sociedad de la información, eventualmente, spin-offs de las mismas así como las cooperativas urgen de la sociedad civil (en asociación con otros actores sociales) para proveer conectividad, surgen iniciativas del sector privado, ya sea a nivel micro (emprendimientos individuales) o macro (empresas telefónicas) para proporcionar a la población lugares privados de acceso público a internet: los cibercafés. el fordismo de la sociedad de la información las sociedades, según steven johnson (2001), poseen la posibilidad de autoorganizarse en sistemas emergentes13 no jerárquicos, encontrando las mejores soluciones a sus problemas y sus necesidades. los microemprendimientos que han dado lugar a la conectividad por medio de los cibers parecería una forma de autoorganización social (involuntaria) para satisfacer una necesidad social no completamente resuelta por el estado, las organizaciones comunitarias ni los establecimientos educativos. sin embargo, sería engañoso reposar (sólo) en este concepto: en el caso de los cibercafés, dado que su implementación se debe fundamentalmente a iniciativas privadas en busca de lucro, no se consideran las necesidades de acceso de la sociedad como un todo. por esto es que son más numerosos en términos absolutos en las ciudades grandes y medianas, que poseen universidades y en los centros turísticos. parte de una población de muy bajos recursos, o habitantes de lugares remotos o de baja densidad poblacional continúan excluidos del acceso, excepto que les sea provisto por cooperativas de telecomunicaciones o por organizaciones comunitarias. tampoco la conectividad es suficiente por sí misma para integrar a la población a la sociedad de la información: se necesita formación de individuos y grupos, agrupamiento de las personas en emprendimientos, instrumentación de las herramientas de la sociedad de la información para el desarrollo humano, entre otros. ¿significa esto que es el estado quien debe asumir la tarea de la implementación y gestión de los cibers, como se ha intentado en los años 1990s en argentina? nuestro trabajo tiende a demostrar que no es siempre necesario que el estado provea equipamientos sociales de conectividad, aunque sí a regular y optimizar el funcionamiento de estos equipamientos privados de uso público. regular significa establecer normas de equipamiento (calidad del hardware, por ejemplo), de comodidad de los usuarios, de horarios de uso, de alentar el establecimiento de cibers en regiones de baja densidad poblacional, asegurar que las organizaciones comunitarias puedan establecer acuerdos con los cibers para el uso de la infraestructura con objetivos sociales, etc. optimizar quiere decir, en este caso, incrementar las funciones de los cibers, incluyendo cursos de formación en uso de tics, su utilización para fines sociales, etc. de este modo, el estado se libera de la necesidad de implementar costosas infraestructuras, y al mismo tiempo se asegura de que toda la población esté cubierta por el acceso a internet y a los servicios asociados a él. por otro lado, la población, ya familiarizada con el uso cotidiano de los cibers para todo tipo de comunicación, está más dispuesta a avanzar hacia otros usos de las tecnologías, que superan el mero acceso, y sirven para el desarrollo humano, económico y social de las comunidades. los datos disponibles sugieren que en los próximos años internet crecerá a ritmos parecidos a los del 2006, por la dinámica propia de la ley de moore y la de metcalfe14. de acuerdo a ambas leyes, es probable que la frecuencia de uso de los cibers aumente debido al creciente interés de los usuarios individuales y grupales por el sistema de comunicaciones en red. se prevé en los usuarios la continuación de una fuerte tendencia al ingreso a internet y a las tic a través de los lugares públicos de acceso privado. el aumento de los usuarios de cibercafés es un fenómeno típico de la nueva economía, aunque paradójicamente esto se deba a un principio fordista de los dueños de los cibers: apuestan al incremento del número de usuarios, más que al valor alto de la unidad de tiempo utilizada. los cyber no sólo proveen conectividad a casi la mitad de los cibernautas argentinos: la suministran preferentemente a los grupos socioeconómicos más bajos, a los habitantes del interior, a los jóvenes y a las mujeres. ¿puede decirse que cumplen un rol social? si, aunque este rol sea la consecuencia no deliberada de iniciativas económicas en pequeña escala. el rol involuntariamente social de los cibers –como el papel deliberadamente social de las cctsno se limita al acceso de los usuarios al ciberespacio. en américa latina y el caribe, las investigaciones académicas, los estudios de mercado, las asesorías para decisores políticos, se han enfocado prioritariamente sobre la conectividad: la atención fue puesta sobre cuáles segmentos de la población tiene acceso a internet o son usuarios de este medio (finquelievich et al., 2004). la brecha digital ha sido conceptualizada en términos binarios: un individuo o grupo social tiene acceso o no a internet, usa esta tecnología o no. por ejemplo, la cumbre mundial de la sociedad de la información, en sus reuniones mundiales de ginebra (2003) y túnez (2005) se ha focalizado en que aún existe una “brecha digital” en el mundo, porque los países en desarrollo están lentos en cuanto a la posesión y uso de tic, y las comunidades pobres no gozan de sus beneficios. según la cmsi, para cerrar o disminuir esa brecha, debe haber una “solidaridad digital”, por la que los países ricos ayuden al mundo en desarrollo a tener mayor acceso a tic y las personas de todas partes tengan más acceso a la información y el conocimiento. este enfoque ultra simplista implica que, cuando en un país sube el número de habitantes conectados ya sea debido a políticas estatales o, como en el caso argentino, a la iniciativa privada-, se declara prácticamente ganada la batalla contra esta brecha, dado que una proporción significativa de la población utiliza internet. este enfoque asume erróneamente que tener acceso a internet anula o morigera las inequidades presentes y potenciales, consecuencia de la falta de acceso y uso de este medio. sin embargo, más allá de la conectividad, existen factores que deben ser considerados cuando se debaten los impactos posibles de internet en las inequidades socio económicas existentes. según un trabajo anterior (finquelievich, 2004), para beneficiarse de las oportunidades de la sociedad de la información, los ciudadanos deben estar preparados para las evoluciones económicas, sociales culturales y tecnológicas que transforman el mundo. la e-readiness de los ciudadanos describe el grado de preparación de la sociedad de un país para participar como agentes proactivos en los diversos sectores y niveles de economía del conocimiento, y de capitalizar las oportunidades de participación ofrecidas por el nuevo ambiente económico y tecnológico (iap, 2000). esta e-readiness necesita, entre otros, de los siguientes elementos: acceso a las infraestructuras de tics: hardware, software, conectividad, etc.) formación en el uso de tics (no solo alfabetización tecnológica, sino también formación en gestión de empresas, organizaciones, etc. usando las tics). acceso a internet rápido, gratuito o a bajo costo. información y creatividad para identificar las oportunidades ofrecidas uso efectivo de las tics. según gurstein (2003), el uso efectivo puede definirse como la capacidad y la oportunidad de integrar exitosamente a las tics en el cumplimiento de objetivos propios o colaborativos. estos factores – todos los cuales son proporcionados por los actuales cibers y cooperativas en argentina contribuyen, no solo a la capacidad de los individuos de utilizar una tecnología en forma efectiva y eficiente, sino también a la e-readiness de una sociedad. tanto los cibercafés como las cooperativas proveen acceso a las infraestructuras y a internet, veloz y a bajo costo, formación, acceso a la información, y oportunidades para el uso efectivo de las tics. ¿quién se ocupa de la conectividad? el éxito de las cooperativas y de los cibers en argentina con respecto a la satisfacción de las necesidades de acceso de parte de la población más pobre, de personas del interior del país, de poblaciones de baja densidad y en zonas remotas, y de mujeres, ¿significa acaso que el impulso a la conectividad y a la e-readiness debe dejarse completamente en manos privadas o de la sociedad civil organizada? no, o al menos no sin regulaciones. pero estas iniciativas privadas han ocupado el lugar dejado, o ineficazmente ocupado, por las carencias o deficiencias de políticas estatales tendientes a la conectividad y a sobrepasar la tan comentada “brecha digital”. bassi y rabadán (2002) relatan la experiencia del proyecto centros tecnológicos comunitarios (ctc), que había instalado aproximadamente 1350 ctcs distribuidos en todo el territorio nacional. a ellos se suman 1745 bibliotecas populares, hoy integradas al proyecto ctc. estas autoras reconocen que “si bien los ctcs instalados son un hecho, el funcionamiento de los mismos según los objetivos planteados, está muy lejos de optimizarse. la mayoría presentan serias irregularidades, y los que funcionan se encuentran subutilizados”. bassi y rabadán enumeran las principales dificultades detectadas en visitas a 300 ctcs y expresadas por sus coordinadores, clasificadas en dos áreas: aspectos sociales e institucionales (incluyen factores como la ausencia de un criterio de selección de las instituciones responsables acorde a los objetivos comunitarios planteados, la elección de los futuros coordinadores de ctcs por parte de dichas instituciones no respetó el perfil solicitado, ni los mismos fueron instruidos previamente con respecto a las características del proyecto, falta de definiciones e información acerca de los alcances y límites de la autogestión de los ctcs) y aspectos técnicos, como falta de conexión a internet en aproximadamente el 50% de los ctcs instalados debido a los altos costos que implica la conexión en las localidades sin servicio de telefonía con descuento (llamado servicio 0610)15 o la necesidad de contar con un soporte técnico provisto por el proyecto ctc ante la frecuente desconfiguración de las redes y otras dificultades técnicas. evidentemente, y por óptimas que hayan sido las intenciones del estado argentino para vencer la brecha digital e impulsar la conectividad entre los ciudadanos argentinos, las estrategias implementadas no han sido suficientes para ello, y admiten un alto grado de perfeccionamiento. la sociedad civil no está ausente de la difusión y aún de la provisión de conectividad a la ciudadanía: por el contrario, posee un papel fundamental en la definición de los nuevos tipos de relaciones y construcciones sociales que deberían desarrollarse a partir de la incorporación de las tic. no se trata solo de una cuestión de estrategias de gobierno y empresas: es fundamental el fortalecimiento de la presencia de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil (osc) en la generación y gestión de las estrategias de conectividad, no solo para promover la solidaridad y confianza entre las personas, sino también para incidir en el las estrategias públicas y políticas. las osc asumen cierta incidencia política, para influir en las decisiones y los resultados de las políticas públicas. inciden fundamentalmente en la visibilidad de los problemas y demandas, ya que en general poseen experiencia y capacidad para descubrirlos y hacerlos públicos, en la formulación de soluciones y propuesta de políticas y en el seguimiento de las acciones emprendidas. la actitud de las osc hacia la gestión de la conectividad difiere según las organizaciones: algunas consideran que se debe intensificar la relación con lo público y que las propias organizaciones pueden encargarse directamente de ejecutar algunos programas con manejo propio de los recursos y evaluación del estado (sobre todo en el nivel municipal). otras organizaciones no están dispuestas a ocuparse de las funciones que le corresponden al estado y creen que su actividad debe desarrollarse sólo en el ámbito de lo social y en el control de lo público (finquelievich y kisilevsky, 2005). de todas formas, el sector asociativo argentino no está aún en condiciones de proveer de acceso a la tecnología a la mayoría de la población del país: la realidad es que los ciudadanos de menores recursos, que carecen de computadoras o cuyo equipamiento es demasiado antiguo, una gran parte de habitantes del interior del país, y los más jóvenes, se conectan por ahora, en alta proporción, desde los cibers. ¿cuál sería el rol del estado? ¿qué rol cumple el estado, cuando otros actores sociales van satisfaciendo necesidades de la sociedad en lugar de, o en ocasiones mejor, que el propio estado? teóricos como castells (2006, p.27) pronuncian la inminencia de las sociedades red: “una red es un conjunto de nodos interconectados (…) una red no posee ningún centro, sólo nodos. los nodos pueden tener mayor o menor relevancia para el conjunto de la red (…). los nodos existen y funcionan exclusivamente como componentes de las redes: la red es la unidad, no el nodo”. según estos conceptos, el estado puede funcionar como un nodo imprescindible en las acciones multisectisectoriales, es decir, las iniciativas combinadas de sector público, el sector privado y la sociedad civil. el estado debería entonces desempeñar su función de nodo en las interacciones entre los diversos sectores, en lo que cada uno (marxianamente) aportará según sus capacidades a las soluciones a las necesidades sociales. este proceso, según los conceptos de ester kaufman, supone la producción e intercambio de información a fin de generar conocimiento que a su vez revierta en un mayor valor en servicios y productos. estos ciclos significan el acceso y participación para todos los integrantes del sistema multisectorial y también para sus destinatarios finales: los consumidores. esto supone conexiones horizontales dentro de las instituciones y entre instituciones y también entre actores concretos en contextos híbridos. para los autores de este trabajo, el rol del estado (o uno de ellos) es no sólo el de alentar las interacciones multisectoriales, sino también de posibilitarlas e impulsarlas mediante estrategias y acciones concretas, bajo leyes de juego claras y perdurables. para terminar este trabajo plantea que las comunidades, mediante las iniciativas y acciones de diversos actores sociales, tanto privados como provenientes de la sociedad civil, pueden organizarse para satisfacer sus necesidades con respecto a la conectividad en la sociedad de la información mediante innovaciones sociales y/o tecnológicas, en ausencia o insuficiencia de estrategias estatales. los ejemplos presentados sobre cibercafés y cooperativas muestran que los emprendimientos que han dado lugar a la conectividad por medio de los cibercafés y las cooperativas pueden ser considerados una forma de autoorganización social para satisfacer una necesidad de conectividad de las comunidades insuficientemente completamente solucionada por el estado, por las instituciones educativas ni por otras organizaciones comunitarias. estos emprendimientos contribuyen a ciertas formas de innovación social (de manera deliberada las cooperativas, involuntariamente los cibercafés). ambos tipos de empresas ven el potencial de beneficios (monetarios o sociales) de las tecnologías, y emplean recursos existentes en nuevas maneras. ambos suman otros actores a los agentes de conectividad tradicionales. sin embargo, existen diferencias con los sistemas emergentes planteados por johnson: no conforman redes, aunque posibilitan el acceso a ellas. aún no crean valor agregado mediante interacciones significativas. se limitan a ser nodos de provisión de acceso a las infraestructuras de la sociedad de la información. ¿su conformación en redes que se alimentan mutuamente, iniciará la siguiente etapa? bibliografía bassi, roxana y silvia rabadán: centros tecnológicos comunitarios: la experiencia argentina, congreso apropiación social de tecnologías de la información y la comunicación en américa latina y el caribe, perú, 17 al 24 de marzo del 2002, http://www.links.org.ar/infoteca/ctc-peru.rtf bridges.org (2001), “comparison of e-readiness assessment models, final draft, v. 2.13, 14 march 2001, http://www.bridges.org/ereadiness/tools.html castells, manuel (2000) “is the new economy socially sustainable?” http://www.ul.ie/~icse2000/castellsabstract.html castells, manuel (2006): la sociedad red: una visión global, alianza editorial, madrid. eclac (2002): panorama social de américa latina 2001-2002, http://www.eclac.cl/cgi-bin/getprod.asp?xml=/publicaciones/xml/4/11254/p11254.xml&xsl=/dds/tpl/p9f.xsl estadisticas mundiales del internet (usuarios del internet y población por países y regiones), 2007, http://www.exitoexportador.com/stats.htm evenson, laura. "coffeehouse patrons get wired cybercafes offer e-mail, web access." san francisco chronicle 2 sep. 1996: e1. fecotel: testimonio del estatuto social reformado de la federacion de cooperativas de telecomunicaciones de la republica argentina ltda. (fecotel). capitulo i. denominación, domicilio, duración y objeto. http://www.fecoteldatos.com.ar/estatuto.doc finquelievich daniel (2006): “nativos al poder”, en: finquelievich, susana (coordinadora) (2007): la innovación ya no es lo que era. impactos meta-tecnológicos en áreas metropolitanas”, ed. dunken, buenos aires. finquelievich susana (2005), desarrollo local en la sociedad de la información. municipios e internet, la crujía, buenos aires. finquelievich, susana (2003): ict and sustainable development in latin america and the caribbean, in: stewart marshall and wal taylor, editores: proceedings of 5th international it in regional areas conference 2003, pp. xii-xxv, central queensland university, rockhampton, queensland, australia, isbn 186674423, 2003. finquelievich, susana (coordinadora) (2007): la innovación ya no es lo que era. impactos meta-tecnológicos en áreas metropolitanas”, ed. dunken, buenos aires. finquelievich, susana, and graciela kisilevsky community democratization of telecommunications community cooperatives in argentina: the case of telpin, the journal of community informatics, vol 1, no 3 (2005), http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/241/0 finquelievich, susana, coord. (2000): “¡ciudadanos, a la red!” ed. la crujía, buenos aires. finquelievich, susana, y graciela kisilevsky: la sociedad civil en la era digital: redes sociales sustentadas por tic en argentina, documento de trabajo n. 41, instituto de investigaciones gino germani, facultad de ciencias sociales, universidad de buenos aires, 2005. finquelievich, susana. la sociedad civil en la economía del conocimiento: tics y desarrollo socio-económico. buenos aires: instituto de investigaciones gino germani, facultad de ciencias sociales, universidad de buenos aires, 2004. (iigg documentos de trabajo, nº 40). <http://www.iigg.fsoc.uba.ar/docs/dt/dt40.pdf> isbn 950-29-0829-5. finquelievich, susana; lago martínez, s.; jara, a.; vercelli, a. tic, desarrollo y reducción de la pobreza: políticas y propuestas. buenos aires: instituto de investigaciones gino germani, facultad de ciencias sociales, universidad de buenos aires, 2004. (iigg documentos de trabajo, nº 37). <http://www.iigg.fsoc.uba.ar/docs/dt/dt37.pdf> isbn 950-29-0797-3 gurstein michael: community innovation and community informatics building national innovation capability from the bottom up, december 2003 haddon, l, mante, e., sapio, b., kommonen, k-h, fortunati, l. kant, a (eds) (2005) everyday innovators. researching the role of users in shaping icts, springer, dordrect instituto nacional de estadística y censos (2007), calendario de difusión para el primer y segundo semestre del año 2007, buenos aires, http://www.indec.gov.ar/contacto/servicio_calendario.asp johnson, steven: sistemas emergentes. o qué tienen en común hormigas, neuronas, ciudades y software, turner publicaciones, fondo de cultura económica, madrid, 2001. lanvin, bruno (2001) in the global information technology report 2001-2002: readiness for the networked world, center for international development at harvard university, http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cr/gitrr_030202.html obendorf, tricia (2000): manuel castells leads keynoters, in window of the world, issue 2, http://www.ul.ie/~icse2000/wow/issue2/manuel_castell_keynote.htm observatorio de industrias culturales del gobierno de la ciudad de buenos aires, boletín nº 4, “internet en números. un mercado que crece”, noviembre 2004, http://www.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/cultura/observatorio/boletin/gacetilla4.htm, consultado el 5 de marzo de 2004 prince & cooke (2005): perfil del usuario de internet en argentina (noviembre 2005), http://www.princecooke.com/estudios/perfil_internet_11_2005.asp prince & cooke (2006): perfil del usuario de internet en argentina 2006 (diciembre 2006), http://www.princecooke.com/estudios/perfil_usuariosinternet_2006.asp rifkin, jeremy: la era del acceso. la revolución de la nueva economía, paidós, buenos aires, 2000. stiglitz, joseph (2002): las lecciones de argentina, publicado por el país, de madrid, 10 de enero, 2002, http://www.undp.org.ar/archivos/sobre_la_crisis_de_la_argentina_enero_2002.htm stiglitz, joseph (2003): “los felices 90”, taurus, buenos aires. tapper, helena: understanding the information society paradigm, site consulted in 2004, http://www.valt.helsinki.fi/comm/argo/argonet9/tapper.htm tuomi, ilkka (2002): networks of innovation. change and meaning in the age of the internet, oxford university press. 1según johnson, emergencia es lo que ocurre cuando un sistema de elementos simples se organiza espontáneamente y sin leyes explícitas hasta dar lugar a un comportamiento inteligente. 2aún cuando muchos cibercafés han resultado de la iniciativa de grandes empresas telefónicas, el sistema de franquicias que han implementado hace que éstos dependan de pequeñas inversiones de emprendedores privados. 3estadísticas mundiales de internet 2007, http://www.exitoexportador.com/stats.htm 4la carencia de estadísticas accesibles y actualizadas con respecto al uso de los cibercafés en argentina hace que nuestros datos no estén normalizados al mismo año. 5estos datos surgen del perfil del usuario de internet en argentina realizado por prince & cooke (2006), http://www.princecooke.com/estudios/perfil_usuariosinternet_2006.asp 6este punto del trabajo recoge algunas de las conclusiones de la investigación de susana finquelievich y alejandro prince “el (involuntario) rol social de los cibercafés en argentina”. 7las estadísticas utilizadas en este punto pertenecen a sendos estudios realizados por prince & cooke, en los años 2004 y 2005. 8el relevamiento se realizó entre septiembre de 2006 a febrero de 2007. los resultados completos de dicho relevamiento se encuentran en la siguiente página de la dirección general de niñez y adolescencia del gobierno de la ciudad de buenos aires: http://www.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/des_social/niniez_adolescencia/institucional/documentos/relevamiento.php?menu_id=19438#a. la muestra alcanzó 405 casos de niños y niñas sobre más de 600 con los que se estuvo trabajando sistemáticamente. se cubrieron todos los horarios y zonas de la ciudad. el 15% es menor de 12 años. hay más del doble (64 % vs. 31 %) de varones que de mujeres, aunque la distancia parece achicarse: cada vez hay más mujeres. en lo que se refiere al tiempo de permanencia en calle, sólo el 7% de los niños está en la calle desde hace más de 5 años, y el 14% alternan casa y calle. 9http://www.clarin.com/diario/2006/12/15/um/m-01328451.htm 10lavaca. org, cumbre mundial de la sociedad de la información, la brecha digital en la argentina, http://www.lavaca.org/notas/nota421.shtml, consultada el 5 de marzo de 2005. 11http://www.cicomra.org.ar/eventosycursos/eca2003/presentacion%20a%20maccio.pdf 12bolivia es una excepción: la federación de cooperativas telefónicas de bolivia, fecotel, fue creada en 1987 en santa cruz de la sierra, http://www.comteco.com.bo/cooperativa/fecestat.doc 13según johnson, emergencia es lo que ocurre cuando un sistema de elementos simples se organiza espontáneamente y sin leyes explícitas hasta dar lugar a un comportamiento inteligente. 14ley de moore: la consecuencia directa de esta ley es que los precios caen al mismo tiempo que las prestaciones crecen: la computadora que hoy vale 3.000 dólares costará la mitad al año siguiente y estará obsoleta en dos años. esta ley también se ha usado en otros aspectos tecnológicos, como la memoria o el ancho de banda. la ley de metcalfe expresa que el valor de un sistema de comunicaciones aumenta proporcionalmente al cuadrado del número de usuarios del sistema (n²). que el número total de personas que pueden enviar y recibir documentos se incrementa. 15el 0610 es un servicio telefónico de tarifa reducida para acceso a internet. el psi bonifica $100 mensuales de la línea telefónica, lo que cubre aproximadamente 6 horas diarias de conexión a través de 0610 o en llamadas locales.   learning in communities: a distributed intelligence perspective  gerhard fischer center for lifelong learning & design < gerhard@colorado.edu >   abstract distributed intelligence provides an effective theoretical framework for understanding what humans can achieve and how artifacts, tools, and socio-technical environments can be designed and evaluated to empower human beings and to change tasks.   distributed intelligence: transcending the individual human mind   the power of the unaided individual mind is highly overrated (arias et al., 2001).  in most traditional approaches, human cognition has been seen as existing solely “inside” a person’s head, and studies on cognition have often disregarded the physical and social surroundings in which cognition takes place. distributed intelligence (or distributed cognition) (hollan et al., 2001; pea, 2004; salomon, 1993) provides an effective theoretical framework for understanding what humans can achieve and how artifacts, tools, and socio-technical environments can be designed and evaluated to empower human beings and to change tasks. our research efforts are focused to exploit the power of omnipotent and omniscient technology based on reliable and ubiquitous computing environments and an increasing level of technological fluency to help people to facilitate and support learning in communities.   social creativity social creativity explores computer media and technologies to help people work and learn together (bennis & biederman, 1997). it is specifically relevant to complex design problems because they require expertise in a wide range of domains. software design projects, for example, typically involve designers, programmers, human-computer interaction specialists, marketing people, and end-user participants. information technologies have reached a level of sophistication, maturity, cost-effectiveness, and distribution such that they are not restricted only to enhancing productivity but they also open up new creative possibilities (national research council, 2003). our work is grounded in the basic belief that there is an “and” and not a “versus“ relationship between individual and social creativity (fischer, et al., 2005). creativity occurs in the relationship between an individual and society, and between an individual and his or her technical environment. the mind—rather than driving on solitude—is clearly dependent upon the reflection, renewal, and trust inherent in sustained human relationships (john-steiner, 2000).  we need to support this distributed fabric of interactions by integrating diversity, by making all voices heard, by increasing the back-talk of the situation, and providing systems that are open and transparent, so that people can be aware of and access each other’s work, relate it to their own work, transcend the information given, and contribute the results back to the community (fischer et al., 2004; hippel, 2005). in complex design projects, collaboration is crucial for success, yet it is difficult to achieve. complexity arises from the need to synthesize different perspectives, to exploit conceptual collisions between concepts and ideas coming from different disciplines, to manage large amounts of information potentially relevant to a design task, and to understand the design decisions that have determined the long-term evolution of a designed artifact.   exploiting diversity and distances by making all voices heard social creativity thrives on the diversity of perspectives by making all voices heard. it requires constructive dialogs between individuals negotiating their differences while creating their shared voice and vision. we have explored different sources of creativity by exploiting four different distances: spatial, temporal, conceptual, and technological (fischer, 2005). voices from different places: spatial distance. bringing spatially distributed people together with the support of computer-mediated communication allows the prominent defining feature of a group of people interacting with each other to become shared concerns rather than shared location. it extends the range of people to be included, thereby exploiting local knowledge. these opportunities have been successfully employed by the open source communities, collaborative content creation communities (such as wikipedia) as well as by social networks of people who have a shared concern (such as a family member with a disability). transcending the barrier of spatial distribution is of particular importance in locally sparse populations. addressing this challenge is one of the core objectives of our research work in the clever (cognitive levers: helping people help themselves) project (clever, 2005; depaula, 2004). voices from the past: temporal distance. design processes often take place over many years, with initial design followed by extended periods of evolution and redesign. in this sense, design artifacts (including systems that support design tasks, such as reuse environments (ye & fischer, 2005)) are not designed once and for all, but instead evolve over long periods of time. much of the work in ongoing design projects is done as redesign and evolution; often, the people doing this work were not members of the original design team. long-term collaboration requires that present-day designers be aware of not only the rationale (moran & carroll, 1996) behind decisions that shaped the artifact, but also any information about possible alternatives that were considered but not implemented. this requires that the rationale behind decisions be recorded in the first place. a barrier to overcome is that designers are biased toward doing design but not toward putting extra effort into documentation. this creates an additional rationale-capture barrier for long-term design (grudin, 1987). the idea of exploiting and building on the voices of the past to enhance social creativity is important not only for software reuse but for our overall cultural heritage. in cultural evolution there are no mechanisms equivalent to genes and chromosomes (csikszentmihalyi, 1996); therefore, new ideas or inventions are not automatically passed on to the next generation, and education becomes a critical challenge to learn from the past. many creativity researchers have pointed out that the discoveries of many famous people (e.g., einstein who could build on the work of newton) would have been inconceivable without the prior knowledge, without the intellectual and social network that simulated their thinking, and without the social mechanisms that recognized and spread their innovations. voices from different communities: conceptual distances. to analyze the contribution of voices from different communities, we differentiate between two types of communities: communities of practice (cops) and communities of interest (cois). this distinction will be further elaborated below. communities of practice (cops) (wenger, 1998) consist of practitioners who work as a community in a certain domain undertaking similar work. for example, copier repair personnel who work primarily in the field but meet regularly to share “war stories” about how to solve the problems they encountered in their work make up a cop (orr, 1996). learning within a cop takes the form of legitimate peripheral participation (lpp) (lave & wenger, 1991), which is a type of apprenticeship model in which newcomers enter the community from the periphery and move toward the center as they become more and more knowledgeable. sustained engagement and collaboration lead to boundaries that are based on shared histories of learning and that create discontinuities between participants and non-participants. highly developed knowledge systems (including conceptual frameworks, technical systems, and human organizations) are biased toward efficient communication within the community at the expense of acting as barriers to communication with outsiders: boundaries that are empowering to the insider are often barriers to outsiders and newcomers to the group. a community of practice has many possible paths and many roles (identities) within it (e.g., leader, scribe, power-user, visionary, and so forth). over time, most members move toward the center, and their knowledge becomes part of the foundation of the community’s shared background. communities of interest (cois) (fischer, 2001) bring together stakeholders from different cops and are defined by their collective concern with the resolution of a particular problem. cois can be thought of as “communities of communities” (brown & duguid, 1991). examples of cois are: (1) a team interested in software development that includes software designers, users, marketing specialists, psychologists, and programmers, or (2) a group of citizens and experts interested in urban planning. stakeholders within cois are considered as informed participants who are neither experts nor novices, but rather both: they are experts when they communicate their knowledge to others, and they are novices when they learn from others who are experts in areas outside their own knowledge. communication in cois is difficult because they come from different cops, and therefore use different languages, different conceptual knowledge systems, and different notational systems (snow, 1993). members of cois must learn to communicate with and learn from others (engeström, 2001) who have different perspectives and perhaps a different vocabulary for describing their ideas. in other words, this symmetry of ignorance must be exploited. comparing cops and cois.  learning by making all voices heard within cois is more complex and multifaceted than legitimate peripheral participation (lave & wenger, 1991) in cops. learning in cops can be characterized as “learning within a single knowledge system”, whereas learning in cois is often a consequence of the fact that there are multiple knowledge systems. cois have multiple centers of knowledge, with each member considered to be knowledgeable in a particular aspect of the problem and perhaps not so knowledgeable in others. table 1 characterizes and differentiates cops and cois along a number of dimensions. the point of comparing and contrasting cops and cois is not to pigeonhole groups into either category, but rather to identify patterns of practice and helpful technologies. people can participate in more than one community, or one community can exhibit attributes of both a coi and a cop. our center for lifelong learning and design (l3d) is an example: it has many characteristics of a cop (having developed its own stories, terminology, and artifacts), but by actively engaging with people from outside our community (e.g., from other colleges on campus, people from industry, international visitors, and so forth), it also has many characteristics of a coi. design communities do not have to be strictly either cops or cois, but they can integrate aspects of both forms of communities. the community type may shift over time, according to events outside the community, the objectives of its members, and the structure of the membership. table 1: differentiating cops and cois dimensions cops cois nature of problems different tasks in the same domain common task across multiple domains knowledge development refinement of one knowledge system; new ideas coming from within the practice synthesis and mutual learning through the integration of multiple knowledge systems major objectives codified knowledge, domain coverage shared understanding, making all voices heard weaknesses group-think lack of a shared understanding strengths shared ontologies social creativity; diversity; making all voices heard people beginners and experts; apprentices and masters stakeholders (owners of problems) from different domains learning legitimate peripheral participation informed participation   both forms of design communities exhibit barriers and biases. cops are biased toward communicating with the same people and taking advantage of a shared background. the existence of an accepted, well-established center (of expertise) and a clear path of learning toward this center allows the differentiation of members into novices, intermediates, and experts. it makes these attributes viable concepts associated with people and provides the foundation for legitimate peripheral participation as a workable learning strategy. the barriers imposed by cops are that group-think (janis, 1972) can suppress exposure to, and acceptance of, outside ideas; the more someone is at home in a cop, the more that person forgets the strange and contingent nature of its categories from the outside. voices from virtual stakeholders: technological distances. the preceding subsections emphasized computer-mediated collaboration among humans to reduce the gaps created by spatial, temporal, and conceptual distances. voices from virtual stakeholders are embedded in artifacts such as books and in more interesting and powerful ways in computational artifacts. design can be described as a reflective conversation between designers and the designs they create. designers use materials to construct design situations, and then listen to the “back-talk of the situation” they have created (schön, 1983). unlike passive design materials, such as pen and paper, computational design materials are able to interpret the work of designers and actively talk back to them. barriers occur when the back-talk is represented in a form that users are unable to comprehend (i.e., the back-talk is not a boundary object), or when the back-talk created by the design situation itself is insufficient, and additional mechanisms (e.g., critiquing, simulation, and visualization components) are needed. to increase the back-talk of the situation, we have developed critiquing systems (fischer et al., 1998) that monitor the actions of users as they work and inform the users of potential problems. if users elect to see the information, the critiquing mechanisms find information in the repositories that is 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(2005). reuse-conducive development environments. international journal automated software engineering, 12(2), pp. 199-235.         searching for the role of icts in development: a case study of a rural multi-purpose community centre in the dwars river valle   using a sustainable livelihoods approach to assessing the impact of icts in development   sarah parkinson phd candidate, the rural studies programme at the university of guelph, ontario, canada <sparki01@uoguelph.ca> ricardo ramírez associate professor in the school of environmental design and rural development, university of guelph, ontario, canada. <rramirez@uoguelph.ca> abstract this paper describes the sustainable livelihoods framework as a useful tool in assessing the contribution of icts to development projects. assessing the role of icts in development can be difficult because they are so multifaceted, and because the effect of ict use is often indirect. this paper argues that applying the sustainable livelihood frameworks in assessment can help to broaden their scope in a manageable way and prove more analytically rigorous than other available methods. the example of an impact assessment of a colombian telecentre is used to demonstrate how such an approach can be applied.  introduction information and communication technologies (icts) have become of increasing interest in development, both for their potential value, and for the potential risk of greater socioeconomic exclusion faced by those populations who cannot access or benefit from icts in the context of the emerging global knowledge society. yet when using icts in development projects, results often fail to live up to expectations, and in implementation, sideways turns are not unusual. the very flexibility of icts can make their use somewhat hard to plan and predict, especially in new contexts. arguably, careful planning of expected outcomes could be counterproductive and stifle the full creative potential of new technologies. at the same time, the desire for accountability and effective development requires serious efforts to understand what impact, or at least influence, ict-related development efforts have had on people’s lives. assessment and evaluation has thus been a concern since ict-focused development efforts began in the mid-1990s. one major area of focus has been the provision of access through public access sites known as telecentres and cybercafés (gómez et al., 1999; roman and colle, 2002). in the 1990s, many donor supported initiatives focused on the development of telecentres, the impact of which has often been challenging to understand (hudson, 1999). how researchers analyse and understand impact will depend a great deal on how they understand development itself, what it is and how it is to be achieved. development was originally conceptualized as a fairly linear, straightforward technical intervention to push nations along a linear path from “less developed” to “more developed,” with a primary focus on macroeconomic indicators such as the gross national product (gdp) (martinussen, 1997). but experience and reflection has led most development practitioners to reject this view as flawed and overly simplistic. macroeconomic indicators do not show how wealth is distributed, nor the political, economic, and social factors that all contribute to quality of life. sen (1999) argues persuasively that development is not just about macroeconomic growth. he provides an alternative definition of development as an increase in the overall number and quality of choices available to individuals in pursuing their lives and livelihoods. the principle of equity further indicates that the choices of one individual should not negatively impact on the choices of another, if we are to term the outcome to be “development.” poverty, within this conceptualization, refers not so much to the absence of finance as to the absence of options for obtaining basic needs, and is intimately bound both to the specific context in which it arises and to the perspectives and capacities of the individuals experiencing it. the sustainable livelihoods framework, which grows out of this more complex systems perspective, is a tool often used by development agencies for planning and assessing development interventions. it focuses on how people strategically use the resources available to them to forge livelihoods, and how development interventions affect the available resources and the way people interact with them. this paper argues that the sustainable livelihoods framework is a useful tool in the assessment of ict development projects. for young projects, the framework is particularly promising for assessing early and probable future impacts at the community-level. these assessments have an important practical value in allowing for early feedback so that project design and assumptions can be tested and adjusted, but they are difficult to achieve through other forms of qualitative analysis or through a purely statistical or econometric approach. to describe how the sustainable livelihood framework can be applied, this paper uses a specific example of a telecentre impact assessment. the telecentre in this study was located in the district of aguablanca, in the city of cali, colombia. the specific purpose of the assessment was to ascertain the probable impact of the internet, accessed through the telecentre, on social equity. a common rationale for creating telecentres is that they will improve on social equity by providing everyone access to the internet and other modern communication tools (idrc, 1999). thus, the research was directed towards testing this assumption. however, because of the brief and somewhat unstable history of the project, such an assessment was by nature rather speculative. the telecentre was operated by the fundación carvajal and funded from 2000 to 2003 by the international development research centre (idrc) of canada, with mediating project leadership provided by the international centre for tropical agriculture (ciat) and a local private university (corporación universitaria autónoma de occidente). it was located in one of their community centres, in poblado, aguablanca. aguablanca itself is a sprawling settlement of largely displaced people, characterized by poverty and a reputation for gang violence. the telecentre was located in one of the older and more established areas of aguablanca and was intended to promote greater access to and awareness of icts and through this, to contribute to local development (russell 2001; paz 2002). as is typical in such establishments, the telecentre was equipped with five computers with unreliable, low-speed internet connectivity, a printer, a scanner, a fax machine, and two part-time staff who provided user support. although located within a larger community centre, it operated fairly autonomously and was expected to be self-financing by the end of the project funding. this paper is organized into three parts. part i covers the theoretical context through a brief review of the literature on information and communication technologies for development (often referred to as ict4d) with attention to impact assessment from a sustainable livelihoods (sl) perspective. part ii presents a case study of the aguablanca telecentre described above, where an assessment of impact was done using the sl framework. this assessment was carried out as part of a master’s degree program, independent from the evaluation activities of the implementing agencies. a closing section provides lessons and conclusions for future research in this field. part i: the theoretical and methodological context icts in development – universal access as a core issue universal access to icts means that all members of a society should be able to use icts if they choose to. it has been a common policy goal in many countries since the mid-1990s, and is usually operationalized in terms of quantified benchmarks, such as having all members of a population within a given radius of services (parkinson, 2005). universal access discourse is bound up with ideas about social equity. the term “inequity” connotes an unjust difference, so “social equity” is fairly synonymous with the term “social justice” (henwood et al, 2000). the rationale for universal access is that lack of access to icts represents both cause and effect of social marginalization (castells 1999; gómez and martínez 2001). attempts to increase public access through aid-funded development projects began to take place in a number of “undeveloped” countries by the mid-1990s and continues to the present. the main technique has been to subsidize the start-up and first few years of operating telecentres. these are places where people can come and use the technology and a range of related services, which often include training. results from these projects have been quite mixed, and this has sparked debate as to the best role for the public sector in promoting universal access (delgadillo, gómez et al. 2002; parkinson 2005). one point of contention is whether universal access to icts should be a public issue at all. secondly, if universal access is agreed to be a valid public policy goal, the second debate is on whether the direct subsidization of telecentres and suchlike is really the most effective means of achieving it (dymond and oestmann 2002; kenny 2002). the case study presented later in this paper was designed to investigate some of these questions empirically. although the understanding of icts in development has become more nuanced over time, there is still a tendency overall, and especially in policy statements, media coverage, and project documentation, for the positive aspects of ict-for-development projects to be overstated, without a deeper reflection on the reality of the impact (benjamin 2001; heeks 2002). yet it is necessary to cut through some of this to understand, explore and ultimately to build on the real potential for icts in development. this issue is particularly important because of the sustainability dimension. if and when donor-funded ict projects end, under what conditions can telecentres generate enough economic value for their users so that people can and will pay for services that could maintain these centres as viable enterprises? assessing impact: the need and the challenge in ict-for-development projects, there is very rarely a direct causal link between the intervention and the benefit realized, and the benefits themselves may be very hard to predict, especially when icts are introduced in an open-ended manner, such as through a telecentre. a child may use a telecentre to research a homework project; an older woman may use it to communicate to her son working overseas. different users may value their use for distinct reasons, not always in line with the expectations of the project designers. as has been commonly found in other development projects, there may be unintended negative consequences with the introduction of a telecentre. one such consequence that has arisen in a number of cases is the resistance that occurs when broad access to information provides the basis for challenges to existing authority structures and power relationships (delgadillo, gómez et al. 2002; batchelor and sugden 2003). benjamin (2000) and hudson (1999) both note that these indirect effects, whether negative or positive, create a challenge for assessment. both further note a related challenge which occurs when the project does not go as initially expected: for example, if the technology itself fails to work correctly, then it is difficult to research and draw conclusions regarding the validity of other project goals and assumptions that depend upon a working system. project assessment needs to be able to take a broad approach in understanding how icts interact with the environment in which they become embedded, while also recognizing the chain of causal assumptions that lie behind the project itself. there have been a number of evaluation frameworks and methodologies suggested in the assessment of ict for development initiatives (ramírez and richardson, 2005). at the macro-level, statistical indicators and econometric approaches, such as those used by the international telecommunications unit of the united nations (itu) and world bank, predominate. at the project level, which is the focus of this paper, early frameworks began to appear in the mid to late 1990s (ernberg 1998). these focused primarily on assessing the use and impact of the early, experimental donor-funded telecentres. whyte’s (2000) guide to telecentre evaluation suggested the use of an extensive list of indicators prior to the beginning of the project and then at intervals throughout as a way of gauging progress. the reason for the large number of indicators was precisely because it was unclear where changes or effects might occur, and so the idea was to be as comprehensive as possible. however, this necessarily leads to significant practical challenges, particularly concerning the resources required to capture all of the required information, and the availability of skilled personnel to follow through and manage the data. in practice, very few projects have made use of more than a few basic indicators. stoll et al. (2002) suggest that collecting first-hand stories from people about how they make use of the technologies is the best approach, as this allows relevant data to emerge, without the need to predict or to exhaustively catalog. however, although these authors also suggest collecting stories from a wide range of actors so as to gain a complete picture, others have noted that the anecdotal quality of many such reports tends to focus on the positive and downplay the negative aspects of the technology, and thus runs the risk of being a tool for propaganda rather than a basis for valid research. more recently, analysts have argued for a more rigorous analytical approach that combines several dimensions and complementary data collection tools (o'farrell, norrish et al. 1999). rationale for a sustainable livelihoods approach robert chambers, a key supporter of a sustainable livelihoods approach, argues that the way development professionals conceptualise development and poverty is very different from how poor people themselves view these. poor people perceive poverty in a much more complex manner than do development professionals and they employ a range of strategies, not only to maximize income, but also to minimise risk and to protect or increase other things that they value. poor people’s priorities are often different from those imputed to them by development experts, and their strategies are often more complex, both in terms of activity and motivation thus it is argued, the sustainable livelihoods framework (figure 1) provides a conceptualisation that is more appropriate to the perspectives and realities of poor people.(chambers 1995). figure 1: sustainable livelihood framework (dfid 2001) the focus of “livelihood” in sustainable livelihoods (sl) frameworks is an attempt to move away from narrow definitions of poverty, and as such reframes the broad aim of development as an effort to improve people’s livelihood options. “livelihood” refers broadly to a means of making a living, and includes the assets, access to institutions and processes, and strategies that a person utilizes to achieve livelihood outcomes (ashley and carney, 1999). the term “sustainable” refers both to the characteristic of a livelihood to endure the various shocks and uncertainties likely to be encountered in the environment, and to avoid contributing to long-term depletion of natural resources (chambers 1987). there are a number of sl frameworks that have been developed and adapted by donor agencies, ngos, and research organizations (arun et al, 2004). one of the most well-known is dfid’s framework, which is the one used in this paper. however, the same general principles apply to all. all of the frameworks focus on the intended beneficiaries of development as actors who make choices and strategies based on the resources available to them and the environment in which they exist. as such, these choices are based on perceived opportunities and risks. one quality of poverty is vulnerability to life’s vicissitudes, which make up the “vulnerability context” and include factors such as seasonality (i.e. any changes related to the seasons such as commodity price fluctuations), shocks (war, drought, sickness or the death of a relative, etc.), and trends (inflation, decrease of certain types of employment, rising land prices, etc.). in dfid’s framework, there are five types of assets pictured as corners of a pentagon, which is meant to emphasis their interrelatedness. the five assets are human, social, physical, natural and financial. these can also be referred to as human capital, social capital, and so on. the terms “asset” and “capital” are roughly interchangeable in this framework, then, except that the term “capital” emphasizes the concept of potential investment or depletion (pretty, 2003). each actor may either own or have access to a unique set of these assets, although patterns of ownership/accessibility may be discerned within a given social context. the concept of structures and processes is quite broad and brings in all the social and cultural factors that may shape livelihoods. it is mainly at this point that the sl framework attempts to link macro and micro-factors. these structures and processes may be accessible to people who may use them in their strategies, but they also shape and constrain people’s possibilities. people work within all of these factors – the risks they face, the assets they own or can access, and the social reality of their culture, system of government, private sector, to weave livelihood strategies which result in livelihood outcomes. these outcomes can include increased income and savings, but more broadly, include improved well-being, reduced vulnerability to risk, improved future livelihood options, and the sustenance, or even replenishment, of natural resources. this is a very cursory overview of the sl framework. however, numerous resources on the sl framework and how to use it are available, including dfid’s sl guidance sheets, and a number of comprehensive books (dfid, 2001; bebbington, 1999; helmore & singh, 2001). one quality of the sl framework that is immediately apparent is that it requires interpretation and adaptation to fit any particular context. as such, the sl framework is not expected to be used in a fixed prescriptive way: "the framework is centred on people. it does not work in a linear manner and does not try to present a model of reality. its aim is to help stakeholders with different perspectives to engage in structured and coherent debate about the many factors that affect livelihoods, their relative importance and the way in which they interact" (dfid, 2001). of particular relevance to icts, the framework embraces multiple dimensions that are interrelated in a dynamic manner. in this sense, the sl framework is a systemic representation, and one that appears most promising in the context of impact assessment of telecentres (bryden, 1994). one of the noted strengths of impact assessment using the sl approach is that it is useful for identifying unanticipated impacts (dfid, 2001). with a potentially enabling development such as a telecentre, one would hope for a wide range of uses and this makes impact hard to predict. the framework allows one to consider how a development project affects the types of decisions people are making, given the risks they face and the assets that they are able to access, thus putting impact assessment in a more comprehensive context (fujisaka, khisa et al. 2000). but the approach also has limitations: it can be large and complex to implement, requiring a lot of discretionary expertise and time to use well, it can generate a lot of interesting but hard to analyse qualitative detail, while failing to provide any sort of firm or conclusive answers, and it may not readily lend itself to generalization (farrington, carney et al. 1999). the rationale for using the sl framework for ict-related issues is that it is comprehensive and it helps us to think about icts in a more “bottom-up” way. for example, in what ways, positive, negative or neutral, are icts in the context of a specific project likely to interact with different livelihood strategies? which demographic groups within the population are most likely to use these strategies? and thus, who is most likely to be impacted by icts, and in what ways? the application of the sl framework creates a kind of “big picture” context that moves away from the linear cause-effect thinking that is so clearly ineffective in ict-related development projects (heeks, 2002). icts are introduced into an existing and already complex web of mutual causality. people, as actors who are seeking to make their livelihood and to maintain, increase or minimize loss to their existing asset base, are likely to use icts when they can do so in a way that provides a net benefit to these goals. existing behaviour and resources thus become the foundation for building new behaviour that incorporates the use of icts. from such a vantage point, a more powerful analysis is possible than one that starts from a point of view of looking at the technology and how it is conventionally used in other contexts, or how development planners envision it ought to be used in an ideal world (gurstein, 2003; o’farrell et al., 1999). mardle (2003), for example, argues that policies that define universal access in terms of geographic scope (e.g. a telecentre within 5 kilometres of all people) can prove problematic when viewed in terms of livelihoods. firstly, telecentre services may not provide a net benefit to most rural poor, given their livelihood strategies and the time it costs to visit a telecentre even a few kilometres away. secondly, because relatively fewer people, usually the more wealthy and educated, are likely to perceive benefit from, and therefore to use telecentres, a telecentre in a poor rural area will not be able to generate sufficient income to maintain itself through user fees, as was often envisaged by policy makers. the aguablanca telecentre is used here as an example of how the sl framework was used as a structure to organize and analyse field data and link it back to the issue of social equity. part ii: the approach applied: the case of a telecentre in cali, colombia this section outlines how the sl framework was applied in the impact assessment of the aguablanca telecentre described in the introduction of this paper. whilst the sl framework is compatible with participatory research approaches, this impact assessment used a more conventional combination of surveys and interviews conducted over a period of about two months. this approach provided a fairly quick and effective way of gaining an understanding of the varying experiences of the different demographic groups that would provide relevant insights to the impact of the internet on social equity. this section explains the main research stages and most specifically, the analysis using the livelihoods framework. the earlier discussion of the sl framework emphasized the need to adapt the framework to the particular research context and purpose. in the case of this research, the context was a densely populated marginalized urban area and the research purpose was to analyse the probable impact of internet use, accessed through the telecentre, on local social equity. through the lens of the sl framework, the guiding question of the research could be stated as: “is the availability of the internet at the telecentre leading to improved livelihood outcomes for local residents, especially those who face the most limitations on their livelihood options?” the way the sl framework was adapted and applied in this case is summarized in table 1. the vulnerability context set a general backdrop for interpreting how and why people pursued the livelihood strategies they did. the telecentre was the key structure considered in terms of potentially transforming people’s livelihood strategies, whilst other internet venues locally available were also included for comparison. table 1: application of sustainable livelihoods framework in the aguablanca telecentre case study sl element: vulnerability context livelihood assets transforming structures and processes livelihood strategies adaptations: seasonality not considered; some structures and processes (including culture, law and law enforcement) were considered as part of the vulnerability context – risks that residents had to strategically manage, rather than as transformative natural assets not considered (not very relevant in this case) key focal areas were the internet available at the telecentre, and the internet available at other venues. other important institutions included schools, the informal market, and the formal job market. general categories of livelihood strategies were abstracted from the research data. key questions: what risks do residents living in aguablanca face? what common assets do residents have or access? how do they make use of these assets in their livelihood strategies? who uses the internet at the telecentre, and for what purposes? who uses the internet at other venues, and for what purposes? comparing the telecentre and other venues, do the people, and/or their reasons for using the internet vary? what general livelihood strategies do residents (categorized by gender, age and level of education) use? how does the use of the internet tie in to people’s livelihood strategies? research purpose: provides an interpretive context for understanding livelihood strategies (i.e. in terms of risk reduction). contributes to analysis of how prior factors (such as being educated, having money, or having social networks) contribute to livelihood strategies which may, in turn, may be enhanced by a particular kind of internet use. a necessary first step in seeing how use contributes to livelihood strategy. the comparison between the telecentre and other internet venues allows for analysis of what special quality or contribution the telecentre makes (i.e. does it make a difference?} meets main research purpose by determining who is able to use the internet to enhance their livelihood strategy/outcomes and who is not. step one: vulnerability context, assets and livelihoods analysis began with the broader context in which the users lived and operated. the development goals of the telecentre were mainly centred on improving the economic well-being of the community in which it was located, although mainly in indirect ways, by facilitating users’ abilities to earn money. some of the objectives included linking urban food sellers with rural farmers, helping people to find jobs, and facilitating small local enterprise, for example. because of this, the case study focused on the economic strategies of telecentre users as the most important factors conditioning the way the telecentre was used and the local impacts of such use. insofar as the telecentre was expected to provide some economic benefit to its users, their motivations for using the telecentre could best be interpreted in light of these strategies, as well as their past experiences. whether or not they chose to use the telecentre would also depend on the other options available to them for achieving equivalent ends. a survey of 102 surrounding households provided demographic information, including information about the occupations of household occupants and their history of internet and computer use. this included information about how their internet and computer use, if any, related to their livelihood activities, and if they did not use icts, the reasons for non-use (selwyn, 2003). this survey was augmented by available census information and other documentation on the district, including contextual information related to culture, crime and safety, health, and the district’s history and geography. step two: the telecentre, its users and uses information about the organizational context in which the telecentre operated was through key informant interviews with relevant personnel as well as reviews of all project-related reports, meeting minutes and other related papers. this step can be located in the “policy/ institutions/ process” box of the sustainable livelihood framework (figure 1), and was necessary to understand how and why the telecentre operated as it did, and through this to better understand its interface with the surrounding community. additionally, staff from two other local public internet access sites were interviewed. these were both commercial businesses, and were included since they were relevant to the broader community ict context into which the telecentre was entering, although one had opened only after the telecentre had begun operations. the next stage of the research was to assess who used the telecentre and for what. for this purpose, a phone survey was conducted with 100 randomly selected telecentre users (all users were registered and their phone numbers taken at the time of use – over 95% of users were able to provide a phone number). the survey gathered demographic information about the users, their occupations, and their use of the telecentre. this allowed for comparison between the demographics of the telecentre users and the surrounding population, and between subgroups: for example, internet users at the telecentre compared with internet users elsewhere. additionally, semi-structured in-person interviews were conducted with 27 of the 100 telecentre users who were contacted by telephone. all phone interviewees were asked if they would be willing to participate in an in-person interview and all but three agreed. the actual interviewees were selected to get a large demographic range of users. specific questions were asked of those who were unemployed, those who were self-employed, and of students, to learn more about how their telecentre use related to their current or prospective livelihood. students were included as a special category because they were important telecentre users: they made up about half of the total clientele. more detailed questions about the use of services, experiences at the telecentre, and the way the use of the telecentre factored into their other day-to-day activities were asked of the interviewees, including questions intended to gauge the possibility of indirect impact of their use on other people. there was, at the time of research, only one organization that regularly used the telecentre’s services. interviews were also conducted with representatives of this organization. sustainable livelihood analysis and implications the information gathered from the surveys, interviews and document review formed the basis for the sustainable livelihoods analysis. firstly, the district of aguablanca, and especially the neighbourhoods immediately surrounding the telecentre, were analysed in terms of the vulnerability context – this came mainly from the document review. major sources of vulnerability were categorized as economic, environmental, human, social, physical and political. specific vulnerabilities included (amongst others) high unemployment, flooding, violence, inadequate health care services, insufficient numbers of public schools, and police violence. secondly, the research classified peoples’ livelihood strategies into four main types. the classification was based on the way that people in aguablanca used the financial, human, physical and social assets available to them to generate livelihood outcomes. “financial assets” refers to money; whilst “physical assets” consist of any material possessions a person owns or has access to. the most important physical asset for most residents of aguablanca was a house. the possibility of being a home-owner was one of the reasons many gave for coming to aguablanca. “human assets” include health, education, and skills that a person possesses. and “social assets” include formal and informal social relationships and connections. in aguablanca, informal social networks were clearly important to people’s survival. many people came to the area because they had relatives already there, and they depended on relatives, friends and neighbours for assistance in difficult times. perhaps because aguablanca was a very poor and marginalized area which received relatively little outside assistance or recognition, residents also had a kind of social solidarity striking to an outsider. most of the livelihood strategies employed in aguablanca consisted of converting one or more of the physical, human, or social assets into money over the short or long-term. this reflects the fact that aguablanca is a densely populated urban area dependent on the cash economy. there are few residents in any position to grow any of their food, for example, and meeting most basic needs requires cash. social assets, however, could also generate positive livelihood outcomes on their own. the four main livelihood strategies were: · increasing financial capital in the short-term, through the conversion of human, physical or social capital. for example, people can use their skills (human capital) to work and earn income. if they are self-employed, they may also own some equipment (physical capital) that helps them in their work. or they may be able to ask a trusted relative (social capital) for a loan. . · increasing financial capital in the long-term (through investment in human, physical or social capital) as for example through investing in education to improve formal employment prospects. · reducing the reliance on financial assets by developing other assets that result in direct livelihood benefits, such as home ownership. · reducing the draw on financial assets: when there is no other way to generate the required amount of money to meet needs, people must cut back as for example by withdrawing children from school, stopping payment on utility bills, etc. such actions usually have negative consequences but arise from necessity. this analysis was extended by considering which major demographic groups (i.e. children, young women, young men, older people, and displaced people) tended to be affected by the overall vulnerability context and which type of livelihood strategy was predominant for each of these groups. for example, for younger people, the overall preferred strategy was investment in formal education with the hope that this would lead to formal employment. however, many families have problems accessing such education and thus must turn to other, less preferred strategies. older adults generally have less formal education but stronger informal skills and social networks. they tend to use these to pursue long-term goals at the household level by supporting their younger family members financially so they can pursue education. the analysis then turned to the pattern of the use of computers and the internet, both accessed through the telecentre and accessed through other places, such as at work, school, or cybercafes. this analysis showed that overall, the telecentre catered to the same demographic that tended to use the internet elsewhere: younger, more educated people. in this sense, it was not changing or expanding the accessibility of the technology to otherwise marginalized groups. the telecentre had a slightly higher proportion of young student users, most likely because it was in the same location as a library highly frequented by these students. finally, the analysis considered how internet use, both at the telecentre and elsewhere, fit in with the existing livelihood strategies of the users, as well as those who might be indirectly impacted through their actions. among the findings emerging from this analysis were that even among those who were unemployed and used the internet, very few had used it in their job search, and most considered it inappropriate for that use. likewise, self-employed people who used the internet rarely used it, or had any ambition to use it, in support of their business needs. rather the principle uses by both these groups were similar to other people’s pattern of use: to keep in touch with relatives overseas through e-mail, to learn how to use computers in hopes of getting better employment, and using the internet to help complete homework. despite telecentre goals that linked directly to helping people with their economic needs, few people had considered using the internet or its other resources for this purpose. rather, people used it primarily for the second type of livelihood strategy, namely investing in education and the knowledge of icts since these were seen as a new prerequisite for entering the formal economy. this came out strongly in both the in-depth interviews and the surveys. for example, those people who did not use the internet often explained that they did not do so because they did not have formal education, or were otherwise barred from entering the formal economy, and so there was no purpose in learning icts. although the majority of aguablanca’s residents were engaged in the informal economy, they aspired for their children or themselves, if they were young, to find formal employment that promised a higher material standard of living. lessons and conclusions some of the observations, indeed those that came across most strongly, in the impact assessment of the aguablanca telecentre may seem obvious – and yet they are routinely not the starting place when drafting ict policies and designing ict4d interventions. although simplistic notions that technology can result in predictable outcomes through a process of linear causation are regularly rejected at the academic level, they still find themselves into ict policy statements and programme designs with surprising regularity. they are easy to communicate and have a certain romantic appeal. as an alternative, the sl framework is a powerful way of grounding such policies and interventions in reality and taking a broader look. it reminds us of the multidimensional, context-specific nature of both poverty and development. some authors, such as mardle (2003), batchelor and scott (2001), have applied sustainable livelihoods to ict-related development essentially as a thought experiment at a more general level. in the example of the telecentre impact assessment given in this paper, the sl framework was applied empirically, and some of the data gathered specifically helped to answer questions raised by the framework: what kinds of risks and vulnerabilities do people face? what are some of the key factors determining their livelihoods? how does their use of the internet or other telecentre services link to their livelihood strategies? the sl framework is very broad, and it is questionable how far and in how much detail one should go when applying it. the sl framework was originally designed with a rural, agrarian context in mind, and includes factors such as natural resources and seasonality, which are less salient when considering urban livelihood strategies. in the case described here, the sl framework was used selectively and natural resources and seasonality were not really considered. those advocating the sl framework do not expect it to be used mechanically, so discretion is required, and ultimately, it is up to the researcher to determine which aspects to apply, and these are dependent upon the particular goals of the research and each particular context. still, the sl framework provides greater structure than the gathering of stories advocated in some ict evaluation methods (stoll et al., 2002). the danger of such stories –if they are the only source of datais that they only represent one aspect of the whole picture, and this aspect is likely to be one which reflects the interests of the reviewer. when internal evaluations are done to satisfy funders, there is a natural desire to show that the money was well spent and to emphasize the results that were positive. a more holistic framework such as the sl framework will allow for a more rigorous analysis, and help to offset this understandable bias and provide a fuller, more nuanced understanding. this is not to say that the sl framework is without its critics. one important criticism has been that it overemphasizes the notion of self-help for the poor populations to whom it is usually applied, while focusing on the complexity of their livelihoods. this can result in an under-emphasis on macroeconomic and political issues that are of key importance (toufique 2001; toner 2002; o'laughlin 2004). for example, in the case of icts, the dominance of the global ict industry by relatively few large companies is an important macroeconomic reality which can also condition local realities. if the use of sl frameworks were to cause researchers to overlook this bigger picture and its impact on local situations, that would be doing a disservice to the area of ict for development as a whole. for this reason, the sl framework is not the be-all-and-end-all for ict for development impact assessments, but it is a useful and powerful analytical tool that deserves greater attention. references arun, s., heeks, r. & morgan, s. 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(2000). assessing community telecentres: guidelines for researchers. ottawa, idrc. joci economic and social empowerment of women through information and communication technology: a case study of palestine khalid said rabayah ict4d r&d center, arab american university said@aauj.edu abstract this paper presents an insight into an initiative that intends to empower women through information and communication technologies, by means of a joint venture between ngos and local women organizations. the paper reflects on direct and indirect impacts of the initiative that targeted hundreds of women in palestinian rural areas. the research team tracked the trainees' responses and the evolution of their capabilities through qualitative and quantitative means such as focus group discussions, interviews with stakeholders, questionnaires, surveys, and observations of on-going activities. the initiative exerted considerable efforts to enhance ict technical capabilities of women, develop their entrepreneurial capabilities, and in other ways promote social and economic empowerment. a significant percentage of the surveyed women felt that they gained some level of empowerment and self confidence through mastering the basic ict competences, and believed that ict is helpful in improving their livelihood. however, there was little evidence of the transformative potential of ict that is sought out of such initiatives. the project had some impact on the women’s personalities, on the way they perceive themselves in their families and societies. however there are vital issues demanding further attention. key amongst these is improving the ability of women to utilize ict effectively and in particular for knowledge attainment and creation, in personal and community development, and as a socialization channel. keywords women and ict, women empowerment, ict in rural area, ict for development 1. introduction development circles such as the world bank, the united nation development program-undp, and united nations development fund for women-unifem believe that ict symbolizes an exceptional enabling instrument when deployed and used properly. according to abbasi (2001), ict represents a unique “knowledge-based social infrastructure” which can be of great help for women to evade marginalization. ningo (1999) argued that development cannot be achieved though ict without taking gender issues into consideration. ict can work as a novel opportunity to enhance women’s access to information and knowledge, as women are the least educated and marginalized, especially in developing countries, sharma (2001). several reports have discussed opportunities for gender empowerment through ict, e. g. through education and knowledge creation, poverty alleviation, and employment generation. among them are mitter & rowbotham (1995), huyer (1997), rathgeber and adera (2000), hafkin (2000), marcelle (2000), munyua (2000), opoku-mensah (2000). as a sign of importance, in 2001 the international development research centre idrc published what can be regarded as a reference for gender and ict, rathgeber and adera ( 2000). hafkin (2000) published a review of the “gender and ict” theme, and provided a historical perspective of how ict, development and gender have emerged. other key issues related to the subject were raised by obijiofor (1998), such as; does ict promote interaction of women within the society and open up new channels which allow women to discuss openly issues that are considered “taboo” using classical means, especially in traditional societies. the study of rathgeber (2000) emphasized the need for national information-technology policies that take into consideration the attitudes and needs of female users, as it takes that of males. however, the majority of women in the developing countries, as odedra and stroub (1995), and huyer (1997) have argued, are living in economic and social hardships that act to hinder these technologies from being utilized. additionally, the high degree of illiteracy inhibits use of ict. women in developing societies, including palestine lack financial resources to purchase hardware, software, and to connect to the internet. they also lack sufficient computer education and training facilities to develop the needed competences to seize the opportunities opened up by ict. therefore, step number one would be to open up doors of access for women to ict with user friendly systems and relevant indigenous content. one channel to achieve these goals, as huyer (1997) noted, is via training centers that are built in cooperation with local institutions to which women have equal and open access, such as community, women and youth centers, clubs, public libraries, schools, and universities. this article discusses an initiative that provides access to ict through community and women centers that are located in remote and rural palestinian areas. as has been argued by many specialists, accessing ict resources does not guarantee attaining empowerment and development, there still exists the lack of suitable approach and indigenous content, through which women can work to improve their conditions (unwin 2008). the type of information being accessed, especially whether it is locally relevant, is central to the effectiveness and success of such initiatives. in most ict projects, attention to technology implementation overwhelms contents presentation and acquirement of knowledge. the paper sheds light on this side of the initiative and examines how successful it has been in that regard. yet if access, skills, technology and content are properly taken care of, the barrier of culture can still act to spoil the preset goals and potential of such initiative. cultural issues are overlooked by most planners, and this paper explores how these affect women’s abilities to benefit from such initiatives. the extent to which cultural issues have been taken into account is one of the issues that will be investigated. to place the reader within the context of the project setting, a description of women status within the palestinian society is given below. in palestine, several organizations are working towards improving the position of women in the society and addressing gender and equality issues. the most recognized are the general union of palestinian women, ministry of women affairs, women’s affairs technical committee, women’s center for legal aid and counseling, women’s studies center, palestinian working women’s society, and the unifem. these organizations are exerting efforts towards empowering women through initiatives in livelihood, education, health, and recently in ict. palestinian women are enjoying an advanced position in the society in comparison to other developing and arab countries. the school enrolment rate among palestinian children is about 99% and 50% are female. the 2008 illiteracy rate is recorded at 5.9 %, 9.1% among women and 2.9% among men. however, in the workforce, women make up less than 15% of the salaried employees. table (1) gives an overview of women’s status in the palestinian society in 2008, as measured by the palestinian women research and development center (pwrdc), as of 2008. table (1): palestinian women status as of 2008 [pwrdc, 2008] female employment rate 14.7% female palestinian legislative council members 12.9% female judges 11.2% female prosecutors 12.1% female doctors 12.1% female lawyers 11.2% life expectancy 74.4 years female literacy rate 90.9% female youth literacy 98.8% female school attendees 50% female university attendees 50% this study analyzes the endeavors of two organizations that are active in women’s empowerment through various means, including ict. relief international schools on line, (ri-sol) (http://www.ri.org/), and united nations development fund for women unifem offer training programs in basic ict for thousands of palestinian women, especially in rural and remote areas, with the following goals in mind: train women with the vital living skills in order for them to take a dynamic role in their societies through integrating ict into all aspects of life; empower women through ict training on legal issues, non-violence, political participation and civic education; organize activities that support educational, economic and political development; this paper summarizes the results of an evaluation initiative primarily designed to investigate the relevance of current training to the needs of rural women and their communities in the view of the preset goals. unifem has a broad initiative for women in development called sabaya (arabic word for youthful women) (http://www.sabaya.org/english.php). through this initiative, the ict for women development program was implemented in the palestinian territories in 2004 in partnership with the united nations development program/program of assistance to the palestinian people (undp/papp) with funding from the government of japan. the sabaya initiative aims to implement and operate women‘s centers with a wide range of activities in rural communities. unifem has completed the first and second pilot phases of the sabaya program in nine rural communities in the west bank. since the pilot phase, the program has been expanded to cover a total of 18 rural communities in the west bank and gaza strip. with additional funding from the government of norway, the sabaya program has also benefited from targeted humanitarian assistance for palestinian women. a minimum of 600 women are trained, including in basic ict skills, at these centers annually. since 2004, ri-sol and unifem have provided training programs in basic ict skills for thousands of rural palestinian women. motivations for this training are diverse, including increased demand for employees with ict skills, the desire for rural women to help their children with homework and the necessity of accessing knowledge and communicate through the internet. this paper presents an assessment of the project and evaluates its level of success, as viewed by the various stakeholders, with emphasis on the relevance of current training to the needs of rural women and their communities, and the ways in which their relevance can be enhanced. 2. research methodology details of the research methodology adopted in this research were described elsewhere, rabayah, (2008). to ensure credible results, blended techniques, both quantitative and qualitative were employed to investigate both initiatives. reviews of current training materials, user feedback through questionnaires and focus group discussions were among techniques used. views of trainers, course administrators and target group representatives were collected and analyzed [ibid]. as has been discussed in [ibid], data collected via quantitative methods were contrasted and validated through focus group discussion, and trainers’ interviews. a total number of 118 female members participated in the surveys at seven locations in the west bank. 60 women took part in the focus group discussions, which consisted of four groups of 15 women each. furthermore, to get a clearer picture of the women’s perception towards ict training and their expectations, six additional semi-structured focus group discussions were convened. by holding these focused discussions, it was possible to effectively assess perceived relevance of training courses to the everyday lives of rural women and the development needs of their communities. it has been noted that responses given to questions regarding course expectations and reasons for undertaking training courses can alter due to the changed perceptions developing throughout the training course itself. therefore in order to get an accurate picture as to why rural women feel the need for ict training and what expectations they have of that training, six additional semi-structured focus group discussions were held with a total of 104 rural women. however, and as discussed in [ibid], collected data were disaggregated according to age and profession. the only significant age-related difference worth noting is that older women were less aware of impact of these technologies on the economic and social status of women. the differences were more pronounced when the level of education and job occupation is considered, especially as to the reason why women were seeking ict training. more on this will follow in the subsequent sections. 3. results analysis the key issues to be analyzed in this section is categorized into four issues; course materials, rationale behind rural women seeking ict training, perception of rural women towards ict training courses, and finally immediate and long term impact of ict training on women. the first two issues were extensively discussed in rabayah (2008). in order to complete the picture of the training initiative, we introduce a summary of the main results of these findings as presented in [ibid]. in regards to training material, the international computer driving license (icdl)-based standard, composed of basic skills in windows, office and the internet, was used. this arrangement, as we see it, is regarded as an imperfection since other ict resources like mobile phones, radio and tv, were not given any attention, though they can have significant impact on women’s development [ibid]. another shortcoming was the focus on technical skills on how to use computers, with less emphasis on how to leverage knowledge and boost empowerment among trainees. in such a venue, mastering the basic ict skills was seen as an end in itself and not as a vehicle to sensibly improve the lives of rural women and their communities. even trainers revealed that leveraging knowledge and economic and social empowerment were not directly targeted, and they themselves were not prepared to coach women in that direction. furthermore, training materials were not effective in achieving such goals, as communicated by the majority of trainers [ibid]. 3.1 motivation behind seeking ict training in regards to why do rural women seek ict training, the majority of women aspire to attain basic ict skills to enhance the quality of their lives in terms of knowledge or for employment purposes. a considerable percentage (32%) sought to increase the level of their knowledge and awareness through ict. the next most common rationale, 22%, was to enhance their employment position and earning power, while 19% did the course primarily to help their children to learn ict, see figure 1 [ibid]. analysis of the results showed that students and unemployed women recognized the importance of ict in terms of access to knowledge and increased employment prospects. what seems to be missing was an understanding of ict as a tool for social empowerment and community development, or what is recently coined as networking and socialization side [ibid]. figure 1: recorded women’s reactions in regards to their motivation towards the ict raining [ibid] only 10% of participants saw the training as a window for socializing with others and 3% saw it as a way to keep up with their peers. these aspects are not directly linked to original objectives of the training. such reactions illustrate that social dimensions, both in families and communities are important for some women besides access to knowledge and increasing employability [ibid]. 3.2 perception of ict training by rural women the survey offers a positive and encouraging overall view of the ict training initiatives. in fact over 80% of the women who participated in the training felt it had been on the whole useful. a similar percentage was keen to enroll in future courses in order to further improve their skills. however, it is important to look at women's perceptions of outcomes and impacts in depth in order to ascertain whether these types of initiatives really make a difference to women's lives, and the development of their communities and if not, how they can be improved to contribute to impacts in these areas in the future. in order to conduct this in depth review, we shall explore women’s perceptions in the context of "empowerment" in terms of access to knowledge, social empowerment, and economic empowerment. empowerment entails acquiring knowledge, fostering self confidence, expansion of choices, participation in decision making and improving access to and control over resources, stromquist (2005). ict, when used effectively, can achieve all of these goals. access to resources is indeed the key, with knowledge being the most important resource of all. ict is able to improve women's standing both economically in terms of access to greater opportunities and higher wages and socially in terms of networking and social interaction. while "political empowerment" will not be discussed in depth as part of this study, since it needs more elaborations, it is implicitly noticed throughout the initiative. for instance, as women are able to increase their knowledge and connections with others, gain status within their social sphere and increase their earning power, they will eventually have more capacity to contribute in and lead political movements. through the following sections we shall see if the initiatives have contributed to empowerment, how this impact can be improved, and whether such gains were utilized for the overall development of the surrounding communities. 3.3 access to knowledge the importance of knowledge and the ability of ict to improve access to knowledge for work and education, seemed, to be well known by the female students and labor force participants who have undertaken the ict training courses. as noted earlier, access to knowledge was the primary reason, cited by 32% of women. however, it was noted that this was conceived by women as knowledge for work or (formal) education and not for community development or empowerment. with this in mind, it is positive to see that overall, participation in ict training courses has seemingly opened up doors for women to learn and expand their knowledge horizons. in fact 80% of women, covering all age and occupational status groups stated that following these ict courses, they wished to explore other learning opportunities. however, when it comes to the actual practical usage of ict, and in particular the internet as a tool for accessing knowledge, the current ict training courses were perceived as less successful. although the use of the internet was a key course component in the program, 46% of women were not satisfied with the level of internet skills gained from the training. moreover, as shown in figure 2, 52% of women did not feel that the training had equipped them with the skills to use internet as a tool to improve their knowledge. figure 2: effectiveness of the internet in knowledge acquisition as recorded by participant women in support of this finding, information revealed by trainers showed that, while some women were aware of the prospective benefits of the internet in regards to knowledge, accessing the internet seeking knowledge was limited to purposes of work or studies. for women who were neither student nor in the work-force, trainers noted that their practical usage of the internet was revolving around its use as a communication tool. focus groups, while revealing the same results, shed more light on the reasons behind this. as recorded by the survey, while 60% of rural women have access to computers, only 25% have regular access to the internet, the result being that, in the words of one respondent "i use the internet to talk to family members and friends who live elsewhere. i don't have time to look for information on this or that." such comments show the need for improved access to the internet for rural women and also for trainers to work in changing perceptions of the use of internet as a tool for knowledge. the benefits of doing so can also be seen in focus group discussions. for the minority of women who felt that the training had strongly improved their ability to gain knowledge via ict, numerous benefits were felt to be present. for example, one respondent believed that, "i now have better awareness regarding information on health, women rights and educational opportunities. i have been able to find out many things that i did not know before and now, whenever i need to know anything, i feel confident i am able to easily find an answer, thanks to the internet." such comments show that when used effectively, the internet can have an eminent impact on the lives and spirits of rural women. it therefore rests on trainers and the design of ict courses to show that accessing information should not be seen as a frivolous activity or something only useful for work or study, but as something that can have a large positive impact on both individual women's lives and their communities too. 3.4 economic empowerment increased employability was the second most cited rationale for rural women attending ict training courses. 22% of women, (mainly students and labor-force participants), stated this as their main incentive. ict was seen by women as an enabler to increase their economic empowerment in terms of earning power and position. this is mainly seen in terms of additional social status and increased participation in decision making. as such, results recorded here will also have an impact on levels of social and hence political empowerment. at a general level it is encouraging to note that 91% of women, cutting across the range of age groups and occupational status surveyed reported a perceived positive impact on their likelihood to be able to find work, see figure 3 and figure 4. in particular, according to focus group discussions, many women felt that they had improved their communication and interpersonal skills. this is important to note as many women who are not currently employed felt that they had benefited in terms of employability although they did not set out with this aim in mind. formal certification was requested by 91% of women according to survey results. as certificates were also requested by women who were not in the work-place, this may indicate that for many women the training was seen as a potential chance to access employment opportunities in the future. figure 3: impact of the ict training of the employed women on their work when looking specifically at the 13% of survey respondents who were in employment, 83% of them either "strongly" or "very strongly" agreed that the ict training courses had improved their work performance. focus groups also revealed that this effect was most evident for staff members working for rural women’s organizations, perhaps due to the fact that ict is a competence lacking in many of these organizations when the survey was undertaken. in addition a minority of women reported improved confidence in the workplace due to the increase in skills attained through these courses. for example, one woman working as a local council leader stated, “i used to be timid, and although i was already in the council i used not to contribute effectively in the council activities. with the training, i can now participate and contribute more in my work and feel that i can express my view without hesitation”. thus it can be seen that the majority of women, whether or not they were in the paid workforce, perceived a positive impact in terms of ability to gain economic empowerment. however it was also shown in focus groups that none of the women perceived that such skills could help them either specifically in starting their own income generating initiatives or economic initiatives which may benefit their community. again this is an area on which a greater focus is needed to enable women to become aware and then to act upon such opportunities. figure 4: expected impact if the ict training on the women income 3.5 social empowerment self confidence was not given as a motive to pursue ict training by any of the women participating in this survey. however an increase in self-confidence can be seen to be one of the most important impacts stretching across age groups and occupational status. increase in self-confidence can help women to be aware of their own skills and competencies and hence make them more likely to struggle against social norms and barriers associated with gender. it is thus very important to see that one of the major positive perceptions of the ict training courses has been an improvement in this aspect. as shown in figure 5, 96% of rural women "strongly" or "very strongly" agreed with the statement that their self-confidence had been improved by ict training. in fact, no respondents were recorded as disagreeing, showing that this was a key area of overall success for current ict training courses. this strong sentiment was also supported by focus group findings. many felt that, "the training course has given us the chance to prove ourselves and our abilities to be modern, open minded, and to understand many of the ict tools that used to be mysterious for us as women. this gave us the chance to prove that we can catch up with something that used to be dominated by men.” as the above comment shows, it seems that this reported increase in self-confidence stems from the fact that through this training, women have realized that they can achieve things that perhaps others felt unattainable. this is particularly the case for older participants, as it seems society in general underestimates the ability of older women to adapt to new technologies. this was, as shown earlier, even found to be case for some trainers, who expressed surprise at the ability of older women to learn ict skills. as one trainer commented, "recently i met one of the old women who i had trained and she expressed genuine gratefulness for enabling her to talk to her son, who is abroad, via the internet. i was really surprised it really showed me how worthwhile the course is something i had not realized before." through undertaking such courses women are able to prove to themselves and to others that they are just as capable as their male counterparts when given the same opportunities. as one trainee, aged 58 stated, “throughout the course we had the opportunity to strengthen our internal sense of our own competencies and to prove that we can still gain knowledge and experience in one of the most important aspects of the modern history”. it is also interesting that this is the only area in which there was an age differential in terms of responses given by rural women. this also supports the fact that age is not the main determinant in ict ability and as such age should not be a key factor driving the development of curricula to improve the ict skills of rural women. figure 5: recorded women’s reactions in regards to the impact of the ict training on their self-confidence in addition to this increased self-confidence, many women have reported expansion in their relations with others. this is an encouraging sign, given that only a small proportion of women sought ict training in order to improve their social connections. according to focus group discussions, many rural women have seen this initiative as a good opportunity to establish connections and be more social simply socializing outside of the house was a major benefit in some cases, where women face social barriers to participating in activities outside their houses or villages. in addition to this, and perhaps as a result of increased self-confidence and skills, many women recorded that they had noticed changes in the perceptions of them in the eyes of others. as shown in figure 6 and 7 below, over half of women surveyed felt that they had gained status as a result of participating in the initiative. moreover this improved status was felt to be both in terms of the work-place, where 56% of women perceived an improvement in their status among colleagues, and at home where again 56% of women perceived an increase in their status within the family. such improvements in status show the vital wider impact that ict training courses can have on the lives of rural women. figure 6: recorded women’s reactions in regards to the impact of the ict training on their image among their families as can be seen from the discussion above, ict can be an effective empowering tool, able to impart a valuable influence on the lives of rural women. in some areas, the present initiative is achieving some of these goals. women feel that due to ict training, they have better employment options and have usefully enhanced their competencies. they felt encouraged to undertake new training courses and considered that their status amongst colleagues and families has been improved. moreover, the self-perception of women has been positively impacted, with women feeling they can now achieve things, which others may not have thought possible. such positive effects are vital to the overall success of these training initiatives. figure 7: recorded women’s reactions in regards to the impact of the ict training on their image among their colleagues 4. conclusion the overall impact of ict on women’s position as revealed through this research as reflected in intended and unintended outcomes is to some extent positive and heartening. the study demonstrated that the majority of participants seek to obtain ict training with the intention to enhance the quality of their lives through acquiring knowledge, enhancing their employment position and earning power, or enhancing their employment opportunities. the analysis has revealed that the majority of women, whether in employment or not, did perceive a positive impact in terms of ability to gain economic empowerment. what looks to be less emphasized by women is the ability to use ict as a tool for societal and community development, and to some extent as networking and socialization means. on the personal level, an increase in self-confidence, sensed by most women regardless of their age or occupational status, has emerged as a significant unintended outcome of the initiative. 96% of rural women either "strongly" or "very strongly" felt that their self-confidence had improved due to the initiative. the development of this sentiment by women restored their awareness in their capabilities and competencies and hence made them more determined to struggle against social norms and barriers associated with gender. one pitfall of the initiative was that mastering the basic ict skills were seen as the end goal and not as an instrument to sensibly improve the lives of rural women and their communities. 52% of women did not feel that training had equipped them with the skills to use internet as a tool to improve their knowledge. it therefore rests on trainers and those who design ict courses to show that accessing knowledge should not be seen as a trivial activity or something only useful for work or study, but as something that can have a large positive impact on both individual women's lives and their communities. but this is not sufficient. in order for ict to contribute to the lives of women in this way, rural women also require improved access to the internet. the minority of women who felt that the training had strongly improved their ability to gain knowledge via ict had benefited in several ways from access to its information and communication capabilities. acknowledgments sincere thanks are extended to the unifem organization, palestine, and the relief international schools on line, for their provision of the necessary resources to accomplish the work. suad abu-kamleh, from unifem, jawad abu own, davina jeffery, and naser arda, from ri-sol, and ola sbehat, from the arab american university, contributed significantly and without their help, this work would never have been completed. references abbasi, z. f. (2001). pro-poor and gender sensitive information technology: policy and practice.’ electronic publication, http://www.comminit.com/st2002/sld-6845.html hafkin, n. j. (2000). convergence of concepts: gender and icts in africa. in e. m. rathgeber and e. o. adera (eds.) (2000) gender and the information revolution in africa. ottawa: international development research centre (idrc), chapter 1. http://www.idrc.ca/books/focus/903/04-chp01.html huyer, s. (1997). supporting women’s use of information technologies for sustainable development. idrc, http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/outputs/womenicts.html marcelle, g. (2000). icts & development — making it happen. in d. lush & h. rushwaya (eds.) (2000) into or out of the digital divide: perspectives on icts and development in southern africa. panos southern africa. http://www.panos.org.zm/marcelle.htm mitter, s. & rowbotham s. (1995). women encounter technology: changing pattern of employment in the third world. london and newyourk: routledge. http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu37we/uu37we00.htm#contents munyua, h. (2000). application of icts in africa's agricultural sector: a gender perspective. in e. m. rathgeber and e. o. adera (eds.) (2000) gender and the information revolution in africa. ottawa: international development research centre (idrc), chapter 4. http://www.idrc.ca/books/focus/903/07-chp04.html ningo, n. (1999). ict and sustainable good governance in sub-saharan africa: countering the hegemonic drive for power. washington dc: world bank, http://www.worldbank.org/ obijiofor, l. (1998). future of communication in africa's development. futures, 30(2/3), 161-174 odedra-straub, m. (1995). women and information technology in sub-saharan africa: a topic for discussion. in s. mitter and s. rowbotham (eds.) (1995) women encounter technology: changing patterns of employment in the third world. london: routledge, pp. 256-277 opoku-mensah, a. (2000). icts as tools of democratization: african women speak out. in e. m. rathgeber and e. o. adera (eds.) (2000) gender and the information revolution in africa. ottawa: international development research centre (idrc), chapter 7. http://www.idrc.ca/books/focus/903/10-chp07.html pwrdc, (2008). http://www.pwrdc.ps/index.php rabayah, k. (2008). why do women in rural areas seek ict training: an evaluation of ict training initiative targeting women in rural area in palestine. iadis ict, society and human beings 2008 (ict 2008) conference, amsterdam, holland, 78-85. rathgeber, e. m. and e. o. adera (eds.) (2000) gender and the information revolution in africa. ottawa: international development research centre (idrc), http://www.idrc.ca/books/focus/903/ sharma, c. (2001). using icts to create opportunities for marginalized women and men: the private sector and community working together. washington, dc: world bank 2001. http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/voices/globcoal/cspres.htm stromquist n. (2003). women, education and empowerment. the theoretical and practical bases for development . google book, p. 45. unwin t. (2008). information and communication in development practices. ict4d: information and communication technology for development, cambridge university press, 2009, chapter 3, 39-69. sustainable community technology: the symbiosis between community technology and community research     peter day school of computing, university of brighton, brighton, uk < p.day@btinternet.com >         abstract   the social sustainability of any community technology activity is dependent on whether or not it forms an integral part of, and contributes to, the shared experiences that constitute community life. drawing from this premise the paper presents a human-centred exploration of community informatics (ci) by proposing that, as a field of study and practice, a central goal should be to develop shared understandings of ways in which ict contribute to building and sustaining active and healthy communities. the diversity of community ict practices have the potential to contribute to a collective knowledgebase that is not only of import as a resource for academic investigation but also in terms of its broader social significance to community life. with this in mind, the authors analyse and critically evaluate the significance of the emerging symbiosis between community technology and community research. applying a human-centred perspective of ci to a community technology research and development project the paper concludes with a story about black elk, a lakota shaman, as a metaphor for the relationship between community technology and community research.       introduction   the use of information communication technology (ict) for and by local communities is not a new social phenomenon. community ict initiatives[1] have proliferated, with varying degrees of success, since the emergence of community telecottages (teleservice centres) and community networks during the 1980s (day, 2001). the social contributions of many of these community technology initiatives have grown in significance as their activities have matured. however, such contributions have generally been confined to the micro level of their parent local community and voluntary sector infrastructures. until recently, the existence of community technology as a macro-level social phenomenon has been masked by the pervasive power of the techno-economic, monochromatic and homogenising worldview of the network society promulgated by commercial and public sectors (and, with some notable exceptions, many academics). however, this top-down worldview is increasingly exposed as an irrelevance to a culturally diverse global civil society (schuler & day, 2004) across which an alternative, bottom-up approach to communication technology at community level (day & schuler, 2004) is emerging across the globe.   as the use of ict by social movements, civil society, international development initiatives and other bottom-up social aggregations proliferates so a language to define, describe and explain these activities will undoubtedly be developed by the academic research community. it is worth noting however that such a language, if it is to have any social resonance, must be understood by and acceptable to a diverse range of social practitioners and policy makers as well as academics. in a community context, the escalation and intensification of ict utilisation to support community practices (community technology) has been accompanied by the emergence of the term ‘community informatics’ or ci as a collective label to encompass the diversity of community technology or networking activities. the adoption of this term (gurstein, 2000; keeble & loader, 2001) appears to be generally acceptable within the academic research community however it remains to be seen whether community practitioners and policy will embrace the term as enthusiastically. with this proviso in mind we take the opportunity of this paper to present: 1) our perspective of the ethos that ci should embrace if it is to be welcomed by community practice & policy, and 2) map out some ideas as to how community research can contribute to sustainable partnerships between practice, policy and research in the community.   community informatics & sustainability   definitions from two recent community informatics texts provide us with helpful insights into the rationale and motivating spirit of ci as a field of practice. the first, describes community informatics as “the application of information and communications technologies (icts) to enable community processes and the achievement of community objectives” (gurstein, 2003, p. 77). the second asserts that community informatics concerns itself with “the application of ict for local community benefit” (taylor, 2004, p. 2). of course, both perspectives are normative statements that promote a view of how community informatics should be linked to the lived experiences and needs of local communities. but can academic researchers be responsive to such an approach? or does the hierarchical culture of academic institutions, many of which are increasingly influenced by market mechanisms and driven by performance targets socialise them to operate in a reality that is inhospitable to community-university partnerships of any worth? similarly, can community technology initiatives, many of which start off as academic projects, be incorporated and sustained as significant components of the community infrastructure? from economic sustainability….   the sustainability of community technology initiatives is problematic in that it is often considered within an economic or funding framework. even where initiatives have been successful in 1) navigating through the tortuous bureaucratic demands of funding programmes and agencies, and 2) competing against other initiatives to attract financial support from the limited pots of money available to them, the short-term solutions presented by most funding programmes all too frequently means that in the daily battle for survival, community technology managers are never far from the treadmill of proposal writing. even temporary financial sustainability is often only achieved as a result of heroic efforts by initiative team members, who, sometimes at great personal sacrifice, find innovative ways to exploit complex and obscure funding sources (day, 2001).   the financial sustainability of community ict initiatives needs policy-makers and funders to acknowledge their long-term responsibilities and involvement. the short-term approach often found in policy development and funding mechanisms is detrimental to the viability of community technology initiatives (day & harris, 1997; shearman, 1999) assuming that the purpose of funding community technology initiatives is, in part at least, related to a desire by the funders to make a beneficial contribution to the infrastructure of community life, then it must be clearly understood that the 'project culture' and 'social experiment' approaches of many public access ict programmes are incompatible with meaningful attempts to build and sustain active and healthy communities in the network society.   to social sustainability!   funding considerations aside, the sustainability of community technology will ultimately be determined by communities themselves. if a community technology initiative aims to form an integral part of, and contribute to, the shared experiences of community life[2], then it must be communities themselves that define and manage the fitness or applicability of that initiative. active participation of a local community, at every stage of a project’s life cycle, is essential if the community is to identify with, and develop a sense of ownership of, an initiative. active citizenship, human-centred design and communal participation from the early planning stages are therefore prerequisites for sustainability and are, in our opinion, issues that academics active in the field need to grapple with.   a human-centred approach to community informatics research   with these pre-requisites in mind, our contribution to the ci journal’s consideration of sustainability comprises three main elements: ·         establishing a working framework of human-centred design for ci and sustainability ·         synchronising the components of this framework to the key components of ci – community, communication & technology ·         illuminating issues that emerge from a consideration of the tensions between community practice and community research in a ci context   a human centred systems framework   in europe, the human-centred systems tradition is best understood as a normative framework that facilitates a multi-level approach to observation rather than a set of scientific statements or principles (qvortrup, 1996) that dictate best practice. human-centredness rejects the deterministic credo of scientific management (taylor, 1998) often found in traditional academic research, where quantifiability, calculability and predictability determine ‘one best way’ interpretations of social conditions. communities are diverse social constructs, in which it is possible to identify and observe the complete spectrum of the human condition. by definition therefore, communities are contested spaces in which conflict, discord and disharmony can be found in juxtaposition to concord, accord and harmony. a human-centred approach to community informatics recognises the realities of community life by attempting to incorporate them into the design, implementation and development of community technologies. at this point we present 4 core human-centred concepts for consideration – human purpose, cultural diversity, technology as tool, and social cohesion:   1)       applying rosenbrock’s thesis of human purpose (1990) to community informatics enables us to evaluate the tensions that exist between the competing social agenda of funders, technologists, community and voluntary sector groups, public sector agencies, researchers, and communities themselves. for rosenbrock, purpose is a human construct a myth that 'mankind' imposes upon nature in order to understand the world in which we live. the human-centred tradition acknowledges that no single form of human purpose exists. consequently, any critical analysis of community purpose will uncover a number of inherent power relationship issues arising from the interactions between the various, individuals, families, groups and networks that constitute community and its social environment (including technology experts, researchers, funding agencies, governments, amongst others).   2)       cultural diversity is recognised as a significant contribution to the development of any extensive human knowledgebase and diversity between cultures is valued and celebrated. within a community policy context this requires an understanding that no two communities are alike. each has different norms and cultural value systems historically constructed as a result of social circumstances. community information society policies must acknowledge and reflect this diversity. such an approach not only extends our social understanding but also acts as a counter to the homogenising processes of trans-corporate globalisation.   3)       in the human-centred design process, technology is viewed as a tool to be designed, used and shaped by humans for human purposes. (cooley, 1996). the human-centred approach argues that community communication systems should integrate human judgement, tacit knowledge, intuition and imagination with scientific or rule-based methods in a symbiotic totality (cooley, 1987). in contrast to the deterministic approach of some technologists, a human-centred perspective of community technology enables communities to make their own qualitative, subjective judgements. technological systems are subordinated to human, or community, needs across a broad spectrum of considerations – not just in terms of service requirements and applications but in fundamental system designs as well.   4)    because communication is a central dynamic of active community life, social cohesion – which focuses on the promotion of social dialogue, or communications, with a view to improving the human condition (accorde, 1995) – forms the final component of this human-centred context. social cohesion is inextricably linked to the valorisation of diversity outlined above. gill observes, “social cohesion is about promoting a culture of shared communication, values and knowledge, seeking coherence through valorisation of diversity” (1997). promoting social dialogue through communication that valorises diversity is crucial to the human-centred approach. social cohesion requires management of difference through respect and trust. building a communication space in which knowledge can be exchanged within and between diverse cultures is a central goal of a human-centred community technology approach.   understanding ci components establishing a working paradigm of human-centred community informatics requires us to consider its constituent components – community, communication and technology – as indivisible parts of a unique and interdependent whole. much confusion has arisen in treating these fundamental elements as self-evident categories that only require some technical flourishes or naturally-occurring catalysts to make them inter-operate with one another. by regarding these individual components as parts of a dynamic community-driven system, we are in a better position to formulate some core normative features of community informatics (day, 2004).   considered from the perspective of human-centred design, the major component of the system – community – is quite clearly the most human-centred, comprising as it does of relationships and interactions between people. it is community that should form the base element of the ci approach. it is community – despite the contested nature of this space – that should provide overall meaning and an essential departure point for any discussions about ci.   for a dynamic system to operate on the basis of human-centred design, all the elements of the system have to share some critical common ground. the second component – communication – is often viewed as ranging from the dispassionate technical transmission of discrete packets of information to intensely elaborated strands of coded content with the potential for multiple interpretations and meanings. the common ground here is in recognising that community communication is a dynamic process, with various meanings for the people involved, with varying attitudes toward privacy and published access, with various motives behind the act of communication. definitions of what constitutes the personal, informal and dialogic in communication, as opposed to that which is public, external and functional should come from the communities themselves. equally, defining the spectra along which these oppositions are located as well as their gateways of closure or release is a matter for the communities themselves. as koch once noted, all communication, whether characterised as information, content or understanding, always carries with it someone’s wishes, lies and dreams (1980).   the third component – technology – is often assumed to be value-free, detached, and an external factor supplied without interference or affect by well-intentioned specialists. from the technical perspective, these assumptions, based as they are on a classical scientific research model, are assumed to operate uniformly throughout the entire system. often, given the hard-wired nature of ict and the top-down approach accompanying it, technocratic values can sometimes invisibly and unintentionally saturate an entire community technology initiative.   in order for the technical component to function as part of the ci system, and to create a unique whole which is greater than the sum of its parts, they have to be filtered through a human-centred lens from the outset. issues around cost, access and control, around privacy and distribution, amongst many others, have to be considered at the design stage from a human or community centred perspective.   the problem with technologists who concern themselves solely with the nuts and bolts of technological development is that they often lack the capacity for social analysis. fundamental questions relating to the purpose or need of particular community communication technology are often ignored. this incapacity for social analysis and its application to the design, implementation and development processes often means that imbalances in power relationships between those with the resources to finance and drive technological developments, those with technical knowledge and expertise, and those in social need are frequently overlooked.   because our perspective is rooted in human-centredness, its overriding dynamic is driven by human values rather than technological imperatives. technological imperatives which distort human or community actions are ultimately dysfunctional and form a dangerous basis for determining community policy and practice.       emergent issues   this brings us to the other main drivers of the process: power, ownership, distribution, and the disparate nature of communication. we mention these because despite the best intentions of most ci researchers even those who acknowledge the significance of reciprocity, mutuality, and participation, the fundamental questions of who benefits from community technology, who owns it, who controls its distribution and applications, and who defines the nature of communication are central to any consideration of the sustainability of community technology. in traditional research such issues are often overlooked, with power reserved to the research team in often invisible and ultimately dysfunctional ways. for the human-centred notions of reciprocity, mutuality, and participation to be put into practice, power has to be transparently addressed, democratically distributed, and, at least from the researcher’s perspective, partially surrendered. community research & practice: whose reality is it anyway?   the scope and significance of the knowledgebase that can emerge from ci partnerships between community technology and community research is enormous, both in terms of academic investigation and as a dynamic, collaborative community resource (day, 2003a & day & schuler, 2004) however, for such a knowledgebase to be achieved a shared understanding between practice and research is required so that common ground can be mapped out.   tensions between community technology practitioners and researchers are not uncommon and honesty and respect are paramount if such partnerships are to be sustainable. often, but not always, such tensions result from a distrust of academic researchers on the part of local communities. stories abound of researchers who sometimes give the impression that the community exists solely for the convenience of their personal research. in such cases, having convinced a community of the benefits of the research and having collected the data, researchers then leave the community to their own devices once the research funding has run out or the researcher’s interest waned.   so who benefits from community research and can community informatics researchers guarantee that they are different from the researchers above? the truth is that because community informatics is still an emergent area of research – yet to arrive at a common set of assumptions, definitions and practices – it might be too early to tell. although this condition of uncertainty can be frustrating, it can be regarded as a healthy sign of ci’s continuing evolution and development.   however, it should be understood that any investigation in a community environment can be perceived as an intrusion. such research must be conducted sensitively and with respect. it must be completely transparent and sanctioned by the community itself. above all, it must prioritise community need before research need. linking community research and community development in this way places a heavy ethical and social responsibility on researchers but it also presents them with a number of exciting challenges.     the cna project & participatory action research   these fundamental perceptions of the nature, role and purpose of community research were the prime conceptual motivators behind the community network analysis (cna) and ict: bridging & building community ties project. an economic and social research council (esrc) project funded through the people at the centre of communication and information technology (paccit) research programme (day, 2003b) this community research project is grounded in the principles of participatory action research (par).   founded on a partnership between a team of researchers from the university of brighton and the sussex community internet project (scip), cna is grounded in a participatory research philosophy. the project employs a range of participatory tools and techniques[3] to examine the use of ict in local communities. cna is investigating if, and how, network technologies affect social network ties and facilitate social cohesion and community building. in addition the project team is developing a contextualised approach to ict learning, that we call participatory learning workshops (plw). these workshops site community ict training and learning within the needs and experiences of the local communities themselves. finally, using participatory design techniques, the project will design, implement and develop a community communications space in partnership with participating communities.   the adoption of a human-centred approach to community technology, grounded as it is in the design of technologies to address social need, meant that an appropriate methodological approach for the cna project should reflect a   process of systematic inquiry, in which those who are experiencing a problematic situation in a community or workplace participate collaboratively with trained researchers as subjects, in deciding the focus of knowledge generation, in collecting and analyzing information, and in taking action to manage, improve, or solve their problem situation. (deshler & ewert, 1995)   a participatory action research (par) approach was selected to emphasise active collaboration between the participating communities, the university researchers and scip. where community research is intertwined with community development, as is the case with cna, par methodologies are useful in facilitating the requisite conditions of mutual trust, respect and reciprocity between community and researchers. enabling community participants to voice their needs and have these expressed needs contribute to shaping and driving the project development, along with its contribution to the infrastructure of community life is central to the cna ethos and encourages the development of equitable partnerships that draw from and share the knowledge, skills and expertise of all participants. we believe that reciprocal relationships are founded on interdependence of knowledge rather than isolated hierarchies of knowledge. solutions to community problems should not be reliant solely on the knowledge of external ‘expertise’ (the researchers), which often disappears as soon as the funding runs out, or when the subject under investigation (the community) is deemed no longer worthy of academic interest.   on the one hand, par demands from researchers a lasting interest in and commitment to the community and its needs; on the other hand, it requires an a priori commitment to the development of knowledge. it further requires that this knowledge not be regarded solely as an academic construct (although this is obviously of importance to the researchers) but as a means to finding solutions to community problems and, equally as important, as a communal resource to be accessed, drawn upon and updated whenever necessary.   in order to better sustain the principles of human-centeredness and support the technical rigours of par, our cna project hopes to develop, amongst other innovations, a code of practice[4] for community researchers a variation on the hippocratic oath of bounded responsibility based on ethical guidelines. we believe that such a charter could be incorporated eventually into project briefs as a form of contract, thereby providing participants and partners alike with a transparent code of research conduct.   another important issue is ownership. the term “whose reality is it anyway” not only refers to the problems of directing research, but also to the process whereby that information/knowledge is distributed and presented. researchers need to recognise that issues of community control and ownership are fundamental: what is the difference between formal and informal communication and explicit and tacit knowledge? who does it belong to? who determines its authenticity? who decides on rights to public access? who benefits? finding solutions to such questions must ultimately rest with the community itself. but by drawing on the skills, knowledge and expertise of researchers, communities can decide which areas of knowledge generation are required to solve any problems they face. by working with researchers to collect, collate, classify and analyse community information, members of communities not only begin to expand their own capacity to undertake such exercises in the future but also renew their acquaintance with and gain control over the assets, resources and agencies that exist in their own backyard.   par not only provides researchers with insights and data that more traditional methodological approaches could never hope to elicit but also reacquaints community members with, and enables them to develop an understanding of, the many facets of their ‘lived community experience’.   conclusion   in writing this paper for the ‘sustainability’ issue of the journal of community informatics it has been our purpose to present a thought-provoking contribution intended to identify and discuss, albeit briefly, a number of issues of relevance to sustainability and community technology. for the purpose of orientation and contextualisation, we believe that the community informatics research network (cirn) should consider the conceptual meaning of community informatics. we accept that any such orientation will be, by definition, an exercise in shared normative thinking and see this as mutually beneficial and reinforcing. we understand that a consequence of any such discourse may well result in a diversity of interpretations and perceptions of the field. however, if our paper results in such differences and commonalities being discussed then we will consider our contribution successful.   coda   we finish with a story – or rather a metaphor which encapsulates many of the concepts, practices and dangers which have been touched on throughout this paper. it is the story of a native american called black elk, a lakota shaman and warrior, co-author of the most celebrated native autobiography ever written, black elk speaks. born on the great plains in the mid-19th century, black elk lived through the tumultuous era of the western wars, fought against general custer, survived the massacre at wounded knee, only to suffer the continuing hardships of reservation life. black elk’s visionary powers and mastery of lakota culture soon became legendary, so much so that in the 1920’s john neihardt, a non-native writer and poet, sought out the elderly black elk to record his memoirs. for over 18 months, john neihardt interviewed black elk, working with black elk’s son and his own daughter as translator and stenographer respectively.   however, they were not alone there were some significant others involved, yet almost invisible in the final published text. through word of mouth and invitation, a chorus of black elk’s friends and companions appeared at the interviews, surrounding him in a kind of greek chorus. they would comment on his words during the interviews, add elements, gently chide or jest with him, expound for the record that which they collectively knew to be significant or noteworthy. for all the lakota present, any single individual, no matter how accomplished at lakota culture and history, could never exist or be considered apart from the lakota community, could never create an its own autobiography, or could never compile a history without there being an exercise in collective memory.   we have described black elk speaks as the most celebrated native autobiography ever written, and yet native american cultures were exclusively oral indigenous written histories simply did not exist. this explains the title, but who decided to publish in book form, and with all the diversity of contributing voices, who decided on the final version? why john neihardt, of course! he had the tape recorder, he had the transcripts, he edited the documents, he constructed the narrative, he had the publisher, and in the final analysis he was white – that is, he had the cultural cachet to power his choices. published in 1931, black elk speaks has been in print ever since.   it took almost 60 years, aided by an escalating word-of-mouth reputation, for the whole story of black elk speaks to emerge, for the unedited transcripts to be published. it also took a significant shift in the dominant culture to allow the authentic voices of black elk and his lakota chorus to be heard, with their distinctive cadences, repetitions and collective anarchy, and for the lakota process of self to be revealed.   not simply a collection of personal statements, or a single narrative, or a poetic vision, black elk’s books make us realise how, at least for the lakota people, communal identity and personal identity were inseparable, that group history and personal transformation were one and the same. for us, with our specific focus on collaborative community research, these documents serve as a powerful testimony to the intimacy between black elk and his tribal compatriots, and to the social and ethical dynamics at work between black elk and the researcher/writer john neihardt.   despite its hybrid nature, black elk speaks is now universally acclaimed as a literary classic, a great cultural document and deeply resonant metaphor. however, we can still wonder at what cost and, had the full transcripts never been published, at what loss?   we therefore offer up black elk’s model of testimony as an aid to reflection and engagement with our own community research, both in development and in practice, and as an incitement to better creative collaborations. we suggest, of course, that you read the books as well as information, as communication, as knowledge, as process, and as metaphor.   or, as black elk might have put it, “i’ve told you our story, now you tell us yours”.   references     accorde. (1995). advanced communications for cohesion and regional development: accorde: t1015. final report, february 1995. dublin: nexus.   cooley, m.. (1996). in gill, k.s. (ed.), human machine symbiosis: the foundations of human-centred systems design. london: springer-verlag.69-100.   cooley, m.. (1987). architect or bee? the human price of technology. london: hogarth press.   day, p. (2004). community (information and community) technology: policy, partnership and practice. in marshall, s., taylor, w. & xinghuo, y. (eds.) using community informatics to transform regions. london: idea group publishing. 18-36.   day, p. (2003a). community practice in the network society. in gurstein, m., menou, m. & stafeev, s. (eds.) community networking and community informatics: prospect, approaches, instruments. st petersburg: centre of community networking and information policy studies (ccns). 50-65.   day, p. (2003b). cna – community network analysis & ict: bridging and building community ties. paper presented at the 2003 cirn colloquium in prato.   day, p. (2001) the networked community: policies for a participative information society. unpublished phd thesis: university of brighton.   day, p. & harris, k. (1997). down-to-earth vision: community based it initiatives and social inclusion, [the commit report]. london: ibm/cdf.   day, p. & schuler, d. (2004). integrating practice, policy and research. in day, p. & schuler, d. (eds.) community practice in the network society: local action/global interaction. london: routledge. 215-229.   demallie, r.j. (ed.) (1984). the sixth grandfather: black elk's teachings given to john g. neihardt. lincoln: university of nebraska   deshler, d. and ewert, m. (1995). participatory action research: traditions and major assumptions. ithaca, ny: the cornell participatory action research network. [paper posted on partalk-l@cornell.edu list, 9th may 1995].   gill, k.s. (1997). knowledge networking and social cohesion in the information society. a study for the european commission. brighton: seake centre, university of brighton.   gurstein, m. (2003). community informatics: what is community informatics? in gurstein, m., menou, m. & stafeev, s. (eds.) community networking and community informatics: prospect, approaches, instruments. st petersburg: centre of community networking and information policy studies (ccns). 77-84.   gurstein, m. (2000). community informatics: enabling communities with communications technologies. hershey, pa: idea group publishing.   keeble, l. and loader, b. d., (eds.) (2001) community informatics: shaping computer-mediated social relations. london: routledge.   koch, k. (1980). wishes, lies and dreams: teaching children to write poetry. new york: harper & row.   kretzmann, j.p. & mcknight, j.l. (1997). building communities from the inside out: a path toward finding and mobilizing a community's assets. chicago: acta publications.   neihardt, j. (1971). black elk speaks. lincoln: university of nebraska; free electronic version available at university of nebraska press e-editions, http://www.blackelkspeaks.unl.edu/blackelk.pdf   qvortrup, l. (1996). the social construction of human-centredness. in gill, k.s. (ed.), human machine symbiosis: the foundations of human-centred systems design. london: springer-verlag. 177-202.   rosenbrock, h. (1990). machines with a purpose. oxford: oxford university press   schuler, d. & day, p. (eds.) 2004. shaping the network society: the new role of civil society in cyberspace. london: the mit press   shearman, c. (1999). local connections: making the net work for neighbourhood renewal. london: communities online.   taylor, f. w. (1998). the principles of scientific management. london: dover publishing.   taylor, w. (2004). community informatics in perspective. in marshall, s., taylor, w. & xinghuo, y. (eds.) using community informatics to transform regions. london: idea group publishing. 1-17. [1] as community technology is viewed as an integral part of community infrastructure in the network society, the authors use ‘initiative’ as opposed to ‘project’. the short-term nature of the project mentality is considered detrimental to the aim of social sustainability. [2] the use of the word ‘shared’ relates to negative as well as positive social experiences. recognising community as a contested space where conflict often exists, the authors suggest that such conflict is as much part of the shared experience of community life as are more harmonious conditions. for example, a loud and violent argument between neighbours late at night is as much part of the shared experience of community life as is the same neighbours organising a christmas party for marginalised children during the festive season. [3] these include profiling and mapping the information and communication assets (kretzmann & mcknight, 1997) and needs of both geographic communities and communities of practice, and synthesising this data with a social network analysis of local communication patterns and behaviour.    [4] see http://wiki.cna.org.uk/index.php?community%20networkers%20oath for a preliminary consideration of the oath.   digital inclusion without social inclusion: the consumption of information and communication technologies (icts) within homeless subculture in scotland claire bure university of edinburgh science and technology studies, msc programme < claire.bure@gmail.com>   abstract this pilot study examined how homeless people in central scotland integrate and appropriate mobile phones and the internet into their everyday lives, and the meanings these information and communication technologies (icts) come to hold for them.  it was found that ‘digital inclusion’ does not necessarily lead to ‘social inclusion’ into mainstream society, since homeless individuals tend to use icts in ways that reinforce the patterns and practices of their subculture.  there is no standard way of making use of technologies.  many homeless people thereby remain socially excluded in numerous ways despite their somewhat regular use of icts.  it also emerged that mobile uptake can actually be more ‘inclusive’ than internet uptake.  introduction and background   technology is an integral part of modern society and social change.  it plays both a part in shaping, and is shaped by, the patterns and practices of everyday life.  in order to understand more fully how information and communication technologies (icts) influence social change, it is necessary to study how they are integrated and appropriated into the everyday life of humans (lie & sørensen, 1996).  this relationship should be studied with respect to all social groups, including homeless people. contemporary debates have focused on whether the application of icts will either ‘bridge’ the digital divide between those who have access and those who do not, or whether it will further the social inequalities between ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ (henwood et al., 2000).  however, these arguments are often technologically determinist, stemming from a perception that the application of technologies will lead to specific uses and outcomes.  the complexity of the routes to social inclusion, however, should not be underestimated.  the digital divide debate also tends to concentrate on internet access, when in reality mobile phones are becoming one of the key technologies of connectivity (fortunati & manganelli, 2002).  nevertheless, it is clear that inequalities prevail between the ‘information rich’ and ‘information poor’ and these should be seen as a continuum that is spatially and temporally contingent (richardson & le grand, 2002).  it is therefore important to study the implications and consequences of homeless people’s access, use and attribution of meanings to icts in relation to processes of social inclusion.   homeless people as socially excluded homeless people can be seen as being socially excluded in a number of ways; the deprivations they face being experienced as temporary, cyclical or even long-term events (forrest, 1999).  even people who are labelled as excluded will themselves point out that social exclusion involves a lack of participation in ‘normal’ or socially-valued activities, with low levels of consumption of public goods and services (richardson & le grand, 2002).  additionally, the experience of social exclusion can involve a lack of community or social interactions, poor links to formal (rather than informal) social networks and exclusion from public services (richardson & le grand, 2002).  although a contested concept, three points need to be kept in mind when investigating ‘social exclusion’.  first, people who are socially excluded should be thought of in terms of groups, such as communities or neighbourhoods (rather than individually), within a particular place and time (atkinson, 1998).  second, exclusion should be seen as an act resulting not from a single factor, but rather from a mixture of factors, which can be attributed to either socially excluded people themselves or problems in wider social and economic structures.  last, people can be socially excluded in a variety of ways and for a number of reasons.  that is, “people are excluded not just because they are currently without a job or income but because they have little prospects for the future” (atkinson, 1998).    homelessness as a subculture homeless population statistics are difficult to estimate (shaw et al., 1996).  being homeless does not always imply ‘rough sleeping’; that is, sleeping outside in public or private areas generally not designed for sleeping.  in fact, only proportionately few homeless people sleep rough (edinburgh cyrenians, 2001).  the subculture of homelessness is often characterized by recurring problems of criminal activity (ballintyne, 1999) and an alcohol or drug dependence (or ‘using’).  these activities can either be causes or effects of homelessness (shelter scotland)[1]. additionally, higher rates of mental illness and physical health problems are prevalent among homeless populations (glasser & bridgman, 1999).  many factors create vulnerabilities that can lead to homelessness, including: low levels of education; unemployment; a lack of supportive social networks; background (such as a difficult childhood) and learning disabilities (edinburgh cyrenians, 2001).  common triggers can include: family disputes, a relationship breakdown, domestic violence or abuse, eviction, debt, or leaving an institution such as prison (edinburgh cyrenians, 2001).  the lifestyle of homeless people is typically transient, nomadic and built on the immediate gratification of needs, so activities tend to be planned on a minute-to-minute basis.  the subculture of homeless people is often described – but ill-defined – as ‘chaotic’.  this is a colloquial term used to describe a lifestyle full of unpredictable events.  generally, homeless people are vulnerable individuals who lack independent living skills, or the ability to sustain a tenancy.  they may become “mentally unstuck” after only two or three days of experiencing homelessness.  after this short period, an individual begins to cope and builds relations with other people living on the streets. that person can learn quickly where to find food, clothing and laundry facilities, and where the ‘begging patches’ are if they decide to beg for money (ravenhill, 2000).  however, it is important to note that not all homeless individuals fit this standard profile. to clarify how homeless people tend to ‘fit’ within normative society, it is useful to employ the concept of ‘social inclusion’.  for the purposes of this study, social inclusion can be understood as it is commonly defined within social inclusion literature, as well as from the perspective of support service organisations and socially excluded groups[2].  the elements of social inclusion involve: inclusion into social support networks; social, economic, and institutional stability (through access to services); public participation in mainstream activities; and individual agency (having life-skills and motivation to be self-sufficient) (ferlander & timms, 1999).  also, inclusion is composed of elements which are shaped and determined by multiple groups of people (thomas & wyatt, 2000).     the concept of digital inclusion helps us to understand the routes to social inclusion in relation to how people appropriate and use information and communication technologies.  digital inclusion involves not just access to information and communication technologies (thomas & wyatt, 2000) but also ‘ict capability’: the necessary skills to use the ict in question, as well as the knowledge about when and how to use it, and the confidence to do so (faulkner & kleif, 2003a).  digital inclusion is more than just the acquisition of information resources; the everyday social relations that are built and maintained using icts are also important.  both social inclusion and digital inclusion are concepts that hold normative connotations, where inclusion is seen as a goal towards which policy initiatives should aspire.  for example, a report by the scottish executive entitled ‘digital inclusion: connecting scotland’s people’ (2001), asserts: “a digitally-inclusive scotland will ensure more equal, effective and beneficial access for all people to the digital technologies and web facilities that benefit them in their day-to-day lives.”    research design and methodology   this pilot study investigated how homeless people come to use and impart meaning on icts in their everyday lives, and how this may influence integration into mainstream society.  in so doing, more insight is provided on the relationship between the concepts of digital inclusion and social inclusion.  a total of 16 men and women were interviewed in edinburgh and glasgow, scotland, cutting across different ages, socio-economic backgrounds, experiences and ideas, and ‘types’ of homelessness[3].  respondents included five service agency workers, ten homeless and ex-homeless individuals, and one ex-homeless woman who also worked as an outreach worker[4].  data were gathered in nine informal, reflexive, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. open-ended questions focused on: the characteristics of homeless subculture, organizational services and access to them, issues of use and access to mobile phones and the internet, and the relations between these issues.  although it is difficult to generalize qualitative research findings to broader contexts – particularly with a small number of respondents – this methodology can be very useful for studying particular groups of people, including homeless people (banyard & miller, 1998). it should be kept in mind that the experiences and situations of participants in this study do not necessarily represent the nature of daily life for all homeless people.  the interpretation of findings was informed by a social construction of technology perspective, which recognizes that technologies are socially constructed by the broader social, political, economic and cultural context (bijker et al., 1987).  therefore, in order to fully understand the relevance of icts for homeless people, the uses and meanings of mobile phones and the internet were placed within the various contexts of homeless subculture.  from the social constructivist perspective stems a social shaping of technology perspective, which holds that technologies profoundly influence human activities; and humans, in turn, influence how technologies develop and come to be used (mackenzie & wajcman, 2002).  in addition, findings were interpreted in light of existing relevant theoretical frameworks. these are presented within the following sections.   the consumption and domestication of technologies in everyday life   the study of how we engage with technologies, the meaning they take on, and how they shape our lives is the study of the consumption of technology (based on a social shaping approach).  technology consumption needs to be contextualized within ‘everyday life’, which can be been defined as regular – rather than daily – production and reproduction of human social patterns (lefevbre, 1971).  through the study of technology in everyday life it can be seen that technology is non-standardizing: it does not drastically change our lifestyle patterns, but rather fits in with them (lie & sørensen, 1996).  the study of the domestication of technology is the study of the process of the acquisition of a technical artefact, new or old, within the domestic sphere of the everyday life of an individual or group of individuals, and the subsequent meaning and use it takes on.  domestication studies look at how technologies – and particularly icts – are a part of the relationship between private households and public spaces (silverstone, et al., 1994).  the theory of domestication outlines four related phases in the dynamic process of technology domestication: appropriation, objectification, incorporation and conversion (silverstone et al., 1994).  the first phase, appropriation, is the possession or ownership of the artefact.  this is the point at which the artefact moves from being a commodity that is exchanged, to the owner’s possession, thereby giving it significance.  objectification occurs when the artefact is used and displayed in the household, not only defining the household’s place in a greater public context (such as status), but also helping to construct that new environment.  incorporation is the phase during which technologies are used in everyday life, where its level of functionality depends on how it is incorporated into everyday life.  last, conversion looks at how the ‘enclosed’ technologies in the household, and the meanings and uses they hold, fit into wider public spaces (silverstone et al., 1994). due to the blurring of both spatial and temporal boundaries between the ‘home’ and the outside world, the investigation of the place of technology in everyday life needs to be broadened from using the household as a single unit of analysis within domestication studies to a ‘local’ setting (stewart, 2003).  the theory of domestication can be broadly applied to explain how mobile phones and the internet are appropriated, objectified, incorporated and converted by individuals who are homeless.  its use in this manner also reveals that the theory needs to be adjusted to ‘include’ minority groups and how they make use of technologies, including contexts outside of the home. from the findings of this study it appears that homeless people appropriate icts in ways that are relevant to their own lives, such that these technologies reinforce the patterns and practices of their lifestyles.  mobiles, more so than the internet, tend to be used in ways that become incorporated into, and facilitate various activities prevalent in homeless culture, including both practical issues (such as drugs and crime) as well as symbolic issues (such as reliance, safety and status).   domestication of the internet by homeless people with respect to the first phase of domestication, appropriation, it seems that many younger homeless individuals (approximately under the age of 30), and some older ones, access the internet somewhat regularly in edinburgh and glasgow.  free access is limited to a small number of public sites, or to computers at family or friends’ houses.  however, there is an internet café for homeless people in glasgow, specifically created in response to a request by homeless drop-in clients themselves for free internet access.  those who do gain access relatively regularly are generally knowledgeable about free services available in the city, and information about these places tends to spread via word-of-mouth among homeless individuals.  homelessness support workers, in contrast, tend to have little working knowledge about these free internet access points, and neither do they tend to actively encourage access. objectification, the second phase of domestication, can only partially be applied to homeless persons’ use of the internet since their use is limited to a small number of public internet terminals, and therefore they have little control over its spatial and temporal uses.  this emphasizes the necessity for homeless people to turn to public spaces for the majority of their needs.  perhaps because the internet is generally accessed in public spaces, issues of identity and status (such as the level of ict capability they are able to draw on) also become more public for homeless people.  third, homeless individuals incorporate icts into their lives in a number of ways.  for those homeless people who do access the internet, the uses vary widely from using email and chatrooms to communicate, to using it for entertainment purposes or as a resource for information, making the extent to which it actually ‘integrates’ into their subculture a questionable issue.  however, how certain tasks are completed depends on the mental or emotional state of the individual.  for example, one young homeless respondent who admitted that he was a regular drug user claimed that he had five or six (he couldn’t be sure) email addresses because he could rarely remember his passwords due to his own forgetfulness and irregular access to the internet. with respect to the last phase of domestication, conversion, it is difficult to make any distinctions between how homeless people ‘convert’ computers into their own lives, compared to those who live in permanent tenancies.  this is again because homeless people tend to be limited to using the internet at a public terminal, or at a friend or family member’s home.  thus the computer itself can never fully be converted into a homeless individual’s personal life-space.   domestication of mobile phones by homeless people findings from the study made it evident that many, if not most, homeless individuals have access to a mobile phone in central scotland.  mobile phones are much more commonly used within homeless subculture than the internet.  another study focussing on western european countries also found mobile phone uptake to be more ‘inclusive’ than internet uptake: there is a lower tail-off in use for those with lower socio-economic status and education levels, and the gender gap between users is smaller (sørensen, 2002).  despite variations in access and use among individuals, younger users seemed much more likely to gain access than older ones.  the method of payment for homeless people’s mobile phones is virtually always ‘pay-as-you go’ rather than contract billing, since a permanent address is often needed for the latter, and payments need to be made consistently, something which is often very difficult for a homeless person, due to their tendency to be economically unstable.  mobile phones are easily accessible because they can be bought for relatively low prices at a number of places, such as pawnshops and flea markets, or they may be gifts from friends or family members who want to keep in touch.  some homeless people claim to find mobiles, trade other goods for them, or admittedly resort to illegal methods of access, such as theft.  alternatively, some homeless clients receive mobile phones from their outreach workers, who wished to keep in contact more easily.  this was not a formally recognized means for access, and neither was it an activity that was acknowledged among service organizations.  while policy justifications were not in place for mobile distribution by social service agencies, it did seem that homeless outreach workers had a significant level of power to make the decision to provide a mobile to a client, based on their own knowledge of ‘how that person was doing.’  more research would be needed to see if this model has been replicated outside of central scotland, and the consequences it holds for social service delivery.  the implications of homeless clients receiving mobile phones are discussed in a later section. the second domestication phase, objectification, is more easily applied to homeless people’s use of mobile phones than the internet because they are more transportable technologies.  the mobile phones that homeless people tend to use are older and larger, since those are cheaper and easier to access.  interestingly, lower mobile value is not necessarily seen as undesirable, since it ensures the devices are less readily stolen.  in this sense, the characteristics of the technology fit in with and are embraced by homeless subculture in a way that is different from the typical end-user targeted by technology developers. mobile phones are much more easily incorporated into everyday life by homeless people than the internet.  certainly not all homeless people are drug users, but for those who are, mobiles have been found to be useful tools for obtaining or dealing drugs.  because of the potential for instant communication, drugs can be sold, bought or traded more quickly and easily, independent of the physical location of the interested parties.  this can make curbing a drug dependency or addiction more difficult because it may be difficult to reduce contact with other users or dealers if working to become ‘clean’ (or drug-free). mobile phone use was also linked with committing crimes, since it provides instant communication routes that can help prevent individuals from getting caught.  as described by one ex-homeless interviewee, some homeless people may use their mobiles to contact:             mainly their dealers, or their mates around the corner, if they’re tryin’ to get into somewhere. you know what i mean? look out for the cops, you know, in the case of rape[5]. just like that, you know… basically if i’m across the road, and this place is gettin’ broken into, right? and it’s my mate that’s doin’ it, and i can see the cops comin’ and i’ll be ringin’ him and goin’: ‘cops are on their way, get yer – you know – get out, quick!’. that sorta thing.  or when i’m dealin’ and i want a 10-inch bag o’ smack or somethin’ like that. that’s mostly what they use it for, but i use mine for ‘personal use’... for chaos, you know, so what? it is perhaps surprising the extent to which technology use can stray so far from intended uses (such as drug and crime-related activities), which is also a primary finding from the ‘social learning in multimedia’ project (williams, slack & stewart, 2000).  clearly, a more realistic understanding of technologies and their effects should be taken. last, mobiles become easily ‘converted’ into homeless subculture because, as has been shown, these icts may allow for homeless people to ‘hide’ from undesirable situations by using them as a warning tool.  on the other hand, it may also be possible that homeless individuals find it more difficult to hide after a crime or misdeed has been committed, since they can more easily be contacted via mobile phone and are thereby put in a position to be more answerable for their own behaviour.  similarly, frustration at being unable to ‘escape’ from the demands that arise from mobile phone use is common to many mobile users including those who are not homeless (katz & aakhus, 2002). mobiles display status and identity characteristics through their use, which are varying and fluid in character since they are open to multiple interpretations.  mobile phones seem to carry relevance as a status symbol for all homeless people whether this is favourable or not.  this can have implications in other areas of life for homeless people, because as one outreach worker described: if someone sees a homeless individual with a mobile, especially someone who is sleeping rough, it may lead to the assumption that they are “fakes” and cannot be homeless.  assumptions seem to run deep that mobiles are more highly used by those with a higher socio-economic status (mcintosh & erskine, 1999).  although no strict generalizations can be made, those homeless people experiencing more chaos in their lives tend to use their mobiles in different ways – particularly more sporadically and less dependably – from those who are more stable.  it seems that perceptions of ict functionality are lower for those who lead more chaotic lives.  one outreach worker claimed that the internet really seems to be a tool used by those who are more in control of their situations, whereas mobiles seem to be appropriated by any ‘type’ of homeless person, involving a variety of meanings and uses.  she claimed that people who are in tenancies tend to hold on to their mobiles for a longer period of time, since those who live in tenancies tend to be more socially and economically stable, and tend to take better care of their mobile phones.    mobile phones, the internet and their varying meanings livingstone’s (1994) theoretical perspective is useful for making sense of how homeless people impart meaning on icts.  this theory identifies four constructs which characterize how people generally attribute meaning to a domestic technology.  these include: necessity, control, functionality and sociality.  that is, technologies are seen as necessary or essential tools; they allow people to control their situations (such as activities, time and other people); they may have various functions or utilities, and may allow for enhanced sociality and privacy. with reference to the first construct, homeless people’s perceived necessity of having a mobile seems to be higher than for the internet (despite variation between individuals).  according to one outreach worker, this is because:               in some senses, what relevance has [the internet] got for people who are scrounging around, perhaps for a cigarette or another bloody can of beer or another hit or are looking for some food or accommodation … things are often so stressful, and can be so chaotic, but at that point you really want somebody else [where a mobile might be more useful for contacting somebody for help].   second, access and use of mobile phones and the internet – particularly for communication purposes – may allow homeless individuals a higher capacity to control various aspects of their own lives.  the potential to gain immediate contact with another person also has significant personal safety implications, since help is deemed to be more directly available with a mobile, allowing some individuals more physical freedom.  also, from a support workers’ point of view, being in contact with a client via mobile allows them to “see whether [their client] is safe, or even alive.”  a parallel can be drawn here to parents who have provided their children with mobile phones so that they can monitor their children’s activities.  for example, when a parent is working but their child has leisure time.   mobile phones thereby facilitate the “construction of a safety net” in both cases (vestby, 1996).  with respect to perceived functionality of icts, some homeless people recognize the value, or potential value, of the internet as a resource, but this does not necessarily lead to active consumption of the technology, due to a lack of ict capability or access, for example.  on the other hand, some homeless people seem to find the internet an intimidating technology, and fail to see its utility.  these varying perceptions may hinge on a number of factors such as confidence, self-esteem and it skill levels.  the functionality of mobiles, on the other hand, differs somewhat from that of the internet.  mobile phones are perceived by some homeless people as ‘cash in the pocket’, as a tradable commodity that has ongoing value.  one young ex-homeless individual described, “i would trade my phone for some drugs, you know, if it was good quality”, emphasizing the relative market value that is placed on the technology.  seemingly, the more chaotic a homeless person’s lifestyle, the more likely they are to trade, sell, steal, or lose mobiles and perceive them as tradable commodities since they face higher pressures to satisfy basic needs.  one related disadvantage to mobiles being lost or stolen, an issue brought up by a number of respondents, is their size: since mobiles tend to be getting smaller, they are becoming easier to lose or have stolen.  mobile size may therefore be related to low levels of socio-economic status and perhaps even identity as a homeless person. mobiles (and the internet to a lesser extent) allow homeless individuals higher levels of sociality and privacy than using publicly accessed icts.  this allows them to feel more comfortable exchanging personal information over the phone, at more convenient times and therefore more easily.  if communication is facilitated in this way, it becomes clear how this can significantly alter an individual’s life, and makes the mobile a useful tool.  since the lifestyles of homeless people are often transient and nomadic in nature, having a mobile or an email address allows that person to be contacted, irrespective of their physical location.  this can have significant implications for the maintenance of a homeless individual’s social networks.  icts can facilitate contact with friends, family, peers, and support workers, such that they can be in contact more frequently and immediately, depending on how reliably contact can be taken up.  although there are a number of barriers that prevent access and use of mobiles and the internet, homeless people nevertheless can overcome these barriers to a greater or lesser extent. it is important to look not only at how and why technologies are used, but also how and why they are not used.  for homeless people, this is often a case of exclusion or ambivalence towards the technology in question, rather than active resistance, although the latter may be true in some cases (particularly with respect to the internet).  homeless people are often ‘rejected’ or physically excluded from public internet access points, whether they are free of charge or not, since they are stigmatized by the way they may look or act.  for example, homeless people tend to be rejected from public libraries, where free internet access if often available, because they may try – or be assumed to try – to sleep there.  libraries can thereby become ‘enforcers’ such as a public library in alexandria, virginia (usa) which installed an electronically-controlled door and camera outside the men’s toilet to discourage bathing or the washing of clothes (silver, 1996). the context or environment in which an internet access point is situated, therefore, is crucial in influencing whether homeless people come to use that resource or not.  as one outreach worker explained, it is possible for a homeless person to walk past the city library without even noticing its presence because “it’s not their stomping ground, really…it’s not their frame of reference.”  on the other hand, those internet access points meant specifically for homeless people are not intimidating, but rather welcoming for individuals.  with respect to one particular internet access point in edinburgh for homeless people, one volunteer worker described, “i think they quite like the fact that it’s in a warm, cozy place, and they can just crash and use the printer and scanner.”  physical location, therefore, brings with it many social implications (from stigmatization to social acceptance), which affects how that space, including the technologies held within it, come to be used.  homeless people often lack the it knowledge and skills necessary to access the internet, which can inhibit use.  if people have not previously had access to, or lack an awareness of or interest in the internet, its potential as a resource is not recognized and leads to ambivalence.  one respondent claimed, “it’s such an extraordinary resource but not if you can’t even grasp what these things do!”  having the literacy, numeracy and it skills necessary to access the internet are crucial to how the tool comes to be used. a thorough investigation of how homeless people domesticate information and communication technologies into their everyday lives, and how they attribute meaning to them, reveals how these technologies may influence their actions and activities.   digital inclusion to achieve social inclusion? questioning assumptions   from the research conducted two things became clear: first, social inclusion and digital inclusion are not synonymous concepts (although they may be associated), and second, the varying uses and influences of mobile phones and the internet require them to be considered separately rather than within the same category of information and communication technologies when studying how they affect homeless people’s everyday lives.  more specifically, icts seem to ‘include’ homeless people into their own local culture, rather than into mainstream society. interestingly, the internet was recognized by outreach workers as a tool to gain access to resources and information for their own purposes, but the connection was not made that this could be useful to homeless individuals, with the exception of using it for housing searches.  this is likely because workers are more concerned with higher priority problems such as locating accommodation or food for their clients.  with respect to mobile phones, however, outreach workers felt that digital inclusion held different implications.  that is, they fully recognized that many homeless people have mobile phones, and “use them just like anybody else”, implying that they are relatively ‘digitally included’ with respect to mobile telephony. that digital inclusion leads to social inclusion is often a strongly held assumption within social inclusion policy initiatives in britain.  this is apparent in a quote by the scottish executive in the same report mentioned earlier:             in a digitally-inclusive scotland, the public, private and voluntary sectors will make positive use of digital technologies and the web to improve quality of life and deliver new opportunities for disadvantaged individuals and communities (2001, p. 5). however, as has been described, homeless individuals appropriate and domesticate technologies in ways that reinforce the patterns and practices of everyday lives, and therefore ict access and capability alone will not change an individual’s situation.  outreach workers and homeless and ex-homeless respondents alike tended not to reveal such a deterministic view.  indeed, they recognized that homeless people are relatively digitally included, particularly with respect to mobiles, while remaining socially excluded in many ways.  of course, there are positive aspects of ict access.  for example, one study about public internet access found that ict capability and confidence for using computers was built through ‘local experts’ acting as positive role models (faulkner & kleif, 2003b).  it is clear that the complex concepts of digital inclusion and social inclusion are not synonymous.  for some individuals, they can be mutually exclusive, a conclusion which can be drawn from the research in this study. it is interesting that homeless individuals themselves are aware that there is no clear deterministic link between social inclusion and digital inclusion, despite the fact that this un-questioned assumption is deeply embedded in some policy arenas of the public and private sectors.   digital inclusion via the internet? in examining any potential links between the use of information and communication technologies and social inclusion, mobile phones and the internet need to be considered separately, since for homeless people these technologies hold different meanings, are used in different ways and have different consequences on their lives.  with respect to the internet, two factors may account for the fact that users may feel more ‘included’ when online: the anonymity of users in virtual domains, and the fact that users are not physically present, which allows individuals to withhold or manipulate any key features to their identity (roberts & parks, 2001).  in this way, homeless people can anonymously act out different identities, which may have an emancipating effect due to limited social repercussions of their actions online.  social interactions ‘online’ may widen or stabilize the social networks of homeless individuals through the creation and maintenance of social contacts with others, via email or in chatrooms, for example.  this may have profound implications for the social support networks of homeless people, such as for one homeless respondent who was keeping in touch via email with a friend who had recently returned to cambodia.  outreach workers seemed to recognize the significance of inclusion into peer networks (and subsequent social habits) of local subculture, claiming that the key to helping clients is to quickly find accommodation for them before they become part of the subculture.  this can help to avoid potentially damaging situations, such as intervening “before becoming really heavy into drug use” through contacts made with other homeless individuals, leading things to “go downhill really fast.”  not only can the internet provide links with other people, but also to the ‘information society’, which can be a significant resource for those who are homeless.  this is most useful for finding housing above all, since such a search is often more easily done via the internet.  homeless, ex-homeless and outreach workers alike informed me that many homeless people use this searching method much more readily than other methods, provided they have the ict capability and access to do so.  for these reasons, some outreach workers are introducing clients to online housing application processes, which can provide homeless individuals with an appealing incentive to use the internet for the first time. the usefulness of the internet stems from how it is used to provide the appropriate information.  one outreach worker described:            it’s only as useful as people want it to be useful […].  it can give people a focus, because it can connect people, but there has to be something there to start with ... but if it’s available and instantly accessible, it can be another hook to engage people in whatever interests they have. thus, the resources and information that the internet provides may help to facilitate an individual in changing their situation, but by no means can its usefulness be taken to imply that this alone can change a person’s situation: the motivation stems from the individual.   digital inclusion via mobile phone? mobile phones, on the other hand, are much more easily appropriated into homeless subculture than the internet.  a number of service agencies in edinburgh provide their homeless clients with mobile phones in order to keep in touch with them more easily.  service agencies are selective about who should receive mobiles, but it can be difficult to discern which homeless individuals could benefit most from having one.  those clients who do receive them tend to be “fairly stable and doing better, purely because it makes [the support worker’s] job easier to assist them.”  this is because clients who are more chaotic tend to have a much higher mobile “turnover rate” making regular communication more difficult.  as an example, one service organization gave a mobile phone to someone who had been a client for a number of years, who had begun studying, and was “totally clean” from using drugs.  it was thought that he would find a mobile phone useful because “[life] is still a bit stressful for him.”  interestingly, one outreach worker claimed that it is “still not the norm at all for outreach workers to ask for clients’ mobile numbers... it’s just not something that occurs to me as a worker.”  this is most likely because mobile contact is still not fully ‘embedded’ within the services a homelessness agency provides.  it is as if giving a client a mobile phone justifies communication between worker and client via that medium, since those who do not tend to receive mobile phones from service agency workers are also less reliable with their phones. according to outreach workers, the benefits of contacting clients via mobile phone are many: “it’s a lifeline, most certainly […] and they just make our lives much easier as well.  it is, from my point of view, invaluable.”  for support workers, mobile phones are useful for immediately contacting clients to see how they are doing through a phone call or text message.  one worker, for example, described how he calls his clients who have mobiles every morning, “especially on mondays, because there is always some chaos going on then; because there is not enough support on the weekends.”  those clients without mobiles he goes to see in person[6].  the knowledge of a client’s immediate situation allows workers to provide more immediate support, which is important, since the lives of many homeless people are planned on a very minute-to-minute basis.  mobile contact between workers and clients also “saves time, money and resources in every respect”, from a service agency point of view.  further implications will be discussed in more depth in the next section. it is clear that mobile phones can facilitate processes towards social inclusion; they may assist those individuals who are trying to improve their lives, but for those whose situations are unchanging or worsening, having a mobile may lead to the proliferation of problems by reinforcing a chaotic lifestyle.  whether a homeless person wishes to use a mobile phone to contact a worker, or to deal drugs, in either sense it is a useful tool.  interestingly, outreach workers seem to turn a blind eye to the ‘undesirable uses’ to which a mobile phone is put by a homeless person.  yet, as described by a worker, if mobiles “serve a purpose for us in terms of getting in touch with our clients, and our clients being in touch with us, regardless of whether we buy the phone or not, they’re gonna get a phone and abuse that anyway.”  mobile phones are also an important medium, and sometimes the only one, for keeping in touch with friends and family. naturally, homeless and ex-homeless respondents who own mobile phones use them to contact specific people they were already in contact with, thereby enhancing their communication with those individuals.  however, the social benefits here should not be overstated, since specific problems like low battery power or credit balance can hinder ease of communication.  as one respondent described, “there are certain types of people who have mobiles”, and those tend to be the people with families or networks of friends.  in contrast to the use of the internet, it did not emerge in this study that homeless people used mobiles to help them find housing. generally, how mobile phones and the internet come to be used by homeless people depends on the stability and the motivations of the individual, which in turn influence how the technology further becomes used in the activities of everyday life. that is, individuals who are more stable tend to find icts useful to facilitate inclusion through access to ‘positive’ social networks, for example, while more unstable or chaotic homeless people might use icts as tools to communicate while committing crimes.  furthermore, it is clear that icts alone do not provide an avenue to social inclusion, although they may have positive implications, since the routes to normative inclusion into the activities of mainstream society are much more complex.   implications of mobile phone use in social service delivery increased contact via mobile telephony between clients and workers can have profound implications for homeless clients, as well as for social service delivery processes.  one major issue is the reliance or dependency on the communication technology by workers and clients alike.  for one worker, “it’s a double-edged sword” because on one hand, communication is facilitated, but on the other hand, clients may be depended on too much for having their phones on and working.  also, if help is more immediate when an outreach worker can be directly contacted, the needs of a homeless person can be more quickly satisfied instead of requiring them to sort out arising dilemmas alone.  this could have a significant effect on the client-worker relationship, since the primary aim of most outreach workers is to build a trusting relationship with each client.  it could also lead a homeless individual to rely less on their own means to solve a situation.  clearly, having a mobile seems to facilitate how a homeless person wishes to live their life but again, this stems from how a technology is used.  another implication is that workers may see those clients with mobiles less frequently in person, although no strict generalizations should be made here.  for example, one outreach worker claimed to see a particular client more often in person even though that individual owned a mobile phone, claiming the reason was “just because of the nature that he is, i suppose it’s nothing to do with the mobile phone.”  nevertheless, less face-to-face contact can have serious repercussions for clients.  one outreach worker voiced her concern:              there’s just something about spending time with someone, it just seems to make a difference. but probably because when you’re spending time with someone you’re trying to achieve something, or doing something that they appreciate in the end.  it is possible that with an increased reliance on mobile phones, less face-to-face contact can have profound implications for workers helping clients.  for clients, too much reliance on mobile phones by support workers can therefore be detrimental; yet in the face of organization budget cuts, for example, it is a realistic compromise. aside from the larger structural problems in post-industrial societies leading to homelessness, an over-reliance on icts can also be a problem since homeless people may depend more on their support workers rather than their own resources to solve problems, which may stunt the development of individual agency necessary for social inclusion to occur.  in this sense, clients may feel less accountable for their actions, since they know they can get in touch with their workers, and vice versa, at any time.  for clients, mobile phones are useful to maintain a higher amount of contact with service agencies, because homeless people are “relatively disengaged with services.”  another important implication is that clients may be less likely to be cut off from service organizations, because they can easily contact their worker to cancel or postpone an appointment.  otherwise, in some scottish service agencies, clients may be cut off from help after missing a certain number of appointments without giving notice.  the personal and bureaucratic implications of this increased client-worker contact are significant, since help is more immediate and readily available.  clearly, this is an issue that deserves further study in relation to social service delivery, particularly if other social service agencies are considering giving their clients mobile phones.   conclusions   technologies are intricately woven into the social fabric of our everyday lives; and therefore studying technology and its shaping effects on humans is imperative to the study of human social change.  it is important to look at various uses and meanings that mobile phones and the internet hold for homeless people, and the resulting implications this may have on their lives.  digital inclusion is often expressed as synonymous with social inclusion, with the deterministic assumption that one process can lead to the other.  however, this study reveals that people who are homeless can be relatively digitally included, especially with respect to mobile phones, while remaining socially excluded[7].  even if homeless people can more easily find housing using the internet, for example, other problems (such as chronic unemployment, family crises or inadequate life skills) may continue to prevail, and so they can still be vulnerable to homelessness.  similarly, access and use of icts can facilitate the everyday activities and communication within homeless subculture.  contact is thereby maintained or strengthened between excluded individuals, possibly including drug dealers or law-breaking individuals, which can encourage criminal activities even in such severe cases as committing a rape crime.  additionally, homeless people may appreciate contact with family or friends, but this again may involve being in touch with people who have similar social and economic problems, rather than with individuals who can provide more complex levels of support needed by homeless individuals to improve their situations.  the lack of access to formal social networks that can help people to alleviate problems may therefore not be achieved.  again, generalizations cannot be made here, as for example, one homeless respondent described how his (socially and economically stable) sister gave him a mobile phone so that she could easily reach him when she needed him to mind her children.  access and use of icts can provide homeless people with it or communication skills, which can be beneficial, but it is the uses to which these skills are put which determine if social inclusion is to be achieved.  even for those homeless individuals who seem relatively digitally included on the surface – through relatively regular access to the internet, and ownership and use of a mobile phone – this ‘digital inclusion’ is not characterized in the same ways as digital inclusion for someone who is socially included.  for example, homeless people who own and use mobiles find it difficult to keep them from being stolen, or from trading, selling or losing them.  simply keeping mobiles functioning is also found to be difficult due to energy charging and credit struggles.  likewise, communication via the internet is often difficult, for example, when an email account is accessed so sporadically that passwords are regularly forgotten.  for these reasons, it is difficult for homeless people to consistently rely on these technologies to provide them with a permanent address even in ‘cyberspace’.  people who are homeless continue to be excluded, both physically from institutions (other than service agencies) and practically, from the life skills needed to be self-sufficient enough to live in permanent accommodation. although social inclusion has not been shown to result from digital inclusion with respect to homeless people in this study, it is important to note that information and communication technologies were helpful for those people who choose to change their lives for the better; those who are trying to become more stable socially, economically, physically and emotionally.  at this point, icts can facilitate a move towards stability, by providing access to communication and information paths.  it is clear that more research needs to be done to more fully understand when technologies may help to bridge inclusion into mainstream society, or when they are used as a link to homeless subculture. the route to social inclusion is in actuality very complex, and requires many more factors than access, use and ict capability (or digital inclusion), such as a stable social and economic environment and the desire and motivation for change.  if we wish to eradicate the most glaring inequalities that prevail in modern society, therefore, we need to look farther than the provision of access to 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(2000). social learning in multimedia. slim  final report. edinburgh: university of edinburgh.   appendix   interview 1 this interview was conducted with a volunteer in her early 20s at a local organization for homeless people in edinburgh city centre.  it housed a scanner, printer and one computer with internet access, provided specifically for homeless individuals.  also in the same location were laundry facilities and a second-hand clothing shop.  the service organization was part of a larger umbrella organization which provided advice and support services for homeless people in edinburgh.    interview 2 this interview was begun with a supporting persons’ worker in her early 30s at an edinburgh homeless outreach centre.  after approximately 15 minutes, she was replaced by a male colleague in his early 40s, since she needed to attend to a client immediately.  the centre was geared towards those who are vulnerably housed or have a long history of homelessness (with a varied client base).  both interviewees worked with each of their clients using an individually-centered approach, between 15 to 20 hours per week with the aim to build a trusting relationship with each client, helping them to gain independence, and build confidence and self-esteem.    interview 3 this interview took place at an internet café for homeless people in glasgow with the internet café tutor/ supervisor/ manager, an ex-homeless female in her mid-40s.  the internet café contained approximately 10 computers with broadband internet access, as well as access to basic online computer courses and a network of learning centres where one-on-one computer support was readily available.    interview 4 this interview was conducted in a public café in the centre of edinburgh with a man in his late 40s who had been homeless for the past 20 years at the time of the interview.  throughout that time he had slept rough (in the outdoors and in derelict housing), and had lived in various temporary residences and tenancies.  at the time of the interview he had been living in a hostel for the past 2 years.  he was a well-spoken homelessness advocate and campaigning activist, a trustee for 3 other local organizations as well as an employee of the big issue homelessness magazine.    interview 5 this interview was conducted at the university of edinburgh with a senior outreach worker in her late 30s.  she worked with the homeless addictions team as part of the homeless outreach project, like the respondents in interview 2.  as part of the harm reduction program, a major part of her job was to make a daily route around the city looking for homeless individuals who were begging, letting them know where they can get help at local services, giving out clean needles and methadone prescriptions among other things.  her contact with homeless clients was regular in order to build trusting relationships.    interview 6 this interview was conducted with a senior outreach worker in his mid-to-late 40s at an organization which housed 8 community-based programs for various groups of marginalized and excluded people.  like the other outreach workers i interviewed, he was highly familiar with ‘severe’ homeless issues.   interview 7 this was an informal focus group that was held with two homeless individuals at the internet café for homeless people in glasgow.  both respondents were able to give an in-depth account of how homeless people use the internet for two reasons: they were both ‘regulars’ in the internet café, and therefore had a good idea of how the computers were used; and because it is the only location with multiple internet access points specifically for homeless people in scotland.  with respect to mobiles, both respondents also had a good idea of how homeless people use them, although this topic was not seen as particularly interesting to them.   interview 8 this was a focus group held with five homeless and ex-homeless youth (four male and one female), all between the ages of 16 and 25.  the interviewees had each “grown up in care” (in bed-sits or foster homes) but none were sleeping rough.  the focus group was held at an umbrella organisation for voluntary organisations in edinburgh and the lothian regions that worked with homeless people between the aforementioned ages.   interview 9 this interview was held with two ex-homeless volunteers at the same organization as in interview 1.  the first interviewee was an older (mid 40s) ex-hard drug user, and the second was a 16-year old youth.   [1] homelessness in scotland, shelter scotland webpage, which can be found at: http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/policy/policy-421.cfm/plitem/101 [2] support service organizations are those voluntary or involuntary organizations that are geared towards helping ‘disadvantaged individuals’, or homeless people, within the context of this study. [3] a summary of each interview can be found in the appendix. [4] the experiences of more than the16 people interviewed are represented in this research, since homeless and ex-homeless respondents alike shared information about their family, friends, and acquaintances; and service agency workers shared information about their clientele. this gave more people a ‘voice’, including those who were sleeping rough. [5] if activities as serious as rape are facilitated through mobile telephony, this clearly points to the need for more research on the unintended consequences of communication technologies. [6] two things become apparent here: first, that clients seem to get more ‘chaotic’ when support agencies are closed; and second, that support workers with clients who own mobile phones see them less frequently in person, the implications of which will be examined later. [7] it must be kept in mind that no strict generalizations can be made from the relatively small, qualitative sample size of this pilot study. políticas y clivajes: algunas reflexiones a partir de una reseña de políticas eduardo villanueva departamento de comunicaciones, pontificia universidad católica del perú evillan@pucp.edu.pe una política pública no puede existir fuera de la política. esta afirmación, que puede sonar como una concesión lamentable en el mundo desarrollado, es una realidad cotidiana en regiones como américa latina, donde el estado, o al menos la burocracia pública que hace que los trenes lleguen a la hora (o que debería hacerlo) depende mucho del gobierno, es decir de la gente que gana elecciones y decide hacia dónde debe ir el péndulo de la política oficial. pocos países en la región tienen una burocracia importante, por lo que el definir y hacer funcionar una política pública suele sufrir ante la falta de gente, de funcionarios que la pongan en marcha y que la mantengan en operación. este es un tópico de mucha relevancia, en especial cuando un documento como el que aquí se comenta1 sale a la luz. unesco ha sido un líder en la región, promoviendo, financiamiento y evaluando el trabajo de muchas burocracias que tratan de definir políticas concretas, como por ejemplo políticas nacionales de información. desde el trabajo con bibliotecas en la década de 1960, este rol de liderazgo en políticas incluyendo hoy buena parte del sector de sociedad de la información, comprendiendo lo que cada país decide como relevante en esta área de acción. como revisión de la situación, este documento es un recurso útil, al proveer tanto un estado del arte como una serie de definiciones sobre lo que se entiende en la región, y en muchos países, como una política nacional de información (nip). este intento, al mismo tiempo, muestra los desafíos que aquellos que quieren crear una política pública, de cualquier cuño, en américa latina. uno de los aspectos cubiertos por este documento es el conjunto de elementos básicos que constituye una nip. esto no es particularmente original, dado que incluye ― como podría esperarse ― una visión, metas y beneficiarios, y un cronograma de implementación; tras la formulación, la aplicación, evaluación y revisión para definir la continuación o finalización del plan. sin embargo, el aspecto que queda fuera del análisis es el proceso mismo de redacta las distintas partes del plan, y particularmente, la definición de quiénes participan de esta parte del proceso: quién formula, evalúa y finalmente decide continuar con el plan. los actores involucrados en cada parte del proceso son significativos, puesto que representan (o no) sectores específicos de la sociedad, y enfrentan cotidianamente la variedad de asuntos asociados usualmente con la sociedad de la información. pero dado que la sociedad de la información es una construcción política, antes que un conjunto claramente definido de caracteristicas sociales, económicas y culturales, es la política pública misma la que conduce el proceso. más específicamente, la política pública internacional, entendida como el marco y empuje general provisto por las muchas organizaciones internacionales y multilaterales que financian (en américa latina en particular) los muchos procesos de formulación de políticas que incumben al estado moderno. una rápida revista a los muchos planes de sociedad de la información de américa latina sirve como ejemplo: mientras que francia, el reino unido, la unión europea, estados unidos, canadá, japón, y otros países desarrollados prepararon planes o al menos lineamientos de un plan para la sociedad de la información en la década de 1980 o antes, las naciones de américa latina solo comenzaron el proceso después que el tema se "pusiera de moda", esto es, tras que la atención oficial sobre el tema fuese significativa. algunos países contaron con políticas completas y de amplia cobertura, como chile y brasil; mientras que otros apenas llegaron a tener lineamientos. pero el ímpetu original provino de fuera de la región. en este punto, es adecuado preguntarnos qué relación guarda este tema con la informática comunitaria. la respuesta es "mucho". el conflicto entre el gran, formal documento de política pública y las realidades en el terreno que conciernen a la informática comunitaria tienen una rol muy importante en los fracasos de muchas naciones en desarrollo a la hora de hacer uso efectivo de las tic. este conflicto tiene, entre muchas dimensiones, una naturaleza política. las políticas en los países latinoamericanos resultan de un proceso dual: la evaluación de las realidades locales se combina con la influencia de las agencias internacionales, que provee experticia, financiamiento y un sentido de urgencia sobre ciertos temas. el ejemplo más claro es el consenso de washington, que dominó la definición de políticas públicas en muchos países de la región en durante la década de 1990 y parte de la actual. aparte de, nuevamente, brasil y chile, la presión hacia la apertura de mercados, la privatización y el libre flujo de dinero, productos y servicios fue extremadamente fuerte. las políticas de cada uno de los países fueron el resultado de cierta adaptación, aunque muchas veces no la suficiente, de los principios generales del consenso a las condiciones locales. como consecuencia del proceso, la mayor parte de la burocracia tuvo que cambiar la perspectiva de su rol y la relación de éste con las demandas de la población. los gobiernos y las administraciones públicas han cambiado de centro de atención, de la provisión de servicios a permitir que florezca la inversión privada; esto a su vez requirió que las empresas estatales fueran privatizadas, y que las burocracias tomaran como principio operativo que los inversionistas son los que crean riqueza, y que el desarrollo es el resultado de la creación privada de riqueza. esta transformación del rol de la administración pública fue la única manera que se pudo desarrollar políticas efectivas bajo los principios conceptuales del consenso. si bien los resultados no fueron tan exitosos como se esperó que fueran, el marco conceptual para la preparación de políticas continua siendo el mismo. similarmente, cuando correspondió preparar políticas de sociedad de la información, el principio impulso vino de afuera, aunque sin la creatividad que el consenso demandó localmente. la razón es aparente: el consenso era una forma clara y distinta de enfrentar un problema urgente, desesperante, como lo era el estancamiento y crisis que aquejó a buena parte de américa latina en la década de 1980. por su parte, la sociedad de la información es un concepto elevado, más bien difuso, que como tal apenas crea un vago sentido de importancia, más no necesariamente de urgencia general. además, en muchas de sus definiciones la sociedad de la información ha estado muy sesgada hacia políticas sectoriales muy específicas, como las de telecomunicaciones, eduación o gestión de información. management. sin suficientes funcionarios interesados o educados en las políticas de sociedad de información, el peso de aquellos actores realmente involucrados en el proceso, como las corporaciones internacionales que adquirieron las viejas y venidas a menos empresas estatales monopólicas de telecomunicaciones, podía ser considerable. el resultado es política pública para contentar a todos. en un proceso como este, está siempre presente la posibilidad de perder de vista los intereses de aquellos a los que se quiere servir con las políticas. para complicar aún más esta situación, muchos de los países de la región pasan por lo que los cientistas políticos califican como una crisis de representación, en la que la relación entre el sistema político y el electorado no es funcional. aquellos que debería ser representados por los políticos o la administración se encuentran desconectados de las élites, y la articulación de sus intereses no es prioridad para aquellos elegidos o bajo salario para realizarla. este quiebre entre representados y representantes se llama un clivaje, una ruptura que afecta severamente la región. no es algo nuevo, por cierto, pero una de las promesas de las restauraciones democráticas de la década de 1980 fue precisamente enfrentar esta situación, y cambiarla para bien. los planes y proyectos presentados en este documento de unesco exhiben algunos de estos problemas. si bien muchos de estos ejercicios muestran haber sido bien pensado y haber considerado buena parte de los asuntos más importantes, la pregunta pendiente es el impacto real que estas iniciativas tienen en las comunidades, y entre los agentes económicos individuales y colectivos que supuestamente son los beneficiarios, sin que sea necesario considerar en nuestra lectura la posibilidad de corrupción, mala intención o ineptitud. la respuesta parece ser, no hay mucho impacto que valga la pena mencionar. este reporte, que nos provee una revisión cuidadosa de muchas nip, sirve como una cronología de estos poryectos. sin embargo, dice muy poco sobre la participación de las comunidades, o incluso si las comunidades locales estuvieron involucradas o fueron invitadas a participar. ¿es este una limitación significativa? quizá no, desde el punto de vista de los que prepararon las políticas; quizá sí lo es, desde la perspectiva de los interesados en usar las tic y los servicios de información para un futuro mejor. si este acertijo es obvio para el lector, será porque se trata de un lector particular, más interesado en los resultados mismos, en los efectos y consecuencias de las políticas, que en los procesos formales y en las metas articuladas al proceso. por ejemplo, un activista comunitario interesado en usar tic puede encontrar este reporte poco ilustrativo, puesto que no provee evaluación alguna de la relación que cada gobierno buscó establecer con las comunidades a las que sirve, ni hay indicación de los éxitos que algunas comunidades podrían haber alcanzado por sus propios medios, y que ahora sería buenos ejemplos, buenas prácticas a seguir por las agencias gubernamentales. aun más importante, este hipotético activista podría preguntarse exactamente por qué los gobiernos invierten tanta energía y recursos en hacer políticas tan perfectamente alineadas con las tendencias internacionales, pero que al mismo tiempo, están en realmente más bien desconectadas con los problemas reales que día a día las comunidades que habrían de ser sus principales beneficiarios tienen que enfrentar. esto no es nuevo: como lo explican los cientistas políticas de la región (en particular tanaka2, las sociedades de américa latina tienen múltiples clivajes sociales, las ya mencionadas rupturas estructurales que definen la vida política y la relación entre grupos. los hacedores de políticas responden a las metas y expectativas de los grupos sociales dominantes, normalmente los que controlan las instituciones sociales y económicas, así como a las presiones de las entidades de la "gobernanza global", incluidas las naciones unidas, el banco mundial, con su significativa presencia financiera. los grupos que terminan en el otro lado del clivaje no son necesariamente considerados como relevantes para la redacción de políticas, no por algún oscuro motivo, sino porque los gobiernos y las administraciones, al estar al otro lado del clivaje, en la práctica no reconocen la existencia de estas rupturas. este razonamiento provee una base para la crítica de muchos de los considerandos habituales de la preparación de políticas. desde la "brecha digital" hasta las "oportunidades digitales", muchas ideas usadas como soporte intelectual de las políticas no ofrecen suficiente comprensión de los problemas que la mayoría enfrenta; igualmente relevante es que la comprensión de estas ideas no suele ser la misma para distintos gobiernos, distintos estratos de las organizaciones internacionales, y particularmente entre los académicos y los funcionarios públicos. por ello, mientras que los gobiernos en la década de 1990 propusieron como urgente una agenda de modernización que abría la economía al mundo, la percepción de esta estrategia por muchos en el otro lado de los clivajes era que las viejas bases de la estabilidad cotidiana, desde los empleos públicos hasta los servicios públicos, iban siendo canceladas en favor de un nuevo juego de reglas, que favorecía a los de siempre aunque con una nueva apariencia. cuando estas nuevas reglas no proveyeron una mejor vida para todos, y específicamente para aquellos que estaban del lado que "dudaba", el fracaso solo sirvió para reforzar el clivaje: contémplese la nueva ola de izquierda / reformista popular hoy en buena parte de la región. así pues, ¿cómo arreglar las políticas? ¿cómo hacer de las políticas algo más sincero, que involucre a todos, desde los sectores más dinámicos hasta las comunidades que desean y necesitan ser representadas en el proceso? esto permanece pendiente. sin embargo, es posible plantear algunas ideas iniciales: conocer las limitaciones de las administraciones existentes, iniciar un proceso lento pero seguro de conexión entre las burocracias y las comunidades y poblaciones. para salvar los clivajes, es urgente comenzar a reconocer su existencia; dar un modesto primer paso puede ser encontrar los errores. en el caso específico de las políticas de tic y sociedad de la información, el reporte aquí discutido es un buen punto de partida. pero es necesario recordar que no importa qué tan bien aparece una política cuando se la coloca en papel, si la ausencia de impactos claros provenientes de dicha política muestra que algo no se consideró durante el proceso. 1building national information policies: experiences in latin america. unesco: communication and information sector. kingston, 2007. 2 tanaka, martín, la situación de la democracia en bolivia, chile y ecuador a inicios de siglo. lima: comisión andina de juristas, 2003. towards supporting community information seeking and use nkechi nnadi new jersey institute of technology bieber@oak.njit.edu michael gurstein centre for community informatics research, development and training gurstein@gmail.com abstract in this paper we explore issues surrounding the design of systems that will effectively support community information seeking and use. we discuss the need for information retrieval systems to move away for the single user paradigm to one that recognizes the collaborative nature of information seeking and use. we also examine the collaborative information retrieval literature and derive implications for community informatics. the paper also explores the unique challenges of designing systems to support information seeking and use in a community context, and attempts to provide design guidelines that will enable researchers and practitioners to develop such systems. 1 introduction information and communication technologies (icts) are widely believed to be a catalyst for both economic and social development. there is a prevailing sense that personal computers and access to the internet are critical for economic success and individual improvement. however, in order to transform the lives and economies of people, particularly those in the developing world, icts must address their needs in a manner that goes beyond simply providing access to a wealth of technology, to providing a means of ensuring “effective use” of these technologies (gurstein, 2003). improved access alone is inadequate in realizing the transformative power of icts. access alone cannot support economic development and social change. instead effective use, which is defined as “ the capacity and opportunity to successfully integrate icts into the accomplishment of self or collaboratively defined goals” (gurstein, 2003), emphasizes the need for icts to work for people in their environment. information is seen as a key resource that can aid development (meyer, 2004). providing access to information alone is unlikely to empower communities and aid development. information needs to be focused and targeted toward problems. information provision will only lead to effective use when it is targeted toward issues such as new opportunities for improvement, markets and pricing, health information and valuable resources for improving productivity (mcnamara, 2003). icts that support community information seeking and use may also have other beneficial side effects such as enabling quicker response by government agencies to communities needs, raising awareness of important issues, providing transparency in decision making processes and educating the community on environmental and market changes (mcnamara, 2003). in order to harness the power of information for development, system designers must ensure that the collection, storage, retrieval and presentation of information is done in a manner that leads to effective use. the traditional view of information seeking is one dominated by a focus on individual information seeking behavior. many commonly used information retrieval (ir) systems, such as web search engines, assume that information seeking is carried out by individual users who describe their information need in the form of a query. this focus on the individual is arguably the result of classical models of information seeking behavior. one such model proposes that the individual develops an information need when he/she does not posses sufficient knowledge to complete a task at hand. this gap between what the user knows and what is needed to complete a task is called an anomalous state of knowledge (ask) (belkin, oddy & brooks, 1982). in response to his/her anomalous state of knowledge, the user must seek out information that will bridge the gap in their knowledge and allow them to complete the task. the bridging of this gap is achieved through iterative query formulation and result evaluation, which is carried out until the individual absorbs enough information to complete their task. the ask hypothesis posits that the need for information arises from the work tasks and daily activities of the user. however, work tasks are rarely solitary activities. instead, organizations thrive by leveraging the combined abilities of many employees. employees not only collaborate informally, but also are increasingly organized into teams that are expected to collaborate on tasks and activities. it is important to recognize that the need for information arises from the collaborative activities of individuals. information seeking and use can be seen as embedded in activities of workgroups rather than as a separate stand-alone activity. this view of information seeking and use is also applicable to communities. communities may be organized informally around changing goals and tasks or may be more permanent with a long-term well-defined mission. in either case the success of the community depends on multiple individuals working together to achieve a common goal. it is reasonable to assume that in the course of working toward a goal a community will need to seek, create, share, store and manage information. the intrinsically collaborative nature of community tasks will require support from icts that are based on design principles that view information seeking and use as a collaborative and not a solitary activity. an explicit recognition of the collaborative nature of information seeking and use will have implications for designing community systems. the traditional perspective of information retrieval systems also assumes the user can adequately represent their information need in the form of a query. this assumption is questionable. if we believe the ask hypothesis that information need arise from knowledge gaps, then it is obvious that a user will not be able to adequately represent something he/she is unfamiliar with using a few keywords. furthermore, the ir system’s best match technique and resulting list of documents is thought to be a satisfactory means of solving the user’s information need. this may not be the case especially if the user is illiterate or semi-literate. thought must be given to designing systems for people from oral culture that may have very different conceptual structures (meyer, 2003) and therefore do not conceive their information need in terms of a query that must be posed to a system. most information retrieval systems provide a list of documents in response to the query that is supplied by the user. however, this requires the user to go through the document list in order to discover useful information. this process is time-consuming and requires a lot of effort on the part of the user. in addition, a list of documents may also be inadequate if the user is first faced with the challenge of forming a clear idea of that information need. in this case the most important form of aid would be providing a process for defining the information need. supporting the process of formulating the information need is very important but is usually overlooked or reduced to helping the user to choose query terms. a better solution, and one that would be helpful in facilitating community information seeking and use, would be to conceive the process of articulating the information need as one that is composed of discussion and consensus building. defining an information need is essentially answering the question: what problem are we trying to solve? in some cases, this may involve reconciling differing and even conflicting viewpoints on an issue in order to arrive at a somewhat unified view of the problem. if the perspective of supporting problem formulation through consensus building is employed in the design of community systems, then features that allow discussion and consensus building such as discussion forums and voting tools must be tightly integrated to information storage and retrieval systems. the importance of collaboration in information retrieval is gaining prominence and has been identified as an important area of research (dumais, 2000). this increasing awareness of the social or collaborative nature of information retrieval may provide insights for the design of information systems for communities. all community endeavors are by nature collaborative because they involve a joint effort of individuals united by a common goal. in order to achieve its goals, communities must leverage the combined talents of its members. information seeking in community informatics is one area that has not been well researched, however it is obvious that any information system that will support community information seeking must be built with collaboration in mind. in developing countries in particular, icts are likely to be shared among a number of people rather than individually owned (prahalad & hammond, 2002). this is because aggregated purchasing power is more significant than the individual’s purchasing power especially in countries with low per capita income. this implies that rather than the view of “one person, one computer”, systems must be built with the assumption of “many people, one computer”; leading to the realization that both system use and community activity are collaborative. the collaborative nature of system use is an important consideration for the design of ict’s for community information seeking and use. this is because the location of the ict becomes an important factor in determining if it will be used in the intended manner. if access to the ict requires great effort on the part of the user, it is unlikely that it will become an integral part of the processes it was designed to support. therefore, in designing community information systems, designers must also consider where the system should be situated in order to ensure effective use. 2 a review of collaborative information retrieval studies collaborative information retrieval is “any activity that collectively resolves an information problem” (dumais et al, 2000, p. 298). in this sense information retrieval does not consist solely of query formulation and result evaluation, instead it includes the processes of problem identification, analysis of information needs, query formulation, retrieval interactions, and the presentation and analysis of results (dumais et al, 2000). in addition it includes the processes by which ir activities are coordinated across multiple participants. this view of information seeking moves away from the solitary user metaphor. instead it begins to examine the social aspects of information seeking and aims to support these social processes as well as the more technology-oriented challenges of building information retrieval systems. poltrock et al (2003) conducted a study of collaborative information seeking and sharing in design teams. they examined two teams of product designers in two different companies to determine the ways in which the team as a whole addresses its information needs. the first team was a software design team at microsoft and the second a hardware design team at boeing. the authors observed that collaborative ir was employed by the teams in order to understand product requirements, develop design specifications and analyze design alternatives. in the software design team, the team leader played a central role by coordinating work schedules and facilitating communications between the team and other departments or employees in the organization. the team met weekly at staff meeting, though much of the design work was done individually in private offices or in small subgroups of a few people. the need for information was often identified and discussed at the weekly meeting and when necessary, other microsoft employees were consulted to satisfy the information need. design specifications were shared with others in order to obtain feedback especially when product requirements were unclear. in contrast to the software design team, the hardware design team at boeing was organized differently. instead of individual offices they worked in an open office space. there was no strict division of labor. team members rarely worked alone, instead the frequently consulted each other on design options and made decisions collaboratively. they consulted other employees in the organization especially those involved in other aspects of the development of the product they were designing. although both teams differed in their work habits, they had striking similarities in the manner in which they sought information. the members of both teams sought information about the product they were designing. the nature of the design process makes it difficult to express in clear terms what is needed at any point in time. the search for information is often the search for defining the information need. this activity is often done collaboratively. the activity is also directly related to the team member’s existing task responsibility. it is also striking that the information need is not met by providing the right document even though both teams could conceivable have looked at specifications for similar products. instead the information need was often resolved by consulting the right individual (or team) in the organization. the insights from this case study provide some guidance in designing information systems for communities. the collaborative way in which the information need is defined implies that system features that support discussion and consensus building are necessary. it reveals that providing contacts more than documents might be the best way to help a community solve its information needs. romano et al (1999) utilized a different approach to understanding collaborative information retrieval. they reviewed the literature on user experiences with information retrieval and group support systems (gss), and also interviewed current users of information retrieval and group support systems (romano, russinov, nunamaker & chen, 1999). observations of user experiences reveal that ir users would like collaborative search capabilities. gss were noted to be lacking in support for the collaborative use of information retrieved independently by group members during the course of group work. they also lack support for the use of retrieved information in decision-making and teamwork. to address the single-user view of ir and gss as well as their inadequate support for collaborative information seeking and sharing, the authors developed an integrated knowledge creation environment that combined features of gss and ir systems. the system features included the ability for multiple users to share both queries and results, and the allowing team members to search collaboratively even though they were not physically located. users were able to annotate query results, which allowed them to share their opinion of the validity of a particular document for the task they were trying to complete. the authors discovered that members the same group or team typically had different relevancy evaluations of documents. to promote consensus building the system was modified to provide electronic polling that allowed user’s to rate an items relevance to the search task. the case study highlights an issue that is often overlooked in the design of systems for communities. that is that the members of the community must decide the value of information jointly. the community’s social dynamics must be considered when providing system features such as voting tools in order to promote consensus building or joint evaluation of information resources. for example, in traditional african societies elderly people are held in high esteem and their opinion is likely to affect the communities acceptance or evaluation of a particular piece of information (meyer, 2003). also in traditional cultures, there is a tendency toward strong hierarchical structures in the society that require decision making to be channeled through community leaders (meyer, 2003). this means that the typical ‘democratic’ approach to providing systems that allow free and open dialogue may not be accepted in certain communities. also the community might desire that information be sanctioned only by a select few rather than all members. another study of a software design team’s collaborative information retrieval behavior was conducted by (fidel et al, 2004). the authors defined collaborative information retrieval as “any event in which actors collaborated to resolve an information problem that required them to user resources external to their own knowledge”. the software design team consisted of ten people with length of employment ranging from four months to seven years. their study revealed that employees were motivated to search for information collaboratively, when the information need could not be met by any documents they had access to. the lack of documentation forced teams members to collectively define the information need, and determine potential information sources (usually people). the information retrieved was also evaluated and interpreted collaboratively, because various types of expertise possessed by the individuals on the team were needed to ensure that the entire team obtained a unified understanding of the information. a similar study was conducted by hansen and jarvelin (2005) in a swedish patent office. their study confirmed previous findings that collaborative activities centered on document creation and use as well as interpersonal communication and interaction between employees. the case study reveals that the evaluation of retrieved results is done collaboratively in order to harness individual expertise. this is important for communities especially those that may be considered transient. this type of community organizes itself around a particular issue or common goal and once the goal is achieved the organization is no longer needed and may disperse to reorganize at a later time to address a new issue or goal. due to the nature of these types of communities, its members bring a variety of different skills and levels of expertise. it is therefore important to direct a piece of information to the right individual for evaluation in order to harness that individual’s talents. it may not be necessary that every member of the community assess a piece of information, but the information must be evaluated from all relevant viewpoints by those possessing the ability to determine its value. karamuftuoglu (1998) conceptualizes the problem of cir differently. she believes that one reason that ir systems have been focused on the individual is because ir is viewed as a task of transferring knowledge from a database to users. in contrast collaborative ir should focus on the knowledge production function of ir systems. cir should be based on cooperation between individuals that facilitates the creation of new knowledge from documents retrieved. she believes the production of new knowledge is typical in inventive tasks and is motivated by situations when the solution to the problem is not known in advance i.e. the user cannot retrieve a document that will satisfy the information need. this explanation seems to be supported by the previous studies of cir in design teams. the design of a new product is a highly innovative and inventive activity. the novelty of the tasks constrains the users reliance on documents as primary sources of information. instead, other people must be consulted in order to define both the problem and the solution. karamuftuoglu’s observation is notable because it provides insights to the relationship between collaborative information retrieval studies and designing systems to support community information seeking and use. communities can be said to engage in multiple collaborative tasks, which are tasks that may not have a single clear goal, lack discrete start and end points, and in some cases may have incompatible goals (johnson, may & johnson, 2003). these types of tasks require a high degree of coordination and collaboration. in addition, the indistinct nature of the goals requires the members of the community to be innovative and inventive in developing solutions. therefore systems that will support community information seeking and use will have to consider how they facilitate the user in producing new knowledge not only from the collaboration between members but also from the collective evaluation and interpretation of information gathered from other sources. 3 challenges of designing ict’s for community information seeking and use the challenge of supporting community information seeking and use goes beyond determining appropriate ict features. the deeper issues lie in understanding how the community views its needs and how they perceive the role of icts in meeting those needs. to truly provide a tool that can be effective in supporting community information seeking and use one must consider socio-economic issues and provide answers to the following questions: how is information conceived in the community? in what manner should information be presented? in what location or during what occasions is information sought or shared in the community? what social interaction norms must be observed in the use of the system and how will this be accommodated in system design? who will design, implement and maintain the system? who are the individuals in the community that can participate in the design of the system? whose support must be sought in the community in order to minimize resistance? the questions raised above are not strictly design considerations but are essential to the successful development of any system that will support community information seeking and use. the question of how information is conceived in the community is one that many times is not considered. this is problematic because it ignores the fact that information and the knowledge derived from it are both social constructs that are grounded in a particular world view (mchimbo, 2004). in his study of information use in rural development, meyer noted that information is perceived differently in oral cultures than it is in literate ones. oral cultures tend to utilize mnemonic patterns such as alliterations or proverbs to store information. they also tend to learn new information by relating it to concrete items in their world and tend to retrieve information by association (meyer, 2003). any system designed for a community must consider the form in which the community stores, shares and retrieves that information. this will affect the degree to which the community can utilize the system for effective use. it is also important to determine how the information will be presented once it is collected and stored. metaphors that allow users to easily understand system functionality and associated information become crucial to the development of systems that will aid a community’s information seeking and use. for example, the cleveland free-net utilized a city metaphor to organize its information contents. information related to a particular subject was placed in virtual buildings e.g. supreme court decisions could be found in the courthouse building (schuler, 1994). discovering local metaphors and patterns of information storage and sharing is crucial to the design of successful icts. not only is it important to understand the manner in which information is generated and represented in a community, but one must also understand the social norms that surround these processes. for example, a community’s decision-making may traditionally be the function of community leaders. any software that provides electronic voting as a means to reach a consensus on issues by all community members may undermine the influence of the community’s elders and lead to friction in both the development and use of the system. the success of systems that support community information seeking and use hinges on the abilities of the system’s designers to understand how social norms affect the creation, use and sharing of information. icts provide the unique ability to change the manner in which tasks are performed. it is the designer’s responsibility to communicate the potential changes especially if they affect existing social norms and to obtain feedback from users before the implementation of the system. another important consideration is the location and manner in which information is typically shared in the community. in the collaborative information retrieval literature the behavior of the subjects is often observed in a work setting such as an office space or in a library. communities, however, are not constrained by organizational processes that may provide some structure and predictability to information sharing. the manner in which they share information may vary based on the nature of the community or the type of task they are performing. the community may favor a collective forum such as a town hall meeting, or may share information in sub-groups during informal gatherings, or in the course of everyday activity. the issue of where a community shares information is also of importance. in developed countries, it can be assumed that community members own a personal computer or have access to one at a nearby public library. this means that information sharing via computer-mediated communication is a viable option and members of the community can express their information needs easily through a computer. however, in underdeveloped nations access to computers is limited to telecenters that may be many miles away. therefore, there is a lag between the time at which the information need is discovered and when access to an ict can be obtained to resolve this need. this makes it unlikely that the system will become an integral part of the community’s activities. to be successful the system should be located in an “information ground”. an information ground is “an environment temporarily created by the behavior of people who have come together to perform a given task, but from which emerges a social atmosphere that fosters the spontaneous and serendipitous sharing of information” (pettigrew, 1999, p. 811). the idea of an information ground emerged from pettigrew’s study of chiropody clinics. she observed that although the clinic was organized to provide foot care, the elderly patients utilized their time there to socialize and also obtain social service information from peers and clinic staff. the social atmosphere of the clinic fostered the sharing of information needs. the information need is not explicitly stated as it is in traditional information retrieval where the user must conceive of the information need in the form of a query. instead, the information need emerges from casual social interaction. the information ground ceases to exist when the people have concluded their activities and leave. however, it comes alive again at the next gathering. ict’s for community information seeking should be situated in such places. this will allow them to be utilized when an information need is generated in the course of social interaction in addition to determining the appropriate places to situate icts that will facilitate information seeking, system designers must also take into consideration the local context of use. some researchers have advocated a change in focus when it comes to designing information systems for communities. instead of focusing on the development of infrastructure, they advocate an understanding of the local conditions of the community (salvador and sherry, 2004). the key to developing icts to foster change is not in focusing on developing technological infrastructure, but rather in attaining a good understanding of the challenges the ict must address and determining the manner in which icts can address these challenges (mcnamara, 2003). the key to building a successful system to support community information seeking is to determine how to leverage whatever current infrastructure is available in order to meet the challenges facing the community. it is equally important to build flexible systems that allow for “local improvisation” that can accommodate the peculiarities of the system’s context of use. suchman (2002) views local improvisations as “the means by which anything—technological systems, organizational forms, everyday projects—are made to work” in a particular context that is different from the context in which it was developed (suchman, 2002, p. 139). the lesson for ict development then is to build transparent systems so that users can adapt the system to suit their needs after they have become familiar with it. only through usage can local communities identify the requirements for a system that will support their information seeking and use. it is difficult to see how a community that is new to icts can completely inform the design of these systems before they have had any hands-on experiences with the new technology. therefore, the implementation of a system is not an end in and of itself, but rather the opportunity to educate users and allow them to understand the possibilities of new technology. a commonly suggested solution to ensuring that the system is designed to fit the local context of use is the utilization of a participatory design process. in this way, the end users are an active voice in the design of the system. they not only provide system requirements but also participate in design decisions. although user participation is desirable, it is often difficult to implement a participatory design process when designing for communities in developing countries. users may be unable to adequately express their desires for the system design, because they do not yet understand what the technology is capable of. also finding the right people to involve is challenging. one way to combat this problem and incorporate user input would be through the identification and inclusion of information gatekeepers during the design process. information gatekeepers are those individuals in the community who perform an official or unofficial role of connecting their community with resources needed to solve problems (metoyer-duran, 1991). the information gatekeepers often have significant community status and are able to interpret the community’s information needs and broker information. they may also be early adopters of technology. these individuals are clearly able to provide useful information in the participatory design process. in addition to information gatekeepers, it is important to obtain the support of community leaders who are able to influence community attitudes to new information technology. although these individuals may be unable to directly contribute to the design of the system, they are crucial in ensuring its adoption once the system is built. mchumbo (2004) advocates the inclusion of as many community members as possible. however, he advocates that community participation not be limited to identifying information needs but so include development problems facing the community and the information needed to meet these challenges. although it may seem premature to discuss the maintenance of a system when design principles are still unclear, system maintenance is very important and ensures that the system continues to support the community’s activities. system designers for community ict’s are typically imported from outside the community. in developing countries, system designers are hired by governmental or non-profit agencies, and are usually from developed countries (heeks, 2002). the funding for ict design and consequently the support for the designers is limited. it is natural that as time goes by there will be a need to resolve any bugs that may arise, and therefore a need for someone to resolve them. however, the maintenance of a system goes beyond just ensuring its continued functioning. as the community utilizes and becomes familiar with the system, they begin to identify the system’s shortcomings as well as the potential for it to be modified to meet new needs. this point is illustrated by sanderson and fortin in their review of website development and use by community organizations in canada (sanderson & fortin, 2003). the authors observed that the initial website development is geared toward establishing a web presence for the community. it is only after the community has had the opportunity to interact with the new technology that they begin to incorporate it into the way they work, typically by modifying the system to support communication and developing content geared toward the local community. this means that a lasting solution would have to incorporate the education and training of local individuals. this has been recognized by certain governments that have made a concerted effort to promote the development of their information technology sector in order to provide skilled professionals (akhtar & gregson, 2002). 4 guidelines for designing icts to support community information seeking and use this admittedly limited review of the studies of collaborative information seeking and the brief analysis of challenges unique to designing community systems provides some useful insights that can serve to inform the design of future systems. the first of these is that it is important to understand what form of information a community utilizes in exchanging ideas. designers should not limit their vision to systems where text is the primary means of information exchange. multimedia systems have the potential to allow non-literate communities to participate in using icts to facilitate their development, but their development may be limited by the lack of technological infrastructure. one way to get around this may be through the use of “old media” technologies such as radio and television to facilitate the exchange of information. a second major theme emerging from the previous discussions is that collective evaluation of any information gathered by the community’s members must be supported by the system. this means that system designers must pay attention to the inclusion of consensus building tools such as shared discussion spaces, moderated discussion threads, voting or polling features, and annotation features that allow users to express their views on the usefulness of a particular piece of information. designers are cautioned however, to be mindful of the social norms that govern a community’s information sharing and evaluation patterns. if there is a blatant conflict between the system design and established social norms, systems designers are encouraged to educate potential users on this consequence and try to win support for the design before the full implementation. in this way some user dissatisfaction and abandonment of the system can be avoided when system design clashes with the community’s norms. another point that system designers must consider is building support for the use of the system by demonstrating its utility in combating pressing problems that the community faces. promoting the systems ability to help the community target a concrete problem might be a good way of garnering support from community leaders who in some cultures are suspicious of technology. system designers must also seek the right type of people to participate in the development of the system, in particular by selecting the community’s information gatekeepers. the gatekeepers will provide useful information regarding the information needs of the community and can also suggest system features that will enable the community to easily utilize the system. romano et al (1999) also indicate the need to provide support for real-time collaborative search. the ability to search with others across geographic boundaries is especially useful when one community needs to engage in a collaborative venture with another. in addition the authors address the needs for users to communicate their opinion about search results thus providing a means for not only information consumption but also information creation. community members would benefit from not only sharing their opinions with each other, but also from the ability to store and retrieve these opinions for future use or dissemination. twidale and davis (1996) echo these suggestions and provide a few more. the authors believe any comprehensive solution to collaborative information seeking should include a means to capture the user’s search process. this will allow others to gain insights into the user’s train of thought or provide suggestions at various stages of the search. they also believe that one way to facilitate community information seeking may be to provide matchmaking between people with similar interests. this is particularly useful in large communities that may have sub-groups with different interests. lastly the authors advocate the facilitation of coordinated searches among dispersed users on remote terminals. the system should provide for a means of sharing screen displays of search results and communication in real time. 5 conclusion this paper is an attempt to shed light on the challenges facing the design of systems that will effectively support community’s information seeking and use. much of the lessons for designing these community systems are derived from the study of collaborative information retrieval in workgroups. although, communities face very different challenges than workgroups in organizations, some insights can still be garnered and used if one is mindful of the peculiar challenges of designing for community systems. references akhtar, s. & gregson. j. 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(1999). collaborative information retrieval environment: integration of information retrieval with group support systems. paper presented at the 32nd hawaii international conference on systems sciences, hawaii, usa. salvador, t. and j. sherry (2004). local learnings: an essay on designing to facilitate effective use of icts. the journal of community informatics 1(1). retrieved from http://ci-journal.net/viewarticle.php?id=35 sanderson, d. and a. fortin (2003). web site development by locally-oriented community organizations: characteristics, problems, and issues. paper presented at the association for internet researchers 4.0, toronto, canada. shuler, d. (1994). community networks: building a new participatory medium. communications of the acm, 37(1), 39-51. suchman, l. (2002). practice-based design of information systems: notes from the hyperdeveloped world. the information society, 18, 139-144. twidale, m. b. and d. m. nichols (1996). interfaces to support collaboration in information retrieval. paper presented at the bcs ir & hci workshop, glasgow, uk. internet cafés – 1 internet cafés in asia and africa – venues for education and learning? bjørn furuholt agder university college <bjorn.furuholt@uia.no> stein kristiansen agder university college <stein.kristiansen@uia.no> abstract this paper examines the use of internet cafés in two developing countries; indonesia and tanzania. the research is based on surveys of some 500 respondents in total in the two countries, supported by in-depth interviews. the findings show that internet cafés are used for competence development today, and that they have the potential to be suitable arenas for human resource development for a wide range of users. for the users, access speed and price are important obstacles to increased use. more research is needed to see how internet cafés can attract new user-groups to help reduce the digital divide within a developing country. 1. introduction major differences exist in internet accessibility among countries and regions, reflecting a global digital divide and information poverty in parts of the world. in addition, within developing countries we see clear tendencies towards increased concentration of information flows to urban and central areas (wong, 2002; mwesige, 2004). economically disadvantaged countries and rural and peripheral districts within these nations tend to fall further behind in human resource development as well as in economic progress and political participation. expansion of internet access in poor areas is facilitated by arrangements for public use, such as internet kiosks, cybercafés, or multipurpose community telecentres (rogers and shukla, 2001). the internet café (or cybercafé) concept has been successfully spread to poor countries mainly because it combines reasonably priced access to the internet with some food and beverage services together with the chance to socialise with fellow users and to pick up new knowledge and ideas on computer usage. internet cafés in developing countries thus offer opportunities for ordinary people to obtain access to information and opportunities to communicate. they might, however, also represent a threat to traditions and cultural values. rathore and alhabshi (2005) report from malaysia that cybercafés have primarily emerged as entertainment hubs. the illicit activities in some of these cafés pose a cultural threat to the norms of the malaysian society and the government has worked relentlessly to reduce the ‘evilness’ associated with cybercafés. in some countries, they are even regarded as a political challenge. in china, for instance, hong and huang (2005) report on people’s growing interest in using internet cafés and the authorities’ dilemma as between promoting information and resisting democratization by this means. they also report an extensive use of internet cafés by youngsters and even minors for commercial gambling, violent games, and viewing pornography. a high number of internet cafés have been closed down by the chinese authorities aiming to fight ‘unethical’ use of the internet and to build a safer environment for young chinese people. on the other hand, cybercafés can function as centres for support, education and learning about new tools and therefore could help people to overcome skill deficits which would normally exclude them from access to information and new technologies (haseloff, 2005). in spite of the increasing importance of internet cafés, very limited research has been reported on their diffusion, even in areas of asia and africa, where they represent a major means of access to digital information and communication. internet cafés can be a vital venue for learning and thus developing human resources in poor countries. in this paper, we examine whether this is actually happening. this paper is based on research conducted over a three year period on internet café entrepreneurs and users in indonesia, and corresponding research in tanzania that started in 2004. we have found interesting comparisons between the two countries, which make further extensive research promising. the main objective of this paper is to find out to what degree internet cafés are used for human resource development today and if they have the potential for being important arenas for learning in developing countries in general. to meet these objectives, we have tried to find contextual explanations of similarities and differences in internet café user patterns and frequency in indonesia and tanzania. our aim is to present information useful for the arrangement and start-up of internet cafés in information-poor areas of developing countries and to provide a motivation for including internet cafés an element in national human resource development through individual competence building. the article is organised as follows. after this introduction, we present the theoretical basis from relevant literature, followed by an overview of the socio-economic context and the spread of the internet and internet cafés in indonesia and tanzania. section four describes the methodology and data collection. our empirical findings are presented in section five. in section six we provide conclusions, limitations and prospects for further research. 2. internet cafés in the developing world privately owned internet cafés increasingly represent opportunities for ordinary people in economically poor areas to access the internet. in such venues, computers are made available at various costs and connection speeds, enabling regular or occasional customers to search for, and process, information and to make electronic connections with others via e-mail and chatting. internet café employees normally provide valuable guidance in computer use and information access to inexperienced users. the fact that it is mainly operational costs that have to be paid for by internet users represents a huge advantage in an economically poor context. fixed costs from the purchase of equipment and leased lines are left to the business owners and only charged to the users according to the time spent on-line. in indonesia, two thirds of internet users gain access through internet cafés (kristiansen et al., 2003), and policy documents from tanzania indicate that internet cafés are the main means of internet access in tanzania as well (tanzania ministry of communications and transport, 2003). also in other developing countries, like india, cybercafés play an important role as public internet access points. almost 70% of indian internet users frequent cybercafés and these are the main access point for almost half of the users (haseloff, 2005:9). other sources of internet access are telecenters and internet access points. the differences between telecentres and internet cafés are mainly related to ownership, financing, and the variety of services. telecentres operate mostly as ‘not-for-profit organisations’, relying on various sources of external funding. internet cafés normally represent profit opportunities for the owners and are based on service fees above costs (salvador et al., 2005). internet cafés also normally offer additional bar or dining services, or ordinary convenience store businesses, but their main offer is concentrated around internet use. information access points are represented by an increasing number of terminals for short-term rent in shopping malls, airports and other public sites, especially in developed areas of the world. empirical studies of internet users remain under-represented as an area of academic research (lee, 1999). even less research is conducted on users of internet cafés, and very few reports are from developing countries. mwesige (2004: 84) notes that “the world-wide boom of internet cafés has not seen (a) corresponding inquiry into this form of public access to the internet”. some works on internet cafés in africa have recently been published, however. mutula (2003) provides an overview of cybercafé culture and the growth of this industry in africa, while sairosse and mutula (2004) have mapped the users and use of cybercafés in gaborone city in botswana. they found that cybercafés are increasingly playing a social role as well as being centres of communication through e-mail. they also found some educational use through e-learning. chachage (2001) reports that the main use of the internet in internet cafés were e-mail and that the majority of internet café users and staff in tanzania lack knowledge in using internet resources. numerous studies have been conducted, however, on the adoption of the internet technology in a global context (madden et al., 2000; kiiski and pohjola, 2002; grubesic, 2002). the majority of cross-national work on this topic has been limited to oecd countries, while some studies have also been conducted with a specific focus on the developing world (zhu and he, 2002; wilson and wong, 2003; wolcott and goodman, 2003). an extensive study of internet diffusion is being executed by the mosaic group through the global diffusion of the internet (gdi) project (http://mosaic.unomaha.edu/gdi.html) where nearly 30 countries have been studied over a period of time. per capita income seems to be the overall most important factor explaining global inter-country differences in the internet usage rates. other technological and economic determinants of statistically significant value include telephone and personal computer densities (beilock and dimitrova, 2003) and internet access cost (kiiski and pohjola, 2002). the extension of infrastructure for the use of the internet in developing countries has generally been much slower than in economically rich parts of the world. this is mostly due to low demand and thereby low profitability of ict businesses. however, the disparity in the intensity of ict adoption among countries is wider than the disparities in their gdp per capita, indicating that the digital divide is also increasing and likely to become even more severe in the future (wong, 2002). kling (1999) argued that internet use is a question of social as well as technological access. technological access refers to infrastructure and the physical availability of computer hardware and software, while social access refers to the mix of professional knowledge, economic resources, and technical skills required for the use of ict. it appears that the use of the internet in developing countries in general and of internet cafés in particular is dominated by young and relatively wealthy people, mostly well educated and predominantly male citizens of urban areas (robbins, 2002; mwesige, 2004). to study the adoption of internet, researchers have used established theories from the information systems literature. davis’ (1989) concepts of ‘perceived usefulness’ and ‘perceived ease of use’ still have a dominant position in the stream of theories and models on ict user acceptance. as regards internet use, oyelaran-oyeyinka and adeya (2004) have documented that ‘ease of use’ is regarded as a major constraint even for academics in kenya. quibria et al. (2003) have found that internet use and tertiary education show significant statistical association in asian countries. the ease of use variable normally becomes less significant with increased experience among users (szajna, 1996). this suggests that internet use may increase when users gain knowledge and experience. demographic factors, like gender and age, were not included in the original technology acceptance models (e.g. davis, 1989). venkatesh et al. (2003) have assessed the dominating information technology acceptance models and developed a ‘unified theory of acceptance and use of technology’ (utaut), where four main factors empirically are found to dominate the speed and rate of adoption. the four factors are ‘performance expectancy’, ‘effort expectancy’, ‘social influence’, and ‘facilitating conditions’. in addition, their model comprises demographic factors. age and gender significantly moderate the basic variables in explaining ict user intention in their studies. therefore, in the following we shall concentrate on contextual and socio-economic explanations for variations in internet and internet café use between and within developing countries. 3. socio-economic context and it infrastructure in indonesia and tanzania today, both indonesia and tanzania are multiparty democratic republics. indonesia achieved independence from the netherlands in 1949 while tanzania, a merger of tanganyika and zanzibar, became independent from the uk and was formed in 1964. indonesia, the fourth most populous and largest muslim country in the world with close to 240 million people, still suffers from the severe asian economic crisis of 1997, and the country is at a critical stage in the process of democracy building. more than 40 million people are unemployed (jakarta post, 2003). disparities are huge between rich and poor and between ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ parts of the country. there is a concentration of economic activity and political power on the island of java. information asymmetry follows disparity, and entry barriers into business as well as politics are persistently higher among the poor and peripherally located. the rapidly increasing numbers of internet users represent a potential step in the direction of more equitable access to information. with 37 million people and an area of 945,000 square km, tanzania has 15% of indonesia’s population on 50% of the land mass. tanzania remains one of the least urbanised african countries—urban population is only one-third of the total. the per capita gdp is estimated to be less than one-fifth of indonesia’s, but is probably understated because of the size of the informal sector. according to the tanzania national website (2004), 2.3 million people are unemployed, but the majority of people are self-employed and most work is seasonal in the agricultural and informal sector. sida (2001:7) concludes: ‘tanzania is a country of paradoxes. on the one hand the economic climate has improved, but on the other hand severe poverty persists. multi-party democracy has been introduced, but poor people still have few chances of influencing their own futures’. some national statistics, describing indonesia and tanzania are depicted in table 1, below. the difference between them, regarding social, financial and technological status is significant; indonesia appears far more developed than tanzania. the size and per capita gdp have been mentioned above. the age structure, life expectancy, literacy rate, poverty and health problems (e.g.hiv/aids) clearly favour indonesia. the population of tanzania is far younger than that of indonesia, with more than 44% of tanzanians younger than 15 years. the average age in tanzania is calculated to be 17.6, compared to 26.1 years in indonesia. while people in tanzania can expect to live to be 44.4 years, statistically, indonesians have a life expectancy of 69.3 years, almost 25 years older. both countries have a large proportion of poor people, one quarter in indonesia and one-third in tanzania. the literacy rate is also higher in indonesia, but the difference is rather small. compared to its neighbouring countries, tanzania has a relatively high literacy rate. it is worth noticing, however, that there is a significant difference in literacy between men and women in tanzania. in indonesia, 88% of the people are muslims. less than 10% are christians and there are small minorities of buddhists and hindus. the tanzanian population is divided into three large segments, muslims, christians and indigenous believers. the uk foreign and commonwealth office (2004) estimates the religious distribution in tanzania to be 45% each of muslims and christians and 10% traditional believers. both indonesia and tanzania have their lingua franca. bahasa indonesia is the dominant and official language and is spoken all over indonesia. in tanzania most people have their own, local languages, often quite distinct from each other. however, kiswahili has become the lingua franca of eastern africa and is the official language, spoken by all tanzanians. from secondary school level, all teaching is in english, the second official language of tanzania. table 1: country statistics indonesia tanzania area (sq. km.) 1,919,440 945,087 population (mill.) 238.5 36.6 labour force (mill.) 100.5 13.5 age structure (%) 0-14 years: 15--64 years: 65 -> years 29.4 65.5 5.1 44.2 53.2 2.6 life expectancy at birth (years) 69.3 44.4 religion (%) muslim christian other 88 8 4 38 30 32 literacy rate (% of people aged 15 and over that can read and write) total male female 88.5 92.9 84.1 78.2 85.9 70.7 gdp; purchasing power parity (ppp, billion $) 758.1 21.6 gdp (ppp) per capita ($) 3,179 590 population below poverty line (%) 27 36 official unemployment rate (%) 10.5 12.9 sources: cia (2004) and tanzania national website (2004) the telecommunications and ict infrastructure, as described in table 2, shows significant differences between the two countries, as well. in spite of modest ict expenditures and a low number of internet hosts, the use of the internet in indonesia is growing quickly. the number of internet service provider (isp) licenses issued increased from one in 1994 to 180 by the end of 2002 (purbo, 2002; apjii, 2004). the number of internet users increased by more than 770% between 1998 and 2002, from 512,000 to 4,500,000. apjii (2004) predicted that the number will be 12 million by the end of 2004. given indonesia’s large population, the density of internet users is still low, slightly more than 2%, and lower than the density of phone lines (3%) (directorate general of post and telecommunications, 2001). the tanzania communications commission (tcc) has licensed nine companies to provide data communication services including internet bandwidth. as a result of their policy, tanzania lacks cheap and high capacity connections to the global internet, and there is a large unsatisfied demand in the country for internet access (tanzania ministry of communications and transport, 2003). the number of isps in tanzania increased from one in 1993 to 23 in 2002, servicing between 10,000 and 15,000 subscribers (tanzania ministry of communications and transport, 2003). the number of internet users however has been difficult to identify. the cia (2004) estimates the number to be 80,000 in 2002. this gives a density of internet users of 0.2%, or one-tenth of indonesia. wahid et al. (2004) estimate the number of internet cafés in indonesia to be around 2000. the cafés are highly concentrated and the vast majority are found in the larger cities on the centrally located and densely populated island of java. other major agglomerations include the tourist sites of bali and lombok. there are no reliable statistics on the number of internet cafés in tanzania. tanzania ministry of communications and transport (2003) reports that there are reputed to be over 1,000 cybercafés, more than any other sub-saharan african country, while sida (2001:17) states that: ‘the number of internet cafés in operation in tanzania is hard to assess. estimates from “insiders” range from 100 to 1,000, with the most realistic estimate being 300-400’. chachage (2001) estimates the number to be about 100. other sources (e.g. web-directories and our own experience) indicate that sida’s number (300) is an upper limit. table 2: telecommunications and internet statistics indonesia tanzania telephones – main lines in use (mill.) 2002 7.8 0.2 telephones – mobile cellular (mill.) 2002 11.7 0.7 teledensity – (lines per 100 people) 2002 3 1.2 isps – 2002 180 23 internet hosts – 2002 61,279 1,731 internet subscribers 667,000 14,000 internet users – 2002 4,500,000 80,000 television broadcast stations 1999 41 3 internet cafés – 2002 2000 300-400 sources: directorate of post and telecommunications (2001), tanzania ministry of communications and transport (2003), apjii (2004), sida (2001) 4. data collection and methodology this paper is based on recent surveys of users of internet cafés in the city of yogyakarta in indonesia and in five towns in tanzania. previous in-depth interviews with business owners as well as with users prepared the ground for developing a questionnaire. draft versions of the questionnaire were tested on a number of respondents in indonesia before the final version was decided upon. this questionnaire formed the main research instrument for this study. in indonesia, the questionnaire respondents were all customers whom we physically met in internet cafés in yogyakarta during november december 2003. yogyakarta is a university city, a provincial capital, and has approximately 500,000 inhabitants. for our purposes, yogyakarta city was divided into five geographical clusters based on main lines of demarcation. in each cluster, we randomly selected three internet cafés. the number of venues for data collection thus became 15, which is 10% of the total number of internet cafés in the city. in order to get the most realistic picture of internet use, questionnaires were distributed at three different times of day. within each time period we collected responses from six internet café users at each venue. the total number of respondents is 270. in tanzania, the survey was executed during two periods in 2004, based on the same questionnaire as in indonesia, translated into kiswahili. in january/february, the survey was administered in three towns, iringa, songea and mbeya, in the south-western part of the country, along the main road from dar-es-salaam towards malawi and zambia. the three cities are all mid-sized, with between 100,000 and 250,000 inhabitants each. none of them are typical university-towns or tourist sites. all the seven internet cafés that we found in the three towns were visited, three in mbeya, three in iringa, and one in songea. this resulted in a sample of 63 respondents. in september 2004 we carried out the second phase of the survey in morogoro and dar-es-salaam. morogoro, 220 km east of dar, has 260,000 people some industry and a number of educational institutions, including two small universities. we collected 41 questionnaires in four of the six cafés in town (no selection criteria) from all customers, at different times (morning and afternoon) on two days. dar-es-salaam is the biggest city in tanzania, with 2.5 million people. through our own mapping, combined with various other sources, we found close to 40 internet cafés, mainly in the kinondoni and ilala areas. from this list, we selected 12 of the cafés, based on an even distribution across the two areas. in some cases, we did not get permission from the managers to distribute questionnaires to the customers and in those cases we went to the next, nearby café. half of the cafés were visited in the morning, half in the afternoon. all customers present were asked to fill in the questionnaire and all together 161 valid answers were collected in dar. the total number of respondents in tanzania is 265. a number of additional in-depth interviews with customers in yogyakarta and lombok and in morogoro and dar-es-salaam have helped us in interpreting statistical findings. some quotations from the in-depth interviews are presented in our empirical discussion. 5. empirical findings and discussion table 3 presents the user statistics. it shows that one main difference between the research sites in tanzania and indonesia is the role of yogyakarta as one of the main university sites of indonesia. this was reflected in the composition of the respondents. fully three quarters of the indonesian respondents were students, compared to less than 40% in tanzania. some of the differences among users can therefore (partially) be explained by this, for example average age, marital status and monthly expenditure. one-third of the indonesian internet café customers were women, which is a substantial percentage in a poor, predominantly muslim society. in tanzania the female share is a little higher, 37%. these numbers illustrate the difference in public participation between the two genders in developing countries, in general. one challenge within this context, i.e. to increase the number of female users, will be to make the internet cafés more presentable and suitable for women. saidi, a teacher from zanzibar, tanzania explained that: “women feel shy for the boys when they visit an internet café, that’s a cultural obstacle. they need arrangements for sitting for themselves to feel comfortable.’ the age difference looks marginal between the two national user groups, and might, to some extent be explained by the population composition (see above). but, looking at the age distribution of the total population, where tanzanians are, on average, more than 8 years younger than indonesians, we observe that the tanzanian internet café users are older than we could expect. table 3: descriptive statistics – the ic users yogyakarta in indonesia tanzania number of respondents 270 265 gender distribution, male/female (%) 68/32 63/37 age average 22.2 25.6 marital status – single (%) 92.6 77.6 education elementary (6-7 years) 4.5 8.9 high school (junior/senior; 9-12 years ) 58.2 58.6 university (diploma/bachelor/master; 13 years +) 37.3 32.3 employment students 72.2 38.1 self employed 9.3 15.5 governmental .7 9.8 private company 12.2 26.3 unemployed 4.4 10.5 monthly total expenditure (usd) 62.20 200.95 monthly spending in internet cafés (usd) 6.51 11.60 internet café fees, price per hour (usd) 0.29-0.35 0.50-1.14 skills and knowledge computer knowledge 2.80 2.78 internet knowledge 2.75 3.10 english proficiency 2.73 3.73 frequency of use of internet cafés – days/month 9.1 13.2 time spent per internet café visit hours 2.6 1.8 alternative places to access the internet home 5.9 4.6 at work place 11.1 9.0 at school/university 23.7 8.5 1 usd = 1,050 tanzanian shillings (tsh) = 8,600 indonesian rupies (rp) based on the background of the high proportion of students among indonesian users, we find surprisingly small differences when it comes to educational level between the two countries. around one-third of the users in both countries have some university education. the main impression is that the internet café users are well-educated, which is also well documented in the literature (e.g. chachage, 2001; mwesige, 2004; haseloff, 2005). less than one out of twenty indonesian users have only completed their primary education, while in tanzania close to 10% of the users have only elementary (6-7 years) education, which is a little higher than might be expected. this finding suggests the need for closer study into finding ways to attract a wider range of user groups to internet cafés in general. while there were almost no governmental employees among the indonesian users, 10% of the tanzanians had governmental positions. one explanation could be the lack of alternative places to access the internet for this group. according to sida (2001:28), ’… the level of automation (in the governmental sector) is low and is exacerbated by shortage of skills, equipment and money’. there is a surprisingly high share of unemployed people among the tanzanian users (10%), considering the relatively (compared to per capita gdp) expensive internet café fees. tanzania is categorised as one of the poorest countries in the world. even if tanzanians, on average, are poorer than indonesians (one-fifth of the per capita gdp), the internet café users there spend three times more money as a total and 80% more on internet café fees than the indonesians. there are various potential explanations for these numbers; the most obvious is the users’ employment position, where the indonesians are dominated by students, while there is a large portion of professionals (more than 40%) among the tanzanians. our impression is that all users spend a surprisingly large amount of money on internet café fees. tanzanians spend more than 5%, while indonesian internet café users spend as much as 10% of their monthly expenditures on internet café fees. users in tanzania visit the cafés more frequently than indonesians in yogyakarta, but they spend a shorter time per visit. altogether the two groups spend almost exactly the same time in the internet cafés during one month. as mentioned above, the educational level is remarkably similar between the two national groups of users, and the two groups have an almost parallel perception of their own computer knowledge. the tanzanians’ perception of their internet knowledge is a little higher than the indonesians and there is a clear difference in the understanding of their own english language proficiency. on a scale from one to five (five is best), the tanzanian users score as high as 3.73 on average, compared to 2.73 among indonesians. the explanation is, most probably, the wide use of the english language in the tanzanian school and society. when looking at the various types of use of internet cafés from table 4, one main finding from our surveys is that the internet cafés, to a high degree, are used for competence development. seeking information (rank 1) and research (rank 5/4), both fall into that category, while e-mail, reading news, downloading information and software for professional use, and doing business all may contain important elements of competence building. the correspondence between the two rankings is more striking than the differences, suggesting that the use of internet cafés is somewhat similar even in the different context in the different countries. through in-depth interviews, we have tried to trace the change, or development, in internet café use for various user groups. many, especially young people, star with pure entertainment and socialising, such as through chatting, games etc. we found however, that the use changes over time, being more ‘serious’ or useful after a period of time. gaspar, the manager of an internet café in dar-es-salaam, had noticed about his customers: ‘… at first (they) use e-mail only. after a while, instead of only waiting, they start to read news, seek other information and sometimes end up with more professional uses. young people who come for entertainment – after they have played games for some time, seek information for their school work and now or then print the information for later use’. purnomo, the owner of an internet café in yogyakarta told us: ‘after the economic crisis – users are more selective in their spending. generally, there is a change in motivation for using the internet café among students. they used to use the internet for entertainment, but today they use it for specific purposes, such as searching articles to support their thesis or for communication’. donny, running the b@yonet internet café in yogyakarta, similarly related that: ‘we see that students (including high school pupils) now search information in the internet, not in libraries anymore.’ table 4: internet café use (during this visit) in indonesia (n=266) and tanzania (n=265) type of use indonesia tanzania n % of sample rank n % of sample rank seeking information 256 94.8 1 192 72.5 1 e-mail 238 88.1 2 191 72.1 2 chatting 191 70.7 3 161 60.8 3 reading online news 179 66.3 4 136 51.3 5 research 150 55.6 5 152 57.4 4 computer games 103 38.1 6 98 37.0 6 downloading software for professional use 102 37.8 7 87 32.8 8 downloading software for amusement 102 37.8 7 86 32.5 9 downloading music 95 35.2 9 94 35.5 7 visiting pornographic sites 74 27.4 10 46 17.4 12 doing business 73 27.0 11 57 21.5 11 e-shopping 52 19.3 12 61 23.0 10 gambling 43 15.9 13 34 12.8 13 our findings are in line with those of studies in other parts of africa. odero (2003) investigated why students in pretoria, south africa, used the internet café and found that postgraduates tended to use the internet as an educational resource, while undergraduates used the internet to chat, listen to music, send free sms, and other forms of entertainment. where do people learn to use the internet? table 5 shows that only a few of the internet café users have learned to use the internet at school or through formal courses. most of the training has taken place in the cafés, where the users have learned by themselves supported by friends and staff. almost half of the tanzanian users have learned from the internet café staff, while most of the indonesian users have learned to use the internet by themselves combined with help from their friends in the cafés. felix, a 20 years old student in morogoro used the internet for the first time one year ago: ‘i learned it from myself and from the staff – they are most helpful and have helped me very much.’ the manager of the sea boys internet café in dar-es-salaam has more than 50% regular customers. ‘they become my friends and then i advise them on how to use the computers and access the internet’. sheila, a 19 years old high school student in yogyakarta is using the internet 3-4 times a week. she learned it by ‘… asking friends of same age. many friends knew a lot of the internet’. table 5: how did you learn to use the internet? source of knowledge indonesia tanzania n % n % formal course 29 10,90 79 29,81 self-learning 169 63,53 66 24,91 asking friend 176 66,17 78 29,43 internet café staff 62 23,31 118 44,53 finally we looked at barriers to internet use in internet cafés (see table 6) and found that users from indonesia and tanzania look differently at the obstacles to increased use. tanzanians rank cost as the most important factor. more than 50% of the respondents would have used the internet more if the price was reduced. looking at the national differences between general economic level (table 1) and the internet café fees (table 3), this is easy to understand. the price is two to three times higher in tanzania than in indonesia. while infrastructure quality (access speed) is ranked as obstacle number one in indonesia, this is only the third most important hindrance in tanzania. in indonesia, there are only marginal differences between the three highest ranks. in tanzania, costs have a much higher score than the other barriers. we have included some quotations from in-depth interviews to illuminate the cost and infrastructure issues: arafa, a 24 year old female internet café customer in dar-es-salaam thought that: ‘in tanzania it is very expensive to use the internet and lack of cash is the first and most serious limitation to my use of internet cafés, then comes spare time’. bambang is a 28 year old engineer from yogyakarta. he has been using the internet since 1998 and says that the reason he uses this specific internet café is the access speed. ‘the connection is fast. usually big internet cafés have good bandwidth. small internet cafés with limited budgets often lease only limited internet bandwidth. the rental price is not my main consideration, as long as the rate is compensated by the speed of access.’ sheila, a female student in yogyakarta, also feels that bad infrastructure is a problem for her: ‘i don’t like to open indonesian websites. it takes too much time to download because of the quality of the servers they use. because of that, i use english 90% of the time when accessing the internet and i’m sure i would use the internet even more if it was equally easy to access the indonesian websites’. the significance of the amount of useful information being identified is interesting to examine more closely. this has higher relevance in indonesia than in tanzania, where less than 10% of the respondents have pointed to this factor as an obstacle to increased use. one explanation could be their english language proficiency (see table 3). from our detailed numbers, we can see that the indonesian users use english and bahasa indonesia equally when accessing the internet, while the tanzanians use kiswahili to a very limited degree (less than 20%). although some indonesian users prefer to use english when they access the internet, many still regard a lack of useful information in indonesian as an obstacle to increased internet use. independent of their language knowledge, the amount of web-based information in their own language is an interesting issue in this connection. the tanzania ministry of communications and transport, (2003:4) states that: ‘while there are many tanzanian websites, most of these are in english … however, an encouraging phenomenon is that kiswahili is recognised as being the african language with the greatest web presence’. table 6: factors limiting internet use the barriers to internet use in internet cafés corresponds to a certain degree with some of the general theory we presented in section 2. access speed is clearly linked to “perceived ease of use” and amount of useful information to “perceived usefulness” in the technology acceptance model (davis, 1989) and utaut (venkatesh et al., 2003). kiiski and pohjola (2002) point to the importance of internet access cost as an explanation of differences in internet usage. 6. conclusions in our study, we show that internet cafés are today the main access point to computers and to the internet for people in developing countries such as indonesia and tanzania. if they are spread further into rural areas, they have the potential to be important tools for bridging the digital divide within such countries and to level the information asymmetry. for a wide range of users, we have shown that internet cafés are perceived as suitable and economically acceptable sources of information and knowledge. tanzania and indonesia are two developing countries at very different levels of development. we found, however, that the users of internet cafés and their use are so uniform that we find it natural to draw general conclusions. the cafés are, to a large extent, used as arenas for human resource development, through research, information seeking and other professional use, and we found that users are willing to spend a high proportion of their income on internet café fees. in this paper, we have tried to describe the internet café as a ‘classroom’ for learning, both to use computers and to access information on the global internet. our study shows that today, internet cafés act as internet training schools, places for learning, and that they will have a potential to extend this training to a broader area of knowledge with increased competence and contribution from the internet café staff. today, the users are, in general, well educated. for the internet cafés to become more attractive for ordinary, less educated people in developing countries, it is important to raise the competence and to increase the awareness of the internet café staff. then they will be able to help and guide the users in a more effective way. training courses, combined with practical use, could be a valuable source for additional income for the internet café business, and is a useful way to extend the customer base and the market. sending and receiving electronic mail is the most common use of the internet among all internet café users. the internet café use pattern seems to change over time. new and young users start their ’career’ with entertainment and socialising, like chatting and playing games. after a while, more serious use, like information retrieval and research takes over. due to the english language’s dominant position on the world wide web, english language proficiency plays an important role for users in obtaining full benefit from their internet café use. tanzanian users derive advantage from the extensive use of english language in tanzanian society. low infrastructure quality (access speed) is the most important obstacle to increased use among indonesian users, while costs are considered most important among more than half of the tanzanian users. all together, access speed and price are the highest ranked factors limiting internet use in internet cafés. these two factors are linked together, and must be important government challenges in supporting improvements in and the spread of affordable internet access. a limitation in our study is the lack of information about non-users. to make interesting comparisons between users and non-users, this study might be followed up by collecting data from a sample of non-users in the same social and economical contexts. another interesting question is to see how internet cafés can attract new groups of users to 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(2003). african information revolution: a balance sheet. telecommunications policy, 27(1-2), 155-177. wolcott, p., & goodman, s. (2003). india: is the elephant learning to dance? communications of the association for information systems, 11, 560-646. wong, p.k. (2002). ict production and diffusion in asia: digital dividends or digital divide? information economics and policy, 14(2), 167-187. zhu, j.j.h., & he, z. (2002). perceived characteristics, perceived needs, and perceived popularity. communication research, 29(4), 466-495. community networks as lead users in online public services design fiorella de cindio fiorella.decindio@unimi.it laura anna ripamonti ripamonti@dico.unimi.it cristian peraboni peraboni@dico.unimi.it d.i.co. universita degli studi di milano italy 1. introduction computer professionals are accustomed to conceptualizing the people who use the applications they develop as users. unfortunately, too often this implicitly means that a passive role is thus being assigned. research fields within computer science such as human-computer interaction (hci) and participatory design (pd) suggest giving much more relevance to people in the design process of computer-based systems. the business world shows a similar attitude, people are no longer considered as passive consumers of products or services, but become a fundamental asset: companies look at customers needs and remarks to improve existing products and conceive innovative ones. however recent development in managerial approach to product/service innovation took a step forward: as we shall discuss in section 1.2, they recognize that customers contribution to innovation is even more significant and effective when they cooperates within innovation communities. this matches with the outcomes of our own research in the area of community networks, digital cities, e-government services and e-democracy. in the network society, as well as in the traditional one, people are owner of a fundamental sovereignty right which should allow them to play an active role in shaping their working and social life. however this role cannot be played in isolation: people have to overcome an individual perspective and act as communities: an individual remark may be wrong, a single protest may be biased, while, on the contrary, a community which converges over a shared understanding is a precious asset for designing computer-based systems and online services. the net makes this change feasible and both the private and the public sector can effectively exploit these new perspectives. however, if we focus on online public services, community networks also provide a context which collect people focused on the amelioration of civic life through the use of ict and computer mediated communication. this suggested us the idea that citizens’ online communities can be seen as a mean for supporting the design of effective interactive online public services. to support this vision, in this paper we will firstly (section 1) borrow from the above mentioned disciplinary fields concepts and ideas, empirically supported, in section 2, by two case studies. on this basis, in section 3 we abstract from them to sketch a prospective approach to innovative online public service design. 1.1. a role for users in system design participatory design of computer-based systems, as we know it now, comes from a quite long tradition which can be quickly summarized by recalling the work of two key persons. the first one is enid mumford who, in the 1960s, introduced the socio-technical approach to work organization developed at the tavistock institute into the design and implementation of information systems. at that time, the computer-based system designers’ attitude was to develop software solutions according to their understanding of what people are supposed to do with computer-based applications. this approach led to many unsuccessful experiences and enid mumford’ groundbreaking work (mumford, 1983) highlighted that, to avoid these failures – as well as for ethical reasons – it is necessary to involve workers in the redesign of their work. the second key person is kristen nygaard, the computer-scientist co-inventor of simula67, the first running object-oriented programming language, who was the inspiring promoter of an international conference held – at the beginning of the 1980s – under the auspices of the international federation for information processing (ifip) that focused the discussion on the theme "system design for, with and by the users" (briefs, ciborra & schneider, 1983; nygaard, 1983). these three prepositions identify three layers of users involvement: the first one reflects enid mumford achievements: systems have to be designed for the users, taking into account their needs and perspectives, as any system designer or software developer nowadays should well know. the second layer makes a step further and consists in involving users as actors of the design phase, while the third one is when the system is conceived and designed by users themselves, with computer professionals playing as consultants and enablers. pd evolved over the years (e.g. see schuler & namioka, 1993; blomberg & kensing, 1998). the proceedings of the biannual participatory design conference organized by computer professionals for social responsibility (www.cpsr.org) track this development and present several success stories. however, in spite of its strong stress on the active involvement of people, pd contained the seed of a contradiction: it did not completely succeed in deterring attention from the idea of user – that intrinsically implies a passive role – and, as a matter of fact, this term still occurs frequently in pd literature. beside pd, other approaches flourished within computer science, showing a similar strong interest for the design phase of products and services and emphasising attention on the “customers”: human-computer interaction (hci) and interaction design (id). while hci is about the design of ict-based products and services only, id covers – with a more exhaustive approach – any type of human artefacts. both are focused on the user point of view, considering both usability and user experience issues (preece, rogers & sharp, 2002). again, like in the pd approach, the main actor is a user, but now with a different stress: interaction design aims at discovering new ways of supporting people using technology, and winograd (1997) defines it as “the design of spaces for human communication and interaction”. while all these approaches well define how users should be involved in the design processes, they are weaker in driving the selection of representative samples of users. in spite of their inspiring principles, these approaches seem to underestimate the fact that users samples selected by applying statistical criteria are not always satisfying when the members of these samples are expected to be active actors in the innovation design process, as they are not necessarily committed into the role. we think that this limit could be, at least partially, overcome by borrowing ideas from managerial studies focusing on the innovation processes started by users. 1.2. designing products and services: lead users and innovation communities well-known theories in the field of innovation processes describe in detail how users can become sources of innovation in product and processes, and demonstrate that all “user-innovators” share a set of well-defined common attributes. this characterization can be adopted to select highly committed and effectively skilled users to be involved in the design processes, sharpening and optimizing their outcomes. von hippel extensive works about the sources of innovation (von hippel, 2005, 2002, 1988) provide fruitful elements to sketch the above mentioned attributes. the seed of his theories lays in the observation that often the most successful product or service innovations are conceived not by producers, but by users (being them individuals or companies). this claim is supported by a substantial amount of empirical evidence, although it is intuitive that users choose successful innovative paths for specific products/services since they are the best knower of their real needs and the only to benefit directly from the innovations introduced (while innovations and improvements might not necessarily be cost-effective for companies). von hippel underlines that not every user is endowed with the innovative ability, but that it is possible to define the attributes of those he calls the “lead users”, i.e., the particular set of users really involved in the product/service innovative process. according to him, lead users show two special characteristics: “they are ahead of the majority of users in their populations with respect to an important market trend, and they expect to gain relatively high benefits from a solution to the needs they have encountered there” (von hippel, 2005, p.4). therefore, lead users can be a key to a successful involvement of users in design processes, since they can be considered effective proxies of the behaviour of the large mass of “everymen” expected to adopt the product/service in the short term future. their involvement could become crucial to foreseeing – especially in the design, prototyping and testing phases – needs and expectations that the product/service under development should match in the medium term. von hippel investigates also beyond the mere individual attitude towards innovation and unveils how common and effective the direct, informal, user-to-user cooperation can be in organizing the often widely distributed innovation process among lead users (as it is the case, e.g., of free/open source software development). this cooperation tends to give rise to what he calls “innovation communities”, that create value as they enrich the social capital. this is no novelty, since the study of communities as knowledge creation environments is an hot topic in a variety of disciplinary fields, such as: sociology (bender & kruger, 1982), marketing (cova, 2003), knowledge management (mcdermott, 1999, wenger, mcdermott & snyder, 2002), product innovation (davenport & beck, 2001), etc. in particular von hippel adopts wellman’s definition of community (wellman, boase & chen, 2002) to define "innovation communities as meaning nodes consisting of individuals or firms interconnected by information transfer links which may involve face-to-face, electronic, or other communication. these can, but need not, exist within the boundaries of a membership group. they often do, but need not, incorporate the qualities of communities for participants, where “communities” is defined as meaning “networks of interpersonal ties that provide sociability, support, information, a sense of belonging, and a social identity” (von hippel, 2005, p.96). in most cases the innovation is created by specific communities for themselves: the “glue” for the skateboard community described in (von hippel, 2005) is “improving skateboards”. the same somehow held at the beginning for the free/open source software communities: linux was created because software developers needed a free and better operating system; the apache software development started by the need of a web server, php-nuke (among the others) from the demand of a cms (content management system), and so on. however the resulting innovation widely overcomes the boundaries of the developers communities and provides advantages for a substantial mass of software users. we dare say that it is possible to effectively push forward this approach, i.e., to rely upon the experience, the knowledge and the relationships collected within community networks to improve the design of innovative online public services. 1.3. community networks and online public service design the streams of research discussed in the previous paragraphs suggested us that community networks can be seen as a lead users to be involved in the pd of innovative online public services to be then used by significant numbers of generic citizens. actually, the distinguished attributes of a community network well fit von hippel’s definition of lead users and innovation communities if one considers “public affairs” – which are the specific area of interest of community networks – as the specific “market” and the design of online public services as the target innovation. in fact, on the one hand, we notice that the members of a community network – that can be seen as an online community focused on public affairs (schuler, 2000) – are individuals interested in improving the urban life by the appropriate use of online public services, quite familiar with the use of online applications and used to share, compare and discuss among them experiences done offline as well as online. they can therefore well anticipate the majority of the population in the use of online public services (e-participation, e-government, e-democracy) and may provide useful feedback from their early use. this is to say that individuals (or at least a subset of them) belonging to a community network possess the attributes of lead users. on the other hand, we notice that the notion of innovation community proposed by von hippel well fits with the kind of links, ties and relationships which take place, both on and off line, among the members of a community network. considering community networks as a lead users to be involved in the pd of innovative online public services is particularly relevant to let these new services be actually used by citizens. in fact, as preece, rogers & sharp (2002, p.173) underline: “introducing something new into people’s lives […] requires a culture change in the target user population”, and when internet services are involved “it is always useful to start by understanding similar behaviour that is already established”. foreseeing the requests and acceptance of a new online service in subsequent years by the large mass of undistinguished and heterogeneous ordinary citizens is not at all an easy matter; hence, analysing community network members response could be helpful to predict people’s behaviour. in the next section, by discussing two case studies, we provide empirical support to the conjecture that community networks can be seen as a lead users to be involved in the pd of innovative online public services. 2. community networks as lead users and innovation communities: two case studies the first case study concerns the involvement of two community networks – oyk and rcm – in a european project on e-vote, while the second the framework of cooperation between rcm and the province of milan. oyk (oppiva ylä-karjala) is a community network based in the upper north karelia (the eastern forest periphery) region of finland, consisting of three neighboring municipalities with a total area of 4500 km2 and a population of about 20,000 inhabitants (5078 of whom are subscribers of oyk). oyk was born in 2000 from the learning upper north karelia european project, aimed at improving ict skills of people living in sparsely populated and declining areas. rcm stands for rete civica di milano (italy) and is a community network based in milan (located in lombardy, the northern most developed italian region, with a population of 1,200,00 inhabitants, 20,000 of whom are rcm subscribers and 3500 of them are very active members). rcm was started in 1994 as a project of the community informatics laboratory of università degli studi di milano, and since 1998 is a participatory foundation whose charter members are the lombardy region, the milan chamber of commerce, the province of milan and the university of milan (de cindio, 2004). these two community networks provide experimental support to idea that community members can anticipate the behaviour of ordinary people while using new online public service. in neither project was this idea stated clearly from the beginning: it emerged naturally when everybody involved in the projects was forced to recognise the pivotal role that community networks members were playing during the lifecycle of both projects. 2.1. true-vote: assessing people’s acceptance of an e-voting system the true-vote project had been funded by the european union and has been developed by a consortium composed by: two universities, three private companies, two municipalities, two community networks and a regional trade union, from five european countries (italy, france, united kingdom, finland and the netherlands). it was aimed at developing an internet voting system based on a public key infrastructure (pki) and testing its use in extensive field experiments. it included an accurate analysis of users’ opinions and needs, the design and implementation of a secure voting protocol (bruschi, poletti & rosti, 2002), and field experiments in five different contexts: two municipalities (orsay, france and newham, uk), two communities – rcm, italy and oyk, finland – and a regional trade union (cgil lombardia, italy) (van den besselaar et al., 2003). in the following analysis we will leave aside cgil, since it is a non-profit “private” subject, thus not directly comparable to the community networks or the municipalities in representing the ordinary citizen faced with innovative online services. during the project lifecycle, the role of the two community networks – rcm and oyk – was revealed as far more rich in potential than what one could have foreseen. members of both the online communities adhered actively to the project, collaborating effectively to the definition of the requirements and features of the e-voting system. on the contrary, the involvement of the citizens of orsay and newham (as well as of the trade union members) basically failed. this has been clear from the very first phases of the true-vote project, when several focus groups (morgan, 1988) were organized to collect people’s expectations, concerns, doubts, etc. on e-voting, in order to define guidelines for software developers. and it became clearer in the following phases, due to the different types of contributions the community networks offered to true-vote. basically the benefits they produced during the different project phases can be summed up as follows: definition of system requirements: 14 focus groups were set-up, 8 of which were carried on within the online communities (5 in rcm and 3 in oyk). the outcomes of the discussion held in rcm and oyk had been by far the most useful and effective for the project. this was the opinion of both the developers, who got several remarks and suggestions helpful for the system design, especially the user interface, and of the social scientists partners of the project, who were in charge of assessing e-voting in general – and the specific software in particular – from a user perspective (oosteneen and van den besselaar, 2004). this greater involvement and capability of effectively contributing to the project seemed to be due to the stronger commitment and the superior technical skills and practical knowledge of the communities’ members, that allowed them to envisage the potential problems and discuss the possible solutions facing with quite technical issues. testing of the voting application: beta-testing: when the unforeseen necessity of setting up a beta-tester group arose, software developers explicitly asked to involve only community members (80 people selected among rcm volunteers), since they were seen as more active, reliable and skilled. suggestion for improvements and bug fixing: both rcm and oyk members were very active in reporting technical problems and bugs – and in suggesting possible solutions – to software developers. rcm members alone, on these issues, produced 427 emails in a public forum plus 1016 emails sent to a private address (unfortunately no similar data had been collected for oyk). voting sessions organization: between december 2002 and march 2003 each demonstrator partner performed three voting sessions. eligible voters got a smart card containing their digital signature. votes could be cast either from a kiosk or from a pc (at home or at work) equipped with a smart card reader provided by the project organization. obviously using the pc required a certain amount of technical skills: voters had to install the smart-card reader and the voting software application. this was not so trivial and was further complicated by the fact that the voting application was still a prototype. because of these difficulties, orsay and newham decided to adopt only kiosks, unlike rcm and oyk that chose to use pcs. also, rcm and oyk participation rate was higher, and decreased quite little in percentage along the three different voting sessions. the community networks proactive cooperation has been relevant under different perspectives: support of the community: from joint analysis of voting experiments and feedback received from the voters it emerged that the special appeal of using a new technology decreases significantly among people not used to digital mediated interaction (in this case: voters not belonging to a community network). this is partially due to computer illiteracy (in the case of newham) and to technical and/or usability problems (van den besselaar et al., 2003). nevertheless data suggest that rcm and oyk voters were supported by the cooperative community environment while facing technical problems. these voters were thus able to overcome difficulties thanks to the – trusted – help of other community members. this aptitude is not easily achievable outside a community (e.g. among “anonymous” citizens of a large municipality): for example in several cases (both in rcm and oyk) a small group of community members arranged their pcs like a “kiosk”, thus enabling other members – who were experiencing technical difficulties – to cast their vote. self-organization: the logistic organization of the voting experiments had been quite difficult in the two municipalities, while a curious phenomenon occurred in the two community networks. since the mailing of smart card readers was experiencing difficulties and delays, both rcm and oyk made their minds up to organize autonomously several kiosks for voters still unequipped with smart card readers. in oyk a kiosk was set up even in the mayor’s office, while rcm organized a kiosk in the offices of province of milan, for the public body employees. voting sessions assessment: after the end of the voting experiments, the voters were asked to answer to an online survey. again, the two community networks surprised the whole project consortium with a response rate of about the 100%, while this wasn’t the case with orsay and newham. in fact, to investigate the use and effects of internet voting, the sociologists partners of the true-vote project, could use only of the questionnaires collected by the two community networks (oosteneen and van den besselaar, 2004). if we dig deeper into the organization of the true-vote voting sessions, we discover other intriguing hints of the relevance of involving online communities in the design of innovative online public services. orsay, thanks to its quite small dimensions (more or less 16,500 people, among whom a large number of students and researchers), the high academic, scientific and technical concentration on its territory, and the strong commitment of the municipality – could afford to try involving all its eligible voters in the e-voting experiment. every citizen in the electoral roll got an official letter from the municipality, inviting her to participate to the voting pilots. in newham (a london borough with a high rate of poverty and more or less 230,000 inhabitants) the municipality chose to restrict the experiment to the residents of a new estate. all the registered and active members of the two community networks were invited to participate, moreover a small group of new members signed up to rcm and oyk precisely with the purpose of participating to the experiment. table 1 summarizes the participation rates of the demonstrators, highlighting the gap among voters belonging to a community (rcm and oyk) with respect to “individual” citizens (orsay and newham). the much better performance in turnout is so evident that it does not need further comments. the higher registration rate of the two community networks becomes more significant than the figures state if one takes into account that in newham the target population was resident in the same estate and therefore quite easily reachable by the project facilitators (paid by the newham municipality) who succeeded in registering to the voting experiment the 6,8% of the target population; but this quite good result was no at all confirmed by the people participation to the voting experiment, as the very low turnout rate shows. in orsay the good percentage of registration was reached thanks to a massive campaigning by the municipality who sent an official letter to all the citizens. on the contrary, the two community networks did the recruiting entirely online without any support by the local government. therefore, their apparently not so different registration rate becomes much more significant, and it is actually confirmed by the average turnout, in both cases over the 50%. table 1 participation rates among the demonstrators of tru-evote project rcm oyk orsay newham members/citizens (tot.) 3500 5078 16500 1400 registered voters1 303 396 925 96 registration rate2 (%) 8.6 7.3 5.6 6.8 turnout average3 (%) 60 56.3 39.3 10 1 number of volunteers actually involved in the voting experiments 2 registered voters as percentage of members/citizens 3 votes as percentage of registered voters these data can be explained by considering the goals and motivations for participating in the voting pilots declared by each demonstrator organization. both orsay and newham focused on tackling people’s interest in political voting (they both had been involved also in other e-voting pilots), since they were looking for new means of raising the continuously decreasing turnout of voters at each election. the two community networks, instead, considered the e-voting experiment a natural extension of their continuous engagement in developing innovative online services and solutions supporting the community itself and its dialogue and democratic interaction with the public bodies. it is worth noticing that both the members of rcm and of oyk periodically “vote” for polling and for internal elections by using ad hoc software. for this reason they had already faced issues related to secrecy, security, accountability, etc. and were strongly concerned in experimenting new, more effective, solutions. the two community networks actually demonstrated in the project a greater commitment and a much more pro-active attitude with respect to those expressed by newham and orsay, thus supporting the idea that they can be seen as innovation communities for the design, in this case, of a trusted e-voting application. 2.2. province of milan: keeping in touch with citizens the province of milan is a local government body in between the municipalities of the milan metropolitan area and the lombardy region: it supervises and coordinates the activities of 188 municipalities. it has been among the first local government bodies in italy perceiving the importance of the internet as a new, interactive, communication channel with citizens. already in 1993 the province of milan had its web site. in 1995 rcm proposed to the province – which accepted – to set up several so called “linee dirette” (literally “direct lines”, which in english may sound somewhat like: “keeping in touch”). they were the first channel the local government body offered to its citizens for dialoguing in moderated public forums with several of its offices and with the president of the province. in the beginning only rcm members could access these services, thanks to the fact that they had subscribed a “galateo” when they registered to the community network. the galateo is a specialized netiquette, composed of a set of rules aimed at guaranteeing fair online behavior (de cindio et al., 2003). milan province saw it as a prerequisite for guaranteeing a free discussion, since it can be used – if necessary – as an effective tool for stopping flames, insults, provocations and the like. as time went by, the galateo had been revised and more and more refined to better suit the needs of the dialogue between citizens and the local public body. for example, very soon the necessity of specifying the answer-time to citizens’ questions arose: for people used to real-time online interaction, it was quite unacceptable to wait one or more days for obtaining an answer. unfortunately, most of them did not figure out that public employees do not work during the week-end or in the evenings (and that many employees were answering only on a volunteer basis). in the same vein, while private citizens write only under their own responsibility, public employees hold the responsibility of answering on the behalf of the institution they belong to. this implies a longer answering time, which sometimes mirrors the bureaucracy public employees are faced with when seeking appropriate information to supply to the citizens. however, thanks to the fact that the citizen questions are not sent to a private mailbox, as often happens, but to public forum, everybody has visibility of the answering delay. the province found this experience very useful for familiarizing with the management of online communication, and for understanding the opportunities offered by the internet to set up new, unstructured channels for dialoguing with citizens. its employees, too, had the opportunity to learn hands-on the online dialogue principles in a sort of “protected environment” – the community network itself. this pivotal experience convinced the province of the importance and of the actual possibility of managing online public dialogue with citizens. the forums, initially opened within rcm, i.e., readable and writable only by rcm subscribers, have then been linked to the official site of province, readable and writable by anybody (see http://www.retecivica.milano.it/provincia/lineedirette.php). the fine tuning of the galateo with the rcm members produced a set of well balanced rules of behavior and policies that since then govern conversations in these public forums. they turned out to be, over the years, well suited to manage the drawbacks and difficulties that an open communication with citizens may have, such as an online protest and campaigning against decisions taken by the province president. again, this example shows that rcm members have acted as early adopters and lead users for the design and development of an online public service – in this case, an online public forum supporting public dialogue among citizens and a local authority – directly influencing its most critical aspect, namely the definition of an appropriate “communication contract” between the citizens and the province offices. it is worth remembering that, in italy, other experiences of online public dialogue among local bodies and their citizens had to be shut down. this happened because the involved local bodies, without the interplay with a community members, did not realized the relevance of publishing the “communication contract” with citizens, and completely lost control in the face of protests and campaigning of citizens on their website. in contrast, thanks to the test and tuning of the galateo with rcm subscribers, no serious problem arose within the province’s “linee dirette” when they were opened to every citizen. this led to the great success achieved in 2004 (and repeated afterwards): the province of milan received the best score among the most “interactive” public web sites in the yearly placing done by censis, the italian research institute, which surveys since 1997 digital cities and e-government services. 3. a prospective approach: community network members as “everyman” once accepted the idea that it is possible to rely upon the experiences, the knowledge and the relationships collected within a community network to improve the design of innovative online public services, two methodological problems arise. firstly: to what extent a sample of today members of the online community is representative of tomorrow’s ordinary users? in fact, if the composition of the population of the community network significantly diverges from the composition of target users of the online public service, the advantages deriving from involving it as innovation community could vanish or even become misleading. secondly: is it possible to infer guidelines for driving the design of online public service in such a way that the design process can take advantage from the actual involvement of a community network? these two issues are discussed in the next paragraphs. 3.1. similarities and differences between community networks’ members and ordinary citizens since no detailed profiling system is adopted by rcm (due to a combination of technical, social and historical reasons), it is not easy to determine how much a sample of its “typical” members is, or is not, really representative of the ordinary people. however, a survey made by censis several years ago (censis, assinform, rur, 1998) already proved that the composition (for distribution of age classes) of rcm population is more similar to that of the italian population than that of the typical italian internet users. in order to confirm this point, we have compared the profile (age and literacy) of members that registered to rcm in 2003 to the profile of internet users in 2003 and to the composition of the italian population (see fig.1). rcm’s member data are taken from the database of the registered users, that is fed with the data of each new subscriber. the profile of the italian internet users is taken from the yearly survey done by censis (hence it is a “statistical” data). finally, the composition of the italian population is taken directly from the data collected during the last census by the italian national institute of statistics (istat, 2001). since our sources are so heterogeneous, the comparison – at the moment – can be only qualitative. however, for our present aim, a qualitative comparison of the different curves is enough. in fig.1 age classes of the italian population, the italian internet users and rcm subscribers are compared. notice that, while the data of the italian population and the italian internet users are quite immediately comparable (internet users data is given as percentage on the total population per age class), the data of rcm subscribers are given – for every age class – as percentage of the total of the subscribers. what can be noticed is that the curves of internet users and rcm subscribers are quite similar – except for a peak on the 20-29 years class, while they both differ from the population curve for ages above 59 years. the peak is easily explainable, since rcm hosts several educational activities (mainly related to undergraduate courses in informatics). anyhow, the composition (age classes) of rcm subscribers in 2003 is similar to the one of the typical internet user and of the population with less than 60 years. this comparison is biased by the fact that the rcm data are referred only to members that subscribed during 2003. we think that, collecting the cumulated data (from 1994 to 2003) about the age of all the rcm members, we would obtain a distribution closer to the one that emerged from the censis survey made in 1998 we mentioned above. collecting these data will be the next step in our research. figure 1: comparison among rcm subscribers, internet users and population: age classes in fig.2 we have compared the degree of formal education of the italian population to that of the italian internet users and of the rcm subscribers in 2002 and 2003. the data sources are the same as for age classes in fig.1. it is important to point out that the percentages of internet users are calculated on the total population, while for rcm they are referred to the total of rcm subscribers. the distribution of percentages of internet users varies sensibly along the temporal interval, while it is quite stable in rcm. among internet users the rate of “university degree and more” significantly increased during the period 2000 – 2003, while the same does not hold true in rcm. one possible explanation of this phenomenon is the massive diffusion – in that period – of the internet in the business world, pushing new, better-trained and higher-educated users on the net. the largest gap between rcm’s curves and the population’s one is located in the lower levels. this is not surprising: people in their sixties (or more) present the highest rate of low formal education, since, in italy, the compulsory education till the age of 14 has been introduced only during the 60s of the last century. in general, for the purpose of this work, we observe that the composition (for age and literacy classes) of the population registered in rcm does not diverges too much (but for the elders) from the composition of the italian population and approximate it better then the internet users distribution. moving to a more qualitative analysis, we observed that, from the online behaviour point of view, the main difference between internet users and rcm members consists in the different way in which they use the net. while internet users are individuals, using mainly services such as search engines, email, booking (as reported by censis surveys – www.censis.it), rcm is a community of people (that is to say a social network) interested in civic and local themes, used to meet online in public forums and to approach ict in socially innovative ways (some of them have been able to conceive, design and implement within rcm their own projects, see de cindio, 2004), thus developing a common understanding and shared practices about civic issues. indeed, we believe that the recent evolution of the internet toward the so called web 2.0 (o’reilly, 2005) is shifting the way in which generic people approach the internet to the one typical of online communities. this makes even more relevant the role that the rcm community may have in the design of online public services. figure 2: comparison between rcm subscribers and italian population: formal education 3.2. blueprint for the involvement of community networks in order to put at work the idea of involving the members of a community network into the design and testing of innovative public service, in this section we outline an approach to online public service design inspired by the considerations discussed in §1 which abstracts from the case studies described in §2. we identify three major phases (see fig.3), each one characterized by the different role the community network plays. in the first phase, when the requirements and the functionalities of the new application have to be defined, the community network members are involved as a sample of tomorrow’s everyman. by participating in focus groups organized to define the system requirements as well as in testing the system prototype(s) and first release(s), they generate highly valuable feedbacks concerning: the features of the application under development; how far it matches users’ needs and expectations; how much learnable and usable it is; the acceptance by users; how people diversity is taken into account; etc. this is exactly what happened in the true-vote project (that unfortunately stopped after the testing of the prototype of the voting system), and corresponds to the use of the “linee dirette” of the province of milan only by rcm members. when the new service has reached a quite stable state, it may be gradually opened to people not belonging to the community network to simulate, incrementally, its use by the whole mass of citizens. in this second phase community members still supplies the major part of the feedbacks and suggestions for improvements. however, their major role is establishing a sort of friendly and helping learning environment for new users. this is precisely what happened in the province of milan case: when the “linee dirette” forums, initially reserved to rcm members, have been opened to ordinary people, they could read the messages written by the community members, learning ‘by example’ a fair communication style, the pattern of behavior between citizens and public employees and, last but not least, how to rely on the galateo, when necessary. technically, the “linee dirette” forums were linked from the province web site in a not too visible way, but hosted and managed by rcm, and this was clearly perceivable by the web site visitors. in the last phase the service is released for everyday use by any citizen. the role of community members becomes less and less relevant, although its involvement should not be underestimated. their presence somewhat guarantees the possibility of relying, in case of need, on trusted participants. in the province case this phase corresponds to the complete embedding of the “linee dirette” in its institutional web site. this means that, although they continue to be hosted on rcm servers, they are fully managed by the province employees who act as forums moderators, completely integrated also from a “look and feel” and graphical point of view, and linked from a highly visible page. two examples clarify the kind of weak support the community networks still supplies. firstly, the rcm community manager is often consulted, via chat or email, by the moderators when they have to face with some non standard situation (“how can i explain to that citizens that he has to .....”; “should i approve that message that....”, etc.). secondly, when a significant protest against a decision of the province president took place in the “linea diretta”, several rcm members, although supporting the protest, were active in preserving the politeness of the forum. each one of the three phases may consists of one or more iteration, which, depending on the specific case, may also include a substantial software development (as in the true-vote case) or a new application of existing software (as in the case of the province “linee dirette”). figure 3 different levels of involvement of a community network in innovative online public service design and implementation 4. conclusions and future research in this work we have tackled the problem of designing innovative online public services. we maintain that community networks, i.e., online communities of citizens focused on public affaires, civic engagement and local community empowerment contain the seed of a value or asset of which a farseeing public bodies should be aware of and take advantage of. the involvement of community networks members involvement could be highly beneficial in the design and testing of innovative online public services, since they can be regarded at as the typical pioneers of innovation à la von hippel – and thus representative of tomorrow’s “everyman’s” behavior. the foreseeable beneficial effects of their involvement will impact mainly on the adherence of the online services to users’ needs, on users’ acceptance and on the reduction of the time necessary to develop the service. this will have beneficial effects also on the economics and on the “image” of the public body promoting the new service. while the case studies presented in this paper to support our conjecture conceptualize “ex-post facto” what actually occurred in the two projects, it would be now worth applying the proposed approach from scratch in the design of new online services. this is what we are currently doing while developing a set of software tools aimed at supporting online deliberation in the framework of the project “e21 for the development of digital citizenship in agenda 21”. this project involves ten municipalities in the lombardy region (mantua – the coordinator, brescia, como, desenzano sul garda, lecco, pavia, san donato milanese, sesto san giovanni, vigevano, and vimercate). in two among them a community network is active (although the two cases differ in the formal relation between the community network and the municipality) and in a third one the municipality official site hosts a lively citizens’ forum. already during the system requirement phase, we got more significant feedbacks from these three experiences then form the others (although unfortunately it was not possible for us to directly interact with the community members): indeed, a major modification in the initial system specifications came from comparing the moderation policy adopted by these different online communities. it will be interesting to observe and investigate whether or not the next phases of the e21 project confirm the role – envisaged in this paper – that online communities of citizens may play in innovative public services design. acknowledgement we wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. this research has been partly carried on under the project prin 2006-148797 funded by the italian ministry of university and research. references 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(1982). community and social change in america. baltimore: johns hopkins university press, 7-8. blomberg, j., & kensing, f. (1998). participatory design: issues and concerns. the journal of collaborative computing, special issue on participatory design, computer supported cooperative work, 3-4, 167-185. briefs, u., ciborra, c., & schneider, l. (1983). systems design for, with and by the users. north-holland. bruschi, d., poletti, g., & rosti, e. (2002). e-vote and pki's: a need, a bliss or a curse? in d. gritzalis (ed.), secure electronic voting, kluwer academic publishers, isbn 1-4020-7301-1. censis, assinform, rur (1998). le città digitali in italia: rapporto 1998. milano, italy: francoangeli (in italian). cova, b. (2003). il marketing tribale. milano, italy: ilsole24ore (in italian). davenport, t.h., & beck, j.c. (2001). the attention economy: understanding the new currency of business. boston, usa: harvard business school press. de cindio, f. 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(2002). the networked nature of community on and off the internet. working paper, centre for urban and community studies, university of toronto. wenger, e., mcdermott, r., & snyder, w.m. (2002). cultivating communities of practice. boston, ma, us: harvard business school press. winograd, t. (1997). from computing machinery to interaction design. in p. denning & r. metcalfe (eds.) beyond calculation: the next fifty years of computing. amsterdam: springer-verlag, 146-162. community inquiry and informatics: collaborative learning through ict   ann peterson bishop graduate school of library and information science, university of illinois at urbana-champaign < abishop@uiuc.edu > bertram c. bruce graduate school of library and information science, university of illinois at urbana-champaign < chip@uiuc.edu > m. cameron jones graduate school of library and information science, university of illinois at urbana-champaign < mjones2@uiuc.edu >   abstract this paper presents the integration of community informatics with the theory and practice of community inquiry, describing community-based projects in which people simultaneously learn about their community and the production and use of information and communication technologies (icts).     studies of learning and human-computer interaction have often focused on settings and practices that are relatively fixed and well-defined, such as a college-level course, a workgroup in a company, or a museum exploration. these studies have contributed much to our understanding of the potential and the problems associated with incorporating computers into collaborative practice. they have also contributed to the analysis of how learning happens in a wide range of settings. however, such well-defined situations represent but a small portion of realities that are relevant to the field of community informatics (ci),which aims to understand how information and communication technologies (icts) are employed to help communities achieve their goals (gurstein, 2004; keeble & loader, 2001). when viewed from the perspective of learning in communities, we see the challenge facing ci in the form of four research questions: how do people learn within communities? how do communities themselves learn? what tools facilitate learning within communities? how can communities develop shared capacity in the form of knowledge, skills, and tools? our work is grounded in the philosophy of american pragmatism, which rose to prominence at the end of the 19th century and introduced the theory and practice of what we call community inquiry into a range of fields, including aesthetics, education, social work, law and public citizenship (menand, 2001). developed most fully in the work of john dewey, community inquiry is based on the premise that if individuals are to understand and create solutions for problems in complex systems, they need opportunities to engage with challenging questions, to learn through participative investigations situated in everyday experiences, to articulate their ideas to others, and to make use of a variety of resources in multiple media. these processes of inquiry form an attitude toward work and life that consists of eager and alert observations, a constant questioning of old procedure in light of new observations, and a use of grounded experience as well as recorded knowledge. the ultimate aim of community inquiry is to develop a ¡°critical, socially engaged intelligence, which enables individuals to understand and participate effectively in the affairs of their community in a collaborative effort to achieve a common good¡± (john dewey project on progressive education, 2002). community inquiry and informatics combine in the ¡°pragmatic technology¡± (hickman, 1990) approach to community-based ict creation and use. pragmatic technology encompasses the common language notion of how to design tools to meet real human needs and accommodate to users in their lived situations. it also sees icts as developed within a community of inquiry and embodying both means of action and forms of understanding; icts are an end result of, as well as a means to accomplish, community learning. schuler and day (2004) clearly resonate with the ideas and practice of pragmatic technology in declaring the ¡°subordination of icts to building healthy, empowered, active communities¡± (p. 15) and noting simply that ¡°researchers are part of the world in which they live¡± (p. 219). our community informatics initiative (http://www.cii.uiuc.edu) is an effort to learn how pragmatic, community-based technology can support learning across institutional and social boundaries. the cii provides training and education, consulting, and action research in community inquiry and informatics in collaboration with non-profit organizations and individuals worldwide. it has produced community inquiry laboratories (ilabs) (http://ilabs.inquiry.uiuc.edu), a suite of free, open-source, web-based software that is developed in an open and ongoing fashion by people from all walks of life who represent different countries and a wide range of ages. ilabs have been used to create hundreds of interactive websites that support the communication and collaboration needed to pursue inquiry in classrooms, community centers, libraries, professional associations, research groups, and other settings—without having to download and install software or have your own server (bishop, et. al, 2004). ilabs includes software for producing library catalogs, syllabi, document sharing, online inquiry units, discussion forums, blogs, calendars, and image galleries. ilabs represents experimentation in the integration of community inquiry and informatics. through collaborative effort (both implicit and explicit, purposive and unknowing) in the creation of content, contribution to interactive elements, incorporation into practice, suggestions and questions, reports of what works and what doesn¡¯t, and ongoing discussion, community members are not merely recipients of these technologies, but participate actively in their ongoing development, yielding enhancements which are then available to all users while, at the same time, they learn more about ict. we have referred to his process of end user software development as ¡°design through use¡± or ¡°participatory inquiry.¡± to cite just a few examples: members of sisternet (a local grassroots organization of black women devoted to nurturing a healthier lifestyle and community activism) created new templates for web-based inquiry units that were better suited for the personal health plans they wanted to make; youth in the paseo boricua community in chicago helped develop a web-based catalog for the library in the puerto rican cultural center, a tool that other ilab users can now adapt for their own purposes; a doctoral student in finland, high school students in france, and others helped develop a system for translating the ilabs interface into multiple languages; a local environmental group figured out a way to use ilabs for polling citizens. collaborative inquiry has helped us investigate community interactions in many ways, come to a better understanding of ¡°community¡± as a unit of analysis in multiple endeavors, and experiment with modes of open and mutual learning as a primary process for a range of disparate activities, from software development to the installation of art exhibits.   acknowledgements we wish to thank the institute for museum and library services and national science foundation, whose support helped create the ilabs software. we are grateful for the creativity and hard work of all members of the ilabs collaborative, who have contributed their considerable energy and expertise to community learning.   references bishop, a. p., bruce, b. c., lunsford, k. j., jones, m. c., nazarova, m., linderman, d., won, m., heidorn, p. b., ramprakash, r., & brock, a. (2004). supporting community inquiry with digital resources. journal of digital information, 5(3), article no. 308. available at: http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/articles/v05/i03/bishop/ gurstein, m. b. (2004). editorial: welcome to the journal of community informatics. journal of community informatics, 1(1). available at: http://ci-journal.net/viewarticle.php?id=29&layout=html hickman, l. a. (1990). john dewey's pragmatic technology. bloomington, in: indiana university press. john dewey project on progressive education (2002). a brief overview of progressive education. available at: http://www.uvm.edu/~dewey/articles/proged.html keeble, l., & loader, b. d. (eds.). (2001). community informatics: shaping computer-mediated social relations. london: routledge. menand, l. (2001). the metaphysical club. ny: farrar, straus and giroux. schuler, d., & day, p. (2004). community practice in the network society: local action/global interaction. london: routledge.   overnight internet browsing among cybercafe users in abraka, nigeria eshaenana e. adomi department of library and information science, delta state university, abraka, nigeria <esharenaadomi@yahoo.com>, <eshrenana.adomi@gmail.com> abstract this paper is a survey of overnight browsing service use in cybercafes located in abraka, nigeria. data was collected by means of questionnaires from 61 clients who were in 5 cybercafes to make use of the overnight internet access service. it was revealed that a majority of the users (59%) were males, the age range of 21-25 ranked first (50%) as users of the service with students as the major users. it was also discovered that 60.7% of the respondents use the overnight internet service to enable them to have enough time to explore the services and resources of the net; computers/internet response ranked first as a factor which determine the cybercafe used for the service, 68.8% of them seek information to supplement their course work during the overnight service but sleep is a constraint faced by most of the clients followed by inability to open some sites/web pages. it is recommended that cost of internet access be reduced to ngn30.00 per hour to encourage cybercafe users to use the internet for long duration during the day and individuals/organizations should archive their documents/files to prevent site disappearance. introduction overnight internet browsing is a special internet access service offered by nigerian cybercafes from 10.00 p.m. to 06.00 a.m. cyber cafe users who intend to do overnight internet browsing are normally required to pay and register with the cafe staff before the start of their session. overnight browsing normally allows users who have a considerable amount to download from the internet to do so at minimal cost. this service is mostly used by students who require lengthy sessions to obtain information for their academic work. while some cafes make this service available once per week, others provide it twice or three times or even every night. (adomi, 2005a). the cybercafe also known as internet cafe or pc cafe is a place where internet public access services are provided by entrepreneurs for a fee (adomi, okiy and ruteyan, 2003; calson analytical, 2004). while in the usa and western europe, the term cybercafe refers often to true cafes offering both internet access and beverages, in nigeria and other parts of africa, cybercafes can refer to places offering public internet access in places like restaurants or hostels, or they are locations that are wholly set aside for public access internet services (adomi, okiy and ruteyan, 2003; adomi, omodeko and otolo, 2004). cybercafes are springing up in their numbers daily (accra’s news, 2004). they are now common in major cities of the world providing venues for people to meet friends, read newspapers, discuss important events of the day, and respond to their e-mail correspondence. people are increasingly communicating with their friends and work mates by means of e-mail from their offices, or from the privacy of their own homes and now increasingly from cybercafes. although connectivity is limited in africa, people on that continent are increasingly gaining access to the internet through cybercafes rather than at places of work, schools, or in their homes (mutula, 2003). a combination of factors has made it extremely difficult for individuals and corporate bodies to be connected to the internet in africa and particularly in nigeria. these is a lack of technical know-how/awareness, lack of adequate telecommunications infrastructure, and poverty of the citizens (ahiakwo, 1998). others reasons are the high cost of machines (pcs) and of bandwidth (jensen, 2002; inasp, 2003, adomi, 2005b). these factors which deter individuals and most organizations and educational institutions from having internet connectivity, force people to patronize cybercafes for internet surfing, e-mail communication and for other internet services/resources in nigeria. according to sairosse and mutula, (2004) cybercafes are currently becoming the preferred internet access points since most of them are open for long hours, charge reasonably, provide assistance to users, have diverse services and are generally convenient and flexible places for searching the internet. the adoption and use of the internet by students and faculty in nigerian universities started becoming widespread in the late 1990’s. currently, internet access points for nigerian students include ict centers and cybercafes located on the campuses and cybercafes situated off campus. nigerian students have not started having free access to the internet on campuses. they have to pay to use the internet. the internet is very important to nigerian university students in helping them to have access to timely, accurate and relevant information. university libraries in nigeria, at present, experience under-funding which makes it very difficult to subscribe to enough journals and to buy enough textbooks to support the curriculum. the students therefore access the internet to obtain information that their libraries cannot provide through their shelves (adomi, omodeko and otolo, 2004). apart from seeking academic information from the internet, the students also use the net to send and receive e-mail, for entertainment and sports, to read newspapers among other uses (adomi, omodeko and otolo, 2004; iweze, 2004). it has accordingly been observed that the largest number of cybercafe users in nigeria are students (adomi, okiy and ruteyan, 2003). some scholars have conducted investigations on cybercafes in different countries. chachage (2001) investigated the knowledge and skills of the users of internet cafes in tanzania; gitta and ikoja-odingo (2003) studied the impact of cybercafes on information services in uganda; adomi, okiy and ruteyan (2003) surveyed cybercafes in delta state, nigeria; adomi, omodeko and otolo (2004) investigated the use of cybercafes in abraka, nigeria; and sairosse and mutula investigated cybercafe use in gaborone, botswana. none of these studies surveyed overnight browsing. adomi (2005b) only partly investigated the cost of overnight browsing in abraka, nigeria where her survey found that 6% of the sample had done overnight browsing. of these, 4% of used the net for less than 30 minutes, 50% for 30 –1 hour, 25% for 1 hour-1½ hours, 8% for 2 hours on average per visit while 6% provided no answer. there is therefore a need for a more comprehensive survey on overnight internet browsing among cybercafe clients. abraka whose cybercafe users are the subject of this study is a suburban town located in delta state, nigeria. it is the location of the state university and has a population of approximately 42,000 inhabitants – 25,000 non-students and 17,000 students. the major occupation of the local population is farming, but some of the inhabitants practice local trading, while 2% of the populations are civil servants (adomi, 2005a). at the time this survey was conducted in december 2004, there were 11 cybercafes, five of which were rendering overnight internet access/browsing services. the study sought answers to the following questions: what were the personal characteristics of the internet cafe users? why did the respondents undertake overnight internet browsing? what were the determinants of the choice of cybercafe for overnight internet browsing? what were the internet access activities carried out during the overnight browsing? how many times have the users done overnight browsing in internet cafes? what were the search engines used? what were the problems encountered by the cybercafe clients? this study is significant in that its findings will enable the international community to know how internet cafe users in nigeria are making frantic efforts to spend longer hours surfing the net. methodology this study included items intended to glean data on the personal characteristics of the respondents as well as their use of the overnight internet browsing service in cybercafes. the research instrument was administered and retrieved from 61 clients who were in 5 cybercafes in abraka, nigeria using the overnight internet browsing service. at the time of this study in december 2004, there were a total of 11 cybercafes in abraka but only 5 of them were providing an overnight internet access service and these were the ones used for the study. the data generated from the study was analyzed using frequency counts and percentages. findings and discussions table 1 reveals that more males 36 (59%) than female participated in the study (were using overnight internet access in the cafes when the questionnaires were administered). this implies that more males than females take advantage of the overnight services of the internet cafes. the possible reason for more males taking advantage of this service could be that girls are afraid that it may not be safe for them to walk at night. table 1: gender of respondents gender frequency % male 36 59.0 female 25 41.0 total 61 100 table 2: age of respondents age range frequency % 16-20 10 16.4 21-25 33 50.1 26-30 12 19.7 31-35 4 6.6 36-40 above 40 years 1 1.6 no of response 1 1.6 the age range 21-25 years ranked highest with 33 (50.1%) respondents followed by 26-30 years with 12 (19.7%) respondents. these age ranges are those usually associated with the ages of students (university students) who make up the highest numbers of clients of the internet cybercafes. students typically have the need to explore the internet for information to compliment and augment their lecture notes and complete class assignments. table 3: status of respondents status frequency % students 54 88.5 applicants 4 6.6 civil servants 2 3.3 lecturers 1 1.6 students ranked highest as the clients who used the cybercafes for overnight internet browsing, this finding confirms earlier ones (adomi, okiy and ruteyan; and sairosse and mutula, 2004) that students constitute the highest number of cybercafe users in africa. table 4: reasons for utilizing overnight internet access service reasons frequency % enables me to have enough time to explore the resources of and services of the internet 37 60.7 more convenient for me 14 31.1 it costs less 9 14.8 faster internet response 5 8.2 other 2 3.3 no response 1 1.6 to have enough time to explore the resources and services of the internet attracted the highest response rate of 37 (60.7%). there are some possible reasons for this. overnight internet browsing normally commences at 10.00 p.m. and terminates at 6.00 a.m. thus the clients that make use of this cybercafe service have as much as 8 hours to use the internet. it should also be noted that most of the overnight access service users are university students who need a lot of information for academic purposes – assignments, term papers, seminars, projects, theses among others. engaging in overnight surfing of the internet would therefore enable them to explore the resources and services of the internet in order to download enough materials for their studies. as well, 14 (31.1%) considered the overnight as more convenient. this could be due to the fact that they have to devote the day hours to attending of lectures and other academic activities. they would normally not have enough time during the day to settle down for serious internet surfing. the night hours when there are no lectures will naturally be more convenient. table 4 reveals that 9 (8.2%) indicated that the fact that it costs less to use the overnight service was the reason for taking advantage of this. it costs an average of ngn100.00 (1 usd exchanges for ngn 127.00) per hour during normal service hours (8.30 a.m. to 10.00 p.m.) to access/use the internet in the cafes; while the overnight browsing service costs between ngn300.00 and ngn400.00. thus if a user were to use the internet for 8 hours during the normal service hours, he/she would pay ngn800.00. using the internet during the overnight period costs less. it should be pointed out that a majority of the overnight users are students who may not have enough money to use the internet for longer hours during the day. the respondents were asked to indicate the factors that determine their choice of a particular cybercafe for their overnight browsing. the data in table 5 are the factors they take into considerations before deciding. table 5: determinants of the choice of cybercafe for overnight internet browsing determinants frequency % fast computer internet response 31 50.8 security of premises 19 31.1 reliability of power supply 12 19.7 cost of internet service 7 11.5 availability of printers 7 11.5 proximity 4 8.2 support/assistance to users 2 3.3 provision for the use of diskettes 1 1.6 other 1 1.6 as revealed in table 5, fast computer/ internet ranks first with 31 (50.8%) as a determinant of where most respondents decide to go for night internet browsing. inasp (2003) notes that students and researchers in the west tend to take free, fast access to the net for granted. while it is not necessary to have very fast access to the internet for it to be usable, there is a limit below which it becomes frustrating. usability studies show that an average page should load within 10 seconds; if the text starts loading immediately, followed by the graphics, load time of up to 39 seconds can be acceptable. however, rosenberg (2005) found that speed and reliability of internet connection is a major challenge faced by libraries in providing e-resources and e-services in africa, while adomi, okiy, and ruteyan; gitta and ikoja-ojongo (2003) and adomi, omodeko, and otolo (2004) discovered that slow internet response hampers cybercafe services. thus, the findings of these previous studies corroborate that of this study. in some of the cybercafes, internet response could be very slow in that it could take up to 5 minutes or more to open particular web pages. internet users would thus prefer to use cybercafes where they can have fast internet response. it should be pointed out that most of these users are students who depend on their parents and guardians for financial support and would like to maximize the use of the time they have paid for using the internet. power outages are a problem militating against information/internet provision and use in african countries (jensen, 2002; adomi, 2002; adomi, okiy, and ruteyan, 2003; adomi, omodeko, and otolo, 2004, rosenberg, 2005; adomi, 2005b, adomi, obarakpor and akparobore , 2005). this causes cybercafe operators to mount standby electricity plants that they switch on when power outages occur. a cafe that does not have this alternative power source will disappoint its clients. the concern over reliable power supply in cybercafe thus attracted 12 (19.7%) responses table 6: activities carried out during overnight browsing activities frequency % seek information to supplement my course work 42 68.8 check/send e-mail 14 31.4 search for job/employment 9 14.8 browse for information to complete assignment 9 14.8 to learn/perfect internet search skills 8 13.1 browse for information on behalf of someone 7 11.1 browse for information on grants/scholarship opportunities 6 9.8 to engage in discussion groups 6 9.8 to visit recommended sites 4 8.2 for electronic commerce/order goods and services 3 4.9 visit musical sites 3 4.9 other 2 3.3 cyber cafe clients engage in various internet search activities during overnight browsing sessions as revealed in table 6. a majority of the respondents 42 (68.8%) were in the cafe to seek information to supplement their course work, while 9 (14.8%) engage in browsing for information to complete class assignments. these respondents engage in this academic related internet search because most of them were students who needed information to meet their academic requirements. luambano and nawe (2004) had earlier discovered that many students were given assignment that required them to use the internet. table 7: number of times overnight browsing has been done no of times frequency % once 8 13.1 twice 6 9.8 three times 4 8.2 four times 9 14.8 five times 2 3.3 six times 4 8.2 seven times 4 8.2 eight times 2 3.3 nine times ten times 1 1.6 more than ten times 21 34.4 the data presented in table 7 indicates that most of the users have been patronizing the cafe for the overnight public internet access services somewhat frequently. table 8: search engines used search engines frequency % google 40 65.6 yahoo! 24 39.3 askjeeves 7 11.7 altavista 3 4.7 msn 3 4.7 northern light 2 3.3 teoma 2 3.3 mamma 1 1.6 dogpile 1 1.6 other 3 4.7 google ranked highest (65.6%) among the search engines used by the respondents, followed by yahoo!. this finding does not corroborate an earlier one where yahoo ranked highest followed by google (adomi, omodeko, and otolo, (2004) but corroborates the finding of internet use among academic librarians in the university of zimbabwe and zululand by mugwisi and ocholla (2003). table 9: problems users encounter during overnight internet access service problems frequency % sleep 15 24.6 inability to open some sites/web pages 14 23.0 system failure 12 19.7 inability to locate materials needed 10 16.4 disappearance of sites 7 11.5 electricity interruption 7 11.5 slow internet/computer response 6 9.8 other 1 1.6 no response 8 13.1 sleep ranked highest, with 15 (24.6%) responses, as the problem the cybercafe users encountered while engaged in overnight internet browsing. since the internet service is overnight, unless a user had enough sleep during the day before the commencement of the service session, he/she may encounter problems of lack of sleep. owing to the fact that the day hours of students are crowded with numerous activities they could fall asleep while surfing the net overnight. inability to open some sites/web pages was indicated by 14 (23.0%) respondents. there are a number of reasons why users are unable to open some web pages. some pages/files require the use of some programs to be able to open and download them. such web pages cannot be downloaded from a terminal without such programs, for instance, a system on which the acrobat reader is not installed cannot open a pdf file. it is also possible that some sites the users were unable to open require subscription. virus infection could be another reason. another problem some respondents 10 (16.4%) indicated was that of locating needed information. though the internet contains masses of information, not all information can be readily found. inability of the user to use appropriate search terms can also hinder the person from obtaining the needed information. in addition, some information, which may be relevant to the searcher, may be in closed access sites. conclusion the overnight browsing service is a special internet access service rendered by cybercafes in nigeria to enable internet users access/use of resources and services for longer hours at reduced rates. most of the clients who make use of this service at abraka are males and students, the majority of whom use the service to obtain information from the net for academic purposes. most of the respondents in this study use cybercafes where they can have fast computer/internet response. however, sleep is a problem which most of the users encounter during the overnight internet access service. references accra’s news acquired culture, (2004). retrieved may 9, 2005, from http://www.ghanaweb.com/ghanahomepage/newsarchives/printnews.php?id=20358 adomi, e. e., obarakpor, e. f. & akparobore, d. o. (2005). the use of information technology (it) by electronic media workers in delta state, nigeria. the electronic library. 23, 3, 259 – 301. adomi, e.e. (2002). patterns of the use of information for decision making by administrative staff of a nigerian university. library management. 23, 6/7, 330-337. adomi, e.e. (2005). the effect of a price increase on cybercafe services in abraka, nigeria. the bottom line: managing library finances. 18(2): 78-86. adomi, e.e.; okiy, r.b. & ruteyan, j.o. (2003). a survey of cybercafes in delta state, nigeria. the electronic library. 21, 5, 487-495. adomi, e.e.; omodeko, f.s.; otolo, p.u. 2004. the use of cybercafes at delta state university, abraka, nigeria. library hi tech. 22(4): 383-388. adomi, e.e. (2005b). internet development and connectivity in nigeria. program,39, 3, 257 – 268. ahiakwo, c.o. (1998). the role of internet connectivity in nigeria. retrieved april 22, 2005, from http://www.isocnig.org.ng/conferencepapers/paper17.htm calson analytics (2004). calson analytics note: cybercafes and telecentres. retrieved april 3, 2005, from http://www.calson.com.au/cafenote.htm . chachage, b.l. (2001). internetcafes in tanzania: a study of the knowledge and skills of end-users. information development. 17,4,: 226-233. cullen, r.i. (2002). in search of evidence: family practitioners use of internet for clinical information. journal of medical library association, 90, 4,: 370-378. gitta, s. & ikoja-odongo, j.r. (2003). the impact of cybercafes on information service in uganda: first monday. 8, 4. retrieved july 2, 2004, from www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_4/gitta/index.html inasp. (2003). optimizing internetbandwidth in developing countries higher education. retrieved june 5, 2005, from http://www.inasp.info/pubs/bandwith/index.htm iweze, c.o. (2004). the use of internetby undergraduate students of library and information science at delta state university, abraka. unpublished bsc.(lis) project. abraka: delta state university. department of library and information science. jensen, m. (2002). the african internet: a status report. retrieved april 22, 2005, from http://www3.sn.apc.org/africa/afstat.htm lumbano, i. & nawe, j. (2004). internet use by students of dar es salaam. library hi tech news, 20, 10, 13-17. mugwuisi, t. & ocholla, d.n. (2003). internet use among academic librarians in the institute of zimbabwe and zululand. libri. 53, 194-201. mutual, s. (2003). cyber cafe industry in africa. journal of information science, 29, 6, 489-497. rosenberg, d. (2005). towards the digital library: finding of an investigation to establish the current status of university libraries in africa. retrieved february 22, 2006 from http://www.inasp.info/pubs/inaspdigitallib.pdf sairosse, t.m. & mutula, s.m. (2004). use of cybercafe: study of gaborone city, botswana. program. 38, 1, 60-66.   community democratization of telecommunications community cooperatives in argentina: the case of telpin[1] susana finquelievich links, civil association for the development of information society < sfinquel@ciudad.com.ar > graciela kisilevsky university of buenos aires < gkisi@ciudad.com.ar >   abstract a telecommunications community cooperative (tcc) is an autonomous association of individuals, who join forces to respond to common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned enterprise, democratically governed and managed. in argentina, tccs were created by community-conscious members to fill in for the state when it was the state was unable to provide telephone service in remote areas. in 1989, the state telephone enterprise was privatized. from 1992 onwards, tccs replaced the large private telephone enterprises in remote or low-populated areas, since these were not interested in providing services which would not be profitable. tccs provide telephone and internet service, through dial-up and/or broadband (adsl) connections, as well as internet protocol (ip) telephony, to their target populations at significantly lower costs than the large traditional firms (telefónica and telecom). most tccs also offer free community services, such as courses on information and communication technologies (icts), and free internet access to public schools, libraries, and public facilities (police stations, hospitals, etc.). this study focuses on a particular case, telpin, the pinamar telecommunications cooperative. telpin was created in 1962 by a group of pinamar neighbors. since then, it has become the largest and most successful telecommunications cooperative in argentina.   resumen una cooperativa comunitaria de telecomunicaciones (cct o, en inglés, tcc) es una asociación autónoma de individuos, los cuales unen sus fuerzas para solucionar un problema social o económico común, así como las necesidades y aspiraciones culturales de la comunidad, por medio de una empresa de propiedad en común, democráticamente gobernada y administrada. en la argentina, las ccts fueron creadas por los miembros de la comunidad para suplir el rol del estado o de las empresas privadas, cuando éstas no proporcionaban servicio telefónico en áreas alejadas, marginado a la población de los servicios de comunicaciones. en 1989, la empresa de teléfonos del estado, entel, fue privatizada. desde 1992 hacia adelante, las ccts substituyeron a las grandes empresas privadas de telecomunicaciones, puesto que éstas no estaban interesadas en el abastecimiento de servicios no rentables en áreas remotas o de baja densidad poblacional. las ccts proporcionan actualmente las conexiones telefónicas y servicios del internet, por terminal de marcado manual y/o conexiones de banda ancha (adsl), así como la telefonía del ip, a sus poblaciones, a costos perceptiblemente más bajos que las firmas tradicionales (telefónica y france telecom). la mayoría de ellos ofrece también servicios comunitarios, como cursos sobre tecnologías de información y de comunicación (tics), acceso libre y gratuito a internet a las escuelas públicas, bibliotecas, e instituciones públicas (comisarías de policías, hospitales, etc.).  este trabajo se centra en un estudio de un caso particular: telpin, la cooperativa de telecomunicaciones e internet de pinamar. telpin fue creado por un grupo de los vecinos de pinamar, la mayoría de ellos fundadores de la comunidad local, en 1962. desde entonces, se ha convertido en la cooperativa de telecomunicaciones más exitosa de  la argentina.   telecommunications community cooperatives: civil society’s integration into the new economy? in the 1990s, the transformations that took place in the world economy focused mainly on information and communication technology (ict) were described as the new economy (ne). “if the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries marked the passage from agricultural economy to the industrial economy, and most of the twentieth century witnessed the change from an industry-based economy to a services-based economy, the last decade of the twentieth century signaled the change to a weightless economy, the knowledge economy” (stiglitz, 2003, p. 228). many developed countries, and a few emerging ones, have espoused national strategies intended to amplify the innovative power of their industries. castells (2000), summarized by obendorf (2000), states that the new economy is not based just on knowledge. it has three key features, all of which are based in micro-technology: information productivity, based on icts real-time; global connectivity of capital flows, productivity, and management, which is based on the technology infrastructure (the internet). networking, based on the internet, as the basis for social and economic organization. is civil society prepared to be a proactive agent in this process? this will depend in large measure on the e-readiness of citizens. citizen e-readiness describes the readiness of a nation’s citizens to participate as proactive agents in the different sectors and levels of the new economy, and to capitalize on the opportunities to participate offered by the new economic and technological environment (iap, 2000). it covers many facets in such use, but particularly equality in access opportunities, training, knowledge, and social appropriation of icts. in the specific case of the new economy (ne) environment, citizen e-readiness also defines the ability of individuals, communities, and civil society to participate as proactive agents in the different sectors and levels of the new economy. community engagement is also necessary for citizens’ e-readiness, whether it precedes or follows the implementation of technological innovations within the community. as ramirez et al (2002) express it: “community engagement is more than just holding a public meeting. it is an ongoing interactive process characterized by commitment to ever-changing community needs and interests. the outcomes of community engagement are sometimes surprising, since by bringing together community members for a common purpose – people and organizations who are not in the habit of working together – new relationships are formed within the community, as community members learn how to collaborate. the legacy of the community engagement becomes more than the installation and application of information and communication technologies (icts)” (p.2). one of our main hypotheses is that tccs are a way for civil society organizations to prepare communities for their new roles, and to participate in the construction of a new economy, based –among other factors--on fast and low-cost access to internet connections, training on icts uses, capacities to implement the democratic appropriation of ict infrastructures, alertness to identify the places of opportunity existing in the ne, and mainly, effective use of icts. tccs in argentina: the background a telecommunications community cooperative (tcc) is an autonomous association of individuals, who join forces to respond to common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned enterprise, democratically governed and managed. in argentina, tccs were created by community conscious members to fill in for the state when the state was unable to provide telephone service in remote areas, generally marginalized in relation to service provision. these cooperatives grew and introduced technological innovations to supply their associates with new services at affordable costs. in 1989, entel, the state telephone enterprise was privatized. from 1992 onwards, tccs replaced the large private telephone enterprises, since these were not interested in providing non-profitable services in remote or low-income areas. in argentina, there are two main cooperative federations: fecotel (which unites 250 cooperatives), and fecosur. among the two, they include 350 telecommunications cooperatives. the largest cooperative federation, fecotel, is 40 years old.  it has more than 5,000 local cooperatives as associates, and manages (among the member cooperatives) more than $ 10,000 million pesos (around $3,000 million usd). the cooperative sector serves more than 2. 5 million argentines, approximately 8% of the country’s population, with 600,000 telephone lines. it invoices 300 million pesos (around 100 million usd) per year, and employs 3,500 individuals. legal status in the 1960s and until the privatization of public enterprises in 1989, telephone services in argentina were a monopoly managed by entel, the state telephone enterprise, which serviced urban areas, and avoided the complexities of servicing sparsely-populated rural areas. a special regulation that allowed for the creation of telephone cooperatives[2], gave them the right to authorize the provision of telephone services in their areas, if these areas were declared by entel as non-profitable. the first cooperative was born in san genaro, santa fe, in 1959. in 1960, a state decree authorized entel to build telephone exchanges for cooperatives, as the latter required. the cooperatives retained these privileges when entel was finally privatized. the federation of telecommunications cooperatives in the argentine republic (federación de cooperativas de telecomunicaciones de la república argentina limitada, fecotel), one of the two main federations, along with fecosur, operates in the whole national territory. it is registered in the national registry of cooperatives under the (law) n° 6565. it brings together telecommunications cooperatives providing telecommunication services, data, radio and/or tv transmission, along with other means of communication, whatever the particular technology employed, within or outside the national territory. these cooperatives are controlled by fecotel´s statute, and by the national laws governing cooperatives. the national public telephone service is supplied by tecoop, a national enterprise belonging to the argentine cooperative movement, created by fecotel, and integrated with other federations and cooperatives. initially, tecoop’s activities were the implementation and operation of public telephones (either in street booths or in cafés, among other places). since 1999 it has installed 400.000 lines, with a significant rate of growth. it has also obtained licenses for basic national and international telephony. cooperatives provide long-distance call services though a prepaid card, developed through an agreement signed by tecoop and fecotel with telecom. the cooperative’s legal status is defined in the commerce code, and regulated by law n° 20.337.[3]  this law defines the cooperative’s role as social economy enterprises, which differentiates them from traditional, market-oriented enterprises. the cooperatives, as members of a cooperatives federation, fecotel[4], have also signed a collective work agreement (convenio colectivo de trabajo), which establishes a balance between the rights and dignity of workers and the ccs economic reality. cooperatives that were created before 1990 can keep 78% of their profits, while they must pay 22% of their interconnection fees as a “toll” to the telephone enterprise that provides the network. however, cooperatives created after the privatization must negotiate the commission to be paid with the telephone enterprises. the terms of the negotiations vary from one cooperative—or federation—to another. the funding issue cooperatives’ main investment sources come from their associates or shareholders, including local enterprises, and from national or provincial banks loans. the banco nación (national bank), as well as the provinces banks are good funding sources. any bank would be keen to support cooperatives if these have enough community, political and technological support. alas, in many cases, the cooperatives´ balance sheets are so terrible that they cannot get approval in the technical evaluations for the credits they ask for. banks should evaluate tccs, not based on their balance sheets, but on how they have improved their work, on their actions, and on a good investments control. (source: interview with eng. ricardo bacalor, microtrol director, provider for cooperatives, october 2004. the translation is ours). however, opinions on this point are divided. telpin´s manager in 2004, eng. juan santoianni, states that cooperatives depend mainly on their associates and on their capacity for self-sustainability: it’s difficult to have access to reasonable credits: banks always grant cooperatives soft credits, social credits, so these loans pass as philanthropic loans to support good works in the community. of course, some cooperatives must be helped, but this should not be mixed with the enterprises efficiency, nor with the concept of social engagement which is at the base of the cooperatives work. (…) if we work efficiently, if we provide the best and least costly service we can, with the best relatioship cost-services, have reinvestments. we have correct financial balances, and we are audited each three months by an international consultant, but even so we cannot depend on bank credits. one of the problems affecting cooperatives is their fiscal (tax) status. the military dictatorship (1976-1983) was opposed to community cooperatives; one of the ways to fight them was to diminish their tax benefits. at present, this reduction in fiscal advantages has not been modified; this is an important claim from the cooperative movement. cooperative leaders maintain that cooperatives should be legally considered as not subject to gain taxes, since the benefits obtained in their activities must be used for capitalization, or in providing their associates with new or better services. ethical conduct: an essential issue fecotel (2004) is unyielding concerning the cooperatives’ ethical behavior. its associates must “always and in all their actions, respect cooperative principles: open and voluntary membership; democratic control of the organization by its members; economic participation by its members; autonomy and independence; education, continuing training, and information; cooperation between cooperatives; and engagement with the community.” associate cooperatives are to work in defense of the cooperative movement, and particularly, of the telecommunications cooperative movement, represented by fecotel; cooperatives must observe cooperative values, based on mutual help, responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, solidarity, and respect for federative autonomy. they must not act in the pursuit of hegemonic or dominant positions. cooperatives associated to fecotel are expected to promote agreements between each other, aiming at the construction of cooperative networks, in order to improve and/or incorporate new services, while working towards the implementation of universal service. they must also promote cooperative practice, in order to achieve the best services at the lowest possible prices, avoiding unnecessary intermediations, and searching to incorporate the highest possible number of users to cooperative services. services and technological actualization the tcc’s degree of technological update varies according to their economic possibilities. their autonomy, as well as—in most cases—their small size, makes them flexible enough to adopt new technologies at a relatively fast pace. many of them are now using ip data networks, and they are beginning to transmit voice over ip, although traditional digital exchanges will be in service for many years.[5]  they are also using wireless ip for sparsely populated areas or for rural areas not reached by copper fiber networks. moreover, fecotel has announced an agreement with the national government so that associated tccs will become shareholders of the nahuel 2 satellite, which will be launched in 2005.[6] there’s a substantial difference between the cooperatives created before and after the privatization of telecommunications enterprises. cooperatives that did not have to deal with competition, are technologically behind the times, because they have been protected by a monopolist model. new cooperatives have entered a competitive market. therefore, they have to incorporate top technological innovations. (source: interview with eng. bacalor, october 2004. the translation is ours). in june 2004, the operative centre and satellital teleport cordoba was inaugurated. colsecor (cooperative for the provision of community broadcasting services) and hispasat, the european satellite services enterprise, signed an agreement by which the cooperative rents satellite capacity. this allows it to enter the telecommunication business by providing satellite services, internet and public telephony. colsecor has thus become the first hispasat teleport in argentina. (source: linea n° 59 july/august 2004). if, as the comfer (comité federal de radiodifusión) authorities state, the new broadcasting law eliminates the barriers imposed on cooperatives supplying cable tv, then the cooperatives will offer this service, telephony and internet for a monthly cost of 50 pesos (16 american dollars). fecotel has planned investments of 400 million pesos (133 million dollars) around the country in the next three years (between 400 and 500 dollars for each new client).  five tccs are already using cordect, india’s wireless local loop technology, jointly developed by analog services inc., midas communication technologies (p) ltd. and tenet group, iit madras. based on the digital enhanced cordless telecommunications standard specified by the european telecommunications standards institute (etsi), cordect provides cost-effective, simultaneous high-quality voice and data connectivity in both urban and rural areas. this technology provides voice communication using 32 kbps adpcm, and internet connectivity at 35/70 kbps[7]. in argentina, there are two cordect equipment suppliers, one in buenos aires, and another in rosario. soon some cooperatives from the north of santa fe are going to be supplied with it. (source: interview with mr. mariano de lew, buenos aires cordect provider, interviewed in october 2004). tccs provide telephone and internet services, by dial-up and/or broadband (adsl) connections, as well as ip telephony, to their target populations at considerably lower prices than the large traditional firms (telefónica and telecom). a number of ccs also provide wi-fi services, as a means to provide internet access to homes and businesses. most of them also are offering free community services, such as courses on information and communication technologies (icts), free access to the internet for public schools, libraries, and public facilities (police stations, hospitals, etc.). moreover, some 300 electricity and telephone cooperatives have decided to join forces to provide portable phone services from 2006 onwards.[8]  mobile telephony has an orientation towards low charges for local calls, and between mobile phones belonging to the same network. the potential market for the first phase is 200.000 citizens, and with an estimated potential national market of 1.100.000 users. (source: en linea n°. 59 july / august 2004). the negotiations around this are carried on by the largest cooperatives. smaller cooperatives are putting their efforts into cooperative integration in order to ensure their participation in the mobile telephone market: in my area we could integrate four cooperatives, and therefore we can supply an excellent internet service to our stakeholders. moreover, we could extend this service to distant areas, such as san pedro and baradero. this is the result of an integrative attitude. today the cooperative world is discussing an important project: provision of mobile telephony. we’re going to succeed in it with integration and solidarity. we’ll have the pleasure of reaching our goals by using the tool we always proclaim: solidarity. (statements of mr. anibal cardoso, cooperativa de servicios públicos de pérez milán, province of  buenos aires, education secretary of fecotel,  en linea n° 59 july / august 2004). to date, more than 600.000 telephone lines are cooperative-managed, a number which is permanently increasing. in august 2004, the cooperatives organized an annual event, a practice that became important for the communications sector in 2003, and which this year exhibited the cooperatives strengths to the public. in this forum, fecotel proposed to the national government the possibility of creating a national, cooperative-owned, telecommunications enterprise. it is still being discussed if this is to be one large cooperative, or some kind of evolution of the federations into another kind of cooperative organization. a seaside tcc: telpin, background and context in the south-east of buenos aires, pinamar in buenos aires province, currently one of the most fashionable seaside cities in argentina, was born in the sandy lands known in the early nineteenth century as "montes grandes de juancho" (juancho´s large woods). the 25 kilometers of dunes became urbanized in 1907. successive urbanization projects created a thread of small tourist towns and reinforced the sand dunes with pine plantations, generating the beach name “pinamar”, signifying the combined beauty of pine woods and sea. during the post-war years 1949 and 1953, groups of hard-working immigrant italian families started to homestead in pinamar. they carried with them a strong community conscience, as well as the european familiarity with cooperative organizations. the current established community was organized at that time including the founding of the local clubs and institutions such as a primary school and a public health collaborative, later transformed into a public health cooperative. in 1949, a group of neighbors created the pinamar water and light cooperative (calp, http://www.calp.com.ar/historia.htm ) which still serves the district with electricity, water and sanitation infrastructures, and services. on july 1st, 1978, the “pinamar urban area” (municipio urbano de pinamar") was officially created. it now includes the towns of montecarlo, pinamar, mar de ostende, ostende, valeria del mar, and cariló, and has become a productive services centre linked mainly to tourist activities. according to the 2001 national census, pinamar has 20,666 inhabitants, a number that increases to nearly 200,000 in the summer months. thirty-nine percent of the inhabitants are economically active: of these, 64 percent have steady jobs, while the rest are unemployed or underemployed.[9]  a large number of the employed inhabitants, 12 percent, work for the public sector. employment in the private sector is in the hotel and restaurant sector, since tourist activities underpin the local economy. the literacy rate is among the highest in the country: 99.01 percent.[10] the pinamar cooperative’s launch as pinamar developed into a trendy seaside city, there was an urgent need for communication, since the town was too young, and the population was still too small to be of interest to entel. besides, the residents increased dramatically during weekends and in the summer months, and tourists needed to communicate with their families and jobs. telpin was created by dr. enrique susini, together with a group of 82 pinamar neighbors, most of them found members of the local community, in november 14, 1962. telpin launched the telephone service on january 1, providing 92 lines to the same number of homes. in 1980 the traditional telephone central was replaced by a japanese digital central, the first to be installed in the country. this innovation allowed the cooperative to supply its shareholders with full services (wake up call, voice mail, conferences, etc.) that only a decade later, and after the privatization of the empresa nacional de telecomunicaciones (entel), were provided in the rest of the country. in 1982, telpin started to send detailed phone bills to its shareholders, without additional cost. in 1984, telpin was the first to supply international direct dialing (ddi). in 1993, the cooperative again replaced the electronic central this time with an updated german central, which prepared the grounds for the further communication innovations. i have spent some months each year in pinamar since the 1980s. i noticed right away that the telephone worked much better than in buenos aires, and that it was extremely easy to get a phone line: when in buenos aires it took months of painstaking paperwork, in pinamar it took only a couple of days. in those times in which it was incredibly difficult to get a phone line in buenos aires, and when entel network worked so bad, businessmen used to come to pinamar and make all their national and international phone calls here. it was much easier and cheaper. (source: interview with mrs. amelia ozaeta, part-time pinamar inhabitant, former restaurant owner) in 1998, telpin launched telpinet, its internet server, including web pages hosting and maintenance. in 2004, telpinet has 1200 subscribers. telpin has installed 17710 lines, as well as 720 digital links with the rest of the world.[11]  telpinet also provides free internet service; the cooperative’s goal is to earn a respected place as a telecommunications services provider, without losing its community sense. these and other services, as well as the consumption increase during the tourist season, generate benefits which return to the shareholders as important discounts (telpin´s subscribers do not pay the subscription during the summer) and to the community in general, as new services, such as educative internet (internet educativa). telpin invests its benefits in the community. in the years in which the cooperative makes a surplus of benefits, the users don’t pay any minimum charge. local calls are unlimited, which makes easy to use the internet: you can phone and navigate the web for as long as you wish, and for free, except for the server. (source: interview with mrs. ozaeta). pinamar‘s cooperative developed as extensively and innovatively as it did, not only because it served an elite public but also because some of the most outstanding argentine entrepreneurs are part of its council. however, there’s a dynamic dialectic in this process: pinamar also attracted upper and middle class tourists, because; besides its beautiful geography, of its competitive advantage in telecommunications: these groups needed good communications, and they could not get them elsewhere in a tourist-oriented place. expansion policies and new market strategies telpin has gained 18,000 users, or shareholders, of diverse socio-economic groups. telephone lines year number of telephone lines 2004 18.000 * 1999/2000 17.710 1998/1999 15.900 1997/1998 14782 1995/1996 11.185 1993/1994     9.500 ** 1991/1992 6.383 1989/1990 5.031 1987/1988 4.630 1985/1986 4.040 1983/1984 2.895 1981/1982 2.033 source: pinamar’s house in buenos aires and cooperative telpin *market saturation: 100% of the households have telephone lines. ** the sudden increase in users is due to a decrease in costs.   internet users   1998 1999 2000 2001 new users 160 406 532 461 accumulated 160 566 1098 1559   in november 2004, telpin had 1120 broadband connections (50 of them are free, for pinamar schools, the public library, firemen’s headquarters and other community institutions), and 3.500 other area dial-up connections (220 of them are free: they were granted to individuals with physical handicaps, among other users). as mentioned earlier, in argentina the national telecommunications enterprise (entel) managed the whole country’s telephone network, except for the areas served by cooperatives and small local enterprises. after its privatization in 1990, the argentine state divided the telephone network’s administration: it allocated the northern half of the national territory to the transnational telecom, and the southern half to the spanish telefónica. after the privatization, the evolution of the telephone market showed substantial changes. the network’s digitalization increased from 13% in 1990 to 100% in 1999. the number of lines increased by 250%: an addition of 5 millions subscribers. in a competitive market, telpin kept its local monopoly. this is mainly because the cooperative had already provided its users with a service level and a loyalty-reward policy that surpassed those proposed by private enterprises.[12]  during the period 1990-1999, telpin´s subscribers, far from migrating to other providers, increased 5031 to 17,710: a 352% growth. these numbers, proportionally, would surpass by 102% the volume of new subscribers, if compared with the telefónica and telecom’s growth rate in the rest of the country.[13] evolution of business model and users profile since its conception, telpin has been considered as a community cooperative, with strong social duties. however, the business policy is to act as efficiently as a private enterprise. its sources of revenue are the 20.000 associates’ monthly rates. it is managed by a management council, and supported by a general manager and areas managers. ramirez et al (2002) state that “the engagement of community “champions” is key to a successful smart community”. they add: “without partnership and teamwork a community will never succeed in becoming “smart.” however, at one time or another, someone has to take charge, step forward, and make things happen. community champions play this role, and are key to both the instigation and the sustainability of “smart projects.” often an individual will be identified as the “champion”, though a “team of champions” is a more reliable factor for success.” the champions’ decisive role becomes evident in telpin. all the important initiatives were originated by a small group of enthusiasts: eng. santoianni, general manager, and mgr. claudia gomez costa, director of telpin educa in 2004. telpin´s managers receive permanent training. a telecommunications enterprise must be really informed about the market tendencies. training is a key issue in this matter. we must foresee where telecommunications are heading for. (…) we don’t believe that cooperativism goes again entrepreneurial best practices. we’re a telecommunications cooperative: we don’t fund a soup kitchen, but we provide the best democratic communications services we can. (source: eng. juan santoianni, telpin´s manager) the legal structure is similar to an anonymous society (sociedad anónima): each associate is a shareholder; the difference with an enterprise lies in that each associate represents a vote, independently of his or her involvement in the cooperative or the money he or she contributes. in the case that an associate uses several phone lines (as in the case of a hotel), each line represents a share; in any case, he or she is entitled to only one vote in the cooperative. the cooperative has special payment plans for those users with financial difficulties. moreover, in months when the cooperative’s balance is particularly plentiful, a discount is granted to all the users. for a monthly payment of $10 pesos ($3 usd) the associates receive a telephone line with unlimited local calls. this is useful for the poor, generally seasonal workers (house painters, repairmen, gardeners, domestic help) who live mostly in ostende, for whom there are special payment facilities: they can pay 1 peso ($0.33 usd) for a phone line, with unlimited local calls, and then make up by paying 12 pesos per months. in the winter months there are special discounts, and seasonal workers may pay 7 pesos per month, less than they would pay for bus transportation if they have to travel in the area to search for work. telpin has implemented a cross subsidy for certain services. long distance national and international calls finance local calls. the internet also plays an important role in the cooperative’s financial sustainability: in 1994, the year in which the internet finally arrived in argentina, there were no internet providers for the provinces. telpin has provide internet service since 1997, at an additional cost of 30 pesos ($10 usd) per month. that year the cooperative bought equipment that allowed the simultaneous connection of 60 modems. they gave the users a free internet trial. three months later, the internet network had reached saturation level, and telpin had to buy additional equipment. the cooperative’s scheme differed from other internet service providers: while usually isps use a modem for each 20 real users, charging for each minute of connection, telpin had a modem for each 5 users, charging lower prices for full connections, and consequently, achieving a critical mass of users. in 1998, counting the amortization of the acquired equipment, the operation showed a net positive return. from then on, the cooperative has not stopped investing in internet services. the community’s role even if all the households in pinamar are telpin´s shareholders, their participation is not direct: the cooperative organizes an annual assembly in which the authorities are elected. the list is composed of individuals considered representative of the whole community, even if most of its members are outstanding entrepreneurs. the community owns and finances the cooperative, now one of the most important businesses in pinamar. telpin’s investments in technology have the community’s support. community members also have control over the cooperative, through access to their monthly balances and periodic monitoring. the community’s loyalty to their cooperative has been a key factor in the cooperative’s sustainability. our balance sheets are done each month. our consumption measurers are updated daily. we can predict the year’s profits and estimate which discounts that our associates will enjoy for the next two months. but we don’t stop investing in our coop, because it’s our way to grow, and to become technologically innovative. we don’t always make the best financial investments in the long run, but it’s always the best organizational investment, because it results in free publicity, done by our own users. for example, our internet users boast: ‘i can be connected the whole day through, and i pay only $30’. in 1997, that was an excellent price in the world, because internet users were paying 25 or 30 us dollars, but they had to pay for the telephone consumption besides. any internet user in the world paid then 50 or 60 us dollars a month. (source: eng. juan santoianni, telpin´s manager in 2004). eng. santoianni likes to tell an anecdote to illustrate the users’ loyalty to telpin: in 1999, telefónica asked the national communications commission (comisión nacional de comunicaciones, cnc) to free up pinamar’s area for long distance service subscription. telefónica introduced seven vans, with four employees each, to rake the area, calling each house and apartment to sign-up the inhabitants for telefónica’s long distance services. they worked for two weeks, presenting what was in fact a deceptive statement, that the cooperative could not offer long distance services. they managed to get 15 contracts. when the users asked telpin to terminate their contracts, explaining that they wanted to switch to telefónica, because “telpin cannot supply us with long distance services,” telpin explained to them the mistake. fourteen of the users returned to telpin. the experience proved the population’s commitment to telpin and its social involvement. telpin has offered access to the internet since late 1998. the cooperative’s associates can have a second telephone line for a symbolic cost: of one peso, about $0.33 usd. since local dial-tone is free, the only cost they must pay to have an internet connection is to the isp. in october 2004, telpin had 20000 subscribers to its isp services, of which 50 (mainly schools) enjoy a free subscription. users pay 30 pesos ($10 usd) for full internet. if they subscribe to the broadband service 256, the cost is $58.90 + tva (value added tax of around $20 usd), and the broadband service 512: $78.90 + tva (around $30 usd). the hosting of websites costs $20+tva. telpin has implemented a public telecenter with 8 computers in pinamar popular library, with free public access to the internet. it has also equipped with computers and free connection the local voluntary firemen’s´ quarters. at present, all of pinamar schools, 5,000 students and more than 17,000 citizens benefit from full free internet connections. educational internet telpin´s most outstanding action is internet educativa (educational internet, www.telpin.com.ar /itelpineduca), a unique experience in latin america. it was launched in early 1999. telpin educa´s technical director is eng. juan santoianni, and its pedagogic director is mgr. claudia gómez costa. telpin provides internet connection to all the district schools: kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, as well as technical schools, both public and private. all the educational institutions are connected to the internet and to an educational electronic network.             telpin supplies computers, connections, server, and technical services. it also provides training for teachers, a key element of educational internet. teachers were given the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of informatics resources, increase their use in educational practices, and learn how to build websites for their respective institutions (http://www.telpin.com.ar/interneteducativa). telpin´s courses do not focus on the traditional informatics teaching (word, excel, etc.) but on the tools that allow both teachers and students to “appropriate” the new cyber territory, circulate in it, integrate virtual networks, and incorporate their own content (e-mail, html, etc.). educators are equipped with the basic tools that allow them to acquire the cultural capital they need in the information society, and in turn, make their own contributions to the new society. this is the only case in latin america with these characteristics, and with teachers that have been continually trained for six years. they did not know how to turn on a computer, and they are now working in collaborative networks, and generating marvelous projects. (…) now several provinces and cities in the country have invited us to study how to implement telpin educa there.  (source: mgr. claudia gomez costa, director of telpin educa in 2004). at present, all of pinamar district schools have their own websites, built by their teachers and professors. in pinamar, five kindergartens, eight primary schools, two secondary schools, one physical education center, three education management institutions, and sixteen community organizations[14], are integrated into the internet educativa. all of them are supplied with computers, internet connections, server and technical services. in 2002, telpin extended internet educativa to the nearby general madariaga district, and in 2001, to the city of trenque lauquen, in the la pampa province. the national ministry of education decided to implement the course: "appropriate use of the internet in education" for 1000 trenque lauquen teachers. in august 2001, the course was chosen by the foundation equity  (fundación equidad, http://www.equidad.org/) to be implemented in the province of neuquén, patagonia, within the program of schools informatization (programa de informatización escolar) funded by the oil company repsol -ypf. the course trained a total of 46 “teacher-trainers” in 19 schools in neuquén. between 2001 and 2002 the experience was extended to the patagonic provinces of santa cruz and chubut. until october 2004, more than 2000 teachers and professors in buenos aires, neuquén, chubut and santa cruz have been trained to use icts for educative purposes. claudia gomez costa attributes the success of telpin educa to the original idea, the decision that the initiative should be sustainable for a long time, the team, and mainly, “the human factor”: all of my professors were trained as teachers, and they have years of experience teaching in schools. all of them specialize in ict for education, in different areas: art, history, geography, a special professor for the handicapped… i would say that the human factor and appropriate training are the key factors for success. (source: mgr. claudia gomez costa, director of telpin educa in 2004). analysis and conclusions we have found support for our main hypothesis: telecommunications community cooperatives are a line of attack for civil society organizations to set up communities for their new roles.  in this way civil society can begin to proactively partake in the building of a new economy, helped by fast and low-cost access to internet connections, education on ict uses, capacities to implement the communities’ ownership of ict infrastructures, alertness to identifying the opportunities existing in the emerging information society, and towards the effective use of information and communication technologies. telecommunications community cooperatives are realizing a social role unparalleled in latin american countries[15], not only as services providers, but also as employment generators: tccs are the only telecommunications providers in argentina with entirely argentine capital (local communities’ capital). the initial tccs capital, as with any cooperative’s opening capital, comes from the associates contributions. they also supply a monthly quota to support the cooperative, which varies according to the range of circumstances. they are social centers, since they provide social content, and enhance community activities. they offer employment for qualified and non-qualified labor. many of them provide education and training in the diverse uses of icts. the successive economic crises suffered by argentina were not used as excuses to fire employees. they are solidarity-economy enterprises; therefore, their economic surplus is invested in other community projects, creating  a multiplier effect in the local and regional economy. they are providers of fast and low-cost access to internet connection. local capital does not migrate to foreign countries; on the contrary, they encourage local economic development, and they improve their communities’ quality of life. they are agents of democratization and social appropriation of telecommunications infrastructures. within these cooperatives, the case of telpin is paradigmatic: it is considered the most successful and innovative telecommunications cooperative in the country. however, its formation had some exception circumstances, not easily replicable in other areas: among its initial associates there were some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the region; a local enterprise, pinamar, s.a., contributed generously to its financial beginnings; and the local population, being linked to tourist activities, demanded communications with the world, promptly understood and supported the initiative. at its origins, telpin had—and still has—extraordinary leadership form local and national businessmen, who contributed their expertise, as well as their contacts. however, these were not the only factors contributing to its success: the main factor is the existence of passionate, lucid champions willing to put their expertise and their knowledge to make telpin the most innovative cooperative in the country; the management, simultaneously community and enterprise-oriented, together with the constant updating and training of the management staff; the willingness to venture into technological and organizational innovations, and most of all, the quality and responsibility of the human resources. telpin also has cutting edge technology, as well as better and less expensive services than its private competitors. it also supplies superior customer services. these elements earned it their users’ loyalty and commitment. the benefits to the community derived from telpin´s actions are evident: full telephone coverage at lower costs than the traditional private enterprises´, internet at affordable prices, full free telecommunication services for the community’s institutions, innovative technology, and generation of local employment. the community owns and finances the cooperative, and controls their finances and investments through their monthly balances and period monitoring. telpin’s investments in technology have full community support. the community’s commitment to their cooperative has been a key reason for the cooperative’s sustainability. moreover, the characteristic that makes telpin a unique case in latin america is telpin educa, the educational innovation for the information society that has achieved successful results and remarkable social and cultural impacts on the community, not only in pinamar, but also in other regions in the country. the innovations involved in the general telpin initiative were mostly managerial and technological. from the managerial point of view, the fact of using the most expensive services, such as international telephone calls, to subsidize the most popular ones, such as local calls, the concept of managing the cooperative as an enterprise, while keeping its social values and the quality of the human resources involved ensured its sustainability and continuity. from the technological point of view, the cooperative was a pioneer from the beginning, introducing technologies and services much earlier than the large, private telecommunications enterprises. lessons learned: telecommunications community cooperatives are potential tools to democratize communications, since the community becomes the owner of its communications infrastructure. commitment to their communities is fundamental to the success of cooperatives: this implies continuous efforts to provide cutting edge technology, managerial efficiency, better and less expensive services than its private competitors, and superior customer services. community engagement is a key factor for the success of community cooperatives. in order to become replicable in other argentina regions, or in developing countries, tccs must count on: appropriatet legislation that allows them to compete with private providers; a favorable fiscal status; a local community capable of raising funds, either with their own financial participation, or by obtaining credits from banks or international organizations; and a talented, preferably professional management, responsibly open to managerial and technological innovations. the launching of tccs implies that community members must make serious financial efforts, given that the main investment sources come from their associates or shareholders–not only the potential users, but mainly local enterprises--and from national or provincial banks through soft loans. for this reason, low-income communities may have difficulties in implementing tccs, unless they can negotiate investments from national banks or international organizations. the case of telpin, as well as the history of the cooperatives movement in argentina, shows that the involvement of local champions is essential for the success of tcc initiatives, not only for the first stages, but also–and mainly--for long-term sustainability. not only is there safety in numbers, but also negotiating in capacity cooperatives achieve better results, either when negotiating with governments or with private enterprises, if they can integrate networks or federations. capacity building is essential for long-term accomplishment: constant training of the cooperatives’ responsible members, either technicians or managers, is a key factor for success. communities also need training to obtain the benefits of the information society: tccs have an irreplaceable role to play as community educators. tccs can lead to ancillary community developments: a community which is communicating and trained to use information society tools is also able to develop micro enterprises or smes using ict, e.g. the development of tourist and educational websites, online publicity for tourism, or the multiplicity of cybercafés in pinamar. tccs can lead to related local entrepreneurial developments, such as software production, technological goods and services, training in managerial abilities, and others.   references bridges.org (2001), “comparison of e-readiness assessment models, final draft, v. 2.13, 14 march 2001, downloaded from: http://www.bridges.org/ereadiness/tools.html castells, m. (2000) “is the new economy socially sustainable?” downloaded from: http://www.ul.ie/~icse2000/castellsabstract.html castells, m. (2000). manuel castells keynote summary, http://www.ul.ie/~icse2000/wow/issue2/manuel_castell_keynote.htm fecotel (n.d.). testimonio del estatuto social reformado de la federacion de cooperativas de telecomunicaciones de la republica argentina ltda. capitulo i. denominación, domicilio, duración y objeto.  http://www.fecoteldatos.com.ar/estatuto.doc finquelievich, s. (2003). icts and poverty reduction in latin america and the caribbean, ica – idrc. finquelievich, s. (2004). lago martínez, silvia; jara, alejandra; vercelli, ariel. tic, desarrollo y reducción de la pobreza: políticas y propuestas. [online]. buenos aires: instituto de investigaciones gino germani, facultad de ciencias sociales, universidad de buenos aires, 2004. (iigg documentos de trabajo, nº 37). downloaded from http://www.iigg.fsoc.uba.ar/docs/dt/dt37.pdf finquelievich, s. (2004).  la sociedad civil en la economía del conocimiento: tics y desarrollo socio-económico. [online]. buenos aires: instituto de investigaciones gino germani, facultad de ciencias sociales, universidad de buenos aires, 2004. (iigg documentos de trabajo, nº 40). <http://www.iigg.fsoc.uba.ar/docs/dt/dt40.pdf> gurstei, m. (2003). community innovation and community informatics building national innovation capability from the bottom up, december 2003.  downloaded from http://www.ciresearch.net/innovation.doc kelly, k. (1997, september). new rules for the new economy, wired, issue 5.09 downloaded from http://www.wired.com/wired/5.09/newrules.html lanvin, b. (2001). the global information technology report 2001-2002: readiness for the networked world, center for international development at harvard university, downloaded from http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cr/gitrr_030202.html. obendorf, tricia (2000): manuel castells leads keynoters, in window of the world, issue 2, http://www.ul.ie/~icse2000/wow/issue2/manuel_castell_keynote.htm ricardo ramírez, helen aitkin, galin kora & don richardson (2002): community engagement, performance measurement and sustainability: experiences from canadian community based networks, accessed april 27, 2005 from http://www.is.njit.edu/vci/iwci1/ramirez.doc. stiglitz, joseph (2003): “los felices 90”, taurus, buenos aires. tapper, h. (n.d.). understanding the information society paradigm. accessed 2004, http://www.valt.helsinki.fi/comm/argo/argonet9/tapper.htm [1] this paper is based on a case study developed by susana finquelievich and graciela kisilevsky for “comunica.org”, coordinated by bruce girard, and funded by undp, 2004. [2] cooperatives are not necessarily non-profit organizations. what they do is to redistribute their profits among members and associates. [3] see convenio colectivo de trabajo 296/97, http://www.foetrabsas.org/cct29697%20cooperativas%20telef.doc [4] http://www.fecoteldatos.com.ar/ [5] http://www.cicomra.org.ar/eventosycursos/eca2003/presentacion%20a%20maccio.pdf [6] http://www.boonic.com/noticias/index.php?tipo=2&num=848 [7] see http://www.tenet.res.in/cordect/cordect.html visited on 15 october 2004. [8] http://www.lacapital.com.ar/2004/07/17/economia/noticia_117081.shtml [9] sources: 2001 national census, and department of commerce, municipality of pinamar, 2000. [10] source: ministry of interior, secretariat of municipal affaire, consulted in september, 2004, http://www.mininterior.gov.ar/municipales/busqueda/amplia_info.asp?id=bue097 [11] source: telpin, http://www.telpin.com.ar [12] different cooperatives use diverse tariff criteria, but they are generally cheaper than private telecommunications enterprises. in telpin’s case, users pay $12 monthly, including tva. telecom, one of the two large private telecommunications enterprises, features monthly bills of $12.78 (monthly subscription, which does not include consumption) plus $1.35 (maintenance service) plus tva: $14.43. all this scales up to $17.46… and the user has not even yet paid for the real telephone consumption. so, commercial bills are 45.5% over telpin´s rates, even before paying for telecommunications use. [13] source: telpin data. [14] see http://www.telpin.com.ar/interneteducativa/lp/sep.htm, consulted in september 2004. in this page, there are links to the educational institutions websites. [15] bolivia is an exception: the federation of bolivian telephone cooperatives, fecotel, was launched in 1987 in santa cruz de la sierra, http://www.comteco.com.bo/cooperativa/fecestat.doc editorial: sustainability of community icts and its future   michael gurstein  new jersey institute of technology < gurstein@adm.njit.edu >     this, the second issue of the journal of community informatics has the theme of “sustainability”. from the perspective of community-based technology initiatives and community informatics, “sustainability” is a key concern, without which our efforts and implementations eventually will wither and die. little will have been accomplished towards our larger task of enabling and empowering communities with information and communications technologies (icts). however, defining what is meant by “sustainability” is in itself a task, one that is of key significance for the long-term success of our collective work.   to help explore the challenges of creating sustainable projects, initiatives and ultimately the local changes, developments and even on occasion transformations that will result, we are devoting the second issue of the journal of community informatics to the theme of “sustainability and community icts”.   whether “sustainability” is purely a matter of financial resources to cover operating and replacement costs, as many project funders seem to suggest; or whether it is a rather more complex intermix of financial, organizational, social and even personal considerations is the subject matter of the articles in this issue, most of which were first presented at the inaugural conference of the community informatics research network http://www.ciresearch.net in prato, italy in september, 2004.   the range of these papers and the degree of inter-connection between them gives evidence of a healthy research community and a vigorous intellectual climate for our collective work and a considerable degree of interest in getting to a root understanding of “sustainability” and how to influence its future.   “sustainability” as a concept is conventionally associated with environmental and ecological issues and refers according to the wikipedia to the “means of configuring civilization and human activity so that society and its members are able to meet their needs and express their greatest potential in the present, while preserving biodiversity and natural ecosystems, and planning and acting for the ability to maintain these ideals indefinitely”.[1] however a casual search via google shows some 85,000 references to “ict” and “sustainability” excluding “environment”.   what is meant by “sustainability” in the ict context is less a matter of a broad “configuration of civilization” and more to do with day to day slogging by community members in meeting the payroll and keeping the machines running amidst the wear and tear of daily life (both physical and electronic) while always keeping in mind how the technology could be used to respond to the needs (and opportunities) of their local communities. how that is done and not just day by day, but week by week and eventually, year by year will ultimately determine whether icts are another development fad or in fact are as fundamentally transformative as many of us anticipate.   of course, when we are speaking of “sustainability” in the context of icts we should perhaps be speaking of “sustainabilities” rather than “sustainability”, for there are many dimensions of this issue which go much beyond the simple economic and the meeting of weekly payrolls.   there are, as hearn et al point out, a variety of organizational, and contextual issues as well as larger technical and industry issues which all impact on “sustainability”. moreover, as rideout and reddick discuss concerning the canadian circumstance, all of these are evolving within a broad policy (and government funding) framework that may or may not allow for the effective development of initiatives once-funded even apart from the lack of sustained funding commitment to initiatives once undertaken. tanner in her paper adds a most interesting and provocative discussion of the role of “emotion” in (and including ict-enabled) community “sustainability”. ripamonti, de cindio and benassi extend this discussion into a broad-based and extremely interesting set of observations and analyses exploring the sustainability issues which cross-cut between on-line community networking and the physical presence and organization of community networks. their paper gives i believe, what may be the first “business” analysis of a virtual community which, in our context is most notably a thriving community network.   van belle and trusler present an analytic case study of an on-going community ict project in a developing country context, warts and all, and provide very useful insights into the “real world” of development and community ict; while musgrave approaches these same issues but at a more “macro” level and within a developed country context but interestingly reveals somewhat similar institutional constraints on community ict initiatives.   the case studies presented from merkel et al and thompson further our knowledge of how these issues are being handled in quite specific institutional and economic contexts while the happy conjuncture of the documents presented in the “notes from the field” indicates some of the dimensions and broadly perceived significance of the applications and strategies we are discussing.   at a deeper level there are contrasts and similarities across application areas, socio-economic contexts, and organizational forms and missions. these are both startling and revealing and can move us along the path outlined in simpson’s very well argued analysis toward a broader framework for research-based theory development and systematization of experience. overall, and looked at as an integrated unit rather than as isolated papers, this issue perhaps moves some way in giving the field of community informatics both scientific depth and resonsance for policy and practice.   however, to a considerable degree, a discussion on “sustainability” is a measure of the underdevelopment and immaturity of our work and most importantly, i think indicates a clear direction for our activities into the future. implicit in much of the discussions and analyses presented in this issue are assumptions about the value of icts for local communities as “social goods”. following from this there is a further assumption that, given the current or at least future significance and value of these developments, icts should be treated as broadly (and tax payer) supportable “public goods”. but of course, while we as a community informatics community may accept this argument, it is still very controversial in the larger world and even among those working in the overall field of “development” whom one might expect to be supporters.   the challenge as i see it in this context, is to make the use of icts in communities so transparent in their implementation and so compelling in their application that the issue of “sustainability” in effect disappears. cell phones have reached a level of disappearance into market place “sustainability” and are moving towards “social good” sustainability at a rapid pace. their use and increasingly their private and public applications are so necessary that resources are being found to “sustain” them and their infrastructures at the individual and the community level however, poor or remote. to date, the acceptance and use of icts has not reached anything like that level and that remains our challenge.   one hopes that when the cycle is completed and the question arises in 3 or 4 years whether to repeat the journal of community informatics’ thematic issues with updates, that the matter of “sustainability” of community icts, can be gracefully forgotten and we can go on to other and more productive and creative matters.   this issue is dedicated to the memory of dirk koning. he made a lasting contribution to all the areas where communities and technology and media move together, a giant of a man in all respects.     [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sustainability   user-centred design, e-research, and adaptive capacity in cultural institutions: the case of the women on farms gathering collection cultivating the women on farms gathering community: a digital approach natalie lee-san pang monash university <natalie.pang@infotech.monash.edu.au> abstract. this paper explores the potential of virtual place as a site where community identity can be cultivated through empowering, enabling, and constraining the collective memories of the community, and by the construction and reconstruction of individual knowledge. insights from the discussion are applied to a particular case. a project titled ‘cultivating memory: investigating the intersection of public history, museology and community informatics in the women on farms gathering (wofg) heritage collection’ concerns a collection of iconic objects, texts, oral history recordings, videos, photographs and memorabilia relating to the lives of women on farms. the project explores how best this collection can be placed and extended both physically and virtually, in terms both of content and use. the digital collection contributes to the establishment of a ‘knowledge commons’; a virtual space dedicated to the sharing of understanding, memories, and knowledge within the community. using this concept of the commons, this paper demonstrates how the digital collection enables the reclaiming of understanding, the construction and representation of knowledge, and the cultivation of memories within a community. introduction using the case of the wofg collection, this paper explores the potential of virtual place as a site where community identity can be cultivated. the approach is partly based on structurational theory by giddens (1984), who offers the following insight: the best and most interesting ideas in the social sciences (a) participate in fostering the climate of opinion and the social processes which give rise to them, (b) are in greater or lesser degree entwined with theories-in-use which help to constitute those processes and (c) are thus unlikely to be clearly distinct from considered reflection which lay actors may bring to bear in so far as they discursively articulate, or improve upon, theories-in-use (giddens, 1984: 34). in other words, meanings, actions, and structures are closely and continuously interdependent. according to giddens, community cultures are generated and re-generated through the interplay of action and structure. social structure both supports and constrains the endeavours of individuals, communities and, societies. within this context, we explore a number of intersections in this paper. cultural institutions are defined here as organizations whose charter is to promote and support education, arts, and sciences through creating, preserving, sharing and transmitting knowledge. this definition is consistent with unesco’s world culture report (unesco, 2003). over the years, cultural institutions have become increasingly sensitive to their communities and become more innovative in the designs and redesigns of their services, information systems, and work spaces to cater to the needs of these communities (allmang, liu and sanders, 2005). change is no doubt a constant with all organisations; but we investigate how this change reflects, at a visionary level, a step by cultural institutions towards what this paper refers to as the knowledge commons. benkler (2003) refers to the knowledge commons as zones or spaces where resources are shared by people, but subjected to certain enclosures. dale (2003) argued for the case of museums as agents of change in communities. as mainstream cultural institutions, museums have a significant role in ‘creating public understanding and knowledge of the world’ (dale, 2003). in her paper, dale (2003) suggested pragmatic examples of how museums around the world are repositioning themselves as agents of cultural change, by collecting, preserving and facilitating alternative discourses and knowledge. this paper not only explores, through discussion of the case study, how a digital collection can empower, enable, and constrain collective memories of the community through the construction and reconstruction of knowledge. it also puts forward a lively illustration of how the museum as a cultural institution can transform itself into a knowledge commons using as a digital collection as one of its many tools. the women on farms gathering (wofg) collection the first gathering was held by victorian farm women in 1990, warragul, victoria. it became an annual event thereafter, with each gathering held in different locations. the gatherings produced a collection of symbolic objects and stories, including two large banners, videos, photographs, oral histories, a memorial plaque, a range of memorabilia (t-shirts, mugs, bags), and symbolic icons such as a cow pat, an irrigation shovel, a magic wand, a cheque, a mallee stone, a mallee root, a peaked cap, a computer motherboard, a jar of mallee soil and seeds, a farm work boot, a horseshoe, a pair of ceramic hands and an open lock and key. as the years went by, these gatherings grew in attendance and depth, with themes selected for each gathering and the number of artifacts increasing. yet the conception of items collected as a heritage was not realised until the gathering in 2001, when, items from past gatherings were brought together to contribute to a series of history boards displayed at the beechworth gathering in 2001. committee members of the gathering then contacted museum victoria seeking a neutral, central institution which could ensure the sustainability of the collection. from there, a heritage group was established consisting of twenty-one women from across victoria, each representing past gatherings. in 2003, representatives of the women on farms gathering heritage group and museum victoria signed an agreement to work together in making visible a story that has long been ignored: the vital and creative role of victorian women in sustaining their rural industries and communities. over 260 participants signed a three-metre long scroll as witnesses to this special occasion. the scope of the collection comprises of iconic objects, texts, oral history recordings, videos, photographs and memorabilia relating to the lives of victorian women living and working on farms. since the first gathering the collection has seen the inclusion of stories – both oral and written – about and brought to the gatherings, and physical artefacts: all working together to facilitate the promotion, sharing, development, networking, and celebration of the diverse roles and memories of victorian women on farms and in rural communities. with the involvement of the museum, the collection grew considerably in both depth and breadth. as the collection and engagement with the community grew across time and distance, the need came up for a medium to communicate and exhibit the collection to members of the public and members of the community. this led to the formulation of a digital approach to place the wofg collection in a virtual space. because the gathering was a self-initiated ‘grass-root’ endeavour, the wofg community was seen as a particularly valued partner by the museum. they provided unique experiential knowledge, instantiated both in objects and stories. the involvement of the museum as the cultural institution in the partnership was intentionally kept in participatory engagement with the wofg community. instead of engaging members of the community in the activities of the museum, many of the activities and practices around building the collection take place by having the museum involved in the activities of the community. at the same time, dialogue with members of the community was maintained through regular meetings where there are open discussions on how the community can take active ownership of the collection. such guiding principles were largely based on participatory action research philosophies, which saw the community as a knowledgeable partner and the researchers as collaborators, with a primary goal to contribute to the betterment of the community (nyden, 1997; mckay and marshall, 2001). structuration theory and its application the project evolves around the building of a digital collection in an existing partnership between museum victoria and a rural community. there is a need to account for the potential impacts on the two entities, while making sense of the technological assumptions implicit in the project. in other words, an appropriate theoretical framework would be one that explores subjective experiences and objective properties of the technologies involved. this is explored by using structuration theory. in the study of the social realities of information technology, there are broadly two traditions: the assumption of social reality as subjective or objective (orlikowoski and robey, 1991). this opposition in theory is reflected in the assumption of social systems (of which information technologies are part). subjective social reality is the result of ‘meaningful human behaviour’; while the other focuses on the organisational aspects of social systems, independent of and constraining human actions, representing social realities as objective (bhaskar, c.f. orlikowoski and robey, 1991). research assuming the subjectivity of social systems focuses on the subjective human experiences, interpretation of them, and elements of human behaviour modifying the social world. the contrasting view of objectivism focuses on the definitions and properties of institutional elements which shape social systems, and through this process, provides explanations for their influences on human actions and relationships. giddens asserted that the grounds of mutual exclusiveness between subjectivism and objectivism is flawed and therefore developed the theory of structuration to accommodate the two traditions. structuration theory views the subjectivity and objectivity of social realities as equally important and is therefore used to analyse the role of technology and design in the work of cultural institutions and communities, as discussed below. according to structuration theory, the cumulative effect of people’s living and working within social frameworks is the production and reproduction of culture. the cultural context is generated and regenerated through the interplay of action and structure. social structures both support and constrain the endeavours of individuals, communities and societies. this is also referred to as the duality of structure (giddens, 1986), which sees that the institutional properties of social systems are created by human actions, and in turn shape future actions. it recognises that ‘man actively shapes the world he lives in at the same time as it shapes him’ (giddens, 1984). the self-conscious deployment of content and stories in the digital collection draws on similar paradoxes. the use of information systems necessarily imposes certain forms of structure on the communities that use these systems. the notion of involving users in design, on the other hand, stresses the role of human action in shaping the evolving structure of information systems. it is this engagement and involvement of a community of users within the design process that the paper is addressing. many information systems researchers argue the case for iterative design (carroll, 2000; preece, 2002) seeing it as a way to factor in the effects of human actions. but more critical for cultural institutions is the importance of factoring actions in a way which reflects the cumulative actions of communities as a whole, and incorporating this in the design methodologies of information systems, services, and workspaces. as rose and scheepers (2001) pointed out, while the use of structuration theory to theorise the field of information systems and its empirical scenarios is not new, there is little effort in using the theory to influence the field in practice. of course, there are debates about structuration theory; the main one being the theory is too general and formal and there can be major difficulties in applying it to empirical situations (cohen, 1991). structuration theory is complex and can be adapted only in relevant contexts. the work of orlikowski and robey (1991), in applying the theory to technology has been instrumental in adapting perspectives from structuration theory to the project. the duality of structure perhaps the most important application of this theory to any information system lies in the recognition of structure and agency as ‘duality’ – making clear the distinctions between structure and agency yet recognising them as dependent upon each other iteratively. the application of this theory recognises that the structural properties of social systems impose themselves as influencing mediums and at the same time, exist as outcomes of the social practices they ‘recursively organise’ (giddens, 1984, pp 25). these dimensions are illustrated in the well-known diagram as below (figure 1): structure signification domination legitimation modality interpretive scheme facility norm interaction communication power sanction figure 1: dimensions of the duality of structure (giddens, 1984) as illustrated in figure 1, social structure and human interaction are broken down into three columns. each structure and interaction is then associated with each other recursively via the linking modalities. for example, as humans communicate, they use interpretive schemes to help them make sense of their interaction; at the same time these interactions change or reproduce the same interpretive schemes that are embedded in structures as signification. the facility used to allocate resources is manifested in the wielding of power, which in turn produces and reproduces facilities influencing social structures of domination. norms on the other hand, referred to also as moral codes; provide sanctions for human interactions, which ultimately also produce legitimation within structures. orlikowski and robey (1991) have done much work in theorising aspects of information systems using structuration theory. according to them, ‘in its constituted nature – information technology is the social product of subjective human action within specific structural and cultural contexts – and its constitutive role – information technology is simultaneously an objective set of rules and resources involved in mediating (facilitating and constraining) human action, and thus hence contributing to the creation, recreation and transformation of these contexts’. information systems are forgotten as often as they are remembered in the conduct of everyday life, and have long since overflowed their original ambit of the workplace to include almost all other aspects of living. so extensive are the potentials of information systems in the current state of the world that the term ‘information systems’ has become too diverse a concept to be captured in any short definition. information systems – when considered as an object of study – require constantly renewed effort at definition depending on context. it is now a reality of the techno-social condition that people need to grapple continuously with the multiple personae of ‘information’ and ‘information systems’ while interacting with them to fulfil their everyday activities. orlikowoski (1992) further explores the interactive aspects of the structurational model as it applies to information technology. this is shown in figure 2. in this context, human agents are interacting with technology as a result of the institution, and technology is both the subject and object of interactions. institutional properties place certain conditions on human agents in their interaction with technology (arrow a). these human agents shape technology as reflected in the arrow denoted as b. this is a recursive effect, as technology is also acting as a medium of human actions – both constraining and empowering the actions of human agents (arrow). through their interactions with technology, institutional properties are then recursively shaped over time and space (arrow d). this is a constant interplay between technology, institutional properties and human agents. figure 2: structurational model of technology (orlikowoski, 1992) the recursive nature of technology based on structuration theory is reflected in the structurational properties of technologies as being created and changed by human action; but also used by humans to accomplish actions. the knowledge commons i have learned that excellence in cultural institutions means constant engagement in the problems of public knowledge. as proliferating themes of education and the culture of information remind us, what a culture knows, how it finds knowledge, and how it conducts its conversations about ethics, imagination, and policy are vital to its character and actions. these themes are also germane to understanding the promise of cultural institutions, where we can live out the unspoken parts of our experiences. consequently, over the past several years when i have met audiences…i have done so as an advocate for the idea that we create and sustain these institutions because we want to become different people. we go to these places out of hope and will, and out of the desire for self-rescue. (carr, 2003, pp xix) it is necessary at this point to explore the construct used for the study. the knowledge commons, derived from the historical commons, is defined by benkler (2003) as ‘institutional spaces, in which we can practice a particular type of freedom – freedom from the constraints we normally accept as necessary preconditions to functional markets’. beagle (1999) also defines the information commons as two halves: the composition of physical space, and the virtual composition of resources and values. the term of the ‘commons’ therefore is used to refer to the infusion of digital technologies and resources with actual physical space and resources to be used freely by communities (macwhinnie, 2003; hales, rea and siegler, 2000; beagle, 1999; bailey and tierney, 2002; bollier, 2004; cowgill, beam and wess, 2001; lukasik, 2000). within this context, the importance of cultural institutions such as museums to the protection of the commons is clear. they fulfil their mission to serve community needs by preserving resources that seek to define those communities, by facilitating relationships within the communities, and by making those resources available free from market constraints. the commons can be a distressingly messy concept, subject to many different interpretations by various disciplines, institutions, and academics. before we go any further, let us first establish a working definition of the knowledge commons in the context of this paper. we refer to figure 3, a drawing made in mexico by quim gil, who was inspired by rural life of certain states such as chiapas (claude, 2002). though this is a representation of the traditional historical commons, it brings together essential elements of the knowledge commons that we use here. there exists, at a base level, resources that brings about inspiration, creativity, and action within the community. in gil’s impression, this is represented by the sun, and water and everything built on the earth. the sustainability of the community is ensured through grass, other plants, and animals; skills and cooperation by individuals and between individuals improve the community as a whole; while discussions, art and leisure ensures a healthy and happy community. the commons may appear to be a somewhat idealistic state of affairs – open only for criticism. in fact, hardin (1968) describes the commons as a ‘tragedy’; a state that sets itself up for disaster. his rationale is based on the assumption that ‘every man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit – in a world that is limited. ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.’ (claude, 2002). figure 3: the commons by gil (claude, 2002) there are two inherent flaws in this ‘tragedy’ in the context of the case study discussed here. one, it rests on the assumption that the use of a scarce resource in the commons leads to degradation, or depletion of the resource. indeed, this may very well be the case if we look upon information as a scarcity. information held in physical forms, such as printed sources, can be limited only to those who have access. yet in its digital forms, the risk of depletion decreases. information, in the form of text, images, and bits of data whether on physical or digital mediums, is used for the purpose of deriving knowledge. knowledge as a resource ‘has the characteristic of not being degraded when used, but rather to increase in value’ (drucker, c.f. hellstrom, 2001). a good contemporary example is wikipedia, where value and quality lie in the increasing use of the resource. recent evidence has also shown how the quality of resources in wikipedia increases the more they are edited (wilkinson and huberman, 2007). this characteristic of knowledge helps to decrease the risk of the ‘tragedy’ of the commons (hardin, 1968). the second inherent flaw, as levine (2002) pointed out, was hardin’s (1968) assumption that the commons was uncontrollable and unorganised. indeed, if it were assumed to be left to be uncontrolled, unorganised, and exploited by individuals seeking personal gain, it could very well be a tragedy. levine (2002) suggested to prevent the tragedy, the desirability of state, non-profit, or voluntary ownerships of the commons by the concerned community. such ownerships allow for the management of the commons. museum victoria’s cultural partnership with the women on farms gathering community to create and develop a digital commons for that community denies the necessity of the tragedy which hardin (1968) spoke of. as mentioned above, the involvement of the museum in the community started not with the first gathering; but only when the collection and the community grew to a level of significance. even after this institutional involvement, the partnership between the community and the museum was kept at equal engagement; cautious to not impose institutional boundaries on the community. congruent with levine’s (2002) suggestion, this partnership reflects voluntary ownership of the commons by the community (i.e. women on farms in victoria) while the museum took up a neutral and central responsibility as a cultural institution to ensure the sustainability of the resources and collections in the community. the collection was developed around stories – both written and recorded orally, organised around the annual gatherings of the women on farms community. each gathering was filled with stories – about the gatherings, life stories of farm women brought to the gatherings, and stories about the objects collected at these gatherings. the stories museums tell are often influenced by the nature of their collections (dale, 2003). traditionally, this has been done through using objects for exploring meaning and memories; but gurian (1999) highlights that a significant shift towards centring collections on stories. this is a shift also towards an adoption of a people-centred methodology by museums (dale, 2003). the adoption of this methodology allows the inclusion of memories, photographs, video and audio recollections of the community in the collection. it is this focus that has been used to develop the digital collection, contributing to the whole picture of the knowledge commons. figure 4 shows a screen capture of a page from the collection. figure 4: shared stories from a page in the collection a sense of place: intersections within the commons an important aspect in the picture of the commons according to gil (see figure 3) is the existence of boundaries that seek to empower the community within its spaces, but at the same time imposing certain sanctions on the community. this is consistent with the analytic structures of structuration theory. sanctions contribute to the definition of accepted norms in the community which also gives form to the legitimate structures working within the commons. power relationships gave rise to structures of domination, and the way people communicate within the community gave significance to some resources over others. in the context of the wofg collection, the understanding and accepted working norms within the community (which have been around for more than ten years) gave rise to the structures defining the accessibility, domination, and signification of the collection. for example, the process of sharing stories and bringing together meaningful objects to annual gatherings has also become, quite implicitly, the signification of objects in the collection. it is important to highlight the role of the museum influencing this structure, which contributes at the same time to the norms and sanctions shaped within the community. one good example has been the role of curators filtering and adding meanings to the objects signified at gatherings before including them as part of the digital collection. it should be highlighted that the establishment of boundaries within the commons is one that is continuously negotiated within the community and the museum. in the context of the digital collection, by way of sharing stories and meaningful objects between members of the community, and having the participation of the museum, boundaries defining participation and access to the collection are continuously shaped. before establishing the digital collection, contributing to the collection implied participation at the annual gathering – but with the digital collection participation is now open to all – even to those who are not direct members of the community. having stories and other objects of meaning shared through the digital collection helps to reclaim understanding about the communal identity of the community. indeed, this is clear in hindsight as we examine the responses to the stories displayed in the collection. as the digital collection began to manifest when objects were put online, members of the community expressed much enthusiasm. one member commented: this is an exciting opportunity for us – to be able to connect with other women who understand and share similar stories, some of them we’ve never met before – and to connect with the public as a community. i’m beginning to realise how this is a new kind of space for us to interact in. such responses reflect a reclaiming of identity and understanding in the community, and in the process extend its citizenship to people beyond the usual community. this reclamation has at once an empowering and constraining effect on the collective memories of the community. while it empowers the community by providing a greater sense of belonging as a collective community, it also made it clear to the community the resources and the others who fall outside the community – with the latter expressed as ‘the public’. at the same time, communications within the community are exchanged within the commons using interpretative schemes of the community, embedded in structures of signification working in the community. such structures of signification are manifested by the stories and objects collected in the digital collection. while this may seem obvious, they come about only through intergenerational communication within the existing interpretative schemes of the community-museum partnership. again, it must be remembered that there is duality in this negotiation of exchange. the dynamic interplay of communication and signification moderated by interpretative schemes in the community is powerful in painting part of the picture of the knowledge commons, where people in the community interact in public discussions and social spaces, giving rise to signification of common resources owned by all in the community. this is exemplified by having the digital collection as common pool resources shared by members of the community, and with the museum facilitating such sharing. again, this intersection and interplay within the commons allows forth the growth of a sense of owned place for the community. as the digital collection seeks resources and stories from people in the community, meanings are constructed and established within the commons through the sharing of stories, memories, and objects. through the intergenerational reviews, editing, and publishing of these resources, they reach a certain level of signification and knowledge are eventually revealed and represented. the representations of resources, memories, and identities of the community are manifested tangibly in the access of the digital collection; but more importantly, the process eliciting this outcome lies in the dynamic interaction between members of the community. levels of power demonstrated by interaction are manifested by the facilities used to allocate resources, and in turn they produce and reproduce facilities influencing structures of domination. within the digital collection, modalities have been developed as facilities to allocate resources to be accessed and used by the community (e.g. stories about certain objects in the collection). such facilities influence and are influenced by structures of power (for example, certain stories are restricted or approved for public access by selected members of the community). entry into conversations on the digital common is limited in the current version of the website by a protocol making clear where power lies in terms of copyright and access to the collection; this process will require further negotiation. i permit museum victoria to make a recording of my recollections as part of the women on farms gathering heritage project. the museum wishes to use these recollections for a variety of purposes including exhibition, research, education material, public presentations and website. written permission will always be sought where members of the public wish to reproduce, broadcast or publish the recollections. conclusion & future work the paper has discussed, using a case study, a partnership between the museum as a cultural institution and a community. in the context of the knowledge commons, we explore how this interaction can be leveraged to produce benefits for all parties. we first explore the applications of structuration theory to technologies, and then in doing so, examine the relevance of a digital collection working within the knowledge commons. such intersections can lead to the development of a sense of place for the community, through reclaiming understanding and memories, and though constructing representing knowledge for the community. this understanding comes about only through situating the digital collection in the context of the commons. this is an ongoing project and work continues; reshaping the design of the site to meet the needs of the community, and evaluating the impacts of the information system in both the community and museum. findings from the project can also shed potential insights on the broader role of cultural institutions in addressing the issues and problems of public knowledge and common pool resources. there are, however, possible limitations due to the qualitative nature of the case study. case studies are often criticised as being too exploratory (de vaus, 2001) and more empirical insights will help in validating the findings from the study. acknowledgments we would like to acknowledge the members of the women on farms heritage group, and the museum of victoria for their inputs and participation in the project. none of this would also have been possible without the generous funding of monash university, arts/it small grants. references allmang, n., liu, r. and sanders, s. 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(2007). assessing the value of cooperation in wikipedia. retrieved february 12, 2007, from http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/idl/papers/wikipedia/wikipedia.pdf   an interpretivist case study of a south african rural multi-purpose community centre   jean-paul van belle university of cape town < jvbelle@commerce.uct.ac.za >   jonathan trusler university of cape town < jon@wpf.co.za > abstract this article presents an in-depth case study analysis of a single rural telecentre located in the western cape province of south africa. the study embraces the socio-technical research paradigm and uses a combination of hermeneutics and actor-network theory as the theoretical foundation with which to explore the mutual interaction between people and icts. the objective of the analysis is to gain a much deeper and richer understanding of the implementation issues of a multi-purpose community centre in a rural development situation.   context there is an increasing focus on the growing disparity between the involvement of developed and developing societies in the new “information age”. icts are often seen as being the critical link to bridge this gap (chapman 2002). an ict initiative that has been receiving increasing attention is that of the telecentre, and the related concept of the multi-purpose community centre (mpcc). the south african government is strongly promoting the diffusion of these mpccs throughout the country, particularly in rural areas. however, successful mpcc initiatives are still few and far between (burton 2000). as benjamin (2000) notes, “while there is much talk in international conferences of them, there are not many successful [telecentres] in developing countries.” the reasons for the failure of many of these initiatives are still not clear, despite a number of research efforts (avgerou 1998, cinsa 2003, montealegre 1999, moyo 1996, roode 2003). a growing strand of literature in the icts for development field refers to the interaction between technology and society (brohman 1996). this approach is often referred to as the socio-technical paradigm of technology. this study embraces this school of thought and actor-network theory is used as a theoretical foundation with which to explore the mutual interaction between people and machines. this paper presents an in-depth case study analysis of a single rural telecentre in the western cape province of south africa. the concept of telecentres and mpccs have been around for a relatively short period of time. consequently, no solid theoretical approaches have been developed for implementing these centres. however, a number of contrasting perspectives have arisen with regards to certain key issues. the first issue is that of success. at first glance this issue is relatively clear: has the project achieved its goals? however, as heeks (2002) points out, there is often considerable subjectivity involved when assessing the success and failure of development projects. who sets the goals? for whom are the outcomes undesirable? some authors contend that success should be seen in the light of those who fund or implement the project while other authors prefer to look at success from the perspective of the participants of a project. another, related issue is that of sustainability. while some see sustainability as being determined by the financial flows of a telecentre, others include determinants such as relevancy of services, human resources, and infrastructure (mayanja 2001). a final issue is the role of telecentres in development. some authors maintain that the underlying assumption of telecentres is that “appropriate information can contribute significantly to development.” (roman & colle 2002: 5) other authors focus less on the information aspect and more on the enabling aspect of icts in their ability to support local development projects. introduction to the case study the case under study: is the implementation of a multi-purpose community centre (mpcc) in the dwars river valley (drv) of the western cape of south africa. the valley is situated in a picturesque mountainous area traditionally known for its wine farms. there are a few large commercial wine farms in the valley, but the majority of the population experiences high levels of unemployment and live close to the poverty line. an mpcc is a specific type of telecentre, or “physical space that provides public access to icts for educational, personal, social, and economic development” (gomez et al. 1999). while it is difficult to find any consistency in the definitions of the terms used to describe different types of telecentres (see colle & roman 1999), we will define for our purposes a mpcc as a “telecentre which has a political motivation to aid in the upliftment of a disadvantaged group.” the drv is a name which came into existence only relatively recently in 2000, when the six historically distinct communities in the valley united as the smaller local municipalities were absorbed into the overall stellenbosch municipality. the mpcc under study, the dwars river valley mpcc (drv mpcc), was implemented in 2002 and 2003, after a lengthy implementation process. the process started in 1998, when the dominant community within the drv, pniel, applied for government funds to start a youth centre. when the funds were approved in 2001, the amalgamation in the valley had already taken place, and the concept of the youth centre had evolved into the concept of an mpcc. thus, what was originally planned to be the pniel youth centre eventually became the drv mpcc which in turn was implemented with the goal of providing developmental service to the six communities of kylemore, johannesdal, pniel, lanquedoc, banghoek, and groot drakenstein. a project manager, with extensive experience in mpccs, was brought in to manage the implementation process which was obtaining government funding from the local economic development (led) fund and the human settlement and redevelopment (hsrp) fund. the mpcc consisted of 10 computers, a printer, and a single dial-up internet connection. software on the computers included windows, the microsoft office suite, and microsoft project. the centre was housed within an existing municipal building in pniel, the most centrally located community in the valley, with plans to build a new, separate building during 2004. the mpcc business plan was based on replication of a model developed by the project manager during other pilot projects done in conjunction with the south african council for scientific and industrial research (csir). the model is based on four core components, supported by ict, as illustrated in figure 1 below. figure 1: the components of the mpcc model (source: digimile project management documentation) the explicit aim of the mpcc when it was implemented was to foster economic development within the valley by creating spin-off projects that could use the mpcc infrastructure but would support separate entrepreneurial ventures. these ventures would contribute to the sustainability of the mpcc by paying for the services they required such as business support, desktop publishing (dtp) and so forth. the mpcc would also serve as a centre for individuals who needed training, telephony and other services. the mpcc business plan was built around the centre eventually becoming a financially self-sustaining entity with the help of initial, start-up funding from government. it was estimated that the centre itself could provide sufficient income to support three full-time employees. in 2002, a committee of twelve community representatives was elected to make decisions regarding the mpcc and its implementation process. the committee was ultimately responsible for the project and consisted of two representatives from each of the six communities. after an extensive consultation process supervised by the project manager, the committee decided to focus on four areas of potential benefit to the valley: tourism, water, housing and agriculture. the tourism project was the most successful resulting in a number of spin-off projects, including a successful business removing alien trees from the river bank. currently, the mpcc is in a state of limbo. originally, the hsrp fund handed over a (symbolic) cheque with much fanfare and publicity with a value of r(and) 1,4 million (approx. $250,000 usd). this amount was to be used to “create municipal assets”. the committee thought that they could best use the money by creating assets relating to the tourism project, such as mountain huts, fishing spots on the river, and picnic areas. the hsrp however, did not agree – they wanted more tangible assets such as buildings. eventually, as a result of disagreements the funding was withdrawn (except for r 560,000 to build a new mpcc building) and overnight the project was stranded. the new building is to be completed during 2004, but the projects and indeed the momentum for the entire initiative seems to have been lost. research methodology the main objective of this research is to explore the implementation issues of an mpcc in a rural development situation. the research approach followed is as follows. the next section, called “themes” provides an analysis of the emergent themes of the study. this section analyses the case study from different perspectives and highlights individual factors. a “hermeneutic spiral” is used to guide this analysis process, as each of the themes is examined individually. the analysis is based on the detailed study of background documentation and in-depth interviews with the many stakeholders of the mppc. the use of hermeneutics was inspired by klein & myers (1999) who present a useful guide on how to conduct interpretive case studies in information systems and recommend hermeneutics as a valuable form of interpretivist research. the hermeneutic spiral can be seen as the overarching principle of hermeneutic interpretivism where: the movement of understanding is constantly from the whole to the part and back to the whole. our task is to extend in concentric circles the unity of the understood meaning. the harmony of all the details with the whole is the criterion of correct understanding. the failure to achieve this harmony means that understanding has failed (gadamer 1976: 117). the following section uses “actor-network theory” to discuss the study as a whole. the aim is to build on the identified themes and provide a more systemic view by using an integrative framework. actor-network theory (ant) is used as this theoretical framework. the strength of ant is in its ability to describe and make sense of complex social contexts occurences. (nandhakumar & vidgen 2001, underwood 2002). it must be noted that only one complete cycle of the hermeneutic spiral will be presented here. ideally, the cycle consists of analysing parts followed by holistic reinterpretation which is to be followed by subsequent cycles of in-depth “analysis of the parts” but now informed by the holistic view. a description of the parts: the emerging themes this section analyses the data collected and identifies the issues within emergent themes. the source materials are written documents as well as in-depth interviews with many of the stakeholders involved with the mppc. community dynamics: the power game the most consistent theme which emerged from all three rounds of interviews was the importance of understanding and handling community dynamics. there was an obvious rivalry between the dominant community of the valley, pniel, and the most isolated, rural community, groot drakenstein. this rivalry was aggravated by various factors, including the perception that pniel was always the beneficiary of “upliftment” projects. pniel was already home to the municipal buildings, the post office, the library and the most affluent inhabitants of the valley. so when the mpcc was also situated there, it was understandable that the other communities felt somewhat aggrieved. however, pniel is situated in the middle of the valley, on the main road making it the most accessible area and therefore it is the logical place to put an mpcc that is meant to serve the whole valley. as the project manager commented: now the problem that you have is that there is one prominent community, pniel. it’s on the main road, it’s where the municipal offices are, it’s where the more affluent people of the valley live, so they tend to look down their noses at the rest of the valley, make discouraging comments about them, according to where they live. and then the other communities comment on the ‘uppitiness’ of the people of pniel. as a result of this division between the communities, the mpcc ran into a number of problems. many of the participants commented on people ‘boycotting’ the centre simply because it was located in pniel and not in their own community. there is a perception, as one of the participants noted that, “pniel’s people don’t let people feel at home.” this antagonism towards the centre being located in pniel led to a number of other difficulties, most notably when it came to community participation in decision making. the project manager illustrates the difficulty with this example: we went to groot drakenstein [to set up a meeting to discuss creating a community trust] and they couldn’t give us a date. when they gave us a date, they couldn’t give us a venue. so we said well come to pniel – no they’re not coming to pniel. in the end we said this meeting is for you, we’ll be in pniel. when we got to pniel, they had shifted it to a venue in groot drakenstein, to the barracks there. so we went to the barracks, and then it wasn’t our meeting anymore, it was their meeting – an integrated development planning meeting, and we could add our item to the agenda. and it turned into a big argument on the idp issues, so much so that we never even got into a discussion on the trust. as a result of these difficulties, evidently caused by a small minority of people in the groot drakenstein community, the whole process was almost “derailed”. it is hardly surprising then that when asked the question, “how would you go about implementing an mpcc if you were given the job of project manager?” almost all respondents said that community buy-in was the most essential aspect. municipal officials, who were responsible for establishing the initial committee, were also unanimous that “community dynamics” was the most difficult aspect when it came to implementing the mpcc. one official went so far as to say, “i can honestly tell you that (that) community – that’s why they call it the dwars river valley – they [are] a bit ‘dwars’. [t]hey try to be difficult and one can say stubborn or arrogant in some ways.” [`dwars’ is an afrikaans word meaning `across’]. in addition to these “community dynamics”, there were also other more subtle issues such as mistrust and suspicion that contributed to the community being “wary” of using the mpcc. one suspicious participant commented, they don’t seem to be using the money for any of the projects but they say there is no money. so the question is, ‘what happened to the money?’ and they won’t tell us…we have asked for the financial statements to be made available to the community but the answer we always get is: ‘where have you heard of a company making its financial statements available to the public?’ this comment was made despite the repeated claims from a number of centre staff and municipal officials that, “we like to get the information out to the community and so we tell them what is going on – our books are open.” it is difficult to make sense of these contradictory statements. one explanation is that these contradictions are the result of contrasting perspectives of the same set of facts. another explanation is simpler: someone is lying. however, it is clear that, when it comes to community dynamics, there is a definite power struggle between competing interests, often resulting in subterfuge and hidden agendas. when these factors are not properly taken into account, events occurring in the social realm very often don’t make sense. the mpcc as a vehicle for economic development based on the interviews there appeared to be a distinct spectrum of understanding concerning mpccs and their role in development among the different groups of actors. the project manager, as could be expected, was very clear on how the mpcc operated and its role in enabling economic development in the valley. the four components of the mpcc, especially, the training and business advisory components strengthened by adding project management training, would build capacity for spin-off projects which would create economic development within the valley. the mpcc would be self-sustaining and would be able to support three full-time employees on its income. the perspective of the municipal employees with regards to mpccs was more political in nature. “president thabo mbeki himself actually started this initiative of mpccs way back in 1997,” was one comment substantiating the legitimacy of using mpccs in communities. municipal employees also had a more flexible outlook as to what exactly an mpcc was supposed to be. “the beauty of the mpcc is that it’s a vehicle for the community to drive up to (approach) whatever need they require from the municipality.” however, another municipal employee was more displeased by the lack of clarity: [e]verybody is talking about multi-purpose community centres, but we’re not sure actually what it should look like, or how the management and operations should work. and i think that’s where [the project manager] actually played a leading role. because it’s easy to erect a building, but it’s what you do inside the building that counts. so in my opinion i think the word, mpcc is actually a generic term because no-one really knows what an mpcc is. should it house a post office? is it a payment point for pensioners? or should it only involve a community centre that is used for different projects in the community? overall local municipal employees had a sense that mpccs had some vague relationship to economic development but the dominant reason for implementing them was political: “it’s being pushed by national and provincial government.” participants had varying perspectives on what the mpcc was meant to achieve. some saw it as a means to get cheap (or free) computer training and land a job. others however, were more philosophical, [b]efore the mpcc was here, we didn’t take notice of anything around us…now, my eyes have opened. i see quite a lot of things, a lot of opportunities…to explore. because here was always a river but we didn’t take notice of the river. now we see that we can use it for fishing [as a tourist attraction]. thus, to some participants the mpcc brought a new perspective, an awareness, of entrepreneurial opportunities that had not previously been identified. finally, there was an almost unanimous optimism that the new building would result in increased success for the mpcc. as one participant enthused: [when we move into the new building,] we will be an mpcc alive! we will have an internet café. the computer training will be separate and then people can come in from the morning to the afternoon and whenever it suits them. then we will be separate from the operation – the mpcc team. and we can link better with the tourism team. and we will try to make it then a proper mpcc that everyone will use. it is important to note that the current location in the municipal building has a number of drawbacks, including limited internet lines, and poor visibility from the outside. the new building (funded by the hsrp) would be on the main road, making it far more visible. it would also have an isdn line, making internet usage more economical. even so, most actors saw the new building as the start of the ‘proper’ and successful mpcc. this implies rather optimistically that all the current problems could somehow be blamed on the drawbacks of the current premises. computers essential for development when asked about the role computers played in their projects the participants generally focused on the artefacts that could be generated by computers. a typical statement would be, “to be able to…type stuff up on the computer such as business plans and cv’s.” municipal employees saw computers as a completely natural advance to be made on the road of development. there outlook was somewhat similar to that of a technophile in that computers are seen as an inevitable progression, that should occur sooner rather than later. there is the perception of an urgent need to make up the ‘backlog’ as illustrated in this quote from an official: [i]f you look at industry, if you look at the business world outside, everyone wants you to work on a computer. and that’s the way its going unfortunately and there is a big backlog of people not having access to these because of funds and economic problems that they have. there appears to be a strong movement from the community and the municipality towards pursuing computers as an ends in themselves. another municipal official noted that, w]ithin a decade or so, people will mainly focus on computers for doing their work, so technology will play a big part. it’s good that you get people involved with computers right from the start and get them acquainted with computers. this is not surprising considering the big push from the national and provincial governments to involve computers in development projects. as was elsewhere noted, it is difficult to dispute the potential of computers in development. however, it is very dangerous to pursue technology as an end in itself, without correctly understanding its effects. while the participants and municipal officials tended to focus on the artefacts that could be generated by computers, the project manager was more interested in the way that computers got people to think and work in a specific way. most of the proposals that we see at community level, are hand-written and they don’t deal with the financial aspects properly. you get rough statements of ‘we think we need r 200,000’ but there is no budget or anything to justify this. with the computers the people were trained to do this properly… [i]t wasn’t the case of technology looking for a cause; it was a case of putting technology in there because we need it. it wasn’t a direct or indirect objective to get computers into the community, it was a given that these objectives are only possible with computer technology. for the project manager then, computers enabled people to think in a more logical, structured manner. computers are not an end in themselves, but rather a means to aid people to, for example, “deal with financial aspects properly.” the project manager was less focused on the computers producing artefacts and more focused on the processes encouraged by using computers. put another way, it’s not the project plan that is essential but rather the planning of the project. the internet: source of all knowledge when asked about the internet, participants were very quick to talk about the “ability to learn” about things on the internet. a typical sequence of questions went as follows: do you use the internet? no. would you like to? yes i would like to. what would you use it for? to learn more about project management because you can do that on the internet. there seems to be a lack of understanding as to what exactly the internet can and can’t do for people in development situations. there is an over-optimistic attitude that ‘anything you need to know’ can be found on the internet. the project manager sums up the situation nicely: people are very glib about what the internet can do for communities, but their perspective is all wrong. you know ‘you can get on the internet and learn’ is a glib statement that a lot of people make. you have to learn first to be able to learn on the internet if at all.… [t]he people in the dwars river area used email extensively… [t]hey also went into electronic banking quickly, and made payments on a monthly basis to the participants of the projects… initially, they also used the internet extensively, until they saw the phone bill that came with it, so now they’ve cut down a lot. we taught them to create websites, so they were looking at other websites to get an idea. perhaps it is a bit premature to draw any conclusions regarding the use of the internet in the drv mpcc because the internet has not been easily accessible, with only the one line available. this lack of infrastructure has made extensive use of the internet unfeasible. however, there are areas such as email and electronic banking which seem to have been taken up quickly and demonstrate that the internet can be used effectively by participants. it is not yet clear if the internet will be very useful as a tool for learning, particularly given the lack of available relevant, local content. funding is the trigger funding was another crucial theme that emerged consistently throughout the interviews. the municipal officials were very much of the opinion that the funding should be once-off to get the project started: there is a perception of people on the ground level that it is one of the functions of provincial and national government to plough money into projects like this. i see that in a different light. the thing must be sustainable – absolutely – the money that comes from provincial and national government, must be a trigger type of funding…you can’t forever pump money into a bottomless pit. one of the main problems with the funding from the participant’s point of view was that while r 1,4 million was initially promised to the project the bulk of this money was later withdrawn leaving only r 560,000 to build the new mpcc building. the project manager described the situation as follows: initially, it was very nice, we could jump in, use all the skills, everybody got busy on the development of the valley and got paid out of the funds. we did a hundred and ten different things, all very well, the project management skills came to the fore, the pc skills came out, the business planning skills came out, and everything worked very well, until there was a hiccough with the funding… overnight we had no funding for the project; we had no means to pay the people who were active in the project. massive expectations had been created in the process, and we had to motivate why people had to hang on when all of a sudden they weren’t getting paid. with the result that most of the people with other obligations went and found other jobs. so we ended up with 6 people remaining, hanging in. several valid reasons were given for the withdrawal of the funding including that the funding was given on the basis of an older proposal and the scope of the project had changed since that proposal; and that the hsrp fund is set up specifically to fund infrastructure projects where tangible municipal assets are created. in the case of the drv, the money was being used for less tangible outcomes, the so-called ‘soft’ issues rather than ‘hard’ projects. however, the project manager was quick to point out that, it’s nobody’s fault, government was fully entitled to say that you’ve changed the scope and we’re taking away the funding…problems started before the funding became an issue…the withdrawal of the funding just magnified all of the problems that were already there and were being revealed before the funding issue came. thus, we see that although the sudden withdrawal of funding did seem to interrupt the momentum of the project, it can’t be identified as the main reason for the difficulties encountered. the following two themes emerged mainly from the perspective of the project manager, but seem to add significantly to our understanding of the process of implementing icts in development projects. a confusion of roles throughout the project there was continuous uncertainty with regard to responsibilities and roles. there was never a centre manager and so this role was automatically filled by the chairperson of the committee. the municipality already had an official who worked in the valley and his job description was extended to be an ‘overseer’ of the project. however, none of these people got paid for what they were doing, because, no-one knew who was ultimately responsible. according to one municipal official: the one thing that we are not sure of is – and province couldn’t give us guidance, was the payment of such a centre manager. would they fund it or would it be the responsibility of the municipality? and they made it clear that it was our responsibility. you see it’s a new post and if it’s not on your organigram you can’t just go and create a new post. and so the crucial position of centre manager went unfilled. however, the problem went beyond finding funding to pay someone to fill this position – as well there didn’t seem to be any local person capable of filling the position. and so a lot of responsibility suddenly shifted to the project manager. although he came from outside the community, he was soon seen as an essential part of the project. there was enormous respect for him from most of the participants as well as from the municipal officials. he was often described as the ‘expert’ but was also seen as a friend of the community. as one participant noted, “[he] can get in his car now and drive down to my sister’s house and he will be welcome.” the following description of his role comes from a municipal employee: i think [the project manager] was the driver of this whole thing. i’ll tell you why… [h]e saw the potential of the dwars river valley itself and he’s been preaching that to the different sides, to the tourism side, to the economic development side, the business sphere, and a lot of things. but a part from that, [he] has a passion for the valley, and that is a driving force in itself… [h]e’s the type of guy that you can go a couple of miles with… [h]e’s committed, apart from you know he gets his salary from here, but apart from that, you know he’s here in the valley trying to trigger this whole thing – to motivate the guys. however, the strength of the project manager, and his ability to lead, seemed to become a pseudo-satisfier as it nullified the emergence of any strong local project leaders. after all, the explicit role of the project manager was to hand over the project to local people once they had been trained sufficiently to run the centre on their own. one of the participants described the situation well: [the project manager] was the driver. [he] was the one who stepped on toes. [he] was the one who told you, ‘i want that thing, and i want it now, not yesterday, now!’ he is the one that pulled everything together. if he was not here then everything would fall apart. not that we are not in control, everyone knows what they have to do in here. but he is the one, not with the ideas, we all have ideas, but he is the one that puts the action to the ideas and makes sure that things get done. thus, while the participants were continuously involved in every aspect, they never had to take responsibility for anything because they knew they had the project manager to fall back on. they knew that he would “make sure that things got done.” the project manager became the central actor responsible for everything from submitting monthly municipal reports on the project, to managing operations, to securing funding from a number of sources. this leads us on to the final theme, the “passive / active” struggle. the passive / active struggle the major theme that came out of the reflections of the project manager was the struggle he underwent to get the attitude of the participants to change from being passive to being active. participants can either be active or passive depending on the type of implementation approach that is undertaken. top-down approaches usually lead to participants being passive, while bottom-up approaches somehow create active participants. this does not seem to have been the result achieved in this case. significant time was spent on community facilitation, and participants were given every opportunity to drive the project in a bottom-up manner. yet, this was not enough to create active participants. the frustration of the project manager is clear when he says, it just comes out as an attitude where, as a trainer in that situation, i have difficulty with instilling an entrepreneurial spirit because the entrepreneurial spirit just isn’t there. you get to the point where you think that it can’t be put there, even as much as you try, because you try harder and harder, but maybe somebody is born with entrepreneurial spirit, and you can can’t put it there through training. people like following instructions. they like the comfort zone of knowing how much they are going to earn for a specific task. they would prefer…somebody else taking responsibility for generating the income and then taking part of that. and that is also the reason for the failure of some of the components of the mpcc, and into the project itself too, where they expected the project manager to maintain the momentum, not realising that the responsibility is actually theirs. this struggle forms the crux of the issue. even if everything else went according to plan, this one underlying aspect could have (or would have) caused the project to fail. and according to the project manager, “you can’t hope to start addressing social issues of that magnitude in a project of this nature. where do you start?” in the discussion above, interpretive hermeneutics was used to draw out seven themes from the data under study. the focus has been on describing and understanding each of the themes individually within the overall context of the study. the following section continues the hermeneutic spiral by using actor-network theory to form a coherent explanation of the whole (gadamer 1976: 117). an actor-network theory-based interpretation of the case study introduction to actor-network theory ant can be used in at least two different modes. it is either a framework, providing a series of tricks to aid our understanding, or a meta-theory, allowing the researcher to compare other theories or even eras (latour 1999). in this section ant is used in the former sense, “a framework providing a series of tricks to aid our understanding”. a peculiarity of ant is that it is totally neutral with regards to human and non-human actants in a network. thus, one of ant’s greatest contributions is that it allows researchers to see the world as it is experienced every day: a combination of the natural and the social. this “lens” focuses our attention on relationships and underlying mechanisms which affect networked actants. according to monteiro (1999), [a]llowing oneself not to distinguish a priori between social and technical elements of a socio-technical web encourages a detailed description of the concrete mechanisms at work which glue the network together — without being distracted by the means, technical or non-technical, of actually achieving this. ant is based on a number of key concepts. these can be found in callon (1986) and atkinson (2002). the key concepts used in ant are the following: §                actor / actant: have interests, and try to convince other actors so as to create an alignment of the other actors’ interests with their own interests. §                the actor-network is a dynamic set of relations in which actants continually influence each other. §                translation is the creation of an actor-network. this process consists of four major stages: problematisation, interessement, enrolment, and mobilisation. §                problematisation: the focal actant defines identities and interests of other actors that are consistent with its own interests. §                interessement: actions by which the focal actant attempts to impose and stabilise the identity of the other actors it defines through its problematisation. §                enrolment: when actants accept the roles defined for them by the focal actant. §                the obligatory point of passage (opp): a situation that has to occur in order for all the actors to satisfy the interests that have been attributed to them by the focal actor §                mobilisation: involves maintaining commitment to a cause of action and the opp the case discussion: a description of the whole the first stage in many ant descriptions involves an identification of the network under study. ant does not prescribe how this network is identified, or at least constrained. by their nature, actor-networks are infinite – each actant is related to many other actants inside and outside of the area of study. this is often used as a criticism of ant: the researcher has to use their subjective judgment (bias) to determine which actants are to be included and which are to be excluded from the analysis. however, bijker (1993 quoted in monteiro 1999) argues that, “it is overly ambitious (or naive) to expect ant (or any other theoretical framework for that matter) to instruct you how to separate foreground from background.” the following actants were identified in the course of this study: project manager; the pniel youth centre; the dwars river valley multi-purpose community centre (drv mpcc); mpcc replication model; training; trainees: staff; trainees: entrepreneurs; the woodpeckers; computers; tourism project; internet; committee; chairperson; local municipality; researcher; hsrp fund; community facilitator; existing municipal building; new building; natural resources; community; instigators; the attitude of trainees. it might be noted that for purposes of clarity it is useful to focus on a single actant, from whose vantage point we can observe the process of translation. the focal actant in this case, for the purposes of this analysis, is the project manager (pm). the pm, even though he was only enrolled some time after the project had begun, played the most central role in terms of translating the interests of the various other actants. he was also the dominant spokesperson for the mpcc and its related actants. we take as our starting point for this discussion, the following statement from the pm: i think the dwars river valley had the potential to be a showcase, it still has the potential to be a showcase but maybe there are some underlying difficulties that none of these interventions are addressing, and one should take congnisance of those underlying difficulties that are there, and reveal themselves when you look back at the project. the birth of a new actant: the drv mpcc while the local municipality loves to observe that it merely “prioritises the needs that the community identifies,” the concept of the mpcc was very much pushed on to the drv community. as one municipal official remarked, “there was significant pressure from national and provincial government to implement these centres…the concept originated from the president himself.” and so the birth of a new actant occurred: the drv mpcc. a concept which the majority of the community had not even heard about until, as one participant noted, “i saw an advertisement in the newspaper offering free training.” problematisation (an introduction) the first moment of translation started before the focal actant, the pm got involved with the process. the municipality realised that a committee would have to be formed that could act as a spokesperson for the whole drv community. two representatives from each of the original six communities were enrolled into the committee. it was the role of this committee to oversee the process of introducing the mpcc into the existing actor-network. from that point on all new actants had to “pass through” the committee. thus, the committee became the first opp. at this point in the process the municipal officials realised that neither they, nor the committee had sufficient experience or knowledge to act as the focal actant in the remaining process of translation. for this reason the pm was brought in as an expert in aligning human and non-human interests with the interests of new mpcc actants. this was an important consideration – the vast experience of the pm in the mpcc arena had led him to experience first hand that implementing an mpccs was far more complex than just a matter of setting up the non-human infrastructure rather it was just as important to manage the interests of the humans in the context of the “non-humans” (the institutional structure). once the pm had passed through the first opp (the committee) and was successfully enrolled into the network, he very quickly set up a new opp that would allow him to conduct the rest of the translation process in his own manner. this new opp took the form of the replication of mpcc model. this model contains best practices from previous mpccs that were used to inscribe the operations of the new mpcc. it worked very well as an opp because of its grounding in the lessons learnt from scores of previous mpccs. after all, who could offer any alternative to something with so much research behind it? this new opp gave the pm justification for almost any decision he wanted to make – he could decide how many actants to include, how to include them, what the interests of the new actant would be and so on. thus, the pm wrested control away from the original opp, the committee and established his (apparently) firm control over the new opp and thus, (apparently) over the destiny of this particular actor-network. the central tenet of the new opp was to create an mpcc that would foster local economic development. it would be strongly entrepreneurial in nature and stress the critical importance of the mpcc in reaching financial sustainability. thus, any actants passing through this opp had to conform to these processes. their interests had to align with the interests espoused in the opp on behalf of the new mpcc as a condition of their being enrolled into the network. among other things, the influencing the attitudes of the trainees who were to form part of the new actor-network were very important. the literature often refers to “active participants” as opposed to “passive participants” of development. these terms are really referring to the attitudes of the participants. the active attitude can be described as being entrepreneurial, passionate, driven, and motivated to achieve. the passive attitude can be described as the opposite: dependent, risk-averse, unimaginative and unmotivated. it is clear that the pm’s entrepreneurial-based opp was very biased towards actants with an active attitude. interessement and enrolment (seduction and success) the process of translation continued under the guidance of the pm. a lesson from previous projects conducted by the pm taught him that “community participation and setting up the correct governance structures [were] important for the overall success of the project.” in line with this a number community workshops were held to translate the interests of the community around the interests of the mpcc. to assist in this process the pm enrolled the community facilitator (cf) as an ally. the cf was an excellent “translator” of interests. he was able to conduct a meeting with various community actants and subtly guide the discussion to whatever objective he wanted to reach, without seeming to take a dominant role or stance. this is illustrated in this quote from one of the workshops. the outcome that the pm wanted was to have a steering committee elected. the cf noted near the start of the meeting that: [the pm] and i could stand here and say this is how it must be done. we need a six month time-frame with a steering committee. but we are not going to do that. at the same time we don’t want this to stand still. we don’t want everyone to wait for everyone else. after an hour of discussing interests and strategies, a participant in the meeting suggested that a vote should be taken to elect a steering committee. the cf praised the participant for his excellent idea and the vote took place. mission accomplished! thus, with the help of this skilled ally, the translation of interests was very successful. one enthusiastic community member made this comment with regard to the proposed new mpcc at the end of a particularly successful community workshop: this is not a dream anymore. we need this thing to happen and we are working at it. we don’t have a choice anymore. we have to get this to happen. this quote beautifully illustrates how the particular person aligned her interests with that of the new actant and accepted her role as an actant in the new actor-network. she had been enrolled! however, it is important to note that many of these actants were unemployed and living on the poverty line – in short they were desperate for solutions – and thus, ready to align their interests to any actant that promised this. as part of the enrolment process, actants had to pass through the pm’s opp (the model). the non-human actants such as the computers and the internet made it in easily – they were already inscribed into the opp. the natural resources and the tourism project also had no trouble in passing through the opp and enrolling themselves thanks to their already close alignment with the process of enabling economic development. the enrolment of the human actants unfortunately, was not such an easy process. the difficulty was the result of an interesting power-struggle that had arisen. as has already been noted, the opp required trainees to have a very specific attitude – an active attitude. in order to find people with (among other criteria) the right attitudes, a recruitment and selection procedure was established. the procedure was conducted by a panel of people from the committee and the pm. a suitability score was produced for each candidate which could be seen as a measure of how closely aligned the interests of the candidate were to the interests of the mpcc (a score of 1 meant the person was an excellent candidate, and a score of 3 meant the person was not suitable for inclusion). a power-struggle emerged around this issue between the pm and the committee. the scores were a clear indication of which candidates the pm felt should be included in the collective. the committee on the other hand had other ideas as to which candidates were to be included. the pm described the struggle as follows: so there were a number of 3s, people who rated 3 in the interview situation, and there was agreement in the interview situation with a panel of 3 or 4 people that this person is out, only to be overruled by…the committee, who decided no, the person is back in... you see that a specific person is not suitable, but the management put them in, for whatever reasons, they’re family or they like them or whatever… so ok fine, you deal with that person in the training situation. and so the committee managed to reassert themselves and a tension arose between the original opp (the committee) and the new opp (the model). this tension activated underlying issues that would surface again later in the process. the process of enrolment continued through the training of the selected candidates. trainees would become either mpcc staff (content creators or business advisors) or entrepreneurs. all trainees were taught basic computer skills and were then allowed to specialise in desktop publishing, business advising, or project management. a large number of candidates were trained because previous projects had shown that betrayal often occurred at this stage: once people had new skills they were easily co-opted into other competing actor-networks. during the process of interessement and enrolment, a minority of people from the most isolated community in the valley purposefully did not align their interests with that of the new actant. in the previous section, the pm described the process of trying to set up a meeting with these “instigators” but after a number of attempts he achieved nothing. the instigators continuously raised interference against the project and even claimed that those involved were enriching themselves illegally from project funds. fortunately these instigators did not have enough agency to threaten the new actor-network. on the whole, the translation process up to this point was successful. a significant sign of this success was the funding that was awarded to the project by the hsrp fund. the actants and allies of the actor-network were starting to mobilise and the dream of creating a showcase out of the drv mpcc seemed to be well on track. however, the pm was not completely convinced. he had begun to sense “underlying problems” with the project. another actant had begun to make its presence felt. it was neither a human nor a non-human – it was an attitude. more specifically it was the attitude of the trainees (both staff and entrepreneurs) that started to worry the pm. this actant was increasingly moving out of alignment from the opp set up by the pm, and thus its interests were no longer being directly linked with those of the mpcc and the pm. mobilisation (what went wrong?) with the promise of the funding suddenly the actor-network became a black box. it started working and everything seemed to fall into place. as already mentioned, the pm describes what happened: [i]t was very nice, we could jump in and use all the skills, everybody got busy on the development of the valley and got paid out of the funds. we did a hundred and ten different things, all very well, the project management skills came to the fore, the pc skills came out, the business planning skills came out, and everything worked very well… one of the major beneficiaries of the creation of this mpcc black box was the tourism project actant and the entrepreneurs who were trained in the earlier stages of translation. suddenly, the natural resources of the valley became enrolled as a fly-fishing destination, mountain walks, and picnic areas. a business (the woodpeckers) was established to remove alien trees from the valley and then sell off the resulting wood to nearby manufacturers. much of this success was enabled by the icts within the mpcc. for example, a business plan had to be created to ensure the financial viability of the woodpeckers. this business plan could have been handwritten, but the computers and their software, helped produce a plan that was more complete, with an extensive budget, project plan (including tasks and human resource requirements) and a strategy for selling the wood to manufacturers. another example, of the enabling power of icts, was the brochure and website produced to market the valley to tourists. suddenly thanks to icts, the chances of enrolling passing tourists into the activities of the valley had increased considerably. even though everything was working well, the pm was still heavily involved in driving the project. he had to continuously motivate the actants and ensure that things were done. he started facing an uphill battle – the active / passive struggle mentioned in the previous section and a symptom of the underlying problems that had been created in the earlier stages of translation. then suddenly a significant betrayal took place which affected the entire actor-network severely. the hsrp fund, which had until then been seen as an ally, turned against the project. the original funding that was promised was reduced by almost a million rand. as already noted, the pm describes the situation: “[o]vernight we had no funding for the project”. suddenly the black box was opened, and actants saw that “translations had become treason.” the promise of being paid for the work they were doing had disappeared and the security afforded by the funding had been lost. the pm tried various tactics to re-translate the interests of the actants. “we tried…saying: we’ve created products, take ownership of the products, start marketing the products, but this just didn’t happen...” these tactics didn’t work because the attitudes of the actants were not sufficiently aligned to be able to deal with this situation. the actants had been passive all along and had continuously relied on the pm to lead, guide, and take their risks for them. is it surprising then, that when the occasion called for them to suddenly be active – they weren’t able to do so? summary of discussion the discussion started with the quote from the pm saying that this project had and still has the ability to be a showcase. however, there are underlying difficulties. what are these difficulties? the first difficulty was the power-struggle between the committee and the pm that manifested itself in the tension between opps. this issue really comes down to who should be in control of the project? clearly, this is a normative question, but it significantly influences the outcome of the project. the result of this first difficulty was that certain people were enrolled into the actor-network without having properly aligned interests. more specifically, the attitudes of some of the actants did not meet the criteria outlined in the pm’s opp. this contributed to the second difficulty which was the active / passive struggle. how does one get the attitude of people to be an active one? as already quoted the project manager sees this as not an easy process: it just comes out as an attitude where, as a trainer in that situation, i have difficulty with instilling an entrepreneurial spirit because the entrepreneurial spirit just isn’t there… [t]hey expected the project manager to maintain the momentum, not realising that the responsibility is actually theirs. the original goal of the project was for the project manager to hand over the project to the local people once they had been trained. clearly, if the attitudes of the local people are passive, removing the pm would result in a very unstable network. a possible solution to this problem came from a municipal official who commented that: one might tend to think that in the case of the dwars river valley, you need a local person that is committed, that can drive the process forward, that can interact with different members of the community and is not influenced by the way of thinking of any one group of people. having a strong local actant such as the one proposed above, could very well allow the pm to successfully hand over the project. however, this person would have to be supported by a strong actor-network to achieve long-term sustainability. this would involve surrounding the leader with a number of “active” participants. an afterthought: the future? the project is currently in a precarious position. the remaining funding from the hsrp is being used to build a new actant – a standalone building to house the drv mpcc. the construction of this new actant should be finished in early 2004, and many actants have already begun aligning their interests with the promise of the new building. is it possible that the new actant, with all its promises, will be able to change the underlying difficulties described in the previous section? is it conceivable, for example, that the increased visibility, increased internet access, and increased professionalism enabled by the new actant, will lead to a change in the attitudes of the centre staff. in the view of the researchers this is unlikely to happen. final reflections the interpretive paradigm was extended through the application of hermeneutics. the “hermeneutic spiral” provided an excellent method for analysing and drawing out themes from the qualitative data collected. seven themes were identified. the actor-network theory was then applied to aid in a final description of the whole. in this way, the themes were integrated to form a coherent overall picture. the framework was a major asset in the study. the combination of interpretivism, hermeneutics, and actor-network theory worked well. the complementary nature of the three approaches greatly aided in the exploration, investigation and understanding produced in the study. reflections on the theme analysis and ant-based discussion what role did icts played in the case-study. the study highlights a pragmatic view of the role of icts in development. many studies have noted that western practices and concepts are inscribed into computers and that these are not necessarily suitable in third-world contexts. this view was not supported in this study. it was apparent that under the right conditions, the icts worked well enough. participants, (even those with relatively little previous computer experience) found it easy to learn to use computers. of course, significant training was required, but once this was completed, participants were able to produce project plans, budgets, brochures, websites and other artefacts. these artefacts were able to inscribe further processes and practices and provided real benefit in a number of situations, including for those running a business, marketing products, or managing human resources. one cautionary point though, is the context in which the study took place. although it was a rural area, it could not be described as truly third-world. for example, most participants understood english well; the site was located reasonably close to an urban centre and the infrastructure of the area was good. a second point for reflection is the role of funding in development. the hsrp fund was of the opinion that development could be encouraged by building buildings. they refused to fund “soft” activities such as community facilitation or training and support projects. however, it is clear from the ant discussion that this narrow view is very dangerous. the success of community development projects is dependent on far more than just infrastructure. an actor-network, especially a newly formed one, requires significant nurturing in order to increase the strength of its cohesion. this is not to say that community projects necessarily require continuous funding, but rather that they require holistic funding in order to foster their chances for sustainability. an important point that emerged from the study was the active / passive struggle. this struggle seemed to be an important consideration for the long-term sustainability of the actor-network. without “active” participants the pm was given the responsibility of being the “driver” of the project. one of the participants suggested that what was needed was a strong local actor who could take over from the pm once the actor-network was sufficiently stable. thus good support was provided by the study for the concept of the middle-out, local champion identified in the literature as for example:. “champions are transformational leaders who inspire others to transcend self-interest for a higher collective purpose.” (du plooy 1998) in terms of implementation issues this study provides some useful points for reflection. the replication model for instance, provided a significant opp for the pm to enrol actants into the collective. however, this opp was subverted somewhat by the power struggle that developed between the committee and the pm. this suggests that there are no guarantees for determining the success of the enrolment process. in actor-networks there is always the risk of subversion and betrayal. implications overall, the possibility as presented in this paper of combining an interpretive paradigm with hermeneutics and the actor-network theory points to a promising combined framework for researchers to build on. the framework is particularly suited to studies aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of socio-technical issues in general and in particular within the arena if icts for development. another implication of the study is that there is no recipe for implementing mpccs. a replication model is a useful instrument but should not be seen as a guarantee of success. it is important to combine experiences from previous studies with continuous learning and context-sensitive application methods. in terms of icts in development, this study provides encouraging signs that icts can indeed be of practical use in a variety of situations, but particularly in the area of supporting entrepreneurial development projects. some suggested future areas of research that arise from this study are the following. §       the area of the active / passive struggle. is it possible for example, to change the attitudes of participants to being more active in their approach? how could this be done? should the pm deliberately try to exercise less power and control over the project in order to allow active attitudes to develop? §       the issue of funding mpccs. how could funding for mpcc projects be provided in a more holistic manner? is it reasonable to expect mpccs to be completely self-sustainable? §       the use of the research methodology for pro-active policy advice. can ant and hermeneutics be used in a pro-active manner to inform the planning of an mpcc implementation rather than as a strictly post-implementation review tool? references atkinson, c. j. 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(2002). a theoretical basis for is? the contribution of ant. australian journal of information systems (9:special edition), 86-92. joci village phone program, commodification of mobile phone set and empowerment of women quamrul alam monash university quamrul.alam@buseco.monash.edu.au mohammad abu yusuf monash university ma_yusuf2004@yahoo.com ken coghill monash university ken.coghill@buseco.monash.edu.au abstract the objective of this article is to examine the role of the village phone (vp) program in empowering village women. the article takes a case study approach that draws on interview data and a review of the literatures on the vp program in bangladesh. the article takes a case study approach that draws on interview data and a review of the literatures on the vp program in bangladesh. it is argued that vp program has created income opportunities for the rural women who predominantly operate the owner-operated village pay-phone program. we find that the vp empowered village women economically and socially by reducing their dependence on other members of their families and allowing them increased roles in household decision making. the empowering role of the vp had its spill over effects on its users as well. the article demonstrates how an innovative idea by social entrepreneurs in the information and communication technology (ict) sector can act as change agent in transforming the socio-economic condition of rural poor women, making them self reliant and providing them with entrepreneurial qualities in managing small and medium business in an innovative way. key words: shared access model, village phone (vp), village phone operator (vpo), empowerment, information and communication technology (ict), grameen bank 1. introduction bangladesh’s telecommunications infrastructure has been one of the poorest and outdated in the world. the tele-density of the country was less than one (0.63) per 100 persons in 2003 (bhuiyan, 2004). potential telecom users had to wait 4-6 years to get telephone connection (tipu, 2004). the service quality of the bttb (only service provider) was poor and the call completion rate remained under 50 per cent. although about 80 per cent people live in villages, there was no telephone connection in rural areas. against the backdrop of public sector telecommunication’s inability to meet growing telecommunications demand, the advent of mobile phone technology and ideological shift towards neo-liberal economic paradigm, bangladesh initiated liberalization of the mobile phone sector during 1989-1990. the first mobile phone license was issued in 1989 and then five more mobile phone licences were issued during 1996-2005. in the period 19932000, the mobile phone was very expensive and urban and district centred. us-based entrepreneur iqbal quadir first floated the idea of providing mobile telephony to the rural people of bangladesh. grameenphone (‘grameen’ means ‘village’ in bangla) recognized quadir’s innovative idea in its annual report 2006: his early discussions with professor yunus later resulted in launching the internationally acclaimed village phone program, coupling micro-credit with mobile telephony to make telecommunications accessible to the rural poor. (grameenphone, 2006). grameenphone translated his idea into a virtual business model to providing telecom services to rural people (camp & anderson, 2001). it is a profit-making business portfolio of the world renowned micro-credit finance institution grameen bank founded by nobel laureate professor muhammad yunus. in 1997, three of the grameen family members, namely grameen bank, grameenphone and grameen telecom, jointly launched the vp program to provide mobile phone services to poor bangladeshis. it is the grameen bank that played crucial role in giving a concrete shape to the grameenphone partnership. the program has now spread to more than 50,000 villages, in 61 out of 64 districts of the country. it indicates that the program’s scale is expansive and its development potential is also geographically vast. the vp program has become a unique and innovative social business model for which professor yunus along with his bangladesh-originated grameen bank won the 2006 nobel prize (frieden, 2006). the uniqueness and importance of the program has been expressed in the nobel peace prize lecture, 2006 by the nobel laureate as a first step to bring ict to the poor:     “we gave loans from gb to the poor women to buy mobile phones to sell phone services in the villages. we saw the synergy         between microcredit and ict. the phone business was a success and became a coveted enterprise for grameen borrowers.         telephone-ladies quickly learned the art of telephone business, and it has become the quickest way to get out of poverty and to     earn social respectability. today there are nearly 300,000 telephone ladies providing telephone service in all the villages of             bangladesh. although the number of telephone-ladies is only a small fraction of the total number of subscribers, they generate     19 per cent of the revenue of the company. out of the nine board members who are attending this grand ceremony today, four     are telephone-ladies“. (yunus, 2007) the village phones function as an owner-operated pay phone with full connectivity including the facility to make and receive international calls. this study examines the role of the vp – a micro-credit product of the grameen bank in empowering rural women, both economically and socially. the study contributes to understanding how a technological and financial partnership contributed to the economic and social empowerment (increased social status and increased role in decision making) of village women, through the provisioning of a very small amount of microcredit. this study highlighted the ‘social empowerment’ issue of the vpos something not much explored in other research. it also highlights how an alliance partnership within the grameen family of organizations (an ‘in house’ solution) and their mutual support to the shared business model contributed to make the airtime business a success for vpos and keep the telecom service affordable to poor rural customers. the vp model could be a model for pro-poor ict practitioners. the article is structured as follows: section 2 outlines the research approach and data collection techniques, section 3 provides theoretical background, and section 4 describes the modus operandi of the vp program. the e-roles of the different partners engaged in the vp model are discussed in section 5. in section 6, we examine the combined efforts of four partners and their effects on the vp program, while section 7 analyses the role of vp in women’s empowerment. section 8 focuses on challenges for vp program, the hope of continuity and policy implications. section 9 concludes. 2. research approach and data collection data for this study were collected through a combination of face-to-face interviews and secondary materials. twenty-four in-depth interviews were conducted with vpos using a semi-structured questionnaire. these key informants were randomly selected from a sample of twenty-four villages located in dhaka and chittagong region. these villages were selected considering the budget constraints and ease of access. moreover, the vp program started its journey from these two regions. when the interviews were conducted, the husbands of the phone ladies were present in most cases. in a few cases, phone ladies were interviewed alone. when husbands accompanied their wives (the vpos), they also made some comments spontaneously about the income from the vp business and the changed role of their wives in the family. they openly recognized that the vp business has improved the economic condition of the family as well as the social status of their wives. the questions asked in the interviews were not about empowerment directly because “empowerment” was considered a difficult jargon for the village women to understand. the interview questions focused on areas such as the income from the vp business, scope for participation in family decision making, freedom of mobility, and reduction of dependency on their spouse and access to information. the changes/improvements in these areas were considered a proxy for empowerment. furthermore, 20 vp users and 10 village leaders were selected randomly from these villages to verify if there were any changes in vpos’ social status and economic wellbeing after the implementation of the vp program in these areas. moreover, interviews with two mid-level managers and one senior corporate level executive of grameenphone (one of the pioneers of the vp initiative), were interviewed during august-october 2008. the purpose of this interview was to assess whether grameenphone had any policy stance to empower these women along with their business goal. the interviews were transcribed, systematically coded according to themes and then analysed using computerbased nvivo software 8.0. although the article relied upon interview data gathered from a limited number of vpos, village leaders and grameenphone officials, these interviews enabled us to analyse the merit of the vp program. as a qualitative study, the purpose was to explore everyday life experiences of vp operators. the study was not aimed at providing statistical generalisations, and it does not claim that. the study provides analytic generalisations as stated in yin (2009). no socio-economic factors have influenced the findings other than the respondents’ opinion. 3. theoretical foundation providing credit to rural women including vpos aimed to give them access to capital so that they can be economically independent. although the vp model is based on conventional capitalism providing capital to village women to help them get prosperity, the ideology behind the vp model, is at variance with the traditional capitalistic model. the traditional model facilitates exploitation of the labourers in a hierarchical value creation process. the owners of capital retain the surplus value created through the use of capital. unlike the lending practices of market capitalism, the grameen bank and grameenphone created a partnership model to provide micro-credit to rural women. the objective of the partnership model is to enable the eligible rural women to buy mobile phones sets as well discounted airtime to run retailing of mobile phone services without any collateral. this partnership model has created a social business called vp program where the village phone operators retain a large portion of the surplus value they create by commodifying the mobile phone set. these village women are not part of the traditional labour force and were mostly housewives or informal labourers. they have turned into a new group of social entrepreneurs through the vp program. empowerment is a cornerstone of a bottom up approach in development. empowerment refers to enabling weaker, excluded and powerless citizens to gain or regain power over their lives. rappaport, (in beeker et al., 1998), defined empowerment as ‘the process by which people, organizations and communities gain mastery over their lives’ (1998, p. 832). others (e.g., hawe, 1994 in beeker et al., 1998, p.833) have defined empowerment as specific outcomes, including increased political efficacy and social participation at the individual level, increased opportunities for shared leadership and decision-making at the organizational level, and increased competence to collectively identify and solve problems at the community level. from these definitions of empowerment, it is clear that empowerment can refer to different content areas (e.g., sexual negotiation, economic self-sufficiency) at different levels of analysis and practice (e.g., individuals, couples, groups, organizations) beeker et al.,1998 p. 833). kabeer (2001 in malhotra et al., 2002) defines empowerment as ‘the expansion in people's ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them’ (2002, p.6). we employ this definition of empowerment in this article as it discusses the increased role of the women (vpos) in the family decision making and also of their elevated social status which they rarely enjoyed in the past. the essence of a bottom up approach is that development should focus especially on marginalised people who are unable to raise their voices in decision making or excluded from the development process. in the context of bottom up theory, empowerment can be translated into people’s participation by allowing them take part in the decision making and development process (fors & moreno, 2002). access to information about employment opportunities, market prices, and government programs, are some of the means to enhance empowerment. the vp model did not only empower the poor women; it also empowered the village people over middlemen by providing them with timely and relevant information about market prices, when to market and where to market their produce. dowla (2006) observes that “access to telecom service through vp reduced undue advantages of well-connected people”. by helping reduce information asymmetry, vp also increases users’ authority and control over the resources and decisions with which they are concerned with. village phones are also used as a tool for networking and information exchange. anecdotal evidence suggests that the village phone increases their income by 10-20 percent on top of their time savings (sullivan, 2007) by connecting the poor to a wider society, the vp has also enabled them to voice out their ideas. from a consumer perspective, access to information and the ability to exchange opinion with peers about the market makes them knowledgeable about the prevalent price and alternative choices. also consumers with more knowledge feel more powerful (foucault, 1972 in pires, stanton and rita, 2006). it is to be noted here that there exists a strong connection between knowledge, information and development. knowledge and information are critical elements in all modes of development since the process of production is always based on some level of knowledge (castells, 2000, p.17). knowledge based information (as argued by castells in stalder, 2006) may lead to new ways of organizing production or to more effective marketing strategies (stalder, 2006, pp.71-72). the vp program, by providing knowledge-based information to the villagers, greatly helps the traders, farmers and fishermen to adopt more effective marketing strategies. vp also allows its users to maintain social relations what sik and wellman, 1999 and larsen et al. 2006 (cited in larsen et al., 2008) call ‘network capital’. the bottom up approach postulates that there are three areas where empowerment can be done through the diffusion of ict (mobile phone service is an ict service). these are: basic needs, social empowerment and rural based development. the vp program brings income or an opportunity for income for vpos, thus helping them in fulfilling their basic needs. this income or opportunity for income is development. income allows people to go beyond subsistence living and to save, invest and produce (sullivan, 2007). information and knowledge have become increasingly important in the contemporary globalized economy. access to information is now considered as a basic need (fors & moreno, 2002). information is a basic need as recognized by many including nelson mandela. information is “a great social leveller, information technology ranks second only to death” (sullivan, 2007, p.111). the vp program helps shrink the digital divide and contributes to social reduction of social inequality. the reduction in equality also empowers the users of mobile phones socially visa-vis elites and middlemen. however, the emphasis of the role of microcredit in empowering women and making them self-reliant through entrepreneurship development has been found to be rhetoric in some cases. isserles (2003) finds that often the rhetoric of empowerment (such as “women are placed in the driver’s seat of their life”, describing the poor as “good credit risks” and ‘credit worthy’ and “lifting them out of poverty”) had a condescending or patronizing tone accompanied by self-help jargon of “confidence” and “self-esteem”. the claim that microcredit promotes create initiative and responsibility to the poor ignores the fact that the poor are usually creative and responsible because survival is so critical for them. many poor people who earn and subsist in the informal economy are already entrepreneurial. most of the thinkers who use such notions about poor people lack a good understanding of how poor people live their lives. the advocates of microcredit often give a narrow interpretation of poverty. microcredit often uses very popular and potent rhetoric to appeal to those who are frustrated with their sheer poverty. in targeting microcredit to lift women out of poverty and empower them, microcredit marketers emphasise the individual, ignoring the fact that larger structural processes that create and intensify disparities between people are responsible for the inequality between the poor and the rich (isserles, 2003:45). they even lack respect for women borrowers as noted by a borrower:  “one could observe that they (grameen) had no respect whatsoever for the women. they embodied a culture that these women are children. and you cannot possibly hope to empower anybody that you think is an idiot” (isserles, 2003 pp. 46-7). women are targeted for microcredit program because they can be easily coerced to realize repayment and they enable the success of the program, measured in repayment rates. it suggests that microcredit programs do not always believe in genuine empowerment of women rather they are selected because they are good payers (isserles, 2003). moreover, with the inclusion of women in income generating activity, their responsibilities at home and field are not shared equally, thus forcing them to face the consequences of second-shift responsibilities (hochschild, 1989). so although microcredit empowers women in some ways, in other ways it makes them more constrained by more labour. moreover, research has shown that loan provided to women are often controlled and managed by male relatives, yet women bear the responsibilities to pay it back (isserles, 2003, p.50). this practice undermines the main rhetorical appeal of microcredit, which aims to empower participants through economic self-reliance and self development. in contrasting this view, we examine how vp program has generated social entrepreneurship in a tradition-bound rural bangladesh by introducing information and communication technology-based (ict) social and economic relationship. vp acted as a change agent in transforming the socio-economic condition of rural poor women making them self reliant and providing them with entrepreneurial qualities in managing small and medium business in an innovative way. 4. modus operandi of the vp program– a win-win situation the vp program is an alliance partnership between grameen bank, grameen telecom and grameenphone. grameen telecom is a non-profit entity of grameen bank that also owns part of grameenphone. grameen bank, the pioneer micro finance institution, took the lead firm role in launching the collaborative program. grameen bank provides $200 capital each to enable borrowers (who are mostly grameen bank’s women members) to buy a cellular mobile handset from grameen telecom (anderson & kupp, 2008; oecd, 2004). the women, who are existing grameen bank borrowers, are selected as vpos in rural villages because they are trusted grameen bank borrowers with good repayment records and are in constant touch with grameen bank. the women borrowers obtain ownership of the phone with appropriate connectivity provided by grameenphone limited. grameenphone supports the program by providing airtime at discounted price. grameen telecom buys bulk airtime from grameenphone for all village phone operators at 50 per cent of the regular prices (under a partnership agreement) which are then passed on to the vpos. grameen telecom also trains the operators as well as handles all technical and services related issues to help the women borrowers run the phone business smoothly. the phone ownership, training and the connectivity makes women borrowers “village phone operators”. in addition to the three contributing partners, vpos also have emerged as an integral part of the partnership as they became entrepreneurs through this program (islam, 2005). they rent the phones with airtime to the neighbors in the adjoining areas in the village for a fee where no such facilities existed before (mair & schoen, 2007, morse, 2003). thus it is evident that the vp model is a shared business model where mobile phone services reach end customers through an intermediate device provider. instead of each user owning a mobile handset, a group of them shares one. the benefit of this model is that by removing the barrier of owning a mobile phone set, the ict service becomes cheaper and affordable for the rural poor (dang & sultana, 2008, p.2). shared access to technology also helps to achieve universal access to ict (selwyn, 2003). 5. role of different partners in vp model the partners engaged in the vp program pull together their complementary resources for the successful functioning of the program. the mechanics of the vp program and the role of the four partners involved in the vp (namely grameenphone, grameen telecom, grameen bank and vpos) as well as their relationships are shown in figure-1. figure 1 roles of different partners (gb, gp, gtc and vpos) involved in the vp program grameen bank: grameen bank selects vp operators on the basis of their past credit records. it provides loans to vpos for start-up costs i.e., to buy mobile phone sets. it also ensures that vpos repay their loans regularly (knight-john et al., 2005). grameen bank staff members are permanently located in villages and meet with borrowers at regular intervals to ensure that borrowers avoid moral hazards such as unwillingness to repay their loans (knight-john, 2007). grameen telecom: grameen telecom, supplies handsets, trains vpos on how to operate mobile phones, repairs handsets and handles all service-related issues (the daily star, 2006). it bears marketing and advertising costs of the vp program and prepares monthly bills for the airtime charges for each village phone. grameenphone: grameenphone provides telecom network infrastructure and sells airtime in bulk, with a 50 per cent discount to grameen telecom. grameenphone also issues the bill for the airtime it provides. for billing purpose, grameenphone treats the entire vp program as one customer and sends a single summary bill (for the aggregated airtime of all the vpos) at the end of the month to grameen telecom. grameenphone incurs costs related to communication infrastructure, technical support, provision of airtime, government licensing and regulatory compliance, government financial and taxation liaison (knight-john, 2007). vpos: the vpo are selected from the large pool of grameen bank borrowers. in order to be eligible to become a vpo, these borrowers must meet the following requirements: grameen bank member for a minimum period have a good repayment record(who had paid back at least two loans) have time to operate the vp have at least one literate member in her household, if she is not have access to electricity on fulfilment of these conditions, the potential vpo gets loans from grameen bank to buy mobile phone set and then resell the airtime to other local villagers for a fee. the selection process is done by the grameen bank at the village level. since more than 95 per cent of grameen bank borrowers are rural women (isserles, 2003) and they possess a very good loan performance (98.95 percent repayment on time, regular attendance in weekly meetings), most vpos are selected from the pool of grameen bank members. there are some reasons for women to be selected as vpos. it is more difficult to extract payments from men, and women are much more manageable. moreover, they can be easily coerced to realize credit and they make the success of the program, measured in repayment rates (rahman, 1999). women are in charge of the household and look after the children. they find this program beneficial for the well-being of their children. 6. alliance partnership and success of the vp program in the case of vp, it appears that the alliance partners’ combined ideas, resources and information helped to bring the innovative and unique vp business model. grameen bank’s microcredit, brand image and creditworthiness database of villagers (in selecting potential vpos), grameenphones’s technology and grameen telecom’s management support have been the critical success factors for the vp model (dang & sultana, 2008). this innovative social business model also benefits from the social network evolved centring on the vpo. it can be argued that the business network between four partners and their complementary skills and resources has been one of the main factors towards vp model’s success. another important reason for vp’s success is grameen understands the aggregate purchasing power of the community and realizes the importance of keeping the call tariff affordable to villagers. the combined purchasing power of the community helped the vpos to run village pay phone business profitably on shared basis. grameen understood the significance of combined purchasing power of a community in introducing the vp in rural areas (where one single person is unable to bear the cost of a mobile) much earlier than prahalad and hammond (2002) who later stated: an individual consumer might not be able to afford a particular product or service, while a group or even a whole village, often can. shared access is rapidly becoming the standard model for providing it access in bop markets, making the community-not the individual-the customer (2002, p.10). the selling of airtime by grameenphone in bulk at 50 percent discount also contributes to the vp program’s success (knight-john, 2007). vp’s rates thus remain affordable for villagers and profitable for vpos. 7. role of vp program in empowerment the vp facilitates rural people’s access to icts to generate incomes for households in rural areas (quire, tschang & reyes-macasaquit, 2002). it is also the first initiative in the private sector with the explicit purpose of rural poverty reduction through provision of ownership and retailing of mobile phone services. grameen bank, through its vp program, has promoted unique business models in rural bangladesh that enabled village ladies (without collateral) to set up a business of retailing the mobile phone service. the vp program is an internationally acclaimed program through which grameenphone has not only taken the phone to the poor people; it also provides the rural women with a new form of employment and empowerment (lane et al., 2006). the commodification of the mobile phone helped the vp operators to be economically less dependent on their male partners as the program brought them earning scope. the majority (72%) of the vpos interviewed mentioned that the vp program had provided them with the opportunity to earn their livelihood. it has been revealed by the vpos that they now (2008-09) earn on average us$1.41.50 a day after meeting all costs incurred to run the vp business. the revenue and costs structure (as found in the study) shows: total revenue from the airtime sales of vp $4.00 bills paid to grameen telecom $ 2.00 commission paid to grameen telecom (15per cent) $ 0.60 costs (maintenance etc.) profit per day per vpo is = ($4.00$2.00-$0.60)= $1.40. this profit figure did not consider opportunity cost of the time vpos spend in the airtime business. the net profit would be lower if opportunity costs of vpos’ time are considered. the vpos reported that a few years ago i.e. during 1999-2002/3, they used to earn $ 2.00$ 2.50 per day after meeting the expenses. the significant reduction in call rates due to competitive pressure and easy accessibility of mobile phones reduced their net income in the last 3-4 years. the findings are consistent with forestier et al., 2002 who find that a vpo generate net annual income of $624 by retailing phone services (forestier et al., 2002). the $1-1.50 income/day from the vp may seem very insignificant for many. but in a country where a typical household in rural village spends around us$ 2-3 a day (as revealed by the informants during interview), 40.4% of the population live below the absolute poverty line, and millions of of these people cannot afford to buy the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter (mondal, 2009), vpos income of around $1.4 a day makes a significant contribution to their household income. although in some cases, vpos’ husbands operate the phone on behalf of them and enjoy some control over the phone and the earnings from the business, it still goes to the phone ladies’ family adding to their total income offering them choice and discretion to spend extra income. about two-thirds (64%) agreed that the business model of vp allowed them to have increased role in family decision making, and enhanced their dignity relative to the rest of the community. just over two-fifths (41%) of the respondents claimed that they are now able to decide spousal matters such as whether they would adopt family planning to limit their number of children. previously, they had to surrender to husband’s will on different familial issues such as whether to adopt family planning, sending children school or not and whether to buy a piece of land. just under three-fourths (69%) of the vpos stated that before the vp business, they had lacked freedom of mobility in the society. they were seen as a mere housewife to do every day to day activity including cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, rice parboiling, and husking with the use of a dekhi (basically a tilt-hammer mortar and pestle). regarding husbands’ role in getting initially involved with the vp business, a majority of the phone ladies (18 out of 24) reported that their husbands/male guardians in their household influenced them to become grameen member and engage in the airtime business. all twenty-four vpos asserted that the village phone increased their social status within the village community. the following comment of one vpo testifies to this fact:     we were never invited to any social functions or gatherings. the influential persons never counted us. our role was to serve the     family, taking care of our children and obeying our husbands’ orders. now we are at times invited to the houses of the                 influential members of the village. it may be because they know that we operate phone business and we can decide what to do     with our earnings. we want to spend more for education. we now understand education can give our children a better and             independent life (interview, 2008) regarding the extent of empowerment, four-fifths of the vpos interviewed mentioned that they now feel more empowered in terms of their own mobility and control over income but they still have to depend on marriage for any access to the generational transfer of property. around 40% of the vp respondents stated that although vp provided phone ladies an avenue of earning income, in some cases the phone business has negatively affected their daily life. previously, their role was merely looking after house hold activities such as, cooking food for the family, giving birth to children & rearing them up, taking in a goat or a cow to raise for profit, and helping their husbands in farm activities. some of them even worked as maid servants in wealthy families and migrated to urban cities looking for a job. the involvement with the vp resulted in additional responsibilities for them (interview, 2008). their responsibilities at home and in the field are not shared by their husbands. in some cases, they are still subject to gender-based division of labour such as care giving, unpaid home work and subsistence work. on the question about husband’s anger and verbal aggression due to their joining as vpos, one-fifths of women reported claim a decrease of verbal aggression against them because of their joining the vp business. however, one-tenth claimed:  “yes, sometimes we have to face verbal aggression and husband’s anger because of our involvement with grameen. however, now we argue and fight back as we are no more financially dependent on them” (interview with vpos, 2008). village phones also brought independence to rural women who previously lived at the behest of their husbands. in this regard, one strong view held by a vpo on reducing dependence was: i am now a selfemployed woman earning a living; before i became the village phone operator, i used to depend fully on my husband for all matters including begging for money. the income i earn from the vp business reduced my helplessness and dependency. it helped me to become self-dependent to a large extent (interview, 2008). women’s empowerment comes in different forms such as economic empowerment, social empowerment, ability to get (borrow) money in the case of an emergency and empowerment through improved access to information. apart from economic self reliance, the income earning capacity created increased standing of the vpos in their community. the vpos are now able to borrow money from their relatives, husbands or friends in the case of an emergency (pitt, khandker & cartwright, 2006). the increase in creditworthiness of these rural women is a kind of empowerment for them. access to mobile phone also provides women with a tool to meet their social purposes and ensure personal safety (wajcman 2004 in green & singleton 2007). it is significant that relatively well-off villagers have to come to a poorer woman’s house to use the phone. these factors and the income stream from the vp operation contribute to her enhanced social standing and voice in the village as she becomes a communication hub. aminuzzaman et al. (2003) have classified the impact of the vp into seven types or areas of empowerment. the areas include general uncertainty reduction as a result of access to telephone; improved standing of the client; reduced need for travel; improvements in clients economic activities; enhanced contact among family members; better contact with political–administrative authorities; and impacts on gender-relations (for a useful review see aminuzzaman et al, (2003). we agree with most of the findings of aminuzzaman et al., (2003). however, our findings reveal that use of vp could not increase contact with political-administrative authorities because of very poor quality of political and administrative governance in bangladesh. that does not allow people from rural areas to have direct contact with administrative and political hierarchy. in regard to the improvement of gender relations, we find that some degree of social awareness is there but this could not have a huge dent on the age-old gender relations in the rural bangladesh society as the social formation is not yet highly differentiated in the absence of a full bloomed capitalist agrarian economy. inclusive leadership and distribution of authoritythe interview findings suggests that what was initially commenced as a private sector initiative to address rural poverty has later turned into a tool for gender empowerment. the insights of this study and the statement of prof yunus, as has been stated earlier, also suggest that the role of the vp is not confined to women empowerment only. it underscores another important characteristic of the grameen alliance. grameenphone model has ensured inclusive leadership. in the grameenphone board, there are four female board members out of nine which indicate that the alliance has also contributes to achieve some gender parity. through the vp model, village ladies achieved not only social, informational and economic empowerment; it also helped them to take up leadership positions. this is a demonstration of empowerment in business representation and management. moreover, the grameen alliance also contributed to the distribution of authority within the vp initiative. the distribution of authority and power among men and women helps in creating a wider understanding about gender inequality that exists in bangladesh. the findings presented above suggests that the commodification of village phone (airtime business) the vp model has empowered most of the phone ladies in various forms such as ability to articulate their own aspirations and strategies to realise the aspirations or bring change in their life, less dependence on husbands and greater bargaining power vis-a`-vis their husbands, greater voice in household decision making, access to financial and economic resources and greater social networks (www.doc.kl2.qa.us in rahman and kabir, 2004). the ability to articulate one’s own aspirations and formulate necessary strategies to achieve the aspirations is another indicator of empowerment.  it signifies that the phone ladies became empowered in setting their aspirations and strategies. the airtime business and the income earnings from it also significantly lifted the social status relative to the rest in the society. before the launching of the village phone program in rural villages, the rural women were seen more as a mere housewife, born to give birth to child and rear them up, and to serve their husband’s order and purpose. they had very less or freedom or scope to express independent opinion. after the implementation of the vp, a noticeable change is now observed in the village level especially in the phone ladies’ families. they are more valued in the family as well as in the society. they have now greater freedom of mobility and control over the resources they own. sen (2004 in rahman and kabir, 2004) rightly mentioned, “the concept of such phone lady has created economic and social mobility of women in rural bangladesh leading to empower them successfully!” they also can decide whether to send their children to school or to rice ground and whether to invest their savings in increasing household resource base, buy calves or repay household debt. however, not all women have become really empowered. in a few cases, phone ladies had to cede the management and control on the loan /income to their male counterparts. furthermore, a few vpos still becomes the target of anger and abuse of their husbands if they cannot serve meals on time or do fail to give in to the desire of their husbands. village phone provides access to telecom services to the rural people. users of vp uses it for various purposes including to exchange personal information, get information about prices of their produce, to collect business related information and to be in touch with family members, both home and abroad. the vp users stated that that in most cases (63% cases) their expatriate family members/relatives make phone calls from overseas to be in touch with them (interview with vp users, 2008). more than two-thirds (71%) users reported that the main purpose of using vp is to make calls to family and friends to exchange personal information. a majority user (89%) reported that vp reduced their need for travel to other places as a phone call easily does away with their travel need. they also claimed that their access to information increased due to telephone usage. their communication expenses also reduced significantly. around a third of user-respondents reported that vp has helped them to widen their business relationships. in this regard, the voice of one vp user is worth mentioning: use of vp has contributed in widening my business networks. now i can communicate with my clienteles with much ease and at less cost. previously it was not possible for me to contact the persons living in remote areas (interview, 2008). just under half of the users (49.3%) considered that vp facilitated them to receive emergency updates and to prepare better for disaster management. the findings of the study suggest that the availability of telecommunications services provided by the vpos benefited village entrepreneurs such as farmers, traders and fishermen in terms of better prices of goods, reduction of travel costs, more employment opportunities, better access to health facilities and better bargaining power. 8. challenges for vpp program, the hope of continuity and policy implications the program could be in danger in the near future due to the growing availability of low-cost handsets, diffusion of mobile phones in villages, drastic reduction in mobile phone tariffs,, the continuing rise in teledensity and the introduction of voip. significant reduction in mobile phone tariffs will erode the competitive advantage (affordable tariff rate) of the vpos. table 1 shows the declining trend of vpos’ revenues table1 revenue of village phone operators is declining year annual revenue per operator 2003 $917 2004 $660 2005 $508 2006 $396 (source: grameen telecom cited in shaffer, 2007) the declining trend in the revenue earnings of vpos poses a great challenge to the sustainability of the much admired vp program. with the rapid expansion of mobile phone penetration in rural areas, and easy accessibility to mobile service in the last 3-4 years, the raison d’être of the program is at question and its continuity is under great threat. this is because of the erosion of competitive advantage the vpo operators used to enjoy in absence of any other competing telecom network and service provider at the village level moreover, if any one of the four partners (grameen bank, grameenphone, grameen telecom and vpo) become unwilling to continue this partnership due to lack of trust or for some other reasons, existence and sustainability of the vp program will definitely be at risk. however, there is a hope that this program will continue as there is a common bondage between the three partners. all the partners share common vision of “rural poverty reduction” which is the vision of grameen bank. grameenphone and grameen telecom, the two sister organizations of grameen bank, also have the motto of furthering grameen bank’s mission of removing rural poverty (islam, 2005). from the above discussion, it is apparent that the shared access model of the vp is profitable only when telephone set is a high value commodity and telecommunications services are not within the reach of the poorest people. where phone services are within the reach of the poor, mobile phone sets are given free of cost or at a subsidised price, the importance of the vp is then definitely less. technology and intense competition among the mobile phone operators to reach the rural population have the potential to make the vp obsolete but possibly not within the near future. the vp model is an example of inclusive capitalism, a principle used by henry ford in his car business, i.e., more phones brings price war, price war leads to tariff reduction, more usage, more revenue for grameenphone, more income opportunities for more village phone operators (who are mostly women) and productivity for villagers (sullivan, 2007). thus everyone is included in sharing the benefits of competition. the inclusiveness of everyone in the model and lack of telecommunications facilities in rural areas provides the hope of continuity of the model. implications for policy makers the vp program in bangladesh demonstrates how an innovative idea in the ict sector can help rural poor women to be empowered and alleviate poverty. the vp is a financial and technological model which provides an important insight that a multi-stakeholder partnership initiative in the ict sector can reduce delivery cost of partnership activities as well as maximize social welfare if complementary skills and resources of partners could be properly utilized. the significance of the model lies in its ability to make ict services cheaper and affordable to the poor people living in rural areas (dang and sultana, 2008). the vp model also demonstrates the significance of aggregate purchasing power of a community in making a business viable. the aggregate purchasing power made the bottom of pyramid (bop) model a successful one where private enterprise gained success by doing business with the poor. traditionally, most enterprises were sceptical about the possibility of success in doing business with poor people and are reluctant to take risks in a new market segment (dang et al., 2008). the shared business model (instead of each end user owning a handset, a group of users share one) of the vp made the business a viable one. the vp model makes it clear that entrepreneurs need to go beyond traditional approaches to serve the poor, taking into consideration the specific socio-economic and ict infrastructure of the country. grameen bank, being the lead firm in the vp model, discovered that avenue by convincing the grameenphone to provide bulk airtime at discounted price and thus kept the price within the villagers’ affordability. the bulk billing of airtime at discounted price helped vpos to be competitive, even after significant reduction of call rate in recent times, and to run the business profitably. countries having a similar telecom infrastructure could successfully replicate the model to provide telephone access to the poor with necessary changes to the model. the vp model has already been successfully replicated in some other countries (with modifications according to the country context) including uganda (knight-john et al., 2005). similar ventures have flourished in ghana and other places where large populations of people cannot afford to own mobile phones (donner, 2007). 9. conclusion in the socio-economic environment that is generally exclusionary, uncertain, and at times discriminatory to poor women, vp alliance has set an unprecedented example by facilitating social-entrepreneurship for them. the vp program in bangladesh makes a significant contribution to social and economic empowerment of women by developing a social business model. vpos are now less dependent on income earning family members and reduced their vulnerability vis-a-vis their male partners. the role of the vpos in the family decision making has increased and they are more recognized in their community. although some vpos become victim of abuse by their husbands, most of the vpos experience is positive. in bangladesh, where violence against women is widespread, this program has enhanced social awareness and established some institutional support infrastructure however, there is rhetoric of empowerment as well. we do not argue that vp program has made the vpos rich or elevated their socio-economic position to an upper level. in this paper, we argue that the operation of the vp has offered them a respectable opportunity to be economically in a better position than before. bangladesh does not have a social welfare program or any economic 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(2006). ‘bangladesh standing tall: unique village phone initiative’ 10 december. tipu, m. (2004). an econometric estimation of the unmet demand for telecom services in south asia., contemporary south asia, 13(1), 39-52 yin, r. k. 2009. case study research: design and methods (fourth ed. vol. 5). sage publications: thousand oaks: california yunus, m. (2007). the nobel peace prize (2006*) nobel lecture in law and business reviews of the americas, 13(2), 267-275. annex -1: questions used to interview selected vpos would you please tell me how you got involved in village phone program? what is the total average per day earnings from the village phone you operate? who are the main users of your vp? would you please describe how this vp has changed your life as a family member? what impact has the vp business had on your social well being? what did you do in your family life before the vp initiative? do you think that your responsibility has become doubled after your involvement in this business? do you think that you now enjoy more respect and recognition in the community you live? annex 2: questions used to interview users of vp and village leaders what is your comment on the introduction of vp in your community? for what purposes do you use village phone for? do you think that the use of vp has benefited the rural farmer and other small firms to expand their business? do you think that vp has benefited the rural farmers in getting market/price information for their produce? do you think vp has any role in reducing the intermediary role of middlemen in the marketing of agriculture produce of the village population/farmers? do you think that grameenphone’s vp program lifted women’s economic and social position and empowered them? do you think the airtime business has contributed to the phone ladies to become entrepreneur? do you think the phone ladies are now getting increased recognition in social functions and gatherings? do you think that vpos freedom of mobility has been increased after their involvement in the airtime business? introduction the journal of community informatics, (2004), vol. 1, issue 1, pp. 30-38 n-logue: the story of a rural service provider in india ashok jhunjhunwala dept. of electrical engineering, indian institute of technology, chennai, india < ashok@tenet.res.in > anuradha ramachandran tenet, india < anuradha@tenet.res.in > alankar bandyopadhyay tenet, india < alankar@tenet.res.in > introduction can rural information communication technologies (icts) be an effective tool to bridge the digital divide? how can the internet help developing nations and their disadvantaged in particular? those who lobby in favour of rural ict believe that the internet is not just a means of communication but is also an enabler of livelihood in rural areas and therefore, power. for a very long time now, the developing world has carried the burden of colonization and slavery. this has resulted in a lack of confidence among developing economies and the belief that they are not at par with the rest of the world. the lack of ‘access’ has curtailed their ability to compete. in fact, ingenuity and hard work has not been adequate for one to enjoy economic and social benefit. in order to acquire these benefits, access to resources like education, health and employment become critical. the internet has been a boon in this regard. today, one can be in the remotest corner of the world and as long as there is access to internet enjoy access to education, health and resources. this allows them to compete and use their ingenuity and hard work to bring about a significant difference to their lives. this paper concentrates on how ict can affect the lives of rural people in the developing world. the total rural population of the developing world is about 3.5 billion, with their average per capita income being no more than $ 200 per year. india, with 700 million rural people located in 600,000 villages, is a reflection of the developing world. the key issue that is addressed in the paper is whether technology can bring about a difference in the lives of people who earn less than half a dollar a day. can health and education be made available to them? can they afford the internet? and ultimately, can it significantly enhance their livelihoods and income? the ict delivery model as mentioned earlier, india has over 700 million people living in over 600,000 villages. therefore any program that is implemented in 100, 1,000 or 10,000 villages is miniscule and makes very little difference to the entire rural economy of india. the underlying element here is that a program should have the potential to scale to half a million plus villages. anything that is not scalable is simply an experiment, probably worth watching, but not of significant relevance. there are three factors that are mandatory to build a scalable and successful business in rural areas. these are: mailto:ashok@tenet.res.in mailto:anuradha@tenet.res.in mailto:alankar@tenet.res.in n-logue 31 • technology that is cost effective, affordable, robust, scalable and capable of delivering the relevant applications • a clear business model that addresses all market, stakeholder and operational needs • an organisation that is exclusively focussed on the rural market, which thinks and acts rural connectivity over the last 15 years, the state owned incumbent telecom operator, bsnl, has taken fibre to almost every taluka (county town) in india. these fibre lines are infinite bandwidth pipes. further, if a wireless coverage of 15 to 20 km is established from these county towns, one can cover almost all villages of india. in india, a taluka typically has 300-500 villages and most of them fall within a 30 km radius. what is even better is that wireless technology is constantly evolving costs are coming down and bit rates are going up. in other words, technology is present to carry this task forward. the cordect technology, jointly developed by tenet (telecommunications and computer networks group of iit madras) and midas communication technologies pvt. ltd, has proved to be a major breakthrough for the cause. an exchange and a base station are installed at the taluka or county where fibre is located. this exchange functions at a temperature of 55 degree centigrade, and does not require air conditioning. the total power requirement is 1 kw. this capability counters the problem of lack of power in small towns of india. also, in a situation when power in unavailable, a one km generator can be easily obtained and used as a backup. cordect is capable of offering simultaneous voice and internet access and can deliver 35/70kbps connectivity to villages that are within a radius of 25 km from the fibre-connected taluka. the start-up cost for this technology is low. last year, $200 million worth of this technology was sold and deployed in india and other developing nations including brazil, argentina, nigeria, tunisia, south africa and singapore. an upgrade of this technology will be launched soon. the next generation cordect technology, which will be released in the latter part of the year, aims to deliver 80/150kbps-sustained rate on each internet connection. such wireless technologies work wonders for 85 per cent of the villages of india, which lie predominantly in the flat areas. in case of rough terrain, primarily mountainous regions and forests, fibre fails to go deep and the problem gets complicated. the tenet group is working on a solution that combines satellite and terrestrial wireless to provide low cost connectivity even in such villages. hence, technology is not a serious issue. business model however, technology is only the first leg. the second leg is a business model, which allows this kind of set-up to scale up to 6, 00,000 villages. the issue that needs to be addressed is in villages where affordability is low, is can a business scale? telecom operators have declared rural connectivity an unviable business. the clue to a successful business comes from what was done in the mid 80’s in india. during that time, urban area telephony was very difficult. people had to endure a 7-8 year waiting period to acquire a telephone connection. this was particularly difficult on the lower middle class and poor people. at that time, an innovative idea was developed – find a shop in every street in an urban area and convert it into an operator-assisted telephone booth or a pco. the pcos were set up at street corners at a distance of about 50 metres from the closest residential areas and were manned by an operator who kept it open for 16 hrs a day, 365 days a year. the presence of these pcos addressed the issue of distance and no one was required to undertake a long journey to avail of their services. such pcos spread rapidly. the approach made connectivity viable and pervasive while it also created a stream of entrepreneurs. the success of the pco revolution can be gauged by the fact that until recently, 25 per cent of india’s telecomm 32 the journal of community informatics income came from these pcos. today, 300 million people who do not have a telephone in their house, use these pcos. the lessons learnt from the pco revolution were several – aggregation of demand, presence of entrepreneur-driven business, proximity to a facility for greater access. these three factors provide the basis of a viable business model for rural ict. demand aggregation would address issues of affordability, while the entrepreneur and the easy access would ensure a steady stream of users. organisation this leads us to the third leg an organisation called n-logue, a rural service provider whose entire focus is rural india. it focuses on providing commercial telephone and internet connection to every village. the company is prohibited from operating in urban areas by virtue of its charter. n-logue decided to adopt the demand aggregation approach to small villages by creating an internet kiosk with a computer, an internet connection, a printer and some accessories like web/digital camera in each village. the kiosk was to be the hub of the rural connectivity providing communication services (email, chat, browsing), as well as other much-needed applications like education and training, healthcare, agriculture consultancy and e-governance. the kiosk operator (ko) is a rural entrepreneur and the interface with the rural customers. n-logue chooses an enterprising local person from the village itself to setup and run the kiosk. the kiosk operator is trained to use, and to help other people use various applications, which are made available by n-logue. the kos are typically youngsters, mostly women, who have passed their 10th standard. they are not required to have any prior knowledge of computers. it takes about $1000 to set up an internet kiosk inclusive of a wall set to receive signals, a pc with a 15” colour monitor, peripherals including speaker, microphone, cd-rom, digital camera, inkjet printer and sound card, power back-up, cabling and an application suite consisting of word-processing, browsing and email software all in the local language as well as english. the kiosk operator is funded through bank loans to a maximum in the range of $700 to $800. the kiosk needs to earn about $70 to $80 per month to break even, which in a village of about 1000 people roughly translates to just 7 to 8 cents per person per month. at this price level, the service becomes affordable to the rural populace and a sustainable business is built. the next issue that needs to be addressed is who services the kiosk operator? what happens when the computer encounters a virus? where are the technicians who are equipped to deal with such problems? such bottlenecks would need to be addressed immediately. also, kiosk operators would need regular support in terms of maintenance, connectivity and handling of other local issues. it was therefore decided that a middle tier of local service providers (lsps) would be created to service the needs of the kiosk operators in every county or taluka. the lsp is located in a town not more than 15 to 20 km from each village. this proximity enables the lsp to reach a kiosk in about 60 to 90 minutes in case of an emergency. the lsp covers a 30 km radius, 3000 sq-km/ 400-600 connections and is stationed in the place where the tower/access centre is located. the lsp is made a 50 percent partner in the total business by n-logue. the lsp is also assigned the task of identifying an appropriate entrepreneur in the village and is required to help them, train them, and commission and maintain the equipment. what is notable here is that as long as the kiosks are not up and running, the lsp makes no money. n-logue, on the other hand, provides the connectivity backbone in the operations, co-ordinates with multiple technology providers for relevant applications and content, trains lsps and kiosk operators, sources critical supplies for kiosks including the available hardware and software, co-ordinates with regulators and policymakers to ensure service availability and markets the services to the community with the help of the lsps and kiosk operators. n-logue 33 n-logue, thus, adopts a three-tier model for rural connectivity. tier i is the kiosk operator in the village who does the primary customer interface. tier ii is the lsp who is located at the district level. tier iii is n-logue. the ko is integral to the entire operation. if he/she doesn’t succeed, the other tiers don’t succeed. while the lsp ensures that the ko succeeds, n-logue guarantees the lsp functions. services communication: while telephony is a technology most people comprehend, e-mail and video mail are being offered by the kiosks as additional means of communication, primarily for the purpose of being in constant touch with relatives/friends living abroad or in far away places. video mail is more popular in the rural areas since the villagers feel more comfortable with a face-to-face dialogue. these technologies are also affordable and n-logue with the aid of tenet has created some relevant technologies which function at low bit rates. education: education is one of the key applications that is very important to the rural populace. the education module created by nlogue is based on computer-based education and computer education. computer education: n-logue has helped create a number of customized courses under the brand name of chiraag (fig 1) to train people to use computers. titled red, blue and green, these courses are designed for different ages and skill sets. while the course content of some span over 20 hours, others are some 50 hours long. the course is taught over several classes and each class enables the rural populace to get familiar with computer basics. these packages have proved to be extremely popular in rural areas, as they are seen as means to towards employment. 34 the journal of community informatics remote tutorials: the online tutorial is specifically focused on assisting children complete their school examinations. unfortunately, there aren’t too many good teachers at the village level and the remote tutorial attempts to bridge this gap through three modes learn, practice and test. the remote tutorial is based on a question and answer format. it looks at questions from past papers and suggests the kind of answers that need to be provided. each module is supplemented with a voice-over that makes learning easy. the online tutorial has focused on several subjects, including mathematics, social science, english and science. fig 1: spoken english, computer education and tutorials spoken english: villagers view spoken english as an important credential in acquiring a job. having understood this significance, spoken english module has been specially created to help children and adults improve their english speaking ability. typing: several children come to the kiosk to learn basic typing. they pay a dollar a month and attend 810 classes for this purpose. similarly, adults avail themselves of the kiosk’s facilities to acquire typing skills, which they again find is useful in obtaining employment. apart from this, villagers also may get their resumes made. photography: most kiosks double as photography studios, where photographs are shot using a digital camera and a printout can be made available. photography is proving to be a major source of income. photographs for a variety of purposes, including for government forms and veterinary applications, are being shot at the kiosk. others: children make greeting cards using the computer, which is surprising considering that their knowledge about computers is only some six months old. agriculture consultancy and veterinary: farmers in the village bring their animals to the kiosk and get them treated by doctors remotely. a videoconference is initiated between the farmer and the doctor. conferences are also welcomed among farmers. through such conferences, queries, doubts and apprehensions get resolved. these services are extremely important to the rural people as their livelihood depends on agriculture and cattle/poultry. n-logue 35 a current example is t turning yellow. a video set up. the leaves and kind and amount of fer mosaic. appropriate tre 1, 40,000. nlogue is also planni conferencing by access weather reports, crop pr health care: even though public he function rather poorly. reasonable numbers are in may 2002, an enterpr woman’s eyes to n-lo forwarded to doctors in the doctors used inter basis for a program of now regularly examine t as might be required. fig 2. farmer with his goat at a village he case of the farmers of t ulagapichampatti. their okra produce was conference between the farmer and agriculture specialists, in the city, was the produce of the damaged crop were shown through the web-cam, the tilizers added was also discussed. the experts diagnosed it to be yellow atment was administered and the farmers were able to prevent a loss of rs ng to enhance the services provided to the farmers through videoing a greater number of resources and through additional services like ice and other market related information. alth centres exist in every three to four villages, many of these centres health care is a major concern in rural areas. qualified doctors in available only in towns. ising kiosk operator took the initiative to send some pictures of an elderly gue. the lady was suffering from severe eye pain. the pictures were the aravind eye hospital (fig 3), a large facility in a neighbouring city. net-based video-conferencing to examine the patient. this provided the video-conferencing based eye-care for rural areas. eye-doctors in town he eyes of patients in the villages by means of video and suggest remedies 36 the journal of community informatics fig 3. remote eye care consultation with aravind eye hospital this process was quickly extended to regular health care. doctors in towns use video-conferencing to provide medical advice to remote patients located in villages. a multi-party video-conferencing product is commonly used, where multiple villages are simultaneously connected to a doctor in the town. the doctor connects to several villages at the same time and examines them in full public view. questions of privacy have been raised on account of such a procedure. however, most villagers prefer this mode of examination, and when asked, one remarked that such a system makes the doctors more accountable. e-governance: similarly, the internet is being used to approach the government for all kinds of problems. there is a well-known story concerning a handicapped person who sent a complaint to the chief minster’s cell complaining of unfair termination of service. having received the complaint, swift action was initiated wherein, the person in question was handed back his job. other e-government services including widow’s pensions, and birth, death and land certificates have been applied for through the internet. while this service has worked commendably well in certain villages, it has failed to make a dent in several others. the performance of such a service depends on the district collector, who needs to drive the service. for instance, in thiruvallur, a small town on the outskirts of chennai, the district collector started what is popularly known as a ‘weekly web darbar’ with the villagers. through the darbar, the collector connects to 50 villages simultaneously. through these sessions, he answers queries and addresses grievances. entertainment: there are several means of entertainment like chiraag radio and movie cds that are played at the kiosk. recently, a newspaper, entirely written and prepared by the villagers, was launched. other benefits: n-logue 37 the ko has also donned the task of a data collector. data pertaining to land holding/number of families/ animals/ water/ source of income/ income levels/ educational qualification have been gathered. this data can be useful to several corporations and agencies across the country. technologies supporting kiosk operations one question that has been asked several times is how has all this been done? what has made nlogue capable of delivering such services? today, n-logue is present in over 40 districts. the tenet group has worked with the vision of providing significant services in rural india. it has incubated over 14 companies with over 1400 engineers whose focus has solely been developing technology for rural areas. such an approach has been purposely initiated because if programs are directed towards developing technology for urban areas, this tends to completely absorb efforts and rural areas are generally forgotten. language applications: while connectivity was easily addressed, how were rural people to communicate if they had no knowledge of english, the lingua franca of the internet? it was also found that existing language software was quite expensive to be installed at the village kiosk. tenet found an answer in ckshakti, an office suite package in the local language from a venture called chennai kavigal private ltd, which it helped create. ckshakti offers most of the features offered by microsoft and costs a fraction of the cost of the ms office package. it also has a dual language option, which facilitates switching between the local language and english. ckshakti is available in three dual language packages as well as in english. video-conferencing software: initial studies at the internet kiosks indicated that a lot of rural subjects still regarded email as a difficult communication medium and needed the help of the kiosk operator to type and also read out messages to them. hence most applications such as telemedicine, education, and agriconsultancy were difficult for them to use. to address this problem, tenet with a related company, objective oriented programming systems pvt. ltd (oops) created video-conferencing software called isee which can function at very low bandwidth. when this video-conferencing software was installed in the kiosks it facilitated the use of health, education and consulting services as the villagers were more comfortable having a face-to-face interaction with the respective experts. remote diagnostics: the doctors who regularly use the internet to deliver healthcare services to the rural poor, have often wondered whether they might be able to do a much better job if they could remotely monitor the patient’s temperature, blood pressure and heart beats. recently neuro-synaptic ltd, with help from the tenet group, has launched an interesting lowcost remote diagnostic kit. the kit is placed in the kiosk and enables a doctor to measure the temperature, blood pressure, pulse count and ecg of the patient remotely and also to listen to heartbeats using a remote stethoscope. this combined with video-conferencing enables a doctor to significantly enhance remote medical treatment. the kit is being incubated in several kiosks by nlogue. the rural atm – a new technology: tenet believes that going beyond normal internet applications and leveraging ict to enhance livelihoods would be the primary means of sustaining rural kiosks. one of the innovative applications it developed to support livelihood is a rural automatic teller machine (atm). with the support of the tenet group at iit, madras, vortex engineering ltd. has developed a low cost atm specifically for rural applications. the atm will make use of an existing network 38 the journal of community informatics of internet kiosks that currently access hundreds of villages in india. capable of dispensing both new and used notes, the atms will also offer non-cash transactions, micro-deposits, credit and a number of other services tailor-made for rural areas. the machine can be used with atms or smartcards and also has the option of using fingerprint identification. the machine costs around us$ 1,000, just a fraction of the us$ 20,000 it takes to install an urban atm. the future: where does one go from here? we believe in the existence of a good business model and technology to take internet to all villages in india. through this, services like health and education can be driven. apart from these basic services, livelihoods have to be enabled. enough needs to be done to help the rural populace generate wealth. towards that end, one needs to create viable rural micro-enterprises in rural areas, in the domains of agriculture, food processing, animal husbandry, handicrafts and it-based services among others. how can internet help in this regard? there are the four pillars on which a successful micro enterprise rests: • finance • knowledge, training and support • buying/selling/logistics • risk sharing ability if viable micro-enterprises can be set-up in villages, one can significantly impact the rural economy. today, the tenet group dreams of doubling rural gdp. it is hoped that the per capita rural gdp of india will double from its current figure of $200 to $400. after all, the kiosk is not just a communication centre. it has the ability to become a communication hub, with a base station, 50 telephone and internet connections. it has the potential to become a virtual university, training centre, banking outlet, trading outlet, agriculture support centre and much more. the key is to dream and to make it happen. connectivity business model organisation services fig 1: spoken english, computer education and tutorials technologies supporting kiosk operations the doctors who regularly use the internet to deliver health the vancouver community network, social investing and public good models of ict development christopher bodnar simon fraser university <cbodnar@sfu.ca> abstract this paper links discussions of community access to icts to discussions of sustainability in the non-profit community and the viability of public good models of ict development. it addresses the concepts of public goods and social entrepreneurship and their relationship to new funding sources for non-profit organizations. the paper examines the vancouver community network’s investigation of for-profit service models to diversify the organization’s revenue stream. the paper suggests that the vcn has the potential to develop a project that may provide the basis for a new generation of community networking in canada, based upon a new organizational structure model. the role of community networks and, more generally, public internet access points in canada are at a turning point. research assessing the sustainability of community access to technology suggests that the long-term viability of such initiatives has not been addressed (rideout and reddick 2005). to punctuate this, the canadian federal government has “sunset” the community access program that provided funding for hardware to community-based organizations for the purpose of offering public access sites to the internet. of 10,000 cap sites funded by industry canada as part of its connecting canadians initiative to make canada the “most connected nation” and to reduce the “digital divide”, only 40 percent remain in operation (neogi 2005). a 2004 evaluation of the cap program indicated that 33 percent of sites would cease operations without government funding and 52 percent would offer reduced services (industry canada 2004: 32-3). the study also indicated that while 61 percent of surveyed sites had taken some steps toward self-sufficiency for post-cap funding, those most viable were part of an existing institution such as a library or school, or had some sort of business support (37).in the meantime, many of the community organizations committed to ict literacy and access through local networks have disappeared. largely predating government programs promoting internet access, community networks highlighted the need for affordable, community-based networking initiatives and provided some of the earliest and most affordable internet access in communities across canada. what was in 1995, a robust network of 26 operating community networks with another 67 in various stages of development is now reduced to approximately six. the stories of demise vary. in january 2005 the edmonton community network went into receivership and sold its assets to a local isp. later in the year, the annapolis valley-based western valley development agency, coordinator of fundyweb and fundymail community initiatives, announced it would cease functions after local municipalities withdrew funding. following a january 2004 hardware crash, the st. john’s nf freenet discontinued all member services. meanwhile, the squamish bc sea-to-sky freenet remained, but in a precarious position. overall, the definition of community networks for remaining organizations is far from clear. the once-common objective of providing free or low-cost internet access and community-based resources in the service of public access to information and communication technologies is no longer as straight forward as it once seemed. although the reality of the situation is stark, there remain successful models of community networking and new generations of wireless community-based networking initiatives in development. as such, given the organizational turnover in recent years, attention to models of sustainability of community ict projects warrants analysis. to date, this has been a primary concern to the field of community informatics. schauder, stillman and johanson (2005) provide a specific assessment of the vicnet community network in australia using a structuration framework for discussion. rideout and reddick (2005) take up the issue of sustainability in relation to canadian access programs, suggesting that governments must continue to play a central role in providing funding for community projects that address social and economic inequalities. this paper takes up another line of analysis, attempting to link discussions of community access to icts to more general discussions of sustainability in the non-profit community and the viability of public good models of ict development. in particular, i address the concepts of public goods and social entrepreneurship and their relationship to exploring new means of funding for non-profit organizations while addressing social service needs within a given community. as a particular example of the link between notions of social entrepreneurship and community access to icts, i examine the vancouver community network’s recent investigation of possible for-profit service models to diversify the organization’s revenue stream in light of reductions in government funding. the vcn is one of only a few remaining community networks in canada. it exists largely because of its solid model as a non-profit with a focused mission, defined client base and diversified sources of revenue. whether or not the vcn will pursue a strictly-defined social entrepreneur project remains to be seen. however, given the vcn’s vibrancy through a period when many other urban and rural community networks have languished and disappeared, the organization serves as an interesting model that addresses particular community needs in a changing urban environment. i conclude by suggesting that the vcn has the potential to develop a project that may provide the basis for a new generation of community networking in canada, based upon a new structural model for such activities. defining the public good the notion of a public good has been instrumental to the development of the vancouver community network over its history. this will be discussed further at a later point in this paper. at the outset, however, it is important to note that by arguing that the internet is a public good, many public interest and community groups have managed to keep access and education programs on policy agendas, extending into social and cultural discussions, beyond the standard economic focus of such initiatives. nonetheless, public goods are traditionally defined in economic terms. howver, this is now seen as potentially problematic in many instances and is garnering some new attention in policy discussions. a public good is typically defined within the context of neo-classical economics, to quote stiglitz (1999), as characterized by two “critical properties.” these are non-rivalrous consumption where “the consumption of one individual does not detract from that of another” and non-excludability where “it is difficult if not impossible to exclude an individual from enjoying the good,” (308). within this definition, stiglitz explains that “the benefits of some public goods were limited geographically. . . . at the same time, there are several public goods that are not so limited – the benefits of which accrue to everyone in the world,” (310). in his discussion, stiglitz identifies five global public goods: international economic stability, international security (political stability), the international environment, international humanitarian assistance and knowledge. kaul and mendoza (2003), however, argue that goods do not always conform to this definition because public and private realms are defined not by natural law, but by “deliberate policy choices,” (80). in this regard, public and private goods are social constructs contingent upon human decisions and choices. land, for example, can be a public good such as in a park or communal grazing areas. it can, however, also be a private good when sub-divided and tenured by individuals or corporations. the land titles system and the concept of private ownership, however, can also be considered public goods. not only can these be used in a non-rivalrous manner, they actually work better when used in this way. in this regard, widespread public use of this “good” establishes general respect for and legitimacy of the system by way of public participation. further complicating the neo-classical definition of public goods, kaul and mendoza point out that the traditional conception is that these are definitionally difficult or inefficient for the market to price. in this regard, public goods are thus viewed as being “market failures and as justified cases for government intervention,” (80). but at a time when private interests are more than interested in running programs traditionally designated as “public goods”, this definition appears weak. furthermore, an assertion that public and private goods must be understood as necessarily being the products of the market is constraining. by ignoring the inherent political process behind the classification of public goods, the term has come to gloss over the power dynamics inherent in the larger context of any public or private entity. more important to the present discussion, “public good theory” emerges out of a period when there were few actors outside of the state and market bodies. in a contemporary situation, however, public goods are provided – and, in many cases, defined – by other actors. these include charities, non-profits, cooperative associations, labour groups and citizens’ organizations. non-profits and sectoral change it is precisely the change in dynamics between the state, business and various civil society actors that characterizes a developing shift in the non-profit sector. scott (2003) identifies the current non-profit environment in canada as one where, “in many fundamental ways, the traditional roles of the public, private and nonprofit and voluntary sectors are being altered, and the boundaries between them are blurring,” (scott: 151). this is the result of two trends. first, there is an increased reliance by government on the non-profit sector to deliver what traditionally were public provided services. second, non-profit organizations are increasingly competing against private service providers or finding themselves being co-opted by private firms seeking to advance their marketing through affiliation with “causes” in the non-profit sector. as such, “nonprofit and voluntary organizations have had to become more ‘businesslike,’ not only in their pursuit of earned income opportunities, but in their governance and management practices as well,” (151). as non-profits are becoming more like businesses in management and service provision in order to remain competitive in the search for funds, many are also facing competition from businesses seeking to offer the same services (152). it comes as little surprise, then, that “successful organizations in a competitive funding environment are likely to grow to resemble the for-profit or commercial organizations with which they are forced to compete,” (152). not only are non-profits becoming more competitive, but funders increasingly expect such competition. while funders turn to the non-profit sector “because they are effective, responsive and invariably cost-effective,” they are also “seeking to insert nonprofit and voluntary organizations into the market,” (152). but in many circumstances, scott suggests, this fosters “intense competition for resources that undermines the unique and valuable contributions of the sector,” (152). a recent example of increased competition in the non-profit sector in canada (and elsewhere) includes venture philanthropy. started by would-be philanthropists who cashed in on the dot.com boom of the later 1990s and 2000, the idea of venture philanthropy is based on the premise that many non-profit organizations stand to supplement their missions through either a related business or business-style management. a defining article by letts, ryan and grossman (1997) argued that non-profit organizations might have a significant amount to gain from venture capital funding models. the authors suggested that granting foundations should consider how they might build stronger organizations than by simply supporting a funding model that is based on program-to-program grant provision. funding would thus operate on a model defined by risk reduction, identified performance measures, close working relationships, long-term funding and a defined exit strategy for the end of the start-up period. as well, venture philanthropists prefer to take a hands-on approach with an organization where they might take a personal interest in seeing the entire organization succeed beyond one or two projects. involvement is similar to the way a venture capital investor would take an interest in an innovative business idea. the investor provides not only financial support, but also professional management, and resource development and business plan development advice. as an example, toronto-based social capital partners invests in businesses that employ “populations outside the economic mainstream in canada,” (scp 2005). but the investment is not simply made in financial terms. the recipient organization also receives management and business plan support from scp. similarly, social venture partners calgary does more than simply provide grants to non-profit organizations. instead, “it applies the venture capital model to philanthropy,” (svpc 2005). with financial support also comes business and financial expertise to provide the organization with the infrastructural strength to effectively plan and deliver its programs without operating in a constant crisis mode. it might also be noted that early venture philanthropists had much to learn from the non-profit sector including that the lack of management capacity in non-profits was not necessarily due to lack of interest or effort amongst staff and leadership volunteers. rather, funding and structural constraints often limited organizational capacity development. in this regard, the partnerships became two-way learning processes. this latter model has found adherents in canada and the u.s. as well as within international bodies and other countries. a 2003 organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd) collection of papers highlights the entrepreneurial nature of contemporary non-profit organizations and the “social enterprises” they have fostered. social enterprises in this context however, take a different tack, generally spinning off a non-profit organization’s services into a for-profit enterprise; thus allowing for diversified revenue sources to the non-profit and new avenues to advance their missions. the risk, in reference to scott’s early observations, is that such processes may contribute to the commercialization of the non-profit sector and the privatization of public services. similar trends are found in the american non-profit sector (young 2003) where an increased dependence on fees for services, the advancement of organizational mission through commercial enterprise, increased numbers of corporate partnerships, increased transparency requirements and the development of entrepreneurial or business-like attitudes have been noted. this is not to say that non-profits are being commercialized across the board. indeed, the venture philanthropy model does not prescribe the commercialization of non-profits. but those who are adopting commercial management procedures are, in many cases, accessing funds more readily than organizations using volunteer or staff resources without commercially oriented management experience. the adoption of corporate business models and the increase in competition, however, only constitute part of the story in relation to changes in the non-profit sector. the idea of venture philanthropy is finding applications in the development of social economies, or attempts to build partnerships between the non-profit and for-profit sectors. moreover, these changes certainly pre-date the 1997 letts et. al. report. as an example, vancouver philanthropist carol newell has balanced charitable and enterprise investments through the creation of two separate organizations. through the endswell foundation, established in 1992, newell has supported various charities doing work in environmental and social justice areas. and through her firm renewal partners company, established in 1994, she has provided venture capital to 50 social enterprises (read 2005). meanwhile in quebec, a group called the forum on the social economy demonstrated that greater integration of the social sector with other sectors could, in fact, provide new models for funding (mendell, levesque and rouzier 2003). in this for example, social investment could take the form of investment beyond simply funding social agencies. rather, by providing loan and investment services at the community level, the integration of social sector principles into the wider economy might be achievable. additionally, labour union retirement funds (among others) could invest in small and medium-sized enterprises that, for example, promote participatory or cooperative management. trends toward the appropriation of public good models in business practices have prompted concern by some (anton, fisk and holmstrom 2000). much of the concern on this point involves the encroaching of commercialization on public services, including potential social equity issues such as the privatization of currently public resources such as water supplies and the contracting out of government services to private firms employing low-wage labour. indeed, as scott (2003) outlines, the non-profit sector itself is often used by governments to provide services at costs lower than is possible through direct public sector delivery. as well, such actions have prompted questions regarding how “non governmental” are many of the non-profits operating around the world on government grants (troger 2002). kaul and mendoza further suggest that a broader approach to understanding public goods must be developed that incorporates business models for the purpose of encouraging for-profit firms to internalize the impacts of their decision-making in terms that extend beyond their financial bottom line (93). the range of these proposals would appear however to suffer equally from the defect of not providing for a public-ness in decision-making in regard to public goods and not allowing for participation by those communities being impacted by these corporate decisions this raises some interesting questions about community networks, particularly as they have been structured in canada. as will be discussed further below, many community networks have developed as non-profit societies with charitable status. most of these organizations were the result of collective efforts in communities to provide free or low-cost internet access to a broad portion of the population through a non-commercial service. the origins of these community networks pre-dated broad government programs, such as the community access program (cap), but became recipients of such funding as government project grants became available. with the end of core government funding, the increased availability of reliable, low-cost internet services from commercial providers and a lack of organizational capacity to adapt to new projects, many of these community networks have ceased to exist. as the remaining community networks explore new funding avenues, some groups are investigating the relationship between fee-for-service options and the financial viability of the organizations. whether fee-for-service models compromise the nature of community networks may require a rethinking of the public good understanding of community networks as non-profit organizations. in fact, such issues might be the basis for the development of models for organizational structuring for the future. conceptualizing public goods in the non-profit sector given kaul and mendoza’s expanded definition of public goods as social constructions and the changing nature of non-profits, there remain a few points to clarify. in particular, many organizations argue that while their services or products are public goods, the organizations providing such services are, in themselves, also public goods – or at least that they provide a public benefit that, in turn, contributes to the public good. in this regard, “public good” can mean two things. first, public goods can be things or concepts defining resource use and allocation. second, the public good can be a state of affairs, or an outcome. this, however, might be better defined as public benefit resulting from the use of public-goods-as-things. kaul and mendoza clarify this point in explaining that public goods are not singly defined entities, but have varying levels of public-ness in their consumption, decision-making and distribution of benefits depending on the context. (92). the nature of public benefit in public policy decisions is a question already taken up in recent work, most notably that of cordell and romanow (2005). in their discussion, cordell and romanow suggest that government funds for icts should be directed toward communities defined by a geographic location, and particularly demonstrating strong social cohesion. this would, in turn, lend support to more effective uses of the technologies as a contributors toward the public good. in their discussion, the public good is understood as a state of affairs rather than as an item or service provided in place of a market failure. investment in their understanding should ultimately provide benefit to as many people as possible. there is a contradiction, however, between cordell and romanow’s conception of public benefit and the way canadian connectivity projects have been implemented and assessed. the government programs, at least in public rhetoric have been judged on the basis of empirical measurements with connectivity meant to mirror the “digital divide” discussions drawing on measurements specifically of the percentage of a population that has access to the internet. however, such measurements have little utility in assessing matters such as social cohesion or social capital. nevertheless, it is notable in this context that many of the recipients of government funds have been pre-existing communities and organizations (e.g. schools, libraries, community centers, etc.) suggesting that the government recognized these organizations as convenient vehicles through which to rollout a community connectivity program. given the high rate of failure in the community access program, the road kill of discarded community network organizations and similar community groups and the evident lack of government attention to social cohesion in such programs, it might even be asked what part of these projects should even be considered within the category of “public good”. in many instances, the public good and subsequent benefits were more the result of how specific agencies utilized the public funds in support of their pre-existing communities rather than promoting the vague policy intentions of these programs. moreover, earlier research on community networks in canada demonstrated that although communities of volunteers ran such organizations, most of those involved did not recognize community development itself as an objective of the organization (guy 1996). the relationship between social cohesion, community development and public good are not necessarily easy associations to make. organizations that contribute to the public good, that provide public goods and services and that contribute to social cohesion may not necessarily hold community development as a primary objective. indeed, community development and social cohesion are the results of vibrant interactions amongst people through the systems and organizations they develop. in this context, the non-profit organizations, as structures through which many communities organize to address identified needs, must be understood as critical elements in relation to the maintenance of public goods and the provision of public benefits. how understandings of public good and public benefit relate specifically to the non-profit sector, however, have not received significant attention. in developing a framework to discuss the relationship between the public good and non-profit organizations i draw on the concept of effective use (gurstein 2003). effective use is an attempt to provide a qualitative context to the widespread discussion of digital divides. rather than simply asking what percentage of the population has access to information and communication technologies, questions of effective use centre on issues regarding the degree to which individuals and communities are able to use these technologies in accomplishing their existing objectives. in one sense, effective use is a broad category within community informatics discussions that identifies the need for culturally appropriate, technological literacy in addition to access to technologies (clement and shade 2000). community network advocates have placed effective use aspects of ict access at the centre of their activities from very early stages of their development. in canada, organizations such as telecommunities canada, the coalition for public information, the alliance for a connected canada and the public information highway advisory council advocated for internet access models that included training and community development aspects with a social – rather than solely economic – focus. and while community networks generally provide internet access and training within their local areas, they are only one of many non-profit organizations that are providing such services ranging from children’s sporting events and health research to shelters and food security initiatives. in the discussion of effective use, many of these latter organizations also require information and technological support in order to better implement their own programs. in some cases this means providing clients with internet access, but in many others, it is a case of maintaining databases for the purpose of information management, developing an online presence through a website or running a basic office network. as well, for many organizations developing such capacities is a difficult task; with the cost of commercial it support often being prohibitive for small and medium-sized non-profits with only a local or regional presence. this leads to the second concept useful in the discussion of non-profits and public goods: flexible networking. the concept of flexible networking developed by gurstein (1999) suggests that icts provide many organizations, whether community-oriented or small business, with the opportunity to pursue their organizational taks through a networking approach otherwise unavailable to organizations operating only as “stand alones”. notably, this model is already common among some non-profits without even considering the role of icts. for example, many non-profits collectively hire bookkeepers and communication strategists or share office space and equipment. the flexible networking model however, allows many organizations to increase their organizational capacity through collective initiatives otherwise unaffordable on an individual basis. in some examples, such as the sharing of office space, organizations with similar missions or thematic program areas benefit from relationships of proximity in shared programming or ease of client referrals. by introducing icts into the equation, networks allow new opportunities for resource sharing unrestricted by requirements of physical proximity. some organizations have for example, developed services for other non-profit organizations based solely on the use of online facilities. canadahelps.org provides charities with a capacity to accept online donations. one/northwest is a seattle-based non-profit organization with a vancouver office that provides technology resources to conservation and ecological organizations. their revenue sources are a mix of foundation and donation contributions and a fee-for-service model, thus allowing the organization to provide below-market prices to their non-profit clients. meanwhile, other organizations use online facilities to offer their services to a wider audience. along these lines, the institute for media, policy and civil society (impacs) offers live online communication training workshops to individuals located outside of the regions in which impacs’ offices are located. as ;well, some organizations have developed entirely new approaches to their programming in support of their missions through their new online capacities. in this case, the vancouver community network (vcn) is a primary example, given that it provides hundreds of community-based organizations with free web hosting services and web development software applications. in each of the above examples, non-profit organizations have been able to reinforce their own programming or develop new programming based upon access to icts or other groups and individuals through the use of icts. understanding these activities in light of flexible networking allows for a better conception of enacting effective use strategies within the non-profit sector. by developing resources through online facilities, the non-profit sector develops latent capacities that can be drawn upon by different actors as required. for example, a community mobilizing around a common concern might benefit from the ability to acquire web space and design templates upon short notice. other organizations might make use of online donation functions in differing ways. some might see the ability to accept funds online as a way of reducing the time and expense of administration related to the manual processing and receipting of cash and cheque donations. other organizations might recognize a means of soliciting contributions from otherwise unexplored sources. in a practical sense, the non-profit sector has begun to develop the provision of back-end services to support the ongoing activities of other organizations. as such, the non-profit sector has found innovative means to integrate icts into their operations, thus incubating a new notion of effective use of icts across the sector. by developing these services, there is a latent capacity within the sector to accommodate increasingly fast-changing circumstances of organizations and programming while providing stable, consistent and affordable service provision. moreover, the services provided in such arrangements are themselves public goods for organizations that, in turn, produce public goods or provide public services that contribute to a larger public benefit. and these services fill a “market gap” by providing services most non-profits would otherwise be unable to afford. the larger issue at hand in theorizing community networks is whether a transition is taking place (or has the potential to take place) in transitioning between what kubicek and wagner (2002) call “generational” lines. in their discussion, kubicek and wagner suggest that community network generations might be defined by either changes in actors or changes in technologies (294-6). a generational shift might also encompass both of these factors. based on karl manheim’s sociological conception of generational change to understand systems, kubicek and wagner identify three predominant generations to community networks, corresponding roughly with the three decades between 1970 and 2000. this is a useful approach to understanding changes in the uses of network technologies in communities. given the above-mentioned shifts in the way in which community networks are organized, though, the two categories of change outlined by kubicek and wagner are insufficient. to this formula might be added the additional category of structural change of the organization. by including the structural change of an organization as a variable factor in such analysis community networks can be thought of in a way that accounts for the type of organizations and their operational frameworks within a context including the effective uses of information and communications technologies. for example, given the state of most community networks across canada it could be easy to identify any new activities around community use of icts in a given location as a being associated with a new generation of community networking. this shift might be signaled by the presence of new social actors or the development of access to a new software or hardware application. such analysis, however, is simplistic in a social sense and technologically fetishistic in another, particularly in attempting to assess activities in recent years. it would be socially simplistic because it is very rare that a complete break exists such that an entirely new set of actors with no associations to previous generations emerges over such a short period of time. as well, the second category of technological change might be seen as fetishistic because it risks focusing discussion on simple differentiations amongst technologies. the most recent example of such a manifestation has taken place in the attention given to high-speed (broadband) internet use in populations rather than for example to broad questions of the possible relationship of such high speed access to community autonomy and opportunities for self-determination. by focusing too heavily on questions of technology, community informatics risks diverting “access” discussions back toward “digital divide” questions of technological availability and uptake rates in a given population and away from qualitative social variables such as social cohesion.. by including structural change of organizations as a factor in generational change, such discussions are better able to account for the ways icts are being adopted and developed by community groups, but under varying structures and operational plans. moreover, this third variable of analysis should act to make lines between generational shifts somewhat fuzzier than many researchers might otherwise desire. this serves to highlight the complexity of community development over time, given that different stages of development may involve any number of actors, technologies and organizations present in different periods. as will be shown in the next section, the vcn is a prime example of this type of change. while the organization continues to exist with a structure similar to that at its origins, it is undertaking new projects and engaging new partners while considering potential new structures in an effort to assure its viability into the future. the vcn: defining a new public good the vancouver community network’s viability and continued provision of public good services cannot be taken for granted. beginning in 1993 as the vancouver regional freenet, the new organization was intended to respond to identified needs within the community for developing public internet access. the organization’s creation involved over 100 volunteers from across the non-profit and public services community, including the municipal library. their efforts it might be noted had a significant impact in defining the charitable and public good legal parameters for the non-profit sector overall amidst the emerging commercialized internet. in 1993 applications for charitable status by both the national capital freenet and the vancouver regional freenet were declined by revenue canada. the vrfn challenged the decision in the federal court of appeal and, in 1996, won its appeal. this decision specifically identified the free exchange of information and access to the means of information exchange as public goods. in its decision, the court outlined a framework by which the internet might be understood in relation to the public good: the court in part based its decision on the following argument: information is the currency of modern life. this has been properly called the information age. the free exchange of information amongst members of society has long been recognized as a public good. it is indeed essential to the maintenance of democracy, and modern experience demonstrates more and more frequently that it, more than any force of arms, has the power to destroy authoritarianism. the recognition of freedom of speech as a core value in society is but one aspect of the importance of freedom of information. (hugessen 1996, para15) the court noted that while the infrastructure might be used for activities that detract from the public good or for private gain this should not “disqualify the free provision of access thereto from obtaining charitable status,” (para 19). in this regard, the decision likens free internet access to a public bridge or highway; that is that the opportunity for movement and interaction should be understood as a public good, despite the potential for misuse of such a resource. vcn staff are clear that their first objective in obtaining charitable status was political: establishing access to the internet as a public good was crucial for civil society groups to push for future community-based networking initiatives (royce 2005). the importance of establishing public good principles around the internet became apparent as the federal government’s commitment to developing the internet along public good parameters became less evident. but obtaining charitable status at an early stage meant that the vcn was able to develop an organizational model along the lines of other social service and public engagement groups in the non-profit sector. by obtaining charitable status the vcn was able to adopt an operations model that has been a contributing factor to the organization’s continued existence for close to a decade. a model that works given the vcn’s unique status as one of only a few remaining community networks, its operations model deserves attention. the vcn developed an organizational model that uses its charitable status to both provide a steady stream of income to cover basic charitable activities and to position the organization’s core services at the forefront of its activities. the core charitable activities of the vcn are the provision of free internet access, e-mail accounts and hosting services. by offering these services at no cost, the vcn consciously serves a clientele that is otherwise overlooked by commercial isps; that is, the vcn provides services and training for individuals otherwise unable or unwilling to pay for commercial offerings. rather than charging fees for its services the vcn makes a point of asking for donations on the basis of what individuals feel the services are worth and that they are able to pay. the resulting contributions have been sufficient, with the exception of the years 2001 and 2002, to cover most of the vcn’s expenses related to communication lines for dial-up internet access (see figure 1). although free access is unlikely to ever fund itself solely on a donation basis, this model does maintain a steady donation income that might otherwise be difficult to solicit. figure 1: vcn membership and donation revenue and communication line expenses this model has worked for the vcn, according to the organization’s staff, for three primary reasons. first, the city of vancouver and the surrounding region is host to a steady influx of new immigrants, to a greater degree than many other canadian cities. as such, there is an ongoing need for public internet access to serve a lower socio-economic demographic and the vcn has been successful in networking with these communities. second, the vcn developed a donation model that makes the need for donations explicit, but without requiring payment for core services. as vcn staff explain, it is easier to ask for money when the services do not have to be accountable in the same way that they would be on a fee-for-service basis; individuals understand the level of service they can expect, and donors receive charitable tax receipts for their contributions. finally, the organization became adept at attracting project funding very early in its history. accessing foundation grant funds is contingent upon having charitable status. this project-based funding was particularly important to the organization in its early development when, for example, foundation grants in 1995 comprised over 17 percent of the vcn’s revenue. although difficult in its early days, the organization was eventually able to capture a range of the funding opportunities it identified and chose to pursue. since vcn developed its core services and infrastructure through a diversified series of revenue sources it was not dependent upon any single funding initiative, such as the federal community access program, as was the case for many other community networks. in fact, the vcn only began receiving cap funding in 1999, five years into the organization’s existence. the vcn developed a successful revenue and operations model, in large part as a result of its charitable status. the charitable status allowed the organization to establish diversified streams of revenue that, regardless of government program funding, would support some core operational costs. charitable donations continue to comprise approximately 9 to 10 percent of the vcn’s annual revenue (excluding flow-through finances related to the administration of cap projects). this is a revenue source the organization, arguably, would not be able to access without its charitable status unless it were to make significant changes to its mission and move to fee-based core services. through a multi-faceted approach to finding complementary sources of funding that allowed for organizational development, the vcn has maintained core services based around a well-defined mission. in this regard, the vcn has never attempted to be a leader in using cutting-edge technology. in fact, the organization has continued to focus on dial-up and web-hosting services, even as commercial providers have developed high-speed services and other non-profits have established wireless services. instead, the vcn has focused on key services for otherwise under-serviced populations. new funding challenges despite the diversified nature of the vcn’s revenue and the relative financial health of the organization, it still faces challenges as government priorities move funding away from the public access programs of the past decade. in particular, the potential end of the federal government’s community access program marks a significant potential change for the vcn’s revenue streams. on-going revenue fluctuations in the vcn’s finances were due to its role as a regional administrator of cap within the lower mainland (see figure 2). although revenues appear to have increased nearly two-fold between 2002 and 2003, with an additional 69 percent increase between 2003 and 2004, much of this funding was flow-through, or the result of funds the vcn administered for cap and redistributed to project sites. in fact, once flow-through is removed, the actual changes in revenue were approximately a 15 percent increase in 2003 and a 5 percent decrease in 2004. these changes are certainly not as significant, in terms of a percentage of budgetary change, as in past years when revenues increased by 95 percent in 1999 and another 52 percent in 2000. figure 2: cap funding compared to total revenues year cap funding flow-through actual cap funds to vcn total revenues revenues (excluding cap flow-through) cap as % of overall budget cap as % of adjusted budget 1994 54,216 1995 208,651 1996 177,041 1997 123,217 1998 154,778 1999 300,095 2000 7,000 457,499 1.5 2001 53,460 501,336 10.7 2002 201,645 532,866 37.8 2003 718,283 330,776 387,507 943,016 612,240 76.2 63.3 2004 1,308,478 1.017,338 291,140 1,595,986 578,648 82.0 50.3 even when the cap funding for the administration of other cap sites is taken into account, cap project funding to the vcn still constitutes a significant portion of the organization’s revenue. the significant proportion of the budget constituted by cap funding indicates as well a significant drop in revenues from other sources over this period. the vcn’s 2003 annual report notes that in addition to its regular cap funding, an additional contract to administer 260 cap sites across the lower mainland made the organization a “hub for public internet access sites” (vcn 2004). this contract provided the vcn with the opportunity to continue service delivery in its specialized area of operations and gave recognition to the organization’s latent potential as a specialized service provider within the non-profit sector. but while beneficial to the vcn overall, the obvious result of was to make the organization even more vulnerable to any immediate change in government programming. the vcn’s rapid growth in cap funding had additional implications. for example, by virtue of maintaining revenues over $500,000, cap funding became subject to treasury board approval, beyond the regular industry canada application procedures. as a result, the additional approval process adds one month to the review phase, thus reducing the budget year by one month for actual program delivery. as well, vcn staff have had to compensate for the increased administrative procedures through flexible scheduling against the organization’s other activities. along with these accommodations, the organization also changed its own accounting procedures, including obtaining annual financial audits in response to funding requirements. these changes are, of course, to be expected under the circumstances. government funding requires adequate accountability and transparency while participation in such programs entails an obvious responsibility for meeting defined program and service objectives. however, it should also be noted that, while the vcn developed an organizational model early in its existence that anticipated many of the cyclical funding trends that came to characterize the non-profit sector since the mid-1990s, other community networking organizations (along with other not-for-profits) have not have withstood the rapid change and mounting organizational capacity requirements within the sector. throughout the various projects carried out by the vcn, the organization has been able to maintain its mission to operate a free, public, non-commercial “computer utility” to provide a public space on the internet. this objective has remained as a common thread throughout the organization’s history and operations, and additional projects have supplemented this mission and facitliated a basic operations model in support of this mission. other community networks have not been so successful and vcn has been the exception in successfully anticipating and responding to the requirement for the transition identified above. non-profit entrepreneurs and the vcn within the context of the vcn’s resiliency as an organization, its board of directors recognized the likely end of long-term funding for cap from the federal government (royce 2005). in an effort to investigate new funding sources, the board turned to a program offering grants to non-profit organizations to explore opportunities in for-profit projects. in 2004, the vcn received a $10,000 grant from the enterprising non-profits program of the vancity community foundation to conduct a feasibility study and business plan for an enterprise offering it services to other non-profits. the timing of such a project appeared to be particularly appropriate given that the board’s interest and the availability of funding coincided with the availability of an individual who had done a similar report for the austin, texas freenet. in the vcn’s case, the report provided inconclusive findings. the project would focus on smalland medium-sized non-profits otherwise unable to afford adequate it support, however it remains questionable whether the vcn would be able to provide services at a cost sufficient to do anything more than break even. if the project were to proceed, much of the it services offered would need to be provided by existing staff. staff efforts, the report recommended, would be supported by a sales and marketing representative, although.there was little research into the potential market for such services in the vancouver area (a crucial element in a market where a significant number of web development and it support firms already exist, serving both the commercial and non-profit sectors). in a best-case scenario, the report suggests a three-year period before the enterprise would be profitable. meanwhile, the risk of bringing on even one additional staff for such a project, at the same time diverting existing staff attention to meeting service deadlines, and along with the initial financial investment required represents a very significant risk for an organization such as the vcn. from a historical perspective the report’s findings are not far from vcn’s previous activities. throughout the first decade of the vcn’s existence, the organization regularly performed work on a contract or sub-contract basis for other organizations. much of the work constituted “seed projects” with initial start-up funding. half of the sixteen projects completed over the period were infrastructure projects intended to “benefit the general public or a large segment of society,” (chan 2004). the other half of the projects were more oriented toward training in partnership with other organizations. the intention of these projects was to benefit “specific segments of society,” (chan 2004). all of these works are considered pro bono publico, or for the public good by the vcn. in effect, the vcn has been operating a fee-for-service model from its beginning, mirroring much of the back-end service industry within the non-profit sector outlined above. further, since the vcn’s report on developing an it support enterprise was written, the organization has continued to do contract-based work for other organizations on a small-scale basis. this has been an integral part of the vcn’s success as a non-profit organization, providing services that meet an identified need within its community. a remaining question as to how the vcn will proceed with these activities, however, is what organizational structure should be used in a fee-for-service model and whether it could benefit from business management skills. for example, any organization with a significant volunteer base, such as the vcn, must consider varying management schemes to account for its diverse human resources. as well, considerations regarding an organization’s charitable status might also come into play. if the vcn were to pursue contracts through a more concerted effort, staff indicate that a likely scenario would be the establishment of a separate society, perhaps in a cooperative structure. this would remove any risk of problems with tax laws that might restrict a charity’s ability to conduct for-profit activities while reducing risk to the vcn itself if the project were to fail. within such a model, while cooperatives are not allowed to profit from their operations, should funds be available, contributions from the cooperative could be made back to the vcn in the form of a community support program. a new generational model for community networks the question that remains is whether the vcn model offers anything of use to other communities. given trends in the non-profit sector, the vcn appears to have survived not on the basis of being a community network or any accompanying serendipitous circumstances in vancouver. rather, the organization remains viable because it has steadfastly focused on its organizational mission. this mission, in turn, is based on identified needs in the community and is supported by a set of basic and practical organizational goals. this model could be translated into a number of other communities, given that it is possible to organize and gain recognition as charitable organizations based upon the past efforts of vcn and others. however, that a community networking movement similar to that of the 1990s might again emerge appears doubtful. nonetheless, there are new initiatives that would suggest new generational developments in the community networking movement. there are examples of organizations such as montreal’s ile sans fil and bc wireless developing public, wireless internet access points in their respective regions. according to kubicek and wagner’s generational model, these wireless networks might constitute new generations of community networks based upon the new sets of actors involved and the new technological means being engaged in such projects. these two examples are largely focused on the technological development of networks to meet community needs in a collective, cooperative manner. both are non-profit societies, but neither is a registered charity although they would likely qualify as providers of “public goods” given the definition developed around the earlier community networks. by comparison, the vcn is one of a few community networks that continues providing basic dialup internet access and web hosting services. by kubicek and wagner’s definition of generations, the vcn would appear to be on a continuum without a discernable break from past activities. this, however, is questionable in light of the organization’s investigation of fee-for-service models, particularly if the idea were to be developed in a cooperative society structure. furthermore, in the vcn example the organization is going beyond simply providing the infrastructure and access points for public internet access. instead, the vcn has developed an effective use model for their region’s non-profit sector, providing the resources for other organizations to offer comparable access services or training projects focusing on the range of aspects of technology access. as already outlined, there is a demonstrated interest in the non-profit sector to share back-end services appropriate to their organization’s size and technological needs. the non-profit enterprise model being considered by the vcn might provide a suitable means to further develop an effective use model that also follows a flexible networking notion of resource sharing and cooperative development. if pursued within a cooperative model, the vcn might be able to further develop the non-profit sector’s capacity through appropriate technologies while protecting the core services provided by its existing organizational model. while vcn considered this idea for a different organizational structure, it is questionable whether remaining community networks would find similar models useful. given the anticipated difficulty of making the project profitable, it is an unlikely source of significant new funds. nonetheless, applications of this model exist beyond the vcn’s geographic jurisdiction. in particular, a cooperative model of technological capacity building might be of interest to non-profits in communities that lack it support services that require the physical presence of individuals at an affordable rate for services s. cooperative models would allow organizations to have input into how such services are developed and managed, while only being charged for services as required. with a large enough body of member organizations, an it support and technological development cooperative should be able to maintain a professional staff capable of catering to member organizations’ needs within a business management model. organizations, in turn, would only be charged for the services they require at a cost-recovery fee rate. ultimately, such a model would integrate a particular type of community networking into the basic infrastructure of a communities’ non-profit sector. the creation of such a model is not dependent upon pre-existing organizations such as community networks, thus making the model viable in communities where community networks no longer exist in their traditional form. the drawbacks of such an organizational model remains the lack of communities with populations of sufficient scale to allow the development of these cooperative organizations this might limit the effectiveness of such a model in smaller communities, such as rural areas if additional support is not available. nonetheless, the pooling of resources and cooperation between towns might remain a viable means of developing capacity among organizations and individuals in such locations. in fact, the strong basis of the contemporary canadian cooperative movement in rural areas should be evidence that such an organizational model could work if there is a discernable community desire to develop such services. this discussion, however, falls outside of the scope of this paper, although it also warrants further analysis. conclusion given the state of community networks in canada, there is a need to examine effective ways of developing community networking into the infrastructure of the non-profit agencies operating in geographically-defined communities. given the vcn’s long-term viability and success in developing a diversified funding base, the organization serves as a useful model in understanding possible integrations of community networking into the infrastructure and capacity of a larger non-profit sector present in a community. important to the notion of public good and the internet is developing effective use capacities in the non-profit sector that extend the public benefits of such infrastructure. as outlined in this paper, notions of social enterprise might provide valuable lessons for the development of non-profit operational models. in the case of organizations such as the vcn, networking cooperatives might be the basis for further developing the sustainability of community networks and their public good contributions toward public access and the participatory development of icts. for other communities, networking cooperatives might provide new resources to the non-profit sector struggling to find appropriate technologies to meet their programming needs. in either case, the model provides another means to keep the public good model of network development present in community, technology and policy discussions. in addition, there is a value to community informatics research to be able to better account for organizational models within a non-profit environment. in this regard, understanding generational models with a third “structural” variable may contribute to understanding the development and potential opportunities for future research and practice in the field. references anton, a., fisk, m., & holmstrom, n. (eds.). (2000). not for sale: in defense of public goods. boulder and oxford: westview press. chan, s. (2005). personal interview. vancouver. clement, a., & shade, l. r. (2000). the access rainbow: conceptualizing universal access to the information/communications infrastructure. in m. gurstein (ed.), community informatics: enabling community uses of information technology (pp. 32-51). hershey pa: idea publishing. cordell, a., & romanow, p. a. (2005). community networking and public benefits. the journal of community informatics, 2(1). gurstein, m. (2003). effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. first monday, 8(12). gurstein, m. (1999). flexible networking, information and communications technology and community economic development. first monday, 4(2). guy, n. k. (1996). community networks: building real communities in a virtual space? 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(1997). virtuous capital: what foundations can learn from venture capitalists. harvard business review, 75(2), 36-44. mendell, m., levesque, b., & rouzier, r. (2003). new forms of financing social economy enterprises and organisations in quebec. in a. noya, & c. nativel (eds.), the non-profit sector in a changing economy (pp. 139-168). paris: organisation for economic co-operation and development. neogi, p. (2005). e-mail communication to clement, a. read, n. (2005, august 19). hidden philanthropist ready to help others follow her lead. the vancouver sun, pp. b1. rideout, v. n., & reddick, a. j. (2005). sustaining community access to technology: who should pay and why! the journal of community informatics, 1(2), 45-62. royce, p. (2005). personal interview. vancouver: schauder, d., stillman, l., & & johanson, g. (2004). sustaining and transforming a community network. the information continuum model and the case of vicnet. paper presented at cirn 2004: sustainability and community technology, monash university, tuscany, italy, scott, k. (2003). funding matters: the impact of canada’s new funding regime on nonprofit and voluntary organizations. ottawa: canadian council on social development. social capital partners. social capital partners: investing in social enterprise. retrieved 3 september, 2005 from http://www.socialcapitalpartners.ca/ social venture partners calgary. about svp calgary. retrieved september 3, 2005 from http://www.svpcalgary.org/about/index.html stiglitz, j. e. (1999). knowledge as a global public good. in i. kaul, i. grunberg & m. a. stern (eds.), global public goods : international cooperation in the 21st century. oxford and new york: oxford university press. troger, v. (2002, october). les ong à l’épreuve de la critique. sciences humaines, (131) 16-19. vancouver community network. (2004). 2004 annual general meeting, president's report. unpublished. vancouver community network. (2003). vancouver community network. unpublished manuscript. young, d. r. (2003). new trends in the us non-profit sector: towards market integration? in a. noya, & c. nativel (eds.), the non-profit sector in a changing economy (pp. 61-78). paris: organisation for economic co-operation and development. joci community informatics and gender michael gurstein, ph.d. editor-in-chief, the journal of community informatics gurstein@gmail.com issues of gender are at the very heart of community informatics just as they are at the very heart of community and communities. gender-based differences in opportunities for access, differences in required uses, differences in strategies for appropriation are all central to an understanding of how ict can enable communities. these issues become particularly evident in many less developed countries where ict access and use are filtered through the lens of local culture, often one where the position of women and girls is highly determined and highly structured—in very many cases much more than that of men and boys. issues of appropriate behaviour, maintaining modesty, gender-determined economic activities, gender-based social relations all have their direct impact on the practice of ict in communities. very often this is to the detriment of opportunities for women and girls to access computers and the internet, to obtain training, to leverage the use of the internet for personal and family benefit and so on. this filtering of community informatics through the lens of local culture and practice reverberates at all levels within a community informatics framework. the design of public internet access at the local level in many ldc’s requires that attention be paid to local prohibitions concerning women’s movements and women’s attendance at events with males not members of their immediate family. in the design of ci applications the specific areas of women’s prescribed conventional area of family and community responsibility—child care, family maintenance and food preparation, caring for the elderly and sick need to be taken into account. as well there needs to be a recognition that in addition to these activity areas, in many instances women have further responsibilities to directly support family income. at the same time recognition must be given, as noted above, that women may have had less opportunity for conventional education as well as for computer access and training than boys or men. in these cases compensatory policy measures including design features may be required and a fine line drawn between adjusting ci initiatives to existing and often highly discriminatory cultural practices and finding ways to push the boundaries in those instances where women and particularly younger women wish to realize these. equally, it can be realized that access to computing and the internet may be the basis for significant opportunities for change and for opening up of economic and personal areas for employment, professional training and development and for expression (and even it should be mentioned, for emotional release and the development of social relationships). in many instances these can lead to self-development for individuals and even cultural advance at the local level and particularly as younger women gain an education. also, it may in many instances, through access to some computing and internet skills, empower especially younger women to seek additional employment opportunities locally but also through urban migration. overall it will be seen that no successful community informatics can be realized without responding to the challenges that culturally presented gender relations introduce at the local level. i am truly delighted at the range of research and cultural and other contexts that are represented in this special double issue of joci. this is the first such double issue and it was decided to do this since we could not reasonably fit all of the extremely valuable and interesting contributions into a single issue. thanks to everyone who contributed to this and particularly to anita gurumurthy who had the vision and the persistence to carry this through even as she was making a huge contribution to her own agency it for change, her research work through the community informatics institute in mysore and her role as a wife and mother to her lovely twin daughters. sustaining a community network: the information continuum, e-democracy and the case of vicnet   don schauder < don.schauder@infotech.monash.edu.au >   larry stillman < larrys01@optusnet.com.au >   graeme johanson < graeme.johanson@sims.monash.edu.au >   centre for community networking research, monash university     abstract the paper explores a case in the sustainability of community networks through perspectives both of theory and policy. it introduces the information continuum model (icm), a teaching and research model developed and used at monash university since about 1997 . the diagnostic potentialities of the icm are critically explored by applying them to the case of vicnet, the main community networking agency of victoria which, after ten years of successful operation, finds itself at a policy and funding crossroads. the model offers a framework for analysing sustainability and transformation. the paper concludes by identifying strategies for vicnet’s future, and foreshadowing work required further to develop the icm as analytical tool in community informatics.   introduction   this article further explores a case in the sustainability of community networking initially analysed in a paper presented to cirn 2004: sustainability and community technology, in prato italy, 29 sept1 oct 2004[1]. the present account further clarifies and contextualises the information continuum model (icm) introduced as a framework for analysis in that paper, and brings the story of the vicnet crisis forward into the 2005 investigations and report of an inquiry into electronic democracy undertaken by the scrutiny of acts and regulations committee of the parliament of the state of victoria (australia).   the article analyses vicnet[2] with special reference to issues of sustainability through perspectives both of theory and policy. it provides an initial account of the information continuum model (icm), a teaching and research model developed and used at monash university since 1997[3]. the diagnostic potentialities of the icm are critically explored through an application of these to the case of vicnet, the main community networking agency of victoria which, after ten years of successful operation, finds itself at a policy and funding crossroads. the model offers a framework for analysing sustainability and transformation. in the light of a written submission and oral testimony by the monash centre for community networking research (ccnr) to the parliamentary inquiry into electronic democracy, in part based on the prato paper, the article presents key points from the deliberations and conclusions of the committee on the value and viability of vicnet. it concludes by discussing prospects for vicnet’s future as an element in the e-democracy landscape of victoria, and proposing further development and use of the icm as a conceptual framework and analytical tool in community informatics[4].     the information continuum model (icm)   background of the icm the notion of an icm was prompted by the very successful records continuum model (rcm) developed by researchers in recordkeeping at monash university, notably frank upward and sue mckemmish (upward 1994, 1996a, 1996b, 2001, mckemmish, piggott, reed & upward 2005). the rcm has proved relevant in developing australian and iso standards in the field of recordkeeping. the relationship between the rcm and the icm has been explored elsewhere (upward 2001).   sustainability, structuration theory and the icm   the icm is heavily based on giddens’ structuration theory (giddens 1971, 1973, 1979, 1983, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1993). the notion of sustainability, as an aspect of social continuity and change, is an essential element of the theory. giddens views human history as a continuous interplay of social action and social structure. each both enables and constrains the other. as a result of this interplay, through time and across space, the multiple patterns of interdependence which sustain (and constrain) the lives of people are shaped and re-shaped.   in regard to the sustainability of community networking initiatives, which is one of the key issues in community informatics, the icm seeks to provide a comprehensive means of auditing the situation of particular projects and programs in order to identify what factors, or combinations of factors, represent threats to sustainability. or to put it more positively, the icm is intended with a view to corrective action, to help policy-makers, practitioners and researchers systematically examine the status of programs concerning the creation, organisation and sharing of information as a means to identify and articulate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, the icm is designed to be applicable beyond community informatics to many areas of information enterprise in the government and business sectors. key concepts from giddens the icm synthesises a range of theoretical insights, the chief of which is giddens’ extensive body of social thought to which he gave the name structuration theory. his core works, from the perspective of the icm, are the constitution of society (giddens 1986) and the consequences of modernity (1990) but all his scholarly writings, including those on gender relationships (1992) and globalisation (1999) offer insights that contribute to the icm, in that they all in some way elucidate the mutuality of action and structure, and the role of reflexivity, in order to understand power relationships among groups and individuals in society. empowerment and social justice are fundamental concerns in the application of the icm to community informatics, hence the central relevance of giddens’ work.   giddens explains the essence of structuration theory as follows: to examine the structuration of a social system is to examine the modes whereby the system, through the application of generative rules and resources, is produced and reproduced in social interaction. (giddens 1986, p.353)   to view human history through the lens of structuration theory is to discern a continuous interplay between the actions of people and the social structures that both enable and constrain action. all action influences the development of the structure in which they occur, and all structure influences what action is possible: ‘social structures are both constituted by human agency, and yet at the same time are the very medium of this constitution’ (giddens 1986, p.121). the reciprocal relationship between action and structure is called by giddens the duality of structure.   structuration is from the french for ‘structuring’ – a continuous, ongoing process, compared to the notion of ‘structure’, which imparts an impression of immutability. historically, giddens’ equal emphasis on action and structure can be seen as a corrective to the strongly structural approach to social analysis established by ferdinand de saussure in the late 19th century. continuity in giddens’ sense includes change and adjustment. it therefore has much in common with the notion of sustainability.   through this cornerstone concept of the duality of structure – in which action and structure are simultaneously independent and dependent variables–structuration theory avoids the trap of determinism. the distribution of power, with the demarcation and re-demarcation of scope of action in society is seen as an endlessly dynamic process in which all participate. many small actions can have significant structural effects. at all times there is the potential for ‘the less powerful [to] manage resources in such a way as to exert some control over the more powerful in established power relationships’ (giddens 1984, p. 374).   there are two major bodies of work which extend structuration theory in ways that are particularly relevant to information systems. these are adaptive structuration theory (ast), whose development was led by poole and desanctis (1990, 1992, desanctis and poole 1994), and the structurational model of technology expounded by orlikowski (orlikowski and robey 1991, orlikowski 1992). jones and karsten (2003) have reviewed the extensive impact of giddens on information systems research. important as are the ast and orlikowski contributions, the primary influence on the development of the icm from a structurational perspective has been from giddens’ own writings. information systems as a disciplinary area has tended to focus on the organisational or corporate level of analysis, largely in the business and government sectors, and this is where the ast and orlikowski extensions of structuration theory tend to concentrate. in contrast the societal level of analysis and particularly issues of empowerment in the civil society or ‘third’ sector are of high priority in icm thinking, as they tend to be in community informatics generally. this emphasis is congruent with giddens’ main project which is a macro-theory of society, with particular focus on the distribution and re-distribution of power. kaufer and carley: the communicative transaction another conceptual influence on the information continuum model has been the constructuralist theory of kaufer and carley (1993), who acknowledge the work of giddens and other action-structure theorists (p.87). constructuralism develops the action-structure perspective in a fine-grained analysis of communication, particularly across place and time. at the core of constructuralism is the communicative transaction (p.87-89), from which flows an ongoing cycle of learning, action and communication that can change the socio-technical ecology in which it occurs, in a continuous process of co-evolution.   to the extent that action impacts on others, all action can be seen as ‘communicative’. giddens, unlike kaufer and carley, makes no conceptual distinction between communicative and other forms of action. the notion of agency although arguably any system of information technology capable of ‘learning’ or interactive response – in giddens’ terms ‘reflexivity’–demonstrates some qualities of agency, giddens confines his notion of agency to human agents. only human actors, certainly at the current stage of technological development, exhibit all of the criteria of consciousness identified by giddens, namely discursive and practical consciousness, and unconscious cognition (1986, p. 7). the icm follows giddens in recognising true or complete agency only in human actors. however some attributes of agency can also be discerned in what giddens calls authoritative and allocative resources (discussed further in relation to ‘modalities’, below). these resources are structural patternings – often instantiated in information artefacts – which influence the scope of action available to people, and thus possess some of the attributes of agency. kaufer and carley’s notion of agency is similar to that in latour’s actor network theory (ant), which includes artefacts as well as humans as ‘actants’ (latour 1988, callon 1991, law 1992). kaufer and carley recognise qualities of agency in books and other information artefacts (1983, p.231-3). some of their key ideas, especially those concerning agency, are used in the icm. kaufer and carley call human agents ‘individuals’ and artefacts ‘artificial agents’. kaufer and carley developed their ideas in relation to print technology, and characterise artificial agents e.g. printed books, as passive. individuals, by contrast, are active in that they may choose artificial agents as communication partners but not vice versa. individuals partner with both human and artificial agents in communicative interactions. the result is a co-evolution of self and society: because multiple individuals interact and adapt concurrently, their mental models, and consequent patterns of interaction co-evolve. as a consequence, the distribution of knowledge in the society changes and, with it, the culture; as a further consequence, the pattern of interaction in the society changes and, with it, the social structure. (kaufer and carley 1993, p.147) the interdependent typologies of the icm the icm consists of a set of interdependent typologies, or spectrums of concepts. their interdependence lies in giddens’ doctrine that all action has some influence, however small, on the social structure in which it occurs (either to reinforce or change) and conversely the prevailing structural patterns enable or constrain the scope of action.   the typology of agency discerns agency as residing in: human action and also in artefacts or systems of: stored memory metadata technology.[5]   communicative action occurs only when knowledge is externalised as information. externalisation of knowledge involves a typology marked in the icm by four categories referred to as dimensions, namely: ·      creation ·      capture ·      organisation ·      pluralisation.   fig. 1 is a representation of the icm which highlights the typology of agency as powering the ever-evolving interplay of factors in the model, particularly the dimensions. a further aspect of the icm’s significance in relation to sustainability is articulated in fig. 1, which depicts the continuous production and re-production of information as an essential dynamic of societal continuity and change across time.     fig. 1 dynamic visualisation of icm, emphasising the interplay of agency, levels of action and dimensions.   also featured in fig.1 are the levels of action resulting from (and helping shape) agency. these are represented by the concentric circles at the top of the cone, and occur along a typology marked by the categories: ·      individual collaborative corporate societal. one key variable that differs for action across these levels is the degree of standardisation or interoperability required in systems of communication. for example at the individual-collaborative levels e.g. in a family circle, or a closely collaborative workgroup, meaning can be conveyed through linguistic or other semiotic systems that are unintelligible to outsiders. however for information sharing to be meaningful for a widening diversity of participants at the organisational or societal and inter-societal levels there has to a commensurate effort at standardisation of communication codes (languages, protocols such as tcp/ip, metadata systems) to accommodate all the parties to such communication.   figure 2 is a representation of the icm that places level of action (and therefore analysis) at ‘centre stage’:       fig. 2 representation of the icm with levels of action at ‘centre stage’   action occurs to serve human purposes. the typology of purposes of communicative action in the icm is marked by the following categories: information for pleasure – information to enhance living information for awareness – information to maximise opportunity information for accountability – information to minimise risk.   the final typology used in the icm is giddens’ modalities. these modalities structure the scope of action available to people. the categories that mark the typology are:   ·      interpretive – where action is structured through signs and meanings ·      facilitative – where action is structured through the distribution of power (authoritative resources) or artefactual and physical resources such as bricks and mortar, money, or icts (allocative resources). ·      normative – where action is structured through norms and sanctions.   depending on the state of the relationships among the factors covered by the typologies making up the icm model, actions may have a stronger or weaker influence on other people across space and time – a condition that giddens calls ‘space-time distanciation’.   identification of different states of the modalities among stakeholders is a useful aid in understanding the extent of agreement or otherwise in the development of information systems and structures.   a detailed, consolidated depiction of the typologies of the icm, and the relationships among these across time and space, is given in fig. 3.     fig. 3 typologies of the icm the case of vicnet – the network for victorian communities this section outlines the story of vicnet, and analyses the case of vicnet against the icm described above. beginnings of virtual communities and community networking in the early 1990s the writings of howard rheingold heralded the age of virtual communities. at a distance of just over ten years since the appearance of his book the virtual community: homesteading on the electronic frontier it is challenging to reconstruct how different was the technological condition of the information environment at that time. when rheingold coined the phrase ‘virtual community’, there was no world wide web. of hypertext, the underlying technology of the web, and now such a widespread and practical day-to-day reality. rheingold wrote as though of an elusive, mythical talisman:   the ancient grail quest, known as hypertext, was first proposed by ted nelson in the 1960s and first implemented by englebart’s sri [stanford research institute] project, as a linked series of texts that could summon other texts for viewing. (rheingold 1993, chapter 3)   the enabling technologies for virtual communities at that time were listservs, bulletin boards and muds (multi-user domains), all based on the tcp/ip (internet) communications protocol. rheingold offered the following definitions:   the net is an informal term for the loosely connected computer networks that use cmc [computer-mediated communication] to link people around the world in public discussion …virtual communities are social aggregations that emerge from the net when people carry on those discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace. (rheingold 1993, introduction). the founding of vicnet, and its relationship to libraries gary hardy, then working in the library of the royal melbourne institute of technology (rmit), immediately recognised the potential of such ideas, not only for enriching communication among people, but also as a way to bring to the surface the wealth of ‘undiscovered public knowledge’ which existed in communities, for the benefit of the wider society. as university librarian of rmit at the time, don schauder shared his enthusiasm. at rmit libraries, where vicnet was invented and prototyped (on a desktop macintosh), it was envisaged that either rmit libraries might host it, or that it might be integrated with the state library of victoria. the idea of vicnet was seen as potentially transformative for the future of libraries, changing them from ‘one way’ purveyors of the outputs of publishers, to active participants in the creation of community-based information resources. it was envisioned that community networking initiatives such as vicnet would help transform libraries as centres for community knowledge-building in the 21st century (schauder 1995). both the state librarian and the victorian minister for the arts strongly supported the latter vision. the initial submissions to establish and fund vicnet were made in 1993 to government, at a time when no-one had any clear idea of how the internet would evolve. the commitment of public funds to the venture was in many ways an act of faith. an alliance with australia’s academic and research network (aarnet), then australia’s only internet service provider (isp), was explored as a means of providing connectivity to vicnet’s participants. however, in the event vicnet itself became one of australia’s earliest isps after aarnet, as a means to build first-hand expertise and bargaining power for libraries and community organisations in the emerging data communications marketplace. vicnet became operational under the auspices of the state library of victoria (slv) in 1994, and was launched at a very public ceremony, in a vast shopping mall atrium with a giant video screen in the central city, by the state premier, the hon. jeff kennett in may 1995. icm interpretation of vicnet in icm terms, vicnet was a product of human and technological agency. while prototyped by gary hardy and colleagues at rmit library at the levels of individual and collaborative action, it quickly became a project at the corporate and societal levels.   in addition,vicnet would add value through the development of training, access, complementary content and support for the community and other public interest groups whose websites it aggregated. it sought to encourage community action, particularly at the individual and collaborative levels, in the dimensions of creation and capture of information. knowledge and memory held in the minds of community members would be selectively externalised and pluralised (widely shared) as information resources initially on gopher, and soon after on the web.   the initiative reflected a particular set of interpretations of the information society, shared in some government and library management circles, which supported a new and more open understanding of library and information relationships in contrast to the traditional conception of libraries.   the agency attributes of the new technologies in supporting communication; and of the memory storage and metadata capabilities of vicnet (e.g. the menuing, indexing and archiving systems of vicnet), would amplify the efforts of community actors across time and place through the dimensions of organisation and pluralisation. the purposes of enjoyment, awareness and accountability would all be served, since all kinds of community groups would be welcome to participate,   in terms of the modalities, it was hoped that basing the network in a major library would signal its ongoing responsiveness to public needs (interpretive modality) while ensuring its institutional sustainability (facilitative modality) and guaranteeing its compliance to legal requirements (normative modality). in other words, the settings for the modality factors sought for vicnet could be characterised within a ‘dynamic-democratic’ systems-state context for the continuum as a whole.[6]   vicnet’s achievements in the ten years to 2004 vicnet achievements included the following: ·      one of australia's first isps. ·      connected every library in victoria to the internet. ·      rated in the top ten information sites in australia. ·      australia's biggest website –20 million hits a year. ·      thousands of community groups e-published for the first time. ·      trained over 100,000 victorians in internet use. ·      toured victoria with its internet roadshow beginning in 1997. ·      delivered over 25,000 training hours to community publishers. ·      helped 38,000 people join online communities. ·      australian leader in multilingual internet access. ·      enabled vision impaired to access computers. ·      enabled over 500 public access sites across the state. ·      provided free web hosting and support for almost 5,000 community web sites. ·      recognised nationally and internationally as one of the first, and most influential community networks.[7] strengths of vicnet’s positioning however, after ten excellent years, doubts arose about the future sustainability of vicnet. in fact there were stresses almost from the outset in the area originally seen to be one of vicnet’s greatest strengths, namely its embeddedness in the state library of victoria (slv). organizationally, a skilled group of people with a commitment to the community-publishing, community-networking concept came to work within the slv. the slv came to be seen as a respected public-good institution embarking on an exciting innovation in ict and community partnerships. skilled information professionals, both young and experienced, moved from or declined more lucrative jobs in the business and government sectors to work for modest remuneration on the vicnet team. volunteers from a wide range of backgrounds added to their ranks in large part because of vicnet’s commitment to bridging the digital divide, and making the benefits of knowledge sharing through ict available to all sectors of society, a spirit very similar to that which inspired the public library movement when print technology was in the ascendant. at the time when vicnet was established, as a legacy from the previous government, victoria’s ministry for the arts – called arts victoria– hosted a libraries board of victoria, separate from the state library council, and an office of library services whose functions included acting as an executive arm for the board. this arrangement was set up through legislation which specified the roles and responsibilties of the libraries board of victoria and the council of the state library of victoria (victoria 1988). the libraries board which had key responsibilities for the public libraries of the state, strongly encouraged statewide library network innovation (schauder 1988). this board saw vicnet as a key to achievment in this area. in addition there was strong government support for community-oriented programs through multimedia victoria, a government agency established to develop victoria as a centre of excellence in the development and application of icts. the connections of arts victoria office of library services’ to the public library network of victoria assisted vicnet in establishing the internet public access network. the location of both the office of library services and the state library within the state government gave vicnet an opportunity to contribute directly to the development of a number of innovative multimedia victoria programs, which proved to be successful examples of community ict policy and program delivery – for example the skills.net program (for statewide it skills development) and the mc2 – ‘my connected community’ program (to assist community groups establish themselves online). in this way vicnet was not solely reliant on state library council as a support base, and this diversity of sponsors was a source of strength. weaknesses of vicnet’s positioning in 1998, when the libraries board of victoria was re-amalgamated with the state library council, grassroots networking among public libraries was a secondary priority of the library council, whose prime concern was the governance of the state library of victoria. the state library’s invaluable collections were being jeopardised by the long neglect of capital investment in the physical fabric of the library, one of the finest heritage buildings in the state and the re-development of the state library was inevitably the most urgent task for the state library council at that time. this priority continued under its new name of library board of victoria and as government and private donors participated generously in one of the most large-scale and complex projects of restoration and updating ever undertaken in australia. however, and especially after the departure of the state librarian who had adopted vicnet, vicnet was accommodated by slv but not truly integrated. vicnet’s quandary successive governments’ changes to library policy bodies the previous labor government after an extensive review process (victoria 1987a, 1987b) had separated the libraries board of victoria with its responsibilities for the wider library network from the council of the state library of victoria. it did so specifically because it perceived a role overload for one body – with an honorary membership – in carrying responsibility both for the state library itself and the network of public libraries. the slv is a large and complex institution, with a central role in the state’s documentary heritage. the network of local public libraries was large and complex. each public library across the state had its own set of special relationships to communities and local governments. moreover the government of the day believed there should be closer integration with other library networks, such as school, academic and government specialist libraries. the decision was to create two specialised bodies, one to govern the state library and the other to develop the statewide library network (victoria 1987a, 1987b).   by 1998 the liberal government (the same kennett government which supported the establishment of vicnet and built up multimedia victoria) became uncomfortable with the idea of two library policy bodies. as part of a generally progressive new policy, entitled ‘libraries 21’, the premier rationalised the libraries board of victoria back into the governing body of the state library, which became a statutory organisation rather than a branch of arts victoria. vicnet thus lost a vital source of political and financial support. the re-merged body was called the library board of victoria and the relevant legislation was amended accordingly (victoria 1998).   when the governing party changed again in 1999, and labor returned to power, it did not restore its own party’s previous arrangements for library policy and governance across the state. it also allowed the gradual running down of the community agenda of multimedia victoria. one of its important initiatives was the creation of a new department for victorian communities (dvc), but initially community icts were not a priority in its agenda. several years after the establishment of dvc it still remains to be seen whether and how it will upgrade its engagement with community icts.[8]   the role of multimedia victoria   multimedia victoria, a sub-department of the state government with the special role of promoting icts in victorian business, government and society, has been a major source of funding for programs over vicnet’s lifetime. the basic model has been a contractual, project-oriented one. there was however, a sometimes uneasy clientproject-manager relationship between the agencies, reflecting what appears to be the tension frequently arising from “outsourced government”. also, the state library felt that it bore the risks and costs of the projects managed by vicnet while mmv operated at arm’s length. the latter appeared increasingly detached but claimed credit when successes occurred.   the ‘steering, not rowing’ position has been preserved by mmv, but recently this has not encouraged policy or program payoffs for vicnet. change has not seemed well managed. despite significant personal commitment by individual mmv officers, there has been a steady loss of energy and creative policy impetus within mmv, as it has appeared to become more and more isolated from the realities of community need as articulated by vicnet in its early phase. programs like openroad (http://www.openroad.vic.gov.au/) which focussed on non-english language community networking, with significant potential worldwide, have not been well supported, in spite of strong enthusiasm for it from victorian multicultural communities and direct interest from the international federation of library associations (ifla). relationship between vicnet and the state library’s board the vicnet vision became progressively less understood by the governing body of state library (the library board of victoria). vicnet, despite continuing to attract and manage major information society projects on behalf of the state and federal governments, increasingly became seen as burden to the state library. vicnet’s presence was seen to add little value, and create many administrative complexities.[9]   administrative location within the slv, especially in recent years, had significant disadvantages for vicnet. the state library, as one agency within the arts portfolio, struggled with the community and commercial (e.g. as non-profit isp) aspects of vicnet’s operation. in addition, there was virtually no incentive for the slv to engage in community or commercial activity, while at the same time members of the board have tried to avoid doing anything that might expose the parent organisation to any future risk beyond what was seen as its core roles.   vicnet came to be regarded as a business unit needing to justify its existence rather than as a key element in the revised role of libraries in the 21st century. vicnet became the subject of frequent reviews and audits within the state library, processes during which key staff departed, with a consequent disruption in the cycle of project grant application and implementation. as each project grant came to an end without replacement by new grants, staffing levels needed to be reduced bringing industrial disputation that further depressed morale. the ‘problem’ of vicnet became a self-fulfilling prophecy.   as an understanding of the emerging situation spread among vicnet’s many community-based supporters, citizens began to place some pressure on their local members of parliament to ‘save vicnet’. a protest site called vicnot was established by some disenchanted vicnet staff as a focus for this disquiet[10].   discussions began about the possibility of a different organisational context for vicnet.   the situation in mid-2004 was well characterised by a major policy document concerning the relationship between the slv and community libraries, entitled the framework for collaborative action. the framework document features among others a program entitled ‘victoria’s virtual library’, in whose development vicnet had played a leading role. however vicnet itself– past, present or future–was not featured at all as part of the proposed framework for collaborative action (state library of victoria and victorian public library network 2004). further icm interpretation of vicnet reading these developments against the icm, it can be discerned that vicnet’s crisis is one of incongruence between its actions, and aspects of the structure in which it operates.   vicnet’s reasons for being have been repeatedly vindicated, namely adding value through a)    encouraging the creation and capture of community-based information for all three purposes of enjoyment, awareness and accountability and b)    systematic sharing of community-based knowledge through the organisation and pluralisation of that information.   even a cursory examination of the vicnet site shows the richness of the coverage, contributed through the efforts of individuals, collaborative groups, and corporate bodies. while some of the sites maintained by community organisations are basic electronic billboards, many are dynamic forums of communication constantly engaged in what giddens calls cultural production and reproduction. scanning the categories on the vicnet site by category reveals participation by indigenous australians; clubs such as rotary; groups involved in emergency relief; gay and lesbian groups; multicultural groups from africans to vietnamese; and groups concerned with religion and philosophy, and issues including women’s rights, domestic violence, hiv, internet censorship, arts and culture, history, literature, movies, small business, education, gardening, sport, family support, parenting, government, health, disability, aging, kids’ recreation, agriculture, environment, travel, rural communities the list goes on and on.   vicnet has responded to a changing socio-technical environment, while at the same time contributing to the shaping of that environment, in an action-structure dynamic that has been constuctive and effective. vicnet’s engagement with those aspects of structure involving technology, metadata, and memory storage have consistently been at the forefront.   however in those aspects of structure demarcated by the modalities, fault lines have been widening with increasing urgency as time has passed. in terms of the vicnet systems-state, there has been an accelerating bifurcation between ‘dynamic-democratic’ and ‘static-democratic’ modality settings, resulting in conflict among stakeholders. features of this polarisation are outlined below.   ·               interpretive. in the earlier years, the meaning of vicnet was clearer to its key stakeholders, and moreover there was a greater consenus as to that meaning. before the proliferation of isps and mass participation in web, the need for a special agency to build community engagement with the potentialities of the internet was more self-evident, even though the internet was less understood by many people. in the exploratory decade in which vicnet has operated, limited term project-based funding made a degree of sense. everyone was on a steep learning curve. project funding was welcome and meaningful, even though the path to sustainability was unclear.   however, it appears to be the case that the significance of vicnet needs to be articulated anew. in this new stage the interdependence between local and global has risen in importance: community networking has become a world movement as signified by the un’s world summit on the information society (wsis) process. also, actionlearning, reflexive practice and research have risen in importance as the complexity of the community networking enterprise has grown.   ·               facilitative. with experience, the need is recognised for reliable and in-depth support of communities for both innovative and routine use of icts. project funding, even if available, only partly meets this need. support needs to be grounded in a consistently funded institutional framework, whose objectives are affirmed by, and aligned to, government policy. so far in victoria, experience has shown that libraries have been able to provide only part of this institutional framework, and they generally appear uncomfortable with taking a leading role in the wider endeavours of community practice. the required institutional framework needs to embody as core those aspects of community networking that have proved troublesome for libraries but where successive cohorts of vicnet staff have done well, namely consistent, close and creative engagement with community building in all its aspects. only in this way could vicnet’s special role in the informational aspects of communities be realised in depth. in summary, new institutional arrangements are needed, encompassing both the authoritative and allocative resources appropriate to the sustained development of community networking. can such an institutional framework still evolve from libraries or must it be created anew? ·               normative. in the ten years of vicnet’s operation, contingent regulatory and legal issues have become ever more complex. obvious examples are privacy, intellectual property, and security. vicnet has coped well with issues arising in these areas, but in future the interface between community networking and regulatory arrangements will need ever increasing expertise and capacity. this too needs to be a feature of future institutional arrangements. setting aside the perhaps inevitable clash of norms between the values of the young network (vicnet) and the older host (slv) is necessary in order to realize the requirement for independent maturation in the newer organisation. vicnet has coped well with issues arising in these areas, but in future the interface between community networking and regulatory arrangements will need ever-increasing expertise and capacity. this too needs to be a feature of future institutional arrangements. vicnet’s sustainability – the policy and e-democracy perspective it should be noted that such formative governance problems are familiar internationally. all situations are different in their details. however the overarching issue is the extent to which governments are seeking to create more effective structures to continue what they regard as a valuable asset – community building through icts. the alternative is to hand over the problem to market solutions, which quite evidently cannot meet the fundamental needs in community networking any more than they can in for example the areas of library services, or in the provision of public parks, life-saving, or rural fire-fighting.   the conclusion offered, based on the exposition and analysis in this paper, is that vicnet needs to be renewed within a new institutional framework with a new set of partnerships that support a ‘dynamic-democratic’ use of technology.   to help bring this about the monash university centre for community networking research (ccnr) made representations to government. a public version of ccnr’s submission to the electronic democracy inquiry of the parliament of the state of victoria may be accessed electronically[11]. in addition to the written submission, the inquiry summoned a representative of ccnr to a formal hearing. the hansard transcript of this hearing can also be accessed electronically[12]. the committee of inquiry completed its work and published its report in may 2005 both electronically[13] and in print (victoria 2005).   the written submissions to the inquiry, the hansard transcripts and final report provide a wealth of insight into the attitudes and perceptions of various stakeholder groups on the situation and future of vicnet.   the committee endorsed ccnr’s proposal for a definition of e-democracy which underpinned its submission in regard to vicnet (and is consistent with the conceptual framework of the icm). this definition was:   the use of [information communication technologies] by individuals and groups to extend their choices for thinking and acting as citizens, unrestricted by time and place, culminating in greater collective freedoms under law. (victoria 2005, p.11)   the committee further enumerated reasons for its support of this definition, which are relevant to the case of vicnet:   ·      an emphasis on new communications and computing technologies, rather than simply computer networks such as the internet [relevant to vicnet’s focus on it literacy development, not just website skills] ·      a recognition that new communications technologies can empower greater freedoms of action and association, enhancing the democratic life of members of the community [relevant to vicnet’s core mission] ·      a broad interpretation of political activity through the explicit use of the term ‘citizens’ [relevant to vicnet’s pursuit of the widest possible inclusiveness] ·      the retention of the emphasis on ordered and structured political activity through the rule of law [already discussed in terms of the relevance to vicnet of the giddens/icm ‘normative’ modality]. (victoria 2005, p.11)   a key statement made by the committee in its report was consistent with vicnet’s mission: in addition to the provision of government information online, the committee recognises the importance of an active civil society in the creation of content that enriches local communities and supports democratic expression. (victoria 2005, p.57)   the complexities of the politics and bureaucracy surrounding vicnet may be adduced from the fact that the committee failed to obtain key documentation on action already being taken by government on the vicnet issue. in evidence to the committee the deputy chief information officer of victoria stated that a review of vicnet had been completed and that the review ‘effectively confirmed the value added by vicnet and the need to re-legitimise its role and its basis’ (victoria 2005, p.69). the committee sought a copy of the review from the department of premier and cabinet, but states in its report: the committee is disappointed that, following repeated requests, the information was not made available for the consideration of the committee. this has frustrated the committee’s capacity to respond to the concerns raised by the ccnr. (victoria 2005, p.69)   in the absence of this report, the committee based its analysis and conclusions on the evidence in hand. it rejected the option raised by ccnr and an influential ngo, the national forum, that a new form of institution might be created to accommodate community knowledge creation and sharing in the ict age. it preferred a scenario that saw existing cultural institutions, definitely including libraries, respond more effectively to the challenge. it agreed with ccnr’s concerns about the sustainability of vicnet, stating: the situation is clearly unsustainable, and the government will need to act, in concert with stakeholder groups, to resolve the medium-term future of vicnet. in the view of the committee the slv will need to provide a new vision and mission for the organisation beyond its current role if it is to continue. the committee notes that recommendation 39 [‘the minister for the arts should develop an initiative to network existing community content developers …’] may result in an avenue for revitalisation. in addition, given the recommendations in part iii regarding the role of the dvc [department for victorian communities], vicnet may have a new role in the participatory processes recommended in that section.   the committee does not consider, however, that vicnet’s current position and trajectory is sustainable. (victoria 2005, p. 70)   vicnet’s sustainability – the theory perspective application of the icm and its underlying theory to the case of vicnet has provided considerable diagnostic insight. the typologies which constitute the icm appear to provide explanatory coverage of all major aspects of the vicnet situation, especially in relation to sustainability and transformation.   an audit of the vicnet case reveals a major disjunction in the realm of the modalities, especially the interpretive and facilitative modalities. because vicnet developed so fast, and with such success, there has been a failure of stakeholder perspectives to achieve sufficient alignment among themselves, and therefore a sustaining congruence with other factors in the icm.   while community groups can act, and have acted, among themselves to achieve an interpretive consensus on the meaning of vicnet in their contexts, only government action can make the vital connection between the interpretive and the facilitative modalities. sustained public funding, a clear policy charter, and a workable, consultative institutional framework, are now urgently needed for the sustainable development of vicnet. it is possible that if these commitments and clarifications can occur, the library sector generally, and the state library of victoria in particular, may achieve better articulation with the community practice values essential to vicnet.   it is tempting to observe the changes in vicnet and its positioning as a process of gradual organisational maturation – but that is only a partial explanation of its development. the typologies which constitute the icm appear to provide deeper explanatory coverage of all major aspects of vicnet’s survival and transformation. the icm as an approach and a tool needs to be applied to further cases to test its robustness, and related to other conceptual frameworks being developed in the community informatics research community.   nevertheless there seem to be grounds for optimism that action-structure analysis as exemplified in the icm has a valuable part to play in the gaining of understanding by policy makers, practitioners and researchers, in a field as complex and diverse as community networking.   conclusion this account of vicnet through the lens of the icm has attempted both to highlight a case in community informatics that is educative in itself, and to illustrate the capacity of an action-structure approach to help identify and explain key factors and relationships involved. like many others who are engaged in community informatics, the authors see themselves not only as scholars but as activists with a deep commitment to community networking as an essential condition for human well-being and democracy in society in this instance the society in which they live. where passion, politics and scholarship intersect, it is is particularly helpful to have a theoretical framework which serves as a guide and checklist in framing inquiry and presenting argument. it is hoped that the paper has demonstrated, at least in a prime facie way, that the icm can be of assistance in achieving an appropriate reflexive balance between analytical scholarship in community informatics and active citizenship.   references callon, m. (1991) ‘techno-economic networks and irreversibility’, in: law, j (ed.) a sociology of monsters: essays on power, technology and domination, london and new york: routledge, 132-161.   desanctis, g. and poole, m.s. (1994) ‘capturing the complexity in advanced technology use: adaptive structuration theory’, organization science, 5(2), 121-147.   giddens, a. (1971) capitalism and modern social theory, cambridge, cambridge university press.   giddens, a. (1973) the class structure of the advanced societies, london, hutchinson.   giddens, a. (1979) central problems in social theory, basingstoke, macmillan.   giddens, a. (1983) ‘comments on the theory of structuration’, journal for the theory of social behanviour 13(1), 75-80.   giddens, a. (1986) the constitution of society, berkeley, university of california press.   giddens, a. (1990) the consequences of modernity, cambridge, polity.   giddens, a. (1991) modernity and self-identity, cambridge, polity.   giddens, a. (1992) the transformation of intimacy, cambridge, polity.   giddens, a. (1993) new rules of sociological method, 2nd ed. cambridge, polity.   giddens, a. (1999) runaway world, london, profile books.   gurstein, m. (2000) ed. community informatics: enabling communities with information and communications technologies, hershey, pa: idea group.   jones, m. and karsten, h (2003), review: structuration theory and information systems research, cambridge, the judge institute of management, university of cambridge. working paper 11/2003.   kaufer, d.s. and carley, k.m. (1993) communication at a distance: the influence of print on sociocultural organization and change, hillsdale nj, lawrence erlbaum associates.   latour, b. (1988) the pasteurization of france [1984]. cambridge, mass., harvard university press.   law, j. (1992) ‘notes on the theory of actor-network: ordering, strategy, and heterogeneity’, systems practice 5, 379-393.   mckemmish, s, piggott, m., reed, b. and upward, f. eds (2005) archives: recordkeeping in society, wagga wagga nsw, centre for information studies, charles sturt university. topics in australasian library and information studies, no. 24.   orlikowski, w.j. and robey, d. (1991) ‘information technology and the structuring of organizations’, information systems research, 2(2), 143-169.   orlikowski, w.j. (1992) ‘the duality of technology: rethinking the concept of technology in organizations’, organization science, 3(3), 398-472.   poole, m.s. and desanctis, g. (1990) ‘understanding the use of group decision support systems: the theory of adaptive structuration’, in: fulk, j. and steinfeld c. eds, organizations and communication technology, beverley hills ca, sage, 172-193.   poole, m.s. and desanctis, g. (1992) ‘microlevel structuration in computer-supported group decision making’, human communications research, 19(1), 5-49.   rheingold, h. (1993) the virtual community: homesteading on the electronic frontier, online text available as (http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/index.html)   schauder, d.e. (1988) 'victorian government policy and library networking', iatul quarterly: a journal of library management and technology, 3(2), 113-117.   schauder, d.e. (1995) ‘publishing on cd-rom and the internet: experiences from two library based enterprises’, iatul (international association of technological university libraries) conference ‘resource management’, university of twente, enchede, the netherlands, 5-9 june 1995. iatul proceedings, vol. 5 (http://www.iatul.org/conference/proceedings/vol05/papers/schauder.html)   schauder, d., stillman, l., and johanson, g. (2004) ‘sustaining and transforming a community network. the information continuum model and the case of vicnet, presented at cirn 2004: sustainability and community technology, monash university, prato, italy. available online at: http://www.ciresearch.net/conferences/viewabstract.php?id=68&cf=4   state library of victoria and victorian public library network (2004), the framework for collaborative action, june 2004, melbourne, state library of victoria (http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/slv/policy/collabaction.pdf)   upward, f (1994), ‘in search of the continuum: ian maclean's australian experience essays on recordkeeping’, in the records continuum: ian maclean and australian archives first fifty years, clayton, vic. ancora press in association with australian archives (http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/research/rcrg/publications/fuptrc.html)   upward, f. (1996a) structuring the records continuum part one: postcustodial principles and properties, archives and manuscripts, 24 (2) upward, f. (1996b) structuring the records continuum, part two: structuration theory and recordkeeping, archives and manuscripts, 25 (1) upward, f. (2001) modelling the continuum as [?a] paradigm shift in recordkeeping and archiving processes, and beyond – a personal reflection, records management journal, nov. victoria (1987a), libraries review : options for state government funding of municipal public libraries in victoria. first report to the minister for the arts, [melbourne] : management improvement division, public service board of victoria, 1987 (the geddes report, part 1). victoria (1987b), libraries review : discussion paper : improving service delivery in publicly-funded library services in victoria : second report to the minister for the arts, [melbourne], management improvement division, public service board of victoria (the geddes report, part 2). victoria (1988), libraries act 1988, melbourne, parliament of victoria. victoria (1998), new forecourt for melbourne library new policy for state libraries, melbourne, office of the premier, tuesday march 24, press release.   victoria (2005), parliament, scrutiny of acts and regulations committee, inquiry into electronic democracy: final report, melbourne, government printer. accessible at: www.parliament.vic.gov.au/sarc     [1] accessible at: http://www.ciresearch.net/conferences/viewabstract.php?id=68&cf=4. [2] http://www.vicnet.net.au [3] the initial developers of the icm were don schauder, frank upward, barbara reed, and sue mckemmish. larry stillman and graeme johanson have contributed in the further development of the model. [4] ‘community informatics’ as referenced in this article is an emergent academic discipline and field of practice in applied information and communications technology (ict) brought to prominence and initially scoped by michael gurstein through the first edited book of representative papers in the field (gurstein 2000). see also and http://www.idea-group.com/search/index.asp?type=1&query=gurstein. [5] this listing re-emphasises that the relationship between agency and structure is subtle. like birds and fish in the escher print, or waves and photons in the theory of optics, the last three categories can be interpreted as either agency or structure depending on viewpoint. taking a hermeneutic viewpoint, in which the techno-social phenomena under study are regarded as a ‘text’, the extent to which memory storage, categorisation/metadata and technology manifest as agent or structure in a particular social situation (‘the text’) depends on the hermeneutic or interpretive context of the analyst (‘reader’). [6] the icm seeks to be equally explanatory for all information orders encountered in society. represented in a cartesian co-ordinate system, alternative settings for the modality factors in the model can be read as congruent with information orders ranging from authoritarian to democratic on the vertical axis, and static to dynamic on the horizontal axis. [7] the authors thank gary hardy, the founder of vicnet, for this summary of vicnet’s achievements. [8] however, some positive signs can be discerned in the provision of ict funding in victoria’s 2005 budget for the network of neighbourhood houses, a grassroots network for local informal education and community support which is now part of dvc’s responsibilities. [9] these observations reflect the recollections of don schauder who was a member of the library board of victoria. [10] see article at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/03/1083436531911.html [11] at http://www.victorianedemocracy.info/formpub/frm70793.pdf, [12] at http://www.victorianedemocracy.info/formpub/frm3452.doc [13]at www.parliament.vic.gov.au/sarc   communities, learning and democracy in the digital age  lynette kvasny school of information sciences and technology, center for the information society, the pennsylvania state university < lkvasny@ist.psu.edu >  nancy kranich < nancy.kranich@nyu.edu > jorge reina schement college of communications, the pennsylvania state university < jrs18@psu.edu >   abstract access to information networks constitutes the essential tool for enabling citizens to participate in the economic, political, and social life of their communities; and, as such, forms the basis of participatory democracy. this paper presents and examines four components of access to telecommunications services: context, connectivity, capability, and content.   the historical importance of access   access to information networks constitutes the essential tool for enabling citizens to participate in the economic, political, and social life of their communities; and, as such, forms the basis for participatory democracy. indeed, jefferson, madison, and the new congress made concrete their commitment to an informed public as the foundation of america’s nascent democracy; when, in 1789, congress mandated the first post road. as they did 200 years ago, information networks contribute the glue that binds communities together economically, politically, and socially. hence, while the democratic principle for participation is inclusion, the economic principle is contribution; that is, to maximize the potential of each individual is also to maximize a community’s wealth. lack of access to a community’s central networks impedes quotidian routines as well as occasional expressions of public duty; and, if persistent, enforces isolation and its derivative alienation. accordingly, the costs and benefits of inclusivity through access may be measured in a community’s progress toward maximizing the contributions of each member and of the whole.             the challenge of achieving access in the information age   in the 21st century, the development of the internet offers new hope for providing universal service in the public interest--new hope that everyone will have the opportunity to participate in our information society. even if a household cannot afford nor chooses not to connect to the internet from home, people can logon at their local library. thanks to the universal service provisions of the telecommunications act of 1996, nearly every community is now connected, thus providing on-ramps to the information superhighway. nevertheless, the latest research indicates that many low income, minority, disabled, rural, aging, and inner city groups remain behind in their ownership of computers and access to telecommunications networks. no matter whose data is used to describe the “digital divide” between rich and poor, between black and white, between urban and rural, between english and spanish-speaking, between old and young, between immigrants and native americans, we can be certain that there is and promises to remain differential access to the internet and other communications tools.    the components of access: context, connectivity, capability, and content   access to telecommunications services will not, by itself, guarantee success for communities. the other side of the equation requires an understanding of the resources a community must marshal to make the most of access to national and global networks. at the community level, successful access depends on four primary determinants or 4c's of access: context, connectivity, capability, and content.   context for access to be achieved, a wide array of internal and external forces and trends must be considered. these include environmental (e.g., air and water pollution, waste management), economic (e.g., business incentives, tax structures), and social equity (e.g., crime, poverty, unemployment) indicators of community well-being and sustainability. and although context does not determine a community’s developmental trajectory, it does suggest the pertinent needs faced by communities, what types of technology-based interventions might help to fulfill these needs, what kinds of barriers are likely to be encountered,  and perhaps more importantly, what kinds of assets the community possesses. by conceptualizing the internet as a pluralistic domain that includes the broader context in which the technical components are embedded, we explicitly connect social with technical to form the intimate interdependency of the internet as a socio-technical network. a socio-technical perspective emphasizes the importance of context in determining community-level interventions and their evaluation, as well as the inherent difficulty in developing “best practices” that can be applied across diverse settings.   connectivity the seemingly simple fact of laying a cable to connect a household or community belies the complexity of attaining a level of connectivity sufficient to constitute a community asset. though the telecommunications act of 1996 defines high-speed internet as connection speeds above 256 kbps, higher connection speeds are required to effectively utilize many www applications in use today. telemedicine applications call for connections of 1.5 mbps (t1.5) connections; whereas, many internet business applications necessitate bandwidths of at least t1.5 or multiple t1.5 connections. to be sure, the level of a community’s high-speed connectivity can be measured in different ways: a) points of access – availability at public sites such as schools, libraries or community centers, in the home, in businesses or institutions, b) the number of internet service providers (isps) that offer high-speed internet service in a community, c) and/or, the type and speeds of service offerings available from high-speed internet providers – dsl, cable modem, wireless, t1.5, ds3, etc. underserved communities may experience a “broadband digital divide” as governments, businesses and content providers increasingly develop products and services that require high-speed internet connections.   capability because the utility of any technology derives directly from the skill of the user as well as from the delivery capacity of local institutions, capability gauges the ability to deliver or acquire the service. for individuals, capability encompasses both formal and informal educational attainment and levels of technical sophistication and understanding, along with the willingness to adapt to new technologies and ways of thinking. at the institutional level, capability also relates to the amount of resources a community and its businesses commit to workforce development including teaching effective use of information technology tools and encouraging creativity, productivity, and innovations of local entrepreneurs. capabilities are cumulative and recursive because individuals and institutions must migrate to new hardware platforms, learn new software applications, and develop new skills as new technologies are introduced and as existing technologies are upgraded. thus, existing and emerging gaps in proficiency, knowledge, skills, and experience may lead to considerable differences in communities’ abilities to leverage the internet.   content content is interdependent upon the other three c’s. once individuals and communities become connected and have the capabilities and necessary skills to use the internet, they need a reason for use. low-income and underserved communities face significant content barriers that include the lack of neighborhood-level information such as housing, childcare, and transportation news; limited information written at a basic literacy level; and inadequate content for culturally diverse populations, including non-english speaking internet users. if content that is relevant to individuals and members of the community is not available, it will be difficult to encourage and sustain use. relevant content is necessary because it provides a forum for interacting within local communities as well as a window to the outside world.    lifelong learning --the persistent challenge of access   in contemporary communities, the 4c’s converge to facilitate decentralized low or no cost delivery of interactive learning opportunities that enable more active, democratic participation from early childhood through adulthood. no longer confined to a classroom or educational institutions, learners are afforded greater opportunities to take advantage of emerging information and telecommunications technologies to achieve more successful outcomes. shared spaces, both real and virtual, provide environments where people with common interests and concerns gather and benefit--the greater the participation, the more valuable the resource. these learning networks, often referred to as communities, encourage collaborative knowledge creation and sharing using all forms of media. within these networks, learners can interact by communicating ideas and engaging in discourse and problem solving. participants contribute new creations after they gain and benefit from access and participation. these learning spaces, or commons, may enhance both human and social capital. when they incorporate democratic values, free expression and intellectual freedom prevail. while online opportunities have the potential to serve a multitude of lifelong learning needs of all people, they are only available to those who have access to these new technologies, can afford and comprehend the content, and possess the capabilities necessary to navigate these complex systems successfully. without equitable access within each of the 4cs, these learning opportunities pose major challenges to the democratic promise of these open anytime/anyplace educational experiences.     telecentros manizales: una apuesta por el desarrollo social telecentros manizales: un escenario para la participación y formación ciudadana. una experiencia de octubre 2004 a enero 2007 maria eugenia vallejo montoya coordinadora social octubre 2004-2006; proyecto telecentros comunitarios eugeniavallejomontoya@yahoo.com resumen los telecentros en la ciudad de manizales, colombia, fueron una iniciativa del gobierno local y se integraron a los planes de desarrollo constituyéndose en un proyecto que contribuía a los propósitos  locales para hacer de la ciudad una sociedad del conocimiento; este reto ha convocado a los alcaldes de diferentes vigencias a dar continuidad a la articulación de las tecnologías de la información y comunicación a los procesos de desarrollo social de manizales. “la diferencia mundial ya no esta entre los que tienen y no tienen, sino entre los que saben y no saben”. pnud. historia de la iniciativa a partir del auge tecnológico que se da mundialmente para la disminución de la brecha digital y con ella de las desigualdades sociales, colombia empieza a prepararse para ese propósito e inicia la construcción de directrices1 que permitan localmente el despliegue tecnológico en beneficio de las comunidades. es importante destacar que los telecentros en la ciudad fueron una iniciativa del gobierno local y se integraron a los planes de desarrollo constituyéndose en un proyecto que contribuía a los propósitos locales para hacer de la ciudad una sociedad del conocimiento; este reto ha convocado a los alcaldes de diferentes vigencias para dar continuidad a la articulación de las tecnologías de la información y comunicación a los procesos de desarrollo social de manizales incorporándolas como estrategias, objetivos o metas de sus planes de gobierno. en el año 1995 se gestó en la ciudad de manizales los primeros antecedentes que influyeron en la articulación de las tic a los procesos de desarrollo de la ciudad, en este año el alcalde mauricio arias arango inició el reto de “incorporar, masificar y articular los medios tecnológicos como estrategias para el desarrollo local y fortalecimiento del capital social en los manizaleños”. esta iniciativa continuó en la administración siguiente con el alcalde jorge enrique rojas quien centró su interés en movilizar la apropiación del conocimiento en los ciudadanos. durante la alcaldía de germán cardona se consolido un proyecto de ciudad denominado “manizales eje del conocimiento, mec”2, que representaba en la ciudad una “alternativa para el fortalecimiento del capital humano y una propuesta de modelo de desarrollo local que buscaba generar habilidades y capacidades del individuo, con el fín que se apropiaran, de manera útil, de la tecnología y los adelantos tecnológicos, como instrumento en la creación de una economía basada en el conocimiento; el mec sirvió de escenario para dar orígen a los telecentros comunitarios3 en el marco de la “estrategia comunitaria”. en la alcaldía de néstor eugenio ramírez, se dio continuidad a la propuesta de ciudad manizales eje del conocimiento y se presentó al pnud (programa para el desarrollo de las naciones unidas), el proyecto telecentros comunitarios en este período obtuvo la aprobación y cofinanciación, de esta manera se dió inició a la preparación y la dotación inicial de las salas. operativamente el proyecto ha tenido 2 entidades a cargo de la administración, la primera fue la corporación incubar quien inició la implementación del proyecto en la ciudad en el año 2003, en su gestión dejó instalados 35 equipos en plataforma windows y 10 scanner, en este tiempo los niñ@s, jóvenes y adultos tuvieron la oportunidad de acceder de manera gratuita a los servicios de ofimática, internet y participar de los procesos de formación orientados en el desarrollo de habilidades para el uso de las herramientas tecnológicas4. la segunda administración, estuvo a cargo de la caja de compensación familiar de caldas-confamiliares(www.confamiliares.com) quien a partir de una convocatoria pública a cargo de infimanizales y el pnud, dio continuidad en el mes de octubre del año 2004 a la propuesta y perfilo el proyecto con un enfoque de participación ciudadana y promoción de los derechos humanos, en esta administración confamiliares administró, aportó y coadyuvó en la gestión de recursos para el fortalecimiento del proceso. caracteristicas del proyecto los telecentros en la estrategia comunitaria del mec tenía por intención movilizar “la expresión y la participación ciudadana”5, para lo cual se definieron unas acciones que buscaban “garantizar el acceso generalizado a la información pública, como derecho fundamental del ser humano”6. desde el inicio de la operación de los telecentros en la ciudad se establece que estos deben estar ubicados en las comunidades más vulnerables, con el objetivo de motivar un acercamiento gratuito de los grupos poblacionales de esos sectores con las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación, haciendo efectivo “el derecho a la información” de los ciudadanos. a. participación comunitaria 7 : algunos parámetros que ayudaron a definir el enfoque de los telecentros en la ciudad de manizales durante la administración de confamilliares, fueron: “impulsar el acceso de las nuevas tecnologías para favorecer la igualdad de oportunidades, fomentar la información para los consumidores en la exigencia de sus derechos, impulsar la información gubernamental y de servicios para fomentar el derecho a la información y al asesoramiento, incentivar la generación de diálogo entre grupos locales y globales, crear espacios en red para niños y jóvenes”8. por ello, para efectos de la participación comunitaria se promovieron los telecentros como: “espacios que facilitaban la vivencia de experiencias educativas a través del uso de tecnologías digitales de manera gratuita para el desarrollo de sus comunidades, lugares de encuentro e intercambio, espacios de aprendizaje, crecimiento personal y movilización de las comunidades con el fin de dar respuesta a sus intereses y expectativas. en estos espacios niñ@s, jóvenes, adultos y adultos mayores tuvieron la oportunidad de hacer uso de las tecnologías de la información y comunicación para “acceder a la información como uno de sus derechos”. en este sentido, en las acciones del proyecto se vinculó la participación de las comunidades en la toma de decisiones haciendo uso de servicios en línea como foros, encuesta y chat temático existentes en la página web. la participación comunitaria en la experiencia de manizales estuvo determinada por: acceso al telecentro: los horarios de apertura estuvieron determinados por los horarios de funcionamiento de las entidades que brindaban un espacio físico para el funcionamiento de los telecentros; esto representó dificultades en el acceso de las comunidades al servicio por la irregularidad en el horario de apertura. condiciones de seguridad: las difíciles condiciones de seguridad existentes en algunos barrios limitaba la oportunidad de extender la apertura de los telecentros en horarios nocturnos y los fines de semana. el acceso a los servicios de ofimática se realizó con software libre, esto permitió aumentar y nivelar por telecentro los recursos tecnológicos, quedando 50 equipos en total para el servicio de la comunidad, 10 impresoras, equipos de contingencia (representados en 5 equipos y 2 impresoras) y los 10 scanner dotados desde la primera administración. la continuidad en el servicio de conectividad y las mejores posibilidades de conexión a internet (con banda ancha) se obtuvo en un 90% en los telecentros, esto aumentó el interés y disposición de las comunidades para hacer uso de estos espacios y participar de los procesos de formación. la creación de una página web (www.telecentrosmanizales.com) motivó el intercambio de las comunidades, la compra de equipos para la recopilación visual como cámara fotográfica y de vídeo facilitaron las oportunidades para documentar y enriquecer el trabajo con niños, niñas, jóvenes y adultos; lo anterior, permitió mejorar las labores de difusión del proyecto, a la vez que la socialización de experiencias en beneficio de la participación e integración de las comunidades. la participación de las comunidades en los telecentros mostró variaciones positivas: incremento en la cobertura en el uso de las salas. confianza de los adultos para acercarse a la sala. participación de los adultos en los procesos de formación e interacción virtual. aceptación por el enfoque social de los telecentros evidente en los procesos de formación. aceptación en la implementación de software libre entre otros. b. uso de los telecentros: los usuarios de los telecentros comunitarios se han caracterizado por ser de estratos 1, 2 y 3 principalmente, a pesar que la población que se pretendía focalizar con el proyecto era de los estratos 1 y 2, las dificultades de acceso a los medios tecnológicos y de conectividad en la ciudad no son de exclusividad para las poblaciones vulnerables, muchas personas ubicadas en barrios de estrato 3 tiene la misma dificultad de acceso, la población de estos estratos en la ciudad representa aproximadamente el 76% del total de habitantes. la cotidianidad del telecentro tenía una programación que determinaba el uso de los recursos tecnológicos, se tenía un 60% para la “navegación libre” y un 40% para el desarrollo de los procesos de formación, esta programación tenía sus variaciones en cada uno de los 10 telecentros según la demanda de la comunidad. desde los telecentro los usuarios tenían la posibilidad de: consultar escolar e investigación de información. impresión de documentos. elaboración de hojas de vida. elaboración de trabajos revisión de correos electrónicos y comunicación a partir de servicios en línea participación en procesos de formación (módulos). participación en comunidades virtuales. acceso a información local (actividades culturales, programas y/o proyectos que se desarrollaban en su barrio). c. procesos de capacitación: en el 50% del total de horas de apertura del telecentro las comunidades hacían uso intensionado de la sala, este tiempo se denominaba “navegación libre”, aquí el usuario daba respuesta a sus intereses y necesidades específicas enfocadas generalmente en la consulta escolar, elaboración de hojas de vida, elaboración de trabajos, investigación, impresión de documentos, revisión del correo electrónico, entre otros. la participación generacional en el uso de los servicios de los telecentros se incrementó gradualmente a lo largo de la implementación del proyecto, en el transcurso de cada año personas de mayor edad se acercaron como usuarios de las salas, así: en el periodo 2003 a 2004 predominó en las salas la población infantil en edades de los 6 a los 13 años quienes representaban el 29% de usuarios en el telecentro, además de los jóvenes en edades de los 14 a los 26 años que ocupaban el 53% de los usuarios. en el año 2005 los adultos en edades de los 27 a los 59 años empezaron a vincularse en los procesos de formación, ellos representan el 15% del total de usuarios. en el año 2006 se inició la participación de los adultos mayores vinculados al programa centro día del barrio la enea, comuna tesorito, estas personas son mayores de 60 años y representan el 2% de los usuarios de los telecentros. l@s niñ@s y jóvenes centraron su participación en los horarios destinados para la navegación libre. la población adulta se hizo visible en los procesos de formación, espacio que les dio la oportunidad de hacer defensa de sus derechos, fortalecer su ocupación laboral (actividad informal), fortalecer las relaciones familiares con los familiares y amigos habitantes en otros países, encontrar posibilidades de trabajo, entre otros; de esta manera se hacía uso de la herramienta tecnológica como medio pedagógico para el aprendizaje de contenidos sociales. como dijo martín emilio rodríguez (50 años), usuario del telecentro comunitario nevado: “en los telecentros aprendí que yo soy ciudadano, pero a través del internet me di cuenta que no solo soy ciudadano de manizales y de colombia, sino de todo el mundo”. los procesos de formación fueron desarrollados en el otro 50% del total de horas de apertura del telecentro, a partir de una convocatoria las comunidades se inscribían en el telecentro más cercano y desde allí se hacia la programación de grupos; el aprendizaje se realizaba sobre contenidos ciudadanos empleando como un “medio” las herramientas tecnológicas y recursos web, esto, permitió a niñ@s, jóvenes, adultos y adultos mayores desarrollar habilidades para mejorar su ejercicio ciudadano. los módulos tuvieron un desarrollo secuencial, en cada uno de ellos se aumentaba gradualmente la dificultad tecnológica. los contenidos se enfocaron en: ciudadanía, derechos humanos, instrumentos de protección, mecanísmos de participación, formulación de proyectos comunitarios y papel del ciudadano en el uso de los servicios públicos; en el aprendizaje tecnológico se trabajaron recursos de ofimática e internet. a pesar que la conformación de grupos se realizaba generalmente homogenizando las edades de los usuarios, se tuvieron experiencias enriquecedoras los niños y adultos que hacian parte de un grupo describieron la vivencia como un trabajo de mutuo apoyo y crecimiento personal. el proyecto beneficio en los procesos de formación a 2,719 personas desde febrero de 2005 al mes de diciembre de 2006. la mayor participación se identifico en el módulo 1 con 1.249 usuarios, 1.083 personas en los grupos permanentes y 387 usuarios en los módulos 2, 3 y 4 de estas, 151 personas se certificaron al culminar todos los módulos. el cuadro que se muestra a continuación representó la participación de los usuarios en cada uno de los módulos diseñados y las variaciones anuales a lo largo de la administración del proyecto telecentros por parte de confamiliares. las diferencias en el total de personas formadas en el año 2005 y 2006 está determinado por las siguientes razones: implementación de internet en la sala de sistemas del centro educativo que hacia uso de los telecentros para el trabajo con los estudiantes, deserción del proyecto de algunos facilitadores que se habían formado para el desarrollo con los usuarios del módulo 2 y 3 en los telecentros, baja habilidad de los facilitadores para articular las herramientas con contenidos sociales, esto también influyó en la deserción de las comunidades. a continuación se describen algunas apreciaciones de los usuarios frente a los procesos de formación: “mi opinión con respecto a estos módulos, es que se han convertido en elementos muy interesantes para nosotros como ciudadanos, pues nos hemos podido dar cuenta y enterarnos de todos los mecanismos con los que podemos contar para hacer valer nuestros derechos además de hacernos sentir que se necesita de buenos ciudadanos para crecer como ciudad a partir del reconocimiento de nuestras propias problemáticas y alternativas de solución y algo para resaltar es que he aprendido a manejar con más seguridad todo lo relacionado con el manejo del computador” ana isabel corredor módulo 3 (35 años), telecentro nevado. “el estar en los encuentros de aprendizaje en los telecentros me ha parecido muy productivo pues he comprendido muchas bases o normas básicas de convivencia, además nos trasladamos a nuestro diario vivir teniendo en cuenta las posibles problemáticas y soluciones a estas, creo que la metodología es la adecuada para las personas que participamos de este espacio” hernán hernandez (54 años), módulo 3 telecentro malhabar. “estoy muy satisfecho por hacer parte de los telecentros pues siento que he aprendido mucho y como líder de mi comunidad estoy muy interesado en seguir adquiriendo conocimientos para compartir con los demás, creo que la forma como nos enseñan es buenísima pues es didáctica y poco rutinaria.” william villa (28 años), módulo 2 telecentro malhabar. d. redes sociales: la gestión con los programas e instituciones cercanas a los telecentros facilito la conformación de redes sociales para articular talentos e interés, fortalecer los procesos de formación, vincular a usuarios de programas sociales con el fin de complementar la atención y formación a través del telecentro, estrechar relaciones de vecindad de los habitantes de los barrios a partir del desarrollo de temas comunes; algunas redes que se consolidaron fueron: redes de apoyo: articulación con instituciones para fortalecer los procesos de formación con las comunidades y llegar con información de utilidad para grupos poblacionales vulnerables; en este propósito se obtuvo apoyo de: el proyecto observatorio para el desarrollo sostenible (proyecto idea de la universidad nacional), proyecto remodelación de redes eléctricas en los procesos de formación de los usuarios vinculados a los módulos 2 sobre mecanismos de defensa y participación ciudadana y en el módulo 4 sobre servicios públicos, este último proyecto permitió hacer énfasis en los niveles de la participación y ejercicio ciudadano, en escenarios virtuales y servicios en línea. redes para la complementación de servicios: articulación de programas sociales e instituciones9 del área de influencia de las salas, formalizado mediante convenios para el desarrollo de contenidos relacionados con el enfoque del proyecto empleando la metodología de los telecentros con los usuarios de los programas e instituciones con quien se establecían los convenios; para el desarrollo de este trabajo los profesionales de los programas y el equipo social de los telecentros realizan un trabajo conjunto en el diseño de los módulos y medición de aprendizajes. este tipo de red permitió la participación y permanencia de los usuarios en los procesos de formación. los siguientes son algunos de los programas sociales e instituciones con quienes se hizo articulación: anden, senderos, red galerías, clubes juveniles, talleres de casas de cultura, madres cabeza de familia, hogares sustitutos, y de las instituciones se relacionan el centro de recepción de menores (niños), centro de protección de menores hogar 2030 (niñas); y centros educativos públicos: josé antonio galán (corregimiento manantial), la salle, san vicente de paul, liceo isabel la católica con población de estratos 1 y 2 y dificultades tecnológicas al igual que de conectividad. estas articulaciones se implementaron gracias a la participación de algunos de los comités comunitarios conformados que se encargaron de gestionar desde el barrio y la comuna propuestas para la dinamización de programas sociales existentes en el área de influencia con los telecentros. redes virtuales: este componente fue de gran importancia, el uso de los chat temáticos para la reflexión sobre las realidades sociales del barrio llevo a establecer acuerdos en la solución de sus problemas. las redes virtuales se programaron a lo largo del proyecto, desde allí se intercambiaron ideas y opiniones sobre temas de interés y se socializó información basada en realidades sociales y experiencias de vida. es estos espacios la participación de niñ@s, jóvenes, adultos y adultos mayores fue permanente, 751 personas10 se vincularon en la red virtual; algunos temas trabajados fueron: prácticas de autocuidado nutricional, autocuidado en la web, competencias psicosociales, competencias ciudadanas, temas de ciudad con la alcaldía de manizales, validación y retroalimentación a los aprendizajes alcanzados en los encuentros. red interinstitucional: se establecio de manera concreta mediante un comité, este fue determinante para la operación del proyecto pues permitió la interlocución de las instituciones que tenian que ver con la implementación del proyecto desde el préstamo de los espacios físicos para la ubicación de los telecentros, la administración y operación del mismos y los dueños del proyecto en la ciudad. 3. lecciones aprendidas los telecentros no pueden comprenderse como un objetivo en sí mismos, son otro instrumento en los procesos de desarrollo social y su efectividad sólo se alcanza como parte de una estrategia integral que reconozca las necesidades particulares de cada comunidad. en este sentido, se reconocieron aprendizajes significativos que son necesarios considerar para el fortalecimiento de este tipo de experiencias: en la contribución del proyecto telecentros comunitarios a los propósitos de ciudad es necesario la creación y continuidad del comité interinstitucional, para facilitar la participación de las comunidades en la propuesta de ciudad y hacer que la administración municipal reconozca de cerca los intereses de la comunidad. en la apertura de un nuevo telecentro se debe considerar desde el inicio la participación de la comunidad, para dar sentido a los propósitos de este, reconocer el rol y la participación de las instituciones que tienen un papel en la operación del proyecto y de los actores que se beneficiarán del mismo, esto con el fin de disminuir las restricciones en la apertura de las salas y dinamizar el funcionamiento del telecentro con el conocimiento que tienen del entorno. en la búsqueda de sostenibilidad, es importante continuar en el análisis de estrategias para avanzar y consolidar la vinculación de entidades públicas o privadas permitiendo la donación, compra de servicios, asignación de recursos que permitan la operación de los telecentros y disminuir las alternativas que implique a los usuarios el pago para el acceso a los servicios de conectividad. con respecto a la equidad y la inclusión digital es importante continuar con los esfuerzos en la conformación y operación de los comités comunitarios con representación de instituciones y programas beneficiarios del proyecto para proponer posibilidades de articulación según las necesidades y factores de desarrollo de la comunidad. la comunicación en línea de los telecentros ha sido una estrategia efectiva para la gestión técnica, social y administrativa que requiere el proyecto con los facilitadores, a la vez ha contribuido a la comunicación de coordinadores de casa de cultura he integrado a los facilitadores. el seguimiento permanente a los procesos de impresión es necesario para asegurar su autosostenibilidad en beneficio de las comunidades, este es el único servicio que representa un costo para la comunidad con un precio por debajo en relación a locales que prestan ese servicio en los barrios. en la relación número de habitantes en la ciudad en estratos 1, 2 y 3 con horarios de apertura y recursos tecnológicos existentes en los telecentros, se concluye que no es suficiente la contribución que se hace a los propósitos de desarrollo de la ciudad, o por lo menos, así lo expresan diferentes segmentos poblacionales cuando entregan sus solicitudes de apertura de nuevas salas buscando tener más cerca de sus hogares las posibilidades de formación e inclusión que se promueve desde el proyecto. se hace necesario reconsiderar la figura de “facilitador como voluntario” e iniciar el camino que posibilite la vinculación laboral de los facilitadores, esto contribuirá a mejorar su perfil y así podrán asumir responsabilidades en la administración de las sala, dando autonomía en el manejo del espacio y permitiendo a la entidad que administra el proyecto movilizar acciones según las necesidades de las comunidades; mejorar el perfil del facilitador, ayudará al desarrollo de iniciativas que permitan el alcance de los objetivos del proyecto y abordar en la cotidianidad de las salas la intención social de los telecentros. 4. conclusiones se requieren más esfuerzos del sector público y privado para masificar las tecnológicas de la información y la comunicación en la ciudad, hoy se continúan presentando dificultades en niñ@s, jóvenes, adultos y adultos mayores de los estratos 1, 2, y 3 para acceder a la información como uno de sus derechos, así como desarrollar habilidades tecnológicas de manera gratuita; algunas de las dificultades de acceso están referidas a: lejanía de las salas para algunos habitantes de las comunas donde se ubican los telecentros, territorialidad de los habitantes especialmente en la población juvenil y horarios de apertura poco favorables a las posibilidades del público especialmente los que se encuentran en edad adulta. es necesaria la participación de los actores institucionales con poder de decisión en el comité interinstitucional para llegar acuerdos que permitan superar definitivamente dificultades relacionadas con las aperturas de las salas, el enfoque del proyecto y los roles en la implementación del proyecto. la sostenibilidad sólo se puede alcanzar si se considera la intervención y articulación de todos los factores y actores políticos, sociales, tecnológicos y por supuesto, económicos que puedan tener relación con el telecentro. los socios y aliados del proyecto son un elemento clave para su funcionamiento y sostenibilidad pero también se pueden convertir en un obstáculo si no se seleccionan rigurosamente. es de vital importancia que existan propósitos compartidos, definir con claridad reglas de juego y establecer mecanismos de retroalimentación y evaluación permanente de la relación para garantizar que realmente se contribuye al proyecto. los facilitadores de los telecentros, encargados de la cotidianidad, constituyen un recurso de importancia estratégica. por las características propias de su quehacer, son personas que adquieren una capacitación sistemática, formal e informalmente y como recursos humanos se valorizan progresivamente. la figura de “voluntarios” genera alto nivel de rotación (lo que destruye valor) y dificulta el establecimiento de compromisos y responsabilidades. ello implica que los telecentros deben considerar la existencia de una propuesta en condiciones diferentes que hagan atractivo el trabajo y retengan, al menos durante un periodo de tiempo razonable, a las personas que están a cargo de la cotidianidad del telecentro. la responsabilidad de la mujer en el cuidado de los hijos, el mantenimiento del hogar y las relaciones de género en las comunidades de estratos 1 y 2 o poblaciones vulnerables determinan la participación de las mujeres en los procesos de formación. la gratuidad del servicio en muchos casos influye en la participación de un público habitual en los telecentros, esto, se incrementa cuando el facilitador tiene dificultad para dirigir y renovar intencionalmente la participación de los usuarios en las salas, esto limita la posibilidad del proyecto para llegar a más usuarios. la ciudad de manizales esta compuesta en su área urbana por 11 comunas, estas comunas agrupan población de diferentes estratos, en muchos casos se presentan problemas de territorialidad de sus habitantes y en otros casos la lejanía a las salas dificulta que los ciudadanos accedan al servicio. la habilidad mecánica en el uso de las herramienta tecnológica y la baja disposición para obtener otros aprendizajes en plataformas con software libre por parte de profesionales vinculados a programas o instituciones del área de influencia donde se ubican los telecentros genera comentarios inadecuados que en algunos casos desmotiva a los usuarios para participar de las salas. la necesidad de subsistencia y de las comunidades ubicadas en estratos 1 y 2 principalmente influye en: la baja participación y lento proceso de organización y participación comunitaria, bajo reconocimiento y uso de las oportunidades de desarrollo que tiene la ciudad para sus habitantes. 1documento conpes 3072 de 2000, “agenda de conectividad” -el camino hacia la sociedad del conocimiento-, objetivo del milenio. 2en el año 2006 se cierra la oficina del mec, e infimanizales “traslada a diferentes secretarías de la alcaldía varios proyectos de manizales eje del conocimiento, los telecentros comunitarios, quedaron a cargo de la secretaría de desarrollo social”, quien da continuidad operativa al proyecto en la ciudad. 3los telecentros comunitarios en su etapa inicial de operación (último semestre del año 2003 y primer semestre del año 2004) fueron denominados “escuelas de informática y ciudadanía”, desde este perspectiva la intención de las salas era lograr que los ciudadanos desarrollaran habilidades tecnológicas 4según el testimonio de los facilitadores que en la administración de la corporación incubar se encargaban de la operación de los telecentros y de los procesos de formación. 5tomado de www.mec.gov.co/proyectos 6ibidem 7es importante destacar que en la construcción de este artículo se relacionan características metodológicas y pedagógicas defiidas por el equipo de profesionales de la caja de compensación familiar de caldas que estuvo a cargo de administrar y operar los telecentros comunitarios; las estrategias de intervención estuvieron alineadas a los propositos de ciudad y a los propósitos sociales de la organización. 8estos elementos se identifican comúnmente en diferente bibliografía consultada sobre experiencias en américa latina. 9a partir de esta articulación el proyecto telecentros comunitarios empieza a denominar a estos grupos como “permanentes” dada la baja deserción que presentan para el proyecto. 10esta información representa la participación en los chat temáticos en los años 2005 con 333 usuarios y 2006 con 418 usuarios. towards systems design for supporting enabling communities towards systems design for supporting enabling communities michael bieber information systems department, college of computing sciences new jersey institute of technology bieber@oak.njit.edu barbara s. mcfall davis college, division of family and consumer sciences west virginia university barbara.mcfall@mail.wvu.edu ronald e. rice department of communication university of california, santa barbara rrice@comm.ucsb.edu michael gurstein centre for community informatics research, development and training vancouver, british columbia, canada gurstein@gmail.com abstract “enabling communities” enable participants to work effectively towards conducting both collective and individual activities and towards achieving collaboratively identified goals. our focus is on designing the “systems” that support community members in undertaking the tasks or activities they need or want to do. these systems include processes, technology, information and people. we provide a framework for supporting enabling communities (secomm) with two major components: (1) participant support systems (pass) and (2) community participation levels (cpal). the proposed framework provides an initial model for thinking about community support for interactions, goals and purposes, at all levels of an enabling community. it provides new insight by helping community and ict designers to focus on people’s tasks, and to understand the environmental influences and constraints that hinder or facilitate support for enabling community participants. 1. motivation successful communities facilitate the active participation of current and potential members. they also enable community members to become more effective, providing opportunities to both realize collective and individual goals and obtain benefits that otherwise would not be possible without such participation. we refer to communities that provide such support as enabling communities (or ecs, where “enabling” describes an aspect or quality of effective communities -i.e., an adjective rather than a verb). such communities and their systems need to be organized or designed in a way that enables participants to work effectively. this article promotes a re-thinking of such systems from the perspective of “communities” (as in community informatics systems) instead of the perspective of “organizations” as the central agent for information systems (as in management information systems (mis) theory and research) (gurstein, 2000). the development of the secomm framework begins the process of refocusing the field of information systems towards communities, and collaborative decision and design processes. the supporting enabling communities (secomm) framework contains two components. the participant support system (pass) component focuses on the systems within ecs and establishes the parameters of potential participant support. the community participation levels (cpal) component describes the nested and hierarchical influence of various participants within ecs. we apply a classic systems approach to propose a dozen critical foci from the secomm framework. the first four define the environmental context shaping the system (norms, goals, constraints, and external systems of influence). the second four envision contributors (people, data, technology, and products/services) to the process/task/activities that form the system and are formed by it. the final four address issues of scale (individual, group, community, organization). the secomm framework should help individuals analyze and design systems that support ecs as well as explore the criteria for the design of systems that support individuals through their participation in ecs. the framework can help to identify, for any particular community, which actors and stakeholders are relevant; appropriate levels of analysis; the kinds of collaboration, influence and participation to support; the types of knowledge, people and technology are to include; the processes or tasks required; and the salient context for implementation (norms/policies, goals/shared purpose, constraints, and environment). having determined these, community support system (secomm) components can then be matched to actors, interactions, and levels of community participation. section 2 discusses the concept of analyzing and designing communities and community support systems. section 3 introduces and describes the supporting enabling communities (secomm) framework and its pass and cpal components. the paper concludes in section 4 with discussion, related work and future research. 2. designing community support some communities evolve on their own, forming around a context, an environment, a problem or a set of opportunities and growing as people choose to participate (join or become members) when they find its activities, information or services useful. other communities are deliberately designed to meet the needs of their participants or stakeholders. what does it mean to design an enabling community? here community design is a deliberate attempt to guide the introduction and use of activities, information and services in a way that makes a community and its members most effective. in this context, support is deliberately determined (analysis), planned (designed), put into place (implemented), and assessed (adapted over time) so that identified needs are comprehensively responded to and resources are allocated efficiently and effectively. support thus includes community structures and processes, as well as systems that enable these to function effectively. this section begins by briefly reviewing important aspects of communities. community and system analysis is discussed next, followed by community and system design. 2.1 communities and systems the term “community” refers to: (1) a group of people (2) who share ongoing social interaction (3) with some common ties between themselves and the other members of the group (4) and who share an area (common space) for at least some of the time (hamman, 1997). for our purposes the “area” shared and the “interaction” may also be understood to include “virtual” communities -electronically linked individuals with an on-going set of interactions around common interests (katz et al., 2004). preece (2000) complements this definition by describing online communities as comprising people, a shared purpose, policies (norms) and the technology “to support and mediate social interaction and facilitate a sense of togetherness.” communities can be the very center of individual, family, group and employee well-being -economic, political, and cultural – or they may be only one among a number of occasionally conflicting loyalties and involvements. community participation may be voluntary (people choosing to participate in community activities or to identify with one community or another) or involuntary (people being required to participate as a function of residence, employer mandate, or other ascribed conditions). in either case, communities have the function of enhancing the well-being of its participants. enabling communities, as with others, can be enhanced and made more pertinent to the interests and concerns of individuals through the judicious use by civic, organizational or voluntary authorities, of information and communication technologies (icts). ict-mediated communities may be solely virtual, with no physical counterpart (i.e., online health support groups, muds, moos and cross-organizational virtual projects) or (at least partially) in combination with physical communities (i.e., nyc’s echo system or santa monica’s pen) (hampton & wellman, 2000; hiltz, 1984; horn, 1998; katz & rice, 2002; majchrzak et al., 2000; preece, 2000; rheingold, 1993; uncapher, 1999). such communities are not only information and communications systems themselves, but clearly rely upon computer-mediated information and communication technology in order to exist. technology in such cases supports activities, records knowledge, develops organizational and community memory, and facilitates relationships among individuals who have much to share but would not otherwise have known about, or been able to interact with, other community members (ackerman & halverson, 2000; sproull & kiesler, 1991; stein & zwass, 1995). community-based, community-driven communication and information systems should provide access to technology-enabled opportunities for all community members (especially the disadvantaged). many kinds of computer technologies can be conceptualized as providing support for ecs: computer-supported collaborative work systems, group support systems, computer conferencing and computer-mediated communication systems, distribution lists/discussion groups, blogs and wikis, virtual classrooms and distance education, and online community networks. in a broader sense, beyond icts, the systems that support ecs encompass a wide range of components — the environmental context, the participants, information, among others. such systems require increasingly sophisticated user-focused understanding, design and application, and applied social leadership, entrepreneurship and creativity (gurstein 2003). constraints (budgetary, technological, and social) of course exist within every community environment, and the people and systems concerned with community design must deal with these. 2.2 community and systems analysis community systems analysis requires a deep understanding of the current state of a community’s components (people; structures regarding governance, groups and communication; systems, etc.) and environment (budget, mandates, supporting organizations, legal constraints, etc.), as well as requirements for responding to current and future problems, goals, needs and desires. thompson and kinne’s (1999) synthesis of community change theories proposes that the following components are interrelated and thus affect development and change efforts: first, the external environment; second, large-scale community aspects such as development and planning, social movements, and vested interests; third, coalitions, advisory groups, and networks; fourth, subsystems of a community organization, such as individuals, leadership, organizations, and organizational development; and fifth, individual beliefs, characteristics, and behaviors. schuler (1994) proposes that a community network consists of two primary components - the human context(the on-line community, individual and organizational participants, influencing organizations, the community network organization, and the infrastructure providers), and the technological infrastructure (hardware, software, and delivery channels). the three main activities in such a community analysis are defining the community (boundaries, participants, authorities), collecting new or existing information in collaboration with community members, and assessing the community’s capacity (institutions, community actions, community resources, skill levels, advocates). it is crucial that a broad range of stakeholders (community leaders, everyday community members and supportive organizations) is involved in community and system analysis, as they hold and represent the community knowledge and are the primary resource for knowing what they really want and need. the information systems literature is full of examples where systems have failed because the day-to-day users were not involved in analysis and design (capaldo et al., 1995; hirschheim, 1985; jiang et al., 2001; johnson & rice, 1987; kujala, 2003; nelson, 1990). 2.3 community and systems design equipped with a thorough analysis and its portfolio of requirements, community leaders can begin to design structures and supportive systems that fit (and expand) the community’s resources. (this may include reorganization of current structures and systems.) as noted above, community systems include much more than technology; they also encompass the people, knowledge, processes and resulting support. therefore the design of systems goes beyond the specifications for the appropriate hardware components and software code. system design should specify people’s roles (both those participating in the system’s activities and those using its resulting outcomes or services); the kinds of data and knowledge that should be acquired, stored and shared; the steps of the processes and activities for accomplishing the system’s purpose; and the support that the system requires. notions of equity and civil society go hand-in-hand with helping participants become effective within enabling communities. the support provided by a community system should be comprehensible and comprehensive, usable and useful to all community members who participate within it, or otherwise interact with it. all participants should have access (as appropriate) to the community’s data, information and knowledge in a manner they can understand and utilize. systems should support all participants in (appropriate) community-related goals. these ideals provide additional goals for system designers and community system researchers. 3. the supporting enabling communities (secomm) framework we now introduce the secomm framework, consisting of two major components: participant support systems (pass) and cpals (community participation levels). while we begin this discussion in terms of individual participants, later we will apply the same arguments and resulting design model to support higher-level participants. figure 1. participant support system (pass) component of the secomm framework. double-headed arrows indicate the interactivity among all components. the environment and context aspects also have the potential to influence every component. 3.1 participant support system (pass) figure one presents the “participant support system” (pass). at its heart resides the process, or the things that the system does to perform the tasks or activities necessary to enable one or more participants in some way, at a specified level of analysis (a cpal). undertaking the process requires technology, people and information, all acting within an environmental context and constraints. this component is strongly influenced by alter’s model of an information system (alter, 2006) and the community change model summarized in section 2.2 (thompson & kinne, 1999). the core feature of alter’s model is the work practice or set of tasks that the information system is designed to support. that model includes as a core element, a separate “client” who “receives” the system’s output. pass however, considers multiple participants within the pass, and including actors external to the immediate system, thus including those working within another level or element of a multi-layered and complex community structure, and how they use the resources. pass also builds upon preece’s (2000) definition of an online community as being defined by four high-level criteria: people, a shared purpose, policies, and computer systems. people and computer systems are pass components, while the shared purpose and policies lie in the pass environmental context. 3.1.1 processes. a process is one or more steps of a task or activity. processes supported by a pass should help a participant to accomplish something they want or need to do within the context of an individual or community goal (bieber, engelbart et al., 2002). the process supported may be complex, requiring advanced knowledge and technological support and training, or it may be simple such as looking up a fact on a web site. it may be formalized or informal, and undertaken individually or collaboratively. to fully participate within or manage the process, people may require directions, assistance, training, consulting, time and support for experimentation, discussions among themselves about possible solutions and applications, and both technical and emotional support (johnson & rice, 1987). examples of community-motivated processes could include finding collaborators for a project or an activity; developing a community service grant proposal, operating an online community assistance “help desk”, building support for a change in a school curriculum, increasing a sense of community participation and identification, or conducting a campaign to become a community official. equally important and central to community vitality and sustainability are pass processes for communication among community members and any other participants (bowes, 1997; bracht, kingsbury & rissel, 1999). 3.1.2 technology. a pass does not need to have an ict component. many communities in the past or present have excelled without computer technology, relying on their available and learned social technologies. for example, a local support group for a medical condition has all the components of a successful pass: participants and perhaps a facilitator; the participants’ knowledge and experience; and the societal norms, laws and financial constraints that comprise the local environment. with this effective “social” technology as its base, the physical technology could have been a telephone, snail mail letters, or simply printed notices distributed to local doctors or on bulletin boards in the local area. all are part of the “system” of support. when used appropriately, technology has the potential to make community processes more efficient and effective, and to enable new types of processes and communities that previously may have been infeasible due to distance or other constraints (gurstein, 2000). icts can expand the number, diversity, and location of the participants in the medical support community, for example (rice & katz, 2001). online sources can provide information in addition to that available locally and provide information to participants outside of scheduled gatherings. technology may reduce the monetary and time costs of community activities. it also allows for communication at a distance and thus a much broader range of involvement from community members. email can reduce the cost of mailings; videoconferencing, online meetings and gaming sessions can reduce the cost of renting a meeting place and travel; online information can be cheaper than purchasing books, and provide access to experts and expertise anywhere in the world. beyond the obvious and important reduction in costs, new media also allow different kinds of interactions among different kinds of participants, fostering greater awareness of others in a community, their needs, expertise and resources, and overall social capital (katz & rice, 2002). however, technologies by themselves may not be successfully implemented or used (gurstein, 2003), and may foster unintended and negative consequences. a simple web-based community suggestion box, for example, may limit the length of a suggestion. so from the community’s perspective system, designers are obliged to ensure that the technology being applied or developed is appropriate to support the particular community and process. environmental constraints or factors such as the amount of time available to investigate options may dictate that the technology chosen is not the most appropriate, but at least is adequate. 3.1.3 people. a pass also includes the people who manage its process, those who participate in it, and those who both benefit (and possibly suffer) from it. for example, the people who discuss problems in a chat room, facilitators mediating the discussion, monitors checking the participants and discussion content, and the technicians who design, install and maintain the chat software, all are part of the system. thus, people are encompassed very broadly in the system definition because of the wide scope of people’s roles in community systems and in the life cycle of designing and supporting these systems. 3.1.4 providing products and services. undertaking a process as described here will for the most part result in some kind of output, service, product or knowledge for the participants. for example, the result of searching for information on a web site could be considered a service enabled by a process. facilitating remote collaboration on a research project could be considered a service resulting in an intermediate or final output such as a report, paper, system resource, proposed legislation or social activities. sometimes community participants can benefit from the outputs of a system without directly being involved in the enabling process. for example, a workgroup in an educational community may use the system to collaborate remotely on developing a set of guidelines for teachers. the teachers who use these guidelines are not (necessarily) part of the specific pass process through which the guidelines were developed, but, as community members, they are part of the general pass, and should be consulted in the original systems analysis. 3.1.5 data, information and knowledge. conducting a process may involve the production, consumption or management of some data, information or knowledge -both by the people and by the technology -and likely through multiple iterations, revisions, and elaborations. for example, an asynchronous discussion system will maintain data about its registered users for use in administering the system, in addition to the content of the discussions (fukuhara et al., 2003). bieber, im et al. (2002) note that “much of a community’s knowledge lies within its documents, discussions, decisions…processes, and the awareness by members of other members’ expertise … community knowledge also includes the links (relationships) among all these elements and documents, including relationships among community members… collectively this knowledge constitutes a community memory of past experiences, considerations and decisions that knowledge workers, community leaders and other members can explore” (see also van den hooff et al., 2003). data, information and knowledge may be off-line, in books or in people’s heads, or it may be maintained online. while some community knowledge is explicit, much is implicit or tacit (choo, 1995; nonaka, 1994). unlike explicit, or objectified, social knowledge, collective knowledge is difficult to identify, organize and make public. yet by its nature it is inherently a public good – it is not diminished by distribution, can be reapplied within the community, and grows with use and application. paradoxically, collective knowledge usually has no value when controlled solely by individuals – that is, collective knowledge has its greatest utility when it is widely known and shared, generating social capital (baron et al., 2000). thus a central problem for ecs is to make social knowledge widely sharable, foster the development of social capital, and support communities in enabling both their individual members and their collective processes and goals. we consider all relevant explicit and tacit knowledge as potentially part of a pass, for these are all resources for performing its processes. the system can maintain and give access to this information through a broad range of technological support such as “flat files”, database systems, knowledge management systems, digital library repositories, information retrieval systems, decision support systems, discussion lists, expert and expertise locators, hyperlinked member profiles, etc. 3.1.6 environmental context. communities have more or less identifiable and enduring norms and policies, and goals and shared purposes (for example, creating services or products, nurturing, sustainability, civic engagement, individual and community independence/empowerment, personal and community development and improvement, as well as generally addressing the reason people participate in the community: to learn, to cope with problems, to socialize). communities are also subject to a wide variety of constraints and environmental factors, such as budgets and finances, resources, legal constraints, legitimacy and ethics, physical infrastructure, and the political environment regarding information sharing, culture, social systems, and overall communication infrastructure (bracht, kingsbury, & rissel, 1999; mcfall, 2003; thompson & kinne 1999). the environment influences each of a pass’s constituent parts by providing the context within which processes are conducted (supported, fostered, altered, suppressed, resisted, etc.). a shared purpose of nurturing children within an educational community will influence the set of processes (services) and types of information provided within that community. a community board might set the goals for a community volunteer or task force, which would then develop or identify which processes must be available to enable the achievement of those goals. the budget could constrain the amount of disk storage, and thus the extent of archived past online discussion comments, available. laws may constrain the information available to participants, such as filters that must be in place for minors, or the online provision of patient-specific diagnosis and treatment, whether by doctors or laypeople (rice & katz, 2001). how a pass is designed, in turn, can influence the environment. for example, during the design phase, aspects of the environment could be made explicit (such as what resources truly would be allocated by the sponsors, or the community’s current privacy policy). the final design may have the effect de facto of setting policies, such as how a privacy policy is implemented or what permissions are necessary to undertake a particular action. blocking access to certain information for some participants (e.g., excluding minors from sites discussing reproductive issues for example) conceivably could spark a discussion of censorship that propagates into the larger society and results in new legislation or greater economic constraints for some level (such as public libraries). such policies could have unexpected influence and consequences within or across community levels (within the cpal sub-framework -see section 3). 3.1.7 interaction between design and technology as community enablers. the implemented design of a pass will influence how and whether participants perform tasks and activities, either by built-in structures, administratoror user-set changes in system parameters, agreed-upon online norms, emergent social conventions, etc. by accident or on purpose, it may fix the number or authority level of participants in a decision, determine how easily people can update information, determine the degree to which people have the ability to lurk, dictate how easily people can start a discussion that is off-topic, and so on. thus a pass should provide and require ongoing evaluation and feedback, so that system support will evolve towards being more appropriate and better matched over time and under different environmental conditions, and as interactions across cpals increase (see below). table 1. ways that a pass design and technology might facilitate or constrain voting environment: the environment contains the external participants and systems, which can reside at the different community levels described in section 3.2. the technology can facilitate and structure information-sharing among participants and systems (e.g., through web sites, discussion forums and shared data). alternatively a rigid structure or lack of technology may hinder communication. the environment also contains the various policies described in the categories below, which guide the process, how people should participate, how the data should be analyzed, and what technology should be available. if designed properly, the technology could play a role in supporting and communicating these policies, as well as providing background information such as that concerning community norms. poorly designed programs may not be able to support the policies or may allow people to get around them. process: the voting process can model various policy directives, which software might support, hinder or not influence. the process can enforce that voting be mandatory, entirely optional, or require that a minimum number of members vote. it could be anonymous or with identities known. group or community members may be required to read certain discussion comments or background material before voting. voters may be permitted to see the vote subtotals while voting is underway, or this could be hidden. purchased software however may obstruct the desired process. it may, for example, only permit anonymous voting, or it may leave anonymity as an option. software could be constructed to prohibit someone from voting until they have viewed all relevant discussion comments; otherwise the community would have to rely on the honor system. software might include a feature to display vote subtotals, (and provide technicians with the option to disable this function). people: community policy should determine who can vote in working group or community-wide decisions (including opinion gathering). technology could limit the voting to registered members. to encourage lurking and other forms of “light participation” forums, community sites might not require users to log in. but the software may restrict voters to those who have logged in. data: the community may wish to view statistics about votes based on demographic information about members, assuming this data is maintained and the software has an analysis functionality. privacy and legal requirements concerning the data will need to be applied. systems may display discussion or voting data anonymously, but keep track of which users entered which comments or votes so that users can receive confirmation of, and review their participation. system technicians have an ethical obligation not to share this information, but whoever owns the system also owns this confirmation data and has the legal right to use it (at least in the united states). similarly, systems providing anonymity but requiring users to log in routinely maintain a log of all user actions in order to track system malfunctions. again, despite ethical concerns, whoever owns the system also owns this debugging data and has the legal right to use it. technology: many of the technological issues are discussed in the other categories. another current concern is security. a system technician or hacker may have the skill to “rig votes,” i.e., to alter the data or the system procedures. this is a major concern with both electronic voting machines and national e-voting schemes (gritzalis, 2003). of course, not all community members may have access to the community system when and where they need it. furthermore, poorly designed interfaces (screens) may prevent members from using it effectively. technology, as well as the environment and people, affects what is accessible and how it is accessed (gurstein, 2003; rice et al., 2001). as an example, table one illustrates how a pass design might facilitate or constrain voting. voting software can support both working groups and entire communities in their decision-making. the decision being voted upon could be a budget resolution, an election, or a logo for the community’s website. voting could be used to gather opinions or be binding in deciding an issue. in all of these cases, the community, perhaps through the system itself, could decide on who would be involved in the voting -just the members of the working group, other aggregations of individuals, and all the way up through to the community as a whole. 3.2 community participation levels (cpals) where are the boundaries of a pass system and who are its participants? the second secomm component, community participation levels (cpals), identifies four primary levels at which participation and collaboration takes place -individual, group, the community itself, and the organizations supporting the community -and the influence each has on the others. participant configurations occur within and across these levels. each pass is a system supporting participants at one or more of these levels, and supporting communication within and between the levels, for one or more specific, related processes. while the actual users, of course, are all individuals (or perhaps intelligent agents), a pass can be designed as a support in their tasks as individuals, as members of a group in their group activities, as individual members or groups in community-wide functions, or as individuals and groups at the organizational level in their efforts in support communities. figure 2. community participant levels (cpal) component of the secomm framework. cpal positions each community system or pass within these levels and makes its corresponding collaborations and influence flows explicit. arrows represent both the influence flows that correspond to the system’s environmental context from the pass model and collaboration among participants in other systems and levels. influence flows are between systems at the same or different levels. collaboration also may be among participants at the same or different levels. figure two depicts the secomm framework’s community participation levels. arrows indicate flows of influence among levels, as well as the patterns of informal or formal collaboration and associations within levels. influence is an environmental concept, whereas collaboration refers to the boundaries encompassing the participants of a pass (or multiple passes, perhaps with overlapping components). generally a pass will be designed to support the collaboration of specific (types, groups and levels of) participants, so by definition its scope (boundaries) will encompass them. a fine line exists between active collaboration and influencing the people “external” to a system (e.g., by sharing information with them). it is up to community analysts and designers to define the scope (boundaries) in a way that best supports the primary participants in specific activities. the secomm framework provides direction for enabling the different levels of community participation, each with different actors and forms of interaction, to be matched with the capabilities and affordances of appropriate pass processes and technologies. thus the overall enabling community systems can be conceived as a series of nested passes ranging from smallest to largest, reflecting the four community participation levels. importantly, for this discussion, systems theory holds that higher-order systems emerge from and subsequently govern lower-order systems (see banathy, 1996; von bertalanffy, 1968; boulding, 1956). this hierarchy defines the bi-directional lines of collaboration and influence among the various levels. the environment can affect the shared purpose, goals, norms, policies and constraints of a given participant and pass, including the system’s component parts -processes, people, information and technology. influence from a higher to a lower level could include providing goals, constraints, structure, resources, feedback, governance, or information for knowledge-sharing and learning. conversely, the participant and the pass can influence the environment. influence from a lower to a higher level includes providing information, opinions, policy advice, decisions and other knowledge, resistance, and the use of resources perhaps owned or controlled by the higher levels. often initiating, encouraging, and fostering this influence from lower to higher level is one of the system’s goals. the framework highlights that each community level has the potential to influence the other. 3.2.1 individual level. the discussion so far has focused primarily on enabling individual community members to do the kinds of things they want or need to do to achieve their goals within the community context. thus many of the passes discussed primarily served the particular tasks of individuals as individuals. these include one-person tasks, such as looking up information on a web site or having a help desk or medical expert answer a question individually. once individuals begin to collaborate for the purpose of support, the framework comes to treat this as an informal or formal group. the pass that supports their working together therefore would be modeled at the “group level.” 3.2.2 group level. virnoche and marx (1997) argue that community must comprise “individual identification of and involvement in a network of particular associations” (i.e., groups and alliances). collaboration within a single level could include working together on a project; knowledge-sharing and learning; making decisions through a variety of processes, such as voting or consensus building; or socializing. individuals can collaborate with other individuals informally, as people playing a game or chatting, or in formal groups, such as committees or a student council. collaboration techniques and computer-supported collaborative work (cscw) and other “groupware” tools could be embedded in the process to support facilitation, brainstorming, version control, knowledge management, and/or anonymity (majchrzak et al., 2000; van den hooff et al., 2003). two or more groups could also choose to collaborate informally or formally. for example, two committees working within the same community could be tackling similar problems such as increasing membership and bettering public relations and have the need to coordinate budgets. groups also may form subgroups around particular issues or interests and have the need for such technology supports as computer conferencing, threaded newsgroups or participant awareness features (alavi & tiwana, 2002; haythornthwaite, 2002). groups may even form informal or formal alliances. for example, membership committees within separate communities could form an association of membership committees to discuss common issues. sometimes such an association could be considered as a community in its own right, such as a “community of practice” of people and groups interested in membership issues (brown & duguid, 1991; lesser et al., 2000;wenger et al., 2002). in this case the supporting pass would be at the “community level” of this framework. whether one would consider a particular set of participants to be at the group or community level is fairly subjective, and depends on how useful it is to conceptualize the participants as a group within a larger community or not. 3.2.3 community level. the community as a whole will have tasks that it needs to accomplish (within the framework of its constitutive associations and networks) in order for it to achieve the goals that its participants have set for it and to ensure that its internal formal (or informal) structuring and processes function effectively. these activities can include local governance, such as running a conference or meetings for knowledge sharing or socializing; undertaking (and legitimizing) decision-making processes; developing processes for managing and influencing changes in the broader political social and economic environment; or overall management of community resources and activities (figallo, 1995; gurstein, 2000; hampton & wellman, 2000; keeble & loader, 2001; schuler, 1994; among others). two or more communities could choose to collaborate informally or formally. many communities may wish to coordinate their protests about larger institutional or social issues. a well-designed pass could make these protests more effective, or the dialogue between protesting communities and institutions more collaborative and productive, aiming at larger collective benefits (rheingold, 2003). communities may form informal or formal alliances (hampton & wellman, 2000). often communities will form subgroups to work together, in which case one would consider the supporting pass for that subgroup to be at the “group level” of this framework. 3.2.4 supportive organization level. a community may be supported by one or more organizations including educational institutions, private companies, governmental bodies or non-governmental organizations. formal or informal collaborations or alliances could also exist among such organizations. for example, traditional competitors could use organizational and network systems to form a “community of practice” to develop new designs or systems beyond the competence of any single organization (see majchrzak et al., 2000) also, a pass could facilitate a supportive organization or alliance of supportive organizations in its relationship with the communities. for example the acm professional society, which is the umbrella organization supporting many different special interest groups, provides an extensive support structure for community officers (such as training and regular meetings) as well as publishing facilities for community publications. the focus at this level again is relative. the cpal component would position passes supporting, for example, community sponsorship at the “supporting organization” level. however, when an alliance of organizations gets together, that alliance could be considered as a formal or informal community in its own right, with its own set of working groups. the importance of cpal is less in the precision of system categorization than in providing a tool for community analysts and designers to become more aware of the different influences and collaborations that take place within and around their community. 4. discussion 4.1 implications for community informatics system design the secomm framework provides a useful means to order what are otherwise quite complex and disparate bases for analysis. the secomm framework also provides a useful addition to the “effective use” framework (gurstein, 2003) by deconstructing from a community perspective the process of systems conceptualization and design, beginning the longer term process of making the effective use model a more operational basis for systems design and development. 4.2 future research opportunities the secomm framework presents many opportunities for future research. primary among these would be further research into the efficiency and effectiveness of the framework in field applications, as well as considerations of the ethical and moral implications surrounding design and implementation. the framework does not explicitly address community governance, the promotion of local independence and self-determination, or improving the quality of life for members. moreover it does not address issues of equity or the broader questions of equity and civil society. incorporating these aspects into the framework explicitly could help community analysts understand them better and community system designers actively incorporate them into their designs. for designing passes that truly enable participants, we also need a deeper understanding of the participants in context and their wants and needs (mcfall, 2006; mcfall et al., 2006). who participates in communities and who would participate if they had appropriate access? what do participants want and need to do (tasks, activities and processes), as individuals looking to support -and benefit from -community participation? enumerating and classifying the types of possible norms, policies, goals, shared purposes and constraints (environmental factors) would make these aspects explicit. this would help analysts and designers realize which factors (positively and negatively) affect the systems they are designing (or just analyzing to understand) and account for them more effectively. determining these factors most likely will require both theoretical grounding in frameworks of individual, organizational and community needs, as well as empirical study. once we have a solid classification of processes/tasks and their characteristics, future research should determine which technologies best support which tasks and activities, or the need for entirely new classes of processes and ict solutions. it may turn out that technologies and approaches developed in other fields (e.g., for knowledge management or computer supported collaborative work) may prove very useful for fulfilling these requirements. this article describes the secomm framework in terms of single systems. multiple systems support different aspects of a community and these systems intersect in a multitude of ways. many systems can be viewed as subsystems of the larger community system. for each subsystem, the boundary can be drawn (by definition) at a useful and functional level. the surrounding systems can influence or be influenced. they can provide resources (knowledge, technology, people and processes) or utilize the same resources, perhaps at the same time (and perhaps compete for them). future research should explore ways that secomm can better make this complexity explicit for community designers. finally, analyzing tensions and interactions across community levels would provide greater understanding of successful and failed community systems. 4.3 closing thoughts while community researchers have made great strides in understanding aspects of a successful and sustainable community, on the whole we still do not fully understand how to design and integrate community systems effectively. the proposed secomm framework (the pass and cpal components) provides an initial model for thinking about community support for various kinds of interactions, and for various goals and purposes, at all levels of an enabling community. it should help community and ict designers to focus on the things that people want and need to do, and to understand the environmental influences and constraints that hinder or facilitate support for enabling community participants at all levels. references ackerman, m.s., & halverson, c. 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(2002). cultivating communities of practice. boston: harvard business school press. <h2 style="text-align:center;"><strong>myknet.org: how northern ontario's first nations communities made themselves at home on the world wide web</strong></h2> <p style="text-align:center;">philipp budka<br /> department of social and cultural anthropology<br /> university of vienna<br /> &lt;<a href="mailto:ph.budka@philbu.net">ph.budka@philbu.net</a>&gt;</p> <p style="text-align:center;">brandi l. bell<br /> comprehensive school health research<br /> university of prince edward island<br /> &lt;<a href="mailto:brandilbell@gmail.com">brandilbell@gmail.com</a>&gt;</p> <p style="text-align:center;">adam fiser<br /> faculty of information<br /> university of toronto<br /> &lt;<a href="mailto:adam.fiser@utoronto.ca">adam.fiser@utoronto.ca</a>&gt;</p> <p> <b>introduction</b></p> <p> in 2000, one of canada’s leading aboriginal community networks, k-net, on the verge of expanding into broadband services (as part of industry canada’s smart communities project), introduced myknet.org, a system of personal homepages intended for remote first nations users in northern ontario. this free of charge, free of advertisements, locally-supported online social environment grew from a constituency base of remote first nations in a region where numerous communities lived without adequate residential telecom service well into the millennium (ramirez, aitkin, jamieson, &amp; richardson, 2003; fiser, clement, &amp; walmark, 2006). myknet.org now hosts over 30,000 registered user accounts, of which approximately 25,000 represent active homepages. this is particularly notable considering that the system primarily serves members of northern ontario’s first nations whose combined population is approximately 45,000 (occupying a geographic area comparable to the size of france). equally significant is that over half of this population is under the age of 25, making myknet.org primarily a youth-driven online social environment.</p> <p> this article reports on a study investigating the development of myknet.org and its embeddedness within the particular rural/remote first nations context of northern ontario. we postulate that myknet.org has become a vibrant medium for northern ontario first nations, in part due to its historical connections with k-net’s broader “computerization movement” and previous indigenous media practices in northern ontario. we explore both how myknet.org grew out of a drive for broadband telecommunications services in the region and how it currently plays an important socio-cultural role by enabling first nations individuals and communities to shape the world wide web and extend their social ties online. thus, an understanding of the processes that shape and stabilize this “socio-technology” is at the centre of this study (bijker &amp; law, 1992).</p> <p> several scholars (e.g. forte, 2006; landzelius, 2006a; srinivasan, 2006) have discussed the potential of new media technologies for indigenous peoples, particularly for them to share knowledge, construct identities, and communicate across distances and borders. according to srinivasan (2006), the challenge for indigenous communities and their collaborators is to tailor new media and information systems to specific local cultural needs. we believe that myknet.org meets this challenge as an indigenous-controlled online medium. this noticeable challenge extends the observation made by anderson (2006) and others of the role older media such as print and radio have played in the social construction of (imagined) communities and in the development of identity concepts such as indigenism, indigeneity, and nationhood. </p> <p> <b>first nations people in northern ontario</b></p> <p> in canada, the term “aboriginal” refers to three distinct and constitutionally recognized groups of indigenous inhabitants: first nations, inuit, and métis. “first nation” designates an indian band registered with indian and northern affairs canada under the indian act, r.s. 1985. each first nation occupies its own reserve where its members participate in local governance through the auspices of a band office directed by an elected chief and council. according to the latest national census, there are 698,025 first nations people (north american indians) in canada (statistics canada, 2006) and more than 615 first nation communities (representing 52 distinct cultural-territorial groups such as cree, haida, mohawk, ojibway, etc.). in ontario, where this study took place, there are 158,395 first nations people (living in remote, rural, and urban environments) and 204 first nation communities (i.e., remote and rural reserves and settlements). </p> <p> myknet.org represents the lives of aboriginal peoples in northern ontario who occupy land apportioned by treaties 9 and 5, which correspond to a political territory known as nishnawbe aski nation (nan), and is home to 49 first nation communities, each with between 100 and 2,000 people. communities in and around the nan are remote, having no year-round road access, and being generally north of the 50º parallel and/or over 50km from the nearest service centre. though most are fly-in communities, some have devised temporary winter roads (constructed across frozen lakes) to link into a southern supply corridor during the months of february and march. without winter roads it costs from cad$400 to cad$4,000 for a one-way trip by scheduled aircraft to the nearest town, sioux lookout (ont.), or the larger proximate cities of thunder bay (ont.) and winnipeg (man.). under such conditions, personal mobility is severely restricted for most of the region’s inhabitants. </p> <p> <b>research with first nations communities</b></p> <p> our research draws from three years of community-based research initiated with northern ontario first nations under a partnership between keewaytinook okimakanak (the tribal council managing k-net) and the canadian research alliance on community innovation and networking (cracin). with guidance from staff at k-net and the keewaytinook okimakanak research institute (kori), we designed our research plan to establish community participation and community control over data collection. fiser and budka visited more than 20 first nation communities where numerous fieldwork activities were undertaken, including visits to schools and public internet-access points (such as e-centres<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote1anc" href="#sdfootnote1sym"><sup>1</sup></a></sup>), individual and group discussions with youth and adults (both offline and online), as well as researcher participation in youth training, employment programs, and videoconference discussions.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote2anc" href="#sdfootnote2sym"><sup>2</sup></a></sup> </p> <p> in addition to this extensive fieldwork, online and telephone interviews were conducted with a specific focus on exploring the development, uses, and meanings of myknet.org. initially, we sought the perspectives of administrators, early innovators, casual users, and non-users. following community input, we broadened our scope to include respondents who could also help us compare myknet.org with other media in the first nation communities (particularly community radio and satellite television) and who could help us explore the traditional and popular cultural context of first nations’ media usage. </p> <p> our resulting sample for this particular research included ten interviews completed by teleconference and ten online encounters with users via email and an open online meeting platform.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote3anc" href="#sdfootnote3sym"><sup>3</sup></a></sup> this sample is biased towards longstanding users with at least four years experience with myknet.org, and towards non-users who make use of computer-mediated communications and have participated in other k-net initiatives. the mean age of our combined respondents (28 years) also exceeds the mean age of the communities serviced by myknet.org. the sample is not meant to be representative of the general population of myknet.org users or non-users, but is made up of “key informants” (millen, 2000) who possess an <i>emic </i>understanding of their socio-cultural milieu, in this case k-net/myknet.org and its embeddedness in the context of northern ontario first nations life. to complement their expertise with a more representative portrait of myknet.org’s current user population, we include selected results from an online survey of over 1000 users conducted in 2007 (budka, 2008).</p> <p> <b>myknet.org as a computerization movement</b></p> <p> as we set out to examine myknet.org we felt it was important to situate our work within a historical appreciation of aboriginal and first nations media. as our research proceeded, this grounding proved valuable in helping us explore myknet.org’s embeddedness. while writings on aboriginal media helped us understand the cultural aspects of myknet.org and its uses, as well as first nation communities’ desire to develop their own online social environment, the practicalities of such development were often left unexplained. in an effort to better understand how such an online social environment as myknet.org came to be within its specific contexts, we draw upon the notion of a “computerization movement”.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote4anc" href="#sdfootnote4sym"><sup>4</sup></a></sup></p> <p> according to kling and iacono (1988), the concept of a “computerization movement” points to efforts to use “computer-based systems as instruments to bring about a new social order” (p. 228). they argue that “computerization movements are based upon collaborations of participants with diverse interests” (p. 229). we consider myknet.org’s development to be part of such a computerization movement that connects local, regional, and national interests. </p> <p> myknet.org emerged at a time when much of k-net’s core broadband network infrastructure was being built and the canadian government was focused on “connecting canadians” to the internet. k-net’s alliance of first nation communities negotiated many funding opportunities and partnerships to develop their network infrastructure, benefiting from this government-lead computerization movement to implement computer technology as a means of bridging social and technological divides in canada (fiser et al. 2006). </p> <p> a central component of any computerization movement concerns the many decisions made about control and use of technology during the development process (kling &amp; iacono, 1988). at each step of k-net and myknet.org’s development, choices about appropriate investment and control over equipment and expertise were made within the communities. as such, on a local regional level, the development of k-net and myknet.org can be seen as part of an indigenous computerization movement lead by local leaders in the first nation communities. these leaders, from first nations councils, economic development agencies, education and health authorities, and civic groups, collaborated with the intent to not only implement computer technology but to adopt and adapt that technology to the local needs of their communities. for example, as we shall discuss below, they focused youth training and education opportunities to complement the physical network infrastructure’s development. thus, counter to arguments that impute computerization to a simple market formula of “cost-effective computing tools”, the experiences of these collaborators suggest that the acquisition, installation, and adoption of computers and information and communication technologies (icts) depend on an equally important array of non-economic choices and factors, such as culture, politics, education, health, etc.</p> <p> <b>myknet.org as a community-driven online social environment </b> </p> <p> while we interpret myknet.org’s development as part of an indigenous computerization movement with strong ties to local and national interests, we also recognize that myknet.org is a unique online social environment that has been directly shaped by the interactions of its individual users who use it to extend their social ties online. </p> <p> one of the common reasons for indigenous peoples, groups, and organizations to create an online presence “is to provide information from a viewpoint that may not have found a voice in the mainstream media” (cisler, 1998, p. 20). indigenous communities made early inroads on the world wide web. the oneida first nation of the state of new york, for instance, put the first indigenous-owned website online in spring 1994, well before the homepage of the white house went online (polly, 1998), and the blackfeet confederacy in alberta established the first aboriginal canadian web presence one year later (prins, 2002). </p> <p> the individual contributions that shape these online social environments may take a variety of forms. landzelius (2003, 2006a) refers to the “self-authored engagements” of indigenous peoples online as “indigenous cyberactivism” and distinguishes between “outreach” and “inreach” activities. these two very broad and basic categories of indigenous internet practices must not be understood as exclusive and static areas, but rather as constantly overlapping and transforming fields of utilization. indigenous <i>outreach</i> initiatives include public relations and tourism management, sovereignty campaigns, socio-political liberation movements, and common-cause partnerships between indigenous and non-indigenous groups and actors. in this case, cyberactivism may encompass but also transcends narrowly political communications. we have found that myknet.org focuses more heavily on indigenous <i>inreach</i> activities oriented towards an internal public and including activities such as public services (e.g., telemedicine and e-learning) as well as personal social networking practices such as communications directed between families and friends. </p> <p> <b>myknet.org as an extension of indigenous media production in northern ontario</b></p> <p> the first nations’ use of internet technologies, although corresponding to new media and landzelius’ (2003, 2006a) concept of cyberactivism, resonates with older media practices within the broader context of indigenous media production. during the 1970s, several first nations newspapers and newsletters came into existence across canada following the release of a white paper on indian policy. in northern ontario, the multi-lingual <i>wawatay news </i>was published for the first time in 1973, providing the first nation communities of the region with news in english, ojibway, oji-cree, and cree syllabics. </p> <p> at the time, most of the money for media production came from the federal native communication program, which was also established in 1973 (e.g. avison &amp; meadows, 2000). however, when the canadian government cut funding in 1990, some newspapers were forced to cease publishing while others, such as <i>wawatay news</i>, commercialized and now include advertisements at the cost of other content (demay, 1993).</p> <p> together with <i>wawatay news</i>, the wawatay native communications society established a community radio system for ontario’s northern first nation communities. the first community radio station was established in 1974. in 1986, the canadian radio-television and telecommunications commission (crtc) licensed the wawatay radio network, which provides programming in oji-cree and cree language. particularly in the northernmost communities where these native languages continue to be spoken by a majority of residents, the radio network’s programs have reached up to 80 percent of local populations (karam &amp; zuckernick, 1992). however, community radio broadcasts now compete with predominantly english-language media such as satellite television and the internet and there are fears that audiences have diminished. </p> <p> following the launch of the anik satellites at the end of the 1970s several aboriginal television broadcasters, such as the inuit broadcasting corporation, started to provide native-language programming (e.g. baltruschat, 2004; roth, 2005). in 1983, the northern broadcasting policy and the northern native broadcast program created the basis for a northern satellite distribution system, which eventually resulted in the launch of television northern canada (tvnc) in 1991. in 1999, the aboriginal peoples television network (aptn) was launched after tvnc was approved for a national broadcast license. aptn blends multi-lingual programming about aboriginal cultures, lives, traditions, and histories with news and public affairs in a mainstream broadcasting style. it also depends on local and regional aboriginal media producers, such as wawatay, for content. despite this vital network, the first of its kind in the world, approximately 35 percent of aboriginal people living on reserve, particularly in the north, still do not receive aptn programming (roth, 2005). in addition to this challenge, aptn, being aboriginal-controlled and aboriginal-focused, must attempt to represent canada’s vast aboriginal experience, diluting the potential for locally-controlled and community-focused media.</p> <p> following the inroads of indigenous newsprint, radio, and television up to the mid-1990s, canadian indigenous groups began to mobilize for improved access to telecommunications facilities and the establishment of internet infrastructure. in northern ontario, wawatay and k-net services spearheaded a movement for improved telecom services that paved the way for k-net’s introduction of broadband services in 2000. first nations across northern ontario had input in the regional campaign, and awareness was raised regarding the feasibility and usefulness of internet applications such as email and personal homepages. this legacy directly shaped myknet.org’s online social environment when it appeared on the web in 2000.</p> <p> <b>the development of myknet.org as part of an indigenous computerization movement</b></p> <p> in 1994, staff members of keewaytinook okimakanak (ko), a tribal council representing seven (later to become six) remote fly-in first nations<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote5anc" href="#sdfootnote5sym"><sup>5</sup></a></sup>, organized an experimental bulletin board system (bbs) for their communities. this was the beginning of the kuhkenah network, or k-net, an amalgam of oji-cree and english meaning “everybody’s network”. as part of its nascent computerization movement, ko configured the k-net bbs to support a “stay in school” project in the first nations. the goal of the movement was to create a computer-mediated communications link between the first nations and their high-school-aged youth who, in seeking higher education, had to board in pelican falls, a residential school for first nations near the town/service-hub of sioux lookout. the bbs presented an innovative solution to a serious telecommunications problem: some communities only had one public payphone, placed outside the community’s band office (figure 1). others had to rely on trail radio for communications. few, if any, had previous access to computers.</p> <p style="text-align:center;"> <img src="568-2784-1-le_html_5a9e980b.gif" name="object1" width=224 height=172><br clear=left> <strong>figure 1: north spirit lake’s “phone booth” (circa 1999)</strong></p> <p> the ko communities are among over 50 first nations in a territory that the crtc designates as a high cost serving area and market forces alone have failed to support their telecommunications needs (fiser et al., 2006). similarly, the diffusion of computers and related icts in the territory depends on grassroots initiatives and public-private sector partnerships. to establish the bbs as a communications link between the first nations, pelican falls, and sioux lookout, ko tribal council had to build a computer-communications infrastructure from the ground up. they, thus, constituted a localized computerization movement focused on finding ways to use technology to support and meet the needs of the local communities. </p> <p> the experiences of the ko tribal council and its collaborators reflect the argument that the acquisition, installation, and adoption of computers and icts depends on an array of non-economic forces rather than simply cost-effectiveness (kling &amp; iacono, 1988). with k-net, a core group of community leaders worked with first nations members and interested parties from local education, health, and community service fields to build a business case for internet access (and later broadband). as more and more local interests came to share their vision of an indigenous network, the ko tribal council and its allies brokered public-private sector partnerships to develop their network, built around the principles of a not-for-profit organization and cooperative enterprise. notably, education has been a major component of the network. k-net staff worked hard to impart a “technology curriculum” or culture-of-use in the communities (beaton, fiddler, &amp; rowlandson, 2004) by providing workshops for users to experiment with computers and by supporting individual community champions to manage and organize public computer access through local institutions such as band offices/e-centres and schools. by 1996, 730 users in 21 first nations communities of northwestern ontario had access to the k-net bbs. what was initially a “stay in school” project rapidly became a regional communications medium for adults and youth alike, despite being limited by a text-based low-bandwidth device (figure 2).</p> <p style="text-align:center;"><img src="568-2784-1-le_html_m37f03bfb.png" name="graphics1" width=457 height=100 border=0><br clear=left> <strong>figure 2: k-net's text-based interface (circa 1996)</strong></p> <p> there was no access to the world wide web offered by k-net during this period and all of the online connections went through dial-up. despite slow download speeds, users were creating and linking personal profiles, sharing messages, writing stories and jokes, discussing current events, posting notices and ads, learning about computing, and more. some of the very remote communities that participated, such as north spirit lake and keewaywin, had no direct access to k-net, but they acquired computers and ko periodically airmailed floppy disks between the communities and the bbs server to update the messages, demonstrating the commitment organizers had to serving local communities and using technology to facilitate community development and communication.</p> <p> reflecting the k-net computerization movement as a broad-based initiative driven by community needs, and its connection to a broader national computerization movement, from 1997 to 2000, ko partnered with industry canada’s first nations schoolnet, telesat canada, and the stentor alliance to install direcpc technology in first nations elementary schools and some off-reserve high schools (fiser, 2004). in 1997, ko also began to receive support from industry canada’s community access program (cap) to establish public access sites in k-net communities across northwestern ontario. coupled with the schoolnet program and support from regional and provincial partners, cap enabled k-net communities to leverage school connectivity for public access and hire local coordinators. as ko facilitated the schoolnet initiative and cap-site developments in each community, its staff members travelled around northern ontario to deliver workshops on computing, webpage development, and basic internet skills (1997-1999), and provided ongoing online training and support over the k-net bbs, building local capacities.</p> <p> it was during this period that myknet.org’s web-based precursors emerged. the web-based graphical interface of the bbs (1998) enabled k-net to serve community portals and homepages. the earliest homepages were strictly html and service-oriented. ko staff created initial templates and embedded them within a tutorial designed to facilitate self-directed learning. most learning was undertaken by community members on their own initiative online at the public access sites and to this end, ko staff dedicated much personal effort to build online support systems, chat rooms, tutorials, bulletin boards, listservs, etc. </p> <p> in 2001, k-net became one of industry canada’s smart demonstration projects (cf. ramirez et al., 2003). this project would catalyze k-net’s evolution into a regional wide area network and internet service provider. support leveraged from project partners, including industry canada, fednor, and the northern ontario heritage fund enabled ko to order t1 services (1.544mbps) for four of the ko communities and establish a shared, high-speed satellite service for its most remote community, fort severn. the k-net bbs was retired, and myknet.org acquired its own domain name and dedicated server (figure 3).</p> <p style="text-align:center;"> <img src="568-2784-1-le_html_29777e12.png" name="graphics2" width=533 height=283 border=0><br clear=left> <strong>figure 3: myknet.org user list (circa 2001)</strong></p> <p> a year later, the fort severn satellite initiative led ko to partner with telesat canada r&amp;d and industry canada to initiate the c-band public benefits transponder agreement (keewaytinook okimakanak research institute, 2005). a logical complement to the smart initiative, the c-band satellite service would help deliver broadband applications in 12 remote first nations that could not otherwise acquire network services in northern ontario. with broadband, residential internet access finally became a feasible project in the region, although public access e-centres and schools continue to be the primary access points for myknet.org end-users in the region. the ensuing years to the present have seen k-net expand broadband services in partnership with 40 other remote communities.</p> <p> due to the high cost of network services in remote areas, limited bandwidth is an ongoing management issue, especially for users over k-net’s satellite network, which services 44 communities. as part of a community-based network, myknet.org users have to negotiate uptime with regularly scheduled high-capacity applications such as videoconferencing and telemedicine. the increasing use of audio/video on myknet.org homepages led to a 2006 decision by k-net staff to institute a daily quota to manage community bandwidth. other than to support higher-capacity community-based applications, k-net does not regulate the type of content created on the myknet.org server, however, to ensure that myknet.org does not disrupt services such as videoconferencing and telemedicine, especially in the k-net satellite communities, staff evaluate pages and disk usage and temporarily suspend high bandwidth consuming pages until services are rendered.</p> <p> that myknet.org emerged out of a national computerization movement on the part of the canadian government, which provided programs and funding for much of the technological implementation in the region, is key. it is its development within a <i>local</i> computerization movement in the region, that was (and remains) focused on local education, local ownership/control of media, and development of local capacities (particularly among youth), that is central to its understanding by users and community members, however. myknet.org is seen as belonging to the community and, as the discussion of myknet.org uses below highlights, the network is used in various ways as a means of supporting local communication and community-building.</p> <p> <b>community-based &amp; community-focused technology</b></p> <p> in the remote first nations of northern ontario, media services develop more slowly, and, as our respondents stated, any new medium that is made available will be used if community members have enough control to make it work for their purposes. results of a recently conducted online survey amongst 1006 myknet.org users indicate that the internet is the most important communication medium for survey respondents, followed by cable and satellite television, telephone and community radio (budka, 2008). taking into consideration the web-based implementation of the survey, as well as the age of survey participants (57 % are younger than 26 years), these results are hardly surprising. </p> <p> myknet.org is taking its place among other community media in the region, in some ways acting as a substitute for the telephone, which was, due to a lack of infrastructure, never widely used within the communities. in other ways, myknet.org is functioning like community radio (present in the region since the 1970s), but with a younger audience and user group at the helm. community radio broadcasts mainly in the native languages (cree, oji-cree, and ojibway) and is used primarily by older community members (those over 40 years of age), while younger people in many of the communities do not speak these languages as fluently as their elders and find english-language media more accessible. some interviewees compared myknet.org to community radio, particularly as both are locally-driven and locally-operated initiatives and both allow individual community members to participate and make their voices heard. while access and language issues caused some interviewees to be cautious about claiming that myknet.org is as broadly accessible in the first nations as community radio, they made it clear that both media are important to community members specifically because they are considered to be owned and shaped by the communities themselves (unlike satellite television, for example). </p> <p> like community radio, myknet.org connects individuals within communities, but it also enables connections across communities. we heard a number of stories about the possibilities for communication amongst frequent myknet.org users. we were told particularly of parents who use myknet.org to locate their children when they travel abroad, or even within the local communities. in one story, parents asked their older daughter where her sister was going to be that night, and the older daughter went onto the girl’s myknet.org homepage to find her location. our respondents told us that these were not uncommon patterns of use.</p> <p> such purposeful searches of myknet.org are facilitated by daily patterns of homepage use (updating and reading), supported by a k-net policy that requires myknet.org users to register accounts under their surname and given names. coupled with this policy, the uniqueness of surnames in northern ontario first nations turns myknet.org into a dynamic map of kinship ties in the region. we were told that aboriginal users who understand the correspondences between surnames, territories, and communities can use myknet.org to follow the movements of their peers and relations across the region. we heard stories about distant family relations becoming reunited through myknet.org, including estranged family members scattered across provinces and remote-urban divides. as arnold and plymire (2004) have argued, aboriginal online activities can be important means for cultural communities to keep in touch and to maintain a sense of community despite changing geographic locations. in its uses by community members, myknet.org is playing such a role as homepages are used extensively to keep in touch with friends, family, and colleagues. almost 78 percent of web survey respondents state that they use myknet.org to keep in touch with family and friends (n=1006, cf. budka, 2008). </p> <p> myknet.org homepages cover the entire community lifecycle, announcing births, graduations, marriages, separations, and deaths. myknet.org communities post their own homepages to advertise local events (e.g., <u><a href="http://sandylakerecreation.myknet.org/">http://sandylakerecreation.myknet.org/</a></u>) and local programs, associations, and sports teams create pages to keep the public informed about their activities (e.g., <u><a href="http://sandylakefiredept.myknet.org/">http://sandylakefiredept.myknet.org/</a></u>, <u><a href="http://littlebandshockey.myknet.org/">http://littlebandshockey.myknet.org/</a></u>). aside from personal miscellany, individuals use homepages to promote business, arts, spiritual beliefs, and teachings from the land (e.g., <u><a href="http://ronniebeaver.myknet.org/">http://ronniebeaver.myknet.org/</a></u>, <u><a href="http://josephsutherland.myknet.org/">http://josephsutherland.myknet.org/</a></u>, <u><a href="http://calkenny.myknet.org/">http://calkenny.myknet.org</a></u>, <u><a href="http://dokodesigns.myknet.org/">http://dokodesigns.myknet.org</a></u>). </p> <p style="text-align:center;"><b> <img src="568-2784-1-le_html_m3c45a431.jpg" name="graphics3" width=530 height=282 border=0><br clear=left> figure 4: an artist’s homepage on myknet.org, ringofiddler.myknet.org</b></p> <p> unforeseen events also become woven into the fabric of myknet.org. one of our respondents told us of the time she learnt of a fire in a neighbouring community by reading a friend’s homepage. news of the fire spread across myknet.org and within a few days there was a movement (coordinated largely over myknet.org) to provide the community with relief. other disasters such as teen suicide have led to memorials and public information bulletins on myknet.org. respondents told us that some community members have been known to monitor their local youths’ homepages for signs of depression, and have staged interventions on a number of occasions. in such ways myknet.org fulfils an important role in strengthening not only familial and friendship ties, but also in facilitating inter-community communication, civic action, and other interpersonal connections. these uses of myknet.org that focus on connecting communities and community members through advertising events or providing information on local organizations, for example, reflect the important inreach activities described by landzelius (2003, 2006a).</p> <p> another part of the community-based and community-focused aspect of myknet.org is its non-commercial nature. while mainstream online social network sites, such as facebook, beebo, and myspace, have seen increasing amounts of marketing and advertising on their pages, from marketers gleaning information from profiles to bands and celebrities using the networks for promotion (barnes, 2006), myknet.org remains non-commercial and locally-focused. there is no fear of marketers seeking users online and the promotion that does take place is by local artisans, musicians, or organizations through their respective homepages.</p> <p> in the remote first nations of northwestern ontario, an internet users’ first experiences with the world wide web usually consists of knet.ca and myknet.org. as a community-based and community-focused medium, myknet.org provides an alternative to mainstream commercial online social network sites. the uniqueness of its users, the kinship and community ties they represent, provides myknet.org with an advantage that any competing commercial network would not presently be able to meet. myknet.org users are intimately enveloped by the cultural experience of a computerization movement in the northwestern ontario first nations such that there is more to myknet.org’s appeal than simply communications. </p> <p> respondents told us that they identify k-net and myknet.org as part of their community experience, in contrast to other websites and online social environments that they may visit and use. web survey respondents repeatedly expressed their affection for myknet.org, stating that they appreciate “[...] knowing native people have a place to visit on the www” and create their own homepages “[...] to have a native web page [...] for the whole world to see, i guess... lol [laugh out loud]” (budka 2009).</p> <p> <b>conclusion</b></p> <p> this study of myknet.org aims to draw a preliminary map of this rich and fascinating online environment, focusing particularly on the importance of the community-based nature of the network’s development and uses. we encountered much that is worth celebrating in terms of the vitality of northern ontario’s remote first nations and discovered some particular areas of caution and uncertainty. while there are many other stories to be told about myknet.org, this particular account drew its interpretations from a selected group of key informants: administrators, early innovators, casual users, and non-users who have been actively thinking about what makes myknet.org a social networking environment and cultural milieu. their stories, together with selected results of an online survey, reveal the many ways in which the service is used to build and maintain familial, friendship, and community relationships, and how these are structured within and through the realities of the geographical location and demographic make-up of the northern ontario first nations and particularly the peoples of the nishnawbe aski nation.</p> <p> within the framework of aboriginal media, myknet.org stands out in many ways. those we spoke to suggest that myknet.org is a vibrant social networking site, not by virtue of a narrowly configured web server, but by virtue of the practices of its users. no one knows who created the first “shout out” or the first interactive guest book on myknet.org; nor can our respondents say for certain who started the first daily blog or listing of community events, or who created the first tribute to a deceased loved one, and so forth. what they know is that these functions are now integral to their myknet.org experience and contribute to their community life. for observers of myknet.org it is clear that local experiences of life in the first nations contribute to creating, shaping and connecting the myknet.org homepages (cf. miller &amp; slater, 2002).</p> <p> moreover, within the context of global indigenous internet usage, myknet.org and its many creators/users demonstrate that “historically marginalized peoples are not only taking roles, but in certain respects taking the lead, as savvy, technoscientific actors themselves ‘colonizing’ global media channels and converting them into fertile habitats for the exercise of identity and voice across distance” (landzelius, 2006b, p. 300). the passion of local leaders and their ability to develop a local computerization movement within a national movement to “connect canadians” drove the implementation of computer technology in the region and helped to shape the uses of the technology – uses that continue to facilitate inter-community communication as well as personal development. </p> <p> <b>acknowledgements</b></p> <p> the authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the canadian research alliance for community innovation and networking (cracin) and the university of vienna (scholarship for academic research abroad), as well as the research support provided by k-net and kori. sincere thanks to all of our research participants for sharing their insights and stories.</p> <p> <b>references</b></p> <p> anderson, b. 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(2006). indigenous, ethnic and cultural articulations of new media. <i>international journal of cultural studies</i>, 9(4), 497–518.</p> <p> statistics canada (2006). <i>aboriginal peoples in canada 2006: inuit, métis and first nations, 2006 census</i>, ottawa: statistics canada. retrieved march 30, 2008 from <br><u><a href="http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/rt-td/ap-pa-eng.cfm">http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/rt-td/ap-pa-eng.cfm</a></u> </p> <p><strong>endnotes</strong></p> <div id="sdfootnote1"> <p lang="en-us" style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote1sym" href="#sdfootnote1anc">1</a> e-centres are local public-access facilities, usually housed in or near a community band office or school, that provide multimedia pcs and internet access free of charge to residents and visitors. periodically staff offer relevant workshops.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote2"> <p lang="en-us" class="sdfootnote-western"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote2sym" href="#sdfootnote2anc">2</a> fiser did his fieldwork between 2004 and 2007 while budka collected his data between 2006 and 2008. </p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote3"> <p lang="en-us" style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote3sym" href="#sdfootnote3anc">3</a> in respect of our participants’ privacy, we have chosen to anonymize our discussions.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote4"> <p lang="en-us" class="sdfootnote-western"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote4sym" href="#sdfootnote4anc">4</a> we use this concept while aware that there are several other approaches which could be used to understand information and communication technology and social change(e.g. bijker &amp; law 1992; castells, 1996, 1997, 1998; mccaughey &amp; ayers, 2003). </p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote5"> <p lang="en-us" style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote5sym" href="#sdfootnote5anc">5</a> the communities are deer lake, fort severn, kasabonika, keewaywin, north spirit lake, and poplar hill. a seventh community, mcdowell lake (population 51) is a seasonal settlement without a school. kasabonika left the tribal council in 1998.</p> </div> </body> </html>   spiders in the net: universities as facilitators of community-based learning  gerhard fischer center for lifelong learning & design < gerhard@colorado.edu > markus rohde information systems and new media, university of siegen, germany < markus.rohde@uni-siegen.de >  volker wulf information systems and new media, university of siegen; fraunhofer institute for applied information systems (fhg-fit), germany < volker.vulf@uni-siegen.de >     abstract this paper explores the importance of universities in the knowledge society beyond their traditional role in research and education. it argues that, especially in the fields of applied sciences and engineering, they have the potential to exploit local knowledge and provide opportunities for students to become lifelong learners. first, they need to reinvent their conception of education by taking industrial practise and social networks into account.     universities play an important role in the knowledge society (brown & duguid, 2000). beyond their traditional role in research and education, they have the potential exploit local knowledge in (regional) innovations and to provide opportunities for students to become lifelong learners. to realize these potentials, universities, specifically in the fields of applied sciences and engineering, will have to reinvent their conception of education by taking the importance of industrial practise and social networks into account (tsichritzis, 1999). traditionally, university teaching is based on an “instructionist” understanding of learning which assumes that the instructor possesses all relevant knowledge and passes it to the learners (noam, 1995). the learner is seen as a receptive system that stores, recalls and transfers knowledge. such an understanding has been criticized from theoretical and practical points of view (cf. collins et al., 1989; jonassen and mandl, 1990). in a highly differentiated world full of open ended and ill-defined problems it is rather unlikely that an individual (professor) or an academic organization (faculty) alone will possess sufficient knowledge to foster learning among students and practitioners sufficiently (arias, et al., 2001). we believe that socio-cultural theories of learning (bruner, 1996) and the concepts of social capital (huysman & wulf, 2004) and social creativity  (fischer et al., 2005) hold considerable promise as a theoretical base for the repositioning of universities in the knowledge society. learning is understood as a collective process (rogoff, et al., 1998) that is linked to a specific context of action. in socio-cultural theories of learning, communities of practice are the social aggregate in which learning and innovation take place. knowledge emerges by discursive assignment and social identification (lave & wenger, 1991; wenger, 1998). social capital is about value derived from being a member of a social aggregate. by being a member, people have access to resources that non-members do not have (bourdieu, 1985; huysman & wulf, 2004; putnam, 1993). social capital can serve as an enabler to social learning processes (cohen & prusak 2001); fischer et al., 2004; huysman &wulf, 2004), and it represents a precondition for the emergence of communities of practice. the information systems research group (is) at the university of siegen will be taken as an example of how universities may draw on the concepts of communities of practice and social capital to reposition themselves in societal learning processes. supported by research funds from public and industry sources, the is group has grown from three to ten staff members (faculty and research associates) during recent years. research is organized around individual, typically externally funded, projects and practice emerges within these projects or groups of them. to set up a network within the regional it industry, the is group got specific funding from the european structural fund. in siegen, opportunities for enculturation into specific communities of practice are considered to be a major instrument of education at the university level. this approach complements “learning about” with “learning to be” (the second objective serves as the fundamental principle underlying the undergraduate research apprenticeship program at the university of colorado, boulder; for detail see: http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/urap/). so far, experiences have been primarily gained with enculturation processes into two different types of communities of practice: those within the research group and those within regional it companies. we have reinterpreted the following elements of the is curriculum to offer opportunities for students to participate in our practice: seminars, project groups, and the diploma thesis. with regard to each of these elements of the curriculum, we define tasks that are relevant to actual and future research projects in our group (e.g., elaborating the state of the art of a new research area within a seminar, implementing specific software components in the framework of a project group, or designing a prototype in a masters thesis). we also offer paid jobs for students to work within our research projects on an ongoing base. since the relevance of these tasks is obvious to students and researchers, an important precondition for processes of enculturation is met. enculturation processes into the research group get more likely and intense in those cases when the students follow up on more than one of these learning opportunities. though the research projects are typically conducted in cooperation with industry, our practice is more research-oriented compared to the one our graduates will experience in industry after finishing their studies. therefore, we offer additional types of learning opportunities to students by integrating student teams into the communities of practice of local it companies. to host teams of two to three students, it companies define projects close to their core business. the student teams work on these projects in close cooperation with actors from the companies. when working in industry our students are closely coached by members of the research group. the student teams are connected to each other and to their supervisors in academia by means of a community system. rohde, et al. (2005) present results of an evaluation study of an earlier implementation of this approach in entrepreneurship education. community-based approaches to university education provide learning opportunities for academics and companies. while enculturation into the companies’ communities of practice is seen as the main mechanism for student learning, students often mediate between university and company practice. since the students are coached by their advisers during their experience in the company, they carry ideas back and forth between the communities of practise within companies and academia. companies get word of innovative ideas out of academia while researchers get feedback on the applicability of their concepts. this boundary spanning activity is especially intense when the students have been enculturated previously in academia. to establish community-based approaches to university education, academic visibility and a sufficient level of social capital are required. the enculturation processes require substantial efforts from companies as well as from students. companies are only rewarded in the end and in those cases when their proposed project turned out to be successful. mutual trust between companies and academia is built over time through cooperation in successful projects. to get the process started, a certain reputation built through other (regional) activities is instrumental. regional networking activities and the joint acquisition of research projects have turned out to be an important means of building social capital. in the future, we will extend this community-building effort to include our network of alumni. to offer appropriate learning opportunities to their students, academics will have to building and maintain a dense web of social relations.   references arias, e. g., eden, h., fischer, g., gorman, a., & scharff, e. 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(1998). communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. newspapers stapled to the ceiling attempt to catch the dirt falling inevitably onto the clothing and furniture when people wal the journal of community informatics, (2004), vol. 1, issue 1, pp. 76-83 local learnings: an essay on designing to facilitate effective use of ict s tony salvador intel corporation < tony.salvador@intel.com > john sherry intel corporation < john.sherry@intel.com > abstract in this essay, we explore some of the details of what it takes to own, use and derive benefit from information and communication technologies, with a focus on regions where ict adoption and use is especially low. we begin with a fairly meticulous description from our ethnographic work to which we’ll refer throughout the paper. though we consider this particular instance, we note that it represents of a wide range of instances from our ethnographic work in homes and businesses over several years in brazil, costa rica, chile, ecuador, bolivia, peru, korea & india. our goal in this paper, however, is to change the conversation from discussions of infrastructure and capacity building to considerations of local, lived conditions in actual homes and actual businesses to suggest design alternatives that make effective use of icts more amenable to various locales. we offer two design directions especially for high tech corporations: designing for locus of control and designing for local participation. along the way, we’ll argue to reframe of the current conception of “digital divide”, putting the burden not on those with limited access, but on limited understanding within the high tech industry. mailto:tony.salvador@intel.com mailto:john.sherry@intel.com local learnings 77 introduction we start with a fairly lengthy description jose miguel, his village and his use of computing. from this, and other examples of our ongoing ethnographic work, we offer two design directions which are subsequently discussed. jose miguel walking down the road you can see the mud brick house, surrounded by a crumbly wall of adobe. the grounds of the small courtyard are uneven, reflecting years of erosion and compacting from rain and the walking of human and animals. a piece of pvc pipe pokes up out of the ground with a hand pump like those seen in some american western movies when people had to work to get water from the ground. nearby is a large, plastic, blue barrel that is the water tank for the household. there’s no hot water unless someone heats some. a dog lives in the courtyard and it is his job to guard the house. other things are strewn about: a bicycle, the frame of a doghouse under construction, some drying clothes, and a variety of parts from a variety of devices. to one side, a door of loose-fitting wooden slats opens onto a small room with a floor made of the same wooden slats. just below the floor is dirt – dirt that sometimes works its way up from between the floorboards. there are no windows. the only light comes from the doorway when it’s open. the ceiling is lined with newspaper to keep dust and debris from falling into the room when people walk on the floor above. cloth coverings over clothes, books, and musical instruments serve as further defenses against the ubiquitous dust. back outside, along the perimeter of the courtyard, there are two tiny “chicken coops”. unlike jose miguel’s room, both of the coops are heated. yellow propane canisters sit right there on the ground with a hose running directly to a small heat lamp hung low over the floor to keeping the chicks warm. the floor of the coop is a comfortable tussle of wood chips and the chicks are fed nutritious food, which is more than the dog gets and sometimes more than the family gets. across the road, jose miguel works a small carefully tended organic garden with an american man who lives nearby with his wife, a photographer and fulbright scholar. jose miguel is starting to apply his new college degree in “agropecuario” (roughly animal husbandry and agriculture) to meet the needs of his home village. his chicken business is cleverly called “pollitos gigantes” (giant chicks). he’s the first from his village of 83 households to graduate from college. his father, a poor farmer, was forced to sell some precious land to pay the college expenses of his second son, the only one of his five children to have this opportunity. to finish his five-year program, jose miguel was required to research, write and orally defend what i can only report is the equivalent of an american master’s thesis at any us college and a doctoral dissertation at some. with unbelievable good fortune, the american couple loaned him us $200 (four to six month’s income for many in the village) to “rent” a computer for four months from a computer vendor in a nearby city. (although no such thing as “computer rental” is available in this part of the world, a private arrangement was made and secured by the americans’ cash loan.) . jose miguel had four months to finish his thesis. the computer and everything he needed was in that room. no windows, only light from the open door. electricity–– when there was electricity– was supplied through an extension cord run in from another room. a richly woven blanket covered the computer to keep away the gentle fallout of dust and dirt from the ceiling. what’s amazing to us is not that jose miguel had the computer in this poor room, but that he needed one. there were two other computers we knew of that were in use in the community. one was the result 78 the journal of community informatics of a grant to the local civic organization; it sat in the director’s office where it went mostly unused. the second wasn’t actually in the community, but more than an hour’s bus ride away where jose miguel and a few other people from his community were working in a homemade recording studio to make a cd of their music. other than that, there was no one else in his community who needed a computer enough to find a way to get one or get use of one. the village is mostly comprised of farmers and craft workers, laborers and herders, children and the elderly. few have documents to process or cds to record. and yet, some do. it’s not there’s no need – it’s just widely distributed. in many ways, the folks that are accessing pcs in these environments are akin to eric von hippel’s commonly used notion of “lead users”; they go through extraordinary means to gain access, in many ways modifying their environment to make it happen. jose miguel’s story here gives us a window into a living system that is ill suited to accommodate computing. the pc was invented and has developed in a highly refined physical and social environment available – and often limited to – the wealthiest countries and to the wealthiest people around the world. this is certainly not to say that all people adopt technology similarly; and yet, there seem to be certain assumed capabilities required to own and operate a computer – capabilities that are mostly beyond the immediate locus of control in any particular home or business. in the next section, we offer a brief description of our methods and approach, followed by two design directions referencing the example of jose miguel. a note on methods as part of the people and practices group at intel corporation, we use ethnographic techniques, e.g., shadowing, participant observation and nondirective, situated interviews, to gain insight into the lives of people, places and systems of interaction in various places around the world. the content of this essay derives from several years of work specifically to identify potential applications, needs, desires, appropriate technologies and business models relevant to a large corporation for bridging the “digital divide”. overall, we examined many different sites at various levels of detail. in many ways, the work evolved over the years. as a result of this long term, but less structured sampling, we are not making grand claims. we are offering a more generalized position that considers a breadth of data, derived over time, from multiple sites and in various contexts. from this, we extract more generalized patterns reflecting the intersection of people and places that we hope may be beneficial to ict adoption and use in places currently without access. field work contributing to this essay, explicitly and implicitly were collected over a period extending from 1999 through 2002; therefore, at the time these data were collected, newer technologies, such as wifi wireless connectivity were not available. design direction: locus of control there are many discussions of “digital divide” that have discussed a wide range of attributes defining the “digital divide”, including limited infrastructure and limited access to icts (cf., campbell, 2001) as well as presumed benefits of icts, including eradication of hunger, gender empowerment and improved education (cf., batchelor, et al., 2003). it’s unnecessary to write about them again here. however, it’s the former rather than the latter to which the business units of multinational corporations (mncs) often turn their attention and apply their considerable resources – when they do anything at all. the issue can be, perhaps crassly, but certainly honestly, summed up as this general question: “what’s preventing people from buying our stuff?” the united nations, among others, clearly supports the contention that icts are beneficial to ict development; so there must be some barriers preventing adoption and use – barriers that reside not with the icts themselves, but with the environment. rather than delineate the laundry list of issues yet again, i’d like to consider a few small details of the physical environment from jose miguel’s perspective to illustrate this point: it’s the little things– little local learnings 79 things that often go unconsidered – that add up making a big difference in the ability to effectively use icts (gurstein, 2003). providing free satellite connectivity won’t matter if these “little things” that are part and parcel of the local environment are unconsidered in ict design. that is, the digital divide is less about them and more about our (those in the high tech industry) limited understanding and intuition about these potential market places. let’s consider an almost trivial example: there’s an electrical extension cord that brings power from one part of the jose miguel’s house passing right in front of the door to his room over to the computer. although not the typical focus of high tech research, this extension cord is illustrative of what is often taken for granted. in american households, extension cords are a commonplace, extra item held in reserve, just in case it’s needed. in the extreme case, it’s not all that unlikely for an american to find a used extension cord casually discarded in the trash some family put out on the street for collection. (i found a not insignificant portion of my graduate school furnishings in the trash the gracious townsfolk of somerville massachusetts left on the street.) in lieu of searching the rubbish bins, a cord similar jose miguel’s costs us $2 in a goodwill store; new from a bona fide hardware store, they cost about us $12, which represents 0.028% of the median annual us household income. for jose miguel, that same $10 is 1.6% of his household income. an extension cord is not something he can find on the street and it’s not something he can get “on the cheap” – because otherwise everyone would. (interesting aside: while driving between towns north of san jose, costa rica with a man who has a small photo shop, he suddenly pulled over, got out and picked up a log he saw on the side of the street. i gave him a hand. he apologized, but said that the log would be good as part of the background set in his photo studio: “you don’t see good things like this on the road often. people take up the good things fast.”) however much the extension cord can be considered a scarce resource, it is largely within jose miguel’s control to get one and not having one is not a significant barrier to adopting computing. in fact, in one family home in cuenca, the third largest city in ecuador, the light “switch” was actually two ends of wire the physical connection of which provided a live connection and turned on the kitchen light. the family had been unable or unwilling to install, pay for or cajole the landlord into the installation of an actual switch, and yet, the kitchen, being in a windowless room, required light, and not infrequent electric shocks were a small price to pay. thus, the local infrastructure is not always a barrier to use; given the ability to control the situation, many people are resourceful and find – often minimally – acceptable means. of course, these inconveniences certainly sum and provide a less than ideal foundation for adopting and using icts. yet, aspects that can be locally controlled have a better chance of being adopted than aspects that are controlled elsewhere. for example, a grid source of reliable electricity is somewhat beyond jose miguel’s sphere of influence; and when it’s off, he might do something else other than continue writing his thesis. however, we note that his chickens are not heated with electricity, but with liquid propane. if the electricity goes out, they may die – and that’s his livelihood; besides, electricity is more expensive than propane and, additionally, he can control when the lamps are on and off in accordance with temperature requirements rather than availability of electricity. most computers are not designed with this feature in mind. in india, among other places, some local businesses have taken matters into their own hands and purchased a universal power supply, which acts as a large, rechargeable battery to power the computer during times of no grid provided electricity. too bad computers do not accommodate different sources of power – propane, wind, sun, car batteries, etc. designing computing to accommodate various sources of power, for various periods of time seems not unreasonable in these contexts. however, designing icts to accommodate these conditions requires an understanding perhaps exceeding the collective experience of many high tech firms whose employees simply assume full power anywhere, anytime. the divide in this case is less about having grid provided, stable electricity and more about limited awareness and understanding on the part of the manufacturers. the actual provision of power is one thing, but to use the equipment there’s an expectation of constancy. for example, in work we’ve done in india, information kiosk operators use computing and 80 the journal of community informatics connectivity to provide desired services to rural villagers. however, in many places, power is off for at least 12 hours during the day. daytime, not surprisingly, is when most people open their shops and conduct business. there’s a conflict here. although, as described above, backup power sources are available and used, they are insufficient to operate throughout the day. the result is that services are limited to what can be deferred until the end of the day when the power comes back on. actually having the alternate power is representative of the fact that this is a business and can justify the capital expenditure. however, because of the power limitation, growth of the business is constrained to services that meet this rather arbitrary power requirement. for jose miguel, no power during the day means he needs to read and write at night, when it’s dark; in his unheated room, when it’s cold. he could aim one of those heat lamps on himself. but then the chicks might have something to say about that. the point we are trying to make regarding infrastructure is that these details matter a lot for the adoption of technology for everyday use. every “little thing” that must be overcome is one more barrier in the way. having electricity is clearly important. being able to get electricity to where it needs to be is also important. having an expectation of when you can use it is important. an american corporation may assume a certain balance between proximal (close to the user) and distal (far from the user) control. such assumptions, when inappropriate, lead to user difficulties in adapting the technology to local contexts. for the corporation, these difficulties reveal themselves as “surprises” that violate their assumptions. i daresay jose miguel’s relative difficulty acquiring an extension cord would surprise decision makers in most high tech corporations – and it’s just one little thing; the dust falling from the adobe ceiling would be another; that his room is unheated would be another. and so on. the result is a “digital divide”. one way around this is to design technology explicitly to support a variable locus of control such that the technology can adapt to reflect an appropriate balance of proximal and distal control. perhaps it’s possible to design technologies such that when considering the long list of infrastructure issues, the question is to not “what’s available” – the full set currently assumed simply won’t be available for quite some time. rather, the question is to consider the range of potential infrastructures and design to support a range of available combinations in a way that’s also responsible to the corporation. let’s approach this issue from the perspective of “digital divide”. the phrase suggests digital “haves” and “have-nots”. it also suggests that the have-nots are missing out, specifically on economic development. further, the discourse about the “digital divide” leads one to work to create conditions to turn the have-nots into haves through lists of things they don’t have. it’s a fine, long-term goal. but it’s a long-term goal and it assumes parity at some point. meanwhile, technologies continue to evolve at an increasingly rapid pace and the digital “haves” continue to extract more and more benefit and advantage, meanwhile driving the two sides of the “divide” further apart. perhaps what corporations should do is not go down this garden path, and actually design to accommodate local conditions. from a corporate point of view, the goal should be to accommodate the conditions among the have-nots such that they have what the haves have and, therefore, there are fewer and fewer impediments to buying things the corporation is selling. it’s really not that radical a concept. yet, the whole concept of “digital divide” seems to have mobilized a much grander movement that may be, to offer the cliché, missing the trees for the forest. we find the utility of the “digital divide” as a construct largely without utility in a corporate context because it absolves corporations from a responsibility to make products that suit the market. rather, high tech corporations ought to address these potential markets in appropriate ways. in this example, they ought to embrace variability in infrastructures and design accordingly. as one direction, we suggest designing to support a variable balance of proximal and distal locus of control. but still, just having the technology is without significant meaning (gurstein, 2003). a second direction we propose here is to design to support local participation: designing technologies such that local the local communities can benefit at least as much as any individual. local learnings 81 local of participation as we mentioned, jose miguel raises chicks as well as working a small plot of land as an organic farm. to you and me, these endeavors might not seem particularly innovative, but he’s making an attempt to apply his newly earned college degree to improving the lot of his community. pollitos gigantes and the organic farm are experiments he’s running to figure out how his community can benefit. that is, he’s locally adapting his knowledge – a resource gained from outside the community – to the local conditions. we’ll briefly outline three examples and then discuss them in terms of participation. example 1: by keeping the chicks warm, more of them survive. since he purchases the chicks in bulk – by the flat, there’s already loss during transportation. typically, there’s further loss due to local conditions and natural attrition. we know that warmth improves yield. but he’s got to provide the warmth economically for his business. we already know that a few dollars can represent a significant portion of household income. he’s got to reliably improve yield while increasing his operating costs and he’s got to do it in his local context of relatively few dollars, limited outlets for sale, limited means of distribution, etc. example 2: farmland is fairly open in cañar; animals and people use the fields for their daily needs. rain is limited for half the year; and the town is at elevations exceeding 10,000 feet. farmland is also not collocated to their homes. often, cañari people have to walk long distances to get to and from their fields, which were allocated to them through agrarian reform, where the main crops are potatoes, corn, peas, and grains such as barley and quinoa, indigenous to the andes. as an aside, jose miguel tells us that there are older people who remember more than 80 different varieties of potatoes, many of which are particularly suited to that altitude and climate. many varieties of corn also appear to be lost and part of jose miguel’s endeavor is to find their strains and bring them back. in addition, the community likely eats more rice now, because of the price differential; rice is not locally grown and this is therefore not a local solution. anyway, jose miguel knows that certain farming techniques such as irrigation, appropriate fertilization, attentive maintenance, etc., will result in greater yields. yet, the situation is the same as with pollitos gigantes: it’s unclear how to balance local constraints with the techniques he’s learned. example 3: we invited jose miguel to visit and speak at a conference we held at intel. together we managed to secure a visa and he arrived. he spoke about his people and himself; then he wanted to see some farms. james is a local organic subscription farmer we happen to know socially and he invited us to his farm. a subscription farm is one in which households subscribe to receive a share of the produce over the course of the farms production, in this case, year round. james himself uses a pda to track where in his four acres crops are located and when they’ve been planted, etc. of course the few intel people there were particularly interested in this high-tech/low-tech farming operation. on the other hand, jose miguel met one of the farm hands and they went off speaking spanish. turns out jose miguel was particularly interested in the irrigation system, especially the hoses. for james, it’s just a low water-use irrigation hose with openings that can be regulated along its length. for jose miguel, he saw immediate utility for his village and of course queried the farmhand about all sorts of practical details regarding its manufacture and use. he knew its local value; none of us did. even james didn’t, and he’s a farmer. we also found out that the hose can be purchased in various increments, larger ones costing less; if the village aggregated capital to make the purchase it might be of interest. getting it there, is another question all together. it is rather impractical for jose miguel to discover innovations by coming to the us to speak at a conference and visit a farm. and yet, it is on farms like james’ where innovations such as this hose are used because james, as fringe as he is, is actually part of a market. it’s only recently that prahalad & hart (2002) & prahalad & hammond (2001) have posited that there are profitable markets at the “bottom of the pyramid”. their writing establishes that it is possible for large corporations to market to these people. our question is somewhat different: how – if at all – can icts empower people to interact with and participate in extant markets such they don’t need (to wait) to be marketed to, or preached to, or given to? one way suggested by our research is to think actively about what it means to participate and to imagine technologies that permit appropriate participation. we focus here on what local participation means. in cañar and surrounding areas, the carnival festival in february is the focus of a year’s planning. 82 the journal of community informatics one of the scattered indigenous villages per year assumes primary responsibility for the entire festival, including its funding, and derives a variety of benefits from the community in response. the responsibility of playing host for the festival is considered a principle honor in the community. separately, on palm sunday, the villagers gather to parade their patron saints to the town cathedral for blessings. during harvest, farmers gather to assist each other with the work through a process knows as the minga, akin to the “barn-raisings” of amish fame. jose luis, a cousin of jose miguel, has a small photography shop near the town center; the shop is also a place for various community groups to meet. it’s also a place for a musical group to meet, to which jose luis and jose miguel belong. by the way, most of the equipment for the band is owned collectively, and not individually. there is at least one mode of participation that is not individual. jose miguel is expressly applying his collegiate skills to his community. he’s made a conscious choice to remain in his community for that purpose, when most young men his age are emigrating illegally to the u.s., spain, and other countries his allegiance is to his people and to that place. participation is communal. participation is local and locally oriented. in contrast, the pc and its applications – to a large extent – has evolved to support individual, global participation. if jose miguel had invented computing, what might it look like? first, it might support local wireless communication needs – people talking to each other when they are away from their homes and lands – or people within various of the scattered communities coordinating with each other to secure the rights and also to operate commercially. it might serve as a hub for local communications, which means many wireless peripheral devices. second, its focus might well be far less on document writing, and far more on audio and video communication/archiving – for example, gathering and storing the knowledge of those 80 potato varieties. third, almost certainly it would support music composition and performance. fourth, it might also be a mini-projection facility to project movies (and play music) at festivals and in the evenings. fifth, it could support multiple electronic mailboxes – one per person to function like a postal office of sorts. sixth, it might serve as a library for books and other reading materials that can be “checked out” or read there. seventh, it might support a wide range of remote cameras and sensors to monitor their own lands and territories and protect themselves from encroachment from large corporate interests – or at least get a good price. finally, if he had his druthers, heat from the machine, would be channeled to warm his room – or, perhaps, his chickens, this is just one list that i daresay reflects a bit more of his interest in local participation and a good deal less of our interest in them as a market. unfortunately, this list is made without his cooperation. so while these items seem more relevant, it is our supposition that they remain off the mark, being tainted, as they are, by our own biases. regardless, many of these issues aren’t new to jose miguel; but he remains without any voice in technology evolution. heartening for corporations is that many of these needs are now among the cutting edge in terms of technological development. the better news (for manufacturing corporations) is that these sorts of needs are prevalent to large populations around the globe. more distressing is that corporations are going to have to develop a new sensitivity to listen to and collaborate with the majority of the planet. all of this is not to say that jose miguel wishes to remain isolated in his community. as he demonstrated so naturally at james’ farm, there’s a lot to be learned from outside his community. these are the sort of things icts have supported quite well among those with access and all the additional attributes that enable people to effectively use icts. what’s far more difficult to support is localizing what’s available from ‘everywhere’ to what’s relevant to particular individuals in particular locales. these issues appear heavily influenced by business ecosystems, legal structures, property management and entrepreneurial endeavors; this discussion is reserved for another time. summary the hope of this paper is to motivate technological innovations to support local contexts. two suggested directions were proposed to emphasize designing to support locus of control and locus of participation. the bulk of this paper, however, is spent in simply relaying the details of the lived local learnings 83 experience in sufficient detail to make the case for and the connection to innovative technology concepts and ideas. it is vital, we believe, to attend to the details and to attempt to enliven the lived experience in such a way that it can be “felt” by engineers who are inventing and designing technologies; and it is increasingly important as employees are further removed from the locales for which they may be designing. the vast majority of engineers, marketers and management in multinational corporations simply do not have an intuitive understanding of these locales. they are far from each other – in physical, social, cultural, symbolic and emotional distance. if there must be a “digital divide”, it might make more sense and be far more useful for everyone if we were to redefine the divide as a lack of corporate intuition, understanding and empathy for the majority of the planet, than a characterization of haves and have-nots. acknowledgements we gratefully acknowledge judy blankenship’s efforts both in the field with us, and in the editing certain sections this paper. we also thank hsain ilhaine and joan vinyets for their comments and conversation concerning earlier drafts. references campbell, d (2001) “can the digital divide be contained?” international labour review, 140 (2), pp 119141. gurstein, m (2003) “effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide”, first monday, december 2003. accessed september 27, 2004 from http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue8_12/gurstein/index.html prahalad, c.k. & hammond, a. (2001) “what works: serving the poor, profitably: a private sector strategy for global digital opportunity”. accessed september 27, 2004 from http://www.digitaldividend.org/pdf/serving_profitably.pdf prahalad, c.k., & hart, s. l. (2002) “the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid.” accessed september 27, 2004 from: http://www.digitaldividend.org/pdf/bottompyramid.pdf http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue8_12/gurstein/index.html http://www.digitaldividend.org/pdf/serving_profitably.pdf http://www.digitaldividend.org/pdf/bottompyramid.pdf intel corporation < john.sherry@intel.com > design direction: locus of control local of participation special section on learning in communities john m. carroll1 & ann peterson bishop2 professor of information sciences and technology, center for human-computer interaction, pennsylvania state university, usa. email: jcarroll@ist.psu.edu associate professor, graduate school of library and information science, university of illinois, usa. community learning is an area of investigation that goes to the heart of community informatics as we attend to questions of how knowledge is shaped and shared at the local level. learning in communities spans a wide variety of institutions devoted to formal and informal educational processes and is deeply rooted in the goals and capacity inherent in participating individuals, groups, and organizations. how does a community learn across difference? how do information and communication technologies support learning? how do they threaten to reify harmful socioeconomic divides? this special section of the journal of community informatics is based on a multidisciplinary workshop organized by john carroll and held in august 2005 at penn state’s school of information sciences and technology. it contains an informal report of the workshop, as well as 'mini papers' contributed by some of the participants. we hope that this special section on learning in communities will contribute to the field of community informatics, stimulating further conversation among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. informal workshop report: learning in communities, august 14-17, 2005, university park, pa introduction most learning takes place in communities. people continually learn through their participation with others in everyday activities. such learning is important in contemporary society because formal education cannot prepare people for a world that changes rapidly and continually. we need to live in learning communities. a discourse on learning in communities encompasses (at least) communities of practice, learning communities, community networks, communities of interest, learning organizations, learning-by-doing, cognitive apprenticeship, subjugated learning, collaborative/cooperative learning, situated cognition, design as inquiry, knowledge management, lifelong learning, informal learning, case-based learning, and learning cultures. though it is difficult to find any contemporary technical work in the multidisciplinary space of informal learning and collaborative activity that does not appeal to at least one of these touchstone concepts, it is also difficult to find work that tries to confront or to systematize the full range of them. existing conferences tend to “stovepipe” such discussions: thus, meetings of the cognitive science society and the journal of the learning sciences focus much attention on the concepts of cognitive apprenticeship, situated cognition, collaborative/cooperative learning, and even classroom-based learning communities, but ignore informal and collective learning, such as learning organizations, community networks, and learning cultures. information systems conference and journals focus much attention on knowledge management and learning organizations, but do not focus on community networks and informal learning. the computer-support cooperative work conference and journal address knowledge management, communities of practice, and to a limited extent, community networks, but rarely consider case-based learning, learning cultures, life-long learning or subjugated learning. the communities and technology conference and the journal of community informatics focus on communities of practice, community networks, and subjugated learning, but typically do not address issues such as cognitive apprenticeship, situated cognition, and learning communities. the meeting on august 14-17, 2005, a multidisciplinary group of scholars met at penn state's school of information sciences and technology to discuss "learning in communities."  the goals of this workshop were to bring together a wide range of perspectives and approaches to learning in communities, to articulate the state of the art, and to define agendas for research and technology infrastructures and initiatives. the group included the following: ann peterson bishop, community informatics initiative, graduate school of library and information science, university of illinois, urbana-champaign: bishop is interested in community information systems for traditionally marginalized groups; she was a founder of the prairienet community network. john m. carroll, school of information sciences and technology and center for human-computer interaction, penn state, university park: carroll investigates social and computational infrastructures for community-based learning, and is principal investigator for the national science foundation's civic nexus project in sustainable information technology learning. andrew clement, faculty of information studies, university of toronto: clement has worked in community informatics for 30 years, and is currently principal investigator for the canadian research alliance for community innovation and networking. gerhard fischer, department of computer science and institute for cognitive science, university of colorado, boulder, co: fischer investigates reflective communities, tools and environments to support lifelong learning and facilitate creativity. christopher hoadley, department of instructional systems and school of information sciences and technology, penn state, university park, pa: hoadley is interested in knowledge-building communities, and in techniques for measuring community achievements. andrea kavanaugh, center for human-computer interaction, virginia tech, blacksburg, va: kavanaugh investigates communication behavior and effects in the context of community networks; she made a decade-long study of the blacksburg electronic village, and is now evaluating internet services in local government. nancy kranich, library consultant and past president of the american library association: kranich is interested in the role of libraries in providing an information commons, facilitating community-building and democracy, and in enhancing civic literacy. lynette kvasny, school of information sciences and technology and center for the information society, penn state, university park: kvasny is interested in how inner city and third world women understand and recruit information technology to build social, cultural, and economic capital. jenny preece, university of maryland, college park, md: preece has studied behavior in health-related communities, contrasting face-to-face and online interactions; she is currently investigating community-development in the context of the international children's digital library. paul resnick, school of information, university of michigan, ann arbor, mi: resnick is interested in the role universities could play in information technology cooperative extension, and in how to cultivate information technology careers in the civic sector. mary beth rosson, school of information sciences and technology and center for human-computer interaction, penn state, university park, pa: rosson investigates end-user programming and design, particularly in community computing contexts. jorge schement, department of telecommunications and institute for information policy, penn state, university park, pa: schement investigates telecommunication policy implications for hispanic-american communities, rural areas, and evolving conceptions of democracy. mark schlager, center for technology in learning, sri, menlo park, ca: schlager is interested in community infrastructures, and has investigated community-based approaches to teacher professional development in tappedin through the past decade. murali venkatesh, school of information studies, syracuse university, ny: venkatesh investigates power and progressive social action in the context of broadband civic network planning. volker wulf, university of siegen and fraunhofer institute of applied information technology, germany: wulf is interested in supporting knowledge management in communities and social networks, especially in the context of multi-cultural communities. orienting themes and questions we developed a set of orienting questions, as part of the planning process for the workshop and successively elaborated through the course of the workshop itself. design: what are effective strategies and methods for initiating (designing) and sustaining communities of various types? how do and how can communities evolve over time? learning: is learning, in the sense of human development, constitutive of healthy communities? how can communities facilitate various educational objectives, such as lifelong learning, cross-generational learning, knowledge-building, and universal technology literacy? what is the role of the university in facilitating communities, with respect to service learning, better integration of community action and research, and support for careers in civic information technology? context: how can communities cultivate and leverage indigenous/subjugated knowledge? how do communities cope with power structures of the cultures and institutions in which they are embedded? agency: how can communities facilitate innovation and collective action? measurement and evaluation: how can we know when a community project or a community succeeds/fails? what are effective strategies and methods for assessing the impacts (e.g. learning, knowledge sharing) of communities on their participants individually and collectively? what are current success stories? infrastructure: what are useful information technology tools and techniques for promoting community objectives (end-user programming, participatory design)? how can information technology support community building (for example, by increasing opportunities for civic discourse and by visualizing the community to itself)? theory: what are useful models, theories and frameworks for understanding community dynamics (activity theory, distributed cognition)? diversity: how can different audiences' needs be met? what power issues relate to different participants' roles and backgrounds? are there ways that communities can be designed to enhance interconnection between different types of people? how can communities facilitate communication and cooperation across international, cultural, and social boundaries? our discussion wound up focusing on three theme clusters: (1) learning in the context of community informatics, (2) paradigms of research and action for studies of learning in community, and (3) community infrastructures that facilitate learning. learning in the context of community informatics we distinguished "learning in communities", in which learning is often informal, incidental, and integrated with participation in community activity, from "learning communities", which exist for and are all about learning. learning in communities is not just reciprocal or mutual learning, it is the collaborative construction of ideas in practice. this concept of learning in communities is implicit in democracy, and discovering how to facilitate such learning is a challenge in the future trajectory of democracy in an age when face-to-face learning may become less important. a key issue for community informatics is how to construct environments that encourage sharing of knowledge, particularly about content and perspectives that are not in the mainstream. paradigms of research and action for studies of learning in communities there is a tension between research and action in studies of learning in communities. many of the workshop participants engage in some form of participatory action research. these methods are appropriate, but they are very costly with respect to the time and effort of faculty and students. standard promotion and tenure values do not weigh community outreach highly. in us land grant universities, there is a well-developed concept of cooperative extension, though its history is primarily agricultural outreach. perhaps a concept of information technology cooperative extension could be developed as a more standard model (boyte, et al., 2001). one issue to consider is that within universities, there often is a clear distinction between cooperative extension faculty and "regular" research and teaching faculty. perhaps the extension model would just institutionalize the tension between research and action. one approach to this tension is to clearly divide consultancy and research engagement. for example, school systems and commercial organizations have well-articulated concepts of consulting. in such a role, one can efficiently provide guidance for a client's problem. but successful consulting often requires focusing totally on solving a specific problem at hand, and not abstracting or generalizing that problem, or on enrolling practitioners as research collaborators. consultancy as an action research paradigm produces case studies that can subsequently be reflected on and developed as research activities. (donald schön’s (1983) work might be a good example of this.) community infrastructures that facilitate learning infrastructure is the socio-technical background that allows work activity to move smoothly. it includes hardware and software, processes of governance, social facilitation of learning, and cultural and cognitive models. infrastructure is often invisible, but invisibility can entail neglect and breakdown, and can replicate existing power structures. different segments of society are differentially able to shape infrastructures. one strategy for managing infrastructures is to make them more visible and participatory, especially during periods of transition when infrastructures are changing. a related strategy is to slow down adoption through collective resistance. one tool for this is raising questions about infrastructures. we are in a period now of rapid development and adoption of new information technology infrastructures.  several workshop participants are exploring alternative infrastructure initiatives that attempted to deliberately strengthen specific aspects of community-oriented activity, such as discussion and debate or visualization of the community. where do we go from here? we want to both report on this workshop and to use it as a catalyst for further multidisciplinary discussions, developments, and investigations of learning in communities. we decided to initially organize a sectioned report on the workshop for the journal of community informatics. in the longer term, we hope to organize a set of special issues for key journals in the research space. the first of these special issue projects could emphasize learning as a core function of communities. a second special issue project might address the distinction and integration of descriptive research and action research with respect to methods and theories, and to the role of universities and university faculty in such activity. a third special issue could discuss infrastructure for community-based learning, and in particular, the objective of deliberately designing infrastructures to facilitate learning in communities. references boyte, h., & resnick, p., with p. levine, r. wachbroit, and l. friedland. (2001). white paper: civic extension for the information age. draft. available at: http://www.si.umich.edu/~presnick/papers/civicextension/index.html schön, d. a. (1983). the reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. new york: basic books. acknowledgements the learning in communities workshop was partially supported by the us national science foundation (iis-0511198).   icts and community and suggestions for further research in scotland anna malina university of dundee < anna@annamalina.co.uk >  ian ball university of dundee < w.i.ball@dundee.ac.uk >   abstract since the early 1990s, strategies for the information society have affected the uk’s social and economic policies and the emergence of information and communication technologies (icts) in local communities.  contemporary icts are suited to handling complex processes so affecting society’s structures and the ways in which people participate in social, cultural, political and economic life.  the technology has also been appropriated by grassroots and community development movements for use in community based systems.  community networks can be used by many different groups and can operate from any venue in the community, and they can be adapted for all kinds of purposes.  the most common suggestion, however, is that community networks provide services to enhance communities, in particular disadvantaged geographic communities. in addition, many countries have set strategies to close the ‘digital divide,’ and have funded locally based technology projects in attempts to achieve universal access and include communities and groups deemed to be in danger of exclusion from the perceived advantages offered by contemporary technology. this paper reviews research that explores ways in which new technologies are significant for aspects of community and human interaction. the strategies and plans to install information and communication technologies (icts) in communities throughout scotland are briefly summarized. short case studies of two different programs in scotland are considered: the scottish executive funded program ‘digital communities’ and the eu funded project demos. this paper then highlights aspects of sustainability, i.e. the maintenance of community enabling ict efforts over the longer term. in the fifth and last section recommendations for future research of ict and community are offered.   ict and community: overview of research some commentators have provided early overviews of the technological and social issues surrounding icts and community (e.g. schuler & namioka, 1993), and some have outlined the practical issues and activities which potential community networkers might consider (e.g.  bajjaly, 1999; cohill & kavanaugh, 2000).  supportive commentators attempt to increase awareness of the value of community networks to the community (e.g. pantry, 1999). in addition, textbooks offer guidance in shaping community-building processes and building community assets (e.g. kretzmann & mcknight, 1993).  some scholars have begun to explore the relationships and interrelationships between real and virtual communities, in particular looking at the development and use of community networks, (e.g. schuler 1994, cohill & kavanaugh 1997; schmitz 1997; silver 1996, 1999, 2000). underpinning much of this literature is the notion that with appropriate values and guidance, investment in local networks will provide opportunities to build social capital and so bring greater opportunities to local neighbourhoods. largely unsubstantiated claims have been made in relation to the worth of new technology. optimistic commentators have claimed that icts increase social capital, while pessimists suggest technology decreases capital and undermines social relationships in the off-line world.  as an alternative to conjecture and anecdotal evidence, quan-haase, wellman with witte & hampton (2002) investigate how the use of the internet and electronic interaction in canada affects social capital. the important goal here is to question “if the internet increases, decreases, or supplements social capital” (p.293). the authors point out that local offline community is often supplemented by on-line interaction. the overall suggestion is that the internet has the potential to help people, particularly young people, increase their social contacts. a further argument made by quan-haase et al (2002) is that technology provides opportunity to seek better information, e.g. political and organisational information, in an affordable and convenient way. however, those disinterested in public affairs are not likely to suddenly become interested as a result of the internet. behaviour will not automatically alter as a result of using technology alone. the authors conclude that levels of internet involvement will not radically affect civic engagement and increase a sense of community, and will not necessarily be associated with either more or less internet involvement. keith hampton, in his project on e-neighbors, addresses concerns about the effects of the internet on family and family life. his study examines the current relationship between internet use and the size and composition of people’s social networks; and explores the potential for new icts to expand social networks, social capital and community involvement at neighbourhood level. a report on this project in spectrum (spring, 2004), indicates that internet services were provided to adult residents of three neighbourhoods.  neighbourhood email was found to be the most widely used service. while advice on home repair was a key topic on email for almost a year, attention was subsequently drawn to local politics and local issues, and participants became active in changing aspects of the neighbourhood. social network analysis is focused on uncovering the patterning of people's interaction. hampton & wellman (2002) suggest that icts provide new opportunities for developing new social networks, and relationships, and inter-relationships can be strengthened through active community interaction.  the implications of electronic networking have also been described elsewhere. castells (1996), for example, offers a theory of the information age, in which he claims a new epoch has just begun, producing a more effective, flexible, yet harder form of capitalism (castells, 1996). in the rise of the network society, castells (1996) argues “as a historical trend, dominant functions and processes in the information age are increasingly organised around networks” (p. 469). in castell’s opinion, exclusion from the network is to be wholly without social, economic and political power. he also warns that one network can subsume another which is less powerful. this, he suggests, is what wholly modifies all existing structures of “production, experience, power, and culture” (castells, 1996, p. 469). the concept of electronic networking to support social and economic life has been central in developing local technology infrastructure and electronic community networks. many governments began to fear exclusion from the network, predicating a spate of funding to support the development of icts in local communities. in a previous publication (malina 2002), i discuss the development and perceived significance of the craigmillar community information service (ccis), a technology supported community network set up to support social and economic regeneration of craigmillar, a deprived area in edinburgh, scotland. three theoretical frameworks were developed: digital democracy, urban entrepreneurialism and benevolent capitalism. these perspectives were helpful in critically analysing the concept of community networking and its associations with civic usefulness and restitution of community in craigmillar. with reference to empirical data, the research indicates that while there was an assumption of public worth and residents in craigmillar were not prevented from using the system, there was very little public access and little involvement of local people on electronic forums in the early years, i.e. between 1994 – 2000. however, during this period, the professional aid community were provided with training and were encouraged and enabled to use the system. despite support, however, analysis of data suggests that on-line use by aid groups was extremely poor. important new information was not posted on-line and interaction was infrequent and lacked vitality. a great deal of rivalry and jealousy existed between individuals and groups in the area and distrust in the real world seemed to affect use of the on-line forums developed by ccis. a deeply embedded climate of suspicion might partially be attributed to the need for the large numbers of aid groups in the area to compete against one another for finite amounts of urban aid and local council funding. the study highlights similarities and differences in the perceptions of respondents, i.e. sponsors (the local city council), developers (community practitioners), and users (a large grouping consisting of local voluntary organisations and aid groups). for example, while sponsors and developers believed the community network should be community owned, users indicated there were no feelings of community ownership. moreover, while sponsors and developers did not think ccis should provide public access, perceiving instead a need to engage the residential community via existing representative groups, aid group users believed strongly that ccis should provide local access and champion community participation and use. aid groups in general believed local residents should own, develop and freely participate in and use the local network. the research also suggests that the local council, developers of ccis, and representatives of the aid community involved on the management committee, tended to monopolise key decisions in the local area. in addition, problems were perceived in information sharing. sponsors and developers highlighted the myth that real information was being shared, both in the real world and on the virtual forums operated by ccis. users also commented on the inability of power holders to relinquish power and share real information. there was some agreement between respondents that sharing real information would be necessary before open interaction could be achieved. the belief commonly held by all groups was that without motivation to share information openly, both off-line and on-line, no one was likely to be empowered significantly by technology of any type. to survive, ccis had to adapt and undergo several design changes over its life-time, moving between profit-making and non-profit-making activities. during the last few years of operation, the community network functioned primarily as a local learning centre, offering internet access and technology training to the local residential community. electronic forums were re-designed in the late period of ccis’s life, in an attempt to encourage local resident participation. however, in 2003, funding was withdrawn and the project ended. experiments in developing ict at community level are now being placed under the heading of community informatics (ci). gurstein (2003) views ci as: […]the design and application of information and communications technologies to enable community processes and the achievement of community objectives, such as overcoming "digital divides", "wiring (and ensuring connectivity for) the farthest reaches of a far-flung nation", creating on-line "communities of interest" and "communities of practice", and others. even more important, community informatics involves working to find ways of making the enormous opportunities of internet connectivity of real value to various communities --local and virtual, in achieving their economic, social and cultural objectives. community informatics traditionally has been applied to "geo-physical" or "local" communities, which address the needs and interests of particular (local) geographical areas. (¶1) keeble & loader (2001) view ci as a “multi-disciplinary field for the investigation and development of the social and cultural factors shaping the development and diffusion of new icts and their effects on community development, regeneration and sustainability.” the authors suggest this may be done by analysing the relationship between new technology and changing social relationships; and also by assessing practical projects that explore how technology affects economic regeneration and democratic participation. summary of plans to install ict in scotland’s communities in scotland during the 1990s, priority partnership areas (ppas) highlighted needs in the most deprived scottish communities. as ppas began to evolve into new social inclusion partnerships (sips),[1] icts were being recognised as useful tools to build social capital, support community development practice and increase civic interaction and democratic participation. resnick (2001) indicates that social capital may be derived from resources such as: shared knowledge and values, well-defined roles and established norms of behaviour, a feeling of responsibility and obligation to others, good social relations and shared trust, supported by strong communication structures and free flow interaction. a growing body of literature suggests that social capital is affected by better health, better education, lower crime, economic development and good government. the use of locally based icts in deprived communities and areas in crisis began to filter into community development practice and efforts to accumulate social capital in the uk during the 1990s (see malina, 2001, 2002). the uk government also feared that many citizens were unprepared for the information society, and a range of policies and directives emerged to tackle the ‘digital divide,’ particularly in communities suffering socio-economic problems. government funding since 1998 was designed to address the perceived problem of digital exclusion. the development of skills to use the technology and access to it centres became a central focus.  throughout 1999, the development of it learning centres increased and emphasis was placed on ensuring that people in deprived areas were able to access technology and acquire the key it skills suitable to the demands of an information society. malina & macintosh (2004) outline developments in scotland in some depth; however, it is worth summarising strategies briefly. the digital scotland task force (2000) report suggests that ict projects in local communities should be given priority in social inclusion programmes. in addition, the scottish executive, i.e. the devolved government of scotland, is committed to closing the ‘digital divide,’ aiming to support universal access to the internet by 2005. ‘digital scotland,’ a scottish executive initiative, claims to be working towards maximum social and economic advantage from the development of icts. the executive’s digital inclusion strategy set plans for the use of advanced networked technologies in education and life-long learning. by early 2000, pcs had been installed in various community centres and halls in scotland. voluntary sector content through a web portal[2] was developed to close the perceived digital divide and provide a single gateway to scotland’s voluntary sector. from 2000 onwards, scottish executive policies have continued to work towards widespread public access. a three-year ‘digital champions programme’ has supported the goal of inclusive ict provision in social inclusion partnerships (sips) areas in scotland. the digital inclusion team of seven ‘digital champions’ operates from the local enterprise company based in each local sip area. the programme was designed to support community professionals with local knowledge in their efforts to break down barriers and encourage and include those who remained outside existing ict provision. much effort has been expended in local communities, particularly in deprived neighborhoods, to help close the digital divide. however, the digital inclusion audit (2004) conducted in scotland’s sip areas points out that while 83% of centers still offered free access to the public, only 50% of facilities offered formal training classes. moreover, a significant gap was noted between on-line activities and levels of training to support those activities. there seems to be a question mark over the sustainability of some projects in scotland. the digital inclusion audit (2004), for example, indicates that while there has been an 8% increase in internet access since march 2003, 47 centers had been closed or no longer provided internet access. installing broadband at local levels has been a key policy issue in scotland to support social and economic outcomes. much emphasis has been placed on expanding the communications infrastructure (see connecting scotland: our broadband future, 2001a), and addressing poverty, lack of awareness, and low skill levels (see digital inclusion, connecting scotland’s people, 2001b). however, analysis of data outlined in the digital inclusion audit (2004) suggests need for a more comprehensive and joined-up approach. for example, the audit found that 80% of facilities had broadband connection, however, many centers had little or no formal technical support. moreover, while many centers provided disabled access, only half provided specialist kit for disabled people to actually access and use the technology. it appears then that use of technology and the internet delivered by broadband is somewhat constrained by lack of technological resources for disabled users and little or no on-site technical training. a variety of excluded groups have been identified in social and digital inclusion initiatives in scotland. however, the digital inclusion audit (2004) indicates that while women with children are generally viewed as a group at risk of exclusion, 68% of centers audited did not provide access to childcare. moreover, public access after 6:00 p.m. and at weekends was found to be low, with only 3% of centers opening at weekends. thus, women routinely involved in childcare and others constrained by routine daily commitments are unlikely to be able to take advantage of public access technology. the digital inclusion audit (2004) highlights the importance of ensuring that access and training efforts are complemented by other types of support relevant to the routine needs of specific groups and tailored to local context. closely linked to the uk government portal,[3] the scottish government portal under the brand of openscotland[4] has begun to promote public take-up of electronic services. openscotland provides an umbrella framework for both the executive's modernizing government and digital inclusion agendas. ensuring public access to ict at community level remains central. however, long-term sustainability of each project does not appear to have a high priority. moreover, not much in the way of in-depth assessment of the implications of projects for local communities is yet available. the national grid for learning (ngfl) has been part of a major government initiative to connect all schools, colleges, universities and libraries to the internet by 2002. due to the educational, cultural and political differences between scotland and the rest of the uk, the ngfl scotland team was appointed by the scottish executive education department in september 1999, to take the initiative forward in scotland.  fostering community was a key objective of the ngfl scotland communities team,[5] whose goal was to ensure the use of ict to improve opportunity, access and quality of life for excluded groups, and to actively involve communities in worthwhile local projects.  the communities channel of ngflscotland has worked in collaboration with the digital champions who are based in local enterprise companies, to supply information, advice and assistance to all those providing support for icts in their community. moreover, ngflscotland’s connecting communities training programme,[6] which ran for two years until mid-2004, promoted the effective use of ict in community learning agencies across scotland. the programme helped to increase the use of ict in the running and delivery of learning agency services and to develop the ict skills of community education practitioners and other partners in community learning.  however, many projects are funded in the short-term and unlikely to be sustained beyond the funding period.  in addition to these projects, a £3.2 million initiative, the public internet access point (piap) initiative, was launched in the summer of 2002, to support the idea of socially inclusive information society development at the local level. a network of internet access points was created in provision-poor areas of scotland to widen public access, target disadvantaged groups and raise ict literacy. the objective was to provide wider public access supported by a wide range of agencies in the public, private and community/voluntary sectors in venues routinely used by the public, e.g. libraries, internet cafes and sip-funded learning centres. in addition, access was provided in the places people already go, e.g. shops, pubs, post offices, hairdressers and community centres. computers were also made available in venues used by excluded groups such as lone parents, ethnic minorities and new deal clients. by spring 2004, 235 piaps were funded across scotland. by that time, 95 percent of the urban population and 93 percent of people in rural areas had relatively easy local access. the ‘evaluation of the public internet access point initiative’ (2004) [7] examined how well the program met original objectives, how piaps were being used, hosts’ experiences, and value of the approach.[8] the report points out that 272,000 people still remain without recommended levels of public access in scotland. approximately three quarters of this number live in rural areas. currently piaps are supported by scottish executive funding, and many hosts do not earn income from providing the service. sustainability of these centers into the future is not certain. in addition, little is known yet about how and with what implications transformations in the nature of interaction provided by public access technology actually institutes new patterns of networking in different types of communities and how these changes subsequently impact on socio-cultural, economic and political areas of daily life. digital communities scotland: promoting digital inclusion in england during 2001, several pilot projects were initiated by the department for education and employment (dfee) to help tackle the digital divide. a total of £10 million pounds (sterling) was awarded to seven socially excluded communities. broadband and narrowband access was made available as well as satellite communications and digital television.  in addition, community-based portals were designed to promote the use of ict for civic use and to help people seek employment opportunities. in early 2001, a document titled, digital inclusion: connecting scotland’s people (scottish executive, 2001, p. 22) outlined intention to provide £4.3 million pounds (sterling) to fund the development of icts to help tackle social exclusion in one urban and one rural community in scotland. in late 2001, communities across scotland were invited to submit first round bids to the scottish executive to become digital communities. towards the end of march 2002, the scottish executive selected the two winning communities. the rural community selected covered 13 of the 26 inhabited islands in the argyle islands archipelago, including mull and 13 other islands. the map illustrated in figure 1 indicates the dispersed nature of the argyll island communities, which are deemed to suffer from many issues of deprivation and disadvantage, primarily caused and/or accentuated by their remote geographical isolation. largely related to their isolation from the mainland, the islands of argyll are categorised as ‘fragile areas’ by highlands and islands enterprise and as ‘disadvantaged areas’ by the council’s economic development strategy. figure 1. source: argyll and bute council.  first round digital communities submission the urban community selected was bellsmyre, west dunbartonshire, a community suffering multiple forms of social and economic deprivation and allocated a social inclusion partnership (sip) area. the outline proposals submitted are described in more detail elsewhere (see malina & macintosh, 2004). however, to summarize these developments, a key objective in the rural islands area proposal was to ensure all local people could profit from new opportunities to use computers and access to the internet.  for example, the intention was outlined in the north argyll proposal to design icts: to help islanders communicate speedily, cheaply and more easily in regard to public services; interact with peers, telework; access health services and lifelong learning materials. wherever possible, an additional intention was to include businesses and community groups in the island’s on-line community. the first round proposal produced by west dunbartonshire council for bellsmyre indicated that the project would support the participation of people who were perceived to be digitally excluded. it was hoped that a focus on leisure interests would encourage local people in bellsmyre to engage more with new technology. key objectives were to improve local attitudes to learning as well as attitudes to ict, alleviate fear of technology, raise levels of educational achievement, and highlight the benefits of being connected to the web. one key aspiration was to create an ict skilled local population, able to go on to employment. it was also hoped to establish a routine taste for further learning and training and to encourage new business start-ups. the digital communities final report (2004) outlines findings and indicates that a total of 3,500 homes in the digital community areas received free personal computers with free internet access for a year. in addition, a web portal was established with locally developed content. the cost per household of the two year £4.3 million pound project was around £1,200. the final evaluation examined the digital communities initiative against digital inclusion strategy objectives, as indicated in table 1: table 1: themes used to evaluate digital inclusion targeting to assess what advantages and disadvantages arose from the method of targeting the initiative broadly on a geographical rather than thematic base initial policy appraisal to provide an indication of how well the initiative met its original objectives process this is related to matching the technology to the infrastructure already in place and also the introduction and help participants received in the roll-out training and development to assess whether training needs of participants were met impact on behavior during the pilot to determine what services were accessed, how different parts of the community used the internet and the usefulness of the community websites long term impact to attempt to determine how far the initiative has changed behavior patterns, attitude and usage of ict source: digital communities final report (2004), dtz pieda. page.4   a 3-wave longitudinal survey was conducted as part of the evaluation outlined (digital communities final report, 2004). wave 1 collected data at the baseline stage prior to computer installation. this stage also noted each participant’s motivation for becoming involved.  wave 2 collected data at the midway point (3 months after computers were delivered). the study also examined the installation process, problems experienced in using computers, and sources of help accessed. wave 3 data was collected twelve months after computers were installed. here, a final survey asked participants what they had gained from participating.  waves 1 and 2 were conducted by telephone, while wave 3 was conducted face-to-face by trained interviewers. attempts were made to interview all household members aged 12 or over to assess their views on the project. it was noted that the data bears out the notion that different types of communities will develop different patterns of technology use. in relation to motivation for being involved (wave 1 data), the report notes that participants in the urban community of bellsmyre cited factors connected with learning, while participants in the remote urban communities of argyll highlighted ability to email family and friends as well as ability to access information. more than half of respondents in both areas used the local sites for information about local events or issues. discussion forums in the urban community of bellsmyre, however, were used more fully, with 33% of users logging on to forums as opposed to only 4% in the rural communities in argyll. 15% of respondents had looked at health services in bellsmyre as opposed to 3% in argyll.com. the most popular uses of computers identified in all three surveys were email and accessing the internet – as opposed to other uses for example, playing games, writing letters and other documents, and listening to music cds. the indication from this is that other mechanisms to facilitate internet access, i.e. digital tvs and satellite could be considered as alternatives to pcs. respondents in bellsmyre were more likely than respondents in north argyll to report using computers for school work. the report suggests this reflects the higher proportion of households with younger families in the urban area of bellsmyre. other differences in use were noted between the two communities. in the urban community, users were more likely to report using their pc for general browsing or surfing and playing or downloading music, while the remote island community were more likely to use their pc for non-grocery on-line shopping. there was little evidence that people in either community used their pc to access public services or employment related activities. most respondents were more interested in on-line shopping than in accessing other kinds of services, e.g. government services. overall, the project did not seem to lead to a long-term increase in the uptake of education, training or learning opportunities. on the other hand, some participants said they would be interested in using e-learning to broaden training and education in the future. when asked to consider personal benefits, many participants cited being able to contact people, talk to others, and/or meet new people on-line as being the main advantage. overall, it may be argued, the ability to extend social networks was viewed as a distinct new advantage. in terms of benefits to community, interacting with others was again cited as the main advantage, with 33% of respondents in north argyll and 4% in bellsmyre feeling benefits from increased ability to get in touch with others in other communities more easily. the report suggests that future ict and community programs need to be tailored to the needs of participants. the project acknowledges that while benefits were perceived by many respondents, there was still a significant group of people who did not take up the opportunity of ict even with free access provided. if this group were to be digitally included in the future, their needs would have to be assessed and a different approach would be necessary. in terms of future policy, the report suggests, community involvement is crucial, and participation should begin at the policy design stage to ensure that the needs of the community are taken into account. for the future, the report recommends that: target groups are defined; objectives of the intervention are clearly stated; the intervention is the most effective and efficient way to achieve objectives; outcome objectives are at the centre of policy design; incentives are aligned with overall objectives; a baseline is established; implementation processes take account of the current baseline position. an interesting direction for future research would be to explore user perceptions in more depth, and assess implications for the different communities. the demos project: promoting wider citizen participation theories of democracy assume participation of ordinary citizens, yet for many years the majority of people in representative democracies have not participated in political arenas much beyond casting their vote occasionally at elections. more recently, however, ideas about representative democracy are changing.  governments now realize they can do so more effectively when conscious of the needs and attitudes of the people.  having acknowledged public skepticism and cynicism about politics, evidenced in annually decreasing turn-out at elections and growing dissatisfaction with democratic authorities, many governments in representative democracies world-wide are attempting to develop new philosophies suited to modern society, mass communications, and more discerning life-styles. over the past decade or so, opinion polls and surveys have been used to garner public opinion. in the 1990s, a number of e-democracy pilot projects emerged in local communities. some researchers (e.g. tsagarousianou, tambini and bryan, 1998) have discussed civic projects using ict to enhance democracy, and others (e.g. wilhelm, 2000) have examined the impacts of new ict on the public sphere. others still have discussed the way in which citizens have begun to use participatory monitoring and evaluation processes to secure accountability from elected officials and government agencies (e.g. gaventa and blauert, 1999). anthony giddens (1998a; 1998b) points to a policy move in the uk to strike a better balance between economic and non-economic areas of social life. a modernising philosophy suggests everyone in the uk should rise to the civic and economic challenges of an increasingly information based society.  at the same time, cooperative informatic strategies are developing practical associations between community-based icts, community networks and community-building activities, to improve existing structures and find better solutions to social and economic problems in excluded neighborhoods. the notion of participation is central. supported by the eu’s fifth framework program “cities of tomorrow and cultural heritage”, the demos project,[9] brought together eight city governments in seven countries with research organizations across europe, to examine aspects of citizen participation in local government. the project, which ran from 2002 – 2004, was designed to examine ways to re-energize local democracy and to include citizens more fully in governance. the local projects in citizen participation, which were developed in each of the eight cities, have provided a range of learning opportunities to assess what is happening with ict at small-scale levels. the central aim of the demos project was to monitor innovative approaches to citizen participation using action research methods. in scotland, local projects involving ict and community were developed in the cities of aberdeen and edinburgh. demos – ict projects in aberdeen communities aberdeen city council ran a city wide citizen’s panel for one year from february 2003 until february 2004. having received training and regular information, a group of 1350 citizens agreed to join a panel for the city of aberdeen. the panel routinely received questionnaires on new service proposals, how services were performing and proposed changes to service provision. members were drawn from all areas of the city and included representatives from ethnic groups, young people, and older members of local communities. in addition, the panel drew together a partnership between public service providers including the police, the health service, the scottish executive housing adviser, the fire and rescue service, the local enterprise company and the aberdeen council of voluntary organizations.   a virtual citizens panel website was also set up as part of the demos project, presenting people in aberdeen with opportunity to use icts to respond to the citizen’s panel questionnaires. the on-line panel receives the same information as its real time counterpart. while members of the ‘virtual’ panel remain anonymous, information about age group, gender, ethnic group, and postcode of participants is recorded. this data indicates what types of groups/people are prepared to interact in this way with the council and its partners. the goal of the city council and researchers in the demos project is to compare real-time representative responses with virtual responses. the approach being taken in the in-depth evaluation – to be made available at a later date – is to compare and contrast data in order learn from perceived benefits and problems. early suggestions are that each system will have benefits and drawbacks, which will be highlighted in the research data. when these are understood more fully, it is likely that on-line and off-line citizen panels will be re-designed to run alongside and complement one another. demos ict projects in edinburgh communities eleven pilots were supported by the demos project in edinburgh. four themes were addressed: making the local development committees (ldcs) work better; involving 'hard-to-reach' groups; testing new governance structures, and introducing new information and communication technologies. what follows here is a brief description of getting connected, a local project in edinburgh involving the use of icts by senior people living permanently in three residential care homes. the getting connected project developed from a partnership between edinburgh city council’s social work department, and the senior action group edinburgh (sage), a voluntary organization which helps to ensure a high quality of life for people living in care homes in edinburgh. the feeling was that older people are generally at risk of social and digital exclusion, with those in care homes even more isolated from mainstream opportunities. a key aim of the demos getting connected project was to highlight the kind of support that would be needed to enable older people in the community to use icts to become more actively involved in democratic processes in edinburgh. a partnership between, sage, the city of edinburgh council and cityconnect, enabled several care homes in the west district of edinburgh, to use icts to connect to local development council meetings. sage provided the necessary support that enabled residents in care homes to participate and cityconnect provided technological and methodological support as well as equipment, connectivity and staff time.  cityconnect is a voluntary organization that promotes lifelong learning in edinburgh with a particular focus on the use of new technologies that enable wider participation or access to information and learning. the organization seeks to enable socially disadvantaged or excluded groups, individuals or organizations to become aware of the positive benefits that computers and the internet can bring. the partnership and training by cityconnect provided elderly residents in three homes in the area with a new opportunity to use icts to voice their opinions, express their views and receive feedback to questions asked. one-to-one sessions with residents enabled them to raise issues of interest or concern and to receive information about issues that could affect their quality of life. the three homes chosen for the project had up to date computer equipment already installed. the project, which ran from november 2002 until january 2004, also used web-cams, which had already been installed in local authority run homes.  a care worker, volunteers and other staff assisted older people in putting their questions forward. responses from the city councilors were provided either in real time using ict or later in writing. the support of volunteers and care staff was crucial in motivating, supporting and maintaining senior citizen interest. a variety of topics for discussion were raised by the participants. while the final demos evaluation reports are not available at the time of writing, observations of use by cityconnect and care staff are outlined below. observations suggest that the elderly people taking part in the project appreciated the visual link with other participating homes and with councilors at their meeting place. care workers observed that ability to see previously unseen elected councilors by way of a computer link seemed to stimulate senior citizens. in turn, the elderly residents appeared to surprise and impress the councilors with the depth and quality of their questions. city connect observers noted the participants’ pleasure in being able to express their views at an ldc meeting. participants enjoyed seeing responses from councilors and from participants in other care homes on-screen. this seemed to stimulate debate and conversation. councilors at the meeting could see the reaction of care home residents to questions and responses and residents in each care home could see each others responses and reactions.  this was particularly popular with care home residents. in addition, care home residents said they felt much more part of the wider community by participating in this way. cityconnect and care home mediators were encouraged by the level of interest shown by care home residents, both in relation to the technology and the opportunity to participate using icts. with residents of three homes attending the meetings with the aid of technology, elderly people felt they had a stronger and more powerful collective voice. the text-messaging component was well received and proceedings were typed direct to screens using a very large font size. this allowed people who had poor hearing to get a good idea of what was going on.  moreover, when sound quality diminished, people were still able to follow the progress of the meeting. on the negative side, cityconnect staff noted that sound quality was not always adequate, mainly because the server had limited bandwidth. it was felt the committee tended to go through the agenda too quickly. some confusion arose when slight internet traffic delays combined with confusion over questions or answers. care home residents sometimes felt frustrated when they believed their questions were not being answered properly. in addition, residents felt they could have had more time to respond to questions. there was also a feeling that council officials did not answer clearly and tended to overload them with information. the feeling was that clearer and more concise answers to questions would be better received. in addition, it was felt that more advance information about the agenda could have been made available to the care home residents prior to the meeting, to give them time to consider the issues in more depth. the overall feeling was that, with these new insights, better planning could overcome some of the problems experienced.  however, decisions were taken to close down cityconnect in late 2004. lessons learned may be carried forward to the community grid for learning myedinburgh (http://www.myedinburgh.org). questions of sustainability multiple meanings, controversy and debate now surround the concept of sustainability in relation to ict and community. the notion of sustainability is associated with the idea of continuity and prolonged life, and is dependent on the extent to which a local electronic network and/or the local community in one way or another can pay for and resource the system beyond the initial external funding period. in scotland, many community-based technology projects have had short term fixed funding, in reality making it difficult to guarantee long-term survival. a number of seemingly innovative technology developments have been set up in local communities. however, many of these projects are not evaluated in a critical fashion before they disappear. consequently, problems are not always highlighted and lessons that could help others overcome the same or similar types of problems are not often brought to light. where sustainability is built into projects from the beginning, the suggestion is that projects need to outline ‘outputs’ that others usually the funders deem to be sustainable in the long-term. often, plans for the project to become self-sustaining have to be laid out. this approach suggests an emphasis on generating income to survive. the problem here is that generating income may not be the primary purpose of the project, and leaning too far in this direction may adversely affect the original aims of the project, potentially diluting aspirations to support the local community and the public interest. in effect, building the need for sustainability into funding criteria could lead to adverse situations, for example, false expectations and perhaps also frustration at not achieving original goals. an additional temptation may be to pay less attention to highlighting problems and unmet objectives and more to describing successes. this paper suggests that advance promises of sustainability do not always allow for unforeseen problems and/or unwanted experiences in the course of development. in not working towards sustainability in the expected fashion, however, practitioners may fear adverse implications for themselves and may worry also about not receiving future funding if pre-outlined criteria are unmet. in these circumstances, it is difficult to ensure that the real outcomes of projects are highlighted, critically assessed, and shared. this paper suggests that if funding agencies are inflexible and build need for long-term sustainability into funding criteria, important issues and problems at grassroots levels may not be identified and acknowledged. a less output-oriented and more far-sighted approach might be to encourage more funding models based on the concept of learning related to meaningful use within a supportive community environment (see scott & page, in keeble & loader, 2001, p. 152-153). this approach draws from an action learning perspective, and places importance on reflections gained from the learning process. lessons, in other words, are learned in a continuous and iterative fashion. in this approach, projects stay flexible enough to change direction in line with the learning process. consideration is continuously given to what can be done to improve the learning experience. the demos project, discussed above, adopted this approach as they found that participation processes are not always successful. their report (2004) suggests that “poorly chosen and implemented participation mechanisms can do more harm than good, especially if, for citizens, it is yet another in a long line of poor experiences” (p.19). to be successful, the report suggests, participation processes need to be tailored to local political culture, the administrative and judicial context and the social background of the city or municipality concerned (p. 19). it is vital, in other words, to view participation as a learning process, in which citizens and local authorities proceed by trial and error. flexibility and ability to adapt and change are central. in addition, it seems likely that a project’s quick arrival into the community and subsequent swift disappearance will have some effect on the people who were informed they would benefit from promised opportunities. those who have been motivated by locally based opportunities in community networking, only to have their newly formed expectations dashed, are not likely to trust future projects developed along similar lines. the digital communities project in scotland, outlined above, overcame this problem to some extent by permitting local people to keep their computer equipment, albeit without the same level of support or provision of previously free access to the internet. it has been argued elsewhere (e.g. malina & macintosh, 2004), that local technology supported projects to encourage participation need to involve local people, and must be tailored appropriately to local need. needs assessments are important to tailor development to local needs. in relation to ccis, the community network discussed earlier in this paper, it might be argued that a ‘needs assessment,’ collating information from residents, aid groups, and other social and economic organisations in the area, would have helped to include the whole community. inclusion in designing, developing and using the local network might have generated a greater feeling of community ownership. in turn, support from the whole community could have helped sustain the local network into the future. following approaches similar to those outlined in the concept of community informatics, goubin (2004) in the report and guidelines from the demos project[10] also points to the importance of involving all the stakeholders. data from one project in antwerp, for example, suggested that existing resident groups and the local community need to be involved rather than merely involve citizens on an individual basis.  while there is no space here to describe them in detail, an interesting series of guidelines to inform participation building are also offered by goubin in this document. suggestions for further research as a result of the scottish executive policy strategies to support digital inclusion and bridge the digital divide, 95% of people in urban areas in scotland are now within 1 mile of public internet access, and 90% of people in rural areas are within 5 miles.[11] while it may be the focus of future research, research studies in scotland have not yet explored changes in the nature of interaction and new patterns of networking. in addition to needs assessments, it would be beneficial now to design research to investigate how different people in different communities in scotland are beginning to use icts in ways that are relevant to their daily lives.  overall, very little research yet exists in the field to show what people are doing with the technology and how it actually affects their routine lives, their networks of communication, and their local community. it is noted that openscotland now provides an umbrella framework for both the executive's modernising government and digital inclusion agendas. the perceived need to re-build community and accumulate social capital has overlapped with the need to ensure everyone is online and skilled enough to receive electronic public services by 2005. the concept of a ‘digital divide’ has provided the basis for ensuring everyone is on-line to participate in different ways in the information society. communities are viewed as very important because they provide the foundation for technology and local networks of relations to develop. as table 2 indicates, however, different types of e-participation associated with different societal roles being developed for the technology suggest different types of involvement at community level (malina, 2003). table 2. icts and different kinds of e-participation contexts primary defining features of new roles for icts e-government design of new roles for icts to support more meaningful interaction between citizens, representatives and government, including citizen participation in politics and service delivery; also the application of ict and e-business techniques to the machinery of government, to support cheaper, faster, more efficient and more effective e-administration processes e-governance new roles for ict to broaden horizontal input to government policy-making processes e-democracy new roles for icts to support two-way information flow, e-participation and e-voting. increased use of ‘your say’ type provision, and introduction of e-consultation and e-deliberation methods at local level to support citizen input to policy-making and democratic decision-making processes e-community networking electronic interaction organized by and for communities to address local and public interest issues in electronic networks and public spheres that remain separate from government and market control digital inclusion technology funding and support for locally based technology projects to bridge the ‘digital divide’ and ensure wider access to contemporary icts. key aspirations are to include excluded communities and broaden skills to use icts to participate in social, cultural, political and economic aspects of the information society source: adapted from malina, 2003.   one problem is that the significance of these different kinds of e-participation in different types of communities is not yet fully known. malina (2003) suggests need for more empirical research to evaluate how different types of e-participation are perceived and practiced in diverse communities. action research provides an appropriate approach to support greater participation and broaden understanding of different conditions and diverse needs. malina & macintosh (2004), suggest that: while much interest surrounds the concept of improving democratic participation using technology, e-participation in a civic and political sense is a relatively new policy and practice area.  what are needed are action research studies to examine requirements of e-participation in diverse local communities.  findings from such studies would provide input into policy planning. in conducting action research and analyzing empirical evidence gathered at the grassroots level, studies of this type would indicate the ways in which technology could be designed to support e-democracy and civic participation suited to different needs. (p.269) a very different problem is that technology’s ability to promote social development and build social capital is sometimes overemphasised. without complimentary resources and continuous interventionist policies, technology alone could not build social capital or support social inclusion. assumptions that new technologies set up in local communities often without consultation with or input by local people will have positive outcomes for the community must be questioned. this paper suggests need for more empirical research to indicate how and in what ways different types of communities are utilising icts and what implications this use has in reality for routine daily living. understanding of the patterns of relationships and interrelationships developing between icts and community are indistinct. social network analysis would help identify patterns in people’s on and off-line interaction, identifying also how and in what ways relationships and inter-relationships might be strengthened through electronic interaction. the ways in which new technology is affecting social networks and social capital are also rich arenas for future research. action research combined with social network analysis would be very helpful in indicating how use of new technology in different communities may be affecting social, cultural, political, and economic relationships with others inside and outside the local area. evidence based information would help to build cohesive and collaborative relationships between different partners at regional and local levels, and might help also to structure and support future community networking practice in diverse communities. conclusion the analysis of ccis edinburgh reported in this paper suggests it is important to ensure on-line interaction between partners is based on mutual trust in the real world. more rigorously conducted critical evaluations of projects throughout scotland might help to ensure that benefits and problems are highlighted. better understanding of the possibilities and limitations of icts in local communities may be helpful in formulating future policies. networked collaborations and partnerships will increase opportunity for academic researchers to become involved in strategies for ict and community. there is great potential now to investigate aspects of e-government, e-governance, e-democracy, and health informatics, assessing the implications of different types of e-participation for different communities. each thematic area provides a rich arena for in-depth survey work, action research and critical analysis. there is potential for communities to become actively involved in increasing equity of service through improved communications infrastructure and better access and use of government health services, education, training, and many other electronic services delivered to people in their communities. new possibilities are emerging for people to become involved in on-line political discussions and democratic decision-making. much can be learned from explorations of institutional, contextual and technological problems and barriers to the viability of increasing democratic participation from the bottom up. rich data from research would help to further understanding of the possibilities offered and difficulties encountered in enabling more active and responsive communities. the extent to which icts are empowering local people to generate social, cultural, political and economic outcomes needs to be more rigorously investigated to further understanding of the relationship between community development and community empowerment. similar to other countries in the world, the community and voluntary sector in scotland have been placed at the centre of developing icts in the community, often to support welfare provision. there is much scope for community informatics researchers to work with groups to assess different requirements and design technology suited to specific needs in diverse local communities. to finalise, it would be extremely useful to critically assess transformations in local communities, identify and air problems and learn lessons from others, and also to build on best practice and disseminate information at local levels as well as within academic surroundings. combining action research with a social learning approach and flexible organisation involving a variety of partners might help support more sustainable development of ict in local geographic communities.   references argyll and bute council first round digital communities submission, 2002. argyll & bute council. bajjaly, s. (1999). the community networking handbook. usa: ala editions. bellsmyre, west dunbartonshire first round digital communities proposal, 2002. west dunbartonshire council. castells, m. (1996). the rise of the network society. london: blackwell publishers ltd. citizens innovation local governance: a 21st century approach. demos project edinburgh conference 2004. report & guidelines from the demos project. cohill, a. & kavanaugh, a. (eds). (2000). community networks: lessons from blacksburg,  virginia. usa: artech house. digital communities final report (2004). dtz pieda. digital inclusion audit: public internet access in social inclusion partnership areas. (2004) scottish enterprise. gaventa, j. & blauert, j. (1999). learning to change by learning from change: going to scale with participatory monitoring and evaluation. in estrella, m., et al (eds), learning from change: issues and experiences in participatory monitoring and evaluation, london: it publications. giddens, a. (1998a, may 1). ‘after the left’s paralysis’. new statesman, 1st may 1998. pp.18-21. giddens, a. (1998b). the third way: the renewal of social democracy, cambridge: polity press. goubin, e. (n.d.).  participation methods: how to think about getting started. in citizens innovation local governance: a 21st century approach. demos project edinburgh conference 2004. report & guidelines from the demos project. gurstein, m. (n.d.).  third international workshop on (virtual) community informatics: electronic support for communities local, virtual and communities of practice. paper retrieved july 2004 from http://www.is.njit.edu/vci-www2003/ hampton, k. (1999). living the wired life in the wired suburb: netville, glocalization and civic society. doctoral dissertation, department of sociology. university of toronto. keeble, l. & loader, b. (2001). community informatics: shaping computer-mediated relations. london & new york: routledge. kretzman, j.p. & mcnight, j.l. (1993). 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(eds). participatory design: principles and practices.  hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum association. page, m. and a. scott, (2001). change agency and women’s learning: new practices in community informatics. in keeble, l. & loader, b. (eds), community informatics: shaping computer-mediated relations. london & new york: routledge. schmitz, j. (1997).  structural relations, electronic media, and social change: the public electronic network and the homeless.  in jones, s. (ed), virtual culture: identity and communication (pp. 80 – 101). london: sage. scottish executive (2001) connecting scotland: our broadband future. a scottish executive publication. scottish executive (2001) digital inclusion: connecting scotland’s people. a scottish executive publication. retrieved july 2004 from: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/enterprise/dics-00.asp. scottish executive (2000) digital scotland task force report. a scottish executive publication, also published at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/digialscotland/digital_scotland.pdf. scottish enterprise. (2004) digital inclusion audit. digital inclusion champions. retrieved july, 2004 from: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/communities/digitalinclusion/audit.asp scottish executive. (2004) evaluation of the public internet access point initiative. hall aitken. spectrum mit. 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[1] areas which experience high levels of deprivation in scotland have been designated a “sip area.” these areas benefit from extra government funding and formal partnership structures which bring together key public, private and voluntary agencies and community representatives. [2] www.workwithus.org consulted november 2002 [3] http://www.ukonline.gov.uk/  retrieved november 2003 [4] http://www.openscotland.gov.uk/ retrieved july, 2004 [5] http://www.ngflscotland.com/communities/  retrieved july, 2004 [6] http://www.ngflscotland.com/communities/training/connectingcommunities/ retrieved july 2004 [7] the full report is available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/finance/epiapi-00.asp  accessed december 2004. [8] further information on findings is available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/finance/epiapi-01.asp#14. accessed december 2004 [9] official demos web site is at: http://www.demosproject.org/webpages/aboutus.htm [10] available at internet site http://www.demosproject.org/admin/files/demos%20a4%20report_guidelines.pdf retrieved december 2004 [11] http://www.scotland.gov.uk/about/fcsd/21stcg/00017820/page737676964.aspx retrieved july 2004. some papers created for presentations … on-line resources about keewaytinook okimakanak, the kuhkenah network (k-net) and associated broadband applications by brian beaton <brian.beaton@knet.ca> updated november, 2009 the purpose of this document is to provide readers with a list of the publications related to the development and operation of the kuhkenah network (k-net) and the associated applications that utilize and sustain the network. also included are links to several comprehensive photo and video collections that are available online and that help tell the k-net story. everyone is invited to assist in the ongoing development of this document by sending any references that should be included to brian beaton (brianbeaton@knet.ca) so they can be added, corrected and updated. this “living document” will be maintained at http://knet.ca/documents/online-knet-reference-material-links.doc 1. photo galleries some of the key photo galleries include: http://photos.knet.ca is the archive of photo galleries collected by the k-net team as they traveled to and worked with the first nations in the development of the network http://media.knet.ca/photos and http://media.knet.ca/gallery are current collections of photo galleries where k-net posts images of travels and network developments http://tech.knet.ca/photos documents the construction, network installations and set-ups in the partner communities partner community web sites contain very special photo collections that tell the community’s stories. for example, the photo collection on the sandy lake first nation site at http://sandylake.firstnation.ca/gallery contains “photos from the past” along with “traditions and ceremonies”. other partner first nations homepages can be found at http://communities.knet.ca 2. online videos and multimedia presentations online videos are being used more and more to tell the different parts of the k-net story. many of these can be found on the http://media.knet.ca site but there are other locations throughout the k-net web portal (http://knet.ca) that contain various video collections that support the sharing of information about the communities and the development of k-net. one such archive can be found within the smart communities link at http://smart.knet.ca/smart2002/practices.html. dvd video production “turning the corner – using broadband effectively in canada’s north”. the content of the dvd is available on-line at … mms://streaming.knet.ca/turning_the_corner_high.wmv kihs information video mms://streaming.knet.ca/kihs/kihs_300k.wmv keewaytinook okimakanak telehealth (koth) information video mms://streaming.knet.ca/telehealth/th-evaluation_300k.wmv dvd video entitled "the k-net story ... weaving the networked economy in kuhkenah first nation communities" … introduction 13:04 mms://streaming.knet.ca/fednor/intro_300k.wmv economic development 2:36 mms://streaming.knet.ca/fednor/economic_300k.wmv partnerships 9:51 mms://streaming.knet.ca/fednor/partnerships_300k.wmv building the network 2:36 mms://streaming.knet.ca/fednor/network_300k.wmv education 5:58 mms://streaming.knet.ca/fednor/education_300k.wmv health 3:29 mms://streaming.knet.ca/fednor/health_300k.wmv visions for the future 3:10 mms://streaming.knet.ca/fednor/future_visions_300k.wmv research on ict with aboriginal communities report of the founding meeting of the research on ict with aboriginal communities (network) (ricta) (march 2005) – http://knet.ca/documents/ricta-meetingreport-march2005.pdf and video at mms://streaming.knet.ca/ricta/ricta_300k.wmv 2.1. on-line multi-media presentation … series of case studies produced for the institute for connectivity in the americas (ica) entitled “harnessing icts: a canadian first nations’ experience” (december 2003) – http://smart.knet.ca/kuhkenah_flash.html contains the pdf files along with video footage for five case studies including: executive summary – http://smart.knet.ca/flash/eng/pdf/summary.pdf introduction to k-net – http://smart.knet.ca/flash/eng/pdf/introduction.pdf k-net network development http://smart.knet.ca/flash/eng/pdf/network.pdf k-net case study on economic development http://smart.knet.ca/flash/eng/pdf/economic.pdf k-net case study on health http://smart.knet.ca/flash/eng/pdf/health.pdf k-net case study on education http://smart.knet.ca/flash/eng/pdf/education.pdf the keewaytinook okimakanak telehealth implementation process and summary of lessons learned and emerging best practices in delivering telehealth services – the use of secure videoconferencing to improve and enhance access to clinical and health education and training services – in isolated first nations (2005) http://www.telemedicine.knet.ca/files/report/index.html the critical role that the community telehealth coordinators (ctcs) perform in the development and delivery of community-based telehealth is captured in a 17 minute dvd video. http://www.telemedicine.knet.ca/?q=node/678 a flash presentation / animation providing you with a digital tour of a community telehealth station. http://telehealth.knet.ca/oldsite/telehealth_flash.html traditional land use multi-media presentations fort severn first nation elders and youth travel their traditional territory, documenting their stories and conducting traditional practices. http://fortsevern.firstnation.ca/washaho/ traditional lifestyles video collection http://media.knet.ca/taxonomy/term/21 3. publications this collection of k-net related articles and publications highlights those available online. the collection presents a portion of the material that has been produced to share the k-net story. countless presentations, workshops and meetings are also documented on the k-net web portal, usually captured in the knews – http://knews.knet.ca stories or in one of the application sites. this collection is in alphabetical order by author, with publications being added as they are produced. as the different ict supported applications develop, so do the different reports, evaluations and publications that capture their stories. everyone is encouraged to visit the different web sites off the k-net portal to learn about the stories that are continuously unfolding in each of the different service areas that are now supported by the kuhkenah network. 1beaton, b. (2004) “the k-net story: community ict development work”. journal of community informatics 1(1) http://knet.ca/documents/ci-journal-knet-beaton-sept04.doc carpenter, p. (2009); the kuhkenah network (k-net): a first nations digital broadband highway connecting communities, service providers and researchers in partnership with public, private and not-for-profit groups. paper presented at the aboriginal policy research conference (aprc 2009), ottawa, march 9-12, to be published in inac aprc publication, 2009. http://knet.ca/documents/ko-knet-apr-vol6-chapter8.pdf ferreira, george a., (2006, doctoral thesis, university of guelph) participatory video for policy development in remote aboriginal communities http://knet.ca/documents/george-ferreira-thesis-aug2006.pdf ferreira, g., ramirez, r., walmark, b. (2004) connectivity in canada’s far north: participatory evaluation in ontario’s aboriginal communities. measuring the information society: what, how, for whom and what? workshop, september, brighton, u.k. http://www.asis.org/chapters/europe/news/ferreira%20ramirez.pdf , http://knet.ca/documents/ferreira-ramirez-brighton-paper.doc fiddler, j. (2004) "walking the talk: connecting remote indigenous communities globally". cirn 2004 conference and colloquium, october, prato, italy, http://knet.ca/documents/jesse-fiddler-prato-italy-paper.doc fiddler, m. (1997) travelling the winter roads of cmc: a college course for isolated learners via computer bbs. presented at the second annual teaching in the community colleges online conference. http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/tcc-conf/pres/fiddler.html fiser, adam (2009, doctoral thesis, university of toronto); the kuhkenah broadband governance model: how social enterprise shaped internet services to accommodate indigenous community ownership in northwestern ontario, canada (circa 1997 to 2007) http://knet.ca/documents/fiser_adam_p_phd_thesis_k-netservicesedition.pdf fiser, a & clement, a. (2009) k-net and canadian aboriginal communities, ieee technology and society v. 28 n. 2 summer: 2333; http://knet.ca/documents/knet&canadainaboriginalcommunities.pdf fiser, a., clement, a., & walmark, b. (2006) the k-net development process: a model for first nations broadband community networks (working paper no. 2006-12): cracin. telecommunications policy review conference (tprc) september 23 to 25, 2005, held at george mason university school of law in arlington, va. http://knet.ca/documents/knet-development-process-tprc-sept05.pdf fiser, a. (2004) "icts for education in ontario first nations". cirn 2004 conference and colloquium, september, prato, italy http://knet.ca/documents/fisercirn04dc.doc fiser, a. (2004) a history of policy change backgrounder on the first nations schoolnet rmo transition. working paper draft 2.0 for keewaytinook okimakanak research institute. toronto: university of toronto, faculty of information studies; http://knet.ca/documents/fn-schoolnet-rmopolicychange.pdf gibson, k., kakepetum-schultz, t., coulson, h., o’donnell, s. (2009) telemental health for remote and rural first nations: advantages, disadvantages, and ways forward. national aboriginal health organisation (naho) conference. ottawa, november 24-27. http://knet.ca/documents/naho-kotm-nrc-nov09.pdf gibson, k., simms, d., o'donnell, s., & molyneaux, h. (2009) clinicians’ attitudes toward the use of information and communication technologies for mental health services in remote and rural areas. canadian society of telehealth conference (cst 2009), vancouver, bc, october 3-6. http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/2009-gibson_et_al_cst-final.pdf gratton, m-f., o'donnell, s. (2009) integrating new media into communication research: multi-site videoconferencing for focus groups with remote first nation community members. presented at the canadian communication association annual conference (cca 2009), carleton university, ottawa, may. http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/cca2009_gratton_odonnell.pdf grossman, ruth (2008) impact of technology change on issue areas relevant to connectivity in remote and indigenous communities: a literature review; prepared for the ccirdt (centre for community informatics research development and training) and nicsn (northern indigenous community satellite network), september http://knet.ca/documents/literature-review-impact-of-technology-change-on-issue-areas-sept08.pdf grossman, ruth (2008) impact of technology change on issue areas relevant to connectivity in remote and indigenous communities: extended bibliography; prepared for the ccirdt (centre for community informatics research development and training) and nicsn (northern indigenous community satellite network) http://knet.ca/documents/extended-bibliography-impact=of-technology-change-in-remote-and-indigenous-communities-sept08.pdf gurstein, michael (2007) what is community informatics and why does it matter, polimetrica, rome, 2007 (pp. 52-54) http://www.docstoc.com/docs/14297418/what-is-community-informatics-(and-why-does-it-matter) hancock, b-r., and o'donnell, s. (2009) new media and self-determination: publicly made and accessible video and remote and rural first nation communities. presented at the canadian communication association annual conference (cca 2009), carleton university, ottawa, may. http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/cca09-hancock-odonnell.pdf jansen, hans, bentley, g., (2004) ontario’s far north study: broadband best practices and benefits in fort severn first nation. march. funded by connect ontario and industry canada brand. http://knet.ca/documents/on-far-north-study-broadband-best-practices-benefits-fort-severn.pdf kotm (2009). excellence in first nations telemedicine workshop, keewaytinook okimakanak telemedicine, sioux lookout, canada, march 23-26 2009. http://telemedicine.knet.ca/?q=node/1136 ko (2006). koth north network expansion project: final report. balmertown, canada: keewaytinook okimakanak. http://www.telemedicine.knet.ca/files/report/index.html kakepetum, geordi (2005); position paper: turning the corner with first nations telehealth; journal of community informatics, vol 1, no 3 http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/260/216 kakepetum, g. (2005) open letter to prime minister paul martin: broadband connectivity in aboriginal communities. journal of community informatics. 1(2) http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/235/195 keewaytinook okimakanak (ko) (2005) position paper: turning the corner with first nations telehealth, prepared by john rowlandson & associates. thunder bay: ko telehealth. http://knet.ca/documents/kotelehealth-position-paper-may2005.pdf kuhkenah network of smart first nations demonstration project (2005) project # 478789 final report for the project as of march 31, 2005. in completion of industry canada’s smart communities demonstration project (april 2001 march 31, 2005) submitted august 2005. http://knet.ca/documents/knet-smart-final-report-aug05.pdf keewaytinook okimakanak research institute (kori) (2005) c-band public benefit keewaytinook okimakanak's kuhkenah satellite network work 2001-2005 summative overview assisting remote communities across canada to access & use c-band public benefit. march 28 http://knet.ca/documents/05-03-29-summative-overview-c-band-public-benefit-knet1.pdf kuhkenah smart first nations project final evaluation report 2001-2004 (2004) november prepared by the telecommons development group http://knet.ca/documents/final-evaluation-nov20-04.pdf ko (2002) evaluation of the keewaytinook okimakanak tele-psychiatry pilot project report, balmertown, canada: keewaytinook okimakanak; http://knet.ca/documents/ko-telepsychiatry-report-2002-12-21.pdf mckelvey, f., o'donnell, s. (2009) multi-site videoconferencing as a public sphere in first nation communities: a case study. international communication association annual conference (ica 2009), chicago, may. http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/2009-ica-mckelvey-odonnell.pdf milliken, m., o'donnell, s. (2009) communication in place: videoconferencing for first nation community development. canadian communication association annual conference (cca 2009), carleton university, ottawa, may. http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/cca09-milliken-odonnell.pdf molyneaux, h., o'donnell, s. (2009) ict and health and wellness in remote and rural first nations communities: a social determinants of health perspective. canadian society of telehealth conference (cst 2009), vancouver, bc, october 3-6. http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/2009-molyneaux-o_donnell-cst-final_2_.pdf o'donnell, s., kenny, c., walmark, b. (2005), report from the field: the ricta meeting video, journal of community informatics, vol 1, no 3; http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/259/214 o’donnell, s., perley, s., walmark, b., burton, k., beaton, b., and sark, a. (2009) community based broadband organizations and video communications for remote and rural first nations in canada. in stillman, l., johanson, g., and french, r., editors, communities in action. newcastle upon tyne, uk: cambridge scholars publishing. 107-119. http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/2009-odonnell_perley_walmark_et_al.pdf o'donnell, s., walmark, b. and hancock, b-r. (2009) communicating visually: videoconferencing and remote and rural first nations. paper presented at the aboriginal policy research conference (aprc 2009), ottawa, march 9-12, to be published in inac aprc publication (oct 2009). http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/2009-aprc-odonnell-final.pdf o'donnell, s., perley, s., simms, d., hancock, b-r. (2009) video communication roadblocks facing remote indigenous communities. ieee technology and society magazine. 28 (2) summer. pp 16-22. http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/2009-june-video_communication_roadblocks.pdf o'donnell, s., beaton, b., & mckelvey, f. (2008) videoconferencing and sustainable development for remote and rural first nations in canada. proceedings of the community informatics research network (cirn 08) conference, prato, italy, october. http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/cirn-2008-videoconferencing_and_sustainable_development.pdf o'donnell, s. and kakepetum-schultz, t. (2008) videoconferencing connects remote communities. sagatay. april-may. http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/2008-april-videocom.pdf o’donnell, s., perley, s., and simms, d. (2008) challenges for video communications in remote and rural communities. proceedings of the ieee international symposium on technology and society (ieee istas 08). fredericton, june 2008. o'donnell, s., perley, s., walmark, b., burton, k., beaton, b., & sark, a. (2007) community-based broadband organizations and video communications for remote and rural first nations in canada. proceedings of the community informatics research network (cirn 2007). prato, italy, november. http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/2007-november-videocom.pdf pardhan, aliya (2006, masters thesis, university of guelph) exploring key stakeholder perspectives for a collaborative first nation research protocol http://knet.ca/documents/aliya-pardhan-masters-thesis-effective-health-research-with-first-nations.pdf perley, s. (2008) representation and participation of first nations women in online videos. international communication association annual conference (ica 2008), montreal, may. http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/2008-may-videocom.pdf perley, s., & o'donnell, s. (2006) broadband video communication research in first nation communities. canadian communication association annual conference. york u., toronto. http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/2006-perley-odonnell-cca.pdf potter, d. (2009) collaborative research development: studying digital education with remote aboriginal communities. paper presented at the aboriginal policy research conference (aprc 2009), ottawa, march. http://knet.ca/documents/ko-knet-apr-vol6-chapter8.pdf ramírez, r., aitkin, h., kora, g. & richardson, d. (2003) community engagement, performance measurement and sustainability: experiences from canadian community based networks. journal of the community development society. 1http://knet.ca/documents/journal-development-communication-ricardo-aug2003.pdf ramírez, r. (2003) bridging disciplines: the natural resource management kaleidoscope for understanding icts. journal of development communication 14 (1): 51-64. http://knet.ca/documents/journal-development-communication-ricardo-aug2003.pdf ramírez, r. (2002) review of best practices in sustainability and performance measurement by canadian community based electronic networks, for industry canada. http://smartcommunities.ic.gc.ca/best/bp-pm-intro_e.asp ramirez, ricardo (2000, doctoral thesis, university of guelph) rural and remote communities harnessing information and communication technology for community development (with a lot of references to k-net and icts in rural and remote communities) http://knet.ca/documents/ricardo-ramirez-phd-thesis-oct2000.pdf ramirez, r., aitkin, h., jamieson, r., & richardson, d. (2004) harnessing icts: a canadian first nations experience. k-net case study on health. ottawa: idrc/ica. http://smart.knet.ca/flash/eng/pdf/health.pdf ramírez, r. and richardson, d. (2000) pacts for rural and remote ontario: research report year 1 and case studies. partnerships, accessibility, connectivity transformation strategies. school of rural extension studies, university of guelph. www.uoguelph.ca/~res/pacts richardson, d., ramírez, r. and haq, m. (2000) grameen telecom's village phone programme: a multi-media case study. canadian international development agency. http://www.telecommons.com/villagephone/index.html simms, d., o'donnell, s., & perley, s. (2008) attitudes toward and use of video communications by educators in first nation schools in atlantic canada. fredericton: national research council. january. http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/2008-jan-videocom.pdf strachan, b. (2009) a community-based model for e-servicing in first nations communities: the k-net approach to water treatment in northern ontario. paper presented at the aboriginal policy research conference (aprc 2009), ottawa, march, to be published in inac aprc publication (oct 2009). http://knet.ca/documents/ko-knet-apr-vol6-chapter8.pdf telecommons development group (2002) review of best practices in community engagement by canadian community based electronic networks, for industry canada. http://smartcommunities.ic.gc.ca/best/bp-engagement_e.asp walmark, b. (2005) kihs: bridging the traditional and virtual classroom in canada's first nation schools. journal of community informatics. 1(3); http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/197/155 whiteduck, j. (2009) building the first nation e-community. paper presented at the aboriginal policy research conference (aprc 2009), ottawa, march, to be published in inac aprc publication (oct 2009). http://knet.ca/documents/whiteduck-ecommunity-apr-vol6-chapter6.pdf whiteduck, t. (2009) putting communication tools in first nations: inac's first nations schoolnet and the migration of broadband and community-based ict applications in remote and rural first nations in canada. paper presented at the aboriginal policy research conference (aprc 2009), ottawa, march, to be published in inac aprc publication (oct 2009). http://knet.ca/documents/whiteduck-fns-apr-vol6-chapter7.pdf 4. other publications and resources e-community concept paper http://knet.ca/documents/ecomm-concept-final.pdf community aggregation model http://knet.ca/documents/community-aggregation.pdf the k-net smart communities best practices (links to many of the deliverables achieved during the smart communities demonstration project) http://smart.knet.ca/smart2002/practices.html (click on fednor videos to see the collection of on-line video information) north network final evaluation report for hc chipp project – http://www.northnetwork.com ; http://knet.ca/documents/final_north_network_program_phase_ii_evaluation_report.pdf ko’s kuhkenah smart international gathering final report, march 17-18, 2004, produced by conference facilitators john rowlandson, florence woolner and jennifer moreau ; http://knet.ca/documents/ko-final-report-international-conference-march2004.pdf ict innovation and personal stories from the little north … the land of the ojibway, oji-cree and cree people – a collection of fifty (50) ict stories produced by rick garrick for bi-weekly publication in wawatay news under the kuh-ke-nah page http://knet.ca/documents/kuhkenah-wawatay-news-stories.pdf some reports and research documentation …. * http://knet.ca/documents/grade8-science-supplemental-final-report.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/final-workshop-report-dec-02.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/knet-annual-report-2001-02.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/knet-annual-report-2002-03.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/ko-telehealth-coordinator-training-manual.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/ko-telepsychiatry-report-2002-12-21.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/k-net-network-description-aug2003.pdf * http://www.knet.ca/kss/kihsevalfin.html * http://kihs.knet.ca/evaluation00-01.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/g8-report-math-winter-2004.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/grade8-report-english-literacy.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/g8-2003-04-year-end-report-draft.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/on-far-north-study-broadband-best-practices-benefits-fort-severn.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/cracin-knet-case-history-may2004.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/afn-nan-briefing-notes-mar2005.pdf some on-line articles from other sources about kuh-ke-nah * http://knet.ca/documents/overview-sc-site.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/lessons-learned1-growing-the-network-sc-site.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/lessons-learned2-the-physical-divide-sc-site.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/success-story1-new-infrastructure-provides-a-wealth-of-innovative-services.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/success-story2-internet-high-school-offers-the-best-of-both-worlds.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/success-story3-telehealth-offers-a-cure-for-isolated-first-nations-in-northern-ontario.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/volunteers-online-awards-best-practices-april2004.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/smartcommunities-ic-smartsolutions-ko-telepsychiatry-feb2001.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/smartcommunities-ic-smartsolutions-kihs-feb2001.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/northern-ontario-business-newspaper-july2003.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/nan-first-nations-archived-site.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/keewaywin-telecom-development-story-nov1999.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/inac-newsletter-sept2000-page3.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/communication-initiative-jan2004.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/canadian-rural-partnership-annual-report-2002.pdf some presentations made at different conferences … * http://knet.ca/documents/knet-telecentres.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/enabling-technologies-in-fns.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/community networks in local icts strategy.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/original languages.pdf some papers created for presentations … * http://knet.ca/documents/knet-paper-guelph-conference-1998.pdf (http://knet.ca/documents/connecting-remote-fn-to-the-internet-1998-paper.pdf) * http://knet.ca/documents/culture-language-ictpaper-globalcn-oct2002.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/knet-paper.doc (on-line presentation peru 2003) * "traveling the winter roads of cmc: a college course for isolated learners via computer bbs" by margaret fiddler, edd candidate, u of toronto (ontario, canada) 1997 some published articles and documentation that have information about k-net … * http://knet.ca/documents/harvard-research-paper.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/oecd-finalko.doc * http://knet.ca/documents/telemanagement n.ontario.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/telemanagement-knet.pdf * http://knet.ca/documents/canada-connects-ehealth-june-04.pdf the pacts study documentation completed in march 2000 by drs. don richardson and ricardo ramirez at guelph university * http://knet.ca/documents/pacts/k-net.pdf newspaper articles and stories about k-net’s work … * http://photos.knet.ca/kuhkenah11?&page=3 k-net’s on-line news archives contains articles and links to additional information and resources being created to document the k-net story – http://knews.knet.ca from potential to practice: telecommunications & development in the nishnawbe-aski nation a report on k-net activities to improve regional telecommunications infrastructure and diffuse information & communication technologies and capacities between october 1998 and october 2000 (http://knet.ca/nw-report.htm) the k-net history documentation http://grandopening.knet.ca/progress.html the k-net smart communities best practices (links to many of the deliverables achieved during the smart communities demonstration project) http://smart.knet.ca/smart2002/practices.html published papers by ricardo, don and the tdg team who are partnering with k-net in researching these telecom opportunities and ict impacts in rural and remote communities …. (see http://www.telecommons.com/reports.cfm) videocom research initiative. (2008) encouraging urban organizations to videoconference with remote and rural first nations. videocom research update. march. http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/2008-march-videoconferencing.pdf other publications about k-net, not available online: beaton, b., fiddler, j., & rowlandson, j. (2004) living smart in two worlds: maintaining and protecting first nation culture for future generations. in m. moll & l.r. shade (eds.), seeking convergence in policy and practice: communications in the public interest (volume 2) ottawa: canadian centre for policy alternatives: 283-297. eriks-brophy, a., quittenbaum, j., anderson, d., nelson, t. (2008) part of the problem or part of the solution? communication assessments of aboriginal children residing in remote communities using videoconferencing. clinical linguistics & phonetics. v. 22 n. 8: 589-609. ferreira, g., walmark, b., kenny, c., & ramirez, r. (2004) experience in participatory video in northern ontario. paper presented at the celebrating communication for social and environmental change: an anniversary symposium, university of guelph, october, guelph. 1fiddler, m. (1992) developing and implementing a distance education secondary school program for isolated first nation communities in northwestern ontario. in d. wall & m. owen (eds.), distance education and sustainable community development (pp. 105-118). edmonton: canadian circumpolar institute with athabasca university press. fiddler, m. & beaton, b. (1992) distance education in isolated first nation communities of northwestern ontario. in a. forster, study guide to satellite technology: a versatile ingredient in distance education programs. gloucester, on: telesat canada. fiser, a., & seibel, f. (2009) from national technology experiment to regional socio-economic development: policy measurement, social enterprise, and the demands of aboriginal community networking beyond the connecting canadians agenda. paper presented at the aboriginal policy research conference, march, ottawa. gideon, v. (2006) canadian aboriginal peoples tackle e-health: seeking ownership verses integration. landzelius, k., ed. native on the net: indigenous and diasporic peoples in the virtual age. london: routledge: 60-79. kenny, c., walmark, b., o'donnell, s. (2005) report from the field: the ricta meeting video. journal of community informatics (joci), volume: 1, number 3. kori (2008) mmw mental health evaluation 2005/2006 and 2006/2007. thunder bay, canada: keewaytinook okimakanak research institute. keewaytinook okimakanak telemedicine (2008) report on federal and provincial change requirements and priorities. july 21, 2008. ramírez, r. (2001) a model for rural and remote information and communication technologies: a canadian exploration. telecommunications policy 25 (5), 315-330. richardson, d. & ramírez, r. (1999) 'pacts' for rural ontario: partnerships, accessibility and connectivity transformation strategies for rural ontario. agri-food research in ontario vol. 23. no. 1 (summer), 6-7. walmark, b. (2009) reclaiming first nations research: the keewaytinook okimakanak research institute. paper delivered at the aboriginal policy research conference, ottawa, march. walmark, b., o'donnell, s., beaton, b. (2005) research on ict with aboriginal communities: report from ricta 2005. community informatics research network (cirn 2005) cape town, south africa, august. sujetos y contextos locales: la piedra angular en la implementación de las políticas de inclusión digital laura helena porras hernández laurah.porras@udlap.mx bertha salinas amescua bertha.salinas@udlap.mx josé manuel ramos rodríguez josem.ramos@udlap.mx maría. guadalupe huerta alva guadalupe.huerta@udlap.mx universidad de las américas puebla. grupo de investigación sobre tic para la educación y el desarrollo. cecavi. méxico  resumen se analizan las dificultades de implementación local de políticas nacionales o estatales de inclusión digital para la educación y el desarrollo en pequeñas comunidades de méxico,  a partir de cuatro casos. basados en la investigación realizada pro el grupo de investigación en seis años de trabajo, la constante identificada es la ausencia de estrategias de mediación para adaptarse a la diversidad de contextos y usuarios finales para un uso significativo de la tecnología. se presentan ejemplos de estrategias de este tipo que han sido desarrolladas y probadas en el campo. se sostiene la necesidad de reconsiderar la necesidad de estrategias de mediación en la introducción de las tic   introducción un problema fundamental que enfrentan las políticas públicas que buscan promover el desarrollo, radica en su fase de implementación, lo que con frecuencia se traduce en una distancia entre el impacto real y el fin declarado (onu, 2003). moreno (2001) señala que es precisamente en esta fase donde son evidentes las fallas de los gobiernos. este problema se manifiesta claramente en las políticas de inclusión digital, cuando son “conducidas desde arriba e ignorando generalmente lo que puede (o no) funcionar o ser valioso para la base (gurstein, 2006)”. los analistas de políticas sociales constatan que el estado ha monopolizado su elaboración y ejecución, mostrando grandes limitaciones para convertir los objetivos en resultados y para aplicar políticas integrales. estas requieren el concurso de múltiples actores sociales y una cuidadosa consideración de la dimensión local de toda acción de política. la forma en que se implementan las políticas de inclusión tecnológica, se ven influenciadas por el paradigma del macrodesarrollo, que visto dicotómicamente, acepta dos posturas: economicismo o desarrollo humano sustentable (nazar y zapata, 2000). consideramos que la política mexicana corresponde en general al paradigma economicista, donde lo importante es la inversión, el equipamiento y los índices de cobertura, para formar capital humano. en contraposición, el desarrollo humano sustentable da prioridad a la participación de las personas, ubicadas en una diversidad de contextos socioculturales y donde el objetivo es el desarrollo de capacidades para mejorar la calidad de vida (fajardo, 2006; sen, 2000; pnud, 1990). desde esta postura, que por mucho tiempo ha caracterizado la forma de trabajo de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil, es necesario revisar críticamente los programas oficiales de inclusión tecnológica y generar alternativas metodológicas desde el nivel local. en efecto, se reconoce que las organizaciones civiles pueden aportar a la transformación de las políticas sociales, porque su trabajo se caracteriza por: su cercanía con las necesidades de la población, superación de la desvinculación entre gobiernos y demandas sociales, búsqueda de la eficiencia social, antes que la calculabilidad económica, adecuación de sus programas a los contextos culturales, la participación de las comunidades en las decisiones y el desarrollo de autonomía en lugar de dependencias (penso, 2001). en este artículo presentamos cuatro casos de programas de inclusión digital, cuya constante ha sido la falta de metodologías de implementación y uso de las tic en el nivel local. es decir, además de que estas políticas siguen una tendencia “top-down” que no favorece la apropiación de las innovaciones, la política misma carece de contenido en cuanto a las formas en las que las tic podrían contribuir a los fines de las entidades que operan los programas. el propósito de este artículo es doble: a) a partir de los resultados de la investigación realizada en los casos que se presentan, señalar algunas de las dificultades que aparecen cuando las políticas y programas nacionales de inclusión tecnológica no se ven acompañados de estrategias de mediación educativa que tomen en cuenta la diversidad de sujetos y contextos locales en los que pretenden llevarse a la práctica, y b) compartir las estrategias generadas por nuestro grupo de investigación en respuesta a esta problemática. es importante aclarar que los casos investigados, con excepción de uno, están vinculados al sistema de educación pública. sin embargo, nuestro trabajo se ha orientado tanto a la integración de las tic en las tareas educativas como a su incidencia en el desarrollo comunitario. fundamentos teóricos y metodológicos el artículo se basa en la experiencia acumulada a lo largo de más de seis años de trabajo con distintos programas de implementación de políticas de inclusión con propósitos de educación y desarrollo local en contextos de pobreza. nuestro grupo de trabajo, conformado en 1999 en la universidad de las américas, puebla méxico, por investigadores en las áreas de educación y comunicación, ha asumido una perspectiva interdisciplinaria, que incorpora, por ejemplo, campos como el desarrollo comunitario, el enfoque participativo de la educación popular y la comunicación para el desarrollo. el enfoque teórico que el grupo ha venido construyendo en las investigaciones realizadas, se aglutina en torno a dos conceptos clave: uso significativo de las tic y relevancia social. partimos de considerar a los sujetos en su contexto y entendemos el uso significativo de las tic como una construcción de sentido. se busca que este uso tenga un significado para el sujeto y sea relevante a su contexto, más allá de la tecnología en sí misma. además, las tecnologías se consideran “herramientas para pensar” (jonassen, 2000). esta perspectiva teórica se relaciona con el aprendizaje situado y sostiene que lo que se aprende está íntimamente ligado al contexto en el que ese conocimiento es utilizado, y es ahí donde adquiere auténtico significado. el conocimiento se construye en la interacción con el ambiente físico y social (brown, collins, duguid, 1989; lave & wenger, 1990), por lo que adquiere un carácter de herramienta en la solución de problemas que enfrentan los sujetos más allá del salón de clase (darvin, 2006). nuestro enfoque supone que la construcción del aprendizaje se da en un nivel social, pero también en uno individual. en relación con éste, la perspectiva cognitiva del aprendizaje significativo sostiene que la construcción de sentido se da a partir del cambio conceptual que se alcanza al establecer relaciones entre lo que el sujeto ya conoce y el nuevo conocimiento (ausubel, 1983; novak, 2002). el cambio conceptual es entonces la base del aprendizaje significativo e involucra la construcción y reorganización de los modelos mentales que pueden ser apoyados por herramientas tecnológicas para pensar con ellas, creando relaciones de razonamiento y produciendo simulaciones para la toma de decisiones (jonassen, 2000). aunado a esto, las tic son excelentes instrumentos para crear representaciones de modelos conceptuales y reflexionar sobre ellos para lograr el cambio conceptual (jonassen, strobel & gottdenker, 2005). la exposición a distintos contextos de uso del conocimiento favorece la transferencia construcción de nuevos sentidos de lo que se aprende bransford, brown & cocking, 1999). de esta manera, podría decirse que los sentidos que una persona da a la tecnología pueden variar a partir de cambios conceptuales, producto de su exposición a nuevos usos relacionados y utilizados en su contexto de vida. por lo que toca a la perspectiva social, incorporamos algunas ideas de la corriente latinoamericana de educación popular, en donde “lo central es generar procesos de aprendizaje que sirvan a los sujetos para vivir, resolver problemas y enfrentar desafíos; una educación que respete y recoja las diferencias de los grupos” (ruiz, 2005, p. 53), así “los contenidos dependerán de las condiciones de vida de los adultos y las necesidades individuales y sociales” (idem, pag. 56). bajo este supuesto, proponemos que la mediación educativa parta de las problemática y necesidades de vida de los participantes dentro de su contexto social, de tal manera que el aprendizaje le sea relevante (edwards, 1991; schmelkes, 1992; garduño, 1999). en este marco, el sujeto tiene una participación activa en la solución del problema, desde su cultura y saberes previos (núñez, 2004). nos respaldamos además en freire (1970) al proponer que sean los agentes educativos, junto con nosotros, quienes construyan una nueva propuesta de mediación, en un esfuerzo por “dialogar con ellos sobre su visión y la nuestra” (ídem., 111) de uso de las tic en sus contextos sociales y educativos. hacemos un énfasis en que los educandos utilicen las tic para “producir ideas” más que consumirlas, como una manera de “pensarse a sí mismos y su mundo” (ídem., 90). la fusión de estos enfoques cognitivo y social del uso de las tic, está presente en los cuatro casos investigados en los que se han abordado interrogantes y aspectos específicos. por ejemplo, en el primer caso que presentamos, el espíritu de la investigación acción participativa (balcázar, 2003) se incorpora para proponer la recuperación de las necesidades sociales de grupos comunitarios organizados y correlacionarlas con usos potenciales de las tic, mediante un proceso reflexivo que implica una demanda cognitiva. en el segundo caso el aprendizaje por proyectos parte de un problema concreto del grupo, que se resuelve mediante la elaboración de un pequeño proyecto que exige una planeación, el trabajo de equipo y el análisis de opciones de uso de las tic que resulten pertinentes (helle, païvi & olkinuora, 2006). en el tercer caso, se enfatiza el desarrollo de habilidades de procesamiento lógico de información durante procesos de investigación de la realidad comunitaria, utilizando las tic (nava, 2004; pitts & stripling, 2001), en el último caso se busca favorecer la metacognición, entendida como reflexión sobre los propios aprendizajes, y el uso inteligente de la información, más allá del enfoque “information literacy skills” (einsenberg, & berkowitz, r.e, 1990), pues implica no solamente localizarla, sino “hacer algo con ella”. se acentúa también la necesidad de establecer una conexión entre los aprendizajes escolares y las situaciones de la vida diaria del alumno (brown, collins & duguid, 1989); a esta conexión varios autores coinciden en denominarla transferencia (bransford, brown & cocking, 1999). la evidencia empírica demuestra que esa conexión se incrementa cuando se facilita que el alumno visualice implicaciones potenciales de transferir lo aprendido, se le expone a casos contrastantes y se le anima a representar problemas con cierto nivel de abstracción (ibid.). desde el punto de vista metodológico, en nuestras investigaciones hemos seguido en lo general el paradigma del diseño basado en la investigación (“design based research”, burkhardt y schoenfeld, 2003), propio del campo de la tecnología educativa. el movimiento metodológico en estos estudios ha seguido las fases de familiarización y diagnóstico inicial, revisión teórica, diseño de propuesta metodológica, piloteo en campo, evaluación de proceso y aplicación en una muestra de centros o escuelas, capacitando en la práctica a promotores o maestros. algunas características del método de trabajo del grupo son: proceder para el diagnóstico inicial a partir de focos de observación muy abiertos; cercanía en el campo para conocer “desde dentro” los programas, los actores y sus contextos. registros cualitativos de los procesos en curso, las percepciones, problemáticas y expectativas de las personas que están directamente en la actividad cotidiana, y no sólo de las autoridades. crear relaciones de empatía y amistad con los participantes, como base de un trabajo colaborativo, donde puedan aportar y modificar las propuestas de los investigadores y eventualmente las hagan suyas. el diseño para integrar las tic, siempre ha considerado los objetivos de los programas, las limitaciones de acceso al equipo, las condiciones laborales y personales de los educadores y su escaso conocimiento de la computadora. por ello, los diseños no constituyen un a priori del grupo de investigación, como ocurre en muchos proyectos, guiados por el interés de pilotear una herramienta tecnológica específica, los diseños se han probado en situaciones reales, con una participación directa de los investigadores, tratando de capacitar a las personas de forma vivencial y por modelaje. la evaluación de proceso se ha centrado en verificar y ajustar los objetivos del diseño, y no en el impacto en el desarrollo de habilidades de pensamiento de los sujetos. estos son resultados que no se alcanzan en el corto plazo y la duración de los proyectos no ha permitido su evaluación. la comunicación con las autoridades responsables de cada programa ha sido continua, mediante informes y tratando de involucrarlos para que visiten en campo los centros de trabajo. sin embargo, esto no siempre se ha logrado, lo que ha dificultado que las autoridades comprendan los alcances del diseño propuesto. mientras la mirada del grupo está en la dinámica local, las autoridades tienen una perspectiva general, regida por criterios administrativos y alejada de la realidad. cuatro casos de inclusión digital centros regionales del sicom características del programa en 1996 se creó el “sistema de información y comunicación (sicom) del estado de puebla”, con el propósito de “contribuir a mejorar el nivel educativo y cultural de la población mediante el empleo de las tecnologías de información y comunicación”1. este estado se localiza en la región centro del país y presenta a su interior un desarrollo desigual, pues mientras su capital es un polo de gran actividad económica y una de las ciudades más grandes del país, tres cuartas partes de las localidades son comunidades menores de 500 habitantes. la idea germinal fue desarrollar “un sistema total de interconectividad entre la capital y todos los municipios de la entidad”, que promoviera, produjera, administrara y transmitiera información “con una fundamental orientación educativa en beneficio de todos los sectores de la sociedad (sicom, 1997).” apenas creado, el sicom emprende la instalación de “centros regionales” para “ofrecer soluciones de información y comunicación en el interior del estado a través del uso de medios tecnológicos: informática, audio, video y telecomunicaciones.” se trataba de espacios físicos, acondicionados-ex profeso, en los que se ofrecerían tres tipos de servicio: acceso a computadoras e internet, consulta de materiales en audio y video y sala de recepción de los canales provenientes de edusat (el sistema nacional de televisión satelital de carácter educativo). exceptuando la impresión de documentos, los servicios eran proporcionados gratuitamente. para cada centro habría un director y dos o tres asistentes. durante los primeros tres años del sicom se instalaron diez de estos centros, pero para el año 2000 funcionaban solamente siete. a pesar de que los que permanecían habían sido fortalecidos con recursos tecnológicos considerables, los propios directivos del sistema identificaban que los servicios eran en general subutilizados y se carecía de estrategias operativas que lograran “el aprovechamiento de la información en los procesos educativos y productivos de las comunidades (sicom, 2000).” las autoridades del sicom hicieron contacto con nuestro grupo de investigación y nos solicitaron el desarrollo de un estudio inicial que profundizara en la problemática que enfrentaban los centros. la intención era sentar las bases para el diseño y prueba posterior de un modelo para su mejor aprovechamiento. el diagnóstico para la fase de diagnóstico se seleccionaron tres de los siete centros en funcionamiento, buscando la mayor diversidad en características tales como la densidad poblacional de la zona, la infraestructura educativa y la existencia de otras opciones de acceso a internet. en los tres centros se aplicaron entrevistas semi-estructuradas a los directores y se emplearon otras técnicas cualitativas (observación, diarios de campo, entrevistas abiertas) con colaboradores y usuarios. se cubrieron en esta indagación una diversidad de temáticas: cultura organizacional, uso actual y potencial de los servicios, formas de promoción, impacto educativo y productivo, percepción de la población sobre el centro. entre los resultados del estudio, encontramos que el personal priorizaba el cumplimiento de las normas y directrices institucionales por encima de la intención de responder al contexto local en el que operaban. las tareas y el perfil de los colaboradores estaban centradas en el dominio de lo técnico, por lo que la oferta central era de aprendizaje tecnológico y no resultaba atractivo o significativo para la población en general. los usuarios de los centros eran fundamentalmente individuos que llegaban a ellos de manera espontánea por propia iniciativa. el perfil de los usuarios mostraba un proceso de “selectividad natural”, que presentaba el riesgo de reforzar las desigualdades existentes. por ejemplo, predominaba la población incorporada al sistema educativo formal (estudiantes de secundaria) mientras que los adultos y adultos mayores estaban prácticamente ausentes. en cuanto a su lugar de procedencia, la gran mayoría habitaba en el centro de la población en la que se localizaba el centro y no en las zonas rurales de la periferia. el carácter individual de los usuarios se explicaba también porque no se emprendían acciones sistemáticas de acercamiento y promoción hacia la comunidad en general o las organizaciones y grupos naturales. propuesta del grupo de investigación a partir de los resultados del diagnóstico, se propuso aplicar una estrategia de vinculación y promoción basada en el enfoque de la investigación acción participativa: partir de las necesidades sentidas de usuarios colectivos que trabajaran localmente en el desarrollo económico y social. en lugar de esperar a que las personas espontáneamente se acercaran a los centros, debía hacerse un esfuerzo por considerar las necesidades e intereses de posibles usuarios colectivos y responder a ellas con los usos de la tecnología que pudieran apoyarlos. la intención era capacitar a grupos comunitarios para lograr una apropiación crítica y creativa de la tecnología, al mismo tiempo que favorecer la equidad en el acceso. respecto a la utilización de las tic, se proponía lograr tanto el desarrollo de habilidades individuales como de trabajo en grupo (participación, diálogo colaborativo, solución de problemas, toma de decisiones). diversas circunstancias, como la continua movilidad de autoridades y la dinámica institucional, no favorecieron que la aplicación de la estrategia propuesta se llevara a cabo en esta primera experiencia del grupo. los centros regionales continuaron expandiéndose sin contar con una metodología para el empleo de las tic como impulsoras de la educación y el desarrollo. gradualmente, este proyecto de ámbito estatal se asimiló al programa nacional que se presenta en siguiente caso (sicom, 2005). de cualquier manera, los resultados del diagnóstico mostraron la ausencia de una metodología, al mismo tiempo que sugirieron distintas posibilidades de un “enfoque centrado en la gente”, es decir, en las necesidades comunitarias, y no en la tecnología por sí misma ni exclusivamente para usuarios individuales. las plazas comunitarias y el modelo teja (integración de las tic a la educación de jóvenes y adultos) características del programa uno de los programas más ambiciosos que emprendió el gobierno mexicano el año 2000 es el conocido como “plazas comunitarias”. diseñado sobre todo para su implementación en comunidades pequeñas, la cobertura que alcanzó es muy considerable: cerca de 3000 de ellas en 2005. las plazas son espacios físicos equipados con computadoras e internet, materiales audiovisuales e impresos y un salón de clase, en donde se ofrecen programas de alfabetización, primaria y secundaria a jóvenes y adultos que no terminaron la educación básica2. el programa fue encomendado al instituto nacional para la educación de adultos (inea), organismo con una dinámica propia de veinte años de vida institucional. este organismo trabajaba ya a partir de un modelo educativo innovador: el modelo de educación para la vida y el trabajo (mevyt) que integra como ejes, las principales problemáticas de jóvenes y adultos en condiciones de marginación (castro y mendoza, 2002). sin embargo, este modelo no consideraba en su diseño y operación el empleo de tic. la innovación tecnológica se introducía sin una metodología de incorporación al modelo educativo. el diagnóstico hacia el año 2002, el grupo de investigación inició, a solicitud del inea, un proyecto que contribuyera a construir “sobre la marcha” la propuesta educativa para las plazas comunitarias. como base para elaborar la propuesta, se consideró indispensable realizar un diagnóstico de las primeras plazas en funcionamiento. el diagnóstico mostró una clara separación entre el proceso de aprendizaje de los adultos y las tic; la exclusión de éstos del área de cómputo, ocupada principalmente por niños y jóvenes; una fuerte tendencia a la escolarización con horarios y clases; una utilización errática de las tic, y una limitada función educativa restringida al acceso de contenidos digitalizados o como medio de repaso. estos problemas se derivaban, entre otros factores, de la sobreposición de la innovación tecnológica a un sistema preexistente (salinas, huerta, porras, amador y ramos, 2006). propuesta del grupo de investigación en respuesta a este diagnóstico se propuso un modelo que integraba el uso de las tic a la educación para la vida y el trabajo, que fue designado como modelo “teja” (tic en la educación de jóvenes y adultos). el modelo contemplaba estrategias diferenciadas en respuesta a las demandas de los tres grupos de población que atendía o podría atender la plaza: a) educandos inscritos en el inea que estudian individualmente; b) educandos del inea que coinciden en horarios de asesoría y forman un grupo circunstancial; c) grupos naturales comunitarios, no inscritos en el inea, en situación de marginación y generalmente sin educación básica completa a través del método de aprendizaje por proyectos, el modelo proponía favorecer el aprendizaje significativo y desarrollar habilidades del pensamiento (solución de problemas, trabajo en equipo, expresión oral y toma de decisiones por consenso). el método seguido se sintetiza en las siguientes etapas: selección del problema o necesidad personal o grupal; identificación de una solución y definición del proyecto; elaboración de un compromiso y de un plan de trabajo; análisis de las actividades o tareas a realizar; inicia un nuevo ciclo con otra necesidad. para propiciar el uso de las tic con una intencionalidad clara, se diseñó un “poster” o afiche, es decir, un dispositivo gráfico que representaba los pasos a seguir y recursos disponibles según la necesidad enfrentada, sea que se tratara de individuos o de grupos organizados. se hizo una aplicación piloto de la metodología, cuyos resultados permitieron hacer algunos ajustes a la propuesta inicial. esta versión se aplicó después en cuatro plazas a lo largo de cuatro meses. en la aplicación participaron alrededor de cien jóvenes y adultos, así como un grupo importante de indígenas y adultos mayores. los facilitadores participantes fueron cerca de veinte, incluyendo diez maestros o “asesores” que en la estructura del inea son los que mantienen un contacto directo con los educandos y cuya participación es casi voluntaria, con una mínima retribución por cada persona que obtiene un certificado. durante la implementación del modelo los jóvenes y adultos desarrollaron proyectos a partir de una necesidad detonadora y utilizaron las tic para realizar distintas tareas. algunos ejemplos de proyectos emprendidos son: la organización de un grupo de bordadoras indígenas, que buscó y solicitó apoyos para comercializar sus productos; un grupo de mujeres de una colonia marginada solicitó apoyo al programa internacional “banco de alimentos; otro más elaboró un tríptico para dar a conocer las importancia de respetar los derechos de los niños. resultados entre los resultados de esta aplicación encontramos que la mayoría de los adultos que utilizaban por primera vez la computadora, lo hicieron de manera inmediata, sin requerir cursos previos de cómputo; la realización de los proyectos aumentó el uso de los recursos de la plaza; las tic se utilizaron para “apoyar la organización interna de los grupos, recuperar tradiciones comunitarias y, de manera especial, para “comunicar” sentimientos, valores e ideas en el ámbito local” (salinas, huerta, porras, amador y ramos, 2006, p.58). se observó también una necesidad de expresión de los jóvenes y adultos sobre temas personales y comunitarios cotidianos y de contar con un espacio para compartir sus intereses. hubo algunos indicios del desarrollo de habilidades del pensamiento, el trabajo en equipo, el aumento de la auto eficacia y la motivación intrínseca para usar la tecnología, así como el fortalecimiento de grupos comunitarios. el teja favoreció el acceso a la tecnología de los grupos excluidos o autoexcluidos. en este caso, la ausencia de una metodología que integrara la tecnología con el modelo de educación para la vida y el trabajo, estaba propiciando que las tecnologías disponibles fueran mayormente empleadas por sujetos distintos a la población meta en rezago educativo que atendía el inea. la experiencia de aplicación del teja mostró que a través de una mediación educativa que intencionalmente integre las tic a modelos educativos preexistentes, es posible favorecer el interés y un uso relevante de ellas por parte de personas que antes tendían a autoexcluirse, a pesar de la disponibilidad. la secundaria rural vinculada a la comunidad características del programa este programa se aplica en un distrito de 14 escuelas secundarias distribuidas en igual número de comunidades rurales indígenas en extrema pobreza dispersas en la sierra del estado de puebla (centro de méxico). las escuelas pertenecen al sistema de educación pública; sin embargo, algo peculiar es que el colectivo de maestros que participa en ellas, forma parte de una asociación civil que ha venido desarrollando un modelo educativo innovador: la “telesecundaria rural vinculada a la comunidad”, designación que obedece a su adscripción formal en el sistema educativo, aunque en la práctica no sigue el modelo de telesecundarias que será abordado en el caso siguiente. el modelo ha despertado el interés de investigadores, autoridades educativas de otros países latinoamericanos y fundaciones, por considerarlo una alternativa para la educación rural, digna de ser multiplicada. su objetivo es que la formación de los jóvenes esté vinculada con su realidad comunitaria y facilite el arraigo cultural, en lugar de la expulsión, ya que muchas personas de la región emigran a las ciudades o a estados unidos3. entre las características interesantes del modelo están la investigación comunitaria relacionada con el currículo, la alternancia educación-producción y la apropiación de la palabra. los maestros (un total de 40), mantienen una fuerte cohesión y mística por su trabajo, ya que la mayoría son oriundos de la región. los estudiantes son adolescentes entre 13 y 16 años, de familias campesinas muy pobres con fuerte tradición indígena. la mayoría habla español como primera lengua y realiza actividades propias de economías campesinas de subsistencia. por el prestigio del modelo, la fundación ford se interesó en fortalecer el proyecto mediante el equipamiento tecnológico de las escuelas. la utilidad de la tecnología se visualizó como apoyo al aprendizaje acercando recursos, ya que las escuelas carecen de bibliotecas y materiales didácticos, facilitar la intercomunicación pues en la zona no hay telefonía y los caminos son muy malos, y promover la difusión del propio modelo para quienes están interesados en adoptarlo. en la primera fase (2004) se instaló equipo de cómputo e internet satelital en cuatro escuelas y el centro de capacitación de los maestros en la comunidad de tepexoxuca, puebla, sede de la asociación civil. el coordinador y líder académico del proyecto tuvo una apertura muy favorable a las tic, se capacitó aceleradamente en las aplicaciones básicas y de comunicación, e identificó sitios de internet o cds con recursos didácticos que apoyaran a los maestros en su labor docente. diagnóstico el equipo de investigación llegó al programa un año después de la primera fase de introducción de las tic, para desarrollar una estrategia de uso que fortaleciera el modelo educativo (en particular la vinculación comunitaria a través de la investigación de la realidad), las habilidades de pensamiento y la equidad en el acceso, tanto de maestros como de alumnos. como primer paso, el equipo se familiarizó con el modelo, la región y partió de un diagnóstico sobre cómo estaban usando la tecnología profesores y alumnos, sus expectativas y percepciones. fue un proceso gradual y cualitativo de inmersión, mediante conversaciones, reuniones grupales y observaciones en las escuelas. de forma muy breve, se sintetizan las constataciones que surgieron de este diagnóstico: la expectativa de los maestros era que las tic ayudarían a reforzar el aprendizaje como fuente de contenidos. los pocos maestros que ya se habían iniciado en las tic realizaban este tipo de prácticas. también creían que podían desarrollar habilidades cognitivas, pero no sabían cómo hacerlo. había una marcada desigualdad entre maestros y estudiantes, en relación al manejo básico, interés y acceso a computadoras e internet. esto reforzaba la sensación de incapacidad y las brechas entre maestros. en realidad, no se utilizaban las tic para fortalecer el modelo educativo o vincular a los estudiantes con su comunidad, sino solamente para reforzar el currículo oficial. en los proyectos escolares de investigación4, utilizaban en casos aislados enciclopedias en cds o páginas de internet localizadas por los maestros para obtener información descriptiva. fue claro que no empleaban estrategias de búsqueda de información que hicieran pensar a los estudiantes. propuesta del grupo de investigación la estrategia metodológica del grupo fue acompañada de la dotación de computadoras e internet en tres escuelas más, con apoyo de la fundación ford. la estrategia consistió en hilar las fases del proyecto de investigación escolar con un razonamiento lógico, utilizando las tic para buscar y emplear información con un propósito claro. el proceso se esquematiza en seis pasos: problematización y generación de una pregunta de descubrimiento significativa para los alumnos. imaginar la información necesaria para responder la pregunta y la forma de relacionarla (se sugería que los alumnos dibujaran un esquema de razonamiento) planeación de búsqueda de información electrónica. identificar las palabras clave. revisar tipología de páginas. preseleccionar fuentes pertinentes a la pregunta búsqueda de información electrónica. evaluar origen, confiabilidad y pertinencia de la fuente. seleccionar información pertinente a la pregunta sintetizar y vaciar la información recopilada por los equipos. resumir y redactar en palabras propias para responder a preguntas. organizar respuestas lógicamente en el esquema de razonamiento obtener conclusiones que respondan claramente a la pregunta de descubrimiento, en base al esquema de razonamiento planear y realizar la devolución creativa de los resultados a la comunidad. seleccionar el mensaje y medio (tradicional o electrónico) adecuado al público potencialmente interesado en el tema del proyecto resultados los maestros que nunca habían utilizado la computadora, empezaron a hacerlo y mostraban confianza en si mismos. perdieron el miedo porque estaban enfocados en el proyecto y no en aprender a usar la tecnología. en la práctica con sus alumnos, reconocieron que formular preguntas de descubrimiento resultaba mucho más difícil que preguntas que se resuelven con información que ya existe en libros, enciclopedias o datos estadísticos. ampliaron el espectro de páginas de internet, porque empezaron a buscar lo que era relevante para la pregunta de descubrimiento, sin limitarse a utilizar mecánicamente el mismo buscador o página que acostumbraban. algunos maestros, adaptaron los materiales que recibieron en la capacitación que ofreció nuestro equipo, para utilizarlos con sus estudiantes. los maestros han mostrado interés en compartir sus experiencias y sus dudas, por lo que actualmente se está conformando una comunidad virtual (las escuelas se localizan en comunidades distantes). en este caso hubo condiciones favorables para introducir la tecnología, por la existencia previa de un modelo educativo innovador y el interés de los propios actores. sin embargo, se estaba confiando demasiado en la tecnología, esperando que su gradual integración al modelo se diera espontáneamente. existían también algunos obstáculos ligados a los propios maestros pues había una desigualdad en el acceso a equipo en las distintas escuelas y grandes diferencias en el dominio que los maestros tenían de la tecnología. lograr ese equilibrio fue facilitado por el hecho de que todos hicieron uso de las tic en contextos concretos de enseñanza-aprendizaje. otro aspecto a resaltar es que los profesores han mostrado una clara intención de incorporar y generalizar la propuesta. quizás esta mayor flexibilidad para la innovación se deba a que el proyecto corre a cargo de una organización no gubernamental con un fuerte compromiso social y anclada en la realidad rural. las telesecundarias características del programa la telesecundaria mexicana se crea hace más de 30 años con el fin de llevar los últimos tres grados de la educación básica a poblaciones de menos de 250,000 habitantes (inea, 2004). actualmente este criterio se ha modificado, incluyendo población urbana marginal. la cobertura del sistema se ha expandido hasta atender hoy a 20.6% de toda la matrícula de las escuelas públicas de nivel secundaria (sep, 2006). en cada aula se recibe la señal de televisión con una programación preestablecida, hay un solo profesor por grado para todas las materias, un libro de conceptos básicos y una guía de ejercicios para el estudiante. uno de los elementos fundamentales declarados en el modelo es el propiciar la relación de la escuela con la comunidad para promover el desarrollo (sep, 1993). hasta 2006 el modelo no incluía a las tecnologías de cómputo (sep, 2006). diagnóstico la investigación que realizamos en el estado de puebla durante 2006-2007, con financiamiento del consejo nacional de ciencia y tecnología, nos permitió identificar que la dotación de computadoras e internet se daba de tres maneras: a) los directores gestionan donaciones de particulares, b) los directores gestionan equipamiento ante el programa nacional “e-méxico”, dando atención también a la población en general fuera de horas de clase y, c) participación en programas específicos para la educación básica, con un diseño instruccional definido y/o materiales prediseñados. si bien se supondría que los profesores serían los interesados en incorporar las tecnologías a su quehacer educativo, la realidad encontrada fue otra: en muy pocas ocasiones el propio profesor de grupo asistía con los alumnos al “aula de cómputo”. la mayoría de las escuelas había contratado a un técnico con recursos de diversas fuentes: cursos que se cobran, cooperaciones de padres de familia y servicios a la comunidad a bajo precio fuera del horario escolar. en las menos, un profesor de grupo, generalmente el más hábil en lo técnico, se capacitaba por interés propio para responsabilizarse del aula. las observaciones realizadas in situ mostraron tres principales usos de los equipos: a) aprender computación y paquetería básica (word, excel, powerpoint) sin conexión con un contexto, b) ampliar, fortalecer o reforzar aprendizaje de contenidos, y c) los lúdicos. el primer tipo estaba presente tanto en los servicios a los escolares como al público en general. el segundo tipo, el más cercano a un uso con sentido de la tecnología, se presentaba únicamente con los escolares, a través de búsqueda de temas amplios en enciclopedias digitales o internet, reforzamiento del aprendizaje con ejercitadores, elaboración de resúmenes y presentaciones de trabajos de clase, creación de mapas conceptuales y participación en proyectos colaborativos prediseñados (programa nacional red escolar). la vinculación de la escuela y los aprendizajes con la comunidad no estaba presente de manera intencionada. en esta situación identificamos diversos factores relacionados con los maestros. por un lado su heterogénea familiaridad con la tecnología. había profesores que contaban con correo electrónico, sabían utilizar los buscadores, conocían y utilizaban sitios educativos con contenidos y juegos para los alumnos, mientras que algunos solo habían utilizado el procesador de texto. otro factor encontrado fue la falta de acceso de los profesores a las computadoras de la escuela para familiarizarse con el medio y preparar sus actividades de aprendizaje. en algunas instituciones el limitado número de equipos obligaba a dar prioridad de uso a los alumnos, quedando los profesores al margen. finalmente la falta de intención para vincular las actividades utilizando tic de manera significativa con la comunidad parecía ser tan sólo una extensión de prácticas que con o sin tecnologías se han adoptado con el tiempo. propuesta del grupo de investigación a partir del diagnóstico se trabajó en colaboración con trece de los maestros participantes, para construir una propuesta de integración de las tecnologías que superara algunos de los problemas observados. en dicha propuesta se tomó el uso comunicativo funcional de la lengua (enfoque que predomina en los programas oficiales de educación básica en méxico) como punto de partida para integrar el uso significativo de las tic. para que dicha integración hiciera sentido a los maestros, era importante partir de los enfoques y objetivos que ellos conocen. la propuesta trató de solucionar problemas específicos que iban en contra del enfoque: el predominio de la memoria, la búsqueda de temas generales sin un propósito específico, la falta de transferencia del aprendizaje a la vida del sujeto, la copia y reproducción de textos. la propuesta construida pretendió incidir en tres procesos fundamentales: reflexión sobre los propios aprendizajes (metacognición), uso inteligente de la información y uso y transferencia del conocimiento a contextos auténticos. en todos estos procesos las tic tienen un papel importante. la reflexión requiere de un espacio para ejercer esta práctica pensando en los propios aprendizajes; el uso de tic permite objetivizar el pensamiento de modo que es más fácil pensar sobre ese pensamiento producido. permiten representar de forma dinámica, multidimensional e hipertextual los modelos mentales, favoreciendo con ello la reflexión, tanto durante el proceso de crear la representación, como en el análisis y puesta en común del modelo a través de la representación generada. el uso inteligente de información digital pretende evitar tanto el "naufragio" en una gran cantidad de información, como el consumo acrítico de lo que se publica en forma digital. para ello se requiere partir de una pregunta específica cuya respuesta directa no se encuentra en internet, sino que demanda consultar información de distintas fuentes y procesarla estableciendo relaciones para alcanzar la respuesta. asimismo, se necesita un conocimiento de los diferentes tipos de buscadores, criterios para valorar la información que se encuentra y aplicar procesos de pensamiento que permitan relacionar e interpretar la información localizada. el uso y transferencia de los aprendizajes refiere a que se aprende al usar el conocimiento en situaciones y contextos auténticos que forman parte de la vida del sujeto. lo aprendido va más allá del salón de clase y puede ser utilizado de manera pertinente y relevante en un contexto distinto de donde se aprendió inicialmente. en este enfoque los aprendizajes se utilizan en situaciones presentes o futuras que el estudiante puede enfrentar. por lo tanto el aprendizaje escolar no está desligado del contexto del alumno. en este punto las tic se integran desde dos propósitos: por un lado, las características multimedia de las mismas facilitan la presentación de situaciones auténticas que involucran al sujeto para el uso de los aprendizajes, y por otro las tic son aprendidas al utilizarse para, justamente, para comunicar e informar. resultados durante los trabajos con los maestros, todos ellos utilizaron las tecnologías y completaron las actividades con éxito, generando un sentimiento de logro. al final todos habían vivido la experiencia, tenían un correo electrónico y lo habían utilizado. al momento de redactar este artículo el proyecto está aún en curso; en las últimas visitas realizadas se constató que diez de los profesores están poniendo en práctica lo vivido en las sesiones y aplicando lo que ellos mismos diseñaron durante los talleres. reportan que están "acompañando más el aprendizaje de los alumnos", están aprovechando pedagógicamente la tecnología, sobre todo para el uso inteligente de información. han encontrado difícil la transferencia a contextos auténticos, pues en ocasiones ellos mismos no conocen la utilidad determinado conocimiento curricular. la reflexión la tienen presente, pero no han integrado las tecnologías en esta actividad. están entusiasmados y comparten sus aprendizajes con otros profesores de sus escuelas. reportan que sus alumnos están motivados y han generado trabajos originales y de mejor calidad porque requieren “pensar más” para hacerlos. en las telesecundarias mexicanas, a diferencia de los casos anteriores, actualmente se hacen esfuerzos desde el estado para dar orientaciones pedagógicas a los profesores en la integración de tic. por otra parte, el sistema red escolar, aunque no está diseñado específicamente para el subsistema de telesecundarias sino para educación básica en general, representa una opción para un uso provechoso de la tecnología. este caso confirmó la posibilidad de equilibrar las diferencias de dominio técnico de los agentes mediadores, a través de usos contextualizados de las tecnologías. además, la experiencia muestra que sí se puede apoyar a los docentes para hacer un mejor uso de las tic fomentando habilidades de pensamiento y relacionando su uso con propósitos relevantes para los alumnos, sin necesidad de diseños y materiales rígidos centralmente concebidos. una orientación adecuada a los docentes que apuntale el desarrollo de habilidades de pensamiento y la construcción de significado, ayuda a mejorar la integración de las tic al aprendizaje. por su amplia experiencia y conocimiento, tanto en lo pedagógico como de los contextos locales, son los profesores quienes idean y desarrollan las actividades de aprendizaje. conclusiones a partir de los casos anteriores, puede decirse que la implementación de las políticas mexicanas orientadas a reducir la brecha digital estaba enfrentando problemas para lograr sus objetivos, dada su centralidad en el equipamiento desde lo que nazar y zapata (2000) consideran una visión economicista y no del desarrollo humano. a partir de la investigación se confirma que tal visión, aplicada a las tic para el desarrollo, se basa en ciertos supuestos erróneos a partir de los cuales se construyen planes y programas de acción que en la práctica no alcanzan los resultados esperados. los cuatro casos presentados confirman la existencia de un desfase entre las políticas públicas de inclusión digital y su operacionalización local, acorde con lo sustentado por varios autores en la literatura (gurstein, 2006). sin embargo los resultados de las investigaciones en los cuatro casos muestran que es posible reducir ese desfase en las políticas públicas de inclusión digital para propósitos educativos y de desarrollo social cuando se incide en la construcción de sentido en el uso de las tic desde las necesidades locales. cada uno de los casos da su propio aporte detallando la diversidad de maneras en que se expresa cómo se puede lograr la construcción de sentido y el vínculo con lo local. en el caso de sicom se pensaba que la sola presencia de la tecnología mejoraría la educación, la producción, y el desarrollo. este supuesto responde a la visión lineal de “inyección de tecnología” que se centra en la sola disponibilidad de ésta como detonador del cambio. es decir, que basta dotar de equipos e interconectividad a las comunidades para garantizar el acceso a ellas (salinas, porras, santos y ramos, 2004); por el contrario, tal como lo sostiene kalman (2001), disponibilidad no es sinónimo de acceso. la experiencia de los centros regionales mostró que -en el mejor de los casosquienes empleaban las tic eran estudiantes de educación básica y media, vecinos del lugar en donde se encontraba el centro, mientras que la población en general permanecía al margen de ellas. en estos centros privaba una visión “empresarial”, que se reflejaba incluso en los indicadores de éxito (número de usuarios, horas de uso, etc.) omitiendo cualquier criterio cualitativo acerca de su relevancia. como consecuencia, la evaluación condicionaba el quehacer de maestros y promotores, por lo que para reorientar los procesos era necesario también incluir criterios de evaluación cualitativa que apoyaran una visión de desarrollo humano. así mismo, en esta experiencia se ponía de manifiesto la necesidad de crear mecanismos y procesos que intencionadamente redujeran las brechas de inequidad de acceso existentes, pues la mera inyección tecnológica sólo las profundizaba. las políticas de inclusión digital, por lo tanto deben contemplar que la disponibilidad de equipo no implica necesariamente que los más excluidos se acerquen, sino que el equipamiento debe acompañarse de estrategias de promoción y mediación que favorezcan la inclusión. otro supuesto que entorpece la implementación de las políticas de inclusión, es que el equipamiento puede fortalecer procesos ya en curso, sin necesidad de desarrollar estrategias que permitan la integración y adopción por los actores en sistemas existentes. esto se comprueba de manera extrema en el caso de las “plazas comunitarias”, donde la tecnología irrumpe bruscamente en un sistema establecido, al no responder a necesidades e intereses sentidos. la tecnología se convierte en un añadido irrelevante sin conexión alguna con el contexto de vida del sujeto (edwards, 1991; schmelkes, 1992; garduño, 1999). la nueva visión tecnológica y empresarial de su incorporación, choca con la mística de la educación de adultos, que venía trabajando con modelos centrados en las necesidades y actividades cotidianas de los distintos educandos. menos violenta es la introducción de las tecnologías en los casos de telesecundarias, donde sí hay un interés más claro por incorporarlas, pero no se generan procesos que permitan su integración sinérgica con los procesos existentes, lo que origina un uso errático. un tercer supuesto es que el dominio técnico es suficiente para que los agentes mediadores (promotores, maestros o asesores) puedan facilitar que los usuarios finales incorporen las tecnologías en sus vidas. sin embargo, la falta de estrategias que preparen a estos agentes mediadores pedagógicamente para facilitar la construcción de significado y relevancia en los usos de tic acordes al contexto y necesidades de los usuarios finales, fue una constante en los casos presentados. en este sentido, los planes y programas de inclusión digital deben considerar la necesidad de invertir esfuerzos y recursos en la formación de los agentes mediadores. diversos autores han señalado la importancia de aprender con la tecnología (jonassen, 2000; reeves, 1998) en contextos auténticos (darvin, 2006). lo que ha sucedido en las políticas públicas de tic es una innovación de "arriba-abajo" de herramientas y artefactos, pero no de métodos. las propuestas que el grupo de investigación ha desarrollado y probado en muestras limitadas, demuestra que es posible esa construcción de sentido favoreciendo que los usuarios encuentren nuevos usos relevantes a su contexto, dándole su propio significado a la tecnología. la diversidad de usos y aplicaciones que los usuarios finales sujetos a estas mediaciones logran, hacen suponer que las estrategias educativas aplicadas sí han permitido alcanzar estos objetivos. muchas de las aplicaciones se orientaron a beneficios comunitarios útiles para la vida y hay indicios de que han contribuido a afirmar la cultura local y a que las personas expresen su palabra. la preparación de los agentes para ser verdaderos mediadores educativos que puedan propiciar usos en contexto de las tecnologías, el desarrollo de habilidades de pensamiento y la construcción de significados en los usuarios finales es la piedra angular en el proceso de inclusión digital, y en nuestra experiencia, cuando existe un interés inicial, sólo es necesaria esta orientación para dar cauce a las buenas intenciones que los maestros y promotores tienen. el diseño cuidadoso y fundamentado, tanto en la teoría como en la experiencia, de mediaciones educativas como las aquí mencionadas, pueden servir como base para incidir en las políticas “macro” de inclusión digital. consideramos que esta aproximación al conocimiento desde la realidad para transformarla, puede establecer nuevas relaciones entre la investigación y la política pública. algunas limitaciones de nuestros estudios se centran en lo restringido de las muestras y la falta de tiempo y financiamiento para realizar una evaluación sistemática longitudinal que permitiera valorar el impacto a largo plazo de tales intervenciones. otra limitante ha sido la incidencia real en las políticas públicas, pues las propuestas que se han presentado a las instancias superiores de decisión, se han aplicado sólo parcialmente sin llevar a cabo los cambios de fondo necesarios. ello plantea la necesidad de espacios de participación en las políticas tecnológicas, con 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(2000). computers as mindtools for schools: engaging critical thinking, columbus oh. u.s.a:_merrill/prentice-hall jonassen, d.; strobel, j. & gottdenker, j. (2005). model building for conceptual change. interactive learning environments. 13 (1-2), pp. 15-37 kalman, j. (2001). las prácticas de lectura y escritura frente a las nuevas tecnologías de comunicación e informática. en matute, e. y romo m. los retos de la educación del siglo xxi, méxico: universidad de guadalajara, 243-268. lave, j., & wenger, e. (1990). situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press moreno, p. (2001). nuevos actores e implementación de la política social en penso, c y font, i. (coords.) políticas sociales y nuevos actores. biblioteca de ciencias sociales y humanidades: serie administración. méxico: universidad autónoma metropolitana, azcapotzalco, pp. 51-68 naval, j. (2004). leer y escribir para ser sujeto. méxico: knowledge construction systems. nazar, a. y zapata, e. (2000). desarrollo, bienestar y género: consideraciones teóricas. la ventana, num. 11. centro universitario de ciencias sociales de la universidad de guadalajara, méxico, p. 73 111. novak, j. d. (2002). meaningful learning : the essential factor for conceptual change in limited or inappropriate propositional hierarchies leading to empowerment of learners, science education, 86(4), pp.548-71 núñez, j. (2004). los saberes campesinos: implicaciones para una educación rural. investigación y postgrado, 19 (2), p.13-60. disponible en línea: http://www2.bvs.org.ve. recuperado el: 31 de enero de 2007. onu (2003). governments are installing the internet, but not using it much, un study 0711-2003, un news. penso, c. (2001). organizaciones civiles y políticas sociales. en penso, c y font, i. (coords.) políticas sociales y nuevos actores. méxico: universidad autónoma metropolitana, azcapozalco, biblioteca de ciencias y humanidades, pp. 121-150 pitts & stripling (2001). the research process model. comparison of information skills process model. www.big6.com. recuperado el 2 de marzo de 2006 pnud informe de desarrollo humano 1990. definición y medición del desarrollo humano. disponible en: http://indh.pnud.org.co recuperado el: 31 de enero de 2007. reeves, t. (1998). the impact of media and technology in schools. a research report prepared for the bertelsmann foundation. february 12, 1998 ruiz, m. m. (2005). imbricación de lo político y lo pedagógico en los procesos de educación de adultos. méxico: crefal. salinas, b; huerta, m.; porras, l.; amador, s. y ramos, j. (2006). uso significativo de la tecnología en la educación de adultos en el medio rural. revista mexicana de investigación educativa. volumen xi, número 28. p. 31 a 60. méxico. salom, g. (2002) (coord.) la telesecundaria rural vinculada a la comunidad. méxico: ángeles editores schmelkes, s. (1992). hacia una mejor calidad de nuestra escuelas. méxico, oea/sep. sen, amartya (2000). los fines y los medios del desarrollo, en "desarrollo y libertad". disponible en: http://indh.pnud.org.co recuperado el: 31 de enero de 2007. sep. secretaría de educación pública (2006). cobertura. en logros del programa nacional de educación 2001-2006. [disponible en línea] http://www.sep.gob.mx/wb2/sep/sep_cobertura, recuperado el 30 de enero de 2007 sep. secretaría de educación pública (2006). dotan de nuevo equipo a las telesecundarias. boletin 029 2006-febrero-02 sep secretaría de educación pública (1993). guía didáctica. telesecundaria. méxico: sep sicom (1997). presentación institucional. documento interno. sicom (2000). descripción de los centros regionales. aspectos técnicos y operativos. documento interno sicom (2005). programa institucional 2005-2111. gobierno del estado de puebla. copladep. disponible en: http://www.sicom.edu.mx/ recuperado el 19 de enero de 2007. unesco. (s/f). red de innovaciones educativas para américa latina y el caribe. http://innovemos.unesco.cl/esp/circuitos/nt/innovaciones/telesecundariamexico/index.act. recuperado el 10 de enero de 2007. 1plan estatal de desarrollo 1999-2005. gobierno del estado de puebla 2consejo nacional de educación para la vida y el trabajo (conevyt), programa de mediano plazo 2001-2006. conevyt. diciembre 2001, p.40 3una descripción amplia de este modelo se encuentra en: salom, g. (2002) (coord.) la telesecundaria rural vinculada a la comunidad. méxico: angeles editores. la unesco lo ha considerado dentro de las mejores prácticas educativas: http: //innovemos.unesco.cl/esp/ circuitos/nt/innovaciones/telesecundariamexico 4en el modelo reciben el nombre de “talleres de investigación” y forman parte medular del modelo educativo. <h2 style="text-align:center;"><strong>moving community informatics research forward</strong></h5> <p style="text-align: center;">aldo de moor <br />communitysense, the netherlands <br /><a href="mailto:rramirez@uoguelph.ca">ademoor@communitysense.nl</a></p> <p>from oct 27-30, 2008, the <a href="http://www.ciresearch.net/node/37">5th community informatics &amp; development informatics conference</a> was held in prato, italy.&nbsp; as always, the conference was a great meeting of minds of researchers and practitioners from all over the world, and from many different backgrounds, ranging from cultural anthropologists and process facilitators to hardcore computer scientists.</p> <p> at the end of the conference, i was asked to give my impression of the direction the overall field is heading in, based on the presentations and discussions conducted. it was very hard for me to summarize the widely varying ideas and projects presented, an overview of which is given <a href="http://conftool.net/prato2008/index.php?page=browsesessions&amp;presentations=show&amp;mode=list&amp;metadata=show">here</a>. instead, my aim was to identify some underlying methodological strands that, when woven together, could help to strengthen the fields of community and development informatics in terms of coherence, generalizability and reusability of research ideas and the practical impact of their implementation. this text builds on that presentation.</p> <p> <strong>framing community informatics research</strong></p> <p> <a href="http://growingpains.blogs.com/.a/6a00d83455e99e69e2010535e2bf40970c-pi"><img src="de%20moor_html_m29cbafcf.jpg" name="picture 2" align=bottom width=437 height=336 border=0></a></p> <p> communities and technologies are key to community informatics. these technologies cover a wide range, with sophisticated computer and networking technologies only being one end of the spectrum. face-to-face and other non-computerized technologies can be just as important, if often not more so.&nbsp; icts should therefore always be read as covering this whole spectrum.</p> <p> communities and technologies co-evolve in that technologies both afford and constrain behavior of their communities of use, and, in turn, these communities shape the technologies as they are being applied in practice.</p> <p> community informatics research and practice cannot be seen separately. without practice, no research can be tested and validated. on the other hand, no practical project can be done without an in-depth analysis, i.e. research, of many aspects. the term &quot;community informatics research&quot; should therefore always be read as implying both research <em>and</em> practice. </p> <p> the difference between <em>community informatics</em> and <em>development informatics</em> in this respect is only one of degree. whereas development informatics in general could be said to be dealing more with the practicalities of technology implementation and adoption, community informatics seems to focus more on the social interaction aspects of the technologies-in-use. still, as with any of these complex but related socio-technical fields, it seems not very fruitful to overly demarcate their boundaries. &nbsp; </p> <p> <strong>aspects of community informatics</strong></p> <p> when researching the interplay of communities and their technologies, at least four aspects are of particular interest: </p> <ol> <li><p> <strong>context/values</strong>. community informatics research, unlike more traditional branches of informatics, is very strong in analyzing the context of use of icts, including the stakeholders involved, their interests and goals, and many essential cultural determinants. in particular, much attention is paid to assessing the community values driving the development and uptake of these technologies. such values include soft but key notions such as passions, energy, empowerment, legitimacy, and social inclusion. information systems developers not taking into account these context factors and values do this at their, and especially their <em>communities of users</em>', peril. </p> <li><p> <strong>cases</strong>. community informatics research is very much case-driven. this results in rich, &quot;lived&quot; stories about authentic information and communication requirements, rather than the more abstract &quot;user&quot; requirements often elicited in classical is development projects. </p> <li><p> <strong>process/methodology. </strong>this is both a strength and a weakness of current community informatics research. on the one hand a large palette of situated communication, collaboration, development, evaluation and other community processes and methodologies has been identified. furthermore, a great sensitivity towards tailoring these processes to the authentic needs of the communities in which they are applied is generally displayed. on the other hand, perhaps because these processes are so often case-based and situated, the lessons learnt are hard to generalize and reuse across cases, making it difficult to go beyond &quot;situated methodologies&quot;. this is unfortunate, as many community informatics wheels are continuously being reinvented, and the exchange with related fields, such as mainstream is development in practice, is minimal.</p> <li><p class="abody-western" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; margin-bottom: 0.5cm"> <strong>systems.</strong> much traditional ict r&amp;d focuses on developing and evaluating individual technologies, such as office applications, e-mail, blogs etc. however, realistic use cases increasingly involve <a href="http://communitysense.nl/papers/cstiw07.pdf">&quot;tool systems&quot; of multiple technologies working in concert</a>, and in a specific social context of use, such as a particular community. community informatics research in general is strong in taking such a comprehensive socio-technical systems view. however, as with its processes and methodology, this systems view is often not framed in more general terms, making it hard to disseminate findings more widely. the paradox is that, in contrast with more general is development approaches, community informatics research in practice seems to have include a much more a <em>systems</em> way of thinking, while being weaker in the more theoretical, systematic approach to systems analysis, design, implementation and evaluation. both community informatics and is research in general should therefore continue to learn more from and influence one another.</p> </ol> <p> <strong>moving community informatics research forward</strong></p> <p> community informatics is a &quot;meta-field&quot;, building bridges between existing social and technical paradigms (in both theory and practice). this makes it hard to frame what is the &quot;right&quot; way to move ci research forward, as some researchers lean more towards the social/community, while others more towards the informatics/technical. </p> <p> how then to&nbsp; address at least some of the process/methodological/systems weaknesses? some practical steps forward could be:</p> <ol> <li><p> <strong>definitions, definitions, more definitions. </strong>some of us seem to be afraid of giving definitions, as they would not capture every possible meaning and would overly constrain discourse. true, definitions, almost by definition, constrain. however, they also afford. they point out new directions and open up unexpected viewpoints. furthermore, one should be clear about the exact role definitions should play. they are only hypotheses, forcing authors and readers alike to focus, explain, and align their ideas, not to force one particular point of view as the one and only truth. providing clear definitions is all the more essential when one reaches beyond the confines of one's own paradigm. definitions should always be tentative, and multiple definitions should be allowed or even welcomed, as long as they help us become more explicit about stating and comparing our assumptions. </p> <li><p> <strong>identify lessons learnt/best practices. </strong>another step would be to more systematically identify and compare lessons learned and perhaps even come up with some best practices or at least criteria for assessing these. granted, best practices are in the eye of the beholder and given the situatedness of much community informatics work these may be hard to define. still, as with the definitions, the contexts in which they are to apply should be described as carefully as possible, and their validity in any particular case always critically questioned. in that way, lessons learned and best practices can help crystallize and convey the added value of our research to ourselves and the outside world.&nbsp; </p> <li><p class="abody-western" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; margin-bottom: 0.5cm"> <strong>testbeds/collaboratories.</strong> in science in general and is research in particular, much work is currently being undertaken on the development of <a href="http://www.scienceofcollaboratories.org/">testbed and collaboratory methodologies</a> for the large scale, realistic development of technologies in complex, evolving contexts of use. a case in point is the adoption of the <a href="http://www.livinglabs-europe.com/">living labs</a> methodology, already used in some development informatics projects in south africa, as <a href="http://conftool.net/prato2008/index.php?page=browsesessions&amp;ctsid_prato08=tbrgpcgicrgk6%2cqscp1fhaxlig8&amp;form_session=74">presented at the conference</a>. more strongly connecting community informatics research to these systematic approaches to socio-technical systems development and adoption could be very beneficial to both fields. along the same lines, simulation approaches such as <em>system dynamics</em>, could be used to more efficiently <a href="http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/319">come up with realistic testing scenarios in a ci context</a>. &nbsp; </p> </ol> </p> searching for the role of icts in development: a case study of a rural multi-purpose community centre in the dwars river valle  the impacts of community telecenters in rural colombia [1] fabiola amariles ciat, impact assessment project, cali, colombia <famariles@cgiar.org> olga p. paz colnodo, administration, bogotá, colombia <olga@colnodo.apc.org> nathan russell ciat, communications unit, cali, colombia <nrussell@worldbank.org> nancy johnson ciat, impact assessment project, cali, colombia <njohnson@cgiar.org>   abstract this paper evaluates the impacts of two community telecenters on their host organizations and on the rural areas they served. awareness and use of telecenters by rural households were low, as was users’ ability to articulate information needs. significant institutional impacts occurred in the ngos that hosted the telecenters. the results suggest that sustainable expansion of icts in rural areas of developing countries may best be achieved by working through local organizations willing to incorporate the technologies into their work, while striving with the communities they serve to build local capacity to use information and icts.   resumen se  evalúa el impacto de dos telecentros comunitarios en las organizaciones que los acogieron y en las áreas rurales a las que prestan sus servicios. el uso de los telecentros por parte de los campesinos es bajo, como lo es su habilidad para articular las necesidades de información. ocurrieron impactos institucionales significativos en las ongs que alojaron los telecentros. los resultados sugieren que la mejor manera de lograr la expansión sostenible de las tics en las áreas rurales de los países en desarrollo podría ser por medio de organizaciones locales que quieran incorporar las tecnologías ellas mismas y también trabajar con las comunidades a las cuales sirven, para construir capacidad local para el uso de la información y de las tics.   introduction over the last decade or so, many organizations and individuals have come to see the new information and communications technologies (icts) as potentially powerful tools for helping achieve sustainable development in countries of the south. after an intense, exploratory phase, it is important now for organizations promoting the spread of these technologies to measure their impact in improving livelihoods, particularly in rural communities where access to the new icts has so far been limited. two obvious questions are whether rural people adopt such technologies and whether they can successfully incorporate them into personal and community development. one of the main vehicles for introducing icts in rural areas, especially in latin america, has been the community telecenter. definitions of this term abound in the literature, but for the purposes of this study, we refer to them as public spaces where a community can use icts to implement social development programs, support the social and personal development of the individuals and communities they serve, and contribute to improving the quality of life of people (menou et al., 2004).  thus, in contrast to the cybercafes that have proliferated in cities and towns, which are essentially small businesses offering ict access, community telecenters have a mainly social purpose and are generally established by organizations committed to building local capacity for ict use in development.    this paper presents the findings of an impact evaluation of two rural community telecenters set up in southwestern colombia under a 3-year project called inforcauca, which was funded by canada’s international development research centre (idrc) and the rockefeller foundation in the usa. inforcauca’s goal was to test community telecenters as an appropriate means for building local capacity to obtain and use information relevant to economic development and sustainable management of natural resources in a marginalized region. the project strongly emphasized evaluating and enhancing telecenter impacts. at the outset of the project, it was expected that impact would result largely from decisions and actions taken by individual telecenter users based on information obtained via icts. as the project progressed, however, it became evident that the most notable changes were occurring within the organizations hosting the telecenters, as a result of inforcauca’s strong capacity building program. in light of this pattern, the impact study focused initially on telecenter users and rural households within an economics of information framework (akerlof, 1970; riley, 2001; rothschild & stiglitz, 1976; stiglitz, 1997).  but it was further expanded to include an assessment of institutional changes attributable to inforcauca in two organizations hosting rural telecenters: the asociación de cabildos indígenas del norte de cauca (acin) [2] and the corporación para el desarrollo de tunía (corpotunía) [3] under the expanded strategy for evaluating telecenter impacts, two approaches were employed. first, surveys were designed to characterize telecenter uses and users and to examine how individuals employ icts and other technologies to satisfy their diverse information and communication needs. special attention was given to the role of the internet within broader patterns of communication and to the implications for telecenter impacts. second, an organizational impact study was conducted to identify changes in the organization in terms of effectiveness (ability to reach its goals), efficiency (use of available resources), relevance to stakeholders, and sustainability (financial health). assessing the impact of icts the evaluation of ict impacts has gained particular importance in light of the world summit on the information society (wsis), whose first part was held in december 2003 at geneva, switzerland and the second part in november 2005 in tunisia. the ict for development platform [4], an exhibition and forum organized in conjunction with the wsis by the swiss agency for development and cooperation (sdc) and the global knowledge partnership (gkp), shared the experience gained and lessons learned from many ict-for-development initiatives around the world. through this open forum, three areas for immediate action were defined: first, the integration of icts systematically into poverty reduction strategies; second, the need to move beyond small pilot projects to nationwide or even regional implementation of ict programs; and third, the creation of new types of partnerships involving all major stakeholders – government, civil society, and the private sector. against this background of heightened expectations, it is important that ongoing and new initiatives on icts for development do a thorough job of assessing impact to give donors, partners, and other stakeholders a clear idea of what they can reasonably expect from the use of icts on a massive scale in poor communities. despite the clear need for impact assessment, though, little empirical evidence is available about the impacts of telecenters in the lives of users. some studies have measured the use of telecenters and observed that it is highest among younger and more educated community members (kyabwe and kibombo, 1999). women and the poor tend to be underserved (karelse and sylla, 2000; rathgeber, 2000; hafkin, 2002; acacia project [5]). other researchers have identified aspects of the location and design of telecenters that influence who does or does not use their services (kyabwe and kibombo, 1999; baron, 1999; harris, 1999; cisler et al., 1999). these findings suggest that telecenters are not being used by marginalized populations and therefore have only limited direct impact on poverty. the study results tell us little, however, about why telecenter use is limited. are there serious obstacles to access, or is demand for telecenter services limited?  several studies document the high costs of telecenter establishment and operation (benjamin and dahms, 1999; delgadillo and borja, 1999) and the consequent high cost of services to users. these findings have clear implications for sustainability and poverty impact. however, without comparable estimates of the nature and magnitude of the benefits obtained from telecenters, we cannot conclude whether or not they are a worthwhile investment for donors and users. many telecenters, especially when they are dependent on donor funding, fail to become sustainable. those operating as cybercafes may show positive cash flow within the first few months of business (bridges.org, 2004). telecenters may also generate significant social benefits, particularly if they have clear objectives and strong institutional frameworks, enabling community members to acquire computer skills, increase their employability, and gain access to markets (batchelor et al., 2003). much anecdotal evidence suggests that ict projects can be especially beneficial if they are closely linked to other initiatives aimed at improving livelihoods. other attempts to measure the development impacts of telecenters have produced inventories of best practices for applying icts. such studies report telecenter experiences, describing how icts were applied and judging whether the initiative complied with pre-established criteria for relevance to development and poverty reduction.  in 2002 the international institute for communication and development (iicd) in the netherlands and bridges.org in south africa began conducting a series of case studies of projects on icts and development to learn from the experience of successful initiatives that used icts to promote socioeconomic development. through a simple but structured format, the case studies examined whether and how the initiatives made a significant impact at the local level, based on a set of basic best-practice guidelines, called the “seven habits of highly effective ict-enabled development initiatives.” the case studies were expected to provide information about effective uses of icts for development and also to constitute a source of ict-for-development stories that over time might reveal patterns of best practice [6].  the global knowledge partnership (gkp, 2003) has compiled a series of case studies on icts for poverty reduction in asia. each describes a particular application of icts and covers issues such as targeting the poor, outreach, expandability or replicability, and sustainability. the document highlights the distinction between “development” and “poverty reduction,” organizing the case studies around the categories of the millennium development goals. several authors have offered opinions about what exactly needs to be measured to determine the impact of telecenters on development. daly (1999) states that in order to measure the impacts of the internet in the developing world, factors such as penetration, utilization, and effects arising from utilization need to be analyzed. gomez et al. (2001) present a social vision of icts for development, emphasizing equitable access, meaningful use, and social appropriation of ict resources, together with enabling environments and minimizing risks and threats. mathison (gkp, 2003) stresses that projects need to demonstrate an absence of negative social impacts. another issue is the extent to which the use of icts offers projects some competitive advantage, compared with those having similar goals but that do not employ icts in the same way.  rigorous impact analysis must go beyond those considerations, however, to assess where and how the impact of community telecenters is happening. daly (1999) recommends that evaluations of ict impacts focus first on individuals and then seek impacts on groups and organizations, such as businesses, schools, and health centers. gomez (2001) defines four levels at which ict use can have a positive or negative impact: (1) on people, individually or collectively; (2) on organizations, whether private, public, or civil; (3) on countries; and (4) on the region or world, i.e., beyond national borders. at each of these levels, the needs, questions, and evaluation methods are different. though various studies have reported ict impacts within communities, little has been written about their impacts specifically on organizations. whyte (1999) recognizes the importance of measuring changes in organizations, given their relevance to the development and life of communities. she suggests that in telecenter evaluations special attention should be given to schools, chambers of commerce, and health clinics as well as community organizations, ngos, and committees that have some formal structure and mandate. whyte further notes that “information and communication are critical to the success of any formal organization so that savings in time and money, together with better performance and reliability, are key questions for the evaluation” (whyte, 1999, p. 288). the impacts of icts, she says, will thus “relate to the efficiency of the organization, the outcomes it achieves, its decision-making processes and the decisions made, as well as how effective its networking and information sources are for reaching its organizational goals.” recent developments in the evaluation of organizational capacity building offer some guidance as to how we can examine the organizational impacts of icts. an important trend in this work is the move away from analysis of project outputs (i.e., products and services offered by external agents to passive recipients) to the observation of changes in the behavior and performance of people and organizations. the international service for national agricultural research (isnar) contributed importantly to this shift by devising novel methods for evaluating capacity development programs in agricultural r&d organizations (horton et al., 2000; horton et al. 2003). the conceptual framework for this evaluation drew on an organizational assessment methodology developed by universalia and idrc and on the underlying “theory of action” of the isnar project on participatory monitoring and evaluation. the universalia-idrc framework views an organization’s performance as a function of its operational environment (the legal, social, and economic context), its motivation (internal factors that influence the direction, coherence of activities, and energy displayed), and its capacity (the organization’s staffing, resources, structure, management systems, and linkages with others). organizational performance is defined in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, relevance to stakeholders, and sustainability. a key lesson of these studies was that to assess the outcomes of capacity development one must examine changes in the behavior and performance of individuals within organizations, since it is their learning process or acquisition of new knowledge and skills that gives rise to organizational change. within the framework described above, this study conducted an institutional analysis of the telecenters supported by the inforcauca project. the analysis was prompted by project staff’s observation that, apart from benefits for surrounding communities, the telecenters were having a profound effect on capacity development [7] within the organizations hosting the telecenters. the aim of this analysis was to measure the extent to which improved capacity (the result of ict access, training, and the adoption of new ways of working) was having an impact on the organizations’ performance. the results presented here suggest that, where the telecenter is thoroughly embedded within its host organization, significant impacts can be achieved through the organization’s activities. a further challenge is to measure the impact of these strengthened organizations on the communities they serve. the inforcauca project [8] the project’s central aim was to develop appropriate telecenter models for building the capacity of individuals and organizations in marginalized regions to benefit from information related to food security, social and economic development, and natural resource management. inforcauca was implemented by the international center for tropical agriculture (ciat, its spanish acronym) and the universidad autónoma de occidente (uao) in partnership with several community organizations, which were responsible for managing the telecenters.  the project established and supported two telecenters in rural areas as well as one urban telecenter [9]. one of the rural community telecenters was managed by acin in northern cauca department, while the other was run, at least initially, by a consortium of local organizations. after several attempts to establish this second telecenter in different locations, such as a local technical school and the town cultural center, it was placed at corpotunía, a not-for-profit ngo dedicated to promoting agricultural as well as social and cultural development through participatory approaches in various municipalities of central cauca. inforcauca’s search for appropriate models of telecenter development proved to be a process of trial and error, in which project staff and local partners first had to set aside many preconceived ideas and expectations. eventually, however, they were able to define a role for each telecenter that matched the needs and circumstances of the host organizations and their communities. thus, the acin telecenter came to play a central part in this organization’s struggle to defend indigenous communities and leaders against human rights violations. it also supported the work of acin’s various development programs, which deal with such issues as rural planning, agriculture, health, and indigenous women. the corpotunía telecenter, meanwhile, complemented the organization’s community development programs, particularly those aimed at strengthening small agro-enterprises. in supporting these telecenters, the inforcauca project focused on strengthening the capacity of individuals and local organizations to access, use, create, and exchange information. its capacity building program ranged from basic training in computer programs to more intensive instruction in web site development, project development, and the use of conventional communications media in conjunction with telecenter services. the project’s strong support, together with a high level of commitment on the part of telecenter operators and host organizations, were key for generating impact and for making progress toward achieving telecenter sustainability. results of the analysis of impact on individuals and communities data and methods the central hypothesis of the inforcauca impact study was that through telecenters individuals would obtain information that could help them make better decisions. our first objective, therefore, was to document the types of information people were obtaining through the telecenters. second, we wanted to link the information obtained to changes in decision making, in livelihood strategies, and ultimately, in people’s welfare. a final objective was to determine who were and, perhaps more importantly, who were not using the telecenters, with the aim of devising strategies to reach a broader audience. obviously, to assess the impact of decision making and human welfare is a long-term undertaking that involves comparing the situation before the telecenters’ establishment with that afterwards. for this purpose we opted for a dual strategy of gathering information directly from telecenter users and from a random sample of households in the telecenters’ target areas. the idea was that information on users would provide early evidence on uses and users, while data from the communities would enable us to examine the magnitude and distribution of impacts. results results of the telecenter early users survey to document how people were using the telecenters, user surveys were conducted at both telecenters in late 2001. during a one-month period, a sample of users was asked to fill out a form requesting (1) demographic information; (2) information about the services used, the type of information sought, and use of other communications media in addition to the internet; and (3) an evaluation of the quality of the service. a total of 39 surveys were obtained, 20 from corpotunía and 19 from acin. the main purpose of this study was to characterize telecenter uses and users. it examined how people draw on the internet as well as other information sources (including letters, telephone, radio, television, newspapers, and magazines) to meet their diverse needs. the idea was to determine how icts fit within a broader pattern of media use and to identify potential implications for telecenter impact. according to the results, early users tended to be fairly young and well educated; their average age was 28, and 97% had completed secondary education. at corpotunía and acin, over half of telecenter users also had post-secondary education, and over 20% were professionals. thus, telecenter users were not representative of the general population but rather constituted a relatively elite group fitting the typical profile of “early technology adopters.” users visited the telecenters, on average, four times per month, with no variation across locations or sex of user. at corpotunía the most common reason for visiting the telecenter on the day of the survey was related to school, while at acin it was for work. there were no differences between men and women in ranking the quality or availability of services. telecenter users reported using a range of communications media and information sources, including meetings and letters and print media as well as the telephone, radio, and internet. with few exceptions, use levels were high (>70%) across all media and telecenter locations. to see how uses of different communications media were related, we calculated correlations between the use of one option and that of another. the results showed that in nearly all cases the use of one medium was either unrelated or slightly positively correlated with the use of other media. different information sources or communications media appear to complement rather than substitute for one other. to determine whether this complementarity is based on the use of different media for different types of information or communication, we grouped the information obtained from icts and other sources into four categories: (1) family communication, (2) general information, (3) personal development, and (4) specialized information. on average, users obtained general news and information from 4.4 types of media, and information for personal development from 2.8. family communication depended on 1.7 different media, and specialized information was obtained from 1.2 types. in general, people used a single source to obtain different types of information (table 1).  though the internet was used for a variety of purposes, interestingly, it was the most commonly used source of information for personal development, suggesting that it fills an obvious information gap. table 1: type of information obtained by telecenter users, by source ict       type of information   family communication  general information personal development information specialized information   % of users of the ict telephone (n=33) 82 30 39 9 radio (n=32) n/a 72 19 19 newspaper/magazine (n=29) n/a 93 41 31 television (n=39) n/a 97 33 21 internet (n=30) 47 57 63 17 flyers (n=36) 78 58 14   community meetings (n=33) 9 70 52 18   significantly for r&d organizations, only about 17% of users used the internet to obtain specialized information related to decisions or activities of economic importance. but then only 38% obtained this information from any formal source, and the figure is 24% if we exclude direct personal contacts via telephone and community meetings.        what are the implications of these findings for community telecenter development?  obviously, if telecenters are to have an economic impact in people’s lives, we need to know why so few telecenter users search for specialized information on the internet or through other formal communications media. is such information simply not available, or if it is, do users have little faith in its veracity? are they getting this type of information mainly through family or personal communications in which they have more confidence? clearly, there are important challenges in boosting the overall number of telecenter users and expanding the uses of internet, which does, after all, offer the advantage of being a resource with multiple purposes. results of the baseline survey of the community served by the corpotunía telecenter  to begin characterizing and assessing the magnitude of the impacts of telecenter use, a baseline survey was carried out during late 2002 and early 2003 in communities near the telecenter operated by corpotunía. a sample of 445 individuals was selected, 48% in tunía and 52% in the surrounding rural area. the specific objectives were to document the extent of telecenter awareness and use in the community, to identify any changes in the pool of telecenter users (in relation to results from the user survey), and particularly to compare users with nonusers. the survey also allowed us to examine broader information and communication patterns in the community. a baseline survey was conducted only in the area of influence of the telecenter at corpotunía, since it is the only one that is open to the general public and is intended to serve the community directly. nearly two years after the initial user surveys were conducted, follow-up focus groups were held with users of all three telecenters to get a better sense of how the telecenters were affecting users’ lives. the idea was to gather qualitative information to complement the quantitative surveys.  according to the results of the baseline survey, awareness and use of the corpotunía telecenter was relatively limited. only 25% of the urban population of about 2,000 had visited the telecenter, though just over half had heard about it. the figure is far lower for the surrounding rural area, where only 8% of the respondents had even heard of the telecenter at tunía. because of the extremely low use of telecenters in rural areas and because the urban and rural respondents differ significantly on many, if not most, socioeconomic, demographic, and information-related variables, it is valid to compare users and nonusers only within the town of tunía. table 2. characteristics of telecenter users and nonusers in tunía   users (n = 53) nonusers (n = 160) average age*** 31 39 percentage who are women 51 47 average number of years of education*** 6 4 community group participation .19 .15 percentage living in their own home 74 69 well-being indices+     index of access to public services (e.g., electricity, running water, and trash collection) *** .98 .80 index of access to health services (social security and local health center)*** .92 .76 own domestic appliances (refrigerator, tv, blender, and gas/electric stove)*** .98 .80 index of transportation (car, motorcycle, and bicycle) ** .22 .13 index of access to education (primary and secondary school) *** .98 .70 index of unsatisfied basic needs (sum of indices of health, education, public services, and home ownership)*** .39 1.03 ** = differences among telecenters are significant at  p ≤ 0.05. *** = differences among users are significant at  p ≤ 0.01 + indices are weighted averages of access to the goods or services in parentheses. each component is weighted by the inverse of the frequency of which it appears, i.e., the rarer it is, the more it counts in the index. indices go from 0 (lowest) to 1 (highest).   telecenter users were not as educated as the elite early adopters surveyed a year before, suggesting that the user pool had broadened somewhat (table 2). yet, telecenter users were still significantly better educated than nonusers, and they were also better off in terms of material well-being (i.e., access to electrical appliances, public services, and so forth). in addition, telecenter users were more likely to use and spend significantly more money on other communications media. users and nonusers did not differ, however, with regard to gender or participation in community activities. users and nonusers of the telecenter differed significantly in terms of their use of other sources of information and means of communication (table 3). telecenter users were more likely to use the telephone, television, internet, newspapers, regular mail, and pamphlets than were nonusers. the internet complemented other information sources and appeared to widen the divide between those who have access to information and those who do not. table 3. use of information sources and communications media in tunía percentage of respondents who use: users nonusers telephone*** 75 53 radio 87 80 newspapers/magazines** 60 43 television** 98 85 internet*** 24 5 pamplets*** 57 34 community meetings 19 24 regular mail** 13 0 *** significant at < = 0.01 ** < = 0.05  * < = 0.10.   many, but not all, of the differences between users and nonusers of the telecenter also applied for users and nonusers of the internet (table 4). men were more likely to use the internet than women, and internet users participated more in community groups than did nonusers. users were generally better off than nonusers, but the differences were not as great as for telecenter users in general. the two groups did not differ in terms of possession of household appliances, and the differences in access to health services and transportation were less marked. again, internet users were more likely to use other sources of information and means of communication than were nonusers of internet. table 4. internet users and nonusers in tunía   users (n=39) non users (n=174) average age*** 27 39 percentage who are women*** 31 54 average number of years of education*** 8 4 community group participation *** .33 .12 percentage who are homeowners 67 71       well-being indices+     index of access to public services (e.g., electricity, running water, and trash collection) *** .96 .82 index of access to health services (social security and local health center)* .89 .79 own domestic appliances (refrigerator, tv, blender, and gas/electric stove) .80 .79 index of transportation (car, motorcycle, bicycle) ** .24 .14 index of access to education (primary and secondary school) *** .97 .73 index of unsatisfied basic needs (sum of indices of health, education, public services, and home ownership)*** .51 .95 ** = differences among telecenters are significant at  p ≤ 0.05  *** = differences among telecenters are significant at  p ≤ 0.01 +indices are weighted averages of access to the goods or services in parentheses. each component is weighted by the inverse of the frequency of which it appears, i.e., the rarer it is, the more it counts in the index. indices go from 0 (lowest) to 1 (highest)   with respect to use of the internet for seeking economically important information, little had changed from the user survey made in 2001. in the case of farmers, for example, more than half of those included in the community survey, even the few who had used the telecenter, said they got such information from informal sources, chiefly other farmers. thirty-one percent relied on formal sources, such as extension agents, agrochemical company representatives, and printed pamphlets. the limited importance of the internet as a source of specialized information could relate to availability and confidence, as suggested in the discussion above of telecenter user survey results. the baseline community survey points to still another possible explanation. when asked what information might be useful to them in their work, farmers referred generally to technical assistance, training, and other topics, but only 21% were able to identify at least one concrete information need (table 5). in contrast, 34% of the students and all of the teachers were able to identify such needs. table 5. percentage of respondents who identified concrete information needs activity/occupation % agriculture 20 business 25 construction 33 employees 46 homemakers 6 teachers 100 students 34   these findings are consistent with the predominance of students and teachers among telecenter users. teachers in particular are willing to pay for internet use, because they evidently know exactly what information they need and can readily obtain it through the internet. if community telecenters are to become equally effective as a source of information for farmers and other actors in rural development, then the needs of these people must be defined more concretely, and more must be done to identify or create reliable information sources that are genuinely useful to them. this is consistent with the growing recognition that policies that seek to use icts to promote pro-poor development must not only provide access to icts but also build skills that permit their effective use (gurstein, 2003) focus group discussions the outcomes of the focus group discussions with telecenter users essentially reinforced patterns that are evident from the user and community surveys. users tended to be younger and better educated than nonusers. and they frequented the telecenter mainly for computer training, to obtain general information (related to school assignments or availability of scholarships, for example), or to communicate with friends and relatives. cases of individuals obtaining technical or economic information for use in development-related decisions were scarce. even so, the few such cases that exist can be quite instructive. members of a local association of flower producers, for example, have received training in basic computer software at the telecenter in tunía. with a view to identifying the requirements for breaking into export markets, a corpotunía agronomist helped them consult the web sites of other associations. the group determined that, in order to export their flowers, they would need to improve their infrastructure, meet new demands in terms of product volume and quality, obtain credit, and so forth. thus, access to information has enabled the group to clarify its vision for the future and to identify specific needs. however, they would not have been able to form that vision without technical support from corpotunía, and the information alone obviously will not enable the group to realize their vision. when asked about their own perceptions of the telecenter’s impact, 83% of telecenter users (and 66% of nonusers) said it had generated benefits. the predominant telecenter uses – helping children do homework assignments and keeping in touch with friends and relatives – may seem superficial in terms of rural development. even so, they represent important gains for the townspeople, resulting in significant savings in time and money – a point stressed by many focus group participants. moreover, these telecenter uses are feeding the community’s hope for a better future. the telecenter is fulfilling many people’s desire to learn and to be connected with the wider world. the parents of young telecenter users express high expectations that, by learning to use icts, their children will gain new opportunities for education and advancement. with continuing support from corpotunía, the experience of these early telecenter users should provide a solid foundation for further ict applications that contribute more directly to the achievement of sustainable rural livelihoods. results of the analysis of organizational impacts as mentioned earlier, it was expected at the outset of the inforcauca project that impact would come largely from the use of telecenter services by individuals in rural communities, who would derive economic benefits from information obtained through the use of new icts. as the project advanced, however, it became evident that more important changes were taking place within the organizations hosting the telecenters. for that reason a method for evaluating organizational performance, developed by idrc and universalia of canada (lusthaus et al., 1995) was incorporated into the impact assessment. the purpose of this method is to gauge the extent to which a project is having an impact on collaborating organizations at different levels. structured interviews, designed according to the short guide for institutional assessment (lusthaus et al., 1995) provided by idrc and universalia, were conducted with key staff in the two organizations hosting rural community telecenters:  acin (11 employees) and corpotunía (7 employees). the interviews were complemented by a review of documents (including web sites and internal reports) that provided evidence of important changes in the organizations. the interview questions focused on three key factors that influence organizational performance: (1) motivation, (2) institutional capacity, and (3) environment. based on interview results, a qualitative analysis was conducted to establish the cumulative effect of changes in those three factors on the overall performance of the telecenter host organizations in terms of their effectiveness (in reaching goals), efficiency (in using the available resources), and viability (i.e., financial health). the telecenter at acin the acin telecenter was established in 2000 at one of the association’s offices in santander de quilichao. it is available only to acin staff and to leaders and other members of the indigenous communities supported by the association. the telecenter has two computers with internet connection (via telephone), two quickcams, a printer, and scanner. two local coordinators provide training and orientation in the use of icts and other services, such as help in preparing promotional and instructional materials. the most common uses of the telecenter at acin are e-mail access, preparing and scanning documents, and consulting and developing web sites. with respect to motivation, acin staff felt that the telecenter had prompted them in various ways to do a better job of fulfilling the organization’s mission. first, by learning through the internet about the experiences of others, particularly those working with indigenous people in the americas, acin staff gained a heightened awareness of the overall significance of their work. this change, in turn, reinforced acin’s commitment to strengthening indigenous traditions and to working toward that goal through improved support programs and organizational processes. moreover, better access to information on a wide range of topics provided acin with a stronger foundation for collective decisions about the association’s activities. naturally, it took time for these changes to emerge. in fact, at the outset of inforcauca, some indigenous leaders expressed concern that new icts would do more harm than good. their quite legitimate fears ranged from issues of personal safety and cultural pollution to questions of intellectual property and possibly negative implications for the paez (indigenous) people’s oral tradition of communication, which is a central element in their collective mode of decision making. indigenous leaders’ reservations gradually diminished however, as they realized that, through appropriate capacity building and leadership, icts could help rather than harm acin and the communities it supports. the leadership issue was resolved in late 2002 through the creation of a communications council, which provides a formal framework for decisions about the telecenter as well as community radio programs and other communications activities. in terms of institutional capacity, the telecenter has contributed importantly to the personal and professional development of acin staff. they have received training in topics ranging from the use of icts to project proposal writing, and some have learned about and taken advantage of opportunities to attend international workshops. acin staff remarked that new computer skills have improved their efficiency in the organization and in other activities, such as teaching. the telecenter operators have provided valuable leadership in using the telecenter to build institutional capacity, a point noted by most of the acin staff interviewed. beyond simply training others in the use of icts, the operators have aided the search for information that is useful in acin’s day-to-day work. the association’s education and planning programs have also played an active role in this task. in addition to improving information availability within acin, the telecenter operators have enhanced the association’s capacity to communicate with some of the more remote indigenous reserves by linking icts in practical ways with the use of conventional communications media, especially radio. under a system that acin staff call “chivanet,” the telecenter operators copy documents, such as e-mails and files from web sites, onto diskettes and deliver these to the driver of a rugged rural bus called a chiva, which travels daily to the remote reserves. the driver delivers the diskettes to the radio operators, who then convey messages and incorporate information from the web into their radio programming, thus keeping the communities that acin serves better informed about developments locally and elsewhere that are pertinent to them. in some ways the telecenter has better enabled women in particular to play a more active role in acin and in the indigenous communities generally. this was an outcome of the telecenter’s strong support for the association’s indigenous women’s program in obtaining and disseminating information about women’s rights and the use of gender analysis methods. one result is that gender indicators have been incorporated into the land-use planning of indigenous reserves in five different municipalities. another is that the criteria for filling leadership positions in acin now include candidates’ respect for women and commitment to families. moreover, women are perceived to play a more active role in decision-making through stronger participation in community meetings. a rather dramatic illustration of how acin staff has put their new capacities to work emerged several years ago, when the intensification of fighting between guerillas and paramilitaries in northern cauca resulted in gross human rights abuses against the paez people. this included the assassination of indigenous leaders and massacres in remote paez communities. in response, the telecenter operators began sending digital images of missing persons to human rights organizations, in addition to using these to make printed notices for distribution by family members of the desaparecidos. with assistance from ciat, acin also developed a media list and began sending communiqués about the human rights abuses to the press and human rights organizations. eventually, acin and other indigenous associations in the region organized a massive human rights march, in which 35,000 people participated. on this occasion the telecenter proved vital in handling logistics as well as communication with the media and other organizations. by heightening motivation and enhancing institutional capacity, the telecenter has had a profound effect on the internal working environment at acin. but it has had an equally important impact on the way the association deals with its external context. better communication with donors and collaborators has made them more aware of acin’s work “we’ve made ourselves better known to the rest of the world”, as one person put it. “now we have greater credibility with other organizations,” said another. staff noted that acin’s attractive web site has contributed importantly to those ends. better public awareness has led to a marked expansion in acin’s links with other organizations, especially donors, within colombia and around the world. each of the association’s programs – health, education, and so forth – has widened its contacts with agencies that can provide information and other support. acin staff are now more knowledgeable about the opportunities available through such contacts, and they are more adept at developing projects in collaboration with their new partners. in summary, the telecenter has come to serve as a kind of communications unit for acin, helping improve its efficiency and effectiveness in developing projects, organizing events, and providing services in support of indigenous communities. these accomplishments have made acin a pioneer in the use of icts in colombia and an important source of lessons learned for other indigenous people’s associations. a key question now is whether acin can sustain this process. with respect to the financial side of that question, the telecenter has generated some savings for acin but also significant costs, particularly for internet and phone service. since the conclusion of the inforcauca project in mid-2003, the association’s management has incorporated those costs into its standard operational budget. but acin was able to do that only because the telecenter had achieved a kind of social sustainability: that is, it had become such a vital part of the association’s support for the social development of the indigenous communities, that both staff and indigenous leaders considered it indispensable. the telecenter at corpotunía unlike acin, corpotunía had already begun using the internet before the inforcauca project began. nonetheless, staff and management tended to view this largely as being for secretarial functions. not until corpotunía came to host the telecenter did all staff begin to acquire and apply ict skills in their work. once corpotunía staff realized that hosting the telecenter added a new and important dimension to their work, it then made sense for the organization’s own staff to join the early adopters of this new technology. in addition to serving corpotunía the telecenter is open to the general public, whose main uses of telecenter services include accessing e-mail, preparing and scanning documents, and conducting web searchers. the telecenter’s primary impact in terms of the motivation of corpotunía staff has been to broaden their field of action, enabling them to incorporate the use of icts into their work on agro-enterprise development, rural education, and other topics. the telecenter has thus given the organization an entirely new focal point for project development – a task in which corpotunía has been remarkably successful. the new projects, in turn, have provided staff with innovative ways to reach rural communities and thus fulfill their development mission. as a result, they have come to see the telecenter as a potential source of broad social benefits while at the same time opening up new opportunities for local organizations through improved communication. as a result of this experience, corpotunía’s manager has became a strong proponent of ict use in the region, “selling the idea to everybody,” as he puts it. partly as a result of his efforts, other community telecenters have been set up in a neighboring municipality. in addition to motivating corpotunía to widen its development vision, the telecenter has helped it build the necessary capacities for realizing that vision. as at acin, this is particularly evident in the telecenter operators and other staff who have acquired valuable skills. one commented for example, that she used the web to prepare for meetings and that this better enabled her to debate issues and participate in decision making. with regard to agriculture, technicians working for corpotunía described how they were able to obtain technical information from the web that proved useful in their extension activities with farmers. this is particularly important for the majority who are para-professional extension agents possessing only a high school education. greater openness to new opportunities and improved communication with donors through the internet has helped corpotunía develop new projects. as part of one of these, colombian students have exchanged information about their lives and aspirations via internet with students in spain and other countries with the goal of contributing to a larger effort to combat prejudice in spain against immigrants from latin america and north africa. projects like this one, in turn, have allowed corpotunía to form new institutional alliances around a shared interest in the use of icts for rural development. according to some of the corpotunía staff interviewed, the telecenter has exerted a positive influence on women in the organization, contributing to their professional advancement and helping them establish new contacts. all of the telecenter operators have been women, and they have benefited particularly from the inforcauca project’s capacity-building efforts. by adding a new dimension to corpotunía’s work, the telecenter has dramatically changed the way the organization is viewed and operates in its external environment. corpotunía projects a stronger image to other organizations, through its well-organized web site as well as through its new projects and other actions. the manager of corpotunía actively shares his organization’s experience with icts for example, through the national confederation of ngos and the board of directors of the cauca regional center for innovation and productivity (crepic). for those reasons and because of its success in developing ict-related projects, corpotunía is now viewed locally and within national organizations (including colombia’s ministry of communications) as a pioneer and leader in the use of icts for rural development in cauca. as with other telecenter experiences, strong leadership (that is, the presence of a telecenter “champion”) has proved to be a critical factor in this success. in contrast with developments at acin, the telecenter at corpotunía has not come to serve strictly as an organizational communications unit. rather, it has motivated and enabled corpotunía leaders and staff to incorporate the use of icts into their development work, and this is reflected in the way they provide services and in the types of projects they develop. quite apart from its benefits for corpotunía, however, the telecenter also caters to other organizations and individuals in the local community. as with acin, the question of financial and social sustainability is critical for the telecenter at corpotunía. because this telecenter is open to the general public, it generates income through the sale of services. even so, it also relies heavily on support from corpotunía, particularly to provide capable telecenter operators. the organization is willing to assume the costs of the telecenter, even subsidizing its use by the general public, because it has come to see the telecenter as an essential component of its community service and project development efforts. some conclusions about telecenter impacts what lessons can be drawn from the results presented here on telecenter impacts in organizations and among users in rural communities? or to pose the question in a different way, what can rural people reasonably expect from a community telecenter? based on the results of our analysis of impacts among telecenter users and in local communities, one might conclude that these people, particularly the poorest among them, have little to gain directly from telecenter services. the telecenters reported in this study cater mainly to relatively well-educated individuals in local schools and organizations, and these people’s use of icts merely complements their already good access to other communications media. in contrast, small farmers and other less privileged members of the community apparently face formidable cultural and other barriers to effective use of telecenter services. many farmers appear not to have easy access to telecenters or do not feel inclined to visit them; and if they do visit, they do not necessarily have a concrete idea of their information needs. moreover, even if they find information on the internet that is relevant to their work, this may not possess the confidence needed to translate that information into knowledge through experimentation, leading to effective action aimed at solving a specific problem or seizing a new opportunity. so, it would seem that the telecenter (particularly if operated essentially as a cybercafe) may actually tend to widen rather than reduce the gap between the community’s elite and the marginalized sectors. nonetheless, in the hands of a socially committed local organization with imaginative leadership, community telecenters can give rise to significant impacts in terms of enhanced organizational performance. and presumably, more efficient and effective organizations will do a better job of helping rural communities develop new sources of income, educate their children, defend their human rights, and address other important aspects of sustainable livelihoods. moreover, if the organizations perceive obvious benefits from the telecenter, they will be more likely to pay the financial costs of maintaining it. thus, we should perhaps view community telecenters, in the first instance, as a means of strengthening local organizations and not just as a way to make useful information more readily available to individuals. an important question, though, is to what extent the institutional impacts observed in the two telecenter host organizations covered by this study can also be achieved in other local organizations that use icts but are not necessarily engaged in offering those services to the public through a community telecenter. corpotunía has examined this question through a project aimed at identifying, training, and supporting gestores de comunicación, (communications managers) in local organizations, such as farmer associations, women’s organizations, and local committees. the project has come to a close, but the results have not yet been published except in a project report provided to the donor. assuming the study shows that organizations using community telecenters can derive some benefits from their use of icts, do such benefits provide a strong enough justification for the establishment of community telecenters on a massive scale in developing countries? in other words, if all we can reasonably expect from telecenters, in terms of development impact, is more effective local organizations, is this sufficient to fulfill the high expectations created by the global telecenter movement? probably not, unless community telecenters are accompanied by other interventions, involving the use of various conventional media and aimed at creating bridges between telecenters and the remote or reluctant but potential users of information sources to which the telecenter can provide easier access. acin’s chivanet system is one example of how this can be accomplished. ciat, in collaboration with corpotunía and other colombian partners is examining another option, which involves creating and supporting community-based grupos gestores de comunicación (communications groups). until such approaches have been developed, tested, and widely adopted, the decisive factor in achieving telecenter sustainability will be the conviction of local organizations that they have a potentially large social value, of which the organizations themselves can be the immediate beneficiaries. references akerlof g. 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(1976).  equilibrium in competitive insurance markets: an essay on the economics of imperfect information. quarterly journal of economics, 90, 629-649. somos@telecentros. (2002). estado del arte de los telecentros de latino américa y el caribe. chasquinet, quito, ecuador. retrieved september 2004 from:  http://www.telecentros.org/estarte weigel, g., & waldburger, d. (eds.). (2004). ict4d – connecting people for a better world. lessons, innovations and perspectives of information and communication technologies in development. berne, switzerland: swiss agency of development and cooperation (sdc) and global knowledge partnership (gkp).  whyte, a. (1999). understanding the role of community telecentres in development –a proposed approach to evaluation.  in:  r. gomez & p. hunt (eds.). telecentre evaluation: a global perspective,  report of an international meeting on telecentre evaluation (p. 288). ottawa: international development research centre (idrc).     [1]  the project evaluated here featured a rich learning process, in which local partners participated actively through periodic meetings to review and reflect on telecenter experiences. their insights were a valuable input into this impact evaluation. we wish to acknowledge in particular alvaro del campo parra, vice-rector for research and technology development at the universidad autónoma de occidente; marino ovidio fiscué, coordinator of  health, asociación de cabildos indígenas del norte del cauca (acin); and william cifuentes, manager, corporación para el desarrollo de tunía (corpotunía). we also recognize the contribution of liliana mosquera and james garcía in data collection. [2] acin (the association of indigenous councils of northern cauca, colombia) supports 16 indigenous councils representing nearly 100,000 people – 65% indigenous, 30% mestizo, and 5% afro-colombian – through various development programs.  [3] corpotunia is a local not-for-profit ngo that contributes to integrated sustainable development in colombia’s cauca department by working in a participatory manner with farming communities, including indigenous groups. [4]  for more information on the ict4d platform, its structure and its relationship to the world summit on the information society (wsis) visit http://www.globalknowledge.org/ict4d. [5]  the complete report on the acacia project is available at:  http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-31972-201-1-do_topic.html [6] the case studies disseminated so far are available on line at: http://www.bridges.org/iicd_casestudies/case_studies.html [7] definition of “organizational capacity development” by horton et al. (2003):  an ongoing process by which an organization increases its ability to formulate and achieve relevant objectives. it involves strengthening both its operational (day-to-day activities) and adaptive (learn and change) capacities. [8] to access the reports on this project, visit the web site at: http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/inforcom/inforcauca.htm  [9] this paper refers mainly to the two rural telecenters of the inforcauca project. sarah parkinson’s msc thesis (2003) is a complete study on the social impact of the urban telecenter of aguablanca, which was also part of this project.   radcal praxis and civic network design  murali venkatesh community and information technology institute, school of information studies, syracuse university < mvenkate@mailbox.syr.edu >  jeffrey s. owens school of information studies, syracuse university < jsowens@syr.edu >   abstract technology-powered civic networks are social constructions that develop in relation to a particular macro-structure. macro-structural realities such as differential access to power and resources modulate how effective actors are in inscribing their preferences into emergent network forms. with civic network design viewed as the locus of conflict and struggle, the designer must consciously cultivate an outlook of reflexivity. social learning is foundational to the means as well as ends of socially-progressive design work. current socially-progressive civic network design practice is analogous to advocacy planning in urban planning, where designers advocate for social inclusion.      technology-powered civic networks are social constructions that develop in relation to a particular macro-structure (meaning social structure, here referring to historically-constituted relational patterns among social positions). they are proposed and are designed by incumbents of social positions (persons, groups, organizations), and the cultural practices, belief systems, and dispositions -interests, values, norms, identities -that are pervasive in that macro-structure at that historical moment should be presumed to shape network form. macro-structural realities such as differential access to power and resources modulate how effective actors are in inscribing their preferences into the form; structurally-powerful actors tend to be more successful than structurally-powerless actors in this regard. like organizational forms in general, civic networks are products of a particular intersection of the macro(macro-structure) and the micro(the developmental conditions in which human designers interact to produce design products). the network’s mission, its operative strategies, and the social constituencies that are included or excluded through design choices are a function of this intersection. this sociological, institutionalist-inspired view of civic network design recommends a certain kind of reflexivity on the part of the designer, one that emphasizes her historicity. this, we argue, is an outlook the designer must consciously cultivate.           we view design as the locus of conflict and struggle, whereby entrenched cultural practices, beliefs and  dispositions attempt to pattern emergent artifacts in culturally compliant ways and alternative practices, beliefs and dispositions struggle to ground themselves in concrete form. if the first wins out, the design product embodies and reaffirms prevalent macro-structure; an alternative social order finds concrete form if the latter prevails. we include among design products a broad range of artifacts including technical specifications, and service contracts and project by-laws that govern use and further development of the artifact. these products tend to be mutually-reinforcing: contracts and by-laws, for instance, can ensure that the civic network’s present technological configuration is reproduced over time and, through it, the preferred social order. as we note below, design must be conceived of in even broader terms, as design of means as well as ends: design includes specification of icts, contracts and by-laws, as well as the developmental (or institutional) conditions – the means -which yield these design products. our ideal here is the reflexive designer: one who understands technology design in these broad terms and as located in a particular historical moment and open, as such, to historical forces and structural pressures.       our reflexive designer is aware that as a new social form, the civic network must necessarily emerge in relation to the historically-constituted relational structures in the geo-spatial area, and in relation as well to the practices, beliefs and dispositions prevalent there. to a greater or lesser extent, explicitly or implicitly, civic networking projects attempt to institute new relational patterns in the areas they purport to serve, whereby heretofore excluded constituencies are reinserted into the social fabric and existing relational structures are re-worked in socially-progressive ways; the ideals they champion tend to center around access equity and social inclusion. the reflexive designer sees the developmental setting as an arena where the project’s driving ideals encounter entrenched realities in the project area. design activity entails social choices, which is why they are so contentious. picking one design option over another includes some constituencies and excludes others. the contest is seldom one of equals. the embedding macro-structure and its asymmetric power distribution empower some social actors over others to effectively “limit change and create domination in the micro sphere” (burawoy, 1991). these pressures enter the developmental setting through designers’ choices to shape network form. designers serve as conduits through which such pressures are inscribed into the form to reproduce the prevailing macro-structure. but actors can choose to channel alternative forces for “rewiring” the social order.  individuals (as well as organizations) are host to multiple cultural logics from prior socialization. these logics -“material practices and symbolic constructions” (friedland & alford, 1991) -embed them and account for the dispositions, practices and beliefs that define them. these logics guide situated action and encode “criteria of legitimacy by which role identities, strategic behaviors, organizational forms…are constructed and sustained” (suddaby & greenwood, 2005). some of these logics may be more entrenched, more institutionalized than others. generally, more institutionalized logics tend to guide behavior more readily than do less institutionalized logics. it is conceivable that civic network designers – a category that ideally would include all potential stakeholders -enter the developmental setting with at least two sets of logics in their cultural toolkit (swidler, 1986): one that embeds their habitual social role (for example, “community resident”, “internet service provider”) and the other, the civic networking logic. the habitual, of course, is invested in and stems from the prevailing social order, while the civic networking logic may (often does) look ahead to an alternative order. the encounter between these logics in design can be more or less contentious depending on how ambitious are the civic networking project’s aims to rewire the prevailing order. the more radical the aims, the greater will be the resistance from entrenched dispositions. what can our reflexive designer do to increase the likelihood that the civic networking logic will prevail in this contest, that it will, in fact, effectively counter more conservative orientations to successfully realize itself in concrete form?                        design reflects intention and yet, outcomes often are unintended. this is because design activity is usually seen in terms of products or ends that result from the activity. typically, civic networking design  committees (or steering committees) set out to specify a particular configuration of information and communication technologies (icts) that would enable the network to become operational. this would be an example of direct design, where the intent is to direct the product in a certain way to meet certain specifications and aims. but efforts at direct design often fail from unforeseen interactions among the interest of more and less powerful stakeholders (see goodin, 1996). our reflexive designer would focus not just on the ends of design but importantly on the means as well. the means of design are seldom the focus of design activity, and yet they are a crucial element in the social infrastructure of social constructions. indirect design – design of the social conditions within which design activity occurs -is not only possible but a requirement, we would argue, to guard against unintended outcomes. design of ends must start with design of the means, which, in the case of civic network design, may be seen as necessary second order public goods influencing production of the civic network – the first order public good (see gualini, 2002). situated actions can be guided by design of social conditions for “probabilistic activation” (tsuokas, 1989) of preferred logics to structure design products in intended ways. how should our reflexive designer go about doing this? there are two possible targets for indirect design interventions, one internal and the other external, and they shape the design committee’s social choice processes as well as the design ends that are identified and pursued. expanding the design committee’s managerial capacity (brint & karabel, 1991) for monitoring its own internal relations and constitutive practices is an example of the first. instituting social controls on the committee’s external relations is an example of the second. how the committee thinks about its internal social and material relations profoundly affects the deliberative climate within which design choices are made. what formal and informal rules must be crafted to improve the likelihood that design options are openly debated by a plurality of publics in a spirit of “participatory parity” (fraser & honneth, 2003)? conversation rules must guarantee individual rights while also promoting the pursuit of the common good. assuring openness is a utopian ideal that is exceedingly difficult to accomplish in the reality of a more-or-less stratified and differentiated polity, where some constituents are more powerful than others, but we argue that this is a liberal democratic ideal worth pursuing by civic network designers. this stems from a conviction that civic networks, like the mass media, are crucial components of a community’s public sphere. conceptually if not empirically, civic networks necessarily are sites of contestation featuring a multiplicity of publics: targets of contestation could be the broader social agenda as well as the form of the network itself. recognizing the civic network’s obligation to be hospitable to a plurality of publics is an important amendment to a common-enough conception of such networks as community resources. the term community highlights reciprocity, mutuality and consensus. publics, on the other hand, is a broader idea connoting debate and contestation among social groups constituted around divergent interest, ideology, and identity; the term better accommodates dis-sensus and dissonance (fraser, 1999). accordingly, a civic network may be conceived of in social process terms rather than as an entity, incorporating as it grows and matures both communities based on consensus as well as contending publics. one might even argue that the desired end-state would be a normalized set of more-or-less consensual publics. a process view acknowledges that the network must stay resilient and representative, both catalyzing and reflecting broader social changes. such a view also allows designers to think of design in incremental terms. institutions develop through layering (thelen, 2003), whereby changes are layered on top of more enduring ‘core’ elements without necessarily changing them. as long as participatory parity is assured, designers can proceed on the assumption that they can respond to situational contingencies as they see fit without locking the design into an irreversible state.                    crafting a robust set of guidelines on how the committee should manage its internal relations – including rules of deliberative engagement – is an imperfect but necessary bulwark against the reality of power asymmetry in the macro-structure. assuring rough equality (fraser, 1999) in the micro-order is a step toward an egalitarian macro-order; it would be hard to argue that there is no link between the means and such ends. besides rules of engagement (“everyone gets a chance to speak”, for e.g.), our reflexive designer would work to include useful techniques in the committee’s repertoire to augment its capacity for enlightened self-management and concerted action. for example, what cultural logics and preconceptions of civic networking do designers come into design with? identifying these at the outset can make actors more reflexive and help “loosen themselves” from knee-jerk recourse to structural reproduction in the choices they make. expanding capacity for deliberative action may also be helped by instituting an ethos of the long view: actors are unlikely to focalize the near-term if they are answerable to actors with longer time horizons (pierson, 2000). this looks ahead to social controls. social controls – normative or “regulative institutions that ensure individual behavior accords with group demands” (coser, 1982) -can shape what courses of action are pursued by legitimizing some behaviors over others. institutionalizing philanthropic (versus self-interested) behavior by minneapolis corporations, galaskiewicz (1991) reports, was helped by “peer pressure and selective incentives”; philanthropic conduct was rewarded with national mass media publicity. controls instantiate the kantian publicity principle, which requires that design choices are “publicly defensible” (goodin, 1996). local mass media outlets, elected officials, urban planners and opinion-leaders can be external controllers and sources of public oversight on the design process. the reflexive designer will incorporate such sources of control into the design process. this is easier said than done. this might require challenging well-entrenched notions of civic identity that these actors may be invested in. for example, a community that thinks of itself as driven by the logic of economic growth (and which community today isn’t?) may yield up few sources of social control who are prepared to go to bat for the social equity logic. reframing civic, and individual, identity to include the latter could be especially challenging if the community lacks a history of civic activity. successful reframing, however, would help incorporate community actors as well as other targeted social movements into the project, thus expanding the moral, rhetorical and material resources that the reflexive designer constitutes in a circle of solidarity (jermier, 1998) to guide the committee’s design choices and hold it accountable for them.    all social actors have the capacity for reflexivity: they are context-aware operatives who select from among logics and action repertoires when deciding how to act in a situation. this institutionalist idea is crucial to the foregoing: indirect design can succeed only if actors are credited with this capacity. praxis refers to analytic understanding of the sources of structural inequality and then acting to normatively reconstitute the prevailing social order (benson, 1983). our reflexive designer may be confronted with the following choices: to inscribe the design with the project’s transformative aims or to compromise on those aims in light of situational contingencies. this dilemma is likely to arise in civic networking projects based on broadband icts. broadband requires, as a practical necessity (winner, 1993), significant technological, financial and know-how resources to sustain. as such, designers may have to choose between two logics: the social equity logic and the financial sustainability logic. affirming the former is to affirm the goal of structural change through the network; affirming the latter is to empower the prevailing macro-structural resource distribution. these logics need not be mutually-exclusive. our reflexive designer is an enlightened pragmatist, knowing when to balance strategic structural aims against situational contingencies without, however, losing sight of the prize. she is conscious always of her capacity for social choice, and works to enlighten her fellow designers of the same.   design choices are social choices. to acknowledge one’s capacity for choice is to acknowledge one’s historicity. in the context of civic network design, such an outlook stems from ongoing reflection on the project’s dialectical relation to broader cultural and structural forces. the challenge for civic networking cohorts everywhere is to institutionalize such an outlook to ensure that (a) designers recognize their design choices as social choices that are publicly deliberated, defended, and challenged and (b) the outlook becomes self-activating and trans-individual, which means every designer – every participant in design -thinks and acts like our exemplary reflexive designer. why should we attempt to institutionalize such an outlook? the field of urban planning offers instructive lessons. in the 1960s, paul davidoff argued for a new socially-progressive urban planning outlook called “advocacy planning”: “the public interest, as he saw it, was not a matter of science but of politics. he called for many plans, rather than one master plan, and for full discussion of the values and interests represented by different plans. he brought the question of who gets what – the distributional question which the rational model had so carefully avoided – to the foreground”. (sandercock, 1998, p. 171)              urban planning schools adapted this outlook into their curricula, as they did its successors over the years, to train planning professionals sensitized in these alternatives to the technical-rational planning model. the rational planning model and its proponents helped affirm the prevailing social order and its distribution of power and resources. this had been the taken-for-granted approach to planning practice, one that was unreflexively reproduced through urban planning research and training curricula until davidoff’s salvo. the most recent paradigm shift is represented by the radical planning approach. radical planning praxis, sandercock notes, is discontinuous with rational planning and is explicitly critical and progressively political in its concerns:   “radical practices emerge from experience with and a critique of existing unequal relations and distributions of power, opportunity and resources. the goal of these practices is to work for structural transformation of these systemic inequalities and, in the process, to empower those who have been systematically disempowered” (p. 176).    bandwidth is socially-produced social space. urban planning theorists call attention to the replication in built urban space of hegemonic power and resource distributions. telecommunications bandwidth – broadband, in particular – is no different, wherein some interests are rendered central while others are marginalized, pushed out to the periphery. spatialization of broadband bandwidth tends to mimic broader social distributions due to the practical necessity of resources required to sustain broadband civic networking projects; ironically, these projects often start out intending to redistribute some or all of those very same resources in socially progressive ways to effect structural change. bandwidth, of course, can also be designed from a radical standpoint to serve as the site for distributive justice and insurgent citizenship (sandercock, 1998). as an enlightened pragmatist, our reflexive designer recognizes that designs can be changed incrementally, that networks may develop through successive layering. as such, the civic network might start out serving certain publics and expand from there through concentric incorporation of new, hitherto excluded publics. the key to assuring that this occurs is to keep ongoing design discussions open and to guarantee rough equality (fraser, 1999) in deliberative forums. early adopters representing the state or market may be necessary especially in broadband networking projects: well-resourced “anchor tenants”, to use shopping mall terminology, can help sustain the network financially. the trick is to view them as bandwidth homesteaders not colonizers, and to work to keep the design open to alternative developmental trajectories inspired by the promise of structural transformation.     social learning is foundational to the means as well as ends of socially-progressive design work. both defenders and challengers of the prevailing order may learn from the environment to press their case. just as aggressive market logics may be (and often are) used to justify promoting financial sustainability in purportedly civic endeavors, so could reflexive designers draw on their circle of solidarity to mount effective cultural offensives favoring social equity. for example, framing digital inclusion as a civil right links it to broader, deeply resonant cultural tropes and may make available new resources and action repertoires to counter market logics. but establishing and sustaining such links is complex and challenging (scully & creed, 2005). our plea is for higher educational institutions like information schools to consider the urban planning discipline as a change model for their academic research and training programs and, through such programmatic efforts, contribute to producing an institutionalized field of socially-progressive technical practice with its own trained cadres and distinctive professional identity. despite emerging circuits of solidarity (the learning in communities meeting at pennsylvania state university in the summer of 2005 was a step in this direction) focused on civic networking, designers still tend to work in relative isolation; what they may learn from others even within the civic networking arena tends to be more or less opportunistic. current socially-progressive civic network design practice, we would argue, is analogous to advocacy planning in urban planning, where designers advocate for social inclusion and may even empower the marginalized to fight the fight themselves. but the degree to which advocacy design – if we may call it that – is institutionalized in civic network practice is unclear. the point behind institutionalizing anything, of course, is to inform thought and action in consistent ways based on an agreed upon corpus of knowledge, and, more fundamentally, to instill a distinctive way or style of responding to challenges. we are not sure this has occurred yet. depending on the nature and complexity of the project, civic network design choices are very much at risk of being driven disproportionately by technical-rational considerations to the detriment of properly social ones. this is regrettable and must change. as designers and educators we must continue to educate ourselves through social learning while institutionalizing cultural transmission through academic programs to train the next generation of civic network designers, so that they recognize the kinds of social and professional challenges that designers (and planners) in other fields continue to face, and, learning from them, know how to respond creatively to them through their own practice.           references benson, j. k. 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(1993). social constructivism: opening the black box and finding it empty. science as culture, 3(16), 427-452.   making use of scenarios for achieving effective use in community computing contexts roderick l lee pennsylvania state university craig h ganoe pennsylvania state university wendy a schafer pennsylvania state university cecelia b merkel pennsylvania state university john m. carroll pennsylvania state university mary beth rosson pennsylvania state university keywords: effective use, scenarios, participatory design abstract the concept of effective use is gaining currency as a way of thinking about usability in community informatics. broadly defined, effective use is a group’s capacity to integrate information and communications technologies (icts) into its current work practices in order to enhance its goal attainment. however, frameworks and methods for achieving effective use are less clearly defined. this paper combines the concept of scenarios from hci and decision effectiveness from social psychology in order to identify a design process to enhance effective use in community information systems design projects. our process for achieving effective use focuses first on the efficacy of scenarios as an anchoring and adjustment heuristic and second as a tool to encourage and support participatory design. this study concludes with suggestions for future research on effective use in community computing. 1. introduction effective use is a concept that is emerging as a potential usability goal in community informatics. however, there is a need for concrete tools to help researchers, practitioners and community groups find ways to work together to achieve effective use. gurstein (2003) defined effective use as “the capacity and opportunity to successfully integrate icts into the accomplishment of self or collaboratively identified goals” (p. 12). this is an important and worthy goal but in this formulation its achievement is still abstract. participatory design (pd) shares this goal of finding ways to make users an active part of the design process and is especially useful to community informatics researchers and practitioners in trying to achieve effective use in practice through providing ools that can be used to enhance usability. community computing facilitates information dissemination and joint activity pertaining to grass-roots mobilization. because community settings are less typically used for incubating new computer supported cooperative work (cscw) applications, less is known about how these environments would inform design interventions. in community computing, there are two central challenges that potentially undermine effective use from a pd perspective. the first arises when working with groups on information systems design projects, in finding ways to actively engage the knowledge, interest and skills of new users. this is compounded in community computing by the broader problem of universal access. this phenomenon is being referred to as the organizational divide where there is a lack of financial resources, time and staff that are familiar with icts to allow for the strategic use of technology to advance the organization’s mission. in addition, groups often have competing goals, interests and distinct cultures that can stifle active participation in the design process. in response to this we suggest that scenarios can be used as mechanisms to engage users and facilitate their collective involvement in pd in order to develop requirements consensually. a second challenge that arises when working with groups on information systems design projects is understanding the factors that undermine or enhance effectiveness. given that gathering requirements is an ill-structured, knowledge-intensive problem solving activity that involves negotiation, emphasis must be placed on enhancing the decision-making activity with respect to the problem at hand. drawing on the field of judgment and decision-making, a key issue concerns the choices made after some degree of deliberation. from the standpoint of decision effectiveness, we suggest that scenarios used as an anchoring and adjustment heuristic takes us a step closer to achieving effective use. in this paper, we demonstrate the usefulness of one tool, scenarios, to help a group come up with requirements for building a community information system (cis). the main purpose and contribution of this paper is to clarify the notion of effective use and to broaden the range of organizational models countenanced in cscw. this study adds to the extant literature by making explicit the contribution of scenarios in a community computing context. 2. background: civic nexus this work is motivated by our civic nexus project. civic nexus is a three-year participatory design project with the goal of working with community groups to facilitate their ability to use and to learn about technology as they pursue existing goals and as they envision new directions for their community. a goal of this project is to assist communities in taking control of technology in order to achieve goals that they see as important. as an extension of this project we are engaged in an ongoing design collaboration with the underground railroad community of practice in pennsylvania. our collaboration with the ugrr research community began during the fall of 2003. this community is an it-marginalized, grass roots, distributed group that spans multiple organizations and geographical regions. our community partners include the pennsylvania historical and museum commission (phmc), pennsylvania federation of museums and historical organizations (pfmho), the pennsylvania state library, center for anti-slavery studies (cass), the underground railroad research (ugrr) community in pennsylvania, and penn state university faculty and students. the ugrr community is a group of users who share a common practice in that they all work in some capacity related to the preservation of ugrr history. however, this particular community relies mostly on volunteer effort. the most pressing issues for this group are lack of a technical infrastructure, and limited access to resources, time, and technical expertise. apart from an initial start-up grant from the federation of museums and historical organizations to support undergraduate students, all support for the project is volunteer. the core group of the community has embarked on an ambitious endeavor to develop a novel community information system with a supporting infrastructure in order to share information and knowledge pertaining to the ugrr activity in pennsylvania and to engage in mutual learning. the community envisions developing a cis that will connect local pockets of expertise and serve as a gathering place so that isolated professionals can share and develop knowledge pertaining to the ugrr. there are 67 county historical societies in pennsylvania and a multitude of other organizations that are actively engaged with research concerning the ugrr. each holds a unique piece of the rich ugrr history. currently, only 16 of these county historical societies are actively participating in the ugrr domain. of these 16 historical societies, only three are listed in the national park service’s underground railroad network to freedom database. one member of the group serves as the community coordinator and boundary spanner. this individual (sue) is actively engaged in an effort to link these disparate groups covering the entire state. the following scenario with sue exemplifies this role. sue begins the task of soliciting support by physically visiting each region of the state in order to communicate the community vision with other stakeholders who will eventually become users of the system. sue’s activities take an enormous amount of time and can detract from the team building necessary to complete the design project. based on this scenario there is a concrete task in engaging the user in deriving a solution to this real problem--managinjg the communication, coordination and cooperation with stakeholders from other organizations. moreover, the participants need a way to share information with one another and a gathering place where they can discuss this time period that is conducive to the development of this community. through scenario-based techniques and pd methods, we have collaboratively decided on three features of the system to support and extend the current work practice. first, the system should include an information portal to provide information to other researchers. second, the system should consist of a private workspace for the community to link and coordinate unconnected activities pertaining to the ugrr history. thirdly, for the future there is a plan to incorporate a collaborative mapping feature that enriches the quality of the user’s experience and facilitates complex decision-making with respect to disputed sites. finally, the system will include an interactive database of 744 slave cases with a “query” functionality that will enable users to identify patterns in the data. this will add value in a number of ways. first and foremost, the system will provide a forum to publicize an often misunderstood chapter of american history. moreover, the system will promote awareness, scholarship and facilitate greater understanding of the historical significance of the ugrr movement and its implications for today. as already noted, practical design consideration include how to engage the knowledge skills and interest of novice users and developing the capacity of the community so as to support it in making effective design decisions. 3. conceptualizing effective use contemporary work groups and teams in organizations differ dramatically from civic sector groups. however, approaches to usability have been derived mainly from studies of information systems in organizations. evaluation of design interventions involving work groups and teams are assessed through the construct of team effectiveness. team effectiveness, which consists of performance and viability, is broadly defined as the quantity and quality of a team’s outputs over time. drawing on empirical research and theory from social psychology our understanding of effective use is broadened to encompass community viability. we operationalize effective use in the context of team effectiveness as: the capacity, willingness and opportunity to successfully integrate icts into the accomplishment of self or collaboratively identified goals over time. our definition captures the group’s capacity, willingness, and opportunity to integrate technology into their work practice. in this study, we are employing participatory design methods to involve the users directly in the design process. participatory design is a context-specific design approach involving users early in the decision-making process from the initial brainstorming all the way through the design process. because pd is decision intensive, we need to consider how to enhance the quality of decisions that are made in order to achieve successful outcomes. therefore, we limit our discussion to one central activity – group decision-making. huber and mcdaniel (1986) define a central activity as one whose successful execution is critical to the accomplishment of goals. quality decisions in pd assist groups in achieving their goals and enhance effective use. bad decisions however hinder goal attainment which in turn negatively impacts on effective use. in general, decision-making is defined as the sensing, exploration and definition of problems and opportunities as well as the generation, evaluation and selection of solutions. the scope of our work is at the community level of analysis. at the community level, decision-making is defined as the process in which a community selects a course of action to respond to both problems and opportunities. however, group decision-making is more complex than individual decision-making for several reasons. first, high performing groups are effective at combining multiple preferences and beliefs. second, high performing groups must maximize social interaction. finally, groups must have developed effective norms for managing conflict. creativity and innovation are parameters used in the context of decision-making. creativity is an element of a decision-making process in which the group produces novel and useful ideas in response to problems and opportunities. novel ideas represent new ways of thinking. useful ideas have the potential to contribute to effective use. innovation is the successful implementation of creative ideas. our goal is to use scenario exercises in order to scaffold the community from creativity to innovation. 4. scenarios as anchoring and adjustment heuristics a growing number of scholars have evoked the concept of scenarios as a way to bridge the design-actuality gap and to narrow the specification-implementation gap. recently, scenarios have been used to anchor problem-based learning in instructional settings and as tools for facilitating participation in community computing contexts. conversely, a number of scholars have pointed to the importance of scenarios in enhancing usability, increasing our knowledge of a problem space and as tools for inquiry and discussion. we emphasize usability in the context of designing a community information system to support and extend the workplace roles and practices of a geographically dispersed community of practice. this is invariably tied to participatory design efforts in which community groups are made an active part of the design process as a way to bridge differences between the designer, user and system models. the concept of scenarios emerged from the field of strategic management in the 1940s. in this context, scenarios are used as a tool for change management. scenarios are work-oriented design objects that are defined as stories about people and their activities. “the defining property of a scenario is that it projects a concrete narrative description of activity that the user engages in when performing a specific task, a description sufficiently detailed that design implication can be inferred and reasoned about”. in practice it is easy to spend an enormous amount of time generating creative ideas with little innovation or likelihood of implementation. for example, a group could become frozen in the creativity process which limits the opportunity to collectively define problems and identity solutions. innovation might be problematic in the ugrr community because of the multi-faceted nature of this project. this project includes representatives from diverse organizations. in addition, the project includes a team of researchers from two locations of the pennsylvania state university’s school of information sciences and technology, as well as undergraduate students in an introductory hci course. in some cases, this has resulted in a lack of common ground. for example, conflict arose from a lack of understanding of the diverse organizational cultures. one participant referred to this phenomenon as the town and gown culture. in this instance, we did not make it crystal clear to our partners that our interest in the project was limited to investigating computer supported collaboration. moreover, we did not emphasize that our mission was to assist them in achieving their goals. in order to move from creativity to innovation, it is necessary to enhance common ground. we suggest that scenarios are key to effective communication and decision-making and are essential to achieving effective use. scenarios enhance decision-making by providing detailed knowledge of the application domain and provide an anchor for inquiry and discussion. as such, scenarios are malleable tools for decreasing errors in the decision-making process. errors in decision-making are a result of heuristics and biases. the heuristics and biases paradigm was the dominant approach for decision-making under uncertainty in the1970s and 1980s. heuristics are cognitive rules of thumb or mental shortcuts that humans use to simplify information processing. we limit our discussion here to the anchoring and adjustment heuristic. systematic evidence to support the anchoring effect first appeared in the 1970s. two problems were identified with the anchoring and adjustment heuristic. first, the anchor might not be appropriate. second, the adjustment from the anchor might not be sufficient. one way to overcome this is to use scenarios (the anchors) as an initial starting point and then make adjustments (analysis and refinements). from the standpoint of anchors, scenarios provide a language for community members to express their desires/requirements as well as a language for designers to help community members to see how the system might work and envision possibilities they had not considered. scenarios also facilitate the convergence of conflicting perspectives between users and designers. moreover, scenarios are a way to facilitate the effective communication necessary to achieve common ground. we suggest that effective use is best achieved by starting with an initial scenario (anchor) and then adjusting toward the ultimate goal. for example, a user envisions a requirement, embodies it in a scenario of interaction and reflects on it and comes up with new way of thinking about the problem. 5. scenarios to encourage and support participatory design in this study, we took a pd approach where users are not only experimental subjects but also members of the design team and are actively engaged in the decision-making process. users can be classified within three levels of participation: consultative, consensus or representative. consultative participants offer opinions; however, they are not involved in the decision-making process. select members of the 67 historical societies in pennsylvania will eventually serve as consultative participants. in consensus participation, all stakeholders are involved in the decision-making process. the ugrr project involves stakeholders from multiple organizations. because the focus of this treatise is at the community level of analysis, representative participation is more conducive to achieving effective use. in pd, scenarios present a novel approach to be used as a communication tool and as a language for stakeholders with competing interests and experiences to talk with each other. there are many times when competing interests and experiences lead to conflict. this conflict might cause a group to lose its focus and hinder goal attainment. unmanaged conflict could ultimately derail a design project. scenarios can assist in keeping the group focused by providing a point of reference and a cognitive aid. this facilitates the communication necessary for stakeholders with differing visions and diverse cultures to achieve common ground. additionally, scenarios can be used to create simulated worlds in which designers and users can mutually explore design options and make informed decisions. therefore, scenarios are useful in getting everyone to connect to the design process by illustrating important design decisions in a flexible manner that is understandable to both the user and the designer . 6. scenarios in the ugrr project the primary sources of data were derived from workshops, training sessions, and semi-structured discussions. workshops and training sessions occurred in downtown harrisburg at the penn state university eastgate center. we chose this off-campus location in order to make the experience as informal as possible. through the workshops we were able to highlight areas of conflict and develop strategies for conflict management. semi-structured discussions occurred at the actual worksite, via telephone and at the university. these discussions were transcribed and then content analyzed. the results of the discussion lead to detailed case material for an undergraduate survey course on human-computer interaction. 6.1 scenarios in the hci curriculum the first phase of this study involved using the domain problem as case material and service learning opportunities for students in an introductory hci course. each student group was assigned a user population for the group project. they then studied the work practice in order to develop scenarios. scenarios were used to scaffold the learning experience of students as they acquired discipline specific knowledge, skills and expertise. through the use of rich descriptive scenarios and as students worked in project teams, learning occurred through the processes of interaction, negotiation and collaboration. the class mainly concentrated on developing problem and activity scenarios. problem scenarios are used to synthesize field observations and are iteratively refined during the requirements analysis phase. activity scenarios are used to envision future practices. based on feedback from students and course evaluations, scenarios enhanced the students’ satisfaction with the project. for example, one student reported that “using scenarios helps us to see the user as a real person, putting us in their shoes. this enables us to better determine what the application will be used for, how it will be used, and who the intended audience will be (their background, skill level, and the technology available to them). personally, our group found scenarios to be useful in helping us to recognize the needs of the users. interacting with ‘real life’ users helped us to keep in mind that we were developing the system for them, based on their requirements, not our own. this enabled us to consider each user category throughout the project and design the system accordingly. using scenarios helped us to be able to look back, periodically, to ensure that the system's functionality met the users' requirements and expectations.” another student indicated that “scenarios are extremely useful and force the developers to put themselves in the users' place to design a product that will fulfill their needs. the scenarios allow developers to quickly and efficiently get an idea of the requirements of a product.” a possible explanation could be that scenarios enhanced the decision-making ability by providing detailed knowledge about the application domain and a story in which design decisions could be inferred and reasoned about in the course of their work. 6.2 scenarios in the ugrr community we used short narratives of interaction during our communication with the users. these narratives were used in order to determine the requirements for the aesthetics and navigation of the site. in addition, we are currently working on scenario development and analysis of the requirements for the actual workspace. with respect to the aesthetics and navigation, we conducted workshops in which similar sites were used as anchors. from this interaction, we were able to envision scenarios that were applicable to the design project. one future application is the development of an interactive mapping feature to facilitate complex decision-making. an example scenario follows. sue is a historian in a local community historical society. sue enters an online forum on the ugrr community network. there is a new thread related to a heated dispute between concerned citizens and community and state officials. the issue at hand is whether or not a sewer line expansion project can begin. the project would require the demolition of a vacant church. although the church is vacant, sue remembers stories that the church was indeed part of the ugrr. sue decides that she would like to get involved; however, the project is scheduled to begin in 24 hours. she quickly recalls that tim, a researcher at florida a&m university, conducted research on the a.m.e. churches in pennsylvania. she emails tim to inquire about the church. tim confirms that this is indeed a historic church. in order to persuade interested parties, tim suggests representing the church on a map. however, both recall problems in mapping historical landmarks on traditional maps. this problem scenario provides an example application for the workspace. it is in this context that we will focus our attention on effective use and the efficacy of scenarios to facilitate goal attainment. this will require a collaborative mapping tool and shared editor so that these distributed researchers can plan what parts of the site need to be protected along with the use of a global positioning system (gps) so that researchers can collect and share on-site details with the rest of the ugrr community. 7. conclusions the ugrr community models many key requirements for collaborative environments and represents a rich test bed to gain a broader understanding of community groups and envision possibilities for cscw applications. community computing is more specialized than other domains. community groups are bounded rationally and may be limited in their ability to make informed technology decisions. they lack the time, resources and technical expertise necessary to participate in novel development projects. this constrains their ability to make optimal choices; instead, they satisfice. our analysis of effective use revealed the need to explicate the dimensions of effective use. for example, what motivates groups to participate in collective endeavors? although we illustrated the efficacy of using scenarios to enhance decision-making and participation in pd, we did not explain the underlying causal factors. the current approach is two-dimensional and suggests that effective use = ƒ (capacity x opportunity). in this model, capacity and opportunity are the key determinants of performance. the opportunity x capacity model does not account for the willingness of the individuals to actively engage in joint activity over time. for this reason, we suggest a broader framework and definition of effective use. we suggest that a three dimensional model that incorporates motivation, moderated by time is a more fruitful approach. the approach at the very least, should be three-dimensional to include a moderator that indicates that effective use = ƒt(opportunity x capacity x motivation). such a model is based on the assumption that effective use is a function of opportunity, capacity and motivation moderated by time. therefore, the concept of effective use is extended and defined as: the capacity, willingness and opportunity to successfully integrate icts into the accomplishment of self or collaboratively identified goals over. in this case study, we suggest that scenarios coupled with participatory design methods can be appropriately malleable tools for facilitating effective use. our preliminary work suggests that scenarios are powerful tools that can be used as anchoring and adjustment heuristics as well as mechanisms to engage users in pd. moreover, we suggest that scenarios may also be viable tools for conceptualizing and consequently achieving community effectiveness. 8. future research an area for future research is the creation and maintenance of social capital. putnam has shown that there has been a decline in social capital. he noted that we need to strengthen connectivity and maintain social networks that help us become more involved in communities in order to achieve social goals. in organizational science and social psychology, social capital is used to explain the joint effects of knowledge distribution and network structure on team performance. at the level of the work group, social capital represents the goodwill derived from the network of relations that can be mobilized to facilitate the pursuit of collective goals and team effectiveness. however, scholars are split between two opposing views: bonding and bridging social capital. therefore, some have chosen the optimal configuration perspective. what is needed is a model to analyze social capital, 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(1981). the framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. science, 211, 453 458. title: managing changes in first nations’ health care needs: is telehealth the answer managing changes in first nations’ health care needs: is telehealth the answer? josée gabrielle lavoie assistant professor, community health programs, university of northern british columbia <jlavoie0@unbc.ca> donna williams keewaytinook okimakanak telemedicine <donnawilliams@knet.ca> the health care needs of first nations living on-reserve have changed dramatically over the last decades. in the late 1960s, disparities in the infant mortality rate were dramatic, at 46 per 1000 live births for first nations compared to 21 for all canadians (young, 1994, for the time period of 1965 to 1970). immunization rates were poor and mortality from infectious diseases common. the 2000 statistical profile on the health of first nations in canada reported an aging trend among first nations living on-reserve, where growth is seen mostly among the 15-64 years of age (health canada (fnihb), 2001). chronic diseases now account for most hospital admissions (health canada (fnihb), 2001). non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus in the first nations population is on the rise; at three to five time that of non-first nations. by the time first nations reach the age of 30, 5 percent have developed the disease (adelson, 2005). this data suggests that an increasing number of first nations will be living their life with complex morbidity, requiring access to specialised care and secondary/tertiary prevention. current demographic and health need trends are widely recognized (adelson, 2005; bobet, 1998; first nation and inuit regional health survey national committee, 2005; 2001; johnson et al., 2002; martens et al., 2002; 2005; young, 1994). constraints associated with access to provincial services have been identified, and include issues of isolation, scarcity of specialists, challenges associated with cross-cultural communications, etc. less attention has been paid to the current on-reserve services’ ability to meet these changing needs. further, while telehealth1 is increasingly seen as a solution to address access issues (british columbia first nations, 2005; first nations and inuit health branch of health canada e-health solutions unit, 2004; hendry, 2005), demonstrating value to funders has been challenging. this paper argues that on-reserve health care services are facing increasing challenges in attempting to meet first nations’ needs. this is partially due to disinvestments by the federal government (lavoie et al., 2005), and partially due to a lack of alignment between funded programs and changing needs. if left unaddressed, this will result in increases in avoidable hospitalization and associated provincial health expenditures. we argue that telehealth can assist in addressing these concerns, to some extent. realizing telehealth’s full potential in achieving health gains is constrained by a lack of first nations-specific telehealth indicators that can demonstrate value. this paper shows how the keewaytinook okimakanak telemedicine program is helping to close this information gap, through the creation of a first nations-specific balanced scorecard. this is an important step forward. still, investments in telehealth should not detract from broader policy issues related to the financing of on-reserve health services. understanding the issues broadly speaking, barriers to recognizing current needs exist at two levels. a first is related to the design of the on-reserve first nations health care system as funded by the first nations and inuit health branch of health canada (fnihb). a second relates to federal-provincial jurisdictional issues. both will be examined in turn. a. the on-reserve first nations health care system the foundation of the current on-reserve health system goes back to the turn of the century. the federal government began to offer on-reserve health services in the 1920s following pressures from the settlers associated with the spread of tuberculosis (waldram et al., 2006). these services were initially provided by nurses assisted by translators. following a 1969 study, services were expanded to include community health representatives (chrs) and addictions workers (booz•allen & hamilton canada ltd, 1969). the focus was on providing a limited complement of community-based services to alleviate the impact of illness, as was the current practice at the time. public health interventions were largely limited to immunization. prevention focused on prenatal and perinatal care. these services were prioritized and deployed to match the health needs and priorities of the time. following the 1966 supreme court of saskatchewan decision, the federal government has taken the policy position that these services emerged for humanitarian reasons, and not as a result of treaty obligations (backwell, 1981). further, the federal government has shaped its responsibility in matters of first nations health care to simply complement provincial health services geographically accessible to first nations. as a result, the type of services currently accessible on-reserve depends on the size and level of isolation of the community, relative to provincial services. as shown in table 1, the majority of first nations communities are served by health offices, health stations or health centres. each designation reflects the type of services offered or funded by the first nations and inuit health branch of health canada (fnihb). the mandate of these services is public health and primary prevention.2 in contrast, nursing stations are staffed by nurses with an expanded scope of practice. this allows them to provide a spectrum of secondary and tertiary prevention interventions not available in other communities. collectively, the population served by nursing stations represents less than 11 percent of the canadian on-reserve population. table 1, types of services available in first nations and inuit communities, based on community type (health canada (fnihb), 2004) type of facility type of services scope of services resident nursing staff total population served, 2002 (%) health office prevention services less than 5 days a week generally no 5,537 (5.6%) health station screening and prevention less than 5 days a week generally no 5,016 (5.0%) health centre emergency, screening and prevention 5 days a week yes 78,540 (78.8%) nursing station treatment, nursing care, emergency care and prevention 24/7 services yes 10,573 (10.6%) since the mid 1990s, fnihb has introduced a number of new on-reserve programs. as shown in table 2, these programs largely focus on primary prevention. a notable exception is the first nations and inuit home and community care program. this program’s ability to meet the needs of people living with chronic diseases is however constrained by provincial regulations that define the nursing scope of practice (health canada (fnihb), 2003). table 2, new programs (health canada, 2003) program name creation date focus in health stations, health offices and health centres focus in nursing stations communicable disease control 1979 pp, sp pp, sp tuberculosis elimination strategy 1992 pp, sp pp, sp brighter futures 1993 pp pp canada prenatal nutrition program 1994 pp pp fasd (old fasd/fae) 1994 pp pp building healthy communities (community mental health) 1994 pp, sp pp, sp solvent abuse program 1994 pp, sp pp, sp tobacco control 1997 pp pp hiv-aids strategy 1997 pp pp, sp, tp dental/oral health strategy 1997 pp pp fn/i health information system 1997 - - aboriginal head start on reserve 1998 pp pp fn/i home and community care 1999 pp, sp and tp depending on scope of practice pp, sp, tp aboriginal diabetes initiative 2000 pp pp, sp, tp pp: primary prevention sp: secondary prevention tp: tertiary prevention b. impact the international health care literature has long recognized that underinvestment in community-based health services leads to an increase in emergency care and avoidable hospitalizations (macinko et al., 2003; starfield et al., 2005). as shown in diagram 1, below, on-reserve health services represent only a portion of health care services accessed by first nations to meet their needs. priority setting in one segment of the first nations health care system will have repercussions on overall patterns of service utilization. this is precisely what has been documented in the first nations environment, resulting in increased avoidable hospitalization and increased costs for provincial health care budgets. diagram 1 i. avoidable hospitalizations ambulatory care sensitive conditions are health conditions that are responsive to interventions available through community-based health services. the manitoba centre for health policy lists 12 such conditions, including asthma, angina, pelvic inflammatory disease, gastroenteritis, congestive heart failure, severe ent infections, epilepsy, bacterial pneumonia, pulmonary/other tuberculosis, iron deficiency anemia, dental conditions, cellulitis (manitoba centre for health policy, 2003). for these conditions, adequate access to health care services at the community level generally reduces the need for hospitalization and/or emergency care. conversely, access to limited community-based services generally leads to a rise in avoidable hospitalizations. shah et al. (2003) documented that on-reserve residents in northern ontario have a much higher rate of hospitalization for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (acsc) and a lower rate for referral care-sensitive (rcs) procedures (renal transplantation and invasive cardiac procedures, for examples) than other residents of ontario. likewise, in manitoba, martens et al. (2005) documented that the rate of first referral to specialist for first nations were only 7 percent higher than those of other manitobans, this despite a much higher disease burden. the overall rate of specialist consult was 70 percent that of all other manitobans. martens et al. (2002) also documented that the rate of hospitalization for manitoba registered first nations was double that of all other manitobans (348/1000 compared to 156/1000). the same study documented that the rate of lower limb amputations in the manitoba first nations population was 16 times that of other manitobans. these studies concluded that barriers to access an appropriate complement of community-based health services, including secondary and tertiary prevention, played a major role. ii. impact on provincial health care systems a study by lavoie and forget (2006) estimated that the total health expenditures for manitoba first nations for the sample year 2004 to be $479 million for those living on-reserve, and $211 million for those living off-reserve. maintaining the current level of services, given current trends in health status and utilization, the same study estimated a 57% increase in health expenditures for first nations living on-reserve, and in a 49% increase for those living off-reserve by 2029. overall, first nations health expenditures will take on a larger proportion of the overall manitoba public sector health expenditures, from 18.6 percent in 2004 to 23.6 percent in 2029. further, a study by martens et al. (2002) showed that the per-person costs for hospital care was 70% higher for manitoba first nations people than that for other manitobans. if the number of days spent in hospital by registered first nations people could be reduced to the number of hospital days required by the rest of the population, manitoba health could have saved $989 per fn person, or $113 million dollars in 2004. by 2029, the potential savings in 2004 dollars would increase to more than $190 million per year. over 25 years, this excess cost to the provincial health care system imposed by poorer health and poorer access for first nations people was estimated to be almost $3.8 billion dollars. a similar scenario emerged from an analysis of health expenditures related to diabetes mellitus and its complications (dmc). in 1995, the cost of dmc to the manitoba health care system was estimated at $193 million per year, or 18% of the total health care budget. these costs were estimated to increase by 130% for all manitobans and by 330% for registered first nations people by 2025 (hallett et al., 2000; jacobs et al., 2000). complications due to diabetes are significant and debilitating. they include kidney failure, cardiovascular disease, blindness, lower limb amputation, increased susceptibility to infection, and increased risk of tuberculosis reactivation. the rate of amputations related to dmc is 16 times higher (3.1 vs. 0.19 per thousand for ages 20 through 79) for registered fn people in manitoba relative to non fn (martens et al., 2002). this analysis shows that the needs of first nations living with complex morbidities are not being met. unless this changing environment is managed, the cost of providing care to first nations will continue to soar, because the population is aging, lives with complex morbidities, and experiences barriers to access responsive community-based health services. current fnihb policies promote a greater reliance on secondary and tertiary care (hospitals). the human cost is considerable (lavoie, 2008). managing change: is telehealth the answer? according to a report from fnihb (2000), telehealth is seen as having the potential to: (a) improve access of patients and health care providers to varied applications and services; (b) provide support to patients, health care providers and communities; (c) facilitate linkages among individuals and groups, places and knowledge; and (d) contribute to effective administration/ management of health-related program and resources. others suggest that telehealth can also reduce direct costs to the health care sector and patients, and reduce indirect costs related to absenteeism (ohinmaa et al., 1999). the telehealth field remains under-researched (jennett et al., 2003; hersh et al., 2001; roine et al., 2001), especially in the first nations context. a recent literature search of references on canadian first nations and inuit telehealth/telemedicine yielded only four references (jennett et al., 2003; jong, 2004; jong & kraisi, 2004; muttitt et al., 2004). while helpful, these studies focused on cost-effectiveness to assign value to telehealth. to date, significant work documenting the overall value of telehealth has come from first nations and inuit organizations themselves. demonstrating values has however been challenging for two reasons. first, overall impact on health status can only be demonstrated through accessing off-reserve service provincial utilization data (general practitioners, specialists and hospitalization data). while it is reasonable to assume that improved access to services at the community level will reduce off-reserve service utilization, the impact may only become visible in years, because of small numbers. further, access to off-reserve service utilization data remains an issue for many first nations organizations, preventing such an analysis to take place. second, there is a lack of first nation-specific indicators. recent efforts have been made to develop national indicators for telehealth/telemedicine. the national telehealth outcomes indicators project (scott et al., 2007) and the telehealth supplementary criteria developed by the canadian council on health services accreditation (canadian council on health services accreditation, 2006) reflect service delivery issues as they exist in urban and many canadian communities. there are however important gaps, in that these indicators are quite limited in terms of ‘capturing’ the broad range of health and social services that can best produce health gains in first nations communities. keewaytinook okimakanak telemedicine (kotm) is one organization which is working on closing this important information gap. kotm is the largest first nations-controlled telemedicine network in canada. kotm began to provide telemedicine services in 2000. it serves 29 first nations communities located across northwestern ontario. kotm uses telemedicine workstations equipped with patient cameras, stethoscopes and otoscopes to deliver a variety of telemedicine services that supplement and complement community-based health services. its main goals are to improve first nations access to health professionals, enhance the level and quality of services and to reduce professional and social isolation for community-based health workers and other community members. in april 2007, kotm embarked on the development of a balanced scorecard (bsc). bscs seek to translate the strategic objectives of an organization, in this case kotm, into a coherent set of performance measures while minimizing information collection and analysis overload (institute for clinical evaluative sciences, 2004). the creation of a first nations-specific bsc was part of an overall change management process funded by the canada health infoway. the ko bsc was intended to serve as a communication tool for four broad categories of stakeholders: first nations communities, government-funders, clinicians and partner organizations. guiding the process were the following principles: the ko balanced scorecard is a ko-led and ko-driven initiative; the priorities, values and beliefs of communities are reflected in the ko bsc, and speak to individual, family and community interests in quality of care and access; the ko bsc is a meeting place where stakeholders can recognize their own priorities, and understand the priorities of other partners; the ko bsc is designed to educate stakeholders and to generate information that supports ko’s sustainability strategies; the ko bsc is a practical tool; the indicators chosen are designed to reflect a best practice model, to be shared with other first nations: as a result, some indicators are numerical while others are narrative; whenever possible, the selected indicators rely on data reporting mechanisms already in existence; where this was not possible, workload and sustainability were considered; the selected indicators are useful from a community service provision point of view; and selected indicators are useful from the funders’ point of view. for the purpose of developing ko’s bsc, possible indicators were derived from a variety of sources, including: the indicators identified by dr. ricardo ramirez, tina kakepetum-schultz and nancy muller in discussions with community members and providers (ramirez et al., 2007); the keewaytinook okimakanak telemedicine evaluation report (cranhr, 2006); the financial indicators identified by cranhr, based on the collated work of various stakeholders (hogenbirk & pong, 2007); the first nations and inuit health branch of health canada (first nations and inuit health, 2007); the ontario telehealth network (ontario telemedicine network, 2007a; 2007b); and the grey and published literature on telehealth/telemedicine (n=57 references, see lavoie & mitchell, 2007 for details). a total of 56 possible indicators was produced through this exercise. this was then reviewed by ko staff and stakeholders. indicator selection was based on four broad factors including: relevance to ko, relevance to stakeholders, availability of data and workload. the final count was 14 indicators, organized along their relevance to specific stakeholders, as shown below in diagram 2 and diagram 3, below. diagram 2, final design diagram 3: the kotm bsc brings together both narrative indicators (3) and numerical indicators (11). stakeholders focus indicators type community first nation leadership number of first nation advisory committee meetings numerical number of community engagement visits/community numerical community utilization number of family visits sessions numerical number of consults cancelled as a result of clinical failures numerical percentage of growth rate in telemedicine activities/ community numerical first nation broad band technology percentage of technically successful consults/sessions (not cancelled due to technical problems) numerical government innovation telemedicine consults used in an innovative way by ko communities and staff narrative cost avoidance avoided travel cost (participants, federal government, provincial government, including escorts) by type of session, by payees numerical policy ko’s contribution to policy development narrative clinicians  access percentage of clinicians willing to continue offering services via telemedicine after their first experience numerical percentage of potential consults for which no provider could be recruited to meet new needs or special/low recurring needs numerical new telemedicine-enabled clinical service areas introduced narrative partnerships capacity building and integration number of educational sessions per month with breakdown showing % from accredited events; % that are based on formal partnership and the # of new partnership numerical number of new education areas being introduced numerical while this tool cannot capture impact on health status, the kotm bsc is a first step in the creation of a first nations-focused bsc and in the development of first nations-specific telehealth indicators. with this tool, ko plans to systematically document and demonstrate value to communities, government-funders, clinicians and partner organizations. the kotm bsc project was completed april 1st 2008. the bsc will now be integrated into the organization’s core functions. the information it generated during the piloting of the tool (using 2007 figures) has already provided useful feedback on what works, and on areas that require attention. this tool will provide stakeholders with meaningful information on strengths, trends and opportunities for improvements to the ko telemedicine program. the information generated through this tool will make an important contribution to ko demonstrating value and advocating for telehealth sustainability. other first nations and inuit organizations will find benefit from reviewing this tool and adapting it to their needs. conclusions first nations living with complex morbidities face considerable challenges in accessing appropriate care. a key issue resides with the complement of on-reserve health programs funded by fnihb, especially in communities that are not served by nursing stations. this results in avoidable hospitalizations, and increased health care costs for the provinces. perhaps more important, the current system results in pain and suffering, that could be avoided at least to some extent with improved local access to secondary and tertiary prevention (lavoie, 2008). telehealth provides an opportunity to address some of these issues. arguing for the deployment of telehealth in first nations communities is challenging, and the creation of appropriate indicators is key. it remains however important to recognize that telehealth will realize its full potential as an intervention if, and only if shortcomings in the financing of on-reserve health service programs are addressed. researchers and practitioners working to promote telehealth in the first nations environment need to take a whole system approach when assessing the potential health gains to be accomplished. shortcomings to the system itself should not be attributed to telehealth. and shortcoming to this system will not be resulted by telehealth. both strategies are important, and must be pursued concurrently in order to improve outcomes for first nations. references adelson, n. (2005). the embodiment of inequity. canadian journal of public health, 96, s45-s61. backwell, p. (1981). the medicine chest clause in treaty no. 6. canadian native law reporter, 4, 1-23. bobet, e. (1998). diabetes among first nations people (rep. no. h34-88/1998e). ottawa: health canada. booz•allen & hamilton canada ltd (1969). study of health services for canadian indians ottawa: booz, allen & hamilton canada ltd. british columbia first nations (2005). british columbia first nations health blueprint, visions and principles. canadian council on health services accreditation (2006). telehealth supplementary criteria ottawa: canadian council on health services accreditation. cranhr (2006). ko telehealth / north network expansion project final evaluation report ontario: cranhr, university of guelph. first nation and inuit regional health survey national committee (2005). first nations and inuit regional longitudinal health survey (rhs) 2002/03 results for adults, youths and children living in first nation communities ottawa: first nation and inuit regional health survey national committee. first nations and inuit health (2007). fnihb potential performance measures ottawa: unpublished working paper. first nations and inuit health branch of health canada e-health solutions unit (2004). backgrounder in telehealth activcities in first nations and nuit communities, aboriginal crossing boundaries-on-line discussion document ottawa: e-health solutions unit. first nations and inuit regional health survey national steering committee (2001). first nations and inuit regional health survey ottawa: health canada and the assembly of first nations. hallett, b., nemeth, m., stevens, h., & stewart, d. (2000). aboriginal people in manitoba 2000 winnipeg. health canada (2003). first nations and inuit health program compendium ottawa: health canada first nation and inuit health branch. health canada (fnihb) (2000). national information sharing & feedback session ont he potential future of telehealth in first nations and inuit communities: final report ottawa: health canada (fnihb). health canada (fnihb) (2001). statistical profile on the health of first nations in canada for the year 2000 ottawa: fnihb. health canada (fnihb) (2003). first nations and inuit home and community care nursing handbook ottawa: health canada (fnihb). health canada (fnihb). (1-2-2004). community planning management system (cpms). health canada (fnihb). ottawa, health canada (fnihb). hendry, bryan (2005). telehealth services vital to first nation communities. afn echo. hersh, w. r., helfand, m., wallace, j., kraemer, d., patterson, p., shapiro, s. et al. (2001). clinical outcomes resulting from telemedicine interventions: a systematic review. bmc medical informatics and decision making, i. hogenbirk, j. & pong, r. w. (2007). proposed financial indicators for a balanced scorecard for aboriginal telehealth, second draft dated 18 sep 1007 sudbury, on: centre for rural and northern health research, laurentian university. institute for clinical evaluative sciences (2004). developing a balanced scorecard for public health toronto: institute for clinical evaluative sciences. jacobs, p., blanchard, j. f., james, r. c., & depew, n. (2000). excess costs of diabetes in the aboriginal population of manitoba, canada. canadian journal of public health, 91, 298-301. jennett, p. a., affleck hall, l., hailey, d., ohinmaa, a., anderson, c., thomas, r. et al. (2003). the socio-economic impact of telehealth: a systematic review. journal of telemedicine and telecare, 9, 311-320. johnson, s., martin, d., & sarin, c. (2002). diabetes mellitus in the first nations population of british columbia, canada. international journal of circumpolar health, 61, 260-264. jong, m. (2004). managing suicides via videoconferencing in a remote northern community in canada. international journal of circumpolar health, 63, 422-428. jong, m. & kraisi, m. (2004). a comparative study on the utility of telehealth in the provision of rheumatology services to rural and northern communities. international journal of circumpolar health, 63, 415-421. lavoie, j. g. (2008). leaving for the city: report of the medical relocation project, phase ii winnipeg: manitoba first nations centre for aboriginal health research. lavoie, j. g. & forget, e. (2006). a financial analysis of the current and prospective health care expenditures for first nations in manitoba manitoba: centre for aboriginal health research. lavoie, j. g. & mitchell, j. (2007). possible indicators for the development of a balanced scorecard for koth: consolidated indicator list from the literature and the ko telehealth evaluation report prince george: unpublished manuscript. lavoie, j. g., o'neil, j., sanderson, l., elias, b., mignone, j., bartlett, j. et al. (2005). the national evaluation of the health transfer policy, final report winnipeg: manitoba first nations centre for aboriginal health research. macinko, j., starfield, b., & shi, l. (2003). the contribution of primary care systems to health outcomes within organization for economic cooperation and development (oecd) countries, 1970-1998. hsr: health services research, 38, 831-865. manitoba centre for health policy (2003). ambulatory care sensitive (acs) conditions winnipeg: manitoba centre for health policy. martens, p. j., sanderson, d., & jebamani, l. (2005). health services use of manitoba first nations people: is it related to underlying need? can.j.public health, 96 suppl 1, s39-s44. martens, p., bond, r., jebamani, l., burchill, c., roos, n., derksen, s. et al. (2002). the health and health care use of registered first nations people living in manitoba: a population-based study winnipeg: manitoba centre for health policy, department of community health sciences, faculty of medicine, university of manitoba. muttitt, s., vigneault, r., & loewen, l. (2004). integrating telehealth into aboriginal healthcare: the canadian experience. international journal of circumpolar health, 63, 401-414. ohinmaa, a., hailey, d., & roine, r. (1999). the assessment of telemedicine, general principles and a systematic review edmonton: inahta project on telemedicine. ontario telemedicine network (2007a). pa4) otn performance and evaluation model toronto: unpublished manuscript. ontario telemedicine network (2007b). telemedicine performance and evaluation model april 7, 2007 toronto: unpublished manuscript. ramirez, r., kakepetum-schultz, t., & muller, n. (2007). engagement report: community & clinician change strategies report ko telemedicine. roine, r., ohinmaa, a., & hailey, d. (2001). assessing telemedicine: a systematic review of the literature. canadian medical association journal, 18, 765-771. scott, r. e., mccarthy, f. g., jennett, p. a., perverseff, t., lorenzetti, d., saeed, a. et al. (2007). national telehealth outcome indicators project. journal of telemedicine and telecare, supplement 2, 1-29. shah, b. r., gunraj, n., & hux, j. e. (2003). markers of access to and quality of prinary care for aboriginal people in ontario, canada. american journal of public health, 93, 798-802. starfield, b., shi, l., & macinko, j. (2005). contribution of primary care to health systems and health. the milbank quarterly, 83, 457-502. waldram, j. b., herring, d. a., & young, t. k. (2006). aboriginal health in canada : historical, cultural and epidemiological perspectives. (2nd edition ed.) toronto: university of toronto press. young, t. k. (1994). the health of native americans: towards a biocultural epidemiology. new york: oxford university press. 1telehealth and telemedicine are used interchangeably in this paper to include store-and-forward solutions; video-conferencing with or without the use of peripherals (dermatoscope, document cameras, etc.); and internet-based solutions. 2broadly speaking, primary prevention focuses on education to promote healthy life choices. secondary prevention involves education and monitoring once a chronic disease has been diagnosed. the goal of secondary prevention is to prevent or delay the development of complications. tertiary prevention focuses on managing and minimizing the health impact of complications once they occur. tsunami warning systems and the last mile   towards community based and ict enabled disaster response systems   michael gurstein  new jersey institute of technology < gurstein@adm.njit.edu >   i guess like everyone else i watched the tragic events of the recent tsunami unfold on television with a sense of sadness and powerlessness.  not much that one can do from so far away except at this point to make a donation and to make the kinds of noises that get governments to move away from inactivity.  fortunately my family and i weren't personally impacted so far as we know, but the events took on a very direct force when we saw what seemed to be video from a resort in thailand where we had stayed 3 years ago and which indicated that the bungalow where we were staying would have been completely inundated by the wave and also the vacation island where my son was exactly one year before had more or less disappeared with a major loss of life. and thinking of it and scanning the net for information and for stories i was struck by a couple of things concerning the role (and lack of role) of the net in these events.  the net appeared to be playing a very significant part in responding to the needs of those at a distance--the on-lookers for information, stories, ways of contributing and so on; families and friends of those possibly impacted with attempts at creating listings of the found and the lost and for those on the ground to manage the concerns and queries of those farther away; and one expects that behind the scenes much of the co-ordination and planning that is being done by aid organizations is being done in ways that are pushing the boundaries of computer mediated communication and managing at a distance. but i guess i'm a bit surprised that the net wasn't able (yet?) to bridge the information divides between those who had some idea about what might be coming (the scientists and those immediately impacted) and those who might have been able to make some use of that information in the places where the impact took appreciable time to be realized.  the problem here was not, i think a "the digital divide" that is, it wasn’t because of a lack of “access” to information, although apparently that too was a problem overall; rather, it seemed to me to be another example of what i've referred to elsewhere as the gap between "access" and "effective use" http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue8_12/gurstein/index.html.   from what i can gather many if not most of the communities impacted had internet "access" in one form or another.  what they (and here i would include those with the knowledge who couldn't use it as well as those without knowledge) lacked rather, was the social infrastructure which could have turned internet access into an "effectively usable" early warning system. some had the information—the scientists who detected the earthquake and could understand how that could result in a tsunami and those who felt the early impact either of the earthquake or the tsunami—but couldn't use it.  others needed the information—the coastal villages around the indian ocean—but couldn't or weren’t able to "get it" at least in a timely and usable form.  the "degrees of separation" imposed by nationality, language and perhaps most important, domains of knowledge and profession (and the related lack of social linkages, network based trust relationships, communication pathways and so on) impeded the communication between the two groups and one wonders whether this was simply a matter of it still being early days in our internetted world or something more profound and permanent. it seems likely that some sort of tsunami early warning system (tews) will be set up in the region probably with an ict base (i seem to recall something similar being in place for the pacific islands, for hurricanes as well as tsunami's i would assume), but given the infrequency of these events, how useful it will be seems questionable. so i'm wondering now whether, rather than spending a huge amount of money creating a dedicated tews, the governments in the region (or better yet the affected communities) wouldn't be better advised to think about how to use the “access” to information that they already have available to them in their communities in ways that will allow them to have some warning in the future. that is how can they develop local means for scanning the information universe to find the information concerning possible local threats and then the create the social means for linking the knowledge that results from this scanning into local structures that can translate that knowledge into effective uses such as early warnings and from there into active (and immediate) disaster response. here i'm not thinking just of what are almost singular events like tsunamis but also of more recurrent weather events and even more common social, economic and political events in the larger world that will have a short term but disastrous (or in some cases positive)impact on community well-being. (dam breaks, rapidly spreading viruses, marauding armies or bandits and so on, on the negative side and opportunities for economic advance, resource exchange, external funds and so on, on the positive side). let’s call this the “last mile warning system” (lmws). what then might an effective lmws look like? that is how do we cover the missing links—the last mile—from the ¨´professional¨ early warning system that governments can do best with high tech (tews), and which seems to be the outcome of the recent kobe meeting on disaster planning, to the “effective use” of the output of those systems by local communities for early warning (lmws)?.  just after, the tsunami events i happened to be in peru and in the community that is at the base of macchu piccu.  this community—aguas calientes--had an avalanche during the rainy season last year which came down without warning with 10 people killed. i became aware of this when i saw bands of marching school children, banging drums and sounding horns. i followed up on what events were happening and learned that the national government had been slow to react to the event so it seems that the local municipality have taken it upon themselves to set up an early warning observatory (they posted someone permanently in the hills above the village to observe the possible beginnings of an avalanche), a local warning system (he has a horn that he can sound), local safe zones (the village is in a very steep valley so it was necessary to reconnoitre and determine what might be safe and what might not), evacuation techniques (complicated because half the residents at anyone time are transient tourists) and all planned, funded and executed by local community resources. not very high tech (local knowledge and local direct observation) and not much ict i think, (i’m not really sure), but this seems to me to be a fantastic example of an lmws i.e. how emergency preparedness and disaster management could/should be done from the community up, using relatively low cost local resources and local knowledge and something that could be propagated quite widely for example through some applied internet activity, on-line networking etc.etc. and in the larger and interconnected world of tsunami’s and incipient killer flu’s such a low cost approach supplemented by hi tech connectivity could (and in fact did) work wonders. the remarkable story from the indian newspaper the hindu  of 01/01/2005 http://www.thehindu.com/2005/01/01/stories/2005010107320100.htm presents how the village nallavadu, whose entire population of 3,600 was saved by a phone call (and not incidentally by a local knowledge centre (telecentre)) “one of the former volunteers of this (the swaminathan teleccentre) programme, vijayakumar, who now works in singapore, saw the tsunami warning there. he immediately phoned the village knowledge centre, setting off instant reaction. a warning was repeatedly announced over the public address system and a siren set off. as a result, the tsunami claimed no victims there.”  this evidently was one of the only coastal villages in all of the indian ocean that emerged without a loss of life! in the context of an “effective use” approach—vijaykumar, armed with the knowledge (from a tews as mediated by the public broadcasting system) had access to a physical infrastructure (the cell and telephone network) to distribute his information but most importantly he had a direct means to link that information in a useful and usable fashion directly into the local community (an lmws). also, as a former member of the community and presumably as an acknowledged “knowledge worker” the information that he was passing on had the necessary authority and authenticity to be taken seriously.  also, there was someone at the other end with whom he had a previously established trusted relationship to take the information, and a local social and organizational structure to universally disseminate and translate that information into usable activity (moving to higher ground). the fact that there was a “community” linkage between the source of the information, mr. vijakumar and his counterpart in nallavadu meant that issues of verification and authenticity of information were immediately overcome. contrast that to the parallel and sad stories of existing tews’, the ocean scientists in hawaii who saw the earthquake, knew that a tsunami was likely and then didn’t know who to call (didn’t have the social network--lmws) that would have allowed him to play a similar role to mr. vijakumar or the chief of the research bureau in thailand who also had the information but when he tried to pass it along found that the lines that he was calling were always busy and apparently then gave up. what is particularly important here and is the significance not simply of the availability of information but also of the capacity to identify what information is important, who the information would be important to, and how to bring that information to the attention of those for whom it will be important and useful.  in this, there are clearly roles for enabling instruments such as icts at each stage of the process, but what is even more important is the significance of the individual capability to "manage and use" information and the role of (trusted) social/community networks as non-mechanical instruments for distributing the information once received in a form in which it will be immediately responded to.  as something of an aside it might be useful to consider the role of cell phones in this context.  in those few instances in the tsunami disaster where information was transmitted in a sufficiently timely matter and in a form in which it could be used it was invariably transmitted person to person via a cell phone link.  the question to ask though, especially given the very widespread distribution of cell phones particularly among the tourist population, is why there was so little direct and beneficial use in this instance either of voice or sms messaging and what procedures might rectify this for the future particularly since a number of schemes have been proposed which use cell phones as their primary delivery system. in the nallavadu example, while the transmission was via the cell phone, the key element in saving the community was the local social infrastructure which was available for assimilating, transmitting and using the information in an effective way.  the simple act of the transmission via the cell phone would not have been as successful had these not been in place as evidenced by another example where an australian diving instructor was able to pass a message along to a friend in thailand who was then able to inform and warn a small number of those immediately in contact with him but where there was no mechanism in place to more widely authenticate and disseminate the information which had been transmitted. here as elsewhere it is the “social” organization of the last mile which will mean whether the information is used or not and whether lives are or are not saved. the case of the moken tribe in thailand who, using traditional knowledge, were also able to survive serves rather to reinforce this position.  as a relatively isolated tribe adhering to traditional ways and steeped in traditional knowledge they were able to recognize the signs of the ocean and draw on traditional knowledge for an appropriate response.  having a continuity with traditional knowledge meant that they were able and willing to respond to this without further verification or authentication, something that communities more acculturated to science based knowledge systems might have greater difficulty in doing. i think the lessons from the above break down into two areas: first the need to figure out ways of translating the outputs of what are likely to be hi tech warnings systems into messages that can be interpreted and used effectively at the local level (the need for a lmd strategy) and secondly the need to support the kind of bottom-up socially-based local emergency/disaster early warning systems and preparedness that would allow local communities to absorb and adapt such information into ways that could be locally useful (the need for a lmd system). equally, following the aguas calientes case there is the need to find ways for integrating the capacity to “hear” and make sense of locally meaningful knowledge and strategies into local social environments ... i would guess that no government anywhere could find sufficient resources to create and sustain in every local community of whatever size the kind of local system that the folks in aguas calientes are introducing themselves using their local resources (and local cost structures) and one really can´t expect that national governments in most countries except perhaps the very wealthiest are going to have the resources even to sponsor and co-ordinate these... what we need to be looking for are the means to enable and support the creation of a multitude of locally based “social” systems like the one i stumbled across that morning in aguas calientes. but what of community informatics (ci)? is this something to be left to a later stage when other matters have been dealt with and as has been suggested, there are resources and time available for what some regard as "recreational pursuits", or is it the case, as i have a sense, that ci is something more important than that and should be built into the communities directly as they are being re-constructed.  certainly, the "community" side of the equation will be of immense importance since much of the reconstruction will of necessity be done by and through existing local communities.   however, what of the informatics side?  some skepticism has been expressed concerning the value of icts in this context where the need for water, shelter and food are so pressing.  certainly, there is a need for management/organizational informatics at least from the perspective of managing aid and a considerable degree of infrastructure reconstruction.  but i'm thinking also for example, of the need for communities to be able to self-organize and self-manage their reconstruction, to access external resources but to manage the deployment of these locally themselves.  i'm also thinking of the probably increased need to create and maintain links with a globally distributed diaspora and well-wishers who can act as sources of support as for example, through remittances.  additionally, i'm thinking of the, as yet largely unrealized, potential for leap-frogging into community based ict enabled health service, linkages for local economic development, supports to re-building local school systems and so on. and perhaps most important, what about the creation of the kind of information and knowledge networks that would bind these communities, many of which appear to be extremely isolated and with little "communication" linkage into the larger world as ways of providing early warnings of future such events.  in this sense, central to the creation of an effective ldws is the information/communication linkage into the various globally available tew systems.  without this linkage being effectively developed and maintained locally, communities will remain as vulnerable tomorrow as they have always been. in fact, given much of the recent discussion, i´m really concerned that ict for disaster management will end up resulting in “bigger toys for bigger boys” (a lot of evidence of that in the apparent outcome from the kobe meeting)—large scale heavy science based sensors, analysers and communicators and not including precisely the kind of socially-based last mile bottom-up component that can actually be (and was) effective at the local level and can be sustainable given local resources (and requirements) once the media blitz has evaporated. i think it is a given that there will be some form of technology enabled disaster warning systems established as a result of the recent events, what isn't so clear is that those developing and implementing these systems will draw the evident lesson that the last mile is a “social mile” and to support or create processes of community development and learning as the most fundamental means for community "security" and that community based icts can play a significant enabling role for both of these. the canadian research alliance for community innovation and networking (cracin): the journal of community informatics, (2004) vol. 1, issue 1, pp. 7-20 the canadian research alliance for community innovation and networking (cracin): a research partnership and agenda for community networking in canada andrew clement university of toronto < clement@fis.utoronto.ca > michael gurstein new jersey institute of technology < editor@ci-journal.net > graham longford university of toronto < glongford@sympatico.ca > robert luke university of toronto < robert.luke@utoronto.ca > marita moll ottawa, ontario < mmoll@ca.inter.net > leslie regan shade concordia university < lshade@alcor.concordia.ca > dianne dechief* concordia university < dy_dechi@concordia.ca > abstract the canadian research alliance for community innovation and networking (cracin) is a collaborative partnership amongst academic researchers in canada, international researchers in community informatics, the three principal federal government departments promoting the “connecting canadians” agenda, and community networking practitioners in canada. cracin’s substantive goal is to review the progress of community-based information and communications technology (ict) development in the context of canadian government programs promoting the development and public accessibility of internet services. central issues to be explored include the sustainability of community networking initiatives, along with an examination of how the canadian community-based initiatives contribute to: the amelioration of ‘digital divides’; the enhancement of economic, social, political and cultural capabilities; the creation, provision, and use of community-oriented learning opportunities; and the development of community-oriented cultural content, open source software, learning tools and broadband infrastructures. the over-arching goal of our research is to begin the systematic documentation and assessment of the development of community-oriented ict capacity and services contributing to local learning, to the strengthening of relations in and between communities, and more generally to community-focused social and economic development in canada. mailto:clement@fis.utoronto.ca mailto:editor@ci-journal.net mailto:glongford@sympatico.ca mailto:robert.luke@utoronto.ca mailto:mmoll@ca.inter.net mailto:lshade@alcor.concordia.ca mailto:dy_dechi@concordia.ca 8 the journal of community informatics introducing cracin the canadian research alliance for community innovation and networking (cracin) is a threeyear project funded by the canadian social science and humanities research council’s (sshrc) initiative for the new economy. it brings together leading community informatics researchers from across canada and internationally to review the progress of community-based information and communications technology (ict) development in the context of, among other things, the main canadian government programs promoting the development and public accessibility of internet services. under the federal government’s ‘connecting canadians’ agenda, several hundred million dollars have been invested in funding thousands of non-profit and community-based organizations to help canadians communicate electronically, both locally and globally, as well as to access information services and resources that strengthen participation in contemporary economic and social life. we believe that this has resulted in significant benefits to canadians and has positioned canada on the leading edge in promoting community networking (cn) as a key element of the ‘new economy’. however, so far there has been very little systematic research documenting or assessing the effectiveness of these initiatives, synthesizing “lessons learned” from these efforts (particularly those that might be of interest in guiding future related programs nationally and globally), or, most importantly, placing these efforts into a wider research and knowledge context so as to determine how these valuable public services can be sustained into the future. cracin is a collaborative partnership amongst an interdisciplinary mix of academic researchers from universities across all regions of canada, along with international researchers in community informatics and ict for economic and social development policy, the three principal federal government departments promoting the “connecting canadians” agenda, and community networking practitioners and advocates from seven of the major canadian cn initiatives. (see appendix 1 for a list of cracin members). central issues to be explored include the sustainability of community networking initiatives, along with an examination of how canadian community-based ict initiatives contribute to: the amelioration of ‘digital divides’; the enhancement of economic, social, political and cultural capabilities; the creation, provision, and use of community oriented learning opportunities, especially for locally relevant employment skills; and the development of community oriented cultural content, open source software, learning tools and broadband infrastructures. the over-arching goal of our current research is to begin the systematic documentation and assessment of the development of canadian community-oriented ict capacity and services as they contribute to local learning, to the strengthening of relations in and between communities, and more generally to communityfocused social and economic development. the research includes a coordinated series of in-depth structured case studies of selected canadian cn initiatives that have received significant funding from a variety of federal government programs. these studies are being undertaken in collaboration with community partners using a participatory action research approach. in addition, there will be thematically focused studies providing research linkage across several case study sites. providing a framework for the cases will be a broader set of studies, in particular an evaluative survey administered to a broad base of cn initiatives and intended to provide a more quantitative basis for policy recommendations. the various studies will be assisted and integrated through a series of workshops that link community and government partners with the canadian and international collaborators around the major policy themes. in particular, cracin will examine how the canadian programs related to community-based ict initiatives contribute to: • the amelioration of ‘digital divides’, notably those along the lines of age (seniors and children), income, language, education, gender, (dis)ability and location (e.g. rural versus urban) (birdsall, 2000; graham, 2002; norris, 2001; rideout, 2002); cracin 9 • the enhancement of economic, social, political and cultural capabilities of community members (borgida, 2002; sen, 2000); • the creation and use of locally-oriented cultural content valued by community members (pigg, 2001); • the provision and use of on-line social services of specific benefit to community members (scott, 2001); • the provision of community-oriented learning opportunities, especially locally relevant job skills (bishop, 2000; hargittai, 2002); • the creation of appropriate governance and management practices for cn organizations (paquet, 2001; sassen, 2000); • the development of community-oriented open source software and learning tools (openflows, 2003; preece, 2000); • the development of community-oriented broadband and wireless (wifi) infrastructures (gabe, 2002; malecki, 2002); • the longer term sustainability of community networking initiatives (clark, 2003; kavanaugh and patterson, 2001; van winden, 2001); • community networking and “effective use” (gurstein, 2003); and • the role of community networking in community innovation (gurstein, 2002). • in pursuing these research objectives cracin is also aiming at a range of broader goals: • to better establish the nascent field of community informatics as a research and teaching area in canada and worldwide, through the analysis of grounded field studies, and developing curriculum materials derived from these studies; • to enhance the research capacity of community based ict-enabled organizations for selfevaluation, and to reinforce decision-making and problem-solving capacity in their communities; • to influence the development of government policies, programs and funding priorities concerning community–oriented ict initiatives; • to promote the sharing of knowledge, resources and expertise between universities, government policymakers, and organizations in the community; • to explore the social impact, implementation, technological innovations, and trends of the new economy through social science theories and methodologies. the significance of community networking and the need for research there is a strong consensus that the rapid development and extensive deployment of information and communications technologies (icts) represents a central feature of contemporary economic and social development world wide (castells, 1996, 2001; côté, 2001; loader, 1998). community networking represents one of the most interesting experiments in the use of icts to strengthen local, geographically10 the journal of community informatics based communities. while there are many forms of cn, they have in common the broad ideals of promoting economic and social participation by enhancing the informational resources available to people living together in compact territories–cities, towns, and neighbourhoods (gurstein, 2000; keeble and loader, 2001). cns complement commercial on-line services by their distinctive orientation to the combination of: 1) local information resources, enterprises, services, culture and people; 2) equitable access to network services at little or no cost to all community members, and 3) community economic development by strengthening local networks of exchange and mutual support (moll and shade, 2001). canadian community-based on-line public access initiatives date back to the 1970s (clement, 1981). cns flourished in the mid-1990s with the rapid growth of computing and the internet, eventually serving between 250,000 and 600,000 members through 35 community networks (graham and shade, 1996). while these numbers have since fallen as the options for cheap internet access has widened, the volunteer, even entrepreneurial ideal of enlivening local communities through icts retains its promise to become a vital source of innovation for the new economy. in the mid-1990s, with the rapid growth and prominence of the internet, many leading industrialized nations developed policies and funding programs to promote public access to the internet and ameliorate the emerging ‘digital divides’ (hague and loader, 1999; loader, 1998). in canada this was pursued most visibly through the federal “connecting canadians” agenda, launched in 1995, with the goal was making canada the most ‘connected nation on earth’. led by industry canada, the “agenda” included such programs as schoolnet, the community access program (cap), volnet, librarynet, and smart communities programs. more recent federal and provincial programs have pursued related goals (e.g. industry canada’s broadband for rural and northern development (brand); the national satellite initiative (nsi); human resource and skills development canada’s community learning networks; government on-line; and supernet project in alberta). altogether, several hundred million dollars were spent through these programs in support of roughly 10,000 community-based ict initiatives ranging from community web portals, public internet access sites and community technology centres to computing hardware for schools and network infrastructure for rural and remote communities. today, cns in canada complement commercial on-line services through a distinctive orientation to local geographical communities and a commitment to universal access to network services, digital literacy, and community development and civic participation (moll and shade, 2001). while these programs have complex and sometimes contradictory objectives, they all share the declared aim of stimulating economic activity and promoting social cohesion. remarkably, there has been little publicly documented assessment of these programs to identify what has been achieved, what difficulties have been encountered, the effect of these programs on community activities, and what policies/programs might now be appropriate in light of contemporary internet developments (gurstein, 2004: 235). the federal government’s preoccupation with access and hardware (225) is mirrored in the kind of research it has produced. most statistics canada and industry canada studies, for example, have focused on the narrow question of technical “connectivity” in households, businesses and the public sector. such a preoccupation with technical access ignores larger questions such as how these government programs have interacted with community-based ict initiatives to address the issues of the new economy? in short, has providing technical connectedness via public access to community-oriented internet services promoted sustainable social and economic connectedness and development? in addition, the programs have thus far been pursued with no real linkages to academic research, canadian or international, assessing the outcome of such policies and programs, which could be fed back into them in the form of best practices (235). it is both the research gap and absence of linkages among stakeholders characteristic of the “connecting canadians” initiative that cracin seeks to fill. the need for research is all the more compelling in the context of a number of challenges currently facing cns in canada and elsewhere. with the narrowing of the ‘digital divide’ and internet access rates approaching 70 percent in canada, the continuing relevance and necessity of public internet access services, (many of which were launched in the mid 1990s when internet penetration rates were much lower and the costs of commercial access higher) have been called into question. both federal and provincial governments appear poised to withdraw significantly from previous involvement in supporting cns and cracin 11 internet accessibility. in fact, a general retreat was sounded in 2001 with the federal government’s lukewarm response to the recommendations of the national broadband task force, which urged the government to embark on an ambitious broadband infrastructure program to service rural and remote communities. more recently, in the 2004 federal budget, speech from the throne, and liberal party election campaign platform ict policy dropped off the radar screen. ict policy was barely mentioned these documents, where it had been a regular fixture for nearly a decade. the major “connecting canadians” programs, such as cap, schoolnet, brand and nsi are being wound down or closed altogether. two year extensions on cap and schoolnet were recently announced, but with greatly reduced funding and new strategic directions away from general public access to focus on “digital divide” communities. the brand broadband program has allocated its available funds, despite the fact that thousands of rural and remote communities remain unconnected. the nsi recently announced plans to connect just 52 communities via satellite. further investments are being contemplated, but over a 10 to 15 year time period. at the provincial level the situation is somewhat more mixed. while the alberta government is proceeding with its $300 million supernet project aimed at connecting roughly 400 rural and remote communities to a publicly-funded high speed network, the province of ontario recently announced the suspension of its two key rural broadband initiatives connect ontario: partnering for smart communities (copsc) and connect ontario: broadband regional access program (cobra) pending a major program review. suggestive references to the importance of the “social economy,” or third sector, by the federal government provide one of the only glimmers of hope that community-based ict initiatives figure somewhere in the government’s future plans. at the very least, the arrival of “social economy” discourse on the federal scene represents a potential opportunity for cn researchers and advocates to continue to engage with policymakers, by documenting and demonstrating the benefits and advantages of cn within this new rhetorical and programmatic frame; provided that the government’s commitment to the voluntary sector as a vehicle for community-based economic, social, cultural and civic development is genuine. with the imminent withdrawal of the federal government from community networking and public internet access promotion, thousands of cn initiatives across canada face a crisis of sustainability, since most of them rely heavily on government funding, thereby threatening to undermine the significant progress recently made in closing the “digital divide”. in this context of policy and funding uncertainty, cracin research will be all the more important to document and analyse not only what has been achieved under these programs but, crucially, what may be lost (in terms of the distinctive contributions of community-based ict initiatives) if governments retreat from the cn field altogether. program of research the project will include a) case studies that focus on in-depth site-specific community-based technology initiatives; b) broad-based studies spanning all seven case study sites, and c) integrative knowledge distillation activities aimed at framing the case and broad-based studies and linking them across the main research themes and policy development issues. an evaluation framework is being constructed on a participatory design/action research platform with a community partner. participatory design processes enable two-way institutional learning between the community partner and the researcher, ensuring that all parties are engaged in the design, development and analysis of the cn project and are able to garner meaningful and relevant outcomes. methods include qualitative measurements such as interviews, surveys, focus groups, and participant-observation, and quantitative measures and multi-modal tools to create a series of flexible indicators that can encompass diverse program goals while enabling comparisons across multiple sites. this model will be used as a basis for the larger cracin research and evaluation of the project-based case studies. mike hmm… i think we should stay away from identifying ourselves with/as “the alliance” ;-) 12 the journal of community informatics the seven case study sites consist of the following: • vancouver community network (vancouver); • alberta library/supernet (alberta); • k-net services (sioux lookout); • st. christopher’s house (toronto); • smartsites/smartkids (ottawa); • communautique (montreal); and • western valley development authority (nova scotia). the sites reflect a range of cn models and regional experience from across canada. specific research projects include those concerning: • immigrant populations and community networks; • institutional development and community organizations; • community learning and human capital development; • technology choice and infrastructure; • civic participation and community service; • rural community broadband development; • language and local cultural content creation; • smart communities and community networking; • intergenerational story-telling; • community networks as public goods; • community networking and libraries; • community informatics: from theory to practice. theoretical frameworks to a considerable degree the dispersion of information and communications technologies beyond the initial cohort of university, corporate and government users took place in the absence of a theoretical understanding of how, why or under what conditions this was taking place. only after the practice had become well developed was an attempt made to place these developments in the wider context of social theory. rogers (1985), in his seminal technology diffusion studies dealt with technology innovation as experienced by local end users. wellman’s on-going research on social networks has given a language and a set of concepts useful for describing some of the processes at work (wellman and hampton, 1999, 2001; wellman, 2002). studies on community networks and community technology centres have taken a sociotechnical stance, often adapted from the tenets of social constructivism and social shaping of technology studies (bijker and law, 1994; dutton, 1999; kubicek, 1997; mackenzie, 1999) and have emphasized their contribution to democracy, development of local community and cultural content, social cohesion, and cracin 13 social inclusion (kubicek and wagner, 2002; servon, 2002; schuler and day, 2004, warshauer, 2003). with the shift to the new economy dependent on ict innovations, many scholars have pointed to the need for social science research to contribute to a deeper understanding of this techno-economic paradigm, focusing on changes in the technology of social organizations and upon changes in icts that enable social innovation (mansell, 2002). largely absent in the innovation literature is a discussion about democracy and community and a consideration of human activity outside the entrepreneur or the producer (gurstein 2002). if innovation is to play a role in canadian society, discussions should be conducted within the framework of democratic systems of governance and decision-making, allowing for an understanding of not only how the government intervenes within economic systems for the production of competitive national advantage, but also how individual citizens engage themselves (or not) with such systems in their daily lives. given the significant amount of attention paid by governments to the realm of innovation in socio-economic policy in recent years, analysis of how such programs have been used within communities to develop and maintain daily activities is of significant importance to citizens. there are several gaps between social analyses of technological uses and the relations to socio-economic systems and related policy contexts, and a need to assess such relations, which is one of the principal goals of our research alliance (de la mothe, 2000; kahin and wilson, 1997; ruttan, 2001). community informatics as a new multidisciplinary field of academic study, community informatics is concerned with the study of the enabling uses of information and communication technologies in communities – how icts can help achieve a community’s social, economic, cultural, or political goals (gurstein 2000). community informatics brings together the perspectives of a variety of stakeholders – community activists and groups, policymakers, users/citizens, artists, and a range of academics working across disciplines (communication studies, cultural studies, information studies, sociology, political science, urban studies and geography, and area studies). an emphasis on community is implicitly fore-grounded: community informatics “combines an interest in the potentially transforming qualities of the new media with an analysis of the importance of community social relations for human interaction” (keeble and loader, 2001:3); it is “concerned with the development, deployment and management of information systems designed with and by communities to solve their own problems” (mciver, 2003:33); and via incorporation of “the user and his [sic] community into the system design process introduces new “stakeholders” into an extended approach to ict design, development, and implementation” (gurstein, 2000:6). community informatics prioritizes the social requirements of ict use in communities and acknowledges a bias reflected in valuing “public goods” and the potential for human growth and development (bieber et al., 2002: 3). six areas that encompass a community informatics approach include: access facilities, service design, tele-centre or community access centre design, design of the community system, online service delivery, and online support. applications of community informatics include community internet access, community information, online civic participation, online community service delivery, community economic development, education/training/learning networks, community and regional training, and tele-work. a rich literature has developed in community informatics, which covers a broad range of issues, focusing on case studies in north america, europe, latin america, and developing countries (gurstein, 2000; keeble and loader, 2001; mciver, 2003; taylor, 2004). these issues, broadly speaking, include: access – how are access needs met in particular communities? are community nets able to bridge the ‘digital divide’? (access here defined as both access to the technical and the social infrastructure). design is important here – are the concepts of user-centred design, universal design and participatory design utilized, taking into account various linguistic and literacy barriers? 14 the journal of community informatics community economic development how are community nets contributing to this? social cohesion – are community nets contributing to social inclusion? what has been the effect of community and civic participation? development – are tele-centres and other public access facilities meeting the needs of those in developing countries? learning – how are community nets being used or contributing to digital literacy? methodology methodologies for community informatics assessments of community networks and community technology centers tend to examine social capital, individual empowerment, strength of democracy, sense of community, and economic development opportunities. most ci researchers agree that the social influences of icts need to be considered. ci methodologies are thus moving away from measures of access and looking instead at patterns of use. one model encourages a multidisciplinary approach by examining the interconnected nodes of design, access, critical mass and impacts. in order to predict the effectiveness of ci projects an autonomy/harmony model was created. when a project is funded and managed within its community, its autonomy level is higher and so is the likelihood of its success (romm and taylor, 2000). fewer conflicts are equated with higher harmony and again, a greater likelihood of success. methods of research include focus groups, interviews with users, technical staff and administrators, (online) surveys, email questionnaires, case studies, reviews of websites, content analysis of websites, usage statistics and site observation (o’neil, 2002). venkatesh (2003) advocated the importance of understanding dynamic elements of communities before researching them and he identifies origins, stabilization and transformation as the three segments of the lifecycles of communities. cns should be analyzed as artifacts developed within a given historical and social milieu and their development is best analyzed at both macroand micro-social levels. because cns are grounded in and institutionalized by pre-existing technology and technical support arrangements, studies of cns should begin with the community and consider its size and resources (including extra-local ones), as well as the nature of ties between constituents including how these create webs, social hierarchies and power structures. pinkett (2003) has examined how individuals and families comprising a community within a low-tomoderate income housing development use icts to support their interests and needs in a project seeking to leverage indigenous assets rather than perceived needs. the study’s theoretical framework integrates ‘socio-cultural constructionism’—which suggests that individuals and communities are enhanced by shared constructions that resonate with the social environment and the culture of the community—and ‘asset-based community development’, a model for community building that assumes that social and economic revitalization must begin with what already exists (366). through this framework the question which emerges is how community social capital can be increased, and how community cultural capital can be activated through integrating community technology in the context of a community building initiative. investigation methods included preliminary and post-assessment surveys and direct observation. looking at “smart projects” in canadian communities, ramirez et al. (2002) examined the three-way and mutually supportive relationships between sustainability, performance measurement, and community engagement. performance measures are often difficult to finance and are seen as an additional activity, not a core management function. evaluations of these sites may be long or short term and include surveys for baseline data collection as well as video-based performance assessment (the value of this approach is not yet acknowledged by network funding agencies). cracin 15 conclusion the cracin project has been inaugurated at a critical juncture in the history and development of cn and ci in canada. the last decade has been marked by laudable government efforts to close the digital divide and explosive growth in community-based ict initiatives as a result. together, these have led to many benefits for communities across the country. however, with the realization of increasingly affordable and widespread technical access (and resulting questions about the continuing need for public access initiatives), uncertain and shifting government ict policies and programs, and the sustainability of thousands of community-based ict initiatives in question, the need to systematically document and assess the accomplishments, unique contributions, and challenges of cns in canada has seldom been more compelling. with the narrowing of digital divides in canada and elsewhere a shift in focus from access in the technical sense to access in a richer, socio-technical sense, such as that developed in clement’s and shades’ access rainbow model (clement and shade, 2000) or gurstein’s concept of effective use (gurstein, 2003), is called for on the part of cn researchers, policymakers and practitioners alike. mere access is not the end of cn in itself but, rather, the beginning of the pursuit of real end which is to enable the accomplishment of communally-identified goals in economic, social and cultural life. how are cns using icts to meet the economic, learning, civic and cultural needs of communities? what successes have been achieved and what challenges do they face? what policy and program changes at the governmental level will best support the effective use of icts to build community in canada? cracin aspires to generate both practical and theoretical responses to questions such as these, and, by feeding into other research networks and bodies of cn/ci literature emerging internationally (e.g. community informatics research network, cirn), to share research and practical experiences with cn/ci academics and practitioners in other jurisdictions faced with similar challenges. 16 the journal of community informatics appendix 1 cracin partners academic partners academic investigators: andrew clement (pi), (university of toronto) michael gurstein, (new jersey institute of technology) marita moll, (telecommunities canada) leslie regan shade, (concordia university) canadian academic collaborators: marco adria, (university of alberta) nadia caidi, (university of toronto) arthur cordell, (industry canada / carleton) bruce dienes, (capflex / acadia) serge proulx, (université du québec à montréal) international academic collaborators: michael bieber, (new jersey institute of technology) peter day, (university of brighton) susana finquelievich, (universidad buenos aires) herbert kubicek, (university of bremen, fachbereich 3) brian loader, (university of teesside / cira) robin e. mansell, (london school of economics) scott robinson, (universidad nacional autónoma de méxico) doug schuler, (northwestern university) wallace taylor, (central queensland university / coin) peter van den besselaar, (royal netherlands academy of arts and sciences) robin williams, (university of edinbrough / rcss) community informatics research network (cirn) international community partners telecommunities canada vancouver community network alberta library/supernet k-net services st. christopher’s house smartsites/smartkids communautique western valley development authority government partners canadian heritage, (strategic research and analysis) human resources and skills development canada, (learning policy directorate) industry canada, (electronic commerce branch & information highway applications branch cracin 17 acknowledgement:* cracin wishes to acknowledge the significant contributions made by alison powell as cracin administrator during the first six months of the project, including research assistance for the preparation of this article. references association for progressive communication (2003). women’s networking support program. gem – gender evaluation methodology, 2003. url: http://www.apcwomen.org/gem/gend_analysis.htm bieber, michael, richard civille, michael gurstein and nancy white (2002). “a white paper exploring research trends and issues in the emerging field of community informatics.” url: http://www.communityinformatics.org/content/ci_whitepaper.pdf bijker, wiebe and john la (1994). shaping technology/building society: studies in sociotechnical change, mit press. birdsall, william f. 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(1991). participatory action research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. * the author diane dechief and the acknowledgement section were added to this article post-publication, on october 24, 2004. a research partnership and agenda for community networking i methodologies for community informatics conclusion acknowledgement:* references trouble at kookaburra hollow: how media mediate michael v. arnold department of history and philosophy of science at the university of melbourne <mvarnold@unimelb.edu.au> christopher j shepherd department of history and philosophy of science at the university of melbourne <cshep@unimelb.edu.au> martin r gibbs dept. of information systems, the university of melbourne <martin.gibbs@unimelb.edu.au> abstract through 2005 a dispute played itself out at the kookaburra hollow housing estate. the dispute initially concerned allegations of poor build quality in some houses, the absence of broadband to the estate, and the absence of certain public amenities. however, it escalated to involve disagreement among residents about the strategies and tactics employed in the disputes. these strategies and tactics involved the use of four media – a community intranet, hand-made signs, public and private meetings, and a television broadcast. we describe the use made of these media as the dispute unfolded, and argue that each mediated the action in different ways. in our tentative analysis, the key factors that shape these sociotechnologies as actors are that they: act in different domains; act in different registers; and have different points of initiation and patterns of circulation. in comparing and contrasting the four media in these terms, we hope to understand more about this particular dispute, more about community networks, and more about media as actors. introduction community intranets, or web-based community networks, are becoming a more common part of the “total lifestyle” package offered to purchasers of master planned real estate developments in australia. mainstream real estate developers such as delfin, urban pacific, stonehenge, and the docklands authority are installing community intranets in their new green-field and high-rise developments. similar trends can also be noted in master planned communities in the us and uk. community intranets are being promoted as an efficient way of managing community services and amenities, and as a mechanism to mediate and enhance communication, and thus to foster a stronger sense of community within the community. strong communities have always been attractive. in a context where the perceived existence of ‘a community’ is a marketing asset may add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the price of real estate, the importance of community is evident for purchaser and developer alike. community intranets are thus positioned by housing estate developers as desirable infrastructure, alongside the local park, the community centre, or golf course. intranet governance and its on-going performance does however, bring its own set of problems. as students of community networks, web-based forums, electronic discussion-lists, and other on-line interactive spaces well know, the politics of those spaces can be fraught with difficulty (castells 1996; berg 1998; schofield 2002; arnold, gibbs et al. 2003; meredyth, ewing et al. 2004). whilst each interactive space manifests its own characteristics, many of these difficulties can be summed up through questions that go to issues of purpose and power. that is, how is the raison d’etre of the communicative space to be shaped, and how is that shape to be maintained and renovated as needed? and on what basis is the power to “speak” to be distributed, and once distributed, how is that power to be policed? in this essay we describe how these questions were addressed at kookaburra hollow1, a residential community with a community intranet. we describe how the community intranet played a strategic role in the mediation of conflict between residents and their developer, and how this same community intranet became the subject of conflict among residents, and between residents and the developer. we also describe how other media were used to prosecute the dispute – in particular, through hand-made signs placed in windows, public and private meetings, and a television programme – and how they too became the subject of dispute. any dispute has many beginnings, but we can begin the story of this one with allegations made by some residents that the developer had failed the residents in three main respects. the first was the claim that the build-quality of some houses was not up to scratch, and that as residents were required to select a ‘developer approved’ builder, the developer shared a responsibility in ensuring that problems with build-quality were rectified. the second was the claim that the developer had not built certain public amenities on the estate as promised. and the third was the claim that the developer had promised that broadband communications would be available to residents of the estate but had not delivered. as the dispute unfolded, in significant part over the medium of the intranet, the media supporting the dispute became topics of contention. and so, as the use made of various media became subject to dispute, we saw how arguments over issues of media use compounded arguments over the substantive issues. the substantive questions that were at stake – questions of build-quality, of what might or might not be required of a developer and of a builder, and of who promised broadband to whom (and with what degree of clarity) – are not questions we intend to arbitrate in this essay. rather, we address the mediation of the dispute through the various media, maintaining our analytic focus on negotiations and contestations about the purpose of media and of strategies of control and power. method, and organisation of the paper five key informants were interviewed for this paper. these included, anthony and kate briggs and jill and jacob macpherson, who were residents of the estate and participants in the dispute. bill flanders, the estate’s body corporate1 manager was also interviewed. transcripts from the community intranet were examined and helped inform the argument presented here. the section that follows presents a chronological narrative of the dispute as it unfolded at kookaburra hollow. in the third section we analyse the strategic use of media through an approach that focuses on the domains, registers, and flows, which inhere in socio-technical communicative assemblages. finally, we offer our conclusions. trouble at kookaburra hollow establishing community in february 2003 anthony and katie briggs were preparing to move into their new house in the kookaburra hollow housing development, which would eventually have some 1000 homes. the development was marketed as an urban, family-friendly community estate with a rural flavor, yet with high-tech features. it would have a community ‘country club’, kids’ playgrounds and a football ground, bike and walking paths through forests of australian river red gums, water conservation features, landscaping making extensive use of australian native trees and plants, picnic shelters, a community intranet, and a modern technological infrastructure including broadband communications. while their house was still under construction, anthony and kate passed by the estate and got chatting with one of kookaburra hollow’s early occupants, who mentioned that the estate still had no broadband. alarmed, anthony recalls his reaction: ‘what? no cable?’ so i rang pat weaver who’s the project manager and said ‘i hear there’s no cable. so what you gonna do about it?’ he said, ‘how do you mean?’ i said, ‘you promised me cable. the first time i went into the sales office i was told there would be cable! i’m only a few months out of moving in and you’re telling me you can’t do anything about it?’ and he said, ‘well, we’re trying our best but we’re dealing with telstra’2. i said, ‘i know what you mean’. everything is friendly at this stage. we moved in here in may. and then the long wait began. 3 for their first few months at kookaburra hollow building hiccups and deficiencies in the construction of their house took precedence over the briggs’ technology concerns. failing to have the builder acknowledge the problems, the briggs had an independent architect’s report prepared, which listed some 40 problems in the construction. the report noted considerable gaps in the insulation, problems with ducting, and incomplete joins in the plaster. it was impossible to heat the house: ‘upstairs was a sauna, downstairs an icebox’, recalls anthony. when the builder suggested that the briggs attend to the repairs themselves, they brought the dispute into the public domain in a simple but effective manner. they displayed a large-format copy of the architect’s report in one of their front windows, ostensibly to remind the building contractors of the work that still needed doing, and advised the builder that they would cross off the items as they were repaired. in an adjacent window, they exhibited an image of a big, unhappy face. others in the community, some of whom faced what they claimed to be even more serious construction problems with similarly recalcitrant builders, followed suit. some appended insulting comments about their builder to the list of alleged faults. with the estate in its early stages of release, and prospective buyers regularly driving up and down the streets of kookaburra hollow, some builders were quick to meet the residents’ demands and to implore residents to take down their signs. other builders took a more assertive stance and threatened residents with litigation if they did not remove the ‘defamatory’ signs. over the next few months the majority of building disputes were resolved and most of the window signs were removed. growing solidarity among residents as the building disputes were slowly resolved, the attention of the briggs and a number of other residents returned to the absence of broadband. for anthony, who ran a small consulting business from home, this absence had serious economic implications: now we moved in from a place that had cable, i absolutely rely on it. if i get a phone call from a potential client, the first thing i do is go on the web and look at their site because i deal with big corporates and i can learn a lot of stuff really quickly about what they do, then i can make a phone call half an hour later and be reasonably confident that i’ll be talking about issues that are of major importance to their business. that gets me right up the line and into the next phase of my marketing. there’s also powerpoint files going back and forth all the time because that’s the tool-of-trade in business presentation and so here we are at kookaburra on dial-up, unplugging and plugging in… a subsequent community gathering at the kookaburra hollow country club revealed to the briggs that many of the other residents were similarly annoyed by the absence of cable. ensuing discussions of 20 to 30 residents resulted in further pressure on the developer to clarify and defend its position on the provision of broadband infrastructure to the estate. it became clear that the developer wanted to hand responsibility for broadband over to the body corporate, and confrontation arose. however, as was recognized by those involved in the dispute, the body corporate occupied a conflicted position in respect of decision-making; being at once a residents’ representative body, and while at the same time an organ of the developer. it is “representative” in so much as all members of the board are elected residents, with the exceptions of the body corporate manager and co-opted members. it is not an instrument of representative democracy though, and if it were required the residents could be out-voted by the developer, who holds all the votes allocated to unsold blocks of land, and holds a right of veto on all decisions until the last block of land is sold – an event not planned to occur for some years to come. anthony briggs described this encounter with pat weaver, the developer’s state level manager: pat weaver said to me, ‘it’s a body corporate issue’, and i said ‘bullshit, it’s absolute bullshit. you’re not going to do that. you promised me there would be cable in the estate—that’s between me and [the developer]. by telling me it’s a body corporate issue you’re trying to palm it off.’ meanwhile, bill flanders, who had been appointed as body corporate manager, was also seeking to define broadband as a ‘residents’ issue,’ to be tackled within the framework of the body corporate and paid for by body corporate fees raised from residents. after a heated body corporate meeting in november 2003 in which bill flanders proposed to investigate a couple of potential wireless providers through a special sub-committee, some residents decided to reinitiate a public protest by returning to the ‘signs in the windows’ strategy. this time the signs read, ‘we need broadband’. around this time, residents also began to use the community intranet to expose and discuss their grievances, to seek support and reinforce solidarity, to demand explanations from the developer, and to suggest further community action. in particular, it appeared that the intranet served to consolidate the community’s cohesion in the face of the developer, and gave voice to an ever-expanding number of grievances and concerns. escalation some residents felt that a further escalation was needed with a broader reach to the public. their resolve to export the dispute to a wider public culminated in an approach to a popular television current-affairs program, which agreed to run a segment on the issue. a posting on the intranet announced the scheduling of the program, and alluded to further action: after many, many months of frustration at progress around a number of issues, a group of residents has spoken with abc’s frontline program… the resulting report will go to air within the frontline program at 8.00 on tuesday 16th november on channel 2. in addition, we have alerted a number of other journalists to the story, so that our progress in seeking to ensure that kookaburra hollow is a truly premium estate will be followed. we are pursuing all options to ensure that [the developer lives up to all representations made to purchasers within this estate. 4 although some would have preferred to have the segment focus on the broadband issue, once in the hands of program producers, residents were no longer in control, and the program focused instead on the broader theme of community disempowerment vis-à-vis large property developers, using the build quality issues as their examples. the frontline segment reported that: [while] the website describes it as an exclusive master planned community in a beautiful grand environment… some of those who bought into [kookaburra hollow] are wishing they hadn’t. the program documented some residents’ desperation with faulty construction and their intense frustration at negotiating a satisfactory outcome with the developer and with their builders. one resident charged evocatively: whenever a consumer has a complaint that seems to be contrary to [the developer’s] cash flow interests, they have an incredible range of methods to stall your concerns. this is the winner of the urban development of australia’s big award for this year and we get treated like children. what is going on in the non-award winning estates? the developer’s estate manager defended the estate: ‘when problems arise, we are very pro-active in dealing with the builders and we are very pro-active in doing our best to ensure that any concerns are dealt with.’ ‘let’s face it’, he added, ‘building a home can be stressful.’ community dissension and re-evaluation the move to broadcast media from window-signs, the intranet, and local meetings, proved controversial among the residents. shortly after the television show, the manner and tone of residents’ postings to the intranet shifted. after mulling over the content of her post with her husband, jill macpherson queried: i am very concerned to read [on the intranet] of all the negativity about the estate. i also wonder if there isn’t a better way of resolving issues than going to the media and painting [kookaburra hollow] as a dodgy development with bodgy builders. anxiety about the course of the dispute was reflected on the intranet where there was a growing chorus of residents expressing their misgivings about how the current affairs program might affect property values at kookaburra hollow: i and most of my neighbours watched the [frontline] program, and i am sorry to say it unfairly cast a very dark cloud over the area that we chose to live in… unfortunately, there is absolutely no doubt that the bad publicity caused by that report will have a huge bearing on property values. what if this affects the land sales of the remaining lots at kookaburra hollow. think about it; it’s not good. in a more vitriolic voice, a curiously anonymous posting5 singled out anthony briggs: you’ve gone to the media and managed to make kookaburra hollow sound like a dodgy estate everyone should keep well away from. well done anthony! you’re helping protect our investment, that’s for sure. the property values here should halve by the time you’re finished, and as owners that’s what we all want! subsequently, many residents joined in on the intranet postings to target anthony briggs specifically for his ‘over-dramatizing’, ‘over the top propaganda’ and for implicitly drawing all residents into a dispute which, they felt, should have been more clearly defined as the position of only some of the residents. in the face of these attacks, anthony was warned: ‘be careful, you run the risk of dividing the community, i understand you feel strongly about certain issues, but i urge you to go about it the right way.’ another resident wrote: in a world where things can be over-dramatized i like to keep things simple. and the simple fact is that all my family and i want is to live in a harmonious community. i ask that you don’t destroy that, even before we have had a chance to enjoy it. further postings even seemed to indicate that residents were perhaps not, after all, in solidarity over issues of build quality, community amenities, or broadband. on the subject of [the developer], when we purchased here, i was also skeptical as to the developers plans, but overall i have to say [the developer] has delivered and built a most brilliant estate.... another resident pointed out: ‘at no stage were we under the impression that the developers had anything to do with the contract between ourselves and our builder.’ another asking whether broadband was an expense that all residents would incur whether they wanted it or not, answered his/her own question unequivocally: ‘we are not prepared to pay for a service that is not a need for our family!’ most regrets about the broadcast, however, were couched in terms of land values and the potential to impact detrimentally on the residents’ investment. interrogating the intranet in this climate of community anxiety, disunity and dissension, bill flanders of the body corporate posted specific recommendations on how the intranet should be used. the community intranet for kookaburra hollow is intended wholly to facilitate healthy communications that promote a sense of identity and purpose for the residents of the estate. it was never intended as a vehicle for people to run campaigns that seek sympathy for any particular cause or which seek to criticize organizations or other members of the community… some very recent comments have caused us to reassess the current policy of allowing ‘free and unrestricted access’ to the message boards. for this reason we have implemented an approvals procedure for any comment placed on the message boards. he followed this posting a few days later with the decision to review all posts before allowing them to go up on the intranet. as body corporate manager, bill flanders juggled many competing interests. in the case of the intranet, he was well aware that the developer still held the majority of house lots on the estate and thus effectively controlled body corporate decision-making. he was also well aware that people working for the developer had access to the intranet, read postings, and were generally unhappy that a facility the developer had paid to have implemented was being used in ways that were potentially detrimental to the developer’s commercial interests. however, these concerns needed to be weigh against the interests of the residents of kookaburra hollow and their desire for free and unfettered access to the intranet forum. in addition, he had the interests of the body corporate as an entity in itself to protect and he was fearful that as the proprietor of the community intranet, the body corporate could be held liable for anything derogatory presented on the intranet. anthony briggs was ‘shocked’ to discover that after submitting a post he received the following automatic reply: ‘your post has been submitted to one of the administrators for approval’. over the coming weeks, many posters focused their attention on the question of how the intranet should be used and/or controlled. some residents agreed with bill flanders: it may seem like a restriction on free speech, however we as a body corporate must ensure that what is stated on the kookaburra hollow intranet does not cause legal or moral issues in the community. a discussion ensued about how best to implement an intranet approval procedure or ‘a moderator’, and recommendations were proposed on whom to appoint to the task. some residents, however, remained cautious: there is a world of difference between message board moderation and an approvals procedure. moderation ensures that threads are conducted appropriately and that any inflammatory remarks are removed, whereas an approvals procedure smacks of ‘here come the thought police’. last time i checked, i thought i was moving to [kookaburra hollow], not some backward communist state. others were analytical in their assessment of what kinds of messages would be deleted: this then raises the issue that we are taking a stance which results in those who comment unfavorably on their experiences of buying or building on the estate should have their messages deleted. for goodness sake, we don’t live in a nanny state, and it worries me that we will only encourage discussion on matters which some in the community deem to be ‘healthy communications’. if this line is to be pursued, then the issue of what constitutes an unacceptable post is critical. another poster acknowledged wryly: ‘i am sure the developer, council and builders’ view of ‘acceptable’ will differ from that of the residents!’ after several months, review of postings was stopped and residents became free to post on the intranet as they wished. getting connected the “we want broadband” signs in windows campaign by residents, did eventually lead to a positive outcome for the estate. pat weaver and bill flanders were able to convince paul mullins, the regional manager for telstra, that the protests were a public image problem for telstra as well as for the developer. paul returned to telstra with photographs and worked steadily over the following year to negotiate the internal workings of the telstra bureaucracy to get kookaburra hollow moved up the priority list for adsl enablement. however, the result of paul’s work within telstra would not be seen for over a year by kookaburra hollow residents. as these efforts were underway, bill flanders was also pursuing a number of other small telecommunications service providers to provide the infrastructure necessary for broadband access on behalf of the body corporate. cabling the estate was estimated at $2.2 million; a figure neither the developer, nor the body corporate was prepared to pay. wireless infrastructure looked promising, and a few companies surveyed the estate in order to prepare quotes. however, due to the numerous trees on the estate and the lie of the land, building a wireless service that was reliable looked to be too difficult and none were prepared to go forward with a proposal to provide wireless broadband services. however, having a ‘sponsor’ at telstra proved to be crucial in finally getting the infrastructure in place for adsl services to be provide to the estate. as it turned out, much of the infrastructure was already in place. it also turned out that the significant interest in broadband connection amongst residents had not been registered due to problems with internal (to telstra) communications processes. using his position within the organization, paul mullins was able to sort out these difficulties and kookaburra hollow was moved to near the top of the priority list for adsl connection. in a two-stage process, the existing infrastructure on the estate was enabled for operation, and then new equipment was installed. towards the end of 2005, all the residents of kookaburra hollow were able to access adsl services from their homes. analysis four media contributed to the unfolding dispute between residents and their developer, and among the residents themselves. the tables that follow analyze the use and effect of these media in terms of purpose and power of actors and actants within socio-technical assemblages (latour 2005). we have found it useful to distinguish and compare what we have called the domain, register and flow of media and media use. in the typology below, domain denotes the spatiality and range of media and hinges centrally on who is and who is not empowered to send and receive communications, and how these are channeled within and across more or less private and more or less public spheres. register designates the expressive modalities and broad spectrum of possible voices, from affect to effect, from the casual to the calculating. flow refers to a message’s point of initiation and pattern of circulation between communicators and within communications. these dimensions are interdependent, and their interdependence is more or less well understood by actors (though not in the terms we use here). table 1: domain, register and flow across four media domain register flow community intranet local and situated in terms of geography and of purpose. bounded securely – residents only. target pool is all residents. transcends the private to embrace community interests. expression in prose, of theoretically unlimited length, that is expected to be reasonable, rational, logical and polite. circulates through an individual resident. not anonymous. asynchronous. interactive. one to many. sign local and situated in terms of purpose. sited locally, but visited from afar. not bounded. all visitors may see. target pool is prospective buyers, builders, other residents. affective rather than effective. personal. emotive. a family. anonymous by name but not by place. uni-directional (not interactive) asynchronous. one to many. meetings local. spatially bounded. situated. the domain is private in the case of casual conversation. residents only in the case of meetings. the target pool is the participants in the dispute residents, builders and the developer. personal, reflexive, interactive, free-flowing. an individual not anonymous synchronous interactive reflexive, social participatory. television the “world” may view. not bounded. all may see and all are encouraged to see. target pool is “the public”. a “mass market” directed, purposeful, affective and effective, calculating. speaks of public interest. mass broadcast. one to many. synchronous. not interactive. anonymous (in the sense that it speaks “truth”) the signs mediate the ‘signs in the window’ strategy appealed to resident actors by bringing to the public domain what had hitherto been a private matter between individual residents and their builders. shifting the dispute from the private domain to the public domain clearly disadvantaged the builder, for whom public knowledge of the existence of any dispute constitutes a potential commercial harm, regardless of the rights and wrongs of the matter in dispute. but whilst the signs were public, the communicative flow was also quite narrowly targeted at a particular public: potential customers that walked and drove through kookaburra hollow. from the developer’s and builders’ points of view, prospective buyers are at least as important and influential as those who have already bought. the sign-mediated flow of uni-directional and asynchronous communication from anonymous (by name) yet situated (by place) residents to a finite but equally indeterminable public (drivers-by) effectively by-passed the builders and the developer. the shift from the private to the public domain through home-made and displayed signs also constituted a less obvious shift from a contractual or legalistic register, a relative comfort-zone for builders, to an interpersonal register that was much more convivial for residents. homemade signs are associated with personal appeals: to look out for a lost kitten or to attend a child’s school fete. they are not associated with appeals to contract law. moreover, the signs of unhappy faces, exemplified the emotive register in which communication was mediated. personalizing and emotionalizing the register in which the dispute was conducted ‘wrong-footed’ the builders by shifting the grounds upon which the fight occurred, away from the concrete objectivity of a contract and a building, towards the subjectivity of disappointed families. first, by acquiescing to residents’ demands and second, by threatening legal action, the builders eliminated this media and the real economic dangers that negative message in this particular register posed. television mediates if signs brought the dispute into the public domain, the screening of the current affairs segment did so in a way that was not limited to passers-by but open for the viewing of the ‘whole world’. in other words, the domain was relatively unbounded, free for anyone who intended to watch the program or happened to be watching it. the target audience was ‘the public’ and also ‘the mass market’ comprising both television viewers in particular and anyone who may have a direct or indirect interest in housing development and/or purchase. the program had a capacity to affect the builders and the developer at kookaburra hollow, but also these builders and this developer at other sites. indeed, because of the very nature of the relatively unbounded domain of television, the segment had implications for developers, builders and residents everywhere. and because of the register, which is set up around the public interest rather than vested interest, and presents as directed, purposeful, factual and informed, it had the capacity to influence. but like the signs, the register of the segment was also emotive and affective insomuch as it strategically deployed the subjective voices and images of disaffected residents. the register was thus dual-channel, positioned between the emotive and moral indignation of residents and the equally moral yet objective reporting and narrativisation that spoke to more universal truths and sentiments of consumer disempowerment. unlike the signs, which were put up and taken down by residents, the television segment was ‘put up’ by the residents but could not be ‘taken down’ or undone. the flow, although synchronous, was unidirectional and definitive. television took the specific experiences of residents and transformed them into a broadcasted story, but it also took away their experiences and placed them in a domain that was outside the residents’ control. it was not simply the content of the segment that disrupted community solidarity. rather, it was the combination of the domain, the register and the flow that inhered in television and television broadcast that contributed to the generation of certain meanings for residents that, in turn, undermined solidarity. and the media of choice through which this breakdown in solidarity was articulated was the intranet, chosen because of its own particular domain, register and flow. the intranet mediates the intranet did not fulfill the same function as face-to-face communication, telephone communication, private emailing and so on. rather, the intranet had particular strategic functions and characteristics both in its own right and in relation to other forms of mediated and direct communications. first, anthony briggs and the others participating in the dispute regarded the intranet as a ‘really efficient way of keeping in touch so we don’t have to meet every week’. in this sense, the intranet was a key tool through which residents operationalized action against the developer, and against each other. the well-known and often reported characteristics of on-line communication were appreciated. it is cheap (once the infrastructure is in place), it is asynchronous, it offers the opportunity to craft and edit a message, and it supports permanent archiving. while it could be used one to one, or one to many, the domain of the intranet was bounded by ‘the community’; that is, it was exclusive to those who were authorized to use it, and it was supposed to represent their exclusive interests. recognition of the transcendental nature of community interests and of the community intranet was evident in the postings. individuals were explicitly held accountable to the community through the intranet, through public appeal to the community’s shared financial interests in property values, and through public appeals to individuals to act in solidarity as well as in their personal interests. residents posted and acted on the a priori understanding that a community existed at kookaburra hollow – a premise that is not obviously the case given that the estate had so little history, and that many neighbors were unknown to one another. further, this community was recognized to exist in a moral space situated between the state and the market (schofield 2002), in which individual or private interests were not so much erased, but found a complementary and potent expression through joint action. those exerting direct and indirect pressure on the developer understood this approach to be an appeal to self-interest through solidarity as opposed to an appeal for subservience to another’s interests. the residents were also well aware of the peculiar position of the community intranet vis-à-vis the residents and the developer. said one poster, ‘i always knew that [the intranet] was not entirely independent.’ another likened it to ‘a big brother surveillance, and bill flanders is its minder’. for them, this seemed an abuse of the intranet’s underlying purpose which, for one resident, was as ‘a residents’ chat group, not for a builder or a developer to be peeking in’. but the knowledge that the developer was reading the postings (and possibly contributing in anonymous form) was also exploited. the assumption that postings on the community intranet were monitored, led the residents to use the intranet as a kind of back channel to communicate with the developer. the community intranet was a medium established to foster community interaction and community solidarity in ways not related to the dispute. it offered residents a home page for upcoming events and daily reminders; a community newsletter to which residents were encouraged to submit; personal, community and group calendars; message boards divided into topics such as ‘council concerns and issues’, ‘gardening’, and ‘general chat’; a survey function that allowed a member to respond to or create online surveys; a groups function that allowed residents to establish groups and replicate features of the whole intranet package on a smaller scale; a trader’s village that listed local traders and services; a classified section; and local links that provided information and online access to local community resources such as churches, schools, sporting clubs and the like. in some measure, the range of facilities offered over the intranet probably did foster interaction and solidarity, and as those familiar with netville are aware, not less so when the facility, provided by the developer, is used against the developer (hampton 2003). but significantly, this community service spirit that was encoded in the conception of the intranet – of what it was supposed to be about – meant that a particular moral economy underlined intranet use. as such, the community intranet was necessarily a communications space that carried an implicit appeal to ‘truth’. the central importance of ‘truth’, moreover, was bolstered by the tacit presence common to the discursive, extemporizing written form. that is, like all other text, a posting is not a social-participatory act, and lacks the inter-subjectivity and shared experience of orality. text stands independent of its author, and has a life of its own through time and across space. for text in particular, adherence to truth is considered a moral imperative. barthes makes the point this way: wherever there is a concurrence of spoken and written words, to write means in a certain manner: i think better, more firmly; i think less for you, i think more for the ‘truth’ (quoted in lotfalian 1996). truth, as it was mediated through the intranet, owed a fundamental allegiance to the register of fact over feeling. whilst the ‘fact’ of a detrimental impact on land values was the issue that critics of the strategy seized upon, we suspect from the ‘emotional tone’ of the postings (embedded in the moral injunctions, the lexicon, the use of capitals and in the punctuation!!!) that the television broadcast was seen by some residents as a personal humiliation. in this instance, their choice to buy a block of land and build a new house was not just a matter of financial significance; arguably, their choice also circulated around questions of social identity, of who they were, or what they had achieved and what they valued. a public critique of their chosen home could well have been perceived and indeed painfully ‘felt’ as a public critique of oneself, of the humiliation at being ‘sucked in’ to what was now plainly and publicly a ‘dodgy development’. as jacob macpherson revealed when interviewed: it was the whingers’6way out [to contact broadcast journalists]. but it made me angry. i don’t want one person to be making generalized claims about a developer that reflect on me, reflect on my experience... i just thought these guys were stupid… what do you want to do? give the estate a bad name? devalue your house? or resolve it yourself? if i couldn’t get it resolved, i wouldn’t be going and telling the world about it. but the domain, register and flow of text in general, and intranet postings in particular, make these emotive and subjective responses to public criticism inappropriate. instead critique is translated into dispassionate arguments about money and return on investment. the intranet calls upon people to transcend personal or vested interest, to speak for community interest, and to express objective interests, not passions, desires and emotions. individual interests remain a subtext, only visited by way of community interest. instrumental concerns about property values and the reputation of the estate were laden with affective subtext, such as; ‘i don’t want to be made to look a failure in the eyes of the world for having bought into this estate.’ an intranet posting thus occupies a less personal register than face-to face-interactions, and postings that were not consistent with the transcendent, reasoned register of the intranet angered jill and jacob macpherson. for them, the use of the intranet to make public an individual dispute, a personal dispute, was to occupy ‘a coward’s castle’ and was ‘taking a cheap shot’. jacob macpherson judged them harshly: it is unfortunate that people who couldn’t deal with their own problems would resort to this mechanism. i would never have done it. if i got a problem with the builder i would sort it out myself, one way or another. i still wouldn’t go and tell everybody that i had a bodgy house. maybe with the intranet people shoot from the hip before they draw the gun. jacob and jill macpherson could provide many examples of legitimate intranet use—announcing a lost cat, alerting other residents to local thieves, discussing issues concerning the maintenance of the local lake, and promoting debate about whether the estate should fall within the limits of one or another council. jill in particular was a regular reader and poster. but for them, problems with builders were a private matter, and had no rightful place on the intranet, or on television. the domain was inappropriate. indeed, jacob macpherson likened raising issues of build-quality on the intranet to slandering one’s spouse on the intranet: both were private concerns not suitable for the community or public domain. meetings mediate as one would expect where a community intranet overlays a residential community, the intranet was not a closed semiotic space, and face-to-face interaction interweaved with electronic communication. our informants regarded organized meetings of residents such as body corporate meetings and the casual meetings that occurred in people’s homes as important. unlike the other forms of communication, this face-to-face interaction operated within a local and spatially closed and private domain. the register was personal, interpersonal and interactive, and the flow was synchronous, reflexive and participatory, all of which makes face-to-face communication different from the other media. anthony was concerned that his postings did not lead to the perception that he was a ‘crazy performer just seeking attention’. given that they were all part of the same residential community, and not just interacting on-line or for a single purpose, it was very important to the briggs what sort of general perception others held of them. anthony used the intranet to expressly assert his reasonableness and rationality, but this in itself is not sufficient. compared with text, the domain, flow and register of face-to-face interactions were regarded by our informants as providing more reliable indicators of one’s position on the spectrum between “reasonable” and “crazy”. katie sums it up, ‘they saw anthony as an out-of-control performer, but that perception could be changed by face-to-face interaction’. the domain, flow and register of face-to-face interaction is also regarded by our informants as being important in the process of moving towards consensus and decision making. anthony wrote: i don’t know what the feeling will be on saturday morning at the meeting at the country club. i hope that a regular session is generated so that all owner-residents can express their views openly. i believe this to be in the community’s interest. if such a forum had existed since day one, then either these issues would not have festered, or alternatively, the community would have formed the view about whether to go to the media, as one. this is the sort of thing that happens when there is no consultation. if people don’t want this sort of thing to happen again, i strongly recommend a regular community forum. informal meetings of neighbors were crucial. for anthony: ‘that is where you have real leverage, there’s two way communication, it’s effective, and you can be persuasive’. in retrospect, anthony considered that his ‘preferred way of doing it would have been to go round and knock on a lot more doors and do it face-to-face as well as encourage a discussion on the intranet’. for anthony, notwithstanding the effects and effectiveness of signs, intranet and television, the experience had only confirmed that there was no substitute for personal interaction. in making decisions like this the actors knowingly managed the domain, register and flow of media, and did so with a view to influencing, controlling, negotiating or contesting how people and events were perceived, who should be granted access to or have knowledge of people, events and circumstances, and how and whether people, events and circumstances should be represented. between the media, the circumstances, and all the actors involved, a veritable labyrinth of possibilities presented themselves and were pursued or closed off in the course of the community action. by way of concluding the analysis, we present some of the openings and foreclosures. conclusion in our analysis, the key factors that shape these socio-technologies as mediators are that they act in different domains, act in different registers, and support different flows. the participants in this dispute used media with awareness of domain, register and flow, and with greater or lesser awareness of interpersonal, emotive, affective, moral, political and legalistic implications. given both this general awareness of media and the possibilities and constraints that are perceived and executed in relation to them, actors speak, write and act with effect and affect. effect and affect, as mobilized by actors and mediated by media, are distributed unevenly in accordance with the domain, register and flow associated with the media. in describing the media strategies employed to prosecute the dispute, and the responses to those strategies, we argue that they do not faithfully and transparently reproduce the intentions of the residents through straightforward communicative action, without at the same time modifying that action and transforming its effect. the consequences of communicative action are therefore both intended and unintended. purpose and power were issues of contention in all forms of mediating socio-technologies discussed here, but they became particularly salient, controversial and contested in relation to television and the intranet. in the opinion of some residents, the domain, register and flow of television made it a particularly inappropriate media, and even those who instigated and participated accept that there were unintended consequences. on the other hand, the move to this vastly larger domain did capture the attention of the developer. as the use of the intranet was a vehicle for the prosecution of the dispute as well as a subject of dispute, the kookaburra hollow case reveals some curious ironies. the intranet’s flow is interpersonal. postings are not anonymous, postings are often directed at specifically named others, and relationships often extend beyond the intranet to all sorts of other interpersonal interactions that neighbors might engage in. even where this is not the case, the latent capacity remains significant and residents are mindful of that. but the intranet’s register is transcendent of interpersonal interactions in so much as the space is communal, and is premised on the existence of interests that transcend individual interests, and are held in common. this transcendental purpose would appear to have universal, if tacit, acceptance. the purpose is to provide a public good for the public good. this tension between the interpersonal flow on the one hand, and the community domain and transcendental register on the other, gives rise to the conflict over purpose and the exercise of power recounted here. references arnold, m., m. gibbs, et al. (2003). intranets and the creation of local community: 'yes, an intranet is all very well, but do we still get free beer and a barbeque?' communities and technologies. m. huysman, e. wenger and v. wulf; kluwer. dordrecht, kluwer academic publishers. berg, m. (1998). "the politics of technology: on bringing social theory into technological design science." technology and human values 23(4): 456-490. castells, m. (1996). the rise of the network society. cambridge, ma, blackwell publishers. hampton, k. n. (2003). "grieving for a lost network: collective action in a wired suburb." the information society 19(5): 417 428. latour, b. (2005). reassembling the social: an introduction to actor-network-theory. oxford ; new york, oxford university press. lotfalian, m. (1996). a tale of an electronic community. connected. engagements with media. g. marcuj. chicago, university of chicago press: 117-154. meredyth, d., s. ewing, et al. (2004). "neighbourhood renewal and government by community: the atherton gardens network." the international journal of cultural policy 10(1): 85-101. schofield, b. (2002). "partners in power: governing the self-sustaining community." sociology 36(3): 663-683. w in the interests of privacy the name of the development, the developer, building companies and all participants have been altered. 1 the body corporate occupies a central position in the power and politics of the dispute, it is a conflicted position in respect of decision making, being at once a resident’s representative body, and an organ of the developer. it is representative in so much as all members are themselves residents and are the elected representatives of residents, with the exceptions of the body corporate manager and co-opted members. it is not an instrument of representative democracy though, and if push comes to shove the residents can be out-voted by the developer, who holds all the votes allocated to unsold blocks of land, and holds a right of veto on all decisions until the last block of land is sold – an event not planned to occur for some years to come. 2 telstra is australia’s largest telecommunications utility company and has primary responsibility for providing telecommunications infrastructure. . unless otherwise stated, all quotes are from residents and are derived from transcripts of intranet postings, or from videotaped interviews with residents. original emphasis, spelling and grammar have been retained throughout 3 unless otherwise stated, all quotes are from residents and are derived from transcripts of intranet postings, or from videotaped interviews with residents. original emphasis, spelling and grammar have been retained throughout .the programming details in this posting have been changed to maintain the anonymity of those involved. 4 the programming details in this posting have been changed to maintain the anonymity of those involved. gthe posting is curious because anonymous postings are not permitted. the intranet software requires that the names of all posters be registered, registration is limited to residents, and the names of posters are automatically appended to each posting. 5 the posting is curious because anonymous postings are not permitted. the intranet software requires that the names of all posters be registered, registration is limited to residents, and the names of posters are automatically appended to each posting. 6 whinger: australian colloquialism for a person who complains excessively. factors influencing information delivery technology choice by women in deprived regions in ghana olivia kwapong harvard university / university of ghana okwapong@ug.edu.gh abstract using a contingent valuation (cv) method to quantitatively estimate the influence of selected socio-economic factors on households’ willingness to pay for alternative information delivery technologies, the study intended to provide basic information regarding rural households’ willingness to pay for information delivery technologies. this study used rural household survey data collected from three administrative regions in ghana to examine rural women’s willingness to pay for information delivered via three technologies – community radio, private radio, and extension agents. the primary objective of the study was to identify the critical factors to consider in planning and policy design in using ict to provide information to empower rural women. while there were nontrivial regional variations, the overall results from this study point to household expenditures (used as proxy for income), household education, and membership in community organizations as the principal factors influencing rural women’s willingness to pay for the various technologies used in information delivery to women in rural areas in ghana. the overriding conclusion that emerged from this study was the need to examine ict use in empowering rural women within a ‘holistic’ context. introduction there is broad consensus that ict could play an important role to make development effective on a large scale for disadvantaged people. as pointed out by the un secretary-general kofi annan, “over the last few years, a wide consensus has emerged on the potential of information and communications technologies (ict) to promote economic growth, combat poverty, and facilitate the integration of developing countries into the global economy. seizing the opportunities of the digital revolution is one of the most pressing challenges we face” (annan, 2002). ghana has responded to the ict challenge. in 2003, ghana announced the ghana integrated ict for accelerated development (ict4ad) policy, which summarized the vision of ghana in the information age. while the policy outlines a broad array of objectives, it is clear that the core of the policy is to use ict to achieve ghana’s vision of becoming a middle-income country by the year 2020. despite the wide recognition of the role of ict in national development, the development of a successful ict program to accelerate empowerment of women in ghana is beset by several institutional, technical, political, economic and social problems. probably the most daunting task facing policy makers in ghana is making ict available to the poorest population segments in the face of tight government budgets. ict policies and programs are expensive to design and implement. resources are needed for infrastructure and operational purposes. given the pressure on the government’s budget, it may be necessary to solicit contributions from rural households, a rather difficult proposition given household income levels in the poorest rural areas. furthermore ict use depends on the socio-economic characteristics of rural households. yet the ongoing policy debate concerning ict in empowering rural households seems tilted to the belief that all ghana needs is to make ict available and rural households will jump at the opportunity. a credible and sustainable ict policy to empower women in rural ghana should consider the socio-economic characteristics of households, including a determination of their willingness to pay for alternative ict technologies. this study uses a contingent valuation (cv) method to quantitatively estimate the influence of selected socio-economic factors on households’ willingness to pay for alternative information delivery technologies. cv methods have been applied to several public goods valuations in developing countries. for example, thobani (1983) and tan et. al. (1984) used the approach to study payments for education services; boadu (1993) for rural water supply and haba (2004) for rural information services. even though the method does not answer several important questions including ability to pay and equity concerns, it has been widely regarded as a useful tool to help planners gain some understanding in establishing basic financing guidelines in the provision of public goods. this study is intended to provide basic information regarding rural female households’ willingness to pay for information delivery technologies. study areas and research procedures the basic document summarizing the state of poverty in ghana, identifying strategies to defeat poverty, targets, constraints, and projections is the ghana poverty reduction strategy paper (gprs, 2003). according to the gprs, five out of ten regions had more than 40% of their population living in poverty in 1999. the three northern regions (upper east, upper west and northern regions) are the hardest hit with nine out of ten people in the upper east; eight out of ten people in the upper west, and seven out of ten people in the northern regions classified as poor in 1999 (gprs 2003: ii). this study is based on survey data from the three northern regions in ghana. in addition to being the hardest hit poverty areas, there is a general lack of communication infrastructure and low economic activity. the data used in this study was based on a contingent valuation survey instrument developed by the author and administered in several villages in ghana . the survey was divided into two main parts. the first part sought information on basic characteristics of households (age, education, dependents, occupation, expenditures, and membership in community organizations). the second part consisted of a bidding game for alternative information delivery technologies. three main information delivery technologies were considered – community radio, private radio, and extension agents who use printed materials to disseminate information. the main distinguishing feature of these technologies was price. the use of radio in rural communication is very common in sub-sahara africa (ssa). the proposed framework considers radio technology as a key information delivery instrument given its popularity. ghana has one of the highest radio ownership rates in ssa (710 per 1,000 people in 2002) compared to an ownership rate of 198 per 1,000 people in the rest of ssa, and 139 per 1,000 people for all low income countries. ghana’s ownership rate represents about a 207 percent increase over a 7-year period, 1995-2002 (world bank, 2003). following the approach used in several studies, information dissemination through the radio is considered in two contexts private radio and community radio (boadu, 1993; haba, 2004; abbey-mensah, 2001). there are good reasons to consider radio use in these two contexts. governments and donors who usually fund the rural education programs may want to reduce the cost of information dissemination by increasing the number of radio listeners usually in a group format. in the group format, the amount of contribution to be made by information recipients is correspondingly reduced. the reduced cost make households more willing to pay for the information that is disseminated through the community radio format. an added benefit of a community radio format is the opportunity for listeners to interact and react to information received taking into account the views and opinions of other receivers of information. this interaction enriches the learning process and may be preferred by households. on the other hand, there may be some rural households that prefer their own private radio to receive information. it is plausible that younger and educated females may want to have the freedom to listen to other radio programs (for example, broadcasts in english), and therefore will be more willing to pay for their own radio instead of paying for a community radio. it is also very likely that educated rural dwellers have higher incomes since they may draw income from both farm and non-farm sources. in this context, they will be in a position to pay for their own radio sets to receive information. in terms of print media to be distributed by extension agents, the focus of the study is on extension bulletins and adult education publications. the extension and adult education publications are assumed to be part of a person-to-person information delivery protocol. information through the print media is delivered by extension agents. there is no consideration of newspapers given the currently low level of newspaper circulation in the region, about 14 per 1000 population in 2001 compared to about 40 per 1000 population for low-income countries for the same period (world bank, 2003). the preceding suggests that the study considers information delivery by community radio to be the cheapest since several households contribute to the purchase and maintenance of the system. extension agents are considered the next cheapest of the three technologies considered because the government pays these agents. the idea is to explore the extent to which a part of the cost of extension information delivery could be shifted to households and lessen the burden on government. the most expensive delivery technology is the private radio since a household owns it individually and pays the full amount for it. bidding took the form of a series of specific questions. for example, a respondent was asked whether she would be willing to pay ¢1,000 (one thousand ghana cedis, approximately us$ 0.10) per year to use a community radio. if ‘yes’ the question was posed again with an increase in the amount to ¢2,000 (approximately us$0.20). the process continued until there a ‘no’ answer was given. the final amount to which the respondent answered ‘yes’ was recorded as the maximum the individual was willing to pay to have the community radio installed in the village. for extension agents, the beginning bid was at ¢5,000 (approximately us$0.50), while for private radios, the beginning point was ¢10,000 (approximately us$1.00). respondents were also given the opportunity to state an amount they would be willing to pay for each of the information delivery technologies. field data was collected with the assistance of regional officers of the local institute of adult education. these officers are located in the regional centers of the institute, which is established in all the ten regions of ghana and are constantly engaged in community programs with the local people. these field officers were recruited for this survey because they are in partnership with the community members and over time they have won the confidence and trust of the rural households. they have established mutual working relationship with the women in the local communities. they also have good knowledge of the regional demographics and are able to communicate in the language that the people understand. their accumulated community research and training experience, residence in the regions and effort helped ensure a rapid field data collection. data was collected in a face-to-face interview where the interviewer had the opportunity to explain the purpose of the survey and the need to obtain truthful responses from the respondents. based on their familiarity with the communities, experiences and training the interviewers understood the need to conduct the interview in a manner that did not impair the integrity of the effort. as a strategy, they interviewed the female household head in every other house. respondents were also cautioned not to discuss their responses with other households. there was broad agreement among field staff that respondents took the process seriously and were willing to offer truthful information to assist in achieving the objectives of the survey. table 1 lists the means of selected independent variables used in the study and also the mean bids for private radio, community radio, and extension service information agents. the table also presents mean measures for selected variables based on the ghana living standards survey 4 (glss, 2000). table 1. means of independent variables compared to means from glss 4 household bids in ghana cedis region extension information community radio private radio no. of dependents expenditure survey expenditure glss 4 western 6182 3535.5 10404 2.79 5,0525,25 4,677,000 central 10180 3886 22450 3.74 5,153,510 2,977,000 gt. accra 10202 3656 21162 2.83 11,495,487 6,777,000 volta 7320 5200 11190 2.39 6,134,540 4,000,000 eastern 8909 4868 22696 3.33 8,549,222 3,736,000 ashanti 8480 3360 22300 3.61 11054650 5,008,000 b. ahafo 10030 3730 24305 1.77 4,180,710 3,544,000 northern 9520 3400 21069 4.43 3,335,400 2,837,000 upp. west 9980 3830 26200 5.67 2,070,160 2,462,000 upp. east 8595 3141 21262 3.04 4,059,460 1,793,000 consistent with expectations, mean bids for private radio is highest, followed by mean bids for extension information, followed by community radio. the means are sufficiently credible to provide a reasonable basis for the survey data analysis. model and statistical estimation a multiple linear regression relationship was assumed between the dependent variable and the independent variables. the following factors were hypothesized to influence a household’s willingness to pay for a selected technology: 1. income: it is difficult to predict the effect of income on the willingness to pay for ict in rural households. generally, a positive relationship between income and the willingness to pay for ict is expected. households with high incomes tend to spend a smaller proportion of income on food while poorer households spend a higher proportion of income on food. thus, one would expect the effect of income on ict choice to be positive in the relatively richer regions. furthermore, one would expect households with high incomes to use private radios instead of community radios in receiving information. one could argue that even though poorer households spend a higher proportion of income on food, their interest in obtaining information to ‘kick’ out poverty may encourage them to be willing to pay for ict information. in practice though, there are no statistically significant differences in households’ willingness to pay across regions. in this sense, it is difficult to predict the exact sign (positive or negative) on the income variable, and the issue is left to empirical determination. an indirect approach was used to obtain measures of income from rural households. households were asked to list their major sources of income, and then inquired about their expenditure patterns. this was done due to the difficulty in obtaining direct income figures from households and also to capture the effect of transfers. these expenditure amounts were used as proxies for income. rural savings is very low. the glss found that only about 13% of rural dwellers maintained any savings account so the expenditure figures are a plausible measure of the household financial situation in a given year. indeed studies of willingness to pay for amenities in rural households have found direct rural income measures to be unreliable and have resorted to proxies to estimate income (boadu, 1993). 2. education: rural females have lower school attendance rates across all regions with the lowest rates recorded in the three northern regions (northern, upper west and upper east). generally, it is hypothesized that educated households will be willing to pay for any ict media given the premium on information in decision making. while an illiterate household naturally would depend on the radio and extension visits for information, a literate household has the additional source of information delivered through extension bulletins, and other printed sources. 3. age: it is hypothesized that older households will be more willing to pay for community radio systems and extension visits. there are good reasons for this expectation. first, older households are likely to belong to community organizations and hence more comfortable with sharing the media. on the other hand, a young household is also likely to be less involved in community organizations, and may be more willing to pay for their own private radio system. 4. marital status: the combined income effect of married couples is likely to encourage their willingness to pay for private radio information delivery technology. oftentimes community organization activities are organized along gender lines and there is not much joint community activities between men and women. thus, information delivery via community radio or extension services would be less attractive to married households. a plausible hypothesis is that married households will be more likely to pay for private radio, and are unlikely to pay for extension information or community radio. 5. household size: the household is defined to include all persons who are under the direct responsibility of the female respondent. at a given income level, large households are less likely to pay for private radios given the cost of these radios. thus, large households will be more willing to pay for community radios and extension services, while small households are more likely to be willing to pay for private radios. 6. membership in community organizations: it is hypothesized that households that belong to a community organization will be willing to pay for information delivered via community radio. community radio is cheaper than a private radio and more importantly, these households have cultivated the spirit of sharing through their membership in an organization. table 2 shows that rural households make more contribution to community initiatives than do urban households. by analogy, it is hypothesized that households in the more deprived areas, especially in the northern regions will be more willing to pay for community radio and extension services compared to those rural communities located near the urbanized regions in ghana such as accra, kumasi (ashanti), takoradi (western), and cape coast (central). table 2. miscellaneous expenditures by urban and rural households purpose of expenditure mean household expenditure estimated total miscellaneous expenditure urban rural all (cedis) (billion cedis) taxes (tv license, property tax etc.) 3,700 1,300 2,200 8.8 contributions to self-help projects 9,500 10,200 9,900 40.4 weddings, dowry, funeral, etc. 91,900 62,900 73,500 298.9 gifts and presents (excluding remittances) 36,700 28,900 31,800 129.3 other miscellaneous expenditures 21,500 12,500 15,800 64.3 total 163,300 115,800 133,200 541.7 source: glss 4 (table 9. 27) the estimated multiple linear regression equation of the relationship between a household’s willingness to pay for a selected information delivery technology and the socio-economic characteristics of the households in each region is as follows: 1. (wtp)ijt = a0 + a1 (age) + a2 (educ) + a3 (mars) + a4 (depend) + a5 (expend) + a6 (membr) + ui, where (wtp)ijt is the willingness to pay by a household (i) in region (j) for information delivery technology (t), age is age of respondent measured in years, and educ is the educational level of respondent. the educational level was further broken down into two main levels of up to primary and above primary to reflect the low educational levels of women in rural households. mars is the marital status of the respondent, and was measured using a dummy variable equal to 1 if respondent is married, and zero otherwise. depend is the number of the dependents of respondent, expend is the aggregate of all expenditures reported by the respondent measured in ghana cedis, and membr is the membership of the respondent in a community organization. membership was measured as a dummy variable, equal to 1 if the respondent belonged to a community organization and zero if otherwise. the term u is a random error term assumed n(0, σ2). results equation 1 was estimated for each of the three regions and the possible media of information transmission using the newey-west estimator. this estimation technique helps to address one of the common problems when one uses cross-sectional data. the socio-economic characteristics of households differ in important ways so unless the statistical procedure takes into account these variations; the estimated coefficients may not be efficient due to problems of heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation. the newey-west estimation procedure takes into account the problems in using cross-section data to give consistent and efficient estimates. the results of the estimation procedures are presented below. upper west region table 3a summarizes the effect of the selected factors on households’ willingness to pay for information delivered via community radio in the upper west region of ghana. the overall explanatory power of the model as measured by the r-square (coefficient of determination) is low (12%). generally, r-squares obtained using cross-sectional data in statistical analysis tend to be low. the results show that older women (above 20 years) are willing to pay for information delivered via a community radio. this result is statistically significant at the 5% level. the results also show that women with more education (above primary level) are more willing to pay for information delivered via community radio. this result is also statistically significant at the 5% level. these outcomes are supported by the statistically significant (5% level) relationship between membership in a community organization and the willingness to pay for information delivered via a community radio. table 3b summarizes the results for households’ willingness to pay for information via private radio. as in the case of the community radio, the overall explanatory power of the regression is low (11%) but the expected signs on coefficients are as expected. using expenditure as an income proxy, the results show that women with high incomes are more willing to pay for information delivered via private radio and the result is significant at the 5% level. membership in community organization is also statistically significant at the 10% level. as expected, women with a large number of dependents are not willing to pay for private radios. this is indicated by the negative sign on the coefficient even though the result is only mildly significant at the 10% level. table 3c summarizes the results for the willingness to pay for information delivered via an extension agent. the results are generally consistent with expectations. women with more education are more willing to pay for information delivered via extension services. this result is statistically significant at the 5% level. in addition membership in a community organization is statistically significant, also at the 5% level. the overall conclusion one can draw is that education and membership in a community organization are important factors in explaining rural women’s willingness to pay for information delivered via community radio and extension agents while, income is a critical factor in influencing willingness to pay for private radio. table 3a regression results for households’ willingness to pay for community radio upper west region variable coefficient t-statistic constant 3613.51 2.54 age [above 20] 2025.88 2.44 married 340.65 0.31 dependants -104.32 -0.76 educ. [above primary] 3279.19 4.14 expenditure -0.00 -1.42 membership 4089.84 3.92 r-squared 0.12 n = 100 source: survey data, 2005 table 3b regression results for households’ willingness to pay for private radio upper west region variable coefficient t-statistic constant 13459.55 1.96 age [above 20] -10601.27 -1.55 married 6814.89 1.39 dependants -631.28 -1.52 educ. [above primary] -1709.22 -0.76 expenditure 0.01 2.16 membership 13384.25 1.92 r-squared 0.11 n = 100 source: survey data, 2005 table 3c regression results for households willingness to pay for extension agent upper west region variable coefficient t-statistic constant 7219.27 6.98 age [above 20] 1021.40 1.19 married -100.99 -0.16 dependants -91.24 -1.23 educ. [above primary] 1189.61 3.53 expenditure -0.00 -0.97 membership 3225.93 3.42 r-squared 0.16 n = 100 source: survey data, 2005 upper east region the overall explanatory power of the regression for the upper east region is low as as compared to the case of the upper west region (cf. tables 4a, 4b, and 4c). the highest r-square is 19%. here also, there are no major surprises given that cross-sectional data is being used in the regressions. there seems to be a consistent pattern in the results for this region in the sense that income seems to be the driving factor for the willingness to pay for information delivered via the three technologies under consideration in this paper. in all cases income is statistically significant at the 5% level. the results also show that as expected, women with a large number of dependents are less likely to pay for information technologies. the theoretical exploration suggested that large households spend more on food and the basic necessities of life, especially health and shelter. it is not surprising that in all the technologies examined, there is a negative relationship between the number of dependents and households’ willingness to pay for information. in all cases the estimated coefficient is significant at the 10% level. table 4a regression results for households willingness to pay for community radio upper east region variable coefficient t-statistic constant 2644.48 5.60 age [above 20] 597.10 1.67 marital status -51.419 -0.17 no. of dependents -159.88 -3.01 educ [up to primary] -339.16 -1.04 educ.[above primary] -188.24 -0.67 expenditure 0.000012 2.66 membership 257.79 0.99 r-squared 0.16 (n) = 100 source: survey data, 2005 table 4b regression results for households willingness to pay for private radio upper east region variable coefficient t-statistic constant 11718.43 2.87 age [up to 20] 1203.67 0.46 age [above 20] 2738.82 0.97 marital status 1422.34 0.52 no. of dependants -763.68 -1.94 educ. [above primary] 2107.70 0.76 expenditure 0.0014 2.96 membership 3785.22 1.58 r-squared 0.19 n = 100 source: survey data, 2005 table 4c regression results for households willingness to pay for extension agent upper east region variable coefficient t-statistic constant 5633.82 3.82 age [above 20] 1910.57 1.66 married -184.53 -0.20 dependants -266.84 -1.84 educ. [up to primary] -604.51 -0.61 educ. [above primary] 66.42 0.07 expenditure 0.00042 2.95 membership 1180.72 1.73 r-squared 0.18 n = 100 source: survey data, 2005 northern region the summary of regression results for the northern region of ghana is shown in tables 5a, 5b, and 5c. as in the case of the other regions, the explanatory power of the model is quite low, between 7% and 17%. the signs and statistical significance of most of the factors are not consistent with expectations. probably the strongest factor is membership in a community organization which is statistically significant and consistent with expectations in the case of women’s willingness to pay for information delivered via community radio. table 5a shows that married women are not willing to pay for information delivered via community radio. there could be several reasons explaining this result, the most plausible being the cost of maintaining a two-person versus one-person household. consistent with expectation, the results show that women who are members of a community organization are willing to pay for information delivered via community radio (table 5a). the results show that younger women (up to age 20) are willing to pay for information delivered via private radio. the estimated coefficient is significant at the 5% level (table 5b). this same group of younger women are not willing to pay for information delivered via an extension agent, an outcome that is statistically significant at the 10% level (table 5c). women who have been educated above primary school education are willing to pay for information delivered by an extension agent, an outcome that is statistically significant at the 5% level (table 5c). table 5a: regression results for households willingness to pay for community radio northern region variable coefficient t-statistic constant 3653.83 15.48 age [up to 20] -320.01 -1.13 age [above 20] -24.78 -0.18 married -567.79 -3.26 dependants -49.76 -0.87 education [above primary] -556.64 -1.48 expenditure 4.61e-05 0.85 membership 510.81 2.17 r-squared 0.14 n = 100 source: survey data, 2005 table 5b regression results for households willingness to pay for private radio northern region variable coefficient t-statistic constant 22601.71 9.23 age[up to 20] 5275.66 2.82 age [above 20] -49.36 -0.045 married 1858.81 1.16 dependants 126.23 0.49 educ. [above primary] 1468.45 0.85 expenditure 0.00047 1.83 membership 906.08 0.68 r-squared 0.076 n = 100 source: survey data, 2005 table 5c: regression results for households willingness to pay for extension agent northern region variable coefficient t-statistic constant 6140.82 7.89 age [up to 20] -2376.81 -1.99 age [above 20] 4.65 0.0082 married -0.25 -0.00038 dependants 78.27 0.86 educ. [above primary] 5038.58 2.19 expenditure -8.85e-05 -1.44 membership 600.94 1.38 r-squared 0.17 n = 100 source: survey data, 2005 conclusion this study used rural household survey data collected from three administrative regions in ghana to examine rural women’s willingness to pay for information delivered via three technologies – community radio, private radio, and extension agents. the primary objective in the study was to identify the critical factors to consider in planning and policy design in using ict to provide information to empower rural women. while there were nontrivial regional variations, the overall results from this study point to household expenditures (used as proxy for income), household education, and membership in community organizations as the principal factors influencing rural women’s willingness to pay for the various technologies used in information delivery to women in rural areas in ghana. the overriding conclusion that emerges from this study is the need to examine ict use in empowering rural women within a ‘holistic’ context. no single socio-economic factor emerged as the ‘magic bullet’ in planning policies and programmes to introduce ict use in information delivery to rural women. likewise, no single information delivery technology emerged as the technology to use in delivering information to rural women. despite the lack of consistency in the regression results, several important policy and planning options are suggested by the results of this study. because of the significance of income in ict use in rural empowerment, there is a need to cast rural empowerment policies and programs within the broader poverty reduction policies of the government and also within the attainment of the millennium development goals (mdgs). if the government intends to focus on the attainment of the mdgs, then the education factor and the importance of community cohesiveness become more critical as shown by the statistical results. focusing particularly on the income factor, there are at least two important issues to address. first, the relationship between ict use and income must be seen as bi-directional. while high incomes make it possible for rural women to pay for the information delivery technology of choice, the delivered information, in turn, is intended to empower women to be able to make those decisions that would improve their welfare and incomes. a second implication of the statistical significance of the income factor is the need to broaden policies to enhance the many possible sources of income available to rural women. even though the popular view has been to focus on agriculture as the primary source of raising incomes of rural women, the survey results point to a need to broaden the scope of an income policy in rural areas to tap into non-agricultural sources. references abbey-mensah, e. (2001). expert consultation on rural women and distance learning: regional strategies. retrieved november 12, 2004 from http://www.fao.org/sd/2003/pe12033a_en.htm http://www.fao.org/sd/ruralradio/en/index.html anan, k. (2002). un general assembly report. retrieved december 14, 2004 from http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n02/516/01/pdf/n0251601.pdf?openelement; http://www.un.org/ga/57/document.htm boadu, f.o. (1993). contingent valuation for household water in rural ghana. journal of economics, 43(3). glss 4 (2000). ghana living standards survey: report of the fourth round, ghana statistical service, accra. gprs (2003, february 4). ghana poverty reduction strategy 2003 -2005 an agenda for growth and prosperity. retrieved september 16, 2004 from http://poverty.worldbank.org/files/ghana_prsp.pdf haba, s. (2004). factors influencing the willingnes to pay for agricultural information delivery technologies by small agribusinesses: evidence from the abahuzamugambi coffee growers’ cooperative of marababutare, rwanda. unpublished masters’ dissertation, texas a&m university, texas. kwapong, o. a. t. f. (2005). the use of icts for empowerment of rural women in ghana. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of ghana, accra. tan, j., lee, k.h., & mingat, a. (1984). user charges for education: the ability and willingness to pay in malawi. staff working paper 661, washington, d.c: the world bank. thobani, m. (1983). efficiency and equity implications of user charges in social sector service: the financing of education in malawi. staff working paper 572, washington, d.c: the world bank. world bank (2003). development data group. retrieved may 11, 2004 from http://devdata.worldbank.org/ the concept of community and the character of networks1 michael arnold dept. of history and philosophy of science, university of melbourne, australia mvarnold@unimelb.edu.au abstract many case studies have examined community networks and we have at hand a good many rich and well grounded accounts of local experiences and outcomes as they have been observed in local circumstances. this sort of detailed, highly contextualized empirical work is essential to an understanding of contingent phenomena such as the performance of a community network. what we also need though, are theoretical approaches that are abstract enough to interpret the character and performance of differently situated community networks. the concept of community, the character of networks, and the implications of marrying the two, need to be teased out. to this end, i suggest that community networks be understood analytically as a-modern hybrids that derive their ontological characteristics from a conflation of binaries. from this analytic perspective the community network is seen to be a sociotechnical assemblage that hybridizes the social and the technical, and not a set of technologies brought to bear on the social. the innovative feature of this particular form of sociotechnical assemblage, from an analytic point of view, is that it brings together “community” and “network” as both ontological concepts and as empirically observable phenomenon. the characterization of the assemblage as a “community” but also as a “network” is thus critiqued, and the differences between these two abstractions are explored; and it is further argued, that the contrary ontology of the particular assemblage, manifest structures that are at once heterarchic as well as hierarchic. the overarching purpose here is to address two problems: the neglect of theory and of abstractions in current ethnographic approaches, and the concomitant desire to develop theory and abstractions that are sensitive to the local and contingent nature of community networks. it is argued that an a-modern approach fits both requirements in so far as it identifies key abstractions as binaries, and embraces the coexistence of these binaries rather than arbitrating between them..   introduction a geographically based community network will typically enable the residents of a particular locale to communicate with one another; organize in groups both traditional and novel; access on-line government and council services; participate in educational groups and cooperatives; create multimedia content; publish personal and local community content; participate in local e-commerce; share informational resources with other groups and communities; develop it skills, and engage in all sorts of other activities. in short, community networks appropriate icts, and configure them for use by communities. though the technology is less than a decade old, hundreds of geographically based community networks are operating in north america, scores are operating in europe, and several are operating in australia. whilst community networks have typically been installed through the collaborative efforts of community organizations, resident groups, local government authorities, corporate sponsors, university based research groups, and welfare and educational agencies, in a more recent trend towards commercialization, property developers are also installing community networks in new urban development sites in the united states, australia and other places. in my country, australia, for example, property developers such as the stonehenge group, urban pacific, delfin, the docklands authority, and lend lease, have installed community networks in both “green-field” and high-rise housing developments. the commercial rationale may be described as modernist in so much as it seeks the commodification of community as one response to ‘the information society’, and the not-for-profit rationale may be described as modernist in so much as it seeks to shape the subject (a la foucault) into a form of self-governing communitarianism, and engineer the self-governing community as a “progressive” project. the rationale for building these facilities (in the case of the not-for-profit sector), and for selling them (in the case of the commercial sector), therefore brings together a mix of romantic communitarianism and modernist techno-utopianism, all given new energy by the contested but near universally accepted imperatives for survival and prosperity that gather under the headings “information society” and “knowledge economy” (see fig. 1). the techno-utopian and communitarian threads in the community network rationale are clear, and draw upon discourses that emphasize the role of technologies in securing a range of public goods. whilst the great technologies of a previous era provided communities with piped water, sewerage systems, electrification and transport, so the technologies of the “information society” are providing an infrastructure for the public good. a glance through the community network literature will provide references to the role of contemporary technologies in establishing and maintaining bridging and bonding ties, learning communities, communities of practice, local and global connectedness, systems of trust, wider access to education and to employment opportunities, ameliorating the digital divide, facilitating civic engagement and social participation, and providing more efficient access to government services while enabling a more participatory form of democratic involvement. the centuries-old project of improving our social conditions through the employment of technology continues. in the case of the commercial community networks, all of this applies in equal measure, but there is also a parallel profit-seeking imperative that feeds into the need for product differentiation and market advantage in land and house sales. here, the commercial utility of broadband, the cultural appeal of “high-tech modernity”, the promise of differentiated access to informational resources, and above all, the very strong “saleability” of a “good neighborhood”, and a “strong community” – packaged and delivered through icts – suggests that community networks can commodify community, and can be important in the successful marketing of urban property developments. an exegesis of the “information society” thesis and the substantial critique of that thesis mounted by webster and others (f. webster, 1994; frank webster, 1995), is beyond the scope of this paper, but the representation of our socio-economic condition as being in some fundamental way information based, clearly provides a foundation for the community network project. case studies have examined many local examples of not-for-profit community intranets, and have provided well-grounded accounts of their effect in the construction of community, the reconstruction of community, and the strengthening of community. in america, these accounts tend to be read in terms of social connections, social capital, and the on-going viability of traditional community institutions such as clubs, churches and school groups (see for example (wellman, 1999; wellman & haythornthwaite, 2002). in britain, studies are more likely to be concerned with social equity variables – such as education, employment and health – as they present themselves in particular locales (brixton, or grimethorpe for example), or among an otherwise identifiable group (traveling people, single mothers and so on (sherman, 1999). studies that examine commercial systems are much less common (for exceptions see (arnold, 2002, 2003; arnold, gibbs, & wright, 2003). the strength of all of these studies is their ethnographic detail, and their close focus on local sociological inputs and outcomes. but whilst valuable strategies emerge from these case studies – such as the need to genuinely engage with existing community organizations on their own terms, to look for local champions for the system, and to cultivate local voices in decision making. a weakness in the research to date is the absence of theoretical models or abstractions that avoid the conceit of talking in terms of generalisable laws, but nevertheless retain the ambition of talking in terms of concepts that are appropriated from the indeterminate nature of contemporary networks, while remaining adaptable and robust enough to transfer across sites, and at the same time retaining analytic purchase. an a-modern approach as community network research emerges as a more mature cross-disciplinary field, and builds from grounded case studies to integrative theory building, theoretical differences become more important to debate. to this end it is argued here that community networks be understood analytically as a-modern hybrids that derive their characteristics from a conflation of binaries. that is to say, community networks are both technical devises and social arrangements; they invoke the identity of a network and a community, and manifest both hierarchic and heterarchic structures. i think it is important not to dissolve these contradictions by arguing them through to middle ground, or by arbitrating between them and dismissing one of the alternatives as being “more true” or a more accurate representation than the other. holding on to contradiction runs counter to the modernist episteme, which, over 250 years, has sought to dissolve contradiction and reach unambiguous clarity through the construction of three core binaries, and the privileging of one side of the binary in each case (wise, 1997). these core binaries are, the bifurcation of time and space, (privileging time), subject and object, (privileging subject), and cause and effect, (privileging cause). having made this crucial move, it becomes possible for the modernist to align either the technical or the social with cause, and its binary alternative with effect; either the machine, or the human, with subject, and its binary alternative with object; and either diachronic event sequences (time) or context (space) with cause, and its binary alternative with effect. in this bifurcation, some things are drivers and other things are passengers, some things lead and other things follow – when a more productive analytic strategy may be to resist the bifurcation altogether. such a strategy is referred to here as “a-modern”. i think that an understanding of community networks in particular, and our relationship with technology in general, is best pursued not by seeking to arbitrate opposing positions on the above, or by seeking middle ground compromises between opposing positions, but by attending to the tensions and stresses that emerge in the co-presence of contradictory forces. in this sense incoherence and inconsistency is important to maintain in an analysis that moves beyond the case study! this attempt to analyse community networks in terms of conflated binaries, rather than through a simple empiricism, or through modernist dissolution or arbitration, draws upon an a-modern approach developed within science and technology studies (sts) (b. latour, 1993; bruno latour, 1999; j. law & hassard, 1999), although, ironically, sts has also been criticised for an excessive dependence on case studies (winner, 1993). as a discipline, sts began with studies of stirrups, microbes, bicycles, lathes, vacuum pumps and power stations, and has been further developed by studies of brazilian rainforests, scallops, electric cars, cybernetic organisms, and african numbering systems. but in the course of following the heterogeneous engineers and actors of all kinds, as they seek to enrol one another, problematise goals, purify systems, create monsters, configure users, employ boundary objects, materialize imaginaries, and stabilize heterogeneous networks, science and technology studies has moved our understanding, not just of our relationship with technology, but of the epistemological approaches to an understanding of our relationship with technology. community network studies have similarly relied on case studies that are strong empirically, but have not yet moved forward theoretically. the approach proposed in this paper falls short of this ambition, but gestures in that direction by drawing attention to some of the implications of this picture of a community network as a conflation of contradictions – as social and technical, a network and a community, and hierarchic and heterarchic. i begin with a discussion of the social and the technical. the social and the technical a community network assembles together a whole host of things – some of them commonly identified as social (community groups, individuals, commercial organizations, arms of government) and others commonly identified as technical (application software, web-servers, work stations). having made a distinction that is so much part of the intellectual and cultural landscape as to pass unremarked, the technology can be placed front and centre in a privileged position. of course, people involved with community networks are far too sophisticated to assume that icts of themselves are of particular benefit to communities, but still, it is the technology that is understood to be the facilitator, the catalyst, the cause of effects, the means to an end; it is the technology that we focus on, and that distinguishes the community network project from other community projects, and it is the social, read as the community in the “community network”, that is the object of this facilitation2. the forementioned modernist separation and categorization of phenomena as either cause or effect is thus used to structure the relationship between technology and society (see fig. 2). and so, from a global perspective, the world summit on the information society is concerned with ameliorating the digital divide, and at the local level we are concerned with creating and sustaining community networks. both take as their departure points an acceptance that ict use is central to social advantage, and that social disadvantage is best addressed through ict use (in preference to alternatives). each accepts that use of high technology is normative, that it causes (facilitates, catalyses, mediates) positive outcomes, and a priori, non-use is a disadvantage to be remediated. the social disadvantage may be unemployment, or ill health or social isolation, but these are addressed through a filter that reads society as the information society, the economy as a knowledge economy, education as e-learning, health as medical informatics, and in all this, accepts the late modernist position that reads technology as the driver of progress. we thus work with technology and through technology to move the reality of our social existence closer and closer to the desires we have for that social existence (see fig. 3). a model that does not separate the technical from the social shifts the ground upon which we stand to think about the world, and advances our aforementioned project to be ambitious but not conceited. a given technology – tv, the production line, the internet, the community network, is not a good thing for society (or community), nor a bad thing to be resisted. rather, the hybridisation of the social and the technical changes the basis upon which we make a judgement about social goods and about outcomes. a community network is neither good nor bad for social connectedness, alienation, access to job markets, education, or whatever; rather, it changes what it is to be connected, alienated, in the job market, or educated. there is no ground that stands still to enable a pre and post assessment to be made. the question for researchers and practitioners then changes at all sites. the world is enframed in a different way. reproductive technologies do not just provide a different means to the same end – they change our frame for situating maternity and paternity, and the ontology of mother, father, and family. email doesn’t provide a different means to the same end; it changes our frame for situating written correspondence. the mobile phone doesn’t provide a different means to the same end, it changes our frame for situating mobility (in space) and fixity (in the space of flows), and what it is to be connected. rather than assessing the “good” or “bad” effects of the technical on the social in terms of shifting reality closer to desire, one looks at how the ground is changing at this site as new sociotechnical assemblages cohabit the lifeworld and shift both reality and desire. the a-modern question is not how to assess and maximise the good use of icts in communities, but how icts in communities are changing what good is (see fig. 4). the network and the community as rheingold famously remarked, when a computer network is used for social purposes, it becomes a social network (rheingold, 1993). the network metaphor, as used in the term “community network”, invokes images of a web or net, whereby nodes (people and/or computers) are connected together to constitute a larger fabric – a larger entity in the sense that a local area network is a network, or the rail system is a network (see fig. 5). the metaphor thereby foregrounds and privileges the connecting infrastructure rather than the nodes, or in modernist terms, the emphasis is on the “space” of connections, not the “time” of connecting. but social networks are not composed of material links in the way computer networks, rail networks or electricity networks are. our social performances are interactive, collective, responsive, but they are not connected by stable threads, tracks, lines or wires – though crucial to the community network metaphor, the internet is nevertheless immaterial (pollner, 2002). our social performances (the community part of “community network”) consist of a multitude of distributed, local, transient, quasi-independent acts – reflexive, reciprocal acts to be sure, but still, a collection of individual acts that only from an analytic perspective – not a phenomenological perspective – consist of something more structured. despite the metaphor, a social network doesn’t exist as an enduring material artifact, it is only there by virtue of a cascade of articulated sociotechnical performances that make it there, and will only be there so long as these actors choose to act. there are no lines between the nodes of the network, there are only the actions of the “nodes” – such as responding to email, posting to a list, attending a workshop, chatting in the corridor – that are patterned or structured in the abstract, not as specific material phenomena. the research emphasis is thereby on the social actors and their actions, and any connecting infrastructure recedes into the background. in modernist terms, the emphasis is on the “time” of action and reaction, not on the “space” of connecting infrastructure (see fig. 6). modernism thus throws up two visions of a community network, one emphasizing the structural links between nodes, the technical infrastructure in space; and the other emphasizing the performances of the nodes, the social interactions in time. i think it fair to say that most researchers in the field favour the latter ‘social’ model rather than the former ‘determinist’ model. two conclusions might be drawn in the context of researching community networks, if one accepts this. firstly, if the community network is built continuously by these acts, not by the community sector consortiums or property developers that engineer the network as infrastructure, and certainly not by the network as computer technology, the centre of attention is necessarily dispersed and distributed to the actors – to the network’s multitudinous “nodes” – where the action begins and ends. the focus is on community networking (as a verb; a doing thing), rather than a community network (as a noun; an infrastructure thing). the ontology of community changes – from one that privileges space (an infrastructure, a context), to one that privileges time (events). secondly, if it is so that a sociotechnical network is the abstract reference to an ongoing cascade of individual acts, and not a network in the sense of a lan or a railway, and these acts flow from the actors so to speak, not from space, then wellman’s argument contrasting social networks with community groups gains purchase (wellman, 1999). a network in this context is not a community. a network is extensive, with indeterminate boundaries. a network is ramified and dynamically maintained through the repeated actions of loosely coupled individuals; it is not a default position. a network is transient and shape-changing – not historical. a network is created by the subjectivity of its members, not by the objectivity of any shared condition. from this perspective the toennesian notion of a located gemeinschaft community is outmoded, if indeed it ever applied. the notion of a geographically based community, constituted in recognition of common identity, interests, and obligations, gives way to an “ego-based” or “personal network” construction of community. in this construction, a social network, one’s community, is not a shared public good held by all in common, but a private asset, a personal store of social capital actively built and maintained by individuals to suit their own individual sense of identity, desires, needs and interests. and it follows from this that networked relations are distributed differentially rather than uniformly. that is, some individuals establish and maintain stronger community relations than others, and some individuals establish very few, and are socially isolated (see fig. 7). it is interesting to note that links between actors in the network are not uniformly distributed, but, in the formal terms of network mathematics, the links follow “power laws” and are “scale free” (barabási, 2002). whilst figure 5 implies a network architecture that is roughly egalitarian, in that links are randomly or uniformly rather than preferentially distributed, the lessons of power laws are immanent in figure 7. in simple terms, power laws seek to model the fact that network links are highly clustered, not evenly distributed. in the case of the internet as a whole for example, in a sample of 203 million web pages, 90% had 10 or fewer links pointing at them, whilst a few were referenced by close to one million other pages (barabási, 2002). according to a maxim familiar to many in the community network project, the rich get richer, whether the currency is money, web page connections, or community resources. if this were not the case we would expect that the community connections in any given population would follow other normally distributed phenomenon, where most individuals have similar numbers of links, and where only a few are extremely high or extremely low. (see fig. 8) but this is not the case in scale-free networks, where power laws predict that a few nodes will have a great many links, whilst most nodes will have very few (see fig. 9). this representation of community networks as private assets has little in common with traditional representations of community, and little in common with the conceptualization of community implied by the community network project. the rise and rise of individualism as a political resource, and the actions of the market as the arbiter of societal relations – now read as relations between individuals – has done terrible damage to other named groupings such as society, union, class, neighbourhood, gender – even nations, races and religions. in many first-world, post-war societies, these forms of defined collective interest have been subject to sustained criticism. first the left and more recently the new-right or “neo-cons” have argued positions which attacked public or communal activity on the grounds of both efficiency and legitimacy (kumar, 1992), and in the 1980’s in particular, the withdrawal of “the public good” as a target for social policy was speeded by a neo-conservative, new-right or economic rationalist ideological hegemony. the popular ethos over this time has been to increasingly demand private consumption, mediated through the market, for the satisfaction of personal rather than communal ideals or objectives (mclean & voskresenskaya, 1992). the public institutions and public utilities established in the last half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century to provide education, power, health services, transport, communications and so on, were informed and constituted by a modernist discourse which centred on the virtues of centralised decision-making, public service, public good and public responsibility. these have in recent times become increasingly fragmented, decentralised, privatised, self-managing and entrepreneurial, and are redefining their mission in ways which do not privilege broadly conceived social good, except as a derivative of market performance. institutionalised social relations have thus been reconstituted around a discourse that valorises private benefit, individual responsibility and consumer sovereignty. in the sphere of personal social relations the individual is no less privileged, and constructions of needs, rights, desires, responsibilities, tastes, and opinions are all read as attributes of individual agency. digital technologies are of course deeply implicated in the construction of this changed ground. we build our own community networks, and within these networks obligation and reciprocation coexist, often uneasily, with individualism – which remains the dominant mode of relations. indeed, “[n]o longer do we, as members of the group, belong to the community, rather the community belongs to us.” (jones, 1997) yet “community”, read ontologically as gemeinschaft, is often called upon to serve ideological and rhetorical purposes, where other collectives or named groupings are not. at a policy level, and in terms of contemporary ideology, a community network may be represented as a bounded collection of “ego-based” social networks. a community network is bounded in so much as the not-for-profit collective or the property developer “scopes” the community network, and defines its target market. a community network project creates a group, makes provision for an infrastructure, limits ramified access by creating boundaries, presents the group space as an ongoing default for all, founded on the objectivity of shared conditions. thus community as a linked group, as communal infrastructure, is rescued as a research focus, a context for practice, a policy objective, and as an ontological being. at the same time though, the community network is recognised in individual action, in distributed social performance, and in a multitude of private assets. the modernist community network project is thereby consistent with the 50 year political drift from public service, funded by the taxpayer, and provided through central governmental agencies, to the position that devolves service provision to the private and non-profit sectors, and asks that people and communities bootstrap their own way out of their difficulties through the limited infrastructure provided. meredith, ewing and thomas make the point very well in their study of an australian neighbourhood renewal project, and its implications for governance (meredith, ewing, & thomas, 2004). the authors remind us that the shift away from the central role of state agencies and professionals to community groups, volunteers and not for profit groups is a new response to an old problem of legitimising governance. the modernist state is founded on rationality, and needs to provide conditions of prosperity and security, at least at certain minimum levels. this in turn, requires it to penetrate and assert influence over civil domains that are beyond its immediate reach – commercial, familial, domestic and social domains. last century’s answer to this challenge was the school, the hospital and the prison provided by the state, and this century’s answer is the community network we build ourselves. systems of education, health, electrical power, water, transport, and justice were all envisaged as common social infrastructure – in a sense, as scaled networks accessible to all (except perhaps at the extremes) – and thus exercising an egalitarian and commonly civilizing influence. arguably though, the education system has operated as a vehicle for the creation and expression of social differentials, and arguably, its patterns of access and benefit are better described by power laws than by normal distribution. though they don’t use these terms, graham and marvin have reached similar conclusions in respect of water, transport and other infrastructures (graham & marvin, 2001). by highlighting these modernist binaries – events in time and space, networked individuals and grouped community, nodes and links, performance and structure – and by pointing to both ends of the binary rather than seeking to reconcile or arbitrate between them, the a-modern approach is able to pursue the sort of critical analysis illustrated above. and even if the reader does not consider the critique to be powerfully persuasive, it may be allowed that the approach opens up ground for the construction of analysis that has the potential to be powerful and persuasive. the hierarchic and the heterarchic whilst a community network articulates and hybridises the contradictions of the social and the technical, the community group and the networked individuals, an a-modern approach reveals that it similarly articulates and hybridises hierarchy and heterarchy. it is the material arrangements, the technical mediation of the social interaction that is hierarchical, whilst the social arrangements emergent through this technical mediation give rise to heterarchy. electronic space is meticulously structured in a detailed and rigorously hierarchical fashion. flows of digital signals have a structure determined at various levels, from the deeply embedded structures of logic gates, to operating systems and machine-language architecture, to the surfaces of interface design. in this sense digital flows can be said to have a material character that ostwald (following deleuse and gualtieri) calls the “arborescent schema” (ostwald, 1997). high modernist architecture, modernist organizational and management theorists, and the designers of many computer environments share this common conceptual framework, whereby the world is represented as an inverted tree or semi-lattice structure which is hierarchical (rather than say, rhizomatic), and is binary rather than analogue (see fig. 11). an arborescent schema is a form of power that functions by situating its constituent entities in hierarchical relation to one another, some near the trunk, others out on the edge, and in so doing, positions subjugation and domination. as ostwald argues, arborescent structures are subject to critical attack. they manifest a desire to discipline movement and location on the basis of a reductionist categorisation embedded in the very structure of the space inhabited by people, or data. in bogue’s words “arborescences are hierarchical, stratified totalities which impose limited and regulated connections between their components. rhizomes, by contrast, are non-hierarchical, horizontal multiplicities which cannot be subsumed within a unified structure, whose components form random, unregulated networks in which any element may be connected with any other element.” (bogue 1989, p.17) in the case of the internet for example, the expression of a will to power that suffuses latent arboreal structures is evident at a number of levels. at the global level google, myspace, microsoft, yahoo, amazon and company, occupy a position near the centre of the “bow tie” (broder et al., 2000), on the main trunk of the arboreal structure. these companies are thus passage-points for huge volumes of electronic traffic, and potentially discipline that traffic by structuring the “space of flows” from there. at the other extreme, one might take a point far out on the extremity, where the leaves of the tree consist of, say, postings on a community network site. these too are subject to the discipline of an arboreal structure where lateral links are problematic, and each post is an appendage of the node to which it is attached, which in turn has its place on the hierarchy. postings and web pages neither exist on their own terms (but in hierarchical connection to other nodes and pages) nor on interdependent terms (as say, a latice of equally connected contributions). an online discussion conducted via email for example, is the hierarchically structured, serial exchange of textually expressed monologues and a “bulletin board” type of on-line discussion makes the arborescent hierarchy clear in its graphical representation of threads. as a network of postings it is scale-free and follows power laws. in rough terms therefore, (as any subscriber will confirm), 20% of participants make 80% of postings, and 20% of postings attract 80% of responses, while 80% of postings just sink without trace, and drift in cyberspace unread and unanswered, like notes in bottles, floating on the sea (holmes, 1997). in addition to being clustered, listservs and discussion groups display a valence for order and discipline in so much as they define and bound areas of social interest. each discussion group is a branch, usually organised around a quite narrow topic, stemming from a larger branch supporting many narrow topics, stemming from a still larger branch, all the way to a handful of main topic categories. ostwald aptly describes this arrangement as bureaucratic; as an isomorph for the space of social interaction, it arguably fails, and it is difficult to characterise it as a space convivial to community primitives as traditionally conceived, though it is quite consistent with community relations as private social assets. social relations in such an ordered space are goal-oriented, purposeful, and disciplined by the space as well as the social norms of the group, such that our presence in the same discussion group has something of an instrumental character about it. i may be interested in fish and may converse with you on rec.aquaria.freshwater in a hobby centre in a community network, but it is the guppies i'm interested in, not you. on williamstownonline/goodbuys it is the price of the coffee and the quality of the fruit that is interesting, not you. in contrast, when we meet at the tram-stop and exchange words about fish tanks and fruit, it is not the fish tanks and fruit that is at the heart of the exchange, it is the exchange itself. the social exchange is phatic, not instrumental. the exchange involves a “transcendence”, a “beside-each-otherness” (jones, 1997), which takes it beyond its subject matter or informational content. in the world of icts the space of social relations is ordered, rational, ruled – reflecting a heritage and an architecture that is inspired more by le corbusier’s stalinist fantasies than the toennesian fantasies of the village green, or habermas’ coffee house. the space that was designed for calculation, data-storage, file transfer and remote computer use then became a space for the management of a work-force, the transfer of funds, and the commercial exchange of goods and services, and is now a space for communities. so, a community network shares hierarchy with its digital cousins and ancestors, but, as i shall argue, its sociotechnology also gives rise to heterarchic arrangements. the conceptual foundations for the notion of a heterarchy were laid down in the natural sciences and in management theory (grabher & stark, 1997), and have since found wider application. unlike a hierarchic system which rises to a single point, has a single trajectory, or equilibrium, or centre of gravity, (depending on the preferred metaphor) a heterarchic system has many such points (grabher, 2001; grabher & stark, 1997). rather than a single trunk in a hierarchical tree structure, a heterarchy is rhyzomatic, and has a number of points that act as centres. in the case of a community network, these clusters of circulation may be individuals, projects, or issues, for example. each is at the centre of the whole system for the actors that circulate around it – and there is therefore more than one point of circulation in any given system. a heterarchy is a self-organizing, autopoietic system, and the centres of action are emergent in action, not established structurally. it is what it does, and what it does is structurally underdetermined (see fig. 12). in these circumstances, where centres of social action, resourcing, and decision-making are multiple, the balance between integrative and disintegrative processes, between conditions of stability and instability, is fine. heterarchies are characterized by high tolerance for diversity, evident in the presence of multiple centres, and provided by the presence of multiple centres. this plurality allows resources to be devolved rather than concentrated; it allows energies and actions to head in different directions simultaneously; and it allows different priorities, objectives and strategies to coexist. but as (grabher, 2001) asks, how much inefficiency can the aggregation of centres tolerate for the sake of adaptability and heterogeneity, without sacrificing capacity for production? these tensions between the relative efficiency and stability of a “top down” hierarchy, and the “bottom-up” groundedness and flexibility of a self-organizing heterarchy, are played out in the sociotechnical space created by community networks. policy makers, local governments, funding agencies, ict system designers and community network coordinators have a “top down” interest in stability, coherence and efficiency across the system, whereas users, community activists and local groups have a “bottom up” self-defined interest. holding on to this binary and playing out the tensions that emerge is one manner in which the community network shapes itself, and is one manner in which it can be understood, rather than privileging one over the other. each must be embraced simultaneously. conclusion to get a grip on a community network as a social-technical, network-community, hierachic-heterarchic hybrid, is to focus an assessment on the hybridity itself. that is, the implications of the community network flow from the reflexivity of binaries – not from the effects of either one separately, or the effects of both in parallel; rather it flows from the hybrid “monster” (john law, 1991) that emerges from a conflation of the two. a community network is not (technical and network and hierarchic), or (social and community and heterarchic), and is not in some respects one, and in other respects the other; in some contexts one, and in other contexts another. rather it is in all respects a hybrid, in so much as the social/technical, network/community, and heterarchy/hierarchy are codependent in the same system. so, a community network should not be theorised exclusively in terms of a technology that moves a society towards a good, or as a society moving technologies towards a good. if seen as a hybrid, everything changes – including what is good. moreover, a community network should not be theorised as a public good infrastructure supporting gemeinschaft community. in an important sense a community network is a resource for building private assets. further, a community network should not be theorised as hierarchical, (though its sociotechnical structure is), nor should it be seen as heterarchical, (though its sociotechnical structure is). rather, its peculiar characteristics arise from both. this a-modern theoretical strategy does not lead to a simple answer – either utopian, dystopian, or in the middle. instead, it argues that a community network, like all technologies, enframes the world: that is to say, it does not answer this or that question, satisfy this or that demand, extend this or that capacity. rather, technologies such as community networks work at a more fundamental level; they enframe the world such that the question is changed along with the answer, the need is changed along with its gratification, and direction is changed along with the mechanism. the calculator or the word processor, are not more effective, efficient or convivial methods of doing mathematics or writing – they change what it is to do mathematics or to write. the internet does not provide a more efficient way of doing the same things – it does different things. a community network is not just a means of meeting desires, it also changes the cultural, social, economic and emotional frames that give rise to 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(1997). exploring technology and social space. thousand oaks: sage publications. 1an earlier version of this paper was read at the 2004 community network analysis conference, building & bridging community networks: knowledge, innovation & diversity through communication, brighton, 2004. i would like to thank the delegates for their constructive criticisms. i also thank the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments and suggestions. 2although it is not the place to pursue it here, it doesn’t really affect the argument if one chooses to reverse the respective roles of the social (community) and the technical (network). see (bruno latour, 1999) joci women forge ahead: internet and e-governancee-seva in andhra pradesh, india kavita karan nanyang technological university kavitak@siu.edu dr. rohit raj mathur administrative staff college of india rrrmathur@hotmail.com introduction information and communication technologies (icts), which underwent a revolution with the introduction of the internet in the late '90s, have had decentralizing effects across nations (subedi, 2006). as a result, in most developing countries, the weaker sections of society, such as women, despite the problems of poor working conditions, unequal wages as well as lack of access and training, the use of icts are contributing to economic development, combating poverty, fighting widespread gender disparity and increasing their participation and competitiveness in improving their overall status (noble, 1998; wheeler, 2004). by having access to the icts, women can explore, broadcast, and contribute more. they are also serving as a platform for community building and networking among women (cresser et all, 2001; nath, 2001; shade, 1998). though researchers have also looked at the negative consequences and the greater digital divide, and over emphasized the role of internet in development, (luca and sylla, 2003; albirini, 2007), extensive research has been done on how icts are addressing women's issues in aiding the development process and concerns including privacy and security. huff (2001, p.43), for example, suggests that “the presence of the internet can be expected to transform politics and commerce, and will have a major impact on the conduct of government and economic affairs in developing countries." in india, icts have been called the most potent democratizing tool that can put unequal human beings on an equal footing (pitroda, 2002). the country is at a threshold of development and is rapidly moving towards e-governance with extensive investments in infrastructure. women are actively being engaged in the process, and particularly in pioneering e-governance projects such as eseva (electronic servicesexplained in detail later in the article) in the southern state of andhra pradesh. the project provides individuals with access to various c2c (citizen-to-citizen) and c2g (citizen-to-government) services through the eseva kendrams (centers) located at various places in urban and rural areas of the state. coordinated efforts of government and private initiatives have enabled women to participate in the e-governance strategies through education, training and persuasion, where internet is bringing in a slow and steady change in the lives of women. these eseva centers are small internet kiosks that are run and managed by the women self-help groups. this study examines the project and the involvement of women in working in the e sewa centers, their roles and problems, and how they perceive change as they foray into the use of technologies toward their progress. the human development report (2005) exemplifies government, non-government and other initiatives to show how projects have addressed employment opportunities for women in developing countries by launching projects leveraging icts for developing technological skills and becoming part of the development process. various issues have been addressed through the postings on the internet including collecting, posting, and discussing rural women's life histories as a source of development tool (rubinoff, 2005). in a study in uganda, access to accurate and timely information by rural women resulted in enhanced economic and social development and the key to programs such as the poverty eradication action plan and the plan for modernization for agriculture (pma).(okello, 2007). case studies from china, india, philippines and sri lanka reveal how women, both urban and rural, despite several barriers--economic, social or gender-based--are successfully using technologies towards their empowerment, marketing their products, banking and networking (karan & das, 2005).women are effectively using icts for expanding their businesses, discussing issues, finding solutions to their personal problems and most importantly to educate themselves (nath, 2001). according to the report of the international telecommunication union (itu, 2002) and the status of women commission (2003), the world cannot eradicate poverty or create democratic and economically just societies, unless women gained full access to the information society. according to brisco, gender-specific inequalities, lack of access to resources and high levels of illiteracy had deprived women of equal access to information and communication technologies.  denying women access to such technologies limited national production and barred nations from enjoying true competition in the global market. under the agreed conclusions, increasing women’s access to and participation in the media and icts was vital for women’s empowerment (brisco, 2000a; status of women, 2003). the report urged governments, united nations bodies, international financial institutions and civil society to integrate gender perspectives and ensure women's full participation in national policies, legislation, programs, regulatory and technical instruments in icts and media and communications. along with policies, the economic empowerment of women has been recognized as a central tenet for improving the status and welfare of women. this is also important as women represent 40 percent of the labour force in asia and the pacific and two fifth of the overall working populations. therefore, women’s participation in the internet economy has to be increased at all levels of skills, from data entry to network management, to it entrepreneurship. the shortage of qualified skills has offered women the chance to advance rapidly in the technology sector. india today is one of the fastest growing internet economies of the world. it has the fourth largest internet market, accounting for approximately 15 per cent of all new traffic online. in a latest report, the total internet users are estimated at 52 million and expected to grow to over 200 million over the next four years (sarkar, 2008). despite formidable socio-cultural barriers – firmly rooted in endless frontiers of diversity of language, poverty, low educational levels that are constantly threatening to widen the digital divide, india has managed to emerge as major software and services player and a front-runner among ict users in the world, and the state’s engagement with development is near total ( melkote & reeves, 2001; bagga, et all, 2005). the indian government, both at the center and at the state, is taking e-governance seriously and has been continuously endeavoring to provide better services to citizens. the ict for development project, being executed by the ministry of communications and information technology, government of india, with the support of united nations development program (undp), is a significant attempt in adopting a holistic and multi-sectoral approach to achieve a breakthrough in the area of digital divide. some of the schemes under the umbrella of the ict for development include, providing integrated services in semi-urban and urban areas; icts for enhancing rural livelihoods; icts for transforming rural governance and icts for women's empowerment (sharma, 2004).the objectives of ict leveraged good governance is enhancing the ability of the people to lead better and dignified lives by freely accessing and evaluating information (sachdeva & mathur, 2005). the concept of e-governance in india began with national informatics centers’ efforts to connect all district headquarters through computers in 1980’s, which included connectivity, networking, selective delivery systems and an array of software solutions. andhra pradesh was one of the first states to adopt the systems, and eseva was among the first such projects which offered multiple services in government to citizens’ transactions. status of women in india since independence in 1947, the government and non-governmental organizations have made integrated efforts, with public private partnerships (ppp) in taking extensive measures towards the development of women. efforts have been made to educate women in the villages, through opening of schools, vocational training centers and also through reservation of seats in the tertiary educational institutes. women in india are divided into unequal halves; of 368 million women in india, 278 million reside in rural areas, a third of them being illiterate (census of india, 2001). interestingly, a majority of women in india work, but few of them are in the paid work force. many maintain that women’s economic dependence on men impacts their power within the family. with increased participation in income-earning activities, not only will there be more income for the family, but gender inequality could be reduced (coonrod, 1998). these programs have resulted in increasing the literacy rate among women from 39% in to 55% in 2001 and greater participation in the overall workforce. (census of india, 2001). http://www.prb.org/articles/2001/2001censusresultsmixedforindiaswomenandgirls.asp women are extensively exposed to the mass media, particularly television and now the internet, which is allowing them to know of the world around them, their rights and new opportunities. efforts have been made by incorporating the media in educating people regarding these various programs. this approach will help integrate women more fully into the economic, political, and social mainstream of independent india. according the jensen and oster (2003) cable television was impacting the attitudes of women and the authors find an increase in the female school enrollment and decrease in fertility. ict training may be a very usual and common practice in many countries, but for the women in india it is a major milestone in the development process (dalal, 2003; jensen & oster, 2003; saibaba, 2004, shaligram, 2003). the concept of gender inequality is a common concern all over the world. the same has now acquired new dimensions with the advent of icts, which is seen as a potential for women empowerment in india. according to dalal (2003), it can reduce trade distortions, eliminate poverty, and empower weaker segments including women. shaligram (2003) perceived icts as a tool that will catalyze the 'power shift' from the 'haves' to the 'have-nots' and support the process of women's empowerment. internet together with the capacity building processes will catalyze the process of mobilization, organize women for collective action and lead to their empowerment. dalal (2003) in an article stated the problems facing indian women in the access to icts and the need for training as the global scenario has changed and many unexplored areas are now open for encashment. he stated that in india there is an abundance of ‘women entrepreneurs’ who are capable of making their mark at the global level and a big difference with simple training and awareness programs. over the past few years, over 50 grassroots projects in india are using icts for development in india, many of which include women (kensinton, 2002). one of the most successful programs has been sewa (self-employed women's association) in gujarat, india where women are being trained in using icts for their businesses and the computers are also enabling their children in gaining computer knowledge and training. therefore, the introduction of ict for development is widely regarded as an approach to empower marginal communities particularly women. of particular interest from the perspective of this study is andhra pradesh’s attempt at involving women self-help groups in the operation and maintenance of eseva kendrams (eseva centers) in semi-urban and rural areas. it would be amiss not to mention that andhra pradesh has recorded some success in mobilization of women self-help groups in the state. these groups who have been trained to handle computers and the package of government services are thus uniquely positioned as information intermediaries. of greater significance is that most of the women in self-help groups come from the poorest segments of society, and a vast majority of the citizen beneficiaries too happen to belong to the poorer economic strata of semi-urban and rural areas that make the project beneficial in addressing issues of poverty, economic growth, and in bridging the digital divide. research questions this study attempts to evaluate a major dimension of women’s empowerment through the participation of women in the eseva project. it explores the challenges faced by women as information leaders, the direct impact as information providers for the customers/citizens and indirect social impact on the other women in their community. the specific objectives are: to study the eseva project as one of the pioneer e-governance projects in andhra pradesh, india and the role of women in running the eseva centers. to explore the profile of the women in eseva centers, their functions and use of icts as information providers, the problems faced by women and the levels of satisfaction achieved. to broadly explore the extent to which working at the eseva enters is impacting the economic and social empowerment of women. the impact on women in using new technologies and thereby the transformation process in improving their social status with the family and community. methodology pilot study: the pilot study employed in-depth interviews with some women at eseva centers in hyderabad, the capital of andhra pradesh, and revealed interesting facts of how women are working at the eseva centers, as information providers are creating awareness on employment issues, training for jobs, aiding women in downloading forms and filling up applications. they were also providing extensive resource support by exploring government schemes/avenues for entrepreneurs. the data from these in-depth interviews and two focus group interviews with women helped in developing the variables for the questions in the survey. methods used: the triangulation approach using case study, intensive interviews and survey methods were employed to collect data for the study. the survey was conducted on a section of 150 women from eseva centers across two districts of andhra pradesh. information for the case study of the eseva project was gathered from various primary and secondary sources. documented information from books and reports as well as from government officials and women working in eseva centers was collected. while the interviews with six women gave a deeper understanding of the personal circumstances of women and work, interviews with two officials of the project provided details of operations, the training of women in the multiple uses of the internet and the government services to build information leadership and as a move towards women leading women. a survey with mainly close ended questions was distributed to women working in eseva centers. this was administered by two field investigators who personally administered the questionnaires to the women across the two districts. though the data on the exact number of women working differed, it is estimated that about 400-450 women work for eseva centers in the two districts of hyderabad and ranga reddy. a sample of at least a fourth of the estimated population is investigated for adequate representation for generalization to the entire population (wimmer and dominic, 2003). about 15 centers were randomly selected and about 10 questionnaires were distributed at each of the centers. though over 150 questionnaires were distributed, only 119 were complete in all respects, and constituted the sample for the study. though ideally it would be best to collect the data through an online or email survey, it was not possible given the procedures for setting up the system for the same. operational definitions empowerment of women: from the literature review empowerment for the present study may be defined as women’s avenues for economic independence, access to information and technology, education and training in computers and general confidence. social empowerment is defined as the respect in the society that they get as trained professionals using new technologies’, their attitudes toward how the access and use of icts help indian women in improving the social status, respect within the family and community and freedom from gender related restrictive practices. development may be defined as the overall economic and social empowerment of women. their avenues for economic independence, education and training in computers, access to information, better social status and self esteem. ict, women and development the use of internet by women is growing exponentially across the world. icts have become a viable tool in promoting gender equality and enhancing women's engagement in both national and international trade. ( nath, 2001). brisco (2000b) stated that the internet has become the mainstream medium and estimated at $30 billion in asia. these projections are based on the assumption that women workers, entrepreneurs, and consumers in asian countries have the skills to use the internet and other related technologies. women in asia’s work force must be prepared to work in the internet world. without this fully trained and enabled work force, a fundamental bottleneck may throttle the growth rate of asian economies. women who have access to the internet will be in a better situation to start a home-based business allowing them to efficiently market their goods, process orders and perform accounting tasks. according to internet company, msn, in the asia pacific region, the number of affluent and upwardly mobile young women is increasing and they are spending more time online. results from the latest pan asia pacific cross media (pax) survey conducted by market research firm synovate, shows that these “alpha females” with higher than average disposable incomes comprise the fastest growing segment of female internet users in the region. over 74 % of pax female respondents between 25 and 34 now have access to the internet. two-thirds of them have broadband connections, representing an increase of 13 per cent from 2005 (parthajit, 2006). another survey carried out by the international telecommunication union (itu) across 39 countries, showed that 43% of internet users were females and the developed countries have the highest proportion of women internet users. in the developing countries, the women users belong to the educated urban minority, but the international labour organisation (ilo) estimates that women in telecom jobs worldwide stand at about 27% and are fast increasing. research on the use and impact of internet enabled services and icts by women, relate to women’s work, digital imbalances, gender differences and also positive reflections of social and economic development through technological interfaces. the center for women and information technology, umbc, maryland, has systematically compiled various articles in journals, books and special issues of journals that provide a comprehensive listing of scholarship that has emerged in this new area of cyber studies on women in the last six years (2000-2006). the bibliography provides a comprehensive list of the projects and also the research done on women and use of technology in education and vocational training, women’s studies listervs, discussion groups enabling women to be better informed give opinions, advise and support women endeavors.  http://www.umbc.edu/cwit/cwit/cwitbooks.html icts open up a direct window for women to the outside world. information now flows to them without distortion or any form of censoring, and they have access to the same information as their male counterparts. in asia as stated earlier, opportunities are being provided for women to benefit from these technologies in their applications in education, training and at work (regional human development report, 2005; slater & tacchi, 2004; wattegama, 2004; bansal, 2003; pichappan, 2003, karan, 2006). when related to poverty alleviation strategies, icts carry the promise of the ease of access to large amount of useful information for the poor. for example, in one of the earlier studies, samarasinghe, (1993) analyzed the nature, rationale and women micro-enterprises in third world societies and concluded their potential for greater empowerment for women. icts are helping businesswomen expand their business in the international market by providing access to market information, collaboration with retail structures and prices, and overcoming the constraint of business intermediaries. neither high levels of skills or large amounts of capital are required to operate some businesses. for example, grameen phone in bangladesh is a good example of how ict boost women’s entrepreneurship. the program involves women who buy mobile phones and offer telephony services to the local people for a fee (jabbar, 2004). women craft manufacturers in cambodia are using the internet to attract customers from around the world to sell their products online. ethiopia has opened a gift shop that sells online traditional ethiopian food items and spices produced by women. further in a study, subedi, (2006) stated that despite women's limited access, icts have helped women improve their conditions, especially in rural areas by helping them to streamline their activities in farming, rural development, trade, business and industry. there are several similar success stories in south asia, latin america, africa and the middle east where women entrepreneurs have benefited from ict (subedi, 2006, kalthil & boas 2003; karan & das, 2005). this leads to broadening of perspectives, building up of greater understanding of their current situations and causes of poverty, and initiation of interactive processes for information exchange. further, such forms of networking open up alternate forms of communication to those offered by the conventional or the government controlled media sources, and therefore catalyses the empowerment process (nath, 2001; eyben, 2004; samarasinghe 1993). in asia, the internet more than any of the other ict tools has increasingly leveled the playing field in empowering women by providing them access to information and networking opportunities. icts for development are widely regarded as an approach to empower marginal communities including women (mathison, 2003; slater & tacchi, 2004; wattegama, 2004). it has been successful in reaching women who have not been reached by any other media to participate in economic and social progress, make informed decisions on issues and also connecting them to the outside world (nath, 2001; shade, 1998). further, since the past decade, greater interest has been shown in female mini-entrepreneurship and it is increasingly being recognized as a source of income for poor women (o’regan, 1992). however, information and communication technologies by itself cannot be an answer and elixir to all problems facing women development, but it does bring new information resources and can open new communication channels for the marginalized communities” (nath, 2001). the use of icts has been widely regarded as a developmental initiator but there have been reports on the progressive silicon valley, where problems of immigrant workers that included poor working conditions as well as large disparities in wage structures surfaced (ted smith, 2006). while developing countries are battling problems of internet usage and associated frustrations, it is interesting to study how asian countries, which are now experiencing and incorporating these technological innovations in their work and homes, are coping with the benefits and what are the problems that they are facing. park and park (2002) have highlighted the problems of gender, and injustice among the immigrant workers in the silicon valley. in this study, we examine if similar problems are faced by the indians and particularly the women in india, given some similar demographic profiles and working conditions. eseva in andhra pradesh the 70 million people strong andhra pradesh in south india is among the frontline indian states (provinces) that succeeded in harnessing ict for the benefit of its citizens through a number of e-governance initiatives. it was called the hotbed of e-government in india, which pioneered the eseva (electronic service) project that was conceived to provide integrated services in semi-urban and urban areas within a much broader ict for development project. eseva is an extended version of twins (twin cities network services project) that was initially launched in november 1999 in the twin-cities of hyderabad and secunderabad, the capital of andhra pradesh so that c2c (citizen-to-citizen) and c2g (citizen-to-government) services are offered seamlessly in a user-friendly and hassle-free manner. this single window system allows citizens to avail all the government services through these e-portals. the eseva centers provide around 46 services such as  payment of water and sewerage bills, property taxes, commercial taxes, income taxes, phone bills, registration of vehicles, issue of learner driving licenses, transfer of ownership of vehicles, registration of new trade licenses, renewal of trade licenses, registration and certificates of birth and death, collection of small savings, etc (table-1). table-1: services offered under the eseva project payment of utility bills electricity bills passports sale of passport applications water and sewerage bills receipt of passport applications telephone bills stamps sale of non-judicial stamps property tax reservations sale of apsrtc bus tickets certificates registration of births/deaths sale of movie tickets issue of birth/death certificates sale of hmws&sb water (tankers) permits/ licenses issue/renewal of trade licenses internet services electronic payments renewal of labour department licenses downloading forms and government orders transport transport department procedures (driving license, etc.) filing of applications on the web vehicle life tax, vehicle tax receipt of complaints/requests in connection with citizen services tax returns commercial tax returns (a2, c6,aa9) the services are provided within 60 to 120 seconds. the centers operate on working days from 8 am to 8 pm and on public holidays from 9 am to 3 pm. citizens are not charged for any utility payments. in recent years, services like the payment of electricity/water/telephone bills and transport/property taxes are available on a 24x7 basis on the web portal. eseva, being conceptually innovative, has been able to attract the attention and support of several public sector (icici bank, housing finance company hdfc and uti) and private organizations to provide their services through eseva centers. the portal where the kendrams (eseva centers) are running on is eventually put on the world wide web and thus allows access to extensive knowledge and information bank. apart from the various services being offered by the government, it also helps streamline the responsibilities of the government departments in delivering these services. according to a report, ‘that may not sound much to be thankful for, but for anyone with memories of the previous system it is a giant step forward. paying an electricity bill could easily involve a day's wait at a government office where a cross official would demand a bribe for doing his job’. therefore the project has also improved the transparency and accountability in government operations and to demystify the entire process that governs them. for the women working at these centers, these new models of governance open up avenues for direct participation to gain wider acceptability for this project. the state government wants to extend the network of eseva centers from the current 119 to 4,600 across the state, one for every six villages see this article with graphics and related items http://www.economist.com/research/articlesbysubject/displaystory.cfm?story_i women in eseva of particular interest from the perspective of this study is andhra pradesh’s attempt at involving women self-help groups in the operation and maintenance of eseva kendrams in the urban and rural areas. andhra pradesh has recorded some success in mobilization of women self-help groups in the state. these women self-help groups have been trained to handle computers and the packaged services set by government agencies, and are thus positioned as information intermediaries for all government transactions. an issue of greater significance is that most of the women in self-help groups come from the poorer segments of society. project organizers reasoned that the lack of empowerment was primarily due to information gaps and once the right access is ensured, a real change in the outlook of these marginal communities can be made possible. therefore, number of women involved in the project is high with many women actively being recruited, rigorously trained, not just on the usage of computers but also on the processes that govern the entire project. apart from the initial training, continuous skill upgrading is necessary to keep them updated on various aspects related to the project. the entire project also depends on the backroom computerization support of the various government departments. government employees at various levels need to know the information technology needs of their departments and understand the project concepts. it has empowered the women's self-help groups who own and run the kiosks. this change in their status has helped improve their relative bargaining power. according to one of the officials of eseva, mr. saibaba, women are being recruited and trained to work in the eseva centers and the strategy is working well. there is also a greater involvement of women in recruiting and persuading women from their neighborhoods to join in the project.’ according to one of the women interviewed, ‘as i am doing well, i am also urging other women to join me and come out of the controls of family, work and earn a living'. another senior woman working at the center stated that, ‘this was a good outlet for one of her friends to get out of family pressure, ill-treatment by in-laws and depression’. additional income is allowing them to give a better future for their children. further, they also stated that by working and earning a living, women were being well treated by their families, as they brought in income and also knew how to use computers. therefore, in studying the gender equations in icts, the women’s ability to participate in the country’s information technology is determined by the low status ascribed to girls and poor it structures that had so far restricted women’s access to education. the gender gap between men and women has widened because women are less likely than men to receive technical education or be employed in technology intensive work. however, in the past few years, concerted efforts and particularly in the projects such eseva where women have been actively involved from the inception are gradually changing the very areas of women’s education, technical training and reducing the digital divide. though much has been written about such projects that have been designed to empower women, there is limited research to actually delve into the lives of women and find out how such initiatives are changing their lives, which was found in the present survey. survey findings socio economic profile: the survey carried out in the two districts of andhra pradesh yielded a return of 119 responses. most of the women have been working at the eseva centers for less than five years with a majority 60.6% having worked for less than three years while 5% have been working for five years or more. a majority of the women are young; about two thirds (61.9%) fall in the age group 20-29 years followed by 25.4% in the age group 30-39 years. most of the women working at eseva centers are mostly married (72.3%) and are educated at the undergraduate levels (70.8%), and about 18.6% have acquired post-graduate degrees. the average income of the women is generally low as 90.5% earn less than rs.3000 (us $75.00 a month) which is a cause of concern among the women, despite their training in the it, which is regarded as high in value. (table-1) for persons in the it field, and at eseva centers the wages may appear as a cause for concern given their familiarity and skills with microsoft windows (45.9%-92.5%) and accounting software (34.4%) (table-3). but since they work in the semi government sector, such incomes tend to be low. yet according to mr. saibaba, there is a gradual increase in the number of women working in eseva in last few years and more are being trained to work in the mobile eseva vehicles that will further ease the citizen’s use for government related transactions. table 2: demographic profile of the respondents years working at eseva frequency % < 1 yr 36 30.3 1 yr to < 3 yrs 36 30.3 3 yrs to < 5 yrs 41 34.5 5 yrs or more 6 5.0 age of the women frequency % < 20 yrs old 8 6.8 20-29 yrs old 73 61.9 30-39 yrs old 30 25.4 40-49 yrs old 6 5.1 50 yrs old & above 1 .8 marital status frequency % yes 86 72.3 no 33 27.7 income level freq % < rs. 3000 105 90.5 rs. 3,000 to rs. 5,000 10 8.6 rs. 5,001 to rs. 8,000 1 .9 educational level frequency % high school to intermediate 11 9.7 graduation undergraduate/ university level 80 70.8 post graduate 21 18.6 vocational training 1 0.9 (n=119) table 3: competency of respondents in software programs software program freq % microsoft word 95 87.2 microsoft excel 98 92.5 microsoft access 34 45.9 web designing software 6 9.1 accounting software 24 34.3 2. the services provided at eseva centers: all the centers that the women are working at provide for payment of utility bills (100%). the other two most frequently provided services are payment of taxes (98%), registration/renewal of trade licenses (97%), issue of birth/death certificates (36.1%), and others (table 4). table4 the frequency of services used by the customers at eseva centers s.no frequently uses services provided and used by customers freq % 1 payment of utility bills 119 100 2 payment of taxes 117 98 3 registration & renewal of trade licenses 115 97 4 registration of birth & other certificates 43 36.1 5 online forum discussion on issues 35 29 6 filing of grievances 31 26 7 other information and support 24 20 table 5 – the internet services used by women services used by the women freq % search and retrieve information 71 59.4 participate in online discussions 49 41.2 download software 47 39.4 buy goods and services 21 17.8 sell goods and services 12 10.4 others –mails, chat, entertainment etc 24 20.0 n=119 3. internet services used by women: the most frequently used services on the internet by the women is the search and retrieval of information (59.4%) followed by the participation in online forum discussion (41.2%). the least frequently used services are buying (17.8%) and selling (10.4%) of goods and services online. it may be presumed that indians believe in physical purchase of products rather than buy online. perhaps there is a high level of skepticism among the buyers on the dependence and reliability of products bought online as was expressed by a few members during the interviews. 4. problems of working in eseva centers to gain greater insights into problems faced by women working in the eseva centers, survey respondents were asked to list down some of the problems they faced at the work place. the findings have been grouped into three categories--wage and benefits related, customer related and work related. as this was an open-ended question, the responses have been divided into three broad categories. (table 6) table-6 list of problems faced by women working at eseva centers wage and benefits related customer related no constant salary scale no cooperation from the customers low or unreasonable salary payment with fake currency no casual or annual leave provided teasing from customers during rest time no quarterly or monthly risk allowance no separation barrier between operators and customers no increment work related lack of small notes and loose change it problem in terms of server and printers insufficient money counters power supply problem no proper communication between management and operators. poor and unhygienic facilities/working conditions water and furniture from table 6 it can be seen that most of the problems faced by the women working at the eseva centers are work related. one of the most prominent problems stated by women in the financial transactions is the lack of small notes and change. as most of them deal with cash transactions – payment of bills, fee, etc. – they face an eternal problem of having insufficient change and harassed customers. in india, the system for payments through credit or cash cards is gradually being introduced and hence payments continue to be paid through these centers. then, there are technical problems – servers and printers in particular and non-availability of uninterrupted power supply. apart from these, few have also complained over the unhygienic facilities and poor working conditions under which they have to work. these problems hamper work, delay transactions, and incense customer ire. physical infrastructure deficiencies and communication gap between operators and management have also been identified customer related problems include non-cooperation from customers, especially on account of the problems mentioned above besides payment with fake currency, and eve teasing and harassment. they would like proper separation from the customers. studies on working women across the world have identified such problems and efforts are made to employ better security systems to control such problems. in the area of wage and benefits, the most common complaint is low salaries and the lack of casual or annual leave. as stated earlier women have expressed their problems of lower wages, although they are trained in it, but as explained before, eseva being controlled by the government, the wage structures generally follow the government scales, which tend to be lower compared to the private sectors. women would also like a risk allowance either on a quarterly or monthly basis. 5. impact of eseva on women’s lives economic and social impact of eseva: women were asked to rate a series of statements on a 5-point likert scale to gain a better understanding of their perceptions of the work at the eseva centers. this was to gauge their levels of economic and social empowerment. the scale was compressed by combining the percentage for strongly disagree and disagree and agree and strongly agree (table 7). (a) economic empowerment: the findings reveal that 52.6% agreed that they have gained economic independence by working at eseva centers when compared with 36% who do not agree. however, 80.8% do not agree that they are earning more than their friends working in other sectors. about 34.8% felt that they have received adequate help from the government, while 39.3% of the women do not agree that the government has provided them with enough help to work at eseva centers. however, 72.4% report that there is enough training provided to them to work at eseva centers, which gives them an edge over others table-7 women’s perceptions of the work at eseva and impact variables strongly disagree & disagree (%) neutral (%) agree & strongly agree (%) economic empowerment the government has provided me with adequate help to work at the eseva centre 39.3 25.9 34.8 there is enough training provided for me to work at the eseva centre 15.2 12.5 72.4 working at the eseva centre has helped me gain economic independence 36 11.4 52.6 i earn more than my friends who are working in other sectors 80.8 7.3 11.9 social impact i enjoy working at the eseva centre and have many friends 10.9 8.2 80.9 working at the eseva centre has given me greater confidence as i am now using it skills 49.1 9.6 41.2 i am now more respected in my family as i am trained in computers and work for the government 9.6 13.9 76.6 (b) social impact: 80.9% of the respondents enjoy working at the eseva centers and have made many friends there. 76.6% indicated that they are now more respected by their family as they are competent in the use of computers and were working for the government. this is a major milestone for women’s status in india given the vast digital divide and the lack of access by women to technical education and work. this was also stated by women during the focus group interviews. however, the response is mixed in respect of gaining confidence in it skills working at eseva centers. there is still a need for women to come out of their secondary status and gain more confidence in their abilities. 6. impact of eseva on women’s personal lives 89.6% of the women agreed that using eseva has saved them time and effort in their daily transactions. by using eseva services, 81% also agreed that they can communicate and share knowledge with other women easily. 84.2% indicated that they will pass on information that may be of use of others and 48.2% report improved decision-making with access to information, 27.2% are not sure while 24.5% disagree. overall, looked at another way, it is a reflection of information leadership abilities of women manning eseva centers who help women use information/knowledge to make a difference in their lives. table-8 presents the findings on the impact of information and services of eseva centers on women users. it can be seen that the findings are largely of a positive nature. through a simple pearson correlation analysis we gauged if there was a relationship between their use of internet and their enjoyment at work. table-8 impact of eseva on women’s lives variables strongly disagree & disagree (%) neutral (%) agree & strongly agree (%) using eseva has saved me time and effort in my daily transactions 5.1 5.2 89.6 through eseva, i can communicate with other women and share information and knowledge easily 10.3 8.6 81 eseva has improved my decision-making skills as i have greater access to information 24.5 27.2 48.2 if i know of important information that would help women, i generally pass it on to them 7.9 7.9 84.2 table-9 relationship between decision making, communication and enjoyment at work eseva has improved my decision making skills as i have greater access to information through eseva, i can communicate with other women and share information and knowledge easily i enjoy working at the eseva centre and have many friends eseva has improved my decision making skills as i have greater access to information pearson correlation 1 0.194* 0.159 sig. (2-tailed) 0.04 0.10 n 113 109 through eseva, i can communicate with other women and share information and knowledge easily pearson correlation 1 0.266**. sig. (2-tailed) 0.005 n 109 i enjoy working at the eseva centre and have many friends pearson correlation 1 sig. (2-tailed) n note: * correlation is significant at the 0.05 level ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level improvement in decision making and enjoyment of work from table 9, we can see that improvement in decision-making of the women using eseva is significantly correlated to their communication and sharing of information with one another. (pearson r = 0.194, p < 0.05). the communication and sharing of information amongst the women using eseva is also significantly correlated to the women’s enjoyment working at the eseva centers. (pearson r = 0.266, p < 0.01) 6 .to what extent is eseva bridging the digital divide in andhra pradesh improving social status and bridging the digital divide there was an overwhelming response when women respondents were asked to report their perceptions of the potential impact of eseva (or eseva like services) on the lives of women in india in general, and the digital divide within the country. 78.4% of the respondents believe that services like eseva would help improve the social status of indian women; 61.7% report that such services would help indian women earn money and be economically independent; 79.6% think that it would help create opportunities for women in the poorer areas of india; 71.5% said that eseva like services help narrow the information gap between the rural and the urban areas; and 73.6% felt that such services have enhanced the ease of understanding of government operations even among the not very literate. these responses gives an impression that ict leveraged information/knowledge can create digital opportunities and make a difference in the lives of indian women, and over time, help bridge the digital divide. (table-10) table-10 eseva/eseva like services: improving women’s status and bridging the digital divide items strongly disagree & disagree (%) neutral (%) agree & strongly agree (%) i think services like eseva will help improve the social status of indian women 8.8 12.7 78.4 i think services like eseva will help women in india earn money and be economically independent 25.2 13.1 61.7 i think services like eseva will help create opportunities for women in the poorer areas of india 13.9 6.5 79.6 eseva like services help narrow the information gap between rural and urban areas 15.2 13.4 71.5 eseva services have enhanced the ease of understanding of government operations even among the not very literate 9.8 16.7 73.6 discussion and conclusions this study was initiated to understand the impact of icts on women in india and their role as information providers in the eseva project in andhra pradesh. it exemplifies how the women’s association with the project contributes to their access to information and use for their own needs as well as that of their community. it also gives them some level of confidence, and more importantly enhances their technical skills. given the status of the indian women, particularly those in the urban and semi urban areas, such projects show how effectively icts are being leveraged for strengthening their participation, competitiveness and emancipation. the findings indicate that women’s work at eseva centers has indeed helped them improve their social status (respected within their family and community), although not satisfying their economic expectations corresponding with their education and experience. similar to the west and other countries where problems of digital divide, wages and poor infrastructure are impacting people in the silicon valley, the same is the case with women at eseva. yet, even the discomforting work environment/infrastructure deficiencies that may lead to inefficiencies in the women’s work, and thereby unpleasant encounters with customers are looked as part of the working process. as information and responses at semi-urban and urban eseva centers are generally assisted, information leadership abilities of women (wo) manning eseva centers is critical. as respondent users have centers to make a difference in their lives. however, a little less indicated, they use the information/knowledge they access at eseva than half of them admit that access to information has helped in their decision making in their personal lives. although low, the process of change is likely to be gradual given the context of social status of indian women, where men continue to be decision makers. what is more important is that over 80% of the respondents have accessed, used and shared information. the findings also show that a majority of the women are educated to a tertiary level (70.8%) and about 94% of the women surveyed are below the age of 34. it can be argued that with their educational foundation and relatively youthful profiles, they are highly trainable to take up more challenging jobs to further enhance their skill training and moving to higher level jobs. significantly, these women have a very positive perception of the work they do at the eseva centers, and understand the importance of such initiatives for their well-being. it would be extremely difficult to introduce or implement any initiatives if the women themselves are not keen or take to them negatively. women have gained a sense of empowerment by asserting control over resources, officials and, most of all, by challenging men (jain 1980; 1993) the responses in the study also give an impression that ict leveraged information/ knowledge can create digital opportunities and make a difference in the lives of indian women, and over time, help bridge the digital divide. they would also create opportunities for women in the poorer areas of india, narrow the information gap between rural and urban areas, and enhance the ease of understanding of government operations even among the not very literate. overall, these are small milestones in the path of progress. e-governance is a major initiative in andhra pradesh is seen in the positive attitudes of self-help group women beneficiaries, who have been encouraged, trained and assisted to set up eseva centers in rural and urban areas. however, some responses, particularly government’s response in relation to processing applications could indicate that back end computerization problems do exist, but have not been indicated as a serious constraint at the front ends. what is important is that e-governance has made citizen transactions with the government nearly hassle free, transparent and reduced illegal money transactions and exploitation of the poor. women are overcoming the gender divide that adversely affects their status, and access to technology. at eseva, they are effectively accessing and using the benefits of the technology to facilitate their own development as well as that of their families and communities. the government will need to play a significant role in managing some of the problems listed by the women; 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(2001). the status of women under malaysian laws. penang, malaysia: women’s crisis center. the authors would like to thank mr. sanjay jaju, municipal commissioner hyderabad, mr.saibaba and mr. biseshwar das from the municipal corporation of hyderabad, andhra pradesh for lending their support with information and permitting us to collect data from the women in e-seva centers and mr.sanjay kumar for collecting the data from the women. searching for the role of icts in development: a case study of a rural multi-purpose community centre in the dwars river valle   the cserénfa experiment on the attempt to deploy computers and internet in a small hungarian village   györgy lengyel professor of sociology, corvinus university of budapest, department of sociology and social policy <mailto:gyorgy.lengyel@uni-corvinus.hu> eliza eranusz, ph.d. student, corvinus university of budapest, department of sociology and social policy dániel füleki, junior research fellow, corvinus university of budapest, department of ebusiness lászló lőrincz, ph.d. student, corvinus university of budapest, department of sociology and social policy viktória siklós, ph.d. student, corvinus university of budapest, department of sociology and social policy abstract the research aimed at studying the social impacts of network-based and institutionally organized it learning in a less developed village community in hungary. compared to western countries, hungary has a relatively low personal computer and internet penetration. this experiment provides a method for the implementaton of a diffusion of it-skills, in terms of deploying pcs and internet connections to private households. at the beginning of the project, ict courses were organized for adults, then computers and internet access was made available for families, and they were asked to provide help for others on a voluntary basis. the turnout in the village community technology centre (ctc, also known as the telehouse) was monitored at the same time. focus groups, interviews, computer-generated usage log files and diaries of the participants were the main data sourcesfor our investigation. as for the primary impacts, by the end of the experiment ict knowledge and related aspirations increased, although side effects, like envy and frustration also did occur. the internet activity of the participants was predominantly focused on recreation and not information gathering or resource extension. as far as the wider social impacts are concerned, at the beginning of the project villagers thought that people in the community were reserved, mistrustful and unprepared to help, and this mood did not change much to the end. the finding of policy interest is that while children learn basic ict skills in the elementary school, adults are worse off in this respect. therefore organizing local courses for adults was popular and proved to be useful. another policy result is that deploying resources through interpersonal networks and the ctc satisfy the potential demand with more or less the same efficiency.   introduction: the aim of the research and former experiences the aim of the research was to study the social impacts of network-based and institutionally established ict-learning in a less developed community. the experiment took place at cserénfa between october 2003 and may 2004. we wanted to study the advantages and disadvantages of the spread of information technology on the basis of networks as opposed to institutions. by deploying computers to the homes of people with different social and network positions, we expected to observe a special way of diffusion of knowledge and usage. we expected among others that marginalized people, who do not have close contacts with the young and with the local elite (who are the early adopters of ict in the village), may begin to use the internet as well. in other words, we expected that by deploying the computers and internet to homes, a group of people, who would not have had the opportunity to “contact“ to this technology in the community technnology center (ctc), would have an opportunity to do so in this way. we wanted to know how people learn ict skills from each other, for what purposes they use the internet and with what efficiency they use it. a further objective was to examine the indirect social impacts of the spread of information technology, to see how the life conditions and subjective opinions of the villagers changed. we expected that people will search for and find (better) jobs, getting informed, and perhaps change their opinions concerning their life chances. as the basis of the experiment three courses were organized, four pcs were lent to cserénfa families and nine internet accesses were made available. the families were asked to co-operate during interviews and visits, keep a diary of their experience and make the internet available for relatives, friends, and neighbors in case of interest. international research concerned with the interplay of information technology and local society contains proposals as the establishment of ctcs, voluntary computer courses, and activation of the relevant knowledge of young people in order to combat the accumulation of disadvantages (schoen, sanyal, & mitchell, 1999). finnish experts have reported on a successful attempt to revitalize a disadvantaged region with the installation of the intranet network in a center through the involvement of the unemployed and physically disabled in the area (koskikallio, 2001). a swedish experience found an internet café more efficient than a local network in combating social inclusion (ferlander & timms, 2004). experience gained in india during a revitalization attempt in a poor rural region shows that distributing useful information for the public is done at best through publicly accessible service centers, like public libraries. indian libraries, besides their natural function of being gateways to information, have the capability of negating differences in access based on gender, caste or age segregation. these libraries had one or more dedicated terminals, through which information could be accessed by villagers. (raju, 2004) an overview of the american efforts at making technology available and creating capacity compares two practices of bridging the digital divide: creating centers and building networks (servon, 2002). while ctcs have more in common with traditional local development efforts, community computer networks focus on creating of local content. a criticism about community computer networks is that they do not represent the entire community, but rather reflect the group which adopted the technology most quickly (servon, 2002). recent practices of the community technology movement integrate these two tracks, and also concentrate on training. early studies of diffusion of innovations (coleman, katz, & menzel, 1966) found that people with broader external information adopt innovations earlier. it was also shown that although people usually learn about an innovation from formal sources, they tend to adopt it only after they have discussed it with their fellow colleagues. on the base of several earlier studies it was shown that early adopters are usually more technology oriented and of higher status (rogers, 2003). a case study in economic sociology (letenyei & eranus, 2004) has shown that innovations often appear in local societies via the mediation of outsiders and then spread through traditional networks. however the social applications of technology together with the content of networked information may also lead to a digital divide (alkalimat & williams, 2001). we have relied on some of these findings as well as on our own experience gained during previous examinations in the sub-region of kaposvár, a town in south-west hungary (lengyel et al., 2003, 2004). the district has rich cultural traditions, but in economic and ict terms it is just at the national average. at the time of the research the ict penetration in hungary was considerably below west-european standards. in the eu-15 the computer literacy of adults was well above fifty percent and internet access at home exceeded two-fifth of the households. in hungary computer literacy was slightly above a quarter of the adult population and internet access was available in less than one-fifth of households. the settlement the village of cserénfa inhabited by 257 people is 12 kilometers from kaposvár. the village has no railway station, school, nursery or pharmacy. there is a food store and a pub in the settlement. some one-third of the population are pensioners, one-fifth are underage. under the age of 15 most of the inhabitant children attend the elementary school at szentbalázs, the central settlement of six nearby villages. the pupils travel two kilometers, and their bus ticket is financed by the municipality. a quarter of the houses are unplastered in cserénfa, yet few are recently built. (nb: in the control settlement of szilvásszentmárton of a similar size in the region half of the houses were unplastered.) the overwhelming majority of the villagers are catholic. there is a single house of worship converted from a school. the romani (gipsy) minority numbers some 6 % of the population. there are few jobs locally, the commuters to kaposvár pay high travel costs. the inhabitants feel they are disadvantaged concerning the job market and job security compared to the employees living in the city. the number in the qualified, active labor force is quite small and it is very difficult even for the skilled workers to find a job that is worth commuting to in the nearby city. there are fewer than ten inhabitants with higher education in the village. to keep domestic animals or to deal with an orchard and viniculture are not as common activities as they were before. these are not profitable anymore, so they are considered not being worth the expenses and time spent on dealing with them. still there are big vineries behind the village on the hill, which are cultivated by the owners only because they do not want to let their families’ land erode or because it is their hobby, moreover, they want to drink home-made wine all year. there is a middle-aged man, who deals with pets, another one with bees to make honey which he sells later in order to have additional income, and there is only one family who is making its living by farming, and breeding animals. there is a young man who paints portraits, and a young woman who organizes discussion groups about the bible. there is a man who constructs ships in the backyard of his house although there is no lake or river in the neighborhood. the inhabitants, depending on the time they have lived in cserénfa, have different concerns about the relationships, and climate of opinions in the village. most of them say that it is still much better to live here than in the city, although people are not as cooperative or friendly as they used to be. the reasons for becoming “alienated” is that many of them (mostly the middle-aged) make a precarious living, or have to work hard to achieve an acceptable living standard, so people are often jealous, and do not have much free time to chat with each other. in general we can identify that there are rather more small groups, and cliques than a homogenous population in the village. the youth, and the pensioners arrange common programs and spend more time together. the pensioners’ club for example is an opportunity for the latter group. the village has a dynamic leadership. the mayor, formerly a primary school teacher, has applied successfully for several development grants. in the last two years before our experiment, , a statue was unveiled, a playground created in the center, a village warden was appointed to arrange for transport, for the villagers as needed, and a ctc was established (siklós 2004). telehouses were available on the average in every sixth settlement in hungary at this time. building out the village sewerage system is among the most urgent plans of the commune, followed by reconstructing the village roads. they would like to make further steps to develop village-tourism. however, a focus group study (vicsek, 2004) revealed that despite growth in the population lately, the villagers were still pessimistic about the future of the village. they felt that the future depended on politics and tenders for grants – that is, on factors beyond themselves – and that the village population would probably decrease in the future. as mentioned above, there is a ctc in cserénfa which had four computers at the beginning, with another two being added later through a successful grant proposal. they also made a bid for free broadband access but they failed, so they pay some 60 000 huf (app. 285 usd) a month to have an isdn line. the ctc, as well as the pensioners' club – located in the same building is directed by a specialist, who is on good terms with the mayor. the ctc has hosted on the average thirty-five visitors who spent twenty hours per month on the internet before and during our experiment. it is predominantly used by children and young people, therefore as one of our colleagues noticed it resembles a playground most of the time, the technical supervision-maintenance of the computers is done by a young specialist from kaposvár who is also the system operator for the school computers in the central settlement of szentbalázs. most households have mobile phones and the spread of pcs is also judged positively. the financial difficulty is not so much in the purchase of a computer than in subscribing to an internet service provider. courses before deploying pc’s and internet connections to private houses we planned to hold voluntary courses for the villagers about the basics of computer technique and internet use. since earlier there was a course organized for a narrow circle and the participants were ready to continue, we changed the original plan and announced two beginners and an advanced courses. the courses were held in the ctc. a possible venue was the school computer lab of neighboring szentbalázs with more pcs, but to minimize travel costs we decided on the ctc. the course was not free as we wanted every participant to be committed, but the fee was low enough to be payable by all those interested. the fee practically covered the internet service costs, whilst the lecturers were paid by the project. the interest and continuous attendance were consistent with our expectations. the reception of such an initiative as the cserénfa experiment depends largely on the personality of the course leader and ctc director. getting acquainted with information and communication technology tools does not merely imply the acquisition of a certain skill but rather requires an attitude change in order to be effective in the long run. in our course, two university colleagues held demonstration lessons and a jobless nurse, with several certificates, living in the district, supervised the computer practices. she performed her task with great enthusiasm and competence. the job was more than a means for earning money for her: "the best thing was that people were grateful for whatever you gave them, without exception. it was good for me psychically, too, because i felt successful, which i missed for quite some time, and i got so much affection here that i all but wallowed in it." (course leader) shortly after the course she applied for the job of leading a ctc and pensioners' club in another village in the district, and was successful. another course participant got a job, partly through what she had learnt in the course: "at the beginning andrea found it hard to settle to the work and i thought she wouldn't make it, but finally she got going. she was my greatest success; a bit later we met in the bus and she happily told me she'd found a job, just because she had a start on the computer." (course leader) another person was attracted by the possibility of browsing, looking for vacant jobs (marked i1 in the research), who later profited by his attainments in buying a computer and acquiring other knowledge. "there was a college graduate, i don't remember his name. he came to learn to use the internet, 'cause he was a farmer and wished to correspond and use tables and make balance sheets alone at home. then on the internet he browsed for grant possibilities." (course leader) all in all, the course had a clearly positive impact, also manifest in the early attendance of the ctc. a person of gipsy origin, for example, got the knack of the internet, learned extremely quickly and used his knowledge enthusiastically. "each was an interesting person. a1, for example, who only wanted to use the net and kept clicking the mouse, thinking the faster he clicked the greater the result; he had to be slowed down. then he gradually realized that it was not all clicking about... as i know, he is now employed by the local government to maw the lawn. he's not like the rest, you know, he's not hungarian but a rom and they don't take great pains. i was glad he came at all and didn't spend his time in the pub. he did something at least. true, after it he went to the pub, and before it, but he advertised the course there, too. he printed out things and flourished them all over as relics: i did it!" (course leader) among the motives of the course participants, the appeal of something new and the elimination of knowledge differences within the family were also to be found. "q: there was this computer course held by my colleagues and yours. do you think it promoted some chance, did it have some impact, what responses do you know of? a: it was joyful that so many were interested. more important still, only two of the participants dropped out, the rest finished it. it immensely improved their self-confidence, they proudly say: i know it, even if they only heard about it. actually, they don't use the ctc so much more. the spell of it has faded. i know of a pc that was born of this thing, someone bought a machine maybe others too, but i am in contact with him only, i know they use it... it's only a 486, but a computer after all. they are entrepreneurs, at least eve, i think they have an agricultural enterprise and she uses the computer. to make invoices and their own adverts. she enjoys it. i don't know if anything else has come out of it, i think it's a question of prestige, for the list included many parents who have pcs at home. they probably came here to have a smattering of what the kid's doing at home." (ctc director) selection of participants several viewpoints had to be reconciled during the selection of the experimental subjects. we were looking for motivated and cooperative partners who thought participation would be useful and were willing to keep in regular contact, log the events and share their knowledge with others. nearly all those attending the computer courses were like that. there were some who did not take part in the course as they were familiar with the computer and helped several others in this regard. their problem was that they could not afford to pay for the internet. some were motivated and interested but local public opinion considered them unworthy of being involved in the experiment due to their living conditions and marginal position. contact persons warned us about the risks of providing computers for those who lived on social benefits only. (cases of a1 and d1 exemplified this in our sample.) it was made clear at the beginning that the mayor and the ctc director could not take part as it was irreconcilable with their posts. they agreed and helped our work in several other ways. the mayor warned us not to give anyone a pc without a preliminary selection procedure. we thrashed out our choices with her and she agreed with our decisions. during the phase of selection, some changes had to be made. a course candidate who found a job and whose student son was considered a computer expert in the village told us she had a pc, though rather obsolete, had access to the internet at her workplace, so she resigned in favor of someone else. she pointed out another two potential participants. three members of another family attended the course, but they had no time to keep regular contact. another couple discussed the possibilities and decided to resign because they were afraid the children would do harm to the computer. we deployed the four pcs, each equipped with internet connection and cd writer in households, which were very different in their social and financial parameters. to maintain anonymity we coded each participant (see next section). it was clear from the beginning that the bottleneck was not with the pcs but in internet access, which thus had greater appeal. we provided internet access for another five households with their own pcs. some had already been deliberating the possibility of getting internet access, and were very positive about the experiment. to arrange for internet subscription was technically and administratively very complicated and caused a great deal of problems during its maintenance, as well as after the whole research period. characteristics of the participants at the beginning of the experiment a1: socially marginal jobless man of gipsy origin. lives in bad financial plight with his foster mother (grandmother). schooling: eight primary grades, lives on a monthly allowance, does communal work and occasionally works for a little money or food. beginner in computing. b1: aged 48, father of two. worked as a fitter for years, but pensioned off two years ago due to his health conditions. financially secure, the four family members are living on the wife's salary and his disability pension. his sons aged, 16 and 19 attend vocational schools. he is generally respected by the village society. has hardly any knowledge about how to handle the computer, though they have a pc at home, mainly used to play computer games c1: a seamstress by profession, she "immigrated" into the village 6 years ago, yet she is rather highly thought of, she helps the village leaders and neighbors a lot. her household includes her husband and 4-year-old daughter. they are financially consolidated, keeping several irons in the fire, because after the child care leave, she didn't get a job for a long time. d1: 38-year-old jobless mother of two, pensioned off. schooling: 8 primary grades. the children attend primary and secondary schools, respectively. the family is rather marginal both socially and financially. they moved to the village a few years ago, and earned little esteem socially. her computer knowledge is next to nothing, though earlier she sometimes played on her son's pc. e1: student of secondary school in kaposvár specialized in informatics. they are six in the household. his widowed mother lives with her partner, with whom they have a small daughter in addition to the two elder children. the three children live at home (the eldest as a college student in kaposvár). they are socially and financially consolidated. his computer competence is advanced. he got a new computer before the launching of the project. f1: the household includes four: the couple and two schoolboys. he is one of the computer "gurus" of the "older" generation (at 34). he uses the computer for his work as a turner and he has a pentium iv pc at home, which he keeps upgrading. his financial status is consolidated, he plays a central role in the village community for several reasons. he is an alderman of cserénfa. g1: 35-year-old single woman with a university diploma. she moved to cserénfa two years earlier. she can handle the computer well, as she used it for her studies and work. the loss of her job put her into a bad plight. her social relations are mixed, she is only partially accepted. her contacts with some, especially those in marginal position, are good, but many regard her as eccentric and disapprove her. h1: young man of 25 with secondary school education. works as a sanitary inspection assistant at a kaposvár meat factory. the household includes six., he has a younger sister and the mother's parents live with them. he has a computer at home, which he handles at an advanced level. the family is better off than the average. tthe parents do various jobs apart from their main employment. not only their house is centrally located, but also nearly all the members of the family play an active role in the village life. i1: 31-year-old college graduate, water conservancy engineer at the kaposvár waterworks. lives with his wife and parents. generally respected in the village, he is a member of the local government. beginner in computing. the family is known for their diligence, also doing farming and breeding animals and creating a good financial status. outcomes we asked the participants to keep a simplified start/stop record and a diary about those who visited them in connection with computer use and to agree to the computer's keeping a record. we contacted them by e-mail several times (but it didn't work smoothly as some didn't check on their mail regularly). we also visited them and recorded their experience on tape and video during our interviews. the system operator of the ctc was in charge of the maintenance of the computers and internet connections, the solution of the technical problems, and a colleague involved in the project also gave help several times. below we sum up what happened to the participants during the experiment individually, what general experiences can be inferred concerning the learning of the computer/internet, and what secondary social impacts could be identified. a1 took part in the course; we installed a computer and internet access in his home. his only relative, his foster mother died. his bad behaviour in his area of public responsibility (like neglecting his duties, being impudent and arrogant with others) strained his relations with the village elders. he spent almost all his time at the computer. it helped him overcome his grief, he said. despite a low level of schooling, he is sharp-witted, knowledgeable, and reads a lot. he chatted a lot, copied cds for his friends in the village, who, however, failed to get the knack of it. he did not observe the time limits of internet use, frequently exceeded the costs, displaying signs of internet addiction. he plans to buy a second-hand computer. he developed a large circle of virtual acquaintances and initiated relationships with three partners. his position within the village worsened instead of improving, he behaved indecently when drunk, offending many. in interviews and talks several people remarked that he was unworthy of the support the project gave him. b1 also attended the course. he had a computer at home, so only the internet access was installed in his home. pensioned off because of his heart operation, he regularly goes for health test. he showed keen interest at home and at the course, searching for possible telework on the net, without success. someone in the family generated a high telephone bill of tens of thousands of forints (approximately three hundred usa dollars) through a dialer settled unwittingly on their computer, and that disheartened them somewhat. his interpersonal relationhips did not change substantially. some of his diligent and sharp friends regarded it as useless and their opinion did not change in the course of the experiment. c1 took part in both the beginner and the advanced courses. after the course they bought an old computer, but it was so outdated, that we installed a computer and internet access in her household. she took a job as a cleaning woman and nurse in a pensioners' home in the neighboring village. her search for a job on the net was half-hearted and unsuccessful. the husband was more often at the computer, downloading stories for their daughter. they would like to buy a computer. they hoped to get the computer they used during the project at a reduced price. their social position and network of relations did not change, but the orientation of their demands shifted towards it. the presence of it is moderate in their circle of acquaintances. d1 took part in the course. we installed a computer in her home. she took up a job not through her computer knowledge -, though her illness makes work hard for her. her daughter in secondary school is making a competitive school paper, the school record of her son in primary dropped ,he narrowly missed failing. the husband objected to the internet, which was also impossible because of their arrears in telephone bills. the daughter used the computer and sometimes the ctc for her studies. the son became a computer addict, purchased a second-hand pc, but he was probably duped. since they are immigrants, their relations are restricted to the neighbors. the husband sometimes pops up in the pub, her daughter is said to be uppish, the son to have a screw loose. nevertheless, very many children (the boy's friends) turned up at the house, mainly for computer games. e1 did not take part in the course as he knows the computer and learns it at the informatics secondary school. he had a pc at home, so the internet access was installed. his relationship with his foster father is steady but reserved. the use of internet had no significant inpact. his brother and mother sometimes used the computers but their social relations did not change. he often sat with the son of the ctc director together by the computer. his contact is intensive with him and with a university student also using the computer. f1 didn't have to participate in the course, but the internet was made available to him. in the meantime, his grave spinal condition put him on sick leave. as a skilled worker, he was the most competent and intense user of the net. he looked up the university homepage, communicated on e-mail and lent help and advice to many. the children of nursery and primary school age as well as his wife were allowed to use the computer in his presence. his social esteem and network of relations did not change. when invited to the bible circle by g1, they refused because they thought little of some of the participants. g1 the forestry officer has used the computer and the net for over 10 years, since her university studies; she had a computer but no internet access. she was visited by friends and acquaintances. she mostly hitchhikes, sometimes drops in at the pub. she organized a bible-reading circle, with a crippled romani woman and her son, and an alcoholic couple as the constant members. she's been looking for a job from the beginning of the project, mainly on the net. she was about to spend a year on a polar observation station as a volunteer when she found a post at the other end of the country, in the miskolc forestry. after her interview there she was employed. she did not sell her house in cserénfa, her dog is cared for by the neighbor, b1's mother. her mail is sent after her by a reading-circle member. in her search for a partner on the net, she corresponded with several people and finally got acquainted with a young transylvanian engineer currently doing his military service, and the relationship might be lasting. her network of relations is extremely extensive, which did not change significantly by having access to the net at home. it was a negative experience that in her absence she let a young villager use her computer, who visited porno pages and made an enormous telephone bill. first he promised to pay it, then he refused. h1 young rock and heavy metal fan also interested in eastern fighting sports, and learns drawing. he was also drawing in a tattooing salon, and plans to do portraits at the balaton in the summer where his family owns a cottage. he has used the net for a long time and also met his girlfriend who live in a nearby settlement by chatting on the net. he didn't take part in the course. the internet access was installed in his home. he and his younger sister use the computer. his social status or network of relations did not change much by accessing the net from home. the use of the internet is self-explanatory in his circle of friends of similar interests recruited mainly from the kaposvár district. i1 took part in the beginner course. we gave him a pc and internet access. since his father suffered a lasting injury while transporting a machine, he has managed the bulk of the family farming business, as well. he works much and is on the village board. he plans to build a house and live separately from his parents. after an advertisement on the net, they purchased a good-quality second-hand tractor at an auction, and he is informed of other possibilities. he mainly used the computer to show it to young relatives visiting from kaposvár. in his circle of references, there are some who plainly object to the computer. i1 uses the net mainly to extend his resources, but he has not been able to fully exploit its potential. table 1: balance of course participation and installations code participation in courses pc installed internet installed a1 yes yes yes b1 yes no yes c1 yes yes yes d1 yes yes no e1 no no yes f1 no no yes g1 no no yes h1 no no yes i1 yes yes yes source: own data collection despite the short period of investigation, negative events numbered conspicuously high in the families: in two-thirds there were grave illnesses, accidents or death. on the other side, one-third found employment independently of the project -, and one-third found partners through the internet. the participants' knowledge of the computer and internet increased, but the dissemination of this knowledge had limited penetrating force. it mainly attracted the children and young people, besides the person who had already had considerable knowledge and was ready to give advice to others. as for social impacts, there was no convincing evidence in half of the cases, while in the rest there was weak positive or mixed influence. in one case its effect within the local society was clearly negative, and it is not certain that the virtual relationships can compensate for it. computeror internet-related visits were especially numerous and intensive at those (f1, b1) who were already the spokesmen of certain circles, and in one case (d1) the frequency of the visits of the friends of the boy was high. the majority of visitors were children, mostly boys. the adult visitors were mainly friends and relatives, in part continuing the former visits (b1, a1). the intensity of visits widely varied, as some families were extremely open, others were closed. table 2: number of visitors for the participants at the beginning of the project (october-november 2003) total number of visitors relatives friends neighbors colleagues, classmates, acquaintances participants a1 7 3 4 b1 6 2 3 1 c1 2 2 d1 9 3 3 2 1 e1 2 1 1 f1 8 2 3 2 3 g1 4 3 1 h1 i1 2 2 total 33 7 12 9 2 3 source: own data collection visits were intense at the beginning and fewer and rarer later. it cannot be expected therefore that the computer or internet access would boost the number of primary relations and visits lastingly. while friends and neighbors were predominant among visitors at the beginning, their interest dwindled more than the average later. as a result, intercommunication between the participants grew towards the end of the period. several participants visited f1 from the beginning, motivated chiefly by the technical problems and requests advice. some one-fifth of the visitors were not villagers but relatives, friends or acquaintances from outside the village. table 3: number of visitors for the participants at the end of the project (march-may 2004) total number of visitors relatives friends neighbors colleagues, classmates, acquaintances participants a1 b1 2 1 1 c1 2 1 1 d1 7 3 3 1 e1 1 1 f1 5 1 1 3 g1 h1 2 2 i1 1 1 alltogether 20 5 7 4 1 3 source: own data collection the participants spent some one-seventh of their waking time with the computer or on the net, which is more than the time spent watching tv or listening to the radio. this kind of leisure-time activity, especially the games, was often a social event. the number of visitors for the ctc dropped at the beginning of the experiment. the home computers seemed to replace it, but later the turnover data became more balanced when in the last months of the project technical problems arose concerning the internet access at home. still, the attendance of the ctc did not come up to half the attendance after the opening. the time devoted to the computers, especially the internet, decreased even more drastically. table 4: ctc-statistics (may 2003-may 2004) month internet (min.) using computers (min.) printing (page) photocopying (page) fax (page) attendance (persons) may 2711 2625 8 1 0 78 june 2117 1076 15 0 0 65 july 3816 2281 45 0 1 70 august 791 457 2 23 3 25 september 2734 2222 2 14 2 68 october (beginning of the experiment) 1313 998 8 89 3 49 november 227 5 9 29 2 11 december 118 10 5 32 2 10 january 175 50 0 33 2 7 february 3 0 0 6 1 3 march 184 766 0 42 0 24 april 261 1616 0 0 0 30 may (end of experiment) 83 50 2 16 1 9 source: compiled by the leader of the cserénfa ctc socially, the computer and internet can be used for activities from recreation to acquisition of information and the extension of access to resources (dimaggio, hargittai, celeste, & shafer, 2004). recreation activities include games, music, entertainment and movies; the acquisition of information may range from browsing, using the e-mail and chatting, while the expansion of resources may include learning, target-directed search, looking for jobs and telework. the categories may somewhat overlap, but the main difference is that concerning the goals, one group basically serves recreation, the other serves the enlargement of knowledge and solution of problems. by this categorization, both the participants and the visitors of the ctc primarily went in for recreation, first of all games and entertainment as well as listening to music. such activities were somewhat more marked in the ctc than in the homes, because the ctc is mainly visited by children and young people. certainly, the computers of the project participants had an ever-greater appeal to children among the visitors. however, in the intense phase of the project (october 2003-march 2004) the number of visitors did not exceed one a month and that of visits was not more than one a week, and most participants were adults. it is of course decisive who are the participants and the chief users within the family. information gathering, chatting and e-mailing are around the mean but slightly more frequent in the ctc, while resource-expanding activities are more characteristic in the homes than in the ctc. this can be attributed to the fact again that there was a higher rate of adults among the participants of the experiments, more interested in getting jobs, partners (learning, though present, is represented with low intensity in the list of activities). at first sight, one might find that network-based home computers are more favorable for computerized resource expansion. however, this advantage can be recompensed if the ctcs take pains to involve the elder generations (organizing programs for the pensioners, adults, fixing time zones for different generations). both information accumulation and resource enlargement were more typical of people with advanced computer knowledge and higher education. table 5: weight of computer activity in each participant's use recreation information accumulation resource expansion games music, writing cds film, enter-tainment browsing surfing chatting e-mail learning targeted search, looking for partner, arranging matters, shopping telework, looking for a job a1 +++ +++ ++ + +++ + + +++ b1 + ++ + ++ c1 ++ + + ++ + + ++ d1 +++ +++ + e1 +++ +++ ++ ++ +++ + ++ + f1 ++ ++ +++ +++ + ++ ++ +++ +++ g1 + + +++ + + +++ ++ +++ +++ h1 ++ ++ +++ + +++ +++ + +++ * i1 + + + ++ +++ + ctc +++ +++ ++ ++ ++ + + + + source: own data collection legend: +++ very typical ++ typical + noticeable not typical * no information what we actually have here as recreation, information gathering and resource extension are various types of a group of activities rather than contrasted phenomena that mutually exclude each other. telework, learning and getting informed were little, if at all, present in the participants' activity. a middle-aged woman who completed the course received a job partly owing to her acquaintance with the computer. another three female participants got jobs during the half-year period of the project, but they did not arrange it on the internet but in person and computer knowledge did not count. a family member used the computer and the internet to write a final thesis for the school. the majority, however, listened to music and downloaded games, and learnt to use the cd writer. browsing characterized the participants who had been looking around on the internet earlier, too, and e-mailing did not become popular. thus, the internet activity of the participants was predominated by a bent for recreation, and not for information gathering or resource extension. the place of making acquaintances is also an interim category in our typology. most acquaintances were of course made by chatting, but the aim was not simply to acquire information. there was also target-directed search, which considerably influenced the social resources. the self-esteem and prestige of those who found partners seemingly grew, they spontaneously and willingly talked about their partner-seeking experiences three of the nine participants looked for and found partners on the net during the half-year experimental period. two relationships proved lasting (g1 and h1), and one (a1), previously married, only wanted occasional partners, which he found three times. it is remarkable that looking for partners assumed such a great importance among the possible activities, as it appears to offer a solution to an urgent demand among young adults of small settlements. the spread of partner-seeking was just a bit short of that of recreative activities. side-effects had also to be reckoned with: suspected net-addiction (two cases), large telephone bills due to ignorance and the frustration and interpersonal tensions it entails (two cases), envy and the deterioration of one's social position in the village (one case). our expectations concerning the search for jobs and telework were not verified. though several people tried to find telework, they failed, and only an intellectual who could read foreign language offers would have found a job. this service in hungarian is inadequately structured and ill adjusted to the needs of the potential job seekers. several participants got employed during the project period, but they did not learn about their new workplaces on the internet and computer competence was an advantage in the case of only one candidate. the participants would gladly do telework (but found none) and would be ready to work somewhere near if commuting did not rob too much of their time from the family and if the travel costs were not too high. a regular service about vacancies in the small districts and the readiness of the labor center/employer to pay the travel costs would certainly promote success in searching for jobs in the labor market.. information and application possibilities concerning entrepreneurship and village tourism are similarly inadequate. for a beginner in the field information is unattainable, while most information that could be had was insipid or unintelligible. the only area where target-directed search was successful was looking for partners, and searching for sales, auctions also cropped up. the effectiveness of searching for web pages heavily depended on user routine, language knowledge and level of education. the intensively browsing but inexperienced participants have failed in some one-fifth to one-fourth of the time spent on the computer. the proportion of failing webpage visit attempts was similar. this relatively high rate may cause frustration, but can be decreased by teaching target-directed search in the courses. table 6: elementary indicators of the computer-generated log file database code of participant number of webpages visited number of failed webpage visit attempts % of failure f1 6603 1310 19,84 x1(control person) 3842 968 25,20 e1 4411 1563 35,43 g1 3336 556 16,67 c1 3994 835 20,91 a1 659 164 24,89 b1 1360 455 33,46 i1 3282 754 22,97 h1 4859 670 13,79 source: own data collection emergent effects, summary as to the question of how the spread of it has influenced communal life, interpersonal relations, confidential contacts and a sense of security for the villagers, no strong findings can be reported of. to see all the secondary social impacts of the spread of computer and internet would require follow-up research. although together with our earlier research over a period of three years we have ample knowledge of the field, one may only modestly hint at saying that some signs of development and consolidation can be observed in cserénfa. this fits in with an overall tendency of the district on the one hand, and is attributable to the fact, on the other, that the local policy-makers are active, inventive, and ready to apply for grants. most of this is not to be ascribed to the direct or indirect impacts of it. but conversely, the positive attitude of key actors of the settlement toward it might have a direct impact on digital literacy and spread of it. table 7: impacts of the experiment and what happened what happened? itlearning, radiating influence social impacts a1 -- + --+ b1 - * c1 + * * d1 + ++ + e1 * ++ * f1 - +++ * g1 ++ ++ ++ h1 * + + i1 + * * source: own data collection legend: + positive happening/effect (strong:+++, medium:++, weak:+) negative happening/effect (strong:---, medium:--, weak:-) * no information/effect the events in the lives of the participants are little related to the experiment and the public life of the village, as they are more concerned with health, work, making a living and interpersonal relations. they are still mentioned here because these events constitute the background to the spread of it and have an influence on it. the balance of personal events was neutral for most participants and negative for about a third, thus in sum the weight of negative events was larger than that of the positive ones. at the beginning of the project, the village leaders and the participants in the focus group declared that although the situation was better in the village than in the town, villagers had also become reserved, mistrustful, disinterested in the common good, dissatisfied, and unprepared to help. this mood did not change much to the end of the project. what we may venture to contend is that by the end of the project it knowledge and aspirations increased. there were negative side effects, but the balance is on the whole positive. our assumption that the spread of information technology would exert a strong influence on the evaluation of life chances cannot be verified in view of all the emergent effects. it applies only to the dispositions and opinions concerning it itself. people got informed and more open toward this kind of technological changes the three elements course, ctc and network-based spread both collectively and individually may have contributed to information accumulation, the extension of knowledge, relations and resources. one of our experiences is however, that during teaching computer and internet use, attention should be called to valuable contents to be reached on the net. taking only the ctc and the deployed computers and net into consideration, one finds that the balance was more or less even during the experiment. since the fluctuation of turnover suggests that both variants satisfy the same potential demand, they are not expedient to be applied at the same time in a small settlement or residential area. wherever a community can maintain a ctc a time schedule by age groups and preferential access for marginal people might be useful. where there are no such conditions, individual applications for internet access could be applied under clear-cut terms (reception of visitors, financial discipline, etc.). both solutions are, however, grounded by computer courses for adults at reasonable prices, in order to reduce the digital gap between generations, income groups, and educational levels. table 8: balance of the ctc and deployment ctc deployment balance acquisition of computer, software yes yes ctc internet subscription once several times ctc need for building yes no deployment pay of director yes no deployment pay of system operator once several times ctc access to computer (person/computer) 8 9 access to computer (occasion/computer) 29 30+ deployment internet access (person/line) 32 9 ctc internet access (occasion/line) 117 180 deployment access fixed flexible deployment expert advice, servicing standard occasional ctc total of accesses (occasions) of the handicapped (total of those above 60, below subsistence level, roma) 14 23 deployment source: own data collection the last table indicates that both ctcs and deployment actions may have functions in small settlements.. their advantages and disadvantages are more or less balanced. for network-based dissemination, according to our experiences the deployment of computers has less importance now. however providing access to the internet by tendering at places where there is not ctc or other internet port might be useful. a project like this could be especially attractive for marginalized people and they may prove to be devoted participants. careful monitoring and involvement of local key actors in distributive decisions may help to avoid negative side effects of conflicts and further marginalization in local society. references alkalimat, a., & williams, k. (2001). social capital and cyberpower in the african american community: a case study of a community technology center in the dual city. in l. keeble and b. d. loader (eds.), community informatics: shaping computer mediated social relations, (pp. 177-204). london: routledge. coleman, j. s., katz, e., & menzel, h. (1966). medical innovation; a diffusion study. indianapolis, in: bobbs-merrill co. dimaggio, p., hargittai, e., celeste, c., & shafer, s. (2004). from unequal access to differentiated use: a literature review and agenda for research on digital inequality. in k. neckerman (ed.), social inequality. (pp. 355-400). new york: russell sage foundation. ferlander, s., & timms, d. (2004). different solutions to digital exclusion: local nets versus internet cafés. retrieved may 12, 2005, from http://www.el4ei.net/first/conferences%2520-%2520conferencies%2520-%2520conferencias/local%2520net%2520vs%2520it-cafe%2520ferlander-timms.v1.pdf koskikallio, i. (2001). the civil society and it technology. retrieved august 05, 2004, from http://www.infobalt.lt/docs/koskikallio.ppt gy, l. (ed.) (2003). információs technológia és életminőség [information technology and quality of life]. vols. 1-4, budapest: bkáe gy, l., lőrincz, l., füleki, d., & siklós, v. (2004). bridges over the digital divide. review of sociology, 10(2), 47-66. letenyei, l., & eranus, e. (2004). teleház és/vagy magánház? [telehouse and/or private house?]. in g. lengyel &v. siklós (eds.), a cserénfai kísérlet. beszámoló egy aprófaluban lebonyolított számítógépés internet-telepítés tapasztalatairól. műhelytanulmányok. [the cserénfa experiment. report on the experiences of the deployment of computers and internet-access in a small village. working papers], (63-86). budapest: bkáe. raju, k. a. (2004). a case for harnessing information technology for rural development. international information & library review, 36(3), 233-240. rogers, e. m. (2003). diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). new york: free press. schoen, d. a., sanyal, b., & mitchell, w. j. (1999). high technology and low-income communities : prospects for the positive use of advanced information technology. cambridge, mass.: mit press. servon, l. j. (2002). bridging the digital divide: technology, community, and public policy. oxford: blackwell pub. siklós, v. (2004) esettanulmány a cserénfai teleházról [case study on the telehouse of cserénfa] in l. gy & v. siklós (eds.), a cserénfai kísérlet. beszámoló egy aprófaluban lebonyolított számítógépés internet-telepítés tapasztalatairól. műhelytanulmányok. [the cserénfa experiment. report on the experiences of the deployment of computers and internet-access in a small village. working papers]. (47-62). budapest: bkáe. vicsek, l. & siklós, v. (2004). a fókuszcsoportok elemzése [analysis of the focus groups]. in l. gy. & v. siklós (eds.), a cserénfai kísérlet. beszámoló egy aprófaluban lebonyolított számítógépés internet-telepítés tapasztalatairól. műhelytanulmányok. [the cserénfa experiment. report on the experiences of the deployment of computers and internet-access in a small village. working papers]. (25-45). budapest: bkáe. stakeholders’ perceptions of the impact of a global system for mobile communication on nigeria’s rural economy: implications for an emerging communication industry tella adeyinka department of library and information studies, university of botswana <tellayinkaedu@yahoo.com> josiah .o. ajiboye university of botswana, gaborone, botswana. ajiboyejo@mopipi.ub.bw adu olusola emmanuel university of ibadan, ibadan, nigeria solaadu@yahoo.ca james idowu, wojuade department of teacher education, university of ibadan, nigeria. abstract the major purpose of the study was to examine the stakeholder’s perception of the impact of gsm on the economies of rural dwellers in nigeria, specifically, on job creation, time management, reduction in the crime rate and general income flow. the study adopted a descriptive survey research design, and data was collected using a questionnaire administered to one thousand respondents randomly selected from ten rural communities in a region of nigeria. the sample was taken from only one of the 36 states of the federation in nigeria, however, the rural communities represent typical rural villages in the country, hence, the findings could be generalized for the whole country. the gsm is an emerging communication industry in africa, with nigeria rated as one of the fastest growing market in this field of communication. however, the impact of the communication system is largely felt in the urban cities, the impact on the rural dwellers is still marginally poor. hence, focus should be shifted to the utilization of the gsm for the development of rural economies in africa, nigeria inclusive. the paper is a product of a recent survey carried out by the authors; hence the findings reported here are original and reflect the current views and practices in the rural communities in nigeria with regards to the impact of the communication mode. apart from some ‘market’ researches in this area, this perhaps represents one of the few academic thorough researches in the field in nigeria. key words: nigeria, communications, global system of communication, economy, rural, industry. introduction the world is fast becoming a global village and a necessary tool for this process is communication, of which telecommunication is a key element. development in the telecommunications industry all over the world is very rapid as one innovation replaces another in a matter of weeks. a major breakthrough is the wireless telephone system, which comes in either fixed wireless lines or the global system for mobile communication (gsm) (wojuade, 2005). communication is a major driver of any economy. nigeria is part of this race for rapid developments, as the years of economic reversal via mismanagement have had adverse effects on its rate of growth and development. the nigerian telecommunications sector was grossly under-developed before the sector was deregulated under the military regime in 1992 and placed under the jurisdiction of the nigerian communication commission (ncc). since then, the ncc has issued various licences to private telephone operators. these licences allow private telephone operators (ptos) to roll out both fixed wireless telephone lines and analogue mobile phones. the return of democracy in 1999 however paved the way for the granting of gsm licences to three service providers, mtn, ecopnet (which is now v-mobile) and nitel plc in 2001; with globacom joining in 2003. the development of gsm was prompted by the need to provide seamless telecommunications throughout europe. in the early 1980s, analogue mobile telephony was growing rapidly and operators found it increasingly difficult to interconnect the various networks in europe as each implementation of the analogue service was fundamentally different making internetworking a serious challenge. to address this a study group called ‘group special mobile’ (where gsm got its name) was formed and was tasked to provide a standardized system for mobile telephony. out of this group (and seven years later), the gsm standard was realized. in january 1992, the first gsm network, oy radioing ab in finland went on air. today, gsm covers over 1.2 billion users on 630 networks in over 210 countries, and is the fastest growing technology of all time. the initial release of gsm was called gsm phase i, and is commonly referred to as the 1st generation. this release made provision for the basic voice, sms and circuit switched date (csd) services. csd allowed for a maximum data rate of 9.6kbs and was capable of fax transmission as well. supplementary services at that point were very basic consisting of call forwarding and call restricting capabilities. the second generation (gsm phase 2) was released in 1995 and provided enhanced supplementary services, among which were call line identificatio (cli), call waiting and multi-party services. data services however remained limited to 9.6kbs. gsm phase 2+ was an enhancement to gsm phase 2 and was released two years later in 1997. realizing the need for enhanced data service, phase 2+ addressed this requirement by making provision for high speed circuit switched data (hscsd) and general packet radio services (gprs). hscsd and gprs allowed maximum data rates of 48kbs and 177 kbs respectively. in nigeria, the national economic empowerment development strategy (needs) highlighted the nation’s socio-economic development aspirations. specifically, it called for the reform of the public sector, to enable a robust private sector-led economy and the implementation of an effective social charter to reduce poverty, create wealth, generate employment and re-orient national values. one fundamental feature was that it clearly delineated responsibilities between the government and the private sector. while government would provide the enabling business and regulatory environment, the private sector would invest in and manage ventures that stimulate and support socio-economic development. being aware of the catalytic role typically played by mobile telecommunications in socio-economic development in africa, gsm operators in nigeria have developed a joint economic development (jed) framework to support the government in the actualisation of its objectives as set out in needs. jed outlines the positive multiplier effects of mobile telecommunications on virtually every sphere of endeavour in the society, previews further prospects targets, highlights challenges and (and possible solutions) and assigns specific roles to government and operators for further optimisation of the benefits of gsm services. needs targets for the telecommunications sector include: attainment of tele-density of 1: 25 by the year 2007 and the development of a national communications backbone and multi-media super-corridor. strategies identified for attaining these targets include the use of fiscal financial incentives to encourage investment, adoption of a local content policy in the manufacture of equipment, accessories and components as well as financial support for rural roll out and internet access. today, tele-density stands at about 1.15, there is significant improvement in rural telephone access penetration from just one (ntel’s) transmission backbone in 2001; while at least four other backbones are being constructed across the country today. the summary is that the telecommunications sector has exceeded its tele-density targets under needs. this is due to the advent of gsm services in 2001 which has resulted in a dramatic increase in the total number of lines from just over 500,000 to about 12 million today, accounting for about 91% of the total telephony (fixed and mobile) market. in nigeria, there has been an even more expeditious roll out in rural areas covering over 50% of the government’s target areas and at least 5,000 communities and villages. most of the other gsm operators are presently building transmission backbones to complement nitel’s facilities. the result of this will be the availability of spare capacity that can be utilized by other interests for conveying data, video and voice. these developments underlie nigeria’s present standing as the fastest growing telecommunications market in africa. the major purpose of our study in this context was to examine the stakeholder’s perception of the impact of the gsm on the nigeria rural economy. similarly, it would examine the role of gsm and its effectiveness on nigeria rural dwellers time management and finally indicate whether gsm has actually contributed to job creation and crime reduction. literature review the journey to success in nigeria telecommunication milieu has been long and tortuous. telecommunication facilities in nigeria were first established in 1886 by the colonial administration. at independence in 1960, with a population of roughly 40 million people, the country only had about 18,724 phone lines. this translated into a tele-density of about 0.5 telephone line per 1,000 people. the telephone network consisted of 121 exchanges of which 116 were manual type and only 5 were automatic. between 1960 and 1985 the telecommunication sector consisted of the department of posts and telecommunication (p & t) in charge of the internal network and a limited liability company, the nigerian external telecommunication (net) limited, responsible for the telecommunications gateway to the outside world. the installed switching capacity at the end of 1985 was about 200,000 lines as against the planned target of about 460,000. all the exchanges were analogue with 1 telephone line for 440 inhabitants, well below the target of 1 telephone line for 100 inhabitants recommended by itu for developing countries. the quality of service was unsatisfactory. the telephone was unreliable, congested, expensive and customer unfriendly. arising from the foregoing, in january 1985, the erstwhile posts and telecommunications department was split into postal and telecommunication divisions. the latter was merged with net to form nigeria telecommunication limited (nitel), a limited liability company. the main objective of establishing nitel was to harmonise the planning and coordination of the internal and external telecommunications services, rationalize investments in telecommunications development and provide accessible, efficient and affordable services. however, after almost 43 years nitel had only roughly half a million lines available for over 100 million nigerians. nitel, the only national carrier had a monopoly on the sector and was synonymous with very poor services and bad management. on assumption of office on may 29, 1999, the president olusegun obasanjo’s administration swung into action to deregulate the telecom sector, most especially the granting of licences to gsm services providers and setting in motion the privatization of nitel. this approach by the government to the telecom sector has made it possible for there to be over 2.5 million individual gsm telephone subscribers in nigeria today (nigeria business information, 2005). gsm mobile communication is one of the most explosive developments ever to have taken place in the telecommunications industry (wojuade, 2006). combining the convenience of mobility with the rich multi-media content of the internet and with the integration of the mobile telephone with palm-sized computers, cameras and content related information makes it almost inevitable that the ubiquitous access point to the electronic information is not the pc but rather some form of mobile appliance. econet wireless nigeria limited (econet) which was one of the winners of gsm licences in nigeria is a zimbabwean based company with strong ties in south africa. it is the fourth largest mobile phone operator in africa with a significant network in the southern part of the continent (wojuade, 2006). in nigeria, econet wireless international (ewi) holds an equity interest in econet of zimbabwe and the south african government owned company transnet. both companies together hold a 60% stake in nigeria affiliate (masiyiwa, 2002). according to masiyiwa, the zimbabwean econet vision was to provide telecommunication to all nigerians and with a mission to serve nigeria by pioneering, developing and sustaining reliable, efficient and high quality telecommunication of world class standard and ethics. ajakaye (2005) explains that econet promised affordable charges and proposed to the government that they be allowed to charge a connection fee of n20,000 and air-time cost of n29 or n30 per minute which has been done (at current rates $1usd=n118.5). in the same vein, mobile tele-communications carrier network nigeria limited (mtn) is also one of the companies that own gsm licence in nigeria. it began in 1994 with five countries and over three million customers in uganda, burundi, swaziland, cameroon and south africa, leading africa into a new age of economic developments using telecommunications as the spring board. “effective communication services are, essential particularly from a business perspective and nowhere more than in nigeria which is developing into one of our most important trading partners” (huel, 2001). it is on this principle that mtn has based its vision to become the leading telecommunications provider on the african continent providing quality services as a catalyst for economic development. the success of mtn in nigeria revolves round providing telecommunication across the countries. mtn’s aim is to facilitate changes that have long term domestic benefits. apart from the obvious economic development, local infrastructure and facilities are up graded to improve the quality of life through communication. effects of gsm on the economy of nigerian rural dwellers according to balogun (2000), gsm facilitates economic development as it provides easy and effective communication needed to stimulate and promote trade between nigeria and its foreign partners in the world. even at home, it plays a significant role in communicating government programmes. above all, it encourages investment which in the long run promotes employment opportunities. according to a report in nigeria tribune newspaper of july 16, 2004, government treasury has been boosted by payment of over 200 billion naira in taxes and and levies. national productivity has also been enhanced as travel times and associated risks have been reduced, business communications improve and the rural-urban divide narrowed. social and family relationships and the security situation have also been significantly enhanced. adeyeye in wojuade (2005) noted that gsm has discouraged rural-urban migration, now with gsm people travel to cities without boarding a vehicle. the introduction of gsm also has potential for reducing crime. accessibility to phone services ensures quick calls to security operations when the need arises as well as informing fire stations during fire incidents to save live and properties. to adomi (2006), gsm is used by nigerians mostly to communicate with another. he explained that students used it to communicate with their course mates, friends, lecturers and family relatives. additionally, family matters, finance, and academic matters constitute the topics/ subject of mobile communication for a majority of students. mobile phones limit the need for students to travel as well as facilitating the of exchange information as the need may arise. scott (2004) reports research carried out by gamos ltd on some characteristics of the use of telephones amongst rural and low income communities in some african countriesbotswana, ghana, and uganda. the study reveals rural inhabitants and poorer urban users value phone services but do not use them very often compared to relatively more affluent users; over 40% of respondents in uganda used mobile phones through friends and family and individuals; with a further 24% of people using mobile phones through teleshops. the result from all three countries was quite striking and consistent, demonstrating a strong preference for mobile phones rather than fixed line phones, and a preference for private phones rather than public access points. scott in adomi (2006) as well reports that educated people used phones more, have a stronger intention to use phones in the future, and have a more positive attitude towards phones. gsm activities have increased and promote competition in the industry, resulting in an exponential growth in the number of telephone lines. it is instructive to note that while connected lines only grew at an average of 10,000 lines per annum in the four decades between independence in 1960 and end of 2000, in the last two years, an average growth rate of 1 million lines per annum was attained. as of september 2003, nigeria had attained over 3 million lines, (2.3 million of which were digital mobile lines). total teledensity, which had been just 0.4 lines per 100 inhabitants in 1999 stood at 2.6 per 100 inhabitants by september, 2003. along with this growth in lines has come a boom in private investment in the telecommunications sector. recognizing the seemingly insatiable appetite of consumers for phone services and the potential of the nigerian market, investors pumped usd 2.55 billion into the sector by june 2003. this represents a phenomenal 5000% increase in investment from just usd$50 million at the end of 1999. today, investment in the telecom sector ranks second only to that in the oil industry. increased competition in the market has also pushed down connection charges, so that fixed lines cost between n7,000-n30,000 in 2003 from over n100,000 in 1999 (ndukwe, 2003). in 1999, nigeria had only 400,000 connected telephone lines and just 25,000 analogue mobile lines. total teledensity stood at a paltry 0.4 lines per 100 inhabitants. connection costs were prohibitively high – as much as n60, 000 for an analogue mobile line and waiting times for fixed lines could run into years. the increase in teledensity goes thus: 0.4 lines per 100 inhabitants in 1999; reached 1.96 in dec 2002, it increased to 3.33 in december 2003. by march 2004, the total teledensity was estimated at 3.92 lines per 100 inhabitants. the nigeria population now stands at 140 millions with gdp usd 52b, gdp growth of 3.7% and inflation rate of 10.4% (itu, 2004). owing to several factors including government deregulation policy, the worldwide trend of rapid development in telecommunications and information technology and the huge potential of the nigerian market, the story is very different. the immediate past administration, through the government regulator, the nigerian communications commission, has proved itself fully committed to the liberalization of the telecom market. since year 2000, ncc has licensed digital mobile service providers, several private telephone operators, fixed wireless access operators, two long distance operators, internet service providers and a second national carrier (ndukwe, 2003). the emergence of gsm has led to improvements in efficiency and productivity, reductions in transaction costs, increased service innovation and better quality of life for the rural dwellers. close to 2,000 persons have been directly employed by the gsm operators and an estimated 400,000 nigerians are benefiting from indirect employment generated by the gsm operators (ndukwe, 2004). indirect employment has also been created through contract awards to construction firms, research companies and media consultants. in the financial sector, enterprising banks have designed innovative products that leverage the use of gsm. the emergence of gsm has also led to the return of significant numbers of nigerians from abroad. these are telecom professionals who have come back to build the country’s communications sector. moreover, the gsm explosion has given birth to a new class of entrepreneurs who might otherwise have been unemployed. there is a nationwide network of dealers, vendors, gsm accessory sellers and the ubiquitous “umbrella-stand” operators, who interestingly received a special mention in a recent itu publication for the service they are rendering to the nigerian public. profile of nigeria rural economy nigeria rural population and economic activities in nigeria, the rural areas constitute the greater percentage of the country’s population. this sector of the society is economically backward and the gap between rural and urban sectors in the country has been widening in recent years with . poverty being very widespread among nigerian rural households. (torimiro et al., 2004). these households lack frequently lack the basic necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing among other things. as a coping strategy to cushion the biting effect of poverty, the rural children are involved in many economic undertakings. torimiro and lawal (2001) identified major economic activities in which the children are involved to complement their parents’ contribution to household survival. these are street trading, firewood gathering, hunting, fishing, food processing, fetching of water, among other economic undertakings. among the most important impacts of poverty is urban migration from rural areas. because the great majority of migrants are men of working age, the rural areas from which they come are left with a demographically unbalanced population of women, younger children, and older people. (coutsouki, 2004) this phenomenon is not new to nigeria and has been evident in parts of the country since long before independence. as a longer-term phenomenon, however, migration from the rural areas, especially by young men, is now an accelerating and largely irreversible social process. coutsouki (2004) asserts that this process affected the rural economy in the areas of migration by creating marked changes in the gender division of labor. in most of africa, agricultural labor was traditionally specified by gender: men had certain tasks and women had others, although the specific divisions varied by culture and ethnic group. as working-age men left the rural areas, the resulting labor gap was met by others, usually wives or children, or by hired labor--or the tasks were modified or not performed. effects of gsm in rural economies and its impact on development community much anecdotal proof of mobile phone adoption leading to poverty alleviation has surfaced over the past couple of years. mobile phones are quickly becoming an affordable, germane, and accessible tool to improve the livelihoods of individuals and groups in developing countries (sinha, 2005). beginning from africa the number of mobile users is growing twice as fast in developing countries as in developed countries. africa is now the fastest-growing mobile market in the world. vodafone operating and affiliate companies now have networks in seven african countries (vodafone, 2007). the rapid spread of mobiles has been aided by pre-pay options that allow users to control their spending. the number of mobile users is often much higher than the actual number of phones, as many people allow family and friends to use their phones. community phone shops allow many more people to gain access to telecommunications. increased mobile connectivity improves access to information. knowledge of latest prices in different markets, for example, can improve price transparency for small farmers and fishermen who can cut out the middlemen and gain direct access to markets. for example, vodafone’s affiliate in kenya, safaricom, helps farmers keep track of market prices for their goods (vodafone, 2004). in 2000, access to mobile phones surpassed fixed line phone access in sub-saharan africa. a similar story unfolded in asia in early 2002 (itu, 2004). digital wireless phones have great potential to bridge the gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots”, given their accessibility, affordability, and fast infrastructure implementation (kauffman & techatassanasoontorn, 2005). a study done in a tanzanian community found that 28% of people said they could access a fixed line in their community, compared to 97% who could access a mobile one (samuel et al., 2005). the same study concluded that income was an important but not limiting factor to ownership and use of mobiles. also, ownership for mobile telephones was shown to be less skewed towards those with higher incomes than for fixed lines. these findings point towards a need for greater understanding with regards to why more poor people are using mobiles, how they are using them, and what they are using them for. in 2004, vodafone commissioned four research studies on the socio-economic impact of mobiles in africa. the key findings are: the value of mobile phones to the individual is greater because other forms of communication (such as postal systems, roads and fixed-line phones) are often poor. mobiles provide a point of contact and enable users to participate in the economic system. many people who cannot afford to own a mobile themselves can access mobile services through informal sharing with family and friends or through community phone shops. use of text messaging in rural communities is much lower due to illiteracy and the many indigenous languages. this has implications for other technologies that use the written word, such as the internet. as well it was found that mobiles can improve economic growth, quality of life and social capital: mobiles have a positive and significant impact on economic growth. this impact may be twice as large in developing countries as in developed countries (maveman and fuss, 2005). a developing country with an extra 10 phones per 100 people between 1996 and 2003 would have had gdp growth 0.59% higher than an otherwise identical country (maverman et al., 2005). fixed and mobile communications networks, (in addition to the openness of the economy, the level of gdp and other infrastructure), are positively linked with foreign direct investment. this impact of mobile telecommunications has grown in recent years (williams, 2005). many of the small businesses surveyed use mobiles as their only means of communication. the proportion is highest for black-owned businesses in south africa and informal sector businesses in egypt (samuel et al., 2005). 62% of the small businesses surveyed in south africa and 59% in egypt said they had increased profits as a result of mobile phones, in spite of increased call costs (williams, 2005). mobiles are used as a community amenity. most mobile owners surveyed in south africa allow family members to use their handset for free and a third does the same for friends. 85% of those surveyed in tanzania and 79% in south africa said they had more contact and better relationships with family and friends as a result of mobile phones (williams, 2005). in bangladesh (wattegama, 2005), gave the underlisted as the effects of gsm on the rural economy: phones have been placed in 1,100 villages. the 6 -7 year goal is to serve 500,000 subscribers, including 68,000 phones dedicated to serving rural areas. village phones have increased incomes and savings accumulation among phone owners, mostly women. phone users, mainly local farmers, have increased their productivity through access to market information, weather reports and pest and disaster alerts. farmers in phone villages receive up to 10 percent higher prices for farm products and improved security of supply for inputs. a significant portion of phone owners’ profits has been spent on paying for improved education and health services for their families. the phone service has also contributed to improvements in disaster response, crime rates and livestock mortality through better access to public services. similarly, (itu, 2006) report that over the last five years, mobile phones have been the outstanding ict platform in terms of growth and impact in the developing world. in nigeria, africa’s most populated country, the telecommunication industry, and particularly the mobile industry, has been recognized as the fastest growing employer of labour. the telecommunication regulator (ncc) estimated that in march 2004 alone the telecom sector created 5,000 new jobs directly and primarily due to the growth in the mobile sector. in the same month, it was estimated that the spin-offs in new businesses – dealerships, retail outlets for gsm handsets and accessories, and one-man phone booth operations – created no less than 400,000 new jobs. telecommunication is expected to provide employment opportunities for the unemployed graduates and school leavers. the licensed operators in nigeria such as mtn, econet, globacom, m-tel and the likes are still recruiting workers. it is against this background that the present study is designed to examine the stakeholders’ perception of the impact of gsm on the nigerian rural economy and as well consider its implication for the emerging communication industries. methodology this study adopted a descriptive survey research design to describe stakeholders’ perceptions of the impact of the gsm on the nigerian rural economy and its implications for the communication industry. the study drew on gsm subscribers who were comprised of policemen, teachers, the unemployed graduates, itinerants’ traders, farmers and the drivers as the target population. the sample comprised 1000 respondents randomly selected from ten rural communities of oyo state, nigeria. their age ranged from 2550 years. an instrument tagged the economic impact of gsm perception scale. the instrument was divided into two sections. the first section acquired the respondents’ bio-data information such as gender, marital status, age, and years of using gsm etc. while the second section contained a number of issue response items. the second section was further divided into four parts. part 1 contained items on gsm and the rural economy; part 2 included items on gsm and unemployment. part 3 consisted of items on gsm and crime reduction while part 4 presented items on gsm and time management. each part contained five items each, except part 4 which contains six items. these gave a total of 21 items in all. response to the items range from strongly agreestrongly disagree (likert scale). the instrument was administered to the respondents in their various communities using the town halls as the venue of the administration. with the support of research assistants, the administration of the questionnaire was completed in 10 days. research questions what is the stakeholder’s perception of the impact of the introduction of gsm on nigeria’s rural economy? does the introduction of gsm provide job opportunities to the rural dwellers in nigeria? has the introduction of gsm reduced the rate of crime in rural areas in nigeria? of what relative impact is the introduction of gsm on the rural dwellers’ time management? data analysis data collected was analysed using chi-square statistics. results the results of the analysis are presented as follows: table 1: bio-data information summary gender no of respondents % distribution male 600 60 female 400 40 total 1000 1000 marital status no of respondents percentage single 350 35 married 550 55 divorce 100 10 total 1000 100 respondents age in years no of responses percentage 21 30 150 15 3 40 400 40 41 50 250 25 51+ 200 2 total 1000 100 years of using gsm no of respondents percentage 0 5years 556 55.6 6 10years 234 23.4 11years + 210 21.0 total 1000 100 return rate no percentage number administered 1000 100 number returned 1000 100 the results in table 1 above show that 60% of the respondents’ were male while 40% were female. furthermore, 35% were single while 55% were married and 10% were shown to be divorced. 80% of the respondents’ ages falls within the range of 2150 years. the return rate of the instrument was also shown to 100%. research question 1: does the introduction of gsm have an impact on nigeria’s rural economy? table 2: rural economy and use of gsm s/n items sa a d sd r-total 1 gsm has improved the standard of living of the nigeria rural dwellers. 120 (60) 92 (71) 28 (67) 16 (23) 256 2 every sector of the economy in nigeria has benefited from gsm 70 (45) 80 (53) 17 (50) 23 (54) 190 3 gsm is not relevant to all, as it is expensive to maintain. 6 (36.5) 8 (45) 51 (37) 75 (40) 140 4 gsm has improved the demand and supply of agricultural product in the rural areas. 75 (40) 52 (37) 6 (36.5 7 (32) 140 5 gsm is of no impact on nigeria rural economy 5 (35) 10 (41) 65 (39) 67 (42) 147 6 gsm is meant for high income earners. 27 (30) 20 (35) 50 (33) 30 (36) 127 column total 234 277 263 286 1000 *significant at 0.05 (x obs = 472. 1; x crit = 26.296; df, 16, p.05) looking at the results in table 2 above, on item 1; it is clear that the stakeholders perceived that gsm has contributed to the improvement of the standard of living of the rural dwellers. this is evident with the number of responses to strongly agree and agree which is (212) greater than the number of disagree and strongly disagree (44). on item 2, the result also indicates the opinion that every sector of the nigeria economy has benefited from gsm. this is also shown with the number of strongly agree and agree greater (150) greater than the number of those who disagree and strongly disagree (40). the response to the third item shows that gsm is perceived as relevant to all. this is indicated with (126) disagree and strongly disagree as against (14) strongly agree and disagree. it should be noted that this is a negative item; hence the interpretation is reversed. this means those who disagree and strongly disagree are on the positive side. on item four, which is on the perceived impact of gsm on agricultural products in the rural areas; the result shows that demand and supply of agricultural product are understood to have been dramatically improved. this is shown with (127) strongly agreeing and agreeing against (13) disagreeing and strongly disagreeing. similarly, item 5and 6 are also negative. with these therefore, the interpretation is that gsm is understood to have had an impact on nigeria rural economy and is not meant for high income earners alone. going a step further, an attempt was made to calculate the chi-obs. and chi-table value to show the significant perception of the impact. the result shows that the xo obs 472.1 is greater than the value of xo crit. 26.296 at 16 degree of freedom. this indicates that the introduction of gsm is understood to have had a significant impact on nigeria’s rural economy. research question 2: does the introduction of gsm provide more job opportunities to the nigerians in rural areas? table 3: job opportunities and use of gsm s/n items sa a d sd r total 1 the introduction of gsm in nigeria encourages small scale business 92 (88) 78 (72) 13 (22) 23 (24) 206 2 gsm has provided a source of income to many young school leavers 102 (99) 86 (82) 21 (25) 24 (27) 233 3 gsm has reduced poverty in nigeria 96 (92) 88 (76) 21 (23) 11 (25) 216 4 unemployment has been dramatically reduced through the introduction of gsm. 105 (86) 64 (71) 14 (22) 18 (23) 201 5 gsm provides employment opportunities for only a few influential nigerians. 14 (29) 15 (24) 18 (7) 20 (8) 67 6 gsm provides holiday jobs for many students 20 (33) 20 (27) 17 (8) 20 (9) 67 column total 426 351 107 116 1000 *significant at 0.05. (xo obs. 103.66; xo crit. 37.652; p.05; df 25) the result for item 1 in table 3 above shows that the introduction of gsm is perceived to encourage small scale business in the country. this is shown with the number of strongly agree and agree (170) greater than the number of disagree and strongly disagree (26) responses. the result also revealed that gsm is seen as providing a source of income to many young school leavers. this is indicated with the number of responses on strongly agree and agree on this item (200) greater than the number of disagree and strongly disagree (45). results also shows that gsm has reduced the poverty level in nigeria with (184) respondents agreeing and strongly agreeing against ((32) strongly disagreeing and agreeing respectively. on the issue of whether unemployment has been dramatically reduced through the introduction of gsm, (169) agreed and strongly agreed. this shows that the introduction of gsm in nigeria is understood as reducing unemployment. the result on item 5 in table 3 confirms this by indicating that gsm is indicted as providing employment opportunities for many nigerians with only a few (38) respondents disagring and strongly disagreeing with the item against (29) who agree and strongly agree. it is also evident from the results that gsm is understood as providing holiday job for many nigerian students with (40) respondents agreeing and strongly agreeing against (37) disagreeing and strongly disagreeing. the result obtained on the value of (xo obs.= 314.2) is greater than the value of (xo crit. 26.296) at 0.05 significant levels at 16 degree of freedom. this indicates generally that the introduction of gsm significantly is seen as creating employment opportunities for the unemployed youths in the rural areas in nigeria. research question 3 has the introduction of gsm reduced the rate of crime in nigeria? table 4: crime and use of gsm s/n ites sa a d sd r total 1 gsm has increased the rate of crime in nigeria. 25 (54) 32 (44) 86 (66) 97 (76) 240 2 gsm encourages dishonesty among nigerians 25 (47) 18 (39) 90 (58) 76 (66) 209 3 the use of gsm assists in reporting criminals in the society to law enforcement agents. 136 (36) 89 (49) 12 (74) 31 (85) 268 4 gsm has aided the activities of armed robbers. 25 (43) 21 (35) 65 (52) 78 (60) 189 5 introduction of gsm has dramatically increased fraudulent activities in nigeria. 14 (21) 24 (17) 22 (26) 34 (30) 94 total 225 184 275 316 1000 *significant at 0.05 (xo obs. 314.2; xo crit. 26.296: df, 16; p 0.05) on the level of crime reduction, the result shows that the introduction of gsm is not seen as increasing the crime rate in the country. this is indicated with (183) respondents disagreeing and strongly disagreeing with item 1 in table 4. in the same table, the results show that gsm has is not understood as encouraging dishonesty among nigerians. on the issue of reporting criminal cases to the law enforcement agents, the results indicate that (225) respondents indicated their support for this statement by agreeing and strongly agreeing with item 3 in table as against (43) respondents who disagree and strongly disagree. the results further indicated that the respondents feel that gsm has neither aided the activities of armed robbers nor dramatically increased fraudulent activities in nigeria. this is shown with response to items 4 and 5. generally, the result in table 4 shows that the xo obs 314.2 is greater than the value of xo crit 26.295 at 0.05 significant levels and 16 degree of freedom. this implies that the perception is that the introduction of gsm in nigeria has actually reduced the rate of crime. research question 4 of what relative impact is the introduction of gsm on people’s time management? table 5: time management and use of gsm s/n item sa a d sd r total 1 nigerians are now more time conscious with the advent of gsm 78 (74) 87 (75) 15 (23) 21 (29) 201 2 gsm is time consuming 11 (63) 18 (65) 64 (20) 79 (25) 172 3 gsm encourages time management 86 (69) 84 (71) 12 (22) 7 (27) 189 4 gsm discourages unwarranted journeys 90 (71) 90 (72) 6 (22) 7 (28) 193 5 gsm enhances proper planning and execution of private and public programmes. 102 (90) 96 (92) 17 (28) 30 935) 245 column total 367 375 114 144 1000 *significant at 0.05 (xo obs.342.1; xo crit.26.296; df -16; p.05) the results in table 5 shows that nigerian are now perceived as being more time conscious with the advent of gsm with (155) agreeing and strongly agreeing with the statement while (37) disagreeing and strongly disagreeing. moreover, (123) respondents indicated that gsm is seen as being time consuming while (29) respondents agree and strongly sagree. the table shows further that gsm is understood as encouraging time management. this is shown with (170) respondents in support and (19) against. on whether or not gsm discourages unwarranted journeys, (180) agree and strongly agree greater than (13) who were both disagree and strongly disagree. the majority of the respondents (198) are also support the perception that gsm enhances proper planning and execution of private and public programmes. the overall result in table 5 shows that xo obs. 342.1 is greater than the value of xo crit. 26.296 at 0.05 significant levels and at 16 degree of freedom. this means that the stakeholders have the perception that the introduction of gsm has an impact on the people’s time management ability. discussion while the major focus of this paper is an attempt to examine stakeholders perception of impact on specific issues such as income, job opportunities, crime and security. within a span of some five years, a large percentage of nigerians, including those in the rural communities now have access to this communication mode. whereas in the late 1980s, a minister of communication--a top government functionary in nigeria--made the remarkable statement that “the telephone is not for the poor”; today in nigeria both the ‘rich’ and the ‘poor’ have access to mobile communication. telephoning has been removed as the exclusive preserve of the rich in nigeria with the arrival of gsm. this significant observation is perhaps a major finding in this study. on the impact of gsm on job creation for rural people. it is reported in this study that a majority of school leavers, who hitherto have been idle and jobless now engage themselves in retailing of gsm materials and as local service providers. in most parts of the urban cities, town and villages in nigeria, there have sprung up service centres for pay phones. due to the small capital required to set up such a business, many who were previously unemployed now enter into such businesses. this has reduced the number of unemployed youths in our cities and rural communities. consequent upon these job creation opportunities for rural people is the resultant increase in their income. with some earnings coming in from the retailing of gsm products and call services, the respondents indicated that the entry of gsm into the country has enhanced their income. the category of respondents being described here are the people on lower rungs of the economic ladder, farmers, petty traders, teachers, (at both primary and secondary schools levels)--generally what could be described as the low income earners. although, it was very difficult for the respondents to give precise figures of their income, they generally acknowledge that their income has been enhanced due to gsm effect. on the impact of gsm on their time management, although the respondents generally agreed that this is possible, however, it was discovered that in spite of the efficacy of gsm to encourage effective time management, nigerians, especially, the category of people sampled here, do not see themselves as having changed their (poor) time management habits. perhaps, one could provide an explanation for the general poor time management among nigerians where most nigerians from the top to the lowest level, suffer from the ‘african time’ syndrome. this is a situation where people arrive late for appointments, meetings, and programmes with impunity. this attitude is something that can not be changed so easily, as it takes a long period of time for people to change their long held practices. it is therefore not strange that positive changes in time management are still not achieved, in spite of the gsm communication mode in the country. it could be hoped that this communication mode will help to sharpen the sense of time management skills. with regards to gsm and crime rates, it was reported that the introduction of gsm has had a significant impact towards crime reduction in the rural areas in nigeria. it could be noted that crime detection and reporting to law enforcement agencies is perceived to have improved. in fact, a particular gsm operator provides a service that helps trace stolen vehicles in the country. this service has led to the recovery of many stolen cars. way forward with many service providers coming on board and expansion of network services even among the existing services providers, things can only get better. it is therefore expected that access will be extended to more rural communities in nigeria and in the not distant future the whole country will have been covered. this will have multiplier effects on the life of the people generally, and the rural dwellers more specifically. limitations of the study this study has reported empirical findings on the perception of the stakeholders regarding the impact of gsm on nigeria rural economy. however, the study has a number of weaknesses. these include the fact that it drew a sample from ten communities in only one state out of the 36 states that make up the nigeria state. furthermore, the perceptions of the workforce linked to the petroleum sector were not included in the target population of the study despite the fact that petroleum comes from rural areas and it has impacted the economy in those zones. in the light of all these identified limitations and shortcomings; 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(2005).impact of global system for mobile telecommunication on nigerian economy: a case of some selected local government areas in oyo state, nigeria. a med thesis. university of ibadan, nigeria. network capital: an expression of social capital network capital: an expression of social capital in the network society manuel acevedo independent consultant; ph.d. candidate, open university of catalonia <manuel@manuelacevedo.net> abstract this article deals with an emerging type of social capital which is labeled as ‘network capital’. it is formed from collaborative practices emerging from e-enabled human networks. it is proposed that network capital is a specific type of social capital in the network society, and that it holds significant value for the advancement of human development around the world. social capital and human development according to amartya sen, ‘human development’ refers to the expansion of choices (i.e. freedoms) for people to live better lives. this concept has universal application, so it is not only valid for under-developed nations (the global ‘south’). many factors play into human development, among them the inclusiveness of a society. there is mounting evidence showing that social cohesion is critical for advancing human development. participation, trust, solidarity and reciprocity, grounded in a shared understanding and a sense of common obligations, are mutually reinforcing values at the heart of good governance and proper citizenship. the challenge resides in characterizing and measuring the effects and impacts of social cohesion. robert putnam, in his landmark 1993 book “making democracy work” started to provide some empirical evidence for what is now called ‘social capital’ when he examined development levels in different parts of italy. he concluded that variances in performance among different parts of the country could be largely accounted for in terms of social capital, characterized by participation in voluntary associations, or “horizontal networks of civic engagement”. social capital is a measure of social cohesion, and one of the indicators of the overall ‘wealth’ of a country/society (together with financial, human, natural and physical capitals). the world bank defines it as “the institutions, relationships, and norms that shape the quality and quantity of a society's social interactions. (…) . social capital is not just the sum of the institutions which underpin a society – it is the glue that holds them together.” another definition for social capital, this time in relation to networks, is as “the networks of social interaction and the norms of reciprocity that allow the individual and the community to assume a habit of civic collaboration aimed at common goals” [unv 2000]. this definition has the double advantage of treating social capital as a network concept and it introduces the fundamental element of ‘commonality’ which puts it in the sphere of public goods. we can thus appreciate the inherent policy dimensions of this new indicator of wealth: “the networks of social capital that exist below the waterline of public visibility are an indispensable component of any strategy aimed at promoting social integration, poverty reduction and sustainable development” [unv 2000]. governments and other governance actors will be wise to consider ways to promote and invest in social capital because it is a cost-effective asset for human development processes. and it comes with positive externalities like the decentralization of initiative-taking and the spreading of responsibilities in a more democratic and participatory governance structure. social capital in the network society: towards the notion of “network capital” people have a timeless tradition of cooperating to achieve common results. there may be something genetic in our ability to pool together for common goals, as well as in being shaken by others’ suffering. despite issues of competition (sometimes taken to appallingly cruel extremes), persons have been helping other persons (beyond family or professional contexts) throughout history. it is relevant to discuss social capital in the new context given by the emergence of a new phase of history, the information age, and its functional structure, the network society. wellman writes that “the transformation of national and global societies into ‘network societies’ suggests the usefulness of thinking of social capital as a product of personal community networks as well as of formally institutionalized groups.” it is well beyond the scope of this article to try to explore social capital in this new social context. rather, our focus here is merely one aspect of it, which can be named ‘network capital’. communities are no longer defined only by place, but also by interest, becoming organized into social networks. when the interaction takes place among members of an electronic network, which are likely loosely-knit in geographic terms, the resulting social capital is network based. network capital could then be understood as a measure of the differentiated value in the information age that communities structured as social networks generate on the basis of electronic (digital) networks for themselves, for others and for society as a whole. in this context, network capital can become a valuable asset for human development for two main reasons. first, because of the earlier mentioned importance of social capital for human development – and network capital being but one expression of social capital in the information age. second, because development cooperation is meant to be an accelerator of human development processes, and the generation and investment of network capital has the potential to significantly contribute to renewed models of development cooperation in the network society. there is insufficient treatment of this particular aspect of social capital in the literature, perhaps because it is only very recently with the meteoric rise of the web 2.0 phenomenon that it is approaching enough of a critical mass to make a difference. wellman describes network capital as the form of social capital that makes resources available through interpersonal ties. he writes that it consists of “knowing how to maintain a networked computer, search for information on the internet and use the knowledge gained, create and sustain online relationships, and use these relationships to obtain needed resources, including indirect links to friends of friends.” [wellman 2001] and that it can be measured by “the frequency of social contact with friends, relatives, and workmates.” while these are indeed elements of network capital, they clearly do not sufficiently explain it. community informatics (ci) is a field that draws closer to the idea of network capital. simpson [2005] refers to social capital constructed via ci, clearly making use of icts but not entirely due to icts and e-networks. ci-generated social capital indeed has some elements of network capital (see listing ahead) – we could say it is ‘ict-aided’ social capital. network capital, on the other hand, is ‘ict-enabled’ social capital [van bavel et. al. 2004], admittedly an elastic differentiation and one to further explore. however, this difference is one that points at social capital created almost exclusively through electronic networks, plus it is not bound by physical location as often occurs in ci. in castells’ terms, network capital is the social capital of the ‘space of flows’. while it is arguable that the accelerated emergence of web 2.0 applications may radically transform the use of the internet over the next 10-15 yrs., it has undoubtedly already provided the necessary e-tools for communities that form social networks to elevate their interaction by quantum leaps. there are 2.0 tools for weaving social networks (personal or professional), to support collaboration (wikis, content aggregators, groupware, mapping, tagging) or to simply facilitate content sharing (videos, photos, rss feeds, podcasting or the ubiquitous blogs). these are being used in waves by a generation that grew up with video games and pcs, at such a scale where it may soon deliver significant effects, in social as well as economic terms. this massive and current instance of technological social absorption provides a powerful added stimulus to advance the analysis of network capital, so we can better understand the nature of interaction, trust and collaboration over the new global digital environment. such improved understanding will serve various purposes, whether in promoting its positive outcomes (e.g. to defend human rights or to provide income-generation opportunities) or in preventing/correcting pernicious consequences (such as criminal activities or the spread of intolerant social values). network capital can be characterized through a combination of attributes, only some of which may normally be manifested concurrently in a given community: it is a result of cooperation via electronic networks, and in turn fosters the habit of such cooperation. this cooperation includes sharing of information and the use of computer-mediated-communications but it goes further towards group work, the creation of specific products, and the achievement of set objectives. it is largely produced by volunteer action and contributions (though not exclusively, as it can be operationalized within organizations like companies). it is created by communities of interest, where membership is based on personal interest, skills, background/experience and sharing of a common purpose. while network technologies allow for anyone in the world with internet access to take part (in fact many virtual communities are geographically dispersed), physical proximity may be a factor as well, as evidence from local community/citizen networks, as gurstein [2000] has shown. it is generated by people organized as a virtual community who share a communal cyberplace as for example through a simple e-discussion list, a suite of groupware applications, or a sophisticated 2.0 virtual environment like second life. it is largely produced from asynchronous communications which provide greater flexibility for the human nodes of the networks and allow them to take advantage of the ‘timeless time’ (ie. asynchronous) features of the network society [castells 1998]. it has been particularly concerned with knowledge generation, and thus adds a special value to knowledge-intensive processes (such as those related to scientific, r&d, policy-making or development cooperation). it favors the expanded participation of people in matters of common interest, by facilitating the logistics and dynamics of such involvement. it thus opens up a wider array of possibilities for individuals to behave as ‘global citizens’, and to become involved in actions and issues not bounded by their physical location. an early and still paradigmatic example of network capital comes from the creation of free/open source software (foss). people from different locations, who may not ever see each other, use internet and net-based tools to exchange information, generate knowledge, work collaboratively and develop well-defined products, ‘all for the love of it’. these people consider themselves as software artists (even activists), and participate on a voluntary basis. they meet at specific cyberplaces, eg. distribution lists, extranets or project management applications, and sometimes in person as well, at conferences or other public events. foss communities have crafted a culture of sharing and solidarity which not only makes their processes sustainable, but is a stimulus and reference for others to also pursue electronic-based collaboration. the ‘open-source’ approach is becoming known for its methods and philosophy in fields outside of software production, as a collaborative methodology. this collaboration helps the individuals who take part in it, and the resulting products help specific personal or institutional users, as well as large sectors of society who in this way have additional software choices made available to them – a good example of knowledge as a global public good. foss programs such as gnu/linux, apache, perl, firefox, openoffice, mysql or php have all become intrinsic parts of the digital environment. let us now illustrate some possibilities for the generation and usefulness of network capital in development cooperation, by looking at one of its most basic elements, the development project. putting network capital in action: re-architecting the development project as a network let us take the traditional ‘development project’ (ie. in health, education, employment, environment, etc.) in countries in the south as an item/model which can change significantly through the generation of network capital. traditionally, a development project is defined by a set of objectives or expected outcomes, a given timetable, a budget, an array of inputs and some methodologies. it involves staff, local counterparts, the sponsoring agency, and often some short-term outside ‘expert’ assistance. in the context of the network society, development projects can be seen in a new light as ‘network entities’. the project network would be part of the architecture and processes of the project, where a number of networked nodes with well-defined individual and collaborative tasks provide the inputs and resources to achieve the project’s objectives. benefiting from the internet, neither distance nor time constraints irrevocably limit the involvement of a significantly wider group of participants, many of whom may undertake this participation as volunteers. this innovative approach of ‘the-project-as-a-network’ can increase the engagement of people and institutions by orders of magnitude, and provide more opportunities of involvement of the ‘global citizen’. figure 1 illustrates a collaborative network which can be set up for a development project. the diagram shows the types of institutions and individuals that can become involved (whether formally or informally). the diagram is not meant to illustrate an entire project network; that would require the inclusion of additional inter-relations and participants (e.g. project staff, implementing organizations, donor agency). most of the relationships identified below would be of a voluntary nature – e.g. collaboration between peers in development agencies working on similar topics. in the graph, while the examples of secondary or indirect collaborations are hinted at, the possibilities are more extensive and would make for a convoluted graphic representation. the types of involvement are outlined as follows: staff from a few related projects which could establish a collaborative relation with this project; members of some ngos with thematic expertise or other direct interest in the issues dealt with by the project; online volunteers performing activities tasked to them by project staff; onsite volunteers supporting the project; companies interested in the project topic, possibly under their corporate social responsibility (csr) area of activity; individuals participating in a virtual community of practice linked with the project thematic area; students and professors of a university that are studying and researching the issues dealt with by the project ; and staff from a different development agency than the one supporting the project. network capital would emerge from this approach in various ways. adequate network dynamics and tools would be needed for a relatively large number of individuals and institutions to become involved in an effective and efficient fashion. this human network within the larger project (and largely virtual) community would only coalesce for the purposes of the project, because it would be created and tailor-made for that purpose. the collaborative working methods are sure to resonate with some of the people involved, who would apply them later in other spheres. some of the relationships initiated by the projects would become lasting human bonds, either for professional or personal purposes. the results and outcomes of the project would arguably prove to be, to a significant extent, a consequence of the network capital formed during its implementation. some considerations that emerge when examining this networked approach to project implementation: the role of a ‘project network architect’ as part of the project staff would be recommended. the design, construction, ‘caring’ maintenance and motivation of such a network will not happen in an ad-hoc fashion and will take considerable effort and dedication. variable network geometries with different configurations and densities can be established, with an essentially infinite set of combinations. any given project can set up a tailor-made collaborative network. the project would need to be designed with network structures permeating its formulation, strategy, methodology, institutional arrangements, and monitoring & evaluation. participation by individuals through this type of project architecture diminishes the exposure to the ‘network fatigue syndrome’, since tasks would be specific and time-bound, and collaboration would not be open-ended and ad-hoc. further research for network capital much more research is required to clarify and characterize both the concept and the methods of network capital as well as for this research to proceed alongside the developments with respect to social capital and its evolution in the context of the network society. some of the lines on which purposeful research could be conducted are would be in relation to: methodologies of measuring network capital based on diverse interpretations of the concept, and comparative analysis of the presumably diverse results. quantitative and qualitative differences among actions of groups/communities that have absorbed the use of the internet and other icts (in issues like gender equity, human rights, environmental protection, etc.), in comparison with others whose ict use is markedly lower. analyzing the differences also in terms of results and the impacts of those actions? differences between geographic zones with differing levels of social capital and integration in the network society, controlling for socio-economic factors and calculation methods. comparison between results emerging from social action oriented towards the generation of public goods based on ‘weak links’ vs. ‘strong links’ (in reference to wellman’s work). characterization of ‘social cohesion’ and what quantitative/qualitative indicators are more suitable for its analysis. relations between social cohesion and weak/strong links. results of political actions and decisions aimed at promoting the creation of social capital and network capital in diverse geographical areas. conclusion the emergence of the information age brings about a related new paradigm in the form of the network society. social capital, which acts as a glue that keeps societies together, will have new manifestations in such an environment. one of these which was labeled ‘network capital’ in this article, is characterized by the distributed methods and electronic technologies which are inherent to networked operations in our days. network capital is ‘ict-enabled’ and will be a measure of how people collaborate through electronic networks for personal, communal and even global benefits. in other words, it is the social capital of the ‘space of flows’ described by castells. the open source movement provides an excellent example of network capital. software programmers, organized through virtual communities of practice, are creating both important network value (good software products) as well as values (the principles and the practice of tight collaboration on a specific technical area). network capital holds important potential for human development and specifically for development cooperation, where global and local issues mix fluidly in the processes leading to greater options for people and improved living conditions. the global citizen will have more possibilities to become involved in social causes, with lesser constraints of place or time. this is particularly relevant in the web 2.0 era. we have shown one example, a networked project, where the conceptualization of a project as a network implies a wider map of relationships by people and institutions. policy implications related to fostering and expanding social capital, e.g. via legislation related to the support of volunteer action, should also factor in network capital. such policies ought to include (i) support to organizations that are already active in creating social capital so they can extend their activities online, (ii) provision of the necessary network infrastructure for social/development purposes, and (iii) research into how network capital is created and how it can be promoted and harnessed in the wider contexts of governance and human development. ultimately, network capital is a social asset which can appear spontaneously. but as a public good, it will grow better if adequately fostered and stimulated, in turn increasing and spreading its benefits. bibliography baym, n. k. (1998). the emergence of on-line community. in: s.g. jones (ed.) cybersociety 2.0. revisiting computer-mediated communication and community (pg. 35-68). thousand oaks, ca : sage publications. castells, m. (1998). the rise of the network society (the information age: economy, society, culture; v.1). oxford: blackwell publishers. 594 p. isbn 0631221409. castells, m. (2001). la galaxia internet: reflexiones sobre internet, empresa y sociedad. barcelona: plaza & janés. 316 p. isbn 84-01-34157-4 gurstein, m. (ed.), (2000). community informatics: enabling communities with information and communications technologies. idea group publishing; isbn: 1878289691; 596 p. hakken, d. (1999). an alternative to ‘computer revolution’ thought.cyborg@cyberspace?: an ethnographer looks at the future. ny/london: routledge. jones, s. g. (1998). information, internet, and community: notes toward an understanding of community in the information age. en: s.g. jones (ed.) (1998). cybersociety 2.0. revisiting computer-mediated communication and community (pp. 1-34). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. kauchakje, s.; penna, m. c.; frey, k.; duarte, f. (2006). redes socio-técnicas y participación ciudadana: propuestas conceptuales y analíticas para el uso de las tics; redes, 11 (3), december 2006. retrieved july 19, 2007 from http://revista-redes.rediris.es/html-vol11/vol11_3.htm#_ftn1 putnam, r. (1993). making democracy work. princeton: princeton university press. 280 p. isbn 0691037388, quan-haase, a.; wellman, b.; witte, j. c.; hampton, k. n. (2002). capitalizing on the net: social contact, civic engagement, and sense of community. in barry wellman and carolyne haythornthwaite (eds.) the internet in everyday life. maryland: blackwell publising. simpson, l (2005). community informatics and sustainability: why social capital matters. the journal of community informatics, 1 (2). issn: 1712-4441. retrieved august 3 from http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/210/169. united nations development programme. (2001). human development report 2001: making new technologies work for human development. new york: oxford university press. 264 p. isbn 0-19-521835-3. united nations development programme. (2002). capacity for development: new solutions to old problems. fukuda-parr, sakiko; lopes, carlos; malik, khalid (eds.). new york: earthscan publications. 286 pages. isbn 1-85383-919-1 united nations volunteers (2000). below the waterline of public visibility: roundtable on volunteerism and social development. the hague, 29-30 november 2000. van bavel, r., punie, y., tuomi, i (2004). ict-enabled changes in social capital. the ipts report 85, july 2004. retrieved february 3 from http://www.jrc.es/home/report/english/articles/vol85/ict4e856.htm wellman, barry. (2001). living networked in a wired world: the persistence and transformation of community. report to the law commission of canada, wellman associates, toronto, canada. (p. 120)   towards a code of cyberethics  udo averweg ethekwini municipality and university of kwazulu-natal < averwegu@durban.gov.za >   abstract ethics and accountability are cornerstones of public management. one of the ways in which ethical standards in the public service can be promoted is by developing a code of conduct that sets a standard of behaviour to be followed. the diversity of information and communication technologies (ict) and increased use of ict have created a variety of ethical issues. in this paper, the process for formulating a code of cyberethics for ethekwini municipality in south africa is described. the development of such a code will also ensure service delivery that responds to citizens' needs and improves the communication process with citizens.   introduction   ethics and accountability are cornerstones of public management (mafunisa, 2000). ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with what is considered to be right and wrong. ethics is the study of what is good or right for human beings (hoffman & moore, 1990).  one of the ways in which high ethical standards in the public service can be promoted is by developing codes of conduct that set a standard of behaviour to be followed within specific occupational categories (du plessis, 2004). one occupational category is information and communication technologies (ict) work, including jobs related to the social appropriation of ict in a local municipality. the structure of this paper is as follows. ethical theories with a focus on principle-based theory are introduced. the concepts of cybertechnology and cyberethics are discussed. the ethekwini municipality environment in south africa as a setting for the formulation of a code of cyberethics is described. some concluding remarks are then given.   ethical theories   in today's complex environment, it is not always clear what is "right" and what is  "wrong". right actions are those that it is useful to praise, wrong actions are those that it is useful to blame (russell, 1971). the right ethical answer may or may not be the answer that is prescribed by law; in fact, depending on the ethical assumptions made, the two may on occasion be in conflict (smith, 2002). the challenge is to make essential ethical decision‑making explicit so as to improve it (sternberg, 1994). although tailor-made codes of conduct will not be sufficient in themselves, they should be viewed as an integral part of integrating ethics management within the broader public management environment (du plessis, 2004). many organisations develop their own codes of ethics. a code of ethics is a collection of principles intended as a guide for employees in an organisation. andrews (1988) defines "ethics" as standards that guide the behaviour and actions of public officials in public institutions and which may be referred to as "moral laws". the diversity of ict applications and the increased use of ict have created a variety of ethical issues. ethical theories are theories about justifying our moral actions (rossouw, 1994). they propose appropriate reasoning on which our moral decisions should be based. a broad range of ethical theories has been developed to identify how we should determine what is actually good not only for one's self but also for others. ethical theories attempt to answer the question, why be ethical?  some key ethical theories were formulated by immanuel kant. one of the basic tenets of kantian ethics is based on the idea that duty is fundamental and is "principle-based". principle-based theory is one that bases the value of an action on the nature of the action itself. one advantage of duty ethics is that it gives a powerful and clear framework for stating codes of ethics. another advantage is that it is impartial: the same rules apply to all persons. it is argued that principle-based theory should therefore serve as foundation for formulating a code of cyberethics.   principle-based theory principle-based theory emphasizes that moral actions should be in accordance with a pre‑established rule or rules. the expectation is that progress toward an objective standard of moral behaviour will be made if people base their actions on fixed rules. it is argued by the author that a code of cyberethics is an example of fixed rules. the best-known proponent of a rule-based theory is immanuel kant (1724 1804). he was convinced that all rational-thinking people should be able and willing to subscribe to a basic rule that should govern all moral behaviour. kant was convinced that such a strategy would improve the quality of moral decisions and enhance the respect that people pay each other (rossouw, 1994). advantages of this approach are that it: respects the rights and interests of all persons and not only those in the majority; encourages consistency and thus integrity in moral behaviour; and provides for the obligations that we have towards other persons (for example, ict software developers) in our respective social roles. some of the problems associated with this approach are that: too strong a focus on rules may lead to a dogmatic approach that does not pay due attention to the consequences of actions; it offers no solution for those situations where two rules may come into conflict with each other; and contrary to kant's expectation, all rational-thinking people do not always concur on the same rules for moral behaviour. for example, in the ict domain there may be disagreement as to whether one may ethically distribute copies of downloaded music from the internet. this lack of consensus opens the question on whose set of rules (such as a code of cyberethics in the cybertechnology arena) should be accepted and who should play the role of referee in deciding this question.   cyberethics   some researchers use the term "computer ethics" to describe the field that examines moral ethics pertaining to ict (see for example, gotterbarn, 1991; johnson, 2001). with specific concerns about ethical issues involved in the internet, other researchers use the term "internet ethics" (langford, 2000). it is felt by the author that ethical issues are not limited to the internet or to computing machines as they also include privately owned computer networks and ict. hence for the purposes of this paper, the relatively new term "cyberethics" (spinello, 2003, tavani, 2004) is used to capture some of the wide range of moral issues involving cybertechnology. it is proposed that cyberethics is a more accurate term for two reasons: the term computer ethics can connote ethical issues construed as pertaining to stand‑alone or unconnected computers. however, with the advent of networked systems, a computer system may nowadays be thought of more accurately as a new kind of medium as opposed to a machine; and the term computer ethics may suggest a field of study that is concerned exclusively with ethical issues involving ict professionals. the field of cyberethics is not linked to an analysis of moral issues that affect only these professionals (tavani, 2004).   codes of ethics hanekom & thornhill (1987) define a code of ethics as a set of rules made by a higher authority for a specific homogeneous group of officials, with a view to eliciting from them a specific behaviour under specific conditions. the value of codes is often overstated: on their own and unaccompanied by the appropriate habits, expectations and sanctions, codes of conduct are of little value (sternberg, 1994). furthermore the appropriate basis for codes of conduct is often equally misunderstood: what legitimises codes are not stakeholder consent but ethical content. nevertheless, codes of conduct (such as a proposed code of cyberethics for ethekwini municipality) can be extremely useful. by explicitly communicating corporate purposes regarding controversial matters (such as copying someone else's software for personal use) and by clarifying which stakeholder expectations are legitimate, codes of conduct can eliminate ignorance as an excuse. furthermore, they can be an effective tool for sharpening business accountability and improving corporate governance. also, instilling a sense of professionalism in public officials will promote a respect for public service goals, core values and codes of conduct (mafunisa, 2000). an information governance framework should contain measurable and strategic goals that will be beneficial for the provider and citizens and promote ethical standards. professionals in the public service are custodians of the public trust and therefore have to be worthy of that trust (du plessis, 2004). codes must be properly structured and should not solely reflect the prevailing values or culture of the organisation (such as ethekwini municipality). for example, when the existing culture is less than perfect, enshrining it in a code merely reinforces bad practice what it prescribes must be better than the existing norm. a code of conduct is not a survey of employees' ethical attitudes (sternberg, 1994). it is meant to express, for example, ethekwini municipality's fundamental aims and values. it is for the ethekwini municipality to state what those aims and values are. a code of conduct sets out what constitutes ethical conduct for the business (such as cybertechnology) and its validity depends on the correctness of the values and principles it expresses not on employee agreement. a policy may not please everyone but if principles other than those of personal interest are applied, at least "moral logic" can be followed and accepted, if not actually agreed with (evans, cited in mafunisa, 2000). ideally, stakeholders will share the values embodied in the code. however, if they do not, it is the stakeholders (ethekwini municipality employees) and not the code which should be changed. one needs to take "into consideration that citizens' expectations of government are to a large extent influenced by their interaction with municipalities, mainly because of the types of services that are rendered" (du plessis, 2004). if public officials do not have a code of ethics with reference to which their actions are led, directed and guided, the result would probably be as catastrophic as when power and authority are delegated without enforcing accountability (andrews, 1988). such are the challenges for the formulation of a code of cyberethics for ethekwini municipality. codes of ethics involve the formalisation of some rules and expected actions (turban et al., 2004). violation of a code of ethics may lead to the termination of employment. codes of ethics are valuable for raising awareness of ethical issues and clarifying what is acceptable behaviour in a variety of circumstances. in the case of ethekwini municipality, an ict code of cyberethics does not exist and the formulation of one is required to prevent internet abuse and misuse by employees. organisations are increasingly faced with serious legal and liability issues stemming from wrongful use of software by their employees (straub & collins, 1990). the acceptance of a code of conduct is a central part of being a professional (du plessis, 2004). codes of ethics have limitations because they generalise acceptable behaviour despite the variations in social and ethical values that may exist in different communities. for example, it would be arrogant to impose on ethekwini municipality employees the ethical ict standards developed in and appropriate for hong kong, or indeed to do the reverse. however, such impositions do appear to be commonplace and they tend to lead to outright rejection (rather than to higher ethical standards, which presumably is the intention).   employee involvement the process of formulating a formal code of conduct can be an effective mechanism for disseminating public service values if it is an inclusive one (mafunisa, 2000). employee involvement can be valuable (sternberg, 1994). it is not supposed to be a top-down process (mafunisa, 2000). a code will be most effective if it addresses matters which actually cause concern. sternberg (1994) suggests that it is sensible to consult stakeholders (especially employees) to determine what situations are genuinely problematic. this approach was undertaken by the author and informal discussions held with colleagues at ethekwini municipality. some of the cybertechnology and related concerns raised by the author's colleagues are reflected in table 1. table 1. cybertechnology and related concerns raised by author's colleagues at ethekwini municipality no concern raised 1 may i copy someone else's software for my own personal use and distribute it? 2 may i download music/video from the internet for personal use and distribute it? 3 may i access private and confidential information without consent and distribute it? 4 may i access other's desktops or laptops without consent? 5 may i take programs that i have created for ethekwini municipality and keep them for personal use or use them at another employer?   consultation can provide useful information about the stringency (or laxity) of employees' ethical standards and the degree of ethical diversity prevailing in ethekwini municipality's heterogenous workforce. cultural diversity needs to be acknowledged, as well. furthermore, making ethekwini municipality employees part of the code-making process may improve compliance with the code of cyberethics since employees may feel that they have had a role in formulating it and thus are more likely to understand the code and observe its strictures. research into why so many codes "die" indicates that many things can go wrong in the process of institutionalising codes (du plessis, 2004). these mistakes can include the way the code was developed, written, distributed and enacted. once the code of cyberethetics has been formulated and adopted by the ethekwini municipality strategic management team[1] (stratman), the document should form part of the city manager's standing orders. publishing a formal code serves as an explicit signal of ethekwini municipality's commitment to ethical business conduct. by proclamation and endorsing the values it proclaims, it must be made clear that the code will be enforced and also that the team itself considers themselves to be bound by it. to be worthy of respect, the adopted code of cyberethics must apply and be seen to apply to every employee in ethekwini municipality.   intellectual property intellectual property is the intangible property created by individuals or organisations. to varying degrees in different countries, intellectual property is protected under laws relating to copyright, trademarks, patents and trade secrets. software piracy, the unauthorised copying of computer software, is widespread in many organisations today (lending & slaughter, 2000). from the perspective of managers in organisations, software piracy means the threat of costly litigation on the one hand, balanced against the reduced expense for additional software if unauthorised copies are used. the topic of intellectual property rights (ipr) is seen to be important since it relates to the fundamental right to private property especially property that represents the fruits of one's endeavours (see, for example, locke, 1964). ipr protects the way ideas are expressed but not the ideas themselves (turban et al., 2004). ipr may be seen as a mechanism for protecting the creative works of individual people and organisations. however, this is problematic in societies that place less value on individual freedom and more on social order. steidlmeier (1993) notes that in many developing countries, "individual claims on intellectual property are subordinated to more fundamental claims of social well-being". in these countries (including south africa), the welfare of society is considered to be more important than that of any individual. much of the ipr discussion relates to the debate about rights and duties. software developers demand the right of stringent legal protection for the fruits of their labour and compensation for resources expended in software development. consequently consumers are then deemed to have a duty to pay for that software (whether it is in code, music, video or other digitised forms) and to respect the intellectual property by not stealing (copying or downloading) it, for example from the internet.   data and information privacy   the notion of privacy has become one of the most contentious issues of the global information age due to the ability of computers to perform actions previously impractical or impossible. agranoff (1993) defines (data) privacy as the "claim of individuals, groups or institutions to determine for themselves when, and to what extent, information about them is communicated to others". charlesworth & sewry (2002) note that privacy includes considerations of the conflicts between society's right to know and individual's right to privacy. nevertheless the right to privacy is not absolute. it varies considerably in different cultures, as it has to be balanced by society's right to know. one of the most detailed sets of data privacy principles comes from the privacy commissioner's office for personal data (pcopd) in hong kong, promulgated in 1996. a summary of the six pcopd data protection principles is reflected in table 2. table 2. summary of six data protection principles from the office of the privacy commissioner's office for personal data, hong kong (source: retrieved on 21 october, 2005 from http://www.pco.org.hk ) no narrative associated explanatory text   1   purpose and manner of collection data should be collected in a fair and lawful manner. data users should explain to data subjects what data is being collected and how it will be used   2   accuracy and duration of retention personal data that has been collected should be kept accurate, up-to-date and for no longer than is necessary   3   use data must only be used for the specific or directly related purpose for which it was collected. any other use is conditional on consent of the data subject 4 security suitable security measures should be applied to personal data 5 information availability data users should be open to the kind of data they store and what they use it for   6   access data subjects have the right to access their personal data, to verify its accuracy and to request correction   these principles are designed to enshrine the reasonable rights and duties of both the data subject (the person described by the data) and the data users (those who possess the data).   ethekwini municipality environment   the new durban metropolitan unicity municipality (dmum) came into existence in the province of kwazulu/natal, south africa following south africa's second local government elections held in december 2000. following proclamation 343 (kwazulu/natal) dated 19 september 2000, dmum has subsequently been renamed the ethekwini municipality and comprises the former durban metropolitan council (which includes the north central and south central councils), the north local council, the south local council, the inner west city council, the outer west local council and the umkomaas transitional local council.[2]  ethekwini municipality comprises six clusters/service units (office of the city manager, treasury, governance, sustainable development and city enterprises, corporate and human resources & health, safety and social services) and employs approximately 22,000 employees. there are some 6,000 networked desktops (personal computers, thin clients and laptops) and electronic communication is via novell's groupwise (client version 6.5). a total of 5,806 groupwise accounts are in existence.  there are approximately 1,500 internet accounts utilising either internet explorer or netscape navigator web browsers. given the magnitude of this ict connectivity in terms of lans and wans and the potential for abuse and misuse of cybertechnology by employees, there is thus a need to formulate a code of cyberethics for ethekwini municipality. the proposed methodology for the formulation of the code of cyberethics is as follows: disseminate the author's validated survey instrument (see appendix a) to ethekwini municipality employees who have internet accounts; qualitatively and quantitatively analyse the responses received to completed survey questionnaires. from the scored responses, themes, patterns and trends will be synthesized; draft a proposed code of cyberethics based on ethekwini municipality's (1) vision and mission; (2) moral and social values which the organisation wants reflected in all its activities; and (3) values that reflect characteristics of the organisation's approach to achieving its mission. particular attention is to be paid to cybertechnology situations which appear to be genuinely problematic; present the proposed code of cyberethics to ethekwini municipality for ratification and adoption; incorporate the document in the city manager's standing orders and employees' conditions of service; and utilise an appropriate and effective mechanism for communicating the adopted code of cyberethics to ethekwini municipality employees. hanekom & thornhill (1987) note that a code of ethics normally has the objective of promoting and maintaining the responsible conduct of officials. mccabe, et al. (1996) found the existence of a corporate code of ethics was associated with significantly lower levels of self-reported unethical behaviour in the workplace. ethics is not just about codes – a code is only a small element of the process. since ethekwini municipality is about employees and structures (and not only documents), one needs to ensure that both employees and structures within which people operate support ethical practices. the author argues that the approach described above will underscore kant's rule-based theory whereby the principle of an action that is being considered becomes the basis for everyone's action in ethekwini municipality and all its employees will be willing to live in such a world as defined by the adopted code of cyberethics.   conclusion   chapman (1993) remarks that a code of conduct is necessary to assist public officials resolve ethical and value dilemmas and promote moral development. cleek & leonard (1998) state that "emphasis should be placed on how the codes are communicated, enforced, and used, as a basis for strengthening the culture of the organization". mcclenahen (1999) suggests that "being consistent in policies and actions, rewarding ethical conduct, treating employees fairly, and providing better executive leadership" work best to reduce unethical conduct. a commitment to the moral treatment of employees is one of the preconditions for continued excellence (rossouw, 1994). effective communication of the code of cyberethics to ethekwini municipality employees can help eliminate situations wherein employees complain that they have not been made aware of corporate expectations regarding private internet usage. furthermore the development of a code of cyberethics will also ensure service delivery that responds effectively and efficiently to citizens' needs and improves the communication process with citizens. in order to help the ethekwini municipality create and maintain an environment conducive to ethical decision-making, a proposed statement of core values and a corporate code of cyberethics needs to be effectively communicated and supported by ethekwini municipality management.  in addition, enforcement processes need to support employees when they are faced with difficult dilemmas.  in such an environment, an ethekwini municipality employee should be less likely to reach an unethical decision due to the situational characteristics of a dilemma.    acknowledgement an earlier version of this paper was presented at community informatics research network conference (cirn2005), cape town, 23-26 august 2005.   references agranoff, m.h. (1993). controlling the threat to personal privacy. journal of information systems management. andrews, y. (1988). the personnel function. pretoria: haum. averweg, u.r. & manyanga, s.s.s. (2003, 8-10 december). ict considerations for improving citizen service delivery and communications in a metropolitan municipality in south africa. proceedings of the world forum on information society (wfis), geneva, switzerland. averweg, u. & manyanga, s. (2004, 4-6 july). e-government: ict considerations for citizen service delivery and communication in a metropolitan municipality in south africa.  proceedings of the 34th southern africa computer lecturers' association (sacla2004) conference, botha's hill, kwazulu-natal, south africa. chapman, r.a. (ed.) (1993). ethics in public service. london: edinburgh university press. charlesworth, m. & sewry, d.a. (2002). ethical issues in enabling information technologies. proceedings of the 2002 annual research conference of the south african institute of computer scientists and information technologists, port elizabeth, south africa, 163-171. cleek, m. & leonard, s. (1998, april). can corporate codes of ethics influence behavior? journal of business ethics, 619-630. du plessis, b. (ed.) (2004). ethics in local government. journal of the institute of municipal finance officers, 4(3), 16. gotterbarn, d. (1991). computer ethics: responsibility regained. national forum: the phi kappa phi journal, 73(3), 26-31. hanekom, s.x. & thornhill, c. (1987) public administration in contemporary society. johannesburg: macmillan south africa publishers. hoffman, w.m. & moore, j.m. (1990). business ethics. new york: mcgraw-hill. johnson, d.g. (2001). computer ethics (3rd ed.). upper saddle river, new jersey: prentice hall. langford, d. (ed.), (2000). internet ethics. new york: st. martin's press. lending, d. & slaughter, s.a. (2001). research in progress: the effects of ethical climate on attitudes and behaviors toward software piracy. proceedings of the 2001 acm sigcpr conference on computer personnel research, 198-200. locke, j. (1964). second treatise of civil government. new york: bobbs-merrill. mafunisa, m.j. (2000). public service ethics. kenwyn: juta & co. mccabe, d., klebe trevino, l. & butterfield, j. (1996). the influence of collegiate and corporate codes of conduct on ethics-related behavior in the workplace. business ethics quarterly, 6(4), 461-470. mcclenahen, j. (1999, 1 march). your employees know better. industry week, 12-13. rossouw, d. (1994). business ethics: a south african perspective. halfway house: southern book publishers. russell, b. (1971). human society in ethics and politics. london: george allen & unwin ltd. smith, h.j. (2002). ethics and information systems: resolving the quandaries. acm sigmis database, 33(3). spinello, r.a. (2003). cyberethics: morality and law in cyberspace (2nd ed.). sudbury, ma: jones and barlett publishers. steidlmeier, p. (1993). the moral legitimacy of intellectual property claims: american business and developing country perspectives. journal of business ethics, 12(2), 157‑164. sternberg, e. (1994). just business: business ethics in action. united kingdom: little brown and company. straub, d. & collins, r. (1990). key information liability issues facing managers: software piracy, proprietary databases, and individual rights to privacy. mis quarterly, 14(2), 143-156. sugden, r. (2003). opportunity as a space for individuality: its value and the impossibility of measuring it. ethics, an international journal of social, political, and legal philosophy, 113(4), 783-809. tavani, h.t. (2004). ethics and technology: ethical issues in an age of information and communication technology. hoboken, new jersey: john wiley & sons. turban, e., mclean, e. & wetherbe, j. (2004). information technology for management: transforming organizations in the digital economy. hoboken, new jersey: john wiley & sons.   appendix a   ethics statement survey for ethekwini municipality employees   please indicate your cluster/service unit office of the city manager treasury governance sustainable development and city enterprises corporate and human resources health, safety and social services unsure   please indicate your gender   male female     please indicate your level of agreement/disagreement with the following information and communication technology related statements. answer all 12 questions.   strongly agree agree undecided disagree or strongly disagree     1.                  i may copy someone else's software for my own personal use   strongly agree agree undecided disagree strongly disagree             please tick any of the following factors that affected your answer (you may tick more than one)   i believe that the potential harm done to others would be minimal i believe that most view this activity as acceptable i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i do not know i believe the number of people harmed would be minimal i believe that negative effects of this action would occur a very long time from now i believe that the potential harm done to others would be high i believe that most view this activity as wrong i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i know i believe the number of people harmed would be high i believe that negative effects of this action would occur very soon     2.                  i may distribute copies of someone else's software   strongly agree agree undecided disagree strongly disagree             please tick any of the following factors that affected your answer (you may tick more than one)   i believe that the potential harm done to others would be minimal i believe that most view this activity as acceptable i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i do not know i believe the number of people harmed would be minimal i believe that negative effects of this action would occur a very long time from now i believe that the potential harm done to others would be high i believe that most view this activity as wrong i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i know i believe the number of people harmed would be high i believe that negative effects of this action would occur very soon     3.                  i may download music from the internet for my own personal use   strongly agree agree undecided disagree strongly disagree             please tick any of the following factors that affected your answer (you may tick more than one)   i believe that the potential harm done to others would be minimal i believe that most view this activity as acceptable i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i do not know i believe the number of people harmed would be minimal i believe that negative effects of this action would occur a very long time from now i believe that the potential harm done to others would be high i believe that most view this activity as wrong i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i know i believe the number of people harmed would be high i believe that negative effects of this action would occur very soon     4.                  i may distribute copies of downloaded music   strongly agree agree undecided disagree strongly disagree             please tick any of the following factors that affected your answer (you may tick more than one)   i believe that the potential harm done to others would be minimal i believe that most view this activity as acceptable i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i do not know i believe the number of people harmed would be minimal i believe that negative effects of this action would occur a very long time from now i believe that the potential harm done to others would be high i believe that most view this activity as wrong i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i know i believe the number of people harmed would be high i believe that negative effects of this action would occur very soon     5.         i may download video from the internet for my own personal use   strongly agree agree undecided disagree strongly disagree             please tick any of the following factors that affected your answer (you may tick more than one)   i believe that the potential harm done to others would be minimal i believe that most view this activity as acceptable i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i do not know i believe the number of people harmed would be minimal i believe that negative effects of this action would occur a very long time from now i believe that the potential harm done to others would be high i believe that most view this activity as wrong i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i know i believe the number of people harmed would be high i believe that negative effects of this action would occur very soon       6.                  i may distribute copies of downloaded video   strongly agree agree undecided disagree strongly disagree             please tick any of the following factors that affected your answer (you may tick more than one)   i believe that the potential harm done to others would be minimal i believe that most view this activity as acceptable i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i do not know i believe the number of people harmed would be minimal i believe that negative effects of this action would occur a very long time from now i believe that the potential harm done to others would be high i believe that most view this activity as wrong i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i know i believe the number of people harmed would be high i believe that negative effects of this action would occur very soon       7.         i may access private and confidential information without consent   strongly agree agree undecided disagree strongly disagree             please tick any of the following factors that affected your answer (you may tick more than one)               i believe that the potential harm done to others would be minimal             i believe that most view this activity as acceptable             i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i do not know             i believe the number of people harmed would be minimal             i believe that negative effects of this action would occur a very long time from now             i believe that the potential harm done to others would be high             i believe that most view this activity as wrong             i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i know             i believe the number of people harmed would be high             i believe that negative effects of this action would occur very soon       8.                  i may distribute private and confidential information without consent               strongly agree             agree             undecided             disagree             strongly disagree             please tick any of the following factors that affected your answer (you may tick more than one)               i believe that the potential harm done to others would be minimal             i believe that most view this activity as acceptable             i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i do not know             i believe the number of people harmed would be minimal             i believe that negative effects of this action would occur a very long time from now             i believe that the potential harm done to others would be high           i believe that most view this activity as wrong             i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i know             i believe the number of people harmed would be high             i believe that negative effects of this action would occur very soon     9.                  i may access other's desktops or laptops without consent               strongly agree             agree             undecided             disagree             strongly disagree             please tick any of the following factors that affected your answer (you may tick more than one)               i believe that the potential harm done to others would be minimal             i believe that most view this activity as acceptable             i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i do not know             i believe the number of people harmed would be minimal             i believe that negative effects of this action would occur a very long time from now             i believe that the potential harm done to others would be high             i believe that most view this activity as wrong             i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i know             i believe the number of people harmed would be high             i believe that negative effects of this action would occur very soon     10.              i may take programs or other work i have done for one employer and keep it for personal use               strongly agree             agree             undecided             disagree             strongly disagree             please tick any of the following factors that affected your answer (you may tick more than one)               i believe that the potential harm done to others would be minimal             i believe that most view this activity as acceptable             i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i do not know             i believe the number of people harmed would be minimal             i believe that negative effects of this action would occur a very long time from now             i believe that the potential harm done to others would be high             i believe that most view this activity as wrong             i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i know             i believe the number of people harmed would be high             i believe that negative effects of this action would occur very soon     11.              i may take programs or other work i have done for one employer and use it at another employer               strongly agree             agree             undecided             disagree             strongly disagree             please tick any of the following factors that affected your answer (you may tick more than one)               i believe that the potential harm done to others would be minimal             i believe that most view this activity as acceptable             i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i do not know             i believe the number of people harmed would be minimal             i believe that negative effects of this action would occur a very long time from now             i believe that the potential harm done to others would be high             i believe that most view this activity as wrong             i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i know             i believe the number of people harmed would be high             i believe that negative effects of this action would occur very soon     12.              at work, i do not have to correct inaccurate information i may hold about customers               strongly agree             agree             undecided             disagree             strongly disagree             please tick any of the following factors that affected your answer (you may tick more than one)               i believe that the potential harm done to others would be minimal             i believe that most view this activity as acceptable             i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i do not know             i believe the number of people harmed would be minimal             i believe that negative effects of this action would occur a very long time from now             i believe that the potential harm done to others would be high             i believe that most view this activity as wrong             i believe that any harm that would take place would be to people i know             i believe the number of people harmed would be high             i believe that negative effects of this action would occur very soon   (acknowledgement: this instrument is an adapted version of the ethics statement survey developed by alan peslak, penn state university, dunmore, pa, usa. retrieved on 21 october, 2005 from http://wsistdevel.sn.psu.edu/ist/arp14/eths1/webform1.aspx ) [1] comprises deputy city managers, deputy heads and heads of clusters and departments in ethekwini municipality.   [2] for a discussion of ict considerations in the ethekwini municipality area, see for example, averweg & manyanga (2003, 2004).   brazilian digital inclusion public policy: achievements and cha brazilian digital inclusion public policy: achievements and challenges cristina kiomi mori cristina.mori@planejamento.gov.br rodrigo ortiz assumpção rodrigo.assumpcao@planejamento.gov.br introduction since 2003, the brazilian digital inclusion public policy has been oriented towards social participation and the building of a public ict infrastructure. so far, there have been some achievements and lots of challenges to overcome. to present these achievements and challenges, this article begins describing the context of digital divide in brazil, with data that is an achievement in itself. statistics on internet availability and use in the country has only recently been produced in a more consistent basis, due to the brazilian internet steering committee (cgi.br). responsible for internet governance in brazil, cgi.br is a “multistakeholder organization composed by members of the government, the enterprise sector, the third sector and the academic community”, in which the representatives of the civil society are chosen democratically to participate directly in the deliberations and debate the priorities for the development of the internet, together with the government representatives (cgi.br, 2007). through the creation of its ict studies centre (cetic.br), cgi.br has started to work in a national project for the development of indicators for the brazilian internet, which has led to the first national survey on ict individual access by the brazilian geographic and statistics institute (ibge, 2007). this effort is followed by the national digital inclusion observatory, conducted by the federal government digital inclusion committee together with civil society organizations, for mapping and registering all public non-commercial internet usage places ('telecenters'), among other activities described further. after bringing the context of digital divide in brazil, this article will present the federal government strategies to face digital divide and describe some of the many ongoing initiatives, with special attention to computers for inclusion project (inspired in the canadian computers for schools) and the above mentioned observatory. digital inclusion public policy challenges will then be raised and commented, from the understanding that government has an extremely important role to play in this context, alongside with civil society. what this article aims to present, in a whole, is some useful information for comparison with other countries, as well as a tool for discussion and agenda setting for researchers and policy makers, including practitioners from governments and the civil society. digital divide in brazil: numbers in 2005, according to the brazilian geographic and statistics institute ibge, 31.96 million people or 21% of the population above 10 year-of-age had access to the internet (ibge, 2007). as expected, brazilian digital divide follows similar patterns to the indicators for inequality of income distribution and other social indicators. percentage of internet users per family income group 2005 household income (minimum wage1 per capita) % of internet users no income to ¼ minimum wage 3.3 ¼ to ½ min. wage 5.9 ½ to 1 min. wage 11.6 1 to 2 min. wages 24.8 2 to 3 min. wages 42.0 3 to 5 min. wages 55.2 more than 5 min. wages 69.5 overall, the main place of internet access was home, followed by work, school and other residences. among them, 3.2 million accessed the internet in free access centers – or telecenters. percentage of users per place of internet access – 2005 place of internet access % of users home 50.0 work 39.7 school 25.7 free public access centre 10.0 paid public access centre 21.9 other places 31.1 however, according to another cgi.br research that considers social classes (cgi.br, 2006), people of lower (d and e) classes accessed the internet mostly at public centers (paid or free of charge) and school, while the higher social classes accessed it mostly at home and work. percentage of people of each social class per place of internet access 2006 social class/ place of internet access (%) at home at work at school other people's home paid public access centre free public access centre other places a 78.04 37.16 6.85 12.53 8.06 0.07 1.05 b 62.04 27.84 11.44 13.59 19.33 2.00 1.17 c 27.69 24.10 17.56 18.65 35.54 4.13 2.06 de 9.82 11.89 22.76 15.87 48.08 6.44 2.35 households with personal computers in 2005 were 18.5%. that figure is expected to change in pnad 2006 by the fact that 7.8 million desktop computers were sold in 2006 in brazil, an increase of 42% compared to 2005, according to the abinee (2007). regarding telecommunication infrastructure, according to ibge 39.7% of households did not have access to either landline voice dial-up nor mobile cell phone in 2005 (ibge, 2006), and only 13.7% of households had access to the internet. it is important to notice that the number of municipalities with access to broadband data telecommunication through cable and adsl has risen from 251 of the country's 5,565 municipalities in 2003 to 1,923 in 2006 (computerworld, 2007). the telecom sector claims that these municipalities represent 72.4% of the country's population, but do not mention that service coverage within municipalities is concentrated in the richest neighborhoods and city centers. despite the fall of desktop computer prices to as low as r$ 1,200.00, average monthly income for more than 50% of the households was less than r$ 1,050.00 in 2005 (ibge, 2006), which still prevents most brazilians from having access to computer with internet at home. despite the importance of schools, especially for the access of lower social classes, only 16.7% had access to the internet in 2005 (pnud, 2006) in a total universe of 195,041 public and private elementary and medium level schools. these numbers illustrates one important digital divide issue: access to infrastructure. quality indicators, impact studies and other fundamental aspects concerning the digital divide, relating abilities and use of ict for development in its multiple dimensions, remain as challenges. government strategies federal government guidelines for electronic government cover digital inclusion (brazil, 2004). it is registered there that a digital inclusion public policy must build an infrastructure aimed towards public and community use. the document claims that federal government must be responsible for “inductive, normative and budgetary actions”. also that digital inclusion projects must prioritize the expenditure with human resources, and capacity building rather than equipments, connectivity and software licenses”. it also states that the “execution of digital inclusion policy must be shared with other governmental levels, private sector and civil society”. to date, several digital inclusion initiatives under the responsibility of different governmental institutions have been implemented by the brazilian federal government. these initiatives can be grouped in three strategies: a) incentives for personal acquisition of equipments; b) equipping public schools with ict and access; c) implementation of public/community access centers for universal use. the first strategy is the focus of the computers for all program, in which national computer manufacturers register minimum configuration desktop and notebook models with free/open-source software installed. for these models, some taxes are diminished or entirely cut, and vendors can offer special financing rates that make it possible for the final consumer to pay less than r$ 50.00 a month for a domestic use computer, totalizing r$ 1,200.00 or less. this program has stimulated price decrease for all models, and together with low dollar-real exchange rates and rising incomes for the c class, allowed for the above mentioned market rise in desktop and notebook selling, as well as for 2.2 million brazilians acquiring their first personal computer in 2006 (wnews, 2007). the second strategy, equipping of public schools with ict and access, is the aim of proinfo – national program for informatics in education, coordinated by the ministry of education since 1997, in co-responsibility with states and municipalities. the third strategy is the implementation of public internet access centers for universal use, or telecenters. this strategy concentrates the largest number of decentralized initiatives, such as casa brasil, culture points, rural and fishermen telecenters and others that can be seen in www.inclusaodigital.gov.br. successful local government initiatives and international experiences served as examples and inspiration for the dissemination of telecenters throughout the country, not only by the federal government but also by local governments and civil society organizations. in order to provide digital inclusion in households, public schools and community access centers, a public policy must integrate resources such as connectivity, equipments and capacity building, as well as construct and maintain evaluation tools and indicators. evaluation tools: national digital inclusion observatory an important evaluation tool under construction is the national digital inclusion observatory onid, which has started to map and register all public non-commercial internet usage resources (telecenters). proposed by the federal government digital inclusion committee, in alliance with civil society organizations, the observatory keeps records on telecenters that are constantly updated and available over the web, so that citizens can follow the implementation and characteristics of the facilities, promote the use of telecenters as well as contribute for their improvement. for the government, the observatory will allow for organized information on the national coverage of telecenter units, helping public policy building and its improvement, in dialogue with civil society, as well as being a decision making tool concerning the investment and maintenance of telecenter infrastructure. one of the first achievements of the observatory was the construction of the digital inclusion federal programs portal, mentioned above (www.inclusaodigital.gov.br). the portal aggregates, in one url, information about 14 federal government digital inclusion ongoing initiatives, including news, events, links for each program and a repository of references in continuous growth for practitioners and academic researchers. the observatory has also estimated, in partnership with ipso – social and technology projects and research institute, that the number of operating telecenters in brazil is from 4,000 to 5,000 in the begining of 2007. next steps are filling up and checking information about all these units, and making them available in the web. computers for inclusion: equipment refurbishing for schools, telecenters and public libraries another achievement that can be mentioned in brazilian digital inclusion public policy is the computer for inclusion project. it consists of a national network for reconditioning ict equipment that is no longer useful for companies and government. the project is inspired in the canadian computers for schools program, which began in 1993. in brazil, there are three computer refurbishing centers – crcs to date. equipment discarded from private and state owned companies, as well as from government, are directed to these centers, and pass through a semi-industrial process that delivers standard-level computers with free-open-source software installed for use in schools, telecenters and public libraries. one of the differences between the canadian program and computers for inclusion is that the brazilian initiative tries to build capacity and promote professional education for youngsters of low-income families living in major city suburbs. to allow for this, crcs are implemented in poor neighborhoods in partnership with local social non-governmental organizations that are experts in community development and youth. another difference is that the project delivers computers for schools but also for libraries and telecenters. these places are important for bridging digital divide and allow for population capacity building, playing an important role for compensating the lack of formal education of the adult population in brazil. the ministries of planning, education and labor form the national coordination of the computers for inclusion project, together with representatives from the crcs and other nation-wide partner institutions. the main responsibility of this committee is to evaluate and decide which projects submitted by organizations such as schools, libraries, community associations and other end-user digital inclusion promoters will receive the equipments refurbished in the crcs. until 31st march 2007, computers for inclusion had received more than 3,000 used computers, refurbished 551 and donated 283 for 25 digital inclusion projects throughout the country. at that moment, 234 youngsters were working in the crcs and three new centers were planned to have started implementation by the end of the year. challenges despite a noticeable evolution in digital inclusion public policy, many challenges are facing the brazilian federal government and also other actors who aim to improve these initiatives. they can be summed in the guaranteeing of: broadband access to the internet. funding for the maintenance of existing infrastructure (schools, telecenters). local content production. qualified digital inclusion agents in the initiatives with adequate labor conditions. participative steering mechanisms for programs and digital inclusion initiatives. universal access to facilities in the local level. co-responsibility among federal, state and municipal government levels. development of local government budgetary and administrative capacity. a) broadband access to the internet access to the internet shall be treated as a public policy similar to water and energy supply. this means that universalization of broadband service at a feasible fee must be the aim of governments and citizens. telecom and communications legislation must include responsibilities for government and the private sector to provide broadband as a public service, so as to cover the whole country, and not only urban rich areas. brazilian federal government has started a national broadband plan to provide all schools and municipalities with the service by 2010, and this will demand efforts from many sides. b) funding for the maintenance of existing infrastructure as important as the goal of expanding the number of facilities available for digital inclusion initiatives, maintaining the existing infrastructure of access remains a challenge. local communities have significant difficulties in allocating the necessary resources to maintain connectivity, equipments and network, as well as the upkeep of human resources. the full appropriation of ict by communities is not an immediate result of allocated infrastructure, nor can it ignore that technology keeps changing. governmental budget allocation is part of the solution, more effective when joined by local governments capable of dialoguing with the communities. c) local content production ict cannot be used only for accessing information that is produced elsewhere. one of the challenges of digital inclusion initiatives is to promote local content production and its dissemination. effective technology appropriation demands methodologies, approaches and strategies that do not consist in the mere reproduction of commands, discourses and contents. ict are to be used as tools, means and languages for the affirmation of cultural identity and diversity. local content production contributes to development in its multiple dimensions by expressing the points of view and realities of those who live them. d) qualified digital inclusion agents in the initiatives in adequate labor conditions enabling local people to act as digital inclusion agents – educators, monitors, telecentrists, activities tutors and so on – in a professional and qualified manner, is still not recognized by numerous public policy makers as the most fundamental issue concerning ict for development and people. maintenance of these local agents in adequate labor conditions is an important challenge. if not, qualified agents tend to either move from that place to a (better) paid job, or become over-demanded, affecting the quality of their activities and, in some cases, their relationship with the community. unfortunately there is significant evidence that voluntary efforts while important and significant do not provide sufficient long-term stability to most initiatives. e) participative steering mechanisms for programs and units of digital inclusion while there has been a movement towards the establishment of local steering committees in telecenters implemented by most federal government initiatives, the programs themselves still lack consolidated mechanisms of participation for civil society, as does the national digital inclusion public policy. also, many schools have trouble in implementing participative mechanisms at the local level, keeping even their own students and teachers away from ict infrastructure already available. f) universal access to facilities in the local level mostly schools, but also telecenters and other digital inclusion initiatives still have restrictions concerning the use of their facilities by all citizens. universal access is a necessary guideline and daily effort, in order to promote social inclusion and a more efficient use of public resources. one ally in overcoming these restrictions has been local steering committees structured to represent as many social groups as existent around the unit. these committees do not fear to debate openly the conflict of interests concerning the use of the unit and usually are instrumental in negotiating solutions that keep the public interest foremost. concerning this challenge it is important to point out that digital inclusion agents must be qualified to attend the diversity of people use the unit, guaranteeing their role as a public service facility. g) co-responsibility among federal, state's and municipal governmental levels every year, more and more government agents, in different levels, feel they have a role to play in digital inclusion. this should be oriented to considering digital inclusion as a public policy, in which each actor has a defined responsibility. there are numerous challenges that could be better embraced if institutional mechanisms were built; this is only possible through the involvement of federal, state and municipal governments. h) budget and capacity building at municipal level brazil has 5,565 municipalities, nearly 80% sustained by federal budget transfers, and many with low administrative capacity for using these resources effectively in accordance to legislation and public interest, as well as little capacity to raise local funds for public policies. initiatives that help these municipalities to assume their roles and responsibilities as public policy implementers must be reinforced and disseminated. as a federal republic, brazilian society expects that national, state and municipal governments are capable of acting in a coordinated manner, especially in regard to social inclusion policies, such as digital inclusion initiatives. conclusion from the perspective of agents working within the federal government, these are relevant observations about digital inclusion in brazil today. on one hand, the advances in collecting data and the implementation of some strategies on bridging digital divide are very positive, especially in regard to the increase of home use of computers. on the other hand, broadband access to the internet as a nation-wide public service, implementation and maintenance of digital inclusion initiatives in schools and public access centers, and qualification of human resources in the use of ict for development in its multiple dimensions, still remain as challenges that government in all levels and civil society are facing and are yet to resolve. references abinee associação brasileira da indústria elétrica e eletrônica (brazilian electric and electronic industry association). (2006). sondagem setorial janeiro-agosto/2006. retrieved in october 03, 2006 em http://www.abinee.org.br/abinee/decon/decon16.htm brazil. (may 2004). oficinas de planejamento estratégico relatório consolidado comitês técnicos. comitê executivo do governo eletrônico. retrieved in december 17, 2006 from http://www.governoeletronico.gov.br/governoeletronico/publicacao/down_anexo.wsp?tmp.arquivo=e15_243diretrizes_governoeletronico1.pdf cgi.br comitê gestor da internet brasil (brazilian internet steering committee) website. (2007). retrieved in april 30, 2007 from http://cgi.br cgi.br. (2006). 2ª pesquisa sobre uso da tecnologia da informação e da comunicação no brasil tic domicílios e usuários 2006. retrieved in april 30, 2007 from http://www.cetic.br/usuarios/tic/2006/rel-int-04.htm computerworld. (january 31, 2007) número de municípios com banda larga salta 660% em 3 anos. retrieved in april 30, 2007 from http://computerworld.uol.com.br/comunicacoes/2007/01/31/idgnoticia.2007-01-31.7117313758/idgnoticia_view ibge – instituto brasileiro de geografia e estatística (brazilian geographics and statistics institute). (2007). pesquisa nacional por amostra de domicílios 2005 suplemento especial acesso à internet e telefone móvel celular para uso pessoal. retrieved in april 30, 2007 from http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/acessoainternet/default.shtm ibge. (2006). pesquisa nacional por amostra de domicílios 2005. retrieved in october 10, 2006 from http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/trabalhoerendimento/pnad2005/default.shtm pnud. (2006) implementação do sistema integrado de informações educacionais (sied). retrieved in october 10, 2006 from http://www.pnud.org.br/curiosidades/index.php?id04=32&are=ecu wnews. (february 7, 2007). 2,2 milhões de pessoas compraram seu primeiro computador em 2006. reproduced in computador para todos website. retrieved in april 30, 2007 from http://www.computadorparatodos.gov.br/noticias/20070208_01 1in 2005, the minimum wage was r$ 300,00 (approximately us$ 130,00 at that time). joci engendering icts: scope for empowering women, with special reference to india dilip kumar ghosh sub-divisional officer, sadar (east), purulia, west bengal dkghosh03@rediffmail.com the role of information and communication technologies (icts) as a tool for all-around development has attracted sustained attention throughout the world. at the same time, it is the stark reality that the benefits of icts have been unevenly distributed within and between countries all over the world. experience indicates that women are the worst sufferers in the process. until and unless discrimination against women is addressed specifically, there will be every risk that icts would exacerbate existing inequalities between men and women. in developing societies the social discrimination trap is very strong – this highlights the ways in which men’s and women’s, girls’ and boys’ experiences of poverty differ. the world economic forum’s gender gap index for the year 2007, ranks india 114th among 128 countries. this index comprises four indicators, namely, economic, political, and educational and health subjects. all these four are intricately related to the status of women. though the study of empowerment of women as a whole is not the present task, yet these parameters have to be referred because of their influence on overall empowerment process. mainstreaming the gender perspective is essential to achieve parity between men and women where mainstreaming is a process of assessing the implications for women and men in respect of any planned action in all areas and at all levels. therefore, gender dimensions of icts in terms of access and use, their capacity-building opportunities, employment and engagement in productive works etc. are explicitly identified and addressed for deriving decent outcome. in general terms, this process is considered as engendering icts for the empowerment of women. women are focused upon because of their exclusion and invisibility in the development projects. in this respect, women in development approach advocated that women should be treated on equal terms with men. by mid 1980s, women in development highlighting shifted from equity aspects to anti poverty measures to efficiency with strong emphasis on income–generation activities and skill development strategies for women. the beijing declaration and platform for action adopted at the fourth world conference on women in 1995 also called for the empowerment of women through enhancing their skills, knowledge, access to, and use of information technologies. the importance of these theoretical perspectives has high value. translation of these perspectives into appropriate policy of the respective national government and implementation of the plans and programmes however, has left much to be desired. when icts are added as enabling tools to the overall agenda of empowering women, complexity of the theoretical perspectives became deepened. as indicated in a publication of the commonwealth educational media centre for asia (2006), “there has been a tendency on the part of different governments and development agencies to treat technologies as neutral, value-free, without taking into account the social, environmental and economic effects of the technology being introduced.” commonly it is assumed that the mere presence of technology itself can improve efficiency and therefore it will bring benefits to the community. this approach of the policy-makers and implementing agencies only focuses on growth (in terms of numbers) and building of infrastructure related to it, but not on the equity. this argues for integrating women’s equality into any ict strategy. the present study is taken up in this context with special reference to india and west bengal, a state in india. the empowering process of women in india started predominantly from the sixth five year plan (1980-85) when obligatory quota of benefits for women in different poverty alleviation programmes had been made. this process reached its zenith when the government of india brought in 73rd and 74th amendments to the constitution of india in the year 1992 for at least one third reservations of seats and offices in favour of women in rural and urban local self governments (panchayats and municipalities respectively). in rural areas, local self governments have three tiers at villages, blocks, and districts. this reservation is applicable to all three tiers. as a consequence thousands of women in rural and urban india have been liberated from their kitchens and brought into positions of authority and responsibility in the panchayats and municipalities. they became the members of political community at the same time, because to be the members of local self government they have to contest party-based general elections at an interval of five years. in the present paper the case of rural women is portrayed only because within women, rural women are at disadvantage. an overall background of women members of the three tier panchayats is presented for an understanding of their socio-economic status. this is essential for linking them with the icts. apart from overall scenario at the national level, this paper focuses down even more tightly to look at the experiences in west bengal where an alliance of the left parties under the leadership of the communist party of india (marxists) has been governing from the year 1977. apart from the introductory part, the paper is structured into three sections. section 1 presents the socio-economic characteristics of elected women representatives in panchayats from the secondary sources; then section 2 proceeds to examine the ict context in india generally and in west bengal specifically. in section 3, the existing facilities for getting access to icts in west bengal is discussed through examples from grass-roots investigations in different districts. participation of women in rural areas in the self help group mode programmes is a pro-active step towards their empowerment – this is also assessed in this section through west bengal’s experiences section 1 a nation wide study on elected women representatives in the panchayats published by the ministry of panchayati raj, govt. of india (2008) shows that 45 percent of the women representatives are between 36 and 50 years. mean age of female members is found to be 39.8 years. the nation wide study shows that in comparison to male representatives (31%), a higher proportion of female representatives (41%) are from the age group 21-35 years. this reflects that at an all india level, female representatives tend to be younger than their male counterparts – this is a source of male domination in local government activities. at all india level, 48 percent of women members had completed middle school while 19 percent are illiterates. an analysis of the gender differences vis-à-vis educational attainments shows that the male representatives were more educated than their female counterparts. the proportion of male representatives who had passed middle school or above was 70 percent, in comparison to, 40 percent for females. naturally, the proportion of illiterates was higher in the case of women (24%) than in men (6%). this also is an influential factor in subordinating women members in day to day functioning of the local governments. 54 percent of the female members at all india level reported their primary occupation as household work with respect to time spent. with this background, it can easily be understood that ict intervention in favour of women requires convergence of efforts. many women panchayat members are hesitant and tentative in rising to the occasion. officials at different levels of administration in the villages, blocks and districts usually take advantage of the inexperience and poor education of the women panchayat members in the three tiers of the panchayat structure. the predominant scenario is that young age and inexperience of women members coupled with their low education standard often crippled them from a rightful allocation of functions and responsibilities. the men of the villages including those in the political parties also do not accord women members due respect and regard. section 2 the eleventh five year plan (2007-12) of india envisages the objective of faster and inclusive growth. new initiatives envisaged in the plan document include providing all public services at the door of common man through common service delivery outlets and ensuring efficiency, transparency, and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man. promotion of e-governance through newer technology development, entrepreneurship, and innovation in icts is of paramount importance in the eleventh five year plan. the eleventh five year plan document claims that “breakthroughs in technology and innovative applications have brought vast benefits to various sectors and sub-sectors of the economy of the country.” but no mention is there whether these benefits give equal benefits to all categories of people irrespective of their caste and sex. many states have already taken initiatives in computerization of the district administration and citizen-centric services, land records, promoting markets of rural products etc. the women participation in all these initiatives remains a question, however. wide spread illiteracy in india is a serious concern – india is home to more than a third of the world’s illiterate population (unesco, 2004). high illiteracy limits the population’s capacity to acquire the basic skills needed for an innovation economy. this remains a major hurdle in the process of empowerment of women also. a focus on the gender dimensions of information and communications technology can prevent an adverse impact of the digital revolution or the perpetuation of the existing inequalities and widespread discrimination on one hand, and on the other hand it can enhance the scope for equitable access of women to the benefits of icts. access to and use of icts is very crucial in any policy for ict expansion. the eleventh five year plan in the document admits that information technology has contributed tremendously to the progress of the countries, but does not give any guarantee that the gender differences will be fully addressed so that such technologies actively promote gender equality and alleviate the gender – based disadvantages. both strategies and perspectives for informatisation in india have tended to be very techno-centric. to move away from techno-centrism requires going beyond the determinisms and other limitations of informational and cultural responses. information culture is to be conceived at multiple levels even within the rural areas. field data shows that the computers are installed in the gram panchayat, block and district offices by the government of west bengal for e-governance, but in general the elected representatives do not even like to touch them. this is true for both men and women members. this is mainly due to the low level formal education even to understand the minimum skill for running a computer. the capacity building programmes of the state government is mainly concerned with the acts and rules of the panchayats and guidelines of programmes implemented through the panchayats. as huge funds (on an average around rs.40-50 lakhs (1 lakh=100,000=$2240 usd) in case of gram panchayats and rs.1-3 crore (1 crore=10,000,000=$224,000 usd) to the panchayat samitis) are allotted to the panchayats, its appropriate tracking is not possible without use of computers. but the panchayat representatives irrespective of men and women mostly have low awareness about information (better to say data) and its necessity. information literacy in this context can be defined as the ability to access, know where to find, evaluate and use information from different sources. it involves communication, critical thinking, and problem solving skills. with low educational attainments or without any literacy, it is utmost difficult to cope with these requirements. for improving the functioning of the panchayats at three tiers, the department of panchayats and rural development in west bengal has undertaken initiatives since the year 2003-04 for computerizing the accounts of all three tiers. this has been done to improve the financial management of these bodies. the ict infrastructure of the panchayats are being strengthened and all the gram panchayats having electricity have acquired two pcs with accessories, one for accounting related works and the other for programme management. at the end of the year 2008-09, in west bengal still there are 180 gram panchayats where there is no electricity – they have no access to computers also. the panchayat samitis (at block level) have computers and most of them have internet connectivity though many of such connections are dial-up type with slow speed. however, the state government has given permission to use data card to all the gram panchayats and panchayat samitis. but all the facilities so far extended to the panchayat offices are mostly accessed by the officials, not by the local level elected people’s representatives. as the majority of officials are men (women have share less than 20 per cent) so the ict facilities have very little beneficial impact on women at the local level. section 3 the west bengal panchayat act, 1973 empowers the panchayats in all three tiers to plan for and implement programmes for ensuring economic development and social justice in the rural areas. the members who have to discharge the responsibilities enshrined in the act have many gaps in their capability to assess the information needed. due to the low level of education and understanding about data requirement, the process of data generation and sources is mostly hazy to women representatives. the predominantly use of language english seems to be a strong barrier to the majority of the panchayat members, particularly those at the village and block levels. the elected representatives at the district level have better educational attainment than those at those at lower two tiers. for example, 44 percent of women members in district tier of the panchayats have middle school completion of study while the corresponding figures for the blocks and gram panchayats are 39 and 27 percent respectively. simply the use of english as a medium of communication debars a large number of women members from the information loop. if the ability to locate, evaluate and effective use of information in multiple manners does not get due priority in the agenda of women empowerment, it is likely that the benefits of social transformation due to the advent and spread of the information and communication technologies will not reach the women as they are the largest group among the adult non-literate population in west bengal, also in india. icts affect all aspects of women’s lives. for example, icts can provide women with skills, training, and information for their family based enterprises (such as self help group products). when the beneficiaries of icts are young, urban-based, and fairly good understanding of english it can be seen that overwhelmingly they are male. for providing citizen services with attributes like efficiency, user convenience, cost effectiveness etc. the department of panchayats and rural development takes initiatives to set up common service centers (cscs) in rural areas (popularly known as tathya mitra kendra). in box 1 immediate feelings of women entrepreneurs of a csc are captured. box 1 benefits for women of a csc in west bengal women entrepreneurs expressed that they gained more respect in their local area as a result of the ict skills using a computer and accessing and distributing information to the local people as and when demanded. according to those women access to ict represents real and symbolic access to modernity, the future education and knowledge. from the csc they are providing data entry services to the gram panchayats as and when required, internet services to the local students etc. the engagement in the csc enables them to earn around rs.10000/per month. for facilitating women’s access to ict, it is critical to ensuring that women can fully exploit the existing opportunities to learn computer in different learning centers sponsored by the central and state governments. experience has shown that reaching women particularly in rural areas is facilitated by using multiple forms of media and communication technologies that is ensuring that new technologies, such as computers and internet are usually combined with already conversant media like radio, television and print media. the common scenario in use of computers installed for e-governance in the panchayat and block offices is that the panchayat members, not to talk of women members separately, are mostly excluded from the initiatives of the state government. capacity-building measures instituted by the state government in west bengal for adoption of various e-governance initiatives have been undertaken in two modes – institutional training and handholding support to the end users at their work-places. in institutional training subjects coverage is like this: theoretical aspects of computer fundamentals, basic accounts keeping and operation of the soft wares, simulation and hands on practice regarding operation of the application soft wares. the duration of the training is five days at a stretch. only the employees of the panchayat offices and blocks are selected for training; that too according to most of the trainees is not sufficient to capture vignettes of the soft wares. even the heads of the village panchayats and block panchayats (both are elected representatives and have women in their fold) are not brought under the training. icts can not overcome the social rigidities – they can only act as catalysts if used in proper perspectives. socio-cultural forces like machismo and negative male attitudes towards women and stereotypes about women can not be combated with the icts. personal, social, and environmental factors are very much concerning – literacy, infrastructure at the offices where the panchayat members are coming and working, government sponsorship etc. may be cited as examples of such factors. the assumption that technology introduced for the betterment of the society at large is gender-neutral and yield symmetric benefits for both men and women is not correct at all. the computers installed at the panchayat offices and the software used like integrated fund monitoring and accounting system is the example of such attitudes. the impact of gender relations on technology and social constraints women have to face in accessing and using icts can not be denied. so far the state government has yet to take massive training programmes for making the panchayat members computer literate in west bengal there are around 52 thousand members in panchayats taking all three tiers together. like all human beings, women also want information and prefer to engage in communication (around 85 percent of women members in west bengal have mobile phones) with the outer-world. through focus group discussions with the selected heads of the panchayats, it transpires that the women as a whole do not get due recognition by the policy makers at the helm of affairs. the women representatives categorically indicated that “women are rarely involved in the need assessments of information required for development programmes – not to talk of icts separately.” even the utility of possessing the relevant information remains grey to them. practically for all purposes, women are considered as the passive recipients of information and not as active users of information. in the meetings of the panchayats it is a common scenario that the women members rarely interact – that is they are not considered as communicators also. in decentralized governance, it is expected that all the partners should have the minimum capability to interact that is each and everyone in the process shall participate equitably. the field reality is that in spite of at least one third of the total members in all three tiers of the panchayat structure women are not given equal weights at the time of exercising their options and ideas. well-considered view is that icts can build new channels for social awareness, mobilizing resources for resource poor women and networking with others for their promotion. involving women’s organizations for propagating the usefulness of icts among women (women panchayat members are not outsiders of the whole community of rural women) is very rare. in reality, these organizations have no opportunity to play any role at all. of the elected women members, there are women who have education beyond the secondary level of formal education – they can be used as change-agents in engendering icts available in the panchayat offices. hand-holding supports from the available technical man-power at districts (in every district there is a national informatic centre) may be extended for building capacities for women members. enhancing the capabilities of women in icts and conversion of ict based capabilities into actual functionings, call for addressing individual choices consisting of personal preference, specific needs, and social norms. if the women members are not coming forward and there is no compulsion from the government side, it is likely that they will remain excluded from the benefits of icts. in local governance mechanism (gram panchayats at villages, panchayat samitis at blocks and zilla parishads at districts) the people representatives have to depend heavily on government officials for data and fund management. interpretations are also extended by the officials not always compatible with local people’s demand and aspirations. this contradiction in many cases disrupts the decentralized decision making process. the state government needs to create scope for ict based training in training curriculum and to impart training on computers for all the panchayat members at three tiers. computers are in panchayat offices but not used by the members – this scenario shall have to be changed for making any impact of the ict technology. no discrimination in providing access to training is to be made at the time of selection of trainees – rather to start with women office bearers at three tier panchayats may be given the priority. it is a fact that ict is not a gender neutral technology; so every possibility of women exclusion from icts is there. in the current self help group approach to development and empowerment of women through micro-financing, intervention of icts is more or less absent. barring a few exceptions in the state like kerala (where female literacy rate is more than 90 percent), most of the shgs are engaged in traditional activities. these groups are mainly engaged in primary and secondary sector activities involving low skill. the lack of basic skills due to the massive illiteracy prohibits these women from getting ict benefits. technological literacy and access to information and communication technology resources are very much important even for the informal sectors in the rural areas. without this, the call for inclusive development may remain an empty slogan. if in true sense it becomes possible to include women in icts at all levels starting from the villages, solidarity will emerge. there is a common prophecy that ‘if you don’t ask for gender, you don’t get gender.’ in introducing e-governance throughout the panchayats in west bengal, no references to gender concerns, however, were made and no sex disaggregated data both at micro and macro level can be available. in the context of empowering women, it is essential that gender considerations need to enter from the beginning of the policy design not added in hindsight or as a mid-term correction. as the channeling of feedbacks and concerns from the field is poor, the policy-makers at far off places (either at the national capital or state capital) remain in dark about grassroots issues. in lieu of a conclusion in order to address the problem of the digital divide, proactive efforts on the part of the government agencies from the national and state levels to the local levels would have to be made to ensure women’s effective participation in the knowledge society. this inclusion is more than just access to icts or to the internet – task does not end in provisioning of infrastructure only. rather, efforts shall be there to provide information literacy to women. common belief is that digital divide is merely a divide in access to the ict facilities. at the first stroke this belief needs correction. for bridging digital divide the first and foremost condition should be the attainment of a minimum standard of education for understanding abc of computers. there is no doubt that ict technology has a force for change but the outcomes are constrained by the pre-existing organization of work, of which gender is an integral part. barriers to effective use of icts are a microcosm of existing gender relations in societies where women are socialized towards non-technical careers and away from any technical work. this calls for a cultural change. here also the government agencies have a positive role to encourage women to come in technical streams. further, there is the predominant use of english in maintaining data and their digitization. output obviously is always in english. the support of local languages and local content is a major issue to promote ict use. if this is not cared adequately and appropriately any endeavour to empower women is bound to be fallen through. the constitution of india recognizes equality of sexes; in practice the provisions contained in the constitution are observed more in breach than in compliance. references 1) dighe, anita and vyasulu reddi, usha women’s literacy and information and communication technologies: lessons that experience has taught us, published by commonwealth educational media centre for asia, 2006 2) ministry of panchayati raj, government of india study on elected women representatives in panchayati raj institutions, 2008 3) planning commission, government of india eleventh five year plan, volume i manteniendo lazos vía web: el caso de las comunidades mexicanas de emigrantes en los eua víctor m gonzález manchester business school, university of manchester, united kingdom vmgonz@manchester.ac.uk luis a. castro manchester business school, university of manchester, united kingdom luis.castro@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk introducción la migración es un fenómeno social que manifiesta sus efectos en las estructuras económicas, marcos jurídicos, esquemas sociales y aun los aspectos mas cotidianos de las comunidades involucradas. países como estados unidos de américa (eua), canadá, reino unido y australia son áreas típicas de inmigración y los flujos migratorios a estos destinos se han ido incrementando continuamente desde mediados del siglo xx (castles and miller, 2003). las razones para migrar son numerosas desde la búsqueda de trabajo o asilo político hasta el emprender oportunidades comerciales o adquirir educación y conocimientos especializados. este trabajo se concentra en particular en el contexto migratorio de méxico a eua, el cual ha sido considerado uno de los flujos migratorios más importantes a nivel mundial en cuanto incentivado por la búsqueda de oportunidades laborales. la inmigración mexicana en los eua se ha estado incrementando en los últimos años, y ha pasado de concentrarse en algunas areas como los estados de california o texas, ha cubrir prácticamente el pais por completo (zúñiga and hernández-león, 2005). como resultado de la distancia que los separa, los emigrantes se comunican de manera habitual como una manera de mantener la cercanía con su familia y comunidades de origen. por muchos años, la principal forma de contacto fueron el correo convencional y las llamadas por teléfono. sin embargo, la disponibilidad de tecnologías de información y comunicación (tic), en particular internet, ha facilitado la creación de sitios web comunitarios que ofrecen a los emigrantes información así como oportunidades de estar en contacto con la gente de sus comunidades de origen. este artículo ofrece un análisis de los sitios web de comunidades mexicanas diseñados específicamente con el objetivo de proporcionar un medio de comunicación a aquellos miembros de la comunidad viviendo lejos de ella, principalmente en los eua. nuestra investigación busca identificar la presencia en internet de esta clase de sitios en internet así como también proveer una caracterización inicial con respecto al tipo de apoyo que brindan a los miembros de esas comunidades viviendo en el extranjero. nuestras conclusiones buscan ser un punto de partida para hablar de cómo se puede incrementar el sentido de ‘conexión’ que los emigrantes tienen hacia sus comunidades a través de nuevas formas de interacción usando diferentes tecnologías y, de igual forma, facilitar su entera participación en la vida de sus comunidades de origen. de manera inicial, y como un ejercicio de reflexion que motivó este trabajo, nuestra propia experiencia como emigrantes de comunidades relativamente pequeñas nos sugirió que nuestro primer contacto con méxico, ciertamente es a través de nuestras familias, pero fue a través de estos sitios web que pudimos conectarnos con la vida cotidiana de nuestras comunidades de origen. previo a nuestro esfuerzo, se sabía de un número indefinido de sitios web comunitarios usados para comunicar a los emigrantes mexicanos en eua con sus familias y comunidades de origen. en el pasado, la prensa ha reportado evidencia anecdótica acerca de los servicios provistos por esos sitios, los cuales actúan como puentes para aquellos que viven lejos. nuestra motivación surge entonces de entender que el tipo de sitio web que deseabamos estudiar no cubre una dimension nacional que puede ser importante para el migrante, pero provee otra clase de acercamiento a aquellas redes sociales que por la naturaleza misma de las comunidades parten de un universo mas pequeño y en las que el impacto que el internet así como las implicaciones de estar comunicados pueden tener alacanzar otros objetivos. el articulo está organizado de la siguiente manera: en la siguiente sección se presenta una discusión sobre la naturaleza de las comunidades dispersas1 dentro del contexto migratorio méxico-usa. esta sección provee una imagen acerca de la magnitud del fenómeno en este contexto en particular. en la siguiente sección, se habla acerca de la importancia del rol de las tecnologías de información y comunicación (tic) como puente para conectar a los emigrantes y sus comunidades. después de esta sección se presenta una sección que discute y analiza los resultados de otros estudios que se han llevado a cabo sobre comunidades dispersas señalando la relevancia de las tic y la forma en que la gente las ha adoptado como una forma de acercarse a sus familiares, comunidades y su propia identidad. enseguida se presenta el análisis de los sitios web de comunidades en méxico y se presentan, en particular, cuatro ejemplos de estos sitios web. finalmente, se presentan la discusión y conclusiones del estudio. la naturaleza de las comunidades dispersas en méxico la migración es un fenómeno complejo que está alterando tanto a la sociedad como a los gobiernos alrededor del mundo. durante el siglo pasado, la migración, en su mayoría, de la clase trabajadora mexicana hacia los eua ha sido considerable. casi siempre, las regiones con menos oportunidades, que carecen de trabajos bien remunerados u oportundiasdes para obtener educación de calidad, son las que enfrentan este tipo de movimientos. de acuerdo al consejo nacional de población en méxico (conapo), hay más de 10 millones de personas nacidas en méxico, viviendo en los eua (conapo, 2005). estos movimientos masivos de gente son conocidos en la literatura como comunidades en diaspora, lo cual se refiere a personas que viven alejadas de sus lugares de origen. en el caso particular de los mexicanos viviendo en el extranjero, en eua en particular, rinderle (2005) concluye en su trabajo que son una comunidad en diaspora ya que han experimentado: 1) un desplazamiento físico histórico, 2) desarticulación e hibridez cultural, 3) añoranza por la patria, 4) desplazamiento estructural y una relación compleja entre el estado-nación y la diaspora, 5) alienación de su ‘nueva patria’, y 6) una identidad colectiva definida por la relación entre su patria y su nueva patria. dejando de lado el debate acerca de las condiciones que crean este fenómeno social, es un hecho que estos flujos migratorios han contribuido a la revitalización de la fuerza de trabajo en eua (zúñiga and hernández-león, 2005). de igual forma, las comunidades de origen de los emigrantes han estado experimentando un cambio profundo en lo social y lo económico. es inegable, que muchas de esas economías así como proyectos comunitarios dependen altamente de las remesas enviadas por la gente que vive en el extranjero. de acuerdo al bando de méxico, el banco central, en el 2006m los mexicanos viviendo en el extranjero enviaron mas de $ 23,000 millones de dólares en remesas (banxico, 2006), las cuales se usan principalmente para consumo familiar y son, en la práctica, una de las estrategias de desarrollo más efectivas ya que el dinero llega a donde existe mayor necesidad (merz, 2005). de igual forma, las asociaciones de inmigrantes mexicanos en eua, formadas por personas de la misma comunidad de origen, se están convirtiendo en entidades cada día más organizadas con una influencia política y económica considerable en sus comunidades. sus actividades se dirigen principalmente a proyectos comunitarios tales como acciones altruistas y embellecimiento de su comunidad (merz, 2005).dichos proyectos incluyen la restauración de iglesias o pavimentación, los cuales son patrocinados en parte por las asociaciones de emigrantes formadas en el extranjero y en parte por los gobiernos locales (a nivel municipal o estatal).. sin embargo, mas allá de los beneficios económicos, la migración tiene consecuencias no siempre positivas para los emigrantes, sus familias así como sus comunidades. por ejemplo, los periodos tan extensos de ausencia puede hacer propensos a los individuos a experimentar sentimientos de nostalgia, los cuales pueden obstruir su adaptación a su nuevo hogar (fisher, 1989; van tilburg and vingerhoets, 1997). de igual forma, las familias mexicanas, tradicionalmente muy apegadas, se ven afectadas por largos periodos de separación que, en algunos casos, puede resultar en niños frágiles emocionalmente o, algunas veces, puede llevar a una separación permanente. además, las comunidades experimentan algunos retos como lo es la disminución de la población y la falta de mano de obra lo que crea círculos negativos, en los que la comunidad llega a una posición en la cual no puede retener a sus miembros porque no tiene oportunidades, pero no puede crear oportunidades porque carece de suficiente miembros. este ultimo problema es más notable en comunidades rurales donde la población crece a un ritmo lento o, algunas veces, hasta decrece debido a la migración de familias enteras (conapo, 2006b). las comunidades de inmigrantes mexicanos en eua pueden también ser descritas como comunidades trasnacionales, las cuales son “caracterizadas por la incorporación de la cultura de migración (y remesas) en el tejido del sistema social, tanto que la gente vive entre dos mundos: norteamérica y sus comunidades de origen en méxico” (conway and cohen, 1998). el principal reto que enfrentan estas comunidades es el que viven dos realidades: por un lado lidiando con las preocupaciones diarias en sus nuevos hogares tal como problemas relacionados al trabajo, salud, licencias de manejo, la escuela de sus hijos y hasta problemas de alienación o discriminación y, por otro lado, la angustia por problemas regionales o nacionales en méxico que pueden afectar potencialmente a su familia así como a su comunidad. manteniendo lazos con la patria: el rol de las tics como resultado de la distancia física que los separa, las familias se mantienen en contacto regularmente para buscas mantener la cercanía. por muchos años, la principal forma de contacto de los inmigrantes era el correo convencional así como las llamadas telefónicas. sin embargo, este comportamiento ha ido cambiando gradualmente debido a la cada ves más común disponibilidad de computadoras con acceso a internet aun en lugares remotos. de acuerdo a la asociación mexicana de internet, en abril de 2007, 22.7 millones de personas tenían acceso a internet, de los cuales el 55% lo hacian desde su hogar (amipci, 2007). esta penetración se ha incrementado en parte debido a que los equipos computacionales se han vuelto más accesibles a través de planes crediticios e iniciativas de gobierno para promover el acceso a internet desde centros comunitarios (salazar, 2004). por otra parte, aunque no se han realizado estudios específicos, un reporte publicado en el año 2000 indica que, después de los asiáticos, los latinos ocupan un segundo lugar en la adopción de internet en el hogar (walsh, 2000), no obstante, estos números son todavía reducidos en comparación con otros subgrupos en los eua como lo son los blancos y afro-americanos (fox and livingston, 2007). tomando en cuenta eso, y el hecho de que el equipo computacional y las tarifas de acceso a internet son mas baratos en eua, se puede decir que se esta haciendo mas factible para cualquier inmigrante mantenerse en contacto con sus familias en méxico ya sea a través de el envio de correos electrónicos o platicar con ellos en línea vía mensajería instantánea o servicios de voz sobre ip. la creciente disponibilidad de tics ha facilitado también la creación de sitios web comunitarios que proveen información local así como oportunidades de comunicación para aquellos que viven lejos de sus hogares. durante algunos años, la prensa y otros medios de comunicación han estado reportando acerca del fenómeno, destacando el rol que estos sitios web están jugando en mantener a las comunidades y sus familias unidas (gonzalez-mendez, 2002). se puede argumentat que la presencia de estos sitios web tiene el potencial de incrementar el sentido de conexión de los migrantes en el extranjero hacia sus comunidades asi como de reforzar su apegamiento a ellas, haciendo posible el involucrarse en asuntos sociales, políticos y económicos. nuestro esfuerzo esta enfocado a ir más allá de la evidencia anecdótica, y llevar a cabo un estidio que analice esta clase de sitios web comunitarios y el impacto que los servicios que proveen pueden tener para aquellos que viven en el extranjero. otras comunidades dispersas usando tic a medida que la gente migra, se incrementa la necesidad de comunicarse y mantenerse al tanto de las cosas que pasan en sus lugares de origen. esta sección ofrece una reseña de investigación llevada a cabo con el objeto de estudiar el rol que juegan las tics en las vidas de las comunidades dispersas. uno de esos casos en los cuales el internet ha servido para conectar a comunidades dispersas se reporta en un estudio etnográfico llevado a cabo por bernal acerca del uso de dehai.org, un ciberespacio público, por eritreos en diaspora (bernal, 2005). dehai fue iniciado por la diaspora eritrea que vive en eua con el objetivo de crear un espacio público para el debate y la expresión de ideas acerca del conflicto entre eritrea y etiopía (1998-2000). dehai.org está compuesto principalmente por foros y boletines informativos, lo cual hizo posible la inclusión de eritreos ordinarios en discusiones de asuntos de interés nacional. bernal descubrió que eritreos en diáspora usaron las discusiones en línea para ponerse en contacto con otros eritreos en su misma condición y mantenerse al tanto de lo que pasaba en eritrea y, finalmente, crear un espacio público transnacional eritreo que se extiende más allá del ciberespacio. bernal concluye que los eritreos fueron capaces de crear una comunidad con un sentido de pertenencia y de identidad difícilmente alcanzado por otro espacio público en eritrea (bernal, 2005). otro de estos casos de diásporas que usan tics para mantener el sentido de conexión es el caso de la diáspora de trinidad y tobago. millar y slater llevaron a cabo un estudio etnográfico acerca del uso de internet por parte de los trinitarios. el objetivo del estudio era el de averiguar cómo es que ellos adaptaban los medios de comunicación para hacerse la idea de que estaban encasa (miller and slater, 2000). la investigación consistió en un estudio in-situ en trinidad y tobago así como también entrevistas con trinitarios viviendo fuera de su país con el objetivo de entender que significa ser un trinitario. también se llevaron a cabo entrevistas y cuestionarios para caracterizar el uso y penetración del internet en trinidad y tobago. el estudio se centró principalmente en cuatro asuntos: negocios, afinidad, consumo e identidad. sus resultados indican que el internet puede ayudar a reforzar el sentido de identidad y singularidad de una cultura en particular. miller y slater concluyen que en el caso de los trinitarios que viven en diáspora, el internet ha ayudado a reforzar considerablemente los lazos familiares, ayudando a mantener relaciones más cercanas entre padres e hijos así como entre hermanos. un tercer caso relacionado es el de los emigrantes canadienses originarios de newfoundland quienes han estado manteniendo lazos con su hogar y con otros que viven en diáspora a través de tic (hiller and franz, 2004). aun cuando el trabajo de hiller y franz presentan el caso de migración interna en canadá, sus conclusiones pueden ser usadas para resaltar algunos de los aspectos relevantes para casos de migración internacional. en particular, ellos contrastan el uso y el rol de las tic en diferentes etapas de la migración: pre-emigrante, post-emigrante y emigrante establecido. durante la etapa pre-emigrante, debido a que el emigrante aun no cambia de residencia, las tic juegan un rol instrumental en el que su propósito es informar acerca del lugar al que se quieren trasladar. la etapa post-emigrante es cuando el emigrante ha estado fuera de su lugar de origen por un lapso menor a 5 años. durante esta fase, las tic ayudan a facilitar el contacto a casa así como establecer contacto con otros emigrantes. finalmente, durante la etapa donde se encuentran establecidos, los que tienen 5 años o mas, ellos encontraron que las tic ayudan a conservas la identidad así como a revivir los aspectos culturales de su comunidad. en esta etapa, los emigrantes están tratando de redescubrir su conexión con sus comunidades así como sus raíces. estos tres casos son ejemplos de cómo la tecnología ha sido usada para facilitar una mejor identificación y apego a sus comunidades así como el mantenimiento de las relaciones familiares para aquellos que viven más allá de las fronteras. sin embargo, si se compara con el caso de los trabajadores emigrantes mexicanos, estas diásporas difieren claramente en algunas características fundamentales. particularmente, en contraste con el contexto mexicano, eritrea era una nación en conflicto, lo que pudo influenciar seriamente la consolidación de dehai.org como espacio público para debatir y ponerse al tanto de lo que pasaba. además, los estudios sobre eritreos y trinitarios ilustran casos que se centran en naciones enteras en vez de comunidades pequeñas. sin duda, los inmigrantes mexicanos en los eua tienen un interés particular en su país, pero creemos que esos sentimientos pueden ser aun más fuertes hacia su comunidad de origen donde residen su familia, amigos y conocidos. en particular, el estudio de la comunidad de newfoundland en canadá es quizás el que refleja más la necesidad de reconectarse con el lugar de origen a nivel comunitario. nosotros argumentamos que de hecho, es a este nivel, en donde las persona tiene más posibilidades de volverse activo política, social y económicamente. estudio de sitios web comunitarios esta sección presenta los métodos usados en la obtención de datos, así como las técnicas para el análisis y las conclusiones del estudio exploratorio de sitios web hechos con el objetivo de sustentar y conectar emigrantes originarios de municipios en méxico con altos niveles de migración hacia los eua. metodología de investigación las siguientes preguntas de investigación motivaron nuestro estudio. ¿cuál es la presencia real en internet de las comunidades en méxico con (muy) altos niveles de migración? ¿qué clase de funcionalidad y/o servicios de información caracterizan a los sitios web de comunidades dispersas mexicanas? ¿cuáles son los principales servicios que proveen y que necesidades satisfacen estos sitios? para resolver estas preguntas, se inició con la identificación de las comunidades en méxico con alto o muy alto nivel de migración. basamos esta identificación en los datos proporcionados por conapo, quien creó un índice con el objeto de clasificar los estados y municipios en cinco clases –muy alto, alto, medio, bajo, muy bajo– que indican el grado de migración basado en cuatro indicadores: hogares que reciben remesas, hogares con emigrantes que dejaron el país en los últimos 5 años, hogares con emigrantes que dejaron y regresaron al país en los últimos 5 años y, finalmente, hogares con miembros de la familia que regresaron y que habían migrado antes de 1995. tomando en cuenta este índice, fue posible identificar 472 municipios de 2,433 que tiene méxico tienen alto o muy alto nivel de migración (conapo, 2006a). los municipios que fueron identificados después de esta selección comparten ciertas características. como era de esperarse, estos municipios pertenecen a estados con niveles más altos de migración, los cuales tienden a ser estados del sur de méxico como lo son guerrero y michoacán o los estados del bajío mexicano como lo son jalisco, guanajuato y zacatecas. de la misma forma, tienden a ser comunidades pequeñas con un promedio de 3,838 hogares (d.e. 4,354). partiendo de un universo inicial de 472 municipios, realizamos una búsqueda en internet usando google como máquina de búsqueda. usamos el nombre del municipio (por ejemplo, “atotonilco”, “san juan de los lagos”, “tequesquiapan”) como palabra clave en la búsqueda. el propósito era identificar si estos municipios contaban con un sitio web en línea. enseguida visitamos cada página que parecía indicar que era de un sitio web comunitario. nos centramos en los primeros 30 resultados de la búsqueda porque después de algunos intentos nos dimos cuenta que si un nombre de dominio estaba registrado o estaba hospedado en algún otro servidor como grupo de msn o grupos de yahoo casi siempre aparecía en los primeros 12 resultados. de esta manera, al analizar los primeros 30 resultados nos daba la confianza de no perder un sitio relevante. aun cuando muchos de los resultados eran de sitios gubernamentales, presentaban información que no estaba relacionada o con el objetivo de dar sustento a las comunidades dispersas. tal información incluía el cv del presidente municipal, programas sociales, finanzas y organigrama gubernamental. el criterio que utilizamos para decidir si era un sitio de una comunidad dispersa era que un sitio era válido si su propósito era el de conectar a aquellos que viven alejados con los que viven en la comunidad. los principales aspectos para identificar este tipo de sitios eran la información publicada por el administrador (webmaster), el contenido o los tipos de funcionalidades ofrecidas. los datos se recolectaron y validaron por ambos autores en el verano del 2006. una vez que se identificaron los sitios, se procedió a analizar cada uno de ellos para clasificar sus principales características funcionales. se inició con algunos de los sitios, y se definieron un conjunto inicial de posibles funcionalidades. este conjunto se fue redefiniendo hasta que todos los sitios web fueron analizados y dicho conjunto contenía las características comunes de todos los sitios. el análisis continuó usando un análisis mas detallado del contenido de una muestra de cuatro sitios. estos sitios se seleccionaron ya que representaban buenos ejemplos de las características observadas, es decir, incluían una buena variedad de servicios además de ser muy activos. dos de los sitios eran del estado de zacatecas (el estado en méxico con el nivel de migración más alto), uno de guerrero y uno del estado de michoacán. cabe señalar que los autores no son originarios de ninguno de esos estados, y por consiguiente de los municipios, a los que los sitios pertenecen. este análisis sirvió para identificar las limitaciones de las tecnologías actuales así como detectar oportunidades para nuevos sitios comunitarios. resultados los resultados generales de nuestra búsqueda de sitios comunitarios es que cerca del 20% (94) de los sitios con alto y muy alto índice de migración cuenta con sitios con el objetivo de conectar aquellos que viven fuera de la comunidad con los que viven en ella. se descubrieron un total de 114 sitios ya que algunos de los municipios cuentan con más de uno. además, la mayoría de los sitios (71%) cuenta con su propio nombre de dominio, el cual es generalmente el nombre del municipio y están en servidores privados, pagados por los webmasters, mientras que hay otros que están en servidores ‘públicos’ como lo son espacios de msn o grupos de yahoo. también se encontró que, de acuerdo a comentarios publicados por el webmaster (por ejemplo en la sección ‘acerca de…’), los sitios fueron iniciados por personas con conocimientos técnicos, aun cuando actualmente la mayoría de ellos se mantienen vivos por la participación de los usuarios. funcionalidad de los sitios web comunitarios los sitios proveen una variedad de funciones que incluyen varios servicios tales como el compartir álbumes fotográficos, información general como historia de la región, video en vivo, radio y tv local, la cocina regional y hasta cambio de moneda peso/dólar. después del análisis de los 114 sitios web se obtuvo un conjunto de servicios que se listan en la tabla 1. tabla 1. categorías y servicios que proveen los sitios web servicio provisto por el sitio web % de sitios que lo proveen información histórica 62 galería de fotos estática (mantenida por el webmaster) 51 foros 49 libro de visitas 44 salas de chat 43 publicidad de negocios locales 35 galería de fotos dinámica (mantenida por usuarios) 32 fotos del municipio 31 comentarios de la editorial 28 noticias locales 27 encuestas 24 videos del municipio 18 condiciones climatológicas del municipio 16 control de acceso con contraseña 16 estaciones de radio 15 anuncios clasificados 14 e-mail comunitario 11 calendario 10 tablero de mensajes rápidos 10 cocina regional 7 juegos 6 listas de e-mail 5 anuncio de cumpleañeros 4 entrevistas a gente local 3 envío de sms y desplegados en la pagina 3 video cameras en vivo 2 tarjetas postales 2 presentaciones acerca del municipio 1 estación de tv 1 cambio de moneda 1 árboles genealógicos 1 partiendo de la idea que estos sitios tienen el fin de representar a sus comunidades en el internet, una parte significante de ellos incluyen información histórica así como la localización geográfica. de manera similar, muchos de los sitios enfatizan la comunicación proveyendo servicios que varían desde libros de visitas, chat en línea y tableros de mensajes. además, espacions para compartir fotos son otro de los componentes importantes que identificamos, el cual en mucho casos se cuenta con una herramienta para publicar fotos de manera directa o bien que sean publicadas con la intervención del webmaster. la funcionalidad provista se puede agrupar en cinco grandes grupos: (1) herramientas de comunicación, (2) exhibición de media, (3) archivo para consultar información, (4) información local actual y (5) comercio. la tabla 2 muestra los porcentajes de sitios que ofrecen estos servicios basados en la clasificación previamente descrita. la categoría de herramientas de comunicación incluye los tableros de mensajes, fotos libro de visitas, salas de chat, etc. la categoría de exhibición de media incluye las galerías de fotos, videos así como presentaciones. la categoría de información local incluye cámaras en vivo, enlaces a estaciones de radio y televisión, noticias locales y las condiciones climatológicas. finalmente, la categoría de comercio comprende publicidad, avisos clasificados e información del cambio de moneda. tabla 2. agrupación de los servicios de los sitios web comunitarios funcionalidad del sitio web % de sitios que lo proveen herramientas de comunicación 92.5 exhibición de media 89.4 archivo de consulta 76.6 información local 69.1 comercio 38.3 tal como lo muestra la tabla 2, la mayoría de los sitios web cuenta con información acerca del municipio, sus origines, historia y personas sobresalientes de la comunidad. esto, en cierta forma, ayuda a alcanzar el objetivo de presentar su comunidad al resto del mundo. sin embargo, más allá de este objetivo, los sitios tienen una función comunicativa. a través de los servicios que ofrecen, los sitios proveen a la gente de la comunidad un lugar de reencuentro y saber acerca del paradero de viejos amigos y familia. muchos de los mensajes publicados en los foros y libros de visitas tenían el propósito de reestablecer los lazos sociales. aun los libros de visitas, cuyo propósito es el de dejar notas para los administradores del sitio, eran usados para publicar mensajes que solicitaban ser contactados por personas que los conocieran, también se publican mensajes con regularidad para obtener información de alguien en especifico que no han visto en mucho tiempo. aunque la creación de contenido en muchos de los sitios se lleva a cabo por una sola persona (o algunos pocos), en un importante número de ellos (32%) la creación de contenido es a través de los usuarios quienes son los que publican su propio contenido. muchos de los sitios moderan el contenido antes de ser publicado, pero aun así, este modelo es más abierto y su adopción puede resultar en diferentes dinámicas con respecto a compartir experiencias. de esta forma, la responsabilidad de publicar contenido no recae solo en los administradores sino también en los usuarios. finalmente, algunos de los aspectos de la vida de estas comunidades se ven reflejados a través de algunos de estos servicios. algunos sitios proveen videos de festividades, peregrinaciones, carnavales o desfiles. unos pocos también dan acceso a cámaras en vivo de modo que la gente pueda sentirse aun más cerca de los eventos cotidianos al momento en que suceden. además, la gente puede acceder a información tal como el clima local o enlaces a estaciones locales de radio y/o televisión, lo cual puede darles una cierta sensación de cercanía a ciertas situaciones. tabla 3. características de los cuatro municipios municipio tarandacuao arcelia juchipila moyahua estado guanajuato guerrero zacatecas zacatecas población 10,252 31,401 11,603 4,600 hogares 2,437 7,056 3,314 1,293 penetración de tv 94.2 % 78.8 % 95.2 % 91.1 % penetración de computadoras 7.67 % 8.16% 16.54% 7.35% nivel educativo (años) 6.46 6.60 6.73 5.61 índice de migración alto alto muy alto alto cuatro instancias de los sitios web comunitarios en esta sección se presentan detalles de cuatro sitios elegidos de entre los 114 sitios a manera de ilustrar como las personas usan estos sitios para mantener un cierto grado de consciencia y vinculación con los eventos que pasan en sus comunidades de origen. la tabla 3 muestra algunos datos demográficos de los municipios a los que pertenecen los sitios. la mayoría de los municipios son pequeños con un promedio de 13,600 habitantes aproximadamente. el acceso a la tecnología es bajo pero dentro de los niveles nacionales. finalmente, todos ellos experimentan índices de migración alto o muy alto. el sitio web de tarandacuao (http://www.mitaranda.com) tarandacuao es un municipio en el estado de guanajuato, localizado en el centro del país, con agricultura y comercio limitados. este municipio ha sido clasificado por conapo como un municipio con un alto índice de migración (conapo, 2006a). fig. 1. captura de pantalla del sitio web de tarancuao, guanajuato mitaranda.com (figura 1) es un sitio web que pone especial énfasis en informar a los usuarios sobre cuestiones locales. así, tanto notas informativas como nuevas fotos son publicadas de manera frecuente. el sitio también ofrece entrevistas a personajes públicos de la comunidad y ofrece, además, enlaces a servicios municipales, estatales y federales. el sitio web no usa programación para generar páginas dinámicas e interactivas. el sitio es administrado centralmente y actualizado por el webmaster, lo cual, ciertamente, lo hace menos dinámico. las fotos publicadas son generalmente de personas que viven fuera de la comunidad y presenta además eventos sociales tales como bodas, además de fiestas o miembros de la comunidad cuando están visitando otros lugares. el sitio cuenta además con un chat, el cual está hospedado en un servidor externo. finalmente, también se publica información acerca de servicios en la comunidad (e.g. personas que pinten casas o con otros oficios). el sitio web de arcelia (http://www.arcelia.net) arcelia es un municipio en el estado de guerrero en el sureste mexicano. arcelia ha sido clasificado por conapo como un municipio con un índice alto de migración (conapo, 2006a). el sitio de arcelia provee varios servicios para los visitantes como lo es información general acerca del municipio. este servicio clasifica la información en cuatro categorías: información general, producción económica, cultura y una sección de varios. la sección general incluye información acerca de la historia y localización del municipio dentro del contexto nacional. de manera similar, se muestran las principales carreteras por las cuales se puede llegar al municipio. finalmente, se presenta también una breve reseña del municipio y una descripción del gobierno municipal. la sección llamada producción económica se refiere a las principales actividades económicas y comerciales en la región como lo son agricultura, ganadería, minería, comercio y la industria del huarache (sandalias de cuero). la tercera sección llamada cultura es acerca de lugares para viajar dentro del municipio, gastronomía local y artesanías, danzas regionales, festividades locales y finalmente la cartelera del teatro municipal. la última sección llamada varios presenta algunas de las personas más sobresalientes del municipio ya sea que vivan en el municipio o en otras ciudades. de la misma forma, hay otros servicios que permiten a los usuarios obtener información acerca de cosas que pasan en su comunidad. por ejemplo, se pudo identificar el chat, un tablero de mensajes, fotos subidas por usuarios y un servicio de noticias. el chat es una herramienta síncrona que permite a los miembros de la comunidad estar en contacto no sólo con otros miembros dentro del municipio sino también con aquellos que viven lejos de arcelia. el tablero de mensajes, por otra parte, es una herramienta asíncrona que permite a los visitantes escribir mensajes cortos. este servicio es usado principalmente para publicar mensajes cortos de saludos o preguntas a los miembros de la comunidad como este “alguien de arcelia que pueda darme información acerca de la señora natividad flores santos, favor de enviar cualquier respuesta a la dirección algo@yahoo.com”. finalmente, el servicio de noticias está orientado a mantener enterados a los visitantes acerca de eventos que son parte de la vida en arcelia como lo es el desfile de la revolución mexicana (20 de noviembre), carreras de bicicletas y la conmemoración del día de independencia (16 de septiembre). por supuesto que muchos de estos eventos se levan a cabo una vez al año, pero hay otra clase de eventos que se también se publican como lo es alguna reunión de amigos en un fin de semana. con respecto a la audiencia del sitio web, parece que muchas de las personas acceden de manera diaria, tomando en cuenta el número de fotos publicadas y los mensajes cortos que se publican. aunque el sitio ha sido visitado alrededor de 642,555 desde octubre de 2002, los números pueden ser poco engañosos ya que la compañía que lleva la cuenta de las visitas aumenta el número de visitas cada vez que se recarga la página, lo que significa que cada clic en el sitio incrementa el contador. fig 2. captura de pantalla del sitio de arcelia, guerrero el sitio web de juchipila (http://www.juchipila.com) juchipila esta localizado en el estado de zacatecas en a parte central de méxico. de acuerdo con el instituto nacional de estadística, geografía e informática (inegi), en el 2005 la población de juchipila era de 11,603 y el número de hogares era de 3,314. asimismo, la penetración de computadoras era alrededor de 16.5% (inegi, 2005). este municipio esta clasificado como uno con un índice de migración alto, de acuerdo a datos de conapo (conapo, 2006a). el sitio web de juchipila tiene dos secciones principales: una con información local acerca de la historia de los pueblos en el municipio, festividades y leyendas regionales; la otra sección es la parte dinámica del sitio, la cual comprende el libro de visitas, la galería, el chat y un directorio de usuarios. de igual forma, la página principal presenta información acerca de las condiciones climatológicas actuales en juchipila así como una pequeña encuesta. una de los servicios más usados es el libro de visitas, el cual es normalmente usado para enviar mensajes a toda la comunidad, de igual forma se usa como medio de comunicación uno a uno. de hecho, también se usa como una manera de saludar a la familia y amigos tal como lo ilustra el siguiente mensaje publicado por un miembro de la comunidad viviendo en chicago, illinois “me gustaría mandar saludos a toda mi familia de juchipila, zac… los lópez y pérez por mi padre santiago lópez y mi madre julia pérez. podré ir a verlos el siguiente julio en 2007. estaremos allá para una fiesta de xv años, la lopezada y la boda de mi hermano jorge lópez… saludos a todos y muchos besos y abrazos!”. el libro de visitas es uno de los servicios más usados así como la galería de fotos que sustenta una forma de comunicación más explicita ya que la gente comparte sus experiencias en eventos como una fiesta familiar. con respecto al uso del sitio, no hay estadísticas del sitio web, al menos no estaban visibles para el publico en general. sin embargo, el número de fotos y mensajes publicados dan una idea del nivel de actividad. la galería tienen 2,357 fotos, el libro de visitas tiene 2,008 mensajes y, finalmente, el directorio tiene 2,371 registros. fig. 5. captura de pantalla del sitio web de juchipila, zacatecas el sitio web de moyahua (http://www.moyahua.com) el municipio de moyahua esta localizado también en el estado de zacatecas. la población de moyahua era de 4,600 en el 2005, el número de hogares ocupados era de 1,293 y el porcentaje de penetración de computadoras entre la población era de 7.35%, de acuerdo a datos de inegi (inegi, 2005). este municipio esta clasificado por conapo como uno con alto grado de migración (conapo, 2006a). fig. 6. captura de pantalla del sitio web de moyahua, zacatecas (clip_image005.jpg). el sitio web de moyahua cuenta con varias secciones: la sección de noticias la cual consta de varias sub-secciones similares a las encontradas en un periódico convencional: noticias locales, eventos, entrevistas, clima y deportes. sin embargo, todas estas secciones tratan sólo asuntos locales. hay otras dos secciones llamadas historia y cultura la cual provee información histórica, información acerca de gente sobresaliente de la comunidad así como también de festividades locales. de manera similar, cuenta con una galería de video y fotografías agrupadas en álbumes fijos creados por el webmaster. por último, hay una sección llamada comunidad la cual comprende el chat, foros, directorio de usuarios, comercio local, escuelas locales, bares y otras comunidades vecinas. de acuerdo con el sitio web, las secciones más visitadas son, por orden de aparición: el chat, foros, libro de visitas y la de comentarios al webmaster. el foro tiene 2,233 mensajes, el libro de visitas tiene 4,252 registros; por último, hay 4,566 fotos en la galería. de acuerdo al sitio, ha habido 14,352 visitantes desde noviembre del 2003. servicios que ofrecen y necesidades que atienden los sitios web después de analizar los sitios web así como de clasificar los servicios que cada sitio ofrece, se llevó a cabo un análisis más detallado para caracterizar los servicios de acuerdo al fin general que persiguen y a quien están dirigidos. se encontró que algunos de estos servicios eran para tratar de satisfacer una necesidad en particular de aquellos que viven lejos así como los que se quedan en la comunidad. esta sección presenta la clasificación de los servicios de acuerdo a quien van dirigidos y la clase de necesidades que sustentan. servicios ofrecidos por los sitios web en estas cuatro comunidades se identificaron servicios que pueden ser clasificados en tres categorías: servicios para unir a la comunidad estos servicios se usan no sólo para contribuir al contenido del sitio web sino también para permitir a los usuarios expresarse y se usan principalmente como un canal más de comunicación. estos servicios se usan para mantener ciertos lazos con la gente de la comunidad. incluye una gama de servicios tal como foros, galerías dinámicas, tableros de mensajes y libros de visitas. de igual forma, esta clase de servicios permite a los que viven lejos estar al tanto de lo que pasa en la comunidad. además, algunos usan estos servicios para enterarse de esas cosas diarias que suceden en la comunidad que ayudan a caracterizar completamente el contexto comunitario. de manera similar, los usuarios que están en la comunidad usan estos servicios para averiguar que hacen sus viejos amigos que ya no viven en la comunidad. en general, esta clase de servicios se vuelven las partes más visitadas de estos sitios. servicios para proyectar la comunidad estos servicios se usan para dar a conocer información general acerca de la comunidad. esta clase de servicio intenta presentar las características del municipio y, enfatiza, principalmente, las particularidades de la región como lo es la cultura regional, la producción agropecuaria, cocina así como artesanías producidas en la región. además, a veces incluyen la música típica de la región así como danzas tradicionales y fiestas tradicionales. en general, estos servicios casi siempre se leen principalmente por usuarios que visitan por primera vez el sitio web. servicios para obtener una imagen viva de la comunidad estos servicios puede hacen experimentar al usuario la sensación de la vida cotidiana de la comunidad. la mayoría de los sitios web presenta las condiciones meteorológicas y climáticas actuales en la comunidad, lo cual no se compara a estar físicamente allá, pero el usuario se puede dar una idea de cómo seria estar allá en ese preciso momento. otro servicio que ofrecen algunos de los sitios es la radio local. por último, un par de sitios han puesto cámaras en vivo en lugares públicos las cuales pueden ser controladas por los usuarios. dicho esto, ellos pueden de hecho ver quien esta allá y que esta pasando en ese preciso momento en el lugar donde se encuentran las cámaras. estos servicios pueden resultar muy valiosos para aquellos que viven lejos porque de alguna forma pueden ‘vivir’ esas pequeñas cosas que difícilmente verían en televisión o a través de una llamada de teléfono. necesidades que sustentan los sitios web comunitarios el análisis de algunos comentarios, mensajes y otras formas de contenido de algunos de los sitios web delineo algunas de las necesidades que sustentan estos sitios web comunitarios, las cuales se describen a continuación: necesidad de expresar pertenencia a su comunidad se encontró que algunos sitios web sirven como un instrumento para expresar una forma de conexión y apego a la comunidad, evidenciando un sentido de pertenencia. casi siempre, estas expresiones las hacen los usuarios cuando recién descubren el sitio web de su comunidad ya que mandan mensajes al webmaster mostrando su alegría. de hecho, algunos de los comentarios que se analizaron mostraron que los que viven lejos encontraron al sitio como algo valioso y algo que podría fácilmente generar sentimientos de satisfacción y alegría. los usuarios generalmente usan las herramientas que tengan a la mano para transmitir esta clase de sentimientos. dichas herramientas se pueden encontrar en casi cualquier sitio web comunitario en méxico: libro de visitas, tablero de mensajes, galería de fotos mantenida por los usuarios, mensajes rápidos y mensajes de texto sms publicados desde el teléfono celular. necesidad de conectarse con la vida cotidiana los miembros de la comunidad necesitan un medio de comunicación donde puedan obtener las noticias más nuevas de la comunidad. en algunos de los sitios, los usuarios usan el libro de visitas o las herramientas para compartir fotos como medios directos de comunicación. también se encontró que algunas herramientas que los usuarios usan para enriquecer el contenido del sitio como lo el es servicio para compartir fotos sirven para dos cosas: 1) para conectar aquellos que viven lejos con los aspectos cotidianos de la comunidad y 2) para conectar a los que viven en la comunidad con las nuevas realidades de aquellos que han migrado. la gente de la comunidad generalmente usa este tipo de herramientas para mostrar lo que pasa en las festividades, actividades cotidianas, fiestas y reuniones, mientras que los que viven lejos lo san para mantener a su familia y amigos al tanto de lo que pasa en sus nuevos hogares. dichos eventos incluyen graduaciones, fiestas de cumpleaños así como actividades escolares o de trabajo. entre las herramientas que se pueden encontrar que sustentan la necesidad de conectarse con la vida cotidiana tenemos entrevistas con gente de la comunidad, las condiciones climatológicas, fotografías que se comparten, enlaces a radio y televisión locales, video en vivo así como comentarios de los usuarios de cualquier tipo. la necesidad de contribuir y participar en general, los sitios web estimulan la participación de los que viven lejos en eventos sociales y proyectos comunitarios como lo son la restauración de áreas o edificios públicos. es por eso que es importante proveer los medios para que los miembros colaboren. esto se hace enviando ideas al webmaster por correo electrónico. sin embargo, se cree que existen otras alternativas que podrían ser exploradas como los populares wikis, los cuales son páginas web que pueden ser editadas por los usuarios que las visitan. discusión mucho se ha dicho acerca de la caracterización de los sitios web, los servicios que prestan así como también las necesidades que sustentan. sin embargo, algo que se debe notar es el nivel de presencia que estos sitios web tienen como un todo en el contexto nacional de municipios experimentando el fenómeno de migración. sin duda, las comunidades con más altos niveles de migración serán mas propensas a tener implementado esta clase se sitios. los resultados que se obtuvieron indican que cuando hablamos de presencia en línea de las comunidades, se refiere a pequeñas comunidades, donde la gente es más fácil que conozca a los demás de manera directa o indirecta. esto puede hacer que las comunidades sean más cohesivas y más unidas y con un sentido de identidad más fuerte, lo cual puede ser un leve indicador de por qué una gran proporción de los sitios (71%) cuentan con nombres de dominio propio. aunque solamente un 20% de las comunidades con alto y muy alto índice de migración tienen presencia en línea, se puede decir que estos números indican que aun así, hay un número importante de comunidades (94) que están usando el internet de manera activa para conectar aquellos que viven lejos. se requeriría un estudio longitudinal para medir los cambios a través del tiempo así como los efectos que tienen las nuevas tecnologías en la gente de modo que se puedan crear sitios web como estos más fácilmente y a menor costo. el análisis de la funcionalidad que ofrecen los sitios web comunitarios deja en claro que los servicios reflejan, hasta cierto punto, una perspectiva más cercana a la vida en la comunidad. se encontró que a través de los sitios web la gente puede 1) comunicarse con la gente viviendo en la comunidad o viviendo fuera de ella, 2) compartir fotos o videos, 3) consultar información de referencia o histórica de la comunidad y 4) obtener información local actualizada. se encontró, además, que los usuarios de estos sitios buscan la manera de mantener sus redes sociales previas así como mantenerse al tanto de lo que pasa en la comunidad, confirmando lo que otros estudios habían encontrado (bernal, 2005; miller and slater, 2000). de la misma manera, se puede ver que estos sitios pueden despertar o reforzar el sentido de pertenencia y apego a la comunidad tal como en los casos de trinidad y eritrea presentados anteriormente (bernal, 2005; miller and slater, 2000). sin embargo, si se contrasta con esos estudios, se puede ver que el fenómeno aquí ocurre a nivel municipal y toma un sabor más local, ya que es más fácil que los usuarios se conozcan entre ellos y tengan más cosas en común. esta cercanía entre los usuarios podría explicar en cierta forma la intensa actividad que la mayoría de estos sitios experimentan a pesar de su tamaño tan pequeño. de igual forma, otro resultado interesante fue que estos sitios comunitarios ofrecen tres principales tipos de servicios y tienden a satisfacer, además, tres necesidades. los principales servicios son: 1) servicios para unir a la comunidad, 2) para proyectar a la comunidad y, finalmente, 3) servicios para una imagen viva de la vida en la comunidad. en el caso de los trinitarios en diáspora, miller y slater (2000) encontraron que el internet ha ayudado a reforzar las los lazos familiares. sin embargo, en el caso de los sitios de comunidades pequeñas en méxico, el refuerzo se nota a nivel comunitario más que el familiar. con respecto a las necesidades que los sitios sustentan, se encontraron tres principales: a) la necesidad de expresar apego a la comunidad, b) la necesidad de estar conectado con la vida cotidiana y c) la necesidad de contribuir y participar. esto es muy similar a lo encontrado por bernal (2005), quien en sus conclusiones comentó que las herramientas en línea que usaban los eritreos en diáspora sirvió para involucrarlos en asuntos nacionales por medio de discusiones en línea así como también hacerlos sentir parte de una comunidad de la que ya no eran parte físicamente. por último, es claro que la mayoría de estos sitios web fueron hechos para ser usados en computadoras de escritorio. sería muy interesante observar las oportunidades de interacción que se generarían a través de tecnologías móviles así como pantallas públicas de modo que puedan ser testigos de cosas que pasan a medida que suceden. hay, de hecho, algunos proyectos como lo son las pantallas urbanas presentado por struppek (struppek, 2006) o las recientemente develadas por innovation labs, las pantallas de hechas de concreto (innovation-labs, 2006) que pueden servir como puntos de partida para entender los efectos que tales tecnologías pueden tener al conectar a los emigrantes con sus comunidades de origen. conclusiones el incremento de la migración ha hecho que muchas comunidades se dispersen y sus miembros queden esparcidos en varias ciudades o hasta separados por fronteras. la necesidad de estar comunicado se acentúa cuando la gente se aleja de la personas que estiman. en este trabajo se presentó un análisis de los sitios web de comunidades mexicanas de emigrantes viviendo en los eua, con el objetivo de cuantificar la presencia de las comunidades con niveles más altos de migración. de igual forma, se intentó caracterizar el sustento que estas comunidades ofrecen a los que viven lejos de sus comunidades. algunos de los servicios identificados sustentan algunas necesidades en particular como el expresar su apego a la comunidad, conectarse con la vida cotidiana así como tomar un rol activo en la vida de la comunidad. además, algunos servicios sirven ciertos propósitos, como lo es el de reunir gente de la comunidad, proyectar la comunidad al mundo exterior y, por último, permitir a los que viven lejos ser parte de la vida cotidiana y ser testigos ‘presenciales’ de ciertos sucesos. aun se requiere un gran esfuerzo para lograr caracterizar el universo de sitios web comunitarios en méxico, lo cual, de hecho es un panorama cambiante ya que nuevos sitios emergen cada día. ademas, es importante aclarar que aun cuando este trabajo presenta resultados sólo de los municipios con alto y muy alto índice de migración, estos resultados podrían ser diferentes si se toman en cuenta los municipios con menores niveles de migración o también, buscando sitios web no solo a nivel municipal sino a nivel comunitario (ejidos, rancherías, etc). tenemos la confianza de que con la incorporación gradual de tecnologías nuevas y novedosas se puede ayudar a los emigrantes a vivir mejor esas realidades duales que viven cada día así como incrementar el sentido de conexión con su comunidad de origen a través de aumentar su repertorio de comunicación. sin embargo, se necesita un trabajo mas extenso es requerido para estudiar los efectos a largo plazo que pueden tener esa nuevas tecnologías y prácicas de acercamiento. los esfuerzos venideros de esta investigación estarán orientados a estudiar estos efectos al mismo tiempo que los usuarios interactúan mediante novedosas tecnologías mediando sus contactos con la familia y amigos. referencias amipci (2007). usuarios de internet en méxico y uso de nuevas tecnologías. http://www.amipci.org.mx/estudios.php. banxico (2006). family remittances. http://www.banxico.gob.mx/polmoneinflacion/estadisticas/balanzapagos/balanzapagos.html. bernal, v. (2005). eritrea on-line: diaspora, cyberspace, and the public sphere. american ethnologist 32(4): 660-675. castles, s. and m. j. miller (2003). the age of migration: international population movements in the modern world, palgrave macmillan. conapo (2005). population resident in the us. http://www.conapo.gob.mx/mig_int/series/03.htm. conapo (2006a). mexico-us migratory intensity by municipality. http://www.conapo.gob.mx/publicaciones/intensidadmig/cua_ab_iim2000.xls. conapo (2006b). population projections for mexico 2000-2050. http://www.conapo.gob.mx/00cifras/5.htm. conway, d. and j. h. cohen (1998). consequences of migration and remittances for mexican transnational communities. economic geography 74(1): 26-44. fisher, s. (1989). homesickness, cognition, and health, lawrence erlbaum associates. fox, s. and g. livingston (2007). latinos online. pew hispanic center and pew internet project. gonzalez-mendez, j. (2002). emigrantes en línea: de la nostalgia a la acción política. masiosare magazine, la jornada (unam). sept 15, 2002. hiller, h. h. and t. m. franz (2004). new ties, old ties and lost ties: the use of the internet in diaspora. new media & society 6(6): 731-752. inegi (2005). ii population and households count. http://www.inegi.gob.mx/est/contenidos/espanol/sistemas/conteo2005/localidad/iter/default.asp. innovation-labs (2006). the world's first screen to be made of concrete. http://www.innovationlab.dk/sw22811.asp. merz, b. j. (2005). new patterns for mexico: observations on remittances, philanthropic giving, and equitable development, harvard university press. miller, d. and d. slater (2000). the internet: an ethnographic approach, berg. salazar, g. p. (2004). análisis crítico del sistema nacional e-méxico: la estrategia web del gobierno federal para la reducción de la brecha digital. facultad de ciencias politicas y sociales. mexico, df, unam. master degre: 275. struppek, m. (2006). the social potential of urban screens. visual communication 5(2): 173. van tilburg, m. a. l. and a. vingerhoets (1997). psychological aspects of geographical moves: homesickness and acculturation stress, tilburg university press. walsh, e. o. (2000). the truth about the digital divide. the forrester brief 30: 45-60. zúñiga, v. and r. hernández-león (2005). new destinations: mexican immigration in the united states, russell sage foundation. 1comunidad diaspórica se refiere a la gente que vive en el extranjero y que son de la misma comunidad de origen; por comunidad dispersa se refiere a la gente de una misma comunidad de origen dispersa en todo méxico y en el extranjero. participation in broadband society vols. 1 & 2 larry stillman monash university leopoldina vincent, jane vincent, julian gebhardt, andraz petrovcic, olga vershinskaya (eds.)  interacting with broadband society series:  participation in broadband society  vol. 1 (2010) frankfurt am main, berlin, bern, bruxelles, new york, oxford, wien, 2010. 262 pp. isbn 978-3-631-58393-7. hardback julian gebhardt, hajo greif, lilia raycheva,claire, lobet-maris, amparo lasen, eds.)    experiencing broadband society series: participation in broadband society  vol. 2 (2010)  frankfurt am main, berlin, bern, bruxelles, new york, oxford, wien, 2010. 206 pp. isbn 978-3-631-58406-4.  hardback. these are two significant and provocative volumes, though a short review can not do justice to their significance as research tools.   for those unfamiliar with cost (the european cooperation in science and technology:http://www.cost298.org), it is an eu-supported structure to support cooperation among scientists and researchers across europe in many areas, including the study of icts.   while it does not support projects, it supports the generation of ideas though face-to-face workshops, and the workshops result in publications such as these two volumes.  the two volumes here a result of the working groups on humans as e-actors, from the workshops which took place in moscow in may 2007.    as the historian tony judt suggested in his postwar, a history of europe since 1945, the most fascinating thing about europe is that the relatively small geographic area of europe (now including russia) contains such a massively documented and multicultural diversity of languages, cultures, and formative historical experiences which are brought to bear in contemporary scholarship. this allows for diversity in practical and theoretical responses to the challenge of the broadband society, though we are lucky that they have been published in the dominant language of communication, english.  over 70 people have taken part in cost 298 activity. without underplaying the role of other contributors, individuals such as leopoldina fortunati of the university of udine in italy must be credited for being a driving force behind such initiatives.   more than 20 papers are represented in the two volumes, across two broad themes, firstly, experiencing the broadband society, and secondly, interacting with broadband society.  in the first volume, the concept of the e-actor is unpacked from many directions. as fortunati, vincent, gebhardt, pretrovčič and vershinskaya indicate in the introduction, there is a far broader understanding of the actor as an active agent who shapes icts, rather than the rather passive and ‘dependent variable’ that has often been associated with roger’s influential theory of innovation with a simplistic understanding of the user/actor (rogers, 2003)  (also taken up by dolničar in her paper).  furthermore, as vincent suggests in her paper, the concept of e-actor is related to the emotions and (inter) subjectivity (also taken up by gebhardt).  other authors provide useful concepts and vocabulary to describe these mediated, embedded, and changing relationships with icts. additionally, adding an increased degree of difficulty to both theoretical and design considerations, there is no such thing as ‘the one device’ or ‘universal machine’ (to take up turing’s famous term).  instead, taking from  grief, mitrea and werner in their paper, there is vast heterogeneity of not only actors, but of forms of devices and the original idea of the universal machine (perhaps embodied in the phone or pc), has been replaced by ‘a concept of small, single purpose or limited-purpose machines’, and we see this in the emergence of the multiplicity of ereaders,  as well as the cross-over i-pad which is bound to merge into something else.  we all have to be on our toes, fingers, eyes and ears alert. in the second volume, the picture turns away from the (constructed) individual, to that of the new media itself and media practices and their influence on everyday life.  it is suggested that there cannot be a conclusive or uniform picture of the broadband society, but instead, a sensitising lens is provided about recent research and thinking about social and cultural aspects of the broadband society.  as examples, the paper by gebhardt, greif, raycheva, lobet-maris and lasen examines development of ketnet kick, a  popular collaborative game in flanders (belgium) for  pre-adolescents and suggests that the ethical relationship between on and online communities is critical, and children, as children, exist in a ‘netplay’ society, in which research drawing upon child development and media studies in the development of games needs to take place to development meaningful and relevant products.   there is also a study of web2.0 design from argentina for social development in a remote region with allusions to bourdieu and the construction of social capital for ‘communitarian construction’ (galán, legal and pedro).  the paper by gallez, orban, schöller, and lobet-maris, examines moral, ethical and legal issues around the engagement of young people in multimedia, and hjorth provides a study of ‘haptic’ media, that is, media that are ‘touched’ and operated in banal circumstances—thus, the seeming non-stop posing and taking of photos with mobile phones by young people, tourists, couples at every opportunity.  is this a move to full-time intimacy, or complete banality without any meaning, a kind of fetishism offered through the janus-faced opportunities of icts? or do people interpret such immediacy responses (posting pictures on facebook instead of youtube, or real-time video-calls between continents on i-phones?  can we ever have enough electronic affect?  think deeply over the research and thinking in both these volumes and contact the authors! one complaint:  in an era when the traditional book is under threat, academic publishing is shooting itself in the book through such high prices (each volume is about €45.  perhaps e-publishing is the only way to go and a much larger audience will ensue in the long run).   rogers, e. (2003). diffusion of innovations (5th. ed.). new york: free press. joci gender digital equality in ict interventions in health: evidence from idrc supported projects in developing countries kathleen flynn-dapaah senior program officer, pan asia networking, idrc, canada kflynn-dapaah@idrc.ca ahmed tareq rashid research officer, pan asia networking, idrc, canada arashid@idrc.ca abstract new information and communication technologies (icts) such as mobile phones and the internet are considered important instruments for advancing social and economic development throughout the world. the benefits of icts, however, have not been evenly distributed among individuals with different socio-economic status. for example, few studies consider how icts affect men and women differently. the dearth of studies that integrate gender analysis is particularly true in the case of ict interventions in the health sector, broadly known as e-health. e-health refers to the use of  icts in different aspects of healthcare including healthcare delivery, administration, education and communication. while there is a growing focus on the potential impact of e-health applications and practices in developing countries, little attention is given to how the technologies can address women’s health concerns or how particular interventions affect men and women differently. the objective of this paper is to explore the gender dimensions of e-health interventions in developing countries.  a select number of projects funded by canada’s international development research centre (idrc) are systematically analyzed to draw out good practices in integrating gender analysis in e-health research projects.  we conclude by summarizing the good practices and applying them to analyze new projects to ensure gender is integrated adequately.  the paper underscores that e-health interventions in developing countries need to better articulate the social processes of inequality that affect access and use by men and women. introduction access to and use of information and communication technologies (icts) are considered important for improving health outcomes for different socio-economic groups in the developing world.  icts are increasingly being used in different aspects of healthcare including healthcare delivery, administration, education and communication, broadly known as e-health.  over the past ten years, many international development organizations such as the rockefeller foundation, world bank/infodev, and canada’s international development research centre (idrc) have sought to introduce effective and innovative e-health solutions.  in 2005, the world health organization (who) adopted a resolution for an e-health strategy and established the global e-health observatory which will monitor e-health systems and service particularly in low and middle-income countries. while there is a growing focus on the potential and impact of e-health in the developing world, few studies give attention to how icts can address women’s health concerns or how particular interventions affect men and women differently. while new icts like mobile phones and the internet are increasingly more available worldwide (orbicom 2007), benefits of ict have not been evenly distributed within and between countries and certain socio-economic groups and individuals, such as people who are illiterate, the disabled, and indigenous peoples; have fewer prospects of benefiting from icts (daw 2005). women constitute a majority across these groups (hafkin & huyer 2002).  given the uneven distribution of the benefits of icts, there is a need to take stock of the experiences and understanding of gender analysis in e-health projects/programs and how power relations, specifically social and gender relations, mediate e-health interventions. in this paper, we explore the gender dimensions of e-health interventions to draw out good practices in gender integration in idrc supported projects in developing countries. idrc, a canadian agency founded in 1970, works in close collaboration with researchers from the developing world in their search for the means to build healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous societies. through its information and communication technologies for development (ict4d) programs, idrc has been providing grants for research in the area of e-health in asia, africa and latin america. exploring how icts can solve health problems was part of idrc’s early work in ict4d. more specifically, idrc was interested in answering questions such as the following (elder & clarke 2009, 68): how can icts play a role in providing health care services to rural and remote regions of developing countries? which applications afford the most potential with respect to effectiveness, adaptability and sustainability? what are the challenges to setting up e-health programmes in developing countries? how do different user groups access and use these programmes? several studies have provided systematic overviews of the idrc e-health interventions (molin 2006; elder & clarke 2009; elder & clarke 2007; rashid & elder 2009; scott & sayeed 2007).  many of the e-health innovations and approaches are still at a relatively new stage of implementation, with insufficient studies to establish their relevance, applicability or cost effectiveness (elder & clarke 2007). nevertheless, there is sufficient evidence generated from work carried out by idrc partners and others to show that e-health applications can have many benefits including direct benefit to patients.  one area where more evidence is required is how different user groups such as men and women participate in and benefit from e-health initiatives as patients and practitioners.  in the current programming cycle, all three of idrc's regional ict4d programs have devoted increasing attention to gender and women's empowerment in the information society and to ensuring that gender analysis is integrated in all research projects (pan 2006; acacia 2006, cea 2006).  we ran keyword searches (gender, women, men) through 17 e-health projects approved by idrc since 2005 (see annex 1).   the results were uneven at best.  gender analysis was integrated into few of the projects.  in some cases, sex disaggregated data and issues of gender inequality relevant to the problem were raised in the 'background and justification' section of the proposal only to be left unaddressed in the articulation of objectives, research questions and the methodology section.  often gender is relegated to discrete paragraphs on 'gender considerations.'  in many cases the discussion of gender is limited to aspects of women's participation; rarely is it discussed in terms of gender equality. it is against this backdrop that we investigate the gender dimensions of idrc-supported e-health projects by examining a few case studies to draw out good practice in gender integration. the argument of the paper is structured as follows. in the first section, we explore questions of gender inequality as discussed from the perspectives of sociology of health; ict4d, with specific reference to e-health projects to establish the need for gender analysis in e-health initiatives.  this allows us to situate our analysis within broader theoretical discussions of gender inequality.  the idrc projects are then evaluated to determine whether they integrate gender analysis into the design and implementation of the project including considerations of gender and social inequality and the constraints to women and men benefiting from e-health. on the basis of our analysis, we apply the lessons learned to a discussion of a recent project to suggest how new proposals might be examined to ensure gender analysis is integrated appropriately.   gender, health and icts gender and health inequalities the literature from the field of sociology of health makes several assertions relevant to the design and implementation of health interventions which we discuss below. 1) the literature strongly argues for the integration of social and gender analysis in all health programs and interventions; 2) the social and economic vulnerabilities related to gender inequalities are evident in the health system through inequalities in accessing health care and in the differential position of women and men as both users and producers of healthcare; and 3) the causes of gender inequalities in health are complex – related to both larger socio-cultural power relations and the different health needs of women and men. literature from the field of sociology of health strongly asserts the need for gender and social integration in all health programs and interventions for a wide variety of reasons. standing (1997) highlights the fact that globally, women are found disproportionately among the most vulnerable groups: women tend to have lower incomes compared to men. expenditure on health for women is less than that for men in both urban and rural areas (timyan et al 1993). other social factors that mediate health outcomes include level of education, women’s gendered roles such as caregiving responsibilities, division of labour at home, nature of women’s labour force participation, etc. for instance, the greater burden of being the primary care giver and the resultant division of labour means that women have higher opportunity costs in seeking health treatment (leslie 1992; okojie 1994). education has an affect on women’s health not only because it influences employment and income but also as it facilitates better access, understanding and use of health-related information (colman 2003). gender is a significant marker of social and economic vulnerability which is manifest in inequalities of access to health care and in women’s and men’s different positioning as users and producers of health care (standing 1997). the social mechanisms of health inequality are accentuated in the context of developing countries (okojie 1994; vlassoff 1994). in many patriarchal societies, definitions of health status and traditional medical practices reflect the subordinate social status of women. evidence shows that in many instances, women cannot decide to seek healthcare on their own (okojie 1994). some reasons for health inequalities include emphasis on women’s childbearing role resulting in early and excessive childbearing, sex preference manifested in discrimination against female children in health and general care, women’s workloads which result in being exposed to health hazards and having less time to seek healthcare and lack of decision-making power (okojie 1994). vlassoff (1994) highlights the lack of gender-sensitivity in the provision of health services including health information and communication between patient-client privacy and confidentiality, among other areas. access and utilization of health services are influenced by cultural and ideological factors such as embargoes on consulting male practitioners, lack of freedom to act without permission of husbands or senior kin (standing 1997). as such, from a gender perspective, allocation of household resources and power is critical. tipping & segall (1995) argue that often the health needs of women and girls are given less importance and value compared to men and boys. the root causes of gender differences (or inequalities) in health are complex. broadly, an examination of gender inequalities in health has prompted the development of two understandings of the root causes of this inequality (standing 1997; doyal 2000). the first one emphasizes the similarities and differences in the health needs of men and women. for example, many health inequalities are linked to biological and sex-specific conditions such as reproductive health, breast cancer or male infertility. the second approach focuses more on gender (in)equality which considers the social obstacles that differentially affect men and women from realizing their potential for health. the social determinants of health inequalities between men and women emphasize the processes through which different social roles of men and women in society influence health outcomes (denton et al 2004; standing 1997; doyal 2000). such gender based analyses take into account the issues of men and women’s social location, relations of power and access to resources (donner & pederson 2004). gender and ictd exploring the dimensions of digital inequality icts can have profound implications for women in terms of a number of socio-economic domains including health, education, and livelihoods (gurumurthy 2004; odame 2005). despite the potential, a significant gender inequality persists in established and emerging information societies. the literature on gender in ictd suggests that it is necessary to unpack the field by examining the nature and causes of gender inequality in ictd projects. our understanding of this inequality and our ability to address it are hampered by the lack of sex disaggregated data in developing countries and reinforced by gender biases in program design. the gender inequality in ict4d is complex in that it both shapes and is shaped by power relations within households and society at large. the literature therefore. asserts the need to focus on the nature and effects of inequality in ictd. as indicated above, one of the main problems in understanding the gender digital divide is the dearth of sex-disaggregated data in developing countries. despite the lack of gender specific quantitative data, project level qualitative data have established that icts are not gender neutral (hafkin & huyer 2007). estimates in africa indicate that women comprise 25% or less of internet users (hafkin & huyer 2007, 27). in terms of practical implementation of ict interventions the literature suggests that there is an overall gender bias in ict projects. hafkin and taggart (2001) highlight three reasons for this bias, 1) women are rarely involved in the needs assessment of icts for development; 2) attitudes that high-end information technology ‘is not for women’ who are still being treated as passive recipients of information and not as active information users and communicators; and 3) there is considerable delay in addressing the limitations faced by women in accessing supposedly ‘public’ information spaces. while the gender dimension of the digital divide provides us with some idea about the unequal access to different forms of icts, it does not explain the underlying mechanisms of these inequalities. as one author argued, “gender statistics on access to internet are only the tip of the iceberg that hides much deeper social psychological and social structural mechanisms reinforcing a gender typing in almost all aspects of technology” (cuneo 2002, 26). gender inequality in access to, use of and benefit from icts is higher in countries that have deeper social divisions based not only on gender discrimination, but also on other variables associated with gender like education, income, socio-economic status, and occupational stratification (hafkin 2002). for example, rural women are more disadvantaged as compared to younger, literate or wealthier urban women (odame 2005, 15). in countries with entrenched patriarchal structures, the nature of icts access and use is influenced by discriminatory practices that exclude women. for example, in the study conducted by the gender and ict network (2006) in western africa, it was found that some men feel threatened when women used cell phones or accessed the internet and they tried to control ict use by women. this suggests that cultural norms are important determinants in gender differences in the use of technology. the concept of the digital divide needs to be re-oriented to a different standpoint, one of digital equality, where emphasis is placed on analyzing technology access in terms of social inclusion to encompass the wide range of physical, digital, human, and social resources that meaningful icts entail (warschauer 2003).  for example, the capability to effectively information obtained through icts is dependent on literacy and education and women in developing countries are less likely than men to have the requisite literacy, language, computer skills and information literacy (hafkin 2002). at the same time, women’s relative poverty places them at a disadvantage in terms of accessing icts-women are less likely to own communication assets such as radios, mobile phones, and computers (daw 2005). gender considerations for e-health interventions: some insights the gender dimensions of e-health interventions reflect the complexity of gender relations in both health and ict interventions. for example, an infodev project using personal digital assistants (pdas) for health data collection in nalgonda district of andhra pradesh, india provided tools that allowed auxiliary nurse midwives (anm) to reduce time spent doing paperwork and increase the accuracy of data (hafkin & huyer 2002). anms were given pdas and training on how to use them for data entry and linkage with primary health centres. an analysis of the gender dimensions of the project by hafkin & huyer (2002) revealed that gender was not included in the project objectives.  the emphasis of the project was on the convenience of the technology, and the possible resulting improvement in service. several gender issues became apparent in the project implementation and outcome. one of the most notable issues that emerged from the project was that no target groups were involved at the planning and design stage. the consequence was that the collected project data designated by the health officials to be important for women actually did not reflect the health concerns of the women in the area. for instance, while national and district level medical officers were intent on data collection on family planning and immunization, women’s health priorities in nalgonda included joint pains, reproductive-tract ailments, anemia, childbirth and infant health issues. furthermore, although the content of reproduction issues has significant gender implications, the data collection program of the project treated reproduction as purely a women’s issue.  at the same time, the intervention narrowly focused on women which led to perceptions of gender inequality amongst practitioners. when pdas were distributed to anms, their male counterparts (mhws-male health workers) protested that they had not been given pdas. to the extent that pdas were later distributed to mhws as well. one of the lessons emerging from the project was that anms should work with mhws on the issues of reproduction as women’s reproductive health is highly influenced by the attitudes and behaviours of men.  this case underscores the need to understand gender inequality in health planning and priority-setting (i.e. by understanding better the different health demands of women and men without compartmentalizing them as ‘women’s’ issues or ‘men’s’ issues) and the need to understand the way that the introduction of technologies are politicized through local gender power relations. the midwives to mobile-phone project in aceh besar, indonesia (chib et al. 2008) tested a model for understanding the value of icts for healthcare development. the model builds on the value-of-icts-to education framework by incorporating an analysis of four inter-related barriers to ict usage including technological, infrastructural, economic and socio-cultural.  notably they highlight the need to examine cultural barriers and gender inequalities which may hinder the adoption of icts.  their research did not uncover negative attitudes or behaviors related to midwives use of mobile phones in the villages; to the contrary, in some cases it enhanced their credibility with patients and their families.  the research did however uncover other socio-cultural barriers related to the hierarchy of the healthcare system which posed greater challenges whereby midwives preferred to consult their peers rather than midwife coordinators or doctors even when they knew it would be better to contact a doctor for advice. (chib et al. 2008, 359). it should be noted that gender relations in the health system related to 'occupational stratification' (hafkin 2002) may also pay a role in the latter finding, particularly as midwives, who are predominantly, if not exclusively women, have to deal with doctors who tend to be overwhelmingly men.  this model underscores the importance of looking at the range of barriers to ict use including socio-cultural and gender barriers when assessing an e-health intervention. this literature review suggested that we should be looking for the following evidence in e-health projects:  analysis of gender and social inequalities and how these may influence people trying to use or benefit from icts and / or are seeking or providing healthcare (including differentiation among various socio-economic categories i.e. among women differentiated by age, education, location, marital status etc.) identification and discussion of both the possibilities of e-health for various socio-economic groups as well as the barriers, constraints and even threats resulting from the intervention collection and analysis of sex disaggregated data use of participatory methods, particularly for needs assessments and program design and evaluation. methodology in this paper, we analyze three idrc supported projects (see table 1), to look at whether and how they have integrated gender analysis into the projects. a number of e-health projects funded by idrc provide examples of good practice for integrating gender considerations in e-health. all three projects received overall positive external evaluations. we chose these projects for in-depth analysis to see if we could find evidence of gender analysis in the final technical reports and how this linked back to the integration of gender analysis in the project design. our intention was to draw out examples of good practice that could be applied at the proposal review stage to facilitate better gender integration in future research. for each project we looked for evidence of gender considerations in key sections of the proposal including 'background'; 'problem and justification'; 'objectives'; 'research questions'; and 'methodology'.  we also looked at the technical and evaluation reports for discussions of gender findings and recommendations.  specifically we looked to see whether projects drew on any of the relevant literature we have discussed in the first part of this paper; whether they included specific objectives or research questions concerning gender; whether they collected sex disaggregated data and analyzed factors of inequality that would affect the success or sustainability of the project; and whether they included a situation analysis of gender and social inequalities either in the proposal or in the technical report.   table 1:  basic information of the evaluated idrc e-health projects  project name organization duration regions/countries technology supported distance non-formal training and education in water, sanitation, and hygiene molave development foundation 2004-2006 smokey mountains & maguinda, philippines it-mediated rural women’s education and  dissemination of health information centre for women's development and research 2003-2004 tamil nadu, india uganda health information network (uhin)  (phases i, ii, and iii and iv) satellife 2003-2009 mbale, rakai & manafwa,   uganda  source: various idrc documents and the idrc website: http://www.idrc.ca from our analysis, we draw particular attention to good practices in these projects.  in the discussion section we then analyze a relatively new idrc-funded research project to address some of its weaknesses by suggesting how our analysis might be applied to new projects. analysis of selected idrc projects  1.  technology supported distance non-formal training and education in water, sanitation, and hygiene in the philippines (wash project) (website: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-55758-201-1-do_topic.html and http://www.molave.org/) the wash project determined the effectiveness of using icts as a tool for teachers and students to teach and learn about water, sanitation and hygiene (wash) issues. the rationale of this study was to explore the possibilities of using icts and distance non-formal education to reach more people to be educated and empowered on issues of health, hygiene, and sanitation. the wash module included sub-topics on personal hygiene, dengue fever, diarrhea, scabies, typhoid fever and environmental hygiene.  it also assessed the changes in the knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of people with regards to proper hygiene and sanitation.  the study was undertaken in two areas: one in an urban area using a quasi-experimental method with qualitative and quantitative methods.  in the urban site (smokey mountain), preand post-intervention quizzes within the ict intervention group and the traditional module comparison group were undertaken. in the rural site (maguinda), an evaluative design was employed, with a focus on qualitative measures. in both the sites, the intervention–the wash module—was tested and delivered in a digital, multimedia format in distance education mode. in the urban site, the module was delivered using an intranet server connected to a local area network of computers. in the rural site, the same distance education module was used by adult, non-formal education students using a multi-purpose community telecentre (mct) facility with computers linked to a server with a broadband satellite internet connection. the study had a gender objective and a participatory research methodology that laid the groundwork for strong gender integration. the development and improvement of the ict platform involved the whole community and the participatory nature of the project facilitated localization and adaptation of the technology (molin 2006). the project, due to its focus on sanitation and hygiene, understood the need for incorporating local gender roles and circumstances. it explicitly had the objective of deploying distance education technologies to empower different socio-economic groups, including women (molave foundation 2003).  in fact, the project considered gender at different levels, including, ensuring gender balance in recruiting staff, consultants, and volunteers, and developing materials and tools with a focus on gender mainstreaming. notably the methodology included the collection of sex disaggregated data. the study explored the level of knowledge and attitude towards wash issues in the post-intervention stage.  the findings reveal that more women increased their knowledge and attitude levels using the ict method. in terms of knowledge and attitude levels, those women who used icts for health information performed better than their male counterparts. the data is presented in the table. table 2: percentage of students with increased post-intervention quiz scores     traditional ict men women men women knowledge 67% 64% 53% 59% attitude 25% 45% 44% 55% source: compiled from ramos (2006). the findings particularly underscore some notable gendered dimensions of education and health promotion (ramos 2006). traditionally, hygiene and sanitation are considered the domain of women.  no clear patterns, however, emerged out of the project that reflected these processes. the study revealed that gender roles affected the learning process. women seemed more interested in the content while men were more concerned with mode of delivery. on the other hand, men are more inclined to be interested in the ict tools. this is consistent with evidence that women are more likely to explore health information through icts than men (lorence & park 2007). the study underscored the basic differences in the value attached to computers by men and women. male participants see computers and the internet as tools for them to potentially become more employable, while female participants see these as tools for communication, as a way that voices and opinions could be heard. it was also revealed that women’s responsibilities affect their health—for mothers, personal health is sacrificed for household chores. the wash project demonstrates a number of good practices for integrating gender into e-health projects.  principal among these is the inclusion of a research objective or research question focused on understanding gender issues within the project.  this was reinforced by their understanding of the problem as a human / social issue and the participatory methodologies employed in the project.  the collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated data allowed them to uncover and address different needs for women and men within the project and surfaced the factors of gender and social inequality that influence the project (such as gender roles and responsibilities).  2. it-mediated rural women education and dissemination of health information in tamil nadu (website: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-61486-201-1-do_topic.html) the objective of this project was to design and evaluate an ict-based platform to address the lack of awareness of health issues among young and middle-aged rural women in tamil nadu, india. more specifically, the project aimed at examining the level of awareness of specific health issues among rural women and piloting an ict-based solution that improves the dissemination of information. the project was carried out in phases. in the first phase, a survey was carried out in 14 villages and five schools to assess the level of health awareness with special reference to prenatal care, postnatal care, and hiv aids. ict tools were developed on the basis of the information gathered. the tools included cd-based training materials and a training and information dissemination software package (molin 2006, 17). these tools were fine tuned in the second phase before the information was disseminated in the target areas. the research identified preand post-natal care and aids as important health issues faced by rural women. the two ict-based information modules on health awareness that were developed during the project received significant positive feedback from participants and the findings indicate that the level of awareness increased (venkatesan & bai 2004). without specifically articulating a gender objective the researchers demonstrated a rich understanding of gender issues in the 'problem and justification' section of the proposal.  rather than treating women as an undifferentiated category, they note differences among women related to class and caste that led to some girls receiving little or no education.  the researchers underscore the importance of power relations in determining women's health stating for example, "sexuality and power are at the root of most sexual and reproductive health problems. good health therefore depends in part on having the personal power to negotiate effectively with others not only within intimate relationships but within the institutions of society as a whole" (renuka 2004). although the project focused specifically on women, the findings reveal some interesting gender dimensions. an important issue was the lack of education among women in general. there are severe constraints faced by young girls in accessing education. as all the schools were co-educational, many girls were not allowed to continue with their schooling. this wider social problem was not taken for granted by the researchers who noted in the research proposal "we know that it is the socio-economic and cultural reasons which create the problems for girl children and just using ict will not solve these issues. but ict as an information tool as a catalyst has lot of potential to educate and motivate these girls come together to solve their issues and grow as an empowered women"(renuka 2004).  while this project was modest in scope, ict clearly can play a significant role in distilling worldwide information and disseminating it to a rural audience at a reasonable cost (dougherty 2006, 62). the researchers in this project uncovered many of the challenges faced by women in attempting to use and benefit from icts which result from gender inequality.  women’s responsibilities for contributing to the household income pool affected their opportunities to access icts. many women in the sample actually were reluctant to participate in the dissemination program because they are involved in agricultural work and participating in the dissemination meant that they would lose a day’s income (venkatesan & bai 2004, 6; also see timyan et al 1993). due to the conservative nature of the women in the villages, attracting women to come out in the public was also a challenge. both these challenges during the pilot stage suggest long-term sustainability of the program will be challenging. another outcome of the project was that women expressed the need for raising awareness on reproductive health issues among men as well (molin 2006; dougherty 2006; venkatesan & bai 2004). in terms of icts, it is apparent that visual learning helped women to better understand the reproductive health issues (venkatesan & bai 2004, 6). using icts effectively depends on understanding the strengths and limitations of the technology in a changing information environment (maxfield 2004). in the case of the tamil nadu project, it is seen that two-way communication is highly significant – an interactive process provides better outcomes in terms of content and targeting. increasing the level of interaction and engagement is really important for marginalized groups like women (neuhauser & kreps 2003). it presents new opportunities for women who are typically more affected by health problems but are less likely to be included in the existing channels of communication. moreover, it was seen that some face-to-face interactions may be a suitable way to introduce icts. while more analysis is needed to assess whether health information dissemination through icts is effective, icts clearly expand the mechanisms of the distribution of health information. the richness of the discussion of gender inequality in the proposal demonstrated that the researchers had a thorough grasp of gender analysis. although the project did not include a gender objective, the rich integration of gender analysis into the understanding of the problem was reinforced in the methodology such that it was integrated into the project and reflected in the research findings. uganda health information network (uhin) (website: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-117006-201-1-do_topic.html and http://www.healthnet.org/) this project entitled uganda health information network (uhin) was undertaken in the mbale, rakai and manafwa regions of uganda. uhin used handheld computers to deliver medical information at the point of care. the medical information includes disease treatment guidelines, continuing education materials, newsletters, essential drug lists, and databases. customized software was used for data collection on handhelds so that the medical workers are able to track patients and keep records electronically. uhin also used pdas to provide early warning information about the spread of communicable diseases such as measles or cholera. the information was reviewed by the district health authority and if medicines or support workers are needed they are sent quickly. three phases of uhin have been completed so far while a fourth phase is currently ongoing. an evaluation of the overall project revealed that handheld computers result in more rapid, accurate and cost-effective data collection and reporting (satellife 2005). previously it took six months or more to get a response before this system was introduced. the process of data collection, even with the cost of hardware and software was 25% more cost-effective than the previous manual system. uhin demonstrates that pdas are a technologically viable, cost-effective tool to improve communication, information access and data exchange in a low-resource environment.  it seemed, however, that there is a technology bias in the way the pda was introduced and used in the first three phases. a review of the proposals in all the first three phases indicates that gender issues were not integrated at the design level revealing several missed opportunities to take into consideration gender and socio-cultural factors. using the framework proposed by longwe (1991)1, litho (2007) argues that the uhin project can be considered to be gender neutral. although the project did not specifically target women, women are known to have participated. at the project team level, at least two women doctors were involved. more importantly, the level of decision-making that these female doctors had in the project has not been documented. in terms of capacity building for the project staff, training was offered in some occasions but the documentation indicates that only male staff went for the training (satellife 2004). lack of data on women's participation in the project at the technical and beneficiary levels made gender-based analysis difficult (litho 2007). sex disaggregated date would have allowed analysis of the points of access according to gender, attitudes towards icts within the health sector, differences in frequency of use by men and women, and importantly, the relationship between gender, access and attitude. unfortunately, this kind of information is absent in the project outputs of the first three phases.  in the third phase of uhin, there was recognition in the conclusion of the final technical report of the need for assessing the potential of uhn for empowerment of women. one of the recommendations specifically emphasized inquiring and documenting how diffusion and adoption of uhin has contributed to overcoming gender-based barriers to ict access and use and to changes in gender relations and women's empowerment (satellife 2007, 49).     for the current (fourth) phase of the project from 2007-2009, the proposal is designed to ensure that a gender perspective is integrated into the implementation and research processes and that the resulting interventions contribute to the promotion of gender equality. the proposal presents a clear research strategy and references relevant literature on gender issues in health, development and ict4d.  the proposal outlines two specific activities to explore the gender issues for the implementation of uhin in this phase (aed 2007, 32-33). first, given that women and men have different reproductive health needs that are affected by both biological distinctions and societal roles, the project seeks to ensure that the health content disseminated to frontline health workers is relevant to the diagnosis and treatment of both female and male reproductive health illnesses. second, the project seeks to ensure that the intervention will not result in gender inequities and inequalities in terms of women’s access to the use of pdas. an equal number of female and male health workers will be trained in the use of pdas to ensure that female health workers continue to use uhin tools to improve their practice.  more importantly, the project proposes to use a qualitative study approach using in-depth case studies on adopters of pdas and other related technologies in the uhin program, including analysis of gender inequality for both users and producers of health services in relation to the program. while earlier proposals had little discussion of gender, this fourth phase project suggests that gender integration requires intentional design – specifically an objective or research question and appropriate methodology before gender analysis can happen. the project explicitly proposes to integrate gender analysis and to explore how the project contributes to changes in gender relations and women’s empowerment.  while we would suggest that these considerations should be explored more in earlier phases, the commitment of the donor to long-term funding allowed for incremental increases in gender and social analysis as the project developed.  this case demonstrates clearly that when projects put a priority on this issue it is reflected in the extent to which it is integrated into key aspects of the project design (i.e. 'problem and justification; objectives; research questions and methodology). summary by systematically reviewing proposals and technical reports for three idrc projects, we noted a number of good practices related to the design of the projects which are reflected in the quality of gender analysis we saw in the final technical reports.  above all we assert that the most critical factor for addressing gender inequality in e-health programs is ensuring that gender analysis is integrated into the design e-health initiatives which is characterized by drawing from most (if not all) of the good practices we identified including:   situating the project within the larger context of power relations and gender/social inequalities including specific gender objectives or research questions using participatory research methods (that take gender and social differentiation into account) ensuring the collection of sex-disaggregated data analyzing data from a gender perspective by connecting project findings with the larger context of gender and social relations. discussing barriers, challenges and unexpected outcomes in research reports. with the exception of the tamil nadu project, which clearly established gender inequality as a critical influence on the development problem and employed gender analysis as the overall analytical framework, we would suggest, particularly based on the uhin experience, that for most e-health projects including specific gender objectives or research questions is an essential step that is supported by the other good practices to yield a rich gender analysis of the intervention. applying the lessons:  community based e-health promotion for safe motherhood: linking community maternal health needs with health services system in philippines, pakistan and indonesia (smp project). (website: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-117799-201-1-do_topic.html and http://panacea-ehealth.net/) in this section, we apply these lessons to a more recently approved smp project by looking for examples of each and discussing the implications of their inclusion / exclusion.  this is an ongoing research project in three asian countries testing the use of low-cost icts to improve the effectiveness of safe motherhood programs (smp). the smp project is a part of a larger network of e-health projects called the pan asian collaboration for evidence-based e-health adoption and application one of 8 sub-projects in panacea and one of two dealing with maternal health.   our keyword search of the panacea proposals reflected our keyword search of the 17 idrc-supported e-health projects, suggesting that gender integration was uneven for the panacea projects.  we chose the smp project for several reasons.  first we noted from the literature that maternal health projects can fall short in gender analysis, particularly if it is seen as a 'women's issue' only (henwood & hart 2003).  secondly gender showed up in our keyword search for this project but we noted that the discussion was limited to only one or two discrete sections of the proposal.  this latter point suggested to us that the project would have problems but shows some potential for improving gender integration without building from the ground up. the smp project is ongoing.  following the submission and approval of the network proposal (which included draft versions of sub-project proposals) the researchers have completed the first phase of research a six month needs assessment exercise.  final project proposals were revised on the basis of the needs assessment and the full research projects commenced in february, 2009.  our analysis is based on a review of the original proposal; the needs assessment report and the revised proposal.  the multi-country design of the project takes into consideration the ways in which safe motherhood programmes are adapted in different countries while testing a common e-health intervention and evaluating it with a shared methodology.  the enhanced smps in the philippines (women’s health and safe motherhood program 2)  indonesia (making pregnancy safer program) and pakistan (lady health workers program) share common goals which include i) improved quality of services; ii) improved referral; iii) behavioral change intervention; and iv) establishment of sustainable support systems.  the e-health intervention focused on behavioural change interventions. the researchers propose to design and test an sms-based ebcc (behavioral change communication) initiative with one community in each country receiving information via sms and control communities in each country receiving the same information using current communication channels (saligumba et al. 2008b). according to the revised proposal, …behavioral change intervention (bci) plays a crucial role in promoting safe motherhood programs... bcc ... aims to promote knowledge, attitude, and behavior to its primary beneficiaries to increase demand for and use of safe motherhood services. it also aims to increase popular understanding of the barriers and risks to safe motherhood and communicate desired behavior, and to reduce stigma and exclusion of disadvantage and risk groups. bcc is a stakeholder–driven communication using appropriate media mix consists [sic] of interpersonal and group communication, community participation and radio and print support (ibid, 4). this description of behavioural change intervention suggests that understanding gender relations at the household and within the community would be important for a successful and sustainable intervention and would be integrated into the research design. the available project documents suggest that the smp project shows potential for some gender analysis but there are risks for missed opportunities and gender fade. notably the proposal does not include a specific gender objective. both versions of the proposal include a section on gender and social considerations which could offer a richly integrated gender analysis.  though it discusses a number of activities and methodological considerations it is a discrete section of the proposal and these ideas are not reflected in other sections of the proposal, particularly in the project objectives and methodology.  unfortunately, the original version suggests that much of the work in this area would be done in the needs assessment phase and it was not addressed in the needs assessment report. while the background section of the needs assessment report emphasizes socio-cultural factors including the role of other family members in decision-making, the needs assessment research does not include much analysis or discussion of socio-cultural influences in the three study areas.  the situation analysis does not include a discussion of the literature (from the health or ictd fields) or primary research that provides details of gender and socio-cultural factors that may influence the project in each of the three sites.   this section is unchanged in the second version of the proposal, suggesting it will continue to receive inadequate attention.  the objectives and even the methodology (in both the original version of the proposal and the revised post-needs assessment proposal) suggest that there are opportunities to consider socio-cultural and gender issues but they are not explicitly stated.  presently for example, the emphasis placed on family acceptance and assistance in the proposal and needs assessment background is not reflected in the methodology which uses 'knowledge attitude and practice (kap) studies involving midwives/tbas and clients (specified as pregnant women).  the opportunity to extend the study to include family members who may play critical roles in decision-making; transportation etc. (including husbands, in-laws etc.) is missed here.  given that the current objectives allow for a more integrated gender analysis and the methodologies draw from principles and practices of participatory research, the opportunity still exists to modify the data collection and analysis to include more sex disaggregated data and to probe the gender and socio-cultural considerations adequately.  at the network level more attention is being given to supporting gender integration in all the projects including mid-course adjustments to project implementation.  already in the case of pakistan the researchers have noted a socio-cultural and gender equality factor that could influence the success of the project namely low literacy of women in the study community.  the problem is being addressed by sending the sms reminders and messages to both lady health workers and husbands of pregnant women (shariq khoja, project mentor, personal communication).  at present the research does not engage with this issue beyond this 'technical fix' of sending messages to husbands as well.  the study would be enriched by using this modification to involve husbands more in the study by including them in the kap assessments and tracing the lines of communication to see whether women received vital information from both husbands and lady health workers.  a discrete section on user participation in the proposal notes that target clientele may include husbands but only where cultural factors related to the definition of household decision-makers would result in husbands being registered in the system (saligumba et al. 2008b). this approach fails to consider that intra-household relations always mediate decision-making which may affect prioritization of health concerns; transportation and treatment.  uncovering the socio-cultural outcomes (positive and negative) of including husbands in this project would provide stronger evidence for designing effective and sustainable interventions modeled on this program. the smp project falls short or fails to address most of the six good practices we have identified. the research team’s understanding of the problem, particularly their discussion of family roles and decision-making, implicitly points to the influence of gender relations on the development issue without explicitly discussing gender and social inequality. the lack of a gender specific objective allowed for the gender considerations to remain isolated and therefore they did little to influence the situation analysis or the methodology. gender inequality could be explored in greater depth if the participatory methods they proposed were modified to take gender and social considerations into account and to ensure that sex-disaggregated data are collected. in combination, these changes would provide the researchers with the theoretical and empirical data required to incorporate a gender analysis. conclusion one of the central issues, which is evident in the literature review and which reverberated throughout the projects findings, is women’s capability, or lack thereof, of benefiting from e-health projects.  as suggested in the tamil nadu project in india, this results from broader societal inequalities which influence women's level of education, ict and literacy skills; their decision-making powers; and their allocation of time, labour and resources.  these issues highlight the importance of giving adequate attention to power relations. these power relations work at different levels including intra-household as well as work contexts. while in some cases, it is difficult to address the power relations in the households and communities, at a minimum projects should seek to understand these influences and give special attention to ensure that projects do not exacerbate them.   on a substantive level the idrc projects we discussed here provide evidence of the influence of gender inequality on e-health interventions.  given their intent to explore these issues the projects uncovered how gender relations within the household and the community affected women's abilities to access and benefit from the projects.  we note the importance of establishing this intent in several sections of the project proposal, principally, the 'problem and justification'; 'objectives' and/or 'research questions' and the methodology.  projects should ensure that sex-disaggregated data is systematically collected. we also emphasize that rich gender analysis emerges from participatory and qualitative research methods which can also uncover unintended outcomes or unexpected findings.  we also suggest that this cross/multi-disciplinary approach and systemic gender analysis should be applied to other ict4d domains such as agriculture and rural livelihoods, education and governance. references: acacia (2006). acacia prospectus 2006-2011. ottawa: idrc. available at http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-113431-201-1-do_topic.html. aed (academy for educational development). 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(1997). gender and equity in health sector reform programmes: a review, health policy and planning, 12(1): 1-18. timyan, j. et al (1993). access to care: more than a problem of distance. in the health of women: a global perspective. eds. koblinsky, m., timyan, j, & gay, s. westview press. tipping, g., segall, m. (1995). health care seeking behaviour in developing countries: an annotated bibliography. 12. brighton: institute of development studies. venkatesan, v.s. & bai, j. (2004). it-mediated rural women education and dissemination of health informationa pilot. final project report. vlassoff, c. (1994). gender inequalities in health in the third world: unchartered ground. social science and medicine, 39(9): 1249-1259. warschauer, m. (2003). technology and social inclusion: rethinking the digital divide. cambridge, ma: mit press. world health organization. (2007). maternal mortality in 2005: estimates developed by who, unicef, unfpa and the world bank. geneva: world health organization. annex 1: idrc e-health research projects approved since 2005 rwanda health and education information network (oasis-rhein) evaluating a real-time bio surveillance program : pilot project enhancing nurses access for care quality and knowledge through technology (enacqkt) capacity building in open medical record system (openmrs) in rwanda pilot project using icts to monitor chagas' disease in argentina, bolivia and brazil punto j : a portal for youth-to-youth education on health and hiv/aids phase ii uganda health information network (uhin) phase iv open architecture, standards and information systems (oasis) for healthcare in africa pan asian collaboration for evidence-based e-health adoption and application (panacea) electronic health delivery using open source software and personal digital assistants (argentina and colombia) mozambique health information network mother and child health international research network handheld computers for malaria monitoring (mozambique) developer network : open source personal digital assistant software for health data collection linkage for education and research in nursing (learn) : a caribbean initiative telemedicine in remote areas of algeria uganda health information network phase ii 1 according to longwe (1991), a project may be considered gender negative, neutral or positive depending on how many women participate in it:  a project is considered be negative if it does not involve women at all; it is neutral if it recognizes women; and positive if it considers women’s issues in its design and implementation (quoted in litho 2007).  joci women at work and home: new technologies and labor among minority women in seelampur sreela sarkar university of massachusetts amherst ssarkar@comm.umass.edu introduction located on the eastern border of india’s capital city delhi, seelampur is a “resettlement colony” formed through the collusion of state violence and elite middle-class interests. seelampur is a diverse community but it is largely a settlement of informal working class urban muslims.  in late 2003, datamation, a prominent private, delhi based information technology firm, with partial funding from unesco and resources from the local madrasa established a computer literacy project for young women in jaffarabad in seelampur. in 2007, these computer literacy and training programs were further extended under the gender resource center (grcs) program initiated by the department of women and child welfare of the national capital territory of delhi. grcs were initiated as public-private partnerships between the state and civil society organizations. to date, a total of 45 gender resource centers have been established in the delhi region that function as a common space for providing social welfare services to urban low-income women. these services include adult literacy classes, free health clinics, legal advice counseling, short-term courses on sewing, training to be a beautician, craftwork and computer literacy and multimedia programs. in seelampur, the gender resource center is housed in a small building in a neighborhood called jaffarabad and is primarily accessed by minority muslim women. most of these women are from low-income families with an average family size of eight people and monthly incomes that range from $100-$250.  the grc space is approximately 700 square feet in size and is located next to several small-scale denim workshops that constitute the largest industry in the seelampur area, one that has been largely hit by the “sealing drive” or closure policies of the state government that declared many of these units to be “illegal” polluting systems. the grc building is situated right above a small-scale denim factory that uses computer programs for manufacture although neither the male workers in this unit nor the young women in the grc computer center know about the other group’s computer related activities. the seelampur grc has attracted the most global attention for its acclaimed experiment in information and communication technology for development (ictd) program for low-income muslim minority women. this program aims to impart computer literacy and training to participants. program producers hope that access to information technology will usher in modernity and lead to employment opportunities for young women.  the syllabus for the computer literacy and training classes at the seelampur grc is designed by the delhi state government and is common for all gender resource center programs. the duration of computer training and multimedia classes at the gender resource center at seelampur is for a period of six months. these classes are held for six days a week and there are five classes for five separate groups with each class lasting for one and half hours in a day. each group usually includes 10-12 young women mostly from the seelampur area, between the ages of 18-28 years. the classes are free of cost and the minimum qualification for admission requires women to have passed grade 10[i] the ict section has a total of eight computers that are shared among the women in each class. this syllabus includes programs such as ms word, design and page layout software like pagemaker and dreamweaver, basic languages such as html and graphics editor programs like coreldraw and photoshop. this study follows seelampur women who participate in the ictd project at the gender resource center from the doorsteps of the ict center into their everyday lives. this paper explores the impact of new technologies on minority women and work in the resettlement colony of seelampur and other institutional sites of labor through an extended period of fieldwork observations and interviews. one of the main aims of the seelampur ict and development project is to empower minority women to participate with equity in the modern labor force.  how does work and participation in the labor force change for seelampur women after their participation in the new technology and development project? the study argues that that there is a gap between the promises associated with new technologies and resultant actual employment for young women. learning computers is considered to be necessary in the modern world and a promising means of finding work but computer literacy does not often produce desired employment and changes in everyday lives for seelampur women.  the study further tracks women who have been able to find work after the computer literacy programs in two fields including home-based computer businesses and in the emerging service and retail sector in india. in home-based computer literacy businesses, teaching computers is often integrated with “women’s work” at home including taking care of large families and informal work for the manufacturing sector and consequently devalued within the extended family system.  among seelampur project participants, ticketing and service sector jobs in the delhi metro rail system and private airlines are seen as valuable venues of work but these jobs must be understood in the broader global and institutional context of “pink-collar” work that can place young women in vulnerable positions in the sexual division of labor. drawing from feminist and critical scholarship on ictd policies and practice in india and the global south, this article examines gendered shifts and construction of personal and ‘professional” identities among young women who are the subjects for ictd projects in a local community that constantly interacts and interfaces with global concerns and forces. literature review the seelampur computer training program has been globally acclaimed as a successful experiment in empowerment for low-income, minority women and has won several international awards. while this article deals with the specific case of seelampur, such programs must be understood in the context of new development initiatives that emphasize access to information technology. following the millennium development goals outlined by the united nations (un) that emphasized access to information and communication technologies (icts) as a basic socio-economic need, india has emerged as the poster child for development enthusiasts in the south. since 2004, india has seen a number of public-private partnerships between the indian state and the it industry in broader development concerns such as e-governance, education and health (chakravartty & sarikakis, 2006). studies that have evaluated the role of ict in development projects have largely focused on the digital divide and on questions of access and efficiency related to technology. this literature has studied the impact of ict in attitudes and behavior among project participants  (garai & sardach, 2006; khochar & dhanjal, 2005),  accessibility to technology in regards to markets and education (cecchini, 2002 ),  transparency and accountability in delivering public service (khochar & dhanjal, 2005), developing locally relevant content and involving project communities through participatory approaches to development (kenniston, 2002).  within the body of ict and development literature, research on the seelampur project has mainly explored concerns of access, locally relevant ict content and “grassroots” involvement of residents of seelampur (subramanian, nair & sharma, 2006). researchers on seelampur have argued that access to information technology will lead not only to better employment and income but function as a ‘neutral’ instrument in erasing class, caste and gender boundaries and create a modern citizen who can participate fully in the market economy and society (subramanian, nair and sharma, 2006). writing about the “network society,” scholars have argued that icts create more participatory societies and horizontal networks instead of reinforcing hierarchical structures (castells, 1996). there is increasingly optimism that icts would provide unprecedented economic and social opportunities to women that will help them to participate in the labor force in more equitable ways (gajjala, 2002; ng and mitter, 2005; sharma, 2003). exploring emerging information societies in the global south, feminist and critical scholars have however argued that ict should not be only used as a tool and development initiatives should not simply seek to engage women with icts. rather, activists and feminists must engage in critical responses to such information societies in the context of growing inequalities (gurumurthy & singh, 2005). the information society continues to be deeply divided on the lines of gender, class and caste in india (chakravartty, 2007; upadhya & vasavi, 2006). in terms of labor, feminist scholars have argued that technology has historically enabled the reproduction and reinforcement of gender hierarchies in the global north. focusing on consumption practices, cowan (1985) argues that the invention of new labor saving “household devices” actually placed the pressure of unrelieved household labor more on the woman. tracing the history of the printing industry, cockburn (1983) argues that the printing industry isolated women by male-centered rituals and lengthy apprenticeship. in the contemporary context, computerized printing threatens masculine control and cockburn remains more optimistic about breaking rigid gender hierarchies and the emergence of a larger class consciousness enabled by new technology. however as women increasingly enter an ict aided workforce; several studies have focused on the contested impact of new technologies on women and feminization of work in the high-technology industry in india and the global south (freeman, 2000; fuller & narasimhan, 2007; mitter & rowbotham, 1995; upadhya and vasavi, 2006.). researchers argue that although icts can lead to employment and work opportunities for women, technology can reinforce and reproduce structural inequalities in certain cases (arun & arun, 2002). writing about the software industry in india, mukherjee (2008) argues that the it industry leads to a heightened sense of alienation among its workers connected with socially sanctioned gender norms within a larger global capitalist system. for example, the notion of flexible hours and work at the it workplace is often a gendered concept embedded in the secondary status of women in the formal labor force. vasavi (2008) importantly focuses on the youth workforce in the ites industry and their lifestyles and positioning within an aggressive service economy that prizes youth, appearances and poise. women are considered to be the natural choice of employees in such an industry and more amenable to courtesy, communication and other ‘soft skills.” in their research on ict, women and work in india, scholars have usually explored the political economy and cultural identities related to the it and ites industries among high-income groups in the software industry and india’s growing middle-class such as youth employees in call centers. as india increasingly becomes a popular site of ict and development projects among women in the south, fewer ethnographic studies have followed low-income, minority women who are the subjects of such experiments into their everyday lives and sites of labor after participating in these projects.  seelampur is an urban working-class muslim area but development practitioners and project leaders, in interviews, understand the area as a “traditional cultural setting” and islam as a major barrier to education and progress among women. prevalent work practices in the area such as sewing, embroidery and handicrafts were seen as gendered traditional practices that needed to be modernized. in a national muslim women survey conducted in 2004, feminist scholars zoya hasan and ritu menon conclude that the all-india standard of living and socio-economic status (sli) is lower for muslims, below that of the hindu lower castes and significantly less than that of the hindu upper castes. hasan and menon (2004) argue that the category of “muslim women” is often a monolithic label that conceals the trinity of being poor, of being women and of being a religious minority in india. the project participants of the ictd project in seelampur belong to such a community of “muslim women” as understood by policy makers and development experts, many whom have been forced to live on the outskirts of the city of delhi because of state housing policies, that have largely favored more elite urban groups. during the national emergency years in 1975-1977[ii], residents of seelampur were given small plots of land in exchange for demolition of their homes and forced sterilization, at the same time that middle-class groups received tax breaks (tarlo, 2003). seelampur has a long and controversial history of state involvement in development activities related to education, health and employment generation. it was a site of communal violence both after the anti-sikh riots in 1984 and the demolition of the babri masjid in 1992[iii] and the area is considered to be “dangerous” by elite south delhi residents. over the decades, the delhi government has raided and razed homes and businesses in seelampur, enforcing its policies on slum clearance and recently, its controversial environment laws on closure of several manufacturing industries in the area. industries dealing with the production of jeans, iron and timber goods were deemed “illegal polluting units” by the state and shut down, resulting in massive loss of livelihood and widespread protests. the national press has consistently represented seelampur as “lumpen” citizens and “an angry mob” and applauded state and private-sector efforts to transform the area into a technology hub (hindustan times, 2006). in her work on slum clearances and environmental issues in delhi, baviskar (2003) understands such practices as “bourgeois environmentalism” that benefits middle-class interests to the detriment of the urban poor. in my conversations with residents of seelampur, many of them stated that they understood pollution concerns in the rapidly expanding city of delhi but felt their livelihoods had been unfairly targeted with the closure of many industrial units in the area without adequate planning or compensation while upper-middle class residents of delhi benefited from working at multinational companies, rapidly bought multiple cars that contributed to pollution, and avoided taxes.  method i conducted ethnographic research for my doctoral dissertation over a period of nine months, from september 2008-may 2009, in seelampur and delhi on the urban politics of ict and development in the context of globalization. this article draws from field material that includes participant observations and open-ended interviews, gathered from this extended period of field research. prior to starting extended fieldwork in seelampur, i had been in contact with producers of the project at datamation foundation and made two short trips to seelampur in 2007-2008, conducting participant observation and informal interviews at that time. writing about the importance of ethnographic research in evaluating ictd projects, parthasarathy and srinivasan (2006) argue that ethnographic research includes a sustained period of interaction with participants which may inspire more trust, reciprocity and sharing of everyday experiences. importantly, these sustained field interactions help to understand power dynamics and contestations within which such projects are inevitably embedded. during the period of nine months in seelampur, i engaged in unobtrusive participant observation, open-ended interviews and document research at the ict center as well as at other spaces of everyday life such as denim production units, streets, markets and people’s homes. following critical and feminist approaches to ethnography (abu-lughod, 2005; mankekar, 1999; tsing, 2004), i sought to not only follow dominant, public narratives but also to uncover gaps, fissures and silences in popular narratives of technology and modernization through oral narratives, open-ended interviews and field observations in seelampur. in order to mediate the gap between the anthropological self and the “other,” i spent a lot of time in the first two months being present at the center and chatting with the women who came there on a daily basis. over the course of my field study in seelampur, i conducted thirty open-ended interviews with young women who participated in the ictd project. the ictd project attracts approximately fifty women to register for classes and i selected to interview thirty women on the basis of their attendance in classes and everyday presence at the center. following the institutional review board protocol, names of participants have been modified to protect their trust and confidentiality. these interviews were done in everyday settings such as the space of the ict center where participants spent much of their time; at sites of informal work that included a room in their houses reserved for tailoring or teaching computers; or extended conversations at their homes sometimes in the presence of other family members. our conversations were often co-constructed with the help of my interview protocol. in a couple of instances, women suggested doing group discussions so that they could see peers participate and hear their viewpoints. this group discussion enabled me to track and interview women who had graduated from the ict center and were formally and informally employed, including samina, gulista, bano and farida who are discussed in this article. additionally, i conducted nine open-ended interviews with project producers at datamation foundation, project staff at the ict center that included the instructor for the ict classes and the religious head of the seelampur community, the chief maulana of seelampur. the maulana had collaborated with datamation foundation in 2003 to start similar ict classes in the religious school and mosque, the madrasa, and the foundation had left the running of those classes to the maulana and started a separate ictd program with state collaboration.  he continued to be an important voice in seelampur about ict training and women. a large part of my time in seelampur was spent on unobtrusive participation at the ict center and at other spaces of work and home. the front desk in the center was a major activity hub to observe its daily activities and also an informal space that different women used to convene, drink tea and chat. i was also present as an observer in many computer classes, often positioning myself at the back of the small class and taking notes like other women there as i worked and participated in activities in seelampur, i increasingly became aware that i could not limit my research on new media, development and gender within the geographical boundaries of the area. i met men in seelampur who had lost small-scale manufacturing jobs that they attributed to the influx of cheaper, finished products in the market in the context of globalization. as many young women increasingly talked to me about the glamour of jobs in the indian service industry that included the delhi metro rail and the indian airline industry, i realized that i needed to pursue the web of connections of which seelampur inevitably formed a part. anthropologist anna tsing (2004) argues for the usefulness of “patchwork fieldwork” that includes incommensurable interviews, different spaces, varied sources, and odd connections that focus on question of distress and conflict in order to understand social projects in the light of globalization. following the work of critical and feminist ethnographers of globalization in practice, my research seeks to study localized practices and struggles around urban high-tech development through multi-sited ethnography (ferguson, 2006; tsing, 2004; yudice, 2003). in extending my fieldwork out of seelampur, i simultaneously conducted interviews with state officials and training “experts” and supervisors in the service industry that employed these women including the delhi metro corporation and training schools that were popular among young women after the ictd program. in order to locate these conversations within a larger discourse of technology and modernization, i also followed popular debates about the service industry and labor in india through prominent national english language newspapers that included the hindu and the times of india. extensive field notes, interviews and media reports were placed into categories and then codes through several sessions of close reading (lindlof & taylor, 2002). following goodall (2000), i asked a series of questions that focused on what is going on in the communicative exchanges between different participants in the field that enacted multiple constructions of meaning and identity. these questions included – who is speaking? what is the frame or context? who other than the main participant is present in this exchange? what is being spoken and how is it said? what are the silences, odd moments and personal and political histories that are being invoked? these analytical resources helped me discover codes, connections between different categories present in my ethnographic material. for example, several participants spoke and understood “work” and “home” not as two separate categories but as the same one in the context of home-based computer literacy businesses. similarly, participants overwhelmingly talked about learning computers in a more scripted manner that emphasized that computers were the best option for gaining employment in the modern world but remained hesitant about their future options. although many women talked with great excitement of the glamour of working in an air-conditioned ticketing office, several exchanges with them over the course of time invoked ellipses and odd moments that indicated the grueling and gendered nature of such labor. these references to the unstable nature of work in the indian service industry led me to follow up our conversations with tracking media reports that helped place such references in a larger political and global context. findings the gap between the promise and the reality during interviews, ictd project producers and staff understood computer literacy classes to fulfill a number of functions that included enabling women to gain a basic knowledge of computers and multimedia that they could use to find employment or take other advanced courses. self-confidence, learning better english and comfort with technology were considered to be some of the desirable outcomes of the computer course for young women. the main project coordinator at datamation and two staff members emphasized that the computer classes fulfill the important function of constituting a neutral, safe space for young low-income women to come together irrespective of divisions of class, caste and gender. in different conversations with the ict class instructor and project staff, they asserted that participants are finally responsible for their own progress and need to work hard, be competent and sufficiently motivated. while other manufacturing trades in seelampur like furniture-making could have been in a family for several generations, project leaders and some seelampur women told me that they believe that new technologies are individually learnt and enable minority women to break out of rigid class and caste boundaries. the young women who come to the ict center in seelampur overwhelmingly had a primary objective in mind. they wanted to find formal employment after the six-month computer program. arshad who is the computer instructor at the ict center said, “most girls who come to do the computer course have two objectives. they either want to start something in their own homes or they want to find a job outside.” arshad was optimistic about the jobs following ict training for young women at seelampur and that they  could easily find jobs as teachers, trainers and in the ticketing and retail industry in delhi. the women who were subjects for the project were also empathetic in their belief that the computer course would help them to find employment in the organized sector. in our extended conversations and visiting them at their homes over a period of time, i found that many of them worked from their homes in seelampur, taking on tailoring jobs and working long hours with very little pay to supplement the main industry of seelampur constituted of denim factories that exclusively employed men as part of their formal labor force. several of these women had fathers and brothers who were employed in small-scale manufacturing trades such as furniture-making, manufacturing automobile parts and iron-welding and such men were victims of the decline of these manufacturing trades in recent years and the state sponsored closure of “illegal polluting units” in seelampur without adequate compensation. to provide a richer picture of the seelampur women who participate in the ictd project, it is useful to present a couple of brief ethnographic life sketches of two women who came regularly to the center and participated in its activities. these sketches are constructed from participant observations, open-ended interviews and informal conversations. shabnam was a twenty-six year old woman who came to the ict class every day. she also volunteered for other social welfare activities of the gender resource center such as helping to organize free clinics and giving information about state-sponsored social welfare schemes to seelampur residents. shabnam had finished high-school and worked as a nurse for six years at a small privately owned hospital in the area. she finally left the job because the hospital changed its policies and asked her to work night shifts that her father strongly opposed. besides that, she felt unsafe about working at nights with very few women staff around.  she got 500 rupees a month or approximately $10 while working at this hospital. her fathers and brothers worked at a family-owned business that makes eyeglasses in the old city. shabnam felt the responsibility to contribute to the family income especially since she said that the business had lost out to the bigger chains and money was very scarce. shabnam had been looking for a job for the last three years and has felt discriminated applying as a young muslim woman for secretarial jobs. for shabnam, learning computers promised a better future: everything needs computers these days. i hope i can get a professional job based on my hard work and knowledge from this course, one that is different from my previous jobs. in the center we are often told that there is no caste or religion involved in learning computers. that is all i constantly have on my mind, the need for me to earn some money somehow.   mehnaz was a twenty-two year old woman who also came to the ict center daily. her husband divorced her a year ago through an agreement that was negotiated with the help of the seelampur religious leader, the maulana. mehnaz told me that she got a few pieces of her jewelry back but no alimony payments from her former husband. she came back home to live with her parents in seelampur with her two young children. mehnaz’s father worked in the denim industry in the area. she signed up for the free computer class because it seemed like that was her best option to start earning money soon. she had heard that the staff at the gender resource center had connections with schools and offices in the area and hoped to find a computer-based job after completing her six-month program. although the six-month computer classes at seelampur aim to teach participants more complex software like dreamweaver and corel draw, they finally function more as an introduction to the basic parts of a computer for example, learning what is a keyboard or a mouse, the microsoft office package and paint. during participant observation at several computer classes, i found that participants also worked with photoshop and enjoyed playing with images of popular bollywood stars. they experimented with changing the hair color, hair style and clothes of popular bollywood heroines like aishwarya rai and the superstar sharukh khan.  the class included theoretical lessons on programs like dream weaver and corel draw but participants worked less with these design layout and graphics editor programs in their practicum time when they had more unstructured time with computers. the ict instructor also mainly encouraged a basic familiarity with computers, learning to type on the keyboard and using microsoft office tools. through their use of photoshop, participants also designed and printed posters for home-based businesses for family and friends that included tailoring and beautician small businesses. most young women who come to the ict center had similar expectations from the computer training program as shabnam and mehnaz. however, there is often a significant difference between their expectations and the promise embedded in computer training and the reality that follows after the program. all thirty women who i formally interviewed said that they hoped to get a job after completing the program and spoke in general terms about places that could offer them employment such as offices, malls and metro stations. when asked if they knew women from previous years who had got jobs, they either did not know who had been successful in finding employment or reiterated a few familiar names of former students who had found work in the retail sector or had started computer classes in their homes. the computer staff also did not have clear numbers on employment although they quoted a few success stories. i was able to track eight women following leads from participants and ict center staff, who had found formal and informal employment from the previous five class groups that had a total of fifty women approximately. four of these women had started home-based computer businesses, two of them had jobs at malls and two of them had gained employment as customer and ticketing agents at the delhi metro stations. these women said that the seelampur ict class had given them basic familiarity and confidence with computers and this knowledge had given them an edge in getting front-desk jobs at stores in delhi’s rapidly growing malls, the foundation to learn ticketing programs in the short training period at the delhi metro, and the ability to start home-based computer classes for other young people in the seelampur area. none of the women i interviewed had got employment in jobs that required more advanced software skills. however, some of them spoke about their desire to enroll in private computer training schools that taught programming and software skills more intensively but charged the high fees or rs. 25,000 or approximately $500 for a six-month program that most seelampur women could not afford. towards the end of my fieldwork research in seelampur, shabnam had finished her ict course and had been looking for employment for four months. she said to me, “we do not set a target and have realistic expectations. i still think learning computers is important but we were learning computers thinking that there is something out there for us.”  mehnaz had started looking for jobs as a computer trainer in small schools in the area and in retail stories but had yet to find employment. project leaders recognize the challenges that women face after completing the course but cite individual initiative and talent as key factors. nevertheless given that ict has increasingly been recognized as an emancipating technology for women in terms of labor and work opportunities both among researchers and practitioners, it is important that we seriously take into consideration structural constraints associated with the reality of new technologies and work for low-income young women. women who teach new technologies within their homes become part of the existing informal economy in seelampur and are not adequately valued for this work. those project participants who work in the service industry in india face challenges associated with their place in the global and sexual division of labor. the article further follows some stories from the doorsteps of the ict center to homes and to workplaces to explore the daily lives of women who are a part of the globally acclaimed experiment in computer literacy and development in seelampur. home-based computer businesses and women’s work  in seelampur, there exists an extensive informal economy of work among women that is often concealed behind the closed doors of homes and subordinated in the sexual division of labor. sewing, embroidering, giving private tuitions at home, making food such as pickles and chocolates for sale and working with accessories in the denim industry are a few of the home-based occupations among women in the area. besides these small home-based businesses, women also significantly contribute to small-scale family businesses through informal activities such as managing accounts and keeping records.  finally there is work done by women outside the sphere of the market that includes daily labor involved with taking care of large extended that has been neglected by traditional political economy and national statistics. one of the main aims of the seelampur experiment has been to encourage minority women to leave their homes to come to the ict center and to gain access to work opportunities beyond the space of their homes. the seelampur initiative has been hopeful of providing a means for women to be included as part of the formal and organized workforce and one of the continuing efforts of this project is to network participants with local businesses in the area. staff members also recognize that many women also come to the ict center because they hope that learning computers will allow them to conduct small computer literacy classes from their own homes since for many in the extended patriarchal families stepping outside of seelampur to work is not considered “safe”. the maulana of seelampur is the religious leader of the area who supervises the madrasa which is the residential school for religious learning and acts as an arbitrator in disputes related to property and divorce. the present maulana of seelampur is well-regarded in the community for his initiative in 2003 to start computer classes in the madrasa for young women in collaboration with the datamation foundation. the ict classes in the madrasa are now run through the maulana’s own funds and a small fee from the students. the computer classes in the gender resource center are free and are occasionally perceived as competition by the maulana. the maulana’s views and sanctions on young women and education are important to members of the seelampur community. when i interviewed him, he asserted that computer classes have important functions in educating young women to keep up with the modern world and to find employment but argued that computer-enabled jobs at the mall or the metro station are not desirable for young women: women are like gold. i do not like the environment of shopping malls and public       metro stations. the dignity of the women is not kept in these places. for me, the main benefit of learning computers for women is that they can keep purdah, open a computer center in their own home and in fact make much more money than working outside. while computer training does enable young women to work from their homes, the actual context and conditions of this work are different from the maulana’s more optimistic account. after finishing the ict course, some project participants usually teach computer literacy and basic programs from their homes. as part of my field research, i interviewed and interacted closely with two sisters who had started home-based computer classes and were regarded among the success stories in the ict center.  samina and gulista had set up a small home-based computer literacy class in seelampur after graduating from the ict program. both sisters were already privately teaching thirty-five after-school students at their own home, who were enrolled in grades 1-10. samina and gulista collectively earned around 3000 rupees or $80 a month from their tuition lessons that included mathematics, hindi and english.  when the sisters finished the ict program at the gender resource center, they bought a computer unit with their savings. initially they had planned to use the computer to practice their own skills but one of their students suggested that the sisters could give him private computer lessons.  at the end of my field study in 2009, the two women had a total of three computer students ranging from the ages 10-15 and gave them basic lessons such as learning to use notepad, paint and ms office. their students were mostly young boys, aged ten to thirteen years, who wanted to get familiar with computers before enrolling in private computer schools or the state-sponsored industrial training institutes. the fees that these women received in return for their teaching was 100-150 rupees or approximately $3 from each student, which is significantly less than the women who work in retail or metro station jobs. male family members who work outside the home often disregarded such computer-based labor as leisure time occupations for young women before marriage. in the case of samina and gulista, such work was subsumed in the informal economy of the home that included daily cooking, cleaning and child-rearing work in addition to home-based occupations such as working with denim accessories to supplement the main industry in seelampur. they said that their elder brother was supportive of their teaching computers but he thought that this work was similar to their working with denim accessories since both are done in the privacy of their homes and between household chores. although the sisters contributed to the household income, he saw teaching computers at home as “women’s work” similar to their work with denim accessories at home, which is poorly paid work that supports the jeans production units in seelampur. the sisters talked about how their brother sought their help in downloading games and music on his cell phone but had yet to learn paint and word that other family members had picked up and which would help him in his work as a furniture-maker. in conclusion, learning computers at the state-funded ict center and teaching computer classes within the space of the home is often perceived as an extension of household labor and consequently devalued and challenged within the extended patriarchal family.  gendered roles, norms and practices within the household shape and affect the outcome of ict-based development. the cycle of pink-collar work pink-collar or service sector jobs that include working as shop assistants in malls, secretarial jobs in offices and in ticketing and the tourism industry are coveted as “clean,” well-paying jobs by several ictd project participants in seelampur. ticketing and sales jobs in the airline industry and in delhi’s metro rail services are especially desired forms of employment because they are considered to be “safe” and relatively well-paying jobs for women. as delhi gets ready to host the commonwealth games in 2010, state government and the private sector have been vastly optimistic that the event would lead to tens of thousands of service sector jobs being created in the city (borthakur, 2009). in seelampur, the cycle of finding a pink-collar job after ict training at the center is often a complex one, involving intermediate institutional and private-sector players in the market. after the six-month basic computer training program, many women stated during interviews that they felt the need to enroll in a private computer training institute to get more advanced and rigorous training that would facilitate employment but the fees there are exorbitant and start at $100 a month. during the course of my fieldwork, i followed three young seelampur women, bano, farida and rahina, from the doorsteps of the ict center to their experiences with private training institutes and service sector jobs. this section is based on ethnographic observations and interviews with different institutional actors including faculty and staff at private training institutes and officials at the delhi metro corporation in addition to the ict center women. to locate this section in the broader political context, i also draw from media debates about the service industry in india within which the seelampur women are inextricably embedded. bano and farida, who were twenty-one-year-old women at the ict center, told me during open-ended interviews that bano’s brother had passed on information about the institute of airlines in delhi that trained young men and women for a career in the airline and ticketing industry and promised success in finding jobs after graduation. both women felt that their training at the ict center and the sense of self-confidence that it had given them had been important for their performance in the admission test and interview at the institute of airlines. they paid rs. 5000 or about $100 as a fee for the admission test and were later told that they would have to pay rs. 34,000 or about $700 for the one-year program. for both bano and farida, their average family income is about rs. 7000 or about $120 a month and they could not afford the institute’s high fees. they told me that they were looking at possibilities to raise money to enroll in this institute as they felt it promised better futures for themselves and their families. to understand these women’s struggle with professional training and work, i interviewed the director at the institute of airlines on site at the school. on its website, this privately-run school states that students are taught to prepare cost-effective travel packages, calculate and quote air-fares, complete international travel documents and deal with customers at the front-desk. in the interview, the director said that the institute has a special interest in “imparting knowledge and training people from the interiors of india who are not updated with modern traditions and empowering the indian economy with skilled manpower for industry purposes.”  learning appropriate computer programs was an integral part of the ticketing course and students at the institute of airlines also learnt appropriate email writing and preparing reports and presentations through using technology. “soft skills” classes included personality development, communication modules and english language classes for all students. the institute did not want to disclose all its recruitment strategies but claimed to rely on internet advertising, word of mouth and presentations in public schools to attract students. the director asserted that jobs were not guaranteed after graduation but it was very easy for student to get jobs, citing the growing tourism industry in india, outsourcing work for major airlines and the increasing trend in private-sector companies to hire travel advisors. faculty members at the institute of airlines usually work in the ticketing and airline industry in india. the director of the institute estimates the fees to be rs. 15,000-rs.20,000 or $300-400 a year depending on the family income of the student and says that many faculty members teach for free at the institute and in fact, donate their salaries from their regular jobs to subsidize low-income students: if a student has potential, fees are not the problem. many students are here  without paying fees. many people who teach here are well-settled. they want to share knowledge. i work with one of the leading airline consolidators in north america as a team leader in the ticketing department. i work elsewhere so that i can give my salary here. some management people in the institute are paying for the students and not taking salaries. we provide a lot of concessions for students. although the institute currently has many more male students than women, the director emphasizes the need to attract young women to the courses held there: girls are beauty. girls are good sales agents. most of the time, you are dealing with a male customer in the industry. girls have sweet voices and they know how to deal with difficult customers. with the way the tourism and service industry has been growing in india, getting a job is not a problem at all. bano and farida were attracted to the institute of airlines by its glossy brochures and advertisements that promised a comparatively short program and salaries in the service industry that started from around $80 a month. there was however, a discrepancy in their accounts of the policies and the fees of the institute and the narratives of the director and faculty members. the institute had quoted annual fees of rs. 34,000 to the two women which was almost double the amount quoted by the director in his interview. although both young women were from low-income families, the institute had not yet offered them any compensation. however, bano and farida had been told that they could delay their admission for a month if they were unable to raise the money. their families were enthusiastic about them joining the institute and were looking for ways to borrow the money to send them. several banks had already refused them because the families cannot show that they have sufficient collateral to be eligible for loans. the young women are still following opportunities for borrowing money including considering borrowing from local moneylenders in the area at high rates of interest. the tensions between the narratives of the management and faculty at the institute and those of the young women at seelampur must be understood in a larger contemporary global context of the contradictions in the travel and service industry in india. with the comparatively new entry of private players in the industry, india has seen a burgeoning of privately-run schools for training young women as flight attendants and for careers in the ticketing industry. like the institute of airlines, these schools project optimism about the aviation industry including billion dollar investments in the next few years, the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs and the current severe shortfall in trained personnel in the industry. this sense of hopefulness is however at odds with growing reports on the airline industry of mounting losses and debts due to over-expansion in india, the cost of fuel prices and the recent global economic crisis (business times, 2009; katakam, 2008). in october 2008, the leading jet airways announced its decision to lay-off more than 1000 employees, a move that generated demonstrations and protests by employees many of whom were young women. some of these young women, who were mostly cabin crew, claimed that they were from low-income families and had taken thousands of rupees in loans to enroll in private institutes that gave them training for aviation jobs. in the end, the airline reinstated most of its employees because of political pressure from the regional, right-wing party the maharashtra navnirman sena (mns).  the chairman of jet airways naresh goyal, went on record through the indian media as saying that he regretted the lay-offs because many of the employees were like his daughters. in summer 2009, there were reports once again about regular jobs cuts in jet airways. kingfisher, india’s premier airline started by industrial tycoon vijaya mallya, had been under media scrutiny for its increasing debts, growing losses and lay-offs. the merger of two leading private airlines jet airways and kingfisher was expected to lead to further job cuts in the industry. at the institute of airlines, the director waived aside the question of trouble in the aviation industry. “everything is under control. jobs are not a problem at all. shortage of manpower is the problem. there are lakhs of jobs waiting to be created in the industry.” for both young women, the promise embedded in such programs and employment was associated with glamour, with jobs that promised clean, air-conditioned environments and are different from the manual labor done by their fathers and brothers. the confidence that faculty and management at this institute and similar private training schools represented was seductive for young low-income women like bano and farida although they recognized the contradictions.  during interviews, farida talked about two young neighborhood girls who had lost their jobs with an airline company, and had extensive debts from their training programs at a similar institute. farida emphasized that she was told in the orientation program at the institute of airlines that gaining and maintaining jobs depends on individual initiative and skill.  the faculty was meant to focus on “soft skills” such as business etiquette, listening politely, communication, negotiation and language skills in addition to computer skills for young women. as new technologies and new forms of labor become increasingly more feminine and gendered, it becomes more important to take into account questions of structure and power that are often ignored in the perception of new technologies as unqualified emancipation for women. subjects of ict and development projects are often low-income minority women who are arguably economically and socially vulnerable as recent entrants into “pink-collar” jobs in the service industry. among seelampur ictd participants, the delhi metro rail system also presents opportunities for work after the basic computer course at the center. the delhi metro is a comparatively new system in delhi that became operational in 2002. the delhi metro rail corporation (dmrc) is a joint venture company between the central government of india and the government of the national capital territory of delhi. it became the first public transportation system in delhi to introduce automated ticketing services instead of manual ticketing. the ticketing services at metro stations are usually handled by young men and women and these jobs require basic computer knowledge.  at an interview at the dmrc, a pr official estimated that the total number of their ticketing employees was around seven hundred fifty and half of these employees were women. in my ethnographic research, i found that the dmrc contracted its ticketing needs to two private-sector companies through an open tender system similar to its other departments. although the dmrc conducted short training sessions for its employees, the individuals who worked in ticketing were employed by the two private-sector firms that handled recruitment and compensation. the dmrc required ticketing employees to be high-school graduates and paid minimum wages for semi-skilled labor as part of contracts that required employees to work for a minimum of a four-hour shift. depending on the hours of work, employees earn around rs. 3000-4000 or approximately $100 a month. management staff at the dmrc claimed that they scrutinize the accounts of their contractors to make sure those minimum wage requirements, a retirement fund and employee insurance in case of accidents on the job site are complied with. senior management people at the dmrc perceived these jobs as popular and easy semi-skilled jobs that could be done from the comfort of an air-conditioned room in the metro stations. in seelampur, metro station jobs were in fact considered to be different from “semi-skilled” labor. young women perceived these jobs as comparatively glamorous jobs that are “safe” for women. rahina, who had just completed high-school, searched for jobs in nearby malls after her computer course at the grc and finally found a ticketing job at the delhi metro. at the interview, she was asked basic questions about simple calculations and typing abilities and then given a brief training session on specific computer programs and customer relations. rahina worked eight hour shifts every day from 2-10 pm and earned rs. 3,600 or approximately $75 a month. she had younger sisters in school and her brother drove a three-wheeler motor vehicle, the auto-rickshaw that is a popular mode of public transport in delhi. rahina’s father worked as a daily wage laborer doing carpentry work. she saw her metro station job as a means to take her family away from the seelampur slums where they currently lived. she hoped to get a better-paying job through her basic knowledge of computers and work experience with the delhi metro. rahina’s accounts of her work were often rooted in her gendered experience of dealing with customers at the metro stations. many men talked to her rudely and had been abusive: sometimes men talk to me like i am a male local bus conductor and i feel really insulted. but they teach us to smile politely and humor them so i do that. i learnt at the training program that the customer is always right and without him, we do not have a job. so even if men talk to me rudely and misbehave, i have to smile and handle them well. although metro employees have the option of working four-hour shifts, many of them like rahina worked eight-hour shifts to earn more money: i work an eight-hour shift. you cannot take a break during this shift to eat, drink tea or sometimes even to go to the bathroom. we have someone who is supposed to replace us after our shift but sometimes that does not happen and we end up working overtime many days without food or bathroom breaks. the delhi metro rail corporation has emerged as a powerful employer in the delhi region and outsources most of its work in different departments such as hospitality, security, maintenance procedures and some technical jobs to private-sector companies. officers at the dmrc asserted that they maintained their rights as principal employers and regularly monitored these companies for appropriate labor practices. however, the nature of contract work translates into an unorganized labor force, which is likely to have short-term contracts, less benefits, unstable working conditions and employment. young women often form a part of such an unorganized labor force and dictums of “customer politeness” can place them in vulnerable positions. learning computers and getting service sector jobs are seen as the means to a better life among ictd project participants but the effects on their lives are felt in complex and contested ways that disrupt linear narratives of technology, development and emancipation for women. conclusions this article critically explores women and work following the participation of low-income, minority muslim women in a globally acclaimed ict and development initiative located in one of delhi’s largest resettlement colonies--seelampur. as new technologies and new forms of global labor increasingly become more feminine and gendered, these shifts are experienced in contesting ways in everyday lives of urban marginalized women and also impact myriad relations of power within their communities. one of the principal aims of the ictd project in seelampur has been to enable young women to find work as part of the formal and organized modern workforce. although project producers and participants are empathetic in their beliefs that learning computers will help seelampur women to get such jobs, there is often a vast divide between the promise associated with new technologies and on the ground realities. the everyday lives of seelampur women who do find work after their involvement in the ictd project are fraught with contesting global and local forces. teaching computers at home is considered to be an attractive and safe option for many women but such work is often diluted as “women’s work” within the community and absorbed into other forms of informal labor within the house and for manufacturing industries in seelampur. service and ticketing jobs in the delhi metro system and the airlines industry involve a wide range of institutional actors and global economic forces. there are contesting narratives of employment, training and well-being among these different actors that must be understood in the broader context of the international and gendered division of labor. while pink-collar jobs in the service sector help young women in seelampur to earn an income and are often perceived as glamorous work, this work has conflicting consequences at their workplace and in their daily lives. in studying the local case of seelampur, this article aims to go beyond questions of “digital divide” and access to technology and provide a grounded ethnographic picture of the complex arena of new technologies and development practices for women that constantly interface with the politics of gender and labor practices.     footnotes [i] grades 9-12 in india can be broadly called high school.  in delhi, completing grade 10 would mean that individuals would still need to pass two more grades before being eligible for college. in some other states, passing grade 10 qualifies an individual for ‘junior college.” [ii] the 1984 anti-sikh mob riots in delhi were brief but led to the death of thousands of deaths of followers of the religion sikhism, following the assassination of india’s prime minister indira gandhi by her two sikh bodyguards. areas on the other side of the river yamuna, that include seelampur that has diversity in pockets, were worst impacted by these mob riots.  the demolition of the historical mosque in the city of ayodhya by hindu fundamentalists in 1992 has been the site of one of the worst communal conflicts and violence in india’s recent history. seelampur, which is largely an area inhabited by muslim communities, was a prime site in delhi for the outbreak of several violent incidents and deaths in hindu-muslim communal conflicts following this incident.  [iii] the indian national emergency lasted from june 1975march 1977 and was formally declared by president fakhruddin ali ahmed upon pressure by prime minister indira gandhi under the indian constitution. this is a highly controversial time in india’s history that led to violation of several civil liberties, torture by the state and police and destruction of minority slum areas and low-income housing colonies. there were several forced sterilization and vasectomy procedures done on low-income, minority men during this period ostensibly to control population, a campaign that was spearheaded by indira’s son sanjay gandhi. during this controversial period, muslim communities were relocated to seelampur after state destruction of their homes in the old city of delhi and often promised small plots of land in exchange for being sterilized.   acknowledgements the author wishes to thank paula chakravartty for her invaluable guidance of this project, datamation foundation for their generosity and co-operation in this study and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. preliminary work in seelampur was supported by the national science foundation under grant no.0131923. any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect views of the nsf.   references abu-lughod, l. 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(2008). ‘serviced from india’: the making of india’s global youth workforce. in an outpost of the global economy: work and workers in india’s information technology industry. new delhi: routledge, (211-235). yudice, george (2003).  the expediency of culture: the uses of culture in a global era.  durham, nj: duke university press. the ethical responsibility of academics in community informatics michael gurstein editor-in-chief the journal of community informatics <gurstein@gmail.com> as both an academic (and research) discipline and a community (and policy) practice, community informatics links a variety of communities and many with a widely varying degree of resources and opportunities. as a research and academic (teaching) discipline ci draws extensively from the creativity and generosity of communities in sharing their experiences and knowledge as a basis for undertaking research and for providing learners with the opportunity to gain directly from the knowledge and experience of those working directly in and with communities and icts. the relationship is however, often or most generally not an equal one. university teachers and researchers have access to income levels, research supports and infrastructures which are well beyond those available to those working in and with communities. communities of course, gain from having access to the results of research, being able to draw on the skills of academics and senior students, particularly graduate students who are often able to bridge communities into technologies and resource environments which would otherwise be denied to them. however, their participation and contribution to ci research efforts often represent a considerable drain on already overstrained resources to the point where a number of communities have basically said that they no longer wish to cooperate with outside researchers. the difficulty also is that research resources and particularly research funding generally is restricted to direct use by researchers (senior or junior) and cannot be used for example, to pay for time on the part of community members who may be participating as “partners” alongside paid researchers or academics who are conducting research as part of their normal academic responsibilities (and compensation schemes). these are significant challenges both for communities and for researchers who with the best of intentions may end up once the research is completed leaving little behind and rendering the communities little better or even worse off than previously or in other instances failing to even acknowledge or contribute to the local communities in ways which are available to them. perhaps the worst circumstance is when researchers build up expectations within communities as part of their research efforts and then for whatever reason (often because the funding runs out or because personal research priorities/interests change); and the communities and particularly those most identified with the projects are left high and dry with expectations and often even personal responsibilities within the communities which they have no means of satisfying. this kind of situation can be extremely disruptive and even damaging to communities since they involve the reputations and standing of individuals within their communities. since many of those undertaking research within communities are graduate students who may have little experience in these areas, it is incumbent on more senior researchers to be aware of these possibilities and of their ethical responsibilities to their community counterparts and partners including to ensure that they are fully aware of the limitations of the research, that wherever possible they are appropriately compensated (in means meaningful within the community and not simply through, for example academic “acknowledgement”) for their participation and overall that these senior researchers recognize the asymmetry in their relationship with communities and make adjustments to their behaviours accordingly. for a more extensive and extremely valuable and comprehensive presentation of ethical issues for ci researchers see averweg, u. and o'donnell, s. (2007) “code of ethics for community informatics researchers” special issue: community informatics and system design, journal of community informatics, vol 3 no 1. sostenibilidad de proyectos de desarrollo con nuevas tecnología sostenibilidad de proyectos de desarrollo con nuevas tecnologías: el caso de la organización de regantes y su sistema de información en huaral juan fernando bossio <jfbossio@gmail.com> resumen este artículo utiliza el caso del sistema de información agraria de huaral (sia) para analizar la importancia de las organizaciones de base para la sostenibilidad de proyectos de desarrollo que usan nuevas tecnologías de información y comunicación (tic). el marco teórico es el desarrollo sostenible aplicado al aprovechamiento de tic en contextos rurales. el caso es estudiado con una mezcla de metodologías cualitativas y cuantitativas. el análisis del caso sostiene la tesis de que el componente social es el más importante para la sostenibilidad final de los proyectos. introducción en américa latina diversos actores han desarrollado proyectos o programas para acortar las desigualdades en el acceso a las nuevas tecnologías de información y comunicación (tic). generalmente se asume como beneficioso per se el acceso a internet (proenza et al, 2001), lo que lleva a que la mayor parte estos programas sociales se hayan concentrado en facilitar acceso a internet a grupos de bajos recursos, sin preocuparse por promover un uso apropiado de las tecnologías (delgadillo et al, 2002; saravia, 2003). la mayoría de los proyectos ligados a uso de tic para el desarrollo enfrentan problemas de sostenibilidad en el tiempo (davidziuk, 2002). mucha de la literatura sobre el uso de tic para el desarrollo entiende la sostenibilidad de los proyectos prácticamente sólo en términos financieros (proenza, 2001). sin embargo, desde un sector ligado a la práctica cotidiana del uso de tic para el desarrollo se afirma que la sostenibilidad, en tanto capacidad de continuar funcionando sin afectar las capacidades de desarrollo, tiene elementos sociales, políticos, tecnológicos y organizacionales además del financiero (delgadillo et al, 2002; fukao, 2004; stoll & menou, 2003) en este artículo nos interesa explorar la importancia de instituciones locales u organizaciones de base en las posibilidades de los proyectos de conseguir sostenibilidad a largo plazo. el caso a analizar será el proyecto sistema de información agraria de huaral (sia), que es uno de los proyectos en el perú que está tratando de mostrar que el acceso a la información puede ser una herramienta de desarrollo y que este acceso puede darse a través de las nuevas tic. basaremos el análisis en la evaluación de medio término realizada en febrero y marzo de 2005 (bossio & rocha, 2005). las distintas facetas de la sostenibilidad y, especialmente, la sostenibilidad social son discutidas en la siguiente sección luego de ponerlas en el contexto de teorías del desarrollo. en la tercera sección se presenta el contexto general del proyecto. la cuarta relata la historia del proyecto. la siguiente evalúa el proyecto mirando a sus efectos y resultados. posteriormente analiza de la experiencia a la luz de los conceptos discutidos inicialmente para así poder llegar a conclusiones de utilidad para futuras experiencias. como anexo se incluye la descripción de la mezcla metodológica utilizada en la investigación y los límites de ésta. desarrollo sostenible y sostenibilidad para entender el concepto de sostenibilidad hace falta visitar las teorías alternativas de desarrollo surgidas en respuesta tanto a las teorías de modernización por etapas como a la teoría de la dependencia (thomas, 2000). amartya sen (1999) entiende el desarrollo como un proceso de expansión de la libertad, entendiendo la libertad como el conjunto de capacidades que permiten satisfacer necesidades al ampliar las opciones de la persona, de donde se sigue que el desarrollo estaría ligado a la participación y el empoderamiento. el concepto de desarrollo humano -basado en los postulados de senintroducido por las naciones unidas incluye cuatro capacidades: “llevar una vida larga y sana, ser reconocible, tener acceso a los recursos necesarios para alcanzar un estándar de vida decente y participar en la vida de la comunidad” (undp, 2004: p.127). el informe de la comisión mundial para el medio ambiente y el desarrollo da origen a la teoría del desarrollo sostenible, al que definen como “el desarrollo que satisface las necesidades del presente, sin comprometer la capacidad para que las futuras generaciones puedan satisfacer sus propias necesidades” (wced, 1987: p.43). el uso del término “sostenibilidad” por las ong y agencias internacionales de desarrollo ha ido más allá de consideraciones ambientales y de recursos naturales. actualmente, este término es usado para describir la capacidad de un proyecto o sus resultados de continuar existiendo o funcionando más allá del fin del financiamiento o las actividades del agente externo (fukao, 2004). esta capacidad de seguir existiendo ha sido reducida por muchos actores de desarrollo al componente financiero, de modo que se equipara la evaluación de la sostenibilidad al análisis de flujo de caja. sin embargo, el desarrollo sostenible y la sostenibilidad suponen la combinación de metas económicas, ecológicas y sociales, como es satisfacer las necesidades básicas, protegiendo el medio ambiente y empoderando a la gente, teniendo a las comunidades locales como actores principales (holmberg & sandbrook, 1992) la atención de algunos sectores en la sostenibilidad de los proyectos que usan tic para el desarrollo se ha centrado en el lado financiero de ésta (proenza, 2001). sin embargo, otros han definido distintos aspectos de la sostenibilidad: el económico o financiero, el político y legal, el social y cultural, y el tecnológico (delgadillo et al, 2002; stoll & menou, 2003) a los que fukao (2004) agrega el organizacional y de recursos humanos. todos estos aspectos deberían ser considerados con el objetivo de dar continuidad a las acciones y a que éstas no afecten la capacidad de desarrollo futuro. la sostenibilidad social y cultural está dada por la consideración de las particularidades de los contextos donde se hacen los proyectos y cómo se insertan en ellos convirtiéndose en un ‘bien público’, tiene que ver con la participación de la comunidad y sus organizaciones y en cuánto se apropian de los proyectos; la política o legal comprende el marco legal o la estabilidad política que permita la continuidad de las acciones de desarrollo; la tecnológica corresponde a la capacidad de actualizar la mezcla de tecnologías seleccionada, y la organizacional está dada por la capacidad de administrar localmente el proyecto y por el desarrollo de recursos humanos locales que permitan su continuidad. la experiencia ha mostrado que tener sostenibilidad social, tecnológica, organizacional y legal sirve para conseguir sostenibilidad financiera, mientras que lo contrario no ha sido observado (fukao, 2004; stoll & menou, 2003). resulta importante analizar cuáles son los plazos en los que la sostenibilidad es juzgada. cuando se habla en términos financieros, normalmente se tienen proyecciones de corto o mediano plazo. sin embargo, una actividad financieramente insostenible a corto plazo puede generar sostenibilidad política y social a largo plazo (por ejemplo la prestación de salud pública), mientras que una actividad financieramente sostenible en el corto plazo puede no ser legal (venta de reproducciones ilegales de películas o software). por ello, es importante considerar entonces que la sostenibilidad tiene metas de largo plazo, pero actividades de corto plazo. sostenibilidad del sia huaral el proyecto sia huaral será sostenible en la medida que pueda resolver las necesidades de los agricultores actuales sin hipotecar sus posibilidades de resolver las de los futuros agricultores, es decir que debe tener la capacidad de servir de manera continua en la actualidad sin socavar sus propias capacidades de brindar servicios en el futuro. no solamente se trata de que obtenga recursos financieros que le permitan funcionar hoy sin agotar financiamientos externos, malacostumbrar al mercado, debilitar los ahorros de la institución promotora o recurrir a créditos onerosos; debe construir sostenibilidad en términos sociales, político/legales, tecnológicos y organizacionales. este artículo profundiza en la sostenibilidad social y en el papel de la organización de base para conseguirla. para ello a continuación examinamos el contexto general del proyecto. contexto general presentamos a continuación una serie de elementos que sirven para situar el proyecto en su contexto histórico, social y económico, luego describimos la organización con la que se realiza el proyecto y finalmente a los agricultores para los que trabaja el proyecto. 1 contexto del proyecto el valle de huaral se encuentra ubicado en la parte media-baja y baja de la cuenca del río chancay, tiene un clima desértico cálido y su producción agropecuaria diversificada y continua depende de la irrigación. la agricultura da empleo, de manera directa o indirecta, a la mayor parte de la población económicamente activa de los tres distritos en los que se desarrolla el proyecto (chancay, huaral y aucallama, en la provincia de huaral, departamento de lima); la ciudad de lima a unos 90 km. de distancia es el principal mercado para su producción. dentro de los tres distritos hay varios centros menores con algunas carencias en servicios básicos, infraestructura vial y telecomunicaciones. actualmente el 96% de los agricultores manejan parcelas menores a 10 hectáreas. la reforma agraria de 1969 (matos mar 1980; matos mar 1984) expropió grandes extensiones de tierra y las entregó a cooperativas formadas por sus trabajadores o a comunidades campesinas. las cooperativas agrarias atravesaron un proceso de parcelación que se inició en la década de 1980 y se consolidó en la década de 1990 (eguren 1988; fernández y gonzáles 1990). dicha fragmentación eliminó las economías de escala y trajo como consecuencia menor rendimiento económico, trabas para la innovación tecnológica, desventaja en la comercialización y menor acceso al crédito formal. en el perú los agricultores no suelen tomar en cuenta factores como pronósticos climáticos u oportunidades de negocio para cambiar sus usos productivos o comerciales y persisten con la opción que mejor conocen (bossio, 2002; cancino, 2001; inei, 1996). aquellos que realizan cambios se apoyan en los familiares, amigos y vecinos como medio de acceder a información comercial y a experiencias productivas, mientras que para asuntos tecnológicos suelen recurrir a los técnicos de las casas comerciales. los estudios superiores permiten a algunos agricultores poder acercarse a ciertas fuentes de información con más facilidad, pero eso no los lleva a perder las fuentes de información más tradicionales. 2 la organización de los regantes la agricultura de huaral, como la de los otros valles de la costa, depende del riego y la organización del sistema de riego siempre ha imbricado su organización social. en tiempos de la hacienda la administración del agua de riego forzaba la relación de padrinazgo entre hacendados, yanacones y comuneros, mientras que luego de la reforma agraria fue necesaria una mayor reglamentación recayendo en el estado la gestión del recurso (oré, 1989). en 1979 entran en vigencia en todo el perú nuevas organizaciones para la administración del riego que son las juntas de usuarios y las comisiones de regantes. las juntas de usuarios deben velar por el mantenimiento de la infraestructura de riego, es decir canales y bocatomas, así como infraestructura para conservación de agua. las juntas realizan estas tareas con recursos provenientes del cobro de tarifa de agua1. en huaral hay unos 6000 ‘usuarios de riego’ que son los propietarios de los terrenos agrícolas y socios de la junta2. la junta se divide en 17 comisiones de regantes, cada comisión es alimentada por uno de los grandes canales de regadío y normalmente ocupa el territorio de una de las antiguas cooperativas; por ello no tienen similar tamaño o número de socios. los sectoristas son funcionarios de la junta, asignados a diferentes comisiones, que hacen la distribución de agua y la asignación de los turnos de riego, y controlan el buen estado y mantenimiento de la infraestructura de riego. adicionalmente, dan capacitaciones y cumplían el rol de correo, llevando y trayendo encargos de la junta a las comisiones y viceversa. su relación directa con el agricultor les permite estar al tanto de que se está sembrando en el valle, así como de qué problemas se enfrenta durante el ciclo productivo y la comercialización. otras organizaciones de los agricultores que se vienen desarrollando son las asociaciones de productores. estas asociaciones buscan mejorar la productividad a través de capacitación o asesoría técnica. también intentan obtener ventajas comerciales a través de la compra de insumos al por mayor o la venta de productos de forma asociada. 3 características de los usuarios o agricultores se puede categorizar a los agricultores de huaral por sus diferencias en cuánto al origen de la propiedad de la tierra, edad de quien toma las decisiones trascendentes en el fundo y nivel educativo. además se los puede dividir también de acuerdo a la zona en la que está su parcela (parte baja, media o alta del valle). en cuanto a la propiedad de la tierra, la primera diferencia se da entre los propietarios y los arrendadores; estos últimos pueden ser residentes permanentes en el valle, emigrantes periódicos u ocasionales. hay cuatro tipos básicos de origen de la propiedad: por compra en lotización o irrigación antes de la reforma agraria, por ser beneficiario de la reforma agraria (yanacones o peones3), por herencia o por haber comprado el terreno después del proceso de parcelación a alguno de los tres tipos anteriores o en una nueva irrigación. esta diferencia tiene correlato en la experiencia empresarial de los agricultores, ya que los peones beneficiarios de la reforma agraria formaron cooperativas hasta los ochentas o noventas del siglo pasado mientras que los demás han tenido más experiencia en el manejo de parcelas privadas. en cuanto a la edad, si bien la mayor parte de la población rural del valle de huaral se encuentra entre los quince y cuarenta años, la mayoría de los agricultores titulares de las parcelas (‘usuarios de riego’) son mayores de 50 años (59 años fue la edad promedio de los usuarios encuestados), lo que hace difícil la apropiación de nuevas tecnologías y prácticas agrícolas. en cuanto a nivel educativo, la inmensa mayoría de los agricultores sabe leer y escribir -93.98 % según el censo agropecuario de 1994 (inei 1996)-, y existen algunos agricultores que tienen formación superior técnica o profesional. historia del proyecto en esta sección se describe la evolución del proyecto desarrollado por el centro peruano de estudios sociales (cepes) y como éste se va modificando en respuesta al ambiente. primero se describe el desarrollo de la idea de proyecto y luego la interacción con otros actores y contrapartes; después se esboza una cronología de la implementación; y finalmente se presenta los retos actuales del proyecto. esta sección fue construida a partir de los testimonios de varios de los principales actores del proyecto como ignacio cancino (ic), maicu alvarado (ma), héctor salvador y marcial vega (mv), así como otros directivos de comisiones, agricultores y administradores de telecentros. 1. dándole forma a una idea en el año 2000, ic de cepes visitó la municipalidad distrital de aucallama para invitarla a participar en un proyecto de uso de computadoras e internet para mejorar su funcionamiento interno y servicios. la municipalidad no le prestó atención, pero el regidor mv –presidente de una comisión de regantessugirió que el proyecto se realizara con la junta de usuarios. desde inicios de 2001 la junta de usuarios –con mv de presidentey cepes desarrollan la idea de proyecto. la idea inicial era dotar de una computadora a cada comisión de regantes y conectarla a internet con antenas satelitales con el objetivo de mejorar la administración de la comisión y para que los agricultores accedieran a información agraria a través de la persona que administraría el uso de la computadora. la preocupación por la sostenibilidad financiera mostrada por potenciales donantes desnudó dos problemas: el alto costo de la opción tecnológica elegida y la ausencia de fuentes de ingresos que permitieran solventar financieramente el sistema luego de terminado el financiamiento externo. una consultoría de la red científica peruana (rcp) recomendó utilizar radio-enlace para interconectar los locales de las comisiones abaratando el costo de conexión y vender acceso a internet a colegios para generar fondos, idea que luego evoluciona hacia proveer acceso público. la alternativa de brindar servicios al público consigue el inmediato apoyo de los miembros de la junta y las comisiones a quienes interesó la posibilidad de contribuir con el desarrollo local y la mejora de la calidad educativa. desde ese momento la idea del proyecto fue la de un sistema de información agraria, que usa tecnología de radio-enlace para interconectar varios puntos en el valle y que tiene por objetivos contribuir con la apropiación de tic por agricultores y población en general, mejorar la administración de la organización de los regantes, permitir el acceso de agricultores a información útil y apropiada, y que debía financiarse a través de la prestación de servicios de telecomunicaciones. 2. los actores institucionales relacionados al proyecto este proyecto no ha sido nunca impulsado solamente por cepes sino que siempre ha contado con el apoyo de la junta de regantes. la relación con otras organizaciones o instituciones también ha dado forma al proyecto. acá agrupamos por sectores a las instituciones con las que el proyecto se ha relacionado. el compromiso institucional de la junta con el proyecto ha sido permanente. fue una asamblea la que tomó la decisión de participar del proyecto desde 2001 y otra la de comprar 12 computadoras como aporte económico de la junta en 2002. además, de las 12 comisiones que tienen telecentros –con entre 3 y 5 máquinas cada uno-, una remodeló y amplió su local, mientras que otras 10 debieron construir o alquilar local a raíz del proyecto. otras organizaciones de agricultores que no fueron consideradas en el planteamiento inicial -como las asociaciones de productoresahora están siendo incorporadas a la propuesta. el proyecto se ha relacionado con tres sectores dentro del aparato estatal: telecomunicaciones, agricultura y educación. desde 2001 se buscó financiamiento del fondo de inversión en telecomunicaciones (fitel), el que demoró tres años en llegar, primero por trabas legales (no estaba permitido el uso de radio enlace) y después burocráticas (idas y venidas para la aprobación del directorio de osiptel –del que dependía el fitely del ministerio de transportes y comunicaciones). las instituciones del sector agricultura –tales como el instituto nacional de investigación agraria (inia), el servicio nacional de sanidad animal (senasa) y la agencia agraria del ministerio de agriculturafueron consideradas como socios claves para la propuesta por que manejan grandes cantidades de información, potencialmente útil para los agricultores, pero no tenían los medios para hacerla llegar adecuadamente. desde mediados de 2001 se buscó incorporar al sector educación al proyecto dado que, por un lado los agricultores de la junta consideraban que sus hijos o nietos podían beneficiarse del proyecto, y por el otro, la consultoría de la rcp recomendó que el sector educación fuera un ‘cliente institucional’; en tal sentido la unidad de gestión educativa local (ugel) –encargada del sector educativo en huaralfirmó un contrato de servicio con el proyecto en noviembre de 2001, pero reiteradas trabas burocráticas llevaron a que se dejara de lado la relación con el sector educación a mediados de 2003. desde el principio se buscó incluir a las casas comerciales como proveedores de información de precios de insumos, pero estas empresas no participan pues no ven beneficio en hacerlo. en 2005 los laboratorios fueron identificados como fuente de información técnica y se hicieron contactos que permiten ahora que estos proveedores de insumos entreguen información al sistema. 3. la implementación del proyecto desde 2001 cepes ha desarrollado actividades ligadas a este proyecto usando financiamientos de distintos tamaños, fuentes, duraciones y momentos de inicio, así como financiamiento del mismo cepes. en febrero 2001 se realiza un diagnóstico de necesidades de información (cancino, 2001), financiado por la cooperación técnica alemana (gtz), que describe de manera general las necesidades de información de los pobladores, su relación con el calendario agrícola y las fuentes de información usadas para obtener esa información. en noviembre de 2002 empieza el diseño del sistema –basado en el diagnóstico inicial y trabajo de grupo con actores interesadosy el desarrollo de la plataforma de software para el sistema. en 2003 cepes consigue financiamientos del sector agricultura: en mayo de la dirección general de información agraria (dgia) del ministerio de agricultura para capacitar a agricultores en el uso de computadoras e internet y en octubre del proyecto incagro (innovación y competitividad en el agro) para el desarrollo y carga de la plataforma de información del sistema de información agraria. en agosto de 2003 empieza la capacitación de 280 agricultores, ésta es la primera actividad de campo de gran escala con la población beneficiaria y marca en nuestra opinión el inicio del proyecto. en ese momento aún no había internet en las comisiones ni información accesible en la web, pero ya se había capacitado usuarios e intermediarios, empezado a reunir contenidos, desarrollado lazos institucionales, e invitado a la participación de la población, los que son componentes fundamentales de un proyecto de desarrollo que tiene a internet como herramienta. en 2004 se desarrolla la plataforma de contenidos (http://www.huaral.org); se prosigue la capacitación y se selecciona a los administradores de los telecentros; se realiza un censo agropecuario que sirve para alimentar de información al sistema; se realiza la mayor parte de los desarrollos informáticos y, finalmente desde septiembre de 2004 –cuando se ejecuta el financiamiento de fitelempieza la puesta en funcionamiento de internet en las comisiones. de haber tenido mayor flexibilidad respecto a la alternativa tecnológica elegida se podría haber iniciado antes el proyecto de sistema de información -aún sin puntos de acceso a interneten vez de haber esperado por el financiamiento de fitel. 4. situación del proyecto en marzo de 2005, cuando realizamos la evaluación, cepes buscaba darle estructura y continuidad a lo implementado por el proyecto, mientras avanzaba en el proceso de transferencia. la junta ya se había consolidado como el principal proveedor de información del sistema y los sectoristas de la junta empezaron luego a ingresar información. se buscaba incrementar la participación de otras instituciones locales o de instituciones nacionales ligadas al agro, actividad en la que se ha avanzado desde entonces, especialmente por el reconocimiento que está teniendo la junta en cuanto al tema de sistemas de información. el equipo de informáticos de cepes es aún necesario en huaral ya que no han llegado a transferir todas sus responsabilidades al personal local, en un proceso que avanza pero que tiene ciertos cuellos de botella; por ejemplo, se ha transferido capacidades al personal local y de la junta para actualizar información y crear páginas web mientras cepes investiga nuevas aplicaciones que para su desarrollo requieren de profesionales con los que no cuenta la junta. la incorporación de la atención al público tuvo la finalidad de darle sostenibilidad financiera al proyecto a través del cobro por acceso a internet y servicios informáticos. es claro ahora que ésa no puede ser la única forma de obtener recursos financieros, por ello cepes y los dirigentes están analizando las opciones que tiene para generar fondos. la visión de cepes y la junta es que el sistema es un todo y su sostenibilidad financiera responde al todo, pero la percepción desde algunas comisiones es que cada telecentro debe velar por su propia sostenibilidad financiera. sin embargo, hay telecentros con altos ingresos y otros con ingresos muy bajos, lo que se explica, en unos casos, por la presencia o no de competencia en la prestación del servicio de internet y, en otros, por el tamaño de los centros poblados atendidos. es claro que algunos telecentros deberán ser financiados ya que no podrán sostenerse financieramente por la venta de acceso a internet. por el momento, la junta de usuarios cubre el costo de recursos humanos de algunos telecentros mientras que las comisiones cubren los costos por servicios y otros gastos. en cuánto al sistema de información por la página web, mucha de la alimentación de información se ha incorporado al funcionamiento de las instituciones, mientras que el mantenimiento y desarrollo informático sigue en manos de cepes. evaluación del proyecto esta sección presenta los efectos que se puede identificar desde el inicio de acciones conjuntas entre cepes y la junta en 2001, así como algunos resultados del proyecto hasta marzo de 2005. la mayor parte de los efectos presentados tienen que ver con el objetivo de mejorar la organización de regantes y describen el fortalecimiento institucional, mejora en la eficiencia comunicativa y administrativa, también se esbozan efectos en acceso a las telecomunicaciones. finalmente se describen una serie de resultados ligados a la participación social en el proyecto. 1. fortalecimiento institucional las entrevistas a directivos de la junta y las comisiones así como a otros informantes claves dan cuenta de un fortalecimiento de la junta desde enero de 2001. este proceso se muestra, por ejemplo, en que la junta de usuarios tiene un nuevo local de 1650 mt2; ha duplicado el almacenamiento de agua en las lagunas que proveen agua a huaral; y ha disminuido radicalmente la morosidad en el pago de la tarifa de agua. el mismo proyecto sia es una muestra de dicho fortalecimiento en tanto otras juntas de usuarios quieren realizar réplicas del proyecto (recientemente lo han hecho las juntas de jequetepeque, en cajamarca, y moche, en la libertad, ambas con asesoría de la junta de usuarios y de cepes). según julio san román, vicepresidente de la junta de usuarios, ésta se ha convertido “en la organización más importante del valle de huaral” por el reconocimiento que tiene tanto a nivel local como nacional, tomando en los últimos años un lugar de liderazgo a nivel nacional entre otras organizaciones de regantes. la voz de la junta se hace escuchar en medios de comunicación y directorios de organizaciones gubernamentales. según maicu alvarado, “ahora marcial (vega) se reúne con el ministro, y el inia y el senasa lo buscan, eso no pasaba con los anteriores presidentes de junta”. además, la junta ha recibido visitas de instituciones nacionales e internacionales a propósito del proyecto. todo esto contribuye a mejorar la autoestima de los miembros y dirigentes de la organización de regantes y fortalece la identificación de los miembros con su organización. a su vez, las comisiones también se han fortalecido. las que tienen telecentros cuentan ahora con local, muchas no tenían personal permanente y ahora tienen al administrador del telecentro que suele cumplir funciones administrativas. los locales de los telecentros se han vuelto puntos de referencia a donde los usuarios pueden acercarse con sus quejas o sugerencias, dejar mensajes, hacer trámites, recibir comunicados e información de la junta, buscar al sectorista o hacer reuniones, con lo que aumenta la participación social. en resumen, el proyecto ha servido para motivar la institucionalización de las organizaciones de base de los regantes, permitiendo que las comisiones también tomen un rol de servicio a toda la comunidad y no sólo a los usuarios de riego. no se puede atribuir todo el fortalecimiento institucional al proyecto, pero para todos los entrevistados es indudable que la gestión concertada del proyecto y la difusión que éste ha tenido han sido condición necesaria de dicho proceso. 2. mejora de los flujos comunicación en la organización de regantes la capacidad de comunicación dentro de la junta (con y entre las comisiones) y hacia fuera se ha incrementado gracias a la instalación de internet y los teléfonos internos en las comisiones, luego convertidos en anexos que permiten hacer llamadas al exterior desde comunidades donde no hay servicio de telefonía. antes del proyecto no había comunicación directa entre las comisiones y la junta, y la interacción entre las comisiones era mínima. el acceso a teléfono era muy limitado (sólo dos comisiones tenían teléfono) y un mensaje podía demorar 2 días en llegar mientras era llevado por el sectorista, lo que muestra en cuanto ha mejorado la comunicación entre la junta y las comisiones de regantes como efecto directo del proyecto. también ha disminuido sustancialmente el gasto en comunicación de la junta, porque antes había que llamar al teléfono o a celular, y ahora la comunicación se hace por interno o chat. la junta no tenía acceso a internet antes del proyecto y para consultar el correo electrónico usaba cabinas públicas (cyber-café). tal como hemos resaltado, al hablar del fortalecimiento institucional, la junta tiene ahora la posibilidad de interactuar con otros actores a nivel local, nacional e internacional. antes del proyecto no sólo no tenía los contactos sino tampoco los medios para comunicarse más allá de huaral. el tener una página de internet ha permitido que la junta sea contactada y el correo electrónico le permite comunicarse con interlocutores fuera de huaral. la disponibilidad de estas herramientas tecnológicas ha mejorado ciertos flujos de información y comunicación mientras que otros no se han alterado. entre los flujos que han cambiado tenemos la comunicación con el sectorista –especialmente cuando es compartido por más de una comisión-, la comunicación con instituciones externas, la emisión de comunicados de prensa y la consulta de estado de pago de tarifa de agua. mientras que no han cambiado otros tipos de comunicación como las invitaciones, notificaciones, comunicados formales, convocatoria a asamblea, reclamos y denuncias, los que siguen haciéndose como antes. el análisis muestra que cuando la variable urgencia es de mayor importancia que la variable formalidad entonces el uso de nuevas tecnologías se abre paso. comunicación urgente comunicación formal sabemos que los flujos de información y comunicación tienen hondas raíces culturales por haberse acomodado a condiciones sociales, económicas, políticas y/o ambientales (bossio 2002), por lo que la simple disponibilidad de tecnología no siempre los transforma. los agricultores esperan ver firma y sello en el tipo de comunicaciones que no han cambiado. por ejemplo, se siente más obligación de asistir a una asamblea si se recibió una carta que cuando se escuchó un comunicado por radio o se recibió invitación verbal. lograr cambios culturales que aminoren el valor que se da a los ‘documentos’ tomará tiempo y tal vez haya que esperar a la próxima generación de agricultores; mientras tanto se podrían buscar formas de acomodar el uso de herramientas como firma digital y digitalización de documentos para aprovechar las tecnologías disponibles y mejorar la eficiencia de ciertos flujos de información y comunicación. 3. mejora en el funcionamiento administrativo de la junta y las comisiones los sectoristas consideran que ahora tienen facilidades que les han permitido incrementar la eficiencia de su trabajo. diversas tareas administrativas que antes debían hacerse en huaral -como la digitación de documentospueden hacerse ahora en las comisiones. el acceso a internet y a las computadoras les permite diseñar mejor los roles de riego, acceder a información y comunicarse con los otros sectoristas de una forma nueva: el correo electrónico. los problemas de cobranza se están solucionando gracias a que los usuarios tienen la posibilidad de obtener inmediatamente información sobre sus pagos pendientes desde los locales de cada comisión, para lo que antes debían ir a huaral. esto mejora el reconocimiento y valoración de la organización por sus miembros. las comisiones de regantes están publicando sus propias páginas web. la elaboración de estas páginas ha servido para relacionar más al telecentro con su respectiva comisión. en opinión de los administradores, esta publicación ayuda a una mayor vigilancia de los dirigentes por los miembros de la comisión, especialmente por aquellos que viven en lima o en otras zonas del valle, lo que redunda en una mejora en la administración de la organización de base. 4. mayor acceso a servicios de telecomunicación para la población en general en la mayor parte de los lugares donde se ha instalado telecentros no había acceso a internet antes del proyecto, acceder al servicio suponía un viaje a la ciudad de huaral, con un costo extra en tiempo y dinero. si bien aún no se consigue que muchos agricultores utilicen los telecentros para buscar información agraria, es claro que el conocer al responsable del telecentro ayuda a que quienes no saben usar la computadora se acerquen a hacerlo. por otro lado, el servicio de internet le ha dado a la juventud de los centros poblados sede de las comisiones una posibilidad que antes no tenía. adicionalmente el proyecto ha ayudado a ampliar la cobertura telefónica dotando del servicio a 5 poblados que no contaban ni con un teléfono público (caqui, huayán, chancay bajo, chancay alto, cuyo). como efecto indirecto (y no esperado) se ha promovido el negocio privado de acceso a internet ya que en 5 localidades -de las 10 en las que no había internet antes de que empezara el proyectoahora hay empresarios privados que han instalado cabinas públicas, en algunos casos a raíz de la promoción y capacitación, en otros casos inmediatamente después de la instalación de los telecentros y debido a su gran demanda. 5. apropiación social la evaluación de algunos de los resultados de las actividades del proyecto son importantes para conocer el grado en el cuál el proyecto está o no siendo apropiado por la comunidad. estos resultados incluyen el nivel de conocimiento del sistema, la calidad de la información en el sistema y la participación de otras instituciones. 5.1 nivel de conocimiento de los telecentros y el sia por los agricultores casi el 70% de los usuarios de riego sabía de la existencia de computadoras conectadas a internet en el local de su comisión. de éstos, la gran mayoría (79.4%) se enteraron al visitar el local de la comisión para hacer trámites o asistir a reuniones; le sigue el grupo que se enteró por amigos vecinos y familiares (14.7%). sin embargo, un 90% no las había usado, la mayoría porque no sabía usarlas (55.3%) o por falta de tiempo (20.2%). el problema no era que no se sabía que existían los telecentros, sino que no se sabía que podían ser útiles y que se tiene derecho a usarlos. luego de la evaluación la asistencia de los agricultores se incrementó gracias a actividades de promoción de la utilidad de internet y de capacitación. sólo el 32.8% de los usuarios de los telecentros había visitado la página web del sia. la mayor parte de los que la usaban son personas mayores de 30 años que son agricultores, empleados o amas de casa. es esperable que el aumento de la asistencia de agricultores esté significando un aumento en el uso del sia. el hecho de que la mayor parte de la información presente en el sia venga de la propia junta de usuarios contribuye a que sea consultada por la confianza que existe en la fuente de información. 5.2 información en el sistema la definición de los módulos del sistema e identificación de los oferentes de información fue hecha en el diagnóstico de necesidades de información (cancino, 2001). el diseño de cada módulo fue producto de un trabajo en equipo con la participación de los actores directamente interesados. se diseñaron bases de datos para la información factual (precios, volúmenes de agua, áreas cultivadas) a ser provista por distintos actores. en cuanto a información temática, especialmente la información técnica, las prioridades no se definieron en base a diagnósticos sino por la oferta de información (por ejemplo un video de bayer) o por la demanda de grupos concretos (por ejemplo un boletín dirigido a los ganaderos). la información de noticias no estaba originalmente planeada y surgió para darle cotidianeidad a la página. el 70% de los que lo usan la página del sia la considera útil o muy útil. la información presentada en el sistema es considerada comprensible o muy comprensible por el 97% de estos sin embargo, debemos relativizar esta calificación considerando que tan sólo un tercio de los usuarios de los telecentros usan el sia y menos del 10% de los agricultores usa las computadoras de los telecentros. 5.3 participación de diversos actores en la alimentación del sistema la alimentación del sistema se está descentralizando cada vez más. cuando se hizo la evaluación la mayor parte de la información era recogida, procesada y colocada por cepes, ahora la junta de usuarios es el principal proveedor de información en el sistema y realiza todas las tareas autónomamente, mientras que otros socios entregan a cepes o la junta información procesada. son varias las instituciones que alimentan de información al sistema: la junta registra pagos de tarifa, noticias y volúmenes de agua (en conjunto con la administración técnica de riego del ministerio de agricultura), senasa (servicio nacional de sanidad agraria) provee información técnica y da acceso a su base de datos de plagas, la dgia da información de precios y producción en otros mercados y la estación experimental agraria donoso del inia (instituto nacional de investigación agraria) provee información sobre sus servicios y facilita información técnica. las asociaciones de productores colocan información sobre sus actividades. algunas empresas privadas facilitan información técnica. es relevante que las propias comisiones, a través de equipos formados por el administrador del telecentro y otros jóvenes, están ingresando información en el sistema sobre sus localidades. análisis como decíamos al principio, la sostenibilidad tiene también otras facetas que nos llevan a hablar de sostenibilidad política o legal, sostenibilidad tecnológica, sostenibilidad organizacional y sostenibilidad social y cultural, además de la financiera. en términos legales, hacer sostenible el proyecto en huaral implica cumplir con los reglamentos y las leyes establecidos y tener la flexibilidad para acomodarse a cambios razonables para evitar cierres u otras acciones judiciales. la sostenibilidad tecnológica supone que las plataformas de hardware y software del sistema tengan la posibilidad de acomodarse a cambios en el ambiente (social y físico) y que puedan expandirse, de lo contrario las soluciones tecnológicas de hoy se convertirían en las trabas de mañana. en el sentido organizacional, se debe formar los recursos humanos locales que el sistema requiere para poder seguir funcionando luego de que los técnicos de cepes se retiren. por último, para que el sistema de información agraria de huaral sea socialmente sostenible debe ser asumido como propio por quienes van a usarlo: los agricultores y su organización, llegando a convertirse en un bien público. la participación de las organizaciones de base es pieza fundamental de la misma definición de la sostenibilidad social y cultural. nuestra intención en este artículo es mostrar cuán importante es también para conseguir las otras facetas de la sostenibilidad, así como fortalecer la tesis de que obtener sostenibilidad social sirve para obtener sostenibilidad financiera y no a la inversa. 1. el papel de la junta de usuarios en la sostenibilidad entre aquellos que conocen de la existencia del proyecto o de los telecentros la mayoría lo supieron a través de la junta. al hacer propio el proyecto de sistema de información la junta ha transmitido al agricultor confianza en el proyecto, en el sistema de información y en la información que éste contiene. es gracias a esta confianza que centenares de agricultores e hijos de agricultores se acercaron a las capacitaciones iniciales y también por esta confianza se acercan ahora a capacitarse en los telecentros. la confiabilidad de la fuente es una de las condiciones para que la información sea apropiada (bossio, 2002); por ello se debe a la junta el que en tan poco tiempo el sistema de información esté siendo consultado por los agricultores. la junta de usuarios no era una institución muy fuerte en 2001 y es claro que el proyecto ha contribuido con su fortalecimiento, pero también es cierto que la institucionalidad de la junta ha contribuido fuertemente a facilitar al proyecto ciertas relaciones con instituciones estatales y privadas. por ejemplo, ciertos productores de información pueden tener más disposición a dar recursos de información a una organización de agricultores que a una ong, ya sea porque ven a los agricultores como clientes –en caso de ser empresas privadaso como beneficiarios de sus acciones –en caso de ser organismos estatales. así como las comisiones de regantes se han fortalecido debido al proyecto, también el proyecto se hace más sostenible por la participación de las comisiones de regantes que son las organizaciones de base con las que el agricultor se relaciona directa y cotidianamente. desde las comisiones se obtiene información y se desarrollan relaciones con otras organizaciones de base o instituciones a nivel local, como colegios o comedores populares. gracias a esto se amplía el reconocimiento del proyecto por mayores sectores de la sociedad a nivel local. las comisiones son también la mejor plataforma para promover la participación social en el proyecto. la junta fue también importante en las actividades de influencia en política pública para obtener las modificaciones a la reglamentación necesarias para permitir el radio-enlace entre los telecentros de las comisiones, antes sólo permitidos entre oficinas de una misma empresa o institución. en cuanto al desarrollo de capacidades de personal local, la junta seleccionó a quienes asistirían a las capacitaciones y es la que ahora paga a los administradores y da espacio de trabajo a los voluntarios de los telecentros. la junta entiende que apoyar el desarrollo de capacidades del personal local es una buena inversión; por ejemplo, en noviembre de 2005 apoyó la participación de 8 administradores en el 3er encuentro nacional de telecentros realizado en arequipa. el diseño del sistema ha sido apoyado por la junta desde la convocatoria a las reuniones para el diagnóstico inicial y así como en las consultas a los múltiples actores que iban a proveer y usar información. de tal forma ayuda a que el diseño sea apropiado a las necesidades, intereses y capacidades de los agricultores. la junta de usuarios sostiene económicamente la provisión de servicios –mediante el pago de los administradoresen las comisiones dónde el alquiler de acceso a internet no genera suficientes fondos. al ser promovido por la junta, el proyecto está también imbuido de respeto y consideración por la cultura local, evitando choques dramáticos innecesarios. por ejemplo, se promueve que internet pueda facilitar y acelerar ciertos flujos de información pero no se fuerza la informatización de todos los posibles procesos ya que algunos pueden tener otras funciones sociales. por último, el firme apoyo de la directiva de la junta ha ayudado a la introducción de tic en sus procesos administrativos mejorando la atención a los agricultores. el que se le asigne nuevas tareas a los sectoristas es positivo ya que de lo contrario se afectaría su rol social sin darle nada a cambio ya que actualmente han dejado su rol de correo informal. 2. sia huaral: el proyecto de la junta de usuarios se están dando pasos para una transferencia por etapas del sistema. se empieza por aquellas funciones que los recursos humanos de la junta pueden manejar mientras se desarrollan las capacidades locales para poder transferir conocimientos tecnológicos más complejos. desde 2001 siempre se ha dicho que el sistema de información agraria era un proyecto de cepes y la junta de usuarios. sin embargo, en los primeros años se veía como un proyecto que cepes hacía para la junta. ahora que la junta es el principal proveedor de información, que administra y sostiene económicamente los telecentros, y que ya no sólo recibe visitas sino que es convocada a hablar del proyecto, ya se puede decir que el sia es “un proyecto de la junta que contó con el apoyo del cepes”. desde el inicio, el proyecto tuvo como aliado al actual presidente de la junta (mv) y contó con el apoyo entusiasta de otros dirigentes. próximamente se elegirá una nueva directiva, ésta podrá determinar algunos cambios en el proyecto: hay quienes lo quieren más rentable, hay otros que quieren orientarlo a atender las necesidades del agro más moderno y de exportación, puede haber quienes quieran hacerlo exclusivamente agrario y otros que en cambio quieran hacerlo más amplio e incluir las necesidades de otros actores no agrarios como el sector educación o el de salud. pero no hay nadie, entre las decenas de dirigentes y agricultores entrevistados, que considere cerrar el proyecto y que no lo vea como un logro, un reto y una oportunidad. conclusiones una de las principales fortalezas del proyecto es que éste ha sido asumido como propio por la organización de regantes, esto le da sostenibilidad social porque los telecentros se vuelven un bien público obtenido por la población y no un regalo dejado allí por una financiera internacional. quienes desarrollan el proyecto no son extraños, ciertamente hay técnicos venidos de fuera de huaral, pero la participación de la junta y el reclutamiento de jóvenes locales para trabajar en los telecentros permiten que los agricultores de huaral desarrollen proximidad y confianza. esta confianza hace más fácil capacitar a agricultores y conseguir que usen nuevos recursos de información a través de nuevas herramientas. en este caso la sostenibilidad social contribuye con la sostenibilidad tecnológica y organizacional ya que se están desarrollando recursos humanos capaces de asumir la conducción del proyecto. también se ha visto como la sostenibilidad social contribuye con la sostenibilidad legal por las gestiones respecto al uso de radio-enlace. así mismo, la sostenibilidad social del proyecto en la junta permite que los telecentros no rentables sigan existiendo, es decir que les da la esperada sostenibilidad financiera. la sostenibilidad no es algo que se consiga de una vez, sino algo que se construye de manera continua, algo en lo que se debe seguir trabajando. creemos que basar la sostenibilidad social del proyecto en una sola organización de base puede ser peligroso. además, si el proyecto salta alguna vez de ser un proyecto de desarrollo agrario a ser uno de desarrollo rural deberá ampliar el espectro de organizaciones e instituciones con las que trabaja. por otro lado, el proyecto debe también desarrollar sostenibilidad a nivel local. esta sostenibilidad –que puede expresarse en la defensa del telecentro por la comunidad en caso de que sea necesariodebe ganarse en cada comisión y para ello los telecentros deben relacionarse con otras instituciones u organizaciones locales. consideramos demostrado que la organización de base ha sido fundamental en darle sostenibilidad a esta experiencia y esperamos que esta lección pueda ser usada y acomodada a otras experiencias y proyectos. bibliografía bauer, m. y b. aarts (2000). corpus construction: a principle for qualitative data collection. en: qualitative researching with text, image and sound: a practical handbook for social research / m. bauer and g. gaskell (pp. 19-37). london: sage. bossio, j. (2002). flujos de información y comunicación en contextos rurales: punto de partida para intervenciones en tecnologías de información y comunicación. en: perú, el problema agrario en debate, sepia ix / manuel pulgar vidal, eduardo zegarra y jaime urrutia, eds. (pp. 662-687). lima: sepia, cies, care, oxfam. bossio, j. y j. rocha (2005). la organización de regantes y el acceso a información en huaral: apropiación social de nuevas tecnologías: evaluación de medio término del proyecto sistema de información agraria de huaral. reporte no publicado entregado a cepes, lima. cancino, i. (2001). determinación de necesidades específicas de información agraria e identificación de los sistemas de información del valle de huaral. reporte no publicado entregado a cepes, lima. davidziuk, m. a. (2002) las tic como instrumento de inclusión comunitaria y desarrollo social: el caso del proyecto ctc. tesina de grado no publicada, universidad de buenos aires, facultad de ciencias sociales. delgadillo, k., r. gómez y k. stoll (2002). telecentros... ¿para qué?: lecciones sobre telecentros comunitarios en américa latina y el caribe. ottawa: idrc. eguren, fernando (1988). revisión y balance de los estudios sobre restructuración de empresas agrarias asociativas. en: sepia ii: el problema agrario en debate. lima: sepia: fernández, ángel y alberto gonzáles; eds. (1990) la reforma agraria peruana, 20 años después. chiclayo: centro de estudios sociales solidaridad. fukao, t. 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(2003) ideas para repensar la conectividad en áreas rurales. en: otro lado de la brecha: perspectivas latinoamericanas y del caribe ante la cmsi. (pp. 29-33). caracas, redistic. sen, a. k. (1999). development as freedom. new york, knopf. stoll, k. y m. menou (2003). basic principles of telecenter sustainability. retrieved march 28, 2005 from http://www.tele-centros.org/cr/crsosten.php. thomas, a. (2000). meanings and views of development. en: poverty and development: into de 21st century / ed. by t. allen y a. thomas. oxford: open university & oxford university press, pp 22-48. undp (2004). human development report 2004: cultural liberty in today’s diverse world. new york, undp. wced (1987). our common future. oxford: oxford university press. anexo: metodología de esta investigación el análisis presentado en este artículo se basa en la información recogida para la evaluación de medio término encargada al autor por la ong promotora del proyecto (centro peruano de estudios sociales cepes http://www.cepes.org.pe) en febrero y marzo de 2005. para la evaluación del proyecto se combinaron metodologías y herramientas cuantitativas y cualitativas ya que necesitábamos indicadores objetivamente verificables e información de contexto y a profundidad. herramientas cuantitativas se aplicaron dos tipos de encuesta: una a usuarios de riego y otra a usuarios de los telecentros. la encuesta a usuarios de riego tuvo como objetivos obtener información sobre situación económica de los agricultores del valle, saber qué mecanismos usan actualmente para tomar decisiones en las diversas etapas del ciclo agrícola, así como las principales fuentes de información en las cuales se apoyan estas decisiones, y el grado de conocimiento de los telecentros y su uso. los objetivos de la encuesta a usuarios de telecentros fueron identificar las características del actual usuario del telecentro (edad, sexo, ocupación, etc.), la forma en que se enteró de la existencia del telecentro, los servicios que más usa y, si ha consultado la página del sia, qué información buscó y si ésta le parece útil y comprensible. herramientas cualitativas se realizaron entrevistas a profundidad a diferentes actores relacionados con el proyecto así como talleres participativos. los actores entrevistados a profundidad fueron dirigentes agrarios, representantes de asociaciones de productores, “sectoristas”-encargados de la supervisión del flujo de agua de riego-, personal del proyecto, personal administrativo de la junta de usuarios, administradores de telecentros y un grupo de “agricultores tipo” de acuerdo a las diferencias típicas entre ellos en cuanto a edad, origen de la propiedad de la tierra, educación, afiliación a organizaciones y género. la selección de informantes maximizó la variedad con la intención de obtener mayor riqueza en la información recogida y reflejar la variedad del universo (bauer & aarts, 2002). se realizaron talleres participativos para obtener información cualitativa de dos grupos: hubo un taller general con los múltiples actores relacionados al proyecto y uno con administradores de los telecentros, los que permitieron evaluar el proyecto, conocer los cambios que los actores estaban identificando y graficar flujos de información. límites de la investigación este artículo ha evitado tratar temas tecnológicos. la evaluación hecha a principios de 2005 no incluyó al software ni a las percepciones sobre el software usado en los telecentros, tampoco evaluamos el uso de otras herramientas novedosas como la conexión wifi entre los telecentros de las comisiones, el uso de terminales tontos para dar servicio al público, ni el uso del cms (sistema de manejo de contenidos) action aplications de la apc para permitir que varios actores puedan contribuir con el sistema. todas estas opciones han tenido distinto tipo de impactos en el proyecto, pero como no pudimos abarcar esto en el recojo de información es poco lo que podríamos decir. creemos que el análisis de la influencia de la elección y uso de estas herramientas en la sostenibilidad tecnológica del sistema y de ésta en la sostenibilidad en general bien merecen otros estudios. este artículo tampoco ha estudiado la sostenibilidad financiera en sí misma, es decir en cuánto la venta de servicios por parte de los telecentros cubre los costos de operación y cuáles son sus estrategias para conseguir más fondos por esta vía. creemos que los telecentros de huaral están condenados a no ser sostenibles financieramente si siguen el esquema de cabina y anclan en la sola provisión de acceso a internet como fuente de ingresos; esto porque en las localidades donde no hay mercado los ingresos no serán suficientes, en las que lo haya o se lo cree tarde o temprano un empresario local instalará una cabina que funcione con windows (pirata, probablemente), explote a sus trabajadores y permita el acceso a pornografía, lo que en conjunto la hará más eficiente en la competencia por usuarios de internet. por ello el proyecto está desarrollando otras estrategias para conseguir fondos (como la venta de conexión inalámbrica a internet en las comunidades a donde aún no llega el servicio), analizar la eficiencia de estas estrategias y como se acomodan a los objetivos del proyecto y contribuyen a la sostenibilidad general bien merece otro estudio. tampoco hemos abordado extensamente ni la sostenibilidad político/legal ni la organizacional, aunque en el análisis se las vea muy relacionadas a la sostenibilidad social o a su actor principal, la junta de usuarios de huaral. este caso aporta información para analizar la relación entre sostenibilidad social y política/legal pero para construir un artículo que revise esta relación sería importante recoger información de otros casos. en cuanto a la sostenibilidad organizacional, creemos que el análisis de ésta en huaral sería especialmente interesante y que debería mirar con atención el componente de realización personal de los administradores de los telecentros así como de los voluntarios que trabajan con ellos. no hemos evaluado el efecto del uso de información agraria en la productividad o los ingresos de los agricultores. consideramos que para que sea posible medir el impacto del sistema de información en la forma como toman decisiones los agricultores y la calidad de estas decisiones se necesita un tiempo mínimo después del inicio de la operatividad del sistema -y no de la sola conexión a internet-, pues se necesita generar confianza en el agricultor y dar tiempo para que el agricultor ensaye con la información (bossio, 2002) y con el sistema. considerando que muchos ciclos agrícolas duran un año, este tiempo debería ser de 2 años cuando menos. 1las juntas no cobran por el agua sino por el uso de la infraestructura que permite tener acceso al agua. el agua de riego es un bien público; si ellos cobraran por el agua abrirían la puerta a la privatización de este recurso, idea a la cual se oponen. pero esta posición lleva a que no puedan impedir el acceso al agua por falta de pago. 2ni el peón agrícola ni aquellos que alquilan tierras son ‘usuarios de riego’, sólo lo son los propietarios de los terrenos inscritos en las comisiones. 3los yanacones o yanaconas arrendaban al hacendado las tierras que usaban, mientras que los peones eran obreros asalariados. en muchos casos los yanacones recibieron pequeñas extensiones de tierra antes de que la reforma agraria llegara a huaral, mientras que los peones fueron organizados en cooperativas agrarias.   a research design to build effective partnerships between city planners, developers, government and urban neighbourhood communities  marcus foth institute for creative industries and innovation queensland university of technology < m.foth@qut.edu.au > barbara adkins institute for creative industries and innovation queensland university of technology < b.adkins@qut.edu.au >    abstract communities of place feature prominently in new urbanism movements and in master-planned inner-city developments that result from urban renewal. this paper's point of departure is the stark contrast between the widespread use of mobile and ubiquitous media and communications technology by urban dwellers on the one hand and endemic forms of urban alienation and the disappearance or non-existence of urban neighbourhood community identity on the other. networked individualism introduces challenges to conventional understandings of "place" and "public place". it opens up opportunities to build partnerships between architecture, city planning and urban studies in order to re-conceptualise the understanding of community and neighbourhood planning in the light of new media and network icts. however, such a re-conceptualisation has not been achieved yet because of a lack of theoretical and practical understandings of the freedom and constraints and the social and cultural meanings that urban dwellers derive from their use of place-based ict systems. the paper argues that in order to gain a better understanding of the continued purpose and relevance of urban neighbourhood communities in metropolitan areas and their changing role within a network society, the scope and structure of the communicative ecologies and social networks created and maintained by residents in urban residential real estate needs to be investigated empirically to inform city design and planning. the paper discusses a cross-disciplinary research design to build effective partnerships between city planners, developers, government, education and urban neighbourhood communities.   introduction   this paper introduces a research design that seeks to build effective cross-disciplinary partnerships between academics and practitioners to enable the transfer of knowledge across a critical mass of people in the fields of media and communication studies, sociology, it, community development, architecture, and urban policy, design and planning. it focuses on the intersection of new media opportunities and the challenges of urban renewal. the research seeks to build a cross-disciplinary understanding of how urban residents use new media and network ict systems (e.g., internet and mobile phone applications) to facilitate access to and effective use of the social, cultural, educational and economic assets in their residential locale. the main site of study chosen for this project is the kelvin grove urban village in brisbane which is the product of a new generation of heterogeneous urban master-planning with a high proportion of residential usage. it is the first inner-city development of its kind in australia where public and private stakeholders have come together to plan and build an integrated community in an innovative way that comprises educational, residential, health, retail, recreational and business opportunities. the development project started in 2001 and the last development stage is scheduled for completion in 2008. the vision informing the development of networked geographic communities in australia and elsewhere has been articulated in terms of community-building: the capacity to engender a sense of community and belonging and sociability in estates and neighbourhoods. however, a large body of both theoretical and empirical work suggests that the networking and linking practices enabled by new media and icts are not likely to be focused on identifications based solely on co-location and place but on the meanings and usages residents derive from their interaction situated within place (graham, 2004). "physical closeness does not mean social closeness" (wellman, 2001, p. 234). in view of these findings, it is not surprising that a recent australian study of an attempt to build a networked geographic community found that for some, the priority was not participation in the immediate community for its own sake. this apparent individualism, however, did not mean that resident's uses of ict were not strategically oriented to other interests. rather, resident's uses of icts were consistent with an orientation to broader participation in economic, educational, social and cultural life (meredyth et al., 2004). this finding supports woolcock's (1998) observation that it is possible to have too much social capital, particularly if it is built at the expense of -or out of context of -access to other linkages. these issues of access, connection and usage, particularly in the context of education and culture are now being considered as part of education reform strategies (adkins et al., 2003) and also taken up in the development of master-planned neighbourhoods and villages designed to facilitate integration with and access to educational and cultural precincts. the attempts to foster these connections through planning and development offer new opportunities to document whether and how factors such as co-location, the uses of new media and icts and local community building enable access to and participation in the fields of education and culture, democratic access to and effective use of local information and services, and the promotion of an innovation culture and economy locally. documenting these relationships, however, requires the development of a conceptual and methodological framework suited to bridging aspirations of new urban development with respect to integrated neighbourhood community planning, public space, urban design and building (de villiers, 1997; gleeson, 2004) with the yet unfulfilled potential of location-based new media and network ict systems (gaved & mulholland, 2004, 2005; huysman & wulf, 2004; rheingold, 2002). such a conceptual and methodological framework will be presented here. this paper first reviews theoretical and empirical work in the sociology of networks, in order to identify emerging social formations that are facilitated through the use of ict and new urbanist planning strategies, and identifies questions arising from this concerning the processes likely to generate these social forms. we then propose a conceptual framework based on sterne's (2003) application of bourdieu's framework to technology use, a case study approach, and an ethnographic action research methodology as a means of focusing on these processes, with reference to the way these are suited to the study of new media and ict use in a heterogeneous master-planned community site. we argue that this approach contributes to the development of a debate that goes beyond the pre-constructed meanings and practices associated with technology use in urban villages. the aim of this paper is neither to report on final results nor on work-in-progress, but rather to present an innovative research design situated in the field of community informatics that is grounded in a cross-disciplinary theoretical and methodological framework. the intent of the design specifics is to build effective partnerships between academic disciplines as well as between private, public and community stakeholders such as city planners, developers, local government and urban neighbourhood communities.   new social formations, new media, new urbanism   the study's point of departure is the stark contrast between the widespread use of mobile and ubiquitous communications technology by urban dwellers on the one hand and endemic forms of urban alienation and the disappearance or non-existence of urban neighbourhood community identity on the other. in today's networked society, e-mail, instant messaging, online chats and other applications are instrumental in establishing and maintaining social ties, thus creating a private "portfolio of sociability" (castells, 2001, p. 132) which we refer to as an individual's "communicative ecology" (tacchi et al., 2003). neighbours may still be part of a resident's social portfolio, but the communication devices used to maintain social ties are inherently place-independent and ephemeral. getting to know someone in their role as a "neighbour" is less likely than getting to know them in their role as a "co-worker" or being the friend of a friend. sociologists such as wellman (2001; 2002; wellman et al., 2003) describe how people construct their social networks with the help of new media tools. wellman argues that while people become more accustomed with the features these tools offer, the nature of the social ties people establish and maintain changes from what used to be door-to-door and place-to-place relationships to what are now person-to-person and role-to-role relationships. wellman terms the emerging qualities of this behaviour "networked individualism". previous studies that tried to make sense of contemporary new media usage rely on simple binary oppositions such as "individual" vs. "community", "physical place" vs. "cyberspace" or "online" vs. "offline" (dimaggio et al., 2001; giddens, 2003). this research departs from these compartmentalised dichotomies by creating a holistic theoretical framework that builds on the dual nature of "the community" and "the individual" inherent in networked individualism. for example, even as the internet grows exponentially, place-based units such as "home", "work" and "school" remain at the core of our understanding of everyday life, and "the economy itself increasingly takes form around real concentrations of people in real places" (florida, 2003, p. 4). human interaction thus takes place seamlessly in the virtual and physical "space of flows" (castells, 2004) that modern transportation and communication afford. place and proximity continue to matter in every socio-economic aspect. this is evident by rising car and air travel sales (wellman, 2001, p. 247), by people commuting to work instead of working from home, and by the formation of economic clusters, precincts and hot spots where industries based within the same value chain co-locate to take advantage of synergy effects. however, an empirically proven rationale has yet to be found that clarifies the conditions under which these synergy effects apply in the heterogeneous context of new residential urban developments. our research is also informed by watters (2003) conceptualisation of "urban tribes" - social clusters of under-35 year old urban dwellers. they represent a social network, a swarming group of friends who live in the same city and who are connected through a meshwork of strong and weak ties. the face-to-face interaction between members of urban tribes is supplemented by the use of new media and ict applications. watters' analysis of urban tribes provides further evidence for the shifting quality of community formations in urban settings towards social networks. he -as well as others (fischer, 2001; florida, 2003; sobel, 2002) -critique putnam's (2000) narrow interpretation of social capital. watters argues that "social capital comes from much more fluid and informal (yet potentially quite close and intricate) connections between people. [s]ocial capital could as easily accrue among a tight group of friends yet still have an effect on the community at large." (watters, 2003, p. 116). thus, our research builds on the fact that community assets include not only the formal skills of individuals and the tangible associations and institutions in a given locality (kretzmann & mcknight, 1993), but more and more the informal proximity-based social clusters and intangible networks of weak tie relationships that people build and maintain through new media and network icts. it is the intention of our work to contribute to a greater understanding of how these tacit and soft assets can be elicited, connected, networked and harnessed to become "smart" assets in the service of both social and economic innovation in metropolitan areas.   challenges in new media and new urbanism   in the context of urban renewal and new urbanism (de villiers, 1997; healy & birrell, 2004), networked individualism introduces challenges to conventional understandings of "place" and "public places". it opens up opportunities for architecture, city planning and urban studies to re-conceptualise their understanding of community and neighbourhood planning in the light of new media and network icts (cf. castells, 2004; florida, 2003; graham, 2004; mitchell, 2003; oldenburg, 2001; walmsley, 2000). however, such a re-conceptualisation has not yet been achieved because of a lack of theoretical and practical understandings of the freedom and constraints and the social and cultural meanings that urban dwellers derive from their use of location-based icts. in particular, in master-planned communities, traditional conceptual models of community development limit action to tangible places of public interaction such as kindergartens, public schools, parks, libraries, etc. (gleeson, 2004). this "build it, they will come" approach lacks engagement with the findings of recent community development and community informatics research (foth, 2004, 2006b; gilchrist, 2004; pinkett, 2003) that calls for an engagement with yet unanswered questions around the significance of social networks in urban neighbourhood community building. it also ignores both the human factors involved in urban renewal and socio-cultural animation (foth, 2006a) of neighbourhoods as well as the potential that media and communication technology can offer urban residents (day & schuler, 2004; gaved & mulholland, 2004, 2005). this resonates with developments in new media research (jankowski, 2002; matei & ball-rokeach, 2003) which has moved on to analyse the new qualities of the "third wave" of community media, that is, applications including web-based systems such as indymedia, community networks and other location-aware "smart mob" technologies (rheingold, 2002). in this light, jankowski (2003) rightly argues that there is an unfulfilled promise to establish theoretically grounded models and a need to depart from simple dichotomies. the holistic approach proposed here will respond to this call. building on this significance, the research design will innovate and produce new knowledge in three areas which are now discussed in turn.   the use of network theory in the context of community networks dunbar (1996) suggests that the size of human social networks is limited for biological and sociological reasons to a value of around 150 people. barabã¡si (2003) provides a more far-reaching overview of recent advances in network theory and their impact on business, science and everyday life. some ideas are crucial in understanding social networks: they decrease or increase in size, that is, they are dynamic and not static. their structure is not random or chaotic, but follow preferential attachment ("rich get richer") and fitness ("fit get richer"). in the context of community networks, jankowski et al. (2001, p. 113) support this thesis with empirical research by pointing out that "those geographic communities already rich in social capital may become richer thanks to community networks, and those communities poor in social capital may remain poor". hampton & wellman (2003, p. 283) support this notion by stating that, "connectivity seems to go to the connected: greater social benefit from the internet accrues to those already well situated socially". yet unanswered questions are, what constitutes "richness" and "fitness" in urban social settings, how do residents get "rich" and become a "hub" in their social network, and how can social networking systems facilitate "enrichment" and inclusion?   ethnographic action research in urban contexts the current authors and their colleagues have developed, applied, tested and refined a research methodology specifically to generate new understandings of icts and their social applications (foth & tacchi, 2004; tacchi et al., 2003). this method combines ethnography with action research. our research design employs ethnography for its ability to place people within a wider and holistic context -in this case the interactions of urban residents with new technology and their wider communicative ecologies. action research is used to bring about new activities and interventions based on new perceptions of situations achieved through ethnography. we use ethnography to guide the research process and action research to link the findings back into the project's ongoing development. this research project will form part of a larger collaborative research agenda that is building a growing body of knowledge to redefine innovative research strategies on, and achieve better understandings of, emerging technologies and their implications and uses in social and place-based contexts. the development of ethnographic action research was initiated by the uk government's department for international development (dfid) and unesco as a transferable methodology to evaluate and develop new media and network ict initiatives. the core methodology is now being applied and tested in different contexts, such as the use of ict for poverty reduction (tacchi, 2004), and the use of new media and network icts in a project to establish a "youth internet radio network" (hartley et al., 2003). this research project will develop a customised version of the ethnographic action research methodology that takes the specific characteristics of new media and ict use in urban settings into account.   a theoretically grounded model of community innovation this study's capacity to articulate current understandings of the contexts and practices of information and technology use facilitated by new master-planned urban villages will inform innovation in the field of new media and ict. the development of this field is characterised by the rapid proliferation of new scientific and technological knowledge. smits (2002) notes that this new knowledge often fails to lead to successful products, services and solutions to social problems. this issue has in part been identified as associated with the need for a focus on innovation rather than simply invention, that is, for a focus on not only the development of new knowledge and technology but also, among other things, on the design of products that pay sufficient attention to the intensifying interface between user and producer (smits, 2002). this research design addresses these critical challenges in relation to the use of new media and network icts by delivering a broader understanding of the new types of social formations in urban settings. these are conceptualised as facilitators of resident's access to education, culture and economic life with a view to informing the unknown potential for socio-economic and cultural-economic innovation to occur in local community contexts through "effective use" of new media and ict applications (gurstein, 2003, 2004).   research design and methodology   we propose an approach that treats a physical location such as a village as a site of embedded cases of different groups' use of new media and ict to facilitate economic, educational and cultural participation. the paper then outlines a specific approach to theory building -ethnographic action research -which is specifically suited to building theory based on an intensive understanding of the communicative ecologies involved in new media and ict use in this context.   conceptual framework and rationale the emerging area of research outlined above requires a conceptual and methodological framework that is capable of informing the development of new configurations and systems of icts that are suited to the needs and interests of different groups and that enable broader educational, cultural and economic participation. the framework adopted thus needs to be able to focus on the complex mix of social, spatial, technical, cultural and temporal relationships in which uses of icts are embedded, but also needs to enable the study of everyday practices and experiences of these relationships. sterne (2003) has recently pointed to the suitability of bourdieu's (1986) concepts of habitus, field and capital for capturing the relationships in which technology use is embedded, arguing that it is a perspective capable of overcoming the binary oppositions between technology and society that have plagued technology studies. bourdieu's framework proposes that experience must be understood analytically in terms of one's position in social space -an abstract system of social relations -but also in terms of applications of habitus. as a set of dispositions, habitus comprises inculcated schemes of action in the form of embodied, pre-reflective dispositions that are applied in practice. applications of habitus occur in the context of fields or social domains of activity. for bourdieu, the concept of field was introduced as a key dimension of his three dimensional model, providing a focus on the way one's position in social space and habitus were applied in a specific domain. in the context of field, the acquisition of various kinds of capital had an important influence on the extent to which social actors could compete for, gain and maintain positions, providing for a study of the way a specific habitus could be applied in the context of particular positions. this enables a focus on prises de positions, "position-takings" or stances. in this framework, a specific stance must be understood as the product of the "meeting of two histories" of positions and dispositions. this focus on both positions and dispositions in the context of the capitals (social, cultural, economic, symbolic and educational) at stake provide for a systematic identification of the use of ict in the village in terms of both networks of relationships and individuals' experience of them. for the purposes of this study, cultural and educational capital may take a physical and institutional form: proximity to the institutions and facilities of theatres, universities, information and communication technologies. these relationships may be supported symbolically in urban design and representation of neighbourhoods, villages, and housing as specific kinds of "communities". however, these capitals are also possessed at different levels in the habitus of individuals, providing for different levels and kinds of improvised responses. the study of the use of ict in the village thus becomes a question of the extent to which individuals and groups are able to appropriate these capitals in their physical form, and the broader participation this appropriation enables. the research design employed by the study is sensitive to the different levels of analysis designated by this framework. this is manifested in strategies for data selection, collection and analysis. further however, it is also a framework suited to building theory iteratively in a way which attends to the intensifying interface between user and producer that characterises innovation oriented research.   research site and principles of case selection a case study is a single bounded entity, studied in detail, with a variety of methods, over an extended period, and is selected because it is theoretically representative of the relationships to be investigated (yin, 2003). kelvin grove urban village is a result of the redevelopment of a brisbane inner-city defence force site into a village incorporating tertiary education, residential, leisure and business activities. in part, it is a planning strategy that reflects urban planning challenges arising from rapid population growth and the associated escalation in housing demand in brisbane. it was proposed that new residential strategies would be required to meet future population growth, involving a shift from large-scale master-planned subdivisions to infill development and smaller-scale subdivisions. this was also to involve higher density developments (healy & birrell, 2004). the higher density inner-city development was thus consistent with these planning strategies. however, its location and design also reflects a desire to achieve a higher level of integration between residential, commercial, educational, cultural and employment activities (healy & birrell, 2004). the master plan describes it as "a diverse city fringe neighbourhood linking learning with enterprise, creative industry with community [...] creating a new part of brisbane that offers a unique living solution" (department of housing & queensland university of technology, 2004). thus the planned social heterogeneity of the development represents a further key feature of the new urbanist aspirations of the development with a planning focus on diversity in housing types, land uses and social groups (de villiers, 1997). this aspect of the development is of specific theoretical interest to the study reflecting a planning strategy that strategically co-locates groups such as older people, younger people, social housing clients with those with greater advantages in the field of housing, in an inner-city complex close to the physical and institutional forms of cultural capital both within the community and in the city centre. further, in keeping with the new urbanist ideal, new media and icts are proposed to play a key role in aspects of this integration providing opportunities for people to "work where they choose to live, connecting them with the world, and encouraging intellectual growth." (kguv development newsletter). as well as a focus on facilitating access to other fields, the village is also considering the development of a community intranet to enhance participation in the civic life of the local village and the broader metropolitan area. thus the site provides an opportunity to investigate the relationships involved in the uses of icts with respect to the way this enables participation in the fields of culture, education, economic and civic life. as such it is theoretically representative of a development that deliberately encapsulates the relationships that are the focus of this study. within the broader case, the commitment to diversity provides for the study of the way different groups use new media and icts. to accommodate this focus, the study will adopt an embedded case study design, which, according to yin (2003), is advantageous when logical subunits within the case can be defined. the subunits to be studied will be selected to allow for the examination of different logics, rationales, purposes and uses of icts employed by different individuals and groups in participating in various fields.   research progression, timeline and data collection the case study site allows us to investigate a master-planned community site during development and completion. the timing affords a unique opportunity to research the development stages of the site and to examine how "master-planning" can or cannot create "community" (gleeson, 2004). the methodology comprises three components: baseline survey; ethnographic immersion; action research interventions, including socio-cultural animation (foth, 2006a; hearn & foth, 2005). this mixed quantitative/qualitative data obtained will be analysed, and using maximum variation sampling (patton, 1990) a smaller sub-set of individuals will be selected who will be in-depth participants of the study. the sampling will take into consideration socio-demographic (age, gender, income, occupation, relationship status, housing type) as well as personal communication circumstances (number of social nodes, roles, location and frequency of interaction). this will allow for a comparative analysis of length of residency, size of building complex as well as social, cultural, spatio-temporal and technical relationships relevant to new media and network ict use. this analysis will take the form of a matrix of questions and indicators, developed over the course of the research, that indicate the kinds of processes, issues and structures that are in place and that are being constructed in the communicative ecologies inhabited by residents of the case study site. ethnographic immersion follows the initial baseline research. the methods to be used here form part of a methodological toolkit employed in ethnographic action research and include textual analysis, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups. data collected through these methods will be fed into meta-level mapping activities that target broader issues of access, uses, meanings and relationships. ethnographic immersion prepares for action research interventions to occur. while all case study designs build and/or enhance theory, this study will employ a specific theory building strategy towards socio-economic innovation. as mentioned above, the overarching methodological approach chosen for the research is based on combining two research approaches -ethnography and action research (foth & tacchi, 2004; tacchi et al., 2003). ethnography places social networks in relevant local and non-local contexts. action research follows an iterative cycle of inquiry, critical reflection and action which means that the research process is tightly connected to the activities of residents in three possible ways (hearn & foth, 2005): active participation -the residents who should benefit from the research participate in critically defining and reflecting upon the aims and direction of the project and in interpreting and drawing conclusions from it; action-based methods -the activities and experiences of participants generate knowledge alongside, or in combination with, more formal methods, both qualitative and quantitative; and, generating action -research is directly aimed at generating medium and long-term plans, including entrepreneurial plans; ideas for new initiatives; solving problems; targeting sectors of the user constituency; finding new resources or partners. this depends on the interaction with participants. one of the strong benefits of combining action research with ethnography is the opportunity it affords to sustain an ongoing process to drive and sustain urban neighbourhood community development in the case study site beyond the lifetime of the research project itself. we are committed to document this process and evaluate means for transferability to and appropriation at other sites.   conclusion and outlook   the research design discussed in this paper is a pathway towards a theoretical and empirical investigation into the interaction between social and cultural capital and the ways they function to facilitate access to the socio-cultural and socio-economic life of cities. the specific objectives of the research design are to: re-conceptualise and innovate in understandings of communicative ecologies and social networks created and maintained by residents and tenants of inner-city master-planned community developments in australia; build a cross-disciplinary academic framework that connects new media, community development, socio-economic innovation and urban studies paradigms; employ an innovative research methodology to map the relationship between the evolving personal communication patterns of urban residents, their locality and public space; understand the challenges urban residents face when using interactive new media and ict systems and devices to facilitate and support social communication and socio-economic innovation; critically analyse the social, cultural and symbolic meaning that urban residents derive from the applications, devices and methods they employ to create and maintain social and economic networks in the context of place. a recent australian federal government discussion paper suggests that â“there is vast potential to use ict to build social capital and contribute to community development and formation. however, [...] it is largely untapped and unrecognised in many areas. for ict use to move beyond bonding -to harness its power for bridging and linking to resources that enhance economic and social development -it needs more attention to the type of social capital being developed.â” (dcita, 2005). research that situates itself in the nexus between people, place and technology and that contributes to a broader understanding of the dimensions of social capital in the context of ict and place will benefit society in a number of ways (davies, 2003, 2004; foth, 2003). it will contribute to a greater understanding of the factors and conditions that stimulate an innovation culture in local communities (florida, 2003; gurstein, 2004). the development of methods and systems to foster effective information use (gurstein, 2003) in and across inner-city neighbourhoods and residential apartment buildings will assist local and state government efforts to encourage public consultation, civic engagement and open debate. it will also support access to local information and services by employing a mixed public/ private approach. as well, understanding the issues and challenges including opportunities and strengths in forming a local meshwork of social networks will help urban dwellers negotiate the complex web of daily choices, access a greater social safety net, and participate in the socio-cultural and socio-economic life in their city. this in turn will lead to greater social inclusion, urban sustainability and healthier local economies.   acknowledgements an earlier version of this paper appears in g. erwin, w. taylor, a. bytheway & c. strã¼mpfer (eds.) (2005). proceedings: community informatics research network (cirn) conference (pp. 341-354). cape town, south africa: cape peninsula university of technology. this research is supported under the australian research council's discovery funding scheme (dp0663854). dr marcus foth is the recipient of an australian postdoctoral fellowship. further support has been received from the queensland department of housing, the urban development institute of australia (queensland) and the unit owners association of queensland. the authors would like to thank greg hearn, michael keane, richard jones, bob breakspere, john western, jean burgess, jo tacchi, steffen lehmann, michael gurstein and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and feedback on earlier versions of this paper.   references adkins, b., grant, e., summerville, j., barnett, k., & buys, l. 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(2003). case study research: design and methods (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage.   sustaining community access to technology: who should pay and why!    vanda n. rideout university of new brunswick < vrideout@unb.ca >   andrew j. reddick national research council canada; university of new brunswick < areddick@nbnet.nb.ca >     abstract based on research on several national, regional, local projects, and on an analysis of the canadian federal governments’ main internet public access programs, the authors argue that as the digital divide has evolved and changed, changes in a conception of this and approaches to sustainability are required. this requires defining sustainability in terms of supporting community organizations that provide social development and related content and services to the public, with support for core services, content development as well as technical access and networking. the authors further argue that governments, and in particular the federal government, has the primary role for providing sustainability funding at the community level to address the digital divide and development goals.   a conceptual approach is required that extends our understanding of the problem of the digital divide and sustainability to the everyday lived circumstances and needs of citizens and their local communities. such an approach also permits us to consider sustainability as being primarily a responsibility of governments to provide funding to community service organizations providing services at the community level as a means of addressing inequalities and social and economic under-development. funding should be used for technical services, the development and maintenance of core operations (staff, volunteers, overheads) and content services that can be accessed using communication technologies.   introduction during the development of canada’s ‘publicly’ accessible internet throughout the past decade, the term ‘digital divide’ has been assigned many different meanings. these include ideas of a digital divide concerned with issues of technology access and affordability, technology as a primary means of individual or community development, geographical access, and constructions of different types of community (virtual, interest, geographic, and the technology infrastructure of communities). community research on technical issues relating to the digital divide tends to focus on community networks as a centralizing and coordinating communications infrastructure. a subset of this literature is research on the technology tools relevant to the digital divide and citizen participation with the objective of expanding communication channels towards satisfying basic information needs, promoting economic opportunities, and encouraging citizen access, among others. analysis in this area generally remains at the level of identifying technical and skills difficulties affecting access (pigg, 2001, p. 516-7). moreover, these efforts have been limited in responding to a broader set of community needs, often because they have failed to produce or reproduce relevant community information resources, beyond community directories and basic information. as well, while there is much ado about online democratic discussion, these aspects of community networking and public access services are often not well developed (ibid, p. 519, 522). other community informatics research has been concerned with ideas of non-spatially based communities. concerned with ideas of virtual communities or communities of interest, these studies have investigated the potential for people to create relationships and communities of interest which are not grounded in geographical space, thereby reducing the importance of geographic communities and local socio-economic conditions and relations (wellman and gulia, 1998). research on community networks that employ social capital theory have used the concept to assist, or create, economic, social and political development. key issues here involve linking information resources, providing venues for participation, building community relationships, and so forth. an underlying theme of this stream of research is that community communication networks should reproduce existing social networks and resources, with the assumption that this will successfully, or more successfully than other means, realize various forms of community development (pigg, 2001, 510; gurstein, 1998). others suggest that community informatics initiatives can only be sustained through community network adaptation and development. this means that community organizations have to find innovative ways within the community for funding and for human resource renewal (page and scott, 2001, p.549-51). this paper is primarily based on the research of the two authors. dr. reddick was a co-investigator on a series of studies on the information highway and the digital divide with ekos research associates inc., including an evaluation of the canadian federal governments’ community access program.[1] dr. rideout[2] conducted community digital divide research on twelve communities in atlantic canada, and is currently in the final stages of completing two case studies on community digital divides. the research conducted for this paper relies on information from these various studies by drawing on data from surveys, focus groups, in-depth interviews, and site visits. the first section of the paper analyzes the major government funded community digital divide programs that have been pursued on a national basis. the second section provides a summary of the impact of these programs on selected community organizations and the services they provide. this section also considers the importance that community organizations are placing on broadband infrastructure to overcome emerging and continuing community digital divide problems. the final section provides the authors conclusions and recommendations about sustainability.   canadian government response to the digital divide community access there have been numerous municipal, provincial and national initiatives to provide community access to the internet over the past decade. the more significant of these, because they are national in scope, are the community access program (cap) and the community learning network (cln) program. one of the most active federal departments addressing digital divide issues at the community level has been industry canada. the aim of this department’s ‘connecting canadians’ initiative has been to make canada the most connected country in the world. this initiative encompasses many programs and services that were primarily designed for public libraries, public schools, the voluntary sector, rural and remote communities, small businesses and first nations schools, in the hope of encouraging canadians’ to use the internet. from the federal government’s point of view the community access program (cap) is an important cornerstone of the connecting canadians initiative. essentially the program provides not-for-profit organizations such as educational institutions, public libraries, community centres, community freenets and municipal and territorial governments with funding for computers, internet connectivity as well as training (industry canada, 2004a, p.iii). the program’s main focus has been on closing the digital divide perceived as the gap between communities, and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels, to access information and communication technologies (ict), and to use the internet. commencing in 1994 cap focused on rural and remote communities with populations of less than 50,000. the program was expanded to include urban communities in december 1999. approximately 5,400 sites were established in 3,200 rural and remote communities. rural/remote sites are primarily located in public libraries (46%), public schools (28%), municipal government facilities (8%), community-based facilities (13%) and business sites (5%). approximately 3,800 urban sites were also established in similar public locations. it is important to point out, however, that 1,200 caps have since closed leaving, according to government reports, 8,000 active sites (industry canada, 2004a, p. iv). anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that another 1,000 or more sites may have closed since the research for the report was conducted because of financial difficulties. while cap has changed over the past decade, so has the digital divide, and understanding this has important implications for people, communities and public policy. at the basic level of access from home, a digital divide has persisted in canada since the 1990s and continues today (figure 1). internet access from the home grew from about one in four households (28%) in 1996 to about two of three households (67%) in 2003. an additional seven per cent of households reported having had home internet access at some point in time, but have since dropped it (reddick, boucher and groseilliers, 2000; ekos, 2004). figure 1: individual access from home (income) 1997-2003 (source: ekos research associates inc., 2001a, 2004) this research shows that the reasons for both going and not going, online are complex. socio-economic status has a major effect, but attitudinal/ experiential variables also matter, and these are closely linked to socio-economic status. however, more important is the very clear message underlying the respondent’s views about the internet and access, as revealed in the series of studies referred to in this paper. in this context, technologies are primarily understood as intermediary tools that are beneficial when they can be used to provide access to resources which meet people’s needs (e.g., education, literacy, employment, and health information, etc.). and, it is these resources, and the organizations that provide them, that following this observation, might be understood to be most significant focus for a concern with sustainability (reddick, et al, 2000). when considering the three main reasons cited for not going online, cost is a major factor for some, but also of importance are a lack of interest and a lack of perceived need (reddick et al, 2000; ekos 2001a, 2002, 2004). those who cited cost as the main reason for not being online from home (near users) were more likely to have lower confidence in technical skills, and were more likely to have an interest in, and see the benefits of, access than other non-users. near users over the past few years as they have gone online, have been the main users of community access sites, and this group is expected to continue to account for the majority of the use of these sites in the near future. near users tend to be younger (age 44 or less) and include many lower income, less educated canadians who see potential education, employment and social benefits from internet access. respondents citing no interest in the internet (distant users) exhibited a lack of confidence in their technological abilities, a lack of experience with the internet, were less likely to see practical uses or benefits from access, and were more likely to spend their free time elsewhere on leisure and entertainment activities. this group also requires assistance for access and training in order to go online at cap sites. those citing lack of need (far users) as the main reason for not accessing the internet do not see it as easy to use or convenient, nor do they see any benefits from use, and to a very limited degree, indicated a lack of experience as a final reason (reddick, et al 2000: 42; ekos, 2004). this typology of non-users was characterized as a dual digital divide, with the first divide occurring between users and non-users, and the second divide developing between the different types of non-users (ibid). in recent research (figure 2), of the twenty six per cent of canadians who are not internet users, the majority fall into the core non-user (far user) category. these individuals have little interest or see little need in being online. many of the near users of a few years ago have gone online from some location. what is interesting now is that twelve per cent of non-users are now comprised of people who have used the internet before and are likely to do so again. also, sixteen per cent of non-users are ‘drop-outs’ or infrequent users. these are people who have used the internet, but for a number of reasons have dropped this service. translating these percentages into actual numbers, statistics canada estimates that in 2003 the number of internet dropouts or infrequent users in canada was 809,000 households, or 3, 236,000 people (statistics canada, 2004, p. 2). survey and focus group work conducted in the summer and fall of 2003 confirmed that publicly funded public access sites are still very much needed, and will continue to play an important role in addressing citizen and community needs. this research demonstrated that both public access sites and community networks play an important role for computer and internet skills development and other skills and learning activities. these skills and learning needs are directly related to social class inequalities extant of the internet, and addressing these is fundamental for individual and community economic and social development (ekos, 2004).   figure 2. internet non-user segmentation. base: canadians indicating they have not used the internet in the past three months (internet uses); apr/may, 2003, n=1360. (source: ekos, 2004)   in particular, a significant minority of low income canadians and labourers (those least likely to have access from work) may continue to rely on public access sites. not having a computer or a computer that is too old have also become a significant barriers (due to cost) contributing to a continuing need for public access sites (ekos, 2004: 86-87). this survey which is augmented with focus group research also found that current non-users, given the types of jobs they occupy (labour, blue collar) are unlikely to be able to develop computer and internet skills at work, or be able to access the internet from work. for example, in 2003 only seven per cent of those earning less than 20,000 dollars, and twenty five per cent of those earning between 20,000 and 39,000 dollars, had access to the internet at work. public access sites thus remain a useful resource to address the potential marginalization for these, and other, low income, low skilled internet non-users. longitudinal research (ekos) on internet and other communication technology usage of canadians since 1997, demonstrates that the public use of access sites has remained relatively constant at seven per cent of overall internet users, with about fifteen per cent usage for those with low incomes (<$20k) and low skills and literacy (54). in addition to indicating the continuing need to ensure the operation of such sites (and thus the need for sustainable funding), both the survey and focus group research indicated that information and services also must be made available through different channels such as print, mail, in-person, and phone as well as the internet in order to accommodate the technical, literacy, privacy, geographical, and other capacities, limitations and concerns of the broad general public (16, 43, 48, 54, 87). the “evaluation study of the community access program” by industry canada is the first publicly available report which evaluates the digital divide in rural and urban access sites. the study confirms the previously discussed findings (2004a). questions were asked concerning the continued relevance of cap, cap program delivery and implementation, as well as the success and the cost-effectiveness of the program. the report concludes that the programs’ initial objectives of raising public awareness of ict and providing inexpensive public access to the internet are now less relevant for some segments of the population. however, significant digital divide issues persist for low-income canadians, those with little education, and those living in remote and northern areas. in addition, there remain areas and groups that have not been adequately reached even with existing programs including disabled peoples, first nation peoples, northern communities, and the homeless, among others (industry canada, 2004a, p. 15-19). for those not online and others who will continue to rely on public access for some time, overall cost of access is the most important issue. as previously discussed cap sites are most often found in libraries, community centers, schools, and not-for-profit public organizations relying on bare-bones funding. one of the criticisms identified in a survey of public access sites, conducted by ekos research for industry canada, is that the initial start-up funds provided by the program are unlikely to be sufficient to maintain services in the locations where these are most required, such as low income areas and rural/remote communities. at the same time, the report noted, many of the public access sites originally planned for cap program beginning in 1996 have become less necessary as large number of canadians have came on-line either in their homes or through their places of work. barriers to long-term sustainability for the public sites as identified in the ekos survey were the cost of purchasing or upgrading computers, a lack of staff and volunteers to operate the service, a lack of general operating funding, and the cost or lack of broadband service among others (ekos, 2001b p. 28). of those public access sites indicating that they had cut back on the services provided, the main reason indicated was a lack of funding, followed by a lack of staff/volunteers. sustainable funding was also the major factor for the outright closing of a number of caps (29). what this suggests concerning the matter of sustainable funding for these public access sites is that governments have a continuing role to play by providing direct financial support to maintain an access service level of appropriate quality. this same evaluation also found that it is not realistic to raise these funds from the private sector. recent research demonstrates that there have been few positive results where such efforts have been undertaken and those companies involved, by and large, have not proven to be effective partners. as well, municipalities do not appear to be viable alternative sources of support as many have limited resources to support this kind of service (ekos, 2001b; rideout, 2002/3). a number of problems and uncertainties continue to plague the cap program. first, the original objectives of the programme included unrealistic goals that stretched funding by for example, including a requirement for canadian content online. by including this requirement industry canada extended the program into areas which are the responsibility of the department of canadian heritage. although heritage’s mandate includes canadian content neither it nor any other government agency offers any programs that cap organizations could apply to for financial support for content development. as well, although industry canada included electronic commerce and economic development within the ‘connecting canadians’ agenda these activities require sophisticated and high skill levels. however, the responsibility for skill development falls within the mandate of the department of human resource and skills and development. this confusion and competition within the federal government over roles has not been helpful for either departmental activity or for supporting the development of the public information resources for which the cap user community has a demonstrated need. however, perhaps the most fundamental issue concerning the program is that with its narrow focus on technical access, computers and connections, it has largely excluded human and social needs. of course, this was not the priority for the industry department and through cap the government could be seen as doing something to promote the internet and of course, from a purely logistical point of view, it was much easier to deal with the development of some 10,000 internet access sites, than with several million canadians along with the variety of their skill, literacy, affordability, and technical access challenges. the last competition for rural cap closed on may 31, 2000, and the final adjudication for the urban sites occurred on february 28, 2001. as noted in the previously cited report, the department is no longer soliciting or considering new applications (industry canada, 2004b p. 2). furthermore, a recent industry canada news bulletin highlights the new strategic direction that the program is taking. funding has been reduced to $25 million per year for 2004-5 and 2005-6. this reduced funding envelope is intended to cover not only the cap financial contributions; but it also applies to industry canada’s operating and salary costs for managing the program. the communiqué also notes a shift in program direction from general public access to support for digital divide communities and on-line government services (industry canada, 2004b). moreover, the cap network is scheduled to be downsized which may lead to the eventual unwinding of the information highway application branch (ihab), the branch of industry canada that was created to help connect canadians to the internet. although the communiqué discusses the success of the ten-year community access program it also explains that the government is going to ‘step aside’ from cap in order to fund new programs such as the information technology component of the voluntary sector, the francommunautés virtuelles, and the broadband initiative (ibid). community learning networks  working within its mandate the department of human resources development canada (hrsd) has focused on other information society barriers such as upgrading technology skills for the workforce and the use of learning technologies. in 1996 hrdc created the office of learning technology (olt) in order to increase the availability and sharing of information pertaining to learning technologies. in a recent policy document, the olt explains that canadians “need to become a nation of life-long learners, in addition to becoming the most connected country in the world” (olt, 2003 p. 2). the primary objective of olt’s community learning networks (cln) program is its support of innovative and sustainable uses of existing technologies intended to strengthen the capacity of communities. the office hopes to address the socio-economic disparities that arise with the shift to a knowledge-based economy, as well as support the achievement of economic and social development goals (ibid). the olt considers the cln program to be directed to reducing disparities between communities. this is supposed to be the outcome of an increasing development of workplace skills, particularly technology related skills; and by promoting an environment supportive of lifelong formal and informal learning. olt explains that many canadians still do not possess the necessary skills to engage with information and communication technologies and are not comfortable with computer hardware and software that are not user-friendly. the department’s programs are directed to addressing a number of social inequalities, though only on a short term basis (olt, 2003). to some extent, the program does address the real needs of the public and community service organizations. for example, a community organization in toronto that received olt funding, conducted a community needs assessment and designed its technology program to meet the literacy, training, employment and community information needs of the local citizens and the overall neighbourhood, with the goals of individual and community development (piac, 2000). this community organization provides valuable services to the public addressing social and structural inequalities. however, once having made the very large investment in these pilot projects, sustaining the services over the longer term including the technologies, and the staff required to operate these is a major financial challenge.[3] the cln program defines community loosely as being geographic or interest based such as a designated neighbourhood with defined boundaries; a territory that corresponds to a local government jurisdiction; or a group with shared interests such as people with a common language, common values or common goals (olt, 2003 p. 29). a key objective of the program is to support research and to test innovative approaches to help adult learners find and keep employment in a knowledge-based economy. however, such an objective is unrealistic, according to literature on the “information society”, given the requirements in a knowledge-based economy, for a flexible and contingent workforce and for a constant expenditure on ever-evolving technology related skills and training (rideout, 2002/3). the 2004 call for cln proposals, with a closing deadline of august 31, 2004, identifies those projects that it will consider including those concerning workers affected by the shift to a knowledge-based economy i.e., older workers; the people who are unemployed or underemployed; new immigrants, women and aboriginals; as well as people with disabilities (hrsdc, 2004a) since 1998, olt has funded approximately 100 clns. under the new call for proposals the eligibility guidelines now apply to not-for-profit national organizations or associations with a mandate in the area of socio-economic development and/or learning (hrsdc, 2004b,c). eligibility requirements include organizational capabilities and the necessity of forming partnerships which are intended to secure long term sustainability. examples provided include support of employment-related services or programs in the labour market, the use of technology to develop or deliver community best practice-based learning opportunities, the enhancement of the socio-economic conditions of applicants’ communities and an increase in community clients’ participation in the knowledge-based economy. the maximum amount of funding assistance for cln projects has increased from 250,000 to 400,000 dollars over a three year period. proposal guidelines identify eligible costs such as salaries for people employed on the project, and ineligible costs as being the purchase or maintenance of technological infrastructure such as computers and related equipment, technical support and internet access. this means that clns are expected to use existing networks and internet connections by relying on the cap or electronic networks at other organizations. it is also expected that project sponsors will have an established track record in developing or delivering community-based technology-assisted learning opportunities. partnerships are highly recommended between the cln and the voluntary sector, co-operatives, sector councils, band or tribal councils, labour or professional associations, provincial governments, municipal governments, libraries, schools, or federal departments or agencies (hrsdc, 2004b,c). however, our research indicates that these recommendations to program applicants are at best “wishful thinking” since they are not grounded in community reality. once built, many of these community networks and their participant organizations do not have the financial resources to sustain them beyond the initial period of government support. these issues are even more acute since, in addition to the funding provided through this program, these organizations must also find funding for their on-going core activities in such areas literacy, training, community information, services or social and economic development. olt undertook a review of this program in 2003 and published a report that included discussions with community experts. what is interesting about the sustainability discourse in policy conversations on future directions for community learning networks, is that community network applicants are being encouraged to establish ongoing community and monitoring tools (olt, 2003). however, it is notable that the tools being suggested in practice conflate issues of financial sustainability with the evaluation information olt requires for project review a project related to an assessment for government purposes of the community network’s “success” or “failure”. although evaluation and record keeping are often required by the directors and board members of non-profit organizations, this management-by-systems approach provides the federal government with information about the possible viability of using the project as a model to be reproduced elsewhere. notwithstanding that a successful cln or olt self-or program evaluation may translate into future grants from this or other government programs, the major issue of funding for community non-for-profit organizations remains outstanding. references to financial sustainability in the policy conversations report combines traditional religious and business discourses indicating that as long as a community network has ‘beliefs’, ‘faith’, ‘inspiration’ and can develop community synergy it will be able to resolve the issue of sustainable funding. however, raising funds for the longer term survival of the community network and thus provide disenfranchised citizens with services and information requires continuing community events, more grant writing to philanthropic organizations, foundations, government agencies, and corporations (kuttan and peters, 2003 p. 174; rideout, sshrc data, 2002-4). community digital divide sustainability what follows is a summary of the major research finding of on-going research on community learning networks and access sites located in the atlantic region (rideout, 2002/3, and preliminary sshrc data). it is important to point out that many of these networks and some access sites were developed by existing community organizations that have been providing social and community development services for decades. for example, one community learning network has twenty years experience delivering a number of learning programs to youth, adults (transitional programming), seniors, as well as early literacy programs and family literacy training. through one of its local partner organizations the cln is linked to a forty year distance education service delivery program. this background has influenced the assessment of community needs starting with objectives and goals geared to creating community capacity to encourage local people to engage with technologies. these technologies include community television, community radio and the internet. community capacity building relies on human and community capabilities by focusing on attaining and maintaining social and familial needs, as well as access to universal and affordable information technologies (rideout, forthcoming). what the organization decided to do is bring the people to the technology rather than the other way around. this was done so that people could overcome any fears or concerns they might have about the technologies they would be operating. the manager of the learning network explained that some of the cap sites remained idle for a number of years because they were housed in libraries and schools, places that a number of people in the province do not frequent. certainly a level of frustration with the cap and the cln programs was best expressed as a “gap between the expectation of the government for what is to happen with the internet and what the people want to do with it”. for the past twelve years this learning network has constantly tried to obtain foundation funding or applied to government programs for funding to keep the organization going. other than the manager who works on a part-time basis services are provided by volunteer workers who, because of the amount of work they do, tend to “burn out”. past experiences with federal government funding has left the communities very sceptical about programs that only provide short-term solutions rather than sustainable funding. a remote cap site was established and operated through the 1990s as a way of getting technology funding. the cap manager explained that such an approach tends to exhaust a community because they were always doing one project and hurrying to finishing it so they could apply for another project in order to secure financial resources to keep the site operational. currently the site relies only on cap funding to provide adult literacy and community economic development services. the other major service that the site provides is a monthly newsletter, produced to keep local residents informed about what is going on in the community. the site is also involved in a community mapping project using cap computers and geographical information system (gis) technology to identify a range of local human and natural assets. a second cln with organizational links to a maritime resource centre provides a number of community services to address civic, economic and social needs. these services are directed primarily to the adult population, particularly those people and organizations involved in the fishing and aqua-culture industries. these services include conflict resolution, organizational development, as well as proposal writing for grants. the most unique service the network provides is geographic information system (gis) training for coastal mapping and marine topic information such as fish and shellfish stocks. the manager explained that, the project was for three years, in our view successful, although the network that we visualized when we started didn’t come about, just because the technology wasn’t there. the ideas that we had for high-speed internet, that infrastructure existed in some communities, but you know, in most of the costal communities it wasn’t there. it just wasn’t good enough. the heavy competition for sustainable financial government funding has forced this organization to seek support from foundations in canada and the united states. rather than compete for limited government funds the network has decided to seek support from ‘the foundation treadmill.’ given the large number of community networks requiring sustainability support and the limits of funds from the foundation community, this is not considered by the authors to be a viable approach to long term sustainability for this, or other, community networks. a community public library uses a mix of cap computers and the local community broadband network to deliver its library services to patrons that are dispersed throughout the area. by going online to the library web site patrons can access their library account from home, place holds on items, and renew books at no additional charge. additional resources have also been directed to train part-time librarians so that they cans provide rudimentary training on how to set up an e-mail account, how to search the internet and how to use power point. often librarians are asked to help patrons with e-government services such as the electronic forms now provided by hrdc (now hrsdc). hrsdc has been at the forefront of encouraging e-government services. yet as the head librarian stated, often hrsdc and other government forms are “quite difficult, challenging and frustrating to use” for the patrons and the librarians who help them. additional research conducted in two rural and remote communities in the atlantic region indicated that accessing the provincial information highway networks was a major problem. in each case local organizations decided to build a community-oowned and managed broadband network. justification for investing in high-speed systems was to provide local access that was affordable in order to meet specific community social and economic needs. hi-speed networks are an increasingly important issue because the cost of broadband risks putting the internet further beyond the reach of those not yet connected. however, such networks also create new obstacles for those who have narrowband. for some, the cost of upgrading may be prohibitive. for those in rural areas, where broadband is not available or very expensive, the access divide gains an added dimension. beyond the networking level, the broadband divide is being further aggravated by the ever expanding complexity and storage requirements of content, which in turn, increasingly requires more bandwidth and computer power for access and use. while nice to have, these wonderful, colourful, multi-layered and interactive features, also slow down operations and use, and require users to be undertaking expenditures to maintain a suitable level of service quality. our recent survey determined that of those connected in canada only a small majority now have broadband (figure 3). the divide between those with high-speed and dial-up access is greatest between rural and urban households. forty-three per cent of urban households as compared to nineteen per cent of rural households have broadband or high-speed. comparable to overall internet usage, low income, blue-collar employees and seniors/retirees are not only least likely to have household access, but are also less likely to have high-speed access from home. regionally, over a quarter of atlantic canadian and quebec (28 %) households have high-speed access, with just over a third (39%) in ontario, and almost half (47%) in alberta and british columbia. where, about one in four low-income (less than $40,000/annum) households have high-speed internet, almost one in two middle and upper income (over $60,000/annum) households have similar connectivity.(ekos, 2004 p. vi, 75, 77, 78). these findings closely approximate those of statistics canada, (2004 p. 2). but as previously indicated the relevance or importance of a broadband digital divide is linked to community/individual needs, practices and resources (ekos, 2004). figure 3: type of household internet access (source: ekos, 2004)   a community organization in a remote newfoundland out-port has built a broadband network so that video conference technology can be used to receive affordable distance secondary education and health services. these efforts were to address underlying community social and structural inequalities that range from low levels of education and high illiteracy rates to inadequate emergency health care services. the project involved interconnecting five fiord or island communities. one of the main issues that had to be addressed was affordability and sustainability (including network, computers, staff, facilities, etc.). although a tele-satellite model was considered it was rejected by community interests as too expensive ($100.00 per hour) for continuing video-conferencing service. in addition, the community was told by the incumbent telecommunications and internet server provider that a business case could not be made to extend the company’s infrastructure because of geographic constraints. although information society analysts maintain that the new networks are able to span geographical barriers this was not the case for this community (cairncross, 1997). the service provider informed the organization that the network could not reach their community because of expanses of water and 600 to 1000 foot rock cliffs. as one community member said, there was really no way in god’s green earth you were ever going to convince newtel to run a fibre-optic cable 150 kilometres through the middle of nowhere to a community of less than 1,000 people. however, with start-up funding from the atlantic canada opportunities agency, human resources development canada, the provincial education and health sectors, local individual subscriptions, and full-time network technical support the community solved the technical challenge and have constructed a wireless community broadband network. monthly charges paid by institutional, business and residential subscribers have proven to be affordable. while funds were raised to build the broadband network, continuing financial resources are required to maintain and staff the organization. additional funds are also required for network expansion so that it can connect to the provincial cable broadband backbone. a community broadband network in nova scotia was built so as to foster community capacity building and strengthen the ability of its individuals to work more effectively with community organizations, to help community development, and to address the lack of communication infrastructure in the area. a regional development organization was successful in winning a federal government competition for a ‘smart community’ (industry canada, 1998). the most significant project the smart community has undertaken is to build a 26 kilometre $1.4 million fibre optic backbone network. member groups and other funding sources including industry canada, a branch of canarie called acorn, hrdc, and provincial and municipal governments provided matching funds included as part of the total grant. this community broadband network has also been constructed to provide affordable broadband services to the area. the original partnership talks that occurred with the incumbent telecom isp broke down because the company claimed that it would fast-track digital single line (dsl) technology to the region but it wouldn’t reach as many communities as originally thought. when the community organization ended the partnership only 6 per cent of businesses and residents had access to dsl. this meant that the other 94 per cent of population could only obtain access to the digital line by paying from $3,000 to $5,000 per month. a community-based consortium (seven municipalities and a community college) developed and managed the broadband network in partnership with a small private cable company. phase two of network development includes using a mix of wireless and fibre network technology to reach other remote areas with the hopes of connecting to the provincial internet backbone and the largest city in the maritime region, halifax. when queried about the frustrations and problems the organization experienced with the smart community program a number of issues were raised. first, the program was prematurely implemented. second, the program was not always clear about what it expected or wanted from the community. third, industry canada’s requirements for the program continuously shifted, resulting in wasting of time and other resources. finally, industry canada forgot to exclude the department’s financial costs from the total grant for the operation of the program. it should also be noted that neither the nova scotia broadband network nor the one located in newfoundland obtained any funding from the broadband access program (industry canada, 2001).         these examples reinforce the primary reason why the federal government should provide on-going sustainable funding to the community organizations that provide access and learning networks. these are directly related to the services and information being provided to local citizens as public goods intended for overall social and economic development and betterment. these services include improving education levels, upgrading literacy, community health services and information, and job training for the unemployed. some community networks produce their own local content as a means to promote and preserve local culture and heritage. other community organizations provide value-added services and information using geographical information system technology for coastal mapping. conceptually, these findings help convey a deeper understanding of what the community digital divide is all about. the federal government has promoted the private sector as the way to develop and provide information highway related services to all canadians. however, as shown elsewhere, the private sector has only provided these services where it is most profitable (rideout, 2003). in contrast, the type of services and content the public values the most is primarily social and non-commercial in nature. our survey and site research found consistently that the types of information and services of most interest to the public involved content or activities linked to everyday needs, such as finding a job, health information, accessing public information resources, learning or skills activities, and literacy training. this points to one of the key issues of financial sustainability, that much relevant social information is produced by, or accessed through, community organizations and made available to the public through a variety of media. in extending the concept of the “digital divide” to that of a “community divide” it is important to not lose sight that a variety of methods are employed by community organizations to provide community resources and to address social inequalities (rideout, 2002/3; ekos, 2004). in addition, with an increasing offloading information and service delivery to communities by federal and provincial governments, local organizations are now required to provide traditional and new services/information. as well, local organizations are required to provide information and services using information and communications technologies (icts), particularly the internet. finding financial resources to sustain general operations and human resources for these organizations, as well as for traditional channels and the internet has become an important issue. for internet users and non-users, it is not the technology that matters most, but how their social needs can be met including the range of media. (ekos, 2004). using access to government information as an example as indicated in figure 4, internet users and non-users, though varying in degree, prefer and rely on different channels to meet the full constellation of their every-day information needs. figure 4: method of contact in future – government service. 2003, n=2,113 (source: ekos, 2004) survey research demonstrates that the type channel used by the public depends on a number of factors, including trust in the organization or individual involved in the communication, confidentiality of the information, importance of timeliness of a transaction, the type of information or service involved, availability of technology, geographical relevance of the information/service (e.g., local, provincial etc.), ability to use a technology, and affordability (ekos, 2004). this adds another dimension to sustainability for community organizations. in addition to funds for online service, they also require an adequate and consistent level of funding to maintain quality levels of service with the other communications channels. while the federal government has been pushing the internet as the main channel for information and service delivery, it has recently encountered resistance. for example, the government convened an advisory panel to help develop its government online strategy in 2000. the panel members, made up of representatives from civil society, rejected the governments’ proposed internet-only service delivery approach and, instead, strongly recommended that a multi-channel approach be adopted as a matter of policy to ensure that the needs and capabilities of all canadians were accommodated. it would appear that this recommendation to shift back from the internet-only view to a multi-channel approach has been acknowledged, at least in discourse, by the federal government’s connecting with canadians: pursuing service transformation, the final report by the government on-line advisory panel (canada, 2003, 6). whether the federal government implements such a recommendation remains to be seen. while hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars have been allocated by the federal government for internet service delivery, it appears that no significant amounts of new monies have been identified for other channels. because the cap perceived the digital divide in technological terms it ignored long term sustainability. in contrast, the cln program is largely concerned with human needs, skills and social participation, and using networking to enhance these. the cln program is, however, presumptive about technology, assuming it is available by means other than through their support, and that the program will deliver on its promises of ubiquitous access for all, and relevant to all needs. in common with cap the cln creates a new funding obligation for the community participants, but offers nothing in support of ongoing sustainability such as financial support for core services, user training or community content development, etc.. our research reveals that in addition to community organizations constantly searching for sustainability funding for their organizational and core programs to provide employment training, literacy training, health and community services, etc., a new layer of funding and resource challenges are required for internet access and community networking initiatives. this creates an increasingly untenable situation whereby both core activities as well as new ict-based activities are in competition for limited government funding. as such, both core operations and, cln and cap initiatives could be put at risk. this problem is further aggravated because government funding that is available for both types of activities (core and ict related) tends to be short term, lasting three years or less. the core services provided by the community organizations such as education, literacy and employment training can take years to achieve meaningful results, while health and social services delivery are ongoing. as well, it also takes several years to develop a mature community communications infrastructure (rideout, 2003). the services and information provided by community organizations such as learning networks, access sites, health centres to local citizens have a major impact on community technology sustainability. our research demonstrates that this is because money, staff, volunteers and, materials and supplies are required to create and provide information and other services to meet the specific needs of people in the communities. moreover, these must be continually updated as demands and user profiles change. conclusion as this paper has discussed, a community digital divide is grounded in social practices and existing inequalities along with the lack of sustainable access to information and communication technologies and network infrastructure. evidence from our research based on surveys, interviews, focus groups and site visits to various community organizations indicates that the major problem for these organizations concerning the digital divide is one of financial sustainability. financial sustainability includes the support for those activities and resources essential for relevant, meaningful and successful participation in every day life of people who live in geographic communities throughout canada. this research has also demonstrated that a conception of a community digital divide holds particular importance because the information and services provided by community organizations, and used and demanded by the public, are concerned with important needs and skills that address social inequalities and development goals. financial support (sustainability) is required for community organization’s core operations, community content development, technology services, as well as multi-channel information and service delivery to accommodate all citizens’ needs and capabilities. as part of core operations, sustainability funding is needed by organizations for operating overheads and to hire full time staff. most organizations are run by one or a few full-time staff, with the balance drawn from volunteers, summer students and part-time workers. survey and focus group research has provided evidence that there is a continuing need for public access sites for specific social sub-groups and sustainability funding is required for those sites that meet this need. in addition to basic access, site research revealed that there is a community level need for sustainable broadband service, particularly in rural and remote areas. the research has also demonstrated that most of the core funding for these community organizations is from government programs and foundation grants, as well as projects they are able to engage in at the local level. all the government programs are very competitive, and success is not assured for the organizations. moreover, current funding programs from government are short-term in nature. while we agree with the research noted above, that has been done on community networking, in our view alternative ways of sustaining community access to technology and networks requires long term government funding. in our view, this is primarily a government responsibility because community access and networking involves the delivery of, and access to, public information and services. our entry point for analysis is that the digital divide is grounded in social practices and inequalities at the local level; therefore it is a community digital divide. by this is meant that the digital divide should be defined as the gap that exists in access at the community level to information and communication technologies and networks, and as well taking into consideration existing social inequalities and the quality of community social services.[4] social practices and inequalities are needs-centric and are concerned with community and individual development goals. as the digital divide has evolved over the past several years, approaches in response to the digital divide should include sustainability funding for access to technology at the community level. in our view, the digital divide (community/individual access, etc.) should be conceptualized so as to recognize its role in aggravating the ability for communities and individuals to address long-standing and more deeply entrenched social needs, inequalities and developmental challenges, particularly as we move further into the realm of an information society. by doing so our understanding of the digital divide and approaches to sustainability are enriched to include questions of who should pay and why. community and individual developmental activities are, and have traditionally been, dealt with through public policy because they concern the general public interest. in this regard, we argue that, a priori, the most logically consistent means for the sustainability of the various community initiatives to address digital divide problems is derived from government funding. our use of the term ‘inequalities’ refers to social and economic inequalities which are the products of uneven regional development and class based social stratification. regional (rural/remote, provincial, etc.) disparities in canada largely arose from a century of national economic policies which centralized economic planning, production and marketing. this has resulted in many provinces and communities having under-developed social and economic infrastructures. many communities and some provinces also have an over reliance on the resource sector (e.g., agriculture, fishing, mining, lumber), with lower levels of income, education and health services compared to other parts of the country (brodie, 1990). these types of disparities are not unique to rural or remote areas, however. our research demonstrates that these same kinds of problems also exist in smaller communities within successful provinces, and in neighbourhoods within large urban centres. social and economic inequalities for individuals are based on the capitalist nature of our market economy and society. what this means is that the structural aspects of our market economy creates differential levels of income, education, literacy, public services, and employment among others. ongoing government intervention, using such policy tools as financial redistribution and social services (e.g., schools, hospitals, etc.) are essential to mitigate these social relations, and to provide opportunities for individuals and the communities in which they live to overcome these inequalities (clement, 1991; rideout, 2002/3). community organizations play an important role in these activities because they provide many of the social services and act as gateways to government services. when we discuss the need to re-conceptualize and extend the meaning of the community digital divide through the of use of technologies as tools or resources to address inequalities, we are doing so based on an assumption of the use of these as entry points. by returning to the subtitle of the paper ‘who should pay and why’ for sustaining community access to technology the answer, as we have discussed, is obvious. local organizations are delivering community and government services to citizens. these include education, skills training, literacy training, health information and services, among others. by and large, these are public services, providing general social and individual benefits. as such, there is an obligation to use public funds to support these. it is governments at the municipal, provincial and federal levels that have primary responsibility to deliver funding and other forms of support. this is exactly the same as they have done for the past 100 years or more to sustain an evolving basket of public goods. without this kind of support, information and services required by citizens will not be sufficient, effective or sustainable. the authors conclude that sustainability involves long term as opposed to short-term government support.   acknowledgement   dr. rideout acknowledges financial support from two sshrc grants for a portion of the research discussed in this paper.   references   brodie, j. (1990). the political economy of canadian regionalism. toronto: harcourt, brace, jovanovich.   cairncross, f. (1997). the death of distance. cambridge, ma: harvard business school.   canada. (2003). connecting with canadians: pursuing service transformation. final report of the government on-line advisory panel. ottawa, canada.   clement, w. (1991). the challenge of class analysis. ottawa: carleton university press.   ekos research associates inc. (2004). the dual digital divide iv. ottawa: ekos research associates inc..   _____ (2002). tracking the dual digital divide. ottawa: ekos research associates.   _____ (2001a). rethinking the information highway: rethinking the dual digital divide. march 30. ottawa: ekos research associates inc..   _____ (2001b). “evaluation of the community access program: census of sites.” final report submitted to information highway application branch, march 31. ottawa: ekos research associates inc..   _____ (2000). the information highway and the canadian communication household. ottawa: ekos research associates inc.. gurstein, m. (1998). “information and communication technology and local economic development”, in perspectives on communities: a community economic development roundtable, gertrude anne macintyre (ed), 159-182.   human resources and skills development canada. “community learning asset mapping: a guidebook for community learning networks.” office of learning technologies. (accessed: july 8, 2004 a: http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca)   ____ (2004b). community learning networks initiative. (accessed june 5, 2004: www.hrsde.gc.ca last modified 2004-03-30)   ____ (2004c). guidelines for pilot project proposals – 2004 office of learning technologies community learning networks. (accessed: july 8, 2004: www.hrsdc.gc.ca)   industry canada (1998). smart communities: report of the panel on smart communities. ottawa, information distribution centre, industry canada. available: http://smartcommunities.ic.gc.ca   ______ (2001). the new national dream: networking the nation for broadband access. report of the national broadband task force. ottawa: information distribution centre, industry canada   _____ (2004a). “evaluation study of the community access program (cap)”. final report, audit and evaluation branch, january, 16. (accessed: june 5 2004: www. industry canada.gc.ca)   ____ (2004b). “2004 budget update – changes to the community access and schoolnet programs.” (accessed: july 8 2004: http://ihab-transition-dgaai.ic.ca/pub/index.html?iin.lang=en)   kling, r. (2000). “learning about information technologies and social change: the contribution of social informatics”. the information society. 16, 3: 217-231.   kuttan, a. and l. peters (2003). from digital divide to digital opportunity. lanham, maryland: scarecrow press.   office of leaning technologies (2003). “policy conversation on future directions for community learning networks.” (accessed: july 8, 2004: www.hrsdc.gc.ca)   page, m. and a. scott, (2001). “change agency and women’s learning: new practices in community informatics”, information, communication & society, 4-4, 528-559. pigg, k. (2001). “applications of community informatics for building community and enhancing civic society”. information, communication and society, 4, 4: 507-527.   public interest advocacy centre (2000). st. christopher house: urban cap: report of local residents and the internet. ottawa: public interest advocacy centre, november.   reddick, a. and boucher, c. (2002). tracking the dual digital divide. ottawa: ekos research associates inc.   reddick, a., boucher, c., and groseilleirs, m. (2000). the dual digital divide. ottawa: public interest advocacy centre.   rideout, v. (2003). continentalizing canadian telecommunications: the politics of regulatory reform. montreal: mcgill-queen’s university press.   ______ (2002/3). “digital inequalities in eastern canada.” the canadian journal of information and library sciences 27, 2: 3-31.   _____ (forthcoming). “community visions of the information society with canadian exemplars.” javnost: the public.   statistics canada (2004). the daily for: 2004-07-08 (from: godfrey@stcwww.diss.statcan.ca)   wellman, b. and gulia, m (1998). “net surfers don’t ride alone: virtual communities as communities”, in (eds.) p. pollock & m. smith, communities in cyberspace. london: routledge, pp. 187-194.   warschauer, m. (2003). technology and social inclusion: rethinking the digital divide. cambridge, massachusetts: mit press.             [1] the studies in which dr. reddick was a co-investigator include the canadian communication household (1997); rethinking the information highway series (1998 – 2003); the dual digital divide series (reddick et al, 2000 and ekos 2001-2004) – principal investigator; and evaluation of the community access program (2001).   [2] the studies in which dr. rideout was the principle researcher include “bridging the digital divide in atlantic canada: public access to the internet and the canadian digital divide”, human resources development canada office of learning technologies. www.nald.ca (full text documents) http://people.unb.ca/~vrideout; “public access to the internet and the canadian digital divide,” canadian journal of information and library science, 2000, 25 2/3; and “digital inequalities in eastern canada,” canadian journal of library science, 2002/3, 27, 2.   [3] both authors were evaluators for applications for the cln program and noted that consistently there were no viable sustainability options identified for after the initial cln program funding.   [4] using technology as an entry point, risks reducing the reasons people use technologies to subordinate analysis or abstraction. kling (2000), in a useful discussion on social informatics, notes that in analying information technologies and how they are used in institutional and cultural contexts, it is important to avoid the risk of theoretical and methodological slippage whereby one frames technology as determining of the social (e.g., the internet will solve employment, education, health problems, and so forth) (218). community informatics and systems design searching for the role of icts in development: a case study of a rural multi-purpose community centre in the dwars river valle rethinking telecentre sustainability: how to implement a social enterprise approach lessons from india and africa   mayanja meddie senior program officer for telecentre.org at idrc <mmayanja@idrc.ca>   abstract telecentres today are the key to telecentres of tomorrow. if they succeed in achieving their objectives, there is no doubt that development partners, social investors and governments will have a fresh look at the potential of telecentres to development. in june 2005 the government of ghana launched the first of its two hundred thirty telecentres to be established across the country. in rwanda, us $ 1 million has been set aside for a countrywide telecentres program. all these are some of the bold initiatives that will be boosted by exquisite telecentre planning today. financial and social sustainability of telecentres remains one of the key challenges of the digital inclusion programming more than a decade after. the author uses field-based experiences from india and africa to review varied telecentre sustainability approaches. while analysing the strengths and weaknesses of each of the approaches he makes an argument for a new approach – one that will ensure high social capital, sustainability and financial sustainability for telecentres. introduction telecentres today are the key to telecentres of tomorrow. if they succeed in achieving their objectives, there is no doubt that development partners, social investors and governments will have a fresh look at the potential of telecentres to development. in june 2005 the government of ghana launched the first of the two hundred thirty telecentres it will be establishing across the country. in rwanda, us $ 1 million has been set aside for a countrywide telecentres program. all these are some of the bold initiatives that will be boosted by exquisite telecentre planning today. financial and social sustainability of telecentres remains one of the key challenges of the digital inclusion programming more than a decade after. for instance in mali, if nothing is done to address social and financial sustainability by the end of the year when social investors are scheduled to withdraw, the majority of telecentres and community radios will struggle to survive. however this is not to suggest that nothing has been done about these key challenges as yet. communities continue to innovate and experiment with several approaches to sustainably delivering ict tools. prominent approaches include community information centres (cic), community multi-media centres (cmc), information kiosks, cyber cafes, school-based telecentres (sbt) and more. this article reviews some of the current approaches to telecentre sustainability from africa and asia. it focuses mainly on the principal elements necessary to create a successful approach – borrowing from a score of approaches. telecentres present a huge opportunity for extending ict access to rural communities in a flexible manner. they are meeting places where people access appropriate technologies, services, exchange ideas and connect to social networks. they have a huge potential to influence a development vision of a rural community by rallying civil society and government towards addressing pressing community needs. the songhai centre in benin and the m.s swaminathan foundation in india have risen to that desirable influential status already. several telecentres have embarked on this path as well. whether telecentres remain an influential component in the community development agenda in the long run however, depends on how they respond to the urgent need to build social and financial sustainability capacities. the social development approach this approach believes in helping individuals and communities to address social needs. at the centre of the approach is the urge to help the disadvantaged and excluded less resourced majority of a community. this approach is strong on building awareness and growing the culture of ict use. in that sense, it might be very useful in creating the necessary conditions for enterprise approach to work effectively according to richard fuchs, (former) director ict4d @ idrc. the social development paradigm has been largely about building social capital as an engine for creativity, networks and sustainable growth. where by social capital is the total sum of person-to-person or institutional interactions and mutual support. therefore the resilience of a community is measured by the amount of social capital at its disposal. the civil society and telecentres have been instrumental in growing social capital in communities by providing free of charge services for selected activities. sections of the community that would otherwise be excluded from benefits of ict have been brought into the mainstream through targeted activities. the main stay of telecentres largely remains government subsidies and development partners. this is the case for m.s swaminathan foundation in india. m.s swaminathan has a number of telecentres (village knowledge centres) in south india rooted in the community development knowledge creation and sharing program. in pondecherry members of the community access indigenous knowledge, agricultural information, internet and training services at no direct cost. the foundation undertakes fundraising activities to underwrite telecentre services. for instance, the government of pondecherry pays for access to some services interpreted to have a high community development value. telecentres are specifically designed to meet special needs of fishing, crop farming and cattle keeping communities. users can either walk into one of the centres of choice or receive information – like location of best fish catches for fishing community) via loud speakers placed in strategic meeting places in the community. the approach generates considerably high social capital since it is community driven but it is weak on financial sustainability. dr. a r thiagarajan describes m.s swaminathan approach as a social service. he fears that asking people to pay for services at the information centres is not possible and will only exclude the people the foundation aims to serve. indeed the model demonstrates a high return on social capital building. it fits well for the communities that are relatively poor with low literacy rates and a supportive public sector. the big question is whether the m.s swaminathan foundation can be replicated in india or any other community in africa with equal success especially without matching donor support. those who have followed telecentres in africa might realise a number of similarities with nakaseke mct (uganda), sengerema mct (tanzania) and a score of others in south africa. the enterprise or information kiosk approach the enterprise approach is about developing services for sale. while such services may bring a community development value, the choice of a particular service is made against its selling value more than its community development potential. this approach is not ideal for pre-market communities, which explains why most times it locates on high streets and urban areas. india presents a number of telecentres operated under the information kiosk approach. an enterprise-based model where decisions about the site, management, technology, and services are based on the business case the community offers. one such example is the drishtee franchise model. drishtee information kiosk in delhi drishtee is a limited company and operates a franchise of 1,000 kiosks across india (feb 2006). any individual may apply for a loan with a 3-year repayment period to set up a kiosk in a community of choice. loan beneficiaries receive training in business planning and management (soft skills, pc operations and trouble shooting and service development), a computer, ups, backup battery and software as part of the whole package. when it started three years ago, drishtee had a cocktail of 58 services offered but this has currently been reduced to 16 only, reportedly because “…that is what the community can pay for” (mishra s. – ceo drishtee dot com). drishtee acts as the brokers for services; it identifies demand and matches it with services suppliers and information kiosks. for that, kiosks pay drishtee an average of 500 rupees per month for support services on top of the loan serving. the four drishtee information kiosks visited in delhi area are on the road to a financial sustainability. in the overall, owners (entrepreneurs) were interested in the success of respective businesses. in that respect, it can be fairly concluded that the drishtee model is a source of employment and services to the communities. kiosk services included computer training, english language training, sale of insurance services and medical referrals with the heart research centre all at a fee. it’s a mix of online and offline services. the centres would have done more if they had better connectivity and stable power supply. the drishtee approach is strong on financial sustainability in the short term. entrepreneurs were optimistic that they could pay back the loan and stay in business. this approach is akin to cybercafés in latin america and africa too. the most popular of which are the busyinternet in ghana and lotus cybercafé in uganda. the main characteristic is that they target people in the middle and upper part of the social pyramid. this often will not work in pre-market communities. cybercafe in chennai – india key success factors include availability of infrastructure, a community that knows which services it needs accompanied with capacity to pay. the approach would not work in rural areas because it has very low social capital development potential as such weak in terms of social sustainability. if it ever finds users with capacity to pay, they will be very few to sustain the model. that largely explains why both in africa and india, the approach is used in urban and semi urban areas. walking the middle line: the social enterprise approach the community development and enterprise models are both fantastic approaches to delivering ict. individually, each one of them is weak in key aspects desired for financially and socially sustainable telecentres. this can be viewed in another perspective too; the enterprise approach will bring dismal returns without a strategy to grow and empower the user base (market). social investment is critically required to continuously facilitate innovative access and use of technologies and services upon which the enterprise approach thrives. likewise, the community development approach will struggle if it cannot meet costs of inputs and services for which fees are required. reflecting about a similar situation lester thurow in the economic community and social investment in the community of the future (1998) observed: “capitalist infrastructure can only be built behind or slightly ahead of the market…the internet could not have been privately financed, usage wasn’t there, would take twenty years to develop…but, in the end, a social investment in infrastructure provided the means for developing an exciting set of new private industries.” clearly the solution lies in blending the two. in practice the two approaches should work together to create the necessary awareness, opportunities for creativity, allow uptake of technologies and services and ensure diffusion of innovation. social capital chat by pete cranston the social enterprise model takes the best out of the two models. it pre-supposes that there will be people in the community with no or less capacity to pay for essential services along side those who are happy to pay for felt needs. while tapping into social support systems, it acknowledges the responsibility for financial independence and sustainability as a virtue for telecentres. the recipe is also as much in walking the middle line. telecentres have to make decisions about the appropriate mix on a case-by-case basis. datamation foundation in india is a good example of a social enterprise model. it provides a number of information services to the community free of charge. it however runs parallel training programs at a fee in addition to targeted fundraising. datamation foundation is more to the community development model with a fair mix of enterprise approach elements. the songhai center in benin is yet another institution operating on a social enterprise model. the centre runs a cocktail of community development services free and at a cost. it is an ideal place to illustrate this approach. centre songhai telecentre in benin social enterprise model is indeed about finding the “perfect balance” between community development and enterprise approach. tricks that work: implementing the social enterprise approach in telecentres implementing the social enterprise approach requires commitment and discipline. it calls for a gradual shift in practice in the way a telecentre is managed be it a community or an enterprise approach (mark surman, managing director telecentre.org @ idrc). from a community approach… a telecentre would start by identifying key services that users can and are willing to pay for and go ahead to develop a price for each with an advertisement plan. the telecentre would start at: · a cost recovery fee structure, gradually move to a… · little profit fee structure (to subsidize essential services) and ultimately… · provide services that combine a social value with economic benefit to individuals and community. the first and second levels would have services that are not essential to individual or community survival. examples include; printing digital photos, downloading music from the internet, playing computer games or making business cards. charging for such services would subsidize essential community services. the third and more advanced level would involve for example e-commerce services, or e-medical consultations which, while they appear costly indeed help the individuals to save time and resources thereby retaining scarce resources in the community for other pressing needs. from an enterprise approach… an information kiosk operating on demand and with a profit motivation would need to make a commitment to re-orient itself as well. the best way to start would be to identify key community development needs and services with high community development value. such services would benefit from lower charges at the first level. depending on space and resource availability, an information kiosk may choose to print health, agriculture and market price information from cd roms or internet at half price as a way of generating traffic. at a more developed level, the information kiosk may provide market information for farm produce; helpline services on agricultural related problems; participate in distributing information concerning epidemics and pandemic control and management of diseases like diarrhoea; cholera or hiv/aids. the benefit to the community might come in two ways; availability of a service (like market information for farm produce) that addresses an essential need of the community and a lower cost that makes social inclusion for access to the service possible. …the role of networking in the information society what you give away comes back to you several folds – johan enberg, former itu director networking is fundamental to achieving a balanced and successful social enterprise model. that means engaging stakeholders on both sides of the divide to enhance learning and understanding of how each of the models work. fortunately, partners from each school of thought in india and africa are keen to find a telecentre management approach that promotes access to ict services on a sustainable basis. that is a key ingredient for success. � embed word.picture.8 ��� _1204014177.doc s ocial capital chat by pete cranston s ocial capital chat by pete cranston social capital chat by pete cranston   looking critically at ict4dev: the case of lincos  manne granqvist malmö university < mne@spray.se >   abstract the following article is based on thesis research for the communication for development program at malmö university, sweden (granqvist, 2003). it represents a study carried out through the ngo funredes in the dominican republic, as a part of its olistica project – an internet-based research “observatory” devoted to the assessment of the social impact of information and communication technology (ict) in latin america and the caribbean[1]. the objective of the research was to contribute to a framework for the assessment of ict-for-development projects from a critical, social viewpoint. the study consisted of both an extended theoretical discussion on the social dimensions of technology and a case study from the lincos project in the dominican republic.   introduction appreciating the social dimensions of ict in development\ the intention of the research (granqvist, 2003) discussed below was to demonstrate how theoretical insights from critical social research traditions could inform the assessment of ict projects in marginalized regions. while mainstream assessment models were (and are) devoted to infrastructure issues, and further fit well within a technologically determinist and often neo-liberal conceptual framework, alternatively minded movements have begun to explore more socially-oriented instruments. in order for such measures to form part of a cogent critical approach, an increased recognition of the social and political nature of technological development and design is imperative. such a critical approach shares with the so-called 'post-development' tradition (rahnema & bawtree, 1997; saunders, 2003) a skeptical stance towards established development thinking. power relations, particularly between 'developers' (development agencies, experts, governments) and 'developees' (marginalized communities) ought to be the focus of attention, instead of neglected (as is typically the case in mainstream assessment models). in order to discuss the role of technology and technological discourse in the maintenance of such power relations, the thesis drew from different theoretical streams of thought. as an entry point, four “social dimensions” of technology were identified; social embeddedness, the design process, usage, and political context. these abstractions were meant to bring to light aspects of technology that are rarely acknowledged in the dominant discourse. the two first categories, in particular, were brought up to counter the common understanding of technology as a neutral tool, and bring attention to its historicity and political workings. the ‘social embeddedness' of technologies is a concept debated in science & technology studies (sts), which, put simply, refers to the values “built into” a technology (escobar, 1994; pfaffenberger, 1992). current sts theory, but also classical critical theory and feminist research inform discussions on how such social embeddedness may be dealt with and assessed. in terms of the design process, the scandinavian participatory design tradition presents us with a movement of systems designers whose members were among the first to recognize the political character of technological design (see, e.g., bjerknes, ehn, & kyng, 1987; and ehn, 1988). these scientists made common cause with industrial workers rather than with management when designing workplace information systems. their legacy is particularly instructive for a critical approach to technology in the development context, where conflicts of interests similar to those of workplaces prevail. richard heeks' (1999) critique of the ”tyranny of participation” provides a further source of inspiration for this section, stressing the need to be cautious about 'cosmetic participation' as the concept of participatory development increases in popularity. the third category, usage, was (and is) the one where socially-oriented theorists and practitioners, such as the olistica network, had come the farthest; and the discussion here was informed by current debates among ngo's, grassroots groups and activists devoted to this area (e.g. mistica, 2002; menou, 2001). issues such as equitable access, local content production, and socially meaningful usage were emphasized. the last concept, the political context, differs from the others in that it was not regarded as an analytical category in itself, but rather as making up the framework of the other three and providing them with meaning. bringing it up as a 'social dimension of technology' served to highlight the importance of contextual analysis and the need to politicize every instance of assessment, focusing on how different aspects of ict projects relate to broader relations of power. a critically-oriented assessment approach could be rewardingly informed, it is argued, by the perspectives of dependency theory and post-development thinking – research traditions which have attended to the power structures of the development domain and emphasized the continuing role of economically dominant societies in perpetuating the conditions of marginalization. the notions of social embeddedness, design process, and usage would thus serve as analytical categories when examining the lincos project to appreciate the theoretical discussion's relevance and applicability in the field. the various issues debated under each category became ”investigational themes” that would guide the observation of the lincos case. the theoretical framework was not regarded as a completed intstrument and the case study did not set out to arrive at a formal and conclusive assessment regarding the lincos project. rather, the aim of both was to offer some new perspectives and demonstrate their relevance in an actual ict-for-development experience. the expectation was that this work could form part of broader strivings towards more structured social assessment models, based upon a critical social perspective. the remainder of this article is based on observations from the lincos project. background the dominican republic the dominican republic is a country of nine million inhabitants, located in the caribbean sea between cuba, jamaica and puerto rico, on the island of hispaniola, which it shares with the republic of haiti. the dominican republic, which, following columbus' arrival in 1492 served as the lead settlement of the spanish colonization of the americas, gained its independence in 1865. since then – similar to other latin american countries – the nation has been plagued by an array of infamous dictators, high levels of political corruption, dubious invasions by the united states and, as a result, widespread human calamity. of the population, of which the vast majority are descendants of africans that were enslaved by the spaniards, around thirty to forty percent live in “poverty” (according to the world bank, 2002). about half of the workforce is formally unemployed (world bank, 2002) and for those who manage to obtain a job, salaries are minimal. four out of five large businesses are owned by foreigners, predominantly north americans and spaniards (howard, 1998), many of whom exploit the economic conditions of the “zonas francas” – the free trade zones where foreign companies escape taxes and pay minimum salaries for repetitive labor during twelve-hour working days. others own large plantations, where haitian immigrant workers are employed in what has been labelled “modern slavery” (latortue, 1999). although the country is a primary exporter of agricultural products such as sugar, coffee, tobacco and fruits, only a minority of the population have access to participation in the wage economy.  dominican politics traditionally caters to the small but very wealthy economic and political elite, and social welfare is practically non-existent. past and current conditions have caused over one million dominicans to flee the country – the largest diaspora in the world in relation to the size of the mother country (howard, 1998). in the year 2000, hipolito mejía of the dominican revolutionary party, took over the presidency from leonel fernández of the dominican liberation party, after winning the election on a program that promised to eradicate corruption and improve the situation of the poor. mejía soon proved incapable of removing corruption, however, and despite initial promises to the contrary, his economic strategy for the nation drew to a large extent on a neo-liberal (free market) agenda. nevertheless, mejía’s government had at the time of this study initiated a widely proclaimed “plan against poverty” and many dominicans believed that mejía was launching a serious attempt to improve the situation of the country’s marginalized communities, although discontent was beginning to spread. the plan included inititatives concerning infrastructure, education and attempts to extend the use of icts in the nation. these latter projects are typically sponsored by the telecommunication industry and include a computer lab initiative for schools and technological community centers such as proyecto ave[2] as well as the lincos, which will be discussed more comprehensively below. for this study, five dominican communities that had received a lincos center were visited during a three-week period. this time was divided between one community chosen for in-depth observation, another chosen for comparative observation, and shorter visits at three other lincos sites. interviews were conducted with lincos staff members, lincos community committee members, lincos users, ordinary community members, village politicians and the director of the dominican lincos project.  meetings and classes were attended and the researcher also conducted direct participant observation as an ordinary lincos user. in addition to these field impressions, official lincos documents were analyzed. the objective was to gather a multi-faceted impression of the lincos experience. the selection of persons for interviews, and locations for observation, was aimed towards broad representation rather than being formally randomized.  the process was an evolving one, in which selections were made during the course of the investigation, combining a non-probability “subjective selection” (interviewees and observation sites are hand-picked) with a “snow-ball selection” (one experience leads to another) strategy (denscombe 1998). interviews and observation were carried out more in a journalistic format than that of traditional research with the overall objective of obtaining a rich and multi-dimensional image of the lincos project.   the lincos project the lincos project was an initiative launched by entebbe, a costa rican foundation[3] founded and directed by jose maría figueres, former president of costa rica and a former military engineer. although entebbe engaged in other development projects, particularly related to environmental issues (reflecting figueres personal engagement), lincos – which stands for “little intelligent communities” – was the organization’s flagship. the lincos project was carried out together with a host of cooperating actors, mainly representing business and academic institutions. the massachusetts institute of technology (mit) and the instituto tecnológico de costa rica, on the academic side, and microsoft and hewlett packard on the business side, were among the most prominent partners. altogether, some two hundred different institutional actors were engaged in the project. the lincos initiative started its implementations in costa rica in 2000, with the intention of eventually going international on a large scale. in the end, though, the dominican republic was the only other country to which the project was exported. the government of the dominican republic closed a deal with entebbe for the installation of sixty lincos stations throughout the country, as a part of president mejías plan against poverty. the idea was to have these installed by the end of 2002, on a budget of 60 million us dollars[4] (lincos website[5], newsletter march 2001). the number of lincos sites were later reduced to thirty. a government office in santo domingo (the dominican capital) called “pequeñas comunidades inteligentes”[6], with around thirty employees, was in charge of the project in the country. entebbe was responsible for delivering the centers and upgrading them, providing training to their workers, and overall development of the project. half of the thirty centers had been installed at the time of this study and the government had decided not to continue the collaboration with entebbe for the remaining fifteen, which were to be realized instead under the supervision of the dominican ministry of education. the cost of installing each unit was 2.8 million dominican pesos (appr. 130 000 us dollars in 2003). this price did not include the administrative costs of either the central office or the individual units. a monthly budget of 25 000 pesos (approximately 1 100 us dollars) was allocated for the maintenance of each center, intended to cover salaries, as well as running costs, such as electricity and purchases. according to the information provided by the dominican secretary of state, the principal objective of the project was to “attain sustainable human development in the selected communities, through processes of learning supported by a variety of technological tools; contribute to the elimination of the so-called technological divide; and guarantee that these remote communities have the same opportunities as other, more developed communities”. a further purpose of the implementation of the project was “to make these groups of people from very poor communities with serious limitations advance as individuals, emphasizing education, health and a harmonious relationship to nature” (lincos web page and information brochures, author’s translation).[7]   what is a linco? what exactly is a linco? the answer to that question actually shifted during the course of the project’s implementation. until shortly before the case study was carried out, the linco was equal to a very specific concept – an industrial container, redesigned and filled with computers and a range of other high tech equipment. for reasons that will be discussed below, however, the container concept was eventually abandoned in favor of ordinary concrete buildings, with a set of rooms throughout which the equipment was distributed. this development meant that at the time this study was carried out, there existed two types of lincos. the two costa rican ones, as well as the first five of the dominican ones were metal containers; while the ten most newly built lincos in the dominican republic were installed into ordinary houses. three of the five lincos sites visited during the study were of the container variety. however, the old containers were gradually being phased out in favor of houses (as dominican authorities took control of the project from entebbe) and the different sites would soon all be of a similar appearance. at the time of the study only one of the lincos in costa rica was in service. the lincos units all had a similar initial set of equipment: a set of pentium ii/iii pc's (5-6 in the containers, 10-14 in the new buildings) each computer equipped with a 15” screen, audio speakers, cd-rom, and diskette station 1 laser printer 1 flatbed scanner 1 server computer internet access through a vsat satellite mounted on the roof 1 fax/copy machine 1-4 satellite phones 1-2 television sets with vcr and dvd players 1 vhs camera 1 digital still camera 1 ”telemedicine kit” 1 instrument for water and soil analysis a radio transmitter most of the hardware was produced by hewlett-packard, and the majority of the initially installed software had been provided by microsoft. the latter included the operating system (ms windows 98), and the office package (ms office), plus several other programs (ms encarta, ms money, age of empires, etc.). additional software came from lcsi, another project sponsor, which produces educational software and contributed their programs “micromundos” and “mi isla de fantasia”[8] to the project.   lincos & social embeddedness in considering the social embeddedness of technologies in this research, a set of  identified issues suggested  guidelines for the assessment of ict projects. a critical social assessment should examine what type of usage different technologies allow, which behaviors they prompt and what social values they tend to reproduce or confront. a critical assessment effort should seek to reveal, although not exaggerate, the political significance of this embeddedness. as a further task, the critical investigator should draw attention to the prospect of alternative designs. following are some observations from the lincos project with reference to these issues.   a box from the sky as mentioned, the units making up the first set of lincos were accommodated in industrial metal containers and five such containers existed in the dominican republic at the time of the observations. three of these were visited during a phase when they were about to be exchanged for ordinary concrete buildings. in all three sites, workers and users expressed serious dissatisfaction with the containers. at one of the sites, the lincos staff had been on strike for six months because of the unbearable tropical heat in the metal containers, which lacked air-conditioning and proper ventilation. at another site, all computer classes had been cancelled, awaiting the inauguration of the new concrete building, partly due to the heat conditions and partly because of the limited space available in the containers – only five to six uncomfortably seated students could fit into the tiny room, making it impossible to share computers between two persons, and leaving only minimal space for a teacher. the designers of the containers initially included a giant, pole-mounted awning above the container to cover it from sun (and rain). the lincos staff soon experienced problems with this expensive add-on accessory, however, as it had to be taken down in the event of a threatening hurricane, or to be cleaned, and it could not be mounted again by the regular staff.) at the time of the visits, none of the site containers were protected from the sun by this or any other means.  power shortages are very common in the dominican republic – most villages experience daily, several hour-long interruptions – and when they occur, the lincos staff must resort to the container’s small power plant, which runs on gas and is extremely costly. one of the lincos sites was simply closed down during power shortages, because of the inability to cover the gas costs with the limited financial funds available through the project[9]. on their web page, entebbe had declared that the units would be supplied with solar panels (lincos newsletter, november 2001), which would both increase self-sustainability and be consistent with environmental awareness (particularly since the dominican electricity system relies on imported petroleum). the newsletter even indicated that the required technology had already been developed by the lincos team and that it would be installed within a short time at the dominican lincos units. by the time of this study however, none of the sites had been so equipped. a lincos staff member in one of the communities commented[10]: “the bosses, when they were here during the inauguration, they said they’d bring twenty solar panels, but no…. […] politics, you know, they talk and talk”. according to luis veras, then the director of the lincos project in the dominican republic, there existed no plans to carry out this work, except possibly in those communities that were not covered by the national electricity grid. a further drawback of the container concept was expressed by mr. veras, when explaining why it was eventually abandoned: “the container creates the concept of temporariness; the people do not regard it as rooted in the community”. while a container may imply some advantages when transporting the project to the remote communities (“it may even be transported by helicopter” according to the lincos web) its value as compared to relatively cheap local constructions may certainly be questioned. as one observer commented, “[i]n practice, the mobility characteristic of the containers is irrelevant, since their final destination is the stationary implementation in one site” (hoffman, 2002, author’s translation). in addition to indicating temporariness (and transience), the containers also give the clear impression (in this case well-founded) that the project has been developed externally and brought to the community in a top-down manner as a wrapped-up “development package”. as one olistica member who visited a lincos container concluded, this concept is certainly not helping to demystify the technology or to integrate it into the community[11]. the container idea was at the center of the marketing of the project – an image of the container was even included in its logo. in a sense, the container was crucial for the lincos project, something that was demonstrated by the fact that there was hardly any mention on the lincos web page about the dominican administration’s decision to abandon the unsuccessful concept (where it was mentioned, the limited space was the only declared reason for the decision). the logo and website including the container image continue to appear, suggesting that despite the negative experience in the dominican republic the use of the container remains a key element in entebbe’s overall lincos marketing strategy. a reasonable assumption is that the container concept was developed partly as a marketing strategy. while for the people of the communities, the design was more or less disastrous, for other persons, the same design may be seen as successful, particularly for the lincos officials. “they have their reality, we have ours”, one of the striking staff members commented appositely, referring to those responsible for the design of the container. one understanding is that the interest of the lincos officials, eager to develop a marketable product, has taken precedence over the interest of the community members. this small metal box, crammed with state-of-the art technology, obviously signals modernity and inventiveness to potential sponsors, buyers and reporters. articles about the lincos project have been overwhelmingly enthusiastic (as a search on the web would show), and evidently, lincos fundraising has been highly successful. the dominican lincos administration’s decision to switch from the container to ordinary houses was significant. the heat was no longer a problem  and the space of the sites was obviously much greater. the power plant solution was replaced by generators, which stored electricity from the ordinary power grid onto a set of batteries to be used during shortages, thus avoiding reliance on expensive gasoline. the buildings, looking like ordinary houses and built in the community, rather than constructed in a foreign country and then transported there, presumably also had an effect on the experience of affiliation among community members. it was noted during the observations that the lincos houses were frequented far more often than their container equivalents.   one size fits all? the concrete buildings shared one aspect with the deserted containers. they were a ready-developed concept, thought to apply equally well to all the different communities involved in the lincos project. minor differences existed, specifically between the three different “batches” (units were built five at a time, with several months and a new contract with entebbe between them), but basically, the architecture was one and the same in all of the communities. an appointed community committee, as well as the local lincos workers, did have a say in how to fit up the building once it had been built, but they did not participate in designing it. while this remains true of most architectural projects around the world, it certainly perpetuates the image of the lincos project as a “one-size-fits-all” model, developed externally to be subsequently brought to non-participating communities.                           figure 2. architectural solution shared by all new lincos sites. (from internal lincos document) although lincos’ director asserted that “no two containers are the same”[12] – a statement for which little support was found – uniformity was manifest in many aspects. just like the architecture and the design of the container, the ict equipment was similar at the different lincos sites. a similar set of information technologies was thought to be suitable for all the communities involved in the project. as one unimpressed observer remarked: “like a swiss army knife with 23 functions, lincos offers a fascinating technological potential, suggesting that with this the recipients are prepared to address any type of underdevelopment problem” (hoffman, 2002). what was more problematic than the fact that they were all the same – dominican rural villages do indeed share many conditions and needs – was that the uniformity reflected the fact that the technology had not been adapted to the circumstances of the users, neither in its choice nor in its design. while the lincos website claimed that the technology was selected according to the needs of every individual community, the lincos office in santo domingo distributed similar brochures for local lincos communities, in which exactly the same set of technologies was listed.   “no comprendo” to varying degrees at different sites, the software, the manuals and even the keyboards of the lincos were in english. at some of the sites, even the windows version was english. there is most certainly reason to wonder why, since both the software and the manuals used, as well as keyboards, are produced on a large scale in spanish. whatever the reasons for this mistake, it certainly had implications for the users at the lincos sites, where there was virtually no one with proficiency in english. in one village, the scanner and the video camera had never been used until an american visitor was able to interpret the instructions for the potential users.   summary this section has illustrated the relevance of the social embeddedness of technologies in the lincos case. the technologies involved in the lincos project – and in any other technological experience – through the way they were chosen, designed, marketed and understood, all have different social implications for the members of the user communities and for other stakeholders. further, as demonstrated in the case of the lincos container, different technological characteristics are of different interest for different persons and may also be interpreted quite differently. a critical investigator has to examine the experiences of those persons or groups whose situation she is concerned by, while also contrasting those experiences with conflicting ones. in the cases above, the social implications of the design have  been interpreted from the viewpoint of the community members as a group, and to some extent compared to that of the project’s management (also as a group). in many situations it may be of equal interest for a critical assessment effort to investigate differing experiences between community members, drawing attention, for instance, to the way specific designs affect women in comparison to men.   lincos & the design process in our work elsewhere on the design process (granqvist, 2003), a series of themes and their significance for the social world of users and community members was discussed. crucial issues include whether or not the users are actively involved in the planning, creation and evaluation of technologies, and under what circumstances; to whom the process is open; how it is affected by socio-cultural structures; and whether participation is cosmetic, rather than empowering. also important is the extent to which an ict project builds upon local knowledge and the viewpoints of marginalized citizens. recognition should further be given to the role of the designers: whether they act primarily as technical experts; to what extent they share everyday life with community members; and to what extent their understanding of the problem is allowed to guide the process. in the lincos case, several of these issues were rather simple to deal with – participation was close to nonexistent and the design process did not even take place within the borders of the country. with its uniform design and lack of participation, the lincos project appeared as the archetype of a “solution in search of an application”. no part of the lincos project had been developed on a local level. instead, a host of institutions from different countries had been involved in developing everything from the container and its contents, to the “methodologies” intended to be used inside them.   lincos coming to town let us start with the actual decision of bringing a linco to a community. juan barrios, entebbe’s  lincos director asserted that the establishment of a lincos unit in a community was “always realized upon the initiative of the people themselves”[13]. there are clear difficulties with this statement since it is almost without exception the case that it is a decison of the funder (in this case the government of the dominican republic) as to where such projects are implemented[14]. it is true that the government, once it had decided on a proper location, did turn to the local authorities of the community in question before having the lincos installed. “they did introduce the project”, as one community member explained, “but speaking only to the important persons, without reaching the mass of the people”. further, as is common for these types of projects (cf. benjamin & dahms, 2001) – the communities were not offered any alternatives to the project. they might indeed turn it down, but were hardly likely to do so because the project would then simply go to another community instead. “it was like a lottery draw”, one lincos staff member remarked. a community committee member explained it as “a battle between two communities”. while the initiative resided with the government, rather than with the communties (as claimed by some lincos officials), the centers were certainly accepted by the communities before being installed. in these cases, however, the community was represented by politicians with no other options from which to choose. in relation to the subsequent installation of a center, a town meeting was held, to which all interested community members were invited (reportedly some 50-300 persons showed up in the various communities out of a population range of 5-10 000). at the meeting, at the initiation of “the high-up persons of the central organization of the project” (as one committee member put it) a community committee was elected to supervise the linco. this committee consisted of fifteen persons and was the key to the community’s influence over the center. by decision of the lincos administration, nine of these were those with important positions in the community – the mayor, the elementary and high school principals, a representative from the catholic church and others. the remaining six committee members were elected by the meeting attendees, and also tended to be village members with significant social standing. notably, the committee that was now supposed to guarantee the community’s involvement in the project, had a membership that was not only delegated by the government, but also, as heeks (1999) has put it with reference to these types of projects, “skewed towards the powerful and away from the marginalized”. moreover, committee members were non-users, or at least they were not chosen because of their status as users but rather because of their (high) social status. in addition, the committee, whose members received no payment, was not formed until after the installation of the center, drastically limiting community influence over the design process. this was true for the first container lincos as well as the subsequent concrete house lincos, where the staff confirmed that the committee was appointed some three months after the start of construction of the building.   lincos evaluation – cries and struggles additionally, there existed no formally structured evaluations undertaken by the community members. the assessments that were made were carried out by visiting lincos officials. although the containers were finally replaced in the first set of dominican lincos communities, this was happening only after some three years, implying a very slow and non-interactive response process. as one staff member expressed it, “it was a cry from us, the local coordinators”. in another community, no one was using the telephones because there was a codetel[15] office nearby, where clients could receive calls instead of just making them (and pay with coins instead of prepaid phone cards). a staff member commented: “we have struggled for a telephone with which we can receive phone calls, to send messages to the villagers so that they come here and return the calls. it hasn’t been possible. we don’t know the reasons. we don't know.” this person was still very positive about the project, but in his choice of words, one might get a sense of the nature of the relationship between the community members and the lincos officials. even mr. veras, the head of the lincos office in santo domingo, recognized the fact that the design process failed to take into account the local situation: “the container was designed with costa rica in mind. costa rica is much chillier than here”, he admitted. additional issues with the units are suggested by the fact that several installed applications were never used. neither the telemedicine equipment nor the water and soil analysis kit, both widely referred to by the promoters of the project (and a basis for the image of lincos as being of wide-ranging social benefit) had ever been used in any of the communities visited, with only a few exceptions for testing purposes. as well, the videoconference system was seldom or never used (“who would we videoconference with?”), as was true for an array of the installed software (particularly that which was only available in english). except for a few commonly used services (see below), fact was that most communities still wondered what they were supposed to do with their lincos. the whole experience might be best summarized with an excerpt from an interview with a community member: in the case of the lincos projects...there was no real introduction. they didn’t tell the people first, before bringing the project, instead they came with the project first and then they spoke to the people. the first thing should be to speak to the people, ‘we’re bringing a project, and we’re bringing it to show you’, speaking to different sectors.... that way they will know what the people think, ‘well, we’re going to modify this, we’ll drop this thing that the people are not interested in’.... the obvious consequence of this is that the people didn’t give their support, they didn’t attach importance to it, and with time the project diminishes, it won’t be growing, because the people don’t regard it as useful, because it doesn’t have any importance for them, it doesn’t have any value [...]. the consequence is fatal, very negative, and then the project is lost. thus, the organization of the lincos project did not only exclude users from participating on any level of the design process, but also kept them from taking part in the planning and introduction of the project, failed to provide a structure for evaluation, and neglected local knowledge and understanding of the local situation. as noted above, to the limited extent that community members were involved, membership was biased towards the already powerful, and actual users were not generally included. the design team – whose members appeared not to have visited the communities, let alone shared their everyday life – had sole responsibility for both defining the problems and working out the solutions, which in practice meant that “solutions” and implementations were the same for all communities. the consequence was, that, out of a host of expensive technologies, only a handful were used to a reasonable extent, and the services they provided could have been supplied equally well by much less costly telecenters. moreover, the development of the technology had not formed as part of a strategy in line with community members’ own visions, and decision-making had taken place above their heads. consequently, people generally did not feel affiliated with the project and expressed indifference or, as in the case of some staff members, even frustration towards the project. the apparent attitude of entebbe when it comes to these matters is perhaps best expressed on their own webpage: “with an adequate process of technological transference”, it was predicted, “the individuals will accustom to the applications when they become adapted to the unit”.   lincos & the usage of  icts at the lincos sites visited, activities were concentrated on mainly three services: computer classes, websurfing and e-mailing, and photocopying. at the occasional site, the radio transmitter was also used extensively. other services that the centers offered, including telephones, seemed to be used only to a very limited extent, or not at all.   access for all? the lincos case – like most other ict-for-development efforts – succeeded in bringing ict access to people who had previously lived without it. not only computer technologies, but also public phones now became available to people who had been excluded from the use of such equipment before. observations at the lincos sites further confirmed that use was relatively equally distributed between men and women, and between different age groups. there were obstacles however, that prevented some citizens from participating. in the case of lincos, the charges applied to the services would appear to be the primary reason for such restriction. in the lincos case, serving villages with official unemployment rates of over seventy percent, the attendance in classes was quite high, even though the charges applied very likely excluded a large proportion of the population. lincos’ prices were not high compared to those of other similar services; rather the opposite[16]. nonetheless, even relatively low prices exclude the poorest parts of the population from participation. while monetary charges were probably the most common factor of exclusion, others may have existed as well, apart from those already mentioned (the lack of spanish manuals and the unbearable heat). these might include the formal “terms of usage” which declared, among other things, that users were not allowed to “make politics” when using the computers. further it is notable that during the period of this study, no member of the dominican republic’s largest immigrant group, the haitians, was observed as visiting a lincos. this may be due to the issue of charges (haitians make up the poorest part of the population) or to deeper issues of dominican attitude towards haitians. in response to these issues, according to several lincos staff members, scholarships existed for children whose parents could not afford their computers courses. it should be noted, however, that these scholarships were donations from private persons or local businesses, rather than strategies initiated by lincos or the other project sponsors.   autonomy & empowerment? with respect to local content or program development, this was very limited at the lincos sites, and the result of individual rather than project-based initiatives. students used word processors to do their homework, others wrote résumés and occasionally individuals would hire the digital camera to take wedding pictures. in one village an employee at the linco used the video camera to make an educational film about the environment that he intended to show to young people for educational purposes. notably, in those communities where the radio transmitter was functioning, it was actively used.  although most of the material transmitted was commercial music, the shows were created locally by, and for, the community itself. the computer classes used software, most of it coming from a single producer, which was taught with the help of structured, written instructions, telling the students exactly what to do. the teachers seldom had much more computer skills than their students. notably, these classes stood in sharp contrast to the marketed educational vision of lincos officials, according to which the technologies were used in exploratory and independent ways to accomplish communitarian ends in the community (see, e.g., the lincos website; and badilla, 2001). many persons expressed content with the fact that they now had access to new information. “now we can look for facts about any issue”, one person explained when asked to describe the benefits of the project. “for example, [...] when the problems with bin ladin began [...] i was interested in finding out who bin laden was [...] and i searched the internet and i found out who he was”. however, there was little concern expressed with regard to the validity of sources nor of the assumptions or political positions which underlie much of this information. in cases such as lincos, where the government is in charge of the project, there is reason to examine whether the available communication tools can be used to support strategies for increasing the political influence of marginalized people. certainly it would seem that this was not a concern in the case of lincos. although the project was a part of the government's efforts against poverty, neither this nor other projects seemed likely to threaten existing political relations or resource distribution. not only did people not seem to be given training or assistance in using icts to increase their political influence, in this case they seemed to be expressly forbidden from doing so. communicational activities were primarily carried out on an individual level; people used the e-mail for keeping in touch with friends and relatives, and chat rooms on the internet were used for recreation rather than as a means to achieve greater social (or political) influence or participation.   maintenance another theme to which attention might be drawn is that of the maintenance and workings of an ict project, and whether it creates self-reliance or dependency. the impression from the lincos case was that lincos management tended to give responsibility to the individual centers while at the same time restraining their potential for self-reliance. in lincos official material, it was stressed that it was up to the community to make the most of their linco, yet they were given hardly any resources to do so. each community was allocated 25 000 pesos (approximately $1.100) to cover their monthly expenses. the income from the services the lincos provided could be added to that as revenue, but that amount was typically very small. after salaries had been paid, there was seldom much left. lincos staff members reported that they frequently had to wait up to two weeks before being able to purchase such things as paper and toner. money was not the main problem, however. most of the sites visited in this study experienced problems with the technologies. at one center, the internet connection was down for a month, at another the telephone never worked, and at several there were problems with the computers. when faced with broken machines, the lincos staff was often helpless because of the very limited means for communicating with the central office. one of the centers reported not having had any contact with lincos officials for three months. a staff member indicated that “[the computers] all have problems, all of them do. but we don’t have any resources to fix them and we can’t get a technician to come here and fix them. [...] the ethernet cards are wearing out on some of them, that’s why we can’t get internet on some of them, but we can’t replace them”. they could not even reformat the computers because nobody knew where to find copies of the pre-installed software. and even if they did, staff members were afraid that they would not know how to use them. at most of the lincos sites, limited financial resources and technical skills, and the dependency on external engineers, severely reduced their capacity for self-reliance; the poor communication between the centers and the officials was often the cause of frustration.   meaningful & transformational usage when asked to explain the benefits of the computer labs, most people replied by mentioning that young people were now able to learn how to use a computer, an opportunity that did not exist before. when asked further why this was beneficial, answers were less easily forthcoming. when a response was given, it was typically that the youth would learn computer skills and in that way hopefully manage to obtain employment… preferably local employment. however, the lincos communities with their very high unemployment rates generally suffer from their inhabitants fleeing to the cities in search of income opportunities. the lincos project, even were it to succeed in teaching computer skills may actually expedite the process of out-migration. as one lincos worker put it, “ if you are in computers here, what can you do? there is nothing here!” lincos did exhibit ways of using its equipment in more self-sustainable ways, however. in one village, a young man who had spent several years working in a “zona franca” or “free trade zone” and was determined to never do so again, decided to make a garden out of his backyard in order to live off the consumption and selling of his crops. knowing nothing about gardening, he borrowed an educational video from the local lincos center and learned enough to get the crops going. this example may suggest a further element of the lincos case – namely that the lincos’ benefits are dependent on individual initiatives while also contributing mainly to the advance of individuals rather than, as lincos has stated as its ambition, to promote and become a natural part in the strategies supporting the advance of the community as a whole (see lincos website). the wish of many, however, was that the lincos project and its anticipated result in developing computer-literate people, would help to attract businesses to the individual communities. a hope expressed in one of the villages was that a “zona franca” be established in the region. people who had learned computer skills at the lincos would then be able to find employment in this free trade zone, it was suggested. such a development would certainly be in line with the dominant vision of ict-for-development, which regards a nation's commercial growth as the primary source of development, and envisions ict to be its motor. icts in this case would be used to marginally, and occasionally, improve the financial situation of occasional individuals but not to provide assistance in communitarian strategies towards structural social change.   conclusion this paper has attempted to provide a critical social perspective on a specific project but within the context of the broader use of icts as support for development. if and how citizens of marginalized communities should use icts are decisions that have to be made by these people themselves. today, however, the dominant discourse informing such decision-making is deeply biased towards the excellence of western technology – as the lincos experience vividly demonstrates – and thus one important task of critical activists and investigators is to begin a process of exploring alternative understandings and strategies.   references badilla, e. s. (2001). el futuro de la educación: la decentralización del aprendizaje. [transl.: “the future of education: the decentralization of learning”]. working paper (cr.3.024), cambridge, ma: mit media lab. benjamin, p., & dahms, m. (2001). socialise the mode of production: the role of telecentres in development. in r. gomez & p. hunt (eds.), telecentre evaluation: a global perspective. idrc report. ottawa: idrc. bjerknes, g., pelle, e., & kyng, m. (1987). computers and democracy: a scandinavian challenge. aldershot: averbury. denscombe, m. (1998). the good research guide: for small-scale social research. buckingham & philadelphia: open university press. ehn, p. (1988). work-oriented design of computer srtifacts. stockholm: arbetslivscentrum. escobar, a. (1994). welcome to cyberia. current anthropology, 35(3), 211-235. granqvist, m. (2003). assessing ict efforts in marginalized regions from a critical social viewpoint: learning from the case of lincos. undergraduate thesis, malmö university college. available: http://www.funredes.org/olistica/documentos/thesismanne.pdf. heeks, r. (1999). the tyranny of participation in information systems: learning from development projects. working paper. manchester: institute for development policy and management. hoffman, b. (2002). cómo no superar la brecha digital. iberoamericana, 6, 181-185. howard, d. (1999). dominican republic: a guide to the people, politics and culture. new york: interlink publishing group. latortue, p. (1999). modern slavery: neo-slavery in the cane fields, haitians in the dominican republic. in c. arthur & m. dash (eds.), a haiti anthology: libète. london: latin america bureau. menou, m. (2001). isictometrics: toward an alternative vision and process. working paper, presented at ricyt & observatório das ciências e das tecnologias seminar on indicators of the information society and scientific culture, lisbon. mistica. (2002). trabajando la internet con una vision social. collective document of the mistica virtual community for the olistica project. available: http://www.funredes.org/olistica/documentos/ rahnema, m., & bawtree, v. (eds.). (1997). the post-development reader. london: zed books. pfaffenberger, b. (1992). technological dramas. science, technology & human values, 17(3), 282-312. saunders, k. (ed.). (2003). feminist post-development thought: rethinking modernity, post-colonialism & representation. london: zed books. world bank (2002). dominican republic: poverty assessment: poverty in a high-growth economy (1986-2000). poverty reduction and economic management unit, latin america and the caribbean, report no 21306. washington, dc: world bank. [1] http://www.funredes.org; http://www.funredes.org/olistica [2] http://www.proyectoave.com.do [3] the organization is known formally as la fundación costa rica de desarollo sostenible (“the costa rican foundation for sustainable development”). the shorter name, entebbe, is borrowed from the name of its founder’s residencial area in costa rica (hoffman, 2002). as of 2005, and the writing of this article, the organization seems to be rather inactive. the lincos project is apparently deteriorating, as demonstrated by its webpage which has not been updated for some two years. [4] the accurateness of this figure is unclear, as is the contents of this alleged budget. another newsletter confusingly even mentions an(other?) investment of $180 million (october 2001). the director of the dominican administration of the project claimed to never have heard of either of these amounts when interviewed. see below for further discussion of official financial circumstances of the project.  [5] http://www.lincos.net. all referenced newsletters are published on the website and were verified in june 2005. [6] “little intelligent communities” [7] taken from the lincos website (http://www.lincos.net). entebbe’s declared mission for the lincos project was expressed slightly differently, as follows: “to help communities  in disadvantage from developing countries to intelligently access and use a series of services and applications such as: telemedicine, internet, electronic communication, videoconference, electronic trade, educational computer science, etc., within the training setting of the target population. as a result, these communities will be able to take a remarkable quality step in their development process and become little intelligent communities, ‘lincos’. [8] the english titles are “microworlds” and “my fantastic island” respectively. [9] as mentioned above, one of the other two sites visited was entirely closed down and since only a short time was spent at the third one, there was no opportunity to investigate if the same was occurring there. [10] when not stated otherwise, all quotes (presented anonymously as to indiviudal and community) in this section are from interviews and chats with community members of the five sites visited. [11] personal communication. [12] interview with lincos director juan barrios -  “el tercer mundo en línea”. http://centralamerica.ms.dk/articles/spanish/enlinea.htm [13] interview with lincos director juan barrios -  “el tercer mundo en línea” http://centralamerica.ms.dk/articles/spanish/enlinea.htm [14] if there are any doubts, the dissemination of the units makes the case clear; out of 27 planned and realized units at the time the study was conducted, 23 were located in the westernmost part of the country, in the border regions currently prioritized in the government’s development efforts. [15] a national phone company [16] to use the internet cost 10-20 pesos ($0.50-1) for an hour, and computer courses were 50 to 100 pesos ($2.50 – 5) per month. joci the digital divide and gender: a survey of environmental community organizations’ leaders in perth, western australia subas p. dhakal school of sustainability, murdoch university, western australia s.dhakal@murdoch.edu.au abstract the digital divide is generally considered to be the lack of capability to adopt and effectively utilize information and communication technologies (ict). although the need of building ict capability of community organizations in australia has been increasingly emphasized in recent years, the gender dimensions of digital divide amongst leaders of community organizations remain unexplored. this paper responds to this gap and explores the trend of ict adoption amongst environmental community organizations (ecos) in western australia with a gender lens. the findings from a survey of 81 ecos indicated that benefits and barriers associated with ict adoption significantly differed according to gender of the leader. drawing on the survey findings, the paper concludes by discussing why gender matters in overcoming the digital divide and makes recommendation for further research. introduction community organizations have been increasingly recognized as integral part of the civil society or the nonprofit sector in addressing social, economic and environmental concerns at the grassroots level (smith 2000, anheier 2005). in recent years, there has been a growing emphasis on pragmatic as well as policy level initiatives to enable these organizations to benefit from the effective utilization of information and communication technologies (icts), such as, email and websites. gurstein (2000) refers to these initiatives as community informatics (ci) – ‘an approach concerned with enhancing civil society and strengthening local communities for self management and for environmental and economically sustainable development, ensuring that many who might otherwise be excluded are able to take advantage of the enormous opportunities the new technologies are presenting’ (p. 2). it is apparent from gurstein’s description that ci aspires to overcome the notion of digital divide – a symbol of perceived disadvantage of those who either are unable or unwilling to make use of icts (cullen 2001). although the notion of digital divide is an outcome of categorical inequalities in society that, if unaddressed, is likely to reinforce the existing inequalities even further (van dijk 2005), the digital divide typically reflects on the lack of capability to access as well as develop skills to effectively utilize icts due to various socioeconomic factors such as age, education, gender, and income (attewell 2001, hargittai 2002, gurstein 2003, korrup & szydlik 2005). for instance, mature women (above 55) in australia are still less likely to have access to the internet compared to men in a same age group at the household level (abs 2007). with the rise in availability and access to icts in recent years, several studies in developed countries have explored the implications of ict uptake amongst community organizations (weare et al 2005, pinho and macedo 2006, hackler and saxton 2007). although systematic studies of this nature are lacking (dimaggio et al 2001), it is argued that community organizations are generally not the leaders in ict uptake (johnson 1999, kirshenbaum and kunamneni 2002, kvasny and lee 2003). overcoming barriers to ict uptake/access amongst community organizations has therefore become a national priority in countries like australia (gregor et al 2004, dcita 2005a, dcita 2005b, cisa 2007). this paper concerns a distinct set of community organizations in australia that are primarily involved in protection of the local environment. these community organizations are referred to as environmental community organizations (ecos) hereafter. the functioning of ecos is based on the notion and practice of volunteering where community members provide time and energy towards activities like restoration and management of local bushland and wetlands. ecos generally operate with fewer members/volunteers/paid staff and have limited funds to support their activities (dhakal 2009) compared to the well-known larger environmental organizations such as greenpeace or the world wildlife fund for nature. nonetheless, ecos were amongst the first community organisations to experiment with ict uptake in australia. the national landcare program and the university of melbourne jointly experimented with the computer network project called ‘landcarenet’ in the early nineties (hawkins et al 1992, campbell 1994). the project was initiated after the need for better social interaction channels was realised amongst ecos, mainly landcare and catchment groups. however, in an era prior to the internet revolution, the lack of resources as well as skills ultimately led to the downfall of landcarenet (curnow 1996). the trend of access to the internet and uptake of icts amongst ecos has been noticeably missing from the literature since then. obviously, although the number of women led ecos outnumbers those led by men, at least in perth (dhakal 2009), gender dimensions towards icts uptake amongst eco and community organizations in general remain unexplored. this paper describes the preliminary findings of a survey developed to gain broader understanding of the trend, benefits of and barriers to icts adoption amongst ecos in perth (the state capital of western australia) with a gender lens. the paper begins with an overview of a discussion on gender and digital divide. the paper then describes the survey methodology and summarizes the key findings prior to making concluding remarks. gender and digital divide before exploring gender dimensions of the digital divide, it is necessary to comprehend differences between sex and gender. gender differs from sex because sex refers to the anatomical and physiological difference between men and women whereas gender refers to behaviours resulting from socializations (west and zimmerman 1987, duerst-lahti and kelly 1995). as the issue of access to and uptake of icts is entwined with the gender differences (kole 2001), the need of acknowledging these differences is crucial to overcome the digital divide. bimber (2000) observed that men and women do adopt ict differently but the gender gap in terms of ict utilization is determined by the combination of gender and socioeconomic factors and not the gender exclusively. due to socialization process, women may undermine their capabilities, and as a result, be reluctant to adopt ict. hargittai and shafer (2006) reported that men and women do not necessarily differ in their ict capabilities but women’s self assessed skills were significantly lower than that of men. that is why, although gender gap in terms of access to ict has been narrowed in developed countries, concern over gender differences should not necessarily be sidelined (ono and zavodny 2003). in australia, the latest census data on access to the internet does not indicate gender gap at the household level (abs 2007). however, information on access to the internet alone does not reveal the benefits associated with access, and more importantly, barriers to access. a closer scrutiny of abs (2007) data reveals that mature women (above 55) are less likely to have access to the internet compared to men in a same age group at the household level. this gap is significant in the context of ecos in perth because the majority of leaders are mature women (dhakal 2009). it might well be that the digital divide has moved beyond the binary divide of the haves and have-nots (gunkel 2003, kennedy et al 2003, warschauer 2003), it is difficult, if not impossible, to make a case for gender in ict strategies without gender specific data on have versus have-nots (hafkin 2003). targeting women with limited access to icts or skills to adopt ict is one of the ways to ensure formulation of strategies that promote gender equality (gurumurthy 2006). this paper asserts that comprehending gender differences in the way leaders access and adopt icts are valuable in overcoming digital divide amongst ecos and other community organizations. methodology research questions building on a few studies about ict and community organizations that exist in australia (acoss 1996, denison 2003), a survey was constructed to gain broader understanding of the trend, benefits of and barriers to ict adoption amongst ecos in the perth region of western australia (wa), with the following research questions (rq): rq1: is there a gender gap in terms of access to and adoption of icts? rq2: will the perceived benefits from icts differ according to gender? rq3: are the barriers to icts adoption gender-specific? study area the perth region in wa is spread over an area of 770,000 hectares which includes perth metropolitan area with a population of about 1.5 million (scc 2004). it is estimated that there are about 400 active ecos in the region, either established directly through local community commitment to a particular local environmental issue or as a result of encouragement from state agencies to provide more formal representative groups covering catchments and neighbourhoods (o'byrne 2006). however, a comprehensive list of ecos (other than an out-of-date directory published by swan river trust in 1996) does not exist. a conservation directory maintained by swan catchment council (recently renamed as perth region nrm) listed approximately 150 community organizations in the region and their contact details (retrieved october 9, 2007 from http://www.swancouncil.org.au). based on the names of community organizations, such as, catchment group, friends of wetlands, coastcare association, and etcetera, a total of 116 organizations in the list were identified as ecos. and a leader of each organization was requested to participate in the survey. survey instrument and data analysis the self administered postal survey entitled ‘icts and ecos’ was conducted from june to august in 2008. the tailored design method (tdm) was utilized to design and disseminate the survey instrument. tdm (dillman 2000) incorporates five specific elements, namely; 1) respondent friendly language and design/layout of the questionnaire, 2) four contacts; a) pre-notice letter (two weeks prior to mailing the actual survey), b) cover letter and the survey questionnaire itself, c) reminder letter (two weeks later), and d) thank you letter (for ecos that returned the survey), 3) postage paid return envelopes, 4) personalized correspondence, and finally, 5) financial incentives for the leaders as a token of appreciation for completing and returning the survey. the survey instrument contained a total of 25 (mostly close ended) questions with a provision (at the end) for the respondents to make comments or suggestions. the survey aimed to collect information about: access to the internet and take-up of icts (email, email listserv, blog, website, instant messenger, podcast, and videoconference) pattern of intra-organizational (between leaders and members) and inter-organizational (with partner organizations, environmental networks, peak environmental bodies, and government agencies) interactions various modes (face to face, postal, landline/fax, mobile/sms and email) of intra-organizational and inter-organizational interactions perceived benefits of ict uptake towards; accessing/disseminating information, publicizing local environmental concerns, recruiting members/volunteers, raising funds, and supplementing existing ways of interactions factors that compromise the ability to benefit from ict uptake; high cost, lack of financial support, lack of technical support, lack of skills, and other organizations not using ict. a total of 83 responses were received, of which 81 were complete and usable (a response rate of 68.9%). the response rate was in line with a desirable rate of 50% or above for the nonprofit organizations (hager et al 2003). in order to explore the research questions, descriptive statistics, frequencies, cross-tabulations, correlations and tests of statistical significance were carried out. findings almost two-thirds (65.4%) of respondents were female leaders. more than three-quarter of the respondents were above 50 years of age (male 34.5% and female 48.2%). more number of female leaders had higher level of educational qualification than male leaders. nearly two-third of male (64.3%) and female (64.2%) leaders had been in the same leadership position for more than 4 years. on average, ecos had been functioning for 14.2 years, had 73.3 members, 37.1 volunteers and employed 0.5 staff. however, nearly 63% and 56% of ecos reported of having less than 20 members and 20 volunteers. is there a gender gap in terms of access to and adoption of icts? the majority of leaders (87.7%) indicated that their organization had access to the internet and reported of using email. however, less than one-third organizations had websites and less than one-tenth organizations posted blogs. as indicated in table 1, none of the leaders indicated the use of videoconferencing or podcasting. although more ecos with female leaders reported of having websites and using mobile phone/sms, no significant gender specific differences were detected either in terms of access to the internet or uptake of various icts. table 1: trend of icts adoption in % (n = 81, m = 28, f = 53) icts male female overall access to the internet 92.9 84.9 87.7 using email 89.3 86.8 87.7 hosting website 28.6 32.1 30.9 subscribing to listservs 32.1 20.8 25.7 using mobile/sms 21.4 22.6 22.2 using instant messengers 21.4 5.7 11.1 posting blogs 10.7 5.7 7.4 podcasting 0.0 0.0 0.0 videoconferencing 0.0 0.0 0.0 further exploration of the website adoption revealed that a) 10 leaders (5 male and 5 female) were planning to have organizational websites up and running in the near future, and b) 13 out of 25 leaders (9 female and 4 male) indicated their websites were hosted through other organizations. interestingly, one female leader reported of having an organizational website (hosted through other organizations) but indicated lack of access to the internet. mode of interactions the survey collected data on various modes of intra-organizational (within ecos) and inter-organizational (between ecos and other organizations) interactions. during the data entry process, it was noticed that while most leaders used multiple modes of interactions, a handful number of leaders reported of using only email. hence, a separate category of ‘only email’ was added for the data analysis. as depicted in figure 1, email was the preferred mode of intra-organizational and inter-organizational interactions for male leaders. interestingly, about a quarter of the male leaders reported using ‘only email’ to interact with environmental networks and peak environmental bodies. on the contrary, ‘face to face’ was the preferred mode of intra-organizational interactions and ‘email’ was the preferred mode for inter-organizational interactions for female leaders (figure 2). similar to male leaders, about a quarter of female leaders interacted with environmental networks using ‘only email’. interestingly, one female leader (between 60 – 70 years of age) indicated that she no longer used email because of a dial-up connection issues. as a result, her frequency of interactions with other organizations declined considerably since ‘dropping out’ of email. will the perceived benefits from icts differ according to gender? the survey collected data on whether leaders agreed/disagreed about the potential benefits of ict uptake in various organizational contexts (table 2). the responses were rated according to the likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (0) to strongly agree (4). table 2: mann-whitney u tests between gender and benefits of icts icts help to: gender (m=28, f=53) access / disseminate information publicize local environmental concerns raise funds through additional means recruit members / volunteers supplement other ways of interactions mean rank male 42.25 41.64 49.29 40.34 51.73 mean rank female 40.34 40.66 36.62 41.35 35.33 z -0.385 -0.19 -2.45 -0.191 -3.089 p 0.7 0.85 0.014* 0.848 0.002* * p ≤ 0.05 as indicated in table 2, mann-whitney u tests (nonparametric t-test) detected two significant differences in mean ranks of perceived benefits of icts between male and female leaders. male leaders perceived of ict being significantly more beneficial (in terms of raising funds and supplementing interactions) than female leaders. are the barriers to icts adoption gender-specific? the survey collected data on whether the ability to fully benefit from icts was compromised by any factors, such as cost, skills and etcetera. the majority of male leaders (70.8%) indicated other organizations not using icts as a main barrier whereas the majority of female leaders indicated the lack of skills (66.7%) and the lack of technical support (79.2%) as main barriers. as indicated in table 3, chi square tests detected significant gender differences (p ≤ 0.05) in three specific types of barriers. interestingly, one of the female leader (between 60 70 years of age) commented that lack of free or low-cost courses to become skilled in upgrading brochures and powerpoint presentations was the main barrier. table 3: barriers to icts adoption response male female total high cost x2(n=75) = 0.517 df=1, p=0.472 no 17 (70.8%) 40 (78.4%) 57 (76.0%) yes 7 (29.2%) 11 (21.6%) 18 (24.0%) total 24 (100%) 51 (100%) 75 (100%) lack of  financial support x2(n=75) = 1.930 df=1, p=0.165 no 21 (87.5%) 49 (96.1%) 68 (90.7%) yes 3 (12.5%) 2 (3.9%) 7 (9.3%) total 24 (100%) 51 (100%) 75 (100%) lack of technical support x2 (n=75) = 4.107 df=1, p=0.043* no 19 (79.2%) 28 (54.9%) 47 (62.7%) yes 5 (20.8%) 23 (45.1%) 28 (37.3%) total 24 (100%) 51 (100%) 75 (100%) lack of skills x2 (n=75) = 8.311, df=1, p=0.004* no 16 (66.7%) 16 (31.4%) 32 (42.7%) yes 8 (33.3%) 35 (68.6%) 43 (57.3%) total 24 (100%) 51 (100%) 75 (100%) other organizations not using icts x2 (n=75) = 15.399, df=1, p=0.000* no 7 (29.2%) 39 (76.5%) 46 (61.3%) yes 17 (70.8%) 12 (23.5%) 29 (38.7%) total 24 (100%) 51 (100%) 75 (100%) it is also noteworthy to mention here that more than 90% of the leaders did not consider the lack of ict specific financial support as a barrier. similarly, 76% of the leaders did not consider high cost associated with ict uptake as a barrier. in addition, 37 leaders reported other types of barriers (table 4), of which, more than one-third were related to members/volunteers either not having computers and access to the internet or lacking skills. table 4: other barriers to icts adoption (n=37) nature of barriers male (%) female (%) % of total lack of time (design, learn, cater request, upload, manage) 2 (25%) 6 (75%) 21.6% members/volunteers lack access to the internet 4 (75%) 2 (25%) 16.2% members/volunteers don’t have computers 4 (80%) 1 (20%) 13.6% no need of icts (f2f or postal or phone is better) 1 (25%) 3 (75%) 10.8% not interested in icts (other priorities) 2 (50%) 2 (50%) 10.8% members/volunteers with ict skills not available 2 (67%) 1 (33%) 8.1% speed of internet connection 2 (100%) 0 5.4% lack of low cost ict related education 0 2 (100%) 5.4% age (we are not teenagers) 0 1 (100%) 2.7% can’t afford high speed internet connection 1(100%) 0 2.7% impracticality (tried but no longer using icts) 0 1 (100%) 2.7% total 18 (48.6%) 19(51.4%) 37 (100%) conclusions the general trend of access to the internet and uptake of ict like website amongst community organizations in australia has continuously improved over the years. the 1996 survey conducted by australian council of social service (acoss) amongst 209 community organizations indicated 38% had access to the internet, 36% used email and 14% had websites (acoss 1996). whereas the 2002 survey conducted by centre for community networking research (ccnr) amongst 923 community organizations revealed that 90% had access to the internet and 61% had websites (denison 2003). by that standard, ecos in perth are lagging behind, especially, in terms of website uptake (30.9%). the finding is also consistent with a generally accepted notion that australian community organizations are not considered the leaders in ict uptake (johnson 1999, dcita 2005a, denison and johanson 2007). since acoss and ccnr surveys did not focus on the gender specific dimensions of leaders, appropriate comparison was not possible. however, the fact that no significant gender differences were detected in terms of access to the internet as well as icts uptake resonates with the overall national trend in australia (abs 2007) and suggests that ict related gender inequality (in terms of access to the internet) may have narrowed in recent years (willis and tranter 2006). the lack of significant differences in email usage between male and female leaders supports the finding of wasserman and richmond-abbott (2005) but disputes the finding of boneva and kraut (2002). intra-organizational interactions pattern of male leaders revealed that usage of email had superseded face to face mode of interactions. perhaps, it partially explains why more male leaders perceived of ict being beneficial towards supplementing ways of interactions compared to female leaders. this finding is of particular significance because as truong et al (1993) pointed out, perceived benefits can be more significant than the ict itself. consequently, female leaders might not bother to build their ict skills, if they do not see ict as being useful (bratteteig and verne 1997). the aggregate pattern of email based organizational interactions supports the view of email being more useful tool than websites for smaller community organizations (hart et al 2005). the significant differences in terms of various barriers to the adoption of icts indicate that more female leaders desire technical support and skills enhancement opportunities than male leaders. this finding is consistent with the viewpoint that the skills to utilize ict are more important than physical access to ict (manzo and pitkin 2007). moreover, no reported use of podcasting and videoconferencing imply that complex and evolving nature of ict may compromise the ability of smaller community organizations to adopt newer icts (merkel et al 2007). in addition, the lack of perceived benefits associated with the newer icts may have actually resulted in the avoidance of such ict. the fact that the majority of leaders didn’t consider ‘high cost’ and the ‘lack of financial support’ as barriers to ict uptake implies that the focus on ict specific financial assistance as a strategy to overcome digital divide (mcnutt 2008) may be inappropriate in the context of ecos. instead, a strategy that concentrates on building skills of not only leaders (female as well as male) but also of the members/volunteers affiliated with organizations (where possible) may be more relevant in the context of ecos. some of the other reported barriers to ict uptake reflect on the complexities within the notion of digital divide. in line with the assertion of van dijk (2005), gender differences in terms of level of motivation (other priorities) versus willingness to brush-up skills (not enough opportunities), have-nots (cannot afford) versus want-nots (not necessary), and dropouts (tried but no longer using icts) versus evaders (lack of time or interest) were also evident from the survey findings. revisiting the research questions, it is clear that except for access to the internet and uptake of icts (email, websites); gender mattered in how leaders perceived benefits associated with icts and the barriers to benefit from ict uptake. bridging these differences will be increasingly important, as the leaders of community organizations need to build capabilities to effectively utilize ict. depending on the scope of organizational objectives and activities, it might well be the case that ict uptake may not be necessary for every eco, and more importantly, male and female leaders certainly do not have to have the same level of access to ict and utilization skills. however, as ict become increasingly ubiquitous in an organizational context, women led ecos that are either not able to or not willing to keep up with the ict could be at risk (if not already) of further digital isolation, and consequently, might reinforce already existing gender inequalities further. although the exploratory nature of this paper was limited in scope, the findings did provide a glimpse of icts uptake amongst ecos in perth. in-depth exploration of the nature of technical support needed and the purpose of ict uptake in the future can provide useful insights towards overcoming the gender dimensions of digital divide 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(2003) demystifying the digital divide. scientific american, august 2003, 42-47. wasserman, i. m. and m. richmond-abbott (2005) gender and the internet: causes of variation in access, level and scope of use. social science quarterly, 86(1), 252-270. weare, c., w. e. loges and n. oztas (2005) does the internet enhance the capacity of community associations? in van den besselaar, p., g. de michelis, j. preece and c. simone [eds.] communities and technologies (pp 1-18). the netherlands: springer. west, c. and d. zimmerman (1987) doing gender. gender and society, 1(2), 125-52. willis, s. and b. tranter (2006) beyond the ‘digital divide’ internet diffusion and inequality in australia. journal of sociology, 42(1), 43-59. role of community informatics in socio-cultural transformations in russia and the cis the journal of community informatics, (2004), vol. 1, issue 1, pp. 84-88 role of community informatics in socio-cultural transformations in russia and the cis sergei stafeev centre of community networking and information policy studies (ccns), st. petersburg, russia < sstafeev@mail.ru > preface the last decade is marked by the intense growth of the social sciences in russia, expressed in the sharp increase in number of publications, and the volume of research projects, translations and periodic editions, scientific forums of different levels, and theses among others. especially all this concerns investigations using the different interdisciplinary approaches, non-traditional research instruments and methodologies. the evident trend toward inter-disciplinary integration in modern social investigations are clearly the “objective processes”, reflecting the external and determining circumstances of modern social and cultural processes and equally resulting in the requirement for the use of non-traditional research tools, a change in the researcher’s perspectives and in the approach to the interpretation of results. the single object (the so-called “singularity” characteristic of the case-study methodology) and also the micro-level of social processes and institutions can be seen to be the focus of many recent investigations. as experience has shown, such methods allow one to work effectively in the new russian social reality characterized by a plurality of social practices, values, lifestyles, cultures, and ways of communication. community informatics (ci)—an interdisciplinary research approach linking the wide circle of specialists from the subject areas of information and communication technologies, management, social planning, social administration and some others—has just recently become known to russian specialists. in june 2003 within the framework of the international conference “building the information commonwealth: information technologies and prospects of civil society development in commonwealth of independent states (cis) countries”1 a series of events were held (round table, workshop, meeting of the working group) for the presentation of ci ideas and methodologies to the researchers from cis and other participants of the conference. the discussions were carried out by the recognized leaders of international ci, particularly prof. michael gurstein, chairman of the global network of ci researchers2, prof. michel menou, leading the series of research ci projects in the countries of latin america and prof. wal taylor, head of the internet academy, australia. at the same time at the conference a book entitled community informatics: community network. prospects. approaches. tools. part 13 was presented. this book is up to the present moment is the only book in russian reflecting the different (theoretical and practical) aspects of ci. during the past year the different questions of “applicability” of ci theory and practice to the current social and cultural situation of cis countries have been regularly discussed within the framework of a 1 http://www.communities.org.ru/conference 2 http://www.ciresearch.net 3 http://ci-text.researcher.at mailto:sstafeev@mail.ru community informatics in russia & the cis 85 specialized mail list, as well in non-formal discussions of the cis participants of the ci research network. here we’ll try to analyze the results of these discussions and also the general problem area of applicability ci theory and practice in the cis region. is it possible to talk about “research in local communities” in relation to contemporary post-soviet social reality? a principle position of the author of this article is to suggest that russia is a country with a qualitatively different, compared to the western world, set of economic and political institutions, and a country where the introduction of the neo-liberal model is manifestly following a line of borrowing the terminology, but not the real content of new social processes and institutions. this statement is based on the very considerable research undertaken in recent years, and in particular, the work of s. kyrdina (2000). for example, if we speak about the real content of the modern “market mechanism” of post-soviet russia (and also including the majority of the cis countries) on the one hand it is possible to talk about the domination of pseudo-market forms of the relations (nureev 2000), and on the other hand – that this name does not reflect the character of this social phenomenon (as an example, “our joint-stock companies are jointstock companies only in form”(nureev 2000)). addressing the main field of the research interests of ci—the application of information and communication technologies (icts) at the “local” level for the purposes of local social and economic development—we should in the first place observe that for the most part current ict projects are financed by the state (so-called e-government is largely directed to the activities and operations of the state administrative bodies). in our previous work we have tried to show the principal dangers of such an unbalanced approach especially in the russian context, leading as it appears to do to the further strengthening of a closed group of people (the local elite) which is often not really interested in social development or in the instrumentation of effective social policy (stafeev 2003). it seems appropriate to show here how different leading social researches are formulating the real purpose of the current informational and wider social policy in russia, i.e. towards the maintenance of stability in society for the convenience of the governing elite (and therefore it is by no means concerned to address a support for socially unprotected and vulnerable groups in the general population) (danilov 2003). these circumstances place the researcher following ci principles in a difficult situation that requires not only professionalism and a non-standard way of thinking but also a distinctly civically oriented (and wider – an ethical) position. a high level of corruption characteristic of the majority of the post-soviet countries, which has now been transformed into an on-going and stable system of societal relations, is widely recognized. as a rule specific “contract relations” appear to be in the process of being established between entrepreneurs and state executives and in this case the relations between state executives and entrepreneurs are often one of becoming long-term business partners (radaev 1998). at the local level the electoral power as a rule is gravitating toward identifying itself with local communities (stafeev 2003), with self-government in its true and full form and at the same time with the inheritance from the soviet day’s secrecy towards information and to making decisions without consultations with local citizens or with procedures of such consultations which are very formal. taking all this into account it can be said that one of the main difficulties of social studies in russia is connected to the fact that very often using the traditional “western” terminology does not reflect the essence of the existing social processes or phenomena. 86 the journal of community informatics as a most simple example of such mismatching of terminology related to the field of ict research we can use some programs of e-government at the level of municipalities. it is possible to say that the state lends support to the institutions of self-government in order to increase their efficiency and openness but probably it would be more true to say that a big corporation – i.e. the state – informatizes its affiliation through “municipal institution xyz joint stock company”. we can, with a high degree of certainty, foresee wide use of sophisticated municipal information systems (e.g. created within the framework of the federal target programs of “electronic russia”) for personal benefit and also for enhancing inequality (of property, information and so on) at the local level4. under such conditions the position of the social researcher as an individual citizen becomes most important: rejecting the status of courtier counselors and ideological legitimators of the existing order with the researcher in this instance taking the role of social critic interested not only in formal studies of the efficiency of this or that system, or this or that ict project, but also trying to get outside to observe the real state of affairs. what in reality are the performed ict projects bringing into the everyday lives of ordinary citizens, members of local community? and here, according to the author’s opinion, lies the potentially high value of using the ci approaches in our countries – and principally through the humanitarian, value-dependent direction of these studies. an underlying but most set of criteria for upon carrying out ci research would appear to be those developed by un human development index (hdi). without touching on details concerning the methods of the hdi design and calculation, it is important to point to the exoteric reliability and objectivity of this index including anticipated life-span, literacy of the adult population, amplitude of primary, secondary and higher education coverage, the special indicator of material well-being based on real gdp per capita and so on. summarizing the factors of this index, the task of all the development projects is to increase gratification of three main human needs: to live a long and healthy life, to acquire knowledge, and to have access to the resources for providing a normal standard of living. during recent years our foreign colleagues have demonstrated a series of examples of high-level socially directed analyses, far from the standard formulations and general positivistic statements. an example might be the discussion of an “effective use” rather than a “digital divide” approach directed against superficial understanding of modern situation in the world concerning ict use (gurstein 2003). ci and diversity of information experience unlike its “research twin” – informatics of organizational systems (mis) ci is based on the principal acceptance of the importance of non-formalizable (or formalizable with difficulty) information in undertaking studies in local communities, which in turn allows for a re-interpretation of managerial rationality using direct speech, non-formal cultural practices, non-explicit social interactions (or “voices of the subcultures”). the attention of the researcher appears to be directed not only to the research itself, to the analysis of channels of creation, consuming and transfer of information but also to investigation of specifics of using of technical means in concrete socio-cultural circumstances. in this connection, studies of the independent (and therefore mostly local) sources of information—the so-called community media—acquire very considerable significance as for example, local radio stations, community networks, local cable television etc. it is well known that the post-industrial (“information”) society in its contemporary version develops on the basis of very serious changes in social and personal psychology. all the spheres of people’s life, beginning 4 see examples in (2001). municipal management of economy in the russian federation: results of investigation and recommendations. moscow, tacis. community informatics in russia & the cis 87 from the geopolitics of big national states and ending with everyday life are changing rapidly, being placed into new info-communicational realities and global networks. it is also widely accepted that the information revolution – the internet, communication satellites, “knowledge-based economy”, has resulted in a growing inability by governments to control information flows and opportunities for everyone to get, through the internet, access to unlimited knowledge. there is, however, a further global process that also can be positively called the information revolution: it is radical change in the content of information flows. there is no doubt that mass media are becoming more diversified, dynamic, engrossing and entertaining. at the same time the mass media is rapidly becoming more commercialized and dependent on advertising and advertisers. at the other end of this cord are located the consumers of these information flows, urban populations, “the inhabitants of the global village.” outside the limits of this “cnn galaxy” can be found those different groups and individuals who are being marginalized with relation to the “flows of power, resources and innovations” (in terminology of manuel castells): cultural minorities, communities trying to keep the traditional way of living, people without education and so on. this divide is very rigid and overcoming this depends not only on the accessibility of technical means but also on correct policy of being able to use the new opportunities presented by icts, in efforts towards the creation of adequate “content”. the problem of the development of independent information sources is extremely topical for the cis region. such independent information systems can become the centers of real local development, sources of innovations for the development of social capital of the territory. but this requires careful investigations that might give an opportunity to suggest the appropriate strategy and tactics for the support and realization of such projects. ci and state informational policy while reasoning about the limits of ci applicability in the post-soviet space, it seems necessary to ask the question about the practical use of ci results and in particular about their use for influencing and “correcting” the results of state policy in the field of informatisation. one of the most probable areas would be in using a ci methodology for “interactive monitoring” of state ict programs. historically in russia large-scale state programs (the federal target program “electronic russia” is an example) have never had mechanisms or actors for monitoring their performance or output. that is why, for example, there is so little flexibility or “reflexivity” (responsiveness) in such programs. it often happens that some program elements are found to be defective or simply unneeded, but there is nobody in a position to provide a systematic monitoring and feedback on these programs to make this known at the level of execution. understanding of this circumstance might help the authorities to see in ci a highly effective methodology of alternative (independent) “interactive monitoring” capable of fixing, measuring and analyzing the technological and socio-cultural factors which appear in the course of ict programs realization and which usually stay outside the “attention focus” of the specialists responsible for results estimation within the program itself. such a role requires not only constant reflection towards analytical prescriptions supportive of multiparadigmatic and interdisciplinary approaches, but also collaboration with civil society institutions which are themselves capable not only of impartially criticizing state policy but also of developing strategies and methods for constructive cooperation. 88 the journal of community informatics references cited (2001). municipal management of economy in the russian federation: results of investigation and recommendations. moscow, tacis. danilov, f. n. 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(2003). informational policy of russia: view from the side of civil society. geneva, unece. preface ci and diversity of information experience ci and state informational policy   free internet as an agent of community transformation  jocelyn williams school of communication, unitec institute of technology, new zealand < jwilliams@unitec.ac.nz >  frank sligo department of communication and journalism, massey university, new zealand < f.sligo@massey.ac.nz > catherine wallace department of communication and journalism, massey university, new zealand < c.m.wallace@massey.ac.nz >   abstract does the internet empower communities or perpetuate the status quo? can universal internet access resolve education, employment, and other social gaps? we report on our longitudinal assessment of low income community access to free internet in new zealand, in terms of new internet users’ (1) community belonging, (2) internet connectedness, and (3) civic engagement. findings show internet connectedness may have only a minimal impact on community capacity due to constraints such as family transience, difficult domestic circumstances, inadequate project resourcing, and poor literacy. internet ubiquity may not be a strategically useful social objective unless contextual limitations are recognised and addressed.   inroduction an intriguing book title by contemporary british artist damien hirst is cited by john naisbitt in high tech/high touch: i want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone. one to one. always. forever. now. (hirst, cited in naisbitt, 2001, p. 28) in an era of seemingly omnipresent cell phones, text messaging, ‘pxt’ and new generation videophones, widespread technological convergence, and digitisation and computer-mediated communication, hirst’s bug-eyed vision of hyper-connectivity aptly expresses the communications technology zeitgeist. naisbitt describes hirst’s title as “an almost perfect metaphor for the internet, and for how most of us feel as we stay connected through cell phones, e-mail, and modems” (naisbitt, 2001, p. 29). he goes on to argue though that our increasing reliance on all kinds of technology is causing us to “live our lives distanced and distracted” (ibid., p. 28). as we seek to become increasingly engaged with the world via technology, we afford less time to traditional face-to -ace interactions. naisbitt’s argument typifies concern about changes in socialisation that appears related to a global proliferation of advanced communications technologies. interested in investigating whether such pessimism is warranted, in 2003 we began to research community outcomes of computers in homes (cih), a new zealand scheme in which free computers and internet access are given to selected low-income, non-internet households for a very small joining fee. our goal in this longitudinal study is to contribute to scholarly and practitioner understanding of the interface between information and communication technologies (icts) and ‘community’[1], in a setting where little in-depth research has occurred. our orientation in framing this study is somewhat critical, for while not wishing to fault the communitarian philosophy, purpose and strategic approach of this free internet scheme, we have also become aware of situational factors that can compromise its benefits. in this article we review the literature concerning community capacity and the internet, providing background on the ict strategy of the new zealand government, before presenting our early findings and conclusions.   the community building question of particular interest for our study are the claims of, for example, the new zealand government, that icts are an imperative in strengthening communities, and on the other hand the view that icts add so much pace to our lives that there is no time left for ‘connections’, and social fabric suffers. this observation implies that digitally-mediated forms of connection are inauthentic, or at least much less desirable than face-to-face interactions. the latter view is typical of discourse on the sceptical side of the debate, although it is vigorously disputed (quan haase, wellman, witte, & hampton, 2002; wellman & gulia, 1999) and vulnerable to challenge on the basis that it represents a value judgement about what ‘connecting’ actually means. yet trenchant criticism comes from such as noam chomsky, who asserts that the internet is a tool of totalitarian ideology and the cause of social fragmentation, commenting “it’ll be used as another technique for control and manipulation, and for keeping people in their roles as mindless consumers of things they don’t really want” (chomsky, mitchell & schoeffel, 2002, p. 278). others ask whether the digital divide is a cause du jour, and whether addressing it might be beneficial to groups such as business and academia more than the digitally marginalised (luyt, 2004; rampersad, 2004). why not talk about a healthcare divide instead? shepheard (2004) and others (green, 2001; lasen, n.d.) point out that public anxiety about the effects of digital communications is one in a long tradition of moral panics over technological innovations. lasen has researched mobile telephony and compared its diffusion with the introduction of landline telephony, and found similarities in public response to these ict innovations despite the fact that they arrived a century apart: the launch and spread of wireless phones have aroused some fears, as happened with … landline phones. a certain amount of ‘moral panic’ about its effects ensues [sic] the adoption of many new technologies. some of these fears are similar in both cases: threats to … health, danger of addiction, the decline of traditional interactions, the loss of interest in taking part in social activities, or inconsiderate behaviour. others are new, such as the privatisation of public space, the intrusion of work into the private sphere, or … increased possibilities for control (p. 42). lasen’s point is that, to a large extent, public anxiety over icts is a normal part of the diffusion process. like lasen, lelia green refers to “internet moral panic” (green, 2001) as “part of the ritual cycle of panics surrounding new technologies” (citing marshall, 1997). hughes and hans (2001), assessing research on the impact of the internet on family life, cite a historical study of the automobile and the telephone in the early 20th century: fischer found “numerous accounts that parallel the current debates”. in 1926, for example, a “meeting called to discuss whether modern inventions help or hurt character and health included the following questions: ‘does the telephone make men more active or more lazy?’ [and] ‘does the telephone break up home life and the old practice of visiting friends?’” (1992, in hughes & hans, 2001, ¶4). ‘diffusion of innovation’ theory (rogers, 1995) proposes five innovation characteristics (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability), with commentators such as li (2004) noting that the diffusion model has been criticised for its pro-innovation bias. the theory predicts that a proportion of a population, possibly either risk-averse or isolated (as for example, socially or economically), remain resistant in the uptake of a technology. a degree of scepticism about the supposed benefits of a technology is expected from some—such as those who have neither a mobile phone nor the desire for one. also, because pricing constraints dictate high costs for technologies when first launched, the less well off, the less educated, and those lacking interest, constitute a persistent “tail-end” group. thus concern about consequences of ict innovations, together with an access gap (such as the digital divide) are to be expected. however, even the chief architect of these principles, everett rogers, has commented that in the case of the internet and mobile phones, “new technologies that will have profound impacts are evolving very quickly … with promises to intensify the already clamorous cacophony of cyber-chatter in our ever-shrinking planet” (martinez, 2003). there is a sense of resignation here about a significant downside to the ict revolution. possibly a generational factor is involved in all this anxiety and scepticism. marc prensky has provided a fresh metaphor for today’s young—“digital natives”, those who have grown up with digital technologies and comfortable with them. “digital immigrants” are those (often teachers and parents) who must learn new ways of thinking and behaving in a digital environment, as if learning a new culture (2001, p. 1). prensky points to a fundamental shift in both behaviours and cognitive function, with implications for teaching and learning among today’s generation. perhaps the digital immigrants express most concern about the internet’s impact. so is there a ‘right’ in this debate? should the evangelists who dismiss the risks of icts to community life, or the unbelievers who remain unconvinced about the benefits move us more? does it matter? we think it does matter, given the large-scale investments in a digital future by key sectors including government, business, and education. and as noted in a recent pew internet and american life project report, “technological change is inevitable, and it will result in both beneficial and harmful outcomes” (fox, quitney-anderson, & rainie, 2005, p. 47). continued research is needed so that social change via icts becomes clearer. we acknowledge some inclination towards the sceptics’ arguments, noting that a recent meta-analysis of the relationship between social capital and icts “suggests that a degree of ‘analytical scepticism’ should be extended to those advocating the deployment of ict for creating social capital” (pigg & crank, 2004, p. 69). we have argued before that a binary paradigm of access, as in “haves” and “have nots”, is an unhelpful approach to the digital divide (williams, sligo, & wallace, 2004), as have others, like eszter hargittai, in the face of attempts to perpetuate the importance of access (novak & hoffman, 1998). hargittai (2004) argues that we should distinguish between using the internet anywhere, using it at home, and using it through a high-speed connection, since these different access criteria determine different kinds of inequality. accessing the internet at home, for example, permits a freer approach to web surfing than is likely at one’s workplace or in a public library. therefore, through community-based research an integrated assessment of the community-building dimension of increased internet access may occur. a priority for governments and associated agencies must then be to address the complex matter of access, and to neutralise barriers and risks. the new zealand government is taking an assertive position regarding the role of icts in the nation’s future. according to the government’s 2004 digital strategy draft policy document, universal access to “the power of ict to harness information” for universal “social and economic gain” is the vision for the immediate future (digital strategy: a draft new zealand digital strategy for consultation (ds), 2004, p. 2). “internet everywhere”–symbolising wireless internet and its promise of universal reach–is also to become a strategic goal for new zealand, in the sense that those ‘in’ the digital divide, are to be systematically extracted from it. we now will review the universal access goal within new zealand’s digital strategy, and reflect on it using findings from our research within three ict-targeted communities.   the vision of internet ubiquity in new zealand the new zealand government launched its draft digital strategy mid-2004 for consultation, aiming to present a final document to cabinet in october 2004. according to david cunliffe, associate minister for information technology, this strategy was to guide the government’s work in positioning new zealand as “the hub of the south pacific” (community consultation, 30 july 2004) and “a world leader at using information and technology to realise our economic, social and cultural goals” (ds, p. 2) over the next three to four years. ideally it will bring to fruition the government’s commitment to bring the benefits of information and communications technology to all new zealanders – to create a society where ict empowers everyone to create, access, utilise and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals and communities to achieve their full potential (ds, foreword). the strategy sets out to be holistic in its scope, addressing not just economic but also social and cultural goals. it is also intended to serve as a whole-of-government strategy, and so was developed by several central government departments, along with local government input from the organisation local government new zealand, and was coordinated by the ministry of economic development. its hope is to formulate a framework that will foster so-called "smarter" uptake of ict by government, business and communities. an ambitious agenda includes completion of project probe, a provincial broadband extension project aiming to ensure that all schools and their communities can access broadband by the end of 2004 (ds, p. 95). cunliffe admits “we can’t have computers in every home tomorrow, much as we’d like to”. however, within the broader ict vision small-scale schemes intended to close new zealand’s clearly apparent digital divide (archer, 2004) have been endorsed, including computers in homes (cih). it is of interest that government-funded initiatives such as cih are viewed uncritically as a means to “seize the opportunities for increased prosperity and greater social cohesion that the effective use of the tools of ict can deliver” (ds, foreword). implicit in such rhetoric is an assumption that social cohesion will necessarily result from universal ict access. findings in some studies endorse this view, while others are less positive (jackson et al., 2004; kraut et al, 1998; shah, kwak & holbert, 2001). the issue remains controversial. our study traces participant experiences in the cih scheme. the cih programme was initiated by the n.z. 2020 communications trust, financially supported by the n.z. ministry of education, supported by volunteers from universities, polytechnics and community groups, and provided with paid support technicians. the 2020 communications trust receives sponsorship from local government and business sources. a two-year pilot began in july 2000, based in schools in cannons creek (porirua) and panmure bridge (south auckland). families in two rural schools in the north island's east coast were included in 2001, and in the same year wellington's newtown school was added. the variety of such applications now makes it desirable for longitudinal research into their effects, such as the current study, to be undertaken. specifically, in each location 25 families are given recycled pentium 75-100 computers with windows 95, ms works, ms word, a package of shareware educational games, modem, internet connection and a phone line where necessary. worldwide, such recycling projects aim to democratise access to icts; studies show that children’s learning can be extended into the home; literacy can be developed; and communication between home and school may be enhanced (zardoya & fico, 2001). while it has been said “the success of computers in homes is not disputed, but the task of consolidating the programme into government policy has not yet been achieved” (das, 2003, p. 8), we are interested in probing the lived experiences of those involved to scrutinise the ‘community transformation’ rationale. the strategy of having the cih initiative spearheaded by a trust, bankrolled by the ministry of education, and supported by enthusiastic volunteers looks on the surface to build on the strengths of diverse groups. yet there would appear to be the potential for systemic failure should any of these entities lose funding, enthusiasm or momentum, or should significant differences in vision or direction emerge among these disparate parties. ultimately a holistic plan as ambitious as the nz government’s digital strategy requires direction and resources of a magnitude which in the nz context can come only from government sources. however, experience has been that building community capacity depends on a systematic and coherent central (or possibly local) government plan based on investment over a sufficient period of time for results to be seen. the leadership role of the principal would thus appear to be critical to the success of the program through his (or her) involvement in such areas as publicising the scheme, finding ways to involve and encourage both parents and children, and offering ongoing support to families involved. thus we, as researchers, were aware that the key leader in the cih innovation would be the principal of each school, and in each case his or her own belief about the potential value of cih would probably constitute the difference between success and failure.   the community connection study findings from our study of internet and community in three suburbs in new zealand’s largest city, auckland (population one million) are emerging in stages. our study participants are new to the internet experience; are almost entirely low-income families of school-age children (selected by the schools), and they have become engaged in the research through the expanding cih scheme which aims to get low-income people online[2]. as our research orientation is primarily qualitative, we prioritise the internet user perspective; data has therefore been gathered principally by seeking the insights of adult family members in extended interviews. other elements of our snapshot of twenty-six volunteer participants at the preliminary stages (early 2004) of their internet access at home, are researcher field notes from community and other meetings, and interviews with project leaders and champions. analysis of interview transcripts has been conducted using open coding (strauss & corbin, 1998) so that themes relating to dimensions of the internet experience can emerge. the interview also incorporates survey questions permitting numerical analysis referred to later. here, we limit our discussion to initial phase results obtained between november 2003 and april 2004.   the sample group parents or caregivers of young children were approached for voluntary involvement in this research. twelve of the initial 26 came from one school community, thirteen from another, and one parent is from a third school. all participants (n= 26) characteristic comment   85% mid-20s to mid-40s     comparatively young parents   reflects the primary (junior) school community population from which the sample is drawn   77% female, 23% male     generally female   women caregivers tended to take responsibility for the computer at home   50% no formal qualifications     low educational attainment   low socioeconomic status of these communities   61% below nz average household income     below average household incomes   as expected in “low-decile” areas   42% maori 35% european 23% pasifika[3]   higher percentages of maori and pasifika families than nz overall    reflects social characteristics of these suburbs   connectivity: three ways we aim to assess interactions between three dimensions of connectivity in a population of inexperienced internet users. our three dimensions, as shown above, include (1) neighbourhood belongingness, (2) internet connectedness and (3) civic engagement. it is believed that the first and third types are linked: civic engagement, producing strengthened community, is a by-product of networks of community members who feel comfortable in their communities, as argued in the literature on “social capital”. social capital is theorised as a dimension of community function inherent in strong networks of reciprocity, and is said to be in decline in developed countries (putnam, 1995a, 1995b, 1996, 2000; stone, 2001; winter, 2000a, 2000b). as explained previously, claims are asserted in favour of harnessing icts to rebuild community capacity. our remaining dimension, internet connectedness, may impact on the other two, for example, in enhancing people’s sense of belonging to a community of interest, increasing neighbourhood connectivity, and providing tools to enhance civic engagement. research on linkages between internet use and civic engagement has shown that “overall internet use was found to be positively … related to civic engagement” (shah, kwak & holbert, 2001, p. 149), although the motive for using the internet is more important than the amount of time spent online. in particular, an informational motive is “related positively to social capital production” whereas a social-recreational motive “appears to diminish [it]” (p. 154). yet, we wonder, might internet use undermine neighbourhood networks in favour of online networks, thus eroding local social capital? to draw conclusions on such questions and produce as rounded and robust an assessment as possible, our data on individuals’ digital connectivity encompasses goals (motives) in using the internet, activities, time online, and several more. we now summarise our early findings on the three dimensions of connectivity.   neighbourhood ties there is an apparent disjuncture between our participants’ sense of local community, and that of community leaders such as school principals involved in driving the ict project (williams, sligo, & wallace, 2004). one principal views his role as transformative, and his mission to lift community aspirations, but the new internet users themselves display “a strong sense of local community and a pride in belonging, despite transience, travel distance and lack of property ownership” (p. 13). our finding arises from analysis of survey variables modelled, in part, on the metamorphosis study in los angeles (ball-rokeach et al., n.d.), in which “belonging” was assessed on indicators such as home ownership: “increased investment into a community by owning a home is thought to increase…the likelihood of belonging” (appendix p. 5). yet although the large majority of our respondents rent their homes, have spent fewer than five years living in the neighbourhood, and travel a minimum of ten kilometres to work or for daily activities, we found strong indications of people very comfortable in their immediate neighbourhoods. two-thirds of our group felt quite proud or very proud of where they live, reported feeling positive or strongly positive about interacting with neighbours, and know a minimum of five neighbours by name and to talk to, with an average number reported of over nine. participant 25 reflects this neighbourly feeling: “we care about each other … you know the more i meet people here the more i stay here”. three quarters of the group agreed or strongly agreed that “i am very satisfied with the way things are going in my life these days”. on the other hand, a father regarded as a conspicuous success by his cih school in acquiring the skills to find a route out of his social environment reported i’m a born-again christian, and i was going to suggest not at all proud, but i think because of the situation i’m in and where i’m at i can see that this street here needs fixing up, needs pulling together … i’m here for a reason, to clean the street up and be drug-free, because it’s a predominant street for p and marijuana and … this is the bronx. he clearly wanted to live in better circumstances, and had mixed feelings about his neighbourhood. the school principal is convinced that the cih computer has been instrumental in the family’s transformation. we wonder if a number of factors including the man’s keen involvement in a popular charismatic church, sustained personal encouragement from the school principal, together with the arrival of the internet in the family, all contributed to the change.   internet connectedness our next layer of data is provided by questions concerning internet use. after a longer period of time using the internet our participants may demonstrate more ‘connectedness’ as they discover more ways in which to use the technology, so we are tracking this with interest. however in the early period of being online, we might expect a range of degrees of enthusiasm due to varying levels of confidence, interest, motivation, keyboard skill, and information literacy and digital literacy. we distinguish between the last two, given that people need to be educated to achieve better understanding of the digital knowledge management environment and its broader effects, as well as the more instrumental skills of information-searching and keyboard use. it has for example, been observed that “computers have the potential to engage youth in new types of mathematical and scientific thinking” (resnick, rusk, & cooke, 1998, p. 5), moving them beyond technical know-how to the use of computers as heuristic tools. to obtain a benchmark measurement of internet connectedness (to support the subjective process of assessing change through anecdotal evidence, and to compact a wide range of variables into a single rating for each user) we designed an internet connectedness index (ici). although such a rating is of limited validity outside our small sample, it produces a useful single index from 1-12, where 12 is a “high connector”.[4] we used eight items covering internet behaviours and attitudes we believe to be sufficiently comprehensive, including participants’ evaluation of the internet, internet dependency (how much one would miss it if it vanished), frequency online, and time spent on email. our ici offers an alternative method to measure internet connectedness, adding robustness to our findings through triangulation. it is also an instrument to be invoked again in phase 2 after later participants’ visits, revealing if any change has occurred. the indices appear to underscore our interview findings. for example, a ‘high connector’[5] participant has a phase 1 ici rating of 8.9, the highest index in the group. the ratings are interesting because they reinforce observations regarding which participants were already high connectors; a point expanded on below. in phase 1 of the study our six high connectors share other characteristics, such as sociability and confidence in interviews. analysis of survey data on “belonging” shows these individuals are interested in knowing their neighbours, and enjoy meeting and making friends with them. they are sufficiently familiar with their neighbours to know their names and say hello; and they were very unlikely to leave the neighbourhood. they were more likely to have visited or phoned someone just to talk (on the day of or the day prior to the interview), and were in the habit of phoning their families every day. these factors suggest that a predisposition to enjoying engagement with people generally might predict higher levels of internet connectedness, a possibility briefly considered but rejected in the netville study in toronto (hampton & wellman, 2000). of further interest is that these high connectors are also substantial consumers of media, in particular television (three to four hours per day) and radio (more than five hours per day). five individuals are in the low connector category (scoring an ici of less than 5 out of 12). to this group we add a further five people who were either unable to connect to the internet by the time of their first interview despite being part of the cih scheme (and for whom therefore an ici calculation was not possible), or for whom there was missing data for various reasons. we sought patterns in the data for these ten participants but results were less conclusive. these respondents on the whole, knew fewer neighbours to talk to than the high connectors, but there was a slight tendency to report being interested in knowing neighbours, an enjoyment of meeting them and a sense that it is easy to become friends with them. they, too, mostly were unlikely to leave the neighbourhood. however although they were unlikely to have visited anyone on the day of, or the day prior to, the interview, they too regularly phoned their families, either weekly or daily. low connectors spend little time as media consumers and demonstrated one or more characteristics that may explain their low connector rating. these include less self-confidence; preoccupation with family matters such as young children or an unwell child; having a rental home viewed by potential buyers, thus facing uncertainty over where to live; adjustment to unemployment; juggling of two jobs plus children; being a grandmother and caregiver of two girls; and fearing the internet. such pressing contextual factors may outweigh a predisposition towards social engagement generally, and erode either motivation or time available for media such as television and the internet. the ici data may be put to community use in reports back to schools. for example, one school featured a smaller proportion of low connectors than in the whole group. this may be suggesting conditional success in “bedding in” the cih programme, in this setting, a finding of potential interest to school managers. yet selection error may have occurred, so that simply by chance those involved in cih in this instance were confident and motivated in working with technology. on the other hand, at a second site a high proportion of participants had low ici scores. in other words, more participants at this site were less connected, which may signal that more support is needed for the cih parents to enable them to more fully use their internet connection. on the whole our respondents regarded facilitation of family and social networks as exciting and positive. our findings reflect other studies in underlining that email continues to be “the dominant single activity on the internet"[6] (lebo, 2004, p. 13) , and number 1 of “the top ten most popular internet activities”[7] (p. 29). furthermore, a “clicking cousins” phenomenon may be discerned among internet users, since email “helps extend family networks” (horrigan & rainie, 2002, p. 14). the university of southern california’s annenberg centre for the digital future claims that “internet users have healthy social lives” (lebo, 2004, p. 100) and that they spend more time in person with friends than do nonusers. it has been suggested that the communication, or relationship-building, function of the internet may be more important than the information function of icts in building community (pigg & crank, 2004).   distanced and distracted? as earlier implied, john naisbitt’s assertion about families now “living together in isolation” (2001, p. 30) “distanced and distracted” (p. 28) disputes the metaphor of the television as the new family hearth. in his view, family members are more likely to be in their own rooms, listening to their choice of music or pursuing niche media interests. would our study find ict fostering undesirable household changes? our data-gathering included capturing narrative, asking questions about telephone and media use, and seeking participants’ perception of observed changes in their communication behaviours.   civic engagement the civic engagement section of our survey included questions on organisational involvement, volunteer or community work, and whether respondents felt their behaviours had changed since their first log-on. for example, had time spent watching tv decreased, stayed the same or increased? were they reading newspapers less, the same or more? were there differences in the amount of time spent visiting friends and family? on the whole, respondents were already little involved in civic activities like volunteering or community projects. around half had some involvement in sports clubs, and fewer than half belonged to a cultural or religious group. after having the internet installed, about one-quarter reported reading the newspaper less (although some were doing so online instead) and half were watching less television. this finding is congruent with the pew internet and american life project, which reported “fully one-quarter of internet users said that surfing the internet has led to a decrease in television time” and “…fourteen percent say the internet has decreased the time spent reading newspapers”. in the pew study, these proportions are greater among internet veterans (online for three years or more). a small number said family time had now increased (such as through all being together at the computer), and only one person said they had less time with family. however a quarter of the group now spent less time with friends, and about one-third were talking less on the telephone with friends and family, occasionally because the single household telephone line was employed by the internet. generally, internet use has slightly eroded civic engagement[8] in that respondents were now less actively engaged in maintaining social networks. however, just under half also reported that the internet had increased their feeling of connectedness with interpersonal networks, while our interviews add to the picture of civic engagement by highlighting potential community building. one example is a grandmother who anticipates the internet helping her because “i do a lot of marae[9] business… because i’m in the committee” (participant 23); the younger grandmother, our very high connector and focal point of family and neighbourhood, saying “it’s changed my way towards other parents… i’m online now to this other lady… i took one lady home that night, and, um, we were chatting away and it was really cool learning more and more and it’s like, keeping in touch more” (participant 25). some parents are more connected to their church communities through the internet; and at all three research sites the local school, the hub of the community, is strengthening its ties with parents by hosting the cih meetings and trying to encourage email contact with the school (although little of this interaction seemed to be occurring).   challenges to inclusion and the next steps phase 2 of the study involves follow-up discussions with the original participants, especially a sub-group of high connectors in the early stages of their internet experiences who are highly sociable, and a second sub-group of low connectors who may struggle to become more than that because of their circumstances. we continue to meet as many of these as possible, noting whether any changes occur over time. various unanticipated difficulties occurred in bringing low-income families into contact with icts. even an apparent strength of the cih scheme whereby more digitally literate parents mentor the less skilled, is potentially problematic, and may be too much to ask of participant parents. one mentor reported of another parent who, “instead of listening to what he was supposed to do, he went and hooked himself up with xtra” (the wrong internet service provider, so he was billed for internet time). “so,” said participant 9, the mentor: he’s wasted a whole lot of time… i’ve been to his house, i’ve asked him, i’ve rung him…weekly…, asked him if everything was going all right, and then he rings me up and tells me he’s got this bill for xtra …. and i am not sure whether that was because i’m a woman and he’s got a thing about women telling him what to do ….or he just….went and did what he wanted….. i mean i really don’t know where he was coming from”. barriers also include lack of confidence, frustrating hardware and software, slow dial-up access and slow download,[10] inadequate telephone connections and cabling, and anxiety over perceived internet dangers. for instance, concerns exist among some interviewees, particularly older ones, that the internet represents some kind of threat to their family lives. although participant 24 comments the more i use it the more i see the possibilities you know … i’m talking about the wealth of information on it … like booking online and all that talking through email you know … he is also anxious about rushing into it: but ohh at the same time i’m wary. i just want to work my way through and have a look. i’m not going to rush into things. because i don’t really understand it. his concern is also that actually i try and … make sure i don’t let the internet take over my family… i don’t want to be like that – i just want to use it. …. because i think the more i rely on it the more i want to watch it all the time, you know … because … other people get too involved in it, and then their families suffer. … i got to be careful, i got to be – have a balance, that’s what i mean. similarly, a grandmother who cares for her young granddaughters and is therefore the responsible party in regard to the cih computer, wants it to benefit the family but views it as somehow dangerous. not only is it behind a closed bedroom door rather than in a family living area on the day of the interview, it is too far from the telephone jack for the internet cable to plug in, and she remarks no, i heard all about this internet – some time i don’t even really… but i got to use it for school…i want to be careful of these two you see… i think they got a fair idea of what it’s about, this internet – these two here…just want to find out more about it you see, because they know how to do it all right, even her [meaning the 7 year old]… we therefore signal several challenges to project leaders and government departments that look to community ict projects as achieving “the full benefits of ict… through the widest participation” (ds, p. 8) because participation is the end point of a path that merely begins with putting the computer into someone’s home. thus, “it is now clear that technological tools themselves, no matter how well they are conceived and designed, are not enough” (resnick, rusk & cooke, 1998, p. 13). a careful balance must be struck between a governmental agenda for ict saturation aimed at social and economic transformation, and a loosely articulated intention to involve business and communities. the “transformative” power of the internet (ds, p.11) is reverently but uncritically invoked. moreover our government is set to pursue a strategy devolving ict leadership to communities themselves. in our view, this is the critical point. perhaps considerable community benefit will accrue from internet access, but only if it is so resourced that the community itself is not left to manage with minimal support. the government’s digital strategy relies heavily on a philosophy that the will, leadership and skill will arise from the grassroots: it is to be a devolutionary strategy. it seems to us, however, that questions need to be answered in view of research by the (us) pew internet and american life project showing that over half of americans without internet access have no plans to log on (rainie & packel, 2001). at two of our research sites, community leaders do view themselves as digital missionaries, even though the uninitiated appear content with their lot and have not yet recognised their digital baptism as a path to salvation. instead they view the computer quite pragmatically as another household convenience, a gadget—not necessarily investing it with powers to conjure up miracles, as some rhetoric seems to imply. if the gadget works, fine; if it does not work, well, we have other things to attend to in our lives… education to create understanding of the reasons why people should want internet access, or what they can do with it, is clearly lacking. the government admits it is missing too: “raising community awareness of ict” (ds, p. 59) is, reassuringly, listed as a particular role of central government. technological forms do not develop independently of the social, economic and political spheres; cannot be invoked as external agents; and do not themselves bring about predictable social change. rather, they are intrinsic to a social context including its economics, culture, political processes and history. people will do with the technology what suits them. we believe a transformative role for icts is a tall order without attention to government collaboration with businesses and communities. most particularly, our communities require significant resources for education (rather than ‘training’) of those targeted for ict assistance. perhaps as we continue to track our participants’ stories, they will equip themselves to make better use of their computers, but it is clear that the early connection period has had mixed success. insufficient resources are available to each school community to give more than minimal support to families who need hands-on and active coaching (such as by trained mentors) to continue to use their pc’s with success. we referred earlier to the need for digital literacy as well as information literacy. by way of example, the computer clubhouse concept (resnick, rusk & cooke, 1998) articulates the need for “technological fluency … not only knowing how to use technological tools, but also knowing how to construct things of significance with those tools” (p. 2). the clubhouse concept, a worldwide network of community access centres for inner-city youth aiming for participants to “learn to express themselves fluently with new technology” (p. 2) and organised by the computer museum in collaboration with the mit media lab, is being imported to new zealand. clover park middle school is to have a “purpose-built facility…[for] children aged 10 to 18 [to] create digital artwork, produce their own music cds, film, write and edit their own short movies, design websites and even build robots” (otto, 2004). so far as in other research, we have seen considerable enthusiasm among our participants for the way email facilitates social networks, at least in the early period of connection. however, we tend to agree that human nature doesn’t change, but social and technological progress tends to amplify its effects. simply put, the more ways we have to do what comes naturally, the more we do it. (bonabeau, 2004). one of the things that comes most naturally to humans is the desire to communicate; the internet amplifies our ability to do so (tyler, 2002). tyler makes the point that research is showing people how to “incorporate the internet into their social ‘toolkit’ and use it … to deal with personal and interpersonal issues in their lives” (p. 204). a predominant agenda in new zealand is for social transformation so that the country may compete more vigorously in economic terms. if this is to happen, a digital strategy will need to go beyond heightened social networking, easily available even to the non-initiated through email, to more advanced understanding of the digital environment required for entrepreneurial activity among the 37% of new zealand households equipped to link to the internet from home, as well as the remainder who are not (archer, 2004). anecdotal comment from a community worker we spoke to in connection with this research indicates that many households in the low-income area in which she works (and where many of our research participants live) already have a computer at home, but it is not used. further, low-income families who have had a brief taste of the internet become targets for marketers keen to sign them up to still-expensive broadband and more powerful computers, even though economic constraints are practically insurmountable for families such as participant 15 who remarks “this is the first time i’ve ever got a computer, and … i can’t afford it – i really can’t”. if not for cih with its free internet, this family would have remained unconnected – and may well revert to this, once the six months of free internet is up. neither ubiquity of access nor saturation of communities with broadband is enough. the new zealand government wishes to raise awareness of how icts can be transformative and expresses this in its digital strategy document. our research into computers in homes suggests that this programme has value in providing the most basic ict access, and it is being used by school communities to attempt to broaden people’s world-views. yet claims for community transformation need to be more rigorously assessed. in particular, the dimensions of such transformation must be more precisely articulated by its proponents: a vision of what a community could be, were it to be enhanced by ict, would provide a mechanism for moving communities toward positive change. is social capital really to be enhanced via access to new technologies, and if so, which claims can be justified and which cannot? researchers must continue to address such questions through longitudinal community research.   references archer, d. 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[1] “community” is here associated with a feeling of belonging in a geographical neighbourhood, meaning “place-based community” (meegan & mitchell, 2001, p. 2167) rather than “virtual communities” as first popularised by howard rheingold (1993). therefore we research community as neighbourhoods connected to a particular social context (the low socioeconomic urban primary school). however, we are also interested too in the broader, non-geographical networks that cohere to form other dimensions of community for individuals, households and neighbourhoods. [2] basic it training and technical support is made available, and certain expectations are spelled out in a family agreement such as, parents are to: give children up to one hour of supervised internet time per day, look after the computer, and train someone else to use it. [3] of pacific island origin. [4] our ici is based on one created for the metamorphosis study in los angeles (ball-rokeach, et al., n.d.), which featured eleven survey items, standardised to a 12-point scale and averaged for a single index. [5] for within-sample purposes a rating above 7 (out of 12) indicates a high level of internet connectedness, similar to the metamorphosis study, and a rating of under 5 suggests a ‘low connector’.       [6] it may be relevant to note here that in the pew internet and american life project series of studies “a majority of women in the group… tend to email more often than men” (horrigan & rainie, 2002). this is also true of the present study, which inevitably focuses on at-home mothers. the gender profile of our sample is 20: 6, women to men. [7] by percentage of people who report online weekly time with these activities: email and instant messaging top the rankings, with 90.4% of people spending time on these. [8] this finding may be related to the well-known “internet paradox” study (kraut, et al., 1998), in which in the early months, new users experienced increased depression and isolation; however follow-up work with the same participants found that this was a short-term effect (kraut, et al., 2002). [9] marae is a maori (new zealand indigenous) word that roughly translates as the sacred place of belonging where a tribal/kinship community meets for important occasions, discussions and rites of passage. it is a formal place of welcome, debate, discussion, and includes traditional buildings and a large area of open ground for welcome and ceremony. [10] these factors have led to families giving up their involvement in the cih programme; such instances lend weight to the view that “the binary division of the population between ‘online’ and ‘offline’ is misleading” (hargittai, 2004). increasingly present is the view that “the type of connection is more important than other digital divide demographics such as education, race or gender” and a refinement of the digital divide is required on the basis of many criteria, not least of which is a differentiation between use of dial-up and use of broadband (hargittai, 2004; kwak, skoric, williams & poor, 2003). hampton and wellman’s (2003) netville study of a wired suburb in toronto found that “always on” high speed internet enhances contact with one’s neighbours. high speed or broadband increasingly appears likely to be a prerequisite to positive internet experiences. a design theory approach to community informatics: community-centered development and action research testing of online social networking prototype david t bourgeois biola university <dave.bourgeois@biola.edu> thomas a. horan claremont graduate university <tom.horan@cgu.edu>. introduction there is an increasing array of information and communications technology (ict) aimed at improving societal well-being. as gurstein and horan (2005) note, these community information systems (cis) are designed and built for use by members of a community to support a host of different social, economic, and cultural goals, . this community can be based on a physical location, such as a system built for all the citizens in a particular town; or it can be virtual, such as a system built for everyone who likes a particular music group. when a community wishes to increase its members’ commitment and participation, many times a cis is proposed as a possible part of the solution. however, previous research has shown that the use of the internet does not necessarily have a positive effect on the social capital of a community. (kraut et al., 2002 and nie & erbring, 2000) these communities are therefore presented with a dilemma: how do they approach the development and implementation of an online system for their community? what are the success factors for these systems? what design process should be used? which features should be included in the system? this paper first reviews the information systems design theory (isdt) framework and then creates a framework for applying it to the development of a community information system. finally, it presents the field testing of a real-life cis through the lens of isdt and gives specific, concrete design recommendations for community information systems design and development. information systems design theory an information systems design theory is “a prescriptive theory based on theoretical underpinnings which says how a design process can be carried out in a way which is both effective and feasible” . it can be thought of as a complete package of guidance for designers facing particular sets of circumstances containing three interrelated elements: 1) a set of user requirements, 2) a set of system features, and 3) a set of principles deemed effective for guiding the process of development . the purpose of an isdt is to support the achievement of goals. because of this, it is crucial that the desired goals for the system being designed are well understood. how these goals (i.e., user requirements) are best gathered and understood is part of the isdt. because a design theory must be subject to empirical refutation, prototype construction is generally an output of design theory research. the use of the prototype will be the ultimate test of whether the information system meets its goals. there are two aspects of design theory, the design product (what are we designing?) and the design process (how do we design it?). the components of an isdt and their relationships are shown in figure 1. figure 1 information systems design theory . an isdt approach for community informatics when developing an isdt, the first question that must be asked is “what is the goal of our system?” this will inform the specification for the design product and the selection of the kernel theories needed to complete the design theory. the general scope of this current study is aimed at improving ‘community’ through community informatics. in this context, the focus is on the sense of community experienced (in terms of social capital) within a defined place-bound physical community the intellectual rubric for the analysis is ‘community informatics’, . community informatics represents a portfolio of approaches and tools for using information and communication technology to enhance communities, including but not limited to: creating telecentres to provide access for those who do not have it, providing community information via the web, providing online public services, providing education and training online, providing tools for community and regional planning, and so forth. as noted by keeble and loader (2001), a common driver for these improvements is community need, which can include economic, social and cultural goals. in this way civic goals may readily be translated into the drivers for community informatics systems. once the specific system goal(s) are identified, design theory then requires that we identify one or more “kernel theories” upon which the system is to be built. these kernel theories are the basis for the design of the system. in the sections below, we outline three cornerstone kernel theories—one related to the substance or essence specified by community development and two related to the community informatics processes for ensuring valued systems. kernel theories: social capital one of the most important needs of any community is social capital. social capital, like its counterpart, physical capital, is understood as a way of improving the life of the members of the community. specifically, it is the “connections between individuals—social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them” . two categories of social capital are recognized: bonding social capital, which is the connections between members of the same community; and bridging social capital, which is the connections between members of different communities. it is bridging social capital which allows different communities to interact and is absolutely essential for a diverse well-functioning society incorporating multiple communities. social capital is transferred within social networks. a social network is described in the scholarly literature as a set of people (or organizations) connected by social relationships, such as family, friendship, who are co-working or involved in information exchange. when interconnected computers connect people, a social network is formed that can increase social capital . the study of the impact of technology on social networks is well-documented. initial studies such as the homenet study and the stanford internet study supported the idea that technology, specifically the internet, led to a weakening of social networks. further research, however, disputed the findings of these studies. research done by the pew internet and american life project and later work by kraut and colleagues suggests a much more differentiated impact of the internet on social participation. the emerging middle ground is that the impact of social networks is very much a function of both intended design and subsequent use of such networks . kernel theories: community centered development in her book, online communities: designing usability and supporting sociability, preece introduces the idea of “community-centered development” (ccd). ccd is a methodology that involves the members of the community in a participatory design process with the developers. it is an evolutionary process that allows for the system to change as the community changes. as preece describes it, ccd has five distinct phases : phase 1: assess needs and analyze tasks. in this phase, developers and community members determine the unique information and communication needs of the community; phase 2: plan sociability. the next phase involves making decisions about how users will work with the site and how it will be managed; phase 3: design, implement, and test prototype. in this phase an initial community solution is designed and prototypes developed, including having members of the community test these and give feedback; phase 4: refine and tune prototype. based on feedback in phase 3, this phase involves refining and re-testing and continuing this process until users are satisfied that the community online features are as required; phase 5: welcome and nurture the community. the final phase is to publicize the online services, encourage their use, and obtain commitment from key members of the community to use the site. when developing an information system for a community, this community-centered development approach can be used as a guideline for the design process. application: design and implementation of an online social network during the spring of 2005, a community information systems prototype was developed at a small los angeles-area university. the community was comprised of the undergraduate commuter students at the university, which represented approximately one-third of the three thousand undergraduates registered for the 2004-2005 academic year. this community of students generally felt isolated due to the fact that a large majority of students are residents at this particular university. working with the director of commuter life and her team, the goals of the system were quickly identified: increase the social capital of the commuter students through the use of an online social networking system. using preece’s community centered development (ccd) methodology, the system designer met with members of the community to identify their specific needs. working to design the system to meet the community’s goal of increased social capital, several features were identified that would be included in the system. these included the ability to see pictures of each other, track activities and classes, and to identify friends. interestingly, the community members did not want a message board created. once the system was developed and tested, it was rolled out to members of the community as a prototype. seventy-eight students registered to participate as research subjects in the project, a smaller than hoped-for sample. these volunteers were randomly assigned to one of two groups: one group used the online system; a second group used a paper-based directory. surveys were distributed before the system was rolled out and again six weeks later. the surveys were used to assess the impacts of the system with two questions each on the components of social capital as defined by putnam: social networks, trust, mutual assistance, and norms of reciprocity. the principal investigator also interacted with the users during this time to understand how the system design affected the dynamics of community interaction. this project was intentionally designed for study within the isdt framework. by purposefully defining the goals of the system (increased social capital) and using kernel theories from the literature (social capital, ccd), a testable prototype was developed and the success of the system could be measured. encouraging system use during the initial two weeks of the project, the usage of the system was extremely low. inquiries by the principal researcher determined that this was due to the lack of a “critical mass” of users. the decision was made to go ahead and allow all students at the university to begin using the system. while this was not ideal, it was determined to be the course of action that would provide the best outcome to both the community and this research project. by expanding our user base, it was hoped that both user registrations and system use would increase. to encourage these new users to participate, the principal investigator followed a framework laid out by andrews, specifically to “build trust in the online community through building alliances with existing organizations” . this was done for commuters through an association with the collegium, a physical location on campus set aside for commuter students. for these new potential users, the researcher used the following methods to build their trust and encourage use: leaders of officially recognized campus clubs and associations were contacted and told about the system. the researcher encouraged them to log in and create an entry in the online system for their club. resident assistants were contacted and encouraged to create an online entry for the dorm floor that they represented. the researcher contacted the campus newspaper and received commitment to write an article about the system. this resulted in a front-page article about the system. the researcher held an online “scavenger hunt”, an interactive game in which the members of the online system had to use the system to get answers to questions. small prizes were offered for the first person to correctly answer the question and all correct respondents were entered in a drawing for a larger prize. finally, a pizza party was held, with free pizza and drinks for all members of the online system. the pizza party was also where the prizes from the scavenger hunt were awarded. the actions had their intended effect: each built the user base and eventually increased overall system registration to 273 users. as can be seen below, each intervention (with the exception of the pizza party1) led to a noticeable increase in user registration and login activity. however, only one of the interventions led to a sustained increase in login activity: the scavenger hunt. figure 2 change in logins and number of users the scavenger hunt the plans for the scavenger hunt were simple: each night at midnight for five nights, a set of clues would be posted on the site using the information entered in the online system. the clues were written in such a way as to force the users to use all of the features of the system: user profiles, friends, communities, and classes. users did not have to log in to the system in order to see the clues. using these clues, a user would need to log in and deduce the correct answer, which they could then email to a drop box as their entry. two winners were picked per day: the first correct answer submitted and one winner selected randomly from all the other correct answers. the full set of rules was posted on the site as follows: anyone with a valid login account can participate in the scavenger hunt. only one entry per day per person there will be a separate hunt each day, starting and ending at midnight. your email time stamp will be used to determine the time that the entry was submitted. all quarries and their clues were created using the information entered in the system as of april 24, 2005. any changes made to the system after that date will not count toward a correct answer. deliberately modifying information in the system for the sole purpose of creating an alternate solution to a hunt is not allowed and will disqualify the user doing so from this and any future hunts. all judgments made by the management team are final. not only did the scavenger hunt increase system usage, it also encouraged users to explore all features in the system. this led to an increase in the number of users in the system (30%) and, more interestingly, a dramatic increase in the number of friends identified (74%)! during the week of the scavenger hunt, the number of friendship pairs created went from 345 to 600. this was the single largest increase in friend identification during the research period. figure 3 registered users vs. friends identified changes in social capital once the six week research period ended, the follow-up survey was given to the original volunteers again; both to those using the system and to those using the paper directory. eight of the survey questions were designed to measure the four components of social capital. in comparison to those who did not use the system, those who participated in the online social network showed positive changes in two of the four components (social network strength and mutual assistance). see the table below for a summary of the changes found. social capital component question type change in social capital t-score level of significance social network identification of other participants + 0.065 social network depth of friendship with other participants * * trust perceived trust (bonding) * * trust perceived trust (bridging) + 0.015 mutual assistance activities with other members of the community + 0.078  mutual assistance desire to be involved with community + 0.090 norms of reciprocity perceptions of caring (bonding) * * norms of reciprocity perceptions of caring (bridging) * * table 1 summary of changes in social capital 2 + = positive trend in social capital component shown in online group over paper group * = no significant increase in social capital component shown the results from these surveys indicate that an online social network does impact social capital creation. the use of an online social network increased the size of social networks. the system allowed users to manage more friendships at a deeper level than those who did not use the system. it was also indicated that the use of the system improved trust and community involvement. what about those missing message boards? the online social network system allowed users to submit feedback when they encountered problems or had a suggestion. analyzing this feedback gave the researcher the ability to understand how different product features were utilized. sixty-one feedback messages were received during the research period of which forty-five were reporting system problems and sixteen were suggestions. in analyzing the feedback, a couple of things became clear: the users like this system and want it to be better. many of the feedback messages were positive and included suggestions for improvement. the design requirement to not include message boards was erroneous. many of the suggestions from the feedback include requests for message boards and/or the ability to post message to other people’s profiles. discussion: design of a community information system in conducting this research as an action research project, the researcher had the opportunity to interact with the community during the design and implementation of this system. this interaction allowed the principal investigator to observe firsthand, the impacts that the system was having. during the research period, many of the components of social capital were increased, though the small sample size hindered the ability to declare any direct impact by the system. more interestingly, this research provided insight into the design of community information systems for both the design process and the design product through the framework of information systems design theory. by using the framework of an isdt in this research, the kernel theories used as part of the process were tested and new theories presented themselves. design product: influencing social capital this research project provides promising but limited evidence that community information systems can influence the experience of social capital within a community. however, this impact is not necessarily direct: only increases in some components of social capital were found. instead, what became clear was the existence of a more nuanced impact on how social capital is formed using such systems. in other words, using this social networking system, elements of social capital were formed and strengthened between students, but the existence of the system alone did not fully account for this. instead, the use of the system gave the students a channel to build the social capital that would have been built anyway. in the terms of information systems design theory, then, the use of social capital as a kernel theory is supportable, as is the idea that a computer network is a social network through which social capital it transmitted. however, it should be understood that a cis does not necessarily directly impact social capital but, instead, affects the dynamics of how it is created. for example, the survey results showed that the users of the system tended to identify friends from the pool of other students in their same group (residents identified residents, commuters identified commuters). interestingly, even though commuter students identified fewer friends than residents overall, the number of users who identified commuters was approximately the same. this system, then, did have a positive effect on the social networks of its users by exposing them to the larger community as a whole. design process: promoting system use in order to drive up system usage, an online scavenger hunt was held for one week in april, 2005. this scavenger hunt was meant to be more than just a way to garner additional logins; it was meant to encourage users to utilize all aspects of the system. by using features in the product as part of the implementation process, the usage of the system went up dramatically. it also drove up user registrations. during the week of the scavenger hunt, the system usage logs showed a sustained increase in usage. this has implications for the interaction of the design product and design process. by developing features in the system which enabled a game such as the scavenger hunt, the dynamics of the implementation process were affected. as developers work with community members to co-design community information systems, thought should be given to how activities that involve members with both the online system and the physical community can be implemented. this is supported by the work done by casapulla et al. on the use of interactive game-like activities to encourage community participation. the key is to make the use of the system a habit for the users by giving them a reason to log in day after day. a new kernel theory presents itself here: the design process of community information systems should include steps to design features into the product that promote habitual use by their users. design product: designing for redesign throughout the co-design process, the members of the community made it very clear that they did not want this new system to contain message boards. however, once the system was in place, the one feature that the users consistently asked for was… message boards. when asked in a survey during a pizza party, “what would be the best feature(s) to add to the system?” fifteen percent responded with messaging. additionally, in tallying the comments and requests generated directly from the system by clicking on the “feedback” link, more than half of the suggestions for improvement were requesting a messaging feature. what can we make of this? did the community-centered design (ccd) process that was used fail to recognize this as a requirement of the system? the answer may lay in the fact that it was only after the users began using the system that they understood their true desires. the ccd methodology acknowledges that this may happen by specifically creating a phase of the development process to “refine” the prototype: phase 4: refine and tune prototype. based on feedback in phase 3, refine and re-test. bring in more members of the community for testing. continue until satisfied that web site is ready. however, in this case, the requirement culled out of the previous phases of the co-design process was to not have message boards! the users did a complete about-face on this requirement after seeing the system in place. the answer may be that it is very difficult for users to conceptualize the need for a specific feature until that need is visualized in front of them through the use of a prototype. another important factor to consider is that as a community information system matures, its purposes may change. over time, the user base will require that the system change to meet new goals. as is the case here, the initial requirements to support the commuter community were met. as the system began to be used (and the user base broadened), the users began to identify new goals (such as communication) that the system now needed to meet. this is supported by the work done by bieger, et al, (2005) in their paper on stated versus revealed preferences. the implications they found for product development were that stated preferences (what the users say they want) don’t provide a satisfactory foundation for decisions. instead, other approaches should be used to understand the true, or revealed preferences of the users. they recommend using a specific type of survey instrument to understand these revealed preferences. to apply this back to the design of community information systems, it is important to create a mechanism for continued evolution of the system even after implementation. one key concept used as part of this project was to provide a place on every screen where the user could recommend changes to the system (or report errors). in order for this to be effective however, the user community must see that their ideas are taken seriously and that the changes are reviewed regularly and implemented on a timely basis. trust must continue to be built through concrete actions in the system, responding to users’ requests in a timely manner as they are presented. from an isdt perspective, the inclusion of preece’s ccd as a kernel theory was justified, but that it was only effective at developing the initial design. a more complete kernel theory would include the concept of designing for redesign and the understanding that the system would be changing substantially over time. adding andrews’ principles for encouraging system use as a kernel theory is also justified. conclusion in short, this experience has highlighted how community information systems are both a design process and a design product and that design theory can provide a framework for designing, testing and modifying such systems. as such, it represents a promising hybrid of social and community approaches, linked with systems design issues and approaches. as gurstein and horan show, the design of community information systems is different from the design of management information systems. much as with information systems to support business processes, further research in this area is needed so that a comprehensive set of theories can emerge to support the development of effective community information systems. references andrews, d. c. (2002). "audience-specific online community design." communications of the acm 45(4): 64-68. bieger, t., c. laesser, et al. (2005). the relevance of revealed preferences in market oriented innovations. innovation in tourism creating customer value, aiest (st. gallen): 31-49. bourgeois, d. t. (2006). building social networks: action research on design and testing of online systems in a university setting. information systems and technology. claremont, ca, claremont graduate university: 210. casapulla, g., f. d. cindio, et al. (2001). community networks and access for all in the era of free internet: 'discovering the treasure' of community. community informatics: shaping computer-mediated social relations. l. keeble and b. d. loader. london, routledge. gurstein, m. (2003). "effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide." first monday 8(12). gurstein, m. and t. horan (2005). why community information systems are important to the future of management information systems and the field of information science (is). gordon davis series on the future of information systems academic discipline: opportunities and directions. kraut, r., v. lundmark, et al. (1998). "internet paradox: a social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being?" american psychologist 53(9): 1017-1031.  kraut, r., kiesler, s., boneva, b., cummings, j., helgeson, v., & crawford, a. (2002). internet paradox revisited. journal of social issues, 58(1), 49-74. markus, m. l., a. majchrzak, et al. (2002). "a design theory for systems that support emergent knowledge processes." mis quarterly 26(3): 199-232. nie, n. h. and l. erbring (2000). internet and society: a preliminary report, stanford university: 49. preece, j. (2000). online communities: designing usability and supporting socialbilty. new york, john wiley & sons. putnam, r. d. and l. feldstein (2003). better together: restoring the american community. new york, simon & shuster. rainie, l. (2000). tracking online life: how women use the internet to cultivate relationships with family and friends. washington, d.c., the pew internet and american life project. shklovski, i., r. e. kraut, et al. (2004). "the internet and social relationships: contrasting cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses." journal of computer-mediated communication 10(1). walls, j. g., g. r. widmeyer, et al. (1992). "building an information system design theory for vigilant eis." information systems research 3(1): 36-59. wellman, b. (2001). "computer networks as social networks." science 293: 2031-2034.             . 1the pizza party was primarily used as a feedback gathering mechanism and was not used to encourage additional registrations or logins. 2these results were found by doing a paired t-test within each group for each question, searching for a significant change in the components of social capital between the initial and follow-up surveys. unfortunately, due to attrition, the number of valid surveys returned dropped to the point that showing significance between groups was very difficult. further, the short timeframe of the study limited the ability to analyze fully the effects of the system. however, the results can still be used to analyze trends and understand the impacts of the system. sustaining computer use and learning in community computing contexts:   making technology part of “who they are and what they do”   cecelia bridget merkel the pennsylvania state university < cmerkel@ist.psu.edu >   mike clitherow centreconnect < mclitherow@centretech.com >   umer farooq the pennsylvania state university < farooq@ist.psu.edu >   lu xiao the pennsylvania state university < lxiao@ist.psu.edu >       abstract   in this paper, we describe our work promoting technological sustainability among community organizations in centre county, pennsylvania (usa). we define sustainability as a dynamic process in which it professionals, designers, and researchers work with community groups in ways that give them greater control over technology in their organization. promoting sustainability involves finding ways of encouraging technology learning and planning in community groups. we report on the efforts of a community organization that works with area nonprofits to promote it adoption and a participatory design research project aimed at helping community groups use technology to solve problems that they think are important. we report on a joint effort to provide web design training for area nonprofits using this shared experience to consider ways of bridging research and practice when addressing sustainability in community computing contexts.       introduction the goal of sustaining technology use and learning in community computing contexts is a difficult problem because often community groups do not realize the extent to which technology has become tied to their mission. technology plays an important role in community organizations enabling them to advertise services, meet the data gathering requirements needed to secure grant funding, and create partnerships to address shared problems. despite this importance, many community organizations do not have a long-term technology plan in place and they often face significant challenges when implementing it in their organizations. some of these challenges include few full-time staff members, the need to rely on volunteers to implement technology projects, limited (or nonexistent) technology budgets, and reliance on grants that include a technology component to take on new technology initiatives in their organization. as a result, technology decision-making in community organizations tends to be ad hoc and opportunistic as groups rely on their ability to gather the resources needed to take on a project.   this context raises interesting questions for it professionals, for researchers, and for the community groups themselves about how to sustain technology use, learning, and planning in an organization over time. for example, how do you sustain technology learning in an organization that relies on volunteers who come and go or in organizations where much of the organizational knowledge resides in a few full-time staff members? sustainability in this context involves finding ways to support groups as they learn about technology, as they identify ways that technology can be used to address organizational and community level problems, and as they develop plans to take on projects involving technology.   in this paper, we consider the issue of sustainability from different perspectives, from the point of view of an it professional who is involved in centreconnect, an organization that works to encourage technology use among community groups, and a research team involved in a participatory design project, civic nexus, that studies ways to support technology learning, use, and planning in community computing contexts. our joint concern with sustainability led us to work together to implement a web-design training course geared towards area nonprofits. we use this experience to further articulate our vision of sustainability and to consider the ways that research and practice can inform each other when addressing sustainability in community computing contexts.   community profile: centre county, pa (usa) the trend towards studying community computing is tied to the larger realization that technology use has become embedded in our daily lives. this has lead to a growing interest in community computing that examines the ways community groups can leverage technology to achieve positive community and organizational outcomes (gurstein, 2002; keeble & loader, 2001). we construe community computing broadly to include the use and design of a particular community information system or technology (e.g. web browser or a search engine), the examination of technology-related procedures and practices embedded in every day work practices, and the implementation and evaluation of technology interventions (e.g. training session). we focus on the ways that computer and internet technologies support place-based communities: people that live near each other that share resources and information (carroll & rosson, 2001).   in this paper, the specific place in which we work is centre county located in central pennsylvania (usa). the nucleus of the county is state college, which is home to the pennsylvania state university. while the u.s. census bureau classifies the area as a metropolitan area (u.s. census bureau, 2002), much of the region that surrounds state college is rural. centre county has a population of 141,636 residents. the population of centre county is largely white (91.4%). a large proportion of the residents have a high school diploma (88.3%) and one-third have a bachelor’s degree (36.3%). the median household income in 1999 was $36,165 with 18.8% of people in the county living below the government defined poverty line. given these demographics, it is not surprising that there is a relatively high level of internet adoption in the area especially in the nucleus of the county. the knight foundation (2003) reported that 73% of state college residents go on online to access information or to send email. in comparison, internet penetration rates for adults in the united states have ranged between 57 and 61% since october 2001 (pew, 2003). it is likely that internet use and access is much lower for more rural areas in the county that do not have high speed internet or cable television access.   volunteerism and community participation are important issue for community groups because they often rely on volunteers to carry out technology projects for their organization. the presence of the university provides a resource that can be leveraged by the community in the form of a skilled volunteer pool that can be called upon when undertaking technology projects. this is true in the sense that university staff, faculty, and students may provide technical help to community organizations informally as members of a religious, social, or civic organization. there are also more formal university activities that tend to provide short-term technology assistance to community groups such as classes with a service learning component, internships, continuing education outreach efforts, and community-oriented research or service projects. it may be more difficult, however, for community groups in more rural parts of the county to utilize, and feel comfortable drawing upon university resources.   both centreconnect and civic nexus are concerned with working with community organizations in centre county so that they have greater control over the use of technology in their organization. our positioning in the community contributes different insights into the issue of sustainability that will be explored in the next section. starting points for defining sustainability broadly construed, concerns with sustainability are centered on determining how and if people in community computing settings are able to realize the potential of technology to achieve goals that are important to them. this question has been asked in different ways with researchers and practitioners focusing on: (a) the feasibility of various models (e.g. ctcs) and the physical, social, and technical requirements that must be in place to ensure technology access to citizens (clement & shade, 2000; benassi, de cindio, & ripamonti, 2004), (b) the role of the government in addressing issues that affect the public good such as providing access to government information through web portals, to the internet itself, and to marginalized members of society who may lack the resources or training necessary to access such services. (doody, 2004; musgrave, 2004: malina & ball; taylor, 2004; rideout & reddick; schauder, stillman, & johansen, 2004), (c) outcome-based approaches that question the kinds of results that ctcs are trying to achieve (learning, job readiness, access to information, political participation) and the factors needed to encourage long-term changes in the lives of its users (gordon & gordon, 2004), and (d) socio-technical investigations of it adoption and features of one’s social network (e.g. social capital) that tend to support or inhibit it adoption (day and cupidi, 2004; doody, 2004; malina and ball, 2004; prell, harrison, zappen, & hubacek, 2004). given the differences between these approaches in terms of emphasis and unit of analysis (user of a ctc, ctc itself, geographic community), it is important to clearly articulate one’s definition of sustainability and the theoretical and practical grounding that guides one’s definition.   our starting point in defining sustainability in this paper is a concern with working with community groups in a way that gives them greater control over technology in their organization. control over technology involves a group’s ability to use technology to address problems that they think are important. on a broader level, control also involves a more long-term approach to managing technology use, planning, and learning taking into account the challenges (e.g. lack of financial resources, few staff members, shifting volunteer base) inherent to community computing settings. this view of sustainability is grounded in research that takes a situated approach to the study of technology use and adoption in community groups (bruce & hogan, 1998; loader, hague, & eagle, 2000; turk & trees; slack, 2000) and participatory design efforts geared towards working with groups as they adopt it in their work (balka 1997, 1995, benston, 1990; collins, 2000; fortier; mcphail et al, 1998; mogensen & shapiro, 1998; robertson, 1998; trigg 2000). studies that have taken this approach, for example, have show how features of the community such as organizational inertia or power issues can inhibit the extent to which people participate in the process of design and their use of technology (finquelievich, 2000; halaska, 2000).   this view of sustainability is also grounded in our practical and research experience working with groups in centre county. in this section, we work to articulate the assumptions that we make in defining sustainability in our work. we start by describing the work done by author 1 who is involved in promoting technology use in community organizations though centreconnect. his practical experience helps to frame the problems experienced by community groups as they seek to use and implement technology in their organization. next, we will describe the research efforts undertaken by the civic nexus research group that studies technology use among area community groups. we use these experiences to frame a project that we did together to address and understand sustainability issues for organizations in our community. centreconnect centreconnect is a community organization that works with area nonprofits to help them get information about their mission, services, and events to residents in centre county. centreconnect hosts web sites for community-oriented organizations and helps to promote the value of having a web presence. centreconnect also serves as a web portal so that area citizens have a convenient place to find information about the community. centreconnect started out as a nonprofit and has since merged with c-net, a government and education public access television station. the merger helped to ensure the long-term existence of centreconnect because they were able to share the overhead of running the organization with c-net. the merger also reflected a recognition that the two organizations shared a common purpose in providing community information to area citizens and a common base of volunteers who were interested in this mission. the leaders of both organizations also believed that the merger would position the combined organization better for the future as media channels converge. the view of sustainability presented in this section draws from the second author’s (clitherow’s) work with centreconnect and the technology training and consulting services that he provides to area nonprofits.   organizations need to see the centrality of it to achieve their mission. most small community-based organizations have some understanding of how technology can help them meet their goals. more pressing priorities often force technology issues to a much lower priority as the organization pursues its primary goal. for example, if an organization is formed to support unwed mothers in a community, the group will not likely allocate funding or personnel resources to pursue any technology based aspect of their work. however, as their primary mission takes shape, it becomes clear how a website, email list or newsletter will help them get out the word about their work. given a minimal budget to begin with, the organization often seeks knowledgeable volunteers to help them execute a plan. fortunately, many communities such as ours have a broad base of talented it members who willingly give their time.   the fallacy in this arrangement is that often the leaders of the organization do not appreciate what is required to implement technical solutions and they do not fully understand the tradeoffs involved in relying on volunteers to pursue their mission. few of the organizations i have worked with have developed a core set of volunteers responsible for technology planning and implementation. consequently, once the “volunteer technician” has implemented the plan, found other interests to occupy his/her time, or simply moved geographically to a new job or assignment, the organization is left with little understanding of what they have or how to maintain it. websites quickly atrophy; newsletters cease or become less frequent and lose some of the “glamour” they had upon launch; and mailing lists age. beneficiaries and supporters of the organization who have become dependent on this above-mentioned form of communication may become disenchanted and find support, assistance, or rewards from some other (“competing”) organization.   community groups need to effectively manage human and technical resources. training and resources appear to be major factors that contribute to sustainability issues in community organizations. if organizations are going to have their technology platforms supported and potentially enhanced, then they have to locate, train, and continually staff some kind of support base within their organization. this issue continues to be the overriding problem in our community-based organizations. they have become dependent on a specific individual or group of individuals to provide a solution and are lulled into a false sense of security. when something happens to upset the support base, there is no continuity plan. few of these organizations plan it resources the way they think about administrative resources. most of the non-profits i have worked with have some paid administrative staff. none of them have a paid it staff. they rely on volunteers. however, with each new innovation, it is becoming more critical to their mission. no organization can enjoy long-term viability if they reply on volunteer staff to meet mission critical needs.   community groups often lack long-term it planning. community organizations tend not to realize the ways it has become critical to their mission, which is tied to a lack of long-term it planning in their organization. perhaps the technology involved is beyond the leader’s experience, or perhaps the leaders are content to let the “techies” handle that aspect of the job. while some organizations do set up a procedure to review the technology in their organization that is critical to their cause, they also need a continuity plan and to budget for the long-terms costs involved in carrying out a technology project. for example, if an organization develops an on-line resource that people begin to depend on, the organization must plan how to maintain the site and provide updated information. failing to do so will drive original users/supporters to find other avenues to meet their needs.   the lack of technology planning may also be tied to the invisibility of many of the technologies that they use. as they use technology that they can't see or touch such as web sites, networks, or remote access, the lack of a maintenance strategy becomes an issue. all the things that have made them successful from a technology perspective successful become taken for granted. for example, one local organization that i have worked with was unable to update their online member directory for three years while trying to find a resource that could help them move forward.   the goals of centreconnect are closely aligned with the sustainability goals of the civic nexus project described in the next section. centreconnect has played many different roles in the civic nexus project helping the research group to think through research issues, serving as a link to other community organizations, and as community partner participating in the research project. centreconnect’s practical experience working with community groups has been important in helping civic nexus to think more broadly about the challenges that nonprofit groups face when implementing it in their organizations. this practical experience also served as a check for some of the observations that we are making in working with other community groups. finally, centreconnect has served as a community partner in our research as we worked with them on a technology project.   civic nexus   civic nexus is a three-year participatory design project with the goal of working with community groups to facilitate their ability to use and learn about technology as they pursue existing goals and as they envision new directions for their organization. the view of sustainability presented in this section draws from the experience of researchers affiliated with xxx lab in the school of xxx at the pennsylvania state university who work on the civic nexus project. the civic nexus project builds on previous work that takes a long-term participatory design approach that combines ethnographic fieldwork with participatory design to create information systems that address local needs (carroll, chin, rosson, neale, 2000). we use ethnographic fieldwork to understand the factors that influence technology use, adoption, and decision-making in these community groups. through this knowledge we work with the group to carry out a technology project that meets goals that they define as being central to their mission. in this way, we hope to encourage sustainability by working with the group to promote technology use, learning, and planning in the organization.   for the last year, we have conducted fieldwork and have identified (and in some cases carried out) technology projects with a diverse set of community partners including an environmental group, a high school learning enrichment program, a historical society, and centreconnect (merkel, et. al, 2004). in working with our community partners, we explicitly position ourselves in more of a consultant or advisory role working with the group as they carry out a technology project rather than taking over the “doing” of the project. for example, in working with a community group we would not create a website for them but we would point the group to tools that they might use to create and maintain a website, help them think through some of the technology decisions that they may need to make, and introduce tools such as scenarios to help the group think about the audience and activities that they want the site to support. we provide a more detailed account of our research elsewhere (merkel, et al 2004) so we use this section to describe some issues related to sustainability that we have identified through our research.   promoting sustainability requires designers to take on less directive roles. our concern with sustainability is both a research interest and an issue that helps to govern how we position ourselves when we work with community groups. we go beyond traditional participatory design models that seek to make users active participants in the design process. instead, our research and design efforts involve finding ways for our community partners to take control of the design process itself by directing what should be done, by taking a central role in the “doing,” and by maintaining the technology infrastructure itself. the goal is to fade away with the participants maintaining and developing the achievement that is produced. this requires us to find ways to create an environment in which groups can sustain their ability to solve technical problems and direct change themselves. in our work, we have considered a number of different roles that emphasize the less directive role that we wish to play including that of a lurker, facilitator, consultant, and bard (carroll, 2004, merkel, et al, 2004).   designers can provide conceptual and technical tools in ways that promote sustainability. another issue we consider in our project is how to provide technical and conceptual tools in ways that promote long-term learning and technology planning. we want to avoid creating a situation in which community members are dependent on a technical tool that we create. through our work, we have also come to realize the ways designers can introduce conceptual tools that can be used by the community groups themselves. one tool that we have used is scenarios that can use with community groups in the process of design. for example, the spring creek watershed community used scenarios to think through how an audience might use their website and to elicit design requirements in the process of redesigning their website (farooq, et. al, 2004). similarly, we found that designers can play an important role in helping community groups envision how technology might be used in their organization, give them confidence to try something new, and help them in the planning of technology projects.   community history influences efforts to encourage sustainability. in our work we also learned about the mismatches that can occur when working with community groups to promote technology learning and planning. in some cases, it took a while to overcome the group’s model of relying on volunteers to get technology projects completed. for example, in working with the historical society we found it difficult to settle on “the” project to work on (merkel, et al., 2004). as we worked more with the group, we realized that there was a deeper mismatch between their normal practice for getting technology projects done and our vision of playing a less directive role in the process. our assumption entering this research setting was that the historical society would choose a project to work on and we would taking a consultant role as they directed and organized the project. their assumption was that we would select a project from a list of potential projects that they provided and then we would begin implementing the project. while we are still working to define a technology project, in many ways our work with this group has been invaluable in helping us appreciate the decision-making dynamics of the groups and the assumptions that we made about sustainability.   shifts in practice can be difficult and the impacts indirect. as people gain more experience with technology, they tend to redefine the meaning of technology in their organization, their own organizational roles, and their relationship to technology. for example, we worked with a group of high school students to develop an online health course for their school (xiao, et al, 2004). this project required the teacher who directed the project to take on a new role, that of project facilitator, because she did not have the technical knowledge her students possessed to complete the project. this project required the students to take a much more active role in directing their own learning as they were in charge of creating the design for the online course. this project also led the school to examine how to adjust its existing curriculum to integrate the web course format with traditional classroom teaching. we also found that sometimes it can be difficult to evaluate the impacts of a technology projects because the outcomes can be indirect. for example, the health course prototype that the students developed provided a proof of concept that a course could be offered online and encouraged teachers not affiliated with the health course to think about how they might use the technology in their own teaching. in many ways, the issues represented in this section are questions that we have had to think about in finding ways of working with our community partners to promote sustainability. in the next section, we describe a collaborative effort between centreconnect and civic nexus to deliver a web-design training course for area community groups.   working together to promote technological sustainability   in this section, we describe the process of working together to deliver a training course to area nonprofits and the ways that this collaboration helped us think more about promoting sustainability in community computing contexts. the impetus for the web design course was an evaluation by centreconnect of the extent to which community groups were taking advantage of its web hosting services. one set of community groups that centreconnect targets is 200 social service agencies that meet regularly to share information about their activities. in working with this group, centreconnect noticed that less than half of these organizations had websites on its web portal and many of the websites that were online had not been updated in several years. they were also aware of some community organizations that wanted a web presence but were not sure how to get started. based on this analysis, they decided to offer a web design training course that was co-sponsored by the local public library. centreconnect helped to recruit community groups and the library hosted the training session. civic nexus was involved in planning meetings to develop the curriculum and training material for the course and served as a co-instructor in the delivery of the training.   in our early meetings, we worked together to shape the course and thought about how we might incorporate our mutual ideas about sustainability into the curriculum. centreconnect had a clear idea about the type of topics that they wanted to cover and the need to pitch the training to an audience that had moderate technology skills and little or no web design skills. the training course that we developed was 7 hours long delivered over three class sessions. in the course, we covered what it means to have a web presence, how to design an organizational web page, and website maintenance. we asked the students to bring in material from their organization that they wanted to put online and worked on these student-defined projects in class. in the course, we taught the students to use frontpage to design and edit their organizations’ webpages. there were several trade-offs involved in this tool choice that will be addressed below.   the groups attending the course included social service agencies, government agencies, and some local community organizations. most of the participating organizations already had a web presence but the people attending the course were typically not involved in creating the initial web presence. their goals for attending the course varied. in some cases, the group was not happy with their organization’s website and they wanted to update the site. in other cases, the participants saw the potential of the web to promote their organization, their services, and their issues. for example, some organizations wanted their website to provide descriptions of the programs that they offered while others wanted to put their organizational newsletters online. finally, groups saw the potential to add new resources to their site such as information that seniors could use to make better informed choices between prescription drug plans. many of the participants had attended training programs before but these courses did not give them time to put their own content online.   in working on the course together, we developed some insights about the collaborative process of incorporating sustainability into the training course. based on our experience working with the groups, we also reflected on the need for tools that support community activities and some of the limits of training in trying to encourage long-term change in community technology practices.   collaboration can lead to more effective interventions. our collaborative effort to design and deliver the training course was important because we were able to draw on different types of expertise to shape the curriculum that was produced. the insights gained through talking through the design of the course led us to co-develop training material that was more appropriate to the skill level and experiences of our audience. early in the process of developing the course, civic nexus suggested that existing on-line material used to teach web-based technology courses at penn state could be used in the web design course for the community groups. based on their experience working with community groups, centreconnect suggested that this material was not appropriate for our audience. for example, it was difficult to find the material if one was not familiar with the university and its web space. the courses were password protected and required a university identification to access the material. while community members could apply for a user name and password, the extra steps involved could present a barrier for some community members that might inhibit them from accessing the material. there was also concern about the sheer quantity of the material available online and the more academic tone used in conveying concepts that was not geared specifically towards novice users. while certainly concerns with finding appropriate content is a concern when preparing any training course, these discussions caused us to think through our assumptions about the community groups participating in the course, their learning needs, and the learning barriers that they might encounter in a much more explicit and ongoing way.   beyond the training material that was to be used, our collaboration also influenced the content that was covered in the course. early in the process, centreconnect envisioned a course that would contain two sessions, an introduction to web design and a session in which community groups worked directly on developing a web site for their organization. civic nexus suggested some changes to this initial thinking based on our concern with promoting long-term technology planning and learning in community organizations. we suggested the additional of a third class to give people more time to work on their websites and to address the need for a long-term plan to maintain the sites that they produced. we also incorporated the perspective of the users taking the course by building time into the course where they could work on their own organizational websites. we were able to address their more specific concerns as questions arose in the process of working on their sites. these examples point to the value of collaboration in designing interventions for community groups.   limitations of using training as a method to encourage organizational change. the training provided us with the chance to reflect on the value and some of the limits in using training as a method to promote sustainability in organizations. one of the problems that community groups face is that they do not have a lot of time to devote to working on their web site. one value of the training sessions was that it provided the community groups with a dedicated stretch of time where could think about the material that they would like to see online and the overall structure of their web site. class members typically had a clear project in mind when attending the course so we could help them think about how they might achieve their goals and they could directly work on putting material online that was meaningful to their group. for example, we could talk about some of the issues involved in putting a newsletter online and how they might convert existing newsletters to electronic form. because they gained a better understanding about the process of web design through the course, they could work directly to improve their existing websites. they could also communicate more effectively with their technology staff (if they had one) because they had a better idea about what the design of a web site entailed, they devoted time to thinking through their existing web presence, and they learned about typical elements on an organizational web page.   our work with the community groups also led us to reflect on some of the limits of training as a method to promote long-term change in the organizations. while the course did provide students with time to work on their own web sites, the course did not give them enough time to fully develop and implement their web sites. it takes time (more than the class allowed) for students to manage learning web design basics and, at the same time, applying these principles to the design of a website using materials that they brought to class. this suggests the need to find ways to support students over time as they get familiar with the technology and as they think through how they will use the technology in their organization.   need for tools geared towards community activities. another significant sustainability issue that the training raised is the importance of tool choice for community groups. in the course, we decided to teach the students to use frontpage because many community groups simply do not have a budget to use more expensive software packages. we also felt that this software was more appropriate for this audience because, given their lack of technical experience, the software works in ways that are similar to other software packages that they had likely used. this software was also chosen because it would allow the students to develop relatively sophisticated looking web site with limited design skills through the use of templates. in teaching the course, we found that the templates available in the program did not match the community-oriented nature of the organizations and the activities that they wanted to support on their web sites. we also found that there was a trade-off involved in using the templates because they hid the functionality of the program. this caused problems because the students had fairly specific ideas about what they wanted to do (e.g. put an art exhibit online, put a newsletter online, organize information about the community services they offer), but they were not sure how to modify or add to the templates.   this suggests the need for tools specifically geared towards the activities carried out in community computing contexts. some of these activities include providing information about programs/services, the mission of the organization, photo galleries of people and events, and space for organizational news and newsletters. it may have been more productive in our training to develop a template in frontpage that would have captured these community-oriented activities rather than using the standard business-oriented templates that came with the program. on a broader level, this also points to a practical application for research; improving existing tools by identifying typical community activities that could be supported through technology. open source content management systems and wikis provide examples of collaborative tools that may support community work more effectively. the use of these tools, however, need to be weighed with the costs involved in recruiting expertise into the organization to design and implement these tools and the time involved to learn to use them effectively.   sustainability should be addressed explicitly when working with groups. since sustainability was a concern for both centreconnect and civic nexus, we decided to directly raise the issue of sustainability as we taught the course. we raised this issue in the third class addressing issues such as the need to manage technology learning in their organization (e.g. who will update the site when you are on vacation? who will maintain the site if you, your technology person, or a volunteer leaves the organization?) and the need for a long-term technology plan (e.g. what will happen to the site when the grant runs out? who is going to add content to these more dynamic features of the site?).   our experience suggests that it professionals should make sustainability planning an explicit part of the work that they do with organizations. like many staff members in community groups, the nonprofits taking part in our training did not have experience carrying out a technology project like the design of a website. the value of a training course goes beyond just teaching technical skills. a training course can help organizations think through some of the long-term costs involved in maintaining a website like keeping the information on the site up-to-date or managing training in the organization so that they are not dependent on one person to make changes. this may also involve helping the groups make more informed choices about where to devote their efforts when putting information on-line and the trade-offs involved when implementing more dynamic features to a website. an online feature like a calendar may be a good way to advertise community activities but it also increases the amount of time and effort that must be devote to the website.   the training that we conducted represented a blending of the practical experience that centreconnect brought to the course and the more research-oriented concerns of the civic nexus project. this experience led us to reflect further about what it means to help a group make technology more central to their mission and the importance of finding ways of connecting research and practice.   sustainability as a process of mutual inquiry   as we began the process of working together on a technology project, our definition of sustainability was tied to the idea that as it professionals we must find ways of working with community groups in ways that give them greater control over the use of technology in their organizations. our initial understanding was based on practical experience encouraging groups to adopt web technologies into their organizations (centreconnect) and a research project focused on encouraging technology use, learning, and planning in community computing contexts (civic nexus). we worked together to design and implement a web design training course aimed at teaching area nonprofits how to create and maintain their organizational websites building a concern with sustainability explicitly into the course.   the experience of working together on the web design course led us to view sustainability as a process of mutual inquiry into what it means to be sustainable; what it means to achieve a “good use” or a “successful” outcome (gurstein, 2003). we draw this point from dewey who viewed technology as “active productive inquiry”; the process of applying tools, broadly construed, to gain control over a situation that is problematic (hickman, 1990). from this perspective, learning involves the active reshaping of artifacts and situations that are not what we would like them to be. organizations already use technology (artifacts, procedures, rules of thumb, theories, etc.) to address the problems encountered in their work. the problem is not a lack of technology but rather than the current technology that the organizations has is no longer adequate to address the problems in their work.   one of the practical issues that a concern with “good use” raises is how to determine what counts as a “good outcome” or “success” when working with community groups. technology is part of who community groups are and what they do, so inquiry involves opening up a dialogue where we talk about the goals that they want to achieve and find ways to help them achieve these goals in a way that is sustainable. reflection becomes a part of the process of design as we work with the groups to understand what counts as a “good” outcome and as we question whether we are pursuing a technology plan that fits the group’s needs, practices, and values. the process is dynamic in the sense that groups may differ in the way they define what counts as a technology “success” and this definition may change as they gain more experience with technology.   at the same time, “good use” is a rather abstract concept that may be difficult to address directly. often, stakeholders do not share common assumptions about the problems community groups face or the solutions required to address these problems. if a group does not have experience carrying out a technology project, they may have an idea about what they would like to achieve but may not know what this entails, how to discriminate between technology options, or how to make their vision concrete. the practical experience of clitherow working with groups in the community and the research experience of civic nexus reported in this paper helps to illustrate places where there may be a lack of common ground between stakeholders. clitherow observed that sometimes community groups do not see the centrality of technology to their mission and they need a more long-term approach to managing human and technical resources and it planning in their organization. in the civic nexus project, the research team observed that community history impacts it adoption and that the process of adopting new technology practices can be difficult because it necessitates identity shifts and the taking on of new roles. taking into account sustainability also requires designers to take on less directive roles, using conceptual tools in addition to technical tools to support the work of community groups.   our joint effort to provide training to community groups has led us to consider the way that shared activities may be more effective than shared discussion in consolidating collaborations and reaching shared understandings. shared activities, like the redesign of a website, creates a space where assumptions can be tested and tacit knowledge can be shared among stakeholders, including community groups, it professionals, researchers, and users. shared activities create a space where stakeholders can think through the ways that technology might help a group achieve their mission and how they might achieve these goals in a way that is sustainable across the lifespan of the organizations. this is a lesson we learned through the process of working together to design and implement the web design training course. the process of working together to create the training course allowed us to tailor the course material more effectively to our students and to think about how we might address sustainability issues in the training course.   the value of viewing sustainability as a process of mutual inquiry and emphasizing shared activities is that this approach provides a way of bridging research and practice. as researchers, shared activities help us understand in a deeper way the connection between technology use and community life. at the same time, the results gathered through research may help community groups to envision ways that they might use technology and puts their work within the larger context of other efforts aimed at applying technology to community-oriented problems (community informatics). this view of sustainability requires it professionals and researchers to find situated ways of working with groups that acknowledge both the technical and social dimensions of sustainability. on the technical end, this might involve helping groups think through some of the affordances of particular technologies, helping them scope out a technology project, and helping them understand some of the long-term costs involved when taking on a technology project. on the social end, this might involve working with groups to assess how technology is used in their organization, the impact that new technology practices might have on their work, and some of the sociotechnical issues involved in implementing a technology solution (e.g. privacy, surveillance issues, security).   as we move forward with our work, we will continue to look for ways to support groups as they use technology to achieve goals that they think are important. pursuing “good use” as a research and practical strategy requires that we go beyond applying generic solution to generic problems. the challenge that this poses for researchers and for it professionals is to find ways of working with groups in ways that takes into account the unique set of characteristics present in community computing settings. we are working to find techniques that make “good use” more explicit such as through the use of shared activities and scenarios. we are also exploring the way that tools can be built to support community activities and the way that collaborative tools may allow groups to work in ways that are more in-line with the distributed nature of the work in community computing contexts. the connection between centreconnect and civic nexus is important in this regard because this may result in the identification of new features that may assist community activities and may directly impact the types of services that an organization like centreconnect could provide. we recognize that an important feature of our community is the fact that there is a technology skilled volunteer base connected to the university. we hope to work with groups that are less connected to the university to understand the unique set of factors that influence it adoption in more rural settings.   on a practical level, this view also requires designers, it professionals, and the groups themselves to make careful decisions about which technology projects to implement, which tools to use, and how to carry out the work itself. groups will still face the tension between some of the long-term benefits to planning and the immediate costs that this entails (time involved in learning something new, allocation of scarce resources) which is exactly where the groups lack resources. in the final analysis, sustainability planning may be more important than proceeding with the original project implementation. if an organization does not understand the requirements for ongoing sustainability, how can they budget or staff? perhaps it’s best for an organization to realize they cannot afford to maintain a technological solution before they build and provide one. or perhaps it is best to tackle small innovations using technology along a path that allows an organization to demonstrate its ability to sustain what it has created before over committing. since many organizations do not understand the magnitude of the sustainability dilemma, it is incumbent upon the it community to provide such knowledge as part of any technological solution. conclusion   the community computing milieu presents formidable challenges for technology intervention. in the end, the key issue for community groups is sustainability of technology use, i.e. the process of using technology should be sustainable over different resources 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(in press). students as teachers and teachers as learners. accepted at the hawaii international conference on system sciences (hicss 38), january 3-6, 2005, big island, hawaii.         editorial q: where is the wealth of nations? a: in communities. michael gurstein, ph.d. editor-in-chief < editori@ci-journal.net > this issue of joci has as its lead an important article by michael arnold making the case for the conceptual (and thus theoretical) autonomy of a specifically “community” informatics. this elegantly and forcefully argued paper draws upon a range of sources and analytical insights from theorists not often cited in social science or information systems research all to make the case that communities have to be understood as being more than the sum of their parts and that the systems that support these must integrate these insights into their design and formulation. in this way the paper is linking back into several of the papers from the previous issue on ci and systems design and linking forward into the potential for a rich vein of theoretical analysis and discussion. perhaps of most significance for community informatics is the strength and clarity of the argument indicating the necessity for a “community informatics” rather than for icts as simple supports for communities or of communities simply going out into the marketplace to find the tools to support them.. garth graham in his “point of view” makes a quite parallel argument concerning the independent status of life lived online (within the network) as compared to life outside of the network and of the degree of overall transformation (including in the nature of the policy environment) which such a development implies. adomi, furuholt and kristiansen, kwapong,. eubanks, denison and johanson -drawing on experience from multiple contexts in multiple countries give case study evidence of the way in which an appropriation of the use of icts is transforming personal, family, community and organizational behaviours, activities, expectations and outcomes. in most cases these have not as yet led directly to the kind of collective enablement or empowerment that arnold is suggesting as being the ultimate outcome of a community informatics but each in their own way documenting way stations along that path. acevedo’s piece quite nicely bookends arnold’s paper by looking at community networking not as product but rather as process and specifically as a process which has measurable and desirable outcomes in the form of “network capital”. coincidentally, a report recently released by the world bank discusses in some detail and goes forward to directly quantify the value of the social, cultural, legal and political context within which economic activity takes place as a contributor to “development”. not surprisingly the world bank’s study finds that the value of the contribution of a stable, orderly, rule governed context for production adds enormously to the possibility and thus the value of productive labour.i so it is possible to look on this and other issues of joci and of community informatics overall as at least a partial answer to the world bank’s rhetorical question – where is the wealth of nations? in fact, the wealth of nations is found in a nation’s communities which are the anchor and the context of for the life of its citizens. the conclusion to draw is that the value of ict can be found in its being one means, and a particularly useful, dynamic and potentially widely inclusive one, for unlocking and realizing that potential. it is the contention of ci and the argument implicit in the various papers in this and other issues, that ict working in and through communities has the potential to ensure that the opportunity for a contribution to productive value as identified by the bank is realized both in less developed as well as developed countries and among marginalized populations everywhere. iwhere is the wealth of nations? measuring capital for the 21st century the world bank, washington, d.c., 2006   is community informatics good for communities?  questions confronting an emerging field randy stoecker university of toledo < randy@comm-org.utoledo.edu >   abstract this paper addresses a number of questions confronting the emerging field of community informatics.  first, is it a field of study or a field of practice?  second, is the focus of community informatics on communities, information, or technology?  third, does community informatics serve elites, academics, community workers, or community workers?  the paper moves from these questions to develop an empowerment model for community informations, emphasizing a community development approach combined with an information focus and a participatory process.  it concludes with the question of whether community informatics should strive to be a supporting field rather than develop as an independent arena of study or practice.  introduction i have been doing community informatics work for nearly a decade now, ever since we did a needs analysis of the community organizations in ohio’s largest cities in 1996 and then built a local community technology intermediary called catnet.  i am now teaching courses in social informatics and community informatics. i build my own computers, manage two servers, and work with a number of different community information technology projects.  but i must admit that thinking of myself as someone who does community informatics has always left me feeling vaguely uncomfortable.  perhaps it is because, in contrast to the other fields i mess around in—community organizing, community development, and community-based research—community informatics has always felt like it was separate.  it has always felt separate to me because, unlike those other fields, the answer to the social problems of the day are already implied in community informatics.  in some way, shape, or form, the answers always have to do with computers.  that is not the case in community organizing, community development, and community-based research, whose “toolboxes” include a wide range of tools, and even computers sometimes.  a community organizer friend of mine is fond of the saying that “if the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, all problems look like nails.”  and so it may be with the emerging field of community informatics.  this emerging field, with its concentration on the computer as the central tool, is in danger of seeing all problems as technological. it is interesting how many of us in this emerging field of community informatics seem to share a similar sense of unease.  bill pitkin’s (2001) provocative essay, “community informatics, hope or hype?” expresses the unease as overselling technology as a solution.  one of doug schuler’s favorite t-shirts says “question technology.”  it is unfair to charge this new field with blindly promoting technology, as it is clear so many of us are worried about just that.  and yet something is missing for many of us.  i write this essay to better understand the crucial questions the field needs to face in order to move forward.  and it seems the best place to start is with trying to define the field itself. what is community informatics? while the practice of using information and communication technology to serve communities has been around for some time, the definition of that practice and the study of its effects is still emerging as a field.  so young is this emerging field that the community informatics research network was founded only in the fall of 2003. it was only in 2000 that the first important hard copy volume of work on community informatics was published (gurstein, 2000). centers devoted to research and practice in community informatics are also quite young.  one of the oldest, the community informatics research and applications unit (cira) at the university of teesside, was established only in 1996 (cira, n.d.).  other centers devoted explicitly to community informatics, such as the center for community networking research at monash university, and the community informatics research group at the new jersey institute of technology, are even younger. so it should be expected that the definition of the field should be in some flux as well.  the inventor of the term, michael gurstein (2003), describes community informatics (perhaps unintentionally) as having two forms. on the one hand, “community informatics (ci) is the application of information and communications technologies (icts) to enable community processes and the achievement of community objectives.”  on the other hand “ci is the terminology that is coming to be used to describe the academic discipline and practice for systematically approaching information systems from a ‘community’ perspective.” (bieber et al. 2002).  there is a desire to bring together these two perspectives, but as of yet only the community informatics and information systems: mapping the sector project (n.d.) has attempted to define the field comprehensively.  and that project is only in its earliest stages.  so, given that the field is characterized by both a practice approach and a scholarly approach, it seems useful to better understand these definitions separately before attempting to combine them. a field of study as a field of study, community informatics is woefully underdeveloped.  indeed, as tom denison and colleagues (2003) have concluded, “an adequate theoretical analysis of the character of community informatics as a recognizable form of social institution or practice has not occurred.”  it takes more than a theoretical analysis to constitute a stable field of study, however.  for community informatics to be a field of study, it must have an agreed upon set of core questions, an array of methodological techniques and practices, and a set of theoretical approaches. is there a set of core questions? indeed, a google search of “community informatics” with “core questions” in december of 2004 turns up exactly four hits, none of which address the issue of what the core questions of community informatics should be.  what we find instead of core questions are a wide array of discipline-based researchers writing about and conducting research on the digital divide, ngos and npos, interpersonal networks, virtual communities, and all manner of other topics related to communities and technology.  to date, no one has taken that writing and research and attempted to distill a set of common questions from it.  this in itself would be worthy of a grant to determine what the boundaries of the field might be and what questions are being addressed across the blossoming community informatics literature.  there is also not a body of theory that we can point to as constituting a field of study called community informatics, as we have already seen.  indeed, even if we consider community informatics as a subfield of the broader field of social informatics (kling, 1999), we find less than we would hope.  manuel castells’ (1996; 1997; 1998) massive three-volume work has attempted to build some definable body of theory around information technology in general, but the very massiveness of the work makes it difficult to apply in community settings.  much of the writing and research we do find is driven more by anecdotal reports and story-telling than by the use of theory (pitkin, 2001; denison et al., 2003). finally, it is also difficult to find an agreed-upon set of methodological techniques and practices.  there are far more anecdotal reports than the average academic field would be comfortable with, using a case study methodology that many academic disciplines would consider lacking in rigor.  the opportunities for comparative research, linking the many analyses of individual community computing centers, have not been realized.  and, of course, the development of a kitbox of research techniques is hampered by the lack of core questions and theory. what we have then, is a field of study that looks very much like the internet itself.  there are a variety of researchers doing work that they individually define as falling under the general rubric of community informatics, and hoping to recruit others.  the field of study, then, is very much in its infancy.  so much in its infancy is it that the sociology and anthropology faculty at the university of toledo refused to make a hire in even the broader area of social informatics in 2003.  it is another question altogether whether it matters that community informatics is underdeveloped as a field of study.  in this post-disciplinary, inter-disciplinary, non-disciplinary age, things like core questions, paradigmatic theories, and common methods can seem anachronistic.  so it is important to ask whether we want community informatics to be a disciplinary field of study or only a topical area of inquiry.  if the former, we have much to do.  if the latter, we may have already done too much, particularly because so much of the emphasis in community informatics is on applied work. a field of practice community informatics as a field of practice is much more developed.  indeed, many of those now working in community informatics as a field of study began by working in it as a field of practice.  and they have brought those interests with them. but even the practice of community informatics diverges within itself.  one division is between the development of community information systems—more or less the community-based version of management information systems (bieber, 2002) used in the government and corporate sectors—and the development of community networks, which begins to move more in the direction of focusing on building the knowledge and information capacity of community members, often leading to the creation of electronic rather than face-to-face relationships (russian communities online, n.d.).  another set of divisions is between community informatics projects that focus on enhancing democracy, developing social capital, empowering individuals, building community, and developing local economies (o'neil, 2001). these are significantly different areas, requiring dramatically different kinds of expertise outside of information technology. in any developed field of practice you will also find statements of ethics and standards of practice. there have been some attempts to draw out the ethical issues from specific application contexts such as northern ireland, but there has been no general set of ethics developed for community informatics.  likewise, there are no agreed upon standards of practice, though some attempt to develop such standards.   william mciver (n.d.), for example, has proposed standards of practice that emphasize accessibility, universal design, and participatory design.  it’s not fair to say that an ethical vacuum exists in community informatics, since practitioners bring their standards of practice from the more established disciplines and professions from which they come.  and one of the reasons so many of us have been drawn to this emerging field of community informatics is because we see the need for integrating technology with social justice work.  but the lack of a codified set of ethics and practice standards is a sign of the under-development of community informatics as a field of practice. an integrated field? because of the potential disjuncture between community informatics as a field of study and community informatics as a field of practice, we also need to ask what the relationship between the two should be.  will it be like the professional fields of public health, social work, public administration, and others where scholarship and practice are interwoven?  or will practice and scholarship keep each other at arm’s length?  and if practice and scholarship are to be integrated, through what forms will that integration occur? here there are some interesting possibilities.  community informatics is coming of age in the midst of a revolution in the way we conduct research.  the exploding popularity of participationand action-oriented forms of research such as community-based research (strand et al., 2003) is occurring at the same time as the rise of community informatics as a field.  the integration of practice and scholarship occurring in community-based research is already popular among many in community informatics at least in part because of the participatory design model being used in so many community informatics projects (day, 2000; campbell and eubanks, n.d.; gurstein, 2003b). a participatory and action oriented approach to the integration of research and application will not resolve the question of what the field itself should focus on, however.  and the lack of a defined theoretical perspective may remain the greatest weakness, particularly since even community-based research can be conducted from incompatible theoretical perspectives.  a distraction? finally, heretical as it may seem, we must ask whether this field is a distraction.  and i wish to devote the rest of the paper to this possibility.  if the goal, ultimately, is to develop strong communities, does creating a field devoted only to the application of information technology in community settings really serve that goal?  the fields of social work, community development, and public health have, for some time now, been focusing much more comprehensively on building strong communities and building up weak ones.  should we assume that information and communication technology is such a central part of that process that it deserves a place as a separate field?  or, are our efforts better placed in bringing community informatics into those other fields—to make sure that the community goals drive the technology goals rather than vice versa?  in a small rural community, for example, does the technology plan need to be integrated with the sustainable agricultural plan, and the local business development plan, and the family support system plan, and the regional medical care plan, and all the other plans that are needed to lift up disinvested rural communities?  and does that make the technology plan just a member of the supporting cast under the rubric of broader fields of practice and study? to me, the question of whether focusing on community informatics as a field is a distraction is centrally important.  because it may be that our fascination with the technology is distracting us from our concern for the community.  i felt this tension in the work i did with larry stillman surveying the neighborhood houses in melbourne’s western region where it became clear how interwoven the information technology issues were with broader and more fundamental community development infrastructure issues.  in a similar recent project in toledo, we focused our efforts on emphasizing the information issues faced by nonprofit groups, rather than the technology issues, allowing us to see that in many cases the groups lacked information that could not be obtained through simply offering more technology, but instead required resources to support original data gathering.  dealing with this issue requires moving onto the next question. what is community informatics for? in asking what is community informatics for, i am asking what is its purpose?  is it to build up communities, or develop information, or provide access to technology?  the easy answer, of course, is all three.  but that’s the easy answer, not the simple one.  for these purposes are neither clear nor even necessarily compatible.  and to understand the potential problems in the relationships between these concepts, we need to first spend some time defining these three building blocks of community informatics. community defining community is the toughy, and the one we often get hung up on.  people often groan when i insist on defining what community is.  but if we are trying to build community, it seems to me we must define it.  carefully.  and a careful definition has not developed within the emerging field of community informatics.  michael gurstein originally used the concept to emphasize place-based communities (gurstein, 2003), but has since expanded the concept to include on-line communities (bieber et al., 2002). but what a community is, beyond some group of people having a sense of unity, remains out of reach.  in addition, within community informatics, the concept has not expanded to include identity communities (boyte, 1984) such as ethnic communities, gay and lesbian communities, and others who are often scattered beyond a single neighborhood but share free spaces (evans and boyte, 1986) such as bookstores, cafes, churches, and other places where they gather face to face.  what we actually have, then, is a continuum from strictly place-based communities (lyon, 1987) where people interact predominantly in a face-to-face manner, to strictly virtual communities where people interact only through electronic means.  importantly, in this continuum, it is the virtual community where the sense of unity—at least if we take unity to mean some form of ideological consensus—is most important.  for neighborhood and small town communities often are characterized by ideological diversity, even when their members still support and defend one another.  our use of “unity” needs to be much deeper and nuanced, to notice both diversity and consensus. my definition of community draws on both spatial and identity characteristics, and follows the work of john logan and harvey molotch (1987).  in their definition, a community provides:  “a focal point in which one’s daily needs are satisfied;” informal support networks; “a sense of physical and psychic security;” an identity; “agglomeration benefits” (unique goods and services provided because enough demand has developed in one place); and a shared ethnicity.  this is an ideal type definition because it outlines the attributes of the most fully functioning community.  in practical terms, this ideal type community is most often a neighborhood with a grocery store, hardware store, pharmacy, and park.  it is a place where people feel physically safe, and experience a sense of current and future security.  and culture is extremely important.  there are many strong urban ethnic enclaves and alternative communities that approach this definition in various ways (abrahamson, 1996). but there are also strong communities whose identity emphasizes diversity, such as the dudley street neighborhood in boston (medoff and sklar, 1994).  if the purpose of community informatics is to build community, then we must take this definition into account.  can technology help create a focal point where people satisfy their daily needs?  can technology help provide informal support networks?  can technology provide a sense of security?  can it help develop an identity?  can it help provide unique goods and services?  most importantly, can it do any of those things by itself? information information is often confused with technology, in the sense that once you have the technology it is assumed you will get the information.  nothing could be further than the truth.  when the united states secretary of state colin powell went to the united nations, he was armed with high tech satellite photographs, intercepted communications, and a variety of other high-tech forms of “evidence” to assert that iraq had enormous stockpiles of horrifically deadly weapons.  all that technology, and thousands of lost lives later we find out there was no information.  in this case, and in the case of most of our e-mail inboxes which are now so chock-full of offensively titled spam that we are becoming phobic about clicking that “check mail” button, the technology in fact negates the flow of good information.  vicnet—the famous community network serving the state of victoria in australia—has now locked its e-mail system so tightly that it refuses increasing amounts of legitimate e-mail.  it is also distressing to me that the organizations out there dedicated to helping non-governmental organizations (ngos) build their information capacity, such as npower and making the net work, can provide all manner of tools to assess those groups’ technology needs, but there is nothing to help them determine their information needs.  if our emphasis is on information, then why do all of our tools emphasize technology? on the other hand, the information needs assessment projects out there often seem separate from ict applications (see for example michel et al., 2002).    the recent toledo project mentioned above is attempting to bridge the gap between information assessment and technology assessment by looking first at the research and data needs and practices of toledo’s nonprofit organizations, avoiding almost entirely the question of technology.  now that we have discovered what the information needs are, we are planning ways to help meet those needs, including possible information technology applications. all of this, however, begs the question of what constitutes information.  information is much more difficult to define than community.  but, like community, we can define what is ideal information.  perhaps the most important standard for information is that it be useful—when acted upon, it produces the predicted effect.  what is useful will vary tremendously from situation to situation, and that is exactly why information needs assessments are so important.  in many ways, it is the definition of information that will lead to prescriptions for appropriate technology. technology technology is too often the place where we start, when it should be where we end up.  too many community informatics practitioners and proponents act as if it is the technology that will build community, seeing technology as an independent rather than dependent variable (pitkin, 2001).  it is in determining the appropriate role of technology that we can see most clearly the importance of social theory.  old school geography used to argue that the driving variables in urban society were population, organization, environment, and technology—the poet formulation (duncan, 1959; 1961; hawley, 1973).  all four were seen as relatively independent influences on the shape of urban space and the dynamics of social life.  but in the 1970s and 1980s a group of critical geographers, including david harvey (1985), began arguing that it was the dynamics of material production and its resultant class structure that determined the shape of the population, the form of social organization, the type of environment, and the character of technology.  they argued, for example, that suburbanization in the united states was not the result of the creation of the car, but the result of corporate decisions that moved manufacturing out of central cities and government decisions that subsidized suburban rather than central city housing development (gottdiener and feagin, 1988). neither computers nor guns are neutral pieces of technology.  the design of technology is being driven by the demands of the rich for profit, not by the demands of the poor for access.  with only a little informal training, and access to some informal technical assistance, community members can build their own mail order computer for a few hundred dollars.  but they are still buying branded pre-built computers with proprietary components for two to four times that much.  community computing centers are accepting grants from microsoft to install proprietary software requiring high levels of skill in understanding software-based licensing restrictions and anti-virus defense, rather than free, stable, and easily defended linux systems. the computer end-user, consequently, becomes both de-skilled and dependent.  what would a community informatics project look like that emphasized easily replaceable generic hardware, free and open source software, and a community relationship-building process that embraced those two ideas? part of the problem is that, in contrast to community, which has been so misused that no one wants to try and carefully define it, and information, which has so many varying definitions that it is unclear which is the right one, information and communication technologies, or icts, are easy to define.  we’re talking here hardware and software—phones, radios, televisions, cameras, computers, etc.  all nice, concrete, easy to measure stuff.  it’s so much easier to concentrate on the pieces that we can have some confidence in understanding. cit, cit, or cit? two years ago, when i was in australia, i began thinking about an article from the community development literature on community economic development (ced) (boothroyd and davis, 1993).  their play on the acronym ced, capitalizing each letter in turn to show how the practice would look different if you made one of the concepts more important than the others, got me thinking about the interplay of community information technology.  what happens if community is the most important concept, or if information is, or if technology is? since we have not developed standards for what would constitute a “community” approach to community informatics, compared to an “information” approach or a “technology” approach, we do not know what happens under the three conditions. but we can imagine that the consequences might vary significantly (stoecker, 2002).  a community approach might emphasize building relationships among community members and a collective sense of community power, and then explore ways that icts can be one of the strategies for supporting that process.  an information approach might look at the information needs of a community, and various ways, including icts, that those needs might be met, risking the possibility that the information development will go to waste if the community is not strong enough to use it.  a technology approach might focus on introducing new technologies into a community, risking the possibility that it could disrupt rather than build community relationships and distract community members from information activities requiring other forms of technology, such as good footwear to pound the pavement and knock on the doors of their neighbors. who does community informatics serve? those of us in this emerging field of community informatics focus on serving historically excluded communities.  but we have already seen that community informatics as a field of study lacks a coherent core, and community informatics as a field of practice lacks explicit standards.  our definition of community is weak, and information needs are often considered after technological desires.  given these issues, it seems fair to wonder whether we are effectively serving the communities we target, or perhaps unwittingly expending our energies for the benefit of the more privileged or even the enemy. elites it might seem odd to consider that community informatics would serve elites.  and yet, let us consider the kinds of projects carried out under the rubric of community informatics.  the average telecenter, as scott robinson (n.d.) points out, is a place where youth become engaged in mass consumption rather than a place where community power is built.  and if we look at the education programs conducted through such centers, they are focused on job training—integrating people into the lower rungs of the capitalist economy rather than helping them to question it (penuel, 2001; youth development trust for the idrc, 2003).  the result is a low-wage, compliant workforce that does more for stockholders than members of excluded communities. this focus on training individuals in icts is hoped to develop social capital, which has been defined in various ways, but mostly focuses on building individual capacities and linking those capacities across a community for the purpose of economic development.  social capital has been explicitly defined as such to focus on its role in economic production.  but, when you take social relationships and deploy them as economic development capital, you turn them into exchange relationships governed by contracts rather than by friendships (stoecker, 2004). so once again, we see the influences of a capitalist economy directing the shape of the community’s development rather than the community establishing an independent, empowered, sustainable development path. the next step after individual training and social capital formation is a community-focused ict strategy such as the community portal.  community portals become one-stop shops for community commerce, and are increasingly promoted as a form of community economic development (creating and sustaining online communities, 2000).  in this case the entire community, rather than just its individuals, become integrated into the capitalist economy.  and the portal sector, if we can call it that, is already being dominated by large corporations (penuel, 2001).  market-oriented thinking regularly works its way into the overall field of community informatics.  there is often an explicit comparison made between the community information systems version of community informatics, and management information systems, based on a corporate model, with a corresponding concern that ci has not become as marketable as mis (bieber et al., 2002). the most cynical analysis, then, would argue that community informatics, through an emphasis on job training, social capital, and community commerce portals, serves elites in three ways.  first, it quiets discontent by integrating poor people into the system, making them slightly less marginal, and reducing their energy to organize against the system (cloward and piven, 1993).  second, it encourages communities to give up their unique characteristics to appeal to mass markets, reducing community-based resistance to global capitalism. i remember a conference on the west coast of australia a few years ago where community folks expressed concerns that community portals would force them to market themselves according to rules set by outsiders, disrupting the unique cottage economy they were trying so hard to preserve.  third, by implication, the model on which these activities are based make it the individual’s, and then the community’s, responsibility to pick themselves by the bootstraps and fit in.  when icts are provided for people, it is expected people will make use of them to get jobs and develop their economies, not to try and change the system.  and if they don’t better themselves, it is their own fault, not the fault of a political economic system organized by and for elites.  this is the classic victim-blaming switcheroo, where the poor are blamed for their poverty even when it is clear that the economy cannot provide adequate jobs, equitable education, and comparable justice (ryan, 1976). academics how might community informatics benefit academics?  well, many of us are building reputations and even careers out of community informatics.  we get access to rich data, research projects, and applied projects.  yes, we all like to complain (me included) about the sacrifices we make, since our skills could easily get double the salary in the corporate market.  but we still have pretty privileged lifestyles, jetting around the globe to meet with other experts in this emerging field, and writing journal articles and books for each other.  and the more we academics talk to each other, the more we feel like we know something, and the more we try and take leadership in community informatics projects.  while the participatory design emphasis in community informatics is quite strong, it is still quite interesting how many telecentres, or community technology centers as we call them in the united states, look so much the same.  community participation is promoted, but only rarely practiced in ways that can make us all look proud.  when was the last time anyone had even 100 community people turn out to plan a telecenter?  it’s easy to say, “well, they’re not really interested” when the reality is that we professionals are simply not good at getting people to a meeting.  and besides, we (erroneously) believe that we know what they need anyway. we contribute to community informatics as an exclusive domain that makes it hard for community people to want to participate.  look at what we’ve called the field, for example.  community informatics?  what does that mean to someone whose basic concern is making their paycheck last through the month?  we publish our work in the terribly inaccessible pdf format, making it extremely difficult for the people we most want to help—people too poor to afford any computer or a fast enough computer, and people with sight disabilities—to even access the things we write.  and then let’s not even talk about the way we write. community workers the poor community workers are often second rung players in community informatics.  kind of like middle management, they get the blame when the telecentres designed by the professionals don’t work, without the power to do anything about it.  especially since many of them lack the technology skills needed to take organize community informatics projects themselves, they become dependent on outsider technical expertise.  and the integration of technology expertise with community development expertise is still rarely achieved. it is less clear how community informatics serves this group.  in fact, as larry stillman and i found in our work with the neighbourhood house workers in australia’s western suburbs, technology may actually be doing as much harm as good.  at least some of the technology applications used by community workers is designed to serve elites, maintaining databases on clients and programs to inform government and funder elites rather than to directly serve clients. community workers, next to community members, are the people that community informatics most needs to serve, as they are the intermediaries to the community itself.  but how community informatics should serve them is still unclear, as most of our efforts are still focused on developing the technology rather than the information or the community.  how to remedy this situation is also compounded by a split within the field of community work itself between those community workers who have an individual clinical focus and those who have a community advocacy focus, which we will address below. community members this is the group with which we really are most concerned.  but it is also the group about which we understand the least, particularly in a community informatics context.  the evidence of whether ci really helps communities is at best speculative and anecdotal (pitkin, 2001). we know that it helps individual community members.  but we don’t know whether those individuals would have succeeded even without such projects.  and our inability to show such impacts is already hindering the funding of community informatics projects. we can point to particular efforts that pay off, however.  the social movement wing of community informatics has the most to show for its efforts.  it has developed models serving the anti-globalization movement that have the desired effect of inhibiting global capital from becoming even more powerful than it is already.  it has helped force the mexican government to negotiate in good faith with the zapatistas in chiapas.  it has built a powerful political force called moveon.org in the united states (stoecker, 2002b). but at the level of the local community, we are still hard pressed to show impact beyond the level of individuals.  this is partly a research methodology problem.  showing the relationship between a community informatics project and crime reduction, or community relationships, or neighboring patterns, is extremely difficult.  as we will see below, that may also be a result of our emphasizing technology as the main question in community informatics. toward an empowerment model of community informatics as worrisome as all these questions are, those of us working in the emerging field of community informatics are not yet ready to give up on it.  neither, however, should our philosophy be “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.”  we have the opportunity to make early course corrections, and we should make the most of that opportunity.  our goal, i believe, is for community informatics to contribute to empowered communities—communities that are politically, culturally, and economically strong enough to negotiate agreements with corporations and higher level governments that bring them more benefits than costs.  that is a tall order, and it is quite clear that community informatics can’t accomplish those goals by itself.  so those of us in this emerging field need to think bigger, considering how community informatics fits into an overall community development strategy, using a participatory process, a project-based research approach, and an information focus. community development strategy the model has to begin with community.  while the call has been made for a linkage between community development and community informatics, that linkage has not been made in any explicit sense (bieber et al., 2002).  and that is our first task.  community development, as it is used outside of the united states, is a comprehensive strategy including a wide range of activities from business and housing development, to various forms of community organizing, to service delivery.  it often uses a systems approach, considering the entire community—its politics, economics, demographics, resource base, and other characteristics—in creating a sustainable, self-sufficient, empowered community (cook, 1999; tamas, whitehorse, and almonte, 2000).  in the united states, the term is mostly limited to business and housing development, though there is continuous pressure to expand the definition.  dave beckwith (1997) explicitly distinguishes community development, community organizing, service delivery, and advocacy. in this model, community development is the practice of “bricks and mortar” physical development.  community organizing is a confrontational social action form of community building where community members advocate for themselves.  advocacy is where professional activists advocate on behalf of a community, and service delivery is the typical form of social services. in the beckwith approach, which distinguishes sub-practices within the broader international definition field of community development, we can begin to think in more detailed ways about how community informatics can contribute.  in such a model, community informatics becomes a support field.  there are no longer community informatics projects, but community development projects that incorporate community informatics.  in physical development projects, geographic information systems may be of use.  in community organizing, e-mail communication or web-based target research could be incorporated.  in advocacy and service delivery, electronic databases could be important.  community informatics can study and develop catalogues of best practices for how information technology interfaces with those different activities.  and it can provide technical assistance in implementing icts in specific development, organizing, service, and advocacy projects. information focus the only way to determine what information technologies are appropriate for a given community is to find out, first, about the community itself and, second, about the information the community is trying to get or use.  so information has to be the second emphasis.  it is appropriate that social informatics is associated not primarily with computer science but with library science, as it is in places like the faculty of information studies at the university of toronto.  in such programs, a focus on information before technology has a fighting chance.  too much technology development comes out of the whims of those familiar with hardware and software and too little comes out of the needs of those familiar with information.  what does community informatics look like if it takes a community information approach?  from a community development perspective, ci would look first at what information is needed to both understand a community and implement a particular development, organizing, service, and advocacy project.  is geographic information systems mapping relevant to a particular project?  is a database of pending legislation useful?  is a survey of local housing conditions important?  is market research on possible new businesses required?  and what forms of icts are needed for those—plotter printers, digital cameras, web survey applications, good walking shoes, or others? a project-based research model (stoecker, 2005) can help identify information needs.  project-based research is designed to follow community development project cycles, from the initial diagnosis of a community problem, to the prescription of what to do about that problem, to the actual implementation of the prescription, to the evaluation of the implementation.  at each stage of the project cycle there are specific information needs.  at the diagnosis stage, needs and asset assessments are common.  at the prescription stage, policy research and best practices research are common.  at the implementation stage, a wide variety of activities such as community theatre, target research, and other community events build out of a research foundation.  and at the evaluation stage, of course, is the research attempting to find out how much change has been produced. participatory process participation has become a crucial component of community informatics.  the participatory design conference held in the united states every two years also focuses on how to integrate participatory processes with information and communication technologies.  participation is a common component in definitions of ci.  one of the more interesting is nancy campbell and virginia eubanks’ (n.d.) definition of community informatics as “a sustainable approach to community enrichment that integrates participatory design of information technology resources, popular education, and asset-based development to enhance citizen empowerment and quality of life.”  what interests me most about this definition is its emphasis on not just participatory design, but also on popular education, for the integration of popular education into community informatics is still relatively rare. if you are not familiar with popular education, the practice is most associated with the brazilian educator paulo freire, and in the united states with myles horton and the highlander research and education center (horton and freire, 1990).  the practice is also growing in australia through the centre for popular education at the university of technology at sydney, among others.  in brief, popular education emphasizes the people teaching themselves, rather than being told by outsiders what they should learn and how they should learn it.  and that is a particularly challenging leap for those of us in community informatics to make.  after all, computers are complicated things, and few of us can imagine a person who has never sat down in front of a computer being able to work it without us.  but that is also what they said about politics, and popular educators have shown them to be wrong there.  yes, people do need training to get the most out of icts, but can they train each other, building the training curriculum out of their identified information needs, rather than having to submit to canned program classes? what would community informatics look like if it were participatory in a popular education sense?  first, the participation would occur in a community development context, as people studied their own community and began to identify local community development issues.  second, as part of this popular education process, people would identify a set of information issues—things they needed to know or information they needed to better manage—to support specific community development projects.  then, and only then, they could consider particular ict applications that provided some potential for helping with those information issues. community informatics as supporting cast this empowerment model of community informatics has a number of implications for this emerging field.  first, we need to subordinate our work to the broader work of community development, and we need to learn that literature and that theory.  ict is simply one category of tools for community development, just like housing, small business incubation, family support, and the wide array of other community development tools.  as a consequence, community informatics becomes part of the supporting cast, not the lead player.  in fact, the most important lesson we learned in building the catnet community networking project in toledo was not how to develop small telecenters around the city, but how the process of developing those centers could build relationships among community members.  additionally, there remains a gap between those who are good at community development but not good at icts and those who are good at icts but not good at community development.  there is a misperception in much of the field that it is the technology side that is really complicated, requiring a great deal of mystical expertise, while running a community meeting to plan a project requires no training at all.  the reality is, in fact, quite the reverse.  the reason so many community informatics projects operate with only small numbers of community participants is not that community members don’t care about such projects, but that those of us organizing the projects are so bad at recruiting, involving, and empowering them.  if you cannot get 100 people involved in a community informatics project then you probably need training in how to organize, involve, excite, and empower people. it may seem like a pre-emptive diminution of this emerging field to assign it a supporting cast role.  but it should not, because community informatics has had the good sense from its inception to concern itself not primarily with its own development, but with the development of communities around the globe.  the ironic unintended consequence of that good sense, however, is that community informatics has paid too little attention to itself as an emerging field.  now is our opportunity to reflect on where we are, and how to play a conscious role in the transition to a community-centered world. references abrahamson, m.  (1996).  urban enclaves : identity and place in america.  new york: st. martin's press. beckwith, d, with c lopez. 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(n.d.). definition of community networking. http://www.communities.org.ru/definition.htm.  accessed november 1, 2004. ryan. w.  (1976).  blaming the victim. new york: vintage books. stoecker, randy.  (2005).  research methods for community change:  a project-based approach.  thousand oaks, ca:  sage publications. ----.  (2004). the mystery of the missing social capital and the ghost of social structure:  why community development can't win.  in r. silverman (ed.) community-based organizations in contemporary urban society: the intersection of social capital and local context.  detroit: wayne state university press. ----.  (2002). toward a people's technology.  keynote address delivered to the "community and information technology: the big questions" search conference, monash university, melbourne, australia. http://www.ccnr.net/searchconf/stoecker.htm.  accessed november 1, 2004. ----.  (2002b).  cyberspace vs. face to face: community organizing in the new millennium.  perspectives on global development and technology. 1:143-164. strand, k., s. marullo, n. cutforth, r. stoecker, & p. donohue.  (2003). community-based research in higher education:  methods, models and practice.  san francisco:  jossey-bass. tamas, an., y. whitehorse & o. almonte. (2000).  system theory in community development.  http://www.tamas.com/samples/source%2520docs/system%2520theory%2520in%2520cd.pdf.  accessed november 1, 2004. youth development trust for the idrc, (2003). the impact of information and communications technology training on youth entrepreneurship and job creation. http://web.idrc.ca/uploads/user-s/10566354940ydt_final_report21.doc.  accessed november 1, 2004. technology mediated learning: building capacity in rural communities david w bruce mount allison university , <dwbruce@mta.ca> victoria hagens concordia university <victoria.hagens@gmail.com> katrina ellis mount allison university <klells@mta.ca> abstract internet access in rural canada increases opportunities for learning and interaction among community leaders. research on the use of chat room technology to facilitate learning and development revealed that there were significant barriers, including time constraints, lack of prior social and professional contact among participants, and limited value placed on informal learning relative to other daily activities. communications technologies such as chat rooms have the potential to help meet personal and community goals, but they must be effectively combined with other community assets and circumstances for the benefits of their use to be realized. introduction rural communities in canada as elsewhere are facing economic difficulties inlcuding lower levels of education attainment compared with urban communities, and continuing unemployment and other market failures. all of these are making it increasingly difficult for rural residents to succeed in the global economy (bruce, 2003). many of these communities were once dependent on local natural resources. in many cases these resources are now depleted due to over extraction and excessive use, are the communities are looking more and more to new communications technologies as tools for developing knowledge-based or service-based economies and for improving their access to health and education services. in the course of these efforts, communities are learning how to incorporate new forms of information technology into their daily lives and their local economic practices (faris, 2001), and thus increasing their capacity to survive in the changing social and economic landscape. information and communication technologies (icts) can be highly useful in connecting and improving networks and services across geographically separated regions. it is not simply the use of icts that is important, but the development of their use into strategies and applications to further advance local economic development initiatives, achieve social justice, foster political empowerment, and ensure local access to education and health services (gurstein, 2003). although much time and effort has been spent on creating local internet access points for rural communities and to bring high speed internet to rural areas1, very little time has been directed towards expanding local capacity for developing and making effective use of ict systems within these communities. such development is important, and when designed with the communities’ initiatives in mind these systems can be useful tools in transforming community conditions. in this paper we explore the potential relationship between community capacity and new information technologies. in doing so, we will describe a recent experimental project in which internet chat room technology was used to link community workers across rural canada. the primary objectives of the project were to promote collaborative learning around issues which are important to rural communities, and to help people to improve their knowledge and use of internet technologies to assist them in their work and everyday lives. a major interest among public policy makers, researchers, and others is effective use of communications technologies for creating wealth and opportunities within rural regions – going beyond the question of access to consider how the use of new technologies can help to benefit the community and its users over time (gurstein, 2003). while many canadians, particularly in rural and remote regions, still do not have internet access (neither high speed nor dial-up) at home or at work, even those who do have access do not necessarily possess the skills required to engage effectively with the technology (rideout & reddick, 2005, p. 51). more work needs to be done to help communities find productive ways of using the internet to help meet their needs and increase their overall capacity, so that access to the internet can be transformed into a true asset for rural people. for while technology is seen to be just one of many tools which can contribute to a community’s ability to meet its goals, it is a tool which is steadily gaining in significance in today’s rural society and economy. capacity, social capital, and internet use new communications technologies are generally seen to have the potential to impact (among other things) social interaction, economic development opportunities, and, ultimately, community capacity. it remains unclear what impacts of these have actually been in society however, and there are numerous conflicting research reports and arguments on this topic within the literature. for this paper we draw on that research but also we draw heavily from the work of bill reimer and the new rural economy (nre) project, which provides a model for understanding capacity that has been designed and tested for the explicit purpose of working with rural communities in today’s changing economy, and which we believe can help bring new insight to the relationship between community capacity and internet communications. reimer describes capacity as the ability to use assets and resources to achieve desired outcomes (tiepoh & reimer, 2004, p. 431). key elements of community capacity are described by reimer (2006) in a ”capacity model” (figure 1). it is understood that while communities have many assets at their disposal for development purposes, these assets (such as people, skills, money, and infrastructure) are used or managed through a variety of social relations as they are transformed into outcomes. it is the interactions that occur between and among people – whether these interactions are based in the communal, associative, market, or bureaucratic spheres – which can turn the resources of a community into positive results. it is also the resources of a community which provide the opportunity for successful interactions to occur in the first place. the model therefore includes a “feedback loop”; indicating how outcomes of social processes can in turn become assets or liabilities for further development. social capital is a key asset for communities and organizations as can be seen in this model, since it because it is an element in all four types of social processes. the impacts of the internet on social capital, and indeed on social interaction overall is discussed in the literature where there is general agreement among researchers that the internet has the potential to support or even to increase social networks and interaction – both on-line and off-line. but whether or not this occurs in practice is a matter of debate. the positive effects of internet usage on social capital argued for by some authors include the expansion of personal networks (mcquaid & lindsay, 2003); an improved ability to communicate one’s needs to service providers and policy makers (mcquaid & lindsay, 2003); increased or facilitated civic engagement (gaved & anderson, 2006) and (wellman et al., 2001); improved communication between individuals with pre-existing off-line relationships (wellman et al., 2001); and the building of trust, cooperation, and reciprocity within communities (simpson, 2005). however, few longitudinal studies have been undertaken where there was the opportunity to adequately test the depth or endurance of these effects (gaved & anderson, 2006, p. 6; meredyth et al., 2004, p. 197). some research in fact suggests that the results of internet usage are anti-social – taking people away from their communities and families (meredyth et al. 2004, p. 200). the basis for this argument is the assertion that online interaction is inferior to other forms of interaction; that time spent on the internet competes for time with other activities (much like television); and that use of the internet can depress or alienate people from social interaction (wellman et al., 2001, p. 439). a third position, put forth by wellman et al. (2001), is that the internet neither increases nor decreases social capital, but rather supplements it – acting as an extension of offline activities (p. 440). they suggest that social interaction is indeed facilitated by the internet’s ability to connect people and organizations, but that it may be “more useful for maintaining existing ties than for creating new ones” (wellman et al., p. 440). when seen within the context of the capacity model (figure 1), we believe that access to the internet can be viewed as an asset which has the potential to be used for beneficial outcomes, such as increased social capital, but which must be combined with other assets and interlinked with social processes in order for that potential to be realized. we do not argue that internet use necessarily either increases or decreases social capital, nor do we propose, as do wellman et al., that internet use simply supplements social capital. rather, the capacity model suggests that we must consider the circumstances under which social capital is affected by the internet. and if we want to use the internet to increase social capital and capacity, as we have attempted to do with the above referenced pilot project in rural communities, then we must pay close attention to those circumstances. two of the assets which must be combined for effective internet communication are infrastructure and human capital. human capital is the ability, knowledge and learned skills of individuals, which can be drawn upon and mobilized to help meet community goals (reimer & wilkinson, 2003). in this case we are looking at the ability of humans to use technology to help them to develop their knowledge and skills through on-line discussions, as well as the ability to learn how to incorporate new forms of technology into their everyday lives, either through their participation in the local work force or through the voluntary organizations to which they belong. a third key asset for effective internet communication is social capital itself. as putnam (2001) has suggested, social capital must be already present in order for the internet to be used for social means (gaved & anderson, 2006, p. 27). thus, social capital can be viewed both as a prerequisite for, and as an outcome of, effective internet communication. in the capacity model this relationship is reflected in the “feedback loop” (figure 1). when considering the effects of the internet on social capital we must also keep in mind that the internet itself includes a wide variety of tools and functions – some social and some a-social. studies on internet use have on occasion found that the less social tools such as on-line entertainment and on-line shopping have the effect of taking people away from interaction with other people and towards more anti-social behaviour (meredyth et al., 2004, p. 200). these studies serve to highlight the importance of helping individuals and communities to find effective uses of the internet, rather than simply focusing attention and resources on access alone. there is no doubt that the internet has the potential to be used for social and communicative purposes, and because our project was designed to help increase social capital and lubricate associative relations, we focused our activities on the use of a highly social internet tool – chat rooms. technology mediated learning: a rural pilot project the technology mediated learning project is an attempt to build capacity in rural communities by linking community workers across the country into virtual networks for collaborative learning. the process of networking and computer mediated interaction is intended to increase social capital by bridging communities and facilitating useful contacts among workers who deal with similar issues. it is also hoped that knowledge, ideas, and ‘best practices’ shared among these workers will benefit both the individuals and their communities, increasing the assets available for accomplishing shared goals. finally, because the project is introducing a new technology – chat rooms – to people who have for the most part not used this technology before, it is attempting to build the skills and abilities of the workers involved, giving them a new tool which they may find useful for communicating in their work or in their personal networking. it is important to note that this project is not about creating or improving access to internet technology. indeed, participants were all already accessing the internet and were all already using electronic mail, although most did not have high speed access. rather, the project is about introducing a new reason to effectively use the internet which is relevant and helpful to rural people, and introducing a new method by which the internet can be used for communication. project design this pilot project is based on the research interests of the new rural economy (nre) project, initiated by the canadian rural revitalization foundation. nre researchers developed a ‘rural observatory’ consisting of 32 systematically selected field sites. sites were identified from the 1991 boundary files for census subdivisions, ranging in size from 130 to 5,997 residents, across all provinces and two territories in canada (reimer, 2002). the nre research project has completed field work in 22 of these 32 sites, and it is from those 22 sites that individuals were invited to participate in the technology mediated learning pilot sessions. nine categories of community workers, which can be found in most or all of the 22 field sites, were identified to participate in the technology mediated learning project: economic development officers tourism representatives chief administrative officers newspaper editors or staff chamber of commerce members environmental organizations representatives community access centres (cap) committee members/staff recreation committee members/staff volunteer group representatives the categories were chosen using information gathered at each site, where key informant were asked to identify priority issues and topics for their communities. we refer to these categories as ‘community workers’ due to their on-going roles and responsibilities in addressing the priority issues identified and because of their explicit engagement within their local communities. not every category was present in every site, and the sizes of the groups varied. for example, there was at least one site with no municipal government and therefore no chief administrative officer to participate in the project. from the nine categories, prospective participants were identified in each site. a three-step process was used to communicate with them about the project. first, a general press release about the project was distributed in each community involved – through the local and regional papers, to municipal offices, and to other important locations and outlets. second, a personal telephone call or e-mail was made to each potential participant to share with them the details of the project and to invite their participation. third, an e-mail was sent to each individual who agreed to participate, with further details and instructions about how the on-line chat rooms would function and the plan for the rollout of the project. to begin this project an on-line chat web site, chatzy.com, was chosen. the program is simple and free to use, and easily accessible. participants were contacted by e-mail and invited to participate in a scheduled on-line facilitated discussion, on a topic linked to their specific interest group. the on-line invitation to join the chat room was sent just prior to the scheduled time of the event. participants were electronically directed to some on-line background material, such as a website or a pdf file for most of the sessions. they were asked to review these prior to the discussion, as these learning materials would be referred to during the session. each chat session was led by a “moderator”, a member of the research team. the moderator had the additional responsibility of selecting learning materials in advance for participant review, introducing the topic(s), posing questions to the participants, inviting their comments, encouraging their interaction with one another, and performing any other role which facilitated learning and exchange for the participants. these pilot sessions were tracked and assessed in three ways. the is an on-line assessment and evaluation survey completed by chat room participants. before participating in their first on-line discussion, participants were asked to complete an on-line assessment of their internet experience and skills. these assessment questions examined the types of technology participants have used in the past, their comfort level with information technology, their computer access, their topics of interest and basic demographics. as well, following each scheduled discussion, participants were asked to complete an evaluation survey. the evaluation questions concerned the usefulness of the technology, whether they might use it again in their work, and what other forms of technology they might be willing to try. participants’ responses to several of the questions from both the assessment and evaluation surveys were analyzed to determine if such on-line learning would be useful for further learning and development and if it could help rural and remote residents to build capacity and gain useful knowledge. the second approach concerns the on-line discussion transcripts. a full record of each chat room discussion was saved as a transcript within chatzy.com. a content analysis methodology was used to analyze the transcripts to determine wether: participants are using the technology in other settings; there is interest in using the ideas presented in the discussion in some other context; there is further online networking taking place outside of the sessions, either with other participants or with the discussion moderator; the discussion was useful to participants; those participating in the discussion were sharing ideas and knowledge with one another. the third information source is the correspondence, such as e-mails or conversations with chat room participants, concerning their participation in the project. a total of 17 facilitated discussions took place from september 2003 to february 2004. one session was held for each of the nine categories of community workers, and some categories held a second or even a third session, generally including some of the same and some additional participants. in total, 40 people took part in the sessions from across the 22 communities, 24 women and 16 men. assessment and evaluation surveys were completed by 26 of the participants. bridging communities for collaborative learning the project was designed to link community workers together for collaborative learning. bridging and networking across geographical distance is an important aspect of learning for rural community workers who may not have nearby access to resources and peers within their field of work. new methods of technology where they can enter into virtual communities are allowing people in once isolated rural and remote areas to participate and be brought into collaborative learning environments (meredyth et al., 2004),. these allow them to communicate with their peers or others who are in similar situations and facing similar issues. internet chat rooms are one way to provide opportunities for bridging across distance through virtual learning. virtual learning communities can be created using two approaches: synchronous and asynchronous on-line learning methods. synchronous learning means that the learning among participants is occurring at the same time. people who are divided by time and space learn together in real time, through instantaneous messaging. chat rooms are a form of synchronous learning, which operate in real time and form an on-line community where people are able to meet and share/discuss ideas with one another. asynchronous learning, not functioning in real time uses e-bulletin boards which allow users to post messages and their thoughts for later use or viewing for others. asynchronous learning can be useful for learning content and issues, though it is not as useful for developing an on-line community. the knowledge that is generated from these two methods of interaction links interaction and the environment in which people are participating. the ultimate goal is to create a learning community where people are able to build their own capacity and build upon knowledge gained from others (dykes & schwier, 2003; schwier & balbar, 2002). in order for collaboration over the internet to be meaningful, certain circumstances must come together or be developed. physical access, or the ability to access the technology in order for it to be used, is fundamental. lack of skills or of financial resources can also be barriers to participating in these on-line learning communities. people who have difficulties using computers or using certain programs, or who do not have the means to upgrade their computers or pay for courses, automatically become less able to benefit from on-line learning. those who do not have high speed internet connections may also experience problems when participating in real time chat discussions. those using slower dial up connections may have difficulty keeping up with the flow of conversation (bartolic-zlomislic & bates, 1999; katz & rezaie, 1999). for our pilot sessions several potential participants experienced difficulties with the technology due to connection speed or in some cases due to lack of skill, making it not possible for them to participate. beyond the physical and skills-based circumstances, it is also important that participants feel some level of commitment to the others in their group, and are able to find a common time to meet on-line for collaborative learning. when such a commitment is created, participants feel more responsible and tend to be more productive or produce better work, as they are concerned for the success of others as well as for themselves (katz & rezaie, 1999). commitment can be difficult to create, however, when off-line relationships do not exist between participants, and when the internet chat session is the first (and only) opportunity to establish bonds and create group norms. as well, time constraints due to work or personal commitments or different time zones create conflict towards the creation of virtual communities or group learning. in this pilot project we found that it was these two factors – commitment-levels and time constraints – which had the greatest impact on the learning sessions. finding workable times to meet, and developing commitment within the group of learners, becomes all the more challenging when working with individuals in different parts of the country who have not met in person, as compared for example (as is most commonly discussed in the literature) to working with students in a university class, who live in the same time-zone and regularly spend time together in the classroom. project outcomes the pilot project involved 40 participants, 26 of whom completed the assessment and evaluation surveys on which our data is based. of these, 73% were women, and between the ages of 35 and 64. participants self-selected to take part in the project, and these demographics are a general reflection of the demographics of community workers in the sites. generally those holding these positions in rural communities are of not of the younger, more computer-savvy generation, though it was found that all are using the internet to some degree in their daily lives. table 1 presents the participants’ use of technology prior to their involvement with the technology mediated learning project (tmlp). almost two-thirds of the participants had used telephone conference calls; about half had used a chat room at least once before their participation in this project; and very few people had experience with the other forms of communication technology listed. table 1: types of communication technology participants have used or are currently using current or previous use telephone conference 65% chat rooms 48% discussion boards 27% chat programs (downloaded) 24% web camera 5% while nearly half of the participants had used internet chat rooms prior to the project, only 34% characterized their comfort-level with this technology as either good or very good. this contrasts with telephone conferences, where all of those who had used the technology listed their comfort-level as “good” or “very good”. participant evaluation the experiences of participants in the tmlp are analyzed using the evaluation surveys complete at the end of the project. table 2 presents the usefulness of chat room technology, on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is not “very useful” and 5 is “very useful”. over half of those participants who provided an evaluation found the chat room discussion and technology to be “useful” to “very useful” (4 or 5 on the scale). table 2: chat room technology and its usefulness usefulness 1 (not very useful) 2 3 4 5 (very useful) 8% 23% 15% 39% 15% in table 3 we can see the perceived “usefulness” of the discussion topics. again, over half of those who responded felt that the topics chosen for discussion and the discussions were “useful” or “very useful”. table 3: the topic of discussion and its usefulness usefulness 1 (not very useful) 2 3 4 5 (very useful) 8% 15% 23% 31% 23% participants were asked whether they experienced any problems with or while using the technology. most respondents (77%) encountered no problems while participating in the discussion. it is known that there were others who were not successful in participating in the chat sessions because of difficulties with the technology. some individuals were unable to log on to the sessions, or found that their dial-up connection was too slow to enable them to participate. it is not known, however, how many of those potential participants who did not show up to the sessions were deterred by these technical issues. we also asked participants whether they might continue to use this form of technology in their current work. relatively few were certain they will use it (27%); however, 65% gave their answer as ‘maybe’, indicating that they are at least thinking about how they might incorporate this into their work place. table 4 looks at other types of communication technologies that respondents said they would be willing test, if they were given some training and guidance. many said that they would like to try on-line video seminars. this type of technology provides participants with face to face interaction and thus with the ability to see who you are communicating which in many instances is an important aspect of creating efficient and lasting connections with those with whom one is working. telephone conference calls, electronic bulletin boards and web cameras were all ranked next highest as forms of technology people would be willing to try. table 4: other types of technology participants would be willing to test on-line video seminar telephone conference call on-line discussion boards web camera chat programs (downloaded) percentage who said ‘yes’ 62% 54% 54% 54% 42% discussion transcripts and correspondence transcripts from the facilitated chat-room sessions were analyzed based on four general questions: are people using the technology in other settings? do people find the discussion and the ideas presented to be useful? do people express an interest in further networking either with other participants or with the discussion moderator? are those participating in the discussion sharing ideas and knowledge with one another? in the course of the 17 discussions which took place, it was mentioned by participants in four separate chats that they would be using this form of technology in another setting, such as at work or for other committees or organizations in which they are involved. this was mentioned by participants in the economic development, community access program (cap), and chamber of commerce discussions. one of the participants applied the chat room technology to her work with a province wide committee which normally meets face to face. instead of everyone driving an hour or more for a meeting, the committee met and held their meeting on-line, eliminating travel time and expenses for everyone. participants in seven of the 17 discussions indicated that the discussions were indeed useful. positive comments were made about the benefits of particular examples or suggestions given during the course of the discussions, and individuals said they would look into using or applying these to their day-to-day work. economic development, cap, chamber of commerce, and also recreation discussion participants made reference to further use. the notion of expanding or furthering networking capabilities with other participants was also examined. interest in networking and exchanging ideas with others was mentioned in eight out of 17 discussions, as people made mention of following up on an idea or suggestion with another participant or moderator. the chamber of commerce participants expressed the most interest in the “further networking” idea, while participants in economic development, environmental, tourism and recreation discussions also showed interest. correspondence with several participants included such comments as that they looked forward to being in contact with or networking with others who are in similar situations but in different environments and regions of canada. several of the participants also followed up with the moderators, asking them questions pertaining to important contacts they needed to make, while others were seeking advice concerning problems or specific areas of concern. the final topic related to participants openly sharing their ideas and knowledge with other participants within their chat session. most of the discussions (13 out of 17) had participants sharing and providing others with useful information by answering questions, providing web sites that may be of assistance to others or providing them with examples of what happened locally in their community and how things were fixed/changed. all of the nine categories with the exceptions of tourism and volunteers were active in sharing ideas. one e-mail that was received from a participant made mention of how she looked forward to “participating in the project, as it followed their work philosophy of sharing and communication among communities.” discussion the primary objective of the learning sessions was to link participants with others who are working on similar issues in other rural communities. other objectives included helping people to improve their use of internet technologies and improving their ability to gain new ideas and knowledge from others. although the results of these goals are difficult to assess given the short-term nature of the project, they allow us to consider the potential of chat room technology to impact the social capital and human skills of individuals, and to explore the circumstances under which a community’s capacity might be increased through the productive use of icts. using the experience of this pilot project we can identify some of the important opportunities offered by new communications technologies for rural capacity building, and we can also identify some of the key challenges which can make the effective use of these technologies difficult for rural people. through the use of the canada-wide ‘rural observatory’ of the new rural economy project, we were able to bring together community workers from across the country into virtual networks. participants were thus able to communicate in real time with others who are engaged in similar work in similarly rural and sometimes isolated situations. while the use of the internet to facilitate interaction across distance and between communities is not novel, the linking together of community workers across the country in this way is an approach to rural development which is only in its beginning stages. data collected from the chat sessions and from participants indicate that web-based communication, with the possible exception of email, is not something that most community workers in rural areas have experienced or are comfortable with. the technology is still relatively new and there remain many parts of the country with little or no high-speed infrastructure. as well, most of these community workers are not of a generation which was formally educated using computers or the internet. while the current level of experience with new communications technologies is low, most of those who tried internet chat rooms for this project found the medium to be useful and would consider incorporating it into their work activities. this is an indication that even a short introduction to a new technology can impact peoples’ knowledge and confidence in using that technology. it also suggests that internet chat rooms may indeed serve productive purposes for rural communities, although the potential impacts of this would require further experimentation and study. for the pilot project we had no difficulty in finding community workers in all parts of the country who were interested in trying new communications technologies. these workers are most interested in those technologies which would give them the most direct contact with one another, allowing for the most highly social communication. thus, many of the participants expressed a desire to try video-conferencing, a form of technology which allows for an even higher degree of social communication across distance than either internet chat rooms or teleconferencing. beyond finding the technology to be useful, most of the community workers who participated in the project also found the discussions and networking to be beneficial. of all of the categories of workers, those involved with economic development and the chamber of commerce expressed the most enthusiasm for the chat sessions and the greatest interest in using chat room technology in their work. these groups may, in some ways, have the most to gain from networking with people in other towns and regions and from sharing information with others in rural communities who experience similar challenges. as was pointed out at the beginning of this paper, changes in the global economy are among the driving factors to incorporate new information technologies into local economic practices. therefore those working most closely with the development of the local economy may have an added appreciation for the potential of new technologies to help them in their work. by engaging in relevant discussions via ict’s, we see that there is the potential to provide community workers in rural and remote areas with useful information to assist them in learning to overcome some of their problems. stoecker (2005) points out that “[community] workers, next to community members, are the people that community informatics most needs to serve, as they are the intermediaries to the community itself” (p. 20). beyond providing these workers with useful information, internet communication can function as a tool for networking among individuals who would not otherwise have the opportunity for social interaction with others facing similar issues in different parts of their regions, provinces, or country, and it is this communication function of the internet which may ultimately have more of an impact on the capacity of communities to accomplish their desired goals (gaved & anderson, 2006, p. 19). building capacity: challenges and opportunities we now return to the question of under what circumstances social capital and capacity can be positively affected by internet communication. the role of the “feedback loop” in reimer’s model of capacity (figure 1) is particularly evident in the results of the chat sessions conducted for this pilot project. while the purpose of the project was to build the assets of the individuals and communities, it was clear that a high level of certain resources were needed before the chat sessions could occur. physical infrastructure was required to allow participants access to the real-time discussions; the skills of the individuals needed to be sufficient for them to log on and learn to use the technology; and the interest and ability of participants to interact and engage with one another needed to be great enough to overcome the physical and social distances between them. thus, the positive outcomes of the sessions – such as the ability to use a new technology and the social capital resulting from broadened networks of collaboration and interaction – could not have occurred (and in some cases did not occur) without a certain level of these assets being already present in the communities. as stoecker (2005) points out, our efforts in community informatics projects such as this one should be in making sure that the community goals drive the technology goals, and not vice versa (p. 16). a community’s receptiveness to these projects and initiatives “is influenced by the extent to which the initiative matches the community’s aspirations, values and needs, or is perceived as contributing to the future well being of the community” (simpson, 2005, p. 112). the chosen topic for this project – linking community workers across rural canada for collaborative learning – was developed based on extensive research into the particular challenges and opportunities faced by rural people; and the chosen technology for this project – chat rooms – is effective in that it is a freely available technology (for those with internet access), and is relatively easy to use. social capital can be developed, and relevant ideas and information shared, through the communication between individuals facilitated by this technology. however there remained significant obstacles to creating successful collaboration and social linkages using the topics and medium chosen. most significantly, time constraints of the participants combined with the physical and social distance between them made the commitment and investment in the chat sessions somewhat tenuous. a great deal of effort is required on the part of organizers to make the sessions work, including developing interesting materials, overcoming scheduling problems and technical issues, and helping to encourage networking and sharing both within and between the sessions. there must be a vested interest both on the part of organizers and participants for virtual collaboration to be continued beyond the initial introduction to the technology. the question of how to effectively transform internet access into a true asset for rural people is an important one, and remains open for a great deal more experimentation and effort. new communications technologies such as chat rooms, electronic bulletin boards, video conferencing and others have the potential to be used productively to help meet personal and community goals in today’s changing economy, but they must be effectively combined with other assets and circumstances in order for their benefits to be realized. the technology mediated learning pilot project is an example of a project which has attempted to draw together and build upon all of the necessary assets for collaborative learning to occur using the internet. combining the necessary infrastructure, human skills and abilities, and social capital for successful technology use and successful social interaction has proven to be both a challenging and rewarding endeavor. rural people are interested in learning how to incorporate new forms of technology into their lives and their work, and although the internet is just one potential tool in helping to build rural capacity, it can be a crucial tool for the capacity of rural and remote communities to survive in today’s changing social and economic landscapes. such endeavors are therefore worthwhile, and while simply having access to the internet remains a useful goal to achieve, our emphasis now should be on how to transform that asset into successful outcomes for canadians. references bartolic-zlomislic, s., & bates, a.w. 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(2004). wired high rise: using technology to combat social isolation on an inner city public housing estate. in s. marshall, w. taylor & x. yu (eds.) using community informatics to transform regions. hershey pa: idea group inc. putnam, r. (2001). social capital: measurement and consequences. isuma, 2 (1), 41-51. reimer, b. (2006). the rural context of community development in canada. journal of rural and community development, 1 (2), 155-175. retrieved may, 2006 from http://www.jrcd.ca/viewissue.php reimer, b. (2002). a sample frame for rural canada: design and evaluation. regional studies, 36 (8), 845-859. reimer, b. & wilkinson, d. (2003). understanding social cohesion: its nature and manifestations in rural canada. rural sociological society meetings, montreal. rideout, v.n. & reddick a.j. (2005). sustaining community access to technology: who should pay and why!. the journal of community informatics, 1 (2), 45-62. schwier, r.a. & balbar, s. (2002). the interplay of content and community in synchronous and asynchronous communication: virtual communication in a graduate seminar. journal of learning and technology, 28 (2). retrieved april, 2006 from http://www.cjlt.ca/content/vol28.2/schwier_balbar.html simpson, l. (2005). community informatics and sustainability: why social capital matters. the journal of community informatics, 1 (2), 102-119. stoecker, r. (2005). is community informatics good for communities? questions confronting an emerging field. the journal of community informatics, 1 (3), 13-26. tiepoh, m.g.n., & reimer, b. (2004). social capital, information flows, and income creation in rural canada: a cross community analysis. journal of socio-economics, 33, 427-448. wellman, b., haase, a.q., witte, j., & hampton, k. (2001). does the internet increase, decrease, or supplement social capital? social networks, participation, and community commitment. american behavioral scientist, 45 (3), 436-455. 1 the community access program – cap (http://cap.ic.gc.ca) and brand (www.broadband.ca.ca) are two prominent federal programs in canada. title: 89  89.1 fm: the place for development: power shifts and participatory spaces in ictd revi sterling, ph.d. university of colorado at boulder revi.sterling@colorado.edu sophia huyer, ph.d. wigsat shuyer@wigsat.org introduction kamba1 women in listening range of community radio station radio mang’elete have been able to hear themselves on the radio now for four years, providing market information, notification of social events, discussion forums and entertainment in the forms of radio vignettes and plays. these women are not broadcasters in the traditional sense – they provide their insights from their homes, social spaces and areas of work, using a technology system called advancement through interactive radio, or air. air enables people to record their voices remotely and without the need for intermediaries to facilitate content production and recording. air attempts to fit the infrastructure and economic realities of its intended users the system is designed to link people off the cellular and electrical grid, and those who do not have time to make special trips to community radio station focus groups and recording sessions, often the only public media venue in the area. while air was introduced into the target communities four years ago, it continues to enjoy success, as women suggest programming and offer content that enables them to speak out publically. qualitative and quantitative data from ongoing analysis suggests that participants have experienced increased agency and positive self perception as well as recognition of their input from the larger community. preliminary indicators demonstrate women are not only choosing to participate in this opportunity for public self-articulation, but are realizing how such articulation can contribute to their empowerment as both individuals and women – roles that have traditionally relegated women to “doubly” marginalized roles. in this paper, the researchers discuss the air project as a specific example of a gender-based community informatics initiative in the context of the practical theories and frameworks that have informed the air project, as well as the indicators of empowerment resulting from the use of air in the participating communities. using huyer’s taxonomy of gender empowerment, our research findings demonstrate that community radio, enhanced with modest interactivity functionality, may offer women an effective opportunity to be heard in similar communities served by community radio, offering women a legitimacy and presence that remains otherwise unattainable. air, like the field of community informatics, is concerned with personal empowerment and social capital related to information and communications technology (ict), and aims to inform other gender, technology and development strategies by encouraging technologists and social scientists to focus efforts and attention on the multiple locations, opportunities and manifestations of women’s empowerment as a core implementation and assessment goal. project background advancement through interactive radio (air) is a hardware and software system that records women’s voices and asynchronously routes these voice clips back to their community radio stations, where these voice clips can be broadcast directly on air, or used to inform future programming. air enables women’s voices and knowledge to be broadcast in a popular and often trusted local forum – community radio – without incurring the gendered barriers to ict access and use, including cost, literacy, time, location, safety and perceived relevance (primo, 2003; huyer, hafkin, ertl and dryburgh, 2005). community radio, while described by multiple definitions on the world association of community radio broadcasters (amarc) website2, should in general be distinguished from commercial and public radio as radio owned and operated collectively for local development purposes, often in the local language or dialect. air was predicated on the hypothesis that community radio, modestly enhanced with features to encourage bi-directional communication, would prove increasingly effective in representing women’s development concerns and needs by letting women themselves articulate their concerns. through the use of the air system, women create and record programming content and feedback, which is routed through the network of air custom handsets until the voice recordings reach the radio station. air can be distinguished from other “interactive” initiatives including the well-known development through radio (dtr) efforts (matewa, 2000; warnock, 2001) the air system was deployed in women’s work groups, or mwethia, in southeast kenya in partnership with the local community radio station radio mang’elete, following initial field studies, “search conferences” (stoecker, 2005) with the thirty-three mwethia in the greater area surrounding radio mang’elete, as well as open community meetings in the towns and enclaves of nthongoni, mtito andei, masongaleni and ivongoni – the major communities that both contribute efforts to, and benefit from, radio mang’elete. this work was done in conjunction with econews africa, a nairobi-based development communications organization.3. the technical and social science challenges and contributions of air have been previously discussed, as has the methodology, theoretical grounding and research design underlying the air project (sterling and bennett 2006, 2007a, 2007b; sterling, o’brien and bennett, 2009; sterling, 2009). this paper does not intend to re-introduce those discussions, but to focus specifically on the application of interactive ictd in the context of women’s empowerment, and to frame the exploration of women’s empowerment across the indicators and scale put forward by huyer’s work in gender equity and empowerment (huyer, 2006). air and empowerment while community radio may not enjoy the high-tech cachet of more sophisticated icts, it has enjoyed renewed interest in ictd circles (buckley, 2000; i4d, 2007), and the development community has long recognized the value of radio as a medium for community development (o'connor, 1990; frn, 2004). overall, radio networks (public, private and community radio inclusive) reach over 60% of the population in sub-saharan africa (90% worldwide), and this coverage grows yearly, in part due to the growing popularity of community radio as a relatively inexpensive ictd that is locally relevant (jensen, 2002; wef, 2003). radio may offer the greatest reach and accessibility to women, but their workload and lower status in the community result in fewer opportunities to be involved with station management and content production (wanyeki, 2001). in the report, rural women reporting, walter and manji (2008) contend that, while women are rarely heard on community radio, “even more rarely do they actually have the opportunity to create media”. despite these limitations, community radio is relatively more accessible and popular with women in africa than other forms of icts, especially when it uses local vernacular, more than one receiver is available in the home, and formats such as radio listening clubs are used (sibanda, 2001). while community radio stations attempt to address women’s unique empowerment issues, this research sought to understand if women were willing to participate in a public forum, and what kinds of content they wanted to be made public. the results were encouraging--participants in the air pilot study were enthusiastic about the air system, and were willing to verbalize their perspectives on community issues. previous research has shown that oracy is considered a “woman’s” form of expression in many african cultures, and has the potential to contribute to women’s empowerment strategies (zirimu, 1977; mushengyezi, 2003; njogu & orchardson, 2005). these researchers call for women to re-appropriate the oral traditions for their own benefit in order to “create and claim space for empowering oracy to assert their survival needs” (kaschula, 2002). citing the recent legalization (2006) of community radio in india, one technology pundit has stated, “it is expected that cr will enable women to create alternative media spaces and solidarity networks to contest the ideologies of a male dominated media discourse. it will help them to highlight regional specificities, influence community decision making and policy formulation, advocate women’s education and health, and highlight issues relating to child welfare, domestic violence, and human rights.” (gupta, 2007) while all community radio stations operate under the premise that they are “the voice of the community,” some have employed specific strategies to increase female listener interaction, with the aim of balancing the gender, development and ict equation. however, these efforts introduce gaps associated with the limits of technology, or with design and implementation limitations. this indicates a need for two-way radio infrastructure, one that listens to, in addition to speaking for, the community. filling this need is a key contribution of the air project. the air project was created as a response to women’s information needs, gender divides in communities that limit women’s participation in ictd interventions, and the inherent unidirectional nature of community radio – given that radio is often the only media available in hundreds of thousands of african rural communities that are off the electrical and cellular grid (hafkin, 2000; hambly and whaites, 2006, ieee, 2007; world bank 2008;). air allows women to “talk back” to their local community radio station, to field feedback, ask questions and to generate their own programming content. as mentioned, air is implemented as a hardware and software communication system in which hand-held wireless devices record, store, and forward voice content over a delay-tolerant mesh network to the community radio station (or any assigned terminus). from the beginning, the overarching goal of the air project has been to gauge if technologies such as air supported women in their efforts to attain a greater level of empowerment – as women define empowerment.4 this exploration has been predicated on the supposition that increasing women’s participation in community radio would increase women’s self-perception and visibility in the community. this supposition has been further broken down into two research questions: (1) does a limited incremental increase in interactivity in community radio have a positive effect on the empowerment and status of women in the community, and (2) does creating an interactive virtual “radio space” provide women a place to discuss issues that otherwise are considered marginal or sensitive? in the four years since the implementation of air, ongoing data collection and analysis have demonstrated that women participants have been increasingly eager to use the devices, and to talk about development as they defined development. from the very introduction of air, mwethia members were adamant about being recognized, stating that they wanted their names on the air and would not use the air device if they masked their voices or identity in any way. the women were unequivocal about wanting increased visibility in their community. through follow-up interviews with women, men and radio mang’elete, as well as ongoing analysis of radio broadcast transcripts, the air-augmented radio has provided a venue that legitimizes women’s concerns, elevating their status to one that allowed them to be “heard” by men, which has led to interesting research findings in terms of shifting gender relations within the participating communities. while the researchers have discussed methodology in earlier research, it is important to understand that the mwethia members championed the air project before its development and implementation into the community. in community assessments with radio mang’elete, mwethia members stated their desire to produce news and send programming suggestions to the radio station – especially those who lived at the far reaches of radio mang’elete. these requirements were used to run a small research pilot using digital voice recorders to determine system memory and power needs in order to develop the air system, which has undergone multiple refinements based on ongoing requirements feedback. the use of voice recorders to solicit radio feedback and group discussion is not new (warnock, 2001; sibanda, 2001), but the direct use of women’s recordings on the air, and the subsequent research to evaluate the impact of this use on the speaker and on the community has received less attention (matewa, 2002; sterling and bennett, 2006; warnock, 2006; farm radio international, 2008). while not a sustainable long-term solution (given the battery requirement and need to collect the digital voice recorders rather than rely on a network to deliver voice content), the digital voice recorders proved to be useful and were quickly adopted; mwethia members began actively submitting content to the radio station. starting with the introduction of the digital voice recorders and still ongoing, mwethia members developed two radio programs – the women and development program and a weekly debate on contentious community issues, where participants would use the devices to “call” in the week prior to the show. the content of the programs themselves indicate that women consider the program as a way to publically reflect the importance of services mwethia/women provide to the community. according to one mwethia, they participated in recorded interviews because, in their words, “we felt that our time has come for us to be recognized.” many of the recordings highlight the accomplishments of mwethia. they implore those who are not part of a work group to join, as members view mwethia association as a road to development--as do many researchers who have noted the historical importance of a collective approach to development activity among the kamba (thomas-slater and ford, 1989; rocheleau, benjamin, and diang'a, 1995; wangari, thomas-slater, and rocheleau, 1996; kamar, 2001). following the introduction of air, mwethia membership – and community respect for mwethia members -has strengthened even further since the women were interviewed on the women and development program. more importantly, women participants in the air project stated repeatedly that they had perceived a rise in self esteem, positive community responses, and increased experiences of empowerment; the results of interviews with mwethia members, and the larger community, are discussed in the next section. while discussions of empowerment can be held at the level of the individual or at a macro-societal level, this research uses the definitions of empowerment put forth by malhotra, schuler and bonder (2002) and connected to technology in huyer’s work “understanding gender equality and women’s empowerment in the knowledge society (2006).” in this context, empowerment is the ability to exercise “options, choice, control and power” in one’s life in order to pursue greater individual agency and equality in the community. such empowerment can only come from those who experience and understand disempowerment (kabeer, 2001; malhotra et al., 2002) – and who are willing to challenge the status quo. empowerment comes in many forms and strategies – economic, political, educational, legal, socio-cultural, and psycho-social – depending on the scope and purview of the community. while icts have the potential to support women’s empowerment in all these forms, there are environmental, contextual, economic and civic conditions which must be met for icts to be useful in the struggle for gender equity (huyer, 2006). in the case of the kenyan communities involved in the air research, women most often defined empowerment as economic freedom, which underscores why most women join mwethia – these work collectives primarily function as income-generating occupations. while economic empowerment had primacy in interviews with women at the start of this research, it became evident that the air project technology afforded women the opportunity to experience increased socio-cultural, personal, and psychological empowerment. this research thus explores how the air project supports the empowerment factors that play a role in enhancing individual and group participation; and how such spaces must be considered in the evaluation and valuation of an ictd intervention. of interest to note, the participants in the air project often used empowerment and development synonymously, and in english. this may be due in part to past international development efforts in the region, community radio programming, or a number of other global/local intersections. while the term development is as contested a term as empowerment; in the case of mwethia members, it is a destination, a marker of achievement. as interview data demonstrates, a developed woman is an empowered woman, and vice versa. empowerment, according to huyer (2006), also involves the ability to act upon information. access to, and use of, technology is a critical concept in gender, technology and development studies. women in this research also demonstrated a desire to produce information, stating repeatedly that they had valuable information to share and that they wanted to be heard. thus, voice, and the concept of being heard, became the focus of the air project as well as its largest contribution to development studies – this research was able to show a direct link between voice and empowerment that supports future investment in two-way information and communication technologies (ict). this link was explored in the context of gender and development theory (gad) and feminist post-structuralism; two different theoretical approaches to women’s empowerment that together provide perspectives of both the individual and community responses to air. theoretical frameworks in order to discuss indicators of women’s empowerment in the context of the air, it is necessary to touch on the underlying theories and approaches that informed the creation, deployment and analysis of the air project. the air approach to ictd is political one in that the researchers share the belief that technology can and should represent opportunities for women’s empowerment in the targeted communities. the researchers thus grounded the air project in an overall gender and development (gad) approach as advocated by those doing early work in gad in the context of ictd (parpart, 2000; rathgeber, 1990), heavily influenced by feminist post-structuralism (lather, 1991; weedon, 1997), participatory action research (chambers, 2005; cornwall, 2003; cornwall and jewkes, 1995; greenwood and levin, 1998; maclure and bassey, 199l; stoecker, 2005), as well as feminist approaches to participatory research (gujit and shah, 1998; maquire, 1987; mayoux, 1995) and some of the spatial theories that have emerged from human geography and that have social and gender empowerment at their core (howley, 2005; low, 1996; massey, 1994, 2002; rubinoff, 2003). gad was particularly germane to the air project because of its focus on the transformation of gendered power relations. as in many communities, these gendered roles are layered and complex, and imbued with economic, social and political nuance. at a basic level, the gender dynamics of the akambani communities studied – women’s workgroups (mwethia), a most male-run community radio station (like so many of the community radio stations worldwide (wanyeki, 2005), and near-ubiquitous listenership by both genders – required the comprehensive theoretical framework that analyses the potential for sustainable community transformation involving both women and men. in addition to providing an experience for mwethia members to interact with an ictd intervention, the air project enabled individual women to speak out in a public forum, which necessitated a study on the power of voice at the level of the individual. feminist post-structuralism, focuses on language as the site of personal resistance, and personal resistance multiplied as a path to group resistance and shifts in power structures. as the air project is operated by voice, feminist post-structuralism theory was one of the approaches used to frame the analysis of transcripts of the women’s recordings, as well as post-recording interviews with participants. the air project endeavored to provide the means for women to literally air their experiences and differences, with the goal of creating new discursive practices and power shifts. air attempts to bring individual knowledge forward in order to unmask differences in the community, differences that may limit successful community development. as a consequence of the air project, multiple realities of women’s experiences, in addition to different perspectives between genders, have been represented publically on the radio for the first time. feminist post-structuralism and gad share a complementary change agenda, as one focuses on gender empowerment at a systems level; and the other operates at the level of the individual, while informing and supporting women’s empowerment activities across individuals, households, families and communities. they are relevant to analyzing the act of producing radio content as a way of encouraging equitable participation of women in the community and with the community radio station, and in the sense that the topics that the women choose to discuss on the air via the air handsets is left to the individual. participatory action research (par) is based on the tenets that community participation must be integrated into all aspects of the research in order to utilize the research process and findings in an activist manner, which results in positive changes against the status quo (mctaggart, 1991; whyte, 1991). par also has a social change and emancipatory agenda similar to feminist perspectives5. one of the primary goals of par is to create new spaces for discussion and to bring marginalized voices to center stage. it is in these new spaces that knowledge is generated and tested for validity – hegemonic principles are challenged and new meanings for a society are contrasted (lather, 1991; greenwood & levin, 1998). while the initial conceptualization and project design of air was not influenced by par, key goals are shared – to bring hidden knowledge and marginalized voices into the mainstream, so that they can be heard and acted upon for the benefit of the entire community. par practitioners assert that societies only use a small portion of their collective knowledge and capacity for problem solving, based upon who has power within the community. most are excluded from knowledge production and dissemination (maguire, 1987; greenwood & levin, 1998). the researcher, then, should develop avenues to identify “alternative” knowledge and create opportunities for power shifts, so that knowledge production is returned to all members of a society (maguire, 1987). air aims to seek out and broadcast the knowledge held by women, so that the community can move towards women’s empowerment and closer to gender equality. voices on the air “when i hear my names mentioned at the end of a program being credited for my contribution, it makes me feel important in the society.” such sentiments were often echoed when the researchers conducted follow-up interviews with women who had been featured on the women and development and cake share programs. one year after the deployment of the air system, the researchers identified a significant increase in women’s participation in radio programming, in women’s confidence with the technology, and in women’s perceptions of themselves as important members of the community. of the fifty-five women who participated in on-air programming due to the air system, 93% of the interviewed participants stated that the process of recording and broadcasting had been a positive one. three women had not listened to the program in which they had been featured for technical reasons – either the radio station had “lost” the recordings (hard drive failure) or the women’s radio receivers were out of batteries. the participants in the women and development program were in nearly unanimous agreement that airing issues on the radio trumps the potential risk to the speaker. when asked specifically about fears of personal safety related to topics that have historically remained private, women answered that “when women speak they get empowered” and that when “a woman speaks up she gets strengthened.” according to one participant, speaking out about contentious topics enables women to share “great and brilliant ideas.” another offered, “when brilliant ideas are aired, people from all walks of life listen to them and this changes the community.” this reflects the transformative nature of lefebvre’s social space, where a space influences perceptions and practices (lefebvre, 1991). it is not possible to determine yet if this perception reflects sustainable shifts in male and female relations. ongoing monitoring and evaluation may indicate to what degree these women change not only their self perception, but the community’s perception as well. another indication of a perceived connection between technology and empowerment, was that once women’s voices were aired on radio mang’elete, the station staff and the researchers observed a growing interest to engage with both the technology and the process of information creation – certain mwethia and mwethia members requested additional interview time and air time, and there was a steady increase in content being produced. while this willingness to engage does not support directly a link between participation and power, it confirms the observations of bourdieu and myles – that mwethia members are deriving public acknowledgement from sharing their opinions and experiences, and that radio legitimizes this information (bourdieu, 1991; myles, 2000). mwethia have taken the initiative to produce plays to introduce issues such as alcohol abuse, violence against women and money management; they are also producing “educational” programs based upon the unique knowledge of individual mwethia, such as planting trees and raising bees. in addition to the fifty five women, eleven similarly-structured interviews were conducted with non-mwethia members – ten men and one woman, solicited at a community market. these interviews demonstrated support of the new broadcasting model; men unanimously stated they would encourage their wives’ and daughters’ participation in the programs. while this small sample offers a positive perspective on air, the men are likely not a representative subset of community, as results from interviews with the women (as well as the reality of sexism in the community) demonstrate ongoing resistance to gender equity. however, these interviews with men suggest that radio may be the most appropriate and successful venue for women to discuss their unique development and community concerns. men stated that they would be proud if their female relatives participated in the program, as this would reflect well upon the family. several of the men offered the view that women needed to exercise their rights. commented one man, “now things have changed, everyone is important in the development of the country. the days when women were termed as useless are gone and their views and needs are as important as those of men.” while the women showed little reticence in participating in the recordings and interviews, concepts of public and private information were framed in terms of women having a voice. it was the male interviewees who first discussed this division, noting that women may be able to speak on radio about contentious topics, but not at home, as illustrated in the following quotes: “they should speak for themselves because in some homes, men are very oppressive that they do not give the women a chance to express themselves. in this program they express their problems and also reach out to the others who are oppressed by their husbands to show up and express themselves too.” “it's good for them to be given that chance because some cannot speak direct to their husbands because either they are drunk but when they speak through this program they can (say) everything they want their husbands to hear and a lot of women get advice when they hear the other women talk on how solve problems.” this view indicates that the virtual radio space is perhaps more authoritative, more socially equal than the actual domestic space, a conversation that invokes habermas and all the work on gendered and public/private spaces, including radio, that such research catalyzed -although most of the related work is set in a “developed” community context (sterling and bennett, 2006). the community radio ether appears to offer a legitimacy and presence that women of the community do not currently enjoy off-air. in this way, the benefits of ictd are compounded – there is the ictd intervention itself, and there is the space in which its effects are evident. both are important to the real objective - advancement of the served community. the new radio programs may give women a place to talk to men through channels previously closed to them. the creation of this kind of social space for “free speech” and “safe” community commons may be an overlooked benefit of ictd interventions that aim to primarily provide a tool for information exchange. figure 1: advancement through interactive radio handset indicators of empowerment the act of being aired and hearing themselves on air proved to be an almost uniform positive experience for the participants, both in terms of participating in something novel, and in perceived self-worth. the air project provided two key opportunities: the ability to articulate one’s voice publically in a respected venue, and the opportunity for women to experience technology positively to their unique benefit. the production of voice, as a precursor to the other development discourses, is empowerment a priori, supporting the theories that link make a between voice, gender and power. radio transcripts from the two programs that mwethia members started depict several local discourses around empowerment and development, which offer opportunities for future research on gendered power differentials and potential development interventions. in the nine months following the introduction of the dvrs and the associated new radio programs, at least sixty-two individual women (several women were featured in more than one program), and three men, contributed their perspectives for the million or so listeners of radio mang’elete, which included self-reporting on experiences of a variety of forms of empowerment. empowerment as connected to icts, in huyer’s model, invokes a scale from the personal to the public; transcripts and interviews indicate that several forms of empowerment were experienced (and valued) by participants in the air project, which consisted of: (1) empowerment through participation in mwethia, (2) political empowerment, (3) familial empowerment, (4) empowerment through religion, (5) empowerment through education, (6) personal empowerment, and (7) psycho-social empowerment. by identifying the areas where women locate centers of empowerment, the power structures in the community have become more evident, and opportunities for future interventions, as well as potential tensions between types of empowerment, have become more apparent. of these seven forms of empowerment, only a few have a direct link with the dvrs or community radio, supporting huyer’s argument that well-planned icts can positively affect women’s development. the other forms of empowerment have an indirect link – they already existed, but are highlighted and brought into the public space by the ict. examples of these discourses of empowerment are listed below, demonstrated with short examples from the transcripts.6 empowerment through participation – mwethia membership an individual’s sense of empowerment through women’s unity and participation in mwethia membership is in some ways a meta-empowerment strategy, as it includes elements of socioeconomic empowerment – increased wealth, public visibility, increased personal and familial status, psychological support, and education. these factors underlie both the importance of joining a mwethia, and the important roles mwethia play in the community – it is through mwethia membership that their status increases (sterling, 2009). while the air project provided an avenue for women’s voices to be heard, women have found increased status in the community through mwethia membership for decades. mwethia literally set the development charter of the community, through their agricultural and civil service activities (although it is unclear how many of these tasks and services are traditional and how many have a progressive social agenda). aware of strength in numbers, individual women gain considerable power and status in the community when they become part of a collective (march and taqqu, 1986; mbilinyi, 1971). on-air interviews of mwethia members gave women the opportunity to reflect upon their community development achievements to the larger public. according to one participant – and repeated by many - “this group is truly a development tool without comparison. i didn't have a goat before i joined the group. but now i have three goats. the merry-go-round7 helps us pay our school fees and buy household goods.” participation in mwethia, some of the women stated, was the only opportunity women have to positively contribute to community development, even if the work that the women do is not “respected” by men. these communities, like many others worldwide, have experienced significant disappointment by ngo and donor efforts which have not been sustained, as is reflected in several of the recordings. according to radio mang’elete, people in the community view mwethia membership with growing respect -since the mwethia have been given air time, they must be important. this has resulted in some early shifts in gender and community relations -mwethia members who have been featured on the radio claim that their social status has increased because people call them by name and associate them with important community tasks. mwethia membership itself has increased with the introduction of the women and development program, which has publically reminded people of the role of mwethia in the community, and therefore given the mwethia more visibility as an institution. perhaps women who are not mwethia members have realized the link between mwethia membership and the socioeconomic empowerment(s) that accompany membership. mwethia members recording a radio drama political empowerment political empowerment is the understanding and participation in the political system, which includes the representation of women and their needs in informal and formal political processes. political empowerment is related to legal empowerment – if women understand that they have rights (e.g., to land, education, and safety), they can act upon these rights, and challenge the status quo that keeps them under-developed relative to men. as in most african communities, it is the women – especially widows, divorcees and orphans -who are marginalized in the legal process. the women and development program produced shows to discuss women’s traditional and legal rights, and interviewed women who either worked with gender-based ngos, or were running for local office. the featured interview participants offered support for the political and social protection of widows, drawing attention to laws designed to protect widows from discrimination. community members were discouraged from land-grabbing and otherwise abusing women of marginalized status. inheritance and land rights are poorly understood in the community; snippets from interviews regarding rights provided both public education and admonishment: “i caution them to be very careful because the widow are protected by law and they have their court in nairobi where (they) even can go for free where they are also attended for free” “we are saying let women come up and claim leadership in our country because having them in leadership will safeguard the unfortunate women in the community. for example a certain man had bought a plot and had not shown her wife and when he died her wife had no room to claim this plot and this is why we need human rights to cover windows and orphans, that they may have the rights to inherit everything left behind by their husbands and parents respectively… most of women die a short while after their husband's death because of a lot stress from their family members who normally wants to take everything from her. to some extent they get hiv aids in negotiation (sex) of their husband's wealth from his relatives and former bosses as they use that way to seek their favors.” during these interviewees, members stressed that each mwethia had the responsibility to discuss women’s rights, as well as utilize radio mang’elete to publicize (mis)information. according to one woman, “for example through this radio they can raise their worries and we will be in place to assist them through this program.” there is a promise that accompanies this responsibility, one that equates technology with development: “you will get the right help through listening to our radio which will help solving most of the problems faced by women.” however, while these programs demanded that women be afforded their rights, there was little discussion about gender equality between men and women. those interviewed supported justice; they did not espouse equality as they defined it. this seemed to stem from a conceptual mismatch between local ngos and international gender and development efforts. according to one mwethia and ngo leader, “the issue of rights of women in kenya brought from beijing8 was different. they went to beijing to fight for their girls to be given chance to work but when they came back kenya it was said that women are equal to men which brought a lot of differences in our country. women are not equal to men because in the bible and quran they implicates that adam was first created, what we are fighting for is that our girls/women be given a chance to work.” this is a critical point – the view that emerges here is that women’s empowerment encompasses rights and leadership capabilities, but not gender equality. according to the same woman who reported on beijing, “there is no way that a woman will be the leader of the family even if she is learned…what we normally want is women to be given their rights and we want to maintain peace in our families but we do not want leadership.” laws keeping women safe are important, as are conflict-reducing strategies; gender parity in a western sense is not. this is explored more in the next section on empowerment in the domestic sphere. familial empowerment familial empowerment is the power to make choices and exercise authority in the domestic space. increased empowerment within the home and between women and men leads to the heightened status of women and their needs, including access to family holdings, and a voice in family economic matters and family planning. to this end, addressing unequal gender roles can start at home, which has the added benefit of providing a positive role model for children. several women and development programs discussed development within the context of the family and the home, although the definition of development in this context was elusive: “i started campaign of development while i was 20 years old… i have known that it is good to be developed. let me advise my fellow ladies it is good to be developed. advise your in-laws on the importance of development in the families. teach them on how to cooperate with their husbands and children. now i'm 50 years old and know development is worthy in the community” probing for definitions resulted in a somewhat circular and tautological answer, “development is development.” nonetheless, several women interviewed agreed that development at home and between married couples was both a woman’s responsibility and a priority. from the transcripts, development within the domestic context points to the concept of the ideal woman. this invokes a struggle well-known to western women – the expectation that women must be a model wife, mother and member of the community while not discounting their legal rights: “i want to tell the listeners that what we are taught about fighting for child and women rights is that, we know that some men deny their wives their rights and we urge them to know that they did not marry slaves and instead a helper given by god. let no man be inhuman to women and above all, women on the other hand should respect their husbands.” “good relationship in between a husband and a wife promotes development and this is brought by godly behavior” “i would like you take your time and sit down with your husbands and you will be permitted to be attending developmental group meetings. you should also make sure you come back early to do your house chores.” these perspectives offer a local, complex view of empowerment where religion, tradition, image and women’s rights appear to be in a tenuous balance. the implications of this potential divergence of development and empowerment discourses at global and local levels, and its implications for women in developing regions has not yet been fully explored. empowerment through religion religious empowerment can offer women increased self-esteem, visibility in the community as a churchgoer or church leader, and opportunities to participate in an important community institution. while the “church as institution” is routinely described in the purview of western development studies as an institution that subjugates women, the mwethia members interviewed held the church in high esteem, linking religious adherence with development. the concept of being “saved” in the eyes of the church was thus considered a powerful signifier of development; it located women in a place of respect in the community. throughout the women and development programs, mwethia leaders made references to being saved, and instructed others to follow suit. being saved was considered to put people in good company – they became worthy in the eyes of not only the church, but of mwethia leadership, drawing a link between the power and status of the church, and that of the mwethia head: “if you will humble yourself you will see what god will do for you. he will uplift your life and change family to be an institution of peace, love and harmony. if you have made your mind fully to get saved our chairlady will pray for you.” while this may be connected with strands of liberation theology, this topic is not explored here, it presents an interesting avenue for future work, especially as a potentially positive link between religion and women’s empowerment has not been discussed in ictd literature. in the local context, however, women discussed church and its connections to empowerment through increased status in the family and community, as: “the importance of a woman in the church is that, women are highly populated in the church and are also pastresses.” empowerment through education “educate a woman, and you educate a nation” is a popular development axiom, and underlies the millennium development goals, especially the three that directly concern women.9 educational empowerment stresses literacy first, and then access to education and information, at both formal and informal levels. educational empowerment has direct links to all other forms of empowerment – economic, socio-cultural, familial, political, personal, and psychological – much as a voice cannot be unheard, knowledge cannot be “unlearned,” but it can be acted upon for the betterment of women’s lives the world over. education as empowerment was discussed during the women and development radio programs, although not to the degree of the other development discourses. it is unclear why this was the case – it could be a matter of programming direction; there is also a weekly educational program targeted at younger listeners that delivers health and job information. the topic of education was only raised in the context of mwethia educational needs: in addition to raising money for school fees and encouraging families to send their children to school. literacy was rarely mentioned; one mwethia leader could not answer questions about the mwethia establishment, saying “because of my illiteracy, i can't recall the year but it's a long time ago. what i have is the certificate and i'll bring it to you so that you can know when it was formed.” while most of the older mwethia members are illiterate, younger members have a higher degree of literacy, and the most educated member of the mwethia is usually appointed as the group secretary in order to maintain mwethia records. mwethia members pointed out that a lack of general business knowledge was seen as an impediment to development and mwethia well-being. members blamed illiteracy and poor organizational skills for mwethia mismanagement, and presented ideas for creating capacity building programs in major towns. the air project and the radio station play a direct role in education as they provide the infrastructure and venue for educational content – mwethia members mentioned that they planned to use the air system to demand radio content on skills building and literacy. personal empowerment personal empowerment pertains to self-esteem and agency, or the act of being able to take responsibility and control for oneself. one of huyer’s main arguments relating to gender, technology and empowerment is the concept of agency as the ability to act upon information (huyer, 2006). empowerment in this context represents development through personal choice and action. mwethia members gave many examples of engaging in direct action based upon radio information; this further supports community radio as a powerful information and communication means. they cited “actionable” examples of programming content, including the women and development program, health information and domestic violence prevention information, as well as information about a poisoned maize scare that was contained due to radio mang’elete’s broadcasts regarding the potential danger. while the mwethia are proud of having started radio mang’elete in the first place, the introduction of the air system has provided a mechanism by which women can act directly on information by creating it: “right now we have a program that we are recording so that we can reach the other groups within this region and educate them about planting trees. we are meeting soon to decide on what will go in to the program. we also want to discuss farming in another program. we plan to set up an appointment with the radio staff such that they visit us periodically and record our programs.” “in fact, there is a very big change because nowadays women have freedom to expose their feelings through this station and now we have few cases about family violence.” in subsequent post-recording interviews, women stated repeatedly that they had valuable information to share and that they wanted to be heard, and identified by name and voice, by the larger community. initial concerns about the anonymity and discoverability of participants, while not entirely abated, were lessened by reassurance from women participants that “our time has come for us to be recognized;” it is the technology that makes this a possibility. psychosocial empowerment acting upon, and producing information, may produce a positive psychosocial empowerment effect – the recognition of one’s ability and agency. post-recording interviews demonstrate the positive connection between creating content, having a voice and being heard, and heightened self-image. these interviews also gauged public reaction to women’s voices, which was again a net positive experience. an interesting example of psychosocial empowerment developed during the air system deployment, suggesting a deeper relationship between voice, power, and space. while one of the premises of this research was that broadcasting women’s voices would lead to women’s increased empowerment and stature in the community, this premise did not anticipate the empowerment “spike” that resulted from the dvr trainings. in order to “pass” the training, women were required to demonstrate proficiency in recording themselves and playing back their recordings. the first experiences with playback were remarkable – women heard their voices publically for the first time. without a radio audience, women continued to play back the recordings they made, stating over and over, “that’s me. i have a voice.” this was a powerful recognition of will and ability; it was proof to the women that voice is power. it was the interaction with the technology, and not the anticipation of being broadcast, that had a profound psychological effect on the women. the societal and development inequalities that women discussed in the women and development programs – land rights, alcoholism, finances, treatment of widows, hiv/aids, sexism – led to the creation of the radio “debate” program, in which both men and women debated topics of immediate local concern. to date, two such programs have aired. one program debated the merits of traditional punishments for marital fidelity; one group, a balanced mix of the men and women, supported the time-honored but severe punishments, the other group made various arguments to demonstrate that “mbingo” was outdated, humiliating, and caused additional social problems. the other program discussed the growing phenomenon of younger men – married or single – having sex with older women, married or widowed. mwethia members expressed very different viewpoints, from condoning the practice as a way to curtail the spread of hiv/aids and to decrying the practice as an act of irresponsibility and even witchcraft. each program resulted in more than fifty mobile calls and sms messages to the station, and at least two dozen letters, which far exceeded station expectations given the taboo nature of the subject. the creation and acceptance of this new radio program supports the argument that the airwaves can represent a safe and respected place for such discourse, which can potentially lead to changes within the physical reality of the community. the debate program also demonstrates the plurality of voices that is a hallmark of feminist post-structural theory, and highlights the complexity of social issues within any given community. while topics related to gender, sexuality, equality and modernity were (and still are) considered marginal and private prior to the air intervention, this program demonstrates that, given a useful technology and community creativity, the community will develop new and alternative routes to address problems. by creating new programs and opportunities for advancement, the community is not only engaged in this research, they are charting its future course. it also demonstrates that language/space on air can lead to both perceptions of self-empowerment; and interesting implications for the opening up of spaces to and for men and women to examine more closely the implications of changes in gender relations in the community. not enough data is available on this at this time to make any conclusive argument, but ongoing follow-up work on the reactions of men in the community may provide some answers. conclusion four years into the air project, qualitative and quantitative data has demonstrated that women are not only willing to produce radio content via ict, but interested in talking out and talking back. this issues a challenge to the audience, as the airwaves take on an entirely new sound – that of women’s myriad voices and perspectives. through the lenses of gad, feminist post-structuralism and par, the air project has demonstrated that technology can shape and increase women’s presence and sense of empowerment at a variety of scales, from the personal to the public. to date, the air project has confirmed that women are willing to discuss the marginal issues that stem from underdevelopment – hiv/aids, prostitution, witchcraft, migration, education – and are proactive about putting their voices and names on the airwaves, in part because community radio is seen as the “place for development” – radio mang’elete’s motto. the women who participated in the project wanted to partake in information exchange, especially when given the opportunity to offer advice or to demonstrate their expertise to other women. while future longitudinal studies will investigate the degree to which people learn and act upon the information in this new radio programming, interest in participation in the programs has continued to grow over the last ten months. interview data suggests that women’s sense of self-esteem and visibility increased after being featured on the radio discussing subject matter that they know. however, men interviewed had a somewhat different perspective on women’s increased public presence. the men noted that women should be allowed to advise other women, but did not comment on the quality of information on the new talk shows. instead, men observed that the programs gave women a place to talk about topics that they cannot discuss at home, given existing gender and cultural dynamics. the radio, men said, gave women a place to have a voice in a respected public venue, implying that the rules are different in “radio space.” by opening an avenue for content creation, air has offered women another way to act upon information – by creating and presenting it, thus taking up space on the radio programming schedule. this space represents prime virtual real estate; radios are ubiquitous, and nearly every radio in the community is tuned to fm 89.1. radio mang’elete in this way represents a place for equality in participation which can lead to social transformation. this may do more to advance the status of women in the community than information exchange only: audiences can actively listen, passively listen, try to ignore, or turn the radio off – but for two hours every week, women inhabit and own the airwaves. references 1the kamba are the fourth largest tribe in kenya, who mostly inhabit the southeast area of kenya. even with a large population, the kamba have remained primarily marginalized in terms of economic and political development. their language is kikamba. this information is primarily taken from http://www.bluegecko.org/kenya/tribes/kamba/ 2see amarc: http://www.amarc.org/index.php?p=what_is_community_radio?&l=en 3the advancement through interactive radio project was in part funded by microsoft research under a digital inclusion grant, as well as private funding through philanthropic organizations. 4while this research discusses women and development in the context of empowerment, the term advancement is used to comprise the air acronym, which reflects the terminology employed by the un division for the advancement of women (daw) and un international research and training institute for the advancement of women (un-instraw). 5gad and par are closely linked to the point that many gad initiatives are also par initiatives – web searches reveal that many descriptions of gad projects claim to use participatory action research methods. gujit and shah call on par practitioners to include a gender perspective; cornwall and jewkes claim that gad is necessary in par projects in “identifying strategies for amplifying voice and access to decision making of those who tend to be marginalized or excluded by mainstream development initiatives” (cornwall and jewkes, 1995; gujit and shah, 1998). par and feminist post-structuralism may seem less closely related given that one appears quite practice-oriented while the other, more academic. several par researchers have made the argument that the two can and should inform and advance each other because both feminism and par are concerned with underlying relations of power and ethics in social transformation, and they often share epistemological and political principles (cornwall, 2003; greenwood & levin, 1998). 6the entire corpus of transcripts and empowerment examples is available in an extended format in broadcasting women: the advancement through interactive radio project. (sterling, 2009). 7refers to microfinance programs where group members contribute in order to cyclically benefit. 8the united nations fourth world conference on women in beijing, 1995, often called the beijing declaration. (http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/e5dplw.htm) 9goal 2: achieve universal primary education; goal 3: promote gender equality and empower women; and goal 5: improve maternal health. draft copy article for ieee: notes from the field in search of community champions: researching the outcomes of k-net’s youth information and communications technology training initiative kristy tomkinson university of guelph <ktomkins@uoguelph.ca> introduction as graduate student researcher, i have begun the journey into what fellow colleagues have called a roller-coaster, a life-size puzzle, or a complicated recipe. i have quickly discovered that research is more than an outward investigation, and that it involves an internal search of self-discovery. my journey begins in the academic bubble of the university, an institutional incubator of theory, thought, and discipline. it is where i learned the scientific methodology of research design, where i drafted the blueprint of my thesis. i struggled with concepts such as epistemology, hermeneutics, and relativism. i also began to develop relationships something that i soon realized is a central facet of research. the first time i heard about k-net (the kuhkenah network) in northern ontario aboriginal communities was during a presentation by a former faculty member. he was presenting research that had been done on participatory video in rural and remote communities in ontario, and how these areas were transformed with the introduction of bandwidth. one image that stuck out in my mind was of a telephone vicariously perched at the very top of a telephone pole. he duly noted that this was the only form of communication to the outside world. hearing the story and learning about the collaborative work being done in the “backyard” of my province intrigued and inspired me as a community development scholar. it wasn’t too long before i was speaking to k-net staff through video-conference. after tossing a few ideas around we came to agreement on an alumni project for the youth ict training initiative (yict) developed and hosted by k-net. with my experience and passion for youth skills development, i was excited to learn about this program and hear the stories of the people involved. background the youth ict training initiative (yict) has evolved and continues to evolve as a training and employment program for first nations youth in northern ontario. since 1995 it has been providing it skills training in a distance-education format and short-term employment placements for hands-on experience in the it field. youth workers are hired on-site at schools, libraries, band offices, and other administrative areas in rural and remote first nations communities. they have the opportunity to learn and work within their own communities, while contributing to their community’s it infrastructure and the local capacity to engage with it. within a flexible learning and working environment, youth workers are encouraged to collaborate with their supervisors, peers, and instructors in brainstorming creative and practical ways that they can meet community needs through it. for example, while receiving online training for web-design applications, youth workers are required to create a community website that can portray their community’s values, demographics, activities, and accomplishments. in this way, youth workers are establishing a bridge between their remote communities and the information highway. the yict program engenders self-sufficiency and self-determination within local youth while opening doors for their future career development. it aims to “develop and strengthen employability skills for youth and ease the transition to longer term career-related employment” (beaton, 2001; fiser, 2005). coordinators of yict have expressed a need for supporting documentation to enhance the program and to apply for more stable funding. the program was initially set up with funding from industry canada. since its launch, the program has taken advantage of funding windows with the federal government’s first nations schoolnet and industry canada’s community access program for youth, but has yet to establish a stable funding base. furthermore, a need exists to determine the outcomes of the yict program for participants in order to guide future evaluation models. key community members have indicated that a clear framework for evaluating the program is needed, and in keeping with community research guidelines, a participatory approach is required. this research can guide the creation of a platform for future community-based research into similar initiatives in ontario and across canada. rationale recent discourse on canada’s “digital divide” has focused on increasing access to icts to the “have-not” regions of the country. the “have-not” areas in internet access and information and communication technology use encompass a disproportionate amount of canada’s aboriginal and first nations communities. throughout the research and discussion on bridging the canadian digital divide is a focus on infrastructure, access, and information dissemination. however access to icts does not necessarily translate into the capacity to utilize it. current ict initiatives focus on extension and technology transfer and often ignore the potential for icts to enable local socio-economic development (chapman and slaymaker, 2002). few initiatives have focused on the social aspect of icts and development, which would require the expansion of local capacity to develop, manage, and maintain the applications of icts (gurstein, 2003). a review of the literature reveals that when harnessed at the local level, icts have numerous possibilities and potentialities through the creativity and innovation of individuals and communities (chapman and slaymaker, 2002; ferreira et al, 2004; perley and o’donnell, 2006; ramirez, 2005; richardson, 1999). however there is little qualitative research to date on the long-term impacts of socially-oriented ict initiatives. for organizational and governmental ict development strategies to shift their focus from universal access to local capabilities and skills, more research and evaluations in communities, by communities, are needed. the yict alumni case study is focused on the yict program in the context of building it capacity in ontario’s northern aboriginal communities. it is examining how and in what ways the program has met local socio-economic needs from the perspective of its participants. there is a lack of research that includes a canadian aboriginal context and voices of youth in training and education initiatives. this study aims to capture these perspectives and provide a distinct viewpoint into the discourse of icts for development. the study’s goal is to determine the outcomes of the yict program for its participants. the term ‘outcome’ is being utilized to signify that this study is examining the overall benefits, and not proposing to evaluate the impact of the program. the study’s objectives are: to determine the process and methods of the program; to identify how the program has contributed to and shaped the lives of its participants; to briefly outline a link between program experiences and participant entrepreneurship. this study is seeking to find how these individuals are meeting personal and community needs and demands through the use of it applications, and outline the challenges or barriers they face in the process. in many cases in the past, coordinators have found that the yict program has produced skilled youth workers who end up spending a lot of their time fixing computers for community members. the program coordinators would like to see them take a step further and support their community ict network which serves as a foundation for essential services within the community. for example, finding a niche within the internet high school funding model to hire skilled youth could not only provide needed employment but also maintenance for the applications that distance learning operates on. methodology past research with canadian aboriginal communities has lacked a true aboriginal perspective and voice (perley and o'donnell, 2006). many aboriginal communities are experiencing research fatigue and are tired of the extraction and appropriation of the knowledge they share with researchers. it is imperative that this study follows community-based guidelines and ethical protocols for research. leaders of the keewaytinook okimakanak (ko) communities have made a significant development in conducting research with aboriginal communities by creating the kewaytinook okimakanak research institute (kori). kori's mandate is to change the approach in which research is conducted in aboriginal communities (kori, 2008). the research guidelines set out by kori include: building a relationship or partnership with local researchers, the use of sharing circles, and abiding by ocap principles (kori, 2008). ocap, which stands for ownership, control, access, and possession, was coined by the steering committee of the first nations regional longitudinal health survey (schnarch, 2004). the basic tenet of ocap is aboriginal and first nations self-determination in research (schnarch, 2004). it ensures that aboriginal communities own the information collected, have control of the research processes, have access to the resulting documentation, and have possession of any data collected and the right to distribute it (kori, 2008). to keep within the best interests of the ko communities, the data acquisition and distribution process of this study will follow ocap principles. perley and o'donnell (2006) suggest five main approaches to research with aboriginal communities: building a relationship and partnerships with first nations; developing first nations' priorities for research; developing researchers' self-awareness and cultural biases; integrating the political, socio-economic, and historical contexts; and expanding borders of the researchers' academic discipline. these approaches, along with kori's guidelines will be considered throughout the study. the initial steps for this study involved consultation, discussion, and prioritization with key community members. consultations and discussions about research priorities were held with key stakeholders through video-conferencing. once a topic or problem was agreed upon, we identified a network of stakeholders that are affected by this topic. in this case, stakeholders include key informants, such as supervisors and instructors, and past participants of the program. stakeholders were contacted and invited to join an online moodle environment, called a meeting place, where information about the project, discussion forums, and contact information is posted. the yict alumni meeting place can be found at: http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/course/view.php?id=27 participants were encouraged to introduce themselves, describe the type of training they received and when they were enrolled, and discuss their interests and concerns surrounding the research. these initial steps were developed to create dialogue, ensure a participatory approach, and build trust with participants of the study. archival and baseline research was conducted prior to field research to gain an understanding of the processes and methods of the yit program. videoconferencing, email, and online document searches were the main methods used to acquire extensive baseline information of the case. once interested participants were consulted, individual interviews, either in-person or via videoconferencing, are conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of their experiences of the program. semi-structured, open-ended questions guided participants to share their experiences within the program and outside of the program as graduates. in discussing their possible futures, or as part of a reflection on their past since they graduated, participants were asked to identify three things that may aid them in the pursuit of setting up their own ict business, and three things that may inhibit or challenge them in that pursuit. this exercise will help to reach the third objective of the study: to briefly outline a link between program experiences and participant entrepreneurship. further consultations with participants and key community members will be conducted via videoconferencing and/or focus groups. any data collected will be made available for participants to review to ensure the information is correct. it is important that dialogue continues between researcher and participants to ensure research priorities are met, concerns are addressed, and ocap principles are followed. to ensure accuracy and transparency, any data collected will be made available for participant review. information will then be made available on the online environment; and participants will be informed of the availability of study results. video-taping or voice recording the interviews are central components of this qualitative study. a major portion of the findings will be in video format for online viewing and presentation. participants will be encouraged to tell their stories and it is pertinent that their stories are presented in their voice. all of the video footage will be compiled into a mini-documentary for online viewing, to celebrate and promote the dedication, hard-work, and accomplishments of the yict program. the documentary will also highlight the successes and challenges of developing and maintaining telecommunications networks that meet community needs in ontario’s northern aboriginal communities. conclusion throughout this learning process, this outward search for the stories of individuals, i am also looking inward at my own journey, the choices i have made and have yet to make, and the various paths i can take in my research. i am discovering that research is just as much as discovering myself, my passions, my goals, as it is exploring the journeys that others have to share. it is the stories of “community champions”, those who have taken it upon themselves to direct change in their communities through the application of icts, this study is seeking. as catalysts, they are applying their experience and skills to meet community demands and needs by building on communication networks, discovering creative ways to deliver services, and sharing their knowledge with others. i am interested in what doors have opened for yict graduates, and the paths they have taken with the skills and training they have gained through the program. in my search of “community champions” i am capturing experiences of ict for development strategies through the unique perspective of northern ontario’s aboriginal youth. to date, very little qualitative research has been conducted to ascertain the outcomes of socially-oriented ict initiatives. the data collected from this study can assist with documentation for future proposals, improvements in the program, and contribute to the k-net community database. the online environment, or meeting place, is a catalyst for dialogue, networking, and collaboration among youth and young adults in the field of it to continue championing their creativity and innovation within their communities in the north. the methods utilized in this outcome assessment can provide a platform and guide for future assessment or evaluation models for similar initiatives in first nations communities across canada. references beaton, b. (2001). keewaytinook okimakanak's proposal to schoolnet youth employment initiative to hire aboriginal youth as a first nation schoolnet helpdesk assistants. chapman, r. and slaymaker, t. (2002). icts and rural development: review of the literature, current interventions and opportunities for action. overseas development initiative working paper 192. retrieved march 15, 2009 from: http://www.cefe.net/forum/ict_rural.pdf fiser, a. (2005). through their eyes: worker perceptions of the yit program. a report compiled for k-net's youth ict training and employment program. industry canada, first nations schoolnet regional management organization. ferreira, g., et al. (2004). connectivity in canada's far north: participatory evaluation in ontario's aboriginal communities. measuring the information society: what, how, for whom and what? pre-conference workshop of the association of internet researchers conference, brighton, uk. retrieved march 10, 2009 from: http://asis.org/chapters/europenews/ferreira ramirez.pdf gurstein, m. (2003). effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. first monday. 8:12. retrieved may 4, 2009 from: http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1107/1027 perley, s., and s. o'donnell. (2006). broadband video communication research in first nations communities. national research council of canada. retrieved 30 march, 2009 from: http://iit-iti.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/iit-publications-iti/docs/nrc-48745.pdf ramirez, r. and d. richardson. (2005). measuring the impact of telecommunication services on rural and remote communities. telecommunications policy. 29, 297-319 richardson, d. (1999). facilitating participation: accessing internet services for development. the art of facilitating participation. shirley a. white ed. sage publications: new delhi schnarch, b. (2004). ownership, control, access, and possession (ocap) or self-determination applied to research. journal of aboriginal health. january. surveys of the use of surveys of the use of information and communications technologies by community-based organisations tom denison, graeme johanson centre for community networking research faculty of information technology, monash university. abstract this paper looks to fill an international gap in knowledge about the adoption of information and communication technologies by third sector organisations with a specific focus on the australian experience. in australia, the united kingdom, usa, and canada, such research that exists into the usefulness of the spread of ict into community-based organisations, is limited in its coverage and its tendency is to rely on a management approach to analysis. this paper summarises findings of recently published surveys, compares their findings, and proposes the use of social network analysis as a more useful lens through which to consider current developments. prologue the original research for this article was undertaken in early 2005, and since then there have been two substantive developments with findings to be added to the review. firstly, very soon after this article was first written a refreshing interest in australia encompassing the spread of ict in the third sector emerged from within the sector itself, but also from governments wishing to deal with community-based organisations. the second relates to the worldwide fascination with web 2.0 technologies and associated attention devoted to social technologies (marks 2006). from the standpoint of september 2007, some of the research wish-list outlined in the conclusions to this article is being fulfilled in relation to co-ordination and whole-of-sector networks. in february 2005 the australian department for communications, information technology and the arts (dcita) released two discussion papers on the impact of ict on the australian non-profit sector and the importance of the sector in building communities (dcita 2005a; 2005b). these papers aimed to illustrate how non-profit organisations and communities were using ict to improve operational efficiency and capability; deliver services and support; and build communities and social capital. dcita responded by initiating a project to develop a model and business plan for a national non-profit ict coalition (nnic), conceived of as a coalition of leading non-profit organisations and social enterprises (dcita 2005c). ideally, this would assist the sector in making more effective use of ict by providing strategic leadership for the australian non-profit sector; raising the awareness of the strategic benefits of ict; improving the understanding of senior staff of non-profit organisations; facilitating the development of sustainable models for non-profit organisations; improving the ict infrastructure, funding and procurement for non-profit organisations; and increasing engagement between the business and non-profit sectors. in 2006 a contract to manage the project was awarded to a consortium led by community information strategies australia inc (cisa) — a community-based not-for-profit organisation that provides a range of (ict) consulting services. members of the consortium selected included the centre for community networking research (ccnr) at monash university, workventures australia, albany consulting, energetica consulting, and the non-profit roundtable, a group of major non-profit representatives. after six months of intensive research (denison et al. 2007), the key findings of the consultation were that there is a recognition that the application of ict has enormous potential not only to contribute to administrative efficiency, but also to transform service delivery in the third sector. as well, and unfortunately it was found that this potential is not being realised because the sector lacks a coordinated approach to the adoption of ict, which impacts on its ability to contribute to policy development, standards setting, and a range of other activities that could share and reduce the costs of adopting ict. the study further found that at the level of the individual organisation, there are considerable problems caused by an inability to think strategically, a widespread lack of skills and resources, a lack of funding, and few available trusted sources of advice. the research revealed very strong support for a nnic-type organisation, which would function in its own right rather than as part of any existing peak body; be led by the sector; would not become a service provider in its own right; and would avoid fee-based membership because such funding would act as a disincentive to smaller organisations. these recent developments do not invalidate the key points of the remainder of this article, but they indicate that constructive action has been occurring recently. surprising dearth of surveys with access to the internet by australian businesses running at 74% of all businesses (abs 2005), and e-government widespread, now reaching deep into the layers of local government (abs 2004), the absence of detailed collated data about the use of information and communication technologies in the third sector is an unfortunate gap. it is not just a problem in australia: lack of reliable knowledge poses a constraint for policy and planning in the sector across the developed world. the voluntary sector is under many pressures to change (lyons 2001, surman 2001, burt and taylor 1999). there is evidence that many community-based organisations are using information and communications technologies (ict) to improve their functions and status, yet the means to determine the broad scope of their activity does not exist. the canadian government’s panel on accountability and governance in the voluntary sector attributes low levels of adoption to recent change, in the following terms: in recent years, the voluntary sector’s infrastructure has been significantly weakened for a number of reasons. as a result of government cuts to funding, often combined with downloading onto the sector of services once provided by governments, there is intense competition for funds, not only within the sector but often with governments directly. the pressure to deliver more and more sophisticated services has stretched the financial and human resources of many organisations. information technology has become an essential tool for effective communication and management in the modern organisation, yet voluntary organisations lag badly behind the other sectors in this regard (voluntary sector initiative 1999, p. 14). thus a reason for lack of understanding of the penetration of ict is intimated; the sector is so pressured to involve itself with adoption and adaptation of technologies that it has not had the resources to reflect on the implementation. the literature contains numerous examples of efforts to make partial amends. for example, an early study (acoss 1996) into the use of ict by australian community sector organisations found that many were developing their ict capacity with the aim of entering into a partnership with government for the provision of community services and, increasingly, that has meant facing up to economies of scale. understandably, they did ‘not want to be marginalised because they [were] not staying current’ (pra 2001, p. 9). using information drawn from publications in the usa, the uk, canada and australia, this paper examines several recently published surveys dealing with the rate of take-up of ict by community sector organisations. in particular, it focuses on the use of the internet by non-profit organisations, and their own reported judgements in areas related to the success or failure of that take-up, the reported barriers faced by the sector, and what important aspects of involvement with ict are apparently not at all being addressed. it will then briefly consider the published summaries from the perspective of social network analysis, particularly as it relates to the diffusion of technology, to consider whether it might lead to new insights or prospects for further research. parameters of existing knowledge even a cursory examination of the literature reveals the looseness of relevant terminology. it varies from country to country, and includes such terms as ‘voluntary organisations’, ‘non-profits’, ‘non-government organisations’ (ngos), ‘community organisations’ and ‘charities’. at the sectoral level the organisations attract a set of related names -the ‘voluntary sector’, the ‘third sector’, the ‘non-profit sector,’ even ‘civil society’. use of so many terms can create confusion. for instance, this paper has excluded the specific use of ict for civic engagement, for political activism, a topic which has attracted a good deal more separate interest from political scientists and sociologists – under the banner of civil society uses of ict -than have any accounts of benefits of ict for the all-encompassing aims and objectives of all community-based organisations (see, for example, barraket 2005). while more specific terminology is applied within individual countries (national centre for charitable statistics 2004, kendall 1995, lyons 2001), the locus of activity is not easily defined. typical is the canadian government’s panel on accountability and governance in the voluntary sector (1999) which considers organisations whose work depends on serving a public benefit: on volunteers, at least for their governance; on financial support from individuals; and on limited direct influence by governments (voluntary sector initiative 1999, p. 9). this includes recreational associations, service clubs, local community associations, advocacy groups, and community development groups. there are limitations to what this paper can achieve, as is acknowledged in the ensuing discussion. a detailed analysis of the differences between ict needs in the business, government and community sectors is beyond the scope of this paper, though it would be instructive to undertake at a later date. making comparisons between countries, as we do, runs the risk of ignoring potential structural differences, for example in the consideration of issues posed by location, national reach versus geographic spread, the firmness of boundaries between organisations, and globalised ngos. what are the reasons given by those conducting studies to propose that the encouragement of the take-up of ict by community organisations is worthwhile? the business analogy is never far away. the key motivation remains the benefit to the organisations and their members or clients. as burt and taylor (1999, p. 8) state: electronic networking allows the innovative potential of ict to be exploited, including its capacity to support flexible forms of organisational and business relationships … ict allow managers to interrogate information systems in new ways, to integrate across their organisation, information that was previously unconnected, to ask new questions about their organisation and its relationship with clients, members, supporters, partners and competitors. thus, it can contribute to competitive positioning, and so to the achievement of mission, and strategic and business objectives. much of the research, however, is concerned with broader relationships. for example, surman (2001) is interested not only with the immediate needs of ontario non-profits, exploring questions such as current voluntary sector technological capacity, internet services and available funding, but also with evidence that suggests that the voluntary sector as a whole is being transformed into a connected, co-operative network. others focus on the broader societal issues and the function of organisations in context. the work of the canadian voluntary sector initiative (1999) sought to improve the performance of the sector not just because the organisations themselves would benefit, but also because it saw the voluntary sector as playing a central role in building vibrant communities, providing services and engaging citizens in the democratic life of the country. it also recognised that the voluntary sector makes an enormous contribution to the country’s economic well-being. these themes are central also to the work of the athena alliance (2002) and craig (2003), who focus on the ability of organisations to contribute to a reduction in the digital divide by providing services and access to the disadvantaged. craig (2003) comments that the third sector is important to community ict because organisations may provide ict access centres for their clients, who are often disadvantaged in several ways…; organisations can improve the delivery of their core services to the disadvantaged…; and by becoming more skilled themselves in ict, these groups can leverage their knowledge of their clients needs to help them pass on relevant ict skills and knowledge (craig 2003, p63). o’donnell, analysing the situation in ireland (1997, 1999) and in the european union (2001), advances this argument even further, considering that the voluntary sector has a significant part to play in fostering a more inclusive information society through its ability to expand online content and the public sphere. implicit advocacy by means of ict is an indirect asset which we return to in our discussion of the surveys, which we now summarise. major survey findings united kingdom the situation in the uk has been well described by major national surveys undertaken by burt and taylor (1999) and wyatt (2001), both of whom focused on the uptake of ict and its contribution to meeting the business needs of community organisations, while tbc research (2001) surveyed those already using ict more generally. although tbc research (2001) reported that 82% of organisations that were already using ict had established websites, the two surveys of all community organisations, those of burt and taylor (1999) and wyatt (2001), reported a less than satisfactory picture. these found that there was almost universal access to personal computers and high levels of computer networking, but that the take-up level of key technologies and applications such as websites was significantly lower. wyatt compared progress to that of the business sector, reporting that by the end of 2001, 78% of community organisations expect to have an internet connection, compared to 94% of businesses, while 53% expect to have a web page, compared to 80% of businesses. on the other hand, wyatt (2001) also found that benefits in delivering services via the internet were claimed by organisations across the voluntary and community sectors, and that a number of organisations were delivering services in new and more effective ways, especially those which deal with people with disabilities and job seekers. he found that some organisations were improving their inter-organisational networking – developing new ways of working together and exchanging experiences of best practice, which previously had been excessively costly and time-consuming. despite these positive findings, all the uk studies concluded that the impact of ict was less than its potential, and that the application of technology to key business activities was poor, with few organisations having made strategic use of the technology, for example, by sharing information with stakeholders or improving service delivery. wyatt added that the overall extent of ict infrastructure in the sector was poor. other barriers to the further development of the sector included: the cost of equipment and maintenance (wyatt, tbc research); negative attitudes to ict and limited appreciation of its benefits, particularly by senior management and management boards (wyatt, burt and taylor, tbc research); a lack of support and training (wyatt, burt and taylor, tbc research); insufficient project management skills (tbc research); and insufficient access to relevant experts (tbc research). all reported that budgets were too small for their needs, yet none of the surveys reported the size of the organisation to be an issue. united states a number of studies have been conducted in the usa, but there is little on a broad scale, and the national picture remains obscure. significant studies include those of williams (1999) who surveyed michigan non-profits, and princeton research associates (2001) and the w. k. kellogg foundation (2001), both of which undertook broader surveys. the center for excellence in non-profits (1999) did undertake a major survey of silicon valley non-profits in 1998, but that study focused on in-house networking and applications only. of these, williams (1999) reported that while 77% of surveyed organisations had access to the internet on site, only 52% had websites and that the proportion using e-mail varied from 60% of small organisations (revenue of less than $50,000) to 94% of those with revenues of $2m or more. princeton research associates (2001) reported that 79% use e-mail, 77% use the internet and 49% have a website while the kellogg foundation (2001) reported that 75% had websites. however it should be noted that the kellogg foundation survey was conducted by e-mail and so presumably was biased towards those already using the technology. even though the actual results are not widely different from those reported by the uk surveys, the overall reported attitude of us not-for-profits is more positive. for example, princeton research associates found that sizeable majorities believe increased use of it would improve the efficiencies of their day-to-day operations, improve communication with staff and constituents, enhance their profile and presence in the community, and ultimately save money by increasing efficiency (2001, p. 3) while williams (1999) found that 45% of organisations surveyed agreed with the statement that ‘michigan non-profits are ready for the information age’ and 58% agreed with the statement that ‘the internet is improving non-profit marketing and product/service delivery’. unlike in the uk, the most common reason reported for not taking up the technologies in the usa was that they were either not needed, or that the acquisition of other resources had a higher priority. cost and access to appropriate staff were still reported as problems by those who had taken them up, and size was an issue for smaller non-profits (princeton research associates 2001). canada the use of ict by community sector organisations has been widely encouraged in canada, with the government having been particularly active. following on from the work of the broadbent report, the work of volnet and the joint table on information management/information technology has been important in both establishing the existing situation and in proposing strategies to move forward (voluntary sector initiative 1999, voluntary sector 2002, pra 2001, kerr 2002). major surveys of organisations using the web have also been undertaken by leverus (2001; 2002), and both pargmegiani and sachdeva (2000) and surman (2001) have made significant comparative studies of existing surveys, the latter combining a review of websites serving non-profits in the ontario region, with an overview of significant available surveys from canada, the usa and the uk. surprisingly, for a country as involved in community building projects as canada, there is little published on actual take-up rates of ict. surman does quote one result provided by the canadian centre for philanthropy – that 37% of canadian voluntary organisations had internet access by 1997 -but on the whole the work in canada seems more concerned with what organisations are doing with ict internally, and the barriers which they might face. although pargmegiani and sachdeva (2000) drew the broad conclusion that canada was a world leader in internet usage, especially in publicly funded programs supporting the voluntary sector, there were clearly limited achievements. surman, focusing on the ontario region, concluded that the foundation had been laid for the ‘transformation of the voluntary sector into a connected co-operative network’ (2001, p. 3), but that the tools and techniques required for this to happen had not spread widely. organisations using the internet to address core non-profit business needs such as fundraising, volunteer recruitment, information sharing and reporting to government, were the exceptions rather than the rule. the annual leverus surveys suggest that there have been advances in the range of uses, and the ability of organisations to leverage the potential of the internet, but that there remain significant areas in need of improvement, including strategic planning and ongoing analysis of performance. for example, the leverus survey reported that while 54% of organisations think that their website is effective or very effective in contributing to their ability to meet their organisational objectives, 46% think that their websites are only somewhat effective or have no effect at all (leverus 2001). both pra (2001) and surman (2001) concluded that the sector had three main needs: access to unbiased knowledge about what technologies to purchase; increased technology skills and knowledge within the sector; and a better understanding of technology needs by funders. pra also concluded that the capacity of organisations to successfully adopt ict was affected by the availability of technical staff, the size of the organisation and access to resources; and depended on the culture of the organisation and degree of comfort with technology felt by leaders. taking a different approach, kerr (2002) attempted to identify the needs and priorities of the sector in relation to technology, and to suggest options for potential funding. the top five needs put forward by the organisations were: an inexpensive and easy-to-use database of funders; direct funding at discounted prices of computers and related items; more flexibility from funders to allow organisations to buy computers and software or upgrades, as an ongoing expense; reduced administration and paperwork for filling out funding proposals and reports; and a national website that would provide ‘one-stop shopping’ for information for and about the voluntary sector. australia there are three major surveys in australia -by acoss (1996), vcoss (1997) and ccnr (2002). in terms of internet take-up, the two earlier surveys (acoss 1996, vcoss 1997) confirmed limited but growing support for the medium within the sector, with almost universal access to some level of computing. acoss reported that 38% were connected to the internet and that 14% had a website, while vcoss reported that 59% had access to the internet and 17% had websites. the ccnr ict index (2002), 5 years later, confirmed those early trends in terms of the rapid take-up of ict, reporting that the proportion of community-based organisations with access to the internet increased to 90% and that the proportion with websites had risen to 61%. ccnr found that city-based organisations would appear to be better at taking advantage of the medium, and while the use of sites to collect information and to conduct financial transactions register as significant differences between city-based and regional organisations, in fact most organisations put their sites to a fairly limited range of uses. vcoss reported that, despite a variety of reported uses, just under 50% of organisations had unmet needs for online services. ccnr found high levels of satisfaction with the performance of the technology in general and with their internet access, but that only 56% of organisations with websites agreed that those websites were meeting their needs. examining the data in more detail, denison (2003) found that location and size, when taken together, also provide a significant indicator of an organisation’s level of satisfaction with the ability of the technology to meet its needs, with approximately 44% of large city-based organisations believing they had a website that met their objectives, while only 22% of smaller regional organisations made the same claim. the two early surveys reported that the most significant barriers related to cost to the organisation, followed by the cost to members and clients, while less significant barriers and problems included access difficulties for users, lack of relevant information and/or training for staff, and lack of staff time. low staff interest or priority was found to be the least significant problem (acoss 1996, vcoss 1997). ccnr reported a similar range of issues, with the most significant being lack of skills, cost to the organisation and organisational priorities, reflecting needs emerging with the continuing spread of ict use. once again, the result obtained when the factors of size and location are combined was revealing: small regional organisations were least likely to have a website and lack of relevance to the organisation’s needs was found to be the major factor, while for small city-based organisations, it was the cost that was most important (ccnr 2002). additional related surveys several other interesting surveys are also available. zwielko (1998) attempted a study of non-profit environmental organisations across 10 countries and although he attempted to gauge the take-up of access to the internet and determine if there were any changed patterns of behaviour, policy or politicisation, he did not attempt any inter-country comparisons. his findings showed that of 135 respondent organisations, 68% were online (by which he meant that they could at least access the net). 71% of those were using the web to provide information and undertake a range of other tasks. he found the main barriers to be cost, lack of expertise, and reluctance on the part of senior staff to use it. murray and harrison (2002) took yet another approach and, instead of surveying organisations in general, focused on those that use technology to meet a particular need or provide a specific service, in this case to help with managing volunteers. in two surveys (one regional, and one national in canada) they found that most organisations involved in managing volunteers do use technology and that most think that they could make more and better use of technology. specifically, they found that most use the technology to provide information, and although some attempted to provide a level of interactivity, very few could be considered to be attempting to improve communication networks within the sector. they also found that newer managers are more likely to accept such innovations and are less likely to be critical of the performance of the nominated innovation. ticher (2002) interviewed executives from some 30 voluntary and community sector organisations in the uk, coming to the conclusion that the biggest barriers to effective use were internal: difficulty in finding reliable, trustworthy professional advice; difficulty in securing internal technical expertise; difficulty in finding affordable external technical expertise; difficulty with project management techniques; and the unwillingness of many funders to accept realistic levels of ict expenditure. this report also discussed the pace of change management, and the fact that many managers were reluctant to push through changes derived from new technology, as they recognised that some people, including frontline caregivers, may need to be protected from change, and others may resist it. he concluded that managers need a vision about what their organisation might be doing with ict and the confidence and determination to take ideas forward. given the comments found in many of the above surveys, the report by the technology affinity group (2003) on the state of ict use by grant-makers in the usa is also of interest. while the results showed that the adoption and effective use of technology varied greatly according to the size of the grant-making body, as a group they clearly make good use of it. 95% of very large foundations responding described themselves as leading-edge or fast followers, with 5% as lagging or in trouble. that figure rose to 34% for small foundations (with less than $10,000,000 in assets). perhaps more significantly, while e-mail and websites were common applications, most respondents (65%) had no it staff, only 18% participated in providing technical assistance and advice to grantees, and only 17% had it staff that took part in reviewing applications. table 1. summary of recent surveys: community sector organisation use of ict survey year country method / sample notes burt & taylor 1999 uk email. 436 responses non-profit organisations found widespread access to ict but poor rates of take-up and exploitation of websites. tbc research 2001 uk voluntary organizations found widespread access to ict but lack of access to strategic advice and significant concerns relating to the use of ict in meeting oraganisational goals. wyatt 2001 uk telephone. 1400 responses. email. 460 responses non-profit organisations found almost universal access to ict but the levels of take-up and effective use of key technologies, specifically websites, was significantly lower. princeton research associates 2001 usa telephone. 203 human service organizations generally very positive, with respondents suggesting that the use of ict is creating efficiencies and improving communications. williams 1999 usa (michigan) mail. 635 responses non-profit organisations found high levels of take-up of ict and generally positive feedback on its benefits. w.k. kellog 2001 usa email. 418 non-profit organizations examined use of websites, finding organisations were generally positive about the benefits they brought: operational efficiencies and improved communications leverus 2001 2002 canada 170 responses 218 responses invited web survey for non-profit organizations surveyed those with websites and found that although use is growing there remain significant difficulties in the area of strategic planning and analysis of performance. pra 2001 canada in-depth interviews 24 voluntary organizations found a consistent view that ict was important to the sector but that there were a number of barriers to its effective use, with cost and access to expertise being the most significant. acoss 1996 australia mail. 209 social service organizations found widespread take-up of ict, often to meet external pressures, with the exception of websites. ccnr cict 2002 australia telephone. 923 non-profit organizations found widespread take-up and satisfaction with ict, but significantly lower rates of take-up for websites, particularly in regional areas. vcoss 1997 australia (victoria) mail. 323 social service organizations found widespread take-up of ict but significant levels of unmet demand in developing online services. challenges ticher (2002) considers there to be three traditional stages in ict use by voluntary organisations: personal productivity, information sharing, and inter-networking. while the research quoted above is not concerned directly with the first two stages, it does relate to the third: inter-networking. surman (2001) expands this stage into: basic internet access, knowledge and skills development (strategic and technical), and the development of strategic business applications. reviewing the situation in the usa, canada and the uk, he concludes that, except for some rural areas, basic internet connection and access issues are no longer a major issue for most voluntary organisations and, where data is available, it does suggest that access is increasing overall. if connectivity itself is not a problem, an analysis of the surveys mentioned demonstrates that, with the possible exception of the usa, the development of strategic business applications is a gap, and this is despite the fact that almost all of those conducting the studies are both positive about the potential benefits and cite numerous examples of organisations which have developed innovative applications and are reaping the rewards. as can be seen from the discussion, a lot of information has been collected regarding the barriers to effective use of ict (including the development of websites). barriers include cost to the organisation, cost to the members or clients of the organisation, a general lack of resources, sources of reliable and independent advice (internal and external), poor attitudes to ict, a lack of support and training, unwillingness of funders to accept a reliable level of ict expenditure, unfamiliarity with project planning, and a lack of simple online tools for non-profits. given canada’s high level of government activity in supporting non-governmental groups, it is perhaps most useful to cite canada as an example of the type of strategies developed to cope with ict weaknesses. the canadian joint table on im/it (voluntary sector 2002) grouped these challenges under six main headings: diversity of the voluntary sector. limited familiarity of board members, staff and volunteers with information management and information technology. barriers to acquiring information management and information technology. challenge in finding funding. limited means for organisations to communicate and network. sustainability of efforts to make effective use of information management and information technology. it then adopted a strategy for improvement based on the needs identified by kerr (2002): encouraging funders to support investment in technology and developing a web-based funding service; linking existing community-based networks to increase regional capacity and provide a virtual technology store; developing a campaign to highlight the benefits of technology; and developing a portal for the voluntary sector as a whole (voluntary sector initiative 2002). unobserved benefits of prior networks and environment having an understanding of the broad condition of the sector is important because it sets the context for more detailed studies. but, as cuiker (2003) notes, survey results such as these can only offer basic summaries, and provide limited insights into what is actually happening in given organisations. one move towards improvement would come from supplementing such surveys with qualitative work, such as that undertaken by schneider (2003), who has used an ethnographic study to explore how issues such as social capital, cultural factors and ict interact. time and again, the analyses considered conclude that limited appreciation of the benefits of ict, particularly by senior management and management boards (wyatt, burt and taylor, tbc research), and insufficient access to experts (tbc research), were serious problems. for example, in canada, both pra (2001) and surman (2001) concluded that the sector had three main needs: access to unbiased knowledge about what technologies to purchase, increased technology skills and knowledge within the sector, and a better understanding of technology needs by funders. and, in general, these problems are being described in terms of failures of management or as being related to issues such as the size and location of organisations. overall, there is evidence within these analyses that several important considerations – certainly the development of strategies, and the ongoing sustainability of organisations – have not attracted sufficient attention. nor have other considerations, such as cultural and environmental factors that impact on the diffusion of technology, including ‘economic, political and social forces in interplay with technological developments and historical context’ which, in combination with management, resource and issues relating to organisational culture, determine the extent to which not for profit organisations are likely to use ict for innovation and strategic positioning (burt and taylor 1999, p. 6). from this perspective it is interesting to note that several studies, including that of burt and taylor (1999), make the point that some organisations are improving their inter-organisational networking by ‘developing new ways of working together and exchanging best practice that was previously too costly and time consuming,’ without considering whether those organisations were already well developed in this area beforehand, and whether or not they succeeded because of this prior inter-networking. in other words, their basic existing levels of inter-networking may not only have contributed to their desire to improve that inter-networking, but may also have facilitated that outcome. this vital point has been overlooked in most of the surveys discussed in this paper. and it is a crucial point. there is a significant body of work in the area of social network analysis that explores the types of social networks and inter-networking arrangements that assist in both the diffusion of technology and its ongoing exploitation. granovetter (1973) made the distinction between strong and weak links, based on the frequency and distance between people or organisations, arguing that those with networks of weak links are best placed to receive new information and resources, since those links can act as bridges to the broader community. he also found that the more links required to establish a connection, the less effective it is. others have built on this, demonstrating that networks of strong links are essential for the proper exploitation of new ideas, such as new technology, but that networks of weak links are also essential because it is those networks that provide access to new ideas and resources in the first place (coleman 1988, burt 2000, aldrich & zimmer 1986, kadushin 2002). further, aldrich and zimmer (1986) emphasised that the maintenance of effective networks requires the continual creation of weak ties so as to prevent a few strong ties from closing those networks to opportunities and alternatives, while kadushin (2002) argued that ‘safety drivers’, which act against change, are common when the costs of interaction are low, visibility is high, and moral obligations are more salient – a situation typical of rural and regional networks but also common elsewhere. in summary, this analysis suggests that organisations and communities seeking to implement technologically-based change, require both networks of weak links, because they provide access to opportunities, innovation, strategic advice, new skills and support; and networks of strong links because they provide a trusted environment in which to operate and harness local capacity. there is sufficient evidence to suggest that these factors need to be taken into account when developing strategies to assist those organisations in developing strategic applications, such as websites. the surveys and analyses discussed in this paper do not bring that out sufficiently. further research into how this applies to community sector organisations is needed but, if it is assumed that most of the organisations surveyed are reasonably managed and embedded in their communities, then the problem that they face in attempting to develop more sophisticated ict applications such as websites is not one of a lack of management skill, so much as one of not having support networks that can assist them in reacting to new circumstances and in the adoption of technology. this would suggest that what government needs to do is to find ways of working with organisations to build on their strengths while at the same time, in networking terms, provide them with access to trusted weak links that can provide them with access to expertise and other resources. this can perhaps best be achieved by building local capacity and expertise and by fostering trusted local intermediaries. furthermore, such support needs to be provided on an ongoing basis, because technology and applications are continually changing and advances need to be continually monitored, evaluated and adapted. conclusions surveys of the take-up and use of ict by community sector organisations are valuable, but they are limited in that they can only provide a generalised picture which is most useful as background to further in-depth studies. too often their analysis is restricted to a strict managerial approach to the organisations concerned. to return to an earlier comment that many see improved use of ict by community sector organisations as a way of improving inter-organisational networking, even a brief consideration of social network analysis would suggest that it is a two-way process, and that those who already have strong networks in place are more likely to find it easier to implement ict in the first place. this is a more constructive view than that which assumes that problems are caused by management failure or issues related to location and size, because it points the way to developing strategies 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(1998) ‘the politicisation of environmental organisations through the internet.’ information society, 14(1): 45-56. paper for canadian journal of communication implementation of information and communication technology in aboriginal communities: a social capital perspective javier mignone assistant professor, faculty of human ecology university of manitoba <mignonej@ms.umanitoba.ca> heather henley graduate student, natural resources institute university of manitoba <henley2@cc.umanitoba.ca> abstract the paper provides a social capital framework to examine the implementation of ict in aboriginal communities. using case descriptions from first nations, inuit and métis communities, the paper discusses the potential opportunities offered by ict in distinct fields, and analyzes from a social capital perspective the enabling and inhibiting conditions that seem to play a role in successful implementations of ict in aboriginal communities. résumé l’article présente les grands axes du capital social en vue d’examiner la technologie de l’information et des communications (tic) dans les communautés autochtones. à partir d’une série d’études de cas sur l’application de la tic dans les communautés des premières nations, des inuits et des métis, l’article passe en revue les éventuelles occasions qu’offre la tic dans certains domaines, ainsi que les conditions favorables et défavorables qui semblent jouer sur la réussite des applications de la tic dans les communautés autochtones. resumen el artículo presenta un marco conceptual de capital social para examinar la implementación de tecnología informática y de comunicación en comunidades aborígenes. utilizando casos descriptivos de comunidades de primeras naciones, inuit y métis, el artículo analiza las oportunidades que la tecnología informática y de comunicación ofrece en diversas áreas, y estudia desde la perspectiva del capital social las condiciones que facilitan e inhiben su exitosa implementación en comunidades aborígenes. keywords: information communication technology, aboriginal, broadband networks, community networks, social capital. introduction increasingly, developments in information and communication technology (ict) are having major impacts worldwide. canada has witnessed in the last several years a significant growth in ict opportunities, particularly in relation to online capabilities. although ict can be defined “as technologies that facilitate communication and processing and transmission of information by electronic means” (ramírez, 2003), the focus of our study is on the implementation and use of computer and network hardware and software. a diverse number of aboriginal communities have been part of this process. there are numerous experiences where the growth in ict appears to be having an important impact on socio-economic realities. nonetheless, there is still much that is unknown about what pre-requisites and types of investments allow for the successful implementation of community ict networks. the notion of social capital, tentatively defined as the institutions, relationships and norms that shape the quality and quantity of society’s social interactions, can assist in understanding the factors that may enable the successful implementation of ict in aboriginal communities. as part of a broader study, this paper seeks to address two main questions: how can investments in social capital positively affect the implementation of ict networks? does the type of social capital affect the impact that is achieved on ict development? building on prior work, the authors conducted an extensive review of the published and grey literature on social capital and on ict implementation in canada with a focus on aboriginal communities. together with the examination of existing literature, a series of phone interviews with 15 key informants from first nations, métis and inuit communities and institutions in canada were conducted to gather information on specific cases related to the development of ict in aboriginal communities. an initial draft paper was written and distributed for feedback among 20 individuals from aboriginal organizations, government agencies, and university units with experience in this area. five roundtables were held in different regions of the country to gather further information, discuss the initiatives and receive feedback. these roundtables were held in sioux lookout, ontario (k-net); cranbrook, british columbia (ktunaxa); iqaluit, nunavut (qiniq); edmonton, alberta (métis settlements); and winnipeg, manitoba (urban aboriginal agencies). the roundtables counted between nine and 11 participants each, excluding the research team. during the days of the roundtables, site visits to each initiative were conducted. finally, in early 2008 a one-day national symposium was held in winnipeg, manitoba, with the participation of 23 key stakeholders, experts and practitioners from aboriginal organizations and other relevant entities, to discuss the document and identify priority issues. this paper reviews the theory of social capital as it applies to aboriginal peoples in canada and presents a social capital framework as a guide for examining its relation to ict. the paper then presents a summary of case descriptions of ict implementations in first nations, inuit and métis communities, and one specifically related to urban settings. using the case descriptions as the main background information, the paper discusses the potential opportunities offered by ict in aboriginal communities. with a social capital lens, the paper continues by analyzing enabling and inhibiting conditions that seem to play a role in successful implementations of ict in aboriginal communities. the final sections discuss the findings and provide a summary conclusion. social capital: an analytical framework social capital, to the extent that it is a property of the social environment, takes the form of a resource that consists of relationships. a common understanding among most authors is that social capital is a resource composed of a variety of elements, most notably social networks, social norms and values, trust, and shared resources (bourdieu & wacquant, 1992; bourdieu, 1983; loury, 1992; putnam, leonardi & nanetti, 1993; putnam, 2000; woolcock, 1998a; woolcock, 1998b; woolcock & narayan, 2000; narayan, 1999; schuller, baron, & field, 2000; lin, 2001). it would appear to enable a number of positive societal outcomes within the specific boundaries of particular levels of society (coleman, 1988; coleman, 1990). social capital has been studied in relation to education, labour markets (department of economics, 1999), local economic development (midgley & livermore, 1998), microfinance (rankin, 2002), sustainable community development (dale, 2005), economic performance (casey & christ, 2005), health (kawachi, et al., 1997; gooden, 1998; veenstra, 2000; rose, 2000; campbell, williams, & gilgen, 2002; bolin, lindgren, lindström, & nystedt, 2003), identity, transition to work (fevre, 2000), communicative competence and human resources (szreter, 2000), among numerous other outcomes. more recently, studies specific to social capital and ict have appeared. a multidisciplinary volume (huysman & wulf, 2004) compiles a series of articles that examine this relationship from the fields of computer sciences, sociology, communication studies, business economics, and management studies. one of these papers (quan-haase & wellman, 2004) argues that the effects of the internet on social capital can be conceptualized from three broad approaches: the internet transforms social capital (barlow, et al., 1995; wellman et al., 2001), the internet diminishes social capital (nie 2001; nie, hillygus, & erbring, 2002), the internet supplements social capital (quan-haase & wellman, 2002; chen, boase, & wellman, 2002). among the initial studies that have specifically looked at the impact of ict on social capital, one of them (norris, 2003) concludes that the internet seems to widen the experience of community, and the other (steinmueller, 2004) that social networks are influenced by (and influence) icts. what has not been studied is social capital as a function in the successful implementation of community ict. research concerning social capital and aboriginal peoples picked up pace starting the year 2000. levitte (2004) researched social capital in the context of aboriginal economic development in canada. social capital was used to analyze traditional forms of indigenous governance (hunter, 2000; schwab & sutherland, 2001), sustainable development (altman, 2001), welfare reform (smith, 2001), and indigenous learning communities (schwab & sutherland, 2001). the concept of social capital has also assisted in the understanding of the disconnect between the management of waste in nine first nations communities in northwest british columbia and their traditional relationship with the land (moody & cordua-von specht, 2005). ict and social capital are normally discussed as associated with economic development. the relationship between social capital and entrepreneurship has been explored by scholars (portes & landolt, 2000) who have pointed to the ability of social networks to pull together financial and other material resources for business development on the one hand, and to apply pressures on entrepreneurs on the other. social networks have been highlighted as of importance in overcoming challenges to entrepreneurship, such as access to training, access to markets, and the negotiation of community values and norms. (levitte, 2004). gertler and levitte (2005) show that to be innovative and commercially successful, canadian biotech firms must reach out to both their local and global networks to access both knowledge and capital. the same can be said of aboriginal businesses. woolcock (1998a) asserts that strong relationships with formal institutions are instrumental in that they allow groups to access resources, ideas, and information from institutions of power. dale (2005) argues that “sustainable communities depend on the formation and maintenance of networks, particularly at the bridging and linking level, in order to build any of the imperatives and capital.” evans (1996) believes that the obstacles that poor communities face stem from their members’ inability to ‘scale up’ micro-level social capital and social action to a politically and economically effective level. levitte (2004) identifies several barriers to aboriginal business development: access to start-up and growth financing; access to skills such as business training and trained labour force; access to markets and marketing strategies. some authors argue that a “socio-technological approach” is needed to analyze the relationship between information technology and social capital (huysman & wulf, 2004b). the following paragraphs provide a social capital framework to help analyze what investments are required from a social capital perspective to achieve the successful implementation of ict. mignone and colleagues (2003a; 2003b; 2004) formulated a conceptual framework of social capital for first nations communities and developed a culturally appropriate instrument for its measurement. the operational definition of social capital derived from the study was the following: social capital characterizes a community based on the degree that its resources are socially invested, that it presents an ethos of trust, norms of reciprocity, collective action, and participation, and that it possesses inclusive, flexible and diverse networks. social capital of a community is assessed through a combination of its bonding (within group relations), bridging (inter-community ties), and linking (relations with formal institutions) dimensions.1 bonding social capital refers to internal community relations. it addresses the networks, ethos, and socially invested resources within a particular society, community or group in question, i.e., the intra-community ties. bridging social capital is essentially a horizontal notion, implying connections between societies, communities or groups, i.e., the inter-community ties. linking social capital refers to a vertical dimension, i.e., the relations with formal institutions beyond the community. specifically to our study, bonding social capital refers to relations within each aboriginal community. bridging refers to horizontal links with other communities, be they other aboriginal communities, or other communities of place (e.g., urban centres). linking refers to connections between particular aboriginal communities and institutions like federal/provincial government departments and public/private corporations (e.g., indian and northern affairs canada, industry canada, manitoba hydro, private ict companies, banks). table 1 summarizes the social capital framework, showing each dimension as consisting of the three components and their descriptors. for socially invested resources (sir) the descriptors are physical, symbolic, financial, human or natural. the central notion is that these resources are socially invested, i.e., that they are potentially accessed by, or of potential future benefit to, any member of the community. each descriptor captures the resource investment at a particular stage of its development. the term ethos (in the sense of character or disposition of a community) is used to capture the notions of trust, norms of reciprocity, collective action, and participation. networks are understood as “structures of recurrent transactions” (aldrich, 1982) and are described according to their inclusiveness, diversity, and flexibility. the distinction between the three dimensions of bonding, bridging, and linking captures the social reality of aboriginal communities in terms of their intra and inter-community and institutional interactions. communities do not exist in isolation and their potential stocks of social capital must express this reality because, as woolcock (1999) indicates, “different combinations of these dimensions might yield different outcomes.” the model considers social capital to be a feature of communities, with the caveat that the community of which it is a feature must be clearly delimited. table 1: social capital framework bonding sir* ethos networks physical trust inclusive symbolic norms of reciprocity flexibility financial collective action diverse human participation natural bridging sir ethos networks physical trust inclusive symbolic norms of reciprocity flexibility financial collective action diverse human participation natural linking sir ethos networks physical trust inclusive symbolic norms of reciprocity flexibility financial collective action diverse human participation natural *sir = socially invested resources case description summaries this section summarizes five case studies. the cases were selected so as to include first nations, métis and inuit communities and organizations, along with one case that covered ict aboriginal experiences in an urban setting. as well, the cases were chosen from different regions of the country. k-net (ontario) k-net (the kuh-ke-nah network) in northwestern ontario is an aboriginal owned community ict network that provides access to the internet in a sparsely populated region --approximately one person per square kilometre. many communities in this region are only accessible by small aircraft and most do not have year round road access. the populations of the communities range between 300 and 900 residents. k-net provides telecommunications services to 23 remote first nations as well as 11 points of presence (pops) in central and southwestern ontario. k-net also has pops in several urban centres including sioux lookout, thunder bay, timmins, and toronto. pops assist in supporting the various technological applications available through k-net. each first nation community manages and operates a municipal area network (man). today k-net consists of satellite and wireless technologies and utilizes the backbone infrastructure of networks such as bell canada. k-net was initially conceived as a bulletin board system (bbs) to provide support from family and friends via text messaging to children who were living away from the community to complete their schooling. the service was quickly picked up by schools and additional communities in the region and later expanded to offer broadband internet and ict services to communities. k-net is currently part of the northern indigenous community satellite network (nicsn) along with the kativik regional government in quebec, and the keewatin tribal council in manitoba. infrastructure canada has announced funding for the nicsn project that will extend k-net services to residents in 43 northern communities. to date, k-net has successfully engaged in telehealth, innovative distance education, computer training and skills development for community members and community networking. additionally, k-net facilitates multipoint videoconferencing and quality of service support for counterpart networks in british columbia, alberta, saskatchewan, manitoba, quebec, and the maritimes (fiser, clement, & walmark, 2005: 14). métis connectivity (alberta) the métis nation of alberta (mna) has recently (2006) connected their 17 provincial offices via high speed fibre infrastructure (métis nation of alberta, 2007). the métis communities in alberta differ in relation to connectivity, adoption of technology, etc. the money available to fund connectivity projects also differs substantially by community. alberta’s supernet, a high speed broadband network has the ability to connect 429 communities across the province (government of alberta, 2005). supernet has enabled people living in rural areas to benefit from the same opportunities enjoyed by those living in urban centres (bell canada, 2003). however, not all métis communities have benefited from this infrastructure. according to the aboriginal canada portal (government of canada, 2006) five of the eight métis communities in alberta were reported to have pops onsite with the remaining three having high speed internet connections. smaller métis communities were not interested in having access to the supernet due to the cost of activating or “lighting-up” the pop coupled with the cost of maintenance and administration. for some communities the overhead cost was too large an amount to take from their monthly operating budget. on the other hand, some communities have made the decision to bare the cost and become involved. qiniq (nunavut) the qiniq network provides high speed internet services to 25 inuit communities in nunavut. the deployment of broadband required a unique solution as the geography of the region makes it impossible to develop the basic backbone infrastructure utilized for these purposes in the south. in nunavut there are “no highways, no power or phone lines, no fibre optic networks, and no microwave relays linking communities” and the most common method of supplying communities with goods is air or barge (qiniq, 2005). the qiniq network in nunuvut is a satellite and wireless broadband network. the network uses full mesh connectivity that supports voice and videoconferencing technologies. the network is based on dynamic bandwidth technology through which bandwidth is allocated as needed to optimize the performance of the network. transparent web caches and ip accelerators are used to maximize performance and reduce the impact of satellite latency. the wireless solution is based on non-line off-sight technology and is licensed for greater broadcast power. the nunavut broadband development corporation (nbdc) was formed as a non profit organization interested in establishing internet services in nunavut communities and consisted of nunavut government officials, inuit organizations, and private sector companies. it was able to secure funding from industry canada and indian and northern affairs canada. the initial funding enabled the nbdc to produce the business case for broadband in nunavut and was also used to develop infrastructure. the total cost to build the network was $9 million of which industry canada’s brand program contributed $3.4 million. in every nunavut community one local person received training to be able to install wireless modems, handle basic troubleshooting and involve people in the initiative. this person is called a community service provider (csp). involving local people was seen as one of the key factors in achieving success. as of 2007, one-quarter of all internet subscribers, approximately 3,600 people or 12% of the population in nunavut have subscribed and are using the qiniq network. ktunaxa nation network (british columbia) the ktunaxa nation broadband network is located in south eastern british columbia. the area covered is 17,871 square kilometres and includes 13,989 people, 8,602 dwellings, 182 businesses, five band locations, and 58 unincorporated communities (ktunaxa nation, 2005). the network was initially conceived as a means through which to disseminate the disappearing ktunaxa language, of which there are approximately 30 speakers left. ktunaxa successfully applied for funding with industry canada’s brand program, to the amount of $3.8 million. the ktunaxa nation network includes fibre to the user and 15 wireless towers that span the east kootenays. the backbone infrastructure that supports the network is owned by telus and has been provided for use to ktunaxa through an agreement with networkbc and the first nations technology council. the customer premise equipment needed to connect each home to the internet (the internet modem) was purchased from packetfront data and installed in every home as part of the infrastructure project. ktunaxa has recently been selected as a model community network for the fully integrated technological (fit) community program. it has also fully utilized the resources of the firstvoices initiative. in february of 2008, two of four planned community learning centres were opened in ktunaxa communities as a result of a partnership with the university of british columbia. (slonowski, 2008). urban aboriginal initiatives (winnipeg, manitoba) urban centres in canada are, for the most part, well equipped with connectivity infrastructure. urban connectivity hardware varies across canada and may include satellite, fibre, wireless and other technologies. in urban centres, access to the internet and computers can be seen as a function of income or the ability to purchase a computer, the necessary software, and a connection to the internet. in winnipeg, under the project name learningciti, wireless corridors have been created in several central locations to provide free wireless internet service in high traffic and sometimes low income areas. learningciti operates in conjunction with another program called the computer lending library, which is an educational digital information literacy program aimed to increase the technological skills of new immigrants, aboriginal people and others. the program “computers for schools” in winnipeg was initially created to provide computers to schools in winnipeg and technological training for young people. the program also assists in facilitating the recycling of computers and other computer equipment. the wiichiwakanak learning centre provides culturally relevant programs to aboriginals in winnipeg and has integrated the use of computers and technology into their programming. the centre has 20 computers, cree language courses, and a homework program. opportunities offered by ict to aboriginal communities better access to icts in aboriginal communities has the potential to enhance opportunities in a range of areas, many interrelated. the main ones are education, economic development, health, cultural continuity, governance, services, socializing and leisure. education increased connectivity opens the way to a variety of educational opportunities, both within formal and informal settings. high speed internet classrooms can offer different means for delivery of instruction. students can access online content that may assist them in their studies. northern communities have limited access to libraries. internet access can provide remote access to library materials. many aboriginal communities have difficulty attracting and retaining qualified teachers. videoconferencing allows teachers in higher grade levels to teach students while physically distant using a two-way broadcast. for example, science may be taught by a teacher from community a while being broadcast to communities b, c, and d, and math may be taught by a teacher from community b while being broadcast to communities a, c, and d. further, children who currently must leave their home community to attend high school could complete their schooling via on-line classes. also, adults can more readily complete high school education from home. continuing education and higher education is also facilitated with internet connectivity (walmark, o'donnell, & beaton, 2005). one example of the educational successes that have resulted from internet connectivity and various technological applications is the kewaytinook internet high school (kihs) which is connected through k-net. in the 2000/1 school year, when the kihs was introduced only 30 students were enrolled and the number of course credits granted were 53. in the 2003/4 school years, 141 students were enrolled and 269 course credits were granted. the courses provided are for secondary students in grades nine and ten as well as some adult education courses. providing courses for grade nine and ten students enables these children to remain home during critical years of maturation. the main differences between internet high school and the previously available distance education are the interactive component and the aspect of having a structured classroom environment and the supervision of a teacher resident from their community (fiser, clement, & walmark, 2005). the experimental projects currently being conducted by the broadband visual communication (bvc) and the communications research centre (crc), using high speed networks in schools in aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities in rural, urban and remote areas are particularly instructive of future capabilities. the experience of music grid, where music education was delivered to a remote northern quebec inuit community was particularly successful. this education included violin, piano, throat singing, and traditional drum dancing. success in student learning was noticeable, and the ict capabilities allowed for christmas concerts to be transmitted where relatives in different communities took part in it together. the opportunities for continuing education have improved due to online capabilities. for instance in nunavut communities there has been a steady increase by small business owners in pursuing training in business related topics through online courses. also, academic institutions can offer online and modular advanced education programs to staff working in social and health agencies in aboriginal communities. economic development there are a number of aboriginal business development barriers that ict can play a role in reducing. the barriers more amenable to be directly countered by ict are access to markets and access to skills. however, barriers to financing and capital may also be indirectly impacted by ict. in today’s business environment, access to broadband connectivity is an essential requirement to achieve some degree of a level playing field. the internet can open businesses to the global economy where original products, such as aboriginal arts and crafts, tourism opportunities, and virtually any other product or service can be viewed and purchased from afar. a good example is that of carvers in nunavut, that have a much better return on their products when they sell them through e-bay. tourism companies in nunavut are conducting almost 95% of their business online. in a reserve near cranbrook, bc, an 82 year old man was selling teepees online to new zealand, tasmania, japan, israel, etc. he also bought some of his materials, such as canvas and sewing machine parts, online. healing centres could more easily promote their activities and even conduct some activities online or by videoconferencing. business opportunities are not only related to tradition-based products and services. service industries such as call centres could be run from remote communities. contractors can more readily access calls for proposals and submit their proposals. access to high speed internet coupled with ict training has a profound effect on the way in which companies do business. ict in itself can become a business opportunity. the sole aboriginal-owned telecommunications company in canada, entel (operating in british columbia) is a prime example. other economic development initiatives such as golf courses, eco-tourism, resorts, wineries (as is the case of the osoyoos indian band in british columbia), are enhanced by good connectivity. training individuals from the community in ict serves to increase community capacity and job opportunities. putting infrastructure in place to address the different ict needs of for example band administration, schools, health centres, isps, etc., requires first level technical support, which is particularly suitable as job opportunities for young people with appropriate training. some initiatives such as telehealth have created jobs such as telehealth coordinator, project managers, and technicians. eventually, ict support and software development companies can emerge in aboriginal communities. health telehealth has been made possible by broadband connectivity. it links patients from remote and isolated communities with physicians and specialists located in urban centres. telehealth reduces the need for people to leave the community for regular doctor’s visits. it can significantly reduce costs for certain health services. for example, eliminating the need to fly one patient from an isolated community to an urban centre for a medical examination can save at least $7,000. a telehealth station is managed by a community telehealth coordinator (ctc). these positions are awarded to members of the community who are given specialized training in the operation and maintenance of the telehealth station. case studies have shown that the most successful way to implement ctc training is to employ an ict technician who can facilitate the operation of the telehealth station to perform the duties of the ctc in the community while a community member job shadows and gradually assumes responsibility for the daily operations of the station (fiser, clement, & walmark, 2005). “on-going professional development is key to the success of this application” (walmark, o'donnell, & beaton, 2005). employing community members in this initiative is also imperative and provides a greater sense of ownership of the program and the physical space which results in more successful outcomes when compared with other health programs operated by people from outside the community (walmark, o'donnell, & beaton, 2005). additionally, internet access enables the community to obtain heath information and the telehealth professionals can disseminate significant health information to interested members of the community. with increased connectivity there is more opportunity for dissemination and discussion at the community level of health research results, as well as active participation of communities in the research itself. further, increased connectivity can facilitate to some extent the exchange of knowledge on traditional healing practices. cultural continuity there are a variety of ways in which broadband connectivity can assist in the preservation of culture and language. for example, an online oji-cree dictionary has been developed. “the online dictionary provides one way to preserve and utilize this original language in all aspects of local education and service programs” (beaton, fiddler, & rowlandson, 2004). also, k-net, in northwestern ontario has created syllabic computer keyboards in which the layout is in oji-cree and cree in order to involve elders who do not speak english with computers and ict applications (fiser, clement, & walmark, 2005). one of the current concerns surrounding aboriginal culture is that native languages are being lost. technology offers one method of preserving traditional language and culture for future generations: digitally recording the traditional stories of elders. a prime example is first voices, a free web-based program that seeks to preserve aboriginal languages across the world. similar technology is being used to preserve precious artefacts, as the u’msta cultural centre in british columbia is doing with its mask collection, among other traditional items. the interactive features of online cultural studies enhance their educational impact, particularly among young people. certain impacts of ict are plausibly detrimental to cultural continuity. the effects of pop culture for example may increase its potential, particularly among youth. nonetheless, this is not a particularly new phenomenon and the main attitude among aboriginal leadership is that the tide is unavoidable and should consequently be dealt with by seizing it and transforming it into positive opportunities. governance another application of a broadband network is videoconferencing. the cost of bringing people together for meetings is sometimes prohibitively expensive. videoconferencing reduces the need to travel and allows people who want to participate to remain in their community while still taking part in conference discussions. this can be particularly useful for meetings involving leadership or representatives from different communities. aboriginal people living in urban settings that want to continue participating in matters of their communities can do so by videoconferencing assemblies, etc. some first nations communities are also considering the possibility of online voting. further, videoconferencing has international applications. for example, in 2005 a conference held in balmertown, ontario, that included researchers, graduate students, policy makers, and aboriginal leadership joined people at multiple sites across three time zones using videoconferencing (walmark, o'donnell, & beaton, 2005). other possibilities refer to collecting and mapping data particularly relevant to land claim and treaty negotiations. geographic information systems (gis) have been used to prove the historical connection to a certain territory. data of this type can also be used for better administration of resources of the land and sea (e.g., to help sustain and rebuild fisheries, for trap-lines, etc.). during negotiations, ict allows for more fluid communication by sharing drafts and documents or having online side-meetings in between formal meetings with government. services in communities with increased connectivity, services such as banking and shopping are now done online. for example out of the 25 nunavut communities there are only three with banks. consequently, online banking becomes a particularly relevant service. online shopping has the potential of reducing costs given the possibility of wider price options. community services can also be enhanced through online capabilities. illustrative of this is the ktunaxa nation in british columbia where 120 computers from all agencies in the community (school, social services, band administration, health centre, etc) are connected in one information system. this integration of the information from the different agencies has increased efficiencies and level of services. socializing and leisure many families, particularly in remote communities are using the internet to communicate with other family members in different parts of canada. family members that relocated to the cities are better able to keep in touch. with increased videoconferencing capacities this may prove to be a strong socializing tool. online chatting, “facebook”, “twitter”, homepages, blogs, etc., particularly among young people, are entering into widespread usage. the options for leisure activities dramatically increase. similar to anywhere else in the world there are multiple opportunities ranging from participation in group chat sites, games, news, different forms of entertainment, hobbies, etc. the impact on leisure is, however, often seen as a potential source of concern because it may increase isolation of an individual within a family or community, increase risk behaviours among youth, and addictive behaviours of different kinds. investments and conditions for successful community ict implementation: a social capital analysis if a “successful” implementation of ict in aboriginal communities means the development of sustainable ict capabilities that tangibly serve the well-being of the communities, from a social capital perspective, success would be understood as the sustainable implementation that strengthens the communities themselves. what follows briefly examines two related issues: the conditions that seem to facilitate the successful implementation of ict and the social capital investments that make its success more likely. one simple but pervasive issue is that of the cost of computers and of service. cost both at the investment and service level, and cost at the individual user level. the latter relates to the true possibilities of impoverished families to purchase home computers. for equitable ict implementation, the lack of access to computers by significant segments of populations may in fact play a negative impact on community social capital. if a community becomes more reliant on ict capabilities, those without adequate access may become increasingly marginalized from social and information networks, from possibilities of participation, and from opportunities such as ongoing education, etc. for aboriginals in urban settings, where ict infrastructure may be good, cost may be the most significant limitation to access. there are initiatives that can be implemented to address this issue, and they need to be taken into account in ict implementation plans. one example is an australian program “computers for schools and homes” which supplies refurbished computers. in canada there is a similar program called “computers for schools and libraries” but it is not for households. there are recent developments in hardware that may bring to full production low-cost computers geared to online capabilities (markoff, 2006; ap, 2007). a study assessing the digital divide of indigenous communities in australia (daly, 2005) describes the development of community online access centres as another way of bridging this divide. the other cost related issue is that of investment. private companies such as mts and shaw determine whether or not a business case exists to establish backbone infrastructure in an area. these companies see remote and sparsely populated communities as not worth their investment. consequently, governments’ involvement is absolutely necessary to ensure that infrastructure investment will take place. as an example, the 30 communities north of the 53rd parallel in manitoba were unable to provide private companies with the high population counts and an economic base to project potential profits. the province of manitoba working with these communities and with funding from both the manitoba canada infrastructure program and industry canada’s brand and nsi programs, together with matching funds of 50% from the communities, other funding organizations and private entities, enabled the very recent achievement of broadband connectivity. this very well exemplifies the socially invested resources aspect of social capital, particularly from a bridging and linking perspective. if communities are to risk their limited resources in ict infrastructure and services when they may be lacking in basic infrastructure such as housing, water, sewage, etc., they must clearly see it as a possibility for socioeconomic development. understandably, communities that have experienced expensive and unsuccessful earlier attempts to obtain connectivity are reluctant to undertake this again. the regaining of trust through, for instance the development of multi-sectorial icts where community leadership has the ultimate say is essential. bridging social capital, where there is learning from how other aboriginal communities have tackled ict implementation, is paramount. as an example, for some communities to jump from $20 per month dial-up to owning a pop (point of presence) and then building their own isp, would benefit significantly from learning how this was done by over 100 first nations,. another option is where bridging social capital organizations that look after the interests of a group of first nations (such as mko in manitoba) may act to achieve economies of scale. an example would be where the price of customer premise equipment (cpe) came down from $1200 to $800 a piece when sold to 30 communities. nonetheless, there are instances where very small and isolated communities may need to rely more on linking socially invested resources and where thus the solution is to share bandwidth with the rcmp office, the school, etc. another significant cost issue is the satellite expense for communities that cannot rely on fibre optics or microwave towers connections. for these cases linking infrastructure investments are also necessary. an alternative approach has been to make arrangements with private telecommunications companies together with some government involvement. understanding that it is unlikely that there will ever be a large economic base for numerous first nations communities in british columbia, the provincial government engineered a deal with telus where they now provide connectivity to 119 communities by supplying 10 megabit connections into those communities at a price of either, $150, $300, or $450 per month depending on population size. this creates a business case for connectivity and from there organizations such as the fntc are able to promote small grants to the communities for last mile solutions developed at the community level and run by volunteers or by local entrepreneurs. again, from a socially invested resources perspective, it is difficult to argue against understanding connectivity as a basic infrastructure issue for socio-economic development. an aspect of linking social capital refers to social investments at differing institutional levels. as roads are considered infrastructure at any level of government, broadband infrastructure is now a necessary condition for the successful implementation of ict in aboriginal communities. equity in infrastructure for connectivity matters more than ever. particularly from a bridging social capital point of view it matters that inequities are not increased across aboriginal communities or between aboriginal communities and others. granted, urban and rural or remote environments are quite different worlds, especially in how they relate to population density (smaller markets) and cost of extending ict accessibility (higher costs related to geography). nonetheless, as has traditionally been the case with postal services, basic social and economic participation requires public investment to serve areas that the market by itself will not cover. the role of the crtc in imposing certain regulations to counter these potential inequities is essential. a recently published united nations report on the information economy (2006) indicated that although the growth of broadband is largely due to competition and declining prices, it also depends on the available infrastructure. it further states that when there is a lack of economies of scale, “the incentive to expand broadband infrastructure outside urban areas is low. wireless technology and satellites can help circumvent the cost of infrastructure for sparsely populated, remote or rural areas. governments have an important role to play in improving access to broadband through infrastructure and policy.” another key prerequisite and social capital investment relates to capacity building and human resource development, particularly at the community level. from a linking perspective, when government departments such as industry canada, human resource development, indian affairs, and health canada, orchestrate cooperative efforts between departments, it maximizes the possibility of skill development needed for successful ict implementation at the community level. among the investments required for successful ict implementation is the training of community-based users that is up-to-date and ongoing. a recent study on aboriginal students and the digital divide (deane & sullivan, 2006) explored the role of non-formal learning in the inner-city of winnipeg. it concluded that aboriginal students tended to undervalue their general levels of skill and knowledge in information technology. it found that although many students did not have a computer at home, they had learned ict skills in non-formal situations more than they had in the classroom. this suggests the role of peer social capital, and emphasizes the need to also invest in non-formal settings to bridge the digital divide. other necessary approaches are ones such as the manitoba first nations schoolnet youth initiative funded by industry canada. in the past year this program gathered 25 youth from across manitoba in winnipeg for two weeks of intensive training in technical ict support, followed by 15 weeks of supervised work experience in the community. it has repeatedly been stated that it is of relatively little use to spend money on technical infrastructure without a parallel investment in building human capacity. this includes capacity building that may help communities better identify how ict can assist them in social, cultural and economic ways. many aboriginal communities already have individuals with the needed ict technical capacity. however, there is increased need for more trained people. individuals with technical skills that are able to fix the connexion with the satellite, to reboot the server, to service home connections, etc., are essential. although many are self-taught, investment in formal training programs at various levels is necessary. for instance technically certified individuals with at least 100 hours of class time, and anywhere from three to six months of supervised practice is a minimum needed by communities. this illustrates a required level of investment that many communities are still not able to achieve. for particular ict initiatives such as the music grid example, a necessary condition for its successful implementation is not simply the technical. in this case, capacity building around a new type of role (that of a pedagogical project organization manager) appears to be necessary. as yet, school boards do not offer this kind of training nor do job descriptions support teachers in this capacity. for example in nunavik there are 14 communities, seven of which now have videoconferencing capabilities in their schools, but only one of them has a pedagogical facilitator. this has severely limited classes using videoconferencing. for schools to successfully implement ict capabilities, new staff roles and training are required. another necessary investment is to provide some basic level of computer literacy to new users. particularly in remote communities, the proportion of users without any prior computer experience is high. training programs at this basic level can increase true accessibility for a wider segment of community members. community leadership’s role in the implementation of ict is associated with its success. for instance in first nations, chief and council have a role in enabling the basic infrastructure to be set up. they can also play a significant role in capacity building. developing an ict implementation plan can facilitate this education component and also ensure that the businesses and organizations within the first nation utilize the infrastructure. self-government is essential for successful ict development plans. a solid plan can prevent being taken advantage of by vendors and others. it has been stated that the community has to have control and ownership over this implementation. there have been many problems when the community feels that outside companies or organizations are telling them what to do. when community leadership achieves the organizational capacity to takes ownership of these types of initiatives, the most positive results are seen. community “buy-in” is essential for a successful implementation including as a tool for socio-economic development. elders’ opinions are important. many of the communities with successful implementations have had elders embracing this possibility while at the same time connecting it to the need to preserve traditional identity. ict appears to be most useful in communities that consider it not as a panacea, but as another tool that, under community guidance, can increase their capabilities. conferences of community service providers (csp) as the ones held in nunavut enabled local people to share their ideas of what types of services would provide the most benefit for their home community and what types of knowledge would be needed for them to perform their function as a csp. this type of resource investment both from a bonding and bridging perspective, essentially involving local people in initial discussions, was identified as a key factor in the programs success. bridging social capital opportunities is exemplified in what mko (a northern first nations organization of manitoba) did when it partnered with bcn to learn from them since they had been successful applicants to industry canada programs. mko also took the bridging approach of making its ict initiative a northern manitoba project, including non-first nations communities. this had benefits of economies of scale and made telecommunications upgrading less expensive. loss of trust by communities that had bad initial ict experiences (often being left with financial losses and failed systems) has increased their reticence at being involved in new ict initiatives. a slow process of rebuilding trust was essential for them in this area. learning from failed experiences is valuable. when fnihb first piloted telehealth in the early 1990’s in northern ontario, it was mainly piloted from a technological perspective. it did not take properly into consideration the perspective of health workers, professionals, and the community. health care workers were not appreciative of programs just dropping in technology without proper consultation or capacity building for this new health care tool. the lack of physician buy-in crippled the program. the communities were also suspicious that telehealth was a way of taking doctors and nurses out of the communities. again, linking social capital, in this case in the form of trust is essential. what have been called “community champions” play an essential role in the successful implementation of ict. whether they are health personnel or band leadership, etc., the fact that they provide presentations and demonstrations of leadership to community members, as well as conducting community consultations, appear to make a crucial difference in gaining trust and driving the initiatives. budget cuts from the federal government have apparently reduced support for some ict initiatives, consequently decreasing public investment opportunities. another linking social capital difficulty is that most government backed ict programs are short term. for these initiatives to prosper there has to be a notion of long term investment. relations of aboriginal communities with the private sector or corporations for the implementation of ict initiatives are also essential for success. finally, universities are players that can have an important role. discussion the case descriptions seemed to support the idea that higher levels of bonding, bridging and linking social capital facilitated the establishment of aboriginal connectivity networks. as evidenced by most of these cases, there has been (and is) a hard struggle to not only develop but to sustain the networks. however, they have to-date shown remarkable success in uptake, usage, membership, etc. community leadership, an aspect of bonding social capital, has been one of the key factors in their development. learning from, and sharing with, other initiatives (bridging) also has proven to be very valuable. access to government programs and relations with corporations were very important. nonetheless, these linking social capital aspects were (and are) somewhat unstable and present one of the potential barriers for sustainability. the examination of the ict initiatives suggested that although the what of connectivity mattering, it is the how of connectivity that seems to make the most difference in terms of community social capital. in other words, the “ownership of the means of production” (in our case the ownership of the networks) clearly relates to increased community social capital at the bonding, bridging and linking levels. k-net, ktunaxa, and qiniq showed aboriginal organizations taking control over the what and the how of ict by responding to the realities of the communities, and in the process strengthening them. ktunaxa was born from concern at the loss of the traditional language, qiniq emerged from the vision of a practical initiative to decrease the isolation of communities, and k-net started as a response to the need to maintain contact with the youth that were leaving the communities to further their education. these initiatives required strong internal (bonding) investments, well crafted bridging relations among the communities and other aboriginal organizations, and the use of the potential linking investments of government programs. among the latter, the sometimes positive, sometime contentious, linking relations with private and public corporations played an important role. aboriginal community networks were developed by local people to meet community needs, and in the process community capacity was created in the development of business plans and in their actual implementation. the use of technology by individuals and groups and the social learning that takes place in the adoption of a new technology appeared to create social capital. youth are generally the first to adopt new technologies and in turn teach their parents and elders computer and internet skills. time spent learning new skills and connecting with people to disseminate new skills may also create social capital. for instance, in nunavut when the qiniq network was first launched, csps in each community would offer to provide information about computers and the internet and how to use the technology and equipment. this created connections between people who (even in small communities) may not have known each other, or did not have a reason to connect prior to the introduction of qiniq. community networks have much at stake in developing active implementers of the technology, rather than passive consumers of connectivity. the development of connectivity infrastructure by private companies is essentially determined by their business cases. as well, the private company model assumes minimal community involvement and training. this type of network is planned in such a way that the maintenance personnel come into the community to perform maintenance or solve technical problems. however, it is costly to bring technicians to fly-in communities and generally this type of maintenance requires that the community pay for the transportation and accommodations of the technicians. high maintenance and infrastructure costs often result in a network that is non-operational. in many cases, the private company may own infrastructure not far from the community and promote the service while asking the community to pay for the last mile of connectivity. in numerous occasions aboriginal communities have been sold substandard equipment from a private company that cannot be maintained, which resulted in network connections not being utilized because of equipment failures. many private companies have proven to be “fly by night” and once the money is gone from the community the company does not return to ensure that its systems are operational. this decreases linking social capital as the communities become reluctant, as a consequence of negative experiences, to new attempts. government health care ict initiatives in aboriginal communities had limited success when communities and other stakeholders were not involved in their implementation. in the initial attempts to develop telehealth in the late 1990’s the equipment would be delivered into a community without consideration for training, maintenance and updating software. the equipment would often remain locked in a closet in the health unit or school as no one knew how to use it or even how to set up the equipment. there was limited interest from health professionals in urban hospitals, relevant training was not provided to community members for continued operation, and there was no proper training of health personnel in the community to coordinate its use. aboriginal community owned networks are run by community people who have an understanding of the values of community members and the issues that can be addressed via the use of technology. they are partially government subsidized. the main problem is that the subsidies are mostly project and short-term related, creating an unstable funding environment. qiniq was established by a non-profit organization, the nunavut broadband development corporation, and was based on a private but bandwidth subsidized model. in other words, internet service in nunavut is not tied to health canada or other anchor tenants and all 25 communities have residential connectivity readily available. k-net is based on a services model, which means connectivity is initially provided to anchor tenants such as the health unit, the administration or band office, and the school. anchor tenants require larger amounts of bandwidth and must pay a higher monthly amount which secures the business case for the network. this model does not initially provide residential broadband access but supplies communities with a model for the creation of a community owned network. both qiniq and k-net also have community access centres (caps) for the public use of computers and connectivity. the potential to develop urban aboriginal networks would be strong. however, even in urban environments, where basic connectivity infrastructure is well established, the issue of accessibility related to affordability could be addressed using wireless modalities through community initiatives. conclusion the paper addressed two questions: how can the implementation of ict be impacted by social capital investments? does the type of ict development matter in terms of social capital? although the paper did not discuss in detail “all” forms of ict2 most of what was examined is applicable to current or future developments. further, while the focus of the study was on aboriginal communities, some of its findings may also be applicable to rural and remote non-aboriginal communities. the paper suggests that how ict community networks are actually developed and implemented may establish a synergy of social capital as an advantageous pre-requisite for their success and the success itself has the effect of strengthening the community’s social capital. this implies that there is a need for the consideration of power relations among aboriginal communities and organizations, governments, and private and public corporations. legislation that favours large private or public ict corporations over community-based profit or non-profit entities, project-based funding sources that leave community networks at the mercy of government bureaucratic whims, public connectivity infrastructure investments insufficient for rural and remote areas, are all instances of power relations. in fact, these are particular aspects of broader issues of aboriginal self-governance. considerations of ict and aboriginal social capital that do not consider these power relations as central to the analysis are missing the point that strong social capital is not simply about social relations, but is essentially about agency and self-determination. consequently social capital investments and the type of ict network implementation matter. the above approach to understanding ict and social capital raised a number of issues that require ongoing debate, research, and policy formulation. further, the study has created a website that is meant to be both a forum for ongoing examination and debate of these issues, and a clearinghouse of resources for the use of aboriginal communities, aboriginal organizations, government, and researchers in relation to ict and social capital. the web link is the following: www.communityict.ca/. notes 1) although this definition was derived from an analysis that tested broad theoretical ideas against the specific ethnographic realities of first nations communities, we believe it is arguably relevant beyond the specific communities from which it arose. this current definition includes minor revisions concerning the post publication of papers reporting on the above mentioned study. 2) for instance new generations of user-friendly, handheld wireless devices that provide ‘always-on’ access to email, phone, real-time payments, and other multimedia services; onboard computers in motor vehicles; high-capacity broadband links that support web services and content-rich and interactive services for entertainment, 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(1998b). social theory, development policy, and poverty alleviation: a comparative-historical analysis of group-based banking in developing economies. doctor of philosophy sociology, brown university.   crisis, farming & community chris hagar graduate school of library and information science, university of illinois at urbana-champaign < hagar@uiuc.edu > caroline haythornthwaite graduate school of library and information science, university of illinois at urbana-champaign < haythorn@uiuc.edu >   abstract in 2001, the uk was hit by foot and mouth disease (fmd) precipitating one of the biggest crises ever to affect the uk farming system. the crisis unfolded as a series of information and communication problems, from government to farmers and from farmers to farmers, with consequences for action in a time of crisis, social support, and the maintenance of community. what happens to a farming community during such a crisis? when the countryside shuts down, and no one can enter or leave the farm, how can information be disseminated? as methods of dealing with the disease change rapidly, as happened in this crisis, how can information be delivered in a timely and coordinated manner? to explore these questions, data have been gathered from reports and writing about the crisis, and from interviews with cumbrian farmers. although we will address throughout the discussion the multiple information channels used by farmers, this paper focuses on the role of information and communication technologies (icts) during the crisis, notably a community networking initiative known as pentalk. we conclude with a look at the current role of pentalk in the farming community, and with discussion of how networks such as these can help during crises in which there are significant needs for information and communication management.   introduction in 2001, the uk was hit by foot and mouth disease (fmd), precipitating one of the biggest crises ever to affect the uk farming system. the epidemic cost over £8 billion, led to the slaughter of over 6 million animals, and devastated the livelihoods of thousands of farmers. the crisis unfolded as a series of information and communication problems, from government to farmers and from farmers to farmers, with consequences for action in a time of crisis, social support, and the maintenance of community. data from government and local sources, interviews with those who suffered through the crisis, and books written about the crisis, draw a picture of confusion, uncertainty, and isolation at the same time that masses of people and resources were brought to bear on the crisis. at the height of the outbreak, 7000 civil servants, 2000 veterinarians, and 2000 troops were active in assessing risk, disseminating information on prevention and cleanup policies, and slaughtering and disposing of animals. the logistical exercise facing the uk ministry of agriculture has been described as “bigger and more complex than the uk involvement in the gulf war” (hetherington, 2002). cumbria, in the north west of england and home of the lake district national park, was hardest hit, and is the focal region for this paper. cumbrians suffered 893 outbreaks, the most of any region (next hardest hit was northumbria with 190 cases), and were affected for the second longest period of time, from 28th february 2001 to a final determination of no more cases 214 days later on 30th september 2001 (the longest time taken to eradicate the disease was recorded in northumbria by the newcastle disease control centre with 218 days). in addition to animal slaughter at the infected farms, a further 1934 farms were subjected to complete or partial animal slaughter as part of the overall disease control and eradication measures (cumbria foot and mouth inquiry, 2002). the cull in cumbria was estimated to be around one million animals, 44% of the uk national total. what happens to a farming community during such a crisis? how can they pull together when measures to prevent the spread of disease restrict movement about the countryside? farmers were confined to their farms, isolated from contact with others, often unable to leave the household for several weeks. rules established by the ministry of agriculture, fisheries and food (maff, later renamed as department of environment, food & rural affairs, defra) show the kind of “lockdown” required of any farmer who suspected the disease in their stock: lock your farm gates and put a ‘keep out sign’ at the farm entrance do not allow persons to leave or enter your farm do not move any stock, crops or anything else off the premises isolate all animals ensure that any goods delivered are delivered at the farm gates ensure suspect animals are not moved on or across a public road if you are a milk producer you should prevent the collection of your milk from your farm, by placing a ‘do not collect’ notice on your farm-gate. (maff, 2001) not only were farmers locked down; the whole countryside was closed to visitors: livestock markets were shut down, community and sporting events cancelled, walking trails and footpaths closed, and access to the countryside denied (harvey, 2001). travelers in and out of affected areas crossed disinfectant baths for feet and car tires. but, if the countryside is locked down, and no one can enter or leave the farm, how can information be disseminated? how can a farmer learn that the farm next door has just ‘gone down’ (a term used by the farmers)? as methods of dealing with the disease change rapidly, as happened in this crisis, how can information be delivered in a timely and coordinated manner? television, telephone, radio, and the internet each come to mind as immediate ways of communicating, yet which is the authoritative voice? which is to be trusted? which can actually reach farmers whose days are spent outside the house, on the land, tending to their animals? moreover, how do these sources, along with farmers’ needs for information and communication, support the community at a time when geographical place acquires extraordinary relevance, yet conditions prevent face-to-face social interaction around concerns for this place? to explore these questions, data have been gathered from reports and writings about the crisis, interviews with cumbrian farmers, local media representatives, and the director and coordinators of a community networking initiative known as pentalk. although we will address throughout this article the multiple information channels used by farmers, this paper focuses on the role of information and communication technologies (icts) and the pentalk network during the crisis. the pentalk network (www.pentalk.org) – named for penrith, a town situated in the eden valley in cumbria – was set up during the crisis as a rapid response scheme to assist farmers and their families in the north west of england. to date, pentalk has won the north west regional award for e-commerce in 2002 and again in 2003, and the cumbrian newspapers countryside award for best contribution to rural technology. pentalk is a registered charity which draws its financial support from local and national government, and educational, business and charitable sources, under the leadership of ann risman. our initial discourse provides further background on the fmd crisis, its impact, and governments’ initiatives in responding to it. we discuss how these efforts were received by cumbrian farmers, the information and communication needs they encountered, and how this affected their relation with their community. then we present the role of pentalk as a support for farmers and the farming community during the fmd crisis. we conclude with a look at the current role of pentalk in the farming community, and how such networks can help communities during crises involving major information and communication management issues. data sources data for this paper come from a number of publicly available resources, as well as interviews with farmers (see below). the published sources include: reports from independent inquiries: notably a report from the cumbria foot and mouth inquiry (2002), a proceeding which was also transmitted in its entirety by bbc radio cumbria (www.bbc.co.uk/cumbria); and a report from the european parliament temporary committee on foot and mouth disease (2002). the warmwell independent website (www.warmwell.com) set up at the beginning of the crisis which provides an archive of articles, reports, parliamentary proceedings and commentaries from individuals writings about the crisis, notably caz graham’s (2002) edited volume foot and mouth: heart and soul, a collection of personal accounts about experiences in cumbria during the foot and mouth outbreak personal diaries and accounts as reported in local newspapers such as the cumberland and westmorland herald (www.cwherald.com); the cumberland news (www.cumberalnd-news.co.uk), and national newspapers such as the guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk), and the independent (http://www.independent.co.uk) recordings of local radio reports, such as the bbc radio cumbria nightline phone-in program broadcast during the crisis. these reports are supplemented by interviews conducted in 2003-2004 with 16 cumbrian farmers from 11 households, the pentalk director, two farmers who acted as pentalk coordinators during the time of the crisis, one landowner, and three local radio representatives. farmers were selected for interview by snowball sampling. the two pentalk coordinators, one from the penrith area, one from the brampton area (in the north of cumbria) were used as starting points and asked to suggest the names of farmers to contact. names of farmers suggested included both members and non-members of pentalk. these farmers suggested the names of other farmers who they thought would be willing to be interviewed. given the sensitivities of the topic, some of these farmers declined to be interviewed, not wishing to re-live the crisis by participating in an interview. semi-structured interviews were held with the farmers and landowners, focusing on their information needs during the crisis, the use of media and icts to receive such information, and discovering the kinds of available informational, emotional and other distributable support. farmers were asked whether the information they received was timely, accurate, and/or consistent, and how their needs changed over the course of the crisis. they were also asked where they got their information and how pentalk supported them during the crisis. where permitted, interviews were taped and subsequently transcribed, in the other instances notes were taken during the interview. some interviews took place on the farms where it was also possible to observe the households and to understand the physical layout. other interviews were carried out by telephone.  the pentalk coordinators were asked about their role during the crisis and the types of interaction and support they provided. local radio representatives were asked about the information services provided to farmers, including the role of phone-in programs, and their activities in providing support to the farming community. occasionally, it was necessary to go back to the interviewees with follow-up questions or to verify details. follow-ups were done by email and phone and the two pentalk coordinators were re-visited.   data were analyzed with close reading and themes were identified upon which to base coding. memo-ing was done by code notes, theoretical notes and operational notes (strauss and corbin, 1998), and relationships were identified between themes using concept mapping. data source triangulation compared interview data with data from the publicly available resources cited above (fielding and fielding, 1986). the foot and mouth disease crisis fmd is a highly infectious viral disease in which fever is followed by the development of vesicles or blisters, chiefly in the mouth or on the feet. it is probably the most infectious disease that can affect livestock, including all cloven-hoofed animals such as domesticated sheep, cattle, goats, and pigs, and wild animals such as deer. fmd can be spread by direct contact with infected animals; contact with animals, people, vehicles, and other objects that have been contaminated by the virus; or by airborne spoors. the prevailing meteorological conditions, local topography, and local animal movements affect the distance the disease can travel and this may be considerable (defra, 2005). cumbria is the first example in the world of a large fmd epidemic occurring in a highly diversified rural area, where agriculture and tourism are each major components of the economy (cumbria foot and mouth inquiry, 2002). as green (2002), a representative of the heart of cumbria (www.heartofcumbria.com) noted: “many businesses were wrecked, both in tourism and agriculture, people's lives destroyed… rural communities torn apart… the loss of hundreds of years of breeding, some of the finest stock resources in the world, resulted in, without doubt, the worst tragedy to visit cumbria this century (online, nd). in the 2001 crisis, attempts to contain the disease and its spread entailed: the slaughter of infected animals; quarantine of any people, vehicles, or animals in contact with diseased animals; monitored or prohibited animal movement; and reduced or prohibited movement into, within, and out of the region. as a result, farmers in cumbria and other affected regions were confined to their farms, isolated from contact with others, often unable to leave the household for several weeks. one farmer interviewed did not leave his farm for 10 weeks. recent research published in the journal occupational and environmental medicine described the “misery and despair” farmers were experiencing due to the uk's “agricultural crisis” (thomas, et al., 2003). isolated farmers witnessed the death of many uninfected animals and had to deal with financial hardship and the uncertainty of the future. when a contiguous culling policy was introduced by the government from march 15th, uninfected sheep in 3km protection zones had to be slaughtered. the cumbria foot and mouth inquiry (2002) reported that “there was considerable evidence of the impact of the fmd outbreak on community life in rural cumbria and on aspects of emotional, social and mental health” (p.11). farmers, living in remote areas and often solitary in nature, suffered ‘isolation within isolation.’ social life came to a halt as members of the farming and non-farming community voluntarily restricted their own travel to limit the chances of being accidental carriers of the disease. farmers interviewed described how life came to a standstill, with people unable to meet at the local auction marts, unable to meet at the pub, and unable to attend farmers’ weekly discussion groups. many were and remain deeply critical of the way the disease was handled and question the need to slaughter so many animals. a cross-party report from the european parliament stated that the government's handling of the crisis traumatized farmers, broke animal welfare laws, and generated miles of unnecessary red tape, and that burning pyres and mass burial sites damaged the environment and people's health (european parliament, 2002; osborn, 2002). interviewees recalled grandparents dealing with the disease by just isolating a single infected animal, which recovered on its own. they questioned why vaccination was not used as an option, and government motivation for wanting to say the area was ‘clear’ of fmd. at the same time, they acknowledged the much larger scale of this outbreak than the 1967 fmd outbreak, and their dependence on government to choose and implement a wide-scale plan. difficulties in responding to the crisis came from many directions. the epidemic broke out just when the ministry of agriculture (maff) was being restructured into the department of environment, food & rural affairs (defra), making it more difficult to combat the epidemic in a coordinated manner. the nature and scale of the epidemic was unprecedented and disease control measures were complex. policies and strategies were continually adjusted to deal with the emerging situation, with resulting continual change in legal requirements for compliance with disease control and implementation of disease prevention measures. many agencies – local, national, government and non-government – were involved in responding to the crisis. farmers needed information from central authorities on many aspects of the disease: how to diagnose the disease, how to prevent infection, what to do if infection was suspected, how to comply with disease abatement policies, and who would come to their farms to carry out livestock culls and disposal of animal carcasses. because local conditions were paramount in knowing the risk to one’s livestock, farmers needed to know whose farms had been infected, what animals were involved, and how they were to receive permission to move livestock (e.g., to feed in different pastures). the government responded by delivering information in a number of ways. guidance leaflets were delivered through the mail on how to identify and respond to the disease. veterinarians, from other parts of the country and from overseas, were brought into the area to assess and deal with diseased animals. defra inspectors checked farms for compliance with disease prevention rules. farmers called the defra offices for information on, for example, the complex licensing procedures. however, each of these methods was fraught with problems, particularly in the lack of timely delivery of information. communication – lack of it, inaccuracies in it, confusion – was a recurring theme throughout the cumbria foot and mouth inquiry hearings. evidence from the report stated, maff regional offices and local government frequently received information informally via local stakeholders, before they received it officially. sometimes when regulatory changes were made, local officials were not given enough warning. this caused confusion among farmers and others seeking information (cumbria foot and mouth inquiry, 2002, p. 143) interviewees reported that by the time information had arrived in the mail, not only had they already heard about these measures from other farmers (usually by phone), but the measures outlined had often been overridden by newer ones. a key problem was that personnel handling the crisis (veterinarians, inspectors, etc.) could not be reached while in the field, and thus could not be centrally coordinated.[1] (although cell phones were issued late in the crisis, reception is not possible in all areas and they offered only a partial solution) farmers reported spending all day on the phone with defra and other government offices trying to get details on what to do. not only were details not forthcoming, but the hours of operation, and the personnel they reached were not useful to farmers. as one interviewee reported: there was a maff hotline. everyone was on the phone at the time trying to get through to these people. to our astonishment they didn’t actually open the office until 9.00 every morning. well most farming folk are up at 6.00, if not earlier. they wanted the place running 24 hours a day instead of 9-5. the little girl behind the desk really didn’t know the answers. poor maff, from their point of view they were terribly understaffed and they didn’t have the facilities to deal with a crisis like this because the whole thing had taken off so quickly. my husband spent most of his day on the phone or the computer but mostly on the telephone. just hanging in there until somebody answered [landowner of infected farm]. the internet seems a logical choice as a way to disseminate information broadly and synchronously to all parties, and one of the government responses was to make information about the disease available on the defra website.[2] yet even here, information was often not of use. farmers told the cumbria foot and mouth inquiry (2002): “when the website was obviously out-of-date or inaccurate, they rang the helpline but got no better information. staff on the helpline drew their information from the website. so, if the website was out-of-date, so was the helpline” (p.144). moreover, the move to place information online was made with little understanding of the daily lives and technological readiness of the many farmers living with the crisis. while official statistics are not assessable for the number of farmers possessing computers in 2001, ann risman (personal communication) of pentalk estimates that, at the time, only 25 % of cumbrian farmers had access to a computer. thus, in placing great emphasis on communication through websites, government departments failed to communicate with a large part of the target audience in the farming community. moreover, the personal nature of the crisis – as it affected farmers both economically and psychologically – meant that there was a greater need for this community to discuss the situation and interpret delivered information and procedures. in the face of often inconsistent and contradictory information from government sources, farmers needed to be able to discuss what was happening and what strategies to pursue in dealing with the crisis. most farmers gained their information from other farmers – many interviewees reported spending the day either on the phone with defra or doing farm work, and the evening talking by phone with other farmers. as farmers struggled to interpret information from government sources, they turned to local sources of information, such as the local bbc (publicly funded) radio. soon after the crisis began, bbc radio cumbria became an important source of information, often farmer led. during the peak of the crisis, a five-minute foot and mouth bulletin was broadcast seven times a day. this local radio station would regularly receive information from local people as to whose farm had been infected; however, this information could only be broadcast when the case had been confirmed by defra. a two-hour nightly phone-in, specifically on fmd, had more callers than it could cope with and was used as a mechanism for information exchange between farmers. many farmers, in their isolation, spent time calling neighbors and listening to the radio news bulletins around the clock. it was this dire communication need that triggered the formation of the pentalk network. it was clear that farmers needed to become computer literate very rapidly and that, often, they could not afford to buy a computer. they needed to be provided with one and they needed to be taught to use it speedily, in a way that provided them with functional skills. the pentalk network the pentalk network was a local response to this national agricultural crisis. it is a grassroots organization that was set up to provide free computers and information technology (it) training (particularly email and the internet) for farmers and their families at the height of the fmd crisis. then, and now, pentalk supplies computers to farmers free of charge for six months, after which they can buy them at a reasonable price or return them at no charge. initial funding for the scheme came from a start-up grant of £50,000 from the uk learning and skills council, which was matched by the rural development programme. further funding came from the department for education and skills (dfes). one of the initial aims of pentalk was to provide farmers with access to the internet, so that they could get news and information required to deal with the crisis. another aim was to help reduce the isolation of farmers by giving them access to email to enable them to contact family and friends living in other parts of the country and the world. pentalk also aimed to provide a skills boost to ensure that farmers became proficient in computer use, enabling them to cope with the growing demands of government for online work and to benefit their farm businesses. without any initial publicity or marketing, approximately 500 members of farming families received computers and training during 2001. the driving force of pentalk has been its director ann risman, a former principal of an adult education college. as she has remarked, “in the extremes of life, education can be relevant, a comfort and an inspiration” (personal communication). even before foot and mouth struck, risman had been talking to training providers about educating farmers of the necessity of learning it skills. pentalk was the right initiative at the right time. “word spread like wildfire. they always knew they were going to have to do it, not just because government wants it, but because the paperwork was getting so horrendous” (ann risman, personal communication). pentalk & the fmd crisis during the fmd crisis, the pentalk network served to connect farmers across cumbria, not only providing a forum for social interaction, but also providing links via their web pages to websites, where farmers could access news and information available from government and other sources on the spread of the disease. pentalk enabled connectivity with similarly affected cumbrian farmers, as well as farmers in new zealand and zimbabwe. provision of both information and communication offered a focal point for farmers who could then discuss the regulations with others similarly interested and affected. as such, it made available support for community – the geographical community of pentalk, but also the community of fmd sufferers. ongoing debate about the place of community in an increasingly online world, and of online community in relation to geographical place, rarely encounters the conditions associated with this crisis. at a time when online communication served an essential role, concerns were very much rooted in local geography. place, rather than (cyber) space, carried extraordinary and pressing significance. yet, it was often cyberspace that provided the means to deal with local uncertainty, often through contacts remote but similar – farming communities around the globe. there is equivalence among these farmers in what they deal with locally. hence, they are not strangers to the conditions of fmd – as the visiting veterinarians often were, and as government employees were – instead, they have the local knowledge necessary to validate and bolster the online community. they are in this sense a community of practice (brown and duguid, 1991; davenport and hall, 2002; wenger, 1998), yet one in which each set of constituents is bound to their geographic community. the following sections explore further the notions of community and its support through pentalk that emerged during the crisis, as revealed in interviews and other materials. impact on community the fmd crisis presented a serious threat to the farming community, putting many into idleness in their occupation, threatening livelihoods on farms that in many cases had been held in the  family for generations. in fact, many farmers took the opportunity of the crisis to move out of farming, sometimes leaving the business altogether, sometimes passing on the farm to the next generation. prior to fmd, government initiatives already encouraged diversification in farm incomes, creating change in farm operations and household members’ occupations. the crisis reinforced and hastened this change, making farming families look beyond their own farms and regions for income sources and markets for their goods. yet, the fmd crisis also focused attention on the local community, reinforcing for many their interest and commitment to cumbria and to their farming way of life. the outcome of this pull in two directions can be seen in an increased need to receive information and social support from others within the community, but also from outside. as a transformative event, the fmd crisis precipitated a number of changes to the cumbrian farming community, notably around the use of computers and the internet. local communities: place and space sproull and kiesler (1991) wrote of communities brought together by interest rather than geographical co-location (see also wellman, 1979; wellman and gulia, 1999). more recently, wellman (2001) writes that the rise of the internet has resulted in a shift from “place-to-place” communities, in which socialization occurs among families, and specialized communities. the fmd crisis certainly created this kind of placelessness, as well as a new place in cyberspace, necessitated as physical meetings became impossible while human contact became essential, and sustainable via the internet as well as through heavy use of the telephone. the farming community is naturally geographically dispersed but at the same time has strong local ties. normal ways of meeting include talking with others while out in the fields, or when driving along local roads. farmers also meet at livestock auctions, local markets and in town. with the restriction on movement imposed by the fmd outbreak, these kinds of meetings ceased. auction sites closed down, cutting farmers off from interaction with other farmers and with their auction contacts.  for those without internet access, the telephone became the lifeline. it was the only way to contact people off the farm, which often also included extended family on other farms and children who were moved off the farm so they could continue to attend school, and also be shielded from the sight of animal slaughter. for others, pentalk became the lifeline, giving them contact with others in cumbria, as well as veterinarians and farmers around the world. one cumbrian farmer interviewed by wall reported:  “it was very hard being stuck on the farm, not being able to speak to anybody. it was soul destroying. i felt completely powerless. the internet saved us. if i hadn’t had the computer, i might have done myself harm. other farmers i know have said the same. it was a blessing.” (wall, 2002, p. 51) yet this move into cyberspace was all happening against the background of a very real and immediate attachment to place. the crisis created a paradoxical attachment to place: it increased attachment to place as the impacts of the disease targeted the farmers’ local, physical region, one that many had farmed as families for generations; yet it created a detachment from place as farmers were cut off from contact with other farms, family, local towns, schools, grocery stores, group meetings at churches or clubs such as the women’s institute or the young farmers association, and routine work-related meeting places such as the country lane and livestock markets. fmd created a strengthened identification with physical place while at the same time it denied access to that place. as a result of the crisis new spaces of interaction developed, along with a new sense of community (bennett, et al., 2002; wall, 2002). pentalk created a virtual space where farmers formed a ‘new’ community during the crisis, creating new connections at a local level. the internet became a safety net for the farmers who came together online, particularly for those restricted to their farms (wall, 2002). not only did new spaces emerge for social interaction but also new places were established, e.g., the pentalk coordinators, when they could, met face-to-face to discuss the development of the network, thereby providing a new dimension to the increasingly restricted movement of the offline community. the offline and online communities were separate but also integrated (haythornthwaite and hagar, 2005), each supporting the other. global communities along with specialized communities, people also belong to multiple communities: of work, family, interest, practice, etc., some enacted locally, but also globally. internet connections made it possible for cumbrian farmers to create and maintain global communities. pentalk enabled the farmers to extend their work community internationally. again, paradoxically, the need for international contact was driven by geographically local conditions. during fmd, farmers explored international farming websites to see how the disease had been dealt with in other countries. through pentalk chat sites, cumbrian farmers were able to talk with two new zealand farmers who knew cumbria because of previously hosting an international agricultural exchange association student. this connection provided moral support to the farmers and also helped their overall well being. one of the pentalk coordinators said that “the contribution the [new zealand farmers] had made had been immense, giving farmers something else to think about besides their troubles, and offering practical farming advice that many british farmers had found extremely useful.” this communication grew into a monthly newsletter in which the farmers detailed the work they were doing on their farm. this globalization is a kind of network effect for which communication plays an important role (bucher, 2002). new actors, new roles farming is typically a family business, one that involves both husband and wife, and may also involve grown children. the outside work of farming in cumbria is largely a male occupation (bennett, 2003); typically it is the man who works outside the house on the farm, with the woman farmer taking care of accounts and often running another business out of the farm such as a bed and breakfast service. thus, before fmd, it was typically the woman who completed the paper work and the computer-related tasks (if a computer was used). as one interviewee reported, farmers in cumbria like their routine, one that has been handed down from generation to generation: work begins outside the home at six in the morning, with return to the home at predictable times during the day, but with most work taking the male farmer out of the house all day. adherence to routine, the accepted division of labor, and the outside work meant that many men had not been willing to learn new technologies. computing did not fit with either the demands or routines of their work. however, the need for news, information and communication during the fmd crisis, combined in so many cases with forced idleness due to the culling of their livestock, brought about a change in attitude. learning new skills became a positive thing to do in the midst of their isolation and lack of work. use during the crisis also laid the groundwork for continued use of computers by the male farmer and in the farming household. as women have become more involved in different kinds of activities, following government initiatives to diversify farm incomes and often going off the farm to work at other jobs, men are increasingly expected to take on computer-based activities related to farming.  moreover, there is an increased need for use of computers as part of farming. government procedures that require meticulous tracking of new animals and animal movement are becoming increasingly difficult to manage via traditional paper-based methods. completion of forms and receipt of registrations and permission are easier and faster when completed online. thus, there are changes that make it more necessary to have computers in use on the farm, which have changed the centrality of the computer to farming businesses. continuing role of pentalk although established to provide certain tools and skills during the fmd crisis, pentalk continues to serve an important and growing role in the community. membership now stands at approximately 2000, including farmers and members of the farming household.  pentalk continues in its mission to provide computers and training for farmers to equip them to meet the many new and emerging requirements for online use and submission of government data. defra aimed to deliver all of its services electronically by 2004 and pentalk’s efforts were directed to ensuring that farmers had the computing skills necessary to cope with contemporary farm management in the uk. pentalk runs training courses on basic computer usage as well as specific use of new online reporting mechanisms, such as the e-iacs application (integrated, administration and control system, https://eiacs.defra.gov.uk) a web-based submission process for farmers in england to claim european union farming subsidies.  in co-operation with the farmers, a training curriculum has been developed which closely matches farmers’ needs, including courses on management of farming accounts, web design for farm website creation, production of promotional materials (e.g., how to make labels for home produce), use of livestock monitoring systems, and digital photography. recently pentalk launched an it handbook for cumbrian farmers, designed to assist its members with ongoing computer training. each farmer's progress is registered, either as a series of short, unaccredited courses or as foundation certificates. this tracking gives pentalk a record of the development of individual farmers’ it skills, thereby, providing a picture of farming it skills throughout the county. the pentalk network continues to meet a significant need for new, isolated learners in a rural area and works closely with dfes and defra to meet occupation-related needs and future changes. this is managed in consultation with farming agencies such as the national farmer’s union (nfu), the federation of young farmers clubs, agribusiness companies, and auction marts who advise pentalk representatives and work closely with them. fourteen farmers now act as pentalk coordinators. they represent different geographic areas of cumbria, and can look after more than 100 farmers each, supervising computer installations, offering mentoring, and arranging training. coordinators also manage lists of members, update website information, advocate the use of pentalk features, and give local assistance in the use of the network. the network continues to act as an important source for local and national news and information, including hourly news updates from the farmers weekly team, the local bbc, as well as new information from defra. as e-commerce becomes a viable alternative to local markets, a pentalk market place has been established as a web-based place where farmers can buy and sell stock, feedstuffs and machinery. the marts section includes the latest sale reports from all the major auction companies around the county, mostly posted on the actual sale day. in this way pentalk is keeping farmers up to date and is itself keeping up to date with online marketing trends. in a new community initiative, farm watch online, pentalk is working with the cumbrian constabulary to reduce rural crime. this scheme is offered as a service to the cumbrian farming community and aims, by using the website and email network system set up by pentalk to help prevent thefts from farms of machinery, livestock, trailers, quad bikes, power tools and other items. graham sunderland, assistant chief constable of cumbria reported (2004): “people feel safer when they are provided with accurate and timely information and by working with pentalk we will be able to build a trusting relationship with the farming community. it is a superb opportunity to work in partnership and prevent criminality.” pentalk has evolved into a resource used not just by farmers and their families but also by other members of the regional community and other farmers from as far away as new zealand, zimbabwe and the falkland islands. it has helped farmers to diversify, providing them with the skills and training to do other jobs, e.g., to develop farm websites and sell farm produce. conclusion the significance of a crisis lies in the fact that it may produce a new fundamental outlook; it can be both a danger and an opportunity. crises can create imbalanced, disorganized chaos or serve as a catalyst for new and positive developments such as the pentalk community network described here. this is a particularly interesting case study because the pentalk network has been cited as one of the few positive initiatives to have  emerged from what has been described as one of the worst years in history for the rural community and the biggest agricultural crisis to hit the uk. pentalk helped contribute to the survival of farming in cumbria during the crisis. the case gives valuable insight into how a local community responded to a major national crisis, serving a population for whom work and home were in the same place. while further research is needed on the role of icts and the internet during crises, this case shows that the network serves as more than just an information dissemination mechanism. the pentalk network acted as an important resource and site for interpersonal contact, information dissemination, and information discussion, each of which were particularly important during the crisis. also important was the reach of the internet as a source and mode of immediate, global communication at this critical time. the internet holds promise for use in all aspects of crisis management, as a communication system, information repository, strategic tool and populist medium for news, commentary, and action (putman, 2002). pentalk serves as an example for community leaders and administrators of a successful innovation and also a sustainable one. the success may be attributable to the focus on the specific needs of the farming community, first by reacting in response to a crisis, and second by continuing to help in ways that directly address community needs. keeping the scheme purely for farmers and aiming it at providing basic skills has contributed to its success. current training that addresses new government demands for online reporting, and a continued focus on farm needs and farm activity, have continued to encourage farmers to become involved. also important has been the way work has moved from a central organizer to local coordinators, people embedded in the farming community, and conversant with its needs and members. this provides pentalk with a base of engaged participants who are close to local needs, and again are responsive to contemporary informational and technology developments. there is a degree of skepticism about how real some community networking projects are. the major challenge confronting local community technology installations worldwide is how they can be sustainable in the longer term (gurstein, 2001). pentalk, which emerged from a crisis, has become sustainable. when the crisis came to an end, not only did the network carry on but it rapidly spread to the whole of cumbria. the attention paid to the social, cultural and organizational contexts in which the network was developed and used have contributed to this success. discussions are currently underway as to how similar schemes could be set up in other parts of the uk. if networks similar to pentalk can be replicated in other areas, then the farming community would be in a much better position to deal with a future animal disease crisis, should one occur again.   acknowledgements we would like to thank ann risman, director of pentalk and steve pattinson, pentalk’s web-master, and also all of pentalk farming members for sharing their experiences of this horrific crisis.   notes [1] when the army was brought in to help with the crisis, coordination and communication among the different agencies and players involved greatly improved. [2] this crisis unfolded against a backdrop of continuing government use of the internet for dissemination of all types of information, as well as a move to farming document processing online: for example, via the cattle tracing system (cts) website (http://www.bcms.gov.uk) farmers can report cattle movements, check the movement history of an individual animal, record the death of an unregistered animal, check the list of all the cattle on their holdings, download information on their cattle for use in their farm management programme, and register new calves. for more on “e-farming,” see: department of environment, food & rural affairs, 2003; ministry of agriculture, fisheries and food, 2000; and warren, 2000.   references bennett, katy, carroll, t., lowe, p., & phillipson, j. (2002). coping with crisis in cumbria: the consequences of foot-and-mouth disease. newcastle upon tyne: centre for rural economy research report, university of newcastle upon tyne. bennett, katy. 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(1998). communities of practice : learning, meaning, and identity. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press.     tic y educación el rol de las tecnologías de información y comunicación en la educación: experiencia del programa escolar de monitoreo ambiental de la subcuenca del cotahuasi luis cáceres merma telecentro_cot@aedes.com.pe www.aedes.com.pe resumen el artículo describe la experiencia de la implementación del programa de monitoreo ambiental, sus logros y limitaciones, las lecciones aprendidas y los retos. se centra en el proceso asumiendo el uso de las tic como parte de este y por lo tanto, entendiéndolas como un medio y no un fin dentro del proceso educativo, en este caso particular, orientado al fortalecimiento de la relación escuela-comunidad como parte de una estrategia de desarrollo local sostenible dentro de un espacio representativo de alta montaña como la subcuenca del cotahuasi. introduccion la subcuenca del cotahuasi fue reconocida como un área natural protegida (anp) en la categoría de reserva paisajística en mayo del 2005, con la finalidad de conservar sus valores naturales, culturales y de biodiversidad en relación armoniosa con las actividades de la población local. este reconocimiento significa para la población de la subcuenca, la oportunidad de continuar con los bionegocios que han logrado implementar aprovechando sosteniblemente los recursos naturales y la biodiversidad, para no sólo lograr una relación armoniosa hombre naturaleza, sino también, el mejoramiento de sus condiciones de vida. desde 1996 la población organizada liderada por sus autoridades locales, ha impulsando el proceso de desarrollo local sostenible de la subcuenca de manera planificada y concertada, el cual se orienta al aprovechamiento sostenible de las potencialidades existentes realizando una gestión integral e integrada de los ecosistemas. el proceso se orienta implementando agendas 21 locales a escalas distritales y provincial, las cuales dan viabilidad a los postulados de la cumbre de la tierra llevada a cabo en 1993 en río de janeiro – brasil, constituyéndose en instrumentos de planificación del desarrollo local en una de las zonas consideradas como de mayor pobreza a nivel nacional. la operación de la subcuenca como un anp, requiere de la implementación de acciones orientadas a reforzar la sensibilización de la población para la conservación y uso sostenible de los recursos naturales y la biodiversidad a través de una gestión participativa, integral y sostenible de ellos. estas se están implementando dentro del sistema educativo, tanto en el nivel formal como en el informal, comprendiendo a la comunidad educativa, a los grupos de base y a las autoridades locales. el presente artículo relata parte de las acciones que se implementan en el nivel formal, a través de la operación del programa de monitoreo ambiental, el cual basado en la investigación y estudio del estado de los recursos naturales y la biodiversidad, busca disminuir la brecha existente entre la comunidad y la escuela incorporando los elementos de la realidad local a los aprendizajes recibidos en el aula. dentro de sus componentes incorpora el uso de las tecnologías de información y comunicación (tic) con la finalidad de promover el intercambio y difusión de conocimientos referidos a las condiciones ambientales; y, la recuperación del conocimiento local a través del desarrollo de contenidos fortaleciendo la autoestima y la identidad cultural en la comunidad educativa. la artículo describe la experiencia de la implementación del programa de monitoreo ambiental, sus logros y limitaciones, las lecciones aprendidas y los retos. se centra en el proceso asumiendo el uso de las tic como parte de este y por lo tanto, entendiéndolas como un medio y no un fin dentro del proceso educativo, en este caso particular, orientado al fortalecimiento de la relación escuela-comunidad como parte de una estrategia de desarrollo local sostenible dentro de un espacio representativo de alta montaña como la subcuenca del cotahuasi. descripcion de la subcuenca del cotahuasi la subcuenca del cotahuasi se encuentra ubicada en los andes occidentales del sur del perú, al norte de la región arequipa. su espacio geográfico coincide con el de la provincia de la unión, considerada como una de las provincias de mayor pobreza a nivel nacional. forma parte de la denominada zona sur de extrema pobreza (zona sep), parte de lo que antiguamente se conocía como la mancha india. cotahuasi se localiza aproximadamente a 400 km. de la capital regional arequipa. tiene una extensión de 490.550 has., con altitudes que varían desde los 900 hasta los 6093 m.s.n.m. figura 1: mapa de ubicación de subcuenca de cotahuasi el río cotahuasi geomorfológicamente ha dado origen al cañón más profundo y bello del planeta por las particularidades de sus paisajes y biodiversidad presente, aspectos que entre otros sustenta que en mayo del 2005 se le haya declarado como área natural protegida (anp) reserva paisajística subcuenca del cotahuasi; esta categoría se caracteriza por mostrar una armoniosa relación entre el hombre y la naturaleza. geopolíticamente esta conformada por 11 distritos: cotahuasi, tomepampa, alca, puyca, huaynacotas, pampamarca, charcana, sayla, tauría, quechualla y toro; cotahuasi es la capital provincial. la subcuenca del cotahuasi es considerada como un espacio representativo de las zonas de alta montaña del perú, debido a las características ambientales y culturales que gracias a un adecuado manejo del poblador local sobre los recursos naturales y la biodiversidad se han conservado a través del tiempo. destaca la importancia del río cotahuasi por su aporte hídrico, constituyéndose en el principal afluente del río ocoña. la subcuenca del cotahuasi concentra el mayor número de fuentes de agua dulce de la zona, entre lagunas y nevados. las condiciones climáticas presentes son variadas de acuerdo a la altitud, provincias biogeográficas y zonas de vida, ello ha permitido las condiciones sui-géneris para la presencia de paisajes y biodiversidad representativa. la agricultura es practicada de manera tradicional y sin el uso de insumos químicos lo que permite conservar adecuadamente los suelos. la población se caracteriza por presentar una diversidad cultural particular de las zonas altoandinas. esta diversidad se ve expresada en la idiosincrasia, la vestimenta, las costumbres, los mitos, los rituales, etc., los cuales se diferencian de una comunidad a otra, sin embargo todas ellas comparten el respeto por los recursos naturales conservándolos a través del uso de tecnologías y prácticas culturalmente ancestrales las cuales guardan una armoniosa relación con la naturaleza. educación en la subcuenca la articulación entre la educación formal y la gestión del anp es un proceso en construcción. los elementos de la gestión integral de los recursos naturales y la biodiversidad aún no son suficientemente considerados en el aula lo cual genera un distanciamiento entre la comunidad y la educación formal. esta es una característica común a la mayoría de poblaciones rurales altoandinas a nivel nacional e internacional. la brecha existente entre la escuela y la comunidad limita al estudiante el reconocimiento de los recursos disponibles impidiendo identificar sus potencialidades, ello repercute en el desinterés por su conservación para convertirlos en base del desarrollo local, por ejemplo a través de la implementación de bionegocios. el proyecto inicio la promoción de actividades orientadas a involucrar activamente a la comunidad educativa dentro del proceso de desarrollo local, impulsando acciones que refuercen el reconocimiento y valorización de la biodiversidad: flora, fauna, entomofauna y agrobiodiversidad; así como, a la investigación ambiental, insertándolas como parte de las actividades pedagógicas desarrolladas en la escuela. como parte de estas actividades se inició el programa escolar de monitoreo ambiental de la subcuenca del cotahuasi (pemasc), que implementa acciones de monitoreo ambiental, con la finalidad de promover en la comunidad educativa el conocimiento de los aspectos de la realidad local, así como la investigación de los recursos naturales y la biodiversidad, acercando así la comunidad a la escuela. descripcion del programa el pemasc inició su operación en octubre del año 2002 en 6 instituciones educativas de nivel secundario; inicialmente el énfasis estuvo centrado en el trabajo de estadísticas ambientales producto del monitoreo ambiental. la finalidad del programa esta orientada a “desarrollar en la comunidad educativa capacidades que den viabilidad a la implementación de las agendas 21 locales, impulsando el estudio y conocimiento de la realidad local a través de la investigación y monitoreo de los recursos naturales y la biodiversidad presente, viabilizando así la operación del anp”. figura 2: integrantes de las brigadas ambientales como parte de esta finalidad, el programa define como objetivos los siguientes: motivar en la comunidad educativa el interés por la conservación de los recursos naturales y la biodiversidad local. impulsar la inserción del conocimiento local en la escuela. fortalecer la relación de la escuela con la comunidad implementando el estudio de la realidad local. revalorar el conocimiento local desarrollando contenidos locales haciendo uso de las tic, reduciendo la brecha digital. la implementación de las actividades del programa promueve la participación de la comunidad educativa agrupada de la siguiente manera: estudiantes, niños/niñas, hijos de agricultores y campesinos, profesores y directores de las instituciones educativas, asociaciones de padres de familia (apafa); y, alcaldes distritales. el programa se implementó en 6 distritos de la subcuenca: cotahuasi, tomepampa, alca, puyca, huaynacotas y toro, los cuales se priorizaron de acuerdo a la presencia de instituciones educativas de nivel secundario, así como, la implementación de las agendas 21 locales. figura 3: mapa de ubicación de intituciones educativas globe las actividades de investigación del programa se orientaron hacia los recursos naturales (agua y suelo), la biodiversidad (cobertura vegetal) y los aspectos ambientales (atmósfera) aplicando para ello los protocolos de monitoreo del programa globe. antes de la operación del programa escolar de monitoreo ambiental, los programas educativos presentes en la subcuenca desarrollaron limitadamente las capacidades de los estudiantes en el reconocimiento de los elementos de la realidad local de importancia para su comunidad. a través del programa se promueve activamente el desarrollo de dichas capacidades recociendo las potenciales presentes. la implementación del programa se concentra básicamente en la implementación de tres componentes: monitoreo del estado de los recursos naturales y la biodiversidad. uso de las tic para el intercambio de conocimiento. difusión de la información para el mejoramiento de las actividades de la población. la operación del programa escolar de monitoreo ambiental de la subcuenca del cotahuasi se desarrolla con apoyo de la ong aedes en coordinación con la unidad de gestión educativa local – ugel la unión y el consejo nacional del ambiente (conam) arequipa. desde el 2005 forma parte del convenio interinstitucional de cooperación científico tecnológica en educación ambiental entre la dirección regional de educación arequipa (drea) y la ong aedes, con la finalidad de impulsar un modelo de educación ambiental de calidad acorde a las necesidades educativas propuestas, dentro de espacios representativos de alta montaña como lo es la reserva paisajística subcuenca del cotahuasi (anp). monitoreo del estado de los recursos naturales y la biodiversidad. el monitoreo ambiental de los recursos naturales y la biodiversidad esta referido el estudio e investigación de sus características y estado, reconociendo así su valor (ecológico, ambiental y cultural) e importancia para la operación del anp. para ello en cada una de las instituciones educativas integrantes del programa, al inicio de la operación del programa se instaló un módulo de monitoreo ambiental entregado por aedes a través de la firma del convenio interinstitucional entre los docentes, alumnos, padres de familia, dirección de la institución educativa, gobierno local, ugel la unión y aedes. dichos módulos constan de instrumentos, equipos y reactivos, los cuales permiten realizar el estudio y monitoreo de los recursos naturales y la biodiversidad a través de la implementación de protocolos estándar de investigación delineados por el programa globe. para su manejo se desarrollaron actividades de capacitación en el uso de los instrumentos, así como, en la interpretación de los resultados obtenidos, dirigidos a los profesores integrantes del programa en la subcuenca; posteriormente ellos se encargaron de capacitar a la comunidad estudiantil a través de cursos desarrollados en cada institución educativa. hasta el momento, desde el inicio del programa, se ha logrado capacitar directamente a 27 docentes a nivel de toda la subcuenca en el uso de los instrumentos de monitoreo ambiental y en la implementación de los protocolos del programa, lo cual constituye un número representativo de profesores capacitados en el ámbito local. los docentes capacitados han sido principalmente de las especialidades de ciencias naturales y sociales, sin embargo también se han integrado docentes de otras áreas como comunicación, matemática, así como también, docentes del nivel primario. ello permite contar con una diversidad de capacidades para la implementación del programa. los alumnos y docentes del programa, empezaron las acciones de investigación y monitoreo permanente del estado de sus recursos naturales como el agua y suelo, así como, de los aspectos ambientales como el clima y cobertura terrestre, relacionándolos con los efectos que el cambio climático y la desertificación ocasionan sobre los ecosistemas presentes. ello les proporciona un mejor entendimiento de los efectos que el cambio climático y la desertificación vienen ocasionando sobre los recursos naturales y la biodiversidad en la subcuenca, iniciando la sensibilización de posibles acciones que puedan ser llevadas a cabo para mitigar dichos efectos. para el monitoreo ambiental, los alumnos del programa se organizan a través de las brigadas ambientales. las brigadas ambientales son grupos de niños y jóvenes líderes encargados de realizar la investigación de las cuatro áreas de estudio y monitoreo del programa. en el 2004 se contó con un aproximado de 200 líderes pertenecientes a las brigadas ambientales de las 6 instituciones educativas. las brigadas ambientales se organizan en pequeños grupos responsables por cada una de las áreas de estudio del programa, de esta manera se implementa un registro continuo y permanente del estado de los recursos naturales y la biodiversidad local. la investigación y monitoreo de los recursos se desarrolla a través de días de campo a lugares de estudio cercanos a las comunidades locales, así como, en los laboratorios de las instituciones educativas. en el caso de los lugares de estudio, estos fueron seleccionados de acuerdo a su grado importancia en la comunidad como por ejemplo referidas a las actividades agrícolas y de consumo directo de la población. de esta manera se desarrollaron estudios e investigaciones en estanques, reservorios, campos de cultivo, áreas verdes, aguas termales, entre otras, aplicando el mayor número de protocolos posibles en cada investigación. en la actualidad se cuenta con más de 4000 registros obtenidos y reportados sobre las condiciones ambientales presentes, principalmente las relacionadas a las condiciones atmosféricas (temperaturas). estas acciones han logrado sensibilizar a los alumnos en el valor que tienen sus recursos naturales a partir del conocimiento de sus características lo que les permite estar concientes del valor de mantenerlos y conservarlos para beneficio propio. la implementación del estudio y monitoreo ambiental empieza a ser considerada como parte transversal de la programación curricular a nivel de todas las instituciones educativas, lo que implica su implementación dentro de todos los niveles y todos los grados. uso de las tic para el intercambio de conocimiento. el uso de las tic dentro del programa se ha orientado principalmente a promover el intercambio y difusión de información; y, fortalecer la identidad cultural y autoestima a través del desarrollo de contenidos locales, disminuyendo así la brecha digital existente en la subcuenca. figura 4: curso de computación con alumnos de las brigadas ambientales – ie casimiro peralta. alca la implementación de las actividades en el uso de las tic se han venido implementado de manera articulada a la propuesta educativa del programa escolar de monitoreo ambiental, desarrollando capacidades a alumnos y docentes para el uso de las tecnologías, principalmente internet, que permitan promover y difundir las ventajas comparativas del anp. como parte del programa se viene implementando un programa de capacitación en computación e internet, dirigido tanto a los grupos de docentes como alumnos. el programa de capacitación fue estructurado tomando en consideración que la mayoría de los integrantes no tiene conocimiento previo en ambos aspectos, lo cual representa para ellos una desventaja frente a otros contextos. el programa de capacitación implementado comprende un conjunto de capacidades que abarca desde los aspectos básicos en computación e informática desarrollando temas como el reconocimiento del equipo de cómputo, el manejo del sistema operativo y el uso de programas de oficina como word y excel; hasta el uso de internet, correo electrónico y el desarrollo de páginas web, los cuales fueron desarrollados a través de cursos de capacitación. los cursos de capacitación fueron desarrollados en cada distrito del programa realizando visitas periódicas a las instituciones educativas, contando con la participación de alumnos y docentes. sólo en el caso de internet los cursos se desarrollaron en cotahuasi, debido a que representa en la subcuenca el único lugar con acceso a internet a través del telecentro cotahuasi. de esta manera profesores y alumnos del programa fueron capacitados en el uso de internet para el intercambio de información en el telecentro cotahuasi. estas acciones de capacitación contaron con el apoyo de los gobiernos locales quienes se encargaron de apoyar la movilidad tanto de los alumnos como docentes. al iniciar el proceso de capacitación, la mayoría de instituciones educativas no contaba con infraestructura de cómputo para implementar los cursos, sólo dos instituciones educativas contaban con equipos1 y sólo cuatro distritos de los seis contaban con energía eléctrica permanente2. los gobiernos locales fueron importantes aliados, pues facilitaron el uso de computadoras existente en la localidad (por lo general solo una), para la implementación de los cursos de capacitación proporcionando también en algunos casos la energía eléctrica necesaria para su operación a través de grupos generadores. la implementación de los cursos de computación e internet bajo estas condiciones promovió en los gobiernos locales y las instituciones educativas la búsqueda de mecanismos para la implementación de centros de cómputo en la comunidad y/o la institución educativa, mejorando con ello la infraestructura con la que se contaba. el desarrollo de capacidades en computación e internet ha permitido a las brigadas ambientales difundir información respecto de la implementación de sus actividades de investigación y monitoreo con otros grupos a nivel nacional e internacional a través de la página web del programa, compartiendo esta información con otras instituciones educativas y comunidad en general. de acuerdo a la base de datos del programa, en la actualidad la subcuenca del cotahuasi cuenta con un total de 4786 registros difundidos en internet, ubicando a las instituciones educativas del programa presentes en la subcuenca dentro de las 12 escuelas con mayor cantidad de datos reportados a nivel nacional, un aspecto más que significativo considerando la carencia de acceso a internet en casi la totalidad de distritos de la subcuenca. otro aspecto ha sido el desarrollo de contenidos locales orientado al fortalecimiento de la identidad cultural de niños y jóvenes del programa. de esta manera las brigadas ambientales iniciaron los primeros pasos para el desarrollo de páginas web, promoviendo la recuperación del conocimiento local a través del relacionamiento entre hijos y padres, y; nietos y abuelos. ello ha fortalecido la revaloración de la cultura andina haciendo uso de nuevas tecnologías. el objetivo es lograr que el desarrollo de estas capacidades a futuro permitan a la subcuenca estar representada dentro de la globalización como un elemento enriquecedor por la diversidad cultural que aporta y una oportunidad para la oferta de productos y servicios de calidad ambiental desde la reserva paisajística. figura 5: esquema de la página web del distrito de toro – ie juan manuel guillen benavides las primeras capacitaciones en el desarrollo de páginas web se realizaron en computadoras 486 (únicas computadoras presentes en algunas de las instituciones educativas), utilizando el bloc de notas y navegadores como el internet explorer 3.0, si bien, las páginas desarrolladas no contaron con un aspecto visualmente atractivo, el máximo valor se encontró en los contenidos elaborados, cuyos temas en todos los casos fueron escogidos por los propios alumnos, implementando a través de ellos proyectos de investigación y desarrollo de contenidos locales los cuales permitieron en ellos enriquecer y revalorar la cultura local. la implementación de nuevos centros de computación ha hecho que las condiciones para el desarrollo de estas actividades mejoren. difusión de la información para el mejoramiento de las actividades de la población. la difusión y acceso a la información resultado del monitoreo ambiental para el mejoramiento de las actividades de la población promovió el uso de las no tan nuevas tic, tales como la radio y los altoparlantes, principales medios de comunicación en las zonas rurales. en el caso de las radios estas acciones promovieron en los grupos de estudiantes el desarrollo de pequeños programas radiales a través de los cuales se difundieron temas relacionados a la conservación del ambiente, la biodiversidad, la contaminación ambiental generando en la población conciencia por respetar más el entorno natural que le rodea. en el caso de los altoparlantes, esta actividad promovió también la difusión de recomendaciones referidas principalmente a la prevención de enfermedades, relacionadas con los aspectos ambientales, principalmente en la época de invierno en donde se agudizan más la presencia de enfermedades infecto-respiratorias. por otro lado se ha impulsado la participación en los espacios de concertación lo que ha permitido la difusión de resultados y la sensibilización en la conservación de los recursos naturales a las autoridades locales, líderes y dirigentes de las organizaciones de base a nivel distrital. este aspecto esta permitiendo mostrar a la comunidad la importancia de sus acciones y los resultados de sus investigaciones, a la par que promueven el fortalecimiento de la ciudadanía en los niños y niñas representantes del programa reconociendo a partir de esto, los procesos de participación ciudadana y de planificación del desarrollo. lecciones aprendidas la implementación del programa escolar de monitoreo ambiental es un proceso que se viene consolidando a partir de las experiencias obtenidas de su implementación, lo cual permite enriquecer el proceso a partir de la experiencia en campo. entre algunas de las lecciones aprendidas dentro del proceso podemos mencionar las siguientes: la conservación de los recursos naturales, la biodiversidad y el ambiente en general, es un proceso que debe incluir desde su inicio a la escuela, de manera tal que se formen nuevos escenarios comprometidos con su conservación y uso sostenible para beneficio de ellos. la escuela es un espacio importante para la formación de líderes locales para el desarrollo local. desde la escuela es factible formar líderes proactivos, comprometidos con el desarrollo de su comunidad. para el proceso de inserción de contenidos locales, es necesario desarrollar instrumentos y materiales los cuales sirvan de guía para su implementación en la escuela. el conocimiento ancestral representa un recurso fundamental dentro de las sociedades rurales, que han sabido mantener un equilibrio entre el hombre y la naturaleza, en ese sentido, resulta valioso su incorporación como parte de la educación formal en la escuela. las tic representan para la educación un medio que puede apoyar la innovación y el desarrollo de nuevos programas que permitan mejorar la calidad educativa. la implementación de nueva infraestructura de equipos de por si no representan una mejora si no se acompañan de programas de innovación que atiendas a las necesidades educativas locales. la sostenibilidad del programa es un proceso que se viene construyendo. para ello se viene promoviendo la inserción del programa como parte de la formación escolar en las escuelas del programa promoviendo el relacionamiento con los grupos organizados de base de la comunidad, asegurando así la sostenibilidad social del programa, basada en las necesidades de información de la población local. se promueve también la participación de los gobiernos locales como parte de la sostenibilidad política y económica que permita contar con los recursos necesarios formulando para ello proyectos educativos locales de investigación. la formación de capacidades en maestros asegura la sostenibilidad del programa, esto sin embargo debe ser fortalecido a través de reconocimientos que estimulen la participación activa de la comunidad docente. los recursos económicos con los que se ha implementado el programa han sido propios, el programa se encuentra en la búsqueda de financiamiento que permita consolidar y replicar sus acciones en espacios mayores. la implementación del programa esta permitiendo dar inicio al proceso de articulación que debe existir entre la educación y la comunidad como un aspecto integrador dentro del desarrollo sostenible y en el caso de la subcuenca del cotahuasi con la finalidad de apoyar la operación del anp. su inserción como eje transversal de la educación local de la subcuenca es un proceso orientado a permitir desde la escuela replicar capacidades a la población local, haciendo del monitoreo ambiental un aspecto fundamental que permita tener conocimiento del estado del ambiente desarrollando acciones que permitan su conservación. por otro lado su implementación permite generar futuros líderes quienes a futuro serán los responsables de la operación del anp. en ese sentido el programa representa un esfuerzo importante por lograr desarrollar capacidades para la conservación de los valores naturales, culturales y de biodiversidad presentes en la reserva paisajística subcuenca del cotahuasi un paraíso de biodiversidad para el mundo. 1iiee mariscal orbegoso de cotahuasi e iiee honofre benavides de tomepampa 2cotahuasi, tomepampa, alca y huaynacotas community informatics and sustainability: why social capital matters   lyn simpson queensland university of technology < le.simpson@qut.edu.au >   abstract this paper adopts a holistic approach to explain why social capital matters for effective implementation, widespread uptake, greater social inclusion, and the sustainability of ci initiatives. it describes a theoretical framework drawn from diffusion of innovation, community development and social capital theories. the framework emphasises the interplay between physical infrastructure (including hard technologies and their location in the community), soft technologies (including capacity building, education, training and awareness raising), social infrastructure (including local networks and community organisations) and social capital (including trust and reciprocity, strong sense of community, shared vision, and outcomes from participation in local and external networks).   introduction  the economic and social viability of rural communities has been an ongoing concern, with highly uneven levels of growth and decline in non-metropolitan australia (haberkorn et al., 1999). at the same time, governments at federal, state and local levels are steadily adopting icts for the delivery of services, providing communities with more integrated and responsive services (queensland department of communication, information, local government and planning, 1999). government see icts as critical for maximising economic opportunities, ensuring international competitiveness and “build[ing] a better, more prosperous and fairer australia” (innovate australia, 1995). government policy also acknowledges that internet connectivity and skill are key factors in ensuring that individuals can fully share in the social and economic benefits offered by ict (national office for the information economy, 2000). however, in rural australia, distance from metropolitan centres has had a negative impact on service delivery to many communities, but particularly on ict-based services because of the high cost per capita of providing and servicing icts. this can mean that those in more remote locations with the most critical needs are more likely to have limited and costly telecommunications services (us congress, office of technology assessment, 1991). since access to ict is seen to be increasingly essential for full participation in contemporary society, rural communities that have only minimal or costly access to icts have limited opportunities to explore the social and economic advantages that new technologies can offer (bikson & panis, 1995). the ‘digital divide’ is a term frequently used to describe the social implications of unequal access to icts and the resulting limited development of ict related skills for some sectors of the community (national office for the information economy, 2000; simpson et al., 2001; wilding 2001). recently, using the ‘digital divide’ to contrast those that have access with those that do not has been challenged. a binary digital divide has been criticised for its technological determinism and overemphasis on access to technology as the single overriding factor that determines or closes the divide for marginalised groups, likened to “applying technology as an educational band-aid” (warschauer, 2003, p.47). such a view denies the myriad ways that technology is accessed, usually woven into social systems and processes as part of social networks involving relatives, friends and colleagues. similarly, grunwald (1997) notes that technology initiatives alone are not a panacea unless they are embedded in processes of community development, where the emphasis is not on the technology and what it can do, but on how the technology can be used strategically to meet community needs. the intent of policy then should extend beyond solving the ‘divide’ through mere access to technology, but instead focus on strategies that foster social inclusion, mobilise community support for achieving community goals, and thereby ‘multiply’ the existing community assets (warschauer, 2003, p.47). the concept of social capital is a useful lens through which to examine the elements of sustainable initiatives. social capital is used to describe beneficial outcomes that can be derived from ‘multiplying’ existing community assets, such as trust, reciprocity and cooperation, shared values and norms, pro-activity and leadership, and a strong sense of community that can result from interaction and participation in strong social networks in a community (see putnam, 1993; fukuyama, 1995; onyx & bullen, 2000; woolcock, 2001). high levels of social capital are usually indicated by community members who feel a strong sense of belonging, a willingness to participate in community activities, and a commitment to actively work towards the future well-being of their community. in such communities, social inclusion and participation by diverse community members are valued because of the increased potential and opportunities for building community social capital. when lack of access to icts or limited ict skills prevents effective participation by individuals in social, economic or civic activities in their local community or society generally, then opportunities for building community social capital are substantially reduced. furthermore, social capital and recognition of the centrality of community are central to the sustainability of both communities and of their ci initiatives (cernea, 1993). the world bank (1998) highlighted the growing body of evidence that the size and density of social networks and institutions and the nature of interpersonal interactions are significant determinants of the sustainability of development initiatives. community informatics (ci) brings together community development and the opportunities afforded by community ict-based initiatives (gurstein, 1999) such as community technology centres, community access programs, internet or cybercafes, electronic commerce, community and civic networks and online participation. ci initiatives provide innovative ways and increased opportunities for community members to interact both locally and globally, often stimulating a greater range of economic, social and civic activities. ci research provides insights into how ci projects can be better implemented by considering the contextual and social factors that affect ci developments and use (o’neil, 2002), and by identifying and understanding barriers to technological diffusion in communities (kling, 2000). in this way, the impact of sustainable ci initiatives, providing ongoing opportunities for access to icts and participation in community activities can extend, well beyond enabling access to icts, to strengthening social networks and increasing community social capital. in australia and internationally, there have been many successful reports of ci initiatives, such as the introduction of community technology centres, telecottages and telecentres (see for example albrechtsen, 1998; horner & reeve, 1991; hunter, 1999; o’neil, 2002). at the same time, others have raised concerns about the impact of ci initiatives on communities, and the conditions that affect the implementation of such initiatives (easdown, 1997; dabinett, 2000). reasons for the lack of success of a number of ci projects in the uk included the tension between commercial and community aspects of the network, poor communications, unrealistic expectations, conflicting agendas, a continual need for capital and inadequate strategic and operational management (dabinett, 2000). other communities have found that “government interventions that neglect or undermine [the] social infrastructure can go seriously awry,” and that such well-intentioned projects can “heedlessly ravage existing social networks” (putnam, 1993, p. 4), both by creating new pressures on previously sound community networks and by being a catalyst for exacerbating ‘cracks’ that may already exist in a community. this paper expands a ci perspective to analyse a number of a number of collaborative ci research projects in rural and remote communities in queensland, australia (simpson et al., 2001; rural women and icts research team, 1999; simpson, 1998). the projects investigated the ways that ci initiatives can be effectively implemented to address individual and community objectives; can facilitate rural community development; and can facilitate networks within the local community and more broadly, such as with government, industry and other global communities. project findings emphasised the importance of sustainability as a key element of ci initiatives if they are to build ict skills and capacity, encourage widespread uptake of icts, achieve greater social inclusion, build social capital and enable communities to fully capitalise on the potential of icts for community development. while drawing on these projects, the focus of this paper is not to detail these outcomes, but instead to describe a theoretical framework that emphasises the importance of adopting a more holistic approach to understanding the complex social factors that can affect the uptake, outcomes and sustainability of ci initiatives. the framework discussed below brings together aspects of three key theories that can assist in unravelling the complexity inherent in community informatics initiatives. firstly, diffusion of innovation theory increases awareness of the ways and rate at which new ideas are disseminated and individual community members take up ict innovations. secondly, community development and capacity building analyses provide an increased understanding of processes that underpin community developments such as ci initiatives, and the importance of a sense of community ownership and building local capacity to addressing community issues. finally, discussions of social capital present the intangible but valuable social features of community life that are the outcomes of strong social networks and community interaction, and that influence community attitudes to change and future well-being. thus, the framework encompasses theories that elaborate the interplay in ci initiatives between the physical infrastructure (including hard technologies and their location in the community), soft technologies (focusing on building capacity such as awareness raising, education, training and leadership), social infrastructure (including local networks, resources, services, and community organisations) and social capital (including trust and reciprocity, strong sense of community, shared vision, and outcomes from participation and interaction in local and external networks). in the following section the paper describes aspects of the three theories: diffusion of innovation, community development and capacity building, and social capital that provide a foundation for effective implementation of ci initiatives, and goes on to discuss why these three theories matter to ci sustainability. diffusion of innovations diffusion of innovation research has a long tradition across a range of disciplines (kautz & larsen, 2000; rogers, 1995; tornatsky & fleischer, 1990). diffusion of innovation literature describes patterns of technology adoption, explains the process of a particular technology’s use within a social system, and assists in predicting whether and how a new innovation will be successful (kautz, 1999). in this way, diffusion of innovation theory can inform effective planning and implementation of ci initiatives by increasing our understanding of the ways and rates at which rural and remote community members take up ict innovations. there are four generally accepted elements which describe the diffusion of innovation process: the innovation itself; the communication channel(s) through which it is disseminated; the timeframe in which this occurs; and the social system where the innovation is introduced (charlton et al., 1998). rogers’ (1995) diffusion of innovation paradigm has been particularly influential in elaborating these elements. it describes the characteristics of an innovation that influence the rate of adoption. it also requires that a diffusion process considers the norms and beliefs of a social system and examines adopter behaviour and rates of adoption by individuals within their local contexts. further, it highlights the influential role of opinion leaders and change agents in diffusing innovation in a community through their social networks, corresponding with other rural research that emphasizes the importance of ‘champions’ in creating change in rural communities (sher & sher, 1994; goodman, 1998; falk, 1999; korsching et al., 2000). networks diffusion theory also emphasizes a communication process that is more complex than the simple persuasion of a community member to explore a new idea or technology. effective diffusion involves much more than dissemination at an individual community member level; it is a reciprocal process that also relies on the implementation of strategies through various settings and systems, using a variety of formal and informal media and communication channels (oldenburg & hardcastle, 1997). particularly relevant here is the role of networks in diffusing a new idea or technology within a social system (valente & davis, 1999), such as a community. diffusion theory accentuates the value of social networks or interpersonal channels over and above mass media for innovation adoption decisions, highlighting the role of opinion leaders and change agents in mediating the impact of mass media communications, because most people evaluate a new idea based on the subjective evaluation of someone like themselves who has previously adopted the idea (rogers, 1995). for ci initiatives, engaging diverse groups of community members and a broad range of community organizations assists the diffusion process across different sectors of the community. identifying and building the ict skills of influential members of those diverse groups and organizations will exploit the potential for local opinion leaders to tailor their persuasion to those aspects of the innovation that accord with the values, norms and beliefs of their immediate networks, and, in turn, influence others’ attitudes towards using the internet across different sectors of the community. thus, potential adopters become active participants in the adoption and diffusion process, giving their own unique meaning to the innovation as it is applied in their local context. in this way, adoption and diffusion of ci initiatives are fundamentally social processes dependent on interpersonal networks, and the values, norms and beliefs of the local community. innovation attributes a further important aspect of diffusion of innovation theory is the way the innovation itself is perceived by potential adopters, and how rates and patterns of diffusion are influenced by perceptions of the innovation’s attributes (kautz & larsen, 2000). more specifically, perceptions of an innovation are shaped by the degree to which an innovation is perceived to be better than the way things are currently done (relative advantage); consistent with existing, values, beliefs, experience and needs (compatibility); user friendly rather than difficult to understand or use (complexity); easily trialled (trialability); and readily observed, with visible outcomes (observability) (rogers, 1995). these characteristics provide a useful basis for understanding where and how a ci initiative can be implemented in a community to best influence community members’ perceptions of the innovation and to maximize widespread diffusion. locating the innovation drawing on diffusion theory, a ci initiative such as internet access, is ideally established in a location where community members have the opportunity to: understand the potential for online access to better meet their needs for access to information and services (relative advantage) through demonstrations of the technology, local media, and through participating in diverse local networks to hear a range of user experiences with the technology. feel comfortable accessing the internet because use of the internet matches their own and their community’s norms, values and aspirations (compatibility) and they are able to have access in a non-threatening environment that encourages sharing of their internet experiences with other similar users. see how easily they can learn and adapt to using the internet (complexity) by providing training and training materials in jargon-free language, targeted to specific user needs and levels of experience with using the internet. experiment with using the internet (trialability) to see what information or services it can provide, particularly if they have free access, workshops and information sessions to encourage participation. better understand what can be achieved through internet access by watching other community members using it (observability) and by using internet access point where it will be seen by a wide range of community members.   thus, for ci initiatives, diffusion of innovation research suggests that where and how community members engage with the ci should be tailored to meet individual user needs. this includes both the environment – in terms of atmosphere, décor, and staff – and the experience – in terms of diverse locations for internet access, different approaches to training, and varying the levels and types of information provided. users need a non-threatening, supportive environment in which to observe, explore, and experiment with the technology, and to gain an understanding of its use and relevance to their daily lives. more skilled and confident individuals seeking advanced information about the internet will have different needs from those without confidence and with limited skills. novice users are likely to benefit from a supportive, comfortable setting and a less formal, more social introduction to the innovation, aimed at building their confidence to explore the internet. when ci initiatives do not have funding for multiple access sites, catering for diverse user needs can be achieved by allocating specific times for different groups to use the internet access. for example, in one community with only one access site, a thursday morning is set aside for groups of older members of the community to use the ci facility, while saturday nights are allocated to youth in the community (simpson, 1998). time a further element of diffusion theory is time. having any new idea adopted takes time, even for those ideas that appear to have obvious benefits, and it can take many years before the innovation is widely adopted. most innovations diffuse slowly and require a critical mass of at least 10-25% of potential adopters to trigger uptake through their interpersonal networks and for the rate of diffusion to accelerate (rogers, 1995). for example, it took 30 years for the telephone to achieve its role in personal communications (fischer, 1994). the average time between potential adopters becoming aware of an innovation and taking the decision to adopt can vary widely and is influenced by adoption behaviour. potential adopters of an innovation can be divided into several adopter types that indicate the likelihood of their adopting the innovation: innovators (2.5%), early adopters (13.5%), early majority (34%), late majority (34%) and those reluctant to adopt referred to as laggards (16%) (rogers, 1995). one study showed that the difference between the innovators and the laggards adopting was 4.25 years innovators adopted after .4 years, early adopters .55 years, early majority 1.14 years, late majority 2.34 years, and laggards 4.65 years (rogers, 1995, p.201). patterns and rates of adoption behaviour, and the time needed for widespread diffusion, have important implications for ci initiatives. sustained ci initiatives with ongoing access to icts are critical for disseminating widespread knowledge of the technology and building user confidence. sustainability is also important for the community to shape the innovation to meet its own needs. links between diffusion of the innovation and social change are rarely immediately obvious, but only emerge as widespread adoption occurs and community members shape further development (kiesler, 1986; gillard, wale & bow, 1996), and users translate and adapt the technology to their own requirements by shaping its uses and meanings (hellman, 1996). consequently, where communities have only short term funding for ci initiatives, diffusion of the internet will be restricted to a relatively limited group of innovators and early adopters, minimizing the potential for community economic and social change, and inventive uses of the technology. learnings from diffusion of innovation in terms of ci initiatives, diffusion of innovation highlights the importance of: being able to access and experiment with the technology, to observe others using it, to learn how to use the technology in a user-friendly way, and to examine its potential and relevance to the norms and values of the individual user and the local community. providing appropriate access to the technology in social settings that cater for different groups in the community. diffusion research emphasises the need to vary the setting and approaches to meet diverse users’ needs. recognizing the role of local opinion leaders and change agents who can influence other community members’ attitudes towards using the innovation. diffusion research has demonstrated that most people depend on subjective evaluations of an innovation by people like themselves who have already experimented with and/or adopted the idea. accentuating the value of local social networks by raising awareness of the diverse groups and organizations already existing in the community, by encouraging the participation of individuals from different groups and organizations and other key individuals in the community, and by creating opportunities for emergent leadership. understanding that diffusion of any innovation takes time and that sustainability of ci initiatives is essential for widespread adoption across the broader community, beyond the innovators and early adopters. short term project funding as the basis for a ci initiative limits potential outcomes, not only in terms of ict access but in overall impact on the community. the integral relationship between diffusion of an innovation and the social setting of the local context in which it is introduced is often overlooked by policy advisers who sometimes adopt an ‘individual blame bias’ (rogers, 1995). in rural communities, such a bias apportions blame to the community for not taking full advantage of ci initiatives or ensuring their sustainability. it does not realistically account for other issues such as inadequacy of telecommunications infrastructure, lack of access to icts, lack of availability to appropriate training, and inadequate financial resources to address such issues and build the human capacity and social infrastructure critical to sustaining ci initiatives. the paper now turns to community development and capacity building literature to examine how community development processes can influence the sustainability of a ci initiative, and how such processes accord with diffusion theory. community development and capacity building ‘community’ has been used in many contexts and defined in many ways (see for example hillery, 1955 and bell & newby, 1971 in smith, 1996). in many uses and definitions, geographical territory, common ties or goals, and social interaction are key elements (smith, 1996). others highlight the importance of virtual community (rheingold, 1995), belonging, connection and shared responsibility (milio, 1996), and the linkages and interrelationships that identify individuals as part of a community (lane & dorfman, 1997). in terms of understanding ci initiatives in geographical communities, this paper argues for community to be regarded from an interactional perspective. thus, community interrelationships and community interaction are considered key defining elements of community as people work together to solve problems and improve the well-being of the local community they share (wilkinson, 1989). community development can be understood as a process of ongoing community social interactions, and as projects or programs that are aimed at implementing change or influencing the community in some way (wilkinson, 1989). another distinction can be made between development of community (including for example, capacity building and leadership training), and development in community (including socially or economically focused projects). while both are important from a community development perspective, it is argued that greater precedence should be given to development of community because it relates explicitly to the process of community development, whereas development in community emphasizes locality as a setting for projects or programs (wilkinson, 1989). thus, a development of community perspective focuses on building the capacity of local people for community interaction to collaborate and work together to find solutions to local problems, and to work towards shared objectives that contribute to the well-being of the local community as a whole (wilkinson, 1989). such community focused efforts are the essence of community development through their intent to build and improve community. top down v. bottom up community development national policy efforts to assist rural communities in dealing with the complex effects of demographic, social, economic and institutional change have traditionally focused on ‘top down’ approaches to community problems through specific government funded projects, where external experts ‘solve’ community problems. from a development of community perspective, effective help requires ‘bottom up’ policy that assists community members to participate actively and collectively in solving their common problems, underpinned by key principles such as self-help, empowerment, networking and equity (onyx & bullen, 1997). ‘bottom up’ locally-based approaches have been widely championed (see for example popham, 1996; schuftan, 1996; and mannion, 1996) because such approaches “permit policies to be more socially inclusive and help ensure the social stability and cohesion without which economic growth and structural adjustment will be obstructed” (mannion, 1996, p.1). too often in the past this has not been the case (sher, 1986) because development has been done to communities rather than by them. communities in that situation are vulnerable to and dependent upon external resources and may not readily adapt to change because “dependency depresses adaptive capacity” (wilkinson 1986, p.8), resulting in, among other things, problems for sustainability. contemporary community development strategies in australia have largely followed those in the us and europe, emphasising concepts of self help, community empowerment and capacity building. government policy and funding bodies have encouraged communities to cease relying on government for direction and solutions. instead, governments have moved to ‘empower’ communities to seek their own unique solutions, owned by the community and devised ‘from the ground up’. however, for ci initiatives, a ‘bottom up’ approach is limited by the resources available within the community including, for example, financial resources for telecommunications infrastructure and computer hardware, the knowledge, skills and confidence to make effective use of the technology, and the technical knowledge to support and maintain the technology. others have recognized the limitations of a ‘bottom up’ approach and have argued instead for a multi-layered and inclusive approach. in such an approach, effective community development results from ‘top down’ help from government that can be exploited in the context of a ‘bottom up’ community development process, by communities that have both a strong sense of ownership of their own development process and direction, and the capacity to make full use of it (lane & dorfman, 1997). in this way, complementing well-developed and professional ‘top-down’ assistance from government with ‘bottom-up’ community development processes appears an effective means of empowering communities and advancing their well-being (jensen, 1992). while federal and state policies can provide a framework, ultimately, the process of community development must be a local one, an ‘inside job’, where the community develops as people collaborate and work together to improve their community (wilkinson, 1986). for example, the australian government’s regional telecommunications infrastructure fund, networking the nation (ntn), has directed $464 million to rural and regional communities for ict projects since it was first established in 1997. with the intent of achieving community ownership of their own development processes and direction, this funding scheme required rural and regional communities to identify their own ict related development needs, propose their own ict solutions, seek financial support through ntn funding to implement the ict initiative, and then manage their own development process to achieve their intended, and sustainable, outcomes. when government provides initial financial support in this way for a ci initiative such as ntn, the underlying assumption is that a community has the vision, will and capacity to take ‘ownership’ of the development process from beginning to end by having a clear perspective on the community’s future, undertaking a community needs analysis, identifying possible solutions, implementing and managing the solution, and achieving self-sufficiency and an economically viable outcome. ntn’s commendable intent to achieve community ownership however, masked underlying assumptions that have often proved unrealistic in terms of community capacity and the human, financial, organisational and physical resources required to achieve sustainability. many of these projects became heavily dependent on volunteer time and support because ongoing awareness raising and education activities to reach all sectors of the community extended well beyond the period of time that the funding allowed. as well, experts and funding did not adequately address the need to develop local leadership or technical support; a focus on the latter could have assisted in amelioration of the lack of locally-based suitably qualified and experienced technical support sufficient to service and maintain equipment and infrastructure. increased costs, inconvenience and offline time as hardware is sent elsewhere for repair can seriously undermine the effectiveness of ci projects. and now, with the ntn funding scheme ending, communities need to seek alternative financing solutions for the ongoing viability of their ci initiatives (dcita, 2003). this challenge is even greater for rural and remote communities with fewer opportunities for alternative sources of funding. the often flawed underlying assumption is that communities have both access to alternative funding sources and the capacity to seek out and negotiate such funding. in reality, many communities do not have such capacity and their ntn sponsored initiatives have ceased operating as government funding has been withdrawn. in this context, capacity building clearly needs to be a key element of ci initiatives. capacity building much of the basis for achieving more sustainable bottom-up community development lies in building community capacity (cavaye, 1999; labonte, 1999). however, community capacity building rarely receives the attention and investment it warrants, particularly when lack of capacity building can result in failed or unsustainable projects (blackwell & colmenar, 1999). capacity building empowers and motivates local people to contribute to their maximum potential for the development of their community through an openness and preparedness for change (gannon, 1998). local participation and development are fostered through strengthening the knowledge, skills and attitudes of community members so that they can create and adapt local institutions toward sustaining their area’s development, and providing opportunities for meaningful involvement in the development process (mannion, 1996). more specifically, community capacity consists of building the networks, organisations, attitudes, leadership and skills that allow communities to manage change and sustain community-led development (cavaye, 1999). thus, community capacity building requires a two-pronged approach: developing the capacity of individuals through soft technologies and strengthening community social infrastructure (milio, 1996). developing individual capacity requires access to a range of ‘soft technologies’, i.e. those “technologies” that enable individuals to learn about and use hard technologies (such as icts) or to manage ci initiatives (such as awareness raising, education and training, and building leadership). these can include: formal programs and informal activities that increase awareness of the potential and benefits of icts. formal and informal education and training programs that equip community members with the skills and knowledge required to become competent users of icts. building leadership across community groups and organisations where individuals become the ‘local champions’ encouraging others to engage with icts, or managing the ci initiative. building technical expertise for supporting and maintaining information and communication technologies. strengthening social infrastructure enables the interaction and building of interrelationships as community members engage with one another and with diverse local organisations and institutions, networks, community resources and services, and community groups. in the context of ci initiatives, this includes the formal and informal education and training organisations as well as social networks that facilitate engagement with and increased use of icts. the challenge to government and other external agents or funding bodies, therefore, is to acknowledge that access to hard infrastructure alone will not maximise diffusion and uptake of icts, and to adequately resource community capacity building strategies. this means finding ways to support and ensure the sustainability of education and training initiatives at least until the majority of community members have acquired skills, not just the innovators and early adopters. strategies to address inadequacies in community capacity or capitalise on and strengthen existing social infrastructure are also essential to the development of sustainable ci initiatives. a further challenge for government is how to enable processes of capacity building, consultation and community ownership without creating unreasonable pressures on the time, personal energy, finances and skills of rural community members. many communities do not have the spare capacity or access to the high level skills (including expertise in community conflict resolution, fund raising, marketing, and community consultation and mobilisation) required to achieve sustained outcomes for ci initiatives. community development projects that are devolved too early to the community or under-resourced (both financially and in terms of working with local social infrastructure), or that inflate community expectations and then leave the community to fend for itself are unlikely to enjoy sustained success. this is particularly the case for ci initiatives that require ongoing, sustained awareness-raising and education components to ensure widespread accessibility to all sectors of the community. community empowerment and capacity-building models of ci implementation can potentially have substantial benefits for communities if they are implemented, with adequate resource availability and careful consideration of the long term impacts, both positive and negative, that community development initiatives may have on the community. learnings from community development and capacity building in terms of ci initiatives, community development and capacity building highlight the importance of: identifying strategies for capitalizing on professional support, expertise and funding from external agencies and government that can be accessed by communities as a foundation for building their ‘own’ ci initiatives. working within the norms and beliefs of the local social system, by ensuring that local community members drive and ‘own’ ci initiatives. this requires active involvement in all stages of the project, including determining community objectives, planning and developing appropriate strategies for implementation and for ongoing review and evaluation of the initiatives’ outcomes. analysing existing levels of awareness, ict skills, leadership and social infrastructure in the community. ensuring that planning for ci initiatives includes adequate resourcing and strategies to not only provide access to the hard technologies but, as well, to address soft technology education and training needs, and to strengthen social infrastructure. identifying ways of tapping into, and building on, existing social infrastructure to facilitate the participation of all community members in local networks by ensuring programs are accessible to a diversity of community members and providing ongoing support for learners. creating opportunities for existing community leaders and emergent leaders to facilitate other community members’ engagement with icts. effective community development involves the social institutions and networks present in the community to influence attitudes to change, and to provide opportunities for meaningful involvement. as individuals become usefully involved and work together on deliberate, community focused efforts, new networks and relationships are formed, and existing networks and relationships strengthened, contributing to the growth of community social capital (bridger & luloff, 1999). the paper now turns to a discussion of social capital and highlights why building social capital matters for the sustainability of ci initiatives. social capital social capital is another often contested concept, with varying definitions (see for example bourdieu, 1985; coleman, 1988; putnam, 1993). for this paper, “social capital” is understood as an outcome of interaction and participation in networks, rather than as a process. as individuals come together to work for their community, valuable relationships can be developed across the diverse interest lines that exist within communities. these relationships contribute to the growth of social capital as they create new information sources, reciprocal obligations and expectations, increased trust and shared norms (bridger & luloff, 1999). it is not the purpose of this paper to provide a critical analysis of the many definitions of social capital, or an extensive review of the social capital literature. rather the paper seeks to highlight those aspects of social capital that contribute to a framework for understanding the complexities associated with implementing and sustaining ci initiatives. a social capital perspective has proved particularly useful in understanding these complexities (see simpson et al., 2001). this paper draws on a definition of social capital that refers to the valuable but intangible social features of community life — such as trust and cooperation between individuals and within groups, actions and behaviour expected from community members, networks of interaction between community members, and actions taken by community members for reasons other than financial motives or legal obligations — that can potentially contribute to the well-being of that community (longo, 1999). networks and ties social capital cannot be generated by individuals acting in isolation, but instead depends on a propensity for sociability and a capacity to form new associations and networks (onyx & bullen, 1997). rural communities typically have a diversity of networks that link groups with different characteristics (flora et al., 1997). such social connectedness can vary from intimate ties with people like oneself (bonding social capital), through to outward-looking, diverse, often instrumental relationships with people unlike oneself (bridging social capital) (putnam, 2000). the critical issue is whether individuals and, by extension, their communities, maintain a balance between the two extremes. strong intimate ties are important contributors to social capital because of the trust and reciprocity they promote between people who know one another well. however, only mixing with known associates can limit exposure to new ideas. weaker ties link community members to those not known quite so well (granovetter, 1982). these ties provide access to skills, expertise and resources not available in their ‘inner circle’ and build social capital in a different way. they facilitate opportunities, broaden perspectives, and stimulate new ideas and new knowledge, providing opportunities for leadership and pro-activity. the mix of ties, therefore, significantly impacts on social organisation in communities, and the cultural characteristics, such as the acceptance of diverse leadership, that stimulate or suppress change. if the balance between bonding and bridging social capital is ‘right’, a community can build levels of trust and commitment that enable the skills and confidence of a wide range of community members (rather than only those historically in positions of power) to be utilised and developed. this provides a fertile environment for the emergence of leaders of different styles, with varying strengths and skills, who can stimulate proactive community action, and further develop bridging social capital. such leadership often emerges from an individual’s or a small group’s passion and commitment to a particular project, and their resulting role as a local ‘champion’. thus, communities that are high in social capital have diversified leadership representative of the age, gender and cultural composition of the community (center for community enterprise, 2000). social capital also helps to explain why some communities remain viable and others do not (wall, ferrazzi & schryer, 1998). putnam (1993) argues that social capital in communities tends to be polarised by virtuous and vicious cycles moving communities to opposite ends of a continuum. a self-reinforcing virtuous cycle sustains ‘competent’ communities with high social capital, while a vicious cycle traps “un-civic” (or dysfunctional) communities into diminishing social capital. in “un-civic” communities, people are not empowered to participate, only weak social networks are developed and individuals have limited opportunities to develop trust. poor awareness of community activities leads to a lack of concern and consequently poor involvement and little cooperation. on the other hand, cooperating and participating in community activities such as ci initiatives extends social networks, develops trust and confidence, and creates greater community awareness, leading to greater social capital and more vital, strategically managed communities (cavaye, 1997). the unique potential of ci initiatives is the richness of interactive, informal communication, horizontal and vertical, which the technology makes possible, and the greater diversity and breadth of networks and ties that can emerge from increased participation and interactivity in the community. social capital can thus both contribute to and result from community development processes (onyx & bullen, 1997), with potential for the benefits to be magnified through the interactivity provided by ci initiatives. learning from social capital in terms of ci initiatives, social capital highlights the importance of: building community capacity in awareness of the potential of the ci initiative so that there is a shared understanding of the extent to which the initiative can contribute to the community’s aspirations, values and needs and the future well being of the community. exploiting the capability of the ci initiative to build new forms of social infrastructure through local and external networks across diverse groups in the community, exposing community members to a broader range of ideas and facilitating emergent leadership and pro-activity. encouraging and enabling local community ownership of the ci initiative, underpinned by adequately resourcing the initiative in terms of physical infrastructure, soft technologies and social infrastructure so pre-existing levels of social capital are not diminished by undue demands on the community, such as volunteering. understanding the importance of appropriate environments and sociability to the implementation of ci initiatives for fostering social inclusion, community interaction, building community cohesiveness and strengthening local networks, particularly for marginalised groups in the community. the paper now turns to a closer examination of the links between sustainability and social capital to further explain why social capital matters to the sustainability of ci initiatives. sustainability there is considerable debate regarding the role of development in ensuring the sustainability of rural communities in the face of current trends including environmental degradation, population decline and the reduction of infrastructure and services in rural communities. for example, cernea (1993) challenges the ‘econo-mythical invocation’ of those who usually define sustainability in economic and ecological terms, and who often claim that providing a sound economic base ensures that everything will fall into place. instead, cernea argues that the social components of sustainability are equally important as for example in ‘putting people first’, thereby improving social organization, increasing social capital and recognizing the centrality of community members and community organizations to the sustainability of communities and their ci initiatives (cernea, 1993). similarly, the world bank (1998) highlighted the growing body of evidence that the size and density of social networks and institutions and the nature of interpersonal interactions are significant determinants of the sustainability of development initiatives. on the other hand, sustainable communities are also described as those where local community action is significantly shaped by interaction with global trends and agencies, but is balanced by action at the local community level to not only protect and enhance their immediate environment but also to promote more humane local societies (bridger & luloff, 1999). sustainable communities thus are underpinned by outcomes of interactions within the local community, between community members and groups, and with external agencies. such a view stresses the interactions and linkages that lead to collective actions and political relationships essential for the development of more sustainable communities, and argues that sustainable community developments need “an explicit policy emphasis on strategies to build the community field and generate social capital” (bridger & luloff, 1999, p.15). fostering sustainable community development is thus dependent on understanding how social capital is created, and on an awareness of how social capital can underpin sustainable ci initiatives in rural communities. this requires an appreciation of the way social capital (in terms of trust, active relationships, participation and collaboration) is utilized to produce real changes in the social and economic life of the community. a rationale for a framework that brings together elements of diffusion of innovation, community development and capacity building, and social capital to provide a foundation for the effective implementation of sustainable ci initiatives is now provided. towards a framework for successful ci initiatives ci implementation needs to be facilitated by a prepared technical environment, but equally the target community needs to be ready to engage with the technology (easdown, 1997; gillard et al., 1996; the rural women and icts research team, 1999). a community’s receptiveness to a ci initiative is influenced by the extent to which the initiative matches the community’s aspirations, values and needs, or is perceived as contributing to the future well being of the community. community aspirations, values and needs, and a shared sense of the future well-being of the community are aspects of social capital. the extent to which social capital exists in a community is therefore a critical factor in the community’s receptiveness to ci initiatives and its acceptance of the technology, and consequently the likelihood of the ci initiative to succeed and be sustained (mannion, 1996).   effective planning for ci initiatives needs to assess and build on the level of social capital present in a community, and to incorporate strategies directed towards building community capacity from two perspectives. first, drawing on diffusion of innovations and community development, the two components of ‘soft technology’ and ‘social infrastructure’ assist in understanding how ci initiatives are diffused through capacity building. these components interact with one another, and with existing levels of social capital within the community, to encourage widespread uptake of the initiative by building the skills and confidence of individuals and by strengthening community networks and organisations. second, by understanding the construct ‘social capital’, ci initiatives can foster the type of capacity that is desirable or the elements present in (and necessary to) ‘resilient’ communities. elements such as pro-activity, a strong sense of community, and a shared vision for the future underpin a community’s willingness to ensure sustainability of ci initiatives. once accepted, a ci initiative has the potential to increase the levels of social capital in the community, by providing additional powerful forms of social infrastructure as for example in the use of the technology to expand access to both internal and external networks. recognition of these components provided the basis for the development of a conceptual framework (see figure 1 below) that emphasises the interplay between physical infrastructure, soft technologies, social infrastructure and social capital as critical elements in the foundation for effective implementation and sustainability of ci initiatives. an adequate framework that encompasses the complexity of ci initiatives therefore needs to incorporate the following key components: physical infrastructure and its location — the hard technology (e.g. telecommunications infrastructure) and the physical equipment (such as telephones and computers) and its location in the community. local access should take account of the local social norms that govern how various community members will interact with the technology in specific locations. this requires a diversity of access points to cater for differing needs, or ensuring that the access point has the flexibility to be used in diverse ways to meet differing needs. soft technology — the formal and informal activities including awareness raising, education and training, building leadership and providing opportunities for leadership to emerge, and other capacity building activities that develop the skills and knowledge required by community members to maximise the use of ict and to manage the ci initiative. social infrastructure — the structural arrangements including community organisations and institutions, networks, volunteerism, and community services and resources that enable individuals and groups to interact with one another. social capital — the intangible social features that are outcomes from interaction and participation in local and external networks such as a strong sense of community; shared values, norms and visions for the community; trust, reciprocity and cooperation; formal and informal leadership; and pro-activity.   figure 1   these elements are interwoven, and interact so that social capital both emerges from and feeds back into the community. communities that have high levels of social capital with an openness to change will engage in ongoing consideration of the opportunities to be derived from the ci initiative. the framework also acknowledges the cyclic nature and interplay between the various components, essential to successful ci initiatives where community needs and outcomes of ci initiatives are constantly being evaluated, re-evaluated and realigned. the need for a strong sense of community and high levels of social capital as essential to sustainable ci initiatives are also emphasised in the framework. equally, ci initiatives that foster widespread participation and social inclusion and enable greater interaction in local and external networks will contribute to a stronger sense of community and increased social capital, thereby ensuring greater potential for sustainability. conclusion ci initiatives are a significant component of the response required of rural communities to the growing importance of icts in daily life, particularly to minimise the impact of lack of access to icts for people subject to financial, structural and cultural constraints. understanding the role of social capital in the success of ci initiatives as community development actitivies and widespread adoption of icts can enhance the likelihood of the sustainability of the ci initiative, thereby increasing the benefits that the community may derive. a framework has been proposed that brings together key factors from theories of diffusion of innovation, community development and capacity building, and social capital for consideration when implementing ci initiatives. first, diffusion theory highlights the need for long term ict access, accompanied by adequate attention to how and where the ci initiative is located so that the environment can be adapted to meet the diverse needs of individuals and groups in the community, and to allow community members the opportunity to trial and explore the relevance of the technology. second, community development and capacity building emphasise the need for the ci initiative to include appropriate soft technologies, such as awareness raising, education and training, and building local, diverse leadership to support the uptake of the technology. these activities need to capitalize on the community’s social infrastructure, working with the widest variety of community groups and organisations to ensure that all those who stand to benefit from the ci initiative have the opportunity to become involved, both as a means of encouraging participation and as a source of support while skill and confidence is developed. ci initiatives themselves have the potential to become part of the social infrastructure of the community, providing fresh opportunities for bringing together diverse members of the community around the common purpose of engaging with ict. third, attention to the social capital implications of ci initiatives can enhance their contribution to the local community. by providing new forms of community organisation, interaction and interrelationships, ci initiatives can facilitate increased participation by a broad diversity of community members. the unique potential of ci initiatives to provide a new richness to communication – horizontal and vertical, internal and external to the community – increases the breadth and diversity of ties through increased participation, while exposing the community to a greater range of information, ideas and future options. increased participation in turn can facilitate trust and cooperation, and reciprocity. strengthening community bonds creates a stronger sense of community and a shared sense of future, and builds social capital. resilient communities with high levels of social capital will be more proactive in seeking ways to sustain the ci initiative. capacity-building models are increasingly guiding government policy and action and can have considerable benefit for communities if they are realistically implemented with adequate resourcing and careful consideration of the long-term impacts (both positive and negative). when resources are made available that build local ownership of the ci initiative and support the mobilisation of local effort, communities can be empowered to find and act upon their own sustainable solutions. thus, the sustainability of ci initiatives is largely dependent not only on the extent to which the project addresses community needs and issues, but also on the processes used to achieve this. a ‘top-down’ government initiative to supply limited term funding and staff to meet a perceived community need for technological access may have short term benefits, but is unlikely to strongly influence the growth of community capacity, or have positive long term effects on the social capital of that community unless the social aspects of the local environment are taken into account. projects must be designed in such a way that they are supported by soft technologies that help to build local capacity and leadership, 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(2001). the place of social capital in understanding social and economic outcomes. isuma: canadian journal of policy research, spring, 11–17.   assimilation by communities of internet technologies the journal of community informatics, (2004) vol. 1, issue 1, pp. 21-29 social appropriation of internet technology: a south african platform g. j. erwin cape peninsula university of technology < erwing@ctech.ac.za > w.j.taylor cape peninsula university of technology < taylorw@ctech.ac.za > abstract the social appropriation of internet technologies is emerging as a research and practice field called community informatics (ci). various research groups (for example australia, uk, canada, latin america, italy etc.) are contributing to government's gradual realisation that the enabling of communities with internet technologies can boost local economic and social development, as well as enhance personal empowerment. civil society digital inclusion, linked with world summit on the information society (wsis), is now seen as a necessary component of social development strategy. however, various attempts at such initiatives have met different forms of resistance and various levels of success. cape peninsula university of technology is establishing a research hub in cape town as part of the international cirn (community informatics research network). this project will aim to establish a research, teaching and community engagement platform in community informatics (the social appropriation of internet technologies for local benefit) which will link cape peninsula university of technology into a rapidly expanding international area of research and teaching as well as putting it into a national leadership position. outputs will include demonstrated linkages with local, national and international community informatics efforts, the establishment of local projects and entities, the establishment of courses, the attraction of undergraduate and post graduate students, a profile with national and international funding agencies, publications, funding proposals, internal agency recognition in research and teaching, a program of high profile and internationally recognised visiting research fellows and academic sabbaticals. this paper discusses activities towards this south african initiative and experience elsewhere. mailto:erwing@ctech.ac.za mailto:taylorw@ctech.ac.za 22 the journal of community informatics introduction and background information and communication technologies (icts) are posing fundamental questions for society, government and commerce in economic, social, educational, cultural and democratic processes within and across nation states in terms of access, equity and security. electronic networks which can operate both inside and outside of nation states with hitherto unknown volume and velocity are challenging and changing the architecture of governance, power and culture (bollier, 2003, coleman and gotze, 2002; rheingold, 2004 ) many governments and global agencies have recognised the growing issues associated with inequitable ict access and have provided funded programs aimed at addressing specific needs within nation states. however, there is growing evidence that many of these programs have failed to deliver on their desired aims and that the societal and community-based disadvantages resulting from uneven societal adoption of icts are growing (see for example pigg, 1998; hewitt and pinder 2003; clement, 2000; gurstein 2003a, 2003b). there is now increased understanding that the provision of icts access, either high or low capacity, through government and private sector efforts by itself is insufficient to address the substantial concerns that face society as a direct result of icts (gurstein, 2003a; pinder and hewitt, 2002). further, growing experience across the world in the application of icts in the provision of government services (known as e-government), is showing that the electronic provision of government information and service as for example, through currently available physical ict access within particular communities, does not appear to be sufficient to meet the broad challenges governments must address for individual societies to move forward in the information economy (hewitt and pinder, 2003). in almost all jurisdictions across the world, the take up of electronically enabled government services has been well below expectations even in situations where there are high levels of income, education and internet connection across their populations (bertucci, 2003; dutta, lanvin and paua, 2003; riley, 2003a; rohleder and jupp, 2003; west, 2003). fundamental to these issues is the recognition of concepts of: • effective use as opposed to access (whether this is based around physical, attitudinal, educational, disability, cultural, or integration concepts) • civil society and a new contract that binds civil society, public and private sectors into a value matrix (brussels-eu chapter of the club of rome and factor 10 institute, 2002) these issues provide substantial challenges for the traditional and familiar forms of governance and business education, as well as for issues related to the form and function of service delivery and forms of engagement with citizens, the private sector and civil society. the traditional incrementalist and efficiencybased approaches within specialist agency structures are now under pressure from increasingly ubiquitous ict applications that have little respect for professional, organisational, nation state, social or cultural boundaries. in recognizing these issues and their impacts on the developing world the united nations (un) through the international telecommunications union (itu) delivered the first world summit on the information society (wsis; http://www.itu.int/wsis ) in geneva in december 2003. fundamental to this event and the planning for the next wsis in tunis 2005, is the recognition of the concept of civil society alongside business and government as a triumvirate to deal with the huge problems of inequity that icts are delivering across the world. in defining responsibility for civil society, planning processes have clearly defined higher education as an essential leader. the emerging context for social appropriation of icts icts are simultaneously both incrementally and fundamentally changing the working, social and personal lives of many people in developed countries and developing countries alike. the technologically deterministic view of ict diffusion, particularly in the development of e-government, is now being http://www.itu.int/wsis assimilation by communities 23 challenged. as the many examinations of ‘e-readiness’ are finding, the major current impediments to adoption of e-government are in the demand and the aggregation of supply and demand domains. many of the ict applications developed for organizational use have not been successfully embedded into the demand and demand aggregation domains and are being found wanting in such areas. hence the social appropriation of icts refers to the duality of redefining application design and of embedding the technology in social processes in civil society (for example see surman and riley, 2003). in short it is about customer-driven technology. in beginning to examine the emerging frame for icts in a societal sense as opposed to a technology or organizational-efficiency lens, it is useful to consider the comparatively recent evolution of information systems (is) as a discipline and its alignment with management information systems (mis). this can then act as a basis for examining the emergence of community informatics systems (cis) and civil society (cs) as a key area of the information society. is has been the overarching term used to describe the information software systems used for organisational applications. the traditional discipline of information systems is currently undergoing a major evolutionary step into societal applications; as opposed to organizational applications in business, education and service delivery. harris (2002) has proposed a discussion framework for the emergence of information systems as a discipline (see table i). while the time frames therein can be considered approximate, depending upon location, and the descriptors used are unnecessarily prescriptive harris does, nonetheless, chart a development base for information systems as a discipline. the point that the information systems discipline is now increasingly moving outside of organisational boundaries and into society is also made. this society domain is much more difficult to define in terms of both form and function at the operational level. in doing so, information systems is mixing with hitherto separate and unfamiliar disciplines that include community engagement. dominant technology information systems locus work group focus dominant referent discipline scope 1960–70 main frame computers electronic data processing clerical staff computer science the organisation 1970–80 mini-computers management information systems managers management 1980–90 personal computers end user computing knowledge workers organisational behaviour 1990–2000 networks strategic information systems shareholders economics and marketing 2000 the internet community informatics citizens social science society table i: information systems as an emerging discipline source: harris (2002) the term community informatics (gurstein, 2000) has recently emerged to describe the use of icts for local community benefit and more recently, international researchers and funding agencies have moved towards the term community informatics systems (cis) as a parallel for management information systems (mis). cis is an emerging area of practice, teaching and research that fits within an information society framework alongside the more traditional areas of business, technology, government service delivery and contemporary communication. there are several very distinct differences between mis and cis approaches. community informatics systems focus on distributed systems and not aggregated ones. cis favours collaboration over competition and sharing over hoarding. cis is based on a premise of active interaction in the development, use and appropriation of the systems, compared to mis which is predominantly based on a passive consumption of service offerings (gurstein, 2003b). 24 the journal of community informatics the role of higher education there have been increasing calls over recent times for universities to recognise their responsibilities in regard to life long learning in their communities (cumpston et al., 2001; garlick, 1998; gronski & pigg, 2000; harkavy, 1998; nyden, 2001; rice, 1996). in particular, there is discussion on the role of higher education in providing capacity to communities to address the imbalances between the private, public and the community sectors in the basic operations of a democratic society; facilitating an attitudinal change in graduates towards community service; and in aligning some of their research programs to address ‘real’ issues confronting particular communities (garlick, 1998; gronski & pigg, 2000; harkavy, 1998; nyden, 2001; nyden et al., 1997; schuler, 1997, 2001). underlying these issues is a fundamental challenge to universities to revisit the issues of plurality and local relevance from whence many of them have come (rice, 1996). ci goes to the very heart of these above mentioned calls because effective communication at the community level is the collective base for learning which combines science with practice as an essential core component. in recognition of the importance of readdressing this leadership vacuum in the united states, more than 850 universities have joined the university compact (http://compact.org) with the overarching aim of building social responsibility into teaching and research in order to better equip their graduates and society for an increasingly positive engagement in shaping their collective community futures. the social appropriation of icts quite clearly has a very important role in achieving these aims and is vital to effective self reliance in the developing world. such matters are increasingly being recognized across the developed and developing world including significant examples of university/community partnerships for the social appropriation of icts and community informatics research to determine the key issues that will allow communities to become more self-reliant in the digital exist in both situations. the work of the coin internet academy (http://capricornia.org) and the centre for community networking research (http://www.ccnr.net.au ) in australia, the canadian research alliance for community and innovative networking (cracin; http://www.cracin.ca), the community network analysis project in brighton uk (http://www.cna.org.uk/) are examples of the research based approaches that a number of universities are taking to examine the social appropriation of icts and community informatics. such activities form the basis of the community informatics research network (cirn; http://www.ciresearch.net) which involves more than 200 researchers from more than 20 countries to coordinate, share and develop useful research that will complement the enormous energy that has been applied to the organizational appropriation of icts in government and business across the world. key elements in the social appropriation of icts taylor (2004) shows key elements for ci policy, praxis and research: • ict competency as an essential life skill • trust • discontinuity of ict adoption • collaboration of civil society, government and business sectors • perceived relevance • information granularity • spatial dimension • assessment, policy and research in preparing for the next phase of the emerging ict-enabled environment, a new social contract is required that binds and partners civil, private and public sectors in delivering social inclusion and social cohesion in ways that strengthen economic, social and cultural benefit in the information society. in the context of the information society, as defined by the united nations and its related international bodies and task forces, the emergence of a construct of civil society is clearly the preferred option for all of http://compact.org/ http://capricornia.org/ http://www.ccnr.net.au/ http://www.cna.org.uk/ http://www.ciresearch.net/ assimilation by communities 25 the significant international bodies with an interest in broad-based access to, and the effective use of icts (birch, 2003; bloem, guerra, krebs and lassonde, 2004; o’siochru and constanza-hock, 2003; thompson, 2004; wsis, 2003; wsis civil society plenary, 2003). tentative first steps have been taken in this regard in australia with the formation in 2003 of the roundtable for australian civil society (racs, 2003) to develop and deliver a statement from australian civil society to the world summit on the information society (wsis). equally in this context, governments should aim to achieve the considerable public value which could be realized from representing themselves as members of networks instead of levels of hierarchies. in putting forward such a distributed agenda of participation and involvement, there is a need for both a recognisable form, through a visible and supported structure, and function, through a distributed research and policy development capacity. such a forum/academy should sit alongside government and act as: • an open channel for discussion • a primary developer of relevant inputs to policy • a coordinator and evaluator of research, and • an alliance builder with relevant international efforts. this approach will provide the means to continually advance a ‘joined up’ agenda which recognises the needs of various societal layers or segments, the value of participation in gaining increased effective use of icts and the high costs of retro-designing for ubiquitous electronic interaction. the vision for ci @ cape peninsula university of technology cape peninsula university of technology has established a business applied research centre (barc) to align its research energies and graduate competencies with national and regional business and community needs. under the umbrella of a (south africa) national research foundation (nrf) research niche area for e-commerce in small medium and micro enterprises,(smmes), many projects are running, including those in the fields of health informatics for small/medium medical practices, success metrics for e-commerce smmes and adoption of e-commerce by smmes. these projects are clearly aligned with a community informatics theme for empowering local communities using information and communication technologies (icts). the new initiative in joining and contributing to cirn will supply strong focus on the emergence of icts into civil society issues, such as poverty alleviation, policy formulation and reduction of employment. these efforts will attract partners throughout africa. another cape peninsula university of technology initiative called e-ikamva has already begun as a pilot project to provide access to skills training and technology for disadvantaged residents of cape townships as a step towards economic self-sufficiency from small business operation. the large group of researchers in cirn (community informatics research network, internationally and now in cape town) will work with cape peninsula university of technology to create a model community informatics post-graduate curriculum suitable for masters and ph.d students, as well as short courses in ci for community practitioners and policy makers. the process of development of the curriculum will be one which both transfers international experience (research and practice) and works with local communities and community technology practitioners to reflect local needs as understood and articulated by the diverse range of local south african communities as they are given an opportunity to engage with and appropriate icts. the developed curriculum and student learning will link into a range of community based technology initiatives within a context of community informatics research. in this way student learning will both incorporate the highest level of academic/professional content and a direct experience and involvement in community-based technology practice. the development of these programs will be sensitive to the requirements for community specific cultural, linguistic, and gender applications. 26 the journal of community informatics an element of this approach will be that cape peninsula university of technology students will have access to a range of learning and research opportunities both direct and electronically mediated with the other centres worldwide currently active in the cirn network. staff and student exchanges on communitybased projects and research will be targeted. among the areas that will be included in cape peninsula university of technology’s ci approach are: • community research methodologies • approaches and methodologies for ci sensitive policy analysis and development • the development of contextual community responsive technology, and • strategies for effective use of icts within a community practice context. other significant aspects of the community informatics approach include the development of strategies for the analysis of community and social requirements for designing community based processes of technology appropriation and planning; technology program planning and outcomes evaluation research. professor taylor, a co-author, has been instrumental in launching successful ci initiatives in australia and elsewhere. his experience and cirn contacts form a platform for ci to become a community-focused research hub at cape peninsula university of technology. his several visits to south africa have already enabled him to assess the resources, partnerships and goals of the community informatics project based at cape peninsula university of technology. partnerships with government, civil society, business and industry are being sought to develop this ci focus for the empowerment of local communities via icts using barc and other bodies as vehicles. cape peninsula university of technology and peninsula technikon are merging in january 2005 to form the cape peninsula university of technology (cput). community informatics will form a strong central component of cput’s future vision. the purpose of a university is to protect and develop society by producing active, skilled citizens with adaptability and entrepreneurial approaches. community informatics supports this purpose directly. assimilation by communities 27 references bertucci. g. 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(2004) building smart communities for the information age. putting people at the centre of the information society (ppacis). coin internet academy, central queensland university. taylor, w. and marshall, s. (2004) community informatics systems: a meeting place for useful research. in p. day and d. schuler (eds) community practice in the network society: local action/global interaction. london, routledge. forthcoming thompson, i. (2004) a report on world summit on the information society. pers. comm. ian thomson [ithomson@lycos.com]. ward. m. (2004). what the net did next. bbc news. 1st january. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr//2/hi/technology/3292043.stm . accessed march 2004. west. d.m. 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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/3292043.stm . accessed march 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/3292043.stm . accessed march 2004 http://www.insidepolitics.org/egovt03int.html http://itu.int/wsis http://itu.int/wsis communities, technologies and participation: notes from c&t 2009 communities, technologies and participation: notes from c&t 2009 joe mccarthy strands labs seattle participation was the overriding theme at the 4th international conference on communities and technologies (c&t 2009) held at penn state university in state college, pennsylvania at the end of june. we can design and deploy technology to support a community, but how do we truly engage that community and motivate its members to participate? the approximately 125 attendees presented and discussed a number of ways to encourage greater participation especially civic participation over the course of the 3-day conference (and the preceding day-long workshops). one way some participants at the conference have broadened potential engagement via technology within the c&t community is through the use of social media: a number of presenters have uploaded their c&t 2009 slides to slideshare (tagged with cct2009), a number of photographers have uploaded their c&t 2009 photos to flickr (tagged with cct2009) ... and a number of tweets from / to / about the conference can be found via the #cct2009 hashtag on twitter. i hope i am further broading participation by sharing these notes. david mcdonald opened up the conference with an engaging keynote in which he introduced the new u.s. national science foundation (nsf) program on social-computational systems (socs), which promotes an agenda of embedding more social intelligence into computational systems. the idea is to combine collective human intelligence with socially intelligent computing, making computers first-class participants in a new breed of emergent intelligence. although he stipulated that the intention is to "let people do what people do best, and let computers do what computers do best", i got the distinct impression that one goal of the program is to render unto computers what is social ... which may lead to the [unintended] consequence of rendering unto humans what is computational. as a former ai researcher, who believes that a little ai goes a long way and a lot of ai often goes a short way i am, no doubt, rather biased (and perhaps jaded). in any case, the program strikes me as a resurgence of strong ai in hci clothing (and others voiced concerns about the prospective domination of computers in this proposed partnership during the q&a after his talk). on a lighter note, dave began his talk with an amusing delineation of the "four stages of 'invited' talk" idealism & excitement, realization, despair, and finally, resolution and proceeded to highlight the stages of nsf sponsorship of communities and technologies over the years. he noted that many communities arise as a side effect someone tries something, people like it, and form a community around it (reminding me of the notion of object-centered sociality) and posed a thought experiment to encourage us to think about charting new applications of community (and technology) ... i found his idea of flightbagwatch.com where voyeurs might login and help conduct bag inspections at the transportation security administration (tsa) x-ray machines in u.s. airports (reminding me of the texas border watch program) particularly provocative. in the first paper session i attended at the conference, marla boughton presented "supportive communication, sense of virtual community and health outcomes in online infertility groups", in which she looked at the differing impacts on the sense of virtual community (sovc) offered by emotional vs. informational support in an online infertility support group. observing emotional support by members of the community turned out to be the most significant positive factor surprisingly, even more than providing or receiving emotional support in sovc ("'tis better to observe than to give or receive" (?!)) while observing informational support turned out to be the most significant negative correlation in sovc (i forget whether she reported on giving / receiving informational support). dana rotman shared some observations and insights into the world of video blogging ("vlogging") in "the community is where the rapport is on sense and structure in the youtube community" [slides]. grounded theory analysis of users' feelings and interaction patterns revealed repeated themes, among which was the distinction between youtubers (people who post vlogs) and tourists (who don't). she found that comments constituted the "most important interaction mechanism", a finding very much in alignment with my own thinking and blogging about comments as validation (or as my friend noah kagan so pithily put it, "comments make me orgasm"). this finding was particularly interesting given that she also found considerable ambivalence in the vlogger community about whether people who [only] post comments qualify as full-fledged youtubers or mere tourists (and i find the ambivalence all the more interesting given my own musings about whether bloggers are more likely to post comments on other blogs than non-bloggers). other interesting findings include what she called triangulation vloggers expose their thoughts, feelings and face and [so] comments are all based around an individual (vs. community bulletin board, forum) and the preference of gmail over youtube's own direct 1:1 communication mechanisms. in addition to stimulating content of dana's talk, the form of her slides using a tag cloud for the slide titles was very creative, so i highly recommend viewing them on slideshare. pnina shachaf reported an experiment on "answer quality on the wikipedia reference desk" [paper | slides], in which she compared the the quality of answers produced [collectively] on the wikipedia reference desk (wrd) to those produced by individual professional reference librarians. the experiment was motivated by an interesting series of responses to a question she posted on the wrd asking about the prefix following pico(one trillionth) in the international system of units, (it is femto-, one quadrillionth) and the discussion about linguistic origins of that term which followed. the collective wisdom of wrd on this topic was vacillating back and forth between spanish and italian (and the professional librarian she consulted also posited one of these two sources i forget which), but eventually, over the course of discussions in wrd, the danish origin of the word was established. other motivations include andrew keen's scree against wikipedia and other forms of social media, the cult of the amateur, and the ongoing debate(s) about the relative accuracy of wikipedia vs. more traditional encyclopedias. pnina decided to conduct an experiment to test the relative quality of wrd vs. professional reference librarians more rigorously. using nvivo 7 for the content analysis of 434 messages involving 77 transactions (where a transaction = a question + one or more answers) among 170 unique users (of whom 122 were "seasoned" wikipedia users), she found that wikipedia is generally doing as well or better than professional librarians. in particular, wrd was, on average, more responsive (4 hours vs. 18-21 hours), more complete (63% vs. 47%), and verifiable (88% vs. 53%) than professional librarians. the accuracy was the same (55%), and the explicit satisfaction as measured by messages of unsolicited thanks was similar (20% vs. 16-20%) [and i'll pass on the opportunity to extend this into an unsolicited rant about how many people are, or appear to be, so ungrateful (ubiquitous ingratitude?) ... a topic i've previously ranted about in the context of community, football and food).] among the possible explanations she gave for the relatively high quality of wrd answers were: technology (interactive nature of wrd), the likelihood that many wrd volunteers have relevant professional background, type types of questions asked on wrd, and the collaborative nature of social reference, i.e., what she called amalgamated answers iterative elaborations by both the requester and the responders (wrd questions generated an average of 4.6 responses). lev gonick gave the second keynote of the conference, "from digital campus to connected community", providing an overview of the onecommunity project that he is helping to lead in cleveland, ohio. as with with the earlier keynote, lev led off with some light-hearted fare a satirical "hastily made cleveland tourism video" ... which either inspired or was inspired by a contest for a positive hastily made tourism video ... the former has been viewed over 2m times ... approximately 2000 times more than the winning entry of the positive videos. lev proceeded to show a photo of the earth taken during the apollo 11 mission in july 1969 ([similar to that] shown on the left), noting that this photo produced a new cognitive map of what place meant [i found myself musing on the term "placemeant"], and what community meant as did another momentous though more terrestrial (but perhaps transcendental for some) event in 1969 (woodstock) and how a more recent map of the internet ([similar to that] shown on the right) similarly [re]frames our conception of community ... at least within the context of a conference on communities and technologies. continuing the progression from the larger to the smaller, and from more abstract to more concrete, lev devoted much of the rest of his talk to describing onecommunity: onecommunity is a connected-community venture, informed by a mission to be a big bold 21st-century community-oriented project that delivers advanced information technology capabilities to achieve community priorities for economic development, learning, job training, research support, preeminence and distinction. as the cio of onecommunity, he emphasized the importance of technology infrastructure (the "glue") but also highlighted that the challenge for us (technologists) is to find a way to get out of the way (of the community that will be using the technology) ... rather than indulging our fondness for complexity, a fondness which is not generally shared by "joe sixpack". onecommunity is partnering with non-industry organizations (universities, libraries, hospitals) so that they can more effectively give away control in community networking projects, which he sees as an essential element in their prospects for success. impactful community applications developed thus far in the 5 year old project have focused on health and education, including a green computing initiative to collect, refurbish and re-install computers in cleveland schools, and oneclassroom, a collaboration between cleveland schools and the cleveland clinic to provide students with remote birds-eye views of and interaction opportunities with those engaged in surgical procedures conducted at the clinic. during the q&a session that followed, some of the questions revolved around the issue of the sharp economic decline that cleveland has suffered in recent years (which was reflected in the video shown at the outset). acknowledging this, lev noted that "we start from pain" and "progress can be measured directly proportional to the real or perceived state of crisis". doug schuler gave a talk in the following session on "communities, technology, and civic intelligence" in which he defined civic intelligence as "how smart a society is as-a-whole in relation to its problems". given the increasing economic, environmental and social problems we are witnessing, posed the timely and provocative question: "will we be smart enough, soon enough?" in contrast to tim o'reilly's framing of web 2.0 as a business revolution, harnessing collective intelligence, doug suggested that civic intelligence represents a social revolution in communication, enhancing civic intelligence ... and [so] we have to choose whether we want to promote a paradigm of people in service to the computer industry vs. the computer industry in service to people. doug finished off with a couple of plugs for the public sphere project and a new book based on one of the project's latest areas of focus, liberating voices: a pattern language for communication revolution and an exhortation: don't rely on the emergence of civic intelligence as a side effect. karim lakhani opened up the second day of the conference with a keynote on "knowledge reuse and novelty in community settings", in which he offered some interesting insights into and experiences with collaborative and competitive projects, as well as some that represented a combination of the two approaches. karim offered wikipedia ("the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit") as an example of collaborative endeavors, innocentive (where seekers post challenges and solvers compete to produce and be paid for the best solutions) as an example of competitive endeavors, and threadless (where t-shirt designs are submitted and scored by a community of mutually supportive designers) as a middle ground. he claimed that similar motivations appear to be at work for both competitive and cooperative efforts, and has been investigating the relative costs and benefits of each approach in a series of experiments. one such experiment that represents a mixture of competitive and cooperative processes was a one-week matlab "wiki-like" programming contest in which the rules specified that participants could view and modify each others' code and see each others' relative standings (though i'm not sure how these standings were computed e.g., via explicit voting or via more implicit [re]use of code). the contest generated 4402 entries, of which 181 were leaders at some point. the winning entry was based on code borrowed by 30 other participants. one of my favorite quotes from the presentation not sure if it was from karim or the winning contestant was "a successful competitor is a creator, a recycler and a talent scout." in assessing the factors that lead to success in such a contest, karim and his colleagues found 3 factors that positively correlated with individual success: contributing new knowledge (knowledge = code), combining existing knowledge in novel ways and conformance (which, i believe, relates to the adherence of the code to stylistic guidelines). 2 factors not correlated with individual success were complexity and using existing knowledge (presumably without novel contributions), though these 2 factors along with the other 3 were positively correlated with collective success ... i believe the non-novel use of existing knowledge may contribute to collective success due to the implicit voting represented by the use of that knowledge ... but i must admit that i fell behind in my notes, so i'm not sure about some of these details. the rewards for the matlab experiment were fame, glory and a t-shirt. a second experiment was run within the topcoder platform (which provides financial incentives to winners, as well as a coveted "topcoder rating" which acts as an unofficial certification used by many software companies in their assessment of candidates), using a problem in computational biology. participants were partitioned into three "treaments": full competitive, full collaborative and hybrid. the collaborative treatment resulted in the fewest entries, lowest effort and best performance (possibly surpassing the state of the art in computational biology); the competitive treatment resulted in the most entries, highest effort, and worst performance; the hybrid treatment, as one might expect, had results between these two extremes. during the q&a, karim noted noted that most competitive systems operate despite massive failure rates, and [so] learning, signaling and intrinsic motivations are important factors. among the gems contributed by the audience were ben shneiderman's recommendation of alfie kohn's book, no contest: the case against competition (or perhaps he was referring to kohn's essay with the same title ... which should not be confused with karim's earlier reference to an article in nature by marek kohn, the needs of the many), and jenny preece's observation that we should be mindful of cultural differences, e.g., americans tend to be very individualistic and thus more competitive than people from other cultures. [note: paul resnick has also posted some notes on karim's keynote.] mary beth rosson presented "wconnect: a facebook-based developmental learning community to support women in information technology", in which she shared some lessons she and her colleagues learned in developing an online community to support the development of women in computer and information sciences. they started out using bridgetools to create the first version of wconnect, which, while not very successful, helped them understand that they had to "embed wconnect activities within social activities that members enjoy in their everyday lives, and use those interactions to bootstrap the developmental learning community" (as opposed to a "build it and they will come" approach). their second version used facebook groups which simplified many aspects (especially programming), but introduced a number of complications as well, e.g., limited customization, concerns about privacy, marginalization of wconnect members who were not [active] facebook members, and the merging of personal and professional identities. one of the challenges they faced was how to lower the barriers to enrollment and authentication, while ensuring that only members of their target community women who are in or thinking about careers in computer and information sciences have access. bridget blodgett gave a talk entitled "and the ringleaders were banned: an examination of protest in virtual worlds", offering a brief history of virtual world protests, starting with reactions to a 1993 cyberrape in lambdamoo, a text-only virtual world, to more recent social uprisings in modern 3d virtual worlds including eve online and ultima online (i was surprised to discover that there is so much criticism of ultima online, the topic has its own wikipedia page!). my favorite example was one that bridged gaps between online and offline: protests against ibm in second life (i was slightly less surprised to discover there is an entire blog devoted to the movement ... and even less surprised to find a youtube video). in the fall of 2007, ibm removed bonuses and reduced wages for unionized italian employees, who then went on strike in second life (sl), recruited up to 2000 virtual protesters from all over the world (including bananas and triangles, as well as more human-like avatars), managed to shut down ibm islands in sl, and disrupt ibm business (a real ibm meeting in sl). from what i can gather, the protest achieved its goals (in real life), and there is even a sl museum dedicated to the protest. the other examples of protests bridget shared were all against companies that host virtual worlds. ibm is a global company with a large stake in the physical world, although i should note that ibm has been very active in second life (and a recent report suggests that it has reaped a significant roi through its use of second life). given my longstanding misgivings about the pervasiveness and permeability of games worlds (not that sl is, strictly speaking, a game), i was heartened to see participation in a virtual world yield positive impact in the real world. speaking of online and offline participation, the next session i attended was a panel on "making participation a priority", moderated by ben shneiderman, in which gerhard fischer, jenny preece and marc smith shared their perspectives on participation. ben led off with a challenge: to become [more] politically engaged. he cited an office of science and technology policy (ostp) blog post about strengthening civic participation, the national initiative on social participation he recently instigated, and concluded with a proposal that everyone [at the conference] should dedicate 2 hours per week for outreach to other communities to promote civic participation. gerhard invoked stephen jay gould's notion of punctuated equilibrium, saying we are in a time of fundamental transformation, in which we are shifting from a culture of passive consumption to a culture of participation. he concluded with an invitation to rethink education, referencing the classic book by ivan illich, deschooling society, in which schools and universities were described as reproductive organs of a consumer society, and [implicitly?] suggesting that we recast our educational institutions as reproductive organs of a participatory culture. jenny led off with a [widely shared] complaint about the mainstream media's news coverage of the death of michael jackson eclipsing all other news (e.g., the protests over elections in iran), talked about her efforts to get students to work not just collaboratively on participatory projects but to choose projects that have impact on outside communities,  proposed criteria for the initiation of future projects will your project live on after you're done and continue giving value to a community? and closed with an exhortation to make all projects international. marc offered some cautionary counterperspective, channeling howard rheingold's observation that a smart mob does not necessarily mean a wise mob, noting that not all participation is good "openness is an attractive idea until it lets in something you're not attracted to" and warning that the masses are fickle and have short attention spans (later, during dinner, he shared another great quote: "the first of the great operations of discipline is [to] . . . transform the confused, useless or dangerous multitudes into ordered multiplicities" by michel foucault, discipline and punish). during the audience participation portion of this panel on participation, jack carroll the chair of c&t 2009 voiced further caution, noting that those who have been conducting research into communities and technologies [in the u.s.] have benefited from being funded like computer scientists, and asking "if we succeed in making social participation an important component of future research, will we be funded like sociologists?" [sociology research receives far less funding in the u.s. than computer science research.] this observation may well be part of the what is driving some of the computational prioritization in the nsf program that dave mcdonald had introduced in his opening keynote. shelly farnham attempted to shift the conversation back toward a more positive perspective, noting that while there are some risks to broadening the scope of participation, greater participation is, generally speaking, a good thing. [update: ben has since pointed me to a recent article he and jenny have coauthored and about which marc has blogged that provides much more information on some of the topics discussed in the panel, exploring the progression from reader to contributor to collaborator to leader for [some] users of social media. i'll include a graphic representation of the reader-to-leader framework (figure 1 from the paper (also included in marc's blog post)) and a reference to the full paper below: preece, jennifer and shneiderman, ben (2009) "the reader-to-leader framework: motivating technology-mediated social participation," ais transactions on human-computer interaction (1) 1, pp. 13-32. available at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/thci/vol1/iss1/5.] the next day started off with a panel on "community technology to support geographically-based communities", moderated by marcus foth (who co-organized the digital cities 6 workshop at c&t 2009 and will be chairing c&t 2011), and included paul resnick, fiorella de cindio, keith hampton and me. paul talked about ride sharing, offering many interesting observations, insights and photos of the practices surrounding slugging (casual carpooling) in u.s. cities, including "slugging etiquette", in which casual carpool riders are expected not to talk to the drivers who pick them up (reminding me of elevator etiquette, and a report i once heard about inuit culture, in which facing away from the center of an igloo or tent indicates that the ensuing conversation should be interpreted as private i.e., not [over]heard by other people sharing the space). fiorella presented some examples of online communities that support real-world geographic communities, including web sites such as fixmystreet, a uk site where people can report potholes and other infrastructural problems in a metropolitan area, and check back to see whether / when the problems have been addressed. keith offered a whirlwind overview of a keynote on "new media and the structure of community in private, public and parochial spaces" he'd just presented at the communicative cities conference ("integrating technology and place"). unfortunately, as i was the next panelist up, i have don't have any notes from his panel presentation but i will include several notes from his subsequent presentation in the next paper session at the conference. i presented three examples of work that i have been involved in using proactive displays large displays that can sense and respond in contextually appropriate ways to the people who are nearby to enhance community in shared physical spaces: at the ubicomp 2003 conference in seattle, at the office of nokia research center palo alto, and most recently, in a number of coffeehouses and other "third places" around seattle. i also intended to provoke some discussion by contrasting mobile vs. situated, place vs. space and online vs. offline ... but we didn't have much time for questions by the end of our opening remarks. in the spirit of walking the talk of encouraging people to post slides of their presentations at c&t 2009, i've posted my slides from the panel on slideshare. there was time for a few questions, but unfortunately, i did not take careful notes. the only thing i remember from the q&a session was doug schuler urging us not to forget the importance of human animation, citing as an example a woman in one of his classes [at the evergreen state college in olympia, washington] last semester who always got people talking on her bus (which sounds like a great example of civic participation, but i wondered how the practice was perceived by other bus riders ... and whether there is such a thing as bus etiquette). the next session i attended was a set of papers on placed community, [also] chaired by marcus foth. keith hampton led off this session with "the social life of wireless urban spaces: internet use, social networks, and the public realm", a project in which keith and his colleagues followed in the footsteps of william whyte's classic work (and book (and video)) on "the social life of small urban spaces" to see how the introduction of wifi into these spaces affects their usage(s). keith noted a confluence of trends that constrain diversity: homogeneity within the mass media, privatism, and changes to the physical form and use of urban public spaces. he defined three "realms" of social interaction that affect the public sphere: private (the home), parochial (neighborhoods, workplaces, and many third places, where people are generally familiar with other inhabitants of the space) and public (parks, plazas and other public spaces, where people are generally not familiar with many of their co-inhabitants). whyte's insightful studies were conducted in an era before the internet, and before the advent of portable devices that could be used to connect to and through the internet, such as mobile phones and laptop computers, so keith and his colleagues set out to see how these recent technological developments have affected the social life of these small urban spaces. keith distinguished between co-located acquaintanceships (people sharing and interacting in physical space) and copresent acquaintanceships (people interacting online with others who whom they are not sharing physical space). among the interesting findings: 10% of the people using wireless internet in public spaces were observed to have an extended interaction with a stranger, compared with 13% of people people using more traditional media (books, newspapers), 5% of people using mobile phones, and 0% of people using portable music players, making ipods the most effective portable involvement shields. however, 24% of wireless internet users were "infrequently attentive" to their surroundings, compared to 15% of print media users, 10% of portable music device users, 7% of portable gaming device users and 3% of mobile phone users. in close observations of the wireiess internet use and keith showed a number of fabulous photos showing just how close his observers were able to get to their subjects it appeared that 29% visited a social networking website, 8% contributed to a blog, and 43% consumed online news or political information. there is a considerable amount of research into and controversy about the impact of internet use on society and culture, with some claiming that internet use erodes the sense of community while others claiming that it enhances the sense of community. keith cited a 2006 study by mcpherson, et al., "social isolation in america: changes in core discussion networks over two decades", showing that the average american had an average of 2.08 people with whom he / she discusses important matters, and 24.6% of americans have no such "discussion ties" at all. although wireless internet users may interact less with co-located people in public settings, they enjoy an average of 3.82 discussion ties, and only 3.5% report having no discussion ties. one possible explanation keith offered for this was that wireless internet use may better balance opposition and like-mindedness to maximize tolerance, deliberation and discursive participation than exposure to provocative and contested public settings. in concluding his presentation, keith noted that public spaces do not appear to constitute a public realm for wireless internet users, but may offer new opportunities for engagement with copresent but not co-located others in the public sphere ... and while serendipity is nice, it probably is not vital to a public space. unfortunately, due to my frantic last-minute preparations for my own presentation at the end of the session, i do not have any notes from the second presentation "facilitating participatory decision-making in local communities through map-based online discussion", by bo yu. my presentation was on "supporting community in third places with situated social software" (and i've posted the slides on slideshare), in which i reported on some studies we conducted on the adoption, use and impact of our community collage (cocollage) application a system that shows a dynamic collage of photos and quotes uploaded to a web site by cafe patrons and staff on a large computer display in the cafe, providing a new channel for awareness, interactions and relationships among people co-located there. in his influential book, "the great good place: cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons, and other hangouts at the heart of a community", the sociologist ray oldenburg distinguishes third places from first places (home) and second places (work), characterizing them as "'homes away from home' where unrelated people relate", offering access to the "full spectrum of local humanity" in environments that foster inclusive sociability and ease of association. general purpose technology particularly laptops with wifi connections has negatively impacted the sociability in many such places in the u.s., leading some coffeehouses to turn off their wifi access points on weekends. cocollage was designed for the specific situation of a third place, leveraging existing offline "technologies" in such places (photos, art, sketches, posters, flyers) to bring some of the richness of online social networks into the physical spaces we share with others. the paper presents some results of a study showing that cocollage had a significant impact on the dependency component of place attachment (the extent to which people rely on the cafe to have their needs met) and the neighboring component of sense of community (the extent to which people visit each others' homes and do each other favors), and includes a number of examples of open text responses to survey questions asking what people like and don't like about cocollage. the final keynote of the conference was by mark finkle, a community evangelist at mozilla, on "mozilla: working with the community", in which he distinguished between the mozilla foundation (guidance), the mozilla corporation (thrust), and the mozilla community (fuel). mark said that mozilla wants to push forward an agenda that is not corporate, but advocates for end users. he offered the following interesting statistics about mozilla's community of communities: 300m+ users 22% market share 3k+ community-contributed extensions 70+ languages (and growing) 1600 contributors to code base (40% of code) 1000s of volunteers and evangelists 150+ employees (no sales) highly distributed (e.g., mark works out of state college) one of the most interesting statistics mark mentioned was that new beta releases of firefox attract a community of 800,000 volunteer testers, or 0.25% of the user population (!). dan mccomb recently pointed me to a fabulous series of blog posts on community by the numbers, and i've been thinking a lot about how many active members a community needs to be successful (and how to define "active" ... and "successful"), so this provided a useful data point. mark shared a number of lessons he has learned from the mozilla approach to "design by community", emphasizing the needs to listen to the community, lead the community and let the community play and explore. one of mark's observations about etiquette "be respectful until you're respected" drew a large number of questions from some in the audience during the q&a session; mark clarified that he didn't mean to imply that one should no longer be respectful after one has become respected. one of the things i like about the communities and technologies conferences is that they represent a community of communities, but in a more intimate setting than, say, the much larger, multi-track chi conferences. however, i should note that, due to the dual track nature of the conference, i only saw (and am thus only sharing notes on) about half the paper presentations, and so i want to offer my apologies to all the other authors who were presenting work at the conference even with only two tracks, every session required a tough decision. i also want to offer my thanks to the conference chair, jack carroll, the program committee, student volunteers, presenters and other participants for co-creating a great conference! i enjoyed meeting and reconnecting with a number of remarkable people, and as i hope my notes show i learned a lot of interesting, relevant and useful information about communities, technologies and participation! [this article is an edited version of notes from c&t 2009 originally posted on joe mccarthy's blog.] community inquiry and collaborative practice: the ilabs of paseo boricua' ann peterson bishop, bertram (chip) c. bruce graduate school of library and information science, university of illinois at urbana-champaign, usa <abishop@uiuc.edu> <chip@uiuc.edu> introduction studies of human-computer interaction have often focused on settings and practices that are relatively fixed and well-defined, such as a college-level course, a workgroup in a company, or a museum exploration. these studies have contributed much to our understanding of the potential and the problems of incorporating computers into collaborative practice. however, such well-defined situations represent but a small portion of realities that are relevant to the field of community informatics, which aims to understand how information and communication technologies (icts) are employed to help communities--from rural to urban--achieve their goals. in any community, there are multiple forms of interaction with people playing different roles in different groups that in turn have complex relationships to one another. for example, a neighborhood may have within it opportunities for groups to form and take action on formal and informal learning opportunities, economic development projects, arts festivals, and community health programs. these activities occur in a complex web of relations, with new technologies only adding to the range of possibilities for how activity systems interpenetrate. our interest here is in how collaborative practices in complex settings such as this occur, and how they are shaped by and shape the use of icts. in this paper, we discuss community interactions and how people learn and work together in chicago’s paseo boricua neighborhood. we then describe a suite of software tools we are developing, called ilabs, that people use to create a wide variety of web-based “community inquiry laboratories.” because community inquiry underlies our approach to system development, we include users as active designers who bring their experiences to bear in designing new ilab tools. in the case of paseo boricua, neighborhood youth and activists partnered with university-based design team members to create a web-based catalog tool for ilabs. questions we explore in this paper are the following: 1) what role does human-computer interaction have in the overall collaborative practices of paseo boricua? 2) how does the work with paseo boricua inform the development of icts for collaboration? 3) how does community inquiry theory help us to understand these processes and practices? theory of community inquiry community members, particularly those living in marginalized communities, are often conceived as passively bearing the burdens of illness, malnutrition, addiction, crime, illiteracy, and other social ills. remedies to these ills are likewise conceived as actions for well-meaning outsiders to perform, such as to provide counseling, deliver food or medicine, collect information, or manage development. as a result, even when remedies succeed, their benefits are often short-lived, because the community has made little progress toward developing a capacity for problem-solving. if individuals, or communities, are to understand and create solutions for problems in complex systems, they need to have opportunities to engage with challenging problems, to learn through participative investigations, to have supportive, situated experiences, to articulate their ideas to others, and to make use of a variety of resources in multiple media. these notions, which we encapsulate here as inquiry-based learning, have been well-established through community work, such as that exemplified by jane addams at hull house (1909, 1910, 1930), in research on learning in individuals (bruce & davidson, 1996; minstrell & van zee, 2000; shavelson & towne, 2002), and in communities (bishop, bazzell, mehra, & smith, 2001; bruce & easley, 2000), and in pragmatist theory (dewey, 1929, 1933, 1938, 1966; dewey & bentley, 1949). inquiry-based learning, in which people construct knowledge based on the questions that arise in their lived experience, assumes that all learning begins with the learner: what people know and what they want to learn are not just constraints on what can be taught; they are the very foundation for learning. for this reason, dewey's (1956) description of the four primary interests of the learner are still a propos: inquiry, or investigation--to expand one’s understanding of the world; communication--the desire to enter into social relationships; construction--the joy in creating things; and expression or reflection--the drive to articulate experience. dewey saw these as the natural resources, or uninvested capital, out of which grows active learning and participation in society. this is true for the child, the adult, or the community as a whole. inquiry-based learning is an attitude toward work and life, consisting of eager, alert observations; a constant questioning of old procedure in light of new observations, and a use of grounded experience as well as of books. it also implies a relish, emotional drive, and a genuine participation in creative phases of work, as well as a sense that joy and beauty are legitimate possessions of all human beings, young and old (mitchell, 1934). a key implication of the theory of inquiry is that the development of engaged citizens requires not only tolerance, but respect for diversity. each person’s interests, abilities, ideas, goals, and unique cultural identity should be recognized. this derives from the essential understanding that knowledge grows out of ordinary experience, and thus no community can afford to discard the knowledge of any of its members. it also implies the need to develop a “critical, socially engaged intelligence, which enables individuals to understand and participate effectively in the affairs of their community in a collaborative effort to achieve a common good” (john dewey project on progressive education, 2002). thus, inquiry-based learning, usually conceived as an individual process, is also a community process, one we might highlight as community inquiry, although the adjective is in the final analysis, redundant. a cornerstone of community inquiry is that it aims to respond to human needs by democratic and equitable processes. a successful "community of inquiry" is not one in which everyone is the same, but instead one that accommodates plurality. as clark argues (1994, p. 74), a learning community requires maintaining equitable relations among the participants. the challenge that a community of inquiry addresses is how to maintain a focus without denying individual experiences, perceptions, and values. recent years have seen an increase in interest in the concept of community and how it intersects with the design and evaluation of icts. we see the work we are doing with ilabs in paseo boricua as one way to create tools to explore that intersection, affording us a place to experiment with ideas, as well as a site for action. ilabs: communityware for inquiry inquiry laboratories, or simply ilabs, is a suite of open source tools that supports communication, collaboration, and content management (http://ilabs.inquiry.uiuc.edu). ilab software has been used to create hundreds of websites around the world that have been used in a variety of circumstances, including classroom teaching, research, and community action (bishop, et al., 2004). a “community inquiry laboratory” is a place where members of a community come together to develop shared capacity and work on common problems. "community" emphasizes support for collaborative activity and for creating knowledge that is connected to people's values, history, and lived experiences. "inquiry" points to support for open-ended, democratic, participatory engagement. "laboratory" indicates a space and resources to bring theory and action together in an experimental and critical manner. a community inquiry lab is most importantly a concept, not a technology in the narrow sense. a community ilab is a web-based location, where users can find resources to support community learning; share, discuss and build upon each others' work; use tools created by others; explore new ways to assess work and learning; engage in dialogue with others about approaches to community problem-solving; and participate in the institutions that affect their lives. by means of a community ilab, community members can actively engage with questions that are meaningful to them. tools for inquiry and dialogue allow them to connect resources with specific problems in areas of health, economic development, education, or other domains. a key concept throughout is that the processes of creating, using, and critiquing a community ilab and the resources within it should exemplify the open-ended aspects of inquiry and social participation that the software itself is encouraging. the users are not merely recipients, but are creators of the technology as they incorporate it into their own practice. all users belong and contribute to the ilab collaborative through the creation of content in their own ilabs, suggestions for and changes to the interface and the design of new functionality, as well as through their questions and evaluations, often simply by discussion within the inquiry community of the software’s usefulness, and reports of what works and what does not in the context of their own settings of use (bruce & easley, 2000). we have referred to this process of software development as “design through us” or “participatory inquiry.” community inquiry in paseo boricua paseo boricua is a mile-long section of division street in chicago's humboldt park area. paseo boricua represents a vibrant neighborhood that is characterized by strong, multigenerational, multi-institutional community activism. it represents the development of an autonomous cultural, political, and economic space for puerto rican and latino/latina residents that came into being as a response to encroaching gentrification and displacement in nearby sections of the city (flores-gonzález, 2001). in humboldt park, according to u.s. census data, about 70% of residents are of latino origin and 31% of families are living below the federally defined poverty level, compared with about 11% of families in the surrounding cook county. promoting an ethic of self-reliance based on social responsibility, the puerto rican cultural center (http://www.prcc-chgo.org) has served as an institutional anchor in paseo boricua for thirty years, galvanizing neighborhood residents around issues such as poverty, gang violence, aids, destruction of cultural identity, lack of educational resources, and racism. rinaldi (2002) characterizes the prcc as a “bastion of support for puerto rican independence and barrio autonomy” in which “nationalist ideology permeates [its] practices of cultural resistance and community building.” in our experience partnering with the prcc, we have found that work extends beyond a strict focus on puerto rican independence or a unilateral push to address local issues facing puerto rican residents. the prcc is at root inclusive, welcoming collaboration with a wide range of individuals and organizations who share their mission of fighting for human rights, improving the quality of life for all local residents, and encouraging people to think critically about their reality. organizations affiliated with the prcc include the dr. pedro albizu campos high school (pachs), an alternative school that pursues a critical pedagogy while providing a safe place for youth (for one perspective on the unique qualities of the pachs, see antrop-gonzález, 2003); the centro infantil pre-school; the family learning center, which grants high school diplomas to young women while providing daycare for their children; vida/sida (an aids/hiv education center); batey urbano café teatro, which provides latino youth with an outlet for expression and community action; the division street business development association, a community-based economic development nonprofit; and the national boricua human rights network. paseo boricua is a complex community that is unique in its history and setting, yet manifests the multiple kinds of activities one sees in urban neighborhoods today. the prcc currently has significant computing technology, with labs that serve its high school, pre-school, and information center. it boasts a state-of-the-art science lab, and houses important collections of information resources, such as the archives of thousands of articles from local newspapers and of the boricua human rights network, thousands of books devoted to third world issues, and hundreds of puerto rican art works, cultural and political posters. however, high school-age youth affiliated with the prcc have had limited educational experiences that emphasize it applications relevant to community issues and action. community activities within paseo boricua are not only various and multi-form, but dynamic in that the participants, modes of interaction, and use of technology continuously shift. our university-based research team has worked with paseo boricua over the last three years, exploring the creation of both communities of inquiry whose participants are drawn from all walks of life, and communityware to support collaborative inquiry. we believe that the story of paseo boricua is worth examining more closely, both because it provides an expanded view of what needs to be considered when we talk about human-computer interaction in the context of community informatics, and because it provides insights into system design as an inquiry process. lastra (2004) explores the utility of community events for identifying strong and weak voices in a community and for penetrating the social network at points appropriate for productive community informatics work. we also recognize the pragmatic and analytic import of neighborhood events. community interactions organized through the prcc and its affiliated organizations over the past year include: fiestas, parades, protest marches, mural restoration and dedication, a film festival of movies created by young puerto rican film makers in chicago and puerto rico, a neighborhood survey of residents’ concerns and aspirations for a participatory democracy project, a community forum on a proposed health education program, an obesity survey and body mass index collected from over 500 people attending a festival, production of a. bilingual community newspaper, and a community lecture series conducted in collaboration with a local university. any single event typically involves a range of individuals and organizations and a number of different modes of interaction. we can see this with a snapshot of one event: “noche del grito,” described on the prcc website (http://www.prcc-chgo.org/grito_de_lares.htm) as a “learning event for young and old” that brought people together to discuss both the 1868 insurrection that launched puerto rico’s struggle to become an independent nation and the uprising for mexican independence. noche des gritos was co-sponsored by the café batey teatro urbano and the national boricua human rights network. it included history presentations along with poetry and prose readings and a question and answer period focusing on the political prisoners from paseo boricua who are currently incarcerated in u.s. prisons. at the close of the evening, organizers passed out the latest issue of the national human rights network newsletter, and bookmarks with biographies and addresses of the political prisoners printed on the back. the description of noche des gritos on the prcc website also provides insights into how icts were used to support the event. the presentations included digital slides, the newsletter is newly available on the web, and a website link is provided for people who want to write to the political prisoners. as these examples illustrate, events and activities in paseo boricua, and the community interactions they entail, bear some semblance to work and communication in university settings (such as classes, research projects, meetings, and presentations), but also have unique qualities. we turn now to the story of our involvement with paseo boricua, which required a melding of the university and neighborhood structures for mobilizing social capital and other resources. our collaboration focused on the establishment of a fully accessible community library and a "street academy" course in community librarianship and technology for neighborhood youth (bishop & molina, 2004). in january 2003, the first author and another faculty member from library and information science (lis), met with alejandro molina (long-time neighborhood activist and volunteer manager of ict at the prcc) to map out goals for creating a community of learners who could collaborate to mobilize neighborhood information and cultural resources and connect to civic engagement activities. we also wanted to address the digital divide, as well as enrich lis faculty and students with the experiences and knowledge of paseo boricua residents. we began conducting volunteer work days where neighborhood residents came together to catalog the collections in the prcc’s andrés figueroa cordero community library and information center, which included 4,000 volumes about the third world, children's books, posters, sculptures, art, and an archives of newsletters, flyers, letters, and pamphlets. then, in fall 2003, the directors of the albizu campos high school and the family learning center asked us to develop a “street academy" course in community librarianship for their students in which youth could learn library, computer, and written expression skills linked to activities that would serve the neighborhood. molina and the first author agreed to act as the primary instructors, with assistance from neighborhood activists mayra hernández, laura ruth johnson, and robin daverso. faculty and students from several universities in chicago, as well as other local activists, and librarians from chicago public library pledged their involvement; and so the paseo boricua community librarianship course was born. as the course progressed over the year at the prcc, we moved from classroom-style learning to an apprenticeship model. students formulated their own goals for the project, beginning with their major aim to earn their high school diplomas. they also wanted to gain skills to use in the workplace, such as collaboration, presentation, and technology skills, and cataloging and other information management skills. students were also motivated by their desire to create a comfortable learning place in the prcc for paseo boricua residents and visitors. students began working toward opening the doors of the prcc's community information and technology center to the public, preparing to become the library’s first volunteer staff members. they developed policies, including a mission statement, collection development policy, and job descriptions. students from paseo boricua also learned a little about other library management skills in the process of seeking funding and preparing publicity, and planned programs that would contribute to the community. all the prcc’s activities are aimed at integrating the message and participants of one program with another. in this vein, students planned for a family reading night to involve parents from the prcc childcare, where the participants tend to be older, with those from the family learning center, high school, and aids programs, where the parents are younger. a books-to-prisoners project brought together the expertise of local activists with the experience of lis student adam davis to develop procedures for sending books to prisons for the loved ones of local families. paseo boricua community librarianship participants also became creators of digital tools and resources. we began by using the existing ilab software to make a course website. we used the ilab webpage generator to create various documents needed to organize and conduct our work, such as a cataloging manual, library mission statement, and schedule of activities related to the library’s grand opening. the ilab’s document center was used to upload and share this material. early in the paseo boricua library project, participants identified the need for a simple web-based library catalog to hold records of the book, poster, and archive collections. lis students researched the availability of such tools, but nothing wholly suitable was found. at the same time, scientists and engineers in the center for advanced materials for the purification of water with systems (campws)--sponsored on the authors’ campus by the national science foundation and supporting the development of ilab software for the campws digital collaboratory--were also looking for a tool to catalog project resources. so, as part of the paseo boricua community librarianship course, students helped design a simple, open-source catalog software package for their own needs. when it is complete, it will become freely available to the campws group, as well as to anyone else who wants to organize their community's resources and make them accessible through the web. when face-to-face interactions were needed, the first author served as the primary liaison in this collaborative design effort, ferrying ideas and feedback between the lis student coding the catalog application (who also spend one day working in the prcc library) and paseo boricua residents. icts supported activities in the community librarianship course in other ways, as well. we began creation of a digital web gallery for prcc posters, for example. word processing was used to make letters and posters to solicit donations from local merchants and advertise library events. email helped us keep in touch throughout the year. and several of the students--jalissa santiago, elba rivera, jesenia morales, deshawn samuels, and lasette rodriguez--learned how to create power point slides, which they used to support the presentation they gave as part of a continuing education workshop on libraries and civic engagement that was held in spring 2004. discussion and conclusions we feel that the ilab’s “design through use” process came together with activism in paseo boricua in fruitful ways. our collaborative inquiry helped us investigate community interaction in many ways, come to a better understanding of “community” as a unit of analysis in multiple endeavors, and experiment with modes of open and mutual learning as a primary process for a range of disparate activities. university researchers learned how people in one neighborhood organize and successfully mobilize resources; and neighborhood residents learned how those who are university-based develop icts. we were able to explore the means and limits associated with how the ilab collaborative brings together different social forms, and how these different forms contribute to software development. our task was more complicated than devising a strategy to develop a specific tool for a specific user group in a specific setting. the ilab collaborative in play in paseo boricua has some elements of a community’s shared place, interests, and feeling of fellowship, but, as in any community, diversity, contended goals and values, and different schedules and work practices were also evident. thus, the inquiry-based design approach helps us to understand the collaborative practices of different communities. the ilab software embodies this understanding in several ways: community ilab creators select which modules (e.g., web page generator, document center, bulletin board) they wish to instantiate. privacy and access are flexible and remain under the control of individual ilab creators. user groups can create and use an ilab as a complete web environment for communication and collaboration, as we did with the paseo boricua community librarianship website, or they can incorporate a single or several ilab tools into an existing framework, for example, as the prcc has done in placing a link to their ilab library catalog within their organizational website. in conclusion, we feel we are gaining valuable insights about the variety of collaborative practices that can be applied to software design within and across communities. as ilabs have been incorporated into our collaborative practices with paseo boricua, we have been able to observe first-hand how the tools are employed, which ones are useful in different activities, and how the tools change over time. this ongoing inquiry into the interaction among community work, technology, and theory contributes to our understanding of hci within the emerging field of community informatics. acknowledgements we wish to thank the national science foundation, whose support helped create the ilab software and the paseo boricua community librarianship course. we are grateful for the creativity and hard work of all members of the ilab collaborative (including university student programmers and neighborhood activists and students in chicago) who contributed their time and considerable energy to the development of community informatics in paseo boricua. references addams, j. (1930). the second twenty years at hull-house: september 1909 to september 1929. new york: macmillan. addams, j. (1909). the spirit of youth and the city streets. new york: macmillan. addams, j. (1910). twenty years at hull-house: with autobiographical notes. new york: macmillan. antrop-gonzález, r. (2003). this school is my sanctuary: the pedro albizu campos alternative high school. centro journal, 15 (2), 233-255. bishop, a., bazzell, i., mehra, b., & smith, c. (2001). afya: social and digital technologies that reach across the digital divide. first monday, 6 (4). retrieved february 25, 2005 from http://www.firstmonday.org. bishop, a. p., bruce, b. c., lunsford, k. j., jones, m. c., nazarova, m., linderman, d., won, m., heidorn, p. b., ramprakash, r., & brock, a. (2004-08-24). supporting community inquiry with digital resources. journal of digital information, 5 (3), article no. 308. retrieved february 25, 2005 from http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/articles/v05/i03/bishop/. bishop, a., & molina, a. l. (2004, oct.). ¡felicitaciones, paseo boricua!: a community of librarians, activists, and students. voice of youth activists, 268-269. bruce, b. c., & davidson, j. (1996). an inquiry model for literacy across the curriculum. journal of curriculum studies, 28 (3), 281-300. bruce, b. c., & easley, j. a., jr. (2000). emerging communities of practice: collaboration and communication in action research. educational action research, 8 (2), 243-259. dewey, j. (1929). experience and nature. chicago: open court. dewey, j. (1933). how we think: a rethinking of the relation of reflective thinking in the educative process. new york: d. c. heath. dewey, j. (1938). experience and education. new york: collier books. dewey, j. (1956). the child and the curriculum & the school and society. chicago: university of chicago press. (original works published 1902 and 1915). dewey, j. (1966). democracy and education. new york: macmillan. (original work published 1916) dewey, j., & bentley, a. f. (1949). knowing and the known. boston: beacon. flores-gonzalez, n. (2001). paseo boricua: claiming a puerto rican space in chicago. centro journal, 13 (3), 7-21. john dewey project on progressive education (2002). a brief overview of progressive education. retrieved february 27, 2005 from http://www.uvm.edu/~dewey/articles/proged.html. lastra, s. (2004, july). the power of community events for designing participatory community icts, paper presented at pdc04: the eighth participatory design conference, toronto, canada. abstract available at http://archive.cpsr.net/conferences/pdc2004/program.html mitchell, l. s. (1934). young geographers: how they explore the world & how they map the world. new york: basic. rinaldi, r. (2002). space of resistance: the puerto rican cultural center and humboldt park. cultural critique, 50, 135-174. social entrepreneurship, icts and youth development in south af the role of social entrepreneurs in deploying icts for youth and community development in south africa chijioke j. evoh milano school of public and urban policy the new school university, new york, usa <evohc822@newschool.edu> abstract: this study presents the case study of an innovative program designed to use ict to meet the educational needs of disadvantaged young people in different communities in south africa. this research highlights the methods and experiences of ikamva lisezandleni zethu, a youth organization that harnesses the potential of ict for educational, youth and community development. the case illustrates the best practices of social entrepreneurship with less financial and technological resources within the context an african society. the major challenges facing the young organization are highlighted and its successes are also identified. the activities of the ikamvayouth organization reveal that, south africa and other countries in sub-saharan africa (ssa) need effective multilateral initiatives to meet their educational aspiration as well as the millennium development goals (mdgs). if properly and innovatively applied by the public and civil society groups, icts have the potential to improve the quality and access to secondary education in south africa in particular and africa in general. key words: secondary education; information and communication technology; youth training: community development; social entrepreneurs introduction “what struck me so forcefully was how small the planet had become during my decades in prison.... [ict] had shrunk the world, and had in the process become a great weapon for eradicating ignorance and promoting democracy.” (nelson mandela, long walk to freedom, 1994) this paper presents a case that represents a best practice example of how young social entrepreneurs harness the potential of icts1 (information and communication technologies) to promote social integration, youth and community development in africa. the aim of this research is to examine the modus operandi of ikamva lisezandleni zethu, a grass-roots youth development organization in south africa. the objective of the study is to encourage governments, international development agencies and corporate entities to support social entrepreneurial ventures that target youths, particularly those that apply icts for education and community development in africa. the aggregate activities of such non-governmental ventures in various communities promises to expand access to quality education for the youth, and also help to accomplish the millennium development goals in the region. in this age of “youth bulge,” (world bank, 2006) it is a necessity to invest in young people who are critical actors in the development process. failure to train millions of unskilled and low-skilled youth in africa will amount to higher social and economic cost to the society in the feature. africa and other developing regions of the world are full of innovative ventures that exploit the potential icts for development ends. however, the practical knowledge of what works and challenges facing these development ventures remain largely unavailable to policy makers, donors and prospective social entrepreneurs, and where available fragmented and uncoordinated. this study attempts to bridge this gap by using ikamvayouth to provide a “knowledge map” of what works and what is needed for a sustainable scale-up of existing models. the research is driven by three major questions: how do social entrepreneurs apply icts for youth and community development in africa? what needs to be improved in the existing social ventures? what lessons can be drawn from them for the benefit of informed policy and investment for governments and prospective partners? this study uses the case of ikamva youth to provide answer to these questions. the case study is based on the positive youth development conceptual framework (equip3/youth trust, 2005). the concept of positive youth development promotes long-term investment in the development of the human capital of youths. it involves the engagement of the youth in the development of a long-term and sustainable plan, coupled with the support necessary for the implementation of such plan of action in the course of their lives. positive youth development aims at preparing the youth to earn a livelihood2, provide for their family and contribute to the development of their community (equip3/youth trust, 2005). literature review this research is an extension of a doctoral dissertation on collaborative partnerships and the transformation of secondary education in south africa. in a region where there is a low supply and high demand for secondary education, and where the traditional system of curriculum delivery (i.e., direct instruction) and government efforts and resources have proved inadequate; technological intervention through public-private partnerships has become attractive and cost-effective. this research builds upon haddad and draxler’s (2002) analysis of the imperative for technology in education. in their study, haddad and draxler examined the increasing importance of both old and new forms of technology in teaching and learning today. as they argue, the increasing application of icts in education has rendered the rigid distinction between face-to-face and distance education meaningless. as the world bank (2005) notes, access to secondary education in africa cannot be increased without major changes in service delivery. this study highlights the importance of sustaining social entrepreneurs that use icts to improve secondary education and youth development in post-apartheid south africa. dhanarajan (2001) outlines many reasons why innovative approaches, including icts, are needed in youth and community development in south africa. however, two of these reasons are of particular importance. namely: a large part of the south african population and the rest of ssa still live in educationally deprived situations and unless educators and their policy-makers change their ways of delivering education, the situation will not improve, despite the rising levels of investment in the sector. unless these tools are used to take learning and training to disadvantaged communities, their deprivations cannot be ameliorated. those who work in the field of distance education can and must provide the direction and leadership needed to bring about such change (dhanarajan, 2001, p.2). haddad and draxler (2002) note that the development of ict networking and knowledge sharing has caused a paradigm shift in schooling. they contend that schooling systems designed for the industrial age should change to meet the educational needs of the present global knowledge environment (ibid). thus, the information age calls for a conceptual shift and a new paradigm of schooling as shown in table 1 below. table 1: the new schooling paradigm from to a school building a knowledge infrastructure (schools lab, radio, television, computers, internet connectivity, satellite) classrooms individual learners the teacher as the provider of knowledge the teacher as tutor and facilitator a set of textbooks and some audiovisual aids multimedia materials (print, audio, video, digital, interne) source: haddad & draxler (2002). this research adapts the rationale behind the application of icts in education in south africa as presented by the south african institute of distance education (saide, 2000). like haddad and draxler (2002), the saide identifies the following innovative potential of icts as the rationale behind technology-enhanced education (also known as resource-based learning), community development and the involvement of civil society groups in the process in south africa: 1) to expand access to educational provision to significantly larger numbers of learners; 2) to shift the patterns of expenditure to achieve economies of scale by amortizing identified costs (especially investment in cost design and development and in effective administrative system); 3) to break down the traditional teacher-centered system of education, and direct a significant proportion of educational expenditure to the design and improvement of high quality educational resources. in essence, these scholars consider the application of icts in education, youth training and development as means to transcend structural and socio-economic barriers facing this education in south africa. community development has been defined from different disciplinary perspectives. hence, there is some ambiguity surrounding the concept (lyon, 1989). however, many scholars (lyon, 1989; ledwith, 2005) agree that community development involves tangible and abstract processes that bring desirable changes in the social and economic conditions of people living in a given geographical community. the process of community development involves the participation of the people (self-help approach) and the involvement of government authorities (technical approach) in initiating and implementing strategies and projects that are geared toward enhancing the lives of people in the communities (ledwith, 2005). the use of icts such as mobile telephone, computers and the internet system to leverage development is gaining popularity in rural and urban communities in the developing world. for instance, the rapid diffusion of mobile phone technology in sub-saharan africa has exceeded any single technological innovation in the region in recent times. the region has the world's fastest growth in mobile phone ownership and this technology is playing an important role in reducing poverty (development magazine, 2006). this has no doubt affected the lives of people in the region in a positive way. as the development magazine (2006) reports: at its simplest, a mobile phone allows farmers and fishermen to find out the prices in various markets, and allows a handyman to travel to nearby villages only when he is told by phone that there is a job available. in kenya and tanzania mobile phones are improving healthcare provision, where doctors use them to diagnose patients living in remote communities. (the development magazine, 2006, p.8) in the same vein, the use of other modern technologies, albeit slow, has offered some glimmer of hope to the poor secondary education sub-sector in many african nations. the right to quality education for the youth is always considered the responsibility of the government. although effective educational policy and regulatory framework remains the responsibility of the government, it must be acknowledged that the large and complex nature of education and knowledge acquisition in today’s world, particularly in a low-income region such as africa, can no longer be left alone to the government. rather, the enrichment of secondary education and youth development depend on a sustained collaborative partnership between african governments and social entrepreneurs from within and outside africa. the ability to harness the benefits of ict provides tremendous opportunities for developing the potential of african youths through education and training. such collaborative partnership and the enabling environment provided by good policy frameworks are essential in stimulating a broad scale application of icts in youth and community development in africa. methodology this study adopts a qualitative research approach. it is based on rich case study tradition of research. as babbie and mouton (1998, p. 270) posit in qualitative research, “the actor’s perspective (the insider’s view) is emphasized” and “the main concern is to understand the social action for its specific context rather than attempting to generalize to some theoretical population.” further, babbie and mouton assert that, due to the interest of the qualitative researcher to understand human action in its natural setting and through the eyes of the actors themselves, there is emphasis on detailed description and understanding of phenomena within the appropriate context (1998, p. 279). in pursuit of the above methodological principle, data for the study was collected from primary and secondary sources. the fieldwork for the study was conducted in the summer of 2005 as part of a doctoral dissertation research. data was collected using interviews and discussions with officials. this was triangulated with official documentation and other relevant materials about the operations of the organization. in addition, personal observation sessions were also part of the field research. these approaches are used to collect data as case records on the ikamvayouth program for case analysis. a large set of information used in the study comes from e-mails, internet materials, particularly those available on the ikamva lisezandleni zethu website as well as other websites maintained by civic groups responding to issues of ict in education and community development in the developing countries. educational technology and development changing socio-economic and political realities in developed and developing counties have resulted in constant innovations and reforms in education (adamu, 1994). this trend is supported by durkheim’s view that: educational transformations are always the result and symptom of social transformations in terms of which they are to be explained. in order for people to feel at any particular moment in time the need to change its educational system, it is necessary that new ideas and needs have emerged in which the former system is no longer adequate (durkheim, 1938 p. 167, cited in adamu, 1994). education is considered essential because, as psachraopoulos (1995), mansel and when (1998) have noted, knowledge and human capital are vital aspects of development. this is more important in today’s competitive global economic system where knowledge is seen as an essential ingredient for production. the quality, relevance and cost of secondary school training are among the various challenges facing youth education in south africa and other african countries. this calls for innovative ways for knowledge creation, acquisition and sharing among the youth. in considering the use of icts for expanding access to secondary education and pedagogical quality in africa, one needs to focus on the development challenges and how these are manifested in the education sector (isaacs, 2002). the effective use of technology to support education in africa locates itself within the goals of socio-economic transformation, reconstruction and development of countries in the region. as observed by isaacs, any investigation into the use icts as a tool for the advancement of education in africa covers three major contextual areas two of which are: educational and development issues, ict issues and the interrelationship between these (2002). major advantages of integrating ict in education and community development frequently cited include, expanding access to educational opportunities, increasing efficiency in educational management and enhancing the quality of learning and teaching (haddad, 2007; howie et al, 2005; tinio, 2003). see figure 1. in general terms, the effective application of ict in education enables the youth to acquire 21st century skills essential for the knowledge societies. however, the knowledge of the prospects and challenges facing ict-based skill training and educational improvement ventures for the youth remain largely unavailable to policy makers, donors and prospective social entrepreneurs. secondary education and youth development programs are faced by the challenges of low quality and equitable access to urban and rural communities in africa. the use of icts by public and private organizations to improve quality and expand access promises to be a sustainable solution to these challenges. the purpose of educational technology policy is to provide a framework within which education planners, decision-makers, administrators, and educators and other actors and stakeholders in the education sector, will be able to make effective and productive use of technologies in their teaching, learning and administrative processes. figure 1: potential of icts in youth and community development source: adapted from haddad, 2007 thus, the low level of education provision and youth development in african countries, especially at the secondary level partly accounts for the low level of socio-economic development in the region. primary school enrolments under the universal primary education (upe) in many countries in the region exceeded the most optimistic projections. for example, in uganda, the gross enrolment ratio, which stood at 69 per cent in 1990 and 80 per cent in 1996, jumped to 124 per cent in 1997 (kirungi, 2000). unfortunately, african countries do not have adequate secondary schools to accommodate the increasing demand for secondary education by primary school graduates. as in most african countries, secondary education in south africa is in crisis, both in quality and quantity. south africa faces an acute shortage of skilled teachers needed to meet the increasing demand for secondary education. on the supply side, south africa trains 6,000 teachers each year, most of whom will not go into teaching (crouch and perry, 2003), to meet the demand of 12.1 million learners (primary and secondary school-age combined) in 28,000 schools (6,000 are high schools, grade 7 to grade 12) (fiske and ladd, 2002; peltzer, et al, 2005). in nigeria for instance, 4.5million pupils enter primary school each year. with a transition rate from primary to junior secondary school (jss) of 38 percent, about 1.5m primary school graduates annually are unable to enter jss, while about 1.95m eligible jss graduates are unable to enter senior secondary school (mumah, 2004). the above challenges highlight the imperative of innovative approaches to youth development and education in africa. a planned and sustained integration of icts in teaching and learning will transform educational conditions in africa. the economic potential of icts informed the recommendation of the panel of eminent persons, a body appointed by the u.n secretary general, to focus on the application of modern technologies for youth development (braimah and king, 2006). this strategy entails exploiting opportunities created by the potential of modern icts for social and economic development. many critics have questioned the wisdom behind the provision of icts for the poor in africa, rather than providing them with nutritional foods, healthcare, good roads and basic education resources (e.g., employing more teachers and constructing more school classroom buildings) (fife and hosman, 2007). this criticism is the essence of what fife and hosman (2007, p.3) called the “bread vs. broadband” debate. despite the saliency of the above argument, many scholars (wilhelm, 2003; fife and hosman 2007) observe that investment in icts for the poor in the developing countries promises long-term economic benefits in the overall social and economic development of these regions. among such core benefits are; improved cognition among learners, improvement in local small business entrepreneurship, tele-education and tele-health capabilities, and empowering local farmers by bringing knowledge of market prices for their crops (wilhelm, 2003; fife and hosman 2007). therefore, it is important to reject the notion that resource investment in icts for oosy would be of greater value if invested in other areas. it needs to be emphasized that icts are tools, hence, they are not ends to themselves in terms of youth training, rather, icts are means to an end. this is because technology, according to theodore lewis (1999), is a manifestation of human creativity channeled towards problem solving. a strategic investment in the youth through the deployment of information technologies either in vocational training or educational activities, provide opportunities for a “catch up” in human capital development. this is particularly important in south africa where decades of the apartheid education system created an educational gap among different groups, which consequently stifled human capital development in the country. besides, when viewed against the opportunity cost in time lost by many young people in africa in social vices such as youth pregnancy, insurgency and prostitution to mention a few. as observed by james knowles and jere behrman (2006), the private and social rate of returns to different investments in youth depends on the context of such investments. the rate of returns to the deployment of information and communication technologies for educational and vocational training for the youth can be understood within the context of the level of technology adoption in social and economic activities in south african. the application of modern communication technologies such as computers, the internet (including web 2.0 technologies)3, personal digital assistant (pda) devices and mobile phones in the country have reached a critical mass given that these technologies have become part of everyday life in both rural and urban south africa. outlook of khayelitsha township in post-apartheid south africa since the end of the apartheid system, south africa has gone through several stages of reconciliation and reconstitution as a nation both in economic and socio-political terms. despite some setbacks and slow pace of this process, the effort to revamp post-apartheid south africa has generally been a successful endeavor. the success, especially in the area of education and social re-integration, can be attributed not only to the redistributive policy goals of the government, but also to the inspiring resolve of social entrepreneurs to collectively entrench a new social order in the country. to unlock and develop the large human capital potential that was either suppressed or undeveloped during the apartheid era, many social entrepreneurs and collaborative partnerships have embarked on a crusade to bring social change and sustainable community development in different part of south africa. with the application of icts, many are finding innovative ways to educate the labor force and empower them to train themselves to meet the demands of the knowledge economy. appropriate adaptation of the full range of icts can help to improve the livelihoods of the youth and communities in africa by expanding educational opportunities, training and of course a better income prospect. this promises to be a sustained strategy for poverty alleviation in the region. one of such community development groups that adopts a social entrepreneurial approach to the development of youth is the ikamva lisezandleni zethu (which means the future is in our hands in isixhosa language) also known as ikamvayouth, based in khayelitsha township, in the western cape province, south africa. despite recent developments efforts, khayelitsha township is in most part composed of squatter camps and metal shacks a testimony of the ugly legacies of the oppressive apartheid system in south africa. notwithstanding the demise of apartheid in 1994, one can still observe the ravages of the 'bantu education system', which used education to entrench white superiority, in south african townships. khayelitsha, which is the third largest township in south africa after soweto and sharpeville townships, has an estimated population of 1.5 million people. the township is composed of different ethnic groups, but approximately 90 percent of the population is black african and 10 percent 'colored' muslims (partners across the ocean, 2006). case overview: ikamva as social entrepreneurship both from its business and social perspectives, entrepreneurs create value in the society. as dee (1998) argues, the function of entrepreneurs is to revolutionize production processes. ikamva is a change agent engaged in production, not of tangible goods, but of knowledge and services for khayelitsha community in south africa. the idea of a youth and community development organization was floated in 2003 by makhosi gogwana and joy olivier – two young researchers who were at the moment engaged in information technology research with other establishments in south africa. what caught the attention of makhosi and joy was the level of poverty, unemployment and deprivation in khayelitsha community, particularly among the youth, during a time when south africa was undergoing some remarkable changes after the demise of the apartheid system. based on their educational and research background the two young co-founders of ikamvayouth came to the conclusion that lack of information and guidance, more than any other factors were the key obstacles facing youths in poor communities like khayelitsha across south africa. together with other like-minded young south african volunteers, makhosi and joy formally formed the ikamvayouth as a non-profit youth and community development organization (olivier, 2005). ikamvayouth’s mission is to: … provide disadvantaged secondary school learners with the necessary skills and information, both academic and personal, to enable them to access the post-school educational or employment opportunities of their choice. in addition, it works to offer young people from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to participate in the transformation of their communities. in achieving this mission, ikamvayouth aims to redress the persisting educational and socioeconomic inequalities in south africa (ikamvayouth, 2009, p.4). ikamvayouth operates as a by-youth, for-youth community-based non-profit organization. its primary objective is to help learners in the community accomplish their educational goals. through mentorship, the organization assists young learners in the community to develop communication skills, self knowledge, and self-esteem – great qualities essential in today’s knowledge society. hundreds of students, from grades 11 and 12, in khayelitsha and surrounding areas are involved in various ikamvayouth activities both on weekdays and on saturdays. these activities take the form of tutorials in subjects like mathematics and physics. besides, students benefit from mentoring/tutoring in english, biology, afrikaans, geography, history, business economics, economics and accounting. some ikamvayouth learners have matriculated and cannot afford tertiary education while others have little or no formal education. however, all lack the skills and experience needed to find formal sector employment. because of the efforts of the organization, these students are able to draw a new strength from opportunities offered by a broad range of kamvayouth programs. generally, the activities of ikamvayouth are based on five projects. these projects are: supplementary tutoring for high school students preparing for the final or matriculation examination; career guidance, life skills and mentoring; operation fikelela (e-literacy training); media image expression; and hiv/aids awareness, counseling and testing (ikamvayouth, 2009). these programs aim to help young learners realize their potential and contribute meaningfully to their communities. these programs, which are volunteer-based, are offered through the application of various forms of information and communication technologies. though a small grass-roots organization without core funding, the organization is discovering that technology that seems so out of reach to many youths from poor families and neighborhoods can be deployed to meet education and job training needs of many youths. the target of ikamva youth is to meet the multiple challenges facing youths in khayelitsha. among these challenges are: 1) high rate of youth unemployment (more than 65 percent); 2) lack of computer literacy skills and access to icts; 3) lack of career guidance and relevant information needed to secure admission into higher institutions of learning; and 4) lack of individual academic (curriculum-specific) support (ikamvayouth, 2005). the organization was formed generally to help indigent students in the above areas of need, and particularly to meet the increasing demand for computer literacy among learners in khayelitsha. apart from free tutorials on different subject areas, the ikamva youth expects to improve the employability of youths in khayelitha through computer training and other skills. as olivier (2005, p.3) puts it, “the dearth of black matriculants with high grade (hg) passes in math and science is a big obstacle for south africa, and the problems of unemployment and lacking (sic) capacity.” this is particularly important given the estimate that south african economy, which is the most buoyant in ssa, has between 300,000 and 500,000 vacancies for skilled people in the workforce (stoppard, 2002). thus, the challenge facing the youth in the country is not primarily high rate of unemployment, rather the lack of the required skills and training to fill the existing job positions in the economy. this problem is more serious among the black communities due to their poor performance in high school and matriculation examinations in the country. with educational technology at its embryonic stage in africa, ikamvayouth aims to bring computers and the internet to disadvantaged learners in the khayelitsha community in the city of cape town. despite the lack of computers and other information and communication technologies in sub-saharan africa, the international labor organization (ilo, 2001) contends that these technologies will continue to exert enormous influence on their ability to acquire knowledge and tap into global networks. to accomplish this objective, ikamvayouth aims to use icts to assist the youth to realize their educational and career goals (olivier, 2005). ikamva and community development in post-apartheid south africa the education of the youth is a major aspect of community development. the investment in the development of human capital of the youth through education is indispensable for the sustainable development of any community both in developed and developing countries. as in many developing countries, it is beyond the capability of the government to meet all educational needs of the people, especially, secondary education and computer literacy. however, as fuller and holsinger (1993 cited in figueredo and anzalone, 2003) report, there is a positive correlation between the education of youths, always measured with secondary education enrollment, and the level of gross domestic product (gdp) in the developing countries. figueredo and anzolone (2003) took this further by arguing that due to its nature, primary education provides insufficient skills necessary for improved productivity in the economy. secondary schooling and vocational training, according to them, are positively associated with high value-added production capacity for exports (human capital creation). the social and economic functions of secondary education and training are illustrated in figure 2. figure 2: the importance of youth education and training source: the world bank (1999) as noted earlier, youth education, especially at the secondary school level is lacking both in quantity and quality in south africa and africa at large. the case of south africa is overwhelming because of the large responsibility of educating both old and young adults, most of whom were denied the right to adequate education during the apartheid era. to a large extent, education remains the most effective instrument to “right” the “wrongs” of the past. however, the job of social reintegration and economic empowerment through education in south africa is beyond the unilateral action of both the federal and provincial governments. the lack of adequate public resources and the magnitude of the challenge underscore the need for the involvement of civil society organizations to provide opportunities for young people to acquire computer literacy to increase their productivity in the economy. social entrepreneurs, according to howard stevenson (cited in dee, 1998), do not allow limited or lack of resources to limit the pursuit of their mission. this assertion has been proved by the ikamvayouth organization. right from its inception, the organization has mobilized resources from wherever it could be found to pursue its social entrepreneurial objectives. the entire organization is volunteer-driven. in essence, the organization is managed and run by ex-learners who returned to serve as volunteers. ikamvayouth for the most part, operates solely on the commitment, dedication and creative efforts of its volunteers. hence, the diverse groups of its volunteers make up the organization’s backbone. ikamva youth volunteers are structurally organized in teams according to their area of interest and specialty (see figure 3). figure 3: the organizational structure of ikamva source: ikamva, 2005 among its volunteers are: university students, employed graduates based in khayelitsha, teachers and young professionals working in ngos, government and the private sector (ikamva, 2005). these volunteers perform all sorts of activities for the organization. such activities range from supplementary tutoring, job-based training, e-literacy training to serving as management committee members (ikamvayouth, 2009). the organization’s financial and material resources come from public donations. public donations to ikamvayouth range from refurbished computers, internet connectivity to office space. these resources enable the organization to provide youths from low-income communities access to modern communication technologies to improve their social and economic wellbeing. the computers are available to the learners and volunteers during library hours (ikamva youth, 2005). besides, 12 grade students in the community are assisted in completing applications forms into higher institutions of learning, and the organization pay the application fees for students that qualify. applying existing ideas in new ways the above challenges facing secondary education youth development in south africa and africa in general call for innovative approaches to meet the educational and training needs of the youth. while social entrepreneurs work for social improvement of the community, they do not expect immediate or short-term pay-off. rather they look for a long-term return to their investment with a sustained impact (dees, 1998). as dee (1998, p. 4) rightly contends, entrepreneurs are innovative, but “it does not require inventing something new; it can simply involve applying an existing idea in a new way or to a new situation.” even though it may be difficult to measure value creation, the social and economic returns to the programs of ikamvayouth are beginning to be felt. apart from improved matric grades among students who participate in the ikamvayouth tutoring programs, the organization provides many students from poor families the only opportunity to study outside their formal classrooms. the academic successes have paved the way for university admission and scholarship awards for many of the participants in ikamvayouth programs. in 2006, 60 percent ikamvayouth learners were accepted into tertiary education institutions (ikamva youth, 2006). this level of performance far exceeded the set target of 30 percent acceptance into tertiary education, and was a result of the hard work of volunteers and learners. the academic performance of ikamvayouth learners in national examinations, particularly the matric examination for 12th graders, demonstrates the success of the organization in improving the social condition of youths in the community. for instance, in 2008, 90 percent of ikamvayouth 12th grade learners passed their national examination, with 42 percent of them passing with bachelors4. in all, 71 percent of ikamvayouth learners in western cape were admitted into tertiary institutions while 12 percent received employment (ikamvayouth, 2009). the success of these young social entrepreneurs was aptly described by joy olivier, the executive director and co-founder of the organization when she wrote “ikamvayouth enables young people to give themselves and each other a hand up out of poverty and into university” (ikamvayouth, 2009, p.2). from its modest beginning in the western cape province, the ikamvayouth model of social entrepreneurship has been replicated in kwa-zulu natal and gauteng provinces in south africa. with the support of private entities, ikamvayouth developed a curriculum on educational technology for first-time computer users. the curriculum, which is aligned with the standards of the national curriculum and the south african qualifications authority, enable learners to build basic e-literacy and acquire skills on effective use of icts. for many young people in the khayelitsha community, ikamvayouth computer literacy program provides essential job-based trainings, which is important in the job market. the contributions made by this social enterprise are no doubt helping to combat the challenges of low-skill base, unemployment, lack of black professionals, brain drain, poverty and crime in khayelitsha community (ikamva, 2005). the knowledge-based character of today’s economy necessitates the training and retraining of the youth in knowledge skills. obviously, young people with the skills and training in information storage, retrieval and production with the use of icts have an edge over others in the employment market. some jobs in this category include secretarial duties, business and call center operators (i.e., small businesses that use icts to provide services such as local and international phone calls, faxes and the internet services), customer services and a host of other opportunities. these ict-related skills are predominantly service-oriented jobs that reflect the emerging globalized economic system with increased trade and movement of finances within and across countries. the training of the young people in these lucrative skills and areas fall within the operational framework of ikamvayouth. the social capital/value created among ikamvayouth members was made manifest at the wake of the 2008 xenophobic violence in south africa. the may 2008 violence against poor immigrants in south africa, particularly those from other african countries, rendered many families in khanyelitsha and manor communities homeless and without food. out of desperation, about 700 victims of this xenophobic attack sought refuge in the desmond tutu hall5, where they were fed, clothed and protected by members of the ikamvayouth organization. with the help of their supporters, the organization was able to raise emergency funds which enabled them to provide basic items such as food, baby food, medicines, toiletries, mattresses, blankets, cooking pots and other house items for the victims (ikamvayouth, 2008). as the violence subsided, the organization helped to integrate the victims back into the community by paying the first month’s rent for some families (ibid). challenges facing ikamva youth despite its successes so far, ikamva youth faces several challenges in its efforts to harness icts for youth and community development in south africa. one of its major drawbacks is the lack of sufficient number of computer hardware and the required software. this problem stems primarily from the lack of enough community buy-in in the ikamva program. although the organization has succeeded in attracting basic resources and infrastructure such as office space, finance and computer hardware from philanthropic sources, it still fall short of the needed resources to operate at full capacity. right from its inception, the organization had relied on the goodwill of individuals and organizations for the donation of computers hardware, including used and refurbished systems. besides, the organization shares office with a local public library. no doubt, the lack of enough number of computer systems and a separate office space had handicapped the activities of the organization, especially in the area of computer literacy classes for students from low-income families. for instance, without suitable server, switch and network cards, the computers donated to the ikamva youth by other groups, will not be utilized to full capacity, especially in the area of e-literacy and computer skill training. these and other technologies such as internet connectivity, computer sound cards, headsets and data projector for the enhancement of class presentations, are some of the financial and technology-oriented challenges facing the young organization. furthermore, due to its present location (in a local public library), coupled with insufficient financial resources, the organization is unable to secure broadband access (adsl or wireless connectivity). ikamva youth has improvised by using cached web pages that are saved onto the local area network (lan), which provides the learners a somewhat internet experience (olivier, 2005). the availability of these technologies will enhance full participation of learners in program like the e-literacy and computer skill training. in view of its potential in community development, ikamva programs require local buy-in from the western cape provincial government and the private sector groups such as technology companies notable among which are cisco, microsoft and intel. their involvement and recognition of the strategic importance of ikamva youth activities in the community will ensure stable resource inflow. the sustainability of the ikamva model of using icts for youth and community development is another area of concern. private and government sponsorships are essential for ikamvayouth to continue to carter to the educational need of youths in cape town. however, the future sustainability of ikamva further depends on the judicious use of its scarce resources. this can be realized by having concrete and realistic goals and also by taking small achievable steps throughout its programs. replicating ikamvayouth across africa in the words of olivier (2005. p. 8), “much of what ikamva youth strives to achieve is unquantifiable,” as the impact of its present activities will be felt more in the future. this assertion is more credible given that the process of developing human capital potential is gradual and cumulative. this notwithstanding, the ikamvayouth model of community development and youth empowerment is not without its challenges. however, these challenges are eclipsed by the large social benefits of the approach. ikamvayouth serves as a model of how a youth-driven grass-roots organization can make sustained impact in youth livelihood. the success of a social entrepreneurial project in one community does not necessarily mean it can be replicated in another. however, the successes of ikamvayouth demonstrate that the model is replicable across africa, if supported by the appropriate organizational leadership, applicable technology and adequate financing. alternatively, basic features of ikamvayouth model of social entrepreneurship can be adapted to meet the challenges of youth and community development across africa. thus, ikamvayouth asserts a challenge to public and private entities such as public libraries, institutions of higher learning and other civil society groups in south africa and across sub-saharan africa. such private and public institutions are entities that can either initiate or support existing youth groups in their immediate communities and neighborhoods using ikamvayouth development models. such collaborative approach is perhaps the most cost-effective way of building human and social capital among african youth. this approach will go along way to reduce poverty and social vices in many communities in africa. in part, the success of ikamvayouth in the application of technology in education and social development can be attributed to the organization’s focus goals and priorities. before the acquisition of computers, the organization knew how the technology will be used for the benefit of youths in the target community. such a focused goal is contrary to the experience of many ict in education programs in south africa and other ssa countries where computer laboratories are built and equipped with the necessary hardware and software without knowing how such facility can be used to advance learning. this stems from the erroneous impression that ad hoc equipment of schools with computers will produce the much needed quality of education and prepare students for the knowledge of the 21st century. however, while icts can help to improve education process and community development, computers alone cannot bring a radical transformation of education in places like africa. rather a combination of icts, proper training of teachers and the involvement of community-based organizations such as ikamvayouth, will help to realize the greatest social and economic returns to investments in educational technologies. to a large extent, the sustainability of ikamva model is partly based on the practice, whereby a significant number of ikamvayouth ex-learners return as volunteers. in fact, 80 percent of the organization’s management committee comprises ex-learners. this practice is a learning, development and sustainability strategy, which has enabled social learning within the organization. in this way, the model’s sustainability is ensured by achieving its mission: those who gain access into higher education and job-based training return to help others to do the same (olivier, 2006). summary and conclusion poverty in all its manifestations – hunger, illiteracy, sickness, unemployment, political disengagement – are directly or indirectly associated with lack of information. hence, poverty thrives where there is little or no access to information. thus, access to modern information technologies liberate and empower poor communities by giving them access to all human knowledge. within the paradigm of social entrepreneurship, ikamvayouth is playing an innovative role in knowledge creation/generation and transformation for community development in post-apartheid south africa. ict enables ikamva to bring university and high school students together as co-learners and co-teachers to further their knowledge and effect positive community change. thus, the educational needs of youths in the community are being met through innovative application of technology and human resources. in broad terms, ikamvayouth is empowering disadvantaged youth to take advantage of improved opportunities made possible by democracy in south africa. the organization sees ict as an effective tool to bring change in the community. it recognizes all young people in the community, notwithstanding their ethnic origins, as assets for economic and social development. ikamva works toward more inclusive education and employment practices to fully utilize the potential of south african young minds. these activities are in line with the declaration of the united nations, “to develop and implement strategies that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive work” (united nations world youth report, 2005, p.13). as dee (1998, p.3) would argue, “the survival or growth of a social enterprise is not proof of its efficiency or effectiveness in improving social conditions.” many indicators that ikamva youth is not only improving the condition of the youth, it is also emerging as a sustainable and replicable community development model. if we use the performance of high school student involved in the ikamva youth programs as a measure of success, one can easily conclude that the organization is reaching its stated goals. the success of the ikamvayouth organization is a clear indication that african countries may have available a practical model for achieving the millennium development goals. however, the main challenge now is the political will or support to scale up what the ikamva youth 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(2003), connections between in-school and out-of-school ict programs for youth.” in organization for economic cooperation and development (oecd) ict and learning: supporting out-of-school youth and adult. oecd: paris world bank (2002) enhancing learning opportunities in africa, in working paper series of africa region human development _______ (1999) education sector strategy. washington, d.c; the world bank ________(2002) information & communication technology sector strategy paper. washington dc: the world bank ________ (2005), expanding opportunities and building competencies for young people: a new agenda for secondary education. washington, d.c: the world bank ________ (2006) world development report: development and the next generation. washington dc: the world bank 1 information and communication technologies (icts) consist of the hardware, software, networks, and media for the collection, storage, processing, transmission and presentation of information (voice, data text, images), as well as related services (the world bank, 2002) 2 equip3/youth trust defined a livelihood as “occupation, work or other means by which one earns an income to provide necessities, growth and abundance for the individual and the family” (equip3/youth trust, 2005, p. 5). 3 the “new web” or web 2.0 indicates second generation of web applications. this includes web tools such as blog, wikis, podcasting and social bookmarking. 4 the level of passing required for university admission in south africa. 5 the office of ikamvayouth organization is located at the desmond tutu hall. abstract: a community-based model for e-service delivery for first nations: the k-net approach to water treatment in northern a community-based model for e-servicing in first nations communities: water treatment in northern ontario the keewaytinook okimakanak approach michael gurstein, ph.d. centre for community informatics research, training and development, vancouver brian beaton k-net coordinator keewaytinook okimakanak, sioux lookout, on kevin sherlock executive director, anishinaabeg kakenwaydemiwatch nepi, thunder bay, on, introduction this paper examines the keewaytinook okimakanak (ko) approach to community-based ict-enabled service delivery; develops an outcome/evidence based model of this approach in light of on-going community informatics research and theory and ko’s experience with other areas of information and communications technology (ict)-enabled community-based service provision; assesses, examines and situates the water treatment program within the context of this model and provides a more general articulation of this model for possible utilization within the overall context of a broadband platform for service deployment. it is the intention of this paper to begin a more general discussion on overall policy with respect to service delivery in remote and rural indigenous and other communities. as well, the paper will explore how the new opportunities presented by ict can transform services and service delivery to make these both more efficient and effective while at the same time providing ways for communities themselves to become much more involved in the actual delivery and management of locally essential services. in july, 2008 the first nations chiefs-in-assembly unanimously passed resolution 19/2008, “e-community for first nations: a national framework”. an important component of this national framework was the support for a broadband network development strategy that addressed the needs of first nations across canada. among the intentions of this resolution was to ensure the development of a broadband platform to enable the efficient and effective provision of the range of educational, health and other services to and in first nations communities. service provision in aboriginal communities particularly those in rural and remote locations has suffered from a range of difficulties including exceptional cost, inefficiencies in delivery, high turn-over in service staff, and overall control over service quality control, among others. the consequence of this has been in many cases overly costly, inadequate or inappropriate services, penalizing residents because of where they choose to live. ict and particularly broadband internet communications has the capability of overcoming the challenges of remoteness (and location overall) and thus ensuring equity of service access, along with an appropriate level of service quality, and effectiveness and efficiency in service delivery. indirectly this approach provides opportunities for communities to benefit from the resources being provided for these services for example through the generation of local employment opportunities. ko and its telecommunications arm, the kuhkenah network (k-net) program in northern ontario has been a global leader in the development of approaches to electronically-enabled community-based service delivery for remote and rural areas including in health care, education and governance. (fiser, clement and walmark, 2006). most recently ko has developed and is implementing a highly innovative approach to the community delivery of services for water treatment. their approach includes the use of two way videoconferencing for continuing education, for remote mentoring, and for support; and in the next phase for remote monitoring and remote servicing. these developments are components of the ko water and wastewater plant operator training initiative and the safe water operations program implemented with ongoing operational support from indian and northern affairs canada (inac). the remote water and wastewater monitoring initiative according to contemporary newspaper accounts, a completely unexpected contamination of the small ontario town of walkerton's water system by e. coli in may 2000 resulted in seven deaths and 2,300 ill people, some of whom are experiencing permanent health effects. one result was a canada-wide outcry. ultimately it was revealed that this disaster probably could have been prevented had the provincial government not cut its water treatment approvals and inspections programs and if water treatment plant operators had been properly trained, certified and supervised. this in turn, brought home to many first nations something that had been of concern for years—that water-borne catastrophes could also occur on their reserves. in fact, bad drinking water on first nations made headlines in october 2004 when 1,000 residents of a remote northern ontario community were evacuated while their water treatment plant was cleaned up. many residents of that community experienced health problems and needed treatment for skin rashes and other illnesses blamed on dirty water and poor sanitation. a report on these events released in november 2005 found that more than half the operators running water treatment plants on ontario reserves lacked the required training, and many weren't certified. a federally funded agency, the ontario first nations technical services corp. found that operators at only 60 of the province's 134 reserves had received the necessary training in water treatment plant operations. a study conducted in 2001 by inac had in fact found a significant risk to the quality or safety of drinking water from three-quarters of reserve water systems. in march of 20061 indian affairs minister jim prentice outlined a clean water plan for native reserves indicating that residents of first nations communities should feel as safe about their drinking water as all canadians. "it is unacceptable that many first nations communities across canada continue to face ongoing risk to the safety of their drinking water," prentice told a news conference in ottawa. the government presented a five-point plan for improving water standards on native reserves, which included: setting standards for the design, construction, operation, maintenance and monitoring of reserve water plants. ensuring that all systems would be overseen by certified operators by 2007. kick-starting action plans for 21 first nations considered most at risk. developing related legislation with input from first nations. requiring regular progress reports. work was expected to begin immediately in 21 communities identified as most at risk for waterborne health hazards. under the long-term plan, natives would be in charge of making sure reserves lived up to federal standards for design, construction, operation, maintenance and monitoring of drinking water. in the short term, the federal government would temporarily contract out water services to private companies. according to prentice, the problem with drinking water on reserves was not money. it had to do rather with accountability and standards. first nations would be expected to meet federal or provincial standards, whichever was higher, or risk related funding, prentice said. "the water systems that this department will fund will be obligated to live up to the standards that are being put forward in this protocol." prentice also said that a $1.6-billion water fund pledged in 2003 over five years would be enough to help the 21 high-risk first nations, establish the plan and accelerate training. the difficulty in communities such as those served by k-net is that while they have need for a means to achieve appropriate levels of clean water, current systems and the regulations and standards associated with them have been designed with non-remote and non-rural communities in mind. thus these standards assume a ready availability of certain materials, and certain technical skills and knowledge which may not be available in remote and rural and indigenous communities at a reasonable cost and in a timely fashion. as well, the population density is generally insufficient to financially support the skill and supply system required by the indicated complex systems and services. the introduction and demand for complex water and wastewater plants to protect and support clean water is only a recent requirement for remote and rural communities as populations and lifestyles have changed with modified settlement patterns and changes to the resource and economic bases of communities. in most instances these communities have had, through existing and frequently traditional resources and skills, everything required to provide an appropriate level of clean water but the delivery of the clean water itself is put out of the reach of the local communities because of government regulations and externally introduced standards. thus to achieve a workable water treatment system in these communities it has been necessary to find a way of “re-engineering” the externally developed systems and standards to be capable of implementation at the local level and similarly to design/re-design training programs for local service providers which are based on the physical and human resources that can reasonably (and cost-effectively) be expected to be available in remote and rural communities. the widespread availability of an advanced electronic infrastructure into these communities suggests the method by which these service delivery limitations may be overcome. the water treatment service the delivery of safe potable water to individual community members is a priority for first nations throughout canada. the keewaytinook centre of excellence (kce) has been developed to meet the needs of client bands and communities for professional training for water and wastewater operators through the delivery of affordable technical and academic training programs. the centre is located in the small, rural northwestern ontario town of dryden in the heart of first nation traditional lands. kce is a one-stop source for certification courses, academic upgrading and continuing education training programs. qualified trainers at the kce provide operators with foundation skills (specifically in mathematics, communications, public health/microbiology, and water chemistry, among others) and hands-on water plant operator training. the centre's services also extend to the private sector, the municipal sector, and to provincial and federal government utility workers. the kce is designed so that through its strategic partnerships (with various levels of government and the private sector), the ongoing operation is assured of long term viability, even as technologies and systems evolve to accommodate a forever changing environment. a very significant element of the service is that it would be “community based” that is, that the overall management and on-going operation of the program would to the degree possible be done by and through community members. this was significant for a number of reasons including reducing the overall cost of the service – bringing outsiders into these communities either for short periods (as for example for service maintenance) or for long-periods to undertake jobs for which local residents don’t have the specific competencies is expensive because of the cost of travel in and out of the communities and as a consequence of the cost or general absence of certain amenities which those not living in remote and relatively inaccessible northern communities would take for granted. as well, the degree to which the service could become one “owned” by the local community is the degree to which it would likely be sustainable over the longer term—partially because local financial resources would be made available to support it, but also because local social and organizational processes would become activated to for example, control vandalism and petty crime around the service, ensure that suitable persons were selected for management committees and as service personnel and so on. another related element of this is that the service would work best and be most sustainable if a local person or persons were to be the local operators. it should be pointed out that in many instances local residents are lacking in formal qualifications and skills and including formal educational and literacy skills. this doesn’t mean that these residents are lacking in skills—surviving physically and economically in an often harsh and unforgiving environment in which these communities are located requires very significant skills of all sorts but often these are not of the type that are formally recognized or that translate directly into the kinds of technical skills that would be required in a service such as is being discussed here. the development of the kce by ko with the support of government is an acknowledgement of these circumstances. the specifics of the design of the service and the on-going training and support for this service is in itself a very significant and creative response to these particular local circumstances and present a useful model in how to bridge between technical requirements (or opportunities) presented by a highly advanced technical environment and the human and social resources available in what many would describe as a marginalized or developmental context.2 the purpose of the remote monitoring and water plant maintenance initiative (anishinaabeg kakenwaydemiwatch nepi – akn) is to facilitate the installation and delivery of an affordable and sustainable monitoring and maintenance system in the water and wastewater plants in these northwestern ontario first nations. this service responds to the unique needs of these first nations and takes into consideration the training, support and sustainability issues as the service is transferred to the first nations and their second level support organizations. one goal of akn has been to establish a remote plant monitoring system to deliver the required 24/7 maintenance and security for all the partner communities by utilizing the distributed expertise developed through appropriate and effective training and upgrading programs. the intention of the service is to provide equivalent service to that which is available in those (mostly southern and non-first nations) water and wastewater plants that already meet provincial requirements for locally operated safe water operations. the ultimate intention is to ensure a system for managing and sustaining safe water systems in each first nation community. a 24-7 monitored operation employing local and regional qualified technicians would be made available. training through distance education, and ongoing data collection for research and reporting would also be possible for those utilizing the service. the goal of the remote plant monitoring program is to bring the necessary infrastructure and services to the support of water and wastewater plant monitoring in remote and isolated communities. the remote plant monitoring program thus: provides remote plant monitoring infrastructure for water plant and wastewater plant equipment located in the partner rural and remote first nations; delivers in each first nation a water and wastewater monitoring service that meets provincial and federal monitoring requirements equivalent to that available in other centres; provides an online, high speed data connection from each of the plants to a centralized monitoring system that is capable of identifying and distributing messages to qualified plant technicians who are scheduled to cover a 24/7 troubleshooting service; creates a three year transfer strategy that will ensure all the partners have the capacity and resources required to sustain the ongoing operation and support for all the partner first nation water and wastewater plants; connects each plant to a broadband service capable of supporting online training and troubleshooting services using videoconferencing equipment; and, works with the local first nation plant technician(s) to ensure that the water and wastewater plants are operating and maintained to provincial and federal standards and are available for all local businesses and residents. remote water and wastewater monitoring initiative as a model the remote water and wastewater monitoring initiative is a model for how a complex and information intensive service can, through the use of ict, be cost-effectively delivered into partner communities overall lacking in the advanced technical skills normally required to provide the service. the steps by which this service has been developed and implemented can be seen as a potential model for ict-enabled service delivery into remote and rural communities overall lacking in kills and human resource capacity. the opportunity to develop this as a program for community-based delivery was implicit from the very inception and conceptualization of the service. the program was initially defined not as a “service” but rather, according to the legislation, as a set of service “characteristics” or “standards” which needed to be fulfilled at the community level (viz. identifiable indicators of water quality). this meant that rather than being required to provide a specified “service” in the community with for example appropriate levels of service delivery and thus all the attendant support and supply systems, what was required was a service” output” which met certain specified criteria. the method for achieving that output would be left to be determined by those designing and delivering the service. this approach recognizes that the communities for which the service was being designed, do not have locally available service providers with a requisite level of skill; nor based on experience with other similar areas of technical service, would they be able to recruit or retain outsiders with the appropriate skills and qualifications to come to and stay in these isolated and relatively impoverished communities. thus rather than attempting to identify or create the desired service providers, the authors of the program undertook to redefine the nature of the service to be provided—so that it could be redesigned in such a way as to be appropriately provided by those already resident in the community and thus likely to be retained in the community. this “redefinition” of the service in practice meant that the actual service being provided in the community could be restructured and simplified to a level where relatively less skilled community residents could be hired and trained to deliver the service; of course with the more technical and potentially skill intensive elements of the service being provided or intelligently supported by people in other communities or outsiders directly linked into and engaged with the on-going service provision through real-time interactive electronic contact with the community-based service provider. meanwhile, the program overall was working to provide training and support to local technicians to develop and upgrade their skills and qualifications so that the external monitoring and maintenance services could be minimized while the bulk of the activity could be provided within local communities and through interaction with partner communities. to do this required that the service be redeveloped from one focused on relatively highly skilled and certified service providers to one where the service provision and skill requirements was divided between relatively less skilled staff at the local level and more highly skilled individuals available for remote interaction and support through continuing electronic contact with locally hired staff. this further meant that the service would need to be divided into relatively limited skill level (locally based) monitoring and technical tasks supplemented by a higher degree of (machine) intelligence built into the local equipment along with on-going procedures and protocols for remote external monitoring, support and direct intervention as might be required. in practice, this new approach required a “re-engineering” of the normal method of service provision including a restructuring of the government mandated technical certification process, a redesign of the conventional training programs, the development and installation of new technical systems (and the redesign of the service program to accommodate these new systems) and so on. without the re-engineering of the overall service and the regulated approach to the service it would not have been possible to enable effective service delivery in these communities. selection it was recognized that staffing the water treatment program locally would be the only way that the community could be assured that the staff person might be likely to stay locally and thus ensure that the resources put into training would be a reasonable investment. thus rather than relying on open competition and self-selection to identify the community service provider it became a task for the community itself to identify this individual using local needs and priorities as the selection criteria. necessarily the criteria for selecting the individual went very much beyond the specific identified technical skills or capacity to include an assessment of the character of the individual and of course including the likelihood that the individual would be retained in the community. as well individuals personal characteristics such as reliability, punctuality, health were taken into consideration. in some cases, the individual would be the sole service provider in this area in the community. often finding a replacement or substitute would be very difficult and highly expensive to recruit and to put into place even temporarily. the process of staffing for the community position would thus be a combination of assessment of technical capability and of an appropriate “fit” with community requirements.3 training given the innovative approach to the service being provided, there was the need for a specific approach to training different from what might have been required for conventional environments. rather than being able to develop a training program for a relatively skilled technical employee (very likely a high school and college graduate with some sort of technical qualification) the training program would need to be developed to qualify a community person with relatively limited formal literacy and numeracy skills (often without a completed high school qualification) based on the skill profiles available in many of these communities. this means that the training program would have to be designed to provide a degree of literacy and numeracy upgrading in addition to (or as preparation for) training in the specific technical skills required by the position as well as being adapted in each instance to the specific pre-circumstance of the community individuals identified as being the local candidate for service provider. in addition, while most of the conventional training materials and manuals would be available only in english, many of the service providers would not have strong grasp of english and thus both training and training materials would need to be developed to accommodate the indigenous language. also, given that the local service provider would be in continuous contact and with continuing support from a remote service hub which in more highly technical areas would likely have only limited indigenous language skills there was also the need for a considerable degree of training in english as a second language for the service providers—recognizing that to a considerable degree the language of their interaction with their mentor/trainer might well be in english. implementation the on-going monitoring and provision of chemicals required to ensure water quality needed to be re-designed to take into account the literacy and skill levels of the local operators. in this, more responsibility would be given to the skilled service providers at the service hub thus minimizing the risks attendant on the relatively limited formal skill levels of these community based operators. as well, this would be reflected in the design of the technical system itself for example, using visual (graphic) cues concerning chemical treatment rather than textual or numeric cues. as the skill levels of the operators matured, the program needed as well needed to evolve to accommodate the more technically advanced individuals while supporting those just starting to learn the required introductory skills. overall, the working procedures for the water treatment and the testing and maintenance of the system needed to be redesigned from that conventionally undertaken in southern environments to reflect the different working and cultural patterns and life style elements of operators in these northern communities. the lack of back up for example, or the need for flexible scheduling to accommodate lifestyle requirements among first nations individuals needed to be designed into the system for these northern communities. as well of course, since the service was meant to be an on-going one, there was the need to be cognizant of the service cost, even if it was being subsidized by various levels of government. a service which such as is being described could be operated at relatively modest cost because of the minimization of local costs (local maintenance and turnover costs for outsides brought into the community as local service providers), limiting the volume of technical services being provided through outside “fly-in” contractors (with their very expensive travel and local maintenance costs), and by shifting the technical requirements (and thus costs of technical support) away from the hub to the local nodes as the skill level and experience in the local nodes warranted this. technical supports the implementation of the system only became possible in this environment because of the availability of a high capacity two-way broadband based real time video conferencing network operating on a privately (k-net) managed network. this system allows for support service providers at the service hub to undertake a visual inspection of readings and to do direct supervision of local operations as might be necessary at critical moments or in non-routine situations. the availability of the video conferencing systems allows for a form of remote presence in each of the remote communities which enables the intervention where necessary by a more highly skilled, qualified and experienced service provider (based at the service hub) as might be required to support the less skilled and experienced local service provider. this interaction means that the local individual has continuous access to the skills that might be required to maintain the system including for service and repair and for these services to be delivered from a remote location without the requirement for very costly travel into the community. the intention is to provide a means for electronically-enabled remote monitoring of on-going local operations and local systems and even in many instances for direct remote management and operation at a distance including for example the introduction of chemical additives as might be required for the system operation. again, the availability of a high volume broadband network linking the remote community to the central hub provided the means for this type of interaction. on-going support and quality control in practical terms the electronic connection allowed for service provision of the requisite level of technical knowledge and experience without this knowledge or these skills being locally physically available. of crucial importance both because of the legislated mandate and the nature of the service is the maintenance of an appropriate level of service quality. again through this continuous real-time videoconferencing link and remote equipment monitoring systems, it is possible for the service hub to ensure and enforce quality control at the local level by being available and having sufficient timely information to intervene into the situation as might be required. in addition, via the network it is possible to provide the range of textual, visual, animated or video instruction and direction that might be required to ensure an appropriate level of service quality. the centralization of the support and quality control capacity at the more technically capable service hub means the availability of sufficient coordinated skill and knowledge resources to ensure an appropriate level of service for all the partner communities. the service hub in this instance is providing service to multiple local units within a context where the service itself has been re-engineered to maximally allow for this type of remote quality control and service support. a model for ict-enabled community-based service delivery the service delivery model being implemented is that of a fairly familiar “hub and spoke”. in this instance there is a resource and skill intensive hub supporting a number of distributed local nodes. these nodes are linked to the hub by means of a broadband-enabled two way videoconferencing, telecommunications and data transmission link. while the hub and spoke model is a conventional approach to the central management of distributed services what is of special importance in this instance is the fact that the model is being used to support a fairly skill and knowledge intensive service being locally managed and implemented by what in many cases would be those with more limited formal skill and literacy levels.. that these operators may have more limited formal technical and literacy skills is a direct reflection of the fact that they have been chosen from within and by their local communities which in turn themselves have limited related technical skills and associated specialized knowledge. the challenge in this instance was to design a system which could be workable in these very small and isolated communities from a perspective of minimizing the turn-over among these local operators, providing an employment opportunity within communities where these types of employment opportunities are very scarce and doing this at a reasonable cost recognizing that the cost of hiring and maintaining an individual who was not normally resident in the community would be prohibitively expensive and moreover would be subject (based on experience with similar types of employees in other skills areas) to continuous and very costly turnover. the challenge (and opportunity) in this instance was to design the system so that it could be locally maintained by local staff while still through the direct (electronically enabled) intervention of remote and more skilled staff maintain a suitable level of service quality. thus in case the e-services model that is being discussed includes the following: the design of the service: so as to reflect the specific characteristics of the local communities (nodes) in order to permit the use of locals as local service providers while at the same time ensuring the maintenance and enforcement of the legally prescribed standards of service language (use of indigenous language by operator and english as the working language of interaction) culture (and life style) skill and literacy level the technology providing the basis for the linkage between hub, spokes and nodes broadband infrastructure installed sufficient to support intensive two-way video, audio and data conferencing two way videoconferencing for continuing education and mentoring means for virtual presence and remote monitoring and system maintenance and management a re-engineering of division of responsibility and required skills between hub, spoke and nodes allocating skills between hub and nodes based on skill levels of available local service providers using technology supports as and when appropriate to minimize the requirement for costly technical skills at the hub designing training programs based on the re-engineered service design and including a recognition of the availability of the electronic support for continuing training and mentoring. providing on-going videoconference supported technical support, continue skill development, remote monitoring, technical trouble shooting and so on for the local operator. development in the community of a local capacity to: select the local service provider supervise and support the local service provider provide emergency back-up in the case of a breakdown in the overall system including with the local service provider for the service to be effectively and “sustainably” delivered into the community each element of the above model would need to be put into place, but once in place a similar model for service delivery could be applied to a wide range of technical and information intensive services into poorly serviced areas where the cost of service delivery might be prohibitive. the impacts of this approach to service delivery have been quite extensive and positive: the primary impact of the service delivery is that the service is being delivered into the targeted communities. where previously there had been very poor water quality and related poor water quality management in many communities with in some instances significant resulting health problems, the impact of the program has been an upgrading in the quality of water and the elimination of the risk and reality of diseases resulting from poor water quality. thus the primary impact of the service delivery program is that where previously service had been limited and with significant quality issues now the services are widely available with suitable levels of service quality. a second result of the program has been the creation in the community of a job for a technically skilled employee and in some cases two or three such employees. the creation of a technically skilled job such as this in many of the very small communities is significant since very few of these types of jobs are available to local individuals. the creation of this type of job has a larger influence within the community including in extending the role models available to as well as additional local employment opportunities for young people the improved water and wastewater service provides a level of security and confidence to support local growth and development. the support and utilization of the local community broadband network for monitoring and delivery of services provides another application for the ongoing development and sustainable operation of the local network. a final impact is that the service is now being provided in a cost effective manner. where previously the service required quite frequent interventions from skilled staff to be flown in to the local areas at very significant travel expense with the new system these expenses have been drastically reduced with no direct effect on service quality and thus the service is significantly more “sustainable” for the long term than previously. the community informatics paradigm k-net as the technology service provider to ko has developed broadly within what might be called a “community informatics” paradigm (gurstein 2007). what this means in the k-net context is that the efforts and initiatives in the use of ict have focused on the use of the technology as a means to enable and empower those in the local community to realize benefits and exert a degree of control over the range of services being provided. this approach to e-service delivery should be contrasted with what we might term the conventional approach to e-government service delivery. this approach reportedly has as its overall “mission” “to expand integrated service delivery capacities (in terms of both service offerings and delivery channels) across the government to realize more citizen-centric outcomes (roy 2008). roy goes on to describe “the tentative starting point for service canada” as being done within five guiding objectives: “the tentative starting point for service canada, in terms of its five guiding objectives, reflect these three dimensions: 1 deliver seamless citizen-centred service 2 enhance the integrity of programmes (by building trust and confidence in the programme offerings) 3 work as a collaborative networked government 4 demonstrate accountable and responsible government and 5 build a service excellence culture.” however, the definition of “citizen-centred service” appears to be focused on “citizen satisfaction surveys”, “more elaborate and complex governance partnerships with industry”, and “concerted action …to achieve shared outcomes…that, as underscored …involve a certain degree of coordination and definition by the most senior levels of leadership”. the overall approach might be summarized as follows (roy) more than a technological challenge, online delivery channels must coexist in a multichannel world where the interface between government as a service provider and the citizen as a customer is driving a more ambitious restructuring of roles and relationships within any single government, as well as between sectors and other government levels. by this definition then, “citizen-centric service” becomes a world of “citizen as customer”, “provided” by government centrally driving the definition/design of services within the narrow framework of a “multichannel” world, presumably meaning where services are redesigned for delivery through the narrow and restrictive channels available to government as e-commerce surrogate. very little if any room in this e-government world for adapting services to the specific needs of local groups/communities. equally of course there is no room in this e-government world for communities themselves to get access to government resources to provide services to themselves since there is the overall presumption that through the introduction of e-government strategies and programs services are achieving their maximum efficiency and effectiveness (roy). in those instances where governments are unable to achieve these efficiencies and they look to communities to provide services for themselves. however, this off-loading of what was once responsibility for service delivery from governments to community groups has been accompanied by a burden on communities to apply for “project” funding while at the same time their core ongoing funding is cut. without such core funding, the groups spend much of their time filling out applications for project funding rather than delivering the services, which creates significant stress in the community-based organizations. (gibson, o'donnell, and rideout 2007). the experience in fact, is that even in a period of apparent government attrition there appears to be a growth in government administrative and service support staff even as funding for those attempting to deliver service on the ground is being cut in the name of government austerity.4 localized control central to the community informatics (ci) approach is a concern that ict are an enabler of local development. the technology is in fact neutral as to whether it is supportive of centralized or local control. however since funding and resources are primarily concentrated in the centre, when new developments occur the tendency for those with the resources is to attempt to strengthen their relative (and thus centralizing) position through the use of those resources. this may be one reason why community informatics approaches are less widespread than they might otherwise be even though they are probably more conducive of broad-based and sustainable economic and social development than centralized or top-down approaches. the success with service delivery of ko’s position of insisting on resources being made available for service management and development away from the centre and under the control of the local end-user or end-user communities is a significant example of the value that a ci approach can bring to local communities. electronic service delivery the k-net ci approach has been one which has emphasized the opportunities presented by ict for not only delivering services electronically but also for extending the range and volume of services which are available. as well they have worked to use this approach to make available certain services previously inaccessible to communities because of their remoteness and small population bases. what k-net has done is to demonstrate that ict can make a valuable contribution to the operational systems of rural and remote communities. this of course, parallels the use of ict in the business and service models and operational practices of ict intensive private companies and governments. and as well, the effects have been similar—that is the lowering of the unit costs of delivery and a significant extension in the range of services being made cost-effectively available in participating communities. distributed services the fundamental insight of the very successful e-business companies is that by concentrating service management and delivery in a central electronically enabled hub while making these uniformly, continuously (24/7) and globally available electronically, great economies of scale and efficiencies could be achieved (kalakota and robinson). governments have equally looked to achieve similar efficiencies in their services. the difficulty however, is that e-services provided in this way have in general and particularly for government services been disempowering and often inappropriate for local requirements—for efficiency sake adopting a one-size-fits all even though the technology would allow for the management of a multitude of options. these services are designed and developed centrally and made available and even where superficial options are made available for user (consumer) choice, there has been little real involvement of end users in the actual design or development of the service. these issues are particularly acute where as has been the case for a large number of government services, the e-government approach has led to the elimination of direct service delivery in favour of the electronic option resulting in not only a loss of service quality but also a reduction in employment opportunities which may be of considerable significance in smaller and rural communities. meanwhile of course, the technology equally allows for those at the periphery to use the electronic resources to manage and develop their own services or to take charge of the delivery of services within a distributed servicing model (while at the same time adapting those services to their own local requirements). while this may, from the perspective of the central agency or service provider be perceived to be less efficient5, with end-users designing and managing their own services, the overall effect is that the services provided are those which are of maximum benefit to the end user (and presumably most effectively if not necessarily efficiently provided from the end user’s perspective). ko has uniquely, among the range of community-based service organizations in canada and with few counterparts elsewhere in the world, chosen to exert considerable energy (and overcome very great resistance) to take this second path towards locally based service delivery. by engaging communities in service provision ko has been able to achieve community benefits significantly beyond those achieved simply through electronically delivered services. as already mentioned, to date community informatics has focused either on working to influence national programs to shift current practices of service delivery from centralized and top-down to being more community-based and recognizing the value that can be added to services through an inclusion of community processes and community actors; or on the design and deployment of community-based projects integrating ict into community initiatives for economic and social development of various kinds. the limitation on these two approaches, one which has been imposed by the external reality of available financial support and otherwise for ci practice is that in the first case, the current approach is directed toward what is generally perceived (within the targeted institution) as an additional and immediate cost without any balancing immediately balancing benefit. the limitation of the second approach is the difficulty (from the variety of perspectives already noted above) in scaling success from individual projects into larger scale programming. ko and the ci paradigm: dual institutions—between two worlds (beaton and fiddler) those in the non-governmental sector supporting or involved in service delivery have lagged considerably in their capacity to design or redesign ict-enabled services. the risky and leading edge nature of ict service applications has meant that these have been entrepreneurially driven for the most part both in the private and the public sector. leadership in the area of service delivery in the not-for-profit sector has traditionally rested with governments. they have had the mandate (and not incidentally the resources) to provide the range of services to citizens and communities. in the context of the transition to ict enabled services, government has taken the lead in the development of e-government and related e-services. however, as has been widely noted, the orientation of most governments has been to shift from “citizen” oriented services to one’s where the recipient is seen as a service “client” (roy). what this means is that rather than the service being structured in the context of the broad public interest, the service is presented as another element in a competitive marketplace where the assessment of the value of the service is in large part determined by “customer satisfaction” rather than how it contributes to the “public good” in the broadest sense (roy, saha). however, while this remote access may assist in resolving the availability issue there remains the matter of having access to services that respond to particular local or sectional requirements where the available service is inappropriate, overly expensive, or otherwise unsuitable. while of course, communities have always provided a very large range of services for themselves (and the more isolated the community the more they have been self-sufficient in a range of areas) what is new, is that ict have now begun to enable local communities to provide for themselves a range of more sophisticated and technology intensive services. these previously had been denied to them while also adapting and re-engineering those services so as to be appropriate to the specific resources and needs of those local communities. o’siorchu and girard (2005) in a report developed for the united nations development program initiate this discussion by identifying a range of strategies by means of which communities in less developed countries might self-organize to provide themselves with access to the internet and ict in general which otherwise might not have been available. as well they indicated but don’t elaborate on the opportunity which this self-managed access is now able to provide to these communities towards community-based ict enabled services. harris and rajora (2006) again for the united nations document a wide range of community organizations providing an equally wide range of ict-enabled services in certain communities throughout india although for the most part the services being made available are conventional services being provided to marginalized communities rather than services specifically developed by and for those communities. again at almost the same time an interdepartmental working group in australia was adopting what appears to have been a “community informatics” perspective while looking at the newly emerging community access throughout rural and remote australia and beginning a discussion on how to enable and support the adaptation and integrated utilization of icts—i.e. “re-engineering”--of existing publicly provided services specifically to support the specific requirements found for example among aboriginal communities in outback australia among others. (online access centre ) simultaneously or even slightly in advance of these international efforts keewaytinook okimakanak (ko) was doing all of the above—developing a community owned electronic and telecommunications (ict) platform to support access and service delivery into their remote communities; finding ways of innovatively delivering existing public services to the residents of those communities for whom this previously had been impossible and as well re-designing (re-engineering) existing public services so as to adapt specifically to the resource and cultural requirements of the local aboriginal population. the cliché is often presented that organizations such as ko stand between two worlds generally characterized as the “developed” “white” world, and the “less developed”, “first nations” world. in fact though, while ko stands between two worlds, these worlds are first the “traditional” world of top-down centralized hierarchical institutions and bureaucracies and a new world that they have in part been helping to usher in. this second world is one where they have, as an organization, been living for a number of years which is the world of peer-to-peer relations, of networks where the intelligence lies at the periphery and where community-based processes and the power to manage and direct the network is distributed through the network as the norm rather than the exception. what this means in practice is that ko has an understanding of the nature of the services that are required by and useful in its communities, and of the best way of cost-effectively delivering those services in and to its communities; while those (primarily the federal government) currently responsible for designing and delivering those services into ko’s communities have a different perspective on service delivery strategies. the first strategy is at least implicitly the community informatics model that we have been articulating in this paper, while the second government approach is one consisting of remote and centralized functionalities which seem to be the over-riding characteristics of e-government. this difference in approach is not simply the traditional one of local vs. centralized control which is an on-going theme in first nations (and other indigenous peoples’) interactions with government, although there are of course elements of this. the difference in the current instance is rather that ko through k-net is deeply informed by an advanced understanding of what is possible through the use of ict in service design and delivery; how the use of ict can transform the nature of the services which can be made available; how ict can impact on the potential benefits and effectiveness to communities which can be gained from these services; and the overall significance of ict in the efficient use of resources in support of the delivery of those services. in this understanding there is an impatience about the failure of e-government strategies to deliver on the ict enabled opportunities that would be available to support the development of remote and rural communities in general and first nations communities in particular. the challenge for ko thus is to find a path through this dilemma where its primary funder(s) and service sponsors are working within one (and in many cases a more limited and pre-ict) understanding6 of the service delivery opportunities; while ko through k-net recognizes the opportunities and possibilities of another and by far the more advanced approach to the use of ict in supporting the provision of services to remote and rural populations. the need for ko and for all those espousing similar innovative service delivery approaches is to find a way of revamping the funding arrangements for service provision so as to take account of and support the structural changes in service delivery which ko through k-net has introduced (based on its innovative use of ict). this does not mean that the size of the funding envelope needs to change (this would be the subject of another study) but rather that the administrative controls and practices underlying such funding would need to be revised so as to acknowledge the innovative approaches introduced by ko. e-service delivery and community-based organizations k-net working on behalf of ko in their remote and rural region in the health, education and manpower training areas, has been responsible for a range of advanced applications (from a community informatics (ci) perspective) linking a deep understanding of community processes and the requirements for community owned7 (here referred to as community-based) applications with effective and intelligent use of existing ict systems. to do this k-net has been able to marshal considerable financial and technical resources to create an advanced ict-enabled service delivery infrastructure. this infrastructure has been combined with a clear understanding (and vision) of how this could be used to support service delivery in the region as a supplement to (and even in some cases replacement for) existing services and service delivery approaches. in this, k-net has been moving against the dominant tide of e-government services. this approach, while focusing on a perceived “efficiency of service delivery”, shifts service management and deployment increasingly to the centre i.e. away from local or community management. in addition, there has been a tendency to de-emphasize the (citizen) “participation” element in service design and delivery and has concentrated on “e-government” rather than “e-governance” as the organizing principle.(gurstein 2005) k-net’s efforts on the other hand, focus on empowering the communities and their members to own and utilize local it resources for economic and social benefit. the “one service fits all” approach doesn’t work for remote and rural communities when it comes to meeting local needs. people in these environments have had to find ways of taking the provision of service into their own hands or consign themselves to doing without. in these instances, having access to electronic means for obtaining otherwise unavailable services (as for example remote access to banking services or training programs) has begun to change the service landscape in potentially significant ways. references admassie, a. (2003) ict for effective decentralization: a pilot study in selected woredas united nations, economic and social council, economic commission for africa, third meeting of the committee on development information (codi), e/eca/disd/codi.3/19, addis ababa, ethiopia http://www.telecom.net.et/~estc/icts-cbp/icts%20policy.htm beaton, b. and fiddler, j. (2002) living smart in two worlds: maintaining and protecting first nation culture for future generations; the third global congress on community networking in the digital era, montreal, quebec, canada dara, k.; dimanche, l.; and ó siochrú, s. (2008) a report for the undp: the i-reach project in cambodia, http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/444 fiser a., clement a., and walmark b., (2006) the k-net development process, a model for first nations broadband community networks, cracin working paper no. 2006-12 http://www3.fis.utoronto.ca/iprp/cracin/publications/pdfs/workingpapers/cracin%20working%20paper%20no%2012.pdf gibson, k, o'donnell, s, rideout, v. (2007) the project funding regime: complications for community organizations and their staff. canadian public administration journal, 50(3), 411-436 gurstein, m. (2007) what is community informatics and (why does it matter)? polimetrica, rome, gurstein, m. (2005) from e-government to e-governance: an approach from effective use, paper prepared for paving the road to tunis, conference on canadian civil society and the world summit on the information society, canadian commission for unesco, winnipeg. gurumurthy a., singh, p.j.; kasinathan, g., (2005a) case study 5: the akshaya experience: community driven: local entrepreneurs in ict services in ó siochrú s. and girard, b.) pp. 143-157 http://www.propoor-ict.net/content/pdfs/04_undp_report_5-india.pdf gurumurthy a., singh, p.j.; kasinathan, g., (2005b) case study 6, tenet, n-logue and the dhan foundation: exploring appropriate ownership models for rural pro-poor ictd initiatives ó siochrú s. and girard, b. pp. 169-175 http://www.propoor-ict.net/content/pdfs/05_undp_report_6-india.pdf harris, r. and rajora, r. (2006) empowering the poor: information and communications technology for governance and poverty reduction a study of rural development projects in india, undp-apdip ict4d series http://www.apdip.net/publications/ict4d/empoweringthepoor.pdf kalakota, r. and robinson, m. (2001) e-business 2.0: roadmap for success, addison-wesley longman publishing co. inc., boston, ma, usa kasana i., (wougnet), (n.d.) making ict work for the poor: uganda country study on open access and community driven networks; http://www.wougnet.org/ictspolicy/ug/docs/cinugdocs/makingictswork-isaackasana.pdf online access centre sustainability working group final report (2005), online access centre sustainability, final report of the working group of the onlne council standing committee http://www.dbcde.gov.au/publications/2004/march/online_access_working_group_final_report_2005 ó siochrú s. and girard, b. (2005) community-based networks and innovative technologies: new models to serve and empower the poor, undp http://www.ictregulationtoolkit.org/en/publication.3370.html pacific consulting group, (2008) customer satisfaction measurement best practices study: final report, u.s. general services administration, office of citizen services http://www.citizenservices.gov/pdf_docs/finalrpt2008custsatstudy.pdf purbo, o.w. (n.d.), motivating community based ict infrastructure development http://www.choike.org/documentos/community_ict_infrastructure.pdf roy, j. (2006) ‘e-service delivery and new governance capacities: ‘service canada’ as a case study’, int. j. services technology and management, vol. 7, no. 3, pp.253–271. saha, p., (2008) government e-service delivery: identification of success factors from citizens’ perspective, luleå university of technology, http://epubl.ltu.se/1402-1544/2008/70/ltu-dt-0870-se.pdf youtie, j., shapira, j., and laudeman, g., (2007) supply, demand and ict-based services: a local level perspective, telecommunications policy volume 31, issues 6-7, pages 347-358 visser, w., and twinomurinzi h., (2008) e-government & public service delivery: enabling ict to put “people first” – a case study from south africa, journal of systemics, cybernetics and informatics, vol. 6 no. 6, pp. 36-41 http://www.iiisci.org/journal/cv$/sci/pdfs/qp476dk.pdf 1 http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ai/mr/spch/2006/af27-eng.asp 2 we would like to thank susan o’donnell for suggesting that the points made above be explicitly addressed. 3 there are of course, potential difficulties with this as well, since these relatively well-paid positions would be highly sought after in the community and in such instances there are frequently accusations whether deserved or not of favoritism by local officials surrounding these selection processes. 4 private communication from a local provider of a publicly funded service. 5 there is some considerable argument now as to whether the diseconomies of scale might now be such that the ictict-enabled economies of disaggregation would tend to favour smaller, more nimble, more flexible, more contextually adaptive and flatter dispersed organization rather than the centralized and thus less nimble or flexible and less responsive structures. 6 this is not to say that the individuals involved lack this understanding but only that the institutional (and frequently political) frameworks within which they are working have not been redesigned in such a way as to accommodate such approaches as k-net’s. 7 community-owned’ means that the local community has a significant degree of control over key characteristics of a network, such as the nature of services offered, tariffs charged, and disposal of surplus income. furthermore, the primary goal of the network is to serve the needs of all members of the community, including poorer and marginalized members. in some cases, this means direct community ownership in the form, for instance, of a cooperative. in others the community may be part-owner, along with others such as local entrepreneurs or the public sector. but the right of the community to decision-making may also derive not from legal ownership per se, but be guaranteed in the legal constitution of an entity. local authorities or municipalities, too, may own and run networks on behalf of communities. what all have in common is that services are deployed explicitly with the goal of serving the community, and that the community has a strong and ongoing influence and commitment. (ó siochrú and girard) p. 177) searching for the role of icts in development: a case study of a rural multi-purpose community centre in the dwars river valle   should communal computing facilities cohabit with public facilities?   wallace chigona department of information systems, university of cape town private bag, rondebosch, south africa <wchigona@commerce.uct.ac.za> abstract reasons for establishing communal computing facilities (ccf) in existing public facilities vary from lower setup and operating costs, to easy access for intended users. we explore how ccfs operate in existing public facilities and the effects of these environments on the operations and usage of ccfs. informed by findings of studies on ccfs in disadvantaged communities, this paper notes a number of merits and demerits of setting ccfs in existing public facilities. we note that hosting institutions may contribute towards achieving ccfs’ critical success factors. on the negative side, hosting institutions may limit the type of users for ccfs. keywords: digital divide, shared-access, location, critical success factors, public facilities   introduction communal computing facilities (ccfs) such as telecenters are a well recognised weapon in the fight against the digital divide. such facilities offer information and communication technology (ict) access to members of the community who cannot afford personal access. setup and operating costs are some of the major challenges in setting up ccfs. one of the solutions to such problems is to set up a ccf in an existing public facility such as a school or a library (jensen and esterhuysen, 2001). examples of ccfs operating in public facilities include the world bank school telecenter project where schools open up their computing facilities to the general public (world bank, 2005) and telecenters operating from post offices in afghanistan (undp, 2003). over and above saving costs, ccfs operate in public facilities to ensure accessibility by users and potential users. a number of studies mention in passing issues that come up when ccfs are hosted in other facilities. however, there is a dearth of studies dedicated to looking at this issue in detail. studies of this kind would serve to inform stakeholders of issues which must be taken into account when setting up ccfs in public facilities so that both the ccf and the hosting institution can benefit from their cohabiting arrangement. informed by qualitative research studies done on two separate south african ccf initiatives, this paper brings to light the challenges and benefits that arise when a ccf operates from a public institution. we argue that the hosting institutions may play a significant role towards the ccf realising some of the telecenter critical success factors. on the negative side, our research also shows that the hosting institution may exclude other members of the community from using the ccf. the discussion in this paper is based on two south african initiatives: the smart cape access project and the cape access project. the smart cape access project operates from public libraries in the city of cape town while the cape access project operates from libraries, schools and multi-purpose community centres (mpcc) in the western cape province. literature review we define a communal computing facility as a center which provides shared computer and internet access to a community. ccfs usually offer their services for free or at minimal rates. ccfs go by different names and modes of operations; the most common name being ‘telecenter’. other names include ‘telecottage’ (haman, 2001) and ‘communication technology center’ (alkalimat & williams, 2001). in south africa, a substantial number of ccfs operate as part of mpccs (snyman & snyman, 2003). ccfs co-habiting in public infrastructures there are different models where shared computing facilities co-locate with other community facilities. one model is where an institution incorporates shared computing functionality in its operations. the second model is where an institution opens up access to computing facilities which originally (or traditionally) were ones to which the general public did not have access. the third model, which we are addressing in this paper, is where an independent ccf is setup and operates in a public facility. an example of the model where an institution incorporates ccf functionalities in its operations is when a library chooses to incorporate shared computing facilities in its services. cisler (1998) encourages libraries to do that. he posits that this would be in the interest of the libraries. bundy (2000) claims that telecenters set up as part of a library are more likely to survive compared to those set up outside libraries. proenza (2001) reports that every parish library in jamaica has computer facilities. cisler, however, warns that since the ccf functionality will attract new kinds of library users, libraries need to re-orient their staff to cater for a new breed of users. school-based telecenters fall in the second model. by opening up its computing resources to the general public a school aims at generating additional revenues for the school as for example to support the maintenance and upgrade of the ict infrastructure (mayanja, 2002; world bank, 2005). this model enables schools to afford and maintain technological infrastructures which would otherwise be beyond their reach. publications written about projects in this model mainly concentrate on telecenter management issues for the schools (islam & welch, 2005, mayanja, 2002; world bank, 2005). few studies have focused on how the fact that the ccf is situated on a school affects users from the wider community. there is a dearth of research specifically addressing issues arising from operating ccfs from public facilities. several authors mention the issue but clearly not as the main thrust of their research or publications. proenza (2001) advises that for sustainability, rural-based telecenters need to go into partnership with other public service providers. proenza adds that school computer laboratories, libraries and post offices provide ideal partners. however, the article discusses the issue only briefly and does not address issues affecting the communities which are meant to use the facilities. additionally some researchers have argued that the nature of the hosting institution may inhibit access to some members of the community who would like to use the ccf. colle and roman (2002) argue that a “location in a library or school might intimidate those who might benefit from the service.” this is because community members with low levels of education or literacy may feel out of place in the locations which are considered “intellectual”. in addition, colle and roman make mention of a telecenter in mamelodi, south africa, which had to be relocated from a library because the community perceived the library as an official/government location. cultural factors may also limit accessibility to some host institutions. for example, colle and roman also mention that in latin america some women were put off from using the internet because it was located in post offices, which in their context were considered “male places.” critical success factors for communal computing facilities we are arguing that the nature of the business and the culture of the hosting institutions have an impact on the success of the hosted ccf. to appreciate how the host institution may influence the success of a ccf, there is need to understand (1) how the term “success” can be used in relation to ccfs and (2) what factors are critical to achieve this success. in fact, there is no consensus on what the term “success” means for a ccf. a number of publications on ccfs measure success in terms of profitability and sustainability (jensen and esterhuysen, 2001; proenza, 2001). while there is a general agreement concerning the need for sustainability of ccfs, indicators concerning sustainability are only relevant if the initiative is directed toward generating a profit or if the funding agency has the intention of discontinuing funding at some stage. there are, however, (or are proposals to develop) ccfs which have continuing funding from governments or other agencies (in the same way that governments fund schools and libraries) (gurstein, 2001). for instance the initiatives which are used as cases in this study are fully supported by the government and users are not required to pay for their services. there is a need, therefore, to establish a different evaluation criteria for such ccfs. mchombu (2003), menou (1993) and unesco (1997) suggest that one way of evaluating community information can be based on patronage or use. this is the approach which we adopt in this paper. a number of researchers and practitioners have suggested different factors that are critical to the success of ccfs (jensen and esterhuysen, 2001; proenza, 2001, roman & colle, 2002). however, there is not much agreement on the factors and, there would appear to be few if any attempts to rank the influence of the different factors perhaps because the ranking of such factors would necessarily be highly context dependent. previous papers (chigona, et al 2005, chigona & samaai, 2006) discussed seven critical factors for ccf success of which four would appear to be of specific relevance to this discussion. they are: community buy-in, local champion, location of ccf, and marketing and public awareness. community buy–in: to ensure high acceptance and usage of the ccf, it is essential to get the backing of the community. this is achieved by getting the community involved in the project from the outset and ensuring the community ownership of the project (bridges.org, 2002; jensen and esterhuysen, 2001; ntca, 2000). local champion: a champion is an individual with influence in the community and commands respect. having the support of a local champion for a project encourages involvement of the other members of the community to follow suit (bridges.org, 2002; ernberg, 1998). for the long term sustainability of a project, it is advisable to have more than one local champion (ncta, 2000). location of the ccf: a ccf location should be easily accessible both physically and socially for different groups of people (colle, 2004; ntca, 2000). in other words, the location should be suitable for people of different age groups and genders it is desirable, therefore, that the location should be at a place where people visit to do other activities such as shopping. jensen and esterhuysen (2001) note that there are examples of cases where usage of telecenters increased once the telecenter relocated to inside or near another community infrastructure. marketing and public awareness: community members must first become aware of the ccf and its services before they will get involved in it (colle and roman, 2002). marketing can take the form of advertising, public relations, events and promotions. to sustain the “visibility” of the ccf, the marketing efforts must be ongoing (ncta, 2000). marketing is also important to generate support (including financial support) for the telecenter (jensen and esterhuysen, 2001) the initiatives under study this paper is based on studies on two south african ccf initiatives: the smart cape access project and the cape access project. detailed results of those studies are published elsewhere (chigona & samaai, 2006, chigona et al, 2005, chigona et al, 2006). these studies form a part of a larger ongoing research effort to investigate factors which contribute towards the failure of ccfs in south africa. in this section only an overview of the initiatives will be presented; the research methodologies used in those studies are discussed in the next section. smart cape access project smart cape access project (or smart cape for short), an initiative of the cape town city council, provides free computer access and internet connectivity to disadvantaged communities in the city of cape town (infonomics south africa, 2003). the access points for the initiative, usually referred to as cape access points, are located in selected public libraries in the city. all one needs to access the facilities is a library membership which is itself free of charge. users are allowed only up to 45 minutes of access time per day. cape access the cape access, a project of the provincial government of the western cape (pgwc), aims to provide its residents (especially those in the rural areas) “with access to technology and benefits that can be derived from it” (pgwc, 2004). the project aims to provide technological infrastructure to allow the public to interact with government and business. at the time of the study, the project had six pilot sites in different parts of the province. the areas where the centers were located are categorised into urban, rural and deep rural. the centers operate from mpccs, libraries and schools. the centers which operate from libraries adopted a technological solution similar to the one used by the smart cape. to reduce capital investment, wherever possible, the cape access project uses community computing facilities already available in the community. this has been the case with the mpccs and the schools which are part of the project. the schools had computing facilities made available under the khanya project, a western cape government led initiative providing ict infrastructure in schools (www.khanya.co.za). on the other hand, hosting institutions which have no computing facilities (e.g. the libraries) were provided with the required facilities. in addition to providing the technological infrastructure, the initiative assists the communities in establishing e-community forums. an e-community forum is a community-based group responsible for planning and running the computing resources. the group consists of representatives of the community, community leaders and non-governmental organisations (pgwc, 2004). e-community forums aim at creating a bottom-up approach to ict development. over and above mobilising the respective communities towards using the centers, the e-community forums are supposed to come up with the ict-enabled projects for the community. the identified projects are to be supported by the cape access project. research methodology both the smart cape and cape access studies used a qualitative interpretive approach. this research approach was selected as it provided a means for obtaining respondents’ explanations and interpretations of the phenomena being studied (myers, 1997; snape and spencer, 2003). in depth, semi-structured interviews and observations were used to obtain information from different stakeholders. due to the anonymity agreement with the respondents, the identities of the centers remain hidden. smart cape study data was collected from three smart cape points. these will be refered to as center-a, center-b and center-c. the sample was selected using a purposive sampling technique i.e. a sampling technique where the researcher selects samples “because they have particular features and characteristics to enable detailed exploration and understanding of central themes and puzzles which the researcher wishes to study” (lewis, 2003:78). in this case, the sample was selected based on the social-economic differences of the different locations. center-a: mainly refugees from central africa; with formalised low cost single unit housing. center-b: predominantly coloured community; with formalised low cost high density housing. center-c: largely black; with largely informal housing. a culturally diverse sample was selected based on the assumption that culture may play a role in ccf adoption. data was collected by means of interviews and observations between august 2004 and january 2006 in five phases as follows: phase 1: initial interviews the focus of this phase, which was conducted in august 2004, was to identify the critical success factors for the ccfs. structured interviews were conducted with the management and users of the three centers. seven users were interviewed per center. phase 2: second round of interviews in-depth interviews were conducted with the management of the three centers. in addition, semi-structured open-ended questionnaires were personally administered to on users (selected using convenience sampling) and to a randomly selected sample of non-users. for the purposes of this research a user is defined as anybody who has used the facility more than once. a non-user on the other hand is a person who lives within the catchment area of the ccf, and knows about the facility but does not use it. the sample had 23 users and 11 non-users. the interviews were conducted in august 2005. for detailed results of this phase refer to chigona et al (2006). phase 3: observations at center –c observations were conducted to complement and validate the findings of the initial interviews. the observations were non-intrusive, i.e. the users were observed as they naturally used the system (shaughnessy & zechmeister, 1997; goulding, 2002). the researchers were positioned where they could see the application being used but could not see the actual screen contents. the observations paid particular attention to the following aspects: · demographic composition of the users in terms of age and gender. · social-network influence: whether the users came in groups or individually. · the use of the facilities i.e. the activity the users were engaged in when they were using the facilities. the observations were conducted on four separate days at center-c. each observation session lasted two and half hours. this exercise was carried out within the first two weeks of december 2005. phase 4: observation at a center in a relatively advantaged area observations were conducted at a smart cape access point operating in a library in a relatively advantaged community. this phase was included in the study in order to ascertain whether the pattern observed at center-c was unique to centers operating among the disadvantaged communities. two observation sessions were conducted with each session lasting one and half hours. this phase was conducted in the second week of january 2006. the idea of observing another facility outside the area of focus in order to deepen your understanding of the area of focus was adopted from goulding (2002). phase 5: in-depth interviews in-depth interviews were conducted with users and staff at center-c. these interviews were meant to verify findings and to seek clarification on the themes which had emerged from the previous phases of data collection. at this phase one staff member and three users were interviewed. interviews were stopped at this point as it was observed a saturation point had been reached i.e. no new concepts were emerging from the interviews. cape access study the aim of the study was similar to that of the first phase of the smart cape study. however, this study looked at ccfs operating among the rural and semi-urban communities. in addition, the study investigated the roles that e-community forums are playing in the operations and usage of ccfs. data was gathered through interviews with management, users and non-users of two centers. the two centers, one rural and the other semi-urban were selected using purposive sampling. in addition, members of e-community forums of all six pilot sites were interviewed. observations on two of the centers were also used to obtain empirical data. data analysis the data analysis was based on the work of ritchie et al (2003). in the first instance, the empirical materials from the two studies were analysed separately. this analysis aimed at identifying key themes emerging from the data. the relationship between the hosting institutions and the use of ccfs appeared as themes in both studies. this finding prompted us to revisit the data and pay special attention to issues around the relationships between hosting institutions and the ccfs and how the relationships affect the use of the ccfs. the second analysis went through the following process: · categorisation of the primary materials from both studies. · identifying key themes relating to the relationship between hosting institutions and the use of ccfs. · relating the findings to existing literature to validate the results. · drawing conclusions and recommendations. findings and lessons learnt the findings show that there are different levels of willingness among different public institutions to host ccfs. it was also noted that the hosting institutions had influence on the operations of the ccf as well as on the public’s adoption of the ccf. these findings are discussed in turn. factors affecting the willingness to host different levels of willingness to host ccfs were noted among the hosting institutions. compared to libraries; schools appeared to be less-willing ccf hosts. there was a case where a school principal was a member of the e-community forum, but was not willing to open up a school for the establishment of a ccf. a school is reported to have refused to allow ccfs to use its computing facilities for training. (the library from which the ccf operates could not be used for training due to space limitations hence a need for another training venue). in contrast, libraries appear to be very willing to host ccfs. for example, after noticing a low usage among women, a library at center-c organised a special training program for the women. the differences in attitudes between libraries on the one hand and schools on the other hand as hosts may be understood from two perspectives: 1. perceived benefits to hosting the ccf and 2. potential security risk for the host’s existing infrastructure from the ccf. recall that under the cape access project not all the host institutions received computing infrastructure; the libraries did, but the schools had to use their existing computing facilities. in other words, the schools have to allow external users access to their ict infrastructure without, according to the schools management, “apparent benefits to the school.” the schools indicated that it was not clear to them how they would be compensated and how the maintenance costs would be shared between the school and the project. it can be seen, therefore, that unlike the case with the libraries, the benefits for the hosting schools are not clear. in fact, the schools potentially stand to lose. in addition the smart cape libraries claimed that the introduction of computers increased the number of library users. the library management perceived the ccf as a complimentary service to their everyday service of providing information to the general public. practically, school-based facilities may be available to the community only after school hours. to make matters worse, due to security concerns, the schools are likely to be less willing to surrender the control of their computing facilities and premises to another organization after school hours. even though a school is a public place, its infrastructure and operations are designed for a limited subset of the population (the learners and staff). opening up school facilities to the wider community raises new challenges and risks for the schools. the circumstances for libraries are different. in the first place, libraries are public places by nature and in addition, the ccf is expected and can operate within the normal operating hours of the libraries. it can be seen, therefore, that for a library, hosting a ccf does not substantially present additional risks to its property or operations or an addition to operating costs. facilitating community buy-in the smart cape studies did not identify any attempts at creating community buy-in by the project. in addition, there was no evidence of local champions influencing the local community to use the ccfs. based on existing literature, the lack of community buy-in and absence of champions could have compromised the success of the ccfs. however, contrary to what might have been expected, the centers were successful: the facilities are occupied most of the time and in most cases users have to queue for the facilities. what may on the face value look like a contradiction between existing literature and our findings may be explained by the role hosting institutions played in facilitating the ccfs community buy-in. as the managers explained, the libraries were well established prior to the initiation of the respective smart cape projects. many of the community members already supported the library, “knew the staff and felt comfortable with them” (smart cape center management). the communities’ trust of the library and its staff is evidenced in that library management at center-c is occasionally invited to give talks to community on the benefits of the computing facilities. it can be said, therefore, that the hosting institution as an actor in the ccf network (to borrow from the actor network theory terminology) is facilitating the community ccf buy-in and is serving as a local champion encouraging members of the community to adopt the new innovation. marketing and public awareness as was noted in the literature review, marketing and public awareness is one of the critical success factors of a ccf. our findings point out that the host institutions contributed towards the marketing and raising public awareness of the respective ccfs. this was specifically noted among the library-based ccfs. a substantial number of library-based ccf users in both projects indicated that they came to know about the ccfs while using the respective libraries. in addition, the libraries actively market the ccfs and their services. in both projects, libraries include information on the ccf during their respective public awareness campaigns. in contrast, no marketing efforts were noted from the hosting schools. the benefits which a hosting institution obtains from hosting a ccf could explain the willingness (or lack) of the hosting institution to invest efforts in marketing the ccf. biased user-profile it can be said, therefore, that while it may be true that the hosting institutions assist in marketing the ccfs, it must also be observed that the marketing effect offered by the hosting institutions may be biased towards a specific segment of the population. the profile of users in the ccfs operating in libraries seems to be similar to the profile of the library users (typically learners from surrounding schools). this is not surprising considering that a substantial number of ccf users became aware of the existence of the facilities while they were using the library. including the ccf information in the library marketing campaigns may not be helpful in reaching a non-biased audience. according to the theory of selective exposure, people are most likely to pay attention to what is already of interest to them (rogers, 2003). it can be said, therefore, that members of the community who are not interested in the library are less likely to pay attention to a library campaign. the problem of a biased user profile may be mitigated by ccfs actively marketing themselves. cape access e-community forums are currently engaging in such activities. constraints of the host may restrain the operations of a ccf it was noted that some of the operational requirements of the hosting institutions may not be conducive to the operations of the ccfs. for instance, some members of the e-community forums noted that the libraries’ “no-noise” requirements are not ideal for ccf operations especially where the computing facilities are located within the main library hall. the two studies show that most users and potential users lack computer training, skills and self efficacy in the use of computers. it can be said, therefore, that most users would require human assistance during their initial uses of the system. seeking and obtaining human assistance, in this case, often implies engaging in a verbal conversation. another constraint imposed by the hosting institution is business hours. the operational hours for a hosting institution may not be conducive to the operations of a ccf. for instance, cape town libraries opening times are aligned to the normal working hours of other businesses in the country. the libraries usually close at 17:00 while most businesses in the city close at between 16:30 and 17:00. similar constraints were observed with ccfs operating in mpccs. the operating hours contribute towards defining who may or may not use the libraries and the ccfs housed in the libraries. only those who are free from other commitments during the normal working hours may use the facilities. as was noted for the two projects, these are usually learners (after school hours) and the unemployed. in other words, potential adopters who are in full time employment are unable to use the facilities. as we noted elsewhere, this puts the blue collar workers at the biggest disadvantage since they do not have access at their respective work place because they are too junior and they may not access ict at the ccf because they work “wrong” hours. judging from the resistance from hosting schools, it can be concluded that it is unlikely that hosting institutions can allow ccfs to operate outside the normal working hours of the respective hosting institutions. an exception was noted at one cape access center where the ccf is open to the public outside the normal hosting library‘s opening times. as mentioned by the center management, this arrangement was possible because of the small number of ccf users and because the center is rural-based and “rural communities have trust in each other”. conclusions this paper aims at initiating a discussion on the impact of hosting institutions on ccfs. using data from studies on two south african initiatives, the paper notes that hosting institutions have both positive and negative impacts on ccfs. the lessons learnt from the two studies are summarised in table 1. table 1: summary of lessons learnt from the two studies advantages limitations · the ccf may act as a change agent. · the initial set-up problems are eliminated. · marketing and public awareness effort. · constraints laid down by the host may not be conducive for the ccf. · biased user-profile. · resistance from some of the actors in the hosting institutions. the study points out that a hosting institution may contribute towards the ccf achieving the critical success factors. it was noted that a hosting institution may facilitate community buy-in as well as acting as a local champion. the role of the host in marketing and bringing public awareness about the ccf was also noted. however, it was observed that the marketing provided by the host may lead to a biased user profile for the ccf. to mitigate the bias, the ccf should actively market itself to other audiences who may not be reached by the host. it was also noted that the operational setup of the hosting institution may not be conducive to the operations of the ccf. it is recommended that the stakeholders must be aware of the potential problems and attempts must be made to circumvent them. for instance, the “no noise” policy could be addressed by placing the computing facilities in a room separate from the main library hall. one of the major findings of this paper is that an institution’s level of willingness to play the role of a “good” host is positively associated with the perceived benefit the ccf brings to the hosting institution. a hosting institution is less likely to be supportive towards the course of the ccf when the host perceives the relationship to be parasitic. on this point, we would recommend that ccf initiators must be candid on the benefits the host may gain from housing the ccf. hosting a ccf brings new risks to the host and the host must be willing to bear that risk if the compensation is clear and perceived to be fair. this paper concentrated on the influence the hosting institutions may have on ccfs. it should be noted that a ccf may have effects on a hosting institution. for mutual benefits of both the ccf 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(1976). el artículo examina el proceso en que el desarrollo de las tic ha sido instrumentado por algunas políticas gubernamentales en latinoamérica ¿ha sido este un proceso extensionista, que impone una forma de entender la realidad sobre otra; o un proceso de comunicación, guiado por un diálogo recíproco que permita a las comunidades definir las ventajas y utilidades de la incorporación de las  tic en su vida cotidiana? introducción el trabajo de los gobiernos en américa latina hacia la construcción de la sociedad de la información, ha implicado el desarrollo de estrategias nacionales de conectividad y contenidos, entre las que resaltan las enfocadas a la instalación de centros comunitarios digitales, principalmente en zonas rurales y apartadas. una de las mas destacadas por su alcance (10,000 centros digitales en seis años) el sistema nacional e-méxico, iniciada en el año 2001 por el gobierno mexicano. en 2005, a tres años del inicio de la instalación de centros digitales del sistema nacional e-méxico, y con el fin de determinar un preliminar estado del arte de los centros comunitarios digitales instalados en comunidades indígenas, administrados por la comisión nacional para el desarrollo de los pueblos indígenas, realizamos un proceso de investigación-acción en algunos de estos centros, sobre el uso que de los mismos estaban haciendo las comunidades. se encontró que muchos de éstos no brindaban servicio, o eran subutilizados, a pesar de haberse seguido las políticas de implantación recomendadas por el sistema nacional e-méxico. tras el análisis de estas políticas de implantación, se encontró que las mismas limitaban la participación de la comunidad en la definición de los usos que se podrían dar a las tecnologías, así como en la administración de los propios centros1. considerando la resolución 34 de la xv reunión del comité consultivo permanente 1 de la comisión interamericana de telecomunicaciones2, sobre proyectos de desarrollo de telecomunicaciones en comunidades indígenas, decidimos construir una metodología de introducción de las tic que favoreciera la participación de la comunidad en la planeación y administración de los centros digitales (vease medellín 2006). la instrumentación de la metodología demostró cambios radicales en la utilización de los centros digitales y su importancia para la comunidad3; por ejemplo, en evaluaciones llevadas a cabo casi un año después a los talleres de apropiación iniciales, la comunidad partió, de tener dos o tres usuarios del centro, a contar con grupos de usuarios claramente identificados y con actividades preponderantes para el desarrollo de la comunidad (proyecto ecoturístico, aserradero, bachillerato). resultados como los anteriores nos llevaron a concluir que la forma en que se introducen las tic en comunidades indígenas, determina la posibilidad de éstas últimas de apropiarse de dichas tecnologías y utilizarlas en sus objetivos de desarrollo. basados en esta experiencia, el presente artículo busca suscitar la reflexión sobre el esquema de promoción de las tic en comunidades indígenas que se sigue actualmente en américa latina. para ello hemos decidido tomar como punto de partida los compromisos internacionales para la construcción de la sociedad de la información respecto a estos pueblos, de los que el estado mexicano es parte e incluso ha sido impulsor ante organismos internacionales, posteriormente se presentarán los aportes de paulo freire al análisis de los modelos de promoción de paquetes tecnológicos en zonas rurales, y la apropiación que de las tecnologías pueden hacer las comunidades. con base en estos elementos, comentamos las estrategias seguidas en la promoción de las tic en américa latina, basadas fundamentalmente en modelos extensionistas que dificultan la apropiación por parte de la comunidad. ante tales conclusiones se propone una alternativa, la de crear las condiciones que permitan impulsar nuevos modelos que incorporen esquemas de comunicación, en los que los beneficiarios sean sujetos de participación y acción transformadora de su realidad. los pueblos indígenas y la sociedad de la información la construcción de la sociedad de la información representa una gran apuesta por promover un desarrollo armonioso, justo y equitativo entre países, regiones y sectores sociales, mediante el acceso generalizado y uso apropiado de las tecnologías de información y comunicación (tic). muchos de los esfuerzos a nivel mundial se han enfocado hasta ahora en la tarea de universalizar el acceso a las tic para el abatimiento de la brecha digital. alrededor del mundo, han proliferado proyectos y estrategias para acercar las nuevas tecnologías a sectores de la población que poco o nulo acceso han tenido a ellas, con la esperanza de contribuir a eliminar los rezagos sociales y económicos entre países, pueblos y personas. los gobiernos de américa latina también se han sumado a este esfuerzo internacional, desarrollando sus propias estrategias para reducir la brecha digital y promover la generalización del uso de las nuevas tecnologías entre la población. ésta región cuenta con una importante población indígena que a lo largo de siglos de lucha ha reclamado su derecho a determinar sus propias formas de desarrollo, de modo que atiendan a sus necesidades en un marco de respeto a su legado, patrimonio y singularidad cultural. “en la evolución de la sociedad de la información, se debe prestar una atención especial a la situación particular de los pueblos indígenas, así como a la conservación de su patrimonio y de su legado cultural.” (declaración de principios cmsi, 2005: a15) desafortunadamente, a pesar de que los países de américa latina se han comprometido a acatar los principios emanados de la cmsi, los esquemas de promoción de las tic que han desarrollado parecen apuntar a la creencia de que las tic son per se la solución para la pobreza y el subdesarrollo (gumucio-dagron 2004) y por tanto se han centrado en la expansión de infraestructura, dejando de lado los aspectos sociales y culturales (hilbert et alt 2005) que como señala la declaración de principios requieren de una atención especial con respecto a los pueblos indígenas. es así que los países latinoamericanos habrán de tener en cuenta en la realización de sus estrategias nacionales para abatir la brecha digital, las características y necesidades manifestadas por estos pueblos. esto conlleva a diseñar políticas adecuadas, que a nuestro parecer, basados en la experiencia de implantación de algunos modelos metodológicos en comunidades indígenas, tienen que ver con la apropiación comunitaria a través de una política de comunicación. ¿extensión o comunicación? a principios de la década de 1970, paulo freire advertía sobre los riesgos y la ineficacia de los métodos extensionistas, ampliamente utilizados por los agrónomos de aquella época en la introducción y promoción de tecnologías agrícolas “modernas” en el sector rural. en su ensayo “¿extensión o comunicación? la concientización en el medio rural” (freire, 2001 [1972]) realiza un detallado análisis del concepto de extensión y las implicaciones de su utilización como método para introducir paquetes tecnológicos elaborados, así como el camino supuesto para lograr el cambio de actitudes entre la población rural, ambos considerados necesarios para acceder a mayores niveles de desarrollo. en este ensayo, freire contrapone los conceptos de extensión y comunicación como profundamente antagónicos; la extensión como una teoría anti-dialógica que objetiviza a los destinatarios de la acción, los campesinos e indígenas, negando su capacidad de ser sujetos de transformación. “nos parece que la acción extensionista implica, cualquiera que sea el sector en que se realice, la necesidad que sienten aquellos que llegan hasta la “otra parte del mundo”, considerada inferior, para, a su manera, “normalizarla”. para hacerla más o menos semejante a su mundo. [...] el término extensión se encuentra en relación significativa con transmisión, entrega, donación, mesianismo, mecanicismo, invasión cultural, manipulación, etcétera.” (freire 2001 [1972]:21) en efecto, la labor del extensionista de aquella época consistía en persuadir a la población rural de aceptar y aplicar paquetes tecnológicos provenientes del mundo “desarrollado” para lograr superar su condición de “subdesarrollo”. esto no sucedió así y muchas fueron las voces que culparon a los mismos campesinos e indígenas de este fracaso. freire, en cambio, observaba que el mayor problema de esta apuesta radicaba en el método empleado: el extensionismo. este autor proponía como alternativa a dicho método, esencialmente unilateral e invasivo, el de comunicación, que presupone un diálogo, “una reciprocidad que no puede romperse” (freire, 2001 [1972]:75). en esta reciprocidad, los sujetos crean un nuevo pensamiento sobre el objeto conocido, no es un pensamiento de uno que se extiende hacia el otro, es el conocer juntos de acuerdo con el entorno en el que se verifica esta nueva situación. “la educación es comunicación, es diálogo, en la medida que no es la transferencia de saber, sino un encuentro de sujetos interlocutores…la comunicación verdadera no es la transferencia o transmisión de conocimiento, de un sujeto a otro, sino su coparticipación en el acto de comprender.” (freire, 2001 [1972]:77-78). al seguir este proceso afirmamos la creencia que señala freire: “los hombres pueden hacer y rehacer las cosas, pueden transformar el mundo” (freire, 2001 [1972]:84). para los pueblos indígenas, que durante años han reclamado su derecho a ser diferentes, esto constituye un elemento esencial, al establecer las posibilidades para que el conocimiento que se pretende compartir se recree, nazca y funcione conforme a su entorno, aspiraciones y necesidades, es decir, que exista la posibilidad de hacer suyo el objeto, apropiarse de él y determinar como contribuirá a su desarrollo. la apropiación de las tic, el resultado de un proceso de comunicación precisamente el resultado del proceso de comunicación es la apropiación del objeto, que cobra sentido y será utilizado en función de las necesidades y realidades del sujeto que lo aprehende e interpreta. sobre el concepto de apropiación de las tecnologías de información existen distintas definiciones aportadas por diversas personas, organizaciones y académicos. la mayoría hace referencia a la apropiación de las tecnologías de información y comunicación como un proceso que impacta en el uso que se le da a las mismas.4 “apropiarse de algo significa hacerlo propio hasta el punto de poder aplicarlo a conveniencia y según los requerimientos y características de situaciones específicas” (fundación omar dengo [fod], 2006:18). en particular, la utilización y apropiación de nuevos dispositivos técnicos se desarrolla de manera progresiva, “[...] mediante la participación activa de los usuarios, quienes incorporan la nueva tecnología a través de elecciones y decisiones, ya sea refutando o reconformando los modos de empleo prescritos para los artefactos técnicos, o bien, adaptándolos a sus condiciones de existencia” (sagástegui, 2005:4). en materia de apropiación de las tic algunos autores distinguen entre el proceso de apropiación individual y la apropiación social. gigli sostiene que la apropiación es “un fenómeno en el cual una persona, absorbe, sistematiza y procesa la información, creando nuevas relaciones y nuevo conocimiento, que puede comunicar a otros y aplicar para solucionar necesidades concretas. [...] en el caso de un colectivo social, el proceso es similar, con el agregado que el proceso de adaptación de la tecnología se inicia con la participación de sus miembros. por ello, si el colectivo no lleva adelante la apropiación, mediante la participación en el proceso de adaptación de la misma a usos y costumbres, la misma será abandonada o desapropiada”. (gigli, 2005:13-15) sagástegui identifica la apropiación social de las tecnologías como una etapa posterior a la apropiación de los dispositivos técnicos en la que “la técnica no se considera de manera separada de la cultura, sino una forma de expresión de la misma. la apropiación social de internet enlaza la innovación técnica, el orden simbólico y la escala de lo cotidiano” (sagastegui 2005 p.15) algunos otros autores identifican la apropiación social con los usos que se les dan a las nuevas tecnologías: “hablar de apropiación social significa que los recursos de internet ayuden a resolver problemas para la transformación de la realidad. en este sentido, la evidencia de la apropiación no es el uso de las nuevas tecnologías sino los cambios que éstas produjeron en el mundo real.” (del álamo, 2005). en la mayoría de los casos se identifica la apropiación como condición básica para que el uso de las tic contribuya al desarrollo, “que las nuevas tic´s impacten positivamente en el mejoramiento de la calidad de vida de las personas, y que ese mejoramiento sea sostenido en el tiempo, es el grado o nivel de apropiación que las personas hagan de esa tecnología” (encuentro internacional software libre y apropiación social de las tic, 2004). las anteriores definiciones comparten algo: consideran la apropiación como un elemento esencial para el funcionamiento de las tic para el desarrollo y establecen una relación directa con el grado de utilidad que representa su uso para la comunidad. también se refieren a tipos de apropiación individual y social; sin embargo en el caso de los pueblos indígenas, la vida es esencialmente comunitaria y por tanto, la apropiación habrá de llevar ese mismo sentido. la apropiación comunitaria de telecentros otro tipo de apropiación que vale la pena destacar es la apropiación de los proyectos que incorporan las tic. debido a que la mayor parte de los países en américa latina han optado por la instalación de telecentros comunitarios como parte de la estrategia por reducir la brecha digital, es importante considerar la apropiación que de éstos hagan las comunidades, lo que contribuye a la sostenibilidad, en todos los ámbitos, de dichos proyectos. el acercamiento y la introducción de proyectos de tic a las comunidades y principalmente en el caso de los pueblos indígenas, ha de partir de la realidad concreta de la gente, sus formas de organización y su cultura. de nada sirve diseñar un modelo homogéneo que probablemente no se ajuste a las necesidades y estrategias de desarrollo comunitarias e incluso se contraponga con la regulación y cosmogonía de estos pueblos. cada proyecto se inserta en un contexto particular en el que el proceso de apropiación se da a partir de realidades económicas, políticas, sociales y culturales específicas. atender este contexto es especialmente importante en el caso de comunidades y pueblos indígenas. los pueblos y comunidades indígenas mantienen un modo de vida basado en la comunalidad, (rendón 2003) que es algo más que la suma de las individualidades que integran la comunidad. la comunalidad “es la lógica con la que funciona la estructura social y la forma en que se define y articula la vida social” (rendón, 2003:14). en los pueblos indios los procesos de apropiación tanto de las tic como de los proyectos que las incorporan, también suceden en el ámbito de la comunalidad. en la medida en que los proyectos de telecentros y las tic sean reconocidos por su contribución y utilidad para las estrategias y proyectos de desarrollo local, las comunidades entrarán en un proceso de apropiación tanto de las herramientas tecnológicas, como de los centros digitales, integrándolos a sus propias formas y medios de comunicación, y se incorporarán a las estructuras sociales y formas propias de organización convirtiéndose en espacios comunitarios de encuentro y comunicación que promuevan iniciativas locales para el mejoramiento de las condiciones de vida de las comunidades. proyectos de tic para el desarrollo en américa latina desafortunadamente, la manera en que se han estado desarrollando las estrategias nacionales hasta el momento, poseen más elementos que recuerdan los modelos extensionistas de introducción de tecnologías; por lo general, estos ambiciosos proyectos han puesto el énfasis en tres aspectos: 1) la instalación de infraestructura (en la mayoría de los países se ha optado por el modelo de centros comunitarios digitales), 2) la capacitación instrumental a los beneficiarios en la utilización de las herramientas tecnológicas y, 3) el impulso a la generación de contenidos considerados socialmente útiles (generalmente desde las dependencias, instituciones y organismos gubernamentales promotoras).5 la evidencia empírica acerca del funcionamiento y la utilización de estos espacios públicos en general muestra, que si bien su instalación ha abierto una posibilidad para algunos sectores de la población tradicionalmente excluidos, de tener acceso al potencial beneficio de las tic, existe el riesgo latente -y en no pocos casos, ya comprobadode la evidente sub-utilización de las tic, la insostenibilidad y el abandono de los proyectos, o mucho peor, del surgimiento de impactos sociales no deseados6, esto debido a que gran parte de las estrategias nacionales para américa latina y el caribe son vistas como estrategias de infraestructura y dejan en segundo plano aquellas políticas que tienen que ver con el impacto social de la introducción de dichas tecnologías (hilbert et alt 2005: 30). el objetivo de la promoción de las tic, tal como lo reconoce la comunidad internacional, es el de encauzar el potencial de la tecnología de la información y la comunicación para alcanzar los objetivos de desarrollo: “somos conscientes de que las tic deben considerarse un medio, y no un fin en sí mismas. en condiciones favorables, estas tecnologías pueden ser un instrumento eficaz para acrecentar la productividad, generar crecimiento económico, crear empleos y fomentar la ocupabilidad, así como mejorar la calidad de la vida de todos. pueden, además, promover el diálogo entre las personas, las naciones y las civilizaciones” (declaración de principios cmsi, 2003:a9). para contribuir a los objetivos de desarrollo, el uso de tic requiere -además de la posibilidad de las personas de acceder a ellas (conectividad y capacidad para utilizarlas), de un proceso de apropiación de las mismas tecnologías y de los proyectos que incorporan estas herramientas. la apropiación se reconoce como un proceso indispensable y que debe ser fomentado en el acercamiento de nuevas tecnologías y la introducción de proyectos de tic a las comunidades indígenas y de todo el sector rural. es una precondición indispensable para: 1) que las tic tengan impactos reales en el desarrollo local y actúen conforme a los intereses de las personas y comunidades donde se insertan, así como; 2) que los proyectos de desarrollo que incorporan la utilización de tic sean sostenibles. la evidencia muestra que la forma en que se lleva a cabo el proceso de introducción de tic es crucial tanto para la permanencia de los proyectos como para aprovechar plenamente su potencial en beneficio de las comunidades donde se insertan. la conclusión anterior proviene de los resultados de proyectos piloto en centros digitales ubicados en localidades indígenas de tres regiones de méxico, que los suscritos condujimos, dichos centros habían sido instalados sin un proceso de apropiación comunitaria y por tanto el uso era reducido y sin resultados identificables de apoyo a proyectos de la comunidad. después de haber llevado a cabo diversos talleres de planeación participativa orientados a la apropiación comunitaria éstos brindaron resultados inmediatos en materia de sostenibilidad social: las comunidades establecieron una relación de utilidad del centro con relación a cada proyecto de la comunidad, identificaron actores principales y las formas en que habrían de colaborar, tomaron acciones directas en cuanto a la administración del centro y elaboraron un plan de trabajo conforme a sus propias prioridades, en todos los casos en que se evaluaron los avances después de un año éstos fueron considerables en la importancia, utilidad y uso que la comunidad daba al centro7 es ahora cuando resulta indispensable volver a escuchar las palabras del pedagogo brasileño que hace 35 años advertía sobre la importancia en el método para acercar nuevas tecnologías a la población rural latinoamericana, no mediante el extensionismo mecánico, vertical e invasivo, sino a través de procesos de comunicación en los que la posición de los beneficiarios sea de verdaderos sujetos de participación y acción transformadora de su realidad, lo cual, a su vez, implica la transformación de quien promueve estos procesos. las bases para la promoción de las tic mediante procesos de comunicación están dadas, los documentos fundacionales sobre la sociedad de la información hacen amplia referencia a la participación de las comunidades en la construcción de ésta8, resoluciones sobre políticas de acceso a las tic para los pueblos y comunidades indígenas emitidas por la comisión interamericana de telecomunicaciones9 y la unión internacional de telecomunicaciones10 hacen referencia a la importancia de la participación de las comunidades en la definición de prioridades y formas de utilización de las tic, incluso se han establecido compromisos para américa latina en la creación de indicadores que pongan atención en el impacto de las tic en los objetivos de desarrollo11; también existen metodologías y estudios que comprueban la importancia de impulsar procesos de apropiación tecnológica que hagan sostenible la infraestructura de comunicación comunitaria. entonces, si las bases están dadas ¿qué hace falta para que la orientación de las políticas públicas aliente procesos de comunicación y se aparte de modelos extensionistas que han probado su ineficiencia en épocas pasadas? la respuesta a esta pregunta tiene por lo menos tres vías de atención: la de los gobiernos, que han de comprender las semejanzas de los modelos actuales de promoción de las tic con los fallidos esquemas extensionistas utilizados para promover la “modernización” del campo en épocas pasadas y así aprovechar ésta experiencia para incorporar procesos de apropiación tecnológica que sean verdaderos esquemas de comunicación y que tomen en cuenta las características particulares de las comunidades indígenas. la de los ciudadanos, que habrán de exigir resultados mas allá de los montos de inversión en infraestructura, que les permitan contar con información que verifique a la sostenibilidad de la inversión y el impacto de la misma en áreas prioritarias para el desarrollo de la comunidad en que se haya instalado. la de la comunidad beneficiaria por la instalación de infraestructura, que habrán de tomar las riendas de sus centros de comunicación e involucrarse en su instalación, planeación y administración. bibliografía cmsi. declaración de principios. ginebra, 2003. _____. compromiso de túnez. túnez, 2005. ccp1, citel resolución 134 planes de desarrollo de las telecomunicaciones para los pueblos indígenas paraguay 2001. del álamo, o. hacia la apropiación social de las nuevas tecnologías en los procesos de desarrollo, 2005, en http://www.iigov.org/gbz/article.drt?edi=103747&art=112489 díaz gómez, f. “comunidad y comunalidad”, en rendón monzón j. la comunalidad. modo de vida en los pueblos indios, tomo i, cultura indígena, consejo nacional para la cultura y las artes, méxico, 2003, pp. 91-107. freire, p. ¿extensión o comunicación? la concientización en el medio rural [1972]. 22ª. edición, siglo xix, méxico, 2001. 109 págs. fundación omar dengo. educación y tecnologías digitales. cómo valorar su impacto social y sus contribuciones a la equidad. san josé, costa rica, 2006. en www.fod.ac.cr/publicaciones gumucio-dagron, alfonso, las cinco condiciones esenciales para las tic en el desarrollo en fao, secreto a voces ntics e interactividad, roma 2004 ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/006/y4721s/y4721s00.pdf gigli, j. hacia un modelo de apropiación de tecnologías de la información y la comunicación en ámbitos rurales. 2005, en www.juangigli.com.ar/hacia_un_modelo_de_apropiacion_de_tic_en_ambitos_rurales.pdf hilbert, m; bustos y ferraz estrategias nacionales para la sociedad de la información en américa latina y el caribe, cepal 2003, en http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/xml/5/13815/estrategias.pdf martínez luna, j. comunalidad y desarrollo, cultura indígena, conaculta / campo a.c., méxico, 2003, 83 págs. medellín urquiaga, sofía. uso de tecnologías de información y comunicación para el desarrollo local: apropiación comunitaria de telecentros. cdi, méxico, 2006 http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=1985 menou, michel j. isticometros: hacia una visión y proceso alternativo. funredes proyecto olística, 2001, en http://www.funredes.org/olistica plan de acción sobre la sociedad de la información de américa latina y el caribe e-lac2007 rendón monzón, juan josé. la comunalidad. modo de vida en los pueblos indios, tomo i, cultura indígena, consejo nacional para la cultura y las artes, méxico, 2003. sagástegui rodríguez, diana. la apropiación social de la tecnología. un enfoque sociocultural del conocimiento. universidad de guadalajara, méxico, 2005. sistema nacional e-méxico. manual de implantación de los centros digitales e-méxico, secretaría de comunicaciones y transportes, méxico 2002. 1de acuerdo al manual de implantación de centros comunitarios digitales del sistema nacional e-méxico (2002) la participación de la comunidad es principalmente como usuarios del centro, sin que se prevea en este manual mecanismos que permitan la participación de la comunidad en la administración y operación del centro, de acuerdo con los objetivos de la resolución 134 de la xv reunión del ccp1. 2esta resolución establece diversas recomendaciones para el desarrollo de las telecomunicaciones en comunidades indígenas que se refieren a aspectos de tecnología, capacitación, desarrollo de contenidos, administración de los servicios, industria, teleaplicaciones y marco regulatorio. específicamente en materia de capacitación señala la importancia de una capacitación que busque que las comunidades puedan administrar y operar éstos medios. 3algunos de estos resultados fueron presentados como estudio de caso en el taller incorporando las nuevas tecnologías al desarrollo local impartido durante la conferencia know how 2006, méxico palacio de minería. 4la apropiación y el uso que se le da a las tecnologías de información y comunicación, en la mayoría de los casos se consideran como procesos individuales. pero vale la pena destacar que algunos autores hablan de la apropiación y uso colectivo de las tic. “no sólo existe actualmente un uso colectivo, pero sería más apropiado o razonable en muchos casos” (menou, 2001) 5para un estudio a mayor profundidad sobre las estrategias nacionales en américa latina y el caribe véase: hilbert et alt 2003. para un ejemplo de estas estrategias véase estrategia nacional e-méxico http://www.e-mexico.gob.mx/wb2/emex/emex_que_es_emexico 6existen registros de casos en los que la instalación de centros digitales, sin la adecuada participación de la comunidad, genera cacicazgos, nuevas estructuras de poder que también excluyen a la mayor parte de la población local del potencial beneficio de su utilización. por ejemplo, durante la ejecución de talleres de planeación participativa de centros digitales llevados a cabo en jalisco, yucatán y oaxaca en méxico, en la etapa de evaluación inicial se recogieron opiniones como las siguientes: “el horario que se puso no acomoda a la comunidad. a veces entran dos personas a veces ninguna. no hay interés de las personas, casi no participan. el maestro no respeta el horario.”, entre otros. 7vase http://cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=1089 8plan elac 2007 p.20 9resolución 134 de la xv reunión del comité consultivo permanente 1 de la comisión interamericana de telecomunicaciones. 10plan de acción de doha. 11plan e-lac 2007 joci gender in community informatics anita gurumurthy executive director, itforchange guest editor, the journal of community informatics. anita@itforchange.net i came into this special issue of the journal of community informatics as guest editor with the rather common sense hypothesis that the notion of 'community' as well as information and communication systems are unequivocally gendered. it is well acknowledged that the marginalities crafted by the information society pursues gendered hierarchies, creating, first of all, the primary faultline separating those with access to and membership in digital spaces and information networks and those without. as important, from a women's standpoint, are the predispositions of the dominant information society paradigm– its neo–liberal tendencies and hyper–individualism which are excluding knowledges and networks of solidarity that may not find direct meaning or belonging in the emerging social spaces and their codes. having worked with the centre for community informatics and development (ccid) of it for change (www.itforchange.net) in enabling women to create a communications syntax that corresponds to dalit (lower caste) women's ecologies of information, their worldview, aspirations, struggles and solidarities, i knew community informatics did bring a breath of fresh air to the endeavours of feminism, unlocking new possibilities. there was in the villages of mysore where we worked with the mahila samakhya collectives, a new space for the battle of creative, subaltern energies against structures of information hegemonies steeped in the cultures of oppression and in the exploitation of poor, dalit women. the art of the (technology) possible held new hope for women, whose rights as citizens and relationship with local institutions as well as with collective organisations and social action were beginning to break out of old impasses. with their own radio program in their local dialect, video content that they customised for their collective learning and reflection processes, and public information centres that they built and began using for making claims for their entitlements, they were able to find and employ a new technique of feminist action through an emerging unique community informatics strategem that gave them voice and unleashed their agency. the resulting changes were non–linear and deeper; less didactic and more self–directed, and a curious mix of the dialogic (with the men of their own families about gender discourse) and the antagonistic (with assertions against vested interests in the immediate community and institutions). the ccid team was also learning alongside; helping women with appropriate technological formats, meanwhile encountering an uneven playing field with very little market innovation or supportive policy intervention appropriate to enabling or complementing the community informatics project of the mahila samakhya women. on the contrary, the nature of the playing field seemed to be replete with patriarchal, elite and inflexible content and technology models, not in the least congruent with the ethos of progressive and inclusive change that could place at the centre, the burning desires and brilliant capacities of women determined to break out of their compact with structures of oppression and perhaps even, the dominant project of development. with ccid's own experiments, and in the course of the long gestation of this special double issue of the joci, through the keen insights of the scholars and practitioners who have contributed their writings, i have learnt much more and especially about what feminism brings to community informatics! a methodology of transformation ..... by presenting new ways of knowing and doing, and thus making way for new ecologies and cultures of communication, feminism transforms ci into a radical practice. axes of power get realigned as women's appropriation of technology for transformative change democratises the local public, embedding women's voice as a valid moral–political force in the local political agora and deliberative space (for instance with women owned/controlled local radio and video). institutional norms begin to change deeply as new information architectures lead into new pathways and information flows, creating and deepening the legitimacy of women as social actors with valid claims. new community constellations based on sub-altern ontologies and epistemologies ... from communities of solidarity and resistance, collective memory and history to communities of choice that disrupt oppressive relationship configurations, the notion of community acquires emancipatory content in feminist constructs of community informatics. such local and trans–local community configurations are about a possible new geography of communities that rearticulates gendered locations, and a new spatiality of collective organising that is based on new social identities. the local–global as non–linear, contiguous space and feminist practice of technology as deepening the publics..... the practice of community informatics through gendered analytical frames underscores the fact that the local and the global are not polarities but categories representing multilayered space. thus, the local appropriation of technology is in a dialectic relationship with trans–local forces in as much as the dominant logic shaping information and communication flows globally is simultaneously permeated by sub–global cultures and communities. while the situated experiences of women in relation to information processes do derive also from social norms, the very experience of 'doing technology collectively' can be disruptive of these normative frameworks. the wider policy ecology – again, global, national and sub–national – can enable or constrain these situated experiences. most importantly, feminist practice of technology in the multilayered local–global invokes debates around knowledge ownership regimes to recover the notion of the commons. an information architecture that is relevant to the most marginalised women cannot be shaped by the logic of commodification, but of the publics. in the emerging spatialities of the information society, forging communities is not about an escape into digital utopia, a self–aggrandizement online of the neo–liberal variety we spoke about earlier, but a methodology of reclaiming and creating publics – spaces for the collective – that correspond in an accountable way to a contextual and territorialised politics of knowledge. a framework that brings production and social reproduction together.... the theory and practice of feminist community informatics challenges the celebratory macro–narratives about technology and globalisation in a brave new world. from a critical feminist standpoint, community information and communication architectures cannot derive from a techno–deterministic valorisation of it jobs or the magic of mobile phones, but must catalyse a new economics and sociology of the local. these include the possibilities for a more environmentally bound and embedded economics that fetches the surpluses of globalisation to women in their contexts – an antithesis to the dominant information society architecture that co–opts the political economy of weak institutions, poverty and gender division of labour to expropriate women's labour. also, as mentioned earlier, community informatics practice opens up the possibilities of cultural transformation through discontinuities of tyrannical normative structures. a feminist constructivist approach to women's technology appropriation therefore is about a new ethics of gender that challenges the reproduction of unjust values and practices in and through new knowledge and cultural arenas when the material and the symbolic are simultaneously recast. i am deeply grateful to michael gurstein for his unwavering faith in it for change. embarking on this collaborative project with him has been a great learning experience for me. it has taken long to bring different authors' works to this point, through the processes of reviews and rewritings. i thank all the authors for their contributions, and hope they see this collection as a useful addition to their learning. this issue has had the benefit of the commitment and editorial talent of anja kovacs and shivani kaul. anja and i had intense editorial discussions on what kind of mosaic would befit the grand idea of a special issue on gender, and anja devoted considerable time to cast the net far and wide to extend the call for proposals to many places across the world and engage the interest of authors through facilitative discussions. shivani has been meticulous in her coordination and copyediting support and a wonderful team member with whom i have had many spontaneous discussions on the insightful observations of the authors. eduardo villanueva and anupama joshi have worked very hard on the last mile – enabling the text to be converted into publishable online formats. anupama also used krupa thimmiah's special header design for this issue – in the colour of the women's movement – embedding the text to make it part of this distinctive collection on gender. i am ever so grateful to it for change's legacy of critical thinking, theoretical grasp and engagement with the politics of the everyday – the research and ccid team members, past and present, have been remarkably inspiring colleagues. technicians, tacticians and tattlers: women as innovators and change agents in community technology projects technicians, tacticians and tattlers: women as innovators and change agents in community technology projects helen mcquillan dublin institute of technology <hmcquillan@gmail.com> abstract dominant theoretical and policy perspectives on women and ict portray women as passive, excluded, disinterested or disconnected from technology. this paper reports on a five year ethnographic study which explored women’s roles, experiences and contribution to a large-scale community technology project in ireland. it discusses how feminist archetypes were used to develop an interpretive model which examines women’s engagement and agency in ict, illustrates women’s diverse and active roles and offers a new paradigm for women’s ict knowledge and expertise. in conclusion it discusses how this model could be applied to other settings to better understand digital inclusion and empowerment processes. theoretical perspectives debate about women and ict is framed within feminist theories of gender and technology, a research field which offers a rich theoretical diversity and framework for understanding gender technology relations and exploring women’s visibility, representation and status in ict. the research has spanned over two decades and the technologies under review have changed considerably in that period but six main themes remain pertinent today: the visibility and historical contribution of women in science and technology (cawley and trench, 2004; stanley, 1993) women’s status and under representation in ict (trauth, 2006; mcquillan and bradley, 1999; webster, 1996; henwood, 1993) the gender politics of ict (webster, 2005; greenfield et. al. 2003; millar and jagger, 2002; spender,1993) the discourse of expertise (menzies, 1996; morris-suzuki, 1988; cockburn, 1987) social shaping, gender and ict as cultural processes (mackenzie and wajcman, 1999; turkle, 1997) cyber feminism (kirkup et al, 2000; plant, 1997; haraway, 1991) different perspectives present both utopian and dystopian views on women’s experiences and relationships with ict but each makes a valuable contribution to understanding women’s experiences of ict and the social, cultural, and political context of technological development and use. harding (1991) stresses the importance of epistemological pluralism, arguing that diversity in discursive strategies and plurality of theoretical perspectives can contribute to our understanding of dominant discourses and offer different ways of shaping knowledge. spender (1993) argues for contributions from alternative, critical and controversial voices which emphasise women as active subjects, actively shaping ict culture. wajcman (2004) helps us to make sense of different interpretations of the same phenomena, steering a path between technophobia and technophilia by exploring the complex ways in which technological change and women’s lives are interrelated. the strength of her argument for ‘technofeminism’ is in the synthesis of the many diverse voices engaged in gender-technology research and analyses and the interrelationship between technology, gender and power and changes in these relationships. exploring gender-technology relationships as fluid and flexible rather than fixed avoids assumptions of technological determinism and gender essentialism, and allows the processes of change to be explored and agency to be acknowledged. although the theoretical deficits in community informatics are recognised (stoecker, 2005), and the benefits of incorporating feminist perspectives have started to be discussed (peddle et al, 2008) little of the theoretical richness of gender-technology critique has been applied to community informatics. likewise, the insights gained from community informatics research into the social, cultural and political contexts of ict could benefit what has become a one-sided policy discourse on women and ict, with women being seen as targets for positive action and mainstreaming programmes, or up until recently a homogenous group of ‘late adopters’ of ict (mcquillan, 2008). in what is viewed as a ‘supply’ problem women are seen as an untapped talent pool and either a potential or wasted economic resource, rather than active agents (herman and webster, 2007). this neo-liberal paradigm, imbued with patriarchal and technologically deterministic values, dominates economic and social policy, ignoring the complexities of social, cultural and technological change, rendering women’s status in the information or knowledge society as problematic or marginal. policy perspectives because of ict’s key contribution to economic productivity and competitiveness, policy perspectives on women and ict focus mainly on women’s exclusion and under-representation in ict related employment and higher education. efforts to encourage women into technology courses and professions presume that women are excluded, passive, disinterested or disconnected from technology. solutions therefore are designed to encourage women into technology disciplines, based on an equal opportunities approach concerned with access, participation and retention. this is seen by many feminist commentators as an ‘add women and stir’ approach (harding, 2001) incorporating a determinist model of technology and a deficit model of women (henwood et al, 2000). despite its nomination as a key policy area for the eu and oecd countries and the proliferation of positive action programmes, only minor changes in trends are evident. although many of these policy initiatives and programme have been branded ‘abject failures’ in the past (grint and woolgar, 1995) evidence from trauth’s (2006) encyclopaedia of gender and technology and vehvilainen and brunila’s (2007) critique of positive action programmes in finland suggests that this approach remains popular in europe, the us and developing countries. indeed the ‘shortage’ of women in ict has prompted government investigations in the uk (millar and jagger, 2002), sweden (elovaara and mortberg, 2007), by the european commission (2008) and by the oecd (2007), all presenting women as a uniform, problematic group. while economic discourse and policy on women and ict remains primarily based on binary notions and discussions of women’s under-representation compared with men, other policy areas have adopted more comprehensive understandings of exclusion and inclusion. the critique of the digital divide concept has led to debate about how best to move away from dichotomous and monochromatic discussions and measurements of digital exclusion, to a more systematic understanding of people’s use and non-use of ict and the social, cultural and economic realities that influence people’s engagement with and use of ict (selwyn, 2004; layder, 1997). building on the substantial digital divide debates of the 1990s (kling, 1998; norris, 2001; keniston, 2003; van dijk, 2005) which demonstrate that digital exclusion is not just a technological issue, but also social, cultural, economic and political. gender and ict is also considered within e-inclusion policy. e-inclusion became an explicit focus of the european commission in 2001, with the formation of esdis (experts on the employment and social dimension of the information society). the publication of e-inclusion revisited: the local dimension of the information society (european commission,2005) represented a paradigm shift from gathering data on trends in ict penetration in european countries to the processes of ict appropriation in the everyday life of european citizens to “catch the relevant socio-technical phenomena of the current stage of ict diffusion” (sec 2005:5). a specific research goal has been to capture the e-inclusion dynamics at the local and community level “with a focus on their potential for enhancing social integration, political participation, cultural identity, as well as interactions between local and global levels” (ibid). in common with community informatics, e-inclusion policy makes specific reference to the need to understand what is happening at the local and community level. the eeurope advisory group report on e-inclusion (2005) recommended that by 2010, ict should have provided a measurable contribution to equalising and promoting participation in society at all levels, with e-inclusion policy measures focused more on local and community levels, where the diversity of real needs can best be expressed, assessed and addressed. in a review of e-inclusion policy in 2009 by an eu e-inclusion expert subgroup, recommendations were made to ‘embed community ict centres deeply into local level contexts to become the virtual and physical space for social innovation’, with little reference as to how this might be achieved, or who might be responsible. bringing feminist perspectives into community informatics feminist research is a process which attempts to incorporate female perspectives and feminist principles into social reality, using women’s concerns, experiences and knowledge to ground the research process. it encourages us to examine the status of women, by exploring women’s experiences and knowledge and assess how their contribution to society is valued. feminist research claims to be overtly political in its principles, objectives and methods. it takes women’s experience and standpoints as the basis for research, with the larger social, political and cultural context determining the research framework. feminist research principles include: analysing power relations and changes processes (harstock, 1988) acknowledging women as active subjects (acker, barry and esseveld, 1991) grounding research in women’s everyday lives (smith, 1987) validating diverse women’s experiences, voices and knowledge (kitzinger and wilkinson, 1997) encouraging reflexivity on the research process (fonow and cook, 1991) a strength of feminist research is that it points to deficits in information society theories and analyses and the need to reassess theories to reflect people’s experiences of the social and cultural context of ict diffusion, use and refusal. feminist research has yielded invaluable insights into the discourse, social construction and politics of ict knowledge and expertise at a macro level (damarin, 1993; menzies, 1996; vehvilainen, 1999). focusing on the meaning people give to their world and experiences and why and how they learn, examining participation and practice within broad theoretical frameworks allows us to develop different models of the social contexts of ict. the feminist project, which links rigorous social analysis with political practice, enables more subtle, subversive social transformations to be observed. peddle, powell and regan-shade (2008) argue that gender is an important under-theorised element of community informatics research. they suggest that a feminist lens yields important insights into community technology projects, not singularly focused on technical expertise but providing multiple perspectives and legitimating different ways of participating and contributing. they argue that because capacity building in ict projects is commonly equated with feminine leadership styles, it remains an undervalued and often invisible form of expertise. similarly, the softer, more social and communicative elements of ict programmes have less status as forms of expertise. examining the different values placed on different types of expertise is central to exploring the politics and power hierarchies of ict projects. building community capacity and local expertise a strength of community informatics research is in its’ attributing equal importance to technical and social infrastructures and expertise. simpson describes the integral part that community capacity plays in developing these social infrastructures: “building the networks, organisations, attitudes, leadership and skills that allow communities to manage change and sustain community-led development” (simpson, 2005:109). clement and shade’s (2000) ‘access rainbow’ also notes the need for integrated technical, economic and social infrastructures. they emphasise the role of local neighbourhood and workplace experts in facilitating learning and skills acquisition. stewart (2007) also examines the role of local experts in the appropriation processes of embedding ict in local contexts, highlighting their roles in technology diffusion and support. he outlines the various supports they offer including mediating information; providing technical support and helping to interpret the significance new technologies might have for people’s lives. the local experts in this case, with the exception of one woman described as a ‘whiz’ on work-based computer applications were all male, reinforcing the notion of male expertise critiqued by feminist theorists. stewart’s analysis is useful, however for distinguishing between different types of accessible expertise, based on experts’ different sources of knowledge: experimental early adopters; it professionals; and ‘relative’ experts – people who are a little further ahead of others in terms of ict adoption and use. local experts, according to stewart assist in various ways but have three main roles. they support the adoption process by offering advice about sourcing, purchasing and installing hardware, software and connectivity. they complement formal skills acquisition through technical trouble-shooting and demonstration. technical maintenance and upgrades are also supported. in addition, local experts provide services for people; for example, sending emails or building web pages for them, a process which stewart describes as people “passing on the responsibility for developing skills and knowledge, abrogating the need to do it themselves” (2007; 562). despite their ict knowledge, the local experts discussed in stewart’s study demonstrate a common difficulty in empowering new technology users – the ability to communicate and explain in non-technical language. more and more, communication skills are an essential element of mediating ict and often the overlooked or undervalued skills, compared with technical skills. developing an interpretive model to map women’s ict knowledge and expertise community informatics provides a community-centred view of information society, where citizens and civil society have central roles in community engagement, encouragement and mobilisation (gurstein, 2000). community members’ perspectives allow a discourse of ict based on its social and cultural contexts, and people’s lived experiences and reflections to emerge. this allows us to understand the processes of social and digital inclusion and envisage the transformative potential of ict more realistically. the biggest conceptual gap and critical deficit is in appreciating the human processes and different mediating styles and knowledge sharing activities integral to the processes of social and digital inclusion. by applying feminist theoretical and research lenses we can investigate how knowledge and expertise are developed and shared and illuminate the roles played by the people who mediate and innovate, and encourage participation, networking, learning and knowledge sharing. to discuss the development of an interpretive framework to explore women’s ict knowledge and expertise in community settings, findings from a five year ethnographic study (1999-2004) of a large-scale community technology programme based in ennis, mid west ireland were drawn upon. the aim of the study was to investigate women’s contributions to the ennis project their roles, knowledge and expertise, and their vision, visibility and representation. based on the author’s observations and participation in the project, women’s experiences of ict were explored, the different motivations for participating in the project were interpreted, the changing relationships with ict was examined and some of the outcomes in terms of engagement, inclusion, expertise and cultural change was assessed. the author wanted to challenge stereotypes about women and ict, and specifically, develop a better understanding of the status of women in a community by exploring their roles and influence as change agents. vehvilainen (2002) suggests that empirical studies should examine ict through various interpretations, various perspectives and localities and various voices. although community informatics recognises human agency as an essential element of the adoption and diffusion of ict (loader and keeble, 2004) the roles that people play tend not to be well defined, and distinctive voices muffled. the author’s goal was to investigate women’s contribution to the ennis project – their diverse roles, knowledge and expertise and somehow validate their collective knowledge. this was an ambitious aim, given that irish women were continuously labelled in ict surveys as a homogeneous group of “late adopters”, the public face and power base of the ict industry in ireland was predominantly male, and women’s status in authoritative and expert spheres was negligible. in challenging stereotypes about women and ict the author was conscious of the need to adopt an epistemological approach that recognised how women’s relationships with ict and the validity of their knowledge and expertise are influenced by the social, cultural and political contexts of ict. as part of the study over fifty women in diverse, formal and non formal learning settings within ennis were observed and interviewed; and as the project progressed women’s personal learning journeys, their roles in mentoring and encouraging reluctant learners, their different approaches to gaining and sharing knowledge and expertise, and their key roles as mediators and change agents were charted. the author met with school teachers thrust into the role of school ict coordinators, without any prior experience of using computers and the internet, nor of of using these as teaching and learning tools who were expected to manage the school ict network, and instigate major changes in teaching practice. directors of community training centres were observed establishing networks to support each other develop and implement strategic ict plans for each centre and their staff. as well, the author volunteered as a tutor in a community centre offering free computer access, training and advice where trainers through their good humour, endless patience and jargon-free communication kept two steps ahead of their students in their learning journeys, yet developed an empathy with their learners and built self confidence in people who described themselves initially as ‘hopeless with technology’. the author observed and evaluated business innovation programmes mentored by women’ and watched and listened to senior citizens who a year previously had been taught basic computer skills by students sixty years their junior encourage other seniors to contribute to an online newspaper they published monthly. a range of activities, diverse learning environments, varied teaching styles, different learning pathways, and advice from neighbours, friends and work colleagues, as well as a very high saturation of pcs and peripherals in homes, schools and community centres in ennis presented challenges in representing women’s contribution to the project and to the community’s ict skills, knowledge and expertise. using a reflexive ethnographic methodology to consider women’s individual engagement and collective contributions to the ennis project, their relationships with ict, and their breadth of expertise, the author developed an interpretive model based on an archetypal triad of technicians, tacticians and tattlers. each archetype is based on women who are recognised as having been extremely influential in challenging the dominant perception of women as excluded, disinterested or alienated from ict: shaping ict development from the earliest stages of computing; understanding the social, institutional and structural constraints on women’s more active contribution to ict and developing strategies to combat these; and arguing for the validity of diverse voices, interpretations and communication styles. admiral grace hopper (1902-1996), a pioneer computer scientist represents the archetype of the “technician”. she was one of the first software engineers and one of the most incisive futurists in the world of computing, encouraging people to see computers as intellectual technologies. in her 40 years in computing, grace hopper made important contributions to the field that developed what she described “the machine that assisted the power of the brain rather than muscle”. as well as her technical knowledge her attitude to change and innovation, her emphasis on people as well as systems and her constant questioning made her a positive role model and archetypical technician. in ennis, deirdre moynihan, a teacher in a community training centre for marginalised adults with poor literacy, also exemplifies the archetypical technician. starting with no ict infrastructure and little guidance on using ict as learning tools for adults she embarked on a professional learning journey, developing her technical knowledge and expertise formally through postgraduate study, and informally through the installation, upgrade and maintenance of the centre’s ict infrastructure and integrated learning system. over a period of three years ict became a core, cultural component of the centre, and confidence in ict use became an integral element of the adult learners’ cultural identity, as the centre became a model for community training centres across the country. using technology creatively, applying it to learning and personal development needs, allied with strategic planning, flexibility and change management deirdre ensured that the technical infrastructure remained a support to the human endeavour and a work ethic and organisational culture which promotes an empowerment ethos. anita borg (1949-2003) was undoubtedly an influential political strategist – the archetype of the “tactician” striving for the advancement of women in technology in academia and industry. to honour her, the institute for women and technology which she founded has been renamed the ‘anita borg institute for women and technology’. it remains one of the most influential advocacy organisations in the field, with the dual goals of increasing the impact of women on all aspects of technology and increasing the positive impact of technology on the world’s women. in ennis, ann knox exemplifies the “tactician”. a primary school teacher in a girls’ school, she had previously avoided using computers. thrust into the role of school ict co-ordinator, and simultaneously a teacher and learner, she embarked with her students on a journey of empowering young women through their use of ict and involving them in the design and development of learning resources and media for other students. as a “tactician” she was influential in a number of ways--she was a mentor to students and other teachers; she championed pedagogical change – creating a teaching and learning environment that allowed students to articulate their computing confidence and expertise. over all, she guided a complex change management process, helping to transform the way knowledge is developed and transferred, emphasising students’ active choices and agency, empowering the girls by allowing them to take risks, rise to new challenges, and become decision makers and ambassadors for ennis information age town. dale spender represents the archetype of the “tattler”. a researcher and author of over thirty books on language, gender and communication, including ‘nattering on the net’ in which she notes that it is not technological information that women need to engage with computers and the internet, it is confidence. spender’s emphasis on language and communication skills as prerequisites for electronic citizenship, or what she describes as the ability to ‘natter’ on the net and about the net, make it easier to demonstrate women’s positive relationships with ict and highlight what was described earlier as one of the essential, but oft ignored skills in ict engagement and diffusion. rosemary o’mahony exemplifies the archetypical “tattler”. in her late sixties, she had never used a computer. when ennis information age town was launched rosemary was one of the first senior citizens to sign up for classes. a year later she was a regular contributor and member of the editorial team of ‘sunset’ an online magazine which was published monthly by a group of older ennis residents. in her poems and articles rosemary regularly reflected on change on changing lifestyles and expectations, the changing roles of women and technological change, which she had embraced wholeheartedly over seven decades to suit her changing life patterns. for rosemary, computers, the internet and new media applications were not mystical tools. they were merely tools and techniques for developing new skills, exploring new life experiences and making everyday experiences and lives in the real world more enjoyable and expressive. as a “tattler”, she was a positive and enthusiastic role model for others, encouraging older people to help shape cyberspace, rather than just consume. the archetypal triad is proposed to describe women’s engagement and agency in ict and their significant contribution to the ennis project the women who participated in the ennis study became visible and accessible experts: as ‘technicians’: contributing knowledge, expertise and skills; as ‘tacticians’: functioning as mediators and influencers of policy and practice; and as ‘tattlers’: increasing understanding, visibility, and presence. they developed a broad skills and knowledge base, not only technical knowledge, but strategic, project and programme management experience and equally importantly a fluency in describing their experiences and relationships with ict. although as a project, ennis information age town was unique in terms of its scale, large funding and the success of its engagement with households, schools, businesses and the community sector, this interpretive models is applicable to many other settings, representing the dynamism of communities and their responsiveness to change. it demonstrates the importance of having a rich knowledge nexus and networks where technical expertise is not given primary importance over communication, strategic or leadership skills. community capacity is enhanced when diverse skills, knowledge and expertise are equally valued and shared, allowing rich discursive spaces and environments to flourish. applying the model – discursive spaces and richness technological determinism and the economic imperatives of knowledge economies place an overemphasis on the technological aspects of ict programmes, ignoring the processes of inclusion and engagement, accessible expertise, champions and mediators, and the social, cultural, civic and political elements which are central to programme success. these more nuanced elements of ict programmes are the core of successful knowledge societies. diverse knowledge, expertise and voices need to be harvested to ensure that communities’ social capital and capacity is maximised. feminist analyses are useful in validating the contribution of both women and men whose efforts are often unseen and unsung, raising the visibility of skills and knowledge which can often be less valued, or considered ‘softer’. innovation and change are central to ict programmes – social as well as technical. by shifting our lens slightly away from the technical glare, we can look for innovators and change agents in less obvious places and spaces and seek out the nexus and discursive spaces, and enrich our programmes and learning in the process. there are few optimistic studies which portray women’s positive experiences with ict their enthusiasm, strategic and technical skills and their contributions as innovators and change champions. this archetype model demonstrates women’s roles as producers of knowledge, setting aside the stereotype of women as consumers or major rejecters of ict. one of the strengths of feminist analysis is its challenge to traditional 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(2005). is community informatics good for communities? questions confronting an emerging field. the journal of community informatics 1(3), 13-26. trauth, e. (2006) encyclopaedia of gender and information technology. idea publishing. turkle,s. life on the screen. (1997).identity in the age of the internet, (2nd. ed.), new york: touchstone. van dijk, j. (2005) the deepening divide: inequality in the information society. sage publications. vehviäinen, m. (1999) gender and computing in retrospect the case of finland, ieee annals of the history of computing, 21 (2) 44 51. vehviläinen, m. (2002).gendered agency in the information society: on located politics of technology. in: consalvo, m & paasonen, s.(eds.), women and everyday uses of the internet: agency and identity. pp275-291.peter lang publishing, new york. vehviläinen, m.and k. brunila (2007) cartography of gender equality projects in ict: liberal equality from the perspective of situated equality. information, communication and society, 10 (3), 384-403. wajcman, j. (2004).technofeminism, cambridge: polity press webster, j. (1996). shaping women’s work: gender, employment and information technology. london: longman. webster, j. (2005) why are women still so few in it? understanding the persistent under-representation of women in the it professions. in: j. archibald, j. emms, f. grundy, j. payne and e. turner (eds.),the gender politics of ict. london: middlesex university press.   community security with widely available information technology yusaku fujii gunma university < fujii@el.gunma-u.ac.jp > noriaki yoshiura gunma university < yoshiura@lab.cc.gunma-u.ac.jp > naoya ohta gunma university < ohta@cs.gunma-u.ac.jp >   abstract we contend that a community will have a strong ability to prevent crime only if some residents keep watch on what happens around their houses with the aid of their own home computers, inexpensive and commercially available cameras, and free software. under this scheme, residents would view their surroundings using cameras as their “eyes” and home computers as their “brains” community safety would thus be realized by the voluntary cooperation and altruism of ordinary citizens using widespread technology.   a community with some residents keeping occasional watch around their houses has the potential to inhibit crime. in days gone by, there were many communities like this. however, in our times, individualism has become increasingly common, resulting in a lack of eyewitnesses to crimes in our communities. at the same time, security camera systems are now widely used and have an important role in reducing crime and identifying suspects. as for the typical usage of the security cameras, many problems seem to arise from the fact that they are introduced only for the benefit of their owners. one problem is that it is expensive to obtain a complete surveillance of an owner’s property. a second problem is that the typical system usually keeps watch only inside the owner’s property, so it cannot help with the overall safety of the community. a third problem is that neighbors may have concerns about their privacy if their property is under surveillance by someone else’s security system. we argue that these problems may be solved if the camera systems are introduced within an altruistic community-minded framework. we contend that a community will have a strong ability to prevent crime only if some residents keep watch on what happens around their houses with the aid of their own home computers, commercially available and affordable cameras, and free software. many types of software for capturing video images are available; however, we could not find any that were available at no cost and would be suitable for the concept of community-wide security. therefore, we have developed an application that provides the minimum functions needed, and currently distribute it free of charge through our society for e-jikei network website (http://www.e-jikei.org/index_e.htm). the software, written in english and in japanese, selects relevant pictures from a security camera and saves them to a hard disk (fujii, yoshiura, chigira, & hagiwara, 2004). our community-wide security concept, and the e-jikei network system that embodies it, have been discussed from the viewpoints of social science (fujii, yoshiura, & ohta, 2005a) and homeland security (yoshiura, fujii, & ohta, 2005b). if the concept of the e-jikei network is accepted, the security of the whole community would be covered, with the voluntary cooperation of the many residents who use the system. the main features of the e-jikei network project can be summarized as follows. each constituent element of the network is voluntarily introduced and maintained by each citizen not for personal benefit, but on behalf of the entire community. each element watches not the interior of a property, such as a house or shop, but around the outside of the property. all of the tools and resources provided through our web site are offered free of charge. most types of commercial cameras can be used in the system. the role of mass media is very important; the e-jikei network project has already been heavily covered by newspapers, tv and radio, even though only preliminary experiments have been conducted in and around the city of kiryu. finally, we assume that the formation of a watch system covering the whole community can contribute to national security. the first version of our free software, called “dairi eye standard,” has been formally released. its features are very limited, but they adequately cover the essential functions for community-wide security: high stability: continuous running of more than 100 days has been confirmed. high operationality of file storage: the file name and its path express time and location information. minimal required storage: simple picture selection software has been adapted. the software saves a picture only when the difference between two consecutive images exceeds a specified threshold. automatic delete: folders that are older than the save period set by the owner are automatically deleted. compatibility with many types of camera: software can operate in the vfw mode (pc cameras and usb video adapters) and ftp mode (network cameras). simultaneous operation: software can operate several cameras connected to a single pc. no internet connection: due to privacy concerns, the software we have distributed does not connect to the internet. nonetheless, the e-jikei network can be formed, in which the word “network” refers not to the internet but to the social network of the residents. if the system of security cameras connected to computers and the internet spreads nationwide, it could result in a powerful and flexible sociotechnical infrastructure whose participants help reduce crime through the use of software that is easy to install and upgrade. this infrastructure offers an important testbed for both social research and application development. in the near future, more intelligent functions could be achieved, such as detecting ambiguous motion, sending alerts to the police, and the comparison of facial images with the photos of known criminals. in serious crimes, such as kidnapping, improved rates of rescue and apprehension might be possible, if the majority of citizens give the police permission to access their individual surveillance systems. a country with many local communities having this facility could obtain improvements in homeland security. in this realm, our project (yoshiura, fujii, & ohta, 2005b) complements others, such as the more usual security camera systems and the us home guard (http://www.ushomeguard.org/), in which ordinary citizens register and then keep watch over critical infrastructure facilities from their homes, with the use of internet cameras. the technology required to realize the e-jikei network is not novel, but it was not available a decade ago. today, the realization of the e-jikei network will be much easier and its functionality stronger and more varied. for example, since the concept of the network is that citizens should remain vigilant and not miss crimes that may occur right in front of their houses, automobile-based (and even wearable) systems might also be desirable. the performance of computer systems in cars is increasing rapidly; in the near future, keeping watch from cars will be quite feasible. although the e-jikei network project is in its early stages, some applications have been introduced into settings of realistic practice. for example, the city of kiryu has decided to introduce the e-jikei network in all 40 public schools of the city within the next two years. in this introduction in schools, the e-jikei network was introduced as an inexpensive, high-performance security camera system. however, we proposed that the system introduced in schools could also be used as an example for parents who would, in a united effort, watch the school district by installing the system in their homes. the gunma housing supply corporation has introduced the e-jikei network in an exclusive residential district with 200 new houses. they have asked the homeowners who reside at important positions to use the system for the security of the whole district. we have conducted many experiments in cooperation with a variety of other partners, such as the kiryu police department, the city of kiryu, and the npo higumi. through the experiments, it has been proven that the system is easy to realize with widely available modern technology and that the e-jikei network is efficient for crime prevention. when citizens have been informed of the potential effects of using available technology for crime prevention, each person will need to think carefully about whether and how to adopt the system and participate in its use. moreover, improved technology in the near future will make it much easier to realize the e-jikei network. every person could have multiple cameras, controlled by high-performance computers, integrated in locations such as their cars, houses, and cell phones. based on the e-jikei network concept, people would have the ability to keep watch themselves, if they chose to participate, with very little additional cost. this means that each citizen will have strong monitoring power and will have to be responsible for it. sooner or later, careful consideration and clear decisions by all citizens will be required. in promoting the concept of the e-jikei network, privacy protection will be a serious and delicate issue. we have generated user guidelines as part of the conditions of use for the software, in which careful consideration of privacy issues is required. the users of the software are asked not to view the pictures obtained from the system unless they have a valid and pressing need to do so, so as to prevent them from accessing information about neighbors’ behavior unnecessarily. if the concept becomes more widespread across the nation, new laws will be required for defining the rights of, and constraints on, the owner of each system, including their access to the large volume of information obtained. in the e-jikei network, no one can control the whole system, since each element in the system is under the strict control of an individual citizen. in other security camera systems typically in use today, however, such as those in london, a small number of owners have the ability to control the entire system. thus, the society that introduces the e-jikei network is a society controlled not by a single organization or person but by every citizen. in such a society, it is very difficult to commit a crime without being reported.  we are currently surveying citizens to find out how they compare the responsibility of watching what happens around their houses with the risk of privacy violations. it is in this context that we are now commencing tests on the true value of our community-wide security concept.   references y. fujii, yoshiura, n, chigira, y, & hagiwara, k. (2004). community security platform for individually maintained home computers: the e-vigilante network project. in proceedings of the 21st ieee instrumentation and measurement technology conference (pp. 891-894). new york: ieee. y. fujii, yoshiura, n, & ohta, n. (2005a). creating a worldwide community security structure using individually maintained home computers: the e-jikei network project. social science computer review, 23(2), 250-258. y. fujii, yoshiura, n, & ohta, n. (2005b). using the security camera system based on individually maintained computers for homeland security: the e-jikei network project. in proceedings of the 22nd ieee instrumentation and measurement technology conference (pp. 101-105). new york: ieee. women connect phase 2 report the journal of community informatics, (2004), vol. 1, issue 1, pp. 89-117 women connect: lessons from practice sue webb community development foundation, london, uk < suewebb@easynet.co.uk > kate jones community development foundation, london, uk < kate@cdf.org.uk > 1. an introduction to women connect .......................................................................... 91 2. what is women connect? ........................................................................................... 92 3. women connect – phase two reflections ................................................................. 95 4. online and offline networking ................................................................................. 101 5. women connect: community development & the uk policy context .............. 102 6) the european and international policy context .................................................... 108 bibliography.................................................................................................................... 114 mailto:suewebb@easynet.co.uk mailto:kate@cdf.org.uk 90 the journal of community informatics background and overview this article has been written to inform and update interested bodies on the work that women connect has been doing since 2001 when the first phase report was produced. much of this article is taken from the phase 2 report that will be published in the winter of 2004. it also provides information about the international policy context in which we are working and maps out a vision for the future role for women connect. networking “(w)omen’s usage of networking is not as a noun, but as a verb. it’s a process, not an end in itself. in that sense, networking is loosely knit and lateral, a contrast with the more closed, hierarchical style of such male counterparts as professional associations, fraternal orders, interlocking directorates and old boys’ networks themselves”. “in the eighties and nineties, networking is what consciousness-raising was to the seventies. it’s the primary way women discover that we are not crazy the system is. we also discover that mutual-support groups can create change where the most courageous individual woman could not” gloria steinem outrageous acts and everyday rebellions women connect 91 1. an introduction to women connect women connect is a practical response to the resource needs of women’s organisations in the voluntary and community sector. our aim is to help build the capacity of women’s to use information and communication technologies (ict) effectively and thus enable these groups to improve their ability to network, form new partnerships, share information and to engage in democratic participation.. the context the uk and international women’s sector faces significant challenges. research shows that throughout the decades women’s organisations have been a positive force for global change in many areas. yet the impact these organisations have made has been limited by long-term underinvestment and short term funding strategies (page & scott, 1999). a further significant challenge comes in the form of information and communication technology. ict’s are a significant element of british society and ict skills are now rated as a third basic life skill after literacy and numeracy (bradbrook & fisher, 2004). for many, this heralds the emergence of an ‘information society’ which has personal implications for individuals directing them to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to fully participate and take advantage of the anticipated benefits (loader & keeble, 2004). such skills however, are not uniformly spread across the population and there is much concern over the emergence of a so-called ‘digital divide’ between the information rich and the information poor (loader & keeble, 2004). this ‘divide’ maps well to patterns of social exclusion and women are far more likely to be located on the wrong side of this divide--amongst the information poor. despite there being growing numbers of women using the internet, research demonstrates that women appear to be less confident in using ict. women also remain the main users of public services and with the continued development of e-government it is vital that women’s organisations are skilled and engaged in accessing and maximising ict use and skills (bradbrook & fisher, 2004). ict offers immense possibilities for women: they can help women to overcome isolation, provide women with a voice, improve governance and help advance gender equality. women connect can help provide the groups in our network with the skills and equipment that they need to adapt to the information society. the network women connect has established a network of women’s organisations based throughout england. the network currently has over 50 members. the network has also made links with women working in similar ways across the globe. the original aim in selecting organisations to join the network was to achieve a balance and diversity in communities representing for example a range of size, location, services providers and level of experience in using electronic communication. in addition, the project aimed to include a range of communities by involving black and ethnic minority, lesbian, disabled and older women. 92 the journal of community informatics for the first phase of the project (december 1997 november 2000) women connect used a matrix to recruit nineteen member organisations to the network. it was expected that all organisations would demonstrate good practice in providing equal opportunities for access, participate fully in project activies and be committed to networking (page & scott 1999). of the nineteen original members six elected to join phase two of the project. the second phase of the project (2001 – present) recruited an additional twenty-seven organisations to the network. the second phase saw an extension in the types of organisations who can join the network – for example, women’s organisations that are led and managed by women but who are providing services to male perpetrators of domestic violence could join the network. 2. what is women connect? women connect was primarily funded to provide new hardware and software or upgrades, and subsidised online costs for the first year of participation to women’s organisations that joined the network. once accepted as a partner organisation the groups could expect to receive free, training, networking events and subsidised travel to events. the emphasis has always been on the effective use of communication technology rather than technology by itself. however, the role of women connect has evolved over the years. ict is now much easier and cheaper to acquire than before. instead of simply providing equipment, women connect has been able to focus on providing support to encourage women’s organisations to make better use of the available technologies. the main role of the organisation is now very much one of capacity builder and facilitator. the funders women connect is a collaboration between the library association and the community development foundation (cdf). the project started in january 1998, funded by the national lotteries charities board and cdf. the first phase of the project was completed in november 2000. phase 2 began in 2001 and was funded by the community fund and cdf. funding for the next phase is not yet fully secured. the community development foundation the community development foundation (cdf) is a non-departmental public body supported by the active community unit of the home office with substantial support from local government, charitable trusts and the private sector. its role is to pioneer, study and promote new forms of community development, in order to inform public policy, professional practice and community initiatives. our mission women connects’ original mission statement was to ‘use and shape the internet together’. we set out to assist women’s organisations to use and shape the internet for the benefit of women. however in phase 2 of the project we have updated our objectives due to the numerous benefits http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/cpg/acu2.htm women connect 93 that can be gained from helping organisations to network with one another. our mission statement now reads; ‘to network and connect women online’. women connect aspires to use the internet to build a sustainable community of women’s organisations and resource contacts, who are working in a wide range of different fields and communities. the project supports, advises, trains and equips member organisations to develop skills for using the internet and networking. as a result members have the potential to improve their practices, form partnerships, access wider resources and influence decision makers. women connect also works in partnership with other organisations such as the national alliance of women’s organisations, the european women’s lobby, women’s national commission and the women’s programme of the association for progressive communications. our goal is to link up with other projects to build an online presence of value to women in the uk and beyond. the project aims to inspire women to work together to benefit from the potentials of ict. our two equal aims in this context are: 1) networking and information exchange as a means of empowerment 2) resourcing the needs of the women's voluntary and community sector women connect’s initial sub aims were to: establish an online network of women’s organisations that is based on women’s needs. increase women’s influence over the policies that affect their lives. to achieve these aims, women connect has been committed to: challenging the commonly held view of women’s interests in and use of the internet. advocating for women’s access to online facilities and training based on their individual needs and those of groups and organisations. supporting and piloting women’s grassroots influence over regional and national policies through online activities our values women connect has developed values that describe the spirit in which we aim to work together. these are here to guide us in practical terms: in our daily working lives; in how we develop policy; and in how we develop the future of the partnership. 1. we recognise that we do not live in a just or equal society and that there are groups of women who are discriminated against because of their beliefs, abilities, sexuality, ethnicity, age, social status, income and health. we are committed to supporting each other to ensure that we do not discriminate against each other. 2. we respect other women's views whether they are the same or different to our own. 94 the journal of community informatics 3. we have a transparent relationship with one another. we encourage each other not to make assumptions, to communicate to the best of our ability, and to be clear and open. 4. we create a supportive and safe space in which women can learn, develop and have fun. this means that we can learn when and where we want and at a pace that meets our needs and to goals that we decide for ourselves. 5. we are open to personal learning, change and development. we will encourage each other to be reflective, to be flexible in response to challenge and change. we will embrace innovation where it is appropriate. 6. we are committed to working together to influence policies that affect our community of women. 7. we work towards solutions that are sustainable and are aware of the impact on our wider community. we will not take actions that cause harm to others or our environment. our current activities one area of our work is to facilitate the networking of women's groups and organizations and other stakeholders, through local and national events. we work to bridge the gap between grassroots and policy. for example, over the past three years we have held three national conferences – ‘women with megabyte’ in may 2003, ‘women with megabyte ii’ in june 2004 and ‘raising the profile’ – a national awareness raising day women’s organisations in july 2003. women connect has also held numerous smaller and more regional ict workshops. further details about the events we have hosted can be located on our website. another area of our work is action-planning with women's groups and organisations. this entails face to face visiting of groups via outreach work to develop and follow through on agreed action plans. we carry out ict audits and identify training and development opportunities for ict strategy implementation. we also produce a quarterly newsletter, which aims to update women and other stakeholders on topical issues concerning ict, social cohesion and gender equality and we host an e-discussion group and feed into relevant policy agendas. http://www.womenconnect.org.uk/c2b/pressoffice/email.asp http://www.womenconnect.org.uk/c2b/document_tree/viewacategory.asp?categoryid=78 http://www.womenconnect.org.uk/c2b/document_tree/viewacategory.asp?categoryid=78 women connect 95 3. women connect – phase two reflections this section will look back over what women connect has accomplished over the last three years. it is based upon on the findings of the second evaluation report and some interviews with partner organisations conducted by a cdf researcher. this section will run through three case studies of our partner organisations to provide some illustrations of the work women connect has done to build our partners organisations capacity. as ‘good practice’ women connect has their work appraised by independent evaluators. we believe that this is necessary in order to ensure that we are working to our objectives and to learn about the areas in which we can make improvements in our work. women connect has had two evaluations both conducted towards the end of each phase. the phase 1 evaluation the phase 1 evaluation, conducted by anne moggridge of the university of the west of england in 1999, found many positive outcomes of the project. in all cases, the equipment and training supplied by women connect had given members access to information and communication resources, which they otherwise would not have had. all the partner organisations also reported improvements in communication and/or access to relevant information as a result of their use of technology. generally members felt that had increased their skills in effective use of electronic communication and it, this had enabled members to strengthen and extend their own networks as well as their access to information. the delphi forum, a private web based bulletin board only open to members and associates on the women connect web site, also created an online information resource for and with member organisations. in addition the women connect web site had attracted considerable praise and interest from women outside the network. several member organisations also reported example of women who had contacted the group having discovered them through the web site. the evaluation report also noted that there was little evidence that a supportive network had been established. however, the researcher found that a looser network was evolving, extending beyond the boundaries of the project itself so that in the future many more women may be able to benefit from opportunities to access and shape the internet. despite much optimism at the start of the project, the evaluation reported that it appeared that the project had become one of providing technology and training in itcs. whilst it may have been very successful in doing this, its true potential as a facilitator or umbrella organisation had been more difficult to achieve. phase 1 served effectively as a pilot for women connect, it tested the approach women connect took and our starting assumptions about the learning needs of women’s organisations for ict and the potential for their usage. it demonstrated the importance of face to face networking opportunities in stimulating partnerships and networking. recommendations put forward in this evaluation have helped women connect to move in a new direction. as well as supplying it equipment and training, it was time for women connect to have networking as a dual objective. 96 the journal of community informatics phase 2 evaluation the phase 2 evaluation was conducted by leigh keeble, of the university of teesside in february 2004. the data that informed the evaluation came from questionnaires distributed to over a 1000 women’s organisations, interviews conducted with the staff at the community development foundation and interviews with women connect project staff from the first and second phases of the project. leigh also conducted interviews with some of women connects partner organisations at two events run by women connect; the ‘women with megabyte’ conference and ‘raising the profile’. the following sections will run through the major findings from the second evaluation. it will be structured as the evaluation report was structured around the three of the key aims of the women connect project: capacity building, networking and influencing policy. capacity building has women connect helped partner projects enhance their organisational capacity to help deliver what they want to deliver? main findings from the evaluation: the introduction of pcs and connectively had increased the capacity of organisations in three ways: the use of pcs for office administration has streamlined many administrative activities. the interactive nature of access to the internet and email has allowed for changes in the way that some of the groups communicate some groups have been able to extend the services that they are able to offer to their projects users. there was a general perception amongst the first phase interviewees that computing skills had improved. during the second phase pf women connect, it was more likely that the organisations had more than one computer and that were used everyday and most staff and volunteers felt confident in using them. ‘thanks to women connect our administration has become computerised...we no longer have just boxes full of information, it’s all on the computer…even our pay system is now on the computer’ partner project, august 2003 the evidence from the research suggested that skills in computing had increased and if staff and volunteers were able to use the computers to assist with administrative tasks then the capacity of their projects had certainly been augmented. the use of icts to improve communication both between staff, volunteers and agencies outside the organisation was also continuously identified as a positive benefit to the partners. the researcher also found other example of management committees of projects to communicate, circulate minutes and make decisions using email. women connect 97 leigh also found other examples of where the introduction of pcs meant that a project was able to extend or consider extending the services they were offering to users. for example, one project had been able to provide basic ict skills training to women, another organisation had developed an online forum providing help and advice for victims of rape. networking has an online network of women’s organisations been created? main findings from the evaluation: there was little evidence of the creation of a supportive network amongst the women connect partners there was considerable evidence of the partner projects using the technology to extend and enhance their own network the project partners need a clear reason to network with other partners. the phase 2 evaluation found very little evidence that women connect has created an online network of women’s organisations. the discussion group web site for chatting online is barely used. there are many reasons for this which range from women not having the time to chat online, to being nervous of asking questions and disappointment from no getting no response back when they did post questions online. however, what was apparent from the interviews was that the support of women connect has allowed many of the groups to develop and extend their own networks. this was regarded as an extremely positive outcome of the project. a high proportion of groups felt that their communications had been enhanced as a result of being online. face to face events organised by women connect are also very popular. many of those attending the events left feeling convinced that they would make contact with some of those groups that they had met. in reality, though, this rarely happened as many found no strong reason to make contact. for many, the attraction to join women connect was being part of a women only network. the diversity of the groups involved in the project meant that the groups have struggled to find a reason to network (interim report phase 2, p6) however, it was felt by some of the interviewees that if partners did attend more face to face vents, they would perhaps have more reason to network, ‘in the first phase of the project there was an expectation that women’s movement type organisation would ‘join’. defining those types of organisations was problematic. again there was an expectation that women’s movement organisations would naturally want to network but that just didn’t happen. there remains a question as to how you make a network work.’ cdf manager, july 2002 whilst the second phase of women connect has seen an extension in the types of organisations who can join the network for example orgs that provide services to women not just those made up of women, the issues still remains as to why they should network. 98 the journal of community informatics if women connect is to continue the development of the network into an area of active participation by its partner projects the evaluation recommended that it must consider the capacity of the organisations to do this and the demands placed on women connect staff in generating and encouraging participation. influencing policy has women connect helped to increase women’s influence over the policies that affect their lives? main findings: women connect can influence and input into policy consultations and decision making both via women connect staff and the individual projects. whilst there is some evidence of projects actively engaged in the policy process, more help and support is needed to focus this activity. the women connect web site provides links to consultations of potential interest to partners but could be more active in engaging the partners. information about the growing developments and potential web sites providing support in different areas of health and social care should be shared with partner projects. there has been a growing amount of discussion around the potential of the internet to improve civic participation and encourage democracy. however there is little evidence that the internet is actually achieving this. education continues to be the key to civic participation as educated information seekers tent to use the internet to inform their beliefs and are more likely to be interested in public debate and politics (loader & keeble, 2004). however there does appear to be a role to support and train people to actively participate in consultations and democracy. this is where women connect can greatly assist. the researcher identified that the women connect project coordinator has been active in engaging in policy dialogues with a range of organisations including the women’s equality unit, the institute for public policy research, the women’s national commission, national alliance of women’s organisations and the gender and trade expert group. this work has continued with the coordinator now working with cdf on an active european communities and european development project (aced) to try to influence the funding criteria of european structural funds from purely economic outputs to including issues of social capital and active participation. from the perspective of the partner projects there is evidence that the introduction of the technology and the internet to the grips has led to some becoming involved in projects which will have an impact on those groups or in policy debates. for example, it was noted that one of the groups had used the internet to take part in a national debate; another group had participated in a conference run by cdf in which she discussed the role of her project in providing a community for survivors of domestic violence. in addition to the work conducted by the project coordinator and the individual projects, the women connect staff have used the website to provide access to government consultations that affect women’s lives. for example, the white paper ‘fairness for all: a new commission for equality and human rights’, the voluntary and community sector infrastructure document – both women connect 99 of which women connect responded to as an organisation. it has not been possible to establish how many of the partner projects have actually made use of this facility although from the interviews it was noted that very few of the partner organisations accessed the women connect web site – suggesting limited use of the links to consultation. women connect has also produced quarterly newsletters that contain a range of content which includes high lightening current polices and debates that potentially affect women. for example the world summit on the information society has recently taken place and women connect has worked to raise awareness of the summit through the network whilst highlighting the lack of consideration given to issues of gender throughout the summit. the newsletter also contains information on events women connect are hosting, information on current ict policy and planning and what’s going on in the it sector and often links to other websites that may be useful to help update ict skills. there is also a section and links to other topics that may be of interest such as funding and resources. we also include a section introducing partners who have recently joined the network and updates on what other partner’s have been doing. the case studies this section will look at three case studies of our partner organisations. we have chosen three very different types of organisations to give the reader an idea of the range of organisations we are involved with. the case studies will provide a quick introduction to the organisation and the work they are involved with, before looking at what women connect has done to help increase the organisations capacity. case study 1 – newham asians women’s project newham asians women’s project (nawp) was set up in 1987 to provide advice and support for asian women and children experiencing domestic violence. initially the group opened a hostel to provide emergency accommodation for asian women and their children escaping violent family and home environments. since then they have expanded and the group now operates from seven sites, a refuge, a second stage hostel and a resource centre all in outer london. services at the resource centre include legal advice, training, mental health support, counselling, project on self harm, and a young women's support group and other support groups called teens. nawp wanted to join the women connect network and get online in order to make their services accessible to more women, especially those unable or who experience difficulties leaving their homes. they also wanted to make communication within the organisation and with other agencies more effective and efficient. nawp’s it system needed revamping as their server was overloaded, not all computers were connected to the main server and the system was very slow as they were not connected to broadband. the project was worried that they were not making the most of the equipment they had. once the project had joined the women connect network, women connects project worker went to visit the group in february 2003 to draw up an action plan to assess the equipment the group has in place, the groups needs, the next steps the groups need to take and the help needed to get the group there. the key priorities identified included upgrading the groups ict equipment and review 100 the journal of community informatics their internal communications and administrative systems. the group also wanted to establish a website. women connect financially contributed to the development of their website which is now up and running and can be seen at http://www.nawp.org/ the last chair of nawp was involved with our raising the profile event, member of the project have also attended both our national conferences. case study 2 – the freedom and empowerment network the freedom and empowerment network works with women in the wirral who are experiencing/ have experienced domestic violence. the group runs programmes and self help groups that enable women to see the beliefs and tactics of the abuser. knowledge of the tactics used against the women empowers them to break free of the beliefs that enable domestic violence. the network also provides speakers and trainers to raise awareness of the issues of domestic violence and networks with other local organisations that work with women in mental health, alcohol and drug abuse. before the network joined women connect the group did not have access to the internet as they lacked adequate computers and the necessary funds. the network was desperate to get online in order to improve communication within the group. they were also really keen to get online so that they could access information and statistics available on the web in order to influence policy at a national level by networking with other groups to push for changes in the law and the way women are treated in society. once accepted as part of the network our project worker arranged to visit the organisation and formulate an action plan agreed upon by both women connect and the freedom and empowerment network. the action plan identified some key priorities; these included improving the networks communication processes, developing a website and upgrading the networks computers. women connect provided the freedom and empowerment network with an internet ready machine. this has made a real difference to the way their work. one example is of a tale relayed to us about a woman the project visited. the women in question had three school aged children who were not attending school. she was receiving £150 a week widow’s pension and her rent was £90 a week. she had no other income and was seriously depressed. the network felt the financial situation was pivotal to the family unit and needed attention. as a result of the new equipment the network was able to access the internet and calculate the woman’s child tax credit entitlement. she has subsequently received a backdated payment of £1000 and her life is now free of the dire poverty the family was experiencing. the network has reported that there is now renewed hope in the family for a happier future. the freedom and empowerment network has also played a significant role in the women connect network. members of the group have hosted a workshop on domestic violence at the women with megabyte ii conference, and at cdf conference on ‘safe communities’ the network facilitated a discussion group on safety 'in the home' which was about why women http://www.nawp.org/ women connect 101 underreport domestic violence and what needs to happen to encourage women to report. for more information on this please see: http://www.womenconnect.org.uk/c2b/events/event.asp?id=32&catid=2 case study 3 – the women’s organic community allotment association the women's organic community allotment is a community group that enables women to grow organic food and herbs on an allotment in sheffield. the group promotes allotments as a friendly, inviting place for women to use and help to re-address the imbalance of female allotment users. the association aims to promote health and well being through the physical work involved with gardening, eating local, fresh, organic produce, the self-confidence gained through learning new skills and working with others, enjoying a relationship with the natural environment and the empowerment of being able to help women to create the ultimate necessity in life – food. before joining women connect, the allotment association had limited it equipment. the group wanted to get online in order to attract more volunteers and so they could be a source of advice, inspiration and support to other women’s groups and food and environmental issues groups. their action plan highlighted key areas for organisational development and resourcing. this resulted in the group receiving a new computer and printer, modem and software from women connect. being part of the network has had many benefits for the allotment association. they believe that having a computer and email has meant that are taken more seriously. email has been particularly beneficial for the group in that they have been able to make connect with local and national organisations on issues around food giving and advice. the internet has also allowed the group to take part in the national debate regarding gm crops as part of the network the association has attended a regional training event in sheffield for women using ict’s for organisational sustainability. they have also contributed to the women connect website with information about the women’s organic community allotment association and have helped raise awareness of the women connect project locally amongst other women’s organisations in sheffield. 4. online and offline networking this section reflects on the networking barriers women face both online and offline. many of the barriers faced by women connect are not specific to women’s organisations, but are shared by other voluntary and community sector organisations of similar size and resources. one of the prime examples of this is the lack of long term strategic funding faced by women connect. generally the voluntary and community sector suffers from short term unstable funding. the funding culture in which most voluntary and community sector organisations function is that projects are funded for typically one to three years. this can often create many difficulties. in http://www.womenconnect.org.uk/c2b/events/event.asp?id=32&catid=2 102 the journal of community informatics many cases the funding runs out and the project finished right at the point when it is operating at its most effective. short term funding also means that projects are constantly looking for other sources of funding instead of concentrating on their mission. even if another funder is found new contracts can mean that the original mission of the project will have to change/ adapt. this situation is worse outside of the uk where there is no tradition of a voluntary sector. women’s organisations are well use to working with very little if any funding to create a lot in terms of change. the fact that women connect exists and is able to draw attention to the inequity of funding, the resource needs of women and the positive power of networking within the uk and beyond. for example the network connections that have been possible using technology since bejing (the un fourth world conference on women and ngo forum 1995) have been invaluable to the uk women’s sector. this can be seen in a policy context not least in getting recognition by the uk government of the cedaw convention. the alliances that have been strengthened across europe would not have had the same energy if networking technology did not exist. having said that, the recent berlin women’s conference 2004 was a time to reflect that the struggles of women in 1904 when the first berlin conference took place were not dissimilar to today’s struggles and when networked and communicated and came together to celebrate and work for change without highspeed broadband or even email. one keynote speaker at that conference reflected: african women had come to be part of the political processes and claiming their rights as human rights and voters' rights were: women should grab power. do not expect men to bring it to you on a golden plate, as men have to fight to grab the power from other men so do not expect them to bring it to women for free. the discrepancy that still occurs to women having access to the global world should be acknowledged. women in her district have oil lamps to read the books, if she can read, but no electricity to download from a website for instance. the word download is meaningless to her, just like running water from the tap, television, etc. we have to be careful that the world does not become more divided between north and south, rich and poor. networking is the most essential thing for women, but only feasible if women find accessible ways to communicate with each other. inge von bönninghausen, the key-note speaker h.e. ambassador gertrude i. mongella (better known as mama beijing) from tanzania and currently the president of the pan-african parliament and president of advocacy for women in africa, secretary general of the 4th world conference on women in beijing (1995) 5. women connect: community development & the uk policy context women connect 103 how women connects work relates to community development women connect is based in the community development foundation in london. the community development foundation (cdf) is a non departmental public body supported by the active community directorate of the home office. so why is women connect based at the cdf? the work that women connect is involved with is led by the ideas that underpin community development work. community development is a nebulous term but it is generally agreed that much of the work done with community development is about capacity building. the home office provides a good definition of community capacity building; ‘activities, resources and support that strengthen the skills and abilities of people through enabling them to take effective action and leading roles in the development of their communities’. basically, capacity building is the development of an organization’s core skills and capabilities, such as leadership, management, finance and fundraising, programs and evaluation, in order to build the organization’s effectiveness and sustainability. it is the process of assisting an individual or group to identify and address issues and gain the insights, knowledge and experience needed to solve problems, implement change and to take part in democratic processes. women connect use a range of community development tools such as networking, newsletters, outreach work, action planning, face-2-face meetings, workshops and conferences to strengthen the skills and abilities of women, enabling them to take effective action and leading roles in the development of their community. women connect and the uk policy context we now want to turn our attention to policy in the uk, european and international contexts concern gender and ict. we have included this aspect in this article so as to provide a simple introduction to these important new policies that women need to be aware of, yet often aren’t. it is a major concern that government polices do not filter down to the grassroots level. many people believe that government policy is something that they will never understand or indeed have any affect them upon them. we cannot emphasis strongly enough that this is not the case. women need to be informed about such policies so that the struggle for equality for both genders is at the forefront of policy. the uk policy context we cannot allow gender to slip off the government’s agenda as gender equality is far from being achieved. women still face discrimination in many areas of their lives. for example, statistics shockingly reveal that: the pay gap between men and women still remains at 18% after 30 years. nearly half of women in the uk have a gross individual income of less than £100 a week, compared to just over one fifth of men. 104 the journal of community informatics reported rape has trebled in the last decade but the conviction rate has dropped from 24% to 6%. two women a week are killed by their current or former partner. the female prison population almost trebled between 1993 and 2003. women in pensioner couples receive just 32p for every £1 of income received by men. on graduating women can expect to be paid 15% less than men. we have only 118 women in the house of commons – this means that only 18% of mps are women only 28% of local councillors are women. all figures from the fawcett society website: http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk this section will provide a brief overview of some of the most important policies that are currently being debated over in uk in relation to gender. if you are interested in reading about any of the subjects touched upon in this section in more detail please follow the web links provided or see the bibliography in the appendices for suggestions on further reading and useful websites. the new commission for equality and human rights the current equality commissions are about to go through a major transition. in october 2003 the government announced its intention to establish a single commission for equality and human rights. a white paper ‘fairness for all: a new commission for equality and human rights’ was published by the department of trade and industry. this paper proposes a merger of the commission for racial equality, the disability rights commission and the equal opportunities commission into the commission for equality and human rights (cehr). the new commission will also incorporate, for the first time, four new strands of age, faith, sexual orientation and human rights the government believes that the existing commissions have laid an excellent basis on which we can build, but the changing nature of society poses significant new and complex challenges to social, economic and political life. the new commission will be responsible for promoting equality throughout our whole society and will be better equipped to respond to these challenges. one of the commission’s major advantages is that it will be able to tackle deprivation on multiple grounds, as the commission for equality and human rights will provide a single access point to information, advice and guidance. however, some women’s groups have expressed anxiety that gender might get pushed to the back of the government’s agenda with such a merge. there is ongoing concern that some streams may be marginalized and women’s organisations are particularly concerned that gender might find itself at the bottom of a hierarchy of discrimination. the northern ireland experience of a similar equality commission is evidence that this can happen as in this particular case the majority of resources were allocated to faith. if the new commission is to deliver strong, joined up working, there must be no possibility that one strand is seen as having priority over another. http://www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk/equality/project/ the gender duty – a summary http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/ http://www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk/equality/project/ women connect 105 since 1999, the government has promised to introduce a gender duty. this has been touched on again in ‘fairness for all; a new commission for equality and human rights’. a gender duty would oblige public bodies to promote equality and eliminate discrimination between women and men – this would be the biggest change to gender equality legislation since the sex discrimination act was introduced 30 years ago. however, at present the legal duty on public bodies to promote equality applies only to race and it is about to be extended to disability, but not to gender. the government is currently drafting the legislation for a gender duty and it is hope that the bill will go through parliament in the 2004/2005 session with the new commission for equality and human rights bill. women connect strongly supports the introduction of a gender duty. we need this gender duty to bring law on gender equality more in line with law on race and disability. it would mean that public bodies have to ensure that they take the needs of women and men into account equally in the way they provide services. this positive duty would mark a radical new approach to eliminating discrimination and achieving equality. after three decades of legislation that only tackles individual discrimination after they occur, this duty would herald a radical new approach to eliminating discrimination achieving equality – it is important for the public sector to lead by example. the duty will help to combat institutional sexism in our public services. in the long termed it is hoped that the duty will be extended to the private and voluntary sectors – particularly when carrying out contracts for public bodies. http://www.equalities.org/issues-psdg.htm paying the price: a consultation paper on prostitution july 2004 the home office has recently published a consultation paper, paying the price, which offers some possibilities for the first major overhaul of laws surrounding prostitution in almost 50 years. the paper has been published to prompt a public debate on how to deal with the issues raised by prostitution in england and wales. research findings listed in the consultation paper demonstrates that traditional enforcement methods such as police crackdowns are not working. ministers say they are open-minded about the changes that are needed and the official consultation paper is careful to list both sides of the argument in its discussion of the options for controlling onand off-street sex trade. the home office welcomes views on the paper from everyone with an interest in this area of public policy, but particularly from those with experience of involvement in prostitution, those with experience of the impact of prostitution in their neighbourhood, and from those agencies both voluntary and statutory working in this field. it is hoped that the feedback from the paper will pave the way for the development of a coordinated strategy for prostitution – aimed at reducing the harms associated with prostitution, experienced by those involved and by those communities in which it takes place. to view the document please follow this link: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs3/paying_the_price.html the it policy context http://www.equalities.org/issues-psdg.htm http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs3/paying_the_price.html 106 the journal of community informatics promoting social inclusion using ict ict is now viewed as the 3rd basic life skill after literacy and numeracy. however, after many government initiatives and campaigns to promote the usage of ict, more than one third of adults have never been online. digital inclusion is a cross cutting issue and many of those who do not use ict’s are often the same groups who are at risk of becoming socially excluded. therefore, promoting digital inclusion is closely linked to solving social exclusion issues. the government is currently investing significant funds in promoting social inclusion using ict – below we will take a quick look at a number of the schemes the government is currently involved with to promote british citizens involvement with government and ict. in terms of women and ict the gender gap in ownership and access to icts is diminishing. however there are still varying differences in men and women’s abilities to use the technology. inclusion into the information society is much more than just an issue of technology diffusion, or of acquiring or gaining access to ict artifacts. women connect supports women’s orgs to develop their ict potential. the introduction and development of the e-government agenda means that women’s organisations need to be skilled in accessing, using, educating and providing information and support via electronic service delivery. women connect has the potential to contribute to this agenda which is most important as women are the main users of public services and many of the organisations women connect currently support provide frontline public services. e-government the government has recently reiterated its commitment to ensure that over 500 government services are delivered online by 2005. the portal www.direct.gov.uk has now formally replaced its predecessor, ukonline, as the official first port of call for information on public services across all parts of government. its tag line is ‘the place to turn to for the latest and widest range of public service information’. through this web site it is possible to order a new passport, pay your television license, register to vote, find a job and get foreign travel advice amongst many other services. today, over two-thirds of government services are online, every local council has a website, and 96% of britain's population is aware of a place where they can readily access the internet (e-envoy report 2003). some sites, such as nhs direct, driving theory test bookings, companies house and uca however have proved really successful, the 2003 report adds. however, despite the growing numbers of such services being available online, take up of these online services is really low; the 2003 report by the office of the e-envoy quotes that threequarters of british citizens have never visited a government website. despite the introduction of self-assessment tax returns and online benefits, only 8% of internet users have ever carried out an online transaction with the government. interestingly, a disabled female internet user who attended our women with megabyte 2 conference was quick to point out that in a survey conducted by scope the governments websites were found to be the least user friendly for the disabled. amazon, the bbc and rnib were given as examples of great websites for disabled users. http://www.direct.gov.uk/ women connect 107 e-citizens parity, an it training specialist, has recently launched the e-citizen learning programme, the first basic ict skills qualification to be accredited by the british computer society (bcs). the course is intended to help people cross the digital divide, and offers a flexible way to acquire all the necessary skills to use computers and the internet. it takes a few hours to complete and culminates in an e-citizen qualification, which is the entry level stepping stone to the ecdl learning programme (european computer driving license). the training takes students through a step-by-step programme, from the basics of starting up a computer to getting on the web. students can then begin to use the internet in their everyday lives, and benefit from improved job prospects and access to online services including email, shopping, local services, even online voting. e-learning if someone is learning in a way that uses ict then that is e-learning. elearning means using new multimedia technology and the internet to improve the quality of learning. multimedia technologies allow the use of movie, audio and text to enrich the contents. the internet gives easy access to resources and services and it can empower the individual where ever they are – people can learn at school, at university at work and at home. one of the main objectives for e-learning is to reduce the disparities and inequalities between groups and individuals by providing universal access for all. a summary the uk government emphasis on providing services through ict is a double edged sword for women. many specific groups of women are going to be at risk of exclusion; both older women and disabled are going to have to face many barriers in accessing the ict, women whose first language is not english may also have problems understanding the websites. at the same time though, providing services through the internet means universal access for all. the government will have to be extremely careful to ensure that: a) mechanisms are in place to provide for the needs of groups at risk of exclusion b) content on government websites is equally accessible to everyone the governments approach to reaching citizens online is in marked contrast to the approach women connect takes in assisting our partners to develop their ict skills and get online. women connect’s approach is closly linked to community development work. we take an action planning approach and consult with each group individually to establish the organisations needs. we believe that face to face contact is important in the initial stages of helping groups get online and that our groups have the right to feed into the action planning process. this differs tremendously from the approach the government is taking which is about training rather than starting and finishing were people are or want to be. the government is primarily concerned with training people to develop skills necessary for the workplace and easing the bureaucratic burden of form filling. both of these are necessary and important, but women 108 the journal of community informatics connect feel this approach is lacking and is not joined up with the current policy move towards consultation and inclusion. there is now much government rhetortic about getting citizens involved and a concern to consult with the public on their views and opionons – tony blair’s ‘big conversations’ are such an example. however, this rhetortic is not backed up by the governement websites. the limited models for training people in icts are not going to suit everybody. different groups have very different needs and from the information our partners are feeding back to us, ukonline for one, was not catering to needs of our partner organisations. that has now gone into the hands of the university for industry, who are openly proud of their forthcoming strategy that completely ignores women and their ict needs. government initiatives such as this need to join up with the current move towards consulting the public and also helping citizens become more informed about and involved with the policy making processes. e-citizens for example is not about devloping people as citizens rather it is about providing training. 6) the european and international policy context europe britain has now been part of the european union (eu) for 30 years and whilst many people are not fully aware of what the eu does it has had a major impact on our everyday lives. the most important decision making is now happening in the eu and women need to be involved in the decision making processes in order for women’s interests to be represented. we have to ask who is deciding what europe is and it seems that men are, as statistics on gender in the eu show that men are dominating the decision making processes. europe has the potential to improve every woman’s life and we have to ensure that women are equal partners in the design process. the media has generally portrayed a very negative image of the european union. more information has to be provided so that women get a more balanced view of europe. we need more widely published information that demonstrates how people have already benefited from the uk’s involvement in the eu. for example how the single market makes it easier for british businesses to have access to their biggest market and how it also gives consumers access to a greater variety and quality of products at competitive prices. eu funding has also helped create jobs and regenerate poorer areas; for example the uk will receive eu structural funds worth £10 billion between 2000 and 2006. cornwall, merseyside, south yorkshire and west wales have qualified for special eu finds worth £3.3 billion. the funds also support areas blighted by decline – between 2000 – 06 for example £2.8 billion will be spent on the industrial, urban and rural sector. the uk is also eligible for an additional £2.9 billion for education, training and employment programmes in the same period. the european union & women equal opportunities for women and men have also become a significant issue in the european union. since the creation of the european communities in 1957, legislation on equality for women and men has made extensive progress. the first legislative step was to guarantee equal pay for women connect 109 women and men. now european legislation has been extended to cover all forms of sexual discrimination in the workplace. women in britain now benefit from an eu agreement which means that they automatically qualify for maternity leave without having to work for the same employer for two years. it is also a ruling of the european court of justice that women are not discriminated against in occupational pensions (european women’s lobby, 2002). in the areas where member states have given the eu the power to act, european laws take precedence over national legislation, and a national law that contravenes european law has to be changed. in other words, if progress is made at the european level, it must be incorporated at the national level. it is therefore essential for women to be fully informed of the possibilities the european union has to offer and to be involved into the eu making policies and to promote gender equality at the eu level. however, at the european level, women are worryingly under represented. for example, in 2000 women accounted for: 17.1% of members of the economic and social committee (various interest groups representing the eu's economic and social sectors) 14.9% of the committee of the regions (222 delegates from local and regional political groups in the member states who defend the interests of their region) 6.5% of the european council (composed of heads of state and government) the european convention on the future of europe comprises only 16,2% women (women in europe report resource paper for the ewl seminar “capacity building for gender equality in view of european union enlargement” women in decision-making) although it remains modest, progress is visible in the area of political decision-making. the idea of parity and positive action as vital conditions for democracy seems to be making headway. many women’s organisations feel that parity democracy (women constituting 50% of the membership of all decision-making bodies) should be added to the agenda for the revision of the treaty of amsterdam. the measures proposed for achieving democratic parity range from thresholds for parity to target figures to positive action. the process will involve changes to election laws at european and national level and the elimination of constitutional and legal obstacles to the introduction of quotas or positive action (european women’s lobby, 2003). to help this process the european commission could draft guidelines, to be followed by national action plans, for the promotion of women in decision-making created by the member states. these plans should lay down clear objectives and budgets and establish assessment mechanisms. a great example of parity in practice is the welsh assembly. women make up 50% of assembly members in wales – the welsh assembly has the highest proportion of women’s representation in the world and is the only national parliament in the world with equal representation of men and women. to learn more about the eu see: http://europa.eu.int/ for information on women in europe see http://www.womenlobby.org/home-en.asp?langname=english the referendums http://europa.eu.int/ http://www.womenlobby.org/home-en.asp?langname=english 110 the journal of community informatics the uk government has promised to hold a referendum (a vote where all the people in the country are asked if they agree with a particular proposal or policy) about joining the euro. however it looks more unlikely that they will hold a referendum on the changes to the eu constitution as recommended by the convention for the future of europe the draft constitution proposes a complete change in the way that the european commission works. for the first time it lays out the objectives and values of the eu, enshrining the right to strike, the objective of full employment and social justice, equality and solidarity and gives the eu new powers to harmonise legal systems across europe. these are important changes and they will have a real impact on our lives. the people ought to have the right to decide whether we accept the new constitution. women also need to take an active interest in the constitution to ensure our needs and interests are accounted for. to learn more about the referendum process and how to lobby the government please see this link: http://www.labour-referendum.org/ internationally at the international level there are also many polices that women need to be informed about. here we will look at the un convention on the discrimination of women and applaud the government for recently signing the optional protocol of the convention. we also take a quick look at the millennium development goals and the beijing platform for social action as well at one of the latest and most exciting programmes for incorporating gender analysis the committee of elimination of discrimination against women (c.e.d.a.w) the un convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women was adopted in 1979. when a government signs up to the women’s convention it is under an obligation to bring its laws and practices into compliance with the convention. the women’s convention protects women against discrimination by public authorities or agents of the state. it also holds a state party responsible for discriminatory acts committed by private individuals or organisations. article 17 of the women’s convention established a committee on the elimination of discrimination against women that we now know as cedaw. the committee consists of 23 experts who have signed up to the convention and are elected by ballot. governments that have ratified the convention are obliged to submit reports to cedaw on their implementation of the convention every four years. there is an optional protocol that counties can sigh which means that any individual women or group, whose rights have been violated under the convention, will be able to take the case to cedaw on condition that all effective means of domestic remedies have been exhausted. women connect are pleased to say that under the recommendations of the women and equality unit, britain has now signed this optional protocol. this is a good example of what can be achieved when women’s groups work together to lobby government. the un millennium development goals in september 2000, eight millennium development goals (mdgs) were agreed at the united nations millennium summit. nearly 190 countries have subsequently signed up to these goals. http://www.labour-referendum.org/ women connect 111 they were introduced as part of a wider attempt to encourage the international community to stop talking about making a different in the developing world and join forces to do something about it. these goals commit those that signed up to an expanded vision of development one that vigorously promotes human development as the key to sustaining social and economic progress in all countries, and recognizes the importance of creating a global partnership for development. in total there are eight goals. these are: 1) to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 2) to achieve universal primary education 3) to promote gender equality and empower women 4) to reduce child mortality 5) to improve maternal health 6) to combat hiv and aids, malaria and other diseases 7) to ensure environmental sustainability 8) to develop a global partnership for development 18 targets related to these goals have been set to give the international community a number of tangible improvements to aim for within a fixed period of time. this also makes it easier for countries to measure their progress. the intention is that almost all of these targets will be achieved by 2015. the department for international development (dfid) recognizes that the millennium development goals have a crucial part to play in reducing poverty and encouraging progress in the developing world. as a result, dfid has made them the main focus of all of its work. the third millennium development goal is to promote gender equality and empower women. the target set for this goal is: target 4: eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and to all levels of education no later than 2015. unfortunately, while some significant progress is being made towards meeting some of the targets in some of the affected countries, in many cases progress is patchy, too slow or non-existent. for example, although improvements have been made in many areas in sub-saharan africa the number of people living in poverty there is still greater now than it was in 1990. we have to continue to lobby governments to ensure that work continues to be done to meet these goals. the beijing platform for action however, there is a tension between the mdg’s and the beijing platform for action. some women’s organisations are concerned that one may overshadow the other. nawo, for example, believes that there is an ‘uneasy relationship’ between the two projects. gender equality has to be at the forefront of the goals otherwise they will fail. what is the beijing platform for action? 112 the journal of community informatics the platform for action is an agenda for women's empowerment. it aims to ‘remove all the obstacles to women's active participation in all spheres of public and private life through a full and equal share in economic, social, cultural and political decision-making’. this means that the principle of shared power and responsibility should be established between women and men at home, in the workplace and in the wider national and international communities. the platform for action reaffirms the fundamental principle (set forth in the vienna declaration and programme of action, adopted by the world conference on human rights) that the human rights of women and of the girl child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. as an agenda for action, the platform seeks to promote and protect the full enjoyment of all human rights and the fundamental freedoms of all women throughout their life cycle. the platform for action emphasizes that women share common concerns that can be addressed only by working together in partnership with men towards the common goal of gender equality around the world. it respects and values the full diversity of women's situations and conditions and recognizes that some women face particular barriers to their empowerment. the platform for action requires immediate and concerted action by all to create a peaceful, just and humane world based on human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the principle of equality for all people of all ages and from all walks of life, and to this end, recognizes that broad based and sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development is necessary to sustain social development and social justice. the millennium development goals and the beijing platform for action are both polices that could really make a difference in helping to promote women’s right and equality. however we have to carefully monitor how closely governments are working to meet the targets set by both programmes and lobby them in areas where they are failing to make achievements. to learn more about these programmes please see: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/plat1.htm association for progressive communication – the womens networking support programme. at the international level women connect heard and seen many examples of inspirational women working to create change within their communities with and without technology. these stories are full of courage and initiative, and serve to enthuse and motivate us to continue to work and network with women on and offline. one good example is the work being done by the women’s networking support programme at the association for progressive communication. the programme is a global network that supports women networking for social change and empowerment through ict’s. the network consists of over 130 individual female members from thirty six countries. in the last ten years, the support programme has been active in advocating for a gender perspective in ict policies, training women in the strategic use of these technologies, supporting women's http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/plat1.htm women connect 113 networks and investigating women's conditions as well as exploring gender issues in relation to the emergence of the what is now being referred to as the ‘information’ society. three years ago, the women’s network embarked on a pioneering project to develop an evaluation framework and methodology (gem) to examine how ict’s are empowering women and contributing to achieving gender equality. overview of gender evaluation methodology (gem) toolkit. traditionally gender differences and disparities have been ignored in policies and programmes dealing with the development and dissemination of improving technologies. as a result women have benefited less from and been disadvantaged from technological advances. women therefore need to be actively involved in the definition, design and development of new technologies otherwise the information revolution is in danger of bypassing women. gem provides a means for determining whether icts are really improving women’s lives and gender relations, as well as promoting positive change at the individual, community and broader social level. the first version of gem was designed two years ago and was tested on 26 projects internationally. from findings from the piloting process they have revised the tool and are now at point of completing the revision. for more information on the tool please visit the gem website which offers a comprehensive oversight on the tool and how to use it. the apc wnsp has published the gem tool under the terms of the creative commons attribution-non commercial-sharealike license. under this license you are free to use the tool. to find more information about the tool please see: http://www.apcwomen.org/gem/go4gem/ concluding comments. as this article has tried to show women connect is supporting women’s use of technology so that change will take place not least through and by womens’ active political participation. from the feedback from two evaluations and our partner organisations it appears that our work is done in terms of providing equipment in the uk. most organisations already have their own equipment and now there are many other ways of getting hold of equipment both cheaply and easily. women now may have the equipment to get online but we need to concentrate on helping women’s organisations develop their capacity to network with one another in order to ensure that gender never slips off governments agendas. women connect is led by what our partners want and our partners want to be able to use ict effectively. women connect is now concentrating on getting women’s organisations together for face to face encounters and to learn the lessons from using ict to network effectively. equality between the sexes has by no means been achieved and it vital for women to come together to help raise the profile of gender and lobby governments to ensure that progress is still being made towards achieving equality between the sexes. information about policy changes that concern gender need to be made far more accessible. our vision for women connect is to take our work up one level. we want to share information through our network to encourage women’s http://www.apcwomen.org/gem/go4gem/ 114 the journal of community informatics organisations to work together to lobby governments to ensure that gender equality is being strived for at every level. this is also of particular importance for hearing the many voices of women. it is our task to support every woman, as her path was already much more difficult than that of her male colleagues. this is true especially as we see the promises made in lisbon for a social agenda submerged by the economic agenda that invariably affects women disproportionately. as evident from our work the possibility to share lessons and build support for each other is no different from what women were trying to do in berlin in 1904. the technology enhances our work, but it’s the fundamental way women communicate and network that will and does create change. for more information http://www.womenconnect.org.uk bibliography bradbrook, g & fisher, j et al (2004) digital equality – reviewing digital inclusion and mapping the way forwards citizens online women connect 115 department of trade and industry (2004) fairness for all – a new commission for equality and human rights white paper european women’s lobby (2002) women shaping the future of europe annual report 2002 european women’s lobby (2003) annual report 2003 home office (2004) paying the price: a consultation paper on prostitution keeble, l & loader, b (2004) challenging the digital divide? a review of online community support. joseph rowntree foundation keeble, l (2004) the women connect project phase 2 evaluation report university of teesside moggridge, a (1999) the women connect project; evaluation report community information systems centre, university of west of england page, m & scott, m (1999) use and shape the internet community development foundation & the library association page, m and scott, m (1999) women connect phase 1 report community development foundation & the library association useful websites association for progressive communications http://www.apc.org/english/index.shtml http://www.apc.org/english/index.shtml 116 the journal of community informatics beijing platform for social action http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/plat1.htm c.e.d.a .w http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/ europe http://europa.eu.int/ http://www.britainineurope.org.uk/ european women’s lobby http://www.womenlobby.org/home-en.asp?langname=english annual report 2003 http://www.womenlobby.org/pdf/en_lr.pdf equal opportunities commission http://www.eoc.org.uk/ fawcett society http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk millennium development goals http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ the women’s national commission http://www.thewnc.org.uk/ national alliance of women’s organisations http://www.nawo.org.uk/ referendums http://www.labour-referendum.org/ women and equality unit http://www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk glossary of terms apc association for progressive communication cdf community development foundation http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/plat1.htm http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/ http://europa.eu.int/ http://www.womenlobby.org/home-en.asp?langname=english http://www.womenlobby.org/pdf/en_lr.pdf http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/ http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ http://www.thewnc.org.uk/ http://www.nawo.org.uk/ http://www.labour-referendum.org/ http://www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk/ women connect 117 cedaw committee for elimination of discrimination against women ewl european women’s lobby gem gender evaluation methodology ict information communication technology mdg’s millennium development goals nawo national alliance of women’s organisations wnc women’s national commission 1. an introduction to women connect 2. what is women connect? 3. women connect – phase two reflections 4. online and offline networking 5. women connect: community development & the uk policy cont 6) the european and international policy context bibliography   special section on learning in communities  john m. carroll edward m. frymoyer professor of information sciences and technology school of information sciences and technology center for human-computer interaction the pennsylvania state university university park, pennsylvania 16802 usa < jcarroll@ist.psu.edu >   ann peterson bishop associate professor graduate school of library and information science university of illinois at urbana-champaign 501 e. daniel street champaign, illinois 61820 usa < abishop@uiuc.edu >   community learning is an area of investigation that goes to the heart of community informatics as we attend to questions of how knowledge is shaped and shared at the local level. learning in communities spans a wide variety of institutions devoted to formal and informal educational processes and is deeply rooted in the goals and capacity inherent in participating individuals, groups, and organizations. how does a community learn across difference? how do information and communication technologies support learning? how do they threaten to reify harmful socioeconomic divides? this special section of the journal of community informatics is based on a multidisciplinary workshop organized by john carroll and held in august 2005 at penn state’s school of information sciences and technology. it contains an informal report of the workshop, as well as ‘mini papers’ contributed by some of the participants. we hope that this special section on learning in communities will contribute to the field of community informatics, stimulating further conversation among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.     informal workshop report: learning in communities, august 14-17, 2005, university park, pa   introduction   most learning takes place in communities. people continually learn through their participation with others in everyday activities. such learning is important in contemporary society because formal education cannot prepare people for a world that changes rapidly and continually. we need to live in learning communities. a discourse on learning in communities encompasses (at least) communities of practice, learning communities, community networks, communities of interest, learning organizations, learning-by-doing, cognitive apprenticeship, subjugated learning, collaborative/cooperative learning, situated cognition, design as inquiry, knowledge management, lifelong learning, informal learning, case-based learning, and learning cultures. though it is difficult to find any contemporary technical work in the multidisciplinary space of informal learning and collaborative activity that does not appeal to at least one of these touchstone concepts, it is also difficult to find work that tries to confront or to systematize the full range of them. existing conferences tend to “stovepipe” such discussions: thus, meetings of the cognitive science society and the journal of the learning sciences focus much attention on the concepts of cognitive apprenticeship, situated cognition, collaborative/cooperative learning, and even classroom-based learning communities, but ignore informal and collective learning, such as learning organizations, community networks, and learning cultures. information systems conference and journals focus much attention on knowledge management and learning organizations, but do not focus on community networks and informal learning. the computer-support cooperative work conference and journal address knowledge management, communities of practice, and to a limited extent, community networks, but rarely consider case-based learning, learning cultures, life-long learning or subjugated learning. the communities and technology conference and the journal of community informatics focus on communities of practice, community networks, and subjugated learning, but typically do not address issues such as cognitive apprenticeship, situated cognition, and learning communities.   the meeting   on august 14-17, 2005, a multidisciplinary group of scholars met at penn state's school of information sciences and technology to discuss "learning in communities."  the goals of this workshop were to bring together a wide range of perspectives and approaches to learning in communities, to articulate the state of the art, and to define agendas for research and technology infrastructures and initiatives. the group included the following: ann peterson bishop, community informatics initiative, graduate school of library and information science, university of illinois, urbana-champaign: bishop is interested in community information systems for traditionally marginalized groups; she was a founder of the prairienet community network. john m. carroll, school of information sciences and technology and center for human-computer interaction, penn state, university park: carroll investigates social and computational infrastructures for community-based learning, and is principal investigator for the national science foundation's civic nexus project in sustainable information technology learning. andrew clement, faculty of information studies, university of toronto: clement has worked in community informatics for 30 years, and is currently principal investigator for the canadian research alliance for community innovation and networking. gerhard fischer, department of computer science and institute for cognitive science, university of colorado, boulder, co: fischer investigates reflective communities, tools and environments to support lifelong learning and facilitate creativity. christopher hoadley, department of instructional systems and school of information sciences and technology, penn state, university park, pa: hoadley is interested in knowledge-building communities, and in techniques for measuring community achievements. andrea kavanaugh, center for human-computer interaction, virginia tech, blacksburg, va: kavanaugh investigates communication behavior and effects in the context of community networks; she made a decade-long study of the blacksburg electronic village, and is now evaluating internet services in local government. nancy kranich, library consultant and past president of the american library association: kranich is interested in the role of libraries in providing an information commons, facilitating community-building and democracy, and in enhancing civic literacy. lynette kvasny, school of information sciences and technology and center for the information society, penn state, university park: kvasny is interested in how inner city and third world women understand and recruit information technology to build social, cultural, and economic capital. jenny preece, university of maryland, college park, md: preece has studied behavior in health-related communities, contrasting face-to-face and online interactions; she is currently investigating community-development in the context of the international children's digital library. paul resnick, school of information, university of michigan, ann arbor, mi: resnick is interested in the role universities could play in information technology cooperative extension, and in how to cultivate information technology careers in the civic sector. mary beth rosson, school of information sciences and technology and center for human-computer interaction, penn state, university park, pa: rosson investigates end-user programming and design, particularly in community computing contexts. jorge schement, department of telecommunications and institute for information policy, penn state, university park, pa: schement investigates telecommunication policy implications for hispanic-american communities, rural areas, and evolving conceptions of democracy. mark schlager, center for technology in learning, sri, menlo park, ca: schlager is interested in community infrastructures, and has investigated community-based approaches to teacher professional development in tappedin through the past decade. murali venkatesh, school of information studies, syracuse university, ny: venkatesh investigates power and progressive social action in the context of broadband civic network planning. volker wulf, university of siegen and fraunhofer institute of applied information technology, germany: wulf is interested in supporting knowledge management in communities and social networks, especially in the context of multi-cultural communities.   orienting themes and questions   we developed a set of orienting questions, as part of the planning process for the workshop and successively elaborated through the course of the workshop itself.   design: what are effective strategies and methods for initiating (designing) and sustaining communities of various types? how do and how can communities evolve over time? learning: is learning, in the sense of human development, constitutive of healthy communities? how can communities facilitate various educational objectives, such as lifelong learning, cross-generational learning, knowledge-building, and universal technology literacy? what is the role of the university in facilitating communities, with respect to service learning, better integration of community action and research, and support for careers in civic information technology? context: how can communities cultivate and leverage indigenous/subjugated knowledge? how do communities cope with power structures of the cultures and institutions in which they are embedded? agency: how can communities facilitate innovation and collective action? measurement and evaluation: how can we know when a community project or a community succeeds/fails? what are effective strategies and methods for assessing the impacts (e.g. learning, knowledge sharing) of communities on their participants individually and collectively? what are current success stories? infrastructure: what are useful information technology tools and techniques for promoting community objectives (end-user programming, participatory design)? how can information technology support community building (for example, by increasing opportunities for civic discourse and by visualizing the community to itself)? theory: what are useful models, theories and frameworks for understanding community dynamics (activity theory, distributed cognition)? diversity: how can different audiences' needs be met? what power issues relate to different participants' roles and backgrounds? are there ways that communities can be designed to enhance interconnection between different types of people? how can communities facilitate communication and cooperation across international, cultural, and social boundaries?   our discussion wound up focusing on three theme clusters: (1) learning in the context of community informatics, (2) paradigms of research and action for studies of learning in community, and (3) community infrastructures that facilitate learning.   learning in the context of community informatics   we distinguished "learning in communities", in which learning is often informal, incidental, and integrated with participation in community activity, from "learning communities", which exist for and are all about learning. learning in communities is not just reciprocal or mutual learning, it is the collaborative construction of ideas in practice. this concept of learning in communities is implicit in democracy, and discovering how to facilitate such learning is a challenge in the future trajectory of democracy in an age when face-to-face learning may become less important. a key issue for community informatics is how to construct environments that encourage sharing of knowledge, particularly about content and perspectives that are not in the mainstream.   paradigms of research and action for studies of learning in communities   there is a tension between research and action in studies of learning in communities. many of the workshop participants engage in some form of participatory action research. these methods are appropriate, but they are very costly with respect to the time and effort of faculty and students. standard promotion and tenure values do not weigh community outreach highly. in us land grant universities, there is a well-developed concept of cooperative extension, though its history is primarily agricultural outreach. perhaps a concept of information technology cooperative extension could be developed as a more standard model (boyte, et al., 2001). one issue to consider is that within universities, there often is a clear distinction between cooperative extension faculty and "regular" research and teaching faculty. perhaps the extension model would just institutionalize the tension between research and action. one approach to this tension is to clearly divide consultancy and research engagement. for example, school systems and commercial organizations have well-articulated concepts of consulting.  in such a role, one can efficiently provide guidance for a client's problem. but successful consulting often requires focusing totally on solving a specific problem at hand, and not abstracting or generalizing that problem, or on enrolling practitioners as research collaborators. consultancy as an action research paradigm produces case studies that can subsequently be reflected on and developed as research activities. (donald schön’s (1983) work might be a good example of this.)   community infrastructures that facilitate learning   infrastructure is the socio-technical background that allows work activity to move smoothly. it includes hardware and software, processes of governance, social facilitation of learning, and cultural and cognitive models. infrastructure is often invisible, but invisibility can entail neglect and breakdown, and can replicate existing power structures. different segments of society are differentially able to shape infrastructures. one strategy for managing infrastructures is to make them more visible and participatory, especially during periods of transition when infrastructures are changing. a related strategy is to slow down adoption through collective resistance. one tool for this is raising questions about infrastructures. we are in a period now of rapid development and adoption of new information technology infrastructures.  several workshop participants are exploring alternative infrastructure initiatives that attempted to deliberately strengthen specific aspects of community-oriented activity, such as discussion and debate or visualization of the community.   where do we go from here?   we want to both report on this workshop and to use it as a catalyst for further multidisciplinary discussions, developments, and investigations of learning in communities. we decided to initially organize a sectioned report on the workshop for the journal of community informatics. in the longer term, we hope to organize a set of special issues for key journals in the research space. the first of these special issue projects could emphasize learning as a core function of communities. a second special issue project might address the distinction and integration of descriptive research and action research with respect to methods and theories, and to the role of universities and university faculty in such activity. a third special issue could discuss infrastructure for community-based learning, and in particular, the objective of deliberately designing infrastructures to facilitate learning in communities.   references boyte, h., & resnick, p., with p. levine, r. wachbroit, and l. friedland. (2001). white paper: civic extension for the information age. draft. available at: http://www.si.umich.edu/~presnick/papers/civicextension/index.html schön, d. a. (1983). the reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. new york: basic books.   acknowledgements the learning in communities workshop was partially supported by the us national science foundation (iis-0511198).     mini papers from workshop participants     1. community inquiry and informatics: collaborative learning through ict   ann peterson bishop, bertram c. bruce, and m. cameron jones   studies of learning and human-computer interaction have often focused on settings and practices that are relatively fixed and well-defined, such as a college-level course, a workgroup in a company, or a museum exploration. these studies have contributed much to our understanding of the potential and the problems associated with incorporating computers into collaborative practice. they have also contributed to the analysis of how learning happens in a wide range of settings. however, such well-defined situations represent but a small portion of realities that are relevant to the field of community informatics (ci),which aims to understand how information and communication technologies (icts) are employed to help communities achieve their goals (gurstein, 2004; keeble & loader, 2001). when viewed from the perspective of learning in communities, we see the challenge facing ci in the form of four research questions: how do people learn within communities? how do communities themselves learn? what tools facilitate learning within communities? how can communities develop shared capacity in the form of knowledge, skills, and tools? our work is grounded in the philosophy of american pragmatism, which rose to prominence at the end of the 19th century and introduced the theory and practice of what we call community inquiry into a range of fields, including aesthetics, education, social work, law and public citizenship (menand, 2001). developed most fully in the work of john dewey, community inquiry is based on the premise that if individuals are to understand and create solutions for problems in complex systems, they need opportunities to engage with challenging questions, to learn through participative investigations situated in everyday experiences, to articulate their ideas to others, and to make use of a variety of resources in multiple media. these processes of inquiry form an attitude toward work and life that consists of eager and alert observations, a constant questioning of old procedure in light of new observations, and a use of grounded experience as well as recorded knowledge. the ultimate aim of community inquiry is to develop a “critical, socially engaged intelligence, which enables individuals to understand and participate effectively in the affairs of their community in a collaborative effort to achieve a common good” (john dewey project on progressive education, 2002). community inquiry and informatics combine in the “pragmatic technology” (hickman, 1990) approach to community-based ict creation and use. pragmatic technology encompasses the common language notion of how to design tools to meet real human needs and accommodate to users in their lived situations. it also sees icts as developed within a community of inquiry and embodying both means of action and forms of understanding; icts are an end result of, as well as a means to accomplish, community learning. schuler and day (2004) clearly resonate with the ideas and practice of pragmatic technology in declaring the “subordination of icts to building healthy, empowered, active communities” (p. 15) and noting simply that “researchers are part of the world in which they live” (p. 219). our community informatics initiative (http://www.cii.uiuc.edu) is an effort to learn how pragmatic, community-based technology can support learning across institutional and social boundaries. the cii provides training and education, consulting, and action research in community inquiry and informatics in collaboration with non-profit organizations and individuals worldwide. it has produced community inquiry laboratories (ilabs) (http://ilabs.inquiry.uiuc.edu), a suite of free, open-source, web-based software that is developed in an open and ongoing fashion by people from all walks of life who represent different countries and a wide range of ages. ilabs have been used to create hundreds of interactive websites that support the communication and collaboration needed to pursue inquiry in classrooms, community centers, libraries, professional associations, research groups, and other settings—without having to download and install software or have your own server (bishop, et. al, 2004). ilabs includes software for producing library catalogs, syllabi, document sharing, online inquiry units, discussion forums, blogs, calendars, and image galleries. ilabs represents experimentation in the integration of community inquiry and informatics. through collaborative effort (both implicit and explicit, purposive and unknowing) in the creation of content, contribution to interactive elements, incorporation into practice, suggestions and questions, reports of what works and what doesn’t, and ongoing discussion, community members are not merely recipients of these technologies, but participate actively in their ongoing development, yielding enhancements which are then available to all users while, at the same time, they learn more about ict. we have referred to his process of end user software development as “design through use” or “participatory inquiry.” to cite just a few examples: members of sisternet (a local grassroots organization of black women devoted to nurturing a healthier lifestyle and community activism) created new templates for web-based inquiry units that were better suited for the personal health plans they wanted to make; youth in the paseo boricua community in chicago helped develop a web-based catalog for the library in the puerto rican cultural center, a tool that other ilab users can now adapt for their own purposes; a doctoral student in finland, high school students in france, and others helped develop a system for translating the ilabs interface into multiple languages; a local environmental group figured out a way to use ilabs for polling citizens. collaborative inquiry has helped us investigate community interactions in many ways, come to a better understanding of “community” as a unit of analysis in multiple endeavors, and experiment with modes of open and mutual learning as a primary process for a range of disparate activities, from software development to the installation of art exhibits.   acknowledgements we wish to thank the institute for museum and library services and national science foundation, whose support helped create the ilabs software. we are grateful for the creativity and hard work of all members of the ilabs collaborative, who have contributed their considerable energy and expertise to community learning.   references bishop, a. p., bruce, b. c., lunsford, k. j., jones, m. c., nazarova, m., linderman, d., won, m., heidorn, p. b., ramprakash, r., & brock, a. (2004). supporting community inquiry with digital resources. journal of digital information, 5(3), article no. 308. available at: http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/articles/v05/i03/bishop/ gurstein, m. b. (2004). editorial: welcome to the journal of community informatics. journal of community informatics, 1(1). available at: http://ci-journal.net/viewarticle.php?id=29&layout=html hickman, l. a. (1990). john dewey's pragmatic technology. bloomington, in: indiana university press. john dewey project on progressive education (2002). a brief overview of progressive education. available at: http://www.uvm.edu/~dewey/articles/proged.html keeble, l., & loader, b. d. (eds.). (2001). community informatics: shaping computer-mediated social relations. london: routledge. menand, l. (2001). the metaphysical club. ny: farrar, straus and giroux. schuler, d., & day, p. (2004). community practice in the network society: local action/global interaction. london: routledge.     2. the participant-observer in community-based learning as community bard   john m. carroll   during the past three years our civic nexus research group (http://cscl.ist.psu.edu) has been involved in a collection of community learning projects with groups in centre county, pennsylvania, a rural area of about 1,000 square miles with a population of 140,000, including the fairly cosmopolitan college town of state college (population 75,000) and the main campus of the pennsylvania state university. the focus of the project is to investigate, develop, and assess sustainable strategies to help these groups better control their own information technology. we have worked with the county historical society, the regional emergency management coordinator, a sustainable development group, the enrichment program at the local high school, the local chapter of habitat for humanity, the symphony orchestra, the local food bank, an environmental preservation group, a local emergency medical services council, a group that works with at-risk youth, and with a group that trains leaders for community groups. our original project concept was to form participatory action research (par) relationships with these groups, to jointly undertake technology development projects through which our partners would learn by doing, and we could observe how the learning occurred, and how it could be facilitated and sustained (merkel, xiao, farooq, ganoe, lee, carroll & rosson, 2004). we found that, in general, groups in our community already use internet technologies, like email and the web, to carry out their missions, but, also in general, the groups are not satisfied, often feel like they are slipping behind some norm, and do want to consider learning more and doing more. for example, many of the groups are interested in attaining more direct control of their overall web site design, others are interesting in better integrating their information technology (for example, integrating databases with their websites), some are interested in adding special functionalities to their web sites (such as interactive maps), and some are interested in supporting collaborative interactions like discussion forums. our par projects have several distinctive characteristics relative to standard conceptions of participatory technology projects (clement & van den besselaar, 1993): (1) the owners of the project are the community partners. they control the work activity being supported. they authorize the project and the approach taken. (2) the scope of the design concern is fairly broad. it is not limited to a user interface or even an application program; it generally involves adaptations in the work itself, especially including approaches to managing technology and technology training. (3) the scope of the collaboration is also quite broad. these groups are not organized for efficient decision-making and policy implementation, rather they work through consensus building. thus, decisions develop through considerable spans of time and involve mutual trust. (4) finally, these groups are more responsible for their own technology than the workers typically studied in classic participatory technology projects.  for example, participatory projects with office workers hinge on accurately codifying the work that is to be supported. the office workers will not have to maintain the new systems any more than had to personally maintain the old ones. for community groups, this is different. the only sustainable innovations they can make are those they can either pay for or carry out. there is no corporate infrastructure underwriting their activities; no it support department. thus, their expectations about learning and development are that they will assume responsibility for maintenance and further design (merkel, clitherow, farooq, xiao, ganoe, carroll & rosson, 2005). indeed, the community volunteer groups we are working with are quite unlike those in the classic participatory technology projects. in those projects, participation is conceived of as a strategy for mediating and integrating the interests of workers and managers. these different interests were often themselves conceived of as fundamentally adversarial. in the civic sector, the issues manifest differently. most of the activity in a community group occurs through minimally coordinated and highly localized initiatives. the community groups we have worked with have few paid staff members. most of the work activity is carried out by volunteers, who participate how and to the extent that they wish. the characteristics of par projects, and our interest in investigating and developing sustainable community-based learning, impel a different sort of role for us as participant-observers. specifically, we have learned that effective participation requires a substantial and long-term involvement in the community group, but at the same time, relegates us to the active periphery of the community. this may sound contradictory. on the one hand, the fact that the groups are constituted by loose networks of volunteers and managed by a mixture of self-initiative and consensus-building, makes it difficult to quickly understand the groups and earn sufficient trust to work with them. on the other hand, we are ultimately concerned with helping to implement sustainable learning strategies in these groups. but if we have to actually become members in order to do that, it becomes impossible to differentiate the “models” we are developing and investigating, from our own personal identities. (see carroll, chin, rosson & neale, 2000, for a broader version of this argument.) we call this role in the active periphery “the bard”: those fellows with lutes and plumed hats, roaming about, singing ballads in medieval courts. bards were not knights, chancellors, or bishops; they were not even blacksmiths, tailors or farmers. they were not core members of the medieval community at any stratum. however, their songs reminded all the members of the community of their collective exploits, of the folkways, mores, and values that regulate and sustain their practices, and of their future objectives and visions. their songs inspired other actors in the community to undertake great quests, to defend their comrades, or just to be a bit more creative and daring in their farming or whatever else they did. the bard’s tools are themselves fairly unthreatening to the interests and practices of others, and at the same time participatory in the sense that a familiar or rousing ballad asks for sing-along (carroll, 2004). as the bards of community nonprofits in centre county, pennsylvania, we are much more than facilitators. we are much more than occasional visitors. we are continuously involved. we are aware of what is going on in the group, of who is doing what in the group. we understand what the group is about and what it values. we are sounding boards for the group’s analysis and planning. we are on occasion direct technical resources for analysis and planning. we represent the group to itself, in our case from the particular perspective of technology needs and possibilities. but we are also firmly at the edge of the group. we don’t have an operational role. we don’t have power. this role can be uniquely useful: community groups are not about information technology any more than they are about plumbing. they recruit various technologies in the service of their community goals and functions. it is easy for them to lose sight of their own technology needs and goals. the peripheral participant can remind core members of their own needs and goals, and draw connections between current group issues and opportunities and technology plans. if this reminding is done creatively, it can become a vehicle for defining a zone of proximal development, in vygotsky’s (1978) sense, with respect to technology learning and mastery. the zone of proximal development is the set of concepts, skills, and other capacities that a person or an organization can undertake with help. as an individual or an organization successfully operates within the zone of proximal development, it becomes autonomously competent with a larger set of concepts, skills, and capacities. at that point, it can articulate greater ambitions and continue to push the bounds of its own development. if the peripheral participant can remind the core members of their zone of proximal development with respect to information technology, and perhaps even provide some help so that they can operate within this zone and push out its boundaries, then the peripheral participant can become an instrument of learning and development within the community. (see carroll & farooq, 2005, for a more specific and detailed version of this proposal.)   acknowledgements we are grateful to the other members of the civic nexus project team — cecelia merkel, craig ganoe, umer farooq, lu xiao, wendy schafer, michael race, matthew peters, and paula bach. this research is supported in part by the us national science foundation under award iis 03-42547.   references carroll, j.m. 2004. participatory design of community information systems: the designer as bard, in f. darses , r. dieng , c. simone & m. zacklad, (eds.), cooperative systems design: scenario-based design of collaborative systems, volume 107 frontiers in artificial intelligence and applications. amsterdam: ios press, pp. 1-6. carroll, j.m., chin, g., rosson, m.b. & neale, d.c. (2000). the development of cooperation: five years of participatory design in the virtual school.  in d. boyarski & w. kellogg (eds.), dis’2000: designing interactive systems (brooklyn, new york, august 17-19). new york: association for computing machinery, pp. 239-251. carroll, j.m. and farooq, u. (2005). community-based learning: design patterns and frameworks. in h. glllersen, k. schmidt, m. beaudouin-lafon, and w. mackay (eds.), proceedings of the 9th european conference on computer-supported cooperative work (paris, france, september 18-22, 2005), pp. 307-324. dordrecht, the netherlands: springer. clement, a. & van den besselaar, p.  1993. a retrospective look at pd projects. communications of the acm, 36(4), 29-37. merkel, c.b., clitherow, m., farooq, u., xiao, l., ganoe, c.h., carroll, j.m. & rosson, m.b. 2005. sustaining computer use and learning in community contexts: making technology part of “who they are and what they do”.  the journal of community informatics, 1(2), 134-150.    http://ci-journal.net/viewissue.php merkel, c.b., xiao, l., farooq, u., ganoe, c.h., lee, r., carroll, j.m. & rosson, m.b. 2004. participatory design in community computing contexts: tales from the field. proceedings of the participatory design conference (toronto, canada, july 27-31). new york: acm press, pp. 1-10. vygotsky, l.s. 1978. mind in society. cambridge, ma: harvard university press.     3. learning in communities: a distributed intelligence perspective   gerhard fischer   distributed intelligence: transcending the individual human mind the power of the unaided individual mind is highly overrated (arias et al., 2001).  in most traditional approaches, human cognition has been seen as existing solely “inside” a person’s head, and studies on cognition have often disregarded the physical and social surroundings in which cognition takes place. distributed intelligence (or distributed cognition) (hollan et al., 2001; pea, 2004; salomon, 1993) provides an effective theoretical framework for understanding what humans can achieve and how artifacts, tools, and socio-technical environments can be designed and evaluated to empower human beings and to change tasks. our research efforts are focused to exploit the power of omnipotent and omniscient technology based on reliable and ubiquitous computing environments and an increasing level of technological fluency to help people to facilitate and support learning in communities.   social creativity social creativity explores computer media and technologies to help people work and learn together (bennis & biederman, 1997). it is specifically relevant to complex design problems because they require expertise in a wide range of domains. software design projects, for example, typically involve designers, programmers, human-computer interaction specialists, marketing people, and end-user participants. information technologies have reached a level of sophistication, maturity, cost-effectiveness, and distribution such that they are not restricted only to enhancing productivity but they also open up new creative possibilities (national research council, 2003). our work is grounded in the basic belief that there is an “and” and not a “versus“ relationship between individual and social creativity (fischer, et al., 2005). creativity occurs in the relationship between an individual and society, and between an individual and his or her technical environment. the mind—rather than driving on solitude—is clearly dependent upon the reflection, renewal, and trust inherent in sustained human relationships (john-steiner, 2000).  we need to support this distributed fabric of interactions by integrating diversity, by making all voices heard, by increasing the back-talk of the situation, and providing systems that are open and transparent, so that people can be aware of and access each other’s work, relate it to their own work, transcend the information given, and contribute the results back to the community (fischer et al., 2004; hippel, 2005). in complex design projects, collaboration is crucial for success, yet it is difficult to achieve. complexity arises from the need to synthesize different perspectives, to exploit conceptual collisions between concepts and ideas coming from different disciplines, to manage large amounts of information potentially relevant to a design task, and to understand the design decisions that have determined the long-term evolution of a designed artifact.   exploiting diversity and distances by making all voices heard social creativity thrives on the diversity of perspectives by making all voices heard. it requires constructive dialogs between individuals negotiating their differences while creating their shared voice and vision. we have explored different sources of creativity by exploiting four different distances: spatial, temporal, conceptual, and technological (fischer, 2005). voices from different places: spatial distance. bringing spatially distributed people together with the support of computer-mediated communication allows the prominent defining feature of a group of people interacting with each other to become shared concerns rather than shared location. it extends the range of people to be included, thereby exploiting local knowledge. these opportunities have been successfully employed by the open source communities, collaborative content creation communities (such as wikipedia) as well as by social networks of people who have a shared concern (such as a family member with a disability). transcending the barrier of spatial distribution is of particular importance in locally sparse populations. addressing this challenge is one of the core objectives of our research work in the clever (cognitive levers: helping people help themselves) project (clever, 2005; depaula, 2004). voices from the past: temporal distance. design processes often take place over many years, with initial design followed by extended periods of evolution and redesign. in this sense, design artifacts (including systems that support design tasks, such as reuse environments (ye & fischer, 2005)) are not designed once and for all, but instead evolve over long periods of time. much of the work in ongoing design projects is done as redesign and evolution; often, the people doing this work were not members of the original design team. long-term collaboration requires that present-day designers be aware of not only the rationale (moran & carroll, 1996) behind decisions that shaped the artifact, but also any information about possible alternatives that were considered but not implemented. this requires that the rationale behind decisions be recorded in the first place. a barrier to overcome is that designers are biased toward doing design but not toward putting extra effort into documentation. this creates an additional rationale-capture barrier for long-term design (grudin, 1987). the idea of exploiting and building on the voices of the past to enhance social creativity is important not only for software reuse but for our overall cultural heritage. in cultural evolution there are no mechanisms equivalent to genes and chromosomes (csikszentmihalyi, 1996); therefore, new ideas or inventions are not automatically passed on to the next generation, and education becomes a critical challenge to learn from the past. many creativity researchers have pointed out that the discoveries of many famous people (e.g., einstein who could build on the work of newton) would have been inconceivable without the prior knowledge, without the intellectual and social network that simulated their thinking, and without the social mechanisms that recognized and spread their innovations. voices from different communities: conceptual distances. to analyze the contribution of voices from different communities, we differentiate between two types of communities: communities of practice (cops) and communities of interest (cois). this distinction will be further elaborated below. communities of practice (cops) (wenger, 1998) consist of practitioners who work as a community in a certain domain undertaking similar work. for example, copier repair personnel who work primarily in the field but meet regularly to share “war stories” about how to solve the problems they encountered in their work make up a cop (orr, 1996). learning within a cop takes the form of legitimate peripheral participation (lpp) (lave & wenger, 1991), which is a type of apprenticeship model in which newcomers enter the community from the periphery and move toward the center as they become more and more knowledgeable. sustained engagement and collaboration lead to boundaries that are based on shared histories of learning and that create discontinuities between participants and non-participants. highly developed knowledge systems (including conceptual frameworks, technical systems, and human organizations) are biased toward efficient communication within the community at the expense of acting as barriers to communication with outsiders: boundaries that are empowering to the insider are often barriers to outsiders and newcomers to the group. a community of practice has many possible paths and many roles (identities) within it (e.g., leader, scribe, power-user, visionary, and so forth). over time, most members move toward the center, and their knowledge becomes part of the foundation of the community’s shared background. communities of interest (cois) (fischer, 2001) bring together stakeholders from different cops and are defined by their collective concern with the resolution of a particular problem. cois can be thought of as “communities of communities” (brown & duguid, 1991). examples of cois are: (1) a team interested in software development that includes software designers, users, marketing specialists, psychologists, and programmers, or (2) a group of citizens and experts interested in urban planning. stakeholders within cois are considered as informed participants who are neither experts nor novices, but rather both: they are experts when they communicate their knowledge to others, and they are novices when they learn from others who are experts in areas outside their own knowledge. communication in cois is difficult because they come from different cops, and therefore use different languages, different conceptual knowledge systems, and different notational systems (snow, 1993). members of cois must learn to communicate with and learn from others (engeström, 2001) who have different perspectives and perhaps a different vocabulary for describing their ideas. in other words, this symmetry of ignorance must be exploited. comparing cops and cois.  learning by making all voices heard within cois is more complex and multifaceted than legitimate peripheral participation (lave & wenger, 1991) in cops. learning in cops can be characterized as “learning within a single knowledge system”, whereas learning in cois is often a consequence of the fact that there are multiple knowledge systems. cois have multiple centers of knowledge, with each member considered to be knowledgeable in a particular aspect of the problem and perhaps not so knowledgeable in others. table 1 characterizes and differentiates cops and cois along a number of dimensions. the point of comparing and contrasting cops and cois is not to pigeonhole groups into either category, but rather to identify patterns of practice and helpful technologies. people can participate in more than one community, or one community can exhibit attributes of both a coi and a cop. our center for lifelong learning and design (l3d) is an example: it has many characteristics of a cop (having developed its own stories, terminology, and artifacts), but by actively engaging with people from outside our community (e.g., from other colleges on campus, people from industry, international visitors, and so forth), it also has many characteristics of a coi. design communities do not have to be strictly either cops or cois, but they can integrate aspects of both forms of communities. the community type may shift over time, according to events outside the community, the objectives of its members, and the structure of the membership. table 1: differentiating cops and cois dimensions cops cois nature of problems different tasks in the same domain common task across multiple domains knowledge development refinement of one knowledge system; new ideas coming from within the practice synthesis and mutual learning through the integration of multiple knowledge systems major objectives codified knowledge, domain coverage shared understanding, making all voices heard weaknesses group-think lack of a shared understanding strengths shared ontologies social creativity; diversity; making all voices heard people beginners and experts; apprentices and masters stakeholders (owners of problems) from different domains learning legitimate peripheral participation informed participation   both forms of design communities exhibit barriers and biases. cops are biased toward communicating with the same people and taking advantage of a shared background. the existence of an accepted, well-established center (of expertise) and a clear path of learning toward this center allows the differentiation of members into novices, intermediates, and experts. it makes these attributes viable concepts associated with people and provides the foundation for legitimate peripheral participation as a workable learning strategy. the barriers imposed by cops are that group-think (janis, 1972) can suppress exposure to, and acceptance of, outside ideas; the more someone is at home in a cop, the more that person forgets the strange and contingent nature of its categories from the outside. voices from virtual stakeholders: technological distances. the preceding subsections emphasized computer-mediated collaboration among humans to reduce the gaps created by spatial, temporal, and conceptual distances. voices from virtual stakeholders are embedded in artifacts such as books and in more interesting and powerful ways in computational artifacts. design can be described as a reflective conversation between designers and the designs they create. designers use materials to construct design situations, and then listen to the “back-talk of the situation” they have created (schön, 1983). unlike passive design materials, such as pen and paper, computational design materials are able to interpret the work of designers and actively talk back to them. barriers occur when the back-talk is represented in a form that users are unable to comprehend (i.e., the back-talk is not a boundary object), or when the back-talk created by the design situation itself is insufficient, and additional mechanisms (e.g., critiquing, simulation, and visualization components) are needed. to increase the back-talk of the situation, we have developed critiquing systems (fischer et al., 1998) that monitor the actions of users as they work and inform the users of potential problems. if users elect to see the information, the critiquing mechanisms find information in the repositories that is relevant to the particular problem and present this information to the user.   references arias, e. g., eden, h., fischer, g., gorman, a., & scharff, e. (2001). transcending the individual human mind—creating shared understanding through collaborative design. in j. m. carroll (ed.), human-computer interaction in the new millennium (pp. 347-372). new york: acm press. bennis, w., & biederman, p. w. (1997). organizing genius: the secrets of creative collaboration. cambridge, ma: perseus books. brown, j. s., & duguid, p. (1991). organizational learning and communities-of-practice: toward a unified view of working, learning, and innovation," organization science, 2(1), pp. 40-57. clever (2005). clever: cognitive levers— helping people help themselves. available at http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/clever/. csikszentmihalyi, m. (1996). creativity — flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. new york: harpercollins publishers. depaula, r. (2004). the construction of usefulness: how users and context create meaning with a social networking system, ph.d. dissertation, university of colorado at boulder. engeström, y. (2001). expansive learning at work: toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. journal of education and work, 14(1), pp. 133-156. fischer, g. (2001). communities of interest: learning through the interaction of multiple knowledge systems. 24th annual information systems research seminar in scandinavia (iris'24), ulvik, norway, pp. 1-14. fischer, g. (2005). distances and diversity: sources for social creativity, proceedings of creativity & cognition, london, april, pp. 128-136. fischer, g., giaccardi, e., eden, h., sugimoto, m., & ye, y. (2005). beyond binary choices: integrating individual and social creativity. international journal of human-computer studies (ijhcs) special issue on computer support for creativity (e.a. edmonds & l. candy, eds.), 63(4-5), pp. 482-512. fischer, g., giaccardi, e., ye, y., sutcliffe, a. g., & mehandjiev, n. (2004). meta-design: a manifesto for end-user development. communications of the acm, 47(9), pp. 33-37. fischer, g., nakakoji, k., ostwald, j., stahl, g., & sumner, t. (1998). embedding critics in design environments. in m. t. maybury, & w. wahlster (eds.), readings in intelligent user interfaces, san francisco: morgan kaufmann, pp. 537-559. grudin, j. (1987). social evaluation of the user interface: who does the work and who gets the benefit?" in h. bullinger, & b. shackel (eds.), proceedings of interact'87, 2nd ifip conference on human-computer interaction (stuttgart, frg), north-holland, amsterdam, pp. 805-811. hippel, e. v. (2005). democratizing innovation. cambridge, ma: mit press. hollan, j., hutchins, e., & kirsch, d. (2001). distributed cognition: toward a new foundation for human-computer interaction research. in j. m. carroll (ed.), human-computer interaction in the new millennium (pp. 75-94). new york: acm press. janis, i. (1972). victims of groupthink. boston: houghton mifflin. john-steiner, v. (2000). creative collaboration. oxford: oxford university press. lave, j., & wenger, e. (1991). situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. new york: cambridge university press. moran, t. p., & carroll, j. m. (eds.). (1996). design rationale: concepts, techniques, and use. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. national research council. (2003). beyond productivity: information technology, innovation, and creativity. washington, dc: national academy press. orr, j. (1996). talking about machines — an ethnography of a modern job. ithaca, ny: ilr press/cornell university press. pea, r. d. (2004) "the social and technological dimensions of scaffolding and related theoretical concepts for learning, education, and human activity," the journal of the learning sciences, 13(3), pp. 423-451. salomon, g. (ed.). (1993). distributed cognitions: psychological and educational considerations.  cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. schön, d. a. (1983). the reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. new york: basic books. snow, c. p. (1993). the two cultures. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. wenger, e. (1998). communities of practice — learning, meaning, and identity. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. ye, y., & fischer, g. (2005). reuse-conducive development environments. international journal automated software engineering, 12(2), pp. 199-235.     4. spiders in the net: universities as facilitators of community-based learning   gerhard fischer, markus rohde, and volker wulf   universities play an important role in the knowledge society (brown & duguid, 2000). beyond their traditional role in research and education, they have the potential exploit local knowledge in (regional) innovations and to provide opportunities for students to become lifelong learners. to realize these potentials, universities, specifically in the fields of applied sciences and engineering, will have to reinvent their conception of education by taking the importance of industrial practise and social networks into account (tsichritzis, 1999). traditionally, university teaching is based on an “instructionist” understanding of learning which assumes that the instructor possesses all relevant knowledge and passes it to the learners (noam, 1995). the learner is seen as a receptive system that stores, recalls and transfers knowledge. such an understanding has been criticized from theoretical and practical points of view (cf. collins et al., 1989; jonassen and mandl, 1990). in a highly differentiated world full of open ended and ill-defined problems it is rather unlikely that an individual (professor) or an academic organization (faculty) alone will possess sufficient knowledge to foster learning among students and practitioners sufficiently (arias, et al., 2001). we believe that socio-cultural theories of learning (bruner, 1996) and the concepts of social capital (huysman & wulf, 2004) and social creativity  (fischer et al., 2005) hold considerable promise as a theoretical base for the repositioning of universities in the knowledge society. learning is understood as a collective process (rogoff, et al., 1998) that is linked to a specific context of action. in socio-cultural theories of learning, communities of practice are the social aggregate in which learning and innovation take place. knowledge emerges by discursive assignment and social identification (lave & wenger, 1991; wenger, 1998). social capital is about value derived from being a member of a social aggregate. by being a member, people have access to resources that non-members do not have (bourdieu, 1985; huysman & wulf, 2004; putnam, 1993). social capital can serve as an enabler to social learning processes (cohen & prusak 2001); fischer et al., 2004; huysman &wulf, 2004), and it represents a precondition for the emergence of communities of practice. the information systems research group (is) at the university of siegen will be taken as an example of how universities may draw on the concepts of communities of practice and social capital to reposition themselves in societal learning processes. supported by research funds from public and industry sources, the is group has grown from three to ten staff members (faculty and research associates) during recent years. research is organized around individual, typically externally funded, projects and practice emerges within these projects or groups of them. to set up a network within the regional it industry, the is group got specific funding from the european structural fund. in siegen, opportunities for enculturation into specific communities of practice are considered to be a major instrument of education at the university level. this approach complements “learning about” with “learning to be” (the second objective serves as the fundamental principle underlying the undergraduate research apprenticeship program at the university of colorado, boulder; for detail see: http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/urap/). so far, experiences have been primarily gained with enculturation processes into two different types of communities of practice: those within the research group and those within regional it companies. we have reinterpreted the following elements of the is curriculum to offer opportunities for students to participate in our practice: seminars, project groups, and the diploma thesis. with regard to each of these elements of the curriculum, we define tasks that are relevant to actual and future research projects in our group (e.g., elaborating the state of the art of a new research area within a seminar, implementing specific software components in the framework of a project group, or designing a prototype in a masters thesis). we also offer paid jobs for students to work within our research projects on an ongoing base. since the relevance of these tasks is obvious to students and researchers, an important precondition for processes of enculturation is met. enculturation processes into the research group get more likely and intense in those cases when the students follow up on more than one of these learning opportunities. though the research projects are typically conducted in cooperation with industry, our practice is more research-oriented compared to the one our graduates will experience in industry after finishing their studies. therefore, we offer additional types of learning opportunities to students by integrating student teams into the communities of practice of local it companies. to host teams of two to three students, it companies define projects close to their core business. the student teams work on these projects in close cooperation with actors from the companies. when working in industry our students are closely coached by members of the research group. the student teams are connected to each other and to their supervisors in academia by means of a community system. rohde, et al. (2005) present results of an evaluation study of an earlier implementation of this approach in entrepreneurship education. community-based approaches to university education provide learning opportunities for academics and companies. while enculturation into the companies’ communities of practice is seen as the main mechanism for student learning, students often mediate between university and company practice. since the students are coached by their advisers during their experience in the company, they carry ideas back and forth between the communities of practise within companies and academia. companies get word of innovative ideas out of academia while researchers get feedback on the applicability of their concepts. this boundary spanning activity is especially intense when the students have been enculturated previously in academia. to establish community-based approaches to university education, academic visibility and a sufficient level of social capital are required. the enculturation processes require substantial efforts from companies as well as from students. companies are only rewarded in the end and in those cases when their proposed project turned out to be successful. mutual trust between companies and academia is built over time through cooperation in successful projects. to get the process started, a certain reputation built through other (regional) activities is instrumental. regional networking activities and the joint acquisition of research projects have turned out to be an important means of building social capital. in the future, we will extend this community-building effort to include our network of alumni. to offer appropriate learning opportunities to their students, academics will have to building and maintain a dense web of social relations.   references arias, e. g., eden, h., fischer, g., gorman, a., & scharff, e. 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(2004). social capital and it current debates and research. in m. huysman & v. wulf (eds.). social capital and information technology (pp. 1-16). cambridge, ma: mit press. jonassen, d. h., & mandl, h. (eds.). (1990). designing hypermedia for learning. berlin: springer. lave, j., & wenger, e. (1991). situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. new york: cambridge university press. noam, e. m. (1995). electronics and the dim future of the university. science, 270(5234), pp. 247-249. putnam, r. (1993). the prosperious community: social capital and public life. american prospect, 13, 35-42. rogoff, b., matsuov, e., & white, c. (1998). models of teaching and learning: participation in a community of learners. in d. r. olsen & n. torrance (eds.). the handbook of education and human development — new models of learning, teaching and schooling (pp. 388-414). blackwell: oxford. rohde, m., klamma, r., & wulf, v. (2005). establishing communities of practise among students and start-up companies. in proceedings of the international conference on collaborative learning (cscl 2005), may 30-june 4 in taipeh (taiwan), (pp. 514-519). tsichritzis, d. (1999). reengineering the university. communications of the acm, 42(6), pp. 93-100. wenger, e. (1998). communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press.     5. designing technology for local citizen deliberation   andrea kavanaugh and philip isenhour   citizen participation in democratic processes in the united states has been facilitated and enhanced since the mid-1990s with the diffusion and adoption of computer networking (barber, 1984; coleman and gotz, 2002; kavanaugh et al., 2005a, 2005b; rainie, 2005). electronic mailing lists and websites pertaining to political interests grew rapidly in the late1990s. much of this facilitated participation consisted of increased awareness about issues and information, as well as increased capability for coordination, communication and outreach with regard to political activities. despite these positive outcomes, existing tools are largely used to broadcast information from a few-to-many. there is limited interaction, discussion and deliberation online, except in specially designed centralized forums. these special web sites are very helpful in supporting discussion and even deliberation among interested citizens (for example, in the minnesota e-democracy project). yet they tend to attract and retain the most highly motivated and activist citizens. for the less motivated majority of citizens, there is a need for tools that allow easy authoring and editing and intuitive ways to comment and contribute additional content to a group discussion. the advent of web logs (i.e., blogs) provides an opportunity to extend the capabilities of traditional electronic mail and discussion lists toward greater social interaction, discussion, and content production. the simplicity of the tools for blogging and their free availability have lowered the bar for users interested in communicating with others in their social networks, their geographic communities and the greater public. community or group blogs represent a kind of self-organizing social system that allows a number of individuals to interact and learn from each other through the exchange ideas and information, and to help solve collective problems.  components of the optimal systems that community organizations seek are in place, such as servers, network connectivity and technical support. but gaps in software technology persist, which can be closed with applications that can be customized to meet the specific and unique needs of these organizations. for example, authoring, publishing, and archiving information; soliciting feedback from organization members and the community; holding discussions, tutorials, and forums; planning and coordinating organizational activities; and managing group resources. the web, in its current form, strongly favors information consumers over information producers. emerging technologies such as web logs and wikis (searls & sifry, 2003) seek to address this deficiency.  blogs -online journals often used for commentary and content aggregation -have seen an explosive rise in popularity (rainie, 2005). they have been adapted for diverse uses, but maintain the basic format of a column or journal entry, typically linking to external resources, and often supporting direct posting from a web browser and discussion forums attached to each entry. wikis (guzdial, rick, & kehoe, 2001) represent a more flexible and open-ended approach to direct editing. on a wiki, any user can edit the content of any page using a shorthand language that is translated into html. a common element of wiki shorthand is a simplified mechanism for linking, thereby supporting the goal of creating interconnected hypertexts. the popularity of weblogs and wikis, including a growing popularity of weblogs among content producers outside of technical fields, suggests that there is demand for tools that provide more direct and simplified publishing than is available with desktop web page publishing software. such tools seem particularly well matched to the knowledge management needs of nonprofit community organizations and small, but distributed, public sector agencies such as the public health district. these groups will often lack the resources to support full-time web maintenance staff. the relatively primitive nature of blogs and wikis also suggests opportunities for technology innovation. the tools are generally focused on text publishing and often support interactivity only in the form of discussion forums. in this sense, blogs and wikis represent something of a step backwards as end-user development tools when compared to pre-web technologies such as moos and muds (bruckman, 1999; haynes & holmevick, 1998). they also represent two extremes in their enforcement of structure, with blogs (essentially by definition) having a very specific linear structure, and wikis having a sometimes chaotic lack of structure. to address these issues, integrated authoring tools must support flexible representation and organization of content with format and structure based on the requirements of specific groups of users. richer interactive tools will be required to support representation, organization, and sharing of ideas and experiences. tools that integrate synchronous and asynchronous discussion and refinement of content objects, for example, can help capture informal and contextual knowledge that might not be captured in static web pages. in a series of focus group interviews conducted with adult residents of blacksburg and montgomery county, virginia (fall 2005) most citizens seemed only vaguely aware of blogs and wikis. nonetheless, they were clear about the affordances and functionality they wanted from emerging tools. they want to find diverse information such as news that is missing in local newspapers, and to explore different perspectives on issues of national and personal interest.  citizens reported seeking greater usability especially for novices and non-tech savvy users, such as senior citizens. they observed that the local groups with which they affiliate act as important mechanisms for sharing more reliable information and sustaining discussion, since contributors are known to each other. they emphasized the need for balance between offline and online political activities, including deliberation. peer pressure among group acquaintances helps reduce incidences of personal attacks online. peer reviewing helps participants authenticate information, thereby fostering greater trust. the few local community groups that have set up (or converted) their websites to wiki-styles benefit from simpler and easier content updating and editing, but they typically required some support and guidance in order to get started. the small but growing number of local blogs with at least occasional political content could be potentially more effective in educating and stimulating exchange among community members if there were mechanisms to aggregate similar content scattered across multiple blogs. aggregators, search engines, and social bookmarking are examples of ways to facilitate the discovery of these potential connections.    references barber, b. (1984). strong democracy: participatory politics for a new age. berkeley, ca: university of california press. bruckman, a. (1999). the day after net day: approaches to educational use of the internet. convergence, 5(1), 24-46. coleman, s., & gotz, j. (2002). bowling together: online public engagement in policy deliberation. available from: http://bowingtogether.net/. guzdial, m., rick, j., & kehoe, c. (2001). beyond adoption to invention: teacher-created collaborative activities in higher education. journal of the learning sciences, 10(3), 265-279. haynes, c., & holmevick, j . r. (eds.). (1998). high wired: on the design, use, and theory of educational moos. ann arbor:  michigan press. kavanaugh, a., reese, d. d., carroll, j. m., & rosson, m. b. (2005a). weak ties in networked communities. the information society, 21(2), 119-131. kavanaugh, a., carroll, j. m., rosson, m. b., & zin, t. t. (2005b). participating in civil society: the case of networked communities. interacting with computers, 17, 9-33. rainie, l. (2005). the state of blogging. pew internet & american life project. available from: http://www.pewinternet.org. searls, d., & sifry, d. (2003). building with blogs. linux journal 2003(4), 4. available from: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6497.     6. social reproduction and its applicability for community informatics   lynette kvasny   introduction   for the past decade, committed researchers, politicians, policy makers, investors, and community-based organizations made concerted efforts to redress the digital divide, but the solution has remained somewhat elusive. information and communication technologies (icts) have been portrayed in digital divide discourses as the great equalizer that may be leveraged by local communities to combat economic deprivation and foster social inclusion. thus, there exists a sense of urgency in “bridging the digital divide.” ict rhetoric is generally utopian, touting innovative models for collaboration, economic activity, learning, and civic involvement. however, as icts become more widely available, we cannot naively assume that historically underserved communities are reaping these highly touted benefits. the rhetoric that celebrates the “bridging of the digital divide” may in fact ring hollow in communities where questions of material existence, not ict, prevail. people in underserved communities are often consumed with meeting basic human needs such as earning a livelihood, finding comfortable and affordable housing, and creating safe neighborhoods. in light of these persistent economic hardships and related social issues like drugs, crime, discrimination, and homelessness, our well-intended efforts for redressing the digital divide are indeed challenged. in what follows, i present social reproduction theory as a basis for understanding how ict may in fact serve to reproduce, rather than alleviate, inequality. when digital divide interventions are informed by western economic and technological rationalities, they tend to rely on the financial resources and the expertise of external entities. the people experiencing economic hardships and social ills are often portrayed as passive objects, with little agency. by examining the role of ict in perpetuating these systems of inequality, we are then able to posit transformative ways of thinking about ict as enabling the resourcefulness of historically underserved communities in meeting their self-determined needs.    social reproduction theory   social reproduction theories are fueled by the central question of how and why relationships of inequality and domination are reproduced. this theory can be usefully appropriated by community informatics scholars interested in probing the relationship between class interests and power as exerted through the seemingly democratic practice of providing free or low-cost computer and internet access and training. adopting a social reproduction standpoint, one may start from the premise that digital divide discourses tend to categorize and legitimize the power relations between those social agents with (the haves) and those without (the have nots) computing skills and access. researchers identify and measure those who do and do not have access. interventions based on this research seek out those without access, and provide them with opportunities to learn and acquire computing skills for little or no financial cost. thus, one may conclude that the digital divide is a powerful discourse for socialization into a given social order (the information society). how then does this socialization into a given social order take place? reproduction theory provides some conceptual models for investigating this process. there is no single general reproduction theory, but reproduction processes constitute a fundamental problem that has been tackled in contemporary sociology, mostly in the study of educational institutions. in what follows, i posit three major approaches in reproduction theory. first, bowles and gintis (1976) debunk the century-old ideal of public education as "the great equalizer" among disparate social classes in the u.s. bowles and gintis instead argued that public schooling reproduces social and class-based inequities. they adopt a marxist perspective and argue that schools are training young people for their future economic and occupational position according to their current social class position. on the one hand, students of working-class origin are trained to take orders, to be obedient, and are subject to more disciplinary interventions. on the other hand, children of professionals are trained using more progressive methods, which give them internal discipline and self-presentation skills. the schools and their curriculum structure education so as to produce workers who will fill various socially stratified occupations, thereby maintaining class-based inequities and benefiting the means of capitalist economic production and profit. while this theory has been criticized because it assumes that futures are largely determined by the economic structure and agents place within it, it does help to raise questions about the implications around the intensity, purpose, autonomy, quality and length of training and access found in public access centers, libraries, universities, workplaces and homes. human agency and resistance form the second explanation for social reproduction. from this perspective, dominated agents' resistance to school is a political response to oppression and limited life chances. resistance theories privilege human agency with dominated agents being able to act, interpret, and exert some power in their lives. this agency, however, tends to keep dominated agents in the lower levels of the economic structure. in paul willis' (1997) study of working class male culture in the uk, he found that these males are talented enough to do school work, but they choose not to. self-exclusion from an educational setting, which was associated with feminine qualities, was experienced as affirming a strong masculine identity. instead of school, the youths engaged in practices such as theft, smoking, fighting, and consuming alcohol, which they perceived as masculine. the youths also engage in factory work, which became another site for expressing masculinity. while resistance was initially seen as positive, after five or so years of factory work, the young men felt locked into this working-class position and unwittingly reproduced the social structure. this resistance-oriented approach would be useful for examining “internet drop-outs” and those who simply refuse to adopt ict, and to understand how and why this rejection of ict may fact place folks at a disadvantage. the digital divide is founded on the implicit assumption that access and use provide distinct advantages, and those who fail to adopt ict will be somehow left behind. reproduction theory provides a lens for empirically examining this premise. culture represents the third explanation for social reproduction. for bourdieu (1984), culture plays a paramount role in structuring life chances. each class has its own cultural background, knowledge, dispositions, and tastes that are transmitted through the family. however, the culture of dominant groups forms the knowledge and skills that are most highly valued, and the basis of what is taught in schools. to possess these ways of knowing and skills, which bourdieu calls cultural capital, means that one is considered educated or talented. to not have this cultural capital means one is considered ignorant or uneducated. academic performance and educational credentials such as diplomas, certificates, and degrees are largely based upon the congruence between what is taught in school and the cultural capital possessed by students. thus, those students coming from more affluent homes have greater chances of excelling in school and obtaining credentials that expand occupational opportunities because they posses larger quantities of cultural capital that are privileged in educational settings. in this way, cultural capital inculcated by families and schools plays a large role in structuring access to desirable employment and broader life chances. research informed by bourdieu can provide explanations for how the dominant ideas of a society (i.e., economic development and digital divide) are related to structures of socio-economic class, production and power, and how these ideas are legitimated and perpetuated through ict. this theoretical framework also provides answers to the question of how advantages fail to be passed on to dominated groups, and how we come to perceive the status quo as natural and inevitable (i.e., legitimacy through powerful institutions such as the media as well as schools). in summary, social reproduction theories problematize taken-for-granted assumptions about the digital divide and the “people on the wrong side of the divide.” these theories may inform studies of how and why social agents conceptualize, appropriate, and perhaps resist ict, and how these practices may unwittingly lead to continued social exclusion. these theories are perhaps most useful for enabling researchers to challenge notions about the ability of ict alone to redress uniquely human problems of social justice and equity. for instance, bourdieu’s theoretical perspective informed empirical studies of how and why the proliferation of “free” computers and internet access regardless of mode of access (home or public) may be problematic for public life, and thus provided a rich understanding of the challenges faced by underserved groups (kvasny, forthcoming; 2005; kvasny & keil, forthcoming). these empirical studies also explain the conflicts that may limit icts’ role in contributing to broadly desirable social outcomes. these conflicts include socio-economic class, history, race, and legitimate uses of ict.   breaking the reproductive cycle   reproduction theories would see the digital divide as creating docile bodies and reinforcing people’s place in society. humanity is stolen from historically disadvantaged people as they come to be seen as have-nots, the unemployed, and the urban poor. this loss of humanity creates a “fear of freedom” in which people acquiesce to an unfair system. bourdieu argues that the status quo is preserved because it is essentially unquestioned and naturalized. agents go about their business and they tend not to pose the theoretical questions of legitimacy because the social world is embodied in both their practices and in their thoughts (i.e., habitus). they reproduce it without active reflection. this does not mean that the oppressed do not reflect on their position, but their perception of themselves as oppressed is often impaired by their submersion in the reality of being oppressed (freire, 1970). however, education can be a “practice of freedom” with the potential to transform rather than conform (freire, 1970). to promote transformative uses of ict, community informatics scholars should enter into dialogue with communities to construct alternative representations of working class subjects and uses of ict. the working class should not tacitly accept the dominant class values, but critically interrogate their class position and engage in self-actualizing activities that will enable them to integrate ict in their everyday lives. the awakening of class-consciousness is often bound up within a process of rehabilitating and rebuilding self-esteem, and reaffirming cultural dignity (freire, 1970; giroux, 1983; hooks, 1994). this type of critical, participatory research is transformative in that it may help communities to critically reflect upon the structures that repress their ability to thrive. communities can then resist these structural forces by creating innovative ways of using ict to support the issues that are important to their social life situations. thus, we must respect the particular worldview as well as the social and cultural capital found in historically underserved communities. we must genuinely engage with them so as to understand the nature of their material situation, raise critical awareness of their situation, collaborate to realize alternatives, and create localized interventions for bringing about change. engagement along the lines advocated by freire provides a path for how community informatics researchers can promote uses of ict that upset reproductive processes.   references bourdieu, p. (1984). distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. bowles, s., & gintis, h. (1976). schooling in capitalist america: educational reform and contradictions of economic life. new york: basic books. freire, p. (1970). pedagogy of the oppressed, new york: continuum international publishing group. giroux, h. (1983). theory and resistance in education: a pedagogy for the opposition. new york: bergin and garvey. hooks, b. (2000). feminist theory: from margin to center. cambridge: south end books. kvasny, l. (forthcoming). the cultural (re)production of digital inequality. information, communication and society. kvasny, l. (2005). the role of the habitus in shaping discourses about the digital divide. journal of computer mediated communication, 10(2). available at http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue2/kvasny.html; last accessed april 2005. kvasny, l., & keil, m. (forthcoming). the challenges of redressing the digital divide: a tale of two us cities. information systems journal. willis, p. (1997). learning to labor: how working-class kids get working-class jobs. farnborough: saxon house.     7. communities, learning and democracy in the digital age   lynette kvasny, nancy kranich, jorge reina schement   the historical importance of access   access to information networks constitutes the essential tool for enabling citizens to participate in the economic, political, and social life of their communities; and, as such, forms the basis for participatory democracy. indeed, jefferson, madison, and the new congress made concrete their commitment to an informed public as the foundation of america’s nascent democracy; when, in 1789, congress mandated the first post road. as they did 200 years ago, information networks contribute the glue that binds communities together economically, politically, and socially. hence, while the democratic principle for participation is inclusion, the economic principle is contribution; that is, to maximize the potential of each individual is also to maximize a community’s wealth. lack of access to a community’s central networks impedes quotidian routines as well as occasional expressions of public duty; and, if persistent, enforces isolation and its derivative alienation. accordingly, the costs and benefits of inclusivity through access may be measured in a community’s progress toward maximizing the contributions of each member and of the whole.             the challenge of achieving access in the information age   in the 21st century, the development of the internet offers new hope for providing universal service in the public interest--new hope that everyone will have the opportunity to participate in our information society. even if a household cannot afford nor chooses not to connect to the internet from home, people can logon at their local library. thanks to the universal service provisions of the telecommunications act of 1996, nearly every community is now connected, thus providing on-ramps to the information superhighway. nevertheless, the latest research indicates that many low income, minority, disabled, rural, aging, and inner city groups remain behind in their ownership of computers and access to telecommunications networks. no matter whose data is used to describe the “digital divide” between rich and poor, between black and white, between urban and rural, between english and spanish-speaking, between old and young, between immigrants and native americans, we can be certain that there is and promises to remain differential access to the internet and other communications tools.    the components of access: context, connectivity, capability, and content   access to telecommunications services will not, by itself, guarantee success for communities. the other side of the equation requires an understanding of the resources a community must marshal to make the most of access to national and global networks. at the community level, successful access depends on four primary determinants or 4c's of access: context, connectivity, capability, and content.   context for access to be achieved, a wide array of internal and external forces and trends must be considered. these include environmental (e.g., air and water pollution, waste management), economic (e.g., business incentives, tax structures), and social equity (e.g., crime, poverty, unemployment) indicators of community well-being and sustainability. and although context does not determine a community’s developmental trajectory, it does suggest the pertinent needs faced by communities, what types of technology-based interventions might help to fulfill these needs, what kinds of barriers are likely to be encountered,  and perhaps more importantly, what kinds of assets the community possesses. by conceptualizing the internet as a pluralistic domain that includes the broader context in which the technical components are embedded, we explicitly connect social with technical to form the intimate interdependency of the internet as a socio-technical network. a socio-technical perspective emphasizes the importance of context in determining community-level interventions and their evaluation, as well as the inherent difficulty in developing “best practices” that can be applied across diverse settings.   connectivity the seemingly simple fact of laying a cable to connect a household or community belies the complexity of attaining a level of connectivity sufficient to constitute a community asset. though the telecommunications act of 1996 defines high-speed internet as connection speeds above 256 kbps, higher connection speeds are required to effectively utilize many www applications in use today. telemedicine applications call for connections of 1.5 mbps (t1.5) connections; whereas, many internet business applications necessitate bandwidths of at least t1.5 or multiple t1.5 connections. to be sure, the level of a community’s high-speed connectivity can be measured in different ways: a) points of access – availability at public sites such as schools, libraries or community centers, in the home, in businesses or institutions, b) the number of internet service providers (isps) that offer high-speed internet service in a community, c) and/or, the type and speeds of service offerings available from high-speed internet providers – dsl, cable modem, wireless, t1.5, ds3, etc. underserved communities may experience a “broadband digital divide” as governments, businesses and content providers increasingly develop products and services that require high-speed internet connections.   capability because the utility of any technology derives directly from the skill of the user as well as from the delivery capacity of local institutions, capability gauges the ability to deliver or acquire the service. for individuals, capability encompasses both formal and informal educational attainment and levels of technical sophistication and understanding, along with the willingness to adapt to new technologies and ways of thinking. at the institutional level, capability also relates to the amount of resources a community and its businesses commit to workforce development including teaching effective use of information technology tools and encouraging creativity, productivity, and innovations of local entrepreneurs. capabilities are cumulative and recursive because individuals and institutions must migrate to new hardware platforms, learn new software applications, and develop new skills as new technologies are introduced and as existing technologies are upgraded. thus, existing and emerging gaps in proficiency, knowledge, skills, and experience may lead to considerable differences in communities’ abilities to leverage the internet.   content content is interdependent upon the other three c’s. once individuals and communities become connected and have the capabilities and necessary skills to use the internet, they need a reason for use. low-income and underserved communities face significant content barriers that include the lack of neighborhood-level information such as housing, childcare, and transportation news; limited information written at a basic literacy level; and inadequate content for culturally diverse populations, including non-english speaking internet users. if content that is relevant to individuals and members of the community is not available, it will be difficult to encourage and sustain use. relevant content is necessary because it provides a forum for interacting within local communities as well as a window to the outside world.    lifelong learning --the persistent challenge of access   in contemporary communities, the 4c’s converge to facilitate decentralized low or no cost delivery of interactive learning opportunities that enable more active, democratic participation from early childhood through adulthood. no longer confined to a classroom or educational institutions, learners are afforded greater opportunities to take advantage of emerging information and telecommunications technologies to achieve more successful outcomes. shared spaces, both real and virtual, provide environments where people with common interests and concerns gather and benefit--the greater the participation, the more valuable the resource. these learning networks, often referred to as communities, encourage collaborative knowledge creation and sharing using all forms of media. within these networks, learners can interact by communicating ideas and engaging in discourse and problem solving. participants contribute new creations after they gain and benefit from access and participation. these learning spaces, or commons, may enhance both human and social capital. when they incorporate democratic values, free expression and intellectual freedom prevail. while online opportunities have the potential to serve a multitude of lifelong learning needs of all people, they are only available to those who have access to these new technologies, can afford and comprehend the content, and possess the capabilities necessary to navigate these complex systems successfully. without equitable access within each of the 4cs, these learning opportunities pose major challenges to the democratic promise of these open anytime/anyplace educational experiences.     8. supporting the appropriation of ict: end-user development in civil societies   volkmar pipek, mary beth rosson, gunnar stevens and volker wulf   introduction   information and communication technology (ict) has become an important factor in our personal lives as well as in our social organizations—at work, at home, in our hospitals, in political institutions and in the public media. while in work settings the dynamics of shared business goals, shared task systems, and professional delegation structures result in a relatively predictable and organized design context, the more open-ended and less organized contexts of home or society present considerable challenges for applications of ict. the goals and interests of the diverse actors in these more general contexts are quite unstable and unpredictable; home and society provide only weak structures of specialization and delegation regarding the use of icts. one approach to these challenges is to cede design power to the participating users, so that they can develop solutions that match problems and intentions for action. there have always been motivations to involve users in the design and development of icts. on the one hand, the quality of products might be improved by involving end users in the early phases of design (the “user-centred design” tradition); on the other hand, end users have claimed the right to participate in the development of icts that affect their (working) environments (e.g., the scandinavian tradition of “participatory design”). beyond these approaches to “change design” by changing design methodologies or other aspects of the setting of professional design work, there have also been approaches to “design for change” by offering technologies and tools that provide the flexibility to be thoroughly modified at the time of use (henderson & kyng, 1991). the latter approaches have been proffered under the label of ‘tailoring support’ and ‘end-user development’ (lieberman, et al. 2005; sutcliffe & mehandijev, 2004), and complement earlier research on ‘end-user computing’ and ‘adaptability/adaptivity’.   active support for technology appropriation   at some point it is no longer sufficient to provide the necessary flexibility for (re-)configuring tools and technologies while in use. it is also necessary to provide stronger support for managing this flexibility. keeping the tool interaction simple, and providing good manuals may be one strategy, but the adaptation and appropriation of tools is often more a social activity than a problem of individual learning and use. knowledge sharing and delegation structures often develop, although in home and other informal usage settings these structure are likely to be much more spontaneous and less organized than in professional environments. end-user development methods can address the social aspects of computing by treating users as a ‘(virtual) community of tool/technology users’, and by providing support for different appropriation activities that users can engage in to make use of a technology. examples of such activities (pipek, 2005) include: basic technological support: building highly flexible systems. articulation support: support for technology-related articulations (real and online). historicity support: visualise appropriation as a process of emerging technologies and usages, e.g., by documenting earlier configuration decisions, providing retrievable storage of configuration and usage descriptions. decision support: if an agreement is required in a collaborative appropriation activity, providing voting, polling, etc. demonstration support: support showing usages from one user (group) to another user (group), provide necessary communication channels. observation support: support the visualisation of (accumulated) information on the use of tools and functions in an organisational context. simulation support: show effects of possible usage in an exemplified or actual organisational setting (only makes sense if the necessary computational basis can be established). exploration support: combination of simulation with extended support for technology configurations and test bed manipulations, individual vs. collaborative exploration modes. explanation support: explain reasons for application behaviour, fully automated support vs. user-useror user-expert-communication. delegation support: support delegation patterns within configuration activities; provide remote configuration facilities. (re-) design support: feedback to designers on the appropriation processes. these are support ideas derived from the observation of activities that users perform to make use of a technology. they have been partially addressed in earlier research, for example by providing flexibility through component-based approaches (morch, et al., 2004), or by offering sandboxes for tool exploration (wulf & golombek, 2001).   supporting ‘virtual communities of technology practice’   pipek (2005) also gave the example of ‘use discourse environments’ as one possibility to support the user community in some of these appropriation activities. these environments tightly integrate communication mechanisms with representations of the technologies under consideration, for instance by integrating discourse processes with the configuration facilities of tools, or by providing easy citations of technologies and configuration settings in online discussion forums. by these means, technology needs and usages become more easily describable by end users, and communication among people sharing a similar use background (typically not the professional tool designer) is eased. however, evaluations of these environments suggest that the problem cannot be solved by offering technological support alone; additional social or organizational measures (establishing/mediating conventions, stimulation of communication) must also be considered to guarantee long-term success. the approach to actively support user communities in their appropriation activities promises to alleviate the lack of professional support in home/volunteering settings of ict usage. it may stimulate the spreading of good practice among users, and it offers a platform to actively deal with conflicts that occur between different stakeholders involved in a shared activity that involves ict use (e.g., conflicts about visibility of actions and about the configuration of access rights).   references henderson, a., & kyng, m. (1991). there's no place like home: continuing design in use. in j. greenbaum & m. kyng (eds.). design at work: cooperative design of computer systems (pp. 219-240). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. lieberman, h., paternó, f., & wulf, v. (eds.). (2005). end user development. berlin: springer. morch, a., stevens, g., won, m., klann, m., dittrich, y., & wulf, v. (2004). component-based technologies for end-user development. special issue: end-user development. communications of the acm, 47(9), pp 59-62. pipek, v (2005). from tailoring to appropriation support: negotiating groupware usage. in faculty of science, department of information processing science (acta universitatis ouluensis a 430) (p. 246). oulu, finland: university of oulu. sutcliffe, a., & mehandjiev, n. (2004). introduction. special issue: end-user development. communications of the acm, 47(9), 31-32. wulf, v., & golombek, b. (2001). exploration environments: concept and empirical evaluation. in proceedings of the international acm siggroup conference on supporting group work (pp. 107-116). boulder, co: acm press.     9. developmental learning communities   mary beth rosson and john m. carroll   introduction   research over the past two decades has emphasized the importance of learning communities — self-organizing groups of learners who work together on authentic tasks, describing, explaining, listening to, and interpreting one another’s ideas.  learning communities often structure their learning by scaffolding embedded both in the activities and in the tools of the community (bruner, 1960). learners also develop by participating in the discourse of their community, where they encounter and contribute to the situated negotiation and re-negotiation of meaning (dewey, 1910). we define a developmental learning community as a group of learners who organize their learning activity into phases and their members into roles. the learning in such communities is developmental in the sense that members successively traverse phases and roles. an example would be a university research group including undergraduate students, graduate students, post doctoral students, and faculty. a key feature of a developmental learning community is its members’ understanding—whether implicit or explicit—of phases that they progress through as they gain community-relevant knowledge and skills. often these communities emphasize mastery of skills (e.g., a martial arts community), where different skill levels are labeled to acknowledge members’ progress (for instance “apprentice”, “practitioner”, or “master”). progress through such phases is accomplished by meeting a community standard or practice that often also includes a change in status for members, perhaps a skill test of some sort, cumulative knowledge or experiences that are judged in some fashion, a prescribed level of insight that is expressed by the member, or a critical episode that persuades the community of the member’s progress. another characteristic of developmental communities is the relationships among members at different developmental phases. that is, we assume that members share an understanding of what is expected from them at any given phase—for example, how they should relate to less-developed members (outreach, scaffolding, other forms of mentoring); those at their same level (sharing, comparison, synthesis of experience); and those at higher levels (requesting help or mentoring, respect for suggestions). members of developmental learning communities also share a motivational orientation about their own and others’ development. we suggest that one criterion for membership in a developmental community is a commitment to its developmental goals, that is, a willingness to spend effort in “bringing others along.” one factor that may be important in creating this motivation and commitment is social ties—beyond those arising from the community’s developmental activities—that cause members to care about others in the community, enough so that they work to enlist new members and encourage the growth of existing members. a developmental community may also provide rewards for members’ efforts to promote co-members’ learning, such as increased social capital or more explicit forms of recognition.   examples of learning communities   developmental learning communities often emerge through everyday activities and lifelong learning. children who learn from older siblings, parents and other relatives are a simple example (see the discussion in dewey, 1910); another is a research group populated by members in very different phases of their professional life—senior faculty, junior faculty (e.g. pre-tenure), post-docs, advanced phd students, junior phd students, masters students, undergraduate research students, and wage-payroll assistants. in other cases, the community may be formed explicitly to support one another’s development of some knowledge base or skill set (e.g., a gardening club). in table 1, we summarize the developmental characteristics of several community computing projects with which we have been working over the past few years. table 1.  examples of developmental learning communities in community computing learning community learning activities developmental phases civic nexus analysis of, planning for, and implementation of it needs in a nonprofit organization intern, volunteer, web designer, technology committee member, technology committee chair teacher bridge creating web-based lessons in science and math, using a variety of interactive tools lurker, member, re-user, adapter, author, coach, program developer women in ist problem-based learning of the architecture and programming of web-based collaborative systems high school friend, college recruit, pre-major, major, alumna   the learning communities in civic nexus are nonprofit organizations; we are helping them to create sustainable informal learning processes for meeting their own it needs (merkel et al., 2004; merkel et al., 2005). most of the nonprofits have little if any articulated knowledge about their own it needs or trajectories, and little organizational infrastructure for recruiting or developing members who can meet these needs. we help them to reflect about their history and status of it use, hoping that as the groups come to realize what they have been doing and what their needs are, they will be able to design a sustainable process for meeting and evolving their own it requirements. these groups have a number of existing roles (intern, volunteer, etc.), but are not oriented toward recruiting and developing members through the role; if they are able to initiate a long-term process of it learning, such an orientation may become part of their community mission. the teacher bridge project (carroll, choo et al., 2003; kim et al., 2003) is a group of teachers learning to build online materials. when we began the project, we deliberately recruited teachers who were already sophisticated computers users; subsequently these teachers have recruited their own peers and acquaintances and others have discovered the project and joined through word-of-mouth. the community is socially and culturally grounded through co-inhabitation of a geographical region (two contiguous counties), so many teachers join with existing place-based friendships and shared interests. these ties help to motivate peer mentoring and coaching. a typical developmental path starts with a teacher looking around at other projects for ideas; s/he may then join the group (become a member) so as to directly reuse or adapt a peer’s work; after s/he has experimented in this fashion, s/he may move to more ambitious implementation projects; some teachers take on a coaching role to help others make these moves; we have even observed teachers taking a supervisory role, where one mission is to look across the whole community for opportunities to advise. in this community, the phases and activities that assist in transitions are defined only informally and anecdotally. however one way to see this community is as a developmental community in formation. in contrast to the other two examples, the women in ist (information science & technology) group is developmental at its core—by design. women join the community with the explicit aim to attract, mentor, and otherwise aid the development of less-expert members. it differs from similar communities (e.g., a typical chapter of the association for women in computing) in that undergraduates leverage personal social ties they have maintained with their high schools, using these to contact girls with quite varied interests (e.g., sports, theater) so as to increase general awareness of computing among young women. alumni members contact and interact with undergraduates on a similar basis.  this project illustrates an effort to apply our concept of developmental community as a guiding pattern for learning community design.   supporting developmental learning communities   we are exploring two facets of developmental learning communities that might be aided by social or technical interventions: (1) recognition and acceptance of phases in community members’ development, and (2) reinforcement of the social ties that motivate developmental activities within the community. in some cases the developmental structure may already be in place but not yet organized as a community vision. for instance the women in ist project is grounded on a very familiar set of phases associated with career development and as researchers our contribution has simply been to articulate these phases as a mechanism for forming a new learning community. in contrast, our work with the nonprofits has roles, but they are not associated with development of it skills. thus we have focused on a more bottom-up approach, carrying out extensive technology assessment activities and fieldwork aimed at understanding the it needs and current understandings of each group. our hope is that by taking this step the organizations can at least see some of the potential for articulating and planning a more systematic it learning process. with respect to social ties that might motivate members’ developmental goals toward one another, one intervention is to simply highlight existing opportunities. the students and alumni at the core of women in ist do not see “outside” friendships (e.g., from shared interests unrelated to ist) to be a key element of the learning community. but when the potential role of such relationships was outlined to them, it became obvious. the community recognition that members receive for helping (or being helped) with learning activities can also be reinforced in an online system. making mentoring relationships is one approach; reputation tools that capture individuals’ contributions to different sorts of activities could also facilitate these recognition processes.   final words   our ideas about developmental communities are preliminary, inspired by our recent work with women in ist and the perspective it has offered for thinking about our other community learning projects. clearly development is an inherent component of any learning community and we offer these reflections as a way of exploring the structure and dynamics of a community’s developmental activities, including the implications this might have for socio-technical design in such contexts. at the same time we recognize the possible negative consequences of emphasizing the developmental goals of a learning community. for example suchman (1995) discusses the tradeoffs in making “invisible” aspects of activities visible; an organization that documents employee roles and responsibilities is in a better position to track and evaluate (whether fairly or unfairly) employees’ routine performance. reifying the developmental phases within a community might convert a tacit learning process into an explicit one; perhaps it would encourage over-zealous junior members or mentors to obsess over developmental goals. members might focus so much on skills or achievement levels that they become closed to other more interesting or unexpected learning opportunities. coaches might compete for recognition of the “best” or the “most” successful mentoring accomplishments. although such downsides are real concerns for any community, we anticipate that the same social ties that prompt members to engage in developmental efforts will also prevent or at least minimize competitive and individualistic tendencies. if people contribute to one another’s development not just for the good of the community, but also because they like and care about each other, then the social capital they earn through their developmental activities will be its own reward.   references bruner, j. s.  (1960).  the process of education. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. carroll, j. m., choo, c. w., dunlap, d. r., isenhour, p. l., kerr, s. t., maclean, a., & rosson, m. b.  (2003).  knowledge management support for teachers.  educational technology research and development, 51(4), 42-64. dewey, j. (1910). how we think. new york: d. c. heath. kim, k., isenhour, p. l., carroll, j. m., rosson, m. b., & dunlap, d. r. (2003). teacher bridge: knowledge management in community networks. home and office information technology: hoit3.  april 2003, irvine, california. lave, j., & wenger, e. (1991).  situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. merkel, c., xiao, l., farooq, u., ganoe, c., lee, r., carroll, j. m., & rosson, m. b. 2004. participatory design in community computing contexts: tales from the field. proceedings of pdc 2004 (pp. 1-10). new york: acm press. merkel, c. b., clitherow, m., farooq, u., xiao, l., ganoe, c. h., carroll, j. m., & rosson, m. b. (2005). sustaining computer use and learning in community computing contexts: make technology part of “who they are and what they do.” the journal of community informatics, 1(2), 134-150. suchman, l.  (1995).  making work visible.  communications of the acm, 38(9), 56-64.     10. radical praxis and civic network design   murali venkatesh and jeffrey s. owens   technology-powered civic networks are social constructions that develop in relation to a particular macro-structure (meaning social structure, here referring to historically-constituted relational patterns among social positions). they are proposed and are designed by incumbents of social positions (persons, groups, organizations), and the cultural practices, belief systems, and dispositions -interests, values, norms, identities -that are pervasive in that macro-structure at that historical moment should be presumed to shape network form. macro-structural realities such as differential access to power and resources modulate how effective actors are in inscribing their preferences into the form; structurally-powerful actors tend to be more successful than structurally-powerless actors in this regard. like organizational forms in general, civic networks are products of a particular intersection of the macro(macro-structure) and the micro(the developmental conditions in which human designers interact to produce design products). the network’s mission, its operative strategies, and the social constituencies that are included or excluded through design choices are a function of this intersection. this sociological, institutionalist-inspired view of civic network design recommends a certain kind of reflexivity on the part of the designer, one that emphasizes her historicity. this, we argue, is an outlook the designer must consciously cultivate.           we view design as the locus of conflict and struggle, whereby entrenched cultural practices, beliefs and  dispositions attempt to pattern emergent artifacts in culturally compliant ways and alternative practices, beliefs and dispositions struggle to ground themselves in concrete form. if the first wins out, the design product embodies and reaffirms prevalent macro-structure; an alternative social order finds concrete form if the latter prevails. we include among design products a broad range of artifacts including technical specifications, and service contracts and project by-laws that govern use and further development of the artifact. these products tend to be mutually-reinforcing: contracts and by-laws, for instance, can ensure that the civic network’s present technological configuration is reproduced over time and, through it, the preferred social order. as we note below, design must be conceived of in even broader terms, as design of means as well as ends: design includes specification of icts, contracts and by-laws, as well as the developmental (or institutional) conditions – the means -which yield these design products. our ideal here is the reflexive designer: one who understands technology design in these broad terms and as located in a particular historical moment and open, as such, to historical forces and structural pressures.       our reflexive designer is aware that as a new social form, the civic network must necessarily emerge in relation to the historically-constituted relational structures in the geo-spatial area, and in relation as well to the practices, beliefs and dispositions prevalent there. to a greater or lesser extent, explicitly or implicitly, civic networking projects attempt to institute new relational patterns in the areas they purport to serve, whereby heretofore excluded constituencies are reinserted into the social fabric and existing relational structures are re-worked in socially-progressive ways; the ideals they champion tend to center around access equity and social inclusion. the reflexive designer sees the developmental setting as an arena where the project’s driving ideals encounter entrenched realities in the project area. design activity entails social choices, which is why they are so contentious. picking one design option over another includes some constituencies and excludes others. the contest is seldom one of equals. the embedding macro-structure and its asymmetric power distribution empower some social actors over others to effectively “limit change and create domination in the micro sphere” (burawoy, 1991). these pressures enter the developmental setting through designers’ choices to shape network form. designers serve as conduits through which such pressures are inscribed into the form to reproduce the prevailing macro-structure. but actors can choose to channel alternative forces for “rewiring” the social order.  individuals (as well as organizations) are host to multiple cultural logics from prior socialization. these logics -“material practices and symbolic constructions” (friedland & alford, 1991) -embed them and account for the dispositions, practices and beliefs that define them. these logics guide situated action and encode “criteria of legitimacy by which role identities, strategic behaviors, organizational forms…are constructed and sustained” (suddaby & greenwood, 2005). some of these logics may be more entrenched, more institutionalized than others. generally, more institutionalized logics tend to guide behavior more readily than do less institutionalized logics. it is conceivable that civic network designers – a category that ideally would include all potential stakeholders -enter the developmental setting with at least two sets of logics in their cultural toolkit (swidler, 1986): one that embeds their habitual social role (for example, “community resident”, “internet service provider”) and the other, the civic networking logic. the habitual, of course, is invested in and stems from the prevailing social order, while the civic networking logic may (often does) look ahead to an alternative order. the encounter between these logics in design can be more or less contentious depending on how ambitious are the civic networking project’s aims to rewire the prevailing order. the more radical the aims, the greater will be the resistance from entrenched dispositions. what can our reflexive designer do to increase the likelihood that the civic networking logic will prevail in this contest, that it will, in fact, effectively counter more conservative orientations to successfully realize itself in concrete form?                        design reflects intention and yet, outcomes often are unintended. this is because design activity is usually seen in terms of products or ends that result from the activity. typically, civic networking design  committees (or steering committees) set out to specify a particular configuration of information and communication technologies (icts) that would enable the network to become operational. this would be an example of direct design, where the intent is to direct the product in a certain way to meet certain specifications and aims. but efforts at direct design often fail from unforeseen interactions among the interest of more and less powerful stakeholders (see goodin, 1996). our reflexive designer would focus not just on the ends of design but importantly on the means as well. the means of design are seldom the focus of design activity, and yet they are a crucial element in the social infrastructure of social constructions. indirect design – design of the social conditions within which design activity occurs -is not only possible but a requirement, we would argue, to guard against unintended outcomes. design of ends must start with design of the means, which, in the case of civic network design, may be seen as necessary second order public goods influencing production of the civic network – the first order public good (see gualini, 2002). situated actions can be guided by design of social conditions for “probabilistic activation” (tsuokas, 1989) of preferred logics to structure design products in intended ways. how should our reflexive designer go about doing this? there are two possible targets for indirect design interventions, one internal and the other external, and they shape the design committee’s social choice processes as well as the design ends that are identified and pursued. expanding the design committee’s managerial capacity (brint & karabel, 1991) for monitoring its own internal relations and constitutive practices is an example of the first. instituting social controls on the committee’s external relations is an example of the second. how the committee thinks about its internal social and material relations profoundly affects the deliberative climate within which design choices are made. what formal and informal rules must be crafted to improve the likelihood that design options are openly debated by a plurality of publics in a spirit of “participatory parity” (fraser & honneth, 2003)? conversation rules must guarantee individual rights while also promoting the pursuit of the common good. assuring openness is a utopian ideal that is exceedingly difficult to accomplish in the reality of a more-or-less stratified and differentiated polity, where some constituents are more powerful than others, but we argue that this is a liberal democratic ideal worth pursuing by civic network designers. this stems from a conviction that civic networks, like the mass media, are crucial components of a community’s public sphere. conceptually if not empirically, civic networks necessarily are sites of contestation featuring a multiplicity of publics: targets of contestation could be the broader social agenda as well as the form of the network itself. recognizing the civic network’s obligation to be hospitable to a plurality of publics is an important amendment to a common-enough conception of such networks as community resources. the term community highlights reciprocity, mutuality and consensus. publics, on the other hand, is a broader idea connoting debate and contestation among social groups constituted around divergent interest, ideology, and identity; the term better accommodates dis-sensus and dissonance (fraser, 1999). accordingly, a civic network may be conceived of in social process terms rather than as an entity, incorporating as it grows and matures both communities based on consensus as well as contending publics. one might even argue that the desired end-state would be a normalized set of more-or-less consensual publics. a process view acknowledges that the network must stay resilient and representative, both catalyzing and reflecting broader social changes. such a view also allows designers to think of design in incremental terms. institutions develop through layering (thelen, 2003), whereby changes are layered on top of more enduring ‘core’ elements without necessarily changing them. as long as participatory parity is assured, designers can proceed on the assumption that they can respond to situational contingencies as they see fit without locking the design into an irreversible state.                    crafting a robust set of guidelines on how the committee should manage its internal relations – including rules of deliberative engagement – is an imperfect but necessary bulwark against the reality of power asymmetry in the macro-structure. assuring rough equality (fraser, 1999) in the micro-order is a step toward an egalitarian macro-order; it would be hard to argue that there is no link between the means and such ends. besides rules of engagement (“everyone gets a chance to speak”, for e.g.), our reflexive designer would work to include useful techniques in the committee’s repertoire to augment its capacity for enlightened self-management and concerted action. for example, what cultural logics and preconceptions of civic networking do designers come into design with? identifying these at the outset can make actors more reflexive and help “loosen themselves” from knee-jerk recourse to structural reproduction in the choices they make. expanding capacity for deliberative action may also be helped by instituting an ethos of the long view: actors are unlikely to focalize the near-term if they are answerable to actors with longer time horizons (pierson, 2000). this looks ahead to social controls. social controls – normative or “regulative institutions that ensure individual behavior accords with group demands” (coser, 1982) -can shape what courses of action are pursued by legitimizing some behaviors over others. institutionalizing philanthropic (versus self-interested) behavior by minneapolis corporations, galaskiewicz (1991) reports, was helped by “peer pressure and selective incentives”; philanthropic conduct was rewarded with national mass media publicity. controls instantiate the kantian publicity principle, which requires that design choices are “publicly defensible” (goodin, 1996). local mass media outlets, elected officials, urban planners and opinion-leaders can be external controllers and sources of public oversight on the design process. the reflexive designer will incorporate such sources of control into the design process. this is easier said than done. this might require challenging well-entrenched notions of civic identity that these actors may be invested in. for example, a community that thinks of itself as driven by the logic of economic growth (and which community today isn’t?) may yield up few sources of social control who are prepared to go to bat for the social equity logic. reframing civic, and individual, identity to include the latter could be especially challenging if the community lacks a history of civic activity. successful reframing, however, would help incorporate community actors as well as other targeted social movements into the project, thus expanding the moral, rhetorical and material resources that the reflexive designer constitutes in a circle of solidarity (jermier, 1998) to guide the committee’s design choices and hold it accountable for them.    all social actors have the capacity for reflexivity: they are context-aware operatives who select from among logics and action repertoires when deciding how to act in a situation. this institutionalist idea is crucial to the foregoing: indirect design can succeed only if actors are credited with this capacity. praxis refers to analytic understanding of the sources of structural inequality and then acting to normatively reconstitute the prevailing social order (benson, 1983). our reflexive designer may be confronted with the following choices: to inscribe the design with the project’s transformative aims or to compromise on those aims in light of situational contingencies. this dilemma is likely to arise in civic networking projects based on broadband icts. broadband requires, as a practical necessity (winner, 1993), significant technological, financial and know-how resources to sustain. as such, designers may have to choose between two logics: the social equity logic and the financial sustainability logic. affirming the former is to affirm the goal of structural change through the network; affirming the latter is to empower the prevailing macro-structural resource distribution. these logics need not be mutually-exclusive. our reflexive designer is an enlightened pragmatist, knowing when to balance strategic structural aims against situational contingencies without, however, losing sight of the prize. she is conscious always of her capacity for social choice, and works to enlighten her fellow designers of the same.   design choices are social choices. to acknowledge one’s capacity for choice is to acknowledge one’s historicity. in the context of civic network design, such an outlook stems from ongoing reflection on the project’s dialectical relation to broader cultural and structural forces. the challenge for civic networking cohorts everywhere is to institutionalize such an outlook to ensure that (a) designers recognize their design choices as social choices that are publicly deliberated, defended, and challenged and (b) the outlook becomes self-activating and trans-individual, which means every designer – every participant in design -thinks and acts like our exemplary reflexive designer. why should we attempt to institutionalize such an outlook? the field of urban planning offers instructive lessons. in the 1960s, paul davidoff argued for a new socially-progressive urban planning outlook called “advocacy planning”: “the public interest, as he saw it, was not a matter of science but of politics. he called for many plans, rather than one master plan, and for full discussion of the values and interests represented by different plans. he brought the question of who gets what – the distributional question which the rational model had so carefully avoided – to the foreground”. (sandercock, 1998, p. 171)              urban planning schools adapted this outlook into their curricula, as they did its successors over the years, to train planning professionals sensitized in these alternatives to the technical-rational planning model. the rational planning model and its proponents helped affirm the prevailing social order and its distribution of power and resources. this had been the taken-for-granted approach to planning practice, one that was unreflexively reproduced through urban planning research and training curricula until davidoff’s salvo. the most recent paradigm shift is represented by the radical planning approach. radical planning praxis, sandercock notes, is discontinuous with rational planning and is explicitly critical and progressively political in its concerns:   “radical practices emerge from experience with and a critique of existing unequal relations and distributions of power, opportunity and resources. the goal of these practices is to work for structural transformation of these systemic inequalities and, in the process, to empower those who have been systematically disempowered” (p. 176).    bandwidth is socially-produced social space. urban planning theorists call attention to the replication in built urban space of hegemonic power and resource distributions. telecommunications bandwidth – broadband, in particular – is no different, wherein some interests are rendered central while others are marginalized, pushed out to the periphery. spatialization of broadband bandwidth tends to mimic broader social distributions due to the practical necessity of resources required to sustain broadband civic networking projects; ironically, these projects often start out intending to redistribute some or all of those very same resources in socially progressive ways to effect structural change. bandwidth, of course, can also be designed from a radical standpoint to serve as the site for distributive justice and insurgent citizenship (sandercock, 1998). as an enlightened pragmatist, our reflexive designer recognizes that designs can be changed incrementally, that networks may develop through successive layering. as such, the civic network might start out serving certain publics and expand from there through concentric incorporation of new, hitherto excluded publics. the key to assuring that this occurs is to keep ongoing design discussions open and to guarantee rough equality (fraser, 1999) in deliberative forums. early adopters representing the state or market may be necessary especially in broadband networking projects: well-resourced “anchor tenants”, to use shopping mall terminology, can help sustain the network financially. the trick is to view them as bandwidth homesteaders not colonizers, and to work to keep the design open to alternative developmental trajectories inspired by the promise of structural transformation.     social learning is foundational to the means as well as ends of socially-progressive design work. both defenders and challengers of the prevailing order may learn from the environment to press their case. just as aggressive market logics may be (and often are) used to justify promoting financial sustainability in purportedly civic endeavors, so could reflexive designers draw on their circle of solidarity to mount effective cultural offensives favoring social equity. for example, framing digital inclusion as a civil right links it to broader, deeply resonant cultural tropes and may make available new resources and action repertoires to counter market logics. but establishing and sustaining such links is complex and challenging (scully & creed, 2005). our plea is for higher educational institutions like information schools to consider the urban planning discipline as a change model for their academic research and training programs and, through such programmatic efforts, contribute to producing an institutionalized field of socially-progressive technical practice with its own trained cadres and distinctive professional identity. despite emerging circuits of solidarity (the learning in communities meeting at pennsylvania state university in the summer of 2005 was a step in this direction) focused on civic networking, designers still tend to work in relative isolation; what they may learn from others even within the civic networking arena tends to be more or less opportunistic. current socially-progressive civic network design practice, we would argue, is analogous to advocacy planning in urban planning, where designers advocate for social inclusion and may even empower the marginalized to fight the fight themselves. but the degree to which advocacy design – if we may call it that – is institutionalized in civic network practice is unclear. the point behind institutionalizing anything, of course, is to inform thought and action in consistent ways based on an agreed upon corpus of knowledge, and, more fundamentally, to instill a distinctive way or style of responding to challenges. we are not sure this has occurred yet. depending on the nature and complexity of the project, civic network design choices are very much at risk of being driven disproportionately by technical-rational considerations to the detriment of properly social ones. this is regrettable and must change. as designers and educators we must continue to educate ourselves through social learning while institutionalizing cultural transmission through academic programs to train the next generation of civic network designers, so that they recognize the kinds of social and professional challenges that designers (and planners) in other fields continue to face, and, learning from them, know how to respond creatively to them through their own practice.           references benson, j. k. 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(1993). social constructivism: opening the black box and finding it empty. science as culture, 3(16), 427-452.   structuration, icts, and community work larry stillman monash university < larrys01@optusnet.com.au > randy stoecker university of toledo < rstoeck@utnet.utoledo.edu >   abstract this paper reports on a project which was undertaken with a network of neighbourhood houses (community-based organisations) in the western region of melbourne, australia. the region is an area of high social-economic need, and at the same time, contains a major growth corridor. a decline in investments in community-level ict systems is producing technical and informational gaps impacting the work of neighbourhood houses, and illustrating how funding cuts impact sustainability.  the researchers employed a community-based research process, drawing on the perspective of structuration theory, to identify and diagnose the sustainability issues.  through a survey, interviews and focus groups, we identified six areas of ict of concern from sustainability perspective:  computer troubleshooting, quality technology support, resource directories, web page development, communication costs, and relationships with local councils.  we are now working with neighbourhood house coordinators on the action phase of the project to fill those identified needs.   introduction from the mid-1990s to 2004 the state government of victoria (supported by politicians across the political spectrum) invested as much as $50million australian dollars to support community-focussed ict infrastructure. vicnet (victoria's network, www.vicnet.net.au), was supported as a flagship in this process, providing training, support and connectivity to community organisations across the state.  other funding went directly into providing hardware and software for public libraries and community organisations.  the vision  behind much of this expenditure was that paying for hardware and software start-up costs, and providing time-limited basic training and technical support, would create a community ict infrastructure and community-level skill set that would then be self-sustaining.  so, by 2004, state funding had been significantly reduced, with vicnet being downsized and other funding initiatives concluded. we are already seeing, however, that this was not a sustainable model for community it infrastructure.  at the community organisation level, old hardware is beginning to fail, software is out of date, and staff turnover has reduced the it skill base.  it was clear that the original approach of 'start-up' funds to kick-start a community technology infrastructure without long-term investment by the state was not sustainable.  in addition, the opportunities  for icts to enhance the work of community organisations through developing and using custom-designed databases, has increased as the hardware and software have become more sophisticated.  so decreased funding means that not only existing capacity declines, but additionally that new capacity cannot be realized. the project reported in this paper set out to diagnose the ict gaps surfacing from this unsustainable community ict funding model within one sector of the community work ‘industry’—neighbourhood houses—in the western suburbs of melbourne, australia.  the western suburbs or region of melbourne covers about one-third of the metropolitan area of the city, including seven local government districts with a regional population of 650,000, spread across 1,330 km2 or 5132 miles.  the region is much poorer than the rest of melbourne, including an old industrial heartland and working class suburbs.  more recently, pockets of middle-class affluence have developed, in both older ‘gentrified’ inner suburbs, and in particular designated growth corridors.  the region also includes market gardens, and on its fringes, is rural in character.   there is poor public transport infrastructure in many areas, and the western region is at the high end of every statistical index of social disadvantage (eg. unemployment, failure to complete school and poverty).  the city of brimbank is the area with the highest number of new immigrants in the state, and melton, on the metropolitan outskirts, is the fastest growing city in the state (department of human services (victoria) 2002).  the region is served by 34 neighbourhood houses, and they were the focus of this project. this paper reports on a community-based research process, informed by structuration theory, to involve neighbourhood house coordinators in developing plans for a more sustainable community it infrastructure.  we are already beginning to see the results of the work in government representatives showing renewed interest in funding ict. structuration, icts, and community work as researchers, we approached the question of assessing the sustainability gaps of community ict funding from the perspective of structuration theory.  structuration theory is frequently associated with the work of anthony giddens (1984; 1987), though other researchers have adapted it to study the use of information and communication technologies  (orlikowski 1992; rose 1999; orlikowski 2000).   such a perspective combines an interest in how social structures divide or restrict individuals and collectives with an interest in how human actors come to redefine situations so that they can confront or overcome the challenges created by social structure. axiomatic to structuration theory is the principle that the ‘structures’ of everyday life and institutional life are reproduced on a daily basis through the interaction of human agency, institutionalized rules, and the distribution of material resources.   giddens says: in structuration theory 'structure' is regarded as rules and resources recursively implicated in social reproduction; institutionalized features of social systems have structural properties in the sense that relationships are stabilized across time and space. 'structure' can be conceptualized abstractly as two aspects of rules -normative elements and codes of signification. resources are also of two kinds: authoritative resources, which derive from the co-ordination of the activity of human agents, and allocative resources, which stem from control of material products or of aspects of the material world. (giddens, 1984: 31) social structure, then, is both in people’s heads in the form of stable, institutionalized rules, and “out there” in the form of material resources.  ongoing, micro-level interactions or social conventions, including use of power and resources result in what are called ‘structural principles’, which over time become the recognisable properties or characteristics of social systems such as community networks (giddens, 1981: 170).    for the student of icts, of particular interest is the creation and reproduction of ‘technologies in practice’ – the actual, ongoing process of the creation, distribution, and reproduction of people’s understandings, interactions and uses of artefacts.   icts are one example of such artefacts and have the potential to extend, expand, and contract time and/or to create different forms of space (e.g. the ‘virtual office’, ‘home-based work’), and store personal and institutional memory in different ways than were previously possible (hagerstrand 1970; giddens 1984; giddens 1987; harvey 1989; adams 1995).  however, technologies are not inert objects:  actor network theory provides the insight that technologies in fact, appear to have their own agency with which humans interact (latour 1994).   for example, email can be seen to ‘run’ a  person’s life, when in fact, of course, people have the agency to turn the machine off, rather than the other way around.  in this we see that both material reality, and people’s definitions of that reality, are important to understand. the application of structuration theory to a community ict context, particularly in relation to non-profit organizations, is challenging.  structuration theory has generally focused upon  the contrasting constructions of technology held by managers of for-profit businesses, particularly large corporations, though orlikowski suggested that her framework for ‘enacted technology’ should be applied to the study of non-corporate settings (orlikowski 1992; orlikowski 2000).  but how should that be done? in the community ict context, a number of developments within the broad field of structuration theory are helpful.  adaptive structuration theory focuses on ‘the relative balance in the deterministic influences and wilful choices’ in small group settings (poole 1986) and suggests possibilities for how members may exercise more influence than they otherwise think themselves capable.  however, while de sanctis and poole (1994),  emphasize the importance of local social structures in underlying the particular character of, and contingent relationships to technology in institutional settings, for the purposes of this paper, we wish to emphasize the continuing importance of access to resources as real structuring forces in determining technological use.  without sufficient basic resourcing, the capacity of neighbourhood houses to engage in dynamic agency through using their particular value sets to affect community change through use of technology in liminal spaces is severely constrained. in fact, we can suggest that the structural contradiction between the normative value set of community development (as expressed by the collectivist approach of neighbourhood houses),  and access to facilitative resources is one of the most common reasons for the difficulties in developing project or initiative sustainability.   our paper is directed to identifying the factors which contribute to this dichotomy.[1] furthermore, because neighbourhood houses are often women-centered environments, a feminist perspective on ‘situated technologies’ located in particular gendered constructs of home and work (harraway, 2000; orlikowski 1992, 1999, 2000, 2002; latour 1994)  is helpful.   in our particular case, ict use is occurring in the context of neighbourhood organizations as ‘liminal spaces’ where the nurturing and caring culture associated with the private sphere of the family intersects with the harder world of the public sphere relationships in civil society (dear, 2000, turner, 1974,  zukin, 1991).  liminality is an important concept for structuration theory, as liminal social spaces are where social structures and independent action collide and produce social innovations. community-based organizations such as neighbourhood houses focus that liminality—as they confront the private sphere issues and attempt interventions that require either public sphere resources or policy changes that are often at odds with existing social structures.  the question for us is how do icts operate in such focused liminal spaces and how do community workers use them as agents creating structural change rather than be subject to them as constraints on change? in what are now being called ‘technologies of care’, there is a call for a ‘unified and coherent’ perspective of how the deployment of icts are to occur in welfare services (gould 2003).  this is important, since the relationship between those providing community services and the technologies they use is strained by increasing expectations of ‘rationalised’ and efficient forms of service, which are regarded as having ‘colonised’ the ‘new technologies of social and welfare care’ (webb 2003: 226). community icts today are therefore more than a ‘black box’ for which levers are simply pulled and outputs occur by ‘dumb terminal’ human agents.  technology is equivocal and contingent, and its use is characterised by ‘chronic surprise’, for which constant adaptation and response is necessary (weick 1990). icts, as a particular form of technology, have become a central tool in neighbourhood house work, evidenced by the fact that the lack of sustainability of the victorian state government funding model is now creating problems for the neighbourhood houses, as we will show. methods:  assessing ict sustainability gaps a criticism of structuration theory is that it is often little more than a heuristic device, perhaps providing some illumination of the interaction of structure and agency in particular situations, but providing no lessons for how to build better social structures, or deploy more effective agency (gregson, 1989).  perhaps one reason for that criticism is that structuration theory has not been linked to methodologies that can lead to practical results.  in our case, the heuristic quality of structuration theory, which suggests broad categories rather than specific indicators of both structure and agency, is useful in allowing room for agent participation in making the research process as practical and relevant as possible. early on in the process we decided to use an action research model called community-based research (cbr) (strand et al. 2003). cbr sees research as a collaboration between researchers, who have access to abstract knowledge, and community members, who have expertise in the experience of their own communities.  these two forms of knowledge complement each other, merging expertise in community characteristics with information from outside of it (nyden 1997).  the researcher, working in a partnership, becomes an amplifier of the people’s ‘voice’. from a structuration perspective, giddens has referred to this as the double hermeneutic--the change brought about through agency on the researcher and the researched.  in later writings, he characterised this two-way interaction as in fact a characteristic of modernity, with the modern citizen engaged in constant reflection and reinvention in life practice. research systematizes that process. (giddens, 1984 ; giddens 1990; giddens 1991; giddens 1992). because cbr emphasizes researcher-community collaboration, it deeply respects a variety of knowledge forms.  community stories are as important as statistical research.   what people think, know, and say is valued in their own terms as their ‘definition of the situation’(berger and luckmann 1966; guba and lincoln 1981) and combined with other forms of knowledge.  here, again, is where cbr uses structuration theory, deploying research as a way to make explicit the actors’ definitions, and combining it with information from the actor’s structural context, so that they may act more consciously and strategically.  in this case we were able to bring information from our knowledge of community ict practices generally, and resources of the melbourne metropolitan area, to combine with neighbourhood house coordinators’ identification of issues and problems in deploying icts in their work. another aim of cbr is to create social change through empowerment (strand et al., 2003; fetterman 1994).   cbr has a specific agenda of social engagement.   research designed for social change differs in significant ways from basic research.  community participants play a much stronger role in every step of the research process from choosing the research question, through designing the methods, collecting the data, conducting the analysis, and reporting the results.  most important to the practice of cbr is ownership of the research process by the people who will ultimately be impacted by it.  if community members don’t feel a sense of authenticity that is connected to their needs, they will not participate and they will not use the research. it was crucial to us that neighbourhood house coordinators be involved in defining their ict needs and action steps for meeting those needs so that the project would not stall after the report writing stage. for this project, as researchers, we brought to the table a broad concern about the sustainability gaps in use of information technology in community-based organisations.  we encouraged the neighbourhood house coordinators to shape the research questions within that context.  in this sense, we as researchers were following an ‘initiator’ model of cbr where the researchers bring the project to the community rather than vice versa. such a model is particularly difficult to implement. first, it requires the researchers to have exceptional community organizing skills and to devote extra time to organizing meetings and recruiting participants.  second, it requires shifting the initiation energy from the researchers to the community participants as early as possible in the process.  if the researchers remain the initiators, the likelihood that the research will have practical consequences will be greatly reduced. process:  assessing ict sustainability gaps the project is the outcome of many years of discussion between community west’s director at that time, mark samuel-king and larry stillman about the difficulties which many small community organisations appeared to have in making effective use of icts. community west is a major social services agency in the region.   randy stoecker while based in the usa, had visited australia on a number of occasions in the past, and was well aware of the information and technology needs of community-based organisations in the melbourne area. research funds were awarded by monash university’ faculty of information technology, with additional support from community west, inc, to conduct a form of participatory formative evaluation concerning the information and technology needs of a network of community agencies in the western suburbs of melbourne.  planning for the project took place in the last part of 2003 and first half of 2004, with actual field work in the first half of june, 2004. preparing for the project early meetings were held with a number of neighbourhood house coordinators and a representative of local government in early 2004 to explore general issues of ict usage in neighbourhood houses and our methodologies.  one meeting included the second author on speakerphone.  another planned speakerphone meeting was disrupted by hardware problems[2].  these preliminary meetings suggested that exploration of the following issues were of interest during the research process: ·         how icts are used in the everyday work of neighbourhood house coordinators;   ·         the technical skills base of neighbourhood house staff and volunteers ·         the issues neighbourhood houses face in both information management and technical management; ·         the place of network west and its website in supporting neighbourhood houses in addressing information and technical management issues. as we worked with the neighbourhood house coordinators, a set of research methods emerged that included document review, a survey, in-depth interviews, a focus group, and a planning group. conducting background research through document review to get a sense of the potential scope of ict sustainability issues among neighbourhood houses, we reviewed a variety of documents about  neighbourhood house programs, some recommended through discussion with neighbourhood house coordinators.  these included in-house documentation from the association of neighbourhood houses and learning centres, state government documentation, and a number of academic studies of neighbourhood houses, including a study by post-graduate students at monash university in the mid-1990s (dillon 1995) , and a phd thesis by melissa permezel (2001). surveying neighbourhood houses the next step was to develop a survey to both announce the project to a broader group of neighbourhood houses and to gather initial assessment data on the issues they were facing in deploying icts in their work.  in our survey design, we sought to adapt and modify a number of surveys which had been used with neighbourhood houses and like organisations.  these included: the it survey of neighbourhood houses conducted by duke street in 1999 for anhlc; earlier surveys of it use, used with neighbourhood-based organisations in the area; and beverley koerin’s survey of neighbourhood organisations (settlement houses) in the us (koerin 2003). during april and may 2004, drafts of the survey were discussed at planning committee meetings and shown to colleagues and neighbourhood house coordinators for comment.  the researchers were mindful of the limited time available to coordinators to fill in surveys, and therefore a double-sided survey was developed which was accompanied by a stamped return envelope.  these were sent out at the start of june with a one week return time, hoping to encourage immediate activity by coordinators.  it was decided to use traditional mail methods rather than electronic means on the advice of the committee, in the belief that this might elicit a stronger response. of the 34 surveys sent out, 12 were returned.  (a return rate of about a third being not  uncommon in this type of research). it was also understood that a number of other unrelated surveys were distributed at the same time, which might account for ‘forms fatigue’. changing the process the survey, along with two intensive workshop meetings, were to be used for recruiting participants into the action phases of the project.  however, an initial low response rate to the survey and lack of interest and time to take part in the planned workshops led to a quick revisiting of the overall research trajectory.  after consultation with some neighbourhood house coordinators, the overall research protocol was revised.  first, rather than asking coordinators to attend two all-day workshops, the offer was made to conduct briefer 60 minute site visits/interviews at a representative group of neighbourhood houses who could not attend the workshop meetings.  a two-hour focus group was also conducted with a group of neighbourhood house coordinators who had indicated some interest in the initial workshop. this process was then followed with a two-hour planning meeting one week later, focusing on the most common issues raised through the site visit interviews and focus group. significantly, once these changes were made, there began to be a greater involvement from the coordinators and they offered more direction on how to structure the project for the greatest benefit.  they emphasized: ·         having the opportunity to review and revise a draft of the report; ·         producing a set of funding proposals resulting from the research; ·         organising a public launch event to present the research recommendations. their advice is being implemented in the subsequent stages of this project. interviews  on-site interviews of one hour each were conducted with coordinators at seven neighbourhood houses, attempting to include both the close-in suburbs and more remote locations, recruiting participants by phone.   extensive notes were taken, including verbatim quotes.   one author also conducted one phone interview, for a total of eight.  when added to the five participants of the focus group, qualitative information was received from thirteen neighbourhood house coordinators. there was a partial overlap of interview and focus group participants with survey respondents, resulting in some form of information from more than half of the neighbourhood houses.  an open-ended interview format was used focusing on the following questions: ·         what are the major activities of your neighbourhood house? ·         how do you use information in those activities (in classes, referrals) and how complete is the information? ·         how do you use information technology in the neighbourhood house and what issues do you face in using information technology? the results of these interviews began to shape some of the issues that were brought to the planning meeting. focus group  as mentioned above, after hearing concerns from neighbourhood house coordinators, the initial strategy shifted from two all-day workshops to site interviews and briefer focus group and planning group meetings.  participants were recruited by e-mail and phone call follow-ups, and as with the interviews, extensive notes of what was said by participants were taken. the initial focus group was scheduled in one of the western suburbs and was attended by representatives of five neighbourhood houses.  the focus group was organized around the same topics as for the site interviews to maintain as much consistency as possible in the information obtained.  as a consequence of this, it was possible to observe a set of themes emerging across the thirteen total participants (from both the site interviews and the focus group), which are described below.  at this meeting, participants also made initial suggestions for how to move from the research phase to action, with a suggestion for a public launch of the research report with invitations to government officials. initial analysis often in community-based research, the researchers will frequently conduct an initial analysis of the data, usually for the purpose of informing a deeper, more participatory analysis and planning process.  usually, at this stage, the analysis consists of organizing the data into issue categories.  in this case, the survey, interviews, and focus group data seemed to suggest six categories:  computer troubleshooting, quality technology support, resource directories, web page development, communication costs, and relationships with local councils.  the data was organized into these six categories, and the information was brought to a two-hour planning group meeting, which was to meet one week after the initial focus group. planning group  participants were recruited to the planning group meeting by e-mail announcement and phone calls.  representatives from six neighbourhood houses, and one funder, attended the meeting.  the six themes were ranked in order of importance, with computer troubleshooting, quality it support, and resource directories receiving substantially higher rankings.  twenty to twenty-five minutes were then spent on each of these themes, identifying a goal the group wanted to accomplish, the strategies needed to pursue the goal, the players who needed to be involved in each strategy, and the resources required.  the remaining time was divided into approximately fifteen minute segments to address each of the lesser-ranked issues.  reporting and action steps within a few weeks of the planning meeting a draft research report was available and returned to the coordinators for comment.  extensive comments were not received from the coordinators. instead, the researchers began to hear from neighbourhood houses that they were already using the information in grant applications, and requests began to be received from neighbourhood houses in other regions for copies of the report, and it made its way into the hands of government ministers.  a further discussion of the outcomes to date is included in the conclusion section.  issues in sustainability of community ict returning to the insights of structuration theory, each of these six issues-computer troubleshooting, quality technology support, resource directories, web page development, communication costs, and relationships with local councils—has both structural and agency components.  in some cases the structural aspects of the issue require few resources or political intervention to overcome, creating plenty of room for agency to have an impact. in other cases the structural issues are more prominent, and will require more sophisticated strategies on the agency side of structuration theory.   computer training & troubleshooting one of the main sustainability issues faced by neighbourhood houses in the face of government funding reductions is to have functioning hardware and software.  on the structural side of the issue is the fact that ageing computers are more subject to breakdowns, require more tweaking to handle new software, new web applications, and bulky formatted e-mail.  in addition, piecing together potentially incompatible hardware and software components produces increasing errors.  the provision of cobbled-together and aging computers available to neighbourhood residents who may inadvertently change settings, download dangerous software, or introduce viruses, creates even more problems.  on the agency side of the issue is that at least some of the problems experienced by such hardware and software configurations are relatively easy to fix.  however, many of the neighbourhood house staff either lack the skills or the confidence to make basic hardware repairs or software reconfigurations.  of the  neighbourhood houses interviewed, only three have such a combination of skills and confidence, with more than one staff person who can do their own computer troubleshooting.  the other neighbourhood houses rely on volunteers or paid it support.  additionally and in some cases, relying on a single individual can have drawbacks: i should be much more up to speed [on computers].  i have the icdl international computer driver’s license].  everything i do i'm self-taught.  having an it guy has lulled me. one of the consequences of being ‘lulled’ is that many neighbourhood houses often wait days or even weeks to fix even relatively simple problems.  the survey found that only two neighbourhood houses waited less than a day for computer help, two waited one to two days, and five waited more than 2 days.  in the site visits and focus group it was learned that one coordinator had been without e-mail for weeks.  another had only one of two public internet computers able to access the internet.  yet another coordinator had been unable to access the internet for weeks with her centre’s only internet-enabled computer. an example of basic troubleshooting which came up during one session -and for which the researchers were asked on-the-spot advice -was how to uninstall and reinstall a mouse which did not appear to be working. another example which was raised by several people was how to use the control panel settings more effectively.   another area included ‘preventative maintenance’: how to do backups, cleanups, upgrades, installations, and defrag the hard drive. the coordinators recognize the need for some further training in basic troubleshooting. a general troubleshooting course would be good.  it needs to be recognized or accredited.  something equivalent to the icdl [international computer driving licence].  don't have it as an obligation of a funding body.  if there were a set of guidelines for basic skills--things like terms--and what to do for a computer that can't access the internet.  i don’t know what to do beyond the basics. there should be some courses for dummies like on the insides of computers and troubleshooting. one of the structural barriers to providing such training, of course, is the lack of time available to other neighbourhood house staff who are often casual or hourly employees.  and coordinators, who are often part-time themselves, are often running at full steam just trying to keep everything running smoothly. working part-time makes it hard to schedule things [like trainings].  even if it was one to one, people would already be committed to teaching a class or something. the way we work is fragmented.  i have other jobs. it’s great to have the training, but it’s about priorities at any time. coordinators understand the dual dilemma of lacking both time and technical skills.  the survey showed that time and technical skills seem to be the most important problems facing people in using computers. and they lack the person resources to build it maintenance into their workloads: even issues like ordering a cartridge--you go to the cupboard and it's not there.  or the website domain is running out and who will do it?  we argue about whose responsibility it is.  i got really angry and said, ‘this isn't my job’. there are many training needs beyond basic troubleshooting.  but training in troubleshooting emerged as an important entrance training program that could actually save coordinators significant time and money in the long run. good it support the other consequence of the structural lack of ict funding is that the problems caused by aging and cobbled-together computers that are beyond the help of basic trouble-shooting then require advanced it support for which there are also structural barriers to funding. the survey showed that there are over 170 computers (pcs and laptops) across the 12 houses, ranging from a single pc to 30+ in at least 3 houses. most computers are less than 3 years old, though about a quarter are at least 5 years old. if the same pattern holds true for the other 22 neighbourhood houses, there are approximately 500 computers among the neighbourhood houses in this area needing effective maintenance. the least resourced neighbourhood houses are in some ways at the most risk of failing due to lack of decent it support.  when their one computer goes down, it cuts them off entirely from the flow of information across the third sector: it's hard to get a response from e-mails at smaller neighbourhood houses. the need for good it support has intensified recently due to several factors.  the first is a consequence of ageing hardware. i bought a new computer, but it doesn’t have enough ram – 4 or 5 years old [and there] is not enough capacity. you’ve got to be on your own game, it sounds like a corporation, but this is one of the busiest places in [the area]….people don’t believe this.  it’s full on, community education, development. the survey shows that at least a quarter of the pcs are at least 5 years old, and many are therefore inadequate for current technological demands.   access is roughly evenly split between narrowband (phone line modem) service and broadband.   good equipment is expensive in the short term, but reduces the need to expend coordinator time on trouble shooting, downtime, or paying for maintenance services.  neighbourhood houses, like small business, either need the funds to regularly update their hardware and software, or need to have the knowledge to choose the right equipment when attempting to achieve cost savings through the acquisition of recycled machinery.  my problem is [that] the technology is crap.  there is no money for good technology. even those neighbourhood houses that have decent on-site support lack adequate hardware: we have an it department.  but it stuff is hugely expensive.  but the location i'm in, we've only got one computer linked to the internet.  so we have to share it. the world of computing is also becoming more complex and fraught with more challenges than at any time in the past.  the need to update operating systems, particularly for machines running vulnerable microsoft operating systems, anti-virus software, firewalls, and other things requires increasing expertise and attention. we're getting viruses all the time.  we have a computer maintenance book that logs what happened and what action was taken. the major challenge [with computers] is keeping things up to date. we struggle with keeping our system up to data and finding stuff.  people have to understand they aren't working at a tafe [college of technical and further education]. those houses that maintain computer labs for their english as a second language (esl) students also face challenges as the esl software becomes more complex, memory hungry, and difficult to access over the internet.  these comments come from a number of coordinators: the esl students sometimes can get in and change the settings because they don't know what they're doing.  laptops came with a wireless hub and router, but it wasn't set up right so we bought our own wireless hub and set it up.  we use a server to duplicate some of the sites on the internet so all the laptops don't have to go through a single dial-up connection.  the esl sites also have a lot of advertising, which wastes bandwidth.  another factor intensifying the need for computer support is the decline of vicnet, which had provided free support in the past through its outreach programs such as skillsnet or mc2.  but such support has become increasingly limited and uncertain. even when there is technical support available, it often does not fit the needs of the neighbourhood houses:  coordinators do not like hearing incomprehensible it jargon from technicians who are not attuned to the particular needs of neighbourhood houses. only one of the internet access points is working.  skilled it people are incredibly hard to source.  there are a lot of charlatans out there.  they talk in doublespeak.  or they have worked in banks and they are trying to force layers of security. our tech support guy says we can transfer files across computers but he hasn't shown us how.  that would be particularly useful with e-mail where we need to send things to each other. what we need is good networks inside our own units.  but i have to physically cart stuff down to my computer. we have through the cluster, money. one of their priorities is tech support.  getting that person to come is not that easy.  if we come in friday morning and can't log onto the internet we can't do anything about it before we start class.  we have one computer dying now and it is affecting the entire network. with a lack of it support that understands neighbourhood house culture and needs, as noted by this neighbourhood house worker, the technology can induce chaos.  you're really on your own.  i e-mail everything home.  but sometimes i forget.  so now i use a memory stick.  i have information all over the place.  i haven't had e-mail for six weeks. on the agency side of the issue, and because neighbourhood house coordinators lack basic troubleshooting capacity, they are more dependent than necessary on expensive and not always timely it support.  systems are down, information is lost, and the frustration level of workers and clients who may be learning it skills is high.  i've talked with three coordinators whose computers have gone down and they've lost everything. a number of neighbourhood houses rely on volunteers for it support, and are happy with the results: you hear stories about other neighbourhood houses where the computers are in trouble.  it's pretty good here.  two people work on computer maintenance.  we have a young man who helps who has been coming in for years and years. we've got a volunteer.  he maintains things along with l----.  he has a relationship with a computer company. but when those volunteers move on, they can be difficult to replace.  and dependence on one on-site expert can introduce real vulnerability. what would happen without the computer guy on site? we'd be f****d. and that one expert may not be enough to begin with.  we wish we could have tech support five days per week, and have our open access computers open at night. esl uses the computers four times a week.  sometimes people walk in and say 'can i use the internet?'  we need volunteers who can be here when that happens so we don't have to keep running back and forth.  we have one man who volunteers after having taken a computer class in richmond and then he moved here.  [onsite tech person speaking] i need more time to learn stuff like moodle.org, the learning center software.  i'm here 14 hours a week.  plus i do some stuff at home. i pretty much am able to do the troubleshooting.  but there is not time to create non-admin accounts for students on the laptops, which would be a pain anyway because then you have to log out and log back in to install things.  i also want to reconsider the vicnet dial-up.  it gets pretty expensive redialing because of all the dropped connections. managing information through resource directories and databases along with hardware and software, one of the main issues that neighbourhood houses face is information access and management.  to a large extent, neighbourhood houses deal in information:  through esl and the wide variety of craft and skills courses, and referral activities.  all of this relies on having access to well-organized information repositories.  it is striking how well the neighbourhood houses do at managing information with such miniscule resources.  but, as might be expected, neighbourhood house coordinators cite a wide variety of information management needs, particularly in having access to directories and databases.  this issue operates at many different levels.   neighbourhood houses engage in complex information activities, including the resource–intensive production of program flyers every term; databasing of all sorts: local tutors and students and the production and maintenance of different sorts of service directories; and the provision or access to information services (e.g. government benefit data and forms) for personal client work. on the structural side of this issue is the need for access to people with advanced skills who can develop, maintain, and troubleshoot database software. some neighbourhood houses have turned to developing their own databases to manage this information. we have an access database from our former assistant manager who was very system-oriented.  it is great in that we manage information much better.  we employed a consultant to help us put it together.  it streamlines information.  you are just overloaded with paper, and it is difficult to refer efficiently.  we used to have hundreds of word documents.  it's lifted our game and has given us a tool to manage information. the maintenance side of the database i haven't really thought about.  others can do that.  there are hundreds of organisations out there that move or are closed.  in needs analysis we found [neighbourhood residents] said yes to computers, but then people wouldn't show.  with asset mapping we found safety was a big issue.  we also get contact details of people who are interested in things and then we can create a directory of things people want. in all of these cited cases, however, there is no strategy in place for maintaining and updating the database information and thus for the need for neighbourhood house workers to develop new skills and find extra time.  solving the structural issues of access to expert database development and maintenance resources could dramatically expand the agency of neighbourhood houses.  among the resources that neighbourhood house coordinators would find useful would be a directory of tutors, and many comments were made about the need for directories: some of our tutors aren't on-line, which makes it very hard to get in touch with them. we use sessional staff and so if i need someone for a program i'll ring another house for a person. i need a list of people [tutors] on an emergency basis. when i did assets assessment i must have had 30 people who wanted sewing.  i finally got the sewing tutor [after a lot of phone calls]. my yoga teacher would love to have more teaching available. coordinators also expressed some interest in having a directory of the courses offered by all the nhs so they could refer prospective students to each other.  if we don't do something we refer them to another neighbourhood house. sometimes we can't find a tutor. people ring here and ask where to get courses.  we need a database of all the programs. if you put together all the organisations in victoria you would know everything going on. it is possible to consider such a directory.  in hobson’s bay, with the support of the local council, the neighbourhood houses have got together and created their own joint directory of courses. some of the neighbourhood houses have also begun thinking about developing databases of local residents so they can contact them about courses that may interest them, or services that they may not know about.  in contrast to the tutor directory, however, coordinators would want to maintain local resident directories themselves to protect resident privacy.  a learner directory would be pertaining just to your house.  a teacher directory would be across neighbourhood houses. we would store the local directory ourselves.  we wouldn’t want that stored elsewhere. these examples reinforce those versions of structuration theory that emphasize how changing situational definitions can impact ict use as much as resource availability.  an even more powerful example of the role that situational definitions play in the use of icts is in the perceived lack of referral directories among many of the nh coordinators.  there are at least two regularly updated directories of services across the region that some neighbourhood houses use. it was surprising, however, how many other neighbourhood house coordinators did not know of the existence of these directories.  in some cases they learned of major referral organisations only by accident: we heard about centrelink from students coming in with forms and then ringing them to get questions answered.  learning who to call in centrelink was an education in itself. one of the directories is database-driven and searchable online, by topic and by region, making the task of finding referral agencies dramatically more efficient.  but at least some of the neighbourhood houses were more interested in a paper directory, or an online directory that looked more like a paper directory.  the lack of positive definitions of a database-driven directory made it seem like a less-desirable alternative. web development and management all survey respondents said they had a website.  yet, many of them are not sure why they should have a website, and nearly all lack the capacity to maintain one. at the same time, many of the neighbourhood houses also have a difficult time getting information from houses in other clusters, and have a hard time getting information out about themselves.  aside from general funding, publicity is one of the recurrent issues facing the houses.  exhibiting their own sophisticated understanding of the structural side of structuration theory however, the coordinators understand that their main challenge is reaching local residents, for which a website is still mostly not appropriate, as too many local residents lack computers and internet access.  consequently, for local publicity, most neighbourhood houses rely on letterboxing. we send out flyers four times a year, programs and courses, a lot on…40 or 50 things...so it does not cost a fortune to print, this is how it has to be done on one sheet. it goes out to 11,000 houses with a walking company.  it has to be at the printer next tuesday. publicity is work for all of us,  all use brochures, though newsletters, flyers, but i think 99% of those who use my house don’t use computers…we don’t use the net to find out what’s going on. [we send out] six-monthly brochures to 6000 households for the 3 centres.  3 or 4 local papers give free ads, as well as flyers.  most are in english, some are in multiple languages. we have a frustration in how to market ourselves, first to people in the estate, but also to all of [the local area]. it takes a lot of time to get the word out. we still have people who don’t know what we do. we do 8,000 brochures quarterly, drop-offs at centres, newspapers.  we probably spend $10,000 a year in advertising costs.  there is no one thing that works.  the brochure is probably the most important thing.  but we are getting more email requests from people in the area. when there is a desire for a website, the coordinators differentiated between websites for marketing purposes to government departments, what might be called an ‘electronic brochure’ with contact and program information, and a website for clients.  the website for clients was seen as a much lower priority, since most contact is person-to-person.  but at least one neighbourhood house has created an intranet website for clients to access learning resources without having to wait for pages to download through the house’s single shared dial-up connection. we have a web site, mostly with links to other places.  it's not official, it's just for students to use.  we could create a more public site as a kind of brochure site.  a lot of people who come here wouldn't have good internet access.  other service providers would be high on the list of those having access. in the individual meetings with coordinators and in the group meetings it was seen that there was a structural barrier inhibiting the technical skills required to build a website or provide email access to staff and students, based on the lack of time that staff and even volunteers could afford to both develop the skills and then spend time on website maintenance.  it's vulnerable because we're part-time workers and our employers are a committee of management.  we end up with the roles on our lap.  our website worker has left, and now our website needs updating. i’m not internet proficient. i do that work at home.  i don’t have open internet at work – council only has certain points available.  i don’t use the public access point in the centre as people ask me questions.  council has a contract for a limited number of access points for internet access. we have a website but have relocated to much larger premises.  we haven't had time to maintain it.  we had a volunteer to maintain the website but she went overseas. communication costs one of the things the researchers did not expect to find in this research was a widespread concern about the costs, in terms of time, ink, and paper, of using information technology, (perhaps because of structural imbalances between government (and university) departments that are relatively well supplied with advanced technology, and community organisations).  in an age when everyone e-mails all kinds of things to everyone, one rarely stops to think what it takes to download and print out the oft-circulated and massive pdf files, pictures, and over-formatted word-processing documents.  the neighbourhood house coordinators, however, are concerned about these issues.  i would use ink and paper and time to print out attachments. you have to print out hard copy forms for yourself. with a recent health proposal, you had to print it out.  you couldn't type it on-line. where we are you have to login and dial-up.  whichever funding is our major, there is an expectation that we will have a printer that will take all the different colours. downloading all those files constitutes, in the eyes of many coordinators, a ‘downloading of costs’ from funders and government who used to print out and physically mail documents that they now expect neighbourhood houses to print out on their own.  in this case, technology is used to make existing power imbalances even worse, as well-resourced more powerful organizations reduce their costs through technology at the same time that they force less powerful community organizations to incur increased costs in ink, time, and paper. we spend time printing it out and disseminating it.  so we are part-timers and doing their [funders] work for them.  i think it's been surreptitious, this transfer of costs [making people print out e-mails]. there is no recognition of our increased printing costs.  the tradeoffs of having things instantly outweighs the costs. estimates from some neighbourhood houses are that communications inefficiencies created by excessive e-mail and printing costs are costing more than an hour a day of internet and worker time and reams of paper a week.  in  the focus group discussion we also learned that it was difficult for many people to access, download, and then open some files sent by departments (such as those in pdf format), due to the age of equipment or narrowband internet connection [see section 4.5].  as one coordinator noted: funding stays the same but the it expectations have grown. and while some might argue that coordinators could save money by becoming more used to ’screen reading,’ that is an impractical option for aging eyes using old low resolution monitors, for people who need to read documents on the tram or train, and for those who want to take things home with them.  as the coordinators note: it's not a paperless society--it's doubled it [paper use] at least. everyone would say they [computers] are indispensable.  they haven't created less paper. another aspect of this problem is that those who send large attachments expect the recipient to be able to download them.  that is not always possible for neighbourhood houses with slow dial-up connection. older computers also sometimes freeze up with pdf files.  in the survey, only six respondents listed access to broadband internet, with the rest relying on dial-up service.  and, as was learned in some of the site visits, at least two of the houses relying on dial-up internet access were sharing that narrow bandwidth across multiple computers.   often you have to print things out.  it costs us more now because we have to print out so much.  sometimes it's hard to go to a website and there's  six pdf files. there's an expectation that you can get the attachment. dhs wants online reporting, so we needed to install the program to do that.  they have to do a client profile form.  with community lunch, it needs its own kind of reporting process. another unintended consequence of it in the community sector is the increased communication burden.  the ease of sending e-mail has nearly eliminated information filtering.  consequently, neighbourhood house coordinators receive mountains of unwanted, unfiltered, ‘official’ information by e-mail.  in the focus group, when we asked coordinators to remember the last time they had received truly useful information via e-mail, they couldn’t even think of examples. i am spending an hour and a half a day with e-mails.  people expect you to reply to an e-mail immediately. i get 20-30 emails a day -it mightn't sound like many, but they usually require work.  i don't open a lot of them. and there are risks to ignoring too much e-mail, useless as many of them appear to be: a lot of communication with funders is through e-mail.  there’s a tendency to react to information too quickly on e-mail.  you have to read it and think about it.  you can miss out on something.  if you don't manage it yourself,  you could miss a deadline.  communication with councils and state government a main consequence of these sustainability gaps is that community organizations such as neighbourhood houses remain out of the communication loop with both their local and state government departments.  lacking websites to advertise themselves, lacking adequate technology and skills to develop databases that can be cutting edge and communication methods that can capture the attention and imagination of government, neighbourhood houses remain relatively invisible and ignored.  this final area of concern goes well outside of the area of information management and information technology, but is so much on the minds of the neighbourhood house coordinators that it must be addressed.  it is partly a communication issue, and may be addressable via the creative application of communication technologies. but it may primarily be a broader structural issue in how neighbourhood houses and councils relate to each other, and the structuring of council areas in relation to each other. the problem is that each neighbourhood house can be located in a different section of council across victoria…no cohesion, can’t talk to each other across councils. people don't know what a neighbourhood house is.  no one places any importance on it.  they don't know what community building is.  that influences funding.  we put pictures in the paper. people have gone in [to start projects] without neighbourhood houses and things don't work. we used to have a strong relationship with council.  now it's deteriorated to the point where we only get e-mails from them.  council distanced themselves from service delivery.  now they've distanced themselves from service providers. so bad is it in some places that neighbourhood houses are not even listed on council websites. we would like local government to add houses to their website.  i've asked council to put us on their website as a link.  so people could click on a category of services and find us.  there are important costs to the lack of connection between neighbourhood houses and their local councils, both in terms of information flows from council to neighbourhood houses and in terms of information flows from neighbourhood houses to council. the rules change.  you don't know which side of the fence you're on.  one minute you're doing this and then all of a sudden they say you should be providing this other thing. we should have a phone list of all the departments but they don't want to give them to us. we get 2000 residents per week through our doors.  they [council] are missing out on the information we get from that.  we need council to write letters of support.  it costs us because there is expertise in council that we can't tap.   they've probably got access to data we don't have, and networks.  there's a myriad of organisations and they could facilitate networking.  they're quick to jump on youth issues, but community centres don't have prestige.  we don't have social workers and counsellors on staff. not all the local councils exhibit such problems.  in some local government areas, there are stronger relationships.  but in general, this invisibility creates an environment where even more funding cuts are possible, creating a vicious cycle that can only be broken by an expansion of creative definitions for the deployment of technology and an effective organizing of agency that can attack and change the structural barriers to adequate technology resources. strategies for expanding neighbourhood house agency at the final planning meeting the neighbourhood house representatives were asked to come up with recommendations for meeting these sustainability gaps, specifying what the strategy should be, who should be involved in the strategy, and where the resources should come from.  below is provided a brief summary of the recommendations developed in the research report.  all of the recommendations show the tension between structure and agency in structuration theory, with the neighbourhood house coordinators developing strategies explicitly directed at overcoming the structural challenges to expanded and improved ict use among neighbourhood house staff. troubleshooting training there was strong interest in trouble shooting training so neighbourhood house staff could diagnose and possibly fix technical problems before (expensive) paid help had to be brought in.  to address the structural issue coordinators recommended courses in the 10-20 hours range, accompanied by a manual designed for neighbourhood house needs.   these findings confirm the survey data, where half of the respondents indicated interest in information technology training, provided it was practical and time efficient.  to overcome the structural barrier of lack of time, coordinators felt it would be desirable for the course to last 10-20 hours, be offered between terms (many neighbourhood houses are closed when school is not in session), with attending staff paid for their time and receiving a certificate upon successful completion. the trainings themselves may not require further resources, since there are funds available to the neighbourhood house staff for professional development.  however, resources may be required to develop new curriculum or adapt existing curriculum to the specific troubleshooting needs of neighbourhood house staff.  good it support the main strategy developed for finding affordable it support was to organize a group tender for technical support.  given the large number of computers (potentially 500 or more) that such a contract would cover, a group tender could give the neighbourhood houses significant leverage in defining the scope, quality, and even cost of services.  this could attack the structural barrier of the existing high cost of services. the neighbourhood houses are even willing to pay for high quality service, particularly if some kind of sliding scale fee structure could be developed.  a remaining issue, again pointing to the importance of both the complexity of understanding the structure side of structuration theory, as well as the importance of situational definitions, is how to develop and manage the neighbourhood house side of such contract negotiations, as this would require a large time commitment from at least some neighbourhood house coordinators. managing information because there are so many possible types of directories, there are also a number of different strategies.  using the situational definition strategy of structuration theory, one main strategy is to make sure that neighbourhood houses are aware of the existing directories.  the development of other directories, have both structure and agency issues. a tutor directory will require a coordinated effort to get lists of tutors from neighbourhood houses and contact information from tutors, as well as funding to support the database development.  to address these structuration issues, the neighbourhood house coordinators agreed to send information about successful database projects they are already developing to the neighbourhood association newsletter and the network west newsletter.  as the discussion developed, this idea grew into creating a special section in each of those newsletters for neighbourhood houses to highlight their unique programs or services so others could learn about them, or to present a problem and ask whether any neighbourhood house had developed a unique solution. web development and management the strategy chosen to address this issue is quite similar to the strategy for obtaining adequate it support—organizing individual needs into a collective solution.  using the definitional strategy implied by structuration theory, most neighbourhood houses do not see a need for web pages to attract clients to their services, understanding that clients find out about them through word of mouth or print media such as flyers and newspaper ads.  they do understand, however, that funders may look to see if a house has a website, and that other service providers may look for their website to make a referral.  many neighbourhood houses want a website that they don’t have to design, and that is very easy to update.  such a site would be possible through the creation of a template on a single host, where a neighbourhood house could fill in web-based forms with text information that would then be automatically compiled into a website.  creating a template could be accomplished by a single web designer in a university setting, or in network west, in consultation with neighbourhood houses and funders to determine the categories of information needed.  given the concern expressed at the planning meeting about the need for neighbourhood houses to better ‘brand’ themselves, a central provider could offer the benefit of a common domain name and sub-domain naming of neighbourhood houses (eg. ww.networkwest.net/yourhouse/ or www.anhlc.asn.au/yourhouse), whatever the actual webhosting arrangements. of course, some houses may choose to have their own domain name, as a number already do. communication standards maximizing communication involves a three-facet strategy:  reducing the size of electronic files, reducing the number of irrelevant communications, and reducing the cost of printing files.  here the strategy is to pit brute agency against brute structure, advocating for changes in the way that more powerful organizations communicate.  important again, however, is that much of the advocacy is focused on changing the current definition of electronic communication from one which has this as less expensive, to a definition where it may be less expensive for the sender but not for the recipient.  communication with councils and state government the costs of the lack of communication between local councils and neighbourhood houses is enormous in terms of referrals not made, services that are mis-targeted, and government programs that are misinformed.  because this is such a large multi-faceted governance issue, and since it goes well beyond questions of information management and information technology, the planning group found it difficult to make specific recommendations in this area.  this again points to a definitional strategy informed by structuration theory.  this research focused on the information and technology issues faced by neighbourhood houses.  the challenge of communicating with local councils and state government goes beyond these matters.  consequently, one of the recommendations of the planning group was to conduct a study similar to this one, only focused on the relations between neighbourhood houses and government. conclusion this project has become more than ‘findings’ on paper for a research report. instead, as a social action project, it has become embedded in the (re-)structuration processes of private sphere-public sphere-neighbourhood relations themselves, and consequently is helping to build neighbourhood house agency. the authors suggest that their engagement in the ‘double hermeneutic’ of engaging with the agencies has in fact provided these agencies with a circuit breaker, with a new means of changing value sets and political positions.  it has provided them with new information with which to take action, and supports action that is meaningful and sustainable to them.  our conclusions outline how this research has in turn stimulated a change in understandings of internal relationships of power, communication, and resources by the neighbourhood houses themselves, and begun to engage, as a new stage in a community process, in impacting ‘upward’, external larger forces. at the time of writing of this paper, processes are under way which include: ·         circulation of a detailed ‘thick and rich’ project report amongst neighbourhood houses for their consideration and comment.  their comments will help form and ‘validate’ the final report which will go into wider circulation for use in local planning networks.[3] ·         planning for a report launch by a senior minister of the state government.  the political importance of such an event cannot be underestimated.    ideally, the launch event will be accompanied by the announcement of moves to develop new policies and funding arrangements as a partnership between the houses and government.[4] ·         quite separately to the previous point, the draft report has also been viewed by senior government advisers and a parliamentary secretary (the equivalent of a junior minister) and it appears that the report has filled an information gap within various ministries. the human side of interaction with technology is little understood, and remarkably, the paper had demonstrated its own agency as a traditionally inert information object by contributing to a new enthusiasm for reengagement with the community in course of the development of ict policy and programs. it has provided qualitative evidence that can be used against those who only understand hard numbers, and it will be used as part of high level strategic planning for the future development of community icts.  ·         there is recognition by government, on the basis of this research, that the sustainability of community icts depends upon effective support for the structural arrangements illuminated through our research.     we also believe that this rush to action confirms the observation made in an earlier paper that there is a significant gap in government’s understanding of the link between effective information and support services and new technology, the result of political and budget decisions made in the 1990s.  timely, grass-roots information is now valued. ·         the report has also been well-received by academics in a number of faculties who are concerned about the development of an effective social mission in an era of the ‘enterprise university’. community-based research as part of a social mission is not well-known in australia, and it appears that the university may be prepared to back such activity more substantially in the future. these outcomes represent the ‘utilization stage’ (patton 1997) of the project, given the usefulness of engaged community based research as a way to create new forms of  agency through affecting key structural principles for a variety of stakeholders, including direct clients and in this case, major sources of future funding and infrastructure support.  these in turn are key to the sustainability of future neighbourhood house activity with technology.  in addition, the project shows the utility of structuration theory in identifying both the structure and agency sides of the ict sustainability gaps being experienced by neighbourhood houses.  we also see, importantly, that just as the structure side of structuration theory is made up of both material and ideational elements, so is the agency side.  in some cases, creating change involves engaging in action to change definitions of the role of icts in a community context.  in other cases, it involves shifting resources.  ultimately, both are always involved, but with different emphases for different issues.   references adams, p. c. 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[1] adaptive structuration theory’s small group, explanatory focus tends to underplay the influence of larger forces which influence the context of micro-level interrelationships.  this can lead to a bracketing of critical questions about ultimate causal, structural relationships. reed refers to this as a single-level social ontology in which agency and structure are ‘rendered down to localised social practices bereft of any institutional underpinnings or contextualization, insightful as it may be at the micro-level of interaction between players’ (reed, 1997: 25). [2] tip: always carry around a 30’ extension and an extra conference phone. [3] we anticipate that the final version of the report will be made available on line shortly. [4] one remarkable aside came from one of our high-level contacts. ‘in this state there are not two, but three political parties: liberal (the conservatives), labour, and treasury’.  the thatcherite ideology of public service is the most difficult to change. e-agro initiative of ekutir1 and the grameen-intel social business srinivas b garudachar grameen-intel social business & ekutir rural management services pvt ltd. srinivasbgarudachar@gmail.com background the small farmer household forms a very large (~50%) of the developing world’s population, and while their well being is important if not critical to all our well-being, the sad fact is that their very existence and therefore that of the entire food supply chain is being threatened – directly impacting the big picture, presenting a bleak picture of the future of the planet: with the alarms of the food security situation, depleted rural livelihoods, rural poverty, rural to urban migration etc. the endeavour is to provide convenient and cost-effective ways and means for the farmer to increase his earnings, by improving his productivity (thru a hassle free, localized, single-window interface providing appropriate knowledge (advisory on better agro growth practices, climate updates, pest/disease management etc), transactional capabilities(eg price-discovery, buy, sell, credit, insurance..), and leveraging powers of aggregation), bring in risk mitigation practices that help reduce his damage/costs, increase the quality, quantum & value of his produce, equipping him with appropriate & timely info to combat his various pest/disease associated risks and integrating him cost-effectively with the various agro-ecosystem silos (ag univ experts, soil scientists, weather bureaus, genuine seed suppliers, pesticide & fertilizer suppliers, micro-finance/insurance providers, market players, logistics.) the farming cycle typically is such that the farmer (mind you, he is a small farmer with annual income in the region of $ 350, ie $ 1/day) is required to be equipped with various capabilities: eg. assessing the state of the soil, the soil nutrient status and gaps, the choice of fertilizer supplements and application methods & supplier contacts, identifying the best crop (that suits the soil, geo climatic zone and market saleability), sources for genuine seeds, and best growth practices the issues of managing/control of pests/diseases, timely access to suitably tailored finance to seed the crop cycle and fund his input and working capital. accessing multiple market info, logistics and transactions these are just a sample list of things he has to undertake, all of these if at all available are at remote unfamiliar mostly urban locationseach of these activities currently requires the farmer to undergo loads of hasslesrunning around from pillar to post, with little knowledge of how long each cycle would entail, uncertain about costs and unsure whether his effort would ever bear fruit and compensate for his efforts. while he is worrying about all of this, who is to till his landwhich he should otherwise have been doing as a first priority activity? our effort is to harness the existing capabilities of these islands of expertise, knowledge, transactions etc and bring these together to the farmers village in a sustainable manner that holistically addresses his various needs causing the least of disturbance or inconvenience to him. eagro initiative in orissa as a live pilot, we’ve set up several rural village entrepreneur driven outposts (agro service) hubs (in different remote geo-climatic zones for the diversity) that provide the farmer with various essential, much needed and cost effective services in a manner that is hassle-free, single window and localized at the village level. each of the hubs caters to farmers within a 5km radius, and is manned by a carefully selected local social entrepreneur who knows the agro domain, has the language and relationship skills and the drive and risk taking capacity to co-invest thru his time and in cash and kind. our idea from a commercial breakeven standpoint for this initiative was to reduce the upfront investment burden and keep it barebones and minimal, to examine, demonstrate and convince one and all about the soundness of the business case. so, for the ict part, we initially used the bare minimum…at each location –there is a netbook equipped with a digital camera and a fixed broadband connection(where available)/dialup broadband (eg. via reliance’s cdma datacard). the application that we initially built for the pilots have been pretty rudimentary using ms access database and ms groove. this has really served the initial purpose of managing the agro service oriented operations for a limited scale of upto about 10-15 hubs/entrepreneurs. the application is now being augmented to a more robust and scalable web-based system in a modular manner, to serve the individual and collective needs of the various stakeholders in the agro ecosystem. salient features the salient features of the ekutir approach is that it is : a small farmer centric individualised portfolio management approach which captures his entire (static and ongoing dynamic) details of assets (his land), the cropping patterns, the growth & risk mitigation practices, his interactions with financers, suppliers, marketeers and advisors, the cost of his various transactions, the parameters of returns/productivity –such as qty of produce, sales value, net income. net-net: it is a great tool for assisting the farmer plan his livelihood and monitor his own performance. a good basis for micro finance institutions to evaluate credit worthiness of the farmer, and later his performance vis-à-vis their loan/investment. ict enabled (for its adaptability, replicability and scalability: enabling bridging of various divides and bringing facilities and knowledge from various agro related sources far and wide to the convenience of the farmer), driven by a local village social micro-entrepreneur (who has the drive, energy, motivation and local connects and context to facilitate service access to his farmer customers) and and most importantly, it is participatory in approach (with small-farmers being the central focusgetting them organized into collectives for the benefits of aggregation and scale, becoming empowered and gaining control over their destiny, vs. being helpless bystanders to the unscrupulous middlemen. the key aspect is that the farmers through their involvement in the biz, are actually scripting the business rules themselves, and therefore automatically bringing their buy-in, so fundamental to sustainability). results and findings we are happy to report that the business case has been very successful-even though, we chose the backward parts of orissa (the least developed of constituencies in india) as the site for our projectswithin a short period of 4-5 months, each of the hubs have operationally achieved break-even…and are now at a stage where each hub earns a net income of about rs 6-10k/month. and, this is despite the fact that we are still only operating at ¼ capacity, addressing only about a 100 out of the 400 odd farmer base/hub, and only with a fraction of the full portfolio of services. impact on the agriculture ecosystem stakeholders besides the financial success achieved in a short time, the real measure of success has been the interest and enthusiasm of the farmers and other stakeholders like the agro university domain experts, genuine seed suppliers, fertilizer and pesticide cos, large-scale marketeers such as reliance fresh and small localized markets (mandi’s) in towns have all been phenomenal and gratifying to noteit is because of the increased livelihood impact: new income and additional potential as also the efficiencies that such an it solution brings to all of themletting each to operate without disturbing their comfort zone and yet providing them the ability to reach a large no of potential users/customers/sellers, the ability to aggregate/leverage/bargain/transact at beyond the minimal threshold level, plus the level of transparency it has brought and the ability to circumvent inefficient processes & unethical practices. example quality seeds supplythanks to our service, the farmer has been able to get seeds and practical advice directly from the “genuine” seed sellerthereby increasing the germination rate from the abysmal 20% (thru the existing spurious seed suppliers) to a guaranteed 80% or more figure! for the seed sellerthis direct connection to the farmer and accessing the latters’ demographic data (land holdings, types of crops, type of land, soil type..) is crucial to break into the hitherto stranglehold of the “unscrupulous” pirate type middlemen, and provides them the opportunity to actually connect with farmers, advise them on best practices and also get the required feedback from the individual farmer, who can then be a secondary source of future non-contaminated seeds. now, an agro expert in pant nagar or financier (say nabard) in mumbai or soil scientist in bhubaneswar or sales agent in kolkata, can all have one-to-one sessions (online chat: choice of text, audio, video) or many to one conference calls with the farmer in rural orissa, or even with each other thru our entrepreneur-moderated service, so distances can be bridged, expertise and knowledge can be shared and a feeling of oneness is created across. in essence, our service is akin to a personalized portfolio management system that is offered by banks to high net-worth individuals…only here, it is an advisory & transaction system that is farmer centric and spans / connects all the stakeholders in the agriculture chain, in a seamless manner delivering the various enabling services that a small farmer needs, conveniently and cost-effectively! impact om microfinance and access of cost-effective and timely funds for the farmer the micro-financer, unfortunately hitherto deemed the small farmer as being too risky and not-credit-worthy (and in the process missing out on the largest chunk-over half the population of the country)…now, with access to the comprehensive demographic information of the farmer: the data on his holdings, the crop distribution pattern, the past income and ability to foresee the future income, the soil type, the water availability, the linkage to the weather info, access to mechanized interventions, the supply of quality seeds and inputs, the involvement and advice of experienced agro researchers and professors, the increased price potential due to aggregation and leverage of better products and services…all of this is of huge value to the financer, who can now form a basis for providing credit and also then providing a mechanism for monitoring the progress of the farmer, and eventual success of the loan. moreover, from a macro perspective, this helps the financer structure the appropriate products for credit and insurance bringing access to financial service to this large segment of populations and really opening the sector up for unprecedented growth. impact on agro domain experts agriculture subject matter experts at agriculture universities and research organizations now get to productively and conveniently interact in an individualized and personalized manner with a very extended farmer-base, without having to incur the time and expense trying to visit farms to diagnose and address real agricultural issues at the grass-roots, rather than imaginary ones emanating out of their glass-houses. this renewed “appropriate connectivity” has ensured there is an alignment between the research work that is undertaken, and the problems and needs of the farmer at the grass roots level. impact on the small farmer just to understand the impact of the above farmer centric innovations on the small farmer. the 50%300% increase in net returns for one crop cycle, has translated into money becoming available to the farmer to fund his next crop cycleremoving his dependence on the nasty moneylender who operates on obscene interest rates; or the ability for him to invest in “quality of life” spends…on education, food, health, travel or consumer goods. all causing a heart-rending smile to permeate across the faces of the farmer household and the infectious enthusiasm and confidence to spread. farmer: charana sasmal financial analysis preintervention (inr) postintervention (inr) benefits seed 4,500.00 9,225.00 guaranteed quality seed at higher price, better germination rate, better yield advantage of lower ekutir bulk rate, benefit passed onto farmer minimal labour used and that too more for general upkeep, not for pests/diseases (better disease and pest resistant seeds and appropriate use of fertilizer and pesticides in right quantity) minimized expense towards pesticides advice on changed crop pattern & best seed type; type of fertilizer, the amount and precedure of application, and general advice on crop maintenance informed farmer increased his cost by 27% increase of production by ~15% increased sales by ~122% (for better variety crop, quality and quantity increased cash flow by ~423% fertiliser 1,200.00 1,000.00 mechanisation 400.00 credit 4,000.00 4,000.00 labour 1,200.00 350.00 pesticides 500.00 355.00 information 0.00 80.00 total cost 11,800.00 15,010.00 production in kg 1,200.00 1,375.00 sale 1,550,000.00 34,375.00 net benefit 3,700.00 19,365.00 the impact on the social entrepreneur (mr prasantha) is illustrated below which depicts the financial transactions he has made over the first 12 months since he took up the eagro initiative. before he took up the initiative, he was a village trader earning at best, about rs 24,000/p.a. on taking up this eagro service business, he incurred a capital expenditure/ initial investment of about rs 36,000/. thru his service revenues and commissions, he achieved break-even on his operating expenditure within the first 4 months itself, and was able to be net positive on his capex after 6.5 months itself! an extremely phenomenal result, considering the seemingly himalayan endeavour of reversing the perceived negative trends of agriculture traditions. this case of prasantha is not isolatedsince then this trend has continued with the other hubs also following suit, becoming net-positive and posting healthy growth, while delivering on all the set customer oriented quality of service norms. entrepreneur: prasantha for first 12 months benefits expenses 49900 he has recovered his capex within 7 months. while still operating within 20% of the total no of addressable farmers in the area (80 out of 400 farmers), and offering a fraction of the total types of services benefits of project to entrepreneur in year 1 itselfincreased cash flow, increased stature in village hierarchy, high visibility & potential to ramp up income further with more types of rev generating services, and access to a larger no of clients (with increased deployment of function rich it apps, freeing up his time from doing the repeatable tasks) turnover 850000 gross income 109000 net income 59100 % of turnover 7.00% net income per month average 4925 capex amount 36000 overall impact at a community level: the scope of the current successful ekutir grameen-intel’s project has been through the experiences gained at the 7 hubs (serving a hinterland of ~3000 small farmer households, directly impacting ~25,000 people). the social entrepreneurial interventions are emerging as great replicable engines for growth and development, providing additional livelihood opportunities and employment with potential to impact all sectors of farm ecosystem (farmers, suppliers of seeds, fertilizer, chemicals, organic products; academia, research, organised retail, wholesale merchants and markets, microfinance, equipment leasing etc), at a macro level. eg. empowerment of small farmers through concerted group participation and resultant collective collaboration and action to deliver productivity gains, reducing their fragmentation/ isolation and wresting control of their lives and livelihoods. becoming apparent to the rural community at large that ict has potential to change lives and livelihoods of rural citizens, providing additional funds to redeploy into improving their family health, education and other self-actualization needs. despite the limited context of the project currently, the resultant rural prosperity and job creation has created enough of an impact to arrest migration: in the face of adverse realities for the rural farmer, his ability to surmount the various challenges -enabled by his increased integration with the agro ecosystem, bringing back prosperity to the families and communities, making for a healthy and happy communityquite the reverse of the existing alarming situation of unviable farming resulting in massive rural-urban migration. removing inefficiencies in the system: transparency innate to ict bringing much value to farmer as well as suppliers (eg supply of genuine seeds & fertilizers by connecting the consumer to the producer) , end-marketeers (better terms for farmer, market aggregator and consumer) and financers (bringing capital, credit and insurance to the village) optimal utilization of hitherto underused knowledge resources, expertise & dissemination of best practices to large multitude of poor farmers with hitherto noc such access, resulting in maximization of yield and productivity. access to multiple markets for pricing information discovery & fulfillment empowering the farmer, and giving him better market choices. empowering small and medium size farmers with their collective bargaining power for both the buyand sellside. simple, yet effective interventions, upleveling the economic status of the farmer and potentially bringing him out of poverty. current state of the eagro initiative we are now embarking on creating a far more integrated, robust and scalable it application that will enable the eagro biz to grow, scale to hundreds of such profitable hubs, facilitating the seamless link up with the adjacent micro-finance area (linking finance to livelihoods and entrepreneurship is key to opening up a huge opportunity for inclusive growth), and we are examining / welcoming “friendly” parties who can bring the funds and other synergies to the block to accelerate this hugely transformational exercise, that can be replicated and scaled and applied in various other parts of the developing world. with the farmer’ wallet being enriched by the described empowering initiatives that are bringing them back into the centre of the rural and food-supply ecosystem, they now seek to redeploy this money for the betterment of their quality-of-life! the trust that has been built up between the community and ekutir has resulted in the former almost asking or expecting the latter to advise them on other various possible applicable developmental interventions…such as access to affordable health (incl. access to primary health, qualified doctors, pharmacy/medicines, and also associated interventions such as supply of safe water, better sanitation practices), appropriate vocational training etc. in parallel with and as a result of the e-agro work, we are engaging with healthcare and education providers to experiment with and extend low-cost and appropriately tailored quality services (as above) in their respective sectors to our registered farmers. adjeacent and interrelated initiatives agro vocational training: on the anvil is an agriculture vocational training initiative for small farmers, where videos of agriculture best practices are being showcased to farmers, through the social entrepreneur route. this is very similar to the centrally web hosted youtube service. the agro training provider accesses a library of best agro practice videos through the internet broadband, these videos are structured as short clips that can be downloaded on demand and shown. just like the youtube video viewing experience-the farmer can view and assimilate the agro content (at no cost) and can interactively post his queries (thru the literate training host) and in time will receive feedback from the many agro-experts who are virtually available through the web. the business/ revenue model for this is through targeted advertisements, and monies collected through lead generation and commissions for products and services sold at the eagro hub as a result of this educational experience. eg. if a farmer were viewing a video on “importance of soil testing”, the revenues associated with this could be the targeted web advertising from suppliers of seeds and fertilizers, and, if the farmer is convinced on going ahead with the soil testing, then there would be additional revenues gained from the forwarded leads as well as commissions on sales of seeds, fertilizers and soil testing services. access to finance & bridging the n/s divide: one of the other forth coming plans is to leverage the power of the internet to create a zone for individualized north-south partnership, a theme called “each one, reach one”…where some of the caring folks who constitute the wealthy (but who do not know how to help), can partner with a farmer or a bunch of farmers, perhaps understand one-another’s material and self-actualization needs and help each other out in the process…eg. to a small farmer, the timely availability of just $ 250 at the relevant time (along with all the other support that we can provide at the hub) is an issue of life and death, of survival itselfthis reasonably small amount, if it can be spared by the “urban haves”, can really spur the growth of his families livelihood and all round development…providing handsome returns (part of which, he can return as annual interest, clean green food direct from the farm..) that he can share back with his benefactors, and create a few wide smiles that can be the result of our pipedream of bridging the various divides (north/south, urban/rural, supplier/marketer, digital divide). 1ekutir rural management services pvt ltd is a rural social enterprise that is creating globally scalable and sustainable social businesses that target massive socio-economic transformations through effective use of ict. ekutir’s focus is to create rural growth engines for sustainable livelihoods and commerce esp in areas like agriculture and village crafts, which constitute the bulk of vocations. these are supplemented by initiatives in vocational education and primary health. head quartered in bhubaneswar, orissa., ekutir has branch offices & experiment stations in bangalore and chennai, and rural extension service centres in 10 locations spread-out in 3 districts of orissa. some perspectives of understanding the adoption and implementat some perspectives on understanding the adoption and implementation of ict interventions in developing countries md.mahfuz ashraf phd candidate school of computing and information science, university of south australia, australia ashmy007@students.unisa.edu.au paul swatman professor school of computing and information science, university of south australia, australia paul.swatman@unisa.edu.au jo hanisch lecturer & researcher school of computing and information science, university of south australia, australia jo.hanisch@unisa.edu.au abstract research in the multi-disciplinary domain of ict and development indicates there is potential for information and communication technologies (ict) to contribute to a nation’s socio-economic, socio-technical and socio-cultural development. with this in mind, developing countries have been rushing to implement ambitious ict projects in rural areas with the direct/indirect supervision of institutions such as the world bank, the united nations (un) and other donor/local agencies. these interventions aim to provide positive developmental impacts on people’s lives at an individual, group or community level. interestingly, the main focus of the interventions has been on the implementation of ict projects themselves, rather than on understanding their impacts at the recipient or community level; and such lack of understanding has led to many failures of ict projects as reported. this paper highlights some important perspectives on research into ict and development while understanding the intentions behind the adoption and implementation of ict interventions in developing countries. we propose a framework to encourage further investigation into ict-led development projects which explicitly acknowledges the perspectives of: (i) the funding bodies, (ii) the organisations responsible for undertaking the intervention, and (iii) the to-be-affected community/ies, both dynamically and in context. introduction in the past, various ict1 initiatives in the developing countries of africa and southeast asia have attempted to address social, economic, technical, cultural, rural and community developmental issues . previously, these initiatives included a range of pilot projects, such as telecentres, multipurpose community access centres and information kiosks (harris, 2005), situated in rural/remote communities. they are implemented through the direct intervention of international donors, development agencies and non-governmental organizations (ngos) with the aim of improving people’s quality of life. unfortunately, many ict initiatives at the community level have not achieved the expected level of sustainability; and, at the same time, many ict projects were terminated once the donor organizations withdrew their funds from the projects . hence, donor agencies and practitioners, (especially infodev and the development gateway2) are making increased efforts to analyse the impact of such ict-led projects in developing countries. with their research in mind, this paper aims to expose some issues associated with ict-led development projects at the community level. to achieve this aim, we describe how ict and developmental research may be integrated, through an examination of four theoretical perspectives. following this discussion, we propose a framework that groups the four perspectives into three levels — macro, meso and micro — and supports dynamic, multi-perspective analysis in that context. the paper previews our agenda for future research into ict interventions in developing countries. a missing link within information and communication technology research research surrounding developing countries has been rare in the mainstream information system discipline . though there are some attempts to realize the potential benefits of ict in developing countries, the research generally does not examine the nature of ict interventions beyond the perspective of a ‘development intervention’ . this means that many initiatives suffer from the inability to distinguish between appropriate theories and guidelines, considering ‘ict’ on the one hand and ‘development’ on the other . moreover, existing information systems (is) theories and frameworks are generally based on homogeneous entities, leading to a one-size-fits-all view of developmental interventions. this results in insufficient priority being given to the local context and socio-economical factors in developing countries . one key issue is that global development agencies or practitioners generally rely on self-reporting to determine their own impact or value; and their measures may be subject to biases . without rigorous research concerning ict impact, it is difficult to postulate the extent to which there are influences/changes, and whether they are positive for the communities/recipients of the intervention. we contend that there is a need for an extension of existing is or ict theoretical paradigms by the creation of frameworks that will either analyse individual ict applications or measure ict impacts on socio-economic development, especially in developing countries. integrating ict with a developmental agenda ict can be a catalyst for effective development: but to play this key role it must be combined with appropriate developmental strategies. in a developing country, a development programme generally focuses on a combination of issues — including, for instance, the alleviation of poverty, education, human skills building and the creation of a social environment that is conducive to the provision of universal access to basic welfare systems . ict interventions in developing countries must address these issues and align with the development programmes of the country being dealt with . in order to examine the integration of ict with developmental agendas we now turn our attention to four major perspectives on the adoption and implementation of ict. perspective one: the digital divide the digital divide is defined as ‘the differential extent to which rich countries and poor countries benefit from various forms of it’ (james, 2007, p.284). it implies a widening of the gulf between the haves and have-nots with respect to information, communication and technology throughout the world. in developing countries, the digital divide may occur where there is a lack of infrastructure (such as electricity supply) or lack of access to modern technology (the internet, computers or mobile phones) (james, 2007). the digital divide can be viewed from various perspectives, such as industrial vs developing countries, rich vs poor countries, north vs south or information rich vs information poor. statistics suggest that developing countries own less than 4% of all computers: further, 75% of the world’s telephone handsets can be found in the 9 richest countries, while internet subscriptions in all of africa were only 6.31 million in september 2001, compared with 34.3 million in the uk . ict has both beneficial and detrimental effects and intended and unintended consequences : one major mitigating response to the digital divide is the development of ict infrastructure in developing countries: such response includes promoting the availability of more computers, widening the telecommunications network, and hastening the growth of internet service providers (isps) . but providing more computers does not necessarily result in bridging the digital divide, and may in fact actually restrict access to basic needs such as education, health care, capital, shelter, employment, clean water and food for those who are not able to process the information. more recently, the debate concerning the digital divide has broadened beyond physical access to computers and telecommunications: today the topic covers issues such as access to information and the additional resources that allow people to use technology such as content, language, education, literacy, community and social resources (warschauer, 2002). hence, the current challenge of bridging the digital divide can be expressed in terms of the dimensions of societal concerns, including increasing people’s opportunities, developing appropriate content and people’s capacities in using ict, especially in developing countries . understanding the developmental agenda from the digital divide perspective is essential when prioritising ict-led development projects and their specific target community/ies. perspective two: diffusion of innovation and transfer of ict innovation diffusion of innovation (rogers, 1983) is the process by which technological innovation is communicated through channels, over a period of time and among the members of a social system . it explores the factors influencing the rate of diffusion and the innovation decision-making process. as a theory, it has made a major contribution to the organizational perspective in is research. in diffusion of innovation literature, especially at the organizational level, some pre-conditions have been identified as necessary before a society can adopt technology ; for example, it is essential to have access to a personal computer before accessing the internet (technology is the central theme of this research, with less emphasis being placed on the social context of an innovation). in light of the limitations concerning the traditional diffusion of innovation approach, it is possible to draw upon alternative theories, such as actor-network theory (ant), which consider both human (social) and non-human (technology) factors as central to the discussion . ant replaces the concept of ‘diffusion’ by referring to ‘translation’ and examining how the actors ‘translate’ the interest of another, share their own interests and develop a complex heterogeneous network of human and non-human artifacts . thus ant can contribute significantly to knowledge while analysing the adoption and innovation of ict interventions in developing countries. it focuses more on the social aspects — the major concern of kling’s social informatics research. it is noteworthy that is researchers have also considered the social context while studying the organizational perspective of is . this perspective reinforces the idea of change as a socio-technical dynamic. perspective three: ict and development ict and development is a relatively broad concept that may be broken down into two sub-sections — first, the core concept of development and then ict’s interaction with it. development may be viewed with regard to any or all of a list of national goals or values in economic and social life . though there has long been a tendency to interchange development with growth, such identification came under criticism in 1960 : simply put, development considers human resource and infrastructure improvement whereas growth considers only per capita national income . development may be measured through various interconnected factors, such as social, economic, technical, cultural and political aspects . it is common practice to measure development using two types of indicators — economic and non-economic/social. economic indicators represent an aggregate measurement of a nation’s production, investment, consumption and government purchase , and directly influence the development of a nation. but this statement has been criticized as being too narrow, and not a real reflection of the way ‘development’ is understood in today’s society . these criticisms have led to changes in the way development is defined through various social-settings in a country. hence, many researchers argue that development may be measured by non-economic or social indicators that indirectly enable the process of development . for example, life expectancy reflects not only the level of medical service of a nation, but also the literacy rate, distribution of power, diet, income, poverty rate and occupational structures of the community. these non-economic or social indicators of development reached prominence during and after the mid-1980s when sen , a nobel prize winner in economics, developed his ‘capability approach’ . sen considers that development which enables the core of national development may be understood as the enlargement of people’s opportunities for choice. for example, the choice of a healthy life, the choice to be educated, the choice of an improved standard of living and so on are key to developing a nation. explain, ‘…capacity development is arguably one of the central development challenges of the day, as much of the rest of social and economic progress will depend on it. […] if the purpose of human development is to extend human capabilities, then capacity development is not merely a stepping stone towards higher levels of human development; it is an end in itself’ . sen’s human development viewpoint inspired the united nations development programme (undp) to develop four standard indices to measure the development of a nation . soeftestad and sein summarize the indices as follows: human development index (hdi): life expectancy at birth, educational level. gender development index (gdi): in addition to hdi indices, gdi focuses on the differences between genders gender equity measure (gem): the possibilities for women to be part of decision-making in business, economics and policies. human poverty index (hpi): the causes of poverty from various dimensions. there are two types of hpi. ‘hpi-1’ for developing countries and ‘hpi-2’ for industrial countries. these indicators highlight the complexities and difficulties of measuring non-economic dimensions of development against economic dimensions . moreover, intensive statistical co-relations, multivariate analysis and judgment are required to identify the most critical non-economic indicators for development . over the last decade academicians, researchers and global institutions such as the united nations (un), the international telecommunications union (itu), the world bank, as well as other regional-national level agencies and various international development agencies have worked together to set the millennium development goals (mdg) . the mdg provide certain tasks and strategies to investigate how ict can be enacted effectively in a country’s development, with particular attention on developing countries . overall, the literature of ict and development is clearly divided between two streams of thought, based on optimistic and pessimistic viewpoints. the optimistic viewpoint suggests that ict can act as a catalyst for development by making information exchange faster and more frequent, and by reducing costs. in developing countries, telecentres and information kiosks enable poor people to receive information about their governments, market prices, health and education . the pessimistic viewpoint expresses little hope that ict will lead to national development in developing countries. researchers in this mode consider that ict will not aid the development of developing countries because of deep-rooted problems such as poverty3, poor telecommunication infrastructure and lack of it investment . heeks attempts to resolve these two streams of thought with information rather than technology as central to his discussion. he argues that technology is just a dead box until it adds value and processes information. for example, one fax machine has no value in transforming information unless the receiver also has a fax machine. further, by introducing fax machines between many dispersed users, value is added to the information system by increasing the adoption from one person to another. according to heeks , technology must be understood in its surrounding context of economic, social, data and action resources which assist human beings to transform data into information. to ensure this process and achieve successful implementation of ict projects, heeks’ (2005a) information chain model provides a mechanism to 1) access data from the appropriate sources, 2) assess the data relevance, 3) apply the relevant data to a specific decision, and 4) act upon the decision. according to heeks , four different types of resources are essential for humans to process information. these are data resources (relevant data), economic resources (money, skills, technology), social resources (motivation from social setting, confidence as to the data source, knowledge for access), and action resources (skills and empowerment to act on decisions). heeks (2005b) suggests that it is necessary to follow the entire information chain in ict related activities to achieve ict and development. while, heeks’ approach to development is useful as a foundation of ict related development activities, there is also the need to consider differing contexts. for example, in a poor community where people have no access to data, they are not able to assess data as a meaningful concept; hence they cannot act upon their decisions. this may arise due to lack of financial resources or other social barriers . avergou and gigler argue that, similarly as with economic indicators, focusing merely on technological factors, such as the rate of technology adoption, the establishment of technological infrastructure, internet hosting, or the level of computer ownership should not be the only solutions towards ict led development in developing countries. access to information via the internet or telecommunications is not a very difficult task — the major challenge is the assessment/transformation of data into meaningful knowledge and the availability of the social resources . in response to the challenge of ict-related developmental programmes, emphasis has been given to the production of hardware, software, universal access (telecentres and information kiosks) and information content, while human capabilities needed to transform data and information into useful knowledge are often missing . focusing solely on technology factors assumes that people will automatically have access to and use the technology when it is available. however, people’s capabilities to access and assess data and to acquire and share knowledge have added another dimension to ict and development research . heeks emphasizes the necessity to analyse want rather than need in ict-led development projects. technology-focused projects often ignore understanding the user’s actual demands . most projects associated with needs analysis are of the top-down method, but it is more relevant to conduct a want analysis ; and user want/demand analysis tends to be a bottom-up, short-term analysis that ultimately determines what users actually demand . heeks’ demand analysis relates to sen’s capability approach by indicating the user’s willingness and ability to buy or get anything. gigler attempted to operationalise the capability approach while assessing ict impact on indigenous people’s empowerment in peru. according to heeks and sen , ict for development projects should give a high priority to studying the user’s actual capabilities rather than the typical top-down need analysis. for example, computer training cannot provide benefits to poor people in under-developed countries unless it addresses or enhances the capability to transfer knowledge or skills to the real world. here, the capability could be the level of literacy, social power and socio-cultural influence. perspective four: ict and organizational change since the 1970s, researchers have been attempting to understand the mutual interconnection between is and organizational change from the strategic business and contextual points of view (avgerou, 2001; bouwman, 2005; markus, 2000), so there is some implication that technological adoption within the changing business environment leads to core concepts of organizational change . these researchers attempt to understand is by examining the interaction between technical and social aspects . many theories have been developed to investigate internal/external factors affecting organizational change, and how the actors (employees, senior management) behave purposefully in managing it . according to how quickly change is enacted in an organization, the theories may be classified in two ways — evolutionary or revolutionary . the evolutionary theorist examines small changes in the organization applying the same general working framework; the revolutionary theorist suggests radical changes for the entire organizational framework in order to achieve a competitive advantage . some researchers consider a mixture of both evolutionary and revolutionary theories . the planned view of change has been a dominant model in organizational development and is theory. lewin’s pioneering work provides a general framework for understanding the process of organizational change, that involves three main layers: 1) unfreezing the present level, 2) moving to a new level, and 3) refreezing the new level. in the planned view of change, senior management only are responsible for creating the vision of change and developing its agenda. external agents of change, such as management consultants, can assist the organization to initiate change. however, since the early 1980s, the planned approach has come under increasing criticism, because it may ignore the context of the changing business environment. in response to this criticism, the emergent view of change was conceptualised, as bernard (1996) writes: ‘the emergent model tends to see change as driven from the bottom up rather than from the top down, and stresses that change is an open-ended and continuous process of adaptation to changing conditions and circumstances’ . this view considers the complex nature of change as interplay of multiple variables within the organization, including such variables as political pressure, consultation and context. organizational context has become a dominant theme in is/ict-led organizational change research, and the potential value of ict and is can be achieved within an independent context surrounded by social actors . the study of context focuses on two issues: managing complex inter-organisational factors or process; and mobilizing resources from the social context outside the organization . context is not seen as a barrier to action, but as an important element of managing ict-led organizational change . further, this approach studies the process of organizational change over time, and examines the systems within which ict is implemented; thus the contexualist approach is appropriate when investigating change at the organization level. as ngos and local community organizations are key sources when implementing ict interventions in developing countries, it is relevant for practitioners and researchers to analyze the potential impact of ict interventions at the organizational level: the significance of context in ict-led projects in the community cannot be over emphasized. invariably ict-led projects in developing countries involve the transfer of technologies and organizational practices which were originally deemed useful in other socio-organizational contexts; so their potential value, their fit in the local socio-organizational conditions and their feasibility cannot be taken for granted. indeed, what now may be considered fundamental, it is noteworthy that there is substantial evidence to indicate that local context is of significance when designing new ict projects in developing countries . framework for future research we have discussed ict interventions in developing countries from four perspectives — the digital divide, diffusion of innovation, development and organisational change. we now develop the argument that if donor agencies or is researchers wish to understand and/or evaluate the adoption and implementation of ict innovations in developing countries, it is necessary to approach the research from multiple perspectives. we recognise that the impact of ict interventions goes beyond simple economic factors, affecting also human, social and political structures, both within the communities which are directly affected by the intervention, and within an expanding context surrounding those communities. in essence, we argue that for an assessment framework to be robust, it must be founded upon a holistic understanding of the impact of ict on communities — robust frameworks have to recognise the complex nature of such projects. too often impact assessment frameworks focus on the efficiency and availability of computer hardware and software, ‘paying insufficient attention to the human and social systems that must also change for technology to make a difference’ (warschauer, 2002, p. 4). ict-led development projects are embedded in a complex array of factors encompassing physical, digital, human, and social resources and relationships that exist across the three layers of the intervention described in table 1. table 1 adoption and implementation of ict-led projects macro funding programmes – provide (normally on a competitive basis) financial and other support for ict-led projects which meet programme-specific guidelines. domain interest groups (digs) define the intervention projects and seek funding for them. digs may, for example, be national strategically-focussed bodies or multi-national groups. there is potential for tension — to be seen within the project proposal — between the aims of the digs and the guidelines of the various potential funding programmes through which the project may be funded. meso projects may be implemented by teams drawn from a range of organization types (sometimes project teams/leadership and management may be drawn from by the dig, more often from specialist international consultancies). in addition to normal commercial pressure, a tension is potentially observable between the specifications of the project (the contract to be fulfilled) and the needs of the end-users. micro community or group which is impacted directly by the project – the “participants” and their socio-politico-organizational context. furthermore, for it to be robust, a framework must recognise the dynamic nature of the relationships between actors within and amongst these layers. at the macro layer, it is possible to take two clearly different perspectives in respect of any ict-led intervention, namely: the national interest. for example, in bangladesh, the gonokendra4 project may be considered part of a national strategy to support the sustainable economic and social development of disadvantaged groups – in this case, the rural/regional/remote (r3) population with a specific focus on women. from this perspective the framework should support placing the specific intervention projects within the context of this national strategy and, in particular, answering the question: ‘how should the intervention projects contribute to carrying forward this national strategy?’ or the mission of the body. for example, the un/world bank – or the aid programme within that body which provides funds for the project. ‘on what basis did the funding body decide to promote the project? what was the process by which the allocation of resources was established? what does the funding body see as the success criteria for the project?’ at the micro layer we can identify communities – in the case of the bangladeshi gonokendra programme, internally heterogeneous village communities, geographically located within r3 bangladesh – members of which form the primary targets of the ict-led intervention. the primary and even secondary impact of an intervention at the micro-layer is relatively easy to assess; conventional assessment frameworks, for example, focus on ‘how many villagers are trained under the programme?’; ‘how many villagers receive basic hygiene information? … and what is the impact of this on child morbidity and mortality?’ more diffuse and distant impacts (for example, population drift as a consequence of ‘trained’ villagers migrating to capital city jobs) – especially those which exhibit a longer dynamic period are, however, less well supported by existing frameworks. following this hypothetical example further, we can see that population drift has impact beyond the target village community (though it clearly does have impact on it) — affecting, for example, the actors concerned with the national interest whom we described in our discussion of the macro-layer, above. at the meso layer, we can see organisations normally contracted to macro-layer organisations responsible for developing and delivering the intervention to the target communities. during both development and delivery, meso-layer organisations interact dynamically with actors at both macro and micro layer level. in practice, aid-funded ict intervention projects in developing countries are typically guided and designed at the macro level as a consequence of some form of negotiation between national strategic and funding body actors, developed at the meso-level and implemented by meso-layer organization within micro layer — perhaps village — communities. typically, implementation, project management and quality assurance approaches and evaluation strategies (success factors) are defined by macro-level organizations. tensions evolving dynamically across the range of actor perspectives are inevitable. whilst these tensions may be perceived as undesirable and indicative of a lack of predictability, we argue that they are, perhaps, not only inevitable but to be embraced. by embracing the tensions and working towards an improved outcome for all levels, the intervention is more likely to be successful and sustainable. bridging the digital divide (perspective 1) is ultimately a goal, and not a strategy for achieving that goal. the insights we can draw from perspective 3 (ict and development) highlight the somewhat unpredictable ripple effect of intervention in social contexts and also expand the range of dimensions within which we seek beneficial impact from our interventions. perspective 4 (ict and organizational development) develops the theme of interaction between actors and characterizes the process of change as a combination of evolutionary and revolutionary dynamics. finally, diffusion of innovation (perspective 2) reinforces the idea of change as a socio-technical dynamic. our earlier research (wilde & swatman, 1997; wilde & swatman, 2005; wilde & swatman, 2006; wilde, swatman, & cavill, 2004) demonstrates that the principles which structure the academic domain ‘is strategy’ can be applied not only to organisations within their markets, but to communities within their regional, national and international contexts. in simple terms, transformation of communities – considered both from a community and from a national perspective – is most effective when (i) overall community strategy aligns with community information systems and ict strategies; and (ii) these intra-community strategies are compatible with the strategic opportunities offered within their regional/national/international context. we now extend these ideas to suggest a three-layer framework within which actors may be observed as they dynamically seek alignment from their own perspectives – through which multi-dimensional assessment of the an intervention may occur. conclusion and future work the framework proposed in this research is on three levels — micro, meso and macro. these underpin four core perspectives — bridging digital divide, diffusion of innovation and transfer of ict innovation, development and ict, and organizational change. we described some core issues, challenges and recent works within these four perspectives that provide the foundation of such a framework — a normative tool for academicians, practitioners or donor agencies investigating the adoption and implementation of ict interventions in developing countries. for the future, our core research question is, what factors spanning macro-meso-micro levels influence the planning, development and implementation of ict-led development projects in developing nation environments, and how can they be anticipated and measured in practice? the framework developed in this paper allows us to design a strategy for approaching this question. we can observe that change is not a linear process. when we assess impact we must assess a network of events taking place within, between and across the macro, meso and micro levels rather than assessing a chain of sequential events. we have argued that holistic impact assessments must account for all three levels of analysis. the macro, meso and micro levels are closely interconnected, but their connections are not matched in terms of objectives, goals and so on; for example, the terms of reference for funding applications often dictate who applies for funding as well as how projects are framed. this, in turn, influences the modalities of the project and results in a certain set of consequences. we suggest the connection between the levels is poorly understood and requires further research. as an organisation profits from the application of is by creating an environment in which it has competitive advantage, we argue that a community may create an environment of ‘comparative thrivingness’ by the judicious application of is in economic, service delivery and social areas (wilde & swatman, 2005, n.p.). belief in the need for alignment of is and business strategies is pervasive, and provides a rich vein in the strategic is literature (burn & szeto, 2000; clemons, 1986; henderson & venkatramen, 1993; teo & king, 1997). alignment 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(2001). a preliminary evaluation of online access centres: promoting micro e-business activity in small, isolated community, the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries, 4(1), 1-17. 1information and communication technologies can be defined as ‘electronic means of capturing, processing, storing, and communicating information’ ( 2ict for development research affiliates of the world bank. 3poverty derived from the viewpoint of the lack of financial resources of a person whose income is less than $2 per day.(since the 1990s, the concept of poverty has gone beyond measures of income. according to the european commission (eu), poverty is defined as ‘the deprivation of basic capabilities and lack of access to education, health, natural resources, employment, land and credit, political participation, services and infrastructure’ (european ). 4gonokendra means multi-purpose community access centre that provides computer training program and disseminates information related to basic human welfare through multi-media projector (pace, 2005). fullilove, mindy thompson fullilove, mindy thompson. (2004) root shock: how tearing up city neighborhoods hurts america, and what we can do about it. new york: one world/ballantine books, 2004. usd 14.95. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/53970697     aiko takazawa university of illinois at urbana-champaign     root shock is a book about how communities experience and even recover from shock. because shock is so commonplace today (klein, 2007), community informatics can learn a lot from fullilove’s work. and as fullilove continues her work with communities (for details see rootshock.org), it is possible to imagine her embracing some of the findings of community informatics. fullilove takes up america’s unspoken reality, the problems of poverty and discrimination. as a social psychiatrist, fullilove diagnoses modern-day america, devastated by the national urban renewal projects that began in the 1950s. her methods include community visits, extensive individual interviews, and analyses of particular caricatures, photographs, and drawings produced by residents of bulldozed communities. tracing the earliest urban renewal projects from the 1950s and conducting fieldwork in virginia, new jersey, and pennsylvania, fullilove finds both individuals and communities suffering from the displacement. starting from the housing act of 1949, the unequal distribution of investment in the area created unstable and isolated communities of african americans the first urban renewal, the 1955 commonwealth project, began in roanoke, a historic virginia neighborhood. in a series of urban renewals, the african american communities in northeast roanoke were wiped out. banks stopped investing, people started moving out, and vacant houses became attractive to extremely poor and troubled people. in essex county in newark, n.j. a similar process apparently broke the community up into pieces consisting of the wealthy and the poor. fullilove asserts that displacement through the destruction of neighborhoods and communities, whether by natural or man-made forces, causes emotional pain and a reaction similar to that of shock in the individual experiencing the displacement and loss--a root shock. “root shock […], disables powerful mechanisms of community functioning, leaving [african americans in particular] at an enormous disadvantage for meeting the challenges of globalization (p. 20).” fullilove’s examination yields two main proposals aimed at different audiences. first, she emphasizes redesigning our education infrastructure to better support victims of root shock. schools should provide children with the stable conditions of living where they can spend time on learning not only math but also how to heal their pain. second, she recommends that “[e]very community […] needs an institution designed for gathering, where people can learn whatever it is they need to learn in order to go forward into an ever-changing future (p. 233).” fullilove focuses on african american communities, but around the world we are experiencing a spiral of disintegration of community. people still carry forward their detailed memories of the beauty of their homes as well as the struggle that urban renewal threw them into. however, even forced to give up on the community where they have built networks of connections, people press on to replant their lives and start again, just as with any living organism. while communities have lost the financial and human resources to rebuild their localities and cultures, urban renewal doesn’t have to prevent a history of that community being preserved. a community informatics perspective on root shock would take into account the role of information and communications technologies (ict). while fullilove emphasizes people needing access to technologies and computer skills for the workforce, a public library or a telecentre, a cybercafé or community network services and media could serve as a powerful remedy for the root shock by using digital tools for community-rebuilding. durrance, et al. (2005) and williams and alkalimat (2004) report ways that ict serves as a central station for community repositories, whether it be libraries providing online community information or community technology centers producing hiphop music on social issues. people join and leave communities for a variety of good reasons, as well as in crises. but root shock demonstrates that devastation can be minimized, and change more successfully navigated, if communities take measures before as well as after crises to strengthen the (interconnected) root systems of their members. inspired by root shock, a video clip was created by a group of 6th grade students at the ahlcon international school in new delhi. the story uses the indian tree, thought of as a depository of souls to show how a sense of cultural, spiritual, and social belongingness that people had lost can be revived and become stronger by reestablishing a new root again in unfamiliar soil (american red cross, 2007). people working in government offices, disaster and crisis response and recovery planning, community development, urban planning, and non-profit and non-governmental offices, librarians, researchers and education officials can all benefit from being aware of how root shock impacts communities and how, after a root shock, social development and commitment for all that is the basis for community an be maintained. references   american red cross. (2007, november 22). root shock. retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pexf6jghdc   durrance, joan c. et al. (2005) how libraries and librarians help: a guide to identifying user-centered outcomes. chicago, il. american library association, 2005.   klein, naomi. (2007) the shock doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism. new york, ny. picador, 2007.   williams, kate, and abdul alkalimat. (2004) “a census of public computing in toledo, ohio,” in shaping the network society: the new role of civic society in cyberspace, doug schuler and peter day, editors. cambridge, mass., the mit press, 2004. word template for hci international 2003 papers using system dynamics to construct design theory on community information systems aldo de moor communitysense, the netherlands ademoor@communitysense.nl abstract virtual communities are complex and evolving socio-technical systems. community information systems require much theoretical research to address concrete design problems. community is design theory is still very young and fragmented, however. in this article, we outline a design theory construction methodology that could help build conceptual linkages between the disparate collection of (proto)-theories, heuristics, and empirical data available in community informatics. the aim of such a methodology is to more efficiently define, select, link, and evaluate theoretical insights about which technologies and procedures to use to satisfy particular (community) information or communication requirements. we explore how simulation via system dynamics could play an important role in the more systematic development of design theory for community information systems. introduction virtual communities are complex and evolving socio-technical systems. communities are not just aggregates of people, temporarily interacting. they have been defined as groups of people who share social interactions, social ties, and a common space (kozinets, 1999). a virtual community differs from other communities in that its common space is cyberspace. virtual communities therefore describe the union between individuals or organizations who share common values and interests using electronic media to communicate within a shared semantic space on a regular basis (schubert and ginsburg, 2000). much research on online communities has focused on community characteristics like success factors, drivers, roles, and social norms (e.g. andrews, 2002). other research examines the role of specific technologies in community performance (e.g. schubert and koch, 2003). yet another major stream of research studies the process of technology adoption by communities, and what happens in case of a lack of access to or use of technologies, such as problems with respect to the digital divide and effective use (e.g. gurstein, 2003). most of this research focuses on elements or aspects of the technologies supporting communities. another important line of research, concerns the process in which the information systems of technologies supporting communities can be developed. such systems are not identical to the virtual communities themselves, but rather form the technical support systems that support (human) communities in their information and communication needs. in the development process of such systems, a mix of technologies is tailored to the unique needs of a particular online community. some well-known approaches addressing this problem are wenger et al.'s (2002) approach to cultivating communities of practice, gongla & rizzuto's approach to evolving communities of practice (2001), and preece's (2000) method for community-centred development. still, systematic methods for the development of community information systems solidly grounded in theory are rare and may as yet be premature. is research is still a young discipline. paradigms, concepts, models, methods and techniques are in the early stages of development, compared to the more established natural and social sciences. much information systems (is) development theory is inspired by a behavioral science paradigm, in which the goal is to develop and justify theories that explain or predict the organizational and human phenomena surrounding information systems analysis, design, implementation, management and use. a complementary perspective is provided by a problem-solving design science paradigm. it seeks to create innovations that define the ideas, practices, technical capabilities, and products through which the study and development of information systems can be accomplished effectively and efficiently (hevner et al., 2004). when trying to build theory on community is development, this design science paradigm is an important starting point. a design theory is prescriptive theory based on theoretical underpinnings which say how a design process can be carried out in a way which is both effective and feasible (walls, 1992). such a theory can help describe, analyze, and optimize design methods. to aid in theory development, hevner et al.'s (2004) framework for conducting, evaluating, and presenting is research is useful. the framework focuses on the relations between behavioral and design research processes. these processes are informed by both the ‘environment’ (people, organizations, and technologies) and a ‘knowledge base’ of conceptual foundations and methodologies potentially useful in conducting the research. using such an analytical framework can help researchers develop new representations of is problems, solutions, and solution processes. although such approaches are a useful starting point for analyzing community is development, they are too generic. other design theories for specific classes of is have been developed, such as a design theory for vigilant eis (walls et al., 1992) and for emergent knowledge process support systems (markus et al., 2002). community is development also has specific properties, such as the importance of effective communal use in terms of collaborative and collectively identified goals, the need to support sociability, and the strong interrelationship between theory and practice (gurstein, 2003; preece, 2000). the aim of this paper is to help provide the community informatics-community with the methodological tools to start working towards design theories specific for community is. in this paper, we will not address the content of such theories: the specific characteristics of community is development and the approach to turning requirements into effective systems demands the collaboration of many theorists and practitioners in the field. instead, we outline a methodology that could help build conceptual linkages between the disparate collection of (proto)-theories, heuristics, and empirical data available in community informatics. the aim of such a methodology is to more efficiently define, select, link, and evaluate theoretical insights about which technologies and procedures to use to satisfy particular (community) information or communication requirements. a starting point for such a methodology is current work in is design theories. the methodology outlined revolves around a workflow for selecting a design problem, relevant design hypotheses, theory components and dynamic model components. we use system dynamics as an approach to visualizing and examining the implications of the selected theoretical components. in sect.2, we explore the characteristics of community is design. sect. 3 examines the notion of is design theories which leads to our meta-model of is design theory development. in sect. 4, we introduce system dynamics and outline our methodology for using it in community is design theory construction. sect. 5 and sect. 6 contain a discussion and conclusion. appendix 1 describes in detail a hypothetical scenario about constructing theory on conflict resolution in online gaming communities. community is design community is are a special class of information systems, both in terms of the artifacts and the methodologies used. interesting community-specific theoretical components, comprising both conceptual and methodological components, abound. an example of a conceptual component is the concept of sociability (preece, 2000). examples of methodological components are numerous design heuristics, e.g. on the role of facilitation in building online communities (preece, 2000; wershler-henry & surman, 2001). these theoretical components are necessary and useful for the design purposes of the information systems needed by communities1. still, which components to use for which types of community design problems, and what interaction effects occur when combining theoretical components, is largely unknown. progress towards a more coherent, deep theory is still very much lacking in the area of community is design. a major cause of the lack of conceptual progress, which applies to the is field in general, and the community is research community in particular, is the fragmentation of research efforts. unhealthy fragmentation is not equal to healthy pluralism. when pluralism prevails in a research community there is a diversity of ideas, perspectives, research approaches and paradigms, but there is also a shared underlying core set of knowledge or beliefs. in the case of fragmentation, there is insufficient communication between different (sub)-communities, and no such – necessary – core knowledge set exists (hirschheim and klein, 2003). there are several reasons for this state of fragmentation in community is design research. the field is still very young, even younger than the is field in general. furthermore, because of cultural differences, there is large gap between theorists and practitioners in this domain. often rightly so, practitioners, working with and in communities express a sense of hostility towards the many researchers still presenting quick technological fixes for very complex social problems. a third, more fundamental problem, has to do with the nature of community is, which, of all types of is development probably most requires a systemic and longitudinal approach. systemic means that the many different components (tools, procedures, functionalities, roles, persons…) can only be appropriately analyzed, designed, implemented, and evaluated as part of the information system-in-its-context-of-community-use. longitudinal refers to such a system evolving over a considerable period of time, since it is not possible to declare a community, only to grow it with much trial-and-error. much research on online communities so far has focused on studying technological functionalities; the linguistic and (inter)action behaviors of community members and the social networks in which they operate; and the drivers for cooperation and participation in virtual communities (e.g. schubert & koch; 2003; huysman et al., 2003; cassell & tversky; 2005; kozinets, 1999). however, true community information systems development also requires a careful study of the continuous process of co-evolving complex social and technical systems. new tools lead to new practices and ways of working, which in turn lead to new affordances of and constraints on technical innovation (winograd, 1995). communities cannot be declared, but need to be slowly grown over a long period of time (wenger et al., 2002). studying isolated relations between, for example, a particular design intervention and an increase of effectiveness in a community, is not of much use. instead, these relations should be examined as embedded in complex socio-technical systems, characterized by interdependencies and long-term evolution. one way to conceptualize such systems, particularly applicable to communities with their fuzzy, dynamic, and permeable nature, is as “socio-technical networks”. these are interrelated and interdependent milieux of people, their social and work practices, hardware and software, the norms of use, the support systems that aid users, and the maintenance systems that keep their icts operating (lamb et al., 2000). to design such networks, traditional waterfall-based systems development approaches, with their clear stages, deliverables and well-understood dependencies no longer suffice (brooks, 1995). instead, more holistic views are required, particularly in the design stage, where the realized effects of community is interventions often turn out to be quite different from the intended effects due to the socio-technical network complexities. the challenge is to go beyond reactively studying information systems as change agents and instead to pro-actively improve specific ways of engineering systems that can contribute to desired changes in the environment (purao & truex, 2004). with respect to community is this is even more important, since interventions are so hard to design due to the systemic, longitudinal and situated nature of communities. how then to arrive at better, more coherent design theories for this very complex domain? before we can suggest one possible answer this question, we first need to take a closer look at how these theories can be understood. is design theories as noted in the previous section, community is are the systems of interacting technologies supporting the information and communication requirements of human communities. such systems have special properties in terms of content and functionalities, compared to more traditional information systems such as banking or payroll systems that typically handle (transaction) data and information.. still, many of the meta-design theoretical principles related to the development of such systems are useful, at least as a starting point. information systems are more than just arbitrary sets of hardware, software, and data. they are systems composed out of these elements whose mission it is to improve the performance of people in organizations through the use of information technology (mcnurlin & sprague, jr., 1989). typically, systems are developed in a number of stages. there are many different sub-divisions within the systems development process. one widely accepted interpretation of two of its key stages is the following: systems analysis is the process of collecting, organizing, and analyzing facts about a particular is and the environment in which it operates. systems design then, is the conception, generation and formation of a new system, using the results of the analysis (hirschheim et al., 1995, p.11). frequently, there is an overlap between the two stages, but overall, the analysis stage focuses on what the information system must do, and the design stage on how the system will do it (yeates et al., 1994). the purpose of a design theory is to support the achievement of goals, contrary to the purpose of natural science theory. walls et al (1992) give a good introduction to design theories for information systems. they show how explanatory, predictive, or normative theories can be put to practical use. in their view, design needs to be seen both as a process and as a product. from a product-perspective, a design theory consists of several components: meta-requirements, describing the class of goals to which the theory applies; meta-design, a class of artifacts hypothesized to meet the meta-requirements; kernel theories governing design requirements; and testable design product hypotheses, to check whether the meta-design satisfies the meta-requirements. from a process-perspective, the components are a design method describing procedures for artifact construction; kernel theories governing the design process; and testable design process hypotheses, to check whether or not the design method results in an artifact consistent with the meta-design. hevner et al. (2004) present a related view on is design theories. in their information systems research framework, design science (applied to address novel organizational problems) creates and evaluates it artifacts intended to solve the identified problems. is research is influenced by the “environment of use” (people, organizations, and technology), as well as by a “knowledge base of theoretical components” consisting of “foundations” and “methodologies”. to build is relevant to an environment, applicable knowledge from the knowledge base must be applied in the building of artifacts that are part of the is. these artifacts, put to use, must then be evaluated according to the utility criterion of how well they meet the business needs of the users. if the intervention has proven to be successful, the knowledge that a particular foundational/methodological component was useful in the design of a particular artifact for this particular context can be added to the knowledge base. in their view, a clear distinction must therefore be made between “routine design” and “design science research” in which unsolved design problems are addressed in innovative ways, or solved problems, in more effective and efficient ways (hevner et al., 2004). a meta-model of is development inspired by the previous perspectives, we present a meta-model of is development (fig.1). the focus of this model is not to capture the development of a particular (community or traditional) is, but rather the process of developing design theories for is. such a systematic approach is important for more efficiently defining, selecting, linking, and evaluating insights about which technologies and procedures to use to solve particular (community) information or communication requirements. figure 1 a meta-model of is development at the heart of our is design theory development meta-model are theoretical components2, which comprise every conceptual or methodological element that can contribute to solving a design problem. design theory development starts when requirements analysis establishes the need for addressing design problems in a novel or more effective/efficient way. out of the knowledge base of design theory components, the systems developer selects those components that are most likely (i.e. have the highest validity) in helping to solve the problem. to capture the rationale for this decision, the designer formulates one or more design hypotheses which state how the theory component could contribute to the resolution of the problem3. after implementing and using the system, the information system utility is evaluated. different performance criteria can be used for this, depending on the users’ preferences. the design hypotheses can now be tested. this is a non-trivial process in which the designer aims to assess the extent to which particular theory components have contributed to the system’s performance. based on this assessment, the validity of the theory components for addressing design problems of this particular type will be adjusted and added to the design theory knowledge base. the idea of theoretical components having validity requires some elaboration. what we mean by this is that theoretical components (e.g. constructs, models, methods, measures etc.) have associated with them a set of hypotheses. if the number and weight of the tested hypotheses indicating a positive correlation between the theory component and is performance increases, then we say the overall validity of the theory component increases. if there are no or conflicting test results, the validity decreases. for example, if time and again it turns out that using a technical facilitator to support users in their use of complex electronic meeting room software increases performance dramatically, then the continuously confirmed hypothesis “using a facilitator increases the effectiveness of meeting room software” increases the validity of the theoretical component “heuristic”: technical facilitators should be used to facilitate electronic meeting room discussions. using system dynamics for community is design theory development community information systems are complex, evolving socio-technical systems, which require a situated, longitudinal and systemic design approach. this means that each community has unique is design needs, that the effects of design interventions need to be studied in the long term to become fully visible, and that the effects of interventions (such as using a particular technique to solve a particular design problem) can only be studied in their interactions with many system elements and context factors. the situated nature of community information systems implies that any design solution (in terms of particular selections and combinations of theoretical components) may be only relevant to that particular design problem instance. the generalization of a design solution applying to a class of instances will always be difficult. statistical generalization, in the sense of making inferences about a population on the basis of empirical data collected about a sample is generally not possible. analytical generalization, however, where an investigator tries to identify connections between the findings of the case to a broader theory based on intelligent reasoning, is a valid approach (yin, 1994). system dynamics can help in such analytical generalization, by clarifying consequences of design choices based on the theoretical commitments one makes. in the past decades, system dynamics has been widely applied to help analyze problems in many domains, ranging from the global environmental crisis to business and logistical problems. virtual community researchers as well have started to take notice of this interesting set of methodologies and techniques. for instance, diker (2004) has created an impressive model of growth policies in open online collaboration communities. in this section, we first present a short introduction to system dynamics, then show that it can be used as a fundamental element of a framework for better community is design theory development. system dynamics: theory meets practice much systems behaviour is counterintuitive. many people are not able to visualize the exponential, non-linear effects of interventions in complex systems. we extrapolate linearly, but much real-world behaviour is rather more complex, because of dependencies between variables and feedback loops in which the output of a system component ultimately has an effect as a future input. additional complexity is introduced by the existence of accumulations (stocks) and delays. people often dramatically underestimate the inertia of systems, leading to incorrect decisions with a short term focus. to handle such complexity, computer-aided simulations are indispensable. system dynamics is a methodology particularly suited to analyze such complex, large-scale, non-linear, partially qualitative, dynamic systems (sterman, 2000). system dynamic models can be used to generate and analyze very complex, realistic behaviour. however, they consist of combinations of only a few simple conceptual building blocks, the most important ones being stocks, flows, feedback loops, and delays. stocks are accumulated quantities or resources, characterizing the state of the system. stocks give systems inertia and memory. a stock continues to exist, even if all the dynamics of the system come to a halt. an example of a stock is the number of community members at a certain point in time. a flow is a change to a stock that occurs during a period of time. a flow that is an input to a stock is called an inflow, a flow that departs from a stock is an outflow. a stock can only grow or deplete by its inflows or outflows. an example of an inflow of the stock is the average number of new members joining a community per unit of time. feedback loops are the backbone of system dynamics models. all systems consist of networks of positive and negative feedback loops. the resulting dynamics arise from the interaction between these loops and can result in very complex behaviours. positive feedback loops reinforce what is happening in the system. an example of such a loop would be: more investment in community facilitation leads to better quality discussions, which leads to a higher external reputation, which leads to more investment in community facilitation. a negative feedback loop counteracts change, and is self-correcting, in the sense that it stabilizes around a certain parameter value. for example, a higher external reputation leads to more commercial interest, which leads to less community spirit, which leads to a lower external reputation. a delay is a process whose output lags behind its input in some fashion, and is modelled by stocks and flows. for example, say there is a stock ‘community members-in-training’. a delay of one month represents that community members ‘stay’ in that stock for that period of time before ‘flowing’ to the next stock of ‘trained community members’. figure 2 a system dynamics model of a virtual community to illustrate the essence of system dynamics, we show a model of a virtual community containing the two feedback loops described above (fig.2). one core concept in this model is that of ‘community spirit’, which we have modeled as a stock. the level of community spirit is positively related to reputation gain. this means that if community spirit rises, reputation is gained, if it is lowered, reputation gain decreases. community spirit itself is gained by a higher discussion quality, spirit is lost if the community attracts too much commercial interest. to operationalize this model, we chose some plausible values for stocks, rates, and (auxiliary) variables. in fig. 3, we show an example of output of this model for this choice of values. it shows very well the complex behaviour generated by different loops being combined. there are of course many ways to operationalize such constructs and loops. there is not one, best, model. in fact, one could even say that “all models are wrong” in that they should not be used to accurately predict values of individual variables (sterman, 2002). however, they can be very useful in obtaining a general understanding of the overall behaviour of a system, and to isolate the effects of single variables in a system context (campbell, 2000). even though this model is still very simple, behaviour already is very difficult to assess with the unaided human mind. system dynamics offers a full array of tools to perform sensitivity analyses and other types of techniques to help better understand causes and effects in real world systems full of interdependencies and feedback. figure 3 the output for the stock 'community spirit it is not within the scope of this paper to discuss system dynamics in detail. there is a vast literature, and many methodologies, and tools related to this subject. a good primer is given in (sterman, 2000). our purpose here is to clarify the role that system dynamics could play in developing better theories, or rather, better developing theories, towards community is design. towards a system-dynamics based methodology for community is design theory construction here, we outline a methodology for community is design theory construction, combining the meta-model of is development presented earlier, along with system dynamics as the components of the dynamic model (fig.4): figure 4 community is design theory development using system dynamics the steps of the methodology, here presented as an interaction between a human user and a supporting design theory development system, are as follows: to aid an investigator in theory development, four primary knowledge bases are needed: (1) a knowledge base of design problems, (2) a knowledge base of design hypotheses, (3) a knowledge base of theory components, and (4) a knowledge base of dynamic model components4: the design problem knowledge base contains cases, examples, reports and so on describing design problems, including problems related to the use, development, and maintenance of community is. the problem descriptions can be in the form of case studies, project report excerpts, hypothetical scenarios, and so on. the design hypothesis knowledge base contains information on how well a particular theory component or combination of components has addressed (based on implementation and use experiences) a particular design problem. validity can be indicated in different ways: source of the data, reviews, conditions of the experiment, links to other theory components, and so on. the theory component knowledge base has pointers to a whole array of theoretical components. hevner et al (2004), in their knowledge base list the following quite complete list of ‘foundations’ and ‘methodologies’: theories, frameworks, instruments, constructs, models, methods, instantiations, data analysis techniques, formalisms, measures, and validation criteria. the theory component knowledge base is a source of information for the development of a dynamic model component knowledge base. this knowledge base contains operationalizations of the theories described in the theory component knowledge base. such operationalizations, including labels for concepts and values for parameters, are typically obtained in empirical studies testing one or more design hypotheses. if a researcher encounters a design problem for which no solution has yet been found, she can query the design problem knowledge base, and identify the problem that best seems to fit her case. the system presents her with hypotheses (retrieved from the design hypothesis knowledge base) that have proven to be successful in other cases dealing with the selected design problem5. the user selects the hypotheses she finds most valid, according to her own criteria. the system then first retrieves the theory components associated with the selected hypotheses. subsequently, it retrieves the dynamic model components that are associated with these theory components. it then helps the researcher to compose an integrated dynamic model out of these components (assuming that any inconsistencies between these models have been dealt with). the researcher can now perform a range of simulations, which will give her a much deeper understanding of the design problem, solutions, and their interrelationships. based on the results, she can decide that the selected problem or design hypotheses were not right, or that the theory components or design hypotheses need to be modified or created. the process can then be iterated as needed. this conceptual outline is not necessarily to be taken literally. it is an idea that could be implemented in various ways and levels of detail. from the point of view of an individual researcher, it might mean that she makes a classification of the kind of problems she is working on, the theoretical components she uses, and what her core design hypotheses are. she could then build some dynamic models and start working systematically at furthering her personal understanding. a much more ambitious, yet not infeasible, endeavor would be to have an international network of community researchers work jointly on the realization of this vision. a natural candidate for this would be the community informatics research network6, which has as its mission to promote and represent community informatics and community networking research internationally. to give a more concrete idea of the many possible uses of simulation in community informatics theory construction and validation, appendix 1 presents one hypothetical scenario for constructing theory on conflict resolution in gaming communities. discussion what happens in simulations? in an iterative process, a researcher efficiently constructs her own proto-theory using and combining design hypotheses from previous theories that have already been tested to a greater or lesser extent. system dynamics simulations helps her to combine assumptions from different theories and get a sense of the impact over time of particular design hypotheses on the overall behavior of the community. it is thus possible for her to get a much better sense of possible interactions between theoretical assumptions than would be possible when just looking at static relations in models from different sources. this, in turn, gives her a good idea of what are interesting relationships to test. of course, the results of simulations should not be taken at face value. they are not descriptions of reality, nor precise prescriptions of the value of particular variables. unfounded relations and parameter choices will result in nonsensical simulations. moreover, even if the relations and parameters have been properly empirically validated, the simulations can still produce useless outcomes, because relations or parameters crucial to the case at hand have not been taken into account in the model. despite these limitations, the value of system dynamics models is in (mercilessly) showing the consequences of conceptualizations, assumptions, and design choices made by the researcher. even though the actual values should not be taken too seriously, the overall trends and directions represent educated guesses of dependencies and determinants of community behavior. in a nascent field like community informatics, which is growing from such a hodgepodge of paradigms, models, and empirical findings, system dynamics models thus can make a useful contribution as integrating tools for testing the coherence, consistency, and relatedness of proto-theories. in this instance, such a simulation approach would need to be used in theory-constructing, not testing, as it is only useful in extrapolating the consequences of one’s theoretical assumptions. system dynamics can be a useful complement to methodologies such as grounded theory. there, concepts and relationships describing and “owned by” a community are being extracted by means of a formal methodology (urquhart, 2001; fernández and lehmann, 2005). an approach as described in this paper can help to integrate such “local theories” in more widely accepted, generic theoretical frameworks. system dynamics models have also proven themselves very useful as a tool to elicit knowledge from experts. in interview sessions, based on simulating different scenarios, high-quality observations by experts on parameters, concepts, and relations can be obtained. truly understanding “meta-aspects” of design theory construction and being familiar enough with methodologies like system dynamics, requires considerable practice. a researcher needs much experience to deeply understand the meaning and implications of the choices proposed here. however, this is no different for any other professional methodology. furthermore, the examples given in this paper are only meant to show proof of concept, not to be used directly as-is. much of the complexity can be hidden by using better defined processes and interfaces. it will be a major r&d challenge, but doing so could make a significant contribution to improving the quantity and quality of design theories on community is. conclusions our purpose in this paper was not to propose the ultimate, or even a tentative design theory. instead, we focused on how the process of getting to such a theory could be understood, charted and facilitated. a better understanding of the design theory development process is a first step towards this objective, as exemplified by our meta-model. however, a second step is also needed. the complexity of design theory formulation in the domain of community is is very high. support by the analytical machinery of systems dynamics is a powerful way to build a more integrated core of conceptual knowledge in our domain. theory formulation benefits from a strong theoretical-empirical cycle. in other fields, such as the natural sciences, experimentation is common to get to such an integrated body of paradigmatic knowledge. in information systems research, particularly in community is design, this is very difficult to achieve however, because of the situated, longitudinal and systemic aspects of design research. enough experiments of adequate complexity simply cannot be carried out to detect what are the invariant patterns that could be the basis for solid theory formulation. simulation through system dynamics could therefore become an important research catalyst for our field. system dynamics is not a panacea, but a useful additional instrument for reflection and integration of disparate pieces of the community is design theory development puzzle. it helps to determine the consequences of theoretical choices, and grounding these in other, already more accepted theories and empirical findings. while starting with a few, high-level relationships and very primitive assumptions, over time more detailed and tested relations and values can be explored, making the models increasingly robust and grounded in reality. such an “emergent approach” to comparing the effects of different assumptions and findings would be a valuable additional tool for community informatics. in this paper we have given only a hypothetical example of the use of simulation and merely a sketch of a method for design theory construction using system dynamics. many issues need to be addressed before the outline presented here can be realized. for example, to obtain a true body of deep knowledge, many more, and better community is dynamic model components need to be developed, based on solid theoretical and practical findings. interfaces between such model components need to be clearly defined. this is not trivial, since there are many epistemological differences between the theory components on which they should be based. many interesting empirical findings already exist, but they are scattered across practice and the literature. such data needs to be translated into indicators and parameter values of the dynamic models to which they apply. another issue is how to measure the utility of particular is solutions for particular design problems. also there is the question of how to use these measurements in our sd models? system dynamics has developed a rich set of tools and techniques to assist in the analysis and understanding of very complex dynamic phenomena. which ones would be most suitable for the typical research problems community is researchers face? how can simulation results best be used in validating theory components? how to systematically link system dynamics to more mature methodologies in community informatics, like grounded theory? this article addressed only some of the many (meta) theoretical issues related to community is design theory construction. we also only gave a brief sketch of how system dynamics could be practically embedded in the research process of our community. still, we hope the ideas presented here give enough food for thought to trigger a useful discussion about developing a feasible and much needed and more systematic approach to doing community is design theory. annex 1: a scenario – constructing design theory on conflict resolution in online gaming communities jane is a ph.d. student examining the governance of online gaming communities. she is particularly interested in how large gaming communities handle conflict. she is currently examining a case of one such community, where, despite the use of extensive formal boards and procedures, conflicts are continuously erupting, and are very hard to resolve. she would like to investigate what are the options to improve this situation. as she still needs to define her research questions, she decides to do a dynamic model analysis of her research problem using the cirn theorymeetspractice simulation portal. initially, she wants to focus on those studies that have been successful in dealing with conflict in online gaming communities, hoping that she will come to a better understand the range of interventions possible. selecting a design problem jane first accesses the design problem knowledge base. she searches this knowledge base for those studies which say something about both “online gaming” and “conflict”. she gets two hits. one study (study a) found that in a small-sized online gaming community conflicts increased considerably after a formal conflict management procedure involving mediation and arbitration was set up. since the study apparently failed to find successful interventions, she decides not to include this study in her list, at least not initially. the second one seems more promising. study b concerned a small to medium-sized gaming community, in which conflict was very rare, and if it happened at all, was consistently and easily resolved. since this case is closer to the size of her own case, and apparently did manage to deal with its conflicts, jane selects this as her problem description of choice. selecting relevant design hypotheses from the design hypothesis kb, the system retrieves the hypotheses that the authors of study b proposed and tested. one hypothesis of particular interest to jane is that conflict was reduced because the community members interacted intensively, had known each other personally for a long time, and could access each other’s reputation profiles. thus, the tested (and accepted) hypothesis was that cooperation reduces conflict. a reduction in conflict, in turn, also increased cooperation. given the quality of the documentation attached to the hypothesis and the international reputation of the authors, the validated hypothesis seems plausible to jane. she therefore decides to include it in her ‘relevant design hypothesis’-selection. selecting associated theory components based on her interviews with community members, jane has the feeling that higher quality cooperation is indeed an important part of the solution to the problem in her community. she decides to further investigate this concept. the authors of study b based their study on axelrod’s theory of the evolution of cooperation (axelrod, 1984). jane does not know this theory, but decides to have a closer look at it. she retrieves the description of axelrod’s theory from the theory component kb that the authors of study b used. the description shows the main concepts, their relationships, and whether a relationship is positive or negative with respect to its contribution to “cooperation”. the theory claims that there is more cooperation if individuals have met each other more than once, can identify each other, and have information about past behavior. the theory component kb also shows all associated design hypotheses in which this theory played a role. it turns out that axelrod’s concept has been used and validated in many hypotheses in the design hypothesis kb. this gives jane the confidence that this conceptualization of cooperation may indeed be a good explanation to explore further. she now knows enough to decide to import this theory component associated with the design hypothesis into her mytheorybase. selecting associated dynamic model components and examining the full model (iterative) next, she downloads the operationalization of the theory presented by study b as stored by its authors in the dynamic model component kb. they have operationalized their axelrod-based concepts as follows: ‘meeting frequency’, ‘identification capacity’ and ‘memory’ of past behavior all increase ‘cooperation output’. the unit of ‘cooperation level’ is an abstract cooperation work unit, initially set at 100. according to study b, the monthly productivity of the cooperative community is a steady 100 units, to which meeting frequency, identification capacity, and behavior memory all contribute equally. this seems plausible to jane, not having any further data to the contrary, so she decides to use the dynamic model of study b as the basis for her own operationalization. the dynamic model consists of two linked components. the first one is a simple interpretation of axelrod’s theory (fig.5). figure 5 an operationalization of axelrod’s theory of the evolution of cooperation with productivity = (behavior memory+identification capacity+meeting frequency)*100; meeting frequency = 0.33; identification capacity = 0.33; memory = 0.33; cooperation level-initial = 0, the results of the simulation are presented in fig.6: figure 6 results of the simulation of axelrod’s theory the second part is a simulation of the conflict level (fig.7). the authors of study b have examined a community of 20 people, and found that while initially there is no conflict, that durng each period of interaction, a small amount of conflict generation is inevitable (set at 10, again using an abstract unit), and that the amount of new conflict being generated is dependent on the current conflict level. this makes sense, since the more tension there already is in a community, the more tempers will flare and new conflicts will arise ever more quickly. figure 7 an operationalization of conflict generation with conflict generated = 10+(conflict level/10); conflict level-initial = 0, this simulation gives the results of fig.8: figure 8 results of the simulation of conflict generation conflict level shows a non-linear behavior, very different from the cooperation level. this is caused by conflict begetting conflict, at least in this study. in their documentation, the authors warn that over larger time spans, this simulation is unrealistic, if only because a community would have been totally disrupted long before such levels could have been reached in practice. still, for the limited time spans studied, the model approximated their empirical findings quite realistically. these two components by themselves are not very interesting. however, when the components are integrated, conflict is quickly reduced because of the dampening effects of cooperation. thus, fig. 9 shows the full model underlying the design theory of study b7: figure 9 an operationalization of cooperation-reducing-conflict with conflict generated = 10+(conflict level/10)-(productivity/10); all other values being the same, the resulting simulation is show in fig.10: figure 10 results of the simulation of the integrated model although at first sight, the simulation still shows an exponential growth in the conflict level, it is much weaker than in the previous simulation. thus, cooperation, at the current rates, does not have sufficient influence to prevent conflict from getting out of control in the end, but keeps it manageable in the short run. this effect becomes even clearer when giving productivity only a bit larger weight in conflict generation reduction. for example, with conflict generated = 10+(conflict level/10)-(productivity/9); all other values the same (fig.11): figure 11 results of the same simulation with increased weight of productivity the resulting simulation even shows a negative level of conflict, in effect meaning that conflict is neutralized completely. of course, the values used are not to be taken as representing actual empirical data in the collaborative community, but what they do show is that cooperation as conceptualized by the researchers of study b, can have a strong dampening effect on conflict. jane, having seen the dynamic model of study b in action, thinks that it does indeed provide a good starting point for her own research. however, she is not as yet completely satisfied. whereas study b’s model shows strong conflict reduction behavior in its community of study, jane consistently sees conflict getting out of control in her case, even though cooperation levels are high in her community. obviously, the model needs to be adapted for her situation. upon reflecting further, jane realizes that one key difference between the gaming community described in study b and her own, is size. whereas the other community only counted about 20 members, her own has more than 500. from interviews with community moderators, she knows that they often feel overwhelmed by requests for assistance and frustrated that they cannot act promptly on requests for assistance and flames occurring regularly on the community’s discussion fora. she wonders if size may indeed have something to do with her own situation. she now extends the dynamical model of study b by adding the community size factor to it, feeding into the ‘conflict generated’ rate. as a rough first approximation, she takes the previous equation, and, assuming a linear effect of size increase on conflict generation, multiplies it with the community size factor. she takes the value of community size in study b (n=20) as the original benchmark situation in which size was not taken into account, leading to the following equation: conflict generated = (10+(conflict level/10)-(productivity/9))*(community size/20) when choosing community size=20, the values are, of course, exactly the same as those generated in the previous equation. when entering the size of her community (n=500), however, conflict quickly spirals completely out of control (so much so, that the simulation program gave an overflow error when calculating the values of conflict level) the next step is to model possible interventions which could reduce conflict so that it becomes manageable. upon further reading the literature, jane discovers an interesting paper which may offer an explanation for the differences in behavior in her case. it has been shown that when communities grow larger, they require well-designed segmentation strategies to deal with information overload, for example by splitting large fora into sub-fora (ginsburg, 2001). as this notion of information overload is in agreement with what the community moderators have told her, jane decides to adapt her model: instead of community size directly affecting conflict generation, information overload is the intermediate variable (fig.12). for now, she decides to adopt a simple linear relation: a certain increase in segmentation level leads to a similar reduction of information overload. this approach makes sense, at least to start with, since splitting a forum in two (assuming each forum is led by a different moderator) roughly halves the number of messages which must be handled. figure 12 the same model extended with an information overload dynamic model component when the segmentation level equals 1, there is no segmentation, and conflict level spins out of control in exactly the same way as in the previous model. however, with a segmentation level set to 2, the conflict level gets drastically reduced. with conflict generated = (10+(conflict level/10)-(productivity/9))*(information overload/20); community size = 500; information overload = community size/segmentation level; segmentation level = 2 (fig.13): figure 13 results of the simulation of the model with increased segmentation level so, with 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(1994). case study research: design and methods (2nd ed.). london: sage. 1the focus in this article is on online or virtual communities, since their communication and information processes are most clearly mediated by information technologies. however, there is no clear boundary between virtual and physical or geographical communities, such as neighbourhood communities. most geographical communities nowadays also make use of the internet for coordinating their physical activities. vice versa, most online communities after some time organize events where members can meet face-to-face. in this article, the focus is on communities at least partially supported by information technology (and requiring design of effective information systems). the exact terminology to classify such communities and their systems is of less interest to us. 2hevner et al. (2004) distinguish between ‘foundations’ (including theories) and ‘methodologies’ as main categories in the knowledge base. for our purposes, this definition is rather artificial, and we consider all of them ‘theoretical components’, although they can be more conceptual or more methodological in nature. 3an important source of such design hypotheses could be the design patterns for “living communication”, collected by doug schuler in the liberating voices! project: http://trout.cpsr.org/program/sphere/patterns/ 4ideally, the construction of these knowledge bases should be done by the at large community of community informatics researchers and practitioners’ over an extended period of time. 5such matches between problem and hypothesis, hypothesis and theoretical component, and theoretical component and dynamic model component need in practice, to be nothing more than a manual link added by a researcher or practitioner who thinks the link to be of value. 6http://www.ciresearch.net/ 7there are many ways to make the model more realistic, such as conflict level feeding back into cooperation level. however, the point here is that these dynamic model components expose exactly such shortcomings of theories where the absence of links between variables often remains undetected. through simulation, one is forced to continuously re-examine one’s assumptions and prioritize which of many possible relations between variables to actually model. co-construction through complex adaptive system salil sayed aalto university abhigyan singh aalto university joanna saad-sulonen aalto university lily diaz aalto university introduction the term user in the literature on co-construction of users and technology often implies the represented user rather than the person in question. a representation of the user, or the user as representation has instrumental value. at the beginning of the volume 'how users matter', oudshoorn & pinch's (2005) review  various theoretical perspectives within which the user is discussed in literature. in each of these perspectives we can see how representations of users serve the purpose of a particular agenda. whether it is woolgar's idea of user as a configuration activated by designers when they design the products which at some point meet the real users, or the users in social construction of technology (scot) approach who are a social group participating in the construction of technology; every approach makes certain commitments to how the users should be ascribed agency in relation to technology. the very notion that agency is being ascribed to the users by the theoreticians makes it clear that we are talking about generalized representations of the users and not the living persons themselves. even when the stress is on the multiplicity of the users as it is in the above-mentioned volume, what are being discussed are conflicting representations. this is of course not a mistake or naiveté. the awareness that we are talking about representations is explicit. in the same book, lindsay (2005) does raise the question about making a move from representations to real users, specially when the researchers have direct access to the users and their self-descriptions. her case-study is about trs-80, a computing platform developed at the beginning of the personal computer industry but later discontinued in favor of other platforms. some of the users of these machines, enthusiastic about their simplicity, continued improving the software and supporting each other through internet forums. lindsay found that these users float a representation of 'the user' of these machines which are based on the nostalgia for a time when simple machines were used efficiently. this idea is emphasized with an opposition to the current era when powerful hardware runs bloated software for simple tasks. her conclusion is that these self-descriptions are ideas about current users and serve a useful purpose in public forums. in all these valuable discussions what is left out is the individual person and the relation of the rest of her life with the use of technology. the users in the ethnographic data that we present in this paper cannot be adequately theorized as representations. if we reduce them to an abstract concept of users, non-users or resisters of technology we loose the process of co-construction. the political representations of users if there are any, are inalienable from the material lives of individuals. the degree of heterogeneity in the community that we studied strains an attempt to theorize any abstract representation of these users. as we observe in the text that follows the granularity of their heterogeneity is so fine that every body, human or non-human, and every relation between them has its own significance in the historical life of the community. for example, a girl has a different relationship with each of the different coin-operated telephone booths. these distinct relations not only manifest the way the booth is used but also affect both ways other human-to-human relationships such as in this case with the booth operator and his sale of other merchandise. this scenario also poses a problem in locating the agency. the users are not simply motivated by the need. the causal relation between need and use of technology is not of a classical mechanical nature. this dataset therefore calls for a different approach to the explication of co-construction of users and technology and to understand agency. we propose therefore to examine co-construction within the life of an individual. the analysis of our field data shows that it is not just a representation of the user that gets constructed but also the person herself evolves. in doing so we propose to adopt a slightly different perspective namely one that makes use of concepts from the area of complex adaptive systems. by taking the discussion of co-construction to the level of individual bodies and their daily life, this approach has insights to offer about the location of agency. looking from this perspective, we can study in a finer grain how persons, the living human beings, and their development in their life trajectories is entangled with the technology that they bring into use. the correlation between their life and their use of technology is not of a linear causal nature such as a perceived need leading to a particular use. instead we show that the causal structure is emergent through their entanglement as can be explained with the conceptual framework of complex adaptive systems. when analyzed within this framework, the persons and the devices are parts in a systemic whole where the parts and the whole mutually constrain each other in a series of dynamic relations. such a system is characterized by an irreversible historical development in which we can see the co-construction of users and technology. we further argue that the agency is located / embodied in the simultaneous top-down and bottom-up constraints that bound such a system. in this paper we present the ethnographic account of the becoming of sarsu, a girl living in an urban slum in the city of bangalore, india and her use of multiple phones in terms of emergent complex adaptive system. background of study india is a democracy with multitude of languages and cultures. india amounts to 17% of world population and includes one-third of world’s poor (rao 2009). according to the last census of india (2001), india’s overall population was 1027 million, out of which 285 million (27.8 %) lived in urban areas. bangalore is located in southern part of india and it is capital city of the state of karnataka. bangalore has a population of over 6.5 million and is ranked fifth most populous city of india (raman 2008). bangalore is a world famous information technology (it) center and is often referred to as ‘silicon valley of india’. the city has played a major role in economic growth of india and has also been test bed for number of ict initiatives for development (singhal & rogers 2001). it is widely accepted that ‘slums’ are difficult to define and there are multiple definitions and meanings co-existing (sliwa 2008). according to un-habitat (2003): “slums are distinguished by poor quality of housing, poverty of inhabitants, the lack of public or private services and the poor integration of the inhabitants into the broader community and its opportunities.” 31.6% of world’s urban population i.e. 924 million people lives in slums and population of urban slums across the globe is estimated to increase by 2 billion in next thirty years. 67 million of the urban population of india are below poverty line i.e. people living on less that us$ 2 per day (rao 2009). urban slums are marginalized and represents the most disadvantaged group of urban dwellers. much of the labor forces in cities of developing countries live in slums (2003). this ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in sudarshan layout, an urban slum in bangalore, in february 2009. a first exploration of the data has been reported in singh (2010), where the focus was on identifing design challenges and opportunities for mobile based community communication services for marginalized communities belonging to indian urban slums. the methodological approach followed in this field study was inspired by ethnographic action research (ear) and participatory rural appraisal (pra). ethnographic action research (ear) is the research approach to study impact of information and communication technology (ict) especially in the area related to poverty alleviation (tacchi et al. 2003). participatory rural appraisal (pra) is a research methodology which advocates bottom-up research approaches with flexible and innovative mix of various methods and sensitivity for the local context (kumar 2007). in this article , we expand the work stated by singh (2010), by reporting on a new analysis of part of the data generated during the field study. it is an experiment in applying the conceptual framework of complex adaptive systems to ethnographic data in order to understand the intricate relation between the users and technology. the science of complexity has generated a large amount of literature but hardly any has been brought into the gamut of user-centered design research. in our attempt we base our discussion of complex adaptive systems on juarrero(2000)'s action theoretic application of this framework. moreover we further limit the discussion by the goal set in the beginning of this article. we will focus on an individual person and her use of technology and then try to explain it in the context of her local community as a complex system. we begin our discussion with her peculiar use of phones. user, the person in flesh sarsu is a 19 year old girl living in a small community called sudarshan layout (sl). sudarshan layout conforms to the definition of an indian urban slum within the city of bangalore in southern india. sarsu lives in one of the 150 dwellings with her joint family which includes her parents, brother and sister and their spouses. she does not own a mobile phone herself, but during a normal day she ends up using many. few months before the fieldwork was conducted, sarsu had started commuting outside sl to attend school as well as for tuitions she gives to younger students. while returning in the evening, the patch of road that leads from the bus stop on the highway to sl is dark and is considered unsafe for a lone girl. therefore she makes a phone call (sometimes just a missed call) using a coin-booth near the bus stop to a mobile phone which is with her mother. upon receiving the call, a male, usually her brother will go to escort her to home. once at home she has access to her mother's phone as well as her brother's phone from which she can make calls to her friends as well as receive them on her mother's phone. when neither is available she can go to one of the six coin-booths installed in the petty shops serving the local community. sarsu is also associated with a community initiative devoted to informal computer education for children in sl. this way she is related to a group of volunteers and the local members who participate in the activity. in the evening she uses her mother's mobile phone to exchange up to twenty sms with these colleagues for greetings as well as updating each other. the volunteers are financially better off citizens of bangalore so she can give them a missed call and they will call her back. a 'missed call' is when a caller rings the receiver but disconnects the call before it is accepted.  apart from these sarsu has access to some other feature rich mobile phones owned by other residents of sl. she can negotiate a time and borrow them for use as a camera or as a music player when there is a community celebration such as birthday.  the pattern of sarsu's use of mobile phone is not unusual but is still unique. sharing and borrowing mobile phones for various purposes in india is by now a well-documented phenomenon (konka 2000). being a young girl in a traditional and traditionally impoverished community that has historically suffered in the caste system (and has not yet overcome the damage), the trustful communication sarsu enjoys with male members of the society is unique. what makes it possible is mostly her reputation achieved through the role she plays in the above mentioned community initiative called ac3. women do go out of sl for work, but that is usually as a domestic help, i.e. household chores in apartments. their work is not supposed to include making acquaintances with men; this is especially binding on unmarried girls. in the case of sarsu however these conventions are relaxed respectfully in recognition of the valuable role she is playing in the community. the relaxation is not indiscriminate. it is finely coded. this allows for certain kind of relationships.  sarsu's use of communication technology is then not arising out of her needs but an emergent result of the interwoven patterns of a complex society. to examine sarsu as a representative user will risk missing these intricacies that give a meaning to her engagement with technology. the being and becoming of sarsu, the person in flesh, is irreplaceable in our analysis. for this reason we propose to understand the community of sl as a complex adaptive system in order to locate the agency and causality in the co-construction of users and technology. figure 1: sarsu's use of multiple phones sudarshan layout as complex adaptive system (cas) in this section we will apply the conceptual framework to the ethnographic data collected from sudarshan layout. we will begin with an elaboration of complex adaptive system showing how it differs from simple mechanical systems. then we will introduce different aspects of cas and their importance and role in the scheme and elaborate those in the case of sudarshan layout. a mechanical system is made up of a number parts which are restrained in a certain way that defines their relationships with each other. in such a system it is possible to calculate the results of the chain of cause and effect in a series. mechanical systems can incorporate feedback loops, they can reach an equilibrium, or they can oscillate between two different states as in the case of internal combustion engine. the structure of such systems do not change overtime. these are simple systems. the rules that govern such systems are also time reversible. the systems that we observe in nature cannot be described in such a way. the biological organisms or inorganic systems such as weather systems change over time. they may reach an equilibrium for a period of time, like the ecosystem, but they nevertheless evolve into another system when a change is introduce in some way. these are complex adaptive systems. they can not be explained adequately through the simple mechanical cause and effect chains. they call for a different explanation of causality. the rules that govern these systems are not time reversible, and those rules themselves can change over time. while there is a large body of literature on complexity and complex adaptive systems, and complexity can be considered a field of science in itself, we will base our discussion on the application of complex adaptive systems by juarerro (2000) to intentional behavior. instead of following juarrero's lead to the explanation of an individuals behavior we attempt to explain the co-construction of technology and the becoming of the person who is the user in question. what follows next is a brief outline of a conceptual framework cas from juarrero's proposal. a cas emerges from interdependent parts that are related in such a way that they constrain each other's abilities. according to this framework, an aggregate of various entities goes through a sudden formation event where the parts engage in relations with each other. after this event there is no patternless aggregate of parts but a bound system, where the parts are interrelated and influence each other as well as the whole. in this new dynamic formation these constraints simultaneously limit alternatives for action as well as create new possibilities for action . the constraints that bound a systemic whole are conceptually differentiated in three distinct types. the first type, context-free constraints are those whose occurrence is not solely dependent on probability, yet they are significant enough to make a system diverge from chance or randomness (juarrero 2000). as an example, juarrero cites how different languages exhibit different patterns in the incidence of certain letters following others. such patterns are primarily based on the conventions of each particular language. in our analysis, we would include the indian government telecommunication policy and infrastructure, and the caste system as two examples of context-free constraints. the next type is referred to as first order contextual constraints. these are mostly physical boundaries that bound the formation as well as location specific features such as availability of resources. these two types of constraints are instrumental in making a system possible. the third type and the ones of specific interest to us in this article are the second order context sensitive constraints. these are patterns of relationships whose emergence signifies the emergence of a complex bound system. the system is bound to a degree that we can make it a unit of analysis but it is not necessarily closed. it can be said that as a community sudarshan layout (sl) is a system that is bound by its physical limits and by a specific population yet also manages to interact with the outer world through the everyday activities of its members. next we will describe these constraints in the specific case of sl. context free constraints in sudarshan layout sudarshan layout is a residential area for the marginalized community of construction workers, domestic helpers, laborers belonging to scheduled castes, as recognized by indian constitution. the local residents identify themselves as ‘dalit’, a self-denotation for people belonging to lowest of castes as per indian caste system. ‘dalits’ have suffered prolonged social discrimination due to their lower caste status. the older residents of sudarshan layout migrated from rural areas of karnataka and nearby states like tamil nadu, kerela and andhra pradesh over a period of thirty years to settle and work in bangalore. this group consists of individuals who dropped out of school to work at a very early age and many of them cannot read or write. in contrast, the younger generation of sudarshan layout was born in bangalore and many of them completed high school. the local population of sudarshan layout communicates in multiple languages, including kannada, tamil, telugu and malayalam. the youth of sudarshan layout is comfortable with hindi and english as well. the sudarshan layout residents, as in case of other urban slums in bangalore, have been part of the labor force of bangalore but have faced multitude of social, economic and civic discrimination due to caste issues, poverty, lack of education, illiteracy to name a few. these issues compound to many problems that this population faces in their daily life. before going into further details of the system we can already start identifying the constraints which bind the system together. it could be said that the location of sl within the city of bangalore, its size, boundaries etc are contextual constraints pulling the parts of aggregate together. the community is also bound by other context-free constraints such as historical identification within indian caste system, its contemporary stigma, and the set of social opportunities/limitations that come with it and associated economic condition. these factors are not specific to sudarshan layout but nonetheless, from a systemic perspective, they are instrumental in bringing the parts together within system's boundaries. as we will move into the discussion of mobile communication of the residents of sl we will see that there might be other context-free constraints emerging from the interaction with the indian telecommunications system, like tariff rates of voice calls and sms, infrastructure policies that lead to the availability of coin-booths etc. first order contextual constraints in sudarshan layout sudarshan layout is roughly a hundred meters long by fifty meters wide in area, surrounded by big corporate office buildings. over three hundred families live in approximately one hundred and fifteen houses, most of which are one room tenements. a big sewer-line runs along one of the boundary of sudarshan layout. family income varies between indian rupees (inr) 1500-10000 (40-150 euros) per month. apart from the physical limits of the settlement there are other factors that affect the possibilities of life for the residents. sudarshan layout has regular electricity supply but persistent voltage fluctuation hampers the use of electronic equipments. the literacy is within the community quite low hence newspaper subscription is insignificant. almost every household in sudarshan layout has a television set; and dvd players are very common as well. mobile phone is the most pervasive electronic device in sudarshan layout. these are the first order contextual constraints that put the parts of the aggregate in relation to each other. here we find that there is no need to differentiate between the human and non-human parts of the system. even though our data about the history of sl is insufficient to establish the evidence of a sudden formative event, it does not take a leap of faith to consider the beginning of this close knit community. when the residents settled in this small tract of the land, they came together owing to a shared historical stigma even though they came from different regions of india, speaking different languages and belonging to different local cultures. however it is the establishment of the second order context sensitive constraints that signify the emergence of a complex adaptive system. second order context sensitive constraints the patterns of relationships that emerge when a parts of a system are bound together are the second order context sensitive constraints. they are  a result of a shared history and lead to a shared future. the need to survive in an adverse social position and in the absence of any social security put in motion a complex adaptive system.  we found that almost every household has at least one mobile phone with a maximum of four mobile phones per family, usually owned by the working members of the family. it is a general belief amongst sudarshan layout residents that anyone who has to go out of sudarshan layout for work deserves to keep a mobile phone. among the major reasons for this belief, as explained by locals, is sense of safety and connectedness with members of the community. residents of sudarshan layout are like a close-knit big family. sense of belonging for the local community was noticeable among the residents. these common beliefs can be understood as second order context sensitive constraints and are indicative of the emergence of a complex adaptive system. top-down and bottom-up constraints the second order context sensitive constraints are further distinguished as top-down and bottom-up. the structural pattern of the whole restricting the parts' movement is the top-down constraint. this keeps the system organized and bound. these can change drastically as a result of some seminal events as we will see later, establishing a new structural pattern. the parts however within their restricted mobility practice their freedom. these variations in different parts together make possible an almost infinite range of permutations and combinations. this way the parts in their combined action have the ability to provide the system with a richness of pattern. these are the bottom-up enabling constraints. as we will see later it is between this play of top-down and bottom-up constraints is located the agency of co-construction. so far we have introduced the core concepts of cas and shown how sudarshan layout can be studied as a complex system. in the next section we will attempt to take this discussion to the level of individual bodies as we return to sarsu and explain how the various constraints work in complex manner as her person evolves. the peculiar use of the term person, as in the phrase 'she carries it well on her person', is intentional here to suggest the malleability of the person. this however does not mean that 'she' is in any way distinct from 'her person'. from aggregate to a bound system when parts of an aggregate are not bound by relations they have an equal freedom, i.e. they are equiprobable. this means that there are no meaningful patterns, just plain noise. once they are bound in a whole they are constrained top-down which restricts their possibilities. according the juarrero, this top-down restriction guides the evolution of the system in a particular direction. this reduction in possibilities is however more than compensated by what are called the bottom-up enabling constraints. the interdependence of parts reduces their individual possibilities but at the same time from the new relations result new possible combinations. in other words the number of combinations that all the parts have together is far more than the number of possible states of any single part. for an example when a glass is filled with water the system can be considered as an aggregate of water molecules. (though it is not as the structure of water is already there resulting in surface tension) when a drop of oil is added it spreads over the surface of water. the circular periphery of the surface over which the oil layer can spread is a first order contextual constraint. while spreading the oil layer has uneven thickness. this depends on the formative event of the oil dropping in the water as well the viscosity of oil that is a context free constraint. the pattern of rainbow colors that form as the oil spreads is due to the varying degree of diffraction caused by variation in the thickness of oil layer. emergence of this pattern signifies the establishment of a complex adaptive system. as the oil spreads the pattern evolves. the new pattern has a history in the previous one. again, we cite juarrero’s analogy of the alphabet. a random soup of letters is meaningless. however when the combinations are constrained by a set of rules such as language they make possible an increasing number of meaningful words and sentences. the second order context sensitive constraints co-evolve with the pattern of relationships in sl that bound the community in a historic continuity. each member of the community is entangled in these intricate relationships that are restrictive in a sense that the code of conduct is finely regulated but at the same time is fruitful since it creates a possibility of individual development and enjoyable events within the otherwise miserable circumstances. the person then is a product of these adaptations as well as an active agent in the process. our field data shows that the use of technology is internal to this process of adaptation. adaptation of technology and the becoming of a person is not separable conceptually from the evolution of the complex system that the community is. becoming of sarsu, the user we can see how similar patterns appear to emerge in sarsu's communication. in description that follows we will use a markup for the first order '<c1>' and second order '<c2>' contextual constraints. these are also summed up in table 1. sarsu lives in a joint family with multiple earning persons<c1>. as a result her house (figure 2: a) has developed into a concrete structure with more than one room and an in-house toilet. this kind of house which the locals call 'building' compared to other smaller one room structure with a tin roof, makes her one of the privileged in sl <c2>. sarsu feels an urge to help the poorer children in getting educated. a group of volunteers who call themselves as aid (association for india's development) are engaged in ac3 <c1>. with the help of aid volunteers sarsu managed to pursue some poor parents to enroll their children into school. when ac3 was established sarsu became actively engaged in teaching and presenting this initiative at other forums <c2>. her skill as a presenter and her integrity as a social worker was appreciated by aid volunteers as well her community. regular, visibly productive activity with aid and ac3 members led to community's and family's approval to these comradeships <c2>. since sarsu does not have a phone as she rarely needed to go outside. she could use her mother's or brother's phone to communicate with her colleagues. the sms she exchanges with aid volunteers and ac3 members are not considered private and they are not supposed to be because it is not her personal phone. at the same time they are not always about work. the serve a purpose of maintaining the relationships by entertaining each other as sell as expressing that 'i care for you'. the following excerpt from her interview relates to this finding. researcher: how many sms you send or receive each day? sarsu: sent sms per day is around 20. sometime around 30. researcher: what kind of conversation happens over sms? sarsu: fun sarsu: sometime personal. context free constraints first order contextual constraints <c1> second order context sensitive constraints <c2> the historical stigma of caste the tariffs of mobile services and cost of devices physical limits of sudarshan layout sarsu lives in a joint family with multiple earning persons a group of volunteers who call themselves as aid (association for india's development) are engaged in ac3 absence of social security for this community. sarsu's house (figure 2: a) has developed into a concrete structure with more than one rooms and an in-house toilet. this kind of house which the locals call 'building' compared to other smaller one room structure with a tin roof makes her one of the privileged in sl  when ac3 was established sarsu became actively engaged in teaching and presenting this initiative at other forums regular, visibly productive activity with aid and ac3 members led to community's and family's approval to these comradeships need for close networking among the community members table 1: types of constraints as the aid members are financially well off, she can give them a missed call and they will call back. this way the aid members bear the cost of the call. however this applies only for reasons that are important from their social work point of view. to call for personal recreation is not appropriate. aid volunteer: mobile is very useful here for organizing meetings. geeta , senthil sends sms informing about time and place for meeting. sms is used over email or anything. community here also uses this [mobile phone]. she [sarsu] also uses sms if she needs anything because if she has to access email she has to go somewhere. aid volunteer: when she [sarsu] sends sms i call her and talks to her. the ac3 members however are youth from sl. they are considered equal in economic status to sarsu and she cannot give them a missed call and expect them to call back. researcher:  do you give missed call [to friends]? sarsu: no no no i wont give missed call. i will talk for 10 rupees or 15 rupees. the passion they share for the work of ac3 justifies close friendships and their dependence on aid members and each other is acknowledged through daily evening greetings and updating. all this does not taint sarsu's reputation as a decent girl but rather she is recognized for her ability to work with men and build collegiate relationships. the aid members insisted that her family sends her to higher education as they came to believe that she has potential that should not be wasted. so in spite of the advice of conventional minded members her mother took the decision to send her to city to study and work as well. this has put sarsu in the category of those who commute daily outside sl and hence the convention that such people carry a mobile phone has become applicable to her. but to buy a mobile phone is decision worthy of long-term deliberation in sarsu's family. till then she has to use the coin-booth near the bus stop on the highway to ask for an escort to walk her through the dark unsafe patch of road to home. sarsu needs to communicate with her other friends too but the mobile phone is not always available to her. in such cases she will go to one of the petty shops in sl that have coin-booths (figure 2: c & d). two of them are closer to her home but she prefers the one whose owner is a kind and considerate person not only to her but to other women in sl. sarsu:  most of time i will use this [a particular coin booth]. whenever i have to talk to my friends i will use this. when my brother will be speaking to his friends he will not give me the phone so at that time i will come here to speak. sarsu : he is my friend. he speaks nicely. whenever i go to his shop he will ask of my family and friends. i will also ask and chat with him. sarsu : he is a good person. he will give things [with the account to be settled later]. he talks nicely. when i will go to his store he will speak about himself and myself. we will chat. we have a good relationship. he will give some discounts. he has two coin-booths that i will use. (the other shop keeper is said to be unfriendly for several reasons. we do not put the speech verbatim here for privacy concerns.) sarsu as a user of communication technology is inseparable from her being a respected girl in the community. here it is important to see that while being respected and being a girl are two different sets of meanings, they cannot be separated in analysis. the process of becoming of the 'respected girl' is executed through an intricate web of relationships with human and non-human objects in the community. these relationships do not come to be without a historical development. historicity is a crucial aspect of the conceptual framework of cas. in the next section we look at the historical events that are a key to the becoming of sarsu. figure 2: sudarshan layout: hand drawn map by sarsu and her friend (+12° 55' 26.31", +77° 36' 8.16") historical development of the system/community in the life of a complex adaptive system occur dynamic transformations that lead to a new phase, a new regime where the components acquire new meanings.  they are attributed to the amplification of naturally occurring fluctuations around which a phase change nucleates. this is the so called bottom-up causality (juarrero 2000, p.31). in a system like sl which is not closed but has interaction with outer world, such transformations can have an external trigger. while this trigger can be completely external such as a political or economic upheaval at the national level it can also be an intervention that was attracted due to certain developments within the system. in the recent history of sl we can identify two such events which reconfigured the meaning of many components of this system including the role and character of sarsu. upon the examination of these events we can see that the naturally occurring development within the system attracted an external influence leading to a significant event that changed the lives of the community members. here we describe these two events to elaborate their effect on the life of sarsu. event 1: inauguration of ac3 ambedkar community computing center (ac3) is described by residents of sudarshan layout as an informal computer education center for children of slums (figure 2: b). ac3 is based in sudarshan layout.  the idea of ac3 was conceived during a meeting of local youth of sudarshan layout with stree jagurati samiti (sjs) and ambedkar youth association (aya). stree jagurati samiti (sjs) is a bangalore based non-governmental organization (ngo) and ambedekar youth association (aya) is an association of local youth of sudarshan layout. the local youth aspired for computer education and during the meeting they expressed these. aya agreed to provide space to start a computer center while sjs contacted association for india’s development (aid) with request for teachers. association for india’s development (aid) is a group of volunteers primarily software professionals working in information technology industry of bangalore. local youth took the responsibility to take care of affairs of the computer center and other residents helped in building the necessary infrastructure such as furniture, painting, doors etc. finally, the computer center was formally inaugurated on 6th july 2008. ac3 is a bottom-up initiative. local community holds the ownership of ac3. ac3 follows a layered and community oriented approach of teaching i.e. the aid volunteers teach the local youth while they in turn teach the younger children from sudarshan layout. ac3 was created and is sustained by joint efforts of various groups of people. some of the groups belong to sudarshan layout while others are from outside. the involvement of sarsu and others of her age in this initiative changed their identities into respectable members of the community. it increased the mobility of sarsu within the community freeing her partly from the taboos which otherwise would be imposed on her, such as restrictions on making male acquaintances and communicating with them informally. there is yet another event that was to happen soon which made the whole community proud of this initiative and where sarsu's role was especially acknowledged. event 2: richard stallman and eben moglen’s visit in december 2008, two months before this ethnographic field study, richard stallman, founder of free software foundation and eben moglen, chairman of software freedom law center, visited ac3. both, richard stallman and eben moglen praised and acknowledged efforts of ac3 and ac3 members. as a ac3 member sarsu prepared a presentation and presented to both the high profile dignitaries. these visits were covered by local print and online media and photographs of ac3 members appeared in newspapers, blogs, and online magazines. with this event sealed the reputation of sarsu as a talented girl who has an extraordinary value for the community.  once a transition point is passed, new modes of being emerge, in particular new modes of causality. “the most essential and characteristic feature of a qualitative transformation is that new kinds of causal factors begin to be significant in a given context, or to ‘take control’ of a certain domain of phenomena, with the result that there appear new laws and even new kinds of laws, which apply in the domain in question” (bohm, 1971, p.53). (quoted in juarerro 2000, p.32) these events mark a phase change within sl that generated the possibilities of new kind of personalities and new kind of relationships within the community. a phase change is the qualitative reconfiguration of the constraints governing the previous attractor regime. the shift creates new relationships among the system’s components as well as between the system and its environment. phase changes signal a reorganization of the old dynamics into a new system with renewed relationships among the parts. these new relationships embody new properties and are governed by new laws. within an established dynamical regime, the components’ meaning is given by their contextual setting. (juarerro 2000, p.49) the new phase is noticed by external observers as well. aid volunteer: let other similar community know what is happening here. many of the people from nearby areas came here to see [after local newspaper covered richard stallman's visit]. and now they also feel if mani and sarsu can do it then why cant we. sjs president: one of the biggest achievements is not to get the center [ac3] setup; one of the biggest achievements is to get individuals to realize their own potentials and to get knowledge and information across. once that is there they develop. they just grow.[referring to sarsu and her colleagues] the transformation of the phase change is not disruptive, neither does it imply a break from history. on the contrary the history of the system is operational in the phase change. sarsu remains a girl of the community, now with some additional attributes, unlike what she was before. but in the appreciation of her new self by the community there is an acknowledgement that 'she' could do an admirable presentation in front of the dignitaries. the weight her personality carries now includes the weight of her history as well as the history of the community. indeed, precisely what makes these complex systems dynamical is that a current state is in part dependent on a prior one. feedback, that is, incorporates the past into the system’s present “external” structure. feedback thus threads a system through both time and space, thereby allowing part of the system’s external structure to run through its history. feedback processes thus embody the context-sensitive constraints of history. by embodying context-sensitive constraints, mutualist feedback renders a system sensitive to (constrained by) its own past experiences. (p.37) these feedback processes are not time reversible like in simple mechanical systems. they amount to a history, a sediment of past experiences. it is only through an historical account of these feedback processes the causality of the agents in a system can be explained. conclusion the actions that sarsu could take within the constraints of the system was the enabling bottom-up constraint that changed the whole of the community establishing new laws of relations between at least some community members and thus changing the top-down constraints. some of the top-down constraints are the taboos related to the character of young girls in the local culture. in case of sarsu we see these taboos being changed in recognition of her abilities. this change reflects in her use of technology which she invokes in the maintenance of the new kinds of relationships she can indulge in. the feedback loops within the constraints of the system lead to sedimentation of the systems history into its own structure and thus are responsible for the causal structure of the system. from the cas point of view it is naive to see causality as a linear sequence of events such as particular needs leading to a certain use of technology. rather causality is emergent as is the rest of the system when parts get bound in a historical continuity of constraints. we cannot locate a single event as a cause of another however disruptive it might be. this brings us to the question of agency. the idea of human agency is closely bound to theories of causation and the existence of the world. the commonly held notion of causation is that causal relationships can be potentially manipulated in order to achieve control. if a is the cause of b, manipulating a in the proper manner should enable us to manipulate and possible change b. yet our current conception of the world and of the human entity’s relationship with it precludes full coverage of such interrelatedness. this lengthy discussion that runs through the history of western philosophy and dating back to aristotle's definition of formal causes is outside the scope of our essay. location of agency in cas if no event can be pointed to as definite and the only cause of another event, then who has the agency, i.e. capacity to act? according to ahearn's (2001) skeletal definition agency is a socio-culturally mediated capacity to act. ahearn’s concern is to find how people perceive their own agency and she proposes to study it through the linguistic constructs they use to proclaim it. this way we can study how much agency individuals attribute to themselves. a part of the argument of this paper is that studies of co-construction of users and technology have mostly concentrated on the representations of the users and not on the persons in flesh. as we examine the materiality of the technology we should examine the materiality of the users as well. as agency remains limited to the persons presentation of the self, a user who is merely a citizen assuming rights, or a consumer projecting his needs remains a representation the attributed agency remains a part of that representation. on the contrary the emergent nature of causality in a cas points to a different location of agency. the materiality of a system cannot be ignored in the discussion of its emergence. also individual parts of a system cannot be explained meaningfully to act in their own capacity. users as parts of the system can make their choices but their options depend on the choices made before, not just by the individual in question but by many more parts of the system. agency is not attributable solely to an individual but it a result of the second order context sensitive constraints of the systemic whole which has a history.  technology being part of the material as well as discursive constraints of the system is thus more obviously co-constructed with users in body and flesh rather than their representations. references ahearn, l. 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(2003). . nairobi, kenya: united nations human settlements programme (un-habitat). retrieved from http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listitemdetails.aspx?publicationid=1156 kumar, s. (2007). methods for community participation. a complete guide for practitioners. new delhi, india: vistaar publications.   tacchi, j., slater, d., & hearn, g. (2003). ethnographic action research handbook. new delhi, india: unesco.   latin american telecenters: the long road toward empowerment the journal of community informatics, (2004), vol. 1, issue 1, pp. 39-57 *latin american community telecenters: “it’s a long way to ticperary**” michel j. menou cidegi, france & somos@telecentros < michel.menou@wanadoo.fr > karin delgadillo poepsel foundation chasquinet, ecuador & somos@telecentros < karin@chasquinet.org > klaus stoll foundation chasquinet, ecuador & somos@telecentros < klaus@chasquinet.org > abstract community telecenters, that is centers for community development using ict (information and communications technologies)1, have become the focus of attention in international development circles over the past ten years, especially in latin america. a virtual community called somos@telecentros is progressively taking shape in the region (http://www.tele-centros.org) with a specific interest in supporting and enabling these community telecenters. as part of the build up effort an inventory of telecenters was conducted, followed by a review of the situation. the latter involved self-description, recording of stories on the web and through email, and email and face-to-face interviews. the results were synthesized into an analytical panorama of the telecenters movement in the region, the challenges faced, the solutions encountered and the lessons learned. this paper will summarize these findings and highlight a number of key issues, in particular, the trade-off between top-down connectivity and computer literacy programs and horizontal and community-led and controlled comprehensive development efforts. * an earlier version of this paper, authored by p. bonilla soria, k. delgadillo poepsel, k. stoll and m.j. menou was presented at the 3rd conference of the association of internet researchers: net / work / theory, maastricht, the netherlands, october 13-16, 2002 ** tic is ict in latin languages. 1 ict is tic in latin languages. mailto:somos@telecentros mailto:michel.menou@wanadoo.fr mailto:somos@telecentros mailto:karin@chasquinet.org mailto:somos@telecentros mailto:klaus@chasquinet.org http://www.tele-centros.org/ 40 the journal of community informatics the somos@telecentros community and the telelac projects for more than 20 years, collective access to telecommunications facilities and services has been tried in industrialized countries as a means to alleviate economic and social disadvantages faced by marginal, isolated or rural communities2. in the second half of the 1990’s, various non-governmental organizations, especially in latin america, began to offer collective access points to telecommunication facilities, with an emphasis on internet access3. in the same period a number of international organizations, especially the international telecommunications union (itu); the united nations education, science and culture organization (unesco); and the canada’s international development research center (idrc) undertook to emulate and adapt these endeavors through “pilot projects” that supported “multipurpose community telecenters” principally in africa. the rapid spread of internet access and use at the international level, and the resulting concerns for the so-called “digital divide” and its consequences prompted many nongovernmental organizations and even some governments to follow a similar path. by the end of the 1990’s, “telecenters”, under various names, were becoming relatively common in many parts of the world, and even more widely referenced in the debates and strategy developments concerning poverty alleviation and what information and communication technologies (icts) could contribute to such efforts. the very notion of a “telecenter”, its characteristics and more importantly its actual effects were however, and continue to be, a subject of considerable discussion. (fuchs, 1998; gomez, hunt, lamoureux 1999; menou & stoll 2003). it was thus natural for the idrc to consider investigating what the reality might be concerning the development and significance of telecenters in relation to “development” in the latin american region. the idrc looked to identify latin american partners that could undertake a survey and analysis of the telecenters in the area. in the course of preliminary discussions, a somewhat different approach emerged where the project would not be limited to a single immediate outcome but would primarily seek to facilitate the construction of a cooperative network among telecenters and a participatory approach to the proposed studies and activities (menou, 1999). the chasquinet foundation, based in ecuador, agreed to assume responsibility for the coordination of the project. this developed further through an online discussion among a number of actors within the telecenters movement in the region followed by face to face meetings among some of these, on the occasion of a workshop on telecenters evaluation organized by idrc. a twoyear project, called telelac 1, was formally approved by the idrc in december 1999. the focus of the project was originally to be on the consolidation of data and lessons learned about telecenters operating in latin america and the caribbean. at the first meeting of project participants three other objectives were added: • establishing mechanisms for cooperative learning and sharing experiences, especially through an online resource center and electronic discussion groups; • building an effective community network that could become self-sustaining; • developing, and possibly applying, appropriate methodologies for impact assessment. in sum, the project evolved and was implemented so that it could contribute to the creation of conditions that would support action research, on the one hand; and the building of a pro-active and representative community of telecenters in the region, on the other. the latter objective was conceived as the necessary collective platform to achieve open and continuous learning, and to facilitate effective participation in the articulation of policies and plans related to the use of ict for development. even though all objectives could not be achieved, progress under telelac 1 was significant. this led the idrc to request a proposal for a second phase. after a somewhat excruciating process of successive 2 thus the often used name for these facililtes--“telecottage” reminiscent of cottage industrie.s 3 among these, the red cientifica peruana, rcp, initiated the cabinas publicas internet [public internet cabins] in 1994, which were widely, and often incorrectly and abusively, acknowledged as a “best practice”. mailto:somos@telecentros latin american community telecenters 41 revisions resulting from institutional changes within the donor community, telelac 2 was finally approved by the idrc and the institute for connectivity in the americas (ica) and activated in july 2002 for a period of a further 2 years. considering that the community of telecenters was already emerging, telelac 2 was intended to offer indirect support to this process by: • setting up cooperative mechanisms for research, learning and experimentation, and the dissemination of best practices and results; • providing capacity-building opportunities for telecenter practitioners in lac as a way to enhance their performance, relevance and sustainability; and • strengthening the regional network and its capacity to partner and influence the private and public sectors in the region. the network’s geographic scope encompasses both latin america and the caribbean. the majority of participants are spanish speaking. spanish is the main language of communication within the network. one result of this has been to reduce the collective participation of brazilian actors in the telecenters movement and even more those from english or french speaking countries and territories, even though individual participation from these regions has been substantial.4 the cost of providing translation has unfortunately been prohibitive restricting access from not only other major european languages but also from the significant indigenous languages as well. however its should be noted that the lack of direct personal contacts, the difficulties in creating the encounters through which mutual understanding and trust might be built, as well as the slow process of building and appropriating a culture of networking and sharing can be regarded as even more significant barriers to the development the network than language. the somos@telecentros community is at the moment an “open space”. telecenters, telecenter personnel, social activists, academics, and anyone interested in this phenomenon may join by registering on the web site. the only requirement is to agree to a set of principles5. currently more than 1900 persons and some 350 telecenters or telecenters organizations have registered. one can roughly estimate that more than 30% of the members are actively participating in the activities of the community, participation being understood as sharing of materials, especially through the online resource center; contributions to the discussion lists; or attendance at the local or regional meetings in addition to the regular activities undertaken in the respective locations. the on going strengthening of the movement is likely to rely on the formation of effective though flexible national structures. toward this end, somos@telecentros has encouraged the holding of national meetings which since 2001 have taken place in 9 countries6 and has supported a regional meeting for central america and the caribbean organized by the inter-american bank for development7. the outcome of the national meetings has been directed to feed into the discussions at the regional meetings, which economic conditions have prevented many members from attending (as has been the case even for national meetings, at least in the largest countries). a variety of local circumstances and the focus on the formalization of the regional network from 2003 led to some loss of impetus in the building of national groups. however, the momentum seems to have recovered somewhat with the activation of national discussion lists. three regional meetings have been held to date, in quito, ecuador (july 2001 & april 2003) and são paolo, brazil (may 2004). 4 a phenomenon which can also be observed in related regional endeavors such as the mistica a virtual community focused on the social effects of ict in latin america and the caribbean; http://funredes.org/mistica/ 5 democracy, open access to knowledge, solidarity and mutual help, participation and transparency, proactive participation, respect of diversity and gender equality 6 argentina, april 200; brazil, june 2001 & may 2004; chile, july 2001; colombia, june 2001 october 2003; cuba, february 2001; ecuador march 2001& april 2003; mexico, march 2001; peru, march 2001 & april 2003; venezuela, june 2001 7 http://www.tele-centros.org/comunidad/tallerbid.html mailto:somos@telecentros mailto:somos@telecentros 42 the journal of community informatics at the 2nd regional meeting a process of formalization was engaged in through the election of an interim steering committee entrusted with the task of leading this process. bylaws and organizational structures were discussed in an open working group. the community has now been incorporated as an international non-governmental organization under ecuadorian law and a board of directors was elected at the 3rd regional meeting. a series of general and thematic discussion lists (see table 1) has allowed for continuing interaction among the participants, while lists restricted to specific coordination functions are established as need arises. the main channel of interaction among the participants is the telecentros list. it has an average of 200 messages per month. a significant level of interpersonal and small group interaction appears to be taking place in parallel to this, both electronically and through direct observation. from 2003 national lists began to operate in argentina, colombia, ecuador, méxico, perú; and in 2004 in bolivia, brasil, chile, guatemala, nicaragua, paraguay, venezuela established their own lists. these it is hoped will play a significant role in strengthening the community at both the national and regional levels. the online resource center meanwhile provides access to a growing collection of documents8 and references on all aspects of telecenter activities presented in a systematic fashion with emphasis on the sharing of experience among members of the community and offering practical answers to specific needs. the resource center currently receives some 1000 visits per month. table 1. somos@telecentros electronic discussion lists list no. of subscribers countries represented telecentros 671 latin america & caribbean argentina, belize, bolivia, brazil, chile, colombia, costa rica, cuba, curação, dominican rep., ecuador, el salvador, guatemala, honduras, jamaica, mexico, nicaragua, panama, paraguay, peru, puerto rico, uruguay, venezuela. other australia, belgium, canada, denmark, france, germany, india, italy, japan, netherlands, portugal, slovakia, south africa, spain, sweden, switzerland, u.k., u.s.a. tigers [linux] 72 argentina, chile, colombia, cuba, ecuador, mexico, paraguay, peru, uruguay, venezuela usa equity (e.g. gender) 27 argentina, bolivia, brazil, chile, colombia, ecuador, guatemala, mexico, peru training 6 ecuador, peru virtual telecenters school “oscar pedraza” 48 argentina, bolivia, brazil, chile, colombia, ecuador, mexico, nicaragua, panama, peru, venezuela rural distance education 119 argentina, bolivia, brazil, chile, colombia, costa rica, ecuador, guatemala, mexico, peru, uruguay, venezuela, covitalc (research) 46 argentina, bolivia, brazil, chile, colombia, dominican rep., ecuador, guatemala, mexico, nicaragua, panama, peru. rules of operation for somos@telecentros 19 argentina, brazil, chile, colombia, ecuador, guatemala, mexico, nicaragua, paraguay, peru. as the host for the central functions in the network, the chasquinet foundation has provided staff and logistical support far beyond that for which it was compensated through the above-mentioned projects. an average of 3 full-time equivalent staff have been engaged in support of the “central functions”--web development and maintenance, list moderation, support to working groups, etc. in addition, a great deal of the activities of the network are coordinated and implemented by its volunteer members. 8 some 350 as of august 2004 mailto:somos@telecentros latin american community telecenters 43 implementation of the "state of the art" a first step in the building of the telecentros virtual community was naturally to call telecenters and telecenters organizations that were sharing the basic values of the community9 to join in and register themselves in a directory. this was done using a variety of channels, especially the electronic discussion lists that focus on ict and development10. the data requested was detailed enough to provide a basis for an initial classification of the telecenters in accordance to a variety of characteristics11. in march 2000 a first perspective on the community was tentatively drawn up. the reliability of this information was however limited. more importantly, it lacked the touch and feel of real life experience that is required for inviting readers to learn from the experiences, especially in the cultural context of latin america and the caribbean. this led to direct contact with the participants with a request for them to tell the story of their telecenter by sending the information in an email, following a simple format12. a lottery13 was combined with this exercise with the goal of increasing participation. direct contacts and messages to discussion lists were initiated between june and october 2000. this effort yielded a total of 27 stories14 (hunt 2001). about the same number were promised but not received. the ones received appeared to be exceedingly factual and lacking both a critical reflection and the “special human interest” that would illustrate the individual and collective experience arising from the telecenter activity. it was thus decided to make yet a third attempt with another methodology, the “virtual meeting” (blanco garcia 2001)15. the objective was to deepen the representation of the experiences with regard to five areas: • ethnography of the place: social, geographic and economic environment • story of the telecenters’ operators: their motivations, expectations, and interactions with their milieu; • story of the supporting project; • story of the telecenter: the interactions among stakeholders that facilitate or limit the development of the telecenter; and the • stories of the activities and services, their positive and negative effects and impact. this was to be achieved by means of open in-depth interviews in form of a continuing conversation, and designed to obtain the desired information including the biography of the respondents. biography being understood here as the set of factual events experienced by the informant and the associated images and 9 see note 3 10 among those one can mention: telecentros, telecentres-1, mistica, gkd, library juice, ifla, devmedia, infoandina, enredo, genevalink, greenstar, bellanet, ccta & idtg (perú), pact (perú), isoc, oneworld, rits (brazil), red eptic (brazil). 11 for example, starting date, localization, legal status, main activities, sources of funding and business plan, community participation, social groups served, connectivity and equipment. 12 full name of storyteller; telecentre name, e-mail, web site; brief description of the set-up and resources of the telecentre (one paragraph); describe the social role your telecentre intends to play. how does it support civil society? what are the main problems faced by the community in which the telecentre is established? how does your telecentre contribute to working toward solutions for these problems? (give examples) what obstacles or problems does the telecentre face in operating? what helps you to do a good job? (e.g. specific resources or people; give examples) what results can you report at this stage in the development of your telecentre? 13 with a prize of 500$ us in equipment 14 brazil 2, chile 1, colombia 5, cuba 5, dominican rep. 1, ecuador 2, el salvador 1, guatemala 2, mexico 1, nicaragua 1, paraguay 1, peru 3, venezuela 2, 15 the description of this part of the study is derived from ilian blanco garcia’s report. 44 the journal of community informatics representations, including those of the interviewer (alonso, 1999, p.225) as in the case of oral history. it should further be stressed that the purpose of the study was not only, nor primarily, to assemble meaningful data for a “survey”, but for the building of a body of knowledge that would serve the learning and sharing of experience of somos@telecentros members. due to financial and material limitations, as well as technological constraints16, the interviews were conducted by means of electronic mail. such a virtual setting and process imposes drastic constraints in the dialogue, and of course excludes those who cannot or have significant difficulties in writing. the interviews concentrated on telecenter “operators”, that is managers and staff, or managers of telecenters programs. other stakeholders, in particular a representative sample of the communities served by the telecenters could not be included. however, the prize attached to the stories was allocated on the basis of a “popular vote” by electronic mail, open to all members of somos@telecentros thus allowing in principle the beneficiaries to highlight what they considered as the best achievement. the interview guide was designed on the basis of a critical review of the information already available and the specific objectives of the study. rather than a rigid set of questions, it was a list of topics and desired outcomes designed to help in the recording of the information. the quality of the interviews was quite satisfactory in general, despite the unnatural environment, perhaps in part due to the fact that people were made to feel special by being invited to tell their stories. it was originally planned to conduct 30 interviews with 3 investigators. as a result of various circumstances only 23 interviews from 10 countries were completed in usable form17. concern for balance in gender or other key characteristics and material constraints resulted in a slightly different composition of the sample compared to the set of stories gathered in the earlier round. it might also be noted that even though the interviewees were informed that the interview was taking place in a fully “free space”, it is intriguing that the bureaucratic control existing in some real environments apparently was carried over into the responses of some participants. the content of the interviews was disaggregated into discrete topics that reflect qualitative information relating to various topics, times and stakeholders in the establishment and operation of a telecenter. the information highlighted in the account of real life endeavors by the actors was extracted and organized using methods recommended by s.j. taylor and r. bogdan. (taylor & bogdan, 1986). these elementary components were then grouped into logical categories and the latter combined into a kind of conceptual map showing the interrelations, convergences and oppositions existing among them. this allowed for the construction of a comprehensive text, while making appropriate reference to the original sources. the comprehensiveness and coherence of this text with regard to the various queries initially considered was then checked. a preliminary version of the “state-of-the-art” was presented in summary form at the regional meeting held in quito at the end of july 2001. on this occasion a number of interviews were eventually completed or revised in face-to-face interaction. a second round of consolidations then took place in order to produce the final version (somos@telecentros, 2002). the state-of-the-art report contains, in addition to the consolidated stories, a series of national profiles for 16 countries18 resulting from desk research and the information provided by the members of somos@telecentros community. five thematic chapters based upon the outcome of the process just described offer some sort of synthesis. this should of course, be regarded as an on-going effort. participants in somos@telecentros are expected to keep their stories up to date as well as to provide up-todate information regarding the situation in their respective countries. as can be expected, discrepancies were observed between what the investigators were expecting and what was actually collected. a number of issues, which were earmarked for inclusion in the final report, had to be dropped for lack of sufficient information. also, the level of education, the approach to the appraisal of the milieu and endeavor, and the critical reflection varied significantly among the respondents. this diversity of perspectives further added to the inherent heterogeneity of the situations and endeavors. it 16 e.g. cost of travel, cost and quality of voice connections. 17 brazil 3, chile 1, colombia 3, costa rica 1, dominican republic 1, ecuador 2, guatemala 2, mexico 3, peru 3, venezuela 3. 18 argentina, bolivia, brazil, chile, colombia, costa rica, cuba, dominican republic, ecuador, el salvador, honduras, mexico, nicaragua, guatemala, peru, venezuela mailto:somos@telecentros mailto:somos@telecentros mailto:somos@telecentros mailto:somos@telecentros latin american community telecenters 45 proved impossible in particular to provide a general view of the social context in which telecenters operate; this aspect had to be mentioned in conjunction with each particular case. no attempt was made at hiding contradictions or at identifying best practices. rather there was an attempt to understand the roots and rationale of the respective discourses. the material gathered was intended as much as possible to cover the following topics: • the operators: their identity, personal characteristics and relationship with the local community; • planning of the telecenters: the underlying philosophy, specific objectives, installation and training; • operation of the telecenters: objectives, services, users, equipment, management and approach to sustainability; and • effects and impact: the initial situation in the local community, changes that occurred, production, current relationship with the local community, vision of the future. even though all telecenters share a common conceptual background, geared at contributing to sustainable and comprehensive human development, and to some extent they share basic ideological premises, their answers to specific challenges might vary widely. one of the most obvious instances of difference was found in relation to the issue of the financial sustainability. the majority seemed to accept that users would be charged, within reasonable limits, with a view to sustaining the operation. this met with radical objections of the sampa.org network in são paulo, brazil, which contends that it is fundamentally unjust to charge people for the use of their rights and that it is the responsibility of the community to provide these services. another contentious topic is in the negotiation of social acceptance when facing traditional values and power systems where these are seriously challenged by the intrusion of free access to “global information” such as domestic violence or gender equity. some argued that confrontation has to be engaged at least up to a certain point, while others, and probably the majority preferred a smooth incremental approach. in practice the major differences were found in the social environment and its approach. there was for example, a fair degree of variation in such areas as internal administrative routines, relationship with the stakeholders, production of contents, and development strategies exhibited. conversely the more technical activities and aspects exhibited the most convergence. the management of connectivity issues, equipment and training activities were dealt with in almost parallel methods by all telecenters. a picture of latin american telecenters the reality we are trying to describe is rapidly changing for a number of reasons. public policies, private sector involvement and society’s response to the related needs and challenges are all changing. national “digital inclusion”19 programs for instance became commonplace during the past few years, while they were an exception when somos@telecentros was launched. the overall economic and socio-political conditions can also change quite dramatically over a short time, especially in latin america, as is illustrated, by the pitiful recent history of argentina. what was true a few years ago, when most of the empirical evidence for this paper was assembled, may no longer hold in a number of areas. a few countries in latin america have not been or only superficially covered. as noted earlier, english and french speaking countries and territories in latin america and the caribbean are represented in the network by a limited number of participants from a few countries20. in addition, the relative novelty of telecenters in developing countries and the propaganda of their sponsors, operators, users, admirers or detractors, in the 19 digital inclusion seeks to foster not only broader access but also the social use and appropriation of digital technologies in order to meet the needs of communities, particularly the most underprivileged, the creation of appropriate knowledge and contents and the strengthening of individual capacities. in this way digital inclusion can contribute to improving the economic, social, political and personal lives of the vast majority. 20 which is unfortunate since most caribbean states are now developing digital inclusion programs, often based in public schools. mailto:somos@telecentros 46 the journal of community informatics absence of any solid conceptual framework, allows for multiple variations and interpretations of the facts. furthermore, obtaining accurate factual information is not an easy task in the particular cultural and historical context, irrespective of the methods used. even though telecenters registering with somos@telecentros are asked to fill in a fairly simple descriptive sheet, many items remain blank or ill covered; a continuing effort needs to be pursued in order to assemble reliable data. far more time, data and insights will need to be available till one can present ”the” picture of telecenters in latin american, or any other part of the developing world. offering a meaningful typology of telecenters is at the moment quite difficult and artificial. in their study proenza and co-workers (proenza, f., bastidas-buch, r., montero, g. 2001, p. 13) used for instance a classification with 7 categories of telecenters21, mainly based upon the legal form of the entity in charge. however a telecenter can be based in a school but be supported by a program of the central government and develop a variety of activities for different segments of public, thus cross several of their identified categories. in view of recent events in countries hit by financial or political crises, one may need to add to their classification a component describing the state of activity, ranging from “promised before the elections and still not on” to “fully operational without interruption”. colle and roman (1999) have proposed a more detailed grid with 10 dimensions22, some of which are in fact inter-linked (e.g. private sector and for profit). however, the publicly available information does not allow for categorizing telecenters along such lines without risking serious misinterpretations. furthermore the significance of these labels is dependant on the social reality and actual endeavors, which are often far more versatile and delicate. at this stage, it was felt more appropriate to stick to only 3 types of initiatives: those of central or local governments operating within communities, those of central or local governments operating from educational institutions (schools or public libraries) and those of non-governmental organizations (ngo’s) or the private sector. note that the plain cyber cafés or similar purely commercial ventures are not included in this category, nor reflected in the figures below23. table 2 shows the 2002 estimates for existing and planned telecenters, distributed across the three main types. it should be regarded as a very rough indication. the figure of 6500 “telecenters” in 2002 is to be compared with the 50 that were assumed to operate in 1996. in the first category the currently identified telecenters are mainly those of argentina, bolivia, brazil, chile, colombia, costa rica, cuba, dominican republic, ecuador, guatemala, honduras, mexico, panama, peru, uruguay and venezuela. the expected increases result from various governmental programs that have been announced principally in bolivia, brazil colombia, ecuador and mexico. the second category corresponds to telecenters installed at the initiative of central governments, but often also include state or provincial governments and municipalities in educational institutions of all levels, from primary school to universities, and in public libraries or cultural institutions. such programs play a significant role in countries such as argentina, colombia, guatemala and mexico. though primarily targeted at youth, these telecenters are also expected to serve the entire community. the production of educational software and applications is eventually included in related programs. the relatively high proportion of future development results from the attractiveness of such programs for public authorities with regard to both their logistical convenience and more importantly their appeal to public opinion. but the implementation of these plans is more often than not subject to all types of interferences. the provincial government of pichincha in ecuador has for instance initiated the establishment of telecenters in the primary school and hopes to reach 1000 centers by the end of the program. the majority of telecenters in the third category are the result of community initiatives. the expected increase here is bound to programs of international cooperation agencies that are actively supporting these initiatives. 21 commercial, franchise, ngo, university, school, municipal and polyvalent. 22 public sector versus private sector, publicly funded versus privately funded, commercial (fee-based) versus free, urban versus rural, narrow focus versus multi-purpose, independent versus networked/grouped, community-based versus establishment, stand alone versus attached, profit versus service, thematic versus universal. 23 the revolving argument about the inclusion of not of cybercafés among telecenters will be discussed below under issues and challenges. mailto:somos@telecentros latin american community telecenters 47 table 2. 2002 estimates of telecenters by main type initiatives supporting the telecenter currently identified announced increases central & local governments based in communities 4 560 1 850 central & local governments based in educational institutions 1 780 1 500 ngo’s & private sector 106 837 the main aspects of telecenters based in public entities, which will be called “government telecenters”, and in ngo’s respectively are summarized below. “government” telecenters at the national level governmental programs to support telecenters on a large scale can be traced back to 1998 with the argentin@internet.todos in argentina, which discussed the establishment of a large number of community technology centers24. such moves have since become commonplace. the strategic vision here is to provide free or low cost connectivity to members of the public who cannot afford private access, or are not any time soon likely to be served by an appropriate technology infrastructure. most programs come under a broader agenda of digital inclusion as part of an overall program of “modernization” and the preparation of the countries to become partners in the global “digital economy”. in this connection computer literacy, facilitation of e-government initiatives and creating e-business opportunities are often associated with the basic connectivity concerns. a common feature of these programs is there impressive size, at least in the plans. the first version in 1999 of the ctc program in argentina contemplated the creation of 1350 units (telecenters), each with 5 computers, 2 printers, 1 scanner, 2 camera usb’s for web casting, 1 digital camera, software and furniture. the e-mexico project announced in 2000 contemplated the opening of 2470 telecenters in all municipalities of the country. the compartel program in colombia was directed to establishing telecenters in 191 main towns serving 557 constituencies. in the dominican republic there were to be 322 computer labs established in schools. as part of the ict strategy for education in the oecs25 countries all schools are understood as being in the process of being equipped with computer labs that will also be open to the local communities. carlos afonso gives an idea of the magnitude of such efforts in the case of brazil where the ministry of education is considering the installation of some 130.000 computers in 13.000 schools; “... disregarding training, maintenance, instructors, software and other associated expenses, 130000 computers at 1000 us $ each make 130 millions us $” (afonso, c.a, 2002). the development of these programs originally followed typical patterns of direct administration with predefined beneficiaries, conditions and rules, and management by central units. later on decentralized approaches have emerged where the telecommunication regulatory agencies26, or other central government bodies, allocate resources to organizations, through a regular tendering process that will implement standard telecenters in specified localities, usually major centers in the provinces. in both cases, the definition of the capacity to be installed seems to follow rules of “fair distribution” rather than for example, social need. (that there would be a fixed ratio between the permanent population, on the one hand and the 24 the use of a mostly u.s. terminology is perhaps symptomatic. 25 organization of eastern caribbean states 26 for instance the compartel program in colombia (http://www.compartel.gov.co ) or the program for public internet booths in district capitals of the fondo de inversión en telecomunicaciones (fitel) in peru (http://www.osiptel.gob.pe/index.asp?t=p&p=2695 ) mailto:argentin@internet.todos http://www.compartel.gov.co/ http://www.osiptel.gob.pe/index.asp?t=p&p=2695 48 the journal of community informatics capacity of a telecenter remains to be demonstrated.) there is also some question whether government telecenters when “parachuted” into institutions such as schools, public libraries, town halls, healthcare centers, post offices or the like, without either proper preparation of the environment, training of the staff or adjustment of the institutional rules may not be in serious danger of not delivering the service the community is supposed to enjoy. another difficulty lies in the lack of suitable provision for maintenance, or amortization and renewal of equipment that is a standard feature in public administration as well as of course, the frequent budgetary crises resulting in the temporary freezing of expenses, when other more drastic actions are not instituted. as one may expect the installation and continuity of government telecenters does not always escape political influence. in many cases the funding of these programs is secured with funds for universal service that are set up as part of the deregulation of the telecommunications sector. the wording of telecommunications acts and their universal access provisions is usually obscure enough to offer a comfortable margin of interpretation, usually in the direction of supporting the operators of the infrastructure rather than the needy communities. in some cases when the funding relies upon generous provisions, such as with the brazilian fust (fund for the universalization of telecommunications) the amount collected may become a tempting target for any minister of finance confronted with a severe fiscal crisis27. rather than allowing for a steady development, governmentally initiated telecenters result in a continuing seesaw between emphatic promises, delayed and/or partial implementation, and occasional implementation especially in pre-election times. as can be expected the interaction with the civil society organizations that may be active in the particular communities, the production of local content – beyond a directory like web page of the locality, users education beyond basic computer and internet literacy, and the connection with community development struggles all remain a matter of personal readiness among telecenters’ staff. fortunately many of these are sufficiently committed to deliver effective services. this again suggests the observation that the way in which programs are implemented, and more importantly who implements them matters far more than what their remit appears to be on paper. the key role of individuals and the need for all actors to actively seek personal transformation as a requisite for social transformation has become a leitmotiv of somos@telecentros coordination (delgadillo poepsel, 2000). another striking aspect, especially in view of the geographic extension of the programs, is the general lack of attention paid to the possible building of networks. each telecenter is seen as a separate access point and the networking left to the individual initiative of the users and natural effect of the communications that will take place. but the multiplier effect that networks of communities communicating through telecenters both within the country and with the diaspora can have upon development calls for a more interventionist approach such as the one proposed under the project “conectandonos al futuro de el salvador”28 which contemplated a structured national network of some 100 “infocentros”29. “government” telecenters at local level the involvement of local governments in community access and use of ict started before the activities of central governments. the city of buenos aires (argentina) initiated participatory administration centers in 1996. at about the same time municipal communication networks were launched in montevideo (uruguay) and santiago de chile. being closer to the grass root realities, local governments are in principle in a better position both to develop programs that make room for the needs of the population, respond to its expectations and articulate themselves with social movements; while at the same time ensuring that core requirements such as provision of connectivity and enabling the deployment of e 27 in 36 months of operation the fust is believed to have collected about 1 billion us $, http://www.anatel.gov.br/tools/frame.asp?link=/biblioteca/releases/2004/release_08_01_2004(2).pdf visited aug. 27, 2004. 28 http://www.conectando.org.sv/index.htm visited sept. 25, 2002. the actual implementation of the scheme suffered a number of alterations and delays but still presents marked differences with the more traditional approaches. 29 a choice of name that was intended to emphasize collective access to, and use of, information as opposed to mere connectivity. mailto:somos@telecentros http://www.conectando.org.sv/index.htm latin american community telecenters 49 government projects are equally present. for instance, in manizales (colombia) coffee producers can find online assistance while in são paulo (brazil) unemployed people can find online job offers. local governments might also be expected to be more flexible in the management of these programs. even though the popular participation committees, such as those of porto alegre (brazil), started without concern for the use of ict, this innovative form of organization tends naturally to link up with the new communication opportunities that telecenters offer with the possible result of a mutual reinforcement with regard to management, services and interaction with the local authorities. proximity factors at the local level also makes it relatively easier to develop strategic alliances among stakeholders, including ict industries, local businesses, grass root organizations, etc. as has been effectively demonstrated by sampa.org in são paulo (brazil) (ortiz, r.a.a, 2001). “ngo’s” telecenters diversity is the most obvious feature in the ngo telecenters category since the starting point is often either a specific community seeking to take advantage of ict in its struggle for development, or a particular need within community or a segment of the community. some telecenters will thus focus on environmental protection, education, income generation, healthcare, cultural heritage, human rights, etc., while others will be concerned with street kids, women, or minorities. these roots in the community are both a strength and a weakness. as a strength, they provide the necessary impetus, vision and basis for participation. but the inherent tensions, contradictions and above all poverty and lack of skills are often reflected in the development of the telecenter. whether they are operated by a community group, or by a social development ngo, or a conjunction of the two, major constraints for all are financial sustainability and human resources. the sustainability issue is linked to the external sources, whether national programs, charities or international organizations, which are often providing the start up funding, and the structural poverty that affects most of these communities. there are, however instances where the communities themselves have managed to assemble the resources needed to start up and have continued to operate at least in part, independently, from ngo or other support30. as discussed earlier, the debate is quite open. as usual it is lost in the foolish attempt at applying business profitability principles to basic social needs and services. the actual challenges are eventually complicated by the vagueness of regulations or their inappropriate application where the result is to treat telecenters in the same way as for-profit cyber cafés, imposing on them the burden of telecommunication licenses or taxes. even if the amortization of the infrastructure is not being required, it takes time before revenues can be developed to balance the cost of operations particularly where the fee structure is set up to reflect the needs of the poorest segments of the communities, a dilemma that is observed in all parts of the world (oestman and dymond, a.c., 2002). human resources for the operation of the telecenters presents another major difficulty. the training of staff for the basic technical functions is relatively straightforward but the more complex skills related to network or hardware maintenance, for example, require more effort and time. in fact, computer maintenance is not available in many places for lack of a sufficient market. once trained and experienced, the staff, usually young and educated people, naturally look for career development opportunities which are only infrequently possible in the social sector. they cannot be expected to resist the offers from the private or public sector which badly need computer savvy personnel. also, from a development perspective, skills cannot be restricted to telecenter staff. there is a need to equip all the users not only with the ability to use the facilities but also to create relevant content and develop purposeful applications that will support the various development efforts. such comprehensive approaches are best illustrated by the unique example of the ashaninka community in peru, which has embarked on a long-term strategy for human resource development effort aligned with its other social transformation targets (castro, m.e., 2000). this latter endeavor is also a fascinating illustration of the necessary appropriation process and the resulting effective empowerment of the local population. this type of ict enabled community re-birth is of course, at odds 30 cases of this nature can be found for instance in ecuador in lumbaqui or recoka in the amazon or papallacta 50 the journal of community informatics with the immediate concerns for sustainable connectivity that is at the core of commercial cyber cafés and even many government telecenters. because of their ties with community groups, ngo telecenters do not restrict their services to basic telecommunication and computer services (phone, fax, copying, internet access, etc.). rather they are concerned to use the resources that connectivity makes available in support of basic educational, cultural and economic programs. they are thus at the same time a learning center, social center, meeting place, market place, recording studio or whatever local people feel appropriate. in this respect, the technological marvels such as the 1st generation lincos telecenters-in-a-container31 falls short of a real response to the requirement for social appropriateness (granqvist, 2002). even though it may not be associated with specific services, a key application and use of community telecenters, in particular among indigenous communities, is the struggle for their rights, which of course goes far beyond outspoken “communication rights”. in many instances what is at stake is simply the right to exist. there are a number of other issues raised by ngo or community based telecenters. both cost and social principles are moving community telecenters towards emphasizing the use of open source software to the greatest extent possible, even though this may in the short term increase the skills shortage they are facing for their staffing. connectivity raises additional problems especially in remote mountain or jungle areas, but also in the poor suburbs of the major metropoles, the more so when spectrum licenses are dealt with from the perspective of “profit opportunities” rather than “social needs” and when de facto monopolies are established by international corporations under the banner of open market competition. also, a number of telecenters are already using radio, integrated or not with internet platforms, for the delivery of services and community interaction. as critical as it may be, media integration is not sufficient. in practice multiple forms of human intermediation are also required in order to create the required connections between the information resources, the communication technologies and the local community. issues and challenges according to nua figures for september 200232, latin america and the caribbean would represent close to 5.5% of the total internet population, as compared with 30.92% for asia and the pacific, 1.04% for africa and 0.84% for the middle east. but this 5.5% corresponds to about 7 % of the population of the region. if one considers, with appropriate precautions, the position of the 20 countries of latin america and the caribbean among the 75 that appear in the network readiness index (kirkman, g., cornelius, p.k., sachs, j.d., schwab, k., eds., 2002, chapter 2), one finds that none of these is in the 2 first quartiles (nri between 6.05 and 4.06), where only 3 southern, in fact asian, countries, can be found. 15 of them are in the 3rd quartile, out of 34, and 5 in the last quartile (nri between 3.08 and 2.10), that is half of this group. if one considers the basic figures regarding connectivity the picture is equally unsatisfactory33. even though internet presence and use is by all yardsticks steadily growing, it remains very low compared to advanced countries and even some emerging countries of eastern europe. interestingly when comparing the figures of the 2002-2001 and 2002-2003 nri, it appears that 1 country has kept the same score, 5 have a higher score (increases ranging from 0.02 to 0.61), and 14 have a lower score (decreases ranging from 0.05 to 0.39). this seems to indicate that the overall situation is not really improving. only the major countries of the “cono sur”34 appear in the upper half of the sample. as artificial and uncertain as they might be, the 31 the description that was provided in 2002 on the lincos web site (http://www.lincos.net/html/eng/descripcion.html), no longer available, stated “the structural design of these centers is based on transportation containers properly modified and conditioned for these purposes. they were selected because of their convenience, availability, safety, and transportation easiness. the units are permanently installed in a community with an awning that provides them with shade and protection from the rain.”. 32 http://www.nua.com/surveys/how_many_online/index.html visited august 27, 2004 33 of the 31 countries of the region that appear in the itu digital access index, 14 are in upper, 15 in medium and 2 in low dai groups. broadband subscribers per 100 population ranges from 0 (in 18 countries) to 1.3, internet subscribers per 100 population ranges from 1% to 23,8% with only 14 countries above 10% (of which 9 caribbean countries). 34 argentina, brazil, chile http://www.lincos.net/html/eng/descripcion.html http://www.nua.com/surveys/how_many_online/index.html latin american community telecenters 51 figures in table 3 below provide a basic overview of the background situation. it unfortunately does not truly reflect the dramatic inequalities that affect people in latin america with regard to connectivity and use of modern ict, as well as with any other aspect of society. an illustration can be found in the study of metropolitan lima (peru) by ana-maria fernandez-maldonado (2001), which shows that the lower income segments of the population, representing more than 80% of the total population are severely deprived of most telecommunication facilities, and for the lowest segment, appear to have no telecommunications access at all. the commonplace debate whether telecenters will succeed in bridging the so-called digital divide, like most issues favored by the media, is a non-issue. especially if raised in terms of the telecenters ability to sustain themselves financially in a competitive market. this divide is one of the many facets of the basic social divide, which is growing in all countries. with or without “simputers” or “volkscomputers”35 the total cost of internet access will for many years to come remain beyond the reach of the great majority of poor families in the region. collective access is thus the only alternative. but more importantly the potential benefits of this facility cannot be achieved through individual use, at least in the short to medium term. for this to be realized there is the need beyond computer and information literacy; a proper articulation with other government, social or community efforts towards the creation of new opportunities for broad changes and improvements in the conditions of the poor people. this is to say that from whatever corner, a comprehensive approach is required that would leverage all strengths and assets. even though a basic requirement for integrated development has been acknowledged for many years, it is striking to see that segmented piecemeal approaches continue to be the norm in practice. table 3 network readiness index and connectivity 35 names given to the low cost simple computers recently designed in india and brazil 52 the journal of community informatics country nri score nri rank network access rank network use rank pib per capita fixed lines per 100 inhabita nts inter-net users in % of populati on united states 6.05 1 1 2 32,198 66.10 40.7 canada 5.23 12 10 16 19,962 63.50 36.3 argentina 4.01 32 33 31 8,257 20.11 2.5 chile 4.00 34 30 34 4,921 18.57 4.2 uruguay 3.80 37 38 37 6,335 27.07 7.6 brazil 3.79 38 37 40 4,675 14.87 2.4 mexico 3.58 44 41 43 4,330 11.22 2.6 costa rica 3.57 45 53 48 2,763 20.41 3.9 trinidad & tobago 3.52 46 58 49 4,726 20.58 1.9 dominican rep. 3.52 47 35 42 1,925 9.28 0.3 panama 3.42 48 47 55 3,305 16 1.6 venezuela 3.41 50 44 50 4,088 10.91 1.7 peru 3.38 52 46 44 2,530 6.69 1.5 el salvador 3.30 55 60 56 1,984 7.61 0.7 jamaica 3.29 56 64 64 2,707 18.68 2.4 colombia 3.29 57 52 53 2,844 16.04 1.6 paraguay 3.15 63 72 47 1,646 5.54 0.4 bolivia 3.04 67 67 52 1,077 5.80 0.4 guatemala 3.00 68 59 62 1,754 5.46 0.6 nicaragua 2.83 69 69 65 452 2.98 0.4 ecuador 2.65 71 62 73 1,620 9.10 0.2 honduras 2.64 72 70 72 859 4 0.3 sources: kirkman et al., 2002, p. 11: "america telecommunication indicators 2000" itu quoted in proenza et al. 2001, p. 3. summarizing key issues concerning the development of telecenters for the debate in the workshop on community telecenters at the 2nd global citizens networks conference, menou and silva (2001) tentatively listed the following: 1. securing effective community participation in the design, operation, management and development of one’s telecenter or network of telecenters; 2. securing social sustainability, especially when the cost-benefit balance takes diverging forms among the various groups of stakeholders; 3. secure financial sustainability; 4. assemble and keep a body of qualified staff to operate the telecenter; 5. produce local contents that respond to the needs of all members of the community and at the same time could be attractive to a broader, possibly global, public; 6. respond to the educational and training needs of members of the community; 7. contribute to the process of wealth creation within the community; 8. breed among the telecenter operators and the leaders of the community the vision, capacity and legitimacy required in order to negotiate alliances and support with entities of the public and private sectors; 9. use effective procedures and tools for the open, continuing and collective assessment of the outcomes, successes and failures of the endeavors; 10. in sum, identify and satisfy the conditions for putting in practice the formula: “social development = empowerment of the people + telecenters”. latin american community telecenters 53 during the discussion, raul román rightly proposed to add one more item: establish and nurture trust among stakeholders, especially within the community. apart from perseverance and luck, there is no recipe for achieving the above. it is of course easy to abuse such metaphors as “turning the vicious circle of poverty into a virtuous circle” that are so popular at the international monetary fund36. actually one of the causes of the vicious circle is “the inertia which characterizes popular sectors of latin america. this inertia prompts them to adjust to the circumstances that shape their lives rather than seek ways to change these circumstances” (palma, d., 1998). to be fair it should be acknowledged that these attitudes are the result of complex socio-cultural influences marked by 500 hundred years of external and internal colonization, and the hard learned lesson that “the more it changes, the more it is the same”. the first step in the possible way out is the recognition of their own social capital by members of the community and the community as a whole. it is the foundation upon which a process of empowerment can take place. assuming the dominant powers at play are willing to let it grow. ict can play a noteworthy role in this process by allowing the community to hear its own voice and make it heard by many, and by bringing it on top of the wave of “modernity”, as modestly as that may be. an increase in the number of persons “having access” to ict or a collection of “success stories” in ecommerce by local entrepreneurs are only remotely connected to this process. the proliferation of cyber cafés, at least in places where foreign tourists tend to concentrate, is often taken as a model of development. the number of cyber cafés in quito (ecuador) is now estimated at some 800; they charge around 3 us $ per hour, that is 6 times the current minimum wage. the assumption is that these are small enterprises that are generating income in the community and can have a multiplier effect. the same economic justification could as well be used to the less fashionable sex tourism business. of course in a falling civilization that takes quick money making as an absolute ethical principle, such considerations are in order. this is not to say that some cyber cafés could not pursue social development goals in the long run, or that telecenters should not seek the highest possible financial autonomy. but confusion of genres seldom brings clarity. the generalization of massive national programs whose actual contribution hardly goes beyond connectivity and elementary computer literacy, and that are eventually designed and operated according to commercial rules, poses another threat. it is likely to popularize a mere consumerist perspective37 as opposed to a social vision such as the one proposed by mistica (2002). to the extent that few telecenters and telecenter networks are represented by specific organizations, and are themselves so diverse and dispersed, it is difficult for them to consolidate their interactions and form a critical mass that can boost internal growth as well as allow them to play a pro-active role on the local, national and regional political scenes. this is why somos@telecentros is putting a priority on the building of a strong representative movement. such a transformation is however going against some of the existing libertarian traditions and informality of practices. it also raises risks of bureaucratization and institutionalization, as is constant in social movements, which may jeopardize the original objectives. nevertheless, even when the processes of consultation, or partnership building with civil society are sincere and honest, in the end it is the same components of the techno-structure that dictate their approaches, implement programs and get the returns. observing the evolution of the discourse of the major representatives of the techno-structure -politicians, government officials, industry representatives -one can only be struck by the extent to which the ideas of social transformation and socially responsible application of icts have been absorbed and emptied of any true meaning. only the presence on the scene of a second interlocutor -as for example a community sufficiently organized to effectively articulate its own interests -can put limits to the doubletalk. 36 there is a long western philosophical tradition which considers poverty as a vice or the direct consequence of it, in fact the vice of the poor themselves, not of those who exploit them. 37 a sign of this trend can be found in jensen, m., esterhuysen, a. (2001). the community telecentre cookbook for africa: recipes for self-sustainability. how to establish a multi-purpose community telecentre in africa. paris, unesco. here social diagnosis and needs assessment are treated as standard marketing activities and community participation reduced to representation in the management bodies of the telecenter. mailto:somos@telecentros 54 the journal of community informatics conclusion so, what is a telecenter? colle and roman claim that they have encountered some 30 different definitions of “telecenter” and thus propose to stick to one they consider the most generic: “shared premises where the public can access information and communication technologies” (colle and roman, 1999). we contend that what characterizes a community telecenter is its social vision, its dedication to an explicit mission to support the social and personal development of the individuals and communities they serve, and their contribution to improving the condition of the people. we therefore feel that a telecenter would be better identified, if not defined, on the basis of the following basic features: 1. a community. 2. the struggle of this community for overcoming the drawbacks and deficiencies in its environment and in itself in order to improve its quality of life. 3. the awareness of the community that icts can help it accomplish its development objectives and its capacity to use icts for this purpose 4. a physical space appropriate for the implementation of the social development programs and the use of appropriate icts 5. the production of information and services that support the efforts for improving the quality of life 6. an economic and legal framework that provides conditions for the regular operation of the telecenter and its ability to achieve financial, technical and social sustainability. research about telecenters has up to now been conducted almost exclusively by external observers on the basis of relatively short visits. it is certainly time to move into true participatory action research where the observation and analysis will be conducted mainly by the actors themselves, on a continuing basis, and be primarily directed at providing them with outcomes that can help the further development of their efforts. this of course requires that the actors be trained and equipped with the tools that will allow them to become pro-active partners in the research process. the latter will further require the participation of professional researchers from outside the communities to serve as catalysts in the processes of data collection, arbitration among diverging interpretations, and synthesizing of results. another significant limitation to present research on telecenters is its relative lack of focus from both an institutional and disciplinary point of view, combined with a limited amount of available results. this has led somos@telecentros, under the telelac 2 project, to look towards the building of a virtual research consortium, called covitalc, open to all interested organizations (such as telecenters, academic and research institutions, public and private organizations). among the objectives of the proposed consortium are: • the development of a joint research agenda and promotion of specific research activities, exploring areas of special relevance to practitioners and writing up the findings in generally available toolkits38. • further development of the regional resource center, seeking to expand its present coverage, strengthen its dissemination and exchange functions, possibly adding an open text archive of research and learning materials. • support the production of a participatory action-research package geared at preparing actors of the telecenters movement to effectively participate in the research process. • run workshops for the preparation and dissemination of the action research package. 38 in addition to gender as a cross-cutting issue, particular attention is likely to be paid to such topics as: technology for connectivity and community service, self sustainability models, governance of e-communities, micro-finance and remittances, e-commerce, production of local content, use of national languages, icts for people with special needs and disabilities, methods for assessing the role of ict in social development, human factors in effective use of ict for social development, self development and social development, gender accountability in telecentre operations and in the lac telecentre movement. mailto:somos@telecentros latin american community telecenters 55 • promote, and participate in the production of a comprehensive program on community informatics and telecenters (modular curriculum and syllabi with supporting teaching and learning material) that could be used in formal and informal education programs in traditional and distance education modes39. • organize, in cooperation with the national somos@telecentros conferences, annual regional training workshops for operators and managers/leaders of telecenters and other digital inclusion projects in order to take stock of available know how and revise the research agenda. it is our most sincere hope that this perspective will attract researchers and practitioners from all possible places and trades who are keen to contribute to a better understanding of, and enhanced capabilities in, harnessing ict in the service of real human development. references cited 39 a project which has already begun to take shape within the community informatics research network 56 the journal of community informatics afonso, c.a. 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(2002). “telecentros experiencias, lecciones y tendencias”. intelecom research & consultancy ltd. retreived aug. 22, 2002 from http://www.intelecomresearch.com ortiz, r.a.a, (2001). “além da inclusão digital: o projeto ‘sampa.org’”. dissertação de mestrado em ciências da comunicação. escola de comunicação e artes, universidade de são paulo, brasil. palma, d., (1998). la promoción social de los sectores populares. humanitas/celats, buenos aires proeza, f.j. (2001). “telecenter sustainabilitymyths and opportunities”. journal of development communication, vol 12, 2 – quoted from preprint. proenza, f.j, bastidas-buch, r., montero, g. (2001). “telecentros para el desarrollo socioeconómico y rural en américa latina y el caribe”. washington d.c., fao – centro de inversiones, uit sector de desarrollo de las telecomunicaciones, bid división de programas sociales, departamento de operaciones 2 unidad rural, departamento de desarrollo sostenible, unidad de tecnología de información para el desarrollo. retrieved aug 4, 2002 from http://www.iadb.org/regions/telecentros/index.htm somos@telecentros (2002). estado del arte de los telecentros en américa latina y el caribe. retrieved aug. 21, 2002 from http://www.tele-centros.org/estarte/index.html. taylor, s. j., bogdan, r. (1986). introducción a los métodos cualitativos de investigación. paidos, buenos aires, argentina. http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cr/gitrr_030202.html http://www.globalcn2001.org/esp/taller13con.html and ~/taller13deb.html http://www.communities.org.ru/ci-text/cdt.doc http://funredes.org/mistica/castellano/ciberoteca/tematica/esp_doc_olist1.html http://www.intelecomresearch.com/ http://www.iadb.org/regions/telecentros/index.htm http://www.tele-centros.org/estarte/index.html *latin american community telecenters: “it’s a long way to ticperary**” abstract latin america & caribbean other implementation of the "state of the art" a picture of latin american telecenters the sustainability issue is linked to the external sources, issues and challenges country conclusion references cited internet use in brazil: speeding up or lagging behind? internet use and community informatics in brazil: speeding up or lagging behind?     gilda olinto instituto brasileiro de informação em ciência e tecnologia (ibict); programa de pós-graduação em ciência da informação (ppgci-ibict/ufrj)   suely fragoso universidade federal do rio grande do sul; programa de pós-graduação em comunicação e informação (ppgcom/ufrgs) and programa de pós-graduação em design (pgdesign/ufrgs)     abstract. the evolution of internet access and use in brazil in the direction of social inclusiveness and to guarantee uses that promote individual and community development is the focus of the present paper. previous evidence on the subject initially presented indicates the prevalence of contrasting aspects: some outstanding positive initiatives and results towards democratization of the internet, as well as the maintenance of great digital inequalities. new evidence on the evolution of internet access and use is also discussed herein, based on analyses of longitudinal data obtained from the brazilian census bureau’s annual survey (ibge/pnad, 2005, 2008). after describing aspects of increase in access to the internet, we focus on the evolution of different types of everyday life internet uses, particularly those that might contribute to individual and community development. how access and uses are gradually incorporating the less privileged sectors of the brazilian adult population is also considered in the analysis. the results obtained reinforce the previous contrasting evidence: outstanding growth in access and in diversified uses are observed suggesting intensive appropriation of internet technology and resources by the population as well as the persistence of great inequalities. these circumstances indicate that the digital divide in brazil is still a great challenge to be faced through comprehensive and long-term policies and initiatives. keywords. internet access. digital divide. internet use survey. ict in brazil. community development   1. introduction several difficulties characterized the initial phase of internet adoption in brazil. after its late arrival in the 1980s, advances were slow due to diverse legal impediments and the state’s telecommunications monopoly. however, the end of this monopoly, the creation of the first national backbones and tcp/ip and the advent of commercial access in the 1990s paved the way for accelerated internet growth in the country.  e-government initiatives also developed quickly in the 1990s and deepened their scope at the federal, state and municipal levels after 2000 (knight, 2007). e-voting in brazil, for example, dates back to 1996 and online submission of the annual income tax declarations has been an option since 1997. the digital voting machine was the first ict equipment used by many brazilians and its dissemination has allowed for better integration of security systems, as well as acceleration of the vote counting process.  a recent example of the efficiency of the brazilian voting information technology was the official broadcast of the results of the 2010 presidential elections, involving almost 163 million voters, on the evening of election day! the creation of the brazilian internet steering committee (cgi), a ministerial initiative aggregating governmental, private and academic institutions “in order to effectively promote the participation of society in decisions regarding internet implementation, management and usage”[1] in brazil played an important part in the profile of internet use in brazil. amongst the chief responsibilities of the cgi are the management of the .br cctld[2]; attention to security problems regarding the brazilian internet; collection and dissemination of data regarding internet development in brazil; promotion of courses and events; and the development of projects to improve internet access in the country. nearly twenty years later, there is now widespread, even ubiquitous, internet presence in brazil. the fast rate of adoption and the large number of users are probably the most visible of several peculiarities regarding the internet phenomenon in the country. brazil shows outstanding numbers with respect to some specific features, such as hours of internet use, use of social network sites, site production, business use of the internet, as well as the total number or users. governmental, ngo and private initiatives have also become widely known for their efforts of digital inclusion, especially those that seek to guarantee popular participation and content production. the federal government continues to support several different and coordinated initiatives. the national program of support for community digital inclusion (telecentros.br)[3], controlled by three ministries (communication, science and technology and planning), for example, provides financial and logistic support for the creation of public internet access points and helps strengthen already existing public access sites. another important initiative (initiated by then minister of culture the very well known jazz musician/politician gilberto gil) is the cultural hotspot program (programa pontos de cultura)[4], promoted by the ministry of culture (minc), which provides internet access, hardware and open source software for impoverished and historically excluded communities to create and share their own cultural and other materials (and of particular interest--music) on the internet. a third example of a program to which large resources are annually alloted  is casa brasil[5] (ministry of science and technology), whose aim is to finance specific projects that have been submitted to them. the state of são paulo, brazil’s richest and most populated state, has implemented a large network of public telecenters with the programa acessa sp[6]. non-governmental organizations and other private initiatives have also attained many positive results in the direction of digital inclusion of some significant sectors of the population. one example is the committee for democracy in information technology (cdi)[7], a non-governmental, non-profit organization. since 1995, cdi has developed pioneer work in promoting social inclusion by using information technology as a tool for building active citizenship (baggio, 2000). these initiatives help to explain the outstanding brazilian presence in the internet and the fact that brazilians with home access are already assiduous users. according to the nielsen netratings/ibope[8] partnership, at least since 2006, brazilian users stay online longer than those from any other country. most of their time online is spent on social network and communication sites leading to an outstanding presence on the web, which has been frequently reported, at least since the number of brazilians surpassed the total of us users in google’s social network service orkut in 2004 (fragoso, 2006). other similar services have also been heavily adopted in brazil, such as facebook, making portuguese a widespread language on twitter, msn, youtube and blogs, for example.     despite the positive aspects mentioned above, several negative features are also typical of internet development in brazil, notably the social and technical underpinnings of internet access and use. previous evidence shows that a great digital divide still prevails in the country. the socio-demographic characteristics of users – namely, education, income and race are strongly related both to internet and broadband access and the types of uses that are made of the internet. besides, as is the case in other developing countries, the less privileged portion of the population is the one that has access to the internet mostly in public, for profit sites (or cybercafes known in brazil as “lan houses”)  or from their homes, but with lower speed technology (cgi, 2009; ibge, 2009). likewise, internet access in schools, and its use for educational purposes, is still precarious (oecd, 2011; sorj & lissovsky, 2011). another negative aspect regarding digital inclusion projects is the lack of continuity and institutionalization of many projects that often have to rely on intermittent and uncertain public financing (madon et al, 2007). the evolution towards an actual and effective democratization of internet access and use is an urgent issue that requires both intensification of programs and constant monitoring through data collection and analyses. considering the above-mentioned contrasting aspects of the internet phenomenon in brazil, this article takes into account longitudinal evidence about the process of internet democratization in the country. the main focus is how internet access is actually growing and how the different types of internet use are evolving in the direction of citizenship and community building. 2. types of internet use and characteristics of data there are many possible approaches when one tries to focus on the democratization perspective of internet access and use. these concepts – internet access and use – can be seen from different points of view and answer different research questions; they can also be subjected to different measurements and analyses (barzilai-nahon et al., 2009). the diversity of questions and perspectives about access and use is related to the constant changes characteristic of the internet, both in terms of access and technical features. they are all “moving targets that are difficult to aim at”.  measures of internet use tend, therefore, to be only provisional and tenuous indicators of the concepts implied.            how these diverse, and constantly changing, uses of the internet tend towards inclusiveness and contribute to individual and group development is the challenge faced by several studies.  theoretical and empirical evidence on the subject suggests that this technology can, given favorable circumstances, bring about new opportunities for individuals and communities. however, an inverse process, one that perpetuates inequalities, is also possible  with an implementation and use of  the internet that “plugs into existing social structure” often maintaining or deepening inequalities in terms of access to culture (cultural capital), strategic contacts (social capital) and information for everyday life purposes that will, in turn, guarantee access to resources, such as better jobs (dimaggio et al., 2004; wellman et al., 2001; wellman and haythornthwaite, 2002). to take into account the characteristics of the social and cultural milieu of information technology in general, notably in developing countries, seems to have become a basic concern of information technology analysts and digital inclusion programs, notably of community and social informatics approaches (gurstein, 2000, 2003; williams & durrance, 2010). this article tries to depict the evolution of internet access and the inclusive tendency of certain aspects of internet use in brazil. the data presented here was obtained from the 2005 and the 2008 annual survey of the brazilian census bureau (ibge/pnad, 2006; 2009). this survey includes  a representative sample of the brazilian population, comprising more than 400,000 interviews and, in both 2005 and 2008, the surveys included a special section on internet access and use. these studies provide a special opportunity to observe, from a longitudinal perspective, changes in access, including broadband access, and how the brazilian adult population is in fact, incorporating different uses of the internet. 3. data analysis considering the theoretical approaches of previous internet studies and the specificities of data utilized in the analyses, the first part of the empirical evidence presented herein focuses on access: its availability and technical characteristics, as well as its relation with the social-demographic characteristics of users. the second part of the analysis focuses on the evolution in types of internet use by brazilian adults[9], especially of those uses that relate or contribute to individual and community development. the growth of such uses in the country and their tendency to become inclusive – in other words, how the relationship of these uses to the socio-demographic characteristics of users tends to diminish over time – are aspects considered in this work. in table 1, below, one can observe the evolution in numbers as well as the growth in the percentage of internet access in brazil from 2005 to 2008.  the initial measure of access utilized here corresponds to a positive answer to the question “have you used the internet from any place in the last three months?” the evolution of access at home, as well as of types of home access – dial up or broadband – is also shown in the same table.[10] table 1. growth of internet access by type of access. brazilian adult population: 2005 2008.         type of internet access internet access   2005 2008 % growth   n (millions) n (millions)   with access 24,127 40,450 67.6    access at home 12,765 25,673 101.1    at home with dial up 7,447 4,748 -36.2   at home with broadband 6,178 20,926 238.7   source: ibge (pnad) microdata. adult population aged 18 years old or more in 2005 (n=132,708) and in 2008 (n= 124,425 million).     as indicated in table 1, ten years after the beginning of commercial availability of the internet in brazil, the absolute numbers of access has reached impressive figures and growth of internet access in the three year period between these surveys is remarkable: it goes from just over 24 million to well above 40 million of adults with access, a growth rate of almost 70%, an outstanding figure if compared to those observed in other countries (fox, 2005; horrigan, 2008). the measure of home access has also shown a particularly important increase during the time studied: a growth rate of above 100%.  and if one focuses on home access through broadband, the increase is even more impressive, a growth rate of nearly 240% testifying to the effective dissemination of this type of internet home access. a vertiginous decline of dial up access in the period is also evident suggesting that a very rapid technological substitution took place in the period. it is important to consider, however, the negative aspects that can also be depicted from table 1. in the first place, the extremely tenuous measure of “internet access” – having had access in the last three months begs the question: is it sufficient to characterize digital inclusion? apart from that, the number of over 40 million with this access should be considered still very low if compared with the adult population of brazil in 2008 (133 million). thus, only 32.5% of brazilian adults indicate having had internet access in 2008. besides, the large number of respondents who indicated having had some kind of internet access did not have a home connection. in other words, of the 40 million adults that are considered as having access in 2008, only some 25 million can access internet in their homes. this scenario confirms previous diagnoses of the importance of public paid internet sites (lan houses), in brazil and other latin american nations, particularly for the low income population.  these characteristics have implications for digital inclusion public policies, especially the attention that should be given to private initiatives as well as to the increase in free-of-charge access point in public institutions such as public telecenters and public libraries (ibge, 2009; cgi, 2009; fragoso & maldonado, 2010; gomez & baron-porras, 2010 ; olinto, 2010). the observed increase in the number of adults who access the internet, as shown above, does not indicate who is being digitally included. to verify how much increase in access is socially inclusive, benefiting all sectors of the population and tending to absorb the less privileged, the following table describes access changes by socio-demographic characteristics of users.   table 2. growth of internet access by socio-demographic profile of population. brazilian adult population: 20052008.       socio-demographic characteristic n (million) n (million)  % growth           2005 2008     age            18 29 11,843 19,834 67.5      30 49 9,769 16,168 65.5      50 64 2,260 3,893 72.3      65 e+ 0,254 0,555 118.5   gender            male 12,270 20,021 63.2      female 11,857 20,429 72.3   race            white 16,699 24,869 48.9      afro-brazilian 7,092 15,098 112.9      other 0,336 0,483 43.8   years of education            10 or less 3,731 8,691 132.9      11 to 14 13,893 22,742 63.7      15 or more 6,476 8,966 38.4   minimum family income [12]            2 or less 13,507 22,239 64.6      more than 2 to 5 6,934 11,381 64.1      more than 5 to 10 2,129 3,579 68.1      more than 10 0,770 1,406 82.6   source: ibge (pnad, 2005 and 2008) microdata. population aged 18 years old or more.       observation of changes of internet access in terms of the social profile of users (table 2) indicates that growth in this three years period was high in all segments considered and, of particular interest, beneficial to those who usually lag behind in the process: it has favored older people, women, afro-brazilians and those at lower level of the educational ladder. although the increase in internet access in the period studied was largest among the highest income group, it appears to have been particularly beneficial for those in lowest income strata, especially considering the high numbers involved: internet access in this income group jumped from 13 million in 2005 to 22 million in 2008. these inclusive characteristics of access to the internet, as suggested in table 2, are likely to be related, at least partially, to the comprehensive public policies previously mentioned. the favorable tendencies noted above should not turn our attention away from observing that internet access in brazil is still very low in terms of the brazilian population as a whole and in comparison with developed countries. as an example, in 2005, some 68% of american adults had access to the internet as compared to only 19% of brazilian adults (olinto, 2008). furthermore, socioeconomic factors seem to have a strong influence on access and use of the internet in brazil. the social stratification of internet access and use is presented in table 3, below, which considers the relationship between education and income level of users and two aspects of internet access and use: a general measure of access and availability at home through the more advanced technology--broadband-in the year of 2008.  table 3. internet access and broadband use by education and income. brazilian adult population in 2008.       socio-economic characteristic % of access % of users   in population with home     broadband access     by years of education          10 or less 10.6 35.6      11 to 14 57.7 49.0      15 or more 81.0 74.5     by minimum family income [12]          2 or less 28.2 35.6      more than 2 to 5 55.9 66.5      more than 5 to 10 72.5 83.6      more than 10   76.6   88.1     source: ibge (pnad, 2008) microdata. population aged 18 years old or more.     from the above table it can be seen that internet access  strongly increases as  the years of formal education and income level of users grow. as well the same relationship holds for those with broadband access in the home. these socio-technical underpinnings of internet access have been found in developed countries, but the differences are not so sharp (horrigan, 2008). the fact that only 10% of adults in the lower educational group had internet access in 2008 points to the urgency of strong measures of digital inclusion, as this segment is the largest in absolute numbers, comprising almost 82 million or above 65% of the adult population of brazil  (ibge/pnad, 2009). the focus of the analysis turns now to purposes of internet use, as measured in the two bureau of census surveys. the selection and grouping of these purposes gives emphasis to everyday life uses that might contribute to aspects of individual or community development and citizenship. the four categories of uses are: 1) those uses that could be considered as contributing to or being directly related to the acquisition of cultural capital (dimaggio, 1982), such as distance learning, reading the news, etc.; 2) those that contribute or are more directly related to the acquisition of social capital (nan lin, 2001; wellman et al, 2002), for example the use of email, instant messaging, blogs, social network systems, etc.; 3) instrumental uses that are linked to the use  of the internet for the solution of everyday life problems, such as access to government resources, health-related services, shopping and banking (savolainen, 1999; eastabrook, 2007; wellman and heythornthwaite, 2002); and 4) entertainment activities, such as those involving music, videos, games, etc, are also considered here, due to the absolute numbers involved and due to the possible contribution of these activities to digital inclusion, especially of the less privileged segments of the population (fragoso et al, 2011). it is important to emphasize here that these four categories of uses  should not be understood as mutually exclusive or independent of each other. for example, activities that enhance social capital, such as online communication, are an important part of distance learning and/or or news sharing. at the same time, it is easy to see online communication as a form of entertainment. table 4, as follows, examines the evolution of these types of internet use purposes from 2005 to 2008 in brazil. table 4. growth of types of internet uses. brazilian adult users: 2005 2008 (in millions).       internet uses 2005 2008 % growth       contributing to cultural capital            educational activities 15,909 24,445 53.7      reading the news 12,586 22,881 81.8     contributing to social capital            communication 16,807 33,428 98.9     instrumental uses            accessing government 8,493 8,209       3.3      searching for info & services 7,109 12,752 79.4      shopping 4,189 8,296 98.0      banking 6,004 7,258 20.9     entertainment            music, videos, games 11,824 25,829 118.5             source: ibge (pnad, 2005, 2008) microdata. population aged 18 years old or more.     the analysis presented in table 4 reveals significant growth in most of the uses considered, and the growth pattern is similar to the one observed in the previous analyses focusing on internet access. the use of the net for communication – e-mails, chats, social network sites, blogs and fotologs – involves the largest absolute number of people and is also the type of use that shows the greatest gains in the period (98.9%). this reinforces previously mentioned evidence that links the heavy use of social network sites to long hours of internet use in brazil, indicating that brazilians seem to invest a great deal in their social capital. activities that were considered as contributing to cultural capital acquisition also increased significantly in the period and involve a significant portion of those who have access to the internet. the increase in online news reading is outstanding (81.8%), indicating the importance of the internet for the future of journalism in brazil.  although some of the other types of internet use defined here as instrumental – those that aim at the solution of everyday life needs – show significant growth in the period (such as searching for information and services and shopping), it is clear that they are a niche activity that concern a very small portion of adult internet users. surprisingly, using the internet to access government or public authorities (for obtaining documents, sending income tax returns, or scheduling medical appointments) not only involved a very small portion of the population but also declined in the period.  using the internet for banking was also adopted by only a small proportion of brazilians, showing only a small increase in the period. this is further evidence of the contrasting aspects of the internet in a country which is known for technologically advanced and widespread ict use for banking activities and, at the same time, for the low percentage of its population with bank accounts. this low instrumental use of the net is counterpointed by the amazing involvement of brazilian adults with entertainment activities, which includes watching, listening and downloading tv programs, music, videos and games; activities that have had the largest growth in the period. these results contribute to the idea that leisure should be taken seriously as a subject, at least by researchers and educators. table 5, presents evidence of the importance of the social characteristics of the internet user in relation to types of internet use through  the relationship between the educational level of the user– corresponding roughly with elementary, secondary and college educational level of the user – with the different types of internet uses that he or she makes of the internet. table 5. internet uses by years of education.   brazilian adult users, 2008.     internet uses years of education   10 or less % 11 to 14 % 15 or more %       contributing to cultural capital            educational activities 46.2 60.8 73.3      reading the news 41.0 57.2 70.2     contributing to social capital            communication 78.1 83.1 85.8     instrumental uses            accessing government 8.7 18.2 37.0      searching for info. and services 23.0 34.0 33.6      shopping 8.7 18.5 37.1      banking 6.5 15.4 35.5     entertainment            music, videos, games 62.6 65.8 60.3             total (millions) 8,691 22,742 8,966   source: ibge (pnad, 2008) microdata. population aged 18 years old or more.     by interpreting the numbers from table 5, one can see that certain uses of the net, as measured here, tend to “universality” in the sense that they involve large numbers and will soon probably be guaranteed to all, independently of the social origin of the user. this is the case of internet use for communication which, besides involving a very large number of users, in all three educational levels, also  indicates only a slight relationship with the user’s educational level. some other uses, also involving large numbers of users, could be called relatively “democratic” in the sense that, although not tending to involve all internet users, they do not seem to be affected by the educational level of the users. this is especially the case in the use of the net for entertainment purposes.  however, several instrumental uses – banking, shopping and accessing the government – as well as the activities relating to the acquisition of cultural capital – education and reading the news – indicate a clear correlation with the educational background of users. this suggests that theoretical questions about social inequalities being brought to the virtual world are still valid and strong. on the whole, data analyses regarding changes in the types of internet use in brazil from 2005 to 2008 reveal a general tendency towards growth, accompanying the increase in internet access. communication activities – an important element of an individual’s social capital and a basic ingredient for the vitality of contemporary communities – are almost universal  among those who have internet access. however, some basic instrumental uses of the internet involving the solution of everyday life needs, such as searching for information and services, or citizenship building activities, such as the ability to access the government, show restricted use by the population at large and remain largely restricted to those with higher levels of education. 4. concluding remarks as the title of this paper suggests, several apparent paradoxes make it hard to diagnose brazil’s present conditions with respect to icts, particularly internet access and use. are we speeding up, and going in the right direction, or are we lagging dangerously behind and establishing even larger social gaps with icts instead of bridging existing ones? initial evidence presented indicates that the increase in the total number of users and of a diverse range of uses of the net is impressive enough to place the country amongst the leading positions in some internet rankings. the spontaneous appropriation of internet resources, notably social network systems, is remarkable. several programs aiming at digital inclusion and universal access to ict, mobilization of a wide range of different actors in both governmental and private sectors, as well as a concerted action of public agencies are characteristics of the brazilian initiatives that seem to be promoting internet access and, to a certain extent, an effective socio-digital inclusion. the analysis of the evolution of the internet in the three-year period between 2005 and 2008 also indicates a number of positive and impressive results. with respect to access, the general increase is outstanding, as well as the growth of broadband home access, notably by the less privileged sector of the population. internet uses that are often associated with the increase of individual life chances and citizenship development also show a significant increase, as is the case of internet use for communication, newspaper reading and educational purposes. in contrast to these improvements, some negative aspects also stand out. as the analyses presented here helped to reveal, the proportion of the adult population with internet access, especially with home access, is still very low. social differences in access and use are pronounced and the use of digital resources for some everyday life activities by citizens is as yet undeveloped. access and growth of internet use for some public or private services, such as e-banking, is a privilege that benefits only very few brazilians. further initiatives towards digital inclusion in brazil should recognized that the digital divide remains an enormous and complex challenge, requiring well-structured, long-lasting and comprehensive policies to be 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(org). international handbook of internet research. new york: springer, v. 1, p. 164-180. fragoso, s. ; cogo, d; brignol, l.d. (2011). what does it mean, to bridge the divide? learning from spontaneous practices towards icts. in: steyn, j.; johanson, g. (org.). icts and sustainable solutions for the digital divide: theory and perspectives. hershey: igi global.  v. 1, p. 151-170. fox, s. (2005) digital divisions. washington: pew internet american life project. 12p. http://www.pewinternet.org/ gomez, r.; baron-porras, lf. (2010) public access to the internet and social change: an experience in colombia, between silence and hope. community informatics, 6 (3). http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/724 gurstein, m. (2003). effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. first monday, 8 (12). http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_12/gurstein/ gurstein, m. (2000). community informatics: enabling communities with information and communications technologies. idea group. horrigan, j.b. (2008). home broadband adoption-2008. washington: pew internet american life project. 12p. http://www.pewinternet.org/ ibge/pnad  (instituto brasileiro de geografia e estatistica – pesquisa nacional por amostra de domicílios-2005) (2006). acesso à internet e posse de telefone móvel celular para uso pessoal. rio de janeiro: ibge. http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/acessoainternet/internet.pdf ibge/pnad (instituto brasileiro de geografia e estatistica – pesquisa nacional por amostra de domicílios-2008) (2009). síntese dos indicadores. rio de janeiro: ibge. http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/trabalhorendimento/pnad2009/sintesepnad2009.pdf knight, p.e. (2007). knowledge management and e-government in brazil. workshop on managing knowledge to build trust in government 7th global forum on reinventing government, 26-29, june 2007, vienna, austria. madon, s.;  reinhard, n.; roode, d.; wlasham, g. (2007). digital inclusion projects in developing countries: process of institutionalization. in: 9th international conference on social implications of computers in developing countries, são paulo, brazil. proceedings. lin, n. (2001). social capital: a theory of social structure and action.  cambridge: cambridge university press. oecd (2011). organization for economic coorperation and development. pisa 2009 results: what makes a school successful.  www.oecd.org/edu/pisa/2009 olinto, g. (2008). everyday life internet use in brazil. in: internet research 9.0: rethinking community, rethinking place, 2008, copenhagen. internet research 9.0. olinto, g. (2010). internet access and use in brazil: concepts, measures, and public libraries as social facilitators. in: katsirikou, a; skiadas, c.h.. (org.). qualitative and quantitative methods in libraries:  theory and applications. londres: world scientific publishing. olinto, g. (2010). bibliotecas públicas e uso das tecnologias de informação e comunicação para o desenvolvimento social. incic: revista de ciência da informação e documentação, 1(1), 77-93. robinson, j., di maggio, p., hargittai, e. (2003). new social survey perspectives on the digital divide. it& society, 1(5), 1-22. http://www.itandsociety.org sorj, b.; lissovsky, m. (2011) internet nas escolas públicas: políticas além da política. centro edelstein de pesquisas sociais. working paper n.6, march. www.centroedelstein,org.br wellman, b. et al. (2001). does the internet increase, decrease or supplement social capital? social netwoks, participation, and community commitment”. american behavioral scientist, 45 (3), 437-456. wellman, b. & waythornthwaite, c. (eds.) (2002). the internet in everyday life. oxford: blackwell. williams, k.; durrance, j. c. (2010). community informatics. in: bates, m. j. et al (eds.) encyclopedia of library and information sciences. new york: taylor & francis, 1202-1208.     [1] comitê gestor da internet, http://wwwcgi.br [2] cctld stands for country code top level domains that, in principle, identify a particular country or geographical territory (for example .br, .ca, .ar, etc.) [3] http://www.telecentros.br.com/ [4] cultural hotspot programme (programa pontos de cultura) is one of the actions of the live culture programme. details can be found at http://www.cultura.gov.br/culturaviva/ [5] http://www.casabrasil.gov.br/ [6] http://www.acessasaopaulo.sp.gov.br/ [7] http://www.cdi.org.br [8]http://www.ibope.com.br/calandraweb/servlet/calandraredirect?temp=5&proj= ibopeenglish&pub=t&comp=ibope+group&db=caldb&docid=62ba844b57e79d0483256ee5006f5653 [9] data utilized in the analyses presented here were obtained from microdata of these two surveys, taking into account the brazilians 18 years old and over (the surveys were applied to brazilians 10 years old and over). [10] information about internet access at home through dial up or broadband was obtained by means of two different variables. the two options are almost, but not totally, mutually exclusive. [11] minimum family income per capita. per capita income is the sum of the revenues of all family members divided by the number of family members. values in reais were r$300.00 in 2005 and r$415.00 in 2008. [12] minimum family income per capita. per capita income is the sum of the revenues of all family members divided by the number of family members. value in brazilian reais in 2008 was r$415.00. a way forward: sustainable icts and regional sustainability[1]   greg hearn queensland university of technology < g.hearn@qut.edu.au >   megan kimber queensland university of technology < m.kimber@qut.edu.au >   june lennie queensland university of technology < j.lennie@qut.edu.au >   lyn simpson queensland university of technology < le.simpson@qut.edu.au >     abstract   from the participatory action research we have conducted in two rural communities in australia we suggest six factors that assist in achieving sustainability for ict initiatives undertaken in pursuit of regional development. they include:   ·          clearly specified sustainability goals; ·          leveraging micro-business enterprise development off government funded technical and human infrastructure provision, and using local industry strengths; ·          learning from global experiences whilst building on local assets; ·          finding innovative business models to capitalise on new opportunities for content and applications; ·          ensuring community involvement in deciding, planning and evaluating projects; and ·          adopting a learning approach.   introduction   information and communication technologies (icts) are often promoted as central to reviving and sustaining regional communities (eg. simpson and hunter, 2001). this focus is particularly important in australia, which is geographically dispersed and has many such communities. periodic and ongoing drought and the shifts in the global economy away from the goods and services produced in these communities appear to have weakened them. despite the emphasis placed on icts, it seems that many initiatives have stalled. in short, the question of how community-based ict initiatives “can survive financially, that is be ‘sustainable’ in the longer term” has grown in significance (gurstein, 2001, p. 279).   in this article we initially consider the role of icts in sustainability of regional communities and then explore some of the reasons for the failure of ict initiatives.[2] this discussion leads us to ask whether there are more effective models of the implementation of icts and their role in regional development. based on our review of the literature in this field and participatory action research conducted in two regional communities in queensland we propose regional ict initiatives need to:   ·          achieve clarity in specifying sustainability goals; ·          leverage micro-business enterprise development off government funded technical and human infrastructure provision; ·          build on local industry strengths; to learn from global experiences whilst building on local assets; ·          find innovative business models to capitalise on new opportunities for content and applications; ·          ensure community involvement in deciding, planning and evaluating projects; and ·          adopt a learning approach through cycles of evaluation based on action research.     the role of icts in sustainability in regional communities   the position that icts have a role in enhancing ‘sustainability’ in regional communities has several threads and can be seen from three spheres – community, government and business. here, ‘community’ is understood as sustainability what a group of people living in a geographically defined area consider important, how they want to achieve those goals and what they judge their success by (simpson and hunter, 2001; rirdc, 2000; stellar, 2002; gurstein, 2001).[3] representatives of each sphere sometimes ascribe different meanings to sustainability. briefly, from a community perspective, sustainable ict projects are those that can pay their own way, generally without reliance on government funding. they serve individual and community needs, are easily accessible and promote the social, cultural and/or economic development of the community (eg. build social capital and assist local business). those who adopt a business perspective view sustainability in terms of whether the project is commercially viable and profitable. proponents of the government perspective focus on service provision. they recognise that governments have community service obligations and that market failure occurs, especially in rural, regional and remote areas where the costs of setting up and maintaining ict services can be very high. these factors make government support of ict initiatives necessary. yet these advocates acknowledge that, in the current policy context, government funds are limited. consequently, greater financial responsibilities are being foisted onto local communities (alston, 2002).   expanding on the community perspective, gurstein (2001) argues that if an ict:   “…facility is seen as providing [a] community service then the ongoing sustainability can be understood within the context of the ongoing sustainability of other community services such as schools, health facilities and so on and can be drawn from whatever sources (taxes, grants in aid and so on) are supporting those services.   however, if the facility is seen as only providing a service to specific individual users, then the model of sustainability must necessarily be one of identifying individual revenue sources (fees for service) and immediately puts the facility into the context of market-driven mechanisms.   if … this facility is a necessary component of capacity development for local citizenship, that is of maintaining a local empowerment, then clearly we must look at the issue of sustainability in the first context. the aim of the research then becomes identifying the manner in which the facility can become sufficiently and visibly embedded in the community so that it is recognised for what it is, a necessary component for community survival. doing this, of course, requires the development of strategies and applications which link the facility directly into other and necessary community processes and involves determining how to use the technology as the basis for more effective and efficient organizational management.”   (pp. 279-80)   what gurstein makes clear is that not only does sustainability mean different things to different groups but also that these understandings can derive from the purpose from which the facility is seen to be used and from the ideological position(s) of those users.   turning to australia, a significant literature exists documenting the way in which climatic conditions, corrupt world markets, low commodity prices and agricultural restructuring have resulted in a diminished australian rural and regional economy (smailes, 1997; tonts, 2000; gray and lawrence, 2001). while this situation has culminated in governments implementing a range of policy initiatives directed at regional revitalisation, one group of government-funded strategies has focused on new communication and information technologies. these schemes include the $464 million worth of projects that have been funded through the commonwealth government’s regional telecommunications infrastructure fund, networking the nation, since it was first established in 1997.   what has been presumed in the allocating of funding for these ict initiatives is that they will provide the key to rural and regional development. this assumption is clearly articulated in the commonwealth government’s policy framework for new technologies:   “the information economy will play a seminal role in the growth of regional and rural australia. online services can build stronger and more viable regional communities, with enhanced investment, employment and skills, by providing better access for businesses to markets and market information, and enabling more efficient marketing and distribution of products and services” (national office of the information economy, 1998, p. 3).                                                                           this position is also evident in the policy pronouncements of rural industry. in a number of reports the rural industries research and development corporation has suggested that non-metropolitan australians will benefit economically from new technologies as these will provide new employment opportunities, the potential to buy and sell online, an increase in services and access to education and training (da rin and groves, 1999; groves and da rin, 1999a, 1999b).   within this context the commonwealth department of communication, information technology and the arts (dcita, 2003) released a discussion article relating to the viability of online access centres (oacs) in regional australia. oacs are described as: “centres with full or part-time staff, unstaffed internet kiosks, computers in public libraries with internet access and those rural transaction centres that provide communities with internet access.” they offer people on low incomes affordable access to, and training in, icts and provide a range of communications, computer, resource, education and training, government, social development and community development services (dcita, 2003).   dcita’s document illustrates that, in australia, governments are instrumental in driving ict projects through various funding initiatives. at the commonwealth level one of the most well-known programs is networking the nation (ntn).[4] state/territory government commitments include: the community technology centres program (new south wales); communities online (tasmania), connecting victoria – connecting communities (victoria); and online public access in libraries (queensland). local governments support online public access centres by providing rent and maintenance, and by acting as oac facilitators and managers. yet, with current government programs like ntn winding down, the continuing feasibility of these projects requires local communities to find ways to make them self-sufficient and economically viable (dcita, 2003, pp. 3, 10). the question becomes, then, why have ict initiatives have often failed in regional communities and what can be learnt from successful models to better assist communities to achieve a sustainable ict project?   a critique: reasons for the failure of ict initiatives in regional communities   based on several analyses, it could be suggested that a variety of factors contribute to the stalling of ict projects in regional areas. these factors are that many initiatives are largely ict supply-driven and fail to specify and address local and cultural impediments and opportunities, they do not take account of the dynamics of the global ict industry, they are overoptimistic about the productivity improvements that icts can bring in traditional industries; and they often overlook the importance of content per se. they are discussed briefly below   ict supply-driven initiatives and failure to specify and address local and cultural impediments and opportunities   as many initiatives are largely ict supply-driven, they result in inadequate consideration being given to the local context (simpson and hunter, 2001; dcita, 2003, pp. 3-10).[5] local cultural impediments and opportunities can be overlooked as a result (oakley and campbell, 2002). examples include: the length of time the community has been exposed to icts; community members’ access to and experience with these technologies; the type of industry(ies) in, and the socio-economic structure of, the area; and how businesses view the use of icts in relation to their operations.[6]   by overlooking such contextual considerations, the advocates of ict projects can mis-specify and under resource the social and human infrastructure required. it is necessary that citizens are able to not only access that technology but that they also possess the skills to use and the resources to access them. this endeavour might require governments and communities employing skilled specialists in regional areas (simpson and hunter, 2001). as a number of australian and international initiatives have indicated, relying on volunteers to raise awareness and to provide training can be detrimental to the sustainability of a project in that, where there is only a small pool of volunteers to draw upon, these people may suffer from burnout (simpson and hunter, 2001; colle, 2000).   initiatives that do not take account of the dynamics of the global ict industry   outcomes like those considered above highlight the digital divide. the digital divide – referring to those who lack the ability or the capacity (including affordability, information literacy skills and location) to access and use basic ict services – exists between and among developed and developing countries, between rural and urban areas, within urban areas, between racial and ethnic groups, and between those society considers able and those it deems disabled (rooksby, weckert and lucas, 2003). these points regarding the nature of the digital divide are reinforced by the uptake of icts being slower in those regional areas where incomes (and educational levels) are lower than in some urban areas. as ict uptake has been identified as related to gender, age, education, income and interest level (simpson and hunter, 2001, pp. 5-9; rooksby, et al., 2003; the rural women and icts research team, 1999), then it may also be a socio-economic divide. thus supply-side policies could be insufficient to address it adequately (simpson and hunter, 2001, p. 10; rooksby, et al., 2003). the digital divide has exacerbated existing socio-economic disparities (krouk, pitkin and richmans, 2000; rooksby, et al., 2003) by further marginalizing those who are already disadvantaged while extending the power and reach of groups such as those who are information literate or who own and manage capital (gurstein, 2001). where icts are considered a driving force behind globalisation, it is possible that “globalisation hollows out local communities …. [making] whole regions … expendable in relation to these overwhelming global forces” (gurstein, 2001, p. 264). by considering the digital divide it is evident those who have been implementing some ict projects in regional communities might have been ignoring the local context and been giving insufficient attention to the structure of the global ict industry. some approaches might provide access to “another tool of information, without questioning its forms and content,” thus consolidating “social and inequalities” (fortier, 2000, p. 452) as a consequence.[7]   overoptimism about the productivity improvements that icts can bring to traditional industries and overlooking the importance of content per se.   another reason why some ict projects fail is that their drivers can be overoptimistic about the productivity improvement icts can bring in traditional industries. this enthusiasm might lead governments and communities to focus on traditional industries rather than to foster diversification such as through the development of new industries. this situation can contribute to people neglecting innovative and creative content that is relevant to the needs of a local community. icts “are changing the way all sectors operate ….” (hearn and manderville, 2004).[8] yet research indicates that productivity growth arises from a complex set of factors, not just icts (castells, 1996a, 1996b; cogburn, 1998; engelbrecht, 1997; gretton, galia and parham, 2003; hearn and manderville, 2004; the economist, 1999).   in general, over several decades, productivity growth has not paralleled investment in icts (castells, 1996a, 1996b; hearn and manderville, 2004). as an analysis of australia’s productivity upsurge (approximately 3.2% per annum) during the 1990s reveals, the link between icts and productivity growth is complex and might not be even across all firms and industry sectors. a set of multiple and interacting factors might have been responsible for the productivity gains that australia experienced. one of these was the catch-up phenomenon. this characteristic is evident in australia’s productivity surge pre-dating that in the united states. the greater access to, and better use of, icts in many industry sectors in australia was facilitated by the policy reforms introduced progressively from the early 1980s. these reforms were aided by organizational restructuring, and by the up-skilling of workers and managers (gretton, et al., 2003; parham, 2003; parham, 2002).[9]   the multiplicity of factors in the productivity/ict equation is apparent when examining specific cases. these examples indicate that there is “significant variation in mechanisms of how icts might yield productivity gains” (hearn and manderville, 1994, p. 2). the use of icts within an enterprise could either enhance or reduce productivity through their effect on at least five functions and processes. first, they might reduce the informational component of an enterprise’s transaction costs.[10] alternatively, icts may increase transaction costs by adding additional steps in the production process through increases in the level of technology and/or staff needed to process logistical information. icts might also expand the amount of information that has to be collected.[11] there are also significant hidden human resource costs in terms training and recruitment (hearn and manderville, 2004, pp. 3-4).   second, distributed systems, intranets and web band services all change the logic of space and time that connects enterprises to their stakeholders. however, the opposite is also true. for example, where banks have replaced branches with atms in regional australia their managers appear to have failed to understand their customers’ attachment “to real rather than virtual branches” (hearn and manderville, 2004, p. 4). new markets and users can clearly be reached.   third, adding information to an existing product or service can make it ‘smarter’ and more attractive to clients. icts are used widely in agriculture, for instance (hearn and manderville, 2004, p. 5; goggin 2000). yet increased information intensity can add significant costs to an enterprise without improving quality or lowering cost. higher transaction costs that have derived from collecting and analysing information in order to generate “quality assurance, improved decision making, or simply the fact that icts make information collection possible” (hearn and manderville, 2004, p. 5).   fourth, “icts have engendered completely new products and services in the form of digital content and applications” (hearn and manderville, 2004, p. 6). new businesses that provide web mail services (eg. growzone – http://www.growzone.com.au) and the development of community portals in various regional and rural areas provide two examples (eg. http://www.elaunceston.com/; jenkins, 2000; http://www.gladstone-online.com.au/index.htm; thompson, 2002).[12] another example is elders (http://www.elders.com.au/), which uses the internet to provide farmers with online services in relation to livestock sales and prices, breeding, grain, wool and other such services. it also has links to australian and international rural and farming sites.   finally, the use of icts might sometimes be related to their symbolic value. they carry connotations of power and supremacy. yet, as automated voice systems and call centres indicate, the use of icts can also be received negatively (hearn and manderville, 2004, p. 6). for example, in two australian federal government agencies that provide assistance to the unemployed (and underemployed) and to children, the introduction of a heavy reliance on call centre culture and investment in related it in the early 2000s has decreased corporate health and generated adverse publicity about client outcomes” (p. 6).   we argue that the equation that icts equals productivity is misleading. thus the claim that icts equal regional sustainability is also wrong. careful specification of a number of factors are required if one is to understand the impact of icts on regional sustainability. moreover, these characteristics can change at the level of the individual enterprise, either helping or hindering sustainability in particular cases. in the final section we report on case study work in two rural communities directed towards evaluating the sustainability of community ict projects as a preliminary step towards the identification of these key factors.   the way forward: lessons from participatory action research in queensland, australia   the key aim of the learners – learning, evaluation, action and reflection for new technologies and rural sustainability – project was to assist in “empowering diverse community members in [learning and] evaluating community development initiatives that use new communication technologies” to achieve social and economic benefits (lennie, simpson and hearn, 2003, p. 1). we adopted a ‘whole of community’ approach, concentrating on building learning communities and recognising new, more empowering forms of leadership that might be expected to help sustain rural communities (p. 1). we focused on the human and social infrastructure rather than the technical infrastructure. using participatory action research we sought to involve a diversity of community members and the industry partners affected by the initiatives that community members chose (see figure 1). this deliberate strategy was to ensure that the initiatives were relevant to the communities so that their knowledge and skills were increased, and to incorporate local knowledge and ideas, and to enhance empowerment. the two communities and the industry partners participated actively in continuous and overlapping cycles of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting through meetings, workshops, focus groups, interviews, teleconferences and e-mail discussion lists. changes were made in response to participant feedback (lennie, hearn, simpson, van vuuren and kennedy, 2003, p. 6).   alpha shire is located in an area built around farming. when the project commenced it had a population of approximately 3,800, had poor communication systems and a lack of services. it was considered to be disadvantaged. beta shire is located in an agriculture, farming and tourism area. when our study began, its population was 10,400 and declining. although this shire had good communication systems, public internet access was poor and there was a lack of awareness among some sections of the business community of the opportunities that new icts could provide.   alpha implemented a range of community and economic development projects prior to the commencement of our research project. initiatives involving the use of icts included: ·          the shire website sponsored by the council. ·          public internet access at the library. ·          a learning network centre that provides access to a range of icts and offers support for students undertaking external studies. ·          videoconferencing facilities that enable access to legal advice and information. ·          computer and internet training courses and support services. ·          a cyberflora project that involved development of a website and email network to facilitate the creation of a mural in the botanical gardens. ·          a school website. ·          after hours access to computers and the internet to adults provided by the school. ·          the school children taught adults how to use computers and the internet. ·          an online magazine for young people had been created.   in beta, the council and the local business community undertook key ict initiatives to enhance the shire’s economic development prospects. they include a virtual community project aimed at enhancing telecommunications and e-commerce access in the region and a community learning centre. the first project was initially funded through the council securing a grant from the federal government’s networking the nation program.   in both communities, women took key leadership roles in ict initiatives and the majority of project participants were women. other research identifies women as ‘new pioneers’ in the adoption and use of icts in rural and regional queensland (the rural women and icts research team, 1999). it could be speculated that women’s participation in these initiatives could be related to their roles within government, non-profit organisations, business and the community more generally. it appears that women’s involvement in ict projects could be vital to the ongoing sustainability and success of those initiatives.   a number of other insights about the sustainability of regional ict projects can be gained from these cases. in feedback on the initiatives, participants in both communities understood sustainability as community sustainability. they stressed the growing import of financial viability in a time of diminishing government assistance. yet perhaps more significant than, and a precursor to, this financial viability is the requirement that the ict initiative is relevant to the community. as one participant stated, sustainability means that the “project is ongoing and can sustain itself financially and continue to provide a service to the community”. another participant argued that the initiative “must be of benefit to the community and continually grow and change with the community. to meet the shifting needs of individuals and groups they must be relevant and useful”. the project needs to “not only [be] able to keep itself going but to be a growing entity” as well.   from this perspective, local needs and interests must be addressed and the community’s sustainability goals must be clear. it can be extrapolated that success in attaining these goals necessitates the community having effective opportunities to be involved in deciding on the project(s) to be pursued and in evaluating it. therefore, it is essential the community ‘owns’ the initiative.   these sentiments imply, as a participant put it, “if you want your project to be in place for a long time you need to build some kind of sustainability into it.” for another participant, you need “a good plan [first] and checkpoints along the way.” this planning and these checkpoints contributed to participants’ assessment that the learners process had assisted them to identify strategies for achieving sustainable outcomes, including the potential for reducing reliance on government and empowering the local community. in most cases, community members learned new planning and evaluation skills and techniques that were relevant to their needs.   as indicated earlier, this study assisted two communities to identify the ict projects they wanted to evaluate in order to better meet community needs. it entailed drawing on local knowledge and content. the involvement of key community members enabled available knowledge and learning resources to be utilised effectively, and relevant skills and knowledge to eventually be diffused to others the community. drawing on the experiences of other communities whilst remaining attuned to local needs and interests helped stakeholders to identify ways in which their projects could become more sustainable and successful. participants also valued the opportunity to network with people in other organisations and communities.[13]   these findings indicate that learning strategies for rural and regional communities need to be planned and that communities need to be helped to help themselves. the “strengths and resources of the community” should be identified and be used effectively “to advance the community”. as another participant put it, “you need to get people involved and you need to get word out that you need people to work on this and mention what you”re trying to do. but i think it needs to be done in a practical sort of way”.   from our experience, ‘being practical’ means engaging local leadership, developing useful skills and providing information in ways appropriate to rural and regional people. several participants stressed the significance of ongoing local leadership and planning for human resource requirements such as trained staff, especially where they could play a role in changing people’s attitudes towards technology. “people think that the internet is for young people and don’t see the benefits it could have for them. we need to educate people to overcome this attitude and this is difficult without a dedicated it person in the shire.” where communities have had limited exposure and/or access to appropriate technologies this situation might present a significant barrier to attaining sustainability goals when government services and/or funding is withdrawn. the participants who expressed this opinion strongly had experienced detrimental effects from the council’s decision to withdraw the local ict support person.   other key factors in ict sustainability   an implication of these governmental actions means that using local content and applications, and the deployment of innovative and/or creative business strategies, were identified as a crucial but underdeveloped source in both communities. focusing on local content and applications the community radio network, bracs (http://www.teabba.com.au), in the northern territory provides one example. others include telstra’s elaunceston project (jenkins, 2000), the mainstreet portal in western australia (thompson, 2002) and successful telecentres in canada, india, australia and the united states (colle, 2000). examples of innovative/creative business strategies include initiatives undertaken by the maffra area international inc (kermode, 2000) in gippsland, australia; australian internet publishing business, on the stone (http://www.onthestone.com.au); telstra’s elaunceston project (jenkins, 2000); several telecentres and telework projects; and several australian businesses like windsong records and kangaroo pacific trading (colle, 2000; simpson and hunter, 2001).   gurstein (2001, p. 271) notes that organisations can use icts to assist local development in a number of ways. first, they can “enable local residents to do the activities they have always done better, faster, more cheaply or more efficiently, thus maintaining their competitive position in the large economy.” however, cost-effectiveness is rarely achieved for reasons such as those discussed earlier. gurstein’s second and third points are more promising. icts can be used as a “resource for new social and commercial enterprises, new styles of development and new initiatives, doing things at the local level which have not been done before as a base for local economic advance.” finally, they can be used as a “means to link into larger networks where the local economic activity might not be sustainable and effective when undertaken in a fragmented or piecemeal way.”   as simpson and hunter (2001, p. 38) argue, it is essential that a community identifies its strengths and weaknesses. this is about being aware of what the region has to offer and the potential that might exist for ‘exploiting’ it. yet “identifying the complex range of factors that go to making a successful business case for the path the community takes time and investigation of the possibilities” (p. 38). simpson and hunter’s (2001, pp. 38-9) evidence suggests that some of the businesses that achieved success through ntn funding used the internet to: reduce transaction input costs; speed up and improve information transfer; and aggregate suppliers. in these cases the internet was seen as “a tool” or “building block for economic growth and social & regional development. … a community needs to ensure that it clearly knows why it needs and how it will utilise online services to create employment, enhance ict skills and improve the lives of its members’ before it examined what telecommunications services it required (p. 39). thus, “like any good business plan, a community needs to look at what its realistic goals are and what is required to reach them” (p. 39).   our research suggests that sustainability requires engaging community leaders and volunteers (simpson and hunter, 2001, p. 38; colle, 2000; jenkins, 2000). however, it is necessary to guard against volunteer burnout – a situation that can be compounded in regional areas that have small populations – and be vigilant in protecting leadership positions from being “… ‘hijacked’ by well meaning people who lack the required vision and drive” (ipen in simpson and hunter 2001, p. 20).   adequate resourcing from sources like networking and partnerships with other key stakeholders including business, government, educational institutions and the non-profit sector is necessary here. yet such partnerships can take a long time to develop and do involve some alignment with the aims and priorities of these stakeholders. as much as business needs to see that the use of icts will provide them with desired benefits it is necessary to find a “fit with government policies and procedures” (simpson and hunter, 2001, p. 39; also see http://www.teabba.com.au; colle, 2000; jenkins, 2000)   employing skilled people such as an ict specialist, business manager and/or project officer can help to minimise burnout and to make these assessments (see simpson and hunter, 2001, http://www.teabba.com.au). in this sense regional communities need to combine top-down and bottom-up approaches (colle, 2000) to leverage initiatives off government funded technical and human infrastructure provision, and to build on local industry strengths. in relation to local industry, leveraging can assisted by finding and using innovative and/or creative business models to capitalise on new opportunities for content and applications (jenkins, 2000; colle, 2000; simpson and hunter, 2001; http://www.on.the.stone.com.au).   finally, regional communities need to be aware that things can go wrong and momentum lost as a result (simpson and hunter, 2001, p. 39). thus it is essential for them to adopt a learning approach like that which occurs through using cycles of evaluation based on an action research framework (lennie and hearn, 2003; jenkins, 2000, pp. 24-7). this method enables the development of a plan that incorporates contingency strategies (simpson and hunter, 2001, p. 39) and ensures the incorporation of clear assessment and evaluation techniques that take diverse community, government and business agendas and needs into account.   conclusion   our research, combined with several other australian and international studies, suggests that there are several factors that can assist in the sustainability of ict projects, and can promote economic and community development they cover ensuring the community’s sustainability goals are specified clearly through measures including community involvement in deciding, planning and evaluating projects; and adopting a learning approach through cycles of evaluation based on action research. these features also include leveraging micro-business enterprise development off government-funded technical and human infrastructure provision, building on local industry strengths, learning from global experiences whilst building on local assets; and finding innovative business models to capitalise on new opportunities for content and applications.   these characteristics were evident in successful australian and international initiatives. they were missing from projects that stalled, especially through their drivers’ failure to consider the local context and the dynamics of the global ict industry. in ignoring these features, the strengths and impediments unique to a particular community were sometimes overlooked and the assumption that the use of icts translates into greater productivity was not questioned.     references   alston, m. 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(2002). community, content, collaboration and courage!, keynote address to the electronic networking 2002 – building community conference, monash university, melbourne, 3-5 july.   top end aboriginal bush broadcasting association (teabba) (n.d.). accessed 16 may 2004 from: http://www.teabba.com.au   thompson, h. (2002). creating and sustaining online communities—replicable web-based services meeting the diverse needs of regional and rural australia, article presented to the learning cities and regions conference, melbourne, october 14-15.   tonts m. (2000). “the restructuring of australia’s rural communities” in b. pritchard et al (eds) land of discontent. university of new south wales press: sydney.   the economist (1999). “the new economy: work in progress”, the economist, july 24, pp. 19-22.   the national office for the information economy (1998). a strategic framework for the information economy. australian government publishing service: canberra.   the rural women and icts research team (1999). the new pioneers: women in rural queensland collaboratively exploring the potential of communication and information technologies for personal, business and community development. the communication centre, queensland university of technology: brisbane.   [1] a version of this article was first presented at the cirn conference held in prato, italy in 2004. the research for this project is funded by the australian research council; and the commonwealth department of family and community services, queensland department of natural resources, mines and energy, office of women in the queensland department of local government, learning network queensland, and legal aid queensland. we wish to thank kitty van vuuren and emma kennedy da silva for their research assistance.   [2] in this article the term, community, is used in preference to civil society because it better captures the idea of a group of people who live in a geographically defined area and interact with each other to achieve shared social, cultural, environmental and economic goals (stellar, 2002). in this instance a ‘regional community’ is a community that is located in a non-metropolitan area (simpson and hunter, 2001, p. 5). for the purpose of this article we adopt the understanding of regional used by simpson and hunter (2001, p. 5). like the australian bureau of statistics, they refer to ‘regional’ as the locations that are considered ‘non metropolitan’ – that is outside capital cities. we would add that the size and diversity of australia means that there can be significant differences between communities in terms of population size and socio-economic profile and economic situation. however, it does appear that people in regional areas generally have lower incomes and educational levels than those in capital cities. simpson and hunter also point out that it is those communities that have relied on agriculture and mining that have suffered most from the shift to knowledge economy.   [3] here, sustainability in relation to ict might be seen at three, continuous and overlapping levels. first is that of the specific ict project (department of communications, information technology and the arts [dcita], 2003; gurstein, 2001; thompson, 2002). second is that of the organisation (krouk, pitkin and richman, 2000; fortier, 2000; kermode, 2002). one example is hose that aim to use ict to meet non-ict ends like community development (krouk, pitkin and richman, 2000; fortier, 2000; kermode, 2002). third is that of the community – what a group of people living in a geographically defined area consider important, how they want to achieve those goals and what they judge their success by (simpson and hunter, 2001; rirdc, 2000; stellar, 2002; gurstein, 2001).   [4] other programs include the telecommunications action plan for remote indigenous communities, rural transaction centres, and the family and community network initiative.   [5] telecentres in the united kingdom and europe might provide one example. they were established on a supply-side basis, with the private sector being seen as the main service provider. as only 25% of united kingdom telecentres were profitable and 30% experienced losses (dcita, 2003, pp. 3-10), it appears that the possibility of market failure was not considered.   [6] for example, a community in which there has been population decline and that has had limited exposure to icts is quite likely to not have a significant number of technologically literate citizens (fortier, 2000; simpson and hunter, 2001). a community that has relied upon agriculture and whose members lack adequate health facilities may not consider a web portal relevant to its needs (fortier, 2000; cole, 2001). in a community in which businesses are focused on survival then ict uptake can be slow (simpson and hunter, 2001, pp. iv, 13-38).   [7] for example, fortier (2000, p. 451) suggests that, as ‘multipurpose community telecentres’ were generally located in town centres, they were not likely to reach the ‘most disadvantaged’ who often lack literacy skills and are unable to afford basic ict training. it appears that such an approach might provide access to ‘another tool of information, without questioning its forms and content’, thus consolidating ‘social and inequalities’ (fortier, 2000, p. 452). if this is the case, governments need to assist in improving access to information about ict, affordable information literacy and affordable ict services (rooksby, et al., 2003).   [8] ‘…. there is a good deal of “boosterism” in discussions about icts and productivity and a common argument is that icts are important enabling technologies that generate productivity gains across sectors’ (hearn and manderville, 2004).   [9] since the mid-1980s, australian investment in icts has grown strongly. in the 1990s, investment in hardware grew by 35% per year and investment in software by 20% a year (parham, 2002, p. 8).   [10] ict use may improve the handling of information by eliminating logistical steps in the supply chain, reducing multiple handling of information, making information easier to find, or speeding up the transfer of information. these improvements might also involve the elimination of labour and thus the associated costs.   [11] a key factor in this situation derives from the externalities of icts we have already referred to. the need for an informational connection to others, or to conform to the standards of an industry, can drive greater information collection and transmission (hearn and manderville, 2004, pp. 3-4).   [12] elaunceston was initiated by the telecommunications corporation, telstra, in conjunction with key stakeholders (including the council, local businesses and government departments) and through extensive consultation with the local community. it covers tourism, news, weather and links to local businesses. elaunceston promotes tourism and businesses in the region and provides local community members with the ability to engage at local and international levels. [13] networking was a feature of several other projects examined for this research (colle, 2000; simpson and hunter, 2001). e-research infrastructure and community research tom denison monash university graeme johanson monash university abstract research is increasingly being conducted by multi-stakeholder teams which include the researchers themselves, funding authorities, industry collaborators and community stakeholders inside and outside universities, all of whom have dynamic requirements relating to research data, research artefacts and products, and published outcomes. while the physical location of electronic research resources is of decreasing importance, control and ownership, as reflected in intellectual property policies and ethical requirements, have become highly contested within several communities. such issues become even more complex when dealing with emergent participatory modes of e-research, which influence: ·empowerment of participants in the research. ·recognition of different ways of researching. ·institutional commitment to the long-term maintenance of a research repository. ·adaptive research teams which are comfortable with electronic interactions. ·new legal ownership and access rights, and terms and conditions of use. this paper deliberately focuses on the challenging area of participatory e-research in order to surface the widest possible range of issues. it is designed to explore governance frameworks that can be applied in new e-community contexts, and to identify the user needs of participants. it forms part of a new paradigm, which stresses the importance of facilitating participation, by addressing issues which arise about the new management principles required for the authenticity, accessibility, disposition and preservation of electronic research resources for multiple purposes. the prime focus of the paper will be an investigation as to how well repositories and archival services, as they are presently constituted, meet the needs of communities. it will discuss issues including: empowerment, research frameworks, design and methods; and how to conduct ethical research with communities, including protocols, intellectual property, ownership of research data and of outcomes. keywords e-research, community-based research, research protocols new approaches and structures this paper describes some of the work undertaken as part of a participatory e-research project by the centre for community networking research at monash university. it explores the practice of community participatory research in the context of the development of, and attitudes to, new e-research frameworks being promoted within australian universities. monash university is used as a case study because of its commitment to encourage the use of e-research techniques and repositories by multidisciplinary research teams (see treloar & harboe-ree 2008) while issues associated with legal, ethical and cultural frameworks have been recognised and discussed in relation to their ability to hinder the take-up of e-research infrastructure (see, for example, denison et al 2007), emergent participatory modes of research raise a range of further issues relating to the empowerment of participants in the research, and recognition of quite different ways of researching, for example, of working with indigenous australian communities. with regard to e-research infrastructure, these issues have potential implications for: -institutional commitment to the long-term maintenance of repositories to support continued data storage and curation, -adaptive research teams which are comfortable with electronic interactions, -new legal ownership and access rights, and terms and conditions of use,  and -ethics and ethical frameworks. e-research repositories are relatively new structures with few precedents other than traditional repositories to guide their future. if monash is to be successful in encouraging the use of e-research techniques and repositories by multidisciplinary research teams, it will need to review the relevant governance frameworks, policies and standards in the light of the above issues. increasing e-research there is a well-documented trend to increased collaboration in scientific research, with an emphasis on the sharing of, and access to, research data. it has developed at least partially in response to the increasing complexity of research, large and expensive research tools, an increasing interdisciplinarity, and an increasingly problem-oriented approach to research (national research council 2001, david 2004). in addition there is a growing perception that the outcomes from publicly-funded research, defined not only as publications but also as the data produced or collected along the way, should be available to the public (arzberger et al 2004). these trends have created a demand for accessible data repositories and tools to facilitate data access, storage, searching, and retrieval (david 2004). this type of infrastructure is termed cyber-infrastructure which, as the nsf defines it, ‘integrates hardware for computing, data and networks, digitally-enabled sensors, observatories and experimental facilities, and an interoperable suite of software and middleware services and tools’ (nsf 2006, p. 4). other terms in common usage are ‘e-research’, or more specifically, ‘e-science’ or ‘e-social science’, which often involve team-based research conducted across institutional and jurisdictional boundaries.  in australia, significant investment in specific discipline-based repositories in the sciences has occurred, with the department of education, science and training (dest) having funded several projects through the systemic infrastructure initiative (sii), including repositories of online digital objects (frodo) projects in 2003, and the managed environments for research repository infrastructure (merri) projects in 2005 (denison et al 2007). since 2006, there have been a number of projects to develop more broad-based repositories and monash university has been involved in several of these: the australian research repositories online to the world (arrow – http://arrow.edu.au/), the dataset acquisition, accessibility, and annotations e-research technologies (dart – http://dart.edu.au/), the australian research enabling environment (archer – http://archer.edu.au/); and the australian national data service (ands – http://ands.org.au). readily-identifiable issues in e-research the australian code for the responsible conduct of research includes several provisions relating to the preservation and accessibility of research data. it recommends that research institutions must have policies ‘that address the ownership of research materials and data, their storage, their retention beyond the end of the project, and appropriate access to them by the research community’ and that while specific questions of ownership and questions of retention are determined by law or the funding agency, where possible ‘the period for which data should be retained should be determined by the specific type of research’. however, where the work has community or heritage value, the aim should be that it be kept permanently, preferably within a national collection and, ‘unless specifically prevented by ethical, privacy or confidentiality considerations, research data should be made available for use by other researchers’ (nhmrc 2007). research data must also be maintained in a durable form, must be indexed or catalogued so as to facilitate discovery, must be accompanied by details of research methods and data sources, and must be managed according to legal and ethical requirements, which include details of approvals granted for subsequent use by third party researchers. the atkins report notes that e-research infrastructure should provide an ‘effective and efficient platform for the empowerment of specific communities of researchers to innovate and eventually revolutionize what they do, how they do it, and who participates’ (acls 2006 6). these guidelines (or rules) should be associated with permissions relating to management of resources by authorised users, including disposition (that is, the right to delete information, retain for a set time or indefinitely, or transfer ownership), specified or negotiated conditions of use, rights management (including rights of access, confidentiality and privacy, ownership including copyright and moral rights), and information security safeguards, in particular audit trails which capture and maintain information about the movement and use of the resources. needless to say, there are a number of issues that need to be addressed if these policies are to be fully realised. denison et al (2007), investigating researchers’ attitudes to e-research environments, found that the technical and non-technical issues associated with e-research were intimately entwined, and had the potential to retard the take-up of the infrastructure. issues included knowledge about which data to store, data management rights, system requirements, accountability, work preferences, access to it support, trust in repositories and their host organisation, as well as benefits vs. cost, in terms of money, time and effort. in this context, data management falls into two broad areas: management of current data for the purposes of undertaking the actual research; and longer-term curation of selected data to meet institutional and funder needs, or to make the data more broadly available, for example, as base data to be used by others, or for verification of the research undertaken. there are several developments which require further attention to questions of ownership. for example, negotiations between research partners in relation to the ownership of the data produced during a study may need to include a broader range of stakeholders, such as the subjects of research whose rights might not have been previously considered under previous protocols. another development is the increasing use of collaborative tools such as wikis and annotation software, which may involve the shared creation of data or other research outputs, and in which the question of the ownership of those outputs becomes quite obscure. the problem is that if researchers believe that they are going to lose recognition for their work, or ownership of intellectual property, they may withhold material, or refuse to contribute. such behaviour weakens the potential usefulness of tools for collaboration, but it can be minimised if an appropriate framework is in place which results in trust in the system. in a situation where there is an established culture and a range of precedents to rely upon, it may be possible to create a trusted relationship on the basis of informal understandings. at the present stage of development of e-research infrastructure and collaborative tools, neither the culture nor the precedents exist. there is also a need to build collaborative virtual environments for geographically distributed researchers, whether they be members of a lead institution or external to that institution, or whether they be community-based researchers or interested stakeholders. collaborative systems, for example those based on the sakai or confluence packages, have recently been implemented at monash, however their prime purpose is to provide access to data storage facilities, and their interfaces are decidedly user-unfriendly  (denison et al 2007). previous research has found a lack of clarity about data ownership (denison et al 2007, henty et al 2008), which may have repercussions when assessing what access rights can be assigned to data and at what stage. these problems are very real in terms of e-research practice. if there is no clarity about barriers to depositing datasets, then researchers may choose not to deposit at all, or may choose to place tighter restrictions on the data than is actually necessary. at the very least, repositories will need to include metadata that describes a range of options relating to ownership, and the specific rights of users in relation to the data held. henty et al (2008) surveyed researchers at three australian universities and found that over 60% of researchers were willing to make their data available at some time, although 44% responded that they would require a ‘negotiated access’, and only 8.6% were willing to allow open access. they also reported that only 0.8% had already provided access through a formal data archive such as the australian social science data archive or iatsis. just as there is no clear understanding of who owns data produced as part of the research process, there is also a lack of awareness of data management and archiving policies and procedures in force within researchers’ organisations. denison et al (2007) found evidence that long-term data management and archiving was falling between gaps in perceived responsibilities. as noted above, if researchers are to be able to re-use data, they must be able to find data via some standard search and discovery mechanism, understand the provenance of the data and its meaning, and have a clear understanding of the ways in which it is permissible to use the data. anderson and carlson (2006) drew particular attention to the difficulty of preserving the meaning of data once it has been detached from its source. henty et al (2008) found that many researchers considered their data would be meaningless to others because they would not have sufficient context to interpret it. different types or levels of metadata are required depending on the roles of those involved. while those creating or depositing the data need to add metadata related to provenance and meaning, those in charge of curating such data need to know enough about it to decide how long the data should be kept for, and what its value is. for example, at the basic storage level when data is being generated, decisions would have to be made about how often snapshots of the data should be backed up and/or archived. another issue is control, or at least perceived control, over data storage and access. relevant factors include the level of personal control maintained over data and workflows, trust in data management systems and security arrangements, and time management on the part of the researcher, whether that be to manage data or to investigate and adopt new systems and procedures. information security is essential to the development of trust in this environment; establishing an appropriate legal framework is a crucial concern. an inability to adequately address such non-technical issues leads to ‘researchers continuing with their manual data management practices, despite the risks, in particular data loss, and the additional work involved’ (denison et al 2007). participatory research and empowerment research relationships and questions of data ownership can be more complex in social science research than in other disciplines, particularly when the research engages with communities. according to stoecker (2005) new models of participatory community research require a number of features, including acknowledging communities as equal partners, basing the research on problems important to the community, and the research and its outputs are owned by all participants. in such scenarios, community members may have quite different functions from those in the past, and sit somewhere along the spectrum of: researcher, subject-researcher, consumer-researcher, stakeholder-researcher, and partner-collaborator. community-based research relies upon mutual understanding and articulation of researcher and community values which, on both sides, may have been thought of before only as part of a tacit understanding between each community’s members, when functioning within their own familiar contexts (johanson et al 2007). a departure from the more traditional approach can be observed in community-based research. in the traditional role of research, communities and community members tend to be thought of as the subjects of the research, rather than as participants. in the new form of practice, common understanding is a starting-point. the aims, expectations, methodologies, outcomes and other stages of the research, can only be developed when trust has been established and the interests of all stakeholders have been well aired through a common language (stoecker  2005). clearly, then, community-based research is situated or ‘embedded’ research that has to be based on mutual trust and respect, which can only be achieved if concomitant ethics regimes are based on principles and guidelines that are adapted to meet community concerns. such issues find coherent and comprehensive expression in the aiatsis (australian institute of aboriginal and torres strait islander studies) protocols, developed for conducting research in partnership with indigenous communities, as follows: a.consultation, negotiation and mutual understanding 1.consultation, negotiation and free and informed consent are the foundations for research with or about indigenous peoples. 2.the responsibility for consultation and negotiation is ongoing. 3.consultation and negotiation should achieve mutual understanding about the proposed research. b.respect, recognition and involvement 4.indigenous knowledge systems and processes must be respected. 5.there must be recognition of the diversity and uniqueness of peoples as well as of individuals. 6.the intellectual and cultural property rights of indigenous peoples must be respected and preserved. 7.indigenous researchers, individuals and communities should be involved in research as collaborators. c.benefits, outcomes and agreement 8.the use of, and access to, research results should be agreed. 9.a researched community should benefit from, and not be disadvantaged by, the research project. 10.the negotiation of outcomes should include results specific to the needs of the researched community. 11.negotiation should result in a formal agreement for the conduct of a research project, based on good faith and free and informed consent. the aiatsis guidelines pay particular attention to the issues of ownership and presentation of results. they state that researchers must recognise that ‘the knowledge and resources indigenous peoples bring to the project remains their intellectual property’, and further: ‘the rights to, the forms and presentation of, individual or community use of, and access to, research results should be agreed’. these provisions have implications for the ownership of research results, institutional ownership of data, the individual rights of researchers and indigenous participants to the data, and the collective rights of indigenous community groups. they extend to questions of community control over access to, and use of, research results, and on the disposition and storage of data and other outputs. although the above principles are specifically targeted at work with indigenous communities, the same ethical approach could apply to working with non-indigenous communities when dealing with culturally sensitive or other materials (e.g. holocaust survivor’s personal records). communications networks have the potential to liberate the content and manner of research from old structures however two significant shifts in approach are required. first, the community will have to be able to fully interact with the information and community technologies in place, and to have meaningful input into their design and deployment. second, as stoecker (2005) notes, although the research community is empowered to create, collate, disseminate and control its own products, and so to effect change, it will only occur if it conforms to an overall community development strategy (stoecker 2005 34). shared information with multiple contributors and owners does not fit neatly into existing personal property law (iacovino 2006). russell (2005) used the term ‘irreconcilable ontologies’ to reflect differences between western and indigenous australian knowledge systems due to them being based on different world paradigms. as faulkhead et al comment ‘attempting to match these two systems of knowing often results in one system being subsumed by the other, or one being presented as an alternative to the other; not in them being equal but different worldviews’ (2007: 41). the ontological problem affects academic ethics processes, which are based on western concepts of privacy, informed consent, and the ownership and control of data by academics, and which focus on protecting the interests of the university rather than those of any community. faulkhead et al go on to note that: although it is possible to vary the standard approaches to managing relationships with community partners and handling research data, the standard approaches reveal a lack of sensitivity to community protocols, with it being possible for community projects to gain ethics approval without adequate community consultation, or full compliance with community protocols (faulkhead et al 2007: 50). the typical role of communities in the western research paradigm is to treat them as research subjects rather than partners in research. legault and vanderplaat discuss similar issues surrounding ngo-university partnerships. in particular they note that different organisational cultures raise many challenges about ways of ‘working, thinking, organizing and communicating’ (2007: 197), and that the modus operandi challenge power imbalances in the collaborative process, and the nature and purpose of research. the participatory community e-research project this project was designed to explore governance frameworks which can be applied in new e-community contexts, and to identify the user needs of e-researchers, funding providers, their collaborators, industry partners, community partners, and e-research consumers. it stresses the importance of facilitating participation, by addressing issues which arise from the new management principles required for the authenticity, accessibility, disposition and preservation of electronic resources for multiple purposes, and more abstract issues, such as trust. the findings are based on data collected during the participatory community e-research project conducted by the centre for community networking research (ccnr) at monash university between 2008 and 2009. during july-august 2009 12 in-depth interviews were undertaken with non-science researchers, and an online survey into data management practices was administered, attracting 67 usable responses. the project also draws on experience gained during two other recent projects. the first, ‘trust and technology: building an archival system for indigenous oral memory’, an australian research council linkage project, dealt with oral memory as captured within narratives that constitute koorie knowledge and contrasted them with the dominant mainstream narratives deposited in government and institutional archives (faulkhead et al 2007). the second was undertaken in 2008 by staff of the centre for organisational and social informatics (cosi) at monash university, as part of the dataset acquisition, accessibility, and annotations e-research technologies (dart – http://dart.edu.au/) project. findings as noted, the study was conducted in two parts -a survey and a series of twelve semi-structured interviews. the survey was designed to quantify the occurrence of high-level practices relating to the use of research data repositories and data management practices. 67 usable responses were received from a wide range of researchers, including not only those engaged in the social sciences and the arts, but also those engaged in business, management and economics research. the findings of most relevance to this paper are those relating to the 69% of researchers who reported that they create or collect original data (most others purchased pre-existing datasets for example, those working in econometrics). of those who worked with original data -54% of respondents stated that their data was subject to a university mandated disposal period, either five or seven years after the completion of the project, depending on the discipline, -only 30% made use of centrally-managed data storage facilities provided by the university, with the remainder storing their data on their own pc, -21% said that they would not use centralised data storage facilities because they did not trust either the management of those facilities or their security, and -85% reported only ever backing-up their data to cd-rom or usb sticks. these finding are in line with previous studies and suggest a worrying ignorance of good data management practices. of more interest to this paper were the semi-structured interviews, which focused on researchers primarily engaged in research involving people or communities. the semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify and explore issues relating to data collection, data management, and the ethical, legal and institutional frameworks within which researchers operated. the themes explored included: -the nature of their collaboration with local or cross-institutional research teams, and any others who might be regarded as partners or stakeholders in the research. -ownership of data, particularly that involving human participants. -the data in its relationship to the outcomes or products of research. -ethics constraints. -management of data storage, backup and archiving. -software used in capturing, manipulating or publishing data. -software used to support collaboration. -the nature of the information kept about the data files collected. -the expected life-time of value associated with data collected. attitudes to making original data available to other researchers and the problems involved -legal, contractual, ethical, and logistical. -the conditions under which re-use would be permitted. -interviewees’ own re-use of third party datasets and conditions on that use. -use of data repositories, including those external to the university. because of space constraints, it is not possible to present the complete findings here. rather, the focus will be on those findings most relevant to the theme of participatory e-research. these can be grouped under six headings: lack of awareness of available institutional systems; resistance to institutional system limits; data management and data security; data ownership; dataset re-use; and ethics frameworks. 1. lack of awareness of available institutional systems. the first significant issue, mentioned by most of the researchers interviewed, was that they were unaware of the range of services available to them, and details such as the functionality of the systems on offer, what the terms of use were, and who to contact in order to find out. this is an issue that relates to the nature of communication within large institutions. it came as no surprise since, anecdotally at least, it is a common phenomenon experienced in the diffusion of a wide range of university policies. however, as in other areas, those responsible for the promotion of e-research and good practice in relation to data management are aware of the issue and are taking measures to address it, for example, by sponsoring e-research seminars, by addressing faculty staff meetings and by creating the position of data management coordinator. as demonstrated by this survey however, it remains a significant problem. 2. resistance to institutional systems limits. there was a significant trend to avoid centralised services because they were perceived as not very user-friendly, they could not meet requirements or, in some cases, there were doubts about the efficient management of the service. for example, many reported having access only to a shared network drive with limited storage capacity, or which could not be accessed by partners and collaborators external to monash. researchers reported having little hesitation in avoiding the use of institutional systems when those systems were perceived as being subject to unnecessary constraints or as being difficult to use. for example, many researchers had problems with use of the monash email system, which has a 2 megabyte limit on the size of attachments, and an overall storage capacity of 300 megabytes. the aim of the limits is to discourage the use of the email system for exchanging (and storing) large data files, and so to act as an indirect means of encouraging staff to use shared data storage facilities and collaborative tools. a significant number of the researchers interviewed, supported by numerous comments made in the online survey, indicate high levels of frustration with the limits. in fact the limit was counterproductive, rarely resulting in researchers using the available shared facilities. mostly, it resulted in the use of services such as google docs and gmail, an ironical result, because although many reported that trust in the system to preserve the confidentiality of the data was important, many also chose to use a freely available and user-friendly services rather than the supposedly more secure university facilities. 3. data management practices / data security most researchers interviewed had a strong tendency to want personal control over their research data, which generally meant that they kept their data on their personal computer with back-ups typically kept on usb sticks, or in some cases cd-roms or dvds. this provided a sense of having more immediate access to other data as well as more control over who could access it. although these are important considerations, these practices are usually accompanied by the risk of losing data through having poorly managed back-ups, a lack of version control, and a lack of planning regarding the post-project life of the data in question. these practices are in part connected to the first two issues, that is a lack of awareness of what institutional systems are available and dissatisfaction with the constraints that they impose, but in many cases the sense of security and control provided by current practice is illusory. 4. data ownership there appears to be a growing trend to publish datasets, and in some disciplines a need for perpetual access, however many researchers commented on a variety of problems. prominent among these were conflicting attitudes to ownership of data. for example, the ownership of data collected during interviews involves issues such as copyright in the questions used, the rights of indigenous communities; and notions of assigned copyright. those involved in participatory research argued that any data collected needed to be regarded as the joint property of the participants and the researchers, with the knowledge and opinions expressed clearly acknowledged as those of the participants. however in most cases the university and ethics documents require that the researchers, or the university, be specified as the owners, and that the participants' knowledge be considered in terms of pre-existing intellectual property. this may not appear a significant difference in attitudes, however the consequences are that it is the university that controls what can be done with the data, who has access to it, and when it must be disposed of. those involved in oral history, especially those working from the more traditional perspective of regarding those being interviewed as the subject of the research, were comfortable with the idea that copyright remained with the researcher. however even in those cases case-by-case negotiation was necessary and provided a major source of frustration. 5. dataset re-use. attitudes to the future use of data varied and were the subject of uncertainty, with researchers wanting to facilitate access as far as possible, but needing to reconcile such access with ethical and procedural concerns, such as acknowledgement of their collection of the original data, having to place individual requests with the original participants, and the need to insure that the data was being used in an ethical manner and in full compliance with legal and other issues. many interviewees commented that the data as stored would not be useful to other researchers because it would lack sufficient context for interpretation. some added that the problem could be overcome but that to do so would require significant intellectual effort in preparing appropriate metadata and 'clean' data sets – which they implied was outside of their normal tasks. the exceptions were those who thought their work had perpetual value, such as oral historians or those researching threatened languages and cultures. typically such researchers planned for the deposit into repositories and long-term access from the start of the project. some only came to such objectives once they were well into their research, and this had the potential to cause problems. for example, in one project a change of staff combined with a lack of contextual metadata resulted in six months worth of interviews being rendered almost useless, so much so that new interviews had to be conducted. most researchers reported that, because of the default position adopted by the university ethics framework, their data was to be destroyed either 5 or 7 years (depending on the discipline) after the completion of their project. most accepted that without question, including a number who thought that their data might have more lasting value. 6. ethics frameworks perhaps the most important issue from a community informatics perspective related to the difficulties encountered in reconciling the university's ethics framework with the needs and rights of external partners in the research undertaken. this was not reported as a problem by those working within a more traditional research environment which tends to regard people and communities as subjects of the research and the ownership of any research outputs as being that of the researchers. however, those that considered external participants as partners who might own or share ownership of the data and research outputs found it more difficult, but not impossible, to work within the current ethics framework, and that the constraints of that framework were a major source of frustration. the issue of data ownership has been mentioned above. other common complaints were that the framework was overly complicated, did not take into account the needs and rights of partner communities, and was overly-cautious in that it assumed that re-use would not be permitted and would have to be argued on a case-by-case basis. overall, those researchers involved in some form of community-based research in which they regarded the community as being participants rather than the subject of the research, reported that although the monash ethics framework was gradually improving and becoming more flexible in terms of the range of arrangements permitted, ethics clearance for that type of research still had not been accepted as standard and required significant negotiation on a case-by-case basis. conclusions while it is clear that the physical location of electronic resources is of decreasing importance, control and ownership, as reflected in intellectual property policies and ethical requirements, have become highly contested. the current research has confirmed recent research findings which suggest that problems relating to trust and usability of institutional repositories will impede their take-up by researchers. it also suggests that such problems will be particularly acute in relation to new models of participatory research involving communities. in terms of e-research, at least at monash, issues related to the management of repositories and the re-use of data appear to be gradually being resolved, but at the moment are still being resolved on a case-by-case basis and so need more standard protocols on re-use which recognise the broader range of ownership and copyright possibilities. the australian code for the responsible conduct of research  states that where research has community or heritage value, the aim should be that it be kept permanently, and, ‘unless specifically prevented by ethical, privacy or confidentiality considerations, research data should be made available for use by other researchers’ (nhmrc 2007: 2.3). an examination of current data management practices suggests that much still needs to be done to achieve this aim. with respect to data preservation, clear ownership of information resources in e-research communities, including ownership of intellectual property is critical for accountability, long-term storage, accessibility and archiving. the resolution of the ownership of intellectual property is particularly complex in universities and other research institutions which adopt principles in intellectual property policies which alter the way in which legislation vests ownership. within the social sciences and the humanities, particularly when dealing with communities and individuals in ethnographic work, there may be broader questions about who actually owns the research – the researcher, the community, the group? – as well as exactly what it is that comprises the research content, and what can be done with it. such questions need negotiation, and that negotiation can be more complex than what existing frameworks currently provide for. it is clear that such guidelines as do exist, for example the aiatsis protocols for conducting research with indigenous communities, are not well served by current arrangements. that framework should include: 1)allowance for joint ownership / a select number of non-standard possibilities, 2)more flexible rules regarding retention of data, 3)greater recognition of specific community ethics frameworks, 4)recognition of prior ownership of knowledge, 5)protocols for re-use, and 6)recognition of authorised repositories and criteria for the accreditation of new ones. references acls (2006). ‘our cultural commonwealth: the final report of the american council of learned societies’. commission on cyberinfrastructure for the humanities & social sciences. accessed jan 2007: http://www.acls.org/cyberinfrastructure/index.htm. aiatsis (2002) guidelines for ethical research in indigenous studies.  available at http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/10534/geris_2007.pdf anderson, b. and s. carlson (2006) entangled data: knowledge and community making in e (social) science – research report to the esrc. chimera working paper 2006-15. ipswich: chimera, university of essex. available at http://www.essex.ac.uk/chimera/content/pubs/wps/cwp-2006-15-edkm-research-report-to-esrc.pdf arzberger, p., schroeder, p. beaulieu, a., bowker, g., casey, k., laaksonen, l., moorman, d., uhlir, p., & wouters, p. 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(2008) investigating data management practices in australian universities. apsr (australian patnership for sustainable repositories). avalable at http://www.apsr.edu.au/investigating_data_management.pdf iacovino, l. (2006a). ‘community, identity and shared value systems from aristotle to singer: an ethical model of ‘ownership’ of memory spaces in distributed networks’. in stillman, l. & johanson, g. (eds.) proceedings of the 3rd prato international community informatics conference (cirn 2006) (1-22). prato, italy, 9-11 october. johanson, g., williamson, k., schauder, d. (2007). ‘recording oral memory: views of indigenous victorians’, in williamson, a., de souza, r., eds. researching communities with community participation; grounded perspectives on engaging communities in research. auckland, muddy creek press. legault, c. & vanderplaat, m. 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(2005). research methods for community change: a project-based approach. thousand oaks: sage. treloar, a. and harboe-ree, c. (2008). "data management and the curation continuum: how the monash experience is informing repository relationships". proceedings of vala 2008, melbourne, february.   a cost maturity model for community informatics projects in the developing world  ferdie lochner < flochner@myrealbox.com >   abstract community informatics projects are instituted to achieve global equity in the distribution of  information and communication technologies (icts) and attendant socio-economic benefits.   technology disciplines and financial disciplines, specifically management and cost accounting, have no history of goal congruence, and many ict-based community informatics projects fail, because of a lack of knowledge and insight about their life-cycle costs.  this paper introduces a model for systematic measurement and benchmarking of the life-cycle costs of community informatics projects; and invites debate about its bona fides, so that it can be refined and applied to the benefit of communities in the developing world.   introduction   this paper formulates a framework for finding answers to problems and questions concerning financial sustainability of community informatics projects in the developing world.  in so doing, it builds upon earlier efforts to draw attention to the intricacies of financial methodologies associated with management of technology in particular.  it creates a frame of reference for a discourse about and common understanding of paradigms, concepts, terms and solutions associated with the relationship between technology and financial disciplines, with specific reference to management and cost accounting.   by focusing on the cross-disciplinary theme of technology management and its associated financial methodologies, this paper also contributes to an evolving discourse about technology management, training and education in the management of technology (mot) and community informatics academic communities, and seeks to extend that discourse to those in the developing world who have so far been largely excluded from these discussions.   background it is now commonly understood that valid and accurate technology cost information is vital across all aspects of a business, from product conception, design and production, through pricing policies, supply and delivery, to performance reviews.  but managers in technology-based production environments increasingly have to deal with uncertainty as to what accounting methodology to follow.  mcnair, mosconi, and norris (1988, p. xv) observed that the relevance of management and cost accounting in technology rich environments is questioned and that …”advanced technologies … highlight the discrepancies and dysfunction inherent in our management and cost accounting procedures.”  one of their main observations was that costs became untraceable as a result of the confusion between, respectively, direct and indirect costs, and fixed and variable costs.  macintosh (1994, p.197) finds “…an almost embarrassingly large body of research … about the darker side of management accounting…” and goes on to describe three conventional categories of critique of management accounting and control systems, i.e. goal congruence, relevance lost and human relations.  peebles and antolovic (1999) view traditional accounting systems as serving neither operational nor strategic roles at levels below those of major divisions and product lines within an enterprise.  these systems can be used to assess the value of inventory and distribute the costs of plant, equipment, and management over major products, but they cannot specify the costs required to run a process that produces discrete products and services.  moreover, such accounting systems cannot provide the information through which processes can be re-engineered to reduce cost and increase quality.  according to cooper and kaplan (2001, p. 96), direct labour, which earlier formed the bulk of cost, now represents only a fraction of corporate costs while expenses associated with production support operations, marketing, distribution, engineering and other overhead functions have increased exponentially.  gupta and galloway (2003, p.132) confirm the above situation and state that traditional management and cost accounting has been challenged to find methods to help companies better understand and identify business processes and their associated costs. though activity-based costing (abc), life cycle accounting and technology accounting are all seen as having contributed to the emancipation of accounting in technology-rich environments (glad & dilton-hill, 1993, p. 9), kaplan & anderson (2004, p.131-132) state that numerous managers have abandoned abc, because of rising costs of implementation, employee frustration, overloading of computing processing capacity, inevitable time delays and, indeed, inaccurate results.    the discussion about technology and how it relates to management and cost accounting certainly makes for vigorous debate in business schools, management and accounting circles and in technology-based industries.  witness the selection of papers on the topic by robinson (1990), primrose (1992), demmy and talbott (1998), coate and frey (1999), hughes and paulson gjerde (2003) and cooper and slagmulder (2004).  if it is accepted that management and cost accounting are based on general financial fundamentals, how does the mot community then deal with finance as a general support function, and with management and cost accounting in particular?  more to the point and relevant to this paper, how do program and project managers, business incumbents and entrepreneurs in community informatics projects across the developing world deal with finance and specifically with management and cost accounting, if large and highly evolved organizations have not achieved certainty about the fundamentals?  a literature review of community informatics initiatives associated with the developing world and the digital divide in particular reveals very few references to financial management[1], financial accounting, and management and cost accounting practices, as these apply to ict, its costs of ownership and associated benefits (adanusa, 2001; asami, 2001; boakye, 2001; truc, 2003, and tse, 2001).  often these reports make reference to low cost options for technology, or to grants and donations, yet, as in the case of rajan (2002), referring to a major privately funded initiative in rural india, there is no specific information about the nature of the investment made. there certainly are a number of commendable efforts at understanding the costs of community informatics projects (potashnik & adkins, 1996; benjamin, 2001; blanchard, 2001), but for obvious reasons these efforts do not happen within an agreed-upon standard of accounting for costs, lacking an interaction and scientific discourse about an essential structure such as a common chart of accounts and associated costing benchmarks. thus, the ultimate impact upon decision-makers is potentially diluted.   according to massachusetts institute of technology professor k. keniston, as quoted by rajan (2002), the expectations that ict could enable even the poorest of developing countries to “…leapfrog traditional problems of development — so as to move them rapidly into the modern information age — are largely built on an empirical vacuum…” [author’s emphasis].  keniston furthermore maintains that those involved in developmental projects are not usually in touch with each other, nor do they regularly publish what they are doing.  consequently there is little accumulation of knowledge, with even the most preliminary kind of on-site evaluation lacking, and therefore little possibility of learning from the successes and failures of individual projects, in particular of financially induced failures, as will be argued in this paper.  oberlin (1996, p.21) sums up the situation as: ”the financial truths surrounding information technology… have never been particularly clear.  the economics of these investments are often steeped in an intellectual haze that can be described as the financial mythology of information technology.”      aim and objectives the aim of this paper is therefore to leverage foundations of theoretical and practical work in order to formulate and test a robust and generic methodology for systematic benchmarking of community informatics projects, in a manner that would meet the most basic developmental needs of the targeted communities.  yet, at the same time, the paper attempts to provide a solution that meets the requirements of developmental agencies for having control and financial sanction over community informatics projects.  the paper introduces a preliminary model to serve as frame of reference for measurement and benchmarking of community informatics projects in the developing world.  the model provides a framework within which answers would be found to four closely related questions associated with the debate presented here, and presently appearing either implicitly or explicitly on the agenda of international developmental agencies.  these questions are as follow: what tools and programs can be implemented to provide systematic cost measurements of individual community informatics projects in the developing world? how can these measurement results become part of a set of cost benchmarks for community informatics projects? how can these benchmarks and the costing status of individual projects be globally communicated as part of project cost management discourse and learning within the appropriate research network? what training programs can be implemented by this network, developmental agencies, and other stakeholders, to ensure that financial methodologie, and cost measurements specifically, are synchronized with quickly changing information and communication technologies, inclusive of robust form factors, satellite communications, and liberalizing telecommunication regimes in the developmental world? the rest of this paper will endeavor to provide answers to these questions.  in doing so, it follows in the footsteps of potashnik and adkins (1996) and benjamin (2001; 2003), drawing attention to the cost of ict in community informatics projects.   discussion ict [and for that matter the digital divide] is in a race with the “nutrition divide”, the “education divide”, and the “environmental quality divide”.  advocates for technology argue that ict should prevail because of globalization and the trend for the unit cost of many information and communication technologies to decrease rapidly, compared to costs for those technologies required to overcome the nutrition, education and environmental “divides”. yet, in the words of ekpo (2001, p.ek-1), there will not be a “…quantum leap into the age of information…” if financial management, financial accounting, management and cost accounting, and therefore financial sustainability, of community informatics  projects continue to be ignored across the spectrum of development.  after all, a thorough knowledge of costs remains essential in order to evaluate and value ict (van maanen & berghout, p.167).   there is a lack of financial management and a lack of book-keeping of costs and benefits of ict infrastructure in community informatics.  indeed, bridges.org, a prominent ngo analyzing policies about the digital divide, often finds a lack of management capacity, entrepreneurship, affordability, marketing and financial sustainability in its assessments of a large selection of on-the-ground initiatives to bridge this divide (bridges.org, 2001).  clearly, the problem cannot be one of lack of will or ability to reach out; not if so many institutions and individuals have participated in these developmental efforts, supported by a wide range of funding institutions, with often significant budgets.  in reality, if oberlin (1996), potashnik and adkins (1996) and others are to be taken seriously, the problem is the lack of management capacity and a lack of common understanding of general financial methodologies.    start-up cost versus full cost roberto verzola (2002) asserts that a distinguishing feature of ict is that while the cost of moving or copying information goods is approaching zero, the initial costs involved for creating new information, or infrastructure for moving and manipulating information goods, remain relatively high. as an example of the above, verzola submits the now familiar technology cost equation which sees a high setup cost for ict infrastructure such as a telecommunications network followed by a nominally marginal cost of “information transfer”.  this, according to verzola, makes ict often more accessible to those who can afford the high start-up cost than to the poor.  however, it is time for developmental agencies, decision-makers and project managers in community informatics to be aware of conventional wisdom in technology accounting: that start-up costs represents only a fraction of the annual total cost of ownership [tco] of ict (tissue, 1997; gartner, 2002); and that, when combined, the annual total costs of ownership of ict form the life-cycle cost of ict, or the total cost of ownership over the useful life of ict.  within the specific context of community informatics, the same view is also confirmed by adam (2002) and benjamin (2003).  therefore, to not know, understand and manage the full life-cycle tco of ict in community informatics programs invites failure, since at best procurement cost represent only one fifth of the annual tco, and at worst only one twentieth, depending on the architecture, standards, form factor, functionality and scope of the particular ict environment; the obvious implication is that the rest of the costs go unnoticed and unmanaged. the argument to be constructed here is not intended to take away a general focus on the affordability, or lack thereof, of ict to the poor, a focus strongly supported inter alia by the un secretary-general kofi annan (wall, 2000).  but in strengthening the effort of making ict more affordable, indeed more sustainable and more accessible, it undoubtedly makes sense to point to the need for generation, management and communication of valid life-cycle cost information about ict solutions, and then to identify the affordability thereof. projects need proper business cases, with pricing strategies informed by annual cost of ownership measurement, and benchmarking, fed into simplified budgets so that financial feasibility and proper management get built into project plans.   total cost of ownership [tco] models tco is a vital concept in technology cost management, specifically in ict cost management, and for the purpose of this paper represents a desirable end state of cost maturity.  it is a generic management and cost accounting concept, normally measured and managed as an annual variable.  technically it is derived from the more commonly found life cycle[2] view of costs (ansari et al, 1997).  many ict vendors, most notably microsoft, hp, ibm, ca, siemens and unisys, have used the concept in one form or another  to distinguish products based on costs; indeed, some have even developed the tco concept into practical decision-making models, based on work done by ict research firms such as gartner and the now defunct meta group[3].  yet management of tco and indeed of life-cycle tco of ict remains a common challenge across the world and across all sectors of industry.  relatively few organizations, outside of large corporations, have had the required financial and human resources to implement it as a so-called best practice. bill kirwin  contributed to the creation of the tco for computing methodology in 1987 (kirwin, 2004) and has since helped gartner in popularizing it by creating a database of tco benchmarks, consisting of cost measurements of different ict domains of organizations across the globe.  gartner today defines tco as a comprehensive set of methodologies, models and tools to help organizations better measure, manage, and reduce costs and improve overall value of it investments over the useful life of ict assets (gartner, 2002, p. 4).  van maanen and berghout (2002, p.167-168) use this as a foundation for a further distinction between the tco of an information system and the tco of an organization. whereas the former is “… all the costs associated with owning and using the information system throughout its life cycle”, the latter is …”all the costs associated with owning and using it by the organization over a certain period of time.” pursued to its logical end, tco helps organizations to understand the cost of procuring, owning and using ict over time; to create, implement and manage a financial plan for ict budgeting, operations and investment planning; and to understand the relationship between ict investments and business value.   as a holistic financial concept, its value as a management objective is beyond doubt.   so much so that a gartner tco maturity model has evolved from the original concept.    the tco maturity model describes the availability and integrity of cost data, the manner of collecting and maintaining the data, and the degree of assistance needed to calculate tco with a reasonable level of validity.   the model has five levels. at the lowest level, there is little or no awareness of the need for or benefits of a management program that includes a tco approach. at that level, tco efforts involve searching for data or making educated guesses. at higher levels, the tco processes have matured to the point where organizations routinely and independently conduct tco assessments. they obtain highly reliable metrics, and incorporate them into budgeting and planning, communication with stakeholders, and comparisons to peer groups. figure 1: the gartner tco maturity model (source: gartner research, 2003)   the specific value of the tco maturity model in the context of this paper is threefold.  firstly, it confirms the continued refinement of the tco concept in a world where technology and its peculiar cost configurations are highly dynamic; secondly, it recognizes that different communities have different levels of readiness for understanding and managing ict costs and associated administrative imperatives; and thirdly, it has been developed for the educational and training sector and presents an almost intuitive frame of reference for future measurement and benchmarking work by developmental agencies overseeing community informatics projects.   altogether, the concept of total cost of ownership presents a logical foundation for a model that would support systematic cost measurement and benchmarking of community informatics projects in the developing world.   a preliminary model for measurement and benchmarking of community informatics projects in the developing world if all the normal cost considerations involved in owning and managing a community informatics project were to be combined in one view, it would form a cost cascade  (figure 2) from a very basic understanding of what cost is, towards a state of complete cost efficiency, defined as using the minimum amount of resources to do the assigned job (chorafas, 2004, p. 11).   figure 2: the technology cost management cascade both the gartner tco maturity model and the technology cost management cascade make the assumption that building blocks are in place to progress from a generally inefficient stage to cost maturity.  the cost maturity model for community informatics projects in the developing world combines elements from both these approaches in a practical manner and simplifies the concepts involved.  it assumes that very few communities in the developing world have the required skills and training to fully understand the type of questions posed in the technology cost management cascade, nor the cost measurement and analysis skills implied by the later stages of the tco maturity model.   the proposed model also assumes a total absence of standardized charts of accounts and existing measurement benchmarks, as would be available for the tco maturity model.  finally it simply projects itself as a free tool that would be available to communities in need, with access to knowledge and associated benchmarks available to all community informatics projects.  the cost maturity model (figure 3) basically consists of a benchmarking stream augmented by any of a number of interventions, which can be evoked at any phase in the selection, measurement and benchmarking process of individual community informatics projects, or groups of projects.  it includes at the same time a maturity continuum of financial practices for understanding costs and benefits of ownership; and presents a modular and flexible training framework reflecting rapidly evolving ict technologies.  beyond serving as a frame of reference, the proposed utility value of the cost maturity model lies in the fact that it recognizes the diversity of circumstances and inherent constraints found in the endeavour to manage technology and technology cost and benefit accounting in the developing world; and in reaction to these conditions presents a flexible route towards cost maturity.  it must be clearly stated, though, that its flexibility lies in the fact that community informatics projects that have some of the required building blocks in place can come on board, and not in a laissez faire approach that accommodates projects without supporting structures towards cost maturity. the model does, however, also reflect a number of novelties, which need to be debated, tested, and refined, including the following: it assumes different levels of sophistication for the incumbent community informatics project manager, custodian or proprietor. it makes provision for generic as well as more specialized community informatics projects. it provides for a robust index of cost maturity.     figure 3: the cost maturity model for community informatics projects the model promotes simplified and appropriate training content in the measurement and benchmarking process.  the model has soft lines, and reflects an iterative process, so that measurement, analysis, benchmarking and training can be repeated as often as is required and as resources become available to do so.  yet it recognizes resource constraints and aims at financial and cost independence of community informatics projects along the shortest route possible.  a community informatics project having achieved cost maturity would ultimately be able to produce a full cost of ownership data set, with its associated costs and benefits (in the form of income and tangible assets only, with the notion of intangibles left out of the equation). it assumes a simplified and even intuitive general ledger, which would at its most basic level simply have single entry accounting, if circumstances so prescribe. it provides for a simplified chart of accounts, which would have generic cost categories and which could be exploded in accordance with the sophistication, training and complexity of ict equipment, as well as in accordance with the level of detail required. it provides for two methods of implementation, i.e., an inductive method where individual projects receive intervention sequentially; or a deductive method where a number of community informatics projects receive intervention at the same time across a specific region, albeit in accordance with its respective sets of circumstances.  altogether the model presents an opportunity to prepare, in a structured and systematic manner, for measurement of the cost management status of individual community informatics projects against a set of appropriate benchmarks.  it also accounts for subsequent re-measurement of these projects, and ultimately for the construction of an ‘intervention dashboard’ reflecting cost status and control.  it presents itself as a developmental tool to be activated within the conceptual realms of management and cost accounting, but also makes itself available as a cross-disciplinary concept relevant to training for technologists, entrepreneurs and others involved with management or financial custodianship of community informatics projects in the developing world.   however, it is only a preliminary model requiring follow-up work, most notably in the areas of measurement and benchmarking of community informatics projects having the required profiles and indeed the business need to be measured.  keeping at a practical and very basic level, the model also proposes discarding the conventional double entry bookkeeping system at lower levels of sophistication in favor of a single entry system, i.e., a simple income and expense set of entries[4].  it tacitly poses the question of whether financial methodologies in these circumstances should be automated, and indeed whether a tool fundamental to accurate tco recording and processing, i.e., the omnipresent spreadsheet program, should be part of the equation. the model also reflects the real constraints and general lack of understanding surrounding benefit calculation, in particular leaving to the wayside intangible benefits.  finally, it contemplates the need for a database of developmental-friendly financial benchmarks, made available through a community informatics web portal, so that newly planned projects can leverage the knowledge gained by existing projects, and can, preand post-implementation, be evaluated against their peers elsewhere in the world.  in reply to the stated problem, the cost maturity model presents a generic, flexible and modular framework, and proposes interventions, for measurement and benchmarking of ict developmental projects.  ignoring the proposed model and its plea for debate, testing and refinement, leaves countless community informatics projects in the cold and leads inevitably towards project failure.   ignoring it also means that the discourse about management and cost accounting of technology is an exclusive endeavor not accessible to those mostly in need of its enlightenment. this discussion must therefore conclude with an invitation to have community informatics projects measured and benchmarked, so that a foundation of understanding, so clearly required in the developing world, can be built and grown for the benefit of all present and indeed future developmental endeavors involving ict.   conclusion   management of technology is a young, evolving and multi-disciplinary science.  part of its interest is in general financial management of technology, but specifically in management and cost accounting of technology – an exact field of practical and scientific endeavor, with equally exact methodologies.  to those who have the means, it is a transparent and stimulating academic process, its content disseminated across the globe.  but evidence has been provided here that the developing world often has to forego the luxury of scientific information and learning as far as management and cost accounting of icts in community informatics projects are concerned.  given its comprehensive developmental imperatives, the developing world cannot afford to continue along the same route; and this paper therefore has proposed a model for measurement and benchmarking of ict costs, and where appropriate, benefits of community informatics projects.  in practice it merely intends to create a framework for facts to be gathered about the cost feasibility and sustainability of community informatics projects, and for management skills to be created to deal with these facts.  but at an academic level it looks to extend multi-disciplinary management of technology approaches to the wider community of technology practitioners and so contribute to the success of developmental efforts.  based on the evidence in this paper, there are indeed practical solutions to be had to the problems of financial feasibility and sustainability of community informatics projects in the developing world, and debate about these solutions is encouraged.   references adam, l. 2002.  africa and the digital divide: status, issues, initiatives. available at http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/sap/stdm/2002_africa/presentations/session06/speaker02.pdf adanusa, g.k. 2001.  improving intra-africa connectivity.  policy & development: strategic initiatives  & solutions – strategies to bridge the digital divide: itu telecom africa 2001.  johannesburg. itu. ansari, s.l., bell, j.e. 1997.  target costing: the next frontier in strategic cost management.  chicago. irwin. asami, t. 2001.  island community wireless networks.  infrastructure & applications:  providing access for underserved communities: itu telecom africa 2001.  johannesburg. itu. benjamin, p. 2001.  experience from community ict  projects.  policy & development: accessibility & opportunities: itu telecom africa 2001.  johannesburg. itu. benjamin, p. 2003. the universal service agency’s telecenter programme: 19982000.  surveys, analyses, modelling and mapping research programme, occasional paper 2, cape town. human sciences research council. blanchard, j. 2001.  technology: threat or opportunity.  youth forum. itu telecom africa 2001.  johannesburg. itu. boakye, k.a.  2001.  the internet: building the first mile.  infrastructure & applications:  broadband access in the last mile and the last metre: itu telecom africa 2001.  johannesburg. itu. bridges.org, 2001.  spanning the digital divide: understanding and tackling the issues.  a report by bridges.org.  available at http://www.bridges.org/spanning/index.html  coate, c.j., frey, k.j. 1999.   integrating abc, toc, and financial reporting.  journal of cost management, july/august, 22-27.  chorafas, d.n. 2004.  rating management’s effectiveness: with case studies in telecomunnications.  hampshire: palgrave macmillan. cooper, r., slagmulder, r. 2004.  achieving full-cycle 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available at http://www.imanet.org/ima/ kaplan, r.s., anderson, s.r. 2004.  time-driven activity-based costing.  harvard business review, november, 131-138. kirwin, b., vice-president, gartner,  2004.   statement to author, 19 march.  cape town. mcnair, c.j., mosconi, w., norris, t. 1988.  meeting the technology challenge: cost accounting in a jit environment.  montvale. national association of accountants. oberlin, j.l. 1996.  the financial mythology of information technology: the new economy.  cause/effect, spring 1996,  21-29. peebles, c.s., antolovic, l. 1999.  cost (and quality of value) of information technology support in large research universities.  educom review, 34(5).  available at http://www.educause.edu/librarydetailpage/666?id=erm9955 phaal, r., paterson, c.j., probert, d.r. 1998.  technology management in manufacturig business: process and practical assessment.  technovation, 18(8/9), 541-553.  potashnik, m., adkins, d.  1996.  cost analysis of information technology projects in education: experiences from developing countries.  education and technology series, 1(3), 1-21. primrose, p.l. 1992.   is anything really wrong with cost management?  journal of cost management, spring, 48-57. rajan, m.a.s. 2002.  narrowing the digital divide in rural areas.  the hindo business line internet edition.  8 february.  available at http://www.blonnet.com/2002/02/08/stories/2002020800480900.htm robinson, m.a. 1990.  contribution margin analysis: no longer relevant/strategic cost management: the new paradigm.  journal of management and cost accounting research, 2, 1-32. tissue, b.m.  1997.  the cost of incorporating information technology in education.  summer on-line conference on chemical education.  available at http://www.chem.vt.edu/archive/chemconf97/paper04.html truc, m.l. 2003 (chair).  panel discussion on globalization and wto: ict , trade and  competitiveness.  asian forum on information and communication technology policies and e-strategies.  kuala lumpur. tse, m.  2001.  voip in africa.  corporate africa, 22(1), 43-45. van maanen, h., berghout, e. 2002.  cost management of it beyond cost of ownership models: a state of the art overview of the dutch financial services industry.  evaluation and program planning, 25, 167-173. van wyk, r.j. 2004. report to the education committee: international association for management of technology (iamot).  available at http://www.iamot.org/ verzola, r. 2002.  low cost strategies for developing countries.  available at  http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/solaris/2002-april/001137.html wall, t.  2000.  ecosoc 2000 – high level segment – information technology for the world.  available at http://www.un.org/esa/coordination/ecosoc/itforum/expert.htm [1] financial management is about analysis of needs, acquisition of funds and effective and efficient deployment of funds.  financial accounting entails bookkeeping and reporting on past financial events.  cost accounting deals with the collection, allocation and control of cost of production; and management and cost accounting entails collecting information for internal financial planning and control for effective financial decision making.   [2] the life cycle view of cost arranges costs according to the time they are incurred.  some costs appear early in the product life cycle (r&d) and some are incurred many years later (disposal & environmental costs). this time-based view allows organizations to not only focus on today’s costs but also on future costs committed by today’s decisions. it also encourages a long-term view of costs that considers both a producer’s as well as a customer’s life cycle costs.   [3] meta was taken over by gartner in the first semester of 2005.   [4] double entry bookkeeping brings an extra layer of control into the bookkeeping process and guarantees accurate profit and loss accounting in complex organizations.  single entry systems do not track asset and liability accounts; they facilitate calculation of income, but not of financial position, and may allow errors to go undetected.     the modal nature of ict: challenging historical interpretation of the social understanding and appropriation of ict  marcus leaning trinity college < m.leaning@trinity-cm.ac.uk >   abstract this paper proposes a sociological model for understanding the social appropriation of information and communications technology (ict). it is argued that the relationship between a media form and the society in which it is deployed is of key import in understanding how media is used. an account is given of the way in which the power of ict to affect society has been understood. it is argued that positions within this debate are deeply tied to western cultural beliefs and values. an alternate model of technology is proposed. in this model ict is regarded as ‘modal’ in operation, that is, it may operate differently in different situations.   introduction information and communication technologies (icts) have been widely understood to bring about social change. for example, icts have been thought to: invigorate economic systems (gates, 2000), empower citizens (gore, 1994) and even contribute to social and psychological well-being (cole, et al., 2001). this article advocates a slightly different position; that the ability of a media or technology, such as ict, to bring about change is tied very much to the social form of the society in which it is deployed. the manner in which a technology is used, its “local” appropriation, is argued to be more closely linked to the social organisation of the society in which the technology is deployed than any essential qualities the technology itself is understood to possess.  this argument was, of course, initially set forth by raymond williams (1974). moreover, it has received a partial re-articulation by a number of academics in recent years, (slevin, 2000; miller & slater, 2000; selwyn & gorrard, 2002) but has seemingly lost out to the neo-mcluhanite approaches advocated by numerous techno-optimists (bolter, 2002).  the emergence of community informatics as an academic discipline presents an opportunity to re-engage with the social side of ict. indeed as selwyn and gorrard contend “there is clearly a pressing need to step beyond the limitations of previous analyses of ict if we are to gain a deeper understanding… we need to be aware of the social, cultural, political, economic and technological aspects of ict–the ‘soft’ as well as the ‘hard’ concerns” (p. 6).  as harris (2002) and taylor (2004) both indicate, social informatics is a discipline that requires focus to be placed not upon the rarefied use of ict but upon their use in social situations. in such situations, the “dominant referent discipline” (as harris suggests), moves from economics and marketing to social science. this shift to a social scientific, if not a sociological, critical idiom incorporates an implicit re-emphasis upon social factors in the understanding of the use of ict. much early literature on the subject of the social use of ict incorporated a sense of “technological utopianism”. ict was understood as a means by which desirable values, understood to have been lost in recent times, could be restored. rheingold (1993), for example, utilising an instrumentalist conception of technology usage, proposed, “one of the explanations for the virtual community phenomenon is the hunger for community that grows in the breasts of people around the world as more and more informal public spaces disappear from our real lives” (p. 6). similarly schuler (1996), with a more technological determinist approach, contended that virtual communities “can—in concert with other efforts—play a positive role in rebuilding community by strengthening…. core values” (p. 34). the emphasis here has been very much along liberal progressive lines and perhaps narrow conceptualisations of communities, core values and “positive” roles. such opinions can be seen as examples of a belief in the power of ict to provide a “technological fix” (selwyn & gorrard, 2002)—the ability of technology to solve complex social problems. leaning (2004) argues that such an interpretation of ict arises as ict has primarily been studied in societies in where such beliefs are the common currency. ict is imbued with a potency to restore liberal values as it has primarily been studied in societies where such values are desirable and perceived as being threatened. this argument resonates strongly with the views of downing (1996), who argues for the study of ict (along with other media forms) outside of the traditional laboratories of western europe, north america and oceana. this article continues this line of argument. it is asserted that ict’s potency to cause change is closely tied to the society in which it is deployed and, furthermore, attention should be placed upon both the technology and the society equally. as miller and slater (2000, p. 11) argue, “if you want to get to the internet, don’t start from there”.  however, the relationship of ict to social form has as yet to be fully explored. this article is concerned with sketching a sociological model by which the relationship of icts to society may be understood. this proposal consists of two arguments. the first is that current understandings of the way in which technology is used, appropriated and affects society derive from the experience of technological development and the philosophic interpretation of this experience in western societies. in many instances it is the west’s experience of technology that has shaped and informed the general cultural interpretation of how technology can and should be deployed and used. regarding the west’s experience as universal is problematic for, as hård and jamison (1998) propose, cultural tradition plays a considerable part in conceptions of technology and technological power. what is required is recognition that current interpretations of the power of ict are deeply and historically situated within a western cultural milieu. the intricacies of this interpretation need to be foregrounded and examined.  secondly, an alternate model of how technology may operate in relation to society is needed.  while the current model of ict power is intricately bound up with a western interpretation, it must be acknowledged that technology and social form do exist in a close relationship. what is needed, therefore, is a model of technology that does not “close off” non-western cultural interpretations of technology. this model regards technology not as in some way an external force affecting society, but as a phenomenon constructed, appropriated and understood by society. the model conceptualises technology not as a fixed external, eternal aspect of the social world but instead as a part of the social world. accordingly, ict should be regarded as something operating and existing in a plurality of forms. technology needs to be understood as something that may interact with society in various ways. it is proposed here that ict be understood as being “modal”—something that may be used in a particular way in one society but in a different way in another. technology possesses no quality that necessitates its particular form of use or societal level consequence.   the understanding of ict’s relationship to society underpinning discussions of technology, such as contemporary discourse surrounding icts, are deeply felt, but often unarticulated, assumptions of how technology and people interact. the relationship between technology and society, particularly in discussions concerning new technologies, is often assumed to be of a simple deterministic nature; the introduction of new technology causes social change. however there are slight, historically situated, variations to this model. in proposing a philosophical-anthropological orientation to the study of technology, feenberg (1999) contends that within modern discourse the relationship of technology with society has been conceived of in a number of different ways. using a broadly kuhnian (kuhn, 1962) approach, feenberg argues that discourses of technological understanding, like scientific paradigms, emerge from “local” historical conceptions, and are interwoven with political and social projects. he asserts that the development of such an analysis is key to grasping a sense of technology’s significance, asking “how can one study specific technologies without a theory of the larger society in which they develop?” (feenberg, 2003). the categories feenberg identifies, instrumentalism, determinism and substantivism, thus may offer a richer and more detailed account of the beliefs underpinning accounts of technology, and consequently ict.   instrumentalism feenberg states that the classical disciplines of the humanities exclude science and technology. it is only since the emergence of the discourses of modernity that accounts of technology have become more central. however, as winner (1987) notes, such views of technology were largely instrumental, as technology was often subsumed under the rubric of “economics” or “politics”. this account of technology persists today, for, as winner (1987, p. 2) states, there is still an open “tendency … to see the matter solely in terms of economics and economic history”.  in addition to the relegation of technology to a position subordinate to economics or politics, instrumental accounts of technology tend to centre on certain unchallenged assumptions. winner (pp. 25-27) states that: “in the conventional perspective… technical means are by their nature mere tools subject to the will of whomever employs them.… technology is essentially neutral. in the conventional way of thinking, the moral context appropriate to technical matters is clear. technology is nothing more than a tool.” the instrumental understanding of technology holds that technology is “essentially neutral” and subservient. the idea of the neutrality of technology presupposes an established position of objective truth, one that has been discerned through scientific investigation. according to this idea, technological artefacts are different from cultural artefacts in that they are purely means-oriented, a position arising out of a view of technology as essentially progressive. furthermore, in instrumental thought, as feenberg (2003, p. 3) notes, technology “appears as purely instrumental, as value-free. it does not respond to inherent purposes, but is merely a means of serving subjective goals we choose as we wish”. instrumentalist readings of technology still circulate widely within the more scientific disciplines and have proven quite influential in more positivist approaches to the study of communication (see for example weaver and shannon, 1963).   determinism along with the instrumental reading of technology, a second and persistent understanding of technology is evident within the discourses of modernity. broadly referred to as determinist, this category has as its mainstay a belief in the potential of technology to bring about social change on a macro or societal level. technological determinism has proven a strong and persistent strand of thought in understanding the role of technology within modern western thought even though it seems rarely to be explicitly stated. marx and smith (1996, pp. ix-xv)  contend: “a sense of technology’s power as a crucial agent of change has a prominent place in the culture of modernity. it belongs to the body of widely shared tacit knowledge that is more likely to be acquired by direct experience than by the transmittal of explicit ideas”. similarly, bimber proposes: “technological determinism seems to lurk in the shadows of many explanations of the role of technology” (1996, p. 80). with regards to a general description of technological determinism, heilbroner summarises the argument as follows: “machines make history by changing the material conditions of human existence. it is largely machines… that define what it is to live in a certain epoch” (1996, p. 69).  feenberg contends that such a trend emerged out of notions of progressivism within the enlightenment and, more specifically, an engagement with the progressivism of marx and even darwin (2003, pp. 1-2). in post-enlightenment european society, progress came to be broadly equated with an acknowledgement of technology’s power; “progressivism had become technological determinism” (feenberg, pp. 1-2). this form of understanding has proven highly persistent and popular. it continues to manifest itself in numerous formats. for example, one particular and contemporary understanding equates the deployment of technology with improved social conditions. a number of populist accounts, for example kawamoto (2003), regard the deployment of ict as a necessary precursor to the development of a “knowledge economy” or “information society”. several national governments have sought a rapid deployment of technology in pursuit of economic and social development. for example, in a statement by the welsh assembly detailing its information and communication strategy it is contended that: “many of us are now using computers, mobile phones and the internet…these technologies have the potential to transform society and the economy in wales; they are already doing so in many parts of the world. the choices we make now—about which new technologies we use and, more importantly, how we use them—are crucial to the future of wales and will help us to create a better wales!” (welsh assembly government, 2003). similarly, the malaysian government has instigated, and to a degree acted upon, plans to “leapfrog into the information age”, developing a “multimedia super-corridor”, a region of technological development incorporating purpose-built cities and a university all underpinned by highly developed technological infrastructure (multimedia development corporation, 2000).   substantivism a range of attitudes broadly termed substantivist challenge the determinist belief in the neutrality and truth-revealing nature of technology (feenberg, 2003, p. 2). as instrumentalism and determinism are understood to have emerged from empiricist and positivist tendencies within enlightenment thought, substantivism is understood to have arisen from the distrust of technology and the reassertion of the “natural” found within romanticist discourse. similar to determinist discourse, substantivists contend that technology can directly intersect with and modify social life. however, substantivism avoids the utopian and optimistic tendencies that characterise determinist accounts and instead maintains deep reservations about technology. technology is understood to, inherently, subjugate the user to systems not initially declared in the operation of the technology. such a belief reaches its most eloquent form in heidegger’s the question concerning technology (1954). heidegger proposes that technology is far from the neutral or simply goal-oriented system determinists or instrumentalists would claim. rather: “we are delivered over to it in the worst possible way when we regard it as something neutral; for this conception of it, to which today we particularly like to do homage, makes us utterly blind to the essence of technology” (p. 4). technology contains an “essence”: heidegger envisages that technology is not about achieving goals but about revealing or bringing forth the use of a resource. however, “modern technology is fundamentally different from what heidegger regards as ancient technology. the form of revealing is primarily different because of the physics-based nature of modern technology that allows for the ordering of a “standing reserve” at the behest of humans. this is opposed to the fundamental primacy of natural forces in old technology. however, heidegger regards modern technology as inherently insidious, as humans do not control this; humans form part of the system of standing reserve. humans are “enframed” by technology and technological systems and lose their freedom through their incorporation into technological systems. while heidegger offers a radical reading of technology it lacks a sociologically “critical” aspect in that “fault” is understood to lie with modern technology as an entity as opposed to the more critical conflicts and power relations that underpin modernity. substantivist thought also incorporates a spectrum of opinion that links the subjectifying nature of technology with specific political projects—a radicalising and politicising of romantic thought. technology is conceptualised as inherently political, winner contends: “at issue is the claim that machines, structures, and systems of modern material culture can be accurately judged not only for their contributions of efficiency and productivity, not merely for their positive and negative side effects, but also for the ways in which they can embody specific forms of power and authority” (1996, p. 28). at the core of such claims lies a different conceptualisation of the nature and understanding of the origin of technological artefacts to that of the instrumentalists and the determinists. here, in an engagement with kuhnian theory, substantivism explicitly challenges the notion that technology is a truth-revealing (or revealed) phenomenon; on the contrary, technology arises from, and is broadly shaped by, society. substantivists argue that technology cannot be distinctly discerned from other forms of cultural production and, as with all forms of cultural production, technology is inherently stained by the situation of its material and economic production. substantivism offers a theory not only of the effects of technology upon society, but also of the effects of society upon technology. qvortrup opines that new technology “cannot be properly understood if we persist in treating technology and society as two independent entities” (1984, p. 7). technology needs to be understood as a component of society. consequently, and most importantly, technology is in essence determined by the society in which it originates. it is an artefact of a civilisation and not “a progressive quest towards truth”. technology is not the neutral artefact presumed by instrumentalists and determinists. for a substantivist, technology is inherently compromised by its site of production. as marcuse proposes: “specific purposes and interests of domination are not foisted upon technology ‘subsequently’ and from the outside; they enter the very construction of the technical apparatus. technology is always a historical-social project: in it is projected what a society and its ruling interests intend to do with men and things. such a ‘purpose’ of domination is ‘substantive’ and to this extent belongs to the very form of technical reason” (italics in original, 1968, p. 224). it is in this critical and dystopian dimension, where technology contains the insidious “will” of its situation of manufacture, and where substantivist accounts are distinguished from the utopian progressive accounts of technology proffered by determinists. technology is inherently a problematic system of control for substantivists, a form of instantiated power. contrasted with the instrumental and determinist interpretations of technology, substantivism offers a highly pessimistic and critical reading of the further integration of social functions within systems of technology. the above-noted multiple forms of understanding of technology’s interaction with society constitute the general range of opinion on the topic. while the range of views examined is not exhaustive of the entire body of thought within the field, the beliefs and opinions cited can be considered to be representative of the general prevailing ideas in circulation and they can be seen to set out the parameters of the debate.   the alternate model: ict as modal in examining the deep cultural and historical origin of the arguments surrounding technology, the very nature of the way in which technology, and consequently icts, are conceptualised is questioned. as technology may be interpreted in differing ways, a conceptual model of technology and ict that allows for multiple interpretations is needed. in light of this, it is proposed that icts be regarded as contingent or modal forms of communication. it should be noted that this use of the terms “mode”, “modal” and “modality” is distinct from a number of other uses of the terms in media and communications theory. rather than arguing that icts are a mode or form of communication or cultural transmission—it is proposed that the icts have modal quality in relation to their use, that they have different modes of use. as with thompson (1990, pp. 216-264), it is argued that media, such as icts, are socially contingent means of communicating information and, following kress and van leeuwen (2001), that the internet itself is a mode of communication, or as slevin (2000) proposes, that it is to be seen as a modality of cultural transmission. therefore, the use of the term here is different. modal refers to the multiple ways in which icts may be read, understood and used. although icts may function in certain ways in some societies, they may not function in that way in all societies. icts may cause change and, as has been noted by numerous previous researchers, may bring about new ways of acting. however, we are contending that they may not do so in the same way in all societies, with the ability of technology to cause change being deeply linked to other aspects of social life. ict, thus, is not understood as an asocial channel that passes information, regardless of the environment in which it is used. instead it needs to be understood as deeply linked to the social systems and contexts in which it is used—ict use depends upon the social environment. it is therefore proposed that, methodologically, icts be conceptualised in the following way: icts are a modal form of media and their use and appropriation may vary according to the environment in which they are used. therefore, to examine icts, attention should be focused upon the interdependence of social systems, media technology and form of action studied. like all technology, icts are not outside of society, they are interpreted, appropriated and used within social frameworks. consequently there can be no single interpretation of the outcome of their use—they will not have the same effect in all places and at all times. we must, therefore, understand their use as deeply linked to the society in question.   adopting such a position involves stepping back from the direct acceptance of our view of technology or of our interpretation of what technology can do. it challenges the idea that either technology or society should be considered as a priori in conception. the focus of attention shifts from a focus upon the implicit potency of a technology to an analysis of how a society makes use of the technology. as noted above, it affords an opportunity to develop a social account of the use of ict, an approach that integrates the potency of ict within a social or sociological account of action. it is argued that the discipline of community informatics is well suited to, and will benefit from, developing a critical idiom that can examine the technological and sociological in concert rather than as discrete and distinct elements.   references bimber, b. 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(1994). the global information infrastructure: forging a new athenian age of democracy. intermedia, 22 (2), 4-7. harris, r. (2002). research partnerships to support rural communities in malaysia with information and communication technologies. in j. lazar (ed.), managing it/community partnerships in the 21st century (pp. 222-247). hershey, pa: idea group publishing. hård, m. & jamison, a. (1998). conceptual framework: technology debates as appropriation processes. in m. hård  & a. jamison (eds.), the intellectual appropriation of technology: discourses on modernity, 1900-1930 (pp. 1-15). cambridge, ma: mit press. heidegger, m. (1954) [1977]. the question concerning technology. in w. lovitt, the question concerning technology and other essays (pp. 3-35). new york: harper torchbooks. heilbroner, r. (1996). technological determinism revisited. in m. r. smith & l. marx (eds.), does technology drive history? the dilemma of technological determinism (pp. 58-78).  cambridge, ma: mit press.. kawamoto. k. (2002). media and society in the digital age. boston, ma: pearson. kress, g., & van leeuwen, t. (2001). multimodal discourse: the modes and media of contemporary communication. oxford: oxford university press. kuhn, t, (1962). the structure of scientific revolutions. chicago: chicago university press. leaning, m. (2004). contributions to a sociology of the internet: a case study of the use of the internet in the republic of croatia in the 1990s. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of luton. marcuse, h. (1968). negations. (j. shapiro, trans.). london: penguin press. marx, l., & smith, m, (1996). introduction. in m. r. smith & l. marx (eds.), does technology drive history? the dilemma of technological determinism (pp. i-xxi).  cambridge, ma: mit press. miller, d., & slater, d. (2000). the internet: an ethnographic approach.  london: berg. multimedia development corporation. (2000). about msc–overview. retrieved october 16, 2005, from http://www.msc.com.my/msc/msc.asp. qvortrup, l. (1984). the social significance of telematics: an essay on the information society (p. edmonds, trans.). philadelphia: john benjamins. rheingold, h. (1993). the virtual community: homesteading on the electronic frontier. reading, ma: wesley publishing. schuler, d. (1996). new community networks: wired for change. new york: acm press. selwyn, n., & s. gorard. (2002). the information age: technology, learning and exclusion in wales. cardiff: university of wales press. slevin, j. (2000). the internet and society. cambridge: polity press. taylor, w. (2004). social appropriation of internet technology: a south african platform. the journal of community informatics, 1(1), 21-29. thompson, j. (1990). ideology and modern culture. cambridge: polity press. weaver, w., & shannon, c. (1963). the mathematical theory of communication. illinois: university of illinois press. welsh assembly government. (undated). online for a better wales. retrieved july 12, 2003, from http://www.cymruarlein.wales.gov.uk. williams, r. (1974). television: technology and cultural form. london: routledge. winner, l. (1987). autonomous technology: technics-out-of-control as a theme in political thought. cambridge, ma: mit press. winner, l. (1996). do artefacts have politics? in d. mackenzie & j. wacjcman (eds.). the social shaping of technology (pp. 26-39). buckingham: open university press. introduction to the special issue: the first mile of broadband connectivity in communities rob mcmahon1, duncan philpot2, susan o'donnell3, brian beaton4, tim whiteduck5, kevin burton6, michael gurstein7 postdoctoral fellow, department of sociology, university of new brunswick, canada. phd candidate, department of sociology, university of new brunswick, canada. researcher and adjunct professor, department of sociology, university of new brunswick, canada. graduate student, faculty of education, university of new brunswick, canada. director of technology, first nations education council, canada. director, atlantic canada's first nation help desk, canada. executive director, centre for community informatics research, development and training, canada. in this special issue, "first mile" refers to broadband infrastructure development that puts the needs of local communities first and ahead of the needs of private sector telecommunication corporations. this approach is one that prioritizes community-led solutions that seek to create local economic and social opportunities and to minimize the digital divide between rural and urban users (see: mcmahon, o'donnell, smith, walmark, beaton, & simmons, 2011). around the world, broadband infrastructure and networks are rapidly being developed in communities marginalized in the network society. the relationships, structures and agreements put into place at this early development stage will shape how broadband systems are created and managed in the future. first mile strategies include developing locally owned and managed telecommunication structures and networks. this special issue profiles first mile projects and efforts that are as innovative, unique and vibrant as the communities from which they emerge. further, this issue highlights some of the challenges facing first mile initiatives. several contributions in this issue deal with canadian cases and others with remote and rural contexts around the world. the term "first mile" contrasts with the telecommunications industry's term "last mile". the latter term refers to an approach where infrastructure development for remote and rural communities and expenditures on connecting many remote and rural populations to national and regional broadband networks is a "last" priority (paisley and richardson, 1998). telecom service providers typically cite the lack of a "business case" (i.e. the profitable implementation of the service) as the reason for not building infrastructure in what they and regulators call "high cost service areas" a phrase that neatly characterizes the highly commercial nature of the telecommunications industry. notions of the "last mile" focus on profit rather than community needs results in rural communities and particularly remote communities being connected much later than urban areas. the experience of many remote and rural first nations (indigenous communities) in canada is that corporate telecommunications providers deliver the minimum level of service at the maximum price possible and only if public resources are available for access and construction. this for-profit process shapes how infrastructures are prioritized, developed, and maintained in communities; negative impacts include lack of service or poor service in addition to the high costs and the abandonment of services when public resources are no longer available for subsidies. another negative impact of the top-down, commercially-driven model is that the employment created by serving rural and remote communities with broadband is retained within the distanced telecommunications companies, rather than in local communities. challenging this "last mile" approach to telecom development, first mile locally owned and operated broadband systems can create local and regional economic, social, and employment opportunities. local needs and capacity for connectivity thus become the most important considerations for designing broadband networks. these types of projects appear in various forms: in the work of the united nations food and agriculture organization (unfao), in projects undertaken in u.s. states like new mexico, and in canada by rural remote first nation and inuit communities as well as cities and towns in peripheral regions. many first mile projects emerge from conditions of scarcity. in the canadian aboriginal context, first mile broadband infrastructure reflects the principles of community ownership, control, access and possession, or ocap (see: http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/mod/resource/view.php?id=4012). first mile projects involve two distinct but linked definitions of 'broadband.' first, broadband is an infrastructure composed of satellite, wireless transmitters, fibre or cable networks that interconnects homes, services, businesses and organizations, both inside a community and with the wider world. when controlled by local organizations, the infrastructure can be developed strategically to meet current and future local needs. second, broadband supports local organizations to deliver various community services, like health, education, economic development, justice, governance and policing. a local organization that owns and operates a network may decide to develop a local telephone service using ip (internet protocol) telephones, or even a local cellular telephone network. the first mile project, administered by the first nations innovation research initiative, is gathering information about these kinds of applications (see http://firstmile.ca). figure 1: two complementary descriptions of first mile broadband a first mile vision is holistic and focuses on a whole community. in communities with limited resources or small populations, this entails removing the silos separating different organizations and individual users. in small communities, silos create inefficiencies, unnecessary complexity, and challenging lateral communication environments. first mile projects aim for a simple, easy to operate broadband system that supports practical, efficient, cooperative and collaborative sharing of local resources. despite their diversity, first mile initiatives commonly aim to reduce the relations of dependency associated with traditional corporate broadband systems development. they encourage local ownership and control of infrastructure rather than reliance on external service providers. several nation-states recognize their citizens' right to broadband (e.g. finland and estonia). more commonly, government support remains fragmented and uneven across the globe, particularly in sparsely populated and expensive-to-serve rural and remote regions. first mile development initiatives introduce broadband opportunities in communities and regions that would otherwise be ignored by the private sector telecom service providers. policies and funding programs generated in urban, centralized institutions often ignore the requirements and capacities of people living in the so-called 'periphery'. for example, remote and rural first nations in canada are undertaking first mile projects because of necessity; otherwise, they would be left unserved. for these indigenous communities, the overall choice is ongoing colonialism, paternalistic government policies, foreign corporate ownership and control, an absence of context specific broadband policies, and a lack of required infrastructure; pr supporting in the telecom sector the ongoing struggle of de-colonialization to secure self-determination, continued community resilience, local capacity development, innovation, and creativity. groups using first mile initiatives work with local users to explore ways to build on their already-existing capacities, expanding and creating applications that address local and regional needs and priorities. these initiatives recognize that these groups will develop infrastructure and associated applications in ways that reflect their unique contexts. they share examples of demonstration initiatives, challenges, risks, and best practices with others. first mile projects posit that if local infrastructure is developed "first" and user groups are involved in its planning and operations, the resulting infrastructure and applications are more sustainable and better support community needs. neighbouring remote and rural communities benefit as these broadband infrastructures and human resources are developed and supported throughout the served region. pricing and human capacity is determined by local champions who understand both the people and the communities being served. construction strategies are practical and appropriate for the environment, addressing local and regional realities, while utilizing local knowledge and expertise. locally controlled first mile development and construction benefits the communities by providing local employment and economic benefits. first mile development provides a model for broadband infrastructure and network operations that counters the traditional corporate approach of building from the centre outwards. too often the centralized construction and development approach has left remote and rural communities unserved or underserved. too many examples exist where public funding is provided to deliver services in rural and remote regions, only to see telecom providers using these resources to develop their central network and infrastructure, resulting in some communities being left without the anticipated broadband service before the funds are depleted. first mile development policies and processes provide an alternative innovative approach to inform policy and funding initiatives to leverage these infrastructures to create economic and social opportunities in communities and regions that have been left out in the past. governments and leaders now have the opportunity to create real changes in these environments by supporting the first mile model. it is clear that communities need more resources, capacity, and support to actively engage with processes of decision-making, development, and ongoing operations and maintenance of these networks. first mile projects are not autonomous; they require public and private sector partners in order to be realized. they are only possible through relationships with government and private partners who contribute funding and technical resources in collaboration with community partners who contribute local know-how and capacity. working together, these partners demonstrate how collective needs and values can be integrated in the design and use of socio-technical infrastructures. in this sense, they reflect the normative considerations of community informatics (ci), which encourages the development and effective use of ict according to collaboratively identified goals. ideally, the process of forming and maintaining first mile partnerships will reflect participatory democratic values. opening a dialogue with local users and community partners, network funders, builders, and operators creates an environment that may more effectively use the variety of funding and other resources. to this end first mile projects encourage community participation in all stages of design, planning, implementation, and use. broadband-enabled tools like crowd-sourced data, community mapping, digital media and open-source websites may also contribute to these development processes as well as providing among content, applications, and infrastructure development and use. the first mile implies that local users have a right to own and control local infrastructure. by retaining the capacity and resources needed to effectively manage networks and the content, traffic and services that flow through them users contribute to the ongoing sustainability of these networks. this also supports an active, productive role for constituent users. it foregrounds that being connected is not enough: what, how, and why we connect matters. these are some of the considerations taken up in the first mile initiatives discussed in this issue of the journal of community informatics. two contributions discuss theory and policy issues related to access to the internet. richard lowenberg's vision statement discusses the benefits of a first mile approach to community broadband infrastructure. michael karanicolas discusses access to internet as a human right and the need to service underserved communities in order to fulfil this commitment. a number of contributions focus on first mile research projects undertaken with and by remote and rural first nations and inuit communities in ontario and quebec, canada. this special issue was supported and led by researchers and community research partners and associates involved in the first nations innovation project (http://fn-innovation-pn.com) and first mile project (http://firstmile.ca) , both supported by the social sciences and humanities research council of canada. authors affiliated with these projects include rob mcmahon, susan o'donnell, duncan philpot, brian beaton, tim whiteduck, anita tenasco, gilbert whiteduck, emily lockhart, crystal kakekaspan, brian walmark, kerri gibson, thomassie mangiok, heather hudson, lyle fabian, peter campbell and matthew kakekaspan. their contributions include exploring the discourse framing the relationship between the canadian government and first nations in northern ontario and the first mile and e-community activities in the keewaytinook okimakanak communities, including remote fort severn first nation on hudson bay. in quebec, two contributions explore how community members of the kitigan zibi first nation have developed ict to enhance education, health, and policing capacities, and the situation of home use of ict in the community and its links to educational development. research in the northern quebec inuit territory of nunavik highlights how the village of ivujivik is using first mile concepts to enhance their capacities. several contributions focus on other cases of broadband development in canada outside of a first nations context. nadine kozak explores the process of extending the service area of the alberta supernet into previously unserved areas in alberta. allan bly also focuses on the alberta region and outlines some of the challenges faced by rural municipalities in developing rural communication networks. mike richard and duncan philpot explore how a municipal fibre service run by the city of fredericton, new brunswick is providing internet as a free public utility. contributions from outside canada include authors writing about first mile initiatives in africa, belarus, cambodia, norway, and the united states. gertjan van stam and darelle van greunen explore broadband development initiatives and roadblocks in the african context. bill dutton and aljona zorina's story about alternative internet infrastructure development in belarus illustrates how local, user-driven solutions can help address digital divides and social exclusions. helena grunfeld's article explores the ireach program's role in enhancing use and expansion of sustainable community-led development in cambodia which use agro-ecological techniques. jenifer sunrise winter and richard buente report on their research on broadband developments for rural hawaiian communities. the contribution from ingjerd skogseid, ivar petter grøtte, and geir liavåg strand contributes to the development of a staged model for infrastructure development, based on their exploration of how local stakeholders have initiated and sustained the development of broadband access in rural and remote areas of norway. together, this special edition of joci presents governments and communities around the world with another option for the development of broadband infrastructure and associated ict applications. first mile developments support local and regional needs and priorities rather than the needs of far-away corporate entities. we hope you enjoy these articles and consider sharing your local broadband development stories in other community informatics environments. references mcmahon, r., o'donnell, s., smith, r., walmark, b., beaton, b. & simmonds, j. (2011). digital divides and the 'first mile': framing first nations broadband development in canada. the international indigenous policy journal, 2(2). available at: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/iipj/vol2/iss2/2/ paisley, l. & richardson, d. (1998). the first mile of connectivity: advancing telecommunications for rural development through a participatory communication approach. communication for development. rome: food and agriculture organization of the united nations (fao). available at: http://www.fao.org/docrep/x0295e/x0295e03.htm   a role for universities in sustaing regional ict initiatives? exploring the case of the university of ballarat   helen c. thompson university of ballarat < h.thompson@ballarat.edu.au >     abstract   this paper discusses the important support role that universities can play in the establishment and ongoing sustainability of regional information and communication technology (ict) initiatives. three case studies are presented to explore the uptake of ict in a regional and rural context. a common element in each of these initiatives is the active participation of the university of ballarat throughout all project phases. the resultant combination of on-the-ground leadership, infrastructure, collaboration and multi-disciplinary research has not only created benefits for the individual communities but also through the generation of consultancy income, publications and community engagement of a type which is highly consistent with the university’s vision and mission.     introduction   at the highest level of engagement, universities connect in a strategic, whole-of-institution way by providing an on-the-ground package of leadership, infrastructure, collaboration and multi-disciplinary research and teaching targeted at areas of regionally identified economic development priority that are consistent with campus priorities. (garlick 2000, p.xiii)   information communications technology (ict) has been identified as a key enabler in the achievement of regional and rural success, particularly in terms of economic and business development. the potential for achieving equity of service through improved communications infrastructure and enhanced access to government, health, education and other services has been identified (information policy advisory council, 1997). ict has also been linked to the aspiration of community empowerment where dimensions include revitalising a sense of community, building regional capacity, enhancing democracy and increasing social capital (o'neil, 2002).   a raft of government policies and programs has been launched and reports published and disseminated, based around the theme of ict and online capabilities. these are supported by the view that success today is based less and less on natural resource wealth, labour costs and relative exchange rates and more and more on individual knowledge, skills and innovation. but how can regional communities ‘grab their share of this wealth’ and use it to strengthen local communities (simpson, 1999, p. 6)? should communities be moving, as porter (2001, p. 18) recommends (for business), away from the rhetoric about ‘internet industries’, ‘e-business strategies’ and the ‘new economy’ to see the internet for what it is ‘an enabling technology a powerful set of tools that can be used, wisely or unwisely, in almost any industry and as part of almost any strategy’?   consistent with reflections on international industry experience, there is now a greater emphasis on identifying locally appropriate initiatives, exploring opportunities for improving existing communication and service quality and for using the internet and ict to support more efficient community processes and relationships.   this paper explores the potential role that universities can play in establishing and sustaining regional information and communication technology (ict) initiatives. the case of the university of ballarat (uob) and its centre for electronic commerce and communications (cecc) is used to illustrate how one regionally based university has established long-term partnerships to support growth in the uptake and the more effective utilisation of ict. the author, who manages cecc, then presents three client cases to explore the engagement approach which has been adopted to grow the uptake of ict in a regional and rural context.   university region engagement   for universities and regional communities, the competitive economic development benefits from engagement revolve around the creation of human capital, social capital and the realisation of employment, investment and income generating economic development priorities within a knowledge creation and transfer framework. (garlick, 2000, p.4)   the university of ballarat is a distinctive, dual-sector regional institution pre-eminently serving the australian communities of the central highlands and wimmera regions of victoria. regional engagement is enshrined in the mission and strategic priorities of university with the overarching vision of being a regional university of international standing, highly regarded by the communities it serves. while university engagement with regional communities is not a new subject the prospect has become increasingly attractive for both universities and regions with identified benefits going far beyond those traditionally seen as possible (garlick, 2000). the challenge however is for universities to effectively support centres and researchers in actively engaging with regional communities to address community-identified needs, problems and issues and through engagement to generate and apply knowledge that promotes economic, environmental and social prosperity (institute for regional and rural research, 2003).   at the university of ballarat, the establishment of the institute for regional and rural research and its four designated research centres during 2002 has been one strategy towards achieving increased university-region engagement. modifications to reward and recognition systems have also been implemented with community engagement now an explicit component of the school funding model and a performance indicator which academics must report against when seeking promotion.   the identification of key focus areas also assists schools and centres in achieving alignment between their activities and the strategic priorities and mission of the university. one such focus is to provide leadership for the uptake of ict in industries, local government and within and among regional groups (university of ballarat, 2002).   the school of business and its centre for electronic commerce and communications (cecc) contribute to this objective by promoting the advancement of ict, particularly in its practical application in regional and rural australia. since being established in 1998 cecc has built extensive partnerships within and beyond the university region through the development and implementation a range of projects utilising information and communication technologies. the applied nature of cecc activities has generated mutually beneficial outcomes for participant communities and the university with new opportunities for collaboration emerging through engagement activities directed towards the achievement of regionally identified priorities.   through the implementation of a $409,000 federal government networking the nation (ntn) funded regional portal project (www.mainstreet.net.au) during the period between 1999 and 2001, cecc gained an enhanced understanding of regional ict needs. cecc also established significant capabilities in developing, replicating and customising online services capable of meeting the specific needs of regional communities (thompson, 2002). diverse groups and organisations now access services through cecc. these include local governments, town based communities, membership based organisations, industry groups and small and medium enterprises.   table 1 summaries some of the major initiatives where cecc has provided an on-the-ground package of leadership, infrastructure, collaboration, multi-disciplinary research and training targeted towards areas of regionally identified priority. taken as a whole, these activities reflect a high level of community engagement that is very consistent with the strategic priorities of the university.   information about cecc initiatives has been organised using a modified version of a taxonomies of networking framework proposed by denison et al. (2002). this enables activities to be classified according to a number of major categories of network-related activities, which while not exclusive, have been identified as providing a relatively good fit to observed activities in the australian ict scene. initiative outcomes are then specified using five dimensions identified as key aspirations for ict engagement. these dimensions are: enhancing strong democracy; increasing social capital; empowering individuals; revitalising a sense of community; and providing economic development opportunities (denison, hardy et al., 2002).     table 1. outcomes of ict engagement   aspirations for ict engagement initiative enhancing strong democracy increasing social capital empowering individuals revitalising a sense of community providing economic development opportunities collectives of geographically based entities cross-sectoral ballarat – a learning city low high high high medium wendouree west community renewal   high   high   high   high   high rural law online medium medium high low high civic networks – government agency led ararat online med high high high high moorabool online med high high high high pyrenees online low low low low low young australian rural network high high high high high clusters of like organisations – intra-sectional birchip cropping croup low high high high high building better business online low high high medium high central highlands export community low medium medium medium high victorian universities regional research network low high high medium medium individual community organisations central highland acc low low medium low medium regional connectivity project low medium medium medium low regional voice high medium medium low medium     demonstrating university-region engagement   this is the issue of whether the university is only in the regional community or more fundamentally of it. (garlick 2000, p. 10, emphasis in original)   findings from evaluation activities confirm that communities accessing services through cecc are being effectively empowered to mange online initiatives to a greater extent in areas such as:   1.     planning incorporating aspects such as initial research, project design, user input and community consultation.   2.     scoping technical and project management requirements identifying the project stages which can managed locally and those which may need to be outsourced (for example initial development, hosting and ongoing technical support).   3.     evaluation – setting short and long-term project goals; conducting regular reviews; and maximising usage of statistical and other information such as user feedback.   4.     replication – applying similar strategies in new community initiatives and projects.   5.     knowledge – greater understanding of the underlying technologies and human capital requirements for sustaining initiatives.   6.     community engagement – recognition of the benefits of supporting ongoing user involvement, interaction and active stakeholder engagement.   cecc clients demonstrate strong ownership of their initiatives, maintain their own web-based information and are committed to investing annually to maintain the shared infrastructure and services they access through the university of ballarat.   the engagement approach utilised by cecc will be explored further through three client case studies. in the first case the community of wendouree west is utilising web-based services to support place-based renewal activities (a collective of neighbourhood stakeholders). the second case study explores how communities in the moorabool shire are gaining access to web-portal services (government agency led civic network). the third case then reviews an initiative where organisations including the centre for regional innovation and competitiveness, service skills victoria, tourism victoria and local tourism bodies are collaborating to enhance the skills of small and micro tourism operators in the goldfields region of victoria (cluster of like organisations – intra-sectoral).     wendouree west community skills survey   infrastructure for collaboration consists of the pathways by which people and organisations come together to exchange ideas, solve problems or form partnerships – to recognise, value, and leverage their area’s assets for mutual gain. (garlick, 2000, p. 11) the victorian government’s neighbourhood renewal program has been established in a number of victoria’s most disadvantaged neighbourhoods, with the purpose of developing joint government and community-based approaches to address multiple causes of disadvantage. one of the key concerns has been to lift employment, training and education and expand local economies, through the development of community-based employment and education programs.   the progressive rollout of the neighbourhood renewal program commenced during 2001. since that time, the university of ballarat, through cecc and centre for regional innovation and competitiveness (cric), has had a significant role in the development, administration and analysis of the community survey and the community skills survey.   during 2002 cecc was engaged by the department of human services (dhs) to support the wendouree west community in conducting a local skills survey. the aim was not just to actively involve residents in the collection of information on the skills and learning aspirations of residents but also to make sure the results would be both useful and used.   in implementing the project the university of ballarat undertook significant awareness raising and consultation activities to actively engage residents and members of the renewal team during the planning phase of the project. once agreement had been reached on the overall project goals and approach cecc was able to commence development of the ‘community skills survey package’. this included: designing and piloting the survey instrument (for distribution via paper-based and web formats); establishing web-based administration facilities for managing resident responses; hosting the survey infrastructure; and providing ongoing advice and support.   resident volunteers assisting in rollout of the project were provided with training in survey techniques prior to the commencement of the community skills survey during november 2003. further training was provided to members of the renewal team who would be responsible for the initial entry of survey responses and for the ongoing utilisation and management of the web-based facilities.   at the end of the initial survey period a total of 175 completed surveys were returned to the wendouree west community renewal office. a member of the renewal team entered the details of each survey into the web-based system which can be accessed at www.cecc.com.au/communities/wendouree (see figure 1).   figure 1. wendouree west community skills survey website   the dynamic reporting capabilities of the system supported the renewal team and other key stakeholder in reviewing the characteristics of respondent, for example age, gender dispersion, time lived in wendouree west, and the level of telephone access. the full report can be accessed at www.cecc.com.au/communities/wendouree by clicking on the summary report link.   in an initial evaluation undertaken by cecc during january 2004, the skills survey data was combined with australian bureau of statistics (abs) census data to evaluate factors such as participation rate (10.26 percent); age profile (most significant response received from residents aged between 45-64 years); and gender (a high participation rate among female residents was confirmed.   the skills survey information provides opportunities for making better use of existing resources and also identifies new resources that can be used to build on the strengths that already exist in wendouree west. comprehensive information is, for example, now available on the skills, employment and learning aspirations of individual residents with information including those skills they have, could teach or want to learn (see table 2).   table 2. summary information skills: trades and occupations trades and occupations i have i can teach to others i want to learn formal qualification carpentry 17 3 11 0 welding 22 3 10 1 painting 52 3 9 2 electrical 15 1 9 2 appliance repair 16 1 11 1 other 23 2 1 4 plumbing 12 0 11 0 gardening 67 6 7 0 truck or bus driving 20 0 10 1 office work 27 2 14 4 retail 42 4 4 4 mechanic 20 5 9 3 professional 9 0 8 4 cleaning/maintenance 70 10 3 4     residents described the types of connections they have within the community and indicated areas where they wanted further information or to become involved (see table 3).   table 3. summary information connections: community groups community groups count i am already involved 31 i would like to be involved 10 i would like more information 27 i do not wish to be involved 26   residents also indicated whether they were willing to become more actively involved in the community (see table 4) and/or share their skills with others.   table 4. summary information commitments: own community commitment no of people meet with and get to know my neighbours and/or others in my street or community 35 help with community clean-ups 34 look out for/care for others in my community 32 help with neighbourhood watch 32 become a leader 18 be happily 'led' by others 26   through its partnership with the university of ballarat the wendouree west community has secured appropriate infrastructure to support the community in recognising, valuing and levering its area’s assets to address issues of local priority. this has more effectively supported the development and implementation of community driven strategies to boost employment, education, training, and enterprise development. early benefits have included:   1.     the identification of new skills and resources which can be mobilised in areas such as volunteering and community participation.   2.     the creation of opportunities to actively engage key stakeholder organisations such as job network providers, services groups and learning providers.   3.     the development and implementation of strategies to extend community involvement in the skills survey beyond the initial levels achieved.   skills survey information has been utilised to assist residents in accessing employment and learning opportunities and to increase participation and pride in the community. specific examples include:   1.     matching residents with employment and training opportunities through the community jobs program for carers.   2.     identifying residents with skills appropriate to the establishment of a community enterprise for the fencing and painting services.   3.     identifying residents interested in volunteering to assist with the establishment of a local auskick program.   4.     personally inviting residents to participate in community working bees, for example, during the redevelopment of apex park.   5.     identifying and engaging residents through undertaking skills training to support the establishment of a local gym.   cecc is now supporting the wendouree west community with preparations for the second round of community skills surveys. current participants will be invited to update their details online or via a paper-based survey (with current details included). volunteer residents will also distribute surveys to those residents who have not yet participated and encourage and support their participation.   while revenues generated through the wendouree west community skills survey have been relatively low, the community engagement, research and development benefits for the university have been significant. with strong potential for uob to be engaged to implement a state-wide rollout of the skills survey across all neighbourhood renewal areas, financial benefits may now flow from an initiative which was originally supported to ensure that appropriate ict infrastructure and support services would enhance the success of a significant local initiative.     moorabool community online   in february 2000 cecc first assisted the moorabool shire in attracting funding and implementing a local community portal (www.mconline.com.au). since this first joint project, the university of ballarat has continued to provide a range of consultancy and other services to the moorabool shire to support the ongoing development and expansion of mconline. one recent example is a project with the local arts and heritage advisory committee to establish web-based services for an online register of council and historical society assets (www.mconline.com.au/chad). in this paper the engagement approach, processes and outcomes generated through the mt egerton township website project (www.mtegerton.com) are reviewed.   mt egerton is located 28 kilometres east of ballarat and as at the 2001 census recorded a population of 198 representing just 0.9 percent of the resident population for the moorabool shire (australian bureau of statistics, 2003). the township developed during the 1850s when gold was discovered in the quartz reef passing through the area. this led to the establishment of significant mining activity in the area with one commercial mining operation still active within the township in 2004. other town facilities include a local primary school, mixed business, community hall and oval.   the mt egerton website initiative commenced after the community secured funding from the foundation for rural and regional renewal during 2003. the moorabool shire recommended that the mt egerton website be developed within the mconline community portal infrastructure (thompson, 2004). with support from the moorabool shire, cecc was subsequently engaged to assist community members through the planning, development and implementation phases of the project. cecc would also provide web products, hosting and support services and assist in the ongoing evaluation of the project.   mtegerton.com incorporates similar functionality to mconline (business and community directories, news, events, web links and resources). where appropriate content added to mtegerton.com is also accessible through mconline (for example local business listings and events). the township website also incorporates some additional features to meet local requirements. these include online classifieds and a games section to engage young people in the community.   the mt egerton community development group is responsible for the overall management of mtegerton.com. this group of mainly senior residents secured the seed funding and assisted in establishing the mtegerton.com working party which would be responsible for overseeing the development and ongoing maintenance of the township website.   the mtegerton.com working party comprises approximately 10 active members who are predominately young residents. each member has taken on specific roles and responsibilities which include project manager, news editor, youth news reporter, digital photographer, event promoter and forum administrator. with the initial development completed members of the mtegerton.com working party coordinate the publishing of site content, identify local content providers, deliver training and conduct promotional and fundraising activities to support ongoing development and sustainability of the site.   figure 2 illustrates the mtegerton.com township website which was designed in consultation with members of the community working group. while the site intentionally incorporates colours and design features which complement mconline it also provides the mt egerton community with its own unique look and identity on the internet.   figure 2. mtegerton.com   mtegerton.com was launched during march 2004. in the five-month period to 31 august 2004 the site has received 1,787 visits and recorded 7,288 page views. site visits have increased to an average of 14 unique visits a day with utilisation particularly as measured visits, generally trending upwards. the areas of highest site utilisation are the games area and home page currently attracting utilisation between a range of 4.18 percent to 25.98 percent of site hits. utilisation of the events calendar has ranged between 2.02 percent and 9.64 percent. other site areas which include the business/community directory, news, suggestions, links and photograph/gallery section have recorded utilisation within the range of zero to 5.18 percent.   the mtegerton.com project has generated significant community benefits with the moorabool shire effectively supporting mt egerton in achieving its goal of establishing its own local website. senior residents are mentoring and supporting younger residents. formal and informal training has been undertaken. new linkages are being established within the community and residents are working together in new ways. they are also sharing their skills and experience by working with residents in surrounding towns as they embark on township website projects. through the mtegerton.com project the uob has developed and documented a model which will support the moorabool shire in achieving its objective of supporting local communities in the establishing appropriate and sustainable web-based services that build on and further enhance the mconline community portal. online services will now be expanded within a coordinated framework with communities taking responsibility for site development and management and for the ongoing funding of hosting and client support costs. based on the experience in mt egerton the moorabool shire has also decided to more closely link the establishment of e-gap kiosks (internet access points) with township website initiatives in its small communities.   cecc’s product suite has been expanded to include the townbuilder product through the mtegerton.com project. this will facilitate future replication and customisation of the functionality and make it accessible for the creation of additional township sites for moorabool shire and for other regional and rural communities.   if an application for funding to the mcpherson smith community alliance program for $36,500 funding is successful, the ballan and district community capacity building project steering committee, the moorabool shire, and the university of ballarat will work in partnership to support between four and six townships with establishing local community websites.   a number of important themes can be drawn from the outcomes generated as a result of the partnership between cecc and the moorabool shire over a five-year period:   1.     mconline initiatives have been pursued as part of a clearly articulated strategy with strong links, for example, to traditional marketing methods and established local networks.   2.     initiatives have been developed to support various sectors of the community, for example, the business sector (ecommerce mentoring programme), small towns (internet access points, township websites and local training opportunities), individuals (community building activities linked to regional ict initiatives through mconline), and community groups (museums and cultural groups through the chad project, other community groups through the mconline sitebuilder program).   3.     continued focus on empowering local businesses and individuals through the provision of training and other learning opportunities but also by securing appropriate online services (including ongoing support services) which effectively meet local needs.   4.     strong leadership (particularly from the corporate services manager) and an ongoing commitment from local government to attract funding for related but discrete initiatives and then to ensure that services are sustained beyond any initial seed funded period.   5.     ongoing commitment to involving community members in the development and implementation of online strategies (local working group formed, community representatives trained, review workshops held, targeted initiatives identified and funded, and regular reviews completed).     capacity building for small and micro tourism operators   the building better business online (www.bbbonline.com.au) project has been designed to deliver an innovative ict enhanced training package to small and micro tourism businesses in the goldfields region of victoria. the project attracted ausindustry funding of $145,000 and significant support from organisations including service skills victoria, tourism victoria, ballarat tourism and bendigo tourism. it is a business skills program based on tourism industry accreditation with the pilot region including the towns of ballarat, bendigo, creswick, clunes, castlemaine, daylesford and maldon.   in its proposal for ausindustry funding, the university of ballarat identified that a lack of tourism business entry barriers and paucity of business skills were key impediments to competitiveness with many small and micro tourism businesses displaying a lack of appreciation for the importance of business training, destination marketing and relationship building (braun and hollick, 2002).   small and micro tourism owners and managers will benefit from a training program that uses ict for business learning and combines action learning methods to support the sharing of knowledge for best business practice, regional growth and destination marketing. while building skills and creating a culture of lifelong learning are the main program objectives it is anticipated that an increased number of accredited operators will be an outcome of the pilot at its conclusion in july 2005.   a broader project goal is the development of a model, which links in a sustainable way, skills development to better industry performance. it is envisioned that with support from service skills victoria, the centralised learning modules and ict infrastructure developed through the pilot program will be made available through the better business tourism accreditation program to support efficient delivery of subsequent initiatives across regional victoria (braun and hollick, 2002).   cecc was contracted to develop services to underpin the bbbonline project. given indications that many tourism operators in the pilot region had only one designated telephone line and a high reliance on dial-up internet access it was identified that a significant proportion of operators would need work offline. cd-rom technologies would support participation by a larger number of businesses towards the target of 540 small and micro businesses.   bbb online offers flexible learning materials in cd-rom format; in a web-based online learning environment; and through ‘how to’ workshops. these workshops have been designed to familiarise operators with the learning materials and to teach participants how to access materials via cd-rom or online.   in the first development phase cecc established a web-presence to support the project team in promoting the bbbonline initiative (see figure 3). cecc then undertook significant research which was documented in the project design specifications. exploring all issues related to provision of the learning program via cd-rom was particularly important. while cecc had experience in producing read-only cd-roms the requirement support operators in saving and progressively update information was new.   the task of developing the ict infrastructure; incorporating the initial learning program materials; integrating participant resources; and establishing communication systems; then commenced. all initial content and updates were published via the web-based application with periodical ‘snapshopts’ converted to cd-rom.   figure 3. bbbonline.com.au   figure 4. bbbonline tourism business skills pilot program   figure 4 illustrates the introductory screen for the web-based version of the bbbonline operator interface. the bbbonline learning program supports operators preparing for self-accreditation by stepping them through modules which include: business details; business compliance; insurance; marketing and communications plan; customer service; business operating systems; human resource management; risk management; economic sustainability and financial systems; environmental sustainability; social and cultural sustainability; business plan; continuous improvement and code of conduct. operators can readily access appropriate resources as they work through the learning program. these include more information, samples and web links.   as the bbbonline pilot project has moved from its planning to implementation phase project stakeholders have become increasingly aware of potential benefits of the delivery approach and infrastructure. apart from identifying an opportunity to expand the service to meet the needs of tourism operators outside the accommodation sector (attractions; cellar door; tour operators and visitor information centres) the potential for replication of similar functionality in a variety of learning contexts and across a range of business sectors has been identified.   the university’s understanding of the critical issues for small and micro tourism operators and engagement with key stakeholder organisations during the planning, development and rollout of the bbbonline project enhances the potential for ongoing training utilising the services developed through the pilot project. it is, however, unlikely that the uob would have been able to provide this sector-specific approach to training without access to the ‘in house’ expertise of cecc.   the ict and internet enhanced platform effectively links key stakeholders, operators, tourism industry managers and mentors while also supporting a variety of learning modes. for cecc, the bbbonline project has provided an opportunity to connect with uob academics in a more strategic and whole-of-institution way. it has also provided an opportunity to demonstrate how ict can be used to enhance more traditional research and teaching activities in an area of regionally identified economic development priority.     conclusion   three very different case studies have been presented in this paper to demonstrate the important support role a university can play in the establishment and ongoing sustainability of regional ict initiatives. a number of similarities are evident from the engagement approach demonstrated through the wendouree west community renewal, moorabool online community and the building better business online initiatives:   1.     opportunity identification – high levels of ict expertise have been combined with a sound understanding of regional economic and social development priority. active engagement with community members and a willingness to invest in preliminary consultation and research has been demonstrated as critical components of opportunity identification.   2.     resource attraction – practical support has been provided through the identification and attraction of internal and external human, financial and infrastructure resources necessary to initially implement and then sustain initiatives.   3.     infrastructure development – in a variety of contexts (community, government, business) infrastructure has been developed to effectively and actively support end users in doing locally significant and empowering things with ict.   4.     training and facilitation – commitment to participatory design, action research, face-to-face training, facilitation and ongoing support.   5.     evaluation and ongoing enhancement – support provided to communities for evaluating initiative outcomes as a pathway to identifying opportunities for services to evolve and respond to new circumstance or opportunities.   cecc activities contribute positively to the uob goal of providing leadership for the uptake of ict in industries, local government and within and among regional groups. in the context of creating opportunities for the effective and active use of ict, the case studies demonstrate that the uob has made significant progress through a combination of on-the-ground leadership, infrastructure, collaboration and multi-disciplinary research. universities can and in some instances already do play an important support role in the establishment and ongoing sustainability of regional ict initiatives.   references   australian bureau of statistics (2003). 2001 census of population and housing 2016.2 selected characteristics for urban centres and localities: victoria. canberra, abs.   barlow, d. m. (1997). “electronic community networks in rural australia: a model for social development in the information society.” australian social work 50(1): 3-8.   braun, p. and m. hollick (2002). small business enterprise culture program capacity building for small and micro tourism enterprises: developing sustainable competitive advantage. ballarat, university of ballarat.   denison, t., g. hardy, et al. (2002). community networks: identities, taxonomies and evaluations. electronic networking 2002 building community conference, monash university, caulfield campus, melbourne, centre for community networking research school of information management & systems, monash university.   department for information technology and the arts (1998). a strategic framework for the information economy: identifying priorities for action. canberra, commonwealth of australia.   garlick, s. 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(1999). opportunities through communications technology for regional australia. regional australia summit, canberra.   information policy advisory council (1997). rural & regional.au/ for all. canberra, department of communications and the arts, australia.   institute for regional and rural research (2003). position paper no. 4 community/university engagement through research. ballarat, university of ballarat.   multimedia victoria (2002). connecting victoria: a progress report 1999-2002. melbourne, state government of victoria.   municipal association of victoria and etc electronic trading concepts pty ltd (2000). local government integrated online service delivery strategy and implementation plan, executive summary final. melbourne, municipal association of victoria.   national office for the information economy (2001). b2b e-commerce: capturing value online. canberra, commonwealth of australia.   national office for the information economy (2002). the benefits of doing business electronically ebusiness. canberra, commonwealth government. 2002.   national office for the information economy (2002). guide to successful ebusiness collaboration. canberra, commonwealth of australia.   o'neil, d. (2002). “assessing community informatics: a review of methodological approaches for evaluating community networks and community technology centres.” internet research: electronic networking applications and policy 12(1): 76-102.   porter, m. e. (2001). “strategy after the net.” boss(april 2001): 17-23.   simpson, r. (1999). brave new regions. regional australia summit, canberra, australia.   thompson, h. (2002). final report mainstreet.au.com regional portal project. ballarat, centre for electronic commerce and communications, university of ballarat.   university of ballarat (2002). statement of strategic intent 2002-2004. ballarat, university of ballarat. draft date: november 22, 2009 the k-net experience: thematic introduction to the special issue brian beaton k-net, keewaytinook okimakanak <brian.beaton@knet.ca> susan o’donnell national research council of canada <susan.odonnell@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca> adam fiser university of toronto brian walmark keewaytinook okimakanak research institute (kori) k-net, the kuhkenah network (www.knet.ca), is the telecommunications division of the keewaytinook okimakanak (ko) tribal council in northwestern ontario, canada. “keewaytinook okimakanak” means “northern chiefs” in the oji-cree language. the k-net office is located in sioux lookout, a small town on the edge of a vast area of boreal forest and sub-arctic zones that exceeds the size of france. many of the first nation / indigenous communities on k-net’s broadband networks are very remote, with fly-in access year round; during the coldest months, some also have limited vehicle access by barren winter roads ploughed through the snow on the frozen rivers, lakes and bogs. these communities are home to populations that range from several hundred to several thousand first nations peoples of mostly cree, oji-cree and ojibway cultural traditions. see photo 1 below from one of these communities: koocheching first nation – a small remote community (east end of sandy lake) with a solar powered kuhkenah network node supplying every building (approximately 15) and the local residents with wireless internet services, a voice-over-ip telephone service and videoconferencing. photo 1: koocheching first nation – a small remote community (east end of sandy lake) with a solar powered kuhkenah network node supplying every building (approx 15) and the local residents with wireless internet services, a voice-over-ip telephone service and videoconferencing. k-net is known among community informatics researchers as a leader in community-based first nations telecommunications infrastructure and services. below, photo 2, shows the innovative keewaytinook internet high school (kihs) classroom in lac seul first nation. photo 2: the keewaytinook internet high school (kihs) classroom in lac seul first nation. k-net has been the focus of and has participated in numerous research efforts over the past decade, resulting in a substantial body of publications in joci, other journals, books and conferences (see on-line resources in this journal edition). this is the first time k-net has been the focus of an entire publication. with contributions from a diverse group of authors, this special issue of joci explores the k-net experience through articles, case studies, notes from the field and reports. our introduction to this special issue guides readers to the contributions thematically, using five themes. our first theme history, community and participatory research – includes an article and a note from the field. “myknet.org: how northern ontario’s first nation communities made themselves at home on the world wide web” introduces the unique k-net experience. the research by philipp budka, brandi bell and adam fiser analyzes myknet.org, without doubt one of the most unique social networking sites in the world. myknet.org is a loosely-structured system of personal homepages and blogs established in 2000. individuals from more than 50 remote first nations across northern ontario have made this social environment their virtual home. myknet.org currently has more than 30,000 active homepages with a user base that strongly reflects the demographic profile of northern ontario’s first nation population. the indigenous population in the sioux lookout zone numbers less than 30,000, and the people are younger than the canadian average, with 50% aged 20 or younger. myknet.org is thus youth-based and built around the communities’ need to maintain social ties across great distances and intractable wilderness. myknet.org’s development was contingent on k-net’s policy to let individual users shape the form and content of their online experience. unlike commercial online environments, myknet.org is explicitly community-driven and not-for-profit. it plays an important role in facilitating local interand intra-community interaction in a region that lacked basic telecommunications infrastructure well into the millennium. the second contribution under this theme explores participatory research with k-net. building a relationship based on mutual trust and respect is an important component of doing research with aboriginal communities. there has been a long history of discontent among first nation peoples related to outside researchers coming into their communities. this discontent stems from the researchers’ misinterpretation of information provided by first nations people, a lack of aboriginal voice or perspective in the research and writing about the research, and the misappropriation of first nations cultural information, to name just to a few of the many underlying problems. one way for researchers to approach research with first nations is to cultivate partnerships and conduct participatory research. the contribution is a note from the field: “in search of community champions: researching the outcomes of k-net’s youth information and communications technology training initiative,” by kristy tomkinson. the author is a graduate student working with k-net to evaluate the youth ict training initiative (yict) which has been providing it skills training and short-term employment opportunities to first nations youth in ontario's far north for 15 years. in partnership with the federal first nations schoolnet program (and human resources and skills development canada), yict is developed and guided by k-net. tomkinson’s study, initiated through a partnership between the university of guelph and k-net, has evolved from an evaluation of program outcomes to a search for community champions. this journey in research has revealed the importance of capturing the stories of individual creativity, ingenuity, needs, and relationships for community it development. in photo 3, below, some youth from deer lake first nation participate in wilderness canoe experiential training. photo 3: canoeing in the remote north – youth from deer lake first nation participate in wilderness canoe experiential training. our second theme – videoconferencing infrastructure for community use features two articles exploring how k-net is shaping the use of high-bandwidth network infrastructure to meet community needs. the technology discussed in both articles is videoconferencing: live audio and video communication exchange between two or more sites often located in remote first nation communities. as one of its many service roles, k-net is a regional management organization (rmo) for first nation schoolnet, a group of seven organisations across canada that supports broadband connectivity and services in first nation schools. most of the rmos have set up videoconferencing infrastructure capable of servicing the schools on their networks, a process that involved bringing network capacity into the communities. the community health centres on the k-net network also use the videoconferencing infrastructure, as do many of the band councils, distance education centres and other community-based organizations. communities are using this community network infrastructure in a variety of ways. the first article is: “how k-net and atlantic canada’s first nation help desk are using videoconferencing for community development,” by mary milliken, susan o’donnell and elizabeth gorman. their research project, videocom, is working in partnership with k-net and two other rmo organizations: atlantic canada’s first nation help desk in membertou, cape breton, nova scotia, and the first nation education council in wendake, quebec. all three have set up videoconferencing networks linking first nations communities spread out over large geographic areas. the application, reach and scope of these communication networks have expanded to include cultural, social, and community development activities. qualitative data collected in fifteen in-depth interviews with technical and administrative staff at k-net and atlantic canada’s first nation help desk reveal how both their relationship-building approach to networking, and their repurposed applications of videoconferencing, have supported development in the first nations communities they serve. see photo 4, below: monthly elders multi-site videoconferencing sessions with healthy lunches. photo 4: monthly elders videoconferencing sessions with healthy lunches. the second article, “out from the edges: multi-site videoconferencing as a public sphere in first nations,” by fenwick mckelvey and susan o’donnell, uses video analysis and semi-structured interviews to describe a case of community use of multi-site videoconferencing. the event discussed took place in 2007 and connected a number of first nation communities across canada with policy-makers and researchers in urban centres for simultaneous audio-visual exchange. the meeting was hosted by k-net services. the videocom research project hosted the event to study the feasibility of public meetings through videoconferencing and to document an example of community uses of the technology. the article suggests that videoconferencing created a public sphere that joined the first nations communities taking part in this event. k-net is developing its infrastructure to better support and increase these public spaces where communities can share information. the public sphere is a way of thinking about how these activities contribute to the well-being of communities. the case described in the article illustrates an opportunity to further integrate videoconferencing into community development. the network infrastructure supported and managed by k-net is used to provide many vital community services. these include most notably health and education services and also a range of others such as justice services. our third theme – community services includes a note from the field, a case study and a report. service provision in first nation communities, particularly those in rural and remote locations, has suffered from a range of difficulties including exceptional cost, inefficiencies in the delivery system, high turn-over in service staff, and quality control, among others. in many cases, the consequence has been overly costly, inadequate or inappropriate services that penalize communities on the margins of conventional (urban-centric) service areas and markets. broadband networks and ict can significantly address the challenges of remoteness. k-net has been a global leader in the development of approaches to establishing electronically-enabled community-based service delivery for remote and rural areas. the first contribution under this theme is a note from the field: “a community informatics model for e-services in first nations communities: the k-net approach to water treatment in northern ontario”, by michael gurstein, brian beaton and kevin sherlock. the authors describe how k-net and its parent tribal council, keewaytinook okimakanak (ko), have developed and are implementing a highly innovative approach to the community delivery of water treatment service. this approach includes using videoconferencing for mentoring and continuing education, remote support, and ultimately remote monitoring and electronic service delivery. these developments are components of the ko water and wastewater plant operator training initiative and the safe water operations program. the contribution examines the ko approach to community-based ict-enabled service delivery in light of on-going community informatics research and theory and ko’s experience with other areas of ict-enabled community based service provision. the authors intend their contribution to begin a more general policy discussion on service delivery in first nations communities and how the new opportunities presented by ict can contribute to more efficient and effective services in communities. this is followed by two contributions on telehealth services produced by k-net affiliated researchers and program staff. remote and rural first nation communities have limited health services compared to urban communities yet their needs are similar and sometimes greater. community members living in remote, isolated communities who require health services not provided by their community health centre usually have two choices: have no service or leave their community to access the service in a larger centre. certain first nation communities offer a third choice: health services delivered via videoconferencing or other means using broadband networks. see photo 5 below: online e-health training session by videoconference. photo 5: online e-health training session by videoconference. the report: “enabling and accelerating first nations telehealth development in canada,” is by valerie gideon, eugene nicholas, john rowlandson and florence woolner. the authors describe how telehealth is a primary tool for equalizing first nations’ access to health services particularly for remote first nations. their report surveys federal policy, reviews first nations telehealth development documentation, and engages federal and provincial telehealth principals to determine the state of first nations telehealth and telemedicine in canada. it concludes that first nations telehealth development is slower than anticipated, that national and regional policies are required to resolve cross-jurisdictional issues with provinces, and that federal health programs play a primary role as an enabler and accelerator of first nations telehealth development in canada. the case study: “managing changes in first nations’ healthcare needs: is telehealth the answer?” by josée lavoie and donna williams – underscores the point that the health care needs of first nations are changing. chronic diseases now account for most hospital admissions, partially as a result of under-investment in primary health care. this situation results in an unnecessary reliance on secondary and tertiary care, resulting in a much higher cost to the provincial health care systems and human cost to first nations peoples and communities. telehealth is being promoted as a possible solution but this remains under-researched. while cost savings related to transportation have been documented, researchers have yet to tackle potential efficiencies across the federal and provincial health system divide. the report outlines a project with k-net’s sister organization, keewaytinook okimakanak telemedicine (kotm). it proposes a balanced scorecard approach, which seeks to translate the strategic objectives of an organization such as kotm into a set of coherent performance measures. the balanced scorecard is intended to be a communication tool for first nations organizations, government funders, clinicians and partner organizations. researchers often use theories to explain their research findings and put them into a wider context. theoretical analyses can help to make research more broadly accessible to readers, who can use the theories to understand specific experiences previously unknown to them. photo 6: dog team visits keewaywin first nation. our fourth theme – theoretical contexts includes two articles exploring theories popular in the communications and sociology fields that can help to explain k-net. the first article is: “representation and participation of first nations women in online videos,” by sonja perley. she discusses a range of theories including the public sphere, feminist analysis and critical analysis – to explore the implications of online videos created for and by first nations women. using these theories, the author makes the case that with the rise in websites for video sharing (such as youtube), and the increase in resources to create and upload videos, there is potential for first nations women to make use of this technology to represent issues they cannot normally address through the mainstream media. her critical analysis provides some insight into how first nations women are currently using icts to question and challenge mainstream media assumptions and representations of first nations women. the article explores the potential of online videos produced by first nations women to provide an alternate public sphere to represent themselves and their perspectives and promote social change. one of the videos analyzed in the study is the k-net story. the second article: “implementation of information and communication technology in aboriginal communities: a social capital perspective,” is by javier mignone and heather henley. the authors discuss social capital theory and use it to examine the implementation icts in aboriginal communities. social capital, to the extent that it is a property of the social environment, takes the form of a relational resource. many authors agree that social capital is a resource composed of a variety of elements, most notably social networks, social norms and values, trust, and shared resources. using case descriptions from first nations, inuit and métis communities, the article analyzes from a social capital perspective the enabling and inhibiting conditions that seem to play a role in successful implementations of icts in aboriginal communities. k-net is one of the case studies in their analysis. as mentioned earlier, k-net is known in the community informatics world as a leader in first nations / indigenous telecommunications infrastructure and services. our final theme is links to k-net’s wider research, policy and practice. this report – “online resources” is an annotated list of online resources about ko, k-net and associated broadband applications. the first part of the resource is photo galleries and online videos. of particular note are the videos produced under the umbrella: the k-net story ... weaving the networked economy in kuhkenah first nation communities. anyone interested in learning in-depth about k-net is well advised to view these videos to meet the people involved in k-net and hear their voices describe in their own words how k-net works with first nation communities to develop and support broadband networks and ict. the next part of this online resource is publications. a remarkable aspect of the publications listed is that many were written and produced by keewaytinook okimakanak (ko) staff members. included are references to papers from the aprc conference. many ko staff members and their colleagues presented their work in ottawa in march 2009 at the aboriginal policy research conference (aprc), hosted by indian and northern affairs canada (inac) and the university of western ontario. the aprc conference was a significant event with more than 1,000 delegates and multiple concurrent sessions. as a result of the high rate of participation by ko and colleagues, the aprc conference included four sessions devoted to technology-related research, and a new publication from inac about aboriginal policy research will include many of these papers. the forthcoming (2009) book will be used by ko and policy-makers as a reference document for coherent policy and program approaches toward broadband and ict in first nation communities. also included are references to publications from three authors who completed their phd theses while working in partnership with k-net: adam fiser, ricardo ramirez, and george ferreira. fiser, one of the co-editors of this special issue, is based at the university of toronto. he has produced numerous works based on his analysis of the k-net governance model. ramirez, in addition to his phd thesis at the university of guelph, has worked on multiple community-based evaluations in northern communities with k-net. ferreira, also at the university of guelph, worked in partnership with k-net to develop a model for producing and using participatory video for policy change. some of the videos based on his work are also in the videos listing in the resource. a number of the publications listed are based on research from the videocom project (http://videocom.firstnation.ca) led by susan o’donnell at the national research council of canada, also a co-editor of this special issue. videocom, a partnership with keewaytinook okimakanak and two other first nations organizations, is investigating the use of video communications in remote and rural first nations. many graduate students working with videocom produced publications listed in the resource as well as several articles in this special issue. finally, other publications and resources, contains a range of concept papers, evaluation reports, presentations and links to related resources. one production in particular will be of interest to those who want to read how k-net is having an impact on the people across the north. the “ict innovation and personal stories from the little north … the land of the ojibway, oji-cree and cree people” is a collection of 50 ict stories produced by rick garrick for bi-weekly publication in wawatay news over a one year time period (feb 2003 to feb 2004) under the kuhkenah page (see http://knet.ca/documents/kuhkenah-wawatay-news-stories.pdf). again, a remarkable feature is the number of resources created directly by ko staff members or in collaboration with ko to highlight many aspects of the k-net story. photo 7: the big dish in sioux lookout during the launch in january 2005 (carl seibel, minister joe comuzzi, brian beaton). we hope this special issue devoted to community informatics and indigenous communities in canada will not only introduce this topic to new readers but also continue an ongoing dialogue about how ci and ci research can contribute to and support the development of indigenous communities everywhere. meegwetch / thank you. searching for the role of icts in development: a case study of a rural multi-purpose community centre in the dwars river valle   technology related dangers: the issue of development and security for marginalized groups in south africa   amy r. west consultant for article 19: the global campaign for free expression, africa programme, london, united kingdom. <cymruwest@yahoo.com>   abstract this paper seeks to clarify why the relevance of certain information and communication technologies(icts) is wanting, why the importance of context is crucial to progress, and why mapping technologies from one place to another is no guarantor of success. disconnects between theories and realities are illustrated, emphasizing the need to challenge and address factors that cannot be leapfrogged by technology: namely, education and training, basic human and service infrastructure, and the importance of human interaction.    introduction this paper seeks to examine the rationale, relevance, and ramifications of a global push to fund technologies inappropriate to the context and capacity of marginalized population groups. if developing countries are the true litmus test for any serious evaluation of sustainable development policies and their real practice on the ground, the international community must look carefully at what is happening within countries rather than solely between countries. this then should inform the international debate on development reform and realistic, meaningful action. the research for this paper, supported by article 19: the global campaign for free expression, was motivated by the world summit on information society phase ii, held in tunis, november 2005. the objective of the research conducted was to explore the current reality of “technologies” and what these mean to several communities in south africa: zimbabwean migrants along the south africa – zimbabwe border in limpopo; communities affected by hiv/aids in urban centers of kwazulu-natal; and, women and youth in remote rural villages in eastern cape. consumed by efforts to deliver speed and volume to developing countries and to bridge the famed ‘digital divide’, many ignore the key factors necessary connectivity, education, and capital resources to implement and sustain these technologies. in large part, these essential ingredients remain unavailable, or in limited supply, to the poor and marginalized. while the millennium development goals—including the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; the achievement of universal primary education; the promotion of gender equality and empowering women; the reduction of child mortality; the improvement of maternal health; the fight against hiv/aids, malaria and other diseases, etc.--are certainly on target for most of the developing world, achieving these lofty aims will continue to be a different story. examining information and communication technologies icts are viewed in a variety of ways. they are seen as sources of information and knowledge; as enablers of productivity and lowered transaction costs; and, as facilitators of social networks, strengthening ties between various segments of society. there exists the “…ability of people to connect, mobilize, organize, overcome their isolation, and share their experiences and idiosyncratic information… [and] yet, developing countries are characterized by high transactions and logistics costs, and by the isolation and disempowerment of large parts of the population” (hanna 2003). the availability of broadband and wireless connections, computer centers, and cell phones, then, is no guarantee that the isolated will have a voice, the poor will become rich, the marginalized will participate, and that the dispossessed may become productive. access to technology does not promise that governments will permit greater freedoms of information and expression, or that communication rights will be strengthened, or even that citizens will participate when given the opportunity to do so. the rapid evolution and expansion of technologies has not caused a divide between rich and poor countries, but rather developed a frightening gap between technology and development. this phenomenon has furthered disconnects between rich and poor people and the communities in which they live because technologies are unaccompanied by factors that cannot be leapfrogged: namely, education and training, basic human and service infrastructure, and human interaction essential to development and security. it is not merely enough to fund icts in developing countries. introducing an ever-expansive information and communication technology to societies that are still seeking the dawn of an industrial age, never mind grappling with the relevance of how icts can increase the volume of and speed by which they obtain their daily bread, is irresponsible; if not extremely dangerous to the very objectives ict policy purports. for south africa’s marginalized groups, improving access to accurate information and strengthening the ability to communicate specific needs to vital points of reference are essential and extremely context-specific. like many developing countries, south africa faces social and economic confusion. the country is both a land of wealth and resource, as well as one of poverty and resource deprivation. thus, assuming icts will increase participation, development and security in such a country is as heart-breaking a mistake as believing that stapling a condom to an information sheet about hiv/aids helps protect the recipient in the fight against the spread of disease. the physical presence of a tool does not necessarily define its purpose, and purpose left without instruction will be used, effectively or not, according to perception or interpretation. technology cannot promise development or security. it remains merely one instrument, out of many, that may allow an individual or a community to grow or, just as easily, self-destruct. if technology’s purpose is to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of basic services rendered to people and their individual production capacity, the information society should be one in which individuals (and therefore, communities) are not merely surviving but rather building upon a previously established foundation. through over sixty interviews conducted in the three poorest provinces in south africa, namely limpopo, kwazulu-natal and eastern cape, marginalized groups illustrate socio-economic realities that need to enter into discussions on development, no matter the angle. the depth of reflection lacking in the international debate over what exactly it will take to bridge the technological divide and the reticence to be informed about what people actually need is disconcerting, at best. we speak of icts and yet the art of communicating with other human beings, and listening to both the truth of their lives and their perception of development and security, is lost among those trumpeting the information age. ‘quick fix’ promises are not new to the poorest of the poor. they have been promised clean water and sanitation in every village; employment and housing for all; and now, the ability for everyone to connect. while elites around the globe discuss ways to close the ‘divide’, the desperate will carry on as they have for centuries: waiting for change, and in the meantime, surviving. they have no faith that connectivity and access will improve their lives; and, rather, believe that icts would best be used to reflect to the rest of the world information on the reality of their dire straits. meanwhile, south africa must consider how the marginalized are altering the landscape of development and security. zimbabweans cross into limpopo, cutting through border fences to eke out a living on farms where they have little to no physical security or economic stability. young men loiter on the streets of townships in kwazulu-natal, unemployed and drunk at mid-day, lying in wait to hijack a car or murder for a cell phone, so they can dull the pain of living without purpose in a cardboard and tin shack. women and children in eastern cape with no access to clinical facilities, or the necessary medication, fight tuberculosis or pneumonia for the second or third time, afraid to be tested for hiv because perception trumps truth. after all, the messages they trust emanate from the powerful voices of traditional healers and a minister of health who appear to believe that if holy water cannot save life…garlic, olive oil and beetroots surely will (nullis 2005). most south africans, including the most marginalized, are neither information nor communication starved. most people in south africa are hungry for jobs and better educational and training resources--so much so that digital funds and information society mean nothing to them. the ability to have access to more information or faster modes of communication matters little when unemployment, disease and lack of basic services are a fundamental constraint on many communities. icts will not close the loopholes where investments in the education, labor and health sectors have gone awry. icts cannot make up for insecurity, high crime rates, or the spread of disease; and, in fact, will contribute towards greater societal destruction if the lessons of their (in-)utility are ignored. analysis icts can connect individuals, small companies or groups of farmers and artisans in the poorest and most isolated areas of the world and bring them to the attention of national and even global markets. it makes it possible to leapfrog poor transport infrastructures so that distance from markets is no longer a drawback. icts can also improve governance by giving a voice to people who have been isolated, or have been invisible and silent, allowing them to speak out regardless of their economic status, their gender or where they live. itu secretary-general yoshio utsumi, 2003 the research from south africa analyses the relevance or effectiveness of icts among the poorest of the poor living in south african townships and rural areas. through over sixty interviews across two months in the three poorest provinces in south africa, the role and import of technologies to daily life is explored. the insight gained from these interviews illustrates the need for critical reflection before hybrid action can be established between old technologies, new technologies and pre-existing development initiatives. certain questions, when analyzing the relevance or effectiveness of icts, should be posed: what are the most pressing needs and concerns of a particular individual or community? are people striving to meet their needs without technology? what technologies do people depend on most and why? and lastly, what is the perception of icts? ict penetration and connectivity must be context-specific and oriented towards the most vulnerable communities within a country’s borders, but married as well to initiatives that encourage participation and knowledge-sharing from every community feeding out into a global society. south african society illustrates displacement across and within its borders, vulnerability to environmental hazards as well as disease, and often tenuous relationships to the local and national political system. as such, people pick and choose what technologies may be relevant to their existing, immediate needs. icts under such circumstances adapt to, rather than dictate, societal action and reaction; and, sometimes the imposition of inappropriate tools provides instruments of a greater, more divisive dissatisfaction, if not despair. south africa therefore depicts the socio-economic dilemmas that the ict-development vision must confront as a preponderance of its communities are burdened by the effects of poverty, conflict and health crises that render people desperate for reliable sources of information and trusted methods of communication dissemination. in the northern province of limpopo, in and around musina, a predominantly agricultural based economy finds white farmers and black (mostly) zimbabwean farm workers sharing a space with limited cellular coverage; vast distances to cover on un-tarred roads between farms and the nearest city; and little to no access to newspapers, never mind computers. the international organization for migration estimates that there are some 60,000 zimbabweans in the limpopo area (iom 2004); it is the largest influx to be seen in years and believed to represent the human despair of those affected by the recent repression of rights, mass destruction of dwellings, unemployment, devaluation of the zimbabwean dollar, lack of food, and scarcity of petrol within president mugabe’s borders. as with most border frontiers, security is a pressing issue for those enforcing the law and those, with little recourse, seeking to defy it. farm workers have been crossing the border between zimbabwe and south africa for years, filling jobs alongside black south africans, working in the citrus groves in limpopo province. zimbabwean workers represent an educated and skilled population threatened by political unrest. despite this, frequently they are paid less than minimum wage and are subject to abuse; easy targets given their illegal status. even those who fill more permanent positions on the farms and, therefore, hold work permits, can be subject to arrest and deportation when leaving the farm’s borders. for those unable to find work or feed their families at home, south africa provides the economic space to do both. what is important to displaced zimbabweans is the ability to secure their livelihoods and protect their families, even at the cost of personal security. believing they are without rights encourages migrants to act without responsibility towards law or authority. despite access to radios and televisions in south africa, zimbabwean farm workers trust most what they see with their own eyes, or hear from those newly arrived on the farm (farms a & b 2005). so, they acquire the information by using their feet. due to the difficulties at the border, many of the workers do not cross the border through official channels. the double vulnerability faced by these migrants, then, is that they cannot report the violence to which they are subjected either to south african or to zimbabwean military forces (farms a & b 2005). both men and women sneak through various holes in the border fence late at night and risk the uncertain passage through the bush and across the river to beitbridge, the nearest border town. “i receive news about zimbabwe over the phone,” one woman states, “but to really see what is happening, i need to go home and take it in with my own eyes. it is always better to go and see for yourself, than to listen to the radio” (farm b 2005). thugs and thieves patrolling the border areas have been known to rob, murder and rape those moving back and forth through the wire fence. regardless of being trapped by guma-guma stripped of clothes and possessions, as well as severely beaten (if not sexually assaulted), women continue to sacrifice their own security for the assurance that their families remain physically safe and economically stable. many believe that there is no other alternative given the constraints on information flowing between zimbabwe and the rest of the world. farm workers are not dependent, by and large, on icts to gather information or communicate with their families. many own or have access to cell phones. those without cell phones themselves, borrow airtime from other workers, or use the public telephone; the latter consisting of a cell phone charged to a generator that is transported by wheelbarrow to an open wooden stand on the main road of the farm each day. landlines, the zimbabweans said, are far cheaper to use when calling zimbabwe, but difficult to access (farms a & b 2005). the exorbitant cost of telecommunications in south africa, exceeded still in neighboring zimbabwe, does not permit farm workers to depend on phone service for more than basic knowledge of how family and country is surviving civil unrest. it is only through displacement and transportation routes that farm workers obtain the information most in demand. interaction with those living outside the farms is rather limited for zimbabweans. there is a mobile clinic, organized by the department of health, which makes frequent visits to a number of the farms around musina. the clinic offers primary health care and dispenses condoms to the workers. the nurses test for hiv and other sexually transmitted diseases, yet many workers complain that they are never given the results of these tests. deficiencies in providing feedback leave the farm workers suspicious of medical personnel, and reinforce the belief that it is useless to know about diseases when there is no help available in south africa to fight against them; and, there is fear that the information being collected may be putting them in danger of discovery by authorities (farm b 2005). paradoxically, south africans are learning more about hiv and access to anti-retroviral (arv) medications, from those crossing the border, than is officially available through their media or local government clinics. given the demand for arvs in an area where tremendous distances exist between hospitals that have the medication and clinics that do not, rumors abound that south africans are seeking arvs in zimbabwe (clinic a 2005). computers have no relevance for these farm workers. some know there is an internet café in musina. yet many claim that they have never seen a computer, as computers were never available as part of their education. they will listen to explanations of the internet, or a system by which a person can send a message through cyberspace. however, there appears to be a general consensus and disbelief that a computer could improve the current state of their lives. as one farm worker said, “we do not spend time looking for something or worrying about something we cannot use. if the people we know and trust do not have emails, and the information we need is available elsewhere, why do we need a computer?”(farm b 2005). his opinion was voiced equally by a white farmer who communicates with his community by cell phone or cb radio, but has never used a computer. “why would i learn how to use a computer? most of the people around here have never used a computer. i go into [town] a few times a week and see the computer in the post office. i have never, in my years of living here, seen someone using that computer. it is a waste to even have it, as it serves no purpose to the lives of people here” (farm c 2005). the sentiment of those living in rural areas in limpopo is echoed by many living in the northernmost corner of eastern cape. in several villages cradled between bizana town and the kwazulu-natal border, women are gathering water for washing and cooking from streams where herders bring their cattle to drink and defecate in. unemployment is cited as hovering at 80%, (mbizana 2005). illiteracy is extremely high. some villages have electricity, even though many cannot afford the cost of having the service in their homes. food is scarce and proper nutrition is difficult as vegetables can be grown when there is water, but hard to find when there is none. the nearest hospital can be a bus ride away, if a person is able to pay the fare, while the nearest clinic can take hours to walk to, on rock-dirt roads that make travel precarious and time consuming. it is not technology that district and municipal leaders will say they need; it is water (esikelo a 2005). a water purification plant stands, ironically, atop the nearest hill overlooking one village. yet the village collects rainwater in metal bins during the rainy season, or walks several kilometers in order to haul water for washing, drinking and feeding their gardens. the area is intensely dry in winter and community development is hindered by a scarcity of resources with which to invest in a bore-hole, as well as an inability to overcome municipal politics sufficient to receive clean water from an access point people can see, but are not permitted to use. the reality in these rural villages makes discussion on icts seem rather absurd. connectivity and internet access cannot assuage the dearth of water or the threat of hiv/aids. talk to people and they will tell you that they are not denied rights to communicate, or to be informed, or to express themselves. communication and interaction is at its most relevant for them at the local level, and that is where they believe they have a voice. what they are being denied is a fair chance to live. information flows freely between homes, through traditional healers and community educators (religious leaders, teachers, nurses, and wise elders). young people form drama clubs or sing in village choirs to express themselves. many villages do not have access to a newspaper, but they listen to the radio and acquire information through family members living in urban areas. ask them what they need, and they will not mention icts. what they need is more accurate information about specific issues affecting their community and the practical means to then act upon this information (esikelo-embobeni 2005). access to a better education with knowledgeable teachers and greater material resources in schools, many believe, would help combat the cycle of poverty and ignorance. the local nurses are weary of fighting the dangerous rumors circulated by people who believe arv medications murder people, or that hiv and other opportunistic infections are the result of bewitchment, or that sleeping with virgin girls, even months old, will cure men suffering from the virus (bizana a 2005). old grandmothers sit, surrounded by the sick, and consumed with battling nutritional deficiencies and hiv. they spend their pensions on small children (oftentimes not even their own flesh and blood), abandoned by young misinformed parents who believe these children will die sooner rather than later (esikelo b 2005). there are a few places in these rural areas where computers can be seen occupying dark, dust-filled corners; seldom, if ever, turned on. sometimes, these computers attract bandits who will steal them, making money from selling the hardware parts. other times, they provide an element of despair. when the computer malfunctions, there is no way to fix it or pay the cost of transport to haul the computer to east london or into durban for repairs. internet connections only exist in larger towns, but with intermittent and slow connection speeds. so while computers may serve to record data, people rarely depend on them. even in the few places where a computer is present in a rural village, the majority of people living in these areas have never worked on one (mbizana 2005). access to a government website is not critical, as nothing they have, they will tell you, emanates from the ministerial offices of the national government. bureaucratic promises continue to lag behind in providing these people what they truly need (esikelo c 2005). government nurses working at clinics throughout the mbizana municipality have never accessed the government web site and do not use the internet for information about hiv/aids. they rely on the official information trickling down from the department of health, despite the frequent contradictions of that information with the reality being experienced in the rural villages. in fact, they struggle under the burden of misinformation being spread to communities about hiv and similar infections (bizana a 2005). one government nurse estimates 40% of the population she serves is infected with hiv, though it is difficult to document this since, even when confronted, patients are fearful of subjecting themselves to tests or medication. several villages, in order to combat the spread of hiv/aids, have developed volunteer home-based health care initiatives, as those who are sick cannot access distant hospitals and clinics. in communities losing their middle generation to disease and urban migration, young people are organizing to travel from home to home charting sickness and disease and opening discussions about hiv/aids. the information these door-to-door health care volunteers gather is critical to local clinics and area hospitals that have no time or resources to record formal statistics. in mbizana, while the manager of development planning will hand out brochures regaling visitors with dreams of building cultural villages and adjoining accommodations to bring rich people to the area, her staff neither knows how to access documents on a computer nor where to go or whom to ask for statistics on employment, literacy, health or education (bizana b 2005). thus, it is not icts, available at the government level, helping people survive in the rural areas; it is, rather, community development workers on foot who are providing accurate information to address the concerns of their populations. the quasi-presence of icts in urban townships illustrates the deception that technologies ensure that people are better informed, have access to a plurality of sources, and can improve their lives and livelihoods. even with access to internet cafes, cell phone containers , radios and televisions in the townships, disease is rampant, crime is spiking and people are living in squatter settlements with no guarantee that the leaky tin roof and mud walls will survive another rainy season. local councilors in umlazi, the second largest township in south africa, face enormous challenges to both security and development. they believe icts are extremely important to their communities. yet, it is clear that possessing icts has put individuals and communities in potential danger (umlazi h 2005). cell phones are seen as a symbol of prestige rather than security. young girls will prostitute themselves to older men in order to have a constant cash flow to pay for phones and airtime (s. regina 2005). young men sit in groups on street corners, or in shebeens, paying for their next beer or marijuana joint with money they make from the sale of a stolen cell phone, or computer part, or fax machine. young children are manipulating free-standing public telephones to collect money, rendering them useless to those who deposit change to make a call and find they have lost their precious coins to a phone with no dial tone (umlazi a 2005). among those who are employed and educated in the townships, there is a growing sense of disappointment. many of them have fourteen years or more of education, and work long hours to provide for their families with no hope of advancement or further training in a specialized skill. one woman, who works at mccord hospital, in durban, has access to a computer on a daily basis. “wherever there is work, there is a computer. there is a real need for people in business to have knowledge how to operate a computer’ (umlazi a). she first encountered a computer ten years ago when she began working as an administrative assistant. no one was able to train her how to use the computer, but she spent time teaching herself how to make it function for letter writing and invoice purposes. the computer represents a tool of employment, not a source of information. when discussing her voice in the community, she cites her immediate difficulties with trying to access the local council and the provincial minister regarding a housing issue. “i went to the local government official after a reconstruction and development program [“rdp”] house had been assigned to me then retracted at the last minute. the house had been given to a friend of the local councilman. the officials would not listen to my complaint and sent me to appeal to the provincial minister. i sent the provincial minister a letter, as i knew he would not respond to an email. he responded by letter and directed me to his secretary, saying he was too busy dealing with more important issues than to have time for my nagging. access, you see, is not a problem. it is corruption that must be dealt with first; otherwise, access will not mean anything. technology is not the real issue. people would choose houses with running water and electricity before computers or cell phones. living in shacks with leaky roofs, people catch colds too easily. our people cannot get warm, they are getting sicker; this is making the situation worse for those living with hiv/aids. this is why housing is in such demand. computers, cell phones and satellite dishes do not build homes and patch roofs” (umlazi a 2005). a young man with fifteen years of education, managing a cell phone container in umlazi agrees with his female counterpart. he believes he has access to information, and certain rights, but that these mean nothing to people because they are waiting on promises made by elected officials. “our government is corrupt. this is the biggest problem in south africa. we are still waiting for what we were promised. we were promised jobs in companies, earning a living. we were promised houses. we have none of these” (umlazi b 2005). he has access to the internet, but rarely uses it. he collects his information through newspapers. each morning he buys at least ten newspapers, storing them in a crate inside the container. on average, per day, he claims at least fifteen to twenty people come to him to ask about world news, or borrow the newspapers. he says he discusses the news with those who are illiterate to inform them about what is happening in the world. he says this dissemination of information reaches grandmothers, businessmen and women, and young people. people trust him, he confides, because he has visibility in the community and communicates with people about information pertinent to their lives. “i think computers are useful because they exist all over the world. but computers will not solve the problem of hiv/aids, or corruption in government, or the problems of unemployment that are affecting our communities. you must have a certain level of development and security before technology will cure suffering” (umlazi b 2005). still another educated young woman, seeking to sustain her livelihood through her art, says icts are important to those seeking to expand their small businesses. yet, she acknowledges the limitations of icts when discussing the more local community concerns surrounding hiv/aids. “we are trying to educate people through music, or just by talking with them. when i know someone is sick in the community, i try and talk to them, instead of ignoring them as much of the community still does. the way computers are used here does nothing to help spread accurate information about hiv/aids to local people. we still have difficulties communicating directly with our communities about health and education” (umlazi c 2005). parents allow old women to counsel girls on sex, and perform virginity testing even when there are clinics within walking distance. traditional healers and shembe priests in inanda claim hiv can be treated, blood can be purified and the dead resurrected through herbs, water and faith. in the guise of tradition, young girls, especially, are becoming increasingly susceptible to abuse, assault and the spread of disease because they are discouraged from accessing modern health facilities (umlazi g and inanda 2005). conclusion the rationale behind funding icts in developing countries is one which links connectivity and access to development for all (unga 2002). as policy-makers struggle with progress towards greater global development and security, technology policy as it stands today holds little purpose for many of the marginalized. technology needs a relevant social structure and context in which to operate to have purpose. employment, housing, water, and hiv/aids are primary concerns among migrant farm workers and those living in informal settlements, urban townships, and rural areas. these issues are relevant to the discussion on icts, because if there is no understanding of how people are living, the technology will be an empty vessel, wasted. the purpose of this paper—perhaps—is not to decry the complete irrelevance of icts or to preach to the choir about the expected hierarchy of development needs in africa. rather it is to underscore the importance of context (not even national, but local) as crucial to progress, and why the blanket schemes of theorists may unwittingly create bottlenecks in resource-scarce and high security-risk areas. in south africa, there are initiatives, certainly, that offer promise. these are most often projects developed in response to a direct need, rather than technologies mapped on to vulnerable communities. icts accompanied by affordable education and training, long-term investment strategies, and hybrid approaches linking traditional, trusted methods of expressing and disseminating information are better suited to actual implementation and sustainability. as partnerships are formed between countries and within countries to share knowledge and to financially support ict-led development initiatives, there is urgent need for greater understanding of peoples’ realities at the local level, as well as increased accountability for the successes and failures of strategic decisions mandated by international and national leadership. acknowledgements the research and content of this paper were part of a more comprehensive report prepared by amy r. west for article 19: the global campaign for free expression for the november 2005 wsis discussions. the author and article 19 express sincere gratitude to a number of zimbabwean migrants living in limpopo, and residents of south africa living in limpopo, kwazulu-natal and eastern cape who face grim challenges with enormous courage and resourcefulness. the author would like to acknowledge the support and assistance of john barker, tracey naughton, audrey selian, innocent myeni, sarah mahlungulu, blair rutherford, edward lahiff, tina james, monty thomas, sister regina, patrick taylor, steve wigg, the caversham centre for artists and writers, and her family. references bizana area a & b. (2005). personal communications. eastern cape: rsa. clinic a. (2005). personal communications. limpopo: rsa. esikelo area a, b, & c. (2005). personal communications. eastern cape: rsa. esikelo-embobeni area. (2005). personal communications. eastern cape: rsa. hanna, n. k. (june 2003). why national strategies are needed for ict enabled development. isg staff working papers, 3, retrieved march 2, 2007, from http://www.ehealthstrategies.com/files/national_strategies.doc inanda area. (2005). personal communications. kwazulu-natal: rsa. iom. (2004). developing regional guidelines on hiv and aids for the commercial agricultural sector in the sadc region. retrieved august 8, 2005, from http://www.iom.org.za/reports/commercialagriculturesectorworkshopreport_dec2-3_2004.pdf mbizana municipality. (2005). personal communications. eastern cape: rsa. musina-alldays farms a, b, & c. (2005). personal communications. limpopo: rsa. nullis, c. (n.d.). south african health minister insists garlic, beet root as important as drugs in treating aids. retrieved august 10, 2005, from http://www.taxtyranny.ca/images/html/aids/aids104.html regina, s. (2005). personal communication. kwazulu-natal: rsa. umlazi townships a, b, c, g, h, & i. (2005). personal communications. kwazulu-natal: rsa. united nations general assembly resolution 56/183 (2002). world summit on the information society. utsumi, yoshio. (december 2003). itu secretary-general’s speech for the world summit on information society. world summit for the information society plenary session. geneva: switzerland. � in 95% of the interviews conducted in both rural and urban areas, in each of the three provinces, much time had to be devoted to explaining what was meant by ‘digital divide’, ‘information society’, as well as the use and function of the internet and email. in fact, upon further probing, many people are unaware of international organizations such as the united nations and its role in development or security. � the thugs and thieves roaming the zimbabwean side of the zimbabwe-south african border. � large metal shipping containers are recycled for use and sold by companies within south africa to people investing in a business. oftentimes, cell c, vodacom or mtn will invest in containers in the townships, supply it with five to six phones and a local manager to collect money and operate the phones, providing a public service to people who use up their airtime or do not have access to their own personal phone. � local pub or tavern untitled page using collaboration patterns for contextualizing roles in community systems design aldo de moor communitysense, tilburg, the netherlands abstract activation of collaborative communities is hampered by the communicative fragmentation that is at least partially caused by their distributed tool systems. we examine the role of domain, conversation, and functionality roles in modelling community activation. we show how collaboration patterns can be used to design appropriate socio-technical solutions. these patterns contextualize the various types of roles by linking them to the (1) relevant usage context (2) communicative workflow stages and (3) functionality components across the tool system. keywords communities, activation, collaboration patterns, roles, socio-technical systems, design introduction collaborative communities are communities in which there are not only shared practices, but also common goals, such as the joint production of goods or services. these communities are increasingly important for getting work done in business, research, education, and other professional domains. for such communities to mature and perform, well-designed information and communication processes are needed. typically, these processes require an evolving mix of icts over time (stephens 2007). supporting these communities, therefore, are increasingly distributed tool systems of (legacy) information systems, classical information and communication tools like word processors and mailing lists, and a rapidly expanding chest of social media tools like microblogging (e.g. twitter), social networking sites (e.g. facebook, ning), wikis (e.g. mediawiki) and social bookmarking tools (e.g. delicious). many collaborative communities fail. typically, after an initial boost of activity upon launch, they slowly wither, with the occassional outburst on a discussion board, if at all. contrary to what many believe, this is often not caused by lack of motivation. the sustained success of many professional society websites/mailing lists and of course of the flagship social media project wikipedia prove that motivation to contribute is often plentiful (spinellis and louridas 2008). instead, the fragmentation of communicative acts across tool-system functionalities and the unclear collaborative context of this system results in a lack of activation. we define activation as supporting the initiation, execution, and evaluation of goal-oriented computer mediated communication processes in collaborative communities in order to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their collaboration (de moor 2008). this activation often fails due to insufficiently reflecting on how to support the initiation and evaluation stages of the communicative workflows (de moor and weigand 2007). to more precisely analyze such socio-technical problems and their possible solutions, we have a need for a socio-technical pattern language. technical design patterns, such as prominent in human-computer interaction and software engineering pattern languages, focus on interface, interaction, and implementation (borchers 2000). socio-technical patterns, on the other hand, have a broader, application domain level-scope. they are especially useful at the beginning of social software projects to describe the complex nature of the interactions between the social and the technical systems that need to be built (dixon 2009). in (de moor 2009) , we describe how one class of these patterns, collaboration patterns, can be used as building blocks for the socio-technical design of community systems. roles are important constructs in communities, in which they have a structuring, coordinating and supporting function (herrmann et al 2004). communities have only few formal roles but often many dynamic, informal roles. role development is key and takes place by perceiving the repetition of social interaction patterns based on patterns of expectations (herrmann et al. 2004). in this paper, we expand on our previous work by exploring the "role of roles" in analyzing and addressing communicative fragmentation problems in collaborative communities. we illustrate how our collaboration pattern language can be used to more clearly perceive and analyze the socio-technical context of the required roles. the next section outlines the role of roles in framing communicative fragmentation. we then introduce our collaboration pattern language and show how it can be used to model the context of roles. we end with discussion and conclusions. roles in community systems design the community system should provide a full range of communicative and collaborative functionalities (preece 2000). before examining these functionalities, we first reflect on the role of roles in the design of the socio-technical systems of collaborative communities. domain, conversation, and functionality roles we distinguish three types of interrelated roles in collaboration patterns: domain, conversation, and functionality roles. this subdivision does not have to do with how "social" or "technical" the roles themselves are, but whether they represent a domain interest, do the communicative work, or use or maintain the enabling technologies. domain roles are the roles somebody plays in the capacity of being a stakeholder member of a collaborative community. these roles can range from formally defined roles such as editor, reviewer, and author in a scholarly publishing community, to the numerous informal reader, contributor, collaborator, and leadership roles needed in any productive community (preece and shneiderman 2009). conversation roles are the initiating, executing, and evaluating roles that community members play in their capacity of being participants in the network of communicative workflows making up the goal-oriented collaboration process (de moor and weigand 2007). this perspective on collaboration is grounded in the language/action perspective which emphasizes what people do by communicating, how language is used to create a common basis for communication partners, and how their activities are coordinated through language (winograd and flores 1986). both of the previous types of roles are used to model the requirements originating from the purposeful social system. functionality roles, however, originate from the technical system and describe roles that people need to play in effectively using tool functionalities. in other words, they capture the potential interactions enabled by the tools. instead of describing the user of a tool, they describe roles (as combinations of responsibilities, capabilities and permissions) that are needed to best apply tool functionalities in particular collaborative contexts. a good example is given by effective use-patterns of wikis, capturing lessons that were learnt by analysing many cases in which wikis are used in professional settings (mader 2007). some typical wikifunctionality roles include champion, contributor, maintainer, wikigardener, and wikizenmaster. communicative workflow loops without effective communication, collaborative communities cannot work. at the heart of our approach, grounded in the language/action perspective is the communicative workflow loop (de moor and weigand 2007). in theory, a successful communication loop consists of four communicative stages (plus a production stage), in which various pairs of conversation roles are involved: request: the initiator (i) requests the executor (x) to do something promise: the executor promises to do it to the initiator (production: the executor does the job) report: the executor reports to the evaluator (e) that the job has been done evaluate: the evaluator checks the result and, if satisfied, approves of the job done. figure 1 the communicative workflow loop in context this communicative workflow loop does not exist by and for itself, but is part of a larger direct context. most importantly, it bridges the social system (generator of the collaborative requirements) and the technical system (providing the functionalities that enable these requirements). starting point for analysis at the social system level are the goals, which drive stakeholders playing domain roles to work (together) on results that operationalise the goals. a workflow can have one or more of these results from previous workflows as its input, e.g. a draft document, and always produces at least one result, e.g. a copy-edited document. from the technical system, the communicative workflow loop is grounded in a system of tools, which can be decomposed, insofar necessary, into modules, and individual functions. together, this context describes an enabled communication loop, a "cell of productive interactions" which can be recombined to form much more complex and larger sets of "collaboration tissues" enveloping the collaborative community. in practice, many complications occur: any of these stages can spawn new workflow loops, workflow loop stages fail, people often renege on their commitments, conflicts arise, etc. however, as a lens for diagnosing messy reality and as a building block for community systems analysis and design, the workflow loop is a very important construct. in (de moor 2010), we examined how such contextualized workflow loops can be used as building blocks for complex social media systems design. in this paper, we are interested in how the various types of roles interrelate and in what socio-technical context they are situated. ultimately, all roles are played by individuals or groups of human beingsi. however, while from a social system/requirements point of view conversation roles are played by domain roles, from a technical system/enabling functionalities point of view the conversation roles are played by functionality roles. the challenge is how to meaningfully map domain role-instantiated conversation roles to enabling functionality roles. we take meaningful mappings to be contextualized role mappings that outline socio-technical solutions enabling goaloriented communication, thus reducing the communicative fragmentation caused by distributed tool systems. now, what does this socio-technical role context look like in systems design practice? contextualizing roles with collaboration patterns collaboration patterns capture socio-technical lessons learnt in optimizing the effectiveness and efficiency of collaboration processes. they make enabled functionalities actionable by describing how community members playing particular collaborative roles use specific functionalities for particular purposes. they are grounded in community purpose patterns (defining the why, what, and who of the community, see e.g. the liberating voices pattern language) and functionality usage patterns (describing the effective use of individual tools, such as wikis, see e.g. the wikipatterns language). collaboration patterns, in turn, can be the source for more design and implementation-oriented pattern languages like used in software engineering and hci (de moor 2009). we have grounded collaboration patterns in a simple ontology of the sociotechnical system (de moor and weigand 2007; de moor 2009). its main elements are a usage context (the social system) and a tool system. core entities in the usage contexts are goals, actors, (information) objects such as results, and workflows. the tool system consists of four levels of functionality components: the system level, the tools making up the system, modules constituting a tool, and finally, bundled in a module, the (information/communication) functions, which are the atomic units of functionality. functionality mappings define relations within and between various elements of the usage context and the tool system. these mappings match required functionalities from the usage context with selected enabled functionalities from the tool system, in order to produce socio-technical design patterns. we can represent and reason about these mappings with conceptual graphs. one advantage of this semantic network formalism is one can use it to construct and analyze generalization hierarchies of graphs (sowa 1984). through so-called projections of more generic graphs (such as templates) into more specific graphs (such as the actual sociotechnical system configuration in a particular community), one can match requirements with enabling functionalities. the resulting shortlist of possible solutions can then be presented to community members in a simple graphical or verbal notation, facilitating discussion about which socio-technical solution is optimal from the point of view of the community. collaboration patterns include goal, communication, information, task, and metapatterns. in earlier work (see (de moor 2009) for an overview), we gave a detailed description of our typology of collaboration patterns, the ontology to conceptualize the usage context and tool system, the socio-technical mappings between these subsystems, and the way in which to obtain, represent, and use these patterns to model the socio-technical system and its activation. communicative requirements and enabling functionalities meet in so-called enabled collaboration patterns. in figure 2, we present a template of this pattern: figure 2 the enabled collaboration pattern template the yellow ellipses indicate relations between concepts (the blue squares). the semantics of both concept and relationship types are formally defined in type hierarchies (which are not discussed here). each workflow consists of three main parts: starting the workflow (consisting of both the request/promise communicative acts), doing the workflow (consisting of the productive act generating the result), and checking the workflow (consisting of the report/evaluate communicative acts). each of these stages has at least one domain role attached to it, playing the core conversation role of that stage (initiator, executor, or evaluator, respectively)iv. each stage is also supported by at least one tool, module or even function within a tool. the complexity and rate of evolution of the interdependencies of goals, roles, workflows, and tool functionalities in real-world communities are often very high. collaboration patterns help to capture these interdependencies at just the right level of specificity, adding specification details where needed, yet leaving degrees of freedom where possible. typically, such patterns are selected and configured in a couple of iterations, from generic templates to concrete, community-specific patterns which can be used, for instance, for role, workflow and tool configuration and for documentation generation. we show such an iteration using the (hypothetical) scenario described in (de moor 2009) of the socio-technical system of the essence (escience/ sensemaking/climate change) collaborative communityv. we first present an enabled communication pattern describing a generic socio-technical approach to a report editing task. we then refine this pattern to tailor it to the specific needs of this particular community. scenario: co-editing a report consensus section the long-term goal of essence is to improve global climate change policy making through the wise use of sensemaking technologiesvi. these are in this case web-based tools that help frame issues, the positions stakeholders take on these issues, and arguments pro and contra that they attach to these positions. such tools have significant potential for mapping the very complex debate about causes and effects of, and policies needed to deal with climate change. however, just making these tools available is not going to make anything happen. they are used in an elaborate sociotechnical context of collaborating stakeholders (consisting of organizations like governments, corporations, ngos, research institutes, mass media and individuals like citizens, subject matter experts, and journalists) and tools (e.g. social networking sites like facebook, wikis for collaborative document editing, (micro)blogs like wordpress and twitter to notify audiences of developments, mailing lists to communicate in work groups, and so on). one goal of essence could be to produce high-quality reports on climate change. these reports are neutral in the sense that each report has a consensus section representing the common view of all stakeholders, yet also allowing for alternative position sections, where dissenters can describe their point of view. the wording of the consensus section is very important, as all stakeholders must agree to the claims made there. a relevant collaboration pattern from the pattern library is presented in fig. 3. it captures details essential for the design of the part of the socio-technical system needed to accomplish this goal. it is grosso modovii a specialization of the enabled communication pattern template presented in fig. 2. typically, such a pattern is used to describe reusable lessons learnt in a collaborative community, outlining the why, what, who, and how of the workflow. figure 3 an enabled collaboration pattern for co-editing a report consensus section in this case, it consists of a composite collaboration pattern comprising a communication pattern (modelling the consensus section editing workflow), merged with a goal pattern (that a neutral report is to be produced), and two enabled functionality patterns (describing some characteristics of the enabling sensemaking tool and wiki, respectively). the owner of the report is the (domain role) editor. this role can be played by multiple people simultaneously, but this is not modelled here. starting the workflow: the consensus section editing process is initiated by the (domain role) author. after all authors have taken all available positions in the argument map, the executor (i.e. editor) responsible for doing the workflow is notified (this could be done, for instance, by the sensemaking tool automatically sending an e-mail with the link to the relevant summary map to the editor upon the completion of the position taking). doing the workflow: the ultimate goal of creating a neutral report is realized by the editor(s) creating a consensus section on one of the wiki pages, which clearly delineates what positions are unanimous and which positions differ. a key element of role mappings is what in conceptual graph theory are called "lines of identity". these dashed lines link concepts, meaning that those concepts are played by the same individuals. in this case, the editor who is the owner of the report is the same as the editor who does the actual consensus section editing and is also the same as the (functionality role) maintainer of the page on which the consensus section resides. the maintainer role is a technical role with specific functionality privileges on the wiki, for example that this individual may lock the page preventing further editing after the report is finished. evaluating the workflow: finally, once the editing of the consensus section has been completed, the (domain role) audience evaluates the outcome, supported by some notification and discussion tool (e.g. mailing list, rss feed, twitter). the audience role is a composite role that could be made up of all (domain) stakeholder roles, which in turn can be played by many individual people. the community decides this is a useful pattern to customize for its own specific context and further refines it for its system design and configuration purposes. such a pattern we call an implemented collaboration pattern (fig.4). figure 4 an implemented collaboration pattern for co-editing a report consensus section the colored components are the element that changed when configuring the (generic) enabled pattern of fig. 3 for the specific needs of this community. to produce the argument map, debategraph is used, a state-of-the-art sensemaking toolviii. for a wiki, wikispacesix is chosen as it is hosted, reliable, and usable. a page called the "climate change consensus page" is created on this wiki. the audience in this case is the, largely uncharted, climate change community. to keep them in the loop, twitter is selected as the supporting tool, as it allows for the easy reporting and receiving of feedback to and from strangers through its "hashtag (#) topics", which allow everybody searching tweets on that topic to be informed and reply. discussion and conclusions in this paper, we focused on the role of roles in our emerging collaboration pattern language. we examined how this language can be used to define the context of domain, conversation, and functionality roles in order to design better socio-technical systems for collaborative communities, and to reuse and configure the lessons learnt that the patterns capture. role development means the shaping of social interaction patterns through a set of role mechanisms such as role-taking (how a person acts with respect to the expectations of a specific role), role-making (how a person lives a role and how s/he transforms the expectations into concrete behaviour), and role-definition (defining the tasks and expectations associated with a role). developing roles in a cmc setting needs a mediating tool system (herrmann et al. 2004; jahnke et al. 2005). typical workflow modelling approaches, such as business process modeling notation (bpmn)xi often leave the exact communicative commitments and interactions of and between roles unclear, as well as how they are supported in this by the tool system. in contrast, our collaboration pattern approach provides socio-technically contextualized role definitions required for communicative workflows acceptable to and owned by the community. they can be used to at just the desired level of detail match the required social context with the enabling "functionality substrate" of the tool system in which these roles can play out. of this, we showed only one example. real-life collaborative communities, especially when operating mostly online and on a global scale need many more of such patterns. how to scale, connect, and make "metasense" of these patterns is still an open issue. we only looked at one source of activation problems: the high thresholds for (inter)action caused by communicative fragmentation across tool systems. there are many other causes of activation problems, such as the attachment of members to the group as a whole as well as to individual other group members (ren et al. 2007), their informational behaviours (burnett and buerkle 2004), and so on. still, collaboration patterns can help to build and test design hypotheses for dealing with these other phenomena as well, as collaboration pattern entities like goals, roles, tasks/workflows, functionalities are core elements of these theories. thus, these sociological theories may help come up with the empirical grounding informing which patterns would work in practice, while the collaboration pattern language can help to translate these findings into better systems designs. it is important to realize that our approach goes beyond the typical cscw (computer supported cooperative work) perspective that sees roles as mere mediating constructs offering a specific set of technical access permissions/restrictions to functionality or data. collaboration patterns can help to reduce the socio-technical gap present in many of these systems, making it possible to specify the technical system implications of essential yet fuzzy social concepts like legitimacy, freedom, privacy, and democracy (whitworth 2006). furthermore, these patterns are not static technical specifications, but are meant as analytical instruments for collaborative sensemaking. the patterns need to be widely discussed in the community, for example along the lines of the methodology for socio-technical pattern elicitation and application proposed by (dixon 2009), in order to clarify the often incompatible expectations about role definitions among different community members. conceptual graph formalisms and tools exist to automatically match enabled with required patterns and to create verbal representations in controlled natural language. such facilities would be very useful to present patterns to end-users in a form they can understand. collaboration patterns for role development can be applied in many different ways, for example in improving the selection, linking, configuration of tool systems through rbac (role based access control)-mechanisms that should support the social needs of the community (jahnke et al. 2005). the patterns can also be used to semiautomatically compose targeted, role oriented manuals and tutorials, instead of having to expose "the user" to the complete set of "context-free", voluminous manuals. using collaboration patterns to precisely tie domain, conversation, and functionality roles to one another and to their supporting tools, can reduce the communicative fragmentation caused by distributed tool systems, and thus help activate communities. collaboration patterns then act as an interlingua: they can be easily made understandable to community members, making them owners of process change, while being exact enough for technical stakeholders like system administrators to appropriately design and implement the community systems. we are working on a tool, communitysensor, which can be used to elicit, visualize and reason about socio-technical maps that provide the relevant context of communicative workflows, roles, and functionalities. such tools could help empower communities to examine and resolve their collaborative breakdowns themselves. people often wonder why we should put so much effort in the design of the sociotechnical system of collaborative communities. would not they best auto-magically organize themselves? this is akin to having many suppliers deliver loads of tiles, bricks, and planks to a construction site and hope that the construction workers will somehow make sense of those materials without having a drawing and plan for action designed by an architect. socio-technical collaboration systems are similarly fragile and complex, with the smallest missing detail being able to have the whole system collapse. thinking deeply about the design of such systems is hard work, but essential. in this paper, we hope to have contributed to thinking about new methodologies for building socio-technical houses that communities can and do want to live in. references borchers, jan o. 2000. "interaction design patterns: twelve theses. in pattern languages for interaction design: building momentum, chi 2000, the hague, the netherlands, apri 2-3, 2000. burnett, gary, and harry buerkle. 2004. "information exchange in virtual communities: a comparative study." journal of computer-mediated communication 9. dixon, d. 2009. "pattern languages for cmc design." pp. 402-415 in handbook of research on socio-technical design and social networking systems, edited by b. whitworth and a. de moor. hershey pa: information science reference. herrmann, t., i. jahnke, and k.-u. loser. 2004. "the role concept as a basis for designing community systems." in proc. of coop 2004, hyã¨res les palmiers, france, may 11-14, 2004. jahnke, isa, carsten ritterskamp, and tthomas herrmann. 2005. "sociotechnical roles for sociotechnical systems: a perspective from social and computer sciences." in aaai fall symposium, roles: an interdisciplinary pespective. london: aaai press. mader, s. 2007. wikipatterns. wiley. de moor, a. 2008. "activating online collaborative communities." pp. 97-108 in proc. of the 5th international conference on action in language, organisations, and information systems (alois 2008), venice, italy, may 5-6, 2008. university of trento. de moor, a. 2009. "collaboration patterns as building blocks for community informatics." in proc. of the 6th prato community informatics research network conference, prato, italy, november 4-6, 2009. de moor, a. 2010. "conversations in context: a twitter case for social media systems design." in proc. of i-semantics 2010, september 1-3, graz, austria. acm. de moor, a. 2009. "optimizing social software system design." pp. 273-293 in conceptual structures in practice, edited by pascal hitzler and henrik scharfe. crc press. de moor, a., and h weigand. 2007. "formalizing the evolution of virtual communities." information systems 32:223-247. preece, j. 2000. online communities : designing usability, supporting sociability. chichester ; new york: john wiley. preece, j., and b. shneiderman. 2009. "the reader-to-leader framework: motivating technology-mediated social participation." ais transactions on humancomputer interaction 1:13-32. ren, y., r. kraut, and s. kiesler. 2007. "applying common identity and bond theory to the design of online communities." organization studies 28:377-408. sowa, john f. 1984. conceptual structures : information processing in mind and machine. reading, mass.: addison-wesley. spinellis, diomidis, and panagiotis louridas. 2008. "the collaborative organization of knowledge." commun. acm 51:68-73. stephens, keri k. 2007. "the successive use of information and communication technologies at work." communication theory 17:486-507. whitworth, b. 2006. "socio-technical systems." pp. 533-541 in encyclopedia of human computer interaction. hershey: idea group. winograd, terry, and fernando flores. 1986. understanding computers and cognition : a new foundation for design. norwood, n.j.: ablex pub. corp.             exchange program programa de intercambio entre operadores de telecentros. una nueva generación de redes en el movimiento de telecentros panamericano. oscar maeso fundación chasquinet en quito (ecuador) oscar@chasquinet.org resumen ¿puede una red ir más allá del intercambio de información? ¿cómo puede telecentro de chile beneficiarse del trabajo que realiza otro telecentro en méxico? el programa de intercambio de telecentros es un proyecto diseñado e implementado por la alianza de telecentros de las americas (tap) que ha demostrado que las redes de conocimiento pueden y deben evolucionar hacia redes en las que sus miembros sean capaces de elaborar e implementar proyectos de forma conjunta y colaborativa. a lo largo de este artículo se analiza este interesantísimo proyecto que fue ejecutado en el año 2006. redes para la elaboración de proyectos conjuntos. un boleto de avión comprado en ecuador para un viaje desde méxico distrito federal a santiago de chile. el billete se gestiona a través de internet por los coordinadores del pit que trabajan en la fundación chasquinet en quito; el boleto se emite a nombre de juan carlos rico campos, el subdirector de centros interactivos poder joven de méxico, que presentó su propuesta de intercambio conjuntamente con la subtel (subsecretaria de telecomunicaciones) de chile… los proyectos basados en red nos muestran un mundo sin fronteras donde los resultados y los actores son globales, donde se comparte algo más que información digital para alcanzar objetivos comunes. las redes electrónicas o digitales han mostrado su eficacia como redes de apoyo, donde los distintos actores comparten e intercambian información para fortalecer determinados procesos. un ejemplo de este tipo de redes es somos@telecentros, una red de telecentros con más de 3.500 miembros activos que hasta la fecha ha sido el lugar de encuentro para responsables de telecentros, operadores, investigadores, estudiantes y otros actores del movimiento de telecentros que han utilizado las distintas herramientas electrónicas disponibles (listas de distribución, centros de recursos, blogs, etc.) para apoyarse mutuamente. el consorcio de telecentros de las americas (tap1) a través del pit ha dado una vuelta de tuerca al concepto de redes y ha demostrado la posibilidad de que estas sean un espacio adecuado para trabajar a distancia en la consecución de objetivos comunes. una evolución de una red informativa a una red transformadora y activa que se analiza mediante el estudio de caso del pit. sobre los actores tap, es una red de redes que representa aproximadamente a 10.000 telecentros y representantes del movimiento de telecentros a lo largo del continente americano (norte américa, centro américa, sudamérica y el caribe). los miembros fundadores de tap se muestran en la siguiente tabla. nombre año de inicio breve descripción web somos@telecentros 1999 red de telecentros y redes de telecentros que representa 3.750 telecentros a lo largo de américa latina y el caribe www.tele-centros.org aspira association, inc 1961 red de 135 telecenters al servicio de las comunidades latinas en estados unidos y puerto rico www.aspira.org community technology centers' network (ctcnet) 1989 red de mas de 1.000 telecentros independientes (centros comunitarios tecnológicos) que facilita acceso a computadoras, el internet y otras herramientas tecnológicas a los residentes de comunidades de bajos ingresos a lo largo de los estados unidos www.ctcnet.org pacific community networks association (pcna) 1993 organización de 28 redes locales que agrupan a 560 telecentros en la columbia británica y el yukon (canadá). adicionalmente, pcna representa actualmente a 4,500 telecentros y otras redes comunitarias en el consorcio de tap www.pcna.ca association for community networking association for community networking facilita recursos, aprendizaje compartido y asistencia con mucha experiencia para ayudar a las comunidades y organizaciones a usar las tecnologías de comunicación e información de forma efectiva fundación chasquinet 1997 fundación que promueve el uso estratégico de las tic en los sectores sociales de los países en vías de desarrollo a través de la acción práctica, la investigación, las políticas, la educación y la mejora de la comunicación. el objetivo de la fundación chasquinet es contribuir al uso de las tic como un mecanismo de apoyo para el desarrollo y mejora de las condiciones de vida, la educación y el fortalecimiento de la cultura de las personas. www.chasquinet.org tabla 1: miembros fundadores de tap. los telecentros son concebidos por tap como espacios comunitarios de transformación social y desarrollo humano dónde los habitantes de las comunidades menos favorecidas tienen acceso a las tecnologías de información y comunicación (tic) y las utilizan como herramientas de apoyo a sus procesos de desarrollo humano y social. bajo este concepto se creó tap, con el objetivo de incrementar la variedad y la calidad de apoyo existente en torno a los telecentros para que estos a su vez puedan servir más efectivamente a sus respectivas comunidades. para alcanzar estos objetivos tap considera que uno de de los primeros factores que ayuda a crecer y que apoya la eficacia y la sostenibilidad de los telecentros es la capacidad para compartir conocimiento, ideas y modelos de programa. a lo largo de este artículo utilizaremos el término redes de conocimiento para describir el medio por el que entendemos que se facilitan dichos procesos tanto en el caso del pit de tap como en cualquier otra red humana que utiliza medios, sean estos, físicos y/o virtuales como medios de transmisión e intercambio de información y para su transformación en conocimiento. los operadores de los telecentros son las personas encargadas de guiar, capacitar y fortalecer a las comunidades en el uso estratégico de las tic para mejorar sus procesos de desarrollo. en muchos casos el/la operador/a es el/la encargado/a de definir los contenidos de los talleres e identificar las necesidades de capacitación de la comunidad. por lo tanto la labor de los/as operadores/as es clave y fundamental. en este sentido son muchos los autores que señalan la importancia de estos actores para lograr la efectividad y la sostenibilidad de los telecentros (delgadillo 2002, proenza 2004, roessner 2005). el pit que analizamos en este artículo, es un proyecto conceptualizado e implementado por tap que cuenta con el apoyo financiero de telecentre.org2. el proyecto fue formulado ante una necesidad detectada en las bases del movimiento de telecentros y que se refiere a la casi total inexistencia de encuentros físicos entre los operadores de base de los telecentros. si bien existen numerosos encuentros internacionales sobre el uso de las tic para el desarrollo (ticpd), los operadores y las bases del movimiento telecentrista no han podido participar en estos fundamentalmente por las razones que se detallan a continuación: el coste de los viajes. las barreras del lenguaje. escaso valor de la mayor parte de las conferencias internacionales para las bases del movimiento telecentrista. (falta de adaptación a sus necesidades). la consecuencia es que son muy pocos los operadores de base de telecentros de las diferentes regiones los que han tenido la oportunidad de estar juntos físicamente e intercambiar sus experiencias cara a cara. una red de conocimiento, como hemos visto, puede utilizar sistemas electrónicos para el intercambio de información, por ejemplo el correo electrónico; pero sino existen encuentros físicos que permitan a los distintos actores conocerse, es muy difícil que surjan las dimensiones humanas tales como la confianza, el entendimiento mutuo y compartir una visión común, elementos que tap considera necesarios para la construcción colectiva de conocimiento a través de las redes humanas. para que los operadores puedan desarrollar su verdadero potencial deben tener una capacitación multidisciplinar y continua. es aquí donde las redes de conocimiento, y en especial los medios virtuales, juegan un papel muy importante, facilitando un medio de intercambio de conocimiento y capacitación eficiente de bajo coste y adaptado a las necesidades de estos actores. a los actores de pit debemos incluir uno menos evidente pero de creciente importancia: las comunidades transnacionales (canales, zloniski 2000) que representan una activación a través de la migración de diversos factores y procesos de articulación en el ámbito cultural, social y económico, entre comunidades e instituciones sociales distantes y separadas geográficamente. estas comunidades dispersas geográficamente, utilizan las tic para comunicarse y mantener sus vínculos. los telecentros están siendo utilizados por las comunidades latinas no solo como puntos de acceso a las tic sino como lugar de encuentro con las comunidades de inmigrantes en sus países de destino. por lo tanto los actores van mas allá de los participantes directos (operadores/as de telecentros), existen comunidades locales vinculadas con otros lugares distantes a través de las comunidades transnacionales, algunas comunidades antes aisladas son cada vez más globales y han hecho aparecer nuevos términos como la glocalidad que representa nuevos fenómenos surgidos de la conjunción de lo local y lo global. el pit tal y como se detalla en este articulo, demuestra el potencial de las redes como instrumentos para beneficiar a un gran numero de personas mediante la elaboración de proyectos colaborativos basados en red. una evolución en el movimiento de telecentros la convergencia entre las telecomunicaciones y la informática es un elemento fundamental para la aparición de la denominada sociedad de la información, una sociedad marcada por un gran dinamismo. entre otros elementos este dinamismo ha producido una serie de cambios en los últimos años entre los que destacamos la evolución de una internet estática a una internet dinámica; la transformación de una red de maquinas a una red de personas o red social conocida como web 2.0; las tecnologías que utilizamos se encuentran también en una evolución constante, las aparición de las redes inalámbricas ha facilitado y abaratado la conectividad permitiendo entre otras cosas que los telecentros florezcan en lugares cada vez más remotos del continente americano. todos estos cambios se han dado en apenas una década lo cual nos da muestra de la rapidez con la que las tic evolucionan. el movimiento de telecentros no ha sido ajeno a estos cambios que poco a poco han sido incorporados de una u otra manera. la evolución de las redes a las que ha contribuido el pit, es el elemento que analizamos en este artículo. este ha sido un proyecto piloto fruto de la experiencia de todos los miembros de tap en el trabajo con telecentros a lo largo del continente americano. las redes que conforman el movimiento de telecentros de las americas, hasta ahora no habían explorado la posibilidad de realizar proyectos colaborativos basados en red, sin embargo el pit ha abierto esta posibilidad en el movimiento y como veremos lo ha hecho con muy buenos resultados. una red electrónica (guijt y woodhill, 2005) es un grupo de personas que interactúan a través de los medios de internet y están vinculadas por un interés común (en nuestro caso el movimiento de telecentros. internet, entre otras cosas, ofrece lo siguiente: vías económicas y rápidas para la comunicación. (en la actualidad fundamentalmente escrita) intercambio rápido y facilitado o moderado de diálogo escrito sobre asuntos o temas relevantes para los miembros. acceso a sitios de internet operados por moderadores de red o por personas suscritas que brindan información relevante para sus miembros acceso a grandes cantidades de información, en ocasiones preseleccionadas alrededor de un tema de interés común. para conformar esta red, pit desarrolló una plataforma bilingüe virtual3 utilizando el internet y facilitando a los actores de las distintas redes que conforman tap intercambiar sus fortalezas y debilidades. el resultado es que tap, gracias a este proyecto ha logrado desarrollar los vínculos entre los actores de las distintas redes de telecentros, fundamentalmente operadores, facilitando de este modo el proceso de creación de una red de conocimiento global del movimiento de telecentros panamericano y, lo que es más importante, generando los medios para que estos actores sean capaces de elaborar proyectos conjuntos que les permitan mejorar las condiciones de sus respectivas comunidades y alcanzar objetivos comunes. el proyecto se dividió en cuatro etapas de implementación: desarrollo de la plataforma y comunicación al interior de las distintas redes. registro de participantes en el proyecto y propuestas de intercambio. selección las mejores propuestas. viajes e intercambios virtuales entre los participantes seleccionados. la primera etapa incluyó el desarrollo del espacio de encuentro de los actores de las distintas redes. (un sitio web dinámico diseñado con lenguaje php con una base de datos diseñada en mysql y servidor iis). gráfico1: pantalla de la plataforma del pit. durante esta etapa cabe destacar la coordinación entre las distintas redes, se creó un comité directivo con representantes de todas las organizaciones que forman tap lo que permitió trabajar de forma conjunta en los materiales de comunicación para dar a conocer el pit a los participantes. se utilizó el idioma ingles para guiar los trabajos de coordinación. la comunicación con los operadores y miembros del movimiento de telecentros no resultó sencilla, la novedad de la iniciativa dificultó la comprensión del concepto por parte de algunos actores y se preciso una labor de acompañamiento y guía para facilitar la participación. la segunda etapa fue la que permitió poner en contacto a las personas de las distintas redes que conforman tap. durante 11 semanas todos los miembros de las redes tuvieron la oportunidad de informarse, registrarse en el programa y realizar sus propuestas de intercambio conjuntas con cualquier otro miembro. en este periodo se evidenció que gran parte de las bases del movimiento de telecentros no cuenta con las habilidades necesarias para realizar proyectos conjuntos basados en red y que pit ha supuesto un gran cambio para todos los participantes que a lo largo del proceso fueron adquiriendo dichas habilidades para alcanzar un objetivo concreto trabajando con personas distantes geográficamente con las que formularon una propuesta con el apoyo de los tutores del pit. se optó por un registro a modo de mercado, en el que cada persona tuvo la oportunidad de realizar una oferta de conocimiento o presentar una solicitud a modo de necesidad, esto permitió al resto de participantes identificar a sus potenciales socios para elaborar una propuesta de intercambio. este formato fue útil para que los participantes identificasen a sus socios pero en realidad se comprobó que no existían participantes que ofrecían o recibían experiencia o conocimiento sino que en todas las propuestas que se ejecutaron los participantes recibieron y dieron en igual medida, por lo que el pit se convirtió en una experiencia en la que los participantes actuaron de forma horizontal en el intercambio de su experticia. los y las participantes tuvieron que redactar su propuesta a modo de proyecto siguiendo un modelo sencillo pero que contenía todos los elementos requeridos por cualquier donante a la hora de formular un proyecto, es decir: antecedentes, objetivos a corto y largo plazo, actividades, presupuesto, beneficio/s y un breve resumen del proyecto. gráfico 2: pantalla del mercado del pit la participación en el pit teniendo en cuenta el carácter piloto fue bastante elevada. los coordinadores identificaron algunos factores que pueden facilitar y mejorar la participación de cara a futuras ediciones que se detallan a continuación: novedad. pit ha sido un proyecto piloto. en tap no existían precedentes de actividades que beneficien directamente a los operadores de los telecentros. falta de capacitación en la elaboración de propuestas. se detecto una baja preparación para la formulación de proyectos. falta de acceso eficaz a internet. este es un recurso que todavía no es estable en muchos telecentros, especialmente en américa latina y el caribe. falta de una cultura del uso del internet como herramienta para la elaboración de propuestas conjuntas. timidez y miedo. algunos operadores expresaron temor a participar en este tipo de actividades en la que debían compartir con la comunidad de telecentros sus necesidades o sus ofertas. en otros casos se observó cierta timidez que reprimió su participación. falta de apoyo institucional a los operadores. algunos telecentros son apoyados por ongs u otros organismos que mantienen el telecentro como un proyecto de su exclusividad no permitiendo a los operadores participar en este tipo de actividades. asimismo se identificaron unos roles básicos que debe cumplir la coordinación de este tipo de proyectos y que detallamos a continuación: motivar a los individuos a participar activamente. brindar asistencia permanente comunicación clara, sistemática y permanente a través de distintos medios (virtuales y físicos). al final del proceso de inscripción se realizaron 13 propuestas de intercambio entre los participantes, todas ellas de gran calidad. les fue asignado un tutor por el pit que les ayudó a resolver sus dudas y orientar mejor sus propuestas. un jurado seleccionó las ocho mejores propuestas (ver tabla 2) que contaron con el apoyo financiero para que pudieran implementar sus intercambios dando paso así a la cuarta y ultima etapa de implementación del proyecto en la que los operadores tuvieron la oportunidad de viajar a otros países, dentro de sus países o realizar intercambios virtuales. en el aspecto financiero cabe destacar que los montos para realizar este tipo de intercambios no son excesivamente costosos, tan sólo un proyecto supero los 5.000 dólares. asimismo conviene señalar que los participantes realizaron sus aportaciones a los proyectos. nombre de las propuestas ganadoras participantes colaboración e intercambio de conocimiento knowledge exchange and collaboration cap society of cape breton county, marieval enterprise center inc mejora de la comunicación entre los inmigrantes mayas y sus familias a través de los telecentros. improving communication between mayan immigrants and their families with telecenters cetebi comunitario ajb'atz' enlace quiche cedc/gnbc3 potenciar la oferta digital para l@s jóvenes de los programas biblioredes de chile y poder joven de méxico. enhancing digital offer for youth from biblioredes (chile) and poder joven (mexico) red nacional de centros interactivos poder joven programa biblioredes intercambio de experiencias para fortalecer el trabajo de las comunidades indígenas en sololá, guatemala y en el chaco, ecuador – principalmente fortalecer la capacidad de administración de ambos telecentros comunitarios. exchange of experiences to strengthen the work of indigenous communities in sololá (guatemala) and el chaco (ecuador) mainly the administrative capacity of both community telecenters. telecentro comunitario el chaco telecentro asodigua intercambio para el fortalecimiento de la escuela, familia y comunidad, basado en el uso estratégico de las tic en aplicaciones educativas, con los telecentros comunitarios, para el desarrollo local. exchange for the strengthening of school, family and community based in the strategic use of icts in education through community telecenters. intercambiar experiencias entre jóvenes exchange of experiences between young people. telecentro wuaita napo – ecuador escuela politécnica nacional prevención y atención de desastres naturales desde telecentros. prevention and attention of natural disasters through community telecenters. telecentro asodigua corten acceso inalámbrico para crear oportunidades para el desarrollo económico comunitario. wireless wan creates opportunities for community economic development swsda marieval enterprise center inc total tabla 2: propuestas ganadoras y presupuesto gráfico 3: países receptores de experticia de las propuestas ganadoras gráfico 4: países oferentes de experticia de las propuestas ganadoras en los gráficos 3 y 4 se detallan los países a los que pertenecen los participantes de las propuestas ganadoras. el grafico 3 detalla los países que se registraron como receptores de experticia y en el 4 los que se registraron como oferentes de la misma, aunque como ya se señalo con anterioridad al final del proceso se observó que no se cumplió con tal papel sino que todos los participantes intercambiaron experticia de modo horizontal. destaca la participación de ecuador y canadá que fueron los países a los que perteneció la coordinación sur y norte del programa. esto sin duda facilito la promoción personal de pit y dio lugar a un mayor número de propuestas de ambos países. de las ocho propuestas ganadoras tan sólo una planteó alcanzar sus objetivos a través de un medio completamente virtual, el resto requirieron viajar para el intercambio de conocimiento y tan solo una propuesta se realizó entre dos países con idiomas distintos lo que nos apunta a que el idioma puede ser una barrera para determinados intercambios. todas las propuestas han sido de gran valor, en este artículo no se analizan individualmente las mismas ya que se requeriría de una extensión mucho mayor para presentar las mismas, sin embargo son muchas las lecciones y resultados de este programa, a continuación se detalla una síntesis de las mismas. resultados del proyecto. a continuación se presentan un resumen de los resultados alcanzados a tres niveles: por parte de los participantes en el pit, por parte de las comunidades beneficiadas por los telecentros y finalmente por parte de las redes que conforman tap. participantes: capacidad de trabajo en red sin fronteras con otros operadores de telecentros. capacidad de elaborar propuestas de proyecto. identificación de actividades y modelos de telecentros innovadores en los países anfitriones que fueron aplicados en sus telecentros de origen. fortalecimiento del compromiso personal con el movimiento de telecentros. creación de relaciones personales transnacionales que han dado como resultado un incremento del intercambio informal de información en tap. comunidades: implementación de modelos innovadores adaptados de las visitas a otros telecentros. creación de relaciones organizativas transnacionales. redes de telecentros (tap): fortalecimiento del trabajo en red, el intercambio de conocimiento y la cooperación entre las redes. creación de contenido sobre programas y propuestas innovadoras disponibles a través del sitio web de tap y listas de discusión y otros medios de las redes participantes. creación de un modelo de programa de intercambio entre telecentros que puede ser alojado e implementado por una red de telecentros fácilmente replicable y adaptable a otras realidades. finalmente en una mirada hacia los resultados alcanzados individualmente por las distintas propuestas cabe destacar la apertura de un nuevo telecentro en la localidad de challhuahuacho (perú) fruto de los intercambios realizados gracias al pit; este telecentro además será un espacio muy ligado a la educación gracias a los conocimientos adquiridos durante el intercambio en la pedagogía constructivista que la fundación chasquinet esta aplicando en su programa “escuelas inter@ctivas” en ecuador. los acuerdos alcanzados entre las alcaldías de el chaco (ecuador) y san josé de chacaya (guatemala) permitirán a las comunidades mejorar sus ingresos económicos utilizando sus telecentros como vitrinas para promocionar y comercializar sus productos. estos son solo algunos ejemplos puntuales de lo que este proyecto piloto ha alcanzado, en siguientes fases esperamos que el pit pueda seguir fortaleciendo el movimiento de telecentros y alcanzar muchos más resultados. conclusión el pit ha sido un primer e importante paso que ha demostrado una posible evolución de las redes de telecentros de simples espacios de apoyo hacia redes de trabajo colaborativo, un concepto que en el movimiento de telecentros puede beneficiar a un gran numero de actores a los que representan los telecentros en sus respectivas comunidades, en este sentido las comunidades se extienden de manera global en lo que denominamos comunidades transnacionales. a lo largo del articulo hemos visto como esta experiencia piloto ha demostrado la viabilidad de este tipo de experiencias en el movimiento de telecentros y su pertinencia para los operadores, un grupo de gran importancia en el movimiento de telecentros que no siempre cuenta con el apoyo necesario para desempeñar su trabajo y mejorar sus capacidades. en un mundo cada vez más globalizado los telecentros enfrentan el desafío de ayudar a transformar no solo su comunidad sino la percepción que tenemos de la propia globalización, un fenómeno cambiante que requiere construir una visión común por parte del movimiento de telecentros desde las múltiples diferencias que conforman el continente americano y sus comunidades. esa globalización no es ajena a este movimiento, tap es una red de redes que agrupa a los distintos actores del movimiento de telecentros panamericano, pero la globalización no se detiene en este continente y ya esta en marcha el proyecto de una red global a nivel mundial: global telecenter alliance (gta) una red totalmente global que une a los distintos movimientos y redes de telecentros de todo el planeta del que tap forma parte y que permitirá que este tipo de proyectos eliminen las fronteras físicas tal y como las conocemos hoy en día, facilitando el desarrollo humano y social a través de los telecentros. bibliografía canales a. zloniski, ch. (2000). comunidades y migración en la era de la globalización. ponencia presentada en el simposio sobre migración internacional en las américas. san josé, costa rica, 4 al 6 de septiembre de 2000. delgadillo, karin, gómez, ricardo y stoll, klaus (2002). telecentros… ¿para qué? lecciones sobre telecentros comunitarios en américa latina y el caribe. (primera edición). centro internacional de investigaciones para el desarrollo, ciid: canadá. guikt, irene y woodhill, jim (2005) el aprendizaje a través de redes electrónicas y temas relacionados a monitoreo y evaluación. descargado el 12 de febrero de 2007 de: www.grupochorlavi.org/php/doc/documentos/aprendizajemonitoreo.pdf proenza, bastidas y montero. (2004) telecentros para el desarrollo socioeconómico y rural en américa latina. documento de trabajo. fao. centro de inversiones. uit. sector de desarrollo de las telecomunicaciones. bid. división de programas sociales, departamento de operaciones 2, unidad rural, departamento de desarrollo sostenible, unidad de tecnología de información para el desarrollo: washington, d.c. estados unidos. roessner, christoph. (2005). ict and development. the it-infrastructure telecentre. descargado en febrero de 2006 de: www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/publications/papers/dipl/roessner_the_it-infrastructure_telecentre.pdf tap (2006), inter-american telecenter practitioner exchange program (it-pep). documento de proyecto aprobado por idrc (canadá) en mayo de 2006. 1telecentres of the americas partnership, por sus siglas en inglés. mas información en: www.tele-centers.net 2www.telecentre.org 3http://www.pcnastream.com/exchange/paginas/inicio.php   position paper: turning the corner with first nation telehealth     to the editor:   keewaytinook okimakanak telehealth services is an important contributing partner in the development and sustainability of community networks in remote first nations across northwestern ontario, canada. in the past, community members were flown to the nearest hospital to receive medical attention or to consult with a specialist. today, more and more of these trips are being avoided with the installation of the proper broadband infrastructure and the effective use of telemedicine tools.   the "turning the corner with first nations telehealth" document highlights the achievements and impacts of these services on the communities participating in this pioneering work. as the government of canada and national aboriginal organizations develop strategies to address the critical health care system, this paper describes the highlights of a community-based health care initiative that is making a difference in the lives of community members.   brian beaton k-net / on-rmo coordinator keewaytinook okimakanak < brian.beaton@knet.ca >     position paper: turning the corner with first nation telehealth   online communities sustainability: some economic issues   laura anna ripamonti università degli studi di milano < ripamonti@dico.unimi.it >   fiorella de cindio università degli studi di milano < fiorella.decindio@unimi.it >   mario benassi università degli studi di milano < mbenassi@dsi.unimi.it >       abstract   there is a growing attention being placed on community networking and community informatics, due to the role both can play in building the information society. hence, the issue of the sustainability of online communities becomes more and more relevant: multiple aspects – social, institutional and economical – have to be jointly analyzed to understand how and if a project is really worthwhile. in this paper we address the economic sustainability aspect, a key component still not deeply investigated. actually, survival and growth are common themes in the organizational and businesses literature since the beginning of the ‘60’s, nevertheless, online communities only partly comply with the available frameworks and we are left with a panorama where communities emerge and evolve as if they were either completely bottom-up, unplanned entities or rational top down quasi-organizations. hence, our aim is to offer a first attempt to define several theoretical propositions on economical sustainability, mainly derived from our ongoing experience and research on online communities.   introduction ict (information and communication technology) based communities have gained a central place in recent debate among scholars and practitioners, as they seem highly appropriate for taking advantage or the potential of the technology, and for adding value to it. communities take advantage of the potential of the technology as individuals and companies, sharing common interests, become connected in knitted webs of information exchange, in this way by-passing distances and differences. online communities, by grouping together individuals and companies, enforce mutual trust, provide a sense of identity, and facilitate knowledge transfer and mutual learning. however, despite such perceived importance, and the growing popularity of on-line communities, the key issue of their sustainability still remains under-explored. this holds true both for not-for-profit and for-profit communities. according to the wikipedia[1] the issue of sustainability can be broken down into three major aspects: institutional sustainability, economical and financial sustainability and ecological sustainability. institutional sustainability involve contextual issues in supporting communities, and social issues concerning how they are structured, as analyzed by several authors (see e.g. venkatesh, 2003; and carroll and rosson, 2003). analysing the implications of ecological sustainability is beyond of the scope of this study. however, the economic and financial sustainability of online communities is a relevant issue, still not fully addressed (as reported also in millen, fontane and muller, 2002), in spite of its fundamental importance – either for practical or conceptual reasons for any online community. since no specific study fully addresses this issue, we will try to import – where possible useful concepts and models from management and economics literature, adapting these to the specific context of online communities, both for and not-for profit. business scholars and business literature in general maintain that communities are beneficial for business, but this judgment is based upon anecdotes at best. despite some good, in-depth case studies (such as on ebay and amazon), bearing evidence to the positive influence of a trustworthy, self-reinforcing community on firms’ competitive position (armstrong and hagel, 1998), most literature and scholars consider communities as no more than a mere social or cultural issue. the most popular view is that they, at a maximum, may provide a favorable context in the society (this is the case, e.g., of community networks – cns) or somehow help companies by making their task environment more munificent (in the case of online business communities). more recently, scholars have paid increasing attention to communities and made them a crucial unit of analysis for addressing old issues in new ways. for instance, fiol and o’connor (2002) draw lessons on radical change processes affecting communities and show how the interaction between hot emotional interpretations and cold cognitive interpretations make change possible. from a different, more business-oriented perspective, von hippel (2001) suggested that communities of users may play a crucial role in the innovation processes by making crucial information freely available to manufacturers, and even by creating and sustaining complex innovations without any manufacturers’ involvement. along the same vein, lee and cole (2003) explored how communities of programmers developed new knowledge by working together in a public, dispersed environments, where everybody is connected to everybody else through the net. they showed convincingly through the examination of the linux case-study how open criticism and error correction worked as a genetic rule to make development of the community possible and for making the whole development possible. although related to different knowledge domains, these studies show that communities do have specific features and that their evolution over time, as well as their outcome, calls for a reconsideration of concepts normally used in the management literature. communities are not a novelty in the scientific debate, but their use in the business literature is quite new. up to only a few years ago, most popular theoretical models depicted firms as stand alone islands, and did not pay attention to the knitted web of relationships in which they were embedded. studies by scholars working across different disciplines showed, on the contrary, that relations can make a difference in the usual business domains, be it the competitive strategy of the firm, its learning processes or more generally its ability to cope with volatile environments. moreover, relationships among professionals working inside a firm or in different firms have been shown to matter and this is even more relevant when patterns of interactions are repeated over time, a collective identity appears and common goals are present. communities are such a case: in a community, although participants may fluctuate, there is a stable number of actors working on common issues. examples of well-documented communities are orr’s community of technicians fixing problems at rank xerox, or lee and cole community of linux developers (orr, 1990; lee and cole, 2003). online communities are a special case, for – holding true the above features — interactions occur primarily online and actors may not necessarily know each other. this is the case of citizens interacting online on shared issues, but also of users (customers, employees, partners, etc.) interacting with their company, among themselves to discuss products’ features or to launch promotional initiatives, to suggest improvements and so on. not only are studies on economical and financial sustainability lacking even for for-profit online communities, but also no sound cost-benefit analysis of online communities from the companies’ standpoint currently exist in the literature. online communities may reinforce companies’ visibility and strengthen customers’ retention, but they also result in costs, require commitment and skills and companies often take for them granted. not surprisingly, while their launch is often a-critically supported, disinvestment decisions will normally made when financial problems arise. most companies are suspicious, adopt a wait and see approach, while others embrace communities with no clear understanding of their pros and cons.   by offering propositions on the issue of sustainability, we do hope to offer scholars and practitioners useful insights for planning and managing online communities that will support their institutional goals, both in for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. building a general sustainability model is a long and complex process; hence, in this paper, we will only tackle two issues we consider to be crucial: how to define the cost structure of online communities and how to measure their benefits. to do that, we will first define a prototypical model (§ 2) on the basis of concepts derived from management sciences. actually, even if the business literature at the moment has no off-the-shelf solution to offer, basic concepts on cost and benefit evaluation can be effectively adapted to the specific case, as for example, in designing a framework general enough to guide promoters in developing their own strategies for assuring the economical sustainability of their communities. in the second part of the paper (§ 3) we analyse the rcm rete civica di milano (milan community network) case, in order to share several lessons on strategy building for online community economical sustainability. 2. issues on sustainability: how to evaluate online communities’ costs and benefits although online communities are not a recent phenomenon – they were active before the web a general, commonly agreed-upon, definition still does not exist (see, e.g., preece, 2000). also, communities are strange animals, for their birth and evolution has taken scholars by surprise: they have just began exploring how communities may be born (see e.g. preece, 2000 and kim, 2000) what their benefits are, how they evolve over time, and how they can be socially sustainable (see e.g. de cindio et al., 2003). but we as yet haven’t tackled the financial and economic aspects of their sustainability. we do maintain that these issues are very relevant both for profit and not for profit organizations, and we believe that a general model of sustainability would be highly beneficial. if such a model existed, institutions and citizens could realize the economic and financial benefits of building and managing a community; while companies, on the other hand, could become aware of the managerial and organizational “technology” needed to build and maintain a community. as a first step we will assume that online communities (of any kind), according to their socio-technical nature (preece, 2000), are organizational subjects, and thus endowed with a precise life-cycle (wenger et al., 2002). usually online community start-up requirements and related costs are not problematic to define, for community’s promoters normally do know the socio-technical needs of their project, how related costs may be covered, and which benefits it is possible to realize in the first phases of the community life. suppose for instance a company is willing to set up a temporary community, say for gathering feedback about a new product: in this case, tangible and intangible inputs are easily definable, and comparable with the value of the information the company has already acquired. this example is clearly fictional: companies and organizations in general do not set up “temporary communities”, and their outcome is not easily pre-definable. although we recognize initial stages are very important and cannot be overlooked in a general model of sustainability, we will focus on the economical sustainability of subsequent life-stages, with a particular attention on the maturity period of a community, that is to say when a “significant” number of members has been reached. simply put, a process, activity and organization is sustainable to the extent the inputs and outputs are in balance. online communities should be seen as investments with medium to long term benefits. although some of these benefits may be economic in nature – for example: technicians may devise methods to cut the maintenance costs of complex products – traditional, firm-based and market-oriented variables are not appropriate: in a community, there is inconsistency between the value of inputs and outputs. in communities inputs bear costs, and can be estimated, whereas outputs are for the most part intangible and difficult to value. how for example, could a company (but the case of a local not-for-profit is basically similar) use a pure p&l (profit and loss) or budget-like approach in evaluating the increase in customers’ brand awareness due to participation in a community of supporters, the new knowledge realized about hidden features of its products’ portfolio, or the new applications users were able to devise? benefits cannot be too vaguely or ex-post assessed: a naive, short-sighted “let’s invest and then will see what happens” approach does not hold possible. on the other hand, organizations should pay attention not to be locked in a too specific, revenue-like evaluation approach. only a wise performance measurement assessment can help organizations to understand benefits of communities and to strike a right balance between costs and benefits. by focusing on the cost drivers and benefits indicators of online communities, we want to tackle the sustainability issues from a wider perspective. as the life and success of any (for-profit and not-for-profit) online community depend on a complex mix of multidisciplinary aspects (see, e.g., kim, 2000; preece, 2000; ripamonti, 2004), a good starting point can be the definition of critical success factors (csfs) which most heavily affect an online community’s sustainability. once csfs are clear, a path for defining the appropriate cost structure of each online community, based on a rigorous assessment of resource requirements, can be built (see fig.1). the same list can be also used for assessing benefits. the comparison between cost drivers and benefits measurement can be helpful in selecting appropriate strategies for sustainable communities.   figure 1: the process for determining sustainability strategies       cost and benefit evaluation for an online community are associated with a selected number of critical success factors e.g., following wenger et al.’s (2002) classification (see tab.1). although wenger’s list is specially addressed to communities of practice (cops), they share with online communities a great deal of features (cfr. de cindio & ripamonti, to appear), thus we think they could be a good starting point for our analysis.   critical success factor to build communities factors technological implications 1. presence and visibility ·   pointers ·   community directories ·   push distributions (newsletter, reminders, …) ·   member directories ·   who is doing what ·   presence awareness ·   instant messaging ·   virtual coffee 2. rhythm ·   community calendar ·   reminders ·   synchronization of calendars ·   synchronous events ·   invitations ·   minutes of events quickly available ·   hot topics 3. variety of interactions asynchronous: ·   email and discussion boards ·   document check-out/version control synchronous: ·   lectures and large meetings ·   application sharing ·   web tours 4. efficiency of involvement ·   integration with work systems ·   personalized knowledge/application portals ·   subscriptions ·   tours of new activity ·   content filtering and ordering ·   archiving of interactions 5. short term value ·   mechanisms for asking questions ·   faq’s ·   databases of answers ·   intelligent access to experts ·   help forums ·   brainstorming facilities 6. long term value ·   repositories for artifacts ·   taxonomies ·   search mechanisms ·   discussing and updating a learning agenda ·   spaces for practice-development projects 7. connections to the world ·   news ·   external events announcements ·   directory of external experts ·   links to other sites ·   library of references 8. personal identity ·   profiles ·   synchronizing profiles across communities with multiple view ·   reputation and ranking ·   preferences ·   personal history ·   private places 9. communal identity ·   having and furnishing a communal place ·   public access to community’s “source documents” ·   news about the community and success stories ·   distinctive look and feel ·   community public presence 10. belongings and relationships ·   personal profiles ·   supporting private interactions and interpersonal relationships ·   conversations online to help the “shyest” ·   chat moderators 11. complex boundaries ·   differential access rights ·   lurking facilities ·   public areas and restricted ones ·   subspaces ·   nested features 12. evolution: maturation and integration ·   low initial investment (money) to have a “tentative” commitment ·   enough feature for future development ·   flexibility in configuration ·   ongoing reflection, assessment and redirection 13. active community building ·   logs and statistics ·   polling and voting ·   assessment tools and surveys ·   administrative help and reminders ·   switches and policy enforcements algorithms ·   health indicators table 1 csfs affecting community building according to wenger et al. (2002)   as a first step, it is necessary to contextualise wenger’s list, selecting the subset of csfs most directly relevant for each specific community, as not all of these have the same importance in different contexts (e.g. “integration with the work system” in factor number 4, probably will not be crucial for a citizens network, as well as “chat moderators” in factor number 10 may be quite irrelevant in organizational knowledge sharing communities). as a second step, selected factors (and related socio-technical features) should be translated into specific resource requirements. for example, if the presence of “chat moderators” is considered a distinctive feature, it should be necessary to provide both personnel skilled in moderating chats and a technical infrastructure that supports chats. once all the features are translated into resource requirements (e.g. specific skills for the personnel, technical features, hardware, software, buildings, internet connection, etc.) costs can be attached to each of these, and thus a total cost – and the consequent financial need can be estimated (see fig.2).   figure 2: financial needs evaluation process     these steps are not enough. we also need a means for demonstrating to the actors involved in the community project (e.g. local bodies, members of the community, organizational subjects, etc.) the value of the investment since it produces benefits – for example, for asking a public body to economically sustain a community network, or for justifying to the top management that the community-based intranet we are managing should be considered in the next year’s budget. this is even more important if we are endowed with the power of deciding our own strategies (that is to say we are the community promoters): comparing financial needs and benefits of our community can help in developing a framework to design strategies for achieving the economic sustainability of the community. we are talking of “benefits” and not of “revenues”, since most online communities (and especially community networks) usually are not intended for “selling” something, and therefore a cost-revenue analysis should be substituted by a more appropriate cost-benefit analysis. hence, the key issue for communities is producing useful benefits, no matter whether they are or are not tangible. to make a community sustainable, benefits should out-weigh costs in the long run: online communities are generally long-term investments, able to generate a perceivable benefit only after a considerable amount of time. time is necessary for consolidating interpersonal relations and achieving a critical mass of members. the performance of communities and benefits evaluation is far from “consolidated”: subjective biases may severely limit actors outside the organization or too far away from its daily working to understand the benefits (see wenger et al., 2002). wenger’s cfss list could be of some help for evaluating benefits of both for and not-for-profit online communities, since it supplies an effective mean for directly linking critical socio-technical features and requirements typical of an online community to evaluation criteria for benefits and performances– typical of a managerial approach. fig.3 summarizes a possible path for evaluating an online communities’ benefits and performances starting from wenger’s csfs. since detailed socio-technical requirements that affect the success of an online community cannot be “immediately” translated into something meaningful from a managerial point of view, we suggest wenger’s csfs be grouped into four “macro areas” (see tab.2): “learning”, “identity”, “innovation”, “effective structure” which are all relevant for any organization, and also crucial issues for any community. for example, ducati – a famous italian motorbike manufacturer has leveraged online community for reinforcing its brand image, thus positively affecting both identity and innovation. similar considerations can be done for the open source movement, but this holds true also for online communities of self-organizing citizens. thinking of benefits from these viewpoints is easier, and qualitative and quantitative measures can be identified for tracking online communities’ performances.   figure 3 – benefits evaluation process: from wenger's csfs to performance indicators     macro-areas associated wenger’s csfs learning 5. short term value 6. long term value identity 1. presence and visibility 2. rhythm 8. personal identity 9. communal identity innovation 7. connections to the world 12. evolution: maturation and integration 13. active community building effective structure 3. variety of interactions 4. efficiency of involvement 10. belonging and relationships 11. complex boundaries table 2 mapping wenger's csfs to macro-areas   defining measures for learning, identity, innovation and effective structure is not a trivial exercise, but management literature and companies’ experience could offer several hints. measures can be twofold: direct and indirect. direct measures weigh the impact of an online community on one of the macro-areas listed above: for instance, online communities may be beneficial in devising new ways of solving specific problems (macro-area: learning), in lowering turn-over rates (macro-area: identity), in cutting time to market (macro-area: innovation) or in lowering coordination costs (macro-area: effective structure). indirect measures influence online communities’ side-effects on other goals: for instance shell has developed an online community of practice for its technicians aimed at sharing knowledge and solving problems. this may have affected areas of innovation and learning. hence an increase in innovative ideas or in personal expertise should have been expected and measured (e.g. monitoring the increase in the number of new projects and ideas proposed by a research team). nevertheless the system also demonstrated that it would be helpful in cutting costs related to solving complex problems. measures can become very precise: for example, organizations using balanced scorecard methods (kaplan and norton, 1996) may derive new appropriate performance indicators to be included in the set they normally adopt. in this case, it should be remembered that the choice of appropriate performance indicators (sketched with a discontinuous line in fig.3) is strongly context dependent, as it is affected by the specific monitoring system (if any) adopted by the organization, by the goals and mission of the online community and by the macro-areas involved with the community activities.   once both cost structure and benefits measurement are set, the online community management can define strategies that are appropriate for covering a community’s financial needs, as we shall see in the rcm case study. defining these strategies is a key element in pursuing the mission and goals of the community, and thus a way of avoiding the risk of denaturalizing it (having the community lose its essential nature). this is precisely what happened to the amsterdam digitale stadt (dds), where in order to fund the basic non-profit activities, dds signed several consultancy contracts and hired personnel, generating a vicious circle: a bigger staff forced the organization to accept more and more contracts to cover personnel costs, thus slowly transforming the former dds into a software consultancy firm like many others (lovink and riemens, 2004). generally speaking, the strategies of online communities of for profit organizations should be coherent with the overall missions and goals of the company. along the same vein, sticking with the mission of a not-for-profit online community means selecting activities coherent with the purposes of the community, thus reinforcing the community’s essential nature through innovation, a sense of identity, etc. (for example rcm refused to act as an internet service provider and host for private web sites for generic customers, while it accepted to supply the same services to non-profit associations and small businesses, as they are target partners in the rcm mission). 3. the rcm case rcm was born in september 1994, as an initiative of the community informatics laboratory (lic) of the university of milan. one of rcm’s major goals was to give citizens the chance to shape the information society by supporting (with ict) the spontaneous initiatives of individuals and groups of citizens (see de cindio, 2004), and by developing appropriate enabling technologies. since rcm is still alive and prospering after ten years of activity (while so many other similar cns have ceased to exist), it can thus be considered as a “best practice” case study among not-for-profit online communities. rcm’s cost structure cost-containing actions 1.     technical infrastructure: a.     high-quality connection; b.     hardware (server and personal computers); c.     software (servers and application software) ·     cooperation with local public bodies; ·     partnerships with business subjects; ·     developing projects 2.     personnel: a.     technical competences; b.     managerial competences; c.     legal competences; d.     social competences; e.     secretary. ·     skilled personnel with multidisciplinary background ·     flexibility ·     university resources (e.g. students) 3.     overhead: a.     commodities; b.     consumables; c.     etc. ·     involvement of the university   table 3 rcm's cost structure and actions undertaken to lower financial needs     rcm’s income sources 1.     consultancy: community building and management; 2.     consultancy: technical and software design and development; 3.     consultancy: e-democracy, e-participation, e-government; 4.     teaching. table 4 rcm's revenue sources   since no off-the-shelf sustainability model existed, rcm followed an adaptive approach to assure its survival during the last 10 years, starting from scratch and continuously adjusting its actions in response to specific needs. this meant that there was cost containment (see tab.3) coupled with income sources consistent with rcm’s goals (see tab.4). this behavior was adopted outside of any kind of business model: actually the whole development of the cn, in all its different phases, has been – quite implicitly based on the community centered development model (ccd – see, e.g., preece, 2000). this approach meant constantly putting the focus on the community members’ needs, and routing rcm’s mission and goals toward what its members perceive as a “value” (see de cindio et al., 2003). to achieve this goal rcm decision-makers involved community members (with a bottom up approach) even in the definition of the mission statement, and in several choices with regard to technological improvements. this meant both defining technical requirements and measuring performance on the basis of the utility perceived by the community members, in this way sticking to something that we may call “an implicit cfss list”.   3.1 costs structure and performance measurement by and large, two major categories of resources are needed for running an online community: an appropriate technical infrastructure and skilled personnel. the structure of these costs varies according to the technical and skill requirements related to the specific community: in order to implement wenger’s csfs, or at least a scalable subset of them, a well-balanced mix between technical and socio-managerial resources would need to be used. actually, technical features alone are insufficient to guarantee successful and useful interactions among community members,; in addition, even a strong commitment from the community staff will be useless, unless supported by an appropriate technological environment (the importance of a joint design of socio-technical aspects is constantly debated see, e.g., preece, 2000). last but not least, a certain percentage of standard overhead costs (furniture, telephones, stationeries, fax, etc.), should be added to the total amount. technical infrastructure costs the technical infrastructure includes: servers (both hardware and software) with a high-quality connectivity and related services (e.g. security, availability, robustness, etc.), personal computers and application software. all these costs vary little relative to the “volume” of the services offered, thus the whole set of these costs can be defined as fixed infrastructure costs. such a technical structure is not at all a “cheap” investment. special attention should be paid to the choice of an appropriate community server, since its features, flexibility, performance and scalability will heavily influence both the development of the community and the management/technical administrative activities. as many as possible among wenger’s csfs should be – at least potentially – supported by the features of the selected platform. the rcm community environment relies mainly on a firstclass server, which potentially covers well the requirements for 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 of the csfs, while it is a little lacking in supporting “synchronous interactions”, “integration with other applications”, and “tools for assessment and health indicators”. personnel costs generally, for a cn, the most relevant drivers in the cost structure is represented by personnel: to run an online community, appropriately skilled and trained personnel with multidisciplinary competences are required. and this means appropriate wages and commitments. many cns (as well as many online communities) begins with a small, but very committed, staff, often corresponding to the cn promoters. as time goes by, either some among the founders leave, or the cn grows, inducing a growth in staff (and thus costs). this also is, is what happened to the amsterdam digitale stadt (dds). in order to avoid this risk, rcm always kept its staff at the smallest level possible, and developed a network of professionals which would cooperate with rcm on specific projects as required. overhead costs although overhead costs in general should be minor compared to those deriving from the socio-technical infrastructure, nevertheless they have a very relevant impact on the overall cost structure, since they are continuous in time: for example, hiring an office in milan would have been impossible for rcm, since too costly. thus, as we shall see, rcm set up partnerships with public and private subjects. performance measurement the problem of understanding if and why community members (and, more generally, community stakeholders, such as public and private partners) were or were not satisfied by the rcm environment and services arose quite early in the cn’s life. both social (e.g. adopting different policies for moderating different types of forums) and technical (e.g. creating ad hoc systems for elaborating statistical data from log files – cfr. longhi, 2000) solutions have been developed, over the years, to monitor the virtual life of the community. this process evolved through trial and error and still goes on, since, at the moment, no definitive tool exists for systematically monitoring virtual interactions, nor any explicit relation between a specific list of csfs and monitoring outcomes or results has yet been traced for rcm.   3.2 strategies for sustainability and the importance of being a participatory foundation the next step in our prototype model requires the definition of appropriate strategies for guaranteeing the economic sustainability of the online community, on the basis of a comparison between performance and financial needs. although rcm has not as yet developed any systematic performances measurement system, feedback from its members’ and stakeholders’ (in term of use, new projects, participation, ideas, funding, etc.) supplies evidence that the cn is perceived as something useful, and thus worth maintaining. hence we will now describe the strategies rcm adopted for covering its financial needs and assuring its sustainability. strategies for containing fixed infrastructural costs in general, several strategies to contain the expenses of a cn could be envisaged, such as: ·       cooperating with public bodies (e.g. universities or public libraries, a better choice than local governments in guaranteeing independence from political games); or ·       negotiating partnerships with reliable and far-seeing commercial internet service providers (for example, the isp can “improve its image” by stressing its attention toward social issues and digital divide problems). while selecting partners, it is important to favor actors able to guarantee the preservation of the cn’s independence. by adopting the second solution, rcm reduced its costs, while providing high-quality connectivity, despite the fact it is located at the university. actually universities in italy as is often the case elsewhere – is only allowed to use their network infrastructure for educational purposes: hence, while rcm falls fully into this category, some of its initiatives (e.g. providing services to small businesses) may be more questionable. rcm has also set up cooperation with several ict companies, which donate some hardware. strategies for containing personnel costs according to the rcm experience, in order to keep the staff small (while providing an adequate coverage of the required skills and high-quality services), the following competences at least are necessary: ·       technical: both for infrastructure management (web-based technologies, security, etc.) and for computer-mediated communication (human computer interfaces, computer supported cooperative work, participatory design, etc.); ·       social: for an appropriate handling of the social aspects (promoting a sense of cooperation within the community, envisaging critical situations, understanding community dynamics, monitoring community evolution, etc.); ·       legal: this is a crucial issue. actually, in the rcm case, not only “standard” legal issues (privacy laws, copyrights, etc.) have been addressed, but also “subtler” problems, such as: guaranteeing the right of free expression for everybody (while preserving a polite and fair discussion environment), balancing the requests of all the community components (which may have different opinions and goals), negotiating partnerships (while preserving rcm nature and goals), etc.; ·       managerial: both for managing the cn itself and its projects. project management skills are crucial for at least three reasons: a cn is an always evolving project; the cn members’ projects often need an “enabler” for being developed, and activities related to revenue sources need to be correctly handled . however, this set of competences does not necessarily need a one-to-one mapping with staff members. actually, the rcm staff, whose composition has been quite stable for several years, consists of [2]: ·       a community manager (a free lance computer professional), who is also the director of the rcm foundation – hence he deals with managerial issues as well; ·       a webmaster and a system administrator (both free-lance computer professionals); ·       a half-time secretary (the only employee of the rcm foundation); ·       one-full time equivalent project manager: that is to say two professionals, both at half-time and paid on a project basis. one of them has a managerial background and supports partnership negotiation; ·       a part-time legal consultant (free lance lawyer); ·       several “newly-degreed” students: they are involved occasionally for carrying on specific projects. social competences and/or sensibilities are not explicitly mentioned here, as they are spread throughout the whole staff (including as to specific backgrounds, experiences and/or personal skills). a relevant role is played also by the rcm founder: she acts both as a manager and as a project leader, without being explicitly “paid” for this. since she is a professor and rcm is the main initiative of the civic informatics laboratory, this can be seen as a major funding by the university. besides competences and roles, it is worth noting that rcm is managed as a kind of cooperative: people’s wages are discussed within the staff while preparing the budget, and when necessary, rcm allows some staff members to accept external jobs (mainly teaching, at the university or elsewhere). instead of impoverishing rcm, the outcome of these external activities sets up new and productive relationships. strategies for containing overhead costs rcm’s office, together with its furniture, electrical power, telephones, faxes, etc. were the basic funding provided by the university. however, the advantages for rcm of being located at the university cannot be reduced to costs cut (de cindio, 2004). on the other hand, the university got more “visibility” in the local community and the possibility of exploiting rcm skills and experience in developing effective online interactions for example, launching the “university science virtual shop” project (www.uxc.it), that re-uses the cns culture to open up academic research to the vast public and to possible investors. strategies for selecting revenue sources we don’t believe any single source of income can – alone fully support a cn. even more, being completely funded either by a public body or by a private company (or, anyhow, by one single decision-maker) could be dangerous for the cn’s independence. on the contrary, a variety of revenues deriving from different sources may assure the economic sustainability, while at the same time preserving independence. hence, rcm has exploited its core competences (in community building and managing) as a fundamental asset in the following mix of activities: 1)    because of its significant expertise in developing (good quality) public services, rcm has often been involved in research projects and activities on e-participation, e-governance and e-democracy; 2)    rcm’s teaching activities have spread over several technical areas (from basic courses for introducing people to icts, to advanced courses for developing web applications and services mainly using open source software), as well as less technical ones. the targets of these activities, vary a lot as well, including local governments (rcm staff supports public employees in learning the fundamentals of computer mediated communication cmc, including legal aspects), and smes; 3)    since the management of an integrated online environment such as a cn requires technical skills, a certain percentage of rcm’s total income derives from more “techie” forms of consultancy (software development, technical specifications definition, technical evaluations, and from research and development activities in the ict field; and 4)    as communities and online communities are more and more seen as a resource for development (both in business and not-for-profit environments), rcm re-sells its “community expertise” in any project involving community services. these activities usually lead to the development of further partnerships, assuring both fresh income sources and the possibility to exploit – in a synergistic way – marketing channels otherwise unreachable by a cn. however, it is fundamental to keep all the above activities as much as possible close to the community network mission, otherwise the danger of becoming a consultancy firm as happened to the amsterdam digitale stadt – may become very real. strategies for selecting an appropriate institutional architecture a cn can build in different ways: by being promoted by a public body, or by a university, or by a private company rooted in a local area, or by a group of citizens, etc. however, we believe that its sustainability requires, after a period of activity, acquiring an autonomous status, able to guarantee its survival and independence: for rcm this happened after about three years of activity, when the rcm participatory foundation (frcm) was born. the choice of an appropriate institutional architecture depends on several considerations, including local issues and juridical constraints. it is out of the scope of this paper to discuss all the possible alternatives, nevertheless it is worth describing the major benefits rcm obtained from its institutional architecture: ·       acquiring visibility and credibility, also (and especially) towards public bodies (such as the chamber of commerce) and local government; ·       avoiding the constraints to which business players are subject, e.g. while accessing public funds and/or while stipulating consultancy contracts with public bodies; ·       lowering personnel turnover, thanks to the possibility of directly managing contracts; ·       maintaining privileged relations with the university, which in turn leads to the diffusion of an innovative approach among the staff members and as well supplies skilled personnel; and ·       reducing the total cost of this management and overhead. for us, the participatory foundation (see de cindio, 2004) statute fits well with the needs of a cn, mainly for two reasons: 1.     it is basically a non-profit form which can also be used in the market as a business subject: hence equally addressing both independence and economic survival; and 2.     its hybrid characteristics enable the cn to play different roles with different components of the local community. the frcm statute also guarantees that each component of the local community could be represented in its board. actually, local government organizations (the region, the province, the chamber of commerce and the university of milan) are charter members: each of these having a representative on the board. private companies can become supporting members and elect a representative to the board, as well. finally, by becoming participants (simple members) of the foundation, citizens, non-profit associations and schools, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, acquire the right to elect one representative for each 500 members.   however, the participatory foundation form also has several weaknesses: in some countries – including italy – specific laws may generate fiscal problems, since percentages are strictly fixed (in italy: 50% and 50%) for the tax fee portion of incomes generated by business activities and other non-profit sources (e.g. donations, membership fees, etc.); in the rcm experience, despite several promotional campaigns, only very few community members (individuals, as well as schools and non-profit associations) have subscribed to become members of the foundation[3]. since they use the cn “for free”, the awareness that this would be a way for guaranteeing the cn independence is not easy to convey; it is not always straightforward to make the local governments accept the opportunity of supporting the cn (mainly because of the clashing relations between cns and institutional web sites); and due to the unfavorable market conjuncture, private companies who have agreed to become supporting members are supplying free goods or services (rather than donating money as they did a few years ago), while any other type of cooperation is based on shared projects formalized through contracts. despite these difficulties, it is likely that rcm would never have reached its tenth year of activity with any other institutional architecture. 4. conclusions and future developments the rcm case study supports the prototype model presented in paragraph two, highlighting that the sustainability of a cn cannot (and should not) be measured purely on a cost-revenues basis, for costs – if “directly measured” – exceed revenues. the prototype model presented here is a first attempt to overcome the lack of an appropriate model for assessing the economic sustainability of online communities. the approach here through a cost-benefit analysis supplies a way for considering the socio-technical factors which affect community sustainability but which may be overlooked in the framework of the more traditional and easy-to-understand cost-revenue approach. actually, the output of the cost-benefit evaluation provided by our model supports the identification of strategies coherent with the goals of the community and thus helps assure its economic and financial sustainability. these strategies can be translated into actions aimed at producing revenues sufficient to cover costs. this holds true as well for cns, which are not-for-profit organizations whose goal and mission concern the empowerment and welfare of a local community and therefore whose activity is supposed to be a form of commonly shared or public good. of course, the more general validity of the model should be further investigated, firstly for other cns, and then for other non-profit online communities, in this way deriving a well-defined set of guidelines possibly helpful for any non-profit online community. similar empirical testing should be done in “for profit” online communities, in this way bringing to the surface differences and similarities between for and not-for-profit communities. the rcm case study teaches a few “lessons” about how to build effective strategies for achieving the economic sustainability of a cn. strategies to cover financial needs call for: selecting an effective institutional architecture (e.g. participatory foundation); -       containing costs through appropriate actions (e.g. developing partnerships); -       reinforcing performances by choosing activities (selected consultancy, teaching, etc.) coherent with the cn’s goals and mission. this income should come from activities where the cn with respect to other public or private subjects – can put those competencies deriving from its core activities (e.g., participatory and universal design), to work as for example in supporting ict alphabetization for less advantaged people, and involving citizens in public service co-design processes. these strategies should guarantee economic sustainability and cost coverage by balancing public funds, partnerships with public and private bodies and revenues coming from selected “market-like” activities. finally we remark that online communities are long term investments that require a lifecycle approach, for which the present work offers a prototype model for evaluating cost vs. benefits in a specific life stage (maturity), and, through the analysis of a snapshot of how the rcm case operates at the current moment in time, for deriving effective strategies. nonetheless, a more accurate analysis of the dynamics of this case will be carried on in the future, to integrate more explicitly the time dimension into our conceptual model. however, we do believe that the major need is to refine the definition of benefits and performance indicators (e.g. taking inspiration from thompson, 1967). one of the main difficulties in measuring the benefits of an online community arises from the fact that at this moment no satisfying solution exists for tracking what is happening in an online socio-technical environment. thus we believe that a major priority should be given to the design, implementation and testing first within rcm, (extending the work of: longhi, 2000) of an appropriate set of monitoring tools (specific log files, statistic methods, etc.) which while preserving people privacy – are able to derive from day-by-day online activities precise information about the number of active members, their main interests and activities, and the like. this information would be the basis for evaluating the actual benefits the community provides to its members, and for building effective performance indicators.   references armstrong, a.g. and j.iii hagel (1998). net gain – creare nuovi mercati con internet. etas.   carroll, j.m.and m.b. rosson (2003). “a trajectory for community networks” in: sawhney h. (ed.), special issue “icts and community networking“, the information society international journal, vol.19, n.5, pp.381-393.   de cindio, f. (2004). “the role of community networks in shaping the network society: enabling people to develop their own projects”. in: schuler, d. and day, p. (eds.) shaping the network society. cambridge, mass.: mit press.   de cindio, f., gentile, o., grew, p., and d. redolfi (2003). “community networks: rules of behavior and social structure” in: sawhney h. (ed.), special issue “icts and community networking“, the information society international journal, vol.19, n.5, pp.395-406.   de cindio, f. and l.a. ripamonti (to appear). “natures and roles for community networks in the information society” invited paper in ai & society special issue on "community informatics" p.day (ed.).   fiol, c.m. and e.j. o’connor (2002). when hot and cold collide in radical change processes: lessons from community development. organization science, vol.13, n.5, pp.532-546.   kaplan r.s., and d.p. norton (1996). balanced scorecard: translating strategy into action. harvard business school press.   kim, a.j. (2000). community building on the web. peachpit press.   lee, g.k. and r.e. cole (2003). “from a firm-based to a community-based model of knowledge creation: the case of the linux kernel development”. organization science, vol.14,n.6, pp.633-649.   longhi, i. (2000). strumenti per il monitoraggio di una comunità virtuale. degree these in informatics, university of milan, italy.   lovink, g. and p. riemens (2004). “a polder model in cyberspace: the contemporary amsterdam public digital culture.” in: schuler, d. and day, p. (eds.) shaping the network society cambridge, mass.: mit press.   millen, d.r., fontane, m.a., and m.j. muller (2002). “understanding the benefits and costs of communities of practice”. communications of the acm, vol.45, n.4, pp.69-73.   orr, j.e. (1990). talking about machines: an ethnography of a modern job. umi.   preece, j. (2000). online communities: designing usability, supporting sociability. chichester, uk: john wiley & sons.   ripamonti, l.a. (2004). online communities of practice for knowledge sharing in smes. ph.d. thesis in informatics, d.i.co. university of milan, italy.   thompson, j. d. (1967). organizations in action: social science bases of administrative theory. new york: mcgraw-hill.   venkatesh, m. (2003). “the community network lifecycle: a framework for research and action” in: sawhney h. (ed.), special issue “icts and community networking“, the information society international journal, vol.19, n.5, pp.339-347.   von hippel, e. (2001). “innovation by user communities: learning from open-source software”. mit sloan management review, summer 2001, pp.82-86.   wenger, e., r. mcdermott, and w.m. snyder (2002). cultivating communities of practice a guide to managing knowledge. boston, ma: harvard business school press.       [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/main_page [2] we mention also different types of labor contracts, even if they are strongly tied to the national market, to stress their importance in assuring a certain degree of flexibility, which helps a lot in handling different kinds of collaborations. [3] in january 2004 there were about one hundred participants—eight schools and six non-profit associations. joci gender and gis: mapping the links between spatial exclusion, transport access, and the millennium development goals in lesotho, ethiopia, and ghana wendy m walker asian development bank wwalker@adb.org shalini p vajjhala resources for the future shalini@rff.org abstract spatial exclusion, and its gender dimensions, is an important component of social marginalization and vulnerability. transport infrastructure and services play a critical role in supporting mobility and access to basic services vital to achieving poverty reduction, gender equality, and sustainable development objectives. this paper explores how geographic information systems (gis) technology can support integrated evaluations of the gender dimensions of transport using an innovative combination of community participatory mapping, new gender-disaggregated household-level demographic and health surveys (dhs), and transport sector gis data. the pilot study focuses on three countries, lesotho, ethiopia, and ghana, and reveals new opportunities for cross-scale evaluation. introduction spatial exclusion, and its gender dimensions, is an important component of social marginalization and vulnerability. transport infrastructure and services play a critical role in supporting mobility and access to basic services that are vital to achieving poverty reduction, gender equality, and sustainable development objectives, such as the millennium development goals. however, one of the principal challenges facing the transport sector lies in measuring the social benefits and impacts of its investments, especially as they emerge over time and for particular segments of the population served by specific infrastructure and/or services. to bridge this measurement gap, international targets, such as the millennium development goals, are being employed by countries to evaluate overall development progress, to serve as key indicators for national poverty reduction strategies (prs), and to guide planning and prioritization of investments and programs. three specific health-related mdgs—reduce child mortality (goal 4); improve maternal health (goal 5); and combat hiv/aids, malaria, and other diseases (goal 6)—are particularly relevant for transport investment and evaluation, since the sector plays a key role in meeting all three goals. transport sector contributions include support for routine medical visits, provision of emergency services, health care provider access, and mobile health service delivery to isolated communities and populations. transport networks and services also play a vital role in assuring the distribution of drugs and supplies. although these linkages have been clearly articulated and agreed upon by transport sector government officials in many countries, in reality there is very little explicit monitoring of transport impacts on mdgs within national programs and projects (ssatp, 2005). failure to do so ensures that traditional cost-benefit analyses of planned projects continue to drive investment prioritization and decisionmaking. the lack of a systematic approach to social cost and benefit accounting for transport investments limits decisionmakers’ abilities to weigh their options for investment based on a broader framework that includes the anticipated social impacts of investments (greene et al., 1986; button, 1995; howe, 2003). this paper explores how geographic information systems (gis) technology can support evaluations of the gender dimensions of transport using an innovative combination of participatory mapping with communities, gender disaggregated household-level demographic and health survey (dhs) data, and transport sector gis data. maps can be important tools for illuminating the direct and indirect social impacts of transport investments and highlighting the gender dimensions of spatial exclusion. however, mapping technologies have only recently begun to make links to gender-based analyses. innovations in participatory mapping methods and improvements to existing data sources, such as spatial referencing of household and community surveys, now allow these analysis to be done at a multiple scales–from the community to national level–and to capture changes over time. this paper presents a pilot study focused on three countries: lesotho, ethiopia, and ghana. the rationale for choice of these countries is based on the availability of data for both dhs and road networks and differences in physical size, social context, and existing evidence on gender differences in access and mobility. the integrated analysis developed here explores how the combination of existing dhs data and transport gis data sources can be used to support national-level monitoring and evaluation of the social impacts of transport programs. the results of this type of integrated analysis can further help to address: monitoring and evaluation of the social and gender impacts of transport investments, especially cross-sectoral and indirect impacts, at multiple levels inclusion of transport planning and budgetary support into poverty reduction strategy planning processes (prsp) and country assistance strategies (cas) understanding and addressing key underlying barriers to achieving international targets such as the mdgs facilitating long-term collaboration and communication across sectors and among stakeholders, when addressing issues such as health and education access the resulting approach and analysis has the potential to address common goals in health and transport, such as mapping the synergies in mobility and access between the sectors and evaluating and assessing available services. as transport ministries increasingly invest in gis for decision support, geo-reference their road networks, and continue to expand their spatial data infrastructure (sdi), the opportunities for combining data sets and devising new ways to meet monitoring challenges across scales, timeframes, and forms of investments will continue to emerge. this paper explores some of the critical issues associated with integration of new transport and health databases, and outlines a spatial analytic approach to rigorous data integration and evaluation from the community to the national level. 2. integrating transport gis and dhs direct social benefits and impacts of the transport sector include employment creation and reductions in travel costs and travel time. these indicators can be captured through 1) regular monitoring of infrastructure and road construction activities, 2) detailed questioning during key social assessments and surveys, 3) targeted follow-up evaluations, and 4) data collection from related agencies, such as government departments responsible for regulating public transport. changes in mobility, access to key services or destinations, and greater frequency and/or ease of travel are the principal aims of many transport programs and national growth agendas. yet these outcomes are harder to systematically capture on a large scale. the challenges of measuring these often indirect, but long term and durable, impacts of a national program of linear investments are numerous. evaluation of cross-sectoral interactions can help identify indirect transport sector contributions to improving health or education outcomes. the health sector in particular offers data that capture underlying relationships with mobility and access to services. demographic and health surveys (dhs) are routinely carried out in many countries around the world. these surveys focus primarily on characterizing health-seeking behaviors, but they also include valuable information for the transport sector on access to healthcare and availability of transport services. unlike many other sources of transport survey data, the dhs is nationally representative, capable of being disaggregated by gender, age, administrative boundaries or eco-zones, and increasingly geo-referenced using gps technology to mark the locations of survey enumeration areas (ea) or clusters. these recent technological innovations allow dhs demographic and health data to be integrated into transport gis. this integration through spatial analysis provides opportunities for both technical planners and managers to better understand specific transport related challenges in access to healthcare, such as the role of transport costs, differential mobility time burdens, availability of transport infrastructure and services as barriers, and how these rank with other obstacles including availability of healthcare facilities/personnel or cultural restrictions. dhs surveys have a particular emphasis on elucidating gender differences in access and use of health services and therefore can help to better understand gendered differences in access and mobility as well. the resulting spatial information can further serve as an important tool for analysts and managers to monitor the impact of transport plans on national development indicators such as the mdgs and assist in targeting future community development and infrastructure investments. 2.1 pilot countries and data this paper and pilot study focus on data from three countries: lesotho, ethiopia and ghana. the rationale for choice of these countries is based on the availability of both recent national dhs data and road network spatial data, in addition to differences in physical size, social context, and existing evidence on access and mobility. lesotho: the major emphasis in this pilot is on lesotho, due in part to the importance that the ministry of public works and transport (mopwt) has placed on georeferencing the transport network and building a gis system that integrates many layers of transport, and other spatial data. in 2005, oddsson, walker, bergveinsson carried out an in-depth multisectoral needs assessment of spatial data availability and updated the mopwt gis with extensive data layers in searchable formats. figure 1. this image illustrates the analytical and decision support potential of the mopwt gis. the map was developed based on a query to show only those health clinics within a 5 km radius of the road network. this type of spatial analysis has the potential to support the placement of new clinics, the evaluation of access criteria, and characterizations of underserved populations. in addition, the mopwt has engaged in complementary participatory mapping processes with communities and local government (walker et al., 2005). as a relatively small country with low population densities in the rural highlands and multiple barriers to mobility and access, participatory mapping approaches have the potential to play a major role in linking community-level transport information to national data and monitoring. this community-centered spatial approach for eliciting local priorities and relevant indicators, now form a key methodology used by mopwt for social assessments and prioritization of investments with local governments (see vajjhala, 2005 for more on general participatory mapping approaches). representatives of the mopwt were able to participate in early dhs survey tool development meetings and this collaboration resulted in the addition of several extra transport-related questions to the nationwide survey instrument. these questions greatly enhance the ability to perform transport specific spatial analysis on the 2004 dhs, which is the first one that has ever been done for the country. figure 2. this image captures local information on the costs of access to healthcare facilities for rural communities in lesotho during normal everyday travel (yellow line on the right) and for emergency access (red line on the left). emergency travel, in this example, can cost up to 47 times the costs for everyday access. ethiopia: with one of the lowest density road networks in africa, a population of over 70 million and great difficulties in access, especially for rural communities, investment in the transport sector has been and continues to be a major priority in ethiopia. the ethiopian roads authority (era) has created a gis of the network and is including new layers of spatial data. at the same time, major efforts in the 2006 census laid the groundwork for georeferencing of village locations and mapping of administrative boundaries. dhss have been carried out in the country several times and the ability to analyze results over time is an important opportunity in the integration of these national survey data. ghana: although the road network for ghana has been georeferenced, the pilot team did not have access to the data or to data on village locations. this country was included to show what can be done with extremely limited data and serves as a counter example to the transport and social contexts of lesotho and ethiopia. in between the total land areas of lesotho and ethiopia, with a higher density road network, established urban centers, and better mdg achievements, ghana illustrates very different access and mobility issues. country/ survey road network dhs gps village locations health centers extra dhs questions other ghana 2002 x ethiopia 2000 x ethiopia 2005 x x lesotho 2004/05 x x x x x extensive gis layers table 1. data used for each of the country surveys. 2.2 dhs questions on transport, access, and mobility access and mobility are addressed in several questions in all national dhs. for example, the frequency of access to health providers for prenatal care and during pregnancies is extensively probed. there are questions on time to access water, and ownership of various modes of transportation, including country specific intermediate means of transport (imts) and animal transport. in the women’s questionnaire all dhs include a question on barriers to health care access for self. among the five barriers included in the survey, two are transport specific: distance to health facility and having to take transport. for the lesotho 2004 dhs, the mopwt was able to insert three extra transport-related questions onto the survey. these include: time to access health clinics, mode of access to health clinics, main health center accessed. in addition, mopwt verified that relevant intermediate means of transport (imt) options such as scotch carts and horses were included in the question on ownership of transport. one important question on transport costs for access to healthcare facilities suggested by mopwt was not included in the 2004 questionnaire. in the future, transport cost questions could help to deconstruct and identify any underlying transport issues in an existing barrier to access: cost of treatment. disaggregation and analysis of differential impacts of mobility: all dhs have specific survey questions for women, men, and children. unfortunately, there are very few instances where the same question is asked to members of each group. this limits opportunities for analyzing gender differences and impacts across particular populations. however, disaggregation of the survey data can be done by age, enumeration area, district and ecozone. georeferencing of the enumeration clusters, a technique added to many dhs relatively recently, can facilitate further spatial analysis across other relevant boundaries such as health service areas (hsa) and local administrative boundaries beneath the level of districts. the use of gps to locate enumeration clusters also allows for impact monitoring of specific project areas using different boundary definitions and impact identification of national transport programs at macro scales. 3. methodology integrating transport and health data requires a careful, systematic approach. this section outlines the five-step methodology for integrated analysis of dhs transport and health data for broader comparative spatial analysis using gis road network, health service, and administrative data used by the study team. the steps outlined here are intended to serve as a replicable and adaptable framework for application of geo-referenced dhs data to the evaluation of a wide-variety of cross-sectoral health and transport issues. first, we selected key dhs questions relevant for transport analysis. for the lesotho dhs, several new transport related questions were specifically added to the 2004 survey. this set included questions on transport ownership, location of primary health facility, mode of travel to health service provider(s), time to access health services, and major transport barriers to health service provision. figure 3 is an excerpt from the 2004 lesotho dhs questionnaire illustrating the different types (multiple choice, yes/no, rating, ranking, open-ended) of responses collected. by examining dhs questionnaires across countries, we defined a set of relevant research questions and possible statistical and spatial analyses, comparing withinand between-country metrics, given available data. figure 3. excerpt of 2004 lesotho dhs questionnaire showing key transport question formats. second, building on the research questions motivated by available dhs data and the georeferenced survey clusters, we compiled relevant spatial data from different sources corresponding to selected dhs health and transport questions. for the purposes of this study, we gathered existing gis information from a variety of health and transport databases, including the transport and health ministries, and various other departments and organizations across all three countries (see references). all selected data were national level with full-coverage corresponding to the dhs 1 third, once the available, relevant data were compiled for all of the countries under consideration, we plotted all dhs clusters in gis based on their adjusted gps coordinates and generated descriptive statistics and maps of basic transport ownership, use, and barriers to overlay on related road and health service layers. by evaluating country-, regional, and cluster-level variations in transport ownership, health services, and health outcomes, it was also possible to identify basic data gaps (geographic) and outliers (statistical) to check the robustness of elicited responses, such as stated time to access health services. fourth, one of the important challenges in integrating this work was finding valid ways in which to measure and then visualize access. we calculated three different measures of transport access based on available gis data on the road network for comparison to relevant dhs results. multiple measures were used to overcome biases and limitations of each individual metric. for example, the first and most commonly used measure of transport access is the world bank rural access indicator (rai), which is based on an estimate of percent of the total population living within 2km of an all-weather road. the strength of this measure is that it brings together population and transport statistics in a widely-comparable definition of access. the weakness of this measure is that the rai varies significantly depending on the spatial scale selected for analysis (country, region, district, etc.) and the reliability of road and population (size and location) data. in many cases, up-to-date geo-referenced population estimates are unavailable or inaccurate. to overcome this issue, we calculated a second measure of access which was district-level road density (km. of road length per sq. km. area). this measure is also highly-scale dependent, but it provides a population independent measure of road network availability. finally, to generate a jurisdiction-independent measure of access we plotted 2km, 5km, and 10km radius buffers around each survey enumeration area and calculated the total road length (km) within each buffer. this last measure allows for comparisons of road density by buffer at the cluster-level, and also comparisons of buffer averages at the district and country levels. the rai and road density measures are illustrated in figure 4. these multiple definitions of access allowed us to 1) overcome important data gaps among countries and 2) find ways of probing issues of access in relation to both the road network and the enumeration clusters that allowed us to look at different scales. finally, the fifth step in this study was the integrated evaluation of dhs cluster results, separately calculated measures of access, and related health, demographic, and socioeconomic statistics, including measures of social inclusion such as religion/ethnicity, education, wealth. comparative analyses included tests of pairwise correlations of distance to the primary health clinic (number of household who identified a clinic as the primary clinic in the dhs), time to access, and women’s perception of distance as a “big problem” in accessing health services. these comparisons allow both visualization of key transport indicators and issues across countries and regions, and also identification of area “hotspots” of limited transport access and/or poor health service outcomes. the five-step approach outlined here brings together elements of separate dhs, transport, and health analyses into a single integrated spatial analysis. the value of this approach is that it supports the identification of significant cross-sectoral issues and influences. the next section illustrates the results of the analyses described here for selected transport and health dhs questions. 4. caveats although the integration of dhs and gis health and transport data provides many new opportunities for analysis and evaluation, these two types of databases have never traditionally been linked. as a result, there are several key data gaps. below is a list of the most important caveats for interpreting the methods outlined in this paper and the results of this particular pilot study. these caveats are listed up front to place the analysis to follow in context and also to highlight future barriers to integration, while still demonstrating the value of integration and the robustness of our approach. one of the most critical barriers to effective use of dhs gps data in transport-health analyses is a consequence of the dhs method of ensuring survey participant privacy. during the compilation of all survey results, actual gps point data collected for each enumeration area are taken at what researchers believe to be the center of the area and then randomly “shifted” to ensure that villages or individuals cannot be identified. individual points are moved randomly by +/5km for all rural clusters and +/-2km for all urban clusters in any direction. this decision, while important for maintaining participant anonymity, makes it impossible to estimate, measure, or analyze point-to-point distances between populations and key services, such as roads or health clinics. importantly, for this pilot, the shifting of the gps points makes it impossible to layer the exact location of cluster sites over the road network and subsequently directly analyze access and mobility issues. the methodology section describes our approach to addressing this spatial ambiguity by using buffers over multiple distances to capture some of the basic relationships between populations, transport infrastructure, and health services without relying on actual measured distances. using this approach we believe our results are robust for the general level of aggregation at which they are presented; however, it is important to note that the potential for comparative analysis is significantly limited by the imprecision deliberately introduced into all dhs gps data. we believe that there are other means of addressing privacy concerns that could allow for the full release of accurate survey gps points. a second caveat concerning both dhs and gis data in different countries is data quality. any analysis is only as good as the data it uses, and in cases where multiple datasets are being integrated, the least robust data has the potential to constrain an entire study. issues of particular importance for this pilot include the accuracy, reliability, and/or completeness of the following variables or layers: village and health service locations, road network coverage, road classification (type), and time to access estimates, among others. without complete and robust data in each of these fields it is difficult to assess and interpret the results of any comparative analysis. for example, incomplete health service provider data (e.g. gis layers that are missing certain geographic areas or provider types) could result in inaccurate spatial analyses that show a lack of health service provision in areas where services are present or vice versa. having reliable and up-to-date metadata for all gis layers is essential. the results of this study highlighted in section 5 are largely based on analyses of transport and health in lesotho, primarily because of the high quality of both dhs and gis data for the country relative to data on ethiopia and ghana. in all three countries, it is important to note that the coverage of the dhs–the extent to which survey clusters and responses are 1) regionally representative of populations and groups, 2) uncorrelated with the road network and representative of inaccessible areas or communities, 3) comparable between countries and over time–is critical. these issues are related to basic survey design and implementation decisions. coverage issues are addressed here through statistical tests comparing key variables within and between regions and close examination of unusual results or outliers. although this process can help identify some data gaps, applying this approach to other countries or sectors requires careful consideration of possible inconsistencies or incompatibilities that may occur as a result of data collection practices (e.g., whether or not survey teams really go to remote areas or tend to choose enumeration areas that are readily accessible to the road network); thereby affecting the interpretation of key results and their social development implications. building on this point, a final caveat for this analysis is that many of the relationships between transport and health evaluated and identified here have multiple underlying explanations. for example, distance to health clinics could be positively correlated with higher incidence of maternal or infant mortality in some countries; however, there are many other explanatory variables also correlated (co-linear) with distance that could influence maternal or infant mortality rates, including income, education, and a host of related demographic, spatial, cultural or socio-economic characteristics. as a result, this study does not attempt to make any causal links between transport barriers and health outcomes. instead the focus of this effort is to illustrate key spatial relationships between transport and health, and highlight opportunities for improved evaluation and planning with new dhs and gis databases in many countries. obviously, it is very important to complement this kind of monitoring effort with other monitoring techniques including in-depth qualitative analysis with focus groups, key informant and individual interviews. taken together, these caveats illustrate both the importance and the complexity of cross-sectoral spatial analysis. we see many of the data limitations described here as problems that can be overcome with better coordination of transport and health data collection. to this end, this section is intended to outline a roadmap for improvement both in how dhs data is collected and compiled and how gis layers are generated in different countries and sectors. 5. illustrative analyses and major results based on dhs and gis transport and health data for lesotho, ethiopia and ghana, there are several key national level analyses possible with available data. this section highlights four main categories of illustrative analyses and major results. category one: focuses on transport ownership and use from selected dhs questions, like those shown in figure 3. category two: examines a series of dhs responses on women’s barriers to health clinic access, mapping transport barriers in the context of other constraints. category three: investigates health outcomes, specifically examples of the spatial relationships between transport infrastructure and hiv/aids knowledge and prevalence. category four: evaluates the correlations between road density and socio-economic characteristics such as women’s education. it is important to underline that none of these categories focus on causal links between health and transport, instead these analyses and the results presented in the sub sections to follow are intended to illustrate the variety of cross-sectoral assessments possible with improved data integration in the future and further investigation of correlations substantiated by in-depth investigation on the ground. currently, the limited gis data for both ethiopia and ghana constrains the possible spatial and statistical comparative analyses. moreover, the dramatically different contexts for transport and health services and the mdgs make it difficult to establish a clear baseline for comparison across all three countries examined here. table 2 shows selected descriptive statistics (country averages across all survey clusters) to illustrate these variations in transport ownership options, distances to basic services (water), and socioeconomic characteristics across countries. ghana lesotho ethiopia 2000 ethiopia 2005 weighted average time to water 18 min 26 min 47 min 40 min weighted avg. wealth index (1=poorest, 5=richest) 3.0 3.1 3.2 standard deviation wealth index 1.3 1.1 1.3 primary household imts (% households by cluster with imt) bicycle 40% 3% 1% 2% scooter 3% 0% 0% 0% car/truck 5% 4% 1% 1% horse 1% 29% 22% table 2. country level averages of basic dhs descriptive questions for ghana, lesotho, and ethiopia. overall, the four categories of analyses discussed below are only a few of the comparisons possible using geo-referenced dhs data in tandem with gis data. 5.1 transport as discussed in section 3, several basic transport questions were added to the 2004 lesotho dhs survey. these questions focused on household transport ownership, location of primary health facility, individual mode of transport to health facility, and time to reach health facility. responses were aggregated for each of these questions (averages by survey cluster) and overlaid on related gis transport data including total constituency road lengths and road density. the three maps in this sub-section highlight the tremendous spatial variation in transport availability, mode, and access. together, they illustrate the implications of these variations for effective transport planning and improved health service delivery to diverse populations. 5.11 transport ownership figure 5. map with overlay of dhs transport ownership by survey cluster and road density by constituency area for lesotho. figure 5 highlights the relationship between dhs transport ownership and road density by administrative constituency. the darker areas on the map background are those with higher total kilometers of roads per unit area. the pie charts indicate transport ownership by dhs cluster. overlaying these results reveals significant variations in the dominant type of transport owned by cluster where a large majority of households own no transport and horses/ mules are the next largest category of transport ownership. ownership of motorized vehicles (car, truck, motorcycle, scooter) is largely limited to urban areas and there is a weak positive correlation between aggregate ownership (all forms of transport) and road density. 5.1.2 health clinic access figure 6. primary mode of transport to health facility as a percent of cluster total overlaid on total district road lengths (km). a mopwt added lesotho dhs question focuses on primary mode of transport used to access health services. as figure 6 shows, across lesotho, the primary mode of access to health clinics is walking (orange) for the majority of clusters. interestingly, the next most dominant mode of access is by car/truck and not horse or mule. this is in sharp contrast to the high levels of horse/mule household ownership across the country and limited motorized transport ownership highlighted in figure 5. however, it may also highlight a key gender issue: that women do not own or have access to horse or mule transport. when overlaid on total kilometers of road by district, clusters in and around urban areas and those along the main road network are associated with the greatest use of motorized transport for health facility access. 5.1.3 time to health clinic figure 7. weighted average time of travel to health clinic (hours) by cluster relative to health facility locations and use patterns. the previous maps reveal the complex relationships between transport ownership and mode of health facility access. figure 7 illustrates even greater challenges associated with considering time to access and distribution of health facility users. this map overlays the average time respondents from different survey clusters said it took to go to the nearest health clinic and total use by health facility summed across all clusters. results of this comparison reveal that survey clusters with very high travel times are in many cases located in close proximity to facilities with high numbers of users. this suggests that the primary health facility respondents’ identified in the survey may not be the nearest health facilities to their villages. in fact, some of the eas located closest to the health facilities with the highest numbers of self-identified users (largest health facility symbols) are also those where dhs survey respondents identified travel times of four or more hours to reach the nearest clinic. there are many possible reasons for this incongruity including underlying issues such as availability and quality of services at any given health facility, adequacy of staffing and supplies, and key geographical barriers such as rivers or mountains that could make short straight line distances on the map entirely inaccessible. this analysis points to opportunities for linking data from this dhs to ministry of health data on clinic staffing, client base, satisfaction of service delivery surveys, etc. in the future which would help to further understand the relationships between access to and use of basic services across sectors. such analysis would foster integrated planning and development, and prioritize lower-cost measures such as mobile clinics and footpath rehabilitation which, to date, have received relatively little attention as important community level contributions to improving rural access, particularly for women, to existing services. 5.2 barriers to access evaluating the types of spatial relationships and constraints in the previous sections is even more important when considering investments to address barriers to transport and health service delivery. based on a full set of dhs questions on all three (ghana, ethiopia, and lesotho) dhs questionaires, table 3 and the maps in this section illustrate the extent to which transport barriers on average across all clusters are identified by a majority of women as being “big problem” relative to other barriers to health service access. because these barriers were each evaluated separately by survey participants and not ranked in order of difficulty or priority, the data does not allow for direct comparison of barriers to one another. instead, each barrier is highlighted separately in the maps of lesotho to follow to show the spatial variation. barrier to health service ghana lesotho ethiopia 2000 ethiopia 2005 knowing where to go 11% 3% na na getting permission to go 9% 2% na 30% getting money for treatment 57% 40% na 73% distance to health facility 37% 29% na 63% having to take transport 37% 31% na 65% not wanting to go alone 21% 12% na 55% no female service provider 16% 7% na 66% table 3. summary table of country averages percent of women by cluster who identified each barrier as a “big problem” to accessing health services instead of as a “small problem.” 5.2.1 barrier: distance figure 8. average % of women by cluster who said “distance to health facility” was a big problem in access to health services. as summarized in table 3, both transport barriers in the set of dhs surveyed issues were identified by a large majority of women as being a “big problem” and not a “small problem” in comparison to other constraints on health service access. the map to the right shows that womens’ perceptions of distance as a barrier is further correlated with the location of their villages (clusters) relative to both roads and proximate health facilities. comparing the average percentage of women by cluster who identify distance as a big problem with constituency road density reveals that clusters in constituencies with higher road densities have lower percentages of women who say distance is a big problem. 5.2.2 barrier: taking transport figure 9. average % of women by cluster who said “having to take transport” was a big problem to health service access. unlike the very clear pattern linking perceptions of distance to health facilities as a barrier with low road density, the barrier of having to take transport is a more diffuse problem. figure 9 shows the distribution of the average percentage of women by cluster who identified “taking transport” as a big problem. in this case, a large percentage identified this issue as a big problem; however, the results do not appear to be correlated with existing transport or health infrastructure availability. a possible reason for this lack of obvious spatial correlations could be that cost, access to money within the household (or another non-spatial variable) are the primary drivers associated with this barrier instead of possible spatial determinants, such as availability of roads or services. 5.2.3 barrier: all barriers figure 10. cluster percentages of all barriers to health service access and constituency road density in sw lesotho. evaluating all of the barriers included in the dhs health service access questions reveals that for lesotho, transport barriers dominate all others. figure 10 is a zoom in to a particular area of lesotho with poor access and limited road density. this zoom covers the project area for the world bank supported senqu-senqunyane bridge project, and serves as a preliminary snapshot of access issues for the social assessment and baseline monitoring (walker et al. 2005). in almost all cluster areas surveyed, distance and having to take transport account for at least 50% of barriers. likewise, several of the health facilities located in the area are not utilized by respondents even though they may be located in close proximity to communities. 5.3 distance, mobility and road networks: what are the impacts of poor access? what are the impacts of distance, mobility and size of road networks on access to health services? all of the issues raised above can be further analyzed and quantified by looking at the correlations between distance to a health facility, mobility of the population and density of the road networks. in this case, we calculated the distance of each cluster to the health facilities and divided them between those that were less than five kilometers and those that were further than five kilometers. in reference to the questions on barriers to access, the role of distance and mobility is greatly affected by being further or closer to a health facility. cost of treatment2 paramount among the variables for women within 5km of a health facility and is twice as much as distance as a barrier. over 5km from a health facility distance and mobility barriers rank equal to the cost of treatment. this suggests that while cost of treatment remains relatively constant regardless of distance from a facility, specific transport related barriers (distance and access to services) inhibit access to health facilities for populations located more than 5km from the sites.  lesotho barriers to hf   less than 5km to nearest health center greater than 5km to nearest health center avg % women by cluster who say x is a big problem in accessing health services cost of treatment 36% 46% distance to health facility 18% 46% having to take transport 21% 47%         weighted avg by cluster time to health facility 65 min 152 min         primary mode of transport to health facility (average %) walking 77% 64% horse 1% 2% car/truck 22% 34%         average kilometers of all-weather road within x radius of cluster 2km radius 4.10 1.70 5km radius 19.84 9.92 10km radius 59.35 38.10 table 4 lesotho: barriers to health facilities and distance (less than and more than 5km) figure 11. density of road network surrounding clusters greater and less than 5 km from a health facility this distinction is further amplified when looking at the variable on time to the health center. here, being greater than 5km distance results in more than twice the amount of time needed for those located less than 5km. although in both cases, the majority of women use walking as the mode of access to health facilities, the road network coverage (i.e., density of all weather roads within 2km, 5km and 10km) is vastly different and particularly so at the 5km cutoff. this suggests that improving the density of road network coverage and transport services in the area 5-10km radius of a health center could have significant impacts on ensuring health access. such a finding is consistent with other research that has focused on network analysis of rural roads (starkey, 2006). 5.4 hiv/aids analysis of dhs survey data on hiv/aids can also be enhanced when combined with transport network and other spatial data. in this case, several of the questions about hiv/aids are exactly the same in both the men’s and women’s questionnaires. this allows for sex disaggregation of results and illuminates the differential impacts of access to health services, public health information and the impact of hiv/aids on each group. table 5 disaggregates the data by country and sex. table 6 looks at several of these same variables and adds the issue of distance to a health center. while there is little difference in men’s knowledge on hiv/aids depending on distance, there is a significant drop in women’s knowledge with greater distance. this underlines the importance of understanding gender mobility issues and barriers and the impact they can have on access to information and specifically public health information. it also underscores the role that poor transport (distance, services and road networks) can potentially have on health knowledge and eventual health outcomes.   hiv-aids lesotho ethiopia 2000 ethiopia 2005 women ever heard of aids 92% 81% know someone who died of aids 24% 29% 10% ever tested 15% 6% men ever heard of aids 92% 93% 95% know someone who died of aids 25% 33% 15% ever tested 11% 4% 8% table 5. country and sex disaggregation on hiv/aids questions in dhs figure 12. average % of women who have heard of hiv/aids figure 12 is a zoomed-in view of the southwestern regions of ethiopia. this map illustrates the variations in the percent of women who have heard of hiv/aids across ethiopia and begins to highlight particular hotspots of poor knowledge in relation to distance to health services. it is clear that access to knowledge is not solely dependent on distance – in many cases there is poor knowledge in areas close to health services, and this may reflect the quality of services being offered. however, this kind of analysis gives a quick snapshot of the state of awareness and can help identify areas for hiv/aids outreach and, future transport investment aimed at facilitating access. table 6 provides a summary of these same results dissaggregated spatially for survey clusters that contain a health center within a 5km buffer and those that do not.  ethiopia less than 5km to nearest health center greater than 5km to nearest health center women heard of hiv/aids 95% 77% men heard of hiv/aids 98% 92% men ever tested 8% 3% table 6. ethiopia: knowledge and testing on hiv/aids and distance 5.5 education the final analysis in this study focuses on the correlations between transport measures (road density by ea buffer) and general socio-economic population data. this analysis in general and the specific results for women’s education below are intended to highlight the importance of transport to achieving and evaluating the mdgs in different countries. as the graphs in figures 13 and 14 highlight for lesotho and ethiopia, there is a strong positive correlation between availability of roads and women’s education levels. although these results do not suggest a causal relationship between transport and education, they illustrate an important link worth further investigation.   figure 13 lesotho: correlation of road density with women’s education levels figure 14 ethiopia: correlation of road density with women’s education levels 6. conclusions this study illustrates some of the basic links between transport and health, and highlights their implications for understanding the underlying dynamics of spatial exclusion across scales. there are many other possible applications of this approach and methodology. carefully combining the types of data analyzed in this paper with other relevant metrics, such as transport cost, can help to further elucidate the social dimensions of transport programs. most dhs include sections on education and wealth ranking. both of these topics, if complemented by a few transport specific questions, could provide valuable inter-sectoral knowledge on barriers to access to education and correlations between wealth and mobility. several (but not all) dhs also include information on social inclusion issues such as religion and ethnicity. these indicators, when combined with transport and other data layers, could support valuable initial analysis of the impact of mobility and access on inclusion, vulnerability, and isolation at a national level. overall, this pilot spatial analytic approach and cross-scale evaluation illustrate opportunities to improve: visualization of transport issues and health barriers: the resulting analysis can help to communicate the relevance of transport and access across sectors and countries and for particular populations such as women; assessment of transport impacts: the spatial analysis of transport and health data can help to develop plans for new investments across sectors (siting roads, clinics, increasing footpath networks, support to non-motorized transport services, etc.) and facilitate the evaluation of change and impact over time; national priority setting: the spatial analysis can help to identify “hotspots” of low transport access and low mdg indicators. identifying such correlations will not provide perfect certainty, but it can help planners and implementers identify key questions and particular areas that need to be addressed. integrated spatial analysis and planning: cross-sector and cross-scale analysis are critical to evaluating intersectoral gaps from the community to national levels and overcoming barriers to achieving the mgds and other social development objectives. taken as a whole, the major results of this study reveal how opportunities for cross-sectoral analysis have improved as new information technologies, such as gis, and cost-effective local data collection methodologies, such as geo-referencing, have emerged. as the transport sector increases its investments in africa and moves from a project to a programmatic focus at a national level, the importance of identifying supporting technologies and approaches to monitoring the social impacts of investments and providing relevant information for decision support of planners and policy makers are paramount. the findings of the pilot analysis point to new opportunities for linking gender, transport, and health data across scales using spatial information technologies. bibliography button, kenneth (1995). what can meta-analysis tell us about the implications of transport? regional studies (29)6: 507-517. dhs data (2000). ethiopia. measure dhs, macro international. retrieved october 2006 from http://www.measuredhs.com/. dhs data (2005). ethiopia. measure dhs, macro international. retrieved october 2006 from http://www.measuredhs.com/. dhs data (2002). ghana. measure dhs, macro international. retrieved october 2006 from http://www.measuredhs.com/. dhs data (2004). lesotho. measure dhs, macro international. retrieved january 2007 from http://www.measuredhs.com/. greene, d.l, jones, d.w., and m.a. delucchi, eds. (1986). the full costs and benefits of transportation: contributions to theory, method, and measurement. springer: new york. howe, j. (2003). inclusion of social benefits in transport planning: a review of developing country experience. the world bank, washington, d.c. oddsson, g., w. walker & solvi bergveinsson (2004). lesotho integrated transport program gis needs assessment. the world bank, washington d.c. ssatp (2005). transport and the millennium development goals in africa. ssatp, washington, d.c. starkey, p. (2006). the rapid assessment of rural transport services. ssatp, washington d.c. vajjhala, s.p. (2005). mapping alternatives: facilitating public participation in development and environmental decision making. unpublished doctoral dissertation, carnegie mellon university. walker, w., s. vajjhala, t. phomane, n. zaly, s. moonyane, and m. mokhoro, (2005). ground truthing: mapping mobility and access in rural lesotho. the world bank, washington, d.c. annex 1. data sources used for analysis country transport gis access date dhs gps other source lesotho road network mopwt (all main and rural roads) 2007 2004 yes community locations health clinic locations school locations local government administrative boundaries mopwt, moe, molg, bos ethiopia road network era (all main but not all rural roads) 2006 2000 2005 no yes health centers zone, district, woreda administrative boundaries ifpri, csa ghana na na 2002 yes na na 1 in the case of ethiopia, the southeastern district was missing from all major databases and there were no dhs enumeration area, road, or health center data available for this region. 2 the dhs survey does not define cost of treatment and it is possible that respondents include in this answer the cost of transport to access treatment. adding a specific question on cost of transport to access healthcare (as the mopwt in lesotho had suggested), would help to eliminate this confusion and help to understand where the barriers are most pronounced (i.e., transport or healthcare costs) and what kinds of measures would be best to address them. the development of an information system for the solidarity economy movement the development of an information system for the solidarity economy movement alan freihof tygel universidade federal do rio de janeiro   celso alexandre souza de alvear universidade federal do rio de janeiro     abstracts:  this article aims to describe and analyze the development process of cirandas (http://www.cirandas.net), an information system geared towards the solidarity economy community in brazil. the creation of a virtual community incorporated in a real community permits an analysis of the similarities and differences between both instances of the community. keywords: keywords: community informatics, community economic development, social cohesion, solidarity economy, social capital.   1 introduction this article aims to describe and analyze the development process of cirandas (www.cirandas.net), an information system geared towards the solidarity economy community in brazil. the development of this system brings to light several issues related to the interaction between a community and an information system. in addition to that, the creation of a virtual community incorporated in a real community permits an analysis of the similarities and differences between both instances of the community. this article intends to analyze the cirandas development process, still underway, from the perspective of the interaction between the community in general, the developers, and the designers who also make up part of the community. for such, the article is structured as follows: initially there will be two contextualizations as a way to characterize the objects of study, which are the solidarity economy (se) movement in brazil and the cirandas. as to the former, the form of organization, the participants, and a mapping done in 2007 will be reported. as to the latter, the objectives, motivations, and the current state will be detailed. following, we will raise and discuss issues that involve se as a community, and the cirandas as a related virtual community. an analysis of se as a community will be done on how the se community relates to the information system, and on a virtual community created by the system. we will raise issues that will try to relate the cirandas with possible improvements in the se community. an interface with the free software community will also be a study object. lastly, we will discuss the cirandas’ course from the perspective of the new developments, the software appropriation by the community, and the project sustainability, followed by our conclusions. due to the great utilization of acronyms, a glossary containing the most frequently used ones is found at the end of the paper. 2 solidarity economy in brazil considering a scenario of crisis in the capitalist model, in which an enormous number of excluded people watch the spectacular development of technology but from which only a minority derive benefits, other models of society begin to rise or become stronger. initially, as experimentations around another possible society, these models bloom through cracks in the capitalist mode of production itself, but as they gain more and more power, sometimes becoming an option for surpassing capitalism itself. in brazil, especially since 2003, the solidarity economy movement has been growing. according to singer (2002, p. 10), this movement can be defined as “another mode of production, whose basic principles are the collective or associated property of capital and the right to individual freedom.”[1] in this mode of production, the productive units are self-managed cooperatives, where all the workers are owners and have equal voting rights in the organizations’ decisions. in addition to that, the end goal is the expanded reproduction of life, not profit. this form of organization is not new, and its origin go back to experiences which occurred in england sometime after the industrial revolution. from the great number of unemployed people at the time, the british robert owen proposed the creation of cooperative villages, the first self-management experience. despite the british government’s not supporting his idea, it served as a basis for several initiatives that followed. a famous example is charles fourier’s experience in france, known as phalansteries. workers would live together in a community and the result of the work would be shared among all (arroyo & schuch, 2006). it is important, however, to point out that the so-called solidarity economy does not behave at present as an alternative economic system to capitalism or to centralized socialism. it would be more appropriate to talk about initiatives or solidarity economy enterprises that have great heterogeneity, and have not organized themselves yet to the point of becoming a socioeconomic model to substitute for the current models. they are experiences that escape the capitalist model logic, and nonetheless, struggle to survive within this system.   the structure of the solidarity economy movement as a social and political movement, the solidarity economy movement has as its main organism the solidarity economy brazilian forum (fbes, in the portuguese acronym). created as a consequence of a work group of the first world social forum, in 2001, it has two central goals: 1) support the strengthening of the solidarity economy from the base; and 2) articulate and represent the solidarity economy in the elaboration of policies and in dialog with other social movements. connected to fbes, there are 27 solidarity economy state forums and more than 120 regional forums (cirandas, 2010). these forums are in charge of locally articulating enterprises, advisory service entities and government managers, and representing the region or the state in the national forum. fbes has a national coordination in which entities, national networks, and representatives of each state forum participate in and meet twice a year. the national coordination is supposed to articulate and represent fbes nationally. the daily policy management is done through the national executive coordination, which is made up of a smaller component of the national coordination and meets bimonthly. finally, the national executive department, located in brasilia, is in charge of executing the actions planned daily by the coordinations (fbes, 2010a). in all these spaces, participation obeys the following proportions: one fourth for advisory service entities, one fourth for public managers, and two fourths for solidarity economy enterprise representatives. this apparent imbalance is justified as long as the solidarity economy enterprises (see) are the basis for the solidarity economy movement. they are the ones which effectively implement the solidarity economy everyday practices and support a model that seeks to escape from capitalism. there are several kinds of see. the production enterprises are effectively devoted to the production of goods, which run from craftwork and agricultural products to nails and metal boards. these last ones are usually produced in recovered factories, a kind of see in which the ex-employees of a bankrupt factory take control of the means of production and run the business in a self-managed form. the service enterprises are cooperatives working in areas ranging from civil construction labor to free software development. a special kind of see in this group is the communitarian bank, which offers micro-credit and manages local currencies in communities. finally, there are the consumption enterprises. these are groups of consumers that meet to make joint purchases directly from producers, restricting the production and consumption cycle within the solidarity economy. important part of the se movement are the advisory service entities. made up of ngos and universities, this group aims to foster the creation of sees and to assist those already in operation, especially through training. the ngos in general have specific purposes such as education or research. the universities, in turn, are in charge of spreading technical/scientific knowledge among the see and, at the same time, producing adequate knowledge concerning the realties of these enterprises. important entities in the universities are the technological incubator programs for popular cooperatives (itcps, in the portuguese acronym), which mainly assist at the start of an see life and are present in several universities in brazil.[2] the government and the solidarity economy since brazilian president lula da silva’s first term, the government has been creating support structures for this community. nationally, the solidarity economy national department (senaes, in the portuguese acronym) was created, and it is subordinated to the work and employment ministry (mte, in the portuguese acronym). at the state and local level, there are several departments that make the interface between the government and the community. although its simple existence represents an advance, government supports to the solidarity economy are generally fragile and have very low budget. its activities are still too dependent upon the governments that are in power and managers’ personal willingness to provide assistance. and they may cease to exist at any change of government. therefore, even with significant advances, government support to the solidarity economy is still fragile. in the discussions on public policy elaboration for the se, the need for an information base on the movement’s brazilian reality is obvious. for that, a partnership between senaes and fbes generated the mapping of the solidarity economy, carried out between 2005 and 2007. in this mapping, 21,859 sees were identified all over the country. they responded to an extensive questionnaire containing questions elaborated by a national network of entities. the results were presented in a consolidated form in the solidarity economy atlas (mte, 2010). the questions addressed economic factors such as market share and revenue, forms of management, number of workers, reasons that led to the creation of the see, among several others. 3 cirandas cirandas today is the solidarity economy virtual community. all the movement participants have their space and can exchange information. as it is a project mandated by fbes, it is endorsed by all the community to be the solidarity economy meeting point on the internet. cirandas was initially conceived to meet two objectives. the first is the strengthening of the se movement as a community, using a social network to create a feeling of unity among the enterprises spread throughout brazil. in the se mapping (mte, 2010), it was detected that despite there being many enterprises with characteristics that fit within the se criteria, many of them did not consider themselves or feel part of the movement. cirandas can become an element to contribute to the formation or strengthening of this collective identity. the second objective is the strengthening of the sees themselves, offering channels of commercialization to which they would not have access without an information system geared specifically towards se. according to the mapping, the majority of the sees are economically fragile, since in 72% of the sees, their participants have an income lower than half of the minimum wage.[3] thus, a big part of the sees does not cover their associates’ income needs. many enterprises are created as an alternative to unemployment or as a way to supplement income. still according to the mapping, this is the reason for the creation of the see in 55% of the cases. the success of these two objectives would result in the formation of socioeconomic networks and chains among the se, which would reduce their dependency in relation to the capitalist market. in the se networks, enterprises of similar or supplementary kinds meet to gain advantage, as for example through the optimization of transportation, or the sharing of sales or large consumers’ services points. as to the productive chains, solidarity economy enterprises buy their supplies and sell their products inside the movement, forming a closed chain inside the se. a concrete existing example is the justa trama cotton chain,[4] in which producers of cotton, fibers, fabrics and clothes are inside the solidarity economy. at the same time that see becomes stronger, they become less dependent on the capitalist system, approaching the ideal autonomous self-sufficient solidarity economy model. history of cirandas the development of the cirandas started in 2007, with a public bid by solidarity economy national department (senaes) associated to the work and employment ministry (mte), at the request of the solidarity economy brazilian forum (fbes). to develop the system, a cooperative active in the free software community (colivre) was chosen. this cooperative already sought the articulation between the se movement and free software within fbes. perceiving similar interests on the part of other clients, colivre decided to develop a generic platform for the construction of social networks, noosfero.[5] thus, cirandas is implemented as an instance of noosfero. other noosfero users contribute or have contributed to its development with resources, such as ynternet.org (a swiss non-profit foundation), the software livre.org association, universitas paulo freire (unifreire) and the fora do eixo circuit (cfe). in addition to these actors, some advisory service entities have also gotten involved in the system design, including the technical solidarity lab (soltec) from the federal university of rio de janeiro (ufrj), the brazilian institute for social and economic analysis (ibase), and cedac, among others. the current state cirandas was officially “opened” in may of 2009, during the iii ensl – northeastern free software meeting & iv free software festival, in bahia. before that, it operated under the temporary name of the fbes system. the name cirandas was chosen by means of a voting process on the fbes site. cirandas caters to three kinds of actors: users, enterprises, and communities. any person can create a system user, in case he/she considers him or herself a se sympathizer and wants to participate in the forums debates, reach other participants or buy see products; all he/she has to do is to register and accept the compliance terms, which includes the solidarity economy principles letter (fbes, 2010b). this user has a site at his/her disposal, where it is possible to publish texts, pictures and songs. the existing enterprises in the cirandas are the 21,859 mapped in 2007 study. each one has his own web page containing the see’ name, address, contact, and the products that were available at the time. these pages were automatically created by the system. enterprises responsibles were given an activation key, which gives access for modifying the informations, such as: contents of the page, users in the enterprise, pictures, products, etc. while enterprises can be added by fbes according to the mapping, communities can be created by any user, and in those instances where they are open, any user can participate. communities are intended to gather groups with specific interests, such as consumer groups or advisory service entities. the functionalities available today do not differentiate much cirandas from other social networks available on the internet. the greatest difference is in the database and the search system that can find even non-activated enterprises. below are some numbers collected on may 24, 2011: • users: 4033 (average increase of 5.6 users/day); • projects: 21,859, being 245 active (average of 2 new activation each week); • communities: 309 (average of 4 new community each week) in the first 4 months of 2010, the system had an average of 18,750 visitors per month, with a peak of 23,675 in march, possibly due to the launching of the ecumenical fraternity campaign, whose central theme during march of this year was the solidarity economy. 4 cirandas and the community the solidarity economy community, as it has been previously mentioned, is conventionally formed by enterprise members, advisory service people, and public managers. besides these, there are the solidarity economy sympathizers, and individuals who identify with the purposes of the movement and eventually consume the solidarity economy products. this community has several levels of interaction. the most basic and fundamental are the solidarity economy regional forums, which gather to define locally the movement courses and actions. they are in charge of organizing fairs, training activities, and organize the basis for discussions at state and national levels. these fairs are also a very important space for get-togethers, debates, selling and exchanges among the movement’s members. despite some attempts to involve the solidarity economy community in the conception and development of the system, the participation level was very low. in general, the theme information technology is not attractive to the community and it was never considered a priority in the movement. in addition to that, the dispersion of the movement throughout a country of continental dimensions and the lack of resources for the system development made the participation process difficult. however, the carrying out of workshops with this purpose could have attracted the community to discuss the system. in relation to the cirandas virtual community, it is important to point out that, contrary to the se real community, where there is no material proof of participation, the cirandas registration forces a person to formally participate in a virtual community. thus it should be noted, that the virtual community strengthens the real community, since it turns a previously dispersed and non-formalized bond into a formal one. on the other hand, the joining of new members in the real community occurs by means of a social validation, where each individual is recognized by the work he/she carries out within the community. this social validation does not exist in the virtual community, and it is possible that some of the cirandas’ users don't know what solidarity economy means, in the instance where they have not read the terms of compliance. does cirandas strengthen the solidarity economy community? a first way of analyzing if cirandas strengthens the se community would be through the social capital concept, since this relationship among virtual social networks and social capital has been widely studied. according to bourdieu (1986, p. 248), “social capital is the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition”. that is, they are resources a person may have access to out of the relationships he/she maintains. these may be family relationships, with friends, co-workers, etc. still according to bourdieu, the amount of a person’s social capital depends on the size of the network maintained and the amount of resources held by the people in his/her network. in this sense, there emerges the question whether cirandas as a social network service reinforces the social capital of the community’s members. to answer this question two elements can be analyzed.  first, the size of the network in which each takes part. we should ask the following question about this: does cirandas effectively increase each of its members’ networks? second, the amount of resources it can mobilize on behalf of each member. in this sense, the question would be whether this network can be realized in material and objective elements. what we have so far is that cirandas enables see workers to establish new relationships and thereby have access to new resources. through cirandas they can buy cheaper raw materials (by making joint purchases among several ventures), contact advisory service organizations to obtain help, sell their products more easily through the site available for them on cirandas, etc. cirandas leverages their network expansion through new relationships, permitting access to more resources. another important point is how cirandas can help the solidarity economy movement, and specifically the sees. cirandas as an informatics system can contribute to the organization of the movement, assist with information exchange and systematization, support transparency in the relations among all the members, and act as an enabling tool for operations such as commercialization and certification. on the other hand, many sees do not consider an information system as a priority for the movement. one of the reasons is that only a small minority of the sees and people from the movement have, or at least have easy access to the internet. the digital inclusion of its members is an issue that has been dealt within the movement, but cirandas will barely cause a great impact on the movement until it is solved. as with any other technology, an information system is not a neutral element. it encourages certain forms of organization. according to marques (2005), every technology is developed within a certain “reference framework”. this is so because it is never possible to take into account all the factors and actors in determining a solution. thus, choices are made and certain elements are disregarded. the problem is that these choices are essentially political as they have an impact on power distribution. an information system not only is influenced by its developers in its initial design, but will also influence the form of organization and the way networked enabled relations will take place among its users. for that reason, it is important to evaluate elements such as what kind of uses cirandas allows, what kind of behavior cirandas can encourage in its community, and what social values it reproduces or faces, as suggested by granqvist (2005). however, while granqvist (2005) raises questions about how technology influences users, williams and durrance (2008) expand the debate with three questions: does technology shape social networks (social networks in a wider sense, and not simply on line social networks)? do social networks shape technology? or do they shape each other? according to our understanding, they shape each other. on the one hand, cirandas was shaped according to what was supposed to be the needs of the solidarity economy network. the enterprises initial database was an outcome of the community’s initiative; therefore we can say that the community has shaped the technology. on the other hand, in the case where the system goals are met, certain relationships within the community will clearly be shaped by the technology. that is, the system can help establish networks and productive chains turning solidarity economy into a feasible production model. another important element to be considered is the social networks as a socio-technical arrangement (assemblage), which hybridizes the social and the technical. according to arnold (2007), it is not possible to separate the characterization of virtual network from that of the communities, that is, from the system and the network of people which it produces. this author criticizes the dichotomy created between technology and society, which sets forth that technology can make it easier, or even cause changes from a real society to a desired one. according to him, in the a-modern paradigm, technology alters both the real society and the desired one: “the a-modern question is not how to assess and maximize the good use of icts (information and communication technologies) in communities, but how icts in communities are changing what good is” (arnold, 2007, p. 4). cirandas’ implementation and effective use in the se community can bring great changes to the sees daily life. the simple practice of developing a website brings about much reflection on the part of the entrepreneurs. if it is decided to publish the business’ history, it will be necessary to recall all the elements that led to the carrying out of the initiative. by inserting pictures of the products, their appearance will have to be thought through. by publishing the supplies and the open price list, the workers will have to think about the product price composition, and thus understand and optimize their production. finally, we can say that cirandas can strengthen the solidarity economy community. whether it is by offering new business channels or forcing a reflection about the business management, the use of the system will introduce the sees to the modern society paradigm, in which a significant part of the social and economic relations go through virtual means. interaction with the free software community another factor that must be pointed out in the cirandas development process was the interaction with the free software community. this community, created in the 1980s, advocates for the software freedom of use expressed in 4 principles (gnu, 2010):             “the freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).             the freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). access to the source code is a precondition for this.             the freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).             the freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). access to the source code is a precondition for this.” this philosophy, freedom above all, is strongly based on solidarity and therefore is directly related to the solidarity economy movement. it is obvious that any initiative that involves icts and se must be taken according to the free software patterns. however, these movements are not completely in agreement. despite abolishing the intellectual property concept about the source, the free software movement does not question the capitalist production model based on workers’ exploitation and the search for profit. thus, we can say that software for the solidarity economy must be free software, but an enterprise that develops free software does not necessarily fit with the solidarity economy principles. the cirandas’ development history is fundamentally linked to the interface between these two movements. the first step in promoting the meeting of members of both movements was the creation of a collaborative page (wiki) in which several free software and solidarity economy integration possibilities were listed (ecosolivre, 2010). in this page, we can find a synthesis of the desire for synergy between the movements (ecosolivre, 2010): the integration among the free software and solidarity economy movements seems to be a promising tendency for both, to the extent that solidarity economy enterprises strengthen themselves by increasing the use of free technologies (particularly in the information technology field), and professionals that operate in the free software field begin to organize themselves in social economic enterprises which provide products, services and support in information technology to the solidarity economy organizations. in fact, the process took place as follows: a free software production cooperative was created, which operates within the solidarity economy principles. it operates in the construction of the cirandas system in partnership with fbes. unfortunately, these kinds of initiatives are still very rare. computing professionals are quickly absorbed by the traditional market, and rarely suffer the marginalization that leads people to create solidarity economy enterprises. however, this kind of initiative, ideologically driven, should be encouraged and presented as a feasible option to strengthen the solidarity economy community. 5 the future of cirandas the continuation of the cirandas project went through several operating phases, which can be divided into three groups: development, that is, design and implementation of new functionalities which addresses the issues covered in this article; appropriation of the system by the community, an area in which there is still a lot to be done; and finally funding and sustainability, a recurrent concern for the cirandas project. new functionalities based on the number of system users, we can affirm that cirandas is already consolidated as an alternative social network. in this, the major goal becomes the implementation of economic functionalities, which will indeed make the system reach the objectives it proposes. the system itself offers a community where new functionalities can be discussed (cirandas, 2010b). at present, new functionalities are being modeled and developed. they will enable the development of networks and chains with the help of cirandas. to do that, a database of products and services offered by the se is being created. this allows for the inclusion of supplies, equipment and knowledge used by each product or service offered by a see. in so doing, computational intelligence algorithms can suggest interactions between sees which offer and use certain supplies, and equipment and knowledge sharing. this will be done based on geographic proximity and economic sector criteria. the creation of a tree of products and services will contribute to a unified classification of everything that is commercialized in the se. this category database will be available to the public so as to permit other sites to communicate with cirandas using the same classes. in addition to that, future webservices will have a fundamental role in integrating the system with other community and government portals. another kind of integration that can be taken into account is between cirandas and enterprise resource planning systems (erps) developed for the solidarity economy. thus, as the workers control their enterprises through an erp (stock, cash flow, projects, etc.) they can synchronize data directly with cirandas for publishing and other purposes. finally, one of the goals is the adaptation of cirandas to the national fair and solidarity trade system (sncjs, 2010). the first step here is the presentation of an open spreadsheet that shows the price composition of each product or service. in general, the system will evolve towards the strengthening of economic functionalities, considering that the social aspect is already well established. appropriation of the system by the community cirandas today is already present at the majority of events related to the solidarity economy—there would be a lecture on the system, a tent with information or even training workshops. future proposals point out to the creation of qualified telecenters, that is, environments with infrastructure to access the internet where there are people trained to offer support to cirandas registered members. the telecenters network in brazil today is quite comprehensive and its utilization by the solidarity economy community tends to strengthen the use of cirandas. it is interesting to remember that, in most cases, the qualification for using cirandas follows a basic computer training. this is due to the low rate of users that are able to use computers within the solidarity economy community. it follows that, the system appropriation strategies by the community should begin with basic computer training, in addition to training on solidarity economy principles themselves. as these training strategies in any field of the solidarity economy are usually implemented using popular education methods, cirandas has a strong relation with the community informatics (ci) concept proposed by stoecker (2005): “a sustainable approach to community enrichment that integrates participatory design of information technology resources, popular education, and asset-based development to enhance citizen empowerment and quality of life.” the basic computer training itself denotes a concern to consider the student’s reality, and with his/her help, to work on questions related to cirandas. project sustainability the continuation of the cirandas project is directly related to its capacity to obtain financial resources. there are permanent costs, which include bug correction and server maintenance, besides other development and training costs. such financing has always been achieved through public bidding with funding agencies such as finep and the marista solidarity institute. this kind of strategy tends to make system development fragile, since funding is uncertain both in the amount of resources and as to the time when resources are released. as a result, any kind of planning is difficult, being subject to political imperatives. the system’s self-sustaining option does not seem feasible at the moment. charging a fee for the use of cirandas would be a valid option, but before that, the system should be efficient and really capable of generating income for the solidarity economy enterprises. upon reaching this phase, requesting that the enterprises contribute proportionally to the value of the available products would be a reasonable way to maintain the system and improve operational planning. since this is not yet possible, system development will likely occur by means of public bidding and, eventually, through the volunteer work of free software communities. 6 conclusions in this article, we have analyzed the development of the cirandas tool from the perspective of the community for which the system was developed. we have highlighted aspects of the creation of a virtual community based on a real community and the relations that evolve form both of these. in general, we can affirm that cirandas is not directly responding to a demand from the community, which has more urgent and material needs. however, its development can be understood as a natural adaptation of the community inserted in a society where the icts are part of their everyday lives, even for those who are left out of the process. even though it is not an urgent need, we have evaluated in which ways cirandas contributes to strengthening the community and increasing its social capital. a community spread throughout brazil, which wishes to strengthen itself to the point of becoming an alternative to the capitalist model, cannot put icts aside in its articulation. cirandas should play this role, which will only be really effective from the moment the community reaches a participation level that can lead to the production of a system that can directly and appropriately respond to its needs. 7 glossary ci: community informatics fbes: fórum brasileiro de economia solidária brazilian solidarity economy forum icts: information and communication technologies se: solidarity economy see: solidarity economy enterprise senaes: secretaria nacional de economia solidária national solidarity economy department 8 bibliography arnold, m. (2007). the concept of community and the character of networks. the journal of community informatics, v. 3, n. 2. arroyo, j. c. t., & schuch, f. c. (2006) economia popular e solidária: a alavanca para um desenvolvimento sustentável. são paulo: fundação perseu abramo. bourdieu, p. (1986). the forms of capital. in richardson, j. (ed.). handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education. westport, ct: greenwood press. cirandas. (2010). espaço cirandas. retrieved may 10, 2010 from  http://www.cirandas.net/. cirandas. (2010b). futuro do cirandas. retrieved may 10, 2010 from  http://cirandas.net/ajuda/futuro/futuro-do-cirandas-o-que-vem-por-ai. ecosolivre. (2010). sítio wiki da rede ecosolivre. retrieved may 10, 2010 from http://wiki.softwarelivre.org/economiasolidaria/webhome. fbes (2010a). site do fórum brasileiro de economia solidária. retrieved may 10, 2010 from http://www.fbes.org.br/. fbes (2010b). carta de princípios da economia solidária. retrieved may 10, 2010 from http://www.fbes.org.br/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=63&itemid=60 gnu (2010). projeto gnu. retrieved may 10, 2010 from http://www.gnu.org/. granqvist, m. (2005). looking critically at ict4dev: the case of lincos . the journal of community informatics, v. 2, n. 1, pp. 21-34. mte. 2010. atlas da economia solidária. secretaria nacional de economia solidária. retrieved may 10, 2010 from http://www.mte.gov.br/sistemas/atlas/atlases.html. noosfero. 2010. site da plataforma web noosfero. retrieved may 10, 2010 from http://www.colivre.coop.br/noosfero/webhome. singer, p. (2002). introdução à economia solidária. são paulo: editora perseu abramo. sncjs 2010. sistema nacional de comércio justo e solidário. retrieved may 10, 2010 from http://www.mte.gov.br/ecosolidaria/prog_organizacao_sistema.asp. stoecker, r. (2005). is community informatics good for communities? questions confronting an emerging field . the journal of community informatics, v. 1, n. 3, pp. 13-26. williams, k., & durrance, j. (2008). social networks and social capital: rethinking theory in community informatics. the journal of community informatics, v. 4, n. 3. [1] authors’ translation [2] according to the unicamp itcp site, 44 universities take part in the itcps network currently. for a complete list, see http://www.itcp.usp.br/drupal/node/440. [3]at the time the mapping was done (2005 to 2007) the brazilian minimum monthly wage varied from us$ 150.00 to us$ 190.00 (http://www.mte.gov.br/sal_min/evoleism.pdf). [4] http://www.justatrama.com.br [5] http://noosfero.org untitled page open educational resources or closed learning management systems? –the challenge of designing ict support for learning communities in higher education   patricia arnold university of applied sciences munich, germany   abstract   ict support for learning communities in higher education has become commonplace over the last decade. within universities, there are usually various bottom-up initiatives, using different tools and educational designs to support learning and teaching. as this often takes place with little or no strategic approach to sustainability, at a given point universities strive for an “e-learning strategy”: they try to streamline the various initiatives and to endorse a learning management system that works across faculties. but how to design a strategy and sustainable support services that embrace the expectations of all stakeholders? to add complexity to this design process, there is not only a broad selection of learning management systems available for higher education, but also a strong movement pushing for web 2.0 applications and open educational resources instead of closed learning management systems. thus – often incommensurate expectations fly high from all sides.   this situation forms the backdrop of the investigation at hand: the paper describes and analyses a participatory planning and implementation process of an e-learning strategy and implementation system at a higher education institute. it focuses on expectations that arise and have to be dealt with both expected and unexpected ones, with a special emphasis on the inherent tension between implementing a closed learning management system and designing for open educational resources. furthermore, it looks at unanticipated alliances and at unexpected turns in the development process. results can inform similar design processes that need to resolve the inherent contradictions between open and closed systems as well as top-down and bottom-up approaches to changes of a learning culture.   keywords   e-learning, learning communities, learning management systems, open educational resources   introduction   the widespread use of information and communication technologies (ict) to support learning and teaching presents a great challenge to universities as complex organisations. to what extent do traditional brick and mortar universities want to enrich their study programs with flexible online formats, often subsumed as “e-learning”? which technologies should be officially endorsed by the organisation? which support services are needed? how to develop educational designs that enhance the quality of teaching in different faculties? which technologies and which organisational frameworks are needed to enrich the students’ experience of studying? the agenda of questions is long as is the list of options and possible directions to take.   recently, in many universities a broad variety of pioneering projects have been set in place, using ict in various forms and formats, but with little or no strategic approach to sustainability. thus, the need for “e-learning strategies” has been recognized. an “e-learning strategy” refers to a comprehensive set of goals and directives, elaborated and endorsed by university management, for the sustainable implementation of ict support for learning and teaching (cf. kerres 2005, arnold, mayrberger & merkt 2006, stratmann &kerres 2008). with e-learning strategies universities try to streamline existing projects and initiatives and embed them in a comprehensive master concept, in order to bring e-learning within the organization onto another level. top-down directives thus supplement bottom-up initiatives.   the latest development strives for opening up higher education by making educational resources also accessible to people not enrolled in the university and for other lecturers to re-use, adapt and refine. massachusetts institute of technology (mit) with their opencourseware initiative (ocw) is the most prominent example.   research in the field of ict support for learning and teaching usually focused on one of these aspects: educational designs, selection and affordances of technologies, e-learning strategies. it quickly became evident that all these aspects are deeply interrelated (e.g. arnold, mayrberger & merkt 2006) as is the newest of all choices – the grade of “openness” a university strives for. this complex interplay constitutes the main challenge for universities in our fast moving “digital age”.   this situation forms the backdrop of the case study i present in this paper: after many years of experimenting with technologies and establishing various pioneer projects in different faculties, my university decided to develop an e-learning strategy and to implement comprehensive e-learning support services. for this study i investigate the corresponding participatory planning process. the purpose of the investigation is to unpack some of the inherent complexity of the development and implementation of ict support for learning and teaching in higher education.   the questions that guided my inquiry are: what expectations arise from various stakeholders in such a complex situation? if we review the field of research in this area, which expectations should have been expected and which came as a surprise? in particular, i will look at the inherent tension of closed learning management systems versus open educational resources.   thus my response to the “expect the unexpected” theme in community informatics is twofold: (a) at a macro level, i contrast our case with the prevailing research on e-learning strategies and implementations, (b) at a micro level, i look at unexpected turns and alliances in the planning process within in the case. the results of the inquiry could inform the design of similar processes of developing and implementing an e-learning strategy.   the structure of the paper is as follows: in the next section, i will elaborate on the main aspects an e-learning strategy has to tackle and summarize relevant research findings. in the section that follows i will present the case study. in particular, i will describe, analyse and reflect on the specific case, assessing the expected and the unexpected in that case. conclusions will highlight main findings and bring this paper to a close.   ict in higher education –a design challenge   implementing ict support for learning and teaching can take a variety of forms and can use many different technologies. for a coherent strategy on how a university wants to incorporate the new possibilities brought about by ict, decisions have to be taken on various levels. key decisions to take are about the general role ict should play in the academic setting (role of ict), which tools and technologies should be used (tools & technologies) and how open the e-learning system should be designed (grade of openness). these three dimensions will be used to summarize important research results up to now.   role of ict   brown & duguid (1996 distinguished two very different roles ict can take on in higher education: ict can be used as an efficient means of information transport (“transport paradigm”) or as a means to provide students with easier access to scientific learning communities (“community paradigm”). within the “transport paradigm”, knowledge is seen as a discrete entity and learning is about receiving and storing information. academic teaching then is seen primarily as a delivery service, with ict a perfect means to enhance logistics. larger numbers of students and geographically dispersed students can be reached and delivery can be speeded up. within the “community paradigm”, however, learning is conceptualized as the process of enculturation in academic or professional communities (cf. lave & wenger 1991, wenger 1998). in this paradigm the role of ict would be to provide students with better access to existing communities or to provide them with the means to establish communities themselves.   the decision about what role ict should play in education is deeply interrelated with the question of educational designs. within the transport paradigm, there seems to be no need to create innovative educational designs. for example the question of how to store and deliver videotaped lectures was the centre of the discussion. within the “community paradigm”, there is the need to develop new educational designs designs that enhance the quality of learning and teaching (e.g. arnold et al 2004). thus, some research work on educational designs has explored what sorts of designs are most conducive to producing and nurturing online communities (e.g., paloff & pratt 1999, bielaczy & collins 1999, preece 2000, arnold &smith 2003, arnold, smith & trayner 2006).   mostly, e-learning in these studies has been regarded as product innovation. after a pioneering phase, the issue of sustainability gained importance. many projects had no long-lasting effect. after their funding stopped, they could hardly be retrieved (haug &wedekind 2009). it became evident that strategic approaches were needed to ensure sustainability (uhl 2003, euler & seufert 2004). “e-learning strategies” began to be developed in which universities defined the goals and general purpose of ict support for learning and teaching (for examples of e-learning strategies of german universities cf. kleimann & wannemacher 2005). with this insight, e-learning was no longer regarded exclusively as a product innovation but as well as process innovation.   furthermore, the implementation process within an organization was conceptualized as a change management process (behrendt 2004, reinmann-rothmeier 2003). as with any change process, resistance to change had to be expected. among academic staff four different types of lecturers were identified: (a) pioneering lecturers – intrinsically motivated, eager to experiment, (b) careful lecturers: intrinsically motivated, using tested tools and designs, (c) incentive-oriented lecturers: extrinsically motivated by incentives, (d) resistant lecturers: resisting any change due to conviction or lack of knowledge (cf. pfeffer, sindler & kopp 2005, 47pp.)   tools and technologies   ict support for learning and teaching brought about specialized software, integrating and bundling the most commonly used tools such as discussion forums, data repositories, assessment drop boxes and administrative functions. such learning management systems (lms) are nowadays available in abundance. a first step to implement e-learning consists of selecting a lms. commercial software competes with open source software such as moodle. comparative studies can facilitate this selection process (e.g. schulmeister 2003, baumgartner, häfele & maier-häfele 2002).   with the widespread availability of web 2.0 technologies including wikis, weblogs and social networking tools the situation has become even more complex. there are a growing number of choices for creating “digital habitats” for learning communities (wenger, white & smith 2009, schaffert & ebner 2010). web 2.0 technologies are usually easy to use, freely available and also suited to support informal learning settings.   another set of tools allows easy digitizing of videotaped lectures – streaming software. these tools make it possible to broadcast live lectures to remote locations or to capture lectures for later revision by students. thus, streaming technologies can provide students with flexible study formats while also reaching a wider audience, e.g. students with a disability or who are otherwise incapable of following lectures on campus. with the advent of podcasts, larger collections of such educational resources, especially for higher education, came into existence (cf. podcampus or itunesuniversity). however, the disadvantage of streaming technologies is that they privilege the transport paradigm over attention to educational design (burnett & meadmore 2002).   in summary, we are faced with a proliferation of tools and technologies to use in education. even when a learning community has established a set of tools already there is always the temptation to introduce a new tool to ease tasks or enhance learning. often this “one more tool” process is technology driven and too little attention is paid to the intricate social processes around such an introduction of a new tool (cf. arnold, smith & trayner 2010)   diverse grades of openness   introducing ict into higher education, a university can realize diverse grades of openness: should educational resources that are developed within the organization be accessible to other people outside the university boundaries: potential students, alumni or just anybody interested? should educational resources for e-learning, which often have high production costs, be solely developed and produced by one organisation or should a network of universities try to leverage synergy effects by pooling resources? thus, the issue of “open educational resources” enters the scene. up to now there is no widely agreed upon definition of the precise meaning of “open educational resources“. the term was coined in unesco’s activities to enhance higher education in developing countries, referring to “the open provision of educational resources, enabled by information and communication technologies, for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes” (olcos 2007, 21). the powerful idea behind open educational resources is that "the world’s knowledge is a public good and that technology […] provide[s] an extraordinary opportunity for everyone to share, use, and re-use knowledge“ (olcos 2007, 16).   a pragmatic, widespread definition specifies “open educational resources” as “digitized materials offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and re-use for teaching, learning and research” (hylen 2006, 1) there are various interpretations for “open” and respectively “free”. generally, these terms are understood as creating as few barriers as possible in accessing the learning material in terms of costs, technology and property rights (olcos 2007)   most well-known open educational resource initiatives in higher education are mit’s opencoursewareinitiatve and the learningspace by the open university, uk. many other universities and networks of universities followed (for an overview on international initiatives cf. wiley 2006, mmb 2007). reasons for making universities establish or join an open educational resource initiative include the conviction of knowledge as a public good, a marketing strategy, a means of quality assurance and faculty development. generally, in germany there are few initiatives so far. there seem to be special barriers embedded in german academic culture (cf. braun 2008). interestingly, most of the german examples listed in a comprehensive international report (mmb 2007) do not employ the “open educational resources” label themselves. often they stem from networks of universities who share the production and development costs and want to enrich their study programs (e.g. bavarian virtual university, cf. rühl 2010).   open educational resource initiatives are faced with a great number of challenges: it is difficult to devise sustainable business models and retrieval systems, implement license systems and use technologies that all partners or all potential users agree upon. another challenge, often forgotten, is the challenge to provide adequate educational designs, especially taking into account the “open audience”: "if the goal is innovation, access alone is not enough“ (olcos 2007, 31).   ict in higher education ii –a case study   in this section i will describe and reflect on one particular case: the participatory planning process of an e-learning strategy and implementation system that i co-ordinated for my university. i will first delineate the context for this case and describe the methodology used. for the case description and reflection as such i will use the three dimensions role of ict, tools & technologies and diverse grades of openness elaborated in the section above.   case setting & methodology   munich university of applied sciences is the biggest university of applied sciences in bavaria and the second biggest in germany, with more than 14,500 students. supporting nearly 500 academic staff members in 14 faculties, the university offers more than 60 study programs in a wide range of technical, social and economical domains. ict support for learning and teaching varies across faculties. there are some pioneering e-learning projects that use a variety of tools and technologies in diverse educational settings. tuition is mostly face-to-face, sometimes supplemented by learning resources and discussions online within a learning management system or by a videotaped lecture for later revision. up until now no e-learning strategy or set of comprehensive goals and guidelines has been defined. a project to develop an e-learning strategy and recommendations for how the strategy could be implemented started in march 2010 and will run until february 2011. i was assigned to be the project co-ordinator. requirement from university management was that moodle should become the key learning management software. an agreed upon milestone, due by end of july 2010, was a draft e-learning strategy for the university and a draft design for support services in order to implement the strategy. the second half of the project was designed to discuss and refine the draft versions within the diverse university bodies. the aim is to publish an officially endorsed e-learning strategy by march 2011 and to set up the infrastructure for corresponding support services by the same date.   to ensure broad participation and to include a maximum of perspectives several measures were taken: first, the project outline and objectives were presented and discussed in the relevant academic bodies. second, all stakeholders (representatives from all faculties, university management, ict centre, library services, administration) were invited to a full-day kickoff workshop. at the kick-off workshop a task force was established and assigned to draft the strategy and the support services. all workshop members could discuss intermediate results of the task force in an online consultation phase.   while the project is still underway, the first milestone has been completed. drafts of a strategy and of the design for support services are produced and are awaiting discussion and refinement in the academic bodies. for this investigation, i will reflect on the processes leading up to the first milestone. my research method lies between action research and autoethnography (cf. ellis 2004) as elaborated and explained in more detail in arnold, smith, and trayner (2006 and 2007). the central element of this research approach is an encompassing reflection of one’s own practice grounding it in process data.   the data used for the investigation consists of extensive project notes, minutes of meetings, participant observatory notes as well as projects artefacts such as workshop results, online consultation commentaries and the final drafts. additionally, i will draw on survey data collected by a colleague within a related project (döhl 2010a) and user statistics from the learning management system.   role of ict   what expectations were raised by the different stakeholders for the role of ict for learning and teaching?   one key cluster of expectations circled around enhancing the quality of learning and teaching: from a student’s point of view, ict-support for learning meant primarily to study at a modern, state-of-the art educational institution, to intensify communication with lectures, to acquire media competence as a relevant job qualification as well as to gain greater ease of study organisation (digital learning resources, all in one place, integrated with library services such as e-books etc.).   for lecturers, ict for teaching preferably could relieve the face-to-face sessions from tedious exercise phases or repetition periods through automated exercises, quizzes or alike. furthermore, e-learning resources could guide students in their preparation and recapitulation of lectures; they could help to establish learning communities amongst lecturers and students and student work could become a learning resource for all (instead of just being delivered to the lecturer for grading). furthermore, lecturers expected ict to augment the internationalisation of their teaching. with learning management systems or conference systems at hand, it would become possible to invite online guest experts or to have virtual international meetings. another expectation was to make it easier to provide students with authentic and up-to-date learning material and to offer greater choice and selection in resources by linking to resources on the net in addition to one’s own course material. in addition, e-learning was also considered as a means to document student workload as requested by the new bologna regulations. for university management ict promised to constitute a competitive advantage: for the image value of ict for modern education, for the aspired rise in quality of learning and teaching as well for a better integration of all university services (administration, library services, teaching, and research).   another key cluster of expectations revolved around flexibility: first and foremost, students hoped to gain greater flexibility as regards time and place to study. lecturers also appreciated an increase of flexibility for their teaching obligations. university management expected to be able to reach new, non traditional student cohorts: study programs could now be designed for students who work alongside their studies, who have care obligations or a disability that prevents them from following lectures on site. nowadays certificate programs for professional development need an e-learning component to accommodate the diverse working time patterns of professionals studying.   yet another bundle of expectations dealt with innovation: pioneering lecturers hoped for realizing innovative educational designs with icts, for example using e-portfolios as an alternative means as assessment. using animations, videos and simulations promised new potentials for teaching. another dimension of innovation was related to creating an open educational space (this will be elaborated upon in the section “diverse degrees of openness”).   in addition to these positive expectations, many apprehensions and some resistance became visible. in all stakeholder groups (students, lecturers and university management) people were concerned whether the university could change into a distance education institution. in addition, lecturers were worried that using ict for teaching could create an additional workload for them without any compensation. reformulated as positive expectations, all stakeholders expected a clear commitment to face-to face tuition with e-learning exclusively supplementing regular face-to-face seminars and lectures. furthermore, for those exploring new educational designs with ict and developing new multimedia learning resources there should be a compensation scheme in place. such a scheme could also serve as an incentive system to attract staff other than pioneers. most important, comprehensive support services seemed to be needed to reduce lecturers’ workload.   assessing the expected and the unexpected   it comes as no surprise that expectations concerning the role of ict for learning and teaching were manifold and also contained apprehensions, even resistance. it proves the point that the introduction of e-learning is a complex change process that needs participatory planning structures. furthermore, ascribing a rise in quality, flexibility and innovation in ict-support was to be expected as these themes dominate the discourse on e-learning in the expert community. unexpected, if anything at all, was the strong “mingling” of aspects of the community and transport paradigms. the perceptions of the role of ict support could not easily be sorted into the “community paradigm” or “transport paradigm”. the distinction is helpful to describe principle differences and to generate a standard for evaluating the introduction of icts. in the case study ict for supporting communities as well as for enabling flexible study formats could hardly be separated and both aspects were subsumed under augmenting quality. it seems that flexible access to learning resources has become a general quality criterion in higher education.   striking for me, but not entirely unanticipated, was the apparently inseparable bond between the role of ict and highly specific software tools. even in the initial phase of creating a vision for e-learning at the university nearly all ideas were directly connected with a specific tool. abstract affordances that could help shape the selection process for certain tools did not seem to be considered even after many years of experimenting with technology for learning and teaching.   tools and technologies   regarding tools and technologies, lecturers were concerned about robust performance, reliable helpdesk services and long-term provision of selected systems. those who had been engaged with the lms before moodle expected support in migrating their courses. generally, there was anxiety that frequently changing systems would require getting familiar with new software over and over again. in addition, lecturers feared a rising workload due to insufficient support in creating educational designs with ict, a lack of expertise in multimedia production, and an explosion of communication channels.   re-framing these concerns as positive expectations, the resulting cluster was related to sustainability. hardware and software facilities needed to be laid out for reliability and performance. software selections, especially the selection of the official university’s lms, needed to be realized with a long-term perspective. support services were needed that comprised a help desk for technological problems, migration services from the previous lms to moodle, training capacities in handling the lms and other tools as well as advice and services in multimedia production and creating educational designs with ict. whereas the latter service was expected primarily for lecturers, the first ones were required for all users.   the importance of having a range of different tools and technologies was also stressed. one central lms did not seem sufficient to meet the needs of different faculties. interestingly, there was never explicit interest expressed in central provision of wikis or weblog software. this was in contrast to the interest in streaming technologies and tools for creating podcasts of lectures and conferencing software such as webex. the faculty of business engineering had already successfully explored the affordances of these technologies (cf. döhl 2010a and b). according to a recent survey, more than 90% of students of this faculty regarded such “lectures on demand” as a useful contribution to their study program. this contrasts with the perception amongst lecturers, 45% of whom regarded “lectures on demand” as not really useful vs. 52% who advocated the idea or strongly advocated it (döhl 2010a). for the advocators, the lms moodle was mainly useful for distributing streamed lectures. moreover, the faculty of applied social sciences expressed strong interest in supplementing the lms moodle with specialised e-portfolio software, such as mahara. a research project, concerned with the refinement of study programs of social work, had indicated the need for fostering reflexion and connecting different subject areas.   assessing the expected and the unexpected   the issue of sustainability, and especially the demand for long-term planning and sufficient support services, lies in line with the experience of many universities gradually leaving the e-learning pioneering stage. the fact that there was no explicit demand for central provision of web 2.0 technologies despite them being “hyped” in many e-learning publications could be regarded as surprising at a first glance. on the other hand, it could also be explained as follows: by definition, web 2.0 technologies are freely available and easy to handle. hence, barriers in access or usage are low anyhow regardless of central provision or not. additionally, due to their open character, often grading students’ work with these technologies is difficult.   an unanticipated turn in the process development was the unexpected alliance between the faculty group using streaming and conferencing software and those advocating moodle for the support of learning communities, including mahara for e-portfolios: for actors adhering to the “community paradigm”, like myself, there seemed to be little common ground with the promoters of “lectures on demand”, an approach that was quickly linked with the “transport paradigm”. generally, those interested in enabling community building often discarded the streaming of lectures as of less educational value. although there might be still differences in detail, it became evident in the process that we shared more goals than we had thought before such as in using ict in teaching for continuous internationalisation and thus creating broader learning communities. especially, as the advocators of the streaming technologies discovered moodle not only as a distribution channel but as much as a system for creating communities around the streamed lectures.   diverse grades of openness   the topic of open educational resources was not discussed explicitly in the overall process. implicitly, however, the topic was dealt with at various points. in a certain sense, the decision for moodle can be regarded as opting for an open educational resource as moodle is a free tool and open source software for organizing online education. on the other hand, learning resources provided in the courses of moodle are exclusively accessible for students of one university, often only for students enrolled in one particular course. the same applies at the level of lecturers. usually, lecturers will administer their learning resources individually. while the sharing of resources is not facilitated by moodle per se lecturers expressed strong interest to build an e-learning lecturer community at the university for sharing of experience. in such a community, the sharing of learning resources could be one element of the collaborative practice– and could be realized via moodle.   at another level, the topic of open educational resources turned up in respect to the bavarian virtual university (bvu). the university is an active member of a network of bavarian universities that jointly produce and share online courses. lecturers who run courses for bvu expected efficient support services to ease administrative barriers when students from other universities needed access to our moodle installation. yet another group of lecturers were concerned about blurring boundaries of course content on our moodle installation and bvu courses due to previous problems and disagreements with bvu as regards rights of use and patent rights.   generally, it was perceived by all stakeholder groups that ict support per se opened up university education: the choice of learning resources for students is expanding, the possibilities of collaboration in geographically dispersed groups is rising, and learning communities with permeable boundaries that could include people from outside the university can be fostered.   assessing the expected and the unexpected   the open educational resource debate is highly featured in academic communities concerned with e-learning in higher education. nevertheless, it comes as no surprise that the topic did not appear explicitly on the agenda. open educational resources, first and foremost, need functioning communities. in the case i presented such a community did not yet exist.   what i did not anticipate beforehand were the contradictory perceptions of cooperating with bvu. i had expected bvu to be a key driver for implementing e-learning at our university, given that its underlying principle is to leverage synergies by sharing of production cost, administrative overhead and workload. with bvu the rights of use and patent rights are clearly regulated so i would have expected the usual barriers to open educational resource initiatives to be reduced. re-considering this unexpected scepticism towards bvu the difficulties might stem from this way of “traditional handling” of licences and rights. it would be worth exploring whether alternative copyright and rights of use regulations could improve the situation.   conclusion   with this paper i set out to investigate the intricate design process for ict-support for learning and teaching in higher education. in a case study i described a participatory planning process of an e-learning strategy and reflected on the expectations raised in the initial period of the project with a focus on the inherent tension between implementing a closed learning management system and designing for open educational resources.   what are the key results? generally, the complexity of such a process became clearly visible. in addition “expect the unexpected” seems to be a wise guideline for co-ordinating a project like this. in particular, the two sides of the lms moodle as regards open educational resources could be unpacked: moodle can potentially be used for creating open educational resources but it does not lend itself easily to this purpose. the second main finding is that the relationship between certain approaches to e-learning entails more complexity than usually anticipated.   streaming technologies for lectures on demand and a learning management system to enable community building among students are not as difficult to combine as it may appear at the beginning.   further research is needed to fully understand how different sets of copyright regulations interacts with the willingness of faculty to support open education initiatives, in particular whether regulations like creative commons can help find sustainable solutions.   references   arnold, p., kilian, l., thillosen, a. & zimmer, g. 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(2010). moodle: open source, closed doors. weblog entry from february 25, 2010. <>(01.09.2010). uhl, v. (2003). virtuelle hochschulen auf dem bildungsmarkt. strategische positionierung unter berücksichtigung der situation in deutschland, österreich und england. wiesbaden: deutscher universitäts-verlag. wenger, e. (1998). communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. cambridge: university press. wenger, e., white, n, & smith, j.d. (2009). digital habitats: stewarding technology for communities. portland, or: cpsquare publishing. wiley, d. (2006). on the sustainability of open educational resource initiatives in higher education http://opencontent.org/docs/oecd-report-wiley-fall-2006.pdf 01.09.2010).                                                                 la pila documentos la pila documentos documentos descargas tm y © apple inc. 2007 todos los derechos reservados. bienvenido a mac os x leopard. el dock de mac os x leopard, con su elegante aspecto renovado, incorpora una novedad: las pilas. con las pilas, podrá acceder rápidamente desde el dock a los archivos más importantes y más usados. es muy fácil crear una pila: tan solo tiene que arrastrar una carpeta al lado derecho del dock y automáticamente se convertirá en una pila. al hacer clic en una pila, esta se despliega del dock en forma de abanico o cuadrícula. si desea abrir un archivo de una pila, simplemente tiene que hacer clic en él. el sistema mac os x leopard incorpora dos pilas predefinidas: la pila documentos y la pila descargas. este archivo, por ejemplo, lo ha abierto desde la pila documentos. la pila documentos es el lugar ideal para guardar sus presentaciones, hojas de cálculo y archivos de texto. puede arrastrar los archivos que desee a la pila o guardarlos en ella al guardar un documento en una aplicación. dependiendo del número de elementos que contenga la pila, se mostrará automáticamente en forma de abanico o en forma de cuadrícula. si prefiere que las pilas se muestren siempre con un determinado estilo, puede configurarlo. las pilas muestran de forma inteligente los elementos por orden de relevancia, aunque, si lo desea, puede establecer usted mismo el orden de clasificación para asegurarse de que los elementos que más le interesen aparezcan siempre al principio de la pila. para personalizar una pila, sitúe el puntero sobre el icono de la pila y mantenga pulsado el botón del ratón hasta que aparezca un menú. para eliminar un archivo de una pila, abra la pila y arrastre el archivo en cuestión a la papelera. de hecho, cuando haya acabado de leer este documento, no dude en eliminarlo.   cybercafes and their potential as community development tools in india  anikar m. haseloff universität augsburg <  anik.haseloff@web.de  >   abstract using public internet facilities in order to access information and communication technologies (ict) is the main model of use after the more common models of home use (individual ownership) and access at work or at school/university. especially in developing countries, public and shared facilities help to create desperately needed access and are a main strategy in several internet access programs. in the context of public access, cybercafes play an important role as the most common internet access model, especially in the urban areas of india. it is often argued that cybercafes could help bridge the digital divide, as they provide internet access to people who cannot afford to have internet connections at their homes or who need help in order to make use of ict. the following article will take this assumption as a starting point and will present findings from empirical research on cybercafes in urban india. the research was conducted in order to explore the problems and potential of cybercafes as development tools for different urban communities. in order to examine these relationships, the reach of cybercafes, the users of cybercafes and the usage patterns have been examined. this study is part of a doctoral thesis and the following article presents some of the findings. the article has to be seen as a preliminary report on ongoing research, and it presents some of the data collected to date in order to help build understanding concerning this complex access model and its importance for urban india.   introduction the internet is dramatically changing the way people live, work, communicate, recreate and participate in public life all over the world. but the growth and the penetration of the internet is far from being distributed equally around the globe. whereas in developed countries the internet today reaches substantial proportions of the population, e.g. in germany (56.2%) or in the united states (68.8%), the situation is different in developing countries. in india for example, only 2.9 percent of households had internet access in early 2005. this is almost twice the average for african countries (1.5% internet penetration), but still much lower than the world average (13.9% penetration) and india is still far behind europe with 35.5% (all statistics from: http://www.internetworldstats.com/). the low rates of internet access in developing countries like india are often traced back to low rates of personal computer ownership and the high cost of hardware. another barrier is the low income level, which makes the internet an expensive tool in developing countries. beside these economic factors, there are a variety of cognitive barriers like low literacy rates, lack of english language skills or lack of e-literacy skills to effectively use these new technologies (warschauer, 2003). as a result of the low penetration of ict tools in indian households, a substantial proportion of the indian population has to rely on other modes of access to the internet, mainly by using public internet access points. in this, there are a wide variety of different public models, ranging from public libraries offering internet access, to rural village information kiosks and telecenters, to modern urban cybercafes. the various models offering public internet access differ significantly between urban and rural areas as well as between developed and developing countries. whereas in rural areas development oriented projects are the most common and mostly the only public access model, cybercafes in urban areas are the prevalent model of public internet access beside other public facilities like libraries, schools or municipal projects.  while in their initial stage a mostly urban phenomena, cybercafes over the years have mushroomed throughout india, and today can even be found in small towns and some of the bigger villages. they seem to serve a crucial portion of indian society as access points for the use of computers and the internet, as can be seen when examining the size of this sector. as there is a lack of common definitions, regulations for registration, and authoritative measurement, the exact number of cybercafes in india can only be roughly estimated. there exist several such figures, but they have to be seen as estimates rather than exact numbers. in 2001 the indian market research bureau (imrb) estimated around 12,000 cybercafes in india (achar, 2001). since then the number appears to have grown steadily all over the country, and caslon analytics (2004, p. 4) estimates the number of cybercafes for all of india as approximately 50,000 in 2004. the same figure is given by pasricha (2004). these estimates show that cybercafes are slowly becoming part of contemporary city architecture in india and may serve a large proportion of the indian population as access points to the internet. despite the fact that the number of cybercafes in the urban areas of india (as well as in most parts of the rest of the world) has increased significantly, cybercafes are mostly ignored in scientific research and political programs, which seem to prefer to concentrate on other public access services in libraries, community access centers, village information centers, schools or universities. little attention has been paid so far to this obviously successful market-driven access model and there is a lack of empirical data, as well as a lack of user surveys measuring the usage patterns of these enterprises. therefore the users, the usage patterns and the relevance of cybercafes for particular social groups in india remain almost unknown. definition of cybercafes cybercafes in this article are understood as “for-profit facilities, open to the general public to access the internet, other network facilities and/or a variety of information technology tools on a temporary contract basis (pay per use) without the necessity for the users to own hardware or software themselves." this simple definition segregates cybercafes from organizational, governmental or institutionally implemented rural internet projects with primarily developmental attitudes and goals. one of the main differences between urban cybercafes and organizationally implemented rural internet projects may be seen in the management goals of the different models. whereas rural internet projects often target low-income groups and are able to offer their services free or with significant subsidizes, cybercafes are in a stiff competition and usually target the better-off parts of the society. the above definition also segregates cybercafes from other common public internet access facilities in urban areas such as, for example, public libraries that offer internet access to their users or community access centers that offer internet access to specific target groups. cybercafes usually are open to everybody who can afford to pay the service fees and there are usually no restrictions with respect to age, gender, ethnicity, religion or income. use is normally charged on a minutes/hours basis without the need of having a contract or a registered membership.     cybercafes today appear in a variety of different models. they range from the original small-scale entrepreneur model, where a small number of computers using a slow dial-up connection is set up in a convenient atmosphere; to traditional cafés which extend their existing services by offering internet access; to franchised ultra-modern internet pools with a very large number of computers and broadband connections offering the same standardized services in different cities. more detailed classifications of cybercafes can be found in the works of lachmayr (2003), liff and steward (2003) and laegran and stewart (2003), where cybercafes are classified according to the atmosphere, the function, the management type and their users.  in this article cybercafes are operationally defined as commercial venues that offer internet access to the general public on a pay-per-use basis. they don't receive any kind of external funding and are not implemented within development programs or political initiatives. they have become almost ubiquitous in the urban areas of india and are now moving towards rural areas. in the rural areas of india however, development-oriented or funded projects are the prevalent models of public access and thus the findings of this study should be seen as being strictly limited to referring only to urban centers. the emergence of cybercafes stewart (2000, p. 322) dates the emergence of the first cybercafes to the early 1990s in the usa. according to those interviewed in this study, they appeared in the indian scene in the mid-1990s, mainly in metropolitan areas like mumbai, delhi or bangalore. liff and steward trace the evolution of this public access model in western countries back to the emergence of the world wide web, the invention of the graphical and easy-to-understand web browsesr like mosaic (1993) or netscape (1994) and the invention of free web-based email (liff and steward, 2003, p. 323). there has been a massive boom worldwide of cybercafes in the late 1990s, with the biggest cybercafe (800 computers) in the world opening in new york in 2000 (lachmayr, 2003). a similar development has been observed for india, where achar identifies the years from 1998 through 2000 as the massive boom time for cybercafes. after growing until 2003/2004, the scene today is witnessing a small downturn, due to stiff competition and growing home access in the upper and middle classes. this can be seen, for example, in the dramatic reduction of access rates for customers, which have come down from around 70 rupees (1.20 euro) an hour in 1997 to as little as 10 rupees (0.17 euro) today, which makes it more difficult for cybercafes to create sustainable revenues (achar, 2001). despite these market consolidations, the number of cybercafes is extraordinarily high in india, based on the previously quoted estimates of up to 50,000 cybercafes.  today cybercafes are the most visible and perhaps most important model of public internet access in urban areas of india. taking the recent explosive development of cybercafes as a starting point, this article will examine the potential that cybercafes could have in bridging the digital divide, and then describe the users of cybercafes in order to examine the reach of this model in urban india. cybercafes and the digital divide the unequal access within and among countries to icts is often called the digital divide. this catchy label points to a multidimensional phenomenon and describes disparities in access to ict along various axes and at various levels. whereas the existence of a digital divide in one or the other form is clearly accepted amongst scholars, the dimensions, the dynamics and the relevance of this phenomenon are still being widely discussed (compaine, 2001; mossberger, tolbert, and stansbury, 2003; norris, 2001; warschauer, 2003). it is a common mistake to limit the existence and importance of the digital divide only to its access and infrastructure aspects. although access is a prerequisite for the use of new icts, making effective use and deriving benefits from icts requires strategies which go beyond providing simple access and include the development of the needed skills, relevant content and applications as well as a technology supportive environment (gurstein, 2003). cybercafes in this context, it should be noted, originated as a purely access-driven solution to provide shared and therefore consequently cheaper access to people who temporarily or generally lack access. disparities in access can be observed in every country, and internet access is far from reaching the entire population, even in countries with high rates of internet access (warschauer, 2003, p. 75): (...) it will take decades before nearly every household in developed countries has internet access, and much longer than that before universal home internet service is reached in developing countries. it is thus necessary to enhance the provision of internet connectivity through the establishment of public access sites. therefore, cybercafes as the most common form of public internet access in urban areas can be seen as a helpful institution to overcome access divides in emerging countries. but cybercafes in this discussion should not be seen as limited to the access level of the digital divide. cybercafes are interesting because of two mechanisms. on the one hand, cybercafes offer a low-cost alternative to the otherwise expensive model of in home-ownership and access in developing countries, and thus lower the multiple financial barriers (investment in hardware and software, monthly cost, expenses for updates or security). on the other hand, cybercafes can function as a center for support, education and learning about new tools and therefore could help people overcome skill deficits which would normally exclude them from access to new technologies. the main mechanisms which can be identified in the context of cybercafes and the digital divide are: access level: cybercafes provide access to people who cannot afford to have computers and internet connections at home. this is especially important and highly visible in urban areas of developing countries like india. access level: cybercafes offer by far the largest number of computers accessible to the public compared to the other models like libraries, school or universities. technology level: they may provide better equipment or faster connections to enable different and more advanced use. skill level: cybercafes can offer formal training and beginner courses for people who lack the skills to use computers and the internet. besides this, help and support can be realized informally from the staff or other users if problems occur. social exclusion level: cybercafes could address special target groups, which are normally underrepresented in the internet user statistics, e.g., elderly people or people with low income. socialization and mobilization level: cybercafes may also have an important function in socializing the new tools and technologies by displaying them and their use to the public and, therefore, perhaps motivating further use. these theoretical assumptions are challenged in the most developed countries by the explosion in the number of in-home users (caslon analytics, 2004, p. 5). cybercafes can be seen in the context of the most developed countries as just transitory necessities, which will diminish with steadily growing in-home access. but even though the cybercafe isn't a necessity in the most developed countries, it is a special and dedicated use space for some communities, and therefore is not necessarily a transitory phenomenon (stewart, 2000). as well, the situation may be different in developing countries like india: “(...) computers will remain out of reach for most of india's one billion         people for years to come, so cyber cafes will continue to be the vehicle for taking the internet to the masses” (pasricha, 2004). but do cybercafes really take the internet to the masses? or do they just serve an urban elite? there is evidence that in western countries cybercafes mostly serve people who already have access elsewhere, as a survey done in vienna by lachmayr shows. he conducted a study of 255 users from 13 different cybercafes in vienna in order to find out if cybercafes help to bridge the digital divide, but the findings clearly don't support this hypothesis. the users of cybercafes in vienna have been mostly young (average age 23), male (61 percent male), students (30 percent) or self-employed (27 percent). lachmayr concludes that the users of cybercafes are mostly people who already have a decent knowledge of new technologies and who in most cases have access elsewhere. in fact,cybercafes could even be seen as widening the divide, as the research suggests that cybercafes are only offering an additional resource to people who already use the new technologies, while leaving behind those without any other option (lachmayr, 2003).  as mentioned above, the situation may be a little different in india. on the one hand, home use of the internet will remain out of reach for substantial proportions of the society in india. on the other hand, cybercafes are found in much higher numbers in the indian cities than, for example, in vienna, which could imply a higher demand for this access model in india. as there is very little empirical research on cybercafes in india, exploratory baseline data were collected in different indian cities in early 2004 and early 2005. this research was designed to answer the following questions: who is using cybercafes in the urban areas of india? what are the reasons people use cybercafes? do disadvantaged groups such as the elderly, low-income groups or those with low education levels use cybercafes, or are cybercafes just an additional access point for people who already have access elsewhere? does the relevance of using cybercafes differ for various groups? a brief description of the methods used and a discussion of some of the findings are given below. an exploratory survey of cybercafes in order to examine the importance of cybercafes, a street survey was conducted in bangalore in february 2005. bangalore was chosen because it is known as the it capital and hosts the most cybercafes in india (achar, 2001). the questionnaire was designed to collect socioeconomic data form respondents (age, gender, income, education and occupation), their language abilities, their knowledge of the internet, their place of internet access, reasons for using or not using the internet and future plans for internet ownership or usage. the interviewers were given quotas and they were advised to work in different areas of the town, using a random walk method covering the entire city. to classify respondents, the socio-economic classifications (secs) developed by the (indian) national readership survey were employed. the sec groups urban indian households using two factors: education and the occupational status of the chief wage earner of the family. there are five main secs, ranging from a (highest group) to e (lowest). in the following survey, sec a and sec a1 are considered as upper class, sec b is considered upper middle-class, sec c is referred to as middle-class and sec d and sec e are considered lower class.    for the sample, the quotas for the secs was not set according to the population statistics of bangalore, as internet use in the lowest sec groups d and e is assumed to be almost nonexistent. in order to get higher samples of internet users, sec groups e and d have been heavily under-represented and sec groups a and b have been over-represented in the quotas for the interviewers. table 1 gives an overview of the sec classes in bangalore and the sec classes in the surveyed sample: table 1: sec classes street survey socioeconomic class (sec) percentage bangalore percentage survey       a1 6.4 18.3 a2 5.1 17.3 b 15 28.9 c 24.5 27.8 d 22.9 4.5 e 26 3.1     n=1500 data bangalore from businessworld 2005 p. 72 the findings therefore have an exploratory character and the data do not claim to be representative for india (or bangalore) as a whole, but it does give an interesting picture of the target group (internet users) at the time of the survey. findings internet usage in the surveyed sample (n=1496), 16.5 percent of the respondents used the internet. the internet usage rate for bangalore is 8.8 percent, according to the 2005 marketing whitebook (businessworld, 2005, p.181), but as explained above, the higher usage rate came from the different weighting of the sec groups in this survey. internet use varied strongly among the different groups. sec d and sec e show no internet usage at all, as assumed before, whereas sec a1 has a relatively high internet usage level of 36.1 percent (matching the european average). table 2 gives a short overview of the internet usage in the different sec groups: table 2: sec group and internet usage sec internet usage     a1 36.1 a2 23.3 b 12.9 c 7.7 d 0 e 0 n=1496 internet usage in percent of respondents as can be clearly seen, internet usage strongly declines in the lower sec groups. if examined using the variable of income, internet usage shows the same pattern (table 3). table 3: income and internet usage income internet use     no income 0 below 2500 0 2600 5000 5.1 5100 10000 16.3 10100 25000 30.2 25100 50000 42.4 above 50000 50 n=1496 internet use in percentage of respondents tables 2 and 3 show clearly that internet usage is strongly associated with income and sec. these findings are not surprising, as internet use in developing countries is known to be highly unequal in distribution and, as in the early days of the internet in western countries, it is used mostly by the elite. language another important variable that could influence the usage of the internet is language, more specifically: the ability to speak english. an interesting case study in slovenia observes a strong relationship between the ability to speak english and the use of the internet. internet use was as high as 75 percent in the group of fluent english speaking respondents, compared to just 1 percent of the respondents without english language skills (vehovar, batagelj and lozar, 1999 p. 4). the same pattern was observed in this survey where the ability to speak english was determined as fluent, can understand to some extent and doesn`t speak. table 4 shows the results. table 4: internet usage and english language skills english language skills fluent speaker understand to some extent doesn't speak     internet usage   34.4   3.7   0.4 n=1460 internet usage in percentage of respondents as the table shows, internet usage correlates strongly with the ability to speak english. the percentage of users in the group with very good english skills is almost as high as in sec a1 (table 2). of course, the ability to speak english depends strongly on education and socio-economic level. for example, from the respondents in sec a1, 76.6 percent were fluent in the english language, whereas in sec c just 27.5 percent were fluent english speakers and in sec e nobody could speak fluent english. but the relation between the ability to speak english and usage of the internet can also be observed by just examining sec a1: 46.7 percent of the respondents with very good english skills were using the internet, whereas just 2.5 percent of the respondents with only basic skills use the internet and none of the non-speakers did. the same pattern can be observed when controlling for income. in the highest income groups, internet usage was 46.7 percent if the respondent had fluent english language skills and only 1.5 percent if the respondent had only basic skills. it can be argued that in order to make use of the internet, one needs to understand english because of the prevalence of content in english on the web, but actually, nowadays there is considerable content available in a variety of indian languages, so the lack of content can not explain this pattern. the relation between language and internet use needs to be investigated more closely by future studies, as there could be some interesting mechanisms at work which are limited to the relation between content and language.      place of access if the respondent was using the internet, s/he was asked about place(s) of access. respondents could choose among home, work, friend, school/university and cybercafe, and it was possible to choose more than one access place. interestingly, cybercafes are used by 67.3 percent of the respondents, which closely matches the two-thirds ratio noted by pasricha (2004). according to the survey, cybercafes are the most used access place, followed by work (44.1 percent) and school/college/university (26.3 percent). home access, which is the prevalent access model in western countries, is important only for a small proportion (24.1 percent) of the internet users. table 5 gives an overview of the importance of each access point for the different sec groups. table 5: secs and access place   sec a1 sec a2 sec b sec c total home 37.8 22 12.5 6.3 24.1 work 59.2 47.5 30.4 15.6 44.1 friend 15.9 13.6 19.6 15.6 15.9 school/university 26.9 25.4 35.7 28.1 26.3 cybercafe 67.3 61.0 71.4 75.0 67.3 n=244 figures in percentage of respondents multiple answers possible as this table shows, cybercafes are heavily used among all sec groups, with the percentage of respondents using cybercafes being higher in sec groups b and c. access place home is almost double that of the next higher sec group. a somewhat similar pattern can be found with work. the other two access options friends and school/university are, compared to cybercafes, home and work,relatively stable throughout the sec groups. table 5 also shows that the sec group a1 generally uses more access points than the sec group c (210 percent points compared to 140). respondents were also asked to identify the main place they would access the internet. table 5 shows that cybercafes are the main access point for the middle-class (sec c) and even the upper middle-class (sec b), whereas for the upper-class (sec a1 and a2) the access place work is most important. table 5: main internet access place   sec a1 sec a2 sec b sec c total access place           home 15.3 6.7 9.3 3.1 10.2 work 46.9 38.3 24.1 15.6 35.7 friend 1.0 1.7 3.7 3.1 1.6 school 4.1 10 11.1 6.3 7.4 cybercafes 32.7 38.3 51.9 65.6 42.6 n=245 answers in percentage of respondents home according to these figures is the main access place for 10 percent of the surveyed population, even though 24.1 percent of the internet users have home access. these findings are consistent with findings from interviews conducted with cybercafe managers. the managers mentioned that even people who have access at home are using cybercafes, because home use is mostly restricted to dial-up connections while cybercafes offer broadband connectivity. furthermore, in india, using a cybercafe is much cheaper than using a dial-up connection at home which costs in the order of 40 rupees for one hour as compared to as little as 10 15 rupees an hour in a cybercafe. besides saving money while being able to use a faster connection, security reasons may also be important for people. one cybercafe manager mentioned that by using cybercafes, problems with viruses, trojans or data miners are kept away from the personal computer and there is no need to invest additional money in individual security software at home.     the table also shows that home access and access at work are more important for the upper sec groups, with 62.2 percent of sec a1 using home or work as their main access point, whereas cybercafes are more important for the lower sec groups. but interestingly, even in the upper sec group a, cybercafes are used by almost one-third of the users as their main access point. and if we look at the sec group c, we can see that for two-thirds of this group cybercafes are the main access point.  the research from lachmayr has shown that cybercafes in austria have almost exclusively been used as an additional access point by people with access elsewhere, and only a marginal group has been identified as being exclusively dependent on cybercafes.  the situation is quite different for india, where cybercafes are the only access point for 18.8 percent of all internet users. the importance of cybercafes as the only access place follows the patterns indicated above. whereas they are the only access point for just 10.2 percent of sec group a1, almost one-third (31.3 percent) of sec group c depends exclusively on cybercafes, with a steadily declining importance from sec group c to sec group a. these findings, contrary to patterns for western countries, show that cybercafes play an important role as access points for large proportions of indian internet users. almost 70 percent of the indian internet users frequent cybercafes, and a detailed examination showed that cybercafes are the main access point for almost half of the users (42.6 percent), with the number getting as high as almost 70 percent  for sec group c (middle-class). but one has to keep in mind that cybercafes are used only by the upper-class (sec group a1, a2) and the middle-class (sec b, c). the lower classes (sec d and e) have shown no internet usage at all in this sample. the activities of this group have to be researched with more sensitive methods, in order to determine use more completely. to obtain a closer look at the users of cybercafes, a different survey has been conducted in and in front of cybercafes in bangalore, mumbai and pune. people were interviewed directly before entering or when leaving a cybercafe. altogether, 1472 people have been interviewed with a standardized questionnaire to find out socio-economic and other background data (e.g., age, education, employment situation) and usage habits (e.g., frequency of visits, time spent at centers, services and information accessed). the users of the cybercafes in general, the cybercafe users are young, the average age being 26 years. more than 70 percent of the users are below 30. the following table gives an overview on the age structure of the sample. table 6: age structure of cybercafe users in india: age group percentage cybercafe users   14 and below 1.2 15 – 19 13.2 20 – 29 57.1 30 – 39 20.4 40 – 49 12.1 above 50 3.3 n = 1459 min. 9, max. 90, avg. 26,84 the age of the surveyed users ranged between 9 and 90 years. finding elderly people using the cybercafe (often with the help of their children or even grandchildren), gives an idea of the value this institution could have for elderly people. but at the moment, as the data show, cybercafes serve mostly the young. examining gender shows that cybercafes are slightly male-dominated, with 54.7 percent of users being males. but the gender divide within cybercafe users seems to be narrowing, as a survey conducted by the author in 2001 showed a ratio of 64.4 percent males against 31.6 percent women users. employment status and education of cybercafe users the biggest group of users are employees (44.9 percent), followed by students (36.8 percent), housewives (6 percent), and the self-employed (5.5 percent); with others (unemployed, retired etc.) being 6.8 percent. thus, students are strongly over-represented in cybercafes as compared to being only 14.4 percent of the urban population of india. for the employed, it is interesting to examine the position and sector of work, in order to find out if cybercafes are used mainly by high-income or low-income segments of the population (see table 7). table 7: different sectors of employment sector percent computer and software 11.9 banking and financial services 12.3 service sector 14.6 factory/industrial worker 3.7 teachers 13.5 medical sector 5.5 shop assistant 4.1 n= 721 only the sectors factory/industrial worker and shop assistant represent low-income jobs, and these two categories account for just 7.8 percent of the users. on the other hand, 24.2 percent of the employees work in high-income job sectors, namely software/hardware and financial services. this suggests that cybercafes are mainly used by the better off in society and confirm the findings of the street survey. a look at education strengthens this picture: 46.2 percent of users above 25 years had a college degree and just 2.9 percent of those above 25 had only primary education or less. interestingly, almost one percent of users were illiterate, and that this group uses cybercafes at all is notable as education is often considered a prerequisite to the use of new technologies and services. several of the interviewed cybercafe managers confirmed that fact and pointed out that these people, as they were not in a position to make use of the internet on their own, made use of the services with extensive help from the staff. there are several services at present like scanning, creating an email account, sending and receiving email, job search or even finding partners online, which are of available for use even by the illiterate when mediated through a human interface. but, as both surveys show, groups with low education and/or low income are only a marginal proportion of the users of cybercafes. after examining who comes to the cybercafe, this study took a closer look at what people come for and what they are doing in the cybercafes. what do people use? the most frequently used service in the cybercafe was the world wide web (90.3 percent), followed by email (72.3 percent), phonecalls/netphone (52.1 percent), games (49.6 percent) and chat (48.7 percent). almost half of those interviewed also used the cybercafe for educational reasons, which may be related to the high number of students. but it should also be noted that many teachers use cybercafes in order to prepare their lessons.  in the discussion of cybercafes and the digital divide, it was mentioned that cybercafes could play an important role in offering training to people who lack the skills to use computers and the internet. there are two mechanisms of support: informal and formal. it is much easier to measure the formal way (is formal training offered? how important is it for revenues? how much do people use it?) than to measure informal training. informal help may be needed constantly or just once in a while, and it can be provided by the staff or by other users, making it more difficult to define and measure.  interestingly, just 26.4 percent of the cybercafes offered any formal training. considered as a powerful mechanism to bridge the digital divide, training in cybercafes did not play an important role in their business strategies. some of the cybercafe managers interviewed said they had been offering it, but the use was not as important as one would think and was very limited as a source of revenue, so it was not being offered any longer as a regular service. the relatively low importance of formal training is also shown by the user survey: computer training has been used only by 34 percent of the people, and this number includes those who have used it just once to get started and do not need it further. but on the other hand, informal training may be an important learning mechanism, as all cybercafe managers confirmed that help was needed by the users, in many ways and in many situations. there are plenty of users who have no idea of how to use computers, but they come to a cybercafe where the staff members create an email account or send emails for them until the users can handle these tasks themselves. these people may never have received formal training, but they are able to use the cybercafe only because of informal mechanisms of support.  reasons for using a cybercafe the respondents to the street survey in bangalore were also asked their reasons for using cybercafes. one third (32.7 percent) indicated the lack of other access possibilities, which again confirms the importance of cybercafes for a significant portion of internet users. table 8 shows the different answers and their percentages. table 8: reasons to use a cybercafe reason to use the internet % no other facility 32.7 cheap to use the internet/cheaper than at home 26.3 convenient/social place 10 learned about internet from friends here 9.1 traveling 7.3 better speed 5.5 offers high tech 4.5 need help 3.6   n=110 the reasons cheap/cheaper than home and better speed could be seen as confirming the fact that a relatively large group of people with access at home use cybercafes. the large proportion of people who have learned from friends in cybercafes about the internet (9.1 percent) is further confirmed and better seen when asking people directly where they learned about the internet. almost half of the internet users (not cybercafe users!) had their first experience with the internet at a cybercafe (46.5 percent), followed by work with 24.5 percent, and school with 16.5 percent. cybercafes thus have importance for people who want to learn about the internet. summary: cybercafes and the digital divide taking the findings from the cybercafe survey, it appears that cybercafes according to the categories age, employment and education mostly serve the better-off groups (the young, the highly educated and the higher income groups). these findings confirm the results from the street survey, where internet use could be measured only among the middle and upper-classes. therefore, the theoretical assumption that cybercafes might help bridge the digital divide for the lowest sec groups has to be rejected, at least at present. but in the same context, it is a positive sign that currently some illiterate people are using cybercafes for a variety of reasons, without any special programs or applications for them being in place. when interviewed for this study in 2004, mujeeb poolakal, the general secretary of the internet cafe and dtp owners association of kerala, confirmed this fact: nowadays, compared to the last two years, also illiterate people are coming for their needs. they come to collect information and mostly they want to send emails to other places or other countries. so now illiterate people are starting to come and they ask do you have this or that facility here, do i get this or that information here and so on. and we are helping them and encouraging their attitude towards the internet. this statement also shows that illiterate people are recognized by cybercafe owners and seen as a potential target group. but as the study indicated, they use these facilities at present only to a minimal extent. as cybercafes are presently facing a small downturn in business, it could be important for them to target new groups, especially from the lower classes.  the market-driven decline in access rates in cybercafes can be seen positively as moving them into the reach of marginalised communities, but still, strategies concerning content and applications need to be developed and implemented in order to benefit these groups. taking gurstein’s (2003) concept of effective use, the simple availability of ict does not at all guarantee that people benefit: “the social challenge thus becomes one of ensuring that end users can do locally significant things with technology tools to which they now have access--economically, socially, and politically.” there is some locally significant content and applications available to marginalised communities in urban india at present (like online job listings, online marriage institutes, governmental document and travel services), which can benefit these groups in various ways. but although these services exist, this study shows clearly that the lower classes are not using these offerings at present. in order to reach marginalised groups in future, cybercafes need to focus on more than just providing access. to make the technology useful, they need to provide training, offer special applications and services for lower classes (e.g., email typing, document services like caste certificates). furthermore, they need to see these users as a potential customer group. cybercafes in this context could learn much from successful rural internet projects as, for example, the information village research project, the akshaya project or the drishtree project in india, where the lower classes and marginalised groups are already targeted. these rural internet projects have all implemented interesting applications and services to attract and benefit low-income users. learning from the experience of rural and development-oriented projects could help cybercafes target and reach out to lower income groups and expand their business to this customer base. whatever the impact on lower sec groups, cybercafes have to be seen as very important institutions in urban areas of india for the middle class. this study showed that cybercafes are used by almost 70 percent of the individuals in these groups as their main access point, and that as much as one-third of the middle class is dependent on cybercafes as their only access point. thus, cybercafes play a significantly different role in india, compared to the role they play in the most developed countries. whereas in developed countries, they are just an additional access point for people who already have access somewhere else, they seem to be highly important for the middle class in india, and therefore effectively help to bridge the digital divide for this group.   references: achar, a. (2001, june). isps turn to cyber cafés for extra revenue. telecommunications magazine, retrieved april 5, 2005 from http://www.telecommagazine.com/default.asp?journalid=2&func=departments&page=0106i21&year=2001&month=6. businessworld (2005). the marketing whitebook 2005. new delhi, india. caslon analytics (2004, september). caslon analytics note: cybercafes and telecentres. retrieved april 5, 2005 from http://www.caslon.com.au/cafenote.htm. compaine, b. m. (2001). the digital divide: facing a crisis or creating a myth? cambridge, ma: the mit press. gurstein, m. (2003). effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. first monday, 8(12). retrieved april 5, 2005 from http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue8_12/gurstein/index.html lachmayer, n. (2003). digital divide und kommerzielle internetcafes. vienna: 3s research lab. laegran, a. s., & stewart, j. (2003). nerdy, trendy or healthy? configuring the internet café. new media & society, 5(3), 357-377. liff, s., & steward, f. (2003). shaping e-access in the cybercafe: networks, boundaries and heterotopian innovation. new media & society, 5(3), 313-334. mossberger, k.,  tolbert, c. j., & stansbury, m. (2003). virtual inequality: beyond the digital divide. washington, dc: georgetown university press. norris, p. (2001). digital divide: civic engagement, information poverty, and the internet worldwide. cambridge: cambridge university press. pasricha, a. (2004, august 15). to get online, most indians go to cybercafes. voa news service. retrieved april 5, 2005 from http://apiap.blogspot.com/2004_10_01_apiap_archive.html. stewart, j. (2000). cafematics: the cybercafe and the community. in: michael gurstein (ed.). community informatics: enabling communities with information and communication technologies (pp. 320-339). hersey, pa: idea group publishing. vehovar, v., batagelj, z, & lozar, k. (1999). language as a barrier. retrieved april 5, 2005 from http://www.isoc.org/inet99/proceedings/3i/3i_3.htm. warschauer, m. (2003). technology and social inclusion. cambridge, ma: the mit press. videoconferencing for community development: lessons from k-net and the atlantic first nations helpdesk how k-net and atlantic canada’s first nation help desk are using videoconferencing for community development mary milliken national research council, fredericton, canada <mary.milliken@nrc.gc.ca> susan o’donnell national research council, fredericton, canada <susan.odonnell@nrc.gc.ca> elizabeth gorman national research council, fredericton, canada <l7bt2@unb.ca> abstract our research is working in partnership with three first nations organizations k-net, keewaytinook okimakanak in sioux lookout, ontario; atlantic canada’s first nation help desk in membertou, cape breton, nova scotia; and the first nations education council in wendake, quebec that have set up videoconferencing networks linking first nations communities spread out over large geographic areas. initially set up for educational and health purposes, the application, reach and scope of these communication networks have expanded since the mid-90s to include cultural, social, and community development activities. qualitative data collected in fifteen in-depth interviews with technical and administrative staff at k-net and atlantic canada’s first nation help desk reveal how both their relationship-building approach to networking, and their repurposed applications of videoconferencing, have supported development in the first nations communities they serve. introduction the videocom project examines how information and communication technologies, particularly videoconferencing, are being used by first nations people and communities for social, economic and community development. our research partners keewaytinook okimakanak (ko) in sioux lookout, ontario, atlantic canada’s first nation help desk in membertou, cape breton, nova scotia, and the first nations education council (fnec) in wendake, quebec are three first nations broadband service providers. these organizations have established broadband networks that serve a wide variety of community types and sizes, spread out over large geographic regions. initially these organizations focused on setting up technical systems to provide better access to educational, and then health institutions and services. as their technical capacity and expertise have both grown, these providers have expanded the scale, number and types of interactions that they support. this exploratory paper draws on interviews with staff and associates of the broadband service operated by ko called k-net, and atlantic canada’s first nation help desk about their various uses of videoconferencing and how it contributes to community development. this research provides context for a subsequent project that examines the perspectives of community members on video communications. research context community development is challenging for rural and remote communities in canada, which is the situation for most first nations communities. limited local infrastructure, restricted access to resources and isolation often make it necessary for community members to travel to other locations for a wide variety of needed services. not only is travel expensive and time-consuming, the necessity of leaving home for what many urban-dwellers would consider basic services encourages a pattern of community depletion rather than development. in addition, first nations communities have often faced language and cultural challenges when dealing with agencies based in distant english or french-speaking urban centres (beaton, 2004). the canadian federal government has implemented programs to encourage greater connection between rural and remote first nations communities and health and education providers using information and communication technologies, such as first nations schoolnet (bale, brooks, grummett and tymchak, 2005) and telehealth (muttitt, vigneault and loewen, 2004). the benefits and challenges of deploying information and communication technologies in rural and remote communities are not just economic, but also social and cultural. measuring the success of any policy that deals with the deployment of technology requires that one look beyond what the technology produces or accomplishes, to see how it impacts other areas of the society (oecd, 2001: ramirez, 2007). for any policy to be effective, it must address local realities and needs. the traditional top-down model of regulation that has existed between the federal agencies that set policy and provide services and the first nations communities affected by those decisions is no longer considered adequate; a closer connection between all parties is fundamental to the success of any policy (rmos, 2008). local stakeholder input is critical for all levels of policy formulation and evaluation to more accurately identify how information and communication technologies (ict) may or may not contribute to various aspects of community development (ramirez, 2007). in the past, video has been a useful tool for recording local, contextually-grounded and immediate interpretations at the local level when policy decisions have been implemented in first nations communities. for example, the “fogo process” (ferreira, ramirez and walmark, 2004) describes how films made by community members convinced provincial and federal government agencies to reverse plans to relocate fogo island communities in newfoundland. when sent back to policy makers, the important messages of the people who lived in the communities, conveyed through these videos, enabled an interactive process of policy design (ferreira, ramirez and walmark, 2004). in a similar vein, k-net actively facilitates relationship-building between various providers to align their services with the needs of the local recipients. the provision of video and videoconferencing networks by k-net and atlantic canada’s first nation help desk has enabled communities to develop more interactive connections with government organizations for greater self-definition and control over their own economic and social development (o’donnell et. al., 2009a). the broadband providers have taken an active role in developing community capacity and skill with the goal of fostering self-reliance. their approach has been to“…give them the tools and see what they build … and then people like k-net are continually finding new tools to show them how to build stuff” (interviewee e). the aforementioned providers have opened up access to these forms of ict, and adapted them to meet a wider variety of uses and community-based needs. since 1994, the telecom and ict branch of keewaytinook okimakanak tribal council, k-net services, has provided and supported the hardware and software that connects first nations communities in northern ontario not only to institutions and agencies that provide different services, but also to each other. the subsequent growth of videoconferencing in remote and rural communities cannot be attributed to any policy decisions imposed by government agencies. rather, it has come from the initiatives of first nations providers and their collaborative approach to developing the networks through partnering with communities (fiser and clement, 2008). videoconferencing is now being used to connect distant family members, for language, culture and tradition preservation (beaton, 2004), and for community development efforts (beaton, fiddle and rowlandson, 2004; o’donnell et. al, 2009a). it must be noted that the benefits of videoconferencing are limited by the degree to which local capacity can overcome technical challenges, limited user knowledge and comfort, the methods of content production, and social relations within (o’donnell, molyneaux and gibson, 2010) and between organizations (o’donnell et. al, 2009b). in addition, the low level of support offered by external organizations may also hinder these communities in achieving their visions for ict applications (o’donnell et. al., 2009b) research method this paper explores how two first nations organizations and the community members they serve are currently using ict, specifically videoconferencing, for community development. research was conducted with two of the videocom research partners, k-net, based in sioux lookout, ontario, and atlantic canada's first nation help desk (acfnhd) based in membertou first nation, cape breton, nova scotia. the perspective of the third videocom research partner fnec is not represented in this study because it joined the videocom project after the data was collected.1 the videocom project uses a participatory research approach that strives to employ the ocap principles of ownership, control, access and possession toward self-determination of canadian first nations in research (schnarch, 2004). all of the partners meet regularly by videoconference to share information, participate equally in decision-making, participate actively in research as well as provide feedback. k-net’s broadband network serves 70 first nations and more than 30 non-aboriginal communities in northern ontario, northern manitoba and northern quebec (fiser, clement and walmark, 2006). the acfnhd network serves 30 sites spread throughout four atlantic-canadian provinces. both organizations provide broadband connectivity and services to first nations schools and regional management organizations for the federal first nations schoolnet program (o’donnell et al., 2009a). qualitative data were collected in fifteen in-depth interviews with all members of the atlantic canada’s first nation help desk staff and almost the entire k-net staff, and thus constitute a representative sample of these organizations. interview transcripts were analyzed using nvivo analysis software to explore how videoconferencing between two or more sites has contributed to community development. interviews were coded for videoconferencing about non-health and non-education related issues, community development initiatives, and obstacles and challenges. we do not assume that these findings represent the views of all first nations broadband providers. instead, we suggest that insights obtained from this research may be useful for other remote and rural communities facing community development challenges. benefits of videoconferencing combining real-time audio and visual connection, videoconferencing simulates face-to-face interaction. videoconferencing point-to-point and between multiple locations has been used widely in the business, telemedicine and distance education sectors, and is an attractive alternative to physical travel for its financial, environmental and time savings (molyneaux, o'donnell, fournier, and gibson, 2008). rich in social presence (short, williams and christie, 1976), videoconferencing offers intimacy, immediacy and the potential for a greater level of engagement than other text or audio-only tools of communication. in order to ensure equal quality of service between locations, certain technical requirements must be met (liu, molyneaux and matthews, 2008). effective use of videoconferencing equipment relies on certain good practices by the participants involved to ensure appropriate levels participation and knowledge retention (molyneaux, o’donnell, fournier and gibson, 2008). the key variables that affect the level of participation in videoconferencing are: the technical infrastructure at and between locations, the interaction between users and the technology, how the content is presented in the session, and the group dynamics, not only at each location but between them as well (molyneaux et. al, 2008). our research partners, while using pre-existing and proprietary software and hardware, are capitalizing on the inherent potential of the technologies themselves. by developing community-oriented communication networks, they are using technological networks to maintain the integrity of these remote and rural communities. in so doing, ko and acfnhd have avoided the technological development trap identified by hollan and stornetta of focusing on the creation of a sense of “being there” for videoconference participants (1992). in attempting to replicate known conditions in traditional face-to-face interaction, technology developers have been blinded to the potential of different levels and types of engagement made possible by ict, that could take participants “beyond being there” (hollan and stornetta, 1992). in addition, as broadband service providers, our partners may be able to offer multiscale communication (roussel and gueddana, 2007) to remote and rural first nations communities through combining videoconferencing with various other communication technologies. the scope of these community-based networks and the variety of the applications, in addition to the level of engagement made possible by the technologies themselves, allow these communities and community-based organizations to use videoconferencing as a tool to further their own development goals. community development frank and smith’s (1999) definition of community development encompasses the range of views expressed by the interviewees in our study, describing it as the process by which communities … become more responsible; organize and plan together; develop healthy options; empower themselves; reduce ignorance, poverty and suffering; create employment and economic opportunities; and achieve social, economic, cultural and environmental goals” (frank and smith, 1999, p. 6). while most of our interviewees emphasized one area or another for development, for some, community development held a range of meanings, such as: … creating opportunities, supporting local development opportunities, in particular, capacity building, so that the communities … can be making decisions and doing the work themselves as much as possible, and sustaining their own economy, sustaining their own livelihoods, and building stronger and healthier communities (interviewee b). community development is a controversial and interpretive term because “the word ‘development’ has a certain bias to it, as if what you are starting with is undeveloped ... in another situation in another group of people, it could mean something very different” (interviewee k). one interviewee suggested that one way to overcome this confusion would be to measure the progress of community development using determinants of health2 such as “… economic development, looking at housing, looking at education, health and infrastructure …” (interviewee d). our research partners pointed out the need for communities to direct their own change for it to have lasting effects because“… a change from the outside never does anyone any good in those places ….” (interviewee j). it is equally important that all community development goals reflect the different needs of each community. identifying projects that are locally important means that “….the community (will) develop that, and work within it so that it's initiative and a reflection of the community, and they're a part of it; it's just not a structure that's separate from them” (interviewee m). until now, the pattern of decision-making has been the reverse with “…government making the big decision and it’s just top-down; but ideally you would like to see it from grass roots, up” (interviewee d). the most positive changes have occurred when government officials have invested time, developed relationships and learned from the local people about what they need (interviewee b). first nations uses of videoconferencing in the past, for residents who lived in remote first nations without permanent roads into the communities, the only way to access many resources and services was to fly outside the community (interviewee g). meeting with service providers by videoconference instead of travel saves both time and money. the institutional applications of videoconferencing have been primarily in the areas of health and education. k-net and the acfnhd support point-to-point and multi-site videoconference meetings between individual communities, provincial organizations and community members (interviewee f). the broadband providers also use videoconferencing for their daily business, not only for practical reasons but also to encourage use by example (interviewee n). there are other uses of videoconferencing than tele-health and long-distance education, as well as other benefits. videoconferencing can be used to record and archive important cultural traditions, language for example since “the true language is being lost … there's a lot of terms and slangs that are overriding a lot of the original language that the elders have. so i think if the language was gathered and captured now, then it would be preserved and that way it wouldn't be lost” (interviewee c). other non-institutional uses of videoconferencing have included recording cultural traditions so as to increase understanding of community histories (interviewee m). artist collectives, such as a musical group comprised of a drummer, singer and dancer, have connected for collaborative work across distances (interviewee d). maintaining relationships is another use of the network. recurring themes that emerged from the interviews identified the potential uses of videoconferencing as an interactive technology for building connections between individuals and communities, building capacity within communities, and contributing to the efforts of canadian first nations toward self-determination and identity self-management. building connections the possibility that community goals may not match those of outside agencies and funding partners is an ever-present risk for first nations communities when they cannot participate in meetings with policy makers in distant locations. presenting local concerns at regional meetings of different first nations organizations is not always possible either, due to travel time and cost barriers. videoconferencing encourages more frequent and different types of interaction between partners. for example, the atlantic health board typically meets three or four times a year, and wanted to add meetings with community-based health directors. representatives from a first nations health director in cape breton had budgeted to attend up to two meetings a year in person, but there was no additional time or financial resources available for more frequent meetings. using videoconference technology instead of travel is “… wonderful. i'm just so glad that i don't have to travel five hours to the next meeting; that i can just go over here and just hook up. we've been using videoconferencing probably the last three years … at those rates, at least 60 times a year, and i know that it just simplifies things” (interviewee d). videoconferencing has provided opportunities for wider engagement when events or meetings are happening at a distant location. if the resources exist to only send one person to a meeting in person, adding videoconferencing means that a wider array “… and more people could participate. so you have more people learning, more people commenting” (interviewee l). for example, when a health organization books speakers in halifax, acfnhd organizes“… speakers to present to community on certain issues --speakers that are in halifax -usually we'll get them to present through our videoconferencing at our corporate office. i think too, even with the health sessions like on the pandemic puzzle, i think that we had the elementary school hook up to that conference” (interviewee d). capacity-building the second theme is how the collaborative approach taken by k-net and the atlantic first nation helpdesk towards technological service provision and development builds capacity within communities, and enables communities to contribute to their own development. in addition to linking communities technologically, these first nations broadband providers facilitate the building of inter-community and person-to-person relationships, all of which create“... more interaction … to build a stronger network of people” (interviewee n). the model of technological networking and knowledge-sharing can be adapted to serve local needs, cultures, and aid in knowledge transmission and cultural expression between the individuals and communities spread across different first nations. as time passes, the broadband provider changes the type of services and support they offer the individual communities. as capacity increases, communities can potentially “… move initiatives forward themselves, to develop their own community and have ownership of that” (interviewee l). k-net and acfnhd continue to provide or promote content if needed, but as the local communities become increasingly comfortable with the equipment, they start to generate their own content. as summarized by one informant in our study, “... all we have to do is be there to support and promote it … (and) turn the network to the communities. it's theirs to do with what they wish in terms of the network (interviewee j). with many traditional industries in decline, technology can also present opportunities for communities “…to look into new industries and to support building the capacity to have those industries in their towns” (interviewee l). the community is encouraged … to own that broadband connection, to turn it into their own isp, internet service provider. and then, in turn, make that a business case and allow them to perhaps hire … becoming self-sustaining of that network, of their own network that they own, and they can bring in more applications (interviewee g). self-determination and identity management first nations autonomy, self-governance and self-determination can only happen through a process of “… building the community by building capacity in people and in organizations through training, through experiences, through relationships” (interviewee f). the benefits of expanding the videoconferencing network collaboratively have been at least two-fold, not only by building technical capacity in the communities, but also through creating networks of relationships. these human networks have fostered greater understanding of the issues affecting communities, and a growing sense of awareness and self-confidence, all of which are necessary for self-determination. more efficient communication between distant communities has replaced the need for travel and raised awareness of important issues, the effect of which has been a greater participation and cooperation of the population in making changes (interviewee f). community members dealing with organizations and institutions that are distant and culturally different, now have more control over how they represent themselves and their interests. video communication technologies also allow first nations people to take more control over their identities, and to manage how they appear “… to other people outside of canada. not only outside of canada, but outside of this region within canada” (interviewee c). by sharing an understanding of what it means to be first nations in canada, there is a better chance that first nations communities will have the tools and support to further their own development. the videoconferencing connection not only increases local capacity, but its varied uses also provide opportunities for self expression in cultural and artistic activities that can now be more easily shared between different first nations and communities. as formerly isolated communities are able to interact more easily and often through videoconference, they develop confidence” … in their culture, and their tradition, and they would express themselves artistically or through communication” (interviewee f). k-net, as the broadband provider, “… facilitates those expressions, and also their abilities through training, and also through the communication platforms; so their expression and their training, i would say, support their self-determination” (interviewee f). obstacles and challenges our interviewees agreed that connecting communities to their institutional partners, as well as to each other, by videoconference has contributed to local development. however, there have been limitations that need to be overcome. the areas of difficulty cited by our partners are not only related to infrastructure, but also to the availability of training for staff and users, as well as access to reliable funding. various technical challenges limit the use of videoconferencing by first nations communities for community development. variation between the types of equipment can interfere with inter-community connections. technical issues commonly occur when firewalls and equipment are not compatible (interviewee j). since access to communications technology is dependent on the physical location of the equipment and adequate bandwidth, challenges arise that are related to the overall infrastructure in a community. unlike urban centres where equipment and bandwidth for web-based communications are available at places like public libraries with extended hours, on reserves “...that physical spot where our connectivity … is the school. so a) the schools don't have libraries; b) they don't have extra meeting rooms or classrooms for people. they are already stressed for space so they don't have the capacity to be able to do their work or their sharing from a particular location. thirdly, those locations are by and large closed down by four o'clock, by weekends” (interviewee i). while some communities have multiple sites with videoconferencing capacity, others may only have one or two locations (interviewee h) so that even if the technology and bandwidth are in the community, peoples’ access to it is limited. beyond the technological limitations, some locations “…don’t have enough manpower to do it, and there’s too many communities to work with as a whole” (interviewee c). there are varying levels of experience between communities that could be evened out by a system that allows for building capacity, training and rotating staff. another personnel-related issue is that “… staff turnover in a community is high. leadership turnover is high. every two years there’s a new council elected” (interviewee h). as it is now, when a person leaves a job in a local community, the expertise leaves with them (interviewee d). finally, established practices and expectations within the community can place limitations on how the technology is used (interviewees i, j). our partners identified the need for raising awareness about videoconferencing services, since people living outside the communities may not be aware that they are available (interviewees a, m). one technique was to introduce and develop different initiatives in the community that would introduce people to the technology, increase their familiarity and encourage their use of it (interviewee f). sometimes additional incentives have helped. in one example, the initial meeting by videoconference with remote partners about a particular topic attracted a large turnout from the local community. however, subsequent meetings were poorly attended (interviewee d). the situation reversed when organizers employed a strategy of offering door prizes and a draw for attendance (interviewee d). the problems associated with equipment compatibility, the availability of staff and technical infrastructure is directly related to the levels (interviewee a) and reliability (interviewee b) of funding. funding is a constant challenge because there is no single source that is stable (interviewee b) for either technical or support activities. costs are higher in remote and rural regions than in urban centres for deploying broadband. to encourage the communities to use the networks, our partners need funding over and above the technical infrastructure costs to “… decrease the actual community cost so the service becomes affordable” (interviewee g). there are no sources of funding for continual training opportunities for staff in different locations, which would help overcome the disparities in experience between them and encourage consistency in practice and applications. finally, users also need funding and support to help provide much needed training for local community members. even when users know about the equipment and bandwidth in their community and can access it, many still need training, support and encouragement to use it. conclusion k-net in ontario, and the atlantic canada's first nation help desk in cape breton, nova scotia have set up and are using their videoconference networks to encourage community development. in effect, videoconferencing in northern ontario and the atlantic region has the potential to enable communities to achieve the “… social, economic, cultural and environmental goals” (frank and smith, 1999) they identify as being important. prior research, supported by more recent interviews with partners k-net, keewaytinook okimakanak and atlantic canada’s first nation help desk, highlight the necessity for stakeholder involvement at all levels of policy design, implementation and evaluation. our partners’ activities and successes prove that the traditional pattern of external organizations imposing policies, technologies and practices on first nations communities is neither effective nor appropriate. first nations people are capitalizing on the social presence of videoconferencing to increase their interaction with remote institutional partners and influence the intended target, design and implementation of policies that affect them. these first nations broadband providers have developed videoconferencing networks that enable communities to connect with their institutional partners and other communities, to work together to make decisions and plan actions: in other words, to exercise their constitutional right to self-determination. community development relies on a drive to improve existing conditions and there is no doubt that there are real problems that need to be addressed: first nations in canada have higher rates of injury, suicide, diabetes and lower rates of educational achievement than their non-first nations counterparts (canada, 2009). technological and human networks allow creative expression and connection between community members that have contributed to greater self-awareness, more control over identity and a growing confidence in first nations cultures. the non-institutional uses of videoconferencing that have contributed to a greater sense of control over identity and community-based decisions about priority issues can contribute positively to any development goals in the institutional areas of health and education. additionally, the model of community-run infrastructure has the potential to build capacity, create employment and encourage economic opportunities. the first recommendation from this research is that first nations have access to reliable and sustained sources of funding to support their work on self-determined projects that contribute to community development. additional support is needed from the agencies, service providers and institutions that first nations communities deal with. to enable first nations community development, we recommend that public institutions improve their capacity to communicate via the means chosen and developed by their first nations partners. by following the lead of first nations communities who use ict for various communication purposes, these institutions and agencies have the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the local realities of their clients, and improve their efficacy accordingly. acknowledgements the videocom project is funded by a sshrc (social sciences and humanities research council of canada) grant for 2006-2009 and 2009-2012, with in-kind contributions from the national research council, keewaytinook okimakanak, atlantic canada's first nation help desk, the first nations education council and the university of new brunswick. the authors would like to thank the interview participants who contributed their thoughts and ideas to the study and to the kori, k-net and atlantic helpdesk staff who hosted the research visits. references bale, d., brooks, p., grummett, j., and tymchak, m. 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(1999). the community development handbook: a tool to develop community capacity. ottawa, on: human resources development canada. url: http://www1.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/epb/sid/cia/comm_deve/cdhbooke.pdf. hollan, j., and stornetta, s. (1992, may 3-7). beyond being there. paper presented at the acm conference on computer-human interaction (chi'92). monterey, california, us. liu, s., molyneaux, h., and matthews, b. (2008). a technical implementation guide for multi-site videoconferencing. paper presented at the ieee international symposium on technology and society (istas 08). fredericton, nb, canada. molyneaux, h., o'donnell, s., fournier, h., and gibson, k. (2008). participatory videoconferencing for groups. paper presented at the ieee international symposium on technology and society (istas 08). fredericton, nb, canada. molyneux, h., o'donnell, s. (2009, october 3-6). ict and health and wellness in remote and rural first nations communities: a social determinants of health perspective. paper presented at the canadian society of telehealth conference (cst 2009). vancouver, bc, canada. muttitt, s., vigneault, r., and loewen, l. (2004). integrating telehealth into aboriginal healthcare: the canadian experience. international journal of circumpolar health. 53(4), 401-414. o'donnell, s., molyneaux, h., and gibson, k. (2010). a framework for analyzing social interaction using broadband visual communication technologies. in t. dumova and r. fiordo (eds.), handbook of research on social interaction technologies and collaboration software. 528-541. new york: igi global. o’donnell, s., perley, s., walmark, b., burton, k., beaton, b., and sark, a. (2009a) community based broadband organizations and video communications for remote and rural first nations in canada. in stillman, l., johanson, g., and french, r., (eds.), communities in action. newcastle upon tyne, uk: cambridge scholars publishing. 107-119. o'donnell, s., perley, s., simms, d., hancock, b-r. (2009b, summer) video communication roadblocks facing remote indigenous communities. ieee technology and society magazine. 28 (2), 16-22. oecd. (2001). the new economy beyond the hype. the oecd growth project. paris: oecd. ramirez, r. (2007). appreciating the contribution of broadband ict with rural and remote communities: stepping stones toward an alternative paradigm. the information society, 23(2), 85-94. rmos. (2008). a new first nations ict federal policy and a first nations national broadband network. part one and two. presented by the regional management organizations, fns schoolnet. march 2008. ottawa: regional management organizations, first nation schoolnet. roussel, n., and gueddana, s. (2007). beyond "beyond being there": towards multiscale communication systems. paper presented at the mm'07. augsburg, bavaria, germany. schnarch, b. (2004). ownership, control, access, and possession (ocap) or self-determination applied to research: a critical analysis of contemporary first nations research and some options for first nation communities. journal of aboriginal health, january, 80-95. short, j., williams, e., and christie, b. (1976). the social psychology of telecommunications. toronto: john wiley and sons. 1the conseil en éducation des premières nations-first nations education council (cepn-fnec) joined the videocom project in 2008, 15 months after these interviews were conducted with the two original partners. 2health canada has identified twelve determinants of health: “income and social status, social support networks, education and literacy, employment/working conditions, social environments, physical environments, personal health practices and coping skills, healthy child development, biology and genetic endowment, health services, gender, culture” (http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ph-sp/determinants/index-eng.php, accessed may 7, 2009; molyneaux and o’donnell, 2009). book review: research methods: information, systems and contexts. reviewer: martin wolske, senior research scientist and adjunct faculty, center for digital inclusion, graduate school of library and information science, university of illinois at urbana champaign, united states. williamson, k. & johanson, g. (eds.) (2013) research methods: information, systems and contexts. prahran, victoria: tilde publishing and distribution. for many of us, myself included, it is likely that after a quick glance noting research methods as the focus of the book being reviewed, we are ready to move on to articles we consider more germane. we either feel comfortable with the research methods we already incorporate into our community informatics field of study, or we practice community informatics as a method within our broader community activities and do not consider research a part of our responsibilities. regardless of the reason, i ask that you stay with me for a moment to consider why research methods: information, systems and contexts is an important resource for all of us. first, a brief diversion to consider why evaluation research is important for professionals and academicians alike. i continue to value randy stoecker's research methods for community change, which has become a foundation for my community informatics studio course (wolske, rhinesmith, & kumar, in press). written for both the academician and the community leader, it helpfully clarifies that we are all part of communities in change, and that we regularly use research, whether formally or informally, to effectively guide that change. however, we don't always include a structured evaluation component in our practice, something stoecker emphasizes is an important part of completing the project cycle of diagnosis, prescription, implementation, and evaluation. for it is in the formal evaluation that we effectively reflect and set up a new cycle of improved diagnosis, prescription, and implementation. furthermore, the formal evaluation is a critical part of informing stakeholders regarding the work at hand. while stoecker's book includes some discussion of evaluation methods, i find williamson and johanson's research methods: information, systems and contexts extraordinarily helpful in considering which evaluation methods and techniques are most appropriate within different contexts. written for the information sciences, i believe it is accessible not only for those in formal roles as academic researchers, but for many others, too. furthermore, as someone who is formally trained in the physical sciences, i find it to be a valuable introduction to issues unique to social science research. in particular, section i provides a useful consideration of the foundations and framing of social science research. chapters one and five in this section provide insights into the meta-theoretical assumptions which can inform our strategies for conducting research. our beliefs regarding the nature and existence of social reality (ontology), the nature of knowledge and ways of knowing (epistemology), the logic of scientific explanation, and the ethics of what ought to be are each of central importance in grounding the research paradigms from which we work. these chapters specifically consider the positivist, interpretive, and critical approach paradigms. chapters three and four go on to consider specific patterns and practices within information research and archival and record keeping research, respectively. both chapters highlight some of the current research issues. the chapter on information research further calls attention to the importance of research as part of professional practice; for instance, to assist in understanding the problems and issues that arise in the workplace, and to meet requirements of accountability (page 62). the chapter on archival and record keeping research is especially adept at highlighting the importance of conscious consideration of methodology to inform our choice of methods and techniques. proceeding on from this consideration of methodology and meta-theory, section ii, the methods section of research methods: information, systems and contexts, includes chapters on survey design, case study research, action research, constructivist grounded theory, bibliometric research, design-science research, researching history, ethnographic research, and experimental research. section iii then considers research techniques, addressing populations and samples, questionnaires, interviews and focus groups, observation, quantitative data analysis, and qualitative data analysis. in both sections, methods and techniques are considered from the positivist, interpretive, and critical approach research paradigms. unfortunately, but perhaps understandably, other emerging paradigms such as the postmodern, feminist, and socio-material paradigms are noted but not explored within the book, with the author citing space limitations as the reason for this. examples are used throughout, and many chapters include boxed highlights of a teaching case study. section iv concludes research methods: information, systems and contexts with considerations of ethical research practices, managing research data, and research writing and dissemination. unfortunately, the research writing and dissemination chapter does not consider the unique issues of publication and presentation that sometimes arise as part of deep engagement. for instance, the chapter touches on ownership and the need for honesty and integrity, but does not delve more deeply into shared ownership, fair representation, and the power that can arise from research that is collaborative, community-centric, and engages with vulnerable populations; emerging trends that are briefly introduced earlier in the book (for instance, see pages 89-90). still, the section overall is a very helpful introduction to the ethical practice and communication of research. some of us employ community informatics as a field of practice, using it as an approach to inform the development of community information systems and networks to meet community development goals, advance social capital, and empower individuals (stoecker, 2005). many in this cohort are professionals from outside of academia whose positions do not include a formal research role. research methods: information, systems and contexts will be a valuable resource for this group, helping to advance formal evaluation as a component within the research cycle of the community change project, improving diagnosis, prescription, and implementation, and serving to better inform and provide accountability to stakeholders regarding such projects and their outcomes. others of us are in formal research roles and identify with the discipline of community informatics as a field of study, which some consider to be underdeveloped, in part because of a lack of an agreed-upon set of methodological techniques and practices (stoecker, 2005). research methods: information, systems and contexts is an important work advancing dialog on methodology and methods through exploration within the related, broader field of information science research. at 556 pages, the book is a comprehensive, broad introduction to the issues of evaluation and, through the included teaching case studies and bibliography, is an excellent starting point for more advanced explorations into research methods for both the professional and academician alike. references: stoecker, r. (2005) is community informatics good for communities? questions confronting an emerging field. journal of community informatics, 1(3), 13-26. stoecker, r. (2012) research methods for community change: a project-based approach. thousand oaks: sage publications. wolske, m, rhinesmith, c., & kumar, b. (in press) community informatics studio: designing experiential learning to support teaching, research, and practice. journal of education in library and information science. inside the "people of the wheelbarrows": participation between online and offline dimension in the post-quake social movement manuela farinosi, emiliano treré university of udine the l’aquila earthquake and the “people of the wheelbarrows” april 6th 2009, 3.32am, local time. a 6.3mw magnitude earthquake struck in l’aquila, a small italian city (around 75,000 inhabitants) capital of the mountainous abruzzo region, located approximately 85 km northeast of rome. the epicenter was located in the abruzzo capital and the first earth tremor was followed by two large and serious aftershocks on april 7 (mw=5.6) and april 9 (mw=5.4). it represented italy's worst earthquake in 30 years and the deadliest since the 1980 irpinia earthquake. earthquakes have long marked the history of this place, because part of the city is located on an ancient lake that amplifies seismic waves. l'aquila in february 1703 was already almost obliterated by the biggest earthquake italy has experienced with devastation across much of central italy. that quake killed around 5,000 people and destroyed much of its medieval historic center, which was then rebuilt in the baroque style. the april 2009 quake was thus not the first to strike the central italian city: seismic activity is relatively common in the italian peninsula, but the intensity of the quake in l'aquila’s case is rare. in the most recent earthquake, more than 300 inhabitants of l'aquila were killed including five romanian citizens, two czechs, two palestinians, one greek, one french, one ukrainian and one israeli thousands were injured and around 65,000 lost their homes. around 40,000 people who were made homeless found accommodation in tent camps build by italian civil protection at the periphery of the city to shelter earthquake victims and approximately 10,000 were forced to abandon the city itself and were housed in hotels on the coast. others sought shelter with friends and relatives throughout italy. the tremor caused significant damage also to more than 10,000 buildings in the city of l’aquila and in the surrounding villages, destroying a large part of the medieval city as well as many essential infrastructure networks. several buildings collapsed and serious damage occurred to essential and modern facilities, commercial, industrial and residential buildings, multi-stores, apartment complexes, transportation facilities, lifelines and utilities. industrial and commercial structures sustained damage, leading to business interruption and other financial losses. a particular feature of this earthquake was the significant damage to historic and vintage buildings. immediately after the earthquake, downtown l’aquila was declared “zona rossa” (“red zone”) and police forces and numerous barricades permitted access to only a small portion of the historic city center, the traditional social and economic hearth of l’aquila. most alleys and squares were closed off, impeding entrance to citizens and the downtown’s inhabitants. one year later, the situation had not substantially changed: most part of the city center was still under military control and the access was denied to the citizens. but in february 2009 something happened: mainstream media reported a telephone call tap between two businessmen, francesco maria de vito piscicelli, technical director of rome-based society “opere pubbliche e ambiente spa”, and his brother-in-law, pierfrancesco gagliardi. one of them, thinking about the opportunity to profit from the rebuilding process, said he was laughing in his bed when he heard the news regarding the l’aquila quake. below, the transcription of the conversation between the two entrepreneurs: “at the ferratella[2], stay on this earthquake thing because we have to start full throttle, there’s not an earthquake everyday”. “i know” (laughing). “god forbid, poor people”. “that’s right”. “this morning i was laughing in the bed at 3.30am”[3]. this recording was reported by different newspapers and several online platforms. a few days after the recording had been made public, a group of aquilani started to reclaim the city centre and to confront the police who blocked the accesses to the off limit zone. on sunday 21st february 2010, the annihilated downtown became the stage of the first citizen protest called “protesta delle 1,000 chiavi” (“1,000 keys protest”), a symbolic initiative involving the citizens living inside the historical downtown, protesting against the impossibility of accessing their own houses. they hung their house keys on the barriers that blocked the access to the red zone. the protest had emerged thanks to the word of mouth generated on the facebook[4] group "quelli che a l'aquila alle 3:32 non ridevano"[5] (“those who were in l’aquila at 3.32 were not laughing”) hundreds of people took to the streets to protest, showing posters with slogans such as “io non ridevo” (“i was not laughing”) or “riprendiamoci la nostra città” (“let’s take back our town”) or “le macerie sono nostre” (“the debris belong to us”). the citizens forced open one of the ‘red zone’ blocades and broke in to the piazza palazzo, the city hall square they had not been allowed to see for more than 10 months. like most part of the city center, the square was still full of stones, rubble and dirt. figure 1: photo from a sunday “scarriolata” a week after this first initiative, about 6,000 citizens decided to meet again to conduct another day of protest, to urge the beginning of the reconstruction process, and to recall the media attention on the l’aquila case. they took with them several wheelbarrows, shovels and buckets to remove the debris from the devastated downtown and to show that, despite all mainstream media emphasis on the “miracolo aquilano” (“the l’aquila miracle” as depicted by berlusconi’s media strategists), most of the rubble had not been removed from the center. they built a human chain, passing buckets from hand to hand, claiming to be an active part of the reconstruction. amateur photographers took shots of the event and video makers also recorded the protest: material was then posted and spread on several online platforms (facebook, flickr[6], photobucket[7], picasa[8], twitter[9]), in particular on the most famous online video sharing repository, youtube[10] (farinosi and treré, 2010; micalizzi, 2010). that same afternoon, on the popular facebook social network site, the group “coordinamento carriole aquilane[11] (“aquilan wheelbarrows coordination”) was founded by a young university student, federico d’orazio. the main aims of the group were the following: to involve citizens in decision processes regarding l’aquila reconstruction, saying “no!” to top-down strategies; to promote transparency in the management of the disaster funds; to reopen the red zone; to sensitize public opinion about the issue of the debris removal and the consequent historical center reconstruction. those residents-turned-activists were motivated by a thirst for re-establishing personal ties and re-creating lost public spaces (padovani, 2010). however, they were labeled by mainstream media as “il popolo delle carriole”, “the people of the wheelbarrows”. they decided to meet on every sunday to clean the red zone and to establish a permanent assembly (“presidio permanente cittadino”[12] now known as “presidio permanente l'aquila piazza duomo”). the assembly met on each wednesday and sunday evening at 6:00 p.m. in the main square (piazza duomo) to discuss and confront ideas, perspectives, and actions to follow. social movements & icts: a brief overview before performing an analysis of the movement of the wheelbarrows, let us first clear up what we mean when we talk of social movements. sydney tarrow, in one of his most cited works (1998), defines social movements as “collective challenges, based on common purposes and social solidarities, in sustained interaction with elites, opponents, and authorities”. according to della porta and diani (2006), social movements are “informal networks, based upon shared beliefs and solidarity, which mobilize about conflictual issues, through the frequent use of various forms of protest”. manuel castells' (2004) umbrella definition of social movements is that of “purposive collective actions whose outcome, in victory as in defeat, transforms the values and institutions of society". even if definitions vary, they basically overlap in viewing movements as informal networks made up of both groups and individuals involved in conflictual relations, but sharing a collective identity (even if collective identity according to some scholars is not a necessary condition: see mcdonald, 2002, 2006; lasén and martínez de albeniz, 2008). in the last decade, a growing literature in social movements and alternative media research has dealt with the relationships between social movements, alternative media and information and communication technologies (icts), with particular emphasis on the internet. icts are affecting social movements’ mobilizing structures, opportunity structures and framing processes (garrett, 2006; loader, 2008). ict according to castells (2007: 249), “offers an extraordinary medium for social movements and rebellious individuals to build their autonomy and confront the institutions of society in their own terms and around their own projects” and “the internet provides the essential platform for debate, their means of acting on people’s mind, and ultimately serves as their most potent political weapon”. the internet is said to greatly facilitate mobilization and participation in traditional forms of protest, such as national street demonstrations and also to give these protests a more transnational character by diffusing communication and mobilization efforts rapidly and effectively (bennett, 2003, cammaerts and van audenhove, 2005; della porta and mosca, 2005, kahn and kellner, 2004). in recent years the global diffusion of modern communication networks, the proliferation of human practices using these networks, the development of new digital media that support social relationships, and the increasing use of new tools of self-publication on the internet (such as facebook, youtube, flickr, wordpress) have provided activists and movements with more possibilities to spread information, organize and coordinate online. social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, vlogs, mashups, podcasts and folksonomies and the applications of the so-called “web 2.0” -a term coined by tim o’reilly in 2004 in a meeting between o’reilly media and medialive international have increased and facilitated interactivity, information sharing, interoperability, participation and collaboration on the world wide web (surowiecki, 2004; jenkins, 2006; shirky, 2008). as kavada (2009: 130), has underlined, “with their emphasis on collaboration and interactivity, web 2.0 technologies fit well with the current framework of theorizing the internet and transnational collective action” and “web 2.0 can be thought to reinforce this capacity for ‘networked protest’ as, compared to the more one-way broadcasting model of web pages, it allows coordination and the lateral distribution of content”. the potential of web 2.0 or so-called social software for social movements have been the object of a growing numbers of publications (neumayer and raffl, 2008; goldstein, 2007; chowdhury, 2008). regarding the italian context, the beppe grillo’s blog and the role of the blogosphere for the organization of the “vaffanculo day” have been analyzed by pepe and di gennaro (2009), while mello (2010) has looked at the role played by the internet, especially by the facebook social network site in the birth and the coordination of the italian anti-berlusconi popolo viola movement (“purple people”). the use of a multiplicity of online platforms has also been at the center of a study on the student movement “onda anomala” (“anomalous wave”) emerged at the end of 2008 (treré, 2010). in this research, we want to focus on two aspects emerging from the literature that we find valuable for our own case study: the first aspect is the continuous interplay between the online and the offline dimensions, as shown in the works of bennett (2005), kavada (2005) and gillan (2006). bennett has noted that “the most important theoretical move we can make in trying to understand the movement is to move beyond the distinction between onand offline relationships” (2005:217). castells (2007) has pointed out that the space of the new social movements in the digital age is at the same time constituted by the space of flows and the space of places. social movements continuously operate through shifting and blending the online and the offline world, and it is precisely in this combination that they organize, mobilize and protest. in the l’aquila case the interplay and continuity between the online and offline dimensions is particularly strong and represents a unique case in the italian scenario. the second aspect regards online activity: social movements and activists tend to spread on different platforms (kavada, 2009; treré, 2010) ‘official’ internet sites, blogs, social network sites, wikis, etc. so as kavada (2009) has underlined an important step in understanding the affordances of web 2.0 for collective action would be the exploration of the tensions and complementarities between the variety of platforms. keeping in mind these important points, in this article we decided to investigate the role played by the internet in the coordination of the people of wheelbarrows movement with the aim to of answering the following research question: how is the movement’s participative aspects articulated between the online/offline dimensions? in particular, we decided to investigate the role that the web played in the coordination of the movement and the online platforms that movement’s participants exploited. in addition, we focused on the ways in which movement’s meetings and events have been organized and reported. methodology in order to understand how the “people of the wheelbarrows” movement structures itself in the interplay between the online and the offline dimension and to investigate how civic engagement and participation are structured online, we decided to deploy a multi-method approach. as highlighted by klandermans and staggenborg: “a major advantage of social movement research has been the use of multiple methods [...] triangulation of methods ultimately produces stronger theories than multiple replications and permutations of the same method” (2002: 315-6). combining semi-structured interviews, through a qualitative-quantitative analysis of the official people of the wheelbarrows facebook group as well as online/offline ethnography, we investigated how the movement has used the social platforms to organize the protest in the interplay between the online and the offline dimensions. the combination of different research approaches has proved to be a useful method in order to get as general and complete a picture of the movement’s communication processes as possible. our empirical analysis started with the identification of some of the most active individuals including giusi pitari, academic professor at l’aquila university and active blogger, federico d’orazio, a university student and blogger, anna pacifica colasacco, local retailer and blogger and luca cococcetta, a young videomaker. as a first step, we carried out twelve semi-structured interviews with activists. one of advantages of semi-structured interviewing is that it allows scrutiny of meaning: how activists regard their participation and how they understand and make sense of their social world. this is fundamental to understanding social movements from the point of view of participants (blee and taylor, 2002). the discourse produced from the interviews was analyzed from a qualitative point of view in order to identify the most frequent topics and to detect some explanatory categories. one of the most addressed topics of discussion mentioned by the interviews has been the massive use of the official facebook group “coordinamento carriole aquilane”, so we decided to carry out an analysis of this group. to complete the picture, we also decided to perform offline ethnography by spending five sundays with the people of the wheelbarrows, taking part in their traditional “scarriolata” (an italian neologism used by the group’s activists, with the idiomatic meaning of “to go down to the square with a wheelbarrow”) in the red zone and to a town meeting (organized in the form of the sost -which we will explain laterin a big tent located at the centre of duomo square). results findings from the interviews from the interviews we carried out it emerged that the people of the wheelbarrows have used a variety of online platforms in particular blogs, online journals, social network sites to inform themselves, post online material (photos, videos, texts) spread messages and coordinate themselves. this is in line with one of the points we addressed before: the tendency of contemporary networked movements to spread on a wide range of online platforms. the movement’s activists also wrote articles for local newspapers ("il capoluogo"), national newspapers ("il fatto quotidiano") and participated in national tv programs on the national rai networks ("porta a porta" on rai 1 and "anno zero" on rai 3). that means that there is, as we highlighted before, a variety of crossovers with other media: the movement’s participants wrote on different online and offline platforms and took part in famous national tv programs (that does not mean that they were always able to speak or to provide their point of view. for instance, there have been several problems related to the framing of the movement that the “porta a porta” tv show ran about the wheelbarrow people). content analysis of the interviews revealed that the most used platform has been the facebook social networking site. at a first stage, immediately after the tragedy, it was used to spread information about the situation of people that were rescued or died under the debris. it was used to immediately communicate from individual profiles to networks of friends that people had been found and rescued or that they had died or were still missing. "so, in the first days… to me facebook was the only information channel to get information about the persons who did not answer to the phone and were disappeared, it was the only place where you could get to know that a person had been rescued from the debris, or the contrary and so in that particular situation it was really useful because a friend of mine would say 'marco is alive and well, spread it' and everyone would put on their wall that marco was well and so i believe that in that moment it has been of incredible utility, i will never have an intensive use like that of facebook" luca, videomaker and activist[13]. at a more advanced stage, in a devastated city where the center has been erased and where the relations among local citizens had been seriously compromised and where many inhabitants had been displaced somewhere on the coast or on different places, facebook served first as a way to find friends and reconnect with them. as one activist recalls it: "the web was important because obviously the l'aquila squares do not exist anymore, there are no physical spaces to meet and the multimedia square, the virtual square became facebook, the blogs and forums where citizens and committees exchange ideas and give appointments" francesco, journalist and activist. this reconnecting process emerges clearly from federico’s words: "i looked for them, and we have been looking for each other, because the people that participate at a certain moment started to search for each other because of the perception, the idea to be isolated, of being the only ones that would want to do something.. but alone it makes no sense to do it." federico, blogger and activist. second, facebook played a fundamental role in helping the construction of the wheelbarrows movement by joining people who felt the need to reconstruct the social links and networks that have been compromised by the physical destruction of the city center. as giusi puts it: "everything happened online, because all the people who are now in the assemblies, somehow had all these facebook profiles so we created a ‘tomtom’" giusi, blogger and activist. as alessio underlines: "with facebook we absolutely created the movement. we exploited the social network to make people conscious of their being political citizens and take responsibility in respect to the power system, so the first time there was a break in the historical center it was thanks to a facebook group" alessio, activist of the “3e32” nonprofit citizen network. in luca’s words facebook: “became a place where through the events, the pages and the friendships assemblies and meetings or whatever were advertised and above all the places where we advertised our work… without facebook fewer persons would have seen it" luca, videomaker and activist. facebook has also somehow worked as an amplifier of the personal participants’ blogs which have also been heavily used. the message was first posted on the a blog and then the link to the same message was shared on the facebook platform and spread to the subscribers of the group to increase its visibility. on facebook, individual profiles and groups have been used in conjunction with the people of the wheelbarrows group to coordinate and spread the information. blogger anna explains her communication routine: “you know what i do? when i write a post, usually i write three times per week, because i can't make it, then in the moment i publish the post i put it immediately on facebook. on facebook lots of people retake it and share it. the classic domino effect" anna, blogger and activist. similar patterns emerge from federico’s words: "my blog is stazione mir and i created a facebook group called "the friends of stazione mir” (..) and i re-post the post, i put the link inside this group (…) so, in sum, it is the only way to try to multiply" federico, blogger and activist. however the offline dimension which emerged from the interviews is important: the square and the assemblies are seen as the places where the people of the movement can engage in face to face exchanges, can see, talk, touch each other and build ‘real’ and stronger relationships. though the importance of the internet for the organization of the movement is seen as fundamental, the necessity of physical encounters is underlined and regarded as the most important moment where the active engagement of citizenship finds its peak and its full realization, where the participation is fully realized. they most important moment in this is represented by the assembly, as the peak of the participative process. the sunday “scarriolate” are seen as a moment where citizen participation is realized in the streets, with the people re-appropriating their town and sharing moments of sociability working and eating together. according to alessio: “the sunday scarriolate are the effect, the action that lies under the citizens’ participation, the political discourse regarding the scarriolata is that the people, whoever goes there and makes the work doesn’t want to delegate this work to a top-down organism and decide what it has to be done and it does it, but the citizens want to decide what to do and do it, this is participation”. for him: "the highest political momentum is the sunday assembly, where we see ourselves face to face, talk about the issues that interest us, decide the actions we have to undertake and distribute the tasks" alessio, activist part of the "3e32" nonprofit citizen network." the importance of the offline gatherings is particularly evident in this excerpt where federico stresses that: "to know that actually some people want to do that, it then pushes you to aggregate you, but to join with people face to face, not anymore on the internet... internet was a tool and a powerful tool, but it is fundamental to meet every wednesday in the assembly.. when i saw we were 6,000 in the first sunday meeting of the wheelbarrows i was so happy, i actually realized how powerful we were. the tom tom everyone added on facebook from their pages and from our blogs is important, but it has to be followed by offline action." federico, blogger and activist. blogger anna has also clear ideas about the fundamental role of the assembly: “on facebook there is much debate about the issue of the assembly, about the things to do here and there, instead i believe that the assembly is supreme. the people have to go there if they want to say the things” anna, blogger and activist. the strong connection and interplay between the offline and the online dimensions was a fundamental aspect highlighted by participants. the protest flowed from the wheelbarrows group on facebook, to the sunday “scarriolata” on l’aquila streets, to the events reported online on the anno1.org internet site and to the streets again. this continuous online/ offline intertwining is exemplified in the words of luca: "the thing maybe started from the internet, the first sparks started from there, with some messages on facebook, like “ok let's see us tomorrow in piazza duomo”, all of us, we go back together to piazza duomo, then again a participation was created also on the spot, because there is a willingness for human contact and with some really good situations, from the assemblies to the scarriolate, to the breakfast all together in the square...things like that never happened before like going there to have a typical breakfast together in piazza duomo and i, more than before, find myself talking to people that i don't know in piazza duomo, like a sort of open forum, so you go there and find yourself talking and sharing things with everyone, i've met so many people in the last months" luca, videomaker and activist. francesco also points to the inextricable link between the square and the facebook: "but now we are coming back to the piazza duomo, where we have biweekly assemblies and people made appointments on facebook but then they catch up in the square, and it's very important because the web is so important but only if there's another feedback, another level where people can talk…" francesco, journalist and activist. the importance of the people of the wheelbarrows facebook group emerged clearly from the analysis of the interviews and therefore we decided to analyse its role in the organization of the movement. the analysis of the facebook group our first move was to subscribe to the official people of the wheelbarrows facebook group and begin with a relatively unfocused watching period that it is essential in order to closely observe particular phenomena (delamont, 2002). in this regard, it should be remembered that there is only one movement group, in contrast to other social movement cases – for example, other italian cases such as the “purple people” movement or the “anomalous wave” student movementin which multiple online groups were created (because there are no official leaders and the movement’s borders are fluid with loose ties, so that anyone can set up a group. in the l’aquila case we speculate that the local and focused character of the movement has hindered the creation of other online coordination groups). subscribing to the official movement page allowed us to be up to date concerning the events and the initiatives promoted by group’s members and in addition, to have an initial idea of what was happening. this, among other things, enabled us to become aware of the events in which we then took part. we decided to take into consideration three months of group’s activity: from 28th february, day in which the group was founded, to 31st may 2010. facebook, more than other platforms, lends itself as an instrument for horizontal forms of participation, non-hierarchical and spontaneous. it gives the opportunity to organize, advertise and disseminate future events (like the sunday “scarriolate” or the meetings on wednesdays), and even permit the aquilani who after the earthquake had been "exiled" and forced to live in hotels on the coast to be informed about future initiatives. but facebook has in this respect at least two problematic aspects: the first one is that group membership is not binding and the number of users who organize around a valuable message are few; the second is that very often, the spontaneity and ease of adherence to groups leads to overestimation of the real size of a movement (capelli and fiocchi, 2009). as we can see from the three months of group’s activity , there are different levels of membership and participation (farinosi, 2010). there were some people who constituted the central core of the group and seemed to be more connected than the rest of members. it is thus possible to distinguish three participation levels: primary: of 3318 members only a few were those who actively interact, providing new information, discussing, writing comments, uploading content like photos or videos and sharing links to news in behalf of the other subscribers of the group. they contribute to the effective enrichment of the group and make it a lively and vibrant place; secondary: there are a larger number of people that mostly read the information written by others, but contribute occasionally, leaving a comment or a contribute to the discussion or as happens in most cases just clicking the “like” button; passive: this characterizes the largest assembly of members, that “consume” the content of the group without any type of active involvement and in some cases they are enrolled in the group just to express their adhesion and support to the cause of the people of the wheelbarrows and/or to receive the emails from the movement and to be up to date on all the latest happenings, events, meetups and demonstrations. the analysis of the active part of “coordinamento carriole aquilane” shows that there are few people very active that post a lot of comments, links and collaborate in active ways to the life of the group, while many people are not so involved and have posted just one or few more comments during the three months analyzed. this great imbalance in participation is typical of all social media platforms. closely related to the discourse of participation is that of leadership. actually, inside the group of the people of the wheelbarrows we noticed that there are people more active than others, people who take the initiative both offline and online, but it is incorrect to talk about real leadership. as he wrote in the first post on the board federico, the activist who created the facebook group: "in this group there will be no head people. i just kicked off the group, now all work as they wish, as before! (...) it’s valid as a general rule: whoever wants to be appointed as an administrator, just ask and it will be done. the other administrators already appointed should help me do it, i won’t be always at the computer to control the evolution. i suppose that we will have many members, and none should be neglected. our movement is and will remain horizontal. no podium.” federico, 28th february 2010. also another member, lorenzo, wrote in a facebook post: “we must get used to the fact that the old policy of individual leaders is lost. it’s time to create something new. i would call it “collective conscious”, critical and participatory. it is creating on its own and nobody can stop it!” lorenzo . we also decided to content-analyze the posts, links and discussions of the facebook group of the people of the wheelbarrows in order to understand the nature of the use of this social platform. the definition of the categories arose inductively and was based on an understanding which emerged through interaction with the data available. this means that we approached the data analysis without any preset list of categories and analyzed the information to identify analytic units that theoretically matched the phenomena portrayed in the data set. as marvasti points out, this approach offers “convenience […] in simplifying and reducing large amounts of data into organized segment” (marvasti, 2004:91). this method is very flexible and provides a systematic way of synthesizing a wide range of data (given, 2008). from the content analysis of the content written by the members of the facebook group it emerged that it is possible to cluster the texts into five different sub-groupings, or macro-categories. the most frequent issue which emerged from the analysis of the posts is that of “organization”. the people of the wheelbarrows frequently used the facebook board to organize town meetings, events and sunday scarriolate and to upload and share photo or video reports of them. from 28th february, day in which the group was founded, to 31st may 2010 they arranged 18 facebook events. the strong organizational dimension emerged also from the analysis of the most common and frequent words in messages written by members. as we can see from the figure below the most recurrent words are: “l’aquila”, “piazza” (which in italian means "square"), “domenica” (“sunday”), “carriole” (“wheelbarrows”), “macerie” (“debris”). figure 2: “word clouds” from posts written by the members of the facebook group the second relevant issue which emerged from the texts written by the members of the group is that of “proposals and initiatives”. very often people used the public board to leave a proposal and suggestions for future initiatives and to receive comments by other members. “guys: proposal...what about organizing something to remember all together the april 6 anniversary signed by the people of the wheelbarrows?” luca. “so st. peter's square next sunday?? i'm recruiting laborers...” eutizio. “how about a meeting during the week to finalize the process of collecting and selection for the forthcoming shovelling? last sunday the work behind the pile of rubble seemed a bit 'messy’. with a little organization we might prevent many small problems and allow more rubble to flow out of the mountain.” stefano. “why don’t we provide campers and caravans (those that we bought after the earthquake and that we have not sold out) to house the volunteers who come from outside and that would give us a hand?” anna. the third issue that emerged from the texts is that of "adhesions and encouragements”. belonging to this category messages left by people who want to collaborate actively in the group, and in particular contribute to sunday scarriolate. often, people living in other italian cities, sometimes very distant from l’aquila gave their contributions, for example leaving words of encouragement to move forward in removing debris from the bottom. “hello guys i am a boy from chieti. i am organizing a group of people to come to l’aquila in order to rescue from the rubble. to whom can i request information? anyway i made a group on facebook and it's called: "let’s help aquilani to free the city from the rubble of the april 6" i am the founder and organizer! i’m waiting for someone to tell me who do i contact for information. thanks for everything” andrea. “i came from bergamo to the presidium of memory and saturday night i shared with you the pain and reminiscence. and i shared the desire of truth and justice and love for your city that i breathed on sunday morning when i fought with you in order to enter in the old town, and i passed the pails. your desire to revive aquila must be an example to me and to all italians. thanks to exist and fight and a big hug. i hope to return!” adriana. “never give up! people of abruzzo will reborn gently or badly, don’t let them fool you... the truth is still dark and hidden ... the firemen of florence are close to you.” camillo. “on monday, tuesday and wednesday i'm full of inner strength and i have enough courage to put my head into the mouth of a lion. on thursdays i begin to feel fatigue, mood descends several steps. on friday i feel burdened by an alienating sense of inner emptiness. on saturday hopelessness surprises me quite fragile. on sunday ... on sunday in the square with you i reborn!” eleonora. in the fourth place there is the macro-category of promotion. this represents a kind of horizontal variation of the main theme that characterizes the movement of the people of wheelbarrows. some members exploit the board of the facebook group to promote collateral initiatives, however, based on the same territory or, sometimes, to advertise websites or other groups with similar interests. one of the most important event pushed is the presentation of the official video of “recomenza domà”, organized in duomo square on 21st april 2010. “recomenza domà” is the remake in local dialect of a hit sung by the greatest italian singers to raise funds for later reconstruction of the city. but there were also people who promoted films or websites. “join the iovadoinvacanzainabruzzo group that aims to create interest in the abruzzo, a region largely untouched and unknown, except for the recent sad events. if you are from abruzzo, if you have friends from abruzzo, if you like simple people, if you have fondness for the problems they have, if you like the nature, the food, if you have been, if you never gone, subscribe to the group and help us talk about tourist abruzzo sending pictures and thoughts! if you want to see the website please go to www.iovadoinvacanzainabruzzo.com and help us directly from the site: we need sites that put our logo on the homepage, we need pictures of places of abruzzo, we need descriptions of trips and excursions in abruzzo. meanwhile, thanks for reading. hello from amelia” amelia. “colpa nostra docu-film with law-gags "colpa nostra" does not exist ... sign the petition at http://nobavaglio.adds.it/ ...at senate majority seeks to impose a law on telephone tapping that would undermine key aspects of costitutional system. the freedom of expression and the right of citizens to be informed are at risk.” eutizio . the last macrocategory that we have identified is related with the criticism. most of the time critical concerns political majority, decisions taken from above, the lack of transparency of mainstream media. “people of the facebook group "i disagree from wheelbarrows" was able to say that in piazza ix martyrs the rubble were brought in by the people of the wheelbarrow just to make a show on sunday. legally speaking, is this not slander? i sincerely feel offended, made a fool of, but especially angry. now we not only have to look away from "who speak without acts" but also from other citizens” stefano. “berlusconi claims that with bertolaso he wanted to remove the rubble. he assumes no responsibility for anything. he just needed the theater for the g8 meeting! please find all the newspapers, the news of these days, it is yet another lie. i invited “il centro”, a newspaper of pescara and citizens to ask for debris removal as soon as possible, because in this case they could rebuild right here. but i remember that berlusconi has always been against the building of the new town. the man who denies this should not be taken seriously” lorenzo. “as usual, they have shown 3 minutes on the 7th channel then i have not seen anything on other channels. hang in there!..... aaaaa they did show event pro bertolaso and interviewed a couple of people. they said “make bertolaso a saint now”absolute madness!..... so bastards...but who are these people that are against the coordination of people of wheelbarrows'''?????????????????????????????” camillo. in order to complete the picture, as final analysis, we examined the links that have been shared with the other members on the board of the facebook group. we studied each single link to see what social platforms they have used most intensively to upload content online, what kind of digital content (texts, photos or videos) they have been more likely to share and to what other internet resources they have linked. during the analysis period the people of the wheelbarrows shared 420 links, most of them during the month of march 2010 (269 links in march; 92 in april and 59 in may). of these 420 links, 107 relate to articles published in newspapers online. among the most cited newspapers appear at the top journals almost exclusively local, like for example cityrumors.it , ilcapoluogo.it and abruzzo24ore.tv. other type of content shared a lot (84 links) are posts written on personal blogs, especially from stazionemir[14], giusipitari[15], collettivo99[16], miskappa[17]. 71 shared links are about movies and videos, especially those relating to sunday scarriolate and town meetings. a remarkable 47 videos came from youtube. in second place there are some videos with reports uploaded on the website of the 3e32 citizen network. 46 links were related to sharing of photos. in this case the most used platform was the facebook itself, followed by flickr. 28 links concerned the promotion of events, organized not only from the wheelbarrows movement but also by other group members. most of the remaining links were about the discussion and sharing of notes written on the personal facebook profiles or the desire to give visibility and promote sites, fan page on facebook or other groups. any given sunday “on any given sunday you're gonna win or you're gonna lose. the point is: can you win or lose like a man?” from any given sunday, movie by oliver stone “any given sunday we are here shoveling, we are with our wheelbarrows” a citizen from l’aquila taking part in the sunday scarriolate like every sunday, sunday 18th april 2010 was no exception: the people of the wheelbarrows organized a “scarriolata” in the red zone. as usual, a few days before they created the event page on facebook and invited all the members of the group to join with their own wheelbarrows. in order to remove the debris from piazzetta ix martiri and piazzetta del sol, e the gathering was arranged at 10:00 a.m. in piazza duomo[18]. they went there in a small rally and started to shovel and remove the rubble in the two squares. there was a real team work, where each citizen gave his/her contribution: they made a human chain, passing pails from hand to hand to remove the debris. when the squares had been cleaned, they moved to piazza palazzo and piazza san pietro for a small “tour” in the most damaged area of the old city center. at the end of the sunday scarriolata they met in the big tent in duomo square where some associations and citizens donated their books in order to create a small free access public library. after this little ceremony, people of wheelbarrows started the offline town meeting that was based on the s-ost technique, a way of working based on self-organization and on the ability for people who participate to make proposals. it was first tried in florence, and mixed elements from the ost (open space technology), created by harrison owen and elements from e-tm (electronic town meeting) system. citizens from l’aquila decided to deploy this technique and to adapt it to the local context and needs, to answer aquilani’s requests to take part in the reconstruction process of the city and to recreate spaces of open dialogue after the catastrophe. s-ost was organized at different levels: creation of different tables for discussion: the groups are created randomly, mixing people at the moment of subscription; plenary assembly: this is the moment when the outline of the work is explained and basic rules are illustrated; tables for discussion: every participant was given a copy of “l’aquila anno 1 spazi aperti per una agenda aquilana” (l’aquila first year open spaces for an agenda aquilana) in which one can find priorities, projects and everything that has been expressed on the www.anno1.org website and on the post-its located on the board of the duomo square’s tent. this document served as a base for reflections, hypothesis and proposals adding to those at the tables. discussion tables were self-managed by participants with the help of coordinators and work according to the law of two feet: “if at any time you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet and go someplace else”; proposals synthesis: during the lunch break, a document is produced with all the proposals coming from the different discussion tables; final assembly: the final document which recovers all the proposals is presented and everyone is invited to join one or more proposals in which he/she wants to be involved. then, groups start to work on the chosen proposal. s-ost was articulated into three main phases: disjunction openness to different points of view. organization of events as occasions to multiply ideas; comparison among different points of view; conjunction: the whole amount of different points of view was reassembled into a coherent and shared project. the topics addressed during the town meeting can be grouped into the three following macro-areas: · reconstruction of the urban context; · reconstruction of the social fabric; · reconstruction of the economic fabric. at the end of the town meeting, the people of the wheelbarrows drafted a report of what happened during the assembly and uploaded the document online on the anno1.org website. in addition to the report they also uploaded the videos of the activities on youtube. in this way the content could be seen and commented upon by those who did not have the possibility to attend the event, as well as to be shared online between facebook members. the interplay and the intertwining between these online and offline practices highlights the existence of a circular dimension of the protest that involves multiple online/offline platforms in a sort of never-ending cycle that goes from the internet to the square and then again to the net. conclusion and reflections for further research from the results emerged from our analysis, it is possible to highlight some key points: first of all, we can stress the great importance that the local dimension has played in this case study. while most of the studies on social movements have underlined the importance that icts play in strengthening the movement’s transnational dimension by allowing distant activists to communicate and share resources, our case study shows that icts can also play an important role in extra-ordinary situations which are ingrained into the very local dimension of a certain community. we can speculate that the emergence of the movement of the wheelbarrows would not have been possible or would have been really difficult without the help of social media platforms. concerning the articulation of the online and offline dimensions, we want to underline that there is a continuous interplay between these two dimensions: the event is launched on facebook and on the activists’ personal blogs, then it is carried out in the squares where the scarriolata is performed and the meetings organized. then it is reported online, on the anno1.org internet site, on the flickr photosharing platform, on the youtube videosharing hub, on facebook again and on the individual blogs. online practices on different platforms are intertwined with offline ones in what we previously called the protest cycle. the other point descends directly from the previous: as we have seen we can define the people of the wheelbarrows as a cross-media movement because it simultaneously makes use of a variety of online platforms: internet sites, blogs, social network platforms, photo and video portals. we have also observed a great imbalance in online participation, a considerable disproportion between the few active members and the huge group of non-active members (which is typical of all social media platforms). this also points to the problem of what has been called fast activism (eaton, 2010): as it simply takes less time and effort to participate online, people tend to participate through a mouse click and thus estimates regarding online engagement tend to overestimate the participation dimension. in some cases, participation is reduced to the ‘zero’ level of subscribing to the group: what we called before (with what could be regarded as a sort of oxymoron) passive participation. most of the group’s members just engaged in this kind of participation: they wanted to be part of something, to be regarded as members of a collectivity, but their role in the movement was fulfilled in the simple act of subscribing. further research is needed to investigate the connections between the anno1.org internet site and the wheelbarrows movement. moreover, a longer period of ethnographic immersion would be necessary to deepen the understanding of the movement’s inner 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[2] place where the dipartment for the development and the competitiveness of tourism of the presidenza del consiglio dei ministri is based. the department was assigned to manage “big events” [3] “balducci e i suoi amici, la cricca degli appalti. ville, escort, assunzioni e auto di lusso”, la repubblica, 11 febbraio 2010, http://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2010/02/11/news/il_grande_regno_dell_emergenza_il_personaggio-2254417 (our translation) [4] http://www.facebook.com/ [5] http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=302288078330&ref=ts [6] http://www.flickr.com/ [7] http://photobucket.com/ [8] http://picasaweb.google.com/home [9] http://www.twitter.com/ [10] http://www.youtube.com [11] http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=333399523599&ref=ts [12] http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=111151435564713&ref=ts [13] note: all the excerpts from now on will be our translations from the interviews we carried out in italian. at times, the translation is idiomatic. [14] http://stazionemir.wordpress.com/ [15] http://giusipitari.blogspot.com/ [16] http://www.collettivo99.org/ [17] http://miskappa.blogspot.com/ [18] http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/event.php?eid=109421242428684&index=1 community wireless: community wireless: policy and regulation perspectives matthew a wong university of toronto matt.wong@rogers.com abstract wireless internet has been available since the late 1990’s, but has only recently emerged as a powerful tool for access in communities and cities at large. however, this has not gone unnoticed by parties that perceive a potential threat to the established order of internet players. as the clash of interests grows, governments have been getting involved through policy and regulation to help bring balance to the social and economic issues. in this paper, the author attempts to put these issues in to a clearer perspective by summarizing the landscape as it pertains to wireless internet access from the north american perspective. introduction with the advent of the ieee 802.11 standard in the late 90s, the use of wireless internet has become increasingly popular. as the technology becomes faster, smaller, and less expensive, wireless technology has entered workplaces, academic institutions, and even the average home. for many, the technology represents freedom from wires and cables that previously tied computers to their broadband or dial-up connections. the technology also represents the possibility for isolated or developing communities to leap-frog past the expensive cable laying requirements of wired service and instead, connect wirelessly. it is no wonder that wireless internet is a rapidly evolving field that has broad reaching effects in both digital technology and social networking. however, with such ability for change, existing models of internet deployment, connectivity, and technology are being tested and as these changes evolve for citizens, governments, and private enterprise challenges arise for policy and regulation as well. the objective of this paper is to present a high-level overview of the various perspectives on policy and regulation with respect to wireless technology. in particular, this paper will look at three important perspectives in wireless internet. one perspective will be that of user communities and freer access advocates. another will be that of the telecommunications and cable industries which provide the physical connections to the internet. lastly, the perspective of government regulators and policy makers will be presented. given that the scope of wireless development and implementation worldwide is far too broad for this paper, the point of view presented will focus primarily on the north american experience. this paper will begin with a brief technical overview of wireless technology for internet, followed by a discussion of the potential goals and objectives of such technology in everyday use. a look at the potential problems related to deployment and ownership issues from a provider perspective will provide a contrast to these goals. following this will be a more in-depth examination of regulation and government involvement, focusing on what current legislation allows, some possible effects of proposed legislation, as well as motivations for these changes. these will be exemplified by the current debate in america on municipal wireless as well as the telecommunications policy review recently conducted in canada. wireless technology wireless communication, synonymous with radio communication, is a process whereby radio waves are systematically generated and then emitted through an antenna. the radio waves propagate through a medium, usually air, where they are received by another device and the signal is decoded. radio waves also have the property of being able to penetrate, bend around, or reflect off, many different physical barriers. however, radio waves are affected differently by different materials. for example, over open fields radio signals can travel great distances, but in a cramped urban environment the signal may degrade to only a few dozen meters. the radio waves used by various devices operate in a number of different frequency ranges that make up part of the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. in the 1980s, with the invention of terminal node controllers, a method was created to divide a radio message into packets, with built-in error detection (dubendorf, 2003, p.5). packets paved the way for computers to use wireless technology to communicate with each other. since radio waves travel through the air and can be interfered with by a number of factors, packets allowed for sent data to be accurately checked upon receipt. in 1997, the institute for electrical and electronics engineers (ieee), created the 802.11 standard (also know as the “wi-fi” or wireless fidelity standard), which listed a number of protocols related to transmitting data over the unlicensed 2.4 gigahertz (ghz) band. “unlicensed” refers to the fact that this band in the spectrum (known as the industrial, scientific and medical or ism band) did not require operators to obtain a government license prior to use. this is in contrast to other frequency ranges in the spectrum which do require licenses, such as those that broadcast television or telephone signals. these signals are typically controlled at the national level because of the varying, and often very high, power required to broadcast these signals over distances. they are also controlled because of the interference these signals can create for other signals in the spectrum. in 1999, the ieee revised the standard to include the 802.11b standard for data rates up to 11 megabits per second. along with other enhancements, this set the standard for numerous devices to be created to take advantage of this unlicensed wireless band. in the years since, higher data rate standards such as 802.11a and 802.11g have been added, although 802.11b is still common. in conjunction with the use of the software protocols for transmission control (tcp) and internet (ip), wireless devices of many kinds now exist to transmit and receive internet signals. the most fundamental of these configurations is the basic service set (bss) which consists of a group of computing devices with wireless network interfaces, which communicate with each other (gast, 2002, p.10). with the recent proliferation of reasonably inexpensive wireless components, the bss has become for many users a wireless router acting as an access point (ap) which broadcasts a signal connecting a number of computers. when the computers can communicate and share information between each other, it forms a wireless local area network (wlan). this technology is now so common it is available in work places, public spaces, universities, and households among other locations. indeed, one of wireless technology’s strong points is its ability to be deployed nearly anywhere and for the signal, under the right conditions, to be transmitted over considerable distance. furthermore, with the ability to broadcast over a range, compared to having a single wired connection point, users equipped with portable devices can also receive signals while mobile. another commonly used term to refer to these mobile wireless networks are wireless manets or mobile ad-hoc networks. the “ad-hoc” nature of the network refers to the ever changing network topography resulting from this mobility compared to the fixed network topography of hard-wired connections1. however, while that mobility might seem very attractive to the end-user, for network planners and systems developers, it can prove very problematic. in traditional fixed networks, it is easy to maintain awareness and control of where receiving terminals are located because they do not move. in wireless networks, not only can the number of ‘stations’ (wirelessly enabled terminals) fluctuate as they pass in and out of the coverage area, but their location may change as well. from a systems perspective, physical location is more appropriately conceived of as a network location, which is handled by what is known as an ip address. in a fixed network, ip addresses are assigned so that the controlling terminal has a “map” of the nodes in the network. in a wireless network, ip addresses need to be assigned and recovered as stations pass in and out of coverage, as well as making sure there are enough addresses to assign to any node in the network. when multiple access points (aps) exist within the same network, it also becomes problematic to make sure that data is effectively and efficiently routed throughout the network. traditionally, fixed networks, like the internet, use a protocol known as “link state routing” to make sure that an accurate and detailed map exists of all the nodes in a network. this ensures that information is passed in the most effective and efficient manner possible (santivanez, ramanathan & stavrakakis, 2001). however, because of the massive processing overhead required to constantly update the status of potentially numerous changing nodes, new ways of handling routing need to be considered. presently, there are a number of different algorithms potentially useful for wireless routing. however, what is clear is that the mobile and dynamic characteristics of networks can be quite complicated in nature. one particular strategy of note in mobile wireless is what is known as “mesh” networking. as o’brien (2003) describes this, mesh networking “is a technique for creating self-organising clusters of computers that make their own connections between one another, spreading their coverage one node at a time across any terrain, with no central planning authority” (pg.1). in fact, wireless nodes in a mesh network act as “both a service provider and a service consumer” (xue & ganz, 2002, p.180). that is, each node has the ability to help route data, as opposed to relying on centrally controlled access points alone. a very powerful aspect of mesh networking is the ability to “self-heal” in that the network routes around downed or unreachable nodes, to try and make sure that data is properly transmitted to each operational node. wireless goals, objectives, and benefits wireless networking, for many of the factors indicated previously, is a topic of interest from both scientific and social perspectives. due to the variety of technologies involved, for example software programming, antennas, and packet transmission, it is well-studied in computer science, and computer and electrical engineering. from social perspectives, wireless networking offers new possibilities for social engagement and community empowerment. for example, the phenomenon of “hotspots” (wireless aps) in cafes and other public spaces is creating a new social dynamic. users can now gather in public spaces and interact in person, while simultaneously being connected to the internet at large, including their internet-based social groups. another example would be the application of wireless technology in remote or low-resource areas. certainly, the ability for the internet to be accessed literally out of thin air, has created new questions about ownership, privacy, and ‘freeness’ (both in terms of access and monetary cost). undoubtedly, there is great promise and interest in these topics and there are a number of key potential directions that wireless can take, and goals it can achieve. faster and easier deployment one of the primary goals of wireless implementation is relatively easy deployment when compared to wired alternatives. while it is true that wireless internet services make use of existing wired connections, extending wireless services does not require the often labour-intensive physical work, such as excavation or laying cable, that extending wired services might. lehr and mcknight (2003) suggest that for these reasons, among others, “wireless infrastructure may be deployed more rapidly than wireline alternatives to respond to new market opportunities or changing demand” (pg. 357). when wireless coverage needs to be extended, it is simply a matter of adding additional aps to create a greater “cloud” of access. freedom of movement and space improved mobility is another significant goal of wireless, and the recent proliferation of portable wireless devices is indicative of this. wireless internet access can be achieved not only from wirelessly enabled desktops, but more commonly from laptops (often with embedded antennas), pocket pcs, and cell phones. this has the effect of “unwiring” people from fixed locations, while at the same time, providing persistent connections to email and other communications services. this is particularly crucial for professionals who often need to take their work around with them. wi-fi access is even in some circumstances available for travelers in-flight, extending their internet experience from the airport to the airplane. wireless internet offered at universities and colleges also provides another incentive for students to tote around their laptops for note-taking. as one mit lecturer notes, …my students all have laptop computers with wireless internet access, which they take to every class. computers no longer create fixed, specialized sites of learning like the old computing centers. instead they enhance the potential of every space to support some kind of intellectual activity. (mitchell, 2004, pg.1) mitchell (2004) goes on to add that it now “means that there is less need for formal work areas with fixed desktop computers, and a growing demand for pleasant, flexible spaces that can be appropriated as needed” (pg.1). indeed, the ideal vision for internet access would be outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine of pastoral university grounds. freedom of development using open source technology and techniques wireless networking is often associated with the abundant use of open-source development techniques. in general, this refers to both the actual practice of collaborative software development, as well as operating in freely available development environments. the development of the champagne-urbana wireless software (cuwin)2 would be an example of open-source development. the commercial router re-programming used by groups like ile sans fils in montreal3 would be another. while the open-source model tends to keep things rather elite-centered, as the skills required to do these activities are quite complex, at the same time, it encourages development by members of the public who do possess these skills. as james (2003) suggests, it is “their attempt to create a user-generated alternative to a top-down industry” (pg.391). that is, to provide alternatives to both the telecommunications and software industries. increasing cost accessibility wireless networking also has the primary goal of reducing costs and where possible, providing so-called ‘free’ networking. reducing costs stems mostly from the broadcast aspects of wireless networking. since the signal can be spread immaterially over an area, fewer wires will need to be installed in desired points of access. furthermore, antennas can be used to great effect to specifically beam signals to locations (useful for physical or geographical barriers) or to blanket an area less expensively. as long as a ‘back-end’ connection to the internet can be established, wireless technology can be used to share that connection. it is with this in mind that groups have attempted to provide internet access freely. this is a somewhat tricky concept. the typical model of ‘free networking’ is that the internet access is provided without cost to the end user. however, it still costs the provider of the service (or hotspot) money and resources to provide it. the key idea here though, is that the wireless signal can be received by anyone in the area and generally, each person consumes very little of the shared bandwidth. in this way, since it is not physically limited by requiring a wired connection, a large number of people within range of the node can all partake in connectivity. this can occur essentially without restriction, except for the bandwidth constraints. however, each node can only handle a maximum number of connections, so that more nodes may be required. while it is possible to ‘hog’ a lot of the bandwidth using demanding applications like file downloading or game playing, if users are only using low intensity applications like email and instant messaging, a regular megabit connection should be sufficient to provide access to a large number of people. this may seem like a relatively uncontroversial practice, particularly since it is a model that has been used by airports and hotspots in cafes and there are two notable canadian groups who are currently implementing this model for broader community use ile sans fils in montreal, and wireless toronto4. in these instances of course, the “free access” end user does not appear to be shouldering the financial cost. however, the concept of free networking may appear quite differently based on who is ultimately responsible for bearing the actual financial costs since there is a back-end connection which must still be paid for. nevertheless, the goal of significantly reduced (or even no) costs to the end user that wireless networking presents could for example present a possibility for a central authority (e.g. government) to handle the cost of the back-end connection, which theoretically could make it easier (and cheaper) to deploy internet to areas and those who otherwise would not be able to afford the service. that is selected (or designated) communities and neighbourhoods could now potentially receive internet access at reduced rates, if not for free. the role of telecommunications & cable companies, and their perspectives telecommunications (‘telcos’) and cable companies play an integral role in the wireless internet story as they are most frequently the ones providing the connections. the fibre-optic pipes and infrastructure used to support the internet (e.g. the servers, switches and routers) are typically owned by these companies, and residential and business access means paying for their services. the selling of internet services to these customers now represents a significant part of the telecommunication business, and there is clearly a vested interest in preserving the existing fee-for-service approach as summarized by lehr and mcknight (2003) in the telecommunications service model (tsm). essentially, the tsm is a model where a user signs a contract with a provider to be connected to a service (e.g. internet access, telephone or cellular phone, television, etc.) and then is billed on a monthly basis for this service. put another way, as lehr and mcknight (2003) state, “the service is conceptualized usually as a mass-market offering to both residential and business customers on a subscription basis” (pg.359) and directly parallels the existing telecommunications service model. in the era of wireless internet networking, issues have begun to develop for many internet service providers (isps). these coincide with some of the goals and benefits of wireless technology as noted above. for example, the use of open source technology to alter devices like wireless routers means that technically advanced users can use off-the-shelf consumer electronics to modify how their internet connection is shared5. of course, this usage tends to go hand-in-hand with free networking, which commonly uses these reprogrammed routers to create ‘captive portals.’ captive portals in turn work by ‘capturing’ available wireless signals (e.g. from laptops) and redirecting them to authentication servers. in this way, for example, a café owner could have wireless internet users come in, authenticate remotely, and simply use the service provider’s back-end connection as the means by which the data is transmitted with no additional revenue accruing to the service provider for this usage. in fact, this is the model by which groups like ile sans fils operate. open source programming has also been used to reprogram routers to accommodate mesh networking, such as in the cuwin project. in this way, internet connections are only required sporadically throughout the network as the traffic can be routed back and forth throughout the nodes in the mesh. this is one of the main advantages of mesh technology, but represents precisely the kind of ‘unauthorized’ sharing that telecommunications companies are worried about. the issue with this kind of ‘free’ or ‘shared’ networking is that essentially, only one party contracts for the services of the provider, while many people benefit. obviously, this poses a problem for companies which would rather have it that each person who benefits from the service pays for the service. the justification for this from the service provider’s perspective is two-fold. firstly, each user of the network is consuming bandwidth that is only made available at a cost to the provider (the ‘free-rider’ problem). secondly, whoever is sharing the connection does not have the right to do so (the ‘gifting’ problem). both of these arguments were summarized by sandvig (2004) in a paper discussing cooperative action in wi-fi networking. free-ridership in this case may be analogously viewed as similar to a train ride. each seat on the train is paid for by a customer, but when someone gets on without paying they are taking up a seat that should be occupied by an individual who has paid for that right. in the same way, internet subscribers are paying for the high-speed bandwidth that they are using. free-riders are simply taking up bandwidth they have not paid for, and therefore, are not entitled to. of course, the counter-argument is that the actual amount of bandwidth used by each individual user in the ‘big picture’ is, in fact, negligible. this would be the case particularly with low-intensity, and infrequent transmissions, such as checking email and instant messaging. however, sandvig (2004) suggests that the average user may still not appreciate this, and that “most of us hesitate at the thought of paying for our neighbors to use our bandwidth” (pg.590). he also notes the potential danger of anonymous users abusing the network (e.g. illegally downloading) and not being traceable, or perhaps, less maliciously but no less annoyingly, consuming a lot of the bandwidth. the second argument concerning ‘gifting’ stems partly from the practice of the nocatauth project and other captive portal groups. in these cases, people who were sharing their networks and internet connections (which were usually flat-rate monthly fees) were seen as giving the ‘gift’ of internet access to other users. the problem was that “as internet service is conceptualized by isps as a service and not a good…isps see broadband internet as a gift only they can give” (sandvig, 2004, pg.592)! the municipal wireless issue from these arguments stems one of most pressing and current topics facing wireless internet and telecommunications companies. that is the issue of municipal wireless internet. there is currently a vigorous debate on this topic in the united states and this has lead to considerable legislation and legal wrangling. the discussion revolves around the idea of providing internet, via wireless technology, to citizens in a municipality as part of the municipality’s public infrastructure. this typically takes two different forms. in one, the municipality provides internet access free of charge to residents (although the residents may be responsible for their own computers), and will perhaps pay for the service using tax or advertising revenue. in the other, the municipality may charge a fee for using the service, but at a possibly reduced rate, or at least one considered ‘more affordable’. telecommunication providers typically present a number of objections to such plans. these include for example, that governments should not be in the business of providing telecommunications services, particularly when local telecommunication service providers may already exist and operate in the area. this is seen as problematic because governments could have an unfair competitive advantage in providing services, as for example because of favourable (administrative) rulings or municipal self-dealing when in areas such as land use and zoning, access to financial resources, and the inappropriate use of the public sector influence. through acting in this way, governments it is argued, are upsetting the ‘economic balance’6. the crux of the argument here concerning the evolving usage of wireless internet is that commercial service providers see the internet as a service that should be paid for by those who want (and use) it, and not as a public good that should be made more widely accessible in support of the public interest. the role of government: regulation and policy government involvement in wireless networking falls under two broad categories. one is regulation, which is already very involved in the technical aspects of wireless. the other is policy, which is constantly under development, and crucial for setting the goals and directions that the government wishes to take. both areas are complex and subtly nuanced, and are indicative of the challenges governments face when it comes to balancing public needs and wants, safety, and economics. technical regulation in canada, the technical aspects of wireless technology are regulated by industry canada. spread-spectrum radio technology (both direct sequence and frequency hopping) is subject to certification7, and antennas also need to meet emission requirements in order to minimize any interference they generate or receive (dubendorf, 2003, p.101). while the section of spectrum wireless networking occupies is unlicensed, much of the rest of the spectrum is, and devices need to be designed and managed so as not to extend their operations out into these other licensed areas. in the usa, similar regulation exists as specified by the federal communication commission (fcc). while at first glance, these engineering regulations may not appear particularly controversial there are also other factors at play. for example, spectrum regulation is increasingly becoming a concern as more and more wireless devices are beginning to ‘crowd’ the bandwidth. there is the dual problem of too many devices broadcasting within one frequency grouping (although radio channels help to alleviate this to an extent) as well as not enough frequency groupings being available for device use8. spectrum allocation is a very significant regulatory problem for all jurisdictions globally. in order to ensure the interoperability of radio equipment worldwide, international standards need to be created. predictably, there are often complications arising from this need for grand-scale collaboration. of course, domestically, spectrum allocation is also a pressing concern. there is a lot of discussion around this issue focusing on contrasting perspectives between those concerned with serving the public interest in terms of better accessibility, and the interest in ensuring a strong telecommunications and cable market (the primary users of the radio spectrum). authors such as frieden (1997) and groebel (2003) discuss some of the concerns in spectrum allocation where the incumbent telecommunications providers have historically occupied most of the spectrum and possess considerable lobbying power in support of their own use of it (to create services to sell back to the public). both frieden and groebel also stress that the spectrum represents part of the public realm which should be distributed “with an eye toward allocating [for] uses that will maximize social welfare primarily, and individual profitability of firms secondarily” (frieden, 1997, pg.454 policy making policy in this area as in others is typically created by public servants and political policy staff, working its up way up from these to the elected officials. however, the current process is under some stress given the kind of citizen-enabling opportunities that wireless networking presents and the direct conflict that is arising with the interests of the market dominating telecommunications giants. what emerges is that at the heart of the wireless internet policy discussion is the need for governments to balance the interests of the citizenry and community at large, with those of the corporations who provide those people with paid services. the battle over municipal wireless internet is a good example of one such issue. as well, of course wireless internet is not confined to north america and interest has been shown in municipal wireless projects worldwide. muniwireless.com in their july 2005 report listed 84 public access wireless broadband projects worldwide and the number is increasing exponentially as cities realize that wireless networking may provide innovative new ways of bringing internet to the public. according to this report us cities are turning to wireless internet as the usa falls behind asia and europe in broadband penetration rates, and as the digital divide becomes a more pressing issue (vos, 2005, pg.3). us state barriers to community broadband services began to crop up in early 2000 with various restrictions to municipal entities being applied in 14 different states (“state barriers…”, 2004). many of these pieces of state legislation called for a prohibition on municipal entities (e.g. local governments or public utilities) providing similar services to those of the telecommunication companies, or for requiring lengthy bureaucratic processes and referenda in order to allow such services to be provided. by 2005, even more legislation was proposed in different states limiting municipally provided broadband services of any kind, not just wireless (baller, 2005a). the justification for many of these pieces of legislation varied, but primarily seemed designed to protect against competition in the broadband marketplace by preventing the ‘unfair’ advantages that it was argued, municipalities would enjoy. other arguments in support of this legislation included “ensuring public cost-effectiveness and value”, and “preventing economic imbalance or market distortion” (as for example through the presence of a public sector broadband service). based on the number of states that did end up passing such the legislation, it would seem that these were persuasive arguments.. as well, two laws were proposed to the us congress promoting these views on a national level. the first was the “preserving innovation in telecom act of 2005” introduced by representative peter sessions from texas, and the “broadband investment and consumer choice act” introduced by senator john ensign from nevada. both acts sought, to varying degrees, to limit, restrict, or outright prohibit municipalities from entering the telecommunications provision area. some of this legislation, particularly early ones at the state level, did manage to pass with relatively little fanfare. however, when it was discovered how it would affect major cities like philadelphia, pa as well as in texas (which was already developing municipal wi-fi projects) concern and protest reached a much higher level. while many pro-municipal wireless groups, public interest organizations, and others, had already started to raise questions about this legislation, people started to look more seriously into the arguments supporting the new laws. while proponents of limitation and prohibition see these laws as protecting consumer choice and ensuring competitive markets, opponents see them as precisely limiting consumer choice and eliminating competition. opponents suggest that if the existing telecommunications giants are able to control services and pricing (particularly at levels many lower income families cannot afford) then consumer choice is in fact reduced. furthermore, by ensuring that new players, like municipalities, face barriers and handicaps to entry, competition will actually be eliminated as the existing, powerful corporations who already provide services perpetuate their dominance. james baller, a prominent pro-municipal wireless advocate summarizes a number of key flaws in the justifications that some of these legislations provide. he notes for example, that incumbent telecommunications companies falsely assume that municipalities hold significant advantages over corporations, while simultaneously ignoring the “vast advantages of incumbency that established providers enjoy” (baller, 2005b, pg.1) including for example, substantial financial resources (in the billions of dollars for many of these giants), brand loyalty and customer awareness, as well as powerful political lobbying capability. baller also notes that telecom corporations expect that public advantages should be transferred to them, while not in turn being required to accept the duties and responsibilities of serving the public good which underlie those advantages. other issues cropped up during these discussions. it was for example, widely noted that rep. sessions was a former employee of sbc communications (a telecommunications giant providing broadband services) and, while promoting legislation that would protect such corporations, retaining ownership of hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock in that company (“telco stock options…”, 2005). in philadelphia, major telecommunications companies employed an “army” of lobbyists to help push through the restrictive legislation (dornan, 2005, para.4). not necessarily the villain critics however, have questioned whether there is a convincing case that broadband should be included in any universal service-type mandates. xavier (2003) suggests that “broadband access in the home is at present not essential to being a functioning member of society” (pg.11). he goes on to note that while broadband is certainly a desirable and useful service that will likely be of increasing economic and social importance, “there is a difference between a service being useful and showing great promise and that service being crucial to meaningful participation in society” (xavier, 2003, pg.17). mueller (1999) argues further that rather than demand that services like broadband be universally provided, what would be more effective would be to simply “grow household wealth and to build an open, competitive economy that is able to supply information goods and services efficiently at prices that are affordable to ever larger numbers of people” (pg.354). these kinds of arguments lend weight to the industry perspective that the government should allow businesses to do what they do best: build and distribute products and services in an unfettered manner. governments it is argued should not ‘hamstring’ industry with unfair or constricting regulation, particularly when it is asserted that it is through efficient market economics that problems such as the digital divide can be addressed. for example, mueller (1999) argues that in the mid-90’s in the usa, dial-up access was brought to most of the country by commercial providers driven “entirely by normal business incentives” (pg.356). coupled with the perspective that high-speed broadband is not, at present, essential, industry seems of the mindset that wireless, like dial-up, can eventually be distributed fairly through a simple response to market demand. why fight over wireless? however, it is instructive for policy makers to also consider why it is that community and public advocacy groups, and increasingly technology corporations and politicians, have been concerned about the direction that american legislation seems to be taking. that is, why are people mobilizing in defense of municipal wireless projects, and more generally, against pro-corporate telecommunications control? the short answer is that municipalities and communities realize that wireless internet is what they need for development, and that much of the legislation restricting municipalities introduces significant barriers to achieving these goals. in fact of course, broadband internet is typically quite expensive, and among the telecommunications giants, prices remain essentially uniform, and uniformly high. many municipalities and even citizens themselves believe that the internet is an important tool and a public good that should not be kept out of the hands of those who cannot afford it simply for the sake of preserving the market status quo. particularly in light of the reality that other parts of the world, notably asia, are continuing to roll-out faster and less expensive broadband solutions, this is a particularly important issue. canadian studies, (reddick and rideout, 2005) note that cost was a major factor for many citizens not going online. other authors are wary as well of dismissing the claim that access is neither essential nor a basic need. for example, souter (1999) argues that “access to icts and their potential for enhancing welfare and community involvement is increasingly important for communities seeking to raise their quality of life, engage in determining the policies that affect them, or diminish the differentials that underpin their disadvantage” (pg.409). in the usa, some of these views are echoed in the pro-municipal wireless “community broadband act of 2005” introduced by senators frank lautenberg of new jersey and john mccain of arizona. in his speech to the senate, senator lautenberg highlighted the reasons why communities want and need wireless projects. “mr. president, this bill will allow communities to make broadband decisions that could: improve their economy and create jobs by serving as a medium for development, particularly in rural and underserved urban areas; aid public safety and first responders by ensuring access to network services while on the road and in the community; strengthen our country’s international competitiveness by giving business the means to compete more effectively locally, nationally, and internationally; encourage long-distance education through video conferencing and other means of sharing knowledge and enhancing learning via the internet; and create incentives for public-private partnerships.” (congressional record – senate, 2005, para.11) this statement captures both the direction that municipal and community groups wish to take, while also highlighting what they fear to lose with restrictive or prohibitive legislation. lautenberg also adds that “government should work to open doors to greater technology for the american people, not slam them shut” (coyne, 2005, para.3). indeed, from a community informatics perspective, it is crucial that governments make decisions with an eye towards serving the public interest, and in particular, as previous authors and studies indicated, to support those who may not be adequately served by market mechanisms. williamson (1999) pointedly adds that while industry seems focused on debating in the economic realm alone, social factors are important and “consideration should be given to the total context of the lives of the groups who may have a critical need to have access to extended telecommunications services” (pg. 185). conclusions this paper began with an overview of the technical specifications of wireless internet networking, particularly looking at the advances in open source development and mesh networking. this was followed by an examination of the potential for these new networks, including so-called ‘free networking’ and its applications in sharing connectivity among many users. objections to some of these developments were identified from the telecommunication provider perspective which is that that they retain rights and ownership over the services they provide to their customers whatever the opportunities for redistribution (as for example through wireless transmission). it was noted further that services such as wireless broadcasting are of necessity both technically regulated and to be placed in the broader social and economic context of public policy. as one example of the kinds of difficulties faced in policy creation, the on-going political battle in america over municipal wireless was examined in some detail. policy creation is often complex since it typically presents the need for compromise between conflicting goals and objectives. references baller, j. (2005a). status of state barriers proposed in 2005. retrieved august 2, 2005 from http://www.baller.com/pdfs/baller_proposed_state_barriers.pdf baller, j. (2005b). jim baller’s response to senator ensign’s municipal networks provision. retrieved august 2, 2005 from http://www.baller.com/pdfs/baller_response_sen_ensign.pdf congressional record – senate, june 23, 2005. retrieved august 2, 2005 from the baller herbst law group. web site: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2005_record&page=s7298&position=all coyne, b. (2005). congress to consider competing community internet bills. retrieved june 27, 2005 from http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/1977 dornan, a. (2005). will wireless broadband be banned? retrieved june 27, 2005 from network magazine. web site: http://www.networkmagazine.com/shared/article/showarticle.jhtml?articleid=60401148&classroom= dubendorf, v.a. (2003). wireless data technologies. john wiley & sons, inc. uk. fink, c. & kenny, c.j. (2003). w(h)ither the digital divide? info, 5(6). frieden, r. (1997). widespread deployment of wireless telephony: business, legal, regulatory and spectrum challenges. telecommunications policy, 21(5). gast, m.s. (2002). 802.11 wireless networks the definitive guide. o’reilly and associates, usa. groebel, annegret. (2003). should we regulate any aspects of wireless? telecommunications policy, 27(5-6). james, j. (2001). low-cost computing and related ways of overcoming the global digital divide. journal of information science, 27(6). keenan, t.p. & trotter, d.m. (1999). the changing role of community networks in providing citizen access to the internet. internet research: electronic networking applications and policy, 9(2). lehr, w. & mcknight, l.w. (2003). wireless internet access: 3g vs. wifi? telecommunications policy, 27(5-6). mitchell, w.l. (2004). higher learning, the wi-fi way: wireless internet access is spawning a new kind of collaborative learning in the campuses of the world. new scientist, 181(2430). mueller, m. (1999). universal service policies as wealth redistribution. government information quarterly, 16(4). o’brien, d. (2003). rebel network: why pay a fortune to get wired up to broadband when you could join an anarchic wireless network that does the job. new scientist, 180(2416). oecd broadband statistics, december 2004. retrieved july 31, 2005 from the organization for economic co-operation and development. web site: http://www.oecd.org/document/60/0,2340,en_2649_34225_2496764_1_1_1_1,00.html sandvig, c. (2004). an initial assessment of cooperative action in wi-fi networking. telecommunications policy, 28(7-8). santivanez, c.a., ramanathan, r. & stavrakakis, i. (2001). routing : making link-state routing scale for ad hoc networks. proceedings of the 2nd acm international symposium on mobile ad hoc networking & computing. souter, d. (1999). the role of information and communication technologies in democratic government. info, 1(5). state barriers to community broadband services. retrieved july 20, 2005 from the american public power association. web site: http://www.appanet.org/legislative/index.cfm?itemnumber=9998 telco stock options a conflict of interest for rep. pete sessions. retrieved july 10, 2005 from the free press. web site: http://www.freepress.net/press/release.php?id=73 telecommunications policy review panel – terms of reference. retrieved september 25, 2005 from telecommunications policy review panel. web site: http://www.telecomreview.ca/epic/internet/intprp-gecrt.nsf/en/h_rx00004e.html vos, e. (2005). muniwireless.com second anniversary report, july 2005. retrieved august 5, 2005 from http://muniwireless.com/reports/docs/july2005report.pdf williamson, k. (1999). extending universal service: social and economic issues. info, 1(2). wireless network buying guide. retrieved july 10, 2005 from pc world. web site: http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/index.php?id=1395397229&pp=6&taxid=1282 xavier, p. (2003). should broadband be part of universal service obligations? info, 5(1). xue, q. & ganz, a. (2002). qos routing for mesh-based wireless lans. international journal of wireless information networks, 9(3). 1when a wireless ap is used to extend an existing wired network, this is considered “infrastructure networking”, compared to when it is used to establish communication between wireless devices as part of its own network, which is “ad hoc networking” (“wireless network buying guide”, 2005, p.6) 2www.cuwireless.net 3http://www.ilesansfil.org/tiki-index.php 4http://wirelesstoronto.ca/index.php much of this discussion draws on a private conversation with gabe sawhney from wireless toronto, july 4, 2005. 5interestingly, this was also a problem for internet providers in the early stages of residential broadband deployment as home users could hook up inexpensive routers or switches to distribute internet connections to multiple computers without paying for extra ip addresses. users were discouraged from doing this by isps not providing technical support for router/switch based home networks. 6these opposing arguments are adapted from language in colorado state bill sb05-152 and florida state bill sb1714. 7also, see industry canada regulations, available at: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/insmt-gst.nsf/vwapj/amend5_rss210.pdf/$file/amend5_rss210.pdf section 6.2.2(o) 8industry canada provides a graphic chart indicating how the spectrum is currently allocated: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/insmt-gst.nsf/vwapj/spectallocation.pdf/$file/spectallocation.pdf editorial: community informatics and the world summit on the information society   michael gurstein editor-in-chief < editori@ci-journal.net >   this issue of the journal is coming out just as the final sessions of the world summit on the information society (wsis) are about to begin. many of those concerned with community informatics whether as practitioners or as researchers have chosen to ignore wsis, arguing that it has little or nothing to do with communities and icts as they are, on the ground. others, and perhaps those with more of a policy orientation, have thought or worked at little else for months.   in a sense both positions are appropriate. those who ignored wsis have made a quite correct assessment of the process as being “top down”, elitist, a display-case reflecting more on the desire for self-advertisement by funders and politicians than a realistic presentation of what might or might not be useful to those looking to become enabled, empowered or “developed” through the use of icts in communities around the world. that the selection of “representation” or participation in wsis at every stage was either based on access to personal or institutional resources or, in a few instances, based on externally-determined definitions of appropriateness or representativeness (i.e., those participants the funders thought it best to invite), certainly reinforces this perspective. this was not about icts “doing with” but about others “doing to” communities and end users, wherever they might be.   and yet, the outcome of wsis will be of as much significance to communities and community informatics folks as to others. the agreements, declarations, and statements that come out of wsis will define and provide the language, and to a degree the concepts, for the broad institutional and other frameworks within which ict for development (ict4d) will be deployed and managed over the period to come. it will determine how past efforts are assessed; what information, and most importantly what lessons, will be derived from this; and who will be in a position to move forward the national and global policies that will follow.   one other lesson that can be drawn from the most recent wsis discussions, though, is the gap between those who present themselves as civil society in the context of the global discussions and, particularly, through the face-to-face discussions, and the reality of civil society outside of these narrow corridors. while wsis-cs has been focused on issues of internet governance (and the arcane technical elements of which it is largely composed) most of the rest of the world, and certainly those who look to icts as sources of opportunities for social or economic advance, have been rather more concerned with issues arising from the evident pull-back in financial support for “bridging the digital divide” through the termination of funding for programs to support broad-based public access and applications in canada, the us, and australia, among others.   one could say that there is a pause in the broad sweep towards publicly funded support for community use of icts. a notable exception is the recently announced mission 2007 program in india, and to a degree the new zealand digital strategy whose current and future directions are presented in the point of view from andy williamson in this issue. one hopes that this is a time to pause for reflection, a time to assess what has gone before and to use that as the basis to determine how to go forward.   certainly this issue provides some useful bases for beginning that assessment. williams, sligo, and wallace present results from their study of computers in homes and trace implications for policy generally, and new zealand’s digital strategy, in particular. grandqvist’s field level observation of lincos, a highly touted project in latin america, gives a very useful assessment of how this ict4d effort worked out in one of its most important areas of application. in his own point of view, steve cisler provides a fanciful, yet disturbing, vignette of how ict4d projects can go wrong, even when based on some good intentions and yielding some constructive outcomes. his scenario captures the experience of many with the range of ict4d projects that have gone on in the past. similarly, cordell and romanow cast a critical eye on the notion of community networking (and by implication all publicly supported community based technology applications) as “public goods” and come up with some surprising, and even controversial, conclusions.   but sprinkled throughout these articles, and figuring notably in the note from the field on a new community security application by fujii and his colleagues, are seeds that suggest a possible stronger, firmer direction for community-based icts. and the domain of security and surveillance, of course, brings us full circle to the need for careful and informed civil society policy decisions. proulx and latzko-toth provide us with a useful conceptual analysis of the notion of the “virtual” which must be seen in the context of the continuing tension (and possible long-term reconciliation) between “virtual communities” and “physical communities” as a direction of interest for community informatics, while leaning moves us forward with his own analysis of specific approaches to how society (and communities) and technologies interact[1].   those participating in wsis would be well-advised to spend a few moments looking at this and earlier issues of joci. if they did so, they would see both the variety and the complexity of end/community use of icts. they would see how technology is enabling communities and how these processes are facing challenges in all directions equal at least to the opportunities. what they would surely also see is that community use of icts is at the core of how a global information society for all will be built.   and a final comment on “research” in and around wsis and particularly community informatics research. it is notable that virtually all of the “research” and here i include most of the evaluations of ict4d activities undertaken in the context of wsis (which includes most of the recent activities of the major donors) is notable for being top-down, closed access and “expert” driven. the notion of community-driven research or research done with a close collaboration between the researcher and the researched seems not to have figured in the preferred approaches or the plans and contracts of the researchers, or funding or sponsoring agencies. the result is that most if not all of this “research” and including areas such as “lessons learned” appear to be structured so as to inform funders rather than to support those actually doing (and presumably benefiting from) the activities on the ground. this of course, both reflects and reinforces the prevailing top-down project design and implementation approaches and from the community’s perspective contribute to the creation of a closed and impenetrable loop.   one of the observations that probably won’t be made at this second round of the world summit is how little progress evidently seems to have been made in activities driven by these approaches and framed by these strategies since the first round in geneva two years ago. in the absence of a firm and grounded participation by end users and end user communities, projects fail to take root and once the funders lose interest doors close, reports are filed, donors and consultants go on to something else and communities are left little better if not worse off than before…as steve cisler suggests, more cynical if not more “developed”.   in this area, as in others there is a very significant role for community informatics research and researchers in helping to design and redesign research methods and strategies so as to be inclusive of community users as necessary elements in the research process--not simply as subjects of research, but as research partners helping to establish research directions, areas and priorities of research interest, and research methods among others. this is one way to realize “open research” and to have research (and evaluation) become quite directly a contributor to enabling (and “developing”) communities. [1] it should be noted that this paper was a prize winner at the community informatics research network 2005 conference in cape town http://www.cirn2005.org . the remaining two prize winning papers will appear in the next issue.   rural communications what is a rural municipality's role? allan bly vitel consulting inc., canada. email: allanbly@vitel.ca a rural broadband round table was held in calgary, alberta in 2008. the objective was to bring together the rural broadband stakeholders, such as wireless internet service providers, mobility providers, academic representatives, government personnel, information and communication technology (ict) associations, first nations, and rural municipalitiesi . it was assumed that by bringing together all the stakeholders that the rural broadband problem would be identified and this would provide the alberta government a framework for future rural broadband programs and initiatives. among those attending the meeting was myself, allan bly, the president of vitel consulting and a volunteer director with the alberta council of technologies (abctech). abctech (http://www.abctech.ca/) is a volunteer organization that advocates on behalf of alberta's technology-based enterprises, entrepreneurs, and industries for the creation of wealth in alberta. abctech had initiated a research project on the status of rural broadband in alberta and its impact on alberta's current and future economic development. also in attendance was the newly elected mayor of parkland countyii . parkland county had recently issued a request-for-proposal (rfp) to complete a rural broadband study. vitel consulting was awarded the contract to complete the parkland county rural broadband study. parkland county and all the rural municipalities in alberta are governed by provincial legislation that states that the purpose of rural municipalities is to provide services, facilities or other things that, in the opinion of council, are necessary or desirable for all or a part of the municipality. traditionally these services have included utilities such as electricity, natural gas, water, and sewage. the capital funds to build the infrastructure to provide these services are provided to the rural municipalities through federal and provincial capital programs and grants. for example, each rural municipality is provided a yearly grant from the alberta provincial government called the municipal sustainability initiative (msi). the msi funds are used by each rural municipality for municipal infrastructure projects. rural municipalities may also apply for additional capital funds for special projects such as water and sewage upgrades. residential and business taxes are used to maintain and operate the services provided by the rural municipality.all rural municipalities face difficult choices as their economies evolve from dependence on agriculture and natural-resource-based industries to dependence on less traditional sources of income and employment such as light manufacturing and knowledge based businesses. in addition, a rural municipality often finds itself sandwiched between the growing demands for more services and continuous reductions in federal and provincial capital funding. upon completion of the broadband study, vitel consulting informed the parkland county council and administration that it is an "economic problem" and includes not just broadband communications, but all communications including broadband, mobility (cellular), and public safety (fire, police ambulance). wireless service providers are unable to build and maintain wireless communication networks in rural areas where the population densities are too low to provide a sufficient return-on-investment (roi) for the service provider. the parkland county council recognized that reliable and sustainable rural communications is a basic requirement to sustain and improve the quality of life in the county. reliable and financially sustainable rural communication networks are the enabler for future economic and community development, and will allow the residents and businesses to get access to e-commerce, e-government, e-health, and e-learning, resulting in better jobs, improved health care, and greater education opportunities. parkland county positions rural communications as a means for future economic diversification and building community capacity and considers it a key survival mechanism. reliable, scalable, and financially sustainable communications is a basic requirement and service, and as a result has formally classified rural communications as a utility. many governments in the world have now recognized that communications is a utility, and as a result have implemented regulations and provided capital and operating funding to ensure that all communication services (broadband, mobility, public safety) are available to all residents and businesses. the term public utility refer to a set of services consumed by the public and traditionally have included electricity, natural gas, water, and sewage. it is essential that rural municipalities recognize that communications is a public utility and understand that their role in assisting private industry in removing the economic barriers to building reliable, scalable, and sustainable communication networks in rural areas. in the attempt to identify and categorise a rural municipality's role in the deployment of economically feasible rural communication networks in their communities, it is helpful to consider the circumstances of three blind men who happen upon an elephant in their journeys. the first man touches the elephant's trunk and determines that he has stumbled upon a serpent. the second man touches one of the elephant's massive legs and determines that the object is a large tree. the third man touches one of the elephant's ears and determines that he has stumbled upon a huge bird. all three of the men envision different things because each man has examined only a small part of the elephant. in this case, think of the elephant as the rural municipality's role in solving the rural communications economic problem. rural municipalities will understand the problem differently and as a result see their role differently. as any other utility the rural municipality must develop a three to five year strategy that includes broadband, mobility, and public safety communications. the strategy selected by the municipality is dependent on three factors: the type of communications coverage, broadband, mobility, public safety that the municipality wants to ensure that there is adequate coverage and capacity. the readiness to partner with private industry to build and operate a communications network. the access to capital and operating funds to invest in a communications network. based on the three factors the rural municipality must select a strategy that fits their community. there are three basic rural communication strategies: (1) status quo, (2) preferred partner, and (3) utility communications. 1. status quo strategy the municipality allows the market forces to provide communications coverage. multiple providers compete for market share. advantages: no additional municipal resources are required. no capital investment required by the municipality. disadvantages: traditionally providers will provide coverage only in higher density areas. each provider designs and builds separate single purpose communication towers resulting in multiple towers close to high density areas. most of the alberta rural municipalities have by default selected the status quo strategy. the rural municipality may be aware that there are rural communication coverage and capacity issues and may have classified it as a utility, but has decided to let the wireless service providers determine how to build and maintain the communication networks within their community. 2. preferred partner strategy the municipality selects a preferred partner to provide rural communications coverage. the partner is subsidized by the rural municipality and is responsible for building and operating the communications network(s). advantages: reduces the partner's capital investment improving their overall cash flow. disadvantages: traditionally the preferred partner provides only one of the three rural communication services such as broadband, mobility, and public safety. reduces market forces which may ultimately increase monthly costs to the residents. preferred partner may have to receive ongoing capital funding to maintain profitability. ownership of the network infrastructure may eventually transfer from the rural municipality to the partner which does not provide the rural municipality a long term asset. several alberta rural municipalities have selected the preferred partner strategy with wireless internet service providers (wisps) including brazeau county, strathcona county, camrose county, and wetaskiwin county. the rural municipality works with and may subsidize the preferred partner to ensure that there is adequate broadband coverage in the area. northern sunrise county has identified that mobility coverage is a high priority and as a result has partnered with telus communications to build one or more mobility towers to improve mobility coverage and capacity. the preferred partner strategy is generally a good first step for a rural municipality. the municipality has classified that either broadband, mobility, and public safety is a utility and as a result invested capital funds to improve rural communications coverage. 3. utility communications strategy the utility communications strategy is similar to constructing a roadway system. the strategy recognizes that communications is a "utility", and a critical component of the municipality's infrastructure. the municipality builds the infrastructure, contracts out its operation, and leases tower space to broadband, mobility and public safety wireless providers. this network supports the full range of communications services, including: broadband, mobility, and public safety communications. this strategy is sustained by collecting revenue from multiple wireless providers that collocate on utility-grade towers. advantages: supports all communications including broadband, mobility, and public safety. enhances market forces and will ultimately improve services and reduce costs. collocation revenue will subsidize the network's monthly operating costs. municipality controls which areas get a higher priority. the network is open access and technology neutral, which allows the municipality to take advantage of any emerging technologies that may ultimately reduce costs and improve coverage and capacity. disadvantages: more complex implementation than the other strategies. requires ongoing municipal resources to manage the utility-grade towers. alberta rural municipalities including parkland county, leduc county, lac ste. anne county, saddle hills county, lacombe county, and clearwater county have selected the utility strategy and are either building or planning to build municipal owned utility communication towers. a utility communications network is typically built over a five to ten year period and is dependent on available infrastructure-based capital funds. vitel consulting recommended that parkland county build and operate a utility communications network. the parkland county utility communications network will have nineteen (19) utility grade communications towers operational by june 2013. each tower is a thirty year municipal asset, and is designed to support broadband, mobility, and public safety wireless service providers. when completed it will be the largest utility communications network in the world. parkland county received both federal and provincial capital funding to build the utility towers west of and including the duffield tower. the towers east of duffield have been funded using the county's municipal sustainability initiative (msi) fund. the ongoing operating costs will be recovered by monthly collocation fees paid by the broadband, mobility, and public safety wireless providers. the network will be cash flow positive in 3 to 5 years. summary implementing an open access utility network will maintain competition in high density areas, ensure that medium to low density areas receive adequate service, will give residences and businesses a choice in communication services, and will ensure that communication services are able to meet the rural community's current and future coverage and capacity requirements. a utility network provides the means for a rural municipality to grow a knowledge workforce that creates economic value through acquisition, processing and use of information. a knowledgeable workforce supports community development initiatives that help rural communities remove barriers to community development and economic growth. the parkland county utility network will provide its residents and businesses with the ability to understand how to leverage communications to improve their lifestyle and initiate economic initiatives. the end result is a revitalized rural community that is better for the people who live and work in it. rural municipalities play a key role in solving the knowledge divide problem by identifying new skills, developing training and learning programs, and delivering training to the community. endnotes i alberta rural municipalities include counties, specialized municipalities, special areas, improvement districts, towns, villages, summer villages, and hamlets. ii parkland county is located on the western outskirts of edmonton, alberta, and extends approximately 80km to the pembina river. the southern boundary is marked by the north saskatchewan river, while the northern boundary separates parkland county from lac ste. anne and sturgeon counties. journal of community informatics special issue: information and communication technology in brazil journal of community informatics special issue: information and communication technology in brazil     gilda olinto instituto brasileiro de informação em ciência e tecnologia (ibict); programa de pós-graduação em ciência da informação (ppgci-ibict/ufrj)   suely fragoso universidade federal do rio grande do sul; programa de pós-graduação em comunicação e informação (ppgcom/ufrgs) e programa de pós-graduação em design (pgdesign/ufrgs)   guest editors                                                this special issue of the journal do community informatics is about information and communication technology (ict) in brazil. the articles selected for this edition comprise an interesting and diversified sample of brazilian studies and initiatives concerned with the effective contribution of ict to societal processes in the country. the reader will encounter examples of well-established and large scale experiences, as well as recent and fast growing ones; articles that study large metropolises and others that focus small communities; a diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches (qualitative and quantitative). the first two articles examine and evaluate concrete experiences aiming at strengthening the democratic processes in brazilian communities, emphasizing the importance of the interplay between technological mechanisms available in the internet and bottom up community mobilization and organization. the digital participatory budged (dpb) implemented in the city of belo horizonte, a large metropolis with more than 3 million inhabitants is focused in the article by sampaio, maia & marques. based on habermas’ approach to public communication and deliberation, they propose an analytical model to classify and analyze messages posted in government sites and the interaction that takes place among citizens, moderators and politicians. their results point to clear advantages provided by the dpb, as well as to the need for improvement of digital tools for the benefit of online democratic public decisions. alvear and thiollent  focus the development and analysis of a web portal with information about the community of cidade de deus (city of god), a “favela” in rio de janeiro with 65 thousands inhabitants. social capita theory and actor research methodology are applied to promote the involvement of community-based organizations in the process of portal building. the following four articles of this issue describe and evaluate projects that use internet and other ict resources for digital learning.  they observe and discuss actions in a variety of communities, which include: a group of health professionals; children and teachers of a low-income community, senior citizens with low educational level and telecenter users of a digital inclusion project. these studies also cover different brazilian regions and states, from the southeast to the northeast of the country. action research prevails as a method of data collection and analysis, but other methodologies, including a large survey, are also applied.  a common idea shared by all these studies, and sustained by evidence presented, is that contextual aspects are a basic ingredient of the digital learning process and a fundamental aspect to be considered to assure user’s participation and effective use, as well as project continuity. a network of virtual collaborative learning in a rural community in the state of são paulo, in the brazilian southeast region, is the topic of rodrigues and valente’s article. they introduce and evaluate multimedia resources aiming at the promotion of the active role of health agents and other professionals as producers and distributors of content of a family health program.  they also discuss the consolidation of the network to guarantee the exchange of ideas between participants. the research process, involving several instruments of data collection and analysis, including virtual meetings, is described in the article.  the digital inclusion of a low-income rural community is also the study object of akhras’ article, but in this case the community is located in brazilian northeast. the social and physical contexts, as well the present economic situation of the population, were considered as important elements in the process of digital inclusion. teaching procedures and options related to the use of ict resources as student participation in the design of the learning portal and the use of html language – are described. how to approach digital inclusion of senior citizens with low educational level is the challenge described in maia and valente’s contribution. in-depth action research of a small group of seniors over a three years period shows how previous life experiences were brought to the learning ambience to motivate participants, enhance their self-confidence and stimulate information exchanges and creativity. as the authors poetically suggest, beautiful gardens of new meanings can be promoted with the adequate planting and watering of ict resources. digital inclusion in remote communities in a mountain region of the state of minas gerais, where telecenters are operated by a non-profit organization, is considered in a large survey (prado, câmara e figueiredo). the authors propose an explanatory model of digital inclusion that takes into account contextual characteristics of internet accessibility. results indicate a consistent use of the telecenters, specially for entertainment, and suggest that specific contextual, motivational and demographic factors are important predictors of uses that can promote social change. three contributions integrate the “reports” section of this publication. one of them is a long and well established experience in ict for education and for the promotion of citizenship. the other two are recent efforts in virtual networks building for the sharing of experiences and mobilization of ideas. passarelli’s work summarizes a long-term program developed at escola do futuro, universidade de são paulo – (nap ef/usp) aiming at the application of ict technology and the development of virtual networks for the improvement of education and the promotion of citizenship. several partnerships have been developed throughout its 21 years of existence, including the state of são paulo government, different private enterprises and, more recently, international agreements. this project has already counted 2 million registered users. the creation of an online social network of community libraries – rede brasileira de bibliotecas comunitárias (rbbc) is the focus of a recent experience described by machado, prado, silva, lira & tadashi. community libraries are informal and spontaneous initiatives, generally set up in peripheral and low-income communities or neighborhoods, and usually run by people without formal training in librarianship of information science. through the use of the rbbc portal mechanisms, they are being able to share best practices and information, and contribute to public policies for brazilian libraries. the cirandas, an information system developed to promote the solidarity economy, is described by tygel and alvear, who present the principles that guide this form of economic organization, its growth, how production is structured and supported by brazilian government, etc. cirandas is considered a solidarity economy virtual community and it maintains strong links with the free software community. closing this special issue, the editor’s “point of view” discusses internet access and use in brazil, focusing on its evolution towards social inclusiveness and towards the increase of uses that can promote individual and community development. contrasting aspects of the penetration of the internet in the country are emphasized, considering both previous outstanding initiatives and evidences as well as the results of a longitudinal analysis specially developed for this issue, based on data of the brazilian census bureau annual surveys (ibge/pnad, 2005; 2008). our thanks to this editorial opportunity follow a chronological order. caroline haythornthwaite's presence in rio de janeiro, as a visiting professor at the brazilian institute of information science and technology (ibict), in 2009, with the enthusiastic support of the coordinator of the research department of ibict at that time – celia ribeiro zaher –, was the beginning of a very interesting and fruitful academic experience. she was also invited by one of the editors to visit the state of rio grande do sul, and helped deepened the academic and personal ties between the two of us. it was also caroline haythornthwaite who promoted the encounter between us and michael gurstein, editor in chief of the journal of community informatics. we are grateful to him for having the idea of this issue on internet and ict use in brazil and honored by his invitation to organize this edition. during the editorial process, we could always count on his support and stimulus. his careful review of the english version of the articles was inestimable. his participation in a seminar on community informatics in rio de janeiro in 2011 was very successful and helped further diffusion of the interest in the subject. the vantage point granted by our position as editors of this issue allows us to know that our call for papers was received with great enthusiasm by the brazilian academic community. we are grateful to the authors responsible for the large number of high quality proposals we have received.  our body of reviewers tirelessly engaged in the three-step double-blind peer review process behind this edition. we thank them for their careful evaluation of the proposals and final papers and for their constructive approach to the review process. we are also grateful to adriana ballesté and to sonia bournier de souza from ibict. adriana helped us with technical advises and efficient collaboration in the final editing process. sonia, an expert in the open journal system (ojs) utilized for this publication, helped us along the way. the fact that this edition involved several rounds – an abstract as a proposal, a first version in portuguese and a second version in english – has been a reasonable challenge, and their help and advice were indispensable.   journal of community informatics. issn: 1712-4441           searching for the role of icts in development: a case study of a rural multi-purpose community centre in the dwars river valle social diffusion of telecenters the journal of community informatics social impact and diffusion of telecenter use: a study from the sustainable access in rural india project   rajendra kumar phd candidate international development group, department of urban studies and planning , massachusetts institute of technology, cambridge. <kumarr@mit.edu>   michael best assistant professor sam nunn school of international affairs, georgia institute of technology, atlanta. <mikeb@cc.gatech.edu> abstract in a study of social diffusion of telecenter use in rural south india, we find that these centers are being used only by a relatively small proportion of the village households despite their having been in operation for well over a year. based on a survey of the telecenter users, we find that these users are, in general, young, male, school or college students, relatively more educated, belong to relatively higher income households, and come from socially and economically advanced communities. thus the telecenters may sustain existing socioeconomic inequalities within these communities. however, we find some significant exceptions. we find that location of telecenters close to the residential localities where socially and economically backward communities live and presence of local champions within those communities are associated with attracting more users from those communities. we also find that providing localized content and services and making these services more affordable are other important factors in increasing usage and diffusion. we posit that incorporating these factors in the planning, spatial location, and operation of the telecenters can significantly improve their social diffusion and improve their long-term financial and social sustainability.   introduction telecenters or kiosks have generally been defined as places or centers that provide shared public access to information and communications technologies for meeting the educational, social, personal, economic, and entertainment needs of the community (fuchs, 1998; harris, 1999; proenza, 2001). telecenters have gained prominence as the primary instruments for bringing the benefits of icts to poor communities where the technological infrastructure is inadequate and the costs of individual access to these technologies are relatively high. they provide opportunities for access to information by overcoming the barriers of distance and location, and by facilitating access to information and communication, they have the potential to foster social cohesion and interaction (young, ridley, & ridley, 2001). most of the evaluations of telecenters have focused on their operational aspects, such as their technical, financial, and managerial performance and sustainability (etta & wamahiu, 2003; young, ridley, & ridley, 2001). there have been relatively few studies examining the social impacts of these telecentres on the communities in which they are situated. some researchers have looked at the social impact of the community telecenter initiatives largely through anecdotal evidence (holmes, 2001) while others have examined their impacts on poverty reduction (gerster & zimmerman, 2003; ulrich, 2004). as most of the studies on telecenters to date have focused on their operational and sustainability aspects, a sound theoretical and conceptual framework for their planning and evaluation has largely been missing from the debate (roman, 2003). roman (2003) provides a very cogent theoretical framework for planning and evaluating telecenters using the rogers’ theory of diffusion of innovations (1995). he describes three principal attributes of innovations which could be very useful in telecenter research: relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity. he also underscores the importance of socio-structural environment in innovation diffusion and adoption. in one of the early attempts to understand telecenters within the diffusion framework, johnson (2003) examines how incorporating a gender dimension into telecenter design can enhance their adoption among women. in this study, we examine the social impact and diffusion of telecenters under the sustainable access in rural india (sari) project in tamil nadu, india. this project aims at rural social, economic, and political development by providing comprehensive information and communication services through computer and internet kiosks in rural communities. starting in november 2001, the project had established 77 such kiosks by june 2004 in rural communities in melur taluk (an administrative unit within a district) of madurai district in tamil nadu. the number of kiosks was 39 in june 2003 when this research was conducted. the kiosks offer a number of services including basic computer education, e-mail, web browsing, e-government, health, and agricultural and veterinary applications on a fee-for-service basis. though the kiosks have been in operation for well over a year in many communities, they are still being used by only a relatively small percentage of the village population. our principal focus here is to examine why kiosk use has not been able to diffuse among a wider section of their communities. in examining this, we chiefly employ the theoretical framework for diffusion of innovations by rogers (1995, 2003). particularly, we analyze how the principal attributes of innovations, such as relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity, affect diffusion within the community. this case is of particular interest in that it is one of the first projects in india that aimed at establishing commercially sustainable telecenters in rural communities. the lessons learned from it can help us understand how best to enhance the social acceptability and reach of the telecenters and to realize their long-term social and economic sustainability and development goals. the remainder of the paper is organized as follows: first, we describe the overall project briefly; next we discuss the methodology employed in our empirical study; then we present our data analysis and discuss the results; next we analyze the findings within the theoretical framework of diffusion of innovations, and finally we end with our conclusions. description of the project the sari project is a collaborative research venture including several organizations: the indian institute of technology (i.i.t.), madras; berkman center for internet and society, harvard law school; georgia institute of technology; i-gyan foundation; and n-logue communications pvt. ltd. it uses a wireless-in-local loop (wll) technology to provide internet connectivity to rural villages. internet connectivity is offered to the local community through kiosks, which are run as self-sustained businesses with cost recovery through service charges. a majority of the kiosks are locally owned and operated by self-employed entrepreneurs, while some are operated by self-help groups from a local non-governmental organization. technical support for all the kiosks is provided by n-logue communications. the project had established 39 village kiosks by august 2003 when this field study was conducted. out of these 39 kiosks, 20 were being run by local self-employed entrepreneurs while the remaining 19 were being run by the local ngo mentioned above. figure 1 shows the location of melur where the kiosks are located. figure.1: location of melur in india (source: http://www.tourindia.com/htm/homepage.htm, modifications by the authors) services offered by the kiosks the kiosks provide a host of applications and services to the rural people, which include computer education; email/voice mail/voice chat; e-government services such as obtaining birth and death certificates from government offices; agricultural, veterinary, and health services; web browsing, etc. they provide internet content in the local language in these areas. the services are based on a self-sustaining commercial model with the charges ranging from rs. 10 (approx. us $0.22) for sending an email to rs. 100 (approx. us $2.2) for one hour of basic computer education everyday for one month. to deliver these services, the project has developed partnerships with several public and private agencies. these include tie-ups with the state government to provide e-government services, with the tamil nadu agricultural and veterinary university for providing agricultural and veterinary services, and with a private eye hospital for providing eye check-ups. it is this broad array of services that attract users, including those who are illiterate, to the kiosks. research methods we have used a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques for our study. we conducted a comprehensive survey of 132 kiosk users in five villages and collected data on their demographic background, educational status, and the affordability and desirability of the kiosk services. in addition, we used data from a survey conducted by the sari project officials in these villages which covered all the user and non-user households in the local community served by the kiosks. the selection of the users was done using a two-stage sampling process. in the first stage, we used the purposive sampling technique to select the villages based on the length of operation of the kiosk in the community and whether they were being run by self-employed entrepreneurs or by the ngo. the five kiosks selected were in operation from 10 to 18 months as of june 2003. three of the five kiosks were run by the ngo while the remaining two were run by self-employed local entrepreneurs. the villages selected thus represented 12.8% of all villages that had kiosks. in the second stage, we selected the users from the records maintained by the kiosk operators. for this study, we interviewed all visitors who had used the kiosks during the month of may 2003. we found that this sample of users constituted around 10% of all users who had used these five kiosks since their inception. we have no reason to believe that the user population from may was at all unusual and therefore this represents a random sample of users for statistical analysis and for drawing inferences about the user population as a whole for these villages. we also collected quantitative data from the taluk local government office records, government census records, and surveys of the village kiosk operators. we conducted the field work for this project during july-august 2003 and the data we analyzed was for kiosk usage from november 2001 to june 2003. our main sources of qualitative data were from structured and open-ended interviews with kiosk operators, sari project officials, and government officials in the taluk and district office. we interviewed eight government officials including the state government secretary of information technology and every official involved in the project at the district and taluk levels. we also interviewed 4 sari project officials including the project manager stationed at project headquarters in chennai and 3 local officials stationed at melur. finally, we interviewed the 12 kiosk operators to gain information on the methods they employed to create awareness about the kiosks among the users and the procedures used for provision and delivery of various kiosk services. the interviews with the users were conducted in the local tamil language by trained graduate students from a local university. each of these interviews took approximately 30 minutes to complete. the interviews with the kiosk operators, and the government and project officials were conducted by one of the authors in both english and tamil. these interviews took approximately one hour each to be completed. data analysis we have used descriptive statistical techniques to analyze the demographic profiles and the social and educational status of the users. we have also used statistical techniques such as one-sample inference for means and proportions to conduct a comparative analysis of the socio-economic profiles of the kiosk users and their respective village communities. this technique allows us to draw statistically valid conclusions about whether the kiosks are being used by the entire community or whether their usage is limited to only certain segments in them. overall reach of the kiosks in the five villages surveyed, the kiosks reached from 3-14% of the village population and around 11-26% of the village households (reliable information for one village, ulagapitchampatti, on the percentage of households reached was not available) (figure 2). these results are calculated from the total number of users at these kiosks since their inception. thus, for example, the total number of users at thiruvadavur kiosk represents 4.9% of the total population and 20% of the total households within the hamlet. we calculated this based on the records maintained by the kiosk operators. the results show that the majority of the village community has yet to use the kiosk services, though the minority that have used it is sizeable. figure.2: overall reach of the kiosks within their communities. socio-economic profile of the kiosk users and the village community we first present a comparative analysis of kiosk users and their respective village communities for each of the five kiosks as well as for the five kiosks combined. this analysis is presented in tables 1 to 6 in the appendix . we discuss these results below for seven variables indicating the demographic and socio-economic status of the kiosk users and the overall village population: age, gender, religion, caste, income, ownership of household assets, and educational level. age distribution of kiosk users an overwhelming majority of the kiosk users are young. most of them are below 30 years (figure.3). the average age of the users is 20 or below in four of the five villages (tables 1 to 5) . the average age of all users in all five villages combined is 19.2 years (table 6). with the sole exception of ulagapitchampatti, over 90% of the users are below 30 years. this indicates that the kiosk users are significantly younger than the communities as a whole. we think that the significantly different age profile in ulagapitchampatti, when compared to that in the other four villages, is due to the extra efforts made by the operator in creating awareness about the kiosk services through vigorous canvassing among all sections of the village population. figure.3: age distribution of kiosk users. a (*) indicates that the proportion of users less than 30 years of age is significantly higher than that in the village population. gender of kiosk users most of the kiosk users are male (figure.4). the proportion of male users varies from 65.5% in thaniyamangalam to 90% in kidaripatti and is far higher than the percentage of males in the village population (tables 1 to 5). the proportion of male kiosk users in all the five villages combined is 74.2%, which again is far higher than the same in the total village population (table 6). this further indicates a significantly different kiosk user profile compared to the respective village communities. most of the women users at the kiosks are girl students who come for computer education. (see best & maier (2006) for a broader analysis of women’s usage patterns within the sari project.) figure.4: gender distribution of kiosk users. a (*) indicates that the proportion of male users is significantly higher than that in the village population at 95% confidence level. religion of kiosk users all the kiosk users belong to the majority hindu religion, except in two kiosks, ulagapitchampatti and thiruvadavur (figure.5). in these two villages, the proportion of non-hindu users is not statistically different from that in the overall village population (tables 1 and 2). in thaniyamangalam, the village population itself contains only 0.2% non-hindus (table 4). however, the remaining two kiosk villages, keelaiyur and kidaripatti, have significant non-hindu populations (4.1% and 19.2% respectively) but still have no non-hindu kiosk users. the proportion of non-hindu users is lower than that in the overall village population even when we combine the data for all the five villages (table 6). figure.5: distribution of religion of kiosk users. a (*) indicates that the proportion of non-hindu users is significantly lower than that in the village population. caste of kiosk users in collecting data on the caste of the users, we followed the official method of classification of castes into backward castes (bc), most backward castes (mbc), scheduled castes (sc), scheduled tribes (st), and forward castes (fc) (also classified as ‘other’). scs and sts are traditionally the most socially and economically disadvantaged communities in these villages. most of the users belong to the numerically dominant castes in these villages, namely, the backward castes (bc) (figure.6). the proportion of sc users is not significantly differently from that in the overall village population when we combine the data for all the five villages (table 6). however, the situation is different at the individual village level. in three villages (ulagapitchampatti, thiruvadavur, and thaniyamangalam), the proportions of sc users are statistically significantly lower when compared to those in the kiosk village population as a whole (tables 1, 2 and 4). however, in keelaiyur and kidaripatti, the majority of the users belong to the scheduled casts and the proportions are significantly higher statistically as compared to those in the total village population. discussions with the users and the kiosk operators indicate that the location of these two kiosks, closer to the sc households, is an important factor in attracting more sc users. these operators have also made extra efforts in contacting the sc households and motivating them to visit the kiosks. however, just canvassing among the sc households does not appear to be sufficient in attracting them to the kiosk. this was corroborated by the kiosk operator in thiruvadavur, who stated that despite her best efforts in motivating the sc households to come to the kiosk, not many sc users had availed themselves of the services as they lived far away from the kiosk. thus, location of the kiosk seems to be a more important factor when attracting sc users compared to marketing and canvassing efforts. . figure.6: caste of kiosk users. a (*) indicates that the proportion of sc users is significantly lower than that in the village population. a (**) indicates that the proportion of sc users is significantly higher than that in the village population. income of kiosk user households for the the purposes of this survey, we divided the monthly household incomes into five ranges: less than rs. 500 (about $us 11) per month, between rs. 500 and 1,000, between rs. 1,000 and 2,500, between rs. 2,500 and rs. 5000, and more than rs. 5,000. most of the user households are in the middle to upper income groups (with monthly incomes more than rs. 1,000), except in one village, ulagapitchampatti (figure.7). only ulagapitchampatti seems to attract a large proportion (78.8%) of low income kiosk users (those with monthly household incomes of rs. 1000 or below) (table 1). in the other four villages, this proportion varies from 15.4% in thiruvadavur to 33.3% in thaniyamangalam. we think that the significantly higher proportion of low income users in ulagapitchampatti is due to the extra efforts made by the kiosk operator in contacting the poor households in the village. this was also confirmed by the kiosk users. as no reliable data on actual income levels of the kiosk village area population was available, it was not possible to statistically compare the income levels of the kiosk users with that of their respective village communities. but qualitative evidence (discussions with kiosk operators and sari project officials) indicates a generally higher income levels among the users when compared to that of the overall village population. figure.7: income distribution of kiosk users ownership of household assets in kiosk user households in the absence of reliable income data, we used the ownership of household assets to make a comparative analysis of the economic status of the users and the village population. as can be seen in tables 1 to 6, the kiosk users do seem to come from a higher economic status as they own more household assets compared to the average of their respective communities, though the extent of differences vary in each village. for example, in keelaiyur, the kiosk users are not statistically different from their community in this regard, while in ulagapitchampatti and kidaripatti, they seem to be different only on a few indicators, such as in proportion of cable tv ownership in ulagapitchampatti and in 2-wheeler (scooter) ownership in both the villages. in the other two villages, the differences are wider. in thiruvadavur, higher proportions of kiosk users own two-wheelers, color tvs and cable tv, and comparatively far lower percentages live in thatched houses or in houses without electricity. this shows the higher economic status of the users compared to that of the overall village community. the sharpest differences emerge in thaniyamangalam, where far higher proportions of kiosk users own telephones, radio/transistors, color and cable tv, and far lower proportions live in thatched houses and in houses without electricity. figure 8 below presents the distribution of ownership of two-wheelers, which we think is a key indicator of the socio-economic status of the households in these villages. figure.8: distribution of two-wheeler ownership among the kiosk users. a (*) indicates that the proportion of users owning two-wheelers is significantly higher than that in the village population. educational level of kiosk users most of the kiosk users are school and college students (figure.9). school includes up to 12th grade. none of the users are illiterate, except in two villages, ulagapitchampatti and keelaiyur (tables 1 and 3). even in these two villages, the proportions of illiterate users are significantly lower than those in the overall village population. thus, we can say that the kiosk users are comparatively more literate and educated than their communities. figure.9: educational level of kiosk users. a (*) indicates that the proportion of illiterate users is significantly lower than that in the village population. in addition to the educational attainment of the kiosk users, we also analyzed the educational attainment of the heads of the user households (figure.10). two villages (ulagapitchampatti and keelaiyur) show statistically the same profile for the heads of user households when compared to that of their respective village populations (tables 1 to 5). when we combine the data for all the five villages, we find that the proportion of illiterate heads of user households is significantly lower than that in the overall village population (table 6). thus, in general, the heads of the households of kiosk users are comparatively more educated when compared to heads of the households in their respective overall village populations. figure.10: educational level of heads of kiosk user households. a (*) indicates that the proportion of illiterate heads of user households is significantly lower than that in the village population. summary of analysis the analysis indicates that the kiosk users have a socio-economic profile which has statistically significant differences from that of their respective overall village populations for all the seven demographic variables analyzed, though the differences are not uniform across all the five villages. we find that the kiosks have served mainly those sections of their communities that are relatively more educated, enjoy a higher social status, and are economically better off. how can the kiosks be made more effective in serving a broader set of community members? in the following sections, we examine the diffusion of kiosk use as a technological innovation in the context of the diffusion of innovations framework by rogers (1995, 2003). we examine why kiosk use has failed to diffuse more widely and present recommendations for enabling broader diffusion. we argue that with appropriate strategies to attract new users, it is possible for the kiosks to broaden their user base by reaching out to socially and economically disadvantaged communities. diffusion of kiosks as a technological innovation rogers (1995, 2003) provides a very useful framework for analyzing the observed characteristics of kiosk users in terms of adopter categories: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. he also provides a framework for analyzing the rate of adoption of the innovation within the social system in terms of perceived attributes of innovations (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, observability), type of innovation adoption decision (optional, collective, authority), communication channels (mass media or interpersonal), nature of the social system (its norms, etc.), and the extent of the change agents’ promotion efforts (rogers, 1995, p. 207). roman (2003) suggests a number of reasons why rogers’ theory is particularly well-suited to studying telecenter diffusion: “(1) the predictive potential of diffusion theory makes it useful for telecenter planning and design, (2) diffusion theory provides a fertile incentive to stimulate telecenter research – research that, in a circular way, can contribute to further shape the theory, and (3) diffusion theory is versatile and can be adapted to fit the needs of multidisciplinary inquiry.” as a middle-range theory (merton 1968), it is particularly well suited in guiding and evaluating empirical studies and, thus, should be well suited to conceptualizing findings such as those here. characteristics of the kiosk users as noted earlier, kiosk users constitute only approximately 3-14% of the village population. assuming the traditional s-shaped adopter distribution, with a small number of initial users, a rush to use in the middle, and a small number of laggers, the current kiosk users should probably be categorized as ‘innovators’ and ‘early adopters’ (rogers 1995). rogers (1995, p. 269) notes that earlier adopters usually come from those with relatively higher socio-economic status; they have relatively more years of formal education, are more likely to be literate, and have higher social status than later adopters. the observed socio-economic characteristics of the kiosk users in this study thus closely match these predictions based on theory. the categorization of the kiosk users into adopter categories gives us some clues for facilatitng the use of the kiosks to diffuse more widely among the village population. evidently, the change agents (the sari organization and the kiosk operators) have failed to target effectively the individuals and households in the villages with relatively lower socio-economic status. this suggests a need for targeting communication efforts towards those segments of the population who may be the last to adopt the use of the kiosks. at the same time, the theoretical framework from rogers predicts the results observed under the sari experiment; it is expected that early adopters will have different social and economic standings from the population at large. attributes of the innovation and its extent of adoption roman (2003) describes the three most important factors to be considered in explaining the extent of adoption and the socio-economic impacts of the kiosks: the perceived attributes of the innovation (how the kiosks and their services are perceived by the community), the communication of innovation (how the innovation is communicated within the community), and the consequences of adoption (the socio-economic impacts of the kiosks). in the following sections, we attempt to place the kiosks and their observed socio-economic impacts within this framework. perceived attributes of innovations roman (2003) goes on to describe the three most important perceived attributes of innovations in the context of telecenters: relative advantage which indicates the costs and benefits associated with the adoption of an innovation; compatibility, which indicates the perceived match of the innovation with the value system and social norms of the potential adopters; and complexity, which is the perceived degree of difficulty of the innovations in their understanding and use. relative advantage in the context of the sari kiosks, we think that relative advantage has been a key factor in the use of the kiosk services. the most reliable evidence of this comes from the case of the e-government services, where savings in time, effort, and costs are associated with higher levels of their usage for two e-government services: birth certificates and old age pensions (kumar & best, 2006). we found that the same is true for other services, such as computer education, email, and voice chat. in other words, the costs associated with these services were less, and the benefit accrued greater, than the alternatives (a postal letter, telephone call, and so forth). compatibility the issue of compatibility is closely linked to the existing socio-cultural environment for these communities and may help explain the observed socio-economic profile of the users. we think that one major finding that it helps explain is the relative absence of women users from the kiosks. though the technology itself may be considered to be gender-neutral, how it is perceived and used within the community is clearly associated with the social norms within the community. we find that women in these households often don’t have decision-making power or control over the use of financial resources. generally the kiosks are not thought to be useful to the women, except perhaps in accessing health services. however, the households do allow girl students to come to the kiosks for computer education, which is widely perceived to be useful to them. this indicates the importance of relevant content and services for attracting women users (best & maier, 2006). compatibility is closely linked to the issue of relevant content. researchers have made considerable efforts in assessment of needs and relevant applications for the kiosks in melur (sinan, marcela, & randal, 2001). however, even if the broad areas where relevant content can be provided are known, far greater efforts are required in narrowing these down, and actually developing and delivering them to the communities. one example that repeatedly occurred during this study concerns e-government services. e-government services started well and were delivered relatively successfully through these kiosks for over a year, but then collapsed due to lack of institutionalization, shifting of the initial champions, and resistance from the local government officials (kumar & best, 2006). for instance, when the initial taluk officer and district collector (who had both championed the e-government program) where shifted out of melur these services ended. thus developing and delivering relevant services are keys to the sustainability of the kiosks, but sustaining the services themselves requires ongoing political and institutional support. complexity complexity of the innovation is closely linked to the perception in the community that it is meant only for those who are educated. we found this to be true in many discussions with the users and think it would certainly be true among the non-users. the image of a computer which can only be used with the help of an external operator is one of great complexity. efforts are required to demystify the kiosks, an issue intimately linked to how the innovation is communicated within the community. furthermore, simpler interfaces, applications, and appliances should be developed. communication of innovation communication is the exchange of information through which new ideas are propagated from one individual to others (rogers, 2003). it is the very essence of diffusion of innovations. the two most important ways through which ideas are communicated are through mass media and interpersonal communication. theory suggests that mass media are best for creating awareness about innovations, whereas interpersonal communication is more important for the final decision to adopt (roman, 2003). research also suggests that diffusion is linked to existing social networks (rogers & kincaid, 1981) and that the concept of homophily is very important in the propagation of new ideas (rogers, 2003). homophily refers to similarity in socio-economic status, educational attainments, etc. among individuals. the theory suggests that diffusion is likely to take place more effectively in a social system where individuals are similar in their socio-economic status, educational attainment, beliefs, etc. as the analysis presented earlier shows, kiosks have been used mainly by those who enjoy a comparatively higher socio-economic status (with some exceptions) and is yet to reach the majority of the village population. discussions with the kiosk operators and the sari project officials reveal that a good amount of effort has been put towards creating awareness about the kiosks, both through mass media and through interpersonal communication by the kiosk operators. then, why have they not succeeded in having a wider reach? we think it is important to consider this question in the socio-cultural context of rural communities in india and how this affects diffusion. there is considerable residential segregation by community (caste) in the villages, often cutting across income levels. individuals belonging to the same caste also enjoy a high degree of homophily in their socio-economic status and social value systems. this is where the crucial role of the local leaders kiosk operator or other influential opinion makers in promoting adoption and use comes in. we found sufficient evidence to suggest that the kiosk operator played a crucial role in promoting adoption and use of the kiosks. however, wider diffusion of the kiosks among communities having a comparatively lower socio-economic status requires local champions from within those communities, not just the kiosk operator who seems to be able to influence mainly those from his or her own community. absence of local champions from within the communities belonging to comparatively lower socio-economic status appears to be one of the main reasons for lack of diffusion of the use of the kiosks among them. we also found two additional factors that are important in the diffusion of kiosks. we found that the location of the facility influenced whether scheduled caste community members used them. the question of locating the kiosks closer to the sc habitations thus becomes very important in attracting more sc users. we found evidence of this in the success of two kiosks (keelaiyur and kidaripatti) in attracting the sc users; these kiosks are located close to the sc habitations. the second important factor in the diffusion of the kiosks is affordability. discussions with users reveal that this is an important aspect in their use of the kiosks, even when they are aware of the services and its benefits. the usage of the kiosks so far seems to be driven by its relative advantage: savings in time, costs, and efforts when compared to traditional modes of accessing the same services. however, affordability of the kiosk services in absolute terms is perceived to be an important factor by the users and is likely to be crucial in the extent of their ultimate diffusion. consequences of adoption researchers have noted that it is difficult to theorize the consequences of adoption of innovations because it is prone to be led by value judgments (roman, 2003). rogers (2003) points out that diffusion is likely to widen the existing socio-economic inequalities within a social system. empirical research on telecenters supports this finding (blattman, jensen, & roman, 2003; holmes, 2001; hudson, 2002). our finding in this study that the kiosks are being used mainly by those enjoying a higher socio-economic status is in line with the knowledge gap hypothesis (tichenor, 1970). however, this should be interpreted with caution due to the problematic nature of diffusion of innovations in the context of the complex socio-economic and cultural realities in rural india. in other words, it is not a simple cause and effect relationship with the ‘gap’ in knowledge and adoption, but it is intricately woven into the historical social and cultural relationships among communities in rural areas, e.g., social and psychological barriers in access to facilities and affordability, and compatibility with existing socio-cultural value systems (for example, in diffusion among women, as noted earlier). conclusion we have studied the social diffusion of internet kiosk use among people residing in several rural indian villages. this study includes an evaluation of five villages in melur district, tamil nadu, india, that were a part of the sustainable access in rural india (sari) project. our principal empirical project has been to study the users of these facilities within the five villages and to compare their demographic makeup (age, caste, gender, etc.) to the village populations as a whole. we find that in a number of cases the demographic makeup of the kiosk users is statistically different from the makeup of the village overall. thus, while we find that roughly 5% of the population in the villages studied has used the kiosk, this 5% was clearly not selected “at random” from the village population as a whole; some selection biases drove kiosk use. in particular, we find these diffusion biases along dimensions of gender (more males than females), age (users are usually younger than 30), caste (scheduled caste members are less likely to use the facilities save in those villages where the facility is located in an sc area), religion (muslims and christians are under-represented as users in some villages), educational attainment (with few illiterate users), and income (users are richer as measured by standard surrogate indicators). rogers’ theory of diffusion of innovation offers an explanatory framework for the diffusion biases we have measured. indeed, the theory is well suited for this sort of empirical testing and (perhaps) falsification (roman 2003). in particular, in earlier work we demonstrated that diffusion of the use of e-government services was best explained through the perceived relative advantage (kumar & best, 2006) of the service. our findings here, however, seem best explained by the notion of perceived compatibility and complexity of the innovation as well as how the innovation has been communicated and shared within the communities. in particular, we posit that the lack of female participation (for instance) can be explained due to a lack of perceived compatibility between the innovation and the overall context for women in these villages. similarly, the lack of scheduled caste users in some villages can be explained both as a matter of social incompatibility as well as weak communication channels that exist between higher caste operators situated in upper caste hamlets and scheduled caste communities. finally, we argue that the presence of generally more educated users can be explained with rogers’ notion of complexity – where the perception amongst village members is that this innovation is highly complex and difficult to adopt and thus only appropriate to people with higher levels of education. as argued above, this theoretical framework not only can help explain our empirical results but should be able to help inform the planning and design of telecenter interventions going forward. our findings, that complexity, compatibility, and communication can inform the diffusion among a broad set of users (in addition to the relative advantage studied elsewhere) should be instructive in future design. in particular it suggests that attention be paid to developing transparent and well-designed applications (and, indeed appliances) in order to mitigate perceptions of complexity. furthermore, it indicates that local context and social compatibility can be paramount. content and systems need to address these issues directly (for instance by placing the system within a context compatible with women’s adoption). finally, we find that communication of the innovation, especially as performed by the kiosk operator, can be particularly critical to biasing the diffusion of the innovation. for example, if the operator excludes marketing to members of the scheduled castes this can easily discourage their use. as the research for this study was conducted in mid-2003, we again conducted field research during july 2005 to validate the findings of this study. we found that of the 77 kiosks that were established in the region by june 2004, 29 of the 35 kiosks run by self-employed entrepreneurs had closed down. at the same time, 42 kiosks being run by the ngo were still operating (best & kumar, in preparation). the main reasons behind the closure of the kiosks being run by self-employed entrepreneurs were lack of long-term financial viability and lack of adequate operational and technical support by n-logue, the internet service provider and organization responsible for coordinating with other entities for delivery of services. the lack of long-term financial viability was mainly due to the inability of the kiosks to diffuse widely within their communities and attract more users. as pointed out in this study, the kiosks continued to attract users mainly from the relatively higher socio-economic strata within their communities and failed to upgrade their content to make it more relevant to a wider section of the village population. on the other hand, the kiosks being run by the ngo received financial subsidies for them to remain viable and also introduced more and better services to attract more users. these findings confirm the main conclusions of this study and underscore the importance of making the kiosks diffuse more widely among their communities for long-term economic and social sustainability. references best, m.l. & maier, s. (2006). gender and ict use in rural south india. gender technology and development, in review. best, m.l. & kumar, r. (in preparation). sustainability failure of rural telecenters: case of sustainable access in rural india project. blattman, c., jensen, r., & roman, r. (2003). assessing the need and potential of community networking for development in rural india. the information society, 19(5), 349-365. etta, f. e., & wamahiu, s. p. (2003). introduction: joining the information society, chapter 1. in f. e. etta & s. p. wamahiu (eds.), information and communication technologies for development in africa: volume 2 the experience with community telecentres. ottawa: codesria/idrc. fuchs, r. p. (1998). introduction. in r. p. fuchs (ed.), little engines that did, case histories from the global telecenter movement: futureworks, inc. gerster, r., & zimmerman, s. (2003). information and communication technologies (icts) and poverty reduction in sub sharan africa: a learning study (synthesis). building digital opportunities program. harris, r. w. (1999). evaluating telecentres within national policies for icts in developing countries. québec, canada: international development research centre (idrc). holmes, v. (2001). the internet, inequality and exclusion in peru: the social impact of the cabinas públicas. london: university of london. hudson, b. h. (2002). private sector provision of internet access in rural india. cambridge: massachusetts institute of technology. johnson, k. (2003). telecenters and the gender dimension: an examination of how engendered telecenters are diffused in africa. washington dc: georgetown university. kumar, r., & best, m. l. (2006). impact and sustainability of e-government services in developing countries: lessons learned from tamil nadu, india. the information society, 22(1), 1-12. merton, r.k. (1968). social theory and social structure. new york: free press. proenza, f. j. (2001). telecenter sustainability: myths and opportunities. the journal of development communication, 12(2), 94-109. rogers, e. m. (1995). diffusion of innovations (4th ed.). new york: free press. rogers, e. m. (2003). diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). new york: free press. rogers, e. m., & kincaid, d. l. (1981). communication networks: toward a new paradigm for research. new york: free press. roman, r. (2003). diffusion of innovation as theoretical framework for telecenters. information technologies and international development, 1(2), 53-66. sinan, a., marcela, e., & randal, n. (2001). assessing network applications for economic development. retrieved december, 2005, from http://edev.media.mit.edu/sari/papers/pae.ksg.pdf tichenor, p. j., donohue, g. a., & olien, c. n. (1970). mass media flow and differential growth in knowledge. public opinion quarterly, 34 (2), 159-170. ulrich, p. (2004). poverty reduction through access to information and communication technologies in rural areas: an analysis of the survey1 results from the social impact assessment conducted by the chinese ministry of science & technology and the united nations development program: with recommendations on issues of future sustainability and household participation. electronic journal of information systems in developing countries, 16(7), 1-38. young, j., ridley, g., & ridley, j. (2001). a preliminary evaluation of online access centres: promoting micro e-business activity in small, isolated communities. the electronic journal on information systems in developing countries, 4(1), 1-17. appendix table 1: ulagapitchampatti village characteristic sample size sample mean/ proportion 95% confidence interval village population mean+ demography: lower limit upper limit average age of users 35 25.9 20.7 31.1 proportion of users < 30 yrs. 35 65.7% 49.4% 82.0% 68.0%+++ proportion of male users 35 68.6% 52.6% 84.5% 50.5%++ proportion of sc/sta users 35 2.9% -2.9% 8.6% 23.6% proportion of minorities (muslims, christians) 35 5.7% -2.3% 13.7% 2.8% proportion of illiterate users 35 14.3% 2.3% 26.3% 29.0%++ proportion of illiterate heads of user households 34 17.6% 4.3% 30.9% 29.0%++ income and assets: proportion of user household income <=rs. 1000 33 78.8% 64.3% 93.3% proportion of 2-wheeler owners 30 46.7% 28.0% 65.3% 18.44% proportion of telephone ownership 30 3.3% -3.4% 10.0% 3.21% proportion of radio/transistor ownership 30 46.7% 28.0% 65.3% 60.52% proportion of b&w tv ownership 30 63.3% 45.3% 81.3% 51.10% proportion of color tv ownership 30 10.0% -1.2% 21.2% 14.23% proportion of cable tv ownership 30 3.3% -3.4% 10.0% 22.24% proportion of users owning house 35 77.1% 62.7% 91.6% 90.58% proportion of users owning thatched house 35 22.9% 8.4% 37.3% 26.65% proportion of users not having electrified house 34 32.4% 16.0% 48.7% 30.9% + source: household survey, 2003 conducted by sari for the entire population of the hamlet ++ source: census of india, 2001 for thiruvadavur +++ based on figures for madurai district for 1991 census a sc/st means scheduled castes and schedules tribes. they are traditionally the most socially and economically disadvantaged communities in these villages. table 2: thiruvadavur village characteristic sample size sample mean/ proportion 95% confidence interval village population mean demography: lower limit upper limit average age of users 28 16.29 14.3 18.3 proportion of users < 30 yrs. 28 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 68.0%+++ proportion of male users 28 75.0% 58.2% 91.8% 50.5%+ proportion of sc/st users 26 7.7% -3.1% 18.5% 18.6%+ proportion of minorities (muslims, christians) 28 7.1% -2.8% 17.1% 2.8%++ proportion of illiterate users 28 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 29.0%+ proportion of illiterate heads of user households 27 3.7% -3.8% 11.2% 29.0%+ income and assets: proportion of user household income <=rs. 1000 26 15.4% 0.8% 30.0% proportion of 2-wheeler owners 21 42.9% 20.3% 65.4% 18.44%++ proportion of telephone ownership 21 9.5% -3.8% 22.9% 3.21%++ proportion of radio/transistor ownership 21 66.7% 45.2% 88.1% 60.52%++ proportion of b&w tv ownership 21 47.6% 24.9% 70.4% 51.10%++ proportion of color tv ownership 21 42.9% 20.3% 65.4% 14.23%++ proportion of cable tv ownership 21 47.6% 24.9% 70.4% 22.24%++ proportion of users owning house 28 78.6% 62.7% 94.5% 90.58%++ proportion of users owning thatched house 28 3.6% -3.6% 10.8% 26.65%++ proportion of users not having electrified house 28 7.1% -2.8% 17.1% 30.9%++ + source: census, 2001 for thiruvadavur ++source: sari household survey, 2003 for ulagapitchampatti +++based on figures for madurai district for 1991 census table 3: keelaiyur village characteristic sample size sample mean/ proportion 95% confidence interval village population mean* demography: lower limit upper limit average age of users 20 20.25 17.3 23.2 proportion of users < 30 yrs. 20 90.0% 76.0% 104.0% 68.0%+++ proportion of male users 20 80.0% 61.3% 98.7% 50.3%++ proportion of sc/st users 20 65.0% 42.7% 87.3% 25.1% proportion of minorities (muslims, christians) 20 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.05% proportion of illiterate users 20 5.0% -5.2% 15.2% 28.4%++ proportion of illiterate heads of user households 19 21.1% 1.4% 40.7% 28.4%++ income and assets: proportion of user household income <=rs. 1000 18 22.2% 1.5% 42.9% proportion of 2-wheeler owners 13 53.8% 23.7% 84.0% 38.9% proportion of telephone ownership 13 38.5% 9.1% 67.9% 14.6% proportion of radio/transistor ownership 13 84.6% 62.8% 106.4% 77.1% proportion of b&w tv ownership 13 46.2% 16.0% 76.3% 69.8% proportion of color tv ownership 13 38.5% 9.1% 67.9% 27.5% proportion of cable tv ownership 13 53.8% 23.7% 84.0% 57.4% proportion of users owning house 20 95.0% 84.8% 105.2% 96.4% proportion of users owning thatched house 20 5.0% -5.2% 15.2% 11.1% proportion of users not having electrified house 17 17.6% -2.0% 37.2% 11.4% + source: sari household survey 2003 based on a population survey of 500 households conducted by sari ++ source: census, 2001 +++ based on figures for madurai district for 1991 census table 4: thaniyamangalam village characteristic sample size sample mean/ proportion 95% confidence interval village population mean+ demography: lower limit upper limit average age of users 29 16.1 13.9 18.3 proportion of users < 30 yrs. 29 96.6% 89.6% 103.5% 68.0%+++ proportion of male users 29 65.5% 47.4% 83.6% 46.9%++ proportion of sc/st users 29 10.3% 18.9% 42.0% 47.3% proportion of minorities (muslims, christians) 29 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% proportion of illiterate users 29 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 24.2%++ proportion of illiterate heads of user households 28 3.6% -3.6% 10.8% 24.2%++ income and assets: proportion of user household income <=rs. 1000 27 33.3% 14.7% 52.0% proportion of 2-wheeler owners 26 23.1% 6.1% 40.1% 15.8% proportion of telephone ownership 26 42.3% 22.4% 62.3% 3.3% proportion of radio/transistor ownership 26 80.8% 64.9% 96.7% 44.2% proportion of b&w tv ownership 26 19.2% 3.3% 35.1% 36.9% proportion of color tv ownership 26 69.2% 50.6% 87.9% 21.8% proportion of cable tv ownership 26 61.5% 41.9% 81.2% 24.4% proportion of users owning house 29 96.6% 89.6% 103.5% 96.2% proportion of users owning thatched house 29 6.9% -2.7% 16.5% 31.8% proportion of users not having electrified house 24 4.2% -4.3% 12.6% 46.7% +source: sari household survey 2003 based on a population survey of 500 households conducted by sari ++ source: census, 2001 +++ based on figures for madurai district for 1991 census table 5: kidaripatti village characteristic sample size sample mean/ proportion 95% confidence interval village population mean+ demography: lower limit upper limit average age of users 20 15.1 11.8 18.3 proportion of users < 30 yrs. 20 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 68.0%+++ proportion of male users 20 90.0% 76.0% 104.0% 52.7%++ proportion of sc/st users 18 61.1% 36.9% 85.4% 21.4% proportion of minorities (muslims, christians) 20 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 19.2% proportion of illiterate users 20 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 39.1%++ proportion of illiterate heads of user households 17 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 39.1%++ income and assets: proportion of user household income <=rs. 1000 20 20.0% 1.3% 38.7% proportion of 2-wheeler owners 18 50.0% 25.1% 74.9% 10.6% proportion of telephone ownership 18 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 1.8% proportion of radio/transistor ownership 18 38.9% 14.6% 63.1% 61.6% proportion of b&w tv ownership 18 22.2% 1.5% 42.9% 47.4% proportion of color tv ownership 18 38.9% 14.6% 63.1% 23.0% proportion of cable tv ownership 18 38.9% 14.6% 63.1% 42.0% proportion of users owning house 20 85.0% 68.3% 101.7% 95.6% proportion of users owning thatched house 20 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 24.2% proportion of users not having electrified house 15 6.7% -7.1% 20.5% 58.8% + source: sari household survey 2003 based on a population survey of 500 households conducted by sari ++ source: census, 2001 +++ based on figures for madurai district for 1991 census table 6: all five villages combined characteristic sample size sample mean/ proportion 95% confidence interval village population mean+ demography: lower limit upper limit average age of users 132 19.2 14.0 24.4 proportion of users < 30 yrs. 132 88.6% 83.2% 94.2% 68.0%+++ proportion of male users 132 74.2% 66.7% 81.8% 50.2%++ proportion of sc/st users 128 23.4% 16.0% 30.8% 28.4% proportion of minorities (muslims, christians) 128 3.0% 0.1% 6.0% 6.7% proportion of illiterate users 132 4.5% 1.0% 8.1% 30.3%++ proportion of illiterate heads of user households 132 9.6% 4.4% 14.8% 30.3%++ income and assets: proportion of user household income <=rs. 1000 124 37.9% 29.3% 46.5% proportion of 2-wheeler owners 108 41.7% 32.3% 51.1% 21.0% proportion of telephone ownership 108 17.6% 10.3% 24.9% 5.8% proportion of radio/transistor ownership 108 62.0% 52.8% 71.3% 61.2% proportion of b&w tv ownership 108 40.7% 31.4% 50.1% 51.6% proportion of color tv ownership 108 38.9% 29.6% 48.2% 21.6% proportion of cable tv ownership 108 38.0% 28.7% 47.2% 36.8% proportion of users owning house 132 85.6% 79.6% 91.7% 94.6% proportion of users owning thatched house 132 9.1% 4.1% 14.0% 23.3% proportion of users not having electrified house 118 15.3% 8.75 21.8% 45.9% + source: sari household survey 2003 based on a population survey of 500 households conducted by sari ++ source: census, 2001 +++ based on figures for madurai district for 1991 census � . the figures show the estimated 95% confidence interval for each of the demographic characteristic based on a one-sample inference for means and proportions and the corresponding population mean and proportion for that characteristic. a population mean lying outside the 95% confidence interval indicates that the overall village community is significantly different in that characteristic from the population of the kiosk users�. � age with 95% confidence intervals range between 11.8 to 23.2 years. � 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 ulagapitchampatti thiruvadavur keelaiyur thaniyamangalam kidaripatti all five villages village percentage population households 0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 ulagapitchampatti thiruvadavur keelaiyur thaniyamangalam kidaripatti all five villages village % of user respondents 0-9 yrs. 10-19 yrs. 20-29 yrs. >=30 years 0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0 ulagapitchampatti thiruvadavur keelaiyur thaniyamangalam kidaripatti all five villages village % of user respondents male female 0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0 ulagapitchampatti thiruvadavur keelaiyur thaniyamangalam kidaripatti all five villages village % of user respondents hindu muslim christian 0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0 ulagapitchampatti thiruvadavur keelaiyur thaniyamangalam kidaripatti all five villages village % of user-respondents scheduled castes scheduled tribes backward castes most backward castes forward castes 0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 ulagapitchampatti thiruvadavur keelaiyur thaniyamangalam kidaripatti all five villages village % of user respondents < rs. 500 rs. 500-1000 rs.1000-2500 rs.2500-5000 >rs. 5000 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% ulagapitchampatti thiruvadavur keelaiyur thaniyamangalam kidaripatti all five villages village % of user respondents 0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 ulagapitchampatti thiruvadavur keelaiyur thaniyamangalam kidaripatti all five villages village % of user respondents illiterate school college technical diploma professional (engg./medical/law) other 0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0 ulagapitchampatti thiruvadavur keelaiyur thaniyamangalam kidaripatti all five villages village % of user-respondents illiterate school college technical diploma professional (engg./medical/law) other les innovations technologiques : innovations in microfinance technologies gisèle gagnon january 2007 table of contents 1.0 introduction ....................................................................... ............................................... 2 2.0 reasons for introducing technology .............................. ..................................... 2 3.0 goals for introducing technology ................................ ....................................... 3 4.0background of the mali experience ............................................................ ............ 4 5.0 targeted sites and clienteles .................................................. ................................. 5 6.0 business strategy linked to technology ................................. ............................ 6 7.0 choice of technology ......................................................................................... ........... 7 8.0amio operating mode ........................................................................................... ............. 8 9.0 typical amio implementation model ........................................................... ............. 10 10.0testing and deployment strategy .................................................................... ..... 10 11.0 personnel involved, training and coaching ............................................... ...... 11 12.0 cost and investment ................................................................. .................................. 12 13.0 impact and benefits ............................................................................ ......................... 14 14.0 lessons learned ........................................................................................................... 16 15.0 conclusion ........................................................................................................ .............. 16 list of figures figure 1 example of the nyèsigiso network structure........................ ................4 figure 2 amio work flow process........................................................................... ........9 list of tables table 1 change: 3 years after computerization....................................... ................3 table 2 computerization modes...................................................................................... ..8 table 3 amio implementation phases............................................................................. 10 table 4 cost comparison of different strategies................................................13 page i starting with a look at what is happening in mali… a day almost like any other … mamadou djiré is in charge of the djicoroni para outlet in bamako, mali. he is opening up the financial coop because several members will be arriving to withdraw funds from their current accounts or make deposits to cover loan payments. mamadou takes out the cash drawer from the strongbox opens up his teller window and turns on the pocket computer with its amio teller (application mobile d’information sur les opérations) software package. he enters his user name and password and the system shows him several menus. he checks the system date. the date is right. he checks his opening balance; the amount is right. he is ready to start the day’s work. the first client wants to make a withdrawal. mamadou consults the member’s account on the pocket computer and compares it with the member’s passbook. he updates the passbook by recording an automatic payment made on his loan yesterday, an operation that has not yet been entered in the passbook. he enters the transaction on the pocket computer which confirms that the funds are sufficient. mamadou explains to the member that his handheld computer has all the information on account balances and transactions. the member is surprised that such a tiny computer can hold so much data. he also sees that the counter is now clear of paper documents. there are no more savings deposit slips, or journals to record transactions. he is able to take pride in his financial cooperative that can now offer modernized technical services to its members, although it has only limited means at its disposal. fatoumata kanakomo, a loan officer at the same outlet, is in her office waiting for a member who is applying for a loan. she checks the applicant’s accounts on her handheld computer using the amio credit application that contains the complete profile, savings deposits and loans of all those in her loan portfolio. she sees that her applicant is up to date in making payments on his current loan. when interviewing the member, she uses the handheld to calculate future loan repayment schedules. a little later she leaves the outlet to go out to meet with a group of women applying for a loan. with her handheld she calculates repayment scenarios for the loan along with the loan balances and remaining payments. the members are pleasantly surprised to have such a well-equipped loan officer at their service. fatoumata also uses amio credit to fill out her regular reports and to check the status of her portfolio in general for monthly loans made and to break out any categories of late payments. it is so easy to use, she wonders how she ever got along without it in the past. page 1 1.0 introduction today, throughout the developing world, over 80% of the population still does not have access to financial services. yet this access is not a privilege. it is a necessity for all. in order to make basic financial services available to all and to provide coaching to clients as their needs grow, financial institutions need to diversify their approach. opening the right door at the right time is what développement international desjardins has been doing for the last 35 years by working in the field of community-based finance. développement international desjardins (did) is a canadian organization that specializes in providing technical support and investment in the field of community finance for developing and emerging nations. did is currently providing support to community financial institutions in twenty countries in africa, latin america, the caribbean, asia and eastern and central europe. did’s partners as a whole provide financial services to over 3.2 million people, employ nearly 6,150, have deposits worth can $860 million and hold assets worth over can $1.1 billion. through its various types of intervention, did strives to empower the disadvantaged by encouraging control over community-owned and oriented financial institutions. the expertise of did’s 100 employees is called on to set up base institutions, network them, introduce new financial products, turn around crisis situations, modernize operations, design supervision strategies, draw up legislation governing savings and credit cooperatives and train various actors working in the community financial scene. did is a subsidiary of the desjardins group, the largest financial cooperative in canada. this document describes the process undertaken in mali (between september 2003 and december 2005) to introduce mobile banking technologies using handheld computers. it identifies the basic elements used to develop and introduce the system into an expanding microfinance institution striving to reach members in remote rural areas. the impact and benefits are also mentioned in order to provide a portrait of the advantages that technological innovation can offer an organization. more than a test trial, this was a business solution that was well integrated into the growth of the microfinance institution (mfi) since computerization of the operations had become crucial for the development of mfis in search of new outreach methods. aspects of computerization using the banking software will not be addressed in detail but computerization does constitute a prerequisite for introducing mobile technologies. this document will focus on handheld technologies along with the opportunities and challenges associated with their introduction into microfinance institution networks. 2.0 reasons for introducing technology before addressing the subject of project execution, it is useful to recall the reasons behind microfinance network modernization. technology is designed to:  automate operations, the basis of the services delivered to members. technology increases the number of transactions with the knowledge that transaction tools and systems accelerate operations, and improve the quality of operations by reducing errors that are time-consuming to seek out and correct.  reach urban and rural clients more extensively, while maintaining service quality and avoiding costly infrastructure investment. page 2  stand out from the competition and modernize the network image, offering a safe, agreeable environment attracting new members, who are reassured by the technology used to manage their assets.  quickly obtain all information required for management, to gauge performance and make proper, timely decisions. technology assists in obtaining better knowledge of the clientele and their needs, of sites and their productivity, products and their popularity, all the data vital for the survival of an organization. the added value provided by banking software is obvious when the right conditions are present. any project launched by an mfi must include the required human and material resources to handle the deployment of the new technologies after technical assistance comes to an end. based on a before and after study of implementation, it is possible to estimate certain indicators measuring business growth and cost reductions over a three year time frame per employee. these include the following. table 1 change: 3 years after computerization efficiency gains year 1 year 3 change average number of members per employee 559 747 34% average assets per employee 49,636,310 88,496,162 78% number of transactions per employee (annual) 8,412 9,557 14% number of loans made per loan officer 457 627 37% loan portfolio per loan officer 105,334,918 178,923,341 70% portfolio at risk (par) 90 days(end of period) 0.70% 0.32% -54% the bottom line is that technology increases productivity, while reducing errors and portfolio risk. 3.0 goals for introducing technology specific goals were set for the introduction of mobile technologies, so that the effort invested would produce a significant impact on the population. these goals were to:  increase member access to coop products and services by bringing products and services closer to the poor in remote villages. loan officers in 11 mother coops (about 40 employees) were equipped with mobile technologies. the reconfiguration of base coops and the creation of small-scale outlets and mobile operators offered obvious opportunities since these efforts reached a clientele that was often excluded from computerization projects due to the low volume of operations. this low level of activity however is often linked to the organizational isolation of the service outlet despite the fact that it is located in a zone with a high concentration of those requesting adapted services.  increase operational and financial site effectiveness, in the base financial cooperatives, the mother coops and the outlets. the project is designed to equip 25 outlets in the new structure with mobile technologies.  increase management and decision-making skills, by equipping coop and union personnel and directors for decision making. this involves making information available quickly either directly or on printouts.  work within the existing infrastructure, if banking software had already been successfully implemented at some sites, mobile technologies would have to meet a specific need and fit in with the strategic directions taken. page 3 outlet mother coopmother coopmother coopmother coopmother coop nyèsigiso union mother coop mother coop mother coop mother coop mother coop mother coop outlet outlet outlet outlet mobile outlet outlet outlet  use technologies that would be easy to introduce and manage over time. the complexity of modern networks calls for critically important technical expertise that is often lacking in developing nations. the time required to prepare operators to run the system for daily operations can be long and costly. partner autonomy after technical assistance comes to an end is also a major concern since mobile technologies are new and not extensively used by financial institutions. there were obviously major challenges facing the project over its 27 month implementation period. 4.0 background of the mali experience the nyèsigiso network in mali is composed of savings and credit cooperatives in a two-tier set up that includes a central union and 11 mother coops (with 25 associated outlets) along with a specialized service for a business clientele. the geographic range of the network, with two urban centers (bamako and ségou) and several entities in rural zones, is representative of other mfi networks in west africa. the following figures offer a glance at the size of its operations:  number of members: 125,000  number of borrowers: 24,000  volume of deposits: us $10 million  volume of loans: us $11 million  total assets: us $15million in 2004, the network undertook a vast reconfiguration project that gradually reduced the number of its units from 48 base coops down to only 11 mother coops and about 25 local or mobile outlets. these institutional and organizational changes were needed for integrated financial management of the financial coop network and for improved performance while still providing proactive competitive and specialized services through strong business units. figure 1 example of the nyèsigiso network structure page 4 amio a mobile application for information on operations (application mobile d’information sur les opérations (amio) was developed at did to run on handheld computers. the teller version enables transactions on member deposit accounts and the credit version provides data on loans in a loan officer’s portfolio. data comes from an saf database periodically synchronized with the handheld. saf2000 saf2000 is a banking software package running under windows, which uses a client-server architecture. it has several modules corresponding to the various needs of a financial institution. this system facilitates data integration from manual systems and easily adapts to the various phases of mfi expansion. with support from did and usaid, the nyèsigiso network enjoyed two years of collaboration from canadian advisors to develop and test mobile technologies needed to complement the computer systems already in place. computerization of the coops had begun in 2002 with the introduction of the saf banking software and the establishment of data processing centers. with support provided by did, the locally based computerization team developed expertise in converting manual operations into computerized operations. the low cost technologies to promote economic development of the poorest project was built on this foundation. there were many factors that explain the success of this project and some of the most important were:  a management team that was mobilized to place priority on the computerization project and assign the resources needed for its success.  the interest in computerization exhibited by the staff in the mother coops and the outlets, especially for modernizing their job tasks.  the dynamic outlook of the directors who understood the doors that computerization would open for all their members, even the poorest and most remote. these factors contributed greatly to facilitating the introduction of crucial change that was unprecedented for its innovative character and potential impact. it should be added that the nyèsigiso reconfiguration environment included coop closings and amalgamations, staff cutbacks and readjusted products and services that could have had an adverse affect on project success. however, nyèsigiso adapted to the changing circumstances while maintaining its goal of delivering stable systems and making a significant contribution to network expansion. 5.0 targeted sites and clienteles mobile technologies were delivered to two distinct groups of workers:  tellers whose main tasks are to handle member operations at the financial cooperative or in the field. these workers were given handhelds running amio teller.  loan officers who approve loans and manage a loan portfolio either inside the financial cooperative or out in the field. they use handhelds running amio credit. for optimum handheld use and impact on operations, the sites selected for implementation of amio teller had to fit specific criteria:  at least 50 transactions per day so that the volume of operation justifies the cost of handheld acquisition and processing expenses.  no more than two tellers. more than two tellers presupposes a rather large volume of operations and the computerization option should be to use a desktop with the required peripherals. page 5  convert saf database operations so that data can be regularly loaded into amio teller. it should be noted that in june 2004, most nyèsigiso sites that were computerized used a processing center and this meant that there were no computers on site in the coop. coops sent data daily to the union’s data processing center where it was entered in off-line batch mode into the saf database which then produced management reports for coop managers. the coops continued to run client-member transactions manually. loan officers received handhelds running amio credit according to the following criteria:  loan officers should have at least 100 loans in their portfolio so that the handheld offers added value to the task of granting and recovering loans.  loan portfolios are managed using saf banking software at sites that have converted their operations into processing centers (same prerequisite for amio teller). these few implementation criteria made it possible to target sites and ensure an environment that would quickly lead to tangible benefits. since mobile technologies do have significant acquisition and implementation costs, an increase in membership and volume of borrowers was required. sites were also selected for financial health, viability and development potential. 6.0 business strategy linked to technology during the reconfiguration process that involved uprooting and reorganizing many financial cooperatives along with opening up larger scale mother coops, nyèsigiso linked computerization using mobile technology to its modernization plan. more specifically, taking advantage of the innovations introduced by handheld computers and the visibility they offered, specific business orientations were defined as follows:  equip the small-scale outlets in various communities with handhelds and amio teller so that poor populations in these areas could benefit from technology within their community and place of work. at the same time, members with greater wealth were targeted since there is greater confidence in a computerized outlet even if computerization only involves a small handheld computer.  convert some of the base coops into mobile outlets in order to continue to deliver services to regions while cutting costs. this approach involves sending out a teller with a handheld and cash drawer, one or two days per week into a village (usually on market day) in order to provide transaction services. the teller is often accompanied by a loan officer. no longer is there a need for a brick and mortar facility with a permanent staff for populations to receive service right in their own milieu.  reduce administrative costs charged to members since the costs linked to handheld equipment and implementation are lower in relation to desktops that require air conditioning and stable electric power.  save time through the greater efficiency of handheld operations and use the time recovered to raise awareness among communities for mfi products and services and recruiting new members.  accelerate the amalgamation process of base coops (into mother coops and small-scale outlets) by using mobile technologies as incentives to lead directors into making the organizational decisions required (such as accepting amalgamation with another financial cooperative). computerization and handheld use are designed only for sites converted into mother coops, small-scale outlets or mobile outlets. page 6 7.0 choice of technology one of the most important phases in the project was to select the hardware platform for amio software development. this involved identifying the most promising technologies used in the handheld sector as well as those that are the most available in west africa. ideally, hardware should be purchased from local suppliers in order to ensure supply, service and maintenance of the equipment. a study completed in early 2004 showed that there was a variety of choice for handhelds. there are two major types of handhelds, one running the palm operating system (os) and the other, the windows mobile operating system. handhelds running the palm os are known as palmpilots by the original equipment manufacturer. handhelds running windows are known as pocketpcs. the main criteria guiding the final choice were:  ruggedness: the device must withstand heat, dust and shock since it will be used by newly trained staff in remote areas in the field.  powerful processing and storage capacity in order to support applications for simple banking transactions and consulting large databases.  ergonomics: user-friendly for staff not accustomed to computer use is a criteria that most handhelds fulfill.  power autonomy: integrated rechargeable power source. handhelds are used in remote areas where power is not always available. handhelds running on integrated power sources are more economical for use than those requiring battery changes. handhelds with integrated power sources are recharged when placed in their cradle.  operating system: applications developed will be used to communicate off-line with applications in a windows 2000 environment and an sql database server (saf). pocket pc (windows mobile) technology was selected using hp ipaq units which are widely available and easily provided by local suppliers. most criteria were met and prices were comparable between palm pilot and pocket pc models even in west africa. the development method for amio teller and amio credit followed a typical process which led to the following main achievements:  a preliminary analysis to identify the context, tools, user needs, risks and constraints.  a functional analysis detailing all operations and interrelations. all special features of the saf banking system were taken into account as were program parameters since the software would be the data source for pocket pc applications.  system and user tests performed in the field with future operators. page 7 8.0 amio operating mode to facilitate understanding the following table illustrates how the various tools are implemented: table 2 computerization modes processing site it milieu processing center: this has desktop computers running the saf application and databases for one or several outlets. the processing center is located at the union or in a mother coop. it processes the operations from various outlets, mobile outlets and certain base coops. server and one or two computers and printer mother coop: it has computers for its own activities (counter, accounting) and runs saf in autonomous mode. it has different databases for its activities and for each computerized outlet. it acts as a processing center and performs data entry for transactions made in its outlets. server and one or several computers and printers mother coop (loan officer): loan officers use a pocket pc running amio credit to manage their loan portfolios. they update information by periodically synchronizing data with the database at their processing center (mother coop or outlet). 1 pocket pc per loan officer outlet: a small scale operation situated in a neighborhood providing teller operations to members. these local outlets are equipped with one or two pocket pcs running amio teller that are synchronized daily with the processing center. a mobile outlet uses the same procedures but is not located at a specific address. 1 or 2 pocket pcs the following figure shows the interrelations established among the various systems and explains the process surrounding amio teller operations and pocket pc data synchronization: page 8 c m c m date entry op. figure 2 amio work flow process step 1: during a day of operations, transactions are recorded at the counter by each teller (odd and even) step 2: at the end of the day, memory cards are collected from the pocket pcs and sent to the processing center step 3: at the processing center the memory cards are uploaded into the saf db. the saf day is closed and the cards reset (time required: several minutes) step 4: at the outlet, amio teller is updated on each pocket pc and a new day of operations is readied. the various functionalities included in amio applications are as follows: amio teller: performance of various teller operations which are then uploaded to saf at the end of the day:  management of daily cash: view balance, transfers to strongbox, cash deficit or surplus  transactions with members: view balances and movements in all accounts, deposits, withdrawals, debit and credit notes  accounting transactions: inflows and outflows of funds  memory card uploads: daily operations are saved on memory cards for subsequent synchronization with processing center database  security management: modification of passwords  configuration management: modification of some parameters amio credit: consultation of the savings deposits and the loans of borrowers assigned to a specific loan officer. no transactions allowed on accounts.  consultation of savings accounts: consultation of balances and movements in the savings accounts  consultation of loans: verification of movements in loan accounts, overdue payments, reimbursement schedules  simulated reimbursement schedules: input variables and see amortization tables  display various lists and reports: list of assigned borrowers, outstanding loans, overdue loans, loan portfolio overview, % overdue in number and volume of credit  management of security: modification of password page 9 9.0 typical amio implementation model introducing pocket pcs and amio applications requires a review of usual strategies since the ease and facility of use mean that the implementation process is greatly reduced and user support simplified. by excluding program development activities requiring weeks of work, the following are the main phases for amio implementation according to each category of personnel and taking into account whether or not the site already uses an saf database: table 3 amio implementation phases activities 1) preparation of hardware and configuration of the application for the site and for each employee 2) configuration of the saf database at the processing center 2) employee training on pocket pcs 3) employee training on amio teller or credit functionalities 4) startup of operations with members and on-site support the ease of implementation and preparation along with the rapid pace of assimilation by users constitute very interesting benefits in comparison to the usual complexity associated with desktop systems and the difficulties linked to training with conventional software packages. 10.0testing and deployment strategy due to the novelty of mobile technologies in west africa and the uncertainty over acceptance by members and operators the amio teller system was tested in a pilot project where certain conditions were present, namely:  employees who were dynamic (counter and teller supervisor, processing center operators) able to handle a series of adjustments and uncertainties  directors who were dynamic and members able to accept temporary disruption of operations  representative character of the site, namely an outlet with a number of daily transactions enabling system performance testing. in the case of the djicoroni para financial cooperative, the number of daily transactions over the counter in direct contact with members was 70 per day (for the 2 tellers).  close proximity with the union data processing team (less than 3 km away) to facilitate rapid intervention and help. the computer systems team was experienced and had good technical knowledge. the 3-month pilot project allowed verification of the hypotheses involving system architecture, its capacity and the performance and ruggedness of the pocket pc units. in addition, the receptiveness of members and their comments contributed to success as did conversations with the employees involved who performed transactions using the pocket pcs and amio teller. a pilot project was also organized for amio credit, with 3 loan officers at three different sites which permitted assessment of the programs and a new pocket pc model that had just been released by hp (ipaq 2410). we have observed that models change so frequently that it is necessary to retest for performance and stability before deployment. in the case of the amio page 10 credit pilot project, the activities were easy considering that the experience acquired with the amio teller pilot project was more complex in terms of functionality. after being reassured about system and unit capacity, the expected impact and benefits, as well as the simplicity of introduction and the receptivity of operators, the project team decided to undertake deployment and a calendar was established taking into account the conditions for implementation already established (see section 5). in the nyèsigiso environment, the strategic orientations offered a suitable field of operation and the amalgamation of the coops and restructuring led to the creation of mother coops and mobile outlets. the deployment goal was to fully computerize a group of coops (mother coop and its outlets) and ensure a technician to provide user support and system administration. this strategy was made necessary due to the remoteness of certain sites and the importance of making them technologically self-sufficient. all support activities also had to be possible at a distance when a skilled employee was on site and linked to the information technologies (it) team in the capital. using pocket pc technologies, this approach is all the more critical for remote sites since for the moment it is impossible to call on the services of local independent technicians (external suppliers) to provide emergency services for systems that are too new and not widespread. in addition, the tests involved the transfer of skills to the local technical team. in this case technicians were trained to install amio software, configure pocket pc units and provide user support services. this aspect was covered during deployment at the second site since the pilot project was specifically focused on assessing the hardware and software and the training strategy for operators. the ease of introduction was observed and the local it team quickly became proficient with the installation methodology and configuration. 11.0 personnel involved, training and coaching the personnel associated with the development project and the introduction of new technologies are a major concern due to the instability that the test could create among the members and staff. the expertise and effort required also led to various adjustments in the project team which involved the following collaboration:  managers in the nyèsigiso network approved activities and made staff available for the work. an it committee periodically reviewed the work and did all possible to facilitate project team efforts. a communication plan was set up to inform the overall staff and directors on progress with these new technologies, a first in west africa.  the staff at the pilot sites participated in assessing the needs and the functionalities and the pre-implementation tests. these employees also actively participated in the pilot project to identify technical problems, support the work organization review and collaborated in evaluating this real world experiment.  the local it team was involved very directly in order to influence the developments that needed to be adapted to the technical environment already set up. moreover, as they were already the champions of these technologies and attention was riveted on them, a recruiting effort made it possible to add additional complementary staff planned in the it project. it should be noted that the local it team did not develop applications (this was done at did) but did install and configure them and provide operator support. the training delivered was supported with material produced specifically for each tool and the simplified design, like the pocket pc and its programs, facilitated knowledge transfer. a specific half-day session was planned to demystify pocket pc use, managing power, backup batteries, use of the stylus, data security and the unit itself. another half-day was devoted to the amio programs (teller or credit according to the staff involved) their functionalities, saving data and periodic synchronization. page 11 one of the particularities of these systems is that the operator does not need to be familiar with office productivity tools (such as a windows interface and navigation, etc) to be able to use a pocket pc. navigation using a stylus and menus is so natural that even illiterate operators who have mastered numbers and simple calculations can run the system. this constitutes a major advantage in relation to computerization using a desktop that requires much more complex operations. each amio teller implementation was followed by a period of coaching for each teller in their daily tasks over several days. here again, the simplicity of the tool greatly reduced the interventions required and the tellers quickly become fully autonomous. moreover, at each daily visit to the processing center to synchronize data with the saf db, operators could obtain support from the data input operators if problems appeared. the amio credit application mainly offers screen shots of data and coaching was even easier. loan officers quickly became autonomous and a personalized follow up was given each when requested. they met together after a month’s use to review the content of their loan portfolios and check if all the functionalities were being properly used. 12.0 cost and investment in order to assess the impact of introducing pocket pc technologies and their benefits, they had to be measured in relation to the costs involved in the effort. an analysis on one small-scale site implementation can be done using two scenarios: computerization in autonomous mode using a desktop and saf software for teller and accounting operations or computerization using amio teller. we do not take into account development costs that have been subsidized but we do take into account the cost of all materials, software and staff. page 12 table 4 cost comparison of different strategies cost generating items single saf desktop environment (3 employees) two pocketpc amio teller environment 3 employees $usd $usd a) desktop computer 2,200.00 0 b) power inverter 350.00 0 c) laser printer 900.00 0 d) saf license 1,400.00 0 e) air conditioner 950.00 0 f) power generator 5,800.00 subtotal 11,600.00 0 g) renovations 1,000.00 0 h) pocketpc and peripherals 0 2,000.00 i) pc used at processing center for database management 2,300.00 j) saf and office training 230.00 30.00 85.00 k) hardware preparation and installation 85.00 30.00 l) post-implementation user support 300.00 60.00 grand total 13,300.00 4,420.00 additional explanations to the chart (the equipment costs were those in west africa of hardware ordered from europe by a local supplier): a) a single computer is shared by employees for member operations, accounting and managing deposits and loans. b) a power inverter is required to protect the computer against power variations and outages. c) minimum requirement is a laser printer for printing reports. d) saf licenses are required per operator site. other basic licenses (windows and ms office) are included with the computer. e) air conditioning is required during hot seasons in west africa in order to protect the computer. f) according to the context and to ensure constant operation in times of power outages, a power generator is required. g) outlets are generally renovated at the same time as they are computerized. tight doors and windows are required along with a counter that can hold the computer and ergonomic chairs are needed. h) the pocket pc unit includes all accessories including a backup battery and memory cards. the cost is us $1,000 per unit. i) since the amio teller outlet must serve as a processing center to synchronize data, 20% of computer costs were charged to that function (items a to f) since this environment is a prerequisite. one computer at a processing center can service 5 saf databases. j) the daily rate for an external trainer to introduce office productivity software is about us $35. training lasts at least 2 days per person. saf training lasts 3 days and is delivered by the local it team at a rate of us $27 per day for the group. amio training lasts one day and is delivered by the local team to the group. k) knowing that all the sites must be converted to saf for operations (an equal prerequisite) the efforts mentioned here only deal with preparing and installing equipment. this is performed by the local it team and is set at about 3 days for an autonomous saf environment (including ordering and tests) and 1 day for an amio environment. l) after the launch date, operator support is provided by the local it team at a rate of 10 days on site for saf and 2 days on site for amio teller. page 13 this brief analysis allows us to observe that introducing amio teller cost three times less than introducing a desktop system. a computerization program must properly target sites before starting up operations. the analysis of the prerequisites noted in section 5 is also essential for proper decision making. 13.0 impact and benefits since the context of mobile technologies associated with microfinance institutions is a new one, the real impact and benefits observed required several months to be seen after technical and organizational adjustments had been made. the impact and benefits were summarized and expressed in the form of a questionnaire and the answers were supplied by the experience provided by a year of operations. amio teller quality of service  the services in the outlet improved as member accounts were immediately available (no need to search out member cards that had been moved) and balances were up to date and reliable. productivity  end of the day operations were limited to filling out the teller register and filing documents to be sent to the processing center.  monthly closings were limited to audits. there were no items to investigate.  there were no more manual updates required for deposit sheets and loan reimbursement sheets: entry operator errors disappeared, workload decreased as did the time inspectors required to explain errors. does amio teller contribute to projecting a modern image that reassures members and attracts new membership? members surveyed did not all react in the same manner.  the pocket pc is small and hardly visible behind the teller screen. members apparently confused it with a calculator.  if outlets equipped with amio teller were not renovated (small run-down and poorly organized) even equipping them with desktop computers did not project a modern image. when members well understood the role of mobile technologies in their coop they were very proud of the mfi and felt proud of the importance placed on quality of service that was being delivered. does amio teller contribute to reducing wait time for members?  with amio teller, accounting entries still needed to be made: deposit and withdrawal slips and member passbooks needed to be filled out. updating the member savings sheet was replaced by updating the member account in amio teller. most of the time amio teller improved wait times due to the readily available updated information. does amio teller help deliver services to communities that would not have been served otherwise?  amio teller is an interesting solution for mobile outlets. it offers the advantage of no longer having to transport and store savings deposit and loan reimbursement documents and eliminates the need to store and identify monthly reports. in addition, it is light and easy to carry when traveling. page 14  in contexts where security is a manageable challenge and where the cost/benefit advantage is clear, amio may offer an interesting potential for providing efficient support for a mobile operation (for example using a vehicle to travel from village to village).  the reduced cost of this type of implementation keeps transaction costs low thus helping to provide service to low income members. does amio teller produce tangible and measurable benefits?  if one refers to the above table and to the productivity gains mentioned, this could translate into staff reductions. knowing that the staff is already minimal, the staff time recovered could instead be transformed into using those workers for business development activities.  in the same vein, mobile technologies could be responsible for increased membership and more deposits and loans. but this situation is the result of a combination of factors, not just one. the nyèsigiso modernization program, accompanied by the building of new coops and targeted communication efforts to certain populations are contributing factors that are much more important than amio teller. for amio credit, the observations and comments received were used to produce the following table: amio credit quality of service  members indicated that the image of the network improved when loan officers started using pocket pcs and that the officers were better informed and provided more precise answers on loan requests.  in addition to shedding light on the type of intervention required for overdue loans, amio credit reportedly had an indirect impact on the attitude of members who saw it as an indication of professionalism and a serious approach. productivity  immediate access to updated information during recovery activities with members. the information is available at all times. if loan officers during their trips happen to encounter members with overdue loans they are able to produce relevant data on reimbursement status.  autonomy in data collection. without amio, loan officers must request that tellers provide printouts of member statements.  personalized information per loan officer for recovery activities. the loan portfolio of each loan officer is downloaded onto the pocket pc at a frequency set by the loan officer.  access to consolidate updated information allows them to devote only one day to planning recovery efforts as opposed to 5 days previously. the freed up time could be used for loan issuing meetings (a previously neglected activity).  with the information available using amio credit, loan officers devote much less time to producing monthly reports: 1 hour instead of 8.  a tool adapted to the work environment of the loan officers and women facilitators. the portability of amio credit is perfectly adapted to the work environment of loan officers who are out in the field most of the time.. this table highlights the two main impacts produced by amio teller:  the ways of doing things are optimized and efficiency is increased.  responsibility is strengthened and loan officers feel better equipped to do their work in a serious and rigorous manner. page 15 these are highly important impacts in the context in which sound credit management is a major concern that requires rigorous concentration by staff on value added activities. the impact could be measured and translated into benefits similar to those experienced for amio teller. but since the emphasis has moved to more productive activities the effect will only be felt after several months if not after several years of operations using the tool. 14.0 lessons learned based on the multiple activities and the challenges encountered, the project team has drawn up several lessons learned as guidelines for introducing innovative technology into microfinance networks:  since these new technologies necessarily bring major organizational and operational changes for many categories of employees, the organizational climate in the network must be very stable and the local staff must have full mastery of its fundamental roles (tellers, accountants, technicians). the skills of the local human resources are a crucial factor when introducing new systems. in addition, if the staff is too overloaded to assimilate a new system, any positive effects will be slow to appear.  the benefits of technology use in general and mobile technologies in particular are very difficult to assess. it is known that computerizing operations in a savings and credit cooperative makes it possible to reduce the number of those performing manual operations. with technologies such as the pocket pc, labor needs must be analyzed and recommendations made to reassign available resources. if this phase is not undertaken, the network cannot expect to reap the expected rewards.  despite very optimistic goals, it is difficult to reach poor populations in rural areas using technology although a little less so with mobile technologies. when hardware is located in environments far from major centers and in harsh environments (heat, dust, etc…) then support and maintenance efforts outweigh any benefits brought by technology. funds must be made available to introduce a rugged infrastructure in these regions and staff with skilled resources. in mali, in the northern areas (tombouctou, diré) upcoming deployments will demonstrate the feasibility of computerization in remote rural areas.  the duration of a development project and the introduction of innovative technologies must last at least 5 years if the network is to be able to profit from support during all phases of its technological evolution. in the nyèsigiso network in mali, two years have just made it possible to lay sound foundations but several test projects will need to be supported with external technical assistance. it should be noted that there are very few projects using pocket pc type technology and many lessons remain to be learned. 15.0 conclusion the interest shown by microfinance networks in technology is clear and has grown in recent months with the success in mali which was the subject of presentations and demonstrations to mfi partners in countries in the west african subregion. mauritania has now introduced pocket pcs and amio teller into its computer systems with support from did through the team of computer specialists located in dakar, senegal. in latin america where tests were run in 1999 using palm pilots for loan officers, mexico has taken up the idea of amio teller and equipped several sites with pocket pcs. they added a portable printer to issue receipts for each transaction. since did developed the software so that it would be available in french, english and spanish, it was easy to transfer this innovation into other microfinance institutions so that a maximum number of members could enjoy the benefits. page 16 despite the ease of implementation and takeover of control by local teams, new needs and technologies are affecting the systems that have been developed and this calls for constant monitoring of mobile technologies. due to the availability of gsm cellular networks, tools and peripherals that are constantly evolving and being added on a regular basis, and programs that are increasingly sophisticated means that portable technologies represent a constant challenge. if the number of partners developing local expertise continues to increase, and users become ever more proficient, if donor agencies provide support for innovative technological projects, the pool of knowledge will increase and what was a test project will become an effective, fully mastered, low cost system. this will benefit poor populations who will be integrated into their local economy through these tools adapted to their needs and aspirations. in conclusion, the following statements come from individuals directly involved in this successful experiment. abdoulaye diakité, a member of a financial cooperative computerized with amio teller in the nyèsigiso network in mali: “we are going to increase our coop membership for sure! people feel confident and know that their money is safe. when the word gets around, people join the coop and want to keep the institution in their own neighborhood.” cheick oumar tidiani keita, supervisor of the computer services for the nyèsigiso network in mali: “loan officers are now closer to the members. they get out seeing clients in the field carrying all their information on their pocket pc. it is easy to use and my team has to provide very little support. members are very pleased that their loan officers use modern tools.” page 17 list of tables 1.0 introduction 2.0 reasons for introducing technology 3.0 goals for introducing technology 4.0background of the mali experience 5.0 targeted sites and clienteles 6.0 business strategy linked to technology 7.0 choice of technology 8.0amio operating mode 9.0 typical amio implementation model 10.0testing and deployment strategy 11.0 personnel involved, training and coaching 12.0 cost and investment 13.0 impact and benefits 14.0 lessons learned 15.0 conclusion mastering of hypermedia resources by virtual learning communities: possibilities and constraints for interaction, communication and construction of network knowledge 1 mastering of hypermedia resources by virtual learning communities: possibilities and constraints for interaction, communication and construction of network knowledge carla lopes rodrigues projeto reage josé armando valente universidade estadual de campinas abstract: the purpose of this paper is to present the procedures and some of the results from the investigation on the use of hypermedia resources for the construction of network knowledge. these resources, available in a distance learning support environment, are used for the process of interaction and production of knowledge through a virtual learning community (vlc) under formation. this vlc aims at providing a collaborative environment equipped with multimedia resources focused on information, communication and continuing education for community health agents[1], as well as nurses, physicians, teachers and other people who work in public establishments which offer access to information and communication technologies in the city of pedreira in the countryside of são paulo. in this context, collaborative learning situations are shaped where users/learners master procedures, strategies and multimedia resources available and make “products” using audiovisual aids. the “products” are presented, discussed and revised by the group to be later distributed to and shared with the relevant community. based on such activities, it was possible to understand that the use of audiovisual aids in virtual learning environments (i.e., tools which enable different forms of expression and the establishment of the distance communication among people on the web through the joint use of visual and sound components) are able to boost the learning process by overcoming the training constraints typically found in traditional models and thus expanding the range of possibilities for the construction of knowledge. keywords: virtual learning community, digital proficiency, social network, hypermedia interaction, ict 2 introduction this study is part of a doctoral research project currently being conducted. the key rationale is the massive use of information and communication technologies (ict) in nearly all fields of knowledge and in several professional sectors as well as the emerging need to clarify the contribution of their resources to situations where users adopt an active role in the process of discussing, preparing and producing content. there is a particular interest to conduct more thorough investigations on the critical and creative mastering of ict and the impact of ict use on the social and cultural development of the stakeholders. the impact of ict on society has become an extremely relevant topic nowadays. in all sectors of our daily lives, ict has various implications covering the economic, political, cultural and, particularly, social aspects. characteristics associated with work, entertainment, culture, learning and means of network communication undergo constant transformation. the effects of those changes are widely described by researchers in a number of fields of knowledge. in the social arena, for example, de kerckhove (1999), castells (2000, 2001), mattelart (2002), lemos (2002, 2004), levy (2000), and rheingold (2004) stress their effects on society. in the communication field, salaverria (2005), wolton (2000), orihuela (2002), scolari (2008), piscitelli (2005), to name a few. cognitive aspects have been investigated by assmann (2000), who describes unprecedented transformations where “human learners may become part of cognitive ecologies” (p.27). in those cognitive ecologies, the knowledge starts to be arranged according to what pierre lévy (1998) referred to as collective intelligence. barbero (2003), on the other hand, makes an analysis of politics and culture that broadens the view as to how the “medios ciudadanos” (citizen media) foster the network communication providing new social and political visibility to the communities that use those citizen media. we therefore believe that a user who reaches a certain critical degree of mastering of computer skills may become the producer and distributor of content. according to deuze (2008), such content may range from sending an instant messaging communication to the production and posting of materials in blogs, videoblogs, mobileblogs, podcasts and other means that allow people to gather in communities, post stories and debate topics, and even original content may be produced. in this regard, more than being merely logged in, people may be generating an increasing amount of knowledge from mutual collaboration. this social aspect found in virtual learning communities is also highlighted by rodríguez illera (2007). to this author, learning “has a highly contextualized nature and is regarded as the result of a collective situation rather than as a merely individual or personal product” (p.117). we may therefore say that hypermedia resources pave the way for the development of an active audience who is able to interpret and interact with the information presented in various ways and transform it so as to suit their own needs as well as the requirements of the group to which they belong. there are many types of roles that can be played by users when they interact in a virtual learning community using this sort of resources. should they adopt the role of prosumers (toffler, 1980) – producers and consumers concurrently – such active users might contribute with different types of content and at different levels on the network. they may create their own content and take part in the expansion, selection, distribution, edition and/or modification of the content produced by other 3 users. thus, in addition to producing and consuming materials, they also develop different interactive activities with these and other participants in the virtual community. as regards to the communication-related aspects, digital technologies in particular ict-based technologies enable the integration of different forms of communication used by society. those which result from interpersonal communication and those arising out of mass media can coexist in tandem. in addition to these, there are also the hypermedia, which are specifically developed on the internet and that, supported by multimedia resources and hypertextual structures, generate other communication flows which foster network communication (multidirectional). according to castells (2000), the potential integration of texts, images and sounds in a single platform which allows for multiple interactions at any moment (real-time or not) via an openly accessible global network fundamentally changes the nature of communication. for lópez garcia (2005), the ways to communicate on the web get fully developed and integrated into an ecosystem that is highly hybridized. therefore, a large number of “cognitive human agents may interact in a single process of construction of knowledge” (assmann, 2000, (p. 14)). the author claims that icts unlock the cognitive potential of the human being and enable “complex cognitive and collaborative mixings”. “this means that the information and communication technologies are converted into a constituting element (and even an instituting one) of our ways of looking at and organizing the world … what is really new and unprecedented about the information and communication technologies is the cognitive partnership they are beginning to form in the relationship that the learner establishes with them.” (assmann, 2000, p.15).[2] as regards this study in particular, which prioritizes the participants’ involvement to boost learning[3], the theoretical perspectives which guide the investigations particularly adopt vigotski’s (2001) socio-cultural orientation. these theoretical perspectives were chosen because they indicate and acknowledge the importance of interaction for the knowledge construction process. another concept involved is the lifetime learning through continuing education. according to valente (2004), learning takes place throughout the process of continuous education where stakeholders can learn as a group, collaboratively, reflecting over their own experiences and expanding them by adding new information. thus we defend the idea that encouraging people in the process of digital inclusion to use ict should be linked to the availability of and access to the resources as well as to a methodological proposal for learning the technologies which would comprise the specificities and peculiarities both of the users and the reality in which they operate. we believe that ict use can be learned in actual and concrete applications of the resources available for the development of projects and/or products, individually or in groups, based on the learners’ interest (valente, 2001). we can therefore assert that icts, especially hypermedia communication tools, hold the potential of fostering the establishment of bonds between people who, albeit being physically and geographically distant, share the same interests and/or objectives. in addition to electronic mail, discussion forums and chat rooms, other communication and social mediation technologies are created every day. these include social networks which are established in virtual environments, online game platforms, blogs, photologs, videoblogs. they are regarded as elements of temporal, special and mental organization that can configure, modify and classify the types of relationships set up among the stakeholders and they carry aesthetic, social and political possibilities. among 4 them, virtual learning environments, which are specifically used to promote distance learning through the web, can be used to combine, in a single framework, tools which provide the participants with a means to communicate and express themselves via audio and video aids, as well as text-based communication. these environments are especially developed for information and the continuing education of the stakeholders, devised to foster collaboration among participants and favor the interaction and construction of knowledge through the use of specific tools and robust multimedia interactive resources. although icts are present in nearly all fields of knowledge and in many professional sectors, there is still a predominant reductionist interpretation of the contribution of their resources to informal learning situations and of the impact of such use on the social and cultural development of ordinary people. concerning contexts related to digital inclusion, that is, to non-formal learning situations intended to foster the mastering of icts by digitally-excluded people, most solutions prioritize the access of these people to the technology. in our understanding, the discussion of processes related to the democratization of icts should consider that access to icts does not ensure that they are meaningful, let alone proficiency with or effective use of the resources available (rodriguez, 2006). the efforts made for the development of strategies especially focused on the mastering of ict by digitally-excluded communities include the training of their members in the effective use of those resources, in the sense employed by gurstein (2003), so that icts can help individuals accomplish their personal objectives and those of the group they belong to. therefore, it is expected that the use of audiovisual aids in virtual learning environments can boost the learning process by overcoming the constraints typical of the traditional models and expanding the possibilities of interaction and construction of knowledge. these audiovisual aids are tools which enable different forms of expression and the establishment of distance communication among people through the web, by means of the joint use of visual aids (signs, images, drawings, graphs, etc.) and audio aids (voice, music, noise, onomatopoeic effects, etc.). therefore, this study aims at understanding the possibilities and constraints of hypermedia resources, which enable the exchange of information, communication and collaborative distance learning, favoring interaction, different forms of expression, content production and the construction of knowledge among the participants of a virtual learning community. this virtual community is referred to as re@ge – rede virtual de agentes (virtual network of agents)[4] and has been set up to function as a collaborative site equipped with multimedia resources oriented to information, continuing and distance education for (digitally-excluded) community health agents, physicians, community leaders, teachers and other individuals associated with current digital/social inclusion projects in sites that provide public access to icts in the city of pedreira – são paulo (brazil). this paper aims to contribute to the joint construction of knowledge and strategies which may provide support to other conceptual approaches for the use of hypermedia resources in virtual learning contexts. methodology the methodology used was based on the research-action process, since the study intended to investigate and document a real-life situation where a group of people performed guided actions in order to foster the mastering of audiovisual aids for the development of multimedia content and the 5 establishment of a virtual learning community. in this type of investigation, the researcher is not an observer of the reality under investigation but rather an active participant in the process, where he is involved with all participants in a collaborative and participative manner (thiollent, 1996). the data collection tools used were semi-structured interviews (triviños, 1987), participative observation (andré, 1995) and field logs (neto, 1994). these tools allow for the monitoring and the recording of information throughout the entire process. audio and video recording activities were also used to complement the impressions recorded in the field log. initially, in order to understand and draw the profile of the group involved, a script was prepared to serve as a guideline for the interview. it included questions on how members of the group actually used icts in their personal and professional lives; the way they believed they learned how to use those resources; the degree of proficiency in the use of computers and the web; and the experience they acquired during the development of the group activities. these data were collected, analyzed and used to develop activities for face-to-face and remote meetings held on a weekly basis for a period of 6 months. in a second stage, an interpretative analysis of the content was conducted, with content being appropriately categorized. high volumes of data were broken into smaller units to be later regrouped into categories whose new associations led to standards, topics and concepts (bradley, 1993). we chose to work with the data gathered, ranging from the raw data to the data resulting from the analysis, interpretation and synthesis. overall, we conducted a preliminary analysis where the data collected were ordered and the most significant elements found were properly identified. this process provided us with a global view of the data. afterwards, based on interpretation, the analysis categories were outlined and the meaningful units and the inter-relationships established among them were identified. part of the activities was developed using information technology resources in a virtual learning environment. the system automatically recorded these actions using devices specifically developed for this purpose. the possibility of recording these actions was an important resource employed to assess the evolution of the hypermedia interaction established among the participants of the virtual community. a future plan is to use the chic (cohesive hierarchical implicative classification) software to support the analysis of this large amount of data so that the categories identified will be then subjected to a multidimensional statistical method, which displays the emerging patterns in “similarity trees”, according to their classes and levels (prado, 2002), so that the relationship between those emerging patters can be analyzed. development in this topic, we will present the activities developed in the field during the first stage of the research. the context will be briefly described, highlighting the infrastructure, equipment and resources used, the population of the study as well as the procedures adopted to conduct the investigation. we then provide the details about the strategies applied for the establishment of the virtual network, describing the network from its inception up to its actual consolidation through the hypermedia interactions experienced by the early participants of re@ge. context of stage 1 this stage lasted 6 months and the face-to-face activities were carried out in one of the public sites that provided access to ict located in the city of pedreira, in the countryside of the state of são paulo (brazil), called the vila monte alegre telecenter (gesac[5]). 6 infrastructure, equipment and resources the telecenter was chosen as the headquarters for the project because it provided the appropriate infrastructure for the implementation of part of the planned activities. there was also a room with 10 computers with a broadband internet connection, and other multimedia technologies such as datashow, a tv set and a dvd player. in order to provide broadband internet access to users of the vila monte alegre telecenter and other public sites, the city of pedreira has cutting-edge technology through infovia[6] and wireless network, as shown in figure 1. figure 1: illustration of the connection network that uses fiber optics and radio in the city of pedreira with such an infrastructure, pedreira is brought up to the level of a “digital city”[7], that is to say, the city equipment enables the connection of different sectors to computer resources and provides broadband access to the population. nevertheless, a city is regarded as “digital” not simply because of the existing technological infrastructure to provide ict access to all citizens, but as well these resources have to be actually used by people so that the community as a whole can be consolidated and emancipated. in addition to the technological infrastructure available at the vila monte alegre telecenter, the laboratory of the preventive medicine department of the medical school and lipacs[8] lab, installed at the department of multimedia, media and communication of the institute of arts, both located at the state university of campinas (unicamp), in campinas – sp, were also used to conduct hands-on virtual activities in this research stage. from the virtual perspective, re@ge was implemented based on the hypermedia resources available in the tidia-ae/sakai[9] environment of lipacs, with a limited number of participants, to conduct the studies required to define an environment and a methodology that could meet the 7 specific needs of the participants and of the activities developed in the virtual community that was being constructed. at that point, re@ge also relied on a digital inclusion channel called “vila na rede”[10], an inclusive social network developed as part of the project e-cidadania[11] (e-citizenship). this was the collaborative and hypermedia environment where some users who participated in the digital inclusion actions developed at the telecenter virtually met with other network members. relevant population in addition to the researchers involved, a group of 15 community health agents, one nurse, one physical educator involved in the programa saúde da família (family health program psf)[12] in the city of pedreira, and 2 help desk agents involved in on-going digital inclusion projects at the vila monte alegre telecenter took part in this first stage of implementation of the virtual community pilot initiative. so that re@ge could be truly referred to as a “learning virtual network”, it had other project partners, such as a group of physicians and students from the preventive medicine department of the medical sciences school of the state university of campinas (fcm-unicamp), a physician from são paulo hospital and a group of professors and graduate students from the department of multimedia, media and communication of ia-unicamp. these partners joined the network informally, interacting with the group to discuss relevant topics and to allow proficiency in multimedia techniques. thus, in a truly interactive system, it was expected that re@ge would contribute and receive contributions through joint hypermedia actions and the involvement of all stakeholders. geographically speaking, in addition to vila monte alegre, the following neighborhoods of pedreira were involved: jd. andrade, jd. marajoara and jd. triunfo. so as to better understand the composition of this initial group, we divided participants into two teams: 1. group of agents: composed of the 15 community health agents, one nurse, one physical educator and 2 telecenter help desk agents. 2. group of virtual partners: composed of 2 physicians who participate in the network, students and teachers from the multimedia field. the two groups interacted with the investigators throughout this stage. the group of agents (group 1) participated in face-to-face and remote activities and the group of virtual partners (group 2) took part only in the remote activities. procedures re@ge was gradually implemented with the purpose of optimizing the resources available and respecting the limited time available for participants to master these resources. at the same time, financial investments were made to complement the available infrastructure. scientific resources were directed to provide the technical and educational skills required to train the groups involved so that the implementation of the network could begin. the following procedures were specifically adopted: 1 complementing the existing infrastructure: as a complement to the existing technological resources of vila monte alegre telecenter and in order to better equip the user groups who participated in the project, the following items were purchased and made available: 8  equipment and consumables (webcam, microphone, headphones and loudspeakers), which were properly installed and configured to be used at the telecenter;  equipment (digital camera, mp5 player) required activities to be conducted by users, such as collection and recording of audiovisual materials in the “field”. 2. technical and educational aspects the following technical and educational activities were conducted with the participants:  meeting to discuss and adapt the distance learning environment tidia-ae/sakai to accommodate a virtual learning community (re@ge) under formation;  definition of specific resources (wikis, blogs, forum...) and of the procedures to be followed in the use of these communication resources and in the collaborative construction of the content to be addressed;  testing of specific hypermedia resources to be used in the “multimedia forum” available in the tidia-ae/sakai environment;  definition of the criteria, procedures and standards for the use of available resources. 3. training of stakeholders face-to-face training activities with the group of agents (group 1) were often held during the whole process and took place concurrently with the activities on the network, which involved the two groups. for 6 months, during the first stage of the research, 20 face-to-face meetings were held at the vila monte alegre telecenter, once a week, with a 1,5-hour duration each, as shown in figure 2. figure 2: group of community health agents in a face-to-face workshop at vila monte alegre telecenter – pedreira – sp (brazil) the virtual meetings were previously scheduled and relied on the synchronous and asynchronous tools available at re@ge and on the support of skype[13] for voice-based communication. here is a summary of the activities that were developed:  face-to-face workshops for digital literacy of the group of community health agents and nurses – full digital inclusion – planning, execution and evaluation according to the characteristics and needs of each individual;  remote workshops to train virtual partners in the use of tools that were available in the environment;  face-to-face workshops on the use of the audiovisual aids available; 9  face-to-face and remote workshops to define, discuss and prepare multimedia content according to the interests of the participants;  free access to computer resources with the support of telecenter help desk agents. 4. creation of the framework to provide support to re@ge for the implementation of the pilot virtual community, a distance learning environment was created and organized so as to provide the required support for a high level of interaction among the participants of the virtual community which was about to be set up. as initially planned, support was found in the resources available in the tidia-ae/sakai environment implemented on the lipacs server. at first, two participants who worked as telecenter help desk agents registered on re@ge. they represented the groups involved in the digital inclusion activities. the idea was that these groups would interact with the re@ge virtual community. those participants helped determine the arrangements required for this environment to accommodate the pilot virtual community. this arrangement established two face-to-face meetings in which it was discussed how the environment tools and spaces for interaction could be arranged. already in the first meeting, it was found that the tidia-ae/sakai environment offered the required elements for the establishment of a virtual learning environment because it enabled the interactive spaces to be organized as pages on a website. it was therefore established that, in order to better cater for the needs of the relevant target audience, tools would be organized in “pages” according to the role they played in the interaction. it was also decided that each “page” would use an action verb to represent the activity to be performed. in the second meeting, the re@ge website was created and set up inside the virtual learning environment to host the virtual community that was being formed. synchronous and asynchronous tools required for participant interaction were also chosen and grouped on different pages. each page was then identified with an action verb which represents the possible actions to be conducted there. figure 3 shows the interface created on the re@ge website, as well as the pages displaying the set of tools available for the network. figure 3: interface of the tidia-ae/sakai environment installed on lipacs server: details of the re@ge website – virtual network of agents http://www.lipacs.iar.unicamp.br:8080/portal http://www.lipacs.iar.unicamp.br:8080/portal 10 considering the fact that the structural arrangement of the software was flexible, we were able to group, in each page, the tools required for the interaction among the participants and these participants along with the constructed content. the environment was then “shaped” as a virtual learning community, that is, to foster the consolidation of the network as a hypermedia site for sharing ideas and constructing knowledge. table 1 below shows all the pages created and the corresponding sets of tools defined for each type of planned action. table 1: pages and tools available at the re@ge website in the tidia-ae/sakai environment action (page) tools type of use note iniciar (start) notice, calendar and online status overview of what is currently going on at re@ge; follow-up on the activities recorded in the calendar log; identification of online participants; reading of notices. enable users to receive notices and follow up on the project schedule/agenda. participantes (participants) list of individuals registered on re@ge website information on the profile of participants. each participant can post his/her own information, add a photo and inform his/her email address. fazer (do) schedule schedule face-toface and virtual meetings and make activities available. face-to-face and virtual meetings are scheduled for specific dates. the schedule is accessible to everyone on the start page. 11 conversar (chat) chat, messages, notices synchronous interaction (chat) and asynchronous interaction (messages and notices) bate-papo (chat) allows several chat rooms to be created. all participants can take part in the chats. in messages and notices, it is possible to create opportunities for debate over different topics in an asynchronous manner, that is, it does not require simultaneously online availability of all users. colaborar (collaborate) multimedia forum, wiki, blog and glossary asynchronous interaction both individually and collaboratively in the multimedia forum, a number of different topics are debated using different types of posting systems (text, audio, photo and video). in wiki, the content is jointly constructed by all participants. blog offers the possibility of individually posting and communicating any content. the other participants may comment using the posts. a glossary presents a list of terms which are is developed throughout the project. editar (edit) images (external link to picnik) meet the needs which are not satisfied using the tools available in the environment. in this case, we will use picnick to edit the photos. other resources will be available in the future. 12 guardar (save) folders (individual) repository: re@ge resources in individual folders, each participant can save and share their files. in re@ge repository, various types of content are available for general use. a participant can only save, edit, delete files of his/her own folder. in the public repository, materials for general use are posted by participants registered as “maintain”. divulgar (sharing) external links to: vila na rede, the brazilian ministry of health, acs mobilização, acessa são paulo, livro clip. podcasts and presentations. information and news available and accessible through different channels, such as: sites, podcast, blog and slide presentations for the re@ge project, information sharing focuses on pages related to health and education. the vila na rede digital inclusion channel is also listed. informações (information) informative content about re@ge and the list of participants access/change re@ge information; access/change list of participants when accessing as “maintain”, it is possible to set up the layout and the tools. the learner is limited to viewing the information. ajuda (help) sakai help answers to toolrelated questions help is in english. the environment was initially used by previously registered help desk agents of telecenters as a repository of activities under development. later, other network participants created their own accounts. figure 4 illustrates part of the list of active network participants. 13 figure 4: part of the list of re@ge website participants on tidia-ae/sakai-lipacs after participants registered on re@ge, the purpose of each face-to-face meeting was to encourage them to master the audiovisual aids available so that the group could use them critically and creatively. all skills practiced by the participants at the telecenter were later applied in “field” activities and the results were discussed in virtual meetings. the cronograma (schedule) tool, as shown in figure 5, helped registered agents to schedule and monitor activities. figure 5: schedule of re@ge activities on tidia-ae/sakai-lipacs for “field’ activities, referred to as “daily life logs”, the tools included a digital camera and an mp5 player, acquired[14] and put to use in order to capture audio, video, and photos by project participants, who took turns using the equipment. they recorded their own actions performed in the work environment, conducted interviews with the families served by the public health system, documented the activities of other members of the family healthcare program team in the primary healthcare units. the material gathered was taken to the telecenter to be discussed, adapted and posted on the virtual network. 14 hypermedia interactions the content discussed and prepared collaboratively on the network is related to education and health promotion. the topics chosen, such as teenage pregnancy, high blood pressure and diabetes, senior citizen care, among others, come from the direct contact of the group with the community, either during “field” activities and/or from the interaction via “vila na rede” network. collected in different formats, namely audio, video, photo and text, this content became “social and educational” multimedia materials, such as folders, web audio, documentaries, digital booklets, newspapers, games, etc. which were later shared with the community through several interactive channels according to the access choices available. here are two scenarios that show examples of these actions: action 1 re@ge orient@ and action 2 multimedia forum. 1. action re@ge orient@ it was decided that the first action of re@ge would be to raise the awareness of the community about the services provided by the family healthcare program. this need was reported in contacts established by the group with the families that used healthcare services and it was also described by other professionals who worked at the primary healthcare units, since it was realized that the population was not aware of the services provided by the family healthcare program team. as a consequence of this lack of information, unnecessary services were provided, unrealistic work routines were adopted, leading to work overload and, consequently, user dissatisfaction. for the virtual interaction, chat and wiki communication and collaboration tools were used. figure 6 shows a chat section with the participants discussing the first “re@ge action”. figure 6 : section of the chat involving re@ge” participants among the typical aspects of a chat, the chat tool available at re@ge allowed registered users to access the entire conversation held in a specific time period. this resource enabled users who did not participate in the session to retrieve the messages and even take part in the dialog by adding their own comments. therefore, a continuous dynamic of message exchanges turned the chat tool into a synchronous and asynchronous discussion forum. the group started editing the content in a collaborative manner with the purpose of meeting the need that were originally identified, using the material collected during the “daily life logs” activity and the discussions held on the virtual network. they received personal assistance in using wiki resources and to write texts. the collaborative document that was created turned out to be more than a mere compilation of what each participant regarded as important for the development of the topic. debates were often held over the content and the photos submitted. each comment posted by other participants was carefully assessed and 15 the final version was posted only after everybody’s approval. figure 7 presents the wiki document with the content as text and photos, showing the collaborative construction of the family healthcare program profile in the city of pedreira. figure 7: interface of the wiki tool on re@ge – collaborative construction of text and photos – profile of the family healthcare program team this interaction resulted in the printed “re@ge orient@” newsletter, shown in figure 8, which was jointly created by the participants based on a collection of images, texts and group discussions. figure 8: initial page of the printed newsletter re@ge orient@ 16 at first it was established that the newsletter would be in printed format so that it could reach the other people in the community (families who participated in the family healthcare program and people who used the primary healthcare unit services) that did not have access to other media. after we funds to print these materials are obtained, they will be distributed in primary healthcare units and in public agencies in the municipality. its content will be later revisited and posted virtually on “vila na rede” the digital inclusion channel, in order to benefit not only telecenter users but also other audiences who visit the network on the web. 2. multimedia forum action this virtual community of agents was planned to be set up to provide for a number of different forms of expression, in addition to text and image (photo) with the purpose of observing the peculiarities of each participant and of the group as a whole. in this first stage, in order to address these aspects, participants relied on the asynchronous features of the multimedia forum on re@ge website, as shown in figure 9. figure 9: tests performed using the multimedia forum tool re@ge website – tidia-ae-sakai the tool meets the expectations related to the possibility of offering asynchronous audio and video interactions. the topic>reply dynamics can be typically observed in the discussion forums in other distance learning environments. nevertheless, it is innovative because it offers the possibility of recording/listening to audio and/or video messages in the tool using its own peripherals: microphone/headphones and the webcam. for the relevant target audience, these features add high value because they offer the possibility of establishing digital communication using voice and image, not only text. a face-to-face group meeting was scheduled to use the multimedia forum resources, as shown in figure 10. 17 figure 10: re@ge participants using multimedia forum resources one of the physicians, who is a virtual network partner, prepared a brief presentation on how he could remotely assist in the development of the activities conducted on re@ge. the proposal of an asynchronous meeting involving the other participants also was intended to enhance the sense of “belonging” to the network and to link the audiovisual presentation to the contribution made by each individual for the virtual construction of the environment. most presentations were prepared in a video format using a webcam, while some participants relied exclusively on audio resources using the microphone. speaking in front of the camera to an unknown audience was much more difficult than any other technological hurdle! they would rehearse out loud what they intended to say (one of the participants even drafted a small text) and recorded it over and over again until they were happy with the result. figure 11 shows different actions performed by the participants. figure 11: re@ge participants at the multimedia forum use of photos, audio and video final considerations overall, this paper shows the contribution of hypermedia resources to situations in which users start to actively participate in the process of discussion, preparation and production of content. thus, it focuses on the analysis of situations which involved the use of such resources in a digital 18 inclusion context to discuss the methodological strategies that helped users master ict skills in a critical and creative manner. as well, it identified interactions, various forms of expression, production, communication and sharing of the content produced on the network and as a network. in this regard, we realized that the available resources can favor digital inclusion because they offer participants the possibility of overcoming the difficulty of expressing themselves through written texts, thus allowing their experiences to be reported, discussed and shared on the network. it is also possible to identify actions and interests that arise from the participants’ interactions and exchanges, and to establish means and solutions to make these activities possible. in other words, it allows the possibility of “giving voice” and “listening” to participants instead of imposing activities which have been previously defined. not only these, but also other strategies that favor “giving voice” and boosting the learning ability through the use of several types of media, add high value to the teaching/learning process. the use of hypermedia resources in this digital inclusion context also comprises the discussion and understanding of the processes associated with ict democratization. allowing this group to master these resources means a qualitative leap towards the actual possibilities of them being part of the computer network. another innovative aspect is the possibility of encouraging the creative mastery of resources so as to acquire, select, and organize information and manage knowledge. ultimately, it allows an active participation in the network society, favoring the establishing of a social network of information and communication with other peers and with experts from different fields, and allows them to keep exchanging ideas even after the “training” or other specific actions of continuing education are completed. finally, the resources which are made available enable the creation of content by the participants of the virtual community of learning, once they master different ict skills to generate information in the form of photos, videos and even texts which are available in a number of different media. this content is used in different contexts and is significantly relevant from the educational, communicational and social perspectives. the current stage of research provides evidence that the methods and the types of approach adopted have been useful both to qualify and to boost the self-esteem of the stakeholders. based on such experience, participants can correct mistakes, define the type of action and feel sufficiently proficient to understand and develop multimedia materials that contribute to the improvement of team work, to the promotion of health and education and, as a result, to the quality of life of the community. therefore we believe that the pilot experience realized by re@ge could be applied in other areas such as culture, education, and leisure, and could be rolled out to include other municipalities. in the future, based on the strategies and methods which have been consolidated, other actions can be deployed and developed to further expand the hypermedia construction of the network knowledge. the second stage of this initiative will have the current participants who are the early participants of re@ge expand the network so as to reach other users of sites which provide public access to icts, according to the needs and interests which will surface out of these future contacts. 19 references andré, m. e. d. 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(2007). conferência: como as comunidades virtuais de prática e de aprendizagem podem transformar a nossa concepção de educação. sísifo. revista de ciências da educação, lisboa, n. 3, mai / ago 07, p. 117-124. retrieved february 26, 2010 from http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt/pdfs/sisifo03ptconf.pdf salaverria, r. (2005). redaccion periodistica em internet. eunsa (ed.). pamplona. scolari, c. (2008) hipermediaciones: elementos para uma teoria de a comunicación interactiva. gedisa (ed.). barcelona. thiollent, m. (1996) metodologia da pesquisa–ação (7ª edição). cortez (ed.). são paulo-sp toffler, a. (1980). a terceira onda. record (ed.). rio de janeiro-rj. triviños, a.n.s. (1987). introdução à pesquisa em ciências sociais: a pesquisa qualitativa em educação. atlas (ed.). são paulo-sp. valente, j. a. (2004) criando ambientes de aprendizagem via rede telemática: experiências na formação de professores para o uso da informática na educação. em j. a. valente. (org.). formação de educadores para o uso da informática na escola. (pp. 1-19). unicamp/nied (ed.). campinas. sp. valente, j.a. (2001). aprendizagem continuada ao longo da vida: o exemplo da terceira idade. em v. kachar. (org.). longevidade: um novo desafio para a educação. (pp. 27-44). cortez (ed.). são paulo-sp. vigotski, l.s. (2001). a construção do pensamento e da linguagem. tradução de: paulo bezerra. martins fontes (ed.). são paulo-sp. wolton, d. (2000). internet. y después? gedisa (ed.). barcelona. [1] in brazil, a community health agent is a lay health care worker who is not certified to practice medicine or nursing, but has the primary task of gathering information on the health status of a small community by means of a close relationship with it. [2] original text: “isto significa que as tecnologias da informação e da comunicação se transformaram em elemento constituinte (e até instituinte) das nossas formas de ver e organizar o mundo... o que há de novo e inédito com as tecnologias da informação e da comunicação é a parceria cognitiva que elas estão começando a exercer na relação que o aprendente estabelece com elas.” (assmann, 2000, p.15). [3] in this context, “learning” refers to the characteristics of non-formal education, that is, it is part of the daily lives of the stakeholders and takes place through actions that reach beyond the traditional educational models. [4] http://reagindo.ning.com [5] the gesac program (gesac stands for “electronic government – federal government citizen service”) was created to provide internet access and other digital inclusion-related services to the communities deprived of access and services connected to the world wide web. http://www.idbrasil.gov.br/ http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt/pdfs/sisifo03ptconf.pdf http://reagindo.ning.com/ http://www.idbrasil.gov.br/ 21 [6] infovia – larcom project – unicamp (state university of campinas) [7] “the portal guia das cidades digitais (guide to digital cities) launches the first census of brazilian digital cities with the purpose of mapping the status of the brazilian municipalities as regards digital city initiatives. in other words, it is intended to determine how many, which, what they are like and what is the location of the municipalities which have programs that use ict resources to establish a digital environment to boost public management, entrepreneurship and economic development as well as the quality of the services provided to the population.”http://www.guiadascidadesdigitais.com.br. accessed on february 15, 2010. [8] the mission of lipacs (multidisciplinary laboratory of action-research for healthy communities) is to provide support to the development of research projects and studies on how icts can contribute to the learning process and what is the impact of these technologies on society. therefore, as part of the tidia-ae project, the purpose of lipacs is to devise tools that allow distance education actions to be targeted at nonacademic communities, especially in digital inclusion-related contexts. http://www.lipacs.iar.unicamp.br [9] the purpose of the tidia-ae project is to specify, design and implement a detailed set of tools that provide support to the collaborative construction of knowledge and distance learning. the environment under development is an open source software program that can be modified, combined and expanded according to the user requirements. [10] www.vilanarede.org.br [11] “vila na rede” is an inclusive social network developed as part of the project e-cidadania (e-citizenship) in partnership with the microsoft research institute and fapesp (state of são paulo research funding foundation). [12] psf (family healthcare program) is regarded as one of the key strategies for the reorganization of services and professional practices applied to this level of health assistance and promotion, disease prevention and rehabilitation. http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/programa_sa%c3%bade_da_fam%c3%adlia [13] skype http://www.skype.com/intl/pt/home/ [14] the equipment was purchased using the financial resources provided by fapesp (state of são paulo research funding foundation) for the “drii” doctoral program . http://www.guiadascidadesdigitais.com.br/ http://www.lipacs.iar.unicamp.br/ http://www.vilanarede.org.br/ http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/programa_saúde_da_família http://www.skype.com/intl/pt/home/ flying blind, or going with the flow?: using constructivist evaluation to manage the unexpected in the granitenet project catherine arden 1, kathryn mclachlan2, trevor cooper3 university of southern queensland. email: catherine.arden@usq.edu.au community development services inc, stanthorpe stanthorpe introduction the granitenet project is a research and development collaboration between the university of southern queensland, australia, and the community of stanthorpe a rural community of just over 10,000 people located approximately 240 km from the university campus on queensland's southern border with new south wales. the vision of this community informatics project, which commenced in 2006 and is now in its fourth phase, is the development of a sustainable community designed, owned and managed web portal that will support stanthorpe's development as a learning community. typical of smaller, rural communities located to the west of the great dividing range that runs the length of australia's east coast, separating the more heavily populated metropolitan centres from dispersed, inland towns, stanthorpe has an ageing community, a low median income, a lower proportion of the population with post-compulsory education qualifications and lower use of information communication technologies (icts) in comparison with brisbane metropolitan and larger coastal centres in queensland (abs, 2001, 2006, cited in cavaye, 2008). these are all considered risk factors in terms of the community's continued prosperity and longer term sustainability (arden, mclachlan & cooper, 2008). perceived benefits of granitenet for stanthorpe include that it will be a tool that people of all ages and from all sectors of the community can use to share information, promote community activities and events, and promote and foster learning opportunities. it is hoped that granitenet will become a valuable community asset that will enhance existing social networks, provide opportunities for growth and development and help to bridge the 'digital divide' that is said to exist between rural and metropolitan communities (oecd, 2000; futurelab, 2007). the project has been moving through a series of developmental phases underpinned by principles of participatory design, community development and capacity-building through participatory action research (par) and "cogenerative" learning 1 (see elden & levin, 1991 as cited in arden, mclachlan & cooper, 2008). the project's phased approach to development and implementation is similar to approaches adopted in many community informatics projects around the world and is pragmatic in terms of its alignment with iterative participatory action research and evaluation cycles, experimental and participatory design processes and the discontinuous nature of project funding. the project phases and timelines are shown in table 1 below. table 1: granitenet project phases and timelines2 phase 1 2006-7 (1st par cycle) development of project concept and “business case” for portal evaluation of university-community partnership phase 2 2007-8 (2nd par cycle) design, development and evaluation of pilot “granitenet” community portal environment review of learning community progress phase 2 evaluation phase 3 2009 (3rd par cycle) consolidation and focused action to build capacity to address sustainability factory collaborative, critical review of granitenet as a community learning project with grant monies received from the queensland state government targeted to support rural community development initiatives, the granitenet board commissioned an evaluation of the second phase of the project which focussed on the design, development and trial of an incubator community portal environment, a portal governance framework and community engagement strategy. evaluation aims included documenting the project, establishing an evidence base to inform future decision-making, identifying and exploring significant contextual factors impacting on the project, evaluating the effectiveness of the models and processes used to guide the project, and building a culture of evaluation that would help to ensure ongoing review and critical reflection on progress. another aim was to add to the existing body of knowledge about the benefits of par and evaluation collaborations for community learning and more effective university-community engagement, and the extent to which these methodologies support the achievement of community-identified goals. by documenting and evaluating the design and implementation of granitenet, the project team working in collaboration with the university of southern queensland hoped to be able to make a contribution to knowledge through the identification of critical success and key sustainability factors that might prove to be transferable to other community contexts. this paper reports the evaluation processes and outcomes, with a focus on exploring the ways in which these methodologies can be used to help community informatics researchers and practitioners learn from and about the unexpected. in so doing, the authors explore the nature of the unexpected and unanticipated in the context of granitenet and propose that par and constructivist evaluation methodologies provide a useful mechanism for dealing with the unexpected in community informatics projects such as granitenet. literature review learning is at the centre of the granitenet project, and a shared valuing of and commitment to ongoing learning permeates the project by virtue of the fact that granitenet was originally conceived of as a strategy to support the development of stanthorpe as a "learning community". the emergence of the learning communities movement in the uk, europe, canada and australia during the last three decades of the 20th century as a strategy for supporting development and capacity-building of towns, cities and regions through a "learning based approach to community development" (see faris, 2005 p. 31; niace, 2005; longworth, 2006) included the promotion of icts a strategy for supporting knowledge transfer and innovation through community networking, enhanced opportunities for participation in civil society (e-democracy) and participation in formal and informal learning (see, for example, coleman & goetze, 2001; longworth, 2006). more recently, the rapid and widespread social adoption of ict innovations has seen the emergence across the world of an increasing number of community technology projects (the study of which is the business of the interdisciplinary field of community informatics) which aim to use icts to enable communities (gurstein, 2000). as one such learning community and community informatics initiative, the granitenet project aims to maximise the use of icts to support individual development and community capacity-building 3 through learning. the important relationship between access to and effective use of icts, individual capability4, community capacity5 and regional development is widely acknowledged in the literature, with particular reference to the existence of a so-called digital divide between those individuals and communities that have access to and make effective use of icts, and those that do not. although warschauer has warned against the tendency to conceptualise this digital divide in simplistic terms that overemphasise the technology, preferring to use the term "technology for social inclusion" (2002, pp. 25, 27), there appears to be general agreement that people and communities who lack affordable, accessible and reliable ict infrastructure as well as the digital literacy to make effective use of the technology for participation in formal and informal learning and civil society are at a significant disadvantage in terms of their economic and scultural development (see for example oecd, 2000; council of australian state libraries, 2004; sevigny & prevost, 2006). as stated by sevigny and prevost, "the debate is no longer whether communities have the means to invest in information technologies, but rather whether they can afford not to" (2006, p.128). this is an issue of concern to rural and regional communities, and in particular those that are more isolated through the so-called tyranny of distance, which impacts on people's opportunities to access and participate in education, training, and enterprise development to the same degree as their metropolitan counterparts. as is often the case with well-intentioned community development initiatives, and particularly those with a focus on promoting icts as a development tool, there are significant implementation challenges. a review of community informatics projects in australia and overseas highlights sustainability as a key problem faced by project teams, evidenced by the plethora of community websites and information technology projects that, after an initial flurry of activity, slowly lose momentum and relevance and become disused relics (see loader & keeble, 2004; schauder, stillman & johanson, 2004; warschauer, 2002 for specific examples). interestingly, the town of stanthorpe has its own experience of this story with the earlier version of granitenet which was rolled out in 2000 as part of a well-funded national ict initiative6, but ultimately proved unsuccessful due in no small measure to a lack of attention to the "complex array of factors encompassing physical, digital, human, and social resources and relationships" that go to make up "the human and social systems that must also change for technology to make a difference" (warschauer, 2002, pp. 20, 21). warschauer's position is supported in much of the literature documenting the ebb and flow of community technology projects, as exemplified in the journal of community informatics special theme issue on sustainability and community icts (2005). hearn, kimber, lennie and simpson (2005), knox (2005), and simpson (2005), who have all conducted research into australian, rural ci projects, identify broad community involvement and ownership as critical success factors. in fact, knox goes as far as to recommend that to maximise sustainability, community technology projects need to involve as many people in the community as possible at all stages of the process a recommendation likely to strike fear into the heart of the most intrepid community development practitioner! this is related to another factor that strikes fear into the heart this time of the ci researcher and practitioner: that is, the complexity of the phenomenon that is community informatics, and inherent in this complexity, the nature and impact of the "unexpected" in community informatics projects. in their attempts to understand, theorise about and deal with the complexity of social and socio-technical problems and challenges they face in their work, ci researchers and practitioners have drawn on systems thinking, chaos theory, social capital theory, complexity theory, structuration theory, and social planning theory, to name just a few. although warschauer acknowledges the complexities of projects such as these that aim to use icts for the purposes of community development, recognising that they often run into "unexpected difficulties that hinder results", he maintains that these problems are "neither isolated, nor random", but on the contrary, that the "same types of problems occur again and again", and that they relate specifically to the aforementioned overemphasis on technology at the expense of consideration of the human factors (2002, 20). other ci researchers are in agreement with this premise, emphasising the need to recognise factors such as community ict readiness (hearn et al, 2005), the levels of social capital within a community (simpson, 2005), market related mechanisms (gurstein, 2001), the degree of embeddedness in the community, and relevance to community needs and goals (knox, 2005), along with the capacity of the distributed system or network to adapt to changing needs and circumstances (that is, learn) (stillman & stoecker, 2004; graham, 2005) and even to undergo complete transformation (schauder, stillman & johanson, 2004). intent on learning from the experience of the previous, failed community technology project mentioned earlier, and the experiences of others shared in the ci literature, the granitenet project team has attempted to maximise the likelihood of success by aiming for high levels of community ownership, participation and engagement and adopting strategies aimed at supporting the development of capacity within the community to learn about and use icts effectively. these strategies included: structuring the project as a phased par project with a strong focus on community engagement and participatory design approaches such as those recommended by hearn et al (2005) and reported by merkel , xiao, farooq, ganoe, lee, carroll et al (2004); a flexible, 'mash-up' portal design using open source software to maximise affordability and adaptability; development of an ongoing research and development partnership with the local university; and a focus on learning through formative evaluation (see arden, 2009; mclachlan & arden, 2009; arden, mclachlan & cooper, 2009). it is this formative evaluation strategy, and how it has been used to help the granitenet project team plan for, learn from and manage the unexpected in the interest of sustainability that is the focus of this paper. methodology community informatics initiatives such as granitenet which aim to bridge the digital divide need to facilitate both access and empowerment (loader & keeble, 2004). it follows that research and evaluation of community informatics projects should be guided by methods that serve to empower and build capacity in communities as well as being a tool for monitoring progress towards achievement of stated project objectives. this view is supported by stillman (2005) and stillman and stoecker (2004), who advocate the use of par for the research and evaluation of community technology projects for building community capacity that will lead to more effective use of new technologies in the service of community development. the approach taken for the evaluation of phase 2 of the granitenet project therefore drew on principles and processes of par and evaluation (elden & levin, 1991; wadsworth, 1997; 1998) in combination with "empowerment" evaluation strategies (fetterman, 1998; 2002). the evaluation was facilitated by the usq principal researcher in collaboration with members of the granite belt learners group, who acted as the critical reference group (crg) (wadsworth, 1997) for the evaluation, during the period march to november, 2008. the evaluation framework was adapted from a state government community engagement evaluation strategy and incorporated formative, summative and research evaluation (queensland government department of communities, 2005). within this framework, the following evaluation methods designed to model as well as foster effective community engagement practices were used to guide evaluation processes: establishment of a critical reference group (crg) of key community stakeholders who collaborated in the planning and design of the project evaluation strategy and data collection instruments, the review and analysis of evaluation data and the identification of recommendations for action use of empowerment evaluation methods (fetterman, 1998; 2002) also known as fourth generation and constructivist evaluation (guba & lincoln, 1989; 2001) an approach to process evaluation where the evaluator acts as facilitator and coach to support others to conduct evaluation of their own project establishment of an online collaborative workspace using the university's learning management system (moodle), which was designed to serve as a central repository for information, documentation and data and to provide a collaborative working and learning environment for the crg members and other project participants to supplement face-to-face meetings and workshops. the three primary components of the project that were subject to evaluation, as illustrated in the evaluation design in figure 1 on the following page, were: the governance model adopted for phase 2 of granitenet (governance model) the framework used to guide community engagement activities during phase 2 (community engagement framework), and the "incubator" portal environments and strategies trialled during phase ii for the granitenet community portal (portal environment). the critical reference group met on five occasions during the period august to november, 2008 to plan, review, analyse and discuss evaluation processes and findings and to identify emerging issues and opportunities for action and improvement in relation to phase 2 of the granitenet project as well as the evaluation process itself. crg meetings and evaluation workshops were facilitated by the principal researcher making use of empowerment evaluation processes and techniques recommended by fetterman (2002) (such as revisiting the project mission and vision, taking stock, prioritising components for evaluation, designing strategies and tools for data collection, collaborative rating of performance, critical review of data, and action planning). in addition to participating in these meetings, six crg members also actively participated in evaluation activities on the moodle site. data sources for the evaluation included 124 community surveys, 10 stakeholder questionnaires, 10 granitenet content editor evaluations, 20 interviews with community members with a significant disability, evaluation workshops with key stakeholders, critical reference group meetings and data from the moodle evaluation site. in total, there were 160 individual respondents to the evaluation. correlation of data from these sources in combination with analysis of key documents and records, statistical data, activity on the granitenet website and a review of relevant literature resulted in a reasonably strong data set for the purposes of answering the evaluation questions. an education session on ethical issues in research and evaluation was conducted with the members of the critical reference group at its first meeting. to date no ethical dilemmas have emerged as a result of this research. figure 1: granitenet phase 2 evaluation design (source: arden, 2009) evaluation findings for the purposes of this paper, evaluation findings are summarised in terms of key learnings and critical success factors considered to have particular relevance to the conference theme of learning to manage the unexpected in ci, with a focus on the efficacy of theories, models and frameworks guiding project design. within the over-arching par methodology, each of the three core project activities that were subject to evaluation was guided by a particular model, or framework that had been adopted as a result of recommendations from phase 1, as shown in table 2. table 2: theories, models and frameworks guiding granitenet project design theories informing project methodology (participatory action research approach) social capital theory: university researcher as facilitator and “broker” (ballatti & falk, 2001; kilpatrick, 2000) participatory action research as “cogenerative learning/inquiry” between “insiders” and “outsiders” (elden & levin, 1991; greenwood & levin, 2005; wadsworth, 1998) community engagement framework governance model “incubator” portal environment iap2 public participation spectrum (2004): (inform – consult – involve – collaborate – empower) community engagement plan and objectives community 'board' of volunteers auspiced by local community development organization (incorporated association) sub-committees including technical working party grant funded project manager role(existing community development worker) part-time website administrator (paid position) participatory, scenario-based, prototype design review of community portals – trials and evaluations of platform and systems community -developed portal design concept community noticeboard community marketplace my learning space development of portal critical success factors the evaluation found that structuring the project as par was likely to have contributed to the project staying on track with its objectives through the incorporation of the feedback loop that is an essential part of the action research cycle (similar to a continuous quality improvement cycle) (arden, 2009). much more significant that this, however, is the reflexive nature of the par process, which provided the mechanism for critical review, questioning of assumptions, and learning through dialogue and experimentation (the latter referred to by project participants as being akin to "flying blind"). at the same time, par and evaluation processes, which are seen to facilitate community learning (shaver & tudbull, 2002: kilpatrick, 2000; ballatti & falk, 2001; adams, 2005; arden, 2007; mclachlan & arden, 2009), have served to build an evidence base for decision-making and ongoing evaluation of processes and outcomes. the ultimate test, however, is whether the learning is translated into action in subsequent phases of the project. governance model in relation to the governance model adopted for the granitenet project (as outlined in table 2 on the previous page), the evaluation found that project participants and stakeholders saw the volunteer board or committee operating under the auspices of a larger, community-based organisation as a strength because it provided a strong organisational structure and policy framework that allowed for the employment of staff, promoted a professional impression to the community and funding bodies, and represented a community-based, democratic and participatory model that aligned well with the granitenet vision, values and philosophy. deficiencies in the areas of strategic and business planning, management of stakeholder expectations and organisational communication were seen to have impacted negatively on the functioning of the board and its ability to sustain a critical mass of members in the crucial, early stages of the project. appointment of a website administrator with the requisite skills set, local connections, and passion for the project vision was seen as integral to the success of this phase of the project, and not an easy achievement in terms of the combinations of skills and personal attributes required for the role. overall, the evaluation found that the governance model was well suited to the developmental stage of the portal, but that greater attention needed to be paid to recruitment of suitably skilled volunteers and paid staff as well as effective leadership, strategic planning and communication processes that provide direction, foster shared vision, provide opportunities for individuals to make a valuable contribution, and ensure that newcomers are appropriately orientated and inducted into the project (arden, 2009). portal environment the concept model for the incubator portal environment (shown in figure 2 below) was developed in consultation with community members at the project start-up workshop at the beginning of phase 2, with the decision taken to commence development with the "community noticeboard" component, followed by the "community marketplace", and finally, "my learning space". figure 2: portal concept diagram developed by participants in the phase 2 project start-up workshop in march, 2008 (source: arden, 2009) the evaluation found that the decision to build the portal environment from a 'mash-up' of open source (modx cms, mediawiki, webcalendar, simple machines forum) and freeware (yahoo!flickr image gallery, mailchimp newsletter, survey monkey and google analytics) was sound, and has enabled the granitenet site to expand and respond to changing community needs, user requirements and environmental factors. having said this, the experimental, participatory design process was not without its painful learning experiences that impacted on participant morale and community perceptions, at times threatening to derail the project completely. this was demonstrated by a critical incident relating to the dysfunctional nature of the "technical working party" that was established as part of the project governance model to pull together the "incubator" portal environment. merely convening a group of community members with a variety of technical skills, experiences and perspectives and expecting them to "magic up" a portal environment based on a rough concept design was naïve in the extreme and demonstrates the importance of adequate scaffolding for such participatory design processes. fischer, rohde and wulf (2009) describe the difficulties experienced by communities of interest (cois) such as these, which they distinguish from communities of practice (cops) and characterise as being comprised of individuals from highly diverse backgrounds with significantly different levels of knowledge and experience and diverse motivations for participation. nonetheless, the granitenet "community noticeboard" feature is functioning well, with approximately 100 community groups listed on the portal, most of whom are designing and managing their own pages as "content editors", having participated in the modx training sessions conducted as part of phase 2. "community marketplace" features have been the focus of phases 3 and 4 of the project, with a focus on development of business sponsorship and income-generating, fee-for-service activities for local businesses. the concept of "my learning space" is still to be formally researched as part of the principal author's doctoral studies. community engagement framework the evaluation concluded that the community engagement strategy based on the iap2 public participation spectrum (2004) had provided a useful framework for conceptualising, organising, planning and evaluating community engagement activities in the project, as illustrated in figure 3 figure 3: granitenet community engagement continuum (source: arden, 2009. adapted from the iap2 public participation spectrum, 2004) effective management of the delicate dance of community engagement was a significant challenge for the project team. evaluation data showed that participants and community members became impatient with the slow pace of establishing the portal as something concrete that could be seen by the project team, and more importantly, the broader community (described by respondents as "too much talk and not enough action"). finding the right balance between process and product that is, between consultation and engagement required for participatory design and 'ownership', on the one hand, and having something tangible 'up and running' on the other has possibly been one of the biggest challenges (and, dare i say, "wickedest problems" (see conklin, 2005)) faced by the core project team. in hindsight, it is possible that an adapted version of the model may need to be developed to accommodate the need for the "show me" factor inherent in community informatics projects such as granitenet (garlick & langworthy, 2004). with the benefit of hindsight, however, it is difficult to see how this could have been done any differently. the findings from the phase 2 evaluation of the "empowerment" component of the community engagement framework provided evidence of instrumental, social/communicative and transformative learning occurring for project team members and key stakeholders by virtue of their involvement in the project (arden, 2009; mclachlan & arden, 2009). conclusion there is no doubt that the evaluation was a learning process for participants (see arden, 2009; mclachlan & arden, 2009), although the nature and extent of the learning outcomes were not fully explored as part of the evaluation, which, with the benefit of hindsight, could be considered as a design fault. a systematic approach through the par and evaluation cycle helped to ensure that the evaluation engendered critical reflection and critical questioning of assumptions. the review and evaluation conducted by critical reference group allowed for the project team to assimilate new information and accommodate it into project planning and implementation, but more importantly, allowed for reflexive learning that supported the respondents to critically reflect on their own processes, questioning assumptions and exploring diverse perspectives. empowerment and fourth generation evaluation approaches added the dimension of negotiation, which allowed for the unexpected to emerge as a process of discovery while also facilitating deeper learning and transformation for participants. in so doing, this form of evaluation has the potential to bring to light "what we don't know we don't know" (the "unknown unknowns" recently made famous by donald rumsfeld) and to uncover blind spots. as senge, scharmer, jaworski, and flowers (2004) stated, such blind spots "concern[s] not the what and how not what leaders do and how they do it but the who, who we are and the inner place or source from which we operate, both individually and collectively" (p. 15). the question still remains, however, as to how a culture of learning and evaluation can be developed and sustained in this ci project, over time, within a dynamic and changing context and with project participants coming and going? again, with the benefit of hindsight, the gulf between the intention of building a learning and evaluation culture through formative, empowerment evaluation processes, and the reality of the changing levels of participation, contexts and dynamics that characterise voluntary, community-based projects such as granitenet is apparent. perhaps greater attention to the development of organisational policies and procedures that institutionalise practices that reflect and embed values such as participatory design, learning through reflection and critical questioning, in addition to focusing on learning for individual participants, would serve to more effectively build a culture of learning and evaluation over time in this context. notwithstanding the lessons to be learned from all this research and evaluation, it would appear that the challenges facing ci practitioners and researchers resemble the "wicked problems" described by conklin that tend to occur in projects involving creativity, design and "technical complexity" in a context of "social complexity" (2005, pp. 7, 13, 18, 20). according to conklin, who is building on the work of the urban planner and designer, horst rittel (1972), these factors act as "centrifugal fragmenting forces pulling a project apart", the solution to which is the creation of "a shared understanding about the problem, and shared commitment to the possible solutions" through processes of "rational dialogue among a set of diverse stakeholders" (2005, pp. 8, 17, 21). "over time", writes conklin, "one acquires wisdom and experience about the approach to wicked problems, but one is always a beginner in the specifics of a new wicked problem" (2005, p. 8). in this sense, a formative, constructivist evaluation that looks at what is working, what isn't, why/why not and that questions the assumptions that inform and underpin actions and decisions is perhaps more useful than asking (summatively) what worked, what didn't, why/why not? the authors propose that the formative evaluation process undertaken for the evaluation of phase 2 of the granitenet project is akin to the rational dialogue among stakeholders described by conklin, and that participants can indeed, over time, acquire wisdom and experience in dealing effectively with, and utilising, the unexpected to work with unique and emerging problems in dynamic and complex socio-technical systems and complex social environments. in other words, in relation to learning from the unexpected, learning to do the process effectively to "go with the flow" is just as important as learning 'lessons' from the outcomes of a summative evaluation. why? because it is our ability to do the process effectively that enables us to learn from and manage the unexpected, not merely the lessons we have learned about solving particular problems that may have occurred in the past. perhaps, the evaluative processes need to have the capacity to focus energies on achieving a common purpose whilst allowing and even encouraging levels of disharmony and dissonance? having weathered the storms of phase 2 of the granitenet project, the project team find ourselves now, one year down the track since the completion of the evaluation, and five years on since the commencement of the project, in a position where we are able to look back on what has been achieved, with the realisation that the above models and frameworks that were chosen to guide the design and development of granitenet have in fact stood us in good stead, as far as it is possible to tell. to quote graham (2005), we have been the authors of our own fate; we have expressed our story and our story has expressed us; and "the best stories are the ones that survive" (p. 8). the danger is now that without that element of chaotic energy, order will reign over chaos and granitenet will become a cliché and atrophy. perhaps it is the function of the project team to bring together those disparate interests and, paradoxically, seek to ensure that dissonance and chaos are maintained in the interests of survival. the ongoing 'engagement' challenge remains, however: how to reach the more 'disengaged' and marginalised members of the community so that the supposed benefits to be gained from community technology projects in terms of bridging the digital divide are actually realised. references adams, d. 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(2002). reconceptualizing the digital divide. first monday 7(7) july. available from http://firstmonday.org endnotes 1 the terms "cogenerative learning" and "cogenerative inquiry" are used in the context of par to describe a process whereby community members with local knowledge (insiders) engage in collaborative inquiry with professional researchers (outsiders) in "co-creating 'local theory' that the participants test out by acting on it" (elden & levin, 1991, pp. 129-130: greenwood & levin, 2005, p. 54). 2 adapted from mclachlan & arden (2009) 3 understood here as helping to establish conditions under which "the necessary personal and systemic attributes" required to identify and address community development challenges can develop and "be mobilised into action for the good of the community" (adams, 2005, pp. 4, 5) 4 defined here in sen's (1987) terms as "what real opportunities you have regarding the life you may lead" (cited in saito, 2003, p. 21) 5 defined here as "the personal and social characteristics that can be mobilised into action for the good of the community" (adams, 2005, p. 4) 6 see hearn, kimber, lennie & simpson (2005), simpson (2005) and knox (2005) for analyses of australian community technology projects funded under this program welcome to joci reviews welcome to joci reviews   kate williams university of illinois at urbana-champaign reviews editor   this is the first issue of joci with reviews, and we invite more.  please send reviews of books, movies, music cds, plays, and more—any published work that sheds light on questions of community informatics or otherwise calls for comment in our ‘pages.’ reviews should be no longer than 1000 words and be followed by the reviewer’s name and short bio.  start the review with a citation, including the price of the item and some kind of link to the item or more information about it, keeping in mind joci’s global readership that may or may not be able to get the original item.   the first mile approach to community services in fort severn first nation matthew kakekaspan1, susan o'donnell2, brian beaton3, brian walmark4, kerri gibson5 former chief of fort severn first nation, canada. email: mkakekaspan@knet.ca researcher and adjunct professor, department of sociology, university of new brunswick, canada. graduate student, faculty of education, university of new brunswick, canada. research director, keewaytinook okimakanak research institute, canada. phd candidate (clinical psychology), university of new brunswick, canada. introduction across canada, remote and rural first nations (indigenous communities) are responsible for delivering services to community members. they use broadband networks for many kinds of service delivery including health, training and education, government and administration, language and culture, lands and resources, justice and policing and others (o'donnell, milliken, chong & walmark, 2010). since the arrival of the european colonial powers, first nations have been in an ongoing struggle to maintain control of their lands and resources (royal commission on aboriginal peoples, 1996). increasingly, their struggle is to control the essential services their people need, and the infrastructure and resources to deliver those services in a holistic manner taking into consideration the unique cultural, linguistic, political, social and geographical contexts of these remote and rural communities. from a holistic perspective, broadband and technology have little value in a community unless they benefit everyone. fort severn washaho cree nation is a small, remote northern community on hudson bay in ontario, canada. the community services delivered in fort severn are managed and controlled by the local community leadership working in collaboration with their regional tribal council keewaytinook okimakanak and other strategic partners. at the invitation of the fort severn community, researchers visited fort severn three times to meet and interview community residents and learn how they are delivering and using broadband-enabled services. fort severn's broadband-enabled community service delivery is discussed in the context of the "first mile" policy approach (http://firstmile.ca). as outlined in a recent report: "putting the 'last-mile' first: reframing broadband development in first nations and inuit communities," first nations such as fort severn are employing locally owned or administered digital networks and technologies to support their community and economic development goals (mcmahon, o'donnell, smith, woodman, simmonds & walmark, 2010). the forward to that report includes a statement by matthew kakekaspan, at the time the chief of fort severn first nation, about the importance of first mile approaches to his community. first mile: supporting community-centred, broadband-enabled, service delivery in "traditional" telecommunications terminology the "last mile" refers to the final leg of connectivity from the telecommunications provider to the home. the "first mile" concept turns that around. developed in the late 1990s, "first mile" refers to policies and practices supporting decisions by remote and rural communities concerned with having a measure of control over their broadband connectivity (paisley & richardson, 1998). more recently, "first mile" has been used to refer specifically to ensuring that first nations communities are connected to broadband in ways that support sustainable, locally-driven services and activities (mcmahon, o'donnell, smith, woodman simmonds & walmark, 2010; mcmahon, o'donnell, smith, walmark, beaton & simmonds, 2011). it should be noted that the first mile approach has been developed in a policy vacuum in canada. the federal government currently has no overall digital infrastructure policy that would support broadband development in the remote and rural areas of the country, including the traditional territories of many first nations located in remote and rural regions. similarly, there is no regulatory mechanism to force internet service providers (isps) to provide services in any particular area of the country; canada's commercial isps say they need to have a business case (a proven return on investment) before developing broadband infrastructure and services in rural and remote areas. they have been reluctant or slow or have refused altogether to provide connectivity without significant government investment. as a consequence, it can be very challenging to build the partnerships necessary to develop broadband infrastructure and provide internet services in many remote and rural regions of the country. given the lack of commercial interest, different levels of government in canada have become involved as partners and contributors in developing broadband infrastructure in remote and rural areas. however, government policy to support broadband in remote and rural first nations communities is underdeveloped and uncoordinated among many different departments and program areas. since 1996, a variety of funding initiatives, strategies, and projects, usually with limited time frames and specific objectives, have been implemented that have supported the development of broadband infrastructure and increased use of information and communications technology (ict) in first nation communities. the first mile should be seen as a bottom-up emerging policy approach and a framework for understanding locally-driven broadband and ict development. it supports first nations in using broadband networks and ict for community-controlled service delivery in a holistic manner: supporting community members to use these technologies effectively and ensuring that they have the capacity to do so. this perspective aligns with the theoretical approach of community informatics, which insists that technology in itself will not support community development if the collective capacity is not available to use the technology effectively. in a community context, gurstein (2003) defines "effective use" of a technology as the capacity and opportunity to successfully integrate ict to accomplish collaboratively-identified goals. the first mile approach also aligns with practices and policies in canada and internationally related to first nations control and self-determination. in canada, ocap ownership, control, access and possession principles are now being applied in several policy areas. ocap is a response to the role of knowledge production in reproducing colonial relations and was originally developed by first nations to apply self-determination to research (schnarch, 2004). ocap applied to telecommunications, or self-determination applied to broadband networks, has at least two implications. first, that first nations must retain access to and possession of the capacity and resources to effectively manage the content, traffic and services on their local network. second, that first nations have a right to own and control the local broadband network in their communities in order to support the flow of information and services. on an international level, the first mile approach is supported by the un declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (united nations, 2007). undrip recognizes that indigenous peoples continue to suffer injustices as a result of colonization and dispossession from their lands, territories and resources. these ongoing injustices prevent indigenous peoples from exercising their right to development in accordance with their own unique needs and interests. the un declaration supports control by indigenous peoples over developments affecting them that will enable them to maintain and strengthen their communities, institutions, cultures and traditions, and to promote their development in accordance with their aspirations and needs (united nations, 2007). policies sensitive to first mile concerns would focus on and invest in local, rural development instead of the traditional corporate or institutional-centred approaches that are most often created by centralized, urban-centric agencies. to develop and maintain broadband infrastructure in many remote and rural first nations, it is necessary to build multi-sector partnerships involving first nations, federal, provincial or territorial governments and telecommunication companies (fiser & clement, 2009; o'donnell, milliken, chong & walmark, 2010). building these partnerships in an appropriate way would be greatly facilitated by strong federal policy that recognizes and respects the sovereignty and leadership of first nations and is developed in partnership with their organizations. to ensure local control, national and regional plans need to involve first nations in the program design and implementation, including for broadband development (ramirez, 2001). the national organization representing first nations across canada, the assembly of first nations (afn), has an active interest in broadband development and an information technology (it) working group focused on this issue. by 2009, the afn had passed five resolutions at their annual general assemblies recognizing the need for first nations communities to have adequate broadband connectivity and access to ict. at a major aboriginal research and policy conference in ottawa that same year, the afn outlined a strategy for an equipped first nations broadband network. they see this broadband network as part of a broader plan for economic, social and cultural change based on knowledge and information. the afn's "e-community ict model," originally developed by keewaytinook okimakanak, builds upon a common network model employed by canadian institutions and corporations. it has five themes: first nations capacity development, first nations connectivity, human resources development, information management, and service delivery and partners (whiteduck, j., 2010). the afn is also proposing that first nation communities and organizations oversee the public funding required to develop and control the broadband infrastructure in their communities. the afn's e-community ict model is very compatible with a first mile approach. fort severn first nation we now turn to the case of fort severn first nation, which is putting first mile concepts into action. to put the study into context, a brief overview of the community is appropriate. the washaho cree nation at fort severn is on the western bank of the severn river near where it flows into hudson bay. fort severn, the most northern arctic community in ontario, is home to about 500 people; another 150 community members live away from the community most of the time (o'donnell, kakekaspan, beaton, walmark, mason & mak, 2011). most community residents speak cree, and the school-educated people speak english. elders have a prominent leadership role in the community. every two years, fort severn community members elect their local government: a chief and band council. fort severn is a member of the keewaytinook okimakanak (ko) tribal council and the nishnawbe-aski nation (treaty #9 and ontario portion of treaty #5). for approximately two months each winter, fort severn and other remote communities in the region are connected by winter roads to each other and to the southern road network and it is possible to drive to sioux lookout, the closest regional centre, in about 24 hours. after the winter roads have melted, fort severn is very isolated and expensive to visit. the flying distance from toronto to fort severn is 1,495 kilometres. a return flight from most canadian cities to sioux lookout costs more than $1,000. the follow-on return flight from sioux lookout to fort severn costs about the same, making the total return airfare cost to fort severn approximately $2,000. good communication links and infrastructure are important for all first nations and particularly so for very isolated communities like fort severn. even before bringing digital infrastructure and communications into their community, fort severn as a collectivity demonstrated its leadership by developing and implementing a community radio station in the 1980s and a community cable tv service in the early 1990s (fort severn first nation, 2011). in early 1999, fort severn's tribal council, keewaytinook okimakanak (ko), commissioned a study of the telecommunications needs of the ko communities (keewaytinook okimakanak, 1999). the consultants reported that data communications were severely limited in fort severn. as with other ko communities, the primary local bottleneck was the satellite outbound connection. in the consultation process, fort severn community members identified several key priorities: 1) network services building a network to connect all members of the community, and making internet more useful through the use of videoconferencing; and 2) health and education bringing more education services into the communities; supporting the health service for people who are sick; and mental health and health services (keewaytinook okimakanak). study methodology the current study explores the links between the first mile approach and how fort severn first nation has developed its service areas using broadband networks over the past decade. the focus is on the areas the community identified in 1999 as priorities for broadband development: network services, education and health. the analysis in this article is a team effort with the support of the fort severn community leadership. researchers and ko liaison staff made three multi-day visits to fort severn from march 2010 to march 2011. they conducted a total of 59 interviews with a wide range of fort severn residents; interviews were semi-structured and averaged 30 minutes in length. everyone interviewed was at least 18 years of age and represented a variety of roles within the community, including health workers, band council staff, teachers, caregivers, elders, and community leaders. researchers followed ethical protocols that were reviewed by their home institutions, and researchers, and partners strove to respect ownership, control, access, and possession principles (schnarch, 2004). in addition to the community-based research, the researchers analyzed past reports and presentations about broadband development and ict in fort severn and the wider region. finally, the study included a snapshot log analysis of fort severn's network use over a one-year period. fort severn first nation and its first mile infrastructure development the discussion in this section focuses on how the community developed and is currently using its locally owned and operated broadband network, a little more than a decade after identifying three areas as future priorities for broadband deployment: network services, education and health. network services ko-knet is the telecommunications division of the ko tribal council. in may 2000, the proposal made by ko-knet was successful in a national competition for "smart" communities that were funded to develop their connectivity. ko-knet became the aboriginal smart demonstration project. the funding allowed ko-knet to further develop the telecommunications infrastructure to its member communities and to work with the communities to develop applications using the available bandwidth. as a partner in this project, fort severn developed many broadband applications to support the local community and its residents. in that year, with funding from industry canada (fednor), ko-knet installed a hub c-band earth station in sioux lookout and in fort severn. fort severn was part of the community network to share the bandwidth, available for 128kbps internet and 512kbps on-demand video. in the summer of 2001, the fort severn community worked with ko-knet to use the existing community tv cable network to add a cable modem service to households. fort severn set up a community e-centre for residents without home internet access. in early 2002, the connectivity was able to be upgraded to support medical quality videoconferencing and x-ray transfer with bandwidth from half the industry canada public benefit transponder provided by telesat canada (kakekaspan, 2002). ip videoconferencing plays a continuing and growing role in many service areas in addition to health, including distance education, government and justice (court) services. fort severn is one of the communities in the northern indigenous community satellite network (nicsnhttp://smart.knet.ca/satellite/). nicsn is a jointly-managed, inter-provincial partnership between first nations and inuit communities in northern quebec, ontario and manitoba. nicsn has demonstrated that a satellite network can be locally and regionally owned, managed, operated and maintained. the nicsn group successfully secured bandwidth (one transponder) for 15 years (2004 2020), with 100 per cent of costs covered by the federal government (industry canada) and telesat. in 2005, nicsn launched the first inter-provincial community-owned and operated broadband satellite network in canada. in 2007, under canada's national satellite initiative, the nicsn consortium was able to secure two additional transponders for eleven years (2008 to 2019) to further improve the bandwidth capabilities of the satellite network service. in 2011, the quebec nicsn partner is adding two more transponders to the network to further improve services in their region for the next five years (2011 to 2016). the manner in which fort severn first nation developed its network services with its strategic partners is a clear example of the first mile approach in action. this was outlined in a report (jansen & bentley, 2004) that found fort severn had gained experience in broadband that other communities could benefit from. these included: fort severn developed and documented a clear and far-reaching vision; the community applied strategic planning principles; fort severn had effective leadership, as evidenced by the success of the implementation of broadband initiatives; the community was fully engaged in the planning and execution of the initiatives; the community had local control of the distribution system; and they chose satellite delivery of broadband as a best practice choice (jansen & bentley). more recently, fort severn leadership worked with their tribal council keewaytinook okimakanak (ko) to develop the community-owned and managed cell service, keewaytinook mobile (km), launched in the community in november 2009. a recent publication about the km service in fort severn discusses how the service quickly became essential to supporting land and resource based as well other activities in the community. for the fort severn government, the km service has made it much easier for elected officials to communicate with community residents. prior to setting up the ip supported keewaytinook mobile service in the community, fort severn depended on bell aliant / telesat's satellite system for their local phone service. now community members can use the locally-owned km service to reach their chief, council members and key band administrative staff by cell phone, wherever they happen to be in the community or if they are travelling outside the community (o'donnell, kakekaspan, beaton, walmark, mason & mak, 2011). these developments are possible because the fort severn ip network established in partnership with keewaytinook okimakanak's kuhkenah network (ko-knet) is operating on a private locally managed wide-area network service. online, open source network management tools such as for coax cable management, videoconferencing bandwidth booking and local bandwidth management support the effective use of the fort severn ip network. each of these tools are used to provide regular and sustained maintenance of the network by the local fort severn ict technician. as well, the equipment (computers, routers, satellite equipment, modems, videoconferencing units, phones, cell phones and so on) along with the cabling throughout the community requires consistent and sustained maintenance and upgrading. fort severn's use of bandwidth is increasing every year. an analysis of the total bandwidth used by the community found that the bandwidth used on an average day in july 2011 is almost double that used on an average day in august 2010. education staff working in fort severn's education sector use the community's broadband network actively. they deliver education services in the washaho elementary school and the keewaytinook internet high school (http://kihs.knet.ca). in addition to these core services, staff members of community organizations and individual community members use the network for professional development, training and learning through the wahsa distance education centre or for group or individual study. the washaho elementary school building constructed in 2008 consists of four portable double classrooms around a central open courtyard and playground. the internet is used extensively for school administration. school administrators use email regularly to connect with the band office and the community education director who is often travelling outside the community. email is particularly convenient for teachers who only have a few minutes between classes; it is difficult for them to find the time to use the telephone to connect with parents and others outside the school. since most of the pupils are on facebook some teachers use it to coordinate school events. washaho school teachers and pupils use the internet for pedagogical purposes. teachers use the web to download educational programs and to conduct research for preparing classes. pupils in the senior classes use the web for doing research. pupils use the computer lab when they need to use a computer because computers are still a scarce resource all the existing computers in the old school had to be destroyed due to mould contamination. the community set up a keewaytinook internet high school (kihs) classroom to enable students to study for their high school completion in the community; prior to this, young adolescents were required to leave the community and travel to an urban centre for their high school education (walmark, 2010). the fort severn kihs is located in one of the portable classrooms in the washaho school complex. outside it looks like any other portable classroom but inside it is a high-tech classroom; students and the classroom assistant use many different kinds of ict for their education and learning. the room is colourful the walls full of images and other information and lined neatly with computers, cables and equipment. kihs is a provincial high school, the first online high school accredited by the province of ontario (potter, 2010; walmark, 2010). the kihs fort severn classroom uses ict more intensively than iother ontario schools because it is an online school. the class is coordinated by a classroom assistant who mentors students and organizes the local program and activities. the teachers are based in kihs classrooms in other first nation communities in the region. all communication between students and teachers is online, while the classroom assistant has an important mentoring role. the main kihs platform is an open source online moodle environment modified to meet the needs of first nation students and educators (moodlefn http://moodlefn.knet.ca). all the courses are online and the students, teachers and classroom assistants use the internet extensively email, the web and many online tools. because they use online technology so intensely, kihs students and the classroom assistant have excellent ict skills. kihs in fort severn uses videoconferencing to connect with monthly gatherings of all kihs classrooms, for special educational sessions, for staff training and for school administration. the kihs students in particular enjoy the videoconferences where they have the opportunity to interact with kihs students in other first nations communities. health services the health centre is a large and busy building next to the band office in the centre of the community. it contains offices and clinical health spaces, meeting and activity rooms, and apartments for visiting health workers. health centre workers use ict extensively for health administration, clinical health services, professional development, and community wellness activities. the internet has become an essential tool for the health staff. they use email daily for health administration, especially to schedule appointments with patients, and they use internet (internet protocol) telephones. as well they sometimes use facebook (fb) to contact community members as fb is quickly becoming the best way to reach some in the community. health staff also use videoconferencing for health administration. some staff schedule monthly videoconference meetings with staff in other communities. videoconferencing is also used extensively for professional development courses and information sessions for health professionals and community members concerning all aspects of health and wellness. the community worked with ko telemedicine (kotm) to increase the range of health services offered via videoconference to residents. health is the only service area that has a dedicated staff person in fort severn specifically to facilitate the effective use of the ict to deliver services. that position is called the ctc the community telehealth coordinator. the kotm ctc in fort severn is responsible for supporting all kinds of telehealth visits and activities for community residents. health staff use telehealth and telemedicine (primarily videoconferencing) when a patient needs to see a health professional in an urban centre and wants to remain in the community. the telehealth visit typically takes place in the health centre, but staff can also bring a mobile videoconference camera to the patient's home when required. kotm has a community-driven and community-led philosophy. when researchers visited the community in 2010, health staff reported that they were using videoconferencing to support a lot of family visits. one explained: "we have two elders staying at long-term health care in sioux lookout. and we try and do at least three family visits a month, try and connect with their family here. or sometimes they would request to see their family. and some people here have their kids in other family living in different reserves, and they request that they would have their own family visit here. and they would see their grandchildren that they haven't seen yet or their daughters or how they're doing, that they would just see and talk to them instead of just over the phone and all that. they really enjoy that because a lot of people have been requesting that." challenges for first nations applying first mile concepts for service delivery first nations like fort severn looking to apply first mile principles face a number of challenges primarily rooted in paternalistic policies and attitudes, which in turn are aligned with economic systems that privilege corporate entities over non-profit, community-managed telecommunications networks and services. in canada, federal government policies aimed at broadband development in remote and rural regions of the country do not include provision for substantial consultation with first nations governments in these regions, even though first nations are recognized as sovereign entities in canadian law and "a duty to consult" exists for development projects on first nations territories (aboriginal affairs and northern development canada, 2011). the canadian position is in contrast to the practice in the usa, where the federal government has supported a consultation process with native american communities to develop plans for broadband in their communities (mcmahon, 2011). in canada, policy to support broadband specifically in remote and rural first nations communities is historically fragmented, underdeveloped and uncoordinated among many different departments and program areas. the canadian government has been promising for years to develop a strategic plan for broadband in first nations; that plan has yet to appear. as discussed earlier, developing and maintaining broadband infrastructure in many remote and rural first nations requires building multi-sector partnerships involving first nations, federal, provincial or territorial governments, and telecommunication companies. however, the broadband infrastructure development programs funded by federal and provincial governments require approved requests for proposals from corporate and established telecom providers before funding is awarded, leaving most rural and remote communities unable to compete with corporate entities. the recent broadband canada funding insisted that funding contracts had to be directly between the telecom provider and the government program instead of including a first nations project proponent. from the perspective of the first nations, too often these partnerships reproduce colonial dependency relations and result in a master slave "partnership" with the communities forever dependent on the corporate telecom provider and forever paying this external entity for their service (philpot, beaton and whiteduck, 2014). in contrast, the first mile approach to these partnerships makes it possible for the community to be in control of their own infrastructure resulting in local development opportunities. the fort severn leadership is working closely with its tribal council (ko) and its telecommunications division (ko-knet) to manage the content, traffic and services on their local network. several significant challenges remain to ensure that the fort severn community has sufficient local capacity to do this effectively. most obviously, fort severn's capacity is under-resourced. for example, fort severn needs more local capacity to manage the traffic on the local network. according to ko-knet, there should be enough bandwidth in the community to meet its needs, but many community service staff and community members are complaining that the internet connection is far too slow. this was a particular problem in the washaho school and kihs but also mentioned by band office staff and health workers. having more local capacity to identify the source of the bottlenecks and address them would alleviate some of this problem. when the smart communities project was taking place, fort severn was able to create and fill three it-related positions, including a multi-media person who looked after the website among other duties. now that smart is finished, there are just enough funds for one it position the e-centre manager, who also provides it support to the band and community members who subscribe to the community ict services, including the community internet, community cable tv, and keewaytinook mobile. the community clearly requires more it support and development capacity to more effectively deliver education services and community government in particular. the washaho school needs more it equipment, resources and support. the band would like to expand its use of ict for government and community administration for example, they would like to complete land-use planning and land-use studies using gps and mapping technology but will require more staff, technical and related resources to do it. professional development and training of staff working on service delivery is a big challenge for the fort severn community. many of its service areas require budgets for training new staff. one band staff member explained that many of the people they hire in health and education require both more experience and training to be in their position but they are the best candidates available. the public funds provided for the staff position often do not cover training, so even if distance education is available for that person, they are challenged pay for it. another significant challenge is maintaining and upgrading the existing and future hardware and software that is using the broadband network. for example, at the time of the interviews in march 2011, half of the 12 computers in the washaho school computer lab had viruses and other problems that prevented them from being used. the school requires a full-time it technician to complete ongoing maintenance and upgrades but currently is largely dependent on external resources. school staff said the school computer situation is getting steadily worse. teachers would also like to have smart boards (internet-enabled whiteboard displays) in the classroom but funding for these or other technologies is also a challenge with so many other priorities and needs and a small school population. in december 2010, open source educational software was installed on all the school computers and a local teacher was trained to support its use but the staff person left after christmas leaving the school dependent on the software the staff was already familiar with. the staff agrees that the school could use more computers. one staff member said: "most schools have one or two computers for individual students to work on at the back of the [class] room. we don't have that. that is important, especially in the primary grades because they're getting basic skills from those computers, and they're not getting that daily practice because we don't have enough computers to allow them daily practice." the health services staff has identified that some community members need more support to ensure that they can effectively use the broadband-enabled health services the community is delivering. this includes ensuring that the internet connections in all community homes are hooked up and that community members have access to it support services when they have computer problems, so they can more effectively use their broadband connections to access health information and services. conclusion the first mile is both an emerging policy approach and a framework that supports holistic and community-centred broadband development and use by first nations. first mile implies community management and control of local broadband infrastructure and services. the first mile approach maximizes the value of broadband networks and new technology coming into a community by ensuring they benefit the community as a whole. this study described how fort severn first nation is putting first mile concepts into action. working with their tribal council, keewaytinook okimakanak, and other strategic partners to develop the broadband networks in the community, fort severn has shaped these technologies to meet the community's needs. community priorities for broadband-enabled services identified more than 10 years ago included network services, education and health. this study demonstrates how today the broadband networks in fort severn are cross-sector enablers that support the community's delivery of these core community services and activities. using a first mile framework to understand fort severn's delivery of community services has several implications. first, it underlines that first nations can own, control and manage their broadband networks and the services that use the broadband to meet the needs of community members, and this can be accomplished under very challenging geographical conditions in a satellite-served community. second, the discussion suggests that a significant shift in thinking, attitudes and policies will be required by governments. instead of their current practice flowing funding and resources directly to corporate telecommunications companies to provide services to first nations communities governments should work with first nations to determine how they can take on the leadership role to effectively develop and manage their networks themselves. at the heart of this shift will be moving away from the current paternalistic attitude toward first nations and moving toward a relationship of respect and reciprocity. using a first mile approach for federal broadband policy related to first nations will mean starting with a question: how can the multi-sector broadband development partnerships be structured so that first nations can most effectively control and manage their broadband networks to meet their needs now and into the future? clearly part of the required policy approach will be to develop models that support more local capacity for management and control of the information and services flowing through their local networks. this means having more than one it support position in the community and having training dollars available to ensure continuous professional development for these positions. the communities will need support for long-term planning with their strategic partners and for the sustainable satellite or fibre connectivity to broadband networks required to deliver these services. the models will also recognize that community members themselves need support to ensure that they can effectively use the broadband-enabled services available to them. the first mile approach also recognizes that first nations like fort severn work closely with their tribal councils and other regional first nations organizations and strategic partners to do this work. the reporting and direct supervision required to make all the broadband-enabled services successfully work in each first nation is always going to be a challenge as management and personnel continue to change. this will require support from dedicated regional support organizations that work closely with first nations, such as ko/ko-knet in fort severn's case (see o'donnell et al, 2009; whiteduck, t., 2010). the support role played by these regional organizations must be recognized by funding programs. funding models must evolve beyond the current practice of paying only for one-time capital expenditures without supporting the sustained training and capacity building required in communities. in fort severn's case, control of local broadband and the community services using the network means that they can support community development in a way that meets their own unique needs. acknowledgements the researchers would like to thank the fort severn chief matthew kakekaspan and band councilors for collaborating in this study and inviting us to visit the community to conduct this research. we would like to acknowledge the help and support of community liaison, tommy miles. we would also like to thank all the fort severn community members and residents who participated in this study. those that consented to be named are: allison wanakamik, bernadette kabestra, blanche downey, george kakekaspan, jason storkson, john wabano, kathleen koostachin, lyle thomas, mary miles, and matthew kakekaspan. we also want to thank keewaytinook okimakanak, ko-knet, the ko research institute and ko telemedicine for their valuable support of this project, including accompanying the research team on our visits to fort severn. special thanks to rob mcmahon, postdoctoral fellow at the university of new brunswick for his very helpful comments on an earlier draft. finally, we would like to thank all members of the first nations innovation team for their involvement and helpful feedback along the way. the first nations innovation project (www.fn-innovation-pn.com) is funded by the social sciences and humanities research council of canada (sshrc), with in-kind contributions from the project partners: keewaytinook okimakanak (www.knet.ca), the first nations education council (www.cepn-fnec.com), atlantic canada's first nation help desk (www.firstnationhelp.com) and the university of new brunswick (www.unb.ca). we welcome feedback on this article. comments to: brian.beaton@unb.ca. references aboriginal affairs and northern development canada (2011). aboriginal consultation and accommodation updated guidelines for federal officials 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(2010). first nations schoolnet and the migration of broadband and community-based ict applications. in j. p. white, j. peters, d. beavon, & p. dinsdale (eds), aboriginal policy research vi: learning, technology and traditions (pp.105-117). toronto: thompson educational publishing information and communication technologies (ict) options for local and global communities in health-related crisis management elizabeth avery gomez new jersey institute of technology eag4@njit.edu katia passerini new jersey institute of technology pkatia@njit.edu abstract this paper discusses information and communication technology-driven options for local and global communities aimed at supporting rapid responses to public health emergencies. our examples stem from local groups within the u.s. where various crises have spurred a dynamic response through technology-mediated devices. other examples focus on local communities’ interaction with global philanthropic efforts that are geared towards using ict for addressing training and education needs in health pandemics, such as hiv/aids. recognizing the problem of effective communication and the integration with local crisis responder roles, we discuss options for the use of interoperable devices and protocols that parallel mobile technology’s advancement. we introduce the case of the infectious disease institute treatment and learning center in uganda as an example of global and local community coordination for the treatment and prevention of one of the world’s largest pandemic. our analysis of local and global communities suggests focusing on the management of communication during public health crises to better understand the complexities and variations presented in these communities. leveraging experiences from emergency response efforts, we seek to identify tools that enable effective communication among the different public health stakeholders on a routine basis as a way to prepare for time-sensitive emergencies. we argue that the planning and deployment of effective responses in several countries can be supported by the increased availability of mobile cellular and mobile broadband communication networks both in developed and developing nations. introduction governmental, nongovernmental and private sector organizations are increasingly aware that the solution to health crises, hazards, and pandemics depends on the collaboration and coordination of responders at the local and global community level. in most large scale crises, responders at the local level assume responsibility until global (and often more advanced) resources can intervene or replace them. moreover, the need for effective and interoperable communication between responders during a crisis is essential and must be timely. while ongoing initiatives have enabled new opportunities towards the integration with information and communication technology (ict) for crisis response, the management of communication and information sharing protocols remain a challenge (ict4peace, 2010). for example, electronic health (e-health) emergencies place emphasis on the delivery of information (i.e. medical informatics, public health and healthcare administration) through multiple information and communication technologies and standardized communication protocols (eysenbach, 2001, wfp, 2010). extending the use of technology-mediated devices further, we turn to bio-survellance which is the monitoring of ongoing health-related data and information for the early warning of threats and hazards, the early detection of events, and the rapid characterization of an event so that effective actions can be taken to mitigate adverse health effects (cdc, 2010; kass-hout and zhang, 2010). extending the use of ict tools from routine health protocols and bio-surveillance to the temporary use of advanced ict during crisis response (crisiscommons, 2010) is the focus of this research. being able to determine under what conditions ict access can be made usable and useful (gurstein, 2003) is a consideration for health-related crisis management. overcoming a few ict related barriers such as access and training (salvador and sherry, 2004) for routine activities that involve communication and coordination can increase individual preparedness for the appropriate use of static, mobile and nomadic information and communication devices as they are deployed for a given responder role. in addition to ict tools and incident protocols is the availability of telecommunication resources in a given area. for example, urtubey (2004) discusses the importance of digital convergence for health and social development. urtubey et al. (2004) also refer to extended health service providers (i.e. philanthropic and grassroots organizations), as “remote health actors” stressing their important role and involvement from preparation to the coordination of activities. technological convergence has the potential for social inclusion of these providers by enabling the use of affordable ict connectivity services. “civil society and grassroots organizations are coming up with innovative use of accessible and affordable technologies, particularly mobile telephony, that address their local development challenges in unforeseen ways (gaid, 2009).” community informatics (ci) is the study and the practice of enabling communities with information and communications technologies (icts). “ci seeks to work with communities towards the effective use of icts to improve their processes, achieve their objectives, overcome the "digital divides" that exist both within and between communities, and empower communities and citizens in the range of areas of ict application including for health, cultural production, civic management, e-governance among others enable communities with effective ict usage is also a means to bridge the ‘digital divide’.” (gurstein, 2004). this paper is aligned with the stated community informatics objectives by placing emphasis on local and global communities for specific health-related emergencies. as the health-crisis severity increases, we discuss aligning ict tools and techniques to enable effective use for a given situation (gurstein, 2004), while balancing the interaction among local and global players. spanning from management information systems (mis) desktop access to mobile ict tools of smartphones and pdas, we propose a mix of tools essential for large scale low-richness early warnings and exchanges, as well as dynamic and nomadic ict tools for planning and preparation. we highlight the advanced technologies that have been deployed for health related crises and show examples of the integration with a region’s existing technologies. we stipulate that communities can increase access to mis applications and web-enabled services such as e-health, by identifying the information needs associated with a specific emergency, and then training local respondents on mastering usage of the appropriate devices to maximize the interface with advanced technologies. crisis management, local and global communities, and their interactions crisis management is defined as a way to prepare and control an emergency or to prepare to reach and mitigate the outbreak of a life-binding problem. crises management seeks to respond to both emergencies “dangerous events that can normally be managed at the local level” (canton, 2006) and disasters, defined as “dangerous event that causes significant human and economic loss and demands a crisis response beyond the scope of any single agency or service” (fema, 1996). crisis management has at least three public health drivers: 1) extreme poverty, 2) chronic-illness (obesity, hiv/aids), and 3) crises initiated by disasters (for example, the tsunami, katrina, the haiti earthquake and other natural emergencies). an incident evolves into a crisis when a time factor impacts the lives of citizens and influences the responders (or specialists) who are called upon. the bureau for crisis prevention and recovery at the united nations development programme (undp) notes that while most national governments and relief organizations have made progress in mitigating the impacts of disasters through improved preparedness and early warning, we still view disasters as exceptional natural events that interrupt normal development and that can be managed through humanitarian actions. we need to continue multilateral efforts to prepare for and face emergencies with a multimodal response, both local and global. shifting the perspective to the local level, we highlight the complexities of a community. the definition of a community and its scope may be dramatically affected by the boundaries through which the community is defined (norton et al, 2002). geographic boundaries are found at the local, state, federal and global levels, whereas mission-oriented, religious, cultural, and illness-related boundaries also exist within each of these groups (see figure 1).  norton et al. (2002) state that “it is important to focus not only on geographical or geopolitical boundaries, but also on the nature of ties or connections that exist within communities, including network connections among individuals and inter-organizational relationships”.  in a few words, the focus needs to extend from the physical to the virtual community a group of people who interact through interdependent tasks strengthened by communication technology and guided by a common purpose crossing organizational boundaries (lipnack and stamps, 2000) where a number of additional opportunities (but also challenges) reside. for instance, the use of social media such as facebook and twitter during the 2010 haiti earthquake enabled interactions between haiti and other countries but protocols for communication were implemented as the response effort evolved. being able to leverage virtual groups enabled the coordination of external resources which in turn enabled other local resources. preparedness and pre-established protocols may in fact extend the chance of more timely reactions (independent from physical infrastructure or co-presence) as witnessed thereafter with the hawaii tsunami warnings for evacuation in february 2010 (latimes, 2010). for example, ict can play a critical role in supporting public health and the management of medical emergencies by bridging the gap between local and global communities through the establishment of a connection and communication link which may join the ad hoc virtual community, which has been temporarily brought together with the objective of preparing for a medical emergency. the limited infrastructure in haiti when the earthquake took place demonstrates the critical need to bridge the connectivity gap and also highlights strides that can be made. a crisis that has geographical implications, such as in hurricane katrina in the u.s., introduces the importance of local public health community infrastructure. moreover, hooke and rogers (2005) discuss health risks associated with crisis and remind us how important the role of crisis management and public health is within a community. turoff et al. (2004), refer to organizational emergencies where implications can have a macro-social effect causing harm to people outside of the organizational jurisdiction or boundary, initiating a concern from local, state and federal agencies. examples of such emergencies include: the bp oil spill, bhopal, three mile island, the tylenol poisoning event, and the exxon valdez. recognizing that the landscape of the public health sector community has multiple boundaries, ranging from local grassroots organizations to global public health agencies and providers, the management of communication is needed in more than one organizational level (figure 1). crisis management relies on communication patterns that must be clearly mapped, enabled and coordinated across the multiple boundaries. these include the use of ict. information systems, and especially ict, which can for example, support inter-agency coordination and multimodal preparation and response. figure 1. spanning geographic boundaries (adapted from gomez & turoff, 2006) figure 1 provides an example of community boundaries and the number of stakeholders that require coordination and interaction at both the local and global levels of a crisis or disaster. this level of interaction requires training and coordination of a large number of players especially when the boundaries span to a virtual ad hoc global collaborative setting. determining the collaboration boundaries that exist on a regular basis between stakeholders in a local and global community enables an understanding of resource sharing needs during the planning stages to better coordinate responses in a crisis. global collaboration may involve multiple large-scale players for occasional and targeted initiatives or for long-term worldwide crisis prevention plans. for example, stakeholders and organizations in the philanthropies group are increasingly moving beyond the time-limited ad hoc role to participate in long-term engagements beyond in-cash donations. they are transforming their relationships into an “integrative” dimension (austin, 2000), whereby their collaboration embeds high levels of managerial support, multi-year resource commitments, and the inclusion of the donation programs and objectives in the strategic company framework. spanning across geographic boundaries can be by ict through the deployment of virtual teams and computer-mediated communications (cmc) tools across physical communities. examples of local communities local service-based organizations who serve the people in a community extend beyond public health and support many common initiatives. these organizations work with the community frequently in a hands-on capacity. an understanding of the local community landscapes and protocols for emergency response escalation can enable effective solutions to public health issues. the collaboration during a crisis initiates the formation of a crisis response team, defined as “a real and virtual community of specialists and experts that must have unrestricted access to one another and is able to act as a collective” (gomez et al., 2006; turoff et al., 2004; hardeman, et al., 1998; weick 1993, 1995).  training and regular use of ict can increase preparedness of these responders who may need to initiate a call for assistance from either inside or outside of the local community. service-based responders, who find themselves responding to health-related emergencies (i.e. epidemic outbreak, bioterrorism), often form part of the crisis response team, yet research shows they are not accustomed to the use of technology-mediated communication devices. grassroots organizations and self-help groups grassroots organizations in local communities are comprised of local people working together to find solutions in their communities (idealist, 2006). these practitioners are trained for their organizational positions, but often lack information and communication technology (ict) specific training due to limited financial resources as mentioned by the institute of medicine (2003). moreover, these organizations often have a more limited infrastructure and a narrower range of organizational roles and reporting hierarchies. as a result, they may rely on larger external organizational structures for guidance (i.e. centers for disease control, state and federal public health offices). nonetheless, these local organizations who step forward in a crisis are invaluable in reaching community citizens and attending to their specialized needs. the specialized skills of these responders who form part of a community crisis response team are based on their organizational mission and community of interest. these practitioners do not always report to an office regularly or work with the other practitioners in their organization on a regular basis. however, they are accustomed to changing roles, responsibilities and filling-in for others as-needed providing the “on-call” status a crisis warrants. self-help groups are among the organizations in a local community available to aid citizens. these groups are comprised of volunteer practitioners with skills that are relevant to their respective organization. the premis of the self-help group is to generate a casual information exchange or assist with resources and provide a source of mutual aid. self-help groups are driven by people’s needs to find others like themselves who have experienced a similar problem. these volunteers are motivated by passion and the cause which links them to the needs and organizations. their informal structure and flexible nature encourage changing roles, and peer-to-peer relationships along a horizontal continuum (st. clares, 2002). they are also an invaluable resource in a crisis that relates to the special needs of the group represented. examples of global communities global organizations also play a role in ensuring public health goals. collaboration across government public health authorities have taken place with private sector health care providers, insurers, managed care companies, and nonprofit religious organizations to provide, directly or indirectly, various public health services (gostin and hodge, 2002). these organizations provide large contributions that are more global or recurrent in nature and are not as hands-on with the community on a daily basis. gerencser, napolitano and van lee illustrate the concept of global organizations for public health and emergency preparedness by introducing the term “megacommunity.” a megacommunity is “a larger ongoing sphere of interest, where governments, corporations, ngos, and others intersect over time. the participants remain interdependent because their common interest compels them to work together, even so they might not see or describe their mutual problem or situation in the same way.” (gerencser et al., 2006, p.82). examples of such megacommunities are found in the coalitions for the prevention of several emergencies. these include communities focused on fighting the spread of hiv/aids in india (initiated by the global business coalition on hiv/aids, booz allen hamilton and the confederation of indian industry) and various others in environmental and development areas. philanthropic organizations as global community partners several foundations, public and private donors, and large corporations are increasingly involved in supporting social causes in transnational environments. corporations are progressively focusing on promoting social growth through donations. (conlin et al, 2004). in addition to monetary resources, private involvement also brings intellectual capital (in terms of knowledge and core competencies), in-kind donations (medicines), and can leverage specific business competencies such as logistics, distribution, and technology use. private involvement in philanthropic initiatives is being driven by a raising awareness that the world is facing complexities that cannot be resolved by independent actors. examples of such business-led philanthropic efforts are found across industries. in the pharmaceutical sector, a large multinational conglomerate (“big pharma”) supported large infrastructure projects such as the building of a hospital in uganda (the infectious disease institute –idiin kampala). in the idi project, big pharma employees leveraged their specialist knowledge and business management experience to take leading roles in project management (playing project managers and content experts, as well as medical educatros roles), and provided resources to help with the strategic, tactical and operational aspects of the center construction. in addition, they provided consultation and other support, including free access to treatment medicines. n other projects, big pharma employees offered technical service and knowledge to support medical treatments in areas of crisis and as well they have been deployed to help in reconstruction after emergencies. they have also contributed to health preparedness by enhancing science education and community health and services. personnel rotated through numerous assignments, from responders to emergencies, to teachers and infrastructure building support. in uganda, the big pharma ict employees supported the development of new health information systems applications with new interfaces easier to use for the local health provider communities. the installation of satellite receivers also enabled moving the idi into a distance learning center promoting affordable access to ict’s, ensuring equal access for women and girls, and overcoming infrastructure limitations in rural or disadvantaged areas (usaid, 2006). among the success factors of the idi were the deployment of efficient communication tools and training deployment. both levels of community (global and local) intervention and coordination are needed to solve some of the complex emergencies the world faces today. such coordination, planning, establishing communications patterns and responses are critical endeavors to guarantee successful response. for example, on january 31, 2006, a mine accident occurred in saskatchewan, canada which demonstrated how training and prevention at the local community level could protect the health of the miners while emergency rescue efforts were taking place (cotter, 2006; isaacs, 2006). one of the interesting results was the demonstrated preparedness and collaboration at the local level of all parties involved ranging from the individuals impacted in the incident, the union workers, and the emergency response teams. the training and availability of health-related supplies provided time for the emergency response effort to evolve. ensuring the safety of the miners reduced the health-related threats while rescue efforts continued. successful communication and coordination, including routine practice drills also contributed to the rescue efforts where communication patterns and contacts had been established prior to the emergency. issues in the local-global community continuum the transition from local to global (visible in figure 1), and the management of related interactions, poses a number of coordination difficulties. typical examples of activities to be managed among the local-global stakeholders during a crisis include: direction and control definition or implementation, warning systems, emergency public information deployments, evacuation, provision of mass care, health and medical access and resource management. these activities, usually carried over at the local level, need to be coordinated through clear and effective communication channels when the size and scope of the emergency spans to the global community (disasters and pandemics). this coordination is essential for a meaningful and effective response. speaking at an international hiv/aids conference in washington dc (kaiser foundation, 2004), dr. ralph shrader, ceo of booz allen hamilton, remarked that in large scale problem-management he constantly witnesses a high need for leadership and collaboration. this is particularly true in the fight of a pandemic such as hiv/aids. “the idea is that if you are going to look at a problem like aids, you are going to need to bring the people at a national or federal level, the state or regional level, and the local level, government together.. but then you also need to involve all the other players and stakeholders.” booz allen was engaged in a simulation project in india where it brought together governmental leaders, people from the healthcare industry, pharmaceuticals, and other stakeholders to estimate the possible scenarios of hiv/aids diffusion in the country. the key message of the two-day simulation exercise was, from dr. shrader’s point of view, the absolute necessity for multilateral collaboration. “but not just collaboration at a superficial level, collaboration at a level which requires you to subordinate a lot of your own interests and ideas for the greater good.” in the simulation conducted in india, which consisted of trying to identify multiple ‘war game’ scenarios of hiv spread over the years, it was clear that even less than a 1% growth level (which in india is still a significant amount of people) could bring the indian health care system to an economic collapse. to be able to coordinate this level of emergencies, “planning, preparedness and communication (ppc)” needs to be managed from the global to the local level. discussion on which entities should be in charge of this training and preparation at the municipal, regional, national and global level, however interesting and necessary, are beyond the scope of this discussion; rather we are focusing on how ict can contribute to “preparedness” to be able to reach (and therefore implement the plans or the standard operating procedures defined to deal with emergencies) during the multiple stages of a crisis (pre-crisis, initial crisis impact, continued crisis impact, and post-crisis). availability of training with and distribution of cellular mobile and nomadic devices (including the tablet computers later described) can support increasing the effectiveness along the crisis management chain because of their portability and their media-rich characteristics enabling connectivity to information resources and multimodal responses (video-messaging, large-scale text-based push alerts, data and voice communication). how ict can help: effective communication through ict tools xue (2004) mentions, that public health emergency response requires a low-degree of mediation and a high degree of collaboration. moreover, protecting global public heath is important and should be orchestrated through worldwide coordination. xue (2004) also notes that developing countries have “relatively fewer resources to deal with public health emergencies” and also less broadband infrastructure which in turn limits the use of ict tools. communication management and collaboration can be improved by varying the use of ict tools based on the nature of the crisis and need for mobility. for example, a mobile cellular (narrowband) device can interface with a broadband service thereby leveraging broadband services. a recent example was presented during the 2010 haiti earthquake where a person finder application was developed that received sms text-messages from mobile cellular (narrowband) devices and interfaced with broadband services that were coordinating person finder requests google, 2010). an understanding of ict tools and capabilities including knowledge of communications and media-richness is fundamental to completing tasks such as those resulting from person finder. understanding the technology-fit to specific emergency tasks, specifically to event response as characterized by different levels of “uncertainty” (figure 2), is briefly presented to highlight the importance of aligning tasks and communication tools. daft and lengel’s (1986) media richness theory dates back to 1984 and is based on two forces: uncertainty and equivocality. using rich media for rich information is predicted to resolve ambiguity and equivocality. face-to-face (ftf) is considered a rich media. however, media of low richness is predicted to be most effective in resolving uncertainty. in our person finder example, uncertainty was the primary focus and only limited ict resources were available. one of the few ict resources that could be deployed was sms text-messaging which is considered a low-richness medium. sms played an important role in haiti, which was a large scale disaster. with a collapsed infrastructure, sms was available at the onset of the crisis for communication management until external relief organizations arrived with mobile broadband services. following this, and focusing on the preparedness phase of emergency management, sms text-messaging for emergency preparedness alert notifications is continuously increasing. early adopters of sms for alert notifications include: the district of columbia (2006) and the city of san francisco (hicks, 2003). we note that a low-degree of mediation in a high mobility crisis would lend itself to the low richness of sms text-messaging. focusing on the management of communication and information exchange between responders, we highlight media synchronicity theory (mst), which details the extent to which a communication environment encourages individuals to work together on the same activity, with the same information, at the same time (dennis and valacich, 1998; mcgrath, 1991). mst differs from media richness theory by placing emphasis on an outcome-centered approach to media selection. whereas media richness theory has taken a task-centered perspective on task-media fit, mst proposes that every group communication process is composed of two primary processes, conveyance and convergence that are necessary to reach a group outcome (dennis and valacich, 1998). communication effectiveness will be enhanced when processes are aligned with media that support the communication process (dennis and valacich, 1998). in the case of health emergencies, the task consists of trying to resolve crisis situations with limited information but with high collaboration and synchronicity. as well there is a limited ability for technology mediation, especially when faced with geographic implications magnifying the need for a task-technology fit (lim and benbasat, 2000; goodhue and thompson, 1995; tan and benbasat, 1993; vessey, 1991; vessey and galetta, 1991).  having the right technology for a task is essential. the communication medium must be suitable for that objective. we posit that mobile communication tools may support the communication processes and needs of emergency situations, ceteris paribus (that is assuming that these tools are connected and accessible during emergencies) with care taken to understand the configuration of ict resources (e.g narrowband.or broadband) available. mobile media options mobile devices – such as pagers, cellular phones, personal digital assistants, nomadic tablet computers (laptops with embedded touch screens and wireless connectivity cards) -can play a pivotal role in emergency situations as they can serve three purposes: to be reachable anywhere and at anytime, to obtain information while in an outreach situation; and, to be ‘visible’ and traceable through a device enabled with gps positioning capabilities. a mobile device maximizes flexibility, increases timeliness to reach community partners, and increases readiness for a crisis related health alert. recognizing the ict limitations of both mobile devices and telecommunication services (narrowband and broadband), we posit that protocols and standards for communicating (sending and receiving) can be created to ease interactions during emergencies. most mobile devices have functionality that can be leveraged both with and without broadband service. although data transfer capabilities are increasing through wireless-wide area cellular third generation network channels, the deployment in remote areas lags behind. moreover, the capabilities of many existing devices are still limited and require the need to shrink data (volume of information) and content of ‘what’ is communicated. in addition to connectivity options on the mobile device, it is important to identify codes and alter messages that may quickly trigger responses, for example through a specific set of pre-loaded icons or tools (as for example, the already famous ‘emoticons’ used in chat rooms). one advantage of low-mediation of mobile devices with access to a command and control process is to complement the infrastructure of developing nations. health-initiatives in latin america, africa, and asia are introducing alerts and reminders for preventative care and the communication of critical information (srivastava, 2004). there are a number of mobile devices, connectivity options, and communication needs that may be suitable to manage responses in an emergency situation. each communication medium enables different levels of message richness (through multiple media such as voice, text, graphics and videos) that may in turn offer higher or lower richness capabilities (as presented in figure 2). some of these communication tools may not be easily managed in an emergency context due to electrical and connectivity requirements (the same being true for most communication tools). therefore, while we can plan for their deployment, we always need to consider back-up options, such as the possibility to roam on satellite links should the cellular towers become unavailable. for example, iridium low-orbit satellites (leo) that offer world-wide coverage when no landline or wireless service is available, can provide a back-up solution for computer, cellular and pager communications through a variety of satellite-compatible devices (usaid, 2006). other possibilities rely on solar rechargeable batteries and chips, such as those currently being tested or already available on satellite equipment. figure 2. crisis management lifecycle (adapted from gomez & turoff (2006)) these tools provide different levels of mobility across communication and emergency responses. as noted in figure 2, the need for mobility varies based on the phase of the crisis lifecycle. in the pre-crisis (i.e. planning stages), increased access to information and communication systems is imperative for accurate monitoring of alerts and in assessing resources and supplies. once the severity of the crisis increases, increased mobility is needed. as the crisis evolves, practitioners begin to move across the community interfacing with resources that may be stationary in their respective roles. post crises events and the return to normality reduce the need for mobility. leveraging ict for advanced planning, communication and coordination is essential for local communities to implement crisis management. collaboration with global communities adds value through extended access to resources and specialized knowledge. the nature of a crisis will determine ict usage options. disasters with infrastructure impacts and high field response will increase mobility and limit access to management information systems tools whereas a contagious disease outbreak would decrease the need for mobility and increase the need for mis systems. moreover, a disaster related crisis such as hurricane katrina or the south-asian tsunami have time implications with accelerated pressure to quickly respond to replace the impacted infrastructure resources. the stringent time implications place emphasis on the importance of preparation, planning, communication, and coordination. examples of ict uses in communities examples from us-focused initiatives and pilots recognizing where technology can improve communication with partners (haddow and bullock, 2003); community initiatives were introduced in the district of columbia and the city of san francisco. many communities are turning to wireless communication to support both crisis response agencies and citizens based on the experience) of both the september 11 attack and hurricane katrina (haddow and bullock, 2003. the lack of clear lines of communication are but one gap between partnering agencies, practitioners and local community citizens (haddow and bullock, 2003. the 2005 hurricanes throughout louisiana and florida prompted, the district of columbia (washington) to dedicate two websites to the community and how they should respond in the event of a man-made or natural disaster. viewing these catastrophes as lessons learned for the rest of the country, dc has initiated steps for its residents for preparedness in the event of an emergency evacuation (dc, 2006). the dc office of emergency management and the emergency information center were established to list services and information, area maps with evacuation routes and agency news affecting the community (dc, 2006). on the emergency information center site, community members can participate in “alert dc” which is a three part notification system that has:  text alerts (citizens enroll online, identify their text capable device and access number), voice alerts (citizens are automatically enrolled, information is transmitted about impending or actual incidents which give proactive instructions to front-line responders for dissemination into the community), and an emergency alert system (for local media outlets and radio stations where emergency messages are broadcast). the varying roles of the public health community practitioner (see figure 2) demonstrate how the use of mobile devices could vary in relation to what is currently being utilized in dc for their emergency preparedness efforts. dating back to january 2002, the city of san francisco began initiatives through wireless communications towards improved public safety (haddow and bullock, 2003), such as becoming the first 9-1-1 center in california to receive wireless 9-1-1 calls placed from cell phones (hicks, 2003). google proposed free city-wide internet wi-fi to the city of san francisco to test local internet services (reuters, 2005). however, levy (2006) also highlights needs for underserved communities to have access to affordable computers, appropriate training, and technical support. examples from globally-focused initiatives on e-health education to reach a globally dispersed network of staff and partners, the united nation population fund (unfpa) established an ict-supported distance learning program to provide health education in critical areas. currently, the education process comprises six courses that cover reproductive health and population health issues. the courses run on-line for eight weeks where the learners (usually staff members and key member countries’ government or ngos stakeholders) receive on-line personalized tutoring. e-mail is the main means of communication, but some courses provide access to video, audio or multimedia cd-roms (with these media physically shipped to the learners to overcome access limitations). another example with global reach is the global medical broadcasting and telemedicine network for health education. medical missions for children (mmc http://www.mmissions.org/index.html ) is a us-based charity that freely offers educational materials dealing with chronically ill children to healthcare professionals in underserved areas. the charity helps catastrophically ill children by means of their telemedicine outreach program (top). this extends the expertise of medical specialists (from about 100 countries worldwide) to underserved communities by electronically linking a physician with a patient in a remote location. the electronic link provides just-in-time medical knowledge and is supported by an extensive use of ict tools. mmc also partners with the world bank and the global development and learning network by supplying access to their medical network and libraries to the bank’s client countries. drivers of long-term ict emergency response sustainability the rationale for supporting and encouraging an ict-driven long-term emergency response go beyond the preliminary list of examples presented earlier to include a response to the digital divide. ict diffusion in developing economies is already making considerable inroads and offering opportunities not only for coordinated response but also for development. the economist, in an article published in march 2005, referred to ict, and particularly cellular and radio wireless access, as key drivers for economic development in traditionally disadvantaged countries (economist, 2005). urtubey (2004) also mentions opportunities for disadvantaged countries noting the endorsement by governments with the creation of the institute for connectivity in the america’s (ica) with its focus on scalable initiatives in the latin american and caribbean regions. data from the united nations conference on trade and development (unctad, 2006) shows that less developed regions such as africa, latin america and some countries in asia have higher yearly mobile penetration growth rates than europe, north america and oceania. this indicates a great potential for service expansion in these countries. although these developing economies cannot afford to deploy large-scale wired infrastructure (srivastava, 2004), the deployment of wireless connectivity (which is cheaper than implementing traditional fixed-line infrastructure) enables accessing communication services and somewhat sophisticated applications and databases. for example, africa, which has been substantially growing its information infrastructure over the last decade (aed, 1999; plane, 2002), also ranks highest in terms of telecommunications services revenue as a percent of gross domestic product (5 percent as displayed in figure 3), followed by oceania (4.5 percent) and asia (3.8 percent). notes: data from itu world telecommunications indicators database itu (2006) figure 3: telecom sector contribution to economic growth nevertheless, if we look at mobile penetration in absolute terms, regional differences, while lower, are still very high with europe leading with about 9 mobile phone subscribers out of 10 inhabitants, a penetration rate about eight times higher than africa and four times higher than asia in 2004 (itu, 2006, pg. 5) (cao, yi et al. 2004). while the benefits of ict in developing countries is promising, telecommunications infrastructures in most developing countries is insufficient (gurstein, 2003). wireless technologies may soon bring real opportunities for leapfrogging (economist, 2005). the growth of the telecommunication sector will also be driven by upcoming revenue opportunities (even in less-developed / lower income countries). the impact of the telecommunications sector evolution on a country’s economic growth has been increasing over time, reaching a maximum of 12 percent growth during the dot.com bubble of 2001-02 (itu, 2006). such a sustained growth is fueling domestic development in several countries.  these observations suggest that leveraging (and investing) in an ict emergency response (provided that access is followed by large scale training) is not only desirable but also sustainable in the long-term. development of faster, solar-powered ict tools is further encouraging optimism for a long term sustainable impact. conclusions information and communication technologies may support crisis response both at the local and global levels. a review of examples focusing on ict-based crisis response implementation in health education initiatives in the us and globally, with a particular focus on africa, show that there are multiple ways to leverage information technologies to support preparing for and solving local and global emergencies. research based on media-richness and task-technology fit literatures suggests that the benefits of the deployment of different sets of mobile tools to support different players and phases of a crisis. low-cost access to ict is essential and instrumental for local communities, especially those in developing countries or areas of extreme poverty. beginning with cost-effective low-richness tools maximizing their full-potential for effective use, we believe that these ict tools can compensate for the high deployment costs associated with large wired infrastructures. while the challenges are many, recent events have spurred a large interest and focus on planning for emergencies and coordinating multiple communication channels. for these tools to be effective, large scale training and local adaptation of ict technology is necessary, as shown in the infectious disease institute software adaptation and redesign of health information systems software that could meet local requirements. while some organizations have already initiated successful training initiatives, achieving proficiency that may lead to increased adoption by community responders still remains a challenge. however, overcoming this challenge will be the first step in preparing a serious and sustainable response. references 1.   alert dc. welcome to alert dc. https://textalert.ema.dc.gov/, 2006. 2.  austin, j. e. the collaboration challenge. a peter drucker foundation leadership book. jossey-bass publishers, san francisco, ca, 2000. 3. canton, l.g. emergency management: concepts and strategies for effective programs. wiley-interscience, 2007. 4. cdc. defining biosurveillance for human 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[on-line http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/sdteedc20051_en.pdf ], 2006. 48.    urtubey, x., felgaer, p., uminsky, f., orezzoli, p., petrich, m., munante, c., zadra, r. integrating remote health actors to an e-health intuitive cooperation platform development. ieee: ideas-digital hospital, 2004. 49.    usaid, http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/economic_growth_and_trade/info_ technology/approach/ict_access.html, 2006. 50.    vessey, i. cognitive fit: a theory-based analysis of the graphs versus. decision sciences, (22), 1991, pp. 219-240. 51.    vessey, i., and galletta, d.f. cognitive fit: an empirical study of information acquisition. information systems research (2), 1991, pp. 63-84. 52.    weick, k. the collapse of sensemaking in organizations: the mann gulch disaster. administrative sciences quarterly, 1993, 38, pp. 628-652. 53.    weick, k. sensemaking in organizations, thousand oaks, ca: sage, 1995. 54.    wfp. ict emergency response overview. retrieved march 2010 from http://ictemergency.wfp.org/group/ictepr/17. 55.    xue, y, liang, h., he, y, and bolton, w. is-driven process reengineering: china’s public health emergency response to the sars crisis. amcis, 2004, new york. community & technologies challenges and opportunities for future research  michael gurstein (1) & volker wulf (2) editor in chief: the journal of community informatics, vancouver, canada. email: gurstein@gmail.com  information systems and new media, university of siegen; fraunhofer institute for applied information systems (fhg-fit), germany. email: volker.wulf@uni-siegen.de  in september 2003, the biannual conference series 'communities and technologies (c&t)' was started with a meeting in amsterdam attracting some 350 participants and operating somewhat in parallel with the more policy, advocacy and practice-oriented community informatics (ci) conferences in prato, italy which began in 2002.  10 years later it is worth looking back to evaluate what has been achieved for both streams of community-oriented ict research and to identify convergences, overlaps divergences and common paths and challenges for future research, advocacy, policy and practice.  for both the c&t and ci streams the concepts 'communities' as well as 'technologies' are somewhat contested. there are considerable debates about the existence/manifestation, importance, and definition of the term 'community' (tönnies, durkheim, etzioni, nancy, rheingold, among others). even as the terminology of "community" appears to be coming into wider and wider general use (by facebook to describe its groupings, by some to talk about the entire conglomeration of internet users (icann), and increasingly by environmentalists to talk about all in the context of threats to mankind) the term seems to become ever more fuzzy and difficult to grasp as the boundaries blur between the physical and the virtual (and back again).  even as definitions become more difficult the task of using icts as a means to develop and strengthen communities and to enable and empower communities in the face of implacable issues and overwhelming threats becomes ever greater. there are thus good reasons to focus specifically on the boundary-spanning activities at the edges of communities. given the fact that it artifacts are becoming ubiquitous in peoples' lives, it is worth investigating their role in shaping and enabling the social practices of communities.  the concept of 'technology' is equally manifold and quickly changing. in 2003, both the c&t and the ci communities looked at a world which was not yet widely networked by social media applications such as facebook or twitter. mobile phones were still in an infant state in many countries of the developing world. broadband was still in its infancy as a means for intensive digital transfer and dramatically widening the range of ict applications. meanwhile, the considerable development of technologies offering additional and advanced potentials for appropriation by communities has deepened and widened the scope of possible research and practice while maintaining the broad framework of requirements and opportunities.  schuler's (2009) exploration of communities, ict, and civic intelligence raises several relevant issues: "why focus on the relationship between communities and technology? the implication is that the two somewhat ill-defined entities are involved in a dynamic and possibly antagonistic interplay and, at the very least, each has the potential to influence the other. one provocative yet reasonable response to the question is that it enables us to explore the broad potential of collective intelligence engendered by new ict." some of this potential involves the role of icts in the delivery of locally developed and controlled services, the empowerment of communities through the use of icts and so on. we need to explore the way it technologies become an infrastructure for any community. on the one hand, their appropriation may become a self-organized activity of community members. on the other hand, the development and introduction of information technology may be at the initiation of actors external to the community to be served. therefore, projects in the domain of community and technologies can contain very different levels and layers of participation.  this special issue offers a collection of position papers discussing the state of the art and future research challenges in the field of communities & technologies and community informatics and represents the beginnings of a more formal convergence and "reconciliation" of the two communities. early versions of these papers were initially presented at a workshop held at the university of siegen in january 22 24th, 2014.  ——— schuler, d. (2009, june). communities, technology, and civic intelligence. in proceedings of the fourth international conference on communities and technologies (pp. 61-70). acm.  evaluating ict adoption in rural brazil: a quantitative analysis of telecenters as agents of social change evaluating ict adoption in rural brazil: a quantitative analysis of telecenters as agents of social change [1]     paola prado roger williams university   mauro a câmara faculdade pitágoras   marco a. figueiredo loyola university maryland   abstract: this quantitative study surveyed 538 adults in isolated rural settings in the state of minas gerais, brazil, to examine whether telecenters operated by the non-profit organization gems of the earth improve digital literacy and promote social change. using multivariate logistic regression, the study examined how individuals use information and communication technologies (icts) at the telecenter, and tested for predictors of their use. the findings confirm that these rural communities use icts for entertainment, to engage in civic participation, and to practice professional skills. the findings suggest that digital inclusion impacts these isolated communities by creating opportunities that may foster human development. keywords: community informatics, telecenters, information and communication technologies, ict4d, digital inclusion, digital divide   following the declaration of principles and a plan of action adopted at the 2003 world summit of the information society, a number of latin american nations have sought to meet millennium development goals of digital inclusion through initiatives that promote universal access policies and facilitate the creation of community technology centers, or telecenters, where public access to icts is made available to less privileged communities at minimal cost or free of charge (international telecommunications union [itu], 2003).  telecenters have been defined as public spaces that provide access to communication and information technologies that range from telephone connections and other office equipment such as facsimiles, to internet-enabled computers (proenza, bastidas-buch, & montero, 2001). whereas the sustainability and long-term viability of telecenters is often measured against pre-determined benchmarks, such as the number of computer users and jobs created as a result of workforce training programs (eastin & larose, 2000; gumucio-dagron, 2003; gurstein, 2003; whyte, 1999; whyte, 2000), development communication scholars who adhere to a participatory approach realize that community perceptions of social change form an integral part of any diffusion of innovation. in a similar manner, community informatics researchers are increasingly considering the role played by face-to-face interactions, cultural production, community values, behaviors, and the socially-relevant context within which individuals adopt the use of icts (norris, 2001; servon, 2002). as the discipline evolves, more studies are needed to understand how ict tools are adopted, rather than why. the present study replicates methods previously used to evaluate telecenter adoption in rural areas of the caribbean to analyze the diffusion of information and communication technologies (icts) in one such remote area. it examines how two small rural mountain communities in minas gerais, brazil, adopted icts made available by the gemas da terra (gems of the earth) non-profit network of telecenters, and in what ways their use of this innovation improved digital literacy, helped bridge the digital divide, and promoted positive social change. it begins by briefly recapping prior research on latin american telecenters, their mission to foster digital inclusion, and the state of ict adoption in brazil, the focus of this special issue. next, it describes the non-profit telecenter network examined in this case study. it then proposes an alternative conceptual model for telecenter evaluation, expanding the definition of effectiveness beyond technologically deterministic metrics of digital literacy and competence to include contextually-relevant, self-defined reports on how individuals use icts. lastly, it analyzes survey results and discusses community perceptions of telecenter impact in the remote rural communities where the study took place. telecenters and digital inclusion throughout latin america, the number of telecenters continues to grow exponentially since the first such public access facilities opened in the late 1990s, yet there is scant empirical evidence to indicate that their existence promotes digital inclusion in the communities they serve.  case studies and anecdotal evidence recorded at telecenter operations in the region have yet to yield, from a development communication perspective, comprehensive empirical findings about how icts are being adopted at telecenters in these countries. still, a growing body of research that charts the evolution of telecenters in brazil (bossio, 2006; sorj, 2001; sorj, 2003), colombia (amariles, paz, russell, & johnson, 2006; parkinson & lauzon, 2008; parkinson & ramirez, 2006; vallejo montoya, 2007), the dominican republic (granqvist, 2005; prado, 2009), mexico (robertson, 1998), and peru (heeks & león, 2009) examines how ict access impacts social justice and human development. the latter line of research has yielded evidence about the different ways in which icts are being used at the telecenters, yet further study is needed to determine whether the reduction of digital poverty positively impacts communal prosperity, systemic inequality, and human well-being. ict adoption in brazil in brazil, more than one-third (39.2%) of the population enjoyed internet access in 2009 (itu, 2010). while 23.85% of households claimed to have access to the internet, only 5.92% had broadband connectivity (itu, 2010). mobile broadband users accounted for 4.47% of the population (itu, 2010). internet reach in the country surpassed that of every major nation in the southern cone, ahead of neighboring chile (32.5%), which adopted universal access policies ahead of brazil, and argentina, where less than one-third (28.1%) of the population is online, despite slightly higher rates of broadband penetration (8% ) (itu, 2010). the rate of internet access in brazil more closely compares to that of its andean neighbor colombia, where 38.5% of the population is online (itu, 2010). several agencies of the brazilian government have enacted universal digital inclusion policies as part of a three-fold national strategy that encourages adoption of personal computers, promotes universal access in public schools, and establishes public ict access points (mori & assumpção, 2007). yet, given the vast geographical distances in the expansive brazilian territory, sparsely populated, less privileged rural communities barely register in the national geopolitical map and remain, for the most part, isolated from global trends and far removed from government action and support. in one such area of brazil, nestled in the mountainous state of minas gerais, a group of rural localities was among the first to break the chain of isolation with the establishment of a non-profit network of telecenters which have made it feasible for those communities to access the information society. the gems of the earth telecenter network the gems of the earth rural community telecenter network was established as a brazilian non-government organization (ngo) in september 2003 to facilitate the formation and operation of telecenters in small brazilian rural communities of less than 2,500 inhabitants. the mission of the ngo is to empower isolated rural communities through the use of icts in order to promote social and economic development through the integration of the population into the information society (figueiredo, camara, and sabin, 2006). prior to the creation of the ngo, a pilot project was incubated over a period of two years with the assistance of funivale, itself a long-established ngo that operates in one of the poorest areas of the brazilian northeast, the jequitinhonha valley. this period of research and development served to identify an appropriate methodology to deploy community telecenters in remote rural communities of the country (figueiredo, 2005).  following that period, the gems of the earth ngo set up headquarters in belo horizonte, the capital of the state of minas gerais, where it established a telecenter network linking the rural communities of conselheiro mata, milho verde, rodeador, são gonçalo do rio das pedras, and tombadouro. except for rodeador, which sits at the base of the backbone range (serra do espinhaço), the communities are located at the top of the mountain range, more than a thousand meters above sea level. this region hosts the springs that converge to form the jequitinhonha and velhas rivers. conselheiro mata, rodeador, and tombadouro are in the velhas river basin. milho verde and são gonçalo do rio das pedras are located in the jequitinhonha river basin. this region of the state is renowned for the mining of gold and precious stones that dates back to the late seventeenth century. the vast riches that flowed from this area to the portuguese crown placed it among the wealthiest areas of brazil until the twentieth century, when mining yields subsided. nowadays, gold, diamonds, and other precious stones no longer abound and the region is primarily known for its historical traditions. the rural communities that host the gems of the earth network were established during the gold rush and remain to this day bastions of mineiro [2] culture. each of these communities stands as a rural district adjoining a nearby urban area. geopolitically, they belong to the municipalities of datas, diamantina, monjolos, and serro. they are connected to the urban centers through an average of 30 kilometers of unpaved roads that can be reached in a one-hour long drive. for the most part, the communities lack direct representation in local government, unless one of their members is elected to the council of representatives of their respective municipality. a number of regional, national, and global civil society organizations are represented in the communities, among them funivale, the san francis of assisi association, and the christian fund. there are also local community associations. the gems of the earth telecenters are being hosted in their respective community associations as an incubation project. each community association provides the room for the telecenter and pays for utilities such as electricity and water. each telecenter is equipped with at least two computers, a multi-function unit providing printer, copier, scanner and fax, and broadband internet access via satellite, which the community gets to use at a nominal fee. the telecenters do not offer digital literacy training programs or structured activities of any sort. instead, it is up to those individuals in the community who know how to use the internet to coach others. as an incentive, those who volunteer their time to train peers get to use the facilities free of charge. as the telecenters grow in community support and resources to serve the community, they are expected to become a separate ngo, directly associated with the gems of the earth network ngo, whose assembly that selects its steering and fiscal committees are composed of the elected presidents of the telecenter ngo of each of the communities. this model provides for direct representation of the communities in the affairs of the telecenter network organization. the two communities which provide the setting for this study share a past rich in culture and tradition in a remote mountain terrain populated largely by agricultural workers descended from african slaves who once worked the mines and tended the fields in the region’s formerly vibrant extractive industry. in the years since the decline of mining, and until the relatively recent advent of telephony and internet connectivity, these communities subsisted in isolation from outside markets and existed to a large extent beyond the daily reach of government services. their location atop a mountain range that lies beyond major commercial transportation routes perpetuated longstanding patterns of social exclusion and limited opportunities for development. they thus provide a privileged setting in which to examine the impact of digital inclusion in promoting social change. milho verde milho verde is located an estimated five kilometers from são gonçalo do rio das pedras, a rural locality that is also part of the gems of the earth network. the two communities sit between the historic cities of serro and diamantina, in what is known as the estrada real [3], or royal road, the major transportation link that connected the center of the mining region to rio de janeiro, which was the capital of brazil during the years of the gold rush. milho verde’s ties to brazil’s mining history draws a profitable tourist trade and positions the area as a favored site for vacation homes in the state of minas gerais. tombadouro the community of tombadouro is located 50 kilometers from são gonçalo do rio das pedras. the community is well organized around a group of rural workers who run a farming cooperative responsible for meeting most of the community’s food needs and markets surplus crops outside the area. members of the cooperative constructed most of the homes and buildings in tombadouro, including the one that houses the community telecenter. the group also runs a daycare center, a cultural center, and sports complex. the community is served by one catholic church, two evangelical temples, and one public school where k-12 instruction is available. fixed line telephony is accessible at three public telephone booths and in a few private homes. at first, the telecenter was the only place with access to broadband internet. more recently, the government of the state of minas gerais installed broadband internet via satellite in the public school and a local entrepreneur established a privately-operated, for-profit lan-house with radio-enabled broadband connectivity. the facility offers paid computer and internet access center to the public and also provides service to select farms in the area. an alternative conceptual model for telecenter evaluation research in the field of information and communication technologies for development (ict4d) overlaps studies undertaken in the area of community informatics in that both disciplines examine the challenges posed by digital inclusion. insofar as ict4d is concerned, much attention is focused in the potential of icts to contribute to human development in ways that follow the guidelines proposed under the united nations human development index and the millennium development goals. those documents single out and prioritize literacy, education, and digital inclusion as elements essential to the promotion of human development, prosperity and well-being (itu, 2003; united nations development program [undp], 1990). insofar as telecenters have emerged in latin america as public or commercial spaces that aim to foster digital inclusion, they provide a situated context where the dynamics and processes of ict adoption and use can be readily examined.  ever since their inception in the late 1990s, telecenters have been under study by researchers who examine ict diffusion. in the beginning, these studies for the most part measured the number of telecenter users, hardware and software connectivity, and other material aspects of ict diffusion without necessarily examining the social change inherent in their adoption. however, early on avgerou & walsham (2000) addressed the importance of examining diffusion from a perspective of how individuals use icts within a particular social context. other scholars amplified this kind of analysis by observing the content produced by ict users and the social dynamics and communication that occurred in these group settings (brown & duguid, 2002; schilderman, 2002; sorj, 2003; warschauer, 2003a; wilmore, 2001). all along, a few researchers have looked beyond traditional metrics to consider the impact of icts on human development and have found that their diffusion can help under privileged communities benefit from access to the information society (jensen, 2007; menou, 2001; roman & colle, 2002; rothenberg-aalami & pal, 2005; wilson, 2004). the work of roman (2003), in particular, focused on aspects of diffusion of innovations theory to examine how icts are perceived, how their diffusion is communicated, and how they are used. this framework allows for a situated, context-relevant understanding of ict diffusion that permits for a wider analysis of the ways in which individuals and communities integrate icts into their daily lives. this study proposes an alternative conceptual model for telecenter evaluation which measures the development of digital literacy and other skill sets related to ict use from a contextually-relevant, self-defined perspective. in doing so, it eschews technologically deterministic metrics that measure effectiveness in terms of numbers of computers in use, individuals trained in software skills, or direct employment resulting from workforce training related to ict use. the evolution of the model owes to warschauer’s (2003b) recommendation that digital literacy and ict use be examined within parameters other than the simplistic, performance-based metrics of computer skills. figure 1 illustrates the proposed model, displaying the dependent variables of ict use and non ict-related use of the telecenter in relation to three sets of predictor variables: structural factors, individual motivation, and demographics. the right side of the model contains categories for telecenter use, listed in accordance with the skill sets involved in their practice; these are: entertainment skills, professional or work skills, civic engagement skills, health and sanitation skills, and literacy.   figure 1. conceptual model relating structural factors, individual motivation, and demographics to ict use at gems telecenters.     concepts considered in the model in order to examine diffusion from a holistic perspective, it is important to take into consideration the impact of several elements, among them: material and structural factors, individual attitude, behavior, and demographic characteristics. the model considers each of these factors in turn, evaluating their impact on the likelihood of ict adoption at the telecenter. firstly, insofar as research focused on ict diffusion in rural areas is concerned, scholars have identified a particular set of structural factors that impact the rate and effectiveness of adoption. unlike urban dwellers, rural residents may encounter particular challenges that hinder their access to icts. chief among them is physical access to a telecenter, which can be too far from home or made distant due to precarious road conditions, unreliable or unstable electrical power grids, equipment maintenance, theft, and limited financial resources (baggio, 2008; hernandez, amescua, rodríguez, & alva, 2007; mori & assumpção, 2007; sorj, 2003). secondly, individual attitude and behavior also have been shown to impact ict adoption. writing about digital inclusion in brazil, sorj (2003) highlighted the importance of individual motivation and self esteem as a driver for ict use. indeed, wilson (2004) pinpointed motivation as the single common factor among individuals who are able to overcome structural and personal barriers to ict adoption. furthermore, an individual’s ability to understand and appropriate the information accessed through icts can impact effective ict adoption. the quality of one’s experience using icts is inevitably linked to one’s ability to navigate the logic and language of digital processes; these skills may not be available among individuals who are functionally illiterate or live in primarily oral societies (proenza et al., 2001). given the nature of the challenges identified above, this study proposes an alternative conceptual model (see figure 1) with which to examine factors that predict ict use. the model proposes that structural factors, individual motivation, and demographics relate to the use of icts for purposes of entertainment, civic participation, and professional development. the model also proposes that the availability of a telecenter encourages individuals to obtain information about health, sanitation, agricultural practices, and literacy even when icts are not in use. the study thus tests the model to answer the questions: rq#1: to what extent have telecenter users adopted information and communication technologies? rq#2: what is the relationship between the adoption of information and communication technologies and structural factors that impact access to telecenters?  rq#3: what is the relationship between the adoption of information and communication technologies and individual motivation? rq#4: what is the relationship between the adoption of information and communication technologies and age, gender, and the educational attainment of individuals? method the data for this study was collected in a survey of two communities over the course of less than thirty days in april 2010. a purposive sample of two locations was selected from among the five communities where gems of the earth established telecenters. the sample, which consisted of the localities of milho verde and tombadouro, mirrored regional demographics and appropriately represented existing variations among telecenter users in the five communities, in the manner recommended by singleton & straits (2005). the a priori criteria guiding sample selection included: (a) participation in the gems of the earth ngo, (b) mountainous rural location, and (c) driving distance of one hour to the nearest urban center. the population sampled consisted of adult men and women residents of milho verde and tombadouro, ages 18 and older. respondents were drawn from the community at large, not only from among those individuals who had used or visited the telecenters. the gems of the earth ngo estimates the population of milho verde hovers at about 1,000 and that of tombadouro at 1,600.  these estimates could not be confirmed for the localities given that the brazilian census publishes data at the level of municipalities; disaggregated population figures at the district level are not readily available. the principal method of inquiry was a verbally administered survey. the survey method was selected as an appropriate manner to systematically examine social change in developing nations at a relatively low cost (buzzard, 1990). two local residents (one in each of the communities) were trained by one of the authors in survey procedures prior to administering the questionnaire verbally to a random sample of adults. the data was collected in a manner that preserved the anonymity and confidentiality of individual respondents. variables under consideration the survey captured three levels of independent variables. the first category consisted of descriptive data regarding self reported use of icts at the telecenter (defined as use of computer for purposes of instruction, school work, professional or personal reasons, internet surfing,  chatting, music and video downloads, access to news and e-mail, and contact with government agencies). the second was comprised of perceived structural factors that facilitate or hinder telecenter access (defined as distance from home, convenient hours of operation, hardware and software operation, and consistent electrical power). the third measured individual motivation for the use of icts (defined as love of learning, professional improvement, and entertainment purposes). the data were entered into spss statistics 17.0 for windows. the data was computed into indices of ict use, allowing for the calculation of the odds ratio of the three skill sets contained in the proposed model (see figure 1) that require digital literacy. the indices, which indicated how respondents used icts, categorized use according to five primary areas of activity: (a) entertainment (defined as use of a personal nature, including chatting, downloading music or videos); (b) civic engagement (defined as accessing news sources or government information, as well as contacting governmental agencies); and (c) professional reasons (defined as work-related uses, including the development of professional skills and e-mail access). two additional measures were computed to account for the activities of respondents who did not use icts yet visited the telecenter. these included a health index (defined as access to information about personal or family health care, water preservation and sanitation practices, or instruction on the care of crops and farm animals) and a literacy indicator (defined as learning to read or write at the telecenter). the data were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression to gauge the odds of each of the independent variables related to structural factors, individual motivation, and demographics in predicting ict adoption and user habits at the telecenters.  logistic regression was selected because it is an appropriate method to model odds ratio (demaris, 1995). descriptive statistics elicited comparison of variables that measured the perceived impact of the telecenter in the community. results descriptive statistics presented in table 1 outline sample demographics: respondents consisted of 538 male and female adults 18 years of age and older in the communities of milho verde (n = 236) and tombadouro (n = 302). the sample consisted of 289 women (53.8%) and 248 men (46.2%), almost half of whom (40.6%) had only completed lower school. table 1. sample demographics    milho verde tombadouro totals demographics           male 126 (53.4%)  122 (40.5%) 248 (46.2%)     female  110 (46.6%) 179 (59.5%) 289 (53.8%) age            18-24 years of age   62 (26.3%) 118 (39.1%) 180 (33.5%)     25-35 years of age  33 (14%) 85 (28.1%) 118 (21.9%)     35 or more years of age  140 (59.3%) 97 (32.1%) 237 (44.1%) educational level            college/university   21 (8.9%) 34 (11.4%) 55 (10.2%)     high school   74 (31.4%) 143 (47.8%) 217 (40.3%)     elementary  83 (35.2%) 66 (22.1%) 149 (27.7%)     incomplete elementary  58 (24.6%) 56 (18.7%) 114 (21.2%) n = 538         one out of 10 (10.2%) held a college degree and, 217 (40.3%) completed high school, and 114 (21.2%) did not finish lower school. the slightly higher than average proportion of college-educated individuals is consistent with a representative sample of telecenter users, who tend to skew higher for educational achievement than the population in the community as a whole. the mean age was 35; the youngest respondent was 18 years of age and the eldest 79. two hundred thirty seven (44.1%) respondents were age 35 or older, with a noticeable skew in milho verde, where 140 (59.3%) of the sample belonged in the older age bracket. there were 180 (33.5%) respondents between the ages of 18 and 24, and 118 (21.9%) between the ages of 25 and 34. table 2. structural variables and individual motivation     milho verde tombadouro totals structural factors         distance (nearby) 177 (90.8%) 222 (85.4%) 399 (87.7%)   convenient hours 72 (41.1%) 285 (96.6%) 357 (76%)   computers work well   171 (95%) 277 (97.2%) 448 (96.3%)   consistent electrical power 144 (85.2%) 300 (100%)  444 (94.7%) individual motivation     love of learning  65 (27.5%) 268 (88.7%) 333 (62.9%)   preparing for work 63 (26.7%) 255 (84.4%) 318 (59.1%)   fun-seeking 48 (20.3%) 227 (75.2%) 275 (51.1%)  n = 538       structural factors and individual motivation predictors as for predictor variables regarding structural factors that impact access and individual motivation to visit the telecenter, descriptive results listed in table 2 indicate that respondents enjoyed easy access to the telecenter and that computers operated well, and that the power supply was mostly reliable. the lone exception was in milho verde, where 72 (41.1%) respondents indicated that telecenter operating hours were not convenient. insofar as individual motivation for telecenter use, individuals reported a love of learning (62.9%) and preparing for work (59.1%) as their main motivation, more often than diversion or fun-seeking (51.1%). there was no significant difference reported in the motivation of respondents at either location. table 3. descriptive statistics of ict use and non-ict use of telecenter   milho verde tombadouro totals ict adoption          ict users at telecenter 57 (24.2%) 184 (60.9%) 241 (44.8%)    non-ict users at telecenter 179 (75.4%) 118 (39.1%) 297 (55.2%) skills used     entertainment    49 (20.8%) 159 (52.6%) 208 (38.7%)     professional/work skills   38 (16.1%) 175 (57.9%) 213 (39.6%)     civic engagement      48 (20.3%) 163 (54%) 211(39.2%)     health/sanitation   24 (10.2%) 80 (26.5%) 104 (19.4%)     literacy 2 (8%) 57 (18.9%) 59 (11%) n = 538             ict users at gems of the earth communities in regard to the use of the telecenter, descriptive results presented in table 3 show that the number of respondents who visited the telecenters at least once in the 30 days prior to the survey (44.8%) was slightly lower than that of those who had not been there during that time (55.2%). two hundred thirty six (44%) respondents had visited at least five and at most 10 times during that period, and 154 respondents (28.7%) used the telecenter at least once and as much as five times during the same period. two hundred ninety-six (55%) respondents stated that they either never visited the telecenter or did so infrequently. the 241 respondents (44.8%) who stated that they had used icts at the telecenters were categorized as ict users. overall, 108 respondents (20.1%) stated they used icts for reasons related to work, 84 (15.6%) reported using them for school work, and 131 (24.3%) indicated that they used them for personal reasons. not all users accessed the internet when at the telecenter; among the 190 (35.4%) who did, 33 used it to chat online. descriptive results presented in table 3 show that the use of icts was distributed evenly among three categories detailed in the model: 208 (38.7%) used icts for entertainment, 213 (39.6%) used icts for professional or work-related pursuits and 211 (39.2%) used icts to participate in civic life. those who did not use icts at the telecenter (30.3%) nevertheless practiced other skills while there: 104 (19.4%) learned about health care, sanitation, or how to tend to their crops and animals. fifty-nine individuals (11%) indicated that they had learned how to read and write at the telecenter. the vast majority of the latter were in tombadouro. predictors of ict use a multivariate logistic regression tested model fit and predicted the various relationships contained in the proposed conceptual model (figure 1). tables 4.1 through 4.6 present odd ratios for the corresponding variables, highlighting un-standardized regression coefficients with probabilities of  p < .10, p < .05 and  p < .01. in regard to rq#1, which examined ict use, table 4.1 presents results of a binary logistic regression that show higher odds for individuals who are more educated or are motivated to seek fun to use icts (p < .01). the same table indicates smaller odds for individuals over the age of 25 to use icts, as compared to those ages 18 through 24. in addition, results in model one show that more convenient hours of operation increase the odds of ict use (p < .01). results in model two indicate greater odds that individuals motivated to improve their professional skills will use icts (p<.05). predictors of skills used in regard to rq#2, none of the variables related to structural factors (distance from home, convenient hours of operation, hardware and software operation, and consistent electrical power) emerged as a predictor for the practice of entertainment, civic engagement, or professional skills. they also did not emerge as predictors for the practice of health and sanitation or literacy skills. still, model one in tables 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 indicates that convenient hours of operation increase the odds that individuals practice entertainment, civic engagement, or professional skills (p < .01), or   health, sanitation, and literacy skills (p<.05), as shown in tables 4.5 and 4.6. in regard to rq#3, which examined individual motivation in ict use, results presented in tables 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 show increased odds that individuals motivated to have fun will practice the use of icts for purposes of entertainment, civic engagement, or professional skills (p < .01). the motivation to have fun also increased the odds that individuals would seek information regarding health, sanitation, and the care of animals and crops at the telecenter (p<.05).   table 4.1 binary logistic regression of ict use                                                model 1                      model 2                                  model 3                                  model 4   b se or b se or b se or   b se or structural factors                           distance 0.526 0.341 1.692               -0.250 0.504 0.779 hours of operation 1.425*** 0.329 4.158               0.165 0.515 1.180 working computers 0.003 0.634 1.003               0.263 0.998 1.300 electrical power -0.566 0.665 0.568               -0.701 0.988 0.496 individual motivation                           love of learning       -0.503 0.613 0.605         -0.548 0.735 0.578 preparing for work       1.239** 0.564 3.452         0.905 0.798 2.472 fun-seeking       2.276*** 0.454 9.740         2.344*** 0.625 10.418 demographics                           female             0.344 0.195 1.410   -0.529 0.326 1.698 ages 25-34             -1.118*** 0.261 0.327   -1.394** 0.411 0.248 ages 35 and older             -1.818** 0.746 0.162   -1.202*** 0.382 0.301 education             0.686*** 0.115 1.986   0.730*** 0.172 2.075 model statistics                           model χ²     3.222     136.177***     115.787***       120.040*** nagelkerke r     0.066     0.384     0.260       0.471 * p < .10; ** p < .05; *** p < .01. note: unstandardized binary logistic regression coefficients (b), standard error (se), and odds ratio.   table 4.2 binary logistic regression of entertainment skills                                                model 1                      model 2                                  model 3                                  model 4   b se or b se or b se or   b se or structural factors                           distance 0.31 0.350 1.851               -0.083 0.483 0.920 hours of operation 1.279*** 0.337 3.594               -.011 0.530 0.989 working computers -0.811 0.663 0.445               -0239 0.974 0.788 electrical power 0.175 0.633 0.840               -0.985 1.000 0.373 individual motivation                           love of learning       0.251 0.622 1.285         0.267 0.749 1.307 preparing for work       0.854 0.601 2.349         0.668 0.834 1.950 fun-seeking       2.128*** 0.470 8.396         2.202*** 0.638 9.046 demographics                           female             0.196 0.195 1.216   0.247 0.313 1.281 ages 25-34             -1.015 0.256 0.362   -1.374*** 0.384 0.253 ages 35 and older             -1.49** 0.224 0.224   -1.167 0.371 0.311 education             0.590* 0.116 1.804   0.578*** 0.165 1.783 model statistics                           model χ²     20.626***     126.62***     89.166***       110.225*** nagelkerke r     0.078     0.361     0.208       0.436 * p < .10; ** p < .05; *** p < .01. note: unstandardized binary logistic regression coefficients (b), standard error (se), and odds ratio.   table 4.3 binary logistic regression of civic engagement skills                                                model 1                      model 2                                  model 3                                  model 4   b se or b se or b se or   b se or structural factors                           distance 0.455 0.344 1.576               -0.242 0.466 0.785 hours of operation 1.127*** 0.329 3.086               -0177 0.493 0.837 working computers -.808 0.659 0.446               -0.211 0.936 0.810 electrical power -0.110 0.629 0.896               -0.748 0.933 0.473 individual motivation                           love of learning       -0.151 0.608 0.860         -0.313 0.723 0.731 preparing for work       1.012* 0.579 2.752         0.984 0.784 2.674 fun-seeking       2.054*** 0.461 7.801         1.974*** 0.603 7.201 demographics                           female             0.233 0.195 1.262   0.129 0.301 1.138 ages 25-34             -0.747*** 0.255 0.474   -0.798* 0.366 0.450 ages 35 and older             -1.324*** 0.224 0.266   -0.674 0.355 0.520 education             0.714*** 0.118 2.043   0.659*** 0.162 1.934 model statistics                           model χ²     16.236***     136.265***     94.490***       91.637*** nagelkerke r     0.062     0.335     0.219       0.374 * p < .10; ** p < .05; *** p < .01. note: unstandardized binary logistic regression coefficients (b), standard error (se), and odds ratio.   table 4.4 binary logistic regression of professional skills                                                model 1                      model 2                                  model 3                                  model 4   b se or b se or b se or   b se or structural factors                           distance 0.395 0.345 1.485               -0.432 0.555 0.649 hours of operation 1.398*** 0.348 4.048               -0.102 0.632 0.903 working computers -0.561 0.663 0.571               -0.020 1.086 0.980 electrical power 1.183 0.824 3.263               0.881 1.127 2.415 individual motivation                           love of learning       0.028 0.726 1.029         0.602 1.025 1.825 preparing for work       0.691 0.680 1.995         0.123 1.379 1.131 fun-seeking       3.040*** 0.595 20.902         4.089*** 1.107 59.701 demographics                           female             0.374* 0.198 1.454   -0.338 0.344 1.403 ages 25-34             -0.793*** 0.259 0.453   -1.163*** 0.421 0.313 ages 35 and older             -1.480*** 0.230 0.228   -1.082*** 0.411 0.339 education             0.798*** 0.121 2.221   0.890*** 0.185 2.435 model statistics                           model χ²     26.230***     162.561***     115.716***       158.823*** nagelkerke r     0.098     0.444     0.263       0.579 * p < .10; ** p < .05; *** p < .01. note: unstandardized binary logistic regression coefficients (b), standard error (se), and odds ratio.   table 4.5 binary logistic regression of health and sanitation skills                                                model 1                      model 2                                  model 3                                  model 4   b se or b se or b se or   b se or structural factors                           distance -0.299 0.382 0.741               -0.863* 0.467 0.422 hours of operation 1.003** 0.462 2.727               -0.096 0.589 0.909 working computers -0.633 0.669 0.531               -0.559 0.856 0.572 electrical power -0.289 0.742 0.749               -0.617 1.038 0.540 individual motivation                           love of learning       0.251 0.998 1.285         0.510 1.260 1.666 preparing for work       0.666 0.978 1.946         -0.122 1.554 0.885 fun-seeking       2.940*** 0.984 18.910         3.415** 1.491 30.404 demographics                           female             0.062 0.226 1.064   0.093 0.320 1.097 ages 25-34             -0.075 0.282 0.928   0.144 0.368 1.155 ages 35 and older             -0.714*** 0.266 0.490   0.084 0.393 1.087 education             0.378*** 0.136 1.460   0.245 0.173 1.277 model statistics                           model χ²     8.181*     72.151***     22.430***       46.650*** nagelkerke r     0.037     0.249     0.066       0.231 * p < .10; ** p < .05; *** p < .01. note: unstandardized binary logistic regression coefficients (b), standard error (se), and odds ratio.   table 4.6 binary logistic regression of literacy skills                                                model 1                      model 2                                  model 3                                  model 4   b se or b se or b se or   b se or structural factors                           distance -0.250 0.456 0.779               -0.861 0.552 0.423 hours of operation 2.353** 1.022 10.513               1.279 1.080 3.592 working computers 0.390 1.082 0.719               1.028 1.173 2.796 electrical power 18.816 10463 1.485               19.381 11766 2.612 individual motivation                           love of learning       16.338 0.613 1.246         16.693 4.660 1.177 preparing for work       16.665 3335 1.728         17.316 4.517 3.314 fun-seeking       1.903* 1.031 6.707         1.307 1.119 3.696 demographics                           female             0.410 0.304 1.507   0.001 0.387 1.001 ages 25-34             0.151 0.351 1.164   0.400 0.431 1.493 ages 35 and older             -0.751** 0.377 0.472   0.192 0.506 1.211 education             0.932*** 0.204 2.539   0.919*** 0.248 2.507 model statistics                           model χ²     15.747***     47.782***     46.081***       58.869*** nagelkerke r     0.081     0.202     0.165       0.322 * p < .10; ** p < .05; *** p < .01. note: unstandardized binary logistic regression coefficients (b), standard error (se), and odds ratio. next, in regard to rq#4, results presented in tables 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4 show demographic factors of age and educational attainment emerged as predictors of the use of icts for entertainment, civic engagement, or professional skills. as seen in table 4.2, there are smaller odds that individuals over the age of 25 will use icts for entertainment (p < .01), although the model also indicates increased odds that those who are more educated will do so (p < .01). results in table 4.3 likewise show smaller odds that those between 25 and 34 years of age would use icts to access news and information about government services or agencies (p < .10) or to practice professional skills (p < .01), as reported in table 4.4. indeed, results presented in table 4.4 show smaller odds that those over the age of 25 would use icts to learn or improve their work skills. on the other hand, the same table presents results that show increased odds that better educated individuals would use icts to acquire or practice work skills. finally, in regard to the use of telecenters for purposes not related to icts, results presented in table 4.6 show a single predictor emerged, indicating increased odds that those who gained in educational attainment learned to read and write at the telecenter. telecenter impact on digital inclusion almost half (45%) of the people surveyed in the two communities used icts at the telecenter in the 30 days prior to the data collection for this study. their use of icts was evenly distributed for purposes of entertainment, civic engagement, and the development of professional skills. the motivation to enjoy oneself and have fun emerged as a predictor of ict use for entertainment, civic engagement, and work-related practices. previous research by perse & dunne (1998) indicated that computers are considered useful media that satisfy needs of entertainment, diversion, and escapism, as well as a pastime and a regular habit. the findings in the present study confirm that the drive to enjoy oneself is central to one’s engagement with icts. other findings in this study support the consensus in the literature that points to decreased odds that individuals older than 25 years of age will use icts. equally important are the findings that there are greater odds that individuals who are better educated will use icts. the latter can be understood as a beneficial impact insofar as ict diffusion supports education and the practice of digital literacy, among other skills. however, heeks & león (2009), among others, have expressed concern that the diffusion of icts in rural areas may perpetuate existing patterns of social inequality by privileging some and not all members of a community. last but not least, descriptive results show that more than ten percent of individuals in the community learned to read and write at the telecenter. adult literacy, which emerged in this study as a predictor for educational attainment, has been identified by the united nations development program (1990) as a key educational factor for human development, and as such is one of the criteria included in the organization’s human development index. this study has shown that beyond the practice of digital literacy, telecenters can be effective tools that foster human development by extending access to varied types of information to marginalized communities. it is important to note that while the survey method used in this study provides an efficient tool for capturing data from large samples of respondents in a systematic manner, it holds inherent limitations. self-reported data may contain inaccuracies that stem from failure of memory, lack of candor, reluctance to answer correctly, and thus is seldom completely free of error (singleton & straits, 2005).  furthermore, a limitation particular to the examination of ict habits is that respondents commonly overlap work and entertainment use, making it difficult for researchers to reliably distinguish the time spent on different pursuits. the survey protocol used in this study attempted to address these limitations inasmuch as possible by incorporating questions that allowed researchers to contrast and compare user habits and self-reported motivation. conclusions this study found increased odds that individuals will practice ict use when telecenters are accessible at convenient times of day and offer a source of entertainment.  whereas the proposed model did not find that other structural or motivational factors predict ict use, it confirmed previous studies that predict increased odds of ict use among better educated individuals under the age of 25.  finally, this study offers evidence that the pioneering gems of the earth initiative has, in less than a decade, increased digital literacy in the communities it serves. insofar as this meets the key benchmark of digital inclusion outlined in the millennium development goals, it indicates that the telecenter network offers an effective model for social change. in light of the brazilian government’s embrace of a policy to expand the telecenter initiative nationwide, it becomes increasingly important to assess how pioneer telecenters impacted the communities they served, so that future researchers may compare and contrast newly created ict access against the benchmark of early projects. further research is needed to gauge the extent to which enhanced connectivity adds new knowledge, improves professional skills, positively impacts agricultural production, and strengthens social ties to the outside world.  in a discipline which often resorts to situated methodologies the nature of which precludes generalization, there is limited evidence about the ways in which telecenter projects in remote locations may contribute to communal prosperity. in analyzing some of the ramifications of digital inclusion initiatives in the mountains of brazil, this study sought to amplify in a holistic manner the way in which the discipline examines telecenter projects in the developing world. scholars would do well to further research the issue without prejudice to the varied ways in which individuals choose to practice digital literacy.     references amariles, f., paz, o. p., russell, n., & johnson, n. 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(1999). understanding the role of community telecentres in development: a proposed approach to evaluation. in gomez r. and hunt p. (eds.), telecentre evaluation: a global perspective, report of an international meeting on telecentre evaluation. ottawa: international development research centre [idrc]. whyte, a. (2000). assessing community telecentres: guidelines for researchers. ottawa: international development research centre. wilmore, d. (2001). establishing a community of learners: the use of information technology (it) as an effective learning tool in rural primary or elementary schools. retrieved may 15, 2008, from http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/vol_3_2001/discuss_summary_april2001.html wilson, e. j., iii (2004). the information revolution and developing countries. cambridge, ma: mit. endnotes [1] the authors wish to thank eva maria pinto, thomas kuberek, and gildete ribeiro for their contribution to this study. [2] mineiro. the term refers to anyone or anything originating in the state of minas gerais. [3] estrada real. established late in the seventeenth century, the royal road allowed for the gold, diamonds, and other gems to flow from the mining region surrounding vila rica (now known as ouro preto) to the port of paraty, in the vicinity of rio de janeiro, from where they were shipped to lisbon, capital of the portuguese empire.  ict for sustainable development: an example from cambodia helena grunfeld research scholar, centre for strategic economic studies, victoria university, melbourne, australia. email: helena.grunfeld@live.vu.edu.au introduction this article suggests that a framework integrating the capability approach (ca) and the information and communication technologies for development (ict4d) discourse on sustainability/climate change would be a useful tool for the design and evaluation of ict4d initiatives, expanding the consideration of sustainability of the former and the social dimension of the latter. in an effort to hasten the deployment of icts in the developing world, shared access facilities, with an emphasis on internet access, became a common mechanism for extending access to previously underserved areas from the 1990s. pilot telecentres often lacked funds to continue and scale, despite their inclusion in the world summit on the information society (wsis, 2003a) plan of action: 'to connect villages with icts and establish community access points' (point b.6.a) and in universal access policies in 29 countries in 2009 (itu, 2011a). such access points can range from commercial internet cafes to multi-service social gathering places, which in addition to offering ict services are learning and business centres. some centres defined specific social objectives, whereas others provided internet access in the spirit of "build it and they will come." while some evaluations of such centres have been informed by specific development-oriented conceptual frameworks, others have been atheoretical, from a development discourse perspective. except for occasional references to the potential of such initiatives (unctad, 2007; unescap, 2008) and sporadic announcements of new telecentres, their unsuccessful quest for long-term viability might have tempered the previous enthusiasm. with the extension of mobile services to previously unserved rural areas, the view, spurred on by arguments that mobiles are more affordable and accessible (rashid & elder, 2009), is now emerging that such centres may no longer be needed (howard, 2008; souter et al., 2010). limited convincing evidence showing what difference telecentres have made, might have reinforced this view. accordingly, mobiles have assumed a predominant place for most ict4d initiatives and research. souter, et al. (2010) ascribed, at least partially, the success of mobiles to their greater scale of impact: 'in the development arena, many programs to support internet access (for example through tele-centres)...... have not had the scale of impact that had been anticipated. instead, over the past decade the market-led development of the mobile communications sector has generally had a stronger impact on society and on individual lives in low-income countries than the growth of the internet' (p.34). quantitatively, mobiles clearly dominate the ict landscape in the developing world, but there is no dichotomy between these and internet, with the two technologies merging. internet is often accessed via mobile networks in developing countries, as 3g and 4g extend to rural areas and the networks designed for mobile handheld devices are sometimes used for fixed wireless access in the absence of cost-efficient first mile alternatives (see: mcmahon, et al., 2010). rather than a matter of technology, this is an issue of market-led vs. interventionist approaches, with mobiles generally representing the former and telecentres the latter. the focus should be on designing ict systems to realise their potential for development, regardless of business model or technology. the first step in this process is to define "development" and the ca is a good starting point because of its normative nature and versatility in different domains, including choice and preference revelation, conflict resolution and impact evaluation. starting with a brief introduction of the ca, its application and relevance to ict4d, the next section concludes with exploring the relationship between the ca and the theme of sustainability. next is a summary of another stream of relevance to this study the emerging discourse on the role of ict4d in meeting climate change and other environmental challenges. these two fields of study provide the background to the case study, which introduces ireach, the empirical research site, and summarises the conceptual framework and methodologies underpinning the enquiry. the results presented in this paper focus on those aspects of the research results that are relevant for sustainability. in addition to identifying benefits in several other domains (e.g. empowerment, education and health), the study found areas in which ireach had fallen short of expectations. in concluding, the paper suggests that a combination of the ca and the ict4d/climate change discourses would be useful for considering a potential new role for telecentres in the mix of icts used for climate change adaptation and mitigation. the capability approach, ict4d and sustainability the capability approach (ca) recognising that several things matter simultaneously, the ca is normative and multidimensional, combining a focus on outcomes and processes, based on principles of equity, efficiency, empowerment and participation. the attention in the ca is on capabilities, which emphasise what people are free and able to do (i.e. the expansion of people's freedom to lead lives they value and have reason to value (alkire & deneulin, 2010; anand, et al., 2009; sen, 2001; undp, 2010). capabilities, agency and empowerment are as important as what people actually do and achieve with these. gender empowerment features strongly in the ca literature. economic freedoms, defined as opportunities to use resources in the context of distributional arrangements of wealth, is only one of five freedoms and opportunities identified by sen (2001), as characterising human freedom. the others are political freedom, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security. all freedoms are constitutive of development (i.e. they are relevant whether or not they contribute to the economy). in contrast to the centrality of income and/or consumption in utilitarian frameworks, the central question in the ca is 'what they are actually able to do or to be' (nussbaum, 2000, p.12). offering a normative framework based on human development, the ca has been embraced by the united nation development programme (undp), as reflected in its annual human development reports (hdrs), associated human development indicators and more recently, the multidimensional poverty index (undp, 2010). the ca has also influenced development thinking more widely, to incorporate human well-being and directing policy efforts towards heath, education and sustainability (saito, 2003). the capability approach and ict4d from a ca perspective, access to ict is not an end in itself, but rather the means through which valued capabilities can be achieved. recognising the importance of ict, sen (2005) wrote '… access to the web and the freedom of general communication has become a very important capability that is of interest and relevance to all indians' (p.160) and characterised mobiles as 'freedom-enhancing' (sen, 2010a, p.2). this association between ict and freedoms might, at least partially, explain the increasing popularity of applying or referring to the ca in ict4d research (e.g. issue 2, 2011, of the journal ethics and information technology was a thematic issue on ict and the ca). but this literature has not engaged with the sustainability and/or climate change debate and the ca does not seem to have featured in the many recent activities surrounding ict4d and climate change, possibly due do the ambivalent relationship between the ca and sustainability debate. the capability approach and sustainability considering environmental challenges as 'part of a more general problem related to resource allocation involving "public goods," sen ( 2001, p.269) has approached these from several perspectives, including the potential environmental damage flowing from unconstrained use of private property. more recently, in the introduction to the 2010 hdr, sen (2010b), emphasised 'the conservation of the environment and the sustainability of our well-being and substantive freedoms' (p.vi), as profound challenges, expressing confidence that the human development approach is sufficiently flexible to address these issues. a key difference between the general sustainability debate and the way the ca tends to approach this challenge can be summed up as "ethical universalism" (anand & sen, 2000). this concept acknowledges equal claims to the capability of leading worthwhile lives in the present and future generations. the focus on capabilities reflects that, as preferences of future generations are unknown, sustainability should be about 'conserving a capacity to produce well-being' (p. 2035), rather than specific resources. despite sen's concerns about the sustainability movement's emphasis on inter-generational, at the expense of intra-generational equality, he acknowledged the broader view taken in the brundtland report (wced, 1987): 'it cannot be doubted that the concept of sustainable development, pioneered by brundtland, has served as an illuminating and powerful starting point for simultaneously considering the future and the present' (sen, 2002 web document, no pagination). but sustainability has not been a central concern of the ca, while the sustainability literature has paid insufficient attention to guaranteed protective security: 'it is worth noting here that even the highly illuminating literature on "sustainable development" often misses out the fact that what people need for their security is not only the sustainability of overall development, but also the need for guaranteed social protection when people's predicaments diverge and some groups are thrown brutally to the wall while other groups experience little adversity' (sen, 2000, p.37). this could occur where customary and other rights might conflict e.g. where indigenous populations are prevented from using natural resources for traditional livelihoods, thereby compromising their economic freedom and social protection, in favour of the freedom of others to enjoy a pristine environment. conflicting freedoms also arise between the "right" of some to pollute and of others to live in a pollution-free environment (nussbaum, 2003). the ca has been useful in addressing contestations between incompatible interests through its emphasis on public deliberation, informed by different valuations of nature, rather than market choices (scholtes, 2010). this has been illustrated for water disputes, another case of incompatible freedoms, featured in the ca literature (anand, 2007; khagram, clark & raad, 2003). as the sustainability movement is increasingly integrating ecological, social, economic and cultural dimensions (bichler, bradley & hofkichner, 2010; oecd, 2012), so there are signs of an increasing interest in sustainability issues in the ca discourse (e.g., issue 1, 2013 of the journal of human development and capabilities addressed the capability approach and sustainability). the confluence of sustainability and the ca was also reflected in the central theme of the 2011 hdr (undp, 2011), which defined sustainable human development as 'the expansion of the substantive freedoms of people today while making reasonable efforts to avoid seriously compromising those of future generations' (p.2). focussing on the challenges of integrating equity into policies dealing with environmental issues, the report emphasised that the relationship between sustainability and equity is not necessarily positive or mutually re-enforcing. while mediating between such relationships remains a foundational problem of the ca, at the practical level it may be possible to identify policies and practices that do not require compromises between equity today and in the future. the case study in this article, agro-ecological techniques introduced at an ict4d initiative in cambodia, is one example. although there has been some reference to the ca in the context of ict4d (e.g. ospina & heeks, 2010), more attention to climate change issues in ict4d/ca research and to human development in ict4d/environment research could enhance the ability of both fields of study to contribute to the challenge of addressing sustainable development. ict4d and the environment discourse the burgeoning body of work revolving around ict and environmental issues recognises the potential of ict to contribute both positively and negatively to environmental challenges. some aspects of its positive potential was enshrined in the wsis geneva plan of action, which encouraged the use of icts for environmental protection, sustainable production and disaster forecasting and monitoring systems (wsis, 2003a). referring to the millennium development goal number 7, "ensure environmental sustainability", unict (2003) pointed to similar contributions, as well as facilitating environmental activism and enabling more efficient resource use. in terms of negative aspects, the lifecycle of ict devices, from the carbon footprint of their production to energy consumption during use and e-waste at end of life, has received considerable attention, including concerns over the "upgrade treadmill" (fairweather, 2011). according to souter, et al. (2010, p.4): 'two issues of profound importance lie at the heart of current thinking about the development of global economies and societies: the challenge of environmental sustainability, and the potential of information and communications technology' absent from this statement, and from many initiatives in the extensive list of activities and publications in the ict4d/environment field, are references to domains of human development. the list of initiatives includes a session on "ict and the environment in developing countries: opportunities and developments" at an oecd, infodev and world bank workshop in 2009, which explored the role of ict in climate change adaptation and mitigation (houghton, 2009). the 2009-10 world economic forum's global information technology report was subtitled ict for sustainability (wef, 2010). in 2010, the canadian international development research centre (idrc) invited proposals for commissioned thematic papers on icts, climate change and development (ospina & heeks, 2010b). the 2011 wsis forum released the report using information and communication technologies (icts) to tackle climate change (itu, 2011b) during e-environment dayi , announced during the forum. at its sixth symposium on icts, the environment and climate change in july 2011, the international telecommunication union declared september 5-9, 2011 itu green standards weekii . also in 2011, the international institute for communication and development (iicd) arranged a conference on ict for a greener economy in developing countries. an international conference on ict for sustainability was arranged in zurich in 2013 by eth zurich, university of zurich and empa, swiss federal laboratories for materials science and technology (hilty, et al., 2013). the journal information, communication & society devoted issue 1, 2010 to sustainable development and icts. in one of the papers, hilty & ruddy (2010) pointed to icts as potential enablers of dematerialised (i.e. using less physical resources, thereby reducing environmental impactsiii ) production and consumption, which they considered a necessary condition for sustainable development. according to plepys (2002), the environmental impacts of icts can be positive, negative or neutral, and considerably larger, through rebound effects, than direct impacts of ict production and consumption: '…it is necessary to look at both ecological and social dimensions. the positive ecological dimension rests on icts potential to deliver greener products, optimise the ways of their delivery, and increase consumption efficiency through dematerialisation, e-substitution, green marketing, ecological product life optimisation, etc. the environmental potential offered by the ecological dimension will be fully utilised only under an optimised social dimension, which deals with the behavioural issues of consumption' (p.518). the importance of sensitising the development discourse to dematerialisation was suggested by sheehan (2008) in terms of: 'a central challenge for development theory and practice now is to understand and implement rapid growth based on services, and on a closer link between services and the rural sector. little is understood about how to stimulate service growth in a developing country …..' (p.17). the initiatives listed above did not sufficiently address possible tensions between environmental challenges and the social dimension. such matters were addressed by undp (2011), which called for the link between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions to be severed in order for human development to become sustainable. such broader approach to sustainability provided the conceptual framework for the field research presented in this paper. another benefit of approaching evaluations of telecentres and other ict4d initiatives from a ca perspective lies in the multidimensional nature of both the ca and ict. research site and methods informatics for rural empowerment and community health (ireach) in cambodia established in 2006 and funded by idrc, ireach fits under a first mile umbrella. this community informatics initiative (dara, dimanche & ó siochrú, 2008) operates at two geographically separate rural areas in cambodia, kep and kamchai mear (kcm), both located a few hours drive from, but in different directions in relation to, the capital phnom penh. managed by community facilitators (cfs) and equipped with one or several computers, hubs are situated in publicly accessible buildings. most services are provided free of charge and the cfs assist users facing barriers to effective use of ireach, e.g. through low literacy levels, thereby reducing the risk that the most disadvantaged individuals might be excluded. in addition to providing internet access, ireach offers training in ict and topics such as agriculture, health, english as well as skills required to manage the project. various media are used, with much content developed locally: lectures and discussions within and between the hubs, "mobile" video shows screened in villages and narrowcasts via computer speakers and outdoor loudspeakers. the latter represent an inferior substitute for community radio, which, while forming part of the initial ireach plans, could not be implemented in the absence of a licence. chea sim university of kamchaymear (csuk), a rural agricultural university, has supervised the kcm site since ireach's inception and has since 2011 been responsible for both sites, but the general direction for content development and other activities is provided by local elected management committee members. conceptual framework and research methods the research was aimed at understanding what difference ireach had made to the lives of the population within its catchment areas. the research instrument designed for this study was informed by the ca and explored whether and how ireach had contributed to capabilities, empowerment and sustainability. the conceptual framework informing the study incorporates a longitudinal perspective, pays attention to the micro-, mesoand macro-levels and requires at least part of an assessment to incorporate a participatory methodology. this paper covers results from the first two research waves, conducted in 2009 and 2010. data for both years were collected from semi-structured focus group sessions. in addition, data for 2010 include survey results from face-to-face interviews with 120 randomly selected respondents at each site, representing equal proportions ireach users and non-users, men and women. the survey was conducted for triangulation purposes. there were 22 focus groups in 2009 and 19 in 2010, with participants in each group invited from a specific sub-segment, such as teachers, ngo employees and volunteers, youth, farmers, women, micro-business owners, village leaders and commune council members. this structure was designed to facilitate discussions, expecting participants to be more at ease with people from similar backgrounds (burkey, 1993). there were between four and nine participants per group and in addition to one specific women's group at each site each year, women participated in most of the other groups, making up 42% and 50% of total participants in 2009 and 2010, respectively. participants were drawn from across age groups above the age of 18. despite the intention that participants be the same in both years, this was achieved for only half, due the rest being unavailable. the sessions started with discussions on participants' views about their communities, recent improvements, ireach's role in those and future aspirations. the next topic was about ireach and its contributions, with questions including most significant changes and main benefits derived from its activities and services. there were also specific questions dealing with the influence of this project on equality, gender empowerment, family relationships and local culture. male ireach staff facilitated the sessions and interpreted between khmer and english, but this did not seem to inhibit the female participants, many of whom were articulate and outspoken, whether praising or criticising aspects of the project. the risks inherent in the active involvement by staff in evaluations can be balanced by its benefits (e.g. dfid, 2009; guba & lincoln, 1981), such as capacity building and exchange of information between staff and participants. further details on the research methodology, including a discussion on rigour and bias and wider research findings can be found in grunfeld, hak & pin (2011). presented in the context of some other research results, the rest of this paper focuses on findings related to sustainability. research results relating to sustainability as most respondents had not seen a computer prior to the launch of ireach, there was much excitement about acquiring digital skills, particularly for children. however, it was not the access to ict as a technology that inspired participants, but rather the infusion of external information, breaking what they perceived as insularity stemming from lack of information from "the outside world." appreciating the intrinsic and instrumental value of information, there was a distinct awareness of how it can contribute to sustainability in the natural, social, and economic spheres. the interrelatedness and dynamics between capabilities in the different dimensions made it difficult to disentangle sustainability from other findings. for example, capabilities of being knowledgeable and healthy contributed to sustainability, as did empowerment, agency and positive social capital other benefits afforded through ireach, but not only through ict as a technology. empowerment and agency were important drivers in propelling innovative activities, some of which challenged villagers to enter new arenas in search of livelihood opportunities, including experimentation with new farming methods. information, learning and knowledge were common themes across several dimensions. participants perceived that ireach had made a reasonable contribution to sustainability, by enabling villagers to use its facilities in diverse ways to improve their livelihoods. the many pathways to sustainability occurring simultaneously at individual or community levels did not translate to self-sufficiency. among the sustainability categories were: agriculture, livelihood diversification through entrepreneurial activity and employment. while new digital literacy skills could lead to diversification into non-farm activities in the longer term, only the occasional micro-businesses had used ireach's facilities and it had not attracted any new ict-based businesses (e.g. for outsourcing). surprisingly, hardly any respondents reported using ireach for employment-related activities, whether searching for vacancies or writing cvs. its most significant influence was on farming, an activity for which ireach also seemed to have greatest prospects of contributing to sustainability and climate change adaptation and mitigation capabilities. with agriculture being the main occupation of 97% of households at both sites (ncdd, 2009) this is also the most important livelihood source. the focus of the remainder of this paper is on findings related to farming. when considering the role of information for improved efficiencies, it is useful to differentiate between information pertaining to allocative vs. technical efficiencies (blattman, jensen & roman, 2003). the latter covers information about practices designed to improve yields, and the former other means of generating higher incomes, such as more efficient marketing, e.g. through price information. while the farm produce market price information disseminated by ireach was raised in approximately one third of the groups in different contexts throughout the sessions, only the occasional participants claimed to have applied this information when negotiating prices for their produce. among them was one participant in the 2010 women's group, who had been successful in obtaining a higher price. a complex set of constraints limit the capacity of farmers to act on such information, particularly the poorest farmers, who are often indebted to traders and lack the freedom to decide whether to sell their produce at a certain price. those not indebted in this way might lack resources for transport and/or storage, reflecting the social reality of differentiated access to resources. there was thus a perception that pricing information disseminated by ireach did not increase the real choices of most farmers, a finding also made in other contexts (e.g. heeks & kanashiro, 2009; sreekumar & rivera-sánchez, 2008), while other researchers have found evidence consistent with more widespread benefits. whereas local power relations limited the scope for realising the potential of market price information, there was greater scope for farmers to benefit from technical efficiencies stemming from the application of new practices, as discussed in the next section. results relating to technical efficiencies of farming the introductory parts of the sessions reflected the utmost importance of agriculture in the study areas, with three quarters of groups in 2009 and slightly more than half in 2010 mentioning farming when discussing major strengths of their communities. a high proportion of participants also cited agriculture when contemplating recent improvements, pointing to water infrastructure, such as dams and irrigation that reduced the dependence on rainfed farming. although ireach could not take credit for this, villagers attributed several other enhancements to this project, including the many ways in which it had provided guidance on agriculture techniques (e.g. dissemination of information on new crops, organic farming, and pestand disease control). the discussions were very much about how villagers went about acquiring, sharing, and making use of this information. as well as initiating dissemination through its various channels, ireach assisted villagers who came to enquire about specific information. such interactions would then include other hub visitors. through ireach, several participants reasoned, there were new ways in which villagers could obtain and exchange information for yield improvements, crop diversification and reduced farm input costs. participants spoke of how ireach had encouraged villagers of both genders to experiment with new crops and farming processes and identified pathways from these, via qualitative and quantitative yield improvements, to better livelihoods. other organisations also provided agriculture training in villages within ireach's catchment areas, including the international fund for agriculture development (ifad), the cambodian center for study and development in agriculture and bridges across boarders (bab). in addition to acquiring information from ireach first, participants explained how the hubs strengthened training provided by other organisations, supplementing what they learnt from those. such on-demand information was sometimes the last step in the knowledge-to-practice chain, serving as reinforcement a driver for effective innovation diffusion (rogers, 2003). access to on-demand information at ireach distinguished it from other agricultural training providers and it was claimed in several groups that this had facilitated the application of new farming approaches, where villagers first learned about these from other agencies. for example, a woman in kcm first learned from ifad how to grow watermelons in the rice fields after the rice harvest and then claimed she supplemented that knowledge with information from ireach. some in the kep youth group recollected how they, after learning from bab about harmful impacts of chemical inputs and alternative methods, acquired further guidance from ireach, before disseminating information in their villages. this supplementary function (using centres for verifying and/or complementing information from other sources), raised confidence in applying new practices and disseminating innovations. while there were no striking differences in the results between the two years, discussions in 2010 yielded more concrete examples, particularly in kcm, compared with 2009, when participants rarely cited specific cases of improvements. the greater emphasis on agriculture in kcm could reflect the presence of csuk, the agricultural university and the involvement by its staff in ireach. participants talked about novel farming techniques they had employed and crops they had experimented with, assisted by information acquired via ireach. some gave examples of increased yields through better understanding of soil properties and seed selection. of particular interest for this article is that approaches within the broad category of agro-ecology received more attention in 2010, with participants in several groups claiming they had adopted organic farming methods. they associated several positive features with these taste, texture, yields and reductions in costs and pollution (the latter resulting from composting instead of burning leaves and crop residue). these practices were also used in home gardens, which have been identified as a good strategy for overcoming micronutrient deficiencies (muller & krawinkel, 2005). according to one participant, there were 50 home gardens in her village, compared with 10 when ireach started its operations. results related to farming from surveys the surveys confirmed views about ireach's influence on agriculture, with approximately 36% of interviewees including something on this theme in many open-ended questions across a range of topics. only a few referred to market price information. the average proportion masks significant differences between the sites; in kcm, at least 63% listed something associated with agriculture, compared to only 10% in kep. there were also qualitative variations between the sites. in kep, respondents mainly used general terms, whereas they were more specific in kcm, mentioning natural fertilisers, higher rice yields and planting new vegetable types. only 50% of those in kcm who included agriculture in response to questions about most significant change and main benefits, identified themselves as ireach users, pointing to possible spillover effects. implications and discussion after decades of neglect, there has been renewed interest in agriculture (world bank, 2007a), both in response to food price rises and in recognition of growth in this sector having greater potential to contribute to poverty reduction than growth in most other sectors, particularly in poor, agriculture-based economies (loayza & raddatz, 2010; ravallion & chen, 2007). ifad's (2010) rural poverty report suggested it is labour-intensive small-hold farming, rather than capital-intensive commercial agriculture that holds promise for poverty reduction, and accordingly included recommendations in support of small-holders and recognised ict as an important driver for rural economies. the importance of ict for agriculture has long been recognised by the un food and agriculture organization (fao), an early adopter of ict for development. the strong emphasis in the ifad report on strengthening individual and collective capabilities of rural people indicates some influence from the ca. sustainability, capabilities and poverty reduction how they relate while the field research does not allow claims to be made about ireach's contribution to poverty alleviation, at face value, farmers were assisted by advice on crop management in ways that might have contributed to poverty reduction. the small steps in the direction of sustainability and greater resilience, resulting from more knowledge and better skills, are potential opportunities for climate change adaptation and mitigation capabilities. a confluence of several interdependent processes and benefits supporting this assumption was noted. firstly, the expansion of capabilities and choice (i.e. new opportunities and the freedom to experiment, using information that ireach made more accessible). the learning trajectory, facilitated by interaction with others, paved the way for equitable ways of achieving sustainable livelihoods. secondly, the adoption of agro-ecological techniques involved productive use, instead of burning, of organic matter for composting, thereby reducing pollution one of the benefits of organic farming for sustainability and climate change mitigation (kilcher, 2007; niggli, earley & ogorzalek, 2007). thirdly were benefits related to the capability of being healthy and (perceived) positive health outcomes from improved air quality with less burn-off, which also entailed less waste of resources. as inorganic fertilisers emit methane gas and contaminate land and water (iaastd, 2009; undesa, 2011), less use of chemical inputs meant lower risks of water and aquatic food pollution affecting organisms not intentionally targeted. cambodia suffers from specific health issues arising from inappropriate pesticide use, because farmers often ignore or misunderstand vietnamese and thai labels on illegally imported sprays (jensen et al., 2011). another potential health advantage, although not explicitly mentioned, could stem from improved food security and nutrition. a study by branca, et al. (2011) noted that agriculture methods most promising for food security by smallholders are also effective for mitigating climate change in humid areas. crop diversification, also encouraged by ireach, has been suggested as one pathway out of poverty (krishna, 2006). the fourth benefit relates to poverty reduction. less reliance on external inputs that are subject to price shocks could have positive distributional impacts, as organic techniques would lower the production costs in terms of monetary, but not necessarily labour inputs, thereby benefitting also the poorer farmers and link environmental benefits of agriculture to equality, a perspective consistent with the ca. figure 1 summarises the above discussion. figure 1: capability expansion and environmental sustainability from ireach activities it is important to note that not everyone in the ireach coverage area could benefit, particularly not the poorest villagers, who are often landless (3% in kep and 6% in kcm (ncdd, 2009)), but they could enjoy the positive externalities, such as reduced pollution, arising from the new agricultural technology options. using less potentially harmful agrochemical inputs, the new techniques contributed to dematerialisation, a key element of sustainability, as did the reduced energy consumption stemming from substitution of imported produce with home grown vegetables. except for ireach being a "service", there were only limited signs of dematerialisation related to service based growth in the rural sector; the challenge posed by sheehan (2008) to development theory and practice. with respect to the ecological footprint of ireach's infrastructure and activities, this research did not attempt to measure whether the environmental gains were sufficient to offset the carbon footprint of the hubs and the additional fuel required by those travelling there by motorised vehicles. most of the users walked or used bicycles. it is about knowledge designed as a study of the contribution of ict, what emerged was much wider. while a valuable ingredient for facilitating exchange of information through its ability to take advantage of knowledge developed in other places, it was not ict in itself that paved the way for this focus on organic farming, but also knowledge and activities undertaken by those involved, facilitated by convenient access to ict. this centrality of knowledge was embodied in article 1 of the wsis (2003b) declaration of principles: '…where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and improving their quality of life'. central to both capability expansion and agro-ecology (de schutter, 2010), knowledge, in this case intermediated, managed to shift much of the decision-making prerogative into the hands of farmers, as they could apply the knowledge without additional financial resources. through its venues where farmers could meet, ireach encouraged intermediation between modern science and participatory forms of local knowledge co-production. those who did not frequent the hubs could participate in this process indirectly by observing those who experimented and subsequently adopt the methods they perceived as beneficial. recognising the importance of access to icts for information sharing in agriculture, fao (2011) noted that locations where ict can be accessed must be suitable, particularly for women. information on agro-ecology is especially important for them, as this type of farming can, according to de schutter (2010), benefit women most because of the difficulties they often encounter in accessing external farm inputs. also notable about the findings on organic farming is that this activity did not form part of the original project objectives or design, but resulted from the pragmatic pursuit of what was relevant for villagers in the form of an "opportunity-driven" innovation system (world bank, 2007b) with emergent properties. according to pant & heeks (2011), developments arising in an unplanned manner can form important elements of climate change adaptive systems and they suggested a new role for telecentres, combined with mobiles, in enlisting icts to deal with climate change. they emphasised that this would have to be accompanied by deliberate development of capacities. the future of telecentres, as a first mile option, may well hinge on carving out a new niche as part of a sustainable development equation, which would benefit from a greater variety of knowledge sources and information dissemination channels. aware of local information needs, where to obtain relevant information and easy access to it, telecentre staff can act as knowledge brokers for sustainable agriculture practices, as some already do e.g. in the village knowledge centres operated by the indian ms swaminathan research foundation, which also uses the centres for disaster risk management (unescap, 2009). however, too much reliance on intermediation, might also create dependency, which could inhibit empowerment and capability expansion. policy implications the challenge is how to harness benefits arising from emergent adaptive systems at the local level to a magnitude where they might realise economies of scale and scope. in addressing this challenge, an understanding of the linkages between the micro-, mesoand macrolevels is important, as a patchwork of individual local emergent adaptive systems is unlikely to scale efficiently. at the macro-level, the capacity to grasp such opportunities might be limited. the meso-level is better equipped to take into account local needs and priorities and may also be better able to foster ecological land use. both of these levels can play a role in mediating information and have more resources to act in a manner that can reduce risks and vulnerabilities (duncombe, 2006). where the mesoand macro-levels do not engage in appropriate policies to encourage and facilitate agro-ecological practices in a timely manner, local communities can, as they already do, pioneer these, thereby building a knowledge base that can be exploited by governments when they are ready to move on this issue. as suggested by madon, sahay & sudan (2007), a ca perspective provides an avenue through which insights into the interaction between the different levels can be improved. this, in combination with the importance of individual and collective capabilities for sustainable agricultural intensification (ifad, 2010) and the ca's multidimensional focus, suggest this approach as a possible framework for bringing attention to the potential role of telecentres, in combination with other forms of icts, to contribute to sustainability. with its normative grounding, the capability perspective would also guard against concentrating solely on ecological sustainability, at the expense of human development factors. the interaction between the ca and an environmental perspective could form the basis of an informational space for design and evaluation of ict4d initiatives, as shown in figure 2. figure 2: informational space for design and evaluation of ict4d initiatives with more studies exploring such common ground between the ca/ict4d and the ict/environment discourses, it might be possible to produce a critical mass of empirical evidence pointing to the potential of telecentres to become one of several ict tools for climate change adaptation and mitigation, supplementing their roles as first mile options. limitations and conclusions the analysis points to ireach having played a role in introducing and enhancing the use and expansion of sustainable community-led development through the use of agro-ecological techniques. through information dissemination using a range of channels and facilitating information exchange between farmers and community facilitators, it demonstrated that public access through community-driven telecentres expanded capabilities in a way that complemented market-driven approaches to ict. however, as a non-representative study of one project over a limited time period, the findings cannot be generalised. it is possible that different findings would have emerged from a representative sample, as indicated by the relatively low incidence of references to organic farming in the surveys and the differences between the sites. furthermore, important parameters were not measured in this qualitative study, including the extent to which organic agriculture techniques had been diffused, quantification of benefits and attribution of these to ireach vs other organisations. as there are few, if any, empirical studies of telecentres showing a link to positive environmental outcomes, the interest in more sustainable land management practices at ireach could be a unique occurrence, possibly associated with the agricultural university managing the project. if the latter, this could also be a valuable insight, particularly understanding why kep did not promote agro-ecological methods to the same extent, or if it did, why it did not register as much with the informants. despite the above qualifications, a case can nevertheless be made for exploring this issue further. more in-depth research would be required, both at ireach and other telecentres, focusing on the contribution these can make to achieving combined environmental and social objectives, in addition to their role as a first mile option. such research might look at the way in which they can encourage continuous learning and link small-hold farmers in different locations and with institutions. subject to the outcomes of more rigorous studies validating the potential described in this paper, such research could inform policy analysis and debates on the role of telecentres for sustainability and shape policies that could enlist them in the service of climate change adaptation and mitigation. it is not expected that there would be a straight line between telecentres and positive climate outcomes, but rather a winding path of experimentation and research, reflecting the diversity and dynamics of agriculture systems, political, economic, social and cultural contexts. these all demand attention and the ca is equipped to play a prominent role in this area, by strengthening the conceptual foundation of empirical research and policy dialogues on ways in which ict can be used to promote sustainable development that combines social, economic and ecological dimensions. acknowledgements the contributions by ireach staff, particularly tara pin, sokleap hak and dara seng, focus group participants and survey respondents are greatly appreciated. i am grateful to professor john houghton, victoria university, australia, for his guidance on the overall research project and comments on an earlier version of this paper and to the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful and valuable comments on a previous 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(2003b). declaration of principles. applying a community informatics approach as part of rehabilitation in us prisons lassana magassa university of washington abstract as of mid-2008, over 1.6 million people were incarcerated in the us. this can be attributed to policies that call for mandatory prison sentences for all offenders and longer prison sentences for repeat offenders. despite data showing victimization crimes have been on a steady decline [1], the amount of people incarcerated doubled from 1985 to 2004. about 40 percent of state prison inmates never received a general education diploma (ged) or a high school diploma (hsd) compared with about 14 percent of all adults [2]. despite evidence showing that educational training programs can raise employment prospects and reduce recidivism [1], support funding for prison educational programs suffered cuts [2]. meanwhile information and communications technologies (icts) has found its way into virtual every aspect of our lives. closed off to this world are inmates [17]. the need for a computer/information literate workforce excludes inmates from finding jobs, healthcare, and other services needed to participate in society. few would disagree, that the internet has become an important part of the daily life in society. its use is often taken for granted by the estimated 50 million americans who use it to do everything from staying in touch with friends and family to discuss politics. yet today, prisons have not fully embraced the educational and rehabilitational ability of digital literacy. consequently hundreds of thousands of inmates are being released every year without the skills necessary to effectively engage in society. u.s. prisons and department of corrections america’s first genuine prison was created by the quakers in 1791 and had three goals: “to ensure public security, reformation of prisoners, and ‘humanity toward those unhappy members of society’” [1]. in 1798 a school was added and described “the most beneficial ….for learning for some and improving for others in the first principles of reading, writing, and arithmetic” [4]. since then education has taken several shapes—rising in the 1930s and then in the 1960’s—influenced by arguments about prison as rehabilitation or punishment.  in the 1980’s prison education was mostly ignored because many americans were “hostile and suspect of all rehabilitative programs aimed at reintegrating prisoners into the mainstream" [1]. presently, budget constraints have led to cut backs in correctional education [5]. this combined with an increasing prison population [1], creates a problematic situation. although the hazards in reducing prison education are apparent, monetary and attitudinal barriers jeopardize the implementation of educational programs that will equip inmates to operate technologically driven, socioeconomic system. demographics: who’s being excluded in 2005, the racial breakdown of us prisons was as follows, 40% black, 20% hispanic, and 35% white. the incarceration rate for black men are especially concerning, especially when you consider those between 20 and 30 years old. among males ages 25 to 29, nearly 13 percent of black males were incarcerated, compared to nearly 4 percent of hispanic males and nearly 2 percent of white males. as of june 2004, an estimated 576,600, among the more than 2.1 million incarcerated were black males between the ages of 20 and 39. educational attainment & literacy rates the 1996 national adult literacy survey (nals) indicated that the literacy level of prisoners is substantially lower than that of the u.s. population as a whole. little has changed since then. about 40 percent of those incarcerated in the us had less than a high school education. over 50 percent of that group was under the age of 25. of them, 54 percent were hispanic, 44 percent black and 27 percent white. figure 1 illustrates the huge disparity between the education attainment of blacks and hispanics when compared to that of whites. figure 1 : corrections education correctional education programs are an enigma. rarely will you find reports that provide detailed information that would allow researchers and practitioners to assess the worth and value of programs.  the 2004 us department of education [6] report is the most recent attempt at this. ideally the report would provide comprehensive information on programs available in us correctional facilities. although it doesn’t do this, it is the most reliable source of information and will be used to communicate the state of correctional education in the u.s. inmates participation in correctional education as of 2000 ninety percent of state prisons provided some sort of educational service [6] including one or more of the following: adult basic (abe) and secondary education (ade), vocational education, college coursework, special education, and study release. only 50 percent of inmates participated in them. this can be due to many factors including [6] provisions on enrollment or the availability of programs. inmates with the lowest educational attainment were the most likely to receive services. participants usually enroll in ged or vocational training [6]. findings from a study by rice et al. and luiden and perry determined that programs tailored to the prison population, designed to hone skills needed in the job market and that follow up with inmates after their release are likely to succeed. figure 2 : recidivism more than two-thirds of inmates released from prison will be rearrested within three years [7],[8],[6],[9].  however, inmates who participate in educational programs were less likely to be re-incarcerated. additionally they were more financially sound in the years to followed [10]. despite the success of correctional education, prisons were unable to keep up with the growing prison population. now what? prisons are plagued with individuals negatively affected by the digital divide. they have the lowest levels of educational and literacy rates. although the importance of digital literacy training has been recognized, approximately 600,000 inmates return to society every year in the same condition that they left. despite an increasing necessity to prepare prisoners to participate in an information society, investments in prison education have declined. more important the models in place—some of which may attempt to provide inmates with digital skills—appear to be outdated and unable to provide inmates with necessary digital literacy skills. since situations differ from state to state, the remainder of this work will focus on washington state prisons. it will begin by examining the washington department of corrections (wa-doc). then using the access rainbow, the final section will highlight issues related to access. narrowing in: washington department of corrections wa-doc has experienced a steady growth in the prison population over the last few decades. washington’s prison population grew from 7,009 in 1986 to 17,973 in 2006. this increase affects the community and “will have profound effects on their [offenders] behaviour for the rest of their lives” [11]. in washington 37 percent of those released are incarcerated for new crimes or violating parole within five years [11]. the growth has meant reallocating funds from essential educational programs to investments for housing and ensuring and facilities remain secure. as evidence, in 2001, states spent $29.5 billion for prisons, a $5.5 billion increase from 1996 [11]. wa-doc acknowledges as stated in [11] a 2006 report by the washington state institute for public policy (wsipp) that basic and vocational education programs do effectively reduce recidivism. wsipp added that if more inmates take part in the programs, washington may be able to avoid building two new prisons “by 2020, at a cost of approximately $250 million each to build, and $45 million per year to operate” [11]. thus over the last few years, re-entry, defined as “all activities and programming conducted to prepare ex-convicts to return safely to the community and to live as law abiding citizens” [12] has become a focus of the department of corrections. wa-doc education committed to increasing public safety, reducing recidivism and the need for more prisons in 2008 the wa-doc instituted a re-entry initiative with an emphasis on education. it is meant to address “the attitudes, behaviors and personal deficits that increase the chance an offender will commit new crimes after release from doc custody or supervision” [13]. programs are offered at each of the state’s fifteen prisons. the basic skills program, available at all fifteen sites provides those incarcerated a chance to obtain abe, esl training or a ged. about 41 percent of offenders are able to take advantage of these services. vocational program # of facilities information technology certificate 14 building maintenance 7 carpentry 2 computer application scientist 2 interactive media 2 technological design 2 other (banking, horticulture, upholstery, etc.) 1 although vocational programs are available at fourteen facilities, the wa-doc “currently meets only about 40 percent of the vocational-training need in the incarcerated population” [11]. furthermore, based on the information gathered, these programs at most superficially address the digital divide. cost of exclusion providing certain groups with access to ict’s "will not always be seen in a favourable light by existing authorities" [14]. this is certainly the case with the incarcerated. however, we are at a point where ict is interwoven in virtually all social and economic activities, and the cost of consciously excluding them instead of investigating ways to equip them with digital literacy skills necessary to effectively operate in an information society can be detrimental. digital exclusion has an estimated negative economic impact of $55 billion per year [15]which can be felt in eleven areas—health care, education, economic opportunity, civic engagement, e-government, energy, public safety and response, emergency, transportation, personal financial management, consumer benefits, and personal communications and entertainment. adding the impact of excluding prison inmates would magnify this. if continued, it “may impose an even greater cost ... being on the outside is worsened when being on the inside is made more efficient” [15]. community informatics cl is a field of practice where practitioners work with institutions to devise responsible ways to help individuals in marginalized communities benefit from opportunities—social, economic, political or cultural—presented because of technology [17]. ci takes into account how they’re organized, managed, process information. assuming that prisons are trying to help empower inmates to lead law-abiding lives, the last point is paramount. ci establishes from the start that providing access to ict is not enough. instead it is what can be done with the access that makes ict meaningful [18]. community informatics manifested in prisons through the access “rainbow” there are numerous barriers to providing web-ready computer access in prisons. however, unless confronted prisons may continue to reinforce the social and economic barriers that led to incarceration in the first place. the access rainbow [19] (ar), “a seven-layer conceptual model of access…” [17] systematically addresses the different "levels" through which access is determined, helps discussions move away from brainstorming reasons not to provide to determining how ict’s be used to help fulfill the prisons mission. it may need to be slightly modified to embrace the interest of correctional centers. the model fleshes out the multiple layers associated with access. each layer is essential and leaving one out compromises successful application of the model. arzberger, p., schroeder, p. beaulieu, a., bowker, g., casey, k., laaksonen, l., moorman, d., uhlir, p., & wouters, p. (2004): promoting access to public research data for scientific, economic, and social development.  data science journal 3:135-152, november 2004. this model was applied by mielnizcuk [19] for the social development network (sdn), a coalition whose members believe that ict's should be used to attain goals. sdn focus was on the sixth layer—literacy and social facilitation. the model was also applied in policy discussions that aimed to identify issues of access as they related to women and devise ways of addressing them. using information currently in hand about the wa-doc the ar is used to highlight issues and challenges that arise in discussions on prison inmates as computer users. 1.carriage facilities: although basic telephone service is available at prisons, implementing a technology supportive infrastructure is a huge undertaking. having the wa-doc or a third-party cover infrastructure costs is crucial to creating an environment that will help equip them with skills for technology driven socioeconomic society.  2.physical devices: the price of pcs has decreased as capabilities continue to increase. today pcs can be purchased for a few hundred dollars. consequently it is not surprising that wa-doc facilities have computers at its different facilities. however, considering many leave prison without encountering a computer, it is safe to say that there is a shortage. to date there are no web-ready computers accessible to inmates. however wa-doc employees are able to gain access to the web from inside facilities. presently computers are accessible to inmates who visit the educational center. wa-doc is preparing to launch a pilot project where strategically placed kiosks at a prison will permit access to mp3 audio and email. a move in the right direction, there are some foreseeable obstacles. first, use policies that are similar to ones used with the phones may not be feasible. for example 15 minutes (the time allotted per phone call) may not be enough time to read an email and respond or look through a catalog of mp3 audio files. 3.software tools: one of the hurdles to providing access is that prisons have not figured out how to control and monitor use. cases where convicts used the internet for criminal purposes (sullivan, 2000, p. 58) has led corrections officials to be very cautious, referring to the internet as a security issue. software products that track use in real-time and alert officials are presently available. as an example, a florida state prison installed “silent watch” [20], a software program that allows administrators to monitor a dozen computers in real time. features of the program include: “an audible alarm …sound if a prisoner has typed a word or phrase deemed objectionable and the ability and the ability to view all email sent between inmates...” (sullivan, 2000).  accordingly, some of the concerns wa-doc once had may no longer be warranted. 4.content services: governmental and local service agencies are replacing traditional print resources with digital ones. this is true for virtually all sectors of the american society. as an example, seattle’s website (www.seattle.gov) gives patrons the opportunity to complete various tasks including, apply for jobs, search legislation, and pay utility bills. prison computers should allow access to these because it will be useful once released. computers should also have access to content that are of interest to inmates, but may not be related to the government or service agencies. exposure to these to content types while incarcerated is likely to demonstrate the value of icts and create lifelong users. 5.service/ access provision: there is no such thing as unrestricted access in prisons—not to food, phone calls, social workers, much less computers.  one way of determining access is through offender classification. classification of inmates is based on the potential harm an offender poses to offenders, staff, and visitors. the security levels range from one to four with level 1 being the least restrictive and level 4 being extremely restrictive.  using a tiered system those being released within four months (m1) would be provided with the greatest exposure training supported by web-ready computers. 6.literacy/ social facilitation: adult basic education programs are currently available to address literacy. there was a 12.2% increase in the number of inmates completing the program verse last year. an information technology certificate course is offered under the vocational program. it is unclear if it explicitly targets the digital divide [19] or if it consists of nothing more than keyboard and menu navigation skills. the access and training that inmates receive should be structured in a way that allows them to complete tasks that are important to them. it should provide them with an understanding of how to retrieve information using a variety of online tools and the ability to create a presence. as an example they should know how to complete online job applications, obtain information about services, etc. 7.governance: current public policy in the form of the re-entry programs are based on the realization that thousands of former offenders will be returning to their old neighborhoods. the goal of the programs is to help inmates reconnect with family members and seamlessly re-enter the labor market as a law abiding, self-sufficient citizen. writing policies that govern how access will be facilitated can position prisons to narrow the digital divide. it should not be the case, as will be with the pilot project soon-to-be launched, that inmates have to pay to access the web. conclusion prisons, prisoners, computers and the internet are complex in their own respect. combing them makes things seem even more convoluted. before opposing the idea of a sufficient level of a digital divide intervention program, one should consider the thoughts expressed above. likewise, those in support of providing access should consider potential hazards and why prison administration and citizens have expressed concern. its potential to create productive community members is encouraging. additionally, investing in a correctional digital education programs upfront can save wa-doc future expenses associated with incarceration [5],[13],[10],[16]. more importantly it provides inmates with the tools necessary to responsibly engage in an information society.  there are several examples where technology was introduced [21] to help marginalized groups elevate themselves as oppose to maintaining reproducing negative effects of current social structures. the application of the model above is attempt to initiate dialogue to support this. acknowledging that much work remains to be completed before u.s. prisons are to include internet access as part of the rehabilitation effort, probably the most important task, is to introduce it in discussions about how to equip incarcerated individuals with the skills they need to successfully integrate in to society. in closing, this work proposes that us prisons play a more active role in providing an environment that allows inmates, most of whom come from low income homes and have low literacy rates, to develop their digital literacy skills and help them understand and learn how to exploit the benefits of technology in leading productive law abiding lives. this is an endeavour that no one entity should pursue on their own, but instead together—the government, prison administration, policy makers and the inmates themselves. the application of the access rainbow is an attempt to help move this discussion forward. references “bureau of justice statistics criminal offenders statistics.” a. bazos and j. hausman, “correctional education as a crime control program,” ucla school of public policy and social research. department of policy studies, 2004. a. clement and l.r. shade, “the access rainbow: conceptualizing universal access to the information/communication infrastructure,” community informatics: enabling communities with information and communications technologies, 2000, pp. 32–51. a. pastore and k. maguire, sourcebook of criminal justice statistics, 2001. a. roder, “strengthening correctional education for adults,” 2009. a. solomon, c. fisher, n. la vigne, and j. osborne, understanding the challenges of prisoner reentry: research findings from the urban institute’s prisoner reentry portfolio, washington, dc: the urban institute, 2006. b. loader, b. hague, and d. eagle, “embedding the net: community empowerment in the age of information,” community informatics: enabling communities with information and communications technologies, 2000, pp. 82-102. d. sarkar, “prison keeps eye on inmate computer use -federal computer week,” feb. 2001. digital impact group and econsult corporation, the economic impact of digital exclusion, 2010. f. butterfield, “bridges to life restorative justice program: new york times article on recidivism,” prison boom has not deterred crime, report suggests, jun. 2002. j. keeler and j. newman jr, “paperless success: the value of e-medical records,” healthcare information and management systems society, 2001. j. petersilia, when prisoners come home : parole and prisoner reentry,  oxford ;;new york: oxford university press, 2003. k. delgadillo, r. gomez, and k. stoll, community telecentres for development, 2002. m. gurstein, community informatics : enabling communities with information and communications technologies,  hershey  pa ;;london: idea group publishing, 2000. m. gurstein, what is community informatics? (and why does it matter)?, polimetrica, 2007. n. teeters, the cradle of the penitentiary  the walnut street jail at philadelphia, 1773-1835.,  [philadelphia?: 1955. r. coley and educational testing service, locked up and locked out : an educational perspective on the u.s. prison population.,  princeton  nj: policy evaluation and research center  policy information center  educational testing service, 2006. s. klein, m. tolbert, e.f. cataldi, and g. tauschek, correctional education: assessing the status of prison programs and information needs, 2004. s. steurer and correctional education association (u.s.);united states., three state recidivism study,  lanham, md :: correctional education association,, 2001. state of washington department of corrections, correctional education: providing basic education to off enders, 2008. state of washington doc, the doc re-entry initiative: smart on crime, 2006.   community-based learning: a model for higher education and community partnerships   peter day university of brighton, united kingdom, p.day@brighton.ac.uk   abstract : the effectiveness of community informatics as a vehicle for community development is considered through a critical review of ci literature. ci is presented as an academic construct that needs to reflect critically on its research and ict practices. the goal to engage effectively within the social networks that comprise community ecologies requires the development and application of relevant, effective and appropriate practice and theory. community learning theory is presented as providing an interesting route to understanding community development and a model of community learning partnerships between community and academe adopted in brighton & hove in the uk is discussed.   we are surrounded by a pragmatic discourse that would have us adapt to the facts of reality. dreams and utopia are called not only useless, but positively impeding. (freire, 2002. p.7)   introduction since its inception at the turn of the millennium community informatics (ci) has been imbued with a community development rationale (see e.g. gurstein, 2000 and 2003a; and pitkin, 2006). however, in practice, the impact of ci on community development[1] is less than impressive. there have been many technological contributions at the micro level but there appears to be an increasing tendency to overstate the scope and nature of academic engagement in and with real life, geographically located communities. the technological artefacts and theoretical discussions emerging from much of ci discourse provide little convincing evidence of community involvement, preferring instead to focus on university based experiments or abstract technological projects remote from the challenges and realities of lived community. this is not to suggest that the work of all ci researchers/practitioners follow this trend. far from it, one only need to look to the work that has been, and continues to be, done on teeside, in melbourne, brisbane, illinois or milan to name but a few examples of good practice. however, much of what passes for ci appears not to be grounded in the rich, diverse and often socially contested spaces, social networks and processes that form community practice (glen, 1993 and butcher et al, 2007). ci is considered here as an academic construct that has some considerable way to go before it can claim to contribute to community development in any meaningful way or be viewed as an agent of meaningful and sustainable social change in a network society (castells, 2000). with this in mind, a pertinent question for readers of this journal might be in what ways might community informatics contribute to the practices and policies of community development? of course, such a fundamental question gets to the very centre of the purpose and ethos of ci and in turn, stimulates secondary questions. if, as i argue here, ci is an academic construct, that is to say, is still driven by academia, how then do its representatives in academe engage with the social groups, networks, activities and practices existing within the environs of community development, so that ci becomes a part of community existence? in what ways might ict contribute to, support and sustain these social processes? how might the artefacts , applications, platforms, services, spaces and networks emerging from ci be planned, designed, implemented and developed in partnership with community citizens so as to meet ci’s stated purpose of enabling “community processes” whilst achieving “community objectives” (gurstein, 2003a. p.77). by grounding our work in, and contributing to, the day to day activities of community life, we make the technological developments and services that emerge as ci outputs socially useful and meaningful. this paper reflects critically on the conceptual development of ci’s first decade and considers an emerging model of community-based learning being developed through the participatory partnerships and practices arising between community media students and staff at the university of brighton and community practitioners and citizens from geographic communities in brighton & hove and kenya. as former uk secretary of state for communities and local government, hazel blears, commented, “there isn’t a single service or development in britain [anywhere] which hasn’t been actively improved by involving local people.” (dclg, 2007, p.2). so why does so much of the ci literature appear to overlook the processes of building partnerships between academic research/practice and community?   community communications – a partnership approach to ci research and practice pitkin provides us with a critical and useful reflection on the effectiveness of ci’s contribution to community development, in which the latter is described as facilitating “efforts to build local capacity, educate and organise community residents and increase their access to local policy making that affects their lives” (2006, p78). we are encouraged to consider the effectiveness of ci through a community development lens and urged to be critical in, and reflect on, our activities. he further exhorts us to “collaborate in constructing truly participatory, transformative and ethical community informatics applications that support community development" (pitkin, 2006, p.95). of course, collaboration and partnerships of this nature require input from external agencies as well those from communities and academics[2]. policy makers, commercial enterprises, higher education institutions, community development agencies and even community practitioners bring all manner of power and influence (funding, resources, expertise, etc.) to the community partnerships table. however, power is a moveable feast that is dependent on people’s acceptance of its existence and dynamic nature. power can and does change. it exists in a constant state of flux. it is often exchanged between groups of people and within the context of community organising and partnership development it is often based on cooperative interaction (biklen, 1983). for community partnerships, such as those being considered here, to be both effective and sustainable, the power to determine and control community processes and decision making must rest within the communities themselves. if ci practices are to be guided by a community development ethos, it follows that changes to the community resulting from ci interventions should be agreed on and acceptable to the communities involved. this includes the design, implementation and development of technological artefacts and systems. such a partnership approach to ci interventions will see ci practices shaped by community needs and community voice rather than the other way round. community development involves processes “of strengthening individuals, groups and organizations to gain the knowledge and power to work towards change in their communities” (banks, 2003 p. 12) and ci should do likewise. eventually, as ci practices become embedded as integrated elements of community life, this will become an iterative cycle of community practice shaping ci practices which in turn shape community practice (sclove, 1995) but the starting point for this process to emerge should always be determined by community need, not academic imperative or technological expediency.  a central element of effective community informatics research/practice and partnerships is that they encourage local people to become “the subject of their own investigation, rather than the object of an external agency’s concern” (wang & burris, 1997). contextualizing ci as a potential transformative agent for community development focuses attention on what gurstein terms effective use, i.e. “the capacity and opportunity to successfully integrate icts into the accomplishment of self or collaboratively identified goals.” (2003b). gurstein’s effective use thesis suggests that communities need access to ict in order to assist community development and empowerment in a digital age, but emphasizes that access in and of itself is inadequate in achieving this end. knowledge of how to use ict is also required. as is the capacity and capability to apply that knowledge to the contextualized processes, interactions and activities found in the social, economic, ethnic, cultural, religious, family and friendship ties (presthus, 1970) of community life. in my experience as a ci academic engaging in partnerships with communities in the uk and kenya, a prerequisite to community empowerment are the informal education practices (packham, 2008) of community learning (nielsen, 2002).   community learning the main focus of community work and workers in the uk, since the emergence of community development in the 1960s, has focussed on enabling people to become active, and to organise and engage in community action. this type of community involvement is often described as active citizenship and has been defined as “being involved in your community, having your say and taking part in decisions that affect you. above all it is about people making things happen” (packham, 2008. p.149). or put another way it “is about the active participation of people in their own transformation” (ledwith, 1997. p.13). active citizenship is presented here as an indicator of community empowerment. it is considered alongside community learning because the voices of many communities, especially disadvantaged and marginalised communities, often go unheard in modern society and community learning is a process which, when grounded in everyday community life, enables the capacities of people to be built in an informal but relevant manner. community learning not only enables and facilitates capacity building by equipping people with the skills, information, knowledge and support through which community voices can be heard; but also gives them the confidence to speak and engage in dialogue with others – an essential ingredient when collaborating in partnerships comprising people from within and beyond local community networks. whilst community learning focuses on any subject matter of relevance to expressed community need it is always participatory in approach and seeks to build dialogue between learners. dialogic exchanges between learners occur when information and knowledge are exchanged. this can be through conversational communications and/or through groups of people learning by doing. community learning therefore encourages community networking (schuler, 1996; day, 2009) processes in which dialogic exchanges are the transactions between community learning network nodes, i.e. learners (nielsen, 2002). packham provides a similar illustration of community learning processes through a depiction of a pan-european participatory research project investigating the contribution of community learning to civic and civil involvement. packham describes community learning processes as: learning with others (recognising the importance of the participant’s identity, connectedness to the community and a sense of agency to achieve something worthwhile; learning from experience (based on evaluation and critical reflection); learning and doing through collaborative activities undertaken by groups. (packham, 2008. p.110)   from both discussions of community learning (nielsen, 2002 & packham, 2008) it is not difficult to identify a relationship between community learning and community development, indeed falk & harrison describe community learning as the processes and outcomes (the “oil in the cogs”) that produce and sustain community development (1998). whilst community learning can be described as the oil in the cogs of active citizenship and community action, the outcomes of change brought about through community learning processes are dependent on the nature of its community network ties. networks within and beyond the community, enabling leadership, and community norms and values that accept diversity, yet include some shared norms and values are three aspects of social capital that help communities to be learning communities.    (kilpatrick, 2000, p.4) huysman & wulf contend that “community members will be more inclined to connect and use electronic networks when they are motivated to share knowledge with others, able to share knowledge and have the opportunity to share knowledge” (huysman & wulf, 2005. p.9). a similar argument is offered by garratt & piper, who in the context of community volunteering suggest that people will not participate, “unless there is the prior capacity, drive or motivation to become involved” (2008. p.56). within the context of ci this poses other fundamental questions for us as academics seeking to understand the world in which we live – namely, what do we have to offer communities so as to unlock the ‘capacity, drive or motivation’ to appropriate ict and how do we do this? in my experience, trust is a big factor in developing effective networks of community knowledge exchange and learning. building trust between academics and community is also a prerequisite to unlocking community motivation to use ict for community building activities. the networks, norms and trust that develop in communities, i.e. social capital,-when individuals, families, groups, etc. share information, knowledge and other resources in pursuit of common community goals, are crucial components of effective ci initiatives. however, like all forms of capital, social capital is valueless unless the opportunity (capacity and capability) and the motivation (community development/action) to use it can be exercised. simpson argues that, “understanding the role of social capital in the success of ci initiatives as community development activities and widespread adoption of icts can enhance the likelihood of the sustainability of the ci initiative, thereby increasing the benefits that the community may derive” (2005, p.114). we argue that such understanding of social capital can only permeate and influence ci partnerships when ci practices become part of the interwoven fabric of community life. simpson concludes her seminal text on ci and social capital by reminding us that, projects must be designed in such a way that they are supported by soft technologies that help to build local capacity and leadership, encourage community ownership and strengthen local social infrastructure and networks, and therefore build social capital. if these factors are neglected, the impacts of a ci initiative can be limited and short-lived. the negative impacts resulting from the failure of a community-focused ci initiative may spread so far as to have a flow-on detrimental effect on the community’s social capital, thereby undermining not just the sustainability of the ci initiative, but the sustainability and resilience of the community as a whole (simpson, 2005, p.115).   my experiences of community learning through the community network analysis (cna) project (day, 2009) suggest two main areas of consideration for all ci initiatives. firstly, community learning is contextual and affected by the environment in which it occurs (lave & etienne, 1990; boettcher, 2007). creating spaces that enable citizens to participate in ci activities, projects and initiatives that contribute to community life in a positive and sustainable manner should be a fundamental part of the way we work. therefore, ci should encourage participation in capacity building through community learning in ways that relate and contribute to community development goals and action. secondly, social interaction is a crucial component of learning. traditional community ict training courses typically lack social or community contextualization and are often heavily influenced by performance measurement and the target demands of funders. training is often task oriented and shaped by a model of passive ict consumption whereas community (ict) learning is intended to empower learners with knowledge for change and is shaped by community development principles (gilchrist & rauf, 2006). for readers unfamiliar with the cna project, i should perhaps explain that the community network analysis projects were research projects funded by the research programmes of the uk economic & social research council's 'people at the centre of communication and information technology'(paccit) and the brighton & sussex community knowledge exchange (bscke).  synthesising community informatics practice and research, both cna projects examined and explored icts as agents of community development and learning. to this end the cna team encouraged community participants of participatory learning workshops (plws) to generate their own learning contexts (day & farenden, 2007a). learner-generated contexts are created by learners taking ownership of their learning needs and environments (luckin, et al, 2007). community participants actively engage in dialogic learning networks where information and knowledge are exchanged in order to stimulate individual and community learning alike. in this way the learning processes produce effective, interesting and creative opportunities that often differ on each occasion and from which the outcomes can be applied as, or to, effective community action (day, 2009; day, 2008 and day & farenden, 2007b).   community learning partnerships when the funding for cna, supplied through the economic & social research council (esrc) ran out, we were able to sustain the community development ethos of cna collaborations through support in the short-term by the community university partnership project (cupp)[3] at the university of brighton. this was only ever going to be a stay of execution however, so we started to take stock of the assets we possessed and reflected on what could realistically be achieved with these. the remaining assets could be understood as the following: 1) excellent community development workers in west hove, portslade & latterly moulsecoomb[4]. it was their buying into the vision of how ci can contribute to community development activities that has provided a firm base for our activities, even when they don’t always work out.....and they don’t. 2) the enthusiasm, thirst for knowledge and commitment of the various community fora/committee folk and, 3) great students who seem to develop as scholars, every year, by actively engaging with the networks, activities and issues that exist in community environments. to say nothing of the fun they have in doing it....and whoever said learning shouldn’t be fun? it should also be said that we have been inspired in no small part by the great example set by the ci corps at the university of illinois – see for example the ask, investigate, create, discuss & reflect model (nelson & bishop, 2007), which set us to thinking about the way in which we engage with community. as we reflected on how such assets could be utilised to develop and sustain our existing community partnership activities – let alone respond to the demand to build new partnerships[5] – a creative, flexible and innovative idea about community learning partnerships began to emerge. we started by linking the goal of informal community learning partnerships to the formal framework of higher education pedagogy. drawing initially on the us based approach of service learning (abravanel, 2003 & mcpherson, 2005), we are developing what we term community-based learning[6] in the curriculum. we set out to develop modules[7] that actively contribute both to 1) community life and informal learning by community partners and, 2) the formal learning and social knowledge of students through community informatics/media partnership projects planned through dialogue and negotiation between students and community. it is the intended purpose of partnership projects that “both sides benefit through the activities, and usually involves having a shared vision, regular two-way communication, independent tasks, and common goals” (billig, 2007, p.27). for community partners much of the learning focuses on the processes outlined above (see nielsen and packham). of course, there is also an element of skills development in which students share their knowledge, experience and expertise as part of the project brief. in this way not only are the capacities of our community partners developed[8] so that they can apply these new skills in achieving a community action goal, but they can assist others in the community to develop their capacities as well. capacity building in the ci context is both practice and process oriented and should always be driven by community development goals. all community informatics/media modules in the school of arts and media at the university of brighton are electives and most run for a single semester, but final year undergraduate students can enrol for the community project module, as well as selecting to undertake a piece of applied community-based research as their dissertation subject. this means that some students dedicate 50% of their final year studies to community informatics/media related subjects. the same applies at the masters level, where students can take a theory-based module and then supplement that with a practice-based community media module before undertaking their dissertation as community-based research. because these elective modules all form part of media studies degrees the range of skills, knowledge and interests found among students is wide but highly appropriate in supporting community content production – photography, video, journalism, pr, marketing, html, image editing, and digital story-telling are among the subjects in which students have assisted community partners in learning. of course, as with all student work, quality varies. sometimes the outcomes are excellent and students make significant contributions to community learning, capacity building and community development. on other occasions the outputs are not so good and students act more like community helpers requiring a lot of supervision and assistance from our community partners. this is fully understood and accepted by the community partners. in the main however, the partnerships work well and even the less dynamic and innovative students manage to contribute to community activities in some way and learn from the process at the same time. for students, learning goals are driven primarily by the demands of the module assessment criteria. in other words they want to gain a good grade in the module and so seek to gain knowledge about the synergies between community media/informatics practices and community development related theories. of course they also soon realise that they learn about themselves and other people – often in environments that they have never encountered before. they learn about community, civil society, civic responsibility, project management, negotiation and dialogue. they also learn about learning, often gaining insights about themselves from the challenges they have faced. from this point forward many gain in confidence and their overall performance improves – not just in these modules but across their degree performance. as an educator, it is a source of eternal pride seeing my students often exceed their own expectations and going on to achieve further upon graduation.   a model of community learning partnerships (clps) – as if people mattered fundamental to the success of the community learning partnerships is dialogic action. that is to say that each stage of the learning partnership process (below) is driven by actions and activities determined by regular and ongoing dialogue between community, students, community development workers and academic staff (faculty). this is crucial in order to achieve and maintain shared vision and common ground within the partnerships (billig, 2007) although establishing an environment in which people with busy lives and competing external demands can come together in dialogue is not always practicable. it can however, become more accessible through the use of shared ict platforms. until recently, we found the social network site, ning, to be the most adaptable to our needs. it had the main advantage of avoiding the university’s firewall and security problems encountered with trying to enable community access to university information systems. however, we had been considering switching to the cms platform plone, because the community prototype websites we constructed during the cna projects used this platform and had worked well. this created an added advantage of students and community only having to learn one platform and recent developments to plone make it much more intuitive and, in our experience, simpler to learn than other platforms the communities had experimented with. the decision by ning to start charging premium rates was the catalyst for the decision. consequently, all the community websites that we are working on and the student learning spaces i have developed are all built using plone.  students learn how to use the learning space as part of their module learning objectives and are then in a position, when collaborating with community partners in generating community media content, to train community participants in uploading their content and using the website. in this way, the community becomes the curriculum (nelson & bishop, 2007) by stimulating the production, archiving and consumption of community media content. the remainder of this paper explores the stages of the clp model which evolved from the cna projects and is being refined through the kind of student/community partnership activities identified below. the clp model comprises five iterative components or stages.: community engagement; problem assessment; solution planning; solution creation and critical reflection. each stage of the cycle is underpinned by dialogic action, i.e. through the active participation of partners. fig. 1 stages of the community learning partnership (clp) process   engage community informatics partnership projects vary year on year and are determined by a number of factors. student skill-set, knowledgebase and interests (groups or individuals) play a determining role in the type of projects undertaken but all projects must be driven by community need. students are free to identify and negotiate the nature and aims of projects for themselves, so long as they are located within one of our partnering communities. however, because most modules only run for a 12 week period, projects are normally drawn from a list prepared through discussions with community development workers and the community forum. initial student engagement with potential community partners usually comes through an introduction to the community development worker and/or chairperson of the community forum, usually as part of an informal get together where introductions are facilitated by the author and the potential for project collaboration explored. subsequent negotiations between students and community hammer out an agreement on the nature and goals of the project. this is never as simple as it might sound and in 2009 a digital story-telling project provided a classic example of this. 2 students were invited by the manager of the north portslade children’s centre to work on a digital story-telling project in which parents could tell their stories about issues and problems of parenting in portslade, which would then be loaded up onto the portslade community communications space (ccs) on pages dedicated to the centre. assess we found that the noise level at the children’s centre, where children run around enjoying themselves (loudly) and parents socialising with one eye on their offspring was not really an environment conducive to running participatory learning workshops in digital story-telling techniques. in addition, the parents had not really been prepared properly for the arrival of the students and although everyone knew they were coming, no-one really understood why, apart from that it had ‘something to do with ict’. the students not only had to completely revise their plans for the digital story workshops (more later) but had to develop a strategy by which they could engage with parents and convince them to engage with the project. initially, this was done by chatting to parents and the response was mixed. there was some interest but people really didn’t understand the concept of digital story-telling. after a feedback session at the university, in which we reflected critically on the experiences of the day and considered the lessons about the student’s preparation and assumptions about the project, the students returned the following week with visual display boards that they had designed to show what a digital story was and how to story-board and make one. they also took a laptop with a brief story they had made and kept it playing on loop. throughout the morning interest grew and people signed up to engage in the project. although much of the partnership projects focus on content production, the intention is for content to be uploaded and managed on the community website. in moulsecoomb, initial discussions about the community website structure and content have focussed on the information and communication needs of the moulsecoomb local action team (mlat[9]). eventually, it is hoped that the site will be expanded to act as a community communication space for the entire moulsecoomb community. in a previous year, a group of final year media students undertook a community needs assessment in the centre of portslade. a random sample of 250 people was surveyed providing some interesting insights into the demographics of ict access and use in portslade. the questionnaire confirmed interest in the development of an effective community website and provided data about community content requirements. the results of the survey were written up in a community friendly and accessible report form, which was given to the portslade community forum and produced in hard copy for distribution among groups in the forum. students undertook similar research in west hove with outputs tailored to meet the needs of that community. changes in the personal circumstances of researchers and community champions put a temporary block on activities in portslade and west hove. it is not clear whether activities will start up again although there has been some exploration of the possibility. meanwhile, the working relationship with the moulsecoomb community and itskills4ruralkenya (its4rk)[10] has strengthened and these will be reported in future papers. plan reflecting critically on the findings of the surveys and interviews with key stakeholders in the community forum, the students resolved that planning was needed for an awareness raising campaign in the community if the ccs was to contribute to community development by becoming a thriving space for community communications. analysing the research for indicators of community needs the students produced a ‘framework for sustainability’ document intended to provide guidance and to support the community forum in developing a community information and communications strategy. the students produced a range of recommendations that not only inform the next tranche of plws and support community awareness raising activities but also provide useful insights into the importance of social engagement as part of the community communication space. in addition to this, having identified the priorities articulated by the community from the questionnaire, the students planned and produced a series of ‘how to’ work books. each work book introduces new community users to the initial stages of using the plone based community website – e.g. how to become a member; how to create a personal and/or group folder and pages; how to create a community calendar event; and how to create a community news article. using screen shots to accompany the written guidelines, users are taken step-by-step through each introductory stage of using the community website as a content producer rather than a passive service user. the purpose behind workbook production and dissemination was to provide a resource that empowered community users to produce and manage their own online information and communications, albeit at introductory level in this instance. to this end, workbooks will be posted on the ccs as ongoing community learning resources. this year, final year undergrad students are preparing for a community media research fieldtrip to the rural village of kibugat in kenya. 3 former ci students – 2 masters and 1 undergrad – set up the charity, its4rk based in both brighton and kibugat resulting in an ict centre being established in kibugat and a network to establish 195 others throughout rural kenya. the purpose of the fieldtrip will be to undertake a community profile of community assets and needs. working with its4rk volunteers in brighton and hove, students are currently designing a participatory communications strategy (mefalopulos & kamlongera, 2004) to amend and implement with villagers during the fieldtrip. plws will also be incorporated into this methodological in order to train local trainers in research methods; digital mediation of data collection and story-telling and community blogging through the plone interface. when and if these plans come to fruition depend on how successful the students are in raising the funds to finance the research trip. we have no access to philanthropic funds but the students are excited by the prospect and are keen to make their plans reality. if the plans are successful the research results will be written up as a report authored by myself and participating students. if the fundraising activities are not successful then all monies raised will be donated to its4rk and the research will be undertaken next year. create community media/informatics practices can, when applied as part of a community development portfolio of organisation, activities and action, unleash a creative potential, often unrealised in the pressures of everyday life. it is one of the most wonderful things about working with people in communities that quite ordinary people are capable of quite extraordinary things when given the support and confidence to "have a go" and achieve. for example, parents from the north portslade children’s centre produced 4 digital stories, some intended to be used to raise awareness of and profile the centre itself and another about the activities at the community allotment. one parent, who joined the project near its end, was considering using the techniques she learnt to produce a story for other parents about coping with childhood eczema. during their time at the children’s centre the two students overcame considerable odds to plan and implement an effective community learning environment. they engaged with parents in a manner that stimulated their desire to participate in learning how to represent and promote community voice. all parents when subsequently questioned revealed that they would use the skills they had learnt both in their personal lives and to support the community if and when the need arose. this amounts to a not inconsiderable newly acquired skill-set, as the students showed parents how to storyboard and create narrative for stories. they also provided an introduction to digital photography using photo voice techniques and parents were then shown how to synthesise this knowledge into the production of a digital story by using windows movie maker. another pair of students planned and executed a plw in which community leaders learnt how to edit digital images and then how to create posters to promote and advertise community events and activities using photoshop. in both sets of workshop environments, participants reflected critically on how the knowledge they were gaining could be used to support their community, indeed a number of posters were subsequently produced to promote community events in west hove and portslade. in both the photoshop and digital story projects students produced ‘how to’ workbooks that could be used as a community resource in the future. similar workshops and training documentations are being planned and designed for plws in moulsecoomb and kenya. reflect it is important to note that despite the representation in fig.1 reflection does not only occur at the end of a project, although critical evaluation by students and community alike is especially important to ongoing initiatives such as the clps. critical reflection between all partners is conducted during each project stage. sometimes this takes the form of a simple conversation whilst at other times the reflective dialogue is more ongoing and formal, this is where project communication platforms have proven useful with students, although using them effectively can be a bit of a challenge, especially with students eager to impress their assessors. reflective conversations between participants, in which the activities and their contextual relevance are critically discussed, are built into plw design and are important elements of the learning process of student and community participants alike. in the digital story workshops, parents were invited to reflect on the activities, their stories and what these meant to them, and how these skills could be utilized in the future. these reflections were captured in an evaluation questionnaire and contributed to the student’s final year dissertation (timson, 2009). the online learning environments developed for students present other interesting challenges, e.g. students are often inclined to contribute what they think their assessor wants to hear. this does occur, especially during the early weeks of student engagement in community informatics/media modules. however, working in and with communities is fraught with complexity and things often simply don’t go to plan. plainly put outreach activities can and do go wrong. students don’t get marked down for this. in this sense there is no right and wrong, engaging with real live communities can be complicated and challenging. students learn very quickly that the instructor is aware of this and that how they deal with these challenges; how they engage in dialogic action; the lessons they learn; and the rigour of their synthesis of practice and theory are the things that are assessed. students are encouraged to learn collaboratively and soon understand that the online learning space provides a safe and unthreatening environment in which they can share experiences and reflect critically on what they’ve learnt. student evaluation of these modules is always high and colleagues who moderate these modules have found that they get so engrossed in the deliberations of the students that an intended hour’s moderation soon becomes 4 or 5 hours. the external examiners of the associated degrees always praise the content of the student dialogue and this year the university honoured  with an award for ‘empowering and facilitating excellence in learning’, a moment of great personal pride as the award was made at the student graduation ceremony.   conclusion the most significant evidence emerging from these partnerships is the support they give to the argument that the participation, networking, communication and knowledge sharing activities and processes that occur when using ict as part of community learning assist in building capacity and capability – empowering individuals and community alike. the model of community learning partnerships, which is being developed as part of the community informatics curriculum at the university of brighton, is presented here within the context of community empowerment. that is to say that even with little or no financial resources higher education institutions can: 1) engage in constructive dialogue with communities; 2) make themselves more accessible to the communities in which they are located; 3) support and sustain community development activities; 4) stimulate community learning; and 5) incorporate exciting curricular developments that contribute to knowledge 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[3] see http://www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp/ [4] residential neighbourhoods in brighton and hove. [5] earlier this summer we were approached by the community development worker from the neighbourhood of moulsecoomb to explore ways in which community informatics/media might support community development activities there. moulsecoomb is one of the most socially excluded communities in the south-east of england and a number of introductory plws were held in september 2009. we have also been approached by a partnership in sustainable development in rural communities to explore ways in which the cna model of community learning, networking and technology can be utilised to support their activities.  [6] we use community-based learning rather than service to describe the modules. the term service has connotations of benefactors doing to beneficiaries, when we wish to focus on partnerships of learning and development in which activities are undertaken together or with partners. [7] modules are units of learning per semester, often known as courses in other parts of the world. [8] we will explore some of the practical examples of this in a ci context in the next section. [9] mlat is a neighbourhood action group in moulsecoomb attended by local residents and various agencies in the l9ocale with the aim of creating and sustaining active and healthy community. local action teams are a uk government initiative. for further details see http://www.safeinthecity.info/?q=neighbourhoods/lats [10] see http://www.itskills4ruralkenya.org/ why i'm giving up on the digital divide michael gurstein editor in chief: journal of community informatics, vancouver, canada. email: gurstein@gmail.com i've spent much of my working life engaging in one way or another with what is generally termed the "digital divide" (defined as the "divide between those who have internet access and those who do not"). the broad area in which i work and which i have contributed to building community informatics arguably had its origins and its development framed by the concepts of the "digital divide" (dd); and in particular through the community informatics challenge to those concerned with the dd to address issues of "effective use" of the internet as a means to achieve community enablement and empowerment beyond the simple availability of "access". however, of late i've begun questioning whether the notion of the dd is any longer of value. i've begun to wonder whether the continuing visibility and attention being given to the dd even after 20 or so years may in fact be a diversion and distraction from the broader issues of social equity and social justice that energized my own involvement with community informatics. what is interesting of course, is that the dd and "access" discussion which has been around since almost the very beginnings of the public internet, has now been revived and is becoming a central element in the emerging (and highly controlled) policy framework for global internet governance. surely everything that could possibly be said and advocated in this area has already been said and repeatedly over many years and with many iterations. 10. the importance of access to open, secure and stable communication infrastructures around the world was stressed. it is of equal importance that developing countries can fully connect to the internet economy. delegates underlined the importance to include the need for universal internet access in the post 2015 agenda. (draft chairperson's statement global conference on cyberspace 2015, the hague, netherlands) the problem in "overcoming the dd" surely isn't a matter of awareness raising or information sharing as seems to be the only objective and possible outcome for these events. in fact most of these discussions are of the "feel good" form of ritual incantations meant more to indicate a general aura of sympathy for an issue via the conference, panel, commission, or whatever than any intention of actually engaging in meaningful action or committing to resource consuming outputs. simply repeating the desirability of overcoming the dd for advantaging the rural and the poor, enhancing the position of less developed countries, gender equality, etc. etc. without at the same time tackling how these social objectives will in practice be achieved (moving, as community informatics has been arguing for some 20 years from "access" to "effective use") may give oneself and one's constituencies the satisfaction of being on the side of the angels, but accomplishes little if anything. and surely after 20 years of unrelenting rhetorical attacks on the dd it might be time for people of good-will to declare victory and move on, recognizing the dd approach for what it is-a fine "cyber" example of the "welfare dependency model", where we beneficent and generous (rich and from the global north) folks are going to give those poor and needy people living on the "other side of the digital divide" some sort of (pale and poorly equipped) version of the internet in return for which they will be suitably and demonstrably grateful and in our eternal (figurative or even quite material) debt. further having done this, having passed the pre-canned resolution, included the standard paragraph in the outcome document, taken the necessary bow in the direction of social concern-the attitude is clearly "can we now get on to the serious matters at hand" which of course have nothing to do with ensuring that poor people or even those of us who aren't on one or another of the various internet gravy trains get a fair shake out of the internet. the challenges to overcome the dd have been significantly, even wildly, successful. from a standing start some 20 or so years ago there are now in excess of 3.1 billion individuals able to access (if not "effectively use") the current internet. perhaps of even more importance, issues of internet access (but again not of use) are being taken up by significant corporate and governmental forces (both national and inter-governmental). companies such as facebook and google are in the process of launching and implementing innovative infrastructure oriented projects (involving balloons, drones, cabling etc.) to increase those numbers into the next billions. their intent of course, is not idealistic but rather a clear recognition that they benefit significantly from the "network effect". the more people with internet access the better will be their advertising and data/information capture/resale businesses even if those numbers include among the poorest and most remote who equally can be mined for data and micro-revenues both now and for the future. this evidently is sufficient to justify the infrastructure investments that these companies reportedly are undertaking. certain governments, notably the us also see extending connectivity as being in their geo-political and economic interests by tying ever wider swathes of humanity into their version of internet promulgated values such as "internet freedom", providing them and their ideological spin-meisters and spooks an unchecked pipeline into (and out of) the inner thoughts and actions of whoever in the world might be of interest, and in-passing of course, giving a very significant leg up to us dominated e-commerce activities. (an even casual observation of how the us has attempted in the past and is now promoting at full steam the extension of internet "access" into cuba as a platform for extending various forms of control "internet freedoms" into the very heart of its erstwhile enemy, is a very revealing window on the underlying intention of these processes.) and as well it is hard to a find a country anywhere that hasn't bought into the meme promoted by the usg, the internet corporations and the various global commissions and think tanks-that only through the broadest base of internet (and particularly broadband) connectivity can their citizens progress and become sufficiently "innovative" to survive economically in the 21st century. the effect of this is that country after country having privatized their telecommunications systems have been in the process of creating for the emerging internet infrastructure, platform and service providers (particularly mobile operators) highly concessionary tax and spectrum costing regimes all in the name of extending access and thus promoting "innovation". while certainly there are issues in how (and where) these corporate and government driven anti-dd processes are being deployed (and particularly in such things as facebook's zero rating initiatives), it should be recognized that the scale of resources and the direction of much of this investment particularly in broadband and mobile infrastructure is quite consistent with the arguments promoting simple, passive, one way "access" to the internet (for ensuring the widest possible numbers of potential e-consumers) that has been the agenda for so many dd warriors for decades. nothing wrong with all that, but sigh, since we've heard it all so many times before what is the point of repeating the bland dd generalities at the internet governance forum (igf) or the netmundial initiative (nmi) one more time... hmmm… maybe given the pervasiveness of the rhetoric and sheer numbers of the empty pro forma pronouncements something else might be going on. when the igf and the nmi take on the dd as priorities could it be that the corporate sector and the developed country governments which dominate these forums are trying to fill the internet policy space and the internet policy agenda's of sympathetic governments, civil society and people of good will with an active misdirection-a distraction pointing in one direction while making sure that we don't look in another. in fact, given the studied avoidance (and even, it has been rumoured) active suppression of divergent approaches to the discussion of social equity issues in, for example, the igf it would appear that the internet policy establishment is hoping to avoid for as long possible addressing the emergent and rather more politically explosive issues concerning social justice on the internet having to do with how the benefits (and costs) of internet use are being distributed and mal-apportioned within societies and between nations globally. there is a clear reluctance to address the critical social and social justice issues emerging out of the enormous transformative drive of the internet-accelerating income inequality, internet supported loss of "good jobs", the mad rush to the bottom in a range of employment areas which are shifting to the global internet platforms, the loss of health and safety protections in the newly emerging forms of employment contracting, tax dodging by companies such as google and apple, growing gaps between internet haves and have not's in developing countries and developed countries alike. in place of confronting these issues discussions are being directed/re-directed to the endless repetitive discussions of "access" and the dd which in the cold light of day have the clear appearance of being direct supports for and subsidies to the google, facebook, and amazon business models and to the drive for neo-liberal ideological and policy dominance from the us state department and its allies in the oecd and elsewhere. so please, can we once and for all drop the dd posturing and either address the real issues of social justice that are emerging in, on and through the internet or be transparent with the obvious reality that the internet overlords and their academic, technical community and civil society hirelings want nothing more in their various gatherings and pronouncements, than to get on with the business of figuring out how to make the rich richer and the rest of us grin and bear it while thanking the 1% for the privilege. by the way, for anyone who is interested, while the dd model of extending internet access was a poor substitute for really enabling communities with the internet even in the early days (as multiple failed top down community internet projects can attest) a new model of bottom-up, self-directed, mesh wifi community networking and internet access is spreading rapidly throughout remote parts of europe and elsewhere, the basis of this model was pioneered in certain parts of remote and rural spain where commercial companies refused to go because it was unprofitable. the model links community members to community members, providing a sophisticated but easy to install and maintain technology platform, while putting in place a collaborative/cooperative governance structure. the system has since been evolving towards resolving the dd through grassroots based collaborative and cooperative mesh networks and without either the (welfarist) dependency of most dd programs or the consumer lock-in of the commercial internet infrastructure developments. the multistakeholder model, neo-liberalism and global (internet) governance michael gurstein editor in chief: journal of community informatics, vancouver, canada. email: gurstein@gmail.com i've commented elsewhere on the sudden emergence and insertion of the "multistakeholder model" (referred to here also as multistakeholderism or msism) in internet governance discussions some 2 or 3 years ago. the term of course, has been around a lot longer and even has been used within the internet sphere to describe (more or less appropriately) the decision-making processes of various of the internet's technical bodies (the ietf, the iab, icann). what is new and somewhat startling is the full court press by the us government (usg) and its allies and acolytes among the corporate, technical and civil society participants in internet governance discussions to extend the use of the highly locally adapted versions of the ms model from the quite narrow and technical areas where it has achieved a considerable degree of success towards becoming the fundamental and effectively, only, basis on which such internet governance discussions are to be allowed (as per the usg's statement concerning the transfer of the dns management function) to go forward. notably as well "multistakeholderism" seems to have replaced "internet freedom" as the mobilizing internet meme of choice ("internet freedom" having been somewhat discredited by post-snowden associations of internet freedom with the freedom of the usg -to "surveille", "sabotage", and "subvert" via the internet). in the midst of these developments there has been a subtle shift in presenting msism as a framework for internet governance consultation processes to now presenting it as the necessary model for internet governance decision-making. moreover it is understood that this decision-making would be taking place not only within the fairly narrow areas of the technical management of internet functions but also into the broader areas of internet impact and the associated internet related public policy where the internet's significance is both global and expanding rapidly. most importantly the ms model is being presented as the model which would replace the "outmoded" processes of democratic decision-making in these spheres-in the terminology of some proponents, providing an "enhanced post-democratic" model for global (internet) policy making. so what exactly is the "multistakeholder model"? well that isn't quite clear and no one (least of all the us state department which invoked the model 12 times in its one page presentation to the netmundial meeting in brazil) has yet provided anything more than headline references to the ms "model" or examples of what it might (but probably wouldn't) look like given the likelihood of the need to contextualize individual instances and practices. but whatever it is, a key element is that policy (and other) decisions will be made by and including all relevant "stakeholders". this will of course include for example the major internet corporations who get to promote their "stakes" and make internet policy through some sort of consensus process where all the participants have an "equal" say and where rules governing things like operational procedures, conflict of interest, modes and structures of internal governance, rules of participation etc. etc. all seem to be made up as they go along. clearly the major internet corporations, the us government and their allies in the technical and civil society communities are quite enthusiastic jointly working out things like internet linked frameworks, principles and rules (or not) for privacy and security, taxation, copyright etc. is pretty heady stuff. whether the outcome in any sense is supportive of the broad public interest or an internet for the common good, or anything beyond a set of rules and practices to promote the interests of and benefits for those who are already showing the most returns from their current "stake" in the internet, well that isn't so clear. what i think is clear though is that the ms model which is being presented, is in fact the transformation of the neo-liberal economic model which has resulted in such devastation and human tragedy throughout the world into a new form of "post-democratic" governance. (this connection between the a neo-liberal economic model and multistakeholder governance is presented most clearly in a document published by the aspen institute with numerous internet luminary co-authors and collaborators-"toward a single global digital economy". the paper argues for, outlines and celebrates the dominance of the internet economy by the us, us corporations and selected oecd allies and provides a plan of action for the implementation of the ms model as the supportive governance structure.) so for example: while there are clear and well-regarded opportunities for participation by private sector stakeholders, technical stakeholders and civil society stakeholders in the internet policy forums (marketplace) there is no one in the process ("stakeholder") with the task of representing the "public interest". thus no one has the responsibility for ensuring that the decision -making processes are fair and not contaminated and that the range of participants is sufficiently inclusive to ensure a legitimate and socially equitable outcome. nor in the multistakeholder model, as in the neo-liberal economic model is there any external regulatory framework to protect the general or public interest in the midst of the interactions and outcomes resulting from the interactions between individual sectional interests. similarly whereas in a normal democratic process (or a non-"liberalized" marketplace) the underlying framework and expectations of participation would be that the actors would be pursuing the "public interest" (with of course, different interpretations of what that might mean) and that there would be some basic social contract to provide a "social safety net" for all the individuals and groups and particularly those least able to defend their own interests. in the ms model there is no promotion of the public interest, rather somehow the public interest is a (magical) bi-product/outcome of the confluence (or consensus) processes of each individual stakeholder pursuing their particular individual interest (stake). government, may or may not be an (equal) stakeholder in this model but in any case the overall intention is to remove if possible government altogether (even as the protector of rights and ensurer of equitable processes and outcomes). this of course, has to be seen as an overall "privatization" of governance where for example, major internet corporations have an equal standing in determining internet governance matters in areas such as regulation (where such is allowed to occur) alongside other stakeholders. in this model there is no space for the internet as a common good; or as a space or resource equally available for all as a tool for general economic and social betterment (including for example by the marginalized, the poor, those from less developed countries and even those are not currently internet "users"). "stakeholders" get to make and even enforce the rules and anyone who isn't or can't be a "stakeholder"-well tough luck. similarly there is a refusal to accept even the possibility of a regulatory framework for the internet (the argument most forcefully articulated in the course of the internet freedom campaign) or that the internet might be of sufficient importance as a fundamental platform for human action in this period that it can no longer be seen as a domain of solely privatized action and control. the now highly visible damaging effects of neo-liberalism through its promotion of the privatization of public services such as education and health care in less developed (and developed) countries with the consequent significant increases in non-schooling and deterioration in health among the poor, the marginalized and the rural; in undermining the social contract and social safety nets in developed countries with the associated increases in child poverty, homelessness, and hunger; the "washington consensus" and externally imposed austerity regimes from which many countries around the world are only now recovering from (and which the international monetary fund (img) itself has recognized as a serious and highly destructive mistake); the actions of the imf and world bank in insisting on privatization and deregulation and thus decimating numerous local enterprises in favour of multi-nationals; and overall providing the ideological drivers (and models) for a significant social and economic attack globally on the poor and vulnerable is very well known. this is the mode of governance which through multistakeholderism, its counterpart in global (internet) governance and beyond, is to be the basic governance model for the internet promoted quite unsurprisingly by the corporate sector and the us government but equally and astonishingly by wide elements of civil society and the technical community as well. the real significance and ultimate target for this neo-liberalization of governance is of course, not with narrow technical internet governance matters but rather with issues such as taxation of internet enabled commerce and ultimately of the need for revenue sharing with respect to internet related economic activity in a world where income inequality is growing at an unprecedented rate on an internet and global digitization platform. the current context where global internet giants such as google or amazon are completely free to transfer/allocate revenues and costs anywhere they choose within their multinational empires so as to minimize tax exposure is rapidly reaching a critical point where some sort of intervention is likely. on the longer term horizon the significance of both global and internal national income polarization much of it having some linkage to digital technology and the internet will at some point need intervention and rebalancing if social unrest is to be avoided. in a multistakeholder governance regime of course, internet giants such as google or amazon will presumably be equal partners/stakeholders in the determination of matters of internet regulation, taxation, and the possible allocation/reallocation of overall benefits i.e. those matters which are of direct financial concern to themselves and their shareholders/owners. and these determinations will be taking place in policy contexts where there are no obvious champions/stakeholders representing the broad global public interest. that such an arrangement is directly supportive of us and other developed country interests and the interests of dominant internet corporations i.e. those most actively lobbying for the multistakeholder model, is clearly not an accident. equally of course, the citizens of less developed countries whose governments lack the knowledge and often the resources to act as effective stakeholders in ms processes; whose national internet corporations are either sub-units of global corporations or too weak to be effective in such environments; and whose civil society organizations have been captured by means of the cheap baubles of international travel, the flattery of "participation" in discussions with internet luminaries, along with the crumbs of localized organizational benefits; will (as with the disadvantaged populations in developed countries) be completely at the mercy of those in the developed countries and in those small segments of their own countries who have already achieved success in the global internet sphere and stand to benefit enormously in prestige and otherwise through the dominance of multistakeholder governance processes. introduction: research methods for community informatics andy bytheway, university of the western cape. email: andy.bytheway@gmail.comcolin rhinesmith, university of oklahoma. email: crhinesmith@ou.edu mark wolfe, university of calgary and university of alberta. email:mawolfe@ualberta.ca introduction community informatics (ci), as a field of research and practice, has welcomed a diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches since its inception. these approaches have drawn from a broad range of academic disciplines and cultural traditions, from economics and cultural anthropology to feminist theories of technology and indigenous forms of knowledge. these areas often recommend their own research strategies that are both respectful to and build upon existing knowledge in each field. for example, participatory methods that engage participants in conducting research and retaining ownership of data may be more appropriate in some research settings than positivist approaches that rely more heavily on the expertise of outside researchers to collect, analyze, and report the findings. the researcher's belief system about how knowledge is created and justified, or the researcher's epistemology, therefore plays a significant role in decisions surrounding both the theory and methods used in ci. in addition to the researcher's values, ethics, and underlying assumptions about the creation and dissemination of knowledge, decisions surrounding research methods are often shaped by research questions. these questions emerge after the researcher has done an exhaustive review of the existing literature to find gaps in our knowledge about a topic. while it may be difficult for practitioners to gain access to closed scholarly resources outside the academy, open access journals such as the journal of community informatics have made it easier for researchers and practitioners with access to the internet to determine such research questions. once the questions have been formulated from the scholarly literature and/or cultural traditions, the researcher then asks what are the best methods to help answer the research question? this special issue focuses on the research methods used to investigate how information and communication technology (ict) can be used in support of local economic development, social justice, political empowerment, and other community-defined development goals. ci has been described as a point of convergence concerning the use of icts for diverse stakeholders, including community leaders and activists, nonprofit groups, policymakers, users/citizens, and the range of academics working across (and integrating) disciplines as diverse as information studies, management, computer science, social work, planning and development studies. this diversity brings a range of methodological approaches and tensions to the field. this special issue seeks to both disentangle and organize the use of existing methods in ci and to explore innovative new approaches used by researchers and practitioners in their work with communities. the call for papers sought contributions focused on methodological topics and issues related to ci research and how this research could inform practice. we encouraged submissions from a wide range of disciplines and perspectives that could contribute original thinking about research methods for ci. we requested articles that would elaborate on researchers' actual experiences with different methods, including quantitative, qualitative, critical, and indigenous methodological approaches, without given preference to any particular method. the journal received fifteen submissions of which eight are included as peer-reviewed research articles and three as notes from the field, which are not peer-reviewed but received extensive feedback from us as the co-editors. the notes include contributions from ci practitioners that describe relevant methodological topics and issues. in choosing the articles for publication, we looked for known and unknown research problems that were elucidated or even solved, and we selected those articles that demonstrated an understanding of the envelope of ci and ci research. in addition to the criteria above, all of the papers included were selected because of their strength in reflecting on a particular method or methods and elaborating on the opportunities and challenges of using the method to advance our understanding of ci. we believe the field can benefit from this more introspective look at the decisions surrounding researchers' use of methods; we hope it will assist readers in extending our collective understanding of different research methods, their application and their value, across a multiplicity of ci contexts. the articles and notes from the field in this special issue represent what we believe to be the current and cutting edge thinking about research methods in ci. the contributions in this issue not only extend our understanding about traditional methods, such as surveys, interviews, and focus groups, but also introduce novel approaches to methods that have not previously been used or considered in ci. the papers focus on the following research methods: participatory research and design, ethnography, qualitative meta-synthesis, focus groups, reflective evaluation, mixed-methods, research methods for course and curriculum development, methodological design of interventions, literature reviews, and "first mile" methodologies. taken together, we believe this exciting and diverse set of methodological contributions will benefit junior ci scholars and practitioners as well as more seasoned scholars and veterans in the field, by considering the individual contributions as well as the breadth of strategies and perspectives included. research papers the special issue begins with a focus on the early stages of ci project design, including the ways in which the design intentions of various stakeholders shape common visions and goals of ci projects. to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics that shape community-based design interventions, the authors of this first article in our collection investigate participatory research and design methodologies as well as ethnographic approaches. in their analysis of multiple case studies, the authors found that "the transition from exploration to design is most significantly marked by shifting design intentions, which in ci projects are multiple and constantly evolving as they are informed by the knowledge and interests of different stakeholders" (halabi, sabiescu, david, vannini, and nemer, this special issue). in doing so, the authors contribute a new way of thinking about research methods that allows ci researchers and practitioners to study the role of stakeholders in shape ci design-oriented projects and their impacts. the second article shifts outwards to include a broader scope within which to study ci projects. in this paper, the authors provide an in-depth analysis and discussion of qualitative meta-synthesis (qms) as a qualitative method that analyzes the findings from other qualitative studies. as the authors explain, "qms focuses on a particular phenomenon of interest, and infers relationships between the studies to create a common frame of reference about the phenomenon" (twinomurinzi and johnson, this special issue). the authors argue that the use of qms can help policymakers and practitioners make sense of disparate findings on a particular topic, because of its focus on synthesis. in addition, the article contributes a new way to appreciate what the authors refer to as the "dissonant findings" in the field of ci. the pluralism that exists in ci research might also be considered its strength. in the third article, the author investigates and embraces this particular phenomenon in her study of the use of focus groups among a group of elderly women living in a remote rural community in south africa. the research team embraced feminist and critical theoretical perspectives to ensure that the voices of women and their needs were heard and addressed by the ict platform employed. in doing so, the author found that "appropriately modified focus groups can de-centre the authority of the researcher, allowing for a more egalitarian and less exploitative dynamic than other research methods." the article contributes to our understanding of ci research methods by promoting a non-traditional approach to focus groups, "notably with respect to focus group size, the active role that the research participants played in setting the agenda and guiding the research, and the use of focus groups to answer questions and to reach consensus" (smith, this special issue). the fourth article, entitled "reflective evaluation of civil society development: a case study of rlabs cape town, south africa" contributes a novel approach to studying past events. the authors use what they call "reflective analysis" to investigate the longitudinal factors that contributed to the success of a grassroots civil society project. more concretely, as the authors describe, "the use of a blank time-line acted as a visual aid which allowed the participants to have an active role in recording their story and acted as a memory aid. in the interviewing process, participants were able to give a fuller account by using arrows to link events to people or events in the past" (willis, parker, and willis, this special issue). in addition, the visualization of the snowball-sampling network provides an effective way to understand how the method was used to answer the research question. museums have also been considered important local sites for civil society development. in the next article, the authors discuss the use of "visitor research" as a framework for studying ci and ict4d theory and methodology. the authors' approach provides a method for "understanding the level of interaction and engagement of visitors with a biotechnology exhibit at five science centres in south africa." after establishing its fit within the ci and ict4d literature, the authors explain how they used a variety of methods to collect data from "semi-structured interviews with staff members; observations, questionnaires, and semi-structured exit interviews with visitors." the authors found that this methodology shed light on the importance of early visits to the centres; insights from people "who are very knowledgeable about the context" were useful to the project (alexander, gelderblom, and de kock, this special issue). the article extends our understanding of the value of visitor research by providing a framework for studying community interactions where technology artefacts are involved. the development of new courses and academic curricula involves a kind of research. the next two articles in our special issue focus on the use of mixed-methods research and design science research to achieve these educational goals. in the first of two articles, entitled "teaching open data for social movements: a research strategy," the authors describe how research was used "to understand why people want to use open data, the main impediments of it, and the desired improvements." the researchers used student evaluation questionnaires and participant observation to collect data in response to the following research questions: "(i) why social movements use data (motivations); (ii) what are the mains problems (impediments); and (iii) what could be done to enhance the use (improvements). also, the evaluations about the course can be used to improve it" (tygel, campos, and alvear, this special issue). the article contributes a novel approach towards understanding both the value of open data in social movements, but also how popular education can be used as a dialogical approach to answering specific research questions. design science research (dsr) is described in the next paper as a methodology for curriculum development to assist teachers in improving their mobile digital literacy skills. the authors explain that dsr has been used in previous ci studies, "but its use for curriculum development in community informatics has not been described in any length." dsr as a methodology provides ci researchers with an iterative process for designing a mobile digital literacy curriculum. in this case, the authors used survey questions to collect data on three aspects of the issue: the experiences of primary and secondary level teachers with mobile technology in teaching and learning, their interest in it, and their attitudes towards it. through the survey and focus group methods, findings were used to guide the development of the mobile digital literacy curriculum. the authors argue that their study of dsr contributes to the literature on ci research methods by introducing a novel approach to curriculum design as "an iterative process that includes community feedback and the criteria of relevance and rigor" drawn from the dsr framework (van biljon, traxler, van der merwe, and van heerden, this special issue). design is a prominent theme shared by many of the articles in this special issue. the final research article considers the methodological design of interventions within the context of development projects. in contrast to the other articles that looked at: influence of stakeholders in designing ci projects; the use of open data and popular education to inform course design; and the use of design science research to develop ci related curriculum; this last article provides a methodological framework for identifying the design elements that need to be in place in order to promote the sustainability of ict4d projects. the authors do this by focusing on the combination of donor and beneficiary factors that negatively impact sustainability and introduce "practical mechanisms by means of which design for sustained benefit can become one of the key project objectives." by calling attention to the drivers of unsustainability, the authors contribute to the ci literature by providing a method for investigating the factors that can significantly promote the sustained benefit of ict4d interventions (marais and meyer, this special issue). notes from the field this special issue also includes three final contributions, which highlight key issues related to the methods used by researchers and practitioners in the field. these three papers offer keen insights into the social, cultural, and health contexts that can influence the design, implementation, and evaluation of ci projects. the first paper in this set, entitled "first mile methodologies in community informatics research: learning from first nations," focuses on the important role that indigenous communities can play in driving and shaping research agendas, particularly where university researchers are involved. the authors describe how a "first mile" approach supports indigenous communities in their ability to retain ownership, control, access, and possession (ocap) over ci project data and outcomes. the author reports on a recent field research project and describes how the methodology supported a "multi-directional transfer of skills and knowledge between community-based and university-based researchers", leading to respect and sustained engagement that in turn supported local relevance and sustainability among community members (mcmahon, this special issue). participatory approaches to studying the design, implementation, and evaluation of community wireless networks (cwn) are the focus of the second note from the field. cwns have long been a focus of ci research and practice. an entire special issue in the journal of community informatics was devoted to this topic (powell & meinrath, 2008). in "what are community networks for?" the author reviews three studies "about the nature of 'community' in relation to cwns" and determines that while all "find a set of similar, limited outcomes around facilitating internet access via cwns; none finds broader community, civic, or social benefit" (byrum, this special issue). the author then examines a collaborative research methodology that was used in the case of the confine consortium to argue for the use of greater participation in cwn research projects. the paper contributes a participatory methodological framework for studying the impacts of cwns. the final paper in the special issue introduces a research framework for studying citizens' access to e-health. the authors investigate a methodology that combines critical theory and positivist methodological approaches as a strategy for data collection. the purpose is to provide a bigger picture of the "patterns of ict and e-health use across a population, and at the same time data on socioeconomic and demographic differences between and within different groups to highlight 'digital gradients." the authors argue that the contribution of the paper to ci research is its framework for identifying the factors and relationships to better inform how health policymakers and practitioners can "increase support for citizens' access to e-health" (newman and lupiáñez-villanueva, this special issue). summary the contributions in this special issue provide ci researchers and practitioners with an opportunity to analyze and reflect on the research methods used to support ci projects. the collection of articles represent a broad range of existing strategies and introduce a few new methodological approaches for addressing the present and future research questions that define our field. the articles and papers in this special issue are not meant to prioritize a particular research approach nor serve as the last word on research methods in ci. rather, the collection is offered as a starting point for future conversations about and reflections on the effective use of research methods in community informatics. reference powell, a., & meinrath, s. (2008). introduction to the special issue: wireless networking for communities, citizens and the public interest. the journal of community informatics, 4(1). retrieved from http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/483 first mile methodologies in community informatics research: learning from first nations rob mcmahon, university of alberta tim whiteduck, first nations education council arline chasle, timiskaming first nation overview one focus of community informatics (ci) is to support communities in gaining long-term benefits from research projects. this concern is shared by indigenous communities, who have long argued for the need to drive research agendas themselves. over the years, indigenous organizations and their partners have developed ways to support communities in retaining ownership, control, access and possession (ocap) over project data and outcomes. in this paper, we discuss a project with timiskaming first nation that involves university-based and community-based researchers collaborating to uphold these ocap principles. we suggest that our methodology may be useful for ci projects more generally. in recent years, complexity theory has undermined conceptions of our world as operating according to causal, linear and determinate rules. as reflected in fields as disparate as ecology and economics, uncertainty and unpredictability are the new norm (walker & cooper, 2011). complexity theory explains the evolution of societies in continual adaptive cycles of growth, accumulation, restructuring and renewal (ibid). attention to power inequalities in particular provides researchers means of exploring how these processes are implicated in risks such as financial regulation, disaster management and environmental degradation. given this focus, some researchers are undertaking projects to identify and leverage how the resources and expertise held by communities to withstand adverse events can drive localized adaptation and enable endogenous development projects (chandler, 2012). this focus is also reflected in the work of indigenous scholars studying settler colonialism and indigenous resurgence. their research illustrates how the activities of indigenous peoples are "determined acts of survival against colonizing states' efforts to eradicate them culturally, politically and physically" (alfred & corntassel, 2005, p.598). as such, every-day acts can continually support the renewal of indigenous communities facing powerful and sustained challenges to their existence (simpson, 2011). this understanding holds promise for ci research and practice, as for example in beaton and campbell's (2014) demonstration of how local ownership and control of information and communication technologies (ict) by first nations supports community resilience against settler colonialism through the daily use of online applications, social media and e-services. communities, however, face many challenges in securing effective use of ict, and this has pushed some ci researchers to actively incorporate the voices of community members in research design, data analysis, and proposing solutions to policy or practical challeng-es (see for example gangadharan & byrum, 2012; klein, 2013). that is, rather than 'subjects', this approach positions members of communities as self-determining actors who work with university-based researchers to leverage internal resources and capacities to re-search and solve their ict challenges. this paper uses the experience of our recent field research to underscore the value and utility of upfront, reciprocal and collaborative engagement with the self-determining community actors who drive project relevance and sustaina-bility. indigenous methodology, self-reflexivity and the first mile approach one emerging subfield of ci that applies this kind of methodology is called the first mile. proponents of the first mile argue that locally-managed broadband development, operations, and maintenance can support network sustainability, capacity-building, and community devel-opment, among other benefits (paisley & richardson, 1998; strover, 2000). methodo-logically, mcmahon, gurstein, beaton, o'donnell, and whiteduck (2014) describe a first mile model of innovation to frame this activity. this process involves first working with local communities to identify resources and expertise to carry forward development initiatives. project collaborators jointly shape the scope, focus and outcomes of research. next, it involves partnering with regional community intermediary organizations to access expertise, economies of scale, advocacy support and other benefits of larger-scale aggregation. this highlights how first mile projects emerge from the unique circumstances of diverse commu-nities, while also providing opportunities to scale up local initiatives. the first mile approach to ci research is itself strongly influenced by indigenous methodologies. self-reflexivity has a place in all research, and particularly so in projects involving indigenous peoples. this is due to previous practice of researchers extracting informational resources held by indigenous communities for their own purposes an increasingly problematic component of both the historic and ongoing process of settler colonialism (culhane, 1998; tuhiwai smith, 1999; jones & jenkins, 2008; menzies, 2004). for example, in a 2011 presentation at the national conference of the first nations information governance centre, members of the havasupai nation in the u.s. discussed an initiative undertaken by researchers from arizona state university. starting in 1990, members of the havasupai community began giving dna samples to university researchers. although they believed the data was being used to support diabetes treatments, it turned out that the blood samples were used to study other things, including theories of the tribe's geographical origins that contradicted traditional knowledge. not everyone is on board with the kind of participatory methodologies described in this paper. critics raise the close relations between 'researchers' and 'researched' as a form of bias. key informants are seen as overly shaping the scope, focus and outcomes of research, and data is interpreted through co-constructed findings as opposed to 'objective' in-dependent analysis. critics also raise challenges to the generalizability of findings that emerge from situated case studies. in choosing to foreground examples of innovation and creative agency, the interpretive bias of such studies is also sometimes challenged. however, field work using the first mile approach supports our contention that such critiques sustain a problematic dichotomy between university-based researchers and the communities that are framed as the subjects of their work. this separation perpetuates a division between outside 'experts' and community 'subjects' that suggests that knowledge generated from outside a community is more valid and effective than knowledge already held by the community. but knowledge-based development interventions should not only be conceived as a means to transfer external knowledge to a community they also encompass a long-term, dynamic and iterative process engaging people inside communities who hold and shape knowledge to fit their lived realities. we therefore follow tuhiwai smith (1999) in re-jecting this dichotomy and describing community members instead as co-researchers. in our experience, university-based and community-based researchers have fruitfully explored ways to jointly facilitate the conditions that give rise to effective ict development and use in the first place. this drives self-reflexivity and contributes to the self-determination of com-munities, since it provides the people affected by the research with outcomes in which their own voices are central to research design, interpretation and application. figure 1 provides a comparison between aspects of first mile research and more conventional approaches to re-search. table 1: steps in first mile research methodologies first nations innovation project the first nation innovation (fni) research project initiated in 2006 as videocom and continuing as fni today is indicative of this kind of research. based at the university of new brunswick (unb), the fni project is investigating how remote and rural first nation communities in canada are developing and using icts. our ongoing work with the timiskaming first nation is one of several fni initiatives currently underway in canada. this project comprises a partnership between unb, the first nations education council in quebec (fnec), and the education department of timiskaming first nation (tfn). tfn's population and infrastructure are both growing, with approximately 700 of the band's 1,650 registered members living in the territory. while tfn has strong connectivity infrastructure, the com-munity wants to build local capacity to more effectively utilize its ict systems. in this con-text, the three fni partners jointly developed a mutually-beneficial ci project. the following section provides more background on the first mile approach overall and discusses how we are evolving that methodology in our ongoing work for this project. first mile methodology: learning from timiskaming first nation first mile research aims to provide for the multi-directional transfer of skills and knowledge between community-based and university-based researchers. this principle of reciprocity includes capacity-building activities that support indigenous ownership in and con-trol over research data and outcomes. this in turn respects first nations oral traditions that themselves include a complex set of rights and responsibilities concerning the use of commu-nity knowledge. first nations in canada have developed over time the formal ocap principles to guide this process (assembly of first nations, 2007; schnarch, 2004), and ocap has now "become the de facto ethical standard not only for conducting research using first nations data, but also for the collection and management of first nations information in general" (fnigc, 2014, p.1). jurisdiction of this information rests with autonomous first nations that hold the right to determine how their information is interpreted and shared. observing these principles means that university-based and community-based re-searchers must develop protocols based on mutual clarity, respect and trust. researchers actively shape collaborative projects over time to ensure that all partners are represented from the earliest stages of project conception and design, through to the analysis and dis-semination of results. communities retain ownership of research data and project delivera-bles, and universities formally request permission to use these materials for jointly-authored research and public outreach materials. university-based partners benefit from this process, since the community knowledge they draw on is collected, interpreted and validated by in-volved people. this supports efforts to conduct culturally appropriate and relevant research. community-based researchers also offer invaluable logistical support for field visits, connect university-based researchers with local contacts, manage interviews, and act as guides. fig-ure 2 illustrates the benefits of this multi-directional process. table 2: benefits of first mile research process drawing on previous experience gained in earlier fni projects including using multi-site videoconferencing technologies to support ongoing research discussions (gratton & o'donnell, 2011) and field trips to build relationships through activities such as local tours and a community ict film festival (gibson, thomas, o'donnell, lockhart & beaton, 2012) our timiskaming project began by establishing a formal relationship between university-based researchers, community leadership, and a community intermediary organization (fnec). we jointly prepared a project proposal to guide our research, which was formally approved by chief and council after a presentation in the community. a local project liaison guided field work planning and helped develop project methods, analysis, interpretation, and deliverables. the total budget for this project was cdn $1,500. the timiskaming research project itself began in summer 2014. the timiskaming education department was interested in gathering data from community members regarding their use of and interest in icts and then using the data to inform the community's strategic technology plan. while timiskaming had good connectivity, availability of local technology support was a challenge. in this context the research project became a natural opportunity to learn about existing capacities and resources held by the community, and to collect information to help develop workshops shaped to local interests and needs. because the fnec's primary objective was to establish a baseline on the level of technology infrastructure and use in the community, the research was also seen as helping to determine what services the organization needs to focus on and plan for the future. the unb researcher sought to develop academic papers related to indigenous ict development and use. following the fni publication policy, these papers will be co-authored with the community, with the topics, focus and argument of papers determined collaboratively by the partners. the research methods we employed in this project evolved over the course of on-going discussions. regular teleconference meetings enabled us to discuss ideas and develop roles and responsibilities, which we formalized in an mou approved by chief and council. fni researchers are required to develop formal agreements with community partners prior to any field research being conducted. these agreements provide: background on project collaborators; a summary of community and university research interests; project objectives and deliverables; project method and research approach; and a work plan. in the course of our discussions about these project components, we decided to work with local high school students to conduct household surveys about digital literacy, access, connectivity, and effective use of icts in timiskaming. to raise community awareness, we promoted the project in an article in the local kiwetin school newsletter, and also through word of mouth. the survey was designed as a communication tool as well as a data-gathering instrument, in order to raise awareness about different aspects of effective ict use in the community. a field visit in late october 2014 launched the household survey. during the visit we clarified two roles for the student researchers. we engaged 10 high school students to collect data through door-to-door surveys. tfn assigned these students approximately 208 homes (roughly 20 houses each), based on their geographic division of the community. each student was given an individualized information package that included a brief explanation of the survey and a prize draw ballot for an ipad (as an incentive for respondents). to improve survey reliability, students received individualized versions of the survey. tfn worked with educational staff to manage the students and ensure their volunteer hours would be accepted as graduation credits. the project offered several other incentives for students, including honoraria; experience in community-based research; a reference letter; and the opportunity to be acknowledged by name (if they wished) in publications resulting from survey data. youth researchers also got involved in early-stage data analysis. a co-op student working at the band office was recruited to input survey data into an online program. this process allowed tfn to retain control of data since the community chose to share these survey results with the university researcher through the online platform. the co-op student also gained training in research methods, which helped speed up data analysis. data will be analyzed and interpreted in collaboration with fnec and tfn, and will be made available to support tfn's strategic technology plan and to develop future technology workshops. this approach ensured that the project supported ocap, and resulted in project deliverables useful to all three partners. as time passed, some students were unable to complete their household surveys, given other commitments. this further illustrates the need for a flexible, emergent methodology and the practical challenges that can sometimes arise in the course of this kind of research. as a result of this situation, and at the suggestion of the local liaison, project part-ners decided to engage an adult from the community to distribute the remaining surveys. this person was paid from the project budget. the project also involved ongoing public outreach activities regarding the effective use of icts in the community. we designed survey questions to raise awareness of potential uses of ict by community members. as well, we presented about the project to audiences including student researchers and local service providers (education and health staff, band office employees, and band councilors, among others). at each presentation we solicited feedback to ask how to improve the work moving forward. participants raised several im-portant points, including questions regarding community ownership and control of research data. the visit also finalized the project mou, which was reviewed and approved by chief and council after a presentation led by fnec. at the request of the tfn partner, we also added an additional research component a second round of surveys tailored to community services. this data will further support academic research and tfn's community ict plan-ning. we also completed a second visit to timiskaming in spring 2015, during which the re-searchers discussed the results of the survey in preparation for a presentation at the annual conference of the canadian sociological association. conclusion the dynamic and uncertain nature of social change, as demonstrated through the in-sights of complexity theorists, makes field research a necessarily fluid endeavor. in the field of community informatics (ci), the rapid speed of technological innovation often outpaces that of research activity particularly in projects that aim to provide concrete, sustained benefits for involved communities. in this context, emergent methodologies that build en-gagement among community-based research partners can be a useful approach. as demon-strated through the fni project, indigenous methodologies provide strong lessons for how research partners located in universities and communities can generate mutually-beneficial projects. these approaches not only meet ethical imperatives to practice respectful research (such as those highlighted by canada's major research funding agencies), but through sus-tained engagement over time can also generate high levels of project relevance and sustain-ability among community members. these goals meet the aims of enrolling community par-ticipants as co-researchers in the first place. while practical setbacks can emerge in the course of research, dynamic, reflexive methodologies like the first mile approach support research partners in identifying and leveraging the resources and capacities held by commu-nities, while actively recognizing and mitigating unequal social relations including those among 'researchers' and 'researched'. as such, the methodological approaches deployed by fni projects in canada might be of interest to researchers working elsewhere. acknowledgements the authors express their thanks to susan o'donnell and brian beaton from the first nations innovation (fni) project for their support, suggestions and feedback on the research project and methodology described in this paper. we also thank arline chasle and audrey mcbride from timiskaming first nation, who were instrumental in coordinating the local re-search. we thank students from timiskaming for their help in distributing and collecting household surveys, including victoria chevrier and dana mcleod. dana also helped with data input and analysis. we extend our gratitude to timiskaming education councillor shelley chief, who presented the project at the annual conference of the canadian sociological asso-ciation in ottawa, in june 2015. finally, we thank the editors of this special issue for their constructive feedback on an earlier version of this article. this paper is a result of the part-ners and communities involved in the fni research project based at the university of new brunswick (http://fn-innovation-pn.com). the fni project is funded by the social sciences and humanities research council of canada, with in-kind contributions from the project partners: keewaytinook okimakanak (www.knet.ca), the first nations education council (www.cepn-fnec.com), atlantic canada's first nation help desk / mi'kmaw kina'matnewey (www.firstnationhelp.com) and the university of new brunswick (www.unb.ca). endnotes i in her landmark book decolonizing methodologies, linda tuhiwai smith (1999) provides an extensive critique of these approaches to research, calling for critical understanding of the assumptions, motivations and values that inform projects: researchers should situate their work in particular cultural and social systems, while recognizing that colonial-ism continues to impact indigenous peoples. further, indigenous research necessarily involves community members developing and carrying out their own research agendas. tuhiwai smith's work has proven extremely influential and continues to inform research today. a growing number of university-based researchers now partner with community-based researchers to support mutu-ally beneficial projects. ii fni is a research and outreach project that started in september 2006. it is a partnership between the university of new brunswick and several regional first nations technology organizations, including k-net services, part of the keewaytinook okimakanak tribal council in on-tario, the first nation education council in quebec, and the atlantic canada first nations help desk, part of the mi'kmaq kina'matnewey educational organization in nova scotia. the project examines broadband communications in remote and rural first nation communities in canada, and explores new ways to work together in participatory research when partners are separated by vast distanc-es. for more information, please visit: http://fn-innovation-pn.com/default.aspx iii fnec represents 22 member communities from eight nations in quebec (the eight nations are: abenaki, algonquin, atikamekw, huron, malecite, mi'gmaq, mohawk, and the innu community of mashteulash). as a first nations community intermediary organization, its mission includes developing, implementing, and executing technology initiatives in ways that realize the needs and priorities of its members, which include tfn. iv in canada, this focus is also reflected in the ethical conduct required of research-ers by federal funding agencies. for example, chapter 9 (research involving the first nations, inuit and métis peoples of canada) of the 2nd edition of the tri-council policy statement: ethical conduct for research involving humans points out the importance of trust, communication, mutually beneficial research goals, appropriate research collaborations or partnerships, and ethical conduct in research with indigenous peoples (canadian institutes of health research, natural sci-ences and engineering research council of canada, and social sciences and humanities research council of canada, 2014). v to read this publication policy, please visit: http://www.fn-innovation-pn.com/publication_policy.aspx vi we recognize the challenges and bias that may emerge through the use of stu-dent researchers. for example, respondents may feel compelled to answer questions. as well, in small, tight-knit communities, respondents may feel uncomfortable answering sensitive ques-tions. that said, our questions avoided sensitive issues, and we told students they would receive credit regardless of whether all their surveys were answered or not. we designed the survey re-search to alleviate these challenges. references assembly of first nations. (2007). ocap: ownership, con-trol, access and possession first nations inherent right to govern first nations da-ta. retrieved on may 7, 2014 from: http://64.26.129.156/misc/ocap.pdf canadian institutes of health research, natural sciences and engi-neering research council of canada, and social sciences and humanities research council of canada, tri-council policy statement: ethical conduct for research involving humans, december 2014. retrieved on january 30, 2015 from: http://www.pre.ethics.gc.ca/pdf/eng/tcps2-2014/tcps_2_final_web.pdf culhane, d. (1998). the pleasure of the crown: anthropolo-gy, law and first nations. burnaby: talon books, ltd. first nations information governance centre (fnigc). (2014). "bar-riers and levers for the implementation of ocap™," the international indigenous policy journal, 5(2). retrieved on may 7, 2014 from: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/iipj/vol5/iss2/3 gangadharan, s.p. & byrum, g. (2012). "introduction: defining and measuring meaningful broadband adoption," international journal of communi-cation, 6(0): 2601-2608. gibson, k., thomas, l., o'donnell, s., lockhart, e., & beaton, b. (2012). co-creating community narratives: how researchers are engaging first nation community members to co-write publications. paper presented at the qualitatives analysis conference, st. john's, nl. gratton, m.-f., o'donnell, s. (2011) "communication technologies for focus groups with remote communities: a case study of research with first nations in canada", qualitative research. 11(2): 159-175. gurstein, m. (2000). community informatics: enabling com-munities with information and communications technologies, hershey: idea group publishing. jones. a. & jenkins, k. (2008). rethinking collaboration: work-ing the indigene-colonizer hyphen. in n.k. denzin, y.s. lincoln & l.t. smith (eds.), handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies (pp.471-483). los an-geles, london, new delhi, and singapore: sage. kleine, d. (2013). technologies of choice? icts, develop-ment, and the capabilities approach. cambridge, ma: mit press. mcmahon, r., gurstein, m., beaton, b., o'donnell, s., whiteduck, t. (2014) "making information technologies work at the end of the road," journal of information policy 4: 250-269. mcmahon, r., o'donnell, s., smith, r., walmark, b., beaton, b., simmonds, j. (2011). digital divides and the 'first mile': framing first nations broadband development in canada. the international indigenous policy journal, 2(2). menzies, c. (2004). "putting words into action: negotiating collabo-rative research in gitxaala," canadian journal of native education (28:1&2). paisley, l. and richardson, d. (1998). why the first mile and not the last? in l. paisley & d. richardson (eds.), the first mile of connectivity: ad-vancing telecommunications for rural development through a participatory communica-tion approach. communication for development rome: food and agriculture or-ganization of the united nations (fao). retrieved march 9, 2011 from: http://www.fao.org/docrep/x0295e/x0295e03.htm schnarch, b. (2004). "ownership, control, access, and possession (ocap) or self-determination applied to research: a critical analysis of contemporary first nations research and some options for first nations communities." journal of aboriginal health, 1: 80-95. simpson, l. (2011). dancing on our turtle's back: stories of nishnaabeg re-creation, resurgence and a new emergence. winnipeg, canada: arbeiter ring publishing. strover, s. (2000). the first mile. the information socie-ty, 16(2), 151-154. tuhiwai smith, l. (1999). decolonizing methodologies: re-search and indigenous peoples (5th edition.). london and new york: zed books. using it to 'do good' in communities? susanne bødker department of computer science & center for participatory it, aarhus university, denmark. email: bodker@cs.au.dk in this point of view i will position myself in relation to the current state of affairs in community technology. in particular i will look at how people at large participate in technology mediated activities and what this means for our understanding of such technology mediated communities, and our methods and roles as researchers when studying them (and as activists when engaging with them). this discussion is quite timely and fueled for example by the community-related sessions in the prestigious acm chi conference in 2015 (begole et al., 2015). i step back from community briefly, because i find it useful to start the discussion of 'doing good' in participatory design. participatory design in its classical form was about taking a stance for and with somebody, some groups of users/workers/people, at the cost of other groups, whether these were recognized or not. this is the place where my own research started, much before anybody talked about online communities and computer supported cooperative work. in the 1990s in particular, participatory design became something 'good' in itself, no matter with whom researchers and designers collaborated. the arguments for participatory design were made in terms of the quality of products and in particular their usefulness to users as such. this development was questioned by many (kyng, 2010, beck, 2002, bødker, 2003), at the same time as it led to many positive changes in human-computer interaction research and practices (bødker 2006). fallman (2011) on a slightly different trajectory, makes the argument that hci in the second and third wave (bødker, 2006) is seeking new forms of 'good', 'the new good.' he discusses the role of participatory design as blurring fundamentally what the 'new good' is. however, i'm not concerned with what makes hci and participatory design 'good', as much as with the phenomenon that it is 'good' . i find strong parallels between the way in which trying to engage people through participatory design 'was good' and how we think about working with communities. accordingly, i'll use this development to discuss (it-mediated) communities: i find that 'communities' have moved to a place where they are considered 'good'. when i read papers with my students about communities, the papers often just assume that if we, as researchers/designers can find a community to work with, that is, almost by definition, good. looking back at e.g. preece & maloney-krichmar (2003), who do a rather good job of summarizing work on online communities, this is indeed also very much the case historically. their paper, like many recent cases, looks at how we can support the communication and interaction of, and help people build communities with technologies. preece & maloney-krichmar (2003) point to participatory design methods to facilitate these processes, and very much to individual choice as a factor in joining and leaving communities. following these writings, we can even invent communities through the design of our technologies, and we are doing really well, if this community is in the third world, in some sort of entrepreneurial space, or suffering from some sort of chronic disease that we can all identify with. in the same way, as i am skeptical of the development of participatory design, i'm concerned with this kind of do-good perspective on communities. i think we need to somewhat step out of it and look at its negations. not only perhaps to consider communities that are not all just good, if they are simply subversive, or even harmful to others. in the danish press, e.g, there has recently been a discussion of why pedophilia is so little studied, even clinically; the claim being that it largely stigmatizes the researchers. preece & maloney-krichmar (2003) mention the dark side of online medical communities as an additional example, and suicide communities are other examples. now, i'm not suggesting that we should help build community technologies for pedophiles. i'm only asking that we consider this as an ugly alternative. where the arab spring was an interesting study object for many, it is less obvious that the massive and well-organized on-line presence of isil/islamic state, is an equally attractive study object. there are indeed alternatives to this perspective, and we also need to consider such things as oppressed voices and marginalization, and not least to find theoretical framings that help us in this. in my perspective there are two elements in scholarly work here: to work more specifically with tensions and contradictions in the communities (see faraj et al. 2011) and to seek ways where the researcher can establish a position outside the community, while working with it. understanding community the philosopher thorup (2013) points towards the relationship between friends and enemies and concludes that creativity and innovation happen in communities, which are under pressure at their boundaries, whereas peace at large leads to laziness and laissez-faire. clement & wagner (1995) discuss how drawing boundaries are nonetheless a way of creating more efficient communication within communities, and bødker et al. (2003) use barth's cultural-anthropological notion of boundaries which they suggest helps focus on contexts and situations in which boundaries are generated . barth suggests that it is boundaries that define the group rather than the cultural core, and hence that the boundaries are important to understand when studying communities. boundaries outline the identity of the community and are marked because communities interact with entities from which they are, or wish to be, distinguished . björkvinsson et al. (2012), mention dewey's idea of publics as a frame for conflicts and heterogeneity, rather than that of community. basically there is no public without something to be against. ledantec & disalvo (2013) move on from dewey to think about power structures and marginalization. björkvinsson et al. (ibid.) similarly point towards star's extensive work on boundaries and marginalization (1990, 2010) as a result of standardized networks or infrastructures. mouffe as well as bakhtin have been used in the literature to address communities and publics from the point of view of multiple voices with adversarial viewpoints. björkvinsson et al. (2012): "as mouffe argues, the goal of democratic politics is to empower a multiplicity of voices in the struggle for hegemony and to find 'constitutions' that help transform antagonism into agonism, moving from conflict between enemies to constructive controversies among 'adversaries' those who have opposing matters of concern but who also accept other views as 'legitimate'. all of these writings in my perspective point towards a view on communities as not just good. we need to understand the dynamics of communities, beyond the individual choice of coming and going (preece & maloney-krichmar (2003)). we need to study and address communities more systematically, and not least understand our own role as designers/researchers/activists in this space: who are the enemies, and what should one be against? who gets marginalized and what happens on the boundaries? how to use technology to bring forth multiple voices in constructive controversies. when are communities? this is to say that we need to understand the configurations that come before and after communities and mechanisms that help make or break communities. when are we dealing with other sorts of configurations of groups and individuals? and, when are these actually interesting for our studies? i don't suggest that we go all in for publics, but rather that we study the formation of communities, publics, networks, and how these formations change. again however, there is hope in a voice from the past: let's step back and look at work in the early years of cscw. robinson (1991) discusses the co-operative movement and its very long history (from minoan civilization 5000 years ago, via the industrial revolution, to the 750000 co-operative societies in the 1980s). he discusses how in this movement there has always been a problem of coordinating disparate viewpoints in a democratic way. in assessing how different technologies may mediate such processes, he points to four principles to be considered: equality, mutual influence, new competence and double level language. these terms are indeed quite different from those mentioned by for example preece & maloney-krichmar (2003) of shared purpose or common good. making community in addition to multiple voices and boundaries, equality and mutual influence we are facing the challenge that to a large extent the kinds of communities we are interested in, seem to be emergent or in the making . they are neither stable in terms of people, of instruments nor of meaning or purpose. new competences as those mentioned by robinson (1991)'s may be a result of pressure on the boundaries, and largely communities need a language for addressing such issues (the double level language). with much recent development, communities are also in the making in a different manner: they are not well-established communities of practice (in contrast to the learning communities that were the outset of lave and wenger's (1991) work on communities of practice); communities of practice that can be studied and understood prior to the design of the technology. to the contrary, we are working with communities that are constantly moving and changing, and we are introducing new ways of communicating and engaging that did not exist before the technology. in bødker & christiansen (2004) we found inspiration from grudin (2002) in suggesting that new ways of using technologies to probe these emerging practices need to be found for this kind of research and design: "we have found very few discussions and very little literature reporting on design experiments concerned with the background maintenance of a social (perhaps virtual) community. as seen from the point-of-view of design, the ephemerality and prototypicality of social encounters are not addressed, let alone embodied in ways productive to the design process." in other words we emphasize the need to study and design for the mechanisms that help shape communities and also those which work against this. what is needed is long-term studies of the emerging practices and/or development of technology mediated communities. new, and more reflective, ways for designers/researchers to engage with communities. in particular we may need to be more aware of what is at risk for the researchers and designers and what they need to invest. methodological and conceptual thinking that considers how to design for practices yet to develop, in particular communities that are in the making. in this i suggest that we need to consider more the negations of all that is 'good' in communities: addressing the periphery rather than the center, the enemies rather than the friends, the controversies and multiple voices. arguments, parallel to this, are developed by clement et al. (2012) from the perspective of what they call participatory infrastructuring. they focus more on participation and infrastructuring and less on community, yet they conclude that critical probing (through technologies that are not products-to-be) and participatory design are useful ways of opening up to a public imagination, which does lead back to what may or may not come before communities. making communities go away? being true to my own analytic stance, i should also perhaps ask how one may design technologies to make communities go away. in some instances, as mentioned in the introduction, this would sound like the true subversion. at the same time, however, the issue opens to totalitarian and other 'possibilities' that i personally don't see the end of. neither the making nor the breaking of communities through information technology is good by definition, to reiterate my introduction. i thank the au interdisciplinary center pit (pit.au.dk) and the participants in two summerpits for fueling this debate. references beck, e. e. (2002). p for political: participation is not enough. scandinavian journal of information systems. 14(2), p. 77-92. begole, b., kim, j., inkpen, k. & woo, w. (2015). proceedings of the 33rd annual acm conference on human factors in computing systems. acm, new york, ny, usa. bødker, s. (2003). a for alternatives. in scandinavian journal of information systems, 15(1), p. 87-89. bødker, s. (2006). when second wave hci meets third wave challenges. in proceedings of the 4th nordic conference on human-computer interaction: changing roles. nordichi'06 pp. 1-8. bødker, s.; kristensen, j. f.; nielsen, c.; sperschneider, w. (2003). technology for boundaries. in proceedings of the 2003 international conference on supporting group work (group'03), acm press, pp. 311 320. bødker, s. & christiansen, e. 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(1991). situated learning. legitimate peripheral participation, cup, cambridge, uk. le dantec, c.a. & disalvo, c. (2013). infrastructuring and the formation of publics in participatory design. social studies of science. preece & maloney-krichmar (2003). online communities. in jacko, j. & sears, a. (eds.). handbook of human-computer interaction. erlbaum, pp. 596-620. robinson, m. (1991). double-level languages and co-operative working. ai & soc. 5:34-60. star, s. l. (1990). power, technology and the phenomenology of conventions: on being allergic to onions. the sociological review, volume 38, issue s1, pp. 26-56, may 1990 star, s. l. (2010). this is not a boundary object: reflections on the origin of a concept. science technology human values, 35(5), pp. 601-617. thorup, m. (2013) fjendskab, tænkepauser, aarhus universitetsforlag/aarhus university press (in danish).   a short movie about ict steve cisler < sacisler@yahoo.com >     the current harper's magazine has an article called "valkyries over iraq: the trouble with war movies."  it discusses the making of jarhead (a movie about gulf war i, opening friday in the u.s.) and how soldiers form their view of war from their memories of war movies, including anti-war films like apocalypse now and deer hunter. i began thinking about a documentary that would never be made: the life of an ict project.  it is of little interest to most people, any more than a movie about plumbing would capture a large audience.  but we are a small, specialized audience so come into the viewing room. this is a rough cut... the movie begins with an office scene: a few program officers sitting in a meeting room in ottawa or washington or london or the hague or geneva.  it's getting near the end of the fiscal year, and there is some money left in their budget for another pilot project.  they know that if it is not spent, it will be hard to justify an increase for their agency in the next budget cycle.  one officer who has attended many conferences on poverty and knowledge management and ict says he'll make some calls to people who might have some good ideas.  another officer has spent time in short visits to poor countries, including the handful blessed with substantial existing project funds from her agency.  the country she has in mind is of strategic importance to her government either because the president has changed his ways and has renounced corruption, is on a path to democratic elections, has opened its markets to firms from abroad, or has agreed to joint military exercises in the north of his land. what follows are short scenes of non-profits and contractors pitching ideas to the program officer: a wireless network for indigenous groups, a mobile computer lab, barefoot doctors with pdas in favelas, a literacy program using a new cheap computer with a no-cost operating system.  the most appealing ideas happen to be for places in asia and latin america, but the agency is focused on africa. the chosen ngos oblige and submit two-page proposals for pilots in africa.  after a quick turnaround and a nod of tentative approval from the program officer, the ngo contacts a local "champion" or consultant in-country. everyone is enthusiastic about the idea of a new ict pilot project.  new technology, more money to spend. the local contact meets with an underling from the minister's office. this person is neutral about ict and is more focused on surviving within his government bureaucracy, but he assures the champion that the ministry will offer staff and in-kind support. a final proposal is written. the ngo and the government work out a budget to use up available funds.  computers, internet connection fees, a new land rover, travel expenses (in-country and for a few international conferences), training for the people involved, and an evaluation by a consultant from the donor's country.  the software will be open source or pirated. scenes of the land rover loaded with new gear (customs had to be given something extra to clear the shipments) headed into a rural village or urban slum.  young people carrying the gear to the school, community center, health clinic.  celebrations: dances, speeches by the donor, the mayor, the minister, a ribbon cut.  then training classes.  intense focus on the instructor.  excited faces gathered around the computer screens.  a good start. the project has lift off.  high demand, not enough places for everyone. yet there are problems.  the town/barrio leader puts one of the computers in his house "to prevent theft."  electricity is a problem.  the computers sometimes sit idle until the ngo provides a backup generator using expensive fuel.  still, the project is making an impact.  theft is not a problem.  the locals have "taken ownership." young people testify to the changes it is making in their lives.  a professional demonstrates how he is less isolated now that he can communicate with colleagues.  a farmer shows what he has learned about a crop, a sick animal, an insect infestation.  the project hums along... the ngo representative begins to worry about where money will come from to keep the project going.  in spite of the perceived benefits, the ministry is not interested in budgeting to support the project.  there are arguments among the parties: the donor country, the ngo, and the ministry.  the ministry wants the donor to extend the funding.  the donor says no.  the locals are encouraged to come up with a plan to raise some money.  there is talk of matching funds, but locals have a lot of energy and little extra money and what they raise is not sufficient. they enter ict contests in distant lands, hoping for recognition.  they hear of other grants but don't have the resources to apply.  the pilot project is winding down.  priorities have changed and the funding agency is now concentrating on some new aspect of ict.  the ngo follows the money and prepares the transition from the current project.  the locals find money to pay a former student to take over the project.  he dreams of working in the capital but will take this position for a while. the computers are showing their age.  the dust and heat are taking a toll.  most are still working at the end of the project.  others sit in a back room.  there is no money for repairs or for the internet connection any more.  the land rover is now an addition to the ministry's motor pool.  the evaluator has come and gone.  her report sits in the inboxes of the program officer, the ngo, and the minister's liaison.  new pilot projects are being hatched. back in the village or barrio the project building is dark.  the doors are locked most of the time.  a girl is sitting at a table in her kitchen.  in her school copybook she is writing her email address over and over, just so she won't forget.  maybe she will go online again some day and see if her new friends in the capital and in canada have written her.  it might happen, but the fiscal year is coming to an end. new projects are coming.   steve cisler is a librarian who lives in silicon valley. he ran a grant program at apple computer and has worked on projects in the rural u.s., latin america, uganda, jordan, and thailand. microsoft word editorial michael.doc editorial: community informatics in brazil michael gurtein, phd. editor in chief, the journal of community informatics gurstein@gmail.com i am delighted and honoured to publish this special double issue on the internet and community informatics in brazil. the issue itself is a very strong one and i think it both represents and solidifies the very strong community informatics range of activities and traditions in brazil while pointing to certain characteristics of community informatics in brazil that are potentially of interest and importance for the rest of the world. the special issue editors, suely fragoso and gilda olinto in their introduction to the issue have provided a very useful introduction to the range of issues that are of interest from a broad ci perspective but there are a few other items which an outsider might identify which someone closer to the scene such as they might overlook. a first observation and this comes out very strongly in the fragoso and olinto overview as well as a number of the papers is the strong recognition in brazil of the social determinants of internet use, and the need by government through policy and programmes to respond to this so as to not have the internet exacerbate already significant social and economic divisions. as a less developed country rapidly moving to becoming a middle income country, a regional power, and a member of a global group of similar regional middle income powers brazil very well recognizes the drag that significant digital inequality can present to its aspirations for development and equally the opportunities that are available as these inequalities are being addressed. there is a clear recognition on the part of the national and even state governments in brazil that responding to digital inequality is a responsibility of the state and the result has been the assignment of considerable public resources to responding including through the range of programs and initiatives that suely and gilda and others have noted in their papers. from the papers in this issue it is clear that the governments of brazil are making extraordinary efforts to broaden the base of internet access and use. in addition, again from the information presented in this issue the efforts towards digital inclusion are being done with a considerable measure of creativity and imagination – reflecting in considerable degree brazil’s unique multi-ethnic and multi-cultural heritage and building on this through linking internet access and use to cultural production particularly in music but also in graphics and the visual arts. regrettably most of these initiatives are little known outside of brazil or beyond latin america or others in the portuguese speaking world and it is one intention of this special issue to help in a small way to overcome these gaps. one additional observation comes from a closer reading of the articles in this issue and that is the close connections between the digital inclusion efforts and programmes and brazil’s long and effective experience with community based processes and particularly community based education. brazil has contributed a very great deal to the practice but especially and notably the theory of community based initiatives and community development overall and it is of special interest and with some excitement that i note that this issue is making a very strong set of conceptual and theoretical connections between this tradition – most notably through the work of the brazilian educator paulo freire. for me this was an unexpected discovery and i have been particularly delighted to see the ways in which this community-based approach to education and especially literacy education is being applied to processes of digital inclusion in various regions of brazil and with various of the more marginalized populations. as well, and of particular note is the way in which the theorizing in this area of the observed processes and emergent formations of community development fits so directly into my understanding of an emerging community informatics theory while deepening and extending these somewhat tentative and still partial developments. community informatics for many is a linking of the processes of community development with the content, affordances and historical and technological dynamics of information and communications technologies. in the english speaking context, and particularly through work coming from information sciences and science and technology studies there has been considerable advance in understanding and to a degree in conceptualizing the processes of technology change and the ways in which technology and particularly the internet provides opportunities to communities and individuals for advancement and change. we now know quite a lot about networking, about management at a distance, about identity in a digital environment – to point to only a few. however, from a ci perspective there has been much less theorizing and a much shallower pool of conceptualization to draw upon when one is looking at the community development side of the ci equation. what are the processes and dynamics which can be enabled at the community level which in turn can result in the absorption and effective utilization of icts. the links to the work conceptualizing community development and community processes in brazil goes some way, i believe towards providing a deepening of understanding of the dynamics of communities and through certain of the articles in this special issue we begin to see examples in practice of how these conceptualizations can inform ci practice as well. while only two of the articles in this issue (alvear et al and maia et al) point specifically to freire as influences, several of the other articles clearly are linked into a similar set of concerns – linking technology to processes of community enablement, recognizing community enablement and technology training and development as a process of coming into a position of self recognition and understanding, linking education into processes of the creation of a self-understanding of economic and social contexts, and overall a strong sense that in community development including for technology skills and understanding can be most effective when understood as an emergent process of communities and individuals coming into self-awareness. in this external formal community supports have to be seen and introduced simply as tools and enablers of these processes but as not the fundamental structures by means of which these processes occur. this linking of community process, emergent self-awareness, self and community empowerment, with icts particularly for marginalized populations is at the very core of a community informatics and thus this issue and the practice of community informatics in brazil has much to teach all of those with an interest in or activities to support community informatics anywhere in the world. the first mile connectivity consortium and digital regulation in canada rob mcmahon1, heather hudson2, lyle fabian3 postdoctoral fellow, first nations innovation project, department of sociology, university of new brunswick, canada. email: rob.mcmahon@unb.ca professor, institute of social and economic research, university of alaska anchorage, united states. it manager, k'atl'odeeche first nation, northwest territories, canada. on june 19 and 20, 2013 the first mile connectivity consortium, k'atl'odeeche first nation and the eeyou communications network intervened in a regulatory hearing about digital infrastructure and services in the canadian north. the three parties focused on issues of access, affordability, and the potential for infrastructure development in the north to support community development. they argued that northern residents should be offered opportunities as producers as well as consumers of telecommunications services. this article provides a summary of this intervention. many of canada's remote, rural and northern communities still lack access to robust digital infrastructure and services. although these small and geographically dispersed communities utilize high capacity networks for a range of services from banking to health and education doing so is challenging and expensive for many residents. the first mile connectivity consortium (fmcc) advocates for changes to policies and regulations that might help address these issues. the group highlights ways that people living in under-serviced regions might be enabled to implement their own development solutions. its work re-frames 'last-mile' infrastructure to foreground communities as the 'first mile' of connectivity. to this end, the diverse group of university-based researchers, first nations regional technology organizations, and individual first nations showcase how broadband policy can support community development, highlight local innovation, and overcome digital divides. they showcase the on-the-ground work taking place in remote communities every day, and draw on research partnerships like the first nations innovation project at the university of new brunswick. funded by the social sciences and humanities research council of canada, the fmcc has developed several resources. a national report published in 2010 combined a literature review and interviews about how broadband policy can support community development. a website profiles local indigenous technology projects across canada. through the first nations innovation project, the group's members have published more than 50 academic articles on first nations-led broadband initiatives. these resources provided a foundation of empirical evidence that the group used to intervene in a recent regulatory hearing. in december 2012, the canadian radio-television and telecommunications commission (crtc) announced a review of the services and infrastructure in northern canada (see map 2). the crtc was concerned that northwestel (a bell canada subsidiary) had failed to fulfill its regulatory obligations to provide essential services in this territory. the commission invited public comments, with supporting evidence and rationale, on issues including broadband services for residents of the region. click here for a map of northwestel's service territory the consultation consisted of several phases: written filings from interested parties, responses to these filings, and public hearings. in the months leading up to the hearings, the fmcc posted an information package on their website and reached out to indigenous community members and organizations. these efforts generated several letters of support from aboriginal organizations and information about local first mile initiatives. when the public hearings took place in june 2013 in inuvik (northwest territories) and whitehorse (yukon), the fmcc organized a panel of in-person and remote participants. the first group to appear was the eeyou communication network (ecn), which testified in inuvik by audioconference. established in 2012, the nonprofit regional broadband network interconnects 14 communities in northern quebec (including the nine cree communities of eeyou istchee) through a 1,500 km optical fiber network. it provides services for health, education, and ip telecommunications, and is a wholesaler of data and internet transit services. along with expressing its support of the fmcc, ecn representatives alfred loon, cédric melançon and hyman glustein suggested the crtc consider establishing a support fund for community networks and a licensee to disburse the funds. it also called on the regulator to enforce open access to transport infrastructure. two days later the second phase of the hearings opened in whitehorse. representing the fmcc, rob mcmahon stated the group was generally in favor of modernization by northwestel, but expressed concerns about the details of the publicly available version of the company's development plan. first nations can offer competitive services through community networks that can encourage universal broadband access, affordable service, and competition. community networks can also support local employment by providing residents with opportunities to work as administrators and technicians, and by circulating revenues insides communities. the fmcc also suggested the crtc call for public comments to establish a subsidy mechanism to support the creation and ongoing operations of such networks. the group also submitted that the development of any modernization plan in the north must engage with affected individuals and communities. prof. heather hudson, participating as an expert witness from alaska, testified on the need for broadband for northern social and economic development, and the importance of affordability as well as availability of broadband services. she summarized the results of a recent study on internet and broadband in 65 villages of southwest alaska. competition coupled with new approaches to subsidies can result in modernized facilities and services that are both available and affordable. finally, she described recent work undertaken by the federal communications commission in the u.s., and specifically, the office of native affairs and policy. the office is mandated to expand broadband in remote and tribal areas and encourages tribal entities to become certified as telecommunications carriers. the fcc also requires all communications providers receiving subsidies to serve tribal lands must meaningfully engage with tribal governments. the commission then heard from two first nations technology organizations. keewaytinook okimakanak is a nonprofit organization established by the chiefs of six remote first nations in northwestern ontario. its telecommunications service, ko-knet (the kuh-ke-nah network) provides access and services to remote cree and ojibway communities in northern ontario, and other communities across canada. it also contracts with health care providers to provide telehealth networks, and with the ontario ministry of education to support an online high school (keewaytinook internet high school) for students in remote communities. ko-knet also provides computer training and skills development for community members, manages a not-for-profit, satellite-based, carrier class network, and provides videoconferencing, internet telephony (voip), and mobile telephone services. brian beaton, former manager of ko-knet, testified on the organization's experiences providing services to rural and remote communities, and supporting them in developing and managing their own networks. he described two examples of fncns that operate in isolated communities considered too small and expensive to serve by major wireless and wireline providers. the first nations technology council (fntc) was created by and for the 203 first nations in british columbia (some of which fall within northwestel's service area). the organization provides connectivity, capacity building, information systems, and other technology services and support functions. it also promotes the use of technology as a tool that first nations use to improve quality of life for their citizens. first nations can participate in the provision and maintenance of infrastructure in ways that invest in the northern, sparsely populated regions of the country, and the indigenous communities that are permanent residents there. norm leech, executive director of fntc, stated that first nations have more than a right to be customers, clients and end-users of technology: they also have a right to become service providers. the panel concluded with a presentation by lyle fabian of the kfn community network, which serves the k'atl'odeeche first nation (kfn) near hay river in the northwest territories. in 2007, kfn began utilizing wireless and server technology to establish a community network on top of existing copper infrastructure installed by northwestel in the early 1980s. in 2009, the band received federal funding to build a community-owned, 48-strand dark fiber network, which now interconnects several local services. they also hired and trained local residents to install and manage the network, establish a community website, provide videoconferencing links, and conduct a feasibility study for a larger-scale fiber network. these projects encourage partnerships between government, private sector entities, and other first nation communities in the region. the public proceedings concluded with a final submission in july that summarized key points and outlined recommendations. listen to an interview with fmcc representatives on cbc north radio in december 2013, the crtc released its decision, which reflected a qualified success for the fmcc. the announced regulatory policy was framed in a developmental context, and noted the commission recognizes that broadband internet access is, more than ever, an important means of communication for northern canadians, needed to achieve a number of social, economic, and cultural objectives. the commission agreed with the fmcc about the lack of a competitive market in the north. it recognized the special conditions and challenges of telecommunications in the north, and that market forces alone are not addressing them. two specific elements of the decision addressed the lack of competitive markets: that retail terrestrial internet in the north is now virtually a northwestel monopoly; and that a wholesale monopoly exists in regions served only by satellite. given these findings, the commission decided to reinstate regulation of retail internet and some other services in the north, and will launch an inquiry on satellite transport services offered in canada in 2014. concerning open access, the commission recognized the position of fmcc that "a regulatory framework that encourages open access to publicly subsidized transport facilities is in the best interest of local communities that can leverage this infrastructure in various ways". while the crtc did not agree to open the national contribution fund to providers other than northwestel, it will launch a proceeding that will include consideration of a mechanism to fund infrastructure investment in transport facilities in northwestel's operating territory. this would complement other investments from the private sector and governments, including public-private partnerships. the decision also makes many references to the need for "affordable" services, although affordability is not defined. the crtc made no specific mention of consultation with indigenous organizations or communities in this decision. the fmcc had recommended that progress on northwestel's modernization plan be closely and independently monitored, with sanctions for failure to meet targets. while the commission did require northwestel to file a revised modernization plan and annual progress reports, it did not specify any sanctions or penalties if the company fails to meet its targets. in the coming months, the crtc will conduct an inquiry about satellite services and a national review of the basic service objective. the fmcc plans to participate in these initiatives, with the goal of continuing to highlight the need to enable communities to participate in the development and provision of networked digital services. materials associated with the intervention comments on crtc telecom regulatory policy crtc 2013-711 december 19, 2013 fmcc's summary of the decision inuvik hearing june 17, 2013 oral presentation from eeyou communication network whitehorse hearing june 19, 2013 opening comments from rob mcmahon, first mile connectivity consortium expert witness testimony from prof. heather hudson testimony from brian beaton, former manager, ko-knet and researcher, first nations innovation project testimony from norm leech, executive director, first nations technology council testimony from lyle fabian, it manager and former band councillor, k'atl'odeeche first nation letter of support from kativik regional government reply comments june 20, 2013 reply comments from first mile connectivity consortium reply comments from k'atl'odeeche first nation (online copy not available) undertaking on affordability requested by commissioner simpson, prepared by heather hudson for first mile connectivity consortium final submission july 9, 2013 final statement from first mile connectivity consortium final statement from eeyou communications network initial submissions (prior to hearings) feb 6, 2013 first submission sent to crtc feb 27, 2013 response from crtc request for more information march 27, 2013 additional information sent to crtc march 25, 2013 letter of support from eeyou communications network power to the people? assessing the social impact of the people's network in public libraries in shropshire. adrian oliver barlow university of york <adeybobs@yahoo.co.uk> introduction the people's network is an attempt to equalise the provision of public access computers across communities, and is meant to have a particularly positive effect upon marginalised categories in society, increasing those categories' usage of computers and the internet. that is the express aim of the uk government, as outlined in framework for the future, by the department of culture, media and sport (dcms, 2003), which states the people's network 'has a vital role to play in delivering the government's commitment to universal access to the internet' (ibid: 9). assessing the social impact of the people's network, therefore, is crucial in determining how successful the uk has been in fulfilling those pledges. there is a dearth of quantitative studies on the people's network. as colater (2001) suggests, 'for understandable reasons lack of resources, lack of expertise, conceptual and methodological problems, a concentration on service delivery the issue of outcome measurement has not been widely addressed' within the library and information-services sector. colater’s call for 'outcome measurement' was echoed by selwyn (2003), who enquired, 'are public ict centres actually widening levels of access to ict for those individuals who previously were not using ict, or are they merely increasing levels of use among existing users?' this particular study is meant to address the concerns outlined by colater and by selwyn. library users in 9 libraries in the english county of shropshire were selected as the sample base. librarians in each of those libraries gave users the option of completing a questionnaire when they came to book a session on the network, and collected them later. one semi-structured interview was done with a member of the library staff in each location, as well as one interview in a reference library where no questionnaires were issued. in all, 478 questionnaires were distributed across 9 different lending libraries in shropshire. the questionnaire asked respondents to list their postcodes, with the assurance that the data would remain confidential. 218 of the 348 respondents (60%) gave their postcodes for research purposes. those postcodes were then entered into mosaic, the geo-demographic package of experian, the credit reference company. mosaic uses 61 behavioural types and 11 categories in its data analysis, all sorted into discrete categories; and the analysis is informed by a wide range of information, from census data to market research, incorporating different factors such as age, education, income and accommodation amongst other things. mosaic has 11 categories, which run from a to k, and are split into numeric subsections within each letter (such as a1, a2, b1, b2 and so on). ultimately each overarching category contains properties where the residents are similar. for instance, although there are differences within the subcategories of category k – rural isolation – the people classified therein may be expected to have broadly matching consumer tastes, and share approximately similar social backgrounds, as well as life chances on a par with one another. in the uk, there are approximately 17 households assigned per postcode; mosaic catalogues and classifies these postcodes, allowing sophisticated insight into areas on a minute level. the in-depth catalogue makes the package very suitable for the analysis of the background of people who responded to the people’s network questionnaire. it gives texture to the findings, and the study has ‘postcode granularity’: the nature of the software allows fine distinctions to be made, and garners insights unavailable by other means into respondents who use the people’s network. mosaic therefore functions as a proxy for the social background of respondents to the study, and is used as a measure of the social impact of the network, being an important tool for the overall analysis. methodology and sampling the empirical research for this study was conducted in shropshire over march and april 2006. there are 23 libraries under the jurisdiction of the shropshire county council, and this study featured 10 of them, so just under half of the county libraries were included, both the bigger towns of the county, and a reasonable cross-section of smaller libraries. the selection of libraries was also meant to cover the county’s geography, from towns to hamlets, and all points of the compass, so it was necessary to include libraries in the remote fringes. one advantage in conducting a county-wide study is that the resulting model accounts for differing sizes and constituencies of libraries, not just focusing on the main lending libraries at the expense of smaller branch libraries. the nine libraries were weighted within the sample; each one had their sample size determined by how many people's network computers were in each individual library. libraries with 1-3 pn computers received (pn x 7) questionnaires, libraries with 4-6 pn received (pn x 8) and libraries with more than 7 pn received (pn x 9). in effect this weighting meant that bigger libraries received more questionnaires than their smaller counterparts: this is meant to ensure that libraries in bigger areas with more footfall are represented adequately in the final tally. 346 out of 478 questionnaires were returned a response rate of 74%. however, because this study uses cluster sampling and not simple random sampling, it is not possible to give an accurate estimation of the standard error for the cohort as compared to non-respondents – standard error relies on a comparison of the achieved sample against the characteristics of the general population as a whole, and this information was unavailable for comparative purposes. likewise it is difficult to estimate the percentage of users who completed this questionnaire, as compared to the amount of users who used the people's network during the time in which the questionnaires were available in each library. no reliable baseline exists within the council’s records for the number of visitors who used the libraries overall within the sampling period, so comparison is not possible. shropshire county council produces statistics on how many people have booked sessions, but these statistics are problematic. the council statistics measure how many half-hour sessions are booked, not the duration of each session, so that a 2-hour session is recorded in half-hour blocks. the council statistics do not measure the amount of unique users – if someone used the network 7 times in a week, this is recorded as 7 separate visits, but no record is kept whether it is the same person each time. the lack of a reliable baseline against which the results can be measured indicates these results should be treated cautiously. table 1 details the response rate for each library. table 1 – libraries, people's network computers, questionnaire response rates library no. pn cpus completed total handout % completed 1 10 50 90 56 2 8 48 72 66 3 8 62 72 86 4 8 50 72 69 5 6 39 48 81 6 5 28 40 70 7 4 31 32 97 8 3 20 21 95 9 3 20 21 95 there are two categories which, judging by the interview data, are likely to be under-sampled by the questionnaire. this survey was conducted before the peak tourist times in summer, so the time of year was not conducive to gathering large samples of tourist visitors. the second under-sampled category is seasonal workers, who might have been deterred from filling in this survey: a few librarians said that the questionnaire might be too advanced for some of the foreign users. migrant workers tend to participate in the informal economy, fruit-picking, catering, helping out on farms, and come into the library to use the computers: 'we get a lot of foreign visitors. i say 'visitors' as they're working in the catering industry, packing, that sort of thing, and they use it for e-mails. it's a bit of a social thing as well, as they meet their friends here. it's more than just somewhere they can e-mail from.’ (library 10) literature review the proportion of socially excluded people who use libraries as compared to the entire population is still quite low, which is a problem the people’s network is theoretically meant to address (loader and keeble, 2004:42). one case study of a representative sample in south wales, conducted by selwyn (2003), found that the people's network was not relevant to marginalised categories. public access sites were not especially attractive to many users, having 'only moderate levels of recognition, and even lower levels of usage, amongst the general population' (selwyn, 2003:15). from the 624 of the 1001 respondents in selwyn's survey who did use the internet, only 13% used computers in the library. its use was marginal for all categories, regardless of age, sex, or social class. aside from selwyn's findings, it has been argued elsewhere that the people's network could only ever have a marginal effect on digital inequality since different tiers of inequality such as business and capital are determining of where to place new technologies on the basis of an area's status and demographic profile (graham, 2003). furthermore, different areas of town and cities are spatially ordered: some areas have considerable numbers of technologically-aware citizens and correspondingly many networks and information nodes, while other areas have few nodes, and this naturally has an impact on different communities' receptivity to ict (lash, 2002). against this backdrop of unequal interest in, and awareness of, ict within different communities, the people's network may amerliorate digital inequality to some extent, but never erase it entirely (loader and keeble, 2004). there is an education and class dimension to differential access. quan-haase et al (2002), for instance, found that the most important factor for involvement in e-government and civic participation was the educational level of internet users themselves, not just access to internet resources. in a uk context, hawkins et al (2001) reported that social classes d and e were underrepresented in libraries, both in terms of their numbers proportionate to other social classes, but also in terms of the frequency which they borrowed books. in other words, classes d and e, the most disadvantaged of all, were the people least likely to use libraries and the facilities therein. nevertheless, gannon-leary et al (2003) found that in a sample of over 450 people's network users in the north-east, 22% were unemployed, and 16% were retired. that over 100 respondents were unemployed is surprisingly high: unfortunately, gannon-leary does not cross-reference this figure with the ages of questionnaire respondents, meaning it is impossible to gauge the age range or the duration of unemployment of the unemployed respondents with any accuracy,. turner and kendall (2000) examined the userbase in chester library. 178 replies were received to questionnaires and there was good evidence that the people's network reached the disadvantaged: 22% of respondents were unemployed, and a quarter of the total internet users were casual visitors from overseas. the majority of users had received no training in using pcs. 80% of users were under 35. schofield et al (2004) examined a people's network library – it had been successful in providing access to ict for people who would otherwise have had no access. there were caveats, however: technology was often old, viewed unfavourably by the users, and online learning opportunities were not taken up to the extent local funding bodies had hoped. hillingdon borough council's ict user survey from 2003 looked at people's network users' demographics; this survey covered 17 libraries and had 906 respondents. 30% of users were from ethnic minorities, more than double the amount of ethnic minorities in the borough's demographic profile. the people's network brought new people into the library and persuaded users to embrace ict within a library setting (hillingdon borough council, 2003). three major sponsors have looked into the efficacy of the people's network, and each sponsor has issued a report. for the mla, peter brophy has carried out yearly reports into the progress of the people's network. brophy argues (2004:23), 'the people’s network is becoming an essential infrastructural element both locally and nationally'. brophy's report has been criticised as insufficiently rigorous, as it examined a 'relatively small sample' of library authorities from which to extrapolate general trends (pateman, 2003). the tavistock institute's report into the people's network, books and bytes, has a mixed-methods approach, including interviews, case studies, documentary analysis, and regional workshops. libraries worked hard at 'outreach' programs aimed at socially-excluded populations, and were somewhat successful in encouraging new users to enter into the libraries. but one problem with the methodology was evident: 'most library services were unable to provide data on the profile of their users of open access pn services' (tavistock institute, 2004:81). without this data for profiling, the study's classifications of users was tentative on key variables such as age or gender, which is unfortunate considering the engaging nature of the study and its breadth. the third document is a dcms select committee report on public libraries which covers the success or otherwise of the people's network (hmso, 2005). drawing on written and oral testimony, they stated 'this introduction to ict will close the technological illiteracy gap for some by giving people everywhere the chance to learn to use this technological tool'. they found that the presence of people's network was reversing a general slow decline in public library use within recent memory. however, little qualitative evidence was adduced in support of this claim. findings what is the demographic profile of the userbase of the people's nework? the majority, 63% of users, (n=218) were 40 years old or younger. only 11% of users (n=38) were over the age of 60. however, these raw figures are skewed by the fact that one library only allows users aged under 18 to use the people's network; when the raw data is filtered to exclude cases from that library, only 48% of users (n=167) are under the age of 40. there were more male respondents than female (54% to 46%). this is surprising, because libraries have been traditionally used more by females. the public library user surveys national report for 2001-2002 found that nearly 60% of library visitors were female (cited in blackburn, 2004). only 22% of all users surveyed used the internet by itself in the libraries, meaning 78% of users did partake in other library activities. of the users who pursued other activities, 22% borrowed books, while 17% borrowed books and cds together. interestingly, 17% of users said they used three or more library facilities as well as the internet. in total, over half the sample also borrowed books. as only a fifth of users solely use the internet, most of the surveyed people's network users are highly 'integrated' users of other library offerings. the people's network does not seem to dominate users' motives for going to the library, but appears to complement libraries' traditional services. there is some evidence from interview data that, '[children] come in to play games, but it has brought a lot of children into the library who otherwise wouldn't be here at all' (library 9), but such data is not readily quantifiable. the majority of respondents (64%) were light users (0-2 hours per week). this indicates that the take-up of people's network computers is reasonably well-dispersed: there are lots of infrequent users. however, 28% of users used the pn for between 3-5 hours per week, indicating that it is from this category where any 'hard core' users might originate. several librarians attested that the people's network users were a disparate category, each with their own routines which may influence how long they spend on the internet in the library: 'we have regulars, people who are here nearly every day, but then at the same time we have people who drop in, perhaps on holiday, we have people who don't have it at home and come in to use our internet, it's very much a mixture' (library 3) in terms of the geo-demographic profile of the userbase, 218 respondents put their postcode details on the questionnaire as requested; exactly 60% of the total sample. those responses were fed into mosaic, and a chart was produced (table 2), with library numbers listed along the horizontal axis, and the mosaic categories on the vertical axis. table 2 – respondents sorted by mosaic classification and by library they used (n=218) lib. 1 lib. 2 lib. 3 lib. 4 lib. 5 lib. 6 lib. 7 lib. 8 lib. 9 tot. mosaic a 2 3 1 1 1 8 mosaic b 3 3 2 5 2 1 15 mosaic c 3 3 4 1 1 2 14 mosaic d 9 3 7 9 11 1 1 1 40 mosaic e 5 1 1 2 9 mosaic f 1 4 5 mosaic g 1 1 1 1 4 mosaic h 3 10 3 1 1 1 1 20 mosaic i 1 1 mosaic j 1 6 11 4 3 7 4 2 2 40 mosaic k 4 8 10 9 9 2 2 3 15 62 total 27 27 46 35 29 11 10 14 19 218 as a companion to table 2, its counterpart table 3 gives some context to the raw data. next to the totals for different categories are equivalent numbers for the percentage of people in each, within shropshire, and also within the general uk population. this data is provided for comparative purposes, to evaluate which categories are particularly over or under-represented in the sample. the shropshire figures do not total 100% as some houses were unclassified: table 3 – the characteristics of the sample, against shropshire geodemographics (n=218) mosaic name total sample % this sample % shropshire residents % uk mosaic a symbols of success 8 3.66 4.77 9.62 mosaic b happy families 15 6.88 10.65 10.76 mosaic c suburban comfort 14 6.42 14.91 15.10 mosaic d ties of community 40 18.3 11.87 16.04 mosaic e urban intelligence 9 4.12 1.09 7.19 mosaic f welfare borderline 5 2.29 0.70 6.43 mosaic g municipal dependency 4 1.83 2.95 6.71 mosaic h blue collar enterprise 20 9.17 9.56 11.00 mosaic i twilight subsistence 1 0.45 2.42 3.88 mosaic j grey perspectives 40 18.3 8.86 7.88 mosaic k rural isolation 62 28.4 29.95 5.39 total 218 100 97.73 100 table 3 reveals a number of interesting aspects. categories where the sample was significantly smaller than the shropshire average were b, c, and i, but it is worth noting category i only had one person in it. categories where the sample was significantly larger than the shropshire average were d, e, f, and j, however since categories e and f had very few people in them, those results should be treated with caution. two of the biggest categories in the study were category j – grey perspectives – and category k – rural isolation. grey perspectives is made up of areas with many quite affluent elderly people; their high level of representation may be expected bearing in mind that “in comparison with the national average, shropshire is weighted towards the older age categories. shropshire has a greater proportion of population in all the age categories above and inclusive of 45-49 year olds compared to england” (shropshire county council, 2006). nonetheless, the number of respondents from the grey perspectives category is still over-represented compared to the shropshire average. the users in category k – rural isolation were the biggest category, and this category was comprised of people from market towns and small outlying villages, and also demarcates people who live in deep countryside, including farmers and those who work on the land. while rural isolation is the 3rd wealthest category of all 11 in the mosaic categories overall, this headline number can be misleading. much of the wealth within rural isolation is largely to do with the influx of incomers from cities and towns moving into the countryside, and is concentrated in their hands. this is particularly prononunced in the sub-section k57, known as summer playgrounds, “where urban people own many second homes and where bed and breakfasts and other agro-tourism enterprises provide important sources of seasonal income” (nomad plus, 2006). residents who fit into the k57 category are likely to have second homes or holiday homes in the vicinity, and their wealth increases the overall finanical score of category k. similarly, another sub-category within the rural isolation category, k58, known as greenbelt guardians, “contains farming communities set in areas of high landscape value which, on account of their accessibility to towns, attract a minority of very wealthy households” (nomad plus, 2006b). in contrast to k57 and k58, many of the other subsections in category k – k59, k60 and k61 are comprised of long-standing dwellers in communities, people born and bred in the area, whose incomes are not on a par with those who come from outside the area. the breakdown of category k within the people’s network sample is set out in table 4. table 4 – category k – rural isolation – within this people’s network sample (n=62) mosaic name total sample % this sample mosaic k57 summer playgrounds 8 13% mosaic k58 greenbelt guardians 12 20% mosaic k59 parochial villagers 25 40% mosaic k60 pastoral symphony 8 13% mosaic k61 upland hill farmers 9 14% total 62 100 moving on to other topics, the categories which had significantly greater representation in the sample than the shropshire average were category d, named industrial grit. this is a predominantly urban category with skilled manual workers, who mostly live in terraced houses in close-knit industrial areas. category h was also represented, and people in category h seem to originate in approximately the same strata as category d. category h known as blue collar enterprise includes people in manufacturing or service-sector work who may have bought their own council houses. both categories are what might be called the 'traditional working classes' as such, working in manual or low-grade service occupations, and households may run a car and have some disposable income. it was also noticeable that category d spanned 8 libraries from the entire sample, and category h spanned 7 libraries from the entire sample – these categories were not confined to libraries within the bigger towns of shropshire, despite their superficially urban nature. the three categories which are financially poorest and which live in the areas where people have the worst life chances – categories f, g and i – are almost completely unrepresented in the mosaic data, being only 5% (n=10) of all respondents. however, many of the respondents are from non-middle class areas – categories d and h, and also the bulk of category k as well – so in that sense the people’s network does belie the perception that libraries are mostly populated by the middle-classes. even in category k, the wealthest two segments – k57 and k58 – only comprise 33% of all category k users: it appears that the people’s network is more likely to be used by those who are poorer than the norm in this case. this profile of users of the people's network seems to contradict the picture of the 'traditional library user' to some extent. the traditional user, as blackburn remarks in his synopsis of previous research into library demographics, 'would appear to be ab, 55+, female, white, british, retired and metropolitan' (blackburn, 2004). contrary to blackburn’s findings for library users as a whole, the traditional professional middle-classes – most likely to be found in mosaic categories a, b, and c – are not especially big users of the people’s network in shropshire, and between them accounted for only 17% of all mosaic postcodes in the study. the data would appear to indicate that the mass of users do not come from either extreme of the social spectrum – neither very rich nor very poor – but instead seem to cluster around the lower-middle to the middle of the spectrum. there was little correlation between the areas which users came from, and whether they had access to the internet anywhere else except at the library itself. it might be expected, the richer an area where someone lives, the more likely it is that they will have internet access, because 'there is a clear relationship between economic status and internet use. more users come from higher economic brackets' (dutton et al, 2005: 116). insofar as only 10 out of 218 respondents lived in the three most deprived areas, that statement is true (see table 5). having said that, there is seemingly no relationship between wealth of users and their access elsewhere. despite living in well-off areas, some of the users who lived in wealthier areas only had internet access in their local library the reason behind this is unclear, but librarians suggested it may be related to geographical isolation meaning a lack of broadband connections for private homes in the more remote parts of the county. table 5 – wealth of users in overall mosaic categories by net access (n=218) mosaic name overall wealth users w/access users w/o access total % w/o access mosaic f welfare borderline least wealthy 4 1 5 20% mosaic g municipal dependency minus 4 wealthy 4 0 4 0% mosaic i twilight subsistence minus 3 wealthy 0 1 1 100% mosaic h blue collar enterprise minus 2 wealthy 9 11 20 55% mosaic d ties of community minus 1 wealthy 19 21 40 53% mosaic e urban intelligence middle wealthy 5 4 9 44% mosaic j grey perspectives plus 1 wealthy 19 21 40 53% mosaic b happy families plus 2 wealthy 11 4 15 27% mosaic k rural isolation plus 3 wealthy 25 37 62 60% mosaic c suburban comfort plus 4 wealthy 9 5 14 36% mosaic a symbols of success most wealthy 4 4 8 50% total 109 109 218 50% how far can it be said that the people’s network is accessed by those from socially marginalized categories? the mosaic data is unpromising in this regard, but other sources of data from the questionnaire are more forthcoming. certainly, one aspect to consider in relation to access by people who are socially marginalized is that a very significant minority of users, that is 46% in the entire sample including people who did not give their postcode for mosaic analysis (n=161), have no internet access elsewhere. furthermore, 9% of questionnaire respondents (n=31) mentioned as a reason for using the people's network that they didn't have a computer, or have the internet at home. for this cohort, the people's network provides a direct reason to visit library premises. aside from the fact that many users have no access elsewhere, the main pull factor is that the network is free – 82% of people (n=288) people ticked that option. convenience and/or ease of access was very important: 72% of people (n=252) cited either or both of those factors as being influential in choosing to visit their library. it should be pointed out that none of the libraries were physically distant from the centre of the communities they serve, meaning that many users of the service may incorporate their visit into daily routines, perhaps dropping into the library after shopping, school, or work. several of the libraries, moreover, were co-located in buildings which had cafes, community centres, or drop-in points nearby. the people's network does not exist as a stand-alone system for library users, but is interconnected with their library habits, their urban geographies, and their socialising patterns to some extent. for a significant proportion of users, the fact that they can use the internet whilst being sociable is a big pull factor. many questionnaire respondents use the library effectively as a social hub, a 'third space' between home and work (buschman, 2005), and thus using the library was a way that users participated in their local communities on the ground. 24% (n=84) used the internet for reasons of being sociable or getting out of the house. this was the case whether users had internet access elsewhere or not: 40 users who ticked the 'sociable' box had access elsewhere, while 44 users did not, so this was not a substantial relationship. even some users who could use the internet elsewhere if they wished still found the social side of the people's network to be very meaningful. interview data seems to confirm many users of the people's network seemed to know other users through their own social networks, and used the library facilities to socialise before or after a session: '[some users here] tend to meet people, sit next to each other. quite often when you go to book somebody on, they know the person who's coming off, so they're chatting away together. they come in the queue, and talk, so it does give it a bit of an atmosphere you know.' (library 10) from the analysis of the data, it appears that the people’s network does have an impact on some types of respondents more than others. the typical user would appear likelier to be male than female, over 40 years old, most probably from a rural background, or else from a working-class urban area, and slightly more likely to have internet access elsewhere than not. this profile is not similar to the stereotypical library user mentioned by blackburn (2004), so one thing that can be said is that the people’s network in shropshire is less socially exclusive than the library service nationally as a whole. furthermore, the categories likeliest to use the internet most frequently in this study are broadly in line with those in the tavistock institute’s book and bytes evaluation. in that study, the people’s network monitoring data identified most of the users as being either very young or fairly old, male rather than female, and as being fairly likely to come from one of the following categories: job-seekers, retirees, students, or migrants/seasonal workers (tavistock institute, 2004:80). all of these categories were found to be fairly regular users of the people’s network facilities in shropshire, whether via questionnaire returns or via interviews with librarians, so this data does provide some quantitative support for their qualitative approach. discussion: the relationship between mosaic, take-up of the people’s network, and bourdieu’s habitus the categories most tempted into libraries by the people's network, or who use libraries more often than before, seems to be those of the skilled working-classes. however, there are many categories who didn't seem to be using the people's network, or hardly at all: these are the unskilled, the unqualified, and the marginalised in general. there are two levels to this non-usage by the socially marginalized: micro and macro. on the micro level, there is a need for individuals to be comfortable with, and confident on, the machines: it-literacy was a theme which recurred consistently in interviews. academically-marginalised categories may not have the comprehension skills to use the internet to its full capacity without some kind of training (pawley, 2003), which was something that several librarians brought up unprompted in discussion. adults who have low it-literacy, linked with a lack of reading literacy, are undeniably disadvantaged when using computers (garrod, 2003). in response to user demand for assistance, many of the libraries had embarked on a series of formal linkups involving colleges, commercial enterprises, and libraries to provide skills training: 'we've had shropshire training do a series of, they've had a tutor here since the beginning of the year, in fact since the beginning of 2005, it ends this friday, whereby a tutor has come in each week to help... that has gone done very well here, it has been less successful in other venues. we gave it a fair amount of publicity, we have regulars now who come in on a friday because someone is here.' (library 3) there was a clear, sustainable desire for the tuition. librarians often commented that some sort of training would be helpful for users to profit on the internet, for 'there is a plethora of information, and so problems with evaluating what is useful and what is accurate' (library 1). this sentiment was often echoed: 'much of the information is incredibly good, but then there is an awful lot of dross as well' (library 3). a clear relationship exists between it-literacy and the ability to find information on the internet: hargittai (2002) found experience with the technology to be 'positively related to online skill.' indeed, several librarians made comments of this ilk, mentioning that lack of it-literacy often correlates with a lack of functional literacy: 'you get people who can't really use them, after leaving school, you'd expect them to be able to read but some find it difficult, and the same with computers, so they can ask for a lot of assistance and take up a lot of time'. (library 10) the micro level of an individual’s skills and literacy is profoundly influenced by the macro level: the influence of class, social background, and education upon that same individual’s life chances. educational attainment varies according to social background, and the disparity in life chances and in educational attainment is clear enough from the analysis in mosaic. webber (2005) has shown empirically in a longitudinal study that children in mosaic categories f, g, and i score particularly low on mean gcse scores when compared to their peers in other categories. of 24 mosiac categories in webber's study, individual sub-sections of the aggregate categories f, g, and i occupied seven out of the bottom eight placings. categories f, g, and i are the categories which have the worst life chances, which achieve least in formal schooling, and which are noticeable by their absence from the postcode returns to this library survey. they are the three least wealthy mosaic categories, and therefore not especially likely to afford expensive computer equipment: they seem to have a nexus of disadvantage, where one aspect of disadvantage reinforces another. in a follow-up study conducted by webber and butler, also using mosaic as the analytic tool, aside from the performance of the pupil at ks2 tests at the age of 11, the type of neighbourhood in which the pupil lived was a more reliable predictor of the pupil’s gcse performance than any other information about the pupil. another key finding from the study was that the performance of pupils was influenced by the neighbourhoods from which the other pupils in the school were drawn, this being only marginally less significant than their own social background (webber and butler, 2005). it is therefore unsurprising that one of the markers of low educational attainment the inability to read or write enough to function in everyday life, not being functionally literate – is most common amongst the socially marginalised. a report by the department for education and employment, dfee (1999), estimated that one adult in five in this country is not functionally literate, a number which is higher amongst the least well-off in society. there is therefore a clear structural barrier for the children and adults in the socially disadvantaged categories f, g and i, which may impede their desire or ability to use the people’s network. a key concept which may inform discussion at this point is habitus—bourdieu's word for the milieu in which a person lives, makes sense of their surroundings, and undertakes a range of activities in daily life. this habitus, and accompanying material conditions, exerts an effect on the aspirations and attitudes of the individual agent, their dispositions and actions (bourdieu, 1986). the habitus is formed by, and affects, a person’s experiences throughout life. but the habitus is not neccessarily a consciously willed process, it is a set of beliefs or ways of thinking which are taken for granted by the individual concerned: ‘the habitus embodied history, internalized as a second nature and so forgotten as history is the active presence of the whole past of which it is the product’ (bourdieu and wacquant, 1992). differential access to educational, cultural and social capital will naturally affect the habitus, and thereby affect people's conception of the merits of ict: people who may have high levels of cultural and educational capital might take to the internet quite happily, but people who lack such capital may have many more reservations or suspicions about using the internet (kvasny, 2005). for instance, one aspect of the people's network which may deter people who have low levels of educational, social, or cultural capital from using the internet is unhappiness with the milieu for some socially excluded categories, the library environment is unwelcoming (pateman, 1999). that people may find the library environment unwelcoming is itself an example of habitus: if someone is unused to the environment, or dislikes it through (perhaps) associations with bad experiences at school, they may feel ill-at-ease there, and thus reluctant to use the internet in such surroundings. it makes intuitive sense, then, that segments of people in mosaic categories f, g, and i might be particularly unlikely or unable to engage with the internet in library settings. although interest in the internet is probably linked to habitus, that has not deterred libraries from attempting to draw in new users. all the libraries put 'press adverts in the shropshire star' (library 5) in smaller villages, librarians put notices in newsletters, and circulated leaflets. the people's network was also part of the “introduction to the library” package for new members, so 'everytime we've joined someone they get a "welcome to the library" leaflet which explains things to the people at the desk' (library 8). even though the network has been running for a few years now, some librarians were still unsure as to how far knowledge about the service had penetrated local communities: 'it still amazes me how many people will still come in here and say, "have you got internet access?"' (library 5). one library, however, employed an innovative way of spreading the news about the people's network: 'we do various promotions at different times. we've done leaflets which we deliberately aimed at getting out at the communities, we've left them in doctors' surgeries, vets, sport centres... to get at people who might otherwise might not know what is available. we've had bookmarks done in the past. and certainly, if any of us go and do talks to outside categories, we always plug it as well. trying to spread the word.'(library 2) this particular library had vouchers which revealed where users had found the publicity material. it was effective in tracking the efficacy of the scheme: all the non-traditional places had yielded new users to varying degrees. but, amidst this talk of broadening access to the internet via the people's network, it is important to remember that people may have valid, clear reasons for not engaging with ict in the first place. education may be a barrier, but aside from that, engagement depends upon individuals having compelling motivations behind using the internet: the individual needs to believe it will add something to life which wasn't there before. adoption of the internet into daily rounties is unlikely to occur without an impetus for action, such as the individual believing the internet will be useful for their purposes (wyatt et al, 2002). again, though, that impetus is linked to the habitus – if someone must ‘believe the intenet will add something that wasn’t there before’, they need to conceptualise why the internet will be of benefit to them; how it can broaden their horizons. the concept of habitus gives some insight into the differences between categories, why uptake in some areas is greater than others, without being too deterministic. those in mosaic categories f, g, and i seem to reside in areas where expectations and horizons in many aspects of life are lower than those of their counterparts in other categories; hence the disparity in participation rates with regard to the people’s network may be partially explained by these differences. conclusion – how successful has the people's network been in its core mission? the demographic profile of users drawn from the questionnaire indicates evidence that the people’s network is reaching people, as 46% of the achieved sample had no access elsewhere. most users who gave postcode information (about 60% of the sample) are from three main categories. the first set is skilled manual workers, the second is older retirees, and the third category is people from relatively isolated countryside areas, depending on how rural the library was. on the one hand, a more complicated picture exists as well; mosaic reveals that respondents who gave their details live in reasonably affluent areas, with very few from truly impoverished areas. this is in contrast to several other people’s network studies discussed in the literature review, wherein the users were often socially-disadvantaged, but it is true that a small portion of users in shropshire wrote that they were “job-hunting” or searching for work. nevertheless, in shropshire as elsewhere, the people’s network operates within an environment of spatially-ordered differential access and capability with it. on the other hand, public libraries serve a remit to provide the internet to all at no cost at the point of use. many users (80%) found the free nature of the service enticing. indeed, by remaining free from charges, it is arguable that the people's network performs a public service in aid of the information-poor and/or the disadvantaged. people who do not have the internet at home are more likely to be poorer than those who do have it at home; there is a persistent correlation between household wealth and the likelihood of owning a home computer (see oxford internet institute, 2005). by not charging fees for using the internet, the people’s network does not financially impose upon users without internet access. despite the fact that the service is free at the point of use, the people's network seemingly passes unnoticed by potential users in several mosaic categories, in the sense that publicity does not seem to reach them. problems concerning achieving access from underrepresented categories are potentially due to a library environment being off-putting to some poorer or less bookish users. it is hard to know how to induce these into the library setting in the first place, or if it would be worthwhile, considering that the factors which may deter them – such as low levels of literacy, a dislike of computers, or an unwillingness to go into such an environment – are difficult to remedy. the factors which lie behind differential interest in the people’s network, as outlined in the section referring to the habitus, appears not amenable to quick fixes or solutions. lastly, with regards to shropshire, it is worth reiterating the conclusion that the people’s network appears to be attracting people who have no access elsewhere, even if those people don't appear to be socially underprivileged in many other aspects. there is convincing evidence that most users use the people’s network alongside other library services, not in place of them. moreover, there is no relationship between the demographic area where a user comes from, and their likelihood of having access to the internet elsewhere than the library, which indicates that the people’s network is attracting a wide and mixed userbase, within those parameters already outlined. references blackburn, j. (2004) english public libraries: research review and initial strategic recommendations, prepared for andrew stephens of the mla bourdieu, p. (1986) the forms of capital, in baron, s, field, j, and schuller t, (eds.), social capital critical perspectives, oxford: oup bourdieu, p., & waquant, l. 1992. an invitation to reflexive sociology. chicago:university of chicago press. brophy, p. (2004) the people’s network: moving forward, mla http://www.mla.gov.uk/resources/assets//i/id1414rep_pdf_4287.pdf buschman, j. (2005) on libraries and the public sphere, library philosophy and practice, 7(2) colater, f. (2001) realising the potential of cultural services: the case for libraries, local government association research briefing 12.1 dcms, (2003) framework for the future: libraries learning and information in the next decade dutton, w.h et al (2005) the internet in britain: the oxford internet survey (oxis), may 2005 gannon-leary, p., banwell, l., and parker, s. (2003) an evaluation of the development of the people’s network in the north east, library and information research, 27(87) garrod, p. (2003) framework for the future: access to digital skills and services, ariadne, 36 graham, s. (2003) the software-sorted city: rethinking the ‘digital divide', in graham, s, (ed.) the cybercities reader, london: routledge hargittai, e. (2002) second-level digital divide: differences in people's online skills, first monday, 7(4) hawkins, m., morris, a., and sumison, j. (2001) socio-economic features of uk public library users, library management, 22(6 and 7) hillingdon borough council, (2003) people's network ict user survey summary report house of commons select committee on culture, public libraries, london: hmso, 24 february 2005, media and sport third report, hc 81-i. kvasny, l. (2005) the role of the habitus in shaping discourses about the digital divide. journal of computer-mediated communication, 10(2) lash, s. 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(2006) census 2001 population & age structure, http://www.shropshire.gov.uk/factsfigures.nsf/open/2446f06fdb25620980256cc400419a93 tavistock institute, (2004) books and bytes: new service paradigms for the 21st century library, london: big lottery fund turner, k., and kendall, m. (2000) public use of the internet at chester library, uk, information research, 5(3) webber, r . (2005) geodemographic classifications and the analysis of public datasets: adding value to plasc, presented at the census: past and future conference at the university of leicester webber, r., and butler t. (2005) classifying pupils by where they live: how well does this predict variations in their gcse results, casa working paper no 99 (dec 2005) http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/working_papers/paper99.pdf wyatt, s, thomas, g, and terranova, t. (2002) they came, they surfed, they went back to the beach: conceptualizing use and non-use of the internet, in woolgar, s (ed.) virtual society?, oxford: oupaddams, j. (1930). the second twenty years at hull-house: september 1909 to september 1929. new york: macmillan. developing an e-community approach to broadband-enabled community services in kitigan zibi anishinabeg first nation gilbert whiteduck1, anita tenasco2, susan o'donnell3, tim whiteduck4, emily lockhart5 kitigan zibi anishinabeg first nation, quebec, canada. email: gwhiteduck@hotmail.com kitigan zibi anishinabeg first nation, quebec, canada. university of new brunswick, fredericton, new brunswick, canada. first nations education council, wendake, quebec, canada university of new brunswick, fredericton, new brunswick, canada introduction more than 600 first nation (indigenous) communities are located across canada's vast landmass, many in rural areas or remote places accessible only by air. first nations are autonomous communities with elected governments. these first nation governments are responsible for delivering services including health, education, policing and security and many other services to their community members. the canadian government's fiduciary responsibility to first nations requires it to provide funding for first nations to deliver these community services. however government funding for first nation communities is less than that provided to non-native communities, on a per-capita basis, for basic services such as health and education. first nation governments are in a constant cycle of having to find and fight for funding to effectively deliver essential services and activities including electronically. there is never enough funding to provide an adequate level of information and communication technology (ict) infrastructure to provide the support necessary for community services, applications, training, and ongoing and maintenance. despite these challenges, many first nation communities are developing, building and maintaining ict infrastructures and processes to support online service delivery. the assembly of first nations, the national representative body of first nations across canada, has promoted a holistic "e-community" approach to ict development in first nations that considers the many elements required to support digital infrastructure in these unique environments. the current study examines how one first nation community kitigan zibi anishinabeg in quebec, canada, is using ict to support online delivery of education and cultural services, health services and policing and security services. the discussion of the research findings considers how an e-community approach could support the strategic development of broadband infrastructure in kitigan zibi in the future. first nations autonomy, community resilience and communication infrastructure the royal commission on aboriginal peoples (rcap) was the most comprehensive investigation in canada into the situation of first nations. in its 1996 final report, rcap described how canadians know little about the peaceful and co-operative relationship that grew among the first nations and the first european visitors in the early years of contact including the alliances and the friendship treaties outlining promises that were never kept by canada (rcap, 1996). the history of indigenous peoples in canada is similar to that of indigenous peoples globally who continue to struggle against the exploitation of their lands and resources by external forces. in 2010, the canadian government adopted the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (undrip), which, similarly to the canadian constitution, affirms the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination (canadian broadcasting corporation, 2010). among the many rights affirmed in the un declaration is the right of first nations to autonomy in matters relating to their internal and local affairs and the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social, and cultural institutions (united nations, 1997). in canada, first nations for more than a century have experienced various destructive policies, such as residential schools and the ongoing indian act, that defy all the requirements of the undrip. a function of these state policies is to deprive first nations of the tools of resiliency (their beliefs, traditions and institutions) in order to assimilate them into the dominant culture. reclaiming their beliefs, traditions and institutions can help first nations communities to resist colonial aggression and reconstruct their identities (alfred, 2009; rcap, 1996; tousignant & sioui, 2009). researchers have found that self-determination, community autonomy and control over the delivery of services such as education, health and policing contribute to cultural continuity and community resilience (chandler & lalonde, 2003). culturally appropriate services support students, community members, families and community institutions facing adversity (tousignant & sioui, 2009). researchers have identified the built environment as a core dimension of community resilience. they believe that community resilience can be measured in part by its stock of built capital in the form of infrastructure (kirmayer, sehdev, whitley, dandeneau & isaac, 2009). built infrastructure includes housing, water, power, and communications. for this present study, we understand communications to encompass all elements of telecommunications, including broadband infrastructure, networks, and applications. broadband, e-community, and first mile in remote and rural first nations at the time of writing, no coherent federal government policy exists in canada for broadband networks and communication infrastructure in rural and remote regions of the country (mcmahon, o'donnell, smith, woodman, simmonds & walmark, 2010). after years of political consultation, the federal digital economy strategy is still only a discussion paper and strangely absent from major national policy plans. at the same time, in the canadian policy landscape, the federal government is responsible for policy related to its relationship with first nations. the first nations chiefs, through their national political representative body, the assembly of first nations (afn), have passed numerous national resolutions relating to broadband infrastructure. the most recent was at the afn chiefs meeting in december 2011. in 2010, the afn published its e-community information and communications technology (ict) model, based on a framework developed by the keewaytinook okimakanak tribal council (whiteduck, 2010). in this national model, communication infrastructure is part of a broader plan for economic, social, and cultural change based on knowledge and information. the e-community ict model is aspirational, in that it suggests how first nations should approach developing a strategic plan for its broadband infrastructure and ict development. however no funds are available for individual first nations to develop or implement an e-community strategy. the afn's e-community ict model builds upon a "common network model" employed by canadian governments, institutions, companies and corporations. it has five themes: first nations capacity development, first nations connectivity, human resources development, information management, and partnerships (whiteduck, 2010). the afn is also proposing that first nations communities and organizations oversee the public funding required to develop and control the communication infrastructure in their communities. in its latest national resolution, the afn noted that the e-community ict model is very compatible with a first mile approach (mcmahon, o'donnell, smith, woodman, simmonds & walmark, 2010). the first mile describes the need for first nations to own, control and manage their local broadband infrastructure and the services and data flowing through their local networks. first mile concepts support the principles of ocap (schnarch, 2004) applied to broadband ownership, control, access and possession. these concepts also include support for first nations to use broadband and ict for community-controlled service delivery in a holistic manner. policies to support a first mile approach include supporting community members to use these technologies effectively and ensuring they have the capacity to do so (mcmahon et al., 2010). services and broadband infrastructure kitigan zibi anishinabeg first nation the current study considers these larger historical, political, economic, cultural, and social elements in the context of the research literature. the research looks to explain the development of the broadband communication infrastructure in kitigan zibi anishinabeg first nation and how the community is using this infrastructure to deliver local services and engage with community members. the paper highlights some of the community's challenges and discusses some ways forward. in the discussion, we consider the afn's e-community model in more detail and explore ways that kitigan zibi can apply it when developing their own local broadband strategy (whiteduck, 2010). kitigan zibi anishinabeg first nation is unceded territoryi in a rural region of quebec two hours by road north of ottawa. kitigan zibi is the largest algonquin community in canada, both in size (184 square kilometres) and population (2,988 registered members in september 2012, of which 1,560 live in the kitigan zibi community). the community's published story since time immemorial describes the history of the community, including the anishinabe ancestors, the first contact with europeans and the impact of the colonial regimes (kitigan zibi education council, 2004). since 1980, kitigan zibi has successfully supported community members to take ownership of service development and delivery, and today kitigan zibi is recognized as a leader for their community services. among the community's many services and programs are: an elementary and secondary school, a day-care centre, a cultural centre, a community hall, a community radio station, a health centre, a local police force, a youth centre and others. their community services are led and staffed by fully trained and qualified community members. kitigan zibi is a member of the first nations education council (fnec), a regional organization responsible among other program areas for technology development in member communities. in 2007 fnec proposed the creation of a fibre optic installation program to increase the effectiveness and range of its network. by 2009 fnec had raised the funds required to develop local (internal) fibre networks in eight first nations, including kitigan zibi (whiteduck & beaton, 2014). the fibre build in the kitigan zibi community extended the high-capacity network to the band office, the health centre and police station, the community primary and secondary school, the community training centre and the cultural centre. as computers, broadband communication networks, and internet and cellular services have become available in kitigan zibi, the service sectors have been integrating these technologies with a goal of improving services for and communications with community members. at the same time, and similar to first nations across the country, kitigan zibi faces challenges in their efforts to remain innovative and plan for future delivery of services using technology. the kitigan zibi community owns the local broadband infrastructure that supports the development and enhancement of its local services. in this study, we argue that local ownership, control, and management of the local broadband communication infrastructure is critical to support first nations in their delivery and use of community services now and into the future. study methodology for our collaborative study, we conducted and undertook a qualitative analysis of interviews with community services staff in kitigan zibi anishinabeg. the interviews explored questions of technology and community, including their current successes, challenges, and future potential. kitigan zibi is developing a strategy to integrate communication infrastructure and ict into services that promote community, economic, social, cultural, and intellectual development. the discussion focuses on how the community can integrate a holistic "e-community" approach into its strategy. the kitigan zibi study is part of a larger first nations innovation (http://fn-innovation-pn.com) research project in the quebec, ontario and the atlantic regions. the current study is a collaboration between the university of new brunswick, kitigan zibi first nation, and the first nation education council; the authors include staff from the three collaborators. kitigan zibi worked with the visiting researchers to define and carry out the study, community members were welcoming and informative, and research partner fnec provided logistical support, ideas and technical expertise. researchers from the university of new brunswick visited kitigan zibi in june and august 2011 and completed 14 interviews with community service providers. the interview transcripts were coded and subjected to a basic thematic analysis. community co-authors and partners contributed additional information and perspectives. this approach provided a clear picture of the development of community services in kitigan zibi, as well as how the community is using its communication infrastructure for service delivery. based on these findings, a further analysis considered the e-community model and some of the opportunities and challenges for the future. the research protocols follow the ethical guidelines for doing research with first nations communities outlined in the federal tri-council policy statement on research ethics (cihr, 2010). research findings: community services and broadband infrastructure the research findings describe the community's use of ict to deliver services in three core service areas education and culture, health, and policing and security. in addition to these three areas, kitigan zibi provides many services and activities using ict that are not discussed in this current study, including local administration where ict is very heavily used. ict in education and cultural services kitigan zibi's education sector administers 21 programs delivered through the primary and secondary schools, junior and senior kindergarten, special education service, and cultural centre. the community emphasizes the importance of educating young people so they gain the necessary skills to pursue post-secondary education and further their goals, including entering the labour force. assistance includes support for community members through their post-secondary program for students in universities and colleges in canada and the united states. one service provider explained: "we offer tuition, living allowances, books and travel funding if they meet the criteria of our post-secondary policy. so we support about 145 students in that program" (community member). the various components of the education sector use ict in numerous ways to deliver services. kitigan zibi kikinamadinan (high school and elementary) takes an innovative approach to teaching and learning by integrating ict into the classroom (lockhart, tenasco, whiteduck, & o'donnell, 2014). educators use email on a daily basis. in the classrooms they and the students use smart boards (electronic, internet-linked whiteboards), e-learning programs, various multimedia programs, videos, laptops and ipads. in addition, ict is also used in after-school programs, summer programs, and projects such as the indigenous culture and media innovations (icmi) program. wazoson, the community daycare and after school program, is dedicated to offering exceptional service to kitigan zibi and other first nation families. the staff uses ict to communicate with parents and the community through email, telephone, and the community online newsletter. the interviews identified an ongoing need for training and support of the education sector staff to stay up-to-date with technology developments. the community's cultural centre displays kitigan zibi culture and heritage within the building, which also serves as a venue for community activities and gatherings. ict is deployed in a variety of ways by staff and the community at large within this centre. staff communicate with one another and other sectors via email, use the community online newsletter and facebook to advertise events, and create detailed exhibits with the help of web searches and heritage videos. the centre is also one of many locations in the community with a videoconferencing unit available for meetings and events this facility allows community members to participate in gatherings outside their rural environment and to connect with people in distant locations for live audio-visual exchange of information. ict in health services kitigan zibi administers their own health services through various programs. these include environmental health and social services; community health nursing; home and community care programs; mental health counseling; substance abuse addictions counseling; medical transportation; and a medical clinic. all of these services and activities make extensive use of ict, notably for their (online) reporting functions for which the technology is essential to daily operations. kitigan zibi's health centre is well established and, being a rural community, brings doctors in three times weekly to consult with community members and support health and wellness. the health centre includes staff trained in assisting the older population with activities of daily living, three addictions counselors available to help community members, and two youth workers trained in youth protection. all the health sector staff, apart from the doctors who visit the community, are members of kitigan zibi anishinabeg first nation. one issue faced by kitigan zibi and all other small communities is that because of the interconnectedness of kitigan zibi, there can be challenges to working in sensitive areas such as palliative care and child protection because of privacy concerns. even considering these challenges, the community sees great value in their own members administering their services and so it supports community members to obtain the necessary qualifications. in the workplace, health service providers are using mobile phones, computers, email, videoconferencing, and other technologies to facilitate their everyday work. service providers noted that texting has improved the way co-workers can communicate with one another, making it more efficient. the community nurses and medical transportation drivers communicate with one another and the main centre via mobile phones provided by the community. this increases availability while ensuring that these service providers are accessible at all times if they need to be reached immediately. the limited cell service in some parts of the community, can create challenges for health service delivery using mobile technologies who on occasion may be out of range. technology is most often used for reporting since the health sector obtains funding support from different levels of government such as health canada and the department of aboriginal affairs and northern development canada, all requiring electronic delivery of reports. health sector staff also use the internet for communicating with referral services for clients. videoconferencing allows health centre staff members to communicate and participate in meetings with different levels of government as well as other health services in other algonquin communities. the videoconferencing units in the health centre are also available to community members who reserve them for meetings. there are challenges with using videoconferencing, which include, but are not limited to, connection problems. one health service staff member explained: "we rely on our techs to help us explain what's going on with our connections and we're getting different explanations as to why problems are happening and, honestly, we don't know. we don't know who is right, what is going on" (service provider). the service providers working in the health sector understand that they must continue to evolve their technology and how they use it including for outreach to the younger generations in an efficient way. the community website is one place where updates and news regarding their services can be posted and as well there are other online forums such as facebook where information can be shared. one service provider explained the different techniques required for the dissemination of information to the community: "... when we're doing our programming, we have to keep that in mind that they [the older generation] like gathering and talking to each other and sharing information that way, whereas if you're trying to communicate with the younger generation then you have to do the facebook thing or you have to do the social networking or the internet thing, you know" (service provider) ict in policing and security services the eight officers that make up the kitigan zibi police force are all long time members of the community. ict is integrated into their everyday operations since they use it to communicate with one another, other police forces, the community, and the world at large. due to their position, it is important for officers to be available at all times. advances in mobile technologies have done much to increase their ability to respond to the community. officers always have their cell phones with them, ready to react quickly to calls. texting, for its convenience and better security, has taken the place of voice calls. officers communicate quickly with one another via text messaging. social networking sites such as facebook have also had an impact on the services that the kitigan zibi police force delivers. given the size of the community, everyone knows everyone else and accessing information about people is less difficult, now that people post so many things about themselves online. referring to facebook, one officer mentioned: "we use it in the investigations. certain issues we have to deal with here in the office like, for instance, we do a lot of drug work so we access information on people through facebook. if we have targets, well, we know what they're doing, who their friends are, etc... it's a real good investigative aid. that's part and parcel of what the positive things for us here at the police station" (police officer) the police force also makes use of internet databases specifically designed for police departments in canada. they are able to access information about individuals and share this information with other departments across the country. the challenges faced by the policing sector involve connectivity and adaptation. one officer mentioned that constantly having access to a signal on their phone was important but was not always possible depending on their local location. kitigan zibi covers a large geographical area , and within the community boundaries some homes and roads are relatively isolated and, as a consequence, outside of cell phone range. another challenge experienced by officers is keeping up with the quickly evolving technologies. using these technologies has obviously been a benefit as it has increased the department's efficiency in responding to situations and pursuing investigations. discussion: an e-community approach and strategic future service development the following discussion considers the study findings in light of the e-community model developed and supported by the assembly of first nations (whiteduck, 2010). the guiding question is: how can kitigan zibi integrate the e-community approach in the strategic plan for sustainable local broadband communication infrastructure? capacity development as described earlier, the afn's e-community ict model builds upon a common network model employed by canadian governments, institutions, companies, and corporations (whiteduck, 2010). following the common network model, first nations require capacity development resources for new and existing infrastructure development, institutional development, and operations and management that are stable and predictable. this includes capital funds to build administrative infrastructure and support ongoing operations and maintenance of the networks. the funding formula needs to be holistic and coordinated among all the community's program areas. the traditional services silo approach to broadband development is not sustainable. broadband communication infrastructure is, and needs to be seen and supported as, the cross-sector enabler for all program and service delivery. currently the different service silos health, education, policing each have their own budget for broadband and ict; these could be reviewed to identify resources for sustainable community-level ict. one option would be to create broadband communication infrastructure as a new service area, staffed in a manner similar to other core service areas and with a vision for innovation, operational excellence and user satisfaction. another option would be for the different service sectors to pool together their funding for ict development and support and work toward a more integrated approach. it is important to underline that the first nations e-community approach is only a high-level model and that so far first nations including kitigan zibi have not had any access to funding that would support their development of these coordinated, integrated and strategic approaches to ict use. in contrast, all levels of government in the canadian context federal, provincial / territorial and municipal have resources to develop strategic and consolidated approaches to ict development, and they are able to use public funds to contract the private sector to support their strategic ict development. connectivity the study clearly demonstrates that broadband infrastructure and ict are heavily integrated into community service delivery in kitigan zibi first nation. according to the e-community model, future levels of service will depend on the community's ability to manage and transfer information and will need to be based on adaptable, scalable, sustainable, and affordable digital communication systems. the community is still developing its connectivity and many challenges remain in achieving the goal othat all community homes have an adequate internet connection and the ability to use it effectively. one challenge is ensuring that all homes can access the internet currently some homes are outside of coverage of community internet services. an additional challenge is cost. some families must make a choice between getting an internet connection and paying for other household expenses. the e-connectivity model supports first nations ownership and control of its local infrastructure, including the ownership of network circuits. this would allow first nations to ensure a guaranteed bandwidth. with bandwidth guarantees, kitigan zibi will be able to control the flow of data and information on its local networks. it will also be able to determine how the available resources are managed and used by the different service areas, in the same way that hospitals, universities, and other public institutions manage their own bandwidths. for example, the community would manage the network so that an e-health application, such as a doctor consult, will be given priority support over downloading a music file. in particular, the study clearly found a need for improved cellular and mobile connectivity. both health and policing services require reliable mobile services with good connectivity throughout the territory. anything less will mean inequitable services that disadvantage community members living in the most rural areas of the territory. following the e-community model would mean that kitigan zibi would have managed broadband circuits that enable the community to administer its own data, applications, and services. it would have the capacity to assess and select it solutions that are scalable, available, sustainable, and have the capacity required. for example, the model will allow the community to develop local cellular services in currently underserved areas of the territory. ict human resources development leading up to the latest developments is the community's ongoing focus since 1980 to support community members in their post-secondary education and training. many community members leave to pursue further education primarily to ottawa and then return to contribute their skills to the growth of kitigan zibi. in many cases they are then qualified to be community service sector staff working in all the sectors including education, health, policing and security among others. almost all the kitigan zibi community sector staff are lifelong members of the community. kitigan zibi has obviously been successful at training, hiring, and retaining community members for these highly skilled roles. it is these community members who are integrating broadband networks and applications into community service delivery. the e-community model recognizes that community it specialists and information management training are required to support the local and regional systems. a coordinated development strategy for local ict capacity building will support first nations and their regional organizations with the resources for local education and application development. the research clearly identified an ongoing need for training community services staff in all three sectors included in the study. included in the training would be elements of more streamlined ways of explaining technical ict issues to health centre staff in particular. ongoing training is a cross-sectoral need. one kitigan zibi service manager interviewed for this study explained: "there's a lot of technology out there… learning how to use it properly, i think, is a challenge and having time to get your personnel to get the training that's required. i think that's the challenge. often, there are so many things happening in a day you can rarely set off enough time on the side to really get caught up on some of this stuff. but training is crucial; ongoing training is crucial to keep up with changing technology" (service provider) all staffing levels and roles will need to be included in the training; the skills, contributions and training needs of administrative staff are complementary to those of program managers and all service delivery staff. training plans will need to be tailored to the different staff needs. training and awareness could focus on developing a culture of community technology innovation in all service areas and programs. at the same time, connectivity and extensive use of ict can be both a friend and an enemy, especially considering the need to maintain a healthy work-life balance. ict allows more immediate contact with people, increasing the time pressures that staff experience. staff members need to find a necessary balance so that their work life does not make them disconnected from their lives at home. clearly there are also differences among community members in their level of ability to use ict effectively the most obvious being the age gap, with the community youth being much more active users of technology than older community members. information management additional investments are also required for local information management systems, document management, and e-reporting that ensure the principles of ocap ownership, control, access, and possession (schnarch, 2004) are protected. the e-community model includes the capacity to manage data and information. this includes knowing how to develop locally and regionally managed ict systems to create, build, expand and maintain these communications infrastructure supporting community service delivery. an appropriate approach is support for first nation information planning, accountability, and tool design (whiteduck, 2010). a holistic approach suggests that kitigan zibi's local broadband infrastructure strategy will include analysis of current and future local and regional economic data, training requirements and delivery milestones, local security and emergency information requirements, and the systems to support delivery and management of information in various service areas education, health and so on and appropriate data storage and controls. all these are from the e-community model (whiteduck, 2010). partnerships many first nations have developed solid and innovative partnering arrangements with the private sector and government to develop local and regional e-community opportunities. the e-community strategy supports local innovation through these partnerships. innovation is happening and needs to be supported in many areas, such as support for first nations to negotiate arrangements that leverage national economies of scale, such as large educational software purchases for first nations schools (whiteduck, 2010). the e-community strategy also calls for national research partnerships. the research can ensure that local and regional first nation authorities receive the recognition needed to establish these relationships with the appropriate partners (whiteduck, 2010). the kitigan zibi community is a partner on several large research projects related to technologies and other topics of interest to the community. conclusions our objective for this study has been to explain how the broadband communication infrastructure in kitigan zibi anisinabeg first nation supports the development, delivery and enhancement of local services and how the services and infrastructure can be sustained through a strategic plan that considers the e-community model. the analysis includes the importance of maintaining a focus on the community ownership of its local infrastructure and why ownership and control is critical to the support of services at the community level. similar to other first nations across the country, kitigan zibi faces constant funding challenges to maintain and develop its infrastructure and service areas using ict. staff described a year-to-year struggle, not knowing what level of funding will be available for ict development and spending. government policies related to ict in first nations are undeveloped or non-existent and so it is very difficult to obtain the funding required to provide appropriate it services in the community. the study suggests that the funding available for ict development, training, support and ongoing maintenance is inadequate. this is experienced in all sectors. (in health for example, the funding available per capita in kitigan zibi first nation is lower than that provided to the local health centre (clsc) in a neighbouring town.) the current lack of a federal plan for supporting infrastructure development in rural and remote communities means that accessing stable funding sources will be a challenge for kitigan zibi. to ensure sustainability, growth and further innovation in its delivery of community services, kitigan zibi will need ongoing revenue to develop and maintain its broadband communications infrastructure. following on from the research by kirmayer and colleagues (2009), broadband communication infrastructure and ict applications can be considered measures of community resilience. infrastructure is a cross-sector enabler supporting all areas of community communications and service delivery. our findings support the perspective that community autonomy and control over the delivery of services in this case education, health and policing can be supported by the community's use of broadband networks and tools. the culturally appropriate services delivered using broadband communications are supporting community members, families and community institutions. with the right support and strategic approaches, kitigan zibi anishinabeg will no doubt be able to continue to expand as a leader in the digital economy and society and serve as an example of a small autonomous community using its broadband communication infrastructure strategically in culturally-appropriate ways. by focusing on the needs of their community members and taking a holistic strategic approach to broadband, kitigan zibi is asserting its community-oriented values. first nations such as kitigan zibi are models of innovative communities, making the best strategic use of scarce resources to build robust and sustainable infrastructure and applications that meet the needs of the community members. one community member interviewed for this study pointed out that these technologies are an important component of the future development of kitigan zibi because the community: ...would like to remain sort of cutting edge of what's happening out there. we don't want to be 5 or 10 years behind in terms of what's out there. we want our students to leave our system fully aware of as much technology as possible when they go on to vocational programs or postsecondary programs. it's part of giving them the tools they need to be successful if and when they choose to leave kitigan zibi.(kitigan zibi community member) to emphasize the general feeling that community members who took part in this research have about the importance of technology for community advancement, we can draw upon an inspiring message from a community member: ...i could probably only speak to the rather strong sense that i have of ... it's woven its way into the fabric of the community, and it's considered ... i'm going to use the word essential. it's really .. no longer a question of just a tool, it's a question of lifestyle, both in the home and academically… i'm going to say that broadband is a right, it's not a privilege. and it's essential. (kitigan zibi community member) the kitigan zibi first nation is passionate about ensuring that community members have all the technology required to take advantage of opportunities to improve their lives. there are many innovative ways that the community would like to use technology in the future, such as to support native language development and for economic development and the establishment of more online businesses. kitigan zibi's local broadband infrastructure is a cross-sector enabler that provides the necessary foundation for many local community services and processes. the kitigan zibi community has integrated many broadband applications into its community service delivery and communications, and the community is now working to develop its strategic plan for the local fibre infrastructure that it owns. kitigan zibi first nation is a vibrant community that will need to ensure its communication infrastructure meets the community's growing needs. a strategic plan could identify areas of growth and development to take advantage of future technology innovation. first nations in canada are increasingly seen as leaders in broadband development and appropriate ict use (gratton & o'donnell, 2011: o'donnell, johnson, kakepetum-schultz, burton, whiteduck, mason, beaton, mcmahon & gibson, 2013; o'donnell, kakekaspan, beaton, walmark, mason, & mak, 2011). there are many ways these leadership activities can be encouraged and sustained. first nations can provide examples for rural and remote communities everywhere for developing sustainable local broadband infrastructure and services. acknowledgements the researchers extend a special note of appreciation to kitigan zibi first nation for welcoming us into their community, showing us some of their achievements, and allowing us to conduct this research in collaboration with them. thank you to chief gilbert whiteduck and members of the community leadership for accepting our project and working with us to complete it. a special thanks to our community liaison, anita tenasco and our research partner tim whiteduck for coordinating our visits and offering continuing support throughout the entire project. we would also like to thank all the kitigan zibi community members and residents who participated in this study and shared their experiences with us. those who consented to be named are: jean-guy whiteduck, keith whiteduck, judy cote, warren mcgregor, cheryl tenasco-whiteduck, and anita tenasco. the kitigan zibi study was conducted as part of the first nations innovation (fni) research project (http://fn-innovation-pn.com). the fni project is funded by the social sciences and humanities research council of canada (sshrc), with in-kind contributions from the project partners: keewaytinook okimakanak (http://www.knet.ca), the first nations education council (http://www.cepn-fnec.com), atlantic canada's first nation help desk / mi'kmaw kina'matnewey (http://www.firstnationhelp.com) and the university of new brunswick (http://www.unb.ca).the fni project works closely with the first mile project (http://firstmile.ca). endnotes i unceeded means that the algonquin people never gave up their territory or signed a treaty to share the land, and so it remains algonquin territory. references alfred, t. 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(2009) community resilience: models, metaphors and measures. journal of aboriginal health, 5(1), 62-117. kitigan zibi education council (2004) since time immemorial: "our story" the story of the kitigan zibi anishinabeg. anishinabe printing: maniwaki. lockhart, e., tenasco, a., whiteduck, t. & o'donnell, s. (2014) information and communication technology for education in an algonquin first nation in quebec. journal of community informatics, 10(2). mcmahon, r., o'donnell, s., smith, r., woodman simmonds, j. & walmark, b. (2010) putting the 'last-mile' first: re-framing broadband development in first nations and inuit communities. vancouver: centre for policy research on science and technology (cprost), simon fraser university, december. url: http://www.sfu.ca/cprost/tacs.html o'donnell, s., johnson, l., kakepetum-schultz, t., burton, k., whiteduck, t., mason, r., beaton, b., mcmahon, r. & gibson, k. (2013) videoconferencing for first nations community-controlled education, health and development. electronic journal of communication, 23(1&2). o'donnell, s., kakekaspan, g., beaton, b., walmark, b., mason, r. & mak, m. (2011). a new remote community-owned wireless communication service: fort severn first nation builds their local cellular system with keewaytinook mobile. canadian journal of communication, 36(4), 663-673. royal commission on aboriginal peoples (1996). people to people, nation to nation: highlights from the report of the royal commission on aboriginal peoples. ottawa: minister of supply and services canada. schnarch, b. (2004) ownership, control, access, and possession (ocap) or self-determination applied to research: a critical analysis of contemporary first nations research and some options for first nations communities. journal of aboriginal health, 1(1), 80-95. tousignant, m. & sioui, n. (2009) resilience and aboriginal communities in crises: theories and interventions. journal of aboriginal health , 5(1), 43-61. united nations (2007) united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. adopted by general assembly resolution 61/295 on 13 september 2007. whiteduck, t. & beaton, b. (2014) building first nation owned and managed fibre networks across quebec. journal of community informatics. whiteduck, j. (2010) building the first nation e-community. in j. p. white, j. peters, d. beavon, & p. dinsdale (eds), aboriginal policy research vi: learning, technology and traditions (pp.95-103). toronto: thompson educational publishing. digital technology access and use among socially and economically disadvantaged groups in south australia lareen newman1, katherine biedrzycki2, fran baum3 senior research fellow, southgate institute for health society and equity, flinders university, south australia, australia. email: lareen.newman@flinders.edu.au research associate, southgate institute for health society and equity, flinders university, south australia, australia. director, southgate institute for health society and equity, flinders university, south australia, australia. introduction this paper analyses the digital technology experiences of socioeconomically disadvantaged groups in australia. it reports on a qualitative study which explored how these groups access and use information and communication technologies (icts), specifically computers, internet and mobile phones. the ability to access digital information and communication networks (in particular via the internet and mobile phones) is increasingly seen as vital to full citizen participation in the economic, social, educational, political and cultural life of modern society (lee, markotsis & weir, 2002; kvasny, kranich & schement, 2006; vinson, 2007). this is particularly so as the prevalence of digital access and use across populations is increasing rapidly, and as businesses and government move to greater ict-mediated provision of services, support and information. in 2010 the australian federal communications minister even saw internet broadband access as becoming the fourth essential utility after water, gas and electricity (conroy, 2008), while huttner (2008) suggests that within the space of ten years a world without the internet has become as unthinkable for many people as a world without telephones. however, data on ict access show that a good proportion of populations even within the developed world still have limited or non-existent access and opportunities for use. digital access in australia data for 2007-08 shows that 75% of australian households have access to a home computer (compared with 44% in 1998), while home internet access of all types (dial-up, broadband, etc) has increased fourfold to 67% (up from 16% in 1998) (australian bureau of statistics (abs), 2008a), yet, only half of all australian households have a broadband internet connection (abs, 2008a). at the same time, mobile phone access increased rapidly in only six years from 24% of australian households in 1996, to 72% in 2002 (abs, 2007a), and with 82% of australians aged 14 or older using a mobile phone in 2006 (department of broadband, communications & the digital economy, 2008). however, the distribution of digital technology access is not even across the australian population and the socio-economic characteristics of households in particular continue to influence the rate of computer, internet and broadband connectivity. households less likely to be connected are those with lower household incomes, those with no children under 15 years, and those outside of major metropolitan areas (abs, 2008a). a particular difference is recorded between households with an annual income of aus $120,000 (of whom 81% had broadband access) compared to only 38% of households with incomes less than aus $40,000 (abs, 2008a; the median australian household income at the 2006 census being aus$21,000 to aus$31,000: abs, 2007b). socioeconomic differentials in digital ict access are also evident in state comparisons. in 2006-07 some australian states lagged well behind the national averages, with south australia, for example, having only 57% of households with computer and internet access compared to 76% of households in the australian capital territory (home to australia’s capital city of canberra, many federal government agencies, and with higher than average proportion of its population in higher socio-economic groups) (abs, 2007c). the same differential exists for broadband internet connection (42% and 68% respectively) (abs, 2008a). australia also records an unequal distribution in household digital technology connection within states, which again generally reflects socioeconomic differences. at the 2006 census for example, 41% of households in the less-advantaged northern adelaide metropolitan area of south australia reported no internet connection, compared with only 33% of households in the more-advantaged areas of eastern adelaide (glover, hetzel, glover, tennant & page, 2006). similar differences exist in regional/remote areas, with 70% of households in the remote aboriginal anangu pitjantjatjara yankunytjatjara (apy) lands being without home internet compared to only 16% in the remote mining township of roxby downs (2006 australian census, in glover et al. 2006). this unequal distribution of digital technology access and use between different groups in society has been named “the digital divide” (parsons & hick, 2008). however, this term implies a dichotomy of technology “haves and have nots” (see gurstein 2003 for a full discussion of the many dimensions along which the divide can occur). although those with lower socio-economic status are generally the least likely to access and use digital technologies (abs, 2008a; diaz et al., 2002; fogel, 2003; goslee, 1998; notley & foth, 2008), quantitative data highlight that in south australia the distribution of digital access clearly follows the socioeconomic gradient. thus figure 1 shows that a higher percentage of households in each quintile are without home internet as socioeconomic status (ses) declines. the importance of studying gradients rather than just a dichotomous divide has been emphasised by the world health organisation’s commission on the social determinants of health (csdh, 2008). we therefore draw on the public health literature to describe the socioeconomic differences in digital access and use as a digital gradient across the whole population, rather than simply a divide between those connected digitally and those not connected. figure 1: proportion of south australian households without home internet, 2006. (source: glover et al. 2006, based on abs 2006 census of population & housing.) national data already shows the potential for the digital gradient to steepen and in turn affect access to other opportunities, including financial savings. for example, by 2006-07, just over half (53%) of the 9.9 million australians using the internet at home reported using it for education or study, 52% used it for work related purposes, and 61% used it to buy goods or services for private use (abs, 2008b). online transactions can save travel and queuing time as well as travel costs and fees (department of communication information technology & the arts, 2001), all of which may be particularly beneficial for those already disadvantaged by lower incomes, lower physical mobility or lack of transport. even in metropolitan areas where the need to overcome distance may be less obvious than in rural/remote areas, digital icts can still benefit health by overcoming geographical and social barriers to accessing information and services. goslee (1998) also argues that lack of access to computers and affordable internet services could leave lower-income families cut off from work-related opportunities. government and businesses are increasingly moving to ict-mediated strategies to interact with consumers on health care, social security, commerce and other services, and to disseminate information. the proliferation of e-government could also exacerbate disadvantage, considering that many people of lower-socio-economic background are more likely to be accessing services and supports that are publicly funded. the increasing pervasiveness of e-government is shown in increased digital contact between citizens and government. for example in 2007, 59% of australians contacted government at least once over the internet and for a quarter this was the main contact method (australian government information management office, 2007). by 2006 increasing proportions of australians were also responding to the government and business shift to online service and information provision by using the internet to access government information and lodge tax returns (abs, 2007e). furthermore, the south australian state government has sought efficiency gains by transforming government service delivery through encouraging customers to use on-line, self-service modes (government of south australia, 2008). the close correlation between the digital, socioeconomic and health gradient is also cause for concern. the socioeconomic health gradient has long been evidenced in the epidemiological and medical literature, where research consistently finds that those in disadvantaged areas and groups (including indigenous or first nations peoples) who are lower down the social gradient face greater risk of chronic disease and general health disadvantage than their more advantaged and non-indigenous counterparts (see e.g. banks et al., 2006; baum, 2008; hofrichter, 2003; mackenbach, 2005). the digital gradient is quite likely to extenuate socio-economic differences and in turn this double jeopardy will contribute to differential health outcomes. this effect will almost certainly intensify as access to an increasing amount of information and resources that help people get on in life are differentially available to those with good digital ict access. the australian federal government has a national e-health strategy (department of health & ageing, 2008) which aims to increase the amount of consumer-provider interaction and consumer-consumer interaction via digital icts, yet which takes no obvious account of the implications of the digital gradient in access and use among consumers and says nothing about the need to consider equity of access and the unequal distribution of resources and capabilities required to access icts (newman, baum & biedrzycki, 2009). despite quantitative data clearly showing inequities in digital access by socioeconomic variables, to date there has been little research in australia to understand why ict access and use are lower in groups of lower socioeconomic status (ses) and little research examining the experiences of using, or trying to access, ict from the perspective of people within these groups. mclaren and zappala (2002) point out that in australia we know little about the factors associated with access and use of ict among different status groups. furthermore, notley and foth (2008) suggest that researchers need to consider more than just the technical issues of access and use and also explore social, cultural and motivational issues, including the interplay with income levels, digital literacy and perceived need. others argue an additional need to consider the relevance, appropriateness, and awareness of certain icts and their potential benefits, differing levels of adoptive behaviour, and the role of social networks as facilitators to ict access and use (australian communications &  media authority (acma), 2007; gilbert, masucci, homko, & bove, 2008; gilmour, 2007; kvasny & keil, 2006). in particular, there are concerns that as access and use of digital icts become central to being able to participate fully in various spheres of society, if those in more-advantaged groups continue to have better digital access, this could leave those in less-advantaged groups even less advantaged than before, hence widening the gap in digital access and use  (boese & scutella, 2006; lee, markotsis & weir, 2002; vinson, 2007) and, just as importantly, in turn widening the gap in access to other life opportunities which are afforded by icts. this paper reports on selected findings from a qualitative study conducted in 2008 in metropolitan south australia among lower-income and disadvantaged groups. the study investigated ways in which access to, and use of, digital technologies operate as determinants of health and wellbeing, and how increased access and use could be supported for these groups, when participants saw that as desirable. methodology the research reported in this paper was conducted as part of the health in all policies health lens analysis of the south australian state plan target to increase broadband usage, a project undertaken jointly by the researchers with two state government agencies: the health in all policies unit at the south australian department of health, and the information economy directorate at the department of further education, employment, education, science & technology (see golder, newman, biedrzycki & baum, 2010 for more details). the empirical research component of the project used six focus group discussions conducted between august and november 2008 in five outer-suburban and one inner-city area of adelaide (the capital city of south australia home to 73% of the state’s population: abs, 2008b). focus groups allow for an initial grounded exploration of issues through interactive discussion and are particularly valuable for researching with people from lower status backgrounds or “vulnerable” groups because they give a “voice” to the research participants and allow them to define what is relevant and important to understand their experiences (liamputtong, 2007:106; liamputtong & ezzy, 2005:96-97). the metropolitan focus was chosen because there is already existing research and programs on how to support digital technology use in rural/remote australia. to maximise chances of recruiting people from lower socio-economic and disadvantaged groups, recruitment assistance was sought from individuals working in local communities and service organisations within the researchers’ networks, with an emphasis on community workers known to have trusting relationships with lower status groups. the settings and providers were located in areas identified by glover et al. (2006) and abs (2002) as being of lower socio-economic status according to education level, income and occupation group. recruitment was focussed in the 25 to 55 year age range – the main family formation and working age group since there is already some australian focus on researching digital technologies with disadvantaged youth (see e.g. blanchard, metcalf & burns, 2007) and on older culturally diverse communities (see e.g. goodall, ward & newman, 2010). the six focus groups, with a total of 55 participants, were: one women-specific community support group (8 participants; “women’s group”) one men-specific community support group (7 participants; “men’s group”) one work/unemployment support group (10 participants; “work group”) one group living in community rental housing provided at an affordable price to people on low incomes and/or at risk of homelessness (5 participants; “housing group”) one aboriginal group (15 participants; “aboriginal group”) one african-born recent-refugee group (10 participants; “refugee group”) ln and kb conducted the focus groups and used the same schedule of questions for each group, with additional areas explored as raised by participants. the question schedule was developed from a literature review, questions from previous digital surveys (e.g. acma, 2007; blanchard, metcalf & burns, 2007; lee, markotsis & weir, 2002), and discussion with the research reference group. areas of questioning covered by the schedule that are relevant to this paper were: the icts people were using (or not using); where people had access to these technologies; how people originally learned to use various technologies; perceived facilitators and barriers (social, cultural, economic, etc); for the refugee group who were not proficient in english, the researchers’ questions and participants’ responses were interpreted into the group’s native language by an accredited and experienced interpreter who was known and trusted by the group, and participants’ responses were interpreted back into english. focus group discussions were tape-recorded verbatim and transcriptions were analysed for content and themes (although for the refugee group, only the english part of the discussion was transcribed). each participant was thanked for their participation with a free lunch preceding the group discussion and an aus$30 shopping voucher. at the end of each discussion the participants were also asked to complete a short survey form to supply information on their demographic background and ict use. for the refugee group the survey form was translated into their native language. the researchers and community workers provided some assistance to a small number of participants to complete the forms due to limited reading/writing skills. six of the 55 participants declined to complete the survey form. the research project was approved by the social & behavioural research ethics committee at flinders university. results socioeconomic and demographic profile of focus group participants the survey forms confirmed that participants were more socially and economically disadvantaged than the state population as a whole, with greater proportions living in rental housing, having lower household incomes and living with perceived financial strain, having limited education and lower level occupations (see figure 2). the demographic data also showed that the majority were in the intended age range of 25-54 years. access to digital icts this section describes whether or not icts were available to people. later sections cover the very different issue of actually using icts. participants accessed technologies in a variety of ways: directly through personal ownership, indirectly through another’s ownership (e.g. friend, family member), or indirectly through free or paid public access (e.g. library, internet café). some had access to a wide variety of technologies through personal or household ownership, including the latest models with many advanced functions. others owned older technologies or ones with minimal functions, and some owned very few: i have a mobile phone, just a basic one. it doesn’t have internet or anything on it. computer with internet it’s only dial-up digital camera, digital set top box for the tv (women’s group). [i have] mobile phone, digital camera, my computer runs dual screen monitors with internet. we have voip internet phone, three laptops, gprs system for the car, a media centre that runs on our tv network. and then the wii game console which was also connected to the network… i do have an it tech as a partner though, so he does contribute a lot (women’s group). i use a mobile phone and that’s about it (employment group). i haven’t even got a mobile [phone]… the only digital thing i’ve got in the house is a microwave [oven] (aboriginal group). socioeconomic almost all resided in postcode areas of lower socioeconomic status three quarters were living in rental housing (public/private); few were buying or owned their own home three quarters had a household income equals to, or less, than the state average two-thirds reported living with some degree of perceived financial strain two-fifths were educated to only year 11 or less (12 years of schooling or less) most were in lower level occupation groups ten percent were unemployed (double the state average of 5.2% in october 2008: abs 2008c) demographic three quarters were in the intended age range of 25-54 two-thirds were female two-thirds were born in australia and one-sixth in africa over a quarter were aboriginal australians (compared to less than 2% of the state population: abs 2007d) one in ten was a sole parent with children over half had children under 18 living in their home at least some of the time three quarters felt they spoke english very well two-fifths spoke a language other than english at home figure 2: socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of study participants the mobile phone was the most commonly owned digital technology. other technologies owned included other computer equipment (printer, scanner, copier, fax), television equipment (hard-disk recorder, dvd player, digital set-top box, video camera), stand-alone and internet-connected gaming equipment (x-box 360, playstation 2, nintendo), and music-related equipment (mp3 player, ipod, surround sound system). i) phone access (mobiles, landlines and public payphones) the large majority owned their own mobile phone, while a few used a friend’s or family member’s phone, and only two had no mobile phone use. overall just over a quarter had no landline phone, although half the aboriginal respondents had no landline. this suggests that landline-substitution could be more common in lower-income groups. in our study, landline-substitution mainly occurred due to people’s desire to minimise financial outlay for more than one phone connection: i have two mobiles. no landline for 8 years (women’s group). a greater proportion of those without a landline phone were in public or private rental housing, while none of those buying/owning their own home were without a landline phone: many years ago i had the phone in my name [in a share house] and everyone moved out and didn’t pay me. so now, yeah, i’m paying it [debt] off very slowly and it’s going to take some time (housing group). a few had access to the internet on their mobile phone but hardly any used this function, either because they felt it was too expensive or because they were on a prepaid option which did not allow internet access (rather than a more expensive plan which often did provide mobile internet, but this could also depend on having a good credit rating, which some did not have):1 i tried to use [internet on my mobile phone] but i’m on 3 network and they don’t let you use the internet when you’re on prepaid, you have to have a plan… and i won’t go on a plan (employment group). while everyone who answered the survey had some phone access and use, three had no home landline and their only access was via a friend or family member’s phone. some still used a public payphone to minimise or have control over financial costs, or as an alternative if their mobile was not working: i will not buy credit for my phone ever, for any reasons whatsoever. i’ll go to the phone box if i have to ring someone, i’ll send text from the phone box (housing group). having both a home landline and mobile phone enabled some to make the best use of each, with affordable local contact via their mobile and affordable distant or overseas calls on their landline. a landline also allowed other people to call them more cheaply than calling to a mobile phone: we don’t make many calls out but we have our landline so people can call us… otherwise they can’t afford to talk for ten minutes on a mobile call (women’s group). the two people without a mobile phone offered a range of reasons for their non-use, including “not needing” one, “not being interested”, “not having the skills”, “too expensive”, and “my phone is too old”. ii) computer access respondents had a variety of ways to access computers, including in completely private spaces (home or work), semi-private spaces (areas shared with known others e.g. college computer room), or completely public spaces (area shared with predominantly unknown others e.g. a library). a small proportion had no computer available anywhere. around two-thirds had personal or household ownership of a home computer (the state average is 71% of households – abs, 2008a). this means that almost one third did not have a home computer, and the aboriginal respondents were far less likely to have a home computer. overall, about one third of respondents had computer access at a place of learning or a public library/community centre. although official statistics show that one third of australians use a computer at their workplace (abs, 2008a), very few in the focus groups did this, probably because most were in unskilled and semi-skilled work (e.g. hospitality, labouring) or were unemployed or not in the labour force. however, even though a computer might be available, it was not necessarily used, and even when an available computer was used there could be issues concerning the location quality (e.g. degree to which people perceived others could watch their use, degree to which use had to be planned/booked in advance), and around the skills and literacy needed to use the computer. depending on the purpose for use, the perceived quality of access could influence the degree of use (discussed in the next main section). iii) internet access although most respondents had the internet available somewhere if they needed to use it, not all took advantage of this. as with computers, even when the internet was available and was used, there could still be quality issues about the location of availability, and the degree to which people had the skills and literacy to use it well (discussed later). considerably fewer respondents used the internet at work compared with all south australians (abs 2008a), which is not surprising since fewer were in the labour force. less than half the participants had home internet access (45%, compared with 60% of all south australian households in 2007-08 – abs, 2008a). a comparison of home computer and home internet access with use suggests that a considerable proportion had a home computer that was not internet-connected. some found that having no landline phone negated their ability to access the internet, or meant that to have home internet they felt forced to pay for a landline, or that they had no option but to buy the most expensive internet connection i.e. wireless broadband: most phone companies, to get the internet, you need to have a landline, to get broadband. i’ve been inquiring about it they’re smart! (aboriginal group). we could only get broadband if we had a fixed line, which was [phone company] telling us to get a fixed line basically, [which means we’d have to spend] more money (employment group). internet connection type wherever they connected to the internet, just over half had broadband available (cable or wireless). two-fifths did not know their connection type, and very few reported having dial-up. just over one third reported a home broadband connection (compared with the 56% average for australian cities, and 68% in the australian capital territory: abs, 2008a). influence of ict location on access and use the location of access and use could influence the degree of use, the reasons for use, and the extent of use. for discussion, use is divided between private/semi-private and public locations. i) private access (shared with known others) the most private ict access was seen as at home, because it was deemed convenient and (for adults) less timeand content-restricted than access at semi-private or public locations. home access could also provide more timely access to information: without the internet i would have had to spend a lot of time at the library. what i’ve found with libraries is the information’s not there and often you’ll look up a book or something and it’d be at another library so you’d have to wait for it to come in and then it comes in and you find out it hasn’t really got anything in it you wanted because it was written in 1973 (housing group). for education a private space supported better concentration and freedom from time limitations and interruptions that could occur in a public space: if i’m doing a uni assignment or something like that it’s nicer to do it in private and just have that private time where i can just concentrate on it, whereas [in public space] you don’t know who… is going to come in and expect you to talk to them (housing group). home use could also be incorporated into daily life: you can make a cup of tea while it’s [computer] doing its thing, or wash the dishes (women’s group). you might just have a few hours sleep, wake up in the middle of the night and you’re wide awake. why not jump online and do some work if you’ve, you know, got the opportunity and you feel like it (housing group). fitting ict use into daily life was particularly important and more convenient for women with young children, for whom public access without crèche facilities made computer/internet use difficult: in a community centre or in a library you’ve also got the fact you’ve got children and your children aren’t going to want to sit next to you for an hour, while at home they’re playing with their toys or they’re in bed or something like that (women’s group). have you ever waited in line at centrelink [federal government agency for social security payments and services]? or in the line at the post office? that’s the reason i do it [pay bills and banking online] to save time, and also dragging kids to like, centrelink, to the post office, to the bank, you know, to there to there to there, they just end up getting grumpy and ratty, and to do it all from the convenience of your home is just [so much easier] (women’s group). home-based ict access also saved travel time and costs related to domestic duties such as shopping or banking: when i go down to my sister’s place i use her computer, like she does all my banking online and we do everything from bill paying to basically just doing everything. [otherwise i] have to drive to six or seven different places paying cash for it (employment group). some people only had computer access in a semi-private place i.e. where they either knew the other people or knew that they shared common purposes such as study; this included computer access at the house of a friend or family member, a college room, and common areas in community housing: i access computers either when i come to college or at my cousin’s or brothers’ house (aboriginal group). i know enough people i could ring up and say “hey on the weekend can i come over and can you turn your computer on and do something for me?” (women’s group). while semi-private places could be private enough, they were presumably not as easily accessible as home ict access, but this was not mentioned by participants as a barrier. for those less attached to using icts, and hence perhaps less likely to want continual or easy access, semi-private use seemed quite acceptable and particularly if it removed the need to use their own financial resources. however, relying on another person’s ict access could mean that access was easily lost: i haven’t been using [computer at friend’s house] because she got a big bill, she’s just trying not to turn it on (women’s group). ii) public access (shared with unknown others) the existence of public access to computers and the internet could suggest that everyone can access these technologies if they want them, yet we found a wide range of social, transport and privacy barriers to public access. about a third of our respondents said free public access to computers and/or the internet was available to them at libraries and community centres. another third had public access at colleges where they were studying or at other places of learning e.g. english-language college, adult further education campus. some also had access at specialist community support centres (e.g. disability support centre, homeless women’s support centre). there were both benefits and disadvantages to ict access in these locations as compared with home use. although home access could be more convenient, some found that free public access saved them spending their own money, which was particularly beneficial for those on tight budgets: i’ve got about another 18 months to go of broadband [at home, then] i think i’ll start using the library. costs, yes. [and] it will get me off my arse and go out somewhere (men’s group). i prefer just to go down to the library. i wouldn’t have the internet bill, i wouldn’t have my phone bill, i wouldn’t have to go out and buy a printer, i wouldn’t have to go out and buy you know the ink… i wouldn’t have to go and buy paper. it’s somebody else’s problem not mine (work group). however, if many others were also looking for this same cost-saving then demand could outstrip supply: i think the library is good because it’s got free internet and if you book time you can get free use of it, but some people go there every day so it saves them money, but they’ve booked it up [so] that you have trouble getting time (employment group). public access could offer faster technology than available at home, but this was only a benefit when speed was particularly important: i’ve had dial-up for years now and i’m just used to it, and i just think, well if i need something faster i go here [common room in community housing] or to [homeless women’s support centre]’s computers (housing group). sometimes public access meant that computer/internet use could be combined with other tasks at the same location: if i was waiting to see my [medical specialist] or anyone like that i’d go in and i’d just spend an hour or so at the [library]. i’d just have to go in there first off and i could come back in an hour’s time and there’d be a computer (employment group). public ict use could also be only incidental to other activities, rather than regular: don’t have anything to do with the internet unless i deal with some school stuff and that at [college]. i don’t have a very lot of technology stuff (men’s group). while just over a quarter said a computer was available at a library or community centre, only half of these actually used a computer at that place. some felt that there were privacy concerns with public use, depending on what they were using it for: in a public library you get everybody else around you watching what you’re doing. where[as] in your house you might have your partner or kids around but they’re not really knowing what you’re doing or anything (women’s group). public use could also be difficult due to time restrictions: i’ve been there [local library] and tried to use them but you only have like an hour limit on them. if you’re going to research something and you think you can do it in an hour, then i’d like to learn from you (housing group). and some public locations could be useful or more supportive than others: i found that the [x location] library was great, you could always get a computer for 2 hours, but the [y location] one’s really hard (employment group). if i know i need a whole day worth of research, which often i do, i go to the disability resource centre and they’ve got a bunch of computers there and they’re not brand new but they’re fine. you can go in and use them as long as you want and no one really hassles you (aboriginal group). some locations also had restrictions on what websites or facilities could be accessed, which could discourage use: at most organisations, sites are blocked, like chat lines, msn, hotmail even so you can’t even access your email, which you need to do (aboriginal group). public ict access could also be inconvenient to travel to, particularly if people did not have a private car or drivers’ licence: i used the tafe [internet at further education institute] but i had to go all the way down to regency park which isn’t that far from the city but… it’s easier not to go that far some days i’m just really not physically capable of actually getting there (housing group). a small number also discussed pay-for-service access at internet cafes but there were not many of these in the lower ses areas where most respondents lived or worked: there’s not a lot of internet cafes down this area though. the closest one is [10km away at major shopping centre]…. there was one at [2km away], then at [8 km away] and then at a deli [0.5km away] and then that closed down (women’s group). the cost of internet cafes was also restrictive for those on low incomes: if you’re going to go to an internet café, for half of their costs you might as well have dial-up at home because their costs are pretty exorbitant for a very short period of time (women’s group). therefore, if internet cafes were used they were mainly for one-off purposes, or for limited use as a stop-gap if a more convenient alternative was temporarily unavailable (e.g. home computer had broken down), or if a faster connection was needed for a particular task. use of icts whereas previous sections considered what icts people had available to use, this section looks at whether people were actually using the technologies and what features they could use. i) variation in context and quality of use a key finding was that a technology’s availability, even at home, did not mean that it was used frequently, put to an extensive range of uses, or even used at all by people in these lower-income and disadvantaged groups. a short discussion string from the women’s group illustrates this: (participant 1): my mobile usually spends its time at the bottom of my bag, dead. (participant 2): yeah, i don’t use mine very often. (participant 3): mine’s been disconnected at the moment. and from the men’s group: i have a mobile phone which i use only for emergency calls. even among those who had an ict permanently available to them, the “horizontal divide” (cho, 2004) or “second divide” (zhao & elesh, 2006), or what we could call a sub-group gradient, was noticeable, where wide variation existed between people within the lower socioeconomic and disadvantaged groups in terms of their frequency or extent of ict use. similar situations were found with home computers and home internet. for example, some had a home computer but rarely used it because others had priority use (particularly an issue mentioned by women with dependent children) or they simply had little reason or opportunity for use: i had five children and we had one computer so i never got time, except for when they were in bed… and i lost my keyboard [skills] and all my skills (employment group). i don’t get time to use a computer anymore. not with a 2 year old (women’s group). i do have a computer at home but it sits in the bedroom collecting dust. i’ve got the internet on, yes, but i never use it (employment group). i do have an email address but i never use it, so every time i go to load up on it it says “access denied” (employment group). some users were adamant that although they would put a technology to a certain use, there were other things they would never want or be able to do. for example, some who were using the internet said that they would never do online banking, purchasing, blogging, chatting, or webpage creation. on the other hand, some made frequent or extensive use of just one part of their technology’s functions, or of one technology much more than another: i use my mobile to tell the time… it’s got a nice big clock on it (aboriginal group). my [mobile] phone i don’t really use. it’s for people to contact me, i don’t ever buy credit. my computer however i am on 90% of the time. i use it for anything from internet banking, we purchase things worldwide from various websites, check the weather, my tv guide, all my parenting forums like parenting information, things like that (women’s group). ii) reducing or discontinuing use some participants had previously used an ict but had then partially or completely given up use due to unexpected or high financial costs, loss of interest, changing priorities, or not replacing a previous model: i used to work for [government] for about 10 years and i could do computers… but now i don’t do computers anymore because i’m not interested, it’s too fast (aboriginal group). over the years i’ve had my own internet connections and i’ve had all sorts of gizmos and that. but at the moment [i just have the mobile] phone and a very old computer that i just use to play games (housing group). some were in the process of reducing their ict use because they felt they no longer gained benefits, or the technology’s maintenance had become too expensive: i’m starting to get more away from using a mobile. in fact i leave it at home when i go out to the shop (housing group). i actually done [did] a big favour for my friend, she’s basically house bound and her mobile phone doesn’t work for her and the best thing that i ever did for her was put on the landline for her (housing group). whether to buy a technology or continue its use was sometimes relative to competing needs or desires, and this was particularly an issue for those with limited disposable income: the internet [on your phone] … that’s costing you money without you knowing it… i got the internet disconnected because i was pressing the wrong buttons [and incurring phone costs by connecting to the internet without knowing it] (aboriginal group). i got mine [mobile phone] cut off… because i tended to ring [daughter] all the time to see how she was going, and the bill went up and up, so i don’t have the mobile anymore (aboriginal group). skills many participants had not acquired the skills to use anything other than the basic features of a technology, for example many had not moved beyond “talk and text” on a mobile phone. although most had their own mobile phone, fewer felt they could make a phone call “really well” and a small percentage could not use a mobile to send or receive text. those who could not send a text message at all were across all age groups: i have a mobile but i only know how to answer it. going into and sending messages – i wouldn’t have a clue (aboriginal group). there was also variation in the skills participants had to use computers beyond the basics, with a proportion unable to undertake activities such as turning a computer on/off or using a mouse. access and use was heavily influenced by whether or not people had the ability to find appropriate ways to learn the skills to use technologies. of those who used mobiles, computers and the internet, many had learnt via informal pathways or had their use mediated by others because they had friends or family they could turn to, while others had sought assistance from people they knew who could offer help, and yet others had learnt on their own by trial and error. those with limited or no social connections had no-one to teach them and few people to digitally connect to anyway. some of the refugees had been given basic instructions on phone use by a non-government organisation when they arrived in australia. with few exceptions, participants who were not currently using a technology felt that inadequate formal support was available to learn and then continue using that technology. users sometimes found it difficult to get “helpful” help from internet or phone providers. those who used technologies, including frequent or advanced use, therefore often had outside facilitators to get them started and/or progressing to more advanced features. factors important in setting people up for learning technologies were often that they already had the necessary social capital (e.g. friends to assist them), and economic capital (e.g. money to buy and maintain technologies), and educational capital (e.g. cognitive abilities, confidence, english literacy, numeracy, technical ability). some had also learned to use computers and/or internet through it-specific courses at work. factors influencing differential ict access and use the south australian research showed that the digital technology use of an individual or group is strongly influenced by their lifetime pathway of accrued resources and capabilities. these in turn relate to the social determinants of health and wellbeing, and to previous opportunities in life such as education, employment, social connections, and income (see commission on social determinants of health, 2008). i) education & employment resources prior education and employment history influenced current digital technology access and use. in particular, a person’s lifetime opportunities to accrue an education influenced their english literacy (both for native and foreign language speakers), their digital literacy, and their technical literacy, all of which are essential for accessing, reading and making sense of text on computers, mobile phones and the internet. a significant finding was that a history of working or studying in environments where computers and internet were used was an influential factor in people gaining the skills and confidence to access and use these technologies. going through school with computers and the internet increased skills levels for some of the younger participants: i learnt a little bit of computers at school, and then i did a computer course to help me gain employment (women’s group). employment had sometimes provided training opportunities: i’ve learnt a lot of [computer] skills through work (aboriginal group). in my previous job i had to learn how to use computers and the internet (men’s group). however, not all younger participants had the income or opportunity to maintain personal use of technologies after leaving school. education and employment could also facilitate access and use if the desire to access work and study opportunities were key motivators in learning to use computers or the internet. some had specifically enrolled to study it-related courses in order to facilitate other learning or employment opportunities. for others, the need to enrol online led to their first realisation that digital technology use is becoming an increasingly necessary key to opening the door to education: i got into the course i’m doing at the moment… because someone from here researched on the web for me, she printed out several web pages, so having access to the internet helped me get into my current course (housing group). some people had not had the opportunity to use computers or the internet through school, further study or work. they appeared less likely to have basic skills or motivation to use computers and the internet in their private lives. one in particular however, saw the internet itself as potentially providing her with an education of sorts: i didn’t have a very good education and i can really only read basic fictional books. i think with the computer it would improve my spelling because you have to spell properly or the computer does not compute. and exercise my brain it’s like any other muscle in your body that needs exercising and my brain doesn’t get all that much (housing group). ii) literacy and learning ability in the focus groups, an individual’s literacy skills influenced their ability to use digital technologies, and particularly the quality and extent of use. three different types of literacy issues emerged: basic english literacy (for native and non-native english speakers); technical literacy; digital literacy. basic english literacy (reading, writing and speaking) was an issue for a number of participants and posed a barrier to certain technology use. it was also an issue for some native english speakers: i have a problem with the reading and writing side of it. ok i admit that no worries, and it doesn’t mean that i don’t know what i’m doing. but i find that with the internet if you have to go on the internet and you can’t damn well read the words that they want you to put on, how are you supposed to access the internet in the first place? (employment group). english literacy was also a barrier for those with english as a second language, especially among the refugee group. they would welcome learning the most basic computing skills in a way that overcame language barriers (suggesting perhaps a facilitator who spoke their language): everything is in english – internet, even mobile phones, everything is in english and that’s a big barrier… a big barrier remains the language because you can have the website, you search for it, and you are given a lot of information and everything’s in english (refugee group). government websites in english posed particular barriers, but lack of english could be overcome if this group could find websites in their native language or another language in which they had some proficiency: she is saying that there is a good number of people [who] normally do the search on internet concerning information from our country and this information would come out in either [x], that’s one of the main languages from our country, or in french [which some of them can also understand] (refugee group). most people who identified lack of english as a barrier had other non-technological ways of communicating and finding information, such as from newspapers, others in their community, or flyers from welfare organisations, or simply by waiting for someone to tell them: with me i find that usually the information comes to me anyway after a while, you know when it’s been circulating around for a while (men’s group). as to go on to the internet to find out information, well i’ve got the carers network which is near enough next door to me, you know across the road and in the shopping centre (men’s group). an individual’s learning ability or learning style could also influence whether or not they had learned to use digital technologies or felt they could attend formal courses or ask others for help to learn: i’m probably the only composite [competent] person with digital stuff, i’m great with electronic stuff and that. i play around with my mobile phone and take pictures on my mobile phone and send them (employment group). i haven’t asked people that live here to teach me or just show me the internet because i feel like i’m taking up their time or they might not have the patience, and i’m not the quickest person off the mark you know (housing group). technical literacy was also required to at least some level in order to access and use digital technologies (in particular the internet) and some felt this was akin to learning a new language: they’re [computers] not even english, they’ve got their own language. it’s a new language we’ve got to learn you know, and there’s "bits" and there’s this and that… (work group). this could also cause people to feel stressed: i’ve sort of got the gist of how to turn it [computer] on. i have no idea how to turn it off but he [friend] said it was just the reverse, but that’s just too hard [for me] (housing group). even on my telephone, when it says ‘sms’ i just hang up because i don’t know how to do it! (aboriginal group). a good proportion felt that their technologies had too many complicated features and they needed someone to show them how to use them, while some wanted the option to purchase more basic technology: i’ve got a mobile [phone] but i don’t use it… don’t know how (aboriginal group). if i had a choice, i’d have a phone that had nothing, no colour screen, no camera, no buttons, except for one that you could program phone numbers you absolutely needed, to call 000, maybe family members. i just want something i can talk to people on and they can contact me (housing group). lack of technical proficiency combined with lack of english proficiency therefore presented a double barrier to digital technology use for some. people’s level of understanding about the ‘digital world’ and in particular the ‘online world’ also mediated their technology use. those who were more confident that they could safely navigate their lives incorporating digital technologies were more likely to use them, while those who were unsure were more likely to disengage or make only limited use. one issue was knowing which websites to visit and which were trustworthy: well, just doing research on the internet for example, i mean there just so much stuff out there and you’ve got to wade through it. how do you recognise what’s quality and what’s not? (housing group). some also pointed out that not having experience with the digital world, or with particular technologies, led to fear of them and hence limited use or non-use: i think there would be older people who are actually scared to ring a mobile. it’s a big long number starting with a ‘04’. they’d think “it’s a mobile” and especially if they get asked “would you like to leave a message” on voicemail they think “oh my god, what’s a voicemail?!?” (aboriginal group). many were afraid of the costs they might incur if they got locked into a contract, or if they gave their credit card details online. the use of online information, services and support therefore depends on people’s literacy and skill level, and reasons for seeking information. physical capabilities having the physical ability to use a technology was also a factor determining use. a few people mentioned their manual dexterity or visual acuity as causing difficulties: i’ve got eye trouble… vision impaired… i find it very hard to use phones, computers… i find it really difficult because i have to wear these bifocal things (aboriginal group). i reckon they should have a new mobile for older people! even the buttons, big people with big hands push two buttons at once. it’s true, i’ve had to ring people for them because their phones are too small (aboriginal group). one participant who was a carer for his blind mother noted a raft of supports from formal organisations such as the royal society for the blind. some of the moves to digital provision offered continuing alternatives and some did not: royal society for blind… just recently they actually sent [my mother] an sms on her mobile phone. she can’t see any of the buttons or anything but it doesn’t bug her because she knows where the thing is… they actually sent her an sms saying that i think [phone company] have changed to go to sending everything via email like contracts and stuff like that. yeah i rang them up and i said “nup [no], you can’t do that with my mum” and they’re going “no, unless you pay $2.00 that’s what’s happening” and i went “no she’s visually impaired and she has someone come over her house and read her mail and stuff like that” and they’re like “uh, no worries we’ll keep sending out the letters and everything no charge” (men’s group). other people found there were direct physical impacts on their health which affected their degree of technology use: on the internet or the computer your eyes start to ache and water so you have to go away from the desk. that’s the problem that i get all the time (aboriginal group). and if you’re not sitting right…you can get a sore lower back, your posture. (aboriginal group). i don’t like the computer, it gives me a headache (men’s group). social connections our research showed that people’s ict use was often mediated by, as well as motivated by, their existing social networks. this means that people with few or no friends or family could have little incentive or motivation to use, or no-one to show them how to start using a technology, so that people with existing poor social connections cannot necessarily benefit from the potential to increase their social connections through digital technology use: not having a network of friends or acquaintances doesn’t help, so the phone is not much use if you don’t have those (housing group). my daughters are always after me to get a mobile but they’re not living with me so there’s nobody to teach me (aboriginal group). others asked people in their social groups to use technologies on their behalf: my friend has taught me to use the basic features… the book’s pretty thick and to read it i can’t comprehend it (housing group). i taught my nana and aunties everything they need to know about their mobiles… it took them a few months though!... they had no idea (aboriginal group). my 13 year old granddaughter helped me and she’s so quick and i think it’s because they [young people] play with their phones so much (employment group). financial resources considering that the research was conducted among lower-income and disadvantaged groups, it is not surprising that ict access and use was related to financial resources. for those not using a mobile phone or the internet, perceived cost was one of the main barriers: the internet is an extravagance for us… it’s like a luxury (employment group). my daughter wants a laptop but i can’t afford one (women’s group). even people employed… find it difficult to keep up with it (men’s group). people’s perceptions of their income relative to the cost of purchasing, using and maintaining digital technologies could determine whether they were motivated to purchase and use the technology frequently. for those who owned mobile phones and had a home internet connection, the ongoing costs were seen at best as quite expensive and at worst a choice between essential services: i’m having to choose between a car and several things at the moment ... and i need a car, i can’t use public transport… for my back – i have a spinal injury… and i think it’ll come to that, where the computer will just have to go (men’s group). i’d like a games console. but that’s just a want, not something i need. i can’t even afford to run my car though! (women’s group). one respondent was trying to work out ways to cover the costs of maintaining his technologies by sharing his house with a boarder who helped pay for utilities, in which he included internet. on the other hand, some were using their mobile phone on a very limited basis intentionally to limit the cost, with some only accepting incoming calls, and thus eliminating the need to purchase credit: i usually reply [on my mobile phone]. i don’t often initiate calls. if it’s to be a conversation i’ll go either to an office here [to use phone in community housing]… or i’ll go down the public phone (housing group). many were wary about entering long term contracts for phone or internet connections, especially those who had unstable employment or who were on pensions. a significant issue was that people perceived that to access the most basic connection (i.e. dial-up) a home landline phone connection was needed. however, low-income participants were reluctant to pay monthly rental for a landline connection, which they perceived was “money for nothing”: i used to have a landline and it was only incoming calls... i don’t want to pay the landline because they are false. somehow they’re charging for a bit of wire that’s coming to your house…$29.00 rental [a month?]. if i need to ring out i’d go down the public phone box… if i haven’t got the time i’ll use my mobile phone, if it’s got any credit (men’s group). a wireless internet connection was therefore the only option for some people, which was often perceived as too costly. a few mentioned that they had tried accessing the internet on their mobile phones but saw this as too expensive. some participants identified financial stress associated with purchasing, maintaining, upgrading and using mobile phones, computers, and the internet on a limited income. a few suggested that they would not be able to sustain their current expenditure, such as in home internet connection, unless they made a significant sacrifice or found a way to increase their income. discussion our research has enabled us to identify particular pathways to digital use (or non-use) which demonstrate how existing socioeconomic inequities create barriers to digital use or contribute to differences in the frequency and quality of digital use. figure 3 highlights how there is a vicious cycle by which lack of (or limited) digital access or use creates further barriers to improving the underlying determinants of that use. our research demonstrates that digital access and use among lower income and disadvantaged groups in australia is also related to a range of broader social determinants of health, such as education, income, housing tenure, and social connections. factors we found acting as barriers relate back to the reasons why people are in lower socioeconomic or disadvantaged groups in the first place i.e. the barriers/enablers to ict access and use are the resources and capabilities that people have accrued (or have not had the opportunity to accrue) during their lifetime, so that a lifetime history of disadvantage or advantage strongly influences the resources and capabilities they currently have to access and use (and further benefit from) icts. unfortunately, in terms of finding appropriate ways to increase beneficial technology access and use, those who are current users (particularly high-end frequent users) are often the ones designing digital divide programs (by dint of their higher education, higher income, higher level occupations). we suspect that many of the resources and capabilities which support current users, such as their lifetime of accrued educational and income advantage and stable housing tenure, are invisible to them and hence lead them to suggest and design solutions to the most obvious barrier to ict access and use for non-users: the technologies themselves and the technical skills required to use them, rather than understanding the role of more underlying determinants of use. our research therefore adds an australian perspective to findings from overseas research (e.g. kvasny, kranich & sement, 2006; ortiz & tapia, 2006) that technological solutions alone cannot by themselves “reduce the digital divide” or, as we prefer to put it, level out the digital gradient, and that they need to be accompanied by a broader digital inclusion and socio-technical approach to address the range of other barriers in ways which are relevant to local community context. our research also supports the existence of a “horizontal divide” (cho, 2004) or “second divide” (zhao & elesh, 2006), or what we could call a sub-group gradient, where wide variation can exist between people within lower socioeconomic and disadvantaged groups in terms of their frequency or extent of digital access and use. furthermore some people face multiple barriers, for example lacking financial resources to enable them to purchase or use a technology in the first place, or lacking the social connections to support them in learning to use icts, and once they do have access then facing additional hurdles due to a low level of english literacy which undermines their ability to use internet sites predominantly written in english and/or lacking digital literacy to support safe navigation through the online world. existing policies and practices are, therefore, in danger of accentuating the inequities unless additional measures are taken, some of which we outline below. figure 3: pathways to digital exclusion: a vicious cycle implications for supporting digital inclusion despite a common assumption in government and society in general (perhaps held more by high-end technology users) that digital technologies can be a panacea to the digital divide, our australian research supports the small amount of us research (gilbert et al., 2008; kvasny & keil, 2006) which finds that that digital inequalities experienced by the urban poor are embedded within historic and current structural inequalities, which include poverty and are embedded within historic and current structural inequalities, which include poverty and lack of access to ‘decent’ schools, and which can negate or override techno-centric fixes such as simply providing free digital access. basic education and literacy: our research found that a range of literacies were required to successfully access and use technologies, once there was a motivation. however, in 2006 the australian bureau of statistics conducted a national survey of australians’ adult literacy and life skills as part of an international study coordinated by the oecd (organisation for economic co-operation and development) and statistics canada and found that 7 million adult australians aged 15 to 74 (almost half of the entire the adult population) have literacy levels below the minimum required to meet the complex demands of everyday life and work in the emerging knowledge-based economy (australian bureau of statistics, 2006). this means they would have difficulty reading and understanding a newspaper, magazine or website. literacy levels were lower for those with lower levels of education, fewer years in education, and those who were unemployed or not in the labour force. in other words, raising basic english literacy levels in australia (including for native speakers) is a major basic requirement for increasing access to written information sources on the internet. secure and stable housing history: another factor influencing people’s ability to access icts which are purchased on anything other than a prepaid basis is a stable housing history. this both enables the accrual of a good track record in paying landline bills with a telecommunications which can then support landline internet purchase. in addition, a stable housing situation, where the purchaser is not constantly moving between different homes, is perceived to be required to purchase a longer-term ict contract. if this is not the case, then a prepaid mobile phone may be deemed to be more appropriate but this is not perceived at present to support the most affordable internet options. landline substitution and the increasing “mobile-only” population: another major finding from our research, which has only very recently emerged in the literature, is that of landline-substitution being higher among lower-income and disadvantaged groups (i.e. use of a mobile phone as the main phone contact or home phone, and discontinued use of a landline phone). in our study this was particularly the case for people on low incomes who saw paying for the use of a landline (in addition to their phone call charges) as an unnecessary outlay from a limited budget. having a mobile-only was also the choice of people who moved frequently between different “homes” or properties. our research suggests that this change in type of phone access presents a barrier to some households and individuals using the internet as they perceived costs to be lower for dial-up internet via a landline than they are for wireless access. even though wireless access is becoming cheaper and low-denomination prepaid options are also becoming available, many people in these groups were unaware of these latest options. landline-substitution also has major implications for the representativeness of academic and market research surveys that are based on sampling from a list of landline phone numbers (e.g. the white pages). the mobile-only or “cell-only population” has recently been commented on by other authors (see e.g. ansolabehere & schaffner, 2010). in the socioeconomically disadvantaged groups in our study about one in three people had no landline and only had a mobile phone. this is similar to rates reported recently in the usa for “wireless substitution”, where one quarter of american households now have no landline phone and only a cell or mobile phone (center for disease control, 2010). geographical and social location of ict access and use: while public ict access does have its place, we found mixed experiences of it and therefore argue that public access cannot be seen as the solution to flattening the digital gradient because it does not support the same quality, frequency, extent or timeliness of use as compared with private home access. although most public libraries in australia now offer computers and internet access for free, use may require registration. only just under half the adult australian population (46% aged over 18) visit a library (abs, 2008e), and library membership is below the average for those with lower levels of education and lower socioeconomic status (acnielsen, 2001:16). public access is also not equally available to everyone, with mothers with young children facing barriers to use if childcare is not provided, and those with transport or mobility difficulties can not easily travel to public locations. the canadian idea of extending their ict community access programs with a mobile-service which takes icts to people’s homes in the same way as a traditional mobile book library, may help overcome this problem for some population groups (see industry canada, 2004). alternative types of access: since some people in the groups said they were quite happy with their current non-digital means of accessing information, particularly with face-to-face options which overcome their literacy or technical problems, there is an urgent need to maintain offline provision of services supports and information. this was also found to be the case in a study in south australia on aging migrants with poor english literacy (goodall, ward & newman, 2010). on the other hand, for those ready to transition to ict-mediated access, appropriate ways are needed to help them migrate to online services and online information sources in a way which continues to meet their needs rather than leaving them “lost” and floundering to meet their needs in the digital world. our focus group participants suggested the need for personalised, drop-in, language and literacy-specific ict courses for complete beginners to be provided free in local venues accustomed to dealing with people with low incomes, low literacy etc. implications for measuring digital access and use: a strength of qualitative research is that it reveals people’s experiences of relating to and using icts within their daily lives. our research showed that even those who in quantitative terms can be measured as having access to the technology do not necessarily use the technology, use it very frequently, or put it to many uses in ways from which they derive benefits. this has implications for what measures we use to quantify technology access and use (see also gurstein 2003 for further discussion on this). furthermore, quantifying access and use, such as ‘74% of households have internet access’, must be interpreted with a more complex and nuanced understanding of “digital connection’. the fact that people can also have access at several different places means we need to, for example, measure access via a suite of technologies (e.g. they could have no landline, but have internet on their mobile-phone, and use a home computer offline for games). this is particularly the case as technologies converge and the internet becomes accessible both by pc and increasingly on mobile platforms. measuring “depth” or “quality” of use is also required beyond the simple ‘have-have not’ divide. for example, we can question whether there is really any comparability between two people who both record a home internet connection but where one uses it once a fortnight just to check email and the other is online several hours every day for a wide variety of uses.  we can also question whether privately extended use at home should be measured the same as one-off use in a public location when they clearly have a different quality, extent, depth and frequency. furthermore, if we graph “technical connection” (e.g. for home internet) by socioeconomic status and find the gradient completely flat at or near to zero, it would still be possible that some people were making little or no use of this connection, and that there would still be differences in the depth, frequency or “usefulness” of the use relative to their needs. making something available does not necessarily mean people “have access” to it, or that they have the necessary resources (social, financial, mobility, physical etc) to access and benefit from it, even if they have the motivation. our research also shows that there is an important need for ongoing collection and reporting of ict access and use data by indicators of socioeconomic status and disadvantage (e.g. income quintile, education level, occupation group, english language proficiency) if the argument is to be maintained for developing digital inclusion strategies and programs, and the interlink between the social health gradient and digital gradient is to be further explored. conclusion our research identified a digital gradient across the population which means that digital technology access and use increases as socio-economic advantage increases. we used focus groups to gain an understanding of the impact of having no or restricted access to digital technologies. this research painted a picture of the ways in which structured disadvantage shapes the opportunities that people have available to support their access to and use of digital technologies. low income, low literacy, lack of bridging social capital, being jobless or in a job which does not involve using digital technologies, and having insecure housing all contribute to restricting access to digital technologies. ironically, in a society where access to a range of goods, services and societal benefits is achieved by using these technologies, those with restricted digital access because of their existing socio-economic disadvantage are further disadvantaged by virtue of being excluded from the various benefits of access. this may be particularly 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(2007). dropping off the edge: the distribution of disadvantage in australia. sydney: jesuit social services and catholic social services australia. zhao, s., & elesh, d (2006, august 10). the second digital divide: unequal access to social capital in the online world. paper presented at the annual meeting of the american sociological association, montreal convention center, montreal. 1footnote: in the time since these focus groups were held, the options available from mobile phone companies have expanded considerably so that some companies now offer prepaid mobile including an internet data allowance alongside talk and text, all of which can be used interchangeably. the use of internet on mobile phones among lower-income australians is the subject of another recent research project (newman & biedrzycki 2009). <h2 style="text-align:center;">research informing practice: toward effective engagement in community ict in new zealand</h2> <p style="text-align:center;">barbara craig<br> victoria university, wellington</p> <p style="text-align:center;">jocelyn williams, phd<br> unitec institute of technology</p> <p><strong>abstract</strong></p> <p>new zealand's computers in homes (cih), a free home internet scheme, has been researched since its inception in 2000 by the authors of this paper in separate studies using different methodologies.  this paper traces the inter-relationship between the research findings over the course of a decade and the evolution of cih practice in low-income communities, in turn reflecting on a shift in epistemology and thus research design for two new studies in their early stages.  one, a large-scale study, is being conducted at a national level, and includes every new participant in the cih scheme throughout the country using an online survey to provide baseline data.  a second small-scale case study is being conducted in one urban cih primary school community that has recently launched the scheme for 31 of its families.  it aims to further explore previous findings about the relationship between social support and community internet, by assessing the value of social media for parents in building a sense of community belonging.  in this article we also address the potential for social media to engage cih participants in making sense of their own internet experience and thus in owning their own research. we suggest the use of social media in this way may challenge the more traditional ideas and power relations inherent in the researcher-participant relationship in community ict research.</p> <p><strong>introduction</strong></p> <p>in this article we bring together the interdisciplinary perspectives of communication studies and education to demonstrate the multiple ways in which our research on computers in homes (cih) in new zealand is complementing the operational work of this community ict scheme as its practice evolves to encompass social media use by the scheme participants.  we draw on the growing community informatics literature, and also literature relating to community, social cohesion, and participatory research, as well as referring to our research on cih since the early 2000s to propose that the cih model offers an effective intersection between research and practice in the pursuit of a more just society.</p> <p>in its philosophy and values cih aims to strengthen low-decile communities to be able to take up opportunities for education and advancement, not only through the provision of ict hardware but also based on the understanding that the social setting is an important component of successful community internet implementation.  the growing success of cih, now established in over 200<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class=msofootnotereference><span class=msofootnotereference>[1]</a> communities throughout new zealand (williams, 2009, p. 284), in many ways aligns with emerging theory that grass roots ownership of community internet practice is desirable for its sustainability (gaved &amp; anderson, 2006; loader &amp; keeble, 2004).  this paper goes further in arguing the case for grass roots ownership of the research.</p> <p><strong>background</strong></p> <p>the cih scheme was the brainchild of the non-profit 2020 communications trust, founded in new zealand's capital city wellington in 1996, which already had an established history of successful community-based ict projects (newman, 2008; zwimpfer, 2010).  the concept of the 2020 communications trust was "to promote the info city vision" (wellington city council, 1996, p. 3), a strategy sufficiently forward-thinking to come to the attention of the harvard business school.  at the time sid huff noted</p> <p class=quotation style='margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:51.95pt;margin-bottom: 10.0pt;margin-left:.25in;text-align:justify'><i>as a central component of its vision 2020 strategy, the city of wellington, new zealand has developed preliminary plans to transform itself into a &quot;wired city.&quot; the overarching project was called info city. info city actually consisted of a collection of sub-projects, each focusing on a different way in which the city could promote and foster the use of information technology to help move toward the &quot;2020 vision&quot;. (huff, 1996)</i></p> <p>info city strategies acknowledged the important link between community and economic development and key to this was the establishment of citylink, a private company set up to open a high bandwidth, low-cost, fibre network to the city across the trolleybus wires (newman, 2008).  the ongoing aim of the 2020 communications trust is "to promote dialogue and understanding through local action" (2020 communications trust, 2009) to provide leadership in ict and deliver programmes that address issues of digital literacy, skills and inclusion, through partnerships with national and local government agencies and businesses to achieve funding for the activities of the non-profit organisation.  the trust identifies gaps in provision to achieve digital inclusion in nz communities, devises possible approaches and then seeks to partner with other agents to take action.  computers in homes (cih) is an important example of partnership projects within the purview of the 2020 trust.</p> <p>some of the earliest cih project sites were part of an experimental community network project called smart newtown funded by the local city council.  smart newtown was an info city sub-project, based loosely on the blacksburg electronic village community computer network project in blacksburg, virginia that from 1993-2000 enabled 80 percent of residents to access the internet (kavanauagh &amp; patterson, 2002; kavanaugh, kim, perez-quinones, schmitz, &amp; isenhour, 2008).  newtown, an inner city wellington suburb on the trolleybus routes, was connected to citylink and became the local community where the relationship between communication, social capital and civic engagement was to be investigated with a pilot cih project.   in addition to establishing cih in the local schools, smart newtown provided free internet access and it training in community centres to residents, and all local businesses were given a web presence. </p> <p>other early cih projects related to the ministry of education's call at that time for research into home/school/community partnerships.  pilot cih projects were supported by the ministry of education and set up in urban low income communities (cannon's creek in wellington, and panmure bridge, in new zealand's largest city, auckland).  these projects set up in 2000 were concerned with educational outcomes, in particular through getting parents inside the school gates, involved in the life of the school, and providing them with skills to help their children with their school work, then measuring changes such as numbers of parent helpers at school events and attendance at parent-teacher interviews.  in the flaxmere project, "a series of innovations relating to improving home-school relations within and between the five flaxmere schools" (clinton, hattie, &amp; dixon, 2007) in a smaller provincial city in the north island of new zealand, cih was the most visible and successful initiative.  also fully funded by the ministry of education, the flaxmere project experimented with a range of strategies such as homework centres and home-school liaison persons (perry, 2004) alongside cih to improve the relations of the five local schools with their communities and to engage parents more fully with their children's learning (clinton, et al., 2007). </p> <p>a final project from the early years, referred to colloquially as 'the tuhoe cih', was the first to be launched in a rural new zealand community, and the first to be set up at the request of the community itself.  the tuhoe, an indigenous maori <i>iwi</i> (tribe) with15 schools governed by their own educational authority, partnered with the 2020 communications trust to work in their schools.  the tuhoe ('children of the mist') live in communities sprinkled throughout a remote, rural mountainous area but with many tribal members also dispersed globally and throughout other new zealand communities.  these local communities are economically depressed and geographically isolated but with a strong <i>iwi</i> identity and culture.  through a partnership with cih and the 2020 communications trust, and other partnerships with government and universities, they have installed wireless internet across the valleys, put internet access into homes, videoconferencing into schools and set up a digital gateway to communicate with dispersed tribal members and record their collective history.  cih in this case was about community development and how the internet can be used for cultural and language preservation and <i>iwi</i> communication (stillman &amp; craig, 2006).</p> <p><strong>working with cih communities</strong></p> <p>what did these early cih communities have in common?  they featured poor literacy, low educational attainment, little participation in their children's education, low confidence, a history of failure, and more features to be detailed below.  thus in terms of community development, the cih scheme sought to build community around the life of the school, providing  parents with new opportunities to pursue their own dreams as well as giving them the tools to support their children through their educational careers.  early interviews with parents at cannon's creek school (wellington) revealed difficulties for them in becoming involved in their children's education because of a lack of confidence, negative attitudes based on past experiences, and limited understanding of what learning is about (craig, 2004).  this reflects the socio-economic make-up of this community where the unemployment rate is currently 11.3% compared to 5.2 % across the wider wellington city region and where 39.4%  have  no educational qualifications compared to 19.8% in the region as a whole (statistics new zealand, 2006b).  by the end of the cih project parents commented on spending more time with their children, on a sense of connectedness with the school, that they had been reminded of the importance of schooling, and that they had not really understood at first how poor their children's achievement had been (clinton, et al., 2007).</p> <p>these communities in which the early cih projects were established were also characterised by their social make-up, predominantly low-income and low-employment, and high minority ethnic populations.  cih works with those schools that have the highest proportion of students from low socio-economic communities<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class=msofootnotereference><span class=msofootnotereference>[2]</a>. communities included indigenous maori who had moved from their traditional communities to the cities some generations back, pasifika peoples who had migrated from the pacific islands in search of work, and other more recent immigrant and refugee groups.  through providing a home computer and training adults to use the internet, cih encourages participants to use online communication to bolster their connections and support networks within their immediate communities.  it also encourages maintenance of identity, language and culture through e-mail and other forms of connecting online with extended family scattered around the globe. the project has also sought to encourage participants to form social networks outside the community, joining online communities that share interests and values.  training provided to the parents before they take their computers home demonstrates how to access the vast repositories of government, health, and social services information and resources that can be found online that can help migrant or isolated communities understand their rights as citizens. </p> <p>cih aims "to provide all new zealand families who are socially and economically disadvantaged with a computer, an internet connection, relevant training and technical support" (&quot;computers in homes &quot;, 2011, 'about cih' page, ¶2) for a cost of $50 per family.  in practice, this means cih works with schools to provide a group of families – usually 25 at one time – with a refurbished desktop computer, free broadband internet for six months, weekly two hour training sessions for ten weeks, and technical support provided by the school with paid technicians as needed.  software includes windows xp, office 2007, antivirus and spyware, adobe reader, flashplayer, shockwave and java, and desktop shortcuts to internet safety and learning sites.  </p> <p>core to cih philosophy is community ownership,  an understanding that aligned perfectly with the new zealand government's move towards a digital strategy (ministry of economic development et al., 2004) formally released in 2007 (new zealand government ministry of communications and information technology, 2007) and expressed earlier in milestone strategy documents such as connecting communities  (department of internal affairs et al., 2002) with its explicit emphasis on partnership, community initiative, and government funding "kick-starting projects that the community can own, and ...in the long term ... [be] funded by non-government sources" (p. 8).  using icts to help cih communities achieve social, economic and cultural goals begins with local affirmation that the community is ready to mobilise (williams, 2010b) and involve existing community resources and connections in achieving social inclusion. the social inclusion aim was explicit in one community case study setting (williams, 2009) where an agency involved in implementing the scheme, housing new zealand, viewed cih as "one tactic in a larger strategy aimed at overcoming neighbourhood social exclusion" (ibid., p. 98), and by cih itself as a way to "generate pride in community and neighbourhood" (ibid., p. 291).  in this way cih is seen by providers as having an important role to play in facilitating social inclusion.  our research suggests there may be a positive relationship between free home internet access and social cohesion (williams, 2010b).  in the community case study cited above, where internet uptake was more successful and sustained, "the success of the internet intervention ... appears related to the fact that it was 'bedded in' to a fertile social context that helped it flourish and in turn strengthen social ties" (williams, 2009, p. 234).</p> <p><strong>community internet literature</strong></p> <p>community is a slippery term, described as "a polymorphous folk notion... of little use" (postill, 2008, p. 416) and "contested in the eyes of academics" (loader &amp; keeble, 2004, p. 4).  given that the research setting explored in this article, computers in homes, is based in geographical areas associated with primary schools, our approach is to understand community as an important "intermediate space" (ibid.) between the family and larger social structures, that fosters opportunities.  further, to avoid the inherent ambiguity of the term and following postill (2008) who favours bourdieu's concept of a social "field" (williams, 2009, p. 51), we conceive of community as a "field of residential affairs" (postill, 2008, p. 418) where associations of individuals share some interests and form networks of relationships.  while diffuse networks of online community, facilitated by personal internet and social media, now commonly overlay the web of interpersonal relationships in a local neighbourhood grouping, the starting point for us is the locality.  thus 'community' for our purposes is a group of people living in a defined geographical area who define themselves as part of a community; it is a symbolic construct that is an outcome of what those people do together.  the widely cited research and claims of robert putnam that communities are in decline because of eroding social capital (putnam, 2000), a process he attributes in part to increased media consumption at home, imply that determined efforts are needed to re-build this intermediate space where families learn to deal with the larger social structures of education, government, and the workplace.  this is the space in which cih works to facilitate a bridge between the disenfranchised and the cultural capital (reed-danahay, 2004) they have not yet been able to acquire.</p> <p>in the decade between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s, during which time cih was blazing its own innovative trail in new zealand, opinion was divided on the subject of whether the internet can make communities stronger (pigg &amp; crank, 2004).  this was because, on the one hand, "considerable rhetoric ... exists regarding the potential of modern information and communications technology (ict) to affect the development of social capital in positive ways" (ibid., p. 59), and community internet initiatives are said to "increase productivity across our economy" (new zealand government ministry of communications and information technology, 2008, 'high-value economy' section).  thus individuals who do not use computers in the workplace may be economically disadvantaged (haisken-denew &amp; d'ambrosio, 2003).  however some early internet research suggested that the internet might in fact have a negative effect on social involvement (kraut et al., 1998; nie &amp; erbring, 2000); other studies found that the more people use the internet, the less contact they have with their social environment (nie &amp; erbring, 2000) and even that </p> <p>people who use e-mail heavily have weaker social relationships than those who do not ...and... people who use the internet heavily report spending less time communicating with their families.(kiesler et al., 2001, p. 4)</p> <p>such assertions about the internet eroding social relationships are less relevant now that the technologies of online social networking have become increasingly mainstream.  more recent research suggests that multiple media channels including the internet, available to individuals in family settings, are facilitating communication and kinship (kennedy &amp; wellman, 2007), and "the evidence suggests that the internet is ... slowly building local social networks" (hampton, 2007, p. 739).  findings in one of the cih studies we have completed in new zealand aligns with this evidence.  results in 2003 – 2005 longitudinal urban case studies imply that existing social networks in a community where a free home internet scheme is implemented (williams, 2010a) have an important role to play in successful internet uptake.  additionally the combination of somewhat strong social cohesion that already exists, plus the motivating and mobilising effect of the free internet scheme, may create further social cohesion (ibid.).  these findings echo hampton (2007) who stresses that positive social outcomes for internet use occur "in those neighbourhoods where context favours local tie formation" (ibid., p. 739).   in other words where the neighbourhood already has an interest in building community, the internet facilitates the building of local social ties. </p> <p>a distinct shift in thinking occurred by the mid-2000s so that the digital divide began to be seen as an issue with far more complexity than simple internet access (afnan-manns &amp; dorr, 2002; crump &amp; mcilroy, 2003; davison &amp; cotten, 2003; dimaggio, hargittai, celeste, &amp; shafer, 2004; fragoso, 2003; merkel, 2003; mossberger, tolbert, &amp; stansbury, 2003), and that it needed to be reframed as a <i>social development</i> challenge encompassing people's ability to make use of technology (warschauer, 2003).  technology education schemes such as computers in homes and others (eubanks, 2007) respond to this issue through a social constructivist approach.  for cih, this means families, and in particular the adults, acquire it skills and confidence in collaboration with those they know in social settings.  furthermore "we do not construct our interpretations in isolation but against a backdrop of shared understandings, practices...[and] language" (denzin &amp; lincoln, 2000, p. 197).  in parallel with this shift in thinking about the digital divide, the authors have focused more intently on the role played by the social context inherent in cih practice as well as ways to augment it.</p> <p><strong>the social dimension of computers in homes</strong></p> <p>from the scheme's inception around 2000 cih has employed socialisation tactics to build a sense of group identity and support.  perhaps the most obvious tactic used to establish and embed a social dimension among the cih group is the initial compulsory it training held at the school over the course of ten weeks.  during this time the parents meet weekly for two hour classes which are highly social by their nature and include time for chatting over supper in the staffroom, and relationship building in general. then there are the celebratory 'graduations' at which the parents are awarded a certificate showing they have completed their training, the computers are given to them, and they are recognised by their families and the community at large for their achievement.  additionally cih requires the host school to organise regular family gatherings after the parents have 'graduated' and taken their computer home that bring the learning community together for peer support.  at these meetings, time is given for discussion of how the home internet experience is going, what issues may have arisen, and what difference internet at home is making to family life.  peer mentoring, through which more confident adults in the group make themselves available to guide others who are uncertain, is also a feature of the scheme.  careful identification of existing social networks and assessment of social cohesion in order to identify leaders and confident individuals may therefore favour more successful and sustainable internet use, which in turn may relate to improved social cohesion (williams, 2010a).  </p> <p>early research among cih families in the pilot schemes revealed how parents used online networking to find virtual support  for them and their families (craig, 2001).  instruction in the use of chat sessions and interacting with online support groups was not included in the training provided to participants, but they discovered such tools in playing around on the internet at home and shared them very quickly among the families.  virtual community became a powerful tool for these parents.  social circumstances in these communities made it difficult to maintain face-to-face support networks, especially crime, and cultural factors such as women not venturing out unaccompanied were some of the barriers to the formation of local support groups.  mothers in local communities formed closed chat rooms so that they could connect up in the evenings and share stories about their children, their progress at school, and how other parents dealt with problems.  others joined spiritual networks, various health-related support groups and indigenous rights groups.  early participants used forms of text based digital applications such as chat rooms to communicate and interact with others inside and outside of their local community.  the newest online genre of everyday interaction, blogs (hookway, 2008), has been credited with the power to bring about social change as a new genre of participatory journalism  (morozov, 2009) and being able to create new forms of community.  most recently this has been demonstrated in the discussion of the role of social media in reporting on the new zealand and japanese earthquakes as they happened and by those who witnessed the events and with the role of such media in current citizen protest movements in the middle east (coll, 2011).</p> <p>social media such as blogs are appearing to transform information exchange among internet users (morozov, 2009).  it makes the creation and posting of content possible (bruns, 2007) that has been generated by the individual internet user in a participatory and collaborative way.  personal multimedia content can be posted to a blog or wiki or collaborative web 2.0 project on a site accessible to a selected group of users who can add their own content (kaplan &amp; haenlein, 2010).  thus the possibilities for cih participants to share and interact through social media go well beyond what could be communicated and accomplished in the earlier chat room text-based exchanges, and provide another means of cementing community cohesion, and sustaining connections made at face-to-face community events such as meetings and celebrations that bring families together.</p> <p><strong>research informing practice in computers in homes</strong></p> <p>the cih research approach has been revisited over the years to try out different strategies to address two important questions about conducting research within a framework of transformative praxis.  first the question of the  relationship between the outside researcher and the inside practitioner, of  how to deal with the very real of issues of power and positioning given the differences in background and communities of origin of  the researcher and the researched.  what role should the researcher play in the transformation of the community of the 'other'?  second, what kind of 'research capabilities' (hurtig, 2008) can be handed over to participants, through the research process and perhaps also through participatory education, so that they can better understand and change their lived conditions?  in the early years of the project researchers sought to deal with these issues through collaborative engagement with participants. in practice this took the form of building rapport through conversations and interviews, and adapting the scheme to better meet local needs.  ten years on, the project is experimenting with putting the tools of social media, in particular blogs, into the hands of the participants to capture their own stories as a new way of recording lived experiences and constructing new identity and community.  cih research has all along focused on utilising methods that would empower the participants to imagine new possibilities for themselves and their communities.  we now turn to a review of the ways in which research and practice have intersected over the course of more than a decade of cih implementation.</p> <p><strong>a participatory action research model: the early pilot projects</strong></p> <p>the approach taken in the early years of the project was adapted from a participatory action research framework, with each data collection phase informing the next cycle of project development (stillman, 2005; stoecker, 2005).  evaluation approaches and methods had to be flexible and adaptable (morell, 2010) and responsive to the local community as well as appropriate to the local context (bishop, 1996; smith, 1999).  research also needed to direct the ongoing development of the project as well as inform the 2020 trust (2020 communications trust, 2002) about participant perspectives on the role of icts in community development.  the core operating principle of the 2020 communications trust is that it will not work with any group on any ict intervention unless there is a local champion who 'initiates' the approach to the trust and progresses the project locally.  finally, research was a means of reporting to funding bodies on the outcomes for both participants and the community (craig, 2010). </p> <p>at the beginning of cih in 2000 the research approach was participatory, based on intensive interviews conducted in participants' homes to gather data on the experiences of families with the internet and a home computer.  these stories were told to the researchers, transcribed and analysed.  more informal feedback came through issues raised or ideas shared by participants in emails, at training and meetings, or impromptu speeches made at graduation ceremonies.  researchers attended as many informal community gatherings as possible and took field notes to record such conversations that were project-related. through such stories and feedback from the participants the scheme started to take the form known as computers in homes today. from the outset the intent was to work at the grassroots level in further shaping of the project to fit it to local needs, to have it owned by the community and responsive to local cultural and indigenous concerns.</p> <p>one university researcher (with an educational and ethnographic research background) and the 2020 communications trust chairperson  (with an educational background and years of classroom teaching) jointly conducted the research in the two initial pilot communities of cannons creek and panmure bridge (2020 communications trust, 2002).  participants were interviewed in their homes at the time of registering interest in the programme, at the end of the ten weeks training and one year later at which time they had had access to a computer and internet in the home for 18 months.  the researchers organised the regular participant meetings at the school that they recorded and monitored as focus group discussions.  the school principal kept a record of e-mail communications between family and school as well as a database of preand post-achievement scores of the children from the participating families.</p> <p>feedback from participants through this participatory research process did help modify the programme to fit the community.  many recounted very similar negative experiences of their own schooling that still trouble them today with the result that they are reluctant to go through any school gate as adults or as parents.  early interviews with the principals of these two pilot schools revealed that their hoped-for outcomes from this project were increased home-school communication (through e-mail) and greater participation by the parents in the wider life of the school, which would in turn benefit the children's learning.  getting the participants through the school gates was achieved by holding project meetings in the school in a relaxed environment with shared food and a babysitter provided for the children.  the training also took place in the school in a designated training suite funded by cih that would remain available to the community beyond the project term.  both the content and the measured pace of training took cognisance of the fear many participants had about any classroom experience.</p> <p>a key theme that emerged from the interviews with parents at the end of the project was the confidence they had gained as learners.  poor adult literacy skills precluded many parents of the children at school from taking part in their children's education and in events in their immediate community.  literacy was as much a barrier to full participation in the social and economic benefits of life in these communities as was the lack of access and skills to use a computer and the internet.   addressing this literacy problem also led to the development of an online adult literacy training programme delivered in the home with a tutor and completing online homework tasks (craig, 2004).  learning online, at home and working from a screen was the crucial motivating factor for these learners to complete this literacy course.  from these first families a key outcome was an understanding of the close relationship between digital literacy (learning to use a computer) and literacy, and that a home computer could motivate adults to improve their basic literacy skills.  this has since been borne out by a new zealand report<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class=msofootnotereference><span class=msofootnotereference>[3]</a>that explores a range of factors associated with english literacy and numeracy among people aged 25-65 (lane, 2010) which finds that computer use was strongly associated with higher literacy and numeracy, especially with intensive and extensive reading, writing and numeracy practices (ibid.). home computer use is associated with greater involvement in personal literacy activities (ibid.).</p> <p>feedback from these first cih participants about their experiences and their dreams for their futures provided the blueprint for the cih scheme that has been continually reassessed, given the way other communities over the years such as the tuhoe and flaxmere groups have engaged with the concept.  it also helped shape the research agenda, suggesting social, educational and economic outcomes to measure.</p> <p><strong>participatory research and community action</strong></p> <p>the gulf between the academic research world and its perspectives and the experiences of the participants was great.  participatory research traditionally has employed interviewing techniques to break down the power inequalities between interviewer and interviewee.  most often researchers are advised to develop trust and rapport by building on shared experiences and revealing personal details (lyons &amp; chipperfield, 2000).  participants seemed reluctant to pick up on the interviewer's attempts to find some shared experiences (such as parenting) as a starting point for dialogue or conversation.  reflecting on the complex network of social relations in which both researcher and researched were positioned, this reluctance seemed to be related to a lack of confidence.  many of the participants worried that they were simply not up with the play, that they would not be able to keep up  with the pace of learning in the training sessions and would not be able to use the computer on their own at home.  in the early encounters between researcher and the researched, participants were more intent on getting assistance with basics such as housing and overdue bills than engaging in reflective interviews.  it was clear that participants saw the researchers as professional and from mainstream culture, as having social capital connections (pigg &amp; crank, 2004) and useful contacts in the world outside, and the interview an opportunity for the participant to pick up advice or information or get help with some technical issue with the computer or internet connection. </p> <p>the participatory research model is, at its core, concerned with equipping marginalised or 'excluded' groups in our communities with research capabilities and understandings that they can use to transform their own lives (hurtig, 2008).  its philosophical stand is that social transformation at the community level comes about as local people get involved in participatory education and thereby learn new critical practices that help them organise for change and achieve the power to take control of their everyday situations, a mobilisation capacity that was found among a group of cih parents in 2003 – 2005 longitudinal case study research (williams, 2009).   cih as a non-traditional or informal education scheme has been developed within such a transformative framework.  the researchers have drawn on the paolo freire pedagogical model for cultural transformation (1970), in particular his concept of participatory education as 'dialogue' or a conversation with learners and the premise that learning starts with the 'lived experience' of participants.  the project is also founded on freire's concept of 'praxis', dialogue between the researcher and practitioner that leads to action or change.  praxis is a way of building community and social capital and acting in ways that promote social justice.</p> <p>it took time for the researchers to 'connect' with the community, and consequently for the participants to see that taking part in research could be a reflective learning experience for them. the researchers learned that the adoption of this project by individual participants was not something that they could take for granted.  people are not passive recipients of new innovations (greenhalgh, robert, mcfarlane, bate, &amp; kyriakidou, 2004, p. 598).   they either find, or fail to find, meaning in them, and develop positive or negative feelings about them.  the sharing of stories at cih family meetings was the most powerful means of convincing participants that they could benefit from the project, that they could use internet banking, that they could support each other through chat or e-mail and other such discoveries. </p> <p>narratives have been very powerful persuasive tools to communicate the project to the wider nz audience.  providing a means for participants to share experiences is still, ten years on, key to any successful cih project and hence our interest in exploring the potential of social media  such as blogs or social networking to engage families in making sense of their experience. </p> <p><strong>collaborative participatory research: 'the tuhoe cih'</strong></p> <p>given the history of exploitation of indigenous peoples across the pacific through past colonising research practices, partnering with an indigenous maori community put the issue of power imbalances between the researcher and the researched to the fore in establishing cih in this community.  'the tuhoe cih' was the first community-initiated project led by a tribal entity, the tuhoe education authority (tea).  in order to work effectively with the tea it was important that the 2020 communications trust understood the nature of the partnership between the tea and the national ministry of education. this partnership gave the tea authority to govern all tuhoe schools as a cluster, finding solutions to issues with tuhoe learners that the ministry on its own could not.  the tea sought a similar relationship with the 2020 communications trust, whereby it would take on both ownership of the project and the responsibility to put research findings into practice. </p> <p>building on the research that revealed not only improved <i>whanau </i>(family) engagement with the schools, but economic and educational benefits for the adults in these communities (craig, 2004), the tea incorporated cih as a scheme into a broader strategy where the entire tuhoe region (including schools, homes and businesses) connected through a broadband and videoconferencing infrastructure.  today the 2020 communications trust is recognised for sowing the seeds of this transformation, but ownership lies firmly with the local <i>iwi</i>.  the resulting secure <a href="http://www.ngaituhoe.com/">tuhoe digital gateway</a> connects tribal members so that all tuhoe can be engaged in local decision-making and that knowledge can be better shared.  a key underlying principle is <i>kaitiakitanga</i>, in which there is 'guardianship, protection, care and vigilance of data about maori that is collected, stored and accessed' (kamira, 2007).  in response to loss caused by european domination of their culture and history in the past, tuhoe appropriate digital technologies now for cultural protection and production, such as in a site for <a href="http://www.ngaituhoe.com/folders/kiwigangs.html">tuhoe stories and interviews</a>.</p> <p><strong>measuring social cohesion: urban mixed method case studies</strong></p> <p>at some distance to the north of the children of the mist, 'the tuhoe cih', research was being conducted in two cih communities in the suburbs of new zealand's largest city, auckland, from 2003 2005.  the study looked to assess the role played by social cohesion in two communities and how this might relate to the sustainability of internet use among new users.  while the overall approach was qualitative in these case studies (williams, 2009), the research goal to assess how internet access and social cohesion are related in a free home internet scheme required a combination of methods.  internet use by cih participants over time, assessed using a survey, would be analysed together with various manifestations of social cohesion such as community involvement, volunteerism, evidence of solidarity, and others.  this methodology was planned to generate a range of types of data, and to permit dialogue between them so that conclusions could be drawn about social conditions that appear to be conducive to successful community internet.</p> <p>in-depth interviews between the researcher and adult cih participants thus also included survey questions relating to a quantitative internet connectedness index (ici). the ici is a multi-dimensional snapshot of people's relationship with the internet<a href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class=msofootnotereference><span class=msofootnotereference>[4]</a>, modelled on an index created for the metamorphosis project in los angeles (ball-rokeach et al., n.d.).  described as a "...qualitative conceptualization ... taking into consideration the breadth, depth, and the importance of individuals' internet experience" (jung, kim, lin, &amp; cheong, 2005, p. 64), the ici provides a numerical measure of an individual's relationship with the internet over time.</p> <p>the other key dimension, social cohesion, was assessed in these two cases at both individual participant level and at group level, from a variety of data using a detailed framework of eight characteristics that the literature agrees are features of a cohesive group (williams, 2010a).  these include whether or not people worked outside the home or did voluntary work, their intention to stay in the neighbourhood, the number of neighbours people knew by name, local social networks they felt they could rely on, and many more drawn from an extensive review of the literature.  results showed social cohesion was evidently stronger in one community (case a) at the beginning of the research than in the other (case b), and that this difference was sustained over time; and importantly, internet use was sustained by more participants in case a than in case b over the 2 year period of the research.  it is possible to infer here that a more cohesive community setting is related to more successful internet uptake, conclusions linked to specific features found in case a (williams, 2009) such as the participants there being more networked in their real-world neighbourhood, and a group among them mobilising to ensure the free internet scheme continued.  other features of social cohesion at case a included peer mentoring support, leadership by more confident users and knowledge sharing among the group (ibid., p. 233-234).</p> <p>this is potentially a most useful series of findings relating to the social networking dimension of cih as a community informatics model.  for example they imply that facilitation of social media use by regional cih coordinators (who have regular contact with all the communities of users) to take the social relationships dimension to another level, is on the right track.  what becomes a refrain in cih research and practice is the role played by social support in the new internet user context, support that helps ensure "the diffusion of innovations is essentially a social process consisting of people talking to others" (backer &amp; rogers, 1998, p. 17).  cih provides many opportunities for talking, especially in real world face to face settings such as at training sessions, parent meetings and in peer mentoring relationships.  the case study findings above underscore the potential for social cohesion, generated by dialogue among a group of cih participants, to support their ongoing internet use.  the findings thus also point toward consideration of web 2.0 tools social networking sites and blogs as additional means of building and maintaining group cohesion.</p> <p><strong>research tensions: informing practice and policy</strong></p> <p>cih research has a three-pronged mandate: informing practice and being responsive to each local community; directing the ongoing development of the project nationally by informing the 2020 communications trust; and reporting to funders and policymakers on key pre-determined outcomes.  the researchers have sought in the research design to provide the most meaningful data to those engaged in the day-to-day project activities at the community level as well as to satisfy the funders and policy officials with an investment in the economic and social benefits of the scheme.  there have been tensions between community storytelling or qualitative reporting and the collection of quantitative 'brute' data such as statistical measures of change in employment or education status of participants over time.  these tensions manifest themselves most openly at the community level in the process of data collection. participants willingly share stories of their personal experiences of the project, at celebrations or meetings, or more formally recorded research narratives.  however participants do struggle to complete survey questionnaires, hampered perhaps by literacy or language barriers, but more often querying the relevance of some of the questions posed by funders trying to tease out core economic benefits of engagement in the project. these tensions have been a valuable source of information to the researchers, accentuating the differences between what the participants value in the project and what their priorities are for their families and the community and the objectives set out by government (the core funder) for such social interventions.  this reinforces our argument that we consider it likely that if ownership of community storytelling can be truly in the hands of cih participants themselves through creating and publishing their own stories digitally, then sustainability of outcomes will be even more enduring. the use of social media in this way may challenge more traditional ideas about community ict research.</p> <p>the researchers (and authors of this paper) approach these communities with differing theoretical and methodological perspectives, those of communication studies and education. while each author has built theoretical models originating in different disciplines and published to a variety of audiences, they share an overall goal of contributing to community informatics research and practice to promote social justice.  while the research instruments and datasets may differ, the questions guiding analysis and interpretation are in essence the same. </p> <p>both researchers combine qualitative and quantitative research strategies in their research designs. the in depth case studies in two auckland communities discussed in the preceding section illustrate a mixed methods approach blending quantitative and qualitative material that generated complex data tracing both internet connectedness and social cohesion in the researched communities (williams, 2009).  these rich studies approached from a communication studies framework also informed aspects of cih project implementation such as clarifying responsibility for project management so that external agendas would not stifle local ownership, and affirming the importance of existing social networks in enhancing sustainability of internet use and potentially driving further social cohesion. </p> <p>the early cih pilot projects (cannons creek and panmure bridge) were concerned with education outcomes.  the mixed methods approach in these case studies documented  preand post-educational  statistical outcomes (literacy and numeracy scores) for the children of families participating in the project and other quantitative measures such as changes in absenteeism, truancy and patterns of parent contact with the school alongside rich, intensive, multiple interviews over several months with the children's caregivers about their experiences of living with an internet-enabled computer in their home recording the adult learning experiences. the cih model of building community around the school is grounded in this very early research, as it indicated how such a scheme can help children's learning by giving parents the skills and digital means to support their children and also that many parents make use of that home internet connection to go further with their own learning and seek new employment opportunities.</p> <p>this interdisciplinary research over the years has therefore informed the implementation of the cih model at the national level driven by the 2020 communications trust.  funding for the scheme has also been tied to research evidence.  the small-scale early pilots were heavily reliant on community contributions and volunteers with minimal short-term funding from a number of interested government agencies such as education and economic development. instruments developed over these ten years to measure economic and social benefits at the community level have in the last year (2010) produced sufficient evidence to guarantee ongoing annual funding for cih at the cabinet level involving multiple government agencies.  additionally the ministry of education funds a separate cih programme for refugee families as they settle into new zealand communities.  the 2020 trust may be able to achieve its goal of connecting the homes of every new zealand family with school-aged children but the funding demands a more sophisticated research design to better capture longitudinal data.</p> <p><strong>cih research today:  community ownership and social media</strong></p> <p>with more than 6,000 families participating today it is no longer feasible in terms of time and travel for researchers to spend time in every community of every region conducting intensive one-on-one interviews. cih now today operates out of a national 2020 trust office located in the capital city of wellington, adjacent to central government, business and education.  this office is staffed with a part-time administrative assistant and a full-time cih national coordinator who supports the regions and their projects as well as the refugee cih.  a team of 18 part-time regional coordinators and technicians are backed by local steering committees which manage the local projects.  regional coordinators come together four times a year with the national office staff and researchers to coordinate and plan.</p> <p>toward the end of the last decade, the cih coordinating group made the pragmatic decision that the national office would restrict its research responsibility to the collection of quantitative survey data (online preand postmeasures of social and economic benefits) for government, policy reporting and lobbying purposes, while requesting that regional coordinators capture those rich research narratives at the community level. a challenge for the researchers at the national level is getting accurate and complete responses from community participants to online forms.  regional coordinators and local trainers assist with the administration of the online surveys as part of training in the community technology centre (ctc) facility at the school or when participants come together for a project meeting.</p> <p>in order to collect these narratives, the cih team began to employ social media, specifically blogs, which not only permit communities to tell their own stories rather than a researcher doing so, but also invite the expression of identity and culture.  it is at the community level that the project is exploring the use of blogs as a research tool.  regional coordinators have attended workshops on community-based research (stoecker, 2005), specifically learning narrative interview techniques and exploring how, as researchers, they might use these local stories in community-based project development.  each coordinator is responsible for their <a href="http://www.computersinhomes.org.nz/the-programme/the-projects">regional blog</a> and its content.  the layout and visual design varies, but each of the twenty-one sites document progress in the project with visual images, videos and stories that may be authored or produced by any of the community participants.  these <a href="http://www.computersinhomes.org.nz/the-programme/the-projects">regional blogs</a> may be accessed through the cih website.   community development is now the responsibility of those in the local community. the tuhoe cih sits as a model of how the community can take ownership of this scheme.</p> <p>a next-stage study is also in progress aiming to build on the 2003 – 2005 social cohesion studies (williams, 2009) through research that evolves in partnership with the school to foster social media use.  thirty-one families from an urban primary school in avondale, auckland, completed their cih training and started their home internet use in july 2011.  the researcher is liaising with the "it lead teacher" (chiefly responsible for the cih group), the school principal, and the group of 31 families, to develop ways of documenting their experiences that suit the parents and the school.  collaborative research may assist in guiding progress toward the principal's key objective of fostering family connectedness with the school through cih which she sees as an opportunity for home-school partnership.  the community itself provides the impetus, with the "research" comprising the sharing of knowledge (such as different ways to use an online community) among the teacher, parents, mentors, helpers and "the researcher", and ultimately shared experiences such as interviews or journals or other outcomes are being created together.   positive signs of a sound basis for further home-school connectedness, as desired by the principal, are present: high attendance at the training sessions, close supervision and mentoring both by volunteers and the parents amongst themselves, as well as relaxed socialising in the school staffroom have all laid the groundwork for a feeling of belonging to the group and "the school family", a metaphor used by the principal in talking with parents.  social media may now provide further ties that bind in this learning community. </p> <p><strong>conclusions and future directions</strong></p> <p>we have shown in this paper that community informatics research tracing the outcomes of cih in new zealand has been intrinsic to its evolution.  in the early years of implementation, participatory research by one of the authors (craig, 2001) yielded focus group notes and stories from interviews that were transcribed and analysed.  these forms of data were instrumental to the conduct and overall success of the scheme in the early years (craig, 2004), being tailored to the requirements of the 2020 communications trust and its goal of being responsive to the needs of local community groups, as well as informing improvements to cih implementation. the two urban mixed method case studies in the mid-2000s combined qualitative interviews with a quantitative measure of social cohesion and internet connectedness in order to understand the relationship between community support and the uptake of the internet (williams, 2009). these indepth studies have informed other facets of cih project implementation, in particular the critical role of real world connections and mentoring relationships in successful projects.</p> <p>these are important lessons for future implementation; we maintain that now is the time to make real grassroots ownership of the research through putting the community storytelling into the hands of cih participants themselves. these regional stories can apprise those  project personnel on the ground how to act on local values, needs and issues. thus research and practice have intersected for some years in computers in homes in order to enhance its effectiveness, and will continue to do so as both academic researchers and community practitioners work to harness new media to further inquire into socially just outcomes in our communities.</p> <p><strong>references</strong></p> <p class="_enref_1">2020 communications trust. 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(2010). building digital communities: a history of the 2020 trust. in j. toland (ed.), <i>return to tomorrow: fifty years of computing in new zealand</i>. wellington: new zealand computer society.</a></p> <hr /> <div id=ftn1> <p><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class=footnotecharacters><span class=footnotecharacters>[1]</a>  computers in homes operates in low-income communities and in refugee communities.  specific details of the regions where there are active projects as well as information about early community sites can be found at <a href="http://www.computersinhomes.org.nz/the-programme/">http://www.computersinhomes.org.nz/the-programme/</a></p> </div> <div id=ftn2> <p><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class=footnotecharacters><span class=footnotecharacters>[2]</a>  new zealand schools are assigned a decile ranking from 1 to 10, calculated from census statistics on income, occupation, household crowding, education and on income support (ministry of education, 2008, 'deciles information' section).  cih works predominantly with the most economically disadvantaged 10% of communities ranked decile 1.</p> </div> <div id=ftn3> <p><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class=footnotecharacters><span class=footnotecharacters>[3]</a>  a significant new finding is that computer use is strongly associated with higher literacy and numeracy, especially the combination of work and home computer use (lane, 2010).  computer use is particularly prevalent in managerial, professional, technical and clerical occupations, is associated with intensive and extensive literacy and numeracy practices, and is associated with involvement in ongoing education and/or training. work computer use or non-use divides jobs broadly into those that require higher literacy and numeracy and those that don't. home computer use is associated with greater involvement in personal literacy activities (ibid.). thus a large overlap exists between the groups of people with low literacy and low numeracy, and the group of people who do not use a computer at work.</p> </div> <div id=ftn4> <p><a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class=footnotecharacters><span class=footnotecharacters>[4]</a>  the metamorphosis ici, ranging from 1 (the lowest internet connectedness) to 12 (the highest internet connectedness), is made up of eleven items.  these are: evaluation of the internet; how much would one miss the <i>computer</i> when absent; how much would one miss the <i>internet</i> when absent; time spent online; history of home computer use; time spent on online activities; scope of goals in internet use; scope of online activities; scope of places of internet use; scope of computer use; scope of email use.  the version of the metamorphosis ici used for the cih case studies was made up of eight items, omitting the items 'scope of email use' and 'scope of pc use', and combining the two separate technology dependency questions into one.</p> </div> role of icts in indian rural communities role of icts in india rural communities siriginidi subba rao central leather research institute <siriginidi@gmail.com> introduction information is the key to democracy. with the advent of information technology (it), it has become possible for common man to access global information. information in a broader sense includes oral communication, voice in telephony, text in fax and newspapers, images in video and television broadcasting, and data in computers. all information can be digitized, transported, stored, retrieved, modified and then distributed. emerging digital techniques, new network alternatives including intelligent networks, high bandwidth communication technology and state-of-the-art software for network functions and services, are the new technology trends evident in the development of electronic communication systems. the swift emergence of a global “information society” is changing the way people live, learn, work and relate. an explosion in the free flow of information and ideas has brought knowledge and its myriad applications to many millions of people, creating new choices and opportunities in some of the most vital realms of human endeavor. yet most of world’s population remains untouched by this revolution. the paper discusses the need to focus on indian rural communities to empower them to access information, knowledge and poverty alleviation among them by deploying the information and communication technologies (icts). analyses the factors preventing rural communities from reaping the benefits of icts, indian initiatives to overcome the factors, ways and means of poverty alleviation and sustainable development; identifies the bottlenecks and solutions, and lessons learned. need to focus on indian rural communities even after 57 years of india’s independence, the country is still facing pressing problem in dealing with its rural poor and how to increase their income level. the rural-urban distribution of population in india and select states is provided at table 1 (census of india, 2001). out of 1027 million (102.7 crore) population, 742 million (72.2%) live in rural areas and 285 million (27.8%) in urban areas. the rural populace are living in 600,000 villages spread over 27.60 lakh sq km, across india with very poor or no infrastructure like roads, transport, power supply, clean drinking water, healthcare, education system, communication network, etc., further pushing them to poverty. according to india's first social development report a large proportion of indians are still below the poverty line: 26% or about 260 million (193 million in rural and 67 million in urban areas). the poverty is increasingly concentrated in a few geographical locations and among specific social groups. the incidence of poverty as per 1999-2000 figures, punjab state has the lowest of 6.16%, followed by haryana at 8.74% and kerala at 12.72%. orissa state has the highest incidence of poverty of 47.15%, followed by bihar at 42.60% and assam at 36.09%. though, poverty levels have shown a decline, there is huge disparity among social classes with percentage of the poor among scheduled tribes being 43.8, scheduled castes 36.2 and other backward classes 21 (dhar, 2006). india/state/union territory* population % rural population total rural urban india 1,027,015,247 741,660,293 285,354,954 72.22 jammu & kashmir 10,069,917 7,564,608 2,505,309 75.12 punjab 24,289,296 16,043,730 8,245,566 66.05 delhi* 13,782,976 963,215 12,819,761 6.99 uttar pradesh 166,052,859 131,540,230 34,512,629 79.22 bihar 82,878,796 74,199,596 8,679,200 89.53 assam 26,638,407 23,248,994 3,389,413 87.28 west bengal 80,221,171 57,734,690 22,486,481 71.97 orissa 36,706,920 31,210,602 5,496,318 85.03 madhya pradesh 60,385,118 44,282,528 16,102,590 73.33 maharashtra 96,752,247 55,732,513 41,019,734 57.60 andhra pradesh 75,727,541 55,223,944 20,503,597 72.92 karnataka 52,733,958 34,814,100 17,919,858 66.02 kerala 31,838,619 23,571,484 8,267,135 74.03 tamil nadu 62,110,839 34,869,286 27,241,553 56.14 pondicherry* 973,829 325,596 648,233 33.43 table 1: rural-urban distribution of population – india and select states mass poverty is affecting india’s ability to compete against countries with better physical infrastructure for connectivity, informed citizenry and more educated population for foreign direct investment that india needs to face a fiscal deficit. with its current rate of growth, existing work culture and policies, it would be difficult to keep pace for poverty eradication, until government redefine its policies and strategies dramatically, apply icts innovations with application and active participation from private sector, community based organizations and non-governmental organizations. when india tries to push its growth to 8-10% in the next ten years, lives of the poor would remain visibly unchanged. even in the best-case scenario, per capita income in india would rise from the current us $ 300 per year to all of us $ 500 per year a decade from now (jaggi, 2003). icts role in rural communities icts play a major role in a nation’s politics, economy, social and cultural development. these fuel the global economy and relate to human rights, helping at best, to support freedom of expression and right to information according to article 19 of the universal declaration of human rights. about 1.2 billion people are experiencing extreme poverty that is considered by many to be the worst human rights violation in the world. consequently, the global development community has endorsed in the united nations' millennium development goals its commitment to halving the number of people living under one dollar a day by 2015 (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/; http://www.undp.org/mdg/, accessed january 30, 2006). to achieve this, how far icts will help in decision-support systems? do icts have any role in improving services to citizens? do icts aid in empowering citizens to access information and knowledge? do icts create new divisions between rich and poor or reduce existing socio-economic divides? do they have any direct role in poverty alleviation or just a luxury that the poor can ill afford? the paper presents that icts, if supported with right policies, crosscutting and holistic approaches, will complement and strengthen other multi-sector efforts that are required for poverty alleviation. it is essential to define icts, before discussing the issues further. icts broadly cover the set of activities that facilitates capturing, storage, processing, transmission and display of information by electronic means. the organization for economic co-operation and development (oecd) (2002) defines icts sector as a combination of manufacturing and services industries that capture, transmit, display, data and information electronically. this definition makes a useful distinction between manufacturing and service dimensions of icts and paves way for understanding multi-dimensionality of icts and its applicability to help reduce poverty across various sectors. the service role of icts can enhance rural communities opportunities by improving their access to market information and lower transaction costs (for poor farmers and traders); increase efficiency, competitiveness and market access for developing country firms; enhance ability of developing countries to participate in the global economy and to exploit their comparative advantage in factor costs (particularly skilled labors); health and education. furthermore, icts can promote greater transparency, speed-up decision-making process of governments and thus empower rural communities by expanding use of government services, and reduce risks by widening access to microfinance. however, barriers to access, high costs and minimal human resources often prevent those living in poverty in reaping the benefits. when private and civil sectors work together as partners, benefits of icts can be greatly enhanced, returns to the community improved and profits increased. factors preventing rural communities to reap benefits from icts there are a number of important factors preventing rural communities in developing countries from reaping benefits of icts. without developing access models that can address these factors, rural masses will be left far behind urban dwellers closer to digital opportunities. the basic indicators (population growth of 2004, gdp of 2003 and teledensity of 2004) and it indicators of 2004 (number of hosts, users and pc penetration) for select regions/countries have been provided at table 1 (itu, 2005a & b). regions/ countries indicators basic it population (in millions) gdp per capita (in us $) tele-density no. of hosts users (in k) pcs per 100 americas 869.94 15,249 76.51 205,480,386 245,752.2 12.52 usa 293.66 36,273 122.71 195,138,696 161,632.4 65.89 europe 801.31 14,353 111.58 29,040,707 250,239.4 28.48 uk 59.80 26,369 158.51 4,173,453 37,600.0 60.02 asia 3,717.79 2,361 33.56 27,986,720 305,242.2 6.39 india 1,081.23 560 8.44 143,654 35,000.0 1.21 china 1,299.88 1,096 49.74 162,821 94,000.0 4.08 world 6,359.70 5,528 46.41 267,541,177 841,757.3 9.63 table 2: indicators for basic and it for select regions/countries deploying icts to empower poor and lead them to the road of prosperity can be achieved through poor-oriented governmental policies rather than corporate-oriented. the constraints are: (i) lack of awareness about benefits of icts: despite growing number of people who own a computer and have internet access, most people in developing countries have little opportunity to connect to the internet. they are unaware of socio-economic benefits and stimulus to good governance that icts can bring. the quasi-absence of demonstration projects in some countries, very limited information is available to assess and to advocate the impact of icts for development. though india has a strong and fast growing it industry, access to icts remains very low, particularly in rural areas. the present indicators of it penetration in indian society are far from satisfactory. pc penetration is 1.21% (china with 4.08%, asia at 6.39% and world average at 9.63%). the installed base of computers is more than 13 million (itu, 2005b). to demonstrate awareness and impact of icts among people, projects such as hole-in-the-wall training system (http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/, accessed january 30, 2006) for slum area boys and girls who has no knowledge of english and worldcorps (http://www.worldcorps.org/, accessed january 30, 2006) for imparting technical and business skills that promote employment such as internet centres to economically poor, are already functioning. (ii) lack of access facilities: the access facilities mainly comprise computers and connectivity in rural areas. the internet and computer are expensive to be accessible to ordinary citizens. it is often available only in urban centers, where most internet service providers (isps) have their market. despite the ongoing deregulation of india’s telecommunications sector, its national teledensity is one of the lowest in the world at 8.44 (china with 49.74, asia at 33.56 and world at 46.41) (itu, 2005a). the department of telecommunications, india has set a target teledensity of 22 by 2007 by observing the increasing trend of 11.4 in 2005 due to mobile boom. currently, teledensity of rural stands at 2 in comparison to urban of 31 (singh, 2006). the internet arrived in india during 1995 for public use through videsh sanchar nigam limited. the current internet subscriber base is 3.24%, in sharp contrast to asian countries as korea with 65.68, malaysia with 38.62 and china with 7.23% (itu, 2005b). at present, there are 390 isp license holders, 64 in category ‘a’ and 135 & 191 each in category ‘b’ and ‘c’ and the operational ones are 189. the indian government has been propelling towards “information age” and “convergence” with an ultimate goal of “internet for all”. however, implementation has been beset with various operational, procedural, regulatory issues and supporting legal framework that is inhibiting reach and benefit of the internet to masses in the country (internet service providers association of india, 2005). to achieve “it for all by 2008”, india society for electronics & computer technology (http://www.aisect.org/, accessed january 30, 2006) has setup 4000 multipurpose it centres in rural and tribal areas in 29 states of india through 4500 training centres. it provides a variety of training and servicing modules in indian languages and nurturing entrepreneurship in electronics and it. it enrolls 150,000 students each year for courses covering school to university level and include a special training programme for women. further, a national centre for electronics and information technology has been set up to support and continue the programme. the decision of government-industry committee on “improving pc penetration” for a more affordable and 'no compromise' pc at inr 9,999 (us $ 229) to reach a target of 65 pcs per 1,000 people by 2008 bring relief to affordability of computers (steve, 2005). in the arena of connectivity, simputer costing less than us $ 200, with capability of reading a smart card and indian language processing, provide connectivity to several rural users (http://www.picopeta.com, accessed january 30, 2006) and provision of voice and internet services in undeserved village and small towns using cordect wireless in local loop (wll) technology (http://www.indusscitech.net/ashokj.htm) accessed january 30, 2006); facilitates easy access. (iii) language barriers in using the internet: these prevent people from familiarizing themselves with benefits of internet based information resources that invariably require an ability to understand international languages, especially english. as a result, most people in developing countries cannot read and understand most of the internet content. another factor is high illiteracy rate among rural people. in india, adult literacy rate is about 58.8% and female literacy rate is about 47.3%. there are 18 languages officially recognized, each having a different character set. about 66% of indians speak hindi and less than 5% of indian population understands english. realizing the need to overcome language barrier and offer it to the masses in their own language, the government initiated a language technology mission to make available these software tools and fonts in the public domain. the centre for development of advanced computing (http://www.cdac.in/, accessed january 30, 2006) has developed these, initially in tamil, hindi and telugu languages. similar efforts are in progress to develop software tools, utilities and applications in other indian languages. hcl (http://www.hclinfosystems.in, accessed january 30, 2006) has taken leadership initiative to preload this revolutionary offering across all its pc brands. this will go a long way in bridging the digital divide (i.e. gap in technology (computing and communications) usage and access between urban and rural people in developing economies) that to a large extent created by the language technology barrier (http://www.hclinfosystems.com/news41.htm, accessed january 30, 2006). (iv) lack of local language information products: lack of suitable information products tailored to the needs and assimilation capacities of rural people in developing countries. in order to better adjust their investment decisions people need updated information on market prices, new agricultural technologies and methods to raise quality of their products, adapt to changing climatic conditions or demands of agricultural markets. several projects successfully generated and made available locale specific information on network in the native languages including weather information, entitlements to rural families, prices of agricultural inputs, etc., in information village research (http://mssrf.org/iec/601/index.htm, accessed january 30, 2006) and poor people’s innovations and traditional knowledge visibility through a multimedia and multi-language database of solutions to local problems in honey-bee network (http://www.sristi.org/honeybee.html, accessed january 30, 2006), etc. (v) non-availability of government information through online: most countries do not have pro-poor ict policies (e-governance and rural commerce) and plans to reorient relevant government institutes as electronic service providers to boost rural development. the efforts of providing government information in the form of improving administration of land records, caste certificates, health services, information on government programmes, online public grievance redressal; etc., has tremendous success at wired villages of warana (http://informatics.nic.in/archive/inf2kapr/cover.htm, accessed january 30, 2006) and government-to-citizen e-commerce activity at the doorsteps of beneficiaries in gyandoot (http://gyandoot.nic.in/, accessed january 30, 2006). (vi) lack of motivation to use information over the internet: in spite of connectivity, people will not use icts unless they are motivated to do so. community ownership of access facilities and availability of facilitator are key factors to induce motivation. in tarahaat (http://www.tarahaat.com/tara/aboutusenglish, accessed january 30, 2006) the in-built motivation has empowered people to eliminate middle men in marketing their produce directly over network, online services to several rural communities and consumer-to-consumer, and e-choupal (http://www.echoupal.com, accessed january 30, 2006) has successfully bridged the gap between rural community and buyer, to increase income level of farmers. india in the context india is emerging as a testing ground for new technologies and business models that aim to narrow the digital divide. limitations in electricity, telephony, internet connectivity and other kinds of basic infrastructure in india’s rural areas are a key challenge for a number of development organizations (rao, 2002). the corporate sector too is discovering that bridging this digital divide could translate into new market opportunities (ribeiro, 2002). a number of innovative experiments already under way indicate that achieving global digital access and jump starting development may not be as difficult as many think. there are more than fifty grassroots projects in india that are using modern icts for the benefit of urban and rural citizens. in the long run, rural icts projects could prove to be the most effective means of driving changes in rural areas: (i) socially: by ensuring equal access for less privileged groups; (ii) economically: by creating new kinds of work and financial transactions; and (iii) politically: by improving the quality, speed and sensitivity of state apparatus to the needs of local citizens. the success of a rural networking initiative depends on how far it progresses down the stages of it and information diffusion: initiation, adoption, adaptation, acceptance, regulation and infusion. icts enhances access to information and communication spreading the telecom revolution to rural communities of india, grameen sanchar seva organization (grasso) (http://www.grasso.in/, accessed january 30, 2006) established in 2001, intends to establish physical, electronic and knowledge connectivity for economic development of rural population. it deploys 7,000-strong network of self employed people riding out on bicycles, carrying mobile phones equipped with cdma wll into 5,000 west bengal villages. these men get profits from all calls made while bringing telephone services to villages for the first time. grasso made it possible the mobile phone reach to 93% of west bengal’s 34 blocks, 46% of its gram panchayats and 14%t of its villages. further, in association with microsoft, ibm, wipro and tcs, grasso intend to setup 500 common service centres (cscs) in the state’s 3,357 gram panchayats. each csc acts as hub for about 20 services, ranging from electricity bill payment, tea and coffee to commodity trading, warehousing and cold storage. the plan is to have 3 phones in each panchayat, totalling 12,000 phones, resulting in 100% telephone coverage. the idea is to use telecom and it to strengthen distribution network of agricultural produce and make it more profitable (singh, 2006). infothela (http://www.iitk.ac.in/mlasia/infothela.htm, accessed january 30, 2006) initiated in january 2002, to deliver information and spread knowledge at village level where fruits of modern technology have not reached yet. the unit is basically a pedal driven vehicle like a common cycle rickshaw but with a pc having internet access through wireless technology, on board. an added pedal generator is designed to recharge the battery pack that powers computer while the vehicle moves from village to village. the unit serves a variety of purposes including education or entertainment applications, providing agricultural, weather and government information. further, it accommodates diagnostic testing equipments like blood pressure, blood sugar, some other primary health diagnostic and testing equipments. infothela was designed as a self-sustaining project and generate a self-employment avenue for urban and village populations. sustainable access in rural india (http://edev.media.mit.edu/sari/mainsari.html, accessed january 30, 2006) was initiated in november 2001 to demonstrate that creation and deployment of information and communication services and technologies (wll and information kiosks) in poor rural areas lead to improvements in health, empowerment, learning and economic development amongst the poorest and most disadvantaged communities. initially, it provided internet access and applications through 1000 connections in 350 villages in madurai district of tamil nadu. sari was later extended to 10 more districts and renamed as rasi (rural access services through internet). touch screen internet kiosks were installed through public-private-partnerships in all taluks of the state. icts in education increased and improved education through computers or about computers or both would contain the poverty in all fronts. there are several successful initiations to demonstrate the role of icts to promote education among poor and preventing poverty. hole-in-the-wall training system (http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/, accessed january 30, 2006) was initiated in 1999 as a minimally invasive education technology to incidental learning with minimum human guidance. it comprises of an unmanned, internet enabled computer with a track ball housed in a slum area. the continuous monitoring of use of computer through video capture showed that young boys and girls from the settlement became highly proficient at using graphic interface and in surfing parts of the web, regardless of their lack of proficiency in english, or the absence of any direct instruction. thus, the experiment demonstrated that children, irrespective of their social, ethnic or educational identity, learn to use computers by themselves, thereby closing the digital divide. about 40,000 in-school and out-of-school children have been directly impacted. this technique is being made available to the world through hole in the wall education limited by niit (kataria, 2005; world bank, 2006). computer-based functional literacy programme (http://www.tataliteracy.com/index.htm, january 30, 2006) was launched in february 2000 in beeramguda village in medak district of andhra pradesh (ap) to combat illiteracy with a new approach to learning, using multimedia and flashcards to fortify learning experience. the lessons focus on reading, tailored to fit different languages and even dialects and are based on the theories of cognition, language and communication. the programme is currently operational in 1000 centres in several states of india and helped more than 20,000 people to read. tata is of opinion that if implemented properly, the project can make 90% of india literate in 3 to 5 years. schoolnet india limited (http://www.schoolnetindia.com/, january 30, 2006) was initiated in 1998, to support education infrastructure for enhancing the quality of human capital of india. k-yan (vehicle of knowledge) is a low-cost new-media product for community learning that aims to bring benefits of information age to the masses across the country. learnet india limited is one of the leading e-learning service providers in the country, such as learnet’s info quest, continuing learning management system, assessment online system, schooltracktm, etc. further, commendable work was done in the field of k-10 education, the content of which is curriculum-mapped to identify different teaching aids. icts in economic interventions/entrepreneurship icts play an important role in direct poverty alleviation by enhancing activities of poor and increasing their productivity by way of new credit and financial services, new opportunities to design, manufacture and market products through the internet or intranet systems, etc. these interventions can be successful only when accompanied with other supporting infrastructure consisting of access roads, storage facilities, competitive markets and opportunities to global market. the impact of select projects demonstrates various levels of reducing poverty. itc’s e-choupal (http://www.echoupal.com, accessed january 30, 2006) was initiated in june 2000 and empowers farmers with expert knowledge by innovatively leveraging it. it regards poverty, farming and rural livelihoods as interrelated issues. it provides farmers real time access to customized knowledge on specifically designed web sites in their own languages and helping them align farm output to market demands and secure better quality, productivity and improved price recovery by eliminating middlemen. it has enabled over 3.5 million farmers to lift themselves out of poverty through 5,250 e-choupals in 31,000 villages in 6 states of india. the empirical analysis of the impact of e-choupal shows that income from farming and support services rose by over 38% since 2000 and from farming alone rose by about 10% in 2004. over the next decade, it plans cover 100,00 villages, representing 1/6 of india's villages to create more than 10 million e-farmers. the model has also generated various employment oportunities in central and northern india for rural educated youths (ramachandran, 2005; raturi & shukla, 2005) development of humane action (dhan) foundation (http://www.dhan.org/adhan.htm, accessed january 30, 2006) was initiated in october 1997 and primarily involved in promoting community-based organizations in microfinance with an objective of bringing out new innovations in rural development and for upscaling development interventions to eradicate poverty. in its networked microcredit programme of community banking, handheld devices are used for faster data processing. it has promoted more than 5000 self help groups (shgs) with over 80,000 members and 20 federations. the shgs have inr106 million (us $ 2.6 million) in savings and have obtained inr 169 million (us $ 3.69 million) as loans from formal financial institutions. the federations have around 200-250 shgs as members. dhan’s federation model is a nested one all shgs in a block are members in a block level federation and shgs in a cluster of villages are members in cluster development associations. it has reached to 326,158 families in 35 districts of 7 states in india. information village research (http://www.mssrf.org/, accessed january 30, 2006) was initiated in january 1998 and connected 10 villages near pondicherry in southern india by a hybrid of wired and wireless network, consisting of pcs, telephones, radio devices and email connectivity through telephone lines. it empowered villagers to access necessary information to improve their lives, with involvement of local volunteers who gather information, put the information on an intranet and provide access through nodes in the villages. the project uses local tamil language, while the local communities have participated right from beginning with the project. most of operators and volunteers are women, empowering them with both status and influence. information provided in the village knowledge centres is locale specific and relates to prices of agricultural goods, market, community information, health care, cattle diseases, transport, weather, etc. the project is an inspiring example of how breaking the information barrier can change rural lives (balaji, et al., 2001; rao, 2004). ascent (http://www.toeholdindia.com/people.html, accessed january 30, 2006) implements kolhapuri, the traditional handcrafted footwear, emphasizing ethnicity and natural finish, by deploying computer aided design to enhance artisanal production of kolhapuri style of cheppals and hosts on the web site. motivation and enabling has made it possible for the artisans to promote their own signature brand toehold; become a fashion statement and all set to secure a foot hold in the global market, adding a whole range of new designs to the existing traditional ones. the artisans believe each of their shg, formed as saving and credit affinity groups of 15 to 20 women, to be a tiny company and they will soon have a big company to take up all marketing and development activities. toehold artisans company will be the first grassroots women majority company. icts in health programmes there are many successful initiatives to demonstrate the role of icts to promote health of the poor and preventing poverty that originate from poor health by way of providing superior medical advice, diagnosis or knowledge in their locality. sisu samrakshak (http://www.cooptionstech.com/sisusamrakshak.htm, accessed january 30, 2006) initiated in october 2000, provides icts enabled child health care aimed at accelerating delivery of child development, health and protection services. data is collected by using hand held devices and communicate it to nearest rural centers. it also, provides access to information on health, education, agriculture, water supply and sanitation, public services for economic and social development in rural and underserved sections of ap, india. the unicef plans to train and appoint from rural communities as anganwadi workers, frontline health workers and auxiliary nurse midwives, to monitor maternal health, nutritional development and childcare (thompson & khara, 2003). networked hiv/aids intervention (http://www.itforchange.net/ict4d/display/117, accessed january 30, 2006) initiated in 1989 by samuha (http://www.samuha.org/, accessed january 30, 2006) uses icts and gis technology for hiv/aids intervention and awareness program in devadurga, karnataka, india. networked intervention cells offer outpatient services to afflicted persons, provide awareness, prevention counseling to vulnerable communities and serve as an interface with local community. the resultant effect would be that afflicted persons might enjoy wider community support. to enable government-run primary health centres (phcs) that serve medical needs of the rural population, george foundation in 2000 co-managed bagalur phc comprising of 80,000 people in tamil nadu by deploying a computer software early detection & prevention system 2000 that consists of a database of disease characteristics and conditions, and the logic to diagnose symptoms (http://www.tgfworld.org/edps2000.html, accessed january 30, 2006). it facilitates early detection of diseases and nutritional deficiencies among rural population. the foundation started its own baldev medical & community centre, to demonstrate how healthcare, health education and many essential rural community services can be delivered in a cost-effective way within a private model, serving a rural population of over 15,000 in 17 villages. icts in governance icts facilitate improved access to government and quasi-government resources and services. good governance ensures transparent use of public funds, growth of private sector, effective delivery of public services, rule of law, etc. it also facilitates pro-poor policies and foolproof macroeconomic management. the factors that have influence on denial of basic services to the poor are lack of investment, institutional structures that lack accountability, domination by local elites and well-to-do, widespread corruption, culturally and socially determined inequality, and lack of participation by the poor (asian development bank, 1999). the lack of systematic, transparent recording and public documentation of government data also affects poor, as in the case of land records. without land records as collateral, poor cannot obtain loans and often cannot get assistance from government poverty alleviation programs intended for small farmers (warschauer, 2003). icts aid to facilitate speedy, transparent, accountable, efficient and effective interaction between public, citizens, business and other agencies; promote better administration and business environment, and saves money in costs of transactions in government operations (backus, 2001). drishtee (http://ind.drishtee.com/, accessed january 30, 2006) was initiated as an organizational platform for developing it enabled services to rural and semi-urban population through the usage of state-of-the-art software. it offers services including access to government programmes and benefits, market related information and private information exchanges and transactions. it uses a tiered franchise and partnership model. it aims to create 50,000 information kiosks all over india within a span of six years. these kiosks potentially serve a market of 500 million people. drishtee has demonstrated its concept in over 90 kiosks across five indian states within two years (http://www.dpindia.org/pub_case_drishtee.htm, accessed january 30, 2006). the computer-aided administration of registration department (card) (http://www.ap.gov.in/card/abt_card.htm, accessed january 30, 2006) initiated in august 1996 in ap, india, deploys networked computers to reform the processes of registering deeds and stamp duties, and completes transactions in two hours. by traditional methods, this involves 13 steps in opaque process that involves bureaucratic delay and corruption, resulting a delay of 3-15 days. annually, over 120 million documents need to be processed. icts in promoting democracy icts play a major role in supporting the culture of democracy, democratic processes and civic values that uphold a democratic system. interventions in e-democracy involve processes on electronic interaction between government and citizens. the aim is to: provide for citizens access to information and knowledge about political process, services and available choices, and facilitate transformation of passive information access to active citizen participation by informing, representing, encouraging to vote, consulting and involving citizens. thus, icts aid in creating well-informed and active citizenship, undermining closed and undemocratic regimes, and supporting watchdog role of citizen groups. often the poor know their problems well, but they lack knowledge of larger socio-economic context of their poverty and various options to improve their situations. it is essential that development planners need to have direct contact with poor, to link development programs to realities. akshaya (http://www.akshaya.net/, accessed january 30, 2006) an implementation of kerala state it mission, aims to set up a network of 6000 information centres that would be able to impart basic it literacy to at least one member in each of the 6.5 million families of kerala. it will also provide services like data entry, desk top publishing, computer training and internet telephony; generate and distribute locally relevant content; improve public delivery of services for networking and computerizing 1214 local self-governing bodies to expedite transactions like issue of certificates, licenses, tax collection, etc. the existing centres are also being tapped to serve as agri-business centres for providing more services to citizens such as agriculture related information and inputs to the farmers. baatchit (http://www.jiva.com/enterprise/baatchit.asp, accessed january 30, 2006) initiated in november 2001, aims to facilitate information access, communication, entertainment and socio-economic opportunities within villages, while promoting indian heritage and cultural values. it empowers villagers by providing them with easily accessible information through iconic baatchit community software. the priority areas are government, schemes, employment, animal, agriculture, banks, vehicle, health, and housing, transcribing into the local language, so that the literate villagers can understand the information being provided to them. audio-visual presentation of the information helps the illiterate users. bottlenecks and solutions the basic requirements for successful implementation of rural icts initiatives are electricity, hardware, appropriate software, telephony, network connectivity and policy guidelines. the electrical supply in many rural areas will be restricted to only 6 or 8 hours with varying voltage and frequency that are far outside the acceptable limits of hardware. often grounding is not available. for most rural icts projects, battery back-ups, universal power supplies, solar power panels, circuit breakers and voltage stabilizers are necessary. several hardware innovations are emerging in the country to function for 4 hours and more without recharging. on the hardware front, pcs remain expensive, fragile, quickly obsolete, english-centric and complex in operation. the human-mediated computer kiosks, shared among multiple users of a rural community, could in fact prove to be most inexpensive and inclusive form of rural infrastructure. this, means moving from a pc paradigm to a community computer (cc) platform. the investment (hardware-cum-software-cum-connectivity) on ccs shared by the citizen-consumers that it serves 500 to 2,500 every week. thus, the hardware cost per capita reduces to miniscule. further, a number of technology companies including hewlett-packard (http://www.hpl.hp.com, accessed january 30, 2006) are developing products and services (a 4 in 1 computer that splits a conventional pentium iv linux-operating machine into 4 separate workstations); picopeta simputers (http://www.picopeta.com, accessed january 30, 2006) developed a simputer or simple computer for less than us $ 200, that can read a smart card, has advanced audio and text processing capabilities in several indian languages; via technologies (http://www.via.com.tw/en/index.jsp, accessed january 30, 2006) and kanwal rekhi school of information technology, iit mumbai (http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/, accessed january 30, 2006) jointly developing a rugged (designed to withstand heat, dust and power problems, common in rural india), low power consuming pcs (run up to 30 hours on a 12-volt car battery) for the rural india and other countries. (http://www.channeltimes.com/channeltimes/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=70917, accessed january 30, 2006). these initiations can prove to help bridge the digital divide in emerging economies like india. on the software front, lack of standardization of code for major indian languages creates inter-operability problems between programs involving distinct codes. centre for the development of advanced computing (http://www.cdac.in/, accessed january 30, 2006) has been working on indian language fonts and software for over a decade. many rural icts projects use its fontographic standards or text-processing software. a machine language translation project, anusaraka (http://ltrc.iiit.net/, accessed january 30, 2006), promises to allow indian language users translation between various indian languages, as well as access to english language resources on the web. many villages lack landline telephones still. if they are available, they often go down for weeks at a time and may involve various kinds of incompatibilities that prevent data transfer. a wireless cb-radio-type system for relatively slow data transfers using fax protocols (used in information village research), vsats that connected directly to communications satellites (used in tarahaat) and telephone access in proximity to optical-fiber cable routes (used in gyandoot project) may be chosen as alternative means. the internet subscriptions do not always cover rural areas and connectivity will be achieved by making long distance calls to nearby cities. this results in slow and unreliable access. new developments in the area of connectivity are providing optimism, viz. wll systems are up-and-running in several districts across peninsular india from n-logue (http://www.tenet.res.in/activities/products/doc/bbcordect.php, accessed january 30, 2006; jhunjhunwala, 2004) service provider; private radio link installations that operate on 802.11 wireless protocol, demonstrated an operating range of up to 10 kilometers; prospects of mesh networks using either bluetooth or one of the two wireless standards; worldspace (http://www.worldspace.com/about/, accessed january 30, 2006), the satellite-radio broadcaster offers data and audio broadcasting capabilities, etc. observations/lessons learned from icts projects the experience with icts projects in india is a mixed one and few projects fared well. while initiation and implementation of these projects, various perspectives have to be taken into account, viz. technological, organizational, economic and social. the factors that contributed to the success of select projects are: (i) for e-choupal – ease of replicability and scalability model, customization of technologies to meet specific local needs, organizational commitment to success, involving local community members for training and selecting one of them as a coordinator and infusing high trust by profit sharing between platform holder and beneficiaries; (ii) for information village research – community readiness to accept innovations, economic benefits, high trust among the community, inclusion of gender sensitivity to take care of women empowerment and assurance of equitable benefits to the participants; (iii) for ascent intensive skill development efforts, high returns from new technology and reputation of implementing agency; etc. most of the projects rarely publish and publicize about their activities, except few. with no comparative study or linking across projects, the lessons learned by one project are not transmitted to the others. appropriate technologies are rarely evaluated and financial sustainability; scalability and cost recovery are seldom addressed. hence, opportunities to learn from the diverse, creative experience remain unutilized. the scalability of icts projects depends on levels of transaction costs involved in operations of the project. the project plans frequently ignore harsh realities and very few have substance for implementation. most of the projects are late and run into unexpected problems. every state in india has an agenda on computerization of land records and most of the records are legally contested. economically responsible projects are already proving more successful than charitable or free models. projects that identify and cost the services they provide are more successful. the sustainability of icts projects is high when external component of the project funding is of a reasonable level and the activities are sustainable. the wired villages of warana (cecchini & raina, 2003; katakam, 2002) was initially funded by the maharashtra state and central government and is currently maintained by sugarcane cooperative in the area and offers tangible benefits to sugar producers, and sugarcane growers. the presence and convergence of interests and expertise of existing corporate entities and beneficiaries enhance the chances of sustainability of icts projects. the e.i.d. parry (http://www.eidparry.com/agriland.asp, accessed january 30, 2006) has set up a series of info-kiosks in villages, partly to provide better information to farmers about agricultural inputs, harvesting of sugarcane and other matters. some projects disappear once the initial funding disappears, as the case of an apple project for rural health workers in rajasthan a few years back that was only recently taken up again by computer maintenance corporation (http://www.cmcltd.com/, accessed january 30, 2006).  it is highly essential to initiate projects by consulting at grassroots level for their success top down approaches do not work. these results in providing information that people do not really need or use; at an incomprehensible level of technical detail and terminology, or in a literary language that local people do not understand. an intimate understanding of the social and economic parameters of rural india gives connectivity providers a significant advantage. the initial information requirements may change over a period of time and therefore periodic assessment must to be undertaken. the systems for participation of beneficiary upfront enhance effective functioning of the icts projects, substantial benefits accrue to the poor only when beneficiaries are identified and involved at the project conceptualization stage. the successful projects are the ones that have regular review systems to assess the realization of benefits across different beneficiary classes. the content creation in local language is a prerequisite for project success. it is imperative to develop locally relevant content in local language and to present it intelligibly as well as offering suitable and adequate training. also, the nature of local content varies from region to region. without accessible, local content that addresses the real problems of local people in their own language and in terms that they can understand, the icts projects are bound to fail. the radio programs, especially designed to appeal to ordinary people are more effective than computers in reaching people about topics like best agricultural practices, family planning services, etc., since about 100% of the indian population has access to radio. the scope of it must be seen as reaching beyond that of just computers and the internet to include radio, tv, microchip technology, etc. the use of automated butter fat assessment equipment, as part of the akashganga (http://www.akashganga.co.in, accessed january 30, 2006) project is a classic example. the most promising uses of icts is in e-governance that involves two distinct activities: computerization of government functions (connecting state government head quarters to district officials, computerized registrations, land records, etc.) and provision of g2c and c2g connections through that citizens can obtain access to a variety of information (information about entitlements, access to records, rules, etc.). the gyandoot project makes available more than a dozen official documents that are legally valid if obtained from village cyber-kiosks under the right circumstances. the rural entrepreneurs and crafts persons are saving time, travel and effort. greater benefits will be felt when wired micro-credit accounts come into use for online or distance transactions amongst or within village communities. the creation of assets and training of people enhances the sustainability of icts projects. these projects work effectively when training is an inherent component of the project and skill development ensures rapid diffusion of innovation through interactions and communication. icts projects have assisted rural communities by providing them with news, information, advice and knowledge that has hitherto been inaccessible to them. this information has allowed rural citizens/consumers to make more informed economic decisions: landless laborers have negotiated their daily wages more effectively; and tractors, threshers, old television sets, cattle and motorcycles have all been traded across towns and villages due to online advertisements. until the cost of basic it devices that deliver the ‘last mile’ of connectivity and local language software is lowered, the goal of wiring rural india will remain a dream. conclusion creating information-rich societies is a key element of poverty alleviation and sustainable development. to empower poor people and to reduce digital divide, icts projects should be developed in local language prioritizing local needs and content; be a model of low cost solution so that poor people can replicate this model or can own or share the system; be owned and participated by community in general; be sustainable in long terms; be able to adopt and utilize innovative icts; and be supportive to local and public access points as in rural areas where divide is the widest. a national agenda on a c-8 thrust towards: connectivity provision, content creation, capacity augmentation, core technologies’ creation and exploitation, cost reduction, competence building, community participation and commitment to deprived and disadvantaged would definitely help in meeting the socio-economic aspirations of rural communities. references asian development bank (1999). “fighting poverty in asia and the pacific: the poverty reduction strategy.” manila. accessed january 30, 2006from: http://www.adb.org/documents/policies/poverty_reduction/poverty_policy.pdf backus, m. 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(2004). “n-logue:the story of a rural service provider in india.” the journal of community informatics,1(1). accessed january 30, 2006 from:http://ci-journal.net/viewarticle.php?id=25&layout=html katakam, a. (2002). “the warana experiment.” frontline, 19, pp. 8 kataria, s. (2005). “dewang mehta award for innovation in it for niit chief scientist sugata mitra.” accessed january 30, 2006 from: http://www.niit.com/niit/contentadmin/nws/nwspr/nwspr2/pr010405-sugata-dewang.htm oecd (2002). “measuring the information economy: annex 1. the oecd definition of the ict sector. paris. accessed january 30, 2006 from: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/34/37/2771153.pdf ramachandran, g. (2005). “rewarding resourcefulness, lifting lives.” accessed january 30, 2006 from: http://www.itcportal.com/newsroom/press_02july05.htm rao, s. s. (2002). “knowledge management in india’s rural community projects.” in online information 2002 proceedings, pp. 29-38. oxford: learned information rao, v. m. 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(2005). “pc penetration in india.” accessed january 30, 2006, from: http://www.nextbillion.net/newsroom/2005/04/26/pc-penetration-in-india thompson, w. b., khara, k. (2003). “using it to accelerate achievement of the millennium development goals.” accessed january 30, 2006 from: http://www.iconnect-online.org/stories/story.import5081 warschauer, m. (2003). “social capital and access.” universal access in the information society, 2, pp. 1-7. accessed january 30, 2006 from: http://classweb.gmu.edu/nclc348/f03/348socialcapital.htm world bank (2006). “commissioned paper: the “hole in the wall” experiments self-organizing systems for gender parity in primary education.” accessed january 30, 2006 from: http://web.worldbank.org/wbsite/external/topics/extgender/0,,contentmdk:20651331~pagepk:148956~pipk:216618~thesitepk:336868,00.html icts meanings and practices: contributions from the social representation approach mauro sarrica department of communication and social research university of rome, la sapienza rationale community informatics (ci) is at the crossroads of many traditions of research; gurstein (2007) identified at least seven antecedents of this area, each of them emphasising specific features, for example the design, project or implementation of information systems. according to gurstein (2007), social activism and community development especially brought to the foreground inter-individual interactions and the dialectical relationship between actors with different power capabilities; in other terms, two main features of ci: agency and empowerment of communities. the active role of communities is made explicit by authors who acknowledge that ci “sees lived-in and situated communities not as passive recipients of technological opportunities, but as actors engaged in the comprehension and ‘doing’ of community problem solving directed to social progress.” (stillman & linger, 2009, p.256). this is just one of the many possible perspectives adopted by ci and strictly connects ci to one of the well-established tradition of research in social psychology: the social representation approach. in this paper, i will summarise some examples of research conducted in italy from the social representation perspective and i will discuss some of the reasons why this approach may provide an useful framework for doing research in ci. prior to presenting the social representation perspective, it may be useful to summarise three points that differentiate it from the main strands of psychological research on icts and that parallel the premises of ci. first, a psychological research that treats icts as new worlds with which to test psychological processes already identified in the ‘ordinary world’. drawing upon a parallel with cross-cultural research, we may say that these investigations adopt an etic approach (pike, 1954) to icts, and mainly to the internet. that is, they look at technological spaces from the outside, trying to identify a restricted number of attributes and psychological features of these new contexts (anolli, 2006). as in cross-cultural psychology, the first goal of the researchers is “to identify cultural regions within which cultures are more or less alike” (triandis, 1996, p.408); the second goal is then to compare psychological processes occurring in different icts environment and between different icts users. the aim is often to define if and how icts act as interfering variables that influence, mediate or moderate classical processes such as intergroup discrimination (see spears, lea & lee, 1990, for a classical example). a second ensemble of research looks at the impact that new technologies have on communities and individuals. intense debates concern, for example, the positive or negative effects of the icts on the participation of youth to society, on the performance of work teams, on social movements, on individual and social well being and so forth (for examples see amichai-hamburger, 2009; brunstig & postmes, 2002; gibson & cohen, 2003; hujanen & pietikäinen, 2004). the impact metaphor is also used to describe the effects of icts on processes assessed at an individual level, such as memory. researchers, for example, reflect on new visions of human remembering that could help to overcome the traditional memory-as-archive metaphor (brockmeier, 2010). it is worth noting that, even if this research considers icts as brand new sources of change, they are strictly linked with a secular tradition that looks at the impact of new technologies on humans. for example as reported by simone (2000) – even plato in the phaedrus expressed concerns on the “new technology” of writing: “this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. you have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise.” (275a – perseus digital library). finally, a third group of investigations is concerned on how to use icts, and again the internet in particular, from the perspective of `positivist researchers: detached from the data and the participants. for example, buchanan and smith summarised the major advantages: easy access to large numbers participants with the most different personal characteristics (this is particularly relevant since the majority of psychological research is still done with university students), limited expenses, the possibility to let the study run by itself, the automatic inputting of data and, in some cases, also the possibility to have real time and automatic analyses (buchanan & smith, 2000). these three roughly sketched perspectives treat icts as independent variables. technological advances are considered as a kind of ‘natural category’ that has entered and that may dramatically change our cognitive processes, our well being, or our ways of doing research. in a word, these three approaches tend to answer to the how question: ‘how do icts affect our world’? from these points of view, the unexpected is an unpredicted outcome of a previously identified process: a divergence from the usual psychosocial mechanism. even if these are fundamental approaches, they tend to give little attention to the meaning associated with the technologies and to the situations in which icts enter everyday life. investigations conducted within the social representation framework, instead, are interested in studying situated communities and in understanding culture adopting an emic approach (pike, 1954): that is they focus on the ways in which communities actively define, re-interpret and use technological novelties, how researchers interact with participants in real-life settings and contribute to the meaning-making processes. paraphrasing lorenzi cioldi (2001) social representation researchers investigate when and why the unexpected happens. in order to answer this question they explore the meanings attached to icts, or, in other words, the social construction processes through which the sense and the practices associated to new technologies are continuously created and re-created by different communities. the social representation approach offers a well-established theoretical framework to interpret the way in which icts are socially constructed, the anchoring of different meanings in society and the practice of use of information and communication technology. social representations approach theoretical roots the social representations approach was first developed to understand how french society made sense of one of the scientific novelties of the 20th century: psychoanalysis (moscovici, 1961/1976). in his seminal work moscovici drew upon different theoretical traditions (moscovici & markova, 1998). a first root goes back to durkheim’s distinction between individual and collective representations, from this tradition moscovici draws the concept of representations: systems of meanings, concepts, images that transcend the individual level of analysis. differently from durkheim’s collective representations, however, the concept of social representations emphasise the continuous process of construction and reconstruction of meaning: social representations are negotiated and fluid. social representations emerge in de-traditionalized societies: “a social arena characterized by the mobility, […] the diversity of social groups, a high degree of reflexivity, […] the massive and widespread circulation of information through the development of mass media” (jovchelovitch, 2001, p.171). a second root of the theory is in structuralist anthropology and in piaget’s distinction between childish operative thinking and adult formal thinking. from these theoretical traditions, the social representation approach argues that people do not necessarily adopt rational thinking (in the sixties, this concept was not so obvious within social psychological mainstream). just as in ‘primitive’ cultures and in operative thinking social representations are not created following logical rules: their shared construction answers to the needs that specific communities have when facing novelties. as a result, the links between the contents of social representations are not strictly rational, and may even be incongruent with one another. this apparent contradiction, named cognitive polyphasia, serves to adapt representations without completely disrupting them, especially in times of change: see for example the researches by wagner on the coexistence of traditional and western medicine in indian communities (wagner, duveen, verma & themel, 2000). finally, a third root of social representation approach is in phenomenology and particularly in the attention to the everyday shared knowledge, to the often implicit meanings and interpretations that allow individuals and communities to communicate and to behave in meaningful ways. concept definition drawing on these premises, moscovici defined a dynamic semiotic triangle ego–alter–object (figure1) that characterise social representations as a space in between. social representations “are at the crossroad between individual and society, representations are a space-in-between, a medium linking object, subject and activities” (bauer & gaskell, 1999, p. 167). from this perspective, socially constructed meanings (ego-alter link) mediate the access to ‘reality’ and shape the ways objects are perceived and understood. a social representation is thus defined as a “socially elaborated and shared form of knowledge that has a practical goal and builds a reality that is common to a social set” (jodelet, 1989, p.48). they are forms of common sense, emotionally loaded, originated by debates within communities. moreover, social representations include reference to cultural dimensions and to behavioural enactments of meanings: social representations “combine a semantic knowledge and a belief that is rooted in the culture together with the practices people live by” (moscovici, 2001, p. 24). the social representation approach can thus be considered a social constructivist approach (contarello & mazzara, 2000). figure 1. social representations: the self-other-object triangle. origin of social representations in communities in summary, social representations originate when communities are pushed to cope with novelties (jovchelovitch, 2007). two basic processes, close to piaget’s models, are hypothesised by the theory: anchoring and objectification. anchoring serves to make the unfamiliar familiar: through this mechanism novelties are related to previous knowledge so to be intelligible. objectification, instead, serves to substitute the inaccessible ‘real object’ with a ‘tangible’ representation of the object that can be manipulated according to needs and goals of individuals and communities. that is, objectification consists in the elaboration of “an icon, metaphor or trope, which comes to stand for the new phenomenon” (wagner et al., 1999, p.99). once they are established – even if they continue to be negotiated representations provide communities’ members with shared systems of knowledge within which attitudes can develop, and communications and behaviours become meaningful (moscovici, 1992; wagner & hayes, 2005). social representations and icts from a theoretical point of view (farr & moscovici, 1984), icts have the basic features that allow social representations to be developed: icts are problematic, they are multifaceted and their pros and cons rise continuous debates and sidings; the meanings of icts are context dependent and are often linked to history and socio-cultural backgrounds; the relevance of icts in everyday life exerts pressure on communities, that are asked to interpret and to cope with technological advances. consequently, the social representation approach appears to be suitable for the study of icts. additionally, it enables us to connect different studies on the social construction of technologies to other research conducted within this broader theoretical framework. finally, the social representation approach provides analytical means of understanding the discrepancy between scientific knowledge and laypeople’s knowledge (moscovici & marcova, 1998). research examples within the social representation approach, several studies addressed the social construction of icts. in this section, results from some of the research conducted in italy in the last fifteen years will be presented to exemplify how different groups of respondents – e.g. adolescents, elderly, citizens or respondents from rural areas, participants characterised by different levels of social well-being – view and use icts in unexpected ways. a first example is provided by a research conducted with data collected in 1996 with a representative sample of people over 14 years of age (fortunati & manganelli, 2008). this data represents a baseline for later studies: suffice here to say the fax was included that among the investigated icts. in synthesis, the results indicate that the representational field of 1996 icts was organised around few major dimensions. in particular, the dimension of writing was separate from that of listening/reading: only fax, telephone, mobile phone and computer were considered proper telecommunication technologies thanks to the reciprocal communication that they enabled; television, newspaper and radio were instead grouped as a mass-media. moreover, mass media were further differentiated into information carrier (newspapers and television) and music/amusement carrier (radio and stereo). interestingly, as the authors point out, this representation may help to explain why, still today, the introduction of the internet via television encounters some difficulties. a medium which is based on interaction, in fact, can hardly be reduced to the information carrier features of traditional television. on the contrary the blurring of classic broadcasting and individual communication online (e.g. youtube) fits with the representation of tv as information carrier, with the listening-reading characteristics of the screen, and with the writing feature that is central to the social representation of means of communication. a second example is provided by a research on the beliefs about the internet conducted in 1999 in italy, just before the second wave of mass diffusion of the internet usually recognised in 2001 (capozza, falvo, robusto & orlando, 2003). the research, which aimed at presenting a new methodological approach, provides some interesting cues on the underlying meanings that may lead to develop a positive attitude toward the world wide web. university students, at that time the vanguard of occasional users, organised the representational field that is the structured ensemble of the elements that constitute a representation through the principle of quality of life. at the beginning of the internet era, when social networks were largely unknown, youth already recognised the link between being online and increasing both social relations and opportunities for self-expression (both at a professional and personal level). these two goals, together with the opportunity to increase personal knowledge, contribute to achieve an improvement of the quality of life. in other terms, internet was already conceived as a tool of self-expression rather than as a traditional media; the superficial and more evident opportunities of gathering information represented just a premise for the ultimate goal of the net: private enhancement trough self-expression. the authors concluded “such an image is interesting for a technology of recent diffusion” (p. 12); more than ten years later we may wonder if those results anticipated the spread of blogs, forums and of social network, that are perfectly included in that representation. we may wonder if the recent increase in web2.0 users is just a major epiphenomenona of that previous representation, in this case their unexpected spread would become perfectly understandable by referring to a ten years old social representation. more recently, adopting a socio-dynamic perspective (doise, clémence & lorenzi-cioldi, 1993) a research project has been carried out on the social representations of icts analysing the free associations elicited by stimuli such as the internet, mobile phone, computer and new technologies (contarello & fortunati, 2006; contarello, fortunati, gomez fernandez, mante-meijer, vershinskaya & volovici, 2008; contarello, fortunati & sarrica, 2007; contarello & sarrica, 2007) . the aim of this research program was: a) to explore the symbolic and emotional features linked with icts; b) to investigate the relationships with ideals of fashion, with representations of mobility and with the human body; c) to measure attitudes towards internet, the mobile, and the computer; d) to examine the role played by different levels of use and by different practices; e) to monitor the relationship with well-being. the key results revealed rich and ambivalent representations, in which multifaceted positive features merged with negative ones. the internet representation seemed to be governed by three main underlying principles: an inward versus outwards perspective; space versus time extension; function versus experience. of particular interest is the first dichotomy which emphasises two possible approaches to the net: a contained and protected place where to meet friends or a boundless frightening or challenging space where it is possible to enter in touch with others. in the first case the internet was represented as a room of one’s own, and practices reflected the tendency to go online to meet with ‘offline’ friends; in the second case, the web was used to explore novelties, to look at the world as from an open window. interestingly, these two main features of the internet are partially coherent with the 1999 representation of the net, signalling a shift towards more intimate use of the web. the representation of mobile phone merges usefulness, convenience and fashion (which appeared for the first time in the 1996 representation), with negative elements, such as uselessness, limitation, pollution, anxiety and annoyance. along time (2001-2003) worries and concerns, regarding interpersonal and social relations and health risks due to electro-waves pollution leave their place to physical, structural and functional descriptions. in this case, the representation evolved following a curve: from the communicative features of the ‘old telephone’ to the attractive-but-dangerous representation of the mobile at the beginning of 2000, back to the material and functional description of 2003. in other terms, once the mobile became an everyday tool of communication, as the ‘old telephone’, the functional aspects of its representation became hegemonic, i.e. the everyday common sense attributed to the mobile, and left in the background worries and concerns. finally, the effects of icts on social well-being show the same trend: in our first studies internet users reported an increase in general levels of well-being counterbalanced by a decrease in social acceptance and openness towards the others; more recently, the relation between icts use and social well-being appears to be less relevant. a last example provides some empirical data on how different representations of icts, which become manifest in their use practices, are linked with ideals of citizenship. in particular, research unexpectedly showed that especially those who use internet frequently endorse a restricted and partisan representation of citizenship (sarrica, grimaldi & nencini, 2010). those who mainly search for information on icts do not promote a new representation of citizenship: internet users do not refer to floating words (gergen, 2003) nor to new imagined communities (appadurai, 1990); on the contrary, they refer to a conservative representation of citizenship, more akin to the xix century partisan citizen than to the ‘new humanity’ advocated by the public rhetoric of internet. this myth seems to be endorsed more by those who experienced the transition to the digital world than to new users (cf. domingo, 2008). as for mobile phones in the 2003 research, the internet risks becoming just a mean of information among many others “it is not the most favourite and it does not seem as influential as traditional media or face-to-face communications”. in this context, this apparent lack of openness shown by icts users refers back to the ambivalent representation of the internet experience “bound to a diminished trust in people outside, counterbalanced by help and comfort from one’s own ingroup” (contarello & sarrica, 2007, p. 1030). an alternative explanation, for this and results that point in the same direction – and underlined by the cultural citizenship approaches (hermes, 2006; jones, 2006) – is that other narratives in the web play a more relevant role for young people than the informational model. conclusions in a recent paper, romm and taylor highlighted the issues that have attracted research in community informatics. the authors organised their review trying to answer a limited number of fundamental questions, among which: what makes ci effective in some communities, and what factor can interfere with the successful diffusion of it within communities? their analytical answer identified six main themes that interact with the success of it projects: technology, motivation, task, environment, politics and culture. as the authors state, culture has to be compatible with the goal of the project. “from a practitioner’s perspective, this would suggest a “culture analysis” of both the community values and the values embedded in the it to be diffused (romm & taylor, 2000, p.591). in a similar vein, williamson noticed that the primary aim of ci project is to guarantee the effective use of icts and concluded that “determinants of effectiveness are more than technological, and both the cultural and political environments must also be considered in determining the effectiveness of any initiative” (williamson, 2010, p. 322; see also mälkiä & anttiroiko, 2004 ). what is culture, however, and how to assess it remains a major problem for social sciences and humanities. the present contribution started from a slightly different perspective. rather than describing cultures as a set of predefined dimensions and assessing icts as external variables that interact with them, it adopted an internal perspective. it implicitly referred to the emic approach (pike, 1954) and looked at cultures as sets of shared knowledge, socially constructed that allow communication between members of specific communities and mediate with technological novelties. the present contribution suggested adopting a content-focused approach, and pointed out that relevant insight to ci may come from the social representations approach. icts have been considered having the basic features that allow social representations to be developed (farr & moscovici, 1984). icts were considered problematic and multifaceted issues, with intertwined pros and cons; their meanings were linked to history and socio-cultural backgrounds; and their relevance in everyday life led us to hypothesise that communities were in need to interpret and to cope with technological advances. what are the connections with community informatics? connections with ci still have to be explored in detail, but many elements suggest that the social representations approach can positively contribute to this field. at a theoretical and epistemological level, the social representation approach and community informatics share the same look to power dynamics and social activism (gurstein, 2007). both approaches focus on inter-individual interaction, they look at communication dynamics as a whole, different than the sum of the parts and consider that the social level of analysis give access to specific research dimensions that can hardly be reduced to individualistic features. moreover, the two perspectives look at communities as actors engaged in the making of social reality (stillman & linger, 2009). finally, doing research is not conceived as a detached measurement of subjects, but rather as a shared process of confrontation with participants and communities, often involving a pragmatic goal of positive transformation and development of communities. given these premises, a dialogical encounter between social representation theory and community informatics might bring positive insights for researchers interested in the relationships between icts and communities. what perspectives for future investigations? as the research that have been sketched show, the social representation approach allowed to explore the way in which new technologies were received and socially constructed by communities. moreover, results provided useful forecasts on the link between mobile and fashion, on the use of internet as a mean of self expression rather than of information gathering, and on the more recent defensive approach to the overwhelming vastness of the net. in sum, the social representations approach enabled to monitor the evolution of the shared meaning attributed to icts, and indicated possible reasons of the different approaches and uses of new technologies. in a few years icts entered everyday life and more and more ceased to be treated as a widely shared social issue. this shift is reflected by social representations contents, where abstract images have been gradually replaced by the description of parts and functions of the devices. the lack of debates seems to indicate that hegemonic representations are now widely shared by laypeople. future investigation may be directed toward the assessment of apparent contradiction, that is the unexpected: from a social representation approach, the coexistence of apparently contradictory contents is named polyphasia, it is a mechanism through which shared representations can be adapted to rapid societal changes. by allowing inconsistencies, polyphasia adapts representations without completely disrupting them (wagner, duveen, verma & themel, 2000). can we interpret the unexpected as a fruit of cognitive polyphasia? or is it the signal that new representations are being elaborated by subgroups that coexist within the same community? the next step will be to investigate if and how new representations of icts, developed by minorities interested in specific features (e.g. communities of 2nd generation immigrants), will be able to challenge the hegemony and to introduce new meanings in the representational field. moreover, further research is needed to investigate how the shared representations are enacted in different local contexts (e.g. at home, with grandparents, at work) and different societal environments (e.g. in technologically advanced countries, in broadband societies or in 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(2006). mídia cidadã: utopia brasileira. são bernardo do campo, sp: universidade metodista de são paulo. brl 32.00 (brazilian reais). http://editora.metodista.br/livro_midiacidada.htm noah lenstra university of illinois at urbana-champaign on november 28-30, 2005, a group of brazilian academics and activists came together at the methodist university of são paulo to discuss “media citizenship.” the conference participants, in the collective manifesto that resulted from the event, state: “in the media society, citizenship includes not only access to information, but also its comprehension, with citizens taking on the role of active agents in the processes of communication” (243). this democratization of the means of production of communication is elaborated upon in the four “media territories” of the conference: local press, community radio, folk-communication, and digital media. the book that resulted from the conference includes original essays around each theme followed by response essays by other conference participants. perhaps of most interest to non-brazilian audiences may be the essays on folk-communication, which draw on the theories of luiz beltrão, written in the 1960s and 1970s, on how the de-linked, marginalized brazilian under-class stays informed and participates in processes of communication through “activist mediators” able to operate as bridges between mass media and local communities. beltrão's theories, never translated into english, continue to have an important role in the brazilian academy. the author of the article on folkcomunicação, osvaldo meira trigueiro, a member of brazilian network of folk-communication, shows how the theories can enrich our understanding of the present information age. equally strong and compelling are the three articles on community radio, which describe a reality wherein around 15,000 community radio stations operate without any government authorization whatsoever. this profoundly grassroots movement, dating only to the 1970s, lilian bahia argues, shows the ability of the brazilian population to democratize media production without requiring state or corporate intervention. bahia, citing coelho neto, describes the resiliency of the movement: “political repression has not in any way stunted the increase or proliferation of community radio, owing to its popular appeal – it is common that the community will save the equipment from the stations invaded by police and private agents and, in surprising rapidity, re-open the station.” (p.124) however, bahia also notes that this movement has remained profoundly under-studied, with almost no archival sources or systematic studies on the community radio movement. in the essays on digital media, in contrast, the focus centers on the policy contexts and initiatives within which digital citizenship operates. andré barbosa filho and casette castro provide a demographic portrait of technology use coupled with a policy analysis of president luis inácio da silva's initiatives around open-source technology and the diffusion of technology. in response to this essay, s. squirra speculates that technology diffusion alone will not have an impact without a broad shift in the way education is conceived of in brazil: “life-long learning represents the differential that will maintain or eliminate people and businesses from the economy” (219). in conclusion, “midia cidada: utopia brasileira” offers a compelling portrait of the social, policy, intellectual and historical contexts of community informatics research and practice in brazil. on the one hand driven by empirical analysis, on the other driven by envisioning the ways in which the democratization of media production could contribute to the “brazilian utopia,” the book presents a model for thinking about community informatics not only in brazil, but everywhere. archive 2.0: imagining the michigan state university israelite samaritan scroll collection as the foundation for a thriving social network jim ridolfo department of english and comparative literature at the university of cincinnati. william hart-davidson michigan state university, united states michael mcleod michigan state university, united states i. brief project summary this (us)national endowment for the humanities, office of digital humanities start-up funded project explores the challenges and benefits of pursuing a community-centered design approach for digital archives, a process we term an "archive 2.0" model of development. as the title “archive 2.0” implies, we embrace both the technologies and the expanded possibilities for user participation associated with web 2.0. more than simply adding the technological affordances of web 2.0 to a traditional archive, however, our project uses these new capabilities as a heuristic for reconsidering the very nature of an archive, both what it is and what it can do for stakeholder communities and audiences. unlike many existing digital archive projects aimed at an audience of other field-specific scholars and archivists, our project has focused on identifying and engaging with the cultural and scholarly stakeholders associated with a particular collection of texts and artifacts. the archive in question, the chamberlain-warren collection of samaritan materials housed at michigan state university, includes a large assortment of pentateuchs, liturgical texts, stone inscriptions, and metalwork. the stakeholder communities we located include members of the 712-person israelite samaritan community located in holon, israel and the west bank, palestinian authority, as well as biblical and samaritan scholars. ii. summary of project findings digital archive initiatives generally, and those in biblical studies specifically, target and serve the research needs of scholars. as scholar-centric projects, the design, organization, and implementation of many recent digitization efforts are not tailored to the user experience (ux) needs of other communities with a stake in the archive content. in this paper we present findings that chart a new path for developing digital archives along with stakeholder community participants. our exploratory project incorporated this participatory approach and led us to three major findings: 1.    the digital humanities provide a unique historical opportunity to engage and connect with cultural stakeholders, groups who were often dismissed or ignored in earlier archive projects. re-centering cultural stakeholders as integral to the design process of digital archives is a potentially monumental opportunity. 2.    archive 2.0 community-centered design with multiple stakeholders has the potential to include and showcase other forms of knowledge besides the explicitly scholarly. by doing interviews with members of the samaritan community in holon and mt. gerizim, we learned about how the samaritans organize and arrange their texts. by representing this organizational scheme in our rchive 2.0 design, we provide a more culturally rich digital archive experience than what was possible in archive 1.0, or an archive tailored to one immediate stakeholder community. 3.    the digital humanities are not simply about technology: new digitization efforts must make a methodological choice to either build upon or ignore the humanities aspect of the digital humanities. in other words, they must either take greater care to consider the people associated with texts and technologies or risk alienating potential readers and users of the digital project. archive 1.0 was largely about a single stakeholder community and the nuts and bolts technology of putting images and texts on the web; archive 2.0 goes beyond technology to engage multiple stakeholder communities, including a larger set of procedural and methodological concerns. the samaritan collection at michigan state university provides an interesting, though certainly not unique, opportunity to explore the many ethical, scholarly, and design affordances in doing community-centered design with multiple stakeholders. iii. who are the samaritans? the samaritans have existed in the middle east as a unique religious and ethnic group for several thousand years, and today they live primarily in holon, israel and mt. gerizim, west bank in the village of kiryat luza. their population is steadily growing in size, from a historic low of just under 130 after the first world war to over 700 in the last few decades. the community in holon speaks modern hebrew as a first language, and the residents of kiryat luza speak palestinian arabic as a first language. the samaritans maintain a delicate balance between the israeli government and palestinian authority. being few in number and vulnerable to larger political trends, they seek a peaceful relationship with both government bodies. continued contact and connections between both communities are important, as the samaritans commemorate all religious festivals, holidays, and lifecycle celebrations on mt. gerizim.  the samaritan torah (five books of moses) is written in samaritan hebrew, which has its own unique script, pronunciation scheme, and grammar. while their torah is similar in content to that of the jewish people, it has many textual and theological differences. for example, the samaritan version of the torah maintains that mt. gerizim rather than jerusalem is holy, as well as several thousand smaller textual differences from the masoretic hebrew; consequently, their religious law and practices differ from jewish traditions. starting at a very early age, all samaritan children in holon and kiryat luza learn to read, write, and chant in samaritan hebrew. iv. project history in late december 2007, jim ridolfo, then a ph.d. candidate in the rhetoric and writing program and research assistant at the writing in digital environments (wide) research center, came across an online finding aid for a large collection of samaritan texts. ridolfo, who had studied hebrew for several years, was immediately interested in the history and story behind the large collection: how, when, and under what circumstances did such an impressive collection of samaritan manuscripts end up at msu? in his search for answers, ridolfo initially came across an article from msu samaritan scholar robert anderson and learned that the university acquired the collection when it was bequeathed the estate of e.k. warren, a wealthy industrialist from three oaks, michigan who traveled to jerusalem as part of the international sunday school convention in 1901. at that time the samaritan community was living in dire financial conditions, it’s population nearing a 400-year low, and the community was forced to sell copies of its holy texts, some hundreds of years old, to survive. according to anderson (1984): e.k. warren ... purchased many of the treasures to hold in safekeeping until the samaritans could repurchase them. the plan never came to fruition, warren died and the samaritan materials, legally part of warren's estate, were shipped to three oaks where they were placed in a warren family museum ... in 1950 the warren family closed the museum, and ... the various collections were given to michigan state university ... the materials, with the exception of a brass scroll case and several modern paper scrolls, were placed in cardboard boxes in a storage area under the bleachers of the football stadium until a renovation of the area lead to their rediscovery in 1968. (p. 41) the rest of the collection was moved to better storage in 1968, and eventually re-located to the msu libraries office of special collections. over the next forty years, only a handful of researchers traveled to east lansing to conduct scholarship on the collection, and emeritus religious studies professor robert anderson has been the only msu scholar to publish on the collection. soon after locating information on the history of the collection at msu, ridolfo found that a samaritan elder named benyamim tsedaka visited msu on november 14, 2003. during this visit, tsedaka addressed the board of trustees during the public participation on issues not germane to the agenda segment of the meeting. according to the meeting records, tsedaka told the msu trustees that the university had not yet done enough with this significant collection: msu received one of the largest collections in the world of samaritan manuscripts; they are located in the library. he encouraged the university to utilize this collection to promote samaritan studies. ridolfo, reading tsedaka’s request several years later, continued to search to determine if tsedaka’s request “to utilize this collection” had been fulfilled. finding no evidence to suggest the call had been answered, ridolfo located tsedaka’s e-mail address and on january 4, 2008, contacted tsedaka to inquire about the samaritan community’s interest in pursuing a digitization project: in doing research on the samaritan collection i came across your address to the michigan state university board of trustees in november of 2003 regarding samaritan studies, and subsequently found your e-mail address through a search engine. i am interested in potentially digitizing some or all of the three pentateuch texts in the collection, and making them available online off msu.edu not-for-profit for educators, researchers, and your own samaritan community. i wanted to know if first and foremost such an endeavor is respectful of your culture’s values regarding these texts. i am aware that these are sacred texts, and i would not proceed with such an endeavor unless it honors the values of your people. any feedback you could give would be greatly appreciated. (ridolfo, j. personal communication, january 4, 2008). tsedaka responded several hours later with his blessing and support for such a project:  in regards to the question you have asked. we will be much honored with your blessed work. go ahead with this and you have my pure blessings. the texts in your hands are very important and need a professional use. displaying them before the public will be a great contribution to the world's culture. (tsedaka, b. personal communication, january 4, 2008) ridolfo and tsedaka then began to correspond about funding the first stage of a digital archive project. as a graduate employee of the writing in digital environments (wide) research center, ridolfo discussed the idea of collaborating with the samaritans, msu special collections, and samaritan/biblical scholars with wide co-director william hart-davidson. hart-davidson quickly suggested that wide pursue the pilot phase of the archive project under the framework of applying for a national endowment for the humanities office of digital humanities start-up grant. from february to may, 2008 ridolfo and hart-davidson worked on the grant application and had a steady stream of meetings with two samaritan/biblical scholars, msu professors robert anderson and marc bernstein, and sharon sullivan, the us representative of the a.b. samaritan institute. the goal of these meetings with the scholars was twofold: first, to understand the kind of textual work samaritan/biblical scholars do and to imagine how wide might translate this into a digital portal tailored to their needs, and second, to assemble a project team from a wide range of disciplines. through numerous electronic correspondences with tsedaka and multiple face-to-face meetings with sharon sullivan, ridolfo and hart-davidson developed the hypothesis that in a digital environment, these cultural stakeholders may have different or additional applications for their texts than that of scholarly stakeholders. we didn’t have a clear handle on what these differences might be, so we proposed our neh odh start-up to explore the ux (user experience) differences between these two communities, with a specific focus during the start-up to explore the needs of the samaritan cultural stakeholders. the stated objectives of the proposal were as follows: * to create a working model of a culturally-sensitive repository of samaritan texts that may support a variety of learning activities including online teaching, learning, and research for members of the samaritan community as well as scholars; the repository will provide access to digital versions of the scrolls enhanced with web 2.0 technologies such as social networking (ability to form groups and define relationships among users), tagging, and shared annotations * to follow a model of system development consistent with best practices of user-centered design and the movement toward community-oriented transformation of archival collections; we will actively engage members of the samaritan community as well as biblical/textual scholars in this collaborative software development project resulting in a system that supports preservation, use, and presentation of a collection that has been all but inaccessible to the very communities who most value the samaritan texts * to adapt innovative approaches in digital technology associated with web 2.0 especially social networking, tagging, and social bookmarking to embody new perspectives on humanities research; we will use these technologies to broaden access for scholars while also creating opportunities for those members of the samaritan community and the public with a cultural stake in both the archive itself and scholarship on samaritan artifacts to actively engage and collaborate with one another in support of the neh odh grant application, msu special collections director peter berg, university archivist cynthia ghering, and msu library conservator eric alstrom agreed to digitize portions of several manuscripts as cost share. in october 2008, a month and a half after receiving news that the grant was successfully funded, a meeting was held in the basement of msu special collections with robert anderson, sharon sullivan, and benyamim tsedaka on a conference call from holon, israel. ridolfo and hart-davidson asked tsedaka and anderson to prioritize the most important manuscripts for digitization in the start-up phase of the project. there was a very quick consensus between tsedaka and anderson that of the many manuscripts in the collection to choose from, selections from three 15th century pentateuchs, bills of sale and portions of exodus containing acrostics, were the most important to digitize right away. tsedaka, who had visited the msu collection several times in the past twenty years, noted that these acrostics would have meaning for the samaritan people and be of interest to scholars. anderson agreed with tsedaka that the selections were interesting examples of samaritan scribal practice.  at this juncture in the start-up grant it was important to have this consensus from representative cultural and scholarly stakeholders.  as scholars of rhetoric composition, one of the main research questions ridolfo and hart-davidson hoped to investigate with this project is how archives can be designed to meet the rhetorical needs of multiple audiences simultaneously; however, with limited digitization resources to populate the archive with texts, we wanted to maximize the initial appeal of the archive by propagating it with manuscripts valued by both stakeholder groups. v. methodology and design process meeting to discuss the neh project in the house of the samaritan high priest on mt. gerizim, palestinian authority, 5/26/2009. from left to right: binyamin tsedaka, editor of the a.b. samaritan news, the late samaritan high priest elazar ben tsedaka ben yitzhaq, gus whalen, the great-grandson of e.k. warren, and jim ridolfo, writing in digital environments research center our start-up project utilized user-centered design methods such as focus-group interviews and individual usability sessions. this approach helped our team gather information from members of the samaritan community in order to develop prototypes that would best meet their needs. we engaged with samaritan community members and scholars as informants who could help us design better (i.e., more community-centered) interfaces for the online archive. in keeping with the best practices of user-centered design, we followed an iterative design pattern, meaning that after each round of new prototypes we went back to our stakeholders for feedback. for the first year and a half of the grant project we followed this iterative design schedule: february to may 2008: meetings with professor anderson (scholarly stakeholder) and sharon sullivan, combined with extensive e-mail correspondence with tsedaka. october 2008: ridolfo and michael mcleod, user experience researcher and designer at wide, worked on early mockups and paper prototyping for the first round of iterative design in november 2008. november, 2008: tsedaka traveled from holon, israel and returned to east lansing, michigan for a day of meetings with hart-davidson, mcleod, ridolfo. tsedaka and ridolfo planned a research trip to mt. gerzim and holon in may 2009 to do iterative design walkthroughs with community members. december 2008 to april 2009: ridolfo, mcleod, and hart-davidson worked on revised mockups for the first iterative design walkthroughs with more samaritans in may. may 2009: ridolfo and mcleod traveled to mt. gerizim and holon and conducted three iterative design walkthroughs with first language arabic speakers on mt. gerizim (two men and one woman), and four walkthroughs of community and family libraries in holon, israel (three men and one woman). ridolfo and mcleod also had conversations about the project with approximately a dozen elders, including the spiritual leader of the community, the late high priest elazar ben tsedaka ben yitzhaq, who formally gave his blessing to proceed with the project. june to august 2009: ridolfo and mcleod utilized the data gathered from the walkthroughs and conversations to develop revised mockups and a community-centered metadata acquisition tool (ccmat). ridolfo continued to communicate with iterative design participants through e-mail, and the ccmat was successfully deployed. feedback from members of the samaritan community was crucial not only in shaping interface designs so that they would find them useful, but also in helping us identify specific areas where our observations about the user community and their needs were incorrect or inaccurate. iterative design interviews in holon and mt. gerizim, may 2009 because our aims at this stage of the study were to produce formative feedback with the goal of developing better design prototypes, our sample was a convenience sample made possible by our community partner and insider, benyamim tsedaka. we solicited a request for participants to tsedaka, who distributed our request to potential participants in holon and mt. gerizim. we asked potential participants to provide us with an hour of their time to give us feedback on various archive designs. we had a total of seven samaritan participants: one woman and two men on mt. gerizim and three men and one woman in holon, israel. for our protocol on mt. gerizim we showed each participant digital and print images of various site designs, including sketches and mock-ups (images 1, 2, and 3), and asked questions about how the planned features intersected with his or her goals for using the texts. we asked participants to talk through the mockup designs with us and explain how they might do particular textual tasks such as locate a passage or solve a problem. we then asked each of the three participants to use a functional version of the archive on a laptop we provided, showing us how they might navigate the archive with a touchpad interface. when we arrived in holon, there was some confusion about doing the participant walkthroughs. rather than conducting individual interviews as planned, ridolfo and mcleod ended up conducting a larger focus group hosted in the home of a samaritan elder. because the goal of the trip was to solicit community feedback for the purposes of iterative design, the focus group provided ridolfo and mcleod with an unexpected but productive format. as community outsiders, we were open to this change in protocol, and procedurally this group walkthrough functioned largely in the same manner as the individual walkthroughs on mt. gerizim, but it provided the added benefit of listening to groups of participants discuss the various mockup archive designs with each other, rather than only responding to and interacting with us, the researchers. using the mock-up drawings and laptop, each participant took turns showing us how they would do certain kinds of tasks. after the walkthrough portion was complete there was a large group conversation about samaritan culture and technology.[1] technology initial fieldwork with the community, including the structured participant walkthroughs as well as meetings with elders and the late high priest, demonstrated to us what benyamim tsedaka had told us several times in 2008: that the samaritans have a high level of access to cell phones, mobile computing, and broadband technology in both communities. we also met several people working in computer technology-related fields (high tech), and they were able to articulate to us that such digital resources, if useful, would be utilized by a large percentage of younger generations. we also learned from discussions with members of both communities that digital/mobile/social network technology provides a significant link between the communities of mt. gerizim and holon, and we learned more about when and how community members use mobile technology. changes to our prototypes during the walkthroughs we made a number of observations regarding the samaritan community's textual practices that have influenced our work toward a functional, community-centered prototype. one of the first responses we received from our participants was that community members would have almost no use of our "quick browse" interface (image #2). we designed this feature as an “index” that would enable a user to quickly browse through a pentateuch, but participants told us that they rarely browse widely through their texts. instead, they more often skip directly to the torah portion (parasha) they are studying in a given week. in response to our page detail mockup (image #3), participants told us that they do not use the chapter-and-verse method of dividing and navigating their torah, the method most often used by biblical scholars cataloguing the jewish and samaritan pentateuch. since samaritan children are required to memorize and chant the torah from an early age, they are intimately familiar with the organization of the text. we learned from these interviews that our designs were too centered on scholarly methods of indexing the manuscripts and that other taxonomies would be more useful for samaritans, specifically ones focused on the samaritan family names of those mentioned in acrostics and bills of sale. what we didn’t expect prior to doing our interviews was how much the participants valued the content contained within the unique acrostics. we were also told by several participants to arrange the texts according to the weekly torah portion (parsha), and the specific samaritan names for each of these torah portions. adopting the structure of the samaritan parasha into our designs was a significant shift for us. not only did our interfaces change, but as well the information architecture upon which we based the interfaces. for example, the samaritan parasha breakdown differs in many ways from the jewish parasha structure, so we needed to spend time after our research trip corresponding with the samaritans about their unique samaritan hebrew (as well as the transliterated english) names for each torah portion. we realized that we needed to develop a tool to build this architecture, and this need in turn led to our first functional prototypes (images #4 and #5), what we've termed a community-centered metadata acquisition tool, or a ccmat. the ccmat itself is designed to help include the community in the ecological growth of the archive metadata. currently, we are exploring a way to make this tool a permanent fixture of future design cycles. we call this dual approach to community and metadata a sustainable ecological archive approach to metadata (seaam). our seaam philosophy is based on the idea that the ecology of a healthy digital archive requires sustained engagement by as many stakeholders as possible, and that ideally the ability to grow the metadata for digital archives rests more in the hands of stakeholder communities and less in the hands of designers and archivists. the process of implementing a seaam and designing an effective ccmat is a multi-tiered development cycle. for example, after further feedback from the community, we refined the ccmat and made it even more specific to their needs (image #6). in practice, this version of the ccmat metadata prototype, unlike our earliest prototypes, was directly informed by our field observations of how the samaritans utilize memorization for textual navigation. once this first prototype was functional we resumed our long-distance dialogue with the samaritans and asked for critical feedback and help in refining the prototype. based on their feedback, we shifted the library book labeling (identifying the manuscripts by library call number), word count features, and numerical verse identification of the first prototype and rebuilt the information architecture to model the samaritan parasha structure. the former features are still viable, but are more practical for an audience of scholars. the ccmat interface was rebuilt to ask users to identify which parashot are included on each scanned page and to provide any notes that might be relevant to that particular page. the interface was also restructured to be bilingual and easier for the community to use. to date, the ccmat has returned a significant amount of feedback and metadata that will help shape the archive 2.0 interfaces. while the ccmat itself is initially distinct from the content of an archive, we argue that it embodies one of the essential practices for archive 2.0: community engagement whenever possible. the ccmat was a necessary step in the iterative design process, a dialectic between ourselves and the samaritan community to establish a working community-generated information architecture. we think that such a step will be necessary in other archive 2.0 projects, and in such instances the ccmat would look considerably different, because it will be tailored to cultural and information design nuances specific to each community. in our ccmat, the goal was to provide a way to collaborate with the samaritans to build a schema for properly labeling and categorizing each of the scans. the ccmat is an essential tool in the development of an archive that is meaningful and useful to cultural stakeholder communities. creating these possibilities for meaningful participation in and use of the design are key components to archive 2.0 design practices. corrected assumptions one of our main objectives for the neh digital start-up is to develop a community-centered design approach for digital archives. our iterative design process allowed us to propose many designs and features to members of the samaritan community and refine those ideas based on their feedback. for example, we proposed supporting the recently proposed unicode standard for the samaritan script. as developers, we thought liturgical language support would be useful for the community. however, during our field research we learned that the samaritan community had no interest in the digital script. our participants informed us that they would much rather continue to read and type in palestinian arabic or modern hebrew; there was no community interest in creating metadata in the samaritan script. this led us to develop simple navigation interfaces in english, hebrew, and arabic. an early navigation prototype interface multiple ccmats, multiple stakeholders while we spent the majority of the first phase of the project exploring new ways to tailor the design of our prototypes to the needs of the cultural stakeholders, in the next phase of the project we plan to tailor a second ccmat to the needs of scholars and we have had correspondence and meetings with additional samaritan scholars. in the next phase of the project we’ve also decided to bifurcate the metadata we collect from cultural/scholarly ccmats into two groups (scholars and cultural stakeholders), and compare the similarities and differences between the two metadata ecologies in order to inform the next phase of development. what we as rhetoricians want is to explore is how archive 2.0 can function as a platform for application development for multiple audiences, and we’re particularly interested in how the archive-as-platform for cultural scholars may be most useful in the form of mobile application development. we are also interested in how certain web-based analytic tools may be the most useful for scholars. the archive-as-application-platform or one repository/many portals approach to our future development is the next direction of the project and allows us to table some of the more pressing problems for the time being. for example, as developers, we do not yet have a system to manage the wide variety of metadata we collected through the first round of the ccmat. while msu has agreed to host the archive in the long term, now we are also facing the situation where multiple institutions are contributing texts with different intellectual property restrictions. for now, the developers/researchers (particularly ridolfo) are coordinating, backing up, and digitizing new institutional streams of content. vi. recommendations: archive 2.0 as design platform for cross-collaboration and outreach theorizing archive 2.0 we define archive 1.0 as the traditional, geographically-fixed, brick-and-mortar archive, one that strives to strike a balance between access to resources and preservation of materials. in our research for this project, we found that geographic distance posed the greatest access problem for both cultural and scholarly stakeholder communities interested in the msu samaritan texts. in the last fifty years, only one samaritan stakeholder (benyamim tsedaka) has been able to travel from israel to visit the collection. the problem of limited access is also true for the scholarly stakeholders. in the last fifty years only a handful of scholars have published on the collection. one may conclude then that simply digitizing the entire collection would solve most access problems, but we don’t think that this is the case. we learned from our interviews and field research that both stakeholder communities need particular language, feature, and interface considerations in order for them to effectively utilize the archival collections online. during this process of user and community-centered design, we began to realize that working collaboratively with the cultural stakeholder community was, in many examples, contrary to the colonial and imperial histories of many brick-and-mortar archives. our rhetoric colleague malea powell (2008), who regularly travels to archives and museums to see and interact with the texts of her own tribal history, reminds us how the design of archive 1.0 is often connected to a violent colonial history. informed by powell's work with archives and the scholarship of other indigenous methodology, such as the work of howe (2002), we concluded that there is an ethical imperative in archive 2.0 to understand the relationship of the archive to cultural stakeholders. after determining the status of this relationship, it may be possible to pursue a digitization project, but it also may not be advisable. cultural stakeholder communities, however, should be engaged when applicable, as we’ve seen with the work of william powell. if the community is not engaged then there is the danger of digitally replicating and amplifying some of the worst practices of colonial archives. we therefore recommend that archive 2.0 include: · consent from cultural stakeholder communities · engagement with cultural stakeholder communities (when applicable) · community-centered design in addition to user-centered design · broad interdisciplinary collaboration with area specialists, special collections, university archivists, and usability/design experts · active use of the archive as a communications tool to establish new extra-institutional relationships · a sustainable metadata ecology  we recommend that such an approach, while time consuming on the part of researchers, will ultimately produce a more purposeful digital archive. in the case of msu, the archive has helped to strengthen relationships between the institution and the stakeholder communities. in our research project, the community offered us the proper english pronunciation for the weekly samaritan torah portions. collectively, they helped us identify every single digital image through the use of our community-centered metadata acquisition tool (ccmat). we thus recommend that other comparable projects consider the potential benefits of a sustained methodological process of community engagement. vii. appendix images uploaded as supplementary files. viii. works cited anderson, r. t. (1984). the museum trail: the michigan state university samaritan collection. the biblical archaeologist, 47 (1), pp. 41-43. howe, c. (2002). clearing a path: theorizing the past in native american studies. in n. shoemaker, (ed.), keep your thoughts above the trees: ideas on developing and presenting pp. 161-180 new york, ny: routledge. michigan state university. (2009, nov). msu news: special report. east lansing, mi: michigan state university. <http://special.news.msu.edu/scrolls/collection.php?collection>. michigan state university board of trustees. (2003, nov 13). msu board of trustees meeting minutes for november 13, 2003. (031114 ed.). east lansing, mi: michigan state university. < http://trustees.msu.edu/meetings/pdfs/031114.pdf >. powell, m. (2008). beyond the archives: research as a lived process. in g. kirsch and l. rohan., (eds), dreaming charles eastman: cultural memory, autobiography, and geography in indigenous rhetorical histories pp. 115-127 carbondale, il: siup. simpson, m. g. (1996). making representations: museums in the post-colonial era. new york, ny: routledge. [1] we want to emphasize that the data we collected during our fieldwork is not representative; rather, this feedback from our convenience sample is one important step in a long-term process of community engagement and iterative design. while what we learned by no means reflects the views of the entire community, it does serve as a helpful guide to meet the needs of some community members at a specific moment in time. settler colonialism and first nations e-communities in northwestern ontario brian beaton 1 & peter campbell2 graduate student, faculty of education, university of new brunswick, canada. email: brian.beaton@unb.ca executive director, keewaytinook okimakanak introduction remote and rural first nation (indigenous) communities are in a constant struggle to maintain their autonomy in a settler colonial political and economic structure attempting to force community members' migration off their traditional lands to urban centres. this paper describes how first nations in northwestern ontario are using social media along with locally owned and managed information and communication technologies (ict) to support the creation of e-communities. the e-community refers to community members actively using digital networks and online tools and applications everything from the internet and social media, to videoconferencing, telehealth, distance education, cell phones and many other digital processes to sustain and support the local economy, social services and the many communication processes required in every community (whiteduck, tenasco, o'donnell, whiteduck & lockhart, 2012; whiteduck, j., 2010; whiteduck, beaton, burton & o'donnell 2012). we will argue that local ownership of the digital infrastructure as well as the online tools, social media and e-services that use it, is an important element of first nations' resilience. we will reference critical theorists who write about colonization or, more appropriately, "settler colonialism" a theory that describes the ongoing struggle in canada between first nations and the canadian state characterized by racist efforts to remove the original people from their traditional territories. before the organization was eliminated this year by the canadian government, the national aboriginal health organization (naho) published a series of articles in 2009 entitled "communities in crisis", a detailed examination of the challenges first nations people experience in canada. in the introduction to the articles, health canada officials wrote: "there is an overwhelmingly consistent finding in the research that confirms colonization contributed significantly to the imbalance of social determinants of health in first nation communities evident today" (garman & doull, 2009; p. 2). these government officials go on to recognize that some first nations are building and sustaining healthy environments with their community members efforts that need to be recognized and learned about. social media is one of the tools that first nations people in northwestern ontario are using effectively to organize and share their decolonization efforts. presenting their own stories and experiences using social media, without mainstream media censorship, is liberating for the people and their communities (budka, bell & fiser, 2009). other rural communities can benefit from these first nations' experiences and stories, as they too struggle with their own out-migration of youth and families. settler colonialism and its effects on first nations in canada some critical theorists use the term "post-colonial" to refer to the period after canada became a country, free from ties with the colonial british power (doughty, 2005). a more accurate portrayal is that the settler population rid themselves of their british colonial rulers, a position that worked well for the settlers who then believed they were in a position of power over the land. critical first nations theorists consider themselves to be still in a colonial state, led by the settler population, which now outnumbers the original peoples of this land. these critical theorists use the term "settler colonialism" instead of post-colonialism to describe problems that still have to be resolved, and several authors have documented the history of settler colonialism and the ongoing struggles that first nations are engaged in today (coulthard, 2007; palmater, 2011; tuck & yang, 2013; wolfe, 2006). the contemporary and historical effects of settler colonialism need to be understood to appreciate the ongoing struggle. the original people and their different nations across the land that is now called canada were thriving long before the arrival of europeans over 500 years ago. the first nations had, and still have, rich, vibrant cultures with their own languages, customs, traditions, and teachings that provided them with a long and successful relationship among the different nations and to the land that supported their survival. their oral culture is still a strong part of their development today. their creation stories provide the people with the knowledge and understanding of how they came to be on this land and relate to everything that supported their survival for thousands of years (royal commission on aboriginal peoples [rcap], 1996). first nations' complex governance structures, laws, and political structures guided their internal operations and their co-existence with other nations. they prospered from their vast territories and careful management of the natural resources. the strategic use of inter-tribal trading networks supported a population that by some estimates numbered close to 50 million people before the arrival of the europeans. for the first 200 to 300 years of european contact that included the fur trade, first nations people outnumbered the settlers. but diseases brought by the newcomers, starvation from the over-exploitation of the furbearing animals, wars between the european nations over the land, and battles to protect their own land from encroachment decimated the indigenous population (rcap, 1996). in his presentation at the native american and indigenous studies association conference in 2013, peter campbell read from a story he had previously published (2001, p. 168), and shared the teachings he received while growing up on the traditional lands of north spirit lake first nation in northwestern ontario: in the past our people were nomadic, moving from place to place and living off the land as they endeavoured to provide for themselves and their families. these activities summarized part of the culture and traditions that had been passed down from generation to generation. the environment they lived in trained them to be both self-sufficient and hardy ... as soon as a child became of age to be able to walk and follow, the training would begin. the land-based lifestyle and culture of first nations has brought them into conflict with the canadian state and its industry partners with their western worldview that sees land as property to be exploited for wealth. much of canada's economy today remains based on extraction of natural resources from first nations' traditional lands, which were protected by treaty for first nations use. very few of the dollars generated from the resource extraction industry ever reaches the first nations. palmater (2011) refers to the rich, vibrant cultures that existed before european contact, and how "first nations have gone from being the richest peoples in the world to the most impoverished, as their lands, resources, and ways of being were stolen from them" (p. 112). the relations between the canadian government and first nations are complex and often adversarial, due in part to the most racist piece of legislation ever introduced in canada. introduced in the late 1800s, the indian act details how first nations will be accommodated by the federal government. it dictates how first nations are completely at the mercy of the people in power regarding how the first nations people and their communities will be funded. the continuing assimilationist tactics perpetuated by the canadian government are carefully protected in this legislation. recent movements to create policies that support first nations' self-governance have covered by the media, and yet the indian act and its related policies have not been amended to reflect these proposed changes (palmater, 2011). the widespread poverty, inadequate housing, undrinkable water and high suicide rates in many of the first nations across canada continue to be clear indicators of the struggles against settler colonialism that these communities face. aboriginal people make up 5% of canada's population, yet 40% of the female prison population is aboriginal. whole communities are still trying to recover from the devastating impacts of the 100-year legacy of the residential schools on individuals, families, communities and the country as a whole (rcap, 1996). community infrastructure and its relationship to community resilience canada is the second largest country in the world but has the lowest density and the most urbanized population. given that approximately 80% of canadians live in urban areas and 20% in rural, most of the land base is sparsely populated. most first nations are located in the rural and remote regions of the country. it is very challenging for all rural communities in canada, and particularly for first nations, to have a sustainable economic base. the most remote communities, those without any road access, face particular challenges due to the high cost of transporting supplies. when population-based funding models are used to determine who gets the dollars, populous urban areas have an advantage over communities with small populations, which rarely receive enough funding for infrastructure. broadband infrastructure development in rural areas continues to lag behind the rest of canada due to a lack of a federal government broadband policy, combined with a strong focus on developing the private sector instead of developing the communities located in these regions. this situation creates challenging environments that are the everyday reality for the people living in these remote communities. first nation community members are working together to create resilient communities to resist the ongoing government efforts to remove them from their territories. they are collaborating to build sustainable local environments and opportunities that support employment and equitable access to services including housing, health, education, safety, and security along with the physical infrastructure to support these services. resilience, a concept well known to aboriginal people, is demonstrated by the residential school survivors, their communities, their families, and everyone affected both by the institutions themselves and the federal government policies that created and supported them. first nations continued existence after the efforts of assimilation on the part of the state and the indian act policies is reason enough to celebrate the resiliency of these communities (kenny, 2003; kirmayer, sehdev, whitely, dandeneau & isaac, 2009). community resiliency involves the different relationships that interconnect and work together in first nations, between individuals, family units, the community and the larger environment. sharing narratives is critical to support resiliency and assist community members, particularly the youth, both in learning about and understanding the colonial experience, and in creating a positive future for themselves (kirmayer, et al., 2009). molyneaux, et al. (2014) argue that social media and community resilience are connected, because people employ these online environments to share their stories and experiences, as well as preserve their traditions and culture. kirmayer and colleagues have identified a core dimension of community resilience as the physical infrastructure that exists to provide the support and services that the community members demand. in their model, community resilience can be measured in part by the availability of built capital infrastructure, including housing, transportation, water, power, and communications (kirmayer et al., 2009). for the e-community work, we understand communications to encompass all elements of telecommunications including broadband infrastructure, networks, and applications such as social media. unreliable communications infrastructure undermines community resilience. using social media tools effectively in these remote and rural environments requires the same type of sustainable and reliable broadband infrastructure that is taken for granted in urban centres. because commercial telecommunications companies require a profitable business case to build and deliver broadband services, public dollars are required to put telecom infrastructure in place in remote communities. when the government pays a corporation to build the required infrastructure, there is often the expectation that these communities will be able to pay the corporation to deliver the broadband connections on an ongoing basis. however, there are examples across canada where companies have had contracts to build the infrastructure, but once there were no more dollars to support ongoing operations, they simply walked away from the project leaving the communities and region without online services. ocap and community-owned infrastructure in northwestern ontario community ownership and control over their infrastructure is an important requirement for first nations. in uncertain times and during crisis, especially for remote communities far from other supporting organizations, communities require first mile access to and possession of the capacity to maintain and protect their infrastructure (mcmahon et al., 2011). the principles of ownership, control, access and possession (ocap) were originally applied to data management by the national aboriginal health organization (schnarch, 2004) and the assembly of first nations (assembly of first nations [afn], 2007). more recently, the first nations information governance centre has employed and trademarked the concept. we argue that ocap is also an important requirement related to community resilience and first nation owned and managed infrastructure. working with the principles of ocap means that first nations are doing it for themselves. they are creating first mile opportunities and sustaining local jobs, building the capacity to protect their communities and to deliver services, such as access to social media, which the people require in their efforts to counter settler colonialism. keewaytinook okimakanak (ko) is a tribal council in northwestern ontario providing second level support to its member first nations. ko is a first nation owned and managed organization delivering a variety of services, one of which is the telecommunications broadband network, kuhkenah network (ko-knet) (o'donnell, et al., 2011). ko`s board of directors are the chiefs of six small remote first nations in northwestern ontario. working with these communities for nearly 20 years since 1994 as the ko-knet coordinator, author beaton was involved in developing and supporting the broadband infrastructure in these communities as well as several e-community initiatives that are still operating today. five of these small ko first nation communities are very remote, meaning they are fly-in only communities. four have about 400 people and the fifth has about 1,000 people living there year round. the communities are diverse in language (cree, oji-cree and ojibway), culture, history and geography. the cost of living is exorbitant, given the high costs of power generation and transporting goods. the people have a strong connection to the land, which is reinforced by their faith and the cultural beliefs they continue to practice and celebrate today. their elected government consists of a chief and council members who work with local service program managers and community members to use the community infrastructure to deliver the services required in every community (walmark, gibson, kakekaspan, o'donnell & beaton, 2012). each of these five ko first nations operates its own school, health centre, administration complex, water and wastewater plants, roads, heavy equipment, airport, and social service programs. three communities operate their own electrical networks. all community services require infrastructure and they increasingly rely on online processes, which in turn, require adequate broadband infrastructure to operate successfully. social media and online activities are important to the people in these first nations, for sharing their stories and experiences, especially as they relate to the land (beaton, o'donnell, fiser & walmark, 2009; beaton, kakekaspan & o'donnell, 2012). the five member ko first nations are fort severn, deer lake, keewaywin, poplar hill and north spirit lake (walmark, et al., 2012). when author beaton first visited in 1995, north spirit lake first nation had no airport, minimal and inferior infrastructure and no electricity. a single payphone on the outside of the police station served the entire community. now, less than 20 years later, the community has a new school and health centre, it operates its own electrical, roads, water and wastewater systems as well as its own cellular, fiber, coaxial cable for television and internet, and a wireless network. members of the north spirit lake community built what they could, used their infrastructure funding to contract the required development, and has retained ownership over this infrastructure. when possible, they worked with small local companies to help build local and regional capacity. in contrast, in the 1970s the canadian federal government dictated the electrical and telecommunication infrastructure development process in deer lake and fort severn first nations. the government kept the local communities out of the development process and instead, contracted large urban corporations to build, own and operate the electrical and telephone infrastructure. these corporate-owned systems were always slow to be upgraded, with the corporations unwilling to invest in the infrastructure unless the government provided public funding to cover all the costs. today these communities are unable to build much-needed housing because there is an inadequate supply of electricity to serve their communities. this negative experience with corporate owned and managed infrastructure led deer lake and fort severn to build their own digital network infrastructure, and now both communities operate their own mobile and internet services. the lesson here is that while north spirit lake first nation used government funds to build the networks, by owning the process the first nation owns and manages its own electrical, mobile and digital network infrastructure. the additional benefit is that related jobs and capacity remain in the community. when first nations communities own and manage their own infrastructure and online services, it is more likely that new opportunities for local investment, enterprise and employment will address local needs and priorities. the delivery of these community services is being achieved under challenging conditions, particularly since operating costs are much higher than in urban centres. in addition, the infrastructure and smooth deliver of education, health, housing, policing, administrative, governance, transportation, water, power and communications services depends on the availability, skill and dedication of people within the community. e-community in first nations keewaytinook okimakanak and its member first nations are currently combining nearly 20 years of experience developing ict initiatives into an e-community strategy with a social media component as a central communication tool for sharing e-community information. this strategy celebrates the resilience of the first nations and the work done thus far, and is designed to address future challenges faced by both the ko organization and the individual member communities. new infrastructure demands, upgrades, changing priorities and needs require flexibility and changing management skills from everyone working in these communities. the history of the e-community in the ko first nations can be traced back to the development of local community radio systems in the 1970s, and then community cable television in the late 1980s. in 1994, the chiefs of ko supported the development of a computer communication network by the ko education department to assist their elementary school staff and students in sharing messages and information between the schools in the other ko first nations. beaton was then hired to set up the kuhkenah network (ko-knet) and bulletin board system (bbs). these early communication challenges helped pave the way for future telecommunication infrastructure and local ict development, such as the keewaytinook internet high school (kihs). kihs began in 2000 with three ko first nations delivering grade 9 and 10 courses in their local high school classroom and over the years, it expanded to offer a full selection of high school courses to thirteen different first nations. today kihs hosts annual graduation ceremonies of students who have chosen to take all their high school courses through kihs so they can stay in their home communities. kihs has emerged as an important local service for many reasons. there is at least one additional full-time high school teacher who is now living and working in each of the participating first nations. in some of the larger classrooms, local education assistants are hired to work with the students and to support the kihs teacher. each first nation now has its own local high school that parents and students can access to obtain their high school diploma. the communication and learning skills that students gain through the kihs experience are proving to be beneficial when they decide to continue their post-secondary education, whether they continue their studies online or move away to a more urban setting. kihs is an important user of the locally owned first nation network, and contributes financially to the ongoing operation and maintenance of the network infrastructure and the e-community framework. other local services supporting the first nations' e-community developments and using online processes include the ko telemedicine (kotm) service, videoconferencing, cellular phone, justice, local government administration, water and wastewater plant remote monitoring along with personal and business connections to the internet (o'donnell, et al., 2011). the e-community concept and local enterprise development strategy describe online initiatives as e-learning, e-health, e-utilities, e-research, e-governance and others. ko-knet is also creating, adapting and making available other new ict applications, resources and services to address local first nation needs and priorities. these include an online cable plant management system that allows community network coordinators to manage internet and television connections as well as a bandwidth management system to ensure quality of service for community telehealth sessions. a new video booking system allows community members to easily book videoconference resources, and there is now a community mobile phone pay-as-go billing system. first nations created these systems and processes to support healthy and sustainable environments and services that are locally owned and controlled. these projects also create new learning and economic initiatives and challenges, which has resulted in new employment and skills development opportunities (beaton, et al., 2009; fiser & clement, 2009; o'donnell, et al., 2011; walmark, o'donnell & beaton, 2005). working collaboratively with other first nations makes it possible to leverage best prices when negotiating agreements with strategic government and commercial partners to purchase the broadband infrastructure and telecommunication services. sharing best practices, so all communities and partners are included and supported in the e-community development work, supports meaningful and respectful partnership and engagement. an important outcome of this collaborative approach was the acceptance by the chiefs of first nations across the country of the afn e-community framework resolution in july 2008. the afn resolution provided a strong endorsement of the work begun so many years before in these small remote first nations in northwestern ontario. more recently, the afn chiefs again supported this work with the adoption of the e-community strategy resolution at their assembly in december 2011. the ko organization is sharing their e-community story widely. this involves getting everyone within the organization to work together using a team approach, and to share how their particular ko service is using the e-community tools and framework to support ko community members and their services. the ko e-community initiative had a strong presence at the afn annual general assembly in july 2012, and in june 2013, ko service managers and staff made eight presentations about their e-community activities at the international north american indigenous studies association annual gathering in saskatoon. social media is now a central element in the ko e-community strategy. from the ko-knet research completed over the years, the use of social media was recognized as almost universal in each of the first nations for selling products locally and sharing information (budka, et al., 2009; budka, 2012; molyneaux et al., 2014). building on their myknet.org social media experience, the ko-knet staff recently developed a web-based interface for the different ko e-community programs and services that shares information with local facebook e-community groups owned by each ko first nation. these social media environments are designed and managed in a way that respects community ownership, awareness and engagement, to facilitate information, resource and opportunity sharing among the online users. the next step in the ko e-community strategy involves working with the ko first nations to expand the local membership of the these social media groups, as well as encouraging and supporting ko-knet staff to be share updates and information using these online tools. conclusion the first nations in northwestern ontario are using social media and other online tools to protect and maintain their autonomy, as well as their traditional and contemporary first nation territories, values and cultures. the e-community strategy and framework is designed to facilitate the delivery of and access to community services and teachings, and to enable first nations to share their ways and their relationship to the land with others. the almost 500 years of colonization experienced by first nations has generated many acts of resistance. first nations are actively increasing their autonomy in all areas of their lives, including taking control and ownership of broadband infrastructure. first nations are using online tools and social media for a wide range of purposes, from the delivery and use of culturally appropriate services, to organizing on local, national and international levels, as evidenced most recently by the idle no more movement (philpot, o'donnell & kenny, 2013). owning and managing their local infrastructure contributes significantly to the community's resilience. the struggle with settler colonialism involves opposing ideologies, but also requires overcoming a model in which the corporate and private sector competes with the public community sector for limited public funds. this struggle is a political issue, and requires fundamental changes to the colonial model, where the central government decides which private sector group should benefit from public dollars. in contrast, a new funding model would place control over public funds at the community level, so communities are able to make the decisions that will improve their access to infrastructure and services. this funding model would also allow first nations to decide who they want to work with, and how use the public funds in ways that will create opportunities to develop their own e-community strategies further. an elder and community leader who grew up during the residential school era once told a group of researchers that his definition of success would be to hear children and young people playing. the e-community is making that possible, today. small, remote first nations are creating strategies based on their traditional values and teachings to engage, empower, and support their citizens to continue living and building strong and healthy communities for future generations. particular attention is being focused on creating and providing opportunities for youth to do the work they are interested in developing and sustaining. the innovative ict work of ko-knet with its first nation partners continues to produce research and policies that can only be created and supported by working together. acknowledgments this paper is a collaboration of partners and communities involved in the first nations innovation (fni) research project (http://fn-innovation-pn.com). the authors would like to acknowledge and thank the first nation communities we work with for their ideas and the activities and development work discussed in this paper. the fni project is funded by the social sciences and humanities research council of canada (sshrc), with in-kind contributions from the project partners: keewaytinook okimakanak (ko-knet and kori) (www.knet.ca), the first nations education council (www.cepn-fnec.com), atlantic canada's first nation help desk / mi'kmaw kina'matnewey (www.firstnationhelp.com) and the university of new brunswick (www.unb.ca).the fni project works closely with the first mile project (http://firstmile.ca). we welcome feedback on this paper. references assembly of first nations. 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(2012). democratic ideals meet reality: developing locally owned and managed broadband networks and ict services in rural and remote first nations in quebec and canada. keynote paper for the community informatics research network (cirn) conference, prato, italy, november. retrieved from: http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/2012-cirn-paper.pdf wolfe, p. (2006). settler colonialism and the elimination of the native. journal of genocide research, 8(4), 387-409. communities in context: towards taking control of their tools in common(s)i aldo de moor owner, communitysense, tilburg, the netherlands. e-mail: ademoor@communitysense.nl introduction communities revolve around shared interests, norms, and identity. it generally takes time to become admitted and fully accepted and acknowledged as a community member. building common identity and bonds between community members are typically a primary focus for the design of online communities (ren et al, 2007). much research and development on communities and their technologies therefore focuses on intra-community aspects: the community lifecycle; community governance and management issues such as facilitation and conflict resolution; and community workspaces and tools. the boundary of communities is often defined sharply, as it is essential for it to keep and strengthen its identity. people like others who are similar in preferences, attitudes, and values, leading to common identity and interpersonal bonds (ren et al., 2007). the world outside of the community is therefore often only considered implicitly. as a result, many communities operate within boundaries that are de facto more or less solid and exclusionary. such hard to cross divisions can also be reinforced by the many types of theoretical, technical, conceptual and use based e-collaboration boundaries that constrain the growth of communities of practice in organizations (kock and nosek, 2005). still, no community exists in isolation. instead, each community is embedded in a much larger context. what is this context? what exactly is beyond the boundaries of communities? in particular, what socio-technical role is played by the technologies that communities use for enabling interactions beyond community boundaries? how to cross the boundaries using those tools? key to enabling communities are socio-technical systems: systems that use technology to connect people socially (whitworth, 2009). just as community research in general often focuses on the inner processes of communities, socio-technical systems design for communities has also traditionally focused on intra-community issues, such as sociability and usability of particular community systems (preece, 2000). even where multiple local groups and sub-communities interact in traditional "community networks" computer-based networks created by and for a local community they are still fully in control of their own socio-technical systems (carroll, 2012). issues of control have to do with governance: the way in which a state, organization, community and so on is governed. a community informatics perspective on internet governance sees "the internet as a social environment, a community space for people to interact with the expectation that principles of equity, fairness and justice will prevail. internet governance must ensure that this online social space functions effectively for the well-being of all." (ci community, 2013). in an ever more networked collaborative world increasingly working in "the cloud", the governance of socio-technical systems supporting communities is much more complex than that of local community networks. collaboration increasingly takes place in often global networks of communities, raising complex issues about conflicting social norms, policies, and governance. it is therefore ever more unclear who is in control of the community tools and in what way, complicating the design and configuration of these tools. the days are gone when a community installed its own server in an open internet with transparent, stable protocols (see e.g. caroll (2012) for many classic examples). communities make ever more use of third-party social media and networking tools such as facebook and linkedin. this means that they have only limited control over the configuration and implementation of these tools. full control means that a community can itself determine what functionalities their tools offer; how these tools are configured; how the tools are linked to other tools and who has access to their functionalities. in this exploratory paper, we outline some issues of inter-community socio-technical systems governance. our purpose here is not to solve these issues, but rather to raise awareness about the complexity of socio-technical governance issues encountered in practice. we aim to expand on the rather abstract definition of community-based internet governance cited above, exploring how it plays out in practice in actual collaborating communities. we introduce a simple conceptual model to frame these issues and illustrate them with a concrete case: the drafting and signing of the community informatics community's "internet for the common good"-declaration (ci community, 2013). we show some of the shortcomings of and socio-technical fixes for internet collaboration support in this particular case. we end this paper with a discussion on some directions for strengthening the collaboration commons. the socio-technical systems governance gap between communities when zooming in on the role that technologies play in enabling communities, an inward, single community view is often taken implicitly, from studies that examine how blogs can support a specific educational classroom community of teachers and students (byington, 2011), to immersive virtual worlds, like second life, where the community literally only exists within that world (twining 2007). these are valid and necessary research topics, but leave questions about the "socio-technical systems gaps" between collaborating communities wide-open. in the literature, work that explicitly acknowledges the embedding of the community within the larger outside world has generally focused on the immediate organizational context of a community. one example is how to create an organizational community and align it with organizational strategies, objectives and practices existing outside that community, such as companies promoting knowledge management through communities of practice (e.g. wenger et al, 2002). another example of embedding communities in a larger context is to examine how conversational technologies, such as wikis, can contribute to the emergence of a culture of collaboration and innovation and community building within the organization (standing and kiniti 2011). however, in the governance of the socio-technical systems of collaborating communities outside of the organization, that context is even more complex. to get a better sense of the issues involved, we introduce a conceptual model of inter-community socio-technical systems governance: who is in control of what (fig.1)? figure 1. socio-technical systems governance of collaborating communities the model indicates the following: first, communities often have a whole range of physical (e.g. town hall events and face-to-face meetings) and digital tools (from websites to a wide array of social media) to enable their interactions. in the early days of the internet, these digital tools were often self-installed open source servers, fully controlled by their communities in that they provided exactly the functionalities needed for the community to effectively use and appropriate the tools. second, with the arrival of the cloud, communities increasingly depend on community tools that are part of external social networking tools controlled by private parties. for example, many communities use facebook or linkedin groups as their main online community space. the community can now only partly control the use and configuration of these groups. for example, facebook decides which functionalities are offered (and withdrawn), what configuration options are offered and allowed, who has access (you need a facebook, not a community account, to access most functionalities), and who gets to see what content. the traditional open architecture and implementation is under threat by the increasing balkanization through such walled-off cloud services. this restricted access could even jeopardize the "generativity" of the internet, its trademark capacity to produce unanticipated change through unfiltered contributions from broad and varied audiences (zittrain 2009, p.70). third, things get even more complicated when inter-community interactions need to be supported. when two communities want to collaborate, on, say, a joint project, there is often literally no space for that. it has to either take place in one of the current community spaces, a public third-party site is used, or a new private workspace needs to be created to which members from both communities need to subscribe, muddying governance and fragmenting collaboration before it has even started. since "code is law" (lessig, 1999), making context-free choices about seemingly abstract technical issues can have great impact on the legitimacy of and trust in the socio-technical systems of single communities (whitworth and de moor 2003). when such tools serve interactions between multiple communities with different social norms and modes of governance, complexity abounds even more. finally, more issues of control emerge at the level of the internet as a whole. this is the level typically controlled by governments, industry and international standards bodies. the internet was formed through a deep sense of community, leading to open protocols and an ethic of sharing: an excellent account of how this culture came about was given by turner (2006). still, this model is under threat, as for example the increasing privatization pressures (németh, 2012) and the hotly debated issue of net neutrality the idea that internet service providers should treat all websites and services the sameii show. large political and commercial interests are at stake, but awareness is growing and a counter-movement is building (e.g. ci community, 2013). in this paper, we will not further look into these internet-level issues, but this "outer context" should always be taken into account when developing local solutions. communities taking (back) control of their tools in common(s) collaborating communities can only influence their technical systems to a certain extent, given that so many layers of internet technology control are involved. they therefore need to construct their own tailored socio-technical systems to ensure that social requirements are satisfied, as the legitimacy of the behaviors these systems afford and constrain (whitworth and de moor, 2003). these solutions will differ, depending on the specific requirements and social contexts of inter-communal collaboration. they will not be optimal solutions, given their complexity and limited degrees of freedom, but should at least be sufficient for meeting the social requirements. to give a flavor of the issues involved, we briefly examine the case of how the an internet for the common good-declaration came about (fig.2). this declaration purports to support communities worldwide to get more of a say in internet governance (ci community, 2013). the idea for the declaration emerged in the community informatics research network (cirn). this is a worldwide community of over a thousand researchers and practitioners. their main physical interaction tools are an annual conference, several related conferences and workshops, and many meetings between various constellations of members. their digital infrastructure consists of a very active mailing listiii for communication between members, and a wiki as its portal,iv the mailing list is hosted by a community network and the wiki is hosted by wikispaces.v both the list archives and wiki can be viewed by anybody on the internet, while wiki edits can only be made by community members after having been admitted as a wiki member by an administrator. the declaration was prepared by the cirn community. to this purpose, an initial draft was posted on a publicly viewable wiki pagevi . community members were invited through the mailing list to participate in further drafting, for which they needed an account on the wiki. the community as a whole was kept informed about progress on the declaration through the mailing list. legitimacy for the community of the final declaration was ensured through a process of "lazy consensus",vii by which consensus is assumed if nobody objects within a reasonable amount of time, in this case taking into account global time differences. once accepted, the process of getting it signed and published got underway. both individuals and organizations could sign the declaration through a google form which collected signatures in two google spreadsheets. both spreadsheets were embedded on the wiki page of the declaration, showing both individual and organizational signatories to the world. this page was then widely advertised by the members of the cirn and many other communities, using e-mail and various social media tools. figure 2. socio-technical systems design for collaboration on an inter-community declaration several inter-community socio-technical governance issues and solutions come to mind, for example: the declaration was developed within the cirn community, but was to be signed by representatives and members of many other communities. the (technical) fact that one needed to be a cirn member to be able to edit the wiki could have hampered involving members from other communities in the co-authoring. still, in this case, the most pressing (social) reason for only involving the cirn community in the drafting was lack of time. this is where the need for a common digital space (e.g. by virtually merging the memberships of all constituting communities) was clearly shown. the spreadsheets were maintained by administrators from the cirn community. sometimes, they had to remove signatures at the request of signatories or in case of spam. although the administrators are trusted by the cirn community, they may have been unknown to members from other communities intending to or having signed. even though the spreadsheets have a revision history, this is only visible to the administrators. since there was no way to show these revisions in the signatures to (potential) signatories, this may have reduced inter-community trust. to involve members from other communities in the evaluation and further development of the declaration, the final text also needed discussing. wikispaces has a discussion page associated with each wiki page, which could be used for this purpose. with a restricted membership wiki like the cirn wiki, such discussions are visible to anybody, but one needs an account on the wiki in order to post a comment or reply. yet, in order to get such an account, one has to be a member of the cirn community. an alternative solution opted for in the end was to embed disqus viii widgets on the cirn wiki. these widgets are hosted on an external website and allow discussion posts by disqus members, but also by guests, thus circumventing the limitations of the intra-community discussion functionality of wikispaces. discussion and conclusion the purpose of this short exploratory article was not to provide an exhaustive analysis of, let alone a worked out approach for, inter-community socio-technical governance issues. rather, our objective was to draw attention to the fact that collaborating communities co-exist in a very complex context of relations and interactions with other communities, supported by a multi-layered technical infrastructure, and that paying more in-depth attention to socio-technical design problems and solutions matters. such solutions are not a technological quick fix, but consist of complex systems of online and physical conversations, collaborative intraand inter-community workflows, roles, trusted persons, internet infrastructure, third party tools, and tool configurations. one research direction to explore could be collaboration patterns, which represent reusable socio-technical lessons learnt, some examples of which were suggested in the case. one key type of collaboration pattern is communication patterns, which describe acceptable and desired communicative interactions within a community, as well as the roles, content, and supporting tools involved (de moor, 2006). such patterns can be used to capture, compare, analyze, and compose the conceptual building blocks of more trusted socio-technical systems for collaborating communities (de moor, 2009). woven together in full pattern languages, they might even become critical enablers of civic intelligence, informing the implementation of, for instance, the liberating voices pattern language for communication revolution (schuler, 2009).ix jordan et al (2003) talk about an "augmented social network" where identity and trust is built into the architecture of the internet by working out ways for persistent online identity, interoperability between communities, brokered relationships and public interest matching technologies. such architectural elements could in future research further inform the definition of reusable collaboration patterns, grounding community-specific socio-technical configurations in more stable generic identity and trust-patterns. other sources for inter-community collaboration patterns could, for instance, be drawn from community network studies, which focus on the interaction patterns within community networks and the role their community groups play in creating a more civil society through community activism (kavanaugh et al., 2005; carroll, 2012). the commons is a public space, characterized by (relatively) open access, unmediated deliberation, and shared participation (németh, 2012). there are many efforts to build and strengthen the commons, such as commons-oriented open peer production models with common ownership and governance models (bauwens and kostakis, 2014). our focus in this paper was on the design of the commons as the socio-technical interaction spaces between communities. communities and the commons are two sides of the same coin. communities need a commons to inter-operate; the commons will not flourish without communities effectively contributing to and using them. through eliciting socio-technical patterns for the commons which address not only fundamental architectural principles, but also the detailed socio-technical affordances and constraints of real communities in interaction, the commons could be further strengthened, in theory as well as in practice. these patterns could not only be used to inspire the design involving civil society, governments, and corporations of specific inter-community collaboration systems, but also strengthen the more generic building blocks of the commons: open source tools, platforms, protocols, and so on. we have sketched only some of the multitude of issues that communities need to address when building their collaboration infrastructure. we hope that the awareness raised will inspire others to work on analyzing, designing and implementing more accessible, legitimate and usable socio-technical commons building blocks. through such a collaboration commons, communities can focus more on joining and applying their forces, instead of re-inventing their technological wheels. endnotes i this is an extended version of the position paper presented at the communities & technologies vision workshop, siegen, germany, january 22-24, 2014. ii http://www.theopeninter.net/ iii http://vancouvercommunity.net/lists/arc/ciresearchers iv http://cirn.wikispaces.com/ v http://wikispaces.com vi http://cirn.wikispaces.com/ an+internet+for+the+common+good+-+engagement%2c+empowerment%2c+and+justice+for+all vii http://nowviskie.org/2012/lazy-consensus/ viii http://disqus.com/ ixhttp://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/ references bauwens, m., & kostakis, v. (2014). from the communism of capital to capital for the commons: towards an opencco-operativism. triplec: communication, capitalism & critique. open access journal for a global sustainable information society, 12(1), 356-361. byington, t. a. (2011). communities of practice: using blogs to increase collaboration. intervention in school and clinic, 46(5), 280-291. carroll, j. m. (2012). the neighborhood in the internet: design research projects in community informatics (1st ed.). new york, ny: routledge. ci community (2013). an internet for the common good: engagement, empowerment, and justice for all: a community informatics declaration. journal of community informatics, 9(4). de moor, a. (2006). community memory activation with collaboration patterns. in proc. of the 3rd prato community informatics research network conference (cirn 2006), prato, italy, october 2006. de moor, a. (2009). collaboration patterns as building blocks for community informatics. in proc. of the 6th prato community informatics research network conference, prato, italy, november 4-6, 2009. jordan, k., hauser, j., & foster, s. (2003). the augmented social network: building identity and trust into the next-generation internet. first monday, 8(8). kavanaugh, a., carroll, j. m., rosson, m. b., reese, d. d., & zin, t. t. (2005). participating in civil society: the case of networked communities. interacting with computers, 17, 9-33. kock, n., & nosek, j. (2005). expanding the boundaries of e-collaboration. ieee transactions on professional communication, 48(1), 1-9. lessig, l. (1999). code and other laws of cyberspace. new york, n.y.: basic books. németh, j. (2012). controlling the commons: how public is public space? urban affairs review, 48(6), 811-835. preece, j. (2000). online communities?: designing usability, supporting sociability. chichester?; new york: john wiley. ren, y., kraut, r., & kiesler, s. (2007). applying common identity and bond theory to the design of online communities. organization studies, 28(3), 377-408. schuler, d. (2009). pattern languages as critical enablers of civic intelligence. in proc. of puarl conference, portland, oregon, 2009. standing, c., & kiniti, s. (2011). how can organizations use wikis for innovation? technovation, 31(7), 287-295. turner, f. (2006). from counterculture to cyberculture?: stewart brand, the whole earth network, and the rise of digital utopianism. chicago: university of chicago press. twining, p. (2007). the schome-nagty teen second life pilot final report: a summary of key findings & lessons learnt. milton keynes, uk: the open university. retrieved october 8, 2014 from http://kn.open.ac.uk/public/document.cfm?docid=9851, wenger, e., mcdermott, r., & snyder, w. (2002). cultivating communities of practice. cambridge, ma: harvard business school press. whitworth, b. (2009). the social requirements of technical systems. in b. whitworth & a. de moor (eds.), handbook of research on socio-technical design and social networking systems (pp. 2-22). igi. whitworth, b., & de moor, a. (2003). legitimate by design: towards trusted socio-technical systems. behaviour & information technology, 22(1), 31-51. zittrain, j. (2009). the future of the internet--and how to stop it. yale university press. executive summary executive summary it is the afn’s position that a 100% investment ratio will enable and accelerate first nations telemedicine services. this position is based on nation-wide consultations with first nations, key informant interviews with provincial telemedicine principals and canada health infoway incorporated’s (chii’s) investment record. the afn asserts that chii plays two complementary roles as an investor in first nations telehealth. the first role is enabler. chii fulfills this role by investing in documentation, best practices, change management and management tools that reflect first nations and aboriginal circumstances, conditions and service models. the latter role is to “directly contribut[e] to increased utilization and expansion of telehealth services...in identified areas of need such as aboriginal communities.” the latter role addresses the need to prioritize telehealth service development in rural and remote first nations and to accelerate their participation in regional health authority, provincial and federal telehealth systems and networks. while chii has achieved some success as an enabler, its catalytic capacity is less clear. accordingly, the afn is concerned that the chii telehealth investment program and criteria are dis-incenting first nations and provincial partners from collaborating on sustainable telehealth development projects and, as a result, that the $17.5m first nations investment envelope will be undersubscribed before the end of the program in december 2009. while complementary issues – such as the absence of fnih operational funding for first nations services, lack of first nations telehealth policy and program leadership by fnih, significant and ongoing human and system telehealth capacity gaps in remote first nations, the high cost of connectivity and the generally poor state of the telecommunications infrastructure in or near first nations territories – continue to mitigate against successful diffusion of telehealth innovations among first nations, it is the position of the afn that changes to chii’s investment ratio for first nations telehealth and amendments to its investment requirements and eligibility criteria will substantively accelerate first nations telehealth participation and first nations capacity to integrate their needs and resources with federal and provincial partners. afn support for first nations telehealth services and systems is embedded in the first nations action plan, the aboriginal health blueprint and, recently, the wait times road map. telehealth, in these contexts, provides an opportunity for first nations to close long-time policy, program and health outcomes gaps by enabling strategic partnerships with f/p/t stakeholders, to increase first nations health system influence and decisionmaking, to increase the level and quality of local health service delivery and to make more effective use of cross-jurisdictional health systems and scarce health human resources. accordingly, the afn views telehealth as a means for augmenting delivery of health services for achieving a more even distribution of health and wellness resources among first nations and for supporting new health human resource opportunities in first nations communities. in fall 2006, the afn’s health and social services secretariat initiated discussions with chii with the aim of increasing first nation participation in the chii telehealth iv investment program. afn argued that the chii 75% (phase 0 & 1) and 50% (phase 2) investment limits represented significant access barriers and that these barriers were correlated with minimal first nations participation in national telehealth development. further, the afn proposed that chii telehealth investment program criteria did not address basic infrastructural and operational requirements for successfully launching and sustaining telehealth services. afn proposed that an effective way of improving first nations access to chii investment was for chii to create a first nations investment policy similar to its existing territorial telehealth policy. this policy provides 100% investment across all project phases for telehealth initiatives led by territorial governments and in partnership with a provincial telehealth service or agency. chii agreed that this type of instrument might be an effective means of expanding first nation telehealth development and asked that afn develop a rationale to be presented to their board for review. specifically, chii asked afn to develop two first nations projects – in provinces or regions where there is little or no telehealth activity – that would demonstrate how 100% investment would make a difference. mandatory chii and best practice telehealth readiness criteria for selecting these sites are presented beginning on page 37 of this document. addendum the position paper was completed in march 2007. the canada health infoway board endorsed a 100% funding ratio for first nations initiatives later that same year – a policy change that directly benefited first nations working in partnership with provincial ministries of health. currently chii has no funds available to invest in telehealth. the orignal position paper was comprised of three sections. the first section described the vision for telehealth and its relevance for first nations. this section reviews telehealth’s perceived role as a first nations access solution and its historical development and summarizes how telehealth is applied in different tele-learning, telecare, tele-triage and telemedicine settings. the second section provided an environmental scan and a current state analysis of first nations telehealth and addressed the potential impact that a 100% first nations telehealth investment ratio might have. the environmental scan summarized main points made during the afn-sponsored first nations telehealth consultations and the current state analysis presented updated information on first nations telehealth development and assessed key factors provided by informants. the impact section reviewed chii’s track record with regard to the number of first nations that would benefit from access to integrated and coordinated telehealth services. a final section reviewed selection criteria and identified first nations jurisdictions where potential 100% investment ratio projects are located. this version of the position paper is focused on the first two sections. section three and the appendices have been removed. john rowlandson, october, 2009 v vi telehealth vision & relevance for first nations afn supports telehealth in first nations communities because it reinforces first nations jurisdiction and expands health services into rural communities. (yukon first nations telehealth conference report: 24 april 2006; p. 1) the assembly of first nations has noted that “pan-canadian investments in…telehealth have generally not reached first nations, despite federal recognition of the need for an aboriginal health infostructure.” (health action plan, 4). the afn supports increasing telehealth capacity to enhance and improve first nations access to health and wellness services. it also sees telehealth as an important tool for ensuring that first nations benefit fully from improvements to canadian health systems. the november 2005 blueprint on aboriginal health highlights telehealth capacity to address longstanding first nations delivery and access issues in geographically isolated locations. “canada,” the blueprint reads, “will complement health services by investing in telehealth services in rural, remote and northern first nations communities.” the blueprint also challenges provincial/territorial governments to “accept the need to ensure linkages with first nations' telehealth services within their own telehealth strategic plans.” (http://www.hcsc.gc.ca/hcs-sss/pubs/care-soins/2005-blueprint-plan-abor-auto/index_e.html). the road map to a patient wait times guarantee for first nations situates telehealth as part of a structural change required for achieving first nations-specific health outcomes. the report identifies three key capacities for telehealth, “especially in rural, remote and northern first nations” (2). first, telehealth is seen as a practical way to bridge first nations patient information across all relevant jurisdictions (22); second, telehealth is seen as a way to directly contribute to lessened wait times through faster access to diagnostic and consultation services (24); and, thirdly, the authors of the roadmap highlight the unique opportunity of first nations telehealth to “create an interjurisdictional first nations patient wait times prevention and reduction strategy so long as it is not utilized to displace the need for community-based human resources.” (25). telehealth, in these contexts, provides an opportunity for first nations to close long-time policy, program and health outcomes gaps by enabling strategic partnerships with f/p/t stakeholders, to increase the level and quality of local health service delivery and to make more effective use of cross-jurisdictional health systems and scarce health human resources. accordingly, the afn views telehealth as a means for augmenting delivery of health services for achieving a more even distribution of health and wellness resources among first nations and for supporting new health human resource opportunities in first nations communities. health access and first nations health access to health services for first nations is a fiduciary responsibility of canada and is embedded in federal legislative and policy domains. health canada’s first nations and inuit health (fnih) branch is the primary federal mechanism for meeting federal health service obligations for first nation populations. currently the federal government provides health services to first nations living within their communities that include health promotion, disease prevention and primary care. most health care services that are 1 http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hcs-sss/pubs/care-soins/2005-blueprint-plan-abor-auto/index_e.html http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hcs-sss/pubs/care-soins/2005-blueprint-plan-abor-auto/index_e.html accessed by first nations in rural and remote communities are provided by fnih. health care is also provided to first nations through provincial and territorial insured services and programming. there are many difficulties in achieving the same level of services for first nations people compared to those of other provincial and territorial residents. timely first nations access to health care is constrained by inconsistencies in the way that federal, provincial/territorial and first nations jurisdiction is interpreted. uncertainty over responsibility in the scope of health service delivery in first nations communities and geographic location of these communities are exacerbated by urgent need for communitybased care as evidenced by higher rates of illness, disease complexity, co-morbidity and limited access to experienced and culturally competent health care practitioners. these factors mitigate against first nations receiving comprehensive access to required health and wellness services in their communities. in addition to fnih’s policy and program mandate, first nations health services are secured through contemporary legislative protocols. specifically, the canada health act (cha) outlines principles, objectives and criteria that must be met to secure the transfer of financial resources to the provinces for the delivery of insured health services. provincial requirements include five criteria – public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability and accessibility. the uneven application of these criteria in first nations contexts has created demonstrable differences between first nations and nonfirst nations health status. from a health determinants perspective, first nations have nominally benefited from increases in funding to provincial health services. attributing benefits to first nations through mainstream program investments has yet to demonstrate improved health status (shah et al, 2003). health researchers today are finding a direct link between the accessibility of comprehensive health and wellness services and first nations health status. for instance, alaskan researchers documented in the mid 1990s the positive association between the geographic isolation of north american indian populations and higher hospitalization rates and potentially higher avoidable admission rates (cunningham).1 in 2003, the institute for clinical and evaluative sciences extended the relationship between access to health services and first nations health. their analysis concluded that ontario’s northern, reservation-dwelling aboriginal population had a higher hospitalization rate for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (acs) and a lower utilization rate for referral care sensitive [specialist]) procedures (rcs) than that of the general population (shah et al, 2003). these acs/rcs indicators demonstrate inadequate primary care coverage on-reserve. they highlight longstanding physical and temporal access barriers to medical specialists and allied health professionals and underscore the need for culturally appropriate and 1 cunningham’s work is validated in a canadian context by closson (2005). the integrated service plan for northwestern ontario identifies the isolated [first nations] to the north of sioux lookout as having the “highest rate of admission for potentially avoidable hospitalization conditions” in the local health integration network (emphasis added). closson concludes that the rate of avoidable hospitalizations for this population is “over 250% the rate for residents of the rest of the province.” 2 context-sensitive preventative interventions closer to home. they also underline associated system-wide problems such as anticipated health professional shortages. first nations dependence on a shrinking supply of general practitioners, medical consultants, nurses and allied health professionals anticipates the need to increase distributed access to health resources – an approach that enhances existing forms of health service access, increases retention and recruitment of health professionals on-reserve and enables new health career opportunities for first nations living in their territories. similarly, these data highlight the need to augment medical transportation with telemedical visits to address increasingly complex, chronic and co-morbid conditions on-reserve and to support upstream investments in patient learning and community capacity-building. the telehealth link to improved first nations access to health services for more than 20 years, first nations telehealth pilot projects have demonstrated local enthusiasm for telehealth and have highlighted unique service, support and sustainability requirements for the delivery of high quality, secure clinical videoconferencing in isolated and culturally distinct communities. results of first nations pilot studies and ongoing telehealth programs suggest that telelearning and telemedicine, while successful, are mostly inaccessible to first nations living in their communities. the most successful projects are managed by mandated first nations health bodies, have leveraged capital and operational commitments from fnih regions and have negotiated seamless and/or specialized access agreements to health providers by engaging provincial telehealth principals, agencies and infrastructures. during the past ten years, innovations in information and communications technologies (icts) have demonstrated new opportunities for reducing first nation isolation from health service providers and for improving capacity to manage community-based population health and wellness. these innovations are variously labeled as health informatics (client information systems that support electronic health, medical and/or patient record-keeping) and telehealth. this position paper addresses the latter category of ict development and its capacity to enable and accelerate the development of first nations telehealth systems. canada health infoway’s capacity to enable and accelerate first nations telehealth development canada health infoway incorporated (chii) is the primary entry-point for telehealth development in canada. chii has made formative and iterative telemedicine investments in provincial and territorial jurisdictions. it is governed by a board of directors that includes canada’s 14 f/p/t deputy ministers of health as well as clinical and private sector representatives. accordingly, chii is a vehicle for strategically shaping the telehealth access landscape in canada. chii makes project-based investments in telehealth pre-feasibility (phase 0), pre-implementation (phase 1) and implementation (phase 2) projects. past investments include strategic plans, clinical acceptance/adoption, management models, technology standards and system interoperability. notional telehealth investments by jurisdiction are described in exhibit 1 (below). 3 the chii investment ratio is variable by project phase and jurisdiction. telehealth initiatives in the yukon territory, northwest territories and nunavut are supported by 100 percent investments. elsewhere chii supports 75 percent of phase 0 and phase 1 projects and 50 percent for phase 2 – implementation – projects. among its stated objectives, chii has targeted the development of telehealth in rural, remote, northern, aboriginal and official language minority communities. specifically, chii aims to “directly contribut[e] to increased utilization and expansion of telehealth services...in identified areas of need such as aboriginal communities.” chii defines aboriginal as first nation, inuit and métis and has made notional allocations of $17.5 million (first nations) and $1.1 million (inuit) to support its aboriginal commitment. defining first nations telehealth many definitions of telehealth exist. telemeans far away or distant. when it is joined with health it refers to treating and supporting people and communities that are physically distant from care providers. the canadian society of telehealth (http://www.cst-sct.org) adopts a definition that highlights both the ways telehealth is used and its capacities to address longstanding gaps in health service access. for the cst, telehealth is the “use of information and communication technology (ict) to deliver health services, expertise and information over distance, geographic, time, social and cultural barriers” (reid, 1996). the cst definition also anticipates the important concept of interoperability in telehealth. originally, a term developed in the computing industry, it is a central feature of telehealth development in canada and encompasses “the exchange of information in order to deliver health services and business transactions, without loss of meaning, through a common core of understanding of working processes, policies and regulation, use of the electronic tools, and human skills required“(canada, 2003). interoperability is usually categorized within three dimensions: technical systems need to share standards so that they can talk to each other, clinical services have to be managed and delivered within common protocols and practices, and organizational structures have to be aligned and compatible. first nations telehealth – borrowing from established notions of cultural competence and safety – has introduced a cultural dimension of telehealth interoperability: “culturally sensitive health care, such as context appropriate preventative interventions, development and use of tools to accurately elicit patient preferences and required resource allocation to facilitate access to desired services (e.g., language, community capacity development)” (inter tribal, 2005). telehealth is commonly categorized by its main service areas. clinical telehealth or telemedicine supports medical uses to enhance clinical encounters and provide medical and health professional education and training. telemedicine uses dedicated and secure network services and usually requires high bandwidth icts – video-conferencing – and trained local staff to support direct delivery of community based healthcare, patient exhibit 1: forecasted distribution of chii telehealth investments by jurisdiction forecasted distribution fn nfld pei ns nb qc on mn sk ab bc yk nwt nt 17.5 7.0 0 1.75 1.5 27.0 24.0 1.5 1.0 17.5 14.0 3.0 1.0 .75 4 http://www.cst-sct.org/ diagnoses and treatment decisions.2 tele-learning uses high or low bandwidth icts to provide access to interactive and often customized courses (eg. first nations personal care support worker or nndaap training) and facilitates health administrative meetings.3 telecare is also called home telehealth. telecare generally uses low bandwidth icts designed to monitor the state of health of a patient from his/her home including the exchange of related medical information (e.g. glucose levels, pulse, o2 saturation, blood pressure). tele-triage is the provision of health information and advice to patients over the telephone about preferred courses of action related to the level and urgency of care needed. providers use computerized protocols developed by clinical experts to guide and record the advice provided. development of first nations telehealth and telemedicine services information and communications technologies have been used to address health service access needs of first nations communities since the 1930s. the hudson’s bay radio network regularly used wireless short wave technology installed in company stores and ships to call for emergency medical advice and transport support. in the early 1970s the department of communications introduced high frequency trail or bush radios to link trappers with nursing stations in their home communities and to staff at regional hospitals. the introduction of telephony in many remote first nations communities between 1975 and 1985 extended the reliability and capacity of telecommunications to support clinical decision-making. nurses used telephones to confirm treatment and transport decisions with distant physicians. telephony also enabled transmission of ecgs and slo-scan medical imaging (x-rays) between remote nursing stations and secondary and tertiary health facilities (carey et al, 1979; dunn et al, 1980). the application of the latter technologies provided a key evolutionary step towards the current use and understanding of telehealth. specifically, these early projects contributed to the development of clinical protocols, standards and applications that are the exclusive domain of telemedicine. in the 1990s, federal investments in first nations telemedicine were accelerated. this led to the development of a number of pilot projects being implemented. for example, the merlin project (medical remote link indian-health network) used real-time broadband satellite connections to connect the sioux lookout zone hospital to health canada’s ottawa offices and nursing stations in the kitchenuhmaykoosib inninuwug and webequie first nations. merlin bypassed telecommunications infrastructure problems through the use of satellites and introduced an early prototype of today’s integrated telemedicine workstation. the workstation accommodated medical peripherals – such as stethoscope – enabled nurse/physician video consultations and facilitated x-ray and ecg transmission between sites (hc data). the cancellation of the merlin model demonstrated how a technologically advanced telemedicine system ultimately relies on integration with nursing station and regional hospital work flow and requires community, 2 telemedicine increasingly is being augmented by asynchronous store-forward and portal-based systems. unlike real-time videoconferencing, these systems do not require high bandwidth but do have similarly high network security, reliability and interoperability requirements. canada health infoway incorporated describes these tools as 2nd and 3rd generation telehealth systems. 3 70 percent of first nations telehealth projects provide access to health administrative, education and training services only (see exhibit 2, below) 5 physician and nursing buy-in. it also highlighted how the cost of high quality symmetrical broadband services has a negative impact on the sustainability of remote and northern first nations telemedicine services. in 1998, health canada secured commitments from the health transition fund to launch a national first nations telehealth pilot project that included sites in quebec, manitoba, saskatchewan, alberta and british columbia. generally, these five projects demonstrated the full scope of barriers that limit implementation, acceptance, use and sustainability of telehealth in remote first nations settings. evaluation of the five first nation telehealth pilot projects that ran from 1998 2001 revealed that the key to successful telehealth implementation in aboriginal communities is primarily dependent upon human factors. for example, telehealth acceptance by patients, providers and families was dependent upon the commitment and capacity of individuals involved in the projects, and the presence of stable and committed staff throughout the implementation period. health canada also noted the enabling role of telecommunications infrastructure and the potential importance of establishing regional first nations systems that could generate volumes sufficient to demonstrate community-based benefits and facilitate physician and nursing acceptance of telehealth. in january 2000, health canada announced funding to support a regional telehealth consultation in northwestern ontario. the high cost of medical transportation in northwestern ontario’s sioux lookout health zone highlighted the value of first nations telehealth. keewaytinook okimakanak’s kuh-ke-nah network (an oji-cree phrase meaning everyone, everywhere) had a pre-existing broadband network to its five communities and was asked to participate in the consultation and the regional development of telehealth services. dr. edward brown – then program director of the legacy north network and currently ceo of the ontario telemedicine network was selected as the lead consultant to oversee the consultation. the consultation engaged regional and community-based health workers and professionals and reflected local needs and priorities across the region and specifically in the deer lake, fort severn, keewaywin, north spirit lake and poplar hill first nations. the final report of the regional consultation supported implementation of telehealth in the ko first nations and became the basis for a working partnership between keewaytinook okimakanak and the north network. in april 2001, keewaytinook okimakanak (northern chiefs council) entered into a services partnership with north network. keewaytinook okimakanak (ko) was tasked with developing, documenting and managing a comprehensive clinical telehealth service model that addressed the requirements of rural and remote first nations. health canada funded the partnership for two years as part of its canada health infostructure partnership program (chipp). subsequent project funding has supported the expansion of the project to an additional 19 first nations sites within the sioux lookout health zone, the beausoleil first nation on christian island in north-central ontario and the weenusk first nation on the eastern shore of james bay. ko telehealth is now the most successful and longest running first nation telemedicine pilot project in canada and the only one to offer comprehensive 6 access to medical specialists, primary care and allied health professional services to onreserve first nations populations. parallel to the development of the ko model in ontario, alberta’s first nations and inuit health branch was directed by its first nations leadership to capture provincial investments in the supernet infrastructure and implement health information and communications technologies. with the assistance of fnih project funding and a federal government-on-line project an alberta first nations telehealth project was implemented – providing access to health administrative and training services in 21 first nations in alberta. service model dimensions since the development of the ko telehealth and the alberta first nations telehealth projects, the first nation and inuit health branch has increased and broadened its investments in first nations telehealth (see exhibit 2 for a summary of service model distribution and appendix 1 for a detailed description of service model requirements and capacities). these investments are largely characterized by two distinct, yet complementary tele-learning and telemedicine service models. fnihb and the alberta first nations health information management committee have adopted a tele-learning service model and have developed services – such as web portals and educational videoconferencing – that require less bandwidth, fewer security provisions, less complex community capacity requirements and fewer points of integration with provincial service providers. as a result, telehealth in alberta first nations has focused on services that address issues such as nursing recruitment and retention and the need for community-based educational support. this service model places less emphasis on clinical service delivery.4 first nations in northern ontario have adopted a collaborative hybrid model of telehealth development. this model addresses community-defined health and wellness needs, is fully integrated with the provincial telemedicine system and provides comprehensive local access to telehealth.5 4 for example, in 2004-05 about one percent of telehealth sessions (24/1775) performed by the alberta first nations telehealth program was classified as a “client-centred’ clinical session” (cristescu, 8). 5 for example, of the nearly 7,000 sessions that ko telehealth has coordinated between march 2002 and november 2006, slightly more than 50% are client-centred clinical services, 18 percent are health professional educational events, 17 percent are training sessions for community health staff, 13 percent supported administrative meetings and two percent of all telehealth activity facilitated family visits with persons under care at provincial health facilities. (williams, 2006) 7 first nations telehealth benefits although published and grey literature have yet to define a business case for comprehensive access to telemedicine services (roine, 2001), there is substantial documentation of a value case for the service, particularly in rural and remote first nations settings. the value case captures quantitative indicators such as first nations disease-burden, existing level of health and wellness service access and potential upstream benefits flowing from early intervention and team-based care and addresses qualitative markers such as improved community well-being, community capacitybuilding and cultural interoperability and appropriateness of the service. these factors along with community buy-in, community capacity to influence telehealth service development and integrated and tripartite partnerships have been shown to contribute to a sustainable telehealth program. provincial telehealth strategic plans list a wide range of benefits that are expected to flow from their service investments. typical of these documents is the british columbia telehealth plan’s assertion that “[c]reating a comprehensive, integrated provincial telehealth system is envisioned as a means of realizing three key benefits: improving access to needed health and health care services; enhancing quality of health services and improving productivity (babiuk, p 11). in a first nations context, these benefits are grounded in community expectations to contribute to community wellness and concrete requirements to build capacity and enhance existing levels of health service delivery. observed benefits of first nations telemedicine and telehealth services are listed below:  community economic development resulting from a healthy and more informed workforce  reduced patient travel burden (reduced family disruption, discomfort and financial impact as a result of being able to attend appointments from the community)  improved system effectiveness – community-based access reduces the number of ‘no-shows’ at medical specialist appointments  development of community-based technical (connectivity) capacities, knowledge and skills exhibit 2: health videoconferencing coverage by type of service model and community-based access to clinical services provincial jurisdiction health education/training & administrative videoconferencing service model comprehensive medical service model clinical service sites alberta 27 0 10 british columbia 27 0 0 manitoba 10 0 0 new brunswick 6 0 5 newfoundland 2 0 0 nova scotia 3 0 1 ontario 25 25 25 pei 0 0 0 saskatchewan 20 0 1 quebec 7 0 2 total 128 25 39 8  entry point for new health careers, e.g. certified community telehealth coordinators facilitate community-based access to comprehensive medical, wellness, health administrative, education and training programming  new working relationships and partnerships between first nations and first nations enabling organizations (regional health authorities and services, provincial agencies and ministries)  capability for full integration with provincial telemedicine networks  access to clinical and educational sessions benefiting both individuals and community health workers  improved community-based health service training and education capacity;  enhanced capacity to support community and regional health professional retention and recruitment strategies  reduced impact of longstanding geographical barriers to access by connecting first nations to health resources available to most canadians;  directly supports technological advancements in health (i.e. teleradiology— electronic transmission of x-rays, client information systems);  full integration with nursing and medical programs that increase first nations opportunity to choose health careers and increase familiarity of first nations for nurses and physicians as part of their educations summary the afn views telehealth as a means for augmenting federal commitments to deliver and support health services in rural and remote first nations communities and an opportunity for first nations to improve their capacity to influence and direct health service development and delivery in their communities. similarly, telehealth is seen as a tool for both improving the effectiveness of first nations health programming and as a way to maximize first nations health career choices and chances. more than 20 years of pilot projects have demonstrated the value of telehealth in first nations settings. in that time, two pre-dominant service models have emerged. the tele-learning model is focused on the use of videoconferencing to facilitate health administrative communication and knowledge and skills transfer. the telemedicine model includes the aforementioned elements and supports community-based access to medical, allied health professional and wellness services. benefits of implementing both service models have been documented. quantitative and qualitative indicators have demonstrated a value proposition for federal and provincial health systems. in addition to human factors (staffing, training, organizational integration and coordination), technical factors – specifically the scalability of existing telecommunications infrastructures, connectivity costs and service quality – continue to limit first nations participation in telehealth service development. while health canada investments in telehealth have been scattered over many years and have never benefited from a sustained commitment, chii telehealth investment is targeted to enable and accelerate services in first nations. the chii investment ratio and eligibility criteria, however, reflect provincial – and not federal – health infrastructures, requirements and capacities. changes to investment ratios and criteria are necessary to establish the material conditions for successful first nations telehealth development and partnerships. 9 specifically, the afn views existing caps on first nations telehealth investment and chii restrictions on telehealth eligible investments to be key levers for improving first nations access to tele-learning and telemedicine services. in the following section, the first nations telehealth development vision and context is situated in an environmental scan. afn sponsored telehealth consultations that were supported by canada health infoway are reviewed and key themes identified. the thematic review is complemented and updated by information provided by key informants. 10 environmental scan & current state analysis the acknowledged complexity and diversity of first nations health and wellness service needs, expectations and capacities animated the development of a telehealth consultation process. this process was animated by the afn and supported by regional and local organizations. participants learned about how telehealth is being used by provincial and first nations organizations and contributed to our understanding of the community-based needs, conditions and challenges that telehealth must address in order to be successful. primarily, participants expressed that telehealth should contribute to improved health outcomes and to close the gap between first nations and non-first nations health status. they also described key barriers such as poor telecommunications infrastructure, high connectivity costs, untrained staff and the joint challenges of sustainability and establishing favourable working relationships with provincial partners. key informant interviews conducted with provincial and federal telemedicine principals in february and march 2007, validated these concerns and highlighted the generally slow pace of first nations telehealth development within provincial and territorial jurisdictions. with few exceptions, informants supported the notion of 100 percent chii investment in first nations telehealth projects and confirmed the role of chii eligibility criteria in dis-incenting project development. the first part of this section summarizes the afn-sponsored consultations and a latter section reflects on responses from key informant interviews and the potential impact of chii 100% investment in first nations telehealth. afn sponsored consultations in spring 2005, the afn, secured resources from canada health infoway and the first nations and inuit health branch to enable strategic planning for first nations telehealth. in the fall of 2005, afn launched a canada-wide initiative to build community telehealth capacity and to animate regional discussion and development of strategic telehealth priorities by first nations. the launch event for this nation-wide initiative was the september first nations and inuit telehealth summit (fnits), supported through the primary health care transition fund (phctf), and co-ordinated with the canadian society of telehealth’s annual conference. following the summary of the fnits are eight focused synopses of the reports from afn-sponsored first nations telehealth consultations carried out regionally from late 2005 to late 2006. the reports summarized originated from these fora/processes:  telehealth in bc: from vision to action plan  yukon first nation telehealth conference  fsin regional telehealth workshops  manitoba first nations telehealth workshops  sustaining first nations telehealth through change management (n. ontario)  “gii kaan daan” ontario first nations telehealth conference  quebec first nations and inuit telehealth regional forum  atlantic canada telehealth strategic plan. 11 the summaries highlight key findings from the consultations in the following areas: perceived benefits of telehealth, the challenges and barriers faced in developing and sustaining telehealth services and the factors deemed necessary for successful telehealth service delivery in first nations communities. exhibit 3 further groups these findings thematically and ranks them in relative order of importance. the data presented reflects highly differentiated engagement processes and subject orients. the reader will note that in some instances items identified as benefits – e.g. human resources (meaning human resource development capacity – are identified by others as barriers (i.e. scarce human resources). these oppositions have been clarified wherever possible while remaining true to the text produced by the regional consultation. exhibit 3: key findings afn first nations telehealth consultations key benefits critical barriers success factors future requirements 1. improvement in health services . essential to delivery of health services in remote and isolated communities . improved access and enhanced quality of service (culturally appropriate) . older and mental health clients highest priority 1. cursory community consultation . insufficient consultation with community regarding needs, resources, support and engagement . lack of consultation and engagement resources . lack of communication to staff, leadership, elders . wariness of technology . concern for removal of health care choices . change management process inadequate 1.community control . must be first nations-driven . community-based processes . services provided are identified as needed . engagement of first nations to identify priority health care needs . needs assessment by community prior to implementation 1. sustainability . partnerships essential for sustainability – funding, service provision, . federal/provincial policy framework in place .interoperability of policies, service standards and networks . telehealth-enabled aboriginal health programs (federal and provincial) 2. enhanced human resource capacity . professional development for remote staff . reduces feeling of isolation . improves recruitment, retention and productivity . increased capacity and employment within community 2. lack of connectivity . insufficient access to and quality of broadband services . high costs to implement and sustain . many communities without access . limited or inadequate space, resources to build 2. available connectivity and capitalization . provide and sustain sufficient bandwidth . acquire easy to use equipment and create/renovate space . broadband should be considered community infrastructure . equipment and network maintained (training and technical support) . common support toolkits and services 2. telehealth strategy . develop a formal telehealth strategy fully engaging first nations . a plan of action required . unified approach and strategy by region/province . overall control and direction of first nations 3. patient comfort . reduced travel time and dislocation . less time away from work and family . visits at a distance . elders are better served (clinical and with gatherings) 3. sustainability .absence of policy framework and funding mechanism .isolated uncoordinated projects .inadequate financial resources for operations and connectivity .poor or non-existent relationship with provincial/regional service provider .inadequate legislative framework 3. dedicated human resources . success depends of commitment and capacity of individuals involved . community capacity required to optimize clinical use, animate engagement of community, coordinate training . designated first nations staff deliver the service 3.videoconferencing focus on videoconferencing as the backbone of all telehealth services 12 exhibit 3: key findings afn first nations telehealth consultations key benefits critical barriers success factors future requirements 4. scarce human resources .capacity of all kinds lacking . need for initial and ongoing training and support for staff . high staff turnover . where no designated staff to work on telehealth, service inadequate, burden on existing staff 4. sustainability measures . ongoing funding required for network, staffing, training and technical support (policy framework in place) . requirement for partnership with provincial service providers/ stakeholders . need to seamlessly mesh with one another (networks) . close and supportive relationship between first nations health and service provider . technical, clinical organizational and cultural integration 5. unacknowledged patient concerns . privacy/confidentiality . protection of personal information . limited or inadequate space . inadequate policies and training . wariness of technology: implications of telehealth (reduce ftf service) 5. change management . multi-level communication strategy . ongoing flow of information between communities and all stakeholders . procure support of community leadership . community engagement for awareness and ownership . manage expectations 6. policies . operational guidelines in place . developed at community level, regionally endorsed and meshing with provincial partners . agreed-to standards and regulations . central coordination of scheduling, booking and event coordination . appropriate legal and policy framework, e.g. patient privacy . ongoing training on and updating of policies 7. research and evaluation . continuous improvement protocols . demonstrate success . measure performance and progress . ongoing research and evaluation for expanded access and ease of use . support continuation by finding better programs/alternatives 13 1. national first nations and inuit telehealth summit 2005 the afn and inuit tapiriit kanatami (itk) coordinated the national first nations and inuit telehealth summit on september 23 and 24, 2005, in winnipeg, manitoba. approximately 260 representatives from first nation/inuit community organizations, tribal councils, pto’s and national organizations as well as from the federal and provincial governments attended the conference whose purpose was to build partnerships among federal, provincial and community telehealth stakeholders; to build a telehealth toolkit to develop and support the growth of telehealth technologies and resources in first nations and inuit communities and to provide an opportunity to launch the development of regional telehealth plans. this summary provides a focused synopsis of feedback provided by key conference presenters and participants solely on those topics also covered in the summaries of the regional consultations in this document, namely, benefits of telehealth, challenges, and critical success factors and future requirements. benefits of telehealth it was pointed by several presenters that telehealth can address distance issues and provide emergency qualified services critical to remote communities. in addition, doctors and specialists are more able to provide expertise in remote areas using telehealth, thus alleviating stress for families and medical staff, alike. one presenter noted the urgency of focusing telehealth services on mental health because the lack of timely diagnoses in this area could contribute to high suicide rates. the benefit of reduced delay for and better access to diagnostic information for patients was considered a prime benefit of telehealth, particularly for smaller, remote communities. this was joined with the benefit of the reduction of unnecessary travel. community capacity building was raised frequently during the conference as a significant benefit of telehealth. it was pointed out that the benefit of training local people and health professionals alone should be considered as sufficient rationale for a long-term commitment to telehealth. telehealth provides community health workers with access to professional development services that have not been previously available and increases communications among health professionals. reduced jurisdictional barriers, support for individuals seeking diagnoses, partnerships in the implementation of effective strategies and ongoing linkages between federal and provincial systems were mentioned in a session as benefits of telehealth. the use of telehealth to diagnose new and emerging diseases was brought forward as well as was the overall benefit of enabling inuit and first nations communities to reach a standard of living and care equivalent to those of the rest of canada. challenges the national chief noted that although canada has been a leader in telehealth for many years, first nations and inuit communities have not yet received the same opportunities to make use of the technology. further, while the technology opens doors to new ways of health care and delivery of service, the critical challenges of financial and health human resources sustainability must be addressed. the need for adequate technological 14 infrastructure and the need to increase the level of broadband connectivity in remote areas, particularly in first nations, was noted on several occasions critical success factors/future requirements a number of presenters felt that the most critical factors for a successful telehealth service are the need for appropriate broadband connectivity, state of the art equipment, qualified workers and technicians at the community level. according to the feedback from one session, community e-readiness is defined as not only the number of computer servers and the quality of broadband connectivity available but also as the community’s ability to use technology skillfully, the extent to which ict development is encouraged, the transparency of its administration and the basic it literacy of community members. strong change management is necessary to enable an organization to change healthcare processes and delivery models. further, telehealth must develop a delivery strategy that is integrated across federal, provincial and first nations services. a key objective that the conference sessions explored was how to assess and identify regional needs, objectives, and a regional planning process. related to this, some participants acknowledged the importance of pre-planning and engagement activities relative to telehealth, for example, establishing a regional coordination body to be responsible for overseeing the overall development, developing a mission statement and overall goal for the process and engaging communities from the ground up. a key message to be conveyed to communities in the regional planning process is that telehealth is a tool to enhance (not replace) existing health or primary care services. the importance of initially engaging community health care leaders regarding the development of telehealth was also raised. it was also noted during sessions that it is vital to recognize the varying levels of knowledge at the community level. a regional coordinating body should identify community needs and fully understand the concerns and costs of telehealth development. the following points were raised in one session as critical to the successful implementation of telehealth:  engagement of community and federal/provincial/territorial governments  taking advantage of ‘what we know’  development process must be community friendly and in a language communities understand  most of the planning needs will be at the front end  recognize the varying degrees of engagement by communities  coordinating body needs to know the communities several sessions at the conference reinforced the role of a local champion to take on the responsibility for promoting telehealth at the community level. ongoing linkages with youth and schools to promote the use of technology were also suggested. it was recognized that there is a need to develop the rationale for telehealth from different perspectives i.e. education, health services, governance, etc. the need for telehealth expertise in each community, infrastructure for privacy and shared technology were 15 brought forward as key components for a successful service. knowledge and awareness by governments and telehealth partners of inuit and first nations reality, culture and geography are essential as is the buy-in from professional staff within and outside the community. pre-consultation research should be administered in a focused and strategic manner and should include the development of communications tools to support dialogue with community members. there is a strong requirement to pre-examine the communities, their translation needs, their leadership, adjacent communities and health representation. it was pointed out that the elders’ support is critical and, therefore, they should be included in all consultation and engagement strategies. it is important address community needs and the needs of the leadership in the planning phases of the service. there is a need, as well, to consult all community-related health professionals. during one session it was emphasized that telehealth will not be effective without adequate community interest and readiness and not all communities are moving toward integrated use of the technology at the same pace. various ways of encouraging attendance at consultations sessions were suggested, for example, kitchen meetings, story-telling session, bingo nights, etc. the following list of telehealth priorities were developed by one group:  define timelines  develop milestones to check progress  develop financial target and funding  conduct community research  consider rcap priorities  address cultural components  establish a task group responsible for evaluation  recognize flexibility needed in tailoring a plan to meet community needs  design a communications plan from the ground up  use consistent language  pursue consistent and sustainable funding for telehealth  engage leadership, and  conduct a feasibility study. the need for adequate and sustainable funding was recognized as a key requirement and it was further acknowledged that priorities need to be community-driven and ‘buy-in’ occur at all levels of the community. important issues to be considered identified in one session included leadership support, community planning, and financial resources. there is also the requirement to develop an overall plan which addresses the needs of health care professionals and includes sustainable and long-term strategies. 16 2. yukon: first nations telehealth conference the yukon first nations telehealth conference was coordinated by the council of yukon first nations and the afn yukon regional office on april 24, 2006. in april 2006, 10 of the 14 yukon first nations had access to telehealth services through a government of the yukon service that connected the whitehorse general hospital and rural community health centres. the service is supported by the department of health and social services and is largely educational. benefits of telehealth some first nations communities receive excellent support for and involvement in the telehealth service. this depends in part on the relationship between the first nation and the community health centre with which it is affiliated. as an example, if the community health centre has a close working relationship with the first nations health department, first nations health staff are regularly invited to participate in continuing education opportunities on the network. challenges yukon first nations have not been actively involved in the development and delivery of the yukon government’s telehealth program. to date they have not been involved in planning or needs assessment to determine locally what health needs for education and training could be addressed using telehealth. some first nations do not make use of the telehealth services provided in their community health centre because of lack of support/connection to the community health centre in their area. some participants were unaware of how to access the telehealth continuing education schedule and had never been invited by the local health centre to participate in a session. four of the 14 yukon first nations have no access to telehealth services. it was pointed out that because of limited regional resources it will be a challenge to develop a strategic plan for telehealth. critical success factors/future requirements conference participants were interested in accessing education sessions by telehealth about specific topics, i.e. pandemic flu planning and public health. for those first nations whose health centres are connected, the challenge is to establish relationships with health centre staff. regional linkages in the yukon need to be strengthened and future telehealth activities should focus on assessing the communities’ needs and capacity for telehealth activities. a key recommendation is for the development of a formal telehealth strategy engaging yukon first nations in its development and implementation. 3. british columbia: “telehealth in bc: from vision to action” the provincial telehealth steering committee of british columbia carried out the first phase of the bc telehealth planning project whose purpose was to set out a three to five year plan for the future of telehealth in the province. the project was initiated in november 2004 and concluded in march 2006 with the report, “telehealth in bc: from 17 vision to action” telehealth requirements of first nations were integrated into this process. a first nations telehealth planning partnership (fntpp) was formed to provide advice to the provincial team. fntpp representatives were drawn from telehealth-ready mandated first nations health organizations in each of the provinces geographic health regions. two first nations representatives were invited to participate on the provincial telehealth steering committee activities in the project included a literature review and key informant interviews. the project also included one-day telehealth engagement /pre-planning sessions hosted by each of six first nations telehealth planning partners in their regions. the six first nations organizations are: carrier-sekani family services (northern); heiltsuk health (vancouver coastal); inter-tribal health authority (vancouver island); nisga’a valley health board (nisga’a); sto-lo health and social development (fraser) and three corners health services society (interior). a two-day telehealth development/interoperability workshop was held at the end of the regional engagement sessions. the provincial health services authority in partnership with the inter tribal health authority (itha) developed the workshop to jointly identify challenges and opportunities and to suggest actions related to the development of telehealth service in first nations communities in british columbia. at the time of the workshop, two first nations telehealth networks (inter tribal health authority and fnih) were providing health education and training services to 17 sites in british columbia; however, there are no first nations communities interconnected with any of the six provincial health authorities. benefits of telehealth the project report indicated that creating a comprehensive, integrated provincial telehealth system is envisioned as a means of realizing three key benefits: improving access to needed health and health care services; enhancing quality of health services; and, improving productivity. telehealth was described as having the greatest potential to improve access and choice for both patients and providers of health and health care services in rural and remote communities many of which are first nations. first nations key informants readily recognized the capacity of videoconferencing services to improve existing forms of access to health programming and to enhance and augment community-based health and wellness services. during the first nations telehealth partners regional engagement workshops the following health and wellness needs were felt to be able to be addressed by telehealth:  improved access and choice  improved quality  community building  access to specialist medical and allied health professionals  mental health and addictions  chronic disease education and management  elder care  family visitation 18  maternity care  care giver training  linkages for “low incidence” populations. challenges the report advised that the dispersed nature of mandates and funding related to health service delivery to first nations communities in the province resulted in circumstances that make partnership essential. communities expressed concern about the possibility for telehealth to compromise their personal privacy, replace existing services, or remove the choice of having a face-to face encounter with a health professional. limiting factors cited as well were the availability of bandwidth, the federal/provincial partnership arrangements required to launch and sustain successful initiatives and aboriginal leadership and system ownership in the telehealth system. the generally poor state of the physical plant was also seen as a significant barrier to expanding telehealth to outpost and first nations health facilities. finally, human resources were cited as critical to success but no community has the full range of knowledge, skills, abilities and resources needed to mount and operate a full-spectrum telehealth program critical success factors/future requirements a key factor for telehealth to be successfully implemented in first nations communities is the requirement that provincial health services and first nations stakeholders foster understanding and working relationships. the fact-finding activity of the planning process summarized four strategic investments necessary to support a comprehensive, provincial telehealth system:  common services  connectivity and capitalization  capacity building, and  continuous improvement. data presented in the report short listed the following success factors: a) listening to communities at the outset, 2) forming strategic partnerships to overcome infrastructure barriers such as the unavailability of adequate bandwidth resources, and 3) building in the capacity to respond to community-based technical, training and service needs. lessons learned from first nations telehealth projects have showed that successful telehealth implementation is dependent on human factors – acceptance by patients, providers and families and this, in turn, dependent on the commitment and capacity of individuals involved in the projects and the presence of stable and committed staff throughout the implementation period. identified community capacities included in the report were:  growing technical capacity  community leadership and keen interest among community health providers  culture of community development  existing and emerging collaborations and linkages  interest and funding potential from a variety of sources. 19 identified commitments, resources and activity needed to make telehealth a reality included:  stable, predictable and adequate funding  ability to communicate and demonstrate success at the local level  training and community capacity building  user friendliness and customer support  demographic and utilization data for planning and evolution  detailed plans  support of the physician community  evergreen strategy, and  communications. important take-away messages form the telehealth development workshops included:  each community is different and will have different priorities  there are many major health and health care needs in first nation communities so the benefits of telehealth need to be understood  community engagement is essential, and  telehealth cannot be treated as an add-on to existing full workloads. telehealth development workshop presenters observed that telehealth interoperability for aboriginal wellness is dependent on:  recognition and valuing of aboriginal individuals by professionals and systems;  community-based approaches that are of meaning to the health of the individual, family and community;  developing protocols for the professional use of telehealth at every level of service delivery;  moving forward on the basis of mutual education and trust; and  an ongoing focus on potential of sustainability. supporting the development of technical capacity locally can reduce communities’ reliance on centralized support, ensure the support is customized to local needs, avoid the need for technical travel from a central location to multiple distant sites, and ensure familiarity with the equipment and other features of the local site. 4. saskatchewan: workshops on needs/challenges in telehealth for saskatchewan first nations workshops were held in regina, saskatoon and prince albert in may 2006, coordinated by the health and social development secretariat of the federation of saskatchewan indian nations (fsin). the purpose of the consultations was to ascertain the needs and challenges facing first nations communities in saskatchewan relating to telehealth. since november 2005, telehealth services have been provided to first nations in the fort qu’appelle valley as part of a provincial network. the primary service is educational services to health care staff, but a number of clinical consultations have taken place. in addition, onion lake first nation has conducted a telehealth needs assessment and pilot project (march 2006). 20 the peter ballantyne cree nation (northern inter tribal health authority) has an operative telehealth program – four telehealth centres in their communities are connected with the control centre in southend first nation. benefits of telehealth the overriding conclusion from the three workshops is that telehealth could play a major role in the provision of health services to first nations in the province, particularly in more remote, isolated communities and with older patients. telehealth is also viewed as an excellent tool for health education programs such as the treatment of diabetes, proper diets, and safe water usage, as well as for the recruitment of health professionals. it is seen as a useful means for securing the opinions of medical experts, and for the diagnosis and provision of mental health services, especially in the addictions field. overall it was felt to be an innovative way of dealing with distance by bringing the expertise of the medical profession to the community. in the fort qu’appelle valley project, cooperation within the region has been very positive, resulting in some telehealth initiatives on-reserve. the most effective interventions were with older patients who were unwilling or unable to leave their home community. telehealth has also been used in the mental health field to solve the problem of limited access to specialists in the area. the onion lake first nation assessment pinpointed the “drivers” for telehealth as travel savings, competency building for staff and staff recruitment and retention. similarly, the peter ballantyne cree nation project has established overall satisfaction. the project has significantly reduced travel requirements, especially for older patients, and is used to help patients remain in contact with families back home. challenges adequate financial resources are considered a primary barrier, especially given recent cuts by fnihb to their ehealth solutions budget. technology (connectivity) is another major challenge. access to saskatchewan’s community net is considered essential and most first nations in saskatchewan do not have access to the provincial network. broadband services should be coming to 86% of saskatchewan communities in 2007. there is a need for linkage to a provincial network without losing control by first nations. further, privacy measures must be taken prior to telehealth implementation to make certain that privacy and confidentiality are assured. in the fort qu’appelle valley project the most important problem is funding for equipment and connectivity. most communities in the qu’appelle valley area do not have high speed and so cannot participate in the service. there are no community-based telehealth workers, leaving community health workers to organize and set up consultations thus severely limiting the widespread application of the service. in onion lake first nation lack of training and capacity to deliver telehealth services in the community resulted in part in the low utilization of the service. in the peter ballantyne cree nation project, the high cost of broadband was cited as a challenge although it was agreed that the resulting high speed connectivity was essential to the 21 success of the project. there was also concern expressed about possible negative effects by the project on existing medical taxi services provided by non-insured health benefits. critical success factors/future requirements there is a requirement for overall coordination as evidenced in the areas where telehealth has been implemented. this is necessary if a first nations-controlled system is to be designed and implemented as a part of a provincial network. coordination should be at the provincial level using the northern inter-tribal health authority model. other requirements for success raised include: carrying out needs assessments in each first nations prior to implementation; employing first nations staff in the delivery of telehealth to enhance comfort and utilization by patients; and ensuring telehealth rooms are adequately sound-proofed. 5. manitoba: telehealth workshop the assembly of manitoba chiefs (amc) hosted a telehealth workshop on march 15 and 16, 2006, to begin developing a regional telehealth plan. eleven northern manitoba first nations are currently proposed to be connected via satellite to the manitoba telehealth network. these are in addition to the 11 first nations who have had telehealth services in their communities since june 2006. benefits of telehealth participants agreed that telehealth is now essential to the delivery of health services to rural and remote communities and is necessary for health information management and stewardship. challenges the issue of sustainability remains the most critical challenge for a successful service. critical success factors/future requirements in order to address shared concerns regarding sustainability, it was agreed there is a need to identify and develop long-term relationships with partners. education (immediate information campaign) should take place in first nations regarding icts, broadband connectivity and telehealth including required community capacity and the essential need to build partnerships for sustainability. first nations leadership should be specifically targeted for information in this area. needs assessments should be conducted in remaining first nations to understand their requirement and readiness for telehealth services. 6. ontario: “gii-kaan-daan” ontario first nations telehealth conference the “gii kaan daan” first nations telehealth conference was held on june 14-15, 2006, in toronto and online. it was coordinated by the chiefs of ontario in partnership with the afn, health canada and keewaytinook okimakanak. the conference explored the challenges and opportunities of telehealth as a tool to improve the quality of health and wellness of first nations in ontario and gathered feedback from participants about the roles that telehealth could play in their communities. very little telehealth services are available outside of the sioux lookout health zone. funding for pilot projects with 22 akwesasne and chippewas of the thames first nations has expired. under an agreement with fnihb until march 31, 2008, ko telehealth delivers clinical consults and health care staff training in 25 remote first nations in the sioux lookout district – and on christian island – in partnership with the ontario telemedicine network (otn). benefits of telehealth key benefits cited included broader access to health care and an improvement in access, retention of health professionals in remote communities and allowing more inclusion of the family in health care provision. the ontario telemedicine network (otn) presenter outlined the number of kilometres of travel avoided in the past year with the resultant reduction in provincial travel grant costs. community staff indicated telehealth has decreased the cost of travel, allows for preand post-operative care and diabetes clinics, and has been particularly useful for patients who are not able to leave their families. also mentioned was the use of the technology to organize elders gatherings. researchers indicated that if value were assigned to the new services provided by telehealth the cost savings afforded by telehealth would increase. health care professionals indicated that they are able to build connections with their professional community via videoconferencing and that this is a good strategy for reducing the high rate of staff turnover in remote communities. challenges the knet manager highlighted the challenge their network has faced in developing a community network for multiple applications which has good enough quality to encourage and sustain use. another challenge raised was the difficulty in getting all relevant stakeholders to the table to discuss how to develop partnerships between aboriginal communities and telehealth. critical success factors/future requirements a key recommendation from the conference was that first nations telehealth should be funded as a fully operational program within health canada making this program available to all first nations. other federal and provincial government services should be encouraged to make use of the service in order to sustain broadband infrastructure development in first nations. it was also raised that community champions are the most important factor to the sustainability of the network and service. the ko telehealth model has demonstrated that local control is critical for the successful adoption of telehealth at the community level. training and capacity building are essential ingredients for developing and sustaining local applications. community telehealth coordinators provide a critical support service for the effective delivery and ongoing operation of local telehealth applications. community readiness was frequently cited as the critical first step in the development of telehealth. participants emphasized the necessity for the community to be adequately prepared for the implementation of the service so it is fully aware of its role and responsibilities. emphasis should be placed on promoting the use of telehealth to support 23 mental health at the community level, including professional development and training opportunities as well as mental health promotion and clinical sessions. mental health was cited as an ideal pilot project to introduce telehealth. evidence has strongly shown that initial mental health consults should be in person and that some specialists need to have face to face contact with patients. the aboriginal telehealth knowledge circle (atkc), whose mission it is to expand the use of telehealth to support indigenous health, identified four routes to accomplish their goal: 1. information and knowledge transfer and sharing 2. promotion and professional development 3. change management and implementation tools 4. advocacy and strategic alliances. 7.northern ontario: ko telehealth stakeholder workshop the “sustaining first nations telehealth through change management” workshop took place in balmertown, northern ontario, on september 12 and 13, 2006. the purpose of the workshop, organized by ko telehealth, was to seek direction from community, regional, provincial and federal stakeholders to identify and address change management issues and opportunities in the ko telehealth network. under an agreement with fnihb until march 31, 2008, ko telehealth delivers clinical consults and health care staff training in 25 remote first nations in the sioux lookout district – and on christian island – in partnership with the ontario telemedicine network (otn). benefits of telehealth key strengths of the ko telehealth service as identified in the workshop: improved patient access (comprehensive service) community-driven /wholistic model builds local capacity (ctcs) multiple partnerships an evaluation conducted by the centre for rural and northern health research at laurentian university showed that the ko telehealth expansion project (from 5 to 25 sites) successfully improved access to services (health care, education and information) and that the program had the potential to reach operational capacity and become a financial success in the near future. the evaluation estimated ko telehealth to be at or near the “break-even” point based solely on averted travel. challenges the absence of a policy framework/funding mechanism for first nations telehealth is an ongoing concern of ko telehealth placing their service in a complicated project-based funding environment. in the communities there continues to be a pressing need for more capacity building and training and an ongoing concern about adequate and secure space to house the service. community leadership expressed the wish that the communications infrastructure be a community resource with community access. the availability and quality of local, regional and province-wide technical support remains an ongoing issue. 24 critical success factors/future requirements the following strategies for future development emerged from the workshop:  expansion of the service to more communities  increased demand for and use of the service by community users and service providers  enabling the flow of patient information across facilities, jurisdictions and the continuum of care moving from proprietary to standards-based solutions  defining and enhancing the “value proposition” of telehealth to ensure sustainability and continued use and development (e.g. lower cost technology solutions and alternate delivery models) recommendations from workshop: 1. need to develop a multi-level communications strategy 2. identify gaps in federal/provincial policy and recommend interoperability 3. ensure koth requirements are aligned with federal and provincial policies and standards and vice versa 4. develop policies and standards with the communities and have them endorsed by organizations representing the first nations of the area 5. develop a plan of action to fund aboriginal telehealth services in the province 6. telehealth-enables high priority aboriginal health programs (federal and provincial) 7. demonstrate success to all stakeholders and develop a clear plan for sustaining telehealth 8. quebec: connecting communities regional forum 2005 “connecting communities telehealth regional forum” was organized by the first nations of quebec and labrador health and social services commission (fnqlhsc) and fnhib e-health solutions unit. approximately 80 participants from first nations communities and organizations and federal and provincial agencies attended the forum in december 2005. the forum’s objectives were to inform decision-makers and health care professionals about the opportunities available through telehealth, identify key factors in the success of a telehealth project and make recommendations for the development of a regional telehealth strategy. at the time the forum was held, two pilot projects had been initiated in quebec. the winneway telehealth project connects the health centre in winneway with the saintefamille health centre in ville marie. agreements are now in place with ste-justine hospital for psychiatric consultations and for teletraining for psychosocial counsellors, nurses and doctors. the project is developing a contract for cardiology and pneumology services with val d’or. the second pilot project began in 2002 and is based in manawan. this service was funded by the primary health care transition fund. multiple partners became involved and service provision began in 2005. chii provided project funding in that year. mental health, gynecological-obstetrics and ent services are provided with nurses doing follow25 ups of pregnancies via telehealth. the project is estimated to require $150,000 a year to operate for two days a week. benefits of telehealth according to the ministry of health and social services, the primary benefits of telehealth are: improved access to medical services, reduced travel, increased retention of health professionals, and creating links between health professionals and various institutions. challenges the following barriers were raised:  insufficient staff to provide telehealth services along with other duties  foreign software and insufficient technical support  fear of the unknown  limited medical staff involvement  no fee recognized for certain kinds of telehealth consults which decreases motivation for physicians  cost of connectivity is prohibitively high. the ministry of health and social services identified three main problems: inadequate legislative framework, bandwidth problems and too many isolated initiatives. critical success factors/future requirements it was generally agreed that the next step is the development of a first nations telehealth strategic plan for the province. key elements of the strategy should include a telehealth needs assessment by communities, high speed connectivity and a unified approach. it was agreed that the process must be first nations-driven. other key factors for success include:  the system has to be simple and easy to use  service requires a recognized community champion (who should be paid)  partnerships are necessary to ensure quality of service and sustainability  integrated approach to community needs  ongoing financial support  good quality technical team  cooperation of the staff at the nursing station the ministry of health and social services suggested the following steps: 1. identify service needed by organization/community. 2. begin discussions with an institution or network available in your region. 3. assess the possibility of using telehealth to support activity. 4. prepare the telehealth project in collaboration with the “ruis” (réseau universitaire intégré de santé) telehealth team. 5. promote partnerships among first nations, the provincial ministry of health and health canada. 26 9. atlantic canada: stakeholder engagement process a stakeholder engagement process was conducted from march to august 2005 with atlantic first nations and inuit health service providers, aboriginal leadership, provincial telehealth networks, schoolnet atlantic and fnihb. the purpose of the engagement, carried out by fnhib and the union of new brunswick indians, was to facilitate the development of a strategic plan for telehealth in atlantic canada. the process included four workshops, and ten community focus groups as well as a survey of the aboriginal leadership. in total, 159 stakeholders participated in the community engagement process. at the time that the engagement process took place, the eskasoni first nation in nova scotia had been a part of the nova scotia telehealth network for more than five years. in new brunswick, there has been a pilot project in elsipogtog with the dr georges l dumont regional hospital. this service is rarely used. smart labrador demonstrated telehealth and the river valley health authority established a telehealth program with tobique first nation, providing addictions and mental health services. benefits of telehealth the following benefits emerged (with the proviso that certain key challenges must be overcome first):  staff and clients stay in community resulting in reduced travel time and costs, less time away from work and family, and less travel in inclement weather  families are able to visit at a distance  greater compliance with referrals  improved access to regional and provincial health care services, specialists and other health care providers  improved integration between first nations and inuit health care services and provincial/regional health services  increased access to culturally appropriate health care services  improved services for mental health clients  improved opportunities for education sessions and support for staff, reducing the feeling of isolation and having an impact on staff retention and recruitment  improved follow-up care and discharge planning  reduction in wait times challenges the following are some of the lessons learned from telehealth pilots/programs:  need for training or support after training  technical training needs to address the integration of the technology into the operations of the network and health centres  insufficient consultation with community regarding needs, resources, support, and engagement  change management process inadequate and lack of communication to front-line staff  low utilization because of restricted use of equipment and services offered  high network costs and low quality of service 27  wariness of technology and its value based on previous projects  lack of trust (provincially and federally)  service provided not following existing referral patterns  lack of human resources capacity at community level including high staff turnover, limited computer skills, high workload, etc  limited or inadequate space which may not answer need for client privacy and confidentiality. critical success factors/future requirements a number of components were identified as critical to the successful planning and implementation of telehealth programs. the following factors should be considered: planning  services provided by telehealth are identified as needed by the community  strong partnerships are formed with specialists and service providers  funding required for infrastructure – room preparation, network, equipment, training and implementation  ensure high speed network with quality of service in place  sustainable funding change management  procure band leadership support and manage expectations  champion for telehealth identified in the community  community engagement process leads to awareness and buy-in  partnership with provincial/regional health authority  operational guidelines and policies in place  proper staff training implementation  central coordination of scheduling  policies, procedures and training on privacy and confidentiality  no overloading of existing staff  dedicated project manager (implementation and ongoing) operational  high-speed data network with guaranteed quality of service  telehealth equipment installed and maintained (user support, training and technical support)  success is dependent on the assignment of appropriate human resources  space requirements include location, privacy, security, configuration, lighting and wiring  sustainability with ongoing funding, training, technical support, maintenance, network costs and staffing 28 key informant interviews reports resulting from afn-sponsored regional telehealth consultations have been updated through a series of key informant interviews (kiis). interviews took place during february and march of 2007. selection of subjects was guided by criteria that highlighted informant capacity to provide current information into regional growth of first nations telehealth, operational insight, information about existing and emergent partnerships, and ability to identify potential 100% investment projects. additional interviews followed from recommendations of those originally contacted or referenced during the interviews. kii selection criteria are attached as appendix 2. at least one key informant interview was conducted with a telehealth or telemedicine principal in each provincial jurisdiction with the exception of prince edward island where no telehealth program currently exists. most interviews followed a questionnaire format (attached as appendix 3). others were iterative and less formal. in addition to the kiis, a briefing and feedback session was held with regional e-health coordintors and first nations telehealth principals where participants were asked to validate information presented and make suggestions going forward (agenda and minutes of the 14 march 2007 meeting is attached as appendix 4). interviews confirmed the uneven state of first nations telehealth development across provincial jurisdictions. however, it is apparent that the afn sponsored first nations telehealth consultations have animated interest in telehealth and supported development projects in most provincial jurisdictions. exhibit 4, below, identifies all of the first nations telehealth projects supported by chii. this table both highlights chii’s strategic role in supporting management models for implementing successful telehealth programs and applications and demonstrates limited first nations uptake of the telemedicine investment program. exhibit 5 provides a summary of the current status of first nations telehealth development by provincial jurisdiction. exhibit 4: chii first nations investment to 31 march 2007 jurisdiction fn organization category phase ab alberta first nations telehealth project telemedicine/vc 0/1 mb winnipeg regional health authority telemedicine/vc complete nb union of new brunswick indians telemedicine/vc 1 nl miawpukek first nation telemedicine/vc 1 ns wagmatcook first nation telemedicine/vc 1 qc fnqlhssc telemedicine/vc 0 qc communauté atikamekw de manawan telemedicine/vc 2 on keewaytinook okimakanak telemedicine network (kotn) http://research.knet.ca/pdf/koth-chi_final[1].pdf management models (fn documentation project) complete on keewaytinook okimakanak telemedicine network (kotn) change management 2 pc assembly of first nations (regional fn telehealth consultations) management models complete pc national aboriginal health organization telelearning/vc 1 pc aboriginal telehealth knowledge circle management models 2 29 http://research.knet.ca/pdf/koth-chi_final%5b1%5d.pdf exhibit 5: current status of first nations telehealth development by province province current status british columbia a first nations telehealth planning partnership advises the ministry of health on telehealth development. the tri-partite health plan signed by the first nations leadership council, british columbia and health canada identifies a comprehensive clinical telehealth network for first nations as a deliverable. the ministry of health is in the process of preparing a charter for developing 18 first nations sites, identifying provincial clinical applications and determining a governance structure. the first nations charter is scheduled for completion july 2007. inter tribal health authority (itha) has developed a partnership with their regional health authority for the phased integration of first nations chronic disease management telehealth programming. itha is working with community, regional and provincial partners to develop a common services (scheduling, help desk, bridging, training) function and develop a link to clinical information and store/forward solutions. telehealth operational funding currently is the focus of tri-partite negotiations associated with the first nations health plan. alberta treaty 8 has submitted a chi phase 0/1 proposal on behalf of the fnihb him committee. the proposal would see the expansion of telehealth services to an additional 22 first nations sites. the proposal also includes a tele-primary care component. fnihb is targeted as the sustaining funder of this service. cross-jurisdictional questions about the delivery of medical consultant services on reserve are outstanding and clinical activity will be limited until this issue is resolved. saskatchewan onion lake and the northern intertribal health authority (nitha) are engaged in separate telehealth projects. onion lake first nation has undergone a telehealth readiness assessment. nitha – working from its long-time base in the peter ballantyne first nation – has made significant progress in aligning its technical and service level capacities and requirements with provincial standards. nitha aims to add more than 20 first nations sites and is currently engaged in partnership discussions with the aboriginal directorate of saskatchewan health (additional partner information is included in appendix 5). saskatchewan telehealth is initiating a refresh strategy. operational funding to support first nations telehealth and use of common services is a key concern for first nations and provincial telehealth champions. crossjurisdictional questions about the delivery of medical consultant services on reserve are outstanding and clinical activity will be limited until this issue is resolved. manitoba mbtelehealth and fnihb have completed the expansion of telehealth services to 10 remote (cband satellite served) first nations. fnih supports operational costs of these sites through yearly contribution agreements. year over year funding is a sustainability concern for the provincial telehealth service provider. cross-jurisdictional questions about the delivery of medical consultant services on reserve are outstanding and clinical activity will be limited until this issue is resolved. the assembly of manitoba chiefs has developed a proposal to expand provincial telehealth network access up to 12 new sites. the proposal requires a commitment by fnih to support the operational costs of the network. ontario ko telehealth is delivering comprehensive clinical telemedicine services to 25 first nations sties. all sites have access to a common services hub and help desk and use trained community site coordinators to manage local service delivery. the ko telehealth service is fully integrated with the ontario telemedicine network. ko telehealth pays no service or membership fees to otn or to the province of ontario. the smart systems for health agency has contracted k-net services to deploy secure broadband connections to up to 30 first nations sites in the 2007-08 fiscal year to support telemedicine, emr, and secure e-mail services on-reserve. ko telehealth is implementing a change management project to improve service effectiveness and align their business model with federal/provincial policy and program indicators. the chiefs of ontario is in discussions with fnih ontario region about potential telehealth service opportunities. weeneebayko health ahtuskaywin (western james bay cree) is developing a plan to expand access to telehealth to their four coastal communities (peawanuck, attawapiskat, fort albany and kashechewan). quebec currently there are three first nations communities included in the quebec rtss (health and social services communications network,) namely the winneway first nation that is utilizing telehealth, the mohawks of kahnawake through the kateri memorial health centre (kmhc) and the manawan first nation. the kmhc will be launching it health administrative and training 30 exhibit 5: current status of first nations telehealth development by province province current status videoconferencing service at the end of april. the winneway and manawan sites currently provide clinical service delivery capacity. the first nations of quebec and labrador health and social services commission have submitted a phase 0 proposal to canada health infoway to implement a broadly-based first nations telehealth service covering eight cultural groups (naskapis, innus, micmacs, wendat, atikamekw, abénaquis, mohawks, algonquins) in up to 29 communities. fnqlhssc workshops in march 2007 were attended by representatives from 20 of the 29 first nations. new brunswick two of five tobique first nations have access to telehealth services through a service level agreement with region 3 – river valley health. clinical services include diabetes management, mental health and addictions. technology was acquired this year to support an additional 3 sites in the region 3 area. the union of new brunswick indians is completing a charter for introducing telehealth services to an additional 4 communities in northeast new brunswick (miramachi regional health authority). mental health, first nations addictions after care, fasd and peer support have been identified as potential priority programs by regional first nations. cross-jurisdictional questions about the delivery of medical consultant services on reserve are outstanding and clinical activity will be limited until this issue is resolved. nova scotia eskasoni telehealth is the longest running telehealth program in nova scotia. a chii proposal by the wagmatcook first nation proposes to add an additional four sites (wagmatcook first nation, we'koqma'q first nation, membertou first nation and potlotek first nation) in the cape breton area to the nova scotia telehealth network (nstn). current telehealth programming to eskasoni includes dermatology, mental health and some discharge planning. initial consultation with the cape breton first nations communities has identified diabetes and mental health as two priority areas for telehealth. newfoundland the miawpukek first nation (conne river) is developing a chii charter to implement onreserve tele-primary care services in partnership with their health region, the st. albans clinic and the newfoundland/labrador centre for health information (nlchi). the community will also have access to other core provincial telehealth sevices such as tele-oncology. a train-the-trainer model will be introduced and event coordination will be supported by multiple care givers. miawpukek will have access to nlchi common services. operational funding will be supported through a regional aboriginal health transition fund project. a primary consideration in key informant interviews was to determine the role of the chii telehealth investment in “directly contributing to increased utilization and expansion of telehealth services...in identified areas of need such as aboriginal communities” (chii, 2005). generally, key informants agreed that a 100% investment ratio in first nations telehealth would accelerate first nations access to provincial telehealth services (see exhibit 6 for a summary of responses categorized by access, integration and change management themes). often these responses were qualified by other factors embedded in the chii telehealth investment program. one informant proposed that securing co-investors could be a positive requirement – securing coinvestors was equivalent to securing partners and long-term sustainability. first nations telehealth development issues all respondents agreed that first nations propose unique developmental environments for telehealth service delivery and management and all agreed that first nations telehealth development was proceeding slower than anticipated in their provincial jurisdiction. observed barriers to telehealth development included a lack of telehealth and health service capacity on-reserve and a lack of people with knowledge and skills to manage these projects. others described poor or non-existent relationships between first 31 nations and provincial health organizations and competing community health priorities that mitigate against growth of first nations telehealth. still others highlighted technical issues such as infrastructural challenges of integrating first nations networks with provincial health networks, poor telecommunications infrastructure on-reserve and high connectivity costs. nearly all informants also identified cross-jurisdictional issues and sustainability barriers as key telehealth service disablers. many forms of cross-jurisdictional uncertainty were discussed. some respondents expressed frustration that “no rules” existed to guide the integration and coordination of provincial, federal and first nations telehealth developments. this barrier manifested as a macro issue – creating uncertainty about which level of government should pay for what aspect of which service – and it also highlighted specific on-reserve issues like remuneration of physicians – that practically limit the range of community-based services. jurisdiction was also linked to sustainability. all respondents were concerned with enabling first nations operations. first nations that have secured multi-year projectbased funding from fnihb (notably ontario and alberta) have developed customized service models and have open and stable relationships with provincial counterparts. for most first nations, year-to-year operating and long-term sustainability continue to stall provincial relationship building. most jurisdictions positively described fnih’s animation and capitalization role of first nations telehealth projects. however, respondents saw the reduction of ehealth solutions unit funding and the absence of a fnih telehealth policy or program as a threat to continued telehealth service partnerships and service development. still many first nations have developed service relationships with provincial telehealth regions and networks. these relationships are governed by various bodies and mechanisms6 and are often supported by service level agreements with regional health authorities and provincial networks. service level agreements determine the type and scope of tele-learning and telemedicine applications received by first nations and outline provision of or access to specific common services such as help desk, videobridging, scheduling, clinical protocol development and warranty management. chii specific barriers to first nations telehealth development most respondents highlighted structural barriers that restricted capacity to develop and implement successful projects. some, for instance, highlighted the difficulty that the pmbok nomenclature created for community-based first nations telehealth champions. the idiosyncratic language used by chii and its specialized investment programs added an additional level of complexity to most projects. others emphasized chii’s requirements and eligibility criteria as problematic. key requirement and criteria-based barriers identified are: 6 telehealth governance is highly differentiated. for example, while telehealth issues are covered by the health committee of nova scotia’s tri-partite forum, first nations telehealth in northwestern ontario is supported by an advisory committee of regional first nations health directors. 32 exhibit 6: summary of key informant interview responses by access, integration and change management themes fn access to on-reserve telehealth services integration of fn with f/p telehealth organizations change management issues and solutions  historically, fn telehealth has developed in isolation from provincial or regional telehealth programs  approximately 128 first nations health centres and first nations regional health organizations have installed videoconferencing services  first nations videoconferencing is primarily used for delivery of training, education and health administrative purposes  few first nations telehealth training or education events are accredited or lead to a health or administrative credential  financial, technical and staffing requirements and f/p jurisdictional uncertainty have constrained adoption of comprehensive first nations telemedicine service delivery  on-reserve access to clinical telehealth applications is limited. with the exception of the 25 remote ontario first nations, on-reserve delivery of clinical programming is highly uneven. most community programs only address very specific needs: e.g. ob/gyn; ent; mental health; (see exhibit 5, above)  the lack of comprehensive service models limits the volumes necessary to run successful clinical telehealth programs in first nations with small populations  store-forward telehealth is an area of interest for first nations in several jurisdictions  most new on-reserve clinical telehealth development is focused on tele-primary care. tele-primary care typically is delivered in a family medicine clinic format with community health nurses presenting patients to distal community physicians.  successful service model development for on-reserve telehealth requires wideranging partnerships and support structures.  the first nations and inuit health branch has been and continues to be the primary funding source for first nations telehealth start-up  first nations and inuit health branch assumes a fundamental role in sustaining telehealth projects in atlantic canada, quebec, ontario, manitoba, alberta and british columbia and manages telehealth programs in alberta and manitoba  all provincial telehealth strategic plans identify first nations, aboriginal or underserviced populations as priority areas for telehealth service development  first nations telehealth projects only have limited access to provincial common services such as videoconference-scheduling and –bridging, procurement, warranty management, technical help desk  few first nations telehealth projects have access to provincial or regional health authority telemedicine networks  all first nations that are engaged in provincial partnerships have entered into (service, service level, affiliation or mou-type) agreements that stipulate roles, responsibilities and expectations. no common agreement template or format has been developed  some first nations pay provincial and/or regional health authority partners for access to network programming and/or services  several provinces provide a range of common services (help desk, warranty management, procurement, etc) to first nations partners  governance of first nations telehealth assumes many forms: provincial boards, community/regional health authority committees, tri-partite partnerships, etc.  telecommunications infrastructure in proximity to first nations is generally poor and requires upgrading.  monthly connectivity costs for broadband services are high in relation to the potential volume of telehealth services  there is a general space shortage in first nations nursing/health stations and the requirement for a separate and bookable telehealth room creates new pressures on high demand health spaces  canada health infoway does not support investments in infrastructure such as upgrading telecommunications plant, building last mile from pops, upgrading health facilities to be telehealth ready (renovation of telehealth rooms in nursing stations) or on-going operational costs such as connectivity.  remote communities are difficult to get into and to support – difficult for engagement & communication particularly in early stages because of distance  shortage of local skilled and trained staff to develop, implement, project manage, staff and champion community-based telehealth projects  access to provincial telehealth networks requires a high degree of technical and security interoperability  canada health infoway does not support investments  multi-juridictional uncertainty re: remuneration of medical services on-reserve, historical fn/f/p relationships, lack of rules for fn/p/f engagement  uncertainty connected to year-to-year fnihb funding approach  most believe the pace of first nation telehealth development is slower than anticipated  most believe that 100% chi funding would have a net positive effect – but sustainability is still the key factor 33  requirement – complementary investments. most respondents highlighted the difficulty first nations have making complementary investments based on chii’s existing 75/75/50% phase 0/1/2 investment ratios. some informants discussed the limitations of first nations making ‘in-kind’ investments to leverage maximum chii investment. they indicated that the specialized nature of telehealth and telemedicine required building new organizational capacities and making intensive capital investments.  requirement – investment on deliverable. as noted above, capital intensive telehealth projects place an immediate strain on cash flow for first nations. the requirement that payment follow deliverables is a longstanding barrier to first nations participation.  criteria – ineligibility of infrastructure investments (see exhibit 7). most first nations require infrastructural improvements to meaningfully participate in telemedicine programs. two main areas of investment are for building last mile connections between a point-of-presence and the community health facility and renovations to the nursing station to ensure sufficient capacity or patient privacy.  criteria – ineligibility of connectivity investments. connectivity in first nations communities is a premium service and is generally the largest single service cost. unlike provincial governments, first nations are unable to leverage panprovincial business volumes against telco pricing. quality of service requirements of telemedicine further escalate costs. exhibit 7: eligible and ineligible canada health infoway telehealth costs examples of eligible costs examples of ineligible costs servers to enable telehealth services desktop hardware & software workstations to access a telehealth service it/is infrastructure (generic servers) medical peripheral devices network & telecommunications security hardware, gateways, gatekeepers, routers operation and maintenance costs videoconferencing equipment adoption incentives telehealth team training financial expenses telehealth team travel custom procurement internal & external resource costs for project related activities such as analysis, change management, project management, configuration & installation, implementation, training, integration, joint procurement, testing, planning, recruiting. senior management compensation: e.g. executive director, adm, dm 34 impact of 100% investment in first nations telehealth it is the afn’s position that a 100% investment ratio will enable and accelerate first nations telemedicine services. this position is based on nation-wide consultations with first nations, key informant interviews with provincial telemedicine principals and chii’s investment record. the afn asserts that chii plays two complementary roles as an investor in first nations telehealth. the first role is enabler. chii fulfills this role by investing in documentation, best practices, change management tools and management models that reflect first nations and aboriginal circumstances, conditions and service models. the latter role is to “contribut[e] to increased utilization and expansion of telehealth services...in identified areas of need such as aboriginal communities.” this role both addresses the need to prioritize rural and remote first nations and to accelerate their participation in regional health authority, provincial and federal telehealth systems and networks. while chii has achieved some success as an enabler, its catalytic capacity has been muted. the afn is concerned that chii telehealth investment program and criteria are dis-incenting first nations and provincial partners from participating in telehealth development and, as a result, the $17.5m first nations investment envelope will be underscribed before the program’s end in december 2009. the evolving chii aboriginal telehealth mandate chii received a mandate and resources for telehealth in february 2003. their 2003/2004 building momentum business plan identified the need for developing a telehealth strategy and highlighted two benefits of the strategy. the first was to incent telehealthehr linkages and the second to “support remote and rural care, delivery/access” (2003, 15). in september 2004, chi announced its strategy and identified four objectives (http:// www.infoway-inforoute.ca/pdf/cst_telehealthv8_e.pdf): a. increase the coverage of telehealth in aboriginal, official language minority, northern, remote and rural communities b. increase the clinical utilization and sustainability of existing telehealth networks c. increase the integration of telemedicine activities into mainstream healthcare service delivery d. increase the crucial telehealth link to ehr since then, first nations participation in the chii telehealth investment program has been limited. despite chii’s commitment in its 2005-06 business plan to implement telehealth solutions that “facilitate the delivery of health information and services between patients and providers over distance, with a focus on the aboriginal, official language minority, northern and remote communities,” (emphasis added) the telehealth investment program has enabled few first nations solutions. 35 http://www.infoway-inforoute.ca/pdf/cst_telehealthv8_e.pdf http://www.infoway-inforoute.ca/pdf/cst_telehealthv8_e.pdf chii capacity to enable and accelerate since receiving its telehealth mandate, chii has enabled only 10 first nations endpoints (manitoba). completion of phase 1 and phase 2 projects in quebec (1) and atlantic canada (10) will add an additional 11 first nations endpoints for a total of 22. if new first nations initiatives submitted by proponents in alberta (22), quebec (24) and british columbia (18) for phase 0/1 investment are wholly successful, then chii will have enabled a total of 85 of a potential 625 first nations endpoints, about 14 percent of all first nations reserves in canada, and an investment of about $200,000 per endpoint. an increase in the investment ratio to 100% will have a positive impact on the chii telehealth investment program. based on chii’s historical investment record, it is unlikely that they will be able to invest the remaining $12.5m before program’s end in december 2009 using the existing 75%/75%/50% phase0/1/2 ratio. on the other hand, a 100% investment ratio likely will animate project development among first nation, federal and provincial stakeholders and increase participation of first nations in the telehealth investment program.. it will also eliminate the requirement to secure matching funds, a problem identified as a financial capacity barrier in the nationwide consultations and key informant interviews. a 100% investment approach will also incent shared and collaborative solutions among first nations and provincial partners. like the northern program, a 100% first nation investment ratio will be based on a partnership model that captures economies of scale within the network and common service environment. chii amendment of its investment requirements and eligibility criteria to reflect first nations opportunities, conditions and challenges, will further animate project development and support a broader base of potential fn/f/p partnerships. 36 proposed go forward strategy discussions between afn and chii have resulted in a project-based approach to demonstrating how a 100% investment ratio will accelerate development and adoption of first nations telehealth. chii has asked afn to identify two new telehealth opportunities in two distinct geographic areas. projects also reflect first nations telehealth readiness and some degree of provincial integration (see proposed criteria, below). the aim of the 100% investment ratio is to enable new first nations projects and accelerate first nations/provincial/federal partnerships, capture economies of scale, make more effective use of scarce health human resources and increase health provider acceptance and first nations uptake of telemedicine or telehealth services. these projects must be phased with deliverables to enable reimbursement of expenses in a reasonable manner so that cash management is possible among proponent communities. the two successful demonstration project proponents will receive 100% phase 0-2 investment commitments and be provided with specialized resources to work with them and their provincial partner to develop a project charter (phase 1). the two phase 1 documents will be reviewed by chii’s operations and management committee (omc) and subsequently will be forwarded to the chii board for approval. approval of the demonstration projects will coincide with announcement of a chii 100% investment ratio policy for all first nations telehealth projects. the policy will be similar in nature to the 100% policy now in place for northern jurisdictions. once approved, chii will enter into a contractual agreement with the first nation proponent. this agreement will commit the proponent to meet implementation and adoption targets identified in their project charter. a separate and complementary agreement will bind the project partners to service levels, standards and service targets. further these targets will be directly linked to chii investment and reimbursement of expenses. it will be the responsibility of the proponent to enter into separate and complementary bilateral (fn/p) or trilateral (fn/p/f) agreements with provincial and other partners. payment to partner organizations, external resources and vendors will be the responsibility of the first nations proponent. selection criteria – based on best practices, lessons learned the position paper process set out to identify first nations projects that are potentially eligible for 100% canada health infoway investment. chii investment includes support for pre-feasibility analysis, completion of a privacy impact and security assessment and development of an implementation plan (phase 1); and, implementation of the telehealth plan (phase 2). canada health infoway does not provide on-going or operational funding. criteria have been developed as a two-step process. the first set of criteria address high level requirements for inclusion. the second set of criteria focus on four aspects of service readiness. step one (mandatory criteria) 1. the project is deemed by chii as a new opportunity – proponents have not filed an investment proposal for a phase of service development 37 2. the first nation project has established a partnership with a provincial health service or service provider and the first nations and inuit health branch 3. the first nations project will expand community-based access to health services and will include a first nations governance component 4. the first nation project includes or is focused on delivery of a telehealth or telemedicine service with its provincial partner. examples of such projects are:  implementing a clinical telemedicine service; and/or  collaborating on the delivery of community-based nursing and health worker tele-education and training services  launching a home telehealth or telemetry initiative  integrating service desk functionality by sharing help desk, warranty management, procurement and videoconference scheduling and or bridging services. 5. the first nations project is located in a geographic area where there is little or no pre-existing joint fn/f/p telehealth activity. step two (best practices telehealth readiness criteria) projects that are identified in the first stage of the selection process will be reviewed against criteria which reflect physical, technical, health administrative and clinical readiness to enter into a collaborative relationship with provincial and other health service partners. these criteria are listed below: a) demonstrate physical capacity to participate  proponent communities have access to a reliable power supply  a primary health care facility is located in each of the proponent communities  primary health care facilities will provide access to a room that can be used for scheduled telehealth sessions b) demonstrate technical readiness  a wireline high speed internet connection rated (at a minimum of 750 kilobits per second down and 300 kilobits per second up) is available in each of the proponent communities  a local area network has been installed within all primary health care facilities  technical support is available in-house to address day-to-day technical trouble shooting issues c) demonstrate health administrative readiness  the senior health administrator in each of the proponent communities agrees to act as the project champion  political leadership supports participation in the demonstration project 38 d) demonstrate clinical readiness  nursing staff are resident in the community during regular business hours, monday through friday  there is a demonstrable gap between local access to health and wellness services and demand for such services  the collection, storage and retrieval of health information in each of the community health facilities is governed by in-house privacy and confidentiality policies exclusion criteria a community will not be considered as a potential 100% chii investment demonstration site if… a) one or more of the communities is located in the yukon, northwest territories or nunavut potentially eligible projects a total of four potential 100% investment ratio projects have been identified during the current state analysis. the projects all nominally meet step one criteria. the projects are: british columbia – inter tribal health authority. inter tribal health authority is one of six first nations telehealth planning partners (fntpp) in british columbia. itha provides a coordinating role for fntpp members to interface with federal, provincial and regional health and health education principals. itha currently operates a multi-site health videoconference network that supports health administrative, training and creditbased educational services and is implementing an emr in 25 first nations communities. itha is developing a telehealth common services project. the project aims to leverage its existing telehealth partnership with the vancouver island health authority to develop an interoperable suite of service solutions for first nations endpoints and staff (videobridging, scheduling, help desk, service and application development) that will produce a managed solution interface and enable the technical alignment of first nations endpoints with regional health authority networks. saskatchewan – the northern intertribal health authority’s telehealth working group has formed a steering committee with the aboriginal directorate of the provincial ministry of health in order to progress towards integration with the provincial network. nitha has focused on aligning its network infrastructure with standards used by saskatchewan telehealth to service interoperability. nitha is also working to align its policy environment with the provincial system. they anticipate that their policies on privacy and security will be ready to share with their provincial counterparts by the end of march. nitha has engaged its community members and has noted significant “buyin” from the communities. it currently has five sites operational and aims to expand and substantially increase the scope of the service. funding to sustain telehealth remains the key implementation barrier. manitoba – the assembly of manitoba chiefs has developed a proposal to add up to 12 39 new first nations sites in partnership with manitoba telehealth. the proposal follows the successful implementation of a chi project to link 10 satellite-based first nations with the provincial video network. currently, the project is awaiting operational commitments from federal stakeholders. ontario – weeneebayko health ahtuskaywin (wha) is a first nations health authority based in moose factory on the western shore of james bay. wha engaged in a coordinated implementation of telemedicine at its main hospital facility on moose factory island and at the james bay general hospital in moosonee in 2005. at that time, wha senior management indicated that they would expand the telehealth service when connectivity was available in coastal communities (peawanuck, fort albany, attawapiskat, and kashechwan). commitments to underwrite the operating costs of satellite-based and wireline connectivity in these communities were made by smart systems for health agency in fy 2006-07. wha is developing an expansion project for its health region. a beta site has been established in peawanuck from which the coastal service model will be shaped. 40 references assembly of first nations. (2004). first nations health action plan. september, ottawa. assembly of first nations. (2006). road map to a patient wait times guarantee for first nations. november, ottawa. babiuk, david, ashworth v, bayne l, rowlandson j, sedgwick j, waite k. (2006) telehealth in bc: from vision to action. a report prepared by the bc telehealth planning project for the provincial telehealth steering committee. 31 march, victoria, british columbia. canada. (july 2003). canada health infostructure partnership program (chipp). standards & interoperability report, part 1. office of the health information highway, health canada. canada health infoway. 2003. building momentum: 2003/04 business plan. http://www.infoway-inforoute.ca/admin/upload/dev/document/business%20plan%2003-04%20en.pdf carey ls, russell es, johnson ee, wilkins ww. 1979. radiologic consultation to a remote canadian hospital using hermes spacecraft – journal of the canadian radiologist association. 30(1):12-20. closson, tom. 2005. integrated service plan for northwestern ontario: project report submitted to the special advisor to the minister of health and long-term care for ontario. http://health.gov.on.ca/english/public/pub/ministry_reports/closson05/closson05.html cristescu, john. 2006. government on-line alberta first nations telehealth close out report. health canada. cunningham pj, corneilius lj. 1995. access to ambulatory care for american indians and alaska natives; the relative importance of personal and community resources. soc sci med. 40:393-407. dunn e, conrath d, acton h, higgins c, bain. 1980. telemedicine links patients in sioux lookout with doctors in toronto. cma journal. 122, 484-486. hcdata incorporated. (n.d.). merlin project description. on-line reference reviewed 14 february 2007. http://www.hcdata.com/merlin.html health canada web. (n.d.) htf 402 national first nations telehealth research project on-line reference reviewed 14 february 2007. http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fnih-spni/pubs/ehealthesante/2001_tele-rpt/append-annex_a_9_e.html inter tribal health authority and the provincial health services authority of british columbia. (2005). first nations/aboriginal telehealth service development workshop. december. vancouver, bc. xli http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fnih-spni/pubs/ehealth-esante/2001_tele-rpt/append-annex_a_9_e.html http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fnih-spni/pubs/ehealth-esante/2001_tele-rpt/append-annex_a_9_e.html http://www.hcdata.com/merlin.html http://health.gov.on.ca/english/public/pub/ministry_reports/closson05/closson05.html http://www.infoway-inforoute.ca/admin/upload/dev/document/business%20plan%2003-04%20en.pdf madore, odette. the canada health act: overview and options -current issue review. on-line reference, reviewed 5 february 2007. www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/prbpubs/944-e.htm roine, risto, ohinmaa, arto and david hailey (2001). assessing telemedicine: a systematic review of the literature. cmaj • 18 september; 165 (6) reid, j. (1996) a telemedicine primer: understanding the issues. billings, montana. artcraft printers. rowlandson, john and alison williams. (2007). ontario first nations telehealth / telemedicine sustainability: opportunities for accelerating community-based access to health and wellness services and improved first nation/ federal /provincial health integration and coordination balmertown, ontario. shah, baiju r., gunraj, nadia and janet e. hux. 2003. markers of access to and quality of primary care for aboriginal people in ontario, canada. american journal of public health. may:93(5) 798-802 vigneault, robert. 2007. telehealth program investment overview. presentation to the first nations telehealth planning partnership. 12 february. vancouver, british columbia. williams, donna. 2007. reducing health service access barriers to ontario first nations. presentation to the chiefs of ontario meeting on health. 6 december, ottawa, ontario. xlii http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/prbpubs/944-e.htm telehealth vision & relevance for first nations health access and first nations health the telehealth link to improved first nations access to health services canada health infoway’s capacity to enable and accelerate first nations telehealth development defining first nations telehealth development of first nations telehealth and telemedicine services service model dimensions first nations telehealth benefits summary environmental scan & current state analysis afn sponsored consultations 1. national first nations and inuit telehealth summit 2005 benefits of telehealth challenges critical success factors/future requirements 2. yukon: first nations telehealth conference benefits of telehealth challenges critical success factors/future requirements 3. british columbia: “telehealth in bc: from vision to action” benefits of telehealth challenges critical success factors/future requirements 4. saskatchewan: workshops on needs/challenges in telehealth for saskatchewan first nations benefits of telehealth challenges critical success factors/future requirements 5. manitoba: telehealth workshop benefits of telehealth challenges critical success factors/future requirements 6. ontario: “gii-kaan-daan” ontario first nations telehealth conference benefits of telehealth challenges critical success factors/future requirements 7.northern ontario: ko telehealth stakeholder workshop benefits of telehealth challenges critical success factors/future requirements 8. quebec: connecting communities regional forum 2005 benefits of telehealth challenges critical success factors/future requirements 9. atlantic canada: stakeholder engagement process benefits of telehealth challenges critical success factors/future requirements key informant interviews first nations telehealth development issues chii specific barriers to first nations telehealth development impact of 100% investment in first nations telehealth the evolving chii aboriginal telehealth mandate chii capacity to enable and accelerate proposed go forward strategy selection criteria – based on best practices, lessons learned step one (mandatory criteria) step two (best practices telehealth readiness criteria) exclusion criteria potentially eligible projects references failures and success in using webcasts, discussion forums, twitter, and email to engage older people and other stakeholders in rural ageing ray b jones1, janet smithson2, catherine hennessy3 professor, health informatics, faculty of health, education & society, plymouth university, united kingdom. email: ray.jones@plymouth.ac.uk senior research fellow, university of exeter, united kingdom. professor of public health & ageing, plymouth university, united kingdom. introduction the number of uk households connected to the internet rose from 61% in 2007 to 77% in 2011 (office of national statistics, 2011), and by 2011 the majority (84%) of people in the uk had used the internet at some point (office of national statistics, 2012). but there are 'digital divides' affecting older people in rural areas with 'double impact'. first, although nationally internet use among older people is starting to 'catch up', still only 61% of those 65 and over, and only 27% of those aged 75 and over, use the internet, compared to 99% of those aged under 25 (office of national statistics, 2012). older users may lack the confidence to learn internet skills through trial and error (ofcom, 2010), unlike their younger counterparts who have grown up surrounded by such technology. older people may be more susceptible to stop internet use through personal changes, including physical (e.g. eyesight, hand dexterity, mobility), psychological and cognitive (e.g. confidence, memory), social (e.g. family members moving away), or technology changes (e.g. new versions of familiar things) (wagner et al., 2010). second, although internet use and the demand for acceptable bandwidth in rural areas is high, service providers see worse returns on investment than in urban areas so provision lags behind (commission for rural communities, 2009). in some locations, such as cornwall, government or european funded initiatives are addressing this (superfast cornwall, 2012). potentially improving the connectivity, via the internet, of older people living in rural areas has considerable benefits including communication between isolated communities, access to online services and shopping when these facilities are not available locally, and reduced need to travel large distances. telecare has been shown effective (ekeland et al., 2010) and is starting to be delivered at scale (www.kingsfund.org.uk/telehealth). the new dynamics of ageing programme (www.newdynamics.group.shef.ac.uk) is a seven-year multidisciplinary research initiative supported by five of the uk research councils. it funded 35 major projects including 'sus-it' (sustaining it use by older people to promote autonomy and independence) specifically targeting the uptake of use of internet by older people (www.newdynamics.group.shef.ac.uk/sus-it.html). the work reported in this paper was from 'workpackage six', one of seven workpackages in the 'grey and pleasant land?' project, an interdisciplinary exploration of the connectivity of older people in rural civic society (www.newdynamics.group.shef.ac.uk/rural-ageing.html). many research projects now aim to involve users in planning and implementation throughout the life of the project (read and maslin-prothero, 2011; barber et al., 2011). the internet provides the potential for older people in rural areas to discuss issues across the globe, or with support organisations, or with academics. likewise it provides the potential for support organisations to engage with stakeholders, and for academics to hear from older people. there are of course now many methods of using the internet to communicate. the earliest and still most widely used internet activity amongst older people is email (madden, 2010). in this study we used email as our primary method of recruitment, so making it an 'entry criterion'. discussion forums are also widely used. nimrod et al. (2009) identified more than 40 forums specifically targeting older people, from which they reviewed 14, including four from the uk. all four (www.age-net.co.uk/, www.idf50.co.uk/, www.pensionersforum.co.uk/, www.retiredmagazines.co.uk/) are still operational in 2013. nimrod et al. did not define 'older' in their paper and we note that the definition of 'older' by these four websites varies considerably (over 40, over 50, pensioners, and over 55 respectively). discussion forums have been used extensively as online focus groups (e.g. adler and zarchin, 2002; tates et al., 2009; stewart and williams, 2005). such use is slightly different to long running forums in that members are usually aware that their posts will be used in research, the topics are often introduced by researchers rather than, or in addition to, 'normal' participants, and researchers are concerned about the recruitment and retention of participants. figures 1 and 2 show anonymised screen shots from the grey and pleasant land discussion forums. participants can log in whenever they want to reply to previous posts or start new 'threads'. figure 1. partial screen grab from using the discussion forum, showing main threads, topics within each thread and number of posts figure 2. partial screen grab showing two anonymised postings on a thread about 'postponing retirement' some (e.g. http://mnav.com/focus-group-center/online-focus-group-htm/) argue that telephone focus groups are much better than online. online synchronous methods such as videoconferencing have also been used for many years for meetings and these, too, have been used for focus groups (gratton and o'donnell, 2011). videoconferencing has generally required that users have special videoconferencing equipment such as a 'tandberg', but various methods of live meeting (e.g. 'wimba', 'adobe connect') are now available which do not require expensive equipment to participate but may require the downloading and installation of software (telepresence and videconferencing insight newsletter, 2012). these approaches are rapidly becoming easier to use and more accessible. internet video phone calls (e.g. using skype) between two people are now commonplace and used in interviews (cater, 2011). these also have the potential for focus groups. in 2006, we developed a synchronous method, interactive live webcasting (jones et al., 2006; maramba and jones, 2008), that we had used in a variety of ways including with students in online learning (jones et al., 2009b; williamson et al., 2009; doris and jones, 2009). figure 3 shows the participants' screen for live webcasting using an anonymised screen from a student discussion. participants can see and hear the chair or presenter in a 'video window'. the presenter controls the output to the 'video window' and, for example, can fade between talking head or powerpoint slide. participants chat by typing into the chat area. break out rooms can be used to divide the participants up into smaller groups. figure 3. the screen (anonymised) as seen by participants in a live webcast (taken from a student discussion) synchronous methods require that participants are available at a certain time. this may be a disadvantage if people are not available but an advantage if by having a scheduled 'event' people put the event into their diaries. the immediacy of response may also provide more 'social presence' (jones et al., 2009a), but can lead to more 'chaotic' interactions (graffigna et al., 2008). adding some audiovisual connection, either one-way (as with webcasting) or two-way (as in videoconferencing), may increase the feeling of social presence but has the disadvantage of being more technically challenging for the participants. asynchronous methods have the advantage for participants of being able to participate at a time of their choosing and of having time to think of their responses, but the disadvantage that people can 'put it off' and ultimately never participate. if a discussion forum is very 'slow' people wonder if it is still 'live' and whether it is worth contributing (jones et al., 2011). most asynchronous methods, however, can be used rapidly, so taking on some of the characteristics of synchronicity. for example, discussion forums and email can be used for immediate responses and so are little different from instant messaging or a typed chat room if the servers are responding quickly. the rapid rise in the use of social networks such as facebook and twitter is well known and they are being increasingly used for qualitative research (craig, 2011) including focus groups; although there may be problems in their use compared to closed discussion forums (matt, 2009; paynter, 2011). email has been used for one-to-one online interviews, for example, by cook (2012) and for focus groups (e.g. american physical therapy association, 2012). however we did not know how best to recruit and engage our different dispersed stakeholders using the internet. nor did we know which of the various methods that could be used might be most appropriate. this paper reports an exploration of using the internet to discuss the findings of the research and wider issues. aims this study asked: are we able to facilitate inter-regional and inter-sectoral (older people, support organisations, academics) communication on issues concerning older people in rural areas via the internet? what are the barriers to such communication and can they be overcome? what seems to work? we have explored the use of webcasting with different forms of interaction, a discussion forum, twitter, and email listserve in a three phase action research study. this paper describes the failures and ultimate success in using these methods in terms of how well participants have engaged. context this project had a long gestation starting with the formation of a research network in 2005, leading on to a new dynamics of ageing 'preparatory network' one year project in 2007-2008 and funding for a full project entitled grey and pleasant land?: an interdisciplinary exploration of the connectivity of older people in rural civic society (gapl) which started in july 2009. interactive webcasting was piloted with various stakeholders in february 2008 in the preparation of the bid as part of a 'preparatory network'. the gapl project had seven 'workpackages' (i.e., linked substudies investigating various aspects of older people's inclusion in community life in rural areas) and 27 academics from five uk universities and another four from canada in a complementary project. the work described in this paper is based on workpackage six. the study had three phases. these were not pre-planned but arose from reviews at key points in the overall project of (lack of) progress by the research team with stakeholders. phase 2 and phase 3 were attempts to improve the level of participation. in phases one and two the recruitment of older people to this workpackage was restricted to three rural areas (south west (sw) england, wales, and manitoba canada). sw england is a principal destination of inter-regional migration at retirement, and has the highest life expectancy of all english regions (champion and shepherd, 2006). over a third (36%) of sw residents aged 50 and over live in rural areas and represent a high proportion of the rural population. rural wales is experiencing similar demographic trends (hartwell et al., 2007); 23% of the rural population compared to 19% of the non-rural is above retirement age. fewer rural residents (67%) than urban dwellers (82%) were born in wales (welsh assembly government, 2003). manitoba's rural population comprises a much larger share of the total population than is the case canada-wide (33% compared to 21%). compared to urban manitoba, rural and small town zones have a more polarized age structure, with slightly higher proportions falling within the lowest (children) (in aboriginal areas) and highest (seniors) age categories (in other areas) (canada rural partnership, 2005). people from support organisations were recruited from england, and academics internationally. in phase three we opened recruitment of older people to the world but mainly recruited from england. ethics the proposed study was reviewed and given permission by the university of plymouth, faculty of health, ethics committee (2009). phase one methods initial invitations to join this study we already had an older person's panel that had taken part in face-to-face discussions with the research team. some of this panel had also piloted webcasting in the bid preparation. a colleague (se see acknowledgements) invited all members of the panel by post. another colleague (gg) contacted older people known from other projects, both by phone and face-to-face. we emailed all staff members and postgraduate students of the plymouth university faculty of health asking them to forward the email invitation to eligible and possibly interested people in sw england. in wales, an invitation was sent by a colleague (vb) to all members of the older people and ageing research and development network (opan) (http://www.opanwales.org.uk/index.htm) recruiting both older people and people in support organisations. emails were sent to all organisations that were already collaborating on the project and to others identified through personal knowledge or the internet. older people in canada were recruited by email from those participating in studies at the university of manitoba by another colleague (vm). in addition, international academics were identified by a combination of personal knowledge and internet searches and contacted by email. finally, we asked by email all those with whom we had contact through the above process if they had further contacts (snowballing). eligibility criteria for older people were to be aged 60 or over and living in a rural area (left undefined). we included one person in the canadian sample aged under 60 but representing older people in her town, and one person in the sw england sample who did not live in a rural area but had many friends and relatives who did. prompts to join webcasts and discussion forum we recruited 55 people: 31 older people (13 sw england, 8 manitoba, 10 wales), 16 from support organisations, and eight academics. in september 2009 we set up a discussion forum and ran live interactive webcasts (using a chat room for interaction) in september 2009, november 2009, and march 2010, presented by two of the authors. the aim was to use results from other workpackages from the gapl project as the basis for discussions, but the first results did not become available until march 2010, so before that date there was little content from the study to discuss. nine selected research team members representing the other six workpackages were invited to participate in the webcasts and discussion forum between september 2009 and october 2010. webcasts and discussion forum activity were promoted by emails to participants (table 1). table 1. summary of phase one (july 2009 august 2010) phase one results older people from sw england eight of the 13 older people from sw england participated in one or more webcasts, with three people participating in all three. by the end of march 2010, 6/13 people had posted on the discussion forum. two out of 13 did not participate in either the webcasts or the discussion forum, although one emailed the lead author frequently. older people from wales seven out of the 10 older people from wales participated in one or more webcasts, with two people participating in all three. 5/10 had posted on the discussion forum. two out of 10 did not participate in either the webcasts or the discussion forum, although both emailed the lead author. older people from manitoba three of the eight older people from manitoba positively withdrew during the year of study, one before ever participating, one after posting one message on the discussion forum, and one after participating in one webcast. three others never participated. one participated in two webcasts and posted two messages on the discussion forum but none after march 2010. another participated in two webcasts and posted three messages on the forum, one of which was after march 2010. people from support organisations sixteen people were initially recruited from support organisations, of which seven participated in one or more webcasts. six had posted on the discussion forum by the end of march 2010. however, the number of postings was minimal with one person posting 12 times and the rest posting four times or fewer. 'international academics' of the eight international (non-team-member) academics, one participated in two out of the three webcasts and posted eight times on the discussion forum. two others posted one or two messages and five never participated. research team seven out of nine nominated team members participated in one or more webcasts and three out of nine posted between one and four messages on the discussion forum. two never participated in either the webcasts or the discussion forum and six out of nine never posted any messages. phase two team review a review of participation to date in the summer of 2010 concluded that there was insufficient involvement of team members and that more structured input may promote more forum discussion around the project findings and related issues on later life in rural areas (table 2). a plan was agreed to have a bi-monthly debate led by each of the workpackage leads with responses by other workpackage leads to try to draw other stakeholders into discussion. a timetable was set. the forum was also opened to the other 20 research team members. additionally, we planned to use the forum instead of the chat room as interaction for webcasts so that participants became more familiar with the forum and had fewer 'modalities' to consider. table 2. summary of phase two (september 2010 january 2012) 'debates' the slightly more formal debates started in october 2010 generated some interest with 36 posts from 19 people in october. however, the next topic due was never started and the initiative died. additional older people invited ninety-nine people from workpackage one had expressed an interest in further contact with the project and had given email addresses. these were from cornwall (23), dorset (6), dyfed (3), gloucestershire (23), monmouthshire (18) and powys (26). emails were sent to all 99; 12 were 'undelivered', and 9/87 (10%) that were apparently delivered accepted the invitation to join workpackage six. webcasts and forum discussions in march and october 2011 these both had relatively little engagement either during the webcasts or subsequently on the discussion forum, with only five stakeholders taking part (despite the addition of nine further older people), in addition to five team members. phase three stakeholder face-to-face meeting at a face-to-face one-day meeting in february 2012 between stakeholders and the research team, the relatively poor engagement so far in workpackage six was discussed (table 3). the hypothesis was proposed that this limited success was due to four main reasons: we had probably started trying to 'engage' too early when there was not enough to talk about. although with younger age groups, used to being online as a social space, our participants needed a focused activity or discussion topic as a reason to be online. in addition, with older people we know (from emails from friends/partners) that we lost some to illness, frailty or death, so trying to maintain an online discussion over a long period was probably inappropriate. discussion forums that do not have enough activity soon 'die'. forums need a critical mass so that, even if asynchronous, people feel that their posts will be read and responded to. although 18/31 older people participated in live webcasts in the initial period and 15/31 in the forum, the technical challenge of live interactive webcasting and use of discussion forums may have been a barrier for some. although more people participated in the live webcasts than the forum we also received emails apologising for 'non-attendance' due to other commitments, among all three groups (older people, support organisations, and academics). so there appeared to be a 'trade off' between the motivation of a 'timed-event' with the difficulty of our stakeholders being able to make the particular date and time. the best discussion we had was on transport and practical issues. some of the other discussion may have been too academic and perhaps lacked sufficient relevance to the concerns of older people. table 3. summary of phase three (february 2012 march 2012) one week 'stakeholders online' health event in another research project we had been running a series of online one-week events entitled 'stakeholders online' in which national health service (nhs) professionals and service users discussed the implementation of e-health in an anonymous discussion forum with an opening and closing interactive webcast. we started with mental health (ashurst et al., 2012; smithson et al., 2012) and then extended the idea to other specialties. we added 'the use of the internet in health services for older people in rural areas' as a topic using the methods of 'stakeholders online'. we advertised via email listserves and recruited six health professionals (mainly from the uk but one from the usa) and 13 nhs service users (of all ages). none of the participants were from the existing gapl stakeholders group. tweetcast twelve participants were recruited by emails to existing stakeholders and team members, and tweets to the followers of the lead author and a colleague (pn). participants were invited to a live webcast using twitter with a pre-specified hashtag as the means of communication. participants were advised to use tweetchat (http://tweetchat.com/) to ensure tweets were linked together and easy to view as a virtual conversation. although the format of webcast and tweetchat discussion (figure 4) worked reasonably well, it did not allow much depth of discussion. apart from one older person from the original stakeholders group who participated in every event, all new recruits were academics or nhs professionals. figure 4 'tweetcast' showing live webcast window overlaid on log on to tweetchat listserve discussion a jiscmail listserve (greyandpleasantland) had been set up in january 2011 as a means of communication for the 31 members of the research team but had been used only infrequently. in march 2012 it was 'repurposed' for a one-week discussion. eighty-three people were registered to take part in the discussion, and so would have received all messages. these comprised 26 members of the research team, 22 older people, 21 nhs professionals, eight other professionals, three academics and three others. nearly half (36) were recruited from our 'stakeholders online' project; of the 36, four had taken part in the e-health for older people in rural areas discussion the week before. fifteen were from the original cohort of 55 stakeholders. of the 83, 40 posted one or more emails during the week. of the 40, 13 were from the original forum, nine were research team members, and 18 were 'new recruits' (mostly from the 'stakeholders online' project). in total, there were 145 emails with 66 different headings. emails were on average longer than posts on the forum, and much longer than messages on webcasts and twitter. there were 66 different threads but many posts responded to issues raised from a number of threads. geographical location and participating group (older person, international academics, research team) were used to frame postings, but participants clearly were able to interact freely across geography and role. although there were 66 different email headings, a number of these differed only slightly in punctuation or phraseology and occurred when a participant started a new thread to respond to an email, rather than 'reply'. as all participants were answering to email, rather than accessing in a 'threaded format' on a website, some conversations included a number of email headings. table 4 gives an example of one thread between 10.42am and 9.24pm on the thursday of the discussion week. it shows the interaction between regions (e.g. sw england to wales to usa), and between different sectors (e.g. between researchers and older people). a post from the lead author summarising that day's postings and looking forward to the next day has been omitted. most of the emails in table 4 were on two threads ('what is rural' and 'what is rural?'), but other email headings were included. table 4. summary of the content of 23 posts made by 14 participants on a thread entitled 'what is rurality?' (names changed; wp=workpackage) quality of posts the 'quality' of posts in listserve and on the forum were much better than in the tweetcast. listserve posts tended to be longer, more reflective and more responsive to other participants than forum posts. this is difficult to demonstrate with simple counts of posts or number of words. in another paper we have used discourse analysis to explore how forum members talk about topics of ageing, rural living and technology, and how they describe and display their expectations and preferences for internet use (paper under consideration by age and society). discussion learning from failures in phases one and two to get success in phase three maintaining stakeholders' interest to discuss issues over a long period is difficult and making an 'early start' to recruit a cohort of stakeholders when we did not yet have any results from other parts of the project to discuss was a mistake. there was insufficient 'content' to make the discussion forum 'work'. although synchronous webcasts, that could be scheduled and provided a focus for discussion, had some success there were also technical barriers for some. our one-week webcast with forum discussion on e-health lent support to the idea that 'events' worked better than a long undefined period of discussion. it also gave some support to the idea that discussion focussed on more practical concepts, such as the delivery of health services, were more relevant to our audience. the tweetcast was an interesting experiment that suggested methods of finding new audiences, but, apart from one 'faithful' older person, we only recruited professionals by that means. the technology is probably too new for most of our intended audience. the final 'event', a one-week email discussion using a listserve worked very well. this had removed most of the technical barriers. all participants were familiar with the use of email. no registration or passwords were needed. messages were received in their accustomed online environment so that participants did not need to remember to log on or do anything special. although the prior one-week discussion using the webcast and forum discussion had worked fairly well, use of email listserve was clearly better. currently a time-limited email listserve seems the best solution to engage older stakeholders for an online focus group. should we have known what online technologies to use before starting? in 2007 the nhs institute for innovation and improvement commissioned the 'armchair involvement' project (wilson and casey, 2007) to examine how technologies could be used to engage people across a variety of different sectors including healthcare, and to look at how this might develop in coming years. wilson and casey reviewed 24 technologies including digital interactive television, electronic patient record, email, information kiosks, language accessibility tools, mass media, multimedia and web-based decision tools, multimedia messaging, online discussion groups, online surveys and quizzes, picture archiving and communication system, smartphone, social software, telephone, texting, user-generated online content, user-led ratings websites, video conferencing and websites. however, it did not provide any definitive recommendations about alternative online methods such as we have explored in this study. developments in internet use the proportion of those who have never used the internet is decreasing even among older people, partly as cohorts age but also with take up of internet use amongst older people. in 2008 (office of national statistics, 2008) 70% of those aged 65+ had never used the internet, a decrease from 82% in 2006. by 2012, the percentage that had never used the internet showed a big difference between those aged 65-74 (39%) with those aged 75+ (73%) (office of national statistics, 2012), and combining these 54% of those aged 65+ had never used the internet. in 2008, the most popular use of the internet was email, both for older and younger age groups. although social network use (ever) amongst internet users grew rapidly among users age 65+ in the usa between 2009 and 2010 (from 13% to 26%), it was still a long way below the 86% of 18-29 year old using social networks in 2010 (madden, 2010). the use of email by younger people is decreasing as they switch to using facebook and other social media. on the other hand, in 2010, 55% of internet users aged 65 and older sent or read email on a typical day compared to only 13% that used social media. this compares with 62% and 60% respectively for 18-29 year olds. although the use of twitter is increasing rapidly it is still relatively modest amongst the whole us adult population. pew internet (smith and brenner, 2012) estimated that in may 2012 15% of all us internet users and 4% of us internet users aged 65+ had ever used twitter. our target group of stakeholders rural areas currently have less access to broadband than urban areas (vicente and lopez, 2011). despite the obvious advantages for those living in rural areas, the return on investment in urban areas is much greater for service providers so it follows that broadband is more comprehensively available there (forman et al., 2005). from the perspective of social learning, people living in cities may also have lower costs to start using the internet, because they can learn how to use it from their neighbours (agarwal et al., 2009), and spatial proximity positively influences diffusion of the internet (billon et al., 2009). we have no evidence from our data either to support or contradict this claim. similarly, although we have not found published evidence, it is our impression that many professionals (both academics and service providers) in gerontology seem to be late adopters of technology. estimating future trends will older people in the uk follow the same trends as younger age groups in internet use? the percentage of those aged 65+ who have never used the internet has decreased from 70% in 2008 to 54% in 2012. younger people are tending to stop using email and using facebook and other social media instead. this may happen in the future amongst older people but we cannot be sure. hanson (2009) discusses how even when today's 'tech-savvy' younger generations become older, they too will suffer problems in using the internet. she points to the need to involve older people in the design of systems. but it seems likely that middle-aged facebook users may become older facebook users (even if future younger generations have moved on to new forms of communication). so our current recommendation to use email with older cohorts may change over time. it is becoming increasingly clear, however, that we need to consider younger old (65-74) and older old (75+) separately in their technology use. at a superficial level, arch (2008) concluded from the literature that older people do much the same online as most other age groups that is, communication and information searches as well as using online services. email and children were the primary reasons (kantner et al., 2003; morris et al., 2007) why many older people start to learn using computers. they use it for information searches often related to hobbies and interests, travel and holidays, and health (morris et al., 2007, dinet et al., 2007). but a more in depth view suggests differences. for example, in 2001, loges and jung found that older people have a more restricted range of uses and connect to the internet from fewer places (2001). recent pew statistics show that use of facebook amongst older people is increasing only a quarter of older internet users compared to nearly 90% of those under 30 (madden, 2010). it seems likely that the aim of getting them to 'chat' online in a discussion forum was misguided and that older users need a much stronger formal request to contribute in a structured way, rather than just chat online as younger generations do. or it may simply be that whatever the age group, our proposed topic of exchanging views about the workpackage results was too vague and not interesting enough. fragmentation of online communities in our study, email-based methods seemed to work best for engagement of participants who had largely been recruited by email. in a study of young people who self-harm we recruited young people from existing discussion forums and they engaged fully in the project discussion forum (jones et al., 2011). in this study, most who participated in the twitter trial had been recruited by twitter. although some people use several different online modalities with ease, many seem to have a preference for one or maybe two. to get active engagement in online discussion, the method of communication should probably follow the method of recruitment. for example, recruit by email and then communicate by email, recruit on forums and then communicate on forums. recruiting using one modality and then using another for actual communication may result in less engagement. so while for older people it seems best currently to recruit by email and communicate by email, perhaps for younger people we should recruit by facebook and communicate by facebook. limitations of online methods in getting the views of older stakeholders we recruited a convenience sample. more than half of those aged 65+ have not used the internet. trying to recruit face-to-face was not successful, so our sample only represents those who are online and at least using email. we might expect that typically 6% of all people in the uk aged 65+ may use social media and 22% email on a typical day. less than 2% have ever used twitter, so it was not surprising that we recruited only one older person for our tweetcast, but as twitter's popularity increases it may be quite a good way of spreading to a wider professional audience. while younger people may 'hang out' online, this did not seem to be the case for the older people in our study. they tended to go there for a purpose. so scheduling is important. most older people are not (yet) socialising online. in this study, relatively few participated in the christmas edition of the forum, contributions were mainly from the research team and came soon after a face-to-face discussion about the difficulties of this workpackage, and may represent a 'sympathy action' by team colleagues. limitation of our methods our ability to generalise from our findings to others is limited by the pragmatic action research approach in a project lasting three years. although we claim to have disentangled the reasons for relative failure of engagement to hypothesise and then demonstrate a relatively successful method in phase three, there could have been other reasons for the improvement. these include growing familiarity with the technology, and a feeling that 'at last' there were some substantial project findings to discuss. conclusions we set out to see if we could facilitate inter-regional and inter-sectoral communication on issues concerning older people in rural areas via the internet. we have identified barriers to such communication and described the final stage of use of email listserve, which seemed to work best. recommendations we recommend that to involve older people in a long-term online focus group recruitment should be using email and snowball methods. although 'more connected' participants could be recruited using social media, the method that is most prevalent and will get the most representative and full discussion in 2013 is email. of course, this still only gives the views of those older people who are online. recruitment should be just a few weeks in advance of the planned discussion, and each discussion should be time-limited. trying to maintain exactly the same cohort over projects lasting several years is very difficult. the temptation to be prepared and to recruit far in advance should be resisted. using a listserve, so that participants are not required to register or log on, will facilitate discussion using their existing technology. a time-limited discussion, with a new topic introduced each day to give some variety, will sustain the discussion; although it may lead to some confusion in that some people may reply to several threads in one email. participants should be encouraged to correctly title their emails; some probably will not so this confusion is an unavoidable trade off to get some 'rich postings'. acknowledgements we would like to thank: 1. all the stakeholders who took part in our discussions 2. all our colleagues in the grey and pleasant land project team who have contributed to this part of the study, in particular: george giarchi (gg) who tried to recruit older people locally in plymouth face-to--face and via telephone nigel curry (nc) who started the forum debates in october 2010 graham parkhurst (gp) and ian shergold (is) who presented an interactive webcast in march 2011 yvette staelens (ys) who presented an interactive webcast in september 2011 simon evans (se) who contacted the older person's panel vanessa burholt (vb) who contacted opan verena menec (vm) who contacted older people in the manitoba region norah keating (nk) who arranged the contact of older people in canada with vm emily ashurst who recruited for the one-week 'stakeholders online' discussion and helped with some aspects of the analysis pam nelmes (pn) who helped to recruit for and deliver the march 2012 tweetcast inocencio maramba (im) who developed the software for the discussion forum and the webcast chat rooms fraser reid (fr) who contributed to the original workpackage proposal funding this work was supported by the new dynamics of ageing programme grant number res-353-25-0011. references adler cl and zarchin yr. 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(2007). armchair involvement. practical technology for improving engagement. available at: www.involve.org.uk/wp.../03/armchair20involvement20report.pdf (accessed 18 june 2012).   emotion, gender and the sustainability of communities   kerry jeanne tanner monash university < kerry.tanner@sims.monash.edu.au >   abstract emotional expression is the lifeblood of any organisation or community. this paper reviews recent approaches, research issues and trends in emotion research and then applies insights from this body of research to the area of community sustainability. a particular focus is the gendered nature of emotion and how emotion facilitates connections within communities. utilising examples from the author’s case study research in a women’s community organisation in melbourne, australia, it contrasts the barren emotional landscape of many organisations with the vibrance and warmth of a feminist community organisation, and considers how icts may either facilitate or constrain this emotional expression. it draws implications on the vital role of emotion in sustaining communities.   background to the research the research reported here is part of a phd study where a literature-based conceptual framework for organisational knowledge management was developed and tested in the e framework of selected organisational contexts. one of these is a case study of wire, a community organisation that provides a free information, support and referral service for women. central concepts in my conceptual framework are human capital, knowledge ecology and the role of information and communication technologies (icts). the conception here of human capital is as a composite of intellectual capital, social capital and emotional capital. to date there has been relatively little understanding of the emotional capital dimension in organisational knowledge management. for the wire study, a case study protocol was devised and interviews were conducted with the wire manager, all of the paid staff, a board member, and several volunteers who staffed the phone service.   definitions of key concepts community is used here in the sense of a social group with a defined identity, where people are linked by a common purpose, interest or commitment to a cause. human connection is a key dimension of community and socio-emotional factors underpin these connections. the concept of community assumes interaction between people who, at some time, are collocated physically, or who may be collocated virtually through electronic links. my focus on sustainability is primarily social sustainability, i.e. the nurturing and ongoing maintenance of healthy human connections that support the continuation of a community, but it does not exclude environmental sustainability as communities are embedded within a wider ecosystem upon which their continued existence depends. emotion refers to a human inner feeling state; emotions are particular affective states, such as joy, sorrow, anger, fear, love, hate, trust. my emphasis is on how emotion affects social interaction within a community, and in particular the impact of status and gender on emotional expression within that community.   emotion research: approaches and research issues for millennia, philosophers have pondered human reason and emotion. in more recent times, emotion has been considered from several very different disciplinary perspectives: biology, psychoanalysis, psychology (cognitive psychology, social psychology), sociology, organisational theory, management and community studies. biological researchers’ focus on emotion is via observation of physiological responses to particular situations or stimuli (ashkanasy, härtel and zerbe 2000, ch.1; king, 2001; stanley & burrows, 2001). psychoanalysts explore the deeply embedded nature of human emotions such as anxiety within the context of the individual’s life experience (meyerson, 2000; weiss & brief, 2001). psychology for over a century has differentiated the three realms of thinking (or cognition), feeling (or affect or emotion) and acting (or behaviour), but until recently has focused much more on cognition and behaviour than on emotion (fineman, 2001; zerbe & härtel, 2000). cognitive psychologists (eg lazarus) typically subordinate emotion to cognition, whilst social psychologists consider emotion from a behavioural perspective, within the context of interpersonal interaction and social relationships (stanley & burrows, 2001; weiss & brief, 2001). sociology, organisational theory, management and community studies also tend towards the relational view of emotion. levels of analysis in emotion research vary according to perspective, with emotion considered at individual, group, organisational or community levels (waldron, 2000). problems in researching emotion are widely noted—the difficulty in accessing what is a subjective experience; the limits of both self-description and observation of emotion; the overlapping nature of scales devised to measure emotion; and the complex interactions between emotion constructs that make it difficult to isolate particular effects (eg davies, stankov & roberts, 1998; meyerson, 2000; stanley & burrows, 2001; zerbe & härtel, 2000). over the past fifteen years or so there has been a great resurgence in interest in the nature and role of emotion in work and community contexts, and a growing recognition of the centrality of emotion, and of particular emotions like trust, in making connections between people. increasingly theorists are attempting to integrate insights from divergent perspectives, and are using the emotion lens to re-examine many aspects of organisational and community life (stanley & burrows 2001). researchers are experimenting with alternative ways to access emotion—for instance, narrative techniques such as storytelling and metaphor are becoming established as valuable adjuncts to more traditional research approaches (ashkanasy & tse, 2000; meyerson, 2000). this is particularly important with communities and disenfranchised groups. our interest here is research on the social and relational aspects of emotion within organisational and community settings, i.e. the socio-emotional aspects of community life. much of this research is qualitative, within an interpretivist research paradigm. in the social constructionist approach, researchers focus on the role of emotion in how particular communities negotiate meaning through social processes, communication and discourse (meyerson, 2000). the phenomenological approach explores emotion from the perspective of the individual embedded within a particular social context, and seeks to create a holistic picture of a situation through examining multiple perspectives and distilling those perspectives to derive meaning and understanding of a complex reality (eg historical and biographical narrative accounts) (fineman, 2001).   the major themes and debates in recent emotion research   cognition/ rationality and emotion/ irrationality there has been a strong emphasis in western philosophy to uphold reason and rationality over emotion–to view emotion as interfering with reason, and needing to be controlled or subdued. for most of the 20th century, western management, organisational and sociological theories reflected this embedded assumption, with organisations in the taylorist and weberian traditions considered ‘rational enterprises’, where formal rules, processes, strategies and goals constrained the individual’s emotionality/ ‘irrationality’ (beyer & nino, 2001; fineman, 2001; meyerson, 2000). however, over time the concept of the rational enterprise was increasingly recognised as an incomplete or naïve view of organisations and organisational life. herbert simon (1955) introduced the notion of ‘bounded rationality’ in human decision-making in organisations and wrote extensively on this over several decades. simon saw organisations as intentionally rational but ‘bounded’ by the constraints of human behaviour and organisational practices. karl weick (1979) and others continually emphasised the limitations of the rational model of enterprise, and the significance of social and emotional factors in organisational life. mumby and putnam (1992; putnam & mumby, 1993) presented an alternative construct to simon’s ‘bounded rationality’—that of ‘bounded emotionality’ where ‘nurturance, caring, community, supportiveness, and interrelatedness are fused with individual responsibility to shape organizational experiences.’ (mumby & putnam, 1992, p. 465). unlike western philosophy, eastern thinking (eg the chinese yin and yang) sees reason and emotion as inextricably intertwined and acknowledges the unity of opposites (krone & morgan, 2000). the recent burgeoning interest in the emotional side of organisational and social life takes up similar themes—the fundamental importance of socio-emotional factors in organisations and communities; the interconnectedness in communities of feelings and cognition. important research insights have been gained from qualitative research in non-western and non-mainstream contexts.   emotion taxonomies there is no single definitive taxonomy of human emotions and considerable debate concerning the number and kinds of distinct human emotions, and whether some emotions are more basic than others (stanley & burrows, 2001). some classifications isolate two or three main continuums of emotion (eg. positive–negative affect; pleasantness–unpleasantness; activation/arousal) whilst others identify a varying number (usually 7-11) of specific emotions. izard’s (1977; 1992) seminal work from the biological perspective is widely cited in the emotion literature. his experimental work focused on isolating distinctive neuromuscular facial expressions in his subjects, which were linked to particular subjective feeling states. izard claimed there were ten distinct categories of emotional expression evident across different cultures, with variations in intensity. there is some debate as to whether these emotions are distinct or overlapping, eg. brain circuitry research has shown just four distinct patterns associated with anger, fear, sorrow and joy. duration of emotion state is another differentiator, with emotion, short-term and situation specific; mood, longer-term and more unfocused; and temperament, an enduring personality trait (gray and watson, 2001) . other frameworks focus on the process of emotion—stages in an emotional response and how emotion relates to particular causes and consequences. examples are lazarus’s cognitive appraisal theory (lazarus, 1966; 1982; 1984; 1991a; 1991b; lazarus & cohen-charash, 2001) and affective events theory (weiss & cropanzano, 1996; basch & fisher, 2001).   emotion labour/ emotion work in the managed heart: commercialization of human feeling (1983), arlie hochschild defined the concept of emotion work or emotion labour in terms of requirements or expectations at work to feign emotions that were not genuinely felt (eg. the forced niceness and inauthentic smile in a customer service interaction). she argued that emotion work alienates people from their emotions and creates a state of emotional dissonance between displayed emotions and actual feelings that over time, if not resolved, can have profound negative health impacts. as lazarus and other stress researchers have demonstrated, personal emotional control is a significant element of psychological and physiological wellbeing. while more recent research has supported the broadly negative connotations of emotion labour, there is currently less of an ‘all-or-nothing’ view of it (ollilainen, 2000). mumby & putnam (1992) define emotional labour as ‘the way individuals change or manage emotions to make them appropriate or consistent with a situation, a role, or an expected organizational behaviour.’ most professions have unwritten emotion display rules, eg. nurses being empathetic and caring; police or debt collectors showing anger and impatience (rafaeli & sutton, 1991; beyer & nino, 2001). at times, emotional detachment may be a functional way of coping with a very stressful or difficult job, eg. medical personnel dealing with death. emotion displays link closely with social cues, environment factors and job characteristics (eg hackman & oldham, 1980; humphrey, 2000). for instance, rafaeli & sutton (1989; 1990) found that cashiers in supermarkets were less inclined to show positive emotions during busy times or when the supermarket was crowded than they were during slow times. emotion display rules are also strongly culturally embedded. in their research in israeli and us retail agencies/ supermarkets, rafaeli & sutton found very different customer service practices in relation to smiling at customers. a friendly smile/ display of positive emotion was expected of us customer service staff, whereas at israeli supermarkets smiling was interpreted as inexperience— arguments and rudeness between customers and cashiers were the norm. rafaeli (rafaeli & sutton 1989) tells the following story about one of her observed cashier-customer interactions in an israeli supermarket. customer:           ‘in america, all the cashiers smile.’ cashier:                ‘so go to america. what do you want from me?’ (p. 635) van maanen and kunda (1989) explored emotional expression as a dimension of organisational culture. in their ethnographic research at disneyland, they found emotion display rules/ emotion management was highly regulated and ritualised through the disney culture and its embodiment through recruitment (i.e. attractive, young, educated whites), strong induction/ acculturation programs, codebooks regulating behaviour, and ‘smile police’ disguised as ‘guests’ to catch violators. they saw the ‘dark side’ of this culture management—a form of social engineering focused on manipulating emotion and feelings, i.e. ‘control of the heart’ as well as the mind. emotional intelligence building on gardner’s (1983) theory of multiple intelligences, salovey and mayer (1990; mayer & salovey, 1993) attempted to redefine intelligence in terms of what it takes to live life successfully. they identified five domains of personal intelligence that they labelled emotional intelligence: self-awareness; managing emotion and ensuring appropriateness of emotional expression; self-motivation and enthusiasm; recognising emotions in others; and social competence. in 1996, goleman took up these ideas in his best-seller emotional intelligence: why it can matter more than iq, popularising the notion of emotional intelligence and focusing attention on the importance of emotional factors in work and community contexts. goleman argued that emotional intelligence is the major predictor of individual success in life and that it can be trained from childhood. he asserted that the emotionally adept, who know how to manage their own feelings well, and how to read and to deal effectively with others’ feelings, are at an advantage in most areas of life. the wave of popularity of emotional intelligence spawned a literature from consultants capitalising on the market for training managers and employees in how to hone their personal effectiveness skills to ensure personal success and enhanced organisational performance (goleman 1998; goleman, boyatzis & mckee 2002; cooper & sawaf 1997; weisinger 1998). various tests and scoring systems for emotional intelligence have been devised, eg cooper and sawaf’s eq map. emotional intelligence has been linked with qualities of so-called ‘transformational leaders’ who facilitate ‘transformational learning’ in organisations (eg bass & avolio, 1990; 1994a; 1994b; tobin, 1996; ashkanasy & tse, 2000). however, many are highly critical of this representation of organisational learning (eg lakomski, 1995). others make trenchant criticisms of the emotional intelligence construct and emotional intelligence tests and measures (eg davies, stankov & roberts 1998). some question the validity of quantitative methods in accessing emotional dimensions. fineman (2000b) takes a rather different line of criticism: it lies in the commodification of emotion—transforming emotion into a marketable product. …the popularization of emotional intelligence presents emotion in a form that can be contained and ‘sold’, especially to the corporate world. … its manifest instrumentality and elitism (it can produce ‘stars’) and its supposed mutability (‘raise your eq’) play on classic anxieties and promises, often with a clear managerialistic agenda. (p. 102)   emotional ecology, emotional climate emotion is a constant feature of social and relational environment that has a dramatic impact on organisational and community life, learning processes and performance. frost et al (2000) have coined the term ‘emotional ecology’: organizations create an emotional ecology where care and human connection are enabled or disabled. … that emotional ecology can facilitate or retard compassionate action. (p. 26, 35) this notion of emotional ecology is a particular application of broader concepts of organisational climate in the organisational theory, management and communications literatures, or learning climate in the organisational learning literature (eg argyris, 1999; senge, 1992; tran, 1998). this research, spanning many decades has isolated a range of factors that contribute to positive/ supportive emotional climates, or to negative/ alienating emotional climates. in an earlier paper (tanner, 2001) summarised key insights from these literatures and prepared a table differentiating features of a supportive versus an alienating emotional climate. some of these factors included an environment characterised by high versus low levels of trust; optimism versus cynicism and fear; acceptance versus threat and judgmentalism; cooperation and mutual problem solving versus coercion and destructive competition; authenticity versus deception and hidden agenda; empathy and warmth versus cold detachment; valuing and respecting versus humiliating people; democracy versus authoritarianism; appreciation of diversity and divergent views versus intolerance; encouragement for experimentation versus blame for failure; engendering versus stifling creativity and innovation; motivating versus demotivating; and empowering versus disempowering. the experienced emotional climate triggers self-reinforcing behaviour cycles, with stark differences between behaviour patterns engendered in supportive and alienating emotional climates. in supportive emotional climates, behaviours encouraged and reinforced include: ethical conduct and practice; open communication; cooperative team building; willing sharing of knowledge and resources; authentic/ emotionally honest patterns of behaving and relating to others; care and concern for others; a focus on action and goal achievement, active experimentation and exploring creative solutions; assertive communication and constructive negotiation. in contrast, negative emotional climates engender active politicking—manipulative, deceitful and intimidating patterns of behaviour and unethical practices. individual effort is focused on enhancing personal position and influence in a fiercely competitive environment, rather than on achieving organisational performance goals. inevitably this process of personal aggrandisement involves undermining and destroying the perceived competition, assigning blame and discrediting others whilst concealing one’s own agenda and mistakes. in the resultant ‘survival-of-the-fittest’ battleground, sabotage, retaliation, aggressive, abusive and threatening behaviour patterns, intimidatory tactics, and deceptive practices are rife. to survive in this hostile climate, people engage in a variety of self-protective behaviours. trust vanishes and fear reigns supreme.   emotion and learning links have been made between a positive emotional environment based on trust and team learning, innovation and creative problem solving (de dreu et al., 2001; tran, 1998). in an environment of trust, people are more prepared to take risks that are necessary for learning by trial and error, and for the open sharing of knowledge and experience. gabriel and griffiths (2002) invite readers to contrast learning under a loved and respected teacher with learning under a hated teacher or cynical supervisor; or as part of an exciting team versus one torn with rivalries and acrimony. they write: learning in an organization which allows experimentation, innovation and failure is different from learning in an organization that values tradition, obedience and avoidance of failure at all costs. it is not the case that cynical managers, acrimonious groups and defensive organizations discourage learning. far from it. what they do is to encourage a kind of learning that promotes defensive attitudes, conservatism and destruction of all new ideas as potentially threatening and subversive. (gabriel & griffiths, 2002, p.215).   emotion, status and gender organisational politics and power plays have long been of interest to organisational and management theorists—manipulating emotion is the major control tool for those who aspire to power (pfeffer, 1981; 1994). fineman (2001, p. 228) claims that organisational cognitions ‘are invariably embedded in politicized interests where emotionalized discourses prevail.’ within any organisation or community there is a continual dynamic interplay with status contests and power plays as individuals jockey for positions of influence within the wider social structure, and others within the structure cooperate, acquiesce, comply or resist. a recent research focus has been on how emotional displays communicate status in organisations. tiedens’ experimental and field research into psychological factors in social position and status indicated a reciprocal relationship ‘analogous to a vicious cycle’ between emotions and social status (tiedens, 2000, p. 72). she found that perceived social status influenced which emotions were experienced and the intensity of those emotions, and that emotional displays in turn reinforced existing patterns of high and low status. anger, frustration and pride were emotions associated with a higher status partner/superior, and sadness, worry, guilt and appreciation with a lower status partner/subordinate. people tend to assume social status according to displayed emotions, i.e. an angry person is assumed to have high status whilst someone showing guilt to have low status. these are inaccurate perceptions with worrying implications, i.e. the angry are more likely to be promoted, a practice that institutionalises cycles of bullying or victimisation, high stress levels and pervasive job dissatisfaction (tiedens, 2000). links between status and displayed emotion spill over to the gendering of emotion. in many traditional societies, there is the expectation that men will express their felt emotions freely whilst women suppress theirs. härtel and zerbe (2000) surmise that this is because stereotypically masculine emotions are valued whereas stereotypically feminine emotions are often devalued. consequently, organizational emotion display rules may result in greater risk of emotional exhaustion and psychological stress for women and persons occupying low status positions. (p. 99) management and organisational theory has traditionally made an implicit association of cognitive/ rational elements with male emotions and emotional/ irrational elements with female emotions. in the bureaucratic ideal, emotion is subordinated to reason and ‘male’ attributes valued over the ‘female’. men are assumed to be rational, individually focused, driven to pursue their self-gratification, and women to be emotional, i.e. irrational, seeking connections through authentic interactions in communities that care (meyerson, 2000). gender rules are strongly embedded in culture. those who demonstrate ‘proper’ or ‘appropriate’ emotions for the particular culture are empowered and those who do not, typically are disempowered. critical feminist theory has developed alternative constructs to that of the ‘rational enterprise’. mumby and putnam (1992; putnam & mumby, 1993) deconstructed simon’s ‘bounded rationality’ which they see as a strongly male construct, centred around images of organisations as ‘sites of domination and exploitation’. they argue that this patriarchal worldview has become the dominant paradigm for understanding organisational life and excludes or marginalises women as being, at most, in support services and nurturing roles. mumby and putnam (1992) present an alternative and feminist ‘re-reading’ of organisational theory, and from this postulate ‘bounded emotionality’ as an equally valid construct. in bounded emotionality, nurturance, caring, community, supportiveness, and interrelatedness are fused with individual responsibility to shape organizational experiences. (p. 465). their purpose in articulating ‘bounded emotionality’ is not to offer it as the new dominant paradigm that excludes the rational paradigm, but in derrida’s sense to introduce ‘a middle voice’ or ‘play of differences’ that will encourage dialogue around deeper issues of structure, gender and emotion in organisational theory. in ‘rational’ paradigms, mumby and putnam argue that emotions or feelings have been devalued and trivialised, treated ‘as either a weak and handicapped appendage to reason or as another “means” to serve organizational ends.’ here they are seeking understandings that are characterised by a tolerance of ambiguity; multiple voices co-existing in a socially fluid order; a flexible heterarchy rather than a hierarchy of goals; simultaneous focus on the individual and the ‘linked fates’ of all who comprise the organisation; and a strong sense of community and its interconnectedness. this approach emphasises the importance of the spontaneous expression of felt emotions (rather than emotion labour); and in developing effective listening and communication skills needed to promote mutual understanding. as individuals share emotional experiences, their initial sense of anonymity gives way to feelings of community through the development of mutual affection, cohesion, and coherence of purpose. however, as mumby and putnam explain below ‘bounded emotionality’ does not exclude rational elements: by juxtaposing bounded rationality with bounded emotionality, we are not advocating that organizations abandon instrumental goals, productivity, or profit margins. using bounded emotionality, in fact, does not call for a radical restructuring or tearing down of current organizational forms. rather we propose to include what is currently ignored or marginalized, to change the context and ways of functioning in organizations, and to conceptualize organizations in different ways. organizations do not need to sacrifice or lose sight of technical efficiency, but they should embed instrumental goals within a larger system of community and interrelatedness rather than concentrating on dominating the nature of the workplace. more than a decade later, there has been increasing acceptance of the importance of community, collaboration, consensus building, communication and the so-called ‘feminine’ qualities of caring, nurturing and supportiveness. communities of practice, knowledge management and community informatics have these concepts as central pillars. as bass & avolio (1994a) suggest, women’s natural leadership styles may be better attuned than those of their male counterparts brought up with the ‘command and control’ style of management, to achieve successful outcomes in this interconnected networked environment.   the role of emotion and gender in sustaining communities worldwide, women play a central role in sustaining their communities, nurturing children, caring for family, the elderly and infirm. their roles are more often voluntary rather than paid, and associated with the ‘private’ sphere rather than the ‘public’ sphere of paid work. when men leave a community for work or military service, women remain behind to sustain their families and communities. funders of community development programs in developing countries are realising that program success is contingent on understanding the distinctive roles of men and women in their communities. the food and agriculture organisation (fao) (2004) recognises the crucial role played by women in the area of ‘food and nutrition’ at both household and community levels. typically women tend the gardens; and gather, produce and prepare food for their families—they are the primary stakeholders in community nutrition and hygiene. another example is the pacific peoples’ partnership (2004) that believes ‘it is critical to understand the differential impacts on men and women of events, policies and development initiatives that affect them.’ ppp claims that it has: …worked consistently to support women as they work to enhance recognition of their vital and varied roles in communities, to strengthen their status and capacities as decision-makers, and to further their visions for sustainable livelihoods and futures. the world bank’s water and sanitation program (wsp) has isolated gender sensitivity as a key social factor in program sustainability over the longer term. a gender-sensitive approach is one that ‘gives equal access to project inputs and processes relevant for the future service, such as information, training, new functions and jobs, and decision-making to both women and men’, and that ‘pays attention to the distribution of work, resources and benefits between women and men.’ (gross, van wijk and muhkerjee, 2001, p. 7) this often necessitates holding separate meetings, as women tend not to speak up when men are present. wsp has supported research into developing ‘participatory tools’ to help ensure the inclusion and participation of often excluded groups, especially women and the poor, at all stages of planning, implementation and ongoing operation of a water supply project (lidonde, 2001). gross, van wijk and muhkerjee (2001) undertook research into 88 wsp community-managed water supply projects across 15 countries. they summed up their findings as follows: … projects that used more gender … sensitive demand-responsive approaches had results that were better sustained. these communities also used their services more effectively, i.e. the majority used the improved water supply in a health-promoting manner. the findings also show that giving choices to more community groups—the poor, better off, women and men—and letting them influence (or control) the process of service establishment empowers them to later manage and sustain their services more effectively. (p. v) in the developed/ industrialised world where society has become increasingly atomistic, individualistic and intensely competitive, concern over rising rates of crime and social dysfunction has triggered interest in a need to rediscover or recreate community and social connections. in academic discourse, this is linked with the social capital debates of the last decade. political scientist robert putnam (1993; 1995a; 1995b) defined social capital as features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit. the mutual benefits comprise ‘the structure of the relationships, the interpersonal dynamics that exist within the structure, and the common context and language held by individuals in the structure.’ . (lesser, 2000, p. 4) in a recent symposium on social capital, putnam (2004) presents the most important challenge for social capital as being ‘to translate this concept from a framework for description into a framework for action.’ emotional intelligence is closely intertwined with social capital—it is the basis for the socio-emotional skills required in building social networks and sustaining communities. one area of academic discourse particularly relevant to a consideration of emotion and gender in sustaining communities is eco-feminism. bullis and glaser (1992, p. 51) trace the origin of the term eco-feminism to françoise d’eaubonne who in 1974 argued ‘that the current patriarchal system is incapable of creating a revolution which will stop the destruction of nature in time to avert total destruction.’ the concept links oppression of women and other minority groups with the destruction of the environment by the dominant patriarchal regime. it links feminism with ecology, with the nature-based spirituality of ancient religions and matristic societies, and with eastern rather than western thought. modernist ’rational’ western thought is a self-referential system that acknowledges nothing outside itself, and excludes the ‘other’ (bullis & glaser, 1992, p. 55). eco-feminism is a post-modernist approach that embraces the pluralism of many voices and seeks to redress oppression of women and minorities and the destruction of the environment. it sees the interconnectedness of life, and the central role that women play in facilitating those connections through nurturance and building of community. bullis and glaser suggest that eco-feminism is a useful concept for envisioning alternative models of organisational change—models that focus on connections between people, listening and alternative forms of organising. gaard (2001) applies eco-feminist concepts to illuminating the current water crisis. she contrasts ‘the way in which gendered, cultural assumptions about water, power, and human relations have led to creating a water-power infrastructure that perpetuates environmental sexism, environmental racism and environmental classism’ with ‘an eco-feminist approach to water justice’ that ‘advocates strategies for bringing about an ecological democracy, an ecological economics, and a partnership culture in which water and energy flow freely.’ (gaard, 2001, p. 157). some of the more recent writings on eco-feminism adopt a more pragmatic and less idealised or utopian stance—acknowledging that western rationalist thought is embedded in our systems and that eco-feminist thinking can be blended and can co-exist with traditional systems. ashcraft (2001) argues for a compromise or hybrid organisational form, a ‘feminist bureaucracy’ that blends hierarchical and egalitarian models. she observes that purely feminist, collectivist organisational forms have proven difficult to sustain over the longer term, and that it is possible to balance the rational and emotional, the professional and the personal. ashcraft proposes a type of ‘organised dissonance’ where opposites (eg centralisation–decentralisation; equality–inequality; leading–following) co-exist in a dialectical tension and are kept ‘in play’. her feminist bureaucracy ‘accents the neglected role of emotion in empowerment’ and ‘reclaims emotion as part of rationality’ (ashcraft 2001, pp. 1315-1316). macgregor (2004) highlights the ‘political risks’ of an eco-feminism that reduces women’s role to ‘care’—that entrenches traditional sexist views, the exploitative division of labour and devaluation of women’s work. she argues that eco-feminism needs to broaden its perspective to include ‘women as political actors’ based on ‘feminist theories of citizenship.’ reed (2003) takes a very different perspective on eco-feminist issues in her book taking stands: gender and the sustainability of rural communities. rather than presenting the environmentalist case for preventing logging in the temperate rainforests of british columbia, she tells the personal stories of women from these rural logging communities who are fighting for the preservation of their families’ livelihood and their communities. her focus is ‘women’s anti-environmental activism’, exploring gendered relations ‘beyond the front lines of political protest’. in the preface, reed explains that her central thesis is that ‘environmentalism is an important social challenge’ and that ‘social considerations must accompany demands for changes in human-ecological relations.’ she aims to demonstrate the limitations of dichotomous ‘pro’ and ‘anti’ thinking ‘that currently polarize environmental debates’, and to reveal the wider picture, because: only through a heightened understanding of these processes can we address problems of mutual concern that link a politics favouring environmental protection with a politics that supports social justice. (reed 2003, p. x).   insights from a community organisation case study wire–women’s information wire is a free information, support and referral service for women, located in the melbourne central business district. established in 1984 as the women's information and referral exchange (wire), it now prefers to use the more explicit name ‘women’s information’. its origins derive from an initiative of organisations including the women's electoral lobby, lifeline, the victoria police and the ywca that saw the need for a specific community organisation to deal with complex queries from women seeking support that these organisations could not provide. women had many questions concerning major life choices and their basic human rights and were seeking support and information to help them in their quest for solutions. twenty years later, wire has evolved into a comprehensive information, support and referral service. the inaugural service area was the telephone service, staffed by women volunteers. this is still the backbone of the service, involving 60-80 volunteers. however, the service has diversified over the past few years to comprise also an online service (i.e. an internet presence and responses to email inquiries) and a ‘walk-in’ central city information centre—the women’s information centre (wic), opened in 1999. through its telephone service, wic and online information, wire aims ‘to empower women to make confident choices for themselves.’ wire provides information and referral on a wide range of issues such as family life and relationships, separation, domestic violence, discrimination, self-esteem, depression, health and well-being, housing, employment, finance, education and legal issues. it has an extensive community information database from which referrals are made to a wide range of community organisations, self-help groups and individual practitioners such as female doctors, lawyers, counsellors and tradeswomen. wire aims to be accessible to women across victoria and to provide them with services of the highest possible quality, delivered in a way that acknowledges and validates their experiences.   emotion and gender at wire (1)            balancing rational and emotional elements wire is a community organisation that manifests a skilful blending of rational and emotional elements. it was founded on a collective governance model, which suited its driving feminist philosophy and mission of ‘empowering women to make confident choices for themselves’ or ‘strong, empowered women in control of their lives.’ the service is committed to social change, active learning and respect of diversity. however, the very egalitarian collectivist model, as ashcraft (2001) has observed, may not be viable over the longer term. at wire, slow decision-making processes proved frustrating and constrained rapid response to changing environmental conditions. in the late 1990s, under pressure from the prevailing state government with its strongly economic rationalist approach and demands for greater accountability from community organisations, wire adopted a modified corporate model of governance, with an honorary board of elected representatives to develop strategy. as the manager explained, in developing the new structure there was ‘a conscious effort to maintain the collaborative and participatory elements’ that were an integral part of the wire culture. major strategic challenges have been ‘building public recognition and awareness, and dealing with the emergence of new technologies that can make the operation more efficient.’ after a few initial ‘teething problems’ with the new governance model, it is now working well. the effective intertwining of rational and emotional elements is most clearly evident in wire’s excellent training programs. like most voluntary organisations, wire has to deal with a rapid turnover of volunteers, and, to a lesser extent, staff. this necessitates a well-developed training program and effective processes for screening applicants and trainees. wire delivers its basic training for volunteers twice annually, for three hours weekly over 13 weeks. in addition, trainees undertake a phone shift each week. the training sessions provide a thorough grounding in the feminist framework, the wire culture, developing self-awareness, counselling skills and more technical skills such as using the wire community information database and information resources and mastering specific work processes and routines. there is a strong focus on developing attitudes of tolerance and acceptance of diversity. volunteers have ample opportunity to model the expected behaviours in a non-threatening climate, and receive feedback from the trainer and colleagues on how they are handling a difficult situation. the trainer’s story and explanation below illustrate the approach and techniques used in training volunteers, and show the crucial importance of dealing effectively with emotion—and how emotions are ‘honoured’ at wire. [in training] we work in a reflective team model …–it’s … about listening to each other and connecting… … [being] able to listen to a woman’s story and make an assessment about what the issues are and what sort of information and referrals that she needs. … we do a lot of personal reflection on ’who i am’ and ‘what i bring to the work’ and ‘how i influence the work’ as well. … so for example i was on [a phone shift] with a trainee doing an evaluated call. she was a very corporate, tough, young woman and she was talking to a woman for a brief period and she said ‘can i put you on hold?’ and she turned around and i said ‘what’s happening?’ and she said ‘she’s crying. what do i do?’ i said ‘well, she’s crying and you put her on hold!’ and she said ‘yep.’ and i said ‘well you’d better quickly get her off hold before you lose her’ and so she went back in. we worked on it and at the end of the call. i said ‘what do you know about crying?’ and she said ‘we’re just not allowed to cry in our family. nobody cries in front of each other. it seems quite a humiliating experience.’ so that was a clear example about her developing some awareness about how she is going to limit a call where someone is crying.   (2)            emotional intelligence wire’s effective processes for screening applicants and sifting out unsuitable trainees early on, combined with the nature and thoroughness of the training program, tend to ensure that the majority of those who end up working at wire as staff or volunteers exhibit at least several of the traits associated with ‘emotional intelligence’. while certain aspects of emotional intelligence are arguably enduring personality traits, others can be enhanced or developed through training. excerpts from the trainer’s interview above clearly demonstrate how self-awareness (understanding and monitoring one’s own emotions, motivations and reactions); ensuring appropriateness of emotional expression; being empathetic, caring and able to recognise emotions in others; and social competence are developed over a period of several months in training and from experience with clients in the phone room. one volunteer expressed how this worked for her in relation to developing empathy for the caller: listening is the first and most important skill. empathy and apart from hearing the tone in the voice also feeling it. i found from very early on, after a year or so, to actually feel it without it reacting on myself—but you actually feel their pain. both staff and volunteers clearly recognised their own and others’ personal development or transformation at wire, as indicated in the following comments: the wire women here are independent and make decisions for themselves. [i don’t know where i’d be now] if i hadn’t come to wire—because i have seen so much injustice and discrimination in my lifetime. when i talk to the younger girls [volunteers] during calls, you can see them changing—they are empowered and informed. we are doing it in the phone room too [with callers]. …when you see the blooming of the wire workers…. i remember one in particular—when she came here she was very nervous but stuck it out. she became a team leader because she was very good on the phone, with empathy and was very good to callers. …she just bloomed from then on. that's a couple of years ago and she's still here— you can see it. it has empowered her so much. when women leave and go out there they are handling their situations differently, are more pro-active and supportive of women and understanding. [older volunteer] [the training was] very confronting at a personal level. before i did the wire training i actually thought that i was quite a good communicator. but half way through the wire training i actually realised that in fact i had a lot of work to do as far as communicating, because i realised that my 'listening' wasn't always there. so it was amazing that you kind of think you've got to go back and re-learn how to communicate. … i find myself thinking i've been to tertiary level education and still no one tells you [about listening]. you don't get taught that. …so i had to take a step back and look at the way people communicate on a daily level. people don't listen to what you're saying. [younger volunteer]   (3)            emotion labour perhaps the most eloquent description of ‘emotion labour’ was given by one volunteer (about 30 years old). in the following interview excerpt she is contrasting her experience in paid work in the corporate and retail sectors with her wire experience. it’s the first time in my life that i’ve been in a work situation where you’re encouraged to be yourself. i guess my work experience history has not always been in an environment where i’ve been able to really be myself. i’ve always had to fit some prototype—whether it’s corporate or retail. it is amazing to actually be in an environment in which you come in and intellectually have your ideas heard and be validated and be supported and if there is a debate going on it is in such a respectful manner—so it’s just that old fashioned common courtesy and respect which i think a lot of work places don’t have any more. i guess wire actually acknowledges that whole human aspect of just being human. i found in the past with my work history you have to go in and actually hang up your personality on the front door to survive. if you’re slightly political, if you’re slightly assertive or outspoken and it’s not the norm it’s not accepted. it’s just been amazing to be in that environment [and now at wire] working amongst women has been quite incredible–the way that things are done differently. women listen and they allow space just for ideas to flow and they don’t frown upon emotions as having a negative connotation. diversity isn’t a problem amongst women, whereas men are threatened by diversity because they don’t understand it, or that’s been my experience within the workplace. i approached my employer at the time and said i’d like to cut my hours. that was all ok and they were a bit shocked that i was doing it for voluntary work. they didn’t really understand why i would give up [paid] work for voluntary work.   (4)            emotional climate/ emotional ecology several of the comments quoted above say a great deal about the emotional climate at wire. it is, to paraphrase frost et al. (2000), ‘an emotional ecology where care and human connection are enabled’—a place of ‘organisational compassion’ where staff and volunteers reach out to establish ‘emotional connections’ of empathy and warmth. it stands in stark contrast to the emotional climate of many organisations. in the following comments, staff describe their experience of the emotional climate at wire. within wire we are very much working in a team atmosphere…. it is very supportive and collaborative; an atmosphere of helping and supporting each other. …compared with business organisations, we are relaxed. and we are a bunch of women working together as well; there is no ego involved which makes a lot of difference. it is very relaxing and … there is such a difference from the corporate world. wire has an interesting culture. i guess it is basically about celebrating diversity and it works on a feminist framework. however, i have interacted with other organisations which operate on a feminist framework but what is great about wire is that it brings it back down to day-to-day living. so for me i think the way i would describe it is ‘common respect’ and celebrating diversity–and encouraging people to be themselves and supporting women through their decisions whatever they might be–and about not judging. and from one of the volunteers: i have found it wonderful because the support we get within wire. there is such a diversity of cultures as well and that’s a great learning experience for all of us. it’s wonderful to be with these women, all linked together without discrimination or judgements.   icts and emotional factors at wire wire established a web presence on vicnet in 1995. subsequently its site has moved to other specialist third-party service providers who target ‘resource-poor’ community organisations. currently wire is using a linux-based open source integrated groupware product, phprojekt for its intranet and to enhance the interactivity of its web service delivery. on its site, wire has links to ‘information sheets’ on key topics eg. what to do when faced with domestic violence or sexual assault. hits on the wire site have risen exponentially whilst usage of the phone service has remained fairly constant. one issue with going online has been how a local state-based service can deal with the growing reach of the service to a global audience. wire now lists prominently on its site its geographical location in victoria, australia, so that it is not raising unrealistic expectations that it can make referrals or answer email queries from for example, india or america. our research at wire highlighted several links between icts and emotional factors. the following comments and excerpts from interviews with wire staff and volunteers show how available technology can simultaneously both facilitate and constrain human interaction and emotional expression. staff reflected on patterns of usage of its web-based information, eg. where there is a high level of embarrassment about an issue, many women prefer the anonymity that comes with using online information or anonymous email contact: ‘women use it … a lot on sexual assault cases. sexual assault is an issue that for some women it is easier to do on-line than talk to someone or go somewhere. the increasing popularity of email queries has highlighted issues about the appropriateness of the medium to deal adequately with the highly emotive content of many messages. some requests you can’t deal with by email i think. you have to ask them to ring the phone service because you need to talk about it. it is very hard talking by email. you need to get her to contact the phone service because there is someone there who can listen and advise and talk about things, because it is too complex for email. … the emails show that women want answers to quite complex issues which are really not appropriate for email. it’s easier over the phone because you’ve got a dialogue with someone–you’ve got so much more scope with your voice; you can use inflections – you can listen and ask pertinent questions. in an email you really have none of that and there are a few kind of funny signs that you can use but they are really not appropriate in a supportive relationship. nonetheless, email appears to offer women a confidential space for serious issues they do not feel comfortable talking about directly. quite a few of the emails are slanted towards sexual assault issues and violence. so they obviously feel safer in email maybe and not really talking to someone about it. i think it is interesting with our emails that … a lot of the issues and queries that women have are about the hard stuff— like they are in crisis, or it’s about domestic violence and sexual assault. in some way email is offering them the secrecy and the confidentiality that may be they are not comfortable with talking to someone over the phone. at the walk-in women’s information centre, there are computers available for public use, and a staff member is available to assist or train women in using the internet. staff told stories about how women who were very apprehensive about the new technology gradually gained in confidence in this supportive, non-threatening environment. over time they felt a sense of liberation and empowerment, with new horizons and communication opportunities opened to them. older women, even women in their seventies come every week to learn a bit more about the internet. they find it very exciting and learn how to correspond with their grandchildren and understand what they are on about. any suggestion that wire’s phone service may adopt more sophisticated call centre technology was abhorrent to staff and volunteers—the very antithesis to what wire stood for. do we want to become a call centre? no! … i have two friends who have worked in call centres for ages and it’s a working dog’s breakfast–high pressure, statistics, statistics, statistics. you know, you get questioned if you have been in non-call mode for five minutes to go to the toilet. that’s not what wire wants to achieve i think. i don’t see the sort of service that wire provides being converted into a call centre environment. although i do know that the phone centre technology is state-of-the-art, but is purely for a corporate attitude and not for a community attitude. one volunteer reflected that reliance on technology and static information in the database did not necessarily address the human needs of callers. it’s a terrible thing to say but i almost don’t have faith in the database. it’s not as if it isn’t good or anything like that—which it is. it’s just that detachment and … lack of sensitivity. she went on to explain what she meant by an analogy to the use of cad tools in design of furniture and buildings: i guess i’m going away a bit from the wire thing but with cad (computer aided design), that’s just fantastic for technical drawings, but as far as designing i think it limits your designing ability. it’s a bit like your crisis call–you need that interaction to get your full potential. because cad has been around for so many years now there are a lot of people who are designing on cad. you know it’s funny because i’ll sometimes look at the way product design goes in buildings. you can see it–you can see the progression. you can see the technology speaking into the design. i find that totally fascinating and it’s interesting because to a certain extent i take that a step further and i think that human service is going to go that way too if it’s going to be rationalised through technology. i think that it’s very limiting. but it is happening. [it’s quite parallel in the phone room] because you are dealing with emotions and you’re dealing with human interaction as opposed to straight information. similar sentiments were expressed by a staff member who stressed that wire’s services were much more than a matter of providing specific chunks of information from a database, that human contact was the integral component: [it is ]a wise thing to have human contact … [what] it comes down to is [this]—is information just a number, or is it about exploring what a woman’s story is? because information as an end point [emphasises] … the idea that it is a goal. i actually don’t think it is. it is actually about a process, a process of going through stuff to have that validated and to have that clarified. often you’ll find that if a woman is calling – and this is a common thread whether it is phone or email or face-to-face – often a woman comes in with a problem and when she starts exploring it, a whole lot of other things come up as well. we’ll go somewhere completely different, and there is that process of that sounding board actually speaking about what your needs are that actually make it real. in applying icts in community organisations, it is important to realise their capacity both to facilitate and to constrain emotional expression. the link found here between perceived embarrassment and the need for anonymous communication is interesting, and contrasts with other situations where ‘richer’ communication channels are sought. there are distinct socio-emotional dimensions of each communication channel (face-to-face, phone, email, internet), and it is important to know the most effective medium for particular emotive content. however, this is compounded by individual differences, i.e. not all people react the same way. individual perception of a situation will impact on choice of communication medium. for example, in some instances where clients felt more comfortable with email, staff felt constrained and unable to respond as adequately as they could if they were able to use the phone to communicate empathy and negotiate meaning. acquiring computer and internet skills imbued many women with a growing sense of confidence and personal empowerment. also it opened up new communication possibilities, for example in overcoming a generational barrier and facilitating dialogue with grandchildren. by the time staff and volunteers had completed their training at wire, they had developed sound computer skills. however, there was an evident ambivalence for some in relation to the technology. while they recognised and appreciated its value in enabling new service options they also feared the spectre of technological determinism, i.e. that the technology could undermine the expression of human compassion and warmth that was fundamental to wire’s service philosophy. the notion was not easy for interviewees to articulate, and they used stories and analogies to communicate their concerns. these were sometimes expressed in terms of a contrast between corporate and community values, and linking ‘rationalising through technology’ with pressured corporate environments, and communicating care and compassion through dialogue with community organisations. there are clear gender overtones in this discussion. conclusion in western thought for centuries, emotion has been subordinated to reason as something that must be subdued and controlled. only over the past few years has there been a concerted attempt to restore emotion as an ‘equal partner’ in the traditional tripartite division of cognition (thinking), –emotion (feeling), and –behaviour (acting), and to acknowledge the intertwined nature of all three. in organisational, management and community literatures, there is growing recognition of the centrality of emotional factors in making and sustaining connections between people and communities. the recently popularised concept of ‘social capital’ has strong connections with the relational aspects of emotion and ‘emotional intelligence’. more attention is being paid to the need to minimise the negative consequences of emotion labour, to foster authenticity of emotional expression and the development of positive emotional climates that support learning and human wellbeing. embedded links of emotion with status and gender have been explored, and increasingly there is recognition of the need to restore balance by giving more value to the so-called ‘feminised’ forms of emotional expression. caring, nurturing, supportiveness, collaboration and acceptance of diversity play a crucial role in building communities and sustaining community life. community organisations like wire have succeeded in effectively blending rational and emotional elements and in creating warm, vibrant, sustainable communities—a goal that businesses seek to emulate (eg. through developing communities of practice) but find elusive. a key factor contributing to wire’s success is its ‘honouring of emotion’—its emphasis on authentic emotional expression, affirmation of the individual, trust, respect for diversity, and strong core values that are effectively culturally embedded and inspire passion and commitment. this underpins the close links and effective strategic networks that have supported wire through difficult times and continue to sustain it. it stands in stark contrast to the barren emotional landscapes of many large organisations ‘where you have to hang up your personality on the front door to survive.’ references argyris, c. 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(pp. 156-161). westport, ct: quorum books.   review of an african rural internet network and related academic interventions gertjan van stam and darelle van greunen nelson mandela metropolitan university, port elizabeth, south africa introduction linknet operates a rural internet network in macha, zambia, africa. macha is a small and resource-limited rural village. linknet is based upon a holistic and respectful vision aimed at developing the potential of the local community, which plays a leading role in the progression of the local internet network. the communications network is established within the setting of a co-operative not-for-profit institute. setting up internet access and connecting rural communities in africa is an involved and complex endeavor. not only are basic communications and energy technologies lacking, but also a diverse array of constraints have to be conquered. the integration of academic research findings is a challenge. this article addresses various aspects of these challenges. most specifically it deals with an array of academic resource issues, like the availability of guiding literature in the fields of context, culture, orality, information and communication technologies (ict) and its engineering, the digital divide and digital exclusion, applications, costs, and management practices. lastly the article introduces local perspectives on the value of academic interventions and concludes with the need for conceptual frameworks incorporating all of these complex aspects in a culturally adaptive way. background rural african communities are globally typified as lacking in development and in need of change (heinemann, prato & shepherd, 2011). there is wide international support for the need for development of the least developed regions on the earth, for diverse reasons (united nations, 2009). traditionally, engines of change appear in the form of development aid or missionary work (meganck, 2010). development aid disperses its funding through projects, often bringing together experts in capacity building for a specific purpose. development projects are part of thematic development programs, and they involve distinct phases like planning, grant writing, execution, reporting and assessment. during the assessment phase, measurements and evaluation matches outcomes with goals set for the project. development projects are operational in a wide range of disciplines. most operate in a vertical manner and link to international priorities like the millennium development goals (mdg). goals set by funding agencies mostly define the development agenda. priorities of funding agencies are set by international politics or individuals. funding agencies are mostly bilateral or multilateral institutions, or private, philanthropy foundations. beside institutionalized development projects, remittance of funding from the diaspora abroad fuels separate development activities in developing countries (kozul-wright et al., 2010). this flow grows, with further growth expected through funding streams in social venturing. literature shows that equal partnerships and inclusiveness in development of local interventions is a key requirement for long-term sustainability (infodev, 2008). the need for incorporating human values and culture is being recognized (miller & larson, 2005), and there is openness to exploring development using a socio-technical approach (amadei & wallace, 2009; kam, 2012). although successes have been reported for development projects, many reports depict failure. most development projects do not reach their set goals, not even closely. resentment is growing toward traditional approaches to development: there are many critics with as many diverse positions, e.g. khoza (2005), moyo (2009) or adamson (2012). the challenge remains to not only find good outcomes as defined by outsiders but also to find good outcomes in the context of local authenticity, limited resources, and community priorities. the use of information and communications technologies (ict) in communities or by individuals at the "bottom of the pyramid" is the subject of much and diverse study. literature focuses on business and empowerment and on ict in general and information systems as the most common technology objects of analysis, with a growing trend toward mobile phones (gomez, baron & fiore-silfvast, 2012). (the term 'bottom of the pyramid' or bop has been put into the mainstream by prahalad; for instance in his book the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid, prahalad (2009) refers to the billions of people living on less than $2 per day, also popularly dubbed the other three billion .) the global impact of ict is enormous. however initiating, implementing, operating, and scaling up ict use in rural sub-saharan africa seem to be routed through a particular minefield of challenges. apart from quantitative engineering aspects, a multitude of qualitative constraints have considerable effect (stam, 2011) involving environmental, skills, and cultural ingredients. issues such as high costs of inputs and the means of access control contribute to the array of challenges. top-down, technology-centric, goal-diffuse approaches show unsatisfactory development results (dodson, sterling & bennett, 2012). a mix of reasons is offered as hampering the local adoption of technology. not many projects show the capacity for sustainability nor the properties of scaling up. with the exception of anthropological approaches, accademic interventions researching how qualitative aspects and engineering interact are few and far between. there is little evidence on the modalities of long term local adoption and respectful integration of access projects in rural areas in africa, or how they interact with science. this lack of evidence hampers understanding. methodology from the initial set-up of the internet network in 2004, linknet network grew to a considerable size, involving well over 100 wireless units. from 2004 to 2011, the network was linked to the public internet through satellite connections. in 2011, the network was terrestrially linked to an internet service provider in the capital city, lusaka. the engineering details and use of the network has been studied in detail through interaction with academic researchers but little research has been conducted on the qualitative aspects of the network. our approach is to conduct a broad and qualitative literature review to shed light on the interactions at the internet network initiative at linknet/macha works in rural zambia and to corroborate that with academic literature. the literature review not only considers ict(4d) literature but also casts its net much wider, exploring many aspects that arise during the introduction of ict in rural areas. the outcomes of this literature review are then contrasted with longitudinal ethnographic research findings in the rural community of macha, in zambia's southern province. research local culture macha is a community in rural zambia. it is a typical rural community, being a considerable distance from any town or economic center. macha resides in communal lands. also in the community are medical and educational institutions based upon church-administrated title-deeded land. the pastoral lifestyle of residents centers on people-interactions, subsistence farming, and livestock. a string of multi-disciplinary papers involving quantitative and qualitative reports corroborate evidence of longitudinal research depicting the progress of this rural community since 2004. for more than 20 years, high quality research has been ongoing at macha, including ground-breaking publications focused on results from academic interventions by the macha research trust (thuma, 2010). the range of publications spans multiple studies in measles, malaria, tuberculosis, and hiv, often in collaboration with universities from the usa (moss et al., 2011) and europe. although these medical studies recognize the importance of the ict networks in macha, only one study specifically reports on ict, dealing with the use of gsm to send weekly information of rapid malaria tests used and number of positive diagnoses using sms (kamanga, moono, stresman, mharakurwa, & shiff, 2010). personal interactions show the internet as a life-line in the medical research community in macha, however, none of the medical research publications quantifies or qualifies the specific benefits of the internet network. with regard to a literature base, a few (small) books have appeared through the years, often written by missionaries or doctors positioned at the macha mission. these books are difficult to find. in 2011, an e-book appeared from this rural area (stam, 2011). on a provincial scale, books on tonga culture do exist though hard to find. elizabeth colson, an american anthropologist, published extensively on the tonga, e.g. tonga religious life in the twentieth century (colson, 2006). she compiled hundreds of published and unpublished references on the tonga-speaking people in zambia and zimbabwe (colson, 2008). another source of history is hobson's tales from zambia (hobson, 1996), and gewald et al.'s one zambia, many histories (gewald, hinfelaar, & macola, 2008). however, these publications are relevant for contextual analysis only, none mentioning ict. a limited amount of literature is aimed at directly benefiting local practitioners in the rural african context. the non-discursive expressions of scientific knowledge, reduced to abstractions in english texts, seem to have little discernible effect on even prohibiting the inclusion of oral societies (stam, 2013). the almost negligible african representation in formal academic publications in almost any field creates a defacto dependence on out-of-context, foreign scholarly direction (gitau, plantinga, & diga, 2010). recognizing this divide, and that texts are necessarily directed to western consumption, david maranz, in his book ' african friends and money matters ' declares 'the hope that [the book] will contribute to westerners having greater respect for a unique economic system that accomplishes its main purposes very well' (maranz, 2001). in literature, a number of books give a whole sweep of history and evolution of thought. their generalizations can be helpful in assessing long term dynamics of change. for instance, morris observes 'it is one thing .. to sit around tinkering, but it is another altogether for .. ideas to catch on and change society. that, it seems, requires some sort of catalyst' (morris, 2010). conducting academic interventions that address technology from within in order to benefit rural africa is a formidable challenge. culture is the context in which things happen; out-of-context, technology lacks significance (trompenaars & hampden-turner, 2011). unfortunately, the non-discursive requirements in academic publishing hamper third world scholars from producing, and publishing, scholarly publications, or even accessing them. canagarajah writes that literature reviews thrive on conventional wisdom, incorporate overwhelmingly north american and western european thinking and its intellectual hegemony, and embed international power relations (canagarajah, 1996). dourish & mainwaring (2012) link computing into a colonial intellectual tradition and identify the problems that arise in consequence. dilemmas cross-cultural knowledge is hard to come by and the consequences often baffle people involved, leading to hostilities as cultural identities are defended (lanier, 2000). dilemmas posed due to cultural diversity in the context of literature and science have been noted by various authors. trompenaars & hampden-turner (2011) observes that although integrated technologies have a logic of their own that are not affected by culture, the objective dimension can have totally different meanings to different local human cultures. in the same book, the authors note that seminal literature's depiction of 'one best way to manage and organize' is based upon a believe system that such universalism is scientific, when in fact such position is a cultural preference. not surprisingly, literature tends to depict a depressing state of (rural) africa, which does not necessarily correlate with local perceptions. south african academic khoza, in his book let africa lead , writes, 'those of us accustomed to mixing with outsiders are used to hearing a few polite and tentative remarks about the "problems of africa after independence", followed by an embarrassed silence. aid-givers celebrating their selfless assistance to poor old africa are wont to lay misgovernment and corruption at our feet, like a corpse at a wedding feast' (khoza, 2005). ubuntu culture sub-sahara african culture is based on ubuntu. khoza explains the culture as an epistemology and humanistic philosophy, a metaphor embodying the significance of group solidarity (khoza, 2005). it is key to all african values, involving collective person-hood and collective morality. tutu writes. '[ubuntu] also means my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in theirs. we belong in a bundle of life' (tutu, 1999). he contrasts western philosophy and ubuntu through 'it is not "i think therefore i am". it says rather: "i am human because i belong"'. others take definitions from radical humanism paradigms. mbiqi and maree define ubuntu as the sense of solidarity or brotherhood which arises among people within marginalized or disadvantaged groups (mbiqi & maree, 2005). louw (2002) regards ubuntu as a response to multiculturalism, with specific reference to south africa. he defines ubuntu as 'an african or african-inspired version of an effective decolonising assessment of the other.' the claim in these assessments transcends absolutism without resorting to relativism and involves respect for religiosity, agreement on criteria, and the necessity of dialogue of beliefs. colson (2006) notes that especially the role of beliefs is undervalued, and in her work she gives insight into the sheer complexity of the arena of religiosity. despite it being the cultural expression of hundreds of millions of people, literature on ubuntu is often regarded idiosyncratic. practical implications for academic interventions, organizations, and change theories, have been explored in literature, albeit sparsely, e.g. van der colff (2003) and van den heuvel (2008). on ubuntu and african renaissance a small but steady stream of exploratory and critical books appear, like moeletsi mbeki's advocates for change (mbeki, 2011), however, with few bookshops in most of africa, they are difficult to access. with the expansion of the internet in africa to the blogosphere, online articles have started to appear, e.g. george ayittey's 'africa through african eyes' (abdou, 2010). on the interaction between ict and african culture, very limited documentation exists. there are just a very few scientific or philosophical works like van binsbergen's 'can ict belong in africa, or is ict owned by north atlantic region?' (binsbergen & dijk, 2004), or zakour's 'cultural differences and information technology acceptance' (zakour, 2004). orality in his book 'orality and literature' ong expands on differences in managing knowledge and verbalization in primary and oral cultures versus chirographic cultures. ong notes that, for those acquainted with literate culture by definition those that read an article like this thought and its expression in oral culture appears strange and at times bizarre (ong, 1982). much of ong's observations are diachronic, viewed through history, although in recent work he hints that further research on the differences between orality and literacy might produce new and interesting insights in interpretations (bingham, nd). there seem to be no (multi/trans)disciplinary models for science on the interaction with, and integration of, technologies in societies utilising orality as their main means of interaction. although there is a persistent tendency among scholars that writing is the most basic form of language, ferdinant de saussure questions aspects of usefulness and shortcomings and dangers (waterman, 1956). changes in mental and social structures accredited to the use of writing have been documented (goody, 1968). ong mentions that even in the old days plato already expressed serious reservations in the phaedrus and his seventh letter about writing. he depicted it as a mechanical, inhuman way of processing knowledge, unresponsive to questions and destructive of memory (ong, 1982). academic interventions encounter the complexity and vast schism between oral and literate culture. obviously colored by conventional wisdom, orality is explicitly or implicitly attributed with a lack of introspectivity and analytical prowess (ong, 1982). although sayed observes, 'adaptation of technology and the becoming of a person are not separable conceptually from the evolution of the complex system that the community is' (sayed, singh, saad-sulonen, & diaz, 2011), even academic interventions adhering to complex adaptive system methodology have not taken into account a measure of orality as a context-sensitive constraint. role of ict the role of ict in advancing growth in least developed countries is a hot topic of academic research and debate (frediksson et al., 2010; ieg (independent evaluation group), 2011; itu, 2011a; itu, 2011c; toyama, 2010; unwin, 2009; zambrano & seward, 2012). regularly, attention is requested for the plight of the least connected, and institutes and nations are urged to collaborate in addressing the needs in rural areas, for instance during world telecommunication and information society day 2011 (wtisd) with it theme 'better life in rural communities with icts' (toure, 2011; un, 2011). many countries collect universal service funds to support ict deployment in rural areas, specifically targeting growth of ict services in rural areas (calandro & moyo, 2011). this body of work can be classified in the 'advocacy' category. over the past decade great progress in the availability of bandwidth improved africa's connections to the rest of the world. sea cables are floated to the continent. there is much growth in use of the mobile phone and social media like mixt and facebook. however, several obstacles have hindered ict implementation and particularly impacted the adoption and utilization of ict for the benefit rural communities. integrating academic interventions in communities is a non-trivial, transdisciplinary, and utterly complex endeavor in rural africa. there is a growing understanding that a western-focused look at ict is constrained. researchers are beginning to question their precepts (gomez & pather, 2012). anderson et al. found their measurements on 'a digital study hall' in india was prone to conceptual and methodological difficulties (anderson, robertson, nabi, sahni & setia, 2012). and a working paper on south african efforts to enhance the livelihoods of the rural poor through ict concluded that only 'community-generated initiatives' have an opportunity to be sustainable, self-managed and an ability to be appropriated by local communities (infodev, 2008). digital divide and digital exclusion a wide variety of papers deal with the so-called digital divide. the various definitions of this divide converge on the notion that the digital divide refers to any inequalities between groups, broadly construed, in terms of access to, use of, or knowledge of, information and communication technologies (servon, 2002). the messages in the literature convey multiple perspectives on the commonly agreed potential of a technology gap to exacerbate the already wide disparities between people in society (unwin, 2013). pais (2007a) proposes a mechanism for bridging the divide, based on the position that the unifying vision that telecommunications can empower people to meet their needs must be held by all stakeholders if communities are to value technology as a means of achieving sustainable prosperity. the digital divide is modulated by access, training and content; driven by market forces; and widened by unequal investment in infrastructure, discrimination, insufficient policy efforts, and culture and content (servon, 2002). further, the multi-dimentional nature of the digital divide features prominently in literature, citing the ability to access, adapt, and create knowledge using ict to be critical to social inclusion (warschauer, 2003). warshauer explains that not only access is crucial, but that both technology and social developments play important roles while integrating technology into communities, institutions, and societies. he states that not so much the physical availability of computers nor the internet are most important but rather people's ability to make use of those technologies to engage in meaningful social practices. hudson made an attempt to investigate research, project and policy initiatives to examine the role of ict in the transition from a rural village to a global village (hudson, 2006). a significant number of united nations studies, especially from its specialized agency for information and communication technologies, the international telecommunications union (itu), show clear disparities in the availability of access and technology, still an important issue well into the 21st century (frediksson et al., 2010; itu, 2011c; itu, 2010a; itu, 2011a; itu, 2010b; itu-d, 2011). also multi-national institutes like the world bank publish cases in ict, e.g. baldwin & thomas (2005). likewise the commonwealth telecommunications organisation (cto) studies and reports on icts in the developing world (calindi, pulkkinen, tongia, akwetey & ross, 2010). expanding the issue of internet access, a range of reports focus on the value and importance of broadband, including the issue of rural broadband in broad and generic terms only (alves et al., 2011; budde, 2011). although the reports show an accelerating growth of capacity, ubiquity, and convergence (especially in the field of internet and mobile networks), this all seems to fuel a shift in the nature of the digital divide towards digital exclusion (grosskurth, 2010). an array of reports, mostly from (people) public private partnerships (pppp), deal with derivatives of this issue, e.g. carvalho, klarsfeld & lepicard (2011). connectivity and labor little or no academic interventions address the cost of connectivity in rural areas in africa, although this is an important denominator for the economic sustainability of internet networks in such environments. in general, little quantified data is available in the african telecommunications market. available sources are itu reports, the occasional demand-side releases, telecom operators annual reports, or market reports from commercial sources. most notable is itu's ict price basket (ipb) which led the itu to herald that ict services are getting more affordable worldwide (itu, 2011b). the report documents that nine out of the top 10 countries showing the greatest decrease in the ict price basket value were from africa. however, all of them had high values (i.e. high prices) to start with, and the report concludes that africa continues to stand out in its relatively high prices, with fixed broadband internet access costing on average almost three times the monthly average per capita income. the itu produced a supporting video to visualize this disparity (statshot, 2012). with 15 african countries being landlocked (the highest number on any continent) the challenges of costs for crossing other countries with terrestrial wires are severe (léautier, 2012). however, statistics lack focus, robust data does not exist, and methodological studies on communications costs in rural areas of africa are virtually non-existent. access to telecommunication services such as the internet has a direct and mutual correlation with the gross domestic product (gdp) per capita of a country (andrianaivo & kpodar, 2011; baldwin & thomas, 2005; gillwald, 2008). the literature suggests that telecommunications access strongly influences the financial and social well-being of a population. in contrast, the itu reported in 2005 that the entire continent of africa has fewer internet users than france alone (itu, 2005). current reports are more diffuse, due to convergence. they often aggregate the amount of mobile phone users. for instance, the communications authority of kenya reports 4,716,977 internet users, of which 4,684,473 users connected via mobile phone during the second quarter of 2011 (cck, 2011). although there are stark contrasts in terms of urbanization in africa (united nations, 2009), in developing countries, the vast majority of people (approximately 70% to 85% of the labor force) live in rural areas (kozma, 2006) like macha. in zambia, 94% of its surface area is considered rural (adams, 2003). 61% of zambia's populace live in the rural areas (central statistics office zambia, 2011). for a developing country to increase its productivity and for the populace to enjoy an improved quality of life, it is essential that rural areas are developed to the extent that new opportunities are created and innovations occur (chief chikanta & mweetwa, 2007). chief chikanta et al. mention that rural areas face significant resource challenges such as poor communications, transport, electricity and water supply. they deem a disparity in internet access is undesirable because it demonstrates that people of different communities have unequal opportunities to benefit from technology in their daily lives. further, there are no studies in rural areas on the cost of personnel in relation to their added value. schwalje (2011) notes this discrepancy and provides some initial thoughts on concepts for national skills formation for knowledge-based economic development. in personal discussions, schwalje confirmed the relevance for environments like those found in africa, and thus the necessity to include data from africa, but also the difficulty in finding and accessing relevant sources of data. management observations this section endeavors to explore management theories affecting views on how to perform and analyse operational internet access activities in rural africa. house & aditya (1997) substantiate findings that leadership literature mostly reflects western industrialized culture. they conclude that 98% of literature is distinctly north american in character. therefore this section wades through literature to unearth knowledge that could be relevant to review the management of internet initiatives like linknet in rural africa. seminal management literature covey (2004), in 'seven habits of highly effective people' identifies: 'first try to understand before you want to be understood.' kotter in his book the heart of change advocates 'commitment from the top and show quick wins' as key success factors (kotter & cohen, 2002). senge et al. describe coherent theories in 'presence' (senge, jaworski, flowers, & scharmer, 2011) and charmer (2009) poses 'theory u.' the idea is that it is important for fundamental change to have an open mind and truly listen to the essence. that means that one must invest time to find out what really matters. one listens not with the head but the heart, with the whole being. when the time of insight comes, action follows, smoothly and quickly. collins (2001), in his book, good to great , answers the question of why some organizations have achieved major transformation and others not. he poses the principle of 'first who , then what '. first one ensures relationship with the right people, then one decides where one goes. most organizations act the other way around: first devise a strategy or a plan, then find the people. this does not work, postulates collins. it must be: who first, then what. gratton (2007) in her book hot spots , deliberates on the reasons why some organizations or divisions are "hot." in such places there is a lot of action, happenings, inspiration, and achievement. one factor she mentioned is that a sense of urgency and sense of excitement is generated by asking questions. these are called igniting questions; questions or comments that made people stop and think, and then take action. other relevant thoughts can be found in systems theory. examples include ackoff's book, redesigning the future: a systems approach to societal problems '(ackoff, 1974). he indicates that a business cannot be separated from the system and the context in which it acts. furthermore, discipline cannot solve complex business problems. everything is interconnected and therefore important. the whole system is to gain an understanding. in his book process consulting , schein (1988) deals with the question of what help really is. he shows the need to be open-minded and participate in helping those who need help. it is counter-productive to formulate many solutions. the crux is that those supported discover, self start, and deal directly with the challenges and opportunities, congruent with the concept of social innovation (stam, 2012). integration of this seminal management literature with the positioning of academic intervention and the internet network activities in macha is described through the macha works model (matthee, mweemba, pais, stam & rijken, 2007; stam & oortmerssen, 2010). economic growth a growing number of reports expound that global business cannot afford to ignore the potential of the african markets (roxburgh et al., 2010). some exclaim 'it is time for africa' (otty & sita, 2011). 'africa's economies are amongst the fastest growing in the world, but growth does not necessarily lead to development' (maczimbamuto-ray, 2012). the heralding of the economic growth in an african environment is prone to complexity. although unwin postulates 'there will be no end to poverty' (unwin, 2007), he recognizes the intrinsic richness of africa (unwin, 2008). van oortmerssen (2007) and sachs (2011) both raise the issues of sustainable progress, taking into account the limits in resource use that the world has reached. ndi (2010) indicates the consequence of the fixture on economic growth from an african perspective. development innovation there are calls to define the word 'development' for goal fixing. provocative angles of viewing development come through a range of writers. seminal are freire's reports on his experience, and the way through, in situations of ignorance and lethargy which he deems to be a direct result of economic, social and political oppression (freire, 2000). he poses a framework in education, pulling in actual experiences as learning cases, re-defining realities to allow people to be free to grow. zambian citizen moyo's book dead aid has been a landmark in the discussion of development aid (moyo, 2009). the complexity of the issue can be seen through millennium development goals committee chairman sachs. he penned his thoughts upon reaching lusaka, the capital of zambia, for the first time '.. i knew that things were different, but i still did not fathom just how different' (sachs, 2006). ict and technical aspects literature on challenges of engineering in rural africa is scattered over many academic fields. further, reports on pilots or activities in remote or disenfranchised areas are also scattered over many fields. in this section we endeavor to gain insight into the status of ict research relevant to the ict access in an environment like macha. in the field of information and communication technologies, the community of both technical and social science researchers in ict4d (or ictd) takes special interest in academic interventions on the african continent. also in the area of computer science there are specific science teams operating, to look into technology-related activities related to rural africa. however, ict theories for africa are being formed without any significant influence of african scholars due to unavailability of literature from african origin (gitau et al., 2010). a recent study on the changing, interdisciplinary field of ictd analysed 948 peer-reviewed academic papers that appeared in five peer-reviewed journals and two conference series between 2000 and 2010 (gomez et al., 2012). in their conclusions, gomez et al. deduce that the field is starting to help shape the design of novel technologies for developing world contexts. grosskurth (2010) exposes a positive outlook on technology in africa, while unesco's landmark report, 'engineering' provides insight into the particulars of the shortages in engineering (unesco, 2010). unesco mentions that 2.5 million new engineers are needed in the african context (ieee, 2012). doing research in developing regions like certain countries in africa are blighted by challenges (brewer et al., 2006), and to keep rural wireless networks alive beyond a pilot stage is another recognized challenge for academic interventions (surana et al., 2008). wireless networks only a small number of rural wireless internet networks are documented in africa. in his thesis, nungu (2011) describes one in tanzania. another example is the peebles valley wireless network in south africa (johnson, 2007) which could be most closely compared with the internet project in macha (matthee et al., 2007). these networks are unique in that they overcome, and document, challenges like long distances between wireless nodes, low-bandwidth gateways to the internet, lack of reliable power, and high cost of internet connectivity. they usually share a low-bandwidth, costly link to the internet amongst a large user-base. the adagio is that analysing and understanding the traffic distribution, web usage patterns and source of bottlenecks can facilitate network designs that are optimized to give rural users a better internet experience and bring down usage costs. further, they operate in a mixed, and complex environment, with multiple goals as in development and research. internet traffic a large multi-year study of the distribution of internet traffic in the developed world was carried out by ipoque in 2008/2009 (schulze & mochalski, 2009). it showed that p2p traffic had decreased significantly and web traffic had increased due to the extensive use of content servers. in germany, for example, p2p traffic decreased from 69% to 52% and web traffic rose from 14% to 26%. johnson, pejovic, belding & stam (2012) consider that the work that could be closest to the rural zambian context is one that examines web traffic usage in internet cafes and community centres in cambodia and ghana (du, demmer, & brewer, 2006). here only http traffic was studied, without a wireless network aggregating traffic to the internet connection. classification of traffic showed that sites like yahoo and msn, advertisement sites and multi-media content accounted for the bulk of the traffic. the performance of rural area wireless networks has been investigated since their inception in the early 2000s. surana et al. (2008) present a comprehensive study of rural area network problems. here technical issues were juxtaposed with the social obstacles of deploying networks in the developing world, with a focus on system troubleshooting and an accent on energy related problems. in addition, surana et al. provide anecdotal evidence of the social problems. specifics of network usage in the developing world is also the subject of sen, kole & raman (2006) and kumar & best (2007). the former investigates a specific application (voip) and its economic feasibility in rural areas, while the latter includes interviews of telecenter users in rural india. wireless network performance in rural networks have been analysed (bhagwat, raman, & sanghi, 2004; surana et al., 2008). the academic intervention through the peebles valley mesh network in south africa showed that in an unloaded network, a mesh network becomes the bottleneck, rather than the satellite, after 7 hops (johnson, 2007). johnson et al. used network traces from the internet network at macha to explore the degree of local user-to-user interaction in the village. social graphing, using instant message interactions on facebook, revealed that 54% of the messages are between local users in the village (johnson, belding, & stam, 2012). viruses experience in the internet network in macha signals the important issue of virus traffic, especially in the highly constrained bandwidth environments. in 2007, around 600 million machines connected to the internet. of these, goebel et al. (goebel, holz, & willems, 2007) quote vint cerf's estimate of a quarter of them being infected with botnets. others estimated the range to be between 12 and 70 million at that time. goebel's study at aachen university in germany in 2007 showed that in 8 weeks, 13.4 million successful exploits were discovered due to 2,034 unique malware binaries circulating amongst 16,000 unique ip addresses. botnets, which are the key platform for most internet attacks, are surveyed by gu, perdisci, zhang & lee (2008). this work highlights that botnet command and control has moved beyond the common methods such as contacting an internet relay chat (irc) server. current methods make use of http and p2p traffic and are thus harder to detect with common intrusion detection systems. this emphasizes the fact that detected malware may only be the tip of the iceberg. the severity of the problem is clear from bhattacharya & thies (2011). here experiences, behaviors, and unmet needs of telecenter owners are studied, with respect to their attempts to prevent virus infections on their machines. virus control is recognized as a largely unsolved problem. the importance of user education in rural networks is highlighted by ishmael, bury, pezaros & race (2008). uniquely, johnson et al. analyzed full tcp dumps and provided insights on virus and bot presence in the internet network in macha (johnson, pejovic, belding, & stam, 2011), for the first time in rural africa. use of ict the internet has evolved both in terms of size and application since its birth. recent studies have shown that the average web page size in 2012 was 68 times larger than the average size in 1995. it was 14.12k in 1995 (domenech, pont, sahuquillo, & gil, 2007) and 968k in 2012 (souders, 2012). there is an increasing amount of off-personal computer (pc) storage and processing using cloud computing for services such as navigation, photo sharing and file hosting. many applications that in the past were run on a user's device such as email, word processors and instant message clients, are now run on web browsers. these features have brought users in developed countries closer to the vision of 'anywhere any-time' computing, where devices connected to high speed internet connections delegate computing power and storage capacity to cloud computing services. postill (2008) highlights the fact that as the internet continues to grow, it is becoming 'more local' (postill, 2008). this phenomena is beginning to blur the boundaries between online and offline social domains, and it is this trend that justifies a localization approach to network design, especially in isolated rural communities. however, no literature could be found on the implications for users in rural zambia where internet access speeds of 64 kbps, up to 256 kbps, and latency over 700 ms are most common. there are many studies on social network interactions on facebook, both at a structural level using friend lists and at an interaction level using wall posts, e.g. kumar, novak & tomkins (2006), and mislove, marcon, gummadi, druschel & bhattacharjee (2007). wilson et al. argue that social links created by friend lists are not valid indicators of user interactions (wilson, boe, sala, puttaswamy, & zhao, 2009). this is shown by the fact that the number of 'friend adds' account for 45% of the activity per day whereas comments only account for 10% of the activity. the lack of local content in rural africa has been documented by van hoorik and mweetwa (hoorik & mweetwa, 2008). according to their observations, rural africans do not find a representation of their customs and culture online, thus they may perceive the internet as a foreign body . manschot explores models of online content generation (manschot & stroek, 2009). the authors conclude that social and cultural factors have to be considered for successful implementation of 'content generation tools'. locality of interest has been primarily studied in the domain of peer-to-peer networks. for example, a semantic clustering technique is employed by handurukande, kermarrec, le fessant, & massoulié (2004). the semantic relationship is either implicit, using information such as peer-history, or explicit, using meta-information about the file, such as whether it is music or video. time-delayed proxy for bandwidth-limited networks was proposed in 2006 by du et al. (2006). vithinage et al. implemented and documented proxy behaviour (vithanage & atukorale, 2011). locality of online interactions, on the other hand, was observed with the advent of online social networks. wittie et al. exploit the locality of interest in order to improve online social networks' usability for remote areas (wittie, pejovic, deek, almeroth, & zhao, 2010). their work is geared towards whole countries, and thus large geographical areas. in view of this, johnson et al. proposed an intervention by means of a upstream proxy in the internet network at macha (johnson, pejovic, et al., 2012). applications in this section we search for knowledge on use of ict in rural areas. especially in this area, literature becomes thin. however, this is an important area, as oudshoorn signals in 'how users matter' (oudshoorn & pinch, 2005). e-learning in recent years, much research has been devoted to the topic of distance education. bernard deals with the comparison with classroom education (bernard et al., 2004), and garrison with its potential transformative effects (garrison & anderson, 2003). the concept of e-learning in resource-limited rural environments has also been explored; pais (2007b), hoorik & mweetwa (2008), and vallis et al. (2012) documented their application and implementation within rural zambia. chen, in his book education nation , describes the results in western schools that integrate modern digital tools to facilitate thinking, communicating, collaborating (chen, 2010). the field of distance learning pertaining to music is very new. the substantial cost of internet connection and video conferencing hardware was prohibitive to widespread synchronous education in music (litterst, 2007). more current research has demonstrated that distance learning in music is not only feasible, but also functional on a basic level (dammers, 2009). in macha, a longitudinal epiano project, music education through the internet, has been progressing for a number of years (shoemaker & stam, 2010). schurgers et al. expand on experience and reflect on the opportunities and challenges of e-learning in health in zambia (schurgers, stam, banda, & labib, 2009). cultural heritage preservation of intangible cultural heritage is part of healthy and sustainable progress of rural communities (unesco, 2003). affiliated with the linknet activities in macha, the local radio provides a platform for dissemination of cultural knowledge and wisdom in a community that operates mainly in primary orality. programs provide a beacon for identity in a community in flux in a fast changing world (stam & mweetwa, 2012). discussion nine years of ethnographic research in rural zambia provided a lot of insights into challenges or the relevance of academic interventions and their applicability in the rural context. there appear to be a lot of discrepancies between western knowledge and its application in the disenfranchised context. frameworks can be culturally inappropriate and locally impractical. discrepancies include: non-alignment of locally relevant topics with available (international) research lack of accessibility of research findings in varied culturally-adapt manners issues of language (english versus local language) representation of knowledge, e.g. in literal format versus an oral format relationality, e.g. writings by foreign research versus dissemination by local research cultural positioning, e.g. linear categorization versus mediatory positioning contextuality, e.g. described for an audience referencing to the resource-abundant environment versus a local audience referencing to a resource-limited environment validation, e.g. international-peer-reviewed versus local-community-reviewed. the almost exclusive discursive way of presenting results in ict is providing a huge barrier to its use in other regions of the world, where discursive thought is scarce. current academic discourse has little connection with realities and topics of interest in developing countries. such topics center on, for instance: people analysis of effects of interventions in social relationships the empowerment of individuals or communities sense of accomplishment and feelings of being part of the world effects of interventions to the social cohesion of the community opportunities to strengthen local culture and archive events in the past abilities to interact as a community at a collective level. key issues are agency, security and peace. results of this misalignment fuels inaccurate and misleading stories in disenfranchised areas. this, in turn, discourages the desire to collaborate with academics. only through the local expression of the intervention can the real embrace of the findings by the local community possibly take place. there is no established scientific community in ict or engineering in most disenfranchised regions of the world. further, engineering research mainly takes place in the western environment, and financing focuses on such western based research. no significant funding mechanisms for science flourish in zambia. in collaborations, african, rural partners are often excluded from funding. conclusions much research in engineering incorporates a quantitative and technological perspective. literature is biased towards quantifiable responses, aims at prioritization of needs and is focused on western topics and conceptualization of solutions. works often lack long term contextual evidence. in positivistic, technical sciences there seems to be little regards for culture and context. there is no localized science-reporting in most developing countries, and certainly little reporting in the local languages. all this hampers communities from being able to learn about academic interventions in a meaningful way. there appears to be little regard for the potential difference in meaning of the technical artefact in a different contexts. academic reports invariably focus on tangible, quantifiable and instrumental impacts following western methodology. the lack of long term, longitudinal research on the use of technologies in disenfranchised areas particularly affects the knowledge base. not many projects extend over multiple years or beyond the project implementation phase. further, the intangible and unquantifiable results of interventions receive little attention. literature is aimed at a generalist, mostly macro-economic altitude. the discursive expressions of scientific knowledge, reduced to abstractions in english texts, seem to have little discernible effect on or even defacto prohibits the inclusion of oral societies. the foreign academic appropriation of local information for private, foreign profit, alienates the local community and renders it objectified and possibly exploited. there are hardly any engineering studies on activities and results in disenfranchised areas from the perspective of disenfranchised areas. reports base conclusions on short periods of observation. validating the research with those in the areas under review hardly ever results in participation by, and/or recognition of the efforts and their worth, by local people. there is a clear need for conceptual frameworks applicable to context and culture to be in equilibrium with local culture and heritage, taking into account locally important aspirations and paradigms. there is much room for locally developed models and locally enshrined research, performed on the basis of local tradition, possibly involving local indigenous institutions to assure good grounding, especially when dealing with rural communities. acknowledgements we thank the community and stakeholders in macha in participating in the study, and the staff of macha works who assisted with the study. we thank the reviewers for their valuable comments. we thank researchers david johnson, veljko pejovic, elizabeth belding and lisa parks for the university of california, santa barbara and tony robert for royal holloway, university of london for their contributions and suggestions. references abdou, l. b. 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(2012). mobile technologies and empowerment: enhancing human development through participation and innovation. united nations development programm running head: social capital and wireless encryption practices the effect of formal and informal social capital on diffusion of wireless encryption practices: a case study sorin adam matei purdue university <sorin@matei.org> introduction the emergence of wireless computer networks supported by 802.11 protocols has the potential to change the way information is distributed and used. this wireless technology, popularly known as wifi, can be used to connect a large number of devices to each other and to the internet through radio waves (jordan & abdallah, 2002; rao & parikh, 2003). computing devices of all kinds can be freely moved within the coverage area of a wireless local area network (wlan), revolutionizing the very idea of local area network. lan structures can be reshaped by simply moving a computer from one desk, room or location to another. the creation and implementation of this technology was necessitated by the proliferation of computer networking over the last decade, which caused a demand for new interfaces that would enable multiple computers to connect to each other and to the internet more efficiently. the complexity of these new local computer networks posed a daunting dilemma in terms of infrastructure, as reconfiguring or wiring older buildings and production facilities for increasingly faster traffic and applications. in response to these issues, a wireless method of networking computers was developed to alleviate the costly management and updating of cable-based computing environments . although 802.11 wireless networks were first proposed as a “patch” technology for the business environment, they were soon repurposed as a solution for residential users. many households felt the need to link multiple computers through a home network and/or to share a single internet access point. this technological drift from a business to a residential product was not entirely foreseen by the developers of 802.11 wireless technology. in addition, the home use of the technology raised specific concerns. the reach of the radio waves that support wifi technologies cannot be confined by walls and fences. the only spatial limitation is that imposed by how far the electromagnetic signal can travel. although this can be dampened by wood, brick, mortar or other types of obstacles, the only real limitation is that imposed by the power of the emitting station. although this power is mandated by fcc to be quite low (a few watts), a radio wave broadcast by a wireless antenna can easily travel under certain conditions a mile or even more. shortly, radio signals can travel much farther than their immediate beneficiaries might want them to go. thus, wifi networks are intrinsically exposed to abuse, unauthorized use, and privacy infringement and home users seemed to be less aware of these problems than other users. despite these problems, the 802.11 technology was developed to promote unlimited access to networks by any compatible hardware. it is true that some safety measures to prevent unwanted parties from accessing the network itself or individual computers on the network were designed into the technology to keep data secure. all wireless protocols include methods of filtering or authorizing connections and signal encryption procedures. encryption usually consists of an authentication protocol which allows individual computers to connect to each other and to the internet, via the wireless network base station (access point) only after authenticating and implementing an encryption key. yet, in most cases, these procedures have to be manually set by the user and require a degree of comfort with utilizing and customizing computer systems. companies that produce the hardware for home wireless networks tout the “out of the box” simplicity of their products over the encryption and safety capabilities (that are not very easy to master). because of this relative difficulty of use, encryption has become in the transition from business to residential use a secondary and, in many situations, ignored feature . thus, adoption of wireless networks in the home market requires a careful evaluation of their costs and benefits. however, current understanding of the extent to which users engage in this kind of analysis and how frequently they decide to adopt encryption practices is fragmentary. the present paper will try to explore the social diffusion of encryption-related social practices over time, from a diffusion of innovations and social capital perspective. in this context, our focus is not on the technology itself, but on the practice of choosing to use or not to use encryption, much like choosing whether to use other computer technologies such as the internet, e-mail, and the like. using as theoretical framework the “diffusion of innovations” and “social capital” research paradigms applied to communication technologies (simpson, 2005), the current study hopes to provide a new insight into the role played by formal and informal local social bonds in adoption and diffusion of technological practices. specifically, the aim of this study is to explain the diffusion patterns of wireless computer networks, especially encryption, and to examine the role that social capital plays in shaping these patterns. currently, the relationship between social capital and wireless networks is virtually unexplored; the current study will break new ground in determining whether these two are linked and will advance our knowledge base on diffusion processes. review of literature diffusion of innovations the use of encryption in home wireless computer networks is an innovation that people can choose to adopt or reject. like many innovations that can affect the way people live their lives, encryption will be embraced by some and rejected by others. we know, however, that innovations that are not adopted are not always inferior or defective. there are a number of factors that determine whether a new innovation is diffused or not that do not deal with the inherent value of the innovation itself. rogers defined diffusion as a process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. he identified a number of factors that play a part in the adoption or rejection of innovations, citing the importance of communication channels. the four-step process of communicating about an innovation consists of 1) the innovation itself; 2) a person that has knowledge of or experience with the innovation; 3) a person who does not have knowledge of or experience with the innovation; 4) a communication channel connecting the two units. while mass media channels can reach a large number of people rapidly, rogers states that diffusion research shows that most people base their evaluation of an innovation on “near peers,” similar individuals who have already adopted an innovation and provide their own subjective evaluations of its value. according to rogers, “dependence on the experience of near peers suggests that the heart of the diffusion process consists of the modeling and imitation by potential adopters of their network partners who have adopted previously. so diffusion is a very social process…” (rogers, 1995, p. 18). one of the key factors in this social process is the group of those who seize upon innovations while these are still in their infancy. rogers refers to this group as early adopters. early adopters are respected opinion leaders who take the lead in their social system and are looked up to for information. members of this group are not on the cutting edge of technology; they are not so far ahead of average people that their knowledge is intimidating, and they make up a fair percent of the distribution curve for diffusion of innovations (13.5%). however, they do adopt innovations fairly rapidly and provide a subjective analysis to others in their social networks. in the case of the diffusion of communication technologies, rogers identified three important ways in which adoption differs from other innovations: 1) there must be a critical mass of new users to persuade the average users of the technology's efficacy; 2) use of the innovation must occur regularly and often for the diffusion effort to succeed; 3) the technology should be very malleable and should be easily repurposed by individual adopters. other researchers have stressed the importance of social networks in diffusion of communication technology innovations. the strength and importance of these social networks can be evaluated, as suggested by simpson (2005) by examining a related field of inquiry, that of social capital. social capital putnam defines social capital as “connections among individuals – social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that rise from them” (19). this implies that social capital is an inherent component in creating and maintaining relationships with others and in collective action. social capital is a combination of formal and informal ties, the former precipitated in the form of local (community) organizations and the latter in friendship, kind and “strong tie” networks. social capital is thus an abstract concept that is an amalgamation of a set of characteristics that deal with personal and impersonal or semi-personal relationships with others. pigg and crank (2004) in their comprehensive review of the literature on the relationship between information technologies and social capital identify five recurring dimensions: networks, resources for action, reciprocity transactions, bounded solidarity and enforceable trust. one of the most important distinctions that should be made in any discussion about social capital, as suggested by coleman (1988), portes (1998), or putnam (2000), is that between immediate, direct social relationships and weaker social ties. while the former can be considered to be similar to putnam’s bonding ties, tha latter can be assimilated with his bridging social ties and are usually established and maintained in more instrumental and formalized settings, such as a local community organization. while they are often found and examined together in research on social capital, bonding and bridging, or informal and formal ties can work independently of one another in terms of influencing behaviors. although not always directly addressed in diffusion of innovation studies, it becomes immediately obvious that social capital is and should be directly addressed by this line of research. as simpson suggested in her larger discussion of “community informatics” (ci)-technological initiatives that can impact community life--social capital can be seen an essential element for the successful diffusion of any technology in a given community: a community’s receptiveness to a ci initiative is influenced by the extent to which the initiative matches the community’s aspirations, values and needs, or is perceived as contributing to the future well being of the community. community aspirations, values and needs, and a shared sense of the future well-being of the community are aspects of social capital. the extent to which social capital exists in a community is therefore a critical factor in the community’s receptiveness to ci initiatives and its acceptance of the technology, and consequently the likelihood of the ci initiative to succeed and be sustained. (simpson, 2005, p. 113). this argument echoes rogers suggestion that social networks are of crucial importance in diffusion of innovation and it makes it all too natural to consider social networks not as an isolated phenomena, but as part of a larger class of social experiences. as pigg and crank (2004) emphasize, networks are part and parcel of the social capital world. more precisely, they can be considered types of social capital. the social networks putnam (2000) or coleman (1998) talk about, those established within a church, a parent-teacher association, a neighborhood, or those that grow out of friendship or kinship ties are the same social connections that we use when we need support for understanding and adopting many objects and technologies. neighbors and friends not only volunteer together for the same church charity or parent teacher association, they also talk about and advise each other about home improvement projects, gardening, car repair or new gadgets and devices. often purchasing new objects is a direct product of imitation or emulation of those that are closer in one’s social circle. the relationship between social capital and technological diffusion is not just intuitive or theoretical, but also increasingly discussed in the empirical literature. social capital has been shown to play an important role in diffusion of innovations and is integral to how new technologies emerge from fringe status symbols to mainstream consumer goods. for example, burt (1999) brings up the issue of trendsetters in relation to social capital and diffusion. in his view, local opinion leaders—who by definition have a higher level of social capital—are instrumental in the diffusion process. these community members are vital in the diffusion process because they can cross boundaries between social networks and are “brokers” of information. by being able to carry information from group to group they reap the knowledge benefits of multiple social networks and are able to use their high amounts of social capital to help the process of diffusion. these opinion leaders may belong to groups that are both interest-based and geographically-based, which can enable them to pass information learned from their interest-based groups to their neighbors or co-workers. a longitudinal study on formal social capital and the internet revealed that the practice of internet adoption occurred more quickly among individuals with higher social capital and that internet use does not reduce time spent interacting in social networks, which indicates a positive relationship between social capital and the practice of internet adoption . in a comparison of the implementation of information networks in two minnesota cities, oxendine et al. found that the city which promoted a formal collaborative approach and equal access for its citizens saw a more developed community electronic network as compared to the city that took an entrepreneurial approach when implementing the technology. the researchers cited the trust and cohesion, resulting from the stronger social capital endowment of the more successful city, as the responsible factor. riedel, dresel, wagoner, sullivan, & borgida examined the implementation of an electronic network in a rural community and found that initial adoption of technological advances is done by those with greater material resources. yet, those most responsible for the diffusion of the technology were the community members with larger resources of social capital. it is also important to remember that as baym, zhang, & lin found, face-to-face interaction is higher quality than online communication when thinking about communication technology; therefore, physical proximity to other group members is a factor when considering the role of social capital in diffusion of innovations in the communication technology arena. based on these studies, it is not unreasonable to extrapolate the processes detected for communication technology in general to adoption of wireless network related social practices. our theoretical premise will be that social capital, both in its formal and informal forms, is part of diffusion of encryption. to explore this issue we have collected over time (2 phases, at a 10 month interval) data related to diffusion of wireless networks in the residential environment of a case-study urban community, for which we also know, at a satisfactory level of detail, its level of formal and informal social capital endowment and its socio-demographic composition. to elucidate the relationship between social capital and diffusion of wireless networks encryption practices we advance two research questions and two hypotheses. the research questions are exploratory in nature and aim to determine the extent to which wireless networks have become a part of the residential arena in the target location, and how prevalent the practice of encryption has become, over time, in the same location: rq 1: at what rate do wireless networks diffuse in the residential arena? rq 2: at what rate does encryption, as a social practice, diffuse in the residential arena? the role of the research questions is to determine the extent of the phenomena of diffusion and to ascertain that a concern for encryption is a reality for residential users of wireless networks. describing the process of diffusion cannot, however, explain its determining factors. our main interest is not only to determine if wireless-related practices are diffusing, but also what social factors impact them. among them, of particular importance is social capital in both its forms: formal and informal. our hypotheses address exactly this matter, one proposing that formal and the other that informal social capital has a direct influence on diffusion of encryption practices. since our research is conducted with macro social units of analysis (neighborhoods, see methods section for details), the hypotheses take the following format: h1: the units of observation with the highest level of formal social capital are the most likely to evidence a shift to encryption practices. h2: the units of observation with the highest level of informal social capital are the most likely to evidence a shift to encryption practices. methods datasets we answer the research questions and we address the hypotheses presented above using data about wireless technology diffusion collected from a small-medium american midwestern town: x. the city was chosen as a study site for two reasons. first, the research was partially supported by university of y, which is located in x. the university sponsored this research project to investigate the role of new technologies in fostering the development of the local economy and society. second, x reflects the transformation of many smaller-medium size towns, at the border between the midwest and the south, from sleepy regional agro-industrial centers to new economy magnets. x, for example, was very successful in the last 20 years in attracting and retaining high-tech and high-power manufacturing businesses. z, the printer manufacturer, is located here and one of the main w (car brand) factories is found in the immediate vicinity. x also presents other socio-demographic and urban advantages. it is a self-contained urban area, presenting a good combination of business, residential, and public areas, representative overall of the mid-american urban landscape (table 1). its population includes a mix of social groups, from college students to farmers, from high-tech professions to blue-collar workers. the racial distribution resembles that of the us, in general, although its hispanic population is smaller than the national average. the town also matches the national average in terms of marital status, owner-occupied homes and some professional categories (service and office occupations). although the city is slightly wealthier, better educated, and more internet connected, than the national average, the differences are not very great (see table 1), departures being confined within a 10% band. table 1. x reflects many general united states socio-demographic characteristics. characteristics (2002) x county united states demographic     %college educated 50.31 44.16   % married males 54.94 56.57   median age 33.40 36.00   % white 81.79 76.16   % black 13.66 12.13   % latino 4.25 13.85 economy % owner-occupied homes 60.67 66.79   % unemployed 7.20 7.60   median family income (dollars) 58,677 52,273   mean family income (dollars) 71,506 66,920   per capita income (dollars) 25,206 23,110 % internet connected 77%* 70%** occupation % management, professional 43.03 34.14   % service occupations 17.13 16.12   % sales and office occupations 26.04 26.24   % farming, fishing, and forestry 0.54 0.71   % construction, extraction 3.92 9.52 % production, transportation, 9.34 13.26 table sources: us census for all data except for internet connectedness. *x survey conducted by author, august-september 2002. **pew internet national survey, september 2002. three types of data about x are utilized in this study. first, there are data about presence, characteristics, and over-time diffusion of wireless networks. this dataset was collected by the first author of the paper. second, there is basic geo-demographic information (education, income, home ownership, zoning information, etc.) about x, aggregated at neighborhood level, obtained from the us census bureau and from the local municipal authority. third, there is data about density of social connections (social capital) and participation in community organizations for each of the 57 x neighborhoods included in the study. this type of information was obtained through a random digit dialing survey, conducted by the first author of this paper. the first type of data, regarding wireless networks, will be utilized for constructing the main dependent variables employed in the analyses. the two other datasets are used for deriving the main dependent variables utilized in testing the hypotheses. in what follows we will briefly describe the methodologies utilized for obtaining each type of data. wireless networks. a wireless monitoring methodology was designed around a population-weighted spatial sample of the urban street grid. this builds on and improves on previous wireless monitoring methodologies, which used non-random, convenience, or exhaustive urban street samples . we start by drawing a sample of 238 spatially-random locations (1 for each 1000 inhabitants) throughout the entire urban area of x, with denser populated areas being assigned more locations. the unbiased sample of locations is drawn by randomly selecting values from the known ranges of the x and y geographic coordinates of the study area. this is accomplished using an arcview scripting utility. arcview is a mapping program and spatial analysis software platform. the script assigns sampling location to pre-defined geographic units (neighborhoods) according to their population density . the random locations are then connected by a 400 mile-long shortest-path route (figure 1). the path is also constructed via arcview, most specifically by using the network analysis extension. the shortest path algorithm ensures that given a network grid (in this case the street framework), each point will be connected to its closest neighbor and the resulting path will be the shortest possible. a two person research team (driver and navigator) drove this route twice (august 2003 and may 2004), locating via global positioning services (gps) on an arcview map the wireless networks detected along the way (figures 1 and 2). the ten-month interval between measurements corresponded to the length of one academic year. both the gis application and the gps device were connected to a computer laptop mounted on a passenger vehicle. the computer picked up the wireless signals using an orinoco wireless card, connected to a 8db booster antenna, and logged relevant information (station identification name and unique numeric code [mac address], encryption status, signal-to-noise ratio) using netstumbler, a wireless network monitoring software (http://www.netstumbler.com). encryption status, which is a central variable in our study, is represented as a binary variable: 1 if the access point broadcasts its signal using password-protected encryption, and 0 if the signal is broadcast with no cautionary measures added to it. because the monitoring process is a continuous one, more than one reading was obtained for each access point (wireless network). however, the final map and dataset locates each individual access point at a unique location, that where the signal was the strongest. figure 1. monitoring route and sampling points after the two rounds of data collection, a total of 3406 unique wireless networks (access points) were identified. of these, 754 were identified in phase 1 and 2652 in phase two. the two groups partially overlap, 436 access points identified in phase 1 being re-identified in phase 2. wireless data was post-processed for further analysis in two ways. first, each wireless network was assigned an assumed type of use, of three possible: residential, business, and public. use status was derived from the official zoning status of the land parcel the wireless network was identified on. land parcel information was obtained in a digital format from the x-f county urban government gis office. assignment of use values to the wireless points was done using arcview, with each access point’s geographic coordinates being mapped onto the zoning map. figure 2. locations for strongest signal point where wireless networks were identified (green, phase 1; red, phase 2). in a second processing step we aggregate the data at neighborhood level, using us census bureau geographic units, census tracts, for defining the neighborhoods. for each of the 57 census defined neighborhoods we calculated: absolute number of access points found during phase 1 and phase 2, number of access points that were found during both phases, number of residential, business or public access points found for each phase, and prevalence of encryption among access points for each phase and type of use. to track over-time trends in encryption practices, we focused on the subset of access points that met the following criteria: were found on residential land parcels and were identified both in phase 1 and phase 2 of the study. these 312 access points were then divided into three categories, according to their encryption status in phase 2, compared to phase 1. a first category included the 43 (14%) access points that became encrypted between in phase 2, after not being encrypted in phase 1, a second the 265 (85%) access points that remained unchanged between phases (encrypted or unencrypted), and third containing the 4 (1%) access points that were encrypted in phase 1 but ceased to be encrypted in phase 2. this variable was used for computing the main dependent variable for testing the hypothesis. for each of the 57 neighborhoods we generated a score, reflecting how many access points became encrypted in the neighborhood. the score summates both positive and negative values, such that if in a neighborhood there were both access points that became and that ceased to be encrypted, the final figure reflects the net outcome, subtracting from the total of access points that became encrypted those that ceased to be encrypted. geo-demographic information. to explain these changes in encryption practices over time we use neighborhoods (census tracts) as units of analysis and data from the us census bureau and from the x-f county urban government as control variables. the analysis is done at neighborhood, rather than individual level of analysis, for two reasons. first, it is impossible to associate individual access points to specific socio-demographic variables. we do not know who the specific owners of the access points are and for ethical reasons did not attempt to identify them. second, the most reliable source of information, the us census bureau, is only available at aggregate (neighborhood level). the aggregate-level variables we chose to use in the study reflect the characteristics that can define the rate of adopting and utilizing communication technologies. these include measures of population stability and composition, such as: neighborhood age, measured as average age of homes, population density, proportion of single vs. family or owned vs. rented homes or proportion of non-hispanic white population. a second class of variables include social characteristics, such as median family income in 1999 and proportion of college educated population. finally, variables in a third category reflect the physical structure of the neighborhoods and their location in the city: proportion of neighborhood area that is dedicated to residential use, and neighborhood distance from the civic center (center to center measure). all these variables are used mainly as controls, to eliminate the possibility of a spurious relationship between the main predictive variables related to social capital, and the dependent variable, expansion of encryption. social capital measures. to reflect the dual, individual and collective, nature of the social capital concept, two measures are used. first, we employed an informal social capital measure. this was constructed at neighborhood level from answers to a battery of questions obtained from on a random sample of 801 x respondents (response rate 50%). the survey was conducted by the authors in september 2002, one year prior to phase 1. the informal social capital index, which was previously used in other research conducted by the authors (citations deleted for review), has a satisfactory reliability (α = .80) and reflects amount of informal social capital found in a neighborhood. the index is a measure of everyday acts of neighborliness that denote potential of initiating and density of informal social ties. the concrete questions are: do you strongly agree, agree, neither agree, nor disagree, or strongly disagree with the statement: 1. you are interested in knowing what your neighbors are like (m=3.85, sd=1.166). 2. you enjoy meeting and talking with your neighbors (m=4.34, sd=.888). 3. it’s easy to become friends with your neighbors (m=4.05, sd=1.100). 4. your neighbors always borrow things from you and your family (m=1.97, sd=1.302). how many of your neighbors do you know well enough to ask them to (respondent specifies a number): 1. keep watch on your house or apartment (m=3.91, sd=4.526)? 2. ask for a ride (m=4.23, sd=6.392)? 3. talk with them about a personal problem (m=1.74, sd=3.821)? 4. ask for their assistance in making a repair (m=2.49, sd=2.832)? the higher the score on any of these items, the more likely that the respondent will be involved with other members of his or her community and the higher the level of informal social capital in that community. the index is calculated by capping the “number of neighbors” variable at 10 (10 and higher values were recoded as 10), to reduce the skewness of the data, typical in such variables. we further divided this variable by two, to bring it to a 1-5 range, similar to that utilized in the other four variables where the answers in the format “strongly agree/strongly disagree” are ranked on a 1 through 5 scale. the informal social capital scores were obtained by summating the scores for the 8 variables. their theoretical range spans the interval 4 (respondent knows no one in the neighborhood and strongly disagrees with all the “agree/disagree” statements) to 40 (respondent knows more than 8 people in each category and strongly agrees with all the “agree/disagree” statements). further, the data was combined at neighborhood level. this was accomplished by combining (averaging) the individual scores of all the respondents living in the same neighborhood into one, synthetic, neighborhoods level of informal social capital. average neighborhood scores range between 16-28. a second variable, also obtained through the survey, reflects the formal facet of the social capital concept and is expressed as average number of community organizations (including church affiliation) a typical neighborhood respondent has membership in. in the survey, respondents were asked to indicate if they are members of a number of 14 types of community organizations, spanning the spectrum from parent teacher associations and bible study groups to sports/arts, service, professional and church affiliation (m=1.4, sd=1.6, range=0-8). the individual averages were then averaged at neighborhood level, such that for each of the 57 neighborhoods we obtained an indicator of formal social capital (i.e., how many associations an average neighborhood resident is a member of (m=1.3, sd=.6, range=0-2.6). inter-item correlation between the items is presented in table 2. intercorrelations between factors influencing wireless encryption practices _____________________________________________________________ factor 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1. age of house -- -.322* -.160 -.159 .459** ,331* -.428** .176 -.783** .043 .063 2. having a college education -- .105 .503** .052 -.111 .529** .421** .508** .406** .090 3. % of family households --- .660** -.630** -.478** .756** .106 .522** .172 -.169 4. % of owned houses ---- -.348 -.445** .596** .302* .533** .356** .060 5. % of single person households --- -565** -.555** .215 -.452** .006 .016 6. rate of population density --- -.477** .409** -.320* .051 -.005 7. median household income --- .083 .655** .190 .019 8. % of residential surface area -- .179 .190 -.127 9. distance from the civic center --- .100 -.197 10. formal social capital --- .388** 11. informal social capital --- _______________________________________________________________ note. for factors 1 through 10, n = 57. for factor 11, n = 55. *p<.05. **p<.01. analysis our first research question asks: rq 1: at what rate do wireless networks diffuse in the residential arena? the results of the monitoring process indicate that wireless access points diffuse at a fast pace and that encryption has become a more frequently encountered practice in phase 2, compared to phase 1. over the study period (august 2003 – may 2004) the prevalence of wireless networks has increased by 250%. while in august 2003 we identified 754 access points, in may 2004 the number increased to 2652 (figures 2 and 3). assuming that the effective coverage of an access point is about 200 ft from the wall of a building, we estimate that 15% of the households in lexington had a wireless network during phase two of our study (may 2004). this figure was computed by dividing the number of access points identified in phase 2 by the number of households found within 200 feet of the monitoring route. the figure is probably higher, but not by much, than the national average. the forrester research technographics survey , announced in june 2004 that in december 2003 (five months before the completion of the present study), 15% of american homes had a computer network of some kind (wired and wireless). a significant finding of our study is also that a large majority of the residential networks found in x were residential, their proportion increasing over time. during the first phase of the study, conducted in august 2003, two-thirds of the networks were located in private residences; in may 2004 their proportion increased to three-quarters (figures 2 and 3). during the same period, the relative proportion of business access points decreased, from 21% to 16%. this indicates that wireless networking is about to become a home appliance, incorporated into the everyday life of many middle-class homes, as illustrated in figures 3-4. figure 3. phase 1 access points: type of use. figure 4. phase 2 access points: types of use. the answer to the second question – at what rate does encryption, as a social practice, diffuse in the residential arena? – is that encryption became more prevalent in 2004 compared to 2003 across all types of use. all wireless computer networks, and especially those located in residential areas, broadcast their signal using encryption at a higher rate in 2004, compared to 2003 as indicated by figures 5 and 6. figure 5. phase 1 access points by use type and encryption status. overall, the encryption rate has increased from one-fifth to one-third. looking at residential and business networks separately, 28% of the residential access points were encrypted in august 2003, compared to 18% in may 2004, a 55% increase in only 10 months. in the business arena, the increase was also significant, but not as high: from a 24% encryption rate, in august 2003, to a 32% rate in may, 2004, which translates into a 33% increase. figure 6. phase 2 access points by use type and encryption status. in addition, as already mentioned, a greater proportion of the residential wireless networks identified both in phase 1 and 2 have become encrypted over time (14%) than those who ceased to be encrypted (1%). this trend indicates that as wireless networks become more prevalent, individual and institutional users become more aware of the fact that this technology entails a number of weaknesses and that encryption can be a solution for these weaknesses. however, the fact that a majority of the networks are still not encrypted indicates that more is to be done until network security becomes an everyday concern in american households or businesses. to determine the factors that impact diffusion of encryption, and to test the two hypotheses of this study, stating that the units of observation with the highest level of social capital are the most likely to evidence a shift to encryption practices – we ran and fit a multiple regression algorithm, using backward elimination of non-significant variables. the model includes number of wireless access points that became encrypted between phase 1 and 2, regressed on: informal and formal social capital, percentage homes that are owned, percentage homes that are occupied by singles or by families, percentage population that is college educated, percentage neighborhood area dedicated to residential use, average home age, population density, and neighborhood distance from the civic center. the results indicate that while level of formal social capital has an effect on diffusion of encryption practices, informal social capital, while going in the predicted direction, does not. neighborhoods with higher levels of formal social capital (β=.33, p<.05) and with higher income (β=.3, p<.05) are more likely to have seen an increase in number of residential access points identified in both phases that become encrypted. level of informal social capital has no significant effect on encryption practices, the variable being eliminated by the stepwise procedure with a β value of .163 at a p value of .257. in this model, the two significant variables explain about 20% of the variance found in the dependent variables (adjusted r2=.21). since formal and informal social capital are correlated (r=.46), which increases the risk of colinearity, we also ran a multiple regression with backward elimination using only the informal social capital variable, as main predictor, alongside the other control variable. the results indicate that in absence of formal capital, informal social capital has an effect only at a p< .1 level of significance (β=.23, r2=.18) and that the only predictor significant at p<.05 is education (β=.39). in conclusion, the results indicate that while we cannot accept h2, they support h1. discussion the results presented in this paper indicate that wireless networking has become an important home technology, diffusing at a very rapid pace. while still in the “early adoption” phase, its 250% increase in the case-study location explored here indicates that wireless technology has a lot of potential and it has caught the attention of many everyday users. in the process of its diffusion, as we have noticed, wireless technology has become more prevalent in the residential arena that in the business market. the advantages entailed by this technology are many, including mobility, convenience, and enhanced status. however, the drawbacks are also significant, especially those related to the danger of abuse and privacy loss. the current study indicates that these concerns have become more prevalent over time, as more networks have started to use encryption to ward off abuse and intrusive technology access. however, overall, the residential market is still wide-open to these dangers, since despite the fact that more wireless networks were encrypted in the second phase of our study, less than one-third of them were protected using this methodology. our results indicate that an important predictor of adoption of encryption in the residential market is wealth and strong formal civic capital. areas where people had higher incomes and where participation in community organizations was higher saw the greatest increases in adoption of encryption. while the relationship between income and encryption is somewhat intuitive, higher income households displaying defensive practices in more than one way (home surveillance coming to mind first), that between formal social capital and demands further interpretation and qualifications. first, individuals that are members of community organizations are also more likely to be attuned with the burning ideas and issues of the day. privacy infringement and privacy protection are obviously very important current topics and they have percolated down to the level of our communities and neighborhoods. second, community organizations are environments where ideas and practices of a wide diversity are transacted and discussed. third, the social ties established through participation in community organizations are “weak” in nature, as defined by granovetter (1973), and thus much more likely to “bridge” and connect people to new ideas and technologies. our findings seem thus to suggest that social knowledge relevant to technological practices is one of the issues people learn about in these environments. on the other hand, our paper did not indicate any significant relationship between individual (informal) social ties and diffusion of encryption. this means that technological ideas and practices are more likely to be reinforced by formal rather than informal social capital. this finding apparently represents a departure from what we currently know from diffusion of innovation research, where the main mechanism of technological propagation was always seen in the interpersonal arena. however, our finding is not strong enough to completely disconfirm this widely accepted tenet. in fact, as we noted, when running a regression model only for informal social capital, there was a positive effect, although at a lower level of significance than the conventional .05 threshold. the lack of significance could be caused by a number of factors, including the reduction in number of cases due to data aggregation at neighborhood level. thus, more research is required for clarifying this point. further research on the topic is also demanded by the fact that our study does not offer a direct measure and in-depth picture of how wireless technologies diffuse at the individual level. our units of analysis were neighborhoods, not individuals. to avoid the dangers of ecological fallacy, we should limit our claims to the simple idea that community social capital seems to foster a environment for more protective technology use practices. the concrete way in which this takes place should be studied at the individual/attitudinal level, through appropriate tools: individual-level qualitative and quantitative research. such research might also want to address the implications of social capital specific behaviors and beliefs not only for the diffusion of security practices, but also with respect to the viability of some new wifi applications. one of the more promising ideas is that of the mesh-networks. these are networks that connect individual users via radio waves in a direct manner, without the mediation of access points and internet gateways. in such scenarios, each computer is both a client and a hub of the wireless network. such networks depend in great measure on stable ties and a great deal of trust between the users. users need to communicate between them and to help each other, if needed, since the network needs every single node to contribute its share in order to avoid bottlenecks. at the same time traffic can be quite intense and can serve multiple purposes, from education and one-to-one communication via instant messaging or voice over internet software, to entertainment and file sharing. in the latter situation, if one member gets involved in illegal activities, such as piracy, the network as a whole can be found liable for the illicit activity. an important research question that needs to be asked before starting such projects is if they will have the capacity to “take off” if they are powered only by interpersonal connections and informal diffusion. the findings of this paper suggest that such expectations might be too optimistic. instead, community activists should orient their efforts toward co-opting existing community organizations, which could serve as diffusion channels for the new wireless skills or technologies and could reinforce the trust needed for supporting their initiatives. in conclusion, this is a line of research that is extremely promising and the intellectual and practical payoffs numerous and substantial. we hope that the methodology presented here offers a way to further this research agenda and will offer practitioners useful knowledge for understanding an emergent technology that 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(2001). the book of visions (draft report): wireless world research forum. retrieved december, 2001, from http://www.wireless-world-research.org/general_info/bov2001-final.pdf the ecology of community networking richard lowenberg founding director, 1st-mile institute, santa fe, new mexico. email: rl@1st-mile.org telecommunications service providers and government regulators currently refer to the home, office, neighborhoods and communities as the "last mile." they indicate that providing "last mile" enhanced connectivity, especially in rural areas, is not economically viable. they have their economic models backward. the primary source of value in most peoples' lives is local, derived from self, family and community. in a globally networked and communicative society, localities have the opportunity to aggregate and generate new economic value, resources and benefits. the local realm must be considered the "first mile." the commonly applied term, "last mile" represents a supply-side driven concept. it is a top-down, national and corporate, technical and engineering perspective on telecommunications infrastructure deployment and services delivery. it is based on legacy hierarchical thinking, intents and actions. the "first mile" is based on a demand-side view and understandings. it describes a local geographic orientation for telecommunications infrastructure and services deployment, with a democratic social and economic motivation, that focuses on the difference these systems and services will make in the quality of peoples' lives. the "first mile" is rooted in realizations about the newly emerging 'hyper-archical' nature of networked economies, local-global relationships, innovation and social change, with the provocative intent that our networked information revolution must ultimately be a "people's revolution." 1.0 the development of a techno-mediated, broadband-networked society is complexly upon us. along with the dominant corporate telecommunications providers, almost all cities, towns and rural regions are considering their broadband related needs and involvements, with many now beginning to deploy enhanced 'first mile' networks. as a best practice, the way we think about and pursue our network-connected lives should be considered, along with all other aspects of community-building, within a complex, dynamic, whole ecosystems approach so that our network-connected lives may serve as one of the means by which the concepts of sustainable 'community of practice' and 'community of learning' are realized and exemplified. unless a community overtly determines that it wants to be un-connected, it will want to plan and deploy a ubiquitous fiber optic and wireless networking infrastructure, with symmetric, high-bandwidth fiber connection to all premises (institutions, businesses, residences), along with high quality mobile devices service coverage. how this is engineered and implemented in detail, will vary widely. technologies, standards, services and business models are evolving, driven largely by new social and technical understandings, by on-the-ground readiness conditions and by the forces of marketplace 'consumerism.' scale is a critical consideration when planning any aspect of a community or a network. personal networks and neighborhood networks interconnect with city, regional and global networks, being built, operated and provisioned primarily by large telecommunications companies. while 'network neutrality' is now getting a lot of policy and media buzz, we are in actuality experiencing a powerful new wave of corporate media consolidation, the impacts of which are not favorable to the public interest. municipalities are beginning to invest in and build 'civic networks,' in part to meet needs not otherwise being met, to reduce spending on network services and to generate potential income. not all municipalities are capable of, or good at, managing and operating such networks. those that are, most often already operate other municipal utilities, such as for water or electricity. community networks present the opportunity, as with renewable energy, food and agriculture, community banking and other efforts to vitalize localism, to consider alternate economic and organizational models. in this context, two key concepts are important to understand: 'open networks' and 'the commons.' open networks are those where fiber infrastructure and radio frequency spectrum are owned by the public sector, or by cooperating public and private sector partners, who offer leased wholesale access and capacity to all providers; as opposed to the current less-than-competitive, proprietary access models. open networks can offer subscribers greater competitive choice, reduced pricing and devices interoperability, while offering increased income opportunities for services providers. the commons can be applied to our networked environment in same ways as to watersheds, parks, wild lands, or even neighborhoods. the electromagnetic radio frequency spectrum, while essentially a public, global (universal) commons, like other 'common pool assets,' is currently treated as private property, being auctioned off to highest bidder companies that package and rent use thereof back to us for their shareholders' profit. if, as is increasingly being asserted, access to information is a basic human right, then 'the networked commons' becomes a critical emergent understanding and organizing principle. in 2009, the nobel prize in physics went to the developer of fiber optics, and the economics prize was awarded for the first time to a woman, elinor ostrom, for her work on economic and governance structures for 'common pool assets.' very few 'experts' think about our information environment within an inter-dynamic ecological understanding of matter, energy and information. the field of ecological economics is beginning to extend this fundamental understanding to a re-framing of 'the dismal science'. a 'new economy' must be based on a recognition and internetworking of many diverse and interdependent economies. the digital internetworking of economic flows and exchanges is going to permeate much of the way the world works and how human societies distribute resources, assign value and acknowledge the complex ecological balance between competition and cooperation. properly considered, ecological economics takes full account of value: use value, exchange value, and inherent value. without major changes in our eco-thinking, our best intentioned efforts to build sustainable, networked societies and communities cannot succeed. like all other life forms, we are 'tuning organisms,' entrained to dominant forces and signals that surround, envelop and flow through us. we exist, bathed in a cosmic, life-giving shower of electromagnetic radiation. over the last century, we have learned to 'ride the waves,' by creating 'techne' to extend our sensing and communicating abilities in evolutionarily transformative ways. as with the harnessing of energy and the development of industrialism, we are generating and consuming everything from valuable resources to harmful waste. in ecological terms, waste in the information environment is both material (rare earth mining, obsolete tech junk, networked warfare) and immaterial (information overload, confusion, deception, speed). truth, openness and creativity are among the immaterial value-added qualities of information. the flow of networked information, learning and knowledge, much like water irrigating our fields, is radically transforming all human processes and social constructs, from governance, education, commerce, science, religion, community and family, to the waging of war and peace. copper wires, having provided the means of transport of electrons for the last 100 years, are now being replaced by fiber optic lines, which transport photons (light) at high-speed, high-capacity bandwidth. most wireless systems utilize radio frequency (rf) portions of the electromagnetic (em) spectrum. new technologies are beginning to utilize frequencies in the visible light spectrum for some wireless communications, potentially lessening rf spectrum congestion, while promoting more energy efficient, dual-use lighting systems (leds), and alleviating some growing concerns about possible health effects of rf signals. such paths are ripe for clean 'green' development. today's 'broadband' phase of networked society development is focused largely on technologies, infrastructure, ownership and control. what really matters though is how we use broadband networks, especially to improve the quality of our lives and livelihoods. vibrant public media initiatives are an important part of growing healthy contemporary communities, augmenting other forms of interpersonal exchange and relationship. a community network must be community-wide, and should be planned as such. however, few locales have the required leadership, overarching telecommunications master plans, ordinances, land use plans or public works structures in place to guide and benefit them for the coming years. ideally, a community network would be a cross-sector organizational partnership among cooperating local entities: government, school districts and higher education institutions, nonprofit organizations, large and small businesses, private sector telecommunications providers and individuals. it could provide: shared local peering, a network operations and data center, leased wholesale broadband network access, qualifying subsidized accounts (via isp partners), classes and educational outreach, 'pilot projects' initiation and expertise, and could serve as an online front-end, content and applications management system for the community. community networks should not necessarily compete with private sector companies to provide commercial services, but should partner with willing telecommunications companies and isps to offer local public information services: government, education, libraries, healthcare, culture, economic development and public safety. they could also provide participatory, community-centric content management, appropriate multi-lingual and cultural services, and decision-support tools with mapping, sensing simulation and modeling capabilities, mobile applications, r&d innovation, as well as support services and facilities for online teaching, learning and tele-work. financially supporting such efforts will not be easy. however, if properly organized and structured, a community networking initiative can be self-sustaining and may even thrive, its economic life based as much on earned income as on cross-sector cost savings to the community and partners. individuals, households, businesses and institutions in a city with a population of about 65,000, currently spend from $50 $100 million per year on aggregated telecommunications services (phone, cable, wireless, satellite, internet). most of this expenditure does not remain local. if only 1% of this total were to be re-allocated and re-invested in well considered and agreed ways, we could meet our networked requirements and desires in a few years time, without need for any additional funds. commitment and coordination are critical to all aspects of community building, including first-mile broadband networking. strategically integrated master planning is a must. broadband infrastructure deployments should try to be coordinated with new 'smart energy grid' deployments, water systems, transportation, land use and right of ways. whenever street or road construction or new building projects disturb the ground or do trenching, open conduit should be placed. cities should institute 'dig once' ordinances, for public safety, to minimize disruptions, and for practical co-location cost effectiveness and savings. good planning, coordination and public processes can result in win-win financial outcomes for telecommunications providers and for communities. it can result in improved location and engineering of wireless towers, antennas and coverage areas, while mitigating unwanted impacts. application of the 'precautionary principle' could result in limiting wireless signals in elementary schools, in setting aside electromagnetic 'quiet zones', or in locating free wifi coverage areas as a civic amenity. the path to a networked future requires that we all take greater responsibility for understanding, intentions and actions, while practicing a personal sense of 'information ecology'; not easy, but one of the many grand challenges and socially re-vitalizing opportunities before us. democracy (people power) + information + learning = demosophia (people wisdom). networking for communications challenged communities: report from a european project targeting conditions of poor or lacking ict coverage   maria kristina uden luleå university of technology maria.uden@ltu.se   introduction   networking for communications challenged communities: architecture, test beds and innovative alliances or n4c, a project funded by the eu 7th framework programme was concluded in april 2011. this marked a milestone of an effort that had evolved since 2001, when it took off from a local affirmative action project for women in reindeer husbandry. n4c was a ‘strep’ project aligned to the future internet research and experimentation initiative (fire). the designation strep indicates the size and scope of the project: for n4c a total budget of five million euro, a consortium of twelve partners in eight countries and a three year project time. as indicated by its name, the project was set as an arena where social concerns would be expressed together with technical goals, or as put in the work plan abstract: “the target of the n4c project is the deployment and testing of ubiquitous and pervasive networking for communications challenged communities in a manner consistent with an overall vision for a future internet that can encompass not just users and applications in well connected regions, but that can also reach out to rural areas.” [1]   the technical idea was to drive the evolving delayand disruption-tolerant networking technology (dtn) towards practical usage. the architecture drafted a delay tolerant peer-to-peer system putting dtn to work with wireless transfer at short distances and mobile computers functioning as data mules for the longer. the choice that data transport would be organized via data mules was suggested as a robust solution independent of conventional infrastructure. the vision was to construct networking technology that remote and other communications challenged communities, would be able to establish on their own initiative; networks for local communications needs including internet access as a generic service. north scandinavian reindeer nomadism was the original template inspiring this architecture thus, the focus on mobile nodes and nomadic behavior, but in n4c the scope was widened with respect to use situations and geographic areas, and generic and civic use was integrated with professional scenarios. the professional strand included collection of meteorological and environmental data for the purpose of surveillance, modelling and forecasts. regular and frequent on-site tests in remote localities would involve local and community actors.   another instrument was presented through the structure of the fp7 fire initiative, to create a federation of test beds in europe. this indicated a continuing interest in tests and experimentation and one n4c aim was that at least one of the test beds built by the project would be of such a standard at the project end that it could be suggested as a professional test bed and thus as a component in this federation. it was also an ambition of the coordinator that local community members, would have the opportunity to gain from the development process itself, both directly from project participation and in coming stages from business and commercialization of results.   this note provides a brief summary of the project and its results, with comments on topics and sub themes that are of particular relevance for community informatics or generally user oriented systems and technology development. detailed reports, software and descriptions from the project are available at www.n4c.eu.    delay and disruption tolerant networking (dtn)   delay and disruption tolerant networking (dtn) first evolved under the designation interplanetary networking, as response to challenges in space communications. the problem faced was of a straight forward nature. the need for communications and surveillance grows with the satellites, shuttles, spacecraft and vehicles placed in space. however, the distances become too vast, for a normal internet functionality. the conversation, will time out before the round trip is made with the usual ‘handshakes’ that, establish an internet transfer. the time aspect is intrinsic in the internet construction as such, not in networking in general. technically, delay tolerance can be arranged in different ways. the reason for working with dtn has been described by melissa ho and kevin fall (2004):   “[t]he dtn architecture provides a common framework and standardized approach to the inter-connection of networks that suffer frequent disruption, such as sensor networks, and offers the benefits of improved inter-operability and avoidance of duplicate effort in solving the problems of network disruption.”  (ho & fall 2004, p.3)   the first standard document specifying the dtn architecture was published by vint cerf and associates (2002). by that time, it had become clear that the new standard would probably be of use also for situations and locations on earth that, shared the conditions of space communications, namely that they cannot provide short end-to-end delays and stable connections. internet protocols used today, especially tcp, and also many applications do not work well on networks that do not match these requirements. dtn makes the exchange of data between the source and destination tolerant of time delays; if there is no continuous path from source to destination when the data is sent, the data can be held at some intermediate node (which might be any computer or server) on the path until there is a good path available and, only then, after some time travel forward towards the destination. most importantly, a dtn network does not expect its connections to be fixed in time. this makes that it can cope with mobile nodes that have ever changing connections to other nodes and this character can be used, as in n4c, for establishing mobile networks. people, cars, helicopters and similar moving ‘data mules’ that travel in the remote area actually take the data with them and deliver it to the next node in the network ‘cloud’. movable data mules together with nodes at permanent locations form the dtn cloud. the connections between nodes are opportunistic: nodes communicate when they meet up; data is exchanged if it appears that this will bring the data closer to delivery to its intended destination. (boznar 2011)       the conceptual context   following the classification by gurstein (2007, p.11) community informatics (ci) is about two things; the application of information and communications technologies (icts) to enable community processes and the achievement of community objectives.  among the areas of most immediate concern and for which ci is an appropriate response is overcoming ‘digital divides’ – the division between technology ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ both within and among communities. examining how and under what conditions, ict access can be made usable and useful, to the range of users including excluded populations and communities and particularly to support local economic development, social justice and political empowerment using the internet.   the assumption throughout the n4c process and the preceding stages has been that, increased scale as well as quality of knowledge society inclusion, is a sensible goal for promoting development in a community, and locally situated industries. this places the endeavour in the digital divide discourse and associated arenas such as those that developed in relation to the world summit of the information society (wsis). the first stages of forming the dtn connectivity concept for the reindeer grazing areas were contemporary with the wsis (the sámi network connectivity project that run 2004-2006). as such, they fit with the work place development tradition of the n4c coordinator, where a typical problem starts from an issue of technical, physical or social work-place organization and the research team seeks to identify constructive solutions.   the coordinator of n4c was luleå university of technology (ltu). ltu is located in norrbotten county, sweden. its location by the coast of the gulf of bothnia is included in the winter grazing land of a group of mountain sámi reindeer grazing communities that represent one of the major forms of indigenous community organization in northern scandinavia.  ltu was founded in the early 1970’s, with the explicit purpose to become a motor for the development of the remote northern parts of sweden. this marked a new era. where it had earlier been held that a technical university needs a well developed environment to function, the hypothesis was now that through its presence the university would lead a remote region towards a more developed state. (lane 1983) the mandate of the university directed ltu toward three areas: mining, forestry and heavy industry, relating to aspects of the region’s large scale industrial regime where the state ownership of assets and production capacity was strong.   soon however, a parallel process eventually was established as an institution within the university for ergonomics, action research and participative design; the department of human work science (hws)[2]. along with co-operation with leading industry, a persistent stream has been the involvement with groups that seldom have direct representation where research agendas are set and new technology developed. one example is research about cleaners’ work situation and participative design projects with cleaners.[3] (see for instance kumar 2006, johansson & öhrling 2011) none the less, as described by udén (2000) the direction of ltu to the given, large scale male dominated fields, has restrained other sectors of the regional economy, from access to the university as an expected motor for economic advancement. udén noted that this is of specific concern in the sectors that involved the majority of the region’s women and locally owned small scale industry such as reindeer husbandry.   the background of n4c as community oriented process   the n4c process reflects explicit strategies. never the less, it was a coincidence that initiated the process leading to it. in the period 2001-2003 usa based internet architect avri doria, was a guest professor at luleå university of technology. she came to hear about representatives from a reindeer husbandry community talking about lacking ict access in the reindeer grazing areas. this led her to suggest a mobile dtn network for their purposes. reindeer husbandry exists around the arctic, with emphasis on eurasia. the reindeer herder community that got involved in dtn development is semi nomadic. with jokkmokk municipality as the main center they move their herds between locations up to 400 km apart during the yearly cycle. (beach 2001) the herders’ access to ict, such as cell phone coverage, is patchy. not even radio broadcasts reach several of the camps where the families reside during summer,. at the other end of the access situation, in the winter homes, the herders may even be able to choose between different service providers and means of delivery for internet access, telephony, television, radio broadcast and so forth. it could be claimed that this should be enough. however, the husbandry industry as such is not located at the permanent settings of the winter homes, thus this access cannot be utilized as an integrated part of the industry routines.   one of the hosts for the meeting where the need for ict was raised as a topic for common elaboration between the local community and ltu, was an affirmative action project for women in reindeer husbandry. the affirmative action was organized as a stand-alone project but on suggestion from the project workers, the gender studies environment at ltu ran an associated research effort as support. the co-operation aimed to strengthen women’s working conditions in reindeer husbandry and their position in the grazing communities. both social practices and the technology in use were scrutinized, in order to identify problems and associated potentials for more inclusive, effective and ergonomically suitable routines.   though not targeted as a main component in the original work plan of the affirmative action project, from the point of view of ltu. participation and information and communication technology (ict) was an important  theme. (udén 2010, 2011) shortly after doria launched the dtn idea, the two women reindeer herders who worked in affirmative action started the company tannak ab, to develop a system for distance tracking of reindeer. all along the founders of tannak were prominent among the local community members, actively working for the placement of dtn research and development to the jokkmokk area. (lindberg & udén 2010) shortly after their assessment that taking up doria’s suggestion in the plans for further development opened up good opportunities, this was affirmed by the grazing community board. the continuation took place through research was swedish nationally funded, eu interreg funded and finally the fp7 project n4c.   around the turn of the millennium herd tracking had become topical among the herders. in jokkmokk community only, at least one other herd tracking project was already running at the time when tannak ab was started. though animal tracking projects generally can be expected to be run by men and to mostly involve men in the development work, tannak ab as a company started by women, is not unique. in a grazing community in västerbotten county slightly south of the luleå-jokkmokk region, two other sámi women have run a project with research support, from their nearest research institution that is, umeå university. (bbc 2008)    the organization and partner group   an fp7 strep project is organized through the formation of a consortium of partners each of which signs a contract with the european commission (ec) that includes a work plan based on the previously submitted project application and a detailed budget for each partner. the contribution from the ec covers up to 75 per cent of the agreed costs for carrying out the partners’ respective tasks in the common work plan. the contacts between the consortium and the ec are channelled via the project coordinator which also has additional duties during the course of the project of continuously assessing progress and resource allocation. on an annual basis, the results and use of the project budget is reviewed by a group of independent reviewers assisted by the project’s main contact at the ec, the assigned project officer.   the n4c consortium included a mix of partners from eight countries. they were; three universities; luleå university of technology (as coordinator), universidad politécnica de madrid (upm), and trinity college dublin (tcd); one major industry partner: intel, via intel performance learning solutions ltd., ireland; six small to medium sized enterprises (smes): spanish albentia systems s.a., polish itti, slovenian meis storitve za okolje d.o.o, swedish tannak ab and power lake ab, and folly consulting ltd. of the united kingdom; and two research and development institutes, both in the sme size range: portuguese instituto pedro nunes (ipn) and norwegian northern research institute tromsö as.   additional to the contractual partners, an advisory board with predominantly non-european members contributed on a volunteer basis, with technical as well as social sciences expertise. all twelve project partners and staff had their own distinctive background leading to an interest and ability to work in the context of the future internet as designated by the fp7 fire initiative, and combining front line technical development with socio-economic goals. one example of the competence brought to the project by the partners is albentia systems s.a. this spanish sme develops and sells wimax equipment and solutions with a technical edge in networks for remote locations. in n4c, their role and interest was to further develop this edge in air-interface technologies, to continue developing their range of globally competitive products.   tcd on the other hand is a hub for dtn research in europe as is the dtn research group within the internet research task force (irtf). participation in the consortium from the jokkmokk community was built around the company tannak ab. among the work specified for tannak in the contract with eu via the n4c work plan, was the responsibility for informing the local community about n4c’s real life tests in their territory. ltu also employed their field test manager from the grazing community and tannak ab employed locals on temporary commissions as needed. in slovenia, meis d.o.o had a corresponding role, with the difference that more of its contacts were directed to professional and technically advanced environments, in line with meis’ profile in meteorological and environment surveillance.   the project work plan   the n4c work plan stretched over 36 months from may 2008 to april 2011. the total budget was five million euro and the work input corresponded to approximately 540 person months. it was organized in nine work packages (work package being the prescribed unit for work organization in fp7 projects). they were: project management, system architecture, pervasive applications, software for dtn and opportunistic networking, specialised hardware for dtn networking, air-interface technologies, system integration, tests and validation in two remote test beds, dissemination. tje bulk of efforts lay in establishing methods for electronics engineering, networking and computer science, along with standard routines such as simulation and laboratory tests. a smaller stream with business and deployment models was planned, which eventually became strategically more important and also more complex than had been foreseen. a seminar activity was to give space for topics of gender and minority concerns in technology development and the knowledge society context.   applications obviously are decisive for a new type of network becoming useful. the applications set to be developed in the n4c work plan were chosen on the basis of active interest from project participants and the expectation that results could be reached within the project duration: web caching, providing an analogue in the dtn environment to the current user experience of accessing web content in the legacy internet  e-mail –  seemingly a well suited application however, this posed certain challenges to dtn including naming and addressing issues hiker’s pda, envisioned as an assistant for services in communications challenged regions and a prime demonstrator for opportunistic routing mechanisms meteorological and environmental data capture for autonomous operation in communications and power-challenged environments at all seasons  animal tracking, designed for local relevance in the swedish test area that is, location of reindeer and other herds/cattle, and as a case for air-interface technologies exploration, in particular optimal physical layer strategies.   resources were also reserved for developing applications as a response to interaction with user communities in the areas of the two n4c test beds. the tests and validation work package gave the n4c work plan its character. two real life test beds embedded in users’ every-day situations were to be developed starting from the very first months of the project. this element was central in the project technical methodology, at the same time as they were expected to provide interfaces with the local communities, companies and authorities in the test areas. as opposed to a methodology where the supposedly completed result is tested in a final validation, iterations between development and field tests were to drive the n4c progress. figure 1 shows this central position in relation to technical and socio-economic goals.   figure 1. test beds were built in slovenia and sweden, for networking experimentation and tests of applications strategically chosen for relevance for remote areas and communications challenged communities. the figure was developed by elwyn davies, owner of n4c partner folly consulting ltd.   the plans foresaw six test cycles (three summer and three winter cycles in the three year project). the locations were decided already in the project work plan: the kočevje region in slovenia and sites connected to reindeer husbandry in swedish lapland, primarily in the jokkmokk district. both areas are mountainous, rich with forests and wild life and sparsely populated. at the same time they represent different climates, and their political history differs. while the swedish lapland site is the home of an indigenous sámi population, its local industry structure combines the traditional reindeer husbandry with forestry and hydro power production. kočevje is a formerly closed defence zone of former yugoslavia, which was depopulated as a result of world war two. this region, with its stunning landscape, has not yet recovered to its pre war economy. at this point, a number of villages and homesteads are literarily overgrown by vegetation. today, wildlife tourism is considered as an industry with economic potential, while forestry is well established and certain small scale farming has remained throughout the politicized eras.   due to the differences in herding and community practices between summer and winter in the two sites, the winter tests built on other premises than the summer tests. in the winter, tannak was host for tests on animal tracking applications, with reindeer of their own and family members’ herds, where they co-worked primarily with the universidad politécnica de madrid. in slovenia, the focus was on sensors and meteorological and environmental surveillance applications. a goal was that at least one of the test beds established during the project time would reach also a stable enough technical and managerial quality for being suggested as a component in the test bed federation that was planned by the ec fire unit.  in reality, especially the slovenian site ran some test set ups continuously, without making a distinction between summer and winter cycles.  (udén et al 2010, romanowski & božnar 2011)   figure 2. location of the two main test beds in n4c.     the instrumental results from n4c   overall, the range of results from n4c includes new technology for delivery of internet or internet-like services; integration and simulation platforms, and open source code for dtn; scientific and commercial results in the wimax air-interface technology area; contributions to the irtf experimental standards; services and applications for dtn including one commercially implemented already during the project time (environmental data capture); transfer of innovation to new eu funded projects; a dtn test bed being suggested for the fire federation, and finally; business plans and implementation models for communications challenged community settings. the business model development served not solely for commercialization and deployment of project outcomes. their instrumental use for the consortium lay also in explaining and packaging the technical results in a manner that corresponds to the language in the policies behind the fp7 ict programme, where goals of commercial competitiveness and growth play a vital role. a majority of the so called ‘foreground’, relate to dtn routing, functionality and service delivery. thus, a major result is the software developed in n4c and made publicly available. in sum, this software has proven functional;  for internal communication within a local delay tolerant network (dtn); in transferring traffic back and forth between such a local network and the global internet, and; in transferring traffic between one local dtn via the global internet to another local dtn.    albentia’s results in n4c counted unique implementations of wimax technology working in mesh connectivity, and with multiple antennas. the most appealing result was, according to the self assessment by the responsible engineer javier guillen, a field test in the south of spain. a pilot wimax network including a repeater was deployed in coordination with a spanish wisp operator to provide broadband access to real users. at the time of the n4c closure the installation had been working for more than six months and was still operating. (guillen 2011) n4c’s main contribution to the future internet is the improved prospect for network capacity and extending internet access into regions that constitute challenging scenarios. the field tests provided an opportunity for a widened scope in the development work and thus to the accomplishments, as compared to traditional laboratory work.   a number of issues needed to be worked concerning testing and even in extending the range of what needed to be tested. for instance, while in a standard urban european union setting it is a quite negligible issue that modern communication technologies are dependant on electrical power supply. however, setting up networks beyond the conventional infra structure and electrical grid, implies limited access to power as commodity. to handle this, the teams developed a range of approaches for power harvesting and power management in software and hardware set ups, including identifying potential problem areas, for instance where power saving strategies, are presently not available but should be researched.   one additional aspect of the instrumental results is the data gathered which has a value as input for further research. data logs and other data from the tests are being posted so that other research groups can analyse the results. there may be an interest, for instance, to use the real life test traces for evaluation of dtn simulators. this is because real life experience from dtn is limited.   thanks to an experienced leadership for the software development, a goal oriented plan could be developed that avoided the common mistake of producing code that after a project has ended is left without maintenance and without being accessible for further use. during the n4c project duration trinity college dublin kept a project code repository and this will remain maintained in connection to their continuing dtn research. by the project end they also transferred code to sourceforge which is a well known public repository. also publically accessible  is the list of code and explanations at the n4c web site http://www.n4c.eu/n4c-open-source-code.php. a sub group derived from n4c started a project in parallel to the n4c closing steps, for developing an e-learning course about how to make use of the project’s open software results (http://www.elearning-dtn.eu/index.html). the availability of the software produced was thought of as a central potential benefit of the n4c outcomes; it opens up for uses that are not limited to the participation of consortium members.   figure 3: example of a topology using three nokia810s as end-user nodes stationed in the remote camp staloluokta. this topology included four hotspots: one in a tent, two in helicopters and one on a mountain. the gateway to internet resides in the helicopter base station in ritsem. from näslund et al (2010)   examples make the technical accomplishments more concrete. figure 3 depicts one test topology, in this case for the hikers’ pda application tested in the jokkmokk mountain region. here, by agreement with the owner, helicopters regularly servicing a number of reindeer herder summer camps were used as ‘data mules’ transporting the network traffic to and from the internet, via the portable nodes mounted in the helicopters. all the hardware chosen for the n4c lapland scenario were small and low-cost computers, such as pdas and net-books. two different types of computers were tested in the iteration represented in figure 3: asus eee pc as gateway nodes and for end user dtn “kiosks” in the remote camp, and the nokia n810 as the hiker’s pda (end-user node).   using off-the-shelf equipment provides a time stamp to the tests, from the mere fact that the commercially available hardware comes and goes with time. but the hardware examples also gives, to those somewhat familiar with the technology, as end user or other, understanding of how a n4c real life test could be composed. the n4c architecture though, and overall the applications developed and tested in n4c, are independent from hardware choices. this goes also for air-interface technology such as frequency and protocols. wifi was much used for shorter distances, but this choice was a matter of overall practicality not dtn functionality. the camp serviced in the example in figure 3 was staloluokta, and the internet gateway was established in ritsem, which is the end point of the public road and electricity systems and the site of a permanent helicopter station. figure 4 shows a screen with a photo that was uploaded to facebook during the test in question.   figure 4. view from staloluokta transferred to facebook via dtn. the helicopter data mule leaves the landing platform. sent by karl johan grottum, norut, using the hiker’s pda and the nsim email service for dtn developed by samo grašič, ltu.   tannak were responsible for organizing communication with locals for the test occasions in sweden and, meis, which was also the work package leader, had the corresponding role for the tests in slovenia. among other involvement of tannak, their co-work with the team from universidad politécnica de madrid concerned development of animal tracking systems. real life tests were performed in the winter season as this is preferable for animal welfare and fits with herding practices. the results include scientific accomplishments such as simulation tools, and product development of reindeer/animal tracking systems.   figure 5. teams from tannak, upm and ltu during winter tests of respectively tannak’s and upm’s reindeer tracking systems in sweden 2011, for which tannak was host. the scene is a typical temporary reindeer corral.   figure 6 shows one of meis’ test topologies, where regular car transports were used for data transfer between geographically distributed nodes. this idea can be used for networking where other means are not available, too expensive or otherwise not feasible, and can be arranged so that rural community services or businesses get added incomes for driving that would take place in any case. figure 7 shows an example of data mule hardware instalment in a car. in accordance with technical preferences, requirements given by the natural conditions and the applications the teams worked with, dtn implementations (where applicable), air-interface, software and hardware choices varied between the teams. this richness in approaches enssured that n4c was assessed, by the fire expert group, as a project with true experimental approach, as opposed to the often recurring structure in ict projects where the aim is to prove the efficiency of one solution only. (udén & wamala 2011). figure 6: meis’ test topology in slovenia, summer tests 2009. the network flow is arranged via physical transportation of mobile nodes in car, on bicycles and carried walking.   figure 7: example of dtn hardware installed in a car. for regular use an installation would be made to cause less of disturbances in the use of the car. however, the photo offers a view of the type of equipment required for the meis solution.     contacts with potential future users, or representatives of such groups, and the identification of concrete use contexts were expected to take place in all work packages, to a large degree via the real life tests. one measure of the accomplishments of the project is thus the feedback from users. additional to the applications specified in the work plan, its design encouraged further initiatives along the way. among the most successful applications or services developed in n4c, there are examples of almost text book cases of user involvement in need-finding and design (sjursen 2009, romanowski & božnar 2011), see also (gurstein 2010).   the merits of the former methodology are well described in the literature. however, an example will be shown here, that evolved from virtually the other side of the scale that is, from initiatives taken by technicians, to serve their own purposes. a principal example is the nsim (not-so-instant-messenger) which was developed by then undergraduate student samo grašič prior to n4c, as a means to follow the propagation of dtn traffic in laboratory tests.  the procedure is straight-forward. one chooses a node from a list of known dtn nodes provided together with the network specifications, and sends a text message to it. (näslund et al 2010, grøttum et al 2011)   in the last year’s summer test it showed, through self-governed use that the herders in the staloluokta camp found nsim useful in planning the major reindeer gathering of the summer season. in retrospect it is possible to see that the straight-forward messaging service reflected a well documented communication need among reindeer herders. knowing when and where gatherings are to start is essential for each individual herder as they are crucial for his or her income generation and, the co-ordination of several herders is necessary if the effort is to succeed at all, for anyone. this has been commented on in classical reindeer husbandry studies from sámi communities by beach (2001) and pelto (1973).   assessing the n4c process in this sub case, the merit of the project design was that it offered an experimental arena for representatives of the intended end users. this in turn emphasises the preparations; the technology must be dependable enough to be mastered independently by users and, a degree of trust must be there for the locals to spend time with the system. for 2010, the ltu team had also prepared the possibility to send sms messages via the dtn link. from the users’ perspective this was an advantage as they only needed the telephone numbers as addresses, which they could retrieve from their mobile phones. there is no mobile phone coverage in staloluokta but, people bring their phones along and use them when they reach spots with coverage. the ltu team  reported from the test in staloluokta, one of the reindeer herders’ summer camps and also the site of a tourist station, which is run by a community association: number of dtn nodes: 18 test period: 53 days number of users: more than 60 (20 registered users, 40 guest) supporting for platforms: linux, embedded linux, ms windows and apple osx number of bundles sent out: 6107 bundles bundle delivery rate: 89% average bundle delivery delay: 2 days in sum, the users on site sent out: 1359 emails, 328 nsims, 167 sms   table 1. figures from the ltu team’s summer test in staloluokta 2009 (grašič 2011)     these figures included both local sámi families and hikers visiting the tourist cabin in staloluokta. jokkmokk municipality, counts about 5000 inhabitants and covers 18000 square kilometres, which gives a density of 0,3 inhabitants per square kilometre. a test group of 50 people, a figure which can appear quite small for ict end user application tests, thus translates to one per cent of the population.   community test beds as inclusion instruments   in the context of community informatics, there is a specific relevance in the real life tests in that they make geographical places explicit matters of interest in the research and development routines. the experience from n4c is that more tests and more test areas were eventually included in the project work than initially foreseen, and that one of the test teams returned to the lapland test bed immediately after n4c ended for one more round of testing. overall, the conclusion is that the technical teams found real life test routines being of value for the progress of their respective sub projects. considering the global lack of real life experience of dtn routing the gains in the dtn area may have emerged partly from a unique situation. yet, the interest in real life tests demonstrated by the air-interface technology team through increased and repeated winter tests in lapland, and the explicit assessment of the team leader santiago zazo(2011 a, b), confirms the intrinsic value of geographically located and community embedded testing as an element contributing to how this practice evolved in n4c.     though virtual networks and simulation will remain topical in computer science and network research, the n4c experience is not unique. in fp7 the living labs movement and smart cities initiative emphasise the material, and the socially and geographically located as productive in the creating of value for information and communication technology. obviously, there needs to be an element of prosperity creation for the european union at large in any fp7 project. see for instance the outline by euzen (2011). however, the parallel ambition to support specific local economic development can in these types of projects be explicitly stated.    in the fp7 fire context an ict test bed is: “a platform for experimentation for large development projects”. testbeds furthermore, “allow for rigorous, transparent and replicable testing of scientific theories, computational tools, and other new technologies.” (european commission 2011) among the fp7 ict projects, the concept of offering community driven networks as test beds, continued already shortly after n4c’s closure. confine – community networks tetbed for the future internet started on the 1st october 2011. though the scale is definitely larger than what n4c anticipated (in the final steps confine will be able to offer 20 000 nodes), the idea is comparable to that of n4c. advanced technology environments, work embedded in communities, and this combination is thought of as a possibility to contribute to the socio-economic sustainability of the community or communities. in the confine case, the potential starts in existing networks; one in each spain, austria and greece. by adding certain technical capacity, confine will boost them to a standard where they are useful for scientific experimentation. another quality shared, is the real life emphasis in the self assessment of its scientific platform. or, as explained in the official brochure:   “the confine testbed is being built starting from the federation of existing community ip networks which will be opened up to researchers and enabled for experimentation. /…/ this is done on realworld ip community networks that incorporate a wide variety of wired and wireless links, nodes, routing, applications and users.” (http://confine-project.eu/files/2011/10/confine-brochure_v3.pdf p.1)   at a conference in brussels, september 2011, the confine coordinator, leandro navarro stated his take on the relation between the research community and local communities. there are people out in europe, who strive to establish communications for their communities, he meant, and encouraged the participants to lend them a helping hand. (navarro 2011)   having the jokkmokk community in mind, fransson (2011) suggested a co-operative or ngo based on broad local participation as the best route for realization of the local potential for a long term test bed activity, possibly with the municipality and other public actors involved through suitable arrangements. she also proposed that a community network for the remote locations in the reindeer herders’ territories can be installed under the same premises, partially integrated with a test bed. concretely, a structure of this kind could include local companies and associations such as herding communities, the tourist service association run by herding community members, transports providers and other. in this light, both n4c and confine can, as fp7 projects, and the consortium mode of working that goes with the fp7 constitution be regarded as temporary ngos. fransson’s (2011) business model for the slovenian test bed features a privately owned solution. this suggestion has been developed together with the company that will maintain and run it, meis d.o.o. with the two owners being phds, meis d.o.o. intrinsically is a knowledge enterprise. above that they demonstrate a special identification with rural areas, for instance by deliberately having placed their office in a rural village (škofljica). thus, the owners create for themselves and their staff, knowledge economy job opportunities in the countryside. in n4c they have also showed how transportation of dtn data, with cars as data mules, can add value to regular transportation and travel to and from rural areas in europe. (romanowski & božnar 2011, milestone reports posted at http://www.n4c.eu/d-8.4.php)   a result with relevance for geographic communities is the test bed offer for the fire federation. as initially mentioned one of the n4c aims was that after the project had finished, at least one of the two test beds built for the purposes of the project should be offered to the federation of test beds which in turn is a goal of the fire initiative. for n4c fransson (2011) developed a three level model for test bed continuance after n4c: level 1: a research test bed platform on similar level as during the n4c fp7 project level 2: a small scale test bed for present research partners and for a few new clients level 3: a large scale federated test beds in collaboration with fire network   the term scale is here to be understood in the context of real life dtn, which is quite another case than the hundreds or thousands of nodes that are the expected level of what is typically meant by large scale facilities. in the n4c offer to the fire federation, the slovenian test bed was offered as level 3. the slovenian test bed will be run by the n4c partner meis, which is a company that already sells services that require a high level of technical and organizational precision. contacts were established by meis directly with the one lab consortium before the n4c ended, including plans for strategies to follow up on their desired outcomes.   the european commission's plans for federation require services where the technical and procedural specifications and performance are guaranteed by the test bed owner. furthermore, for a commercially viable test bed with the capacity to cut costs for the customer, as is the main idea behind the test bed concept (such as investments in equipment, staff training, travel) a stable and advanced technical and management standard is needed. the swedish test bed was set to continue as a level 1 test bed, with nearest probable development being towards level 2. shortly after n4c ended, in the summer of 2011, the team from trinity college dublin returned to follow up on their n4c work, repeating the routines with tannak assuring logistics and access to the community that is, again among the summer sites of the reindeer herders. this time the funding came from a new fp7 project, sail (scalable and adaptive internet solutions).   n4c from a gender studies point of view   the affirmative action origins and gender studies involvement in n4c ensures that the assessment of gender equality indicators that is obligatory for all fp7 projects takes place against an unusual background. starting the analysis from the standard “body count”, the n4c project performed overall slightly better than european average figures for women in leadership. it is not obvious how to compare different statistics but, for the so-called “eu 27” that is the overall measure for the whole eu, the gender distribution of leaders in business was 32 per cent women and 68per cent men. (european communities 2010) in n4c, three out of eight work package leaders were women and four of twelve steering committee representatives were women.  in a study by country however, major differences occur. among the swedish partners the research and development staff was both women and men, at about 50/50 distribution, while all steering committee members (representatives of the partners in the consortium’s decision organ) were women. (that is: three out of three.)   national figures can be misleading however, if put in the context of eu 27 comparisons. but also in a swedish context, considering that these women were in leadership positions as result of their influence over public innovations support funding, this is remarkable. in a detailed study of vinnväxt, a national swedish programme for innovation systems support, balkmar and nyberg (2006) found that the distribution between female and male project managers was 30/70 per cent and additionally that, men tended to have higher education level than women project leaders, which in the given context indicated that the latter had general management rather than strategic research and development functions. see also pettersson (2007) for a comparative study of the scandinavian policy texts and practices for support of innovation systems. the swedish representation in n4c differs from normal formations in swedish formations for innovation oriented projects that receive public funding support. at the other side of the scale was the irish participation. it did not include women as representatives in the consortium or among research and development staff.    the next step from counting numbers and shares of women is to assess what their participation meant in a socio-economic sense. the women who were involved in n4c started from positions integrated in male dominated high prestige branches; as reindeer herders, scientists and specialists. thus, to put it short, for the women as well as men involved, the gain from n4c was the support this type of project gives to remain in the front line. apparently a modest win, it should be considered however, that the step of, so to speak, upgrading, to the new roles and occuptions continuously emerging on the front line of occupational innovation, is known to be problematic in terms of gender equality; an instance where equality is fragile. (johansson & udén 2008, sandström et al 2010, udén 2011)   the other aspect of gender and technology studies, next to quantitative evaluation and the quest for inclusion and participation in technology development and innovation systems, is the matter of qualitative changes in technology production. feminism has criticized scientific practices as being distorted by one-eyed ideals. this critique argues that whereas the gentleman is regarded as the model of a knowing subject and male experience as template for knowledge structure, among other the female subject and women’s areas of responsibility are excluded from the scientific knowledge generation. feminist and gender studies furthermore find the view problematic, which is widely held among science and technology experts that, the research and development practices which they maintain are free from cultural markers, and that they represent pure knowledge in a world otherwise biased. this attitude is far from innocent, and it disguises hierarchies and closes doors to participation, for newcomers and people who represent ‘other’ experiences and identities. (braidotti 2006, keller 1985, 1992, haraway 2004, vehviläinen 1997) the question then, when speaking about n4c specifically, is whether targeting rural conditions and communications challenged communities, was something that translated into its scientific practice and technical paradigms. with inspiration from reindeer husbandry in northern scandinavia the n4c vision was to develop a nomadic segment for the composition of a ubiquitous future internet. like the nomads, in each moment it should fit into the situation and location, with very small demands on the environment to change for its sake. the place where the technology is employed should not need to change but rather the technology should enable people to be there; live, work, communicate, take care of their business, interact with the environment via sensor nodes and other observations.   a base line is that, a project of this kind at least allows actors who so wish, to formulate and express an inclusive and perhaps alternative practice. a chance is also created to acknowledge qualities among participants that work in the direction of inclusion. as initially stated, all involved brought with them a history and motive for promoting the type of aims emphasised by the n4c work plan and for instance the examples of the commercial enterprises albentia systems s.a and meis d.o.o are shortly described at different instances in the above.   the final step for evolvement of changes in scientific practices obviously goes with changes in internal acknowledgement such as models for reports, acceptance of papers in peer-reviewed journals, requirements for doctoral theses’ and other. fire’s emphasis on experimentation as method has in this respect functioned in a supportive direction. it has been possible to embrace plurality, interaction, and heterogeneity. reasonably, these qualities occur in any project of such a size that n4c has been but that nevertheless can be regarded as problematic within a paradigm where plurality is interpreted as failure or a sign of weakness.   the present interest within philosophy of science, in interaction with nature and matter as active in the creation of technology and scientific results has likewise supported the formulation of experiences in n4c. not least, this goes for experiences from the field tests and that stand forth in the contrasts between laboratory work and field work. in the field birds pick on encasings and bugs build their nests in them, dew falls on electronics, and gradually as a summer proceeds the mass of leaves can grow to hinder what was in spring line of sight. (udén et al 2009, udén & wamala 2011)    conclusions   with the closure of n4c as a research and development project, a circle of nine years is closed. this is, if counting from when avri doria heard about the herders who wanted ict access and, the reindeer herder’s community board had acknowledged the realization of her idea as a theme among their ongoing projects. with n4c the technical advancement was accomplished which doria’s architecture suggested, it has been verified that her idea can work. thus, the n4c closure corresponds to two time scales, one that stretches over three years and one of nine years that is, three times as long as the project as a single project unit.   combining front line technical research and development with socio-economic goals is a matter of several dimensions. the purpose of the above report has been to mirror this plurality. one conclusion, is that the n4c process has confirmed the initial hypotheses that co-operating with actors in rural areas and targeting specifically challenging use situations can function as a driver for high-tech development. we see this confirmed for instance by the fact that  project staff are, based on project outcomes, authors and co-authors of several contributions to the experimental standards for delay tolerant networking.   the implications for community development are twofold. if research teams can internally justify co-working with communities, communities can gain from well adapted technologies as well as access to high-tech and research funding that can be used for advancement of own knowledge society capacities. the rise of projects such as n4c and confine and the living labs movement, the smart cities initiative, within the eu seventh framework programme indicate that this view on co-operation potentials is spreading.  additionally, geographical communities can, based on the situation of their geographically defined location, find opportunities for being involved in information and communications technology research and development that potentially address their own needs at the same time as it provides incomes, diversification of job opportunities and contacts for further development. with the lapland community as an example, the project has in a direct sense meant support of local economic development in a remote european area through the incomes generated for the local project partner and to local suppliers, transportation and other service, in connection to real life testing. as there is interest among european partners to continue the contacts with the local actors, these effects may be sustained though the vulnerability of the situation is also clear, including the complexity of fund raising and the dependence on policies and their implementations at all levels from the local and regional and beyond. how to capitalize or make use of opportunities related to innovation systems and knowledge production is a matter of concern in political as well as scientific analysis, not least with the correlation to the ever present strivings for growing abilities to foresee consequences and direct actions. obviously, the details of how such opportunities can be realized will need to handle a number of conditions that take place on quite a mundane level. overall, in the n4c case, the europe level of co-operation was decisive for the progress both in terms of problem solving and for translating the progress to tangible outcomes.   in n4c, dtn, which was initially known only by few actors in the consortium, became mastered at the level of independent system integration by sme’s in northernmost, south and east europe. the portuguese partner ipn, and polish itti are within this group and they are of interest from a community informatics perspective because of their achievements in making the research results accessible for a wider audience with demos, summaries and instructions produced throughout the project, and foremost through the construction of now publicly available system integration and simulation tools. (cunha et al 2011).    meis on the other hand, provided input through their expert staff into the real life dtn test in lapland 2006 which formally, apart from the most prominent advisors, were a nordic matter solely. this company demonstrates yet another route to what can be referred to as knowledge society inclusion for rural areas. besides meetings between “experts” on the one hand and “communities” on the other and that is the deliberate choice of well educated experts to work with and from rural settings.   albentia s.a. represents another example of this type of strategy, as does the strategic orientation of the project manager, ltu. opposites are easily created in a discourse to that for instance, “rural” or “community” is set as opposite to “advanced” or “sophisticated”. yet, as illustrated in the n4c project, the categories at play are not necessarily that distinct when unravelling in the concrete. a successful employee at a global high-tech company may well have a rural background. as well it should be noted that with an affirmative action project as ticket in, the involvement of women was the factor that drew the high-tech effort together thus additionally blurring boundaries, and furthermore that, the advanced experimentation focus of the european commission fire initiative could be made to work for trying out the alternative scientific practice suggested in feminist science and technology studies.   assessing the process in somewhat more detail, among the contradictions that can be traced, emerge the different interpretations that can be made of potentials in open source contra property rights protected strategies. the majority of software developed in n4c has been so called open code, or implemented on platforms with similar possibilities for free of charge use for non-commercial purposes. this choice was already in place among key players prior to n4c and served double purposes, firstly to make the results available to broad spectrums of possible stake holders and secondly, to facilitate long term co-work among various research and development environments. it was important for the project idea as such, to produce software and instructions that, without limitations, would be available to rural populations and other stake holders, after the project end. on the other hand, tannak ab, a rurally based company the history of which is closely entwined with the n4c pre process, has maintained a strategy relying on protecting its technical advances and as much as possible applying terms of intellectual property rights. at a local level the owners are involved in competition with, among others, alternative aspiring herd tracking producers among their fellow reindeer herders who also aspire to develop a technically based business edge.   to finally conclude, the technical achievements--the real dtn topologies running autonomously for months demonstrate realistic designs of dtn as a means to establish networking in remote and rural areas, and generally for communications challenged communities. this technical result makes a difference in terms of community informatics in that the constraints for setting up networks have been pushed back a bit. the history of a successful network paradigm such as the internet itself, demonstrate how governance models and other organizational measures need go hand in hand with a technical advancement for it to be taken in use.   the merits of this singular effort are to have demonstrated a networking opportunity when uninterrupted short delay conditions can not be achieved in other ways or generally, when real time connectivity for some reason is not an option. the project also gave the opportunity to develop wimax solutions for remote areas that can be combined with dtn or work autonomously. when it comes to building ict networking capacities, technical advances cannot replace political decisions or civic initiatives. however, the physical capacity of data networks, and the conditions which they are able to confront and at what cost, provide as significant element of the decision background.   references   bbc (2008)   kingdom of the reindeer. tagging reindeer. bbc radio 4, published 08 dec 2008. retrieved on 16 december 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/worldonthemove/reports/kingdom-of-the-reindeer/   balkmar, dag & nyberg, ann-christin (2006) genusmedveten tillväxt och jämställd vinst. om genus och jämställdhet i ansökningar till vinnovas vinnväxt-program 2005 english: gender aware growth and equal winnings – about gender and gender equity in aplications to vinnväxt 2005). stockholm: centrum för genusstudier, stockholms universitet.   beach, hugh (2001). a year in lapland: guest of the reindeer herders. seattle and london: university of washington press   boznar, marija zlata (2011). n4c non scientific summary. in welcome to n4c www.n4c.eu . retrieved on 2011-12-29 from http://www.n4c.eu/n4c-info.php   braidotti, rosi. 2006. transpositions: on nomadic ethics. 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(2002) delay-tolerant network architecture: the evolving interplanetary internet, draft-irtf-ipnrg-arch-01.txt, internet draft.   cunha, antónio; feitas, paulo; coelho, luis; kumar, lokesh; romanowski, krzysztof: kiedrowski, lukasz; piascik, tomasz; jasinski, marcin (2011). evaluation and updates of the integration platform deliverable 7.4, fp7 ict-2 networking for communications challenged communities architecture, test beds and innovative alliances contract no: 223994. retrieved on 16 december 2011 from http://www.n4c.eu/deliverables.php   european communities (2010). report on equality between women and men 2010. directorate-general for employment, social affairs and equal opportunities   unit g1. luxembourg: office for official publications of the european communities. retrieved on 16 december 2011 from  http://ec.europa.eu/social/blobservlet?docid=4613&langid=en    euzen, jean-pierre (2011). living labs and smart cities in the eu innovation policy. presentation at 17th international conference on concurrent enterprising ice 2011.  aachen, june 21, 2011. retreived 16 december 2011 from http://www.ami-communities.eu/pub/bscw.cgi/d671888/ll%20e%20smart%20cities%20-%20in%20eu%20innovation%20policies.pdf   european commission (2011). european commission ict research in fp7: future internet research & experimentation. retrieved on 2011-12-29 from http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/fire/test-beds-projects_en.html    fransson, barbro (2011). business and governance models for dtn-based internet access: gender and cultural considerations and application cases using open source software and design principles for ict commons. licentiate thesis. luleå: luleå university of technology retrieved on 16 december 2011 from http://pure.ltu.se/portal/files/33845225/barbro_fransson.komplett.pdf   grasic, samo (2011). ltu's dtn tests facts in short. poster for the n4c final conference, 14 april 2011. retrieved on 16 december 2011 from http://wiki.n4c.eu/wiki/index.php/ltu_posters also via www.n4c.eu   guillen, javier (2011). input for the n4c final report. in: udén, maria (edt). project final report. deliverable to the european commission. networking for communications challenged communities fp7-ict contract no: 223994. (the report is in parts confidential)   gurstein, michael (2007). what is community informatics and why does it matter? corso (milan) italy: polimetrica s.a.s   gurstein, michael (2010). from a test bed to a living lab: some community informatics thoughts on community oriented science. in: gurstein’s community informatics. posted on july 24 2010. retrieved on 16 december 2011 from http://gurstein.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/from-a-test-bed-to-a-living-lab-some-community-informatics-thoughts-on-community-oriented-science/   grøttum, karl johan; sjursen, sirgurd; davies, elwyn (edts) (2011). prototypes   final version. deliverable 3.3, fp7 ict-2 networking for communications challenged communities architecture, test beds and innovative alliances contract no: 223994. retrieved on 16 december 2011 from http://www.n4c.eu/deliverables.php    haraway, donna jeanne (2004). the haraway reader. new york: routledge.   ho, melissa; fall, kevin (2004) delay tolerant networking for sensor networks. in: the first ieee conference on sensor and ad hoc communications and networks (secon 2004). retrieved on 2011-12-29 from http://www.dtnrg.org/docs/papers/secon.pdf   johansson, anders w.; udén, maria (2008). a critical perspective on equality and innovation assessment and measurement. proceedings of 2008 international council for small business world conference, june 22-25 2008, halifax, nova scotia, canada. electronic isbn 978-0-9736502-2-8. retrieved on 16 december 2011 from http://www.smu.ca/events/icsb/proceedings/chalo1f.html   johansson, kristina; öhrling, therese (2011).  arbetets identifiering: exempel från en livsmedelsbutik och en kommunal städenhet i förändring. presentation at the falf 2011 conference, luleå, sweden 10-15 june 2011. abstract in abrahamsson, kenneth (2011) falf 2011. stockholm: forskningsrådet för arbetsliv och socialvetenskap.   keller, evelyn fox (1985). reflections on gender and science. new haven and london: yale university press   keller, evelyn fox (1992). secrets of life, secrets of death: essays on language, gender and science. routledge: london & new york   kumar, rupesh (2006). ergonomic evaluation and design of tools in cleaning occupation. dissertation. luleå: luleå university of technology   lane, jan-erik (1983). creating the university of norrland: goals, structures and outcomes. umeå: umeå university   lindberg, malin & udén, maria (2010). women, reindeer herding and the internet: an innovative process in northern sweden. innovation: the european journal of social science research, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 169-177 navarro, leandro (2011) oral and digital presentation on community ip networks. presentation at the pardiso conference, brussels 7-9 september 2011, session 1st dialogue on platform for collective awareness and action. retrieved on 16 december 2011 from http://paradiso-fp7.eu/wp-content/plugins/alcyonis-event-agenda//files/community-ip-networks.pdf   näslund, john.; udén, maria; grøttum, karl johan.; sjursen, sigurd (2010). realizing delay tolerant networking as access enabler: services arising in new realms and the driving applications. in paul cunningham and miriam cunningham (eds) echallenges e-2010 conference proceedings, iimc international information management corporation   pelto, p. (1973). the snowmobile revolution: technology and social change in the arctic menlo park, ca: university of connecticut   pettersson, katarina (2007) men and male as the norm?a gender perspective on innovation policies in denmark, finland and sweden. stockholm: nordregio, 2007. retrieved on 16 december 2011 from http://www.nordregio.se/files/nrp2005-8r4.pdf   romanowski, krzysztof; božnar, marija zlata (edts) (2011). test results. deliverable 8.4, fp7 ict-2 networking for communications challenged communities architecture, test beds and innovative alliances contract no: 223994. retrieved on 16 december 2011 from http://www.n4c.eu/deliverables.php   sandström, ulf; wold, agnes; jordansson, birgitta; ohlsson, björn; smedberg, åsa (2010). hans excellens: om miljardsatsningarna på starka forskningsmiljöer. report from delegationen för jämställdhet i högskolan. stockholm: högskoleverket/ the swedish national agency for higher education. retrieved on 16 december 2011 from http://www.hsv.se/download/18.328ff76512e968468bc80003456/dj-satsningar-starka-forskningsmiljoer.pdf    sjursen, sigurd; grottum, karl-johan; theodorsen, arnewilhelm; grašič, boštjan; boznar, marija zlata; mlakar, primož; davies, elwyn; näslund, john; udén, maria; (2009). functional specification. version 1.5.  deliverable 3.1, fp7 ict-2 networking for communications challenged communities architecture, test beds and innovative alliances contract no: 223994. retrieved on 16 december 2011 from http://www.n4c.eu/deliverables.php    udén, maria (2000). tekniskt sett av kvinnor. (english: women technically speaking) doctoral thesis 2000:05. luleå: luleå university of technology   udén, maria (2011). women, the knowledge society and ict access in the reindeer grazing areas. in: krings, b-j (edt) 2011 brain drain or brain gain? changes of work in knowledge-based societies, berlin: edition sigma, pp 285-314   udén, maria; grašič, samo; grašič, boštjan; näslund, john; božnar, marija zlata (2009). test bed creation: methodological report. deliverable 8.3, fp7 ict-2 networking for communications challenged communities architecture, test beds and innovative alliances contract no: 223994. retrieved on 16 december 2011 from http://www.n4c.eu/deliverables.php    udén, maria; wamala, caroline (2011). horizontal project issues. seminar conclusion. deliverable 2.4.2 to the european commission. networking for communications challenged communities fp7-ict contract no: 223994. retrieved on 16 december 2011 from http://www.n4c.eu/deliverables.php     vehviläinen, marja (1997) gender, expertise and information technology. doctoral thesis a-1997-1, tammerfors:tammerfors university   zazo, santiago (2011 a). input for the n4c final report. in: udén, maria (edt). project final report. deliverable to the european commission. networking for communications challenged communities fp7-ict contract no: 223994. (the report is in parts confidential)   zazo, santiago (2011 b). “professor zazo says about the work process…” retrieved 16 december 2011 from http://www.n4c.eu/the-n4c-way-of-working.php       [1] the different deliverables to the european commission describe this work. they are available through www.n4c.eu or from the author on address luleå university of technology, s-97187 luleå, sweden www.ltu.se a small number of deliverables contain information not open to the public and cannot be distributed. [2] the hws department has recently, as result of overall reorganization at ltu formed a larger unit titled business administration, technology and society. [3] in norrbotten, cleaning is a job identified with women. this is based on a tradition of cleaning as a prolongation of women’s duties in a home. at a day time cleaning operation such as in school premises, the work force is heavily dominated by women.     reflective evaluation of civil society development: a case study of rlabs cape town, south africa julia wills, university of southampton, uk. marlon parker, rlabs, south africa. gary wills, university of southampton, uk. email: gbw@ecs.soton.ac.uk introduction this project seeks to investigate the processes that led to a successful grass roots civil society development programme. reflective analysis of rlabs community situated in cape town (see section 2 and 3) will define the pre-requisites for community development, using a grass roots development model. this report is a pilot study to develop an interim evaluation method for community development programmes. at a time when grass roots development has become central to development project delivery for funding agencies, it is necessary to develop an evaluation process that can identify good practice in sustainable development projects (hardi & adan 1997). the two main theories of community development are set out in the section 4, where the reasons for rlabs being chosen for this pilot study are given. as group formation is a flexible dynamic activity, evaluation of activity in development is difficult due to the complexity of actions that occur at the time. also in the early stages of development action and reaction occur at a great rate. there is a growing connectivity between individuals and groups who may be connected by other networks and brought together for a new purpose. a retrospective view of the process can identify patterns that are mixed in the immediacy of the movement (freeman 1999). a reflective evaluation process utilising ethnographical research methods was chosen as the research method. the method is described in full in section 5 'methodology of reflective analysis'. the pilot study identified fifteen people who were present at the foundation of the rlabs project. analysis of these participants' recollection identified factors that the participants thought were important to the success of a civil society development. these findings described in section 6, are discussed in section 7 in reference to development theory and practice, with emphasis on the importance of sustainable action in regards to commitment, time, ethos of a grouping and economic factors. the conclusion in section 8 reflects on the importance of key factors identified; the limitation of the study and the importance of an ethnographical methodology for intra and inter subject analysis of development programmes. it offers some operational signposts for civil society building. athlone ward: cape town flats athlone on the cape flats was designated a coloured area under the south african apartheid system and people were forcibly removed to this sandy, illequipped district away from the centre of cape town, (western 1981). the area also has a reputation as a deprived area with a drug gang culture, unemployment and a high crime rate (orgeerson 2012). rlabs: a community development success rlabs is an example of innovation of new technology, particularly mobile technology, from a poor community for its own use. heeks's classifies this type of ict development as 'per-poor innovation' (heeks 2008). rlabs developed from operating community help-lines using its own mxit platform technology in 2008, to become a living lab with business incubator. by 2014, rlabs had established its community model in twenty one different countries, and was running its own academy in cape town, (issuing certificates which are recognised as a valid qualification), had developed a social enterprise and leadership programme and was acting as an incubator for new businesses. rlabs is self-supporting; it sells its it services to numerous local, national and international agencies. at the end of 2014, the achievements of rlabs included: college and university scholarships      592 businesses inspired and supported      891 people employed and economically empowered      23,402 free academy training places      31,210 jobs created and filled      42,315i business generation through the incubator has been particularly innovative. new business ideas in 2014 include: virtual employment provides work experience for skilled labour in the townships of cape town. educycle using recycling in exchange for school uniforms and stationery. kmg housing providing access to alternative housing for those who are homeless. ignite helping school children to discover their passions and talents. youthup addressing the challenge of school dropouts. weguide using technology and legal advice to solve women abuse cases.ii in summary, by 2014 rlabs had managed to achieve sustainable growth in a poor environment: the project had a fully-fledged academy and had developed a global brand. the research question is, can we identify what was important to the sustainability and success of the rlabs project? to investigate the question fully, it was necessary to place rlabs in context in terms of community development theories. community development theories community development begins with the concept of social groupings. sociological investigation into development has historically centred on groups that are considered fixed distinct entities in time and space. describing how a community is constructed from such groupings is no easy task. in many ways the easiest explanation of a community is that of people linked in a physical space, forming a neighbourhood; a place of meeting. however, the terms community and neighbourhood are not synonyms. concepts of community have moved from locations to groups built around people in contact with each other, (tonnies, 2001, sichling, 2008, gurstein, 2008). there are two generic processes that enable communities to develop. these are that they are formed as part of either a civic programme, or a civil model of society. these two models are discussed below. the civil model of society is the one that will be pursued further in this study. community development in civic society all discussions about civic society involve co-operation between three social elements, namely individuals, a national state and gatherings that happen inside a physical space, (howell & pearce 2001). in a civic society model, development of communities is led from a central body external to the locality and focused through established groups; for example non-government organisations that are approved by the central body (easterly 2006). development is described in terms of service delivery and provision of utilities. the aim of development is to fulfil national or international criteria for development, e.g. for example health targets, educational targets or environmental targets, (easterly 2006). theories of development have emphasised the importance of community participatory programmes for successful implementation of targets, but the direction and aims of development are set by planners outside of the community (unwin, 2009, chambers, 1994, banks, 2010), this model of community development may be labelled 'the project implementation model', see figure 1: models of community development. figure 1: models of community development community development in civil society through structural theory civil development is defined by the term 'civitas' which is latin for public space, (harris 2003). there is an element of free association of individuals meeting around a common interest. a working definition has been given as, 'civil society meant a realm of social life market exchanges charitable groups, clubs and voluntary associations, independent churches and publishing houses institutionally separated from territorial state institutions' (keane, 2009: online). people gathering together for a common purpose have been a feature of communities from the time of 'kin, external kin, tribes and clans', (deakin, 2001: p 59). the theoretical account of civil society began in the scottish enlightenment period, particularly with fergusson's 'an essay on civil society' (harris, 2003, p.22). this thesis was produced at a time in scottish history when the practice of convening in small groups against the civic state was gaining legitimacy and the concept that people had the right to live under a rule devised by their own groups' ethos was becoming evident. following the liberal political strand from the enlightenment, the idea of civil society as, 'an inclusive associational ecosystem matched by a strong and democratic state in which a multiplicity of independent public spheres enable equal participation in setting the roles of the game' (edwards, 2004, p 94), had become a working model for setting up democratic sovereign states as set out in the philosophical works of karl popper and habermas (stokes 2009), and also for the formation of societies that can deliver functional outcomes (world bank)iii . community development in civil societythrough bottom up group formation community development from the activity of its individuals had been described as group emergence, a concept made popular by johnson in 2001 with the publication of his seminal work of bottom up group formation (johnson 2001) focusing around common aims and interests, johnson stated that people naturally group in a way that will create collective activity interest groups. following this model of community development, sociologists have become increasingly interested in the way that individuals link with others and create associations. an individual's journey through their associations can be described as 'flows'. relationships can form with various others, which may or may not achieve an established group able to act in a sustainable manner. modern sociologists investigating flows that form society groupings include bauman, (1990, 2000), and urry, (2000). john urry, in his work 'sociology beyond societies: mobility's for the twenty first century', views movement as key to community development. it is natural for people to meet, merge and divide. urry states that 'development of a civil society is based upon auto mobility', (urry 2000, p189-190). bottom up community development has different features from centralised community planned development. there is a community based grouping that forms a non-government organisation to achieve self-determined aims and projects. this framework is self-sustaining as it is fluid and flexible to the changing needs and personnel in the community. thus, the community development is under the direction of its citizens. the different models of community development are set out in figure 1: models of community development. the freedom to associate, to make links and to make self-determined decisions is central to development of civil society, as set out in sens' seminal work 'development as freedom' (sen 2001). while there has not been a concentration on personal capacities in this study, certain elements in its framework mirror the capability approach to community informatics as set out by stillman & denison 2014. these include an emphasis on association, longitudinal studies, the use of social mapping and a concentration on 'theories of the middle-range, which include theories of design and action that give explicit prescriptions for construction of an artefact' (p202). rather than study the growth of personal capabilities in individuals, this research looked at how people related together to increase community resources to enable the growth of personal capabilities in a geographical area. development of community groups from the association model can therefore be seen as a sub-section of the capability approach. examples of bottom up community development is it possible to find examples of bottom up community development? this section sets out four examples of civil society development, historically, internationally, recent and pending. american states in history an historical example of community development using civil government is in the foundation of some of the initial states in america in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. the spirit of america, written in 1910 by van dyke, explained the foundational ethos of american pioneers as one of social co-operation where small groups wanted to be self-organising (van dyke 1910). the rules of social engagement were set by the founding members (garraty 1991). an example of such a group would be the quakers who settled in pennsylvania. the growth of working class education in the industrial revolution a second example of grass roots development of civil society is the social movement in england in the nineteenth century that led to the formation of the mechanic schools and the start of technical education for socially excluded individuals. at a time when the new industrial towns were excluded from parliamentary representation and the growing non-conformist industrialists were barred from universities and the formal structure of social advance, the only hope for education being available to a wider audience was for the new towns to organise education themselves. the growth of civil society at this time occurred when, 'interest and cause groups either directly or indirectly challenged the english male dominated traditionalist anglican and aristocratic society' (harrision, 2003: p79). this education movement was achieved by people organising technical education through night schools in england and has been extensively researched by dr dick evans in 'a short history of technical education' (evans 2009). in this web based publication, evans, who is an international and national consultant on further education has written a valuable analysis of how and why further education developed in britain in the above time period. in 'the dissenting academies, the mechanics' institutions and working men's colleges', evans describes the main actors and self-help groups that enabled the development of training for working class people from the year 1800 onwards. by 1850 there were over seven hundred independent educational places that followed the technical education model. they offered a number of services, including libraries, training, publications of new scientific societies and news rooms. other movements were the working men's' colleges. the sheffield peoples college is described as an example of a successful college which became part of the social fabric. however, there are weaknesses in using an historical example to describe the process of community development. written records may allow us to identify actors and links to organisations in the community development process; however the dynamics of flow are not easily recordable without the actors' oral stories. big local a recent example of grass roots civil society development is the uk lottery funded 'big local'. beginning in 2009, the big local programme is situated in 150 deprived areas in england. big local's four outcomes are: communities are better able to identify local needs and take action in response to them. people have increased skills and confidence, so that they continue to identify and respond to needs in the future. the community makes a difference to the needs it prioritises. people feel that their area is an even better place to live.iv there are, by 2014 only a small number of areas that have produced a working committee and are moving into their second year. there may be mileage for evaluation of this programme at a management level but, at the grass roots there is still a storming and forming mentality rather than an evidenced sustainability of group formation. it was felt therefore that big local at a geographical level was not at a stage for reflective analysis of factors of sustainability. rlabs south africa a fourth and established example of communities development using civil society is rlabs in cape town, south africa. in 2008 south african nation television ran its breakfast programme from an area in cape town named athlone flats. they were interviewing a number of youths who were involved in the pioneering of a new technology which enabled them to operate a community drug and advisory help line via mxit, a text platform. within two days, when the system went live, the help-line took hundreds of calls from cape town and beyond. the rlabs website states that the vision of rlabs is 'to impact empower and reconstruct local and global communities through innovation.' rlabs values are summarised as: a movement for people, of hope, change, opportunity, learning, innovation and a social revolution. rlabs was chosen as a good vehicle to research community development of civil society as it qualifies as a grass roots innovation, it has shown sustainability and a growth mode (parker et al. 2013). also, most of the innovators in the community were still present in the community in 2013. methodology of reflective analysis the aim of this paper, as noted above, is to reflect and analyse how a sustainable community developed following a grass roots development model. the question we were asking of the actors was: "how did they achieve the formation of a civil society?" the research method chosen to answer this question is a phenomenological reflective analysis of narratives from the community members. phenomenology is a philosophy that is defined as '"phenomena": appearances of things, or things as they appear in our experience, or the ways we experience things, thus the meanings things have in our experience' (smith 2013). based on the work of edmund husserl, the philosophy is suggestive of david hume's thought in the eighteenth century of life lived through the senses. phenomenology suggests that rather than there being an absolute truth, as people record an event or experience it in many different ways through their senses, truth is best perceived through in-depth observation or narration of a situation. phenomenology suggests that to get an explanation of any communal event, an accurate account is possible by asking many actors and distilling all the subjective perspectives to synthesise commonalities to collective behaviour, (sokolowski 2000). behaviour is not seen as a purely a decision of the individual but affected by surrounding people (embree 2002). dynamic action is achieved by many people responding to each other's ideas, concepts and assets. therefore by asking, in this case the actors of rlabs to reflect back on how they experienced the rlabs journey, it would be possible to analyse their narratives and synthesise commonalities to the whole group recollections, thus giving themes of commonality of experience (bloor & wood 2006). furthermore, by placing the narratives in chronological order, the identification of common themes for different years will grant us an insight into how the rlabs community emerged, changed and matured through the development process. phenomenological reflective analysis is illustrated in figure 2: method of synthesis in phenomenological research. figure 2: method of synthesis in phenomenological research the research process: time-lines and narratives the research design was in three stages. first, the gathering of data: this section included the identification of participants through snowball sampling methodology, an ice breaking exercise of asking personal questions of their role in rlabs and the recording of their narratives of rlabs? development in the form of an a3 visual aid time-line during unstructured interviews. the use of a blank time-line acted as a visual aid which allowed the participants to have an active role in recording their story and acted as a memory aid. in the interviewing process, participants were able to give a fuller account by using arrows to link events to people or events in the past. an example of this process is demonstrated in figure 3: completed timeline. the second stage was when the issues of development identified in the time-lines were used for initial formation of 'nodes' of interest to the developmental process. these nodes were recorded in a qualitative software program named nvivo,(qsr 2010). the third stage was when the unstructured interviews were analyzed. the conversations were analyzed through content analysis using the above software which enabled cross-referencing across the participants to create an aggregation of interests and to allow measurement of which nodes, now classed as pre-requisites for civil society development, were important in each year of the development of rlabs. identification of participants snowball sampling the identification of participants for the study required thought and the ability to dig beneath the official rlabs story. the aim was to investigate the development of rlabs; therefore it was looking back in history. the research was looking behind the written account of the rlabs project. there was no directory of people who had helped in the project at that stage; therefore the sampling method chosen was snowball sampling. this is a method where: "the identification of an initial subject is used to provide the names of other actors. these actors may themselves open possibilities for an expanding web of contact and inquiry... the strategy has been utilized primarily as a response to overcome the problems associated with understanding and sampling concealed populations"(atkinson & flink 2004). figure 3: completed timeline the first point of entry to the community was the technological champion and the manager of the rlabs project identified as fran and gray. they introduced the workers of rlabs who had become known as the 'core cluster', as they were the original group of people around which rlabs developed. these were named, bee, kim and lee and they introduced family members hay and abe in the process. however the question still remained: "could we identify actors further back in the process?" by asking people in athlone, it became apparent that people had met before rlabs, particularly linked to impact direct ministries (idm), a non-government service provider in the area. idm started as a physical entity in the area in 2005 and had acted as a physical space for community development. these people were involved in rlabs at the beginning and were identified as chris and jay, the parents of gray. the sampling therefore snowballed to include the recent manager of idm and current workers (lou and nat). jay also identified other people who had been associated with the idm project and they were added to the list of participants. including the link to idm, the time period for the development of rlabs was set back to 2000 when community work in athlone started. the timeline from 2000 was divided into three periods: pre-athlone, idm and rlabs, with the whole project being named impactathlone. the sampling network is shown in figure 4; snowball sampling network of athlone community project. figure 4: snowball sampling network of athlone community project findings the identification of key people and events in the rlabs story was recorded in fifteen time-lines. twenty five key words were taken from the time-lines, written with the participants. word tags of the most popular words from each interview were produced using nvivo software. 34 key words/phrases were identified. these words/phrases are shown in table 1: key words identified by the participants as key factors in community development. the text that had been described was then divided according to the year to which they related. rlabs registered in 2008, but the time-lines produced extended back to 2000. the key words were distilled into a total of thirty one factors that were important to the developmental process. these important words were further classified into three areas: events in the community development process from 2000-2008 (seven key events). key people and the products that they developed in athlone (eleven key services and economic products and five key people) external agencies' involvement with athlone development process (ten external agencies). table 1: key words identified by the participants as key factors in community development events in the community according to the participants, the story of athlone community development leading to the formation of the rlabs project began in 2000 with the idea of offering support to the athlone community and the idea of a training group who would voluntary attend a residential course for a year. this led to the development of the impact direct ministries, an organisation aimed at delivering services to the athlone community, which formed in 2002. a major breakthrough in 2005 was the renting of a space in an enterprise complex on the outskirts of athlone. this space allowed the training group to operate and enabled an increase in voluntary work, with the beginning of a women's' core team offering to cook, clean and deliver services to the area. a key social event in athlone was the outbreak of the 'tik' (crystal meths) explosion. a feature of this addictive drug was an increase in anti-social behaviour by youth in the area. drug addicts came to idm for rehabilitation, in 2007, with the foundation of a permanent 'core' group of men who became resident on the premises. the rehabilitation of the core group led to an increase in services (see below) and an increase in activity in the centre. a summary of events is set out in table 2: the analysis of main events identified by collective interviews. table 2: the analysis of main events identified by collective interviews thus according to the numbers in table 2, the key year for the development of rlabs was 2007, before the rlabs project was officially launched. the challenge in 2007 was to find occupation for the core group. the founder of idm asked for help from a local resident who had become a lecturer at a local college ['can you do something with these guys?'], (chris and fran). fran became the technological champion linking the core group to an educational establishment and developing the technology of a help line, which was operated by the core group. key people and products in development the second stage of analysis was to identify actors who were important in the development of the impact centre from 2000 to 2007. five people were identified by the participants. the founders: most people spoke of 'the founders', who were the local pastor and his wife hereby named chris and jay. they formed the initial networking structure that led to the impact building in 2005 and also sponsored community volunteers on training courses to equip them in community action. many of these training courses were given free by international teams donating their skills and time to impact. courses included basic it skills and face to face counselling skills. these skills proved the basis for community development (see below). the community champion. the founders stated that they could not have achieved the project without the impact champion (lou), member of the local community who was temporarily out of work. after being a factory worker lou worked voluntarily at the centre, expecting to clean and cook for the men's team. however lou provided a link to the community. the founders said that ['when they need speak to someone about something, lou's name came up; lou is the most important person.']. with training, lou is today manager of idm and leads rape counselling for the area, face to face counselling, on line counselling, and the senior and wellness programme of impact. an external mentor. after running a training programme for many years in uk, eli relocated to cape town to help establish a mentoring programme for youth in the community. this group became the first training group. eli also linked the project with groups in uk who volunteered their skills and time to idm. courses included basic it skills and face to face counselling skills. a voluntary office manager, gray, was in post for most of the period. this person acted as co-ordinator of services, providers and government agencies. this grew into a key role to the production of the rlabs agencies through idm becoming a founder member of the south african living labs initiative lead by finnish academics finland academics and the south african government. these five people linked directly to the formation of two important social groupings, the training groups and the women of idm. the relationships between people and groups are demonstrated in chart 1: people and groups found in analysis. chart 1: people and groups found in analysis other factors internal to athlone and key for community development from 2001 to 2007 were economic factors, internet training, mentoring and the use of technology. the economic factors included people with their own business and sustainability programmes aimed to make the project self-financing. skills and services identified in analysis are shown in table 3 below. table 3: skills and services identified in analysis (2000-2007) external agencies contextually, idm worked with other organisations in the development process. these organisations can be divided into local, national and international links. working with other agencies on the ground was important to idm in 2001 and 2005 when change happened in the project. the essential space occupied by idm was with other church organisations. working closely with the social services and schools gave valuable long term links to the development of community services. links to a local college were important in 2007 because it was the employer of the technology champion and offered facilities to the education of the second core group. national agencies became important with the development of the south africa living lab project in 2005. international links, were important in 2001 with international church networking and also in 2006 with international academic interests helping with the technology development. also an international academic was important in the mentoring of the technological champion and the core men's group. there was overlap between religious organisations and academic institutions. the key link to communication networks in tv, and dispersing the idm story through the internet in 2007 enabled rlabs to become known to a television station; key to development in 2008, see table 4: key organisations identified in analysis. table 4: key organisations identified in analysis (2001-2007) discussion by reflecting on the findings as described in section 4, it was possible to identity from the participants several key factors that were pertinent to the question of sustainable community development. this section discusses the time frame of the development project, identified pre-requisites for community development, the ethos of the people in the development programme and the micro economic model that they used when preparing for sustainable financial returns the community as a whole. looking at key years: 2001, 2005 and 2008 after the identification of key factors in civil development, it is possible to look in depth at the years 2001 when impact first began, 2005 when impact became a physical presence in the community and formed the first two groups and 2007, the year before rlabs technology not for profit organisation was established, with a for profit business as a financial resource. in 2001 four key people came together, and planned the first youth training programme group. they also began to deliver services to the area. in 2005 the key event was the renting of the space for idm in athlone and the addition of the social champion. the formation of the first men's group and women's group saw a doubling of services and skills in the community. in two years, the impetus had led to the development of many new services and skills developed through voluntary international organisations involvement. the social tension of the tik explosion, led to the formation of the 'core' men's group and its intensive training programme with mentoring at its heart. by 2008, when rlabs became a social entity as a not for profit organisation, linked to the south african living lab action research project and a for profit business plan, led by the technological champion, the main features for community development had already taken place. these main factors are shown in chart 2: a chronological demonstration of sustainable development factors. chart 2: a chronological demonstration of sustainable development factors the link between the community civil development project of impact and the sustainability of the rlabs was highlighted by the participants. their views on the importance of the past work in impact are reported in full below. 'it was not as if they were a separate group, they were still involved with you, and yes they made time for us here... what we realised is that the things we were doing under impact which were the foundational stuff, which we couldn't have just rlabs or what we were doing now, without they basis or without that linkage or without that partnership.... impact always takes care of the softer skills because that is what they are strong at … so what we have found is as long as you have a strong community partner that is very key like we have impact and we would not have survived if we had not had impact..] [so we still have that partnership we can't lose that partnership if we lose that partnership we cannot do rlabs … for us we know that rlabs was birthed out of impact direct and impact direct was basically an organisation that already has a foothold in the community in bridgetown and it was a community organisation that people already trusted and that and it was easy for rlabs to be to flourish because it came out of impact an organisation that the community really trusted.... we are still very much connected up to today we are still connected because lots get asked of us and those people are told, these are the mothers the mothers of the centre and must be trusted, must be valued, must be respected...'(various respondents). social pre-requisites for community development the foundation of a civil society of rlabs in cape town was investigated using ethnography as a research tool. the following elements have been identified: i. time an extended preparation period from 2001, where the actors internal and external to cape town, were in an informal loose grouping, linked by a common interest in mentoring young people and offering services to the athlone community. people and organisations key to the formation of rlabs, for example the technological champion, the south african living lab group, academic institutions come in 2008: by which time a stable community was place. ii. organisations the beginning of making communication links in the community working with established organisations, for example, schools, external religious organisations and social services. free training of idm staff, either by external volunteers or sponsorship lead to work with seniors and face to face counselling, this gave idm a trusted place in the community. iii. people the leadership group was committed and permanent, although their roles changed over time. each had their own extensive communication links to key people and organisations iv. physical space a key turning point was the renting of an impact direct ministries space in 2005. having the building led to the establishment of the first men's mentoring group. 'people started walking in and all in all, that we spent many, many hours for myself i would leave three or four times a week not earlier twelve or one o'clock in the morning. more and more people got to hear of the help we were offering people so more and more people come families would come the police would bring people and that increased' [chris]. the above elements for civil society development echo those described by maton & salem 1995, who described people taking multiple roles, mentoring each other, committed leadership and a belief setting as central to civil development. the following of a policy to increase people capabilities, skills and community assets, rather than a need approach, fits in with appreciating assets, in which personal empowerment is key to development (o'leary et al. 2011). the length of time for development and the building of community links to people and organisations was highlighted as key to capacity building (zakoes r c, guckenburg 2007). this article also mentions that a 'fuzzy' organisational pattern at the beginning gives flexibility to the development process and that the foundation of the lead agency should be secondary to the gathering of people, organisations and belief system. belief system the main actors from the community, academia and outside agencies were linked together by a common ethos, in this case an overtly religious belief and life style. the complexity at the heart of civil society development is to describe the mortar that holds the group together. is it possible to identify what caused the members to give time, energy and money to a process, where personal returns are postponed, and not secure? the importance of the belief in the pertinacity of individuals as agencies of their own destiny was at the heart of historical civil society. the formation of civil society needs a belief system that is based on ethical humanistic features in which the needs of the individual are fulfilled through social processes. however group formation does not have to be for the social good. there is an argument that gangs and community destructive groups use similar psychological processes to build their groups (alleyne & wood 2000). the importance of a deeper belief system in terms of religion in development has been highlighted in academic works (ahu sandal, 2011; lunn, 2009; tavory & goodman, 2009; thackara & abraham, 2009; alsop & heinsohn, 2005; haynes, 2005; moss, 1999). for the people of athlone, their christian religion and the respect of the 'pastors' is a deep culturally held belief in the area. the last survey of religious association in south africa in 2001 showed that in cape town there was a homogenised view of religious belief that gave idm access to the athlone community. see chart 3: religious affiliation cape town 2001. chart 3: religious affiliation cape town 2001 south african government statistics it is also important to note that the faith community reached to a national and international religious network that impact direct ministries was able to link with, enabling the pre-group access to free training, and personal and financial resources essential for this community development. most of this is not recorded in a written record, but only known through a verbal account of the journey to rlabs. economic system from past experience the founder recalled that 'i began to see the clear link between the community and business and community upliftment was not going to come through charity, it had to come through as well as a social impact there had to be a business economic impact, so the social and economic links that was very clear' [chris] an emphasis on individual asset building, as we have seen was important to the impact direct ministries development. the link to training and economic development was also identified in an early part of the process. however it is important to distinguish this model of economic development from macro-economic corporate development as seen in western liberal developed countries. at the beginning, community economics was based on the supply question 'what do you have?' people bartered time, energy, mobile phones and domestic tasks for a shared communal life style in which they shared food, shelter, opportunities, transport and equipment including free access software. money as an essential ingredient was not central to the group's development, and where it was needed it was given sacrificially by people involved in the project. rather than buying in services for debt counselling, the aim was to train people in the community to a registered level where they would get an income from the service and reinvest capital in the community. the idea that they could market the services at rlabs came from one of the reconstructed men's group who realised customers would pay for their services. this model of economics is becoming known as compassionate capitalism and is of growing influence in developing countries. in asia society it was described as the 'way of the future' by asher hasan, leader of a non-profit social enterprise arc finance limited (mawjee 2010). for example, payment to volunteers was in the building of their individual capacities and a communal life style, rather than a financial contract. it appears from the academic literature that compassionate capitalism can be described from two points of view; first, changing the traditional corporate business model to think about how they value their workers, environment and their communities (murray & fortinberry 2013). second, compassionate capitalism is being seen as a vehicle to build new communities using social entrepreneurship. in 'the new pioneers: sustainable business success through social innovation and social entrepreneurship', tania elis states that 'this blending of economic and social values is, in other words generating new social innovations that are creating wealth and welfare for the benefit of society, the environment, people's wellbeing and the health of the bottom line' (ellis, 2010, p xxi) the economic system for community development as identified by the success of the rlabs project is based on social enterprise development and asset training in the locality leading to first bartering for services and second the marketing of services to sustain the project and generate not value added profit for an individual but profit to invest in the community. limitations the limitation to this report is that only people who were connected long term to the project were interviewed. there was at least one person who was enthusiastic at the beginning and left the project. the broken connections should be investigated to give a full report. also projects at the beginning were not always successful. many first businesses stopped as people moved into college courses. there is a longer term project, looking at evaluation by producing a toolkit that would measure each of pre-requisites for community development highlighted above enabling community development groups to highlight areas which need addressing at an earlier time. conclusion qualitative ethnological research has provided a method for in depth analysis of civil society development and has identified factors that have been noted by other researchers. this method has the advantage that it can be used to analyse many community development programmes and compare the results. this will be useful to evaluate the founding of global rlabs projects but also other multiple community development projects, for example the uk big local community development project. qualitative research following this model may be a useful tool in an evaluation toolkit for national and international development projects. this article focused on fifteen early participants in a successful civil grass roots development project: rlabs. the following social, economic and belief factors were considered important in the sustainability of the community programme. a social factors i. time: as one participant stated 'rlabs did not come out of nowhere' (eli). the time of involvement of people working into the community was up to eight years before rlabs was formed, ii. people: key people were leaders who stayed with the project. these people who i have identified as 'hidden people gatherers' need to be recognised and supported by organisations with sponsorships for asset building. also important, was a social champion, a person respected in the community. the technological champion was called in responding to a need for training in the community in 2005. an external supporter from uk moved to cape town to lead the first mentoring programme. iii. organisations: organisations from 2000 to 2005 were fluid and developing. there were members moving into and out of the project. the formation of impact direct ministries was seen as key to all participants. rlabs as an organisation operates in a symbiotic relationship with impact direct ministries: impact direct ministries being responsible for the 'soft nurturing' services necessary to support rlabs. iv. geographical space: the free hire of a physical space in the area enabled the gathering together of people and services that was identifiable to the community. v. flexibility and the importance of moving forward: the rlabs project was developed to help ex-drug addict's rehabilitation. interestingly the formation of another core group at the hostel did not happen. the organisation moved forward in a new direction. there is a key to funding here: because an organisation has success with one group of people, it does not follow automatically that they need to repeat the process with others. new people were mentored through the academic programme in greater numbers. b economic renewing a community needs a link to basic micro economics and this is facilitated in a tradition of social enterprise which is a growing model in international civil society development c belief a unifying belief in the importance of individuals and their assets to the community is essential to the development of civil society. asset building alone may led to a closed exploited community. historically and at rlabs there is a link to religious or ideological groups. finally, the dynamic social structure allowing people to take risks, explore new opportunities and yet be connected and absorbed at the centre of the impact direct ministries cannot be overestimated. perhaps the 'softer' nurturing skills identified here are more important in community relationships than they have been credited with in the past. this paper adds to the understanding of community development using ict by emphasising the human and community pre-requisites behind the technology. acknowledgements the people of rlabs in south africa were eager to share their experiences and i thank them for their hospitality. i would also like on a practical level to thank dr. dorothea kleine and her colleagues from royal 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behavior, 34(2), pp.354-375. participation and deliberation on the internet: a case study on digital participatory budgeting in belo horizonte participation and deliberation on the internet: a case study on digital participatory budgeting in belo horizonte   rafael cardoso sampaio universidade federal da bahia. center for advanced studies on electronic government and digital democracy (ceadd)   rousiley celi moreira maia universidade federal de minas gerais. research group in media and public sphere (eme)   francisco paulo jamil almeida marques universidade federal do ceará.        abstract: this paper aims to examine how political conversations take place on the digital discursive tools offered as part of the digital participatory budget (opd) in belo horizonte (brazil). the authors propose an analytical model based on deliberative theories in order to investigate the discussions over this participatory program. the main sample consists of the messages posted by the users (n=375) on the commentaries section. the results show that reciprocity and reflexivity among interlocutors are rare; however, the respect among the participants and the justification levels in several arguments were high during the discussion. the authors conclude that, even in a situation in which there is no empowerment of the digital tools, the internet can effectively provide environments to enhance a qualified discursive exchange. in spite of low levels of deliberativeness, the case study shows that there are important gains concerning social learning among the participants.  keywords: online deliberation, digital democracy, brazilian participatory budgeting.   1. introduction in recent decades, there is an increasing discussion about models of democracy which emphasize popular sovereignty. the debate seeks to overcome the idea that the ordinary, nonorganized citizen is apathetic or unable to influence the political system in order to improve it. those views are concerned with the current ideal of more participatory democracies, and especially, more deliberative ones (habermas, 1996). having this in mind, several discursive experiments have been conducted, focusing on an inclusive and egalitarian public deliberation, with real effects on the political decision-making. that is the case of initiatives such as deliberative polls ®, citizen's jury, consensus conferences, americaspeaks and many others (goodin, dryzek, 2006). all these projects make efforts to test experiences designed to include citizens in the discussion about public matters. they also help the improvement of a relevant set of participatory mechanisms which are likely to be employed in mass democracies. ‘in the brazilian case, the most prominent experience is the participatory budgeting (pb), which started in the 90s. this kind of program has as goal to share the decision power with citizens, regarding issues that affect them directly. on one hand, the sphere of citizenship has the opportunity to perform extensive discussions and negotiations, seeking to indicate what would be their most important needs. on the other hand, the state, by encouraging participation and deliberation among citizens, offer to the people a share of its power. it is argued that its ultimate objective is to achieve fairer and more legitimate political outcomes (fung, 2007). over the last years, an increasing number of brazilian political institutions have conducted experiments of participatory budgeting, emphasizing the use of internet. in order to understand what are the main characteristics and effects of this kind of opportunity of political participation, we propose to examine one of the most prominent cases of online pb in brazil. specifically, we seek to identify whether internet use had positive effects on how public deliberation has been developed among citizens. specifically, we examine the online discussion boards available at belo horizonte’s of digital participatory budgeting website in order to understand some of the aspects that may have produced impact on the results of that deliberation among citizens. in the first part, the article briefly reviews habermas' concepts of public deliberation. our intention is to expand parts of the conceptual discussion around this issue. second, the paper presents a set of studies on online deliberation, as well as some of the key items that should be considered in order to methodologically observe discursive manifestations within the digital environment. in the third part, we indicate the empirical object to be studied, by characterizing its context and its digital tools. the fourth section outlines the methodology applied to understand those events, regarding online deliberation. finally, we present our main findings and conclusions which can be drawn from this case study. 2. public deliberation there have been different traditions of deliberative democracy, which are influenced by philosophers, such as aristotle and hannah arendt; by pragmatists, such as john dewey and george mead; or even by liberals, such as john rawls. for our purposes, we are going to use the idea of deliberative democracy proposed by the german philosopher, jürgen habermas. besides being the model used by most studies of online deliberation, some of its specificities are relevant to us, as it will be seen below. habermas (1996) argues for a true popular sovereignty, and through his deliberative model, he explains how communicative power is related to the administrative power. the author's goal is to provide conditions for the legitimate genesis of the laws, through a heuristic effort dedicated to think about more participatory forms of democratic practices. habermas‘s fundamental idea is the exchange of reasons among political actors, fostered by a set of discursive processes which are able to echo on the state structure. in discourse exchanges, participants thematize requirements for validity claims, and try to either retrieve or criticize them by means of arguments. its strength is assessed in a context created by the warranty of reasons. because participants’ arguments are submitted to evaluation and criticism, it is believed that rational expressions can also be corrected and improved through discursive exchanges (habermas, 1996, p.173-4). deliberation would be the search, through discursive practices, for the "best", or yet, the most valid, fairest and truest solution. it proposes to bring ways of dealing with conflicts for which, otherwise, would be difficult to find a solution. the process of opinion formation and deliberation influence the preferences of participants, as it allows them to filter issues, contributions, information and arguments in dispute.  furthermore, deliberation would present an extra advantage because, even in cases in which it does not succeed, it remains open for future contributions, as deliberation is continuously under evaluation by concerned people. however, despite being extremely influential, habermas' discursive model has been intensively contested. in the search for alternatives to habermas' model of deliberation, many scholars contend that deliberation is not solely constituted by reason. according to john dryzek (2007), for instance, deliberation models based on excessive rationality and on search for justification by reasons that all could accept would be highly demanding. such models tend to ignore aspects such as coercion, deception, manipulation and strategy, which are common elements in deliberative processes. a more defensible version of deliberation includes negotiation and bargain. under certain circumstances, negotiation and bargain, as long as not based on coercion, may help participants to better understand other people's interests and even their own. if the idea of common good is related to the best solution for the greatest number of people, bargaining and negotiation should be important elements of reciprocal communication, in order to forge self-interest and detect claims for the common good (mansbridge, 2007, p. 264). mark warren also tries to expand the conditions to accomplish deliberation. this scholar argues that it is reasonable to expect participants to enter communication with strategic intentions. however, participants, regardless their original intentions, may need to craft good arguments and reframe issues in order to persuade others or to exert influence in the course of a discussion. warren’s key argument is that those concerned with democratic institutions, “should be more interested in the outcomes of communication than communicative intent” (warren, 2007, p. 278) therefore, institutions should provide opportunities and incentives for dynamics that are “deliberative in function” (warren, 2007, p. 278). 2.1 online deliberation deliberative democracy, according to dryzek (2007, p.237), is “the most active area” in contemporary political theory and there is also a growing interest to increase the discursive component within the daily performance of political activities. this trend is also found in studies on internet and politics. several studies investigate how digital icts could improve deliberative democracy or help citizens engage in a qualified public deliberation. since the internet allow people to talk to one another and hear different points of view, without constrains of time or space, it can also be very valuable for political expression, deliberation and even decision-making (davis, 2005). however, several studies on online deliberation showed negative results in terms of deliberativeness, and a lack of willingness from users to participate in exchange of reasons. this is the case of jankowski’s and van os’ research (2004). by studying forums of hoogeveen digital city (netherlands), they found that online discussion had not presented sufficient features which would lead them to identify traits pertaining to a deliberative debate. the discussions were dominated by a small group of participants; there were some restrictions in relation to the several issues; there were few expressions of mutual interests and reciprocity. according to wilhelm (2000), deliberation is linked to the diversity of ideas and sources. his studies show that usenet [1] online forums are, by contrast, very homogeneous, and were more likely to gather like-minded people. such approach, according to this scholar, would lead to balkanization of discourses. in other words, certain types of forums would be inadequate to promote citizens' exposure to different political perspectives. the findings of wilhelm (2000) also indicate that threads have a short life, since participants come and go, just lurking the development of debates, and not entering the discussion. davis (2005), by examining the usenet forums, is also emphatic in excluding the possibilities of an effective online deliberation. he states that online discussion lacks an effective search for solutions, which is the ground of the idea of deliberation. the internet – so the argument goes has only served to public expression of private positions, which are not necessarily confronted. the ideal public space should offer not only the chance to discuss about topics, but also let people learn about issues. citizens, in turn, should also be willing to listen to and to find solutions to their dilemmas of political nature (ibid.). however, we argue that these three researches mentioned above are, on the one hand, based on a concern excessively directed to evaluate the behavior of participants of online forums. on the other hand, they focus on the internet just as a tool. such studies conclude in general that users have no interest in entering qualified discussions, and also that new media do not have adequate tools or ways to give support to such discussions. in order to examine the digital discussion tools of participatory budgeting, we endorse a different perspective for conducting a study on online deliberation, through the inclusion of three items: (i) the context in which the discussion has been developed, (ii) the structure or design of digital communication tools, and (iii) methodological strategies employed to understand deliberation. according to janssen, kies (2005), context is defined basically by cultural differences identified among users, by the type of political actor who is hosting the debate, by the ideology of the participants, and by the topic of debate. such characteristics allow a more qualified understanding of online deliberation, considering the participants, and also the political actor to be fostering discussion. communicative structure, also according to janssen, kies (2005), is related to the characteristics of the online forum's digital tools, namely: need to identify or not the person who presents arguments, opening of the forum to different audiences, freedom of agenda setting discussion, moderation, and empowerment. through such analysis, it is possible to assess constraints and possibilities the online forum management may have on participants. it also enables one to assess the position of the political agent who is hosting the debate. on this second aspect, it is possible to include the way these tools had been developed (wright street, 2007) and their effective functionality. thus, several types of software design can be developed with the intention to focus more or less on public participation, civic conversation, or on the promotion of information within the digital environment, showing also the behavior of the political agent responsible for the digital space development (gomes, 2005; marques, miola, 2007; marques, 2008; jensen, venkatesh, 2007; salter, 2004). the third aspect, concerning the methodological model to understand deliberativeness, is the most important one. some previous studies concluded that the lack of deliberativeness detected in several cases may be linked to the strategies employed for empirical analysis. papacharissi (2004), for instance, attempted to call into question studies which point out the flames as harmful to democracy. the author makes an important distinction between impolite and uncivil posts. whereas impolite posts result of human emotions only (open to public apology), uncivil ones offend the dignity of the interacting actors, and consist a serious threat to democracy and political discussions. in her case study, papacharissi found polite and civilian online discussions, and evinced that not every rude message is necessarily uncivil. in another example, wright and street (2007) replicated wilhelm's procedure (2000), when evaluating the same conditions of deliberation in the online forum "futurum", used for political discussions about the european union. the research indicated that the forum was highly interactive and that the threads were longer than those identified in wilhelm's research. in addition, participants engaged in the discussion and, in most cases (75%), presented external data to support their ideas. beyond a more suitable design for deliberation, the authors ascribe this difference in the outcome to the methodology. in the same vein, janssen, kies (2005) seek to discuss methodological problems of studies on online deliberation. besides the criteria being significantly different among various studies, many investigations tend to ignore several aspects which may shape or affect deliberation in the forums. based on these researchers’ developments, we present the model of deliberation which was used in our research designed to study the dpb of belo horizonte. 3. dpb in 2006, the city hall of belo horizonte [2] launched the "digital participatory budget" (dpb), which, differently from the city's regional pb [3] , would not require physical presence of participants, which means that the process would take place only through online voting. belo horizonte's city hall would invest u$ 11.25 million in its nine regions (u$ 44.2 million budget of offline pb were maintained, meaning that the dpb had a different budget from its face-to-face version). through the website http://opdigital.pbh.gov.br, any citizen with his or her voter’s registration number from belo horizonte could choose 9 out of 36 projects (being one project per region), pre-selected by the city hall, and by the associations linked to the pb. a peculiar feature concerning the dpb was that the voter, after choosing, could know exactly how many votes each pre-selected project had so far. citizens should vote at least in one region, but could vote in all nine projects. to minimize problems related to digital divide in the project, the city hall established several voting kiosks throughout the city. associations’ headquarters, cooperatives and schools were also listed as official voting locations. the 2006 dpb website (which was totally apart from the offline pb) presented basic information about each project, such as cost, location and pictures. in addition, online participation tools were also offered, such as e-mail and discussion boards. in the end, the 2006 dpb reached 172.938 participants, representing around 10% of the city’s electorate. after the end of voting, the 2006 dpb's website continued online. however, the discussion board was closed down to participation, and the posted messages did not remain available for consultation. only basic information about the winning projects from each region was maintained. statements from the population were also added, regarding participation in the online program. the 2008 process, in turn, was very different from the original one. first, votes were no longer occurring by region, but rather, there was a single voting for the whole city. then, voters from belo horizonte should choose one among five pre-selected projects. all the options referred to road projects, with the goal to improve belo horizonte's traffic. the projects of 2008 dpb affected a larger number of people, because they were far more valuable than the projects of 2006 dpb, or than the regional offline pb. each project of 2008 dpb were worth around u$ 22.2 million versus u$ 11.1 million distributed in all projects of the 2006 dpb. the regional pb, for instance, was worth a total of u$ 44.4 million, but divided among several work projects in nine city regions. a single region usually receives investments either less than or equals to u$ 6.6 million (dpb, 2008; bhch, 2009). regarding the technological aspect, 2008 dpb's website was already launched with all tools available and open to vote (sampaio, 2010). officers from the city hall had neither developed nor managed it: a [4] website development agency was hired to accomplish those tasks. in the electronic 2008 dpb's website, the city hall presented full details of each project, pointing out the impact, costs, benefits for the traffic, and number of beneficiaries per project. besides the internet, a free phone number was provided in order to allow voting for one of the projects [5] . as it happened with the internet, the citizen should have been registered to vote in belo horizonte and needed his or her voter’s registration number. 11.483 voters used the phone service, which represented about 10% of the total amount of votes.  the dpb project presented several innovations in terms of digital tools and content. a major improvement was the inclusion of pictures showing the current roads "before" and "after" reconstruction. educational videos were also offered, explaining the impacts and benefits that would occur when each project was concluded. another innovation was the use of virtual maps [6] to facilitate the projects' location, as well as the voting spots, as it is shown in the appendix 1. finally, dpb’s website also expanded their participatory tools. besides the reactivation of the discussion board, two new features were implemented. the first one was the possibility of posting online "comments". for each project, there was an option to leave a message without having to register or even to enter identification. the second feature was a chat, opened on previously scheduled dates, in which representatives of "planning, budget and information" bureau, responsible for the pb, would receive questions, suggestions and criticisms from participants. there were four chat sessions during the voting time. apart from those dates, the chat was not available. in the end, 124.320 citizens voted for digital pb of 2008. after the process, its board and chat were closed. the discussions held through those two tools were also not available. it was possible to see the posted comments, but one could not post new messages any longer. table 1: participatory budgeting x digital participatory budgeting 2006-2008 version 2006 offline 2006 online 2008 offline 2008 online participants 33.643 172.938 44.000 124.320 budget (us$ million) 44,4 11,1 44,4 22,2 4. methodological procedures as stated earlier, the present study was conducted using three levels of analysis. first, we assess the context of the online participatory program. however, among the parameters of janssen’s and kies’ study (2005), we are going to evaluate only the profiles of the topic of debate, and the political actor who hosts the debate. due to the difficulty of contacting a representative number of participants (as the website neither would identify the users nor would register some kind of email or contact form), we did not conduce a survey with users. second, we will make a brief qualitative assessment of the website, pointing out its communication infrastructure, and design of its tools. among the items, we selected openness and freedom of participation and conversation within the forum, identification, moderation, and empowerment. regarding the design, the tool to post comments is evaluated, and is also the basis to assess the third aspect. the third level of analysis is the study of online deliberation. in the five forums (tools to post comments), 1209 messages were posted, showing support, criticisms, protests and several discussions. initially, we selected all messages related to the projects #4 (306) and #5 (544), as they were the most commented and voted works. we tabulated and read all messages from the two forums (850). however, among this corpus, we only analyzed messages that referred to the two most commented issues [7] : "slow traffic and the project serves the region" (196), and "beneficiaries of the project" (179).those messages (n = 375) were analyzed according to the model below. for the analysis, we used "atlas ti 5.5" software. 4.1 model of online deliberation in our analysis, we partially followed lincoln dahlberg’s (2001a, b, c, 2002).studies on online deliberation. he is one of the first researchers who have converted habermas' theory into consistent analytical indicators, which can be applied to the discursive resources of the internet. dahlberg highlights various characteristics ascribed to habermas' ideal public sphere, and translate them into qualitative indicators for empirical assessment of conversations. according to dahlberg, high presence of such categories indicates greater degree of deliberativeness in the case at stake. in other words, better will be the quality of the discussion under investigation, according to deliberative theory. we must acknowledge that such analytical strategy assumes an ideal model of debates. however, the purpose of this paper is not to seek a normative approach to deliberation and then become frustrated if it does not occur. high expectations might lead us to conclude that citizens are not being able to deliberate, or that there is a lack of deliberative spaces on the internet. our goal is, rather, to use deliberation as an “evaluative-descriptive” concept (neblo, 2007, p.528) to analyze conversation held in a specific online environment, in an attempt to understand the strengths and weaknesses of this discussion. and to some extent, we also seek to point out some technological and political aspects that may influence those outcomes, in order to highlight the contributions of belo horizonte’s online participatory program. the model of online deliberation which has guided our empirical examination is shown as follows. i) thematization and reasoned critique of problematic validity claims the first criterion, aiming at measuring the degree of deliberativeness, is called "thematization and reasoned critique of problematic validity claims" (dahlberg, 2002). the goal is to understand if the positions have been presented and critically discussed. the arguments of the contributors must be supported by reasons. initially, we assess reciprocity (1), that is, if users demonstrate to be reading messages and responding to them. it is a more elementary level, which requires no formulation of response, but rather, just the act of responding to another user, or to the subject of discussion. messages that do not have answers will be classified as monological (2). here is an example of the lack of dialogue: project 5 ana paula (11/13/2008 01:40:29) excellent opportunity for traffic improvement. it will bring better access and movement to the regional traffic (opd, 2008). after, we assess validation, that is, if participants give justifications for supporting their argumentations. jensen (2003) presents three possibilities of validation: the external validation (3) is when the citizen uses external sources to maintain his or her argument, such as facts, data, news, etc., as we can see through the example below: project 5 eder (11/17/2008 01:36:07) this work is essential due to heavy traffic at the avenues ivaí and abilio machado, that flows only through pará de minas narrow street. it is going to benefit all residents from the northwest region, and also in contagem, from ceasa area (dpb, 2008). the internal validation (4) is based on the debater's own point of view, which explicitly uses his or her standards, values and personal experience (such as testimonies) to support his or her argument. the message below is an example of it: project 5 antonio machado de jesus (11/13/2008 12:39:25) in my opinion, this project is a great improvement, as i live in coqueiros' neighborhood, and face this chaos every day, spending more than half an hour in the traffic, from dom bosco church until são vicente square, it's an absurd (dpb, 2008). finally, jensen argues that it is possible to occur an allegation, that is, the person express his or her position, but does not provide validation, or any other justification. we will call that position (5), as in the utterance below, which affirms that the government work is going to improve the traffic, without issuing any reasons for supporting that. project 5 eduado (11/12/2008 04:44:16) this work is going to improve the traffic flow in the area, not only for the neighborhoods, but also for those who use the ring road on daily (dpb, 2008).   ii) reflexivity dahlberg's second criterion (2002) is the notion of "reflexivity".  participants should be willing to assess the position of others, and revise their initial opinion, once persuaded by the power of other perspectives. according to jensen (2003), reflexivity can be measured in three ways. persuasion (6), when there are explicit evidences that the user feels persuaded by the argument of another participant or by the discussion in general. progress (7), when the user considers another post, replies to it with new arguments or information, or even tries to create a synthesis of the arguments. or radicalisation (8), when the participant reacts negatively to another post, and makes his or her previous point of view more extreme, not being open to other possibilities. according to our view, a message could only be considered as reflexive if it also shows reciprocity. here is an example of each criterion (persuasion, progress and radicalisation respectively): project 4 alessandra (11/13/2008 11:23:25) [...] i agree with pedro, we have to think about the traffic in the metropolitan region as a whole: nossa senhora do carmo, raja, br, and the ring suffer from the bottleneck around the complexity of bh shopping (where traffic gets to be restricted to one lane , and many citizens are harmed (dpb, 2008).   project 4 helen (11/14/2008 10:50:40) to those who say this work is going to benefit nova lima only, i just have to say they don't know the reality of the region that separates the two municipalities. the truth is that many local residents work in bh, and some from bh work in nova lima. so, if the project is intended to benefit the population of bh, who is now badly damaged by the constant traffic jams in the area, there's nothing more ok than doing it independently of the municipality, and benefitting the neighbor population. we need to have collective sense. (dpb, 2008).   project 4 ellen andrade (11/24/2008 09:17:09) it's useless to invest in the "exit" from bh to nova lima, if within the city is still a chaos, because there are places with much greater needs! honestly, this work won't benefit most of the citizens from bh, but only a few who travels through this area ... meanwhile, the ring road, that is a quick traffic route, remains crowded, huh? an absurd! (dpb, 2008).   iii) ideal role taking dahlberg's third criterion (2002) is called "ideal role taking." this aspect considers listening respectfully and giving appropriate attention to the position of other participants; it also requires an ongoing debate which does not end abruptly. according to this criterion, we use the division proposed by steenbergen et al (2003): the implicit respect (9) occurs when there is neither negative nor positive positions, but when a group of concerned citizens is defended. the explicit respect (10), when there is at least one clearly displayed positive position on groups, regardless of the presence of negative positions. below, there is an example of implicit respect, in which other group has been defended, without appealing to values; and after, there is a quote of explicit respect in which the citizen champions the rights of the same group: project 5 luiz (11/25/2008 06:06:54) i totally agree with the conclusion of the work, but i have an objection; residents from contagem also go through vicente square, and as the votes for participatory budgeting are only valid for bh residents, we will be harmed because the number of residents from contagem is too large and that would yield many votes for this project (dpb, 2008). project 5 cândido (11/24/2008 11:27:14) the problem is that most people harmed by the traffic at são vicente square are residents from contagem, which directly affects the vote; those people should have the right to vote!!!!!! (dpb, 2008, highlights in original). regarding the lack of respect, we believe the work of papacharissi (2004) is suitable for additional analysis. this scholar distinguishes between uncivil and rude messages, as explained before. in this sense, we would also have two forms of lack of respect. the no respect: rude message, in which there are insults, sarcasm, personal attacks etc., but that does not attack democratic values; and the no respect: uncivil message, in which there are discourses of prejudice, racism, hatred or attacks on democratic principles. here is an example of rude message: project 4 leone (11/27/2008 04:30:25) he is right to defend the region where he lives, citing patio savassi and bourgeois surroundings, as he may be a playboy or any of our business elite's son. i advise you to go through the region of project 05, in the suburb neighborhood called alipio de melo, at peak time, to better understand the reality of the city where you live (dpb, 2008). the second aspect concerning the ideal role taking criterion is an ongoing debate, that is, their regularity throughout the days, which indicates an interest in keeping the discussion, aiming at a common understanding. we will initially assess the average messages per day (total number of messages divided by days of discussion), and compare it with the number of messages per day. this comparison will allow us to examine whether there are irregularities in the flow of messages, whether there were either days of several discussions or days of neglect, with regards of the amount of messages posted in the tool to post comments. iv) inclusion and discursive equality dahlberg's fifth criterion is called "inclusion and discursive equality". the debate should be open to all concerned citizens, and all participants must have equal opportunities to express themselves. thus, in relation to the item "inclusion and discursive equality", we will analyze especially the idea of digital divide, by presenting some data related to the number of people with internet access in southeastern region of brazil [8], as well as the implications of this issue for online deliberation. our goal is far from conducting a complex analysis of digital divide, which is influenced by several aspects, but rather to evidence that this aspect should be considered when carrying out online participatory programs. subsequently, we will analyze if only a few users had dominated the discussion, since this aspect may inhibit the participation of other citizens (such as through the formation of closed groups, which ignore the messages coming from "outsider" users).  we presume, from our first analysis, that most individuals posted just one message. according to jensen (2003), the fact that people post only once (one-timer effect) limits the complexity of the debate, especially when assessing the discussion in terms of criteria such as reciprocity and reflexivity. thus, as stated before, we have quantitative and qualitative indicators. all of them are going to serve as basis for assessing the level of deliberativeness of messages. below, we present the table which explains our typology. the numbered indicators will be applied directly on each analyzed message. table 2: criteria for deliberativeness criterion variables   thematization and reasoned critique   (1) reciprocity (2) monological (3) external validation (4) internal validation (5) position reflexivity (6) persuasion (7) progress (8) radicalisation ideal role taking (9) implicit respect (10) explicit respect (11) no respect: rude (12) no respect: uncivil continuity: posts per day inclusion and discursive equality people with internet access. number of posts per person.   the other criteria which will be applied to each message are: anonymity (13), identification (14), (user's) name (15), and date of posting (16). even those who posted just a personal name are going to be classified as identified. 5. results 5.1 context i) agent to host the discussion belo horizonte's dpb was created and maintained during the administration of fernando pimentel, the city's mayor from pt (workers party). pimentel conducted a series of activities organized to implement the pb throughout the nearly 12 years of his administration (four as vice mayor and eight as mayor). pt is also the party of brazil's current president, dilma roussef and the former president luis inácio lula da silva. he is recognized, among other reasons, for having created many social programs, such as bolsa-família (an income transfer program), fome zero (with the goal to extinguish hunger), prouni [9] (a grant program which allows poor class students to study in brazilian private universities). pt was also responsible for creating the participatory budgeting in the country. pt can be considered a center-left party, since liberal parties and/or right wing parties are included in his base of supporters it is important to note that we did not identify any manifestation by the municipal administration in our analysis of the messages which compose the empirical corpus of this study. the discussion continued freely, without restrictions. if observation of party-affiliation of political actors may be essential for understanding their utterances in certain policy forums, within dpb, there was no strong evidence that this aspect was determinant. in other words, there is no indication that such aspect changed or shaped significantly the behavior of users. it is worth to note, however, that the city hall remained "neutral". as already discussed, no state officer expressed whatsoever their political positions. there is no mention to pt or even to bh's mayor, fernando pimentel, but rather, only to the "city hall" as an institution. there is propaganda of the city halls' achievements, but that did not mean any appeal to public officers’ or the mayor's positioning. as we shall discuss below, the actions of the municipality have shaped participation of citizens in several ways. for instance, there was no official encouragement for discussions about traffic. however, since only road projects could be chosen, local power-holders’ public expressions about traffic policies impacted on the nature of the dispute. the choice of interactive tools can also facilitate or inhibit certain discussions, as well as the type of moderation selected. so, our key argument is that, in the discussions analyzed, there was no officer identifying him or herself as either moderating, or as belonging to the executive, who somewhat tried to direct the issues or the debates. ii) topic of debate people of all socioeconomic levels are somehow affected by traffic problems, in various ways. daily experience with traffic difficulties thus encourages the search for knowledge and practical solutions. in some areas, citizens may be better positioned in order to evaluate the impacts of policies, as well as to express their views to the representatives (fung, 2007). this situation was evident when assessing the messages of most participants of both online forums: the users presented a position (40.3% of messages), and validated their opinions (internal + external validation = 50% of messages). since the topic under discussion affects virtually the entire population, we may consider – here following dryzek’s notion of "meta-consensus" – that individuals may not agree on what should be done, but recognize the legitimacy of the disputed values (dryzek, 2007; list, 2007). according to our findings, the values of respect in both implicit and explicit ways were quite high, exceeding 40% of the overall posted messages, while the presence of rude messages were only 6%. most of the individuals who posted messages defended a particular project; yet most of users recognized the importance of other projects, as well as the necessity to attend other areas. that is, they argued that certain locations would need more attention, but did not claim that other regions did not need it either, or that there would not be reasoned arguments on the other side. 5.2 communicative structure and design i) identification users did not have to enter any identification in the dpb’s website to post comments. however, most of them did it so, by choosing to use either the full name or just the first name. the ones who chose to present only a first name could be considered "anonymous", as janssen, kies (2005) indicate. however, some scholars argue that the use of a name tends to indicate that there is a real person committed to the debate, who is not hiding behind that comment, since anonymity is often related to a lack of commitment to the discussion (davis, 2005; wilhelm, 2000). in the analyzed forums, although the identification was not mandatory, we noticed that most participants sought to present arguments in the discussion. an evidence of this is that the number of irrelevant messages (those that did not contain demands, opinions or clear positions) did not exceed the average of 5% in both forums [10]. on the other hand, there is not any indication that anonymity helped to improve discursive equality. ii) openness and freedom the discussion tools of dpb allowed enough openness and freedom to the users. apart from the vote, and the discussion boards, the site was completely open to any visitor, and identification was not mandatory. there were neither tools to control posts by time, nor any type of issue restriction. however, the discussion boards did not contain even 10 messages, while the tool to post comments showed over a thousand collaborations. one possible explanation for this lies in the fact that the discussion boards demanded a registration, while the tool to post comments did not require even identification. concerning the online environment, registration and identification may serve as cost and hindrance to political participation. this hypothesis, however, would need to be tested by means of surveys with users in future research. iii) discussion agenda the discussion agenda was also wide open. the city hall officers did not get involved in directing the discussions or topics on the agenda. there is obviously an initial agenda set by the city hall, public officers, for instance, defined that all 2008 dpb projects would be related to roads, they set the traffic as the issue of the program. however, no municipal officer acted to either frame it or to feed it. we noticed that the initial agenda was influential since most of the people’s messages focused on traffic issues, even with neither promotion nor pressure from the municipal administration to forward those discussions. iv) moderation according to nitrato communication agency – the firm which developed and managed digital resources of the dpb website – all interactive tools were pre-moderated, that is, the moderator had to release the message in order to appear on the website (nitrato, 2009). pre-moderation can obviously disrupt the rhythm of any discussion, especially if the moderator takes too long to release the messages (wright, street, 2007). when analyzing the message flow, we noticed that the moderator released the messages every single day, which certainly eases the problem. in the case of dpb, moderation existed only in order to avoid rude or uncivil messages. on the other side, the moderation has not manifested his or her point of view in the debate at all. that is probably explained by the fact that webmasters were hired by the city hall to accomplish such task. the goal, apparently, was only to avoid flames. indeed, this choice influenced the low number of rude messages detected, and the amount of zero uncivil messages, which if they existed whatsoever did not reach the public forum. this may have facilitated the presence of respectful messages, because it is easier to be respectful in a friendly environment than in a disturbed one (flamewars). however, this choice has some disadvantages. for instance, it is possible to realize a lack of discursive interaction between officers and citizens, since the method leaves the users as the single responsibles for the discussion. the chat room was an exception, as it involved the presence of municipal secretaries. after all, the city hall seemed not take full advantage of the interaction space, in order to better understand citizens' needs and desires. we may then assume that the representatives were not willing (or even interested) to know citizens' discursive inputs. v) strong or weak public space there is no indication, on the dpb website, that the forum or the comment  tool are strong (empowered) spaces, that is, there was no proof that the messages would be considered or even read by the institutional officers. however, the content of the messages shows that people acted with the hope that their message would have some impact, either on political representatives, or on the other citizens.  but there is a peculiarity concerning the digital participatory budgeting. the discussion tools operated side by side with the voting tool. this tool showed great empowerment, as the citizens' vote decided the project to be implemented. the importance of voting and the considerable empowerment of citizens may have been factors that explain why the discussion tools had become strong spaces for discussion. at this point, it is interesting to note the peculiar ways in which participants use the tools available. on the one hand, speaking in normative terms, the tool to post comments was a weak space of discussion, because the city hall had not empowered it. on the other hand, participants acted as if this discursive space was strong, as the users noticed an increasing flow of messages and, consequently, more chances of having their comments read and considered by other citizens. hundreds of people entered that discursive space not only to talk, and to present their positions, but also, and largely, to try to convince other people about the best option. or yet, the empowerment of the voting tool echoed in the comments tool. 5.3 deliberativeness the overall result of the level of deliberativeness is presented in the table below. we introduce the number of messages classified in each indicator according to the forum and to the original issue; we also indicate the percentage of those messages posted in a specific issue and forum. in the last right column, we show the number of all classified messages according to each indicator, and also its percentage.  table 3: results of deliberativeness in dpb’s comments tool codes forum 4 issue 1   forum 5 issue 1   forum 4 issue 2   forum 5 issue 2   total number of messages 50 146 100 79 375 (100%) anonymous 1 (2%) 1 (0.7%) 3 (3%) 1 (1.27%) 6 (1.6%) identified 49 (98%) 145 (99%) 97 (97%) 78 (99%) 369 (98.4%) dialogical 6 (12%) 9 (6.2%) 86 (86%) 11 (13.9%) 112 (29.87%) monological 44 (88%) 137 (94%) 14 (14%) 68 (86%) 266 (70.93%) external validation 20 (40%) 29 (19.9%) 75 (75%) 29 (36.7%) 153 (40.8%) internal validation 6 (12%) 23 (15.7%) 8 (8%) 9 (11.4%) 46 (12.26%) position 21 (42%) 74 (50.7%) 15 (15%) 41 (51.9%) 151 (40.26%) persuasion 1 (2%) 3 (2%) 5 (5%) 1 (1.27%) 10 (2.6%) progress 5 (5%) 1 (0.7%) 55 (55%) 5 (6.3%) 66 (17.6%) radicalisation 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 11 (11%) 0 (0%) 11 (2.9%) implicit respect 13 (26%) 38 (26%) 25 (25%) 32 (40.5%) 108 (28.8%) explicit respect 8 (16%) 25 (17.1%) 15 (15%) 8 (10.1%) 56 (14.93%) no respect: rude 1 (2%) 0 (0%) 22 (22%) 0 (0%) 23 (6.1%) no respect: uncivil 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0.0%) it is worth to note that certain indicators, such as "dialogical" and "monological" are exclusionary, while other items can coexist, that is, can be simultaneously present in the same message, as for instance, "external validation" and "internal validation". moreover, we point out that certain codes reach 100% as a whole (such as "anonymous" and "identified"), because no message could be classified some other way. furthermore, the indicators that represent respect, validation and forms of reflexivity do not appear in all messages and do not reach 100% altogether.  i) thematization and reasoned critique of problematic validity claims about 40% of the participants claimed to be either in favor or against the project execution, or the process itself (position). other members (40.8%) not only claimed, but also offered rational arguments to validate their claims, based on what was presented as facts and data. finally, 12% of the participants validated their claims by making use of narratives and personal experiences and testimonies, which may also contribute to deliberation (young, 1996). on the other hand, a smaller amount of users were willing to reply to messages. less than a third of the assessed messages made reference to another message or to the discussion itself (although 30% means a significant amount). perhaps it is overly demanding that the tool to post comments presents high levels of reciprocity, dialogue and other similar traits. we are going to return to this discussion later. ii) reflexivity if reciprocity, which means the simple act of responding, was low, reflexivity, which is an even more complex process, proved to be a rarer phenomenon in the discussion, reaching about 20% of the total of messages. on the other hand, if we consider the amount of reflexive messages (87) within the set of messages that simply respond to the discussion somehow (112), we find that around 77% of users, who responded to the forum, did so somehow in a reflexive way. in other words, most citizens responded either to other participants or to the subject in a reflexive way, by presenting new arguments, by explaining why they agreed with some other argument already placed.  apparently, due to the simplicity of the tool, the biggest challenge was reading the other posts, but those who attended the discussion, actually did so in a reflexive way. iii) ideal role taking a) continuous dialogue figure 1: posts per day assessing the chart, we can notice that it worked in the form of "waves", that is, the exchange of messages was higher on certain days, and was almost absent in other ones. however, apart from a few days, in which the number of posts drops considerably, the average number of messages approximates the weighted average, which would be 14.6 posts per day. we can also notice the rare existence of several following days with less than 10 messages. besides that, in the last four days of voting, all posts were below the average. this result can be explained by the fact that project 5 was already 10 thousand votes ahead of the project 4 in the last week of the process. the one-timer effect was quite high, since reciprocity was low. around 70% of participants left only a single message, and never returned to the topic [11], meaning a low willingness to dialogue. the idea of leaving a comment, expressing a particular point of view, but not necessarily demonstrating willingness to dialogue, was strongly adopted by the users.  on the other hand, an ongoing dialogue is a complex indicator to be assessed on the internet. as janssen, kies (2005) recognize, the problem of several studies on online forums is that they tend to believe that the discussion happens solely and exclusively within the assessed tool. they end up ignoring the multiplicity of simultaneous tasks allowed by new technologies. for example, it is perfectly possible that one enters the dpb website and post only once, but after, he or she writes something in his or her twitter, weblog and in his or her facebook profile. in each of these tools, he or she can either mobilize other potential voters, or enter real argumentative disputes. moreover, the validity of presenting such data is that the citizens were willing neither to respond nor to maintain an ongoing dialogue, or that dpb digital tool was not sufficiently interesting to keep the discussion on its website. b) respectful listening messages that showed some form of explicit respect to individuals or groups were nearly 15% of the total analyzed in the two forums. messages that showed some attention, care or implicit respect in relation to the others reached 28% of the total, which means that about 40% of the messages showed some form of attention and respect to those affected by the dpb projects. the lack of respect was also low (6%), which may be due to pre-moderation. as already mentioned, we believe that the issue has also a direct influence on this result, as it facilitates someone putting him or herself in someone else's place, as well as it tends to increase respect for other opinions. iv) inclusion and discursive equality one aspect to be considered when discussing the interface between internet and democracy is the digital divide. difficulties of access involve a considerable part of the brazilian population. this problem is particularly worrying if we consider the digital participatory budgeting’s aim to expand the number of citizens who are integrated into the decision-making process. at this point, the question refers not only to differences among users, but also to the equipment needed to access the digital environment. besides that, we cannot neglect the existence of distinct cognitive repertoires, peculiar to each individual citizen, which end up echoing in the ways of using devices available for online participation (salter, 2004). naturally, one must recognize the importance of the digital divide in a country like brazil. we are not claiming that one cannot talk about digital democracy while everyone is not adequately equipped and able to make use of a computer connected to the internet. we consider this stance a step backwards, since several aspects of contemporary governance, such as transparency in public affairs, preservation of freedom and rights, as well as electoral participation, have been improved due to the use of digital media (maia, 2008; marques, 2008). moreover, several inequalities have traditionally characterized brazilian society and national political culture, and yet, it has been the adherence to democratic values which has enabled political innovation and alleviation of social inequalities and injustices. in this sense, we consider valuable additional studies aimed to understand the complex chain of aspects of digital divide, which intersect political participation on the internet. we believe such investigations may help to understand, for example, the reasons why online participation were greater than offline in the case of belo horizonte's digital participatory budgeting, even though most of resources was associated with the pb face-to-face type. while making these assumptions, our goal, by including such an item proposed by dahlberg (2001a) and janssen, kies (2005), is to think digital barriers as an extra item to be considered in the design of digital tools, and in the setting of online participatory programs. thus, we used the data from ict centre for the study of information technology and communication cetic.br, which is in charge of producing indicators and statistics on the availability and use of internet in brazil, held in 2009. as there is no research available about belo horizonte, we used statistics from brazilian southeastern region, where the city is located. in southeastern brazil, 34% of households have a computer; 26% of all households also have internet access. 37% of internet users use the phone line connection (slow), and 53% use some kind of either high speed or broadband connection. however, when analyzing it according to social class [12], differences become evident: 93% of a class people access the internet, 59% of b class, 17% of c class, and only 1% of d and e classes, which are below the poverty line. necessary skills to use an online discussion boards are also low, reaching only 24% of the population of the region [13]. regarding several skills to use the internet, inequality also grows according to education and social class (tic, 2009). similar to wilhelm's findings (2002), the digital divide is still very present, and tends to reinforce other social-economic inequalities. in other words, if the number of internet users in brazil is rising, it grows in an extremely unequal way among different educational and social classes (tic, 2009). in this sense, dpb's discursive equality is seriously a priori affected. the provision of free internet access points, as it was the case of dpb, mitigates that inequality, but in a very narrow way. the tic's research itself shows that only 1% of brazilians utilize free internet access points to make use of any electronic government service, against 46% who use the services at home, 23% in paid hotspots, and 16% at work (tic, 2009). we support that free access points may facilitate voting, since the process is relatively simple and fast. however, an online discussion, according to the various requirements for deliberation, would demand more time and user’s proper motivation. . dpb's tool to post comments, despite being simple, was extremely open and receptive to participation. it did not require any registration or identification. in addition, it allowed quick reply, posting through only one click (that is, it required a few skills to use internet). janssen and kies (2005) suggest that technical constraints may inhibit participation and deliberation. in this sense, the mentioned tool appears to have been a major impediment to achieve a qualified deliberation, but it certainly did not impede participation in the discussion. among those who have posted, there was no evidence that the debate was dominated by a few participants. the first explanation for this lies in the fact that most people posted only once, but even among the most active ones, there was no user who dominated the debate. 6. discussion and conclusions participatory budgeting is one of the few brazilian digital programs that uses the internet to empower citizens’ decisions. it is also innovative in relation to the several participatory and interactive tools it offers, when compared to other formal political institutions in the country (marques, miola, 2007; marques, 2008). the dpb has achieved great success by engaging a significant proportion of the population of belo horizonte in the process of choosing the options offered by the city hall. in the first level of analysis, we noticed that the political actor to be hosting the debate may sometimes be a weak or neutral agent. in the case of dpb, the intervention of city hall's political officers was scarce; thus, the analysis did not identify any connection with the party or the government which created the website. moreover, the topic of discussion was a significant factor for explaining certain outcomes, such as over-validation and respect within the messages. on the second level of analysis, the main conclusion is that discussions with little control can generate good results, with high levels of validation, respect and identification. it is obvious that the presence of a moderator in charge of promoting deliberation would increase the values found for reciprocity and reflexivity. however, pre-moderation here only prevents from disrespect and incivility. it does not generate the respect we found in this online forum; this result tends to challenge some of the findings of wilhelm (2000) and davis (2005) on the individual inclinations for deliberation. people can be respectful without a previous guidance. another finding we consider interesting was that a not empowered forum generated a reasonable number of argumentative exchanges. apparently, the empowerment there was related to two issues: a) the impression that the messages would be read even if they were not read by institutional agents, but rather, by other citizens; and b) the fact that the same website contained the voting tool, which makes the forum a way to mobilize other citizens to vote or to try to convince them to make a choice. in the final analysis plan, building a model to understand online deliberation has proved productive. overall, as well as in other researches (davis, 2005; wilhelm, 2000), data indicate that people are more willing to express their thoughts than to listen to other citizens' considerations. it is also necessary to consider the context of a participatory program at a municipality's website whose main objective is to decide on certain projects, as well as the fact that the analyzed messages were in a comment tool. in theory, it is not unusual to find little dialogue in such environment. in fact, rates are worth to be considered, especially if the digital tool makes messages available in chunks without any kind of organization, and does not provide an option to reply a message directly to a participant. thus, considering those technical obstacles, as well as the lack of debate orientation by the municipal administration, we can say that the values of respect and argumentation were above expectations. as we stated before, we believe that the main reasons for that lies in the fact that the discussion tools are located on the same website of the voting tool, as well as the issue itself, once traffic distresses all inhabitants of a city. taking into account the asynchronous nature of the internet, these results may have a great political value. the messages remain available for other people who visit the website later. for this third citizen (who visits the forum after the discussions), two initial arguments, which do not respond to each other, but present opinions based on reasons, may constitute a "debate" within the cognitive process of the "third party" involved. soon, even those who just watch the debate, the lurkers, could benefit from reading the messages. finally, even neither encouraging nor empowering the discussion, dpb has created a space in which it can happen. if most individuals chose neither to read nor to respond to other participants, at least, it was possible for citizens to express their opinions about the participatory program, and about their needs and desires. although we cannot be certain of it, nothing prevents the city hall officers from keeping such discussions, and subsequently from using them as a feedback of the participatory process. as warren (2007) states, one can open possibilities to institutionalize deliberation by capturing speeches which are not deliberative in intention, and by producing dynamics that are deliberative in function. it is worthy to note that some of these conclusions cannot   be generalized to all those discursive events and phenomena which may take place on the internet. however, it seems clear that such experiences are important to the idea of democracy qualified with discursive features. as stated by dryzek (2007), deliberation may have several tasks, but it does not need to fulfill all of them simultaneously. soon, there will seldom be instances of deliberation, which fully present rates of deliberativeness at its maximum. low rates are also important to identify deficits that either citizens or deliberative programs themselves present. as we sought to highlight in the studied case at stake, the high points of deliberativeness demonstrate that individuals can indeed enter discursive disputes with high levels of arguments, and respect for one another. regarding the low deliberativeness degree of some aspects, we conclude that there is a need for improvement related to the level of sophistication of the digital discursive tools, as well as a major performance of an institutional officer, who would not only consider the inputs of the participants, but also encourage discussion among citizens themselves. notes: [1] usenet (unix user network) is a medium where users post messages ("articles") in forums which are grouped by topics (newsgroups).articles posted in newsgroups can be forwarded through an extensive network of interconnected servers. source: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/usenet . accessed in: march, 2nd, 2010. [2] it is the capital of the state of minas gerais, brazil. it has 2.412,937 inhabitants. gross domestic product r$ 32.725 billion, gdp per capita r$ 13.636. source: ibge, 2007 (pbh, 2010). [3] face-to-face pb occurred also during the two years of digital pb implementation, that is, all offline pb items proceeded normally, such as agenda, budget, structure, organization, rules, etc. there was no connection between the two processes. [4] nitrato agency was responsible for managing the website and for moderating the discursive tools available. http://blog.nitrato.com.br/ . accessed in: august, 25th, 2009. [5] the telephone cannot be considered an online technology, but its use is common and encouraged in participatory programs on the internet. about the use of mobile technologies in other digital pbs, see: peixoto (2008). [6] using the technology of google maps. see example: http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=pt-br&tab=wl . accessed in: february, 10th, 2010. [7] the classification of issues was performed in both forums through qualitative reading. we generated 10 different issues in the online forums of both projects. the methodology of this analysis is explained in sampaio (2010). [8] there was no recent survey data from belo horizonte. we are using data on the southeastern region of brazil. [9] see http://www.brasil.gov.br/sobre/citizenship/social-inclusion/insertion-programs?set_language=en to obtain more information about lula's social programs. text available in english. accessed in: february, 10th, 2010. [10] 46 posts out of the original 850 from both issues. [11] as identification was not mandatory, it is not possible to say whether any user posted more than one message using a different name. the result is based on how users are identified. 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(ed.). democracy and difference. princeton: princeton university press. situating learning for digital inclusion in the social context of communities situating learning for digital inclusion in the social context of communities fabio n. akhras centro de tecnologia da informação renato archer   abstract: an approach to support learning for digital inclusion has been developed which situates learning for digital inclusion in the social context of communities. central to this approach is a commitment to a view of learning that emphasises the role of the context in learning and points to the importance of learning in authentic situations. while digital inclusion programs tend to focus more specifically on teaching people how to use computers and the internet, the approach presented in this paper takes a different perspective. according to this approach, to be effective learning for digital inclusion has to be situated in the social context of the learners and be based on authentic activities of project development that address issues of these social contexts. this makes it possible to connect digital inclusion to social inclusion in profitable ways, improving the possibilities of underdeveloped communities obtaining social inclusion through digital inclusion, and creating self-sustainable forms of social development. the approach is being applied in a program of digital and social inclusion that is being carried out in a rural community of agricultural families in the brazilian northwest. keywords: digital inclusion, authentic situations, social context, learning portals.   1. introduction the aim of this paper is to present an approach to digital inclusion which situates learning for digital inclusion in the social context of communities. central to this approach is a commitment to a view of learning that emphasises the role of the context in learning and points to the importance of learning in authentic situations. while digital inclusion programs tend to focus more specifically on teaching people how to use computers and the internet, the approach presented in this paper takes a different perspective. according to this approach, to be effective learning for digital inclusion has to be situated in the social context of the learners and be based on authentic activities of project development that address issues of these social contexts. this makes it possible to connect digital inclusion to social inclusion in profitable ways, improving the possibilities of underdeveloped communities obtaining social inclusion through digital inclusion, and creating self-sustainable forms of social development. the approach includes three phases. in the first phase, the focus is on allowing children to address their social context through digital inclusion activities. to do so, the children of the community are involved in the development of small projects in which they can learn an internet language and use that language to express issues of their social context. in this phase, learning for digital inclusion is based on the development of prototypes of learning portals in which the students learn html and use that language to create content for learning portals on subjects that are relevant to their community. these projects with learning portals provide the authentic activities that make learning for digital inclusion meaningful for the children. the objective of the second phase is to promote the digital inclusion of the teachers of the rural school where the project is being developed, with a focus on allowing them to address the school context in digital inclusion activities. this involves the development of a digital inclusion program for the teachers that is similar to the one developed for the students, but with a different focus. in this program the teachers learn an internet language (also html) and use that language to develop prototypes of learning portals based on content that they create on subjects that they teach at the school. the first and second phase will run in parallel. in the third phase of the approach, the aim is to extend the work done in the two previous phases to the whole community, involving them in creating a free learning portal on issues of their social context to be used to promote and facilitate social inclusion, with a view of preparing them for independent learning based on the internet. the prototypes of learning portals developed by the students and the teachers in the first and second phases of the digital inclusion program will then evolve to become a free learning portal on issues that are relevant to the development of the whole community. in the next sections we describe these three phases of the program of digital and social inclusion that we are developing in a rural community of agricultural families in the brazilian northwest. the aim is to situate learning for digital inclusion in the social context of these communities in order to enable the development of social inclusion from digital inclusion. 2. authentic situations for digital inclusion according to contemporary theories of learning, the social and physical context of the situation in which learning takes place is an integral part of what is learned in the situation, and is what makes learning in the situation meaningful. these theories also emphasize the central role of constructive activity in meaningful learning. in addition, according to a situated learning perspective, learning is a matter of constructing an identity and of participating in a community of practice, so that learners can develop the capacity to act as members of the community in which this knowledge is situated and meaningful (brown, collins and duguid, 1989; lave and wenger, 1991). therefore, in order to provide a productive learning environment, the context of the learning activities, in addition to the content and dynamics of these activities, should be an issue to be carefully considered in the design of the learning environment. for example, studies that compared the conditions in which learning develops in school with those that are present when learning happens out of school have pointed out to the importance of learning in authentic situations (resnick, 1987). authentic situations are situations that take into consideration the activities that people develop in the real life contexts in which the knowledge learned is applied, so that learners can understand the generative power of the items of knowledge that they are learning (greeno, 1989; brown, collins and duguid, 1989). addressing these views in our work to support learning for digital and social inclusion we have developed an approach in which learning for digital inclusion occurs in authentic situations. the two main characteristics of the approach that support this view are the construction of learning portals and the use of audiovisuals. the construction by learners and teachers of learning portals on subjects that are relevant to their social and school contexts, using visual representations of these contexts, enables them to deal with real issues of these contexts in project-based constructive activities that will provide the authentic learning situations for digital inclusion. 3. addressing the social and the school contexts in the first phase of our approach to digital inclusion we involve the students in the development of information technology projects in which they can learn information technology languages and become able to express themselves in these languages. in the program that we are developing in the brazilian northwestern region, the language that they are learning is html and the projects in which the students will work to learn the language include the development of prototypes of learning portals in a subject that is relevant to the social context in which the students live. the students come from poor rural communities in a region that has a potential for the development of an agriculture that can be used for the production of bio-diesel, which is viewed as a way of generating income and promoting social inclusion to these communities. a program of training farmers to cultivate plants that can be used to produce oil is being developed in the region as part of a government plan to increase the production of renewable sources of energy by small farms in order to provide social inclusion. this is the social context of the community in which our program of digital inclusion is being applied. therefore, the social context of the digital inclusion students is characterized by the following: ·         an agricultural community that is changing to a new kind of agriculture and needs to learn new agricultural techniques. ·         an agricultural community that needs to participate in a new kind of business to sell the product of their farms for the production of bio-diesel. in this context, the prototypes of learning portals that the learners will be developing to learn html will be based on the training that will be given to the farmers in the new agricultural techniques. to be used as part of the content of these learning portals, we will produce audiovisuals of the training program during its development, with the participation of the students. this will provide authentic situations (the training of farmers of the community in the new agricultural techniques) and constructive activities (the building of real learning portals in a real context) for learning. the whole program of learning for digital inclusion will take one year to be applied in a rural community of the northwestern region and the plan includes a second year in which another more distant rural community will be reached. the program includes an introductory course in which the elements of the html language will be introduced to the students, and practical activities in which the students will work in the development of the projects of learning portals. a summary of the activities that are being developed in the program of learning for digital inclusion, with regard to the development of the projects of learning portals, is presented below. 1)      teaching html to the students in an introductory course based on lectures and exercises addressing social subjects. 2)      obtaining information for the development of the learning portals, which will involve the students and the farmers working together, as well as the agriculture instructors. 3)      producing audiovisuals about the subject, integrated with the training program. 4)      design of the prototypes of learning portals by the students, using the audiovisuals produced. 5)      implementation of the prototypes of learning portals by the students, using the html language. 6)      exposing the prototypes of learning portals to use by people to obtain feedback. in the second phase of our approach to digital inclusion we involve the teachers in the development of information technology projects in which they can learn information technology languages and become able to express themselves in these languages. in the program that we are developing in the brazilian northwestern region, the language they are learning is also html and the projects in which the teachers will work to learn the language include the development of prototypes of learning portals on subjects that are relevant to the school context in which the teachers work. in this phase, the focus of the learning portals will be the subjects that are taught in the school. the teachers of the rural school where the project is being developed are already working on the development of learning materials that are contextualized to the region. this material will be the basis for the creation of content for the learning portals. the activities to be developed in this second phase include the following: 1)      teaching html to the teachers in an introductory course based on lectures and exercises addressing school subjects. 2)      obtaining information for the development of the learning portals, which will involve the teachers working on the learning material that they use to teach at the school. 3)      producing audiovisuals about the subjects that are part of the learning material. 4)      design of the prototypes of learning portals by the teachers, using the audiovisuals produced. 5)      implementation of the prototypes of learning portals by the teachers, using the html language. 6)      exposing the prototypes of learning portals to use by the students to obtain feedback. the rural school where the project is being developed has just received a link to the internet, and the teachers have never used it as yet. the digital inclusion program applied to the teachers will help them not only to use the internet but also to create content for the internet to support their classes. 4. building learning portals for the social inclusion of communities one of the main aspects of our approach to digital inclusion in social contexts is that in order to learn an information technology language (such as html), students and teachers develop information technology projects in which they use that language to address real issues of their social and school contexts. these projects provide the authentic activities that make their learning for digital inclusion meaningful. however, the more central aspect of the approach lies not in the fact that learning is based on authentic project development activities, but in the fact that the projects that are developed by students and teachers in their learning processes are projects of learning portals. this allows us to address two issues that are important for pursuing the next phase of the digital inclusion program, which points to independent learning. first, in the process of creating the content for their learning portals the students become authors of the knowledge that needs to be learned by the people of their community to improve their lives (the new agricultural techniques), and the teachers become authors of the knowledge that needs to be learned by the students at school. in this process, they gain an understanding of the issue of knowledge representation in learning portals that is also grounded in an authentic context and, therefore, is more comprehensible to them. second, the use of audiovisual media to represent part of the knowledge that constitutes the content of the learning portals allows the learners to address the tacit aspects of the knowledge as well as its social, cultural and physical dimensions in a more effective way. therefore, at the end of this process, students and teachers have not only acquired literacy in ways of expressing information to the internet but also acquired literacy in ways of learning through the internet, as they have become prepared to understand as well as to create and use learning portals. this is a very valuable literacy because it is a literacy that gives them more autonomy to learn from the internet. it is also a literacy in learning to learn, which brings them further empowerment. the third phase of the digital inclusion program follows from this point and is based on the creation and use of free learning portals to support social inclusion. the prototypes of learning portals developed by the students in the first phase of the digital inclusion program will now evolve to become a free learning portal on issues of bio-diesel production. this may have several further consequences for the community. first, the learning portals can continue to be developed and become a future source of information to farmers, providing for their digital inclusion too, turning into an information technology artifact that is relevant to the farmers' community. second, the learning portals in its continuing development can be a way of connecting the farmers to other communities in the bio-diesel production chain, improving their connectedness and digital inclusion in useful ways. furthermore, the work of creating a learning portal with the participation of the community, using the prototypes of learning portals developed by the students in their digital inclusion projects, is an important step to insert the community into the information society. therefore, in order to support the third phase of the digital inclusion program we need to develop a framework for the creation and use of free learning portals, which is discussed next. 4.1 designing learning situations the main issue addressed in the design of free learning portals is the learner´s autonomy to learn. free learning portals should provide a flexible and adaptive support to the learner, facilitating independent learning and making it possible for the learners to learn according to their interests and needs. in addition, in our approach to digital inclusion, learning is situated in social contexts. therefore, an issue to be addressed in the design of a free learning portal for digital and social inclusion is the role of the context in learning. taking this issue into consideration in the design of a learning portal leads to the need to represent the contexts of learning as central components of learning interactions in the portal, and of situating learning activities in these contexts. to represent the context of learning in learning environments, we have developed an approach that is based on a model of situations (akhras, 2005). designing the learning portal according to this model means organizing the knowledge to be learned in the portal in terms of situations, rather then solely in terms of information to be accessed. this leads to a situation-oriented approach to the design of learning portals in which the portal pages are created with a focus on the content and dynamics of learning situations. the content may include sources of information as well as other entities, and the dynamics may include ways of accessing information as well as ways of developing other kinds of interaction with the entities of the situation. taking a situation-oriented approach to the design of learning portals involves consideration of the following general principles (brown, collins and duguid, 1989; bednar, cunningham, duffy and perry, 1992): -        learning situations have to be authentic, portraying activities of the real life contexts in which the knowledge learned is applied. -        learning situations will embody the social and cultural aspects related to these contexts, reflected, for example, in the practices of members of the community, their common views, and their tools. these aspects of learning situations may appear in the portal in the form of images, sound, text, graphics or computational simulations. to provide ways for learners to develop meaningful and productive learning interactions, the opportunities for activity in learning situations may include the following: -        action events (including ways of accessing, using or creating information, or other entities of a domain, in the context provided by a situation). -        communication events (including ways of communicating with other learners or living entities in the context provided by a situation). through these kinds of activity, learners interact in a situation taking the physical or conceptual entities of the situation as objects of their actions and producing new or transformed entities. 4.2 supporting independent learning in order to facilitate independent learning a free learning portal must be adaptive to the learner. this leads to the need for monitoring learning situations. monitoring learning situations allows us to collect meaningful data about the interactions that occur in these situations. the data collected will be analysed to look for desirable characteristics in the learning process developed. this analysis will be used to guide the adaptation of the learning portal, and the adaptation is in terms of providing access to the user, to those learning situations that will be more helpful to the user in terms of facilitating the development of the desirable characteristics in the next steps of his or her learning process. therefore, these two concerns – situation-oriented and adaptive – are the main requirements of free learning portals for digital and social inclusion. on that basis we have produced a general design of a free learning portal to be used in our work with the community, in the third phase of the digital and social inclusion program. this general design, which is briefly described below, will support the work to extend the prototypes of learning portals to create a free learning portal. a central aspect of a free learning portal is the adaptation of the content (the learning situations) to the needs of the users, in the course of the learning process. this requires the design of a system intelligence that can provide the kind of adaptation needed (akhras and self, 2000). the learning portal that we have designed on the basis of the issues discussed above consists of a set of web pages which characterise learning situations. each situation contains audiovisual content of the knowledge to be learned and its context, and means of interacting with this content. the access to these pages is based on a learning strategy which takes into consideration the learning goals, the user’s previous course of interaction in the portal situations, and the knowledge acquired by the user in these situations. the portal also offers the possibility of choice of situations to be accessed by the user. on the basis of this, the portal will operate as follows. 1)      at each moment a set of situations (web pages) which attend the user needs in that particular moment of his of her learning process is presented to the user for a choice of a situation to access next. 2)      the choice of the situation to access next is made by the user or by the portal (by the adaptation system) according to the moment of the learning process or by user choice. 3)      accessing a web page makes the user enter the learning situation characterised by that page allowing him or her to interact with the content of that situation. 4)      all interactions occur in a situation that is relevant to obtaining the observations needed to adapt the portal to the user´s needs and are recorded by the portal (by the adaptation system). 5)      on the basis of the recorded data of the interactions which occurred in the web page, the portal captures aspects of the user performance in the learning situation, such as the knowledge learned or failed to learn in the interactions with the situation, determining the user´s state of knowledge and the course of her or his learning process. this will provide information to the adaptation system of the portal. 6)      from the user´s state of knowledge, the learning goal, the learning situations available (with their content and dynamics), the previous occurrences of the learning process, and on the basis of a defined learning strategy, the adaptation system of the portal determines the learning situations that are more beneficial to the user, at that moment of his or her learning process. this corresponds to the adaptation of the portal to the user´s needs. 7)      as a result of this adaptation a set of situations, and corresponding web pages, are provided which can attend the current needs of the user, and a new cycle starts, from the step (1) above, until the intended learning process has been completed and the learning goals have been achieved. in the first phase of the digital inclusion program, students from a rural community are creating prototypes of learning portals on a subject that is relevant to the social inclusion of their community. in the second phase, which is running in parallel with the first phase, the teachers of the rural school where the project is being developed are learning an internet language to create content for learning portals on subjects of their teaching that are relevant to the school context. in the third phase of the digital inclusion program, these prototypes of learning portals developed by the students will evolve to become a free learning portal on the subject of agricultural techniques for the production of bio-diesel, to be used by the communities involved in the bio-diesel production program. the work to move from these prototypes, which were developed for the purpose of learning for digital inclusion, to a complete learning portal to be made available to the communities for free learning, is a work of design that should involve the users. after the first and second phases of the digital inclusion program, in which students and teachers acquired literacy on issues of learning portals, they are now able to participate in the design of a learning portal that can be more attuned to the issues and views of their community. 5. conclusion we have described an approach to learning for digital inclusion which takes into consideration the social and school context of students and teachers of a rural community and is based on authentic activities. in doing so, the digital inclusion program is integrated to the social context of the community where the program is applied with a view of facilitating the development of social inclusion from digital inclusion. the approach is being applied in a program of digital and social inclusion that is being carried out in a rural community of agricultural families in the brazilian northwest, and involves three phases. in the first and second phases, learning for digital inclusion is based on the development of prototypes of learning portals in which students and teachers learn the html language and use that language to create prototypes of learning portals on subjects that are relevant to their contexts. in the third phase, a more advanced approach is explored with the aim of working with the members of the community to prepare them for independent learning and also to involve them in creating a free learning portal on issues of their social context (bio-diesel production) to be used to promote and facilitate social inclusion. the main characteristics of the approach, are: the construction of learning portals – the construction by learners and teachers of learning portals on subjects of their social and school contexts using visual representations of these contexts, allowing students and teachers to deal with issues of their social and school contexts in project-based constructive activities that will be part of their learning for digital inclusion. the use of audiovisuals – the production and use of audiovisuals on subjects of the social and school contexts of students and teachers as a way of providing visual representations of aspects of these contexts to be used in the projects that students and teachers will develop as part of the digital inclusion program. the focus on learning to learn – the focus on learning to learn, through the development of learning portals, will allow students and teachers to go from literacy in digital technologies to literacy in learning from digital technologies. the application of a community-centred design approach – the design of free learning portals as an activity that will involve the community which will enrich the digital inclusion process and ground the design of the free learning portal in an authentic context. finally, the main purpose of the approach described in this paper is to situate learning for digital inclusion in the social context of communities, in order to create the conditions for the members of the community to become independent learners, so that they can provide for their own further digital and social inclusion. 6. acknowledgements the work reported in this paper is being sponsored by the national council of scientific and technological development (cnpq) in cooperation with the secretary of the agricultural family (saf) of the ministry of agricultural 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(1987).  learning in school and out.  educational researcher, 16(9), 13-20. a canadian election programme for digital citizenship and social equity michael gurstein editor in chief: journal of community informatics, vancouver, canada. email: gurstein@gmail.com the internet and digital technologies have gone from exotic to commonplace in the blink of an eye. the internet and digital technologies now provide the platform for much of the world's economic, social, cultural and political activities. the resulting transformations in the way we conventionally do things presents enormous risks as well as benefits-accelerating economic inequalities which appear to have partial roots in digital technology; the rise of digital surveillance and the "surveillance state"; the vulnerabilities built into remotely managed and controlled digital systems putting individuals and communities at continuing risk of catastrophic failures; all of this alongside unprecedented opportunities for increasing efficiencies in and universalizing access to information and to the means of production and distribution, and thus for realizing broadly based social equity. at the heart of these developments and their risks is the inability of current systems of public accountability to allow citizens to determine the broad directions for their communities and their own rights and responsibilities in a digital age. existing forms of democratic control and citizenship do not seem adequate to the task. rather there appears to be the need for a new form of citizenship, one which can renew the accountability of institutions of governance, of assigning the rights and responsibilities of individuals and communities in the context of this digital transformation-a form of digitally enabled citizenship adequate to the digital age-a "digital citizenship" for short. it is thus surprising how little attention has been paid to the internet and the digital in canada's current election campaign. the only mention to date has been the conservative's dusting off previous funding commitments for broadband for rural and remote areas. the only extensive outside election-focused discussion of internet based issues and policies is the useful but limited contribution from openmedia.ca. in the following i want to lay out what hopefully may function as an initial program towards a "digital citizenship" a form of digitally enabled and enhanced citizenship for the internet age; and one which takes as its basic assumption the internet's transformational risks and opportunities. this is presented in the form of an election "platform" a set of principles and policies which gives citizens a choice as to directions they may wish to follow. principles 1. inclusive openness-openness of systems, institutions, information along with the attendant processes and supports for broad-based inclusive participation; and inclusiveness in participation and control over systems and institutions enabled by information openness to achieve the maximum of accountability; 2. decentralized and distributed control towards the local and the community-based with means provided to support such initiatives; 3. internet and the digital as a supporting and equalizing 'playing field' on which various social, political, economic and cultural activities can take place, both in collaborative and competitive modes; 4. social and economic equity as ultimate goals for system enhancement and development towards a program for universal canadian digital citizenship 1. fundamental to achieving digital citizenship is access to the opportunity and means to use digital technologies-a commitment to ensuring the opportunity for full internet access and use to all canadians. there are now multiple means for delivering the internet under the widest variety of physical and geographic conditions. there thus must be a formal commitment to ensuring for all canadians a level of internet access sufficient to ensure that the user can be a fully active citizen in the digital age. such a commitment needs to include not simply physical access to the systems/the internet but also the range of education, training, linguistic, disability and other supports required to ensure the opportunity for the effective use of the internet and digital systems for the full range of activities which constitute active and effective digital citizenship. 2. among the most significant strategies for providing high speed low cost access at the local level particularly in smaller and more remote communities is through community based initiatives in the self-provision of broadband internet access. such initiatives should be encouraged and supported and recognized as a desirable option among the range of internet delivery options. 3. associated with this is the need to ensure that those who are the least able to undertake effective digital citizenship have access to facilities community access and innovation hubs (caihs) where the devices, training and supports required for for digital citizenship are made locally available. the development of these facilities as technology access, training and community innovation and makerspace centres would be fundamental to universalizing digital citizenship in canada. the network of these centres, in many locations in cooperation with local schools and post-secondary education facilities, would provide an important source of community innovation, a site for community based digital training and upgrading, and a training ground for student interns as support workers among others. 4. the canadian telecommunications policy and regulatory environment needs clear direction away from corporate control of the fundamental elements of the internet delivery system which is fundamental to the effective exercise of digital citizenship and a digitally enhanced democracy. it is important that such notions as "net neutrality"; restrictions on cross media and more recently platform ownership and vertical integration; the need for diversity of content and local content requirements, become enacted in law and become the direction for regulatory interventions by the crtc. 5. canada's small and medium sized business sector has been one of the slowest sectors (including among its peers in other oecd countries) in adopting and making effective use of digital technologies. the caih would act as a trainer, enabler and support for sme's at the local level to get on board with digital technologies and provide the means through which the variety of supports currently available for digitally-enabled small business (including e and mcommerce) could be provided in an adapted and user appropriate form at the local level. this would be of particular benefit in rural, marginalized and more remote parts of canada where such services and supports are not currently available and would bring the economic benefits of digital citizenship directly into all canadian communities. 6. a key element in creating digital citizenship would be a national program of training in digital citizenship in the public schools through enhanced programs in digital literacy, teaching students how to use computing and the internet to accomplish the range of their daily tasks and as well teaching them of the various risks involved in such use. 7. canada's medicare program is a key component of canadian citizenship. a national community-based digitally-enabled health and wellness program would go some way to providing support for primary health care particularly in rural and remote regions and among marginalized populations in urban areas 8. this national digital health and wellness program would have a particular focus on rethinking and re-planning health and wellness for our ageing population including how the variety of community and family focused internet enabled technologies can support initiatives for the elderly and the provision of appropriate home care and associated support services. the training and support for this new program could be conducted through the cith with close liaison with existing healthcare facilities. 9. our institutions for the support of democratic governance have not evolved with the of digital technologies and the internet. this is in part a cause of the "democratic deficit". a national internet based initiative is proposed to rethink and restructure democratic participation in governance including through the extension of open government information/data programs and as well a re-examination of the role and functioning of democratic representation in the age of digital citizenship. this would include an examination of how peer to peer processes could most effectively be included to enable enhanced digital citizen participation in policy development, policy analysis and policy evaluation. 10. canada's role in the rapidly evolving global internet governance ecology has atrophied dramatically in recent years. there is a need for a reformulation of canada's role and interventions in global internet governance processes based on notions of national and global digital citizenship and social equity and including a belief in the need for an equitable distribution of the economic and other benefits of internet technology and internet commerce. 11. privacy and surveillance have emerged as among the most significant policy issues of the digital age. once bill c: 51 has been abolished, there will be the need for a broad based task force review including the use of open participation processes for obtaining the knowledge and experience of experts and citizens on the appropriate balance between the need for privacy and the need for information access on the part of public authorities and the desire for access on the part of commercial entities. 12. canadian technical assistance has been adrift for years. programs to extend and enable digital citizenship globally with overseas partners could revitalize these activities and provide an important mission for canada's technical assistance contributions. 13. canadian first nations and indigenous peoples can gain immensely through full digital citizenship. extra-ordinary efforts must be made to extend the opportunities for in the first instance internet access and through this full digital citizenship to first nations and indigenous peoples building on existing successful models from indigenous communities. 14. it is being observed that the opportunities being presented by digital technologies are being differentially utilized by men and women. extra-ordinary efforts are needed particularly in the primary and secondary school levels to ensure through training, mentoring, applied education that women and girls are equal canadian digital citizens. 15. a small number of global internet platforms are emerging as dominant even monopolistic, in the global internet environment-google, amazon, facebook and a small number of others. these platforms have enormous economic, social and cultural power and it is necessary to ensure that this power is not being used to in ways which materially impact on the rights and responsibilities of canadian digital citizens. it is thus necessary to review canada's positions with respect to the range of emerging global internet platforms to develop appropriate policy frameworks including in privacy, equitable tax distribution, ensuring of net neutrality both at the technical and at the content levels and as well to explore the existence of and support for local platforms for anchoring digital social, economic and cultural activity at the local, regional and national levels. 16. the internet as the emerging social and cultural platform provides the opportunity either to enhance or suppress the range of languages. efforts must be made to identify appropriate ways to enhance the opportunities for multiple languages and particularly for languages as the wellspring of local culture and identity to flourish in the digital environment. canadian policies and programs in the internet and digital areas have for years been fragmented and without clear direction or priorities. the current canadian government while promising a digital development plan over several years in the end only produced a "talking points" document, ignoring issues of equity and distributed development while re-hashing long standing programs and commitments. the digital age deserves much better. what is being proposed in the above is only the beginnings of an approach to the kind of comprehensive adaptation and development which will be necessary to ensure full digital citizenship for all canadians and which ensures that canada and all canadians are fully benefiting from digital technologies while minimizing the associated risks. the above does not even attempt to address the very real risks of large scale under and unemployment which are emerging from "smart technologies", artificial intelligence and robotics for example. what is needed at the core of the canadian government is an agency empowered to act in a comprehensive and integrative manner across departments and agencies to facilitate the adaptations and change required. equally it is necessary that such an agency fully integrate into its operations the opportunities for the broadest base of participation by the public, local communities and the various technical and commercial stakeholders in the digital ecology. finding ways of facilitating effective and inclusive participation in the policy and programme development activities of this digital development agencies may just be one of the most important and far reaching tasks that is to be accomplished. “school of the future” research laboratory/usp: action research and emerging literacies studies in web 2.0 environments “school of the future” research laboratory/usp: action research and emerging literacies studies in web 2.0 environments       brasilina passarelli university of sao paulo. school of communication and arts. information science department. school of the future research laboratory.      abstract: this research report introduces school of the future research laboratory at university of sao paulo brazil main projects and programs developed since 2007. therefore abstracts of action research projects and programs are presented, as well as a general overview on theoretical studies approaches to study emerging literacies on web 2.0 contexts through virtual ethnography. regarding in-progress projects information presented cover issues as: main objectives, chronology, structure, target audience and funding sources. in order to introduce the sinergy among action research projects and theoretical studies on social networks and their impacts on the areas of communication, education and information, research studies conducted by digital culture observatory at school of the future research laboratory are listed as books, technical reports (ponline) as well as masters and doctoral dissertations. keywords: school of the future research laboratory/usp; digital inclusion; virtual ethnography; emerging literacies on web 2.0 studies; information literacy studies; digital collectives knowledge production.   1school of the future research laboratory [nap ef/usp]: origins and mission   figure 1 – nap escola do futuro/usp web portal (http://www.futuro.usp.br) the research center for new communications technologies applied to education escola do futuro/usp (nap ef/usp) began activities in 1989[1]. in january 1993 it was instituted as a research center, an entity under the control of the dean’s office for university research studies. since its inauguration its mission has been to improve education in brazil through the introduction of ict´s (information and communications technology) and web networking into formal and informal learning and teaching environments. in order to do so nap ef/usp developed a partnership model involving university, society and different research funding agencies and government spheres to fund action research projects. initially, it was funded by seventy research scholarships provided by cnpq (brazilian national research agency) and, over the past twenty years, it has gained additional financing from other official research agencies as fapesp and capes, as well as through agreements and contracts with both private and state-run institutions. with its projects and research activities, the objective of nap ef/usp is to implement innovative proposals that contribute to the reconfiguration of learning and teaching processes, through the use of the internet and other multimedia resources. accordingly, its operational activities are guided by core principles such as a commitment to research and the evaluation of different educational strategies and the application of academic research to classroom practice. besides promoting the exchange of practices and knowledge among educators of national and international academic institutions, nap ef/usp also contributes for the development of a new generation of educators, who consider the interface among education, communication and information to be a fertile ground for collective knowledge construction. in september 2006 the scientific coordination of nap ef/usp gained new management directives, shifting the focus to projects and programs that incorporate digital technology into formal and informal education and citizenship initiatives, as well as the development of theoretical research projects on social networks and their impacts on the areas of communication, education and information. projects implemented by nap ef/usp are based on the action research model, which brings together the subject and the object of research. the researcher is inserted into the population group involved in the research and all involved participants take part on the process of knowledge creation (thiollent, 1986: p.14). understanding media universe and new ways of learning, teaching and producing knowledge in this context requires qualitative and quantitative studies regarding the impacts of ict on contemporary life. in an attempt to illuminate new aspects of the “network society”nap ef/usp instituted  in 2007 the digital culture observatory devoted to theoretical research whose purposes are to investigate emerging literacies on web 2.0 environments focusing on the concept of literacy as a set of social practices as proposed by different researchers as warschauer[2]; the individual and collective production of knowledge in network  environments and, therefore,  new forms of authorship inspired on digital collectives and “other network players” at the intersection of hybrid frontiers that make up the so-called “skin of culture”, concepts raised by authors like de kerckhove, castells and latour, among others [3]. a usual research methodology used by nap ef/usp is virtual ethnographic perspective to investigate new behaviors of players immersed in cyberculture. the development of a perspective that links intervention projects on digital inclusion and emerging literacies to theoretical research enables nap ef/usp both to act on and to evaluate the historical, social and economic context in which they occur. this double articulation favors feedback among projects and research activities, and helps to shed some light on the new format of contemporary life. by articulating this duality among projects and research activities, this research report details the entity’s activities at the forefront of digital culture, with regards to the execution of pioneering projects involving the introduction of computers into teaching/learning environments, such as in the case of bibvirt – the virtual library for portuguese-speaking students, one of the first brazilian virtual libraries, launched in 1996 and deactivated in 2008. this virtual library had around five thousand users per day and received nine ibest[4] awards in the digital inclusion category. other pioneering projects involving digital inclusion in both public and private schools also deserve to be highlighted, such as the mutirão digital (“net day”) project (1998-2000), in conjunction with the são paulo state rotary foundation, whose purpose was to promote the digital inclusion of students and teachers in both public and private school systems in brazil. two seminal projects were born in the wake of net day project, with efforts focused on the digital inclusion of students and teachers. in são paulo state public school sphere, the project tôligado – o jornalinterativo da suaescola [“your school’s interactive newspaper”] was implemented in the 2002-06 period, in conjunction with the são paulo state education department. this project was a pioneer in promoting the collective production of knowledge among students in the internet environment. around 2000 schools from the public school network took part and, all in all, about 5,000,000 students were responsible for the publication of around 8000 papers. on the national front, we developed the project tônomundo, from 2000 to 2009, in conjunction with oifuturo (ex-telemar), which focused on digital inclusion in public schools situated in counties of up to 10,000 residents with low hdi rates, with special emphasis on public schools in the north and north-eastern regions in brazil. it is also worth highlighting our teacher training initiative for ict adoption, which was of fundamental importance to the success of the program itself, due to the precarious conditions experienced by the communities where it was implemented. this research report presents a summary of main projects and research activities currently underway. in chapter 1nap ef/usp: origins and mission a brief history and a small summary of the first vanguard projects of ict in education are presented. chapter 2 main projects: the context of action research describes the main action research projects (intervention), detailing their mission, chronology, structure, target audience, objectives and means of financing. chapter 3 main research activities: the digital culture observatory introduces a scenario focusing our scientific production published as books, technical reports and masters and doctoral thesis. chapter 4 – building futures presents a discussion on emerging literacies on web 2.0, as well as virtual ethnography as a method for field research in virtual worlds. chapter 5 – references ends this report with a list of referenced works and webgraphy. 2 – main projects: the context of action research the action research projects developed by nap ef/usp over the last twenty years are characterized by their incorporation into both formal and informal educational contexts, as well as into contexts that promote digital protagonism and citizenship. accordingly, they will be categorized here into social networks for citizenship and social networks for formal education. 2.1 – social networks for citizenship (under execution) 2.1.1 acessasp (network são paulo) period: 2000 2010 financing institution: public management department of são paulo state government figure 2 – acessasp website (http://www.acessasp.sp.gov.br/)    in conjunction with the são paulo state government, managed by prodesp (são paulo state data processing company) under the coordination of the public management department, this program for digital inclusion and social protagonism has become the most distinguished digital inclusion program in the state of são paulo and it has become a reference nationwide. the indicators below attest to the significance of the acessasp program: • 10 years of operational history • 50,829,596 people impacted • 2,068,282 registered users • 602 acessasp kiosks currently operating • 42 kiosks being implemented • 543 counties served • 1,172 monitors trained instituted in july 2000, the acessasp program creates and maintains public spaces called service kiosks or infocenters and/or telecenters, staffed by trained monitors who mediate unrestricted and free access to the internet, thus contributing to the social, cultural, intellectual and economic development of citizens in the lower income bracket residing in the state of são paulo. the acessasp program has two different types of infocenters. the project is implemented in counties in conjunction with local governments, and it is generally accommodated in county libraries. public internet access kiosks (popai’s)have been implemented in conjunction with são paulo state government departments and entities, such as the poupatempo public services center, the bom prato community restaurants, bus terminals, train and subway stations and state government offices. besides the creation and maintenance of public internet access centers, acessasp also produces digital and non-digital content for training and informing users. it also carried out on-site and virtual actions that contribute to the conscious use of the internet and other new technologies, as well as other community projects that use information technology. the acessasp digital inclusion program was awarded the “máriocovas prize “ for innovation in public management in the state of são paulo” in 2006, 2007 and 2009, as well as the arede [the network] award in 2009 and 2010. the impact of brazilian public policy pertaining to digital inclusion is evidenced by the brazilian dominance of on-line social networks. a recent report in the o estado de são paulo newspaper stated that 86% of brazilians that use the internet also participate in on-line social networks, the highest rate of penetration in the world; italians appear in second place, with 77% of penetration rate.[5] 2.1.2 portal da juventude [youth web portal] project period: 2009 2010 financing institution: são paulo city government department of international relations figure 3 – youth website (www.juventude.sp.gov.br/) developed by the youth programs unit of the state of são paulo, the portal da juventude project (youth website) is aimed at the digital inclusion of youths in the state of são paulo. the purpose of this partnership is to promote content production and pedagogic support for the website and to lay out state public policy positions pertaining to youth. it was also conceived to expand and activate on-line youth networks in the state of são paulo. instituted in 2009 (and consequently without solid indicators to be presented), the aim of this project is to provide the youth community of são paulo state (mainly) with information on their rights and all public policy matters pertaining to this segment, as well as to establish a communications structure that motivates youth to participate in the programs carried out by the state government through participation in the youth web portal. by providing information and services to this segment of the population, the project also publicizes state government actions, thus making knowledge on them more available and accessible to youths. in order to attain these objectives, nap ef/usp carries out various stages of conception, development, implementation and evaluation of research, as well as pedagogic and technical support and the inclusion and adaptation of social communications technologies. it also carries out an ongoing evaluation of the content of the website, develops applications that empower and articulate the young target public on the network, creates usability diagnostics, as well as qualitative and quantitative research on youth issues. elements of cyberculture and web analytics, collaborative systems and web 2.0 go to make up the program’s actions aimed at youths and youth protagonism on the internet, thus constructing an innovative project that employs an architecture directed at the participation and exploitation of collective intelligence potential. 2.2 social networks in education (under execution) 2.2.1 investigações ambientais na escola [environmental investigations in schools] period: 2008 2010 financing institution: petróleo brasileiro sa. (petrobras)   figure 4 – environmental investigations in schools web portal (http://www.investigacoesambientais.futuro.usp.br/) this project acts on transformations in the learning-teaching process by implementing methodologies at a virtual learning community directed at science teaching in schools. the activities being developed are directly linked to education, through research into the area of science teaching, the production and evaluation of didactic material and the implementation of multi-disciplinary and investigative projects. a team of biologists, chemists, physicists and pedagogues create different scientific virtual investigative projects that address real issues in various contexts in the areas of biology, physics and chemistry. the group has already involved more than 500 teachers, 100,000 students and 100 schools all over brazil and other south american countries in its research. the target public consists of students aged 7 to 17, in both public and private schools. currently, research is being carried out in county schools in the city of cubatão (state of são paulo), in conjunction with the center for environmental training and research (cepema), sponsored by petrobras. 2.2.2 clubinho faber castell [“faber castell kids’ club”] period: 2008 2010 financing institution: faber-castell figure 5 -clubinho faber-castell web portal (http://www.clubinhofaber.futuro.usp.br/ ) developed in conjunction with the faber-castell company since 2008, the clubinho faber-castell is an art-education project for pre-school students, consisting of a virtual environment featuring playful visual language and multi-disciplinary activities covering a range of subjects, such as ecology, sustainability, citizenship and recycling. the project involves students, teachers, parents and the communities in school neighborhoods. it has more than 2,000 registered users and 5,000 activities produced by the users. nap ef/usp plays important role mediating the virtual community to emphasize new ways of learning and practices focusing visual arts. users, whether students (primary or intermediate level), their family members and teachers, can do the proposed activities, either in the classroom, at home or in an on-line environment. the virtual environment works as a go-between for the proposed on-line and off-line activities, whose results may be published in specific sections. activities posted in the environment can be viewed by other students, parents, teachers and internet users in general. games, tips and multimedia material are also available.   2.2.3 acessaescola [networked school] period: 2009 2010 financing institution: public management department of são paulo state government figure 6– the acessa escola web portal (http://acessaescola.fde.sp.gov.br/ ) the networked school program is being developed in conjunction with the public management department of são paulo state government, under the coordination of the foundation for educational development (fde). its purpose is to promote digital inclusion among state public school students and to provide access to digital culture to this segment of the population in a collaborative manner. through the internet, it enables users to access information and communications technologies for the creation of knowledge and the social empowerment of the school nucleus. it reaches almost 2,000 schools in 239 counties in the são paulo metropolitan area and in the state countryside, and it benefits around three million students, teachers and community residents. it also promotes exchanges among users members of the school community, such as teachers, employees and professionals that participate in the escola da família [school family] program, as well as trainees working in the program. one of the program main points of interest is its autonomy regarding the learning process, based on subjects of common interest and issues of extreme relevance to the management of digital inclusion programs.   2.2.4 entremeios (intermedia education project) period: 2010 2011 financing institution: the são bernardo do campo city education department this project aims to promote the integration of information and communication technologies (ict) in county public schools in são bernardo do campo in an attempt to remodeling the school environment within the context of modern technology, with schools adopting characteristics of cyberculture and educators also acting as cognitive architects, who view the learning process from the standpoint of digital natives. the project also intends to provide each participant in the learning process with means to reconfigure their roles, to integrate with ict in schools, to participate in a collaborative working community and to integrate technology into their educational practices in a natural manner. the target public consists of 600 teachers, 170 headmasters, 200 coordinators, 60 pedagogic advisers and 60 laboratory monitors. figure 7 entremeios website (page under construction)   3– main research projects: digital culture laboratory the purpose of nap ef/usp digital culture laboratory is to investigate network players behaviors in different contexts to develop research of both a purely theoretical nature, based exclusively on literature review about authors and concepts in question, as well as field research studies involving cyberspace populations using virtual ethnography methodology. this research regards internet both as an environment where cyberculture is created and reconstructed, leading to a study field in which the researcher must be immersed, and also as a product of a culture in which technology is produced by individuals with contextually situated objectives and priorities. it aims to understand attitudes and behaviors of internet users and how they interact with different sources of information; how they compare, analyze, select and transform data leading to knowledge construction in web 2.0 environment.   3.1 scientific production of the digital culture observatory the digital culture observatory modus operandi is based on researchers exchange among different units of the university of são paulo (such as communication and arts school; engineering school; philosophy, language, history, geography and human sciences school ; school of economics, administration and accounting, among others), as well as on agreements with other further educational institutions, both national and international. these partnerships objectives are to supply institutional support to students and teachers involved in scientific research in different areas of knowledge focusing on the confluence among communication, education and information. the studies developed at digital cultural observatory may result in master’s dissertations, doctoral theses and post-doctoral projects, to mention a few.  digital cultural observatory is currently undergoing a process of internationalization and since 2008, international agreements with the following entities have been signed: (i) university of porto (portugal) cetac.media institute; (ii) carlos iii university, madrid (spain) agustínmillares institute; (iii) university of london (england) ict4d collective at royal holloway. these agreements cover academic cooperation and exchange among the respective institutions for the development of research projects, scientific publications and other academic activities. digital culture observatory also aims to give visibility to academic scientific production (master’s dissertations, doctoral theses, ph.d theses, monographies, technical reports) through the publication of printed books and e-books, reconfigured as popular language for general consumption. therefore we have established an agreement with senac são paulo publishing house. original compilations on network society are also covered by this agreement. 3.1.1 – books and compilations published by senac sp publishers published in 2007, the book interfaces digitaisnaeducação: @lucin[ações] consentidas[“digital interfaces in education: consented allucinations”]was based on the ph.d. thesis by prof. dr. brasilinapassarelli and presents the ethnographic method to study four virtual communities for learning and practice projects, dedicated to different target audiences, detailing different on-site and distance learning possibilities. in 2009, the compilation inclusão digital e empregabilidade [“digital inclusion and employability”] was published dealing with studies of digital inclusion and its impacts on those in search of a position in a world that demands professional specialization. in 2010, the following publications have so far been produced: educaçãosemdistância [“non-distance education”] by romero tori, which provides a basis for education supported by interactive technologies, with digital media taking a prominent role and offering new forms of work and learning opportunities; linkania: uma teoria de redes [“linkania: a networks theory”] by hernanidimantas, deals with the rise and development of cyberculture in brazil, as well as the inclusion of cyberculture in different spheres of society, from the standpoint of experience and analysis, participatory research and theory. web e participação: democracia do século xxi [“the internet and participation: democracy in the xxi century”], by dricaguzzi, deals with the concept of public participation in programs, projects and initiatives established by governments of democratic states around the world. the latest anthology produced by digital observatory researchers is atoresemrede: olhar(es) luso-brasileiros(s) [“network actors: portuguese-brazilian views”] fruit of the agreement with porto university and to be launched in early 2011 by senac sp publishing house. 3.1.2  ponline on-line survey report[6] acessasp program has published ponline on an annual basis since 2002. this is an on-line survey of acessasp program users an extensive survey of internet users at the digital inclusion program to investigate user profiles and their on-line habits. its past editions gave us an overall view of the program development. ponline data presents performance indicators, which enable managers to identify priorities and parameters in order to decide where and how to apply efforts to improve the program. ponline also enables the data obtained from important surveys carried out in brazil and abroad to be technically and methodologically adapted, thus empowering retrospective analysis and may also lead to new studies on the impact of public policies regarding digital inclusion in the state of são paulo. 3.1.3 theses and dissertations on nap ef/usp action research projects among theses and dissertations underway[7] in the graduate program in communication sciences (ppgcom) of the communication and arts school at the university of são paulo, several have the purpose of studying action research projects developed by nap ef/usp. from 2007 to 2010 the following dissertations were presented in a jury: capobianco, ligia. communication and digital literacy on the internet: an ethnographical study and exploratory analysis of data from the acessasp digital inclusion program and ponline. são paulo: eca/usp, 2010. (master’s dissertation). chica, cristiane. further education of mediators of the acessasp digital inclusion program. são paulo: eca/usp, 2010. (master’s dissertation). freire, c.p. reputation criteria in digital communities: case study in the discipline of creating virtual communities for learning and practice. são paulo: eca/usp, 2010. 2009. (master’s dissertation). beskow, c. a. communication, education and digital inclusion: who is “connected” in the são paulo state school system? an analysis of the interactivity of the “tôligado” project: an interactive newspaper of your school. são paulo: eca/usp, 2008. (master’s dissertation). bliska, a.v. social capital in virtual communities for learning and practice.  são paulo: eca/usp, 2007. (master’s dissertation).   4. building futures nap ef/usp trajectory and, consequently, its current characteristics are mostly based on the articulation among digital inclusion action research programs and ethnographical research with the purpose of investigating and mapping emerging literacies on web 2.0 environments. these two instances provide feedback on knowledge production within the network, both for action research projects as well as for theoretical research. in the ebb and flow of projects and research activities, nap ef/usp has become an important “player” at the forefront of internet studies in brazil. whilst its first initiatives with regards to the internet were primarily directed at the digital divide with the purpose of enabling broader access to the network the second, and current set of initiatives has resulted from social networks phenomenon shifting the focus of research and projects on digital inclusion to web 2.0 emerging literacies. the word literacy is controversial and can have different meanings in portuguese: in terms of reading and writing, it is linked to the world of letters, education and learning, as a constructive process. however, it can also mean competence or ability. in the network society, the notion of literacy also refers to the capacity to interact and communicate through icts. it reflects the development of human communication formats and the means of knowledge production. while access is a pre-requisite for broad participation in knowledge society, literacy is also a pre-requisite for social protagonism and citizenship. according to gilster (1997) researcher who coined the term digital literacy it is the “logical extension of literacy itself, just as hypertext is an extension of the traditional reading experience” (1997, p.230). the author defines digital literacy as “the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers” (1997, p.1), and he extends the limits of the concept by stating that “digital literacy is equally about context” (1997, p.35). according to warschauer (2003), the notion of literacy can be divided into stages. in the 19th century, literary knowledge, rhetorical accuracy and the ability to write correctly were considered part of a paradigm that corresponded to the demands of the aristocratic social structure, where education involved tradition and power. from the last decade of the 20th century on, inside the knowledge society, literacy is related to abilities as knowledge construction through non-linear narratives, building new semantics and new logics, also considering creativity and expression development.  according to jones-kavalier and flanningan (2008, p.13-16), literacy is characterized by the ability to use information effectively and creatively. in the transformation from a lettered culture to a media and convergence culture, characterized by non-linearity and interactivity, the concept of literacy expands, covering the capacities demanded of users so they may explore this multi-media potential. the lettered participants of the network society are those that can read, write, interact and communicate through this multi-media language, which recognizes social practices and textual genera that involves each element of this interface. in cyberculture environments ethnography has been used as a methodology to investigate virtual players and their behaviors. initially ethnographical proposals in cyberspace cover the experimentation of identity and corporal freedom, as shown by sherry turkle (1993) studies. it stands out as a research tendency in virtual environments, at a moment when several methodological solutions are arising for the study of cyberspace and its evolution. christine hine (2000, 2005) has laid out a long discussion on the relationship among traditional ethnography and virtual ethnography, focusing on the possibilities as well as the practices of researchers in several countries, including brazil, with regards to this issue. several studies have arisen from this discussion, including a theoretical framework that employs ethnography in cyberspace (guimarães, 2005). currently, methodological issues shift the focus from ethnographic studies to studies linked to the diversity of a digital culture and reshape the concepts on which ethnography is based. virtual ethnography constitutes a methodology that is currently widely used in research on social networks, and it aims to observe, analyze and interpret cyberculture, a culture that is developed through participation of digital collectives. in the course of virtual ethnography, netnography also arises. this is a term coined by robert kozinets (2010) to define a research methodology for ethnographic studies on the internet, whose foundations are registered in the book netnography: doing ethnographic research online. aiming to map and understand web 2.0 emerging literacies, researches developed by nap ef/usp digital culture observatory, intends to explore multimedia cultural context of web 2.0 non-linear narratives, where digital collectives submerge individual presence. new forms of logic and new semantics are being invented and created faster than we can unravel them. the better we understand new competencies inside knowledge society the better we will prepare our students for their future, and not to our past. 5. references bauman, z. (2001). modernidade líquida. rio de janeiro: editora zahar. benkler, y. (2006). the wealth of the networks: how social production transforms markets and freedom. new haven: yale university press. beskow, c. a. (2008). comunicação, educação e inclusão digital: quem "tá ligado" na escola estadual paulista? uma análise da interatividade no projeto tôligado: o jornal interativo da sua escola. são paulo: eca/usp. (dissertação de mestrado). bliska, a.v. (2007). capital social em comunidades virtuais de aprendizagem e de prática.  são paulo: eca/usp. (dissertação de mestrado). boyd, d. (2008). taken out of context: american teen sociality in networked publics.phd dissertation, university of california-berkeley. http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2009/01/18/taken_out_of_co.html (access in january 15, 2009). braga, a. (2007). usos e consumo de meios digitais entre participantes de weblogs: uma proposta metodológica. xvi encontro da compós. curitiba: pr. castells, m. (1999).  a sociedade em rede. a era da informação: economia, sociedade e cultura; v.1. trad. roneide venâncio. são paulo: paz e terra. capobianco, l. (2010) comunicação e literacia digital na internet: estudo etnográfico e análise exploratória de dados do programa de inclusão digital acessasp– ponline. são paulo: eca/usp. (dissertação de mestrado). chica, c. (2010) formação continuada de mediadores do programa de inclusão digital acessasp. são paulo: eca/usp.  (dissertação de mestrado). de kerckhove, d. (1997) a pele da cultura: uma investigação sobre a nova realidade eletrônica. lisboa: relógio d’água. dimantas, h. (2010). linkania: uma teoria de redes. são paulo: senac sp. freire, c.p. (2009). critérios de reputação em coletivos digitais: estudo de caso na disciplina de criando comunidades virtuais de aprendizagem e de prática. são paulo: eca/usp. (dissertação de mestrado). guzzi, d. (2010). web e participação: a democracia no século xxi. são paulo: senac sp. geertz, c. (1978). a interpretação das culturas. rio de janeiro: zahar. gilster, p. (1997). digital literacy. san francisco, ca: john willey & sons. guimarães, a. m. (2005). internet. in: campello, bernadete; caldeira, paulo da terra (orgs.). introdução às fontes de informação. belo horizonte: autêntica, 2005. p. 159-177. hine, c. (2001). the virtual etnography. london: sage. _____. virtual methods and the sociology of cyber-social-scientific knowledge (2005). in: hine, c. (org.) virtual methods: issues in social research on the internet (pp.1-17). new york: berg publishers. jones-kavalier.b.; flannigan.s. (2008).connecting the digital dots: literacy of the 21st century.teacherlibrarian. v. 35 n. 3, p. 13-16. disponível em: <http://teacherlibrarian.com/>. acessoem 30 jul. 2008. kozinets, r. (2010). netnography: doing ethnographic research online. sage. latour, b. (2005) reassembling the social: an introduction to actor-network-theory. new york: oxford university press. _____. (2009). jamais fomos modernos. tradução: carlos irineu da costa. 2ª ed. são paulo: editora 34. passarelli, b. (2007). interfaces digitais na educação: @lucinações consentidas. são paulo: editora da escola do futuro da usp. passarelli, b. et azevedo, j. (orgs). literacias emergentes & atores em rede: olhar(es) luso-brasileiro(s). são paulo: senac. no prelo. passarelli, b. ponline 2009 pesquisa on-line com usuários do programa acessasp. 01. ed. são paulo: núcleo de pesquisa das novas tecnologias da comunicação aplicadas à educação escola do futuro/usp, 2009. v. 1. 133 p. rheingold, h. (2002). smart mobs: the next social revolution. cambridge, ma: basic books. ___________. (1993). the virtual community. homesteading on the electronic frontier.nova york: harper collins. rocha, p.j.; montardo, s.p. (2005). netnografia: incursões metodológicas na cibercultura. revista compós, p. 1-22, dez. tori, r. (2010). educação sem distância: as tecnologias interativas na redução de distâncias em ensino e aprendizagem. são paulo: senac sp. turkle, s. (1995). vida no ecrã: a identidade na era da internet. tradução: paulo faria. lisboa: editora relógio d'água. thiollent, m. (1986). metodologia da pesquisa-ação. são paulo: cortez editora. warschauer, m. (2003). technology and social inclusion: rethinking the digital divide. massachusetts: mit press.   webography portal nap escola do futuro/usp http://www.futuro.usp.br portal acessasp http://acessasp.sp.gov.br portal da juventude http://www.juventude.sp.gov.br/ portal investigações ambientais na escola http://www.investigacoesambientais.futuro.usp.br/ portal clubinho faber-castell http://www.clubinhofaber.futuro.usp.br/ portal acessa escola http://acessaescola.fde.sp.gov.br/     [1] nap ef/usp was founded under the scientific coordination of prof. dr. fredric m. litto of the communication and arts school (eca), at the university of são paulo (usp), who was head of the entity until september 2006, when prof. dr. brasilinapassarelli, cathedratic professor at the department of information and library science at eca/usp, took over. prof. passarelli is currently head of the aforementioned department. [2] warschauer, m (2003). technology and social inclusion: rethinking the digital divide. cambridge, mass: mit press. [3] derrick de kerckhove (1997). the skin of culture: investigating the new electronic reality. lisbon: relógio d’água. manuel castells (1996). a sociedade em rede. são paulo: paz e terra; bruno latour (2008). jamaisfomosmodernos. são paulo: editora 34. [4] ibest is a award devoted to digital players and more info can be obtained at <http://blog.premioibest.com.br/> [5] “brazil is leader at social networks adoption. (brasil lidera a adoção de redes sociais)”. available at: <http://blogs.estadao.com.br/link/brasil-lidera-a-adocao-de-redes-sociais> 5/16/10 (portuguese). retrieved on 5/17/07. [6] see http://acessasp.sp.gov.br [7] all dissertations presented here were advised by prof. dr. brasilinapassarelli in the graduate program on communication sciences (ppgcom) of the communication and arts school (eca), at social interfaces of communication area with research focus on communication and education. bridging the divide: understanding and implementing access to the internet as a human right michael karanicolas legal officer, centre for law and democracy, halifax, canada. email: michael@law-democracy.org at his inaugural news conference as chairman of the united states federal communications commission in 2001, michael powell infamously responded to a journalist's question by comparing the inability of some americans to afford internet access with his own apparent inability to purchase a luxury car. "i think there's a mercedes divide," was his reply to a question about the need to address the digital divide, "i would like to have one but i can't afford one."1 a decade later such flippancy towards gaps in access is no longer possible. the online world has become a central forum for shopping and commerce, for socialising and dating, for culture and entertainment, for formal and informal education, for political debate and engagement, for religious and spiritual pursuits, for medical consultation and for professional advancement in nearly every field. in short, for many people the internet has transformed practically every aspect of day-to-day life. this transformation has seen a concomitant rise in the role of the internet as a delivery mechanism for fundamental human rights. although freedom of expression is the most obvious right engaged, access to the internet has become central to the actualisation of a range of other rights, including the right to political participation,2 the right to freedom of assembly,3 the right to education,4 the right to healthcare,5 the right to take part in and maintain one's cultural activities6 and the right to work,7 among others. this is not to say that human rights cannot exist without the internet, but there are increasingly cases where an internet connection can mean the difference between whether or not a person is able to exercise their fundamental rights. for a chinese or iranian blogger, for example, the right to freedom of expression only exists insofar as they can communicate online. take away their internet, and you effectively take away the right. the same might be said for a correspondence student who lives in a region that lacks accessible higher education, or a patient visiting a rural telehealth clinic. in each case, the actualisation of a broadly recognised human right is functionally dependent on access to the internet. furthermore, even in cases where rights can be robustly exercised offline, access to the internet greatly enhances their substantiation. across the democratic world, politicians are increasingly using the internet as a primary platform for campaigning. while there are still plenty of options for offline participation in the process, as this trend continues citizens without an internet connection will find themselves increasingly shut out of a significant part of the political discourse. with the growing importance of the internet as a delivery mechanism for human rights, there are increasing voices in support of the proposition that access to the internet itself should be considered a human right. in the context of "first mile" approaches to development, understanding the internet as a human right also supports the importance of community ownership as a means of insuring that core rights are actualised through mechanisms appropriately tailored to the unique needs of different communities. this paper discusses the case for considering the internet as a human right and the legal implications of this understanding, and also examines some potential solutions for expanding broadband access. international recognition of the right to the internet the right to the internet is being increasingly recognised in global jurisprudence and legislation. in 2001 greece amended its constitution to include article 5a, which states that: 2. all persons have the right to participate in the information society. facilitation of access to electronically transmitted information, as well as of the production, exchange and diffusion thereof, constitutes an obligation of the state… 8 in france, the constitutional council in 2009 struck down a controversial law that would have required isps to permanently block internet access of users accused of copyright violations, in part because the freedom to access online communication services was held to be protected under the declaration of the rights of man and the citizen of 1789.9 although the french decision does not explicitly recognise the internet as a freestanding right in the way that the greek constitution does, this decision was subsequently cited by the costa rican constitutional court, in a ruling that went considerably further: in the context of a society based on information or knowledge, this imposes upon public authorities, for the benefit of those under their administration, to promote and guarantee universal access to these new technologies.10 at the international level, the importance of the internet was recognised as early as 1999 by the inter-american commission on human rights: "[the internet] is a mechanism capable of strengthening the democratic system, contributing towards the economic development of the countries of the region, and strengthening the full exercise of freedom of expression. internet is an unprecedented technology in the history of communications that facilitates rapid transmission and access to a multiple and varied universal data network, maximizes the active participation of citizens through internet use, contributes to the full political social, cultural and economic development of nations, thereby strengthening democratic society. in turn, the internet has the potential to be an ally in the promotion and dissemination of human rights and democratic ideals and a very important instrument for activating human rights organizations, since its speed and amplitude allow it to send and receive information immediately, which affects the fundamental rights of individuals in different parts of the world."11 a significant step towards international recognition of the right to access the internet came in 2011, with the adoption of the joint declaration on freedom of expression and the internet by the special mandates for freedom of expression at the un, oas, osce and african commission, which recognised the duty of states to promote universal access to the internet: giving effect to the right to freedom of expression imposes an obligation on states to promote universal access to the internet. access to the internet is also necessary to promote respect for other rights, such as the rights to education, health care and work, the right to assembly and association, and the right to free elections.12 this was followed in september 2012 by a resolution, adopted by the un human rights council, explicitly including the right to online assembly within the broader right to freedom of assembly and calling on all member states to promote and facilitate internet access as a component of that right.13 obligations to promote universal access with the recognition that access to the internet is a human right, states should consider the expansion of internet penetration as a core obligation. some have expressed concern that recognising the internet as a human right, with a concomitant obligation imposed upon states to expand access, could divert resources from other pressing development goals. however, this objection can be addressed by considering the right of access as analogous to the right to education, where the positive obligations are imposed progressively, based on a state's starting point and the resources they are able to marshal. education is a human right, but it is broadly understood that expanding education will naturally have to compete for public resources with other interests, such as expanding health care availability, improving sanitation, etc. this is recognised within the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights which places a firm obligation on states to provide universal primary education, an obligation to progressively strive towards making secondary education "generally available and accessible to all" and an obligation to make higher education "equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity".14 it is worth noting that, even without understanding the internet as a human right, it is likely that states bear some duty to work to expand internet access due to the medium's role as a key mechanism for expression. in addition to easily understood negative obligations that attach to freedom of expression, such as a duty to refrain from censorship, freedom of expression is broadly understood as imposing positive obligations on states: [t]he state may be required to put in place positive measures to ensure that its own actions contribute to the free flow of information and ideas in society, what may be termed 'direct' positive measures. this might involve, for example, putting in place a system for licensing broadcasters which helps ensure diversity and limit media concentration. perhaps the most significant example of this is the relatively recent recognition of the obligation of states to put in place a legal framework to provide for access to information held by public bodies.15 providing for universal internet access, in the same way that developed states provide for universal education, is by no means unrealistic. indeed, several jurisdictions have already imposed legal requirements to ensure universal service, beginning with estonia, which in 2000 mandated that online access must be "universally available to all subscribers regardless of their geographical location, at a uniform price."16 similar requirements have been introduced in finland,17 spain18 and the canadian province of nova scotia.19 these programs echo existing universal telephone access schemes that date back to the 1930's.20 universal access initiatives are generally funded through a mixture of public and private money, and involve the setting of various benchmarks for required minimum service. in nova scotia, the broadband for rural nova scotia programme, a public-private partnership, guarantees any household that requests it a connection to the internet at a download speed of at least 1.5 mbps, and at a cost that is comparable to what urban customers pay.21 finland has a universal access programme that is also financed through a combination of private investment and public subsidies, and a benchmark minimum data transfer speed of 1 mbps which must be provided at a "reasonable price".22 in order to ensure that all residences or businesses are able to connect to the internet should they choose to do so, finland obliges telecoms companies to extend optical fibre networks or cable networks capable of carrying a transfer speed of at least 100 mbps to within 2 km of every home or business.23 in dealing with a large country such as canada, the challenges in implementing an equivalent program would go far beyond those of providing universal access in a small province like nova scotia, or relatively small countries like finland, spain and estonia. even the transition to mobile internet, while reducing infrastructural demands, does not fully alleviate the challenges of providing service to rural and remote communities. however, while it is reasonable to expect that physical and infrastructural challenges might delay the provision of universal internet access to some of the most remote communities, statistics suggest that canada's failures in this regard go beyond its size and sparseness. the canadian experience although canada has relatively high overall rates of connectivity, there is evidence that canada's first nations communities are particularly underserved. in 2007, the rate of broadband access to the internet in urban communities and small towns in canada was 64%, while 50% of remote communities had some sort of broadband access.24 however, the same study found that the rate of connectivity in remote first nations communities was only 17% and that many of these communities only had access to dial-up, rather than broadband, internet. as a comparator, canada's overall rate of internet penetration, 72.2%, currently ranks 9th in the world according to an oecd study.25 however, the 17% figure among remote first nations communities would place this segment of canadian society 140th in the world, tied with the solomon islands, cambodia, uganda, zambia and myanmar.26 in part, this gap can be attributed to the broader economic problems that beset canada's first nations communities. obviously households that have difficulty paying their electric bill are not going to sign up for a broadband connection. however, statistics canada information from 2011 shows that, while internet use is higher among wealthier canadians than among poorer canadians, disparities based on income are not nearly wide enough to account for the levels seen in remote first nations communities. usage rates among households in the lowest income quartile are 59%, while usage in the highest quartile is 94%.27 a majority of non-users in the same survey (62%) indicated that the reason they did not use the internet was that they had no interest, did not find it useful or did not have time. in addition, 22% of non-users cited a lack of training or an inability to use computers. only 21% of non-users cited their lack of access to a computer or the cost of internet service or equipment as reasons for not going online.28 in other words, although regional and economic factors have a role to play, they do not explain the full extent of the disparity. it follows that infrastructural and financial solutions, such as the broadband for rural nova scotia programme, will not by themselves be enough to solve canada's digital divide. a demand-side approach of providing affordable access must be accompanied by a supply-side approach of spurring demand if it is to be broadly effective. at its most basic, this must include educational requirements, in order to create the technical capacity to use the internet. however, the social and cultural factors involved in generating demand for the internet go beyond merely teaching people how to get online. social challenges: critical mass although the internet has many functions, it is at its core a social tool. according to statistics canada, 93% of home internet users use email, while 58% use social networking sites, 54% use the internet to research community events and 47% use an instant messaging service.29 however, the efficacy of the internet as a social tool depends on a user being able to integrate into an online community. when a large number of people who the user is connected to are online, connecting to the internet becomes increasingly socially useful. on the other hand, if a user cannot find their community online, there will be little utility to the internet as a social tool. this can be illustrated through the success and failure of social networking sites. facebook's exponential growth is largely based on its popularity, and its placement as the world's premier social network. users want to join facebook because many of their friends and colleagues are on facebook. because facebook's utility lies in its popularity, its massive user base provides momentum for continued growth. however, the inverse is also true, which is why facebook's market position is so difficult to challenge. companies attempting to launch rival social networks have had difficulty gaining traction since, even if their product is better, their small user base will mean they can offer limited social utility. there is no point signing up to google+ if all of your friends are using facebook.30 the internet as a whole works in much the same way. its usefulness as a social tool is dependent on users being able to find a community online. for example, south korea has one of the highest rates of internet use in the world. because there are so many south koreans online, korean users generate an enormous amount of internet content, which is written in korean and which is relevant to south koreans. the high south korean web presence also creates a virtuous circle, whereby international content providers or e-commerce businesses have an incentive to branch into the south korean market, which in turn creates a richer online experience for south korean users, attracting more of them to the web. the more users from a community are online, the better their online experience will be. the reverse is true if there are fewer users online, which explains why economic and infrastructural solutions can be ineffective in getting people to connect. the world bank discovered this in the implementation of its e-sri lanka project. that programme allowed private individuals to apply for funding to set up internet cafés (nenasalas) across sri lanka. successful applicants received free computers and two years of free internet, followed by two years of subsidised internet. in return, the nenasalas would agree to provide tech-literacy training to the rural communities they served. as a supplementary measure, the government provided vouchers to the poor for subsidised internet use. as of 2010, 600 nenasalas had been established, but despite the vouchers and the training, the level of public use of the facilities was low, and the programme has not had a noticeable impact on computer literacy rates in sri lanka. a world bank report on the failures of this programme blamed the lack of interest partly on technical mistakes (for example, some of the computers provided had browsers which did not support either tamil or sinhalese fonts) but also on a lack of internet content that was relevant to local villagers.31 this demonstrates how, when dealing with communities with very low internet penetration, providing internet access at free or heavily subsidised rates is not enough, since the lack of relatable online content can lead to difficulties in spurring broad interest. rather, an effective solution will need to be more proactive, promoting internet use in such a way as to build towards a critical mass of users. social challenges: content generation in their follow up in sri lanka, the world bank recognised that relevant web content was essential to generating interest in the internet. locating relevant content will be easier for some underserved communities than for others. for example, one major factor is language. communities that use a language that is widely spoken, such as english or spanish, will have an easier time finding accessible content. this partially explains why english-speaking countries in the developing world, such as jamaica, have relatively high rates of internet use.32 on the other hand, it is easy to see why the e-sri lanka project ran into difficulties given that there are only 15.5 million sinhalese speakers in the world, most of whom live in sri lanka and do not have internet access.33 in retrospect, the lack of sinhalese content online makes it obvious to see why giving sinhalese speakers subsidised internet was an ineffective strategy. another interesting case is india, where only 11% of people speak english, a number that roughly corresponds to the country's total number of internet users.34 as a means of increasing interest, the indian government is now allowing domestic domain name registration in tamil, hindi and gujarati. private sector firms have taken similar steps. in 2010, google expanded into fourteen indian languages, leading to a rapid growth in the blogosphere in those dialects.35 although linguistic issues can be a factor, their importance should not be overstated. two of the most wired nations in the world, south korea and estonia, speak unique languages.36 however, there is no denying that languages which are unique and concentrated among rural or poor communities, such as the indigenous south american language of aymara, present a barrier to expanding internet access to the regions where they are spoken, one that can best be alleviated through the creation of new content. related to the linguistic issue are cultural considerations, whereby communities which have been exposed to, and to a certain extent assimilated by, larger cultures will have an easier time finding relevant content. for example, users with an interest in western music will find a greater volume of content online than users interested in traditional local music. although "westernisation" is the most obvious process of this kind, it is not the only example. exposure to chinese or arabic cultures, for instance, can similarly place people within a larger community of web users. this is not to suggest that a policy of cultural assimilation should be pursued as a means of increasing access to the internet. on the contrary, one of the great values of the internet is its potential to connect diasporas and to protect traditional cultures. however, it is important to be aware of, and to take into account, the specific challenges of spurring interest among smaller or unique cultures. success stories although it can be difficult to attract interest in the internet from communities with low levels of connectivity, it is certainly not impossible. nearly every community in the world built their online presence from scratch within the past few decades. the question is not whether it can be done, but how it can be accelerated. the obvious place to start in finding the answer to this is south korea, which has the world's highest rate of internet penetration at 94% of households.37 this is largely the result of a period of growth between 2000 and 2002, when the number of internet subscribers increased by 200% and the household penetration rate went from 27% to 69%. although the rapidity of south korea's digitisation can be attributed in part to a damaging price war among isps, national policies, particularly towards education, governance and commerce, paved the way. starting in 2000, there was a drive to connect all schools to the internet. education services were offered online, including free tutorials for the national aptitude test and real-time online classes. south korea also pioneered the use of e-government as early as the 1980s, pushing an increasing number of government services online in the late 1990s and early 2000s. the government reformed legislation to promote e-commerce early on, to create a positive environment for doing business online, including through strengthened security for online payment systems and for privacy. the popularity of gaming and business activities were also important drivers, and these in turn promoted the use of internet for shopping, emailing and socialising, as well as more generally for the acquisition of information.38 in estonia, which also enjoyed rapid success in expanding internet penetration, the government led the way in digitisation by offering government services online. the estonian government also created public-private partnerships as vehicles to foster a domestic information-technology industry, partly fuelled by the demand generated by the government's programme of digitisation. the estonian case also illustrates how government leadership in terms of providing digital services can play a strong role in promoting wider access to the internet, both by creating demand for domestic information technology services and by encouraging citizens to use the internet as a speedier and more efficient way of interacting with the state. conclusion understanding the internet as a human right, with a concomitant public responsibility to extend access, means thinking seriously about how to connect underserved communities. the south korean and estonian examples illustrate that governments can play a key role in helping to extend internet penetration. in addition to supporting the construction of the necessary physical infrastructure, this should include proactive action to spur interest in getting online. expanding web literacy and web-based education, digitising government services and promoting e-commerce are all steps that governments can embrace in order to sow the seeds of a robust online culture. stronger measures may need to be taken in order to engage communities that are particularly underserved, such as promoting the creation of online content (possibly through arts grants) and funding the development of platforms to bridge technical gaps in accessibility due to linguistic and cultural differences or due to user disabilities. however, it is clear that top down initiatives can only go so far, particularly where, as in canada, cultural and social chasms separate those in government from particularly underserved communities. considering that the ultimate goal is to generate a critical mass of users, community solutions must be at the forefront, to build engagement and interest on a local level. there is no one-size-fits-all solution to how to connect underserved communities. every culture and community gives rise to unique challenges, which must be addressed creatively and dynamically. however, understanding that internet access is a right, and recognising that there is a global responsibility to address the digital divide, are the first steps to allowing the internet to properly fulfil its moniker as the world-wide web. acknowledgements thanks to toby mendel, executive director, centre for law and democracy, for support of the underlying research, and to james green, patrick o'neill, katie sammon, jason smythe for additional research. references 1. video of the news conference, in its entirety, available at: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ccha. it is worth noting that, as of 2011, the fcc chairman earns a salary of $165,300 according to: http://php.app.com/fed_employees11/search.php. 2. international covenant on civil and political rights, un general assembly resolution 2200a(xxi), adopted 16 december 1966, in force 23 march 1976, art. 25. 3. ibid. art. 21. 4. un general assembly resolution 2200a (xxi), 16 december 1966, entered into force 3 january 1976, art. 13. 5. ibid. art. 12. 6. ibid. art. 15. 7. ibid. art. 6. 8. (2008 rev. ed.). available at: http://www.hellenicparliament.gr/userfiles/f3c70a23-7696-49db-9148-f24dce6a27c8/001-156%20aggliko.pdf. 9. cons. constitutionnel, 10 june 2009, 2009-580 dc. available at: http://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/conseil-constitutionnel/root/bank_mm/anglais/2009_580dc.pdf. the council later approved an amended version of the law allowing for a maximum cut-off of one year, and which introduced judicial review into the process. 10. sentencia 12790: expediente: 09-013141-0007-co, para. v. unofficial translation by the author. 11. iachr. (1999). annual report of the inter-american commission on human rights 1999: report of the office of special rapporteur for freedom of expression; washington, d.c.: inter-american commission on human rights. 12. the united nations (un) special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, the organization for security and co-operation in europe (osce) representative on freedom of the media, the organization of american states (oas) special rapporteur on freedom of expression and the african commission on human and peoples' rights (achpr) special rapporteur on freedom of expression and access to information. (2011). joint declaration on freedom of expression and the internet. available at: http://www.law-democracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/11.06.joint-declaration.internet.pdf. since 1999, these mechanisms have adopted a joint declaration annually focusing on a different freedom of expression theme. 13. article 19. (2012) human rights council: rights to peaceful assembly and association online recognised. london: article 19. available at: http://www.article19.org/resources.php/resource/3459/en/human-rights-council:-rights-to-peaceful-assembly-and-association-online-recognised. 14. un general assembly resolution 2200a (xxi), 16 december 1966, entered into force 3 january 1976, art. 13. 15. mendel, toby. (2011). restricting freedom of expression: standards and principles. halifax, nova scotia: centre for law and democracy, available at: http://www.law-democracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/10.03.paper-on-restrictions-on-foe.pdf. 16. tel act, 9 feb. 2000, s. 5.2.2. available at: http://www.medialaw.ru/laws/russian_laws/telecom/npa/6etr/estonia.htm. 17. communications market act, 363/2011, s. 60c(2). available at: http://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2003/en20030393.pdf. 18. sustainable economy act of 2011, art. 52. available at http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2011/03/05/pdfs/boe-a-2011-4117.pdf [in spanish]. 19. nova scotia department of economic and rural development and tourism. (2011). broadband for rural nova scotia. halifax, nova scotia: nova scotia department of economic and rural development and tourism. available at: http://www.gov.ns.ca/econ/broadband. 20. see http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/universal-service. similar schemes are in force in india, pakistan and taiwan, among other states. 21. motorola. (2011). the role model for sustainable rural broadband. available at: http://www.motorola.com/web/business/_documents/case%20studies/_static%20files/wns_case%20study_utilities_broadband%20for%20rural%20nova%20scotia%20initiative.pdf. 22. finland ministry of transport and communications. internet. available at: http://www.lvm.fi/web/en/internet. 23. ibid. 24. canadian council on learning . (2010). learning to be: access to broadband internet. ottawa: canadian council on learning. available at http://www.cli-ica.ca/en/about/about-cli/indicators/be-internet.aspx. 25. organisation for economic cooperation and development. (2012). oecd broadband portal. paris: organisation for economic cooperation and development. available at: http://www.oecd.org/internet/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm. 26. source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/list3.htm. this is not a perfect comparison. for one thing, all countries have a disparity between the rates of urban and rural connectivity, so it is not entirely fair to compare the rates of access in remote first nations communities with national rates. if one were to focus on rural uganda, the rate of connectivity would likely be lower than 17%. there is also some ambiguity as to whether these numbers are measuring the total percentage of households with access or the total percentage of users, and whether they include dial-up users as well or only those with access to broadband. however, even with these caveats, the underlying point stands. there is an enormous disparity between canada's overall internet penetration rate, which is among the highest in the world, and the rate within canada's remote first nations communities, which is far below developed world standards. 27. statistics available at: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/111012/dq111012a-eng.htm. 28. ibid. 29. statistics available at: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/111012/t111012a3-eng.htm. 30. google+, in fact, attempted to get around this difficulty by automatically signing up every gmail user to their network. 31. ali, amir hatem. (2011). the power of social media in developing nations: new tools for closing the global digital divide and beyond. harvard human rights journal, 24, 185-219. 32. 1.58 million users among 2.8 million people (56% of the population) according to world bank development indicators. world bank indicators place jamaica 92nd in the world in per capita gross domestic product at purchasing power parity. 33. lewis, m. paul (ed.). (2009). ethnologue: languages of the world, sixteenth edition. dallas, texas: sil international. available at: http://www.ethnologue.com/. 34. vaidyanathan, rajini. (2012). is 2012 the year for india's internet? london: bbc news. available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16354076. 35. nolen, stephanie. (2011). will 'dot bharat' help make the internet more accessible to indians? toronto: the globe and mail. available at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/worldview/will-dot-bharat-help-make-the-internet-more-accessible-to-indians/article2231739/. 36. supra note 34. estonian has only 1 million speakers globally. 37. ovum consulting. (2009). broadband policy development in the republic of korea (2009), p. 5. available at: www.infodev.org/en/document.934.pdf. london: ovum consulting. 38. ovum consulting, broadband policy development in the republic of korea (2009). available at: www.infodev.org/en/document.934.pdf. local e-government in sweden municipal contact centre implementation with focus on public administrators and citizens irene cecilia bernhard1 1. department of economics & it & phd cand. the royal institute of technology, stockholm, sweden 1. introduction the e-government phenomenon is growing rapidly at the local, national and international levels (see e.g. rose & grant, 2010; rabiaiah & vandijck, 2011; worrall, 2011), and is supported by policy organisations such as the eu, un and oecd (lahlou, 2005; oecd, 2009; european commission, 2010). e-government is connected to the "post-industrial" digital economy (fang, 2002; westlund, 2006; stough, 2006) as information and communication technology (ict). e-government has rapidly diffused as an important managerial public reform over the past 15 years (lee et al., 2011; rose and grant, 2010). the implementation of e-government is often associated with increased public e-service availability for citizens, but it also entails a fundamental organizational change in public organizations (grönlund, 2001; beynon-davies & williams, 2003; worrall, 2011) which is hard to manage, difficult to implement and often fails because private sector ideas cannot be transplanted into the public sector (heeks, 2006). e-government research has increasingly attracted attention as a part of many governmental agendas (heeks & bailur, 2007), and there is relatively little systematic research undertaken on the local level (deakins et al., 2010). however, there is research showing that local e-government, expressed as on-line services, has been adopted but not yet achieved many of the expected outcomes, and organizational and socioeconomic barriers to the transformation remain (moon, 2002; beynon-davies, 2004; torres et al. 2005; norris & reddick, 2012). torres et al. (2005) argue that e-government initiatives in most local governments are still predominantly non-interactive and non-deliberative. most governments have a web site, although in most cases it is little more than a governmental billboard. they tend to reflect present service delivery patterns, not transform them. according to a european union project running between 2007-2013, there is a trend in europe of municipalities being transformed into more customer-focused organizations (smart cities, 2011). in sweden, a "special commission on e-government" was established in 2009 to promote development and use of e-government in the public sector. the main aim in the action plan for e-administration developed by the special commission on e-government is to "have simple, open, accessible, effective and secure e-government" (regeringskansliet, 2008). one example of such a change is the implementation of a municipal contact centre (cc)i . andersson bäck (2008:3) defines a contact centre as "a 'new' type of organizational form, where the organization of actions and the use of technological tools are underpinned by the logics of cost-effectiveness and customer-focus". the implementation of contact centres in swedish municipalities is inspired by the concept of a call centre although it is transformed when adapted to swedish culture (see further czarniawska & sevón, 1996). ccs are not only for local egovernment front-line service delivery, but they also entail new organizational settings, developing practices and management in municipal public administration relating to new public management (npm) (fountain, 2001; jansson, 2011). these processes are a front-line practice and but have to be further addressed by research to interpret practices (lindblad-gidlund et al., 2010; meijer & bannister, 2011). swedish research shows that there is a lack of empirical studies on the implementation of contact centres in municipalities within the research field of e-government, although some minor case studies on different perspectives have been done (e.g. bernhard, 2009, 2010; flensburg et al., 2009; bernhard & grundén, 2010; grundén, 2010). more and more ccs are being implemented in swedish municipalities and the possibilities to learn from such experiences will increase. however, according to a global study of e-government (accenture, 2007), it seems important not simply to try to imitate examples from other organizations. instead, such examples should serve as inspiration, with awareness of the importance of local context when ccs are implemented, as ccs do not simply appear. the ccs have to be locally formed and anchored in policy making before being implemented. when policies are translated into local contexts and promote new practices, they become settled in the institutional milieu. the institutional approach emphasizes the contextual aspects of translations. in the swedish case the constitutional local autonomy defines the lower levels of government, which will be further discussed in this paper. this paper aims to analyze the implementation of swedish municipal contact centres (cc) with focus on internal organization as well as on citizens, based on the following research questions: how has the implementation of the cc affected the work of the public administrators within the front office (cc) and those in the back office in terms of their role as suppliers of public service? how has the implementation of the cc affected citizens regarding: a) access to public municipal service? b) "customer" approaches? after this introduction, the article proceeds in four steps. in the next section, definitions and dimensions of e-government as well as the role of municipal local autonomy are discussed. i will also present the idea and concept of a municipal contact centre by relating it to the theory of new public management in the digital era. in section three the method and four cases are presented, followed by findings in section four. these are then analysed and conclusions are discussed in section five. this section ends with implications for further research. 2. e-government and contact centres e-government is an emerging field that still lacks a single definition and a universally accepted definition (yildiz, 2007). the national government of sweden defines e-government as "organizational development in public administration, which takes advantage of ict in combination with organizational changes and new competencies" (regeringskansliet, 2008:4). e-government in general can be defined as "all use of information technology in the public sector" (heeks, 2006:1). heeks' definition is used here to encompass all use of digital information technology in the public sector, which means that it consists of technology, information and human beings who give the system purpose and meaning, and the work processes that are undertaken. moreover, an important aim for e-government is to bridge the gap between government and citizens, including a strong emphasis on internal administrative efficiency in the development of e-government (homburg, 2008). in this perspective grant and chau (2006:80) identify three core activities of e-government: "(1) to develop and deliver high quality, seamless, and integrated public services; (2) to enable effective constituent relationship management; and (3) to support the economic and social development goals of citizens, businesses, and civil society at local, state, national, and international levels". e-government is, in this context, further referred to as the redesign of information relationships between the administration and citizens, in order to create some sort of added value. based on this discussion three core types of relationship and dimensions in e-government among different actors can be identified for both analytical and practical purposes in order to further understand the distinction and relationship between them. these are e-democracy (relationships between the electorate and the elected, i.e., the political interplay of citizens and elected politicians), e-services (in the relationship between the public administration and the citizens), and finally e-administration for the internal usage of information technology tools within governmental organizations to provide reports and support for decision making (wihlborg, 2005:7, bernhard & wihlborg, forthcoming 2013). in practice it is hard to make a clear division between these dimensions (jansson, 2011). in this study the e-government initiatives are expressed by the establishment of municipal contact centres which encompass the use of both internet-based applications (e-services) and digital information technology (including telephones), as well as information and human beings (citizens and public administrators). the analyses are, however, based on the views of public administrators and citizens (e-services and e-administrations), as in many definitions e-democracy is excluded from e-government (jansson, 2011). the contact centres aim for increased access for citizens to municipal service through multi-delivery channels. thus a critical related issue is the concept of the "digital divide" which refers not only to the socioeconomic gap between those who have access to computers and the internet and those who do not, but also to those who have access to quality, useful digital content such as ict literacy and technical skills and those who do not (see e.g. findahl, 2009, 2011). another issue is that the internet favours individuals with literacy skills, who often also have greater access to financial resources and education (schwester, 2011). the development of e-government may have essential implications for disadvantaged groups in sweden too. use of the internet and computers is high in sweden, which is ranked as one of the top countries according to international evaluation studies (accenture 2007; united nations, 2012). although more than 84% of sweden's inhabitants use the internet (not necessarily on a daily basis), this means that there is still a digital divide (findahl, 2011). 2.1 new public management in the digital era the origins of e-government can be seen as one type of realization of new public management (npm)-type reforms in public administration (andrews, 2008; homburg, 2008; jansson, 2011). e-government has however also been regarded as a new reform in itself, not associated with npm (dunleavy et al., 2005). npm-related ideas and practices have influenced the public sector in sweden for over twenty years (girtli nygren & wiklund, 2010). npm is frequently described "as an umbrella term of management ideas from the business sector implemented in a public sector context" (persson & goldkuhl, 2010) or as an organizational theory (peters & pierre, 1998). npm is both a practice and a theoretical conceptualisation rooted in different research fields with diverse directions (barzelay, 2001). the key features of npm in practice are "customer orientation, improved responsibility to address client needs, focus on cost-efficiency and productivity and introducing market mechanisms" (persson & goldkuhl, 2010). there is emphasis on contract-like relationships and attention given to management strategies, performance indicators, and the service produced. the use of it is essential for this organizational transformation where it mediates the communication between different units in different geographical locations. the theories of npm have inspired some changes of organization and administration when e-government is implemented and the use of lean and highly decentralized structures in public service is stressed, resulting in formerly unitary bureaucracies breaking down (homburg, 2008). critics of npm argue that there are key differences between public and private sectors both in terms of overall purpose and structure of processes (e.g. heeks, 1999). the extensive treatment of the citizen as customer in e-government research may be seen as inherited from npm. one of the main elements of npm is that the public sector develops market-like patterns of behaviour. this includes a customer orientation where citizens often will be viewed as "customers" in a market rather than as citizens with rights and duties (e.g. collins & butler, 2002; michel, 2005; montin, 2008; wallström et al., 2009) or as clients and users (lips, 2007; sou 2008:97). the focus is also more on efficient public services and making public administration more citizen-oriented, efficient, transparent and responsive to the needs of the public (hood, 1991; osborne and gaebler, 1992; wihlborg, 2005; bock seegard, 2009; rövik, 2008; persson & goldkuhl, 2010; hall, 2011; worrall, 2011). when considering the citizen from a strict service perspective, it can be argued that using the concept of customer is useful (lindblad-gidlund et al., 2010). however, there are also critics of viewing citizens as customers (e.g. olsen, 2006; cordella, 2007). minzberg (1996) argues that customers buy products and clients buy services, but citizens have rights and the priority for them is more than a customer or client in the government sector. this is one reason to discuss the issue of the "customer" approach and the fact that most e-applications have developed as marketing tools in e-commerce, e-marketing, etc. 2.2 the swedish settings the swedish multi-level government system is based on three levels: the national, regional and local levels. public service delivery (the tasks of the public sector) is distributed among all three levels but citizen-oriented services are mainly supplied by municipalities. the 290 swedish municipalities have a constitutional autonomy. the municipal services concern almost all service for the citizens in their everyday lives and in comparison with other public organizations, for example state authorities, municipalities are very multifaceted and handle a broad and complex set of issues such as primary and lower secondary schools, daycare institutions, elderly care, planning permits, environmental permits, matters regarding social services and schools, healthcare, and welfare, etc. (gustafsson, 1999; sou, 2008). there is no statutory obligation for municipalities to set up offices for citizens although it is required by law that municipalities should provide individual service, e.g. to meet visitors and respond to telephone calls from citizens (sfs, 1986). the internal context of each municipality can be very different due to different geographic locations, population, social structures and economic conditions and the development towards e-government varies among swedish municipalities, since the number of inhabitants and the economy varies (salar, 2009). the e-government development is given top priority in the larger municipalities and the priority level decreases with the size of the municipality (salar, 2011). financing, the municipality's ability to perform business development and the existing it-system environments are the main obstacles for municipalities in developing e-government. smaller municipalities also emphasize the lack of competence of the administrators as a major obstacle to advanced e-government (ibid.). regional and municipal administration in sweden represents approximately 70% of public administration, where the regions mainly provide health care and the supply of urban traffic systems. to date ninety-eight municipalities are members of sambruk, a non-profit association financed by its member municipalities (sambruk, 2013). the vast majority of the municipalities in sweden are too small to make big investments in the development of new e-services or re-engineering of internal business processes. one of the aims of sambruk is to create a strong negotiating position with it vendors and government bodies when creating solutions based on the use of ict. 2.3 municipal contact centres the main function of swedish municipal ccs is to supply services to citizens more efficiently by primarily using the telephone and ict (e.g. e-services) to handle citizen contacts (see figure 1). when ccs are implemented in municipalities, the work of the handling officers at the administrations is supposed to become more efficient, as they will not be disturbed by phone calls involving "simple questions" from the citizens. the different organizational units (back office) are also supposed to cooperate in resolving citizens' matters, in order to simplify the citizens' contact with the municipality. the ccs aim to contribute to increased citizen access to municipal services through multi-channel service like ict in the form of telephone, internet, municipal websites and web-based applications (e-services), and generally they are also open for personal visits. the municipal website is a main electronic resource for information to citizens and organizations within the municipality and the municipal e-services are published on the website. figure 1: conceptual model of a contact centre in relation to citizens and public administrators at the back office the ccs function as the single entrance to local government, as front offices with extended opening hours (open weekdays) and staff with broad competencies to answer, supervise, and re-direct citizens to the right section of the public administration and/or on the internet. they also have the competence to reach into back-office functions to resolve standard errands (bernhard, 2010; bernhard & grundén, 2010). all issues are registered in a new information system for internal handling of matters (e-administration). employees at the cc also initiate issues, when needed, which are transferred to public administrators at the back office using the it tool for handling of matters. figure 1 shows a conceptual model of the contact centre from the perspectives of citizens and the public administrators at the cc and at the back office. usually the e-services and on-line contacts like e-mails are handled, communicated and supported by the employees at the cc (front office), but some e-services may also be directly connected to the public administrators at the back office. when analyzing the cases it will be in relation to the view of e-government (ccs) as a redesign of information relationships between the administration and citizens (e-administration and e-services), in order to create some sort of added value in the perspective of some of the npm key features. 3. methods and the four cases a criterion for being chosen was that the municipality should be a forerunner in the development of e-government and the implementing of a cc. the four municipalities including in this study, were all forerunners in the development of e-government and the implementing of ccs and members of sambrukii . the method used is case study. case study methodologies are preferred when you want to study an actual phenomenon in its real context, used as a research method in the social science disciplines like public administration, political science, business and marketing and evaluation (yin, 2009). case studies are built on interviews with people who have experiences in the actual case and on direct observation of the phenomenon. the methodology of case studies' particular strength is that it makes you allow handling many different kinds of empirical data like documents, artefacts, interviews and observations. it is classified as a meta-methodology as when studying a phenomenon in its context, different methods or techniques are required in order to get various types of data (yin, 2009). in comparison to quantitative studies, qualitative methods are an alternative way of looking at knowledge, meaning, reality and truth in social sciences. focus is on understanding important relationships (kvale, 1996). examples of what cases can be is a single organization or a single location (bryman & bell, 2011). interviews have been the main method, since ccs are a rather new phenomenon, and a variety of voices were included. in addition, documents such as policy documents, pilot report studies, revision reports and results of municipal customer surveys, have been studied. these analyses served as the intention to give me an overall understanding before doing the interviews. the documents have been used both as a background study of the e-government practice and to get an overview of the background of the implementation of the e-government process. some of the documents like results of customer surveys were made by private organisations. when critically examining these documents i had in mind who had written them and for what purpose. as this study focuses on the perspectives of both public administrators and citizens, the initial interviews took place with different personnel categories and policy makers before approaching the citizens. the interviewed personnel categories in the cases were employees from contact centres ("front offices") and from what is called "the back office" of the municipal local administration as well as from the top management of the municipalities. to cover the changing working conditions, representatives from the unions were also interviewed. the interviews were planned in accordance with kvale (1996:88) who highlights seven steps of an interview study thematizing, designing, interviewing, transcribing, analysing, verifying and reporting as these are important to bring up for achieving scientific quality. altogether the data consists of 40 semi-structured recorded interviews within the municipalities: skellefteå case a (10), botkyrka case b (7), stockholm case c (7) and jönköping case d (16), as well as of a pilot study with 21 citizens. these interviews were made in two steps: those in case a-c were recorded and made during the spring of 2009, while those in case d were made in the spring of 2010 as this contact centre was implemented in late 2009. it was important not only to include different personnel categories but the number of respondents in qualitative studies must be large enough to assure that most if not all of the perceptions that might be important are uncovered. however, if the sample is too large, the data becomes repetitive (mason, 2010). according to glaser and strauss (1967), the sample size in the majority of qualitative studies should generally follow the concept of saturation but many researchers do not suggest what constitutes a sufficient sample size (mason, 2010). according to ritchie et al. (2003) qualitative samples often are below 50 while green and thorogood (2009) state that the experience of most qualitative researchers is that very little "new" in interviews comes out after interviewing 20 people or so. each interview with personnel from the municipalities took about an hour and was tape-recorded and transcribed. qualitative content analysis (kvale, 1996) was used for the analysis of the interviews. the pilot study with the citizens was an explorative study to investigate the citizens' attitudes to the newly established contact centre in case d. these interviews were held about four weeks after the cc was implemented in late 2009. when citizens who had been in contact with the public administrators at the cc ended their phone calls, they were asked if another person (a researcher) could call them back and conduct an interview regarding how well they were informed about this implementation, their opinions of the service delivered by the new municipal contact centre, if they had access or used internet and public e-services and about how this implementation has affected their access to local municipal service in general. of the citizens interviewed, 14 were female and 7 male. they differed in age; 6 respondents were elderly, i.e., over age 65 (2 female and 4 male); one citizen (1 male) was younger than 24 and the other 14 (13 female and 1 male) were between 25 and 65 years of age. the study with citizens was based on semi-structured telephone interviews, primarily using questions with predefined alternatives, to which some open-ended questions were added. benchmarking there are many definitions of benchmarking (fong et al. 1998). it originates from the industry and may be defined as to when a business compares their own activities and organization with another business that has a recognized good reputation (esaiasson et al, 2007). they argue that it may be difficult to make such comparisons within the public context. camp (1989) refers benchmarking as finding and implementing the best practice. revelle (2004) discusses competitive benchmarking and defines the term as comparing how well or poorly an organization is doing with respect to the leading competition, especially with respect to critically important attributes, functions, or values associated with the organization's services or products. as a municipal contact centre is a new e-government initiative in the swedish local context it is difficult to do benchmarking and find a "best practice" to compare with, although the method can help identify areas or processes for improvements within these four cases. i will make comparisons and discuss them in the next section. 3.1 the cases case a skellefteå is by swedish standards a medium-sized municipality (population 72,000). the municipality covers a large geographical area compared to other municipalities in sweden and can be said to be the centre of a region (for a broader description see bernhard, 2009). there are rural areas and one larger central city where almost half the inhabitants live (www.skelleftea.se). the municipality is organized in eight different administrative sections with responsibility for different areas. in april 2007, the first phase of a contact centre was established covering some of the administration and in february 2009 a contact centre for all administration was set up within the central city of the municipality. here, unlike the other cases, they name the cc as a "customer service". botkyrka, case b, is situated in the stockholm region and this municipality too, by swedish standards, is a medium-sized municipality (population 80,000). it is one of the most international municipalities in sweden since almost a third of the inhabitants have roots in more than 100 countries around the world (www.botkyrka.se). they combine a contact centre, which was established in 2007, with one-stop government offices for personal visits, and strive to implement more e-services. in the 1980s botkyrka established one-stop government offices in order to facilitate communication with their citizens. these are situated in the areas where most of the immigrants live. case c, stockholm, is the capital of sweden, with a larger organization than the three other municipalities in this study (population 868,000). this municipality has a high degree of decentralized responsibilities, and the official organization includes 14 district administrations in charge of most municipal services (www.stockholm.se). these district committees are responsible for many of the municipal services within their geographical area. the implementation of the contact centres started as a pilot project in two municipal districts in 2005 and then spread to the whole municipality in 2009. a big difference compared to a, b, and d is that due to the larger population, they established one contact centre giving public service only to elderly inhabitants, providing one telephone number solely for questions and services for eldercare issues. there is a different telephone number for the contact centre that concerns other issues. they have an e-strategy that aims to implement more e-services and they have a few one-stop government offices in areas where many immigrants live. case d, jönköping municipality, ranks among sweden's ten largest municipalities (population 127,000) (www.jonkoping.se). it is organized in nine operative administrations. most of these organizational units are led by boards or committees of political representatives. the departments and administrations carry out a wide range of operations such as child and youth care, education, social issues, culture and recreation, building and environment. the management of the municipality decided to implement a contact centre and work towards more e-services in 2009. the contact centre opened in november 2009. the directives were formulated in a local policy which stated for example that the use of it should contribute to service production improvements. at this first stage the contact centre has only moved one work process to the cc, but they plan to transfer more in the next stage. the aim of the municipal guides at the cc is to answer simple questions and direct citizens to where they can find solutions to their issues. at the time the interviews were made it was not possible for citizens to visit the contact centre, but opening for personal visits was planned for early 2011. 4. findings in this section, findings from the cases in relation to the research questions are discussed and compared. the main related characteristics of the cases are presented in table 1. as can be seen, there are differences as well as similarities which imply that a municipal cc may be a slightly different concept, although they are all conceptually organized like figure 1 (above). table 1: some characteristics of the cases in the perspective of the public administrators and the citizens 4.1 the public administrators' perspective the main focus will be on aspects of competencies and work approaches with respect to the public administrators at the ccs, in terms of their role as suppliers of public service although e-administration aspects will also be discussed. with respect to the public administrators at the back-office, the focus will be on reorganization, their work situation and anchoring aspects, in terms of their role as suppliers of public service. the reason for this is that these are the main impressions that have appeared in the cases in terms of their role as supplier of service. competence perspectives and work approaches of the public administrators at the cc the competence of the public administrators at the cc differs as they are specialists in cases a and c and generalists in cases b and d. however, the difference is most obvious in case d, where their work approach is more of a guiding approach. consequently they are called "municipal guides". unlike in the other three cases, only one work process has been transferred from the back office to the cc. this is also seen in differences in how the work is organized. in case d and in one of the two ccs in case c, the work is not organized in different response groups. a response group refers here to a system where incoming telephone calls are connected via voicemail to a group of specialist employees, depending on the field of activity they are concerned with. in case b the telephone calls are organized in a few different response groups. in case c all employees are specialists within a certain area, which means that there is no need for response groups as this cc is solely concerned with supplying service to elderly inhabitants. in case b most of the public administrators have a broad range of knowledge, but some of them are also specialists within a certain area. their competence profile could therefore be characterized as generalists rather than specialists. in all cases, except case a, there seemed to be a certain lack of time for training to increase competence levels. there was a need in all cases for the public administrators at the cc to have continually updated knowledge: for the specialists, within their specific areas, and for the generalists, more time for updated knowledge regarding general tasks within their municipality. in case b, there was demand for more specific knowledge of the english language in order to handle all concepts within an authority correctly, to those who did not understand swedish. in all cases there appeared to be a certain lack of regular feedback from the back office when an issue was resolved. there are examples of both a highly formalized and rule-based approach (case a), with strict checklists used for the public administrators at the ccs at work, as well as a more informal approach, where the employees mainly are looking for relevant information online and building up their own informal knowledge (case b and d). one cc public administrator comments that, both because the work is not strictly governed by checklists (less formal) and the working climate is very social, you learn from each other within the working group. working at a cc being both a specialist within a certain area and a generalist in a broader area, made one respondent feel more competent compared to earlier when working at the back office in a specialist role: "i think it's really fun, very social, you learn all the time." e-administration initially there were some technical problems with the new internal ict tool for registering all incoming issues in almost all cases. there was also an example of a respondent experiencing a certain lack of time to register all issues. this is exemplified by a respondent in case d: "it's when you are going to enter a case and you don't have time to finish it and calls are coming in the whole time... you have a sentence in mind, you're about to write it down and you don't have time to write more than two letters." also, in almost all cases, there was some problem in correctly "labeling" the different issues when registering the issues in a common database. reorganization: work situation and anchoring aspects in the view of the public administrators at the back office there have been reorganizations within all municipalities with public administrators moved from the back office to the front office (cc), although to a varying extent. for many of the public administrators at the back office, their work has changed as supplier of service due to the implementation of the cc. the number of work tasks transferred from the back-office administration to the ccs varied among the different administrative units within the municipalities. many simple questions are now answered by the public administrators at the cc, with the result that more public administrators at the back office have more time to work and resolve issues without being disturbed by many telephone calls. at the same time, due to easier access for citizens to contact the municipality, there seems to have been an increase in the number of issues from citizens for public administrators to handle. in the implementation phase of the ccs there were, however, some negative attitudes from public administrators at the back office in all four municipalities. some of this seemed to be related to their work situation and a fear of losing work tasks or even jobs. so far no public administrators have been dismissed as a result of the implementation of the ccs. the results also indicate that management in all four municipalities had their main focus on the public administrators at the ccs in the implementation phase, and this lack of attention caused a feeling of inadequacy among some of the public administrators at the back office. the traditional focus within the municipalities seems to have been on internal processes instead of focusing on the needs of citizens. therefore when implementing the ccs, all municipalities worked towards a more citizen-centred perspective, although this seemed to be somewhat lacking in case d. case b clearly showed the benefits of a long experience of citizen-oriented process working with one-stop offices in suburban neighbourhoods. thus the cc in case b had more integrative effects in the municipal administration, as a respondent from the management argued: "even if this process has not been simple, it is much easier here than in other municipalities since we have integrated the values and ideas of integration and putting the citizen in focus. …. the idea has been with us for so long that it is integrated in the organization and the solution of cc was simply the next step". however, there was a lack in the anchoring of the implementation and reorganization in almost all municipalities. one example is the funding of the ccs, which was made in line with the new public management idea of taking the costs where the benefits appear in some of the ccs. thus the respective unit within the municipality had to "pay" for the e-government reorganization and cc implementation. in some cases these budget decisions were not sufficiently anchored before the implementation started. due to easier access to the municipalities for citizens, an increase could be expected in the number of issues from citizens for public administrators to handle, which could lead to a budget problem. however, no additional funds were allocated for this. instead, the increase was expected to be met within the existing financial framework. this resulted in some units having to "pay" for the implementation of cc with fewer people in the administration fulfilling the same job. this will be exemplified by a respondent from case d: "[t]his year we have to finance a large part of the activity of the contact centre... and this is a major concern for us... the idea of the cc is that this will be financed within the existing economic framework, otherwise there's no effect." the management of the division was therefore forced to transfer funds to the cc without being able to reduce costs, as they needed public administrators to perform tasks that could not be transferred to the generalists at the cc. there was for example no special response group for social services at the cc, and the demands of integrity, security and competence were not easy to deal with. there were negative attitudes towards the cc from public administrators at this division due to this situation. this internal financial problem was also highlighted as an anchoring problem by another respondent: "it's been a big job to create structures around the financing aspect. actually half a year went into creating the model for supply agreements that we have developed. obviously, finances are the driving force ..." this study also implies that there is a need for increased focus on the work of public administrators at the back office. thus this implementation is a process that benefits from being grounded in values of inclusion and meeting the needs of citizens that includes facilitating a reorganization of back-office procedures in order to optimize the efficiency aspects. therefore, local context as well as the anchoring of the e-government policy within the whole organization of the municipalities, seem to be critical aspects. thus, there is a need for management to better articulate and communicate e-government strategies related to the transfer of work tasks from the back office to the ccs in order to reduce anxiety among back-office public administrators. otherwise this may have a negative impact on service to citizens. to conclude, this study shows that the most significant critical impressions of the implementation of ccs are: deciding on the organization of the cc; whether the administrators should be specialists or generalists or a combination of both. having enough time for regular competence development for the public administrators at the ccs. anchoring the implementation of the cc to all divisions within the whole municipal organization and to decide upon internal financing issues before the reorganization. working for a "citizen-centric" approach. specifying which work processes should be transferred to cc. 4.2 findings from the citizen perspective the focus here will be on accessibility and citizen-centred aspects including "customer" approaches when implementing ccs in relation to creating some sort of added value. accessibility according to almost all respondents, accessibility to municipal services increased in all cases due to the implementation of the ccs. the e-government relationship between the public administration and citizens, here referred to as e-services, thus has increased. the use of a single telephone number to all municipal services and the development of more public e-services such as self-service, e.g. citizen assistant and more specific information on the municipal websites, increased citizen accessibility. the hours of operation for municipal service also increased (open all weekdays), although two-thirds of the citizens interviewed were satisfied with the hours of the cc in case d and the others would prefer to have the cc open also on weekends. it has become easier to make personal visits to the municipality through the ccs, even if in cases b and c these are referred to the one-stop government offices instead of to the ccs and in case d the cc will be open for personal visits in an office in the city centre in the near future. however, one respondent in case d argued that there might be a risk for a detour for the citizens when all telephone calls will now be answered at the cc and as generalists they do not have the competence to handle the issue. if the citizen could get in contact with a public administrator at the back office in charge of this issue directly, the citizen might get an immediate answer to the issue. "…before, they came directly to either a public administrator and then there was an immediate start of the issue, or to someone who actually took care of the issue. but now, i think, with the contact centre it will be a detour." in all cases except for case a and in one of the ccs in case c, citizens can still call specialized units within public administration (back office) even if there were ambitions to reduce these contacts. however, this study also implies a lack of confidence regarding the cc implementation since some citizens, according to respondents at the back offices, preferred to have direct communication with the administrators at the back office because they have authority to make decisions on the citizens' questions. municipality b had a long, almost ideological tradition of dialogue with, and providing services for, their residents, mainly by the implementation of one-stop government offices. this aspect can be seen as contributing to increased access to municipal services as it made it easier to transfer work processes to the cc. regarding case d (where the pilot study with the citizens was done), the overall impression was that citizens were satisfied with the increased accessibility to the cc. eighteen of 21 citizens received answers to their questions immediately upon contacting the cc and the other three almost immediately. most of the citizens used the telephone to receive local governmental service from the municipality because they wanted to talk to a human being, it was easy, or they were in need of a quick reply. however, there were some who, after talking to the public administrator at the cc, commented that in the future they would try to use the internet (the municipal website). on the question of whether the citizen used the website or e-services in order to get municipal information or not, the citizen commented: "not yet, but after this telephone call i will try to do it". touch-tone technique all citizens, not just the elderly, except one were very pleased with the simple touch-tone technology with just one choice to make (there was no response group in case d). one respondent commented: "the less choice the better, especially for elderly people, multiple choices is hard for old people." another respondent, who was very pleased with the simple touch-tone technology, comments that when there are many different choices, you don't know what to answer or which button to press. another citizen (who at the time was living abroad) commented that this was very good and made a comparison with the situation in england: "much better than when there are multiple choices. here in england we have more than a hundred choices. it is really tough!" in case a and b the touch-tone technique can be problematic for certain groups, especially the elderly, and contribute to less access to the cc. however, this seemed to be less in case b due to one-stop government offices and long experience of communication with citizens. the simple touch-tone technology in case d contributed to the fact that more citizens (for example those who are unwilling or unable to deal with touch-tone technology) could easily contact the cc and access the municipal service. a similar aspect of including more citizens by increasing their access to municipal services was establishing a special cc solely for issues regarding care of the elderly as in case c. these groups of citizens did not have to use the touch-tone technology in order to contact specialists in elderly issues. citizen-centred aspects and "customer" approach the establishment of a common citizen-centred concept within the whole organization of municipalities has worked out quite well in all municipalities, even if there were some shortcomings in municipality a (see bernhard, 2009) and d. in case b, the public administrators in the back office had extensive experience of working with one-stop government offices to which they had previously moved some work processes. this aspect has contributed to a positive citizen-centred development for citizen service. in municipality c, they also worked with this, although one respondent's view was that it could be improved even though municipal management had already decided from the start of the contact centre to hire a person with communication skills to work on consolidating the common citizen-centred concept among the employees. the way citizens are treated when contacting the cc can be seen as a citizen-centred aspect. the citizens interviewed were very satisfied with the way they were treated by the public administrators at the cc. there was however an opinion from a respondent at the cc that there was a lack in the striving towards citizen-centred perspective from the back office in case d: "[t]hey have too much focus on internal processes, not seeing from a citizen perspective." in this perspective it is also relevant to discuss the npm feature to view the citizens as customers. as can be read from table 1 in case a the name of the cc is "customer service" and the public administrators at cc are named "customer service administrator" which may indicate a view of the citizens as customers rather than citizens with rights and duties. one may then argue that this would be in contrast to "society administrator" (case b). however with respect to the results in this study, what employees at cc are called does not seem to define their view of citizens. in case b where they are named "society administrators" with ideological values of inclusion and meeting the needs of citizens, the management of the municipality decided that all employees should use the term "customer" to promote increased service-mindedness and treat all citizens as customers who are entitled to receive the best service and ensure that everyone is treated equally. the registering of all issues from the citizens in one common database at the ccs via a digital registration tool may in a sense be viewed as a citizen-centred aspect. this it system enabled the production of statistics as well as providing support for public e-services. this statistical information source implies knowledge about the citizens' needs for municipal service. this assumes that the statistics are followed up and evaluated by municipal managers. this also means that it becomes obvious to municipal managers what services citizens need and helps them in localizing the public service. this new knowledge may contribute to citizen governance of the municipal services as their needs have been highlighted; also, the new knowledge is a contribution to ict-mediated participation in internal municipal development and planning issues. the use of statistics could also be the basis for the continuous professional development of the public administrators at the cc, but this needs to be further analysed. e-services citizens sometimes made employees at the ccs aware of deficiencies on the website or pointed out e-services that were difficult to use or unable to use. thus they contributed to improving the e-government and municipal administration. it might also be argued that this contributed to more communities of citizens being able to get municipal service, which may be seen as a step towards more effective e-government. however, the model of the cc suggests that access and ability to use e-services are two components that may be seen as success factors for ccs, although in terms of efficiency, other indicators related to user-centred design frameworks in software engineering have to be considered for assessing efficient ccs. to conclude, this study show that the most significant impressions of the implementation of ccs from the viewpoint of citizens are: there has been an increase in accessibility to municipal service. almost all interviewed citizens were very pleased with a simple touch-tone technology. designating the public administrators "customer service administrators" does not seem to define their view of citizens. registering of all issues from the citizens in a common database may in a sense be viewed as a citizen-centred aspect. this information source implies knowledge about the citizens' needs of municipal service and can be used for planning purposes. 5. conclusions the intent of this study was to provide insights on the implementation of local e-government in sweden by studying municipal contact centres. based on a theoretical discussion of e-government and npm in the digital era, this study indicates that the implementation of ccs may be viewed as a result of the theories of npm in the keywords of efficient public services, introducing market mechanisms and customer orientation. the first research question addressed how the implementation of the cc had affected the work of the public administrators within the cc as well as those in the back office, in terms of their role as suppliers of public service. the role of the public administrators at the cc as suppliers of services can be described as that they can provide different services, combine them and even bridge different administrative domains from a citizen-centred perspective. however, the study implies that the work of the public administrators within the front office (cc) and back office will be more efficient if more work processes are transferred to the cc, provided that the public administrators at the cc have mandate and knowledge to respond to the issues. critical aspects related to efficiency are, however, work approaches and competence development possibilities for the public administrators at the ccs. further, the results point out that it is vital to anchor the ccs in policy making and within the municipalities before implementation. the cc implementation, including e-services and e-administration, cannot be seen as a separate part of the organization. although the use of it is essential for the organizational transformation, the results thus indicate that the organizational settings and internal anchoring are greater constraints than new technology for implementation of local e-government. the study implies that efficiency and citizen-centred approaches in this redesign of information relationships between the public administration and citizens to create some sort of added value are critical. the redesign appears e.g. in an ambition to bridge the silos of local public administration and shows that there is a need for a process organization as design of technology and organization are interrelated. this study also implies that there is a need for increased focus on the work of public administrators at the back office. thus this implementation is a process that benefits from being grounded in values of inclusion and meeting the needs of citizens that includes facilitating a reorganization of back-office procedures in order to optimize the efficiency aspects. the second research question addressed how the implementation of the cc affected citizens regarding access to public municipal service and "customer" approach. the study indicates that the implementation of ccs and addition of more public e-services contribute to increased access for citizens to public municipal services. citizens have more communication channels to choose from in order to gain access to municipal service. it might also be argued that the implementation of ccs allows for the use of community informatics which means, according to gurstein (2007), the application of icts for the empowerment of local people and communities. to establish ccs and bring more resources and services to the local community with "one simple path" via the phone, while also allowing physical visits, implies enabling access to municipal services for groups without internet access as well. on the one hand this is an example of efforts to minimize the digital divide and implies a step towards including more communities of citizens. this is because more citizens seem to come closer to the e-government; they cross the "threshold". on the other hand the implementation of more e-services should be considered in the light of the digital divide that still exists. it is not only the quantity of e-services that matters. it is still a problem that a number of public e-services are used to a low extent (goldkuhl, 2007; oecd, 2009). a reason for this may be the quality of the e-services. another result is that the registering of all issues from the citizens in a common database may in a sense be viewed as a citizen-centred aspect. this information source implies knowledge about the citizens' needs for municipal service and can be used for planning purposes. this may contribute to increased knowledge about the citizens' needs regarding municipal services. the municipal services could then be localized and adjusted to the citizens' needs (and to different communities of citizens), and hence the production of municipal services would become more citizen-governed than before the implementation of the ccs. the second part of research question number two addressed the "customer approach" of the implementation. the answer found in this study is that to call the public administrators "customer service administrators" does not seem to define their view of citizens. however, this study does indicate that the implementation of ccs may be viewed as a result of the theories of npm in the keywords of efficient public services, introducing market mechanisms and customer orientation. on the contrary, a cc may be viewed as localizing municipal public services and combining different services into a local e-government practice, striving to provide a "holistic" approach to the individual citizen in her local context. however, to explain the need for increased citizen perspective by using the metaphor of customer orientation, in line with the new public management paradigm, is to mix two perspectives and may therefore be criticised. there is a difference between being a customer and a citizen. referring to minzberg (1996), customers buy products but citizens have rights and the priority for them is more than a customer in the government sector. to conclude, the introduction of a municipal contact centre a new organizational form, new tasks and new technical practices is a new phenomenon within the swedish municipal e-government context which may be seen as a practical result of the swedish e-government policy. this study does not offer enough evidence of whether the policy objectives in swedish local e-administration to "have simple, open, accessible, effective and secure egovernment" have been achieved by implementing ccs, although the findings indicate that the objectives of accessible e-administration have been achieved. comparing the cases to compare these results in terms of benchmarking is, as mentioned above, difficult due to the fact that this local e-government initiative is a new phenomenon. however, despite differences between the ccs, although they are all defined as being a cc, i will discuss and make comparisons within these four cases in order to analyse if there is a "best practice". the results indicate an overall impression that it is difficult to find a "best practice" due to differences in local conditions. seen from both the public administrators' as well as from the citizens' perspectives, case c seems to be a good comparison. they have two ccs and four one-stop government offices with one cc solely for elderly issues, a single telephone number and touch tone technique. this is good also in terms of the digital divide. however, compared to other swedish municipalities, it is not a "best practice" nor representative of most swedish municipalities, as this is a metropolitan municipality having considerably more financial resources, due to a larger population. when comparing the three other cases, case b seems to be a good point of comparison, having both a cc to which several work-processes have been transferred, and five one-stop-government offices at which the citizens can make physical visits and do not need to use touch-tone technique or e-services. this is good in terms of the digital divide. on the other hand, this suburban municipality is not representative due to having many more inhabitants from abroad than most other municipalities. case a is a municipality that can be viewed as a regional centre in rural area and therefore not representative of most other swedish municipalities except for similar regional centres. however one may argue that case a and case d are relatively comparable as they both are regional centres, although case d is not situated in a rural area. case d seems better suited to be compared with from the citizens' view as they have a very simple touch-tone-technique and possibilities for citizens to make physical visits. however, they have only transferred one work-process from the back office to the cc which may be a hindering factor in terms of supplying service to citizens. the results indicate that it is important to be familiar with some common success factors although most of the effectiveness of solutions is contingent upon the specifics of local contexts. this study then disputes the dimension of one-size-fits-all assumptions underlying the idea of "best practice" as a solution. final remarks these results show a need for future study. a highly recommended approach would be to make a nationwide survey, based on randomly selected citizens and public administrators in selected types of municipalities in order to generalize findings about e-government in sweden. furthermore, future studies, should examine how the general public perceives and responds to e-government services. while a qualitative approach offers depth and useful insight, a quantitative approach should explain and predict why e-government matters and what factors lead to the effectiveness of e-government. future challenges involve further studying the role and value of statistics on all issues in the ccs in learning and planning perspectives of local e-government for the management of municipalities. another suggested research question could be: do small municipalities have enough resources to implement e-government initiatives like contact centres? the differences between the implemented ccs could also be further investigated. in what way do they differ? what are the consequences for the citizens as well as for the public administrators? it might be fruitful here to further analyse the potential of ict-mediated citizen participation.iii endnotes ia related concept to that of contact centre is a one-stop government office (also named civic office) which was introduced some decades ago and is a common public service unit (front office) where personnel with general competencies provide services across levels of governance, administration, authority and sector. this sets it apart from a contact centre, as the service provided to citizens concerns issues not only from the municipality but instead more than one public authority or sector, hence the concept "one-stop" (salar, 1997; björk & boustedt, 2002). the one-stop government offices are often implemented in municipalities with a high degree of inhabitants having roots outside sweden. iiduring 2009-2011 the author has studied the implementation of ccs in swedish municipalities in a project financed by swedish governmental agency for innovation systems (vinnova). swedish association of municipalities for joint development of e-services (sambruk) was one of three parts. at time for the study eighty municipalities were members of sambruk although just a few of them had implemented ccs (however more and more municipal ccs are now being implemented or planned to be). iiia suggestion would to be to compare e.g. the potential of community informatics as done in a case study in helsinki by saad-sulonen and horelli (2010). references andersson bäck, m. 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(2007). e-government research: reviewing the literature, limitations, and ways forward. government information quarterly, 24(3), 646-665. yin, r.k (2009). case study research. design and methods (4th ed.). sage, thousand oaks. can local communities meet the governmental ict literacy policy goal: namibia as a case study perien j. boer senior lecturer, educational technology, faculty of education, university of namibia, namibia. email: pjboer@unam.na introduction in june 2009, students of grades 5 and 6 at the ngoma primary school in namibia's caprivi region received 100 xo laptops. the project required local partners and community to focus on the project of integrating technology into the learning environment both in and out of school. the larger goal of this single case study was to investigate whether a local community could meet the government's "ict in education" policy literacy goal. it was hoped that the project would be sustainable and result in a ripple effect where parents and other family members would also become computer literate. computer literacy in this investigation was defined as the ability to use the internet for searches and e-mail, and to use a word processing programme and other fundamental computer functionalities. local engagement consisted of the tribal chief, four student teachers from the katima mulilo campus of the university of namibia, itenge development fund (idf, a local community fund), the salambala conservancy, telecom namibia, the principal of the school, teachers and the students. the project implementation took place over a period of three months, followed by contact sessions with the community for four years. the study investigates why the project lacked the capacity to expand beyond the boundaries of the school. furthermore, the interaction between the participants in transferring ownership to the community is analysed. in addition, this study uses matland's conflict-ambiguity model as a policy instrument to evaluate the "implementation problem" of governmental ict policies introduced at the local community level. background the republic of namibia is a country in southern africa on the atlantic coast. it is bordered by angola and zambia to the north, zimbabwe to the north-east, botswana to the east, and south africa to the south. windhoek is the capital city and the largest urban area, with much of the country being relatively sparsely populated. the independence of namibia from apartheid south africa on the 21st of march 1990 set the country on an ambitious path towards reform of the education system. in 2003, the namibian government set forth a blue print for their future in the form of "vision 2030", launched in june of 2004. vision 2030 lays out plans for improving all the sectors in namibia, to eradicate the apartheid legacy from society, and to develop the nation into a knowledge-based economy (vision 2030, 2004). the ministry of education (moe) developed the information, communication and technology (ict) policy for education in 2004. this policy was to provide guidance for integrating technology into the classroom, to achieve the national "vision 2030" goal of a knowledge-based society and economy. in order to bring the ict policy for education to life, the educational technology implementation plan, dubbed "tech/na!" (meaning technology is 'good' or 'nice' in 1 khoe khoegowab?), was officially launched in september 2006. namibia considered a multi-stakeholder approach important as it proved valuable in providing more opportunities to raise educational issues and foster "growing importance for local accountability" (donnelly et.al., 2006, p. 136). local context ngoma is located seventy kilometres from katima mulilo next to the botswana border (see figure 1). this settlement is within the salambala conservancy which consists of a primary school and a high school. learners at the primary school walk as far as five kilometres from the surrounding villages to attend the school. the community lacks major employment opportunities, and as a result, poverty and alcoholism are widespread. in addition, the school has a feeding program for many orphans and vulnerable children. figure 1: map of ngoma in relation to namibia [source: http://www.namibiabookings.com/caprivi/ngoma.html] despite having no industry, the community has several projects of which one is the bicycle empowerment network (ben). ben aims to make the community more mobile with services that include selling and repairs of bicycles as well bicycle ambulances. a collective craft centre next to the main road is another project, where local women sell their pottery and basket weaving crafts to tourists. the main settlement has electricity and telecommunication cell phone coverage. however, the majority of the surrounding community has limited electricity and no running water in their homes. water is collected as needed from the nearby boreholes or wells. ict literacy in local communities there are reports with anecdotal information of how one laptop per child (olpc) has been effective in achieving information and communications technology (ict) literacy at schools and in communities. despite these reports, little empirical evidence is available on how local communities respond to government policies or implement government policies with minimal government involvement. studies criticise government policies as lacking in local or cultural knowledge, and that these policies are in many cases borrowed from other countries (dolowitz & marsh, 2002; philips & ochs, 2004; evans & davies, 1999; rose, 1991). rogers (2003, p. 1) noted that "getting a new idea adopted, even if it has obvious advantages is difficult." using various case studies to illustrate this point and provide insight as to the complexities and difficulties involved around diffusion campaigns, rogers (2003) offers insight that diffusion of innovation is a social process more than a technical matter. through understanding local culture, customs and practices, policies can be created that would allow for easier adoption which would lead to social change in the system (rogers, 2003, p. 6). literature about ict's in rural communities tends to focus on access and uses of these technologies. herselmman, 2003, highlights various types of drawbacks facing rural schools in particular i.e. basic infrastructure, isolation, resources and bad teachers and poor technology access. the factors given above play a role in any implementation process, but do not determine success or failure of implementation. lack of empirical evidence on effective use of technology resources hinders the policy implementation progress. thus there is a case for taking specific action. fuhrman, cohen & mosher (2007), propose research that investigates policy implementation actions. they put forth a strong case for cumulative ethnographic research on effective policy practice (fuhrman et.al, 2007). fuhrman et.al. (2007), further state that for two decades much ethnographic work has been done in the united states, but little of that research is framed so as to inform knowledge for practice and thus is not usable by practitioners. of importance are the approaches used in the implementation processes of these technology resources. olpc principles/approach laptops were donated by olpc. the one-laptop-per-child (olpc) is a non-profit organization that develops low-cost laptop solutions called xo laptops. the mission of olpc is to provide educational opportunities for the world's most isolated and poorest children by giving each child a rugged, low-cost, connected laptop. the laptop includes software tools and content designed for collaborative self-empowered learning including the olpc-wiki (wiki_olpc, 2014). the project was awarded 100 laptops to donate to a school in namibia. by nature of the donation, the project had to follow the olpc five core principles when implementing the technology. the five core olpc principles are illustrated in figure 2 below. figure 2: the five core olpc principles. (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/core_principles/lang-en) the five approaches or principles are explained as follows: child ownership: the ownership of the xo is a basic right, coupled with new duties and responsibilities: including protecting, caring for, and sharing this creative environment. low ages: the xo is designed for the use of children ages 6 to 12. the size of the laptop is small and inherently, the keyboard is integrated with small keys. digital saturation in a given population: olpc is committed to elementary education in developing countries: the whole population to have access to a device. connection: the xo has been designed to provide an engaging wireless network. the laptops automatically connect to other xos in a radius of approximately 30 meters. this connectivity can be as ubiquitous as a formal or informal learning environment permits. free and open source: all children are learners and teachers, and this spirit of collaboration is amplified by free and open source tools. there is no need to depend on external sources in order to customise software into the local language, fix the software to remove bugs, or repurpose the software to fit their needs. ict literacy in local communities: since the deployment of olpc's laptops in various countries, its five core approaches have resulted in little empirical evidence in terms of effective reach of ict literacy to communities. most of the existing evidence with regard to successful ict literacy as it affects/influences communities is anecdotal. pringle and david (2002) noted that ict represents the "greatest tool" for communities who can self-educate and add value to their community. they further note that even if research revolves around models for constructive application or implementations, assessing the impact of these projects is difficult (pringle & david, 2002). other studies have shown that the use of the xo's has been low in a classroom situation due to the lack of pedagogical approaches, or teachers not understanding the value of using technology for teaching and learning (cristia et.al, 2012, severin et.al, 2011). however, anecdotal successes have been reported with the ownership component of the olpc model. children taking their xo's home has led to parents learning limited computer skills such as typing and more importantly finding information while surfing the internet. additionally, there is proof that literacy has improved amongst some of these communities because children have taught parents how to read and write using some of the programs on the xo (cristia et.al, 2012). results from a recent study on the implementation of this education technology model in peru have found a high level of teacher satisfaction and a slight improvements in the students' analytical skills (severin et.al, 2011). the severin study indicated that problems occurred with the reluctance to allow the laptops to be used at home. of the sample size, 43% of the schools did not want to implement this goal (27% thought the laptops would get damaged, 5% thought they would be stolen, 3% were not aware of the element of the program) (severin et.al, 2011). despite these mixed outcomes, research continues to focus on finding good practice in delivery of ict to these rural communities. moreover, measuring these outcomes based on government policies are of importance as it helps governments and communities measure the impact of several initiatives over time. policy measurement instruments: the complexity of implementing any technology policy ranges from the policy instrument used, to barriers for deployment. in this paper two evaluation measurements for policy success were considered. these were mcdonnell and elmore (1987) or the matland (1995) model or framework. mcdonnell and elmore (1987) present a framework of four generic classes of instruments i.e. mandates, inducements, capacity building and system changing. they describe mandates as rules governing the actions of individuals and agencies which are intended to produce compliance. inducements, on the other hand, allow for transfers of money to individuals or agencies in return for certain actions. capacity building is the transfer of money for the purpose of investment in material, intellectual, or human resources. finally, system changing transfers official authority among individuals and agencies in order to alter the system by which public goods and services are delivered. when using mcdonnell and elmore (1987) to evaluate the enactment of the tech/na! implementation plan, it can be concluded that the namibian implementation is a system-changing approach. this means that the "authority" of local level initiatives is transferred to the ministry of education (moe). however, elements of capacity building and mandates are built into the technology policy implementation at various levels. capacity building involves financial cost, where the moe allocates funds to deploy computers to each of the 1661 namibian schools (moe, 2011). furthermore, these funds provide professional training for teacher educators and student teachers at the university of namibia. mcdonnell and elmore (1987), go on to suggest empirical evidence that attempts to classify a diverse set of policies, operating in different institutional contexts according to the four instrument types. richard e. matland (1995) in his article "synthesizing the implementation literature: the ambiguity-conflict model of policy implementation" proposes a four paradigm model (see figure 3). this model consists of low conflict-low ambiguity (administrative implementation), high conflict-low ambiguity (political implementation), high conflict-high ambiguity (symbolic implementation) and low conflict-high ambiguity (experimental implementation). matland (1995), explains how the success of the policy can be defined within the context of how high or low was the degree of conflict or ambiguity that was negotiated. investigating any policy implementation involves people. people are the main participants of the realities of coming to grips with the implementing change process (fullan, 2007). it also involves the "spirit of the policy" which is the goals, target and tools used to capture the intent of the policy. in addition, the educational and political context in which the policy is to play itself out (honing, 2007) is of importance. when conflict is low, the teacher or participant assumes ease at negotiating implementation of the policy aims (matland, 1995). at a low level of conflict, the teacher's analysis and understanding of the policy aims can be bargained through persuasion, problem solving and coercion (matland, 1995). when the level of conflict is high, the teacher experiences a level of incompatibility of their values with the policy aims, and teachers struggle to negotiate enactment. when the ambiguity is low, the actors that are involved are clear as to what their roles are in the implementation process. there is a sense of compliance from all actors involved, however the goals to achieve the policy goals can appear incompatible and the conflict can be that the technology to meet the government initiative is not present. when the ambiguity is high, conflict is lowered in that the policies are more symbolic and confirms new goals by the government. in this instance the introduction of technology into the curriculum and the efforts towards ict literacy for all citizens is a symbolic act by government and understood and agreed upon by teachers. despite possible vagueness of the policy and the many interpretations of the various actors concerning the vision; the agency and the willingness of the various actors are of importance in the ambiguity component of the model (see figure 3). matland, 1995) states that "the central principle is that local level coalition strength determines the outcome" (p.168). thus, the policy course and direction can be determined by the various actors at the local level and how they control the available resources. figure 3: the ambiguity-conflict matrix: policy implementation processes (taken from matland, 1995) the overall objective for government is to reduce costs and/or spending and increase the sustainability of a successfully implemented policy. this study focuses on whether a community can implement and sustain a policy without government involvement. all educational technology policy implementation studies are aimed at success, effectiveness and sustainability. matland (1995) defines successful implementation as "statutes that comply with the directives of the statutes" or "where there is an improvement of the political climate around the program". it could be inferred that if the political climate around the program does not improve, success cannot be claimed. in the early implementation of educational policy, analysts excluded actors such as teachers, principals and learners, because they underestimated and misunderstood their role in policy implementation (honig, 2007). more current trends in policy studies show that the involvement and understanding of teachers in the process is of utmost importance (honig, 2007, stone-wiske, 2007). just as the focus on teachers is relevant, the focus on the individual community member as "policy-maker and implementer" should be equally considered. research that focuses on individuals in a community playing a role as implementers has become a valuable form of research to inform the policy-maker of how to improve the policy. teachers and policy implementation: for a policy to be implemented successfully, teachers as well as community members will have to learn about the policy ideas and its objectives. cohen & barnes, (1993), propose that by definition new policies contain new ideas or new configurations of old ideas. this implies some acquisition of new ways of thinking and doing. elmore & mclaughlin, 1988, suggests that local variation in policy implementation is a sign of good policy. due to its adaptability in meeting the diverse needs of the practitioners in the situation where it is enacted. the interpretation and enactment of policy is influenced by teacher's existing internal and external conditions (lieberman, 1982; lipsky, 1980). the question that arises is whether the objective of the policy has been achieved through local adaptation. further literature points to the fact that "practitioners" interpret policy through their existing beliefs and their experiences with other policies (mclaughlin, 1987). practitioners construct different interpretations of policy and it is enacted differently in the classrooms (judson, 2006). there is very little evidence about what teachers do and how it affects student's learning" in the classroom (haertel & means, 2003). much of the literature in these sections is focused on policy enactment understanding of teachers. due to the project being implemented at the school level, it was the expectation that teachers would empower the learners to grasp the importance of integrating icts in their everyday life and transfer the importance of ict literacy for every citizen. the implementation of the project various actors were involved in the implementation process. their involvement ranged from a "once-off" to an "active and continuous" involvement. the implementation followed the olpc approach: (child) ownership: the ownership model resulted in every grade 5 and 6 learner receiv-ing an xo laptop. in this project, all the ten primary school teachers were given an xo laptop in order to familiarize themselves with the software and operating system. teachers received technology integration training three times per week for two hours in the afternoons in order to better plan a technology learning experience for the learner using a one-on-one laptop ap-proach. learners were allowed to take the laptops home and required to bring them back to school within the school week. exploration sessions of the xo laptops were scheduled for the grade 5 and 6 learners in the afternoons, mondays to thursday. additionally, each of the four student teachers from the katima mulilo campus of the university of namibia (unam), re-ceived an xo and they travelled 70 km four times a week to assist the learners in doing basic ict literacy in these afternoon sessions. low ages: the xo laptop being designed for the use of children ages 6 to 12, the project chose grades 5 and 6 in awareness of the the language policyin namibia, where grades 1 to 3 classes are in mother-tongue instruction. grade 4 is the transition year from mother-tongue to english. digital saturation: the ngoma primary school had of approximately 500 learners from pre-primary to grade 6. saturation in the school was not possible as only 100 laptops were donated for the specific school. connection: through the itenge development fund's (idf) commitment to pay for internet connectivity to the school, telecom namibia was able to set up a wireless network for internet connectivity. additionally, a server with moodle was set up at the school with the idea that teachers would begin to use a blended approach to their teaching with the laptops. networking further extended to communication amongst learners while at home in their respective homesteads. as mentioned earlier, the laptops automatically connect to other xo's in a radius of approximately 30 meters. free and open source: teachers were made aware of the differences between proprietary and open-source software . namibia's ict policies acknowledge both, and choice is left to the schools, based on their budgetary needs. in many cases teachers are only familiar with the microsoft office package and struggled with understanding open-source. a few teachers were given the responsibility to "reflash" xo laptops where technical problems occurred such as software bugs, and to re-purpose the software to fit their needs. again the idf committed to paying for maintenance and repairs and tp purchasing parts. methods this study used a case study approach selecting one critical case. purposeful sampling was used to learn from this implementation of olpc laptops in a community. the interactions experienced between community members as they negotiated the implementation of the project were the primary focus. participants were chosen for the role they played in the implementation. four of the ten teachers, and fifteen from the nearly 80 learners who participated, were interviewed. interviews focussed on the effects of laptop ownership for the learners, integration of technology into the teaching and social life and the influence of the laptop in the learner's home or community life. additionally, observation data from field notes informed the research. analyses of interviews were done to reveal agency and show interactions. findings findings described the relationships between stakeholders and their roles. these interactions between the participants in transferring ownership to the community were analysed. the table below identifies teach role and interaction: table 1: findings arranged by relationship and roles of each stakeholder. the results from the learners will be reported in terms of their understanding of their role and agency. teacher → policy: interviews with teachers revealed that they were aware of the ministry of education's ict policy. this awareness does not always constitute an understanding of what is to be done and teachers noted that they did not understand what was expected of them. themes confirmed that for many teachers technology integration was about becoming an expert in learning the computer. teachers did not show any leaning towards the idea of establishing a "collaborative learning culture" where the children could co-share/teach. they noted that "how can i teach using this technology in the classroom when the children might know more than me?" more training on the laptop resulted in teachers complaining about the time and effort in learning the technology. they also considered learning how to integrate the technology for their teaching as an addition to their already existing full workload. further concerns from teachers were that the learners were not attending to their homework and that they were just playing on their computers. in follow-up visits to the project, a computer teacher was hired at the school to teach computer literacy using the xo's but found the open-source operating system and programs hampered her progress with teaching as she was used to a windows environment. the school revealed that on occasion, peacecorps volunteers would visit and demonstrated several technology integration lessons. technology integration is understood as the use of the technologies in the classroom for teaching a specific subject and for learner understanding. a one-on-one laptop lesson can range from project-based learning where students are faced with finding a solution to a problem, to simply preparing homework through searching the internet and typing the assignments, to improving learners' technology and information processing skills. principal →teachers: the principal along with the teachers welcomed the olpc program to the school and the community. he was excited at the opportunity that the learners could get access to technology and appreciated efforts for teachers to learn ict literacy skills and integration approaches. he encouraged the teachers to come for the training sessions in the afternoon. although he agreed to the olpc approach, he found the ownership principle difficult to understand. he found the notion of the community owning such expensive equipment absurd. he felt that it was a donation to the school and as such should be locked up in the school strongroom. principal →masubiya chief: the principal as the educational leader, decided that the masubiya tribal chief along with the local "indunas" should do the official handing over of the laptops. he reasoned that this would show support to the project. under the principal's guidance, appropriate arrangements were made to invite the chief and organize the handing over ceremony. chief → community at the handing-over ceremony, the chief issued a stern warning to the community to take care of the laptops. he expressed gratitude and commitment for further financial support through the itengi development fund. the involvement of the chief was minimal and did not extend beyond this function. his involvement however, did appear to be a deterrent for theft as he requested a level of respect from the learners cpncerning their ownership of the laptops and reiterated that because they were the communities' property everyone had a responsibility to protect the laptops from theft. principal → policy: the principal indicated that he was aware of the namibian "ict in education policy" and the "tech/na implementation plan". principal → idf chairperson: the itenge development fund (idf) is a community fund that awards scholarships or funding for special projects which uplift the community. the chairperson of the board of trustees, who is also the director of the university of namibia, katima mulilo campus, indicated that he was excited that the learners were going to get an opportunity to be exposed to technology. through this fund, the principal negotiated monthly financial support for internet connectivity through wi-fi at the school. the chairperson was in agreement with the principal that the laptops should be kept in the school strong room. they raised concerns concerning theft and damage. principal → parents: during the initial phases of the project the principal agreed to the ownership approach and allowed learners to carry the xo's home. parents were initially excited and saw the potential of the children owning a laptop as a learning tool which would give them a chance to rise above their current living conditions. like most parents everywhere, these parents also saw education for their children as a means to a better life. after two weeks of ownership however, the parents complained to the principal that the children were no longer doing their chores of collecting firewood, fetching water and raking the family's homestead courtyards. further complaints included that the kids would visit the local bars for hours, charging their laptops and recording music played in the bar. moreover, girls would visit the bars until late in order to record the soap-opera being televised on a local channel. additionally, the parents complained that if the children do stay at home they would make noise by playing their recorded music at top volume in the otherwise quiet courtyards. the principal made a decision that laptops should only be distributed for the afternoon program and were to be kept at school. he further justified this decision by stating that the laptops should be kept charged which meant that they would be kept in the school since most learners did not have electricity at home. complaints from parents appear to point to a lack of understanding in how to balance issues of chores, homework and leisure. principal → learners: in interviews and conversations with the principal, learners were encouraged to "make use of this opportunity". the principal also noted that the learners were not capable of taking care of the laptops and that he was reluctant to agree to the ownership model which olpc recommended. principal → the salambala conservancy: the conservancy in which the community lives, was interested in using the xo laptops to train conservation officers in computer literacy. similar to the service kiosk models in india, the conservancy group were looking to use the internet services after school for their proposed ict literacy component. negotiating with the principal on collaboration proved to be complicated and no agreement could be reached on evening access and supervision as the principals and teachers wanted to lock up after school closing at 5 pm. learners → peers and parents: learner views on agency: learner views did not show much insight into their own agency in the project. they all noted that they enjoyed taking the xo home and playing games, writing in the word processing programme, but mostly they enjoyed the video recorder and digital camera function of the laptop. the majority of the learners noted that their involvement with parents, siblings and other extended family were only to take digital photographs and video record them. a few mentioned that they showed their younger siblings how to open and explore the keyboard in the word processing program. for the most part, the learners noted that the experiences were only shared amongst their peers. from the interviews eight learners indicated that their parents asked and showed interest, but they only had minimal engagement. six indicated that their parents did not show any interest while one learner noted that parental involvement "was a disturbance" because the parent was trying to learn and explore the laptop. all students noted that "speak", a computer program that assists in playing back text phonetically was most useful in that it improved their english reading and pronunciation in speaking english. figure 4, below summarizes the process and the major issues arising from the study. figure 4: process and issues from findings discussion the study focused on the lack of ability of the project to expand beyond the boundaries of the school. the interaction between the participants in transferring ownership to the community was found to be mostly "one-directional" with unclear communication and understandings of the larger ict literacy goal. from the findings, it appears that the namibian ict in education goal towards ict literacy was not clearly communicated to the principal, and in turn to the teachers, learners, and the community. as such the importance of working towards this goal was not understood. spillane & jennings (1997); and coburn, (2005), link the implementation of technology integration to the delivery of the technology policy by government. how the technology policy is presented to the teachers by the principal or to the principal, affects the initial experience and understanding of the policy. the way teachers learn and treat the ideas of the policy shows what they value (spillane & jennings, 1997). it was crucial in this project that the teachers understood the policy and the larger goals, as teachers were instrumental in conveying these important issues to the learners. further investigation on how the government presented this policy to the principal, to the teachers and the community is needed. additional investigation should be around the relationship between the learners, ownership model and the community. the fact that the community is situated in a nature conservancy appears important. in a nature conservancy the land users are expected to manage their activities in an environmentally friendly manner without changing the land use. thus, there is a voluntary agreement between the government declared national park and the people that live within these areas. there is a common understanding that the area is to be co-managed by the community and the government to protect the fauna and flora species residing there. even though this paper did not explore how government policies such as issuing permits for collecting firewood and hunting permits are received by the community, an investigation of relations between the government and community is warranted. the findings did not reveal that the actors transferred the co-management principles to the ict literacy project. how the community experiences policy implementation and understanding at this level impacts how they would understand education ict policy. bailur (2007) identifies several complexities in community participation ict development projects. he identifies issues of participation being "top-down" and the "insiders learning what the outsiders want to hear" (bailur, 2007). gurstein (2007), notes that utilization of icts in the community has proven successful when communities do it at their own pace within their understanding of their culture and decision making processes. a need for communities to inform governments and to push for a more bottom-up ict development model is important (gurstein, 2007). matland (1995), explains that if there is a high level of ambiguity and a low level of conflict (experimental implementation /bottom-up), "outcomes will depend largely on which actors are active and most involved. the central principle driving this type of implementation is that contextual conditions dominate the processs. "outcomes depend heavily on the resources and actors present in the micro-implementing environment" (matland, 1995, p.165/166). at present the government of the republic of namibia has placed higher education and secondary schools as priorities and allotted resources such as training, computers and technical readiness for the implementing of the ict in education policy. primary schools are identified as secondary thus, no deployment of the icts is present at the primary school level. matland (1995), identifies this kind of implementation as "administrative" with low conflict and low ambiguity and largely top-down. the ownership model and conclusions the olpc approach to ownership appears to recognize the link between the learners and the community. the results further indicate that the ownership model appears to have been misunderstood by principals, teachers, and parents. in this project we cannot report what the effects of ownership would have been on the community. it would be of interest in further investigations to note whether results would be markedly different if the study followed the same or similar project implementation where the ownership model was adhered to. despite the fact that no resources are allocated as priority to primary schools, government continues to exert "power" through being explicit about its ict literacy goals in the broad curricula and appending instructional policies to all teachers. matland (1995), suggests that the ideal situation should be "neither bottom-up nor top-down" where "coalition strength" is exerted from both community and government alike. in this high conflict level, high ambiguity level, both community and government find ways to congregate around the same vision. communities inform government and the contextual conditions at local level are considered. the figure below, (fig 5), presents the possible scenarios of outcomes and indicators for each of the levels from this olpc project. figure 5: the ambiguity-conflict matrix: policy implementation processes within this olpc project. (taken from matland, 1995) this case study highlights the importance of more research in communities meeting governmental policies. further investigation is warranted on the approaches and ways in which the communities can be "empowered" to inform government on how to achieve the common interests and vision. footnotes 1khoe khoegowab is a non-bantu language that contain "click" sounds. it is spoken in southern africa and have been loosely classified as khoisan languages. references bailur, s., (2007, may). the complexities of community participation in ict for development projects: the case of "our voices". paper presented at the proceedings of the 9th conference on social implications of computers in developing countries, sao paulo, brazil coburn, c. (2005). the role of nonsystem actors in the relationship between policy and practice: the case of reading instruction in california.educational evaluation and policy analysis (vol. 27, pp. 23). cohen, d. k., & barnes, c. a. 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(1998). teaching for understanding.linking research with practice.the jossey-bass education series.jossey-bass inc., publishers, 350 sansome street, san francisco, ca 94104. joci special issue: vision and reality in community informatics ricardo gomez university of washington larry stillman monash university this special issue of the journal includes a selection of some of the best papers of the recent conference “vision and reality in community informatics” organized in prato, italy, oct 27-29, 2010, by the center for community networking research (ccnr) of monash university (australia), and the information school at the university of washington. community informatics, like many other areas of social intervention and development, deals with the real world. in spite of all the effort put into planning and thinking about how things are meant to happen, things never quite work out as they were initially planned. dealing with the unexpected is well known, recognized, and even expected in business enterprises, but often, in community settings, the unexpected is seen as risky, and sometimes, even evidence of failure. the unexpected or unanticipated is sometimes the most valuable thing to come out of work with a community, and being able use that innovation is of great importance to communities, designers, researchers, and other concerned parties. what are remarkable examples of unexpected or unanticipated outcomes? participants at the conference had ample time to discuss some of them, both in formal presentations and in the hallway conversations that generally make conferences a lot more interesting. the conference was structured around three broad topics: (1) planning ci: making room for the unexpected; (2) implementing ci: expecting the unexpected; and (3) evaluating ci: learning from the unexpected. each of these topics is touched by the selection of best papers we present here. the taste of the rich discussion and side conversations, nonetheless, remains with the participants. the paper by arden, mclaughlan and cooper received the “best paper award” for the conference. it describes a constructivist approach to evaluating the experience of granitenet, a collaborative community development initiative in australia. the power of participatory action research and constructivist evaluation methods helped to effectively document the project, establish an evidence base to inform future decision-making, identify and explore significant contextual factors impacting on the project, evaluate the effectiveness of the models and processes used to guide the project, and build a culture of evaluation that will help to ensure ongoing review and critical reflection on progress. they were able to successfully capture the unexpected and unanticipated outcomes of the project in ways that traditional evaluation approaches would have not been able to. the paper by magassa, which received the “best student paper” at the conference, discusses the applicability of the notions of community informatics for work with prisons in the united states. what if, magassa asks, we were able to equip soon-to-be released offenders with the digital and information literacy competencies necessary to fulfill daily needs when they re-enter society? would the ci approaches, used among disenfranchised communities around the world, be applicable to help improve the lives of these populations? we look forward to the program of studies of this promising doctoral student in this field. the paper by gomez and baron describes part of a larger study in colombia, in which expected outcomes of ci were mostly absent: public access to information and communication technologies (ict) has not helped strengthen community organizations or development activities, most likely due to the political violence that has affected the region. the authors conclude that public access to ict alone does not necessarily contribute to community development, especially if the political environment is not conducive or if there are no strong social organizations in the community. on the other hand, the paper by prado describes how one of the longest-operating community telecenters in latin america, in limon de ocoa, dominican republic, has been successful at leveraging ict in ways that promote social change, foster community prosperity, solidarity, and well-being. the paper by denison and johanson takes a unique look at e-research infrastructure and its implications for community research. electronic repositories, archival and collaboration systems are enabling profound transformations of the social relations surrounding research data, research artifacts and products, and published outcomes. the authors explore governance frameworks that can be applied in new e-community contexts, and identify some of the new management principles required for the authenticity, accessibility, disposition and preservation of electronic research resources, in ways that facilitate stronger participation and community involvement. french and johanson, on the other hand, draw from a larger pilot project exploring information and knowledge management in australian community sector organizations, and explore the potentially unintended impact of compliance overload and data silos on those organizations: they identify a shift to a managed, information-intensive, data-driven welfare approach in community organizations, as opposed to the flexible social and narrative approach traditionally valued in welfare work practice. the paper by de moor offers a valuable counterpoint, by examining the role of domain, conversation, and functionality roles in modeling community activation. de moor goes on to show how collaboration patterns can be used to design appropriate socio-technical solutions, rather than having technical solutions dictate the collaboration patterns. finally, social representations, and their contribution to ci research, are described by sarrica. he highlights the importance of understanding how new technologies are constructed, shaped and employed, in order to better understand the relationship between ict and communities. this, in turn, will help us better understand when and why the unexpected happens in ci. two papers focus on the unexpected outcomes of ci in education. elliott discusses the opportunities to harness digital technologies to support students from low socio-economic backgrounds in australia, where huge disparities still exist that marginalize those with low incomes and those living in remote communities. arnold then discusses the differences between open and closed learning management systems and their implications for higher education, and describes a participatory planning process for an e-learning strategy at a higher education institute, including unanticipated alliances and unexpected turns in the implementation process. finally, the two papers by pietrucci, farinosi and treré describe the creative ways in which the community of l’aquila, italy, used ict after the earthquake that unexpectedly devastated the city. citizen activism in post-earthquake l’aquila is an example of a disempowered public turned into a social movement not losing, in the metamorphosis, its inherent “poetic” capability of carrying out a change in the world. given more recent natural disasters in new zealand and as this editorial is being written, japan, their papers can be used to compare government and community ict-related responses in other earth-quake prone countries. this collection of papers is rich and diverse in its understanding vision and reality of ci as it faces the inevitable unexpected. digipoped: popular education and digital culture dan o'reilly-rowe university of new south wales, journalism and media research center university of sydney, digital cultures introduction a great deal of hype and expectation surrounds the potential for digital information and communications technologies to contribute to the development of new models of teaching and learning. within academic discourse on the possible benefits of this paradigm shift in education on democratic participation in society as a whole (jenkins et al 2009, coiro et al 2009), enthusiasm for the role of new technologies often obscures the important contribution of the educators, activists, and academics whose development of popular education approaches prefigure contemporary “participatory culture”. while neoliberal policies drive severe cuts to public funding of research in the humanities, and the scope of university curriculum is squeezed into ever tightening boxes of skilling and training, innovative models of knowledge production and dissemination are being built in community organisations, after-school programs, study groups, and other informal educational spaces outside of institutions of higher learning. this article examines the relationship between emerging practices and values of digital culture and the popular education approach to knowledge production. my discussion of this topic is anchored by a case study of buildthewheel.org, a web platform for the publication and development of popular education curricular resources. i will argue that the affordances of this platform, and the practices that emerge around it, highlight the potential for a synergistic relationship between popular education and digital culture. this article does not seek to evaluate the potential for this particular platform to directly bring about social change, or the broader role of popular education in progressive social movements, although its findings suggest that these could be fecund fields of inquiry. rather, i intend to demonstrate the particular resonances between this pedagogical approach and one model of digital culture. how do recent innovations in information and communications technologies affect the development and distribution of popular education resources? in order to set some context for the case study, i will first delineate what i mean by the key terms “popular education” and “digital culture”, and highlight parallels between the two concepts. among the many and competing models for discussing digital culture, i draw primarily on the principal component analysis of mark deuze (2006). this model will be applied to a case study of the buildthewheel.org project. my understanding of the site is built on information gathered through an interview i conducted with one of the website's designers, le tim ly, and through my own reading of the website as an artefact of digital culture. context: popular education, digital culture popular education and its academic disciplinary double, critical pedagogy, are approaches to teaching and learning that are designed to empower people to take action to address unjust social conditions (buras & apple 2006). popular education promotes the development of critical literacies as a fundamental component in the construction of an anti-oppressive praxis (freire, 1972). in contrast to dominant models of education, which are characterised by a relationship between teacher and student in which knowledge is “banked” in the educator and “transmitted” to the learner, critical pedagogy reflects its focus on the nature of power relationships in the world back onto the classroom itself. this approach promotes the agency of learners with the intention of supporting collaborative knowledge production in which all participants are both “teacher” and “learner” (kincheloe, 2008).lived experience is valued as a source of expertise in the popular education model. participants are encouraged to acknowledge race, gender, class, and other multiple and intersecting social identities (crenshaw 1989, hooks 2000), and to explore the ways in which systems of oppression and privilege shape their experience of the world. in this way, the work of popular education can be seen as connecting personal and political aspects of life. popular education workshops are often interactive and multimodal (olds, 2004). they might include the analysis and production of media and performance arts as a way of looking at how ideologies and relationships of power are transmitted and internalised through cultural practices. by constructing learning environments in which participants are encouraged to enact, embody, and experiment with relationships of power, popular educators encourage participants to envision models of what alternate realities could look and feel like (boal, 1979). when compared against the defining characteristics of the emerging digital culture and its technologies, remarkable resonances can be seen with some of the key attributes of popular education. collaboration, interactivity, and multimodality are commonly noted by theorists (eg quiggin 2006, ryan 2004) as essential features of digital textuality. the collaborative nature of knowledge production in popular education, wherein groups of participants come to gain deeper understanding of the world through the exchange of perspectives rooted in lived experience, finds its echo in the “many to many” model of the networked communication structure of the world wide web, although we should be cautious not to directly transpose the anti-oppressive goals of the former onto the latter. the ability of digital technologies to present and facilitate interaction with information in numerous ways, and through various sensory channels, is a key feature that differentiates new media from pre-digital media such as print, radio, and television. multimodality and the analysis and production of various media forms also appear in popular education workshops, following from the principle that literacies are multiple and modes of education cannot be universalised into one standard, print-based mode of knowledge production and transmission (kincheloe 2008). deuze (2006) puts forward a model of digital culture that is defined by the interaction of three principal components: participation, remediation, and bricolage. participation here closely resembles the concept of agency that is central to popular education, referring to learners' sense of being an empowered actor in the world. remediation, a concept deuze borrows from bolter and grusin (1999) involves the recognition that the emergent digital culture builds on, and often exists in tandem with, pre-digital cultures and their models for making sense of reality. bricolage is the process by which elements are drawn together from various sources to “reflexively assemble our own particular versions of such reality” (deuze, 2006 p66). each of these principal components is mirrored in the values and practices of popular education. the apparent synergy between the capabilities of digital technologies and the popular education mode of learning has not, however, led to the rapid adoption of new media by educators working in the popular education tradition. in fact, most popular education curriculum is generated today in much the same way as it was before the advent and general adoption of networked information and communication technologies. buildthewheel.org is one of a handful of recent experiments in using the capabilities of digital publishing to support the development of popular education, and it is by no means guaranteed to succeed in its goals. in the case study that follows, i will first describe buildthewheel.org's functionality and affordances, and then reflect on the applicability of deuze's interpretation of the components of digital culture by examining where these attributes can be seen in the website and its associated practices. case study: buildthewheel.org buildthewheel.org is an online community website designed to facilitate the sharing of popular education workshops and multi-media educational resources. at the time of writing this article the site is in a beta preview stage, meaning that it is functional but still undergoing testing and revision before a projected launch in late 2011. the site currently hosts hundreds of workshop outlines and other resources shared by organisations working on a wide range of social justice issues, including gender justice, environmentalism, anti-racism, migration, and labor issues. collaboration among educators in the development of curricular resources is not a new development created by the emergence of digital culture. the sharing of materials and techniques among teachers is a well established practice in both mainstream and popular education. however, when compared with pre-digital media, websites are particularly well suited to the storage and transmission of content. websites facilitate readily accessible information exchange and feedback in ways that previously depended on the establishment of personal and professional networks by individuals or organisations (quiggin 2006). buildthewheel.org is designed in such a way as to allow participation in a network of educators and political organisers with a very low threshold for professional experience, education, or organisational affiliation. its design consciously incorporates features that encourage participation and a degree of collaborative curriculum design among its users. participant-users who wish to have access to buildthewheel.org must first register an account. their account profile contains biographical information that they wish to share with the community, and may also contain information about the user’s organisational affiliation. partnered organisations have their own profile pages that contain information about the group’s work, their contributions to the site, and the ability to post news updates via an rss feed. the primary function of buildthewheel.org is to share curricular resources that can be downloaded for use in popular education workshops. to publish a workshop on the site, a registered user uploads a workshop plan document and provides supporting information which can be used to help others identify content that is of interest to them. this information may also help support the use and adaptation of the workshop by other educators. content providers are asked to identify how they wish to assign copyright of the material. in the interests of promoting a free and open exchange of resources, the program offers a creative commons attribution-non commercial-share alike licensing agreement as its default setting. it is also possible to select an all rights reserved option, which preserves the workshop author’s rights as described under standard us copyright law. content providers are able to limit which other users have access to the resources that they upload, and in the future a function might be added whereby content providers can charge money for particular resources and collect payment through an e-commerce payment system. buildthewheel.org developer le tim ly explains the development team’s approach to issues of ownership of the content in this way: we want to respect where everyone’s at with their particular approach to the materials they produce, meaning that some folks actually produce materials to be sold, and some folks produce materials just to share openly. our leaning is towards a perspective that the information, the education, the materials are for the common good and can’t be proprietary. the ability for content providers to determine not only what they share, but how they share it, allows for organisations and individuals with differing needs and attitudes to coexist within the community, without administrators dictating a narrow way in which the content providers must behave. for participants seeking resources to download, the ability to search for materials that are relevant to their needs is central to the site’s functionality. although still in its beta stage of development, buildthewheel.org already hosts over a hundred individual workshops, many with supporting multimedia resources. to trawl through all of these pages would be prohibitively time-consuming, so the site provides various tools for filtering those materials that are most relevant to the user. keywords can be used to search for workshops by language, duration, appropriate audience, and subject matter. it is also possible to see all of the resources that have been provided by a particular organisation. the site includes several social media features, and it is here that the potential for collaboration and collective knowledge production can best be seen. ratings and comment threads are embedded on each workshop's summary page. unlike in traditional print-media editing or peer review processes, this feedback is available not only to the author, but to the wider community of users. beyond leaving comments, users can revise and adapt workshops or translate them into other languages than that which they were originally uploaded in, and submit these derivative works for display along side the original material. users can also group workshops into compilations according to their own logic, and have the choice to make these sets either public or private. this feature could be used to create themed sets of workshops, programs for specific groups or goals, and could also be used as a recommendation system, whereby users seek out individuals whose opinions and expertise they value and use their sets as an entry point to the wider database of materials. in combination, these features consciously draw on the practice and theories of digital publishing to create a participatory online environment for knowledge production and dissemination, and are highly compatible with popular education methodology. to be genuinely in keeping with the values and intent of popular education, however, collaborative knowledge production of this sort must be seen as just one element in a broader push towards action to further struggles for social justice. le tim ly acknowledges that there are limits to how far a website can go in this regard: we’re talking about the process of coming together to imagine a different world and a different way of being, and then fighting for that. i think there’s limitations to how that can be done, from what i’ve seen, in the online world. because it’s ultimately about building relationships and crossing comfortable areas. organising, if it’s being effective, shouldn’t be too comfortable. you’re talking about bringing people together that are being pushed apart... reflection buildthewheel.org demonstrates the applicability of deuze’s formulation of the principal components of digital culture, and suggests the potential for the use of digital technologies towards a reorganisation of the production and consumption of knowledge. remediation is apparent here in the simultaneous departure from existing processes of educational publishing and the informal sharing of resources among popular educators, and the reproduction of some of these models of knowledge production's core values. the online popular education workshop both diverges from and reproduces its precedents in print and oral traditions in form and content. interactive, multimodal work was a characteristic of popular education before the digital age, and continues to be in many learning environments that do not have access to computers, the internet, or even electricity. buildthewheel.org's designers have not designed a platform for education to occur in an online space. they have created a tool for the development of educational resources in a digital environment to be deployed in physical spaces where groups of people gather to address oppressive conditions. in the online community space, a single authoritative editor does not compile workshops and resources into a popular education canon. instead, a web of autonomous bricoleurs upload, classify, and combine materials. this ability to tailor content by the user's particular identity and interests results in what deuze describes as �ghyperindividualisation�h (deuze, 2006 p.85). in the case of buildthewheel.org, i would argue that this ability to customise content works in such a way as to promote a sense of the intersectionality of identities and struggles and that this could have the effect of promoting solidarity across identities by fostering discussions towards a broader shared power analysis incorporates various issues. buildthewheel.org users participate in the community�fs creation of value by uploading, downloading, rating, commenting, and compiling. through participation in the community, users take part in the development of a collective knowledge base and a shared set of values and practices. importantly, these practices do not begin and end at the fingertips of participants logged into the site. by virtue of the propensity for popular education to encourage engagement with material conditions and social relationships, the digital culture around buildthewheel.org has the potential to affect the wider practices of social movements, both onand offline. the workshops developed and shared in the online space are generally intended for use in physical learning spaces, and as such the impact of the online community reaches out into the world beyond hyperindividualised online activities and into rooms full of people engaged in critical analysis of their conditions. it is far too early to make any demonstrable claims regarding the success or failure of this particular platform to produce a meaningful shift in the curriculum development practices of popular educators. that said, by creating a working model for the collaborative publication, distribution, and revision of pedagogical resources, synergies between popular education methods and digital culture are highlighted. this raises a number of important questions around the role of informal learning spaces and emerging models of collaborative knowledge production in relation to the established processes of research and publication seen in the university context. if community activist models of teaching and learning that prefigure the rise of digital culture are indeed highly appropriate to the new technological and cultural landscape, how might these same practices be taken up as legitimate processes of scholarship in academia? in what ways can universities and their academic staff both support and learn from experiments such as buildthewheel.org, given their position of relative wealth and authority when compared to the community and activist organisations that are engaging in such innovative work? as universities devote a greater portion of their budgets towards training workers for industries rather than conducting research, how can informal community education projects working with digital publishing tools help to redress this shift? as an opening point to answering some of these questions, academics might have to face the uncomfortable fact that they have much to learn about the collaborative knowledge production in digital culture from non-accredited, informally affiliated, politically motivated networks of activist-educators. bibliography boal, a. 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antiracist politics. in university of chicago legal forum, 1989, 139-168. deuze, m. (2006). participation, remediation, bricolage: considering principal components of a digital culture. the information society, 22(2), 63-75. dolgon, c. (2004, december 6-8). cyber or internet-literacies for collectivities as opposed to individuals (abstract). education and social action conference, centre for popular education, university of technology sydney, december 6-8, 2004, 21. freire, p. (1972). pedagogy of the oppressed. harmondsworth, middlesex: penguin. hooks, b. (2000). feminism is for everybody. cambridge: south end press jenkins, h. purushotma, r. weigel, m. clinton, k. & robinson, a.j. (2009). confronting the challenges of participatory culture. cambridge, ma: mit press. kincheloe, j. (2008). knowledge and critical pedagogy: an introduction. london: springer. martin, a. (2008). digital literacy and the “digital society”. in c. lankshear & m. knobel (eds.), digital literacies. new york: peter lang. olds, l. (2004, december 6-8). the north american alliance for popular and adult education and the movement of movements, education and social action conference, centre for popular education, university of technology, sydney, december 6-8, 2004, 65-69. ryan, m. (2004). multivariant narratives. in r.g. siemens, s. schreibman & j. unsworth (eds.), a companion to digital humanities (pp 415-430), malden, ma: blackwell publishing. quiggin, j. (2006) blogs, wikis and creative innovation. international journal of cultural studies, 9(4), 481-496. book review: digital dead end: fighting for social justice in the information age digital dead end: fighting for social justice in the information age, by virginia eubanks. cambridge, ma: mit press, 2011. 232 pp. $28.00 / £19.95 (hardcover). isbn 978-0-262-01498-4 reviewed by david nemer1 phd candidate, school of informatics and computing, indiana university, indianapolis, united states. email: dnemer@indiana.edu conventional western and white rhetoric suggests that the simple power of science and technology promotes broad-based economic and social equality, and equally nurtures transparency and accountability in democratic governance. virginia eubanks energetically challenges this claim, calling it magical thinking the belief that merely thinking about an event can cause it to happen. she proposes a realistic and alternative approach for fighting social injustice by shifting the focus away from the technology to the perspective of those in unprivileged social locations. in digital dead end, eubanks disputes the term "digital divide" since it carries with it a technological deterministic package. according to her, the relationship between inequality and icts is far more complex than any picture simply portraying "haves" and "have-nots" can represent. the real divide is actually a result of pre-existing social structures and institutionalized inequalities that are amplified by the information age (39). she advocates for the inception of "critical technological citizenship education based on the insights of broadly participatory" democracy (104) in order to forge links between people's knowledge, experience and the social and political realities that shape their understandings. she provides several insightful critiques: (1) policies aimed to bridge the digital divide are often "trapped in a distributive paradigm that sees all high-tech equity issues as distributive issues" (xix), they envision equity and justice solely in terms of resources; (2) technology is not approached as a broad concept encompassing cultural and social aspects and the processes around it; and (3) there is a lack of attention to social location "studying social location and everyday life makes the complex inequalities of the information age visible" (25). by interacting and collaborating with working-class women at the ywca of troy-cohoes, ny, eubanks realized that rather than being "technology poor," those women had a lot of experience and an intimate relationship with information technology (it). they used these in their high-tech occupations such as data entry and call centers and when dealing with the social service and welfare systems. accessing it was not giving these women the empowerment hoped for by eubanks. instead, it was disenfranchising them and enforcing the oppression and exploitation already suffered by them. for example, she shows how government services that have become automated and digitized in a number of ways remove human interaction (and therefore sometimes social worker intersession) or gather personal data that the women fear can be used against them in new ways that was not possible before. although the experiences presented by eubanks concerning the women from the ywca community in the information age can be disheartening, her book is a love story (21). it is not a very romantic one, but it tells stories about women sustaining relationships, conquering fear, building alliances and speaking their deepest truth. the book also shows that it, when approached properly, can be a tool of liberation. eubanks describes her practical and activist approach to developing "a broadly and empowering "technology for people," popular technology, which entails shifting the focus from teaching technical skill to nurturing critical technological citizenship, building resources for learning, and fostering social movement" (cover). popular technology privileges the perspective and participation of everyday experts. it is an opportunity for scholars, activists and policymakers to help address issues of inequality by including people to become more empowered, politically engaged and socially and critically involved in making appropriate changes in their communities. thus, the people in unprivileged social locations can engage and develop strategies to improve their education and political awareness. technology itself can be one the factors in this strategy, but it is not a necessary element. such human-centered argument calls for a shift in political focus from promoting it solutions to lifting up the boats of everyone to a "a model of high-tech equity based on resisting oppression, acknowledging difference as a resource, and fostering democratic and participatory decision making" (27). eubanks concludes by offering an agenda for creating equity in the information age (157): (1) protect workers in the lower tier of the high-tech economy since they are subject to losing "their power to bargain for fair wages, workplace safety, robust pensions, and job security" (158); (2) take high-tech industries off welfare since the incentive and tax breaks provided to them would be more than enough to pay public assistance and social services; (3) respect and reward the work of care, "the burden of combining parenting with the expanded work requirements falls mostly on women, single fathers are increasingly feeling its negative impacts as well… we must provide destigmatized, adequate support for those who bear an unequal share of the burdens of its risk and vulnerability." (162); (4) raise the floor by "raising the minimum wage and building a good jobs economy should do much to raise the floor for america's poorest workers." (163); (5) revive a vibrant democratic culture and expand cognitive justice by promoting critical technological citizens; (6) spread community technology centers (ctcs) around: though access-based solutions to inequality, such as ctcs, can only tackle a few high-tech equity issues, they nevertheless fulfill important community needs and may act as "centers of gravity" for citizen engagement and political organizing." (165); (7) protect our right to the city: "create and maintain livable communities, secure the benefits of economic change for the communities where development is undertaken, and protect the cultural rights of existing residents in areas undergoing rapid change." (165); (8) clean up after yourselves: promote electronic trash collecting and recycling in the community; and (9) everyone is equally precious in the process of creating a more just information age, because they contribute with their own expertise and experience of the real world of it, rooted in their social location. digital dead end offers a methodological guide for performing participatory action research within community groups; the appendices detail the process of developing popular technology programs. it is an accessible and enjoyable read for undergraduate and graduate students. eubanks' strong tone is an eye-opening opportunity for scholars, policymakers and activists to approach it through the perspectives of the ones that suffer the most from oppression and social injustice. by adopting an inter-sectional approach which brings together different theories ranging from feminist scholarship to science and technology studies she reminds us that social location is an incredibly important factor in any analysis of agency in socio-technical systems. this book renders oppressive aspects of it visible while maintaining hope for the future of an information society where people should be always considered at the center. community, group and individual: a framework for designing community technologies sheena l. erete1 1. assistant professor, college of computing and digital media, depaul university in chicago, il, usa. e-mail: serete@cdm.depaul.edu introduction education, crime, and environmental conditions are just a few of the concerns that communities face (green, 1979). it is important for the wellbeing of local residents that such social issues are addressed (guite, clark, & ackrill, 2006). traditional community interventions petitions to government officials, neighborhood watches, and local cleanups require that community members meet in person to participate. yet as technology becomes pervasive, people are considering the use of community technologies to support local engagement. many community technologies, however, are unsuccessful due to a lack of sustained participation from community members (foth, gonzalez, & kraemer, 2008). although there is a growing body of literature in the human computer interaction (hci) field that focuses on community technologies (carroll, 2001; gurstein, 2000; schuler, 1994), few studies discuss how to design community technologies that are intended to solve local problems. thus, i pose the research question: what factors should be considered when designing effective community technologies? in this paper, i present a theoretical framework consisting of three components: community, group, and individual. by asking the question, "how does a community technology engage communities/groups/individuals?," we can begin designing more effective community technologies. each of the three components of the proposed framework has related dimensions. community is influenced by the amount of support the technology provides to increase social cohesion and social capital. group engagement relates to the size of the group that the technology aims to engage small or large. the number of topics a community technology focuses on (i.e., many topics or one specific topic) affects individual engagement. using this framework, i discuss past community technologies and present three best practices when designing community technologies: 1) increase social cohesion and social capital, 2) engage small groups of community members, and 3) encourage participation through interest-based technologies. using a hypothetical community technology, i illustrate how each of these design factors can be incorporated into the development of new technologies. the next section provides a brief overview of the framework, while subsequent sections discuss each component of the framework in detail, including theory, examples, and design implications. framework for community technologies the fields of hci and community informatics (ci) have been at the forefront of proposing theoretical framing for community technologies. gurstein (2000) provided insight into how communities used technologies to participate in local democratic processes in the late 1990s and predicted the potential impact that technology could have on communities in the future. although this book provides a foundation for understanding community technologies, it does not account for the growth and transformations that have occurred over the past decade and a half (e.g., the prominence of social media). other studies in ci also provide theoretical frameworks. arnold and stillman (2013), for example, describe how the field of ci theorizes social power and the impact it has on collective agency. thakur (2009) proposed an analytic framework that focuses on how community groups participate in the democratic process and used it to evaluate a governance program in jamaica. both of these frameworks are essential to understanding how icts affect the relationship between local communities and other entities (e.g., government agencies); however, neither focuses on how to design effective technologies for local communities. this paper proposes that social and economic contexts, the extent and nature of participation, the scope and purpose of icts, and institutional balance are essential to understanding community participation in the democratic process. there are other studies that describe the use of community technologies (carroll, 2001; foth, et al., 2008), but few describe factors that should be considered when designing effective technologies for geographically-bound communities. based on sociological and urban studies literature (dewey, 1927; forrest & kearns, 2001; johnson, 1973), i propose three components that should be considered when designing technologies for geographically-bound communities: community, group, and individual (see figure 1). each component of the framework has relative dimensions (see figure 2). figure 1: illustration of community technologies framework figure 2: list of dimensions that relate to each of the three components of the framework. understanding the community in which the community technology is to be situated is critical to its success. a common method of assessing community is by considering the relationships amongst community members, or cohesiveness (forrest & kearns, 2001). additionally, researchers measure the number of resources that emerge as a result of connections between community members (putnam, 2001). the two methods mentioned above social cohesion and social capital, respectively are standard techniques for understanding community connectedness (kawachi et al., 1997; pigg & crank, 2004). the proposed framework suggests that designers should consider how community technology supports social cohesion and social capital within a community. the second component of the framework focuses on how the technology engages groups of people. traditional community interventions tend to engage either large or small groups (brudney, 1990). group size is directly related to the amount of participation in traditional community interventions (levy, et al., 1972). therefore, when designing community technologies that are intended to support (or even replace) traditional community interventions, user adoption of the community technology may be affected by the size of the group the technology engages. thus, group engagement is an important factor to consider when designing community technologies. people participate in community activities because they are interested in a specific issue (e.g., community beautification) (anderson & moore, 1978; schindler-rainman & lippitt, 1971). a person's motivation for participating may stem from a number of reasons including, but not limited to, personal experience, religion, value systems, and community wellbeing. despite the motivation, the issue is important to the individual. therefore, the third component of the framework focuses on how the technologies engage individuals. technologies support either one specific topic (e.g., crime) or many community topics (e.g., crime, health, homelessness). we refer to these as interest-based or non interest-based technologies. it is vital that we understand how community technologies engage individuals. figure 3 illustrates each of the components of the framework along with their dimensions on a continuum. community technologies support either high or low social cohesion and social capital, engage small or large groups of people, and address either interest or non-interest based topics. in this paper, i argue best practices for creating community technologies that are intended to act as interventions. specifically, community technologies should support high social cohesion and social capital, engage small groups, and focus on one specific topic (see box in upper left of figure 3). figure 3: framework on 3-d axes the proposed framework can be applied to new and existing community-based technologies. appendix a provides a comprehensive list of existing community-based technologies evaluated by the framework. the following section describes a hypothetical community-based technology that will be referenced throughout this paper to illustrate the three components of the framework. r u ok?: an illustration although there are many issues that communities must address, crime is a major issue that influences physical safety and emotional wellbeing (guite, et al., 2006). numerous community technologies have been created to address local crime (blom, et al., 2010; blythe, wright, & monk, 2004); however, few have been successful. throughout the paper, i describe a hypothetical community technology that illustrates the three design implications that emerged from applying the framework. r u ok? is an sms-based community technology that distributes real-time information about the safety of community members during the event of a violent crime (e.g., a gang shoot-out) in areas that experience excessive amounts of crime (lewis, 2010). it provides an opportunity for people to connect and check on each other during emergency situations. to begin, users sign up at a local organization (e.g., church, community center, library) using their cell phone numbers. they are initially placed into groups of four or five people based on the characteristics of the people with whom they would like to interact. for instance, a single mother may want to connect with other single mothers. likewise, college students from out-of-town may want to be placed in the same safety group. once enrolled, users have the option to connect with their safety group members offline or online. they could arrange to meet in-person (if they do not already know them) or add them to their social networking application(s) (e.g., facebook, linkedin) to interact further. there are two ways that messages are distributed. first, messages are sent through the automated system that is connected to the local police department. this allows people to receive real time information about violent crimes. second, community members can initiate alerts inquiring about the safety of those in their group and send messages to each other about precautions they may need to take because of local crime and disorder. for example, a concerned parent may send a message saying, "gangs hanging out near the elementary school today. kids walking home from school should be careful." text messages from r u ok? inquire about users' safety and provide information about crimes that occur near one's home or job. an example of a message would be, "are you okay?" after five minutes or if everyone in the safety group responds, another message would say, "a robbery occurred on 3rd and madison. everyone in your group has responded that they are okay. reply yes if you would like to receive additional updates about this incident." i will refer back to r u ok? to illustrate how design implications drawn from the theoretical framework can be incorporated into the design of a community technology. the next section describes the first component of the framework community. understanding communities: designing for social cohesion and social capital building social cohesion and social capital are vital to the success of local communities (forrest & kearns, 2001; wellman & wortley, 1990) and both should be considered when designing community-based technologies. social cohesion is the degree of social bonding, or the amount of trust, hope, group identity, and sense of belonging (berkman & kawachi, 2000). social cohesion has been considered a major method for studying community because it measures closeness and shared values amongst community members. community cohesion leads to increased engagement in activities that support the collective good (forrest & kearns, 2001; woolley, 1998). in her book, mapping social cohesion: the state of canadian research, jane jenson (1998) describes five dimensions to measure social cohesion: belonging <---> isolation inclusion <---> exclusion participation <---> non-involvement recognition <---> rejection legitimacy <---> illegitimacy in addition to social cohesion, another vital element of a successful community is social capital. social capital refers to resources that are available through social connections. robert putnam (2000) defines social capital as "features of social organization, such as trust, norms, and networks, that can improve the efficiency of society by facilitating coordinated actions." he further describes his take on social capital. "the central idea of social capital is that networks and the associated norms of reciprocity have value. they have value for the people who are in them, and they have demonstrable externalities, so that there are both public and private faces of social capital. accepting that there is no single form of social capital, we need to think about its multiple dimensions" (putnam, 2001). these dimensions include levels of trust, perceived reciprocity, extent of obligation, participation, empowerment, and collective norms/values (forrest & kearns, 2001). the major difference is that social cohesion is the connectedness and solidarity of a group, while social capital describes the resources that are available to group members (berkman & kawachi, 2000). elements of social capital have been used to evaluate social cohesion; therefore, some consider social cohesion a subset of social capital (ibid: 2000). community technologies should be designed to increase both social cohesion and social capital amongst community members. communities that have high social cohesion are more engaged in addressing public concerns (e.g., hazardous waste and crime) than those that do not (forrest & kearns, 2001). high social capital has been linked to more effective functioning local governing bodies, an increased economic growth rate, and less crime (hirschfield & bowers, 1997). members of communities with high social cohesion and social capital are happier and healthier than those in communities with low social cohesion and social capital (coburn, 2000; putnam, 2001). considering the importance of factors such as engagement and effective governing, it is essential that when creating community technologies, we consider designs that are aimed at increasing social cohesion and social capital. social cohesion and social capital in community technologies technologies have been created that support community social cohesion or social capital; however, few technologies consider the importance of designing for both. those that do design for both social cohesion and social capital have slightly more success; yet, they lack other elements (i.e., considering the importance of group and individual engagement described further in this paper), which are vital for successful community technology. this section evaluates community technologies based on how they support social cohesion and social capital. some technologies focus on social cohesion, but not on social capital. for example, in an effort to increase sense of belonging (jenson, 1998), an element of social cohesion, resnick and shah (2002) created a shared photo album to improve face recognition amongst community members. this is an example of a technology that intends to increase social cohesion but not social capital, because there are no definite social connections made that provide access to resources. similarly, familiar stranger is a wearable device that keeps track of strangers that people habitually encounter but do not know personally (paulos & goodman, 2004). the device alerts users when they encounter other residents that they have been in close physical proximity to in the past (e.g., a user at the grocery store would be alerted if they encountered someone who was on their morning commuter train). this is another example of a technology that intends to support social cohesion through recognition, but not social capital. the drawback to designing technology that supports only social cohesion is that the direct benefit of using the tool is unclear; thus, use of the technology rapidly decreases. in both of the community technology examples mentioned above, participants experienced increased recognition of other community members and feelings of belonging, which strengthens social cohesion; however, participants did not use the tools beyond the study (some stopped before the study ended), because the tool did not provide a direct advantage such as increased resources. by designing tools that increase social capital, community members will benefit from using the tool; therefore, cases where users disengage because they feel the purpose of using the technology is vague will be reduced. there are clear benefits to designing tools that support social capital. one main benefit is that community members will have access to more social resources through the connections that are made. for example, eatwell empowers community members by providing an opportunity to share stories about their healthy eating habits through asynchronous voice recordings (grimes, bednar, bolter, & grinter, 2008). while eatwell is designed to build social capital through empowerment (forrest & kearns, 2001) by allowing community members to share recipes and locations to buy healthy food, it does not support social cohesion or bonding, because the entries are anonymous. le dantec's community resource map (crm) is another example of a mobile technology designed to increase social capital amongst homeless community members by supplying information about employment, food, and shelters gathered from local community organizations and other people who are homeless (le dantec, 2010). this system supports social capital, because people rely on others to obtain resources. yet because people do not directly engage with each other, recognition (jenson, 1998) an element of social cohesion is not established. lack of contribution is the major weakness that emerges from designing systems that support only social capital and not social cohesion. people receive information but rarely provide information because the social bonds that encourage reciprocity are not built. both eatwell and the crm report few contributors during the study, which eventually leads to stale, irrelevant information. since there is less of a perceived need to contribute, there is a lack of participation. however, designing opportunities for cohesion or bonding encourages people to contribute, because they feel they belong and that their contribution adds value. additionally, there have been a few community technologies designed to increase both social cohesion and social capital; however, these tools lack other design elements that are discussed further in this paper. for example, hampton's (2010) i-neighbors is an online website that allows community members to retrieve information about local events (e.g., concerts, plays) as well as critical local issues, such as crime and legislature. this tool provides people with a way to discuss common goals, increase solidarity about issues, and even increase attachment to the neighborhood (physical place), all measures of social cohesion. for example, one neighbor reported on the website that youth were throwing trash in an elderly lady's yard and declared that no one will be allowed to destroy their neighborhood. rallying around this declaration, residents organized a beautification day to address the trash that was thrown and to improve the general appearance of the neighborhood. residents later commented that they were pleased with the event participation and results. they also said that they enjoyed interacting with their neighbors. this illustrates how technology can increase commitment to physical place and solidarity amongst community members. furthermore, i-neighbors.org's messaging feature allowed social connections to be made, where people become information resources. similarly, carroll, rossen, and colleagues (1999) created blacksburg nostalgia, a technology that allowed the elderly to create an oral history of blacksburg, va. users said that knowing the history of the community increased feelings of closeness to other residents. while the original intent was to store historical information about the community (social capital), blacksburg nostalgia also fostered social cohesion. although both of these technologies increase social capital and social cohesion, they lack other design considerations such as interest-based participation, which is vital to create technology that sustains engagement. table 1: summary of results based on community technologies' support of social cohesion and social capital technologies that focus only on social cohesion and not on social capital increase the sense of community and closeness over time; however, the use of these technologies are short lived because residents discontinue use when they do not see a direct benefit. on the other hand, technologies that increase social capital provide connections to resources, which is a clear benefit of use. however without social cohesion, contribution is low because of the lack of social bonds that lead to feelings of reciprocity, which increase the likelihood of one contributing. people who do not feel a bond or closeness with other residents are less likely to feel reciprocity or a need to contribute (gouldner, 1960). thus, only a few contributors remain and, eventually, the information becomes stale and usage declines. while there are some community technologies that support both social cohesion and social capital, most do not consider other factors that make successful community building technology, such as the importance of engaging small groups or focusing on one topic. r u ok?: designing social cohesion and social capital understanding how to engage community is the first component in the framework to design and evaluate community technology. in the preceding sections, i presented theory regarding the importance of social cohesion and social capital in communities and examined how past community technologies have (or have not) supported social cohesion and social capital in their design. to explore methods of designing community technologies that support high social cohesion and social capital, i refer back to r u ok? , the hypothetical community technology introduced earlier in this paper. recall that r u ok? allows small groups of community members to interact via text message about safety in their neighborhoods. consider the following scenario: don is a graduate student who has lived in the edgewood community his entire life without incident, despite the high crime rate; however, he recently became the victim of a robbery when walking home from school. like many victims, he becomes nervous while in his neighborhood so he decides to join an r u ok? safety group and requests to be connected to others who have been victimized. after connecting with his new safety group via facebook, don and his group decide to: 1) sync their schedules so that at least two people can walk from the train station to their respective homes together when arriving after dark (as they typically arrive around the same time) and 2) they decide to have monthly meetings at local coffee shops regarding their experiences of being victims as a way to begin the healing process. in addition to receiving information about local crimes in his area, don's perceptions of safety and community increase due to his interaction with a group of people who have had experiences similar to his own. the example above describes how r u ok? facilitates the connecting of group members through bonding and recognition. specifically, during signup, users of r u ok? are connected with people who have certain characteristics that are important to them. in the scenario above, the user decided to connect with other community members who had had similar experiences (i.e., all had been victims), and they were able to bond over these experiences by starting a support group. through the connections made by r u ok? , community members were able to begin to identify each other (recognition) and unite as a result of their similar characteristics. additionally, r u ok? supports social capital as illustrated in the example above. users received information relative to their location and they were able to form a "buddy-system," when walking home at night from the train. these resources stem from the social connections that are supported by the r u ok? system. this section provides theory about the importance of social cohesion and social capital to communities. successful community technologies consider methods to support and increase social cohesion, or closeness, amongst community members and social capital by allowing them to utilize each other and information from the system as resources. the following section describes theory, examples, and design implications of the second component in the proposed framework group. engaging groups: size matters people are most willing to participate in local community activities when they feel a sense of belonging and obligation, which originates from having personal connections to other community members (kerr, 1983). these personal connections provide people with the feeling that their individual contributions are important and recognized by others in the community (e.g., "i'm not just a number. sam and donna appreciate my time."). personal recognition of an individual's contribution leads to increased participation over time (gidron, 1985). furthermore, group size inversely predicts the likelihood of volunteerism (levy, et al., 1972). "in some situations, notably in 'large groups,' any individual's contribution is too small to make a noticeable difference in the level of the collective good, so everyone's contribution is irrational no matter what anyone else does. but in 'small groups' such as the active members of a community organization, individual contributions do make a noticeable difference and predictions about others' behavior are relevant. people who believe others will provide the collective good are motivated to ride free; people who do not believe others will provide the collective good are motivated to provide the good themselves..." (oliver, 1984). this predicts that community interventions that engage large groups without personalized interactions have less sustained participation than those organized into small groups, because the anonymity of large groups discourages helping behavior (diener, 1980; schwartz & fleishman, 1978; solomon, solomon, & stone, 1978). for instance, large volunteer organizations that do not separate their volunteers into small groups have low retention rates, because those who volunteer in large groups feel that their contribution does not matter (gidron, 1985; olson, 1971). therefore, to improve participation in community activities, engaging small groups, where people communicate and work closely with four to seven others, is ideal (oliver, 1984). in addition to increased engagement, people are likely to adhere to social norms if they feel as though they are a part of a group (zimbardo, 1969). volunteers in small groups abide by norms of community engagement such as consistent and meaningful participation in order to maintain their reputation amongst those who know them (milinski, semmann, & krambeck, 2002; sugden, 1984). furthermore, trust is more prominent in small groups than large groups (sato, 1988). thus, many community activities are based inside of pre-established organizations such as local churches, schools, etc. residents identify with these organizations and their leaders as pillars in the community and are hesitant to trust new unfamiliar organizations. engaging small groups provides the opportunity to interact with others who are familiar, as opposed to strangers in a large group. small group engagement leads to high retention rates, reciprocity, and trust. lastly, people are less likely to participate in community activities if too much time is demanded (foth, 2006). thus, groups that are too small (less than three members) are less likely to be successful because the workload is placed on too few individuals. the effect of group size on community technology adoption community technologies designed to engage large groups receive participation from a small number of community members that dominate the tool. foth (2006) designed a community technology that was created to facilitate discussion amongst residents of three different urban apartment complexes in australia. over time, a small percentage of residents began to dominate the community message board, which led others in the community to lose interest and abandon the system or simply lurk (foth, 2006; preece, nonnecke & andrews, 2004). this happens frequently to systems that are built for large groups (takahashi, fujimoto & yamasaki, 2003). by designing technologies that aim to engage small groups (four to seven people), there is a lesser chance of one or two people dominating the interaction and alienating others, because there is increased accountability amongst small group members (festinger & thibaut, 1951; kerr, 1983). another issue regarding systems designed for large groups is adherence to social norms, which impacts the need for censorship of information. for example, researchers created an authoring system that supports public discourse amongst local community members by taking pictures and writing captions (ananny, biddick & strohecker, 2003). the pictures and captions were posted for everyone to view; however, users complained that censorship was needed because people would post irrelevant information. in technologies that support large groups, people are more likely to post information that is inappropriate because they are not closely connected with other group members. members of small groups, however, feel more of an obligation to adhere to social norms (zimbardo, 1969), which will limit the circulation of inappropriate information. people may hesitate using information from technology built to support large groups, because they do not know the other users that are providing the information. for example, users of comfortzone (blom, et al., 2010), a system that allows people to annotate a virtual map based on how safe they feel, did not trust the information that was provided by other users. they wanted to know more about the users who posted information so they could better assess their background. in this example, people wanted more background on other members of the organization, which they felt would help them trust the information. similarly, users of mapmover, an interactive system that allows people to share kinetic and audio expressions of the city that is displayed on a large-scale public map, did not interact with other community members' information, because they did not know or trust the source (disalvo, maki & martin, 2007). these examples demonstrate the importance of trust in community technologies, which is easier to establish when engaging small groups (sato, 1988). technology built for large groups limits the amount that individuals are willing to contribute, because there is less of a sense of reciprocity. users may feel that information provided through the community technology was created for their use and that their input or participation is not needed. this increases the potential for lurkers who do not provide content which, in turn, increases the likelihood that the technology will fail (nonnecke & preece, 2000; preece, et al., 2004). for instance, the speakeasy system, an integrated web and telephone service that provides local residents with free translation services, relied purely on altruism for participation from multi-lingual volunteers (hirsch & liu, 2004). alhough the system was not tested over an extended period of time, researchers expressed concern about the drop-off rate of volunteers. participation is a large concern, especially for systems designed to engage large groups, because there is less incentive for users to give back. technologies that support small groups, however, provide an incentive for contributing because being in a small group induces feelings of reciprocity. also, small groups alleviate the pressure of working in pairs, which requires that one person constantly contribute, as demonstrated in speakeasy. i propose that we leverage the characteristics of small groups (four to seven people) in order to increase engagement and sense of community. designing technologies that engage small groups will increase awareness because people will be more likely to regard information provided by those in their small group. r u ok?: engaging small groups engaging groups is the second component of the framework for designing community technologies. as stated above, the size of the group is key and the examples above reveal issues that arise when community technologies are created for large groups (i.e., lack of contribution and trust). technologies created for pairs of users (two people), on the other hand, may warrant too much pressure and time for users to contribute. hence, designing community technologies for small groups (four to seven people) is a better solution. r u ok? , for example, connects groups of four or five people and provides the safety status of each group member. therefore, users are less likely to become overwhelmed with information, and the safety group is small enough that they can have a personal interaction with each other. consequently, group members may feel an increased sense of community. below is an example scenario of how the use of small groups can improve the success of a community technology: sue, a member of an r u ok? safety group, is a new resident in a high crime neighborhood. on the bus headed home from work, she receives an alert that local gangs are shooting near her home. she responds that she is okay and receives notice that the other three women in her group are also okay. being new to the area, she asks others for suggestions of a place she could wait for a few hours. sarah, a member of sue's group, suggests that sue accompany her to an evening church service, which is on sue's bus route, until things subside. not only has sue avoided possible danger, but also, being a member of a small group, she is able to bond with a community member and explore a new church. by creating technologies that utilize small groups of people, users may become highly engaged because of personal connections. they are likely to feel a greater connection to group members without feeling the heavy pressure from the dependence that may occur by being in a smaller group (e.g., two people). small group engagement would not require that group members allocate large amounts of time. instead, these small groups would focus only on issues that are of interest to group members. the next section discusses theory, examples, and design implications for the third and final component of the framework individual. encouraging individual participation: the effect of interests community engagement increases when community activities are constructed around preexisting social conditions that are unique to a place (e.g., violence in chicago), because people are intrinsically motivated to participate in activities that have personal significance (dewey, 1927). for instance, people may be more likely to attend a town hall meeting to support or oppose a position of personal concern than a general town hall meeting. an individual who states, "i want to stop gang violence in my community" is more likely to be consistently involved in community improvement activities for longer than someone who states, "i want to help my community." the former has a specific goal or target for helping the community (i.e., decreasing gang violence), while the latter statement is a general statement. community organizations that target a specific topic have higher retention rates than those that do not (smith, 1975). while residents with general goals may participate in various communal efforts, a person who is passionate about a specific topic is more likely to take part in community activities for a longer period of time (johnson, 1973). the role of interests in community technologies technologies that focus on a specific topic, or interest-based technologies, allow people to rally around an issue of personal importance (e.g., health, crime, education). it is essential that community technologies are designed to support specific (as opposed to general) content because those who unite to address topics that are commonly important are likely to participate intently (smith, 1975; unger, 1991). interest-based tools are customized to address a specific topic, while non interest-based technologies do not. non interest-based technologies provide users with many topic options. the amount of topics, however, can be overwhelming and much of the information becomes outdated because only a few people continue to contribute or "dominate" the tool. the scenario below illustrates problems with non interest-based technologies: maya, a local resident, is seeking information about safety on a non interest-based system. she searches through material about education, neighborhood events, government information, etc., which are section titles created by other users. there is information on a safety seminar in the neighborhood but maya does not see it because it is in the community events section, not the safety section. maya becomes frustrated believing that there is no relevant information on safety so she does not use the system in the future to find information on safety. non interest-based technologies rely on people categorizing and tagging information for group understanding. this can be problematic because it is based on personal interpretation (rader & wash, 2008), which can result in online information that is difficult for others to find (as exhibited in the above scenario). thus, people may be less likely to use non interest-based technologies, because the information can be overwhelming and disorganized. communities are less likely to adopt technologies that are not created for a specific topic. for example, hampton's i-neighbors system (2007) allowed local residents to have online discussions about any topic such as crime, beautification projects, local daycares, and local government issues. similarly, blacksburg nostalgia (carroll, et al., 1999) provided community members with information about events occurring in blacksburg, virginia. both of these community-building technologies did not focus on specific interests or topics but instead, allowed local residents to post information that they thought was relevant. residents were given the opportunity to address a plethora of topics, which causes confusion and a lack of clarity of purpose. both authors report a significant decline in usage after the study ended, and that users were unsure where to look for information, as there were many different topics. interest-based technologies connect people and facilitate discussion surrounding one topic. for instance, eatwell, a system that focuses on health, aims to improve the eating habits of an atlanta community by allowing people to share recipes. similarly, safety is the focus of comfortzone, a mobile phone system that allows residents to denote areas where they feel unsafe on a virtual map (blom, et al., 2010). both eatwell and comfortzone focus on a specific topic within a local community i.e., health and safety, respectively. users of both systems stated that they were excited to use the tools because they were interested in health or personal safety. these systems provide an opportunity for users to explore topics in which they are intrinsically motivated to engage. the major weakness of the two examples above is that they do not attempt to facilitate social cohesion, another consideration vital to the success of community technologies; therefore, users did not feel they needed to contribute because of a lack of reciprocity. successful community technologies should: design for social cohesion and social capital, engage small groups, and focus on specific interests. although a community technology may address one of the three components of the framework presented in this paper, without addressing the others, the technology's chance of success diminishes. r u ok?: designing interest-based community technologies the third and final component of the proposed framework is considering how to engage individuals. as mentioned above, the topic(s) that the community technology address(es) are important when engaging an individual. r u ok? is an example of a community technology designed to address one topic, safety. community members are alerted of local crimes that occur and are provided with the status of people within their safety group. by providing information to people that is focused, residents who are interested in safety will be able to use the system without being distracted or annoyed with information that is irrelevant to their concerns. this may in fact limit the amount of users but there are other systems that could provide additional information to people, if they are concerned about other topics (e.g., health, education). by creating technologies that are specific, people are able to focus on information that they find significant, without encountering information that they do not. in this section, i define interest and non-interest based technologies. i propose the design of community-based technologies that focus on a particular interest. community technologies should address one specific topic rather than general topics. interest-based technologies have a higher chance of being adopted and used over a period of time because there is a personal interest in using the system. interest-based technologies allow people to rally around one issue they care about. thus, they will be more passionate about engaging and less annoyed with receiving information that they are not interested in. conclusion the objective of this paper is to inform the design of community technologies. drawing upon sociological and urban studies literature, i present a conceptual framework that focuses on the need to improve community, group, and individual engagement. the dimensions associated with the three concepts in the framework are social cohesion/capital, group size and interests, respectively. using this framework, i recommend three best practices vital when designing community technologies. we should design to: 1) increase social cohesion and social capital, 2) engage small groups of community members, and 3) encourage participation through interest-based technologies. these considerations have the ability to foster personal relationships amongst community members that encourage participation in local initiatives. designing interest-based community technologies that increase social cohesion and social capital through small group interaction leads to greater engagement amongst communities. although r u ok? illustrates the components of the framework, future work should test 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(1969). the human choice: individuation, reason, and order versus deindividuation, impulse, and chaos. paper presented at the nebraska symposium on motivation, lincoln. appendix 1 “poetic” publics: agency and rhetorics of “netroots” activism in post-earthquake l’aquila   pamela pietrucci department of communication, university of washington, seattle   abstract   in this essay, i analyze the rise of post-earthquake activism in l’aquila as an exemplification of counterpublics’ transformation into social movements endowed with “poetic” agency. engendering “poetic agency,” for a counterpublic and for a social movement alike, denotes being able to bring forth change in the world and being able to generate change in a creative, “poetic” way. in this sense, poetic assumes a connotation that opposes the habermasian perspective of a public sphere in which only a rational-critical discourse can be engendered as check on the state.   in the case of l’aquila, i contend that the post-earthquake social movements’ capability of effecting change in public life through poiesis has been enhanced by the possibilities of the web 2.0 and by the activists’ acknowledgement of new ways of political participation in a world of spectacularized politics. in this instance, strategies such as the exploitation of alternative “public screens” on the web and the use of “minor rhetorics” to contrast the mainstream media portrayal of the post-disaster situation worked together in a creative and spontaneous effort to improve the condition of the people living in the area affected by the quake.   keywords   counterpublics, public screen, social movements, web 2.0, spectacle.   the post-disaster situation in l’aquila   decline is not the only possible narrative. viewing contemporary public discourse through the prism of the public screen provokes a consideration of the emergence of new forms of participatory democracy.   de luca and peeples, from public sphere to public screen.   on april 6, 2009, a catastrophic earthquake of magnitude 6.3 struck the central-southern italian city of l’aquila, the capital of abruzzo. the earthquake, and the seismic swarm that preceded and followed it, wreaked massive destruction on the once-picturesque medieval town. the seismic event completely annihilated downtown l’aquila, the historic, economic, and social heart of the city. most of the ancient churches, almost all of the historic palazzi, the seats of local government, the historic buildings of the university of l’aquila, the medieval walls of the city, and many residents’ houses collapsed reducing the historic and artistic city center to rubble, literally pulverized. the heart of l’aquila was named zona rossa, “red zone,” and it is still mostly inaccessible to the residents of l’aquila and the general public, garrisoned by police forces.   in addition to the symbolic loss of the once lively center of the city, l’aquila and its residents experienced significant further losses and practical consequences. more than 300 people died during the night of april 6, the majority of l’aquila’s 70,000 residents lost their homes, and a considerable number of them also lost their businesses and jobs, not to mention the disintegration of their social life and sense of community. the post-catastrophe desolation in l’aquila and the italian government top-down management of the emergency through the civil protection agency (cpa) generated a unique situation that led to the rise of citizens’ activism and their engagement in the post-earthquake political discourse.   in the aftermath of the quake, the cpa organized tent cities for the evacuees where the residents of l’aquila spent months in precarious living conditions and under the strict surveillance of the cpa. justifying its actions by claiming that it had to keep social order in the post-catastrophe emergency, the cpa de facto enforced the suspension of the residents’ civil rights through such extreme measures as prohibiting free association and democratic discussion among the residents of the tent cities and prohibiting, though often violated, free access to both people and information from outside the camps, including journalists and leafleting. oddly, these special measures remained in place for a fairly long period, until the tents were disassembled by the cpa, long after the situation of immediate emergency. in fact, the tent cities hosted the evacuees for more than seven months (until december 2009) in a city known to be the coldest in italy.   the shock of the earthquake, the pain for the loss of loved ones and a normal life, the situation of frailty and hardships together with the constant surveillance by the cpa brought the residents to exasperation. this situation enhanced the will of resistance to the governmental power’s oppression and the will of participation in the re-birth and reconstruction of l’aquila. the residents of l’aquila reacted to the top-down post-disaster management rising up to support their right to be involved in the process of decision-making concerning the reconstruction of not only the city but also their own destroyed lives and social identities.   the first target of the activists’ protests was the local division of the cpa, named dicomac, an acronym for divisione di comando e controllo. the activists claimed that this “division of command and control,” with its strict surveillance on the tent cities and their residents, contributed significantly to keeping the real catastrophic situation of l’aquila outside of national public and political discourse, keeping it outside of the realm of non-filtered media visibility as much as possible.   despite the extensive news coverage of the earthquake in the immediate aftermath of the event, as time went by the images showed on italian public and private television networks started representing only a selected part of the post-disaster reality. mostly, portrayals were suffused with the image of a “miracle” in dealing with the emergency and the reconstruction, focusing attention on the construction of temporary houses in the outskirts of l’aquila, and neglecting the dramatic situation of the city center and of the evacuees’ everyday life.   the post-earthquake management has been framed by mainstream media as a great success for the government. this portrayal has been developed by defining the management of the post-earthquake emergency as a “miracle” realized by the cpa and by organizing a series of image events to convey a spectacular and positive representation of the situation of l’aquila. notably, mass media elevated prime minister berlusconi as a triumphant figure. he was constantly visible on the public screen, and seen participating in all of the image events broadcasted in national and international new reports. the prime minister could often be seen in a firefighter’s yellow helmet visiting the evacuees in the tent cities, giving speeches from the midst of the rubble, escorting political leaders inside the red zone of downtown l’aquila, and symbolically giving the keys of the new temporary houses to local families. these images have become iconic in representing the closeness of the italian president to his people, the generosity of the state, and the personal empathy and effort of the prime minister to help the disadvantaged.   a wide variety of media image events contributed in the spectacularizion of the post-disaster situation, including: the g8 summit, which brought all of the most important political leaders of the world to l’aquila during summer 2009, when the seismic swarm was still scaring the local population; the symbolic inaugurations of the new towns built to host the evacuees, called progetto c.a.s.e; and several visits of the prime minister in the construction sites of the new temporary housing complexes. for both the italian and international audience, all these events portrayed the image of a city that was already going through a process of re-birth. they portrayed the image of a “miracle” realized, or at least in course of realization.   unfortunately, for the residents of the tent cities and for the citizens of l’aquila that had to leave the town after the quake, the rhetoric of the “miracolo aquilano” represented a very open and visible mystification that heavily clashed with the reality of things. the constant stream of broadcasted positive images and messages misrepresented the local reality and ended up generating widespread discontent among the citizens of l’aquila who failed to identify their situations with the images that were passing for reality on national television.   during the summer 2009, l’aquila citizens who resented the government media campaign, constituted 14 citizens’ committees united in a network, the rete dei movimenti (network of movements) whose tasks were those of: 1) ensuring democratic participation in rebuilding; 2) ensuring the public transparency during the process of allocation of funds for the reconstruction (padovani 2010); 3) resisting the mainstream media representation of the post-earthquake reality and deconstructing berlusconi’s metaphor of the “miracolo aquilano.”   the citizens’ committees “3e32” and “epicentro solidale” (solidarity epicenter) engaged in intense media activism during the g8 summit, attempting to show to a national and international audience that the reality in l’aquila was “another thing,” and precisely it was “the complete opposite of what they show [on tv]” (puliafito cited in padovani 2010). they did so through the diffusion of messages via mail, social networks sites, blogs and through the organization of visual/spectacular protests, and the dissemination of symbolic images through online and offline modes of communication.   most importantly, the local activists recognized the need of media visibility as an integral part in resisting the spectacular image events staged by the government and the misinformation that those images were spreading at the national and international level. the local activists recognized the need to appear on media screens in order to enact the democratic participation that the post-disaster management denied them. in a context where politics turned into spectacle, the activists realized that the only possible way to fight against media misinformation was to fight back in the same battlefield, that is, in the realm of images and media spectacles. in the activists’ words, they were aware that it was necessary to “perforate berlusconi’s media spectacle” and to “break the semantic glass” that had been thrown on the city after the earthquake (alessandro t., cited in padovani 2010). in a nutshell, the citizens’ committees activists were determined to stage a counter-spectacle in order to re-appropriate the democratic right of participation in local politics and to make a change in their reality by using images and spectacles as weapons, by disseminating awareness on the public screens by any available technological means. the social movements’ use of mainstream and alternative public screens, the dissemination of images via the web, together with the counter-spectacles and the creative representation of the local reality in movies, documentaries, videos, songs, and books, contributed in significant ways in bringing forth changes in the post-earthquake situation: 1) it made it possible for the citizens’ voices to be heard and to become an active part in the post-disaster management; 2) it made it possible for the citizens to re-appropriate their rights and freedom; 3) most importantly it generated material changes in the policies for the reconstruction.   challenging warner’s perspective on social movements’ agency   in this essay i argue that the case of post-earthquake l’aquila can aide in deepening our understanding of the potential agency of discursive counterpublics in their transformation into social movements. counterpublics and social movements alike are capable of agency, as the case of l’aquila demonstrates, specifically the kind of agency that warner defines “poetic world-making” (warner 2002). divergently from warner, i argue that counterpublics’ transformation into social movements does not diminish their potential agency in relation to the state and does not necessarily represent a negative transformation that implies a loss of the “poetic” potential of change in favor of the rational discourse typical of politics. on the contrary, i will analyze l’aquila activism to show how a discursive counterpublic turned into a social movement while maintaining and increasing, in the metamorphosis, its inherent “poetic” capability of carrying on a change in the material world.   specifically, i contend that, in the case of l’aquila, the possibilities of the contemporary technologic and wired society, like web 2.0, enhanced the post-earthquake activist group’s capacity to make a change in the local public life. the case of post-earthquake l’aquila provides an example of a growing counterpublic engaged in an active resistance to a mainstream discourse and in a process of change-making through poiesis. the term poiesis denotes the meanings of “creation” and “creativity” at the same time, it denotes a creative way of making and changing the world. thus, the example of l’aquila activism challenges warner’s pessimistic assumption that “for many counterpublics, to do so [to enter the temporality of politics in the transformation of a counterpublic into a social movement] is to cede the original hope of transforming, not just policy, but the space of public life itself” (warner 2002). the case of l’aquila post-quake movements challenges warner’s pessimism because it shows that the agency of social movements can be effective and “poetic” at once.   warner’s discursive publics: public and private, space and agency reconsidered   at this point, it is appropriate to debunk the terminology concerning the theory of public/s that i attempt to revise through my analysis. i will do so by providing my reading of warner’s principles of publicness, by deepening some strategic concepts in this theory, such as the theorization of space and agency, and by problematizing the dichotomy of private and public. this conceptualization arises from warner’s text in that this text suggests such interpretations; however, my reading represents an expansion of this theory based on the case of current activism in l’aquila.   in the outset of his influencial essay publics and counterpublics, michael warner declares that his aim is not that of defining “the public” in the deweyan sense of “social totality,” and not even that of defining a public as a concrete audience or crowd. warner asserts that his task is that of talking about “that kind of public that comes to be only in relation to texts and their circulation” (warner 2002). in order to clarify his conception, he starts the list of features pertaining to the specific kinds of publics he wants to theorize. he suggests the following seven principles of publicness:   1. a public is self-organized. warner contends that a public is self-organized because it exists only for the fact of being addressed. in this sense it is autotelic its only aim (telos) is that of coming into existence as a public for the discourse which generates it. a public “is a space of discourse organized by nothing other than discourse itself.” warner recognizes that this idea of public is circular, but this circularity is essential to this phenomenon. public’s reality lies in fact in “this reflexivity by which an addressable object is conjured into being in order to enable the very discourse that gives it existence.” moreover, the author points out, space and physical presence do not make a difference for a public: multiple publics exist and they are different from crowds or an audience that instead require presence. a public is a cultural artifact for which “any empirical extension will seem arbitrarily limited because the addressee of public discourse is always yet to be realized.” therefore, a public seems to be a space-less potentiality, but this doesn’t mean it is unreal. only because “the available addressees are essentially imaginary” and in principle open ended, we do not have to infer that they don’t have empirical reality. all potential publics are self-organizing and “they exist by virtue of their address” (warner 2002).   2. a public is a relation among strangers. the self-organization of publics through discourse also means that people are identified through their participation in the discourse in the first place, therefore they cannot be known in advance. a public thus “unites strangers through participation” (warner 2002).   3. the address of public speech is both personal and impersonal. as potential members of multiple publics we should understand public speech in two ways, as addressed to us and at the same time as addressed to strangers. “the benefit in this practice is that it gives a general social relevance to private thought and life. our subjectivity is understood as having resonance with others” (warner 2002). in this sense, a public is a virtual space where the private can have significance by virtue of what makes that private a commonality in a specific public. thus warner’s publics resist the habermasian ideal of the focus on common issues in the public sphere (habermas 1967). for habermas, entering the public sphere means bracketing private interests and focus rationally on common issues. for warner, we become part of a public precisely because of the commonalities that discourse creates between our private and the private of potentially innumerable other strangers.   4. a public is constituted through mere attention. publics exist only by virtue of being addressed, therefore, a member of a public must present some degree of attention in order to become a part of it. a public for warner starts with attention, continues with renewed attention and ceases to exist when attention is not paid it anymore.   5. a public is the social space created by the reflexive circulation of discourse. warner states that no single text can create a public, no single voice or genre, not even a single medium. rather, publics are created by the concatenation of texts throughout time. only when there is a previous discourse and a potential responding discourse, a text is able to address a public. in this sense warner defines a public as “an ongoing space of encounter for discourse” (warner 2002). we can think of discourse as a conversation and publics are the context of interaction, the social space created by the reflexivity of discourse.   6. publics act historically according to the temporality of their circulation. a public acts accordingly to the time of the circulation of discourse that creates it. the more punctual the circulation is, the more likely is the possibility of activity, and the closer is a public to politics.   7. a public is a poetic world-making. public discourse potentially addresses anybody, it is performative and it characterizes the world in which it attempts to circulate. it can also be defined as an “engine for social mutation” and in this sense it is, in other words, poetic (warner 2002). i interpret this term as poiesis, which means “to make” or “to bring forth action” that transforms and continues the world. nevertheless, “poetic” in warner’s theory also stands to contrast the “rational-critical” discourse typical of the habermasian conception of the public sphere. in warner’s conceptions, public discourse, speech or performance attempts to define in advance its circulation and the world in which it will circulate through its address to a public. the self-organizing public, as a consequence, is the precondition for the realization (poiesis) of the world characterized by public discourse. the public would therefore be the agent of a poetic-world making, where poetic has the double meaning that implies action/agency, and a kind of agency that is in contrast with the public sphere’s rational kind of discourse that characterizes politics.   counterpublics   while sub-publics are just specialized publics, focused on, or characterized by particular interests, counterpublics are instead constituted through a “conflictual relation to the dominant public.” according to warner, a counterpublic is aware of its subordinate status. for this reason, “counterpublic discourse also addresses those strangers as being not just anybody. they are socially marked by their participation in this kind of discourse […] the subordinate status of a counterpublic does not simply reflect identities formed elsewhere; participation in such a public is one of the ways in which its members’ identities are formed and transformed. a hierarchy of stigma is the assumed background of practice. one enters at one’s own risk.” (warner 2002). this conception of counterpublic is definitely more radical if compared to fraser’s “subaltern counterpublics” which “formulate oppositional interpretation of their identity, interests and needs” (fraser 1990), or asens’s “discursive identities” as “explicitly articulated alternatives to wider publics that exclude the interests of potential participants” (asen 2000).   warner’s counterpublics are in conflict with dominant publics, namely those publics that can take their discourse and lifestyle for granted, “misrecognizing the indefinite scope of their expansive address as universality and normalcy.” counterpublics, warner points out, “are spaces of circulation in which it is hoped that the poiesis of scene-making will be transformative, not replicative merely” (warner 2002). thus, counterpublics, paraphrasing principle n° 7 can be thought as agents of poetic change-making. indeed, in their poetic world-making they ought to produce social change against the “replicative” world-making of dominant publics.   virtual and material spaces of publicity: radicalizing the permeability of public and private in the age of web 2.0   in the forum on publics and counterpublics that appeared in the quarterly journal of speech, wittenberg expands on the concept of space that warner employs. wittenberg reminds us, at the outset of his essay, that space and visibility are fundamental in any exercise of power (wittenberg 2002). he also notes that, consistent with other theories of publics and public spheres, warner uses the term space in a “quasi metaphorical” or “quasi metaphysical” way in order to preserve the theoretical basis of the existence of the public as text-based entity and as a potentiality that manifests itself in the tension between a material/empirical and a notional/discursive conception of space. wittenberg asserts: “this spatializing terminology aids the theorist in representing the coherence of these otherwise nebulous social identities by transmuting them from adjectives into concrete nouns.” moreover, “spatial terms help the theorist to mark publics as specifics, locatable phenomena within the built social and political environment, as well as to begin to describe the way in which publics distinguish and demarcate their own specific character within the wider realm of social relationships” (wittenberg 2002). wittenberg stresses the internal tensions between the abstract, discursive, and almost metaphysical character of publics as “potentiality” of discourse, as warner theorizes them, and their empirical and material possibility of their realization in the world. for wittenberg, when we think about publics as text-based we have to give up both the common understanding of the public as an entity “which is ‘outside’ in the civic social environment,” and the habermasian conception of public as the counterpart of the private, in fact, “you may as well read or write public discourse in the privacy of your own home, and indeed, given the present momentum of the media, you are increasingly likely to do so,” wittenberg states (wittenberg 2002) while hinting at the new online modalities of communication.   warner’s theory, in principle n° 3, collapses the public/private dichotomy, radicalizing one of the common reconfigurations of public sphere theory, which questions the distinction between public and private by re-thinking the borders between the two as “permeable” and “loosened by removing the restriction of deliberation in the public sphere to the common good” (asen and brower 2001).   moreover, warner’s theory enmeshes the material/empirical (as a potentiality) with discoursive/metaphorical (based on circulation of texts) conception of publicity, which allows the possibility of thinking about spatiality of publics and counterpublics in a double, and equally valid perspective. this double perspective recognizes publics and counterpublics as discursive and text-based potential entities, which have at once a material potential substance that realizes itself in the aggregation of strangers as addressee of a specific discourse. the ontology of publics (and counterpublics, and social movements) is thus discursive on the one hand, and potentially material on the other hand, both features being present at the same time. in this perspective, the character of counter/publics can be conceived as potentially visible “outside” in the civic social environment on the one hand, as happens for example in rallies, marches, sit-ins, protests, and also “invisible” or virtual on the other hand, but equally present and ideally “materializable.” rethinking the spatiality of publicity, and collapsing the opposition between the public and the private once and for all, make it easier to make sense of the phenomenology of publicity in the age of the interactive web 2.0. rethinking the spatiality of publicity means conceiving it in the same time as a “space of discourse organized by nothing other than discourse itself” (warner 2002), that nevertheless has an actual spatializing potential, which makes it also material and endows it with an effective agency in the world. the space occupied by counter/publics and their evolution in social movements can be both material and tangible or virtual and volatile, like the space occupied on the internet or in media screens. thus, a “spatialized” conception of publics, a conception which is still discursive, but not purely metaphysical, is a conception that helps collapse the dichotomy of materiality/discourse in theorizing publicity in its new manifestations through blogs, social networks, online forums, instant messaging. it also helps make sense of the new activism, which is more and more mediated by the web 2.0 modalities of circulation of texts in the attempt to organize action to make change in the material world.   agency, publicity and “minor rhetorics”   visualizing publics and counterpublics in the space, be it a material or virtual one, makes it easier to endow them with an agency that in warner’s essay is suggested but not rigorously theorized. as evidence of this ambiguity in warner’s essay, the responses on the public/counterpublics forum are mainly concerned with the consequences of: “going out in public” for wittenberg (wittenberg 2002), or on “the limits of political transformation” for deem (deem 2002), or on rhetorical pedagogy conceived as a “postal system” of a public for greene (greene 2002). in every case, the concern about the possibility of agency of publics and its consequences is a major one in this literature.   moreover, warner’s theory of publics complicates the question of agency because it refuses one of the common reconfigurations of public sphere theory, namely the reconsideration of the separation between public sphere and state. (asen and brower 2001). warner adopts a model that asen and brower would define “separatist” when he states that publics organize themselves independently of state institutions. for warner, they “lack any institutional being” and specifically, they “lack the power to transpose themselves to the generality of the state” (warner 2002). this “separatist” conception, in warner’s theorization, problematizes publics’ possibility of agency. debates over the reciprocal influences of state institutions and public discourse demand the reconsideration of habermas’s theorization about the separation of public sphere and the state where, “unencumbered by the constraint of either realm, the bourgeois public sphere could engender rational-critical discourse that would serve as a critical check on the state” (asen and brower 2001). however, the many reconfigurations of this opposition between state and publics see these two entities as inescapably intertwined, with the latter functioning as a constant source of information to the former and vice versa.   warner’s position in these contrasting perspectives on the imbrications between state and publics, and particularly in the issue of publics and counterpublics’ agency, can be articulated as follows: publics and counterpublics lack any institutional being and they cannot transpose themselves to the generality of the state. this separation, however, does not assume a lack of possible agency from the part of publics (or counterpublics). nevertheless, this agency is not characterized like the habermasian rational-critical discourse of the bourgeois public sphere; rather, its essence is “poetic.” publics for warner are “poetic world-making” according to principle n° 7, and counterpublics are “poetic change-making”. they are endowed with a possibility of agency which is radically different from the one theorized by habermas. their agency is poetic. poetic because it creates the discourse that makes and bring changes in the world, and also because this kind of discourse is essentially creative and is radically different from the rational-critical discourse of the habermasian bourgeois public sphere, which can exist only in a world where public and private can be represented and lived as two separated realms. in warner’s theory the opposition between public and private collapses, and therefore the rational-critical habermasian discourse is not an option. nonetheless, warner’s poetic agency disappears when one of these groups become “institutionalized” such as, he suggests, when a counterpublic becomes a social movement that poses itself in direct dialogue with the state.   in one of the responses to warner, deem ( deem 2002), expanding on the rhetorical characteristics of the discourse of counterpublics and of their possibility of agency, contends that, even in the cases in which counterpublics/social movements adapt themselves to the language of the status quo (of the institutions), they often do it with the aim of deconstructing that specific language from the inside. in what follows i will describe this strategy analyzing the case of activism in l’aquila that used the spectacular language of images to stage counter-spectacles that responded and attempted to deconstruct the ones staged by the prime minister. deem names this strategy “minor rhetorics” following deleuze and guattari’s work on “minor literature”. she contends, in fact, that in the case of counterpublics, “minor rhetorics use the language of the majority in such a way as to make that language stutter; they slow down, interrupt, or halt the movement of language. this conception of rhetoric short circuits appeals to transcendence and pushes language to its extreme” (deem 2002). minor rhetorics can be defined a “poetic” rhetorical strategy, therefore the use of minor rhetorics by l’aquila social movements suggests that their dialogic proximity to the state does not necessarily causes a loss of their poiesis modality of resistance. on the contrary, the opposite is a possibility that we can, and should, take into account.   activism in l’aquila: camping, “wheelbarrowing,” living in the “debris of democracy”   verba volant, sisma manent. epicentro solidale   yes we camp! collision of realities   two days after the earthquake (on april 8, 2009), as firefighters dug the bodies of missing people out of the rubble and the death toll was rising every hour, prime minister silvio berlusconi told the survivors of the earthquake to lift their spirits and think about the accommodation in the tent cities as a “weekend of camping.” however, this statement did not resonate well with the thousands of people who were forced out of their wrecked homes. journalists reported disappointed survivors’ comments, such this one from the times:   “if berlusconi thinks we are all on a camping holiday, i invite him to do a swap,” said vincenzo breglia, as he stood outside his tent on a sports field on the outskirts of l’aquila. “he can come here to sleep and i will be prime minister. let’s see how he likes spending the night in freezing temperatures with no hot water.”   berlusconi, in the while, insisted that there was nothing inappropriate in his remarks, as reported in the article cited above, and in many others.   after 3 months, 50,403 evacuees were still living in temporary accommodations. according to the report of the assisted population released by the structure for the management of the emergencies (in italian s.g.e.) on june 30, 2009, there were 20,011 people residing in the tent cities, 19,749 in hotels on the coast, and 9,643 staying in “autonomous accommodation” (autonoma sistemazione) as guests of relatives.   during this time, there was a frenzied atmosphere in l’aquila because the city was undergoing preparations for the upcoming g8 summit in the midst of the post-catastrophe situation. in order to organize a show of international solidarity, prime minister berlusconi decided to move the gathering from la maddalena to l’aquila. allegedly, berlusconi arranged this change to avoid wasting the millions of euros allotted for the g8 preparations in la maddalena by investing them instead in the devastated territory. berlusconi declared: “it’s a big effort. we would like to be dressed up in one’s sunday best, but they will find us in overalls.” berlusconi also stated that he was sure that the no-global movements “will not dare to come here and protest heavily; they won’t have the heart to hit a land that is already severely devastated by the earthquake.” this decision drew conflicting feelings from those in l’aquila. many people welcomed the idea because of the visibility and attention that the g8 summit could attract to l’aquila’s catastrophic situation. however, critics considered berlusconi’s decision a strategic move to internationally promote the media spectacle of the miraculous recovery, the “miracolo aquilano,” that he had already started promoting at the national level. according to these critics, the decision marked a good opportunity for the government to keep g8 protestors under stricter surveillance by holding the g8 in that particular locale. a successful gathering in l’aquila, with neutralized protest forces, could represent a media spectacle capable deleting the bad memories associated with the genoa g8.   in this controversial context, on july 8, 2009, 50 activists from the citizen’s committees drove to a mountainside determined to enact a peaceful and strategic protest to connect with international audiences. as barack obama and other world leaders landed in l’aquila, the activists gathered to catch the attention of these leaders and the thousands of journalists stationed in the media headquarters. they placed huge letters that read “yes we camp!” in a position on the mountainside that could not be missed by anyone staying at the guardia di finanza, the coumpound where the g8 meeting was taking place. the slogan, with its parody mimicking of obama’s motto, was designed to attract international attention to the situation of the aquilani that was carefully kept out of public visibility in those days. photographers, documentary filmmakers, and freelance reporters went with the activists to the mountainside to film the counter-spectacle while banners, pins, and flyers with the same slogan were appearing all over l’aquila. the activists wore t-shirts with the slogan “forti e gentili sì, fessi no” (strong and kind yes, dumb no), which grew in popularity after the protest. the activists had designed t-shirts to respond to politicians who praised the aquilani people as “forti e gentili” (strong and kind) and the respect they had for how these people coped with the disaster, unintendingly offending the aquilani’s dignity. activists found this statement disingenuous because, while praising the aquilani people, these politicians treated them differently in terms of tax breaks than people from irpinia and umbria, where other emergencies happened in the past. in order to demand equal fiscal relief, the activists wanted to convey the idea that people from l’aquila might be indeed strong and kind but were not so dumb as to be deceived by differential treatment. these t-shirts became a must-wear for every aquilano who claimed to care about the economy and the rebirth of l’aquila.   overall, the yes we camp! counter-spectacle was considered successful because news reports covered it at an international level. by early evening, even the new york times reported the protest and interviewed one of the activists (padovani 2010). moreover, yes we camp! was not the only spectacular protest in the days of the g8. parallel protests and events were also organized to enhance local public visibility and support the no-g8 march that gathered activists from all over the world. the citizens’ committees also organized the last ladies march and l’aquila social forums (padovani 2010).   as the activists thus constituted themselves as an active counterpublic, this first period was characterized by spectacular modalities of protest that sought to attract attention and public visibility after a period of denied citizenship. the activists recognized the media screens “as the contemporary shape of the public sphere, and the image event designed for mass media dissemination as an important contemporary form of citizen participation” (de luca and peeples 2002).they endeavored to make an instrumental use of the mainstream media in order to re-appropriate their citizenship, as they lucidly state in the interviews discussing the yes we camp! provocation. moreover, they filmed and photographed all of their activities to disseminate the images via the world wide web. the citizens’ committee 3e32 started a collection of video recordings to regularly upload in their website that now constitutes an extensive archive documenting all their creative actions of protest. they have a media crew, “media crew case matte,” which constantly documents the citizens’ activities, disseminating the videos online. many documentaries have been realized to document this first stage of activism in l’aquila, including: yes we camp! and comando and controllo by alberto puliafito, and draquila (a mix of dracula and l’aquila) by sabina guzzanti. many movies have been filmed to describe the post earthquake plight, including: into the blue by emiliano dante, il miracolo aquilano by stefano mutolo and marco iannini, canto 6409 (chant /4/6/09) by dino viani, la città invisibile (the invisible city) by giuseppe tandoi, tornando a l’aquila (going back to l’aquila) by franco nero, eutanasia di un capoluogo (eutanasia of a city) by claudio romano, and more. in fact there are so many now that the media started talking about a new “movie genre.” in addition, hundreds of blogs about post-earthquake life proliferated on the web. the most popular is diceche.com by francesco paolucci e mauro montarsi, who satirize about the aquilani’s quake paranoia and fear, as well as the political evolutions of the reconstruction. they do so using the aquilano dialect and usually videorecording from a camper while drinking the genziana-root liquor, typical of the abruzzo region.   another example of creative public activity is the cover of the song domani (tomorrow), which was originally written and published by a group of the most influential artists in italy to finance the reconstruction of the teatro stabile d’abruzzo and of the conservatory of l’aquila. on december 2009, months after the release of domani, the bloggers of diceche and the band malìa from l’aquila started a facebook group to gather a collective of aquilani artists to release a cover of domani in aquilano dialect, titled domà. they re-wrote the lyrics in the local dialect to tell the story of the earthquake from an insider’s perspective. in the words of the coordinators of the project, domà is:   “a critic and ironic narration of the life after the earthquake. we decided to re-write the lyrics to tell our stories, in our own voices. we wanted to re-unite l’aquila music scene’s artists in a collective that can generate future collaborations. one of the objectives that we have accomplished has been that of meeting again, in person, many of people that had to leave because of the earthquake.”   notably, the “poetic” agency of the aquilani counterpublic worked not only to reconstruct the lost sense of citizenship and public visibility in the post-earthquake situation but also to reconstruct the sense of identity and community among aquilani citizens that collapsed with the material city on the night of april 6. counterpublic’s poetic agency in l’aquila presented a private and public dimension that enmeshed in the urge to express the desire and need for change.   the people of the wheelbarrows: transition into the red zone   for the government, the completion of progetto c.a.s.e during the winter of 2010 marked the definitive realization of the miraculous recovery. the daily news on tv covered the materialization of the “miracle” by showing the images of the 19 new towns built in the outskirts of l’aquila, including the inside of the furnished apartments and some of the families as they moved in. the media coverage often reported that every family hosted in the progetto c.a.s.e. even found a bottle of sparkling wine and cake in their new apartment to celebrate the symbolic rebirth of a normal, comfortable, and happy life.   however, many aquiliani were preoccupied with controversies about the realization of this project. the new complexes of temporary accommodations could host only 15,000 people, though this only represents 1/3 of those in need of homes. as well, according to the critics, these homes were much more expensive and less environmentally sustainable than alternatives such as wooden removable temporary houses or containers. moreover, this urbanization of the rural areas around l’aquila also changed the territory by ruining the beautiful mountain landscapes of abruzzo, neglecting to plan the integration of the new towns with the reconstruction of the “old” l’aquila, as strongly advocated by aquilani, and ignoring the need of new infrastructure that would make the new towns livable. in addition, the aquilani pointed out that, in order to resolve the city’s situation it was also necessary a parallel re-construction of the city’s damaged and recoverable buildings and of the city center.   the aquilani protested pacifically to express these concerns and their perspectives about the future of the city. notably, on february 21, 2009, they enacted the symbolic protest of the “1,000 keys to re-open the city”. in this protest, the citizens who used to live in downtown l’aquila gathered around the barriers and fences that block the red zone to hang the keys of their homes there, to convey the message that they wanted their city back.the protest was again organized via the internet, and the slogan “riprendiamoci la città” (let’s take back our city), together with their symbolic act, was designed to bring the attention to the problem of the rubble in downtown l’aquila that impeded the project of a “re”-construction. the citizens started demanding the prompt removal of the mountains of debris as a first step towards the recovery of the city center and of the communal and social life that used to take place there.   the concerns about the progetto c.a.s.e. and the frustration for the lack of attention to the city center turned into rage when a corruption scandal involving the head of the cpa, guido bertolaso, made the headlines of national newspapers. bertolaso, the hero of the emergency management and of the “miraculous” recovery, was placed under investigation for a sex/corruption scandal concerning illegal assignments of contracts. allegedly, the illicit contracts that bertolaso assigned in exchange for bribes and sexual favors revolved around the management of “big events” and emergencies, including the g8 and the “re”-construction of l’aquila. according to the gip (giudice indagini preliminari) rosario lupo, the judge in charge for preliminary investigations, phone tapping revealed that the entrepreneurs involved in the scandal with bertolaso defined themselves as a “gelatinous system of corruption,” a “task force of bandits,” or a “ring” (cricca) capable to “steal the stealable.”   the rage of the aquilani turned to outrage and disconcert when a phone-tapped conversation between two of the entrepreneurs under investigation was published in every national newspaper on february 18, 2010. the two entrepreneurs francesco de vito piscicelli and pierfrancesco gagliardi were recorded during the night of april 6, while they were talking about the huge amount of money that they could make exploiting the “opportunity” of the earthquake. specifically, they chatted about “smiling in happiness” in their beds at 3:30 am when thinking about the business generated by the post-earthquake reconstruction. they even encouraged each other to act fast to get the most out of this opportunity. the aquilani were furious and shocked upon hearing this news, and they reacted with equal outrage on the internet, where they began to plan for the next action. they created several facebook groups, and one of them, “quelli che alle 3e32 non ridevano” (those who were not smiling at 3:32am), became central in spreading the word to organize the next rally. gathering almost 74,000 members, this group launched the idea of a new mass protest in the red zone in order to express: 1) the refusal of corruption and of the “ring” in the reconstruction of l’aquila, conveyed by the slogan “il gran rifiuto della cricca” (the great refusal of the ring); 2) the disillusionment towards the state institutions, which were still neglecting the rubble in downtown l’aquila, delaying the reconstruction; 3) the need for transparency and participation in the reconstruction.   the aquilani were determined to re-appropriate their city. they decided that the most effective way of recalling attention to this problem was by showing that they wanted and needed to be a part of the solution of the problems of the post-earthquake reconstruction. in addition to the internet messages, on february 28, 2010, the sunday morning of the protest, a text message in aquilano dialect spread virally around the mobile phones of the citizens of l’aquila. the text read: “sveglia, rizzete e vè a lavorà con noi pè sgombrà l’aquila dalle macerie!” (wake up and come work with us to remove the rubble from downtown!). that day the aquilani gathered around the borders of the red zone in overalls, carrying wheelbarrows, yellow security helmets, shovels, and trash containers. they carried banners reading “smaltiamo i commissari, ricicliamo le macerie” (let’s dispose of officers, and recycle the rubble) to protest against the alleged corruption of the “commissario” for the reconstruction, bertolaso and his team.   the “popolo delle carriole” (people of the wheelbarrows), as the media began to call this movement , broke into the red zone and started to work together to clean up the rubble that was lying abandoned on the streets, sorting out the recyclable materials and starting to carry the waste material out of downtown l’aquila. they invented a neologism to describe their sunday activity: they called it scarriolare (wheelbarrowing), a verb coined from the word “carriola” (wheelbarrow), that soon became the symbol of the protest. the people of the wheelbarrows decided to meet every sunday to work together to move the rubble away from the city center, as a means to sensitize the authorities about the necessity of putting an effective plan into action in order to rescue the city center that had been left abandoned after the earthquake.   in the following months the people of the wheelbarrows became more and more involved in the organization of actions and rallies that could bring back media attention in a crucial moment for the future of the city. their “scarriolata” had been able, for the first time, to show to the national public what was really going on in abruzzo and to gather national support and solidarity to lobby the government for fiscal relief. last, but not least, the people of the wheelbarrows organized a series of events to take place over the summer 2010, in downtown l’aquila, with the aim of gradually re-appropriating the social spaces of the city and of denouncing the situation of the several monuments, churches and piazze by showing directly to the rest of italy the state of abandonment and negligence toward a place that used to be considered one of the italian historic and artistic jewels, and one of the most lively and stimulating locations for studying or living in central-southern italy.   deconstructing the “miracolo aquilano”: l’aquila calls italy   the latest rally organized by the people of the wheelbarrows took place on november 20, 2010. despite the adverse weather conditions, 26,000 people from all over italy participated to respond to the plea of the aquilani which had been disseminated via the internet and asked to the italian people to go to l’aquila and symbolically bring a yellow hard hat to participate “in removing the rubble of democracy.” the rally l’aquila chiama italiamacerie di democrazia, was meant to promote the reconstruction of l’aquila by collecting the signatures necessary to present a popular initiative of law, written by the aquilani, to the parliament. moreover, the rally was organized to gather national solidarity in l’aquila and to expose what the activists defined the “rubble of our democracy” (macerie di democrazia). the activists from 3e32 and the other citizens’ committees used the metaphor of l’aquila as the “epicenter of an italy in a constant state of emergency, environmental, legal, occupational,” and the debris of l’aquila as a metaphoric materialization of the “rubble of the italian democracy.”   the rally called for a national participation to expose the “deceit of the miracolo aquilano.” among the round of speeches delivered by the aquilani and by other activists, one deserves particular attention because of its topic and its peculiar style. antonello ciccozzi, professor of antropology at the university of l’aquila, delivered a protest speech called “miracoli e telemaghi” (miracles and telemagicians). the video of the speech has been circulating widely on facebook, published on the websites of the citizens’ committees, and transcribed by its author in his blog “la città nascosta” (the hidden city). “miracoli e telemaghi,” although delivered in an angry attitude, is a speech that uses irony to reverse the images associated to the prime minister’s metaphor of the miraculous recovery. the speech is divided in two parts which illustrate the “extraordinary miracles” realized in l’aquila after the earthquake. according to professor ciccozzi, the first one, a “truly incredible and notable miracle,” had been that of having instantly forgotten about the 309 victims of the earthquake, and of the responsibility of the commissione grande rischi (commission great risks) in having contributed to the deaths of those citizens. the cgr, in fact, had been temporarily placed under investigation for having missed to alert the population and having, instead, reassured the aquilani the evening of april 5 by encouraging them to “drink a good glass of montepulciano wine, and go serenely to bed.” subsequently, and “miraculously,” suggests ciccozzi, the accusations were dropped and the investigation closed. the other miracle, the symbol of the miracolo aquilano, says ciccozzi, is, indeed the project c.a.s.e:   “the project c.a.s.e. is a miracle because in a situation of huge economic crisis, groups of national entrepreneurs have been able to operate in miraculous conditions: making huge profits, not having to respect the rules (because of the state of emergency), and exploiting masses of underpaid workers. built with huge costs, the progetto c.a.s.e is barely hosting the half of the people in need of an accommodation, and the miracle is that the other half has been hidden, leaving our city abandoned, and producing a landscape ruin in our territory. i think this has been truly a miracle, and a miracle in the miracle has been that of making this choice appear to be necessary by hiding the many other possibilities of housing, hugely more sustainable, hugely less expensive and equally comfortable, only to grant to that “ring” of entrepreneurs a 300-400% profit. on our disaster.”   ciccozzi’s speech, along with the organization of the national rally into the red zone, contributed in definitely thorning apart, for the national audience, the image of the miracolo aquilano.   as of today, the aquilani activists believe that this is the first step in order to start a path of real recovery, less miraculous perhaps, but supported by the rest of italy and by the participation of each and every citizen.   conclusion   for warner, when a social movement starts dialoguing with the state, it loses its “poetic” capability of change-making typical of counterpublics. in this essay, i argued against this stance by rethinking some of the tensions that arise from this theory and improving the understanding of social movements as engines for creative social change in the age of the interactive web. by rethinking the spatiality of publicity as a private virtual space that can be expanded in a public materialization, we can make sense of the new web 2.0 modalities of publicity and participation. moreover, by coming to understand how the dimensions of public and private lose their boundaries and ultimately overlap in our contemporary world, it is possible to problematize public modalities of dialogue with the state and the institutions. it is likewise possible to conceive of the possibility of agency of counter/publics and social movements differently from that characterized by rational-critical discourse which assumed a strict separation of private and the common good: an agency which is poetic instead and that aims to bring forth change in the world through creativity. this kind of agency sees the private as publicly relevant precisely because we associate in publics, counterpublics, or social movements, when we recognize the private commonalities that constitute us as groups. in conclusion, the case of post-earthquake l’aquila activism demonstrated that this “poetic” agency has the potential to be effective without being impersonal, and incisive, despite its different modalities of affecting the institutions.   references   asen, r. 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(2009). “a materialist’s conception of rhetoric”. in: rhetoric materiality and politics. peter lang publishing. padovani, c. (2010). “citizens’ communication and the 2009 g8 summit in l’aquila, italy.” international journal of communication 4:416-439. warner, m. (2002). “publics and counterpublics.” public culture. 14.1:49-90. understanding broadband infrastructure development in remote and rural communities a staged and reflexive approach ingjerd skogseid1, ivar petter grøtte2, geir liavåg strand3 researcher of innovation, infrastructure and information technology, western norway research institute, sogndal, norway. e-mail: ingjerd.skogseid@vestforsk.no head of research of innovation, infrastructure and information technology, western norway research institute, sogndal, norway. e-mail: ipg@vestforsk.no researcher of innovation, infrastructure and information technology, western norway research institute, sogndal, norway. e-mail: gst@vestforsk.no introduction this article compares the broadband development in norway with sawhney's (1992, 2003) staged model for infrastructure development. we extend the model by taking into account actions taken by the regional actors in order to ensure infrastructure development in rural and remote areas. further, we aim to make a contribution to research on development of information infrastructures (hanseth 2000, hanseth and lyytinen 2006, monteiro 2000, star and ruhleder 1996), but with a focus on the rural and remote context (skogseid 2008). the rural and organisational context and the technological components mutually influence each other in the process of developing rural information infrastructures. the starting point for this analysis is the staged model for infrastructure development (sawhney 1992, 2003), a description of stages of a typical development process. we compare broadband development in rural and remote parts of norway against this model to decipher the process and to explore how this process is a reflexive process which takes into consideration previous experience, local context and feedback and changes in technology. while the staged infrastructure development model describes typical development steps as experienced in the us, we apply this to the norwegian setting. sawhney (2003) notes "each country has its own infrastructure development pattern". we see the move from the us to europe as relevant because of the change in policy for the development of telecommunication (telecom) infrastructure from a centrally managed roll-out of technology to a new market-driven development policy. in the us the tendency is to develop infrastructure "in a decentralized, uncoordinated and bottom-up manner… not guided by a blueprint, a grand plan, or a vision of any sort" (sawhney 2003). in this article we claim that the same patterns of infrastructure development are present in norway. in the past, norwegian providers of radio, television, telegraph and telephone infrastructures took a top-down approach to develop communication systems. the providers planned and installed their infrastructure without much interaction and influence by local actors. for the telecom market, this changed in 1998 when the market was deregulated. it is no longer an agreed national policy to roll out new telecom infrastructure using a grand national plan, but rather to let the telecom providers develop infrastructure according to their prognosis for market demand. before 1998 only telenor, the national norwegian telecom provider, could own telecom infrastructure that extended beyond one building. in 1998, deregulation of the norwegian telecom market took place, and afterwards other actors were able to develop, operate and own competing infrastructure. as a result a number of local, regional and national initiatives have emerged to provide access to infrastructure in competition with the national provider or in areas where the national providers did not find any market. a study completed in 2004 identified 130 broadband providers in norway (norsk telecom 2004), and in 2006 a similar study identified 150 providers (post & teletilsynet 2006). in 2004, about 10 of the 130 were categorized as national providers who deliver broadband services with national coverage. about 40 were defined as "regional actors", and the remaining 80 were characterised as local providers serving local communities. the emergence of many small local providers was the response to the need to address local needs and initiatives. the municipalities participated as owners for about 50 of these initiatives (norsk telecom 2004). in the case region sogn & fjordane, one of 19 regions in norway, a number of local and regional providers emerged and played an important role in development of local broadband infrastructure. this paper explores the further development of these local and regional providers. in this paper, we analyse the norwegian broadband development process to explore if the norwegian development is in accordance with the us model using sawhney's model for infrastructure development. while we discuss how the model is relevant and applicable in a norwegian context, we see the need to extend and strengthen the model by taking into account local reflexive processes taking local context, feedback and learning, and global change forces. in initiating a timely infrastructure development to meet local needs, it is important to have a staged reflexive approach. we argue this will not only make the original model more complete but also relevant to broadband infrastructure development in rural and remote areas. local entrepreneurs, local and regional authorities, and the business community should find this as a useful reference model to understand how the local development processes fits into the larger perspective. the model provides a path of development that allows local and regional initiatives to aggregate and grow. this extended model can be a reference model for local and regional stakeholders who are facing broadband infrastructure challenges. related research at the time of deregulation of the norwegian telecom market in 1998 the national providers saw little market potential in the sogn & fjordane region in west norway due to low population density. however, actors in the region saw a need to initiate local actions. sawhney (1992, 2003) explores infrastructure development based on such bottom up initiatives. he defines development of new infrastructures in eight stages as illustrated in table 1 below. table 1. infrastructure development model (from sawhney 2003) the staged model outlines how infrastructure develops based on already existing infrastructure, which equally constrains and influences the design of new components and the evolution of the new infrastructure. this staged model adds to the research previously done on information technology infrastructure development (e.g. hanseth 2000, hanseth and lyytinen 2006, star and ruhleder 1996). sandvig (2012) describes five different motivations for developing local community networks: the network as an example of revolutionary infrastructure creation the network as an example of user autonomy and protest the network as an example of professionalization the network as a learning community the alternative: context of no context we see this as a complementary and relevant perspective to understand the development of local infrastructure initiatives, as we see several of these motivations can apply to the development in the sogn & fjordane region. the conventions, practice or working routine of a community, can both shape and be shaped by the infrastructure (star and ruhleder 1996), and must be taken into consideration in the design process. infrastructure, within this perspective, is never developed from scratch, but rather builds on something and continuously interacts with it (hanseth 2000, 2002, hanseth and lyytinen 2006). when changed or improved, the new version has to fit with the existing infrastructure. this 'something' is often termed the installed base. this approach to development implies that infrastructure is something which evolves over time (star and ruhleder 1996). when changing or improving infrastructure, the new version must fit within the existing infrastructure. in line with this, sawhney (2003, p. 25) states: "…technology does not strike roots and grow on a virgin ground. instead, it encounters a terrain marked by old technologies. the new technology's growth then is shaped not only by its own potentialities but also the opportunities and restraints created by the systems based on old technologies." viewing development of information infrastructures through the lens of the staged model of infrastructure development (table 1), new infrastructure is often initially found as a feeder system to the old system (stage 2), and often with encouragement from the old system (stage 3). as it grows in scale and gains more capabilities (stage 4) it comes into competition (stage 5) with the old system, and makes the old system a subordinate infrastructure (stage 6), in the end it may reverse the system relations as the old system becomes a feeder into the new infrastructure (stage 7), this is the start of the rerun of the cycle (stage 8). we see this development as a reflexive development. in contemporary society, local communities are highly influenced by national and global developments. in 1999 only major urban centres had access to broadband infrastructure with a capacity and a cost that allowed many companies with broadband needs to enter the marketplace without competitive disadvantages (egell-johnsen 1999). this allowed for a development strategy of "shaping society from below" (beck, et al. 1994 p. 23), where local initiatives have a place in ensuring development as a counter network and also an example of user autonomy or protest (sandvig, 2012) against the centralised demand based development. this development is a result of both external and internal change forces and result of a socio-technical development, where social relations contribute to shape technology and technology contributes to shape social relations (e.g. monteiro, 2000). the result is a constant process of planning and modifying plans, characterised equally by both reflex and by reflection by the people involved in the process (szerszynski, et al. 1996 p. 7). further, external forces such as global change have forced rural and remote communities to reflect and plan how to maintain their way of life in an increasingly globalized world, and have led them to reflect and react to these developments. in parallel, the institutional capacity (healey, et al. 1999), the involved knowledge and relational resources make sure that local experience is incorporated to influence the reflection and the modification of plans. the local mobilization is often motivated by the need to counter a development (counter network (skogseid, 2007) and user autonomy or protest (sandvig 2012)) with the aim ensure that the local community takes part in the development and are not left behind. the sum of this process is called reflexivity (beck, et al. 1994, lash 2003). this process is illustrated in the figure below identifying a number of factors influencing the introduction of information technology in a rural context (skogseid 2007). figure 1 factors influencing the introduction of information technology in a rural context (skogseid, 2007) reflexivity occurs in relation to contexts where the social and technical spheres meet (lash 2003 p. 55). when the social spheres have choice in how they can respond to challenges, the response needs to be immediate to avoid falling too far behind in development. the active response is often to "put together networks, construct alliances, make deals…" (lash 2003 p. 51) to ensure that the community takes part in development. in the case discussion we will draw on these research contributions to understand the development in the case region. research methodology and context we apply sawhney's staged model for infrastructure development (1992, 2003) in a norwegian rural and remote context to see if this model can be used to explore these development efforts. we use the stages defined in the model to explore an existing case on the development of broadband infrastructure in the sogn & fjordane region. we use an action research approach in which we were participants in the development and our conclusions are grounded in this action research (greenwood and levin 2007). case study research is "the study of the particularity and complexity of a single case, coming to understand its activity within important circumstances" (stake 1995 p. xi). our study is a single case where we look into a specific region. within the region there were many instances of local initiatives but our level of analysis is at the regional level covering the full geographical area of sogn & fjordane region. according to yin (1981) the strength of the case study is that it both covers a contemporary phenomenon and its context (p. 98-99). our findings are from a single case, but we claim that these findings also can be a "force of example" (flyvbjerg 2006) for other regions facing similar challenges. we have been participants in the development of broadband infrastructure in the case region. our roles in the development have been as participant, writers of application for funding, project managers and discussion partners for the county council and the municipalities in the region. greenwood and levin (2007) define action research as collaborative social research carried out by a team of action researchers and members of local organizations who are trying to improve the local situations. together, the researcher and the actors "define the problem to be examined, cogenerate relevant knowledge about them, learn and execute social research techniques, take actions, and interpret the results of actions based on what they have learned" (greenwood and levin 2007 p. 3). stakeholders in the region have participated actively in the process through a joint effort. since 1995 the region has had its own regional information technology task force, it-forum sogn & fjordane. until 2003 the broadband issues were handled by the broader it-forum. in 2003 broadband development was such an important issue that they decided to establish a specialized broadband forum. broadband forum sogn & fjordane was established as a sub-group under it-forum. it has developed into the regional forum for strategy, development, monitoring of broadband status and feedback of knowledge to all the 26 municipalities and the business community. in 2003, the broadband forum executive committee was represented by: one representative of 8 municipalities of the sub-region nordfjord one representative of 10 municipalities of the sub-region sunnfjord and ytre sogn one representative of 8 municipalities of the sub-region sogn one representative of the sogn & fjordane county council one representing the business community one representative from the research and education system (=one of the authors) in 2012, the executive committee was extended to also include: one representative from county governor representing emergency planning unit one representative from the association of municipalities one representative from the confederation of employers the basic structure is stable and the expansion reflects the importance and relevance in the region. the basic structure includes one representative from three geographical sub-groups of municipalities have proven efficient in handling the total number of 26 municipalities. the broadband forum included the following activities: information and mobilization local information meetings national broadband conference developing and updating a regional broadband strategy monitoring broadband coverage and development lobbying national and regional authorities for funding local projects proposing criteria to regional authorities for funding of local projects evaluation of local project proposals monitoring project status and development dissemination of local experience, knowledge and results a research team has supported the forum as a secretariat ensuring documentation and knowledge transfer. the three authors of the paper have been part of this research team from the beginning. the activities have run in annual cycles, and have proved sustainable both with regard to maintaining and improving development for broadband access. it is a 10 year experience in providing a learning community, information, monitoring, documenting and feeding the initiatives with knowledge and experience. research data was collected during our work as researchers, developers, project managers and evaluators of these different initiatives and our work as members of the broadband forum. the work is documented by status reports from a number of different publicly supported broadband initiatives, minutes of meetings from broadband forum, annual reports documenting the broadband coverage in each municipality and our collection of research memos. local and national newspapers have written about the results of the projects. the research presented in this paper is part of an ongoing research effort (skogseid and strand 2003, skogseid and hanseth 2005, skogseid 2007, 2008). case description basic broadband1infrastructure has been successfully completed across one of the most challenging regions of norway, and local and regional initiatives have played a key role in this achievement. the sogn & fjordane region is sparsely populated and characterised by harsh natural conditions, such as glaciers, mountains and fjords which separate the towns and villages. this makes it one of the most difficult areas in norway to develop, especially with regard to infrastructures. the sogn & fjordane region has 107,000 inhabitants, and covers 18,634 square km. with only 5.7 inhabitants per square km, it is a sparsely populated region. in spite of this, all towns and most villages have broadband access, or 99 % of the population (fad 2012). it is expensive to reach full coverage. to achieve this coverage has been an effort characterized by information sharing, learning, coordination of funding sources and joint projects to develop and establish services and stimulating demand. the first cycle the development of analogue telecom infrastructure the telephone as a communication medium has a long history in the sogn & fjordane region. while this case is not about the implementation of the phone system, there are significant similarities between the past and the present. local private cooperatives developed the first telephone services in norway. the first telegraph installation was installed in 1858 (norsk telemuseum 2009a). the first telephone line was installed in 1889 connecting village gudvangen to voss (nrk fylkesleksikon 2009), only nine years after the first telephony exchange was opened in norway (norsk telemuseum 2009b, year 1880). the telegraph act of 1899 regulated the market by giving the government exclusive right to operate telephone services in norway. over a period of 75 years the government owned telegrafverket2 took control over more than 200 privately owned telephone companies, the last one as late as 1974 (norsk telemuseum 2009b, year 1974). in the same period the phone infrastructure was further developed and finally fully automated nationwide. the last manual exchange was operated until 1993 and was replaces by a mobile phone service (norsk telemuseum 2006). in 1988 televerket lost its monopoly for selling phones. in 1991 they got their first competitor when both televerket and netcom got licence to develop the gsm mobile telephony (netcom was operational from 1993 (norsk telemuseum 2006)). this description serves as a backdrop to our case, which considers the development of digital communication infrastructure in a deregulated telecom market with basic broadband infrastructure as a result. the second cycle the development of basic digital infrastructure using sawhney's staged model, we will now describe the development of broadband infrastructure in norway. in 1991, norway began to shift from analogue communication to high speed digital communication. stage 1. pre 1995 introduction of digital communication during the 1980and 90s the number of computers increased. more and more companies developed local area networks, e.g. islands of communication (stage 1). with this, the need for data communication across telecom networks increased. in the early 1990s the existing telecom network consisted of a mix of analogue and digital components and had low speed and capacity. in 1992 (norsk telemuseum 2006) the national roll out of a new digital telecom network was initiated based on the integrated services digital network (isdn ) standard. isdn allows the integration of speech, data and images across the lines already in place, but the switches needed to be replaced. in 1994 isdn was offered to the business community and in 1996 it was offered to the private market. this new digital alternative was presented as a new opportunity for higher speed and high capacity digital communication. the analogue modem based communication typically offered speeds up to 56 kbps and a time consuming connection process, while the isdn-connection offer speeds of 64 kbps or 128 kbps and a faster connecting process. in sogn & fjordane a number of companies started using digital communication early, particularly companies involved in import and export. this electronic document interchange (edi) technology was one of the first to be used (grøtte 1993). other data communication applications used was related to bank transactions and within health services. from 1994 until 1996 private users and businesses still communicated using modems on analogue telephone lines. a study from 1996 shows that the isdn penetration in the region was low (3-6%) (wielbo, et al. 1996). at this time, televerket was the only telecom provider who rolled out the infrastructure and delivered services to the whole country. they provided all telecom lines both for the general public and special leased lines for the larger organisations. a number of different services were offered for data communication at different speed and capacity (analogue lines, isdn, fixed digital lines etc). the highest connection was enjoyed by the regional university college who was connected to uninett, the national network which connected all universities and colleges in norway and acted as the national testing ground for new high speed digital communication. at this time the issue was not if regional customers would get access to new services, but when they would get access. the room of opportunity was related to priority in the line of rolling out service. stage 2. 1996-1998 introduction of isdn new system as feeder during this period, the adoption of isdn technology increased. the business community and private users found it useful especially due to the faster connection process compared to analogue modems and the slightly higher speed. in this stage the new technology is found viable locally. however data communication services are still delivered by the old telecom provider and it can be seen as a feeder for the old system (stage 2). the national provider telenor (in 1995 televerket changed name to telenor as) had an obligation to provide universal services and the universal service included isdn. the high profile given to isdn communication was also observed in the region. local feedback showed that the demands for isdn in the region are higher than telenor was able to roll out. this gap between demand and offer triggered intervention and mobilization of regional political bodies like sogn & fjordane county council, municipalities and it-forum. the regional actors developed a plan and stated the worry with regard slow roll out of isdn. the organizations referred to the national policy which stated that everyone has the right to have isdn-lines and that the regions will lag behind with regard to development if the roll out was not hastened. the concern in this phase was that the national provider did not roll out isdn fast enough. local actors used their relational resources to mobilize and create a lobbying taskforce to demand a faster roll out. the regional council in sogn & fjordane made a resolution which demanded a faster isdn rollout to all parts of the region. the regional taskforce, it-forum, was given responsibility to follow up the resolution, and had several meetings with the national provider both in oslo and in the region. in 1997 the provision of isdn was contested. some local businesses were denied isdn service after having received several offers. the businesses ended up reporting the ceo of the national provider to the police (eriksen, 2007). the national provider claimed that isdn was not part of the universal service (eriksen, 2007). the local taskforce got involved in the process and held several meetings with politicians and providers. by the end, the businesses had got their isdn service. their argument was that when the national provider had sent a letter with offer for isdn to the businesses then they were obliged to deliver independent of cost. also at this time, businesses increasingly connected their computers together in local area networks (lan), but regulations hindered them from connecting different lan into a wide area network (wan) on their own infrastructure. communication between lan's had to be routed through the national provider. stage 3. 1998 2000 introduction of broadband wireless and fibre communication 1996 2000 saw the massive roll out of isdn. in the end the isdn coverage reached the whole region. a lot of local internet service providers and other services were made available and a number of new users, both businesses and private citizens, were connected. this generated new traffic and the back-bone networks were scaled up to meet the new and much higher communication volumes. at the beginning of 1998, the norwegian telecom market was deregulated. new telecom companies were now allowed to provide services and telenor was obliged to give access to their back-bone network for the newcomers (those with more than 70% of the market share must open up their network to other providers (post& teletilsynet 2004, samferdselsdepartementet 2003)). for the end users who used the internet regularly there was a clear advantage because broadband in most cases were offered at fixed price, higher speeds (512 2.048 mbps) and the computer could be connected at all times. as a rural and remote region, sogn & fjordane did not benefit from the establishment of new national providers who gave priority to development of broadband services in the larger towns and cities. broadband was not part of the universal service that telenor was obliged to deliver. local demand and the size of the marketplace was supposed to decide where broadband was to be rolled out. sogn & fjordane, a region with low population density and a difficult topography for building infrastructure was in a difficult position. the region was not commercially interesting for the larger national providers. around the same period (1998-2000), use of the internet grew in popularity and generated need for better connection. at the start of 1999 the number of users on a weekly basis in norway passed 30% of the population (dagbladet 1999). the regional initiative to speed up isdn coverage made the regional actors aware of the different levels of service. when some local information and communication technology (ict) companies and some of the national newcomers saw a business opportunity in providing broadband services in rural areas, this development was supported by the regional actors and it-forum. the local response was to organize "joint-ventures" between local companies and local public sector. new local companies were established, often linked to the local energy suppliers or a local ict company. these new companies established local infrastructure by utilizing available un-terminated fibre from the energy supplier and installing new fibre to connect and extend the reach and wireless radio to reach the end user. the local community pooled their economic and knowledge resources of the local area to develop the infrastructure. still, telenor was the only provider of high capacity backbone network out of the region. as a result a number of new local broadband companies began to emerge (see table 2). the new local organizations had only a few persons employed who handling everything from technical issues, user support, marketing and negotiations with the provider for backbone services. the regional task force, it-forum, supported the initiatives by providing a meeting place between the initiatives, and putting broadband on the agenda in media and political processes. the existence of these newcomers demonstrated the urgent local need and a too-small market to sustain a sufficient professional organization. as time passes and the local initiatives demonstrated their needs, telenor and some other national actors began to provide broadband services in the most populated areas of the region, despite their initial inertia. table 2 overview of broadband initiatives in the region sogn & fjordane as of june 2006. with deregulation, the national provider lost its monopoly. new technology, dsl, was offered for the users that needed more bandwidth than isdn. this new technology was first offered in urban areas, and in the deregulated market digital communication was not part of the universal service that had to be provided to all. the new technology was better and cheaper than the old one but businesses who wanted to start using it were denied services at the same cost and level as in urban areas. the deregulated market also allowed local driving forces then started to build their own local infrastructure to pool resources and to connect lans and offer broadband technology to other locals. to illustrate the local processes, we present the example of firdanett. previously, a local ict firm which had several customers who wanted to buy additional ict services such as backup, printing and server space. several of these customers were located in the same building, and these customers had these services made available through a lan established in 1996. due to regulations in the law, it was not possible to expand the lan to other surrounding buildings on own infrastructure. with the tele-liberalization in 1998, the laws were changed and the lan was expanded to other customers outside the building. this lan and its services formed the basis for the development of the broadband network. the company continued to expand the network but ran short on funds. to be able to better handle the investments a new company was established as a collaborative effort between the company, the chamber of commerce, the municipality, and the local energy company (gloppen kommune 2000), and was equally owned by the partners. the company continued to develop the lan into a full local broadband network. after a year, the new company was refinanced again and changed its name to firdanett, which is now a fully owned by the local energy company. firdanett offers broadband internet access and ip telephony. the local broadband infrastructure consists of a mix between fibre technology and radio transmitters / receivers. firdanett has access to national infrastructure through a 6 mb connection through the national provider telenor. as a result of this local initiative, 55 companies and 85 households received broadband internet access, despite the absence of the national provider telenor, who at that time did not offer broadband to the households and the small businesses in this community. stage 4. 1999-2004 introduction of dsl and new backbone providers at this time the main national telecom provider telenor pushed isdn as much as possible to the rural and remote areas in a final period of sale before the technology reached its end-of-sale. at the same time all providers increased its dsl broadband market shares. in this period alternative backbone transport networks were introduced, and the number of backbone service providers increased. some of the new national telecom providers like enitel, which utilized fibre in relation to energy infrastructure, and banetele, which utilized infrastructure related to the railway lines, saw an opportunity to provide backbone services to the small local companies (stage 4: long distance capabilities). in addition, telenor was obliged to give access to their back-bone network for the newcomers (post& teletilsynet 2004, samferdselsdepartementet 2003), which opened up competition. in some towns, the local companies were now able to choose between different backbone providers, and they were able to negotiate better prices and higher capacities. in other parts of the region, telenor was still the only provider. the infrastructure was therefore a mix of lines connected to and supporting the old infrastructure (telenor, teledanmark, etc.) and the new competing infrastructure (e.g. enitel, banetele). the existence of local initiatives made it interesting for alternative backbone providers to invest in the area. the local initiatives could select between different providers and, because of the history of where the national provider had turned the locals down, the locals preferred to buy backbone net from the new providers. the towns that had alternative providers inspired others to take action and create their own local initiatives. broadband forum played a role in this phase by arranging information meetings all over the county to make the local communities aware of the new possibilities these new providers created. broadband forum also helped municipalities set up plans that could be the basis for applications for national funding to speed up the implementation of broadband infrastructure in the county. funding was provided to a number of projects, which were run with success. stage 5. 2004-2007 local initiatives reorganise into regional coverage the local broadband providers are small organisations with, often, only one or a few employees. they were set up to meet urgent local needs. as the number of customers increased, they had to become more professional in how they carried out their operations and services and also needed to cut operational costs. several of the local broadband providers reorganized to pool their resources, become more sustainable and be more able to meet the competition from the national providers (stage 5). in the case region several such mergers and takeovers were part of reorganisation of services (see table 3). table 3 reorganisation of broadband initiatives in the region 20042007 from 2006 the basic broadband infrastructure was available and covered most of the sogn & fjordane region. the broadband providers worked together to give more specialized services, they have high capacity links out of the region and they have redundancy in the infrastructure. as more demanding customers bought access, the local companies struggled to deliver the necessary support. they started working closer together and merged into a few professional companies. in a way the local initiatives developed from ad hoc organisations to lasting company structures, and a development from amateurs to professionals. at the same time the most remote parts of the county still lacked broadband infrastructure. as the development continued these communities lacking coverage became the priority of the broadband forum and the struggle to obtain funding continued. more than hundred local communities got their broadband access due to the work of broadband forum. stage 6. 2007-2008 subordination of old system what started as a need to solve a local problem, where the old provider did not meet the local needs, had now developed into a completely new infrastructure and strong competitor to the old analogue telephone lines and isdn. in 2007 active marketing of isdn for digital communication stopped, and the market share of analogue telephone and isdn dropped. the new infrastructure providers did not support isdn and analogue telephone. they only provide basic broadband connections (always on connections), while services such as ip-telephony were optional add on digital services. stage 7. 2007-2012 reverse feeder relation the remaining fragments isdn was still offered for fixed phone lines, with the marketed advantage being its access to 2 lines. another fragment remaining are services such as "who is calling". isdn is still the only digital communication alternative for some remote users. fixed-line telephony is moving to broadband based ip telephone and mobile technologies. in most areas this will trigger the close down of the old analogue and isdn technology, and the change in technology will be complete. in 2012 telenor announced (post& teletilsynet 2012, valmot, 2012) the closedown of these services by 2017. stage 8. 2012 -> rerun of the cycle development of next generation access despite the fact that 99% of the inhabitants in sogn & fjordane have access to basic broadband infrastructure (4 mbps) (fad 2012) the difference between urban and rural areas are again growing. now the focus has shifted from basic broadband to next generation access (more than 30 mbps (eu-commission 2010)). the need for next generation access has been triggered by the fast growing offer of video and streaming services. these are both integrated into the traditional news services and also offered by new service providers. internet use in norway shows a growth of about 40 % every year (fad 2012). one example illustrates the new momentum. when the video streaming service netflix was launched in norway in february 2013, the internet usage grew 60% (fad 2012). the table below shows coverage for different speeds. table 4 broadband coverage for different transfer speeds (fad 2012) according to post& teletilsynet (2009), the drop in coverage in sogn & fjordane from 640 kbit/sec to the next level 4 mbit/sec is partly due to the use of radio to access the infrastructure and partly due to the line length and the ability to deliver high capacity over long distances (more than 5.5 km copper line from the switch). the drop in coverage from 4 to 8 mbit/sec and from 8 to 12mbit/sec is mainly due to the line length and the ability to deliver high capacity over long distances, while speeds of more than 25mbit/sec is only available to those having either coaxial or fibre cable. the inhabitants of sogn & fjordane have now realized that they are again lagging behind. the basic broadband services rolled out to almost everyone during 1999 2010 is no longer enough for keeping up with the new needs for access to video and streaming service, combined with the general growth in internet usage. again, local community groups are formed to document the needs, the local interest and to lobby for a faster roll out of next generation broadband access. the broadband forum and its links to local municipalities are still in place. in the first run of the cycle the business clusters and local public sector organization were the most active. in the second run new ultra-local groups representing villages or neighbourhoods consisting of private households have joined the business clusters and local public sector organisation in the effort. we see indication of a new cycle of technology development starting, where local community groups and business pool resources and work together to roll out fibre lines to all households and businesses in an area. at the same time several technologies compete, such as how fibre is challenged by new high speed mobile networks and by improved satellite based broadband communication. at the moment we cannot foresee which technology is winning but the local actors are again mobilizing for action. discussion in the discussion below we discuss the case to develop a deeper understanding of what is happening with broadband development locally and regionally. the development is a socio-technical development. the technical development is dependent on social processes and the social processes are fed by improvements in technology. we discuss whether sawhney's staged model is relevant in describing the norwegian technical developments and the growth of new infrastructure. further, we explain the local and regional processes which triggered the shift from one stage to the next and if this will complement and extend the staged model with a deeper understanding of the socio-technical development process. this discussion is organized into three parts: rural broadband access as a staged infrastructure development rural broadband development as a reflexive process rural broadband development as a socio-technical development rural broadband access as a staged infrastructure development sawhney's staged model for infrastructure development describes infrastructure development when it is "… not guided by a blueprint, a grand plan, or a vision of any sort" (sawhney 2003, p. 26). this is the reality of broadband infrastructure development in norway. the government decided broadband development should be driven by market needs and provider prognosis for the number of customers available. this left many small local communities trapped in inertia between the market and a wait-and-see public sector. then, after some years, missed installations in areas with insufficient market potential could be considered for special public funding. in this case description we have used sawhney's model to describe the different stages in the development of the new broadband infrastructure technology in our region. we find this model appropriate as a description and useful to understand the different stages that such a development has gone through. sawhney's model describes stages that are also meaningful in a norwegian context. however, in using this model we lack a description of the social processes that involve local actors, their actions and how that influence the process. rural broadband development as a reflexive process the challenge in the case region was to ensure that new broadband infrastructure was built. earlier we noted that "[r]eflexivity occurs related to contexts where the social and technical spheres meet" (lash 2003 p. 55). when the local communities social spheres have a choice of responding to challenges, the response needs to be immediate to avoid falling too far behind in development. the active response is often to "put together networks, construct alliances, make deals" (lash 2003 p. 51) to ensure that the community takes part in development. in the case region, what started as a need to increase the speed of the isdn rollout can be traced through a number of stages as a reflexive development. the actors have, based on global changes, made plans to assure they were not falling behind with regard to digital development and access to infrastructure. a regional task force it-forum took up the responsibility to follow up plans and actions. later they established a broadband forum a more specialised task force to address the specific infrastructure needs. local actors built their own islands of new infrastructure, and a series of regional plans and projects were developed. knowledge resources and relational resources were mobilized to cope with the global challenge. counter networks were formed without any grand plan and, using sandvig's (2012) categorization, there are examples of networks as learning communities (with the effort of it-forum and broadband forum), as user autonomy and protest (the case of firdanett and the other local initiatives), and examples of professionalization when small initiatives merged into stronger networks. the local action plans and regional task force were examples of learning communities. these processes and learning communities lead to societal change through a reflexive development (skogseid, 2007) process. rural broadband development as a socio-technical development is there a basis for a new combined model? the broadband development case in sogn & fjordane is in our view an example of a socio-technical development. the staged model offers an understanding of the dynamics of the technical infrastructure development, and the model for reflexive rural innovation system offers an understanding of the local and regional social processes needed. the staged model represents a relevant and useful framework for understanding this infrastructure development. as we see it, the staged changes are triggered by: technology changes and a large part of the users community wants the new technology which is superior in functionality and quality users do not accept the long wait time for generic technologies, just to prove to national policy developers the need for public intervention local communities look for sustainable solutions and secure the infrastructure after an initial phase these dynamics trigger the formation of local initiatives, even in small communities, that may provide the basis for aggregation and development into new bigger self-sustaining systems. looking at this process in sogn & fjordane combining the stages and reflexive process the case history can be summarized as follows. the telecom market was deregulated in 1998. this development gave the regional actors an opportunity to initiate local action. prior to this there were no room for local reflexive processes. at this time the demand for more broadband communication increased. soon after the deregulation of the telecom market, actors in the sogn & fjordane region realized that they would be among the last to get broadband access and chose to initiate local collaborations to improve their own situation. to bridge the broadband divide, individuals, businesses and the public sector joined forces and took initiative to developing and operating local broadband infrastructure (starting stage 3). several of the initiatives listed in table 2 can be traced back to projects initiated in 1999. the development process has been one of reflection. how can we get access, what are the available technologies and knowledges and how can we pool resources? the process has also been influenced reflexively by new global events. new and better technology allowed for other technical solutions. later on the national providers discovered, triggered by local initiatives, that there was some market potential after all and started to extend their services also in rural and remote areas (stating stage 4). the additional effect of global change processes, like the increasing importance of ict in all parts of society, the reflexivity which through global and local feedback loops creates a continuous development process. another effect we see is one of friendly takeovers and mergers between these local broadband companies (starting stage 5), among other to create a more sustainable operation of the network and for those taking over to expand their service area as shown in table 3. stage 6 and 7 does not show much local reflexivity these are stages where technology develops and changes based on momentum already gained in earlier stages. however, in stage 8 we see a new need for local reflexivity based on new needs and capacity not delivered. conclusion our conclusion is that sawhney's model is relevant and applicable in a norwegian context. however we see the need to extend and strengthen the model to include elements of local reflexive processes taking in local context, local feedback and learning and global change forces into account. by initiating a timely development to meet local needs, it is important to have a staged reflexive approach. this will make the model more complete and directly relevant to broadband infrastructure development in rural and remote areas. local entrepreneurs, local and regional authorities and the business community should find this as a useful reference model in understanding the local development processes in a larger perspective. the model provides a path of development that allows local and regional initiatives to aggregate and grow. after a number of years' experience with a policy based on market driven infrastructure development we can observe that the major norwegian cities quickly got broadband access. however the rural and remote regions saw little interest among providers and no provision of broadband access. without a close collaboration within local communities and between regional actors and local initiatives it would not have been possible to provide the basic broadband to the small villages in rural norway, within the same time frame as is documented in this case. by collaborating, the region's stakeholders have ensured progress in new infrastructure implementation and consolidation has progressed from one stage to the next in accordance with sawhney's model. our suggestion is that in order to ensure implementation of broadband infrastructure in rural and remote regions, organizational processes between the region's actors have to be developed and it all should be aggregated into an understanding. this understanding must take into account the reflexive nature of the development, local context, local feedback and global change forces. communities needed to initiate locals actions to prevent the local community and the region from lagging behind in the critical period when national authorities needs for find out that a market driven approach is not feasible. the key elements of the combined model is that the staged model shows a model of what is happening and the reflexive model shows how to organise it make it happen. the reflexive model is in particular relevant where local communities have a room of opportunity to influence infrastructure development, in our case history as part of stage 3-5 and in stage 8 initiating a rerun of the cycle. this combined model should be of relevance 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(1981). the case study as a serious research strategy. knowledge, , 3, 97-114. book review: young world rising how youth, technology and entrepreneurship are changing the world from the bottom up. michael d williams salkowitz, r. new jersey: john wiley & sons inc. 2010. 206pp. $29.95. isbn 978-0-470-41780-5 throughout the globe, advancements in technology have led to an overwhelming growth in connectivity and interdependence among economic and social systems. companies from india have become reliant on clients in the silicon valley, just as the internet moguls of california have become reliant on software programmers from africa and latin america. this connectivity is reshaping development strategies, changing the way business is done in the 21st century, adding more importance to communication innovation, and redesigning cultures across the world. access to information and communication technologies (icts) now provides an opportunity for political, social and economic empowerment for those who otherwise may go unheard in both global and local realms. those previously rendered voiceless now have a chance to create sustainable, resilient livelihoods and to be part of political and social change with the stroke of a keyboard. in young world rising: how youth, technology and entrepreneurship are changing the world from the bottom up, author rob salkowitz analyzes and highlights several case studies that shed light on how a nexus of youth, technology and entrepreneurship are changing development processes throughout the globe. he primarily focuses on the economic and social impacts of several successful organizations in his investigation and analysis. the book gives no shortage of praise for these organizations as being triumphant stories for what the reader may understand as youth technological entrepreneurships (yte). salkowitz contextualizes the practicality of yte in development and illuminates how this sector will come to be an essential part of the ever-changing social and economic landscape of the 21st century, a contribution that should not go unnoticed. furthermore, salkowitz should be commended for highlighting how yte, through the process of bringing youth from developing nations to global markets, is an innovative move towards socioeconomic development. although attention should be drawn to its success, the book does contain the following weaknesses. first, the author essentially proclaims yte as being a development panacea for a set of complex issues, and this theme is, furthermore, overly repetitive in the book. secondly, salkowitz's ambiguous use of the term young world is at times convoluted due to the variety of contexts it is used in, as well because it is defined so closely with 'netgen' and 'millennials'. thirdly, the author does not give a comprehensive enough analysis for many arguments and statements that he makes. finally, the author may have been more successful had he shown more how each facet youth, ict and entrepreneurship may all lend their hands in development processes and less how yte as a sector would change the young world. there is little doubt that yte provides an opportunity to address issues such as unemployment, youth and gender marginalization, community revitalization education and poverty. the author clearly distinguishes this by analyzing several successful organizations in africa, india, europe, the united states and latin america. in doing so, he makes the connection of how youth identity is changing such concepts as: corporate culture, organizational models, education and networking. moreover, by highlighting the organizations salkowitz does, the author illuminates how businesses can be driven both by profit and by social change in this day and age. furthermore, he proves through exemplifying these cases that yte helps people and organizations overcome great adversity socially, economically and politically. the downfall of salkowitz's examples is that each organization, more or less, exists in a virtual world, offering services such as computer programming and software development. given this, each requires a great technical knowledge base and educational background to gain employment in the field. arguably, the author downplays the processes of becoming a skilled worker or entrepreneur in this sector. he does give credit to organizations for providing the foundations of knowledge, however, given the complex situations that act as barriers to education in such developing regions, there is much missing from the story. by using these examples, he also makes statements that are based on the chances that a very marginal number of youth have had the opportunity to act upon. in conclusion, it may be too romantic to simply focus on the success of these netgen founders and employees. to classify and categorize the main group of this book, salkowitz uses a mixture of terms including: young world, youth, net-generation (netgen) and millennial's. by linking these terms so closely together, the author confuses what they mean as they are constantly taken in different interpretations. for instance, salkowitz uses the terms netgen and millennial to categorize demographics as a "worldwide cohort born after 1980" with distinct norms and behaviors (9). furthermore, young world is also used as a classification for a demographic group, but it also stands to hold a geo-political meaning, which ultimately confuses what he is attempting to say. the issue here could be solved with an initial understanding of how salkowitz understands such important labels as young world and old world in definitional terms. arguably, setting borders for these definitions could solve this problem, and, moreover, by extending this to other labels holding great weight in the book, the author would be setting the definitional parameters needed to understand each argument presented. another issue faced is found in the details. in particular, many statements the author makes are as if he gave little analysis on what the broader context might be. for example, salkowitz (32) argues that the netgen in many developing nations spend far more time on the internet as netgen from developed countries; it is used as a compelling argument as to why this group may be more apt to be successful in yte. however, upon further inspection it must be considered that the difference in time spent online may ultimately factor down to the technological differences that exist between these countries. in this, youth in north america may very well be doing the same amount of work on the internet that youth in the developing nations are, however, in less time due to faster internet connections and faster technologies (mobiles, computers and even ipods). in another example, the author notes, "successful businesses can begin with nothing more than an idea and an internet connection" (40). this comment, however, takes much away from the conceptual framework of his book. in the following pages, it is understood that for the young world to be successful in business, there is a particular model to follow; the author, in fact, provides the reader with a full chapter on this titled "engaging the young world: strategies for success." as stated above, the author may have been more successful had he shown less how yte as a sector would change the young world and emphasized more how youth, ict and entrepreneurship could each influence development and aid. arguably, development strategies must have an approach just as diverse and complex as the issues they are attempting to change; therefore, one must not provide unequivocal solutions. moreover, had salkowitz provided more discussion on how, in their minimal states, the themes provided might better impact development, a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between each and development would be gained. lastly, salkowitz does not mention, nor highlight any failed examples of yte. this may suggest a bias in his argument. to provide a short list of successful models is doing the relationship of yte and development little justice. he provides a minimal dialogue around the barriers faced to succeeding as an entrepreneur and could, moreover, use failures to focus and accentuate the numerous guidelines that he sets out in his book. in conclusion, a young world rising should not go unread by those interested in ict based social enterprise development, or those investigating the practicality of technology use for youth in developing contexts. salkowitz has established a piece of literature that illuminates a very important piece to the development puzzle in the 21st century. he clearly shows how technology in developing nations can influence socioeconomic growth and catalyze entire workplace cultural shifts both in the developing and developed worlds. his shortcomings have been highlighted not as stark mistakes, but as suggestions for future work in the hopes of gaining a more comprehensive understanding of how each facet of his argument may work within a multitude of development strategies. building community social capital: the potential and promise of information and communications technologies the journal of community informatics, (2004), vol. 1, issue 1, pp. 58-73 building community social capital: the potential and promise of information and communications technologies kenneth e. pigg university of missouri < piggk@missouri.edu > laura duffy crank university of missouri < lmdp68@mizzou.edu > abstract increasing community social capital is widely viewed as one of the benefits of the deployment of information and communications technologies. a meta-analysis of the literature related to social capital and icts is completed. using the five elements of social capital generally described in the research literature, the meta-analysis examines the empirical findings related to each of these five elements. the results indicate that much work remains to be done before it can be said with any validity that icts can, in fact, create community social capital. mailto:piggk@missouri.edu mailto:lmdp68@mizzou.edu building community social capital 59 introduction rhetoric abounds regarding the central importance of social capital in considerations of community sustainability and action. considerable rhetoric also exists regarding the potential of modern information and communications technology (ict) to affect the development of social capital in positive ways. other observers have questioned the notion of using ict to build social capital (loader, et al, 2000) and revitalize local communities (dutton, 1999), but have yet to provide an empirical analysis of this capability. this paper examines the relationship between social capital and the pervasive nature of ict in almost every aspect of social life, especially where community is the desired outcome or context. the fundamental question to be examined is implied in the title: can ict successfully build social capital in communities? this paper first addresses the notion of social capital to determine what consensus might exist about the various dimensions of social capital. next the paper discusses the functional elements of information and communications technology with an attempt to relate the functionality of ict (primarily those that are computer-based and tied to the internet) with the nature of social capital formation. then the paper illustrates the basic argument through a consideration of bonding and bridging forms of social capital and draws some conclusions about the efficacy of technology in building social capital. one caveat is important here: this is not a technological determinist view of social processes and the influences of technology. as gurak (2001) has noted about the internet, “…technologies are invented by people and imbued with design choices that give these devices (software included) certain trajectories. …the choices built into the internet, and the choices we then make about how to use it, require a far more critical framework than we currently have.” this paper views the relationship more in the context of theories of “social construction of technology” and argues from the standpoint that people can and will decide how to use this technology for their own purposes, provided that the features of the technology make it possible to do so. this paper draws on the perspectives of social informatics (kling, 2000). we examine central elements related to ict and social capital to determine where there may be sufficient justification apparent to warrant empirical research. community in cyberspace by way of introduction it is useful to contextualize the discussion that follows by emphasizing the importance of community as both a setting and an outcome of social action as constructed in cyberspace. we believe this meta-analysis has relevance to both communities of place and virtual communities. much of the hubbub surrounding the internet’s capabilities has been focused on its use to create virtual communities, on-line communities where people meet, greet, discuss, share and often develop relationships that become face-to-face (rheingold, 2000). jones (1998) believes that, although high expectations are not always fulfilled with new technologies, expectations for social change and community remain. castells (2001) views the internet as creating new forms of social organization, identity and inequality, and power, and that in contrast to claims purporting the internet is a cause of alienation from the real world or a renewed source of community or, social interaction on the internet; rather it seems to be directly affecting everyday life. too often the rush to “wire america” has left communities of place, both rural and urban, disconnected from the most rapidly growing form of communication ever known and drained intellectual and economic assets from disadvantaged places (sclove and scheuer, 1996). the “digital divide” is not just about disadvantage based on literacy or socio-economic status or race or gender; it is also about places left behind. networked computer and communications systems have become embedded in the lives of many in north america. allowing public access to the internet fostered a great number of inquiries into the widespread use and applications of the internet. there has been a great deal of empirically grounded research about ict and social change that could better inform questions about the impact upon societal changes (kling 2000). the research articles are scattered in many research journals and books in many disciplines, making it difficult for both scientists and non-scientists to locate these studies. social informatics is a term used to bring together all of these ideas in the different disciplines and to strengthen the dialogue between these different specialists (kling 2000). kling (2000) refers to social informatics as “the body of research that examines the design, use, and consequences of information and communication 60 the journal of community informatics technologies in ways that take into account their interaction with institutional and cultural contexts” (pp. 217-218). community informatics represents an emerging subset of social informatics that addresses the same concerns as restricted to and represented by community-based institutional and cultural factors (gurstein 2001; loader, et al., 2000). community informatics tends to concentrate on communities of place rather than communities of interest. this field is focusing attention on social capital as well as studies related to community development (doheny-farina, 1996; kavanaugh and patterson, 2001; pigg, 2001), rural economic development (pigg and crank, 2003), health care, and education. additional work in this field is addressing issues such as sustainability of technology development efforts, community networking, digital divide factors (civille et al, 2001), design issues and effective use (gurstein, 2004). social capital social capital is often seen as a function of network qualities, norms of reciprocity and trust. robert putnam, in his often-cited study of the state of italian democracy (1993), cites these three elements as comprising the basic dimensions of social capital in italian society and has extended this analysis to american society. putnam, in his empirical measurement of social capital, also focuses on aspects of civic participation in social and governance contexts. more recently, onyx and bullen (2000) state that social capital contains five main themes: networks, reciprocity, trust, shared norms, and social agency. in the analysis by wall, et al (1998), it is determined that social capital is “…composed of social networks which can be activated” (p.304) suggesting that social capital is instrumental in social action. similarly, woolcock (2001) defines social capital as “…norms and networks that facilitate collective action” (p.13). more specifically, flora (1998) argues that only certain qualities of social networks are related to social capital, namely diversity and extensiveness. the “network” focus is popular with ict researchers due to the parallel nature of social networks and physical communication networks that make up the internet or other communication technologies. we also find important the notion of the network comprising a resource that can be mobilized for instrumental action. coleman (1990) argues that social capital is a “…set of resources that inhere in family relations and community social organization…”(p.300). for coleman, social capital is intangible and is composed of obligations and expectations, a set of norms and effective sanctions that can affect behavior and information channels. castle (2002) also notes that social capital has been used to analyze rural areas’ potential to achieve objectives, reinforcing the notion of social capital as an instrumental resource. what is not so clear is the precise nature of the “resources” that comprise social capital. castle (2002) argues that, as a form of “capital,” these resources must be both durable and useful. that is, social capital has the capacity to be used in production or consumption and it can be used in more than one time period. wall and associates (1998) point out that a third basis for social capital is found in “reciprocity transactions” following the exchange theorists like simmel who had a utilitarian view of social interaction and argued that such transactions could affect social status as well as economic position. the notion of a norm of reciprocity being related to social capital is well documented as an important element that facilitates the way in which interactions are structured among community members. portes and sensenbrenner (1993) discuss a fourth basis for social capital: “bounded solidarity,” as well as a fifth, “enforceable trust,” from weber’s analysis of the characteristic differences between formal and substantive rationality. solidarity is also the focus of structural analyses such as those of young, spencer and flora (1968) or zekeri, wilkinson and humphrey (1994), among others. solidarity operates as a source of collective identity and a resource for action against threats from external sources. the binding factor may be common interest, ethnicity, history, religion or culture, or anything else unique to a social group. weber’s analysis is well known and there are a number of recent works that attempt to determine the nature of trust with regard to its relationship to social capital. for example, farrell and knight (2003) define trust as “…a set of expectations held by one party that another party or parties will behave in an appropriate manner with regard to a specific issue” (p.540). harkening back to weber’s analysis, they building community social capital 61 argue that the existence of institutions in social settings can influence the trustworthiness of the actors in such a way as to create ongoing relationships of trust among those actors. they suggest a model of the relationship between institutions and trust which presumes that institutions affect trust between actors insofar as they: “(1) give actors an incentive to behave in a trustworthy (or, in some circumstances, untrustworthy) manner and/or (2) affect social beliefs about the trustworthiness or untrustworthiness of actors through their dissemination of information about the expected behavior of others” (farrell and knight, 2003, p.542). this brief review establishes five dimensions or components for social capital from the literature. rather than follow the advice of some authors to “select one” from the above list (leonard and onyx, 2003), we use all five components. our implicit assumption is that it is quite possible that a concept as complex as social capital is, indeed, composed of several dimensions and these five appear reasonable and well documented. this assumption does not extend to the notion that these five components are unrelated. in fact, the literature suggests that they may be interrelated in very complex and mutually reinforcing ways. operationally speaking, however, these five dimensions can be treated as conceptually valid. subject to further empirical research on the relationships among these five, we will proceed as if they were distinct. based on this proposition we now argue that these five dimensions form a basis for examining the initial hypothesis or research question: can ict build social capital? by examining figure 1, we provide a framework for completing our analysis of the factors related to this question, namely the elements and capabilities of ict and their relationship to building social capital. as shown in figure 1, the analysis that follows indicates the connection to ict is based both in the communication and the information elements of ict. as the following discussion outlines, ict include functions that support both communication in various forms as well as information storage, retrieval, analysis and sharing. each of these elements can be operationalized in software in one or more forms with applications currently available in cyberspace. for example, electronic mail or voip (voice over internet protocol) represent communication software applications that permit individuals and groups to “talk” back and forth, exchanging various sorts of information. video-conferencing is another application that permits communication and information exchange. on the information side are applications such as knowledge management and archival software functions, or even simple directory and calendar construction software systems that permit information to be created, stored and shared among various kinds of users. we discuss this distinction and its implications below in more detail. this separation of information from communication is not trivial. it is acknowledged that information is shared in various forms of communication. face-to-face conversation is one form of communication that includes information that is not communicated verbally (schuler, 1993). further, as we think about the relationship between information and social capital, briggs (2003) has noted that social capital is built upon “instrumental” and “expressive” information forms. similarly, it can be argued that communication includes both cognitive and affective content and that the “text” itself is meaningless without considering both content and context (raber and budd, 2004). the challenge in the ict environment is to formulate formats and content in ways that communicate both the affective and cognitive elements. cognitive elements of communication can be construed as having an instrumental purpose while the affective elements are primarily expressive. our distinction in this discussion is that, for our analysis, communication includes both affective and cognitive, while the information category includes only the cognitive. 62 the journal of community informatics figure 1. analysis framework ict elements social capital components information communication networks resource(s) for action reciprocity transactions bounded solidarity enforceable trust information and communication technologies altheide (1994) discusses how new devices that have created innovative forms of communication have also altered the rules of communication in social life: “contemporary social life is increasingly conducted and evaluated on the basis of organizational and technological criteria that have contributed to the development of new communication formats which modify existing activities as well as help shape new activities” (p.666). altheide seeks to understand how information technology contributes to the nature, organization, and consequences of activities (couch 1984; meyrowitz 1985; altheide and snow 1991). altheide (1994) focuses less on the “messaging” component and more upon the logic, formats, and principles of communication technologies. formal bureaucratic organizations operated in the belief that information technologies could provide more rational or efficient communication in which information and communication “chase each other,” (altheide 1994: 666). the functions, techniques, and principles of information technology in the organization have spilled over into other aspects of modern society. altheide argues that there is a gap between the potential for these devices and applications but, in reality, people may resist; and personal and legal harm (e.g., the use of medical information databases for credit and legal purposes) are not uncommon. the “ecology of communication” is a concept that helps to understand how social activities are connected with information technology and to provide a perspective for restructuring how communication frameworks can enlighten social participation and the resulting implications for social order (altheide, 1995). the three dimensions of the “ecology of communication” are: an information technology, a communication format, and a social activity (altheide, 1994). altheide (1994) refers to ecology instead of organization of communication for several reasons: first, ecology implies relationships related through processes of interaction; second, ecology implies a spatial and relational basis for a subject; third, the relations are not haphazard or wholly arbitrary in which connections have emerged that are fundamental for the technology to exist and operate; and fourth, ecologies are developmental, contingent, and emergent (p. 667). ecology is referred to as an emergent discourse or framework. within this framework, altheide (1994) utilizes two important concepts: information technology and format to describe how the elements of communication provide a structure, logic, and competence for social action. information technology (it) refers to external devices and procedures that are used in assisting to create, organize, transmit, store and retrieve information. (altheide 1994). the way that the technology operates brings another dimension to any activity and can often reshape activities since it follows a logic that involves principles and assumptions that differentiate the technology from other means of storing and disseminating information. building community social capital 63 format is “the selection, organization, and presentation of experience and information,” that acts to shape the nature of the activity and is implicitly an instance of social change within itself (altheide 1994: 668; snow 1983). formats or applications provide the basic meaning to an activity that will always outnumber the types of it. dutton (1999) provides a similar perspective in his analysis of the elements of ict. altheide (1994) wants to make it clear that the it-format-activity relationship is significant to social life; it is the format of ict that structures social ties between persons and connects them to activities. he provides a model to illustrate the relevance of organizational it and formats for societal activities in which it formats and an organizational context creates an effective environment for problem solving which, in turn, creates a format and organizational solution in which societal context and activities pervade the entire process. both globally and locally, there are illustrations of the new relationships between information technologies, formats, and social action. we have all heard and used the cliché, “it’s a small world,” and have listened as many have noted that “the world is getting smaller,” as new information and communication technologies bring us “closer together.” altheide observes the use of multiple formats of information technology in the persian gulf war, as electronic communication directed weapons operations, targeted decisions, and even images of the war in “real time” were streamed to united states citizens back home on national and local news stations. altheide (1994) notes that different formats, but the same information technology brought together both “doing it” and “reporting it.” the introduction of the internet into mainstream public usage has created different formats for information technology that enables a flow of communication that isn’t passive, but is a two-way transaction such as: email, chatting, and the use of social software. dimaggio et al. (2001) purport that the internet is different from earlier communication technologies, as it offers different modes of communication (broadcasting, individual searching, group discussion) and different kinds of content (text, audio, visual images) in a single medium. castells (2001) believes that persons transform technology by modifying it and experimenting with it; and the internet is a type of technology that is even more deeply embedded in social history since it is, “ a technology of communication” (p.4). since the internet transforms the way that people communicate, society is greatly affected by the internet, although since so many actions are taking place by means of the internet, humans are transforming this virtual technology as well. castells refers to this process of a two-way transformation as a socio-technical pattern (2001). resnick (2001) refers to sociotechnical capital as a “productive combination of social relations and information and communication technology (pp. 2-3). we wish to differentiate the functionality of ict more carefully along the lines implied by the type of technology referenced. that is, we wish to differentiate between the information and communication functions. ict communication is multi-faceted and interactive, including text, audio and video, as well it may be real-time (as in voip) or asynchronous or archival/historical, not to mention any combination thereof. this capacity may offer some real possibilities for building social capital and creating community. the communication function refers to the acts of transmitting information of different types, e.g., ideas and feelings, from one person to another. one of the unique features of internet based communications is the capability of “one-to-many” communication. so, ict communication may also be one person to many other persons. this transfer of information via the internet is not unique to the technology, except for its one-to-many feature (and even teleconferencing by phone has this feature today) and is generally considered to supplement face-to-face communication rather than replace it or substitute for it. for example, wellman et al (2001) have determined that the use of email and other internet-based forms of communication are generally between people with established relationships and serve to communicate the needs for support and sharing of information necessary for maintaining a relationship. this relationship-building activity seems very important to our consideration of how ict might function to increase social capital. these relationships are acknowledged to exist in networks of kin, friends, professional colleagues, and other community members. müller (1999) and rheingold (2000) indicate that most relationships that are created online are continued in physical space, thus creating new forms of offline and online involvements. hampton and wellman (1999), and wellman et al. (2001) state that online interaction increases social capital as it supplements physical local relationships, and high internet usage is associated with increased participation in organizations. wellman (1996) states, 64 the journal of community informatics “computer-supported social networks sustain strong, intermediate, and weak ties that provide information and social support in both specialized and broadly based relationships… computer-mediated communication accelerates the ways in which people operate at the centers of partial, personal communities, switching rapidly and frequently between groups of ties” (p.352). in the “netville” project, hampton and wellman (2001) found that, in a wired community, many neighbors got to know each other better through the use of a local computer network. in a study in blacksburg, virginia, kavanaugh and patterson (2001) studied the correlation between internet use and community involvement and attachment over a three-year period. they found that there is a significant relationship between community involvement and predisposition to use the internet for social-capital-building activities. in 1996, internet users who reported communication with formal and informal social groups were also involved in their community. in 1999, this same pattern appeared to strengthen as people who used the internet for small group and informal communication reported higher community involvement, whereas interaction with formal groups offline decreased by1999. other software tools that are used in this networking component would include discussion lists, chat rooms, voip, and video-conferencing. each software tool has different features that better support some aspects of networking than others. for example, discussion lists are a form of communication that is “oneto-many,” while email can be either one-to-one or one-to-many. voip, by comparison, can be many-tomany at least for a small number of people (limited by software and bandwidth capacity). use of such tools can build and maintain social networks (haythornthwaite and wellman, 1998). the information function is complex because internet based information transfer can take place using a variety of features of the network. the information transfer can be “active,” in that people share information using various communication features of the internet including email and video conferencing, or it can be passive, based on one person’s searching for resources on the internet and using, for example, its archiving or knowledge management capabilities. information can be transmitted in many forms. most observers would not view the act of passively seeking and acquiring information from an archive as “communication”, since this action generally is considered to require a two-way transaction involving “broadcast-reception-response-reception.” the most visible example of the internet’s information-based capabilities is represented in the various on-line merchant catalogs for consumer sales (e.g., amazon, ebay, yahoo, etc.). all these business models make use of a database storage system, a transaction system, a search system, and so forth, all of which we would classify as part of the information function of ict as the communication involved is qualitatively different than, for example, in a personal email exchange. it is not difficult to imagine a community-based system that would be primarily an information function as described above that would support the networking component of social capital building. following kretzman and mcknight’s (1993) “asset model” of community building, the development of a searchable database that contains a brief description of community members’ interests and skills (assets) could be useful in creating new networks among community members based on those interests or on skill building. in addition, a similar kind of database could easily support the “resources for action” component of social capital. knowing the assets of people in a network makes it very easy to determine who might be sufficiently interested in an issue or activity to become an active participant. the organization of on-line interest groups that share information about all sorts of topics as well as the self-organizing characteristics rheingold (2002) describes as “smart mobs,” the wto protest groups or the dean for president activists represent a mobilization of resources for action unlike any form of social organizing yet observed. these latter movements represent primarily the communication function, but knowing who shares your interest makes it that much easier to target communication activities. the “reciprocity transaction” component of social capital is more complex. the action implied is straightforward enough: one person provides something of value to another in expectation that, at some point in time, the other person will act similarly. such reciprocity may come upon request or not and may not occur for a long period of time after the initial transaction. exchange research is full of such transactions and their social capital building effects in communities and groups. the expectation of reciprocity is usually unstated and informal rather than explicit and contractual. different norms as to value building community social capital 65 and the eligibility of persons to participate in certain types of transactions are contextually specific. usually, participation is limited to social network members rather than carried out with outsiders, but this is not always the case. putting aside commercial transactions in which cash is exchanged for materials goods and services, what kinds of valued things can be exchanged via ict and is a reciprocity norm present and active? insofar as communication may take place via the internet that contains solicitations or offers for exchanges in which someone receives social support or valuable information not generally public, ict can support the transaction element. the reciprocity element may be more difficult to verify or operationalize since the concept involves, primarily, informal or non-contractual relationships. for example, miranda and saunders (2003) have investigated reciprocity in the context of shared meanings created over the internet when information is shared. they assert that “…intersubjective construction of meaning necessitates reciprocity” (p.89) and determine in their research that the lack of a “social presence” in electronic communications impedes reciprocity and interactivity. the “depth of information sharing did not produce shared meaning” without a form of shared presence, demonstrating again that communication involves more than words. creating a “social presence” via the internet is a capability that is, as yet, undocumented or, perhaps, untried. bounded solidarity is important in group and community identity. it has frequently been associated with social movements of resistance or opposition to power as this characteristic provides the sense of “being in this together” rather than facing threats or risks alone. solidarity represents a social characteristic that makes it easy for outsiders to recognize members who share the characteristic. the boundary that sets a group or community apart may be ethnicity or social status or geography or history. this component of social capital solidifies connections between people who belong and makes it clear who does not. for ict, supporting the creation of bounded solidarity might be considered a difficult challenge. certainly, our review of the related literature finds few documented examples of this being successfully established. in other settings it is clear that solidarity is established by communication among members of a group or community and ict can certainly support this function. to the extent that people rally to a symbol, vision, or message communicated via ict, those in charge of the organizing might contemplate using electronic mail, chat rooms, discussion lists and interactive web sites to publicize elements of the message to various audiences. some messages could be directed at recruitment of people to the cause. some messages could be targeted at individuals or groups to create stronger bonds among them based on the elements of solidarity being used or to create a sense of threat from external forces. one can also imagine a database of, say, atrocities committed against the group for which the boundary is being emphasized as a way of supporting organizing efforts. the list of jews who died in concentration camps is read each year on our university campus as a way of reminding jews of one historical experience that separates them from other people as well as reminding non-jews of the solidarity that jews share as a social group. the vietnam war memorial represents a database of those who died in this conflict to which people can relate as friends and relatives and sympathizers. this “connection” binds visitors together who have never met each other by finding companionship and empathy with other visitors who share this experience. transforming such experiences to the virtual space of the internet is certainly within the realm of the technology. one example of how this might be done is a community site that emphasizes the unique history of the community in, say, the civil war or the california gold rush, and the residents who shared that history through family members who were participants. such “info sites” serve as good marketing tools in tourism promotion and may provide access to information about relatives, events, or other resources that attract visitors, especially those who may be doing some family genealogical work. nevertheless, our research to date has not identified any examples of this sort of application. what functional tools are available to achieve “enforceable trust”? there is a rapidly growing literature regarding the nature and role of trust, as well as the requirements for a trusting relationship, and the norms related to trusting behavior. this literature traces roots to simmel (möllering, 2001) as well as weber (farrell and knight, 2003). generally speaking, the evidence points to several dimensions of trust in human relationships. trust is related to cognition and affective relationships (möllering, 2001; mcallister, 1995). to the degree that we have “good reasons” to believe that someone will behave in a specific manner in a 66 the journal of community informatics given situation, we extend trust to that person. our “good reasons” may or may not be inherently rational, but each of us makes the choice as to what constitutes a reasonable basis and available knowledge. such reasons might be competency, demonstrated willingness to take responsibility, reliability and dependability in similar situations or reputation as acknowledged by trusted affiliates (mcallister, 1995). affective reasons for trusting someone might include a personal relationship with another person, altruism, the degree to which the other person expresses care or concern about one’s situation, and the reciprocity shown or promised regarding one’s situation (rempel et al, 1985). another basis for trust can be found in institutional factors (wall, et al, 1998; farrell and knight, 2003; pavlou and gefen, 2004). such institutional-based trust is found in our dependence on professional norms and credentialing activities. certain professions are licensed by the state and expected to perform according to related criteria. ethics guide other professions as well as certifications. pavlou and gefen (2004) take this argument to another level in their review of online marketplaces. in their words, “this ‘perceived effectiveness’ captures the degree to which a buyer believes that institutional mechanisms provide recourse, are enforceable, are convenient, are available and are cost-effective, among other factors” (p. 38). they investigate four institution-based structures: feedback mechanisms, escrow services, credit card guarantees, and trust in the marketplace’s intermediary. their research shows that “trust in the community of sellers as a whole is a crucial factor in whether the buyer will consider purchasing products from any given seller” (p. 39). the use of ict in this research is a direct concern and, even though the research by pavlou and gefen focuses on commercial activity, it is not hard to imagine that these kinds of institutional mechanisms might be replicated in non-commercial activities as well and thus produce social capital in other settings. for example, social service organizations might adopt such a model and provide parallel services to demonstrate to critical and risk-averse clients that the services they may receive from the organization are trustworthy and effective. endorsements and referrals by related organizations more closely aligned with the social context of such clients (such as churches), affiliation with other trusted organizations such as food banks or homeless shelters, or other institutionally based demonstrations of the trustworthiness of the service provider could be demonstrated in internet based communication. banking organizations working with the poor in third world situations that are owned by those served and governed by contemporaries in similar situations appear to be more trustworthy in the eyes of the poor than other financial institutions. again, ict—ignoring the lack of access possessed by such populations of poor people in third world nations—could easily be employed to handle financial transactions as trustworthy intermediaries. however, with the exception of many new e-government ventures, there do not appear to be many examples of such systems in operation, particularly serving geographically identifiable communities. summary for this paper, the question becomes “does increased social capital derive from the communications or information functions of ict or both?” we have cited examples of the use of the communication capacity to build and sustain social networks. also cited are examples related to enforceable trust and resource mobilization. however, there are some gaps in the empirical knowledge that raise questions as to a positive answer to this research question. in figure 2, the discussion in this section is summarized. with regard to the communication functions available via internet technology it appears that three of the five components of social capital might be created. the relevance of the information functions of the internet for achieving such an outcome is much more in question. it should be acknowledged that it is obvious our literature review is not yet complete as the relevant literature is quite fragmented and found in a wide variety of disciplinary sources as demonstrated in the references cited for this analysis. it should also be noted that some research on other communication technology applications, e.g., video on demand, videotext, etc., as well as the internet show that the user public is likely “…more interested in interpersonal and group communication and specialized services than in just having lots of information at their fingertips” (dutton, 1999, p. 97). it is likely that content, per se, is not the driving force. or, as some researchers describe it, the affective is clearly of higher priority than the cognitive in the applications valued by users of ict. on the other hand, applications such as small video cameras that monitor children’s daycare facilities for parents at home or work via computer/internet connections can be an important valueadded functional use of ict (dutton, 1999, p. 100). building community social capital 67 figure 2. results of review of literature ict elements social capital components information communication networks no empirical studies yes resource(s) for action no empirical studies yes reciprocity transactions no empirical studies yes bounded solidarity no empirical studies no empirical studies enforceable trust yes, in commercial applications and possibly egovernment no empirical studies two forms of social capital leonard and onyx (2002) examine how strong and loose connections of members of community organizations affect social capital. bonding social capital is usually associated with strong ties of kin and neighborhood and localized trust (leonard and onyx 2002). in contrast, bridging capital is associated with granovetter’s notion of “weak ties” and “thin impersonal trust with strangers.” leonard and onyx (2003) think that there are three uses of the concept of bridging capital in the discussion of social capital, in which the three uses are not necessarily meant to be used collectively: to refer to relationships that cross demographic divides of class, age, ethnicity, etc. (e.g., portes 1998); to refer to bridges across structural holes, or gaps between networks which are not necessarily of dissimilar people, but where there has hitherto been little connection—such gaps may occur for example as a result of geographic distance (e.g., burt 1998); and to refer to the capacity to access resources such as finance, information, and knowledge from external sources to the organization or community (e.g., woolcock and narayan 2000) (p. 191). further, leonard and onyx (2003) believe that networks are lateral associations of individuals and groups, and that individuals working together create social capital, in which bridging social capital would involve a large, less dense network with fewer “multiplex” relationships. reciprocity is referred to as the individual providing a service or favor in expectation that the favor will be returned. they believe that the conditions of reciprocity would need to be more clear and direct than those of bonding social capital. “thick trust” is usually associated with bonding social capital whereas “thin trust” is associated with bridging social capital. finally, social norms are an undocumented but commonly understood recipe for shaping what patterns of behavior are expected in a social context and what forms of behavior are valued or socially approved. without strong norms, rules have to be negotiated, decided upon, and enforced for every interaction, making social relationships complex. social norms are assumed with bonding social capital whereas bridging across social distances creates the need for the conscious exploration of norms and can only proceed if a foundation of shared values can be established (onyx and bullen 200, p.192). the conceptualization of bridging and bonding capital above suggests that bridging social capital places agency as the central focus. social connections are created mainly to increase agency, whereas the reverse is true for bonding social capital (leonard and onyx, 2003). bridging social capital is associated with large, loose networks, relatively strict reciprocity, more frequent norm violation, a thinner or different 68 the journal of community informatics sort of trust, and more instrumentality. bonding social capital is associated with dense, multiplex networks, long term reciprocity, shared norms, thick trust, and less instrumentality. the intersecting, close-knit ties of the well-bonded community can be harmful to bridging social capital or to extending relationships to a wider and more diverse group. portes (1998) reviews the positive and negative effects of social capital, highlighting the possibility of negative effects of norms that enforce conformity and limit the ability for individuals and groups to move across social borders. bonding social capital is composed of connections among persons and groups with similar backgrounds, such as similar ethnic groups or social characteristics, while bridging social capital links diverse community groups to each other and to groups external to the community (flora and flora, 2004). bridging ties are usually purposive whereas bonding ties are emotionally charged (briggs, 2003). bridging capital encourages diverse ideas since it connects diverse people from a variety of cultural and social backgrounds. naranyan (1999) believes that bonding capital may actually be reinforcing social norms that encourage inequality and stratification, whereas bridging capital is developing cross-cutting or weak ties that facilitate access to information, resources, and opportunities. leonard and onyx (2003) studied how people understand and benefit from their strong and loose ties within the networks formed by community organizations in australia. study participants stated that their really strong ties were with their friends and family, but that their community organizations did provide opportunities for members to extend their networks. in rural settings, trust seemed to depend upon years of connection, whereas in urban areas, length of time is still important, but frequency and intensity of contact can be at least as important, particularly in new circles of people (onyx and bullen, 2003). respondents also felt that reciprocity was an important aspect of strong ties in which many turned to their strong ties in times of need for material and emotional support. the sharing of common values and backgrounds was an essential ingredient for the development of strong ties. many respondents believed that many of their loose ties involved people in the same networks as the strong ties, but a further relationship had not developed since history and common activities had not been shared or it was not possible to give the same intensity of emotional investment to everyone. loose ties were often among members of the same organization who possessed different personal and social characteristics who gave a broader sense of perspectives to many respondents. the loose ties within organizations seemed to be bridging people across social categories. leonard and onyx (2003) believe that both strong and loose ties are found in organizational networks and their functions overlap such that both create a sense of belonging to achieve concrete outcomes for the community. leonard and onyx (2003) found empirical evidence that links between groups were used to access information and other resources and were used to achieve outcomes that could not be accomplished solely from the resources of a single organization. action and social agency was created by strong links across different groups and organizations within the same community. briggs (2003) also notes the instrumental functions of bridging forms of social capital. leonard and onyx (2003) believe that the degree of trust plays an important role in determining whether people will take risks in bridging other networks to attain information or other resources. the looser links were characterized by lower degrees of trust, which were marked by differences in values in which trust was “thinner” and it is less likely that the loose ties would be used for helpful purposes. each community member has varied needs for bonding capital and intentionally works to acquire this based on emotional and (personal) material needs. bonding capital is frequently derived from kinship networks and kinship norms that underlie both reciprocity and trust. “we trust each other because we are family.” the norm is fundamental to the relationship and is most often affective and institutional. bridging capital is, primarily, a basis for collective action and community members seek bridging capital to satisfy political and (collective) material needs; bridging capital requires mobilizing diverse assets and access to information about the who and the what. bridging capital built upon a foundation of diversity in network quality, reciprocity based on exchanges of material and political assets, and trust based on long-term relationships in which behaviors has become reasonably predictable. trust is based on cognitive and institutional factors. modifications to figure 2 can be made to add the dimensions of these two forms of social capital. adding another axis to represent these two forms would likely reinforce the conclusion already drawn: ict building community social capital 69 can be useful in building social capital, but the empirical data have not documented this relationship as yet. ict are more likely to be useful in increasing bonding capital via communication functions and bridging capital via information functions. increases in bonding capital are likely derived from affective and institutional trust and reciprocity and solidarity. the networks of strong ties supporting bonding capital are taken for granted. bridging social capital is derived from cognitive and institutional trust, reciprocity and resource mobilization as primary factors along with access to and support from diverse social networks of weak ties. this is not to suggest that increasing one form comes at the expense of the other form of social capital but does suggest that different technology applications and attributes will be effective in producing desired outcomes. nevertheless, until there is evidence of more focused attention being directed to the dimensions of social capital and the two forms in which it is manifested—bonding and bridging—with regard to their information and communication aspects, we are unlikely to see much progress in the community venture of linking ict to social capital development. conclusions this meta-analysis of the relationship between social capital and information and communication technology is only a beginning but still suggests that a degree of “analytical skepticism” should be extended to the assertions of those advocating the deployment of ict for creating social capital (wolgar, 1999). based on a deconstruction of the social capital concept, our analysis suggests ict has the capability to contribute to enhancing and extending social networks, providing access to resources that can be mobilized for action, enhancing solidarity in social groups, and supporting mechanisms of enforceable trust and reciprocity in transactions. our analysis distinguished between communication and information, as being of a different nature and function, especially as perceived by users. the empirical evidence to support the relationships described is yet very limited in many of these areas even if the potential may exist. at the same time, it is entirely possible that the trajectory of development of these technologies is still in a very early stage and these applications are in the wings waiting for the appropriate “demand.” from a community informatics perspective, however, waiting means taking the risk that the global influences so pervasive in cyberspace will never provide opportunity for “local” networks and content to gain a significant foothold. it is only when user-centered design and human-centered networks are given priority that opportunities for the creation of social capital and building stronger communities will be realized (gill, 1996). this analysis also focused primarily on communities of place rather than virtual communities. there may be cause for greater distinction in this analysis as some observers argue that geographically based communities are not well served by ict (beale, 2000). many are not well connected with quality hardware systems and they often represent very complex technical situations. regarding the potential of ict, a strong argument can be made for the positive outcomes that might be experienced in building stronger communities and increasing social capital. ict, it can be argued, can support collaboration and decentralized decision making among citizens. ict can support learning functions that may reduce conflict and improve the quality of decisions and actions taken. as beale (2000) states: “at a deeper level, communities need to be able to learn about themselves, their world and from their mistakes and successes” (p. 60). ict can provide support for “…self-knowledge: of people, places, cultures and of resource usage; community memory and history via the knowledge of events over time; (and) the learning function: the ability to construct meaningful knowledge from data, facts and events.” there would likely be little disagreement here, but this view is simply not (yet) supported by the evidence available and what evidence is present is focused almost entirely on communities of interest. efforts to develop “local knowledge” for access via ict must become much more focused on the specific forms of knowledge; its representations online, and the uses people have for this kind of knowledge. access to local knowledge must also take into account a broader range of technological tools than is present in most community networking activities. schuler’s (1993) observation that most of what takes place online is “conversation,” does not represent the full capacity of this technology. a more complete understanding of the differences between forms of communication and information storage and retrieval (in the context of ict) must be fostered if successful creation of social capital is to be achieved. more research and further documentation is necessary before we can say for certain that ict can and do create social capital and, thereby, build community. enhancing social networks is obviously necessary, but this analysis suggests it is certainly not sufficient to support the 70 the journal of community informatics claim of ict advocates. however, the empirical records are so fragmented among disciplines and sources that this meta-analysis has only scratched the surface. further, it had to rely on research into some factors that did not include reference to the role and functionality of ict, forcing the authors to extrapolate from potential to possible. building community social capital 71 references cited altheide, david l. 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(1994). “past activeness, solidarity and local development efforts.” rural sociology, 59, pp.216-235. community in cyberspace social capital figure 1. analysis framework information and communication technologies summary figure 2. results of review of literature two forms of social capital conclusions references cited local communities and home rule: extending the alberta supernet to unserved areas nadine kozak assistant professor, school of information studies, university of wisconsin-milwaukee, united states. email: kozakn@uwm.edu introduction in 2000, the government of alberta, canada, announced its intention to build a province-wide fiber optic network to provide its residents with the "infrastructure for high-tech, knowledge-based business" (province of alberta, 2000, p. 437). the government undertook the task with two private partners and construction occurred between 2001 and 2005. alberta's supernet project, an open access network, extended fiber optic cable to all towns, villages and hamlets in the province. the network terminated in schools, libraries, hospitals and provincial government offices (cherry, 2004). the government never intended to bring fiber-to-the-home, as its design strategy was to create entrepreneurship opportunities for albertans, including internet service provision (alberta, n.d.). the province constructed the fiber optic pipeline that would carry applications, including privately provided internet service (province of alberta, 2002; province of alberta, 2004) and charged $50 a month per mbps of bandwidth, regardless of location (cherry, 2004). the government argued internet service providers (isps) would compete with each other for customers (province of alberta, 2002). this design strategy was one of the unique features of the private partners' winning proposal and the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee), celebrated this business model (cherry, 2004). the supernet is an example of gurstein's "competitive innovation," which supports "competitive positioning in hyper-competitive commercial marketplaces" (2013). gurstein (2013) notes there is another, less recognized form, "community innovation," where communities seek to effectively respond to changing circumstances. in rural alberta, despite initial interest to provide high-speed internet (hsi) service, private companies did not serve all communities. the small size of some communities made it difficult for private isps to develop a profitable business case (adria & brown, 2012; kozak, 2010). the government of alberta's top-down approach to the supernet, however, created opportunities for bottom-up community innovation. this research asks if alberta communities unserved by commercial providers initiated local approaches to internet provision. if they did, how did they address their lack of access? were these approaches successful and what made them so? research found some communities devised local innovations to provide hsi, using three strategies: county-wide municipal initiatives, construction of infrastructure, and use of existing resources. the five areas employing these approaches all successfully brought hsi access to their communities, but not all remain community owned and operated. research found that in rural alberta, the top-down policy of the supernet added to bottom-up community initiatives created a successful formula for providing hsi access to unserved areas. the legal concept home rule is a helpful one for thinking through the relationship between the provincial government and local communities on the issue of internet provision. schiller (1998) labelled the independent and municipal telephone systems in the twentieth century united states as examples of home rule. according to black's law dictionary (1990), home rule is a "state or constitutional provision or type of legislative action which results in apportioning power between state and local governments by providing local cities and towns with a measure of self-government if such local government accepts the terms of the state legislation" (p. 733). the larger, overseeing government thus grants home rule to a smaller, local organization that then has self-determination (munro, 1930). home rule is a particularly fecund concept for analyzing the development of local solutions to high-speed internet provision in alberta because it establishes a relationship between states and localities, where each has responsibilities, and it prompts an examination of how particular localities respond to a common problem. this paper begins with a review of community informatics literature relevant to the cases presented, followed by a description of the research site and methods used. it then describes and analyzes three local approaches taken to expand hsi to unserved regions in rural alberta. finally, the article concludes with a discussion of the importance of this work for community informatics research and community first mile initiatives in practice. literature review community informatics (ci) is a research approach centrally concerned with communities left out of the rapid development of information and communication technology (ict) (gurstein, 2000; keeble & loader, 2001). ci explores a diverse array of initiatives designed to provide ict access, tools, skills, and content to unconnected groups and communities, enhance community participation, and allow for economic development (gurstein, 2007). this approach forefronts "the social and cultural factors shaping the development and diffusion of new ict and its effects upon community development, regeneration and sustainability" (keeble & loader, 2001, p. 3). access is a primary focus of community informatics as it is required to foster a community's other goals, be they political, economic, or social (gurstein, 2000). two important levels of access for community informatics are carriage facilities, the base level of digital information infrastructure, and service provision, or access to an isp, to provide internet connectivity (clement & shade, 2000). scholars examine how communities develop the organization providing ict access and how they create a context to optimize the use of the technologies (gurstein, 2000). a common characteristic of community informatics research is its bottom-up approach to community development (gurstein, 2007; heaton et al., 2013). the field describes and analyses how people and institutions come together to work on common problems (bishop & bruce, 2005). some work has found that top-down policy approaches, such as the european union's approach to icts, fostered bottom-up community informatics initiatives (cawood & simpson, 2000). this focus on bottom-up innovations leads ci to study ict development at the community level (gurstein, 2000). community informatics, therefore, connects cyberspace and physical locations and scholars view icts as "geographically embedded" (loader, et al., 2000, p. 81). ci scholarship explores the local development of icts in specific, geographic communities, describing and analyzing the unique approaches taken to resolve problems. the field, thus, creates thick descriptions of diverse local approaches and their social contexts (gurstein, 2007). since the announcement of the alberta supernet, scholars have studied the network and people's understandings of it. mitchell (2007) explores supernet development and its promise, but argues some communities "will not be able to secure the full benefits of the network" (p. 263). carrying out public consultation using a constructive technology assessment approach, mitchell (2007) looked into extending the supernet into aboriginal communities in northern alberta. he found multiple levels of barriers, including technical, jurisdictional, economic, and socio-cultural challenges, to extending service. adria and brown (2012) interviewed stakeholders in rural alberta broadband to discover how they made sense of the last mile and its challenges. the interview participants indicated that grassroots community movements were necessary for the provisioning of rural broadband. this research builds on these findings and explores communities that overcame the barriers and developed rural hsi initiatives. methods this study employed a qualitative ethnographic approach based on case studies of three counties in rural alberta, hereafter called the northern, central, and southern counties. it is based on nine semi-structured, face-to-face interviews conducted with the community actors at the heart of the local broadband initiatives, local and regional administrators, and government officials. the author recorded and qualitatively analyzed the interviews. each interview was between one and three hours long. additionally, the research used provincial and regional government documents. the five cases discussed were the only community initiatives in the three counties. the analysis is part of a larger ethnographic study carried out in the three counties between october 2006 and january 2007, where the author lived in the counties, conducted 73 interviews, and was involved in participant-observer research. interviewees included provincial government representatives, local and regional government representatives, institutional actors such as school officials, librarians, and health care administrators, as well as rural and town residents (kozak, 2010). local solutions to high-speed internet provision county-wide municipal initiatives the first method of extending hsi within a region is county-wide municipal initiatives to overcome provision issues, the option selected by the northern and southern counties. the municipal governments chose to extend the supernet connection and make high-speed internet available to all residents without waiting for private companies to arrive. both counties found that while the supernet offered reasonably priced internet backhaul, telecommunications companies were not willing to provide service to the rural areas of the counties (economic development officer [edo], southern county, interview, october 23, 2006; chief administrative officer [cao], northern county, interview, december 5, 2006). to overcome this issue, in 2002, southern county officials decided to provide modestly priced internet service to their residents. the decision to bring line of sight wireless service to residents occurred after the county office surveyed its inhabitants. the county's economic development officer noted respondents identified high-speed internet availability as "high priority." although only "approx[imately] 12% [of] the households" completed the survey, "this gave us enough to build the business case; we now have approx[imately] 15-20% of the households and businesses signed on" (edo, southern county, fax communication, january 11, 2007). to provide high-speed internet, the county's economic development society partnered with a private isp based in calgary, a large metropolitan center 300 kilometers to the south, reaching an agreement for 25 years. the county built and owns the towers and provided the transmitting equipment and the isp manages the system and interacts with customers (edo, southern county, interview, october 23, 2006). this was a lucrative deal for the isp because the county funded the most costly aspects of the venture, building the towers and buying the equipment. the wireless network has six towers in the county and two transmitters in a neighboring county because it "wasn't cost prohibitive" to install them. the partnership provides service to the county's rural and urban areas. the economic development officer argued "the only way rural residents get service is if they step up to the plate and make sure it's put in place." he stressed that theirs is a local, community-driven initiative. he stated while isps want quick returns, the county can "afford to be patient" and amortized the cost over ten years (edo, interview, southern county, october 23, 2006). in 2006, the municipal-private partnership had 200 customers1. the official reported a customer satisfaction survey in january 2006 found the "overwhelming majority" was "tickled pink and extremely grateful" but "one or two [were] less than satisfied" (edo, southern county, interview, october 23, 2006). some did question the county's approach. critics argue the county accepted too much of the financial burden. the region's member of the legislative assembly (mla) noted while he gave the municipal way "a lot of credit," he was "not very happy" because the southern "county gave taxpayer money" to the isp in a "bottomless pit." the mla stated the southern county did not cap the amount available for the project and he worried taxpayers were going to pay for cost overruns and excess to the private provider. he also suggested the county had a "bone to pick with private sector business, especially local ones," and as a result, it contracted with an isp from calgary, rather than a local business (mla, interview, november 17, 2006). by april of 2008, the southern county had hired a new economic development officer, whose reports to the county council suggest the broadband partnership was not a panacea. in his first report, the new officer noted, "we are presently continuing to upgrade our equipment for the internet system to ensure that service levels are more reliable. as well we are having discussions with [the isp] to ensure that our customers' expectations are met" (county, 2008a). over the next months, upgrades occurred to improve service and the economic partnership society planned to construct a new tower to further extend service (county, 2008b; county, 2008c). additionally, the economic development officer wrote residents ought to contact him if they were encountering difficulties getting issues resolved with the isp (county, 2009). the northern county also decided to bring hsi to its residents, by expanding the mandate of its municipal corporation to include broadband provision (municipal corporation general manager [gm], northern county, interview, october 30, 2006). the municipal corporation embarked on a joint venture with a private company to provide internet service to rural and urban residents. the venture began as a for-profit, tax-supported initiative. the northern county dedicated up to $800,000 canadian to provide internet access to the ratepayers, particularly those in rural areas. the municipal corporation's general manager noted large companies tended to "cherry pick" and exclusively serve urban communities; in contrast, the county's chief administrative officer argued, "we want to make sure everyone has access" (cao, northern county, interview, december 5, 2006). in the initial plan, the ratepayers owned the municipal corporation through the county council and eventually, the municipal corporation and private company were to amalgamate and the ratepayers would own the resulting corporation. local ownership of the wi-max infrastructure and service was one of the county's priorities (cao, northern county, interview, december 5, 2006). the profits from internet service were to be kept in the county rather than exported to a private company's coffers (municipal corporation gm, northern county interview, october 30, 2006). residents and businesses allowed the municipal corporation to install communication equipment on their seed cleaning plants, fertilizer plants, and grain elevators in exchange for free internet, thus allowing the municipal corporation to save $10,000 canadian per tower (municipal corporation gm, northern county, interview, october 30, 2006). this partnership started offering limited service in july 2006 and had over twenty subscribers, or less than one percent of the county's population, by the end of the year (cao, northern county, interview, december 5, 2006; municipal corporation gm, northern county, interview, october 30, 2006; beaver, 2006; statistics canada, 2007b). by september 2008, the service expanded to 365 customers, or over ten percent. additionally, the northern county added three new towers (beaver, 2008). despite the initial vision of community ownership, the county sold the broadband network to a private company in 2010, which now provides broadband service to county residents (yaremchuk & annicchiarico, 2010; beaver, 2010). construction of infrastructure the second solution used to expand high-speed internet within a region is providing the necessary infrastructure to entice companies to offer service. in the central county, two businesses operating on the outskirts of small towns found that after supernet construction, they remained without high-speed internet. the central county, unlike its northern and southern counterparts, decided to leave hsi provision to private companies (county official, central county, interview, october 24, 2006). in one case, an automotive dealer located in a town with a population of 743 in 2001 required access to broadband internet (statistics canada, 2007a). in the other, a local branch of the electric company found itself the only service point of 37 in the region that remained on dialup in august 2006. both the car dealership's general manager and the electric company's senior serviceman decided to investigate the lack of isps in their areas. the general manager talked to approximately eight companies and learned there were no providers coming to town "in the short-term future" (automotive general manager [gm], central county, interview, november 15, 2006). the isps revealed that no one was "interested to put out money to build a tower" for line of sight wireless transmitters. the manager discovered that gaining the "expertise to set up a wireless network is not something that i could do" but investing in infrastructure to entice isps was a practicable solution. the car dealership, therefore, paid for the tower and had the infrastructure installed in october 2005. after this, a few isps contacted the general manager, interested in providing service to the town because the tower decreased their set up costs. he leased the tower to an isp for ten years and expects to earn slightly more than he spent, making a small profit in addition to providing a "service to the community." by late 2006, the general manager noted "at least 75" homes in the town and its surroundings signed up for hsi service (automotive gm, central county, interview, november 15, 2006; town, n.d.). this solution is limited; however, as those located over 25 kilometers from town cannot access the service (town librarian, central county, interview, november 22, 2006; automotive gm, central county, interview, november 15, 2006). the electric company's senior serviceman found only one isp willing to provide high-speed internet to his location; the southern county's isp, discussed in the previous section, which had equipment in the area. to obtain service, the electric company paid for the "whole install" of an $11,000 transmitter that reached the isp's nearest tower in a farmer's field. in return, the electric company's office received three years of free internet service (senior serviceman, electric company, central county, interview, december 21, 2006). rural residents in the immediate area can also subscribe to the wireless internet service. the car dealer and electric company's experiences illustrate that local entrepreneurs with adequate financial resources do develop solutions to extend broadband internet, but neither worked with their communities to do so. employing existing resources the third solution studied delivers high-speed internet to a village in the central county through its community cable system. the community formed a society in 1991 to provide residents with cable service. a society member, realizing that the supernet's fiber optic cable ran in front of his home, wondered why he could not get high-speed internet. providers, however, did not extend the service to a village of 161 people (statistics canada, 2007a). the society member researched the issue and found the village office's supernet point of presence could be connected to the existing coaxial cable system using a media converter and an isp (cable society member, central county, interview, december 7, 2006). the society borrowed $8,000 canadian from the village to fund the venture (marck, 2006). the society's members agreed to the plan but the former president resigned, arguing hsi service would not be profitable and cable would end up subsidizing the internet. by late 2006, the society offered high-speed cable internet to homes and businesses for $40 a month and the society member noted "now we have more revenue than cable." his goals, however, were not altruistic. as a recent transplant from a large city, he stated "i want to ensure that there's a facility available so i can have internet." he admitted his was not a desire to see everyone connected rather this was a positive externality (cable society member, central county, interview, december 7, 2006; marck, 2006). in 2006, 28 community members, or seventeen percent of the village population, connected to the internet (cable society member, interview, december 7, 2006). as distribution occurs through the cable system, this approach is limited to homes in the village. the village's administrator stated the community's high-speed internet venture is an "important part of the fabric of the community," illustrating the village's "can do" spirit (central county, interview, december 14, 2006). analysis the five local hsi initiatives studied can be considered successful because each met their goal of bringing hsi to previously unserved areas. there are, however, some caveats to discuss. while the three micro initiatives led by the cable society member, automotive general manager, and senior serviceman extended hsi to an entire village, town, and unserved region south of a town respectively, the two county initiatives had more qualified success. a 2011 report found service gaps in both counties. in the northern county, 9 of 41 townships remained without service and in the southern county, 22 of 40 townships did not have hsi (bly, 2011). additionally, the northern county's goal of community ownership of the broadband network did not come to fruition as the county sold the network to a company outside of the region. broadly, however, the local initiatives have extended hsi and have been sustained, a concern of ci approaches (keeble & loader, 2001). the local initiatives considered above share four common elements, which were keys to their success. these shared characteristics are access to the supernet, a lead user to shepherd the process, community and isp involvement, and financial support from business and/or local government. scholarly work has illustrated that government support and partnerships are needed to develop telecommunications infrastructure when a viable business case is not possible (ramírez, 2001). as it did with telephony at the start of the twentieth century (love, 2005), the alberta government facilitated ict expansion at the start of the twenty-first. the availability of the alberta supernet in the province's towns and villages enabled the five local solutions. the supernet business model provided communities a cost effective way to deploy high-speed internet and each initiative connected to a supernet point of presence that provided broadband infrastructure. thus, the province provided carriage facilities and the local initiatives ensured isp access (clement & shade, 2000). as cawood and simpson (2000) found, in these cases, the top-down government decisions enabled bottom-up community initiatives. the government's legislative action, building the supernet but not extending fiber to homes, gave localities power to decide how to provision the first mile (black, 1990). ci explores how people and institutions within communities work together on common problems (bishop & bruce, 2005). this study has done so, and in the process found that each of the community initiatives had one individual who spearheaded the project. the county initiatives each had an employee who conceived of, and worked toward, the solution. in the northern county, the general manager of the municipal corporation took on this key role. in the southern county, it was the purview of the county's economic development officer. in the other three projects, the cable society member, automotive dealer's general manager, and the electric company's senior serviceman were the central figures. these three were lead users in von hippel's sense, people who realize a need in advance of the general population and who are positioned "to benefit significantly by obtaining a solution to those needs" (as cited in van oost et al., 2009, p. 185). the auto dealer's general manager and the senior serviceman each had corporate ties to facilities that pressed upon them the need for, and convenience of, high-speed internet. the cable society member knew of the benefits of hsi from service at his previous residence. while county employees and lead users played a central role, some of the initiatives sought community support for the plans. the village cable society's members voted on whether to provide internet service through the cable system and residents of the southern county had an opportunity to respond to a survey, although only a minority did. in the northern and southern counties, people offered grain elevators and other structures as locations for mounting equipment. other ci research illustrates there is a role for wider community involvement in local initiatives (see, for example, powell & shade, 2006; gurstein, 2007). additionally, each community initiative paired with a private isp to bring hsi to their locations. while securing the necessary funding can be an issue for rural hsi provision (mitchell, 2007; adria & brown, 2012; kozak, 2010), the community initiatives above were successful at finding money. the third common element is the financial support of businesses and/or local government. each of the local initiatives received funding from a corporate or municipal source. both the auto dealer's general manager and the electric company's senior serviceman secured corporate funds to build infrastructure. the northern and southern counties drew on municipal monies to build towers and install equipment. the village cable society received a loan from the village council to carry out its plans. while the local initiatives discussed here expanded hsi to unserved regions, in 2012, the government announced only 260 of the 429 supernet communities had an isp seven years after the network's completion (government of alberta, 2012b). in response, the provincial government created the final mile rural connectivity initiative to "ensure reliable, high-speed internet is available to at least 98 per cent of albertans" (government of alberta, 2012b). the initiative provides $5 million canadian to fund rural first mile projects proposed by municipalities, aboriginal bands, and métis settlements. private businesses and not-for-profit organizations may not apply, unless partnered with a municipality, band, or métis settlement (government of alberta, 2012a). conclusion this research examines resourceful individual and community first mile initiatives in five towns, villages, and counties to provide local residents and businesses with high-speed internet. alberta's supernet design strategy divested the power to decide how to extend high-speed internet service to the final mile onto local businesses and communities. this approach allowed communities to adopt unique local solutions using their particular infrastructures, resources, and understandings of the public good, allowing for home rule. the successful local initiatives illustrate that partnerships between individuals, businesses and communities, the support of local government, the presence of lead users, and top-down actions that enable bottom-up initiatives can successfully combine to provide high-speed internet in unserved rural communities findings that are relevant to both community informatics research and future first mile initiatives in practice. references adria, m., & brown, d. 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(2010). beaver county financial statements for the year ended december 31, 2009 and auditors' report to the members of council. retrieved from http://www.beaver.ab.ca/council/documents endnotes 1 in 2006, the county contained 680 private households (statistics canada, 2007c). if the only internet subscribers were households, 29.4% would have had hsi connections. it is most likely, however, that some were businesses. shared identity and personal ties in influencing cooperative behavior hao jiang1 & john m. carroll2 phd candidate, pennsylvania state university, email: hjiang@ist.psu.edu pennsylvania state university, email: jcarroll@ist.psu.edu introduction as information technology pervades modern society and creates new forms of social life (e.g. online communities, virtual organizations, etc), concepts rooted in sociology and economics begin to emerge in information studies. these concepts are key to understanding information technology in its social context and to building it that benefits communities. social capital is one of these concepts. researchers in community informatics and related domains have realized how important social capital is to understanding the relationship between it and people's social lives, and to building robust communities assisted by technologies (blanchard & horan, 1998; hampton & wellman, 2003; simpson, 2005; daniel, schwier & mccalla, 2003; quan-haase & wellman, 2004; chiu, hsu & wang, 2006). it has been studied in community context since the internet was available to the public (carroll & rosson, 1996; gurstein, 2000; lee, vogel & limayem, 2003). social capital, as a genetic element of social interaction, exists in all types of communities; studies of the interactions between social capital and it have been urged (foth, 2003; pigg & crank, 2004; simpson, 2005; stoecker, 2005; williams, 2008). community life is built on everyday social exchange (berger & luckmann, 1967). along with the macro-level social elements such as social institutions, authority systems, trust systems and so on, micro-behavioral components of social life such as social exchange among social actors give us insight on how communities build and where they project (coleman, 1990). the study we introduce in this paper focuses on detailed, concrete social interactions of this kind: social exchange among social actors and their resource allocation behavior in the face of different social relations. social relations are considered sources of social capital. however, how social relations shape social capital is not clear. furthermore, social relations are diverse in types and forms, so do they contribute to social capital in a unified way? finding out the impacts of social relationships on social capital is what we are after in this study. we simulated a social exchange scenario with a three-person economic game. with this online game, we are able to see how different types of social relationships, which are considered a major source of social capital, influence the distribution of resources and behaviors of social actors. we first briefly discuss the constructs in which we are interested: social capital, shared identity and social ties; then we elaborate on the experiment we conducted. next we report on data collection and data analysis. lastly, we present results and discuss future direction. social capital and social relationships social actors need resources to achieve any goal, whether it serves an immediate need or a long-term interest. however, resources people possess are not only limited in type (so we have to exchange with other people for resources we do not possess), but also in amount (so that we have to allocate them with discretion). when we want to achieve something but lack the resources required, we must get them through exchange (blau, 1986; coleman, 1990). this is the building block of social interaction. social exchange and interaction can become very complex and eventually constitute social systems (coleman, 1990). any given community's development requires resources as well. the well-being of its members and the development of a community are tightly connected. in conceptualizing the ability of a social system to produce or nurture public goods, scholars borrowed the term "capital" from economics and coined the term social capital. since the 1980s when it was introduced and conceptualized in sociology and economics (bourdieu, 1985; coleman, 1988; for review, see portes, 1998), social capital and its ramifications have been developed in many social sciences: management, politics, and information science, just to name a few. social capital is considered an important resource in society that helps enable social actions of different kinds, and that benefits society in many ways (coleman, 1988; 1990). in coleman's (1988) discussion of social capital, the jewish diamond market in new york city shows a high rate of cooperative behavior, enabled by a high level of trust; its close connections among parents provide guardianship for youngsters. these are just two examples of how important social capital is to local communities. research in information science also started to pay attention to it and social capital with the advent of the internet, although the exact term was not used in early studies. carroll and rosson (1996) introduced their effort in developing the internet-enhanced blacksburg community. blanchard and horan (1998) studied it-assisted local communities and found that social capital and social engagement increase when online life and local life are connected and when the online community supports communities of interest. in addition, they also identified some types of online communities: education, government and political participation, and sharing general community knowledge. hampton and wellman (2003) concluded similarly that it could assist traditional community with locally oriented content, such as online discussion groups supporting people living in close proximity. in the knowledge management field, many studies found a positive relationship between social capital and knowledge sharing behavior. wasko and faraj (2005) found positive connections between knowledge sharing and social capital in the form of social approval, respect, and so forth (wasko & faraj, 2005). chiu, hsu and wang (2006) surveyed 310 online community members and confirmed the positive effect of social capital on willingness to share knowledge. besides findings coinciding with the conclusions of wasko and faraj (2005), they also found community-related outcome expectation and personal outcome expectation could influence the motivation of knowledge sharing in virtual communities. key authors (bourdieu, 1985; coleman, 1988) emphasized the non-contractual factors of social systems to reduce transaction costs and to enable social exchanges that would be impossible otherwise. compared to contractual situations, social capital tends to be low cost in maintaining social exchanges and interactions because it is voluntary. however, being non-contractual, social capital is not protected by strong reinforcement and therefore expected outcomes are not guaranteed. scholars found social capital is fragile in the sense that it is usually a byproduct of social exchange and lacks nutrition to grow and be maintained in a persistent way (coleman, 1990; putnan, 1993). studies have shown that, for example, families moving away from a community can easily destroy established social capital (hagan & wheaton, 1996; portes, 1998) and the causes of moving are many: new jobs, unanticipated life events, and so on. in communities that operate on it, the bond and relational reinforcement are even weaker, so it is harder to maintain social capital at a consistently high level. social relations are considered a major source of social capital (coleman, 1988, 1990; blau, 1986; scott, 1988; burt, 1997; 2000, 2001). however, the question that interests us more is how social relations affect (generating, maintaining, and disseminating) social capital. the social relations we participate in are rather diverse in forms and types. two types of social relations are fundamental; namely, identity-based (shared identity) relations and social ties. identity bond or identification with a social group entails a connection between a person and a group; that is to say, identification with a social group does not require bonding with any individual members of that social group (ashforth & mael, 1989). personal ties, on the other hand, are dynamics between the very persons who are connected. friendship is a relationship of this kind. both types of relation enrich our social experience and activities. in our professional and personal life, we receive help from and have fun with people from both types of relations. we interact with people we know very well and are closely connected with: parents, brothers and sisters and close friends; we also engage in activities with people whom we have not met before and may never meet again in our lives. in research, shared identity and social ties have been the focus for decades. social ties can bring various resources, from financial to informational, and from social and to emotional. job searching was studied in social network research and personal ties were shown to lead to successful job searching (granovetter, 1973; scott, 1988; lin & dumin, 1986; burt, 2000); social ties are also found to provide emotional support (ellison, steinfield & lampe, 2007; gilbert & karahalios, 2009; cross & borgatti, 2004). on the other hand, studies show that shared identity increases helping behavior in social interactions (e.g. haslam et al., 2005; levine et al., 2005). through critically analyzing existing theories and studies, researchers have raised concerns that shared identity and social ties may affect social capital in different ways, and that the term social capital in different contexts may refer to constructs that are qualitatively different underneath (jiang & carroll 2009). both relations are considered able to mobilize resources among social actors (granovetter, 1973; burt, 1997, 2000, 2001; tajfel et al, 1971; kramer, 1995; brewer, 1995), but since they have different origins and function differently in influencing human behavior and decision making, for us it is of interest to see if and how these different types of social relations influence social capital and how they influence it jointly if at all. according to social identity theory and related studies (ashforth & mael, 1989; brown, 2000; brown & williams, 1984; for recent review, see amoit et al., 2007) a relationship can be built between a person and a social group when one identifies with it (e.g., "i am a community informatics researcher"); and to have and maintain identification with a group, a person does not have to have a personal connection with other individual members. therefore, it is a relationship based on the connection between a person and a social group. a social group can be a social unit, such as a team consisting of several people, or a community with a large number of members, or even an entity as large as a nation. during social interaction, a social categorization process will take place a process that helps us to understand other people by classifying them into different categories based on certain perceivable traits and further social categorization of the self also known as self-categorization associating the self with a prototype of group will result, identifying with the social group and hence a social identity forms (tajfel et al., 1971; hogg & terry, 2000). these processes are cognitive possesses that help a person to build a self-concept. also, they can lead to behavioral consequences, which eventually help construct and reinforce social relations. propositions the most important implication of social identity theory to us is its prediction of in-group favoring over out-group and perceived interchangeable characteristics of its members (tajfel et al, 1971; brewer, 1979; brown, 1969; brown & williams, 1984; brown, 2000). ashforth and mael (1989) summarized three consequences of social identity. first, identifying with a group will increase commitment to the group; second, it will increase group cohesion, cooperation, and altruism; and third, group identification will reinforce perceived group distinctiveness, prestige, and salience. considering all these effects of shared identity, we come to our first proposition (proposition 1): that shared identity will help increase social capital within a social group by guiding members to choose group-favoring actions. we are also interested in social ties, which are connections between social actors. compared with relations based on shared identity, ties are more personal and are maintained on an interpersonal basis, measured through the amount of communication time, emotional intensity, intimacy, and reciprocity of service (granovetter, 1973). realizing that ties vary in strength, and that weak ties can be of great value, researchers in social network analysis have developed a typology of social capital, which characterizes resources mobilized by ties of different strength or locus. an often-cited typology distinguishes bridging social capital and bonding social capital (putnam, 2000; elison et al., 2007). ties can also be classified as internal or external, given a network as a larger context. in general, weak ties tend to bring resources not locally possessed (e.g. new information, jobs, new technologies and opportunities), because weak ties usually connect people with more diverse backgrounds. strong ties, by contrast, often are built on intense interaction, high intimacy, and similarity, therefore bonding people and bringing social/emotional support. there are a few challenges related to the distinction between strong and weak social ties. for example, there is no qualitative difference between strong ties and weak ties; they are only relative measures. a weak tie can be seen as strong if the frame of reference changes. the distinction between internal and external sounds qualitatively different, but the same challenge still stands if the frame of reference changes, an external tie can become an internal tie (adler & kwon, 2002; jiang & carroll, 2009). personal ties are considered as conduits between two connected individuals. drawing from this point, we have our second proposition (proposition 2): personal ties will keep resources within connected social actors in a social group. in terms of social capital, therefore, ties presented in a social group may compete for resources with the rest of the group. in terms of distribution of exchanges, this means that a social group with personal ties will demonstrate uneven resource distribution. propositions 1 and 2 are derived from studies of shared identity and social ties respectively, and they point to somewhat conflicting effects on social capital in social groups. shared identity is hypothesized to produce high social capital for groups; social ties lead to unevenly distributed exchanges within a social group and potentially compete for resources with the rest of the group, resulting in possibly less social capital for the group. considering that shared identity consolidates the connection between a person and the collective, and produces interchangeable characteristics in the collective's members, linking with proposition 2 we can draw our third proposition (proposition 3): in a social context with high shared identity, shared identity will tail off the concentrating effect of social ties on resource allocation. study design to explore these propositions, we invited participants to play an online economic game. in sociology and economics, economic games in lab settings have been used intensively to explore human decision-making and cooperative behavior (simon, 1959; dawes, 1980; liebrand et al., 1986). in fact, laboratory experiments are the major source of knowledge in the social sciences (falk & heckman, 2009). lab experiments and economic games have been questioned for lacking real-world relevance, given that true social life takes place on a larger stage than life in a lab, and reacts to different stimuli. however, we see laboratory studies as magnifiers of certain social elements of researchers' interest. lab studies, when carefully designed, can well mimic interaction in the real social world rather than creating an alien universe. as we will see later, our study is designed in a way that leads participants to play a realistic game. they are not forced to decide with whom they want to cooperate, which would seem to be very unrealistic. recently many lab experiments have been reported to specifically study social relations (e.g., rothstein & eek, 2006; rand et al., 2009; mccubbins, paturi & weller, 2009; centola, 2010). rothstein and eek (2006) experimentally tested social trust, asking people of different cultural backgrounds to react to political corruption stories. rand et al. (2009) devised a public good game to test how reward and punishment can influence cooperative behavior. they found that positive interactions can promote public cooperation. centola (2010) also used an experiment to study how behavior diffuses through social networks. his experiment was not in the lab, but the social network was an artificially structured online community. mccubbins et al. (2009) used a lab experiment to study conditions under which groups can solve coordination games. the experiment we designed, like many other economic game experiments, allows us to dig into micro-level social behaviors that account for macro-level social movements and construction of social systems. without knowing the former, the existence of social systems at higher levels would remain mysterious. knowing how individuals react to social environments not only gives us a better understanding of how social systems take shape and how they work, but also opens windows for practitioners and action researchers to provide interventions on a more accessible ground. social capital, the dependent variable in the study, is a very broad concept. it is impossible to use one or two variables to capture a comprehensive construct of social capital. in the game we designed, we used cooperation or willingness to cooperate as an indicator of social capital, and the measure we used is transactions between players. we manipulated the independent variables (shared identity and personal ties) with light intervention, which we will see in detail. cooperation and the willingness to cooperate are appropriate in our case for a few reasons. first, cooperation is seen by many researchers (coleman, 1988; putnam, 1995; knack & keefer, 1997; woolcock & narayan, 2000; fukuyama, 2001) as a major form of social capital; second, cooperative behavior, willingness to cooperate, or cooperative norms in fact underlie a wide range of forms of social capital, such as observance of social norms, taking part in collective action, sharing resources, and so forth. baseline design we conceived a 3-person, online economic game. in this game, we created a background story of a developing human habitat evolving from stone age to gold age. in each game, the human habitat starts off as an ancient tribe in a very primitive setting. with a limited amount of initial gold, members of a habitat invest in various projects allowing them and the habitat to survive and develop: seeding techniques, fishing technology, framing skills, weapon making, and so on. as these investments return, part of the gain will go to the habitat as the resource of its evolution, and another part will be the profit for individual investors. however, to successfully invest in a project, a player needs to find another person in the same session to co-invest with, which means they share equal cost (the price of a project) and return. co-investment is project-wise, which means for each new investment, players can choose a different player to co-invest with. each investment varies in price and return. however, a remarkable difference is that among all the investments, some give more return to the habitat and less to individual investors; some give more return to the investors and less to the habitat. this difference is introduced into the game to ensure measurable collective/individual favoring behavior. the project pool will replenish periodically, so for each individual player after each investment being made, the pool will be refilled to ensure an equal number of habitatand investor-favoring investments. players can cancel co-investment requests they sent. those receiving co-investment requests can either accept, meaning the projects are successfully invested, or they can decline. the entire experiment takes about 60 minutes or less, depending on how quickly the habitat reaches gold age. this one-hour experiment includes participant consent, reading instruction materials, playing the game, and filling out a post-game survey. manipulations throughout the game, there is no face-to-face contact for all three participants in the same session. one of the participants is kept in a separate room the whole time. based on the idea of social identity theory, merely assigning people into groups will lead to social categorization and in-group/out-group effect (tajfel, 1970). manipulation of shared identity (independent variable) is achieved by letting participants in the same session discuss a name for their team before the game. this discussion is carried out online, so the participants do not see each other. we also have groups that do not receive this option. among three persons in each group, we expect two of them to have some personal contact that can help them build personal ties (independent variable). we achieve this by letting the first two participants coming to the lab chat a few minutes face-to-face before the third participant arrives. the manipulation we use is light, so that the participants will not feel unnatural. the results show that our manipulation, although not heavy, does affect the participants' behavior. table 1 shows a summary of variables and manipulation of the study. table 1 -variable summary participants we recruited 51 university students from a large northeast american university where our lab is located. all participants received monetary compensation. most participants were enrolled in information or computer science-related majors. before they participated in a session, we made sure they did not know each other. in piloting the game, we found that participants did not engage in the game very much when they were all compensated equally, each person receiving $10 for their participation. the task itself is not cognitively demanding. some participants reported to us that when they played the game, they randomly selected people to co-invest with, because no matter what their project and co-investor choices were, the game would eventually end and it made no difference to them what they got from the game. to make the game more appealing and attractive to players, we decided to compensate them based on their performance. the total compensation of each player consisted of two parts: individual compensation and group compensation. for the individual part, players who made the highest personal fund got $9; for second place, $7; and $5 for third place. each group gained a group compensation, which eventually was divided by three and added to players' individual compensations. group compensation was based on group performance, which was a function of number of transactions a group took to finish the game. the fewer transactions a group had, the higher performance the group produced; low-performance groups got $0, high-performance groups got $9, and middle-performance groups got $6. thus, for example, at the end of the game, a player in first place in a middle-performance group will get $9 + $6/3 = $11 in total. some researchers have raised the issue that basing compensation on participants' performance may bias the game. originally we compensated our participants with an equal $10 each. however, participants not paying attention to what they do in the game will undermine the study. furthermore, in the compensation mechanism we used in data collection, we also included a collective part that can help offset incentive for competition led by the possible bias, if any. what we are looking for is the difference between groups and players in different relations. if all participants have the same baseline, we will be able to see the difference. to be more specific, for example, we expect to see that groups with high shared identity will have more community-favoring investments than groups without. also, to make their compensations tied to performance, the game will be a bit more fun and make participation more natural. data collection we ran the study from late november 2010 to mid-december the same year. by the end of the semester we collected data from 17 groups (51 individuals). we collected all transactions among three players in each session. the transactions included players' co-investing requests, along with the cancellations, acceptances, and declinations of those requests. with these data, we know what types of investment (community-favoring vs. individual-favoring) they chose and with whom they co-invested. twelve groups had group chat sessions; 5 groups did not receive this option. seventeen of the groups included pairs who had a face-to-face chat; 34 did not. the unequal size of these latter two categories was due purely to logistic issues: we ran sessions of groups with chat exclusively at first and sessions of groups without chat later. however, the number of participating groups dropped during the final exam week. at the group level, the number of groups not receiving chat treatment was small, but in most of our data analysis we paid attention to dyadic and individual data. in this way, statistical power was increased with increased data units. among these 51 participants, 46 were information science majors, 2 from the computer science department, 1 from psychology, 1 from human resources at the college of liberal arts, and 1 was studying economics. they have been using computers and the internet at least for 6 years and the longest users have used computers for about 20 years. the average number of years using computers was 12.9 years (σ = 3). participants were 21.3 years old on average (σ = 2.02). analysis and results experience in the game in the post-game survey, we asked players their general feelings about the game. with these questions, we wanted to make sure that the game gave participants a positive experience, not necessarily in favor of the study, but at least not getting in the way of collecting data. these questions were included to gather information about participants' experience and to see if the system and procedure led to breakdowns or pitfalls that may compromise the study. participants used a 1 to 5 (strongly disagree to strongly agree) likert-scale for each question in table 2. table 2 post-game survey: player experience the result (figure 1) shows that most players had a positive (good) experience playing the game. figure 1 player experience we also collected open-ended responses about their general feeling about the game. it confirms that most participants enjoyed the game and had fun during their play, for example: "better than i expected. the several seconds of pause during each investment session is quite reasonable and useful." "the game was simple, fast paced, and interesting." "it was pretty fun. hard to work with other players without actually being able to talk to them, but it worked pretty well regardless." "it was enjoyable, i would probably play again." transactional data in current design, the game ends when the habitat evolves to the gold age, which requires 7500 points. this is the only condition for ending the game, so groups that invest in more community-favoring (cf) investments will reach the gold age sooner and the transactions of these groups will be fewer than groups that choose more investor-favoring (if) investments (table 3). table 3 summary of transactions of each team t-tests on total transactions (table 3, column 2) and on total requests (table 3, column 3) show that groups with chat sessions did have fewer total transactions and fewer requests sent during the game, and thus higher performances for these groups (total transactions: diff = mean (no) mean (yes) > 0, p = 0.014; total requests: diff = mean(no) mean(yes) > 0, p = 0.014). since we unfortunately have an unequal sample in the second category, we box-plotted group transaction data in figure 2 to visually show the difference between the two categories for visual investigation. figure 2 box plots of transactions of group with and without chat session figure 2 shows 4 box plots of transactional data. charts a, b and d show a very similar pattern, namely that groups without a pre-game chat have a considerably higher number of transactions (total transaction, chart a; total requests, chart b; total investor-favoring requests, chart d), and chart c shows that groups with chat had relatively more community-favoring requests than groups without pre-game chat. figure 3 shows the comparison between groups with chat and without chat on their community/investor-favoring requests, expressed as a percentage (column 5 and 6, table 3). charts c and d in figure 2 and charts a and b in figure 3 present similar results: that groups with a chat session chose more community-favoring investments than groups without chat sessions did, in both numbers and percentages. the t-test and the box plots confirmed our proposition 1, that members in a high shared-identity setting tend to endorse collective-favoring behaviors than members in a low-identity setting. figure 3 box plots of communityand investorfavoring request in percentage another explanation for the difference between groups with pre-game chat and those without is due to the relatively high success of transactions in groups with pre-game chat in other words, the small number of failed transactions (declination and cancellation). again, since the size of groups is small, we resort to graphic presentation to help us interpret the data (see figure 4). figure 4 unsuccessful transactions of groups with pre-game chat and groups without table 4 shows requests between individual players as a percentage. we are interested in the effect of social ties on how people select cooperative partners and their preference for pro-social behavior. to do so, we looked at requests sent by players with tie coded as p1 and p2. player 3, the stranger, is coded as p3. for example, column 2 in table 4 means requests sent by player 1 to player 2 (p1_p2), and column 3 means requests sent by player 1 to player 3 (p1_p3), both in percentage. in total, we have 34 pairs for each category: pairs with face-to-face conversation and pairs without. having these ratios calculated, we performed a paired t-test between pairs with face-to-face conversation and pairs without. to be clear, the test is performed between, for example, player 1 to player 2 (persons who are connected) and player 1 to player 3 (persons without ties). the result shows a significant difference between these two groups: the request ratio between pairs with primed personal ties is higher (p = 0.0001), which means transactions between people having ties are significantly higher than transactions between people without previous ties, and thus supports our proposition 2. table 4 transactions between players to further analyze transactions in groups, we calculated the variance of transaction ratios on columns 2, 3, 4 and 5 (table 4). to see if shared identity has an effect on personal ties in concentrating resources between connected persons, we ran a t-test between pairs with ties and those without. the result is diff < 0 with p = 0.0375. since the sample size on the variation of the low shared identity group is small, we list the descriptive statistics in figure 5. figure 5 descriptive statistics on low shared identity and high shared identity groups' request variance another t-test was performed to see among pairs with personal ties, if those from sessions with pre-game chat had less concentrated transactions. to do this, we looked at whether the difference between the percentage of transactions sent from players to their connected players was lower than those sent to the stranger, and whether such transactions were fewer in settings with pre-game chat than in settings without. first, we calculated the ratio difference (column 7 for p1 and 8 for p2) between requests players sent to their connected players (column 2 for p1 and 4 for p2) and those players sent to strangers (column 3 for p1 and 5 for p2). then we performed a t-test grouped by groups with pre-game chat and groups without. the result confirmed that pairs with ties from groups having chat sessions had a lower percentage of total requests than pairs with ties from groups without chat sessions (p = 0.0122). therefore, proposition 3 is supported. discussion our three propositions are drawn from existing theories and studies. proposition 1 specifies the positive effect of shared identity on social capital, in that shared identity will encourage group favoring actions; proposition 2 is about social ties and their concentrating effect on resource allocation; proposition 3 postulates an effect of shared identity over social ties on reducing social ties' concentrating effect described in proposition 2. data analysis in the previous section confirmed all three propositions. social groups, from small teams that contain only a few people to large entities that represent nations, unavoidably operate via interactions between social actors on a day-to-day basis. social relationships that influence how people interact with each other impact cooperation among people. cooperation and willingness to cooperate are forms of social capital that we can see in everyday life. from intense collaboration in small social groups in real time, to construction of culture and norms in a large community over time and space, sharing resources and taking part in collective actions of different kinds sometimes determine success or failure. cooperation can take many forms. sharing resources with others for public goods, observing social norms (not littering, not line jumping), and volunteering in community, can all be considered as cooperation in various forms. all forms of resources possessed by social actors are limited. physical and financial resources are obvious examples; other resources, such as intelligence and emotional energy, though considered reproducible over time, at any given period or moment are very limited. if one gives one's attention to something or someone, one cannot give it to other things or people at the same time. with the limitations imposed on the resources that we can allocate, how social actors allocate resources becomes extremely important and of interest, and finding out what factors can influence our resource allocation behavior can give clues to both researchers and social practitioners to better understand and build communities and information technologies for communities. the game we designed in this study is a public good game with a more complex social relation setting and background story. the game is designed to simulate a social context where multiple social relationships co-exist and people can have various choices that may conflict with each other. economic games such as prisoners' dilemma and public good games are often used in sociology and economics to help researchers understand human behavior in different conditions. many public good games have been created to simulate situations where selfish choices are detrimental to public well being, such as preventing global warning and air pollution. in these cases, collective and individual interests may compete. for preventing air pollution and saving non-reproducible resources, immediate benefit can be very little and may not directly affect action takers; and at the same time, actions that go against public good (i.e. producing more carbon dioxide) may give irresistible immediate returns. this is the tension that public good games try to simulate. public good games have been tested under different conditions: if the transaction is repeated or just a one-shot choice; if the identities of players are revealed in the game or not; and if punishment or reward is presented, contingent on the choice players making (rand et al., 2009). it is true in communities, no matter online or offline, that the same tension exists between the immediate and long-term public goods and benefits for the certain individual members of the community. since the resources financial, mental, emotional, and other that a person possesses are very limited, where and in what amounts we commit our resources can have subtle but deep consequences upon the development of communities we participate in or even those we are not part of. if we consider the larger context of social groups in a connected ecology, the distribution of resources becomes a zero-sum game, where if one puts something in one sub-group, then other groups lose it. for individuals we face similar dilemmas. should i go to the town hall meeting this evening or play tennis with my friends? should i give my opinion on a research topic that a colleague posted on the discussion forum or write one more section of my own article? questions like these are hard to answer without context, and it may be trivial at times for individuals, but taken together they contribute to building the larger social context, the community. in the game we designed, besides the tension between public goods and individual benefits, we also brought in another element, social relations, which in real social exchange always play a significant role. this component was manipulated to form personal ties and shared identity in groups. we found support for all three propositions. the analysis we employed is very simple. the first proposition focuses on the effect of shared identity in social groups with social ties. our experiment pointed out that groups with shared identity (groups having a pre-game chat session to determine a group name) show higher performance in terms of significantly fewer total transactions (p = 0.014) and fewer total requests sent (p = 0.014) against groups without the treatment. groups with a high volume of community-favoring investments will reach the gold age quickly and a high rate of successful investments also helps increases group performance by reducing incomplete transactions, such as cancelling and declining requests. in real-world social exchange, transactions can be costly. unsuccessful social exchange will waste a social agent's time, as well as financial, physical, mental, and emotional resources, so keeping transactions successful at a high rate becomes critical, especially in a world where resources are scarce. in the data we collected, the fastest habitat to reach the gold age generated only 98 total transactions, and the lowest one produced 339 total transactions, which is more than three times the former. in this setting, we consider willingness to cooperate and endorsement of community-favoring investments as forms of social capital, which lead to fast growth of public goods and a high rate of successful transactions. critics have commented that a high volume of transactions in groups without chats prior to the game may be that the result of players in these groups needing more transactions to create a social climate and reciprocity, while groups with previous chats had already established a stage of reciprocal understanding and strategy. social interaction history, in other words, can enhance the interactions that follow. we totally agree and that is what we are arguing for. however, we doubt that the chat in our design can add an impact significant enough to create strategic guidance for the players to carry out. we explicitly asked the players to discuss a name for their group and their actual conversations took a very short time. as soon as they reached a name, the chat was shut down. some of chats only took about 30 seconds with less than 20 messages exchanged. we did not see any conversation related to the tasks at hand. the higher number and percentage of community-favoring investments in groups with chat sessions also points to the fact that the high performance of these teams is not only due to reciprocity, but also due to their pro-social choice. the second proposition postulates that personal ties can constrain resource exchange between connected persons and thus limit its externality (coleman, 1988). this is also supported by our study in that players have a significantly higher ratio of requests sent to persons with whom they have ties than to strangers with whom they are not connected (p = 0.0001). many existing studies point out benefits brought by social ties such as job searching, information flow, and career advantage in a given social network. in our study, we consider social ties in collective settings, and the experiment we conducted confirmed that social ties tend to concentrate resource exchange between connected social agents. more importantly, in a collective setting social ties can lock resource exchange in social ties. social ties are important and our study shows that the influence of ties is very significant in terms of enforcing the transactions on social ties. however, in our analysis, we did not analyze the reciprocity between connected persons (e.g. p1 to p2) and between strangers (e.g. p1 to p3). a social tie can be either symmetric or asymmetric. our analysis did not look into if transactions in a given group between player 1 and player 2 show higher reciprocity. nevertheless, from the perspective of individuals, our study did suggest that people tend to exchange with those they already know. our third proposition is supported by the fact that in groups with shared identities (groups with pre-game chat sessions) the difference in percentage between players' requests sent to connected persons and to strangers is significantly lower than in groups without shared identity (p = 0.0122). this means that shared identity can help a social group or a community become more evenly distributed its social exchange among members. put another way, shared identity can reduce the effect of personal ties in keeping exchanges between connected persons. in real life, unevenly distributed social exchange can lead to serious consequences. shared identity can increase the likelihood that members are perceived as interchangeable, and thus it will matter less with whom one exchanges. this can be a reason why shared identity can help resources reach people without ties. this effect of shared identity in social groups is different from the one we mentioned in the first proposition, which is the pro-social effect led by identifying and committing to a social group one belongs to. these three propositions give us much food for thought about social capital and social relationships. social relations do bring benefits to people. in the past, research and studies have been arguing for positive outcome of social relations. the result of our study suggests that social relations can lead to different distribution of resources in a social group. this will enrich our understanding of social capital with a more refined lens, a view that looks at possible different consequences brought by social relationships that are different in nature. it does not downplay the importance of social ties in social life. no one can escape from interpersonal relations with others. but the study does remind us to think deeper about social relationships in creating social capital or benefits in other terms. when we take all results of this study into consideration and put them into a more integrated picture, we find that shared identity and social ties as social relations both generate social capital, but in social interactions shared identity tends to increase the externality of resources one processes, making resources easily accessible to more people. social ties work on another dimension, which is the activation of resources making resource access more stable for people connected. put another way, shared identity increases resource availability to a wide range of people in a social setting; and social ties make resources available to connected persons with high probability. this study is an empirical exploration of how shared identity and social ties, as two distinct social relationships, can influence social capital distribution in different ways. although the experiment is criticized for its lack of social relevance, we want to emphasize its ability to help researchers test relationships, even causal relationships, between variables. rothstein and eek (2006) stressed the same rationale for using experiment in their trust-related experiment. the analysis is rather simple and straightforward. the findings we reported here are drawn from a lab study we conducted. the study did show validity and the results did support our propositions. however, social relations and social capital are much more complicated than the study presented in this paper. the study reported does not claim that it describes a comprehensive view of social capital and social relationships; rather, it is intended to provoke the attention and interest of related research communities and to call for more studies exploring social relationships in detail. only when more future studies are carried out will we be able to possibly draw a better picture of refined relationships among these components that underpin social life and social structures. limits and future direction the results we presented are from simple statistical analysis, and the data size is different in two conditions. the results from our analysis are significant, but we are looking for more data collection in the future. also, we have not looked at reciprocity between players. in our data analysis, even though we are interested in social ties, we mainly took into account one-way transactions (e.g. whether people send more requests to players they know more). we believe more insights will result from looking at how reciprocal those connections are (e.g. if people send more requests to other players they know more, and then find that those other players do likewise). ties can be either symmetrical or asymmetrical. nonetheless, analyzing reciprocity will undoubtedly enrich our understanding of how ties can play roles in social groups. in terms of experiment design, one limit of the game we used was that it was constrained to three persons and their communication was very limited. furthermore, our study was designed in a way that it enforced cooperation (players need to co-invest). this design, in one way, guarantees we collected valid data in terms of transactions, but it does limit options for players. however, this design also represents real-world cases in which no exit options are available. acknowledgements we thank the reviewers who commented and provided suggestions for our revision. those comments and suggestions helped us refine the paper and more importantly helped us realize the limitations and promising future of this study. references adler, p. and kwon. s. 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(2008) social networks and social capital: rethinking theory in community informatics. the journal of community informatics, 4(3). <h2 style="text-align:center;"><strong>building the broadband economy from the bottom up: <br />a community informatics approach to bb and economic development</strong></h2> <p style="text-align:center;">michael gurstein, ph.d.</p> <p> high speed internet at relatively affordable prices is rapidly becoming available in large parts of both the developed and developing worlds. this means that the technical restrictions on high volume information access and transaction management, very high speed communications at a distance, and a highly expanded range of internet and information management capabilities are rapidly disappearing. the challenge remains however, as to how those at the grassroots and particularly in developing countries can take advantage of these developments to improve their level of economic well-being, access to employment and to the realization of additional opportunities for themselves and their children. the risk is that high speed internet will result in more drain from local economies into more highly developed and capital intensive applications and their centralized and corporate sponsors rather than a move of resources and development in the other direction. the challenge is to examine these broadband initiatives, explore the risks and identify the opportunities associated with these and identify means for realizing opportunities at the grassroots for broadband use through the development of bottom-up community based&mdash;community informatics&mdash;strategies and applications. </p> <p> recently there has been (among others), the announcement of the australian government's $43 billion (au) broadband program; the obama government's $40 billion intention to include broadband as part of the us stimulus program; the opening of a new fibre optic link between africa and the rest of the world; and the publication of the world bank's most recent reports on broadband and economic development. thus there appears to be a convergence towards a significant raising of the profile and related expectations concerning the transformational opportunities that increased bandwidth are supposed to achieve for lagging, moribund or "developing" regions or economies. </p> <p> precisely how that is to occur is regrettably left somewhat vague in these announcements and programs, being replaced rather with the echoing sounds of other such hyped up programming and governmental announcing concerning internet related funding programs (q.v. the connecting canadians agenda, networking the nation (australia), technology opportunities program (usa). in fact, the linkages between broadband and economic development or even internet access and economic development remains unclear although the macro-economists at the world bank seem to have divined some correlations (with the direction of causality for these relationships as with most such correlational analyses, seeming to remain a somewhat open question). </p> <p> of course, as with the earlier round of similar ict boosterism the (good) intentions of the perpetrators&mdash;to provide justification for public investment in what many see as being a private sector preserve&mdash;evidently needs to be masked in this way in order to gain the required public/political support. however, acting in this way is not necessarily good in the long run and may in fact be downright damaging. </p> <p> apart from anecdotal evidence the relationship between the internet (not to speak of broadband internet) and economic development in low income regions is to this point rather shaky and given the highly variable results of the various experiments, projects and programs clear supportive evidence may be a long time coming. this is not to argue that such investments shouldn't be made&mdash;in fact not only should they be made but they are absolutely essential for a variety of reasons. however, it is to argue that making the argument for widely available broadband in this way builds up the wrong kinds of expectations, introduces the wrong metrics and once the assessments come in inevitably lead to the wrong conclusions and ultimately wrong recommendations and the actions that flow from these. </p> <p> further from a community informatics perspective announcing (and implementing) of such funding programs without appropriate attention (and financial support) being given to the related requirements to achieve effective use is to render these programs rather more in the form of isp support programs than true economic or social development initiatives. </p> <p> the notion that the simple provision of internet access, high speed or no, will somehow magically lead to enhanced economic activity among the otherwise marginalized without an associated investment in training, small business opportunity identification and supports, training in enterprise development and management, new product and service identification r&amp;d and so on is of course, na&iuml;ve in the extreme. internet access and particularly high speed access will more likely have the effect of further empowering the empowered and enabling the enabled than of achieving its opposite given that the default position of these installations is directed towards achieving more of what already exists i.e. more concentration, more centralization and more delocalization of wealth, employment and production rather than less. </p> <p> these outcomes are not of course, inevitable; but they are the "default" which means that in the absence of some sort of outside intervention&mdash;a program to change the otherwise inevitable direction, these outcomes will prevail. that of course, is one of the most significant backgrounds to a community informatics&mdash;working in whatever way is possible to intervene against the inevitable outcome to achieve objectives which resist concentration, achieve decentralization and increase localization. but these are uphill struggles. </p> <p> by making the arguments for broadband and high speed internet without recognizing the default outcomes or giving support to activities meant enable alternative outcomes the proponents of these initiatives are doing their stated intended beneficiaries a most significant disservice. </p> <p> in fact, of course, the argument for broadband can and should be something rather different. the argument that having access to broadband is becoming a necessary component of living a productive life in modern society, of being an active and informed citizen, of having the means to be a good and supportive parent, and so on is certainly true and should probably be sufficient justification. </p> <p> that broadband is becoming a necessary pre-requisite for (the platform on which is being provided) a range of information intensive public (and private) services in such areas as training, health promotion, continuing professional education, environmental monitoring are probably sufficient in themselves to warrant broadband service into all but the most remote and sparsely populated regions. notably these services are rapidly being developed as an alternative to or supplement for the rather more expensive face to face services. as well, even in the most remote and sparsely populated areas the opportunity to use broadband as a base for remote sensing and environmental monitoring would be a strong incentive. </p> <p> the danger with putting all the justifying eggs in the economic development basket is that when those eggs fail to hatch or to produce healthy and sustaining chickens the temptation will be to toss out the entire batch and move on to some other initiative. </p> <p> the first round of public internet investment was done using the metaphor of the information highway. perhaps this round of investment and specifically for broadband can be rephrased as making an investment in a high speed information freeway system. </p> <p> this the first issue of joci's fifth volume has a considerable diversity of content. aldo de moor presents a useful formulation and discussion concerning how to move community informatics research forward beyond case studies and simple description. bishop and bruce provide a most interesting discussion of a community informatics program for teaching, community based research and technology design in a puerto rican barrio in chicago. barlow examines demographics of uptake and use of what is called (in the uk) a "people's network" of public access facilities while evoh looks at a community based ict and entrepreneurship training program in a township in south africa. matei in turn presents a very interesting quantitative analysis of technology diffusion and uptake based on acceptance and use of encryption. thakur discusses an analytical framework to better understand the dynamic between icts and democracy and particularly the participation of civil society groups, specifically community groups, in decision-making processes using a case study drawn from research in jamaica. mccarthy provides us with a useful account of the recent communities and technology conference at penn state in the us giving summaries of certain of the key papers and discussions; while rao presents an overview of the role in india of icts in rural development in decision-support systems, improving services and empowering citizens to access information and knowledge. </p> <h2 style="text-align:center;"><strong>evolving relationships: universities, researchers and communities</strong></h2> <p style="text-align:center;">michael gurstein, ph.d.</p> <p>this issue of joci deals with research relationships between universities and university based ict researchers and communities. these matters are, of course of central significance to community informatics since much of ci is, in one form or another, linked into this type of relationship.</p> <p>these papers, however interesting and valuable they are in giving us insight and direction into how these relationships can be undertaken in ways which are respectful, productive and mutually advantageous; perhaps raise as many questions as they resolve. and here i point to these questions not to be critical of the individual papers or the issue overall, but rather to indicate how complex and challenging this area can be for those concerned and how this complexity has broader significance for the overall nature of ci both in the academic world and as a practice in the field.</p> <p>the first question to ask is how have university community relations evolved in the context of the broad evolution of universities and particularly the current widely observed trend toward corporatization of universities, university research and even university teaching. the rise of &quot;user pays&quot; approaches to universities as in other spheres (in most of the oecd countries among others) has meant that the financing of universities increasingly relies on tuition, overhead from research funds, corporate (and other, including alumni) donations, and endowments where available, for funding. this has led to very significant increases in the cost of tuition (and the related student loan crises particularly in the us) as well as a more &quot;business-like&quot; (corporate) approach to university management. </p> <p>in the context of the relationship with communities one effect of this evolution is to bring increasing attention to the need for broader political support for universities including among key local and regional stakeholders which in turn has in some instances led universities to enhance their relationships with local communities (in the spirit of &quot;corporate social responsibility (csr)&quot; if nothing else). from a ci (university) perspective this probably presents opportunities for extending existing relationships and establishing new ones under the overall rubric (in the largely us terminology) of &quot;service learning&quot;. the challenge here of course, is to have these relationships be anything other than another form of paternalism -spreading the intellectual largesse of the university into the hinterland whether the hinterland has an interest or not. </p> <p>using university based resources to support community empowerment through icts should in principle fit within this framework but one expects that university administrations with a focus on csr may find projects or programs tackling issues of direct concern to communities rather riskier in a variety of directions than they may wish to tackle. they would prefer, i would expect, to rather focus on how to link communities into broader corporate or government agendas as for example, through training or job readiness programs, support for centralized service delivery programs and so on. of course, these agendas may be quite consistent with self-developed community agendas but the option for pursuing other objectives may not be made available.</p> <p>another effect of the changing funding environment is to have universities and higher education overall focus on job readiness, skills and &quot;entrepreneurship&quot; training to the degree possible. here as well, one would think that there may be additional opportunities for university based teaching and research to enable students with an interest in working with communities and icts as a longer term career. however, in practice ci and the &quot;community&quot; sector in general is seen as being on the wrong side of an &quot;employment divide&quot; where attention is paid and resources provided to train for employment in the private sector while much less attention is paid to those with an interest in and willingness to work in the public and not for profit sectors where much of ci employment would be found. </p> <p>thus, as has been noted a number of times in the past, while no self-respecting university in the world would not have a program in management information systems (mis) designed to support the development and use of systems to enable and empower primarily corporate management in the pursuit of their goals, one looks in vain for equivalent programs in community information systems whose objectives would be the development and use of information systems in support of enabling and empowering communities to pursue community derived goals.</p> <p>while a hierarchy of relationships between university researchers and communities isn't directly referred to in the papers in this special issue perhaps it would be useful to point to what one might look like (again from the university's perspective):</p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in"> research on communities--this is the traditional relationship between researchers/academics and communities where communities are seen and treated as passive objects in or on which the research process is undertaken.</p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in"> research for communities--this is a common terminology particularly in a bureaucratic or &quot;developmental&quot; context which refers to research that is done by outsiders but which (nominally or otherwise) is presented as under the control of or in the interests of the local community.</p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in"> research with communities--this is the circumstance, covering most of the cases described in this special issue, where communities are engaged with as research &quot;partners&quot; with the researcher. a close examination of the papers in this issue will provide a good understanding and introduction to many of the issues and dilemmas which arise in the course of attempting such relationships.</p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in"> research by communities--this is often the desired goal for those concerned with community-based research, that is where the community itself undertakes the research (or at least significant elements of it) with the researcher providing assistance and support as and where this may be required by the community but under the control of the community.</p> <p>in this overall context and in light of some of the issues emerging from the current escalating economic crises and the &quot;occupy&quot; movement, i believe it might useful to add a 5th category to this hierarchy. this layer would be &quot;research by communities towards self-empowerment&quot;.</p> <p>much if not most &quot;community-based research&quot; is research done in response to an external requirement or stimulus--a community organization doing a donor-funded evaluation of a local program, a community doing a local needs assessment or resource inventory, and so on. these types of research are of course valuable and useful in themselves including for building community capacity--skills and confidence. </p> <p>unfortunately, research of this type -where the &quot;research&quot; questions are externally driven -does not generally provide the opportunity for being able to step back and examine the broader social, economic, political historical or cultural context within which the community finds itself. a resource inventory that doesn't look at how the local community accesses (or is restricted in its access to) larger social and economic resources including for education and health care for example, or a program evaluation that doesn't look at historical factors in providing the context for program success or failure (or perhaps most important overall program conceptualization and design) is providing a severely restricted base for self-understanding (or for providing evidence is support of the self-understanding) on the part of the community. it is only through a critical examination of the broader context in which the community finds itself (and including such things as externally funded projects and programs) that the community can achieve the degree of self-understanding sufficient for it to undertake effective action both in the context of specific initiatives and in larger environments. </p> <p>one function of such research would be to identify the range of forces and interests within which the community is enclosed, allowing for successful action/implementation at the community level. it is through providing support in this latter relationship that the researcher/academic becomes not simply a source of &quot;technical&quot; support to the community but may through the contribution of their analytical skills assist in the process of achieving community self-understanding. only then will the design and evaluation of strategies for self-development and empowerment be possible. of course, it should be understood that often it is those in universities/researchers who have the most difficulty in understanding the circumstances of communities (and the means/requirements for empowerment) as they are coming from privileged positions where they are benefiting from the same &quot;context&quot; that disempowers the communities.<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[*]</a></p> <p>to my mind, it is this latter form of relationship which could and should be the ideal for community informatics researchers. this is particularly the case at this time of overwhelming financial crisis in so many parts of the developed world and especially since the burden of responding to and working one's way out of these crises are being foisted onto the backs of largely blameless grassroots communities. helping communities to understand these contexts and to explore alternative technology (and otherwise) enabled strategies to respond would seem at this juncture in history to be the highest possible calling for researchers of all kinds and including those working within the framework of community informatics. as well they can act as a &quot;bridge&quot; or interpreter between the dominant &quot;bureaucratic&quot; (and research) discourse and the language and understanding at the community level and provide a means for communities to access resources from universities and elsewhere which they might not otherwise be able to access.</p> <p> o'donnell in private communication pointed out the role of community champions as central figures in community research (as in other areas). her observation, with which i agree, is that communities often contain highly experienced individuals with deep and useful levels of understanding concerning the community context. it is generally these individuals with whom the researcher will most frequently and effectively interact. as o'donnell notes &quot;good research partnerships are about recognizing and building on the strengths of all the partners.&quot;</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="2"><br> </p> <hr size=1> <div id="ftn1" dir="ltr"> <p> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt" face="arial, sans-serif"><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[*]</a> i'm indebted to my colleague susan o'donnell of the university of new brunswick for this observation and for other very pertinent observations many of which i've interwoven in this discussion.</p> </div> a framework to research the social determinants of icts for e-health lareen newman, senior research fellow, southgate institute for health society & equity, flinders university, adelaide, south australia. email: lareen.newman@flinders.edu.au francisco lupiáñez-villanueva, associate professor, information and communication sciences department, applied social science and behavioral economics research group, universitat oberta de catalunya, barcelona, spain. email: flupianez@uoc.edu introduction this article discusses the challenges of combining significantly different methodological approaches to investigate citizens' access to e-health. we define the term access beyond broadband connectivity (material access), to also include motivation, skills and different type of usages (van dijk, 2005), which in e-health ranges from accessing online healthcare information, services and clinical treatment, to self-support. around the globe, e-health has continued to expand with the expectations that it will both reduce healthcare expenditure and improve quality and access to healthcare for all citizens (griffiths et al 2006). however, emerging evidence suggests that, if not managed carefully, e-health will further exacerbate health inequities because those with poorer health are often those with lower or no information and communication (ict) use (espanha & lupiáñez-villanueva 2009; newman et al 2012). to date, e-health research in developed countries has focused on clinical and health systems, on health professionals' and institutions' ability to move their services online, and on describing the types of health issues which can be addressed when citizens connect with e-health. less attention has been paid to understanding the socio-demographic factors shaping citizens' ict use/non-use in terms of how this impacts on their ability to uptake e-health opportunities (some exceptions are van deursen & van dijk 2011; lockwood et al 2013; newman et al 2012; and wen et al 2011). this is despite the fact that citizens' capability to interact with health systems online has long been a barrier to e-health uptake (see eg eysenbach 2001). in australia, for example, the national e-health strategy and national e-mental health strategy simply 'encourage' consumers to engage in e-health without any consideration of their ict status (australian health ministers advisory council 2008; department of health & ageing 2010). what requires urgent attention is therefore investigating how the digital divide plays out in e-health, in relation to investigating the resources which different citizen groups require for ict access and how this in turn shapes whether or not they can access the potential benefits of using the internet for health purposes. this paper outlines two different methodological approaches to investigating this and argues that, despite methodological challenges to bringing them together, doing so can go some way to addressing the gap in knowledge: positivist methodologies which use quantitative research methods in the research field of information & communication science, and critical theory approaches which use qualitative research methods in public health. methodological approaches a positivist approach to understand e-health access our large scale quantitative surveys conducted across the european union have investigated citizens' ict use for e-health (access for health purposes such as looking for health information or contacting a doctor). the largest involved surveying 14,000 people in 14 countries (lupiáñez, maghiros & abadie 2013). it produced information about the patterns of ict use guided by the positivist paradigm. it collected self-reported indicators divided into five different blocks of questions: (1) health status and health care and social care services use; (2) health attitude and health information sources; (3) internet and ict uses; (4) health related use of icts and the internet; and (5) socio-demographic profile of participants. even though the survey was conducted only with internet users, the results reveal that new health inequities are emerging as these overlap with the different manifestations of the divide which are also determinants of ict use(see table 1 extracted from peña-lópez, 2009). for example, individuals aged between 55-74 who are healthy are more likely to use icts for health than individuals with worse health status. on the contrary, individuals aged between 16-54 with chronic conditions, going under long-term treatment and with more than one health problem are more likely to use icts for health than individuals without these type of health problems (lupiáñez, maghiros & abadie 2013). these emerging health inequities could be considered, especially for the elderly, as a new expression of the inverse care law (tudor hart 1971): an "inverse care law 2.0". table 1. different dimensions of the digital divide source: extracted from peña-lopez 2009 p.88 a strength of this quantitative approach is that it provides data from a large number of randomly selected individuals from which generalized inferences can be made about the phenomena under study. in this context, ict access was examined in a broad sense to identify what variables related to the digital divide were related to e-health access. it is worth pointing out that the concept of ict access in this study nevertheless was limited simply to measuring whether or not citizens had or did not have physical access to the internet and relevant devices. a weakness of this approach is that, methodologically, it cannot explain the 'why' why do we see these data patterns and what are their causes. the digital divide literature suggests that there are social, economic, and cultural factors influencing why individuals or certain population groups have (or do not have) the internet or device access in the first place (eg van dijk 2005) but we know little about how this in turn enables them to have (or prevents them having) access to e-health (ie how the digital divide interacts with e-health access). nevertheless, as has been reported elsewhere (o'neill et al, 2014), online surveys cause selection bias because they exclude those who do not have internet access or adequate digital skills. another strength of the above approach is that it reveals the multidisciplinary scope of the digital divide that can be approached from different disciplines such as economics, geography, psychology, sociology, informatics, social public health and pedagogy, as well as through the different methods used by those disciplines. in this regard, the digital divide as an individual and social phenomenon is being researched using social science as an umbrella beyond a specific discipline. a critical theory approach to the digital divide within public health, a critical theory methodology or critical perspective (crotty 1998) encourages inquiry into what drives power structures and the unequal distribution of resources across a population, because these impact on our opportunities for health and hence on unfair and remediable differences (inequities) in health status and health outcomes. since these 'inequities' are not a given but are structurally determined, they are unfair, avoidable and remediable (dahlgren & whitehead 1991), which introduces a moral and ethical dimension to research in this field. a social gradient in health has been recognised, whereby those nearer the top of the socioeconomic spectrum have better health than those further down, and applying this concept from the health field to digital research suggests there is a similar "digital gradient" (newman et al 2010). this approach lends itself to in-depth qualitative research that can ask individuals their perception of why various aspects of their socioeconomic and geographic position may be influencing their ict use (e.g. newman, biedrzycki & baum 2009) and in turn how this influences their access to healthcare (e.g. baum et al 2012). critical information systems research has also drawn on this methodology to 'turn the spotlight' onto issues of web (in)accessibility for particular disadvantaged groups such as people with disabilities (adam & kreps 2006) and walsham (2012) has recently argued the need to reinvigorate this ethical aspect of ict research so that we can 'make a better world'. in australia there has been little in-depth qualitative research into ict use and into barriers/facilitators of ict use among disadvantaged groups and the knock-on impact to icts for health purposes, although recent research has filled this gap (baum et al 2012; newman et al 2012).the focus was on exploring citizens' perspectives on the best ways to enable their access and use of computers, the internet and mobile phones to overcome the digital divide and to access e-health. interviews and focus groups identified a wide variety of reasons for unequal ict use among lower income and disadvantaged groups, well beyond differences in ict ownership and ict skills (newman et al 2010). the data was also analysed by applying bourdieu's theories of capitals (bourdieu 1977, 1986), which sit predominantly in the field of sociology and allow a critical investigation of the social reproduction of inequities in ict use. while helsper (2012) has applied this thinking to shape quantitative variables for ict use research, we drew on this approach using qualitative research to uncover the resources ('capitals') which underlie ict access and use but which are queried less often than ict skills and digital literacy. for adults, our in-depth qualitative research shows that these resources include basic reading ability and living in a social group who will not steal digital devices (baum et al 2012). for young people who are born with physical disabilities or acquire a brain injury these resources include having a family who is ict-competent and a family who are aware of and can afford to purchase disability-assistive technologies which enable ict use (newman, browne-yung, et al in press). a benefit of this research methodology is that it values the subjective views ('voices') of participants and hence usually involves in-depth face-to-face interviews, meaning that it can collect data from those who do not have internet access or adequate digital skills (or who are simply not interested or willing) to respond to online surveys. many of the underlying resources fall into the categories listed in table 1, suggesting the applicability of the well-known social determinants of health framework. towards a "social determinants of icts for health" framework we argue that what is needed to guide further research on the digital divide's impact on e-health access is a framework which allows us to collect and analyse data that combines the two methodological approaches, each informing the other, and which can identify both the quantitative relationships between and the qualitative explanations for ict use and e-health access ie icts for health. we see that a framework which could guide a research combination of these two methodological approaches would categorise factors at each level that shapes citizens' ability to benefit from e-health, provide explanations for the causes of the patterns and interrelationships between them, and enable a critical-perspective revelation of unjust and remediable differences between different population groups, and particularly among disadvantaged groups. if we can identify both factors and relationships, then health policymakers and practitioners will be better informed as to how to increase support for citizens to access to e-health. such factors might include providing individuals with funds to purchase ict devices or connections to enable searching on a website for health information. at the same time, broader factors influence both ict use and opportunities for health, including national policies on telecommunications infrastructure and broadband speeds, and at the community level the provision of free and easy-to-reach public internet access. these broader influences are known in the global health literature as the social determinants of health, which has become widely influential since the world health organisation's focused commission on the social determinants of health (2008). the world health organisation (1986) has long recognised that people's opportunities to lead healthy lives are shaped by policies and institutional practices. in the early 1990s, dahlgren and whitehead (1991) set out a strategic approach to promote greater equity in health between different population groups in europe by highlighting the different levels of society which policy could target in order achieve change. this is shown diagrammatically in figure 1. this approach moves the focus from only trying to change individual behaviours to also addressing the broader contexts which shape that behaviour ie an individual's family and community context, the opportunities available in terms of what is provided by various levels of government and private sector (infrastructure, employment, welfare, education, etc), plus forces at the societal level such as cultural norms and global level forces such as international trade, treaties, governance, and globalisation. figure 1: the social determinants of health source: www.health-inequalities.eu (based on dahlgren & whitehead 1991). going forward a tested version of the "social determinants of icts for health framework" does not yet exist but, based on earlier research, the version below in figure 2 has been developed. we believe this is an innovative approach that can bring together our two areas of research to provide a comprehensive investigation of factors which shape the impacts of the digital divide in ict access/use on citizens' access to e-health. we will be developing and refining the framework to guide our combined future work as we believe that this will ensure that key underlying factors specific to understanding the digital divide in e-health access are not overlooked. we find that this can particularly occur in developed countries due to the assumption that "everyone is online" (via the internet and/or on mobile devices), yet data continue to show that even if every citizen in a population has technical access, all users are not created equal and their devices will function and be used at a wide range of levels, from basic to very advanced, which in itself still results in a "digital gradient". figure 2 shows that social determinants of health and health inequities, therefore structural and intermediary determinants, produce different levels of ict access (motivation, material, skills and usage). this unequal access to ict will generate different levels of ict for health access as well as different levels of willingness to use ict for health. in addition, ict for health access depends on the properties of ict and the relationship between motivation, ict for health readiness and internet health information. in this regard, motivation includes triggers, empowerment and barriers; ict for health readiness includes awareness, material access; skills and usage and internet health information includes how individuals use and evaluate this type of information for themselves or for others (social life of information) as well as their perception about usefulness and learning. lastly, ict for health access gives rise to different level of participatory health through the utilisation of health information (individual and social uses) and behavioural changes causes by how ict for health impact on: health management; health care demand and health care quality. these impacts could modify both structural and intermediary determinants and the distribution of health and well-being. figure 2: social determinants of health and ict for health conceptual framework source: lupiáñez f, maghiros i, abadie f (2013). we intend that the framework will allow us to pinpoint the key social determinants layers, including those political and policy layers which strongly influence the distribution of digital infrastructure, other resources, health and wellbeing etc, as well as identifying other sub-areas relevant to ict use and healthcare access. we intend that the framework will guide identification of key factors that can be investigated by both quantitative variables (the prevalence, frequency, quality of ict use and healthcare access) and qualitative data (the reasons for these differences, motivational issues and social contexts, and what different population groups believe underpin resource differentials). from this we will then have better knowledge of key points of entry for action by services and policymakers to improve citizens' ict use for health. in the first instance, our plans are to apply the framework to inform two pieces of work: a project with a broader group of researchers to investigate e-inclusion and e-health access for citizens and how these can be addressed at the various levels of the social determinants by health services and health policymakers though changing the ways they design e-health initiatives and taking into account the resources which citizens do/not have for ict use for health; and to apply the framework to guide an analysis of data on the gendered use of icts for health access from the eu survey (including use of icts for health purposes by women and mothers as health brokers for their families). we intend that this will then inform further qualitative investigation in this area across a range of countries, including australia and spain. a potential challenge of working together could be combining quantitative and qualitative research from different paradigms, but "mixed methods" research is relatively common. we see that the framework will allow us to conduct quantitative work to provide data on 'big picture' patterns of ict and e-health use across a population, and at the same time data on socioeconomic and demographic differences between and within different groups to highlight 'digital gradients'. it will collect and analyse data on a range of variables shown in table 1. the qualitative research can then be linked to the quantitative work by recruiting citizens from groups of interest identified in the survey into focus groups or interviews. these would ask their perceptions of the reasons for why ict use and e-health access differ according to the different categories shown in table 1, as well as additional perspectives they have on ict barriers and facilitators to their e-health use. in one of our earlier studies on what factors shape family size, the analysis of in-depth qualitative data provided new lines of inquiry which were then investigated through analysis of national census data. this showed that university educated women who should be expected to have small family sizes were going against the trend if they stated in the census that they belonged to certain christian denominations (published in newman & hugo 2008). in our current work together, we expect to find that combining methodological approaches will similarly identify further nuances in ict use for health purposes. conclusion in conclusion, through combining our methodological approaches we hope to gain both a comprehensive picture of patterns and differential distribution of the social determinants of ict use for health, and hence the in-depth story of the digital divide in e-health. this knowledge can then be used to inform policymakers and practitioners in the fields of the information economy/digital strategy and in public health about where to direct resources if they wish the e-health divide to be reduced. our overall aim is to develop a program of research that will produce new knowledge to support policymakers and practitioners across a number of fields and disciplines to 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(2011). who is not likely to access the internet for health information? findings from first-time mothers in southwest sydney, australia. international journal of medical informatics, 80, 406-411. world health organisation (1986). ottawa charter for health promotion. health promotion, 1(4):i-v. digital order and political disorder: thoughts about opposite effects of digital media on emerging societies eduardo villanueva-mansilla department of communications, pontificia universidad católica del perú. email: evillan@pucp.pe an emergent pattern of conflict appears as one of the characteristics of the age of disorder, as some commentators have called the current years. the conflict is how to govern the emerging networks of economic and social relationships, existing "in real life" as well as those facilitated by telecommunications and digital media. both sets of networks reflect a world that is simultaneously more connected but also more confused regarding its direction, with clearly critical issues not being taken care of, while new forms of association and identity appear to turn around what were believed to be certainties. if there is one development that can be considered as a main cause of the first set of economic and social networks, as well as a significant catalyzer of disorder, it is the internet. a collection of telecommunications and computer protocols designed in a very specific, non-commercial context (abbate 2000, denardis 2009 and 2014), its widespread adoption by corporations, individuals and communities has brought economic changes and positive social transformations as well as conflict and the aforementioned disorder. it is part of the internet's nature to provide opportunities to a wide variety of interested parties, and also to allow for those interests to affect social and cultural patterns beyond the reach of nation states, the traditional arbiters of media diffusion and ownership. at the same time, the forms of communication that the internet has permitted are pointers to a different set of conflicts, those at the base of the notion of an age of disorder. let's begin with the basics: the internet empowers individuals as no communication technology has ever done before. a bright idea can reach millions quite fast and be turned into a creator of wealth and value, affecting lives through labor and consumption all around the world. of course there are different patterns based on the economic, regulatory and political environments where the ideas are first conceived, but it is clear that innovations like skype, engineered in estonia; alibaba, created in china; or the smartphone as a hold-all device, as established by apple in california, are powerful examples of the way the internet may change lives through connectivity everywhere in our world. at the same, skype being now part of a large corporation, alibaba's recent ipo, and apple's status as one of the largest corporations by market capitalization in the world, point towards capitalism's good health and its power to penetrate and capture innovation in the global economic system. this duality is critical to an understanding of the current situation faced by smaller, developing countries. returning to the personal level, it will depend on the interests and capabilities of the individual to define how their own agency will be affected by the internet; but structural conditionings cannot be ignored or assumed to be irrelevant thanks to the internet. a technological determinist argument positing the internet as empowering by itself has been at the basis of many proposals for investing in it, especially directed at governments: more investment and the creation of an enabling environment, will bring increased usage of the internet, which will make creativity flourish and wealth to grow. besides being a circular argument, it belies the evidence accumulated in about 20 years of internet expansion: for instance, while a business idea may thrive in capitalist countries, conditions in developing nations may hinder success; political action and reform may be brought forward in authoritarian regimes, but democracies may have entrenched institutional arrangements impeding change. in between these two dimensions, peoples exist. that is, communities and societies as in old-fashioned countries, living under nation-states, that are part of globalization but not necessarily its beneficiaries. the internet provides wonderful tools for any potential development, at the national, community and personal level, but it is not inherently a tool for a specific kind of development: it has to be turned into one by specific actors, intent on achieving specific results. the potential to associate and empower individuals exist, and can be turned into a new form of collective action, even at small scale in the most varied contexts. what happened with rangers' fans in scotland shows: the internet served as the glue that connected a rage against mismanagement and greed that had almost destroyed a beloved institution, and it was the fans that forced the salvage currently being executed, allowing the club to slowly but much more solidly return to the place it held for decades not just in the scottish football environment, but in the actual social fabric of glasgow (anderson 2013). thus, communities in the late 20th century-early 21st century can use the tools brought by the internet to oppose and win over financial powers; they only need access, know-how, leadership, clarity of purpose and dedication. all of these can be provided by themselves, not by the internet: even access is dependent on financial means, and this can be shared among many if needed. thus, enhancing and empowering individual agency, allowing associative clusters that may drive towards specific forms of collective intent, which may turn into collective action (mueller 2010); that is something that the internet may provide. i'm stressing the "may": it is not a given, of course, just as economic growth and positive, social transformation are not a given. it has to be through the action of individuals that the potential is brought to bear, but those individuals have to face the limitations of their political environment, including the need to convince a larger number of fellow citizens of the benefits of change. the passion and dedication of individuals may sustain ideas and intent for a while, and connections may bring enthusiasm and support from around the world: but in the end, national and local conditions, institutional, political and social, may determine the real world impact that individual drive may have in the social arena. witness the enthusiasm about the arab spring, or the hope brought by the various occupy... movements (castells 2012), and contrast their modest outcomes, as signals of the limitations of digital media to sustain a thrust for change. in the end, the internet needs to continue to be an enabling environment for collective and individual agency, and to maintain that potential and foster that environment, access at all levels must be preserved as a way for all kinds of empowerment, not just individual, commercial-oriented one's. that is the lesson of many examples of community organization through the internet, as well as the limitations shown by the many attempts to coalesce many latent global interests into something approach a global civil society. then again, most of the empowering potential of the internet is not used with collective intent. a large number of internet users all around the world just access it for cultural consumption, trade, and personal communication. this is most certainly appropriate for many, and indeed it may allow for better quality of lives, or at least a perception of better life quality, built on top of access to the riches of developed nations from the most varied collection of places. but all these potential benefits have to be put in context, especially with consideration of the transformation of the role of the state as a custodian and enabler of certain forms of cultural consumption, trade and communication. further exploration is required as to the consequences for internal, nation-state level governance, since the political and economic effects of such an enhancement are significant and not necessarily compatible with existing nation states' policies regarding their own well-being. i'll use the case of copyright transgressions to explore the conflicts arising from empowered individual action through the internet. since napster, almost 15 years ago, the reality of cultural consumption has been one of control shift: from corporations to users and then back to new corporations, like apple or spotify, with darknet services like bittorrent not losing their centrality as means to access and enjoy what used to be expensive and in some cases, scarce goods. what some may call "piracy" includes criminal-intent as in rings or gangs selling pirated copies of digital goods; "alternative" business models such as those of digital lockers systems; and simple users sharing and using material that for many different reasons has lower availability, or at least less perceived availability, than what they desire. digital technologies and the internet have made it possible for these three sets of actors to have new or a very much enhanced roles than previously (mattelart 2012; meng 2012). thus, individuals have more choice, notwithstanding the origin of those choices; even though copyright regulations are designed to restrain and frustrate individual agency (gillespie 2006), both the emergence of peer-sharing networks and the market responses to the transformation of music and cultural trade have expanded the options available, and given users a different kind of agency, as sharing and sometimes transformation of content become usual (gardner & davies 2014; boyd 2014). at the same time, governments around the world face the need to enforce current treaties and statutes on copyright, which demand that protection for copyrighted material should be extended both in terms of time coverage and individuals involved; that all material defined as pirated should be prohibited; and that the sale of such material prosecuted to the full extent of the law (correa 2004); this is particularly true for developing nations (biadgleng & maur 2011). the convenience of such an arrangement is not a matter for discussion now; instead, it is important to focus on copyright as a political issue, with political consequences at various levels, stemming mostly from enforcement demands; and these consequences of enforcement need to be understood as a policy failure. if we define a "policy failure" as a policy designed in such a way that implementation or enforcement is too expensive, at any level, to actually occur, copyright policies can only perceived in this way.judgment. it does not matter that the policies are harmonized across borders or that a collective decision has been reached demanding them: the fact remains that states around the world have neither the resources nor the staff nor the social legitimacy to change significantly the actual behavior of their citizens; also, the level of compliance with legislative arrangements is quite varied across countries, depending on social mores, state's capabilities, and collective measurements of cost, risk and opportunity. there is no single pattern that fits each country regarding the predominant attitude concerning irregular access to media products, thus requiring that the one rule that emerges is that no single, global regime will work. of course, copyright regimes are framed as benefiting creativity, creative people and only then, cultural industries; those not complying are presented as criminals or at least as immoral citizens that prey on the work of others (yar 2008). there is very little evidence to support the notion of individual creators being benefited by increased protection and global trade rules; rather it is corporations, mostly global and conglomerated, that are trying to sustain business models established under the old access and distribution regimes (schweidler & costanza-chock 2009). of course, corporations create wealth, but even if that is accepted a principle must not be forgotten: it is a democratic right to establish local regimes of governance that define levels of taxation, and even of profits, according to local debates and local priorities. we are not allowing this to happen, and in the process we are benefiting a very small set of people already controlling a large part of the world's wealth. a global regime that conflates individual wealth with collective welfare is demanding that states dedicate their rather skimpy resources to support them, without the common courtesy of consulting those actually paying for the resources, that is the taxpayers of each country. but governments are driven to comply with the illusion of a global regime, established through a cluster of transnational arrangements mostly outside of the national democratic governance model, with little actual supervision by legislatures and certainly almost no public debate. under a banner such as free trade, access to markets or simply capital's demand for less regulation as an axiomatic component of development, governments around the world submit to the narrative that private benefits are public welfare. even if that were so, the question arising is how to fit this narrative and its consequences into the demands of actual local development, of independent and burgeoning cultural industries, of a good life as defined in each country, no matter how vaguely, nor how differently. meanwhile, the illusion of individual power is enhanced by digital riches and increased chatter, a perception of global village in rather friendly terms, with everything at hand and cheap (andersson 2012). far too many gaze from outside, noses digitally pressed against a window made of windows; the internet and its darker corners allows for sneaking into the store and rampaging for candy, but does not solve any fundamental problems. even the internet, which finally is just a tool for people to use for different intents and purposes, is framed as a "global community": a collection of "representatives from government, business, civil society, non-governmental organizations, research institutions and others from across the globe" (icann 2014), apparently, created by their collective interest and selected through democratic means to advance the internet as a concern of all. the fact that icann is not seen by many as either representative or democratic is not taken into account when the notion of a global community, created by self-selection and empowered to steer a common resource, is presented as a fact. it may be the case that most of those using the internet do not really care about its governance (abril 2006), but equally organisms like icann do govern the internet while at the same time existing beyond any potential democratic framework. in the end, there is a governance model in place: one that exists in a lofty, almost untouchable space of technocrats, corporations and international organizations, where decisions about the collective well-being are taken without considering the actual nature of a plethora of collective well-beings existing in different realities around the world. multistakeholderism run amok, where the only potential form of legitimate political decision, the nation-state, is replaced by the fallacies of globalization, free trade and gdp growth as the single measurement of success (hafner-burton & montgomery 2009). the result is a weakening of the state, through the creation of path dependencies (vergne and durand 2010: 237; see also larsson 2011 for the european case), as the narrative of development as wealth creation through open trade becomes the standard understanding of public officials and international bureaucrats. a common sense is developed around the need to keep opening markets and surrendering nation-state's sovereignty that may create counter narratives inspired through "narrow-minded" nationalisms. these path dependencies in this way increase political problems arising from the impossibility of enforcing the law and achieving a significant presence across the territory, or of controlling what needs to be controlled through police and enforcement action. this does not even begin to consider the cultural and social costs of internationally-backed policies that may be useless for internal development of a plural and rich cultural sphere in each nation-state. at the same time, using price's (2002) definition of place and space, a conflict brews: state's area of control, the place, is the same, but the space that can be reached through media changes radically, with some "places" being able to overcome local "spaces" amplifying their own in the process, and thus overwhelming the cultural sphere with a larger, almost global space for cultural products. the intellectual property model of governance is old, and has been deeply challenged by the internet in a most indirect fashion: there is no single alternative system of governance in place, and the specific policy alternatives developed thus far, notwithstanding their valuable proposals and the capacity to integrate different, local approaches into one, loose global narrative (mackinnon 2012) are of minor importance; at the same time consumers around the world have accepted the alternatives, legal or otherwise, brought by the internet, and expanded their demand while failing, or not caring at all, to promote alternative governance. certainly, it is not individual consumers that will look to change governance if their interests are satisfied by what appears to be a simpler, more fulfilling and almost risk-free alternative mode of consumption. it is their own states and governments that are tasked with the awful duty to try and enforce regimes that are useless to their citizens and unsatisfactory for the corporations demanding them. a similar situation may be identified at various levels. for instance, media policy used to be the realm of nation-states, with television and radio access defined by specific regulations built around expectations of local industrial needs, cultural demands of voice and representation, or arrangements between the state and local elites. not anymore, as the boundaries of cultural exchanges have almost disappeared for those able to use the internet, creating new challenges across the different dimensions where media content may be of influence (that is, almost any aspect of social life). it is certainly a plus when considering the benefits of breaking monopolies in countries under dictatorial or authoritarian control, or those with stagnant elites benefiting from regimes created in olden days, negating changes and allowing for a milking of the media for their own purposes. but at the same this global media fare brings very standardized, bland products to the masses, enriches a few corporations while debilitating local alternatives, and weakens local traditions. again, football is a good example: the popularity of some teams from specific countries has completely turned the sport into a television spectacle while taking interest away from local and national championships, turned into leftovers for the quaint or poor, unable or unwilling to get expensive cable television or inexpensive but complex and poor-quality ip broadcasts of an irregular nature to catch the latest champions league match. this feeds into corrupt organizations and corrupt officials, detached from any local or global governance and with little if any regard to the actual condition of the sport at a local level. only those countries with strong, independent traditions of sportsmanship or solid attitudes of good management and organizational responsibility are able to survive the onslaught of easy money and bad practices. as gurstein (2013) says, no one is a foreigner in a global, interconnected world: every decision by a powerful nation-state or by a powerful global corporate player in the digital arena may impact everyone, but at the same time, neither individuals or communities have any recourse to the significant, diffuse and informal system of influence and lobbying that affects decisions by powerful nation-states. this system is in the end the final decision-making venue, but the dressing of such as system as a democratic, consensus building organization, as is the case with icann, obscures the actual absence of democratic representation. while the majority of users of the internet may be willing to ignore such issues as their interests are served, as consumers and circulators of media content; for those with a different set of interests, including the preservation and strengthening of social and cultural ties in a community context, such absence of representation may be a serious issue. this dissonance is apparent in many recent political conflicts, where the demands for better consideration of popular demands is one of the salient points. if our times are characterized by increasing dissatisfaction with governments and democratic governance, and the surging success of authoritarian regimes, it appears in the common interest to promote a transformation of sorts in the way politics and people interact. however, at least for developing nations and perhaps for consolidated democracies as well, the existence of a larger, non-democratic collection of governance arrangements is a serious issue. without the autonomy and the policy levers needed to provide internally, governments have to accept the way of globalized governance; that is, an opaque set of networked institutions that lie beyond nation-states. this condition has been accepted by weak states as the global narrative of prosperity has been inflicted on them through what is known as isomorphic imitation, "the ability of organizations to sustain legitimacy through the imitations of the forms of modern institutions without functionality" (pritchett, woolcock & andrews, 2010; see also krause 2013 and kuerbis 2014). many of the developing world states can be considered as countries of low governmental autonomy, since their reach is qualifiable as a regime of feeble obedience (medellin 2004), their capacity to create and promote new policy approaches is quite limited, and the acceptance of globalized governance is not the result of a consistently analyzed choice, but of pressures and needs too complex to deal with in the time available. so, while governments and states fail to satisfy even the need for local searches of new forms to satisfy the needs of those governed, citizens opt to become free consumers, regular or otherwise, using the net as a ramp to networked riches that are not controlled, literally or figuratively, by the state under which their citizens should lie. citizens become a bit farther away from their polities and their democratic processes even as their consumption goes on. communities get redefined as collections of consumption practices, and actual communities lose at both ends: members look for varied satisfactions through individualized consumption experiences while the relationship with the state is hindered by multilateral agreements that support individualism but weaken the ability of the state to develop new solutions. besides the actual effects brought by these processes, the main conclusion is that current models of governance are compounding a problem already large by itself. the potential of democracy is being shrunk each passing day as individuals detach from their polities, which are seen as shadows of their previous self's, providing only for the global, opaque narrative of collective success brought by open markets and financial dominance over any local objective. at the same time, states are relentlessly being coaxed into submitting to this global narrative, especially those of emerging / developing nations, that lack the resources to create alternative policies, not to mention alternative narratives. multistakeholderism is perhaps the gravest of all dangers: it pretends to expand democracy by including all the actors of an idealized political process while at the same time implanting asymmetric information and unequal reach and engagement as the rule for discussions about governing the common resources (klimburg, mirtl & gjorgieva 2014). developing nation-states are usually under-represented at any international organization or governance arena, not in a formal way but by lack of resources, human, financial and time alike. decisions are taken under duress through pressures of achievement and absence of specialized consultants. at the same time, enormous global corporations deploy resources totally outside the reach of developing nations, surreptitiously controlling the process along the way. multistakeholderism equates corporate interest with the public good, as defined precariously by each nation-state. democratic decision-making is lost completely and policy decisions are turned into business decisions, further inflicting a breakdown of the relationship between the represented and their representatives. individuals may smile and enjoy the riches that technology is providing, but the edifice that provides for larger, more substantial matters is crumbling, as if the woofer of an old stereo creates waves that debilitate delicate but inconsistent arrangements in a teenager's bedroom. recognizing the perils of the duality just explained, as well as the connection with multistakeholderism as a remedy that endangers the patient is a necessary first step to start imagining a new way of dealing with global issues. these are demanding a global polity, not just a costume for corporate interests. references abbate, janet (2000) inventing the internet. cambridge, ma: mit. abril, a. 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campaigns: criminalization, moral pedagogy and capitalist property relations in the classroom. new media and society 10(4) 605-623. equity, pedagogy and inclusion. harnessing digital technologies to support students from low socio-economic backgrounds in higher education alison elliott university of sydney introduction the term user in the literature on co-construction of users and technology often implies the represented user rather than the person in question. a representation of the user, or the user as representation has instrumental value. at the beginning of the volume 'how users matter', oudshoorn & pinch's (2005) review various theoretical perspectives within which the user is discussed in literature. in each of these perspectives we can see how representations of users serve the purpose of a particular agenda. whether it is woolgar's idea of user as a configuration activated by designers when they design the products which at some point meet the real users, or the users in social construction of technology (scot) approach who are a social group participating in the construction of technology; every approach makes certain commitments to how the users should be ascribed agency in relation to technology. the very notion that agency is being ascribed to the users by the theoreticians makes it clear that we are talking about generalized representations of the users and not the living persons themselves. even when the stress is on the multiplicity of the users as it is in the above-mentioned volume, what are being discussed are conflicting representations. australia, like many other countries, experiences persistent inequalities in higher education participation and outcomes. despite a mass higher education system, substantial government funding, and a variety of student support mechanisms, higher education participation for people from low income backgrounds, including from regional and remote communities, is lower than for people from more affluent backgrounds. this concerns both governments and universities. the recent bradley report (commonwealth of australia, 2008) noted that underrepresentation of people from low income and indigenous backgrounds must be addressed as a matter of urgency. in broad-brush terms using the available data, people from low ses backgrounds are about one-third as likely as people from high ses backgrounds to participate in higher education. the share of university places for people from low ses backgrounds — approximately 15 per cent of places, compared with a population reference point of 25 per cent — has remained virtually unchanged for 15 years despite the overall expansion of access to higher education during that period.... students from low ses backgrounds comprise less than 10 per cent of postgraduate students.... the under-representation of people from low ses backgrounds is most marked in the group of eight universities (grebennikov & skaines, 2009, p.3). the bradley report stressed the need to “ensure that those from disadvantaged backgrounds aspire to and are able to participate in higher education. by 2020, 20 per cent of undergraduate enrolments in higher education should be students from low socio-economic backgrounds” (p. xiv) this paper focuses on factors that “enabled” individuals who might otherwise have not studied at university to access higher education as external students via digital information and communication technologies (icts), very essence of community informatics. clearly, the digital tools and learning platforms to support external (distance) education exist, but as de moor says (2010), “practice is what ultimately matters” (p.2). not surprisingly, there is considerable concern about how to reach an across-the-board higher education target participation rate of 20 per cent by 2020. the australian technology network of universities indicates that “universities will have to increase their enrolments of low ses students to 139,200 by 2020 – an increase of 52,000 students over 2008 levels” and develop “a better understanding of where the increased number of low ses students will come from and how (to) stimulate demand and adjust or manage their admissions practices” (2009, p.3). increasing higher education participation of low income background students requires strategies to overcome access barriers to regular on-campus study. typical barriers include work and related family and care commitments, high mobility in terms of residence (such as with the defence forces), living in isolated communities or in locations inconvenient to a university campus, and a myriad of attendant economic barriers. lack of understanding about these impediments to access and the complexity of people’s lives, especially those from low income backgrounds, act to limit thinking around equity issues in university contexts (elliott, 2002; elliott & slee, 2009). for example, what may appear a single factor issue such as distance from a university campus is compounded when considered alongside caring for an elderly relative or young children, and combined with unreliable or inconvenient and/or expensive public transport and lack of access to a private vehicle. in australia, some “60 per cent of disadvantaged and unemployed people do not have access to a car” (coombs, the australian, april 07, 2010). reasons for limited higher education participation by people from low income backgrounds are complex but include a matrix of interacting financial and personal considerations. financial considerations such as lack of capacity to pay university fees and charges and, often, accommodation and living costs, together with concerns about potential income loss while studying tend to interact with other deterrents such as aspirational and school achievement factors, course and institutional awareness and family care responsibilities (grebennikov & skaines, 2009; elliott, 2002; elliott & keenan, 2009; long, ferrier & heagney, 2006; james, bexley, devlin, & marginson, 2007; simpson, 2006). it’s not unexpected that a major impediment to access and participation in higher education is financial status. attending university, especially if a student lives ‘away from home’ or pays rent or a mortgage and/or travels or commutes for considerable distances is expensive, and/or must pay high child care costs. obviously too, full-time university enrolment is time consumingtypically involving the equivalent of a full ‘working week’, and on-campus classes are generally held during business hours. for many, if not most prospective students from low income backgrounds, the barriers to earning an income that can sustain reasonable day to day living costs while studying full-time on campus are insurmountable. people who have to support themselves and often a family and pay rent or a mortgage must work. most have to work full-time. combining paid work and often unpaid work caring for children and other family members, with commuting and study, especially on-campus study, is not realistic for many potential students. it is simply not possible to sustain major employment commitments and attend day classes at university and course-related clinical/professional experiences, plus deal with day to day home and family responsibilities, especially when income stressors are added. a “significant proportion of students” with low incomes and/or from low income families who do combine paid work with study, especially extensive paid work during the semester, “are adversely affected in their capacity to study effectively” (universities australia, 2007). given the challenges faced by many low income-background students and/or career changers in accessing higher education and progressing in a satisfactory and timely manner (elliott, 2002), it is surprising that greater attention has not been paid to promoting access to contemporary mainstream higher education via off-campus study using the information and learning technologies that now characterise distance education. distance education or external studies (variably called ‘open’ education or ‘flexible learning’), and originally known as ‘correspondence education’, has a long history in australia (and elsewhere, see perraton, 2010) as an enabling pathway to higher education. today, the sophistication of information and communications technologies (ict) has transformed distance education delivery modes and created opportunities for rich pedagogies with both synchronous and asynchronous learning experiences. ict tools enable a range of ‘blended’ approaches to student learning that that make off-campus study an experience commensurate with the best of on-campus, in-class learning. however, as shown in this paper, while new technologies are integral to contemporary distance/external education delivery, the technology alone, although robust and efficient, requires a thoughtful pedagogy to create meaningful learning experiences for students (simpson, 2006). consistent with de moor’s (2010) contentions about the value of a “human-centred approach” (p. 4), most external students in the present study indicated that while they want to learn “in their own time”, they valued and wanted personalised educational experiences and close contact with academic staff, in addition to technological effectiveness. despite australia’s long history in distance education (for students planning to be teachers, in particular), increasing numbers of students studying externally, and current initiatives harnessing communication and learning technologies to strengthen off-campus learning pedagogies, we know little about the backgrounds and experiences of students who study ‘externally’ using on-line learning platforms. in particular, we have a limited picture of the ‘success stories’ and especially for low income-background students who study externally and who successfully combine study with predominantly full-time work and/or full-time family commitments. what enabled them to access higher education in the first place, when data show that their contemporaries tend not to? what factors contribute to these students’ successful management of off-campus, on-line study and other life responsibilities and commitments? digital pathways to learning and equity the rapid spread and use of digital learning and communication technologies in education and society since the mid 1990s has enabled higher education providers and teacher education programs specifically, to expand and enrich teaching and learning opportunities and pedagogies. at the same time, teacher education is concerned about “the professional learning of teachers so they have the confidence to exploit new technologies to expand, extend and modify their practice” (mceetya, 2002, p. 4). today, australian and other teacher registration authorities require teachers to demonstrate competence with digital learning technologies across teaching areas. importantly, all graduate teachers must be able to integrate digital learning tools confidently and competently to enrich their pedagogy and engage effectively with young learners. clearly, informatics do not stand alone in teacher education courses or classrooms. they are connected to the wider issue of learning for the knowledge age, and to broader issues of education quality and standards and learning outcomes. but, unless teachers feel positive and confident about using digital technologies in learning they are not likely to optimise them for classroom teaching (becker, 2000; elliott, 2003; 2004). so in terms of teacher education courses, icts enable access to higher education, carry and support pedagogy, and become tools for teaching about teaching. in higher education more generally, digital teaching tools are used in two main ways. first, on-line teaching platforms such as blackboard, web ct and moodle are used to complement on-campus, face-to-face teaching. they hold and/or communicate information such as lecture notes, podcasts of lectures, provide access to journals and other content and streamline course organisation and management such as assignment submission and assessment. often, they are used to facilitate student-to-student and staff-to-student discussions and interactions outside scheduled class meetings. second, they operate to deliver whole units (subjects) and/or whole courses (programs), often in concert with other strategies, such as one-to-one phone/skype conversations, emails and student workshops (on-campus and off-campus) and site visits. some courses are delivered completely on-line, and students are enrolled ‘externally’. external study may require no formal ‘on-campus’ attendance, although traditionally it has involved ‘residential’ workshops or on-campus ‘clinical blocks’. the teacher education courses referred to in this paper were available in both internal and external modes. enrolment was also available in ‘mixed mode’ meaning students could switch between internal and external study or could study some subjects internally and some externally, simultaneously. external subjects were fully on-line using the blackboard platform and additional synchronous and asynchronous communications technologies where these enriched pedagogy and where individual lecturers and/or students sought communication enhancements. holden and westfall (2006) distinguish between asymmetrical interaction (one-way communication such as a videotaped lecture or reading text material on-line) and symmetrical interaction (such as a phone conversation or a video conversation). generally, as bernard et al., (2009) contend, the synchronous and asynchronous features of platforms such as blackboard incorporate elements of both asymmetrical and symmetrical interaction. digital learning and communication technologies are widely viewed as having the potential to enhance and customise teaching and learning opportunities and experiences (elliott, 2009) but they tend not to be used to maximum potential (elliott, 2003; 2004; 1999). it is often argued this is because of educators’ limited access to state-of-the-art tools, poor technical infrastructure and support, and/or inappropriate pedagogical knowledge and skill. similarly, students’ limited access to relevant technologies and inappropriate use can curtail educational and learning opportunities. not unexpectedly, given the variability in teacher (and student) competence and commitment, distance education can be much better, about the same, or much worse than face-to-face classroom instruction (bernard et al., 2009). at its worst it can stifle learning and exacerbate existing educational inequalities (see discussions in warschauer, knobel & stone, 2004). at its best, distance education programs both enable access to higher education and generate effective engagement and connection with learning, especially for students who are isolated by location or by circumstances associated with work and family commitments (elliott & slee, 2009; perraton, 2010). in the last decade or so, the availability of digital learning and communication technologies has expanded the pedagogies available to support off-campus study bringing with it the potential for enriched learning including close staff-student interaction. digital learning and communication tools provide a vital pathway to higher education and a means of re-engineering pedagogies to better meet students’ learning needs, especially when students cannot access regular on campus face-to-face teaching. but, as bernard et al. (2009) concluded in a comprehensive meta-analysis of teaching approaches in distance education, we know very little about “what works” best in distance education because the nature of the questions we ask “impede our ability to discover what makes (distance education) effective or ineffective”. typically, questions are “cast as a contrast to such starkly different forms of achieving the same end” (p. 1245), for example, attempting to compare different pedagogies in different contexts, and failing to consider the different learning needs and circumstances of learners. similarly, research methodologies are confounded when probing vastly different methods, different learning environments, different media and different pedagogies. this “makes causal inferences” about conditions of design, pedagogy, and technology use “nearly impossible to make with any certainty” (p. 1245). method and results this paper focuses on broad-brush factors teacher education students say supported their study success while undertaking some units/subjects that were part of an externally delivered (on-line) teaching degree. it reports some impacts of flexible learning options via digital learning and communication technologies on students’ decision to study and their subsequent study experiences, progression and outcomes. it draws on data from students’ course /unit evaluations and on conversations with them about their learning experiences during phone contact, on-line interactions and face-to-face meetings that were integral parts of the teaching-learning experience. data from 84 ‘external’ students who completed course/unit evaluation forms were scanned and relevant comments on ‘what works’ and ‘what doesn’t’ noted. some students lived a considerable distance from a university campus, often many thousands of kilometres (for example in laos), while others lived ‘just around the corner’ from the campus. in most cases, students would not have been able to study had they not enrolled as external/distance education students. (see elliott, 2010 and elliott & slee, 2009 and elliott & keenan, 2009 for details of a special study program we initiated for indigenous teacher assistants in remote communities). typically, there were no convenient or manageable options for university study that could accommodate both their work and family responsibilities in their homes and communities. generally, students worked full-time (or 20 hours + per week) in low to moderately paid positions (such as a fitness instructor, child care worker, or administrative officer) to support themselves and children, partners and other dependents. all were responsible for rent or mortgage payments and normal day to day living experiences. some students had made a conscious decision to change career or job directions. typically, these students were moving from careers such as police officer, army private, office worker, nurse, child care worker, teacher assistant, laboratory technician and it officer. “career changers” are an important source of teacher education students and their maturity is usually highly valued by employers. conversations with 23 students (rather than structured, formal interviews) while visiting them in their professional experience placements (in schools) and/or as part of regular (or face-to-face) phone discussions about progress or curriculum issues were also used to gauge perceptions and experiences of effective pedagogies and issues around combining study and work and family, and particularly experiences with on-line learning. using data from the 84 student evaluations and the 23 conversations, five ‘composite’ student profiles were constructed that reflected the main ‘types’ of student situations and typical broad-brush views about “what works” and “what doesn’t”. clearly these are not discrete student types. while each student had a range of distinct circumstances and characteristics that influenced their learning and perceptions of learning, they also shared some similar concerns and characteristics. student type-1 this student works full time as a fitness instructor. he is in his mid 30s, has a partner who works part-time and has two young children, one of whom has disability that requires extensive family support. he travels just over an hour each way to work and works variable hours. he lives 4000 km from the university and is studying teaching to gain long term career that harnesses his interest and expertise in working with sport and children and offers employment security for his family. he had previously commenced study at another university with an external studies option, but found poor staff-student communication an on-going problem. he lives within driving distance of four metropolitan universities. this student has excellent ict resources and skills, is resilient and resourceful and a confident communicator. he values the opportunity to work largely alone. he studies most nights between 10pm and midnight and on at least one day each weekend. he finds the blackboard platform easy to use and generally effective. he hasn’t time to be part of “student discussions” and student affairs. he wants to “get on with the job (of study)” and get the course finished as quickly as possible. he valued the opportunity to study on-line, to study across three teaching sessions per year (and hence spread the load and speed up course completion), to take additional subjects/units, to be visited by an academic while on his school placement and the on-going contact with academic staff, and particularly an academic mentor who knew him and understood his work and family situation. he was not happy with the rigidity of the professional experience placements and their timing. when he completed his professional experience (teaching) placements he had to take leave without pay and this compromised mortgage repayments and family financial security). he felt there should have been an option to organise these more flexibly and spread them over longer time periods. he was also concerned about slow or no staff response to emails, and staff who tried to video whole class lectures and tutorials (that had been given to internal students) for external students. he would have liked staff to initiate more contact with him. student type-2 this student is a school leaver from a low income family. when she commenced the course she was living with her father and older brother in a rented unit, about 10 minutes drive from the university. subsequently, her father moved away and left the girl and her brother in the rented house. as the father now has to pay rent in his new home and support a new partner and baby, the girl and her brother must earn enough to pay their accommodation and normal living expenses. the father cannot afford to support his daughter’s study or living expenses. the student works 15 to 20 hours per week in a local child care centre, and full-time in the semester break. she is eligible for centerlink study support (a national government student subsidy scheme). each week she must clear enough to pay her half of the rent ($250 per week), plus living expenses. the student is enrolled on a full-time ‘internal’ basis but depending on work commitments takes the opportunity to study some subjects externally. sometimes she shifts between internal and external study options within the one semester and/or subject and values the flexibility of moving seamlessly between internal and external study. often these ‘arrangements’ are informal, rather than formal. all on-line course material is the same for internal and external students. she says she has the “best of both worlds” as she can meet with staff and fellow students on a face-to-face basis and access on-line study options as necessary. with the in-class assistance of academic staff and the support of fellow students, she finds the on-line course materials easy to access and navigate. this student struggles with long in-school placements (3 to 10 weeks duration) as these generally prevent her earning income over the period, thus causing considerable financial stress. her low income means she is not able to accumulate funds to tide her over the periods without work. she finds the additional costs of printing materials such as course outlines, readings and curriculum documents to be excessive. she is concerned about ambiguity in the wording and requirements of some assessment items, but this concern is not confined to on-line material. she reports she would have had to withdraw from the course if she could not study ‘externally’. student type-3 this student is a woman in her mid twenties whose partner is in the defence forces. this couple expects to spend 18 months to 2 years in each posting. she studies externally so that she can work part-time (30 hours per week) to contribute to the family finances and so that she can continue studying when the family gets another posting away from a university. she is it savvy, has excellent on-line access and values the opportunity to continue her studies as she moves from place to place. she enjoys the on-line interaction with other students, including using a facebook site the students set up for themselves to discuss study and other issues outside the university monitored environment. she participates in a range of interactive, on-line learning experiences, feels confident about initiating contact with staff as necessary, and says that the personal contact and support is “what has got her through”. she says her experiences with staff were varied and that some staff were not responsive to the realities of her work and mobility situation. while she was able to “work around” onerous in-school placement requirements that should have required her take leave without pay for 10 weeks to complete her in-school professional experience, she urged the university to be more explicitly ‘flexible” and “understanding” to support students to complete in-school placements and continue to work. student type-4 this student is teaching english in an international school/college in laos. she is an australian citizen and seeking a formal teaching qualification to use when she returns to australia. after working “in marketing” for several years she has been travelling and teaching english. she now wants to be eligible for teacher registration in australia. clearly, because of her location she is only able to enrol in a fully on-line distance education program. her main challenges have been gaining reliable access to the internet and talking to lecturers by phone. lecturers are not permitted to install skype on university computers, so if she wants to phone a lecturer she must first make a time to talk when the lecturer has access to a home computer, internet and skype. generally, this student has found the on-line materials and teaching approaches straightforward, but expressed some concern about the excessive length of time (over a week) some lecturers have taken to respond to her email requests. she has valued the opportunity to interact on-line with other students in discussion activities. she is not interested in ‘watching a video’ of a lecturer giving a lecture as she says this offers no opportunity to engage her. she is concerned about the lack of flexibility around completing professional experience placements as her employer has made her take leave without pay for the duration of the placements. this, she said, placed her employer in a difficult position because the school was unable to find another english teacher. it also compromised her ability to meet on-going financial commitments during the time without pay. she was concerned about on-going problems accessing text books as distributors were reluctant to send them to laos. student type-5 this student lived in a remote community and was unable to work due to suitable employment options. she had three young children who attended preschool and school during school hours. she lacked initial confidence in using the on-line learning platform and required additional support to get underway. as she was not in paid employment, she had, perhaps, more time to devote to study than employed students and more time to interact with other students and staff. she was keen to participate in on-line discussions and to “meet up” with other students, albeit on-line. she participated in a face-to-face study group near her home and attended on-campus “intensives” (week long workshops) when these were available. once she had overcome initial difficulties in navigating the on-line learning platform she found it easy to use and was eager to interact with others. this student required considerable mentoring from staff and on-going support from and interaction with fellow students. she had a tendency to email staff up to several times a day and make several phone calls each week seeking support and clarification. she valued skype meetings (where available) and other phone conversations and one to one or small group ‘face-to-face’ meetings or individual communications with academic staff. review of these profiles plus data from student conversations and responses to course evaluation surveys, highlight the enabling factors that contributed to university level study success for a small group of teacher education students who studied ‘externally’ by on-line distance education. overwhelmingly, students found the study materials relatively easy to use once they became familiar with the blackboard platform; they valued a blend of on-line pedagogy and “face-to-face” interaction (albeit at a distance) to support course access, progression and completion. first, students valued the opportunity to access a higher education course that would otherwise have been impossible. most indicated that they selected an off-campus degree precisely because it was available on-line and they could study from home in their own time and at their own pace. in most cases they could not have participated in a teacher education program had they been required to enrol as internal (on-campus) students. in some cases, a student could possibly have studied internally, for a time, but course progression would have been slow due to competing responsibilities and especially inability to attend all classes because of significant family and work commitments. some students said they would have had to abandon study when the family moved due to work commitments. it is not easy to “transfer” between courses and universities. generally, students must go through an onerous process of reapplying for university admission. should they be accepted into another program they must then try to match completed subjects with equivalent units in a new course. second, students liked the accessibility of the on-line environment and the finger-tip, anytime access to course content and materials. after some initial teething problems with technology access for some students, the system ‘going down’ from time to time, and some occasional ‘hiccups’, they found on-line learning worthwhile and efficient. design and pedagogies of individual units/subject studied varied considerably. some incorporated features such as live streaming of on-campus lectures, podcasts, videos/utube and various synchronous and asynchronous student discussion and interaction options. all provided access to a range of digital content including customised study materials and library materials, such as major data bases. typically students reported that these features were useful, robust and efficient. overall, students were comfortable with the on-line study environments. any concerns they had were not around the technical aspects of the delivery platforms and in-built pedagogies. rather, they related to matters around their sense of self as a student, clarity of communication and materials and staff access and responsiveness. most importantly, students indicated they wanted to be considered as individuals, not just a number. at the same time, most wanted to be part of a “community” of students or learners, or the university, although their conception of this “community” varied considerably. while being an active part of a “learning community” (krause & duchesne, 2000) is linked to course satisfaction levels and achievement outcomes, in this case the sense of what constituted “community” was multi-faceted and seemed to revolve around a matrix of feelings related to “being in touch” and “connected” at several levelswith the university, the course, with teaching, with staff and with fellow students. all students wanted reasonable contact with academic staff; some needed high levels of contact. all valued personal, on-going professional relationships with their lecturer, tutor or other university-based mentor. overwhelmingly, all students said they wanted to talk to a “real person” regularly although this could be on the phone, in a video conference/skype situation or in a remote site (close to home) “tutorial” or consultation situation. students felt “supported”, “confident” and “included” when they had regular contact with a staff member. the concept of “regular” varied from once or twice a semester, per unit, to once or twice a week. while all students wanted to study externally at their “own time” and “pace”, many also wanted to be part of a student group, often, although not articulated as such, part of a “community of learners”. only about half, however, wanted to be part of a formally constructed, course-related “learning community”. most wanted the opportunity to move in and out of a “group” as it suited them. some lecturers’ tactics of giving a mark/grade for postings on discussion boards and participating in formal on-line discussions were considered “contrived” and viewed negatively. students’ comments about their study experiences indicated two main dimensions of distance or external learning experiences pedagogical and technical and structuralthat impacted on them and contributed to course satisfaction and progression. in essence though, the technical issues were more entwined with the overall structure of the course and the importance of clear communication and instructions, rather than issues intrinsic to the technological aspects of the on-line delivery platform. overall, the technical aspects of the on-line environment were robust and worked well for students, most of the time, albeit after some initial ‘teething issues’. analyses of students’ comments indicated the following pedagogical dimensions that enhanced learning. pedagogical dimensions that enhanced learning and course progression clearly presented, unambiguous instructional material easy to navigate on-line learning sites responsiveness of and ‘personal’ contact with academic staff (although not face-to-face interaction in the traditional on-campus sense) a sense of connectedness with the ‘course’ and a clear understanding of the ‘big picture’ of the course (eg. unit sequences, progression pathways) contact with fellow students, especially through informal, non-assessed groups opportunities for “intensive” unit/course workshops (non compulsory) just-in-time learning supports and feedback, including lecturer/tutor feedback ability to work ‘off-line’ and access materials in hard copy materials (because students have multiple personal demands they frequently need to study while doing other things such commuting to work by train/bus and “watching” children play weekend sport) on-going mentoring about course structure and progression issues and preferably with a single academic relevant computer skills training and on-going support (for some students) technical and structural dimensions that enhanced learning high-speed and reliable internet access technological support such as a 24 hour help-desk curtailing additional costs such as printing and texts. for example, students indicated that as they saved the university money by not using on-campus resources including utilities, savings could off-set printing costs. ability to access all learning materials on-line, especially if located outside australia (some international students had difficulty accessing prescribed text books as postal/courier services were problematic in some asian and african countries) varied study and progression pathways including flexible options for professional (clinical) experience. (a major concern for most students was the lengthy time periods (from 5 to 12 weeks) required to complete in-school practical teaching assignments. most indicated this caused considerable financial hardship and extreme personal and/or family stress. most indicated these lengthy blocks should be broken down to make them fit better with work and family commitments). all students were generally happy with the features of the on-line learning tools and could use them effectively, although they devoted differing amounts of time to developing proficiency. from time to time they became frustrated with passing problems or inconveniences with the technology, but across the board they were satisfied with the technical features of the delivery platforms. the most challenging issues for most students lay in working out the best mode of communicating with lecturers (and sometimes each other), but once this was settled they valued this communication and considered it essential to their learning. each student highlighted the importance of interacting with academic staff as the key to a successful study experience. where this was not available or difficult to access they seemed to struggle to progress satisfactorily, both emotionally and academically. obviously, student need for academic contact and support varied from person to person, but all wanted some direct contactpreferably a phone call (or equivalent on-line contact), and at the very least personal emails. clearly, on-line learning changes some aspects of the student-teacher relationship and the fact that most external students may never meet their tutors’ impacts on the ways the relationships are established and nurtured. while there is little research on the nature of the student/teacher relationship in higher education, especially in distance/external teaching contexts, de fazio, gilding and zorzenon (2000) say that effective academic support requires “a people or strong pastoral element” as well as complex mix of subject knowledge, language and study skills expertise. as indicated in this review of students’ perceptions of their external study experiences, these “people elements” were instrumental in supporting effective learning. specifically, most students wanted to interact with others, and they wanted staff to take a collaborative, explorative and mentoring role in their learning. while lecturers must devise and organise content, they must also look at “scaffolding elements” that can personalise the learning experience for remote learners. concluding comments the quest to broaden opportunities for participation in higher education requires both targeted recruitment strategies, including partnerships with schools and communities in disadvantaged areas together with new approaches to university access and teaching that recognise the demographic realities of the groups of students universities are hoping to attract. importantly, for students who must work to support themselves and their families, degree programs that allow them to study off-campus, at least in part, are important. the learning and communications technologies currently available and widely used in distance (external) studies programs enable effective, off-campus study. a major problem for potential higher education students from low socio-economic backgrounds is physical access to university campuses due to the competing day to day priorities of work and family. generally, universities that already enrol large numbers of students from low socio-economic backgrounds recognise students’ complex lives and competing home, family and work and study priorities and make accommodations for these by offering flexibility in course study opportunities and structures. encouraging students from low income backgrounds to enrol and complete degrees in a timely manner means recognising that most will need to engage in substantial paid work and/or in family-related duties such as supporting children and other family members and providing flexible study options to accommodate this. evidence from this and previous analyses of enrolment and progression trends and issues for students from low socio-economic groups studying at university indicates the complex effects of social and economic disadvantage that require special recognition and responsiveness. as stressed earlier, students are often dealing with day to day care of children and homes and/or family members with debilitating and chronic illness, plus working paid shifts, plus attending university. many have limited access to personal transport making commuting to university campuses a continuing challenge. rural and remote students may live hundreds of kilometres from a university campus so their travel and accommodation requirements are especially complex (elliott & keenan, 2009; elliott & slee, 2009). clearly, these physical access issues compound a complex matrix of disadvantage to mitigate enrolment in higher education, especially traditional on-campus study. if students from disadvantaged backgrounds are to access higher education programs they must be confident they can enrol in and complete degrees in a reasonable time and be assured that they can study and work and/or manage family responsibilities simultaneously. use of digital learning technologies in higher education teaching makes delivery of responsive, flexible learning options a reality. on-line learning platforms that provide students with 24/7 access to learning materials and, potentially, to personalised learning support facilitate university access. improving access to higher education and then creating engaging, motivating and compelling learning environments is a major challenge for providers in the next decade. flexible learning options using digital technologies can expand study choices for students and subsequent study experiences, progression and outcomes. off-campus, flexible learning options have the potential to include and engage students with multiple and complex needs that typically prevent access to traditional university programs. analyses of external study students’ perceptions of their learning in this review highlighted both the variability in their circumstances and the similarities in their educational aspirations, learning goals and learning needs. importantly, the opportunity to study off-campus and on-line enabled university access, that was otherwise denied because of personal circumstances. students found the technical process of on-line learning relatively straightforward, but they stressed that it was the interaction with academic staff, and with fellow students, that kept them ‘on track’ and ‘motivated’. this interaction was paramount in facilitating learning and complementing and enriching their on-line learning experiences. it was this personalised staff support that they most valued in their learning journeys. references ashby, a. 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(2007). the first-year experience in higher education in the uk. report on phase 1 of a project funded by the higher education academy. accessed may 10, 2010, from http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/fyesurvey.htm waikroo, n. & carter, p. (2009). cultural explanations for racial and ethnic stratification in academic achievement. a call for a new and improved theory. review of educational research, 79(1), 366-394. warschauer, m., knobel, m. & stone. l (2004). technology and equity in schooling: deconstructing the digital divide, educational policy, 18(4), 562-588 issues of governance are central to the concerns of all communi e-governance and community informatics: developed and less developed country experiences issues of governance are central to the concerns of all communities and thus to community informatics. michael gurstein, ph.d. editor in chief <gurstein@gmail.com> how communities govern themselves, how they interact with other governance structures, how they enable (or not) participation by community members in decision making and more directly into service management and provision, how governance itself is a process of community and individual empowerment are all issues of central concern to communities and thus of central concern and areas of possible application for community informatics. much of the attention in the application of icts to government have been concerned with enabling the delivery of government services (e-government). the transfer of technologies and technology and organizational strategies directly from commercial initiatives to public sector ones has been an obvious opportunity from a variety of perspectives and particularly in developed countries. with appropriate infrastructures in place in public sector organizations in developed countries based on earlier automation and digitization processes particularly as applied to back offices (internal administration), the transfer or extension of commercial technologies, and organization strategies into the management of public sector transactions and information management was a natural evolution. (navarrete). a limitation on this however, has been the broad inability to recognize and respond to the differences that result between a public sector which is providing service to “citizens” and the private sector which is providing service to “customers”. while customers have certain rights and powers (most notably that of withdrawing their custom from the commercial provider), citizens particularly in western style democracies have certain statutory rights including that of insisting on transparency and accountability which would normally be required in commercial transactions. in addition, of course in most cases for public sector services there are no realistic alternatives and thus the opportunity to “vote with one’s feet or pocket book” does apply and thus the responsibility of public sector service providers is rather greater and to be held to a higher standard than for commercial service providers. (verzola) less developed countries differ of course from developed countries in this area as in others notably through the absence of a developed electronic or digital infrastructure and through, in most cases, the absence of a well-developed range of publicly delivered services. thus while in developed countries e-government as applied to service delivery might be criticized for disempowering citizens by reducing their opportunity to influence services and service delivery1 the same measures in ldc’s might be seen as a very positive development in that it may represent a significant extension of service provision to the population and the use of this implementations for service delivery to modernize and rationalize the public sector administrative and technological infrastructure. (de jager et al, kettani et al) from a community informatics perspective there may be parallel differences as well. in developed countries with well-developed service delivery systems and where there is a very wide based of connectivity the development of means for effective participation by systems in public policy and service delivery planning processes can be seen quite directly in the context of the implementation of a community based ict enabled approach (longford and rixon et al). in an ldc where there may be a wide variety of reasons for a very low degree of internet access and use one might want rather more modest expectations with regard to community involvement, perhaps settling for some type of opportunity for effective comment and feedback on existing services. (ramen, verma et al). the role for ci in the broad area of e-governance as can be seen in the papers in this issue is on the one hand to keep a gentle but a continuing pressure on those designing and implementing e-governance systems and services to ensure that the needs of the citizens are foremost in their work and on the other to ensure that as ci approaches are implemented at the community level to recognize that e-governance is one of the necessary applications and areas of priority to which attention must be paid. as we move into an environment where there is an ever broader degree of e-governance activity and where in parallel there are ever greater opportunities for community use and community empowerment through icts the manner in which these are applied in the fundamental area of the operations of governance and the service delivery outputs of public sector activity must remain uppermost as priorities. 1 m. gurstein, “from e-government to e-governance: an approach from effective use”, paper prepared for paving the road to tunis, conference on canadian civil society and the world summit on the information society, canadian commission for unesco, winnipeg, 2005. drive-by wi-fi and digital storytelling: development and co-creation jo tacchi1, kathi r kitner2, kiran mulenahalli3 professor and deputy dean, research and innovation, college of media and communication, department of design and social context, rmit university, australia. email: jo.tacchi@rmit.edu.au anthropologist and senior researcher, experience insights lab, intel labs, intel corporation, united states. free-lance researcher in icts and development, india. introduction this paper compares and contrasts two examples of the use of information and communications technologies for development (ict4d), or what heeks (2010) calls 'development informatics', and the contrasting development models that underpin them. we want to examine how icts might enable different forms of participation in development through the notion of co-creation, and explore how underlying approaches to development influence and constrain what this kind of participation looks like in practice. we situate the two examples, discussed subsequently, within the context of the bottom of the pyramid (bop) and human development and capability approach (hdca) as the underlying approaches informing the concerns of 'development' through the notion of 'co-creation'. co-creation is identified as the practice through which '......"innovation" as the capacity of those in local communities to find meaningful, efficient and effective ways to respond to their very local and singular challenges and also, and equally, the challenges which they share with multiple similar communities globally' (gurstein 2013). this we argue has significant impact on instituting notions of citizenship and creating spaces of entitlement, and thus affecting 'development'. through the two examples, we highlight how even though the notion of 'co-creation' is central to the impact of the two discussed approaches, there are fundamental distinctions in these two approaches about its social, economic and political potentialities and implications. we argue that these distinctions ought to be considered with caution to further both the idea and the practice of 'development'. co-creation in practice: daknet and finding a voice the first example we will discuss is daknet. daknet brought asynchronous internet connectivity to rural populations in orissa, india. in the absence of 'always on' internet provided through stable infrastructure such as optical fiber cables, this initiative was finding innovative ways to allow connection to the internet. in this area of orissa where the internet was otherwise unavailable or very costly (through mobile phones, for example) the idea was to deliver a range of services such as e-shopping, online job searches, information searches and a matrimonial (match-making) service, for a nominal fee. this initiative mixed a range of technologies and platforms to deliver these services, including computers, the internet, wi-fi, and local buses that served as mobile servers. the daknet project was underpinned by an approach to development that follows the bottom of the pyramid (bop) model (prahalad 2006; prahalad and hart 2002). daknet is a straightforward application of a bop model, in that it hinged on the idea that the rural poor, who as individuals have very little spending power, together make up a sizeable market that can become profitable through designing services that are specifically developed and priced for them. the second example comes from a research project called finding a voice (fav). in this example, 15 community-based ict initiatives across india, indonesia, nepal and sri lanka used mixes of technologies to experiment with participatory content creation. this term refers to media content that is created with participation from members of the community who normally would not have such opportunities. the concept of 'voice' was a central focus of these activities, and was defined broadly as concerning inclusion in social, political and economic areas of life; participation in decision and meaning making processes; autonomy; and expression (tacchi 2012). this example follows an approach to development that is most closely aligned to the human development and capability approach (hdca). this approach follows closely the work of amartya sen in which the objective of development concerns expanding people's real freedoms what people are able to do and be (sen 1999). a focus on human development in the field of ict for development is seen by many as crucial, since otherwise development can result in 'social exclusion in the e-society' (zheng and walsham 2008). these two different development models bop and hdca contrast quite starkly in many ways, yet this paper concludes that close examination of such approaches in practice can inform us about what each might learn from the other. this can be summed up in their different but in some ways overlapping ideas of 'co-creation'. co-creation, in both of the cases, can be thought about in terms of what some now consider a 'buzzword' in development: participation (leal 2007). both projects use icts in innovative ways as a mechanism to achieve the particular type of development outcomes desired. they can both be considered to be experiments in digital communication, and part of information and communication technology for development (ict4d). ict4d is a lively and fast growing development field (heeks, 2010) that is populated by a range of people including technologists, corporates, entrepreneurs, academics from a range of disciplines, and development practitioners more generally. it involves the whole gamut of traditional and emerging technologies, and has an emerging history of its own within the wider development tradition (heeks, 2008; unwin, 2009). this paper reinforces tim unwin's insistence, that when thinking about ict4d, it is important to be clear about what we mean by the 'd', development (unwin, 2009). ict4d experiments, initiatives and research do not share a single approach to development. while some are closely linked with ideas of 'progress', aligned to technological advances and targeted at economic growth for the alleviation of poverty, there are many examples of ict4d that follow alternative paradigms of development, including 'post-development' (rahnema, 1997). others present alternative ways to think about poverty considering that economic growth and the role of markets as just one part of the whole picture (sen, 1999 and 2002); while still others take into account the material, subjective as well as relational wellbeing (gough and mcgregor 2007; mcgregor and sumner 2009). unwin makes the point that there are many ways to connect ict and development, following multiple paradigms (2009). yet there is a pervasive assumption that ict can be clearly linked with progress and development, as demonstrated by many of the digital divide debates. even when alternative models of development are assumed to influence the policies of major development agencies, 'the discourse concerning ict interventions invariably is reminiscent of the dominant model' (mansell 2011). according to unwin, while ict might be linked to ideas of progress in a globalized world, within the realm of ict4d there is a 'profoundly moral agenda' where the focus must be not on the technologies themselves, but on how they can be used to enable the empowerment of marginalized communities (unwin 2009: 33) not all proponents of development would set out the agenda of ict4d in moral terms. heeks (2008:26) proposes far more self-interested motivations: in a globalized world, the problems of the poor today can, tomorrow through migration, terrorism, and disease epidemics become the problems of those at the pyramid's top. conversely, as the poor get richer, they buy more of the goods and services that industrialized countries produce, ensuring a benefit to all from poverty reduction. apart from compelling evidence that global terrorism rarely has strong poverty connections (bhagwati 2006; kruger and maleckova 2002;), the focus here has shifted from 'the poor' to 'the non-poor'. in such a case, the poor become a means for the enrichment of the non-poor, and this shifts the concern of development. there is a contrast between a human-centred approach squarely focusing on the poor, and one that focuses on the role of profit-making enterprises, the development of new markets through the development of the poor as new consumers. while the first can be considered to be concerned with a hdca approach (deneulin 2009a; sen 1999), the second echoes c.k. prahalad's claim that there is a 'fortune' to be made at the bottom of the pyramid (2006). for this paper we are considering what we might learn about ict and development from a comparison of two examples of ict4d that are underpinned by these two different approaches to development. in the first section of the paper we describe the two examples, our methodologies, and some of the relevant features of the approaches taken. in the second section we compare and contrast the two different approaches to development that lay behind the examples, polarizing in order to emphasize the differences. in the third section we attempt to collapse those differences as far as possible in order to discuss similarities that emerge in practice, and their relevance beyond these two examples to the field of ict4d. in the final section we conclude with a discussion of the uses and meanings of 'co-creation', which ultimately appears to be the concept that most easily flows across the polarities of the two approaches and examples. indeed it is through this concept that we can draw the two approaches together despite their fundamental differences. the projects: innovative connections the two examples that we present in this paper both employ communication technologies in innovative ways to form some kinds of connections. the first example, daknet, connected existing communication infrastructures (such as roads and buses) with new, purpose built digital wi-fii devices, linking potential consumers to services made available through asynchronous internet connections. the second example, finding a voice, experimented with the use of new digital technologies and platforms for opening up the spaces where media content is created and distributed, to allow for other voices to be communicated and heard. while both projects were about connections, there was an underlying motive of development that needs to be kept in mind. in this section we provide brief descriptions of each project initiative and highlight in each specific instances of 'co-creation' as a practice to emphasise the intersections and distinctions between the two bop and hdca and thus explore the underlying implications of these approaches. daknet: e-shopping through drive-by wi-fi: the intervention united villages networks private limited developed a low-cost internet access model called daknet (literally translated as postal network). it used proprietary software and hardware to support a network of rural kiosks--daknet service providers (dsp)--who sold subscriptions to access a range of services (email, voice messaging, internet) on dsp's computers. through the computers in these fixed access points, data was uploaded through wi-fi transceivers mounted on local buses. the buses passed in front of these kiosks which were all located on a well used, major local bus route. uploaded data was stored until the bus arrived at the bus station where it was transferred to the internet via wireless protocols. likewise, at the bus station the bus downloaded data for delivery along its route to the network of kiosks. this 'store-and-forward' system allowed daknet to offer asynchronous networked communication to users at low cost. villagers along the routes sign up for a daknet prepaid account and use the service to order items; request and receive job information; request and receive web searches on specified topics; send or receive emails, sms or voice mail messages; or access the daknet matrimonial (match-making) service. all of this was done offline. when the bus that had collected this data arrived at the main bus station in the city of bhubaneswar, the stored user data was forwarded via a wireless node to the main office of united villages, and at this point the real-time internet was used to provide information or to source requested goods. at the time of our fieldwork in 2008 there were more than 60 kiosks which were generally run by local entrepreneurs who were already running a local business such as a photo studio, a public telephone booth, an electrical equipment shop, or a tv/radio repair shopii . figure no.1 the internet had only recently become available in the area, using mobile internet connections, and it was still very costly. the nearest cyber cafes were located a bus ride away in urban centers. daknet offered individual subscriptions similar to prepaid cellular mobile phone connections, with recharge services. the daknet subscriber was provided with a unique number that served as an account login. the initial idea, was in the absence of both internet and mobile phone networks and connections, to provide the range of services--rural email, sms, and voicemail as well as e-shopping and information and job search facilities. however, there was limited demand for the email, sms and voicemail services. apart from literacy issues, there was a lack of reasons or indeed other people, to send emails to amongst individual villagers. sms quickly became possible through the emerging mobile phone networks and affordable pre-paid mobile phone accounts, which had been unavailable when daknet began. the most popular service of all proved to be e-shopping. to assist e-shoppers united villages provided a paper catalogue detailing what goods were available, and they would also source non-catalogue items. a villager could visit a kiosk and place their order themselves, or place an order through a sales person, who would ensure the order was sent to the bhubaneswar hub via daknet from the computer in the kiosk, with the link to the local bus via a wi-fi transceiver. the goods were then purchased from wholesalers in bhubaneswar and sent to the villages, again by means of the bus network. using this service, subscribers were able to purchase quality goods that were unavailable in local markets, and have them delivered close to their door. this service was used both by individual householders and small business. it was beneficial to local shopkeepers since they no longer had to travel to a major city to purchase specialty trade or domestic items, saving time and the cost of travel. if they had a customer who required something they would not normally stock, they were able to supply it through this service. individuals could get better quality goods than were available locally described to us as "luxury" items such as cosmetics, face creams and (over the counter) medications. united villages had a team of sales men (bhandu) linked to the kiosks, who reached out into the villages, often going door to door. many of them started using mobile phones to place e-shopping orders for village customers during our research, removing the need to access a computer at all. the ultimate aim of daknet was to use technology in innovative ways in order to build a profitable business that would link underserved people with very low spending power, to products and services otherwise unavailable to them through existing local markets. in this way a market would be created for daknet services, specifically designed and delivered with this low-income market in mind. finding a voice through creative engagement: the intervention finding a voice (fav) is very different from daknet as an example of an ict4d project. it explored participatory content creation and the role of marginalised groups not in terms of consumers of services, but rather, as consumers and producers of 'knowledge'. conducted with support from unesco, unesco's notion of a 'knowledge society' where everyone has the capabilities of identifying, producing, disseminating and using information to build and apply knowledge was central (unesco 2005:191). different mixes of technologies and platforms were used across all of the sites. all used computers and the internet, while some were also community radio stations or video projects. some were community libraries, or village telecentresiii . one initiative located in a slum in delhi, was a gender resource and ict centre that provided a range of support services to women, teaching vocational skills such as tailoring, as well as computer and design skills. content across the 15 sites was made for a range of purposes. in the delhi case, training in digital media and design was to meet identified local employment needs. some of the content was used to generate community discussion with an aim of subsequent action. the concept of 'voice' was a central focus of the project. according to arjun appadurai, the 'lack of resources with which to give "voice,"' constitutes one of the poor's gravest deficits. voice means the opportunity to express their views, and crucially, to get results 'skewed to their own welfare in the political debates that surround wealth and welfare in all societies' (2004:63). finding a voice was concerned with the relevance of voice in relation to poverty influenced by people like ruth lister who writes that 'voice poverty' is the inability of people to influence the decisions that affect their lives, and participate in that decision making (lister, 2004). working in the areas of ict and communication for development, the concept of voice was considered to be about opportunity and agency to promote self-expression and advocacy. it concerns access, and the availability of skills to use media, technology and distribution platforms for the circulation of a range of alternative expressions. an underlying idea was that creative engagement with media and technology might provide an interesting mechanism for participatory development, as for example through the kinds of participatory content creation activities that took place in digital storytelling workshops where people had been taught to create their own short films (tacchi, 2009). fav was an action research project which invited participation from community-based ict, media and multimedia centers interested in experimenting with participatory content creation. a series of workshops was conducted through which participants explored what they understood by participatory content creation, how it might be used in their local center to help them achieve their objectives, and to develop locally appropriate strategies for implementation. in this context, and referring to icts for development initiatives amariles et al. (2006) argue that, unlike 'cyberfcafes' community-based initiatives would intrinsically have 'social purpose' which makes local capacity building a key for developmental outcomes. the local researchers observed the content creation activities in their centres, feeding this information back to the centre staff, and to the finding a voice project researchers. in this way finding a voice showed some of the possibilities and challenges of these kinds of activities. in some cases it was found to be possible to build upon local understandings to develop culturally appropriate interfaces for local content creation. this however was not the end of the story, and questions were raised concerning how content is created, circulated, received and used; all providing interesting reflections on issues of voice and the role of ict in the community. each local experiment in content creation was unique, informed to a greater or lesser extent by the local research. the ultimate aim of this project was to position marginalised people as 'voices', and to consider whether and how icts might provide a bridge or mechanism for those voices to be heard, and their positions recognised and responded to. co-creating with community participation a community radio initiative, hevalvani samudayik radio in uttarakhand, a mountain state in northern india, was part of the fav project. this community radio initiative's intervention in the nearby villages was extensive, and involved practices of collaborative content production, which was then relayed through narrowcasting. jugargaon was one of the villages. the village is only approachable on foot, an hour's walk from the nearest motorable road. the mountainous terrain and the limited infrastructural development in this area render the everyday of the villagers harsh, especially women who are responsible for both household chores and tending to the farms. one of the most demanding tasks for women in this region is to fetch potable water. a significant number of villages in the region still do not have piped connections; jugargaon however had laid pipelines though with no water supply. in their interactions with the villagers the community radio workers identified the lack of a supply of water to the piped connections as an administrative concern which needed to be brought to the attention of the responsible officials'. they produced a video recording of the villagers voicing the hardships they encountered as a result of the lack of water. this program was then played for the government official under whose jurisdiction for matters . he refused to recognize the issue and instead attempted to shift the responsibility of administrative failure to 'petty local politics in the village'. the interview with him, which was recorded, was played at a community meeting in the village. his nonchalant response to the issue compelled the villagers to undertake a more proactive stance, and thus a signature campaign was set in motion and ultimately submitted to higher authorities in the concerned department. three days later, jurgargaon had a regular water supply. seelampur is the largest resettlement colony in delhi, india's capital city, and is a muslim dominated locality. it is a highly conservative, a male-dominated community where women's mobility, everyday practices and 'voice' are significantly curtailed. gender-based violence is commonplace, with the victims, women and young girls, having little recourse in seeking justice. a gender resource centre (grc) managed by the datamation foundation, a non-governmental organization, was part of the fav project. here, young women were given technical training and equipped with skills in developing a variety of media content: digital stories and newsletters, amongst others. violence against women constantly emerged as an intimately felt and articulated concern; and when the organization tried to raise the issue with the men in positions of power in the locality, they dismissed it as a perception of the 'outsiders' and instead insisted that gender inequality and violence was not a concern within the community. the girls and women at the grc started to document 'real' life experiences of women who had been (or were) victims of domestic violence. these were rendered as digital stories, which were then showcased in public forums within the community. the post-screening discussions invited reactions from the male attendees which in turn compelled them to recognize the gravity of the situation and proactively work towards an awareness and advocacy plan. co-creating the availability of new products and goods the united village's e-shop initiative began with providing a paper catalog to its salesmen (bhandu), which they then circulated among the residents. the paper catalog initially included items which the organisers reckoned would be of interest to the residents, and included a range of items from sunglasses to energy efficient bulbs, medicines, toiletries and seeds. however, soon after their initial evaluation of this intervention, the organisers recognized the increasing demand for non-cataloged items by the residents and widened their scope to accommodate these demands. deeksha, a 24 year old homemaker, wanted to order a face cream which was not listed in the catalog and made the request to the bhandu; however not being able to read english she gave the bhandu a label cut-off from the required cream's packaging. in another instance, kuhuri, a high school student, wanted text and reference books which were unavailable both in the local market and in the daknet catalog. both demands were met, and so began the shift in the system to more collaboratively building the services. soon a dynamic system of supply and demand was set in motion, wherein almost 50 percent of the orders placed were of the non-catalogued variety. at once daknet was responding to the community's demands and populating their catalog, thus co-creating a heterogeneity in product demands by the consumers and supply through the e-shop. these instances of 'co-creation' draw from the two projects fav and daknet which are respectively based on hdca and bop models of development. they are revealing about the implicit models of development emphasized by each approach. while the concerns for the hdca is to build capacities towards empowered citizenship and extended agency to negotiate with structural issues, the bop operates singularly within the market-driven logic of encouraging consumerism. in a global, capital driven economy it would indeed be naïve to totally dismiss the role of increasing purchase power (and/or exercising demand), however for development practitioners and theorists it is important to situate and identify the gap between citizenship and consumerism in the local context, as well as noting broader structural considerations. an engaged and critical discussion of the two approaches can contribute towards this agenda. development in practice: co-creation as emphasized in the introduction the most obvious similarity across the two examples that both initiatives were employing strategies ensuring ' …that "innovation" is done by, with, and in the community and not simply something that is done "to" or "for" the community' (gurstein 2013). what is of particular significance however, is where the 'innovation' is located. the focus in finding a voice was on the 'co-creation' of content, very much in line with the ambition to build the capabilities of people to lead the kind of lives they have reason to value. with daknet, united villages works with local entrepreneurs, very much in line with the bop model of trying to 'co-create' a market around the consumption needs of the poor. london and hart (2004) found, in their study of how mncs and other enterprises work at the bop, that it is crucial to learn from the 'bottom-up', that local 'deep knowledge' can help to develop successful strategies. only when products, services and processes are co-designed, and capacities built, can the potential for enterprise development at the bop be realised. in hdca, there is an expectation that a development initiative and the theories of change that lie behind it are co-created, or co-constructed and defined with local actors; that it is their agency and capability sets that are promoted. participation or partnerships are central tenets of these approaches to development. the notion and examples of co-creation emerging from ict4d projects thus may provide interesting mechanisms for participation across a range of development projects. this is important because participation is in fact hard to achieve, as the many critiques of participation demonstrate (cooke and kothari 2001; leal 2007). innovative connections innovation comes across in a few different ways in both interventions, for example, in the ways in which we find innovative mixes of existing and trusted technologies with new and untested ones. in daknet the use of the buses and bus drivers for transportation of messages and goods are combined with digital technologies to create a new perspective on an old tradition. in fav, one can find a range of local solutions that combine traditional and new technologies, as well as processes such as digital storytelling which combine local practices of storytelling with video editing software and digital cameras. for example, in sri lanka, a three wheeled motor vehicle commonly used to transport people and goods locally is combined with an outside broadcasting unit, mobile internet connection and laptop to create a mobile telecentre which travels to villages to collect local stories and encourage villagers to make their own content (tacchi and grubb 2007). prahalad says that advanced, emerging technologies should be 'creatively blended' with existing infrastructures (2006: 25). daknet ('post through the net'), as its name suggests, builds upon the traditional and trusted idea of the postman, the well-used bus service that plies between towns and villages, and the bus driver as a common carrier of goods. added to this are newer technologies such as the wi-fi and the computer. payment is made in a similar way to local chit funds or savings groups, an existing and understood method for putting aside small amounts of funds for purchases. the rural postman has played a variety of trusted roles beyond delivering mail, sometimes reading letters to illiterate recipients, helping them to respond, and so on. buses are the cheapest and most commonly used form of local transport, and bus drivers have often been used to send remittances or other goods to relatives, often from the city or town to the village. these technologies and infrastructures are creatively built upon by the daknet service, which adds the wi-fi communication link via the buses, the computer kiosks, and the sales team who reach out into the villages. in this way villagers, literate or not, able to travel to the market or not, can access goods and services through the daknet sales person. development theory and practice has long recognised the importance of social context in facilitating poor and marginalised people to realise a broad range of human rights to development, education, health and well-being (servaes 1999). nonetheless, governments, donors, and development planners 'are still fixated on (the) increase in national incomes' largely ignoring the importance of context to effectively design human-centred initiatives (prakash and de' 2007). the fav research re-emphasised the importance of understanding context (kiran, et al. 2009). participatory content creation draws upon the age-old tradition of storytelling, mixing old and new ways of communicating through developments of the digital storytelling approach (hartley and mcwilliam, 2009). digital stories are generally short, two to five minute personal multimedia films put together using as few as two and as many as 30 photographs, sometimes with video content. they are created in community workshops. the images are used to illustrate a script, which is generally voiced by the creator of the story, typically in the first person. two of the centers that participated in fav were community libraries in rural nepal. they used the digital story community workshop approach to generate participatory wall newspapers, as well as short videos. they mixed traditional oral storytelling with digital storytelling, and used new approaches to gain participation both in the creation of traditional wall newspapers, and newer micro-documentary videos. within the development,process, there are different levels of and interests in participation (white 1996), and different stakeholders can be shown to employ participation for their own advantage (michener 1998). in both of our examples, co-designed products and services, tailored to local markets, are seen to have enhanced likelihood of being taken up and valued. in both of the studies presented, there are some elements of capacity building and some understanding of 'the poor' as producers, not merely consumers. however, they are quite different in the two examples. prahalad recognizes the need to 'co-create unique solutions', and recommends collaboration between large firms who have investment capacity, with ngos and communities who have knowledge and commitment. essentially, though, this approach is concerned with transforming 'the poor' into 'consumers' for goods sold by large firms, rather than into producers of goods, from whom large firms might buy. cross and street (2009) consider the 'benign' language of partnership employed in the bop approach of mncs to be something that can obscure power dynamics that are inevitable when large-scale firms and mncs recruit local actors to help develop new markets. cross & street suggest that, despite the problems involved in surmounting 'a moral opposition between "market" and "society"' bop initiatives that make explicit their commercial self-interest, and bring poor consumers into their 'marketing, production and distribution process appear to gain acceptance as successful composites of both social and commercial interests' (2009:9). crewe and harrison (1998) talk about the move in development from 'doing things for' to 'doing things with' but consider that the portrayal of partnerships as a relationship and process of cooperation that is equal, is 'inherently problematic' (crewe and harrison, 1998 p.71). indeed they consider the notion of partnership as a highly ambiguous one. while for donors these partnerships may bring legitimacy and a claim to authenticity in practice they reinforce the dependency of ngos on the donors that fund them while potentially having the effect of undermining their relationships with the constituencies they consider to be in need of their development services. indeed, crewe and harrison go further to suggest that 'the exchange is inherently unequal and, at times, coercive' (ibid:74). the bop approach is founded on the principle that firms can make a profit from the vast numbers of rural poor, and because of this latent market, waiting for firms to profit from, it is in their self-interest to improve the lives of the poor and provide them with the means to participate more actively as consumers. however, kuriyan et al. (2008:102) found, in practice, commercial self-interest is more likely to result in entrepreneurs catering to better off and established markets comprised of middle class, urban dwellers. approaches to development: emphasizing the differences we want to now step back and look at the approaches to development that underpin these two examples we can start by trying to understand the different ideas about poverty and development that are being employed, and draw up a set of polarized notions to emphasize the differences. the bop model proposes a direct relationship between business and market expansion, and economic development for the poor. the lives of the poor can be improved through market-based solutions, with firms treating the poor as a viable market. this at the same time creates a profit opportunity for business, if they target their products and services to suit the needs of this new market segment -the four billion people at the bottom of the pyramid (prahalad and hart 2002). in this section we draw mostly on prahalad's book, the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid: eradicating poverty through profits (2006). hdca is concerned with expanding what people are able to do or what they can be -what sen calls their real freedoms (deneulin 2009a; sen 1999). rather than focus on the economy or markets, the focus is squarely on the person. the end goals of development are not increased income or gdp, but the capabilities and agency of people what they can choose to do or be. this is not to say that the hdca approach is absolutely distinct from one that focuses on market development, such as the bop. as alkire and deneulin (2009:23) make clear, there are overlaps. hdca sees economic growth, economic stability, and increased income as important means to development, but not the ends of development. the bop approach considers that if businesses work for their own profit by approaching the poor as a viable market, this in turn will improve the quality of life of those people. profit maximization vs. social inclusion in his book, c.k. prahalad explicitly links poverty with disenfranchisement (2006). he sees the kinds of inclusions that are desirable and that will effectively lead to development as a form of 'inclusive capitalism.' creating the capacity to consume, by working together (firms, ngos, governments and communities) to create viable markets and appropriate products and services, can lift those at the bop out of poverty and bring them not only access to goods and services specifically created with them in mind, but also bring them 'dignity and choice' (prahalad 2006). the hdca approach would say that poverty is certainly about income and markets, but they are a means to an end rather than the end in itself. instead, the hdca approach sees poverty as including a lack of rights, capabilities and substantive freedoms. the aim of development is to improve capabilities and the freedom to live the kind of life one has reason to value. sen argues that social success and development can be measured by the freedoms members of a society enjoy, including political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees and protective security (1999). the aim of social inclusion is strongly linked to these ideas. so, on the one hand the bop model promotes inclusion for all in the modes of capitalism which the bop model equates with ownership of goods traded in markets, while hdca promotes inclusion in the kinds of social life that one has reason to value. active, informed and involved consumers vs. active, informed, and involved citizens a developed bop would be made up of 'active, informed, and involved consumers' (emphasis added) (prahalad 2006, p. xvi), whereas a developed community that has freedoms and agency would be made up of active, informed and involved citizens. the emphasis in the bop model is to recognize those at the bop as potential consumers, to develop goods that are targeted to their circumstances and of value to them, and attract the attention of large-scale private firms who otherwise ignore 80 per cent of humanity. the hdca stresses the need to create mechanisms for exercising agency in the public sphere. the emphasis in prahalad's model is on the right to consume, while the emphasis in hdca is on human rights more broadly. from prahalad's perspective, the bop deserves to be given the opportunity to consume. large firms must appropriately adjust their products and strategies. the poor should have access to products and services that adhere to globally recognized quality standards rather than the sub-standard goods to which they currently have access. from the hdca perspective human rights are inalienable and commonly understood as spanning the civil, political, economic, social and cultural. for the bop approach the poor and disenfranchised must become part of the core focus of firms, who should listen to them as an emerging and potentially vast market. from the hdca perspective they need to be the focus of governments, civic and social institutions (o'donnell, lloyd and dreher 2009). london and hart (2004) emphasize the importance of leveraging the strengths of existing markets at the bop (mostly informal), and co-inventing custom solutions with local and non-traditional partners. sen (1999 p.142) argues that problems with market mechanisms are not intrinsic to 'the market' but are concerned with things like the inability to engage with markets because of a lack of information, lack of regulation of markets, the difficulty for illiterate or innumerate workers meeting global trade standards, and so on. deneulin (2009b:53) compares and contrasts human approaches to development with market liberalism. both, she points out, herald the idea of 'freedom'. major differences, though, underpin these approaches so that the idea of freedom and market liberalism is about minimizing restrictions for, and interference in, markets. hdca promotes freedom as the freedom to do or be what one has reason to value. while human development promotes the objective of the expansion of human freedoms, market liberalism promotes the maximization of economic welfare as its objective. freedom of choice for hdca is understood as human capabilities and functionings (sen 1999); market liberalism sees it as 'utility and satisfaction of preferences' (deneulin 2009b:53) which can in part be understood as consumer choice, along the lines of prahalad's argument that the poor have the right to be consumers of quality products. hdca is concerned with equality and justice, while market liberalism is concerned with economic efficiency. for hdca economic growth is a means to the ends of development, which are people. for economic growth and market liberalism approaches people are the means to grow markets, which is their focus (karnani 2006). conclusions this paper has compared and contrasted two examples of the use of ict4d and the contrasting development models that underpin them. the notion of co-creation is present in both, but the underlying approaches to development influence and constrain what this kind of participation looks like in practice. these different approaches to development imply different development goals and lead to different possibilities in terms of development outcomes. since prahalad's 2006 book on the bop was published, the centrality of the idea of co-creation has been strengthened. indeed 'bop 2.0', the 'next generation bop strategy' has been proposed (simanis and hart 2008; simanis, hart and duke 2008) with co-creation at its core, because 'the closer the innovation efforts are to the end user, the more likely they are to respond to user needs and incorporate desired functionality' (london and hart 2004). in fact, the centering and reframing of the concept of co-creation in bop 2.0 is a clear indication of a move towards some of the underlying principles of hdca, such as a somewhat shifted focus from markets to people. they pick up on the terminology, if not the underlying principles behind, sen's notion of 'capabilities'. in bop 2.0, those at the bottom of the pyramid do not constitute a market as such, but a demographic classification. bop 2.0 requires a broader approach to development than previously employed in bop 1.0 (simanis, hart and duke 2008:58). they locate the new bop protocol within what they call the new commons school, exemplified by muhammad yunus and the grameen bank model, which they see as a co-created approach. they consider bop 2.0 as a move from considering the bop as consumer, to bop as business partner, moving from 'deep listening' to 'deep dialogue', moving from 'selling to the poor' to 'business co-venturing', where the firm is a co-creator in the development of a business opportunity (simanis, hart and duke 2008:2). the concept of co-creation is central to both examples given in this paper, but the idea of co-creation, just like ideas of partnership, and ideas of participation in development needs to be carefully examined to understand the concepts and notions that underpin it. in this article we have attempted to set out the very different approaches that underpin two examples of ict4d in practice, and the implications of these underlying approaches on the ground. both examples demonstrate technical and social innovations, but summon very different ideas of what constitutes 'development'. endnotes i wi-fi is an abbreviation of wireless fidelity, and is the technology that enables transmission of data across wireless networks. ii it is worth noting that the daknet services were adapting quickly, even in 2008 to the spread of mobile networks in the area. daknet no longer operates as described in this paper. iii 'telecentre' is a widespread term for public spaces where people can access computers, the internet and other digital technologies. references alkire, s and deneulin, s. 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(1996). depoliticising development: the uses and abuses of participation. development in practice, 6(1), 6-15. zheng, y and walsham, g (2008). inequality of what? social exclusion in the e-society as capability deprivation. information technology and people, 21(3), 222-243. managing knowledge during partnerships: a case of intermediaries in agricultural innovation system benjamin kwasi addom global broadband and innovation program of usaid, washington dc, united states. email: bkaddom@gmail.com 1.0 introduction knowledge is an essential resource for establishing competitive advantage, and therefore its management by the intermediaries should attempt to understand processes that lead to knowledge identification, generation, deployment, and efficient utilization (dierkes et al, 2003). these processes together define the larger field of knowledge management (km). km is a complex process comprising people, strategies, methods, and technologies for leveraging human knowledge to achieve gains in human performance and competitiveness. the definition of 'knowledge' itself is an on-going process with different perspectives. the implications of the various conceptions are that each knowledge perspective suggests a different strategy for managing, and a different perspective of the role of systems in support of its management (carlsson et al., 1996; alavi and leidner, 2001). thus, km within innovation systems where a number of diverse actors with different goals are expected to engage in these processes identifying, creating, capturing, sharing, and using knowledge for a common good , becomes a huge challenge. this is the case in agricultural innovation systems. a critical look into most agricultural innovation systems reveals three key actors the farmer, the agricultural researcher and the agricultural extension agent. by default, the researcher is responsible for developing new knowledge, technologies, and innovations (agrawal, 1995; andersen, 2007). this 'scientific' mode of generating agricultural knowledge and innovations has dominated the agricultural sector for decades. on the other hand, several other authors have pointed out the critical role that farmers' local knowledge and innovations could play in agricultural production (sumberg and okali, 1997; bellon, 2001). while agricultural extension services have also been designed to facilitate exchange of resources between scientific research institutes and local farming communities, due to the challenges being faced by most national agricultural extension systems in the developing nations (feder et al., 2001), wide knowledge barriers have arisen between knowledge production and use. the exchange of the two knowledge domains being generated has been impeded leading to knowledge deficits especially at the farmer's end. this knowledge gap has led to the emergence of new and multiple intermediaries within most national agricultural innovation systems with the aim of bridging the gap. these intermediaries may be community-based organizations (cbos), non-governmental organizations (ngos), international development organizations, private sector organizations, ict-enabled institutions or donor agencies. with the development of the new digital networks, the intermediary role between farmers and other service providers within the agricultural sector is given high impetus. gould and gomez (2010) for example referred to community telecenter or cybercafe operators as 'formal' information intermediaries that could help in reducing information gaps in communities in which they are located. the main goal of the paper therefore is to show how an effective integration of icts into a well-coordinated system of intermediaries could result in an efficient knowledge management system leading to a reduction in knowledge divide between communities. specific objectives include: to highlight the existing challenge of knowledge gap within agricultural innovation systems through a two-way knowledge exchange approach, to point out the inefficiencies within most agricultural innovation systems due to lack of coordination and collaboration among the intermediary organizations, to show how "knowledge brokering role" framework or construct could be used to narrow knowledge gaps through effective collaboration and coordination of roles, and to illustrate how an effective and strategic deployment of icts could help facilitate the functions of intermediaries within an innovation system. the paper draws upon two theoretical perspectives the theory of absorptive capacity of organizations (cohen and levinthal, 1990), and the emergence of new institutions (attewell, 1992) to highlight some of the challenges associated with inter-organizational partnerships without strong coordination. 2.0 literature review 2.1 agricultural innovation systems a systemic approach to innovation is a shift from the dominant linear model (smits and kuhlmann, 2004; hall, 2005) to a distributed, collaborative model. it recognizes strong complementary roles between the components of a given system (fagerberg, 2005). it utilizes the concept of structural differentiations, which has been identified as contributing to constructive conflicts (lawrence and lorsch, 1967); cross-fertilization of ideas (aiken and hage, 1971); and stimulating creativity (filley, 1975). applying a systemic approaches within the agricultural sector is key due to the increasingly complex relationships and processes that are occurring among the multiple agents, social and economic institutions. the key components of a typical agricultural innovation system include agricultural knowledge generation and exchange. the next subsections describe these components in detail. 2.1.1 agricultural knowledge generation scientific knowledge according to the food and agriculture organization (fao) of the united nations, the durable solution for improving agricultural performance in most northern countries lies largely in the transformation of their national agricultural research systems (nars) (fao, 1996). this approach of focusing attention on agricultural research or scientific research has been marketed over the decades with some successes. but in 2005, gonsalves and his colleagues argue that global experiences now show there is an emerging paradigm shift from this traditional notion of generating and transferring modern technology to passive end-users, to a notion that encompasses a diverse set of activities for generating, sharing, exchanging, and utilizing knowledge (gonsalves et al., 2005). a year later, pardey et al. (2006) predicted significant changes to be seen in technologies being developed in the rich countries such that these 'modern' technologies may no longer be as readily applicable to less-developed countries as they use to be. these and other studies have opened up the path for researchers to go back and look for other alternative approaches to knowledge generation especially in the agricultural sector. 2.1.2 agricultural knowledge generation farmers' local knowledge prior to these calls for a paradigm shift from a conventional linear model of agricultural knowledge generation, the role of local farmers in knowledge generation has been extensively documented. amanor (1994) documented experimentation by local farmers in southeast ghana who were faced with severe environmental degradation. other farmer innovations are seen in crops and crop varieties (richards, 1986; sperling et al., 1993), insects and pests' management techniques (bentley 1992; bentley and rodriguez 2001), and soil and water management practices (wilken, 1987; lamers and feil, 1995). but little is known of how these two knowledge domains scientific knowledge from the universities and research institutes, and farmers' local knowledge from the local communities are being used to complement each other. these two domains of knowledge have been working in isolation with little (if any) cross-fertilization of ideas. 2.1.3 agricultural knowledge exchange rural advisory services or extension agricultural extension services, currently known as rural advisory services, started with the dominant top-down, unidirectional model of diffusion of innovation. even though this approach has led to major advances in crop production, it has also had many shortfalls, including: increasing dependence of local farmers on multinational corporations (dasgupta and stoneman, 1987); lack of attention to the strengths of local agro-ecosystems (ruttan, 2001); and "planned and managed" innovation processes by scientists that are transferred to farmers (biggs, 1990; rogers, 1995). these and other challenges elaborated by feder et al. (2001) show some of the weakness with the existing knowledge and innovation systems resulting in knowledge (local and scientific) gaps between producers and users. scientific research outputs from the universities and research institutes are not reaching the local farmers as expected and the scientists are not exploiting the local knowledge and innovations that are being generated by the local farmers. a critical look at all these challenges within the agricultural innovation systems in most developing countries calls for an alternative approach. the next section of the paper brings in a community informatics perspective to link knowledge management to community processes. 2.2 community informatics (ci) perspectives ci as a field of practice ensures access and use of icts at the grassroots level such as non-governmental organizations to support and facilitate grassroots practitioners; private sector suppliers of hardware, software and connectivity; governments for policy and regulation; and international donor agencies for finance. ci is one of the new academic interdisciplinary fields that considers some of the old ideas about the ways communities and information systems interact (gurstein, 2004) through the design of appropriate information communication technology (ict) projects. with this key communication challenge within most national and regional agricultural innovation systems, community informatics research has the responsibility of exploring, researching and understanding the role of intermediary institutions that are working in geo-communities for efficient knowledge management. ci is about identifying, assessing, implementing and evaluating new icts that suit the needs of pre-existing communities (beaton, 2004; gurstein, 2004), and virtual communities that develop around newly introduced communications technologies (hagar & haythornthwaite, 2005). in doing so, the activities of ci intersect with the 'intermediaries' concept which is the heart of this study. the field is known for its role in understanding the use of the new digital networks in enabling human activities within physical communities. within the context of ci, this paper considers community in terms of relations and networks that exist among actors within territorial communities. intermediaries working between local communities and research institutes/universities need to identify themselves as community members within this larger community. this form of community is developed around interests such as agriculture or community development and could be facilitated by new information communication technologies. 3.0 theoretical framework the theoretical framework of the paper brings together the work of cohen and levinthal on the theory of absorptive capacity of organizations, and paul attewell's work on the emergence of new institutions to lower barriers to technology adoption. the two theoretical perspectives take different stands on addressing barriers to knowledge or technology. the paper thus uses the two theoretical frameworks as a guide to understanding knowledge barriers and how they could be bridged. 3.1 the theory of absorptive capacity according to cohen and levinthal (1990), the capability of any system to recognize the value, assimilate, and exploit external knowledge makes the system innovative and competitive. the theory values both external knowledge and internal knowledge of a given system for successful innovations. absorptive capacity is a multilevel construct and has been successfully explored at various levels such as in firms (ahuja & katila, 2001; zahra & george, 2002); inter-firm collaborations (ahuja & katila, 2001); regions (maurseth & verspagen, 2002); and also within nations as seen in the case of japan (kneller & stevens, 2006). this capability of a system to recognize, value and acquire external knowledge is referred to as the potential absorptive capacity (pac) of a system (zahra & george, 2002). acquisition is the system's capability to identify and acquire externally generated knowledge that is critical to its operations (zahra & george, 2002). it comprises of recognizing the need for external knowledge and acquiring it (sammons, 2005). the capability to recognize the value of new external knowledge represents an important component of absorptive capacity because the valuing is not automatic; it needs to be fostered to allow the absorption to begin (todorova and durisin, 2007). this process of recognizing the value, acquiring and assimilating external knowledge could be affected by three main factors the nature of the knowledge/innovations; the attributes of the seeker; and the attributes of the provider. 3.1.1 nature of the knowledge domain in context the first factor is the nature of the knowledge being produced. knowledge has been classified mainly into two dimensions explicit/codified and implicit/tacit (polanyi, 1967; nonaka, 1994). polanyi describes tacit knowledge as that which "indwells" in a comprehensive cognizance of the human mind and body. this knowledge cannot be easily articulated and thus only exists in people's heads and mind. tacit knowledge is hard to formalize, making it difficult to communicate or share with others. it cannot be easily documented and is almost always hidden. farmers' local knowledge could be classified as tacit knowledge, which is context-specific. arce and long (1992) observed that local knowledge of people concerns the way they understand the world; the ways in which they interpret and apply meaning to their experiences. despite its tacit nature, rajasekaran (1993) argues that a local knowledge system provides mechanisms for facilitating understanding and communications between outsiders (extension workers, researchers) and insiders (farmers). on the other hand, explicit knowledge is that which has been captured into manuals, procedures, and rules (polanyi, 1966). this explicit dimension of knowledge is articulated, codified, and communicated in symbolic form and/or natural language. this dimension of knowledge is systematic and easily communicated in the form of hard data or codified procedures. computers and other new information technologies are perfect tools being used to enhance the organization of explicit knowledge for easy access and use. knowledge being generated by agricultural researchers could be likened to explicit knowledge. 3.1.2 attributes of the knowledge seeker the second factor that affects the absorptive capacity of these actors is the attributes of the knowledge seeker. according to the theory of absorptive capacity, the ability of the knowledge seeker to identify the value of external knowledge depends largely on his or her prior and related knowledge of the knowledge system from which the knowledge is being sought. the identification and acquisition of an external knowledge domain becomes easy if the competence area pre-exists and the seeker has prior related knowledge in the area. prior and related knowledge grants a system the ability to recognize the value of new information (lenox & king, 2004). the closer the stock of internal knowledge to the external knowledge, the easier it becomes for the system to acquire. prior related knowledge also influences both the cost of discovering and acquiring new knowledge and the degree to which one is likely to engage in a search for new practices (lenox & king, 2004). for example, within an agricultural innovation system, the agricultural researcher is the 'seeker' of farmers' local knowledge while the local farmer is the 'seeker' of scientific knowledge. for each of these knowledge domains, the first step is the seeker recognizing the value of the knowledge product. once that is achieved, it becomes easier to acquire, assimilate, transform and use. most local farmers have little prior and related knowledge of the scientific research outputs coming out of the universities just as most of the scientists have very little experience with how local people innovate and generate knowledge. 3.1.3 attributes of the knowledge provider the third factor is the attributes of the knowledge provider. the willingness of the knowledge provider to share its internal knowledge with outsiders is key for absorptive capacity. for example, for researchers to be able to capture farmers' local knowledge, there should be a willingnes from the farmers to share their knowledge. local farming communities are known to have high levels of social trust and commitment within their social networks and, through these social units, farmers share knowledge, resources, and technologies (adamo, 2001). tapping into these local forms of social capital will enable researchers to build effective linkages with local knowledge systems (adamo, 2001). while one of the objectives of km is to bridge the gap between tacit and explicit knowledge (stenmark, 1999), the analysis of the three factors described above reveals a different scenario. even though the theory of absorptive capacity emphasizes building the r&d capacity of the knowledge seeker, the environment within agricultural innovation systems, especially in developing nations may not be conducive for doing that. the nature of the knowledge domains and the unique characteristics of the actors are increasingly making it difficult for smooth exchange of knowledge within most national agricultural innovation systems leading the knowledge gaps between farmers and researchers. the second theoretical view thus looks at the option of employing a third party to help reduce these knowledge barriers in the absence of strong absorptive capacity of the actors. 3.2 emergence of new institutions to bridge the knowledge gap described above, thus calls for another approach an intervention. this second theoretical view tries to bridge the knowledge gap through the presence of a third party an intermediary. paul attewell in his 1992 article "technology diffusion and organizational learning: the case of business computing," argues that in response to knowledge barriers, new institutions come into existence which progressively lower those barriers and make it easier for firms to adopt and use the technology without extensive in-house expertise (attewell, 1992). the author cited computer or data processing service bureaus that emerged in the 1960s as one of many strategies used by computer manufacturers (ibm and honeywell) and non-manufacturers (adp and digicon) to increase the sales of mainframe computers. these data processing service bureaus intermediated between the computer manufacturers and their clients (mostly small companies) enabling them to obtain resources not available internally, improving performance, increasing access to best practices, facilitating acquisition of new skills, and freeing up cash for both manufacturers and their clients. the application of this principle is not new to the agricultural sector, looking at the original goal of agricultural extension services as a channel for diffusion of new innovations to farmers (rogers, 1995). however, due to the challenges with the system as outlined earlier in section two, several intermediaries are found within a given innovation system. different terms and descriptions have been applied to these intermediaries in the literature including 'lay information intermediaries' who seek information in a non-professional or informal capacity on behalf of others without necessarily being asked to do so (abrahamson and fisher, 2007); 'boundary spanners' for those who perform coordination and translation functions among diverse groups (mason, 2003); 'key informants' as people who either have a good level of knowledge in a particular aspect of community life and development, or have a range of links to people outside the community, or are particularly knowledgeable about community affairs and are willing to share the news and information they have (schilderman, 2002); and 'gatekeepers' as those who seek and pass information to other members of the same group and by doing so influence opinions, disseminate information, or facilitate cultural adaptation in many different settings (metoyer-duran, 1993). but in practice, the cumulative impact of these intermediaries within most agricultural innovation systems is yet to be known (addom, 2010). while one school of thought believes that the role of intermediaries in such a system is critical for its success, another school of thought thinks removal of intermediaries will lead to more efficient systems. while this paper believes that the presence of intermediaries within agricultural innovation systems is critical, the next section discusses the current chaotic nature among the intermediaries by introducing a framework that has the potential to streamline their functions. 4.0 discussion 4.1 challenges with the current intermediary environment paul attewell made an interesting observation in relation to data processing centers, that the centers were effective because their activities were coordinated and monitored by the computer manufacturing companies. but this is not the case within the area of international development where multiple intermediaries are found operating within a given system. the coordination role is clearly missing in the midst of diverse intermediaries in most national agricultural innovation systems. this absence of coordination among intermediaries is what sridhar (2010) described within the health sector as characterized by fragmentation, and even confusion, as a diverse array of well-funded and well-meaning initiatives descend with good intentions on countries in the developing world. 4.2 role coordination for reducing knowledge barriers the main contribution of this paper to the larger body of knowledge is the application of a theoretical construct or framework to the reduction of knowledge gaps through coordination of roles. the knowledge brokering role (kbr) framework or construct described below was developed from a study conducted by the author of this paper in 2009 to address the existing knowledge gaps identified within an agricultural innovation system in ghana. 4.2.1 knowledge brokering, knowledge broker, and knowledge brokering role knowledge brokering: knowledge brokering may be seen as a value-adding process of mediation between knowledge demands and knowledge supply. it may involve facilitation, networking and sometimes development of secondary knowledge within a given knowledge domain. the process involves three main actors i) the knowledge generator/provider; ii) the knowledge consumer; and iii) the knowledge mediator that brokers between the provider and the user. knowledge broker: a knowledge broker may be an individual/institution or a network of individuals/institutions that identifies, collects, evaluates, summarizes, re-structures, and/or re-packages knowledge from the source of production for the benefit of end users. according to jarke et al. (2001), the knowledge broker must be a) a domain expert in his/her area of brokerage to be able to understand the domain complexity, and b) able to understand the consumers' need correctly, and map it to the providers' terms. this makes it difficult for a single individual or institution to act as a broker in the context of international development, and more especially within a complex system of agricultural innovation system. knowledge brokering role: this study defines knowledge brokering role (kbr) as a set of activities performed either by a number of individuals or organizations between knowledge generation and knowledge use to facilitate co-creation and sharing of knowledge. it is an interactive social role with economic and cultural implications across many different functions to help people accomplish their goals. it is a service role that could be made more feasible by the new global electronic networks. this study has identified four main functions of the knowledge brokering role as described in the next sections. these four functions were developed through an empirical study conducted among a range of intermediary organizations within an agricultural innovation system. the four functions, if well coordinated among the intermediaries, could lead to an action-oriented knowledge brokering. 4.2.2 demand articulation function (daf) demand articulation is a set of activities to establish a good fit between the existing knowledge of users, their desired knowledge, and the services being delivered by the providers. it begins with an act of listening by demonstrating interest in and understanding of what the knowledge user/generator is saying. it also includes the discipline of staying focused, listening for the main points and the rationale behind what is being said. demand articulation goes beyond needs assessment and emphasizes the existing potential of the users instead of the barriers. activities associated with demand articulation may include foresight, where intermediaries organize, identify and plan with knowledge users/generators about the resources available for knowledge management. it also includes scanning and scoping through collecting, gathering, comparing, categorizing and storing information necessary for knowledge work. finally, it may end with diagnosis where discussions, deliberations, brainstorming, and understanding the potentials of the users/generators take place for network formation. in describing innovation intermediaries, klerkx and leeuwis (2009) define demand articulation as expressing innovation needs and corresponding requests in terms of technology, knowledge, funding, and policy. the challenges of knowledge acquisition may differ for users from one community to another. within an agricultural innovation system, local farmers may have problems accessing scientific knowledge from the research institutes, and the scientists may also have challenges with using local knowledge and innovations from farmers for their research. intermediaries with expertise, qualities, resources and skills for demand articulation would have to focus their activities on demand articulation. these intermediaries need to have strong vertical relation with the knowledge generators/users as well as strong horizontal network with other intermediaries, especially those involved in network formation. for example, within an agricultural system, intermediaries involved in demand articulation must consider the potentials of the local farmers within their community settings and the agricultural researchers within their institutes to address their own knowledge deficits. what resources exist in these communities/institutes? how do they use the resources to address challenges associated with their agricultural production or research work? what communication patterns exist among them for exchanging ideas? the greatest emphasis has to be laid on this stage to prevent outsiders from prescribing solutions to users' problems. demand articulation also involves understanding the desired knowledge of the users/generators to be able to understand where they want to be in terms of knowledge management. 4.2.3 network formation function (nff) network formation function involves a set of activities that could help connect and establish working relationships between knowledge users/generators and brokers, and also among these partners. it is about linking demands with supply through well-coordinated networks among the intermediaries. the emphasis here is on building strong networks among the intermediaries themselves but with the goal of delivering well-coordinated services to the knowledge generators/users. klerkx and leeuwis (2009) define network formation with respect to innovation intermediaries as the facilitation of linkages between relevant actors through scanning, scoping, filtering, and matchmaking of possible cooperation partners. network formation as a function of knowledge brokering role is also critical in linking demands articulated with service providers. within agricultural innovation systems for example, local farmers may have a wide range of backgrounds in terms of the types of farming they are engaged in, the corresponding resources for the production of those outputs, and different marketing avenues for their produce among others. it is therefore a mismatch to group all farmers as recipients of information or technologies or innovations through one national agricultural extension service. different intermediaries with different expertise could work together to meet these varied challenges for the local farmers through effective collaboration. intermediaries with resources and expertise for networking would have to focus on network formation and build strong horizontal networks with other intermediaries that are involved in articulating demands as well as those that are activating supply of the end products. it is the duty of intermediaries with this function to be able to control access, filter and decide which types of information should flow from one partner to another gate keeping. it is also about leading, guiding, linking, liaising, directing, providing, connecting, and coordinating activities involved in knowledge exchange among the partners match-making. and finally their duties may include advocating, lobbying, and drawing attention to new products, processes, technologies that could be useful for the network or partners. the ultimate aim of this function is to facilitate access to new knowledge products by knowledge users through a strong network among the partners. 4.2.4 process management function (pmf) process management is the set of activities aimed at maintaining and sustaining the working relation created among the actors through network formation in order to optimize conditions for learning. it is a management function comprising of resource provision for sustenance, ensuring combination and recombination of knowledge products for growth, and eventually overseeing mediating and arbitrating issues. attewell (1992) argues that early manufacturers of computer hardware understood that user's knowledge acquisition could be a potential barrier to adoption, and responded to this in several ways. some of the ways used by the computer manufacturers included the provision of user manuals and standard operating procedures, as well as hardware training for users. with respect to the cost of maintaining the relationship between actors, attewell (1992) argued that ibm especially built its initial reputation by promising to fix hardware problems, thereby removing from the customers the knowledge-intensive burden for maintenance and repair of hardware. klerkx and leeuwis (2009) describe innovation process management as enhancing alignment and learning of the multi-actor network through the facilitating learning and cooperation in the innovation process. with resource challenges in most developing countries, intermediaries with the capacity to sponsor programs, trainings, and other activities related to knowledge management would have to be clearly marked out. these intermediaries would be responsible for mobilizing resources, budgeting, and supporting the activities of other smaller organizations. they could also be in charge of the secondary knowledge production function of the brokering process by translating, modifying, rebuilding, packaging and repackaging of knowledge products from raw materials or from other knowledge products. partnerships or collaborations require monitoring, evaluation, supervision, and feedback. issues requiring mediation and arbitration may arise among partners. intermediary organizations with expertise and skills in this area would have to focus their activities in managing these processes with strong networking with the other functional units. this monitoring and evaluation is in addition to the individual monitoring by each of the partners. 4.2.5 supply activation function (saf) supply activation is a set of activities to facilitate the exchange of the final knowledge products among the users and producers. supply activation function is not about transfer of knowledge products from producers to users. it is about activities that lead to the recognition of the value of the external knowledge and the desire to understand and utilize it. it is about activating, setting in motion or triggering the final utilization of knowledge products. attewell (1992) criticized the traditional diffusion of innovation approach and differentiated between signaling (communication about the existence and potential gains of a new innovation) and know-how or technical knowledge (the demands on the potential user and the supply-side organization to learn and/or communicate the technical knowledge required for a successful utilization of the innovation by the potential users). this function is very critical for agricultural innovation systems due to the value of two-way delivery of knowledge resources between the two sources of knowledge generation. intermediaries with the capacity and skills to perform this function also need to have strong horizontal relations with other functional units as well as vertical networks with the end users of the knowledge products. once new products become available, supply activators would have to signal user communities about the products and be ready to give the pros and cons of the products for the users to decide. the final stage is to actually communicate the technical know-how of the products to the user, after they have expressed interest in it. this may involve activities such as advising, demonstrating, educating, teaching, explaining, and training users on the use of the products. 4.3 information and communication technologies (icts) for knowledge brokering the main issue brought out by the paper is the knowledge gap between knowledge generators and users in the wake of multiple intermediarie. the framework described above in section 4.2 proposes an alternative approach to managing knowledge processes to reduce these knowledge barriers. however, knowledge management system approaches that consider information technology-based systems for supporting the creation, capture, storage and dissemination of information and knowledge within and between systems or organizations could be more resilient. davenport et al. (1998) define knowledge management systems as tools to effect the management of knowledge and are manifested in a variety of implementations including document repositories, expertise databases, discussion lists, and context-specific retrieval systems incorporating collaborative filtering technologies. knowledge management systems are expected to i) help the user in assimilation of information; ii) provide access to sources of knowledge rather than knowledge itself; iii) involve gathering, storing, and transferring knowledge; iv) provide links among sources of knowledge to create wider breadth and depth of knowledge flows; v) provide effective search and retrieval mechanisms for locating relevant information; and vi) enhance intellectual capital by supporting development of individual and organizational competencies (alavi and leidner, 2001). the advent of the internet and its emerging collaborative web-based tools has assumed a crucial role in both inter and intra-organizational knowledge management systems. examples are seen in facilitation of resource sharing and communication across distance (may and carter, 2001), and supporting collective interaction among multiple parties through synchronous and asynchronous collaborations (kock, 2000; hossain and wigand, 2004). the key however is to recognize that successful social processes are essential for supporting technology-enabled group processes (orlikowski and baroudi, 1991; orlikowski et al., 1995). hence, identifying the development objectives of a given social approach, identifying the new information requirements needed to meet those objectives, and then identifying the role that icts could play in meeting those information requirements (heeks, 2002), could help ensure functioning socio-technical systems. this type of approach to the use of icts recognizes technologies as enablers of social process such as systemic innovation. therefore considering the variety of systems in this study local farming community systems, scientific research and university systems, and intermediaries exploring the role which community information systems could play is critical. specific icts could be used to facilitate the functions of each of the knowledge brokering functions described above. below are selected examples based on the agricultural innovation system used as a case for this paper. 4.3.1 sample icts for daf the demand articulation function in principle requires data capturing technologies and tools as brokers or intermediaries interact with knowledge users and generators to understand and diagnose their potentials and needs. this could take a participatory approach with the users, and/or empowering the users/generators themselves to document and record their activities. while listening and observing participants in meetings, information communication technologies could be used to capture proceedings for accurate data. tools ranging from whiteboard recorders, tape recorders, digital cameras and palm-size camcorders could be used to capture both voice and data for either manual or automatic transcription. in addition to on-the-spot manual and automatic capturing, other tools like real-time location sensors and global position systems (gps) could be used in collaboration with users to capture data for analysis. also microsoft project, visio like tools, web-based calendars and other planning tools could be used for advanced preparation and event management. other digital technologies such as iformbuilder, episurveyor for gathering and managing primary data, cleaning, archiving, and digital mapping are good examples of information communication tools for supporting demand articulation function. 4.3.2 sample icts for nff network formation function requires information communication tools to facilitate relationship building, and social network development. these networks may be horizontal among the brokering partners and vertical between the brokers and the knowledge generators/users. in this case, however, the broker acts as a third party to connect or link potential users and producers. some of the tools that could support the gate keeping activities among intermediaries for controlling and regulating access to resources or information may include subscriptions, feeds, and syndications such as rss, xml, bookmarks, and tagging. boundary spanning tools, however, connect intermediaries to knowledge generators/users for advocacy and lobbying. these are communication and networking tools such as adobe connect, skype, ms net meeting, email listservs, and other social media tools. match-making activities also connect, lead, guide, link, and direct users/generators to intermediaries through communication technologies such as presence awareness tools, discussion forum, content management systems, and other social media tools. 4.3.3 sample icts for pmf process management functions require processing and system management tools to ensure sustenance of the relationships built through network formation. knowledge management systems such as e-learning tools, digital repositories, and software for scheduling events could be used to support activities that help intermediaries to organize their resources to support knowledge generation and use. monitoring and evaluation involves gathering and assessing lots of information. collaboration tools such as electronic data collection software, software for data analysis and reporting, content management systems, and wikis for storage and retrieval could be very useful in data management. excellent examples of such tools may be found at charities evaluation services (ces) website. secondary knowledge generation that may take place among intermediaries may involve data manipulation packaging and repackaging of primary information and knowledge from knowledge generators. information communication technologies could be very useful in this through data and information processing technologies such as spoken web, dvd, cd, text files, leaflets, and pamphlets, for final use. 4.3.4 sample icts for saf finally, the supply activation function requires communication and display media for awareness creation and training of users. intermediaries performing this function could use face-to-face or the media to create awareness of new knowledge products. communication and display technologies for signaling new information, technologies and resources may range from newspapers, radio, television, text/sms, digital broadcasting, blogs, websites and other social media tools. these tools are basically mass communication tools for disseminating information and creating awareness of new innovations. internet or web-based learning tools could also be used to ensure training, teaching and educating activities that communicate the technical know-how of the new innovations or technologies to the users. some of the tools may include digital video lectures, content on dvds/cds at telecenters, e-learning tools such as imark by the food and agriculture organization, digital repositories, software for scheduling, etc. table 1 below summarizes the various knowledge brokering role functions and the possible corresponding information and knowledge management systems with examples. table 1: knowledge brokering role and icts ( source: phd dissertation submitted to syracuse university by benjamin k addom, 2010) 5.0 conclusion in conclusion, this paper makes four important arguments in relation to knowledge barriers, emergence of intermediaries, knowledge brokering roles, and the role of information and communication technologies in facilitating the functions of intermediaries. firstly, this paper used an agricultural innovation system as an example of a two-way knowledge generation and exchange system to explain how knowledge barriers could be an obstacle to knowledge management processes. it highlights two sources of agricultural knowledge generation local and scientific sources and how knowledge barriers develop as a result of communication challenges between two systems. according to a unesco document "towards knowledge societies", the underlying causes of knowledge divides in the contemporary knowledge economy are the disparities in stakeholder capacity to access knowledge assets, both public and private, as well as differences in capacity to participate in learning and innovation processes (unesco, 2005). in effect, systems with low absorptive capacity are automatically left out of the knowledge society due to their inability to participate in the on-going learning and innovation processes. this results in knowledge divides which, according to pant (2009), are persistent challenges for international development. this paper then used the theory of absorptive capacity to explain how systems try to overcome these knowledge divides by building their absorptive capacities to acquire external knowledge. this theory, however, could not fully explain what happens to systems that could not build their absorptive capacities to search and acquire external knowledge because of its emphasis on internal r&d development. secondly, by using paul attewell's argument on technology diffusion and organizational learning, this paper shows that mere emergence of myriad intermediaries does not necessarily give solution to knowledge barriers, at least within the international development context which involves a large number of intermediaries. new institutions may come into existence to lower knowledge barriers and make it easier for systems to adopt and use the technology without extensive in-house expertise, but the theory must be put into context. the observation by attewell about technology diffusion within a single system such as in computer manufacturing companies is convincing and needs to be respected. however, placing the same scenario in a given system where multiple actors are exchanging resources brings another challenge, namely that the presence of multiple intermediaries or new institutions within a given system brings issues of coordination and collaboration. in other words, roles need to be coordinated. the absence of role coordination leads to duplication of functions or roles, inefficiency and poor results. thirdly, the paper introduces a theoretical construct knowledge brokering role (kbr) that could be used to understand how a number of intermediary organizations operating within a given system could coordinate their functions to ensure efficiency and avoid duplication of functions. the focus of the framework is on role coordination and collaboration among the intermediaries (brokering partners) to ensure effective and efficient delivery of resources knowledge resources in this case. it draws on a systemic approach to innovation and will thrive on rich interaction among the collaborative partners, their shared objectives, open communication, mutual trust and respect, and the diversity of skills and knowledge. finally, within the context of community informatics, the paper identifies some relationships between the four functions of the knowledge brokering role and information communication technologies. this idea is based on the argument by orlikowski and others that the key to successful social processes are essential for supporting technology-enabled group processes and the suggestion by heeks (2002) that the use of the new information communication technologies for development projects should begin by identifying the development objective of the project, identifying the new and/or reengineered information requirements needed to meet those objectives, and then identifying the role that icts and other information-handling technologies have to play in meeting those information requirements. icts alone cannot bring in the solution to the knowledge barriers but could play a significant role once the necessary social processes are in place. thus, after laying the foundation through the knowledge 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(2002). absorptive capacity: a review and re-conceptualization, and extension. academy of management review, 27(2), 85-203. telecentre for community development evaluation of the tunjang telecentre, malaysia linda johansson hedberg department of computer and systems sciences, stockholm university, sweden. lindajoh@dsv.su.se introduction since the last five years of the 20th century telecentres have emerged as responses to enhance access to information and communication technologies (icts) and the internet in places where individual access to icts is unavailable or unaffordable (colle & roman, 2001; harris 2001). the rise of telecentres has emphasized reaching rural and poorer areas with icts and there is a growing interest in using telecentres in developing areas which can spread the cost of equipment and access among a larger number of users (colle, 2000; akst and jensen, 2001). telecentres seem to have neither universal performance indicators nor a universally approved definition. but founded upon the assumption of increasing access to icts, telecentres have been developed to provide ict services ranging from basic services such as internet connectivity and e-mail to more specialized services such as telemedicine and e-learning. they operate within different types of environments and under various modalities such as public libraries, schools, post offices, local government facilities, churches and petrol stations (cisler, 1998). one definition of telecentre is provided by reilly & gomez (2001) stating that telecentres are physical spaces that provide public access to information and communication technologies, notably the internet, for educational, personal, social and economic development. telecentre initiatives are commonly motivated by sincere attempts to improve people’s lives by using icts, with an underlying belief in the potential for underdeveloped areas to develop faster through the access and use of information technology. according to a world bank report (1998/1999) the principal purpose of telecentres is to bring forth development outcomes for the community it aims to serve. providing access and related services to users are intermediary goals, but as long as development fails to occur then the telecentre fails to fulfil its primary purpose. this speaks for a widespread view of the telecentre as a catalyzing force in the community and that icts will enable poor, underserved communities to contribute more effectively to their own development, a hypothesis reported on by colle (2000), hunt (2001), rothenberg-aalami (2005) and whyte (2000). the telecentre network, telecentre.org (2007) argues that although telecentres are diverse in nature their shared values are to utilize technologies for development. icts are regarded as not only providing a connection between people, but also to act as a link in the chain of the development process where the ability to access and share information can lead to development benefits (hudson, 1999). but development assumptions and techno-centric attitudes where icts are regarded as positive tools for change are challenged; gomez & ospina (2002) and warschauer (2002) assert that there is no simple recipe in how icts can meaningfully support human development or bring about necessary results. and while numerous telecentres struggle with viability, there is a need to learn from the shared experiences of telecentres in practice—of what works and what doesn’t work. with prevailing visions of telecentres as tools for development there is a need for research on telecentres on the ground; on how telecentres are adopted in their local contexts and how telecentres can make a difference for the communities they are serving. understanding telecentres in practice this case study aims to contribute to shared experiences through an evaluation of the tunjang telecentre in rural northern malaysia. the aim is to evaluate telecentre performance and to understand how a telecentre can provide meaningful access for its community, by examining the achieved impacts and the community needs being satisfied by the telecentre. from identified scarcities and challenges further actions will be proposed for improvement. when discussing the value of access to icts warschauer (2002) and gurstein (2003) state that the focus should not simply be on access but rather on meaningful access (gurstein uses the term “effective use”) to icts, and both further assert that the most important aspect of icts is the ability to make use of the technology and engage in meaningful social practices. to understand if the telecentre is providing meaningful access an evaluation needs to be locally grounded, context sensitive and consider local practices, world views and priorities. an evaluation should also enable shared learning and contribute to capacity building by identifying needs, consider stakeholder viewpoints and contribute to making the services more relevant (reilly & gomez, 2001). the actions proposed to improve the telecentre pay regard to community needs, relevance of use and social inclusion. in the telecentre literature several guidelines or frameworks for telecentre evaluations are proposed. the approaches presented are overlapping but each give prominence to certain objectives for evaluation or research such as sustainability (ernberg 1998; hudson, 2001; harris, 1999), need assessment (roman & blattman, 2001), telecentre performance and impact assessment (wakelin & shadrach, 2001; earl & carden, 1999; whyte, 1999), gender analysis (holmes, 1999), evaluation planning and guidelines (whyte, 2000; san sebastian, 1999; contreras-budge, 1999; scharffenberger, 1999; hudson, 1999). harris, has in his research and evaluation model, (2001) proposed five characteristics for evaluating telecentres and outcomes of telecentres. the model raises questions concerning the needs of the telecentre among its community members and to what extent the community engages and accepts the telecentre. harris’ evaluation model was chosen to guide the evaluation for this case study as well to form a template for interpretation. the choice of model builds on existing theories within information systems, such as information centre success (ic) and end user computing (euc) theories as well as on experiences in the field of telecentres. harris has used and tested the model in evaluations of five telecentres. a strong motivation for choosing this model is that it takes the social system into account, and links closely to the local context and what the community is motivated to achieve from using the telecentre. also according to harris, it is essential to understand the expectations and objectives of the telecentre within its community, and in this case study the expectations and objectives of those stakeholders influencing the telecentre’s progress, as telecentre users, non-users, managers and initiators are investigated. harris states that the outcome variables of telecentres depends on the level of use of technology and services, on the level of satisfaction of users, as well as factors related to community development. in contrast to other evaluation models, harris’ model explicitly builds on characteristics related to the changes that the community is motivated to achieve. the model also points to the potential sustainability and level of social inclusion of the telecentre. the model proposes that the ability of telecentres to induce desirable community development will be a function of the telecentre’s characteristics; the characteristics of the community in which the telecentre is located; the characteristics of the information that the telecentre obtains and distributes; a variety of structural conditions relating to telecentres in the country or region in which the community is located; and the characteristics of the individuals who use the services of the telecentre. these five characteristics embrace more detailed research questions, i.e. indicators, which can help explaining telecentre performance and potential outcomes. for a full description of the five characteristics, their indicators and hypotheses see appendix a. an evaluation is highly contextual, but also dependent on time. a telecentre will take time to become fully integrated in community life. this level of maturity needs to be taken into consideration, in analysing the extent to which telecentre services have been taken up by a community, and to guide corrective actions which might be needed for the telecentre to contribute more effectively towards community development (harris, 2001; rothenberg-aalami, 2005). the case study a motivation for using the tunjang telecentre as a case was their use of the explicit rhetoric of community development and of the telecentre being a contributor in creating a knowledge society. another strong reason for choosing the tunjang telecentre was that it had initiated its services and was employed in community work, but was not yet fully integrated into the community. the process of conducting the evaluation gave community members opportunities present their view of the telecentre and to identify corrective actions for improving telecentre services and activities. further the centre was located in a rural area, where the telecentre was thought likely in the future, to bridge access to services such as education, banking, health and commerce. the evaluation of the tunjang telecentre had both a formative and a summative function (hudson, 1999); it aimed both to examine what was accomplished and to provide feedback on required improvements as well as to examine what could be learned from the telecentre with regard to addressing development concerns within the community. the participatory research of this case study where the researcher worked as facilitator in the telecentre for 3 months, allowed for an understanding of the local and social context of how the telecentre was received and adopted in the community. this role allowed for direct observation of the telecentre activities. it should also be noted that the role of the researcher was unintentionally semi-veiled; as not everyone in the community knew that the facilitator was also undertaking research on the centre.   observation was used to record information on indicators such as user awareness, the adoption process; and user behaviour, interest, involvement, needs and problems. this proved to be a valuable method to initially understand the local organisation and community before embarking on the collection of data on telecentre adoption, as well as to win user trust and find informants for interviews. observations are complex tasks. there is only a limited field for data collection, dependent on the senses of the observer;  selection from extensive impressions and facts are difficult; the data can not be as systematically collected as in more controlled methods as interviews and questionnaires. and as the researcher is to various degrees involved in the context of the studied phenomena, this can pose questions of bias, as well as the possibility that the presence of the researcher may affect the phenomena. as an example, one of the local managers stated that the fact that someone from outside the community, and even someone from another part of the world, was teaching in the telecentre had raised the level of awareness of the telecentre, and potentially increased the interest to participate in the courses given. interviews were used to collect data of the community needs of icts services and content, their visions of the telecentre, to find achieved impacts of the telecentre as well as discuss the potentials and obstacles with the telecentre. the study consisted of thirteen in-depth unstructured interviews with telecentre stakeholders as initiators, managers and users. data was collected through off-record dialogues with telecentre users as well as non-users regarding their interest and needs for icts and their views of telecentre services and performance. the users were selected during telecentre training sessions and the non-users were selected at an informal ict training session in one of the user’s home (with a donated pc from the telecentre). they were chosen since they had an interest to learn of icts but neglected the services provided by the telecentre. in connection to the ict training provided in the telecentre, two survey questionnaires were conducted, at the first and final lessons of the training course. the training was divided into students group (both male and female, aged 12 to 19); and adults, who were in turn divided into men’s and women’s groups aged 20 to 54. the questionnaires evaluated the icts capabilities and provide a gauge of skills and interest in icts among these telecentre users. the first questionnaire contained ten questions to find information on the user’s background, their pre-knowledge in using computers, internet, e-mail and other applications. it was also used to grasp the expectations from training courses. the second questionnaire contained twenty-three multi-choice and free-text-answer questions to evaluate the training course and how that could be improved, skills after attending the course, but also to explore the interest and need for content and telecentre services. the first round provided 70 responses and the second round provided 80 responses. the tunjang telecentre the tunjang telecentre is situated in tunjang in north western malaysia. tunjang is a traditional malaysian “kampung” (village) located in kedah, one of malaysia’s rice farming states. tunjang is an area consisting of 19 small villages ranging in size from 21 to 175 households. at the time of the study there were in total 1339 households with a population sof 6539 persons. among the tunjang residents the main occupation is farming. about half of the population are involved actively in the farmers association. other occupations include civil servants and teachers. all the tunjang villages have electricity; 40% of the households have telephone lines; while less than 10 households (in total) had a computer at the time of the study. the monthly income was between 500-3000 rm per month, though as a rule most had a monthly income between 500-1500 rm per month (3 rm=$1usd approx.). public facilities in the village were the primary school, a library in the school and a mobile library. as well the village area included 2 small health centers, 2 markets, 1 factory (rice mill) and 1 bank. a hospital, post office, police station and secondary school were located 10 km from tunjang. the telecentre was partly initiated and initially sponsored by the malaysian national it council (nitc). it was based in the primary school of tunjang but with an aim to provide service for the entire community. further the telecentre project was established within the frame of vision 2020, a government agenda of introducing icts to create a malaysian knowledge society. the telecentre had, at the time of the evaluation, reached the acceptance stage (cooper & zmud, 1990) implying that the telecentre was available for use in the community and community members were being trained in using ict. but the use of the telecentre and its services was not yet a normal activity, and the telecentre was still perceived as something extraordinary. for full maturity the telecentre should be encouraged and used as a normal activity, it should be used to increase effectiveness and to be integrated into community work. in this context, the telecentre was being employed in community work, such as in school education and administration. all classes in school (1187 students) had learnt basic computing and were using computers in education. tunjang telecentre location co-located within the primary school in the centre of the village of tunjang, in northern west malaysia, in the province of kedah. initiators and owners initiated, managed and owned by the national it council together with the primary school of tunjang, after request from community members. goal to increase the ict-skills within the community. to provide equitable access to information for the community of tunjang, and to provide information that could benefit the community to enhance farming, education and businesses. mission that the tunjang community at large will benefit as part of the ict development in malaysia and improve their quality of life through the usage of icts. the telecentre was initiated within the agenda of creating a malaysian knowledge society 2020. equipment and facilities 20 computers, 1 telephone, 1 printer, 1 modem, reference library of a few books, microsoft office programs. services and activities access to telephone, fax, internet, e-mail, ms software, ict training training basic ict training for school students and teachers during school hours, and for community after school hours. family training programme for a limited amount of families within the community. access the services were free but the access to the telecentre was limited for the community, restricted to certain opening hours outside of normal school hours. table 1.   basic facts of the telecentre, mission, equipment and services evaluation findings here the findings from the evaluation are presented, according to the five characteristics proposed in harris evaluation model (2001). telecentre characteristics the telecentre was started and initially supported by the national it council (nitc) after requests from community members and school management to enhance ict skills among the community members and to be able to use computers in school education and administration. the services provided in the telecentre were access to computers, to the internet and to standard microsoft office applications. ict training was provided for school students during school hours and for other community members after school hours. two training programmes for community members existed;  “ict for family” where families were trained together and “cyber corp training” – a programme to train community members to be able to work as volunteering teachers in the telecentre. the demand for access to the telecentre was high, and during training sessions commonly 2-4 persons had to share one computer. a tri-sectoral cooperation with government organisations, business organisations and educational institutions existed, all parts contributing with finance, content and human resources for training, during the two initial years of the project. investments and contributions for the tunjang telecentre were mostly voluntary contributions from the tri-sectoral partners. two malaysian ict companies had donated the 20 computers. the community telecentre was using the premises of the school, and the costs for hosting and maintaining the telecentre was included in the school budget. the school management was responsible for the maintenance and decided who should access the telecentre and when. cooperation or knowledge sharing with other telecentres did not exist, and there was an expressed lack of knowledge sharing and skills concerning the running of the telecentre, to mend broken equipment and to use computers effectively. the aim was to enhance ict skills among the community members by the community members themselves, and that the telecentre should be self-maintained within the community. the teachers who should run the telecentre during school hours faced problems in the maintenance of the telecentre. community characteristics the national it council, the local telecentre management and the telecentre users had disparate ambitions and aspirations for telecentre outcomes. the local telecentre management, consisting of teachers and school management, expressed a need for improvement in english and science among their students. in recent years the tunjang primary school had had poor results in several subjects, but students were excited to learn about icts, and the use of icts in the school was expected to have an effect and improve on results in these subjects. another aim was to render the school administration more effective. the aspirations of the national it council management were to get all community members trained in basic icts, and to bring about development in the community with a focus on improving learning in school, achieving better agriculture by providing farmers with useful information, and enhancing private businesses through ict learning. among the adult community members aspirations were to let their children learn the tools of icts, which was regarded important for their future. though many users had problems in expressing their needs and interest in the telecentre, they had ideas for using icts for personal pleasure, for business and for educational matters. findings from interviews and observations indicated that they appreciated the use of icts to communicate with friends, to play games, for browsing news sites and to search for recipes. two of the adult participants wanted to develop and market their private businesses on the web. one participant was, after participating in the icts training, giving lessons in the basics of using the computer and internet, both in his home and in another school. the rate of examination results were low in the tunjang area. the interest in education and the attitude to learning was poor especially among already poorly educated groups. the school results for the primary school were poor; in the year 2000 only 36.7 % of the students passed the primarily level examination (suradi et al, 2001) and several students had to repeat one year during their primary school. still the literacy level was good both among younger and older community members. the main part of the users had no ict-skills before entering the telecentre and training sessions. the younger users attending training courses seemed more motivated to learn than the older users. it was also observed during the training sessions in tunjang that the motivation was higher when using e-mail, browsing the web and creating web pages than when using microsoft office applications. the aim was to let the community have equal rights to the telecentre and let community members collaborate in the use and maintenance of the telecentre. the headmaster of the school, the volunteers and the external partners from the nitc were “champions” who encouraged use and created awareness of the telecentre. it was observed and also stated in interviews that the tunjang community had a strong unity and tight relationships, and telecentre participants were cooperative and helpful to each other when using and learning about icts. the imam of the mosque and the headmaster of the school were two leaders of influence in the community. the community was traditionally tight and there was a strong community sense, where family values were important and family gatherings were prioritized. relationships were close within the community, they had a common ethnic background and the community was tight and cooperative. information characteristics according to the nitc partners and the telecentre managers there was a need to raise the ict awareness and skills, in order utilize icts effectively in education and in school administration. one aim was to use interactive learning materials to enhance skills in subjects such as science and english among the students. furthermore the nitc partners had the intention to provide applications useful to simplify daily life in the community such as content about farming, business applications and educational applications. among the community members a commonly stated need was to enhance skills in using icts, especially among the younger generation. improved internet connectivity, increased training and support, instructional materials in malay and improved networking with skilled people were other stated needs. some respondents asked for content where the effectiveness of icts could be realised and where the daily life within the community could be improved. but with a resulting question of what that implied, no answers were given few websites in bahasa malay, the first language of malaysia, existed. in tunjang the english language was not widely used and few of the people visiting the telecentre were comfortable in using english. electronic services for commerce, health or banking that could be of use for remote areas did not exist and few local businesses or governmental services were provided online. there was an ambition within the telecentre to develop local content and local websites during training sessions, but at the time of the study only one of the user’s webpages was published online. applications and information used on the internet were mostly for entertainment or personal communication. observations implied that e-mail was the most inspiring application since it was communication in a new manner, where the local language could be used. structural conditions the telecentre was a government supported project (through the nitc). the malaysian government had a top-down strategy regarding ict and infrastructures where the the national it agenda was framing the use of ict to endeavour national development and pursue malaysia to become a knowledge society. within this agenda the government had rolled out several ict projects, of which the tunjang telecentre was one of them. individual characteristics in tunjang the main users were students, teachers and school administrators using the telecentre during school hours. in total 1187 primary school students had used the telecentre for school work. regarding the community users in tunjang the profile of users was that they were aged between 10-54 years old, and were living in the tunjang area. the most common occupations among women users was that of teachers or housewives, and the most common occupations among the men were teachers, civil servants, businessmen or farmers. the younger participants were primarily students from primary and secondary school, but also some college students did use the telecentre. the skills level was diverse among the telecentre users, ranging from users who had never used or seen a computer before to a student taking a masters degree in information technology at the regional college. most of the users had problems using the computer devices, had no previous knowledge of how to handle files and folders, and no pre-knowledge of microsoft office applications. few participants knew how to surf the web or how to use e-mail. none had experience in web page creation. content development within the community did not exist. in the women’s group the level of skills was similar; some were teachers and knew basic ict from their work, but most still did not know how to give input to the computer by using the devices. some women brought their children to the class, to do the computing while the women took notes. among the men’s group the skills were more diverse. commonly the older users needed strict guiding principles of how to use the computer, while the younger students were more independent users. ict awareness and maturity was low in the community. several of the participants had problems expressing their expectations for the telecentre, what services they were interested in, or in need of. still they showed a curiosity to explore icts and its possibilities, with a general regard of icts as something future-bringing. both an educational divide as well as an age divide existed, regarding icts awareness and interest among the telecentre users. responses from interviews indicated that computers were seen as expensive and as a status symbol, which should be used with special care if used at all. participants in the women’s and men’s groups expressed pleasure in attending classes and were motivated to further enhance their skills. they wished for extended time for training, mainly to repeat what they had already learnt but also to learn new things. the attendance was poor in the women’s classes, while the men and youth  had reasonable attendance. a reason indicated to learn about icts in the telecentre, as expressed in interviews, was that it encouraged better ict behaviour than to learn in an internet café that was commonly used for playing games. parents attending the family-training program expressed that they wanted to join classes to learn more on how the use of computers and internet might impact their children. having teachers from the outside was said to be both a hindrance (the participants felt shy to ask when they did not understand) as well as a source of inspiration (by having external guests and influences). impacts observed and lack of interest additional findings from the study were that several community members were uninterested in the telecentre and the ict training provided. finding no personal use of computers, or not giving priority to take a course in their free time or being unwilling to visit the school in order to learn were three stated reasons for the lacking interest in the telecentre and its services. for some community members the location of the telecentre in the school created a barrier to attending and using its services, since they disapproved of going to school. some of them however, were able to learn about computers and using the internet in the house of one telecentre user. these persons stated that they felt it was easier and more comfortable to learn at a more individual pace together with friends. at the time of the evaluation some reported impacts included that students in the primary school had improved their results in the english exams since they had started working with the computers in the telecentre, and e-mail was being used to keep in touch with former volunteers, conversing in english. still a clear connection of the telecentre and the improvement in english skills was hard to affirm. one telecentre user was provided with a pc and held classes in internet and e-mail for family and neighbours at home. the same person held ict training in a school in a neighbouring village. another person used the homepage creation class to create a web page for his business; a family stay facility, marketing his business for travellers. another person used the internet to research how to start a franchise. ict awareness increased and the usage of computers changed; participants who mostly knew computers for playing games said that they had learnt more of the usefulness of a computer, and its applications and the internet. discussion summing up the evaluation findings, individual characteristics, structural conditions and community characteristics suggest positive possibilities for the telecentre to be a viable and valuable tool for the community. still the telecentre faced many challenges that need to be considered, and further actions are proposed taking account of these challenges (in the next section). telecentre characteristics the service mix provided in the telecentre was simple but likely sufficient for the users to gain basic ict skills to a fairly reasonable level. however, the technical equipment consisting of 20 computers and one modem for internet connection was of poor quality and the internet connection was slow and unreliable. the viability and self-sustainability of the telecentre was another challenge. from the perspective of the community the pace of implementing and hand-over of the project as required by the nitc partner was fast and did not correspond to the need of learning and support within the community. the ict training provided was insufficient; the community members were not skilled enough to use the computers effectively on their own and not comfortable enough to be able to teach others or to maintain the telecentre, which was the sponsor’s intention. competence on how to seek and disseminate useful information for the community as well as skills on how to use applications effectively were lacking among the community members. a knowledge broker who could inspire and support the use of ict could be a solution to this. but there was no organised support function for the telecentre and voluntary teachers and staff from the nitc were only temporarily and loosely tied to the telecentre, during the start up of the project and during the first year of the telecentre and training programmes. the partnership between the government and the community existed on paper but was not working out well in reality. the partnership existed to set up, run and evaluate the project in the initial phase, but provided only limited cooperation and networking that could benefit the telecentre users. also the voluntary contributions were unreliable; the community got only sporadic help from outside competent staff. and there was a need for better networking for several purposes; to share knowledge of how to run the telecentre effectively, to practise electronic communication and to practise the use of other applications. both partnership and voluntary efforts needed to be improved upon if they were to form a supportive function for the telecentre. the telecentre was well used by teachers and students in school education, but provided only limited access for other community members. furthermore problems in finding volunteer personnel willing to run the telecentre and conduct ict training outside school hours restricted the community’s use of the telecentre. the objectives of the telecentre stakeholders were sometimes in conflict, with the aim of the local management being towards limited public access being in conflict with the aim of the telecentre to be inclusive and to reach out to the community. when the local school management controlled the key to the site, they were in a position to decide on who could access the telecentre and who could not. lack of finances and problems with technical equipment were stated reasons for the restricted access to the telecentre. additionally the location of the telecentre in the school created a barrier to use the telecentre for some community members who are not comfortable with the school environment. community characteristics in tunjang the community characteristics were positive and formed a solid ground for the outcomes to be positive. the telecentre was initiated within the community by community members, and a willingness to learn of icts existed within the community. the tunjang community had a strong unity and tight relationships, which according to the hypothesis will help to achieve better outcomes through better learning and collaboration than communities who do not. learning from each other and together with family members may have positive effects as a more informal way to learn. possible champions being motivated to run the project existed within the community, but besides the local management, potential champions were not yet experienced enough to run the telecentre. and the community members were in substance passive users rather than participating collaborators in the operation of the telecentre. the intention was that the telecentre would focus on students, teachers and farmers, but few farmers were using the telecentre. information characteristics the prevailing use of english (rather than malay) in websites, in technical documents and in reference materials created a barrier to benefiting from icts and to sharing useful information on the internet. irrespective of the services available at this stage of maturity (as discussed above), both content in local language or content concerning local issues were lacking, which created a barrier for the telecentre to attract community members not proficient in english. the community had limited possibilities to influence information characteristics, but could contribute by creating local information sources. the language issue was a hindrance, but may also become an opportunity for learning english (one of the aims stated by the local management). the lack of effort in developing locally usable and meaningful applications or services was notable, especially considering the vision that the telecentre should reach all community members and bring about development. structural conditions a strong belief in icts for progress and strong investments in ict on a national level provided a decent support for the telecentre. well-defined government policies and strong political ambitions regarding ict implementations were explicitly inspiring the telecentre managers in their efforts with the telecentre. still the top-down support and ambitions in forming the tri-sectoral partnership, with a government agency participating, could have worked out better especially with respect to the support for development of services and for maintenance. individual characteristics the users ict skills, their expectations for the project and their interest in training were diverse. but put in relation to the level of ict maturity the expectations and ambitions were high and the telecentre was not able to provide for all persons interested in using its services. there was a gap between the older and younger generations regarding interest and use of icts. in that sense the family education program was a valuable effort to reach the parents, who said that they found a use for computers for themselves and not only for their children during the course of their engagement with telecentre. composing a tool for development? with the common understanding of telecentres as being tools for development it is of interest to understand tunjang telecentre as a potential tool for change within the tunjang community. motivating telecentre initiatives with development objectives is problematic in many respects, particularly as the term “development” is both complex, political and controversial (sundén & wicander, 2007). harris (2001) suggests that development outcomes of telecentres concern changes in the community, and are closely related to “what the community is motivated to achieve”. and following such an understanding of “development” the stakeholder objectives and aspirations indicate what role the telecentre in tunjang might play to improve the life of the community. yet the objectives accounted for in this research indicate a fluctuation in the levels among stakeholders’ aspirations of the telecentre. the nitc partner is committed to a more general hypothesis of development with ambitions of creating a knowledge society, and aims for the telecentre to be inclusive and to enhance ict skills among community members. the local management had more limited and practical objectives of improving administration within the school and enhancing ict skills mainly among the students, and with a minor interest in the telecentre being inclusive for all community members. the telecentre users stated an interest in increasing their ict skills, with confidence in the telecentre to support them in exploring the utilities of ict. after attending the ict training the vast majority were pleased to have opened their minds on the range of uses of ict; “computers are not only for playing games” as one user stated it. apart from a few ideas of ict supporting private businesses, enhancing skills and being future-bringing, few other concrete ideas on the use of ict in their daily lives, on needs of telecentre services or on what role the telecentre can play in the community, were stated. among the community members the telecentre raised expectations about stimulating learning and enabling private businesses, and in extension, potentially creating employment. a few cases of creating or supporting business and employment had already started to happen at the time for evaluation. but the primary potential for the telecentre to make a significant change within the community was to enhance ict maturity and skills within the community, through training. for the tunjang community the telecentre provided new means of social communication and entertainment which the telecentre users stated to enjoy, and as such the telecentre can compose a tool for personal pleasure. proposal for further action the evaluation findings indicated several shortcomings that need to be considered in order to improve the telecentre, in accordance with the needs and aspirations of the stakeholders. the telecentre had not reached full maturity as yet, implying that its full potential was not as yet used within the community. further actions need to be taken for the telecentre to evolve to the stage of routinization (cooper & zmud, 1990) where the telecentre would be encouraged as a normal activity and its full potential would be used within the community. the following actions are proposed in order to realize the full potential of the telecentre within the community, and to address the challenges for the telecentre to become a valuable tool for the community users. the actions focus on challenges concerning social implications of local involvement, increased training and support components to enhance maintenance and improve ict-skills, as well as increased efforts to create meaningful content and services. to build capacity to maintain and run the telecentre extend and improve the cyber corp programme and include detailed tutorials and teaching material in the malay language. collaborate with experienced persons for support in ict training and content development. develop strategy to motivate voluntary personnel, through opportunities for competency enhancement and benefits (as for example free loans of pcs at home). collaborate with ict students at the teachers college to teach or support in the telecentre activities, who in turn can get credit for practice in their college education. thorough hand-over to the local management with seminar on issues for sustainability. to improve skills in icts for the users extend the training programmes with larger efforts on how to create and update web pages, using free software, and maintaining the computers. increase accessibility to the telecentre. provide pc-laboratories to examine hardware. create project works for collaborative learning, aiming to create local content as community or personal web pages. future ict services to attract and reach (all) community members the location in the school creates a barrier for some people. an open and informal atmosphere in the telecentre is needed. to reach people computers can be exposed in places where the community members commonly gather such as at the market or in the mosques. collaborate with the state library who owns an internet bus. the bus can be used for venues to raise the ict awareness to reach community members who have not exploited computers in the telecentre. places for the bus to visit are the market, shops and the bank. finding and marketing services that can be of use in the everyday lives; services that can spare trips to the city for administrative matters, agricultural content to inform farmers about weather, prices or new farming techniques. contribute to develop local content in malay including personal web pages as is dealt with in the training of volunteers, families and students in school (see above). establish a function to inspire in the use of icts and to disseminate useful information for telecentre users. conclusion & further research the aim with this work was to evaluate the performance and viability of the tunjang telecentre, and from identified gaps and challenges suggest how the telecentre can be improved to be of value for the tunjang community. the evaluation findings positively indicate that individual characteristics, structural conditions and community characteristics suggest positive outcomes for the telecentre. the main gaps could be found in telecentre and information characteristics, in problems concerning partnerships and networking, lack of skills for telecentre maintenance and operation, and lack of relevant and meaningful content. with regard to the identified gaps and in order to work towards greater meaningfulness and greater level of social inclusion several further actions were proposed. in substance these actions concern strengthening the skills and external support for telecentre operation, to create local content and to attract and reach more telecentre users. using this particular evaluation model was helpful since it helped provide a broad view of the telecentre within its local context. the model also strongly considers the human aspects of using and supporting the telecentre, both on the individual and the community level. other strengths of using this framework are that it is clearly linked to both indicators and hypotheses, and it is also well-based in theory. the indicators are sensitive and form guiding questions to approach the collection of data. a common problem with use oriented concepts related to data collection is that they tend to be general and hard to apply. some of the indicators in this model, such as those related to personalities and community unity, can be seen as rather vague both in approach and as a basis for analyzing the empirical data. the framework could be improved through suggestions and discussions of how indicator data is to be collected and analyzed. in this sense it could serve as a more practical guideline for telecentre evaluation to be used by telecentre practitioners that might not be acquainted with academic research. one interesting aspect of this model is the attempt to deal with development and to evaluate the telecentre success through its achievement of development outcomes. however, these complex issues are touched upon only superficially--development outcomes are referred to as what the community is motivated to achieve. the needs and aspirations within the community will certainly determine the potential success of the telecentres in its local context, but to treat this in terms of development 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(2000). assessing community telecentres. guidelines for researchers. ottawa, idrc world bank development report (1998/1999). knowledge for development. new york: oxford university press appendix –a       model for evaluation telecentre characteristics indicators hypothesis the circumstances of the project start-up and who instigated the project the level and quality of services and the product mix service and product delivery regarding community requirements. the suitability of language telecentre financing is critical for sustainability networking with management and other telecentres to maintain services, share experiences, cross-fertilise ideas and promote joint learning support role of the telecentres, amount and quality of training and assistance provided to community users knowledge broker i.e. an individual working in a telecentre capable of using computers and internet in order to respond to requests from members of the community for information or for help in solving problems. advantage if drawn from community and pro-actively work to make the telecentre services useful for the community telecentres that are started by community-based actors, telecentres run by staff who pro-actively seek and disseminate useful information for the community, and telecentres that actively network with other telecentres will achieve greater development outcomes than those that do not. the closer the software tools match the needs of the community, the more useable the telecentre is.   community characteristics   indicators   hypothesis   community aspirations technology cannot function successfully in the absence of some form of community ambition to improve / change life. an outside influence can ignite aspirations learning and capacities. the pace of learning seems to accelerate as technology unfolds its capability and potential, further feeding the desire for new knowledge. in the telecenter people can discover new knowledge and teach each other (informal learning). this form of learning is usually deeper and more focused on real needs than learning being introduced from outside. it has been noticed that the processes that are specifically designed to achieve capacity for example training, are not always triggering capacity building. the challenge is to be able to recognise the right time to engage with community capacities; when to trigger aspirations and when to trigger training organisation. organisation is a function of harnessing the social dynamics of a community towards its own betterment with introduction of new information. when new technologies are introduced this is often not done by the traditional leadership unity. does a sense of unity exist within the community, transcending differences that usually exist within communities participation. refers to the level of inclusion of all sections of the community, and the work for community-wide solutions relationships. relationships that exist or emerge within the community itself. good relationships breed aspirations and accomplishment, which can generate further good relationships personalities. the information systems literature refers to “champions” as opinion leaders in it implementation and adoption. stories of positive developments from telecentre adoption often feature individual action as a trigger to community adoption. the need to find local champions who are motivated and able to drive the project cannot be overstated.   communities with high development aspirations, communities with greater capacity for learning and communities that foster harmonious internal relationships will achieve more desirable outcomes from their telecentres than those that do not.     information characteristics   indicators   hypothesis   information should be useful and useable as well as being local and relevant. a telecentre that is designed to support community development should be creative in localising its knowledge and information resources that are relevant.     telecentres that distribute local information to their communities, telecentres that distribute relevant information to their communities and telecentres that distribute information that is usable by their communities will induce more desirable development outcomes than telecentres that do not. structural conditions   indicators   hypothesis   governments should formulate national strategies to narrow knowledge gaps, including those for technology acquisition and distribution, education and training and expanding access to technologies by de-regulation and privatisation. appropriate courses of action will vary depending on the circumstances, and government policies and political leadership will determine the success of such policies.   government policies, political leadership and partnerships between the telecentre implementation organisations and outside agencies will influence the ability of telecentres to induce desirable development outcomes. individual characteristics indicators   hypothesis   it is of importance to take account of variables that have been demonstrated to influence the adoption of computer usage behaviour. these include personality, demographics, computer anxiety, expectations, training, education and involvement in application development.   the personalities, their expectations and the training of telecentre users will influence their ability to achieve desirable development outcomes from their telecentre.     bridging the digital divide in dunn county, wisconsin: a case study of npo use of ict liz bogner1 kevin w. tharp2 mary mcmanus3 americorps vista leader: alaska network on domestic violence and sexual assault, juneau, alaska usa e-mail: liz.bogner@gmail.com assistant professor of information and communications technology at the university of wisconsin-stou, menomonie, wi 54751 usa e-mail: tharpk@uwstout.edu assistant director, memorial student center; supervisor, ally initiatives for civil rights & civic responsibility, uw-stout, menomonie, wisconsin 54751 usa e-mail: mcmanusm@uwstout.edu 1. introduction as the cost of computers has decreased and availability of high-speed internet has increased, information and communication technology (ict) has become commonplace in everyday life. workplace trends in the private sector in more developed countries have shifted, making ict an integral part of promoting a successful enterprise. however, while the private sector has recognized the need for innovation in business practices, the nonprofit sector in the united states has not been as quick to adapt. today, large national organizations have embraced ict as a new means of achieving their visions; small nonprofit organizations (npos), however, have not been able to make the changes they need to survive amidst reductions in federal and other grant funding and human resources (voluntary sector initiative, 2002). small nonprofit organizations face a number of challenges that impede sustainable digital literacy learning. many agencies operate with few full-time staff members, making volunteers and temporary help from service-learners essential to their survival. economic recession has imposed additional constraints. npos are now facing a larger number of clients seeking assistance. with increasing caseloads, staff members have little extra time for professional development opportunities that aid in acquiring digital literacy. dunn county, wisconsin's npos face many such challenges. located in rural western wisconsin, dunn county is served by eleven local human service agencies, most staffed by fewer than 15 people. with a small pool of employees, these agencies rarely have a person designated to address ict issues or to train other staff. in addition to having few staff to assist the mounting number of clients, many dunn county agencies are staffed by senior citizen volunteers who lack familiarity and comfort with ict. this case study examines the introduction of digital literacy initiatives by the united way of dunn county and ten of its partner agencies. developed by an americorps*vista (ac*v) volunteer program assigned through wisconsin campus compact to the university of wisconsin-stout, bridging the digital divide in dunn county, wisconsin has met with successes and challenges. the ac*v volunteers observed the capacity of the npos to use ict in their work and subsequently trained their staff to use those technologies more effectively. three ac*v volunteers staffed this effort in three successive years (2010-2012). while this case study examines year one outcomes in full, the outcomes of years two and three are also briefly summarized later in the case study. literature review many npo staff members are still unfamiliar with ict, whether it be the use of websites to publish information, social media, or even the physical devices used to interact with the web, making it difficult to apply them to their area of advocacy. however, the information age requires this new set of skills to ensure success. adeyemon (2009) argues that digital literacy learning is instrumental in fostering an understanding and appreciation of technology and building confidence to use technology. the bridging the digital divide project aims to develop learning opportunities targeting agency staff who know little about the applications of online resources and new media. with these training resources, the ac*v project strives to eliminate any apprehensions or fears that affect agencies' online outreach efforts. the catalyst for this project for dunn county npos was the potential of ict for outreach to clients and those who support their causes. websites have long been a method of projecting npos' presence via the world wide web. nonprofit websites often contain information regarding donations, volunteers and events, all opportunities for community involvement. greenberg and macaulay (2009) observed nonprofit websites to be "locked in a broadcast paradigm…using their online presence to disseminate messages broadly to a mass audience." with this one-way communication mindset, many nonprofit websites have taken the shape of an expanded "brochure" (wagner, 1998) with little attention to aesthetics and usability. unlike most websites, social media allow for two-way communication, causing platforms such as facebook and twitter to be recognized as important tools for npos. according to the nonprofit technology network's (2011:19) nonprofit social network benchmark report, 87% of human service npos were using facebook, primarily for marketing purposes. twitter is the second-most popular social network in the nonprofit world with a 57% adoption rate. social media platforms have played roles in social change from rallying thousands of facebook users to support egyptian democratization (vericat, 2010) to raising $1.2 million for nonprofits worldwide via twitter (connect the dots foundation, 2011). the networking capabilities of social media have the potential to impact local issues which directly affect citizens; however, knowledge of those platforms is necessary before they can be harnessed for outreach and advocacy purposes. hill and white (2000:38) found that the internet is a "b-list" activity in the workplace. their interviews revealed that, while businesses and organizations felt that ict is useful in remaining relevant in the "information age," several barriers prevented them from including internet activities as a high priority. public relations practitioners cited a lack of deadlines for updating material and already having too many responsibilities. with a small number of staff and increased number of clients due to economic recession, rural human service agencies often lack the necessary time and energy to create and maintain web presence. while many businesses and organizations have created websites and social networking profiles, they have struggled to use ict in ways that would improve their outreach efforts. waters et al. (2009) observed that organizations believe social networking could benefit them, but failed to utilize all of the features provided by these networks. donors and volunteers are among the primary visitors to nonprofits' websites and social media pages. those users are certain to expect broad transparency full disclosure (berman et al.,2007) from the organization, including through visual media, frequent updates regarding the organization's activity, and frequent interaction with their supporters. by neglecting their supporters' desire for information, organizations may risk the loss of human and monetary resources that are essential to their survival. 2. community profile: dunn county, wisconsin, usa dunn county is located in west-central wisconsin, situated between the eau claire-chippewa falls and the minneapolis-st. paul metropolitan areas. its county seat is the city of menomonie, home to the university of wisconsin-stout. with the exception of menomonie, dunn county is entirely rural, with a total population of 42,416 residents. 96.1% of the county's residents are white, and 27.5% have attained a bachelor's degree or higher. however, 15.1% of the population lives at or below the poverty line, 1.6% greater than the national average (u.s. census bureau, 2009). internet access is an issue of concern in rural wisconsin. while 98.9% of rural wisconsin has access to high-speed internet providers (national telecommunications and information administration, 2011), many rural communities lack choices of providers, which can make broadband costly. while no research exists on the dunn county residents' ict habits, the linkwisconsin consumer broadband study (2010) provided insight into how wisconsinites use high-speed internet access and their opinions regarding internet use. region 3, which included dunn county among several other counties in west-central wisconsin, had a 74% adoption rate of broadband internet services. in region 3, the 39% without broadband felt that they would be motivated to adopt broadband service if it were less costly. overall, one-quarter of those without broadband were not motivated to get it, indicating some west-central wisconsinites are uncertain how broadband service is relevant to their lives in rural areas. 3. dunn county stakeholder agencies dunn county is served by the united way of dunn county and 26 partner agencies. this paper focuses on the united way plus ten human service agencies with locations in dunn county. these 11 agencies are stakeholders in the bridging the digital divide in dunn county ac*v project. these agencies received training and took part in advising the project. nine of the 11 stakeholder agencies have websites. agencies' web presence prior to the ac*v's training initiatives was largely static. those agencies seeking a more user-friendly way of keeping the community informed adopted social media. of the 11 stakeholder agencies, six had a facebook page and two had a twitter account as of august 2010. agencies used social media sparsely, mainly to promote events. conversations with staff suggested that client's habits have hindered agencies' adoption of web technologies. since many of the stakeholder agencies' clients are low-income individuals who do not have internet access at home, agencies felt that online outreach was unnecessary. dunn county's npos have a high rate of broadband adoption. 100% of stakeholder agencies have some form of internet access. agencies reported that they use the internet primarily for email. other uses for technology among dunn county agencies include word processing and managing spreadsheets. while agencies believe that technology is necessary in the work that they do, managing technology is not the primary strength of agency staff, and most do not have any trained it staff. many agencies assign one or two staff members to manage the agency's online presence or look to local telecommunications companies for assistance. with the advent of social media, dunn county's npos are beginning to realize that ict and digital literacy skills are important tools. the bridging the digital divide in dunn county ac*v project aims to improve digital literacy skills among agency members to help them use ict to achieve their missions. 4. ac*v ac*v (volunteers in service to america) is a national volunteer program focused on eliminating poverty in the united states. established by law in 1965 by president johnson, the vista program has placed over 170,000 volunteers who have worked to empower low-income communities across the nation. vista members create sustainable programming to provide assistance to those in need by coordinating volunteers, gaining the support of local businesses to support community programs, and strengthening local nonprofit agencies who serve low-income populations. vista projects extend over three to five years in order to give sufficient time to establish programs and ensure the communities' investment into sustaining them beyond the tenure of the ac*v participation. ac*v works with several partner organizations across the united states, including campus compact, a national organization dedicated to integrating community service into higher education with offices in 35 states. wisconsin campus compact, host organization of the project discussed in this paper, strives to instill a sense of civic responsibility through service-learning in its 34 member institutions of higher education. 5. user assessment survey an asset map was designed to determine areas of need for digital literacy training for the united way of dunn county and its nine partner agencies. to create the asset map, the user assessment survey was created. questions within it were derived loosely from the standards outlined in the wisconsin department of public instruction's academic standards for information & technology literacy (2000), and the massachusetts department of elementary and secondary education's technology self-assessment tool (2009). the survey focused on the comfort level with which agency staff could complete tasks in six areas: microsoft windows, microsoft word, microsoft excel, microsoft powerpoint, their web browser, and social networking sites facebook and twitter. the survey opened with a greeting, an explanation of the survey and its purpose, and a statement that all responses would be kept confidential. the body of the user assessment survey rates nonprofit employees' comfort with performing 72 basic to intermediate tasks on a windows pc including navigating windows, microsoft word, microsoft excel, microsoft power point, navigating internet resources, and social media. respondents rated themselves as not comfortable (n), somewhat comfortable (s), or very comfortable (v) in performing a particular task. for the purposes of this paper, we focus on the social networking components of the survey. 6. data collection and analysis the user assessment survey was created using survey monkey and distributed by email to the executive directors of the partner agencies on august 12, 2010. directors were asked to forward the survey to any full-time staff at their agencies or to print out the file containing the survey for distribution. directors were additionally contacted via telephone and email in the week of distribution. another email was sent out two weeks later as a reminder to complete the survey. paper copies were also delivered to agencies which had not yet returned any responses. the survey was open until september 12, 2010. the survey was originally intended to be a census of digital literacy skills of the staff of all 26 of the united way of dunn county's partner agencies. however, given the focus of the ac*v project, the scope was modified to include only the 11 human services agencies with offices in dunn county, a total staff population of 81 (n=81). of the 75 surveys started, 74 were successfully completed, for a response rate of approximately 91%. the data were compiled in a spreadsheet by agency to determine the areas of each agency's most critical digital literacy needs. additionally, frequency tables were generated to analyze overall digital literacy among the 11 agencies. analysis of frequency tables showed that most nonprofit professionals felt comfortable using the windows operating systems as well as microsoft office programs. the data also showed that nearly all agency staff were comfortable with basic functions of web browsers. overall, however, the responses indicated that social media should be the focus for the ac*v project; for any given facebook skill at least 20% of respondents reported that they were not comfortable, while at least 70% reported being not comfortable with any given twitter skill. the aim of the first year (2010-2011) of this project was to ensure that any nonprofit professional utilizing their organization's social media would be very comfortable with every skill. 7. discussion for the purposes of capacity-building, there should be one person who is confident enough with their skills to teach the task to someone who is uncertain as to how to perform it (habel, 2009). in this way, the agencies can better influence the outcomes of the project by sharing the knowledge they have acquired with others in their organization. it was therefore decided to focus on areas where more than 50% of an agency's staff reported being very comfortable. the survey responses and follow up showed social media to be an area where capacity-building was needed. while the fundamental facebook tasks such as updating a status or commenting were not problem areas, other basic tasks such as using links or creating an event were found to be problematic for many respondents. twitter proved to be even more of a challenge, with only about 13% being very comfortable with tweeting and even fewer for other tasks on the site. based on follow-up communication with agencies, the lack of social media proficiency overall can be attributed to the fact that only one or two people manage an agency's social media. also, only three of the participating agencies have twitter accounts and non-users are unlikely to have those skills. to address the problem areas reported through the user assessment survey, a number of programs and resources were developed by the bridging the digital divide vista in conjunction with the stoutreach program, which coordinates volunteer efforts in the student involvement center at uw-stout. the first resource developed was the stoutreach technology resource manual. the manual, a beginner's guide, leads agency staff to explore operating systems (i.e. microsoft windows) and using the internet with a focus on skill-building. this manual was meant to serve the agencies with the most need and those with senior-citizen volunteers. it includes the information to build the base of skills needed for additional digital literacy education. building on the base of the stoutreach technology resource manual, another resource developed by the uw-stout ac*v was the stoutreach tech wiki. the idea for this website stemmed from conversations with agency executive directors and their need for a resource that could be accessed from anywhere at any time. this website was meant to broaden users' knowledge of ict-related terms and concepts, as well as to host skill-building exercises and guides which explain common processes that agency staff may not yet be able to execute. furthermore, wiki sites promote participation (knobel & lankshear, 2009) through commenting features and editing abilities. the stoutreach tech wiki also provided links to online tutorials on the various applications used by the agencies. the site was built by the ac*v volunteers. the site launched in september 2010 with content being added frequently over the following two months. day and farenden (2007) observed the impact of participatory learning workshops (plws) on community learning and subsequently on community development. they found that plws were an effective means of introducing communications technologies, which in turn developed a desire by users to utilize those resources (p. 8). this supports the notion presented by tharp (2005) that face-to-face social interaction among senior citizens can be a motivating factor in developing ict skills. based on this information, a presentation series called tech lunch began in november 2010. the ac*v volunteer served as the presenter and led discussions about how to use new media such as facebook, twitter, and youtube to improve agency outreach. held on a monthly basis at the office of the united way of dunn county, tech lunch provided agency staff with a comfortable environment to ask questions and present ideas and concerns about adopting new technology. at the time of writing, tech lunch has covered introductions to facebook, twitter, youtube, google apps, online fundraising applications, upgrading hardware and software inexpensively, and maintaining effective websites. adeyemon (2009:90) noted that "learning facilitators" individuals who served to teach and mentor trainees were essential to the success of the digital literacy training of underserved populations. over the course of the year, the ac*v volunteer offered to give on-site, individual training with agency staff to address their concerns. contact was generally initiated by the agencies requesting assistance with their facebook pages or their websites. vista volunteers responded by addressing the issues presented by the trainee and suggesting other useful functions of the application while the trainee operated the computer. for additional support, vista staff members [volunteers?] were available to answer questions remotely after the training session. 8. conclusions and recommendations the user assessment survey was helpful for determining the areas in which the ac*v should develop training resources. based on its results, social media proved to be an area of need overall. because that need was so broad, the uw-stout ac*v felt that the most effective means of meeting the dunn county nonprofit community's needs was by developing a presentation series. since its inception, the tech lunch series has proven effective in introducing nonprofits to new media such as social networking sites and video-sharing sites. during the year that the resources and programs were created and distributed, the agencies' web presence has improved. over the course of the year, three of the 11 dunn county agencies redesigned their websites. also, five of the seven agencies that did not have a facebook page before the project began, created a page for their organization. this resulted in an 82% adoption rate among the dunn county stakeholder agencies. community-wide success of the tech lunch presentations was impeded by poor attendance. the initial presentation was worked into a united way meeting which the executive directors of all 26 of the united way of dunn county's partner agencies were expected to attend. however, since the initial presentation, the average tech lunch has brought in four attendees, two of whom are regular attendees. since november 2010, representatives from seven of the eleven agencies have attended tech lunch. increasing attendance would improve the impact of this project as it moves ahead. the most successful means of helping agencies adopt and maintain web-based technologies in year one was through one-on-one meetings with those who have been designated to manage them. these individuals expressed desire to implement ict, particularly social media, in their outreach, but were uncertain where to begin. having an experienced trainer sitting by to guide the processes of managing websites and social media outlets was useful to participants. participants were further reassured when they realized the same trainer would be available to answer questions. while the 2010 user assessment survey provided the uw-stout ac*v with an understanding of which web technologies are used by dunn county nonprofits, it failed to address how they are being used. knowledge of the basic functions of web browsers, email, and social media platforms does not necessarily mean that these platforms are being used for outreach purposes. in future assessment, short answer open-ended questions should be included to address the specific reasons agency staff members use ict in their work. the 2010 user assessment survey also did not assess individual level of use of technology. not all agency staff use all of the programs listed. having information regarding what, if any, web technologies staff members use in their day-to-day work would help the uw-stout ac*v determine the specific training needs of each individual. also, the 2010 user assessment survey did not address the ability to edit a website, an essential tool for nonprofits' web outreach. this is a complicated issue since agencies use different means of maintaining their websites: one of many simple editors that do not require coding knowledge, delegating webmaster duties to a volunteer, or paying an outside company. questions regarding how each agency has managed their website historically, how they intend to manage it in the future, and whether or not agency staff members need training have not been quantified in the same manner as the tasks mentioned in the user assessment survey. since standardization and complexity are issues for this question, other means of understanding will need to be sought. an interview with agencies' executive directors may be the best way to obtain this information. the bridging the digital divide in dunn county project's key success in the first year of the project was in changing the attitudes of dunn county's nonprofit staff regarding communication technologies, although only small changes of other aspects of the project were observed throughout the year. as the project began, agency staff members exuded a sense of uncertainty regarding ict and how to utilize it effectively. as a result, websites and social media outreach efforts often fell by the wayside. however, the timidity that had been expressed initially has been replaced by a desire to understand ict and apply that knowledge to the betterment of their agency. one executive director remarked, "we raised $700 from [one] posting and it was the first time we had attempted to raise any funds via facebook. that was really an eye-opener." maintaining the enthusiasm of dunn county's human service agencies about increasing their digital literacy is essential to the continued success of this initiative through its second and third years and beyond. 9. postscript: year two and year three: the ac*v mission is to end poverty. by bringing human service agencies to a more sophisticated level of expertise in ict, it enables agency staff to better meet the needs of the populations they serve. the goal of the bridging the technology divide program is to overcome poverty through technology literacy, initially in npo settings utilizing ict. three individuals worked in three successive years on this project, each leaving their own mark on the capacity of the local community. in 2011-2012, year two of this effort, an additional 26 agency training sessions were held with 97 individuals. the most popular topics covered were the wordpress blogging program and social media. the second ac*v volunteer (2011-2012) continued with successful website and social media training implementations at seven local service agencies (schroeder, 2012). also: the community technology literacy program serving local residents was launched in early 2012 through collaborations with support from community organizations. programs included classes and hands-on-labs held at the local public library and senior center. fourteen classes were offered serving 147 participants, and 19 hands-on (open) labs served 80 participants. every participant was surveyed following the class and/or lab experience. 98% of the participants self-reported improved technology skills, including the following comments: "i always felt like run-rabbit-run and had phobias about computers. that has changed with these progressive classes" and "he helped me find another job through my applying with the computer" (schroeder, 2012). additional ac*v efforts that changed the view of technology use in year two included provision of a data management solution for the holiday giving for children program. the solution immediately improved data integrity and staff time/effort. the executive director of the united way indicated "it will easily save us half the time it would have taken if we utilized the spreadsheet i used for the last few years" (schroeder, 2012). this is a project that impacts 1,600-2,000 local children annually. streamlining management processes allowed for faster, better service that met client needs. the ac*v volunteer also collaborated with uw extension staff on a grant project "reaching families on the go with mobile technology". this $22,000 grant allowed for the purchase of 12 ipads, 2 macbook pros and av equipment, and funding to support a new website for initiatives (as well as to archive past content). equipment purchased may be borrowed by community members or agencies. in brief, the ac*v volunteer for year two of the project mentored 30 agency staff members, trained 325 local residents, and recruited 18 community and university student volunteers who logged 196 hours (schroeder, 2012). an additional community support began at the bridge between years two and three. a public-facing volunteer calendar hosted through a software program held at the university became accessible for 25 local agencies that chose to participate in additional training. each agency was afforded their own portal through which they could post volunteer opportunities, track volunteer training and hours, and obtain data for individual agency reporting structures. the vista in year two launched this project, and the vista for year three continued with the training efforts. nine months into year three, the 25 agencies had been able to post well over 200 (one-time and ongoing) volunteer opportunities in this system. students can connect easily and are able to include volunteer efforts in an online portfolio. the community may also access the calendar, but must contact the agency directly to sign up for volunteer opportunities (rather than sign up online). other efforts in year three of bridging the technology divide included the renewed effort to expand the asset map and successfully garner further collaborative support for technology literacy education. most recently, the ac*v volunteer is working with workforce resource on development of a standardized tutoring program and checklist for technology literacy to be used by tutors, clients and trainers. partners in this project now included the local technical college, chamber of commerce, literacy volunteers, the school district, regional telecommunications businesses, state workforce office, civic organizations, a retirees group, and representatives of the marketing/ business education department at the university. a local civic leadership project group offered to aid in promoting the sustainability of this project, thereby expanding the asset map. commitments have been made by eight of these organizations to continue collaborations that will sustain the technology literacy efforts begun in 2010 by successive ac*v volunteers. the current ac*v volunteer has also engaged citizens in a local township who expressed interest in modifying the township's web presence, expanding community access to important resources online. with his assistance, township leaders have surveyed town residents (73% response) about the web presence. they now have an updated and fully accessible website, along with a cadre of citizens who have agreed to aid in keeping information current (schiel, 2013). in the first three successive quarters of year three, 433 persons received training. five faculty members and 43 students supported training efforts. representatives of community organizations were logged in as resources 375 times. the trend toward participation by those in need of technology literacy is improving, as is the commitment on the part of the community. dunn county has seen real, measurable change in just three years. what started in year one as npos using itc has grown to meet the broader, changing needs of the local community (schiel, 2013). technology literacy as an indicator of economic opportunity will be measured in the years to come through the efforts of the agency staff members who have agreed to work collaboratively in sustaining local technology literacy efforts for underserved populations. the goals of this ac*v project have been met by three successive persons who dedicated a year of their time, energy and immense talent in service to the community in collaboration with a cadre of agency and community representatives who were willing to aid in moving significant social action. references adeyemon, e. (2009). integrating digital literacies into outreach services for underserved youth populations. the reference librarian, 50(1), 85-98. berman, s. j., abraham, s., battino, b., shipnuck, l., & neus, a. (2007). new business models for the new media world. strategy & leadership, 35(4), 23-30. connect the dots foundation (2011). twestival local 2011. retrieved july 13, 2011, from twestival: http://www.twestival.com/info.html day, p., & farenden, c. (2007). participatory learning workshops (plws): community learning environments situated in community contexts and content. communities and action: prato cirn conference , 1-9. greenberg, j., & macaulay, m. (2009). npo 2.0? exploring the web presence of environmental nonprofit organizations in canada. global media journal canadian edition, 63-88. habel, c. (2009) academic self-efficacy in all: capacity-building through self-belief. journal of academic language & learning, 3(2), 94-104. hill, l. n., & white, c. (2000). public relations practitioners' perception of the world wide web as a communications tool. public relations review , 31-51. knobel, m., & lankshear, c. (2009). wikis, digital literacies, and professional growth. journal of adolescent and adult literacy, 631-635. linkwisconsin. (2010, december). consumer broadband study. retrieved june 20, 2011, from linkwisconsin: http://www.link.wisconsin.gov/lwi/docs/consumer%20market%20research.pdf massachusetts department of elementary and secondary education. (2009). technology self-assessment tool. boston: massachusetts department of elementary and secondary education. merkel, c. b., clitherow, m., farooq, u., xiao, l., ganoe, c. h., carroll, j. m., et al. (2005). sustaining computer use and learning in community computing contexts: making technology part of "who they are and what they do". the journal of community informatics, 1(2), 158-174. national telecommunications and information administration (ntia). (2011). broadband statistics report: broadband availability in urban vs. rural areas. national telecommunications and information administration. (2010). current population survey (cps) internet use. washington d.c.: national telecommunications and information administration. nonprofit technology network. (2011). nonprofit social network benchmark report 2011. schiel, m. p. (2013). ac*v quarterly reports, madison, wisconsin campus compact. schroeder, t. j. (2012). ac*v annual presentation report, madison, wisconsin campus compact. spencer, t. (2002). the potential of the internet for non-profit organizations. first monday. tharp, k. w. (2005). an individual-centered approach to the design and implementation of an online community network. unpublished doctoral dissertation, central queensland university rockhampton, qld, australia. u.s. census bureau. (2009). dunn county, wisconsin fact sheet. retrieved july 6, 2011, from u.s. census bureau: http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/acssafffacts?_event=changegeocontext&geo_id=05000us55033&_geocontext=01000us|04000us55|05000us55033|06000us5503316300&_street=&_county=dunn+county%2c+wi&_citytown=dunn+county%2c+wi&_state=&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&active vericat, j. (2010). accidental activists: using facebook to drive change. journal of international affairs, 177-180. voluntary sector initiative, the (2002). building a stronger voluntary sector: how the vsi is making a difference. ottawa: the voluntary sector initiative. wagner, m. (1998, september). nonprofits face hurdles. internet week, 79. waters, r. d., burnett, e., lamm, a., & lucas, j. (2009). engaging stakeholders through social networking: how nonprofit organizations are using facebook. public relations review, 102-106. wisconsin department of public instruction. (2000). wisconsin's model academic standards for information and technology literacy. madison, wi: wisconsin department of public instruction. building broadband infrastructure from the grassroots: the case of home lans in belarus aljona zorina1 & william h. dutton2 assistant professor, information & operation management department, escp europe paris, france, e-mail: azorina@escpeurope.eu professor of internet studies, oxford internet institute, university of oxford, e-mail: william.dutton@oii.ox.ac.uk the home lan communities of belarus: an overview home local area networks (lans) are comprised of communities of individuals in households who link their home computers through cables (later through fiber optics and radio modems) in order to create a shared computer network. this paper describes the development of home lans created in minsk, belarus. similar networks have been developed in russia and ukraine, but in these nations, the majority of home lans were transformed rapidly into more commercial forms; or were integrated with the infrastructures of internet service providers (isps) due to a faster development of internet services and de-monopolization of national telecommunications in these latter countries. in belarus, residential internet access remained significantly less affordable, primarily due to the continuation of a state monopoly by beltelecom. the belarusian state provider did not launch an inexpensive dial-up service for residential internet-access until 1999. private isps were also required to buy their internet traffic only from the monopoly provider and at high prices, thus restricting isps to re-selling services only to end-users. the private isps focused on selling internet access to businesses and other organizations as their services were too expensive for individual household internet users. created in such conditions, home lans began to develop through the efforts of citizens. these grassroots initiatives were used by individuals to address the digital divide in response to the lack of affordable internet services. the first home lans in minsk were created in 1994-1996 by amateurs primarily interested in playing multi-party games, sharing files, and providing internet-like services. in order to overcome a lack of financial resources and special technical knowledge, home lans technologies were improvised on a common property basis through a variety of practice-driven innovations. once they had incorporated a significant number of users, home lans began some successful collaborations with private isps by sharing the internet access aggregated to multiple users, in this way becoming the main infrastructure for residential internet access till 2010, when such infrastructures were announced to be illegal by the state. according to some evaluations, in 2010 home lans had provided access for several million people, or about 90 percent of residential home computers in the country (belarusian news portal 2010). this study was based on an in-depth qualitative case study approach and multiple data sources (denzin & lincoln 2000; markus 1983; yin 2009). the data collection period lasted from january 2010 till april 2011 and incorporated multiple stages, from an exploratory study, to a main period of data collection and follow-up interviews. data sources include 73 interviews (57 interviews with home lan users and administrators, and 16 interviews with internet providers), as well as documents, archival data and direct observations. all interviews were semi-structured and open-ended with an average interview lasting about 40 minutes each. documents include maps of home lan infrastructures and home lan statutes, and home lan web pages. archival data include documented and video recorded opinions of experts on home lans; articles in newspapers and journals; more than 30 pages of the national non-profit it portals publishing news on a daily basis (http://it.tut.by, http://www.interminsk.com/, http://providers.by/, http://techlabs.by/); related government laws; and materials from the national home lan website, homenet.tut.by. direct participation includes observations of how users interact and make sense with home lan technologies. the following sections focus on technological aspects of home lan development through two main periods of its development. providing alternative internet infrastructures (1994-2000) the first home lans were built by neighboring friends using network interface cards (net cards), hubs, switches, and direct cable links between home computers. there was a constant learning process in finding out how to do things, avoid mistakes and create new services. neighbors met regularly and voted on key decisions concerning the introduction of monthly fees, equipment changes, and the extension of the home lan. as the number of users in the network increased, so did the structure of the organization and the technologies. for example, servers (usually home-made from old pcs with linux/unix os) were introduced with changes to the network's topology (figure 1). figure 1. evolution of home lan architectures and services in 1994 2000 connections were made between multi-storey buildings by stringing cables through the air ("by air") (figure 2a, b) and underground coaxial cables, and later with fiber optics and radio links. figure 2a. connections between multi-storey buildings through the air coaxial cables figure 2b. connections between multi-storey buildings through the air coaxial cables eventually, home lan services developed from game and file exchange to more advanced and community-oriented services such as chat, file data bases, media galleries, among others. home lan technologies and services of this period were comprised of: data bases of internal home lan documents such as home lan statutes, local community-developed documents prescribing such aspects as network goals, mission, users' rights, networking rules, etc. videos created by administrators that provided step by step instructions on typical set up questions. internet radio, initially based on switches and later based on servers. network radio combined transmission from over the air radio stations with programs, news and discussions created by the home lan users. file search engines, which provided daily up-dated databases of files open for sharing by users` computers. network forums and chats that provided a space for discussions and within-network communication. (eventually, home lans started using irc-based chats and forums assisting in organizing for communication of the growing number of users and enabling their division into administrators, moderators and users. additionally, the introduction of irc++ technologies allowed the creation of distributed databases at users' computers.). dns and dhcp data on the pcs of network users with their ip addresses. technical maps of home lans, developed by home lan administrators to assist users and provide information on the network architectures, topologies, communication and equipment. in addition, social maps showed the boundaries of a particular home lan and identified users, providing some of their personal and professional information, photos and addresses. this networking contributed to a specialized home lan culture. programs stimulating resource openness and communication in the network (fly link dc++) and setting up a threshold of information open to other users (in gbs). backup services to save information on servers from loss in case of damage. home lans and internet service providers (2001-2010) by 2000, having developed into organizations with several hundred users on average, a number of lans initiated cooperation with private isps. given their size, they were able to negotiate more affordable internet prices for their network's users and a number of bonuses. isps provided home lans with a shared adsl modem and a monetary stimulus for administrators (typically, 10% of the network internet revenue). introduction of such internet-access to the home lan infrastructure boosted the development of an even greater variety of innovative services. useful programs and codes found by users on the internet were appropriated and adapted to comply with the local network's particular needs. additionally to the above discussed, home lan technologies and services of this period comprised the following: shared internet access enabling the signal from the modem to be multiplied, reinforced and used by multiple users. home lan servers were programmed to distribute internet traffic between several network modems in order to stabilize the load. links with several providers to the same network, allowing a majority of home lans to negotiate with isps more effectively by not creating a monopoly for any single isp. fiber optic connections were created in home lans both locally (if a network was organized for resources, equipment and users with knowledge in this domain) and by some isp initiatives, such as when a lan was strategic for the isp in the area. radio links enabling long-distance (up to 2km) connections to neighboring home lans or multi-story buildings within the network. radio links were created on the basis of switches with wi-fi functions, replacing their small antennas with larger antennas. some home lans developed their own websites (such as http://dom15.narod.ru/users.html). a national website of home lans, (http://homenet.tut.by/), opened in 2002 and remained active at the time of writing. with the website, innovations developed in a particular home lans were easily spread to others. for example, some administrators developed a technology of lightning rods protecting switches during storms and posted their innovation with detailed electrical schemas on the websites while other people started commercial, albeit, home-made manufacturing of these technologies for home lans. further, the website contained a database with addresses of all home lans and contacts for their administrators. figure 3 illustrates the evolution of network infrastructures and services since the introduction of the internet. as thefigure shows, services developed in home lans were later copied by private and government providers and became the prototypes of their own ethernet and commercial isp services. figure 3. home lan architecture enabling broadband residential access conclusion this case study illustrates how user-driven innovations and technological solutions can emerge from the grassroots to address the digital divide and social exclusion. the study is in line with other research arguing that ict-enabled networking has a vibrant transformative potential through providing alternative and local solutions to the already existing institutions and actors, as well as meshing up and reconnecting the diversity of old and new actors, i.e. the industry and the grassroots (castells 1996; dutton 2009; dutton & eynon 2009; zorina 2012) to build new electronic infrastructures. references 1. belarusian news portal 'tut.by' (2.03. 2010). interview with konstantyn scherban, specialist in social computer networks. retrieved march 5, 2010 from http://news.tut.by/it/162645.html 2. denzin, n.k. and lincoln, y.s. (2000). introduction, in n.k. denzin and y.s. lincoln (ed.). the handbook of qualitative research (pp. 129). sage publications: thousand oaks. 3. markus, m.l. (1983). power, politics, and mis implementation. communications of the acm, 26(6), 430-444. 4. yin, r.k. (2009). case study research: design and methods, 4th ed., thousand oaks, ca: sage. 5. castells, m. (1996). the rise of the network society, oxford: blackwell publishers. 6. dutton, w.h. and eynon, r. (2009). networked individuals and institutions: a cross-sector comparative perspective on patterns and strategies in government and research. the information society, 25(3), 1-11. 7. dutton, w.h. (2009). the fifth estate emerging through the network of networks. prometheus, 27(1), 1-15. 8. zorina, a. (2012). technology and infrastructure co-creation from the bottom-up: institutional, sociomaterial, improvisational and symbolic accounts from the field. the case of grassroots internet infrastructure development in belarus, unpublished doctoral dissertation, essec business school, paris, france. ict, rural dilution and the new rurality: a case study of 'wheatcliffs'1 larry stillman* caulfield school of information technology, faculty of information technology monash university michael arnold department of history and philosophy of science, university of melbourne martin r. gibbs department of information systems, university of melbourne christopher shepherd department of history and philosophy of science, university of melbourne introductory discussion this paper is part of an ongoing effort to substantiate the user experience with technology through empirical methods. the ‘technologies’ in this case are in the main, communications technologies. the ‘users’ are five families living in a small town undergoing economic, demographic and climate-related change, and in an important sense the township itself, recognising that the changing characteristics of the township are intertwined with the experience of the five families. the families’ communications experience is read in phenomenological terms, the township’s experience is read in socio-economic and demographic terms, and the technologies’ experience in the hands of the families and the township is read in mediative terms. we seek to provide concrete accounts of particular appropriations of technologies, and rather than proclaim a relationship, describe how these appropriations resource and constrain action in the world, and how this action shapes a relation to the world, in the township of wheatcliffs.2 with a population of less than 500, the township of wheatcliffs sits about 30 minutes drive from the regional centre, itself a medium-sized town of 13,500, and a hard four-hour drive from the capital city of its southern home state. the main road runs through the centre of town, is straight as an arrow, and carries little traffic, not being a trunk route linking anywhere in particular to anywhere else in particular. this description of wheatcliffs could be applied in many ways to what is known as the australian ‘sheep and wheat belt’—broad horizons, crippling summer heat, and droughts that have always lasted for years at a time, but are commonly thought of now as a permanent condition. when the rains do come, native grasses and flowers thrive, and the wheat farmers plant their crops. place is critical to the recent history and future of wheatcliffs. by historical happenstance rather than planning, the town is close to natural features that attract many local and international visitors. wheatcliffs thus becomes an intersection of dynamic multiple connections, physical and electronic, that build presence, identity, representations, social capital and connection locally, regionally and globally. population movement from villages to towns, and then from towns to cities, and then on to the formation of megacities, is a long-term phenomenon evident in every place and arguably traceable to antiquity. however, in recent decades in australia, in a trend sometimes referred to as “counter-urbanisation”, population growth rates in particular coastal and rural locations have been significantly in excess of city growth rates and national growth rates as an average (champion 1998; argent and rolley 2008). popularly referred to as the “sea change” and “tree change” phenomena, the counter-urbanisation trend became evident in the 1970’s and accelerated in the 1980’s (gurran and blakely 2007) and was significant enough to become the subject matter of new magazines, television shows and public policy developments at the federal level, at the state level, and among individual councils and consortiums of councils (gurran and blakely 2007). as the terms “sea change” and “tree change” suggest, lifestyle factors are argued to be prominent motivations for this relatively recent trend rather than traditional labour market factors (salt 2001), but perhaps counter to a popular view, those moving are not predominantly retirees, and in fact new residents of high growth coastal and rural regions have a younger profile than australia as a whole (australian bureau of statistics 2004a ; 2004b). complementing these gross population movements is another phenomenon which has perhaps been more important in the constitution of wheatcliffs’s demographics than population quantums. the term ‘rural dilution’ was coined by vince in 1952 (cited in smailes 2002) to describe a situation in which the social composition of rural populations is altered in significant ways without dramatic changes in population numbers. rural dilution occurs as those who are directly engaged in primary production, or are directly engaged in providing services to primary producers, have their numbers thinned by technologies and techniques associated with agricultural restructuring and labour shedding. reductions in government and other institutional services provided to small communities – such as staffed bank branches, staffed post offices, one-teacher schools and the like – exacerbate the problems of agricultural labour shedding, with concomitant flow-on effects accelerating labour-market driven population movement. at the same time though, it can be that an increasing number of people move to and work and live in the community by choice, for reasons of lifestyle rather than vocational necessity. smailes may well have been writing of wheatcliffs in pointing out that low levels of net migration from a rural community may mask high levels of gross movement in and out, where those moving in and those moving out are strongly differentiated in their demographic and social characteristics (smailes 2002). a model that is also relevant to the present and future of wheatcliffs is closely related to counter-urbanisation and rural dilution, but focuses on the changing economic foundations of rural areas rather than population demographics as such (argent 2002). this so-called “new rurality” (barkin 2006; da veiga 2006) seeks at least a preservation of rural viability and at best a rejuvenation of a perhaps idealised rurality through turning away from a dependence on traditional agricultural infrastructure. this move to achieve a “new rurality” seeks to turn the above-mentioned logic of modernist rurality on its head by promoting diversity of agricultural production, including niche-production; by value-adding to this production; by encouraging a multi-product and multi-service economic base that embraces tourism, recreation, cultural traditions, and ecologically-based economic activities; and in all of this, by encouraging localised political and economic autonomy rather than reliance on centralised subsidy. it asserts that “… the link between agrarianism and rurality is not essential” (gorman-murray, darian-smith et al. 2008). examples of new rurality local to the authors are to be found in the yarra valley, the mildura district, and the ‘golden triangle’ district in australia, and of course wheatcliffs. in economic terms, rural communities have operated within global commodity markets for a long time now, and in cultural terms, rural communities share many of the same cultural products as urban communities. modernist forms of transport and communications have significantly ameliorated the friction of distance in more affluent nations, and a substantial body of work traces these interconnections (e.g. webber (1963, 1964a, 1964b, 1968). however, despite these long-standing modes of interconnection, and despite the role of contemporary communications technologies in constituting new forms of co-presence that affirm places like wheatcliffs as part of “the space of flows”, representations of rurality in australia and elsewhere are often constrained by a conception of rural communities as self-contained and relatively disconnected (carter, darian-smith et al. 2008). as valentine and hollway (2001) have observed, rural areas have been characterised in terms of their social and economic marginality, and in terms of their distance to and difference from urban centres. in contrast, rural dilution, the new rurality, and the technologies that are associated with these phenomena, emphasize ongoing modes of overlap and interconnection. the affordances of contemporary technologies, or more accurately, ‘sociotechnical systems’, enable people to come together in new ways while remaining in place — to connect to one another within the community, to connect to urban centres and global flows, to help each other, to find new coping strategies against the adversities of drought, economic hardship, and physical distance. the idea of ‘sociotechnical systems’ has its origins in the work of eric trist. hitherto overlooked, trist and others underlined the necessary integration of social and technological elements for efficient organizational design (see for example trist and murray 1993). in contemporary sts, ‘sociotechnical’ as adjective, and ‘socio-technology’ as noun, continue to index this integration as well as caution against considering ‘the social’ and ‘the technical’ in isolation. just as technology affords an imaginative construction of the life worlds of individuals, families, and communities, so too do the latter bring their specific appropriations to technologies. the sociotechnical mediates this intersection of agencies—those of technologies and those of people—in a performative multi-leveled appropriation of material forms, symbolic content, and lived experience. in describing the idiosyncratic and personalized character of multiple sociotechnical assemblages of rural users in wheatcliffs, we appeal to the informants’ own strategies for self-positioning as they negotiate technology in relation to five themes: distance and proximity, work and leisure, connection and disconnection, access and exclusion, and comfort and anxiety. that then describes the site of this round of fieldwork in our ongoing efforts to learn more about technology in people’s daily lives. collecting empirical materials with domestic probes personal contacts in wheatcliffs were used to identify and select the five families that participated in the study. in selecting families for the study we were looking for people who could act as key informants on life in wheatcliffs, were willing to participate, were articulate, and had diverse family and employment situations. they represented many, but certainly not all configurations of both family and working life in wheatville. we had participants that ‘worked the land’ and those who worked in town, and some from home. we had participants with family connections in wheatville going back generations, and those who had arrived within the last decade. all families had children, ranging from the very young to adult children who had left home. information and communication technology was used by all the families in their day-to-day life. the families are described in more detail in the sections below. in agreeing to participate in the study, these five families were, in effect, agreeing to become co-researchers or collaborators in our research work. the families were not approached as a source of unprocessed data, but as a source of expert empirical knowledge underpinned by vernacular theories of sociotechnical relations. this was achieved through the use of novel research methods we have successfully deployed in other studies (see arnold et al. 2006; 2007, shepherd et al. 2006; 2007), derived from the 'cultural probes' of gaver and his colleagues (gaver et al., 1999; gaver et al., 2004), though differing from gaver in that our method is deployed for the purposes of cooperative data-gathering and analysis rather than cooperative system design (arnold 2004). our approach began with an interview with each family. this first interview included a technology tour of the home, in which participants were invited to show us the various spaces of the home and to describe how those spaces were inhabited and the roles technologies played in the activities conducted in those spaces. families were then left with a ‘domestic probe pack’ of materials to use to record and interpret their use of icts. it comprised maps to trace origins and destinations of communications; colour-coded stickers to record each technology's user and frequency of use; cameras to provide snapshots of the routine and the novel in domestic life; diaries for each family member; and a scrapbook for photos and jottings (see arnold, 2004). these records provided 'objects to think with' (papert, 1980), conversation pieces, grist for the mill of conversation between the family members and ourselves, which took place during a subsequent interview conducted a few weeks later. the conversations and the theoretical interpretations of probe-pack traces circulated around family life, life in the home in the context of the town, life in the town in the context of the wider world, and how technologies are used and to what effect. empirical “data” at a primary level included probe pack materials such as individual’s diary entries, photographs, and jointly constructed scrapbook pages. different families, and different participants within each family, responded in their own way to the probe pack materials provided. those with an artistic inclination sketched and drew pictures in the scrapbooks, sometimes in collaboration with other family members. others preferred to maintain a diary, written journal, or a logbook of activity. most used the cameras provided, but not always as we had anticipated. some of the younger participants started a scrapbook or a diary, but lost interest after a couple of entries, or appropriated the materials for other play activities. all families had one or more members who made substantial effort to use the probe pack materials provided to record aspects of their family life. this involved work, and it was a form of work that could not always be sustained. the specifics of how participants chose to interpret and engage with the probe packs are of secondary importance to the fact that they chose to engage. this engagement gave them opportunity to reflect on their family live, and it gave them material to, literally and metaphorically, place on the table between us and to discuss, question and reflect upon. thus, at a second level we videotaped conversations with participants during which we jointly interpreted this data and theorised its meaning. the probe pack materials thus became opportunities for discussing issues of concern. primary and secondary data were then coded by the researchers using grounded-theory-like procedures as originally suggested by glaser and strauss (1967). as indicated, five interrelated themes proved central to participants’ appropriation and negotiation of technology. the themes were: i) distance and proximity. actors sought to ‘find their place’ in relation to other places, near and far. ii) work and leisure. in making their place, actors sought to secure convivial work and leisure, and distribute their energies accordingly. iii) connection and disconnection. across work and leisure and across more or less public and private realms, actors sought to establish particular modes of connection and disconnection with others—individuals, family members, organizations and so on. iv) technology access and exclusion. actors sought choice in the technology available to them, and exercised that choice strategically. v) comfort and anxiety. as an affect response, actors sought control over ‘the sociotechnical’ (i.e. technologies and people in relation), to minimize hazards, protect privacy, and so forth. the williams: the older migrant family frank and ivy williams migrated to australia from the uk with all their children many years ago, and selected wheatcliffs because it offered employment, and because of frank’s passion for nearby recreational opportunities. frank is a tradesman who has recently retrained as a teacher and ivy works at a nearby nursing home. their children are now adults and are no longer living at home. as late middle-agers, frank and ivy spend a lot of time in their sitting room, equipped with the communications media one would expect by contemporary western standards. the williams are not disconnected from national and global media, except to the extent that they wish to be. frank and ivy do not feel isolated, despite living in a small rural town, and despite their migration and all the dislocation that implies. ivy explains that wheatcliffs isn’t isolated; “it’s 15 minutes to the regional centre, it’s really not that far from a major population centre. it’s a tourist attraction too.”3 wheatcliffs isn’t isolated – not because of contemporary communications technologies – but because transport enables embodied presence focused on place. wheatcliffs is distant, but distance does not imply the isolation it once did. the regional centre is only 15 minutes away, akin to a suburban drive to a shopping mall, but with no traffic. the escarpment is near this place, so tourists visit. overseas visitors come to the town. ict’s on their own don’t cut the mustard for the williams, and so, while our study proposed ict as our key socio-technology, the williams were keen to confound us, and emphasise socio-technologies that mediate co-presence – the high street, the regional centre, the overseas visitors – notwithstanding that they have only been back to the uk twice in 25 years. but that is not to say that communications technologies are insignificant. frank and ivy make about 8 phone calls a month now to keep in touch with ageing relatives in the uk. these 8 or so calls represent a significant increase in communication among the extended family, as in recent years the price of international calls has dropped dramatically, and telephone affordances have changed radically over a longer term. but they are clearly of the view that electronic communications have their shortcomings, and that “people often don’t tell you everything over the phone”. so in addition to the regular phone calls, they are also traditional written correspondents. ivy likes the personal touch of letters, and has a long list of christmas cards to work through each year. in ivy’s remarks we see the typically gendered performance that wajcman refers to as ‘social labour’ (wajcman 2008). the job of maintaining relations, keeping people together, personal fence-building and fence-repairing is gendered—it is women’s work to make the phone calls, write the letters, do the inviting, remember the birthdays. so, while ivy prefers paper, frank prefers emails… “when you get an email you’re a serious composer and answer it straight away, and that’s where i can find the difference. i can sit there and read off what i want to say in bullet points and send it off and it’s done in 10 minutes…you don’t have to put everything in there like you do with a letter.” the email confronts the letter, and socio-technical infrastructure changes shape in response. frank’s frequent use of the computer in his work as a teacher reflects the ambitions of a wide variety of people to use computers to bring contemporary western education to isolated regions. in this, the laptop is sometimes filling a vacuum—providing a capacity for education through communication infrastructure, where previously there was precious little of either—but in other circumstances the laptop is confronting orality, the pencil and the book, and educational globalism is confronting localism. the binaries that constitute our themes: distance and proximity, connection and disconnection, access and exclusion, may well presuppose a privileged arm of the axis, but defenders of orality, the pencil, the book and the local, may well privilege the other pole of the axis. the nelsons: art and the land stephen and jen have 3 daughters, catherine, felicity and mary, who are 12, 15 and 18 respectively. the family are multigenerational farmers who run an extensive property a couple of miles out of wheatcliffs, and in an earlier era stephen and jen might have been regarded as “cockies”—the australian version of “landed gentry”. jen’s art work—her personal work and her work with local art groups—is pursued through a mix of action at a distance and embodied activities. she remarks that email and telephones make it no hardship to live in wheatcliffs and still remain in the national and international loop in respect of her work. but the focus of activity for the local art groups is the annual festival, a located event in which people gather in the flesh in a particular place at a particular time, and in which this place and the time together is important. although the festival web-site, email, and the telephone are all important in the pursuit of cultural activity, there is no suggestion that the space of flows can displace or substitute for the space of place. so here we see contemporary digital communications technologies entering a relationship with ancient socio-technologies—the festival, the display, the public place, the community gathering—in order to move to a desired place on the axis of distance and proximity, work and leisure, connection and disconnection, access and exclusion. stephen often uses the networked computer to assist with his farming work, in checking the weather, prices, banking or government services and connecting with other farmers and the farmers’ organisation though various lists. sheep must be dry to be shorn, so even a brief rain-shower can be an expensive disruption, and years ago he became attuned to using the online weather service to be able to make best use of his shearers. he also watches the markets to calculate the best time, place and price to sell his grain or wool. he accesses banking and other government services online, including access to the family’s various social security and educational benefits. he also gets regular email from the farmers federation and estimates that about half of the farmers in the country now get their bulletins by email. stephen is maintaining the australian rural tradition of relentless technological innovation. stephen is also very active on a discussion list to do with vintage cars, and gets a lot of pleasure from being an active reader and occasional participant and purchaser of equipment. the family has also shopped online for things like art supplies and an mp3 player, in another example of the internet’s capacity to deliver consumers to markets, regardless of where the consumer is. the children reflect varying capacities in managing their mobile phones as cheaply as possible. catherine and felicity are very savvy with one-cent per message sms phone plans, but still, are always running out of credit. the daughters are frequently in debt to each other, and to their friends, and they owe money to cousins in a provincial town as well. this sharing of knowledge of devices and plans, sharing the use of devices, and sharing communications costs, is another example of the tangential way that mobile phones are implicated in social relations. they are not just relevant in terms of talk and text between friends, they also play a part in friendship networks by being an object that can be loaned, shared (passed around), gifted, subsidised, or maintained. mary, the university student, says that she frequently uses email and internet chat during term time to keep in touch with her family. this is a cheaper option than making long distance or mobile phone calls, and this connection is important for her … “just keeping touch with what’s going on at home…missing out on the things that are happening, re-adjusting...on my own, having my own life, having to think about myself again.” in addition to personal communications, jen and her eldest daughter mary also communicate by email about their art. the capacity for collaboration at a distance is of course more important when the distances are great, but less obvious is the point that these technologies are also providing a resource to collaborate about, as well as a resource to collaborate with. stephen and jen are conscious of problems that the girls might encounter going on line—such as pornography and bullying. like parents all over the western world, jen and stephen are confronted with a new thing to be a parent about, with a new focus for negotiating issues revolving around trust, risk, control, knowledge, ignorance and responsibility. the family is not isolated from all of this, albeit that they are in wheatcliffs, with a dial-up connection. the family’s television set has not been updated in over 20 years and is of little significance other than providing light relief and diversion. radio still plays an important part in the family’s life though, with the national broadcaster’s news program starting the day each morning. stephen drives around his farm utility most days listening to a variety of the national broadcaster’s programs, and jen often enjoys talk and information programs on the public network at night, rather than music. the national broadcaster is the preferred channel not only for its content, but because it is the only network that is consistently receivable in this part of the country. in terms of national broadcast media the family are connected, though not so in terms of commercial broadcast media, perhaps a mixed blessing. perhaps, too, radio, and particularly public radio, permeates more strongly, due to its strong portability (on the tractor, by the sink), its minimal cost, and power of its signal where commercial broadcasters have lost interest in small markets. it also serves to create a common discourse between family members or imagined friends. len conroy: the region is his playground len is typical of those responsible for rural dilution. he works part-time for the shire council as an arts administrator has completed a phd by distance education, and is a practicing artist who has installed work in fields throughout the district. his portfolio of part-time work has been assembled by choice rather than by compulsion. len also settled in this part of the country by deliberate choice, initially for the outdoor opportunties, but now for the cultural diversity and ambience of the lifestyle. len talks of wheatcliffs and the surrounding district as his “playground”. len is part of what is sometimes called a “blended family”; he is separated, but devotes effort to parenting his child, and is also in another relationship. len describes his circumstances as a positive example of the “modern disrupted family”, and is very conscious that his family situation is not at all unusual these days. his daughter maggie lives far away with her mother in the state capital, yet they frequently text (“because it is cheap”), and by choosing various freeway routes, len can get to the other side of the state capital in a few hours, with only seven stop lights all the way. len thus takes full advantage of changing technologies, strategically mixing and matching new communications technologies with improved transport technologies to make a life that bridges wheatcliffs and the state capital. rurality does not contain his lifeworld. visiting is important, but frequency of communication is also important; phatic communication (vetere et al. 2009) is important—and the low cost of text is one feature that makes this the technology of choice for this purpose. len points out that another advantage of text messaging is that the text goes straight through to maggie, without having to pass through len’s ex-wife. the proliferation of individuated, personalised communications technologies—mobile phones, internet chat, social networking applications and the like—enable access to people in the home without the knowledge or permission of the matriarch or patriarch, whether in wheatcliffs or the state capital. if it ever was, the home is no longer a sanctuary protecting the family from the world; isolating the family from the world. this capacity to reach into the home to individual members of the family is a cause of anxiety for many, and is often said to exacerbate the problems of parenting, but as we see in len’s not uncommon circumstances, individuated communications can also facilitate lower-friction parenting. but embodied presence and the opportunity to be in one another’s company is also significant, and so len travels to the capital, and maggie also comes to wheatcliffs to stay with len. the improved motor transport systems are the socio-technologies that make this a practical arrangement. the marshalls: the family business & parenting marsha and alex run an organic vegetable growing business with alex’s father. they have a daughter sophie, 14, and a son, dougie, 8. while much of their life goes on around the kitchen table (mediating family life just as it has for generations), newer electronic technologies are not nearly so convivial for marsha and appear to cause anxiety and discomfort for their effect on family life. among our 5 families, marsha was the most critical and most nervous about the agency of communications technologies. in her 20-odd years in the district marsha has grown into the community, and in any case, “we have extremely busy lifestyles. a lot of alex's family are thousands of miles away in queensland, a lot of mine are on the other side of the state so it’s very hard to get there. so i guess you have more to do with the local ones than with…you sort of lose contact after a while. so, we have a very diverse community and it has lots of different strings of people.” and so communications and transport technologies have not enabled marsha and alex to maintain close family ties, and marsha’s personal relationships are now interwoven with those who are local. the limits of communications technologies to mediate relations, and the continuing significance of place, are evident. the internet, landline, and mobile phones are very important for their business, particularly on the marketing side rather than on the production side, though mobile phone connectivity for personal activity affects young and old. almost all their product is sold through the wholesale market in the state capital—about 5 hours drive in alex’s truck. consistent with the globalised connectivity of the new rurality, very little is sold locally, and there has been contact with singapore and japan with a view to exporting directly to wholesale distributors in those markets. and even alex’s father, a traditional farmer, has become a frequent user of mobile phones, and is particularly enthusiastic about keeping in touch with alex and marsha. alex and his father often call one another from their respective paddocks. thus, the convenience of mobile connectivity reduces the constraining geography of farm work, by saving a walk across the fields and over the fences and lost time on the tractor. this connectivity serves to reinforce relationships in the family business even when other family ties, in other parts of the state are weakened. ebay has become very important to marsha, as a source of extra income, and as a place to buy items needed for the household and for the vegetable business. it is also a pleasurable diversion. sophie’s weapon of choice for communications is her mobile phone, and according to marsha is an “incessant sms sender”. both mother and daughter are aware of the “negative effect” that overuse of these technologies can have on sophie’s social life and school work. indicating a different set of consumer priorities, marsha remarks… “you cannot get them to understand that they are wasting their money, that they could buy clothes, you could save it up for a new outfit”. reflecting concerns felt all over the world, marsha is also concerned about instances of cyberbullying by sms, and the exposure that her daughter is getting on the internet, particularly through uploading photos to social websites such as myspace. “given how provocative some girl’s pictures can be”, marsha is worried. yet marsha doesn’t quite understand what these sites do, or how they work. “there are lots of girls dressed up to display, pouting lips and all that…there’s two levels, there’s the girls using it and there’s the boys, getting up on sites they shouldn’t…if you have a daughter that is a concern.” “i’m actually going around asking people what it means. every time i walk in the room she covers up the screen. we are having these real privacy issues. but it’s really hard to find out what it means, because a lot of us [parents] are computer illiterate, we’re not using the technology, so you can’t just ring up your friends—when she knows as much as you.” a reason for the high level of anxiety is not just the perceived level of threat to a child, it is also the opaque nature of the socio-technical phenomena. its not just that the parents don’t like what is going on, the parents feel they don’t know what is going on, or how it works, and thus experience a loss of control, a sense of helplessness that is not consistent with being a good parent. this loss of control may be a cause of the anxiety, rather than the threat-level as such, belying the notion that rurality of itself provides a safe environment for young people. simon and jane clancy: the young professionals simon and jane have a small daughter, phoebe, and jane is expecting another. both are in their 30s, were attracted to the town because of outdoor pursuits, and both have a portfolio of associated part-time work, jane works from home, mixing paid work with child care, while simon also does a lot of work around the state. simon and jane thus provide another example of the changing demographics associated with rural dilution as well-educated, relatively well-off recreationists become permanent residents. simon and jane have lived in wheatcliffs for 4 years now, moving from the state capital. jane remarks that when she first came here, she actually felt like a migrant coming to a new land, but has found that everything they want is here… “no, it’s good here, the post office has giropost, we do all our banking there, its convenient, there’s a pharmacist, there’s the doctor next door, nursing home down the street, kindergarten…” in another clear reflection of counter-urbanism, rural dilution and the new rurality simon and jane point out that they are not alone; that they are part of a younger community that has been attracted to wheatcliffs by the outdoors, by opportunities for business associated with outdoor recreation, and by the lifestyle, “its cheap to live here, you can afford to go on a lot of holidays, that’s what’s attracting a lot of people.” and ironically perhaps, newcomers invoke community… “many of the people who have moved here don't have extended family in the area, so they develop close relationships among themselves as well as with the older ‘locals’”. jane’s mother lives in a regional town about an hour’s drive away, and they use sms a lot, rather than ringing. “i think mum would like us to live much closer than we actually do, so it’s mum’s way of not ringing, just dropping a text to see how you are going, or ‘i saw this on the news’.” “just being there” is important for intimate relations and the low cost of phone texts mean that it can be used for this sort of phatic messaging, even over long distances (gibbs et al. 2005). other technologies also play varying roles in their lives. for jane, the national radio network is important, and she listens to the morning current affairs and lifestyle programmes. the radio was given to her many years ago by her father, and she reflects that she uses it “as a sort of conversational thing… just listening to people”, as she looks after her small daughter. just hearing the human voice is important, and one can well imagine that this is particularly the case in the country where one may be working alone in isolated circumstances for much of the day. it may also be particularly important for the growing and very significant number of single person households in the cities, again collapsing the gap between the city and the country. and so the radio has become an important part of the day. “it’s like being in a café without the people”. conclusion for those of us with an interest in the social studies of technology it is curious that, with notable exceptions (e.g. bradley 2006), contemporary technologies rarely figure in accounts of life in the new rurality. in the context of this absence we have been concerned to show that the appropriation of technology has rendered rurality increasingly complex, both in our own understanding and in the understanding of our research participants. we point to a new rurality that both retains and upsets the traditional divide attributed to the urban and the rural. as deeper layers of rural practice, livelihood, mobility, and family relations have been successively overlaid by different and modified practices, technology is implicated. we have framed these changes as a combination of rural dilution, counter-urbanization, (smailes 2002), and trends associated with a de-centred agrarianism and a dynamic “new rurality” (barkin 2006; da veiga 2006). this sociotechnics of the new rurality challenges older ideas of rural townships as economically and culturally marginalized and geographically isolated (carter, darian-smith 2008). irrespective of whether this “out-of-relation” “old rurality” ever existed in the way it has often been depicted (see valentine and hollway 2001) is one question, a “new in-relation rurality” is undeniable. so for example, changes in air-travel socio-technologies through the 1990s and into this century (larger aircraft, the advent of cheap-flight airlines and online booking services, the absence of tax on aircraft fuel, and so forth) made it cheaper for people to visit wheatcliffs from overseas, and they did so. between the region and the wider world we can see the formation of ramified socio-technical assemblages that make richard branson, google and stanstead airport important actors in the world of wheatcliffs, and make towns like wheatcliffs important actors in the world of richard branson, google and stanstead airport. paradoxically, while transport and communications technologies may each in their own way serve to “collapse space and time” and elide distinctions between modernist rurality and new rurality, urbanity, the city and remote places, accessibility at a distance may also reinforce the sense that all the action is “elsewhere”, and reinforce the sense of isolation in rural communities. technologies for communication at a distance can foreground the distance and not just the communication, and reinforce the significance of the visit and the cafe. and as we have seen contemporary communications technologies are part and parcel of the lives of our families, and are shaping the life of the town. there is an argument (james, 1996) to the effect that communications technologies are in fact leading rural communities such as wheatcliffs to become more “abstract”, as distributed electronic connections enable one to be anyplace, and hence no place in particular, with a concomitant effect of devaluing of that which is local, “face-to-face”, and part of the here and now of the small town. we have not found that to be the case in wheatcliffs. the town owes its survival to its place, and the people value the high street, the pub, the shops, the sports teams, all in their place. we have seen that technology critiques rural life as it is lived in a material, visceral sense, not through argument. technology acts in the world: it confronts the practices of day to day life and acts directly upon it, or rather within it, on the basis of that material critique this performance is material. an interpretation of the significance of this performance may be “read” and the implications of acting in the world may be made “legible” through that performance, but this is not to say that b-doubles (very large articulated trucks), trains, reservoirs, pipes, tanks and bores and communications technologies are only to be read. they also act, and indeed, the problem at the heart of the philosophy of technology is the tenuous relation between the reading and the acting. put in this way it is obvious that one is not the other, and from this two conclusions flow. the first is that the actions are important: that is, it is the very materiality of technology that makes technology a significant and particular object of study. the high street, the internet and the arts festival are worthy of study for what they do, not for what they say. the second is that an empirical approach that unconceals the acting, that unconceals what they do, is the appropriate approach to the reading of what they do, and is the appropriate approach to translating it into text, such as the example you are reading. in our empirical work in wheatcliffs we have found “actors in relation” in the high street, the pub, the café, the post-office, the highway systems, railway systems, telephones, letters and cards, the internet, mobile phones, landline phones, sms, msn, facebook, the arts festival, the escarpment, the camping ground, the farm, and of course, the home. viewed on a small scale, where our families are the unit of analysis, these “actors in relation” have provided the focal point from which we access and have represented the day to day lives of our five families. that is, our data are derived from autobiographic accounts provided by “actors in relation”, and by our observations of those actors. we also assert that this is an existential focal point, in that “actors in relation” not only frames an analytical perspective, but also constitutes our experience of the lifeworld. that is, we live our lives in relation to the city, the uk, art, extended family, the high street, the escarpment, the phone, the internet, the festival et al, and of course, the home. viewed on a larger scale, where the whole community is the unit of analysis rather than a family, these “actors in relation” are the phenomena that resource counter-urbanism, rural dilution and the new rurality, and are the phenomena that give expression to the conditions referred to as counter-urbanism, rural dilution and the new rurality. viewed at either scale, small or large, our thematic binaries collapse in an entanglement. our families and their town are proximate, and value their proximity to each other, and the distance that pertains to the capital city, to the region centre, to extended family, to markets, to other cultures, is satisfactorily negotiated by our actors in relation: fields and fences, the highway system, telephones, the internet. work and leisure in our homes, and in respect to the district as a whole, is similarly entangled. homes are places of leisure and are places of work, and across the district, leisure, in the form of outdoor recreation, camping, art, and lifestyle pursuits, is not only leisure, but is the work of the district, and the culture of the district. the concerns of parents with children who play with technology, and of the children themselves, are collapsed through space and are much the same as parents in cities: parents concerned with exposure to cyber-bullying, porn, overuse of mobile phones, and children concerned with maintaining independence (from parents) and interdependence (with peers). lastly, the patchy mix of socio-technical access and inclusion—manifest in the absence of a café, the presence of the internet, the absence of broadband, the presence of the highway system, the absence of uniform mobile coverage, the presence of 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(1964b), “the urban place and the non-place urban realm’, in m. m. webber, j. w. dyckman, d. l. foley, a. .z. guttenberg, w. l. c. wheaton & c. b. wurster, (eds) explorations into urban structure, university of pennsylvania press, philadelphia, 79-153. webber, m. m. (1968), “the post-city age”, daedalus, 97(4): 1091-1110. 1 the research described here was supported by the australian research council’s discovery scheme, grant number dp0557781. 2 in the interests of privacy, pseudonyms have been used to refer to all participants and to the name of the town. 3 unless otherwise stated, all quotes from participants are derived from transcripts of diary entries, or transcripts of videotaped interviews. ci 101: community informatics as general education john m carroll1, eric obeysekarey2 distinguished professor, college of information sciences and technology, the pennsylvania state university, pa, usa. e-mail: jmcarroll@psu.edu phd candidate, college of information sciences and technology, the pennsylvania state university, pa, usa. e-mail: eric.obeysekare@gmail.com introduction in some countries, all undergraduate university students are required to complete a common program of specific courses, or categories of courses, in order to earn a degree. these general education courses are conceived of as complementing courses in a student's major program of study; they embody educational breadth, in contrast to major program depth. the topics of general education courses span many areas including communication and speech, fine and performing arts, health and physical education, history, humanities, mathematics, natural science, philosophy, religion, social science, writing and composition, and, more recently, global studies and technology. general education can comprise a very significant proportion of undergraduate education; for example, in the us, where an undergraduate degree consists of about 40-45 courses taken in a four-year program of study, a survey reported that students are required to take 14-17 general education courses (warner & koeppel, 2010), about 1/3 of the total number of courses they take. historically and currently, general education is a conceptual fulcrum for university education. for example, the (european) classical/medieval model of university education was a one-size-fits-all general education curriculum focused on a canon of greek, latin, mathematics and moral philosophy, and the goal of preparing a leadership class to perpetuate a common culture (boning, 2007). the industrial revolution and the emergence of democratic societies in europe and north america undermined this model. throughout the 19th century, university curricula differentiated, incorporating elective courses and alternative programs of study. for example, the morrill land-grant act of 1862, in the united states, provided funding in every state for new universities focused on agriculture and engineering. by the early 1900s, concerns about curricular coherence pushed the pendulum of general education back into the spotlight. the modern concept of general education is more pragmatic than the classical/medieval model (dewey, 1966). one general education objective is that of placing specialized learning in the context of culture, citizenship, and engagement with life. general education courses should help students to make sense of their more specialized courses, to relate their educational experiences to their life experiences. general education should help students become more aware of the world, and to be more responsible and autonomous in the world. a second objective is to provide a foundation of knowledge and skill to enable further and continual learning and development throughout life. students should be able to think logically and critically and to write clearly, to collaborate creatively and effectively, to find, assess, and integrate information, to understand diverse kinds of knowledge, and economic, cultural, political, and social systems. (see boning, 2007; wang, 2014). abiding tensions remain in the concept of general education. for example, some universities have specific required courses or activities for all students. in warner and koeppel's study (2010) most american universities had required specific courses for writing and composition. other universities have only course distribution requirements, but students' choices can range from among 5 courses to from among more than 60, depending on the school (warner & koeppel, 2010). general education is an open process of identifying and articulating new vehicles for educational breadth, such as critical perspectives (women's studies, black studies) and new socio-technical possibilities (television, multimedia, digital life). in this article, we propose that community informatics can contribute uniquely to current conceptions of general education. we outline a notional course proposal for a freshman-sophomore level, that is, lower division general education course in community informatics. our longer-term objective is to make it more possible for all universities to adopt community informatics as a general education course available to students. our immediate objective in this paper is to engage colleagues in a discussion of how the longer-term objective can be advanced; that is, to develop and refine our specific course proposal, to analyze what such a proposal should look like for various cultural/educational contexts (we are working in the us), and to formulate a plan or plans for moving ahead toward the design and implementation of a general education community informatics course option. why community informatics? community is a highly significant conceptual lens for understanding human history and human experience. this includes analysis of prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies, the emergence and organization of neolithic villages, tönnies's reaction to industrialization in 19th century germany and related european work on solidarity and isolation, american community sociology from 1920-1950 especially, warren's analysis of macro-system dominance and the "great change" from horizontal to vertical integration; putnam's demographic analysis of television; contemporary rural sociology; urban studies; and the great variety of studies of online community, community networking, and other internet-mediated community arrangements. technology, broadly understood, has clearly modulated community structures and experiences for at least 10,000 years. (see, for example, carroll, 2012; gurstein, 2007; lyon, 1999; rheingold, 2000). community informatics is taught at the graduate level in universities, typically those whose faculties include community informatics researchers. it can appear in a variety of disciplinary contexts, including communication studies, computer science, information science, library information systems, among others. community informatics is a healthy and growing interdisciplinary area. this trajectory could be simultaneously supported and leveraged by creating a lower division, undergraduate general education focus. many students who have never heard of community informatics, as such, have nonetheless thought about community and about technology. helping students to fathom and articulate relationships between community and technology, both historically and with respect to their own personal experiences could be an engaging vehicle for general education. community informatics addresses the pragmatic objectives of contemporary general education. studying community informatics can help students relate educational experiences to life experiences: university students are already embedded in diverse communities in different ways and to varying degrees. many university students are in the intriguing situation of "residing" in two local communities, the community in which their parents still reside, and the community on or adjacent to their campus. in addition, most contemporary students are members of social media communities, notably, facebook, and often several other, more specialized interest communities, such as online game communities and many extracurricular campus groups and activities. indeed, university students are often in a stage of life where they easily form new attachments and explore social identity commitments. society has a critical interest in nurturing the community-oriented interests and practices of university students. we live in a time of rapid change; it isn't clear that we can or even should want to merely replicate extant social structures. nevertheless, our society depends on the emerging social practices of today's students, including their reappropriations of community. some students may not have reflected upon their current and future roles in communities, or critically analyzed the consequences and responsibilities of community membership. but they are precisely at a point in life where such reflections and critical analysis will do them, their peers, and all of society the most good. community is an intimate and committed context for people to discuss and integrate information, work toward consensus with others in solving problems, and participate in governance and policy development. thus studying community informatics can make communication, collaboration, problem solving, citizenship, and society more immediate and relevant to students. it is not difficult to see all the objectives of general education as not only within the scope of an introductory course in community informatics, but particularly well-addressed through critical consideration of community informatics. a general education course in community informatics could leverage the university community itself, and the larger community in which the university itself is embedded. project-based learning and service learning are obvious approaches and components of a community informatics course. after all, the local community is all around us, presenting myriad concrete opportunities to engage the real world while mastering the concepts and techniques of community informatics. and doing so enriches the local community as it provides learning opportunities: campuses are routinely called communities by administrators, but they become communities when students, faculty and staff reflect on how they function as communities, and on new ways in which they could function as communities. but this is precisely what a general education focus on community informatics creates. this extends to the community beyond the campus as well: the town-gown stereotype of students who see the town as a dorm with bars, and town residents who see students merely as visitors who sometimes misbehave is limiting for all concerned. it does not serve the students, the town, or society. a general education course could leverage off-campus service learning possibilities, creating a more effective course experience, but also mutually engaging the student and the local community. course overview our design for the course consists of five units. unit 1 is an introduction to community informatics in which students will learn about the definition of community, ways in which community is being studied in academia, and some contemporary conceptualizations of community. while this unit will be largely focused on the transmission of knowledge to students, it will also involve some activities and in-class discussions designed to further students' understanding of the topics covered. this unit should logically occur first in the course as it provides a basis for students to think about community in the rest of the course. the following four units each cover a different category of community informatics distributed communities, local community innovation, egovernment & deliberation, and community exchange. each of these units is comprised of multiple lessons that cover more specific topics within the category of that unit. these units are presented in an order in this article. however, it is not necessary for this to be the order when offering the class each unit stands on its own. figure 1: unit and lesson overview: the notional course is organized into 15 lessons. each could incorporate various short lectures, discussions, guest speakers, and hands-on activities, plus out of class homework, fieldwork, and design projects. each unit consists of multiple lessons, each covering a specific topic in that unit's category. the number of lessons per unit varies from two, at the smallest, to five at the largest. these lessons were chosen as they cover topics that were determined to be of importance to community informatics. each lesson could be conducted over one (or more, if necessary) weeks during the course. readings have been suggested for each lesson. these are used to introduce important concepts of that lesson and further discussion in class. while some of these readings are academic articles, many of them are from non-peer reviewed sources such as newspapers and blogs. readings from these sources were chosen because they are timely and relevant to the topics being discussed. a decision was also made to stay away from serious academic sources that may be difficult (or boring) for younger undergraduate students to read and comprehend. the readings will be kept up to date both as the class evolves and as time passes from their publication dates. this will keep the class relevant and discussing contemporary issues. in total there are fifteen lessons. this number may expand as more potential topics are brought to attention. the final number of lessons chosen for an offering of the class may include all of these proposed lessons or consist of a subset of them. in addition to the main topics covered by the lessons of this course, there will also be several issues or themes that are discussed during the course. these are issues designed to spark debate within the class and as such are opinion based. examples include trust, ownership, anonymity, and the ethicality of research. the issues are introduced in the lesson readings and as such the discussions for different issues are included as a part of different lessons. this does not mean that these issues must be included in those lessons but rather that the chosen readings do a good job introducing the issues and provoking thought. in future revisions of the course, the covered issues could change or the lesson in which each issue appears could be modified (depending on the new readings that are chosen). this is not intended to be an exhaustive list of community informatics issues but instead just interesting discussion points that relate in various ways to community informatics. as previously mentioned each lesson is accompanied by some readings chosen to introduce the topic of that lesson as well as possibly bring to light some issues surrounding that topic. in addition to these readings, there will be other learning activities that students will complete in order to further their understanding of the concepts from the lessons including discussion sessions, out of class assignments, research assignments, and design thinking activities. some examples of such learning activities are included in the course outline. however, instructors may adapt these and add new ideas as appropriate for their version of the course. for many of the lessons, in-class discussions will be used to allow students to reflect on what they think about the current topic and issues. some sample questions to lead these discussions are included in the outline of the course. some of the lessons include the students conducting an assignment outside of class. for example, in the time-banking lesson, the students will participate in a local time bank and reflect on their experiences during an in-class discussion. these out of class assignments will allow students to learn by doing and experience first-hand the topics that are being discussed in class. some of the lessons call for students to find specific examples of projects that exemplify the topic of that week. students will be required to conduct research in order to find relevant sources that describe their project. this will also be an opportunity to inform these younger students about how to conduct research. another potential type of research assignment might involve students tracking an issue in the ci researchers mailing list (ciresearchers@vancouvercommunity.net) and leading a discussion of that topic in class. the final type of learning activity that will be integrated into the course lessons is design thinking. this will involve students reflecting upon the concepts from the readings and class discussions and then brainstorming and refining the design for a project related to the topic of that lesson. they will also present their designs to the class. this type of activity will encourage creative thinking and encourage students to apply the concepts they learn in class. these four additional learning activities will add unique aspects to each of the lessons in the course and also further students' understanding of the material by causing them to consider it in different fashions. to build upon the learning activities mentioned here, there will also be an end of semester project for this course. students will form small groups for this project. each group will then choose one of the topics covered in this course that most interested them. an action research project related to this topic will then be planned, with the instructor offering assistance as needed. these projects may be related to in-class activities, such as carrying out a project idea created during a design thinking exercise. action research projects will allow students to learn more about topics that interested them but also engage with the topic on a more hands-on level. we want to engage with community informatics scholars and other colleagues to criticize and develop this course proposal. we plan to implement a general education course in community informatics at pennsylvania state university in the near future. references boning, k. (2007). coherence in general education: a historical look. the journal of general education, 56(1), 1-16. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jge/summary/v056/56.1boning.html carroll, j.m. (2012). the neighborhood in the internet: design research projects in community informatics. new york: routledge (advances in sociology). dewey, j. (1966). democracy and education. new york: macmillan/free press. first published 1916. gurstein, m. (2007). what is community informatics (and why does it matter)? milan, italy: polymetrica. lyon, l. (1999). the community in urban society. longgrove, il: waveland press. rheingold, h. (2000.) virtual community: homesteading on the electronic frontier. cambridge, ma: mit press (revised edition). wang, w. (2014). the concept of general education. in the yuanpei program in peking university (pp. 33-46). springer berlin heidelberg. http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-37515-6_3 warner, d. b., & koeppel, k. (2009). general education requirements: a comparative analysis. the journal of general education, 58(4), 241-258. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jge/summary/v058/58.4.warner.html appendix: outline of course unit 1: what is community informatics? unit overview: this unit will familiarize students with basic concepts of community informatics. this includes the definitions of terms such as community, community informatics, and networked society. in addition, an overview of how community has been studied in academia will be given. this will include several ways in which community has been theorized, (for example, tönnies's gemeinschaft vs. gesellschaft) as well as some contemporary studies of american community including the lynds' studies of middletown, putnam's bowling alone, and the berkeley community memory. the evolution of community over time will be discussed along with a brief overview of maslow's hierarchy of needs explaining why humans gather in communities. activities in this unit will show students first-hand their place in a community and the effect that technology has upon that community. this unit will form a base from which students will be able to think about community and community informatics issues that are touched upon later in the course. lesson 1: what is community? lesson objectives: students will explore the definition of community and understand several ways in which community has been studied in academia activities discussion on contemporary community & technology and community based on lecture given in class. lesson 2: the networked society lesson objectives: students will conceptualize the definition of the network society compare and contrast the network society with other definitions of community reflect on their position in the network society and their opinion of the concept activities networked society dependence: students will disconnect themselves from social media (facebook, twitter, etc.) for approximately 24 hours and record the social and psychological impact this has on them. an in-class discussion will be used to review the results of this activity and the students' observations. networked society communication: this activity is an experiment designed to allow students to consider the validity of rainie and wellman's model of networked society communications and how it applies to their own lives. over a period of time (perhaps 24 48 hours) students will record the communications they have with other individuals. they will record the time of the interaction, individual with whom they interacted, the type of interaction (social, schoolwork, etc.), and the medium of interaction (in-person, sms, phone call, facebook message, etc.). lesson 3: community informatics lesson objectives: students will define community informatics give examples of areas where community informatics has been applied activities: research: each student will research one example of community informatics and share it with the class. unit 2: distributed communities unit overview: this unit will cover communities that are located on the internet or otherwise geographically distributed. this includes social networks (like facebook and google+), online communities focused on entertainment (such as reddit) or knowledge (like wikipedia), and communities of practice made up of practitioners of a particular field. this unit consists of readings that will be used to guide in-class discussions about various issues related to communities on the internet. specific issues covered in this unit include: aspects of social networks that facilitate community interactions, the ownership of social network data, the ethicality of research about social networks, the stewardship of online communities, and the effect of anonymity in online communities. the communities of practice lesson will also involve a design thinking activity in which students design a community of practice for themselves and their fellow undergraduate peers. lesson: social network communities lesson objectives: students will: identify characteristics of social network communities discuss features of social networks that lend themselves to community interactions reflect upon the ethicality of research conducted with social networks readings jenkins, h. (2009, september 21). is facebook a gated community?: an interview with s. craig watkins (part one). retrieved from http://henryjenkins.org/2009/09/is_facebook_a_gated_community.html kratz, h. (2012, november 14). why google+ is better for community than facebook. retrieved from http://socialmouths.com/2012/11/14/why-google-is-better-for-community-than-facebook/ goel, v. (2014, june 29). facebook tinkers with users' emotions in news feed experiment, stirring outcry. retrieved from the new york times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/technology/facebook-tinkers-with-users-emotions-in-news-feed-experiment-stirring-outcry.html?_r=0 activities discussion do social media make us less social, more social, or have no effect? what technological features are needed (or just better) to engage with a community? who owns data, etc. in a social media community? lesson: online communities (focus on reddit) lesson objectives: students will identify characteristics of different online communities. discuss what makes an online community unique. discuss the responsibilities of online community leaders. explore the role of anonymity in online communities. readings shaer, m. (2012, july 8). reddit in the flesh. retrieved from new york magazine: http://nymag.com/news/features/reddit-2012-7/ appelbaum, y. (2012, may 15). how the professor who fooled wikipedia got caught by reddit. retrieved from the atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/05/how-the-professor-who-fooled-wikipedia-got-caught-by-reddit/257134/ abad-santos, a. (2013, april 22). reddit's 'find boston bombers' founder says 'it was a disaster' but 'incredible'. retrieved from the wire: http://www.thewire.com/national/2013/04/reddit-find-boston-bombers-founder-interview/64455/ activities discussion the readings mentioned both wikipedia and reddit as online communities. what are some unique characteristics of each? who decides what an online community's identity is? who is responsible for the conduct of an online community? how does anonymity affect online communities? is anonymity a good thing or bad thing? what are some other unique online communities? lesson: communities of practice lesson objectives: students will define community of practice. find and share examples of communities of practice. go through the process of designing a community of practice, specifically for undergraduate students. compare and contrast communities of practice with other types of communities covered in class. readings cambridge, d., kaplan, s., & suter, v. (2005). community of practice design guide. retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/nli0531.pdf activities creating your own community of practice students will form small teams and work through the design process of creating a community of practice for themselves and their fellow undergraduate students. while faculty and graduate students generally consider themselves to be a part of the community of practice associated with their discipline, this seems to be less true for undergraduates. this activity will allow students to think through what an undergraduate community of practice would be like and reflect upon some potential benefits of such a community existing. research find an example of a community of practice discussion what is a community of practice? give an example of a community of practice what is the purpose of communities of practice? compare and contrast communities of practice with other types of communities we have discussed in class. unit 3: local community innovation unit overview: this unit is centered on lessons about local communities that is communities that are geographically located in one location. the four lessons in this unit placemaking, community innovation & engagement, community currency, and mobile community informatics are each areas of community informatics that depend on locally located communities. they each are also methods that can be used to undertake innovation within a community with the goal of improving it. the activities for this unit are focused particularly on design and other hands-on assignments. for the placemaking, community currency, and mobile community informatics lessons, the students will first be learning about the basic concepts of these areas and then applying those in design thinking activities. these activities ask students to brainstorm methods in which these three areas could be applied in the local community where they live and go to school. the information and communication technologies for development (ict4d) lesson will involve the students performing research about specific community-related ict4d projects. the other lesson, community innovation & engagement, will also require students to conduct a more hands-on activity but by going out and meeting with a local community innovation hub located in the community rather than a design activity. this is an organization with which work has previously been done and has indicated an interest in working with students. lesson: placemaking lesson objectives: students will understand the definition and basic principles of placemaking. conduct a design-thinking activity to apply these concepts in a creative way. discuss their designs with other students in the class. readings project for public spaces. (n.d.). what is placemaking? retrieved from project for public spaces: http://www.pps.org/reference/what_is_placemaking/ project for public spaces. (2008). 11 principles of placemaking. retrieved from placemaking chicago: http://www.placemakingchicago.com/about/principles.asp activities design thinking students will form small teams and brainstorm ideas for placemaking projects that could take place in the local community (this could be on campus or downtown). they will then pick their most promising idea and expand the design. each team will then present their chosen design to the rest of the class for discussion. lesson: community innovation & engagement lesson objectives: students will learn about the concepts of community innovation & engagement. further their understanding of community innovation & engagement by traveling to a local community innovation center and interviewing individuals working there. research and present another community innovation project (from any location) to the class. readings harvard magazine. (2013, january). a community innovation lab. retrieved from harvard magazine: http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/01/a-community-innovation-lab new leaf initative. (n.d.). new leaf initiative. retrieved from http://newleafinitiative.org/ activities discussion find an example of a community innovation project and present it to the class. community innovation center visit students will visit the local community innovation center and interview individuals there. the results of this trip will be discussed with the class. lesson: community currency lesson objectives: students will learn the definitions and concepts associated with community currency. reflect upon community currency concepts and how they could be applied in their local community. redesign the existing 'community currency' to incorporate other concepts learned in this lesson. readings lietaer, b., & hallsmith, g. (2006). community currency guide. retrieved from http://www.lyttelton.net.nz/images/timebank/community_currency.pdf activities design thinking lioncash redesign lioncash is a currency that can only be used in state college and some surrounding areas. it is associated with penn state student ids and can be considered as a community currency. however, in its current state, it has few of the effects and benefits of a more traditional community currency. after splitting into small teams, students will use the worksheets in the community currency guide and think about how they could redesign the local 'community currency' (lioncash) to be more of a community currency. lesson: mobile community informatics lesson objectives: students will learn the definition of mobile community informatics. reflect upon the implications of location-based services in community informatics applications. apply the concepts learned through the brainstorming and design of a mobile community informatics application. readings kessler, s. (2011, june 28). clever foursquare hack turns new york city into a giant game of risk. retrieved from mashable: http://mashable.com/2011/06/28/world-of-fourcraft/ carroll, j. m., & kropczynski, j. (2014). mobile community apps as an innovation infrastructure. human computer interaction consortium 2014. retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/12128851/mobile_community_apps_as_an_innovation_infrastructure activities design thinking students will form small teams and brainstorm some mobile community informatics applications. they will then present their ideas to the class for discussion. discussion what does the addition of location based services do for community informatics applications? what are some other potential applications of location-based community apps? how could you design a mobile community informatics application for use here on campus? lesson: information and communication technologies for development (ict4d) lesson objectives: students will give a definition of ict4d and explore concepts related to ict4d (e.g. the digital divide) find and share examples of ict4d projects that are related to community and community informatics. reflect upon the role of community in ict4d and development in general. readings sos children's villages. (2014, august 20). what is ict4d, and how is it transforming lives? retrieved from sos children's villages: http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/news/archive/2014/08/what-is-ict4d-and-how-is-it-transforming-lives rutstein, d. (2014, april 4). ict4d: a coming of age. retrieved from unicef connect: http://blogs.unicef.org/2014/04/04/ict4d-a-coming-of-age/ activities research find an ict4d project that has something to do with community students will research various ict4d projects with the goal of finding projects that are more closely related to community and community informatics. discussion what is ict4d? discussion of everyone's ict4d examples what role does community play in ict4d? unit 4: egovernment and deliberation unit overview: this unit addresses egovernment and ecitizenship and the effect they may have on communities. readings for this unit cover existing applications of these two concepts and will provide students some background with which to discuss issues surrounding these two concepts. the issue of anonymity will be revisited and social justice will also be discussed. in addition, students will reflect upon the benefits and drawbacks of technologies such as those in the readings. lesson: deliberation lesson objectives: students will explore technological applications that can be used for political and social deliberation. reflect upon the effect that these applications have upon the communities where they are being used. share personal experiences with similar platforms readings the geodeliberation project. (n.d.). the geodeliberation project. retrieved from http://geodeliberation.webs.com/ ramos, d. (2015, march 29). yik yak schools college administrations on some truths. retrieved from the boston globe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/03/28/yik-yak-schools-college-administrations-some-truths/kjcblca3wx1gu5jlvlh21i/story.html activities discussion what effect do you think technologies like yik yak and geodeliberator can have on a community? is anonymity essential to this? is it counter-productive? how can deliberation technologies contribute to social justice? lesson: e-government lesson objectives: students will understand the definition of egovernment. explore a real-world application of egovernment. reflect upon their own experiences with egovernment and identify the strengths, weaknesses, and implications of egovernment applications. readings united nations public administration country studies. (n.d.). frequently asked questions. retrieved from un e-government survey: http://unpan3.un.org/egovkb/en-us/about/unegovdd-framework schnurer, e. (2014, december 4). welcome to e-stonia. retrieved from u.s. news & world report: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/eric-schnurer/2014/12/04/estonias-e-citizenship-may-mark-the-beginning-of-the-virtual-state activities discussion what are your experiences with e-government? what are some benefits of e-government? what are some drawbacks? what are your opinions of e-citizenship? what levels of government are best for e-government? why? unit 5: community exchange unit overview: the lessons of this unit each have to do with individuals exchanging resources with each-other. in the case of time-banking the resource being exchanged is time while the p2p/sharing economy usually deals with the exchange of services. after understanding the basic ideas of these two concepts, several issues surrounding them will be discussed including trust, community building, and the practicality of implementing technological systems that facilitate these concepts. students will also get hands-on experience with time-banking by participating in a local time-bank. they will discuss their experiences with this in class. lesson: timebanking lesson objectives: students will understand the definition and basic concepts of timebanking understand co-production and how it compares and contrasts with timebanking experience timebanking first-hand by participating in the local timebank discuss their experiences with timebanking and their opinions of the practice readings timebanks usa. (n.d.). more about timebanking. retrieved from http://timebanks.org/more-about-timebanking/ stephens, l., & ryan-collins, j. (2008, july 16). co-production. retrieved from new economics foundation : http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/entry/co-production activities hands-on assignment timebanking with happy valley time bank students will learn more about time-banking by participating in the local time-bank. they will also meet with the administrator of the time bank and learn more from her about time-banking. discussion discuss your experiences working with happy valley time bank do you think time-banking apps in their current form are practical? what would you change? what is co-production and how does it relate to time-banking? lesson: p2p/sharing economy lesson objectives: students will understand concepts related to p2p exchange and the sharing economy discuss characteristics of p2p services discuss the role of community in p2p services and the sharing economy debate the role of trust in p2p services and the sharing economy readings tanz, j. (2014, april 23). how airbnb and lyft finally got americans to trust each other. retrieved from wired: http://www.wired.com/2014/04/trust-in-the-share-economy/ tufekci, z., & king, b. (2014, december 7). we can't trust uber. retrieved from the new york times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/opinion/we-cant-trust-uber.html?_r=0 activities discussion are services like uber really a p2p economy? what about lyft? airbnb? what are the differences between these different services? should p2p services focus more on community building? how could they go about doing this? these two articles present somewhat contrary view points that p2p services are increasing trust amongst users but decreasing trust that users can have for service providers. do you think both, one, or neither of these things are true? why? focus groups as a tool to collect data in a community informatics project involving elderly rural women ronel smith, csir meraka institute pretoria, south africa, university of pretoria department of informatics. email: rsmith2@csir.co.za introduction elderly women living in the rural areas of south africa are the most disadvantaged population group in the country (manual, 2007; statistics south africa, 2013). it is widely accepted that increasing these women's access to information and communication technologies (icts) has the potential to improve their quality of life (joseph, 2012; terry & gomez, 2010). the women's active participation in the design and implementation of any ict deployed in their community is crucial to ensure its usefulness by meeting their needs, and to ensure that they derive maximum benefit from its use (gurstein, 2003; light et al., 2010). this article discusses how focus groups were used as a data collection tool in a research project that is aimed at providing elderly women in a remote rural community in south africa's mpumalanga province with access to icts which meet their specific needs. the latter will be achieved by involving the women in the redesign of an existing ict platform known as the "digital doorway". focus groups were also used to pilot and adapt the informed consent process. the traditional focus group approach was adapted to support the socio-cultural context of traditional south african communities. in these communities group interaction and decision-making are very important, as are a need for openness and transparency, and the assurance that everybody receives the same information and is given the opportunity to voice their opinions (molamu, 2015). the project fulfils the dual focus of community informatics (ci) as described by stillman and linger (2009). it does so by firstly conducting research on the relationship between the design of the ict platform and the local community, and secondly by implementing an ict project in the community. elderly rural women are a unique demographic group in the south african context. this has a direct impact on the way in which researchers have to engage with them as research participants, in order to ensure a successful interaction and outcome of the research project. a number of factors have contributed to the status quo and they may impact negatively on the women's ability to participate in and benefit from interventions that are aimed at their empowerment, if not properly managed (diale, 2013). socio-cultural norms, values and practices which relegate women to the lowest position in society are still firmly entrenched in rural communities and are adhered to by the elderly and traditional authority structures (diale, 2013). apartheid has left elderly black south africans in general, and women in particular, to face a complex set of challenges (lam, leibbrandt, & ranchhod, 2004). they have lived most of their lives under restrictions related to employment, residency and education. the inequality in education between and amongst races was far greater for the current elderly than what they are for younger south africans. the literacy levels amongst elderly women are therefore significantly lower than their younger counterparts, who received their education after the end of apartheid (lam et al., 2004; statistics south africa, 2013). in order to ensure that the women's voices are heard and their needs addressed by the ict platform deployed for their use, feminist critical theory forms the theoretical foundation of the research project. the paper demonstrates the fit between this theoretical framework and community informatics. it also demonstrates the appropriateness of focus groups as data gathering tool within the framework of feminist and critical theories. the structure of the paper is as follows: a description of the ict platform is followed by the articulation of the aim of the project. the rationale behind the selection of elderly rural women as participants in the project is then articulated. this is followed by a discussion of focus groups as a data collection tool in the ci domain. the paper then highlights the requirements of feminist and critical theories and how focus groups can address these requirements, followed by a discussion of how focus groups were used to finalise the informed consent process. finally, the paper discusses the case study and how the researchers used focus groups to gather data while working with the elderly women in mafarafara, a village in the mpumalanga province. background ict platform: digital doorway the digital doorway (dd) project is a national initiative which was conceived within the context of south africa's national research and development strategy. then president thabo mbeki stated in the introduction to the strategy document: "…we have to ensure that as many of our people as possible master modern technologies and integrate them in their social activities, including education, delivery of services and economic activity. this relates in particular to communication and information technology …".(south africa, 2002:3) the rural areas of south africa are characterised by extremely low penetration of icts, high cost of access, and a severe shortage of ict skills. the dd project started in 2002 with the vision to make a fundamental difference to computer literacy and associated skills in the under-serviced rural areas of south africa (herselman et al., 2010). since the beginning of the project the main user base has been children, youth and young adults. the dd is a robust locally designed and manufactured self-service ict platform which is deployed in deep rural communities, typically in unsecured public areas. it is designed to be extremely robust and vandal proof to ensure that it is suitable for the environment in which it is used. the design is further aimed at providing access to multiple users at the same time, combating misuse and to minimising support and maintenance costs. the operating system is xubuntu. the applications, content and games (amongst others) are fully open source (gush, 2011). the inaugural dd installation was completed in august 2002 in a small rural village in the eastern cape province of south africa. since then the project has proven to be hugely successful in fulfilling its prime objective of increasing functional computer literacy amongst rural communities. the project is still in progress and to date more than 260 units have been deployed throughout south africa. 37 dds have been deployed internationally. during the past 13 years the dd has progressed through seven major design iterations that were influenced by user feedback and the project team's desire for continuous improvement of technical aspects of the dd. the configurations range from the initial windows-based single-seater unit to the current 220v and solar powered 3-seater units and the solar powered self-contained container dds. the 'digital drum', a dd in a 20 gallon drum developed with unicef for use in uganda, was nominated by the time magazine as one of the top 50 inventions in the world for 2011. the photographs below show the first single seater dd, the solar powered three-seater dd deployed in mafarafara and the solar powered container. figure 1: examples of digital doorway configurations various monitoring and evaluation studies conducted by independent entities have demonstrated that the dd is succeeding in its mission to contribute to computer and information literacy by providing ict access to its many users (van der vyver & marais, 2013). dds are used extensively for recreational, educational and skills building activities. users view the dd as a tool that creates opportunities and figuratively 'opens doors of opportunity' in the lives of the users. it is often described as an active participant in the community because it keeps children out of mischief and trouble with the police. as a source of information, the dds have significance in people's lives, and in some respects are seen as a 'personality' in the community, playing an active role in providing information. as the dd provides a system which can be accessed and which involves both hardware and software, it can be regarded as an ict platform. in this article when the word 'ict platform' is used it refers to the dd. ict platform and elderly rural women as described above, the dd as an ict platform has proven to be effective in supporting and promoting computer literacy amongst the children, young people and young adults in rural communities. there is general consensus amongst stakeholders that the impact of the ict platform should be extended beyond its original brief with respects to both aim and audiences. for the extended project the decision was made to focus on elderly rural women. the main purpose of the extended project is to identify and investigate the aspects that will encourage elderly women in rural areas to use the ict platform, and to determine what the physical design, content and applications should look like to achieve this; i.e. what are the characteristics of an ict platform that will encourage elderly rural women to make effective use of it for information access? constraints and factors preventing these women from using the ict platform will also be investigated. the learning will be captured in a model or framework that could be applied in other domains and to other ict platforms in order to encourage ict use. a modified ict platform, based on the feedback received from the women, will permanently be deployed in the community. elderly women in rural areas of south africa elderly rural women older than 60 (older persons' act, no. 13 of 2006 in statistics south africa, 2013) were selected as the focus group of this expansion project because they are the most disadvantaged population group in south africa (manual, 2007; statistics south africa, 2013). they are mostly illiterate and poorly educated; isolated and confined to their communities; subject to discriminatory customary laws, persisting patriarchal attitudes and prejudice; have access to severely limited resources and are marginalised due to the lack of initiatives aimed at their upliftment and empowerment (international labour organisation, 2012; ozoemena, 2010; statistics south africa, 2013). as a result they face significant challenges in their access to information, education, various services, earning opportunities and making themselves heard. in a 2013 stats sa survey 58.3% of rural women reported that they have received no education compared to 41.66% of men and older women are less likely than men to have progressed past primary school (statistics south africa, 2013). despite these obstacles and limited resources they are usually responsible for looking after large extended families and sometimes whole communities, due to the absence of the men and young adults who migrate to urban areas in search of work. elderly women therefore become the heads of their households, while having to cope with minimum resources (statistics south africa, 2013). uplifting and empowering these women can therefore have a positive influence on a whole community (mehra & rojas, 2008; world bank, 2009b). it is a widely held opinion that increasing women's participation in icts can play a significant role in achieving this aim (joseph, 2012; terry & gomez, 2010; unescap, no date). the majority of research conducted on women's acceptance and use of icts has been conducted in developed countries and cannot necessarily be applied to rural women in developing countries such as south africa. this project will contribute to the understanding of how the elderly women's relationship with ict influences the design as well as the deployment of icts in a rural community. it is important to remember that the women must play an active part in the design of an ict system intended for their use; they should not be mere beneficiaries and users of the system, but co-creators (light et al., 2010; world bank, 2009a). a modified focus group approach in a community informatics project introduction to focus groups the use of focus groups is not new and was first mentioned in 1920 as a marketing research technique (kamberelis & dimitriadis, 2013; kitzinger, 1994). in the 1940's richard merton and his colleagues discussed the focused interview as a research method that would facilitate the gathering of specific information from a group of participants around tightly delineated topics (kamberelis & dimitriadis, 2013). over the past century focus groups have been used for several purposes. they have become a popular data gathering method in the social sciences during the 1980s because they can be adapted to suite a wide range of purposes and approaches (kamberelis & dimitriadis, 2013; rodriguez, schwartz, lahman, & geist, 2011). the way in which focus groups are generally used has specific characteristics. a selection of these is listed below (alexander & korpela, 2012; babbie, 2005; ferdinand, fudrow, calhoun, & wisniewski, 2013; kamberelis & dimitriadis, 2013; walden, 2012). the groups are small with typically 6 12 participants. the group must consist of homogenous strangers with respect to a characteristic that relates to the topic being researched. participants that do know each other must not be placed in the same group. the participants are carefully handpicked by the researchers to meet their specific needs. the researcher sets the agenda or topic of discussion beforehand and leads the group accordingly. the goal is to obtain information about a single predetermined topic (or a limited range of topics) which the researcher deems relevant to the research. the latitude about the degree of focus of the discussion is in the hands of the researcher. focus is on determining what each individual really thinks, their actual beliefs and activities. the aim of focus groups is not to make decisions. the aim of focus groups is not to answer participants' questions. the aim of focus groups is not to reach consensus. many of these characteristics are not appropriate for focus groups conducted amongst elderly women in rural south african communities, therefore necessitating adaptations to the traditional focus group approach. for example, in traditional rural communities in south africa women occupy the lowest position in the hierarchy; even young men have more power than they do. in addition, outside parties such as researchers are seen as having power to change their negative circumstances in a positive manner. research participants bring their experiences with power relations and well as their beliefs and perspectives to focus group discussions. if the researcher follows traditional focus group protocol by setting the agenda beforehand, picking participants without consulting the community and determining the size of the group (i.e. acting as the person with the power), the traditional power relationships will be perpetuated. the women will only tell the researcher what they think (s)he wants to hear. they will not participate freely and the ict intervention will fail. focus groups in community informatics many community informatics-related articles, such the one by rabayah (2010) published in the journal of community informatics, mention that the authors used focus groups as the data collection tool of choice either on its own or in combination with other tools to elicit information from the women participating in the research project. the authors present the results only. they do not discuss the reason for their choice, nor do they describe how the focus groups were conducted, whether any difficulties were experienced or what the specific value of the focus groups was to the research project. other research projects reporting the use of focus groups were conducted in communities whose socio-cultural realities are irrelevant to elderly rural women in south africa. these include communities in australia (newman, biedrzycki, & baum, 2010), urban areas in america (jeffres, jian, neuendorf, & bracken, 2012) and youth in america (wolske et al., 2008). one article that does provide a detailed discussion on the use of focus groups in a rural community in south africa approaches community development from an information systems perspective. although the article offers useful insights, the project has a number of problematic issues. the western male researchers did not understand the socio-cultural context and had to use an interpreter to interact with the community. the use of interpreters disturbed the socio-cultural and power relationships, and created distrust and resulted in non-reporting of information. the authors admitted that both these issues had the potential to compromise the effective gathering of information (alexander & korpela, 2012). traditional procedures for conducting focus group sessions were used in this study, which include the researchers setting the agenda, identifying and recruiting participants, selecting the venue and planning the seating, and establishing the ground rules and protocol for the focus groups. the authors mention that (from a pragmatic perspective) it will do no harm to demonstrate some 'token gesture of respect' for community customs such as greeting the focus group participants in the vernacular. theoretical framework: the relevance of focus groups theory in community informatics although gurstein (2007) views ci primarily as practice and therefore outcomes-driven rather than methodsor theory-driven, there is a lively debate in academic literature regarding the role and nature of theory in ci. this debate focuses strongly on the absence of theory to support the technical component of ci interventions. williams and durrance (2008) describe ci as "a field of research in search of theory." stillman and linger (2009:255) highlight the ongoing debate in community informatics "about the need for a stronger conceptual and theoretical base in order to give the field disciplinary cohesion and direction". these authors focus on the "theoretical weakness of ci that lacks ontology for its technical endeavours" (2009:258). this view is supported by bourgeois and horan (2007) who hold the opinion that the design and implementation of effective community information systems are depended on the development of a comprehensive set of theories in the ci domain which addresses these (technical) issues. many authors see ci as 'borrowing' or incorporating theoretical content from well-developed theoretical frameworks in related domains such as information systems (stillman & linger, 2009; williams & durrance, 2008). more specifically, stillman and linger (2009:255) contend that the rich theoretical infrastructure of information systems (is) can be deployed and incorporated in the ci domain to "understand the social and technical needs of ci". examples of theories originating in other domains which can successfully be applied in ci are: actor network theory, critical social theory, interpretive theories, critical theory, and design theory (bourgeois & horan, 2007; rhinesmith & wolske, 2014; stillman & linger, 2009). critical social theories are particularly relevant to ci because it "makes behaviour and social, political and historical contingencies visible in the construction process of the technical artifact. this visibility provides space to express both the ci agenda and its technological orientation" (stillman & linger, 2009:260). feminist critical theory in the digital doorway project "oh! i can't wait for this thing to be connected. we are going to be educated; but why? when we are already in our twilight years?"(mma c, 2014) feminist critical theory forms the theoretical framework of this project. as demonstrated by stillman and linger (2009), it is an appropriate theory for the ci domain. it provides a strong foundation for a project aimed at uplifting severely disadvantaged members of a rural community. this section provides a short overview of feminist critical theory as well as a discussion detailing the appropriateness of focus groups as both communication and data collection tools within this theoretical framework. critical theory has the intention to promote emancipation of disadvantaged and oppressed population groups, in this case elderly rural women (coule, 2013; stahl, chiarini tremblay, & le rouge, 2011). critical theory has as its central tenet the working with participants and not on them, with the aim of challenging the conventional way of viewing and conducting research as well as the traditional power relationships between researcher and researched. adding a feminist lens ensures that research is cognisant of, and informed by, women's historical and current status in society as well as the structural inequalities that have created this status, and looks at the world from women's perspectives by honouring their social and historical realities (bierema & cseh, 2003). research that is founded in both feminist and critical theory focuses on exposing economic, power, gender and social inequalities in order to bring about fundamental change in the prevailing system, with the aim of opening possibilities for minimising or eliminating those inequalities and for the "emancipation of people, meanings and values" (martin, 2002; mckinnon in rhinesmith & wolske, 2014:4). expanding on the view of stillman and linger (2009), critical theory provides the researchers with a framework to investigate "who benefits and who loses, particularly in the design, development, and implementation of icts" (rhinesmith & wolske, 2014:5), while the feminist view ensures that the needs of women are taken into account. a critical feminist approach is therefore particularly suited to a project that has the aim of designing an ict platform to meet the specific requirements of a group of elderly rural women in order to ensure that they can use the ict platform effectively. focus groups and feminist critical theory when conducting research in traditional rural communities in south africa, particularly when elderly women are the research participants, issues such as power relationships and empowerment of the women play a significant role. focus groups have a role to play in research underpinned by feminist critical theory due to its potential to address these issues when adapted to the specific social, cultural and political context of a community (alexander & korpela, 2012; kevern & webb, 2001; stahl et al., 2011). from a feminist critical theory perspective the disparity in power relationships between researcher and research participants is of concern (kevern & webb, 2001). feminist critical researchers place the emphasis on research approaches which deconstruct the power dynamics between the researcher and those being researched, and which place the voices of those who have been marginalised, mostly women, at the centre of their research (rodriguez et al., 2011). focus groups have the potential to equalise this balance of power by democratising the research process. this can be achieved through the creation of an environment where women can engage as a collective in the focus group discussions, and where they instead of the researcher, give meaning to and interpret their social reality (kevern & webb, 2001; madriz, 2000; montell, 1999; wilson, 1997). this should result in a research relationship which is more equitable than that which typically exists in traditional research approaches. if researchers understand and honour the socio-cultural reality of the community and conduct the focus groups and other interactions between the researchers and research participants accordingly, it is possible to foster reciprocity, rapport and respect between the two parties. in the mafarafara project, this was accomplished because the researchers, whose first language was sepedi (the local language spoken in the region where mafarafara is located) stayed in the community for the duration of the various visits to the community. using focus groups in a remote rural community this section describes how focus groups were used to refine the ethics process and as a data gathering tool in mafarafara. informed consent process the ethics documentation consisted of a short description of the digital doorway, the research project, the consent form to be signed by the chief giving permission for the research project to be conducted in the community (traditional leaders still have considerable authority in rural south africa), as well as a detailed and comprehensive informed consent document to be signed by research participants. these documents were prepared in english and sepedi. in order to ensure the reliability of the ethics process it was tested over two days at an ngo in mabopane, a township about 40km to the west of pretoria. the research team wanted to check comprehensibility of the information and the consent form, whether the sepedi translations were correct, whether the process worked and whether any other issues arose which they had not already considered. the women participating in the trial run were of similar profile to the intended research participants. initially, the women were individually taken through the whole process. this created a number of problems: the process was far too time-consuming, and similar questions arose in the various individual sessions. also, taking individual women away to a separate room created an impression of 'secrecy'. the women who were waiting became bored and started to leave. the researchers decided to try a focus group approach as a way to mitigate these issues. one of the senior women, who had completed the ethics process during the one-on-one sessions, was approached to gauge her willingness to lead the focus group. she was taken through the document again. she then led the remaining women as well as some of those who had already completed the ethics process, through the documents. the researchers acted as observers. questions raised were addressed in the group. opportunity was provided for the group to discuss the issues that were raised among themselves. once the women had been taken through the consent document, the researchers went through the signature process on a one-on-one basis. the research team benefitted from the above process in two important areas. they learnt important lessons regarding the interaction with research participants in a rural area context, which were then successfully implemented in the interaction with the women in mafarafara. in addition, the ethics documentation which resulted from this process was used very successfully during the focus group sessions with the women in mafarafara. mafarafara introducing mafarafara figure 2: community centre where focus groups took place mafarafara is a small village consisting of 280 inhabitants situated in the greater tubatse municipality in south africa's mpumalanga province. it is extremely remote, and because of the poor state of the roads the community can only be reached by a 4x4 vehicle. the community is surrounded by a mountain range as well as a river which practically isolates it during heavy rains. given these transportation challenges, it is not easy for the inhabitants and particularly elderly women to travel to the surrounding towns. the village consists of a higher and lower section. the higher section has pre-paid electricity, which is not the case in the lower section of the village where the project is taking place. cell phone coverage is patchy at best and not very reliable. figure 2 shows photographs of the community centre in which the researchers met with the women. the ict platform is also installed at this centre. the lead researcher was introduced to mma c (mma is a term indicating respect for elderly women), the project's champion in the community, by a fellow researcher who had worked in a neighbouring community and who was aware that "mafarafara has nothing" (veldsman, 2013). the first contact with mma c was made via cell phone a process which took a couple of weeks firstly because of the unpredictable cell phone coverage and secondly because cell phones cannot be charged as there is no electricity in the village. subsequent contacts to arrange site visits and to gather additional information was accomplished by leaving messages on cell phones or by sending a text message, which could only be retrieved once there was coverage and the cell phones were charged, or by contacting an employee of a multipurpose community centre in a much larger community about 25 km away. he would then pass the message on when he visited mafarafara, or when somebody from mafarafara came to kgautswane. why focus groups as mechanism to interact with the community? by creating a forum through which women can share their collective stories and make visible the different dimensions of their daily lives, focus groups can become an important tool to contribute to the advancement of social justice for women (madriz, 2000). more specifically, appropriately modified focus groups can de-centre the authority of the researcher, allowing for a more egalitarian and less exploitative dynamic than other research methods. this in turn allows the women to connect with each other and share experiences, and creates room for the women to 'take over' the focus group and re-conceptualise it to meet their specific needs (montell, 1999). in a rural community such as mafarafara, where most of the elderly women are illiterate and regard the researcher as more powerful than themselves, individual interviews reinforce the skewed power relationship between the researcher and the researched. in the mafarafara project, focus groups were used as both a vehicle of communication with the community and elderly women as well as a data gathering tool. the researchers identified focus groups as an appropriate approach because the culture in rural south african communities is inherently oral, and decisions are reached by consensus. group interaction, the need for openness and transparency, and the assurance that everybody gets the same information and is given the opportunity to voice their opinions, are very important in rural communities. as discussed below, the traditional focus group approach was adapted to ensure the establishment of a forum in which the interactive discussions could give the women a collective strength and therefore a stronger voice in the research project. focus groups have the potential to create an environment in which the women and researchers can learn from each other and collaboratively redesign the ict platform such that it meets the women's specific needs (stahl et al., 2011). the focus group discussions were conducted in sepedi, the local language, by researchers who are first language sepedi speakers. this approach ensured that the researchers were aware of (and honoured) the local socio-cultural context and that the nuances of the discussions were captured. it also prevented complications such as non-reporting of information by the interpreter and skewed power relations that can arise by inserting a third party (in the form of an interpreter) into the discussion. in order to allow for sufficient time for discussion of issues on the agenda while taking cognisance of participant and researcher fatigue, the group discussions ran for forty-five minutes to one hour. focus groups were used in a number of different scenarios: as the vehicle through which to share information with the community and the elderly women participating in the research project. to generate discussion and to get feedback. to obtain the women's buy-in to the research project. to explain and conduct the ethicsand informed consent processes. to explore the women's needs with respect to specific information which could be made available on the ict platform. to gather information about their perception and use of the ict platform. to get their inputs into the redesign of the ict platform. focus groups participants in a rural community important decisions are usually made after an 'indaba' (gathering or meeting) where wider community participation is important. an atmosphere of 'openness' is crucial to the success of the project. the researchers and mma c, the community champion, introduced the project and ict platform during a gathering at the community centre. the chief and the men were supportive and gave the project their blessing. all of the elderly women were then invited to participate in the project. an existing group of elderly women, who already knew each other, became the research participants. access to the group of women was gained via mma c. the number of participants in the focus groups ranged between 15 and 23. focus group discussions were conducted at the community centre in mafarafara which 'belongs' to the women: mma c has the keys and the women meet at the centre to do their sewing and to socialise. despite being between 60 and 80 years of age, these women are responsible for generating their own incomes and sustaining the livelihoods of their families. the majority are heads of their households. research process the first visit to the community took place in april 2013. during this visit the ict platform and the research project was introduced to the community. permission was obtained from the local chief to conduct the research in the community, to obtain the buy-in from the community as a whole for the project, to recruit elderly women to participate in the research project and to complete the informed consent process. all these activities were conducted as focus group discussions. to date four follow-up visits have been conducted. during august and november 2013 the respective purposes of the visits were to install the standard ict platform, to get feedback on the women's experience with the platform and to obtain their initial inputs into the design. the purpose of the april 2014 visit was to 'touch base, address issues the women experienced using the ict platform and obtain further inputs into the design. the researchers visited mafarafara again in august 2014 to collect the ict platform to take it back to the researchers' technical lab to make the technical and content modifications requested by the women. the inputs into design were to determine modifications which should be made to the ict platform in order for it to better meet their needs and to enable them to use it effectively. at the time of writing the team is making arrangements to return to the community to install the modified ict platform. the researchers used an interview guideline listing the key points to be covered, to ensure that the research questions were being addressed. data was captured in audio, video and written formats, which were complemented by photographs. group size changed at times as women needed to attend to other commitments. an example is the majority of women excusing themselves at lunch time during one of the sessions, in order to collect their pensions at the pay-out point. the same group of women participated in all the focus groups which took place. in this way the research team could build on the information and data gathered during previous visits and gain new insights into the women's lives. an additional advantage of this approach was that, when the researchers arrived for subsequent visits, they were known to the research participants who received them warmly and opened up more easily than would otherwise have been the case. no segmentation of the focus group was done. the research team tried to create an environment that is natural, empowering and validating for the women. by honouring the traditions, socio-cultural context and cultural identity of the women the researchers were able to demonstrate their concern and respect for participants (rodriguez et al., 2011:413). the researchers lived in the village during the visits and blended in with the community's way of life. this enabled the women to relate more easily to the researchers than would have been the case had the researchers stayed outside the village. characteristics of focus groups the research team included all the women in one large focus group rather than several smaller groups. focus groups were facilitated in an informal non-directive style. during the discussions the researchers and mma c made a concerted effort to ensure that everyone's position was articulated and noted. this approach demonstrated clearly that the women have very different perspectives of, and attitudes to, the topic of the ict platform. although the focus groups were not conducted in a very structured and formalised manner, the team was concerned with ensuring that the all women had an opportunity to express themselves. the women were less inhibited in a group setting than in one-on-one interviews. group discussions enabled the team to get information about community attitudes towards the use of the ict platform. members of the discussion groups built on each other's ideas and reminded each other of experiences which assisted them in getting important information. a disadvantage of this method was that some participants would be more vocal than others and would tend to dominate the discussion. a particular 'culprit' was mma c; when she was present in a focus group, effort was made to ensure that other participants' voices were also heard. she was equally sensitive and aware of her influence compared to other women and would encourage them to state their views as well. the passivity or inactivity of some members was at times due to the high social standing of the more active members. the interview guide was used to steer the content and dynamics of the conversations. the questions were designed to promote group discussion, with the research team using open-ended questions rather than a detailed list of questions. the women were allowed to 'get off topic' and to put their ideas across, thereby acknowledging their contribution. they would afterwards be steered in the right direction to respond to what was being asked. this approach empowered the women by giving them room to talk about issues they were interested in as well. this would include issues pertaining to internet connectivity, and mma c wanting discussions to look at un funders who could be asked to get involved in the development of mafarafara. the women provided an audience for one another, encouraging a wider range of discussion than would have been possible with more structured approaches. the research team made an effort to be aware of the rhythms of the women's conversations and to 'go with the flow' of the discussion. the conversation flowed easily and there were no disagreements. topics that generated the most interest were the ict platform as a source of information relevant to the women's daily lives, and its potential as a tool to leverage assistance from funding agencies and government departments. specific examples include a) health information focusing on remedies for old age ailments and those affecting children; b) agricultural information dealing with crop cycles, disease management in both crops and livestock, and beneficiation of indigenous plants and applications that focus on the improvement of numerical literacy; c) information relating to their craft and sewing activities such as how to design their own clothing patterns, knitting and crocheting patterns, as well as craft ideas that are not expensive with particular emphasis on crafts using recycled goods; d) information on lightning and thunderstorms, and particularly how fatalities and destruction of crops, livestock and property can be provided; and e) information about different funders (government and non-governmental) which can contribute to upliftment of the community, their contacts and areas of interest as well as application forms for funding. because of the isolation of mafarafara the women felt that their community has been forgotten by various government and funding agencies. they were of the opinion that the ict platform could serve as a tool to motivate these agencies to become involved with the community. discussions also centred on transforming the community centre into a multipurpose facility over time, including the provision of internet connectivity, providing the ict platform with a printing and photocopying facility as well as providing the women with chairs to use whilst working on the ict platform. during the conversations the women expressed their excitement about the ict platform. far from the technology being threatening it was instead embraced, as is evidenced by the quote below; "you don't know how excited we are with this project. now that the dd is here, there's no turning back. we are going to be successful. we can't be defeated by something that cannot talk." the socio-cultural and power relationships which became evident during the site visits are very interesting. for example; the second visit to mafarafara was undertaken by a white english speaking male who was responsible for installation of the ict platform. from the women's point of view, he was not the stereotypical 'white male' because of the manual work which he did. the women were very impressed by his humility and hard work. they were also aware of the differences between the two black female researchers with respect to age and ethnicity, but respected the fact that the researchers could communicate in sepedi, the local language. for the two black female members of the research team, coming from different socio-cultural backgrounds was value adding. this diversity amongst the team enabled its members to bring to the fore their skills and capabilities for the development of a community. comparing the traditional focus group approach with the community based approach when informatics is the central issue specific areas of is research that might benefit from focus groups the areas in is research and the implementation of ict projects in rural communities that can benefit from the use of focus groups are typically related to the socio-cultural aspects of is projects. following a transparent, all-inclusive focus group approach when engaging with the community can contribute significantly to the factors discussed below. in order to succeed, ict projects based in rural communities must be significantly community-driven (pade-khene, mallinson, & sewry, 2011), a reality which can be created by involving the community in discussion and planning through focus groups. ict initiatives should incorporate socio-cultural factors such as gender awareness and political structures in the community to ensure effective participation of traditionally excluded social groups (bridges, 2006). focus groups can play a significant role in encouraging participation of the community in general as well as specific target groups in the ict project, thereby creating the conditions in which appropriate icts (which meet the needs and expectations for that community) can be introduced (pade-khene et al., 2011). engaging with the rural community through focus groups can contribute to the researcher's understanding of the day-to-day realities of the community. focus groups can add value to is research when used to explore and recognise the socio-technical nature of technology in rural communities (stahl et al., 2011). issues to consider in community-based settings although researchers see a promising role for focus groups as a research tool in community-based research, there are a number of issues that could potentially lead to methodological difficulties in cross-cultural contexts if the traditional focus group approach is applied as is (alexander & korpela, 2012; babbie, 2005). researchers should be aware of roles and relationships, communication protocols and community traditions when conducting group discussions in cross-cultural settings (strickland, 1999). if adapted to the socio-cultural context of rural communities, focus groups is a research and data collection method that allows researchers in the community informatics field to engage more closely with the marginalised members of disempowered communities in a culturally sensitive and community-focused way. this approach is more likely to produce authentic and rich information "because participants are communicating in natural ways in an environment that affirms their experience and ways of sharing information" (lau, gilliland, & anderson, 2012; rodriguez et al., 2011:411). using a focus group which includes all the research participants rather than breaking up in small groups promotes transparency. the women know that they have all received the same information. the community in which the research is being conducted as well as the research participants themselves must be able to put their own agendas on the foreground, even if it contrasts with those of the researcher. using focus groups in traditional rural communities can present the researcher with unique challenges, relating in particular to socio-cultural issues, the size of the focus group and language. from a socio-cultural perspective the researcher must resist the temptation to disregard different voices due to the perceived collective identity or persona of the 'rural community'. it is for this reason that, during one of the site visits, a researcher also conducted a survey amongst community members not participating in the project in order to determine what their perceptions are of the activities at the community centre. in this way other community members were given space to express their views, which allowed for a more holistic view of the project. the focus group setting and interaction with the women were intentionally designed to affirm the women and to communicate the message that the researchers respect and value them, their experiences and their contribution. it is important that researchers are "truly interested in and have an appreciation for participants' cultural identities and the stories being shared" (rodriguez et al., 2011:410). the women expressed their appreciation for the way in which the focus groups were conducted, stating that the research team ensured that every woman's interests and needs were accommodated. the sessions were conducted in sepedi and english. table 1 summarises the discussion above and reflects how the mafarafara focus groups diverged from the generally accepted criteria for focus groups, which is often based in business and market research. table 1: comparing traditional focus groups with those conducted in mafarafara the traditional focus group approach the mafarafara focus group approach focus group is small with typically 6 – 12 participants (ferdinand et al., 2013; kamberelis &amp; dimitriadis, 2013; walden, 2012). the number of participants in the focus groups varied according to the women’s availability and ranged between 15 and 23 participants. an atmosphere of ‘openness’ is crucial to the success of the project. all the women must be comfortable that they have the same information, equal opportunity to express themselves, etc. focus group must be “homogenous strangers” with respect to a characteristic that relates to the topic being researched. participants that do know each other must not be placed in the same group (babbie, 2005; ferdinand et al., 2013; walden, 2012). the focus groups were not homogenous as they consisted of women of different ages, levels of literacy and standing in the community. participants did not have the same capacity to engage in the discussions. all the women in the focus group knew each other. carefully selected “handpicked” participants. researcher determines the selection of the participants (ferdinand et al., 2013; montell, 1999; walden, 2012). the participants were part of a pre-existing group which met regularly at the community centre where the research was conducted. the researchers suspect that some of the participants were hand-picked by mma c but this cannot be confirmed. the researcher sets / promotes the agenda or topic under discussion beforehand and leads the group (alexander &amp; korpela, 2012). the latitude about the degree of focus of the discussion is in the hands of the researcher (kamberelis &amp; dimitriadis, 2013; montell, 1999; walden, 2012). the researcher asks the questions and frames the issues of the study (montell, 1999). although the researchers had specific items they wanted to cover, the agenda and content of the discussions were frequently influenced or set by the women. topics that they were interested in were those they regarded as critical to their livelihood. this included information on funders, and government interventions in rural development initiatives. the researchers ‘allowed’ them to explore these topics before gently coaxing the discussion back to the original topic. the researchers remained open to the aspirations of the community, keeping in mind that the ultimate aim of the research project is the emancipation of the underprivileged women. the goal is to obtain information about a single predetermined topic (or a limited range of topics) which the researcher deems relevant to the research question (ferdinand et al., 2013; kritzinger, 1994; walden, 2012). the research team and the women co-created knowledge rather than tried to uncover the “singular truth” about a research question (rodriguez et al., 2011:402). focus groups must be conducted in a formal research setting. focus groups were conducted in a mud and thatch building which serves as a community centre, on the community centre’s veranda or in a covered shelter opposite the centre. the community centre ‘belongs’ to the women. one of their own holds the keys to the building. the centre is used as a place where the women meet and engage in various activities. research participants must share specific experiences. the women shared the same socio-cultural environment and daily challenges. they were all also part of a group which regularly used the community centre for various activities. focus is on determining what each individual really thinks, their actual beliefs and activities (montell, 1999). in a traditional rural community the focus is on the community as a whole. the focus is typically not on the individual and her / his thoughts, beliefs and activities. the aim of focus groups is not to make decisions (ferdinand et al., 2013). the researchers used focus groups to share information about the project, obtain permission from the community to conduct the research, and for the ethics / informed consent process. the aim of the focus groups was to elicit information from the group while respecting the different responses. participants were not expected to have the same points of view. the aim of focus groups is not to answer participants’ questions (babbie, 2005; ferdinand et al., 2013; montell, 1999). the researchers went out of their way to answer participants’ questions, even if the questions did not relate directly to the topic of the focus group or the research project. quite a number of questions were related to government and donor funded development projects. the aim of focus groups is not to reach consensus (babbie, 2005; ferdinand et al., 2013; montell, 1999). this project is inherently about researching consensus on the design of an ict platform for use by rural middle-aged women. focus groups were also used to reach consensus whether the research project could be conducted in the community. synthesis it is evident from the above table that the difference between the mafarafaraand traditional focus groups are mainly: size and composition of the focus group; the active participation of the research participants in setting the agenda, and directing the flow of the conversation; the flexibility in the way in which the focus groups were conducted; and the use of focus groups to make decisions and to reach consensus rather than merely as a data gathering tool. conclusion when implementing ict projects in rural south african communities it is important that researchers honour the local socio-cultural context. with research participants who have been and still are discriminated against by remnants of the apartheid regime and traditional power structures, it is important that the researcher interacts with the elderly rural women such that the unequal power relationship is equalised as much as possible. when conducting focus groups in rural communities it is important that the researcher realises that (s)he is on the community's "turf". in this project this realisation necessitated adopting a non-traditional approach to focus groups, notably with respect to focus group size, the active role that the research participants played in setting the agenda and guiding the research, and the use of the focus groups to answer questions and to reach consensus. to this end, the paper compares how focus groups adapted for a rural community differ from the conventional focus group which has its origin in marketing. the case is also made that focus groups as a research method matches well with the feminist critical theory framework underlying this research project, which is aimed at working with the elderly rural women to redesign the ict platform to meet their needs. in the context of assisting rural women with their use of icts and their understanding of the potential of ict in the information age, this paper has shown that focus group methods have a special contribution to make in a number of areas. the first area is building deep mutual trust between the researchers and the women. in addition to the adapted structure of the focus groups, researchers who were fluent in sepedi and stayed in the community for the week of the site visits also contributed to the depth of the relationship. secondly, the open and frank focus group discussions helped the researchers build an in-depth understanding of the needs of the women as a collective. the focus group discussions encouraged joint exploration of what the ict intervention could offer the community as a whole, and how the women themselves could benefit by providing a safe environment for all women to contribute to the design and improvement of the ict platform. these three factors contributed to the design of an ict platform which will better meet the needs of the women. it also contributed to more effective use than would have been the case had the researchers designed the ict platform in the lab using their own imagined understanding of what the women would need. the training on how to use the ict platform was also done in groups. the interaction between the women became quite vocal as they 'dared' one another to try something new. during the focus group activities the women became more confident in what they themselves can achieve. the following comments summarise the women's opinion of the ict platform: "oh! i can't wait for this thing to be connected. we are going to be educated; but why? when we are already in our twilight years? 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(2012). editor's introduction: focus group research. in g. r. walden (ed.), focus group research volume 1 (pp. 348). london: sage. williams, k., & durrance, j. c. (2008). social networks and social capital: rethinking theory in community informatics. journal of community informatics, 4(3). wilson, v. (1997). focus groups: a useful qualitative method for educational research? british educational research journal, 23(2), 209 224. wolske, m., ayad, m., budhathoki, n., kowalski, c., nam, c., ritzo, c., . . . bruce, c. (2008). youth community informatics: using new digital media to foster personal growth and community action paper presented at the prato cirn 2008 community informatics conference: icts for social inclusion: what is the reality?, prato, italy. world bank. (2009a). gender in agriculture source book. washington dc: world bank press. world bank. (2009b). information and communications for development: extending reach and increasing impact (pp. 316). washington dc. is mentors and peculiarities in the development of the hungarian information society mihály csótó budapest university of technology and economics (bme), information society and research institute (ittk, www.ittk.hu), hungary. csoto.mihaly@ittk.hu szilárd molnár budapest university of technology and economics (bme), information society and research institute (ittk, www.ittk.hu), hungary. molnar.szilard@ittk.hu abstract the information society of hungary has developed at a moderate pace in recent years. about half of hungarian society has been reached by the more significant developments in infrastructure, so this group can be considered as being conscious ‛netizens’ who meet the european average in regard to almost all of the indicators. according to the results of our research the digital divide in hungarian society is deepening and there are two main reasons for this: firstly the very unfavorable settlement structure of the country and secondly a lack of interest in pcs and the internet and no motivation to change this. most of those excluded have no direct contacts with the feature tools (computers, the internet) or with persons who use these tools in their everyday lives. social investment, training and motivation programs to break down cultural and knowledge barriers are necessary. introduction – the state of the information society in hungary in comparison to the access to ict tools and to the basic data of use in the eu member states it can be observed that hungary is still lagging behind the eu average. according to the analysis made by the world economic forum (2006), which examines the implementation of the targets set in lisbon (to become a competitive knowledge based economy), it was exactly in the area of the information society where hungary showed the weakest performance of the examined dimensions. the number of households with internet access and internet users is still low in hungary. considering the proportion of broadband access, the picture is ambiguous: this data for hungary is well over the eu average (as can be observed, the number of households that use a modem or idsn is half the eu average), and this number has even increased since the data collection in 2006. the high rate of broadband access is to no avail when the number of internet users is so low. all in all, it can be stated that the majority of the internet user population has changed over to the solutions that are up-to-date in the domestic environment, and so the disadvantages experienced by those excluded from it have increased even more. internet owner households, type of access and proportion of the internet users in hungary and the eu average:   internet owner households proportion of households using broadband internet access households using a modem or isdn to connect to the internet proportion of regular internet users aged 16-74 eu 27 average 65% 56% 8% 60% hungary 55% 51% 4% 57% source: eurostat 2009 the information society of hungary has developed at a moderate pace in recent years. about half of society has been won over by the important infrastructural developments (e.g. schoolnet, ehungary access points, e-government and broadband internet investments), so this group can be considered as being conscious ‛netizens’ meeting the european average in regard to almost all of the indicators. unfortunately, the independent ministry of informatics was dissolved four years ago, and most of its responsibilities delegated to the ministry of economy and transport which is responsible for several other fields, thus the information society strategy accepted by the government has not been continued. moreover, all this is happening in a period when the country is facing the difficult and long-term task of socializing favorable infrastructural bases. according to the results of our research[1] the digital divide in hungarian society is deepening and there are two main reasons for this: the very unfavorable settlement structure of the country and the lack of interest or even negative attitudes towards computers and the internet. almost 50 percent of the adult population is digitally illiterate, and most of these excluded people have no direct contacts with the feature tools (computers, internet) or with persons who use these tools in their everyday lives. the wip surveys made on the use of computers and the internet show that almost half of the hungarian population have strong aversions to the use of computers, and thus to the use of the internet or any other interactive ict tools. 51 percent of the hungarian adult population did not use a computer in 2009, and 53 percent are not internet users according to the estimates of the world internet project. and these figures are stagnating. access to computers, the internet and broadband at home (according to percentages of households, source: world internet project 2004-2009) unfortunately, the poor results of the basic access indicators reveal the extremely low-level digital literacy rate of society. by 2006 only 32 percent of the hungarian population had attended courses offering some kind of computer knowledge. in the scandinavian countries this rate was between 55-70 percent, and even the eu average reached 40 percent. the following diagram makes it clear that the majority of the hungarian population learns the basic skills pertaining to pcs and internet usage on their own, in an autodidactic way, and that adult education hardly offers any help in this regard. where did you learn the basics of pc and internet usage?:   in proportion to all the answers (%) in practice, while using them 27.6 through self-education 19.2 taught by colleagues, friends or relatives 18.5 within the framework of the school system, education 18.5 at courses within the framework of adult education, on own initiative 8.6 at a course made obligatory/suggested by an employer 7.1 total 95.5 (source: central statistical office (ksh), 2006) almost half of the adult population is not a member of the network society, and most of the population do not have the slightest contact with the feature tools of the information society such as pcs or the internet. we have very little information on the expectations and requirements this considerable number of people have in relation to the information society. six out of ten non-users of the internet have never heard about the advantages of using the net personally from family, relatives or friends. this is well reflected in the fact that today it is definitely the motivation barriers – not being interested or not needing the net – that are the main factors rather than financial restrictions. this, of course, may have serious socio-economic consequences. the digital divide in hungary’s population is already perceptible alongside the slow development of the information society. unfortunately it is highly likely that the country will remain culturally torn into two for good: about one third of society is able to keep up with the changing trends in the information society, and able to adapt to the permanent technological changes – e.g. use of mobile tools or broadband internet access – and able to use a wide range of online services while about two thirds of the adult population demonstrate no interest in or have a negative attitude towards the feature tools of the information society. the latest set of data from the world internet project highlights this: while penetration and usage is stagnating, the intensity of use is growing significantly, so the “user-half” of the population are really taking advantage of the new technologies. thus on one hand the data shows that the digital gap has deepened in hungarian society, for most people – almost half of the adult population – use pcs and for the others, the internet has not become accepted or is not required at all as an everyday activity, meanwhile the infrastructural development and investment implemented by the government have not generated an automatic change of culture. the country has definitely balked at the challenge posed by the information society. hungary lacks the soft infrastructure and services which could promote cultural change and play an important role in bringing round the non-users. so far the government has focused on the hard (physical) infrastructure which is, of course, necessary but the process was far too one-sided. a good example of this is the network of ehungary points which is a part of the public network program. a physical infrastructure has been established which is used almost exclusively by the already-users, and this situation will not change until human services are also provided. there are far too few opportunities for the non-users to gain personal experiences of the advantages offered by the worldwide network, and there are far too few experts and services offering direct help. the situation is even worse in the small communities around the country. behind the numbers: changing cultural and material reasons the basic data on digital literacy and the divide of the domestic information society are quite well known by researchers and decision makers, however, the deeper, cultural and attitude-like reasons influencing the spread of ict tools have not yet been discovered, and the related population segmentation has not yet been carried out. the deeper analyses made within the framework of the world internet project, already introduced the fact that in hungary cognitive obstacles are making an increasing contribution to people’s rejection of the internet. with the help of the wip questionnaire these two aspects can be discerned through the following variables: material aspect     owned computer not good enough not own computer too expensive access too slow difficult to get access   cognitive aspect     does not need it not interested does not know how to use it fear of technology it is not for children pornography personal data protection viruses too many ads analyzing these data we can see that the cognitive aspects have increased in significance during the last decade. why not use the internet? (in the percentage of non-users source: wip, 2002-2009) those stressing material reasons primarily refer to financial ones. it is possible that obtaining an up-to-date computer also allowing the use of the internet represents too great a financial burden for the family, or access is too expensive, complicated or slow. considering the fact that the country still has hundreds of small settlements with no broadband internet at a payable price or no such service at all, the latter considerations must be given serious consideration. the reduction in the number of the material aspects can be explained by several factors. the costs of internet usage have considerably fallen during the last four years, and flat rate broadband internet access has become general. the increasing significance of the cognitive barriers is primarily the result of a lack of interest. according to the latest data, almost half of the non-users avoid the internet because they think they do not need it. in regard to the frequency of the answers the second cause is lack of interest and the third one is the lack of a computer.  it is worth breaking down the cognitive aspects into categories in respect to the absence of motivation (the internet is not interesting, nor useful), insufficient knowledge (does not know how to use it), fears (negative attitudes and experiences) and the possible technological restrictions. as already mentioned, the biggest obstacles are deficiencies in motivation and knowledge.  source: wip, 2002-2006 but what can be found in the background of this passive resistance and rejection? several factors could be mentioned here but due to limited space we will draw attention to an interesting parallel which lies in the fact that neither politics nor society is disposed to operating in a network-like way. it is very probable that there is an inter-connection between political distrust and the – hopefully temporary – stagnation in the evolution of the information society in hungary since both political and social culture are dominated by rigid opinions, opposing groups and distrust; people are depressed; the population cannot be mobilized; they do not travel to work, study or spend their spare time elsewhere; and public administration is providing a low level of performance. the ict sector of the hungarian economy and a narrow, younger and more educated segment of the population is developing progressively and adapting to the opportunities provided by technological advances, while the state, our public administration and most of society is less able or willing to keep up. for the majority, new information and communication technologies mean destruction, retreat and the further weakening of social norms and communities. meanwhile, the minority, recognizing the new opportunities and the creative power, are accepting the opinion that changing our life styles and habits and adapting ourselves, the old values are not only sustainable but can even be strengthened and new ones can be established. for those making deep analyses of the ‘netizens’ of information society it is not surprising that these people do not simply own the feature tools of the information era but also make use of them in order to enrich their social, economic and cultural resources[2]. the data from the world internet project make it clear that the users of computers and the internet have wider social contacts than the non-users whose contact network is a lot narrower. among those who started using the internet between 2001 and 2003 the proportion of the persons who have a friend increased by six percent. we are therefore probably right to assume that the internet also helped people to make friends, so its use has a positive impact on making social contacts and the evolution of the more network-like operation of society. (albert-dávid-molnár, 2006). the unfavorable structure of settlements and the role of networks it has now become clear that the success of the information society greatly influences the capability of small communities and small settlements to retain their populations. this problem is particularly acute in hungary where, because of the peculiar structure of settlements, 36 percent of the population lives in villages. the number of settlements with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants is over 1,700, and those with fewer than 500 people amount to some 1,040, so every third hungarian settlement has less than 500 inhabitants. such a disproportionate structure of settlements is hard to find anywhere else in europe which is also indicated by the fact that the number of the inhabitants who live in small settlements is three times higher in hungary than the average in europe. the number of small settlements is particularly high in the counties of baranya, zala, borsod-abaúj-zemplén, vas, somogy and veszprém. hungary is a country with one of the lowest numbers of inhabitants per  municipality. (about 700 persons per municipality while this number can reach as high as 130,000 in great britain which constitutes an extreme example in this respect.) the low populations of the small villages in many cases makes it unfeasible to maintain basic services and institutions, although it is obvious that the school, the post office or the community house are at the focus of innovation. it is no accident that the closing down of the local (fixed) post offices and the introduction of the mobile postal service (in the middle of the decade) led to strong opposition from the locals affected by it the real reason  for their protesting lies in the fact that in regard to social contacts, i.e. communication – or the opportunity to disseminate innovations – it is not at all the same whether the mobile post office reaches many people in many places one by one or the small post office provided the opportunity for many people to meet in a fixed place. these two solutions represent another dimension of quality. this type of settlement structure places enormous strain on hungarian socio-economic policy. oddly enough, the small settlements fighting resource gaps primarily try to save money on the very institutions that play an essential role in discouraging local intellectuals, young people and families from moving away. generally it is the library, the community house, the local post office and the school that are sacrificed first, however, these institutions are absolutely necessary for the maintenance or even development of the local community resources. sociologists highlight three characteristics of the underdevelopment of the declining rural regions: economic recession (which leads to organizational and institutional closures), under-developed life circumstances (income, consumption, infrastructural supply and deficiencies) and the disadvantageous demographic trend: the rapid aging and natural decrease in the number of the population and thus the rapid reduction in the number of inhabitants in these settlements. the geographical and infrastructural isolation of the small settlements is increasingly resulting in their socio-economic exclusion and isolation. the situation is contradictiory because according to current notions of modernization successful territories are those that are able to solve their current socio-political problems with progressive and up-to-date interventions that establish competitive advantages. the multifarious problems of the small settlements have long been recognized, however, the solutions found have been sporadic, temporary and partial. this is because at the ministries concerned there have always been several ‘responsible persons’ for the various tasks and institutions, with a resulting lack of adequate coordination and strategic pressure and neither the need nor the notion of integrated management for the occurring problems has evolved. nevertheless, it is rather remarkable that in each case we come across a deficiency in the information and knowledge processes, and the structural reasons are always the same: problems of size efficiency, business/market/budget unsustainability, resource gaps in establishing and/or maintaining properties, permanent lack of (qualified) human resources that can be  activated directly, lack of infrastructure (telephone, cable tv, the internet) and the difficulties of accessing the national basic systems. so what are the possible solutions, and what are the research findings that could help us to map out adequate methods of intervention? overcoming the cognitive obstacles, motivating the population, awakening the demand for changes and promoting the more network-like operation of society cannot be implemented without social intermediaries (teachers, librarians, is-mentors, social workers, etc.) previous research on the inter-connections between social capital and internet usage (albert-dávid-molnár 2006) has drawn a clear picture: the social environment of internet users is richer than that of non-users. the probability that the group with a friend, a relative living abroad or in the countryside or having attended a party for friends during the month prior to the data collection for an internet user is 1.5-2.5 times higher than the probability for the group with members that do not have such contacts. it is perhaps even more important that after excluding the effects of all the other factors we find that the group with friends is twice as likely to have started using the internet in the examined period  (2001-2003) than the group lacking friends. so it is obvious that the non-users of the internet have less social capital, however, in most cases this not only indicates the fact that they have less social contacts in terms of numbers and a narrower social network but also indicates that they have fewer people from whom they can ask for advice or help in connection with the ict tools or the use and usage of the internet. they lack the communication channels through which they would be able to see the appropriate examples and the social and technical constraints and opportunities.. in this context those community places primarily in small settlements where the necessary services are provide, , and which also provide social places for people to meet, talk, exchange information, study or relax are very highly valued . according to our earlier research (molnár 2004, albert-dávid-molnár 2006) internet usage is not primarily influenced by direct family contacts but by friends and acquaintances. we have also observed that the main factor is not the quantity but the quality of these contacts. in the spread of computer and internet usage the decisive elements are the weak contacts (friends, acquaintances or various experts the individual can reach) in the establishment and maintenance of which community places that provide access to the ict tools – e.g. libraries, local post offices, community houses or tele-houses – play a primary role. so our data makes it clear that the dissemination of innovations is indeed considerably influenced by the soft texture of social contact networks since the borderline between the narrow social contacts of the non-users of the internet and the social skills of the users and starters is very acute. the importance of the various community places and of friends in the internet usage of the new users is especially worthy of attention. because of this it is very unfortunate and paradoxical that in the small settlements with poor economic conditions it is exactly these community places that are first sacrificed, and it is exactly the repression of weak contacts that allows us to say that hungarian society’s lack of places for contact puts enormous obstacles in the path of disseminating ict tools.  however surprising it is, the protests against mobile post offices substituting for local post offices originate in the outstanding importance that community places have in facilitating weak contacts, fears concerning the loss of these facilities, and people’s intention to protect them wherever possible (molnár-székely-karvalics 2005). the local post offices are not only institutions that provide various services but also places that strengthen and maintain community feeling. the inhabitants not only go to the post office to post a letter but also because here they are provided with a “community service for free” maintained by local people: they can meet other people and friends and can get information on the local events etc. all this contributes to the improvement of community feeling and the extension of people’s social contact network. from a sociological aspect an institution “with many people visiting one place” is basically different from the one “with one person visiting many places”. the role of social intermediaries results from several research projects demonstrate that the number of hungarians living in total digital isolation is very high. in relation to this segment of the population the greatest challenge faced by social policy is that they are neither motivated, nor open or interested, and no external support can be provided for them. the main source of isolation is the non-users’ narrowed system of contacts due to which the basic social connections and interactions that could promote the dissemination of innovations are missing.   narrowed social contacts cause considerable disadvantages especially in obtaining information on new opportunities and tools. from the following diagrams it is clear that in the acquisition of personal computers or internet access it is not family members or relatives who are most frequently asked for advice but rather acquaintances or experts – who in fact constitute weak social contacts.   source of the advice gained when buying a pc (according to the percentage of households that purchased their pc, in more than one possible answer): friends, acquaintances 40% experts 35% family members 16% colleagues 15% other relatives 7% obtained advice from nobody 16% source: ministry of informatics and telecommunication 2005 source of the advice obtained when buying the internet access (according to the percentage of households that purchased their internet access, in more than one possible answer): experts 35% friends, acquaintances 31% family members 24% colleagues 14% other relatives 4% obtained advice from nobody 25% source: ministry of informatics and telecommunication 2005 all these are important indicators since in examining the digital divide in hungarian society it can be observed that the majority of the non-users have relations with neither the tools nor the experts who are perfectly comfortable in the information society. 57 percent of the non-users live in households with no internet, pc or internet user, and another 20 percent have no internet access or internet user household members but do have a pc. these two groups are totally isolated from the feature tools of the information society. non-users of the internet in percentage of the persons living in the households the household has their proportion according to the percentage of the non-users of the internet pc internet internet user yes yes yes 9% yes no yes 12% no no yes 2% yes no no 20% no no no 57% source: eneten 2005 the isolation of more than half of the non-users from the information society is reinforced by not even having thought of trying the internet.  have you ever thought of trying the internet? (according to the percentage of non-users): never thought of it 54% yes, but has not tried it 24% yes, and has also tried it 20% yes, but after trying it did not use it 2.00% source: eneten 2005 in addition to the very strong subjective limits – lack of motivation and interest – other micro level but objective obstacles also influence this situation. more than half (66 percent) of the non-users of the internet get no encouragement or help from other persons. has anyone ever encouraged you to use the internet? (according to the percentage of non-users): yes, a family member 15% yes, acquaintances 13% yes, colleagues 5% other persons 1% nobody 66% source: eneten 2005 the lack of internal motivation and external help has the greatest effect on the elderly and poorer groups. from the information society perspective it is absolutely impossible to reach them at the moment. these people make up half of adult hungarian non-users, and their number is around three million or 30 percent of the total hungarian adult population. the missing link: the is-mentor the need to establish a new profession also appeared as a result of these research findings. the is-mentor[3] is a qualified and practiced supporter based in community access points who provides personal help to people in improving their life situations and life opportunities primarily through the use of modern ict tools and network services. the mentors’ primary task is to help people otherwise unable to independently use the services provided by the information society, and who cannot exploit the opportunities provided by information and communication technology. the mentor could be the connecting link that brings the new services and opportunities of the digital world closer to the community’s requirements and cultural traditions and this could even benefit those who have not yet realized its advantages.  the hungarian is-mentor program is a unique initiative. the solution is peculiar mainly because the qualified is-mentor in addition to using the informatics tools is also informed about the social situation and the problems of the target group. at the community access points[4] the mentor provides support in making use of the opportunities provided by the ict tools,and in managing life situations. to fulfill this task, he/she gives complex support, promotes the socio-economic processes of the individuals and the communities, and thus helps to increase equality and opportunities for disadvantaged persons and regions. the fundamentals of the is-mentor service or profession already exist in the national information society strategy accepted in 2001: the section on social policy stressed that “the institutions need experts who are, by reason of their qualification and attitudes, able to mediate as interfaces between the users and the non-users”. the egovernment’s 2005 strategy presented at the beginning of 2004 calls the expert whose participation is basically necessary in the socialization of the electronic services an ‘is mentor’. when the program booklets of the national information strategy were elaborated it was already obvious that most of hungarian society would not be able to integrate into the digital culture without help. the main target groups of the e-inclusion program were the elderly, disabled people and the roma; the people most disadvantaged in regard to the digital divide. the highlighted target of the program was to build human infrastructure through the is-mentor network (in addition to the physical infrastructure which was typically made up of the ehungary points): to establish a network of community access points where it would not only be possible to fulfill the requirements for the special use of ict tools but where an is-mentor with a good knowledge of info-communication technology (‘an informatics expert and a social worker in one’) would also be available. it was clear that placing technological tools and making them accessible at public places is only useful if they have a favorable socio-economic impact. one of the most important effects is the reinforcement of a sense of community in remote, small settlements. if access to a copy machine, a computer or broadband internet at an ehungary point, library, post office or tele-cottage has no impact on strengthening, building or restoring a community it is a waste of money because the tools will only be used by the already-users (students, young and qualified people). the most serious problem is faced by the small settlements where there is hardly any human resource left that could be built on, so the retension power of these communities is rapidly decreasing. dozens of sociological works have been written on the negative impacts of the inadequate working of these basic structures of society and on how damaging their failure to fulfill their tasks can as for example through the failure in the transmission of norms, positive role models, and basic social values.   despite being aware of these facts no tangible step was made by the political decision makers or public administration to introduce the is-mentor profession until the training of information society consultants – instead of is-mentor – was started with the support of the ministry of economy and transport at the end of 2006. the aim of this training is to give special consultant education to the qualified experts with diplomas working (or even just interested) in the field of the information society so that they can make use of this knowledge in their everyday work. there are essential differences between the concepts of the is-mentor and that of the is-consultant. the is-consultants are trained to persuade people that the internet is not something infernal, and that it offers services that are important in everyday life. this task can really be fulfilled by a consultant in a library but this is not community development, and does not promote social integration. this is rather a reflexive service: should someone enter the actual premises, which are like a helpdesk, the consultant will try to find answers to their questions using ict tools. thus the is-consultant can reach the people who are motivated and interested in the digital world but who lack knowledge, tools or access. however, the is-mentor is proactive: he/she tries to reach the people who are not aware of the advantages offered by the ict tools and online services, collects their requirements and expectations, identifies the problem groups of the community and tries to engage with them using a different tool pack, and a different approach.  consequently, an is-mentor works at a community or community service level even if he/she provides help to individuals as well. as opposed to this, the is-consultant only offers personalized help and consultation.  the is-consultant is likely to support the people open to the use of ict tools but who are unaware – because they have never been clearly informed – of the opportunities available e.g. help in the management of their official dealings, communication, using bank services, etc. it not known how big this group (with a positive attitude but limited access and knowledge) is in hungary. there is no precise data but relying on the segmentation trials of other research work we can estimate it at about 15 percent of the adult hungarian population. this group is a lot smaller than that which can be effectively engaged only through an is-mentor service. the is-mentor – building on the consultant’s role – is primarily set to reach those adamantly staying away from and rejecting the digital world or who are excluded from it. and as these states are not primarily related to the letter ‘e’ but rather to social, socio-political, community development and educational problems, they need an expert with appropriate competencies. the case study of aparhant aparhant, basic data aparhant is a village near the town of bonyhád in tolna county with a population of about 1,200 people. the population is mixed: hungarians, swabians, szekelys and about two percent roma. one important characteristic of the village is that almost all of the adults have a job: many of them work in the local agricultural cooperative and many of them have a job in the nearest town, bonyhád in the shoe factory, the enamel plant or at the dressmaker’s shop. two years ago a dressmaker workshop started operating in aparhant with 40 employees which means work for 21 families. the village has 51 individual entrepreneurs, 17 of them in industry and the others in agriculture.   tolna county, hungary despite this the region is not really developed. the buying power index in tolna county is 91.5 percent[5] of the national average (this index is 135.4 percent in the capital), and in aparhant it is even lower at 85.5 percent. the resources necessary for the successful operation of the village are raised by operating the institutions economically. in another settlement located in the same county and with similar features the maintenance of the school, the kindergarten, the community house and the library costs about huf 110-120 million (app. € 500 000) a year in which the state’s normative support amounts to about huf 60-70 million. the maintenance of the very same institutions in aparhant costs huf 80 million, so the burden placed upon the municipality by having the institutional budget ‘complemented’ is a lot smaller. the local authority mainly saves money through wage costs: instead of the 6-8 persons staff generally working in such settlements they only pay four full-time employees who must do their best in the several fields they are allocated. the cited employment data allow the considerable sums of money spent on subsidies elsewhere to be freed up. however, economical operation itself would not be enough: the amounts freed up in this way are spent on innovative developments in order to strengthen social cohesion and to encourage people not to move away. in 2004 the football team was supported by huf 1.3 million (€ 5,000). catering for all the children at kindergarten or primary school is free as are all the school books while a huf 15 thousand (€ 60) school starting support is paid for each child. at christmas each child and low income pensioner is given presents. those wishing to settle in the village can buy plots of land for symbolic amounts of money. however, the area really worth focusing on is the internet network of the village. information technology – a new approach the settlement considers ic technologies as opportunities for development; aparhant is a real e-village. cable phone (which could be found only in the school and the mayor’s office at the beginning of the 90s) is installed in 80 percent of the houses, and the coverage of the three mobile phone services currently operating in hungary is also complete. aparhant has its own cable television service which is maintained at a production cost by the local authority, and the subscription for 40 channels costs only huf 2,500 (app. € 10) a month. the teletext of the network is used to transmit local information and technical help such as what needs to be done if someone’s computer is infected by viruses. considering the conditions in hungary the greatest achievement is the introduction of broadband internet which is now accessible in almost half of the houses in the village which means a penetration reaching or even exceeding that in the capital of hungary, budapest. the subscription fee for the internet is huf 1,500 (€ 6) per month which is very low. the greatest virtue of the above developments is that they were established from the village’s own resources. the internet is provided by the municipality through a wi-fi network which needed two transmission towers for a total outlay of huf 6-7 million (€ 24-28 000).  all the work that could possibly be carried out was done with community cooperation: the steel structure of the towers was constructed in the locksmith workshop of the neighboring village, and excavation and cable works were carried out by the employees of the local authority. it was not necessary to get permission to establish the wifi network, as in accordance with the regulations it merely had to be registered. at present the bandwidth gained from the server is 3 mbit/sec. building a terminus costs about huf 50,000 (€ 200) for each house, half of which is paid by the municipality as a subsidy. the costs of this were reduced by opting to use a locally developed aerial to establish the necessary contact. in the case of aparhant the total cost of the wifi and informatics investment established from its own resources amounted to about huf 10 million (€ 40,000). the bandwidth created in this way (11-54 mbit in principle) is perfectly adequate for meeting demand, although the settlement is already planning further developments since the world has moved, especially during the last two to three years, towards applications of bandwidth as broad as possible. currently the network has about 120 personal users, and there are 14 computers in the school, nine in the community house and seven in the municipality offices. the nine computers located in the village library can be used for free. it is remarkable that the school of such a settlement has 26 computers. this indicates one of the success criteria of the project: the education of informatics has been of outstanding importance in the village since the early 90s, and one fifth of the population has passed the ecdl (european computer driving license) exam. the children are taught informatics from the fifth grade at school (but they are not allowed to play games on the school computers). two thirds of the children pass the ecdl exam by the time they leave primary school. a qualification in informatics is a must for public employees and public officers. the demand generated in this way has been an important factor in the success of the local network since there are several generations that have grown up using computers and the internet in a natural way and in their everyday lives. the training courses organized by the primary school for the adults on the use of the internet are also popular – it was impossible to transmit this knowledge in the early 90s. the surveys made in the village provide strong evidence to substantiate the fact that secondary, weak contacts play a very important role in technological dissemination: in the settlement the knowledge about how much important information is available on the internet in various fields (e.g. on calls for proposals or agrarian support) spread from mouth to mouth which promoted acceptance and dissemination. people use the internet primarily to search for information, to make phone calls and play network games. success is well indicated by the € 100,000 support won for a modern animal transfer truck station in 2006 in an application which they found through the internet. this call for application and the employment structure presented above both reflect the fact that the population working in the agricultural or industrial sectors is mainly encouraged to use the internet through education. as well, the requirement for spare time activities and cheaper communication are additional reasons, and not simply for work place needs, at the same time, the knowledge gained at school means a competitive advantage on the labor market for the inhabitants of aparhant (it is quite possible that this is one reason for the outstanding employment rate). lessons learned in 2005 eneten[6] made a focus group survey in the settlement the results of which corroborate the facts and opinions presented above: the most popular applications are corresponding, browsing in spare time (sports, cars) and school topics, playing online games and making phone calls. some of these – in addition to other people’s experiences – had outstanding importance in beginning to use the internet. (“i was very much interested in corresponding”, “we visited a couple where the woman was chatting all the time, and enjoyed it so much that she couldn’t talk about anything else”.) as to the question of how the internet has changed people’s lives the answers given usually referred to the allocation of their time (sleeping and watching tv were reduced the most after starting to use the internet contact). an interesting point is that users do not think about how to persuade non-users in the traditional way (infrastructure or some killer-application) but rather start in the areas of hobbies and spare time activities (“one of my friends is fond of fishing, i was able to show him pages on it”), and there have also been examples of getting a friend to use the internet. however, the internet is not just for the young as people of all ages use the network. as to the question of why the internet is used by so many in aparhant only one response was given: “it depends on the mayor. if we didn’t have this microwave, i wouldn’t have it.” this answer throws light on what is perhaps the most important generator behind the developments i.e. a single person, the mayor of the village, who introduced the study of informatics as a teacher of the subject and was the first person in the village to do so since 1990. mr. györgy szűcs who performs his role as mayor for no remuneration is also the informatics expert[7] of the village. his example shows that it is possible to build a network in a small and isolated village with consistent work and perfect planning but with no significant support, almost exclusively from private resources even in a post-transition country that hardly abounds with opportunities. as a final conclusion we can state that the network in aparhant includes all the factors that can arise in successful community projects and make a small settlement that is quite typical of other hungarian villages of similar size successful. dedicated leadership with long-term and definite ideas and targeted operations approaching the problems innovatively and searching for up-to-date answers. creating the appropriate needs and level of consciousness – primarily through education and spare time activities and the opportunity to join an operating system. precise use and planning of resources making the network sustainable even under bad economic conditions. it is perhaps even more important that the secondary, weak contacts – as experienced in the interviews and the focus groups – are strong in the settlement which has had a positive impact on needs. all this, however, could not be maintained without technological support which means that the operation from own resources also includes personal technical support by those not (yet) able to make use of the ict opportunities on their own. this model supports the view that moving forward from the present hungarian situation could be best solved by using the community approach (tele-houses and service centers) and institutionalizing the supporter profession. conclusion it has now become clear that no informatics infrastructural investment can be successful unless it can exert an impact on the community or can initiate community development or mechanisms that improve opportunities. if these are lacking society’s ability to adapt will naturally be retarded. it seems that hungarian society is not able – since it has not yet been given any help or encouragement by, for example, the political class – to produce sufficient social capital for renewal. it is probable that the pace of transformation required of hungary by the information society challenge subsequent to the economic, political and social transition is too great. however, in mapping the obstructive factors and dangers and defining the appropriate ways of intervention the desire to terminate these concepts of civil society and sociology provides useful food for thought. social intermediaries can play a crucial role in bridging the deficit between technology and people who are lagging behind. especially because these people do not want to adopt technology – but merely want better services. unfortunately there are different concepts of intermediaries in hungary and no clear signal, which is also essential for people to accept new ways of behaving. the initiatives are there but to live up to their potential is another question. every solution is only viable in local circumstances, and at least one ‘champion’ is needed. the example of aparhant shows us that community action and a comprehensive vision can lead to success. bibliography albert, f. – dávid, b. – molnár, sz. (2006). the evolution of internet use and social capital in hungary. the results of a longitudinal research. from: internet.hu 3. a minute picture of the hungarian society 3., tárki social research centre, 2006., pp. 69-110. ithaka (2006) the map of the digital future: report on the results of the world internet project research in hungary, 2006.  retrieved april 25, 2007 from http://www.ithaka.hu/index.php?name=oe-docmanager&file=download&id=2854&keret=n&showheader=n eneten public opinion and market research centre (2005). internet usage of the population 2005. retrived april 2, 2007 from http://www.nhh.hu/dokumentum.php?cid=9615 gáspár, m. (2002). telecottage – the chance for small communities for development. in. http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/crp637/gaspar_telecottage_hu_yug.doc gáspár, m. (2004). e-community: how to establish and run a successful telecenter. undp karajánnisz, m. – tardos, á. (2005). situation evaluation to establish the broadband electronic communication strategy. population segment research report, infonia alapítvány (2005), pp. 6-30. eurostat (2006) internet usage in the eu25. retrieved april 15, 2007 from http://epp.eurostat.cec.eu.int/pls/portal/docs/page/pgp_prd_cat_prerel/pge_cat_prerel_year_2006/pge_cat_prerel_year_2006_month_11/4-10112006-en-ap.pdf,. eurostat (2009): information society statistics http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/information_society/data/main_tables kraut, r. – rainie, l. – shklovski, i. (2004). the internet and social participation: contrasting cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. journal of computer-mediated communication 10 (1) molnár, sz. (2004). sociability and internet. review of sociology vol. 10 (2004) 2, pp. 67-84.  molnár, sz. – székely, l. – z. karvalics, l. (2005). mobile post offices in hungary – a professional and strategic. research report, infonia alapítvány (2005), pp. 111-127. nie, n. h. erbring, l. (2000): internet and society: a preliminary report. from: it & society 1(1), 275-283. nie, n. h. hillygus, d. s. (2002). the impact of internet use on sociability: time-diary findings. from: it & society 1(1), 1-20. nie, n. h. – hillygus, d. s. – erbring, l. (2003). internet use, interpersonal relations and sociability: a time diary study. from: the internet in everyday life, edited by wellman and haythornthwaite. oxford: blackwell publishers. article: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~hillygus/wellmanchapter.pdf putnam, r. d. (1993). making democracy work: civic traditions in modern italy. princeton university press putnam, r. d. (2000). bowling alone. the collapse and revival of american community. new york: simon and schuster putnam, r.d. (2002). bowling together. the american prospect, vol. 13. world economic forum (2006). the lisbon review 2006. measuring europe’s progress in reform. retrieved may 5, 2007 from http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gcr/lisbonreview/report2006.pdf [1] bme-ittk is one of the hungarian hosts of the world internet project (wip). the authors used the database of the wip project. the wip research does not form a particular aspect, as its aim is rather to map the general social impact of the internet. for this purpose, we elaborated the plan for a so-called longitudinal research to be repeated every year for ten years. this makes it possible to show the short and long term impact on people’s suppositions, habits, relationships, and lives in households where there were already users at the beginning of the research and those becoming users in the meanwhile. every year 4,000 people are used in the sample who are representative of the hungarian population. [2] that is why we agree with the view that hungarian mobile telephony, with its 90 percent coverage index, hides major opportunities. most of the people possessing a mobile phone probably use it almost exclusively for receiving calls and hardly any other services or applications. [3] the term information society mentor was originated by mátyás gáspár. see details: http://en.itmentor.hu/ [4] primarily in telecottages, libraries. see the history of telecentres in hungary: http://www.itu.int/itu-d/univ_access/casestudies/hun_mct.html or mátyás, gáspár: telecottage – the chance development in small communities   [5] gfk hungária: buying index survey, 2006-2007 [6] http://www.eneten.hu/szolgaltatas_eng.html [7] a blog comment by an aparhant inhabitant, nov. 28th  2006.: „aparhant, the media star category: grey weekdays labels: aparhant, wifi “some days ago i wrote that the figyelonet.hu published an article on aparhant, my home village. the village and it mayor has been given outstanding attention by the media since then. last week we could see a short interview in the night program of one of the tv channels. yesterday i also had to visit mr. teacher because i had re-installed the windows xp (i had to change over from english to hungarian) but did not know the network settings. when walking with the child in the afternoon, i headed towards the mayor’s office supposing i might find him. i was lucky, he was standing in the yard, the municipality workers were working with some metal device, and some strangers were there, too. i was just starting to talk about my problem when a camera was brought over from somewhere, and they started to shoot a film.”   public access to the internet and social change: an experience in colombia, between silence and hope ricardo gomez & luis fernando barón-porras1 university of washington paper presented at cirn-diac conference: vision and reality in community informatics, prato, italy, oct 2010. abstract the use of information and communication technologies (ict) can contribute to community development. public access venues such as telecentres, public libraries and cybercafés make ict more broadly available, extending the benefits of ict to underserved sectors of the population. development is seen as a process of empowerment of marginalized communities to transform their immediate reality and improve their quality of life. this paper presents a case study of public access venues in the small municipality of carmen de bolívar, a small town in northern colombia. this municipality has a strong tradition of community organization for social development, and a long history of violence that have shaped its social fabric. the case study assesses the contribution of public access to ict for community development, capitalizing on the region’s experience with community organization. this study found that the introduction of public access to ict may not have contributed significantly to community development. venues that provide public internet access are mostly used for personal social networking (e.g., facebook) and to access pornography. to a much smaller degree, public access ict is also used for homework by schoolchildren and for online banking and government transactions by adults. the absence of community development activities is especially surprising given the relative strength of the community organizations that have worked on communication activities in this region during the last decade. this vacuum may be a consequence of the violence suffered by the inhabitants of the region in its recent history, or of the preference for private access to computers and internet at home or at work for community development purposes. we conclude that public access to ict alone does not necessarily contribute to community development, especially if the political environment is not conducive or if there are no strong social organizations in the community. introduction icts have great potential to contribute to community development (unwin, 2009), and numerous experiences with public access to ict through venues such as telecentres and public libraries have taken root in colombia and around the world as part of strategies for digital inclusion (amariles, paz, russell, & johnson, 2006; parkinson & lauzon, 2008; warschauer, 2003). in addition to libraries and telecentres, in the last few years hundreds of cybercafés, small businesses that offer computers with internet access and other connectivity services, have sprung up. the presence of numerous cybercafés has transformed the landscape of public access to ict, making computers and internet access a commodity that is easily available in large and small cities, even in remote villages and towns. cybercafés can also have what argentinean researchers called an involuntary contribution to community development (finquelievich & prince, 2007): they can contribute to development even if that is not their mission or purpose. the so-called digital divide, is nothing more than a reflection of the existing social, political and economic divides, and icts alone cannot change the relationships of inequality extant in society (gomez & martínez, 2001). in order to contribute effectively to social development, people need not only access (public or private) to icts, they also need strong community organizations, and the ability to participate in social and political processes. in addition, the community needs the assistance of people with skill in the use and appropriation of icts as tools for communication in support of social and community development are also necessary. community organizations mediate between icts and community, between local needs and global sources of information, and as such, play a key role in the use of icts for development processes. in areas where violence is widespread, community organization and effective mechanisms for communication are crucial to social transformation. in his analysis of the role of communication and power in the networked society, manuel castells concludes that “violence and the threat of violence always combine, at least in the contemporary context, with the construction of meaning in the production and reproduction of power relationships in all domains of social life. the process of constructing meaning operates in a cultural context that is simultaneously global and local” (castells, 2009, p. 417). in our study, we build on this notion of communication as power, in the face of both violence and community organization, to assess the contribution of public access to ict (a new and powerful communication tool) for community development, empowerment and social transformation. as part of a wider study about the state of public access to icts in colombia, this article analyzes the case of carmen de bolívar, a municipality on the caribbean coast of colombia, two hours south of the historic city of cartagena. this study also included other municipalities and capital cities in five regions of the county, where we sought to understand the role of public access to the internet in social development. we examined public libraries, cybercafés and telecentres as the principal points of access to icts. we include community telecentres (supported by non-governmental organizations) and governmental telecentres (supported by the government’s compartel program); both have a mission to support community development. cybercafés include commercial locations that offer access to computers connected to the internet and offer different services in towns and cities: sometimes they offer food or beverages, connectivity services like telephone calls, scanning, printing, photocopying and disc burning, or diverse services such as hair salons, gym or video games. we exclude venues that are not open to the general public (such as computer labs in educational settings), just as we do not consider private access to the internet (access at home or in the workplace). this research explores access to and use of icts in locations such as telecentres, public libraries and cybercafés. fieldwork included surveys, interviews, focus groups and literature reviews. for collecting data, we had the support of local liaisons in each of the six regions of colombia. this project continues work on the research project “landscape of public access to ict in 25 countries,” conducted between 2007 and 2009 by the university of washington (gomez, 2011). the rest of the article is organized as follows: first, it offers a description of the research methods. then, we summarize the unique characteristics of the municipality of carmen de bolívar, colombia, with particular reference to violence and community organization. next, we discuss the principal findings of the study in carmen de bolívar and conclude with a discussion of the implications these findings have for programs of public access to icts from a community development perspective. research methods this research expands on the work done in the study, "landscape of public access to ict in 25 countries" and in particular the ace framework (gomez, 2010), which assesses public access venues in terms of access, capacity and environment features of libraries, telecentres and cybercafés. for the study in colombia, we adopted the regional distribution standards used in the national survey of community television (angel, 1998), which divides the country into five regions based on cultural and demographic criteria. this helps to provide a representative sample that reflects the diversity of the country: the caribbean coast, santanderes, antioquia and eje cafetero, central region and southwest region. in each of these regions, we studied a capital city with high population density and a town with medium population density. this regional distribution model allowed us to have national coverage and to distribute the aggregate sample proportionally and statistically in the selected regions, based on the 2005 census performed by the national department of statistics2.  for this study, we used a mixed methods approach (creswell, plano clark, gutmann, & hanson, 2002) for data collection and analysis, which gives the study added relevance and credibility. the data collection strategy was based on the following activities (described in more detail below): user surveys, semi-structured expert interviews, semi-structured user interviews, structured operator interviews and focus groups of operators and users in six parts of the country. the survey was based on a statistically representative sample of the population, proportionally adjusted to the demographic characteristics of the five regions. the focus groups in particular allowed us to understand the "information ecosystem" in each location, as they brought together participants who had diverse experiences and used different venues for public access to ict. as part of the investigation performed on the caribbean coast of the country, we included the municipality of el carmen de bolívar. el carmen is located in the north of colombia, some 80 kilometers south of cartagena, one of the most important cities in the caribbean region of this south american country. el carmen de bolívar has a population of 70,000 and forms part of the montes de maría region, also known as the serrania de san jacinto, located between the departments of sucre and bolívar. this is a mountainous region below 1,000 meters, which includes the peaks of la pita and maco, which are used for placing radio towers. in these hills are the municipal capitals of sincelejo (capital city), chalán, colosó and ovejas in the department of sucre and of el carmen de bolívar, san juan and san jacinto, in the department of bolívar. currently el carmen de bolívar has the third largest population in the department. the inhabitants of the regions are mostly people of mixed race, afro-colombians and indigenous people, who maintain cultural traditions passed down by different indigenous communities from the region and brought from africa during the slave trade. these traditions, mixed with european and spanish customs and worldviews during the conquest and colonization, have continued until the present day. the region’s diversity is expressed through a fascinating richness of musical rhythms, dances, foods and cultural and artistic practices. the municipality of el carmen de bolívar, where we conducted one of our focus groups, is characterized by a paradoxical history of social organization, agricultural development and violence. in this city, similar focus groups were conducted in six locations across the country (bogotá, san gil, carmen de bolívar, medellín, marinilla, and cali), with the goal of taking a closer look at the characteristics and practices of the use of telecentres, libraries and cybercafés in these municipalities across the country. data collection strategy this study uses a mixed methods approach, drawing samples that took into consideration the demographic distribution and regional variety of the country. we utilized a pre-existing division of the country into five regions, based upon previous communication and development research in the country (angel, 1998). in each of the five regions we drew the sample from the capital city and a small municipality (pueblo), in order to reflect the diversity and variety of both urban and non-urban experiences in different cultural settings around the country. the data was collected using the following activities: user surveys (n=1,135): we surveyed 1,135 users of venues that provide public access to ict across the country. the size of the sample was statistically representative of the country, adjusting to population distribution in urban and non-urban settings for each of the five regions, based on data from 2005 census. the samples for cities and municipalities in each region is shown in the next table, adjusting for enlarged samples in case of data collection errors, and distributed for urban/rural population distribution in each region. region cities municipalities sample size by proportion of regions adjusted sample size for collection error sample distribution within each region, to account for urban/rural population 80%-20% 70%-30% caribbean region barranquilla 89 105 74 el carmen de bolívar 32 santanderes bucaramanga 41 60 42 san gil 18 central region bogotá 510 550 440 tibasosa 110 antioquia and eje cafetero medellín 170 200 160 marinilla 40 southwest region cali 190 220 110 santander de quilichao 44 pasto 66 total 1.000 1.135 the survey included users of three types of venues providing public access to ict in cities and municipalities; with attention given to gender equality, age variation (including older adults) and ethnic diversity, including indigenous and african populations when relevant. the surveys were conducted by local survey administrators in each location during various times of day and days of the week. the survey administrators recorded the answers with pencil and paper. in some cases, answers were also recorded to an open question included in the survey. expert interviews (10): these were conducted as open interviews in two groups divided as follows: 6 thematic experts: experts in the field of public access to ict associated with the academy or with non-governmental or governmental organizations, with balance between the sectors and areas of expertise. expertise was based on: publications, personal recognition and participation in international, national and local networks. for the most part, these experts were based in the large cities (bogotá, medellín, cali). 4 local experts: opinion leaders in activities related to community communication in each region. these local experts were selected based on their knowledge of the region and their participation and knowledge of cultural dynamics. they also acted as liaisons who coordinated the other forms of data collection, such as operator surveys and focus groups. interviews with operators (100): we conducted 20 of these structured interviews in each of the five regions, and maintained a proportion between capital cities and municipalities (70-30% for caribbean and santanderes, 80-30% for the rest, as shown in the figure above) for each of the five regions, as well as a balance between the three types of venues (telecentres, cybercafés, libraries). we also maintained gender balance, representation of different ages and ethnicities (indigenous peoples and afro-colombians, in the regions where these two groups are important variables). the selection of operators was done by the local liaisons, based on their knowledge of the distribution of sites, types of users and uses, with the goal of including a variety of experiences, sizes, sites and populations served. semi-structured interview (life story) (10): we conducted interviews with ten people selected by human interest or their relevant personal experiences with use of ict through public access venues. these interviews were about personal stories judged by the researchers to be relevant or important because of the transformation, motivation or vision of ict for development that they revealed. the cases for these interviews were identified during the surveys or interviews of users, operators and experts. focus group workshops (information ecosystem) (6): a total of six focus group workshops were conducted in each of the regions of the country. each workshop included approximately twelve participants, including users, operators, and other stakeholders in the field of public access to ict (e.g., school teachers, ict trainers, leaders of local community organization, etc). we ensured equitable gender representation among participants, as well as the participation of people of different ages, education levels and socio-economic status, persons with disabilities, and ethnic minorities if appropriate to the region. the main purpose of these workshops was to explore the ecosystem of uses of ict in public access venues in the community. at the same time, we sought to understand the interactions between different types of public access venues, their relation to mobile phones and community radio, and some of the local perspectives on their benefits for community development. the case of el carmen de bolívar the focus group in el carmen de bolívar consisted of thirteen people, five women, and eight men; some users, some cybercafé and telecentre operators, and a representative from the municipal library. during the conversation, they created a "social map" of the venues for access to ict in the municipality, talked about the uses of ict in this territory and about the characteristics of the users of public access venues. furthermore, they performed an analysis of the differences between ict at the library, the two telecentres and seven cybercafés in the municipality, and the challenges they faced in this region. in addition to the focus group workshop, we collected 31 user surveys and performed twenty operator interviews. furthermore, we conducted an in-depth interview with a 32-year-old user who is a leader of this town, and is currently the legal representative of the association of disabled persons. in the interview, she relates the way in which access to new information and communication technologies has affected her life as well as that of her organization. when we arrived in el carmen, we felt the penetrating heat of the caribbean, as we were no longer near the coast and its fresh sea breezes. at the time of our visit, the region was experiencing an intense summer, and as the people of the region told us, it had been four or five months since it last rained. in this municipality we felt not only the warmth of the climate, but also of the people, who were happy, calm and very talkative. furthermore, we could feel the dynamism of this municipality that is at a major crossroad of the country; roads lead to antioquia (northwest) and to other cities in the caribbean region such as sincelejo, cartagena, valledupar, santa marta and barranquilla.  the dynamism of this region is related to the farming and ranching industry, which is complemented by a prosperous mining industry (coal and nickel). the vitality is also expressed by the movement in the streets, in the coming and going of cars, campers, motorcycles and bicycles; the amount of people who meet in the main park and the multitude of people who walk the streets during the day, visiting the store and other commercial establishments: granaries, pharmacies, bars, cafeterias and internet cafes. this movement also reflects the high levels of informal employment in the region and the country as a whole, despite the troubling unemployment statistics, which reached 11.8% in the country in march 2010 according to official statistics (http://www.dane.gov.co/daneweb_v09/). as the legislative and presidential elections were drawing near, the municipality was full of banners, signs, billboards and fliers with political slogans. one of the tallest buildings of the main square we saw a large poster with a senate advertisement of the son of a woman who owns a gambling business in the region, and who is on trial for presumed involvement with paramilitary organizations. in spite of the accusations and trials that occurred due to these ties, the son of the businesswoman, like so many other politicians tied to her, gained seats in the senate as well as the house of representatives, the most powerful legislative bodies in the country. we noted three types of informal businesses that are symptomatic of the local needs in the community: the sale of minutes (mobile phone calls), transportation (moto-taxi rides) and water (clean water or potable water that is sold door to door). these three activities illustrate some of what is missing in the municipality: basic necessities that people resolve by resorting to the informal economy: water, transportation and communication. these three activities contribute to the well-being of the population, but they also express the clear limitations that people must live with day after day. cheap minutes walking around the streets of el carmen de bolívar, one encounters hundreds of businesses that sell minutes on mobile phones: between five or six vendors per block in the downtown area. these vendors provide their mobile phones to make calls at prices that vary between 50 and 300 pesos per minute (us$0.04 0.15). (in colombia, unlike north america, calls to a number by the same mobile phone provider are cheaper than to a different provider, and all incoming calls to a mobile phone are free). the number of vendors and their prices rise and fall with the coming and going of social, political and cultural events in the municipality. the majority of these businesses are a person with one, two, or three mobile phones (to cover different mobile providers at their lowest rates), offering calls that are paid for by the minute, on the spot. some of the businesses work as a network or as part of the services offered by a store. all the participants in our workshop had mobile phones and confirmed that most families in the urban area of el carmen de bolívar have at least one mobile phone, but they rarely use it to make calls, only to receive them. when they need to make a call, they buy minutes from a phone reseller on the street. none of the people we spoke with in el carmen de bolívar use text messages or data transfer (internet) on their mobile phone, although they all knew it is available. in this case, mobile phones resolve a basic communication need, paid call by call, using a hybrid system of receiving calls on a private mobile phone, but making calls using a public access mobile phone. cheap rides and expensive water local transportation is also taken care of through the informal economy, using "mototaxis." mototaxis are one of the principal forms of public transportation in the municipality, provided by those who use their motorcycles to take people from one place to another. the fare for a ride within the municipal capital is approximately 1,000 pesos (us$0.50), which is much more than a minute call on a mobile phone. mototaxi rides are considered an inaccessible luxury for the poorest inhabitants of the city. a different kind of public service, water, is also sold piecemeal, door to door, in another manifestation of the basic needs delivered through the informal economy. in spite of the relative closeness of el carmen to larger cities like cartagena or sincelejo, it still lacks aqueduct or sewer service. water is sold in distinct quantities using a variety of vehicles, from tank trucks to bicycles and wheelbarrows modified to carry liquid from house to house. in addition, they sell potable water (for drinking or cooking), clean but non-drinking water (for cleaning or laundry), or briny water (for construction or other necessities). the lack of aqueducts and sewers have led the people of el carmen to design and construct creative systems for collecting rainwater that they store and use for all kinds of domestic tasks. it is common to pay near 3,000 pesos (us$1.50) for a “load” of water (100 or 200 liters), which is equivalent to about 100 pesos per gallon. el carmen de bolívar, like other municipalities in similar conditions, has one of the highest costs for water in the country. studies performed in the region have shown how the price, gallon per gallon, ends up being much higher than that paid by a member of one of the upper strata in any of the larger cities in the country (bernal forero, 1991). for example, in cartagena the cost of a gallon of water in expensive neighborhoods is eight pesos (us$0.005), this does not even consider the convenience, quantity and quality of water consumed in each place. photo 1: minutes at 100, moto-taxis at 1,000. el carmen de bolívar, colombia. photo r. gomez. this illustrates how, in the marketplace in el carmen de bolívar, one can buy a one-minute call to any mobile phone in the country for 100 pesos, a moto-taxi ride to any home in town for 1,000 pesos, and a gallon of potable water in bags for 2,000 pesos. it is the informal economy of poverty. the region of el carmen de bolívar has had a long history of community organization, especially in the areas of communication for development. nevertheless, a long history of violence has also left deep wounds in the social fabric of the region. the recent arrival of venues offering public access to ict in el carmen de bolívar has opened new opportunities for information, communication and development in the region. to better understand the context in which public access ict is introduced, we discuss some elements of the history of violence in the region, and then some elements of the history of community organizing in the region. as we will see, it is possible that the social fabric was too weakened by a history of violence, making it more difficult for public access ict to become a tool for community development in el carmen de bolívar. el carmen de bolívar in the crossroads of violence montes de maría is known in colombia not only for its economic, geographic and cultural characteristics, it is also known, sadly, as it is one of the regions most affected by the violence in colombian armed conflict, which has been going on for more than sixty years. in the 1990s, this region became the site of a territorial dispute between all of the armed groups that had coexisted in the country: guerilla organizations, paramilitary groups, drug traffickers and the national army, with grave consequences for the civilian population caught in the middle of the conflict. montes de maría was one of the most important places in the peasants’ uprisings and mobilizations of the 1970s. this was one of the reasons why the people of the region became part of the targets of leftist guerilla organizations, which attempted to control them by filling the void of the absence of the colombian state. in the 1990s the leftist guerrillas were confronted by right-wing paramilitary groups for control over the region, in an unprecedented escalation of violence that is epitomized by the massacre of el salado, a small village 10 km from el carmen de bolivar, in february 2000. during three days, between 300 and 450 armed paramilitaries took over the town and publicly assassinated between 70 and 100 civilians, and caused the displacement of over 4000 people. according to the report by the national commission for reparation and reconciliation, the el salado massacre forms part of a notorious and bloody escalation of violent events perpetrated by paramilitary groups in colombia between 1999 and 2001. during this period, in montes de maría (in the outskirts of el carmen de bolívar) paramilitaries committed 42 massacres, leaving at least 354 people dead (grupo memoria historica, 2009).  according to the group investigating the massacre of el salado, the presence of armed insurgents in a region of such geostrategic importance led to the stigmatization of the population as subversives, leaving the inhabitants in the middle of the crossfire, similar to other regions of the country.  this “stigma of being subversive” has been one of the most characteristic and costly features for the civilian population in contemporary wars. it is a double stigma: first, because the victimizer mitigates their responsibility by transferring it to the victim, and second, because it creates a climate of suspicion that materializes in popular expressions of condemnation, such as "there must be a reason", "they must have done something.” the increase in the number of massacres committed mostly by paramilitary groups could not have occurred without their ties with the political and economic elites, and also without the acceptance and complacence of many sectors of society. the possibility of participation of the armed forces of the state has been mentioned, and there are accusations of the participation of the national marines in the massacre, either by action or by failing to act, which have not been properly investigated3. according to the historical commission, as opposed to other mass killings, what happened at el salado went further than the supposed “eliminating the enemy”. acts of torture and the massacres were part of the same operation. and in cases like this, the majority of the crimes were carried out in the public square with the manifest intention that everyone would see, would hear and would know; showing that all would be "punished" for their supposed complicity. the “scorched earth” tactic used by the paramilitaries in the region not only left a land without men, but also left many men without land. the forced displacement, or perhaps, exile, was one of the strongest and most lasting impressions of the turmoil in the region, leaving almost total desolation. el salado was turned into a ghost town. the figures of the exodus in el salado illustrate the high level of terror caused by the paramilitaries: of the 4,000 people who were displaced, only 700 have returned to their original homes. after the massacre at el salado, the mass media presented, the voices of the victimizers and of the state institutions. the voices of the victims were kept quiet. the dominant presence in the media was that of the paramilitaries, who, using a discourse of saving the motherland from the guerillas, blamed and stigmatized the victims of el salado, who had no chance to confront their attackers or question the ethics or politics of the situation. the media, in this case, did not offer the victimizers an opportunity to show regret, confess, or tell the truth about war. to the contrary, the media served to reinforce what had happened and continue the ignominy of those killed at el salado (grupo memoria historica, 2009). as the report of the historical commission indicates, one of the distinctive features of this massacre is that, in spite of its size and barbarity, the imposition of the narrative of the victimizers was imprinted into the collective memory. furthermore, the public is still unaware of the extent of the massacre, and has not condemned the victimizers, nor expressed sympathy for the victims. the strong tradition of community organizing in el carmen de bolívar in addition to the history of violence in the region of el carmen de bolivar, there is also a long tradition of community organization and social development activities in the region. most of these initiatives and projects have been carried out by social organizations that have grouped together to defend and reinforce their rights. they have been supported by international donors, by the state and the catholic church, and to a lesser degree, by private businesses. this is a region with a great capacity for community organizing, and local organizations have been able to create and maintain alliances with educational initiatives and in general with public institutions. in addition to being able to support each other, projects started by one organization can easily find themselves being executed with another community group. this is the case with projects developed by organizations like the fundación red desarrollo y paz de los montes de maría (frdpmma), la fundación mujer y futuro, y el colectivo de comunicaciones montes de maría, among other organizations in the region, who support each other in their work. this type of alliance between organizations, including those with ties to the state, and especially with international organizations, greatly enhances the sustainability of the projects (rodriguez, 2008b). a look at the programs and projects for community development carried out in the area in the last five to ten years allow us to identify several focus areas. the poor, displaced and at-risk populations in urban and rural communities in the areas affected by the violence, and helping affected population to reduce their risk of exposure to the conflict and to mitigate the negative impact of possible side effects of the conflict as well (http://www.fmontesdemaria.org/quienessomos.asp). in addition, they have created a series of spaces for the defense of human rights and for the right to own land and to reside in the territory (http://www.prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?article903). furthermore, there is also the implementation of different projects for food security, planning for local and regional development and capacity-building and support for peasants’ organizations. projects to raise awareness and political participation, to strengthen citizen oversight and to promote of public accountability have also been very important (http://www.saliendodelcallejon.pnud.org.co/buenas_practicas.shtml?x=7106). there have also been important initiatives and projects of communication for peace and social change (http://www.c3fes.net/docs/montesmariajovenes.pdf). furthermore, there is a series of programs in the region about sexual health and reproduction that seek to prevent teenage pregnancies and guarantee access to sexual health and reproductive services to at-risk populations, and to prevent boys, girls and young people from using drugs or joining the armed groups. one of the largest and most comprehensive projects implemented recently, although not without conflict and tension in the region, is the iii peace laboratory, supported by the european union, the national government and the united nations system in colombia. this initiative, started in 2006, looks for lasting ways to create peace in the midst of violence, poverty and institutional instability that currently exists (http://www.observatoriomontesdemaria.org/index.php?codigo=3). thus, the center for political culture, peace, coexistence and development was created in the region of montes de maría. the center is also charged with proposing viable solutions to improve the quality of life for the inhabitants of the region, as well as achieving a lasting peace. communication and information in el carmen de bolívar: the case of the communications collective of montes de maría linea 21 art and cultural production can contribute to repairing what armed violence destroys in the daily lives of the civilian population. a clear example of how communication and culture can become tools of cultural resistance against the negative effects of armed conflict is the experience of the montes de maría communications collective (rodriguez, 2008a; vega & bayuelo, 2008). this is an experience that started in 1994 when a group of young people, who came together as community journalists using a video camera to document communication and culture in their municipality, which had been racked by violence. once they had begun to produce twenty hours a week of televised municipal news related to the happenings in the mayor's office, the schools and other nearby paces, they bought a satellite antenna to pick up commercial television programs and like that, they cabled the municipality and subscribed some of the residents, who paid to watch the commercial television as well as the local production. “the collective has various lines of work: training in radio production offered to children through 18 school collectives in the town; training in radio and television production for teenagers and young adults in el carmen and in neighboring communities; training in radio and television for groups of displaced women in local communities; a travelling street cinema project and a cable television channel.” (rodriguez, 2008a, p. 23) today the collective is an ngo that works in the areas of communication, education, and culture through the investigation, production and broadcasting of programs on various alternative and citizen media, such as radio, television, citizen presses or bulletin boards, among others. through this experience of community communication, it seeks to position children as social actors in development. it has also involved women, parents, teachers and adults in projects directed toward the promotion and disclosure of human rights and children's rights, pedagogy for peace, gender equality, the environment and civic values. some of the most successful activities the collective include the cine club la rosa púrpura del cairo (vega & bayuelo, 2008), which started screening movies at dusk in the town square. public screening of movies gave residents the chance to go out in the evening and revive a sense of doing things together in the community, something that had been lost with years of violence and fear. by also screening locally produced documentaries, the collective also helped residents recognize the power of valuing and recording the memory of their community.  another project the collective has directed is "the promotion of rights and networks for building peace in seven municipalities in montes de maría. this initiative, promoted by the presidential office of special programs and financed by the international organization for migration (iom), promotes the right to sexual and reproductive health, prevention of teenage pregnancies and the creation of networks for building peace through the strategy of communication based in information, education and communication – (iec), which uses community and citizen communication to build the relations between institutions, alternative media production groups, school, local government, social networks, family and society in general (http://www.saliendodelcallejon.pnud.org.co/buenas_practicas.shtml?x=7540). the collective has also participated in the project "promotion of health and sexual and reproductive rights in montes de maría," which was carried out by the foundation for network development and peace of montes de maría and belongs to the pais 2003-2007 program of the unfp, an agency for international cooperation for development. “throughout the entire process, we have formed a network of school radio collectives in eight municipalities in bolívar. we support the creation of five collectives focused on audiovisual production. six neighborhood collectives for infants and children in el carmen de bolívar. more than 3000 boys and girls, 1500 young people, 120 teachers at around 120 parents trained. 160 displaced women in a continuing education program for adults, in agreement with cafam and improsocial. we have an audiovisual (radio-tv) production center and a community channel.” (http://www.educacionparalapaz.org.co/experiencias-nuevo.htm?aa_sl_session=5da1eb446622919ea9eb0adc4b49c6cb&x=18936110) other results that the collective has achieved through their activities and projects include the betterment of intergenerational relationships within families and larger communities, creation of spaces of coexistence and trust between young people and children, and strengthening the sense of belonging for the municipality and the region. in 2003 the communications collective linea 21 received the prestigious national peace prize in recognition of the group's impressive work. the national peace prize is awarded to "the colombian initiative that, according to a panel of judges, has made the most significant impact in terms of creating peace in the country this year" (rodriguez, 2008a, p. 16). according to the minutes of the 2003 awards ceremony, this project contributed to the reconciliation and peaceful coexistence by strengthening the social fabric of the region. this prize is sponsored by the united nations development program --undp, friedrich ebert stiftung in colombia -fescol, and various colombian media companies (casa editorial el tiempo). the collective has also received other special recognition, such as two special mentions in the first annual colombian caribbean coast community channel competition and an award at the ninth santillana prizes was given to one of the core parts of the collective (school radio station "chaqueros de la paz" from the benkos biojo school in palenque). landscape of public access to ict in el carmen de bolívar the focus group participants created a social map of the municipality, and located on it the following venues that provide public access to the internet: two telecentres that are run out of an educational institution that provide training for after school training; the municipal library, which offers limited, but free public access to computers and the internet; and seven cybercafés located in the center of town. they also mentioned several people who offer internet access in their houses in remote neighborhoods, as well as a wireless internet service that covers nearly all of the municipal capital. photo 2: social map of public access to ict in carmen de bolivar, colombia. photo: r. gómez the majority of public access venue users are young people between 16 and 35 years of age. each venue has a particular audience, although all the centers offer services to the public; cybercafés in particular serve younger people, but all types of residents visit them (shopkeepers, students, people with family in other parts of the country and the world); telecentres tend to serve adults who need training, and the library primarily offers services to primary and secondary school students. the public access venues are used primarily for the following activities, in order of importance: communication: resources that allow communication and participation in social networks (chat, facebook, email, msn, and to a lesser degree, hi5, sonico, twitter) studying: doing homework, schoolwork, taking distance courses or looking for information about colleges. entertainment: music and videos (youtube), online games, downloading music business: getting or renewing personal ids or other identification documents, and filling out forms related to work or government offices (licenses, permits, official documents, etc.). the workshop participants indicated that a major use of venues that provide public access to the internet is viewing pornography, even though they preferred not to write this on the visual map they were creating. in a short but blunt sentence, a participant summarized the principal use of the internet as "facebook and porn: nothing more". different uses for different venues? this research allowed us to explore the uses of different types of venues, and to assess users’ preferences for which venues serve which purposes. these are the main characteristics indicated by the participants for each type of venue: cybercafe: important features include comfortable furniture, good internet connections, and currency of the equipment, including computer accessories (webcam, headphones, cd burner). in addition, participants noted the privacy and freedom offered here, as there are no restrictions placed on the types of sites one can visit. cybercafés often have additional services such as transcriptions, printing and copying. one of the main challenges seen for these venues is incorporating more social responsibility, so that in addition to offering services, the venues improve the community. telecentre: participants emphasized the existence of lower prices, personal attention and training offered to people of various ages. they indicated that internet use in telecentres often has different goals than that of cybercafés, mainly for learning "not just to pass the time" and they had the impression that these venues set up the necessities and prepare the clientele for cybercafés. "telecentres are proof...a vision of what is possible with the internet." for example, mothers in the community have benefited greatly from training, because they are able to learn from others, they appear to have incorporated their training into instruction they pass onto their young children. as an official from compartel, the national telecentre program, says, "in the department of bolívar, there are 53 compartel telecentres, which offer free training, but poor internet speeds [are still an issue]." library: when questioned, participants noted free service and the emphasis on using the equipment for educational purposes in libraries. they also underlined the restrictions involved due to shared time (few computers, but many users) and connectivity problems. the person in charge expressed her concern because "before, people had better reading habits, now they want what's easiest, they say that education has gotten worse, now one can solve anything by using the internet, which affects academic achievement, because the icfes (state exam) scores in el carmen have gotten lower". nevertheless, internet access has forced parents to pay more attention to how their children use the internet and have encouraged teachers to seek alternative forms of discussion, homework options and other classroom activities. these differences notwithstanding, the workshop participants agreed that the most important features of public access venues are, in order of importance: good customer service (friendliness, care in attention, and personalized training). this was the most important success factor, without which no public access venue can succeed, according to the participants. accessibility, in terms of nearness, convenience of the location and ease of use. for disabled persons there are additional obstacles such as steps and narrow alleys: in spite of the high cost of private access to broadband internet, obstacles in public access venues forced one participant to seek private wireless access instead of continuing to visit public access venues,. features of the equipment and connection, in particular the speed, and the availability of accessories like webcams. environmental conditions of the venue: in such a hot climate, having a fan or air conditioning makes a venue much more attractive. public access to ict: where is the context? analysis of the use of venues that provide public access to ict in el carmen de bolívar confirms tendencies identified in other studies: a strong majority of young users, and uses centered on communication and social networks, schoolwork, entertainment and official business (permits, licenses, transactions). cost is not a deciding factor in selecting a venue, as users pay more attention to customer service, convenience of the venue location, quality of the equipment, and connection speed. but the most surprising finding from the study in el carmen de bolívar is the absence of context, or rather, the silence with respect to the extremely strong presences in the region's history: war and community organizing. only one of the users, who had ties to the communication collective, indicated that ict served to generate solidarity with those in other places. ict had also helped disseminate alternative information about a region that had been so stigmatized. but this single testimonial was not corroborated by other participants, interviewees or survey respondents. it is as if the history of violence and community organizing in the region had not existed, and as if venues providing public access to computers and internet had fallen into a place where the infinite present of social networks and pornography occupied all the public space opened by libraries, telecentres and cybercafés. we did not find evidence of social fabric being strengthened by public access to ict. el carmen de bolívar is a place where the informal economy of poverty rules, with calls for 100, rides for 1000 and gallons of water for 2,000. el carmen de bolívar is a region scarred by violence, with 42 massacres between 1999 and 2001, including one of the most cruel in the country's recent history, the el salado massacre of 2000. el carmen de bolívar is also a region where community organizing reinvents forms of communication and celebrates life with the creativity and inventiveness of the communications collective linea 21, among others, deserving of the national peace prize in 2003. nevertheless, public access to ict, through telecentres, cybercafés and the municipal library did not help fortify citizen initiatives, give voice to community organizations, or open avenues for community development in this poor, war-torn region. it is possible that the seeds of community empowerment thanks to ict were there, and we did not see them, in spite of the instruments we used to collect research information. it is possible that the tracks of war are too deep, and that the public space created by telecentres, libraries and cybercafés is still too young to handle the memories of death and destruction. it is possible that use of computers and the internet for social change is not happening in public spaces, but rather in the private spaces of organizations, schools, houses and workplaces. any of these possibilities is better than the most disheartening one: the violence of the war defeated the community organization and their potential. conclusions el carmen de bolívar shows the development of ict and public access venues in a place where society and community had survived exclusion and violence, poverty, unemployment and impunity. these communities have been able to overcome these conditions thanks to their moral and cultural strength, their solidarity and their creativity. and although ict and public access venues are not a panacea, and do not offer salvation in situations such as these, they can be useful tools in improving the condition of people in the community. the situation in el carmen shows that due to economic, social and technological divisions, public access venues--above all those that provide free service--are indispensable. this is especially true in communities where residents first need to pay for expensive water before being able to pay for local transportation or phone calls, all of which are offered as part of an informal economy of poverty. furthermore, the results of this exercise show that public access venues are very useful in introducing disadvantaged students and young people to ict; for training those who are unemployed and are looking for other work, and to provide opportunities to the services and information provided by state institutions and social programs run by ngos and private foundations to people and communities (vulnerable and excluded). other uses emphasized in public access venues are communication and entertainment. through chats and videoconferences, users communicate with friends and family, form groups and communities around common interests and to explore and communicate with others: other cities and municipalities, other affairs around the country and the planet. furthermore, public access venues seem to be interesting spaces for social interaction: places to hang out and meet with friends, for enjoyment and socializing. on the other hand, these public access venues present themselves as opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship. diverse professionals come together in search of employment, and others that see business opportunities in the development of technology and related services. this look at el carmen also allows us to affirm that the operators of public access venues -as employees or entrepreneurs -have a great effect on the learning and practices of people who use ict. they are key actors in the system of information, communication and knowledge services. their impact allows them to influence technical and technological decisions related to programs, institutions and state authorities. some even have the opportunity to mediate complex political, labor, economic and educational processes and interactions. in el carmen, mobile phones and their accessories work to ensure that tools and services reach the furthest places in the city and countryside (including people who use computers or laptops in their home to sell internet access), but our study indicates that the operators will remain necessary. this means it is important to design proposals that allow these mediators to flourish, to help small business develop better economic, technological and pedagogical conditions. what's more, it is important to support the move from an informal economy to a formal one, and invest in resources that promote communication, interchange of ideas, and alliances between cybercafés, telecentres and libraries. finally, there is the discovery that public access venues do not seem to have served in reclaiming, recognizing or disseminating memories and local stories (including those about violence). neither do public access venues seem very connected with processes of social organization or communication mentioned before, nor are they contributing to the dynamism of the local and regional economy, or as spaces for expression and development of traditions and cultural practices. in a context like el carmen, it is necessary to help reconstruct the social fabric, trust and truth. the richness of spaces for organization and communication processes in the region can be a fertile area to generate processes for the use and adoption of ict, transforming these venues into spaces for local information and communication. in this way, public access venues can transform into spaces for meeting and coexistence, places for innovation and creative undertakings, into centers of job creation and alternative labor that offer alternatives and opportunities to take people away from violence, gangs, criminal organizations and prostitution. references amariles, f., paz, o. p., russell, n., & johnson, n. (2006). the impacts of community telecentres in rural colombia. the journal of community informatics, 2(3). angel, d. (ed.). (1998). señales de humo: panorama de la televisión local y comunitaria en colombia. bogota: cinep, fundación social. bernal forero, p. i. (1991). la prestación de los servicios de acueducto y alcantarillado en la ciudad de barranquilla. bogotá: cinep. castells, m. (2009). communication power. oxford; new york: oxford university press. creswell, j. w., plano clark, v. l., gutmann, m. l., & hanson, w. e. (2002). advanced mixed methods research designs. in a. tashakkori & c. teddlie (eds.), handbook of mixed methods in social & behavioral research (pp. 209-240). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. finquelievich, s., & prince, a. (2007). el (involuntario) rol social de los cibercafés (cibercafes’ (involuntary) social role). buenos aires: editorial dunken. gomez, r. (2010). structure and flexibility in global research design: methodological choices in landscape study of public access in 25 countries. performance measurement and metrics, forthcoming. gomez, r. (ed.). (2011). libraries, telecentres, cybercafes and public access to ict: international comparisons. hershey, pa: igi global (forthcoming). gomez, r., & martínez, j. (2001). the internet... why? and what for? ottawa, san josé: idrc, acceso. grupo memoria historica. (2009). la masacre de el salado: esa guerra no era nuestra. bogota: semana, taurus. parkinson, s., & lauzon, a. c. (2008). the impact of the internet on local social equity: a study of a telecenter in aguablanca, columbia. [journal article]. mit press journals, itid, 4(3), 21-38. rodriguez, c. (2008a). construyendo país desde lo pequeñito: comunicación ciudadana en montes de maría. in c. rodriguez (ed.), lo que le vamos quitando a la guerra: medios ciudadanos en contextos de conflicto armado en colombia (pp. 15-52). bogotá: friedrich ebert stiftung, fes, centro de competencia en comunicación en américa latina. rodriguez, c. (ed.). (2008b). lo que le vamos quitando a la guerra: medios ciudadanos en contextos de conflicto armado en colombia. bogota: friedrich ebert stiftung, fes, centro de competencia en comunicación para américa latina. unwin, t. (ed.). (2009). ict4d: information and communication technology for development. cambridge: cambridge university press. vega, j., & bayuelo, s. (2008). ganándole terreno al miedo: cine y comunicación en montes de maría. in c. rodriguez (ed.), lo que le vamos quitando a la guerra: medios ciudadanos en contextos de conflicto armado en colombia (pp. 53-64). bogotá: friedrich ebert stiftung, fes, centro de competencia en comunicación en américa latina. warschauer, m. (2003). technology and social inclusion: rethinking the digital divide. cambridge, ma: mit press. 1the authors acknowledge the contributions of mónica valdés, nyria rodríguez and lady otálora in conducting this research. this research is part of a national study of public access to ict in colombia, carried out by the technology and social change group at the university of washington, and icesi university in colombia. ricardo gomez is assistant professor, university of washington information school. luis fernando barón-porras is director, cies (centro de estudios interdisciplinarios jurídicos, sociales y humanistas) icesi university, colombia. corresponding author is gomez, rgomez@uw.edu. 2the national administrative department of statistics – nads – is the entity repsonsible for the planning, processing, analysis and distribution of official statistics in colombia. [cited 26 may 2010. available at http://www.dane.gov.co/daneweb_v09/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=175&itemid=28] 3from an editorial in el espectador, 14 september 2009. this editorial asks why the district attorney’s office avoided investigating the flight of a “ghost plane” the day before, as well as the helicopter flyover during the days of the incursion of 450 paramilitaries in el salado, a zone that was supposedly controlled by the marines. influences and experiences of using digital devices in laterlife helen russell1 & kirsty young2 lecturer, faculty of arts and social sciences, university of technology, sydney, australia. email: helen.russell@uts.edu.au senior lecturer, faculty of arts and social sciences, university of technology, sydney, australia. introduction an important dimension of understanding the lives of older adults is the historical period in which they are living. for the purposes of this paper older adults are defined as aged 70+ years of age. the current cohort of older adults living in australia parallels the growth of affordable and accessible digital technological devices. the ubiquity and pervasiveness of digital technologies means that such technologies have become "central to our lives … and profoundly affect how we live and how society functions" (mauger, 2009, p. 5). this is a period in history where a generation of older adults, who have not grown up with digital technology and who may not have used digital technology in their working lives, are now faced with a technology-dense world in which most communication and entertainment devices are digital. as a result, it is reasonable to assume that with the digitisation of devices, people in laterlife will be faced with the need to learn new ways of using, operating, and managing the appliances and devices that form part of their daily lives. laterlife is a period when the general population in developed countries over the age of 70 is not in full-time employment. as increasing numbers of older adults are encouraged to remain independent and in their own homes they will rely on digital technologies for assistance, entertainment, communication, support, security and health care. there may also be a "profound interaction between the elder's community and the ict applications which are directed towards them" (loeb, 2012). in order to remain autonomous and functionally independent, older people will have the need to use technological applications and digital devices (slegers, van boxtel & jolles, 2007). given the pervasiveness of technology and the speed at which new technology equipment comes onto the market, learning to use, and using, new devices will have important advantages for older australians. through the use of computers and the internet and access to online services and information those in laterlife may experience a higher quality of life (liu & park, 2003). for instance, russell (2005) found that older australians who regularly used technology with a sense of self-efficacy experienced a sense of independence and autonomy. other researchers have postulated that this increased level of independent functioning may also provide older persons with an improved sense of well-being (hernandez-encuentra, pousada & gomez-zuniga, 2009). it is therefore suggested that increased technology use will result in increased social cohesion (reduce marginalisation and facilitate meaningful participation and engagement with the community). the interplay between the benefits of information and communication technologies (ict) and the strengthened community may improve the well-being for older australians who may be at risk of becoming isolated or house-bound, even as the post-retirement period may be offering fewer opportunities for social interaction, meaningful participation in the community and support. increasingly, government bodies and financial institutions in australia are phasing out personal interview sources of information, and relying on online information to be accessed. for older adults the need for functional independence and political empowerment may be dependent on their use and familiarity with digital technologies. access to the technologies are available from many sources, such as local libraries, government offices and community centres, however "access in itself is insufficient rather it is what is and can be done with the access that makes ict meaningful" (gurstein, 2007, pp. 12-13). further there exists an imperative for older australians to become familiar with digital technologies as entertainment systems (an important aspect of life after retirement) become digital. the current research seeks to contribute to the body of knowledge that links well-being and greater and more meaningful participation in community in laterlife with the use of digital technologies. literature review imperatives and challenges of a digital technology-dense lifeworld the needs of older adults to adapt to changes in order to actively participate in their everyday lives, invoke pressures as well as imperatives. older adults experience one such an imperative in learning how to use technology in their daily lives (russell, 2007). they have also been shown to be interested and willing to use new technologies (czaja & lee, 2008). in the context of their environment, older adults are faced with learning to use a range of digital devices in order to realise the opportunities and enjoyment that a technology-dense society offers and further, to experience the sense of empowerment, control and choice, together with an improved sense of well-being, that comes with technology use (center for health promotion, 2008). the subsequent sense of social inclusion, community participation and enablement produced is, however, balanced by the barriers that exist in learning to use and using digital technologies. these barriers, including a lack of familiarity and a lack of training with technology, are thought to create frustrations for the older population (czaja & lee). such skills as dexterity with small digital devices, process skills in an unfamiliar technological environment, conceptual skills in using different platforms and understanding the jargon, all contribute to the level of complexity for older adults in learning to use technologies. russell's (2005, 2007, 2008) work confirmed these aspects of the lived experience of australian older adult technology users. in a study of laterlife computer learners, she found that participants experienced a sense of agency in which learning to use a computer was seen as an exciting opportunity to enhance their lives, thus positioning the self to determine the future and to further an understanding of their lived experiences (russell, 2005, p. 301; 2007, p. 378; 2008, p. 221). further to this participants were able to meaningfully participate in their communities enhancing their sense of well-being and being valued as a vital part of the community. however, the need to learn to use digital devices was challenged by the unfamiliarity these older adults had with the technology. technological advances and rapid obsolescence result in totally new ways of doing things in everyday living and this may present older adults with the challenge of facing ongoing learning that is significantly unfamiliar to them. due to the complexity of the new technologies, older people may position themselves at a disadvantage by avoiding the use of technology particularly in relation to younger people whose uptake of new technology is more accelerated (european commission, 2007). in fact data indicate that older adults, compared with younger people, have more difficulty in learning to use and operate current technologies (czaja et al., 2006). these learning difficulties have been summarised by czaja and colleagues as "learning new skills, new ways of performing familiar skills, new procedural knowledge, and a new lexicon" (czaja et al., p. 348). whether they regard technology positively or negatively, older adults accept and adopt technology (knowing there may be barriers to their learning) if it has a perceived benefit for them, and if it enables them to fulfill an aspiration (czaja & lee, 2007). any investment of energy for an activity or innovation that does not yield a benefit is considered a waste, but when there is an outcome incentive to adopt the technology older adults are prepared to spend the time to learn and to overcome potentially significant difficulties (melenhorst, rogers & bouwhuis, 2006). in a british study of mobile phone use in the over 75 age group, for example, it was found that confidence with technology was related to familiarity of use, that older people may use their mobile phones differently to younger people and that perceived need for the device was important (mccreadie, 2005). another study found that usefulness and reliability were more important factors [than a perceived need] in predicting the use of technology in older adults (czaja et al., 2006). it is also thought that the level of the user's capability was a contributing factor in determining technology use (selwyn et al., 2003). research suggests that older people are not, in fact, 'technophobic' and are both willing and able to use technology (czaja & lee, 2007). further research is required to investigate the current situation with more sophisticated digital technologies with a greater number of features and functions than in the past. it would be interesting to investigate the experience of older adults in learning to use and using more recent digital technologies. however, older adults may not spend the time or the money on digital products that they perceive to be of no use or relevance to them, as information and communication technologies "are not universally attractive to, or universally needed by, older adults" (selwyn, 2004, p. 382). there may be more likelihood of older adults using only those technologies that enable them to undertake a familiar activity in a new [digital] medium (seals et al., 2008). the nature of older adult experience with technology, which includes the availability of support and the perceived usefulness of technology applications are important "determinants of attitudes, confidence and comfort using technology and ultimately technology adoption" (czaja & lee, 2007, p. 343). access to digital technologies is just the beginning there is a need for designers to take into account the needs, preferences and abilities of older adults in designing digital devices, as the features and functions of devices and applications are not designed with older users in mind and lack features essential for some older adults (selwyn et al., 2003). the most immediate problems for the older adult population in using digital devices are in the physical design and the language used (czaja et al., 2006). for instance, they may be more familiar with larger keys, different keypads and bigger operational devices. older people can become frustrated and irritated with devices and technologies that are difficult to manipulate and see and can also be disadvantaged by the language used to explain technologies (the senior project, 2008). in addition, it has been suggested that older people feel particularly frustrated when it comes to the information given to them about technologies, as it may be in a form they cannot understand or is not clear in meaning to them (the senior project). it is important that the experience of being older is considered an essential dimension of the adoption and use of technology devices and appliances. there is a real need for older people to be supported in their adoption of the new technologies. in many cases, such as in the introduction of digital tv, technical and ongoing support is an essential part of the use of the new technology for older people. older people tend to need more practice, more on-hand support in trouble-shooting and re-enforcement of procedural knowledge (czaja et al., 2006; russell, 2005; seals et al., 2008). in general, older adults would need technical and professional assistance and those with impairments would need even greater professional assistance with the use of technologies designed to improve their quality of life and their ability to interact with their communities and environments (mahmood et al., 2008). there is also the question of the influences on older adults in learning to use digital devices. in a californian study of 292 participants with an average age of 80 years cody et al. (1999) found that those who were actively engaged in the challenge of learning new technologies were those with higher levels of social support, more frequent contact with others and with positive attitudes towards ageing. it would be interesting to investigate whether this is still the case in 2014. having access to printers and scanners and entertainment technologies in the homes of their children and grandchildren increased older adults' familiarity with digital devices (selwyn et al., 2003). these close family members also provided older adults with support and assistance in using digital devices and appliances (selwyn, 2004; selwyn et al.). family and significant others influenced australian laterlife computer users with encouragement and support, especially through the gift of a computer (russell, 2005). given that decisions regarding health and safety in laterlife are often centred within the family, it would seem logical that adult children would be influential in the acceptance and adoption of technologies designed to improve or increase health and safety in the home: "as parents become elderly and frail, their children play an increasingly prominent role in advising and decision-making" (coughlin et al., 2009, p. 2). the authors of this research make the point that adult children of the elderly are from a generation that has used technology to their advantage 'in the home, workplace and vehicle' and are more likely than their parents to appreciate the benefits of technology (coughlin et al., p. 2). however, coughlin et al. argue that "both parents and adult children have a shared interest in independence and well-being" (p. 2). for older people this interest may be about empowerment, choice and control in their lives. for the younger generation it may be concern for the safety, security and quality of life for their elders. older adults often express anxiety about their ability to use [technology] systems and express less self-confidence in their ability to use them successfully (czaja & lee, 2007). there are two influences in this respect within the affective domain. one is associated with why older adults are using the technology (for example, because of ill-health, mobility issues, greater communication with friends and relatives, functional independence) (russell, 2011, pp. 107-108) and the second is the anxiety they may experience from using technology, which is related to their notions of self-efficacy and their ability to use the technology competently (czaja et al., 2006, p. 333). it is thus important to understand the difficulties and barriers experienced by older adults so that their uses of technology can be successful and fulfilling (czaja et al., 2006). hence, we would argue for a qualitative investigation of the experiences of older adults in adopting and using digital devices that is grounded in a phenomenological interpretation. the study reported in this paper builds upon the existing body of literature, as outlined above, through exploration of the influences and purposes for the uptake of various digital devices, by a group of older australians. research design the research question for the study was: what are the factors which influence the uptake of various digital devices in the daily lives and experiences of older australian adults? the research examined some of the factors which influence uptake of various digital devices and explored participants' learning experiences in their adoption of the technologies. this paper focuses specifically on the digital tools that a group of older australians employed for communication, entertainment and leisure activities to foster more meaningful participation in community. the paper also explores the influences and purposes of the digital devices used. a snowball approach was used to locate participants whereby the researchers commenced with a person known to them, and who subsequently recommended a peer to be interviewed and so on, until the target number of participants had been reached. qualitative interviews were conducted in sydney, australia with 13 adults aged 70 to 83 years, with an average age of 74 years. this group included five females and eight males, with two couples (anne/danny and henk/sunny) (see table 1 for details). the interviews were semi-structured in design and took place in the participants' homes, with each digitally recorded interview session lasting 1-2 hours in duration. conducting the interviews in the homes of the participants enabled a better understanding of their experiences by listening to first-hand accounts of how they engaged with technologies on a day-to-day basis (hammersley & atkinson, 1983). the audio recordings of the interviews were transcribed for analysis and interpretation. human research ethics clearance was granted by the university of technology, sydney and informed consent was obtained from each participant prior to engaging in the interviews. in this paper, participants are referred to by a pseudonym to protect their identities (see table 1). table 1: participant details and their technology use data analysis data analysis was influenced by the qualitative research perspective, based on the construction of interpretations (denzin & lincoln, 2000). these interpretations were focused on understanding how the "everyday, intersubjective world (the life world) is constituted" (schwandt, 2000, p. 192) and contextualised by the participants' lived world (kvale, 1996). the researchers applied thematic analysis to the data, whereby themes emerged directly from the data (willis, 2006). themes are recurring messages that provide guides that can control and order research and writing (eisner, 1998; van manen, 1997). further, themes can bring together disparate data so that meaning is articulated and made explicit. in the first instance themes were independently generated from the data from the perspective of each researcher. the researchers then came together and, through a process of critical collaborative reflection and reference to the literature, identified common themes that were capable of capturing the experiences of the participants. the design and formulation of the thematic framework critically involved both logical and intuitive thinking (ritchie & spencer, 2002). this exploration of emerging themes, which was informed by the literature and guided by the researchers' understanding, formed the basis for the "developmental process of inquiry and analysis" (goodfellow, 1997, p. 72). finally, the themes formed meaningful characteristics, as they were interrogated in terms of the purpose of the study and the research question (kvale, 1996). findings and discussion influences and purposes in adopting and using digital devices family and generational a number of participants in the study were directly influenced in their uptake of digital devices by younger family members, such as adult offspring or grandchildren. specific devices became the topic of conversation between the generations, with younger family members providing anecdotes of their own uses of the technology. the younger members thus demonstrated their familiarity with the use of the technology and the range of functions available. in some cases digital devices were then passed on by the younger member to the older person when a new device was purchased. learning and technical support were also offered by the younger members and their arguments for the uptake of the devices by the older family members were convincing and often difficult to ignore. this suggests a shared concern of the generations for the safety and well-being of older adults. the influence of close family members on older adult technology adoption has also been suggested previously by coughlin et al. (2009), russell (2005), selwyn (2004) and selwyn et al. (2003). the older adults in the current study also appreciated the additional benefit of more frequent contact with their offspring and grandchildren that using their digital devices gave them. tess enjoyed the support and encouragement of her son (jack) in adopting and using digital devices. jack assisted tess in setting up and using a range of digital devices, such as a computer, mobile phone and mp3 player. tess was able to undertake a number of tasks on the internet after being shown by jack. she used the internet to buy and sell consumer goods, to book travel tickets and to send and receive email. she used the mobile phone for voice calls and text messaging and had an ipod for music and learning a language. it was interesting that tess did not describe her knowledge of using the devices as 'learning'. tess placed a lot of trust in jack's advice and usually followed his guidance. when recently replacing a computer, tess talked of jack's influence in purchasing a new printer to go with the computer: he did give me his old printer but then he said, "don't worry about putting the old printer on, just go and buy a new printer, it's probably got a usb thing and you can just plug it straight in yourself". so that's what i am going to do (tess) in this study, the older adults did not necessarily need the device they eventually used but they could see a use for it, such as peter setting up a webcam and installing skype so that he and his wife could be a part of the grandchild experience. peter was prepared to spend money and time installing the software and hardware and to overcome some subsequent technical difficulties. as suggested by czaja & lee (2007), czaja et al. (2006), and melenhorst et al. (2006) the benefits of the technology use ultimately outweighed the money spent, the time expended and the trouble experienced. peter and his wife lived some distance from their grandchild and wanted to see her growing up and to share in her milestones. they wanted more than to be able to view digital photos of their granddaughter; a system their son had previously set up for them. we've just had a granddaughter, our first and she's seven months old. my wife likes to go down and see her often. we can see the baby here [on the digital image] but we wanted the two-way thing, without having to drive all the way to their place (peter) with the support and care and concern shown by their son, peter and his wife were able to experience confidence and comfort in using the interactive technology (czaja & lee, 2007). mobile phone use the mobile phone as a communication tool that could be used anywhere and at any time was widely reported. participants said they used their mobile phone to contact younger members of their family at any time. these older adults believed that the younger ones would not retrieve their landline messages regularly, and were more likely to have their mobile phone with them at all times and would frequently check their mobile phone for messages: … you can't find them home if you want to talk on the phone … you don't know what they're doing or where they're going … but you get instant [or] within an hour contact [with the mobile and texting] (sunny) with the use of a mobile phone, these older people also had the advantage of being contactable even when they were not at home. none of the participants used the mobile phone for access to the internet. kevin used his mobile phone mainly for text messaging and rarely for voice communication. …it's all text messages to my kids, very little for calls (kevin) kevin was the organiser for bowls for his local bowling club and found that he was restricted to the home because he was receiving telephone enquiries and bookings during days when he would rather be outdoors. subsequently the club provided him with a mobile phone so that he could be independent and take calls away from home. once he became familiar with the mobile phone he used it for text messaging. tess also used the phone for convenience and communication such as being able to meet the train her son was on when he visited her. if i have to pick him up from the railway station he'll ring me [from his mobile] when he leaves the train station in sydney, tell me what train he's on and when it's going to be at the station so i can pick him up (tess) tess wondered "how people got by without them for that kind of thing" such as arranging to meet someone or picking someone up from a travel terminal. tess also used the mobile phone when picking up family from the airport. she recalled the times when she would park the car at a take-away café near the airport and wait for their call. with the use of mobile phones tess was able to remain in contact with her incoming visitors, so that when she arrived at the airport to pick them up, they were waiting for her and there was no need for parking fees. tess used technology to adapt to the current and modern way of life so that her lifeworld encompassed meaningful participation in the life of others. tess also used the mobile phone while overseas with family members. having a mobile phone gave her independence to "do her own thing". she was able to arrange to meet with other members of her family at a place and time that was suitable: we didn't always do things together but we used our mobile phones just as communication between the two phones. they'd ring and say they were half an hour away and then we would make a place to meet. that always worked out, particularly when we were in london (tess) merv mainly used his mobile phone to leave messages for his wife and live-in granddaughter regarding time of anticipated arrival at home. there was a mutual understanding between the three family members that they would use the mobile phone so that each person would know where the other two were. the more frequent communication between the older adults in this study and their younger family members which occurred with mobile phone use highlights the need for communication with each other at all times, and not just when both are at home. it provides an example of the autonomy, functional independence and better quality of life that technology can afford older adults (hernandez-encuentra et al., 2009; liu & park, 2003; russell, 2005; slegers et al., 2007). the participants in this study used technology for functional purposes as opposed to aesthetics or 'being modern'. one such functional purpose was for safety and security, especially when coming home alone at night, or in cases of mechanical difficulties: we use the mobile phone if we are out in the car and we want to contact someone that we are going to see or if we have a breakdown or problems (sunny and henk) tess also used the mobile phone for safety purposes, such as when she was in the car or away from home. sunny, henk and tess believed that the mobile phone would be handy to make a quick call to let someone know what had happened, as using pay phones such as in telephone boxes was considered impractical in the event of a car breakdown. hence, these older adults perceived the usefulness and relevance of using digital devices (czaja et al., 2006; mccreadie, 2005; selwyn, 2004). technical support and overcoming barriers some older adults in the study did not attempt to solve technical problems when faced with difficulties, preferring instead to take the problem to a neighbour, family member or friend. after using trial and error they held out for the person they trusted and relied upon to fix their technical problems. for these older adults, neighbours and local tradespeople also provided a unique opportunity to establish and affirm a sense of community. this interaction and interdependence between the groups may, in turn, have helped foster a greater possibility of social cohesion. merv was very keen to learn how to use his new mobile phone for voice-to-text messaging. at the time of the interview he was not yet able to use this function. merv was looking forward to being able to "talk to the phone and it will write it and then i can just send it off". merv experienced great difficulty in creating text messages because of a literacy problem. it has been suggested that problems and disabilities of this nature may create greater obstacles for older people in learning to use digital devices (czaja & lee, 2008; czaja et al., 2006; european commission, 2007; mahmood et al., 2008; selwyn et al., 2003). merv said: "my spelling is absolutely atrocious", however, he was able to use the predictive text function on his previous mobile phones and found that very helpful for common words: when you start to write something it gives you suggestions and you don't have to [spell] so i've found that a lot easier (merv) a number of participants in the study alluded to making mistakes that resulted in a financial cost (such as high payment for mobile phone usage and being charged for going beyond their download limit on the internet) however they accepted that they had learned lessons the hard way. these mistakes did not interfere with their sense of self-efficacy, as they appeared to move on without suffering a negative impact. these older adults continued to use a trial and error strategy to progress in their learning and use of their digital devices. for example, once colin came to the realisation that he would not damage his digital devices, he felt confident in exploring their various functions. older adult participants used constant practice and repeated routines to establish habits, so that they would be able to replicate the processes and procedures necessary to carry out the task at hand. danny and anne believed that need and frequency, that is, regular use, built confidence and skills. anne was very proud of her achievements with her computer, digital camera, mp3 player and mobile phone. she set herself goals and was always striving to achieve a little more each time she completed a task. the challenge of learning to operate and understand their devices was motivational for some of the participants in this study, who leapt at the opportunity to overcome obstacles. i don't like anything beating me. i like a challenge. if it's a bit hard, i just like to keep going until i get it right. i hate to think that it's beaten me (cyd) i like trying new things. i've always been interested in trying new things. i think it is important as you age to keep your mind active; to have interests and things like that. if we [older people] learn new things it builds your self-esteem (chris) one common problem for the older adult participants in relation to their use of digital devices concerned decisions and management of telecommunications devices. in particular, participants told of frustrating and protracted discussions with telecommunication companies and internet service providers (isps). tess was bothered, in particular, by the inability of telephone help systems to cater for a proper conversation: i just get aggro with bigpond®, [an australian isp] where it's basically just say yes and no. i don't know how the hell they're going to fix the problem. it's pointless speaking to those yes and no sort of operators. the yes or no bizzo drives me crazy. my son says you're better off just to push to speak to someone in charge (tess) the senior project (2008) suggested that older people were particularly frustrated by information given to them about technologies. their difficulty was mainly related to the jargon and the assumption that if a person requested a particular payment plan, they knew and understood all the terms and conditions and had read and understood the fine print. for an older person, listening to a telecommunications salesperson going through their spiel was likened to listening to a foreign language. on two separate occasions danny experienced technical difficulties when upgrading from one system and plan to another, as he was not aware of the assumed knowledge on the part of the isp. danny was ignorant of the effects of upgrading his system and the requisite additional software and/or hardware required, and this caused him much frustration. he subsequently employed a technician, at his own cost, to investigate the problems he was having. dasha also described two experiences related to technical problems: if i ring microsoft and say that i am having such and such a problem and i don't do it very often because i know what the answer will be. the invariable question is, "what program are you using?" and i haven't got a clue. i just can't remember. and i don't do it often enough to write it down. when i ring my email server [isp] for information, they'll say, "what's on your screen now?" and i'll say, "nothing because i am using the only line that we have". they don't understand that. to do that properly you need two lines, for anybody to really get into it, but we can't afford two lines (dasha) sunny said that they had installed the internet on the landline but had it taken off after a couple of months because when she was on the internet, no-one could ring her and this became a problem. in fact she described the atmosphere at home as being "tense" while the internet was on. she did not consider it was important enough to have the internet on at home to go to the extra expense of installing broadband. sunny now goes to the local library when she wants to use the internet. sunny and henk live in a large city with many opportunities for accessing public computers with internet facilities. participants in the current study experienced learning and technical difficulties in their quest to master digital devices. as has been stated by a number of authors such as czaja et al. (2006), european commission (2007), russell (2005), seals et al. (2008) and the senior project (2008), older adults experience greater difficulty than younger people in learning to use digital devices. in many instances, where the device was used to enhance a relationship with a younger family member, the older adults in this study looked to that family member to assist with using the functions of the device, as has also been suggested previously (selwyn, 2004; selwyn et al., 2003). community as mediators sunny and henk referred to the neighbourhood (people in their street and suburb) as being interested and forthcoming with technical assistance. they found that in most instances the close geographical community initiated contact with them with the specific purpose of supporting and assisting them in their use of digital devices. mutuality existed within the neighbourhood by sunny and henk being able to provide support and assistance to their neighbours in other life areas. as mentioned previously in this paper in the sections 'influences and purposes in adopting and using digital devices' and 'technical support and overcoming barriers' the participants in the current study were strongly influenced by the advice and guidance given by their adult children and grandchildren. in the case of sunny and henk their extended family of siblings, nieces and nephews were instrumental in assisting them to overcome barriers. as found by gardner, netherland and kamber (2012), in the past sunny had experienced the loss of identity in family gatherings as they discussed various technologies. sunny found that with the encouragement and support of the family she was able to be included in conversations and no longer had a sense of exclusion. sunny was able to use technology terminology that provided her with a legitimate voice in discussions. sunny re-placed herself in a space where relationships and discourses allowed her to be included. her sense of value and place within the extended family were reinstated and assisted her in a sense of pride and accomplishment. it could also be suggested that the technology-helpful members of the family experienced a sense of pride and place within the extended family by the very nature of giving. the advantage for all participants was a strengthening of the sense of belongingness and the recognition that "membership in a human family or community is an artefact, something that has to be made, not biologically given" (bateson, 1994, p. 62). in a study to investigate the value of online communities for australian seniors burmeister (2012) found that belonging to a community of peers was important to the participants. in the current study peers were represented as a community of learners for cyd, danny, merv and sunny. cyd, merv and sunny belonged to a non-profit organisation designed to familiarise older adults with current technologies. classes were facilitated by non-professional volunteers who had previously attended beginner classes and wanted to give back to the older adult technology learning community. there was a strong sense of belonging to a learning community that reaped benefits for tutors and learners alike. danny regularly met with a group of retired peers from the same profession. they met to socialise and to support and advise one another in their learning of specific technology devices. other participants in the study (anne, chris, colin, danny, kevin, peter, tess and warren) belonged to a leisure group that met frequently for social and sporting activities, designed for older adults. they discussed digital devices when they met and found the group offered guidance and the sharing of experiences. all these examples of learning support communities enriched the experience for participants and were vital in maintaining a strong sense of mutuality (i.e. members of the community had a sense of equality in which they were equally able to contribute and to receive advice, support and encouragement). the sense of meaningful participation and their ability to feel socially connected to others in the community would be reinforced and strengthened as a result of being a member of a community. the sense of community was grounded by the stable foundation of family, who were essential to the purchase and use of digital devices and to enrichment in the relationships with family. this aspect of the experience of using technologies was also found in other research studies involving older adults (bunz, 2012; chen, wen & xie, 2012; feist, parker & hugo, 2012; gardner, netherland & kamber, 2012; linton, 2012; neves & amaro, 2012). the participants in the study each created a unique community to mediate, support and encourage them in their use of digital devices according to their individual needs. this unique combination of supportive others may also be likened to what burmeister, foskey, hazzlewood and lewis (2012) referred to as "communities of individualized networks'" (community section, para. 1). summary the findings indicate that there should be a discussion about whether older people believe they are capable of using today's digital devices and appliances, whether they are able to control them and whether they are able to manipulate small components. a proportion of older adults may have some degeneration of sight and/or hearing, loss of fine motor skills and/or cognitive changes that contribute to their lack of confidence in using digital devices. this is most obviously seen in their difficulty with operating compact modern digital devices (such as mobile phones and cameras with small keypads) and with their need to obtain guidance from persons who pace their instruction according to the needs of the older person. the participants in the current study appeared to have positive attitudes to aging with an eye on the future, such as learning a language for future travel and practising words and music for choir performances. they acquired a sense of becoming by achieving personal goals, continuing to grow and develop, and to use digital technologies to their advantage. in adapting to change, operating and understanding basic and essential digital devices, they were able to continue to receive vital communication, take advantage of up-to-date entertainment and use technology for personal organisation and efficiency. becoming capable with digital technologies, for these older adults, was about being an independent and autonomous being within the context of an aging lifeworld and the converse, not becoming dependent. it was also about enjoyment of life and the ability to make decisions and to use digital devices to provide autonomy within their lifeworld; and therefore to control their environment and to make choices about their quality of life. for these older adults it was also about making informed decisions about their personal and living circumstances as they entered an age where dependency and loss of privacy and dignity could seem the only solution. they were curious to become informed about something, they had a sense of wonder that provided them with the opportunity to learn and grow in new directions. the participants appeared to gain an enhanced sense of empowerment and quality of life betterment as a result of learning to use and using digital technologies. they made decisions informed by modern ways of doing things. the older adults in the study used technology to enhance relationships within the family and to feel a sense of pride (in grandchildren believing that their grandparents were 'with it'). so this enhancement and strengthening of relationships contributed to a sense of well-being, of being valued by loved ones and engaging in meaningful and active participation within their network of communities. all participants quoted their sons and daughters with great pride. the experiences of the participants were not just one person's experience. they encompassed family, friends, peers, neighbours and the broader community. the experiences were a social phenomenon in which both the individual and the community benefited (beatty & wolf, 1996; findsen, 2005; jarvis, 1987; mezirow, 1991; tough, 1979). participants described instances of mutual obligation, belongingness, sharing, and support. there appeared to be mutual confidence in the spontaneous willingness of others to provide support and assistance. the participants and the individual members of their communities exchanged experiences and created many opportunities for empathy around the use of digital devices. as stated by eliot: what life have you if you have not life together? there is no life that is not community. t. s. eliot choruses from 'the rock' conclusion technology alters the way we relate to each other and the way we interact with our environment, and it has the potential to affect the well-being and quality of life of those in laterlife. the next decade is a critical time in ensuring that the older population is provided with opportunities and support to use technologies that will enable them to maintain their dignity and integrity. this is a pivotal period in our history for those aged over 70 years. this cohort (70 years+) may not have used technology in their working lives and as a community is potentially the most disadvantaged by the technology-dense world of the 21st century. there is the potential for these older adults to become increasingly strongly opposed to technology; where they will go to great lengths to avoid using technology or to be seen to be a luddite. although providers may 'sell' digital devices as 'making life easier', unless older adults are able to confidently use the functions of their devices, these devices are not necessarily 'making life easier'. in fact they may be making life harder for older adults. they may be convinced by the sales person of the benefits of the device they are buying, but when they get home and they cannot make any sense of the device, or the instructions or how to install it, the device sits idle. some older adults will require support for using basic domestic digital devices (for example, radio, television, home entertainment systems) and basic household appliances as well as health-related monitoring systems and home security systems. the inability to use such technological devices may not just be a day-to-day inconvenience but may also impact on quality of life and safety. given the importance of technology and the rapid speed at which new technological equipment comes on to the market, learning to use new devices will have important advantages for those in laterlife. learning may contribute to improved cognitive functioning and also assist older people to feel more part of mainstream society, with active and meaningful engagement and participation in the community of choice. findings from this research showed that these older adult participants believed in the value of keeping up-to-date with technology. they believed that the outcomes from learning to use digital devices would lead to greater opportunity for active and meaningful involvement in their lifeworld. without technological skills and knowledge they believed they would be ignored and relegated to a peripheral position as observers in their lifeworld. their purposes and expectations in undertaking learning about technology were situated in the changing nature of the world and a desire to continue to live their lives meaningfully, as participants and not spectators. it is in the general interest of governments, policy makers, service providers, aged-care practitioners, technology manufacturers and the community as a whole to acknowledge the road ahead for a technology-dense society. as a community we are faced with understanding the experience of people in laterlife and their needs in relation to the use of digital appliances. an approach to understanding this experience supports an interdisciplinary collaborative approach to aging well in the community. initiatives and strategies in relation to encouraging older adults to take-up technology and confidently use household and leisure appliances and digital devices will benefit both the individual and the community. acknowledgements this research was funded by a grant from the university of technology, sydney, australia. this research complies with the current laws applying to research in australia. references bateson, m. c. 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(1979). the adult's learning projects (2nd ed.). toronto: ontario institute for studies in adult education. van manen, m. (1997). researching lived experience: human science for an action sensitive pedagogy (2nd ed). ontario: the althouse press. willis, k. (2006). analysing qualitative data. in m walter (ed.), social research methods: an australian perspective, pp. 257-279. melbourne: oxford university press. deep trust in the future of community informatics cristhian parra1, david nemer2, david hakken3, vincenzo d'andrea4 postdoctoral researcher, jointly at the center for information technology research in the interest of society (citris) of the university of california, berkeley; in collaboration with inria rocquencourt in paris. email(s): cdparra@berkeley.edu, cristhian.parra@inria.fr phd candidate, school of informatics and computing, indiana university, indiana, usa. email: dnemer@indiana.edu professor, school of informatics and computing, indiana university bloomington, indiana, usa. email: dhakken@indiana.edu associate professor, department of information engineering and computer science, university of trento, italy. email: vincenzo.dandrea@unitn.it 1. introduction when conducting research or design projects, the need to answer our research questions or to get "publishable" research results can lead researchers and designers to pay insufficient attention to the social sites in which the research is grounded. richard heeks (2008) for example, attributes the failure of many ict4d projects to their failure to surmount contextual challenges with a strong partnership with those in the application site, let alone reorient their work towards the needs perceived by those in the site. other examples include technology intervention projects that take their technologies away when they leave, despite the dependencies on the technology developed by those in the site. or design projects that fail to account for contextual factors, rendering their results of less use by those in the development situation. research agendas should not simply use people and communities for their interest and give little back. how can we engage in community-based technology projects in a way that is both enriching for people from the community and for researchers? that is a challenge for research in community informatics (ci), to avoid dealing with people as merely our "research subjects" and consider them to be people with whom to share a common path, despite coming from different histories and going ultimately in different directions. the reflections on this challenge we present in this paper are based on our experience in two research projects. in both cases, the ci researchers faced particular problems in gaining trust from the community members with whom they wished to interact. trust is a common problem in ci research projects, and what we focus on in this paper is the need to move from a generic notion of trust-which might accept the researcher as an acceptable nuisance-to what we define as deep trust, something that transforms the relations between the researcher and the community into a more longstanding relationship, through which the researcher effectively becomes part of the community. the social science research tradition of community studies has since its inception focused on roles of social relations (pattern of interactions) and social relationships (shared world views and common projects) in communities, especially how the former change into the latter. trust plays a major role in this transformation. in our view, it also plays a key role in the building of a relationship between the researcher and the community, as she moves from a sincere, empathic desire to do some good with her work (necessarily based on her own values) to having goals shared with those in the community. these ideas emerged from reflecting on our roles in two ci projects. in one, parra engaged with community members in a participatory development process, while in the other, nemer played a key role in listening to and engaging with the community members. these activities opened up the possibility for a bottom up process, creating deep trust through researcher activities with the community members. these relationships of deep trust continue even after the end of our work in the research fields. by examining how scholars studying communities, ci researchers can gain significant insights into the mediating roles of both social structures and technologies within the communities with which they work. examining the role of human relationship in ci research, we focus here on how we moved from just interacting with community member to having relationships with them that can reach beyond the initial ci intervention. in section 2, we describe the theoretical grounding of our research, framing our understanding of communities, informatics and the role of trust, drawing heavily on community studies (cs). in section 3, we present the field sites of our research and design projects, located in brazil and italy. in section 4, we discuss how the key to the success on both field sites was the creation of deep trust between us-ci researchers-and community members. in section 5, we conclude by summarizing our ideas regarding the challenges and alternatives, returning to how cs dealt with trust to help to face the challenges that ci will face in the future. in a nutshell, we have learned how important it is to ask ourselves the following question at every step of the research process: how might a proposed activity be reshaped so that it contributes more to building and reinforcing the community (i.e., to making it more dense)? in following this approach, the main contribution of this article is the nuanced accounts of trust building (e.g., the importance of gatekeepers, the role of empathy, etc.), or the turning of relations between researchers and community into relationships. 2. community, informatics and trust as is often the case in interdisciplinary fields where research and practice are intermingled, there are many views about what ci encompasses. as "a way of talking or thinking about ... information and communications technology (ict) ... that are [sic] available for use in and by local communities" (gurstein, 2007), ci is often "concerned with electronically enabling communities" by "structuring collaborations between researchers and practitioners" (community informatics research network [cirn], 2010). thus, ci has a dual focus that includes conducting research on one side (e.g., to gain understanding about the relationship between ict's and communities) and implementing ict projects in communities on the other (stillman & linger, 2009). in this latter case, they can take, for instance, the form of a community network that "facilitate[s] the development and management of information and activity in a proximate community" (carroll, 2014). a similar concern on bridging the gap between theory and practice is addressed by engaged scholarship (van de ven, 2007). van de ven proposes a form of participative research aimed at creating deeper and more insightful knowledge that would then be the basis for an effective communication between researchers and practitioners. originally proposed for overcoming the gap between theory and practice in the social sciences and more specifically in management research, engaged scholarship has also gained attention in the area of information systems (mathiassen & nielsen, 2008). while this approach seems to be well suited to research where power is shared between researchers and stakeholders, it downplays the social dimension by focusing mostly on the production of (more effective) scientific knowledge. our reflections connect with the relational aspects of engaged scholarship by stressing, in addition to mutual respect and collaboration (van de ven, 2007), the relevance of trust between researchers and community members. in our view, ci thus also has also an interventionist, even social movement dimension, as it is viewed as "a new but necessary way of approaching information systems" representing an "evolutionary advance on traditional systems by integrating them with the dynamism and adaptability of life as lived in organic communities" (gurstein, 2007). gurstein also emphasizes "the development of productive relationships with communities that engage their talents and interests in a way that does not involve technological determinism or colonialism by stealth" (cirn, 2010). in our own practice, we have seen how this "way of thinking" about informatics being applied or used in and by "organic communities" almost invariably depends upon the development of productive "relationships" with (and also within) communities. ci does not only take place in communities, but it also often helps develop and reinforce them. it is in this context where, from the researcher's or designer's perspective, gaining and sustaining the trust of the community becomes one of the key factors for projects to succeed. in our work, we observed how trust fueled the development of these relationships, which in turn was key for the process of community building. but can this understanding be grounded theoretically? what exactly do we mean by "organic communities" and how does this relate to the process of building relationships? what theory should inform and frame our understanding of the importance of trust in community informatics? 2.1 building the community being able to say what makes a community "organic" must be central to those who would center ci on the study of "really existing" communities in digital technology-mediated conditions. one needs to be precise because, as gurstein (2007) argues, there is such a vast array of ways in which ci is used. moreover, in everyday speech, "community" is used in so many different ways that one is tempted to think it merely connotes "something good." thus, we cannot rely on popular discourses to give us an operational definition on which an academic research field can be built. for such an operational definition, we believe one can turn instead to the debate over community in community studies (cs). this twentieth century scholarly tradition is not only a strong part of social science; it is also the part of these fields, which has been more or less continually the most conducive to ethnography. this is at least in part because the field was founded on the use of anthropological field techniques to study smallish population centers (e.g., villages and small cities) in complex social formations. as we used ethnographic techniques in our projects, cs is a good starting place for this reason as well. in cs, the term "community" has been mostly used in one of three ways. the simplest was to refer to a geo-political entity larger than a kin group but smaller than a region of a state. the lynd's middletown (1929) is about what went on within the city of muncie, indiana, while lloyd warner and colleagues, in their studies of yankee city (warner, low, lunt & srole, 1963) bounded their study by the city limits of newburyport, massachusetts. both were in the usa, where cities as such have formal standing. the importance of this usage is that the boundary of the city was taken to be the boundary of the relevant social universe, just as the boundary of a village was so taken by malinowski (1932) and his ethnographic followers. however, this first cs "community as geo-political entity" view was also typically presumed to imply something more; specifically that a distinctive set of social relations was characteristic of each such geo-political community, a set whose borders thus corresponded to those of the political unit. it was the dynamics of such social relations in newburyport that warner, et. al. (1963) saw as hierarchically manifest in interactions. for example, one could identify really existing social patterns typical of an upper upper class person in relation to those of a lower lower one. while the lynd's didn't use warner's terms, they describe social relations in muncie in similarly stratified terms. not only did people tend to interact more with those sharing their class; their interactions with those of other classes were similarly patterned, and, irrespective of their class, everyone tended to place the same people in the same classes; that is, they shared a community-based "social map." in this way, just as this second "shared sense of social relations" was presumed to be implicit in the first, geo-political notion of community, a third usage based on this second one was also implicitly inferred. not only were there distinctive patterns of social interaction in each community. the shared social map was dense, so much so that one could presume a general mentality, a weltanshauung, even a shared moral universe. further, congealing around this shared moral universe were social relationships, that is, not only did people relate to each other in patterned ways; as some of this relating became more dense, it also became more durable. such relationships were so highly patterned that one could speak of social roles and norms, and hence of a community-based social structure. it is these durable relationships based on a shared view of the world that ferdinand tönnies (1887) took to be characteristic of the traditional village's friendly gemeinshaft (typically translated as "community"). he opposed this to the less personable gesellschaft ("society") typical of the large city, with its multiple world views based on cross-cutting social relations more than relationships. thus, already in the 19th century, "community"-talk had taken on a positive, even nostalgic valence, certainly in contrast to "society"-talk. such a valence can be perceived in gurstein's implicit contrast between real, "organic" and presumably false, "inorganic" communities. this hankering after something like gemeinschaft came to be characteristic of applied community studies, including the "community organizing" carried out by barack obama as a law school graduate. in sum, the key cs methodological presumptions are 1) that communities tend to be socially autonomous, 2) that they typically manifest stratified, social relations/patterns of social interaction, and 3) that much of their sociality takes place within social relationships based on shared, characteristic worldviews. the intellectual tasks of cs can therefore be summarized as, in any "medium sized," geo-politically distinct "community," identifying the social relations (regular patterns of interaction); the social relationships (reflected in and based on a shared world view) which were normal or typical of the community; and how and when the first turn into the second. consequently, a basic "fault line" in cs differentiates between perspectives in which passage from relations to relationships is presumed to be "normal" and those for which this passage is problematic, even unlikely. after the foundational period, cs evolved, becoming marked by a back-grounding of concern with the first (geographic unit) usage of "community" while maintaining attention to when and how the second tends to become the third. thus, from studying cities/towns, cs researchers moved to the study of particular ethnic, racial, and gender groups, and to document, whatever their political geography, the relationship patterns and worldviews that they clearly share. others studied occupational groups (most recently, as "communities of practice") and then what later became known as "sub-cultures." it is this last form of cs that has arguably had the most direct influence (although this is seldom acknowledged) on analysis of "online communities," which is in turn arguably the most developed part of ci. subculture studies is clearly the form of cs into whose concepts and categories studies on online communities have most easily fit. like sub-cultures, online "communities" have no particular geopolitical identity. similarly, regularly repeated actions are taken as evidence of social relationships. thus, facebook or second life participants, or world of warcraft guild members, can be treated as examples of (or be treated as similar to) sub-cultures or quasi-occupational groups. these are categories of people/avatars whose patterns of interaction are substantially denser than those not in the categories, as well as among whom a world view might be more shared than by those outside it. 2.2 on the importance of trust (a brief literature review) following the previous section, "community" can be seen as something that is more an achieved than an ascribed social attribute. even when already there, community continues to be built, hindered or empowered. this is the basic social practice that mediates ci interventions. indeed, as carroll (2014) points out, "the challenge of community informatics" is not only to explore, but also to cultivate and disseminate "active roles for local communities in shaping the future of information technologies as community technology". he adds that "participation" is one way to make this possible, that "effectively including and engaging community members in participatory design research projects in community informatics will require a continuing commitment and ongoing effort." this connection between on-going community development and ci interventions is important. it is central to understanding when ci practice and research actually helps to bring about the achievement of community, as well as what the ethical stance of researchers must be in order to develop relationships with the community. gaining and later sustaining trust from the community is, we argue, key for participation to become possible. in research literature, trust is often introduced as one of two key components of the broader concept of social capital (oxendine, borgida, sullivan & jackson, 2003; pigg & crank, 2004; simpson, 2005), with the other component being civic engagement (oxendine et. al., 2003). understood as "the norms and social relations ... that enable people to coordinate action to achieve desired goals" (world bank [wb], 2007), social capital is seen by some authors as one of the key features that communities possess, albeit to varying degrees (oxendine et. al., 2003; coleman, 1988, 1990; putnam, 1993, 1995). oxendine and his colleagues (2003) summarize social capital in terms of social trust, "…the individual-level internalization of norms of reciprocity, which facilitates collective action by allowing people to take risks and to trust that fellow citizens will not take advantage of them." among the problems associated with the "social capital" notion are its tendency to compel every relation into being viewed instrumentally. this is a manifestation of a general tendency to view all social relations in those terms favorable to the reproduction of capital, whereas a large part of what makes an interaction "trust-worthy" is the extent to which it is non-instrumental. another problem more closely relevant to our concerns is that the kind of trust involved in social capital is perhaps best termed "shallow trust." consider, for example the cases of community crisis defense often described by putnam, as when volunteers fill bags of sand to protect against flooding. in such situations of obvious need, it doesn't take much trust to join in. we are talking instead about the kind of extensive trust that involves much more, the open trust required to commit to a relationship wherever it ends up going. extrapolating this to the ci context, it is deep trust that is required if community members are to take the risk of engaging with ci, a conclusion documented in several surveys by oxendine et. al. (2003) and by our experience in the field (parra, 2012, 2014). another research tradition where the importance of building and maintaining trust relationships with the community has been highlighted as a key factor for conducting community-based research is community-based participatory research (christopher, watts, mccormick & young, 2008; story et. al. 1999; teufel-shone, siyuja, watahomigie & irwin, 2006). this research tradition, an extensive presence in community-based health research projects, finds the root of its ethical stance in participatory action research (par). par itself is the result of the combination of principles from two different research traditions: action research (ar) and participatory research (pr). ar can be defined as "supporting and engineering change as an integral part of the research process" (robson, 1997). it was introduced in the 1940s into the social sciences as an "approach toward social research which combined generation of theory with changing the social research system through the researcher acting on or in the social system" (susman & evered, 1978). pr has its origins in the 1970s, in the work with oppressed groups of people in developing areas, and it is characterized as a type of research wherein people of the community or workplace control the entire research process, including identifying the problem to be studied (hall, 1981). the participatory aspect of par changes the power relations that exist between researchers and community, redistributing it and making it more democratic. it is also more challenging, especially if the community does not trust the researchers or the research process. for some, this can often happen when "research is conducted 'on' rather than 'with' the communities" (oxendine et. al., 2003). for carroll & rosson (2007), the participatory aspect, specifically participatory design in their view, is manifest distinctively in ci because of its strong embrace of democratic ideals (schuler, 1996). in sum, the challenge of facilitating the real participation so important to ci has to relate to community as an achieved endeavor, something from which researchers and practitioners cannot escape. they, too, must become part of the community, transform relations into relationships, which in turn requires building and sustaining trust. this is the importance of trust. 3. dynamics of trust in two community informatics research sites the reflections in this paper are informed by two main community-based research and design projects, organized in different corners of the world. here we present the field sites, in order to provide context for later discussion of the role deep trust played in our work. 3.1 marginalized communities in vitoria, brazil. the first of the two field sites in this paper was the neighboring favelas of gurigica, são benedito, bairro da penha and itarare? located in the city of vitória, capital of the state espírito santo, brazil. favelas are considered "wrong" places for studying technology because they are outside the main economic, technological and political centers. although they are peripheral, studying such "wrong" places helps us to learn much about places and their persisting importance in today's "knowledge economy" (takhteyev, 2012). like other urban slums, favelas are typical unauthorized and informal urban settlements. they are areas occupied by squatters, often lacking public services or urbanization. the absence of the state in favelas, allows the emergence of non-state armed groups which control drug dealing and use violence to enforce contracts and maintain power (ferraz & ottoni, 2014). they maintain the order in the favela by enforcing their own laws. the drug lords are respected by the residents because they create an environment in which critical segments of the local population feel safe despite continuing high levels of violence (nemer, 2015). nemer conducted his ci ethnography from april to october, 2013. the fieldwork focused on two lan houses (life games in itararé and guetto in gurigica) and two telecenters (one in itararé and one in são benedito; see figure 1.) he visited two ctc's per day five times a week, and then switched to two different ctc's the following week. this weekly ctc swap continued until the end of the fieldwork, which optimized the time in each ctc and allowed the researcher to reach a larger and more diversified user population. he observed user activities in these ctc's and conducted 56 in-depth and semi structured interviews with ctc users (14 interviewees from each ctc). the participants visited the ctc's at least twice a week. thirty participants were female, and 26 were male. regarding age, 35 participants were between 15 and 24 years old, and 21 were between 24 and 45 years old. the research focused on the motivations, engagements, and adoption of ict's by marginalized people in ctc's. it emphasized the socio-cultural aspects of ict's practices among marginalized people and attempted to understand such aspects and practices from their perspective. figure 1: view of são benedito from itararé and the telecenter of itararé since the beginning of favelas, outsiders have perceived them as sites of violence and drug trafficking, where the residents are favelados: uncivilized, poor, lowly educated, and culturally sterile (alves & evanson, 2011). this perspective is shared among the majority of people in the upper classes. nemer grew up in vitória and was also part of the large group of outsiders that believed that the city's main source of evil came from the favelas. this strong class-ist prejudice was heavily reinforced by media reports, in which favelas mostly showed up on police blotters. in essence, the discourses he was immersed in did not speak well of favelas, whether it was in conversation with family or friends, news reports, soap operas or the government discourse. despite all the bad reputation, he felt appealed to by the struggle and social injustice suffered by favela residents, which led him to a less derogatory view of the favelas. as he became more acquainted with the favelas through the years, he realized that something was wrong. there was another side of the story to which most people were not giving the attention it deserved. favelas could still be violent places, due to drug cartel activities, but their residents were not culturally sterile or uncivilized. quite the contrary, they were savvy and fully human;i there was as much to be learned from them as they could learn from those in other classes. still his interest in the favelas and in telling the "untold side of the story" stayed latent until he performed his ethnography. during the time of this study, he lived at home, where he was raised. it was close to the research site, just 20 minutes walking or 1 mile away from itararé. his home was located in an upper class neighborhood. in spite of its closeness to the favela, he was unfamiliar with the area of study. however, this created a useful distance that, when combined with the empathy of his approach, allowed him to see beyond what would be considered mundane or uninteresting at the site. whilst he studied in schools in brazil that followed western educational models, he was still surrounded and influenced by the local practices and situated knowledge, which goes beyond western standards. he was aware of the differences of power and status that his background brought, being male and upper class. collins (1991) refers to this approach as "the outsider within" positioning of research; sometimes in the field or sitting in on a research meeting, it felt like inside-out or outside-in research. to alleviate the barriers that such differences may have caused, he approached his informants as what rubin and rubin (2011) refer to as "conversational partners": he listened to the informants with an open heart and mind, and he kindly received what they had expressed and told him. (see figure 2.) his motivation was not to judge, but rather to understand, during which he actively thought about what was being expressed and was deeply engaged. this dynamic avoided the back and forth replay of question-answer-question that ethnographers sometimes conduct (madison, 2012). figure 2: second author interviews the favela residents. in order to gain access to the community and the ctc's, nemer first approached the community's charismatic leader and the manager of the telecenters. after gaining their trust, the community leader introduced him to the lan house owners, while the manager of the telecenters helped him meet with the inclusion agentsii . he observed that the favela residents felt more comfortable with him after he told them he knew the community leader, telecenter manager, inclusion agents and lan house owners, who all belonged to the communities and were admired and well liked there. most of his interactions with the informants in the ctc's happened in front of a computer. as a way to gain their trust and return the favor of sharing their life experiences, he showed them more about using the computer, smartphones, the internet, and other applications. sharing information was not a condition for him to help them. he approached them by bringing examples and cases related to their context. as suggested by freire (1970), these people were more motivated to learn when they studied subjects that related to their everyday life experiences. at first, his being inside the favela was an issue for different groups of people. he observed that the word "research" stirred up silence, conjured up bad memories, and caused distrust. favela residents mentioned being approached by previous researchers as "guinea pigs," which implied excessive class-ism, rude questions, and condescending power. the research, instead of benefiting them, reported outcomes, which classified and represented their life experiences according to the researcher's perspective; favela residents did not identify with how their "stories" were being told and felt exploited. smith (2012) claims that many researchers may see the benefits of their particular research projects as serving mankind, but they become oblivious to their practices and cause harm to indigenous communities by framing outcomes from the vantage point of the west. as suggested by smith (2012), critical and post-colonial researchers have the ethical obligation to represent marginalized communities according to their terms, respecting their history, values and beliefs. representation has consequences: "how people are represented is how they are treated" (hall, 1997). hence, nemer "resisted domestication" by using the resources, skills, and privileges available to him to make accessible-to penetrate the borders and break through the confines in defense of-the residents' voices. he strove to provide a fair and empowering account of favela residents, whose stories were otherwise suppressed (madison, 2012). telling the "untold side of the story," through the lenses of those who have been suffering the consequences of marginalization and exploitation, would promote their recognition as human beings who deserve respect and recognition for their values and beliefs. 3.2 seniors community center in northern italy the second field experience on which we based our reflections took place in the northern italian province of trento. parra and d'andrea engaged in two parallel long-term community-based research and design projects within the same community of local and active senior citizens. they were between 60 and 80 years of age and actively participated in a cooperatively managed community center for older adults, the csa "kaleidoscopio". of the two long-term projects, the first was known as the laboratory of technologies. it was started in 2012 (parra, d'andrea & giacomin 2012) and was still continuing at the time of writing of this paper. the laboratory consisted of a weekly encounter, where members of the community and the researchers engaged in mutual learning about a myriad icts (a word editor, a blog, email, social networking tools, etc.) previously selected by the community. the second long-term project started in late 2012 and finished in early 2014 (parra, d'andrea & hakken, 2014). known as reminiscens, it started with a series of participatory design workshops. in these, researchers and members of the community engaged in co-design sessions, using low-fidelity prototypes, collage activities and focus groups, to design a tablet application that supports conversation around personal memories. the participatory design phase was followed by a field study that brought together 10 couples of older adult narrators (7 of whom were part of the community) and younger listeners in sessions of social reminiscence, assisted by a first implementation of the previously designed tool. the research side of these long-term engagements resulted in a corpus of data comprised of observational field notes, pictures, audio/video recordings, usage logs of the tool we designed, and questionnaires about subjective well-being and social interactions. all of these grounded reflections about the experience led parra's and d"andrea's perspective to go from seeing the community as a source for research to seeing the research activities as an important means to build community (parra et. al., 2014). when they approached csa kaleidoscopio, their research interest was to explore social relationships and interactions as one of the key factors affecting humans' health and well-being (umberson & montez, 2010). as social informatics researchers, they were interested in, first, gaining understanding of how information and communication technologies might play a role in fostering senior citizens' social interactions and relationships, and, second, designing ict's for this purpose. to get started, however, they needed to find ways to narrow such overly broad research questions and design goals, to be sure that what they were doing was both ethically attentive to the needs of seniors and was productive research. parra and d'andrea began by organizing several workshops where some individual elders and the researchers collaborated in using certain "new ict's" (e.g. devices like tablets and applications for communicating or visualizing maps). while this allowed them to observe how older adults interacted with technology, they realized that this was not a sufficient research approach. the workshops gave them hints about usability challenges, as well as some idea about what might interest seniors, but they offered a rather narrow window for observing social interactions and needs. in other words, they did not allow identification of new opportunities for social interaction that ict's could afford and sustain, nor did they reveal the needs of the community of the elderly with which they had become involved. however, the workshop experience made it clear that the technology did provide an excuse for dialogue, a ticket-to-talk (svensson & sokoler, 2008). the real value of the activity was the possibility of face-to-face social interaction and of fostering community with the people in the room. in this way, their research became an exploration of how they could establish a more regular engagement, one that would take advantage of the value of company for community in order to create a better space for research, while also contributing to interactions among community participants. to accommodate these goals, and to follow personal interests in participatory design (ehn, 1992; carrol & rosson, 2007) as a methodological and ethical stance for research and design, they contacted the community center "csa kaleidoscopio", asking to collaboratively create a space for this engagement to occur. weeks of communicating back and forth between researchers and the managers of the community center made it clear that they were not interested in "yet another research project." consequently, looking out for community building necesssarily became the most important aspect of our activities. following these interactions, the laboratory of technologies was created, in which seniors actively chose what they wanted to learn, while a group of researchers taught them what they wanted, as well as the basics of using computers. only then did the managers of the community feel comfortable enough with the research to transfer to the researchers the trust seniors vested in the managers. during the lab, parra and d'andrea indeed learnt many interesting things related to their original research (parra et. al., 2012), but they also realized that their research was itself being reshaped by the interaction with the community, even that the community interaction was driving their research. they went from exploring general ideas about how ict's could enable active ageing to exploring more concretely how technologies could enable seniors to actively engage in their local communities, mainly through face-to-face social interactions. in searching for social interaction opportunities, they had inadvertently created one. participants in the laboratory went from learning how to turn on the computers to blogging. they established new friendships and became more active in center activities. beyond learning and research, the laboratory was a space where community was being fostered. figure 3: brainstorming topics for the laboratory and laboratory sessions the success of the laboratory as a space where community was happening made it possible for parra and d'andrea to gain the trust of the community. realizing how important the face-to-face contact was made them want to explore opportunities for more social interaction, and so they proposed new activities. one such opportunity was reminiscence in a social context (webster, bohlmeijer, and westerhof, 2010), collectively revisiting and sharing past memories. this led them to envision a tool that would allow seniors to share their life stories in a conversational context, and they invited the community center participants to help them design such a tool. this time, instead of the back and forth interaction or detailed negotiation over what the activity should entail, community participants trusted them enough to say immediately, "yes, we want to participate." almost all the laboratory participants came to their first participatory design (pd) workshop. during a very interesting and active afternoon, the seniors tested some of the designs of the research group and the paper prototypes that had been prepared helped them brainstorm further about a social reminiscence tool. the workshop was interesting, because the encounter between researchers and the community played out as a full-fledged intergenerational exchange, rich in insights. it was active, because it produced a highly interactive set of conversations, where all the participants engaged and contributed actively with their ideas, without any fear about voicing their opinions, up until the end of the afternoon. figure 4: creativity and collaboration in the participatory design workshops, and final "books of life", created by community members in reminiscence sessions using the tool designed in the workshops the richness of both the interactions and the insights we obtained from this workshop surpassed by far those we had gotten from the first workshops we had organized. then, the role imposed on participants was much more passive; there was no creativity-oriented activity involved. in the pd workshop, the community made its presence felt again; it seemed to grow stronger as participants understood that their role was fundamental to our project. this pd workshop was a tipping point in our work. we realized then that our research and design activities were not only methods to answer research questions; they were also drivers of community participation. this is a feature of many projects in community-based research, examples of which can be found in tinkler (2010), stillman (2005) and stoecker (2005a, 2005b). from that point, we articulated our research as informed by a robust community informatics approach, one in which community dynamics seriously shaped the research and design process, questions, and goals. research and community building, two different and equally valid agendas, came together in this setting and reinforced each other. the community aspect requires researchers to surrender a lot of control and be open to changes in direction, but doing so results in an interesting and highly interactive process, one where research supercedes its original purpose and becomes truly a discovery process. at this point, parra and d'andrea also became aware that the work required a deeper understanding about how to intermingle these two agendas in a mutually beneficial way. we wanted an understanding of the dynamics of the community sufficient for the project to become research and design with the community. thinking of community as an achieved rather than ascribed social attribute, and given recognition of how their activities depended upon its form and level, we started to think that research and design should not only be conducted in concert with the community. they should also contribute to the achievement of community. this meant asking ourselves the following question at every step of the research process: how might a proposed activity be reshaped so that it contributes more to building and reinforcing the community (e.g., by making it more dense)? from that point, the project developed a back and forth rhythm, one where the paths of research and community were at times very close, while diverging at others. the community was no longer a field lab where research and design took place, but rather it consisted of acts of social construction to which research and design actively contributed. we were designing through community informatics. it is only from there on that we could really talk of our project as participatory action research, as an initiative in which research and design were conducted with the community (as opposed to on it). 4. discussion communities can be defined in terms of physical aspects such as their geo-location (gurstein, 2007) or on their social aspects, which connect community members' actions. according to narayan & cassidy (2001), such social actions are comprised of seven aspects: group characteristics, norms, togetherness, sociability, connections, volunteerism and trust. putnam (1995) points out that trust increases cooperation: the greater the level of trust within the community, the greater the likelihood of cooperation, the end result of which is enhanced trust among members. nahapiet and ghoshal (1998) emphasize that, over time, a culture of cooperation tends to surface among a trusted group of people, which can then be further strengthened through more social interactions. when ci implements ict's in order to accomplish communities' goals, such ict's tend to be perceived as arenas that enhance capabilities for trust building (eubanks, 2007). when developing ict's, gurstein suggests (2007) that ci should follow a bottom up approach, one in which the local community identifies a need or a possible application and then begins a process of "working with those with the requisite skills to respond to or satisfy that need[,] always within a context where the local community is in control and is directing the process of its own technology enablement" (p. 64). however working with ci researchers, referred to by gurstein as "those with the requisite skills," is not as straightforward and simple as one might think. it requires trust building, since, as is the case of the authors' studies, many ci interventions are developed along with outside researchers. in order to promote a bottom up approach, the ci researcher needs to put herself in the community and cooperate with its members. in the ci literature, many studies call for things such as, "ict's as enablers of members' trust" (saeed, rohde & wulf, 2011; mohd yusof & hashim, 2014) or "community trusting ict's" (west, 2006; eubanks, 2007; graham, 2005). however, little is actually known about how to "create trust between ci researcher and communities." we believe that the noteworthy contribution of this article is its nuanced accounts of trust building, or, as indicated previously, the process of turning relations into relationships. the authors in both cases used an active methodology to build trust with community members. in trento, parra first gained the trust of community gatekeepers, so that trust could be demonstrated to community members. community building and trust shared the same path: the more he was engaged in the community, the more he was part of it, and the more his research and design activities intermingled with each other. a fundamental aspect of his engagement that strengthened the trust relationship was always providing something tangible for the community. with the laboratory, this took the form of learning new skills every day; with reminiscences, in the form of a book containing their life stories. in the favelas of vitória, brazil, nemer carried out an ethnography informed by commitment and compassion. he immersed himself in the culture by placing the community at the center, letting its members define what lives were to be valued. at first, he observed that performing "research" in the favelas stirred up silence, and bad memories, causing distrust, due to the residents' past experience. however, in order to overcome such barriers, as well as his personal privilege, such as being male and upper class, he approached the informants by treating them as "conversational partners." listening carefully and engaging with the favela residents' issues, and explaining that helping the community was part of his research, enabled him to gain their trust. also, as most of the conversations in the ctc's happened in front of a computer, explaining how to use the digital machines and applications also became a way to gain their trust and return the favor of sharing their life experiences. in both cases, the key to gaining trust with the research informants was to first create a relationship with the "community leaders," who were charismatic and well liked by community members. also, in both cases, there was not a simple utilitarian outcome but rather a more general empowerment, one defined by the community and not by the researchers. the fact that the researchers were more interested in "hanging out" and helping the informants, was also important in creating relationships. as suggested by mohd yusof and hashim (2014), periodic face-to-face meetings and activities, which was what both researchers did with their informants, enhanced social interactions and built trust. although both researchers had larger goals for the community, immediate "givebacks", such as help with the ict's, opened channels for turning relations into relationships. givebacks can be seen as that part of trust, which is essentially "transactional," theorizable in terms of what anthropologists call "balanced reciprocity" (sahlins, 1972). achieving balanced reciprocity is not an easy endeavor. it is very situational, depending of the context and re-negotiated each time one re-enters the field. moreover, while givebacks were a key aspect of our research projects, another was to maintain a modicum of open-endedness regarding project results. much as in making friends, the end-goal is not defined or closed, as it is always in flux. turning "field relations" into a "relationship" requires researchers to become members of the community, new "friends." the field relation does not disappear, but it gains a new dimension, one that unavoidably shapes the ci project itself. a good metaphor to express this process is that of paths. at the beginning, the research (and/or design) path is far from that of the community. as the project advances in time, and trust is progressively built among researchers and community members, the paths come together, intermingle, and change each other, taking both to unexpected places. in our experience, being attentive to the needs of the community was fundamental to ensuring that these unexpected places were also positive for all. figure 5: research and community paths progressively coming closer, intermingling, becoming more like shared paths as both researchers and community members turn their relations into relationships 5. the landscape of ci's future: challenges and alternatives in the preceding sections, we focused on the role of deep trust in two different ci projects. one combined ethnographic study with participatory design and implementation activities in a senior community center, while the other centered mostly on ethnography of computing in a poor, marginal community. in both cases, it was necessary to develop relations of trust, but this was not enough. relations of trust had to develop into relationships of deep trust. this necessity, in light of the differences between the two projects, suggests that deep trust, including relationships likely to extend beyond the explicit period of the study, is probably central to a broad range of ci projects. we can put this point about deep trust and ci research and practice a bit differently by drawing attention back to a primary intellectual focus of a related academic research field already discussed, that of community studies. the intellectual focus in cs is often on the question of under what circumstances the limited social relations of regular interaction turn into the open social relationships characteristic of strong, stable, influential social groups. that is, when does a network of social interaction become a strong, durable, dense network, even a group. equally important is the obverse: under what conditions do social relationships deteriorate into mere social relations? these questions are about turning the relationship of communities of social interaction to communities of social relationships. it is in this way that the two projects discussed here link directly to this key cs issue. they suggest strongly that in such projects mere interaction with one's informants/collaborators needs to be transformed into social relationships-ones of deep trust-if the research objectives are to be achieved. on the one hand, this means that ci research is directly relevant to the primary cs focus listed above, that we in ci have some experience directly relevant to cs. additionally, experience in long period ci projects like these is relevant to another question high on the cs agenda, the extent to which digital mediation is correlated with changes in the social relation/relationship dialectic. yet the obverse also follows from the projects' demonstration of the importance of developing relationships of deep trust: that ci has much to learn from cs. especially the ethnographic studies of community have much to suggest about the relative range, strength, and forms of community, and how community is mediated, whether by social structure, language, ethnicity, or technology. not only has ethnography been the preferred research method in cs, from the earliest studies of middletown (lynd & lynd, 1929) and yankee city (warner et. al., 1963) on through its densest period in the 1950s and 1960s. ethnography has also been central to the large number of interventions characteristic of applied community studies, many of which grew out of 1906's era urban renewal. these also presented much of the data which informed the creation of community organizing as a practice and profession. in our view, there is a general commitment among people in ci to combining 1) an understanding of specific community' dynamics and 2) interventions aimed at making such communities better. the first is also characteristic of cs, so we in ci have much to learn from the careful ethnographies at the heart of community studies. an additional benefit of a ci informed by cs follows from the interest in this field that has come back to prominence through the study of virtual, online, and hybrid communities (e.g., boellstorff, nardi, pearce & taylor, 2012). ci also has much to learn from the interventions characteristic of earlier applied cs, just as it has much to contribute to its revival in digitally mediated environments. ci research techniques also share much with another research area, action research (lewin, 1958). the most obvious point of similarity is the shared orientation toward problem solving. this is not a necessary component of ci, but help in dealing with problems (in our two cases, around ict use) is a common basis on which trust is built in ci projects. the need for deep trust and a shared orientation toward solving problems is another correlate of the second, "intervention" orientation of ci that we stressed. in many cases, this may mean doing ci research feels much like "choosing sides," with attendant problems of possible bias in findings. in our view, the best defense against such distortion is also deep trust. it is only from this position that it becomes possible to disagree about analyses regarding what to do about a problem. achieving "deep trust" has long been recognized as a necessity for good ethnographic work, and the two ci field experiences discussed here suggest that this will continue to be a necessity for much ci work. ethnographers have known for a long time that the trust must extend beyond the time and space boundaries of the specific project, and they recognize this as something that both makes fieldwork more humane and also maintains opportunities to revisit the field at a later date. this truth has re-emerged in ci interventions like that in trento, but with a new focus. not only do we often feel that the human relationships need to survive the end of the project, as they often do. the new dimension has the do with the technological artifacts. specifically in trento, would the senior center get to keep the tablets? this is one of many practical issues that arise in quite cathectic form in ci. in short, there are many reasons for a closer relation-indeed, a relationship-to develop in the future between community informatics and community studies. cs can give to ci a different time horizon, essential to distinguishing those correlates of use of a digital technology that are of its essence, from those that are a contingent quality. a contingent quality that is only a function of newness will disappear, but it is hard to tell if a correlate is essential or contingent in the moment. we in ci need to be able to deal with time, and the long horizon of cs has much to suggest. ci's commitment to interventions also has much to suggest to a revived applied cs; indeed, it may well become the central focus of the revival of this field. ci has a bright future, to become even brighter 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(2007). technology related dangers: the issue of development and security for marginalized groups in south africa. the journal of community informatics, 2(3). world bank, (2007). what is social capital. retrieved in november 11, 2007 from http://web.archive.org/web/20071111000750/http://www1.worldbank.org/prem/poverty/scapital/home.htm the nature of hybrid community: an exploratory study of open source software user groups leigh jin1, daniel robey2, marie-claude boudreau3 associate professor, department of information systems, college of business, san francisco state university, united states. email: jinlei@sfsu.edu professor, department of computer information systems, robinson college of business, georgia state university, us. associate professor, department of management information systems, terry college of business, university of georgia, us. introduction over the past decade, free/libre and open source software (floss) development has captured the attention of both information systems practitioners and researchers. traditionally, the software market is dominated by proprietary, or closed-source, software. its end users have to pay for the right to install and use the software. its source code is "nearly always hidden from view as a technical matter, and as a legal matter it cannot be used by independent programmers to develop new software without the rarely given permission of its unitary rights holder" (zittrain, 2004). in contrast to proprietary software, floss is a broad term that refers to software that is developed and released under either a "free software" or an "open source" license. crowston et al. (2006) highlight similarities and distinctions between the free software and open source movements. both types of software are usually developed through collaboration among volunteer members of communities that are geographically distributed, and allow users to obtain and distribute the software's source code without charge. where the two diverge is primarily in the level of "freedom" granted in their licensing terms concerning modification and redistribution of the software. the free software movement, for example, strictly enforces the "copyleft" license, which stipulates that "anyone who uses and releases the copylefted code as a component of new software must also release that new software under copyleft's otherwise permissive terms" (zittrain, 2004). over the years, floss has thrived and grown into a platform that poses serious competition to the proprietary software market (sen 2007). big vendors such as google, ibm, hp, and sap, to a certain degree, all embrace and adopt floss development. researchers have sought to explain the counterintuitive practice of treating commercially valuable products as public goods rather than proprietary products for sale (von hippel and krogh, 2003; schaarschmidt, walsh, and von kortzfleisch, 2015). likewise, the development and maintenance of complex software products by communities of expert volunteers has stimulated interest into the incentives for developers (hertel et al., 2003) and modes of governance (teigland et al., 2014). although the majority of the research conducted on open source software has focused on the phenomenon of software development (fitzgerald and kenny, 2003), attention has been drawn increasingly to floss use (jin, robey and boudreau, 2007; waring and maddocks, 2005). the availability of free and reliable software products has attracted users interested in lowering or eliminating the costs of software licenses and upgrades (fitzgerald and kenny, 2003). also, the emergence of commercial ventures leveraging open source into a profitable value proposition has increased the number of organizations considering open source for key components of their infrastructure (fitzgerald, 2006; teigland et al., 2014). "second generation open source" could emerge as the dominant model for open source development, and seduces even the most skeptical potential adopters (watson et al., 2008). in fact, it was estimated that the majority of open source development was supported by vendors that offer commercial products and incorporate open source software (violino, 2004). hauge et al. (2010) suggests that floss has inspired software companies not only to improve their existing development processes, but also to have their development efforts collaborate internally as well as across company borders. the potential benefits of embracing floss include: faster adoption of technology, increased innovation, and reduced costs and time to market (bonaccorsi and rossi, 2006). in addition, floss has played a crucial role in leading the software industry away from the traditional license-based business models towards service-based models (fitzgerald, 2006). undoubtedly, floss is profoundly influencing the ways that organizations develop, acquire, govern, use, and commercialize software (ebert 2009; hauge et al 2010; schaarschmidt et al., 2015). the shift in focus to floss users seems appropriate for several reasons. for widely popular floss such as linux, the number of users greatly exceeds the number of developers. moreover, as floss development becomes increasingly targeted toward productivity and entertainment applications, an increasing number of non-experts are becoming floss users. although some users may participate actively in software development, the vast majority of users have no interest or capability to contribute to modifications of the source code (fitzgerald and kenny, 2003). this could be especially true for open source projects that involve high "contribution barriers" (krogh, spaeth and lakhani, 2003)1 . compared to the use of proprietary software, floss use presents novel challenges because of its fundamentally different type of technical support (jin et al., 2012). rather than relying on a vendor's customer support, users of floss need to find other sources of help for installing, learning, and using their freely acquired software. in this paper, we study floss user communities. we adopt a community perspective on floss use because community governance is fundamental to floss development. although much commercial interest has centered on providing floss users with support and service (watson et al., 2008), floss users may also receive support through participation in user groups of community volunteers, similar to the communities supporting development (fang and neufeld, 2009). we also expect that floss user communities for software acquisition, implementation, maintenance, and support would be largely virtual, like floss development communities. research on floss use supports this expectation. lakhani and von hippel (2003) found that successful open source projects delivered field support to users through voluntary efforts of experienced users answering questions posted by new users on archived mailing lists. indeed, a highly organized system of floss user groups has sprung up around the major floss products. the popularity of linux has also created a trend by which many leading it vendors attempt to link their commercial offerings with open source technologies, and to spin off open source user communities to help them boost revenues or reduce costs (violino, 2004). despite the prevalence of electronically mediated interactions among floss users, floss user communities are not exclusively virtual. user groups are frequently located in specific geographic regions, permitting members to attend regularly scheduled meetings and to discuss common issues face-to-face (moen, 2006). for example, the silicon valley linux user group (lug), one of the oldest and largest lugs in the world, holds face-to-face meetings at least monthly. for its first 10 years, the silicon valley lug met in the back room of a local restaurant. later, as the membership expanded, meetings were moved to rooms donated by companies like cisco and symantec. among the face-to-face activities that lugs perform for users are installfests, where experienced volunteers install linux on new users' computers, diagnose problems, and repair configurations. the lug of davis, california operates a linux emergency relief team that provides assistance in new users' homes. because they operate both virtually and physically, floss user groups may be considered as "hybrid" communities, relying upon both computer-mediated (virtual) and face-to-face (physical) means for communication. our section on background literature reveals that little is yet known about the relationship between virtual and physical activities in hybrid communities. understanding hybrid communities is relevant to a larger range of social activities beyond the use of open source software. web 2.0 refers to a set of web based services that aim to facilitate collaboration among a large number of users with shared community interests and activities (o'reilly, 2005). web 2.0's social networking technologies have contributed to the proliferation of websites like wikipedia, youtube, myspace and facebook. tapscott and williams (2007) use the term "wikinomics" to describe the business value that such mass collaboration can generate through engagement with a global peer network. rather than turning to traditional organizations, more users look toward peer relationships to satisfy their needs (li, 2007). some of these ventures operate as hybrid communities. for example, facebook's online service enables users to reinforce established social relationship and to participate in local community groups or events. gabbay (2006) attributes the success of facebook to "providing pre-existing offline community with a complementary online service." thus, facebook communities resemble hybrid communities more than pure online communities. in addition, the hybrid communities may play an even more important role in the recent trend of "solomo", referring to the convergence of social, local and mobile media and services, which enables businesses to offer highly customized products/services at the right moment, with the right price, and through both online and offline channels (davenport et al., 2011). this suggests that by leveraging the user communities associated with their products and services, businesses are in a better position to innovate. in fact, recent research suggests that an "open, uncoordinated group of users can be as or more efficient than specialized producer innovators"(hienerth et al., 2014, p.199), thus suggesting "open innovation" as a successful model. the very notion of "open innovation" is greatly inspired by the floss movement (goldman and gabriel 2005; huizingh 2011). it is based on the assumption that innovation itself is a distributed process that may take place outside the boundaries of organizations and social groups (chesbrough et al. 2008, chesbrough 2015). it is suggested that traditional development practices are not well adapted to managing distributed innovation in the new technology era (goldman and gabriel 2005; ghesbrough et al. 2008). instead, "user centered design" and agile development methodologies are more suitable to facilitate open innovation (humayoun, 2011; pratt, 2012). in recent years, advancements in smartphone and mobile technology has provided end users with unprecedented opportunities to connect, collaborate and engage in innovative processes, to start new business models, and to bring social change (chesbrough, 2015). meetup.com, for example, is an online social networking portal that connects the world's largest network of local groups that meet face to face. since it was founded in 2001, it has enrolled 21 million members in 180 countries, who join 198,000 meetup groups and participate in over 528,000 monthly meetings. their website and mobile application make it easy for anyone to start, find, and join local groups based on common interests, such as technology, careers, hobbies, politics, books, and health, etc. (meetup.com). these developments suggest the relevance of studying hybrid communities, i.e., those that exist both online and offline. our research employs a qualitative research methodology to understand how hybrid floss user communities utilize both virtual and physical representations to extend their capabilities and to provide support for non-technical users. we begin by reviewing the literature on virtual communities and hybrid teams, which together suggest that communities may also operate as hybrid work systems. we then draw from a theory proposing a dual ontology of work that includes both virtual and physical representations of teams and organizations (robey, schwaig and jin, 2003). we extend the dual ontology to the community level to focus upon the relationships between virtual and physical representations of the linux user community. our findings suggest that virtual and physical representations of a floss user community complement each other, thereby extending the capabilities of the community. background literature virtual communities since the dawn of the internet, people have extended their ability to communicate and to engage in productive activities despite being separated by geographic distance. information and communication technologies have thus facilitated the emergence of virtual communities. taken literally, virtual means "being such in essence or effect though not formally recognized or admitted."2 the literal meaning of virtual reflects its use in computer science to describe virtual machine environments and its use in science fiction where concepts like virtual reality were born. although the term "community" originally referred to a group of people living in a common geographical location, people have grown more accustomed to participating in virtual communities that are enabled by internet technology and the world wide web (shumar and renninger, 2002). virtual communities may exist simply for entertainment value, or they may be organized to govern economic activities such as floss development and use (adler, 2001). virtual communities remain a source of fascination and controversy among social scientists. views range from highly optimistic evaluations of new possibilities for social interaction, especially the mobilization of people who share interests but are not geographically close. virtual communities are seen as attractive because they offer a wider range of options than co-located communities. for example, they allow communities to grow in size, unconstrained by physical space. individual members may also tailor their virtual communities to satisfy personal preferences (wellman, 2001). more pessimistic assessments question the ability of people who never meet face-to-face to form true communities based on trust. indeed, due to the potential for assumed identities in virtual communities, community members can be more easily deceived. the prevalence of fraud in online auctions provides partial evidence that trading is more susceptible to criminal deception when trading communities are populated by sellers and buyers whose true identities remain unknown (chua, wareham and robey, 2007). much of the literature about virtual communities demonstrates that virtual communities meet the criteria used to define face-to-face communities, thus validating the claim that virtual communities are true communities. for example, communities are defined as human collectives that: share interests (parrish, 2002; baker and ward, 2002; hampton, 2002) believe in the value of cooperation as a means to advance those interests (kollock and smith, 1996) share a means of communication (parrish, 2002; etzioni and etzioni, 1999) form affect-laden bonds (etzioni and etzioni, 1999) hold commitments to shared values, norms, meanings and identity (etzioni and etzioni, 1999) have access to shared memory (etzioni and etzioni, 1999) share either place or space (driskell and lyon, 2002) exercise sanctions to govern community action (baker and ward, 2002; kollock and smith, 1996; etzioni and etzioni, 1999). by demonstrating that virtual communities possess these same defining characteristics, this literature establishes that virtual communities qualify as true communities. however, this literature implies that communities are either co-located or purely virtual, neglecting the issue that communities might be only partly virtual. with few exceptions (reviewed below), the literature on virtual community does not embrace the idea that a community could be represented both virtually and physically, that is, as a hybrid community. in the following section, we examine the concept of hybrid organization as applied to teams and propose that this same conception can be applied to understand communities. hybrid communities the term "hybrid" is used in the literature on teamwork to describe teams that use both remote and face-to-face communication (fiol and o'connor, 2005). hybrid teams fall between the extremes of never meeting face-to-face and always meeting face-to-face. in hybrid teams, members may be co-located yet rely on both face-to-face and electronic communication on a daily basis (zack, 1993). hybrid teams may also be geographically distributed and meet on rare occasions (cousins, robey and zigurs, 2007; maznevski and chudoba, 2000). in effect, hybrid teams are represented in two overlapping and/or alternating forms: one physically situated in time and space, and one virtually mediated by electronic communication (lilly, lightfoot and amaral, 2004). given these multiple representations, hybrid teams face different challenges than those faced by either purely virtual or purely face-to-face teams. these challenges include member identification (fiol and o'connor, 2005), developing and transferring organizational knowledge (griffith, sawyer and neale, 2003), managing conflicts (hinds and bailey, 2003), and making decisions (maznevski and chudoba, 2000). however, hybrid teams overcome some of the limitations experienced by purely virtual teams. for example, dubé and robey (2008) found that face-to-face meetings play important roles in supporting distributed work and that face-to-face meetings address numerous contradictions associated with virtual teamwork. the issues facing hybrid teams may also apply to communities that operate virtually while also sometimes meeting physically. as mentioned in our introduction, communities of floss users also have opportunities to meet face-to-face, even though much of their communication remains virtual and is conducted via electronic media. thus, it seems appropriate to apply the concept of hybrid organization to communities as well as teams. like hybrid teams, we expect that hybrid communities would face both challenges and opportunities stemming from combining their virtual and physical representations. to study hybrid floss user communities, it would be helpful to draw from theory at the community level that acknowledges their hybrid characteristics. unfortunately, with few exceptions, the community literature tends to assume that communities are either virtual or physically co-located. the exceptions found in our review of the community literature fall short of offering a sound theoretical basis for guiding a study of floss user communities. for example, fox (2004) argues for a "community embodiment model" in which both physical and virtual activities, interactions and identity are combined in the imagination of community members. the imagined community embodies a continuum of virtuality/physicality, a communal spectrum that is essentially socially constructed by community members. while this idea addresses the issue of community identity, it falls short of explaining how communities might benefit or suffer from their hybrid nature. other studies are purely descriptive, suggesting ways in which physical communities can expand to become hybrid (e.g., gaved and mulholland, 2005). others treat floss communities as hybrid teams and employ constructs from the team level of analysis to study interactions among community members (e.g., crowston et al., 2007). the theory guiding our investigation of open source software user communities is drawn directly from a conception of work proposed by robey et al. (2003). recognizing that work at multiple levels of analysis (individuals, teams, organizations, markets, and communities) is increasingly represented both physically and virtually, robey et al. propose a dual ontology of work. drawing from concepts of virtuality found in computer science and science fiction, they conceptualize work to include an electronically mediated, virtual representation and a material, physical representation. the virtual representation is comparable to the notions of cyberspace and virtual reality (benedikt, 1992; turoff, 1997). thus, a virtual representation of an organization would consist of electronically mediated processes, such as accounting, represented abstractly by computers and not confined to specific locations (sotto, 1997). by contrast, the physical representation would consist of people and physical objects situated in specific places. although virtual representations typically refer to physical or social objects, for example as mathematical symbols, virtual representations do not need to faithfully match the physical shape or geographic location of material objects. virtual representations are not merely electronic copies or analogues of the physical entities. rather, virtuality offers the potential to reconstruct and "re-present" physical objects in ways that are unbound by physical constraints (sotto, 1997; turoff, 1997). because work includes both of these representations, robey et al. (2003) draw attention to the relationship between virtual and physical representations. they argue that a dual ontology "draws attention to neglected issues in the design, performance and outcomes of work. … [it] draws attention to the relationship between the two representations and the need for virtual and material work to be effectively intertwined" (robey et al., 2003: 118). the theory examines potential disconnections between virtual and physical work and proposes specific ways in which the disconnections can be overcome. robey et al. base their analysis on the metaphor of intertwining because "…intertwining of distinct elements augments the performance of individual elements by creating, for example, greater strength and beauty" (p. 118). intertwining also means that material and virtual representations of work are mutually engaged, so that each representation's contribution depends on its reciprocal involvement with the other. they propose four types of relationships between the dual representations of work: reinforcement, complementarity, synergy, and reciprocity. in this paper, we focus on complementary relationships due to their salience in our data. as noted in our method section, we coded for all four aspects of the relationship, but evidence for the other three aspects was not sufficient to support a credible analysis. in a complementary relationship, two intertwined elements provide characteristics that compensate for the other's shortcomings. for example, virtual relationships provide capabilities to communicate at great distances and provide access to electronically stored resources. these capabilities complement the characteristics of physical communication, which has its own strength of providing nonverbal cues that compensate for a recognized deficiency in electronic communication. together, virtual and physical representations complement each other. although robey et al. (2003) restrict their illustrations to teams and organizations, they speculate that other forms of work such as markets and communities could also be conceived in terms of a dual ontology. our purpose in this paper is to use the dual ontology approach to gain insights into the relationships among the physical and virtual representations of hybrid communities, specifically floss user communities. these communities interact extensively online, but they also hold physical meetings in specific locations. they thus provide an opportunity to examine how these two types of community representation intertwine and how the combining of these representations can extend members' capabilities. method we undertook an exploratory approach in our research using the theory as a lens for interpretation. we remained open to discovering the empirical indicators of the theoretical concepts rather than specifying them a priori. in addition, we assumed that the theoretical concepts would be revealed through social interpretations by actors in communities (klein and myers, 1999). an interpretive approach to research assumes that constructs do not exist in a truly objective sense but rather are generated inter-subjectively by actors. this assumption guides an empirical research strategy of engaging researchers and actors in qualitative interviews and by observing the behavior of community members both online and in face-to-face gatherings. participant observation also helps the researcher to contextualize comments made during interviews. since august 2002, one of the authors began regularly attending monthly face-to-face meetings in five lugs around silicon valley and the san francisco bay area. this involvement allowed her to participate in and observe the activities of members at different lug meetings, varying in size from 15 to 300 attendees. as a participant-observer, she actively engaged in floss related activities both online and offline, including subscribing to the mailing lists of different lugs, attending monthly meetings, recording presentations, recording field notes, interviewing lug members and meeting presenters, and attending social gatherings at local restaurants following the meetings. as the researcher became more involved in observing floss-related activities, she also became an active participant in floss communities. this paper draws upon interviews as the primary source of data. arranging interviews was achieved by attending lug meetings that involved an invited speaker presenting a particular floss topic. at the meeting, the researcher introduced herself to the attendees, including the speaker and lug officers. during the interviews with lug officers, she asked them to identify other key members in the lug as interview candidates. in addition, she found that lug mailing lists served as an excellent source for selecting potential interviewees. the most active members, who posted regularly on the lug mailing list, were also contacted for interview opportunities. in total, 20 semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted and subsequently transcribed for analysis. the interview protocol used is presented in the appendix. the two other authors analyzed the 20 interview transcripts. each interview transcript was coded according to the different categories of intertwining described earlier (reinforcement, complementarity, synergy, and reciprocity). specific codes were created a priori to capture the intertwining of the physical and virtual representations: how a representation reinforced the other, how a representation complemented the other, how there was synergy between the representations, and how a representation reciprocated another. to be considered for coding, a text segment needed to clearly represent one of these four aspects of intertwining. initially, the two researchers coded the same group of five interview transcripts to assess the similarity of their understanding of the meaning of the coding categories and the text segments that represented them. the coders discussed and reconciled instances of disagreement. more precise rules were established for a second group of two interview transcripts, which were also coded in parallel by these two researchers. given a much higher level of agreement for the second set, the remaining 13 interview transcripts were coded separately by both researchers. results our research reveals that the virtual and physical representations of the linux user community were intertwined in one significant manner: through complementing each other. although we found some instances where the representations intertwined through reinforcement, synergy, and reciprocity, those instances were few compared to the complementarity existing between the representations. complementarity exists when the unique characteristics of one representation compensate for the weakness of the other representation, and vice versa. in this study, we observed that on some dimensions, the physical representation complemented the virtual representation, whereas on others, the virtual representation complemented the physical representation. these results are summarized in table 1. table 1: summary of results physical representation complementing the virtual representation our findings reveal that the physical representation may complement the virtual in six specific ways. first, in the physical representation, complexity is tackled better. for example, the installation of the linux operating system on an unfamiliar machine or device can be a very complicated task. to undertake such challenges, many lugs have a regular event called the installfest, where users are invited to bring their own machines or devices and seek help to set it up with linux. such a task could hardly be done virtually, considering its ad hoc, and potentially very complex, nature. some users explained: "we get people who turn up with […] quite bizarre, strange pcs that are very difficult to install on… so if they bring their machine along, then you end up with the collective brains of 20 people trying to get this working. and sometimes you'll get one person who'll come over and try and help, and it won't work, so somebody else comes along, and eventually you'll find someone who's done it before or knows something about it and will get it working." "online, all you can show is words. if someone comes to a meeting, you can actually demonstrate something to them that they wouldn't otherwise have been able to see or not easily." a second way the physical representation complemented the virtual one was in the social interaction that was more prevalent in the face-to-face context. according to our respondents, social interaction may not come easily for highly technical people, but it is a very important element that is facilitated through face-to-face meetings: "nerds in general aren't well known for being social people. they tend to shy away from large groups. but something about a large collection of nerds in one place seems to work, for certain ones." "it's the whole social interaction thing. you talk to people face-to-face. it's not the same as online, really. geeks have a tendency not to be particularly social with the general community, so for me and a lot of others, this is a good place to meet people that they can sit down and talk to for awhile about things and not bore somebody's head off about something they don't care about." some members choose to attend lug meetings despite disinterest in the presentation topic because they enjoyed getting together with friends. "the real reason i come is to meet these people and afterwards go to ihop3 and talk for hours, until almost midnight. and that's what we all enjoy the most." social interaction, we were told, was quite important and often led to long lasting friendships and even marriages. a third way of complementing is related to the formal presentations (guest speakers) that regularly occurred during lug physical meetings. although users generally had access to presentation slides online, most of them found that physically attending the presentations allowed them to get the full story, i.e., a better understanding of the subject being presented: "i can look at the slides, but it doesn't really tell the whole thing. there are questions and things that people say that i cannot really get the same from online." a better understanding also resulted from the fact that a face-to-face setting facilitated richer communication than online. it was easier to convey emotions (such as excitement, enthusiasm, or even sarcasm) face-to-face than online. it was less likely that a face-to-face communication would be misinterpreted than comments made online: "people are more inclined to take things the wrong way in email than they are in person. so there's something about email that makes things seem like an argument and there's something about talking in person that makes things seem more like a discussion" communication was also improved because face-to-face interactions had greater bandwidth than online interactions. that is, more was said in a given time period. one user characterized electronic communication as follows: "it's basically like trying to suck water through a straw: you can only get so much through at a time. at some point in time, if you're really thirsty or you burn your mouth and you want to get more water, you take the straw out and you tip the glass up to your mouth and you drink from it. you can get a lot more that way... and it's just easier to convey thoughts a lot quicker and a lot faster [face-to-face] than trying to type them out." a fourth way that the physical representation complemented the virtual one was that the physical representation provided immediacy in the communication. during a meeting, when asking questions about a problem, users got instant responses rather than having to cope with potential delays related to being online: "…if we're sending e-mails, that might take us half the day because we're each doing other things rather than just sitting there in front of our computers waiting for that e-mail to come in and then quickly responding to it. even if that was the case, it still takes time because it takes time for the e-mail to get from here to there and for it to get from the server to my desktop. so there's definitely a delay there" interestingly, while other online communication media such as instant messaging or chat may potentially provide better immediacy than email, mailing lists remains the most popular online channel across different lugs. we suspect this is because email is less invasive compared to online chatting; since most lug members have day time jobs, they may not be able to participate in online chatting as much as email. fifth, a physical setting compensated for the virtual representation's tendency to intimidate novice users. indeed, in a face-to-face setting, users felt more comfortable asking basic questions that might be considered "dumb" in an online forum. two users commented: "some people are intimidated about sending email to a general list that reaches, you know, a hundred people or whatever" "it could be really helpful when you are starting, there is one person you can just go and ask trivial questions with, because you might find comfortable just finding somebody instead of putting dumb questions online, it is just much easier." because of its less intimidating nature, the physical representation was particularly effective in recruiting new users and integrating them into the floss community. in fact, many meetings were organized to attract and retain novice users, or "newbies." not only did experienced users help new users in solving their specific problems at physical meetings, but newbies also learned something unexpected, like stumbling into a conversation on a piece of software or utility they had not heard of before. as one user said: "there's just the random information that you can pick up from people who you run into there." finally, the physical representation helped to build ties with local businesses, providing community members additional resources and career opportunities that were difficult to harvest through the virtual representation alone. "we get a lot of contributions of books from publishers like… o'reilly associates, and we randomly get magazines from linux journal, and other publishers will sometimes send us stuff… or other companies that are doing linux-related things who are trying to spread awareness of their products, they'll ship us a demo, or they'll ship us some brochures which we'll mention at the meeting and we'll give out to people who are interested in them." lug meetings also offered direct access to a pool of technically skilled people who were not bound to withhold details of proprietary software code. given the scarcity of such talent, local companies used the lug meetings for prospecting. some lugs even set up "job corners" for local companies to recruit lug members. one user claimed to be hired the second day after he was laid off by his previous employer. another user from a large employer commented: "it is a really good way for people to get the resources they needed. i always told my boss, hey, if you want, you can come here and collect resumes yourself." in sum, the physical representation of the linux user community compensated for many of the weaknesses of virtual interaction. specifically, it provided a physical setting in which: 1) complexity was better addressed, 2) social interactions were facilitated, 3) understanding was enhanced, 4) communications were immediate, 5) new users' needs were better attended, and 6) ties with local businesses were cultivated. virtual representation complementing the physical representation the virtual representation, in turn, also had a number of strengths to compensate for the weaknesses of the physical representation. from our data, we identified four specific ways in which the virtual representation complemented the physical representation. first, virtual media provided access to past issues, as each email exchange that occurred (through the listservs) was archived. the importance of tracking past communication was emphasized by two users: "if i have a problem, and i get an error message, if i go to google, put the error message in, i will find mailing list archives where people have discussed this, someone might even say the same thing that i have got a problem, and then there will be an answer immediately after, i try that, hey, it works. and now, that was not even someone going out to create a document on the web, that was just two people having a conversation, and i have just tapped to a conversation that two people had three years ago, and it is on the other side of the world. in fact, we even had it in other languages." "so actually there is a disadvantage helping people in person then, because their solutions are not captured. i never thought about that, but that is true, if you do help somebody in person that is lost data, you help them and you show them but what you invested in helping that one person is lost for everybody else." these comments illustrate an obvious strength of the virtual representation that is unbound by time or space. thus, a user's question posted in the middle of the night could be considered immediately by users located in different time zones. access to archived materials allowed users to search for information about a specific problem prior to inquiring for help. a second way that the virtual representation complemented physical interaction was the increased number of people that were reachable. for all users we studied, the online community reached many more people than the face-to-face meetings. because it was easier for users to be online than to physically attend a meeting, it was not surprising that virtual users outnumbered co-located users. consequently, the chance for a given request to be answered was likely to be higher within the virtual representation: "when you're in a room asking people, "what utility is good for this," you'll get responses from a lot more people, but they may not be as well formed responses. and you can contact a lot more people via e-mail on our lists" a third way to complement dealt with the nature of interactions. just as the physical meetings dealt better with social issues, some technical issues were more easily addressed virtually. while inquiring for help online, it was possible for a user to post or attach configuration files, log-in trees, snippets of code, screen shots, error messages, and other relevant information that was too long to describe verbally or to jot down on paper. with information that was cut and pasted or forwarded using the virtual channels of communication, expert users could more easily evaluate a problem and offer solutions. "anything that involves handling a text, where you need to have some documentation or a lengthy account of some symptoms that you observe or something like that... it's much more effective to handle that using on-line mechanisms." responding to requests in the virtual representation also allowed experts more time to research a problem, to explore and test solutions, and to explain the rationale for a solution in more depth. sometimes, the same benefits applied to users who posted questions seeking online help. when they detailed the specifics of their problems in writing, they were more likely to describe it thoughtfully. in the best case, going through this exercise resulted in users resolving their own problems. in one of our respondents' own words: "when you explain your code to someone else, you have to explain the code to yourself again, and then you may realize you wrote something stupid […] if you spend the time to go through everything you did and explain everything…, it's quite likely you're gonna find the mistake while you're typing the e-mail." finally, the continuity of communications was greater in the virtual representation than in physical settings. although communication within face-to-face meetings were more immediate, as argued above, virtual discussions continued during the weeks and months that separated physical meetings. thus, a user did not have to wait for the opportunity to pose a question or provide a response at a physical meeting. one user commented: "i think if you are doing something and you have a question right away, or technical problems but you cannot figure out, and you need an answer to it, if you have to wait for a month [for a face-to-face meeting], that is not good. so, having that immediate feedback, being able to ask questions online, it is good." overall, the virtual representation had the capability to compensate for many of the weaknesses of the physical representation. specifically, it provided a setting through which: 1) past issues were recorded and accessible, 2) reachability was increased, 3) technical questions were easier to tackle, and 4) communications were continuous. discussion and conclusion our results suggest that a dual ontology is a useful conceptual approach to studying hybrid communities. distinguishing between virtual and physical representations of the linux user community provides insight and invites evaluation of the activities pursued within each area of community life. more importantly, our approach supports the investigation of the relationships between virtual and physical representations. although different in several fundamental respects, the dual representations of community intertwine in ways that, according to our analysis, help to extend the capabilities of the floss user community. as community governance principles become more frequently applied to activities with economic implications, as with floss development and use (schaarschmidt et al., 2015), finding ways to increase community capabilities becomes a strong motivation for community researchers (adler, 2001). drawing on theoretical analyses of teams and organizations (robey et al., 2003), we examined ways in which virtual and physical community representations are intertwined and, consequently, offer opportunities for hybrid communities to extend their capabilities. complementarity is consequential because of its positive effects on solving complex problems, such as those encountered by novices in trying to use floss products. analyzing complementary relationships between virtual and physical representations of the linux user community draws attention to the strengths and weaknesses of both representations. our results demonstrate several ways in which the strengths of one representation compensate for the weaknesses of the other, supporting the theory's expectation (robey et al., 2003). for example, from our results, it is clear that virtual community representations allow for more thoughtful and more thoroughly researched problem solving, while physical interactions allow more accessible and friendly opportunities for novice users to seek advice on problems related to linux. clearly, both capabilities are important and together they complement each other to enhance the aims of the hybrid linux community. our study suggests some implications for the design of hybrid communities, notably that the concept of "design" must be used cautiously in reference to communities because communities differ from teams or organizations that are more likely to be governed by rules enforced by a hierarchy of authority (adler, 2001). in communities, governance tends to be diffused throughout rather than controlled by central designers or people empowered to enforce the chosen design. nonetheless, floss communities do have sponsors and leaders, and face-to-face events do need to be planned, organized and orchestrated by specific community members. for those charged with leadership responsibilities, the most fundamental design implication to be drawn from our research is that care must be taken to ensure that activities are allocated across virtual and physical representations in ways that strengthen community capabilities. activities designed within the face-to-face representation of the community can complement the virtual representation, and vice-versa. given that most floss users that we met were active both online and in the lug meetings, they were probably most aware of the need for intertwining virtual and physical activities. with more explicit attention to the different ways in which intertwining might be achieved, floss community members might forge even stronger and more creative capabilities in their collective endeavors. in more direct terms, floss community leaders should carefully establish and manage both physical and virtual representations of the community at large. although more effort must be expended to organize and promote face-to-face meetings, physical interaction is important for floss communities to attract new users, to facilitate learning and problem solving, and to gain additional resources and support from local businesses. these activities also provide less technical users with more opportunities to participate in the floss community. for a healthy hybrid floss community, we suggest that both its offline and online activities be coordinated with each other. when designing activities for hybrid floss communities, we surmise that there is also potential for other types of intertwining between physical and virtual representations. synergistic, reciprocal, and reinforcing relationships were rare enough in our data that we did not mention them in our results. nevertheless, we contend that they are important and other settings may provide a more fruitful ground to explore these types of intertwining. for example, through reinforcement, virtual and physical community representations may strengthen existing capabilities by providing multiple ways for community members to interact. reinforcement may help to strengthen the social ties between members, who may have a greater level of understanding of, and attraction to, other members when opportunities to meet other members face-to-face materialize. this idea would support the findings of crowston et al. (2005), one of the few studies to examine the physically situated relationships among floss developers. in acknowledging the limitations of this research, we first note that the results of our study rest upon interview data generated by a relatively small number of members of geographically proximate linux user groups. as such, the findings may be subject to the influence of local culture and the high technology environment of silicon valley and surrounding areas. they may not be applicable to linux user groups in other geographical locations or in other countries, much less hybrid communities devoted to other causes. second, we acknowledge the limitation of our qualitative research method, which does not permit a more systematic analysis of community network structure. given that a majority of lugs preserve mailing list content digitally, it would be possible to employ social network analysis to explore the structure of user groups' virtual interactions. however, since the local lugs we studied did not keep attendance records of face-to-face meetings, we were unable to construct a social networking analysis that included both virtual and physical relationships. thus, a limited social network analysis would not have contributed additional insight into our research question, although we acknowledge that such analysis could enhance our understanding of the social relationships among hybrid user group participants. third, our data reveal the positive aspects of complementary physical and virtual representations, and do not represent any negative aspects. clearly, investing resources into intertwining virtual and physical community representations may not be feasible for hybrid communities with limited resources. given the potential value of floss, however, we feel that such investments may result in consequences that are highly valued. not only would developers of floss see more vindication of their efforts, but members of floss user communities would reap more benefits from their ability to apply floss to their business applications. endnotes 1 "contributions barriers" involve four dimensions: (1) the difficulty in changing code; (2) the variability in computer language; (3) the difficulty of "plugging" code; and (4) the coupling between sections of code. the greater each of these dimensions is, the greater the contribution barrier. 2http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/virtual 3 ihop stands for international house of pancakes, a chain of restaurants typically open 24 hours a day and specializing in american-style breakfasts. references adler, p. 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(1993) "interactivity and communication mode choice in ongoing management groups", information systems research, vol 4 no 3, pp. 207-239. zittrain, jonathan (2004) "normative principles for evaluating free and proprietary software", the university of chicago law review, vol 71 no 1, pp. 265-287. appendix interview protocol: introduce researcher and goal of the research. ask for permission to record. start with questions: demographic information about the respondent when/why did the respondent start using open source software? when/why did he/she join the lug mailing list? when/why did he/she start attending local meetings? what is the brief history of the particular lug? compare and contrast experiences with using online communication channels, such as the mailing list or internet relay chat, vs. face-to-face communication channels such as meetings, installfests, and other social activities. which channel is more appropriate for which types of activities or purposes? thank the respondent. community intermediaries in canada’s knowledge society community organizations in the information age , this report is an outcome of the community intermediaries research project (cirp). the cirp partners are the national research council institute for information technology e-business, the university of new brunswick, human resources and skills development canada, and health canada. the views expressed in this report are those of the authors and not necessarily those of health canada, human resources and skills development canada and the national research council canada. acknowledgements the cirp research team would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff, management and clients of the four community intermediary organizations for taking part in the project. authors principal investigator, dr. vanda rideout (university of new brunswick) co-investigator, dr. andrew reddick (nrc-iit) nrc coordinator, dr. susan o’donnell (nrc-iit) dr. william mciver, jr. (nrc-iit) sandy kitchen (nrc-iit) mary milliken (nrc-iit) research assistants: mike fleming and kerri gibson (nrc-iit) cover design and report layout: ilia goldfarb (nrc-iit) working group dr. vanda rideout (unb); dr. andrew reddick (nrc-iit); dr. susan o’donnell (nrc-iit); dr. william mciver jr. (nrciit); rob mastin, (human resources and skills development canada); christine labaty, pierre maheu and pierre levasseur, (health canada); dr. jacqueline low (sociology, unb); dr. karen murray (political science, unb). contact details for more information dr. vanda rideout principal investigator, community intermediaries research project (cirp) department of sociology, university of new brunswick p.o. box 4400, fredericton, nb e3b 5a3 tel: 506-447-3393 | fax: 506-453-4659 | vrideout@unb.ca dr. susan o’donnell national research council institute for information technology (nrc-iit) 46 dineen drive, fredericton, nb e3b 9w4 tel: 506-444-0374 | fax: 506-444-6114 | susan.odonnell@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca april 2007 copyright © her majesty the queen in right of canada, represented by the national research council canada (2007) and the university of new brunswick. this is a re-publication of the report community intermediaries in the knowledge society edited for the journal of community informatics. the original report is available for download in french and english from the cirp web site: www.unb.ca/cirp mailto:vrideout@unb.ca mailto:susan.odonnell@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca http://www.unb.ca/cirp community organizations in the information age biographies vanda rideout is associate professor of sociology, university of new brunswick, fredericton, new brunswick canada e-mail: vrideout@unb.ca andrew reddick is director of research programs, nrc institute for information technology, fredericton, new brunswick canada e-mail: andrew.reddick@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca susan o'donnell is a research officer, people-centred technologies group, nrc institute for information technology, fredericton, new brunswick canada e-mail: susan.o'donnell@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca william mciver, jr. is a research officer, people-centred technologies group, nrc institute for information technology, fredericton, new brunswick canada e-mail: bill.mciver@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca sandy kitchen is a ma candidate, department of sociology, university of new brunswick, fredericton, new brunswick and visiting worker, people-centred technologies group, nrc institute for information technology, fredericton, new brunswick canada e-mail: sandra.kitchen@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca mary milliken is phd candidate, department of sociology, university of new brunswick, fredericton, new brunswick and analyst, people-centred technologies group, nrc institute for information technology, fredericton, new brunswick canada e-mail: mary.milliken@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca mike fleming is a phd candidate, department of sociology, memorial university of newfoundland and labrador canada e-mail: mafnb@hotmail.com kerri gibson is phd candidate, department of psychology, university of new brunswick, fredericton, new brunswick and analyst, people-centred technologies group, nrc institute for information technology, fredericton, new brunswick canada e-mail: kerri.gibson@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca ilia goldfarb is a research support and applications specialist, people-centred technologies group, nrc institute for information technology, fredericton, new brunswick canada e-mail: ilia.goldfarb@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca community organizations in the information age contents 1 executive summary 3 1.1 purpose of the study 3 1.2 methodology 4 1.3 community intermediaries in the knowledge society 4 1.4 findings of the study 6 1.5 policy and program recommendations 10 2 introduction 14 2.1 purpose of study and methodology 14 3 community intermediary organization issues 16 3.1 funding impact on intermediary service and information delivery 16 3.2 clientele composition as a factor in service and information delivery 19 3.3 minority languages and service and information delivery 23 3.4 lifelong learning services 24 3.5 health information services 26 3.6 community intermediary partnerships 26 3.7 administrative issues 28 3.8 community organizations’ approaches to accountability 30 4 information and communication technology issues for community intermediaries 32 4.1 role of organizations as intermediaries in e-government 32 4.2 multi-channel service and information delivery 36 4.3 service and information delivery using ict 43 4.4 ict benefits and barriers to clients 48 4.5 staff and organization benefits of and barriers to using ict for service and information delivery 56 4.6 staff ict capacity and training 60 1 community organizations in the information age 5 information seeking and decision making 62 5.1 introduction 62 5.2 related work 62 5.3 model 63 5.4 research design 64 5.5 data analysis: information environment mapping 65 5.6 summary 75 6 ways forward 76 6.1 community intermediaries in the knowledge society 76 6.2 organizational issues 78 6.3 information and communication technologies 79 6.4 information seeking and decision making 81 6.5 policy and program recommendations 82 7 references 85 2 community organizations in the information age 1 executive summary the organizations studied for this project are highly committed to providing information and services for the betterment of individuals and their local communities. these services matter and have positive outcomes and impacts. with qualifications, the researchers conclude that these organizations range from marginally to highly effective, but in all cases are invaluable community resources. the principal qualification is that all the organizations studied face numerous obstacles and challenges in being able to realize their full potential to meet the needs of citizens and the goals of different levels of government, in the provision of information and service delivery leading to desired, and in many cases, required outcomes. one organization studied is much more able than the others to achieve these goals, largely due to funding resources, but it faces other challenges. the other three organizations exhibit different levels of effectiveness, with the potential to do much more, but grapple daily with daunting funding and operational challenges. this study provides in-depth, rich analysis of the organizations and in this report their stories are told through both the findings of the researchers and in the organizations’ clients’ and staffs’ own words. in many respects, the theme of this study is that of opportunity. the organizations, their staff, and the various governments and organizations that support them are on the right track – but things need to, and can, be done better: through better understanding; better support; and working more closely together. the research team would like to offer a very special thank you to the community organizations, their staff, volunteers and clients for allowing us to look at their lives and tell their stories. it is our hope that this study contributes to a better understanding of the roles of community organizations, and improvements in the support and operations of these to the benefit of communities and citizens. 1.1 purpose of the study the objective of this study was to investigate the roles, challenges and opportunities for community organizations in their provision of information and services to meet the needs of citizens using information and communication technologies (ict). these organizations are described as community intermediaries because they act as links between various levels of government (federal, provincial or municipal) and citizens. 3 community organizations in the information age this study analyzes: • the means employed by community organizations to provide learning and employment resource services and health and wellness information; • how community organizations use information and communication technologies (ict); • the benefits, challenges and barriers of using ict for the organizations and their clients. 1.2 methodology the study used a mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative methods including in-depth interviews, focus group panels and survey questionnaires. a representative sample was chosen for the client survey reflecting their income levels, gender, ages and language spoken. the response rate from the completed client surveys was 45 per cent (n= 514). information environment mapping (iem) interviews were also conducted. 1.3 community intermediaries in the knowledge society historically, community organizations played a highly effective role of providing relevant services to meet core socio-economic needs of community members. the roles of community intermediary organizations, to provide information and services to local citizens, have become increasingly important as citizens’ needs change in the emerging “knowledge society.” • these organizations are very important resources that allow governments to meet policy and program objectives. • community intermediaries act as partners, sub-contractors and surrogates in the delivery of government information and services. • in many instances, citizens seek and use information and services from a community organization, rather than directly from a government department or agency. • the continually expanding mandates and activities expected of community intermediaries in providing government services have not been sufficiently supported by the various levels of government. • the weakness in this virtuous circle of information and service delivery is at the level of resources: community intermediaries do not have the resources that they need either to meet the demands of citizens, or to manage and distribute government services and content that are continually changing or inadequately developed. • the community organization resources that are required in order to effectively provide program and service delivery are: staff resources; information and service content 4 community organizations in the information age development and dissemination; technology maintenance and upgrades; staff it training; human resources development and support, and effective level of communications (e.g., access to high-speed internet services, multiple channel service delivery, etc.). • many of the clients of community organizations are already on the margins of society based on their socio-economic circumstances. how ict are used for information and service delivery can contribute to these people’s greater inclusion in society, or further marginalize them. considered, carefully designed strategies and practices for different means of communication are required to achieve inclusion and meet needs. where formal relationships already exist, governments at all levels are increasing the demands upon, responsibilities of, and accountability by community organizations. however, these organizations have not received commensurate support with the required resources to be effective, and in some instances, sustainable over the longer term. the community intermediaries were of the view that by essentially doing the work for government, financial support should be provided to assist with at least some of the core operating and personnel costs of these organizations. without this, the risks increase that service delivery will not be effective and that the ability of the community intermediaries to adapt and change to meet the evolving needs of the public will be limited. in addition the sustainability and prospects for continuing operation of these organizations becomes a growing concern. a real opportunity exists for the federal government and community intermediaries with the services canada initiative or, given that this initiative may not reach fruition in its current form, its underlying service strategy. the service strategy of services canada closely aligns with the existing strategies and processes employed by community organizations. this would include, for example language of use, multiple communication service channels, through “boutiquing” or packaging information and services around the specific needs of communities and citizens, etc. pilot program delivery by service canada includes progressive and innovative initiatives to facilitate community-level services, including cost sharing of local personnel by government departments and non-staff resource support. of mutual benefit to the federal government and communities/citizens would be the establishment of close collaborations and partnerships between services canada, or departments using the same service strategy, and community intermediaries. such partnerships should address the service needs of the public, and provide various forms of support for addressing the critical resource problems experienced by community organizations. there have been high-level investments by government into infrastructure and digitization of back-end services and content. while these are required components of a national service 5 community organizations in the information age infrastructure, these have not had significant impact or value at the local, community level. greater attention and resources should be devoted to service delivery at the community level to meet the needs of canadians as well as to ensure successful program delivery and thereby achieve policy objectives. as part of this, the federal government, individually, and in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments, should ensure the availability of relevant content in multiple use formats, available across canada in the official languages as well as in minority languages. community intermediaries deliver many specific programs for government departments through contracting and similar arrangements, such as employment insurance, data bank job searches, employment training skills upgrading, work placement, as well as health information/services, and others. government departments and agencies should provide increased resources, including financial, technical and content. this is in order to ensure that the community intermediaries have the capacity to provide service levels that contribute to successful specific program and policy objectives. 1.4 findings of the study 1.4.1 funding funding arrangements funding for learning and employment resource organizations is a mixture of core, fee-for-service and program funding. unsustainable funding situations affect staffing, ict and internet services negatively in information and service delivery: • funding arrangements are contingent, variable and not sustainable either for program delivery or new programs; • core funding is being phased out; • short-term, fee-for-service and project funding is inadequate to cover the current operating costs of each of these organizations. staffing and funding the short duration of project funding at the learning and employment resource organizations has resulted in widespread job insecurity, and working short-term contracts: • as staffing decreases, so too do services to clients; • there is inconsistency in salaries; 6 community organizations in the information age • there is a high rate of staff turnover; • volunteers are rare. ict funding in grants and programs grants and government programs exclude funding for necessary supportive resources, including: • software; • hardware (computers, peripherals, networking etc.); • staff ict training; • internet access, high-speed services; • it maintenance and upgrades; • integration of it systems. 1.4.2 composition of clients the composition of the clients at each community organization is an important factor that has to be taken into consideration when delivering services and information. • a majority of the clients at the learning and employment resource organizations have lowincome levels ($5-15,000/annum). • many clients are young adults between the ages of the ages of 19 to 35 requiring basic needs (income, food, shelter, and clothing). • a concentration of seniors at a specific organization (i.e. the health and wellness centre) places particular demands on service delivery (which are likely to increase in the future). • major challenges to service and information delivery include: low education, illiteracy; learning difficulties; mental health problems; physical disabilities; visual, hearing or cognitive impairments; lack of work experience and being intimidated by technology. 1.4.3 language barriers health information and services need to be available in english and french to ensure minority language speakers understand diagnosis, treatments and services. the organizations do not have the capacity to address the needs of non-official minority language speakers. a significant percentage of the growing client bases are comprised of aboriginal peoples and recent immigrants. 7 community organizations in the information age 1.4.4 client information and service interests clients are interested in the following types of government services: • skills upgrading, lifelong learning, computer literacy and numeracy upgrading services; • health and wellness information. 1.4.5 information and communication technology a substantial investment of financial, human, and technical resources is necessary to ensure that these organizations will be able to effectively use ict to deliver information and services to their clients: • all the community intermediaries studied face considerable challenges using ict to deliver information and services; • a multi-channel approach to delivery – with the emphasis on telephone and face-to-face personal contact – is how community intermediaries will continue to operate in the foreseeable future; • for the three organizations without adequate and sustainable core funding, using ict effectively is an overwhelming challenge. multi-channel delivery community intermediaries use a multi-channel approach to delivering services and information: • ranging from posters and pamphlets to websites – to inform and provide services to clients; • most information and services are provided by telephone and in-person; • most clients prefer personal contact. all the organizations use ict for operational use and delivering services and information, however not all are doing this effectively: • all four organizations have websites, but only two use them strategically and keep them maintained; • three of the organizations provide computers for clients to access information and services online, despite considerable challenges; • lack of high-speed infrastructure is a barrier to service delivery for the organization in a rural area. information communication technology benefits 8 community organizations in the information age the benefits for clients using ict for information and service delivery include: • easier access to information and services; • increasing their ict skills for employment; • increasing their social capital when using computers in community settings. the benefits for staff and organizations using ict include: • easier access to information; • getting information for and to clients more quickly; • networking more effectively with funders and partners. information communication technology barriers however the barriers of using ict outweigh the benefits for many clients: • the primary barrier is lack of access to the internet – levels of home internet access range from 70 per cent for clients of one organization to 30 per cent for clients of another; • the high cost of computers and internet use; • community internet access is not always available or appropriate; • many clients have a low capacity to use ict effectively. effective ict use by the organizations faces significant challenges: • ict troubleshooting and ongoing maintenance is a common problem; • using and maintaining ict software; • outdated or absent hardware and internal networks; • software glitches that no staff member can fix; • not having enough computers or internet connections; • having old computers that crash often; • assuring an adequate electrical supply for ict; • significant challenges with internal phone systems. staff ict training staff ict training is an ongoing issue for community intermediaries because of new emerging ict and evolving requirements for service and information delivery. • the one organization with adequate and sustainable core funding has the highest staff ict capacity and is the best prepared to ensure future staff ict training needs are met. • the other organizations face significant challenges ensuring adequate staff ict capacity, primarily because their limited funding also limits their ability to ensure that staff members are trained to use ict effectively. • none of the organizations has a staff ict training policy in place. 9 community organizations in the information age 1.4.6 information seeking and decision making the most significant types of constraints and influences on the access and exchange of information in these organizations are, without ranking: technical, affective, economic, and organizational: • lack of access to current networking and data sharing technology; • priority given to non-technical interpersonal communication; • financial constraints faced by all organizations and many of their clients; • frequent change within external sponsoring agencies requiring organizations to change the ways in which they access and process information; • geographic barriers due either to the location of the organizations and/or clients' lack of transportation; • lack of training by both clients and staff in the use of ict; • the necessity of relying on social networking by staff to obtain critical information for their clients. an improvement in the ict infrastructure of these organizations would enable staff to offer even greater levels of service. improvements should focus on: • minimizing the communications difficulties faced by clients; • increasing the administrative efficiency and capacity of these organizations; • organizations’ needs for software and networking infrastructure for performing statistical analysis, file sharing and remote access by staff. improvements to information management are also necessary in the external organizations, such as government, with which these organizations interface: • information architectures of external organizations should be designed and managed such that on-line documentation, reporting requirements, and information about administrative procedures are easier to find and use; • architectural improvement in this should also be designed to mitigate the impacts of frequent organizational changes by the external partners on these community organizations. 1.5 policy and program recommendations • federal and provincial governments should formally recognize the role of community intermediaries as providers of government information and services. as part of this, these 10 community organizations in the information age governments should provide support and training for the organizations’ staff to better ensure that information provided to clients is accurate. • the various levels of government should establish better communications and planning mechanisms to develop a coordinated approach to funding. • there should be more consultation with and engagement of the community organizations, including the front line workers, in the development of policy by governments. • policies and practices with respect to programs and contracts delivered by intermediaries need to be revised to reflect the real costs and challenges of service delivery. overhead costs, it costs, accounting, support staff and other costs not currently covered by project funding needs to be included. • the process of program development and review should include close consultations with the community organizations and their staff who deliver the services. • project time frames need to be extended from short-term to medium and long-term so that the real costs of projects are covered and the projects operate long enough to be successful. • government programs should be more flexible to accommodate community and individual circumstances and needs. programs and services should be adapted to needs rather than the current situation, which has people being fitted into programs. • there is a need for better communication and provision of supporting materials and resources to community intermediaries by federal departments when they change their programs and services. the current delays and outright lack of good, clear communication of changes results in delayed service delivery and forces intermediaries to continually re-do work. improvements are necessary to increase the efficiency and quality of service provision to clients. • beyond how the intermediaries operate, the services they provide and the communications technologies employed, there remain deep-seated socio-economic challenges around literacy, poverty, education, skills, and disability, among others. there will be a continuing need to ensure that programs and policies provided directly to individuals and through community intermediaries are comprehensive enough to address these challenges. 11 community organizations in the information age government policy and program officers should undertake ongoing engagement and consultation with front line workers in order to create a better understanding of community issues and needs. this would improve the links and outcomes between policy, programs and citizens’ needs. • if government services and information are going to be delivered on-line, citizens want sites that are easy to use and secure. they also require reliable information, particularly health and wellness information and a guarantee that their personal privacy will not be compromised. 1.5.1 funding • federal and provincial governments should consider providing an adequate level of core funding to community intermediaries to ensure that the organizations are able to continue to operate and to do so effectively. • project funding rules by the federal government should be reviewed to consider the inclusion of ict costs, ongoing ict maintenance and support costs, as well as training costs for staff and clients. • funding levels for projects and other initiatives should be sufficient to meet both the expectations of the funders and the needs of the organizations. • funding support is required for ict training for staff and volunteers. • there are still many rural and remote areas without high-speed service. the federal government should ensure that at a minimum, this level of service is available locally to municipal, social services (health) and community service organizations. • the federal government should consider supporting the introduction and use of videoconferencing for health service and information in rural and remote areas. such an initiative should include providing these services to minority language speaking citizens in these areas. • to ensure access to government services and programs for people without home internet, governments need to consider providing financial support to keep open and maintain 12 community organizations in the information age community access computers. the funding would need to include support for computer upgrades, maintenance, appropriate technical support, as well as staff and user training. • funding is required to assist with hiring and maintaining staff for critical core activities in community organizations, especially those positions that involve managerial supervision and accountability, it support, staff and client training activities. • funding is required by organizations for internal client needs assessment analysis, as well as program and materials development. 1.5.2 access and content • the federal government should address the issue of phonelessness for low income and homeless citizens. • the federal government should address the continuing issue of the lack of high-speed service in rural and remote areas. • how information is provided to disadvantaged people needs to be improved, including how it is presented on the internet. • more information programs are required to address socio-economic needs, such as health information and basic education among others. • funding and other forms of support are required to translate documents and information into other languages (e.g. aboriginal). 13 community organizations in the information age 2 introduction 2.1 purpose of the study and methodology the objective of the community intermediaries in the information society study involved investigating the roles, challenges and opportunities for community organizations in their provision of employment, health services and information to meet the needs of citizens, using information and communication technologies (icts). until recently canadian employment services were delivered primarily by federal and provincial levels of government. where as, the provincial governments provided health information and services. for the past ten years the federal and provincial governments have down-loaded the delivery of these services to community development and other non-government organizations. the study defines these organizations as community intermediaries because they act as links between various levels of government (federal, provincial or municipal) and citizens, delivering social services and information to clients. the community intermediaries study investigated the specific social needs and challenges at four canadian not-for-profit community-based organizations located in the provinces of manitoba, newfoundland and labrador, ontario and quebec. it considered the community context in which the community intermediaries operate and the services and information they provide to their clients. the skills and training organization delivers services and programs to people who are unemployed/underemployed or dependent on some form of government social income support. the job placement organization offers vocational training, job placement and onsite job training to persons with mental illness and other disabilities. the community development and employment resources organization provides job resource services as well as community development to neighbourhood residents. the fourth organization, the health and wellness centre, delivers health and wellness information and services to a minority language group. the questions that guided the study are: • what are the means employed by community organizations to successfully provide education, skills, literacy, health information and other resources for citizen engagement? • how do these organizations use information and communication technologies (ict)? • what are the opportunities, barriers and restraints for using electronic technology to deliver client information and services? the study used a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology and gathered data in two phases. phase 1 involved analysis of reports and the web sites of each organization. a 14 community organizations in the information age demographic profile of the geographic areas where the four community organizations are located was compiled from the statistics canada 2001 census data. in phase 2, 2005, the research team conducted individual field trips to the four community intermediary organizations. the data gathered and analyzed for phase 2 is discussed in sections 3, 4 and 5. the cirp study gained insights from 33 in-depth interviews, 31 with key staff members along with two boards of directors’ interviews. self-administered survey questionnaires were also distributed to all of the staff members at each organization. the completion rate for the selfadministered staff surveys was 62 per cent (n= 44). focus group interviews were conducted with 36 staff members to ensure that a representative client sample was achieved for the client focus panels and surveys, the researchers worked with staff members to reflect the client base. this involved taking into consideration the spectrum of client income, age, gender and language spoken. four client focus discussions were conducted with 39 clients. self-administered surveys were distributed to 50 per cent of each organization’s clients. the response rate from the completed client surveys was 45 per cent (n= 514). the cirp team is confident that the client survey sample is representative of the client population at each organization. the analysis that follows in sections 3 and 4 is able to generalize to the community intermediaries’ client population. this sample was not, however, used to make any generalizations between the clients of each organization. furthermore, this type of sample disallows generalizations to be made to the larger population, for example in all of canada or the area where the organization is geographically located. the data allows reporting with confidence, tendencies and the provision of descriptive analysis of the client base at each organization. the fieldwork also involved conducting information environment mapping (iem) interviews with 40 staff members. the iem methodology and analysis of key findings are discussed in section 5. 15 community organizations in the information age 3 community intermediary organization issues 3.1 funding impact on intermediary service and information delivery how a community intermediary is funded has a major impact on the services and information it delivers to clients. the health and wellness centre has a significant advantage over the other three organizations that deliver employment resource services and programs. this advantage stems from the core funding the centre receives from the provincial health department on an annual basis. although provincial health funding formulas may change from year to year, this core funding for the health centre is relatively secure. the centre has partnered with three other community organizations to form a not-for-profit corporation that engages in securing foundation grants. designated staff members spend a significant amount of time fund raising. the centre has also received some project funding, primarily from health canada. the primary service of the centre is to deliver services such as general health, well-being and illness prevention, tailored to the needs of different client groups. for example, services for young people could range from sexual abuse prevention to drug and dependency issues. adult services may focus on prenatal services and postnatal follow-up. social isolation has to be addressed for clients with mental health problems whereas seniors require health care and home care, and their at-home caregivers require assistance and support. many of these services are delivered on-site or in specific locations throughout the community. if more funding were available, however, it would be possible to increase outreach activities. we’re in a very unique situation. for the first time that i’m aware of perhaps, in at least the last decade, the federal government is really investing money into the minority language community … and so i feel i just can’t consciously say that we’re missing funding, because we’re not. but i’d really like to see it continue and there are a lot of other things i could plan, so i’m hoping that it will continue and that it will even grow. and i really think that … provincial governments need to play a more prominent role in the development of linguistic minority services (health and wellness centre si-6). 16 community organizations in the information age securing sustainable funding for the three employment resource community intermediaries is one of their major problems. each of these organizations has received three years of funding and support to develop community learning networks. the job placement organization’s funding is a mixture of core, fee-for-service and program funding. with the change to fee-for-service project funding, the organization’s funding was reduced by almost 50 per cent. annual core funding of approximately $600,000 from the provincial government funds most of the programs and outreach services the organization provides to homeless people. the organization receives a small amount of core funding from the municipal government. there is, however, a possibility this funding arrangement may not continue. the organization receives project-based and fee-forservice funding from both federal and provincial levels of government. as well, a significant amount of staff resources is used to fundraise, applying for 25 to 35 grants per year. the organization’s inadequate financial resources have had a major impact on the staffing situation, as well as the service and program delivery. staff salaries are not competitive because in most cases the provincial departments funding the organization do not augment the salary rates or recognize that many staff members are unionized. one provincial department this year allowed staff a 3 per cent salary increase, their first increase in 12 years. the only way salaries can increase is to decrease the number of staff. as staff decreases, services to clients decrease. some funders have said the organization is not allowed to decrease the number of staff. the short duration of project funding, compared to core funding, means that job insecurity is widespread. some staff members are on short-term contracts – two-week contracts were mentioned and have no job security, adding to the general stress levels. the fee-for-service funding model means even more staff time is spent on administrative tasks rather than addressing client needs. staff members expressed sadness and frustration at the overall situation related to funding insecurity. another staff member explained: whenever our contract is coming up you are getting a little stressed because you haven’t heard anything and they won’t tell you until the day of, like your last day, whether or not you are going to be renewed. … you are worrying about all your clients, you are worrying about yourself. what types of supports can you provide referral wise? (job placement organization, si-4). this organization, like the other community-based organizations, has found it increasingly difficult to use volunteers. there is not a ready supply of volunteers anymore and it is extremely difficult either to get volunteers on its board of directors or to come and work with clients. 17 community organizations in the information age funding is a major problem for the second employment intermediary, the skills and training organization. the organization receives all of its funding from both federal and provincial government departments, with monthly fee-for-service payments attached to each program delivered. program and project funding is inadequate to cover the core costs of running the organization. the most obvious impact, aside from the low ict capacity, is the effect on human resources. because there is no core funding, staff members are on contracts. the funding is not enough to provide secure employment or good working conditions for the staff. as contract workers, staff members do not belong to a union or representative association. there is inconsistency in salaries, dictated by how the government funds different geographical areas: some staff members are receiving less pay than others for doing the same work because of where they are located. low staff salaries have contributed to rising staff turnover rates. some staff members also put in long volunteer hours to write funding applications, and all of the staff has to work long hours to ensure they are paid an adequate income. volunteers to help paid staff are rare, with some former volunteers having left the province to seek employment. the staff has not had a salary increase, even for cost of living, for six years. this generally unsustainable funding situation has had a negative impact on the organization’s capacity to deliver information and services. in some of its offices, the number of staff is adequate to deliver the required services. in other offices, more staff is needed but there are no resources to hire more people. the organization does not have the staff resources or the ict capacity to deliver information and services – including life-long learning services – using computers and the internet in a sustainable way. the third employment intermediary, the community development and employment resource organization, has a number of funders including provincial, federal and municipal governments, as well as foundations and private donors. the municipal government provides yearly core funding that has been reduced to $75,000 for all administration, rent, legal, accounting, audit and other expenses. most of the organization’s funding is project-based, which has created many organizational challenges. until fairly recently, the organization had serious management problems, but that situation is currently being addressed. the organization cannot charge user fees because of the low-income levels of its clients. the organization has very limited funding considering its broad range of services and the needs of the community. one staff member described the organization as “kind of hanging on” to its financial and human resources capacity. all of the service areas are stretched and many current 18 community organizations in the information age activities rely on volunteers. service areas are budgeted tightly and the scope of projects is curtailed by available funding. staff members are also concerned about starting new programs without assurances of funding sustainability. without sustainable funding: “it will be just another well-intentioned program that’s fallen by the wayside and it will be another disappointment and frustration for people in the community who are left hanging with half an education or reduced access” (community development and employment resource organization-si-3). 3.2 clientele composition as a factor in service and information delivery the age of clients varies among the organizations. the community development and employment resource organization and the skills and training organization have a majority of clients who are young adults, aged 19-35. the majority of clients at the job placement organization are middle aged, 35-55 years old. the health and wellness organization has a majority of clients who are middle aged, 25-54 years of age, and seniors who are 65 years and over. the community development and employment resource, skills and training, and job placement organizations service clients who tend to have low income and lower middle-income levels. the majority of clients for each of these organizations have incomes of five to fifteen thousand dollars per annum. the health and wellness organization provides services to clients who fall across the complete spectrum of income levels, but the majority tend to have lower incomes while some are in the higher income bracket of more than sixty-five thousand dollars per annum. the majority of the clients who use the health and wellness centre are middle aged, 25-54 years old and seniors 65 years and over. client barriers at the health and wellness centre include language barriers, aging, mental health problems and social isolation. additionally, staff pointed out that some clients find technologies to be very intimidating. as one staff explained … [clients] really like it when it’s [services are] personalized and when we bring it to them in different ways. so it might be a small group on one time, it might be questionnaires on another, it might be powerpoint through, you know, the computer and through the canon 19 community organizations in the information age projector. another time it might be in film form, but we don’t use the same mode all the time. we like variety, the diversity, but their favourite is when we are presenting it in person (health and wellness centre si-5). staff members identified a number of challenges and barriers to delivering client services and information. the first challenge is one of geography – delivering services and information to people living over a large region. the second is the challenge of language – because all health and wellness information has to be translated. a third challenge is ensuring that the members of the larger majority language health services network remain aware of and engaged with the organization. a fourth challenge is being aware of the needs of the clients so the centre is ready with required reliable, up-do-date information that the organization can give to clients when needed. a fifth challenge is ensuring that the centre is included in all aspects of the integration of the health it system, currently being developed. a majority of clients at the job placement organization are middle-aged (between 35 and 55 years old). income levels are low; clients receive from five to fifteen thousand dollars per annum. the organization’s staff members explained that although client needs are primarily employmentrelated, the organization addresses learning and social needs as well. clients have many needs, including basic human needs such as food, income and housing security. some clients cannot afford to pay for public transportation to visit the organization. many clients have cognitive impairments and learning difficulties, and some have psychiatric conditions, delivering information and services appropriately to these clients requires more energy and time than staff members have available. staff members also identified illiteracy, hearing disabilities and physical disabilities as possible barriers to the services that the organization offers. clients with walking difficulties and those using a wheelchair are able to access all staff members and programs by using the elevator. one staff member was in the process of learning sign language to communicate more effectively with clients who have hearing disabilities. clients with literacy barriers receive additional levels of service from staff, such as verbal explanation and the reading of written documents and forms. a staff member explains that clients need: … a place of acceptance, of non-judgement and just a place that gives them an opportunity to go forward in their life (job placement organization-sf). 20 community organizations in the information age staff members want to be able to refer clients to other services, but many of the local services for their clients have been cut. staff members also need more information about existing services provided by other organizations in the region. however, many of the information resources on local services are out of date, presumably for the same reason that many of the organization’s own information resources are out of date: there is no time to update them. the skills and training organization has a majority of clients who are young adults, between the ages of 19 and 35. most clients have low income and lower middle-income levels with a majority in the five to fifteen thousand dollars per annum range. the organization responds to clients’ economic and learning needs. to identify employment options, employment counsellors conduct a client assessment, taking the client’s interests into consideration. goals are established such as completing secondary education, acquiring a community college diploma, pursuing a university degree, or obtaining a trade certificate. in addition employment counsellors provide career planning. client barriers include low education levels and a lack of employment skills, which affects the ability to progress both in their work and personal lives. social barriers range from a lack of a work ethic, a lack of experience with fulltime employment and not understanding the responsibility of full-time work. some staff participants thought some of the clients were afraid of full-time employment and the commitment it requires. these barriers can be traced to previous seasonal work patterns and not understanding the concept of working all year around. the other barriers included the frequency of low literacy skills, the prevalence of level one secondary education (grade 8 to 10), the lack of a certificate, diploma or a grade twelve education level. other barriers involve the frequency of alcohol and/or drug addiction or the presence of a mental or physical disability. these barriers result in staff making a considerable investment of time and effort before a client can be trained or retrained to enter the work force. first, a cat (aptitude) test is conducted by an employment counsellor. if the client reaches level two or three, he or she is then eligible to go to an adult basic education (abe) centre to obtain a grade twelve education. once the client receives the abe certificate, the person can proceed to a trade school, community college or university. people with disabilities are referred to the ability employment cooperation (aec) program where, after an assessment, the aec contacts employers on behalf of the clients for work placements. the criteria for service programs, however, do not always meet clients’ needs. many clients do not meet the minimum educational requirements – often a high school diploma – for the skills 21 community organizations in the information age training programs. they often do not score high enough in the aptitude test to apply for educational upgrading. in these cases, the clients have to get help on their own and teach themselves before trying the aptitude test again. because it may take years of intense training for clients to reach the required aptitude level, the challenge for the organization is keeping clients motivated. another service delivery challenge is that clients with disabilities often will not self-identify or admit to having a disability. in these cases, the organization cannot refer the client to the appropriate social services, and so clients with disabilities are not adequately served. the organization also has challenges reaching out to young people in the area because many young people do not listen to radio, watch tv or read the newspapers. clients described the “valuable work experience” they received from this organization in the form of job interview training and the computer training to access the on-line job bank (skills and training organization-cf). the clients of the community development and employment resources organization tend to have low income and lower middle-income levels. a majority have incomes of five to fifteen thousand dollars per annum. for the most part the clientele is young, between the ages of 19 and 35. these clients have many basic needs including food, shelter and clothing. clients require information and services to help address a combination of social, cultural and economic needs. these include: more education; employment and financial security; child-care services; a space to meet and interact; literacy; or learning to read, write and speak english as a second language. staff members pointed out that some clients do not have much self-reliance. stigmatized by living for long periods of time on social or partial assistance, they lack confidence in their own abilities. having low or partial levels of income or no income at all contributes to senses of alienation and lack of purpose. some staff members expressed frustration at not being able to address community needs because of the specific parameters of the individual services they offer. other problems include the high number of transient residents in the area, which makes it challenging both to reach potential clients and to offer longer-term services. clients praised the services they receive. they have very positive views that the organization plays a role in “encouraging a sense of belonging” and “creating an innovative community something you don’t find all over canada.” clients also explained that the organization offers practical assistance in that “you can grow your own food and you can still live in an apartment” 22 community organizations in the information age and “i am not discriminated against because i am aboriginal as much here” (community development and employment resources organization-cf). 3.3 minority languages and service and information delivery minority languages have an impact on service and information delivery for three of the four community intermediaries, and as previously discussed, the primary purpose of the health and wellness centre is to provide health and social services to a minority language group that resides in an area where services are delivered in the language of the majority. staff pointed out how important it is to receive health services in one’s first language, particularly as a person ages, to ensure diagnosis, treatments and services are understood, a significant portion of the centre’s clients are seniors who are minority language speakers, and who until this centre began to provide health services, experienced a sense of isolation, a lack of support, and a lack of knowledge about health and wellness services. a major challenge for the centre is translating provincial government health information. one of the staff members explained that the difficulty of language translation is that one has to take extra care to move beyond the literal “to make sure that you are getting the gist.” other challenges included ensuring that information is reliable and up-do-date, and that it can be made available to clients as they need it. service and information delivery in minority languages for the community development and employment resources organization is a growing concern. the organization recognizes that services and information cannot be delivered the same way to everyone because of the language mix. a majority of clients are english language speakers, a significant portion is made up of aboriginal peoples who speak different native languages, and an increasing number of clients are recent immigrants to canada. currently, the organization does not have the capacity to address the needs of these non-official minority language speakers. one staff member said: i am not suggesting that we could functionally be able to help all those people because we do have limited staff and funding, but we should at least have the resources to be able to connect them with somebody that can help them, and very often we do not (community development and employment resources organization-si 3). 23 community organizations in the information age the organization is hopeful it will be able to support the development of english as a second language (esl) classes for recent immigrant clientele. the job resource program personnel are considering providing services in native language(s) or first language. some outreach has already begun with articles in its local newspaper in two minority languages. the job placement organization offers client services and information in english only. eighty seven per cent of the clients surveyed indicated their first language is english. of the 13 per cent of respondents whose first language is not english, 11.8 per cent said that the language difference made it difficult for them to access the services and information from the organization. some staff members speculated that if the organization had more multi-lingual staff it could perhaps attract more clients. almost all (99 per cent) of the clients at the skills and training organization are english speakers – the majority language group. services, information and programs are provided in english and unless there is a major change in the area’s demographics, minority language issues will not affect service delivery. 3.4 lifelong learning services life-long learning is an integral component to all of the client services, information and programs offered by the three employment resource service organizations, but it is not within the purview of the health and wellness centre. the job placement organization provides employment programs and services ranging from vocational training, job placement and job coaching to on-site job training. additional employment services include group and casual work placement leading to paid employment. job searches are part of the organization’s targeted job development program. a few clients conduct their own job searches on the hrsdc on-line job bank with less assistance but most clients rely on staff members to help with their job searches. one of the programs, employment quest, helps clients find permanent, temporary or casual work. another employment program is an agency-sponsored entrepreneurial business that offers individual or group on-the-job training for industrial kitchen employment. the organization offers additional pre-employment services, such as resume writing and interview workshops. beyond employment, mental and physical health programs are also provided to 24 community organizations in the information age address health and wellness needs. other support functions involve finding and maintaining housing, medical appointments and referrals. the client’s benefit from all of these programs by gaining work experience, and being better prepared to find and hold employment. a staff member explained that preparing the clients for the work environment involves finding work and developing: … social skills, working with individuals, how to communicate with other people and being assisted to integrate into society (job placement organization si-4). the life-long learning programs at the skills and training organization benefit clients by providing both formal and informal training and skills development. services and programs include one-onone assistance for clients conducting labour market research, resume writing and teaching the basic skills to conduct an internet job search. a program that combines education upgrading, retraining and job placement provides information is described on the organization’s web site. the program’s popularity is reflected in the 75 applications that the organization received for 10 to 20 participant spaces. the web site is not only informative, but it answers commonly asked questions before people physically visit the organization to check their eligibility for the program. as discussed in section 4, ict training is mandatory for clients that are accepted into this program. the community development and employment resources organization’s life-long learning programs help to build human capacity. any service and information delivery by electronic services will depend on the direction the organization plans to take in the near future. currently the organization has reached the end of its federal government community learning network project funding and so has cancelled the client ict education service training. clients at the three employment resources organizations value the importance of skills upgrading, computer literacy upgrading, lifelong learning services and numeracy upgrading services illustrated in figure 3.1. in the client survey, respondents were asked to identify the types of government services they were interested in receiving using ict. figure 3.1 illustrates that clients from all organizations were interested in receiving health information and services, as well as skills upgrading. 25 community organizations in the information age community development and employment resources (cder), skills and training (s&t), job placement (jp), health and wellness (h&w) 3.5 health information services the health and wellness centre devotes a considerable amount to time obtaining credible sources of health information. the centre receives reliable health information from the provincial government, which then has to be translated, assessed and discussed by staff members before it can be delivered to clients. as noted in section 4 the centre also spends a significant amount of time looking for other reliable sources of health information that are already translated. the clients at the four community intermediaries place significant value on health information and services, as indicated in table 3.1. clients could be encouraged to use these services from an online source, however the health information must be trustworthy, the sites secure and privacy is guaranteed (discussed further in section 4). 3.6 community intermediary partnerships two types of community intermediary partnership arrangements are evident from the research: a community-centred partnership and government-imposed partnerships. the health and wellness centre is a partnership organization with others in the community. it delivers health services and figure 3.1: types of government services clients are interested in receiving using icts 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 skills upgrading lifelong learning computer literacy upgrading numeracy upgrading health information and services other types of services p er ce n t o f r es p o n d en ts cder (n=40) s&t (n=210) jp (n=96) h&w (n=168) 26 community organizations in the information age information in co-delivery arrangements with five community and public sector partners; these include a hospital, a nursing home, a development corporation, and two local government partners. in addition to formal partnerships, the organization is a central node in a local net minority language speaking organizations with formal and informal groups, including churches and schools. this network acts as a referral and information-dissemination mechanism for the centre. at specific times, this informal network coalesces into formal partnerships of organizatio that work together on specific projects. the centre has also partnered with a university on an electronic health project. work of ns he community centred partnership characteristics of the health and wellness centre includes he partnership and service agreements of the job placement organization have evolved in part may start h as one ship he skills and training organization works in an umbrella group with a number of development viding d staff, t partnership arrangements arising from a common purpose, a history of working together and an agreement on service and information co-delivery arrangements. t because the funding environment demands them. concurrently, cuts in the organization’s core funding have forced it to compete with private-sector companies and other non-profit organizations with which they otherwise may have formed partnerships. partnerships “on paper” for the sole purpose of applying for funding. when a proposal is funded, partnerships are activated and the organization puts effort and resources into making them work. most partnerships do not involve an exchange of funds, but rather they offer mutual support, suc referring clients or providing new kinds of services for clients. a few partnerships have occurred with business to deliver specific training programs and resources to clients. although these partnerships with the private sector are desirable they are also very time-consuming, and as staff member described: “…you have to do a lot of work to develop and nurture those relationships.” what the organization has learned is that when conflicts occur in partner arrangements, there has to be a dispute resolution mechanism. t associations. the major partnership the organization has is with the provincial government department of human resources and employment, also its major source of funding. the organization works closely with employment counselors and the career specialist in this government department. staff described this partnership as “excellent,” with partners pro resource information and guidance to ensure the organization’s programs are successful. the organization also works with community services, the regional school district, local groups and organizations, different town councils, as well as a community college. one challenge the organization has encountered working with local groups is that many are small, without pai which often impedes communication and makes accomplishing tasks difficult. 27 community organizations in the information age the community development and employment resources organization works with many other e cation, be overnment-imposed partnerships, imposed or required as a result of funding arrangements, with urposes, st. of a t .7 administrative issues he staff members at the health and wellness centre speculated that more services could be lthough the general consensus was that the organization currently has adequate staff, several community organizations and surrounding communities to deliver services jointly. these includ organizations dedicated to social services, culture, employment, neighbourhood renewal, housing, special needs, aboriginal issues, small business, immigrants, youth, seniors, edu residents associations, religion and others. after a period of inactivity an alliance has been formed between the intermediary and other community partners, so each service area may funded by a variety of different partners. but partnerships among neighbourhood associations became difficult after 2001 when the provincial government began to “conquer and divide the neighbourhoods,” according to a staff member. g the three employment resources organizations often result in unforeseen challenges or unintended outcomes. if the partnerships are “virtual” as a requirement for grant writing p they tend to be only paper-based. another kind of partnership formed for grant-writing purposes may provide mutual support between organizations, but there is no sharing of resources or funding. these contingent partnerships are time consuming to set up, and are not likely to la partnerships with local groups that do not have the intermediaries’ equivalent financial and human resources place additional stress on the organization and contribute to the possibility break-up. private sector partnerships are rare and time consuming to develop. if a private sector partnership is secured, dispute resolution mechanisms need to be put in place to resolve conflicts. the community development and employment resources organization stated tha current municipal or provincial government policy changes were adversarial and are likely to divide local organizations rather than encourage them to form partnerships. 3 t provided as long as funding was made available for hiring additional professionals to deliver services such as rehabilitation, physiotherapy, occupational, psychology, and client-intensive social services. this rate of growth in service and information provision indicates that there are still unmet needs in the minority language community that the centre could expand to serve. a staff members suggested the organization could use a technical support person in the form of a 28 community organizations in the information age clinical staff member who is also trained in technology use, such as “a nurse computer whiz or a social worker computer whiz.” as discussed earlier in this section, the job placement organization’s service delivery challenges are primarily related to its funding situation. the lack of secure sustainable funding has resulted in uncertainty that has affected many aspects of the organization. the organization can no longer maintain its model of service delivery with reduced staffing levels. the directors are underresourced in their fundraising activities, and the writing of grant applications requires considerable time resources from the remaining staff. moreover, the organization has no administrative support staff or receptionist; so many day-to-day tasks also fall to the two directors. the organization also has no staff for collecting follow-up data on project outcomes, which would be useful information for funders and for applications for future funding. for the past ten years the organization has continued to provide services over a larger geographic area to people with mental disabilities, homeless people and to people with “concurrent disorders” such as mental health and substance abuse. at the same time that the organization has had to make major structural changes to adjust to a new provincial funding regime and subsequent changes to the grant application process, the client base has been increasing. these institutional changes occurred concurrently as the number of people with mental illnesses has increased along with increases in homelessness and people living at risk. the most significant challenge to the skills and training organization is its precarious income situation, which limits what the organization can do. the unsustainable funding situation has had a negative impact on its capacity to deliver information and services despite great effort by the staff. i spend, i guess six days a week and a lot of nights, some weeks i have to go seven days just steady at it in order to be having enough programs up and going in order to be able to i guess keep myself employed. it gets really hard especially with me, i am by myself and i don’t have any assistance at it. it is very limited as to what the board of directors can do to help … because the majority of these are working people so they can’t come here in the daytime helping out and that. i find it rather difficult at times (skills and training organization si-1). as discussed earlier the organization is in an unsustainable funding situation and, despite great effort, this has had a negative impact on its capacity to deliver information and services. in some 29 community organizations in the information age of its offices, the number of staff is adequate to deliver the required services, whereas in other offices, more staff is needed, but there are no resources to hire more people. most recently, funding cuts to the community development and employment resources organization required discontinuing a youth program and a computertraining program. the funding situation means insecure work contracts, resulting in stress and anxiety among staff, which then has a further negative impact on the ability to deliver services. the restricted funding also limits the range of services available. for example, assistance with rental housing has been identified as a huge need in the community and while the organization has services for homebuyers and owners, it does not have any additional resources to develop programs for renters. additional administrative challenges arise from the high number of transient residents in the area, making it challenging for the organization to reach potential clients and to offer longerterm services. 3.8 community organizations’ approaches to accountability as previously discussed the health and wellness centre is a partnership of five organizations. the five partner organizations are audited and accountable through their respective boards of directors. the organization also has a committee that oversees planning and direction, which involves the directors general of each partner organization. the centre’s non-profit corporation is a community-based partner. the corporation uses a variety of mechanisms to ensure accountability, including quarterly meetings of a board of directors, producing two semi-annual reports for the community, and submitting quarterly reports for all funders. the corporation meets stringent auditing requirements and submits the auditing reports to the other partner organizations in the network. to ensure ongoing organization accountability, the job placement organization has monthly board of director’s meetings. the directors present quarterly statements to the board’s finance committee. the organization has a global budget that it balances every year and it has an independent external auditor who produces an annual audited report. the organization’s annual general meeting is open to all its corporate members and an annual report is produced and distributed widely. funders have their own accountability mechanisms and procedures to which the organization 30 community organizations in the information age adheres. most of its programs have measurable targets and goals to achieve and these are discussed at an operational meeting every two weeks. the funders require accountability through reports of project outcomes. this requires the organization to maintain a database to record outcomes. the technical problems related to the database are discussed in section 4. the time required to produce the reports of outcomes for the funders is onerous and directly related to the funding situation at the organization. as one staff member explained: collecting outcomes is very difficult. people are obviously more occupied providing services than counting the number of services that they provided. then not even having a secretary or somebody to answer the phone makes it rather difficult to do very much of anything. … we have a good 4 or 5 regular funders, (the administrator) is constantly sending in reports, financial reports to them. so there is no time really allocated there at all (job placement organization si-1). in addition to regular meetings with its funders and staff, the skills and training organization has monthly board-of-director’s meetings. the organization documents the number of clients accessing its services every month and compiles statistics for program reports for funders. it records service outputs on its computerized case management system. the organization also does follow-ups with the clients it case-manages and conducts ongoing evaluations of its programs with clients to ensure appropriate service delivery. the community development and employment resources organization’s mechanisms for accountability include a board-of-directors, an annual report, an external auditor and quarterly program activity reports. it also gathers program statistics, such as tracking participants in the employment program, by following up with the participant and with the employer. the framework of assessment of intermediary successes in the delivery of government funded programs addresses two dimensions of accountability, primarily economic and administrative. however, the framework does not close the loop on whether programs are meeting policy objectives. specifically, the qualitative dimension of whether services meet the social and economic needs of clients are not substantively or adequately captured; including skills and training, job placement and employment resources, and so forth, in turn, the value proposition, or the degree of success in terms of individual and community benefits, is not certain so the effectiveness of the policy and program circle cannot be fully determined. 31 community organizations in the information age 4 information and communication technology issues for community intermediaries 4.1 role of organizations as intermediaries in egovernment the four organizations in this study all play an intermediary role by delivering information and services to their communities, linking various levels of governments with citizens. the organizations also play a role as intermediaries in e-government, using information and communication technologies (ict), and particularly the internet, to deliver public information and services to citizens. the role of each of the four organizations as intermediaries in e-government is specific to the particular social, economic, cultural and geographic contexts of each organization and its client base. each of the organizations plays an intermediary role in the evolution of e-government, and will continue to do so as new ict appears and as each organization is challenged with new funding situations and administrative requirements, new programs requiring information and service delivery, new partnership relationships, and new client needs. the different ways in which the organizations use ict for e-government are linked to their own particular contexts and the contexts of their clients and communities. the benefits, and particularly the challenges to the organizations using ict to deliver information and services to their clients, are discussed throughout this section. clearly the most significant factor shaping the role of the organizations as intermediaries in egovernment is organization funding. many of the challenges of using ict discussed in this and the previous section are directly related to the precarious funding situations for the organizations. the health and wellness centre, the only organization studied with adequate and sustainable core funding, is the organization best prepared of the four to deliver e-government and meet the ongoing challenges related to being an e-government intermediary. the health and wellness centre provides health information and services to minority language clients in a large urban centre. the centre plays a leading role as an intermediary in egovernment for health services and information. it is currently adequately supported to deploy 32 community organizations in the information age and sustain its information and service delivery using ict. it has taken a pro-active approach to ensure it is linked to the proper resources and has adequate funding and staff to deliver its services. as part of the provincial government’s health system, it has ict support and maintenance through the government’s techno centre. the health and wellness centre incorporates resources for long-term support to use ict in its regular budget and planning. at least one staff member has an older computer but in general the organization’s ict meets its current needs. to date, resources have been adequate for computers and other ict for its staff and operations. however, this situation could change if e-government became a more common delivery channel and the organization’s clients needed more support to use ict to access health information and services. the health and wellness centre approach has been to empower clients, but in cases where the capacity of clients to use ict is low and it is often easier to intervene, for example, by printing out a web page for a client rather than talking a client through the process of dealing with an automated government information telephone service. as more government services are delivered electronically, it is possible more staff time will be required to assist clients to access these services. a significant future challenge that is currently in the early stages will be the integration of the computer systems of the five health and wellness centre partner organizations. an inventory of all the technology in the organization will be conducted in the near future. at some point it is possible the organization will require a dedicated computer network technician. there is also the possibility that the future integrated organization may have all its servers and network services located offsite, with staff using workstations linked remotely to the servers. in this case, staff off-site will support the network. the centre accesses many web sites to locate minority-language materials, which can be developed and delivered in information sessions for staff, as well as to locate minority-language health resources for clients. the centre is linked to the provincial government’s health network database so it can receive client referrals from hospitals, physicians and the community health and social services centres. the centre does face challenges using ict to deliver information and services, which are discussed later in this section. overall however, the organization is well prepared and well placed in its intermediary role to deliver health information and services to its clients using ict. as one staff member said: 33 community organizations in the information age i guess the best way of being prepared is being open and also realizing that we do have the resources. so i think we’re really on the verge of an opportunity in that area to be able to make those changes now… at the same time, to make sure that that technology doesn’t undermine some of the basic principles that are key to what we feel are essential to maintain that community link with the community (health and wellness centre si-7). the job placement organization is located in a large city, and delivers employment information and services to clients with mental health challenges. the organization plays a supporting, rather than a leading role as an intermediary for e-government. it lacks both the staff and the financial resources to champion electronic delivery of employment information and services. most staff members did not think the organization is very well prepared to deliver e-government services and information. as one staff member said: “well if this was on a scale of 1 to 5, probably about a 2” (job placement organization si-1). the reasons the organization is not better prepared are primarily due to its unsustainable funding situation, including a lack of capital investment for computer equipment, a shortage of staff with it skills, and the need for staff it training. before the organization invests in computer hardware and software and training, it must upgrade its current electrical power service and put a reliable lan system in place. these challenges are discussed later in this section. another major deterrent to e-government for the job placement organization is that its clients need considerable support to access and use ict effectively. the organization uses a clientcentred service delivery model. many of its clients are just learning how to use technology and need a lot of guidance. one staff member explained: myself i don’t see that as a realistic thing. because i think a huge thing with working with clients is that you need to be with them providing the support and self-esteem, and i don’t think a computer screen can do that. for that you would have to have major training. someone would have to be there to support people while they are using the internet itself and be there to answer the questions and whatnot (job placement centre si-4). 34 community organizations in the information age similar to the job placement organization, the skills and training organization is also struggling with its role as an intermediary in e-government. the organization delivers information and services to clients living in more than 90 small communities in a rural, geographically dispersed area. most of the organization’s staff members believe that it does not have the capacity – whether human, technological or financial – to use ict to deliver either the services that they already provide, or additional government services. in order to deliver e-government services, the organization would need reliable and affordable access to high-speed internet service, as well as new computers. it would also need additional trained staff and training for the existing personnel, all of which would necessitate additional financial support. one staff member explained just one of the challenges, related to the organization’s low ict capacity: most computers can’t handle none of that stuff and a lot of the new government services on the internet that are coming out there are very technical, very complicated, and the computer needs to be doing stuff at all time. but our computers, aside from x’s are not able to do none of that stuff because they are just so old and slow. it is all dial-up too (skills and training organization si-3). the final organization studied for the cirp was the community development and employment resources organization, which provides information and services to urban residents in the community with one of the lowest incomes per-capita in canada. the organization’s innovative programs and services reflect basic community needs such as housing and food security, green spaces and gardening. the healthy food club and farm volunteers offer economic benefits (food in exchange for labour) as well as social benefits. of the four organizations studied, it is the most challenged in its role as an intermediary for e-government. aside from its considerable human, financial and technical constraints, the organization has a client base with very low levels of access to, and understanding of, ict. as one of the staff members explained: we could send them all we want but if we are sending a signal that they don’t understand or are not up-to-date with there is no point. there really isn’t because i meet with neighbours here in the block who wouldn’t have a clue when i was talking about email. what’s that? just common sense, like what is that? never seen a computer, what is a computer. so that would be 35 community organizations in the information age completely out. so i am talking almost half the population wouldn’t know what a web site is, they’d think about spiders (community development and employment resources organization-si-5). a program to encourage the organization’s clients to use ict needs to be sustainable. if funding is not present to ensure sustainability, community residents who have invested time and energy in a program will be disappointed and frustrated. the staff members believe that with a sustainable ict infrastructure, the organization would be able to deliver more services using ict. clients indicated a range of factors that would encourage them to use the internet more often to access community and government information and services. some issues were unique to the individual organizations. for example, in figure 4 we see that the majority of clients in the job placement organization (jp) indicated a need for internet training, while those at the skills and training organization (s&t) indicated that the speed of service was a deterrent to internet use. these issues may be specific to the community in which these organizations reside. 4.2 multi-channel service and information delivery the surveys found that clients of all four organizations have similar preferences regarding channels for communicating and receiving information from the organizations. clients prefer to communicate through personal contact, either by telephone or in-person. in the client survey, respondents were asked to identify which methods they used to communicate with the organization or to find out information about its services. results in figure 4.1 indicate that respondents across all four organizations preferred the telephone to communicate, followed by face-to-face communication. it is interesting to note that the community development and employment resource organization respondents, those again who had very low percentages for internet at home, also had a preference for e-mail and web site notice board as means of communication. communication by telephone was the most preferred channel of communication with the organizations by clients of the health and wellness centre, the job placement organization, and the skills and training organization. 36 community organizations in the information age community development and employment resources (cder), skills and training (s&t), figure 4.1: methods clients use to communicate with the organization 0 20 40 60 80 100 telephone email face to face e-newsletter newsletter mailout information mailout website notice board other t yp es o f m et h o ds percent of respondents cder (n=40) s&t (n=210) jp (n=96) h&w (n=168) job placement (jp), health and wellness (h&w) clients at the health and wellness centre focus group indicated that they want to speak with a real person, not to “press one for this and six for that.” to achieve this end, during regular office hours every effort is made by staff to answer phone calls to the health and wellness centre, rather than use voicemail or telephone menus. the client surveys placed face-to-face drop-in as the most popular channel for finding information by clients of the community development and employment resources organization, and the second most popular channel of communication for clients with the other three organizations. it was also the preferred method of clients who participated in the focus groups. clients at the skills and training organization focus group explained that they tend to drop in to the organization to find information about the programs offered and to look for government information. the reason for the preference was the immediate answers to their questions or concerns. similarly, clients at the job placement organization focus group preferred personal contact with staff. one explained: well the reason for face-to-face [is] because it makes you feel more comfortable and you are not hiding behind a telephone with other people listening or whatever (job placement organization cf). 37 community organizations in the information age many participants at the community development and employment resources organization focus group were adamant that they did not want contact the organization by e-mail because it was not personal and it did not contribute to a “sense of community.” for clients of all four organizations, e-mail was the least popular method of communicating. telephone was also the most popular method of finding federal, provincial and municipal government information by clients of all the organizations. community development and employment resources (cder), skills and training (s&t), figure 4.2: methods used to find information about federal services 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 telephone email brochure website face to face info mailout other ty pe s of m et ho ds percentage of respondents cder (n=40) s&t (n=210) jp (n=96) h&w (n=168) job placement (jp), health and wellness (h&w) clients were asked in the survey to indicate the methods they used to find information about federal services, provincial services, municipal services, community services, and other community organizations. results for each area of service were very similar and this general pattern is well illustrated in figure 4.2. it is interesting to note that the telephone is the preferred method of finding information about all types of services. as well, the subtle differences should be noted among the organizations themselves. the health and wellness organization clients preferred information mail-out and brochure after the telephone and this may be a result of the client demographics, for example, age. clients from the community development and employment resource organization preferred face-to-face as well as web site and e-mail to find information about community organizations and services. clearly, both types of methods 38 community organizations in the information age compliment each other. for federal services and provincial services, the web site was second only to telephone. the four organizations studied use multiple channels of information delivery suited to their particular client base and communities. each organization has developed its own unique range of approaches through consultation with its communities, trial and error, and a deep understanding of the needs of its clients and potential clients. community development and employment resources (cder), skills and training (s&t), figure 4.3: methods used by the organization to communicate with clients 0 20 40 60 80 100 telephone email face to face e-newsletter newsletter mailout information mailout website notice board other t yp es o f m et h o d s percent of respondents cder (n=40) s&t (n=210) jp (n=96) h&w (n=168) job placement (jp), health and wellness (h&w) respondents were asked to indicate which methods they preferred the organizations use to communicate with them. figure 4.3 illustrates clients’ preferences. we note that clients from all organizations preferred the telephone above all else, while those clients from the community development and employment resource, skills and training, and jp organizations also preferred face-to-face contact secondly. clients from the health and wellness organizations preferred either a newsletter mail-out or an information mail-out. although to a somewhat lesser extent, e-mail was also a preference across all organizations. the health and wellness centre communicates primarily by telephone to its clients. it also uses as many media outlets and communication mechanisms as possible to disseminate health information and to ensure that its service offerings are known in the minority language 39 community organizations in the information age community. this strategy was developed through consultations with clients and the minority language community as a whole. as a result of these consultations, preference was given to traditional media and communication including a biannual newsletter, pamphlets, brochures, posters, radio and telephone chain calls. the centre promotes its services and disseminates health information in the local minoritylanguage weekly paper’s “wellness page.” the local radio station broadcasts messages about the centre. the centre’s staff members also conduct radio interviews and submit radio public service announcements to publicize particular activities in advance. occasionally advertisements are taken out at the local television station. the centre’s web site is perceived as a valuable but additional tool to reach the minority language population. to reach teens, young people and new families who move to the region, new pages on the organization’s web site have been added, as well as some e-mail lists for specific group activities. the health and wellness centre web site has links to community health centres as well as the provincial health web site, among others. if clients do not have internet access, the staff will find the information for them: well, it’s certainly easier if somebody has the internet to sort of refer them to a certain site and then they can do some of the work themselves. if somebody doesn’t have the internet, then you end up doing a lot of the research for them, and that’s not a problem, but sometimes it’s easier when you know that they have access to it (health and wellness centre si-8). the job placement organization delivers information to clients primarily by telephone and inperson. it also has a broad communication strategy aimed at client awareness and establishing a community presence. the strategy includes community presentations, weekly tours, brochures, web site presence and word-of-mouth communication. brochures and pamphlets provide information about the job placement organization and its programs and services. one staff member is learning sign language to communicate with clients with a hearing disability. clients with literacy barriers receive additional levels of services, such as verbal explanations and the reading of forms. the skills and training organization employs multiple channels to communicate with and disseminate information to clients and potential clients living in the more than 90 communities in the region. the organization conducts a significant amount of advertising using pamphlets, brochures, posters, flyers, business cards and community television and radio, as well as postings on the provincial web site. some communication methods work better than others in 40 community organizations in the information age different communities, so the skills and training organization’s information and communication strategies are targeted to what works best in each community. similar to the job placement organization, staff members at the skills and training organization confirmed that many clients find out about the organization and its services through word of mouth. i think word of mouth probably gives us the best feedback. clients come in to our office and we have a high percentage of clients who are very satisfied with the service that we provide and when people like the service they usually talk a lot about it (skills and training organization si-4). under the terms of its current contract with hrsdc, the skills and training organization is also required to conduct thirty-nine group communication sessions. these group sessions bring together the local stakeholders and affiliated organizations for public presentations at the schools, the high schools and the post-secondary institutions such as the community colleges. the community development and employment resources organization also relies on multiple channels for information delivery, including its community newspaper, brochures, posters, fliers, sidewalk messages written in chalk and word-of-mouth. as discussed, clients of all four organizations prefer personal communication for information delivery. the clients of all the organizations prefer to receive services through personal interaction. the job placement organization provides a drop-in space to deliver services and information informally. it also provides venues for social interaction where clients can exchange information and learn about new services informally. some staff members at the job placement organization have concerns that using ict to communicate with clients is less beneficial than face-to-face contact, which builds relationships. i think a huge thing with working with clients is that you need to be with them. a huge thing is providing the support and selfesteem and i don’t think a computer screen can do that… (job placement organization si-4). 41 community organizations in the information age several staff members at the community development and employment resources organization are also reluctant to use ict for delivering services to clients, saying it “depersonalizes” the relationship and that community residents need more face-to-face contact. the community development and employment resources organization’s services are delivered in such a way that will build self-reliance by encouraging clients to learn by making decisions and taking responsibility for themselves. the complexity of this process means that many clients require one-on-one support to take the initiative and benefit from services and information. the organization consults with community residents and clients through community forums; this is also a channel for delivering information informally to clients. the organization provides life-long learning opportunities, where information is passed on through practical activities, such as community gardening. given that a number of aboriginal clients, particularly the elderly ones, are more comfortable with oral communication, the organization’s runs a specific aboriginal program that focuses group activities that encourage communication. although the organization’s job centre and community access program (cap) site are intended to be drop-in services with access computers and ict and support as required, the centre’s office space is not conducive to all drop-in situations. most services and information are delivered out in the community. one staff member explained his service: mine is a drop-in thing. if they can’t reach me here, they know that they can either get me by cell or check one of the gardens and i’m likely to be there…i really think that what i have accomplished in my program in the last year is as a consequence of (a) ignoring the computer and (b) being forced into a position of ignoring the computer… because i had such an unreliable piece of hardware, i went out and talked to people because i had a responsibility as their liaison and their contact to make sure that they were getting what they wanted. i have found that works better than anything else (community development and employment resources organization-sf). 42 community organizations in the information age 4.3 service and information delivery using ict using ict to deliver information and services is a challenge for all of the organizations studied given that many of their clients with the greatest needs do not use computers and the internet. the ict challenges for clients, staff and organizations are discussed later in this section. community development and employment resources (cder), skills and training (s&t), figure 4.4: what would encourage clients to use the internet more often to access community and gov't information and services 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 internet training content easier to find more time for use reliability of internet service speed of service trust in online security owning a computer home internet service internet easier to use computer easier to use t yp es o f e n co u ra g em en t percent of respondents cder (n=40) s&t (n=210) jp (n=96) h&w (n=168) job placement (jp), health and wellness (h&w) clients indicated that there was a range of issues that would encourage them to use the internet more often to access community and government information and services. some more than others may be unique to the organization itself, for example, in figure 4.4 we see that the majority of clients in the job placement organization indicated internet training, while those at the skills and training organization indicated speed of service. these may be issues pertaining to the community in which these organizations reside. all four organizations have web sites for delivering information. however, only the health and wellness centre and the skills and training organization have made a concerted effort to attract existing and new clients to their web sites. web site content varies among the organizations; all provide basic information about the organization and some provide information on the local 43 community organizations in the information age community. for example, are web site lists all of the programs and schedules and a community calendar page lists different events and notes upcoming events at the centre. all four organizations faced challenges related to information and service delivery via their own organization web sites. the health and wellness centre has an in-house web master so its web site maintenance has not been a problem. however a major challenge for its web site development is finding health information in the province in the minority language. the centre must translate the information on the province’s web site; the content is not always accessible to people with hearing or visual impairments or literacy issues. the health and wellness centre staff aim for clear design and writing. as one staff member explained: “don’t make it pretty, make it useful and accessible to the most number of people” (health and wellness centre si-3). community development and employment resources (cder), skills and training (s&t), figure 4.5: factors which would encourage clients to interact with health care professionals online 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 ease of use security access knowledge medical problem reliability of health info privacy other t yp es o f f ac to rs percent of respondents cder (n=40) s&t (n=210) jp (n=96) h&w (n=168) job placement (jp), health and wellness (h&w) clients indicated that there was a range of factors, which would encourage them to interact with health care professionals on-line, illustrated in figure 4.5. other than any one specific factor, a matrix is illustrated. many issues must be addressed to improve and facilitate use in this direction. 44 community organizations in the information age at the job placement organization focus group, clients were asked if they were aware of the organization’s web site and what they thought of it. about one third of the clients knew about the site and had used it. a third were aware of the site but had not used it and the remaining third did not know that it existed. student volunteers set up the web site from a local college but as the staff focus group revealed, keeping it updated has been a problem because of a shortage of human resources. our web site it is horribly out of date… there was a staff person at the job placement organization who was, let’s call it webfriendly. but this person was laid off due to lack of funding so now there is nobody within the organization’s staff that has the time and technical skill to do this (job placement organizationsf). the community development and employment resources organization’s web site is also severely out of date. one client in the focus group called it “pathetic,” saying she would not use it again. a staff member explained that part of the problem is that web site maintenance is not a staff function and nobody in the organization has web site maintenance skills. with respect to community access to ict, as a provider of provincial health services the health and wellness centre must ensure the integrity of its it system so that confidential information about clients is not jeopardized. for this reason, it cannot let clients or other non-staff visitors to use the centre’s computers. the other three organizations – the job placement organization, the skills and training organization, and the community development and employment resources organization – provide computers on their premises for clients to access on-line information and services, with assistance when required. until recently, these three organizations also delivered it training programs to clients, with program-specific funding from hrsdc. the focus of the training programs was to overcome fears and increase the comfort level of clients using computers. the organizations varied considerably in their use of ict for day-to-day operations. staff at all the organizations uses the web to find information on programs and services for clients, and e-mail to communicate with funders and clients. all use computers to record services and program delivery outcomes, as well as write funding proposals and reports. 45 community organizations in the information age of the four organizations, the health and wellness centre has the most complex ict systems for daily operational use as well as service and information delivery. the centre will soon become part of a new electronic provincial medical program requiring all patient and client information be sent and processed electronically. currently the centre and its partners’ organizations do not interface well with each other, and they use different databases. the centre’s partner organizations have discrete it systems that are currently being integrated in an effort to improve the flow of information and communication and ensure that clients do not fall between the cracks. the skills and training organization also has a more complex use of ict than the remaining two organizations. it uses client-dedicated computers to train clients to use the internet to conduct hrsdc job database searchers. it also has a web-based computer system called accountable resource management system (arms) to manage client cases. client statistics are entered into arms, which tabulates client case results. the system generates weekly, monthly and yearly statistical reports for program tracking and accountability. the arms system works well and is liked by staff. the job placement organization, the skills and training organization and the health and wellness centre use e-mail to network, both with other community-based organizations and with umbrella groups or coalitions of groups representing common interests. of the four organizations, only the skills and training organization has a high use of e-mail for internal communications among staff. two of the satellite offices of this organization have access to high-speed internet service and can now communicate via videoconference. e-mail is useful not only for the dispersed satellite offices but also for the contract workers both for communication and collaboration. for example most of the documents staff works on are emailed back and forth. lack of high-speed internet infrastructure had an impact on information and service delivery for two organizations. in the survey, clients were asked to indicate which infrastructures were missing or inadequate in their community. one of these infrastructures was broadband. figure 4.6 shows client responses to this portion of the question. 46 community organizations in the information age figure 4.6: broadband availability within site community 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 cder (n=40) s&t (n=210) jp (n=96) h&w (n=168) sites p er ce nt o f r es po nd en ts missing inadequate community development and employment resources (cder), skills and training (s&t), job placement (jp), health and wellness (h&w) the high-speed infrastructure is uneven over the catchment area of the skills and training organization. in some locations, there is adequate high-speed and cell phone coverage while in other locations; neither is locally available, so one of the organizations satellite offices does not have access to broadband. dial-up internet is adequate in some areas and slow in others. dial-up in general is a constraint to delivering services and information because it ties up a telephone line, and as one staff member described, using the internet to do research meant that she could not receive phone calls. once on-line, the out-dated computers, combined with the existing dialup internet service, are slow and often crash. one of the offices has satellite internet service but it is very slow: i tried to download government files before; i had to step away from the computer for an hour to let them download. that’s … an hour of your work-day (skills and training organization sf). clients in some of the communities served by the skills and training organization experience considerable difficulty accessing services on-line because of the lack of access to high-speed 47 community organizations in the information age internet infrastructure. a staff member described the difficulty for clients attempting to complete on-line applications for employment insurance (ei) in an area without high-speed internet: right now there is no such thing as completing an application form to apply for ei anymore, everything has to be done on-line and with the service out in [one of the satellite offices], clients have gone in there and they have been trying to complete their application forms and there have been some of them who have been booted off the internet probably a half dozen times before they could get the process completed. … there have been some [that] … just couldn’t do it all and they just had to give up and walk out. so it is causing a big problem in that area (skills and training organization si-1). the health and wellness centre staff experience occasional slow network times, as is normal in many organizations. some staff members have a higher-speed connection than others. however, generally the organization itself does not have ict infrastructure problems. it is using high-speed and recently upgraded its connection to improve the network speed. the integrated it system uses lotus notes to share information between the partner organizations, and infrastructure problems are not anticipated. although the health and wellness centre provides services locally, theoretically clients across the province can access its web site. high-speed internet is not available in rural and remote areas of the province and consequently individuals and organizations living in these areas can neither receive electronic files nor download documents easily or at all. the health and wellness centre participated in a pilot video-conferencing health network program, but experienced problems when clients in some rural areas were unable to participate effectively because they lacked the high-speed infrastructure in their region. 4.4 ict benefits and barriers to clients client benefits all of the organizations identified similar benefits in using ict for information and service delivery. the main benefit of ict for clients is the ease with which they can find information and resources. clients use ict to access the organizations’ web pages, government information web pages, and 48 community organizations in the information age government services and other pages and databases on the web. often clients bypassed the organizations’ staff to find information themselves. it is very easy to get information. before you had to go to the library and take a month to look at ten or a hundred books to find something. now with a google search you can get something in fifteen minutes. (job placement organization – cf) clients using the internet to access information are at the same time increasing their computer skills. most places of employment now require computer knowledge, and computer skills are beneficial for clients’ job development, employment marketability and self-esteem. using computers and the internet can increase clients’ social capital. clients with e-mail access can use it to maintain connections with friends and families. when using client computers at the job placement organization, the skills and training organization, and the community development and employment resources organization, clients are able to socialize with other clients who are on site and build their social networks. low levels of access to ict were a considerable barrier to using ict for information and service delivery for all of the organizations. those clients without internet access cannot access information and services on-line. clients had varying levels of home internet access. the high cost of computers and the internet was the primary reason clients gave for not having either at home. in some cases, clients with a bad credit rating or no credit rating at all were unable to buy ict. figure 4.7 depicts the percentage of those respondents who use their home computer to connect to the internet. when we interpret these results we realize that there are a number of interrelated issues around access and technologies. although only 30 per cent of respondents from the community development and employment resource organization have home internet access, this site actually prefers internet methods of corresponding and information seeking/receiving. it is important to note here that many of the respondents are using internet resources at the organizations. 49 community organizations in the information age figure 4.7: home access to the internet 61.9% 33.3% 50% 30% 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 cder (n=40) s&t (n=210) jp (n=96) h&w (n=168) site p er ce nt o f r es po nd en ts community development and employment resources (cder), skills and training (s&t), job placement (jp), health and wellness (h&w) client barrie s r community development and employment resources (cder), skills and training (s&t), figure 4.8: individual client barriers to service 0 10 20 30 40 50 literacy levels education physical disability mental disability technological literacy child care issues other t yp es o f b ar ri er s percent of respondents cder (n=40) s&t (n=210) jp (n=96) h&w (n=168) job placement (jp), health and wellness (h&w) 50 community organizations in the information age clients of all four organizations face a myriad of barriers, or challenges, that make it difficult for them to access or use the services and information provided by the respective organizations. two of the most common individual barriers among all clients are low education and literacy levels as indicated in figure 4.8. figure 4.9: other types of client barriers to service 0 10 20 30 40 50 hours of operation number of staff/level of skill prefer other methods cost/affordabiltiy no internet/computer at home lack of need/interest in ict use lack of time in ict use ty pe s of b ar ri er s percent of respondents h&w (n=168) jp (n=96) s&t (n=210) cder (n=40) community development and employment resources (cder), skills and training (s&t), job placement (jp), health and wellness (h&w) barriers also include no internet or computer at home, cost and affordability, as well as hours of operation for computer access indicated in figure 4.9. figures 4.8 and 4.9 reveal additional challenges and barriers specific to the clientele of each organization. the health and wellness centre clients had the highest level of home ict access, with 70.6 per cent having a computer and 61.9 per cent having internet access at home. the skills and training organization clients had the next highest level of home ict access, with 63.8 per cent having a computer and 50 per cent having internet access at home. of the job placement organization clients, 54.3 per cent have a computer at home, and 33.3 per cent have internet access at home. 51 community organizations in the information age of the employment resources and community development organization clients, 38.5 per cent have a computer at home, and 30.0 per cent have internet access at home. clients without home computer and internet access can in theory use public access sites. however the free computer access points in the communities studied are heavily used, sometimes making it difficult for clients to access the internet at all. in the employment resources and community development organization community, there is no public internet access set up for the visually impaired. staff at the job placement organization explained that public internet access points are not often appropriate for their clients who have mental health issues. clients may not be able to access computers in libraries because libraries do not provide appropriate support. for minority-language clients of the health and wellness centre, although internet access is available at local libraries, these computers have keyboards and operating systems in the language of the majority, and the library staff may not be willing or able to assist them in the minority language. three of the organizations – the job placement organization, the skills and training organization, and the community development and employment resources organization – provide clients with access to dedicated computers and the internet to conduct job searches and access information for skills upgrading and training. however these organizations do not have sufficient capacity for ongoing maintenance of these computers, as will be discussed later in this section. at times, there are not enough computers available in these organizations to meet client demand, resulting in long waiting times and frustration for clients. clients of the community development and employment resources organization line up at 10 a.m. to use the computers and internet. the skills and training organization has plans to start requiring clients to book appointments to use a computer and to access the internet. many clients have cell phones but these are expensive and sometimes clients cannot afford to use them. the clients of the job placement organization move house frequently and many do not have telephone answering machines, making it difficult for staff to use telephones to reach clients. the organization’s staff members explained that: probably the biggest barrier is that most clients don’t have a phone and those that do have a phone can’t afford to have an answering machine. so it is a big fat waste of time having to phone back fifty times to get a hold of a client (job placement organization si-1). 52 community organizations in the information age clients’ low capacity for using ict is another significant challenge to service delivery using ict. some clients were very proficient with computers but many were not and would need training in order to access and use ict more effectively. literacy levels vary among clients, so providing written instructions for using computers would not be adequate. many clients do not use computers, do not want to use computers, or are not familiar with computers. figure 4.10: clients' average self-assessed ict skill level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 cder (n=39) s&t (n=208) jp (n=93) h&w (n=161) organization a ve ra ge l ev el o f s ki ll community development and employment resources (cder), skills and training (s&t), job placement (jp), health and wellness (h&w) clients assessed their own level of ict skill using a likert-like scale of 1 to 7. one indicated the least amount of ict skill, while 7 indicated the highest level of ict skill. figure 4.10 illustrates the average for each organization’s clients. we note that the community development and employment resource organization and the skills and training organizations’ clients rate themselves somewhat higher in skill. 53 community organizations in the information age figure 4.11: percentage of clients who would voluntarily take part in an online training course to familiarize themselves with the potential of the internet as a tool for finding relevant information about their well-being and that of their families. 49.7% 75.8% 66.3% 71.8% 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 cder (n=39) s&t (n=205) jp (n=95) h&w (n=157) research sites p er ce nt community development and employment resources (cder), skills and training (s&t), job placement (jp), health and wellness (h&w) figure 4.11 shows the percentage of clients who would voluntarily take part in an on-line training course to become familiar with the potential of the internet as a tool for finding relevant information on their well being and that of their families. the job placement organization clients, who also rated themselves in the lower skill category, were very interested in taking part in an online course. we should also look at these results in conjunction with barriers to service that clients face. clients of the health and wellness centre – the only organization studied that did not provide clients with dedicated computer and internet access expressed interest in accessing the internet at the health and wellness centre itself, where staff would be available for informal coaching on computer and internet use. staff at the health and wellness centre expressed concern for the large senior clientele, many aged 75 years and older, who were intimidated by many information technologies. for example some clients had trouble with telephone messaging. a few clients were terrified of computers and cell phones. many clients of the job placement organization do not know how to type so cannot use a keyboard. many need considerable support to learn how to use computers. although the job placement organization has neither the funds nor the staff for client computer training, staff 54 community organizations in the information age members try to make the time to provide ict support for clients. for clients with cognitive difficulties, learning computer skills requires a systematic approach, which takes time. staff members pointed out that some clients are very afraid of computers and do not want to conduct an on-line job search. when this occurs, staff members try to introduce the client to the technology slowly on a step-by-step basis. most clients of the skills and training organization who took part in the focus panel preferred to learn how to use ict by having experienced staff or counsellors show them how. one participant explained, “hands-on is a lot easier to learn than reading a pamphlet or a book about new technology” (skills and training organization-cf). clients in the skills and training organization focus group expressed frustration with not having ict support when problems arise, including difficulties with outdated web sites and dealing with pornographic web sites. one staff member explained that some clients are very fearful of technologies such as fax machines and cellular phones. many who live in rural and remote communities are apprehensive about using on-line services to complete an application. in addition, a number of the older people in these communities are very resistant to technological changes and uncomfortable doing on-line job searches. another barrier identified is clients’ need for reliability and confidentiality of data. clients responding in the surveys expressed concern with security and reliability of health information online. a related challenge is ensuring that the technology does not interfere with the confidentiality of the client-patient relationship: a simple example could be the senior who all of a sudden sees the home care nurse coming in with their laptop, doing client notes on the computer. for a senior who is not very comfortable with technology and who just hears these stories, all of a sudden that can become very intimidating. so you have to be very careful that ... you’re sensitive to the clients and the people you’re serving (health and wellness centre si-8). this discomfort is not limited to computers. another example of this is asking clients to leave a voice mail in situations where the client wants to speak to someone personally and does not feel comfortable leaving a message on a machine. 55 community organizations in the information age 4.5 staff and organization benefits of and barriers to using ict for service and information delivery staff and organization benefits three of the four organizations were able to identify benefits to ict use for information and service delivery. however, none of the organizations was using ict to its full potential. the primary benefit of ict for the health and wellness centre is easy access to the provincial government’s health network and database. staff at the centre regularly uses ict including the telephone, voicemail, e-mail and the internet for research, networking and to facilitate daily communications. the centre has experienced benefits from innovative use of technologies. its use of on-line interactive learning modules, such as defibrillator programs used as teaching units for staff, has been effective. the health and wellness centre’s participation in a pilot videoconferencing health network program has also had promising outcomes. the job placement organization has found that e-mail and cell phones are effective ways for staff to liaise with other community workers and referring agencies. a local community economic development list-serve keeps staff plugged-in to local resources and information. networking by e-mail has helped the organization develop more extensive links with various levels of government. one of the major benefits of the internet to the skills and training organization is getting information to clients more quickly. given its rural location and its remote satellite offices, internet access is essential for providing services and information to clients as well as for inter-staff communication. the organization does almost everything on-line, from accessing funding and developing proposals, to obtaining job applications. staff members at the community development and employment resources organization were divided over the benefits and problems of ict use. staff did not identify any specific benefits of ict to the organization and staff. they saw potential benefits, but cited a lack the resources to realize them – for example the organization has considerable accumulated client data it cannot analyze because it does not have the software or staff trained in using the software. 56 community organizations in the information age staff and organization barriers all four organizations experienced barriers – and three experienced considerable barriers with their ict software, hardware and internal networks. the health and wellness centre internal e-mail system is virtually unusable. some staff members do not have computer access. not all of the staff use the same e-mail system, with some on the proprietary provincial government health and social services system, and others using web-mail. any suggestion of greater technical capacity is consistently met with a caution that human resources budgets cannot suffer in order to expand technological services. the job placement organization has significant ict hardware, software and network barriers and lacks capital funds for computer equipment and necessary infrastructure upgrades. before it can upgrade its ict systems, it needs to upgrade its electrical power supply, which is prohibitively expensive. not all staff members have computer and internet access at work, making it impossible to communicate internally by e-mail. there is no central server, and the client database is long overdue for an upgrade and so crashes consistently. the job placement organization has acquired computers through donations or private foundation grants and it has many older computers incapable of running newer versions of even basic software. after attempts to upgrade the phone system, staff concluded it needs a complete overhaul, which the organization cannot currently afford. i would say that our phone system is really terrible ... in terms of people calling in… so that poses a problem because it is very difficult for employers and clients to contact us. sometimes especially employers, it makes a really bad impression if they can’t get a hold of us. that would be the main problem that we are facing right now i think (job placement organization si-5). the skills and training organization staff members were unanimous that the organization does not have adequate ict hardware and software capacity to deliver client services and information. some of the fax machines in the satellite offices do not work properly. not enough computers are available for client job bank searches and resume writing. client demand has resulted in long waiting times. staff spoke of not having computers at all or not having enough computers. in one location, the seven staff members share one computer. because of funding constraints, the organization purchases the least expensive computers. other problems were described as outdated computers, cheap computers, computer crashes, inadequate technical support, no high 57 community organizations in the information age speed access, dial-up access tying up the phone line, and in some locations, dial-up access being very slow. the most obvious ict-related challenge facing the community development and employment resources organization is inadequate ict hardware, software and internal networking. the organization is planning to upgrade its computer network to allow staff to share files electronically, share the printer, and send internal e-mail, but lacks the funding. its telephone system is inadequate to the extent that it is often difficult, sometimes impossible, to reach staff by phone. the computer network was not operational at the time of the fieldwork and there was only one printer, accessible by a single computer. there is no internal e-mail system and not all staff members have an e-mail address. the organization lacks software for anything other than basic operations. staff members often compile reports on their home computers. its e-mail system is not reliable to the extent that some staff members have stopped using e-mail for contacting clients. another explained that his computer was not reliable after having been permeated with a virus. it has been better in the last couple of weeks but i don’t rely on it, i can’t rely on it. it’s like having a shovel where the handle keeps twisting off. you use it because you have to but you don’t want to undertake anything really big with it because if it fails on you you’ve got nothing (community development and employment resources organization-si-2). except for the health and wellness centre, the organizations experienced considerable ict system maintenance and development barriers. the health and wellness centre has access to ongoing ict maintenance and support from its government partners. keeping up with the ict systems imposed by government is a challenge for the organization. when systems are abandoned because they either do not function or are incompatible, the repeated investment of time and effort for staff training and learning is also lost. one staff member said that: “they’re coming in with new systems and new adaptations every number of years” (health and wellness centre si-7). ict problems cause considerable stress at the job placement organization. computer crashes are common. some days the computers do not work and nobody knows why. it has tried using volunteers from the private sector for computer support, but that solution was unreliable and slow. without computer support staff, a receptionist or administrative support staff, all ict issues are dealt with by the co-directors or program staff. it cannot find sustainable funding for computer support, ongoing maintenance, and hardware and software upgrades. 58 community organizations in the information age at the skills and training organization, there is inadequate it technical support for computer and network troubleshooting and maintenance. one staff member described how “we just kind of go on a wing and a prayer.” (skills and training organization si-7) the community access program (cap) site at the community development and employment resources organization does not have a computer maintenance budget, challenging the organization to find funds elsewhere for repairs. the computers, many of which were donated when already old, are incapable of running current versions of software, so computer crashes are common. organization ict problems cause considerable stress – there is no receptionist, administrative staff or computer support staff, so all ict problems must be dealt with by management and program staff. two of the organizations expressed privacy and security concerns related to delivery of information and services using ict. staff members at the health and wellness centre expressed reservations about privacy and security issues, specifically, divulging personal information on the web. although staff articulated these concerns as frightening, it did not deter staff from using the internet or accessing the web. the issue of confidentiality and security of information exchanged over the internet is a major challenge. ict makes information more readily available than it is with paper-based systems, leading to situations where client information is potentially available to more people than before. clients need to feel secure that confidentiality will be preserved. staff members at the job placement organization have concerns about ensuring confidentiality of digitalized client files; the organization does not have the ict expertise to ensure that these files will remain secure. staff members at the community development and employment resources organization identified other barriers. blocking pornography sites is a problem for the public access computers at its job centre facility. currently, if the centre blocks the porn sites, a number of health sites are also blocked. the physical constraints of space limit the organization in its attempts to deliver services using ict. for example, it has a video camera that staff would like to use for doing mock interviews for job seekers, but currently there is no space to set up the equipment to conduct them. 59 community organizations in the information age 4.6 staff ict capacity and training the ict capacities of the staff members varied among the organizations. of the four organizations studied, the health and wellness centre has the highest staff ict capacity. most staff members consider themselves to be technologically proficient. the organization benefits from an in-house information officer-web master on whom the other staff rely for help when needed. other than the web master, employees at the centre are self-taught on computers and are, for the most part, satisfied with their levels of proficiency. as part of the provincial government services network, the health and wellness centre can access ict technical support. the health and wellness centre has no formal policy for staff or volunteers for ict training, but does think strategically about ict. it has identified that the upcoming integration of its it systems with that of its program partners will require staff ict training to ensure that the new systems are adequately and properly used. an ongoing challenge related to staff ict training is the lack of funds to replace a staff member in training, with the result that staff members are expected to undertake training while also doing their jobs: you cannot have training while you’re doing something else. so the person has to be replaced and that … incurs costs. they expect you to do the job, and then you know… you learn at the same time. as the phone rings five times and then, you know, you answer a whole bunch of other things, so that is not a good way to learn (health and wellness centre si-4). many job placement organization staff members do not have adequate ict skills and need more ict training. despite the fact that most staff has had some software training, there are no inhouse troubleshooting skills to deal with common computer glitches, adding to the general stress levels and time pressures. the computers crash regularly, and nobody at the organization knows how to fix them. many staff members indicated that, funds permitting, they would be interested in receiving more ict training such as conference calling or powerpoint presentations. no staff member has the skills to maintain the job placement organization web site. similar to the health and wellness centre, the job placement organization is not able to send staff for ict training because it cannot afford to replace them during the training. the organization has few funds available for training staff and there is no ict training policy. 60 community organizations in the information age most of the staff members who recently joined the skills and training organization came with an ict skill set in a number of software programs along with internet and web training. however ict maintenance is a challenge the organization needs in-house computer support personnel to provide continuous information technology services, including maintenance. the skills and training organization also has no specific ict training policy in place. information technology training sessions do occur for the employment assistance services (eas) offices administrative staff. these one or two-day courses conducted at the community college include training in microsoft office and corel applications. advanced workshops for microsoft applications have also occurred, but as one staff member explained, only a few sessions have taken place because of the lack of funding. the staff ict capacity at the community development and employment resources organization is variable. some staff members are proficient in ict. others have never received computer training, or have basic computer skills and believe it is faster to write a letter by hand. some do not like using computers or dealing with technology such as automated phone systems. one staff member described the training situation: there has really been no training. i am sure everybody is using word differently from one another. we’re not kind of learning from each other and improving the effectiveness, the efficiency (in the) way we use those tools. others, like excel or the use of the internet, everybody is just doing their own thing so there has never been any kind of sitting down, exchange of ideas, any training courses and so on… (community development and employment resources organization-si-7). the community development and employment resources organization has neither funds for staff training nor an ict training policy in place. any ict training that staff had was gained elsewhere, such as high school, university or other organizations, before starting work there. 61 community organizations in the information age 5 information seeking and decision making 5.1 introduction one goal of the cirp was to understand how staff in the community organizations viewed information, and the creative solutions to problems of accessing information critical to the community organizations and the clients they serve. it was important, specifically, to understand the staff information environment, which is defined by the types and sources of information that staff members use in their jobs, how they access those sources, and what unique problems exist for them in accessing information. a research methodology called “information environment mapping” (iem) was developed. anecdotal evidence suggested that people often find creative solutions to everyday problems that may not be obvious to those outside of their organizations or lines of work. examples included the use of cell phones or web-mail for communication to compensate for the lack of a stable residential address. the iem methodology creates a problem solving setting in which respondents are encouraged to reveal unique perspectives on their information needs and any creative responses they employ to deal with challenges they face in getting at and using information. this methodology was adapted from a human-computer interface evaluation technique called cognitive walkthroughs. 5.2 related work wharton et al. (1992 and 1994) proposed the cognitive walkthrough (cw) methodology as a low cost usability evaluation method for human-computer interfaces (hci). the iem methodology does not focus on hci. it is adapted from the cw to observe personal perspectives on information using a problem solving approach. the iem methodology is also related to user requirement gathering activities within systems analysis methodologies. the prime example of such methodologies is the unified process (see ambler, 2005). unlike requirements gathering, however, no assumptions are made about desired functionality in using the iem approach. it is the current view of an information environment that is of interest. this may include the current views of respondents with regard to changes they would like to see in their environment, but the methodology itself poses no assumptions in this context. 62 community organizations in the information age 5.3 model the iem methodology was designed to capture views of existing information environments, where the views are not determined solely by technology. problem solving in the cw style was used to encourage a thorough discussion of one's environment. staff members were encouraged to reveal both the non-technical and technical natures of their environments. a staff person given a task will perform a process of information seeking and decision-making. this process is depicted in figure 5.1 as the following steps: 1. determine the types of information needed to perform the task; 2. consider the potential sources of this information; 3. identify the corresponding means of access or transmission of the information source identified in step (2); 4. choose sources of information based on influences and constraints faced within the organizational and social environments; 5. access, process or transmit information from sources identified in step (4); 6. reach a resolution point for the task using information obtained in step (5). this process is not necessarily linear. steps in the process may be revisited as necessary. each individual in our model is said to have a unique information environment map described by the distinguishing characteristics of this process for that person. figure 5.1: an information environment map (iem) 63 community organizations in the information age each iem is represented using a three dimensional taxonomy of information derived from mccreadie and rice as shown in table 5.1 (1999a & 1999b). table 5.1 information environment mapping taxonomy dimensions facets perspectives on information information as: • commodities • data collected within an environment • a representation of knowledge • data exchanged as part of a process • a data format means of access or transmission of information access or transmission: • to knowledge • via technology • via a process • via control or participation in making information • via social or organizational participation • through referral • as an intermediary constraints and influences on access or transmission of information types of constraints or influences: • affective • cognitive • economic • organizational • physical • social • technical 5.4 research design each staff person was presented with a hypothetical scenario in which they were asked to solve a problem. the scenario was intended to closely relate to those they normally face in their work 64 community organizations in the information age environment. they were, however, usually broader than any individual's normal job functions. this was due to the impracticality of designing individualized scenarios, as well as the need to encourage respondents to draw deeper from the knowledge they have of their information environment by forcing them into slightly unfamiliar terrain. subjects were asked to construct a step-by-step plan for solving the problems presented in the scenario. for each step in their plan they were asked to identify three facets of the information needed to complete the step: (1) the type of information required to carry out the step; (2) sources of that type of information; and (3) the means, if not obvious, by which the information would be accessed (e.g. telephone, voice, e-mail). it was important for staff to identify non-obvious situations. for example, someone may only have to access a web page by having another person print and deliver it. scenarios were developed for three of the four organization based around the specific services they deliver. a general inventory of the information environment was made for the fourth site since its service offerings are very broad. 5.5 data analysis: information environment mapping four iems were performed and each was analyzed separately. in terms of participants, there were: nine at the health and wellness centre; seventeen at the job placement organization; eight at the skills and training organization; and, six at the community development and employment resources organization. a combined analysis is presented here. perspectives on information information as commodities these organizations have used commodified information mostly in the forms of services, licensing and subscriptions. some services are ict-specific, such as a url checking service, temporary technical support, and client services provided by external organizations. telecommunications is another major category of services. beyond basic telephony, these included internet access, pagers and mobile phones for staff. some services are provided by the organizations themselves at significant cost. the primary example is the publication of newsletters. 65 community organizations in the information age licensing and subscriptions costs include: specialized software to support functions, such as fund raising; and specialized data collections, including local community resource guides and information about philanthropic organizations. software updates have also been a significant cost. clients and staff sometimes bear the costs of information. some clients, for example, have relied upon mobile phone service to maintain contact with their organizations. other clients have been guided by their organization to take courses that have tuition costs. one staff person described paying for the cost of periodical literature and article reprints important to their job function. information as data collected within an environment these organizations regularly make use of information from networking, where data that are critical to providing services are discovered or disseminated in an unplanned manner. the types of networks cited by staff reflected all possible social combinations between staff, external organizations, and clients. the environments in which these information exchanges occurred have most often been “drop-in” face-to-face meetings or telephone calls. new relationships have sometimes been established through events sponsored by an organization, where invited persons bring information into the network. data collection has happened during experiential activities that an organization provides its clients. one example is a community gardening program, where staff rely almost exclusively on “hands-on” training techniques. observation of client behaviour in health-related contexts was cited as another type of data collected within an environment. information as representations of knowledge these organizations have made use of various representations of knowledge. one significant finding is that printed material and oral information figured more prominently in this category than might be expected. each organization identified a small number of printed sources of knowledge as central in the services they provide. in three of the organizations this was a collection of information that identified local community resources related to the services offered by the organization. the fourth organization identified a national funding sources guide. only two of these sources were available on ict, one on-line and the other as a downloadable file. many staff in these organizations cited oral information exchange as more important than electronic forms such as e-mail. exchanges in this form include all combinations between staff, clients, and external organizations, including face-to-face conversations and telephony. 66 community organizations in the information age web-based content, as expected, provides important representations of knowledge for these organizations, including: information on government departments, programs, and procedures; portals to information on local community resources and services; and web sites of key external organizations as well as portals to information relating to the service domain of the organization, such as health care, horticulture, or job training. the web sites of these organizations were also cited as important sources for staff. other common representations of knowledge used by all of these organizations included: electronic databases and data sets, such as statistics canada data; paper file systems including case notes; e-mail messages and e-mail lists; books, newspapers, and other types of periodicals. the use of chalk messages on sidewalks to announce community events was a unique example at one organization. information as data exchanged as part of a process organizations can be characterized by the processes they employ and information exchanges within them. processes used by these organizations have usually been developed internally, and include: standardization of client intake; maintenance of client case notes; and administrative processes, including advisory board functions. most of these organizations use a standard form to collect information from new clients. clients usually present themselves in person at an organization. telephone and e-mail are used less frequently by clients to “sign up,” but they may be used along with an in-person visit as a followup. most of these organizations have defined specific processes for clients within their programs. clients may have to complete training or orientation to take part in a program, for example, to obtain job placement services. processes are not always developed by the organization. some have been mandated by external organizations. all of the community organizations must file reports to funders or service providers, which necessitates data collection and writing by staff. some processes are the result of legal requirements. for instance, federal law requires these organizations to obtain consent to access a client's personal information and to act on their behalf. obtaining consent involves the filing of specific information, including signatures. because these organizations act as intermediaries between their clients and external organizations, service offerings are dependent on obtaining 67 community organizations in the information age this consent. other legal or policy-mandated processes cited were for involuntary interventions on behalf of a client and obtaining certifications for clients. one problematic category of processes for these intermediaries is those initiated by reorganizations in external organizations with which they interface. structural changes in an external agency often result in procedural changes that are dictated to the intermediary. new procedures and processes for a community organization, for example, may involve transferring client files to a new place in the external organization, which may result in delays for clients. information as a data format the contrast between data formats supported by electronic ict and non-electronic data types was of particular interest. beyond basic telephony, all of these organizations have, in the aggregate, used all of the common electronic data formats anticipated in the taxonomy defined for iems. these include: databases, local or on-line; web content; voice mail; fax; and e-mail. web content, as expected, has been a widely used format in these organizations. this includes the authoring of content for organizational web sites as well as the use of reference information from a variety of on-line sources. content generated via web services has also been gaining in use, including the completion of administrative tasks, such as filing benefits claims. some common data formats were observed only in subsets of the organizations. these include text messaging, video, and non-interpersonal audio. the health and wellness centre has used paging, and was the only organization to use tty-based text messages for the hearing impaired. three organizations cited use of recorded video to support training programs. one organization offers a video library to clients for this purpose, and video records motivational messages from community members who have completed educational programs. another organization uses video for teleconferencing. one organization cited the use of radio as a means of advertising its programs and events. non-electronic data formats used in these organizations included newspapers and specific documents that are routinely used by the organization. the most unique example of nonelectronic data formats was sidewalk messages written in chalk to advertise events. 68 community organizations in the information age perspectives on access to and transmission of information access to knowledge and access to technology attention to access to knowledge and access to technology was given to identify non-trivial or non-obvious issues in an organization when it attempts to access, use or produce information vital to providing services to clients. organizations cited the use of common electronic ict as expected. these were: advanced telephone services, such as voice mail and conferencing; mobile telephony; database management; e-mail and e-mail lists; fax; web browsers; web email, and web search engines. subsets of these organizations cited the use of various other ict. examples of commonly cited ict include: video playback; audio production for radio; paging; and software applications for specific administrative functions such as accounting. less commonly-cited ict include: tty/voice relay services; web url checker services; radio; and domain-specific software applications to support such functions as fund raising and web content management. neither broadcast nor cable television was used by any organization. web services are a new category of ict that most of the organizations are using. one organization makes use of a course content management system to support on-line learning by its clients. some of these organizations perform administrative and legally mandated processes using web services. transportation was a non-obvious “ict” used by these organizations in the sense that travel has been necessary for the face-to-face communication that is vital in these organizations. access to process several types of processes are commonly used to access information in these organizations. organizations gain access to client information, as discussed above, through client intake and client consent processes. it should be noted that electronic ict are not used by all of these organizations to maintain this type of client information as it is collected. this is often done on paper. another type of process representing access to information that all of these organizations cited was the requirement to write formal reports to external funders or program managers. they represent accesses to information in that they are usually collaborative processes involving input from multiple staff members. the final type of process used to access information by these organizations is the publishing of newsletters. 69 community organizations in the information age access to control or participation in formation of information this is a special case of access to process, where processes that generate information require a high level of collaboration. these organizations all carry out such processes to publish newsletters, author and update their web sites, and write grant proposals and reports to external funders or partners. the latter two activities usually involve multiple staff integrating information about their areas of responsibility. other examples of participation in the formation of information expand outside the organizations. one organization participates in an e-mail list for community organizations. some organizational activities involve participation among clients and staff. these include job placement programs, where staff assists clients in writing resumes, applications, and other materials necessary to obtain employment. the horticulture programs at one organization are highly participatory and might be viewed as forming information as collective knowledge of environmental conditions and techniques among clients and staff. access to participation in a social or organizational context another important venue to access information occurs with social or organizational processes. two organizations cited membership in regional or sector organizations as an example. the primary examples that were cited by all organizations as the most important means of exchanging information were the social interactions between clients and staff. access through referral (indirect access) most activities undertaken on behalf of clients can be seen as helping both individuals and whole communities to access life-critical information. these are indirect accesses to information by staff in that they do not process the information being accessed. these organizations, for example, assist clients in gaining access to programs conducted by external organizations. access as an intermediary some activities undertaken on behalf of clients involve processing information before it is delivered, whether to individuals or to the whole community. the expertise of an organization is applied to help clients understand or use information. examples include the interpretation of: health information, current horticultural advisories, labour market conditions and training requirements, and the use of ict. 70 community organizations in the information age influences and constraints on access to information technical influences and constraints lack of access to a technology was the most common constraint for the organizations, such as the absence of networking infrastructure and data integration capabilities. as a result, staff devised both electronic and physical schemes for managing and sharing data, but there is still undeveloped potential. many staff members want the ability to collaborate through the use of common versions of documents, for example. one organization does have an internal network and server that would allow this, but it has not been set up to do so. a related constraint is the inability to access office networks from the outside. staff in several organizations indicated that the ability to work from home or other remote locations could increase productivity. some staff in these organizations must be mobile, which has influenced the desire to have mobile ict. this is particularly the case with staff that regularly goes into communities to see clients. other technical constraints are: software version conflicts, unreliable ict, lack of software functionality such as statistical analysis and image processing for newsletters, computer viruses, and problems with e-mail such as list management. all of these constraints influence staff to improvise workarounds that allow them to remain productive. physical influences and constraints geographic barriers, specifically for clients who lack access to transportation and telephones or other means of communication, were cited in all of these organizations as impeding face-to-face and oral communication. attempts at any communication have been complicated, however, by the reality that many clients have not had stable addresses. electronic ict in these cases was seen as necessary. clients in some organizations are assisted in creating web-based e-mail accounts so that staff can communicate with them in a location-independent way. staff in some of the organizations said that many clients rely on mobile phones to deal with not having a stable address. postal communication using third-party addresses, such as homeless shelters, was still the only means to reach some clients without phones or permanent addresses. a variation on geographic barriers exists at one organization because it serves clients across a wide geographic region. transportation is often not a practical option in this case, which has influenced the use of ict for distributed collaboration such as web-based tools and video conferencing. 71 community organizations in the information age accessibility for clients with physical disabilities can also present a constraint on access to information. one organization lacked elevators and ramps, which limits the ability of some clients to access certain facilities and programs. cognitive influences and constraints adult illiteracy was cited at some organizations as a constraint. staff members have assisted clients in these cases in obtaining services and training, towards becoming literate. linguistic barriers present a cognitive constraint on clients at one organization. this has required the development of special resources within the minority language. another organization cited the potential for linguistic barriers in their community, given a diversity of language groups there. staff were cognisant of resources available to assist clients who have language barriers should the need arise. lack of ict skills has been a constraint on both clients and staff. this has influenced these organizations to support ict training for its clients. some staff saw a need for staff training that is specific to the types of community intermediary work they do. other staff members want additional capacity to implement more complex functionality within their technical infrastructure. limits on technical support put other constraints on organizations. all sites have competent staff for very basic technical support, but their numbers are usually limited. these constraints influence the use of ict infrastructure at less than its full potential. productivity bottlenecks result when an organization's one technical support person is not available to fix a problem. affective influences and constraints staff in most organizations cited attitudes about electronic ict that significantly influence the way they choose to communicate. a subset of staff voiced a general distrust of these technologies. one concern has been appropriateness. many staff view technologies such as e-mail as inappropriate for most types of communication. several staff insisted on formal letter writing for professional reasons. staff members rely on their attitudes about ict to decide how to exchange information in a given situation. many have felt that communication by voice -face-to-face if possible -is a more effective way to get meaningful information than e-mail. some cited specific situations where 72 community organizations in the information age there is a need to sense emotion in a client. many thought that accessing detailed and nuanced information required human agents, as opposed to web pages or e-mails. important situational judgements also involved knowledge about the likelihood of reaching someone through various means. mobility and transience of clients has influenced staff to use certain ict in these situations, as discussed above. attitudes about clients themselves were also cited as influences in the way information is exchanged. some staff felt that they must intercede for certain clients in dealing with external organizations due to perceptions about their abilities to do so on their own. attitudes of outsiders, such as employers or landlords, were also cited as situations affecting how information is exchanged. it may be best, for example, for staff to intercede on behalf of clients. other affective issues cited by staff included: privacy; trust in the quality of information; and frustration in using ict, such as web search engines. economic influences and constraints economic constraints are significant for these organizations and many of their clients. organizations, as a result, are limited in the ict infrastructure they have. this, in turn, limits information processing functionality and productivity. use of in-house ict was not always the best choice in the trade-off between productivity and cost, however. one organization decided to outsource the layout and printing of its newsletter to reduce cost. this brought the ironic concern that the outsourced version looked more expensive to the intermediary’s donors, among others. many clients are impeded in their use of ict, partly for economic reasons. basic telephony is not affordable to some. clients may also experience homelessness. various means have been used by clients and staff to achieve communication as a result of these constraints, as discussed above. a significant proportion of clients in some communities have mobile telephones, according to staff. at one organization, however, staff indicated that significant numbers of their clients regularly exhaust their pre-paid service before they have money to replenish it. staff develop creative ways to work around economic constraints. one organization simply uses sidewalk signs written in chalk for part of its advertising. several organizations assist clients in obtaining web mail accounts at their own computer centres. social influences and constraints 73 community organizations in the information age staff members at these organizations rely on social networks to find and exchange information vital to their clients, such as checking with colleagues at other organizations on the availability of jobs or housing. reliance on this level of information exchange is a response to the inadequacies of other sources of information, such as web sites, in providing timely and accurate information. other types of social influences were observed. staff at one organization said that clients felt social pressure to continually upgrade their cell phones, which can exacerbate the existing economic constraints discussed above. organizational influences and constraints changes within external agencies or departments exert organizational influences on the exchange of information. for example, reorganizations within external organizations may require changes to administrative procedures within a community intermediary. clients may experience significant delays as a result of their files being transferred within the reorganized entity. staff said that the severity and frequency of such changes differs between organizations and sites. some are better than others in helping these community organizations respond. constraints sometimes exist on how consent documentation is transmitted. obtaining consent to access a client's personal information, as discussed in the perspective sections, is often required by law. some external organizations will not accept these in certain electronic formats, such as fax. 74 community organizations in the information age 5.6 summary staff members at all of these organizations had comprehensive views of their information environments. they showed that they were creative and adaptive to influences and constraints in accessing information they need to serve their clients. priority is given to finding and using the best means possible to help clients. staff members involved in the overall administration of these organizations tended to emphasize the use of ict more often when discussing current situations in their organizations and when contemplating potential uses of existing technologies and imagining new types of ict. most of the information used in these organizations is described as rep esentations of knowledge within the taxonomy. web content is a major format in this category, as expected. what was not expected was that oral and printed information were seen as equally important as electronic formats. staff across all organizations cited the primacy of interpersonal exchanges as critical to finding current information of importance to clients. another prominent perspective on information in these organizations was as data collected within an environment. printed compilations of local community resources were also cited by most organizations as critical to the services they provide for clients. most of these sources offer limited on-line versions. another vital category of information sources includes sector-specific guides to funding sources and programs, which in some cases were available in both on-line and print formats. r processes are the other major perspective on how information is viewed within these organizations, including client intake, obtaining client consent, reporting to external sponsoring organizations, and the publication of newsletters. most organizations use common advanced electronic ict, including advanced telephone services, mobile telephony; advanced software applications, e-mail and web services. the use of other common electronic ict was observed in various subsets of the organizations. this included web-based collaboration tools, text messaging, video, video conferencing, and tty-based text messaging for the hearing impaired. 75 community organizations in the information age 6 ways forward 6.1 community intermediaries in the knowledge society community organizations have an historical, highly effective role of providing relevant services to meet core socio-economic needs of community members. the roles of community intermediary organizations, to provide information and services to local citizens, have become increasingly important as citizens’ needs change in the emerging “knowledge society.” these organizations are also very important resources for governments to meet policy and program objectives. community intermediaries act as partners, sub-contractors and surrogates in the delivery of government information and services. in many instances, citizens seek and use information and services from a community organization, rather than directly from a government department or agency. the continually expanding mandates and activities expected of community intermediaries in providing government services have not been sufficiently supported by the various levels of government. the weakness in this virtuous circle of information and service delivery is at the level of resources: community intermediaries do not have the resources that they need either to meet the demands of citizens and to manage and distribute continually changing or inadequately developed government services and content. resources that are required in order to effectively provide program and service delivery are: staff resources; information and service content development and dissemination; technology maintenance and upgrades; staff it training; human resources development and support, and effective level of communications (e.g., access to high speed internet services, multiple channel service delivery, etc.). where formal relationships already exist, governments are increasing the demands upon, responsibilities of, and accountability by community organizations. however, these organizations have not received commensurate support with the required resources to be effective, and in some instances, sustainable over the longer term. with community intermediaries essentially doing the “work” for government, financial support should be provided to assist with at least some of the core operating and personnel costs of these organizations. without this, the risks increase that service delivery will not be effective, the ability of the community intermediaries to adapt and change to the meet the evolving needs of the public will be limited, and the sustainability and prospects for continuing operation of these organizations becomes a growing concern. 76 community organizations in the information age a real opportunity exists for the federal government and community intermediaries with the services canada initiative or, given that this initiative may not reach fruition in its current form, its underlying service strategy. the service strategy of services canada closely aligns with the existing strategies and processes employed by community organizations. these organizations are already providing information and services to the public. this would include, for example in language of use, multiple communication service channels, through “boutiquing” or packaging information and services around the specific needs of communities and citizens, etc. pilot program delivery by service canada includes progressive and innovative initiatives to facilitate community-level services, including cost sharing of local personnel by government departments and non-staff resource support. of mutual benefit to the federal government and communities/citizens would be the establishment of close collaborations and partnerships between services canada, or departments using the same service strategy, and community intermediaries. such partnerships should address the service needs of the public, and provide various forms of support for addressing the critical resource problems experienced by community organizations. there have been high-level investments by government into infrastructure and digitization of back-end services and content. while these are required components of a national service infrastructure, these have not had significant impact or value at the local, community level. greater attention and resources should be devoted to service delivery at the community level, including the development of relevant content in different languages and formats, to meet the needs of canadians as well as to ensure successful program delivery and thereby achieve policy objectives. as part of this, the federal government, individually, and in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments, should ensure the availability of relevant content in multiple use formats, available across canada in the official languages as well as in minority languages. community intermediaries deliver many specific programs for government departments through contracting and similar arrangements, such as employment insurance, data bank job searches, employment training skills upgrading, work placement, as well as health information/services, among others. government departments should provide increased resources, including financial, technical and content, and agencies to ensure that the community intermediaries have the capacity to provide service levels that contribute to successful specific program and policy objectives. 77 community organizations in the information age 6.2 organizational issues the funding arrangements of each organization have a major impact on the delivery of services and information to clients. funding for the three learning and employment resource organizations is a mixture of core, fee-for-service and program funding. such funding arrangements are contingent, variable and not sustainable either for program delivery or for offering new programs in this or other service areas. core funding is being phased out and replaced by fee-for-service, short-term program and project funding. these are inadequate to cover the current operating costs of each of these organizations. to make up core-funding shortfalls, organizations have engaged in extensive fundraising, which may or in most cases do not, result in funding increases. the short duration of project funding at the learning and employment resource organizations has resulted in widespread job insecurity, working short-term contracts and no job security. as staffing decreases, so too do services to clients. there is inconsistency in salaries as a result of how the government funds different geographical areas; some staff members are receiving less pay than others for doing the same work because of where they are located. low staff salaries have contributed to a rising rate of staff turnover. salary increases are rare. at one of these organizations, staff has not had a salary increase for the past six years; at another organization staff received their first small increase in ten years. staff members put in long volunteer, unpaid hours, and volunteers to help paid staff are rare, preferring to seek paid employment. these funding situations also affect the organizations’ ict resources in all areas, be it software, hardware, training, access, or maintenance and upgrades. yet, a number of grants and government programs exclude funding for these technologies and services such as computers, access to the internet, high-speed services, etc. these generally unsustainable funding situations and the subsequent effects on staffing, ict and internet services have a negative impact on the capacity of learning and employment resource intermediaries’ to deliver information and services to clients. in contrast, the health and social services intermediary receives annual core funding from the provincial health department. this secure funding arrangement provides the organization with a significant advantage over the three learning and employment resource organizations, but there are still significant funding challenges. although organizational funding is secure, the upcoming integration of its it systems with those of its program partners will require staff ict training to ensure that the new systems are adequately and properly used. an ongoing challenge related to staff ict training is the lack of funds to replace a staff member in training. 78 community organizations in the information age the composition of the clients at each community organization is an important factor in delivering services and information. a majority of the clients have lowincome levels of five to fifteen thousand dollars per annum. two organizations serve clients who are young adults between the ages of 19 and 35. these clients have many basic needs including income, food, shelter clothing. numerous challenges and barriers to delivering client services and information include: low education levels, high illiteracy levels; learning difficulties; mental health problems; physical disabilities; visual, hearing or cognitive impairments; no fulltime work experience; intimidated by technology. a combination of language barriers and aging creates additional barriers. receiving health services in one’s first language, particularly as a person ages (clients 65 years of age and older), helps to ensure that diagnosis, treatments and services are understood. at this stage in a persons’ life a lack of support and a lack of knowledge about health and wellness services often contributes to further isolation. services and information cannot be delivered the same way to clients with a mix of english speakers, aboriginal peoples who speak different native languages, and recent immigrants to canada. currently the organizations do not have the capacity to address the needs of these, or other, non-official minority language speakers. the organizations provide many services as well as information to help address social and economic needs, but the study found that cultural needs have to be addressed as well. the study also revealed that clients served by the community intermediaries value the importance of learning and employment resource services and health and wellness information. they are also very interested in receiving online services such as skills upgrading, lifelong learning, computer literacy and numeracy upgrading and health information and services. 6.3 information and communication technologies the role of the four organizations as intermediaries in e-government is specific to the particular social, economic, cultural and political contexts of their communities and the type of information and services they deliver. the one organization studied with adequate and sustainable core funding is also the best prepared of the four to deliver public information and services using the internet. the other three organizations do not have the capacity to be effective e-government intermediaries. building their capacity will require significant and ongoing funding and other resources in all areas of the organization including staffing, training, core overheads and ict. 79 community organizations in the information age community intermediaries take a multi-channel approach to delivering services and information. all the organizations have developed a wide range of channels – from posters and pamphlets to websites – to inform and provide services to clients and potential clients. the organizations provide most information and services by telephone and in-person, the channels providing the personal contact preferred by most clients. although all the organizations use ict for operational use and delivering services and information, not all are doing this effectively. all four organizations have a website, but only two use them strategically and keep them maintained. three of the organizations provide computers for clients to access information and services online, despite considerable challenges. lack of high-speed infrastructure is a barrier to service delivery for the one organization providing services in a rural area. the benefits for clients using ict for information and service delivery include easier access to information and services, increasing their ict skills for employment, and increasing their social capital when using computers in community settings. however the barriers of using ict outweigh the benefits for many clients. the primary barrier is lack of access to the internet – levels of home internet access range from 70 per cent for clients of one organization to 30 per cent for clients of another – due to the high cost of computers and internet use. community internet access is not always available or appropriate. many clients have a low capacity to use ict effectively. benefits for staff and organizations using ict vary among the organizations. they include easier access to information, getting information for and to clients more quickly, and networking more effectively with funders and partners. the one organization with adequate and sustainable core funding has the highest level of effective ict use and has the most successful outcomes with program and service delivery. using ict effectively presents very significant challenges for the other three organizations. ict troubleshooting and ongoing maintenance is a common problem. challenges include using and maintaining ict software, hardware and internal networks, software glitches that no staff member can fix, not having enough computers or internet connections, having old computers that crash often, and assuring an adequate electrical supply for ict. two organizations experience significant challenges with their internal phone systems that impede service delivery. staff ict training is an ongoing issue for community intermediaries because of new emerging ict and evolving requirements for service and information delivery. the one organization with adequate and sustainable core funding has the highest staff ict capacity and is the best 80 community organizations in the information age prepared to ensure future staff ict training needs are met. the other organizations face significant challenges ensuring adequate staff ict capacity, primarily because their limited funding also limits their ability to ensure that staff is trained to use ict effectively. none of the organizations have a staff ict training policy in place. all the community intermediaries studied face considerable challenges using ict to deliver information and services. a multi-channel approach to delivery – with the emphasis on telephone and face-to-face personal contact – is clearly how community intermediaries will continue to operate in the foreseeable future. for the three organizations without adequate and sustainable core funding, using ict effectively is clearly an overwhelming challenge. a substantial investment of financial, human, and technical resources will be necessary to ensure that these organizations will be able to effectively use ict to deliver information and services to their clients. 6.4 information seeking and decision making the most significant types of constraints and influences on the access and exchange of information in these organizations are, without ranking: technical, affective, economic, and organizational. the most critical – and not necessarily negative – of these are: lack of access to current networking and data sharing technology, priority given to non-technical interpersonal communication, financial constraints faced by all organizations and many of their clients, frequent change within external sponsoring agencies requiring organizations to change the ways in which they access and process information. physical, cognitive, and social constraints and influences are not insignificant. the most critical of these are: the existence of geographic barriers where some organizations are located or clients' lack of transportation, lack of training by both clients and staff in the use of ict, and the necessity of relying on social networking by staff to obtain critical information for their clients. an improvement in the ict infrastructure of these organizations would enable staff to offer even greater levels of service. improvements should focus on minimizing the communications difficulties faced by clients and increasing the administrative efficiency and capacity of these organizations. these organizations need software and networking infrastructure for performing statistical analysis, file sharing, and remote access by staff. improvements to information management are also necessary in the external organizations with which these organizations interface. the information architectures of external organizations should be designed and managed such that on-line documentation, reporting requirements, and 81 community organizations in the information age information about administrative procedures are easier to find and use. architectural improvement to ict systems in this area should also be designed to mitigate the impacts of frequent organizational changes by the external partners on these community organizations. 6.5 policy and program recommendations the following recommendations are a combination of the findings of the researchers and the views of the community intermediaries. federal and provincial governments should formally recognize the role of community intermediaries as providers of government information and services. as part of this, these governments should provide support and training for the organizations’ staff to better ensure that information provided to clients is accurate. the various levels of government should establish better communications and planning mechanisms to develop a coordinated approach to funding. there should be more consultation with and engagement of the community organizations, including the front line workers, in the development of policy by governments. policies and practices with respect to programs and contracts delivered by intermediaries should be revised to reflect the real costs and challenges of service delivery. overhead costs, it costs, accounting, support staff and other costs not currently covered by project funding needs to be included. the process of program development and review should include close consultations with the community organizations and their staff who deliver the services. project time frames should be extended from short-term to medium and long-term so that the real costs of projects are covered and that the projects operate long enough to be successful. government programs should be flexible to accommodate community and individual circumstances and needs. programs and services should be adapted to needs rather than the current situation, which has people being fitted into programs. 82 community organizations in the information age there is a need for better communication and provision of supporting materials and resources to community intermediaries by governments when they change their programs and services. the current delays and outright lack of good, clear communication of changes results in delayed service delivery and forces intermediaries to continually re-do work. improvements are necessary to increase the efficiency and quality of service provision to clients at the local level. beyond how the intermediaries operate, the services they provide and the communications technologies employed, there remain deep-seated socio-economic challenges around literacy, poverty, education, skills, and disability, among others. there will be a continuing need to ensure that programs and policies provided directly to individuals and through community intermediaries are comprehensive enough to address these challenges. government policy and program officers should practice ongoing engagement and consultation with front line workers in order to create a better understanding by all of community issues and needs, program and policy frameworks and options, and to improve the links and outcomes between policy, programs and citizens’ needs. if government services and information are going to be delivered on-line citizens want sites that are easy to use and secure. they also require reliable information, particularly health and wellness information and a guarantee that their personal privacy will not be compromised. funding federal and provincial governments should consider providing some level of core funding to community intermediaries to ensure that the organizations are able to continue to operate and to do so effectively. project funding rules by the federal government should be reviewed to consider the inclusion of ict costs, ongoing ict maintenance and support costs, and training costs for staff and clients. funding levels for projects and other initiatives should be sufficient to meet both the expectations of the funders and the needs of the organizations. funding support is required for the purchasing and upgrading of ict and networking. funding support is required for ict training for staff and volunteers. 83 community organizations in the information age there are still many rural and remote areas without high-speed service. the federal government should ensure that at a minimum, this level of service is available to municipal, social services (health) and community service organizations in communities. the federal government should consider supporting the introduction and use of videoconferencing for health service and information in rural and remote areas. this initiative should include providing these services to minority language speaking citizens in these areas. to ensure access to government services and programs for those without home internet, governments need to consider providing financial support to keep open and maintain community access computers. the funding would need to include support for computer upgrades, maintenance, technical support, as well as staff and user training. funding is required to assist with hiring and maintaining staff for critical core activities in community organizations, especially those positions that involve managerial supervision and accountability, it support, staff and client training activities. funding is required by organizations for internal client needs assessment analysis, as well as program and materials development. access and content the federal government needs to address the issue of phonelessness. the federal government should address the continuing issue of the lack of high-speed services in rural and remote areas. how information is provided to disadvantaged people needs to be improved, including how it is presented on the internet. more information programs are required to address socio-economic needs, such as health information and basic education among others. funding and other forms of support are required to translate documents and information into other languages (e.g. aboriginal). 84 community organizations in the information age 7 references ambler, s.w. (2005). agile modeling and the rational unified process (rup). agile modeling, retrieved june 2005 from http://www.agilemodeling.com/essays/agilemodelingrup.htm . canada. industry canada. joint table on information management/information technology of the voluntary sector initiative. (2002). strengthening voluntary sector capacity through technology. in i. c. im/it secretariat (ed.). canada. government on-line advisory panel. (2003b). connecting with canadians: pursuing service transformation. final report to the president of the treasury board of canada (ed.). government of canada. (vol. final report., pp. 24). canada. government on-line advisory panel. (2002a). government on-line and canadians. http://www.gol-ged.gc.ca/index_e.asp canada. government on-line advisory panel. (2002b). transforming government to serve canadians better. report of the government on-line advisory panel to the president of the treasury board of canada. http://www.gol-ged.gc.ca/pnlgrp/reports/second/transform/transform00_e.asp canada. health canada. advisory council on health infostructure. (1999). paths to better health. final report. (government no. cat: h21-145/1999e). ottawa: office of health and the information highway. canada. service canada. (2005). mise en oeuvre de service canada. september. slide presentation. pp. 1-15. mccreadie, m. and rice, r.e. (1999). trends in analyzing access to information. part i: cross disciplinary conceptualizations of access. information processing and management, 35(1999), 45-76. mccreadie, m. and rice, r.e. (1999). trends in analyzing access to information. part ii: unique and integrating conceptualizations. information processing and management, 35(1999), 77-99. personnel psychology centre (ppc). research and development division. (2003). citizen 85 http://www.agilemodeling.com/essays/agilemodelingrup.htm community organizations in the information age centred service delivery in a multi-channel environment: competency profiles for the service community. http://www.solutions.gc.ca/oro-bgc/sc/comp-serv/compserv_e.pdf reddick, a., boucher, c. (2000) dual digital divide. ottawa: public interest advocacy centre. rideout, v. and reddick, a. (2005) sustaining community access to technology: who should pay and why! the journal of community informatics vol. 1 (2) 45-62 rideout, v. (2003/2) digital inequalities in eastern canada, canadian journal of information and library sciences, vol. 27 (2) 3-31 trench, b. and o'donnell, s. (1997). the internet and democratic participation: uses of icts by voluntary and community organisations in ireland. economic and social review, 28, 213-234 wharton, c., bradford, j., jeffries, r., & franzke, m. (1992). applying cognitive walkthroughs to more complex user interfaces: experiences, issues, and recommendations. in p. bauersfeld, j. bennett, & g. lynch (eds.), proceedings of chi'92: new york: acm. 86 http://www.solutions.gc.ca/oro-bgc/sc/comp-serv/comp-serv_e.pdf http://www.solutions.gc.ca/oro-bgc/sc/comp-serv/comp-serv_e.pdf 1.4 findings of the study funding arrangements 1.4.2 composition of clients 1.4.5 information and communication technology multi-channel delivery information communication technology benefits information communication technology barriers staff ict training 1.5 policy and program recommendations 1.5.2 access and content 2 introduction access and content building first nation owned and managed fibre networks across quebec tim whiteduck1 & brian beaton2 director of technologies, first nations education council, canada. email: twhiteduck@cepn-fnec.com graduate student, faculty of education, university of new brunswick, canada. email: brian.beaton@unb.ca introduction first nations are politically autonomous indigenous communities in canada. in the province of quebec, many first nations have territories located in rural and remote regions where commercial telecommunication companies currently have weak or no broadband infrastructure. because first nations are politically autonomous, they need whenever possible to have control over the services and infrastructure in their communities. given this geographical and political situation, first nations in quebec are building their own fibre network. this "first mile" infrastructure is an essential communication link for these first nations as they build healthy, sustainable local economies for future generations (mcmahon r. et al., 2011). all across canada, small rural and remote communities continue to struggle to access equitable and affordable high speed internet connections that address local priorities and needs. as the demand for more bandwidth increases in all sectors in every community, regional organizations are working with community partners to identify and develop strategies to effectively address this challenge. first nation communities are creating innovative solutions to ensure their service organizations and members are able to access adequate high-speed connections that accommodate local requirements. quebec covers a very large area; the southern half of quebec would absorb five of the smallest canadian provinces combined. to accomplish the fibre build in quebec, first nations are working with their regional organizations to build and manage their local broadband networks supporting their information and communications technologies (ict) (first nations education council (fnec), 2007, 2009, 2013; whiteduck, t., 2010; whiteduck et al., 2012). the first nations education council (fnec) is a regional first nation organization located in wendake first nation, quebec, that represents 22 first nations in the province, most of which are in rural and remote locations. fnec also works with other regional first nation networks and communities in quebec. in total there are 30 first nations in quebec partnering with fnec's technology department to access their different network services. appropriate telecommunication infrastructure is a critical economic requirement in the first nations working in partnership with the first nations education council. first nations need reliable telecommunication infrastructure to effectively deliver and support social and economic development opportunities. these rural and remote first nation communities, accessible only by driving to the end of the road, have homes and facilities usually located near the water system that historically served as the main transportation system in days gone by. internet connections in homes is a great benefit and is required in each of the communities but the most important aspect of broadband connectivity for these hard-to-serve first nation communities is the provision of essential services such as e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-justice, ie the e-community model supported by the assembly of first nations (whiteduck, j., 2010). fnec is working with their first nation community partners across quebec to plan, build and operate a first nation owned fibre network to deliver broadband connections throughout each community. public and private partnerships are being established by fnec to fund and construct the regional and local networks connecting these rural and remote communities. this paper describes the history of the development of fnec fibre network and its future goals. background to the fibre build since its establishment in 1985, fnec has been working with its 22 member first nations to build a quality education system for first nations children. in their vision statement on their web site at http://cepn-fnec.com, fnec: "will ensure that the goal of quality, holistic education, as defined by our members, and attained through complete jurisdictional autonomy over our education programs, will be achieved in a spirit of collaboration, respect, sharing, and commitment" (fnec, 2007). it was in this spirit of cooperation and collaboration that the first nations leadership directed fnec to begin supporting ict development to serve their schools, students and staff in 1998. significant improvements in internet connections were made through the national first nations schoolnet program. the primary objective of this program was to improve and sustain broadband connectivity services to first nations-operated schools across canada. in doing this work since 2003, fnec developed a regional network that successfully integrated information and communications technologies (ict) into the first nation member schools of fnec network. two fundamental goals were successfully achieved through this program: a) the upgrade to high-speed internet in the schools and b) the installation of videoconferencing services. the needs identified and the financial resources available at the time led fnec to opt for the creation of a private high-speed internet network with a minimum bandwidth of 1.54 mbps (called a t1 connection by the telecom industry), using existing transportation infrastructures (essentially telephone cables and microwave networks). in all, 17 communities and 23 schools in quebec and labrador took part in the project which particularly facilitated the installation of videoconferencing services and enabled certain communities to be connected to a high-speed internet service. the number of partner first nations and schools could have been significantly higher if all the communities had been able to access to these equivalent telecom services. aside from the schools, other organizations from participating communities quickly showed an interest in videoconference services and accessing the t1 connection as they too were in need of high-speed internet service. certain federal government departments, including health canada, demonstrated their interest in the use of these technologies and community connections. in addition, other communities also expressed an interest in joining the network. the development of the t1 project enabled participating schools to make significant savings, especially by reducing travel expenses by using ict particularly videoconferencing as an alternative means of meeting and accessing resource people. the t1 network also made it possible to access and use all the potential of high-speed internet connections. as a result, fnec and the first nations identified additional projects for internet use that require increased bandwidth. however, the t1 network was set up on the network of existing telephone companies infrastructure (except for a few exceptions), which greatly limited bandwidth, meaning the capacity to transmit digital information. only the installation of optic fibre would make it possible to significantly increase bandwidth. building the fibre network in 2007 fnec proposed the creation of a new fibre optic installation program in order to increase the effectiveness and the potential of its network. this project was entitled vision 2007: broadband information highway for the first nations of quebec and labrador and proposed to provide the first nations communities of quebec and labrador with broadband internet connections that could reach speeds as high as 100mbps, thus opening up a whole new world of possibilities (fnec, 2007). as a result of this proposal, from 2007 to 2009 fnec was able to raise $1.3 million with 75% coming from health canada to develop local (internal) fibre networks in eight first nations. the external connections outside of the first nations reaching telecommunication providers networks still required some work to deliver the required bandwidth to each first nation fibre network. by 2009, fnec completed fibre development and deployment into 6 first nation communities (wendake, gesgapegiag, listuguj, kitigan zibi, odanak, wôlinak) and two other projects were in development (kanesatake and wemotaci) (fnec, 2009). fnec led the expansion of connectivity services to other sectors and the deployment of fibre optic community-based installation. sharing infrastructure and network support services with all the other service providers (health, education, administration, justice, policing, homes, etc) in each of these communities helps to sustain the ongoing operation and maintenance of the network. the e-community framework endorsed by the first nation leadership at the assembly of first nations (whiteduck, j., 2010) is now being deployed and supported by the first nations education council. the high level of collaboration, commitment, expertise, and leadership demonstrated by fnec's it department to complete the first phase of the fibre construction project supported both their member first nations and the government to invest in the next phase of development. establishing the proper private sector partners who were able to complete the fibre construction work and networking requirements helped convince the remaining fnec partner first nations that their communities needed equitable access to fibre and fnec network. in the spring of 2010, fnec updated their vision 2007 and submitted a successful funding proposal to the first nations infrastructure fund (fnif) of aboriginal affairs and northern development canada (aandc) (fnec, 2009). their proposal for broadband infrastructure construction funds was based on the mandate provided by the chiefs of fnec partner first nations to secure appropriate broadband communications technology and systems to serve the present and future needs of the first nations. fnec was able to secure funding of $4.4 million from the fnif to continue the work to construct internal fibre networks connecting the main administrative buildings in their partner first nations. in some cases this funding also supported the interconnection with the regional telecommunication provider's fibre networks to deliver a private network connection back to fnec core hub located in their offices in wendake. before the fibre build, the established broadband applications were using all the available telephone circuits and bandwidth that the regional telecom provider could deliver to the first nations. the infrastructure required a major upgrade to accommodate additional bandwidth demands that new broadband applications were placing on these legacy technologies. the telecom network design before the fibre network became available was only able to provide end-of-the-line connections without any self-healing and network diversity capabilities. in this regard it failed to provide the level of redundancy required to accommodate essential monitoring and program delivery services such as water, fire, e-health and administrative responsibilities needed in the first nations communities. the existing diesel generated electricity for the repeater tower sites required to reach the first nations demanded ongoing monitoring and maintenance while consuming massive amounts of energy and fiscal resources to operate. these infrastructure challenges created the opportunity for the first nations to begin planning and constructing their own fibre network. the new fibre optic cable backbone selected through an open competitive process as an energy efficient, green technology addresses all the short and long term telecom and broadband ip needs and the broadband internet communications needs of the first nations partners in fnec construction project. the local connectivity solution that was put in place in partnership with fnec is proving itself as a long-term viable and sustainable network option for this harsh environment. some of the partner first nations are using either a local cable or a wireless network to reach the residential sector in their communities. the local distribution system is a "closed" system, virtually eliminating any interference and is inherently more secure. several of the communities currently work with a private cable television service. all the systems are 'inherently designed' with future growth capacity and can accommodate 'cable' services, readily connecting any new home and institution. modem 'drops' are in place to every building ensuring that everyone has access to the network. adding new drops is locally supported with the simple installation of a cable or wireless modem. local first nation it network technicians are being trained to complete new installations as required. the fiber/coaxial network system's management is text console driven (from any computer) and is easy to maintain from remote locations and has automated scripts for routine maintenance. typically, most of the regional network maintenance and monitoring is currently being handled by fnec for the first nations communities. local network management is completed by a local technician using a web-based interface for adding, suspending, removing the household modems. the network is carrier class equipment that is specifically designed to deliver reliable, error-free access with a range of speed and priority classifications. some of the first nations are presently providing voice-over-ip services throughout their community for their local and organizations telephone service. customer premise equipment (cpe) or 'subscriber endpoints' for cable and wireless solutions are readily available, ensuring that the system can grow faster and easier with the new fibre backbone. subscriber installation is easier (less technical or physically demanding once the drops are completed) and can be done by local band personnel with minimal training. fnec fibre connections today's demand for broadband services in first nations presents complex challenges as technologies continue to evolve. given the fact that the majority of first nations are located in rural and remote parts of the region, a gap remains in terms of the level of technology integration locally. reasons for these gaps are broad, and range from local issues such as poor telecommunication infrastructure to the lack of a unified approach regarding resource support. the existence and level of expertise to foster technology integration in first nations is a critical component in bridging these gaps in order to enable first nations to develop and sustain their technology implementations. certainly local capacity can only exist or even develop if these technologies and the support systems have arrived in these areas. for years, first nations advocated to government their need for infrastructure support that would enable them to implement or improve local infrastructure to all of their public sectors. furthermore these improvements must also address the social and economic needs for the general public, therefore concluding that the only possible approach to this issue is a holistic one. first nations require that they own, control, access and possess (afn, 2007) the infrastructure required to support their applications that demand on these communication networks. as referenced earlier the quebec first nations and the government agencies serving them now rely on the communication and information facilities provided by fnec under the first nations schoolnet program that began reaching their communities in the late 1990's. the reliance on these technologies and applications continue to evolve and expand, demanding reliable infrastructure and additional bandwidth in all sectors. the effect of the technology in the first nations is pervasive and has built new foundations under services such as governance, health, education and justice. the technology is also essential for monitoring essential services such as water treatment and power generation along with all the other facilities in the communities. fnec developed working and resource partnerships that have extended technology support services and the broadband application, for example videoconferencing, to other public sectors in first nations. it is this form of development and unified approach that needs to continue in order to develop and remove the broadband disparity that exists in many first nations in quebec. more importantly, the federal government needs to realize and carry out new measures of permanent support for first nations that enables them to sustain and support their technology implementations (fnec, 2013). fnec benefits for its partners the advantages of a regional network implementation, is that it simplifies configuration and support aspects while reducing the equipment requirements. since all communities connect centrally to fnec office, services are immediately available to all points along the network. fnec is now a recognized leader in the domain of videoconferencing across quebec and offers the complete suite of videoconference / audio conferencing services which include bridge management, recording, and video streaming services. furthermore, fnec was directly involved in the deployment of over 100 videoconference systems in the region of quebec and continue to offer technical support and training to their clientele comprising of: schools, health centres, band administration, tribal authorities, and treatment centres (fnec, 2009, 2013). working to improve technology advancements in all areas at the community level, fnec continues to support and consult with other regional agencies to offer strategic guidance and expertise in the area of ict. health canada, first nations health and social services commission and inac quebec are examples of major partners. fnec works closely with government departments, boards, agencies and authorities to ensure the it components of their projects and services are effectively delivered. by proactively understanding the it needs of its member (and non-member) communities, fnec works strategically in its approach to support this development. building local capacity to support technologies is a key to long-term sustainability and continued development. fnec continues to develop and deliver technology training for member first nations using the latest methods to enhance delivery through distance learning technologies. fnec has established an internet network operations centre (noc) that supports the following technologies and services: multiple server park and blade server systems fibre optic connections are installed to provide internet feed for 26 first nations through subscribed connectivity services such as vpn and trunking connections, whereby there are 15 and 11 communities respectively using these services. dedicated services such as lan extension (lanx) are the preferred choice as we are able to achieve direct and dedicated connections to the hub. availability of 10base t (fibre) lan extension service however is not available in many of the first nations, therefore we are obligated to use vpn over other service providers to enable fnec to support the management of local networks. video/audio conferencing services; videoconference bridging services, video streaming and recording (rss), teleconferencing firewall/spam/web-filtering services; fortinet technology is used at the core to distribute services to all points along the regional network co-location facility; fnec offers collocation (server) services to support the distribution of online services and reporting systems. e-learning platform (adobe connect) web/email hosting with its helpdesk and a closely monitored resolution process, fnec provides troubleshooting for all hardware and software issues to clientele in the domain of education, health, and community administration. furthermore, their remote diagnostic methods of troubleshooting expedite the process of resolving technical issues. fnec currently hosts several website and email systems for regional agencies and communities, including corporate level applications such as the cano school information system. blade server technology facilitates the expansion of server needs while incorporating redundancy across all systems. fnec will continue to support broadband services through schoolnet but new budget reductions further limit their ability to support first nations. the national budget of schoolnet remains constant at $5.8m, whereas the quebec allocation is $881k. considering that 50% of this budget is earmarked to support recurring fees, fnec's ability to support other projects is very tenuous given that their technical staff is providing technical support on a daily basis. fnec uses the schoolnet funding to support the following activities: provide internet connectivity subsidies to first nations schools; provide helpdesk technical support services; research and implement cost-effective broadband connectivity solutions for schools and the greater community; supply ict equipment to schools that offers leading edge technologies and increased accessibility for students and teachers; manage (and develop) software licensing agreements for schools (microsoft and mcafee licensing); develop and coordinate training activities addressing immediate needs of teachers, technicians and students; coordinate and deploy the use of videoconferencing to first nations; continued development of the monécole-myschool internet website project; collaborate with other regional and national programs in ict that offer schools services in technology (computers for schools, broadband program); coordinate the first nations schoolnet youth employment program. the future first nations invest significant amounts of resources external to their community to acquire technology services. these services can be strategically acquired from within the community when the capacity, support and infrastructure are available locally. communities are seeking every opportunity to create local employment opportunities in the domain of ict. this approach sees these investments remain in the community while supporting the development of local expertise. fnec recognizes the economic benefits that broadband services offer. this fibre construction project aims to support first nations build their capacity and enable employment opportunity creation at various levels (fnec, 2013). the fnec project included other components such as the smartboard and videoconference expansion project, the voice-over-ip (voip) project and the telejustice project but these initiatives were not eligible under aandc's fnif program. the first nations and their organizations are still demanding these applications to support the sustainability of their networks. fnec is continuing to work with different government programs and partners to identify the investment that will support these important applications. the atikemek communities of wemotaci and opitciwan still require additional financial resources to complete the external fibre connections to the nearest telecom provider's infrastructure. working closely with the cree regional authority, which had their fibre network infrastructure passing through the atikemek territory, fnec invested $1.8 million from the existing project to purchase the required fibre (300km of 72 pair underground grade cable) and switching equipment (2 opto-electronic backhaul switches) for this project. fnec and the cree regional authority are now seeking the funds required to successfully connect these two first nations to the network. some of the future opportunities that the fibre construction project brings to each first nation includes: business development opportunities by enhancing marketing delivery and visibility for local entrepreneurs; broadband service businesses supporting the development of local internet service providers and acquiring backhaul (external internet solutions) agreements that permit communities redistribution authority; public sector developments to create and support sustainable holistic broadband environments through the deployment of local fibre optic networks ensuring broadband solutions have long term capacity for growth that support evolving applications that leverage them while supporting the development of local expertise and local technicians; regional level developments that continue to build regional network capacity bringing economies of scale, linkages to other networks, added value services, and the delivery of provincial and federal applications while working in collaboration with first nation commissions to advance the delivery of their services to first nations. conclusion fnec believes that this project will support the advancement of broadband development in their first nations member communities; however it is equally important to support this development where it is needed the most, at the community level. fnec is committed to completing all work presented as funding resources become available. the work being completed by fnec as documented in this paper highlights the importance of this intermediary technology organization to support these infrastructure developments in the first nations. first nations are developing the local capacity to support the operation and expansion of their local networks and applications. this first mile work ensures there are local economic and social opportunities available for community members and future generations. first nation self-determination depends on local ownership, control, access and possession of these infrastructures. acknowledgements this paper is collaboration with the first nations innovation (fni) research project (http://fn-innovation-pn.com). the authors would like to acknowledge and thank the first nation communities we work with who have contributed to the ideas and developments discussed. the fni project is funded by the social sciences and humanities research council of canada (sshrc), with in-kind contributions from the project partners: keewaytinook okimakanak (ko-knet and kori) (www.knet.ca), the first nations education council (www.cepn-fnec.com), atlantic canada's first nation help desk / mi'kmaw kina'matnewey (www.firstnationhelp.com) and the university of new brunswick (www.unb.ca).the fni project works closely with the first mile project (http://firstmile.ca). we welcome feedback on this paper. references assembly of first nations. (2007). ocap: ownership, control, access and possession first nations inherent right to govern first nations data. retrieved from http://64.26.129.156/misc/ocap.pdf first nations education council. (2013). annual report 2012-2013: culture, transparency, autonomy, perseverance. wendake, qc g0a 4v0. retrieved from http://www.cepn-fnec.com first nations education council. (2009). first nations infrastructure fund (fnif) broadband connectivity funding proposal version 2.1 (revised feb. 24, 2010). october. first nations education council. (2007). vision 2007 broadband information highway for the first nations of quebec and labrador. june. mcmahon, r., o'donnell, s., smith, r., walmark, b., beaton, b. & simmonds, j. (2011). digital divides and the 'first mile': framing first nations broadband development in canada. the international indigenous policy journal, 2(2). retrieved from: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/iipj/vol2/iss2/2 whiteduck, j. (2010). building the first nation e-community. in j. p. white, j. peters, d. beavon, & p. dinsdale (eds), aboriginal policy research vi: learning, technology and traditions (pp.95-103). toronto: thompson educational publishing. whiteduck, t. (2010). first nations schoolnet and the migration of broadband and community-based ict applications. in j. p. white, j. peters, d. beavon, & p. dinsdale (eds.), aboriginal policy research vi: learning, technology and traditions (pp. 105-117). toronto, canada: thompson educational publishing. whiteduck, t., beaton, b., burton, k., & o'donnell, s. (2012). democratic ideals meet reality: developing locally owned and managed broadband networks and ict services in rural and remote first nations in quebec and canada. keynote paper for the community informatics research network (cirn) conference, prato, italy, november. endnote i whiteduck, t., beaton, b. (2013). building first nation owned and managed fibre networks across quebec. world social science forum, montreal, qc, canada. october. in some earlier writing i asked the question whether there coul is there a wireless community informatics? michael gurstein, ph.d. editor in chief <editor@ci-journal.net> in some earlier writing1 i asked the question whether there could be a wireless community informatics and whether we can in fact treat wireless “communities” as communities in the same way as we understand other communities from a ci perspective. the papers in this issue i think, give a resoundingly positive answer to the first question but still leave open to research and practice the second; that is, does the availability and use of wireless connectivity enhance community and can it be used as a means for building communities? i say that there can be a wireless community informatics based on the work in this issue because what can see here is the way in which wireless connectivity can become an enhancement or an extension or even an alternative to other forms of connectivity and in this way become the basis for extending access (and thus use) to previously excluded populations. the second question though is in some sense more intriguing. what effect does wireless connectivity and the fluidity and mobility of access-enhanced movement have on the capacity to build trusting relationships, to achieve consensus around values, to collaborate towards the realization of collective goals? the image, or perhaps better, the metaphor of wirelessness is of the “nomad”, the individual who moves from place to place carrying his “locality” with him (or her or even as a family). the “nomad” in this sense is a-local, having little connection to the space that she occupies and no real on-going connection to others occupying the same spatial geography. this does not on its face appear promising for the building of community. the question of the relationship between wireless and community building is in fact a very serious one from a community informatics perspective as it immediately presents the challenge of whether there can be for example an “urban” community informatics. the primary models and examples for locationally based ci are drawn for the most part from the rural, the small town, or relatively stable on-going urban ethnic enclaves. it is in these settings that “community” is easiest to discern and where, as follows, the relationship between icts and community enabling has the most evident applicability. here the link between community and geography is a direct and visible one and extending that linkage to include icts is natural and congruent with other elements of community life. this is not the case in urban environments where there is a much higher degree of specialization, segmentation, and a de-linking of the physical from the social. in complex modern urban environments community needs to be built and continuously recreated as the patterns of interaction almost inevitably are casual, fragmented and transitory. whether wireless connectivity simply accelerates these processes or can provide a means to challenge them and to allow for the intensification of interaction from which community can be built is still an open question. on the face of it however, a technology which is built on the metaphor of the “nomad” would not immediately suggest itself for this purpose. the question remains, whether there is a wireless community informatics beyond that of facilitating access. perhaps, the broader concept of a wireless ci is nothing more than a peculiar artifact arising from the circumstance that many of the early wireless innovators, while having somewhat parallel backgrounds to the early community networking innovators (progressive politics, university education, technical proficiency, youthful) often referred to themselves as “community networkers” even though they evidently had little knowledge of (or interest in) more traditional or long standing community networking advocates or institutions. a further difficulty with thinking about a “wireless community informatics” is that wireless as an infrastructure is necessarily virtual and placeless thus immediately making the creation of community connections (the normative integration necessary for community formation) exceedingly difficult. wireless users are simply those who use a wireless connection to obtain internet access and need have no other links or connections to other users either on the internet or through the same internet service provider (isp). however, as some have identified, the fact that a wireless connection does have some degree of geographical anchoring (individuals gain access through some sort of geographically anchored “hotspot”) opens up the possibility of creating a degree of interconnection among users over and above that of a random and anonymous (to each other) group of users of a single isp. ile sans fils in montreal use this limited amount of interaction as a way of interposing information as a basis for local promotion and development. whether this can lead to enhancement of community interaction is still i believe an open question. but as the world becomes increasingly urban and wireless the need (and opportunity) for the use of this form of untethered access not only to enhance mobility, fluidity and transience but also possibly as a means for facilitating interaction and thus perhaps interconnection as a basis for a re-formation of community (or perhaps a re or updating of the definition of community) immediately presents itself. on a different, but unfortunately very sad note: this issue includes a brief appreciation of steve cisler, a pioneer in the field of community informatics, a leader in the library applications of information technologies and a longstanding friend of this journal. steve passed away recently, and we along with others in our small community are remembering him and celebrating his life and work including in this issue through a personal appreciation by associate editor eduardo villanueva. my personal thanks to alison powell and sascha meinrath for their excellent work in bringing this most timely content rich special issue to fruition and through this issue raising within the ci community some very important and intriguing questions about the very nature of community informatics itself. 1 gurstein, michael (2007) what is community informatics (and why does it matter)? polimetrica, milan http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00012372/01/what_is_community_informatics_reading.pdf some of the above text is taken from this publication. engaging stakeholders: the first step to increasing digital inclusion a case study of broadband rhode island angela siefer 1 1. digital inclusion program manager, oclc (online computer library center), dublin, ohio usa. email: siefera@oclc.org with incredible support from stuart freiman and alisson walsh of broadband rhode island. i am convinced that if we hadn't taken the initial steps of the stakeholder process and platform development we would not be having senior-level discussions with the governor and his senior staff from education, workforce development, economic development, and administration. the stakeholder engagement process also helped us to clearly state the value of broadband access and use when we were asked "what is the relevance to my constituents?" the ideas we proposed are starting to make their way into the ideas and language of these officials (stuart freiman, program director of broadband rhode island). introduction this paper is intended to help local leadership striving to create cohesive 21st century communities to learn from the digital inclusion stakeholder engagement experiences of rhode island. as a state with 1,212 square miles, five counties and a population of 1 million, rhode island's experience is applicable to cities, counties and regions with similar goals. building digital communities: pilot is an institute of museum and library services (imls) funded project to support and document the efforts of local leadership teams in nine pilot communities who are leading their communities efforts to increase information technology access and use. building digital communities: framework in action (a project of imls) provides the guidance and structure for the pilot communities. the first step recommended in building digital communities: framework for action is to "convene stakeholders". an important lesson we have learned from the pilot communities is that convening stakeholders is not as simple as it sounds. how do you know who the stakeholders are? how do you get them to the table? what do you do with them once they sit down? what if individuals you have defined as important stakeholders do not view a digitally inclusive community as a priority? broadband rhode island's (bbri's) public policy engagement process carefully engaged stakeholders from a variety of sectors, kept them engaged through a facilitated and well-planned process and is now implementing recommendations defined during the process. bbri stakeholder engagement steps the bbri public policy engagement process can be divided into the following steps, as shown in figure 1: figure 1 bbri stakeholder engagement steps building a digitally inclusive community: how to begin? at first glance, increasing access and use of information technology has obvious solutions more home broadband access, more public broadband access, and more technology training. the reality is that successfully building a digitally inclusive community is complicated. low cost broadband options are not always available (new america foundation, 2012). political situations often impede the development of community broadband networks (greeley 2011). 65.4% of libraries report having insufficient public access internet workstations to meet patrons' needs (bertot 2012, p. 7). the cost of public access and training staff (sometimes called infomediaries) often restricts community technology centers and libraries from providing the necessary support to a community. when instructors are available, the greatest success tends to be when those instructors and the organizations they represented are trusted (clyburn 2013). to further complicate matters, the fact that two out of ten americans do not use the internet and four out of ten americans do not have home broadband access (pew internet & american life) is not a problem "owned" by only one sector. the imls document building digital communities: framework for action, states that "a community must engage all sectors to achieve digital inclusion-this is not just a product of government action, it needs to involve individuals, local and tribal governing bodies, business, the nonprofit community, special interest groups, and other stakeholders." (p.3) "stakeholder analyses are now arguably more important than ever because of the increasingly interconnected nature of the world" (bryson, 2004, p. 23). building a digitally inclusive community is a huge task; to move the needle on the number of community members who use information technology to improve their lives, to support their families, and strengthen their communities. this is not a task that can be accomplished by one organization. local leaders working toward a more digitally inclusive community struggle with how to define stakeholders and how to engage stakeholders in a discussion. with a complicated community-wide problem that requires a community-wide coalition, the first step is to agree on the problem definition, the process of which will establish linkages between the stakeholders (gray, 1989, p. 58). referring to intra-government collaborations, but easily extended to community-wide collaborations, bardach (1998, p. 4) states that "trust, a problem solving ethos, and consensus-building processes, do not just appear, however. it takes time, effort, skill, a mix of constructive personalities who are around long enough to build effective relationships". broadband public policy engagement in rhode island in 2009, rhode island economic development corporation (riedc) began implementation of $4.5 million state broadband initiative grant awarded by ntia (national telecommunications infrastructure administration) through sbi (state broadband initiative). one of the projects funded by the grant to riedc focused on state broadband capacity building with the stated intention to: "create a state broadband office that will assess the barriers to broadband adoption and usage in the state. the office will benchmark the state's progress over a four-year period; develop a plan to improve broadband availability and usage in the state, utilizing input gathered through a series of community meetings over the course of the project; and create partnerships with the private and public sectors to facilitate greater broadband deployment and adoption." riedc named their initiative broadband rhode island (bbri). to accomplish their goals, bbri determined there was a need to create broadband policy recommendations and they wanted, in fact needed, the input of stakeholders. bbri contracted with new commons to help create and facilitate a stakeholder engagement process. new commons provided essential process organization. according to pam christman, a participating stakeholder, former coo of oshean and now interim assistant vice president for information services at rhode island college, "we knew we needed to get from point a to point b and point b wasn't really defined. we were collaborating, not coordinating. that is not possible without a facilitator." bbri stakeholder engagement process the bbri public policy engagement process consisted of the following between january and june 2011 (see figure 2): figure 2 bbri stakeholder engagement process using ntia sbi funding, rhode island had the opportunity to cover the coordination costs (mostly staff time) as well as professional consultants to pull together a stakeholder engagement process. being a small state, rhode island has the advantage of being able to efficiently identify stakeholders from all defined sectors to participate in the stakeholder process and hold in-person meetings with reasonable time and expense. as an output of the broadband public policy engagement process, bbri published a comprehensive white paper entitled broadband policy for rhode island: achieving competitive advantage in the internet age. this glossy 15 page document includes policy recommendations supported by data with detailed explanations of the current state of broadband access and use in rhode island. identifying broadband public policy stakeholders in rhode island in order to convene stakeholders, project leadership must first determine who the stakeholders are. bbri staff identified organizations, public or private, that had a vested interest in their constituents being digitally literate (either for the benefit of the constituents or for the benefit of the organization) plus individuals who understood the value of broadband (often due to involvement in broadband deployment projects). when working with a large group of stakeholders, it is often beneficial to create multiple opportunities to participate in the process. stakeholders do not need to all participate to the same extent or at the same time (gray, 1989, p. 69). bbri divided their stakeholder process into a core group, public forum and working group. bbri stakeholder engagement participation by sector working with their consultant, new commons, the staff at bbri chose to first invite a small group of stakeholders to participate in a core group. nine individuals participated in the core group, representing libraries, united way, internet carriers, the btop (broadband technology opportunities program)-funded "beacon 2" project and the lieutenant governor's office. these groups represented forwardlooking and experienced "trusted partners" to help brainstorm and frame the stakeholder process while also beginning to promote the ideas with their respective constituents. to ensure representation from a wide range of sectors, the core group defined sectors and representatives from each sector. it was a lengthy process but necessary to ensure a wide base of representation. table 1 below shows us the bbri stakeholder process had considerable representation from public (government) agencies. only one elected official participated in one event. according to alisson walsh, communications and outreach manager at broadband rhode island, "our original intent was to aim toward upper management but we soon progressed toward educating and working with middle management. those efforts resulted in a more informed presentation to upper management with specific recommendations. our initial ideas were very broad and too wide-ranging for senior officials so it worked best to demonstrate concrete implementation plans to upper management in the next round." there may have been an advantage to only having one elected official participating in bbbri's stakeholder process. in an interview with beth ashman who wrote the bbri public policy report, ashman states "bbri was dealing with how things are done which is generally not what elected officials do. additionally, the process was never seen as partisan." table 1 bbri stakeholder engagement participation by sector building digital communities: framework for action recommends representation from elected and appointed local government, public agencies, community-based organizations, business and residents. stuart freiman, program director of broadband rhode island stated, "our work began before we saw building digital communities: framework for action and we moved in the direction we felt appropriate. we then saw the report which confirmed and agreed with our approach and provided an articulated model which we found very useful to help quickly frame and visualize our ideas!" participation in the public forum was opened as wide as possible. it was an invitation only event but anyone who requested an invitation was extended one. working group participants were gathered from the core group and the public forum. figure 3 bbri tag cloud figure 4 digital inclusion stakeholder sectors convening broadband public policy stakeholders in rhode island not only does stakeholder engagement ensure a variety of concerns are heard and integrated into the outcome, the stakeholder engagement process itself instigates a community-wide discussion that may not have otherwise taken place. overlapping interests are discovered and relationships are strengthened and/or built. bryson states "there may be a complex interaction between formulating problems and searching for solutions, with the two jointly contributing to organizing participation" (2004, p. 25). according to stuart freiman, program director of bbri, "in order to get to the discussion of policy, you first have to educate people and give them a platform to talk to draw out ideas in an open but ultimately systematic way. the early part of the stakeholder process was just that, education and sharing ideas. also, we felt strongly that the effort to disseminate information shouldn't come just from riedc, but from within the organizations that represented different constituencies as riedc chiefly represents the business community. we needed, and found, a cross section of sectors in rhode island to participate in the process and support the agenda." the role of the bbri core group was to create elements of the vision, produce the first list of strategic initiatives, draft initial policies and help define stakeholders who should be invited to the public forum. the public forum had multiple purposes. the most obvious intent of the public forum was to broaden the conversation to the larger rhode island community and to gather a variety of voices to capture a broader voice in the broadband policy framework. the public forum also helped educate the participants regarding digital inclusion and gauged the interest of individuals and organizations who could serve on the working group or be supportive at a later date regarding specific policy recommendations. the public forum began with an overview of broadband access and use in rhode island. highlights of the public forum are in a video created by bbri. the attendees were divided into small groups at each round table and given discussion questions. after discussing each question, the attendees voted via brown paper activities. the small group discussion topics at the public forum included: is the national broadband plan (created by the fcc) "right on"? which criteria determine which broadband policy areas rise to the top? of the twelve broadband policy areas already defined, which are your top three? of the prioritized broadband policy areas, what are precise policies we should be working toward? the public forum gave participants an opportunity to participate in the development of ideas and have their voices heard. knowing the exchange of ideas was facilitated in a well-organized process and was captured motivated them to actively participate. conversely, it also helped bbri staff to determine who were potential project champions. the passion generated by the participants in the rhode island public forum was palpable and they left feeling energized that they were able to contribute to the larger initiative. the working group comprised of members of the core group and public forum who were willing to devote time and expertise to shape the policy recommendations and set priorities. according to robert leaver of new commons, "we used one working group for all the policy areas, but worked in sub-groups on policy topics in the big workshop. people were encouraged to leave their expertise and comfort zones and get in to other conversations. in this way, we better wove the connections and interdependencies together. and everyone heard and saw all of the policy proposals." the working group officially consisted of 42 stakeholders. approximately half of the members of the working group attended all the meetings. figure 5 bbri public forum, prioritizing policy areas the outcomes of broadband public policy engagement in rhode island the vision created by the broadband rhode island public policy engagement process is: rhode island will increase the number of digital citizens who use broadband to increase productivity, enhance quality of life and benefit society. the end goal of the bbri stakeholder engagement process was to create policy recommendations that would increase technology access and use in rhode island. january 2012 bbri released broadband policy rhode island: achieving competitive advantage in the internet age. the document details policy recommendations focused upon statewide solutions. the background information defining the issues and potential solutions are also useful to local efforts. when asked why bbri set policy recommendations as the end goal to the stakeholder process, stuart freiman explained, "given the trend towards everything moving online (for example, the current unemployment rate and the need for people to find jobs online and learn new skills to qualify for "new economy" jobs), this is and will continue to be the states' problem. big changes in thinking need to happen. to me, big changes mean big ideas and these are usually at the level of policy what is the state government's role in broadband access and use? what are we going to do about it? how do we ensure that our online services will be effective and widely used? on the other side, how are we going to ensure that our citizens can effectively use these systems and don't get further disenfranchised? these questions all point to policy development and policy-level decisions." bbri clearly defined policy recommendations as not being limited to legislation. to ensure the working group (the stakeholders synthesizing and prioritizing the recommendations from the public forum) understood what a "policy recommendation" could be, bbri and new commons led the working group through a discussion of what public policy is, what it is not and the variety of approaches to creating policy. the stakeholders narrowed the broadband policy recommendations down to five items. these five recommendations are described in the broadband policy rhode island white paper. three of the recommendations are: support government agencies to utilize the internet for improved service delivery while reducing costs. support and publicize digital literacy education. budget to sustain public access points with up-to-date operating systems and fast connection speeds. two of the recommendations are functional, in that they support the other three: creation of a state "broadband policy advisory board" adoption of a sustainable funding model for internet-enabled public services. the broadband policy rhode island white paper also includes an explanation of the impact of rhode island residents' broadband access and use upon nine sectors: economic development workforce development open government civic engagement libraries healthcare energy public safety education figure 6 bbri why broadband matters the impact of the rhode island broadband public policy engagement process goes beyond the intended policy changes. the process brought people together with overlapping interests which resulted in new or strengthened relationships and new collaborative projects. in an interview with howard boksenbaum, participating stakeholder and chief library officer for rhode island, he states, "this project spawned other projects. it created a fountain from which many can drink." conclusion there is much we can learn from the rhode island broadband public policy engagement process. boiling it all down to five essential lessons gains us the following list. lessons we can learn from bbri mid-level management of government agencies is just as valuable as agency directors and elected officials. defining the stakeholders and engaging them through the process is time consuming but well worth the effort. impacting multiple small policy changes has cumulative effect. the relationship building that occurs during the stakeholder process can lead to partnerships and projects supportive of the end goal. a third party facilitator is necessary to stay focused and provide an organized process. an important supporting factor to bbri's stakeholder process being perfect for a case study is their very complete documentation, most of which is available on their website. bbri stakeholder documentation bbri public policy report bbri one-pager bbri public forum video broadband policy for rhode island because bbri was a federal grant recipient, they had two important advantages. the ntia funding covered the cost of a facilitator and encouraged stakeholder participation. according to beth ashman collins, "being able to fund a professional facilitator is huge. federal dollars made it real to people. take those two things out and you may not get as much engagement." federal and national support of digital inclusion is important but ultimately, digital inclusion is a local issue that requires local solutions. in digital cities (2013, p. 9), mossberger, tolbert and franko make the argument that "place matters" in regard to broadband policies that impact digital inclusion. they state the reasons place matters is due to: local governments are responsible for a variety of policies and for funding programs. social inequality is spatially patterned in metropolitan areas and by neighborhood. because place matters, community leaders who want to create cohesive 21st century communities, must learn from each other. this document is a small piece in the information sharing that is necessary to guide community leaders ensuring all members of society have the broadband access and digital skills necessary to succeed. since federal financial support is not likely, we must create solutions not dependent upon the federal government. one source of support is the imls funded building digital communities: pilot. oclc is working with the pilot communities, documenting their efforts and creating resources helpful to all communities working toward digital inclusion. references bardach, e. (1998). getting agencies to work together. washington, dc: brookings institution press. bertot, j., mcdermott, a., lincoln, r., real, b., and peterson, k. (june 19, 2012). 2011-2012 public library funding and technology access survey: survey findings and results. information policy and access center, university of maryland college park. bryson, j.m. (2004). what to do when stakeholders matter. public management review, 6. clyburn, m. (march 12, 2013). statement of fcc commissioner mignon l. clyburn to u.s. senate committee on commerce, science, & transportation regarding oversight of the federal communications commission. gray, b. (1989). collaborating: finding common ground for multiparty problems. san franscisco: jossey-bass. greeley, b. and fitzgerald, a. (december 01, 2011). pssst... wanna buy a law? bloomberg businessweek. institute of museum and library services, university of washington, international city/county management association. (2012). building digital communities: a framework for action. washington, dc: institute of museum and library services. mossberger, k., tolbert, c. and franko, w. (2013) digital cities. new york, ny: oxford university press. new america foundation (2012). the cost of connectivity. retrieved december 22, 2013 from http://oti.newamerica.net/publications/policy/the_cost_of_connectivity zickuhr, k. and smith, a. (april 13, 2012) digital differences. pew internet & american life project. retrieved december 22, 2013 from http://pewinternet.org/reports/2012/digital-differences.aspx projects and organizations referenced broadband technology opportunities program (btop). http://www2.ntia.doc.gov/ building digital communities: pilot. http://oc.lc/bdcpilot building digital communities: framework for action. http://www.imls.gov/assets/1/assetmanager/buildingdigitalcommunities_framework.pdf broadband rhode island (bbri). http://broadband.ri.gov/ institute of museum and library services (imls). http://imls.gov national telecommunications and information administration (ntia). http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ oclc. http://oclc.org rhode island economic development corporation (riedc). http://www.riedc.com/ state broadband initiatve (sbi). http://www2.ntia.doc.gov/sbdd a 'meditation' on meaningful participation ricardo ramírez consultant and adjunct professor, university of guelph, ontario, canada <rramirez@uoguelph.ca> introduction the integration of information and communication technologies (icts) in sectors such as health and education is quickly becoming a global phenomenon. we are surrounded by new terminology such as e-health and telemedicine; there is also a hype about their revolutionary potential. there is a danger that the impact of these innovations will be documented on the basis mainly of their instrumental and economic potential, with less attention to the human transformations that they can catalyze. this meditation focuses on the human dimension, and on the extent to which the interested parties are able to participate in the transformations that icts bring, with particular attention to health and wellbeing. health and education are strategic drivers for icts, especially in communities that are away from urban centres, because everyone can relate to their central role in improving livelihoods. hence, while stakeholder involvement would appear to be straightforward, meaningful participation is often an elusive goal. the ever growing use of the term “community engagement” merits some careful reflection. there is growing evidence that for icts to help transform communities, their design and introduction must be based on local needs. moreover, it must be introduced in such a manner that a sense of local ownership is maximized. this meditation suggest that this is easier said than done. community engagement has recently become a buzzword in several applied fields of rural community and economic development. the central idea behind this term is a consultation with community stakeholders who will be part of a project or program. the purpose of this consultation may vary, but it tends to signal a commitment to design projects that fit the needs of the beneficiaries. in canada, government funding programs began stipulating a community engagement component in their grant competitions in the late 1990s1. industrialized countries have come to recognize the importance of citizen participation in policy making (oecd, 2002); a challenge however is the actual implementation of such approaches. the integration by formal granting organizations of planning processes that emerged from the grassroots is reminiscent of the fervor that surrounded participation in the 1980s and 1990s. what started as an approach by organizations working close to the community, often as a response to a predominant top-down pattern of decision-making, gradually gained recognition as a necessary step in the planning of projects. what is not clear, however, is whether it was adopted with an appreciation of its fundamental ideology, or whether it was borrowed at a superficial level simply to improve project impact or to satisfy a donor requirement. this paper provides a reflection on community engagement through an analysis of the meaning of its underlying notion of participation, with a view to help practitioners and project developers locate its real meaning and contribution. the ‘participation’ phenomenon in international development, the focus on ‘participation’ began in the 1970s. by the 1980s the environment had shifted and ‘community participation’ become a hallmark of projects aiming at assisting the poor. the rationale changed, moreover, from an initial focus on empowerment and capacity development, to one of increasing efficiency and effectiveness in project interventions (cornwall, 2002). in more recent decades, participation has been associated with decentralization efforts often matched with more attention being given to beneficiaries as ‘clients’ who are receiving services. in the late 80s and early 90s the literature on participation mushroomed and become associated with action research and social change movements (selener, 1997). the emphasis on making the voices of the poor heard was advanced by practitioners of participatory research and more committed action (chambers, 1997). participation became a ‘must have’ approach. the major achievement of the ‘participation’ phenomenon has been the creation of spaces and places for interaction. these spaces are either offered by the powerful, by implementing organizations, or generated from the bottom-up (mcgee, 2002). moreover, in addition to the two types of spaces, there is a temporal dimension: some spaces are on-off consultations, while others constitute regularized processes (cornwall, 2002). policy spaces are those instances in which 'intervention or events throw up new opportunities, reconfiguring relationships between actors within these spaces, or bringing in new actors, and opening the possibility of a shift in direction' (grindle & thomas, 1991) while the spaces for interaction may be part of collaborative approaches, we should also keep in mind that there are important spaces and places during conflicts. the importance of grass-roots mobilization protesting top-down decisions merits attention. when governments design programs and attempt to impose them on the public using ‘expert knowledge’, an organized civil society can refuse to accept the decisions. the spaces that may have been intended for information can become spaces for negotiation, especially if the public is able to articulate its message and tell its stories in non-technical jargon. experiences such as these challenge the conventional approach to governance that has been predominant in many administrations. while one could think that this refers to developing country contexts, or remote parts of industrialized countries, others argue that is it a global challenge affecting all societies (shore & wright, 1997). an overused term? since the late 90s there has been a recognition that there are a number of challenges and paradoxes with participatory approaches and that we need to be more careful, rigorous and transparent with the use of the terms and concepts (kanji & greenwood, 2001). "like every other word, ‘community' has a history of effective use -and simplistic misuse." (lotz, 1998). participation, like community, ‘community’ (and ‘participation’) are other sure-fire winning words...living blameless lives of their own in language, policy and analysis of whatever hue.... it is the one type of term, along with, for example, ‘cooperation’ and ‘participation’ which has never been used in a negative sense. ..one crucial characteristic of these sorts of keywords is that they do not require an opposite word to give or enhance their meaning. they acquire much of their winning warmth from their popular meanings in everyday usage. a further characteristic is that, as a rule, they are not ever put to serious empirical test – or if they are, and they fail, they continue to circulate in good currency nevertheless. the projects they herald may be evaluated, and whether they are winner or not is another matter (apthorpe, 1997: 53-54). critics of participation argue that it has become a tyranny on several fronts. participatory approaches are seen as imposing decision-making and control, group dynamics and methods onto communities and groups. they argue… “that participatory development’s tyrannical potential is systemic, and not merely a matter of how the practitioner operates or the specificities of the techniques or tools employed.” (cooke & kothari, 1998) they argue that ‘participation’ remains as a system of representation within a project--the notion being in this sense “external”. they suggest that participatory planning is mostly about the acquisition and manipulation of new planning knowledge, rather than the incorporation of people’s knowledge. the argument presented is that the understanding of the motivations of individuals to participate, or not, is vague, and simplistic assumptions are made about the rationality inherent in participating, and the irresponsibility of not doing so. furthermore, some argue that participatory approaches fail to recognize how the different, changing and multiple identities of individuals impact upon their choices about whether and how to participate, and overlook the potential links between inclusion in participatory processes and subordination (cooke & kothari, 1998). critiques of participation are now found in many sectors: watershed management (rhoades, 1998; rhoades, 1997); information systems (heeks, 1999); participatory technology development (biggs, 1995); participatory communication (gumucio-dagron, 2001); forest management (hildyard, et al., 1998b; hildyard, et al., 1998a; vira, et al., 1998; van dam, 2000); and gender and power (mosse, 1993).  these critiques are a healthy sign of an approach that is ripe for a reflective evaluation. the challenge today may be to move beyond the simplistic labels of the initial wave of enthusiasm and to qualify the scope of application and potential role in each context that we examine. in a response to the tyranny critique, hickey and mohan (2004) suggest that for participatory approaches to be transformative, they must be explicit about their ideological and theoretical motivations, that the locus of intervention must go beyond the local and involve multi-scale strategies, and that a more radicalized citizenship must follow along with the fulfillment of associated rights. qualifying the meaning of engagement and participation engagement, like participation, has gained acceptance at the institutional level. large bureaucracies are embracing the term and seeking ways of articulating it into program requirements. the contrast between what organizations call an approach and the actual expectation of their impact needs some attention. for example, there may be “…an espousal of the importance of informal institutions while actual concentration is on the formal” (cooke & kothari, 1998). while these challenges are real, there is merit in the notion that as bureaucracies seek to adopt the terms, there are internal spaces for change within those organizations that may have long-term consequences. as approaches become mainstream, organizational response mechanisms do evolve. an example that has been reported is how nike’s organizational learning stages evolved from a defensive stand to an active advocacy one, as the sweat-shop attacks ‘matured’ from an activist agenda to a consolidated, mainstream issue (zadek, 2004). so as we move beyond the activist hype, what tools do we have to qualify the true meaning and potential of participatory approaches? definitions “…definitions of participation range form assisting people to exercise their democratic rights to a means of obtaining views from different stakeholders” (kanji & greenwood, 2001) “participation: enabling people to realize their rights to participate in, and access information relating to, the decision-making processes which affect their lives. democratic institutions and access to information about governments’ policies and performance are necessary to enable people to participate in the decisions that affect their lives. the also need to be able to form organization, such as unions, women’s groups or citizens’ monitoring groups, to represent their collective interests.” (dfid, 2002: 24 as quoted in kanji & greenwood, 2001) in the above context, stakeholder engagement then constitutes one of several participatory methods. stages stakeholder engagement can take place at different stages of a project: defining the agenda; development of a proposal; preparatory phase; implementation; analysis of results; and/or dissemination and action (kanji & greenwood, 2001). ladders of participation at each one of the project stages, there can be a different level of engagement. the most commonly referred-to ladder of participation was published several decades ago in a planning journal. it suggested that participation ranged from manipulation all the way to citizen control (arnstein, 1968). since then other ladders have been published (figure 1). arnstein (1968 pretty (1994) kanji & greenwood (2001) citizen control self-mobilisation collective action delegated power interactive participation co-leaning partnership functional participation cooperation placation participation for material incentives consultation participation by consultation consultation informing participation in information giving therapy passive participation compliance manipulation figure 1: three ladders of participation all ladders show a common pattern from self-mobilizing to totalitarian control. in a more recent variation more attention is given to the shifting roles and relationships between outsiders and local people who can gradually take ownership over a space or process and shift upwards along the ladder towards more self-control (chambers, 2005). for those interested in quantifying the extent to which their approach is ‘participatory’, a score card is provided by the hungary-based regional environmental centre (http://www.rec.org/rec/publications/pptraining/module2.html). ownership over the problem and its solution the ladders of participation, and especially chambers’ latest variation, focus attention on the importance of local people and their organizations taking ownership over a process. the notion of people ‘owning’ a problem drives home the importance of identifying stakeholders who are affected by an issue and can influence how it is addressed. it also emphasizes that those who ‘own’ a problem should be involved in resolving it. the original reference to this notion comes from the business management literature where there has been a recognition of the importance of consultation among stakeholders affected by an issue (checkland & scholes, 1990). a common trend in international development is for third parties to take on the issue and become intermediaries between those who own the problem and the government services that could help improve it. the mediating organizations have an important role to play, especially if they seek to enable the grassroots to take on a more active role in each stage of project development. this challenge is as common to community development in developing countries as it is in industrialized settings (lotz, 1998). a question to which it is often difficult to respond refers to when it is possible for the intermediary organization to move on, and avoid becoming a new power broker in the system.  in other words, are intermediary organizations a stakeholder that should have a temporary role that is reduced when local capacities emerge? stakeholder analysis the identification and recognition of the stakeholders that can be engaged in different stages of project development is important. the explicit identification of stakeholders is in itself a delicate and political step: who decides on the criteria for their selection and who has the power to convene them are all of these part of organizational power relations? in simple terms, some argue that any person or organization that has power, legitimacy and a sense of urgency will be recognized as a stakeholder (mitchell, et al., 1997). this theory suggests that those with two of those attributes stand a good chance of being at the negotiating table, whereas those with only one may be dismissed as less important. what is important is to make explicit who was identified, under what criteria, who was invited but did not attend and why?; these are among the dimension of participation that can no longer be ignored. conditions for collaboration while one can easily assume that stakeholders will want to collaborate in an engagement event, it is important to review the choices people make. the conditions for collaboration and negotiation are not a given. power differences, histories of abuse, other situations and existing differences of option or access to resources will all influence how people respond to an invitation to collaborate (chevalier, 2001; ramírez, 1999). increasingly, attention is given to the preparatory steps that are needed for the less powerful to be able to contribute to and become social actors in a negotiation (long, 1992; mayers, 2001). facilitation and convening who convenes and how they facilitate are two dimensions that should not be taken for granted. a convenor with legitimacy in the eyes of different stakeholders can bring together partners that other, external agencies cannot, simply because of the trust they have earned (ramirez, 1999). the convenor need not also be the facilitator; external facilitators can also be more effective as they can ask naïve questions that a local convenor would be embarrassed to ask (groot and maarleveld, 2000). facilitation is a skill that can create an atmosphere of trust and where weaker stakeholders may begin to gain a voice and come to the table with more confidence. there are resource guides on facilitation that explain the process, see for example: http://www.rec.org/rec/publications/pptraining/module2.html conclusion the attention given to the stages of projects, the ladders of participation, the ownership dimension, stakeholder identification, the conditions that enable collaboration, and convening and facilitation constitute elements of a framework to better describe a wide range of activities that fall under the term ‘stakeholder engagement’. this is about moving beyond simple definitions and becoming more transparent when we use these terms. this transparency is part of a growing reflection that practitioners and researchers of participatory action research are embarking upon. this effort aims to overcome the paradoxes of these approaches, which in the past were left unchallenged. as the field of e-health and telemedicine expands, and as debates emerge on their relative worth, a balanced attention to the three dimensions mentioned in the introduction (instrumental, economic and human value) will become increasingly relevant. the human dimension is about a participation that seeks “to climb the ladder” towards more fundamental stakeholder engagement. this engagement is needed throughout the project cycle, from needs assessment and formulation, all the way to implementation and evaluation. this calls for funding and project development approaches that recognize the time and cost required to facilitate sincere consultations. this meditation is an attempt to bring closer together what argyris refers to as our ‘theory-in-use’ (what we actually do) with our ‘espoused theory’ (what we say we do). when we bring these two closer together, our action becomes more coherent according to argyris.  as we do this we should not be concerned with trying out new things. if you don’t dare to make mistakes you don’t learn. learning and testing participatory approaches is a lot like improvising jazz (thompson, 2005). of course this is the case as long as the different stakeholders are clear about why they are there, who is missing from the band, plus a willingness to learn from mistakes and adjust the tunes. in the canadian context lotz concludes with some words about community development that are relevant to these issue: "…community development offers spaces and places for exploring new ways of tackling problems… through trial and error, new opportunities for revitalizing society emerge, providing maps for others to follow as they move into unchartered terrain in human development" (lotz, 1998). references apthorpe, r. (1997) writing development policy and policy analysis plain or clear: on language, genre and power. in anthropology of policy: critical perspectives on governance and power, ed. c. shore & s. wright, pp. 43-58. london and new york: routledge argyris, c. (n.d.) theories of action, double-loop learning and organizational learning. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/argyris.htm. 28 feb 06 arnstein, s. (1968) a ladder of citizen participation. aip journal, july, 216-24 biggs, s. (1995) contending coalitions in participatory technology development: challenges for the new orthodoxy. unpublished paper. norwich, uk, december, 1995 chambers, r. (1997) whose reality counts? putting the first last. london: it publications chambers, r. (2005) ideas for development. london: earthscan checkland, p. & scholes, j. (1990) soft systems methodology in action. chichester, uk: john wiley and sons chevalier, j. (2001) stakeholder analysis and natural resource management. http://www.carleton.ca/~jchevali/stakeh2.html accessed 1 dec. 2006 cooke, b. & kothari, u. (1998) participation: the new tyranny? london: zed books cornwall, a. (2002) making spaces, changing places: situating participation in development. ids working paper, vol. 170. sussex, uk: institute for development studies grindle, m. & thomas, j. (1991) public choices and policy change: the political economy of reform in developing countries. baltimore and london: john hopkins university press groot, a.m. & maarleveld, m.(2000) demystifying facilitation in participatory development. gatekeeper series no. 89. london: iied gumucio-dagron, a. (2001) making waves. washington: rockefeller foundation heeks, r. (1999) the tyranny of participation in information systems: learning from development projects. http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/publications/wp/di/di_wp04.htm. in working paper no. 4. 9 feb. 05 hickey, s. & mohan, g. (2004) towards participation as transformation: critical themes and challenges. in participation: from tyranny to transformation? exploring new approaches to participationin development. ed s. hickey & g. mohan. pp. 3-24. london and new york: zed books. hildyard, n., hegde, p., wolvekamp, p. & reddy, s. (1998b) same platform, different train: the politics of participation. unasylva, 194(49), 1998/3, 26-34 hildyard, n., hegde, p., wolverkamp, p. & reddy, s. (1998a) pluralism, participation and power. forests, trees and people newsletter, 35 (march), 31-5 kanji, n. & greenwood, l. (2001) participatory approaches to research and development in iied: learning from experience. london: iied long, n. (1992) from paradigm lost to paradigm regained? in battlefields of knowledge: the interlocking of theory and practice in social research and development, ed. n. long & a. long, pp. 16-43. london and new york: routledge lotz, j. (1998) the lichen factor: the quest for community development in canada. nova scotia, canada: uccb press mayers, j. (2001) stakeholder power analysis, 2. london, uk: iied. 24 mcgee, r. (2002) conclusion: participatory poverty research: opening spaces for change. in knowing poverty: critical reflections on participatory research and policy., ed. k. brock & r. mcgee, pp. 189-205. earthscan: london mitchell, r., agle, b. & wood, d. (1997) towards a theory of stakeholder identification: defining the principle of who and what really counts. academy of management review, 22(4), 853-86 mosse, d. (1993) authority, gender and knowledge: theoretical reflections on the practice of participatory rural appraisal. network paper, vol. 44. london: odi organization for economic cooperation and development, oecd. (2002) citizens and partners: information, consultation and public participation in policy-making. paris: oecd pretty, j. (1994) alternative systems of inquiry for a sustainable agriculture. ids bulletin, 25(2), 37-48 ramírez, r. (1999) stakeholder analysis and conflict management. in conflict and collaboration in natural resource management, ed. d. buckles, pp. 101-26. ottawa and washington: idrc and the world bank rhoades, r. (1997) the participatory multipurpose watershed project: nature's salvation or schumacher's nightmare? global challenges in ecosystem management in a watershed context. toronto, canada, july 25-26 rhoades, r. (1998) participatory watershed research and management: where the shadow falls. gatekeeper series, vol. 81. london: iied selener, d. (1997) participatory action research and social change. quito, ecuador: global action publications shore, c. & wright, s. (. (1997) anthropology of policy: critical perspectives on governance and power. london and new york: routledge thompson, j. (2005) learning from mistakes: reflections on improvisational participation. in: cornwall, a. (ed).  pathways to participation: reflections on pra. pp. 203-209. london: itdg van dam, c. (2000) two decades of participatory development but how participatory? forests, trees and people newlsetter, 42 (june), 11-7 vira, b., dubois, o., daniels, s. & walker, g. (1998) institutional pluralism in forestry: considerations of analytical and operational tools. unasylva, 49(194), 3, 35-42 zadek, s. (2004) the path to corporate responsibility. harvard business review, december, 125-32 1industry canada’s smart community demonstration program guide of 2000 required applicants include a section on community engagement. icts and community participation indicative framework icts and community participation: an indicative framework dhanaraj thakur phd. candidate, school of public policy, georgia institute of technology, atlanta, ga, usa. <dthakur@gatech.edu> introduction one of the challenges that many developing countries face is how to shape themselves into more efficacious democracies. in response, there has been discussion and research about the potential for information and communication technologies (icts) to ameliorate the democratic process in both the developed and developing worlds (see for example becker, 2001; coleman & gøtze, 2001; fishkin, 2000; grönlund, 2001; norris, 2001). under this theme, sometimes referred to as e-democracy, icts are promoted as an opportunity for improving the effectiveness of government; enabling more effective electoral systems through e-voting; the protection and monitoring of human rights, and strengthening the role of civil society groups to influence political processes. the goal of the paper is to develop an analytical framework to better understand initiatives that seek to improve the democratic process by including the participation of civil society groups, specifically community groups, through the use of icts[1]. this framework will then be applied to a case study from jamaica to examine this dynamic within a developing country. the paper is divided into a further five sections as follows: section (ii) will provide a cursory account of the role of icts in general democratic processes; section (iii) looks more specifically at the application of icts to participation and democratic development; section (iv) articulates a framework for the analysis of participatory ict initiatives; section (v) applies this framework to a specific case study: jaspev and the formulation of social policy in jamaica and section (vi) provides some concluding thoughts. icts and democracy sen (1999) notes that there are three functions that a democracy performs as it relates to a country’s development: it supports economic development, it allows for the mutual establishment of societal priorities, and it provides the space for political and social participation. while being cognizant of the benefits of an effective democracy and the challenges in achieving it, many observers have looked to the potential of icts to provide new or to augment existing solutions. fishkin (2000:2) states that “democratic possibilities can be influenced by new technologies because new technologies can change the ways large numbers of people communicate and interact. as a result, new technologies open up fresh possibilities for institutional design in possible democratic reforms …” norris (2001) acknowledges several views of the actual potential of e-democracy. these range from viewing technologies such as the internet as a major source of change, to merely reinforcing existing inequalities of power, to having little or no change in political systems. the democratic impact will also be shaped by the  particular institutional context in which icts are applied (banerjee, 2003). within a western european context, norris (2004) argues that icts will have the greatest impact in alternative forms of democratic participation such as civic-oriented groups and activism. this was also the case in the late 1990’s in indonesia with the widespread adoption and use of icts by activists and ngo’s demanding democratic reforms (hill & sen, 2005). some argue that icts have the potential to resolve the institutional dilemma posed by democracies of balancing between raw and refined public opinion (fishkin, 2000) by creating the means for greater public deliberation and information sharing (coleman & gøtze, 2001). examples of this are e-government initiatives such as online consultations, mailing lists, or blogs (undesa, 2005). in nascent democracies certain groups are governed not by the institutional rules of the state but by local clientelistic regimes that operate in the shadow of democracy. similarly, in more traditional democracies, some groups are left out of the political process because of socio-economic or other structural reasons. these factors lead to what is referred to as social exclusion, a phenomenon that can increase the risk of poverty (de haan, 1999). winden (2001) suggests that under certain conditions icts can promote social inclusion through the improved participation of marginalized groups. participation, democratic development and icts there are several forms that participation can take, each of which can be augmented by the use of icts. these include voting, influencing parliament and government through political parties (i.e. working for parties, campaigning, making financial donations, etc.), influencing policy through advocacy and lobbying or demonstrations and petitions, and involvement with civic and community groups (norris, 2004). it is the mode of participation through civic and community groups that we shall focus on in this paper. in instances of social exclusion or where governance through non-democratic institutions exists, other forms of ict-supported participation are less feasible or more susceptible to exploitation. civic and community groups often work with intermediaries such as non-governmental organizations (ngo’s) who are able to provide the institutional bridge to facilitate participation in local and wider decision-making processes. also, as norris (2001) suggests, the horizontal networks of civil society groups are more amenable to the increased information flows created by icts as opposed to the more vertical and bureaucratic networks of governments. much of the emphasis on participation in developing countries is in fact, focused on community groups particularly in terms of decision-making at the local level. it is based on the view that poverty involves a lack of power to change existing living conditions. therefore, greater community participation in local governance can be a means of empowerment that leads to poverty reduction[2]. community participation can be viewed as having both demand and supply side components.  the demand for greater community involvement in decision-making will be shaped by endogenous factors such as the social, economic and political characteristics of the community; the history, ability and experience of community groups with participation in decision-making within and outside the community; the degree of marginalization (success in accessing resources outside of the community); and the degree of empowerment (dependency on external support to resolve local problems). on the supply side, imparato and ruster (2003) suggest that a related enabling structure should be put in place which will be responsive to the demands of the community and can facilitate community participation. in so doing, such a structure must seek to reduce the costs and risks of participation for community members. in enabling these structures, icts can augment participatory initiatives at the community level in four broad ways: (i) widen the range and increase the number of participants; (ii) facilitate participation through a mix of technologies that cater to the diverse needs and backgrounds of the target group (macintosh, 2004); (iii) provide relevant and understandable information and knowledge to and from the target group; and (iv) allow community groups to have a voice in local and other levels of decision-making. in referring to the use of geographic information systems (gis), craig, et. al. (2002) argue that gis have the potential to reconfigure existing power relations within the community and with external stakeholders. the effect can be empowering or disempowering for the community. thus jordan (2002) notes greater significance must be given to the participatory component of such projects with the application of icts playing a secondary role. as a result the emphasis should not be placed on the technical and scientific but on the social and political (puri & sahay, 2003). another consideration is the match between the icts and its context. for example, the technology can be exclusionary if it relies on esoteric data sets, complicated interfaces or is just too costly. going further, the entire ontology that underlies a particular ict may be incongruent with that of its potential users. this was the case where gis with its concomitant cartesian understanding of space was contrasted with an alternative knowledge system of the maori people in new zealand (laituri, 2002). a related issue here is the need to ensure that the icts play a genuinely supportive role and are not employed for their own sake. this is the typical information system problem: icts are used where there is no real information or communication problem or worse they are the primary solution to resolve social or political problems. the latter being a real possibility given the nature of community based development issues. perhaps, the greatest challenge, however, is to integrate, feasibly and legitimately, such projects into local political structures while still creating enough space for genuine participation. this is a careful balancing act and speaks to the need for precision and creativity in project design. in some cases, rigid hierarchical institutional structures can limit the potential for real participation. power brokers within and outside the community can attenuate the process so that participatory initiatives merely reinforce or strengthen their authority (cooke & kothari, 2001). thus strict adherence to the demands of these structures will not produce the desired results and partnerships through wider social networks will be required. a framework for the analysis of participatory ict initiatives the interaction between participation and the use and interpretation of icts is complex but important if we are to push for more inclusive decision-making. what is being proposed here, therefore, is a multiple-dimension framework that will allow us to better understand this interaction. the need for a framework is based on the recognition that existing work in the specific area of participation and icts is still theoretically nascent. as is the case with the literature on ict4d in general it is also highly interdisciplinary and must therefore attempt to consider several different approaches at once. a few frameworks have been put forward in an attempt to understand how icts can be used to improve the participatory process (see for example macintosh 2004; mccall and minang 2005; puri and sahay 2003). while being cognizant of these approaches, the proposed framework seeks to improve on their usefulness by articulating the following: ·        social and economic context ·        extent and nature of participation ·        scope and purpose of icts  ·        institutional balance however, the framework does not immediately address the relationships between these various dimensions. although it might be more amenable to descriptive rather than causal inference, it still allows us to examine these issues (including those raised above) within a specific ict initiative. social and economic context it is necessary for us to understand how the social and economic context affects the demand side of the participatory process. this relates to the capacity of the community to participate. the following factors are relevant to this purpose: ·        economic resources and community poverty – the physical, human, financial and public resources available to the participants. ·        educational levels – level of educational attainment including literacy levels among the target group and the capacity to use icts ·        cultural factors – who should be involved in the participatory process and what kind of interactions are allowed. this involves perceptions towards potential partner groups and organizations as well as other stakeholders. this also includes attitudes towards the use of technology. ·        community organization – the ability of the community to mobilize participation around a community based organization or group. thus it involves the history, extent and experience of community organization. it also includes the level of social cohesion and cooperation within the community. extent and nature of participation next, given the community capacity to participate, we can examine the enabling participatory structure. we begin by describing the extent of participation along two dimensions. breadth – the number, proportion and different types of participants and depth – the degree of participation. several authors have discussed ways to understand the latter (see for example carver, 2001; imparato & ruster, 2003; macintosh, 2004; mccall & minang, 2005). these can be summarized by the following in terms of increasing degree of participation: ·        passive – a one-way flow of information to participants from the local decision making authority or government and would include for example, notifications of new policies or laws. ·        consultative – a two-way flow of information between participants and the governing authority. participants can provide feedback and opinions on issues that are determined by the governing authority. the latter also manages the entire process and sets the agenda. ·        interactive – participants are viewed as partners by the governing authority and can decide which issues to address and make recommendations. their inclusion is seen as a right and not a means to achieve other goals. final decisions still lie with the governing authority. ·        complete – participants have a final say in decisions and can initiate independent actions. in terms of the nature of participation we can look to the internal dynamics of the process itself specifically as it relates to the distribution of power among all stakeholders. in situations where asymmetrical power relations exist and are detrimental to increasing the extent of participation, puri and sahay (2003) cite four conditions which can make participatory sessions more democratic. all participants should have the opportunity to: 1.      raise issues and make counterpoints to other views. 2.      give/refuse orders and insist on clarification of issues where necessary 3.      question any information, set of facts or details of proposed action 4.      express doubts or concerns about any initiative. scope and purpose of icts we can better understand the scope and purpose of icts for a project across five concepts: 1.      information problem – the first step is to understand the nature of the information problem that was being faced. what kinds of information were required, and what was its source and desired flow and what were the impediments to the flow? possible obstacles include lack of standard methods for using and sharing information, legal issues, inadequate skills, and organizational resistance (social exclusion unit, 2005). following this we need to understand how this problem hampered the participatory and decision-making processes. 2.      accessibility and connectivity – given the use of icts to address the information problems, what were the challenges in making them accessible to participants and how were these resolved. 3.      intrinsic political features – first, to what extent did technical or scientific information, generated through the use of icts, dominate over social, political or other forms of information in the decision-making process? second, how were ownership, location and subsequent access to information and icts managed? 4.      decision-making – icts can facilitate the decision making process by enabling the exploration of different solutions and through the sharing of information and ideas between participants, their partners and other stakeholders. 5.      knowledge integration – this refers to the extent to which the icts used were able to integrate the various forms of knowledge (indigenous, scientific, etc.) available (puri and sahay 2003). in addition, how well was this knowledge managed in terms of its access and use by participants? institutional balance institutional balance refers to the need to integrate the participatory exercise into existing local governance structures while still ensuring that there is sufficient scope for influence. two issues are examined here. in the first instance, we examine the nature of the political structure. this includes the decision-making hierarchy at the local level from individuals to government organizations. how are decisions relevant to the initiative parsed through this hierarchy? the next step is to look at where and when these decision-makers were included both in the process of participation and with the information flows of relevant icts. secondly, we examine the type and nature of partnerships established by the target group. this entails work with ngo’s, government agencies, other community groups, etc. these relationships are meant to leverage support outside of the community and in some cases outside of the local political structure. this can occur through access to new resources or through the politicizing of local issues (aitken, 2002). the following table summarizes the four dimensions and their attendant variables that are make up the analytical framework. a third column provides general indicators that will be used to measure each variable. table 1 – summary of concept and variables used in analytical framework concept variables indicators social and economic context ·        economic resources and community poverty ·        size of community (population) ·        age/income/gender distribution ·        state of public infrastructure ·        poverty rates ·        main sources of income ·        existing icts in community ·        educational levels ·        distribution of educational attainment ·        or literacy rates ·        cultural factors ·        rules for participation – eg. who can participate in community decision making ·        perceptions of other stakeholders ·        attitudes to technology ·        community organization ·        number of active community organizations ·        how long have these organizations existed and their previous experience in participatory initiatives. ·        how are these factors related to the expected level of participation of the initiative. extent and nature of participation ·        extent – breadth ·        number of groups/stakeholders ·        number of participants in each group ·        extent – depth ·        type of communication between target group and local authority (one-way/two-way) ·        existence of  feedback mechanisms from target group to local authority ·        which group(s) sets the agenda for discourse ·        perception of the local authority about target group. ·        which group(s) makes the final decisions regarding the initiative. ·        nature – opportunities for equal engagement ·        extent to which all participants could §raise issues and make opposing views §give/refuse orders           §question facts or information §express doubts concerns about initiative   scope and purpose of icts  ·        information problem ·        what kinds of information required by the initiative ·        source of information/data ·        desired flow of information (between all groups) ·         barriers to information sharing o group capacity o legal issues o individual resistance o group resistance o inter-group issues ·        accessibility and connectivity ·        challenges existed in making icts accessible to relevant participants and how these were resolved ·        intrinsic political features ·        extent to which technical/scientific knowledge gained through icts dominated the decision-making over other social and political information. ·        how was “ownership,” location and access of information and icts managed ·        knowledge integration ·        how were different forms of knowledge and knowledge from different sources combined ·        how was knowledge made available to relevant persons ·        decision-making ·        type and nature information/data gained through icts used in a decision-making process ·        how was information shared between different stakeholders institutional balance ·        nature of structure ·        what is the decision-making structure at the local level– who are the main actors. ·        how are decisions parsed through this structure ·        how and when were these decision-makers included in the information flows from icts ·        partnerships to leverage influence ·        were icts used to help politicize local issues – through media and communication to non-community groups ·        what kinds of partnerships/support were gained through work with other groups – was this facilitated by icts. case study – jaspev and the development of social policy in jamaica the main data sources for this case study were interviews and email communications with the national coordinator and other staff of the program as well as reports from the various government agencies involved[3]. background jamaica is a small island state that has been classified by the world bank as a lower middle income country (ibrd, 2006a) with a poverty rate of 16.9% in 2004 (pioj, 2006). in addition, there is a significant level of income inequality; thus the gini coefficient was 0.42 in 2001 (ibrd, 2006b). coupled with this is a social structure that is predominantly class based with its origins from the british colonial period. thus, although jamaica has a democratic system of governance that is based on the british westminster model, structural and economic inequalities have helped to shape a policy-making process that is centralized and often excludes marginalized groups (acosta, 2006). the jamaica social policy evaluation project (jaspev)[4] is a governance program implemented by the government of jamaica (goj) and partly funded by the department for international development (dfid), uk. it was designed to pilot innovative mechanisms for the improved formulation and delivery of social policy as well as to develop a monitoring system to track progress in the achievement of social goals. there are several initiatives working under this project including the youth inclusion prototype (yip). the yip consists of three interconnected groups that work together to resolve development issues and improve the delivery of services at the community level. the first group is the community with an emphasis on participation by youth. the second group, called a multi-function team consists of the “experts” – the academics, managers from various governmental, ngo groups and the private sector. the third group is called a troika and consists of a three member bi-partisan committee of elected parliamentary representatives. the first step in the process was for the community groups to identify the major issues affecting them. then they collected community level data around these issues. this process (as illustrated in figure 1 below) is supported by the multi-function team with the troika taking action on the issues that have been identified and defined by the community. progress made on these issues is then monitored through data-collection at the community level. this data is then shared with the other entities of the troika to continually inform a discussion and review of social goals.  figure 1 – yip structure  source (jaspev, 2006c:5) analysis – social and economic context initially, a nation-wide sample of 40 communities was selected to be included in the yip. household socio-economic surveys were then conducted in these communities. the surveys indicated that: ·        employment among youth was around 27% while some 42% reported being unemployed ·        unemployment rates were much higher among females ·        the highest educational attainment was the primary school level for approximately 43% of the respondents. in addition, rural area respondents were more likely to complete secondary/high school education. ·        approximately 60% of the respondents indicated that they did not have any form of vocational training. ·        of those who were parents, 85% were between 20 and 29 years. ·        those who were parents and unemployed were most likely to be female (source: jaspev, 2004) no specific data from these surveys was collected on ict diffusion within the communities. generally computer use in jamaica is relatively low compared to other forms of icts such as mobile phones. in some areas, where computer and internet facilities exist in local schools, their use by the wider community is limited (horst & miller, 2005). extent and nature of participation the yip was initiated in mid 2003 in 6 of the 40 selected communities as a pilot exercise to identify the major issues that impact on youth and associated indicators for their measurement. this was done using participatory rapid assessment (pra) techniques[5] by community development officers from the social development commission (sdc)[6] along with local consultants. the results of the pilot exercise were then refined and aggregated into five broad issues with supporting indicators. these revised issues and indicators were then presented for validation to all the other communities in the sample. on average, some 35 persons participated from each community with over 70% being classified as youth (under 30) with an almost 50:50 gender ratio (sdc, 2003a). in most cases, participants came from local cbo’s, ngo’s and other local stakeholders. the feedback from community members indicated that they were able to make suggestions, ask questions and change the course of the discussions (sdc, 2003b). in addition, many persons expressed optimism that the inclusive approach that jaspev was taking would benefit them all. following the validation of the five major issues, volunteers were then identified in each community to conduct surveys using agreed upon indicators to ascertain the baseline status of these issues. in total some 400 community persons were trained to conduct household surveys by the sdc. based on the results of these surveys and the recommendations of the mft, the troika approved three main areas for further action: entrepreneurship, continuing education and police-youth relations. specific objectives include improved access to entrepreneurial services by youth, increased access to continuing education programs and improving trust and respect between youth and police personnel (jaspev, 2006a, 2006b, 2006c). once implemented, monitoring of these areas would be done through community data collection. the initial pilot stage, validation exercise, baseline study and policy response by the troika all indicate a two-way flow of information at each point. however, the initiation and purpose of each stage was determined by jaspev and its partners. also, the key decisions required for making the transition from one stage to the next such as selecting a sample of issues for validation, refining the indicators and identifying further steps for action, were done by the mft and troika. scope and purpose of icts the overall information problem being faced was essentially one of not being able to effectively share information across different domains. although figure 1 shows that there is a flow of information between all entities in the yip structure, the information requirements of each group were different. for the communities, the information required was concerning the major issues affecting youth and the data measuring these issues. the mft would take this information and analyze it and present it back to the community (eg. more specific indicators) or to the troika (recommendations for action/policy). finally the information output from the troika would be less technical and in the form of decisions. thus one challenge was getting the required information from the communities since this was potentially more data heavy and cumbersome. whereas the identification and validation of issues was done with the assistance of facilitators, the collection of data was done through the training of community members who also volunteered to be part of community tracking teams (ctt). these teams would then conduct follow-up data collection exercises to track the progress of achieving stated policy goals. other potential barriers to information sharing were overcome by the acceptance of community groups of the positive potential of the program.  another challenge was to ensure that there was continuous discussion and revision of indicators and goals where necessary among the three entities. this is based on the idea that the yip constitutes a learning process as it represents a new model for policy development in jamaica (jaspev, 2001)  in addressing both these challenges, the original intent of the program was to provide community groups with access to personal computers which would be internet ready. community representatives responsible for measuring the progress made on yip issues were then given secured access to the jaspev website. they would then be able to enter data collected on local level indicators. the site has an interactive component where community groups, technical persons from the mft and the political representatives from the troika have special areas where they can log in and work in virtual spaces. these virtual spaces allow for the sharing of documents, ideas and information between and among groups  and were designed to act as an information interchange for all parties involved and a critical component of a prototype management information system (pmis) (jaspev, 2002). the pmis was designed to act as a database for socio-economic data on community level indicators. through a process of benchmarking facilitated by the mft, all entities in the yip can then see progress made for each community as well as make comparisons across communities. the system would support this analysis through the provision of online tools such as graphs showing distributions by community. this was meant to promote discussion and action among communities and other stakeholders (jaspev, 2002).  whereas these aspects of the jaspev website are fully functional, access to icts for data collection and sharing are not fully available to communities. at the onset, this was recognized as a potential problem by some community groups. for example, in the issue validation exercises, one concern raised by a community member was that “remote communities have no access to internet,” (sdc, 2003a :14). this problem was also identified by jaspev who tried to co-opt the support of other government agencies, ngo’s and private sectors groups that were better positioned to provide access to community groups. this support however did not materialize. the initial data-collection exercise (household survey), which was supported by the sdc and carried out by the community tracking teams (ctt’s), was done on machine readable forms and collated and scanned by a private company for presentation to jaspev. however, subsequent data collection exercises by the ctt’s have not yet materialized. this is due in part to the length of time it has taken to implement specific areas for action singled out by the troika from the original baseline survey (e.g. entrepreneurship, continuing education and police-youth relations). the concern at this point, however, is that some of the momentum at the community might have been lost as a result. furthermore, since the ctt’s were trained in late 2003 by the sdc this process might have to be repeated. the initial challenge of sharing community level information with the other entities in the yip was achieved through the household survey. however, the lack of access to computers and the website and the delayed implementation of specific action areas (and therefore further use of the ctt’s) have together undermined the program’s ability to overcome the second challenge mentioned above of maintaining a continuous discussion and revision of indicators where necessary. one of the perceived advantages of having community members collect and monitor data is to give them ownership of that information. this can have an empowering effect when that information is seen as an important resource to create change (bonner et al.2005). one example of this occurred with the information obtained from the household surveys. in some communities, this information was used to mobilize their own activities and included parental training workshops and police youth clubs. also, by collecting and owning information that will ultimately be used to measure the performance of the political directorate, communities can hold such persons and agencies accountable. the problem here however, is that further data collection at the community level has not been done, limiting the potential of the program in this regard. institutional balance in jamaica, a local level government system works alongside the national one but with separate functions that usually focus on community level issues. however, by connecting the communities to the troika, the yip provided community members with the opportunity to directly influence decision-makers at the national level. although this indirectly circumvented the local government system, the assumption was that local government representatives will be part of the validation and monitoring exercises at the community level. in most cases, this did not happen. even if they were included, local politicians may have felt disempowered because the decision-making has now shifted to entities of the yip, particularly the troika. no evidence of any major resistance has been observed thus far but this could be a possibility given the start of the new focus areas. the yip intervention at the community level did not involve any third party or other ngo’s (the sdc is a government agency) with the aim of politicizing local issues. in fact, the program itself has received attention in the media through the impact of its work thus far. the community groups voluntarily participated in the program because of the potential to solve local issues directly with government agencies by making them aware of their problems. in this sense, the information flow from community to other levels of the yip is significant.  similarly, no external partnerships were individually sought by community groups to leverage external support. rather this was already included in the program as communities would be able to work closer with service providers such as the police, educational institutions and entrepreneurial support agencies under specific focus areas. going further, communities would also have the opportunity to collaborate with other community groups in areas of common interest. the yip then was designed to give communities a chance to “politicize” local issues by bringing it to the attention of the political directorate and allowing communities to develop new partnerships with government agencies in specific development areas. however, it cannot yet be stated that this new decision-making structure has been satisfactory in this regard. that is, information ownership and information sharing are key components of this program but neither of these has been successfully achieved because of a lack progress in implementation and a lack of access to icts. furthermore, even if the problems of data collection and access were dealt with, it is also not clear how much information collected at the community level will bring about change (bonner et al.2005). conclusion as pointed out earlier, participation at various levels is a major component of an effective democracy. in recognizing this, several initiatives have attempted to employ icts as a means of augmenting the participatory process at the community level. the issue then is to better understand how this interaction works. in developing a framework to do just this, four key dimensions of analysis were identified: the social and economic context in which the community exists which describes the capacity to participate, the enabling participatory structure which includes the nature and extent of participation, the scope and purpose of the icts employed, and finally the balance between incorporating existing local governance structures and leveraging external support. this framework was applied to the jaspev case study in jamaica. the analysis showed that the premise of the yip was participation based on information sharing particularly for poorer communities (the sample used by jaspev). the resulting program was ostensibly good in design in terms of information sharing and space for debate. in ensuring participation among community groups and other entities in the yip, an information system was set up through a website. in addition, it was expected that continued iterations of the yip cycle would promote debate among stakeholders around the issues raised at the community level. both objectives however,, were not completely achieved because of a lack of access to icts and a delay in the implementation of focus areas under the yip. problems of institutional balance have not aggravated the situation as yet and further iterations of the yip will have to better incorporate local government entities into the decision-making structure. the framework has allowed us to better understand the ways in which icts were used to support the goal of participation by looking at the context in which they are applied both in terms of capacity to participate and the information problem being addressed. we then looked at the ict solution to address these problems and how these results were shaped by the institutional structures in which the initiative must operate. one of the weaknesses of this case study, in terms of applying the proposed analytic framework, was the somewhat limited role of icts in the yip process. thus, future work could apply this framework to a more complete case study, both in terms of greater data availability and evidence of impact. this could provide the opportunity for further improvement and ultimately increasing opportunities for effective participation. references acosta, a. 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(2002). gis for community forestry user groups in nepal. in w. j. craig, t. m. harris & d. weiner (eds.), community participation and geographic information systems. london ; new york taylor & francis. laituri, m. (2002). ensuring access to gis in marginal societies. in w. j. craig, t. m. harris & d. weiner (eds.), community participation and geographic information systems. london ; new york taylor & francis. macintosh, a. (2004). characterizing e-participation in policy-making. paper presented at the proceedings of the 37th hawaii international conference on system sciences. mccall, m. k., & minang, p. a. (2005). assessing participatory gis for community-based natural resource management: claiming community forests in cameroon. the geographical journal, 171, 340. norris, p. (2001). digital divide: civic engagement, information poverty and the internet worldwide. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. norris, p. (2004). building knowledge societies: the renewal of democratic practices in knowledge societies retrieved 1/30/2006, from http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~pnorris/acrobat/unesco%20report%20knowledge%20societies.pdf pioj (2006). economic and social survey of jamaica 2005. kingston, jamaica: planning institute of jamaica. puri, s. k., & sahay, s. (2003). participation through communicative action: a case study of gis for addressing land/water development in india. information technology for development, 10, 179-199. sdc (2003a). final report on jaspev youth inclusion identifying issues and indicators in 6 pilot communities. kingston, jamaica: social development commission. sdc (2003b). jaspev youth inclusion community indicator validation report. kingston, jamaica: social development commission. sen, a. k. (1999). democracy as a universal value. journal of democracy, 10(3), 3-17. social exclusion unit (2005). inclusion through innovation tackling social exclusion through new technologies. london: office of the deputy prime minister, uk. uncdf (2003). empowering the poor: local governance for poverty reduction. new york: united nations capital development fund. undesa (2005). un global e-government readiness report 2005. new york: united nations department for economic and social affairs. winden, w. (2001). the end of social exclusion? on information technology policy as a key to social inclusion in large european cities. regional studies, 35(9), 861-877.   [1]this to be distinguished from trying to understand how participation is used to improve ict4d or community informatics initiatives. [2] various studies have been done to support this thesis. for some examples see uncdf (2003). [3] the research was carried out between march and may 2006. [4] http://www.jaspev.org/ [5] this follows the use of participatory methodologies in community development (see for example chambers, 1994) [6] throughout this project, jaspev partnered with the sdc to carry out community level activities. the sdc is the government agency responsible for community development. embedding digital advantage: a five-stage maturity model for digital communities dr andy williamson democratise london, uk email: andy@democrati.se author's note i was asked by the editors to republish this paper in joci ten years after its original publication because, though some of the language and context is now dated, the underlying concept and model seem not only relevant but significant today. michael gurstein recently wrote about his own problems with the concept of the 'digital divide' and i agree. (gurstein, m. (2015). why i'm giving up on the digital divide https://gurstein.wordpress.com/2015/04/15/why-im-giving-up-on-the-digital-divide/) if one takes the uk (where i am now based, though this paper is based primarily on new zealand data), access to the internet has remained fairly consistent at around 85% for a number of years (depending on the source). more importantly, the (about) 15% who aren't online, equally don't want to be, can't afford to be or can't get access. there is a lot of research on this 15%. what is understood less well, particularly in policy circles, is what the remaining 85% looks like. the simple quantitative focus on those that do or don't have access has led to a dearth of policy and research on "effective use" (gurstein 2015) and the range of skills and abilities of those that are online. clearly this is a continuum from expert to barely functioning, so to suggest that we have a digital nation simply because 85% of the population has internet access is naïve and dangerous. to design policy and develop public service based on this assumption is self-evidently problematic. simply put: access is not equal to effective use. and this matters for both policy and practice. i find it much more productive for us to position the network as a core public-asset infrastructure, to establish a right to access and then to focus on effective use once people are connected in terms of digital literacy etc. my friend and colleague, aldo de moor, in the ensuing conversation on the community informatics research email list suggested the need for "usable monitoring and evaluation-frameworks and standards that capture the essence of socio-technical effective use-aspects", he wants us to avoid these frameworks becoming "statistical straightjackets". i agree, and republishing this paper is a modest initial contribution to that. please read it in context: it was written in 2004, in a country on the edge of the world, before the onslaught of social media, when digital access was far less ubiquitous and mobile coverage limited and expensive. yes, we have come a long way so that access, particularly mobile, is more ubiquitous and social and digital media are normative for many of us. but what hasn't changed, and what this paper offers, is the underlying requirement for us to critically understand effective use. the original version of this paper was first published at the australian electronic governance conference. centre for public policy, university of melbourne, 2004. introduction observers such as putnam (2000) note that engagement in traditional community activities has been declining since the 1960s. this decline is mirrored in the political realm, however coleman and gøtze (2002) see this drift away from participation as having more to do with apathy brought about by the increasing technocracy and perceived distance of governments, rather than apathy for democracy itself. there is a discourse within new zealand (including government) promoting increased participation in the processes of local government, yet the reality here as elsewhere is that participation in the democratic life of the nation is falling. the quality of life survey carried out by the councils of new zealand's eight largest cities reports low levels of satisfaction with the level of public involvement in the local decision making process, ranging from a high of 42% satisfaction in dunedin to lows of 32% in auckland and 30% in manukau (anonymous, 2003). news media have long been considered a bridge between the public (and public opinion) and government, yet new zealand today offers little more than 'an uneasy compromise between quality and popular news discourses that represents the worst of both worlds' (atkinson, 2001, p.317). this reduction in diversity has occurred alongside a dramatic increase in the management of news, leaving only limited opportunities for citizens to express their own views (gustafson, 2001). it is suggested that information and communications technologies (ict) offer the potential to dramatically change the processes of government and the interactions between government and citizens (coleman & gøtze, 2002; mälkiä, anttiroiko, & savolainen, 2004). the potential for citizens to successfully harness new and emerging technologies to influence the democratic process has already been seen in the role that text messaging played in coordinating and propagating the 2001 campaign to depose the president of the philippines (rheingold, 2002). can the sophisticated application of networked technologies and online communities arrest or reverse the decline in participation and representation? whilst the answer appears to be a cautious 'yes' (coleman & gøtze, 2002; mälkiä et al., 2004), ict is not ubiquitous; many citizens are yet to acquire the skills needed, firstly, to become effective users of ict and, secondly, to become producers of information, news and knowledge. this paper will discuss the background to the use of ict within community settings, highlighting opportunities and constraints. by doing this it will contextualise the issues that communities face in becoming ict-enabled and will then present a five stage model, contextualised within a community development framework, that can be used to both support the emergence of connected communities and to measure the levels of ict maturity within a community. moving communities online as day (2004) observes, defining community can be complex and problematic in an emerging and cross-sectoral field of study. for the purposes of this paper, a simplistic definition is used whereby a community is considered to be a group of individuals with a shared interest (whether topical or geographical). extending this definition, a 'virtual community' enabled through ict, is: a social aggregation that emerges from the [internet] when enough people carry on public discussions, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace (rheingold, 1994, p.5). as already discussed, engagement in traditional community activities has been declining since the 1960s and with it social capital the resources that communities have available for support, trust, obligation and reciprocity has fallen as well (putnam, 2000). it has been recognised for over forty years that information and communication are at the core of human understanding of social and political action and the rapid development of new technology-based tools of knowledge generation and information processing have major implications; where society is exposed to such technology it is being fundamentally changed (ellul, 1964; habermas, 1979, 1987a, 1987b; hall, 2000). whilst technology does not of itself determine social process it can be seen as 'a mediating factor in the complex matrix of interaction between social structures, social actors and their socially constructed tools' (castells, 1999, p.1). the relatively un-regulated and anarchic nature of the internet creates a virtual space that offers the potential to develop social movements and be developed in ways that are appropriate to the needs of such movements. as bollier (2002) observes, the internet is an effective tool for the establishment of public commons, citing examples such as the open source movement to demonstrate the potential for citizens to establish themselves online relatively easily and cheaply. in order to develop an internet based environment that supports grass-roots change, it is necessary to encompass the development of localised solutions, where the experiences and aspirations of the community can be harnessed to create an environment of empowerment and learning. literacy is a critical element in individual and community empowerment (freire, 1972, 1974) and, as okri (1997, p.60) observes, writing is itself a form of resistance, arguing 'writers are dangerous when they tell the truth. writers are also dangerous when they tell lies.' language and culture are key elements and the online environment is immersed in the culture of the community that it serves (castells, 1999). the internet has the potential to build bonds that transcend the virtual and develop in the physical world. castells (1999) argues that sociability on the internet is both weak and strong, depending on the people, content and relationships. he argues that the electronic world does not exist in a vacuum and that it requires some reference to the physical and social worlds of its participants. although glogoff (2001), rheingold (1994) and castells (1999) observe that the internet can enhance community by removing boundaries of space and time, glogoff cautions that communication richness is directly related to the richness of the medium. online communication is not as rich as face-to-face communication, nor is it as personal, trusting or friendly. despite the liberating potential of ict, dominant hegemonies persist and castells (1999) sees traditional sources of exclusion being duplicated online. attempts are being made to control the flow of information such that 'the internet is in danger of becoming yet another instrument of cultural and political hegemony' (ni heilidhe, 1998, p.1). despite (or perhaps because) the internet is already the largest public commons, serious attempts are being made to manage, control and own both the networks and the flow of information (bollier, 2002). the elevation of both the individual and of the free-market have left in their wake an underclass that does not have the opportunities, knowledge or access to resources (alice, 1998). goslee (1998) discusses the affordability of access to ict and particularly the internet in low-income urban and rural communities in the us, concluding that new technologies are in fact aggravating the divide between rich and poor. hall (2000) agrees, observing that deprivation of access to ict results in a failure to become technologically literate, which is a key factor for success in an information society. those who are already marginalized are becoming even more so because they are unable to access the new technologies available to wealthier communities (goslee, 1998). in new zealand, there is a strong correlation between income and access to ict. the urban poor, those living in rural locations or the elderly are more likely to lack internet access at home (craig, 2003). for example, 50% of those owning their own home have internet access as opposed to only 11% of those living in state or local authority rental housing (statistics new zealand, 2002). effective use the hegemonic structures which support the integration of ict into community life are, however, being challenged by minority cultures. the effective use of ict, which gurstein (2003, p.9) defines as 'the capacity and opportunity to successfully integrate ict into the accomplishment of self or collaboratively identified goals', is critical but the determinants of effectiveness need to be cultural and political, not only technological (mälkiä et al., 2004). there are three examples of the effectiveness of ict as a tool to challenge formal organisational and hegemonic structures. the first example is the use of the internet by the activist community of technologically literate participants promoting and supporting environmental activism. white (1999) observes that the environmental movement was one of the first to use the internet as a medium for activism and that the success of campaigns in this medium have been partly due to the low cost involved. the internet demonstrates potential to be utilised as a counter-hegemonic and overtly political tool. the second example, the role played by new technologies in fostering the rising tide of anti-globalisation protests, was the subject of a report from the canadian security intelligence service (canadian security intelligence service, 2000, p.5), who reviewed the impact and logistics of demonstrations at international summits. they observed that both the internet and mobile phones were key tools in the organisation of such actions. the report described the internet as 'creating the foundation for dramatic change' and was being used to plan, communicate and manage logistics: the internet has breathed new life into the anarchist philosophy, permitting communication and coordination without the need for a central source of command, and facilitating coordinated actions with minimal resources and bureaucracy (canadian security intelligence service, 2000, p.5). where the internet allows hegemonies to be directly challenged it is at the frontier of where social norms can be subverted. wakeford (2000) describes how a 'cyberqueer' culture successfully inhabits cyberspace, subverting and challenging the norms of heterosexuality, utilising newsgroups, chat rooms, websites and email. the internet is used as both a support network and as a tool for proactively establishing a queer identity that challenges stereotypical views of sexuality and sexual orientation and which is itself a direct mirror of physical-world queer culture (woodland, 2000). this demonstrates a fundamental requirement in the establishment of any community, namely the creation of a safe place, similar to the 'third space' envisioned by oldenburg (1991) and which rheingold (1994) adopts to describe virtual communities, seeing them as distinct from work or home and characterised by a regular clientele. in cyberqueer culture, as woodland (2000, p.418) observes, such communities combine the 'connected sociality of the public space with the anonymity of the closet' and hence the internet presents the individual with the opportunity to transform the tension between private and public, emerging from a 'shameful secret to a public affirmation' in a safe and supportive environment. electronic democracy ict is allowing citizens to reclaim their voices at a time when there is ever-increasing decentralisation of decision making away from elected representatives towards 'experts'. in this new technocracy, decisions are based on science and professional knowledge, not public opinion (mälkiä et al., 2004). the discussion so far has shown that the internet is a powerful tool for connecting people with information. ict is valuable when harnessed (like other media) for communicating a message, however, it also extends the traditional concepts of media into an interactive experience, where the views of many can be expressed and potentially disseminated widely. it is this potential that sets ict apart from traditional print and electronic media and which offers great potential for citizens to become more involved in the political and democratic processes. as schuler (2000) argues, ict provides tools for strong democracy, such as email, forums and online access to documents. organisations such as minnesota e-democracy (www.e-democracy.org) and the waitakere edemocracy group (www.wedg.org.nz) demonstrate the potential for citizen-led engagement. examples of top-down, government led, initiatives include brisbane city council, camden council (uk) and rutland county council (uk) (online fora), the queensland and scottish parliaments (e-petitions) and estonia, queensland and camden council (broadcasting of legislature and executive). in 2002 ronneby (sweden) created an edemocracy website and discussion forum with the intent of increasing interest in the upcoming municipal election. council candidates were able to present their views and the public enter into online discussions. an evaluation of the project rated it as a successful pilot and well received by citizens, however, it was not successful in increasing voter turnout (ronneby kommun, 2002). whilst the rhetoric of government values engaged citizens and governments feel the need to solicit 'feedback in order to develop good policy and services at all levels' (office of the e-envoy, 2001, p.1), citizen involvement should not be assumed. ranerup (2000) observes that, whilst on-line fora can be initiated by governments, the community or other active stakeholders (such as researchers), her own experience of swedish local government was that citizens, whilst seen as participants in a forum, were not necessarily consulted over its establishment and design. this highlights a gap between the technocracy of public administration and the desire of those citizens interested in democratisation and the revival of representative bodies (chadwick, 2003). although most developed countries have an egovernment strategy, there is no clear articulation of the link between the often-stated efficiencies gained in the delivery of government services and strong democracy (coleman & gøtze, 2002). there is a discourse within governments that sees egovernment as a tool for the management and delivery of services from the centre out. the new zealand e-government unit observes that 'new technologies will enable easier access to government information and processes. people will be better informed and better able to participate' (2003, p.1). unfortunately, the strategy for achieving this identifies only three limited objectives: make government information easier to find. publish key government information online. provide multiple channels for contact with government. five stage model edemocracy, chadwick (2003) suggests, is about scale, rendering convenient access to participation beyond traditional constraints of space and time. ict must become ubiquitous for edemocracy to be effective and barriers to ubiquity can be technical, economic, cultural, social or political. where local communities can become effective users of ict and become active producers of their own content, it is demonstrably possible to affect change and influence local political decision making (williamson, 2003). the challenge for policy makers and practitioners alike is that many communities do not have equitable access to ict, not all citizens are ict literate and many communities and interest groups lack the knowledge and skills to be effective users. the model presented here offers a simple evolutionary framework that can be used to identify issues, maturity and progress of ict in a community or group of communities and act as input into the development of policy and localised models for community ict. the initial model draws on literature which includes patterson's (1997) four interconnected nodes (design, access, critical mass and impact) and o'neil's (2002) meta-analysis of community ict studies, which reveals five key areas of research: strong democracy, social capital, individual empowerment, sense of community and economic development opportunities. practical experience that has led to this initial model includes discussions held on the waitakere edemocracy group discussion list and within the waitakere city council ecotech working party. this draft model is strengthened by drawing on the evolving new zealand national information strategy (library and information association of new zealand aotearoa, 2002). although the lianza model is developed locally it is in part derived from uk models for library and information strategy. it has three core levels: knowledge access/te kete tuätea (infrastructure) knowledge resources/te kete aronui (content) knowledge equity/te kete tuauri (empowered access to information) (library and information association of new zealand aotearoa, 2002, p.8) this then extends to encompass issues of continuity and collaboration. the lianza model appears to be information-centric, rather than community or people centric. phased maturity information technology does not exist within a vacuum. its use in community settings is influenced by the nature and extent of that community. day (2004) identifies three components of community informatics as policy, partnerships and practice (3ps). he then goes on to underpin these macro components with a framework for the democratic design of community ict initiatives, which asserts that communities need to be empowered before they can campaign for their own interests and influence community policy. the framework aims to create a 'democratic community planning agenda' (day, 2004, p.33) by defining the critical criteria for successful and sustainable community ict projects: table 1: framework for the democratic design of ict initiatives (day, 2004) the five stage model presented in this paper will be aligned with this framework to demonstrate how it can potentially be used to achieve a sustainable community-based ict solution. just as day has grounded his framework in the 3ps of community ict, the model proposed in this paper can also be related to policy, partnerships and practice: because access and literacy are societal issues, they must be addressed at a macro or policy level. partnership allows active communities to work together in either formal or informal ways. they can be used to realize economies of scale, bring on board funding or to provide specialist skills or training that would otherwise not be available to the community. within the community, projects require ict visionaries to lead the practice-side of a project and skills development initiatives to ensure that, once projects become established and operationalized, localised resource exists to sustain them (williamson, 2003). adoption of technology zhu, taylor, marshall and dekkers (2003) observe that, in considering the adoption of ict, it is important to consider the micro-level motivators, both societal and personal. they suggest that individuals need to first be aware of and then motivated to want to use ict and, subsequently, that it is important that individuals and groups are able to identify value in its ongoing use. as moore (1999) suggests, adoption is based on an individual's perception of the value and attributes of technology and the discontinuity of change caused by ict adoption can itself act as barrier to uptake and ubiquity. this temporal model identifies five stages of maturity for the use of ict within communities and can be used as both an assessment tool (for current maturity) and as a planning or policy development tool. each of the five stages recognises an increasing maturity and sophistication in ict usage, however, the model should not be seen as linear; the target is not to reach stage five, rather that technology is being applied in a way that is seen as appropriate to the community in question at a point in time (either present or future). figure 1: five stage model stages one through four occur within communities. they are not necessarily formal and are not entirely dependent on each other. the requirements and relative importance (or even existence) of a stage is related to the maturity of ict usage. in other words each of the four stages, whilst to some degree reliant on its predecessor, does not require that prior stages are or were formalised or even articulated (there is likely to be a continuum between a laissez-faire approach and formal strategy or policy initiatives): stage 1 access it is not lack of access which causes the digital divide but the consequences of that lack of connection (castells, 2001) and hence strategies are required to ensure equity of access and opportunity. citizens must have basic access to ict. this could be through private ownership, community ownership or privately owned access points. stage 1 can be sub-classified in terms of the nature, cost and availability of access. stage 2 literacy it is not enough that we simply provide community-based ict resources. it is imperative that those in the community whom the technology is intended to benefit are trained to make effective use of it. as the generation of knowledge supersedes physical production in the post-industrial age, literacy can be judged at two levels: that of basic literacy and literacy in ict. stages 1 and 2 are not necessarily formal; if access and literacy are already present or if no policy/strategy addresses them they could be adhoc, however, this requires individual motivation. formal strategies are more likely to be needed where other socio-economic factors restrict opportunities for access. stage 3 content for ict to be useful and for communities to be motivated to use it, material and services must be available online that are of a perceived value to the community. communities must be aware of such information and services and have access to them. stage 4 creation communities have the knowledge, skills and facilities necessary to produce and publish information themselves and to re-package or highlight information that is directly pertinent to them. logically, stage 4 must have occurred elsewhere to provide usable and useful material for communities entering stage 3. stage 5 dissemination the final stage, stage five, is a meta-stage, occurring beyond individual community boundaries. as communities become publishers of new knowledge society risks becoming overwhelmed with information. at present there is also a reality that some information is more readily available and accessible than others (because the producer is more widely known or because of search engine bias). in a truly participative model for community ict, processes need to exist to ensure the fair and equitable dissemination of information (that is being received at stage 3 and created at stage 4). examples of such models might be portals or more likely would involve meta-data, meta-indexes and registries. stage 5 becomes viable and appropriate once critical mass has been reached at stage 4. dissemination can then take place via fora that are geographical (by city, region, country etc) or topical (democracy, environment, social services etc). at this level, a clearly defined taxonomy is vital and the use of standards for metadata becomes important (surman, 2002). strategic implications for the model to be successful, it is important to recognize that ict is a tool that operates within a wider societal framework. it is important to connect the stages of this model to the wider socio-economic and democratic context of the community in which it is being developed. a simple way to do this is to link the operationalized five stage model described here with day's (2004) three component parts of community ict: policy, partnerships and practice. by way of an example, the 'access' component of the five stage model can be related as follows: policy local government affirms that ict is a basic life skill and commits to citizens having access to ict within, for example, a 2km radius of their home. this is implemented as an information access strategy that places internet-enabled computers in local libraries, council offices and even subsidises the use of commercial cyber-cafes. other examples of policy driven initiatives could include telecentres, designed to provide alternative workspaces and reduce road congestion. partnerships hosts are required for sites; obvious partners are council and libraries. however, at this level the project has no community buy-in or ownership so the concept can be extended to include local community groups that already use the facilities. partnerships become more significant as maturity increases. practice if the technology is supported by the host, then little is required at this level; the technology could be passive and available for passive users. however, it is likely that more effective use could be achieved if local community members become proactive, perhaps creating groups, such as for senior citizens (where the peer-support can be used to break down technology barriers). viewed from the perspective of each stage within the five-stage model, the importance of the macro view becomes obvious: access and literacy driven by policy and potentially funded as a result, however, this often requires partnerships to acquire external expertise; localized delivery is an important success factor, meaning that community-based practitioners are required to actualize the policy. as already suggested, access and literacy strategies are important for disadvantaged or marginalized communities. content and creation of content partnerships can provide technology, skills and opportunity (such as community-based hosting projects); local practitioners are required to drive the creation of content. collation and dissemination of like resources as communities reach maturity in terms of ict usage, partnerships become vital to ensure equitable distribution and recognition of local content. projects such as geographic portals can be beyond the resource capability of a single community and hence the availability of external funding partners can become a critical success factor at this stage. validating the democratic potential of the model day's framework for the democratic design of community ict initiatives (see table 1 above) describes 17 generic criteria. table 2 (below) relates and aligns each of these criteria to a phase or phases within the five stage model. this demonstrates the potential of the five stage model to relate at both a strategic or policy level and at an operational level, where it can be used to address the direct concerns raised by day (2004). in terms of evaluating the success of a community ict model, it is possible to link the criteria within day's framework to the five stages, thereby providing a reference point for both maturity and success from a community perspective. table 2: aligning the 5-stage model with day's democratic design framework summary the five stages (access, literacy, content, creation and dissemination) are temporal and non-static. community a can be a newcomer to ict, getting up to speed with computers in a new learning centre. however, they require content to make the technology useful, this is potentially delivered by others locally or elsewhere who are already creating content. at some point, some members of community a become both literate and motivated enough to publish their own information: stories, histories and news. once enough vertical or horizontal communities have become publishers, it becomes viable to offer a collated dissemination service, by way of a portal or gateway or through online registries. conclusion ict has the potential to transform citizens' engagement with government and thereby develop an edemocracy culture. such a culture is essential to the development of new forms of community. local governments, due to their immediate connection to communities, are the most logical starting points for such developments. the relative low-cost and increasing ubiquity means that communities can publish their own stories and create citizen-led initiatives to influence and interface with governments. however, this does not become truly democratic until the barriers to ict ubiquity have been overcome. this requires policy to promote ict literacy as a life skill and ensure that access is available to all who want it. no two communities are alike and the model presented in this paper can act as a road map, assisting communities to identify their own path to becoming effective users of ict and for measuring the effectiveness of community ict projects. equally this model can inform policy makers in terms of recognizing the critical phases of ict maturity within a community. references alice. 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(2003). why don't people connect to the internet at home? analysing the internal barriers affecting internet adoption at home in central queensland. in s. marshall & w. taylor (eds.), proceedings of the 5th international information technology in regional areas (itira) conference (pp. 92-103). rockhampton, qld: central queensland university. garden of literacies: icdt contributing to the construction of new realities for digitally-excluded senior citizens garden of literacies: icdt contributing to the construction of new realities for digitally-excluded senior citizens   ivan ferrer maia universidade estadual de minas gerais e universidade estadual de campinas   josé armando valente universidade estadual de campinas       abstract: this paper shows how digitally-excluded senior citizens use information and communication technologies (ict) for the construction of new literacies in the digital convergence culture. the concept of literacies is related to how ict can be used to expand ways people express themselves through different communication channels. this study lasted three years and involved 16 adults aged between 60 to 78 years. the results showed that they were able to insert themselves into the digital culture with a more critical and creative attitude. also, during this study it was possible to identify four types of literacies: automatic, functional, conscious and contextual. keywords:  literacies, digital literacy, social work, social web.       introduction this study is associated with the investigations conducted at the multidisciplinary research-action healthy community laboratory – lipacs by the research group “culture, society and media” of the institute of arts of the state university of campinas – unicamp – campinas – são paulo, brazil. the research group and lipacs joined efforts in order to conduct studies and surveys on the use of information and communication digital technologies (icdt) applied to the teaching-learning process and on the impact of these technologies on society, in particular on the population regarded as excluded. this paper will show the partial results of the activities involving digitally-excluded senior citizens. according to the brazilian census bureau ibge (2008), senior citizens in brazil are the population with the least access to the internet with rates as low as 11.2%. senior citizens who attended school for 4 years, on average recorded an even lower access rate: only 7.2% (ibge, 2008). the higher the schooling level, the higher the web access rate. in addition to the educational level, internet access is also related to the monthly household per capita income. the number of accesses made by senior citizens during the period of 2005 and 2008 increased from 7.3% to 11.2%, respectively. unfortunately, this result is not exclusively related to social inclusion policies, but rather to the death rate of senior citizens and the increase in the age of adults accessing the internet.   these results confirm the need to provide poorly-educated, low-income senior citizens with proper conditions to come in contact with new technologies and with technology-based learning environments. this means that simply providing means to access new technologies is not enough. instead, it is essential to offer support through learning agents duly prepared to work with senior citizens as well as to develop educational strategies which value their socio-cultural circumstances, life experience, dialogue, participation in the decision-making process and other aspects to properly raise the learners’ awareness; in other words, consider the learner as a social-historical, consumer and political being. therefore, the purpose of this paper is to show how digitally-excluded senior citizens use technologies for the construction of new literacies in the digital convergence culture.  the literacies curiously, the terms literacy and literate were coined only after, in 1660, the oxford english dictionary registered the term with the negative connotation– illiteracy. the positive term literacy was only coined in the 19th century (charnley & jones, 1979, p.8). in 1958, with the purpose of better understanding the statistics on illiteracy, unesco provided the following definitions: “a person is literate who can with understanding both read and write a short simple statement on his everyday life. a person is illiterate who cannot with understanding both read and write a short simple statement on his everyday life.” (unesco, 1958, p.93)   a literate person would be someone who mastered the normative grammar, recognized the graphic signs of a language and managed to code or decode it, both in writing and in reading. based on such an approach and on saussure’s structuralism (1995) in europe, and on bloomfield (1983) in the united states, formal education started to value the skills of distinguishing syllables, words, morphemes, graphemes, numeric sequences, and the transformation of phonemes into graphemes and vice-versa. from such a perspective however, the concept of literacy would be confused with that of merely being able to read and write. the literate person would be solely and exclusively a person who could read and write, because such person would master codes, such as the alphabetic and numeric codes, taught primarily at school, as an individually acquired competence. researchers, based on sociology and anthropology, raised the discussion about the need to consider new approaches to literacy, based on a convergence of ideas which include the social reality. the views which value the learners’ context became the focus of the debate, which encompassed literacy as a social practice that is manifested according to the context where the linguistic communication would take place by means of writing productions. through the dissemination of such ideas in european, anglo-saxon and latin countries, the scientific community has termed the social context approach of literacy in a number of different ways: cultural (baker et al, 2002), ethnographic (finnegan, 1988), pragmatic (hill & parry, 1994), and ideological (street, 1999). in the first approach, the graphemes and phonemes are already predefined and, therefore, the literacy process is carried out through the relationship between the signifier and the signified. in the social aspect, on the other hand, neither the linguistic elements, nor their relationships are actually predetermined. the subject creates or reinvents the representation system based on a close relationship between the subject and his or her social and historical context. tfouni (1988), one of the pioneers in the study of literacy in brazil, attempts to distinguish the concept of literacy from that which involves mere initial reading and writing instruction. in a text published at a later date, she wrote: “while the initial reading and writing instruction encompasses the acquisition of basic reading skills by an individual, or by a group of individuals, literacy is focused on the social and historical aspects involved in the acquisition of a system written by a society” (tfouni, 2006, p. 20). the author advocates that the process of acquiring the alphabet is oriented to the individual, while literacy targets the society, duly supported by the social and historical context. kleiman, on the other hand, defines literacy as “the practices and events associated with the use, function and social impact of writing” (kleiman, 2006, p. 181). according to this author, literacy includes the social practices of reading and writing and the events in which such practices are put into action, as well as their impacts on society. soares (2003, p.72) defends the position that “literacy is what people do with their reading and writing skills in a particular context and the relationship established between such skills and knowledge and social practices, needs and values”. the author goes on to suggest that literacy implies the performance of a set of social practices related to reading and writing in a specific social context.   in order to understand how literacy takes place in a social context, researchers started to adopt the concepts of “literacy event” and “literacy practice” as its building blocks in order to analyze the phenomenon.  heath (1982) regards a literacy event as “any occasion in which a piece of writing is integral to the nature of the participants’ interactions and their interpretative processes” (heath, 1982, p.93). the literacy event can be a sequence of actions and involve one or more people performing reading or writing activities. the concept of literacy practice is taken to a higher level of abstraction and refers both to the behavior and to the social and cultural conceptualizations which provide the context for reading and writing, that is to say, it is associated with the way a social group culturally uses the written language. therefore, literacy practices reveal the concepts, values and beliefs typical of a culture. they encompass not only the “literacy event”, such as empirical situations of which literacy is a part, but also socio-cultural aspects of such events and the ideological preconceptions which support them (robert & street, 1998). a third approach to the concept of literacy takes into consideration the social and cultural aspects, but also expands the term beyond the “letters”. the term – literacies – tends to be used in its plural form, not only because it refers to the multiple genres of the verbal language but also because it contemplates a number of communication channels and non-verbal languages. literacy events are being studied in several digital platforms by researchers who do not follow the traditional line of reasoning about literacy as solely focusing on the word and on individualized practices. they use the concept of literacy as situated in the social and cultural context of activities developed in multiple platforms or in different communication channels – both verbal and non-verbal. among those, we could mention some approaches: stald (2008) carries out studies on the role played by cell phones in the identity creation of young students; stern (2008) relies on the construction of websites to promote young authors and develop their identities; gee (2007) analyzes the role of video games in encouraging learning and literacy; goodman (2003) uses the production of videos to bring about social changes for stakeholders; and buckingham (2008a, 2008b) and potter (2008) study the construction of literacy through communications media. these researchers use common elements in their ideas: the use of a new technology, the set of competences required to deal with such technology, and the ability to provide social meaning to the knowledge acquired through the support of technology. digital technologies have fostered the convergence of media onto a single platform which provides hybrid media services, enabling the support of a number of communication channels simultaneously. the use of such technologies and their convergent languages calls for additional competences (valente, 2007, p. 13), which include empowering learners with hypermedia, the use of animations, static images, sounds, the manipulation of hyperlinks and active participation. in the participative approach, jenkins (2006) uses the term “convergence culture” to argue that convergence should be understood as something which transcends the technological process and gathers several functions of the media within the same devices. convergence represents a cultural shift in which users do not respond passively but rather take on active roles in their search for new information and the establishment of connections among diffuse media contents (jenkins, 2006, p.3). in the convergence culture scenario, it may be asserted that literacies encompass social practices which rely on semiotic elements in such a manner that they interact with, complement, and transform one another due to the hybrid nature of digital technologies. a subject who reaches the level of literacies manages to grasp the strategies typically used by communication channels or icdt, develops meaning based on them, works on the structure of the signifiers, and assists in the sensitive and cognitive transformations of the subjects themselves. and, based on such processes, the subject is able to assign social meanings to such a degree that the context may be transformed and new realities may be created in the world (freire, 1980). through the intellect and the senses, the subject perceives the reality of the context which shapes his/her own identity. according to maturana, reality is the domain of things, and, in this sense, whatever can be distinguished is real (maturana, 2001, p.156). by becoming aware of the reality, a subject can understand his/her context and how he/she is entangled in the complex fabric of relationships with the world.  the power of transformation is directly related to raising the subject’s awareness. according to freire (1980), awareness is a reflective attitude of the subject’s own condition and the condition of his/her social practices in the world. freire believes that the subject may reach three levels of awareness: a primitive level, in the sense of responding automatically without being aware of the situation; the awareness of the external actions when the subject starts perceiving the social context; and the self-conscious level, when the subject clearly associates the social and historical context with his/her own current reality. literacy practices that manage to reach the latter level of awareness will bring about the most significant transformations that can then cause an impact on the cognitive and perceptive realities and on the social and cultural context of the subject.     the purpose of this research paper thus is to understand how senior citizens are empowered with technologies in order to build new literacies and, with that, become aware of their capacity to function in the context where they live and build new realities. methodological aspects this study used morin’s method (2004) of integral and systematic action-research. this method presents the theory, techniques, procedures and participation, typically taking place in action-research as a systemic approach. in this sense, the interaction between the players and the researchers is analyzed in different modes and at varying levels, with the purpose of fostering a more democratic educational and social practice in the areas where the action-research is being conducted.  this method provides the individual involved in the action with the possibility of intervening so as to promote changes in his/her life or in the community where he/she lives (morin, 2004, p.91). the field study lasted three years and consisted of weekly meetings of one-hour duration each. the meetings were held in the computer labs at the integrated schools paiva de vilhena – university of minas gerais, located in the same neighborhood or close to the learners’ homes, in the city of campanha, in the south of minas gerais state, brazil. the study included 16 senior citizens, among whom 14 were women and 2, men. their schooling ranged from 3 to 7 years of basic education, and all of them were regarded as digitally excluded. practical activities were used including websites of interest to the group, emails, websites accessing audiovisual files and social network platforms. the actions were based on social and historical concepts and were supported by the strategy of dialog with the learners. the following information was provided by the learners: their personal backgrounds, lifestyles, their occupations, their hobbies, and their likes and dislikes. the teaching-learning-motivation-satisfaction relationship was sustained through dialog. the tools used for data collection were the following: photography, videos, interview forms, group activities, assessment of face-to-face and remote activities using, in particular, web 2.0 tools (orkut, vila na rede[1]), as well as observations in loco, which were recorded through field logs. the data is still being analyzed and will be analysed using chic software (“chic” being the abbreviation of the french translation of hierarchical implicative and coercitive classification) whose purpose is to generate similarity graphs. chic software relies on a multidimensional statistical method used in qualitative studies of association rules matching different types of variables and displaying the results graphically. some examples of how senior citizens were empowered with icdt being used for literacy construction are shown below. my garden: literacy practices applied to senior citizens for an audience which was contemporary with the telegraph, tube tv sets and with little formal education, the challenge of overcoming the constraints acquired throughout their lives and of delving into the world of wikis, blogs, orkut and youtube was enormous. setting up a favorable learning environment with the support of colleagues and the assistance of mediators made it easier for them to overcome these barriers and to start building the new concepts required to deal the emerging convergence culture, such as interaction, interactivity, hypertextuality and multimediality. to that end, it was crucial for the mediators to talk with the learners so as to get to know who they were, where they came from and what they did and are doing in their lives. the individuals were subjects with striking memories and experiences, situated in specific social and cultural contexts which, once understood, became the required leverage for the qualitative leap into literacy to occur.  literacy practices were performed by relying on the broader concepts of “literacies” which considers both the social aspect and language variations (verbal and non-verbal). at first, the learners managed to master the basic pc operations: switch it on and off, handle the mouse and the keyboard, use the word processor and search websites—to name a few. in order to achieve these results, three main types of activities were used: digital games, typing of texts and access to vintage songs. the literacy level was basic and learners would respond automatically or at the mediators’ request. the awareness gain was primitive, varying from amazement to mystification. the level of interaction was also restricted and they were not interested in establishing any relationship with their peers but rather were concerned with their own performance and attainment. for that reason, the first contacts with the new technologies were particularly oriented towards activities which would provide the grounds for new users to break away from their sense of fear and push them towards another reality, that of the universe of digital technologies from which they were excluded. although the activities at this stage did not involve complex operations, social and cultural elements that were meaningful to them and which were closely related to their context were used. this is shown in figure 1, where some senior citizens are developing individual activities. each one is doing activities on particular websites or using specific software programs, according to their own needs or interests. these practices were associated with typing exercises, educational games and access to old songs. figure 1. literacy practices using information technology. over time the learners started doing activities involving emails, website search and social networks (orkut). at this point they responded somewhat more spontaneously and reflectively. it was noticeable that they started to shift from the previous reality towards an understanding of a network-based context. despite that, the learners did not relate such learning to their own immediate context. the level of interaction was regarded as moderate because the relationships they established with other colleagues were limited to simple replies to emails or orkut messages. they did not interact on their own and did not establish relevant reflexive relationships with their own contexts. with the support of the mediators, the activities were further developed towards ever more complex operations, thus building multiple competencies (valente, 2008). those accomplishments enabled learners to reach more significant results such as accessing information on a bank strike and communicating that to a spouse, her husband; collecting information on a music festival (festival da canção) and registering for the contest; searching for a music score on the web; getting in contact with tv stations; finding the text of a new law published by the brazilian environment and renewable resources institute (instituto brasileiro do meio ambiente e dos recursos naturais renováveis – ibama); correctly filling out invoices to be used at the learner’s own woodworking business; resuming their studies by participating in the adult literacy program and accessing the internet for educational research; playing the role of learning agents for family members by helping a spouse or children; and even meeting a boyfriend via the web and maintaining daily contact through email and msn. thus the learners managed to develop literacy practices, provide a social use for the digital technologies and understand a reality which could, through the web, offer them access to information, exchanging of messages remotely and helping them learn in various topics areas. it is worth mentioning that one of the activities performed with the learners, namely, “my garden”, which contributed to the process of empowering learners with the technologies and to develop the literacy practices (heath, 1982), encompassed both social aspects and the use of different languages or communication channels. the purpose of the “my garden” activity was to awaken the learners’ awareness of their reality and to encourage contextual transformation based on freire’s transformation principle (1980). for this purpose, a topic of interest to the group was selected: gardening. the activity started with a presentation on gardening delivered by a learner. this presentation was an integral part of the information technology activities planned for this learner. in addition, the learner was in the process of acquiring reading and writing skills and did not feel that he fit in the group. however, he became the leader the moment he made the presentation of his own professional activities as a gardener at an institute of higher education. he gave a presentation to the entire group describing how he took care of the plants. he presented a number of species, the special care each plant required, all in loco, in the garden of the institute where he works, in order to highlight what could be observed by the learners. with his self-esteem boosted, the gardener/learner fascinated the entire group with his gardening topic. mediators took advantage of the moment to encourage debate among the learners so that, based on what was being observed, discussions were developed on how gardens related to each person’s own life. the mediators asked who had a garden or a kitchen garden to take care of; if their own lives were a garden, what were the similarities and differences between a garden and life? in addition to the family, what are the other nice flowers (as metaphors for good events) which bloomed in their own lives (garden)? why were they good? which bad flowers grew in the garden and why did they grow at all? in this way, the mediators attempted to take the discussions to a higher level so as to include historical, political, social and cultural viewpoints.   figure 2. literacy activity in the garden. figure 2 shows learners in the garden of the institute doing a group activity; a learner taking pictures of flowers and colleagues; and learners observing flower details. these images depict the initial moments when a background context was being established for the activity referred to as “my garden”, which contributed to the collective discussions described above. such discussions helped encourage the collective discussion of individual experiences, sharing of similar experiences and challenging the reasons that led to those facts in their own lives/gardens. based on those discussions, reflections as to how some situations could be changed were encouraged. digital technologies also contributed to the exercise. in addition, the learners visited websites and poetry blogs which helped them relate their lives to the garden. they also watched videos of the impressionist painter monet on youtube. the artist monet was chosen by the learners as a reference in order to build the relationship between life, work and the garden. after reading the texts, each learner used a word processor to write a message associating his/her life with the garden. with regards to recording of images, especially with the purpose of helping them to manipulate these, learners took pictures of the garden they visited and of meaningful objects found in their own home, or objects which are now or used to be part of their lives in order to represent the garden itself. messages with the images were inserted into the slides in power point software program and were emailed to friends and relatives. two web 2.0 tools contributed to this activity on gardening, namely orkut and vila na rede. these platforms became the garden bed where “new flowers” were planted.  several learners used those platforms to add activities from their homes, as part of their daily routine, such as handicrafts, or even cookery products – oil painting on canvas, fabric paintings, crochet, kitchen towels, bath towels, tablecloths, diapers, pastries, etc. learners also developed content and added this to their websites, for example, videos on how to crochet and to make bags from recycled materials. the work received a lot of feedback and users from other cities were interested in buying these products. another example was a family recipe which was posted: for a banana pastry. on the website, a user exchanged information with a learner on how to make good use of banana peels. another learner enjoyed the banana pastry so much that she prepared the recipe at home and took the pastries for her colleagues to try. at that stage, the learners were already able to rely on the technologies and provide social meaning and use to them in an everyday context. in addition, they worked as participants in the convergence culture, according to jenkins’ (2006) proposal of an active subject who takes on the leading role in the scenario of digital technologies.     figure 3 presents some examples of those events. on the vila na rede website (to the left), there are videos showing a learner teaching how to make accessories (bags, belts) through crochet and recycled materials, in this case, aluminum can lids. to the right, a learner posts her handiwork production on orkut. figure 3. many educational videos on the vila na rede website and photos of handicraft were added to the orkut social network. the contents developed and the products posted were chosen by the learners themselves. after the activities were further developed using educational strategies connected to their own lives, the qualitative leap in their learning was clear. some learners managed to display reflections on the importance of the activity to their own lives. those who managed to reach this level, understood the causal and circumstantial events and related them to their own reality or context to create new realities. such characteristics became clearer when the learners became aware that the digital tools could help them express themselves by adding their own handicraft production or by debating their ideas.   we could see increased awareness of the social use of the icdt to the degree of even transforming the context, that is, the learners’ lives. these changes in reality were noticed both in the intellectual aspect and in relation to icdt, as well as in terms of practices in specific social contexts. through the use of digital media, they also had more advanced interactions, promoting more significant dialog between peers. types of literacies in the beginning, since learners were not familiar with information technology, they had to master the basic literacies and learn the building blocks of it, as well as to learn how to perform basic hardware and software operations. only then did they manage to give their learning a functional application, such as accessing information or reading an email. the most significant gain in awareness was when they noticed that they could use technology for social purposes. they then enhanced their interactions and expanded their social network. proposals to handle more complex operations were gradually introduced and the pace was reduced so that learners would not feel pressured, develop a sense of failure and eventually quit. based on these results, four types of literacies could be described: automatic literacies – the user functions in the input and output mode, that is to say, the stimulus-response mode, without any grasping of awareness and individual learning. for example: turn the computer on and off, handle the mouse, use the keyboard. functional literacies – the user manages to make practical use of icdt. there is some awareness of digital technology functions and they begin to be used, but without significant or complex transformation at the cognitive, perceptive or contextual levels. for example: information is accessed on the web but it is not used meaningfully. conscious literacies – the user encourages reflections, cognitive and perceptive transformations. there is full awareness of the use of icdt in the own lives. in addition to being able to use icdt for functional purposes, learning or skill development is perceived. for example: uses a website to pay bills or to buy products. contextual literacies – in addition to raising their awareness, encouraging cognitive and perceptive transformations, the users manage to bring about social and cultural changes in the context. technology is adopted as part of their own culture. it is actively incorporated into their daily lives. for example: posting contents to websites or social networks, interacting through web platforms, etc. in all these types of literacies, varying degrees of intellectual transformations were perceived, including transformations in the context itself. however, these transformations took place gradually as new competences were learned and the skills to foster further awareness were mastered. the more knowledge was acquired, the more intense were the literacy practices and more meaningful were the transformations. the nature of the transformations ranged from intellectual, to perceptual and even contextual aspects. learners built new realities, started to adopt an active role in the social network and to contribute not only with content but also to routinely rely on icdt from a cultural standpoint. in these new realities, learners used icdt mainly for the following purposes: to search for information, to foster communication, for entertainment, as a learning tool, to market products, to generate content, to organize their finances and to preserve family memories. these results indicate that they managed to code and decode meanings and to attribute a social use to them, generating knowledge applicable to their own lives. final considerations the paper described literacy practices related to the means by which digitally-excluded senior citizens overcame social and historical constraints, gained more awareness of and mastered icdt so as to become active and creative members of the convergence culture and build new realities.  for the development of the learners’ activities the learners’ contextual reality, the relationship of the existing power structure, aesthetic productions, technical mediations, socially established meanings, and the political and economic contexts in which the languages and technologies were inserted were taken into consideration. literacies brought about new representations, awakened the conscience and expanded the communications systems as a means of interaction with the world. those who reached the literacy level managed to build new realities because they were able to understand and apply digital technology strategies, assign meanings based on such technologies, act upon the structure of the signifiers and assist in the sensitive and cognitive transformations so as to boost awareness, apply it to cultural aspects and promote changes in their social environment and realities.   acknowledgements the success of this project was only possible thanks to the support provided by minas gerais research foundation – fapemig, são paulo research foundation – fapesp, national counsel of technological and scientific development cnpq, integrated schools paiva de vilhena associated with the university of minas gerais (uemg), by the uemg research and extension program, by the multidisciplinary research-action healthy community laboratory – unicamp and all collaborators, researchers and, in particular, the learners involved in the project.     bibliography baker, d. a., street, b., & tomlin, a. 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[1] vila na rede is an inclusive social network developed as part of the project e-cidadania (e-citizenship) at the state university of campinas, são paulo, where products, services, events and ideas can be shared in order to benefit the community as a whole. url: http://www.vilanarede.org.br constructing sustainable digital learning environments for remote rural children of sarawak norazila abd aziz1, mohamad fitri s2, rethinasamy soubakeavathi3 research fellow, institute of social informatics and technology innovation, universiti malaysia sarawak, malaysia. email: anora@fcs.unimas.my research fellow, institute of social informatics and technology innovation, universiti malaysia sarawak, malaysia. research fellow, institute of social informatics and technology innovation, universiti malaysia sarawak, malaysia. introduction together is a word we must learn to understand, if we ever want to get to know each other better. together is a word that holds tomorrow in its hand. tomorrow's just another day to get together, and...get closer, closer, closer. in the late 70s, a us television program for children called the big blue marble aired on a malaysian local television channel and it provided children in the country the opportunity to learn about the lives and activities of children from other parts of the world. there was also a segment on pen pals, which helped children connect with each other through writing, though they may be worlds apart in terms of geography, culture, language and traditions. a line in its opening theme song summed up the essence of the show "together is a word we must learn to understand, if we ever want to get to know each other better". it signified the importance of togetherness, sharing of ideas and exchanging of experiences in order to better understand and appreciate the cultures, beliefs and traditions upheld by children from various communities around the globe. at the time of broadcast, snail mail was the only mode of information sharing, and the ideas and experiences exchanged were mainly in verbal form. forty years on, upon reflection, how information was shared between children across the globe has evolved through ict media, children today are more likely to engage in email correspondence rather than using conventional mail to connect with friends, old and new, from around the world. prensky has aptly labeled today's children as the digital natives (prensky, 2001), email has become a central part of the lives of the digital natives which also include computer games, social networks, the internet, cell phones and instant messaging, all of which suggest that these children function best when placed in a networked digital environment (prensky, 2001). however, it needs to be acknowledged that not all children who are born in the 21st century can be classified as digital natives. there are digital gaps among children, particularly for those born into underprivileged remote communities (mohamad, et al., 2010). for these children, their encounter with technology, particularly computers, would only be in schools, during school hours, and with the high student-computer ratio at most rural schools, the opportunity for them to access the computers is slim. statistics from the international communication union (icu) indicated that the gap in online presence continues to exist between the populations in developed and developing countries. approximately 71% of the developed countries' populations are online, in comparison to only 21% of the populations in developing countries (icu, 2010). the figures, however, do not suggest that the digital divide is only an issue for developing countries. in each nation, a social divide is apparent between its rich and poor in terms of technology access. moreover, a democratic divide also emerges within the online community between users who use and do not use internet resources to engage, mobilize and participate in public life (norris, 2001). various studies have shown that technology can effectively contribute to the learning experience of children (schacter, 1999; roschelle et.al., 2000; gulek & demirtas, 2005), particularly those who had regular and sustained use of the technology in their learning (cox, 1993). improvement in learning has been attributed not only to the learning experience from computer but also with computer (jonassen, 2000; ringstaff & kelley, 2002). the former refers to the use of technology as a 'tutor' where functions involve providing drills and practice and tutorial for learners. the latter positions technology as 'intellectual partners' to support their engagement in higher order thinking (jonassen 1996; 2000). it has further been reported that technology is capable to facilitate content expansion of children's learning by exposing them to ideas and experiences that would be inaccessible for most of them any other way (roschelle et.al, 2000). in addition, an increase in student achievement would take place if equality in access is provided. it means that technology should no longer be used as a shared commodity (gulek & demirtas, 2005). ringstaff and kelley (2002), however, assert that desirable learning outcomes from technology use are contingent upon a number of conditions. these include availability of sufficient and accessible technological resources, not just in school but also at home, as well as appropriate long term planning for technology diffusion which takes into account the goals and needs of the school community. studies investigating rural children's experiences with technology have reported its significant effect on developing the children's learning (inamdar, 2004; kamat & shinde, 2009; mohamad, et al., 2010; nayak & kalyankar, 2010). one of the renowned studies on using technology for rural children's learning is the 'hole in the wall' experiment, first used by sugata mitra in 1999. mitra hypothesized that any set of children can acquire basic computing skills, provided that access to a suitable computing facility is made available for them. he proved that it was possible for learning to take place even without the presence of teachers. the rationale for the finding may have been triggered by the fact that learning experiences are based on the learners' own discovery and the collaboration among them helped learning to advance (mitra et. al., 2005). mitra's findings suggested that the primary elements for such learning experience are the individual interest for learning, collaborative interaction and accessibility to technology. presence of technology is seen to be able to generate interest and discussion about its potential use, especially among learners from geographically challenged locations. another prominent technology initiative which focuses on education development of rural children is the shilpa sayura project in sri lanka. the project focused on providing interactive digital content in sinhalese to prepare the students for national examination. instead of schools, access to these materials is obtained at the rural telecentres (oecd, 2009). the utilization of rural telecentres in the project suggests their plausibility to provide educational information to the rural learners (niranjan et. al, 2009), as well as serve as a resource centre for the rural community's development in ict and in other aspects of living (norizan & jalaluddin, 2008). efforts to bring technology to rural communities have been undertaken in the asia pacific region (unesco bangkok, 2005; mcquaide, 2009)). in thailand, for instance, a program on 'literacy development through computer software' was carried out during 2001-2002 at two remote villages. the success of the project led to the implementation of another project on 'inter-village connectivity and empowerment through ict in rural areas' to a wider rural audience (unesco bangkok, 2005). among the lessons reported based on their implementation experience are that awareness of technology functional importance would be greater when its use is linked to solving community problems, and not restricted to only school-based content; and that rural children and youth should be encouraged to become active partners in their community growth. by doing so, a higher level of sustainability in both ict and community development activities can be achieved. during 2003 to 2007, the chinese government implemented what it claimed to be the largest ict project in the world. this project focused on improving the quality of basic education in rural china through a distance education project for its rural schools (mcquaide, 2009). the technologies and all learning materials were prepared for the rural schools and the teachers involved were trained on how to use the materials using the technologies provided for them. however, the requirement to use the 'packaged' learning materials turned out to be one of the challenges faced in the project implementation. the materials designed were regarded to be unsuitable to meet the needs of the rural learners as they were not drawn from the experiences and settings which the children were more familiar with. the chinese experience infers that the content for any learning initiatives targeted at rural children must be based on local needs and context. technology introduced to the rural learners will only have impact if it is used in a context which they can relate to. research context since 1998, a team of researchers from universiti malaysia sarawak (unimas) have been working on engaging remote rural communities in borneo with applications of technology. social informatics is the key element in all research projects carried out by the team whose specific areas of research interest range from computer science, information systems, and engineering (alternative/renewable energy) to social sciences, cognitive sciences, commerce, and language. the team employs a people-centered participatory approach in all its research projects to empower rural communities to harness the potential of technologies for social and economic development. it is believed that a strong rapport between the research team and the community, and an understanding of local needs for socio-economic change, must first be established before any innovation could be introduced, diffused and embraced by the community involved. the first rural remote location which the team worked with is bario, a relatively small site nestled in the plateau of the kelabit highlands, not far from the malaysia-indonesia border between sarawak, malaysia and kalimantan, indonesia. bario, which literally means 'wet wind' in the ethnic kelabit language, is home to approximately 1000 people, majority of whom are the kelabits, one of the smallest ethnic groups in sarawak. the bario people mainly work as farmers and their main livelihood comes from the vast rice and pineapple plantations. due to the geographical isolation of its location, there are only two possible ways to access the site on air and on land. the journey by air takes about an hour from miri, sarawak using a 19-seater twin otter airplane, whereas the land journey takes about 14 days of trekking across forested mountains. to reduce the number of days spent trekking on land, a river journey from sungai baram could be used, and although it takes approximately about 4 to 5 hours, the route is available only until marudi, another small remote location in between miri and bario. the rest of the journey would have to be on foot and would take about another 3 to 4 days of trekking. of late, logging trails have also been used to access bario, but the journey requires the use of sturdy four-wheel-drive vehicles to brace the challenging deep ravines and muddy pathways along the way. prior to the commencement of the bario project, also referred to as the e-bario project, the people of bario solely relied on generator set or solar power for electricity (hushairi zen et.al, 2004). there was no 24-hour electricity supply available at the site nor was there any treated water. communication between the people of bario and those from other locations was carried out using radio calls or in the form of messages relayed and obtained from arriving or departing passengers at the airport. similarly, medium of communication exchange could also come from those arriving and departing from the other access points. the funding received by the research team enabled them to provide significant technology donations to the two schools at bario. the first recipient was the bario secondary school. this school provides formal education, only from form 1 to form 3 (ages 13 to 15), after which the school pupils would have to attend their upper secondary levels at schools in nearby towns of miri and marudi. in january 2000, to accommodate 10 computers, a printer, a scanner and a generator set, the team together with the school community set up the school's first computer laboratory. the setting up of the computer laboratory, with similar equipments for the bario primary school took place about a year later. the primary school provides formal education from primary 1 to primary 6 (ages 7 to 12). with technology in place at these schools, the members of the research team with expertise in technology literacy conducted the information technology literacy program for the school community. another significant development in this remote rural community was the establishment of gatuman bario in 2001. this community telecentre was equipped with computers and vsat (very small aperture terminal) connection enabling internet access to be in place. in addition, public telephones were also installed to improve the communication between bario and the world outside. over the next ten years from the time the research team first started work in bario, more technologies have been introduced to the community. different technology engagement activities have since been conducted to enable the community to capitalize on the potential of technology for community development. the telecentre has since been established as a testing ground for technologies to be deployed in other rural communities in borneo (mohamad, et al., 2010). objectives of research this paper describes part of an on-going research project carried out by the e-bario education team which generally aims to investigate the impact of using technology to supplement classroom learning among children of remote rural locations in sarawak, malaysia. specifically, the project focuses on assessing the feasibility of developing a technology literacy programme in an informal setting. the program used digitalized local content which are selected and built to sustain and enhance local cultures, beliefs and traditions that already exist in these remote rural locations. the project is divided into five main phases which include (i) baseline data gathering, focusing on assessing availability and conditions of technology at both bario schools and the telecentre, as well as identification of initial beliefs of the school community on the potential of technology to enhance and facilitate the formal learning experience of the pupils; (ii) piloting a technology literacy program, which adopts the concept of universal playground that aims at promoting interactions among children from various locations using a secured internet based environment and in doing so encourages development of an understanding and appreciation of diversity of culture and traditions of children from these locations; (iii) deployment of the universal playground program to children of bario and an investigation of their perceptions of the potential of technology to facilitate learning and develop cross cultural communication and intercultural awareness; (iv) construction of a digital learning environment that facilitates development of technology literacy, using localized content and experiences of the remote rural community, and encourages collaboration and information sharing in knowledge creation and local knowledge preservation; (v) deployment of the digital learning environment to other rural remote sites in borneo. detailed findings from the first two phases have been reported elsewhere (mohamad, et al., 2009, 2010). this paper focuses on findings acquired in the third phase of the project, specifically the implementation of the ict program which uses the universal playground concept with bario school children. feedback from the school children and other community participants involved in the study is also presented in the paper. methodology the third phase of the research was conducted over a period of a year in 2010 using a participatory action research approach. it involves an iterative cycle of planning, action, observation, and reflection. engagement of the community participants in all cycles was vital to the project to instill a sense of belonging and ownership to the project. findings from the first two phases of the project were referred to in the planning stage of the third project phase. an analysis of baseline data, carried out in mid 2009, indicated that there was poor internet connection at both the primary and secondary schools at bario, and the information has led the team to decide to conduct the technology literacy program at a venue closer to the telecentre, which had been identified to have a more reliable internet access and speed. the only venue with a layout adequately spacious to accommodate the project participants and within close proximity to the telecentre was the town hall. at the beginning, the team conducted a series of meetings with local school administrators and community leaders to introduce the concept of universal pslayground, as well as to determine their views and interest in collaborating with the team to implement it with their school children. the initial feedback from the local gatekeepers were positive. they expressed keen interest to be involved in the project as they also felt that it would provide an extraordinary experience for bario children. they also promised support for successful implementation. permission from the sarawak state education department was also sought and favorably granted during the same timeframe. the initial planning was also based on the response received from program participants who were involved in the pilot stage of the project. the pilot group consisted of thirty children from three rural schools located close to the university and thirty one program facilitators who were university student volunteers. an ict program from npo pangaea japan was chosen as the core technology integration programme used in the research project. the ict program, termed as pangaea, has been successfully conducted at other locations around the globe, for instance in japan, south korea, austria and kenya. however, the proposed implementation at a remote rural location would be its first. hence, it is pertinent for the team to pilot the implementation to ascertain issues specific to technology experiences of rural children in malaysia, specifically in sarawak. in general, the remote rural children in sarawak had very little experience with technology. at first, they were unsure of the possibility of participating in a digital playground with children who they had not met and did not even share the same language with. at the end of the program, after a series of activities had been conducted, which also involved web cam activities with children from japan, the children indicated great interest in sharing their cultural experiences with their new web-friends. they would also like to explore further the possibility of using technology to learn more about the culture and traditions of their new friends. considering the positive feedback from the pilot group, at the end of 2009, the research team flew in to bario to finalize the implementation plan with the school administrators and community leaders in bario. it was important that program activity dates were agreed upon by all involved so that logistical aspects could be arranged in advance. in addition, information about the program participants, their total number, including facilitator volunteers had to be finalized before implementation could be put into action. five activity days were chosen for program implementation, with the first one scheduled at the end of january 2010. in the beginning of the same month, a program introductory session involving all 20 bario children participants and 15 facilitator volunteers was held and basic information about the children's technology experience and expectations was obtained via individual interview sessions. the facilitator volunteers were advised to provide strong support and encouragement to the children. they were also informed about the preparation required before each activity session and the reflection activity that followed at its end. a key person was identified from the facilitator group to act as the intermediary between the team and the program participants. all updates about future program activities for the year would be communicated to the key person. this person would be responsible for information dissemination and basic program preparation, including managing any other requirements necessary for the running of all planned activities with the children in bario. the first meeting enabled the team's technical support to check on the technical requirements and setting needed on every actual activity day. in general, each program activity day would start with the pre-activity preparation, followed by the planned activities, and end with the reflection and feedback from the team and the facilitators. the planned activities can further be grouped into two types the local and the web-cam activities. local activities refer to the face-to-face activities which require the children to complete some artworks, such as drawings of their virtual houses, rooms, and villages, which later would be scanned and uploaded to the internet via a specially designed secure web environment called the pangaeanet. the children were also able to view and comment on other children's artworks which had been uploaded from other program locations. they were encouraged to share ideas and exchange experiences with each other using pictons (pictorial letters or pictograms). by using pictons as the means of communication, the children focused on the messages to be exchanged and did not have to dwell on linguistic competency or skills. the local activities were carried out in january, april and august of 2010. the web-cam activities, on the other hand, enabled the children to interact with children from other program locations in real time. those who have established correspondence via pangaeanet could further develop virtual friendship bonding through use of various games and activities. two of the program activity days were web-cam sessions, the first was in may 2010 with the children in kyoto, japan and the second, in october 2010, with the children from the pilot group at unimas. to further investigate the children's perception about the ict program used and the activities that they took part in for each program activity day, pre and post program activity interviews were conducted. the pre program activity questions focused on their beliefs about the culture and traditions of children from other program locations, their ict experience in terms of knowledge and skills, as well as their expectations from the project. meanwhile, the post activity questions centered on their views on the day's activities, whether they had found the experience meaningful and what they hoped to be doing for the next program activity day. additional information was asked on web-cam activity days to determine their prior knowledge about the country (e.g. language, culture, traditions) and location of the other group of children they would be having the web-cam activity with. similarly, the post activity questions would also seek their views about the day's activities and the new information learnt about the children from the other locations. in addition to the interviews, observations were carried out to determine the level of interaction and collaboration during each activity carried out. finally, qualitative analysis was carried out to identify the themes and patterns that emerge from the data obtained from each program activity day. findings the findings provide a number of insights about the children's perceptions of the potential of technology to facilitate learning and mediate cross cultural communication and collaboration. at the initial stage of the program, varying levels of uncertainty were expressed about technology mediated communication. however, this changed after the first web-cam activity session was carried out. the bario children gradually began to understand how technology could play a strong role in developing and sustaining a bond of friendship between them and the other children from different cultural, geographical and linguistic backgrounds. they were enthused about the fact that their artworks could be viewed on pangaeanet. however, the use of pictons as a means of communication had a mixed reception. a small number of them indicated difficulty in interpreting the intended meaning of the pictons used on pangaeanet. nevertheless, those who received messages from other countries were really excited and replied to them. they wrote new messages to other pangaeanet pals as well. they expressed their eagerness to get to know new friends from other countries through the network. the first pre web-cam interview data showed that most of the children have not met any japanese people or any other people of different ethnic groups outside of their own localities. the majority did not know any vocabulary in japanese or anything about japan. after the webcam activity with kyoto, the bario children learned a few linguistic expressions in japanese including 'self introduction' and 'hello'. they also remarked that the webcam game sessions with japanese children were very exciting and they expressed keen interest to continue communicating with children from other countries abroad. data from the second pre web-cam interview suggested that the children were not aware about many aspects of living outside of bario. some even thought the kota samarahan (where the unimas campus is located) was in peninsular malaysia or overseas. during web-cam activity, the children were shown kota samarahan's location using google maps. the post interview data showed that the bario children became more aware that kota samarahan was also located in sarawak and the children were of malay, iban, bidayuh and chinese ethnic groups. it became clear at the end of the activity that both groups (unimas and bario) displayed a keen interest to learn more about other sarawak children whom they met online through the web-cam session. it was also interesting to note that many of them did not know about their own festivals and other malaysian festivals. the lack of knowledge suggested a critical need to preserve local cultural knowledge as well as widen their current understanding about other ethnic groups and cultures in sarawak. discussion analysis of local needs and community support are keys to effective deployment of any technology literacy program. though difficult and challenging, issues about power supply and network systems to deploy and sustain the implementation of any ict-based educational programme can be dealt with, when continuous local community support is obtained. the favourable response received from the bario community towards the implementation of the universal playground program suggested that access to technology does not only benefit the children who are involved in the educational programme, but it influences and affects the ways of life and beliefs of the peoples in these remote rural locations. it is therefore contended that by making technology a significant part of remote rural community living, the gap in terms of digital, social and democratic differences between them and the more privileged communities can be reduced in the long run. reading about children from other locations and interacting directly with them based on topics of personal interest gives rise to two different learning experiences. the high level of enthusiasm shown by the rural remote children when learning to use technology for communication gives the indication that, given the access and opportunity, they can also make technology a central part of their lives. in addition, children at both sites in sarawak had exhibited genuine interest to share their local knowledge with each other through their artworks and picton messages. such sharing of experiences could be harnessed as another way of learning about other indigenous cultures, beliefs and traditions. the bario experience demonstrates that it is possible to introduce a scalable deployment of technology literacy programme with various groups of children from remote rural communities within sarawak. the experience served as a conceptual framework to be used for a similar deployment of technology literacy programme for children from other remote rural sites within borneo. learning from other countries, such as japan, to understand the potential of using technology to bridge digital divides among individuals and groups of people across the world is a valuable experience, and should be harnessed continuously to enable positive knowledge and technology transfer to occur across geographical borders. conclusion the remote rural location, by default, made it a financially challenging task for the research team to conduct activities on a more frequent basis. community interest, motivation and the drive to push things forward are therefore crucial in making any technology literacy programme continuously useful and sustainable for years to come. by engaging the children in a technology literacy program that emphasises sharing of ideas and exchanging of experiences in a digital learning setting, the physical remoteness of their location will not stay visible for long. in today's 'big blue marble', geographical locations are invariably narrowed by access to ict. ict helps in setting up a networked environment for children from remote rural areas and proves to be a beneficial long-term investment, as technology enables the children to embrace cultures, beliefs and traditions which may be taken for granted or lost over time, if systematic documentation is not in place. technology helps bridge gaps between children, physically and communicatively. with proper planning, it has the potential to enhance the children's learning experiences by capitalising on local knowledge which is uniquely their own. references cox, m. j. 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(1999). the impact of education technology on student achievement: what the most current research has to say. santa monica, ca: milken exchange on education technology. unesco (2005). information and communication technologies (icts) for community empowerment through non-formal education: experiences from lao pdr, sri lanka, thailand and uzbekistan. bangkok: unesco asia and pacific regional bureau for education. citizen-centric e-governance project in uttaranchal, india h. k. verma <hkvfee@iitr.ernet.in> h. sinvhal <hsinvhal@gmail.com> v. k. nangia <vinaynangia@gmail.com> j. d. sharma <jaydsfee@iitr.ernet.in> v. kumar <vinodfee@gmail.com> indian institute of technology, roorkee a. k. pant birla institute of applied sciences, bhimtal, nainital, india abstract: the paper deals with a undp-funded, e-governance pilot project which was implemented by the indian institute of technology roorkee in uttaranchal, india. a participatory rural appraisal exercise was carried out to assess peoples’ needs and aspirations, which was followed by a business process reengineering exercise to make government departmental working more efficient, transparent and adaptable to computerization. an n-tier architecture citizen-centric “uttara” portal with information and data on 115 departments/ organizations of the state, was developed. the delivery of the services of some select government departments has been tried in nainital district of uttaranchal, india, through information kiosks (soochna kutirs) which are run by local people. introduction most of the state governments in india have taken some initiatives in e-governance, which have met with varying degrees of success. these are being largely implemented by a department or an agency of the concerned government and therefore have a governmental bias, whether intentional or un-intentional. an e-governance project in uttaranchal state of india, titled “pro-poor it initiatives in uttaranchal” funded by the undp, has just been completed with a high degree of success (figure 1). the aim of the project could be summed up thus: “to deliver information of public interest and services related to various government departments at the doorsteps of the citizens of uttaranchal using information technology (it) as the vehicle.” it was a pilot project intended to be a precursor to establishing full-scale e-governance in the state. implementation by an external agency, viz. the indian institute of technology roorkee (iitr), has led to what seems to be refreshingly open approach with many innovative features. it also provides a model of government-academia-industry collaboration. the project was focused on the citizens of uttaranchal with special emphasis on serving the under-privileged people living in remote villages of the state. figure 1: location and district maps of uttaranchal (ww.mapsofindia.com) the project has culminated in the development and validation of a self-sustainable model of governmental service to the people of uttaranchal. the model was successfully implemented in the pilot district of nainital, which was considered as representative of the state in terms of terrain, demography, socio-economic conditions, culture and mind-set. the programme is running in nainital district under the name “janadhar”. this paper presents an overview of the model developed for the delivery of services and information, and highlights some of the novel activities undertaken during the process. assessment of citizen needs for the success of any citizen-centric project, like this one, it is important to understand the needs, priorities and aspirations of all the stakeholders. lack of such an understanding can result in the project becoming supply-driven rather than demand-driven. the real test of the success of such projects is when the citizens drive these initiatives rather than being driven by government, vendors, technology or individual champions. if the citizen is to be in the driver’s seat, it implies that he (or she) decides the type, size, cost and manner of delivery (other than the technology) of services he is interested in. this requires that the citizen becomes an active partner with the government in the entire process and is involved at all stages, right from the assessment of citizen needs to the ultimate delivery of the services. he becomes the owner of the process, not just a passive recipient of the services. this amounts to empowering the citizen as it concerns delegation of power and authority for decision making. participatory approach in order to find out the needs, priorities and aspirations of the people of uttaranchal, participatory rural appraisal (pra) and rapid urban appraisal (rua) techniques were used. pra has been used in a large number of projects, particularly in the agricultural sector (ashby (1993); bentley (1994); biggs (1995) and okali et. al. (1994)). however, in the present project a pioneering effort has been made to use the pra technique to determine the needs, priorities and aspirations for the primary user group, i.e., the villages in the state. participatory rural appraisal (pra) exercises were carried out at six places representing different topographies, literacy levels, vocations and socio-economic conditions. the pra exercises were conducted in the villages or village clusters in uttarkashi, dehradun, almora, nainital and udham singh nagar districts of the state (see photographs in figures 2 and 3). figure 2: community members marking the available resources of the village during pra exercise in naukuchiatal area of distt. nainital figure 3: members of iit roorkee team in consultation with village community in chakrata, a tribal area of dist. dehradun in addition to finding the needs and priorities of the people, the pra exercises were aimed at obtaining the views of the citizens on the following aspects/issues: ideal locations for the information kiosks (soochna kutirs). eligibility norms for information kiosk owner/operator (called information kiosk sanchalaks). willingness of the villagers to pay for the information and services to be provided at the information kiosks to ensure that the needs and priorities of the urban citizens (poor) are not overlooked, rapid urban appraisal (rua) was conducted at dehradun, the state capital of uttaranchal. short but face-to-face and telephonic interviews were conducted with the people from different cross sections to know their needs and views. findings an analysis of the results of the pra/rua exercises revealed the following: the priorities, needs and aspirations of the citizens vary greatly from place to place and even from one sub-group to another at the same place. some commonalities are present and therefore, generalization to some extent can be made. several areas of common interest throughout the state, on which information could be made available through the information kiosks, were identified. these included education, agriculture, health (especially for women), employment opportunities, developmental and other government schemes and government tenders. similarly, several services of common interest were identified, which included expert advice (especially on agricultural matters), sale and purchase of goods, examination results, matrimonial services, net browsing, e-mail and e-chat within common interest groups. there are some areas of general high priority and others of limited interest to a select group. the people are quite willing to pay for the information and services obtained through information kiosks. they see it as the cost of convenience. the common feeling was that the cost of services should not be very high, at the same time these should be sufficiently attractive for an entrepreneur to set up an information kiosk without any governmental subsidy. people favoured setting up of information kiosks in public-private-partnership (ppp) mode. the opinion widely expressed by the public was that the kutirs should not be located in government buildings and should be run by local entrepreneurs in their own or hired premises with no restriction on opening days and hours. the people unanimously preferred that information kiosks be owned and run by a local person. the information kiosk operator, in their view, should include another local person of opposite gender so that the people visiting are comfortable in discussing their needs for information or service. action on findings the pra findings were kept in mind while deciding later on the contents of and services from the government portal, called “uttara” (www.uttara.in). there has been constant improvement and addition to the portal contents and scope of services on the basis of feedback from stake-holders. these also formed the basis of developing a working model of information kiosks. the findings of the pra/rua exercises were an important input to the business process re-engineering (bpr) studies, as the former helped in identifying the government processes which were the high priorities of the citizens. therefore, these were shared with the bpr consultants through a workshop. the participants included the pra experts, non government organizations (ngos), bpr consultants, government of uttaranchal (goua) officials and the project implementation team of iitr. business process re-engineering it was felt that the government departments would need to change their ways of working to adapt to the new e-governance environment. it was for this purpose that a business process reengineering exercise was carried out in select government departments, especially in relation to those sections or processes which are directly relevant to citizens and where there is a direct citizen interface. bpr exercises are commonly carried out in the corporate world to stream-line work in the business environment (furey et. al. (1993); leth (1994); lloyd (1994); berman (1994). in this project a bpr exercise was carried out in the government sector which, it is hoped, will have the effect of increasing the satisfaction level of the citizen in terms of services provided by different government departments. the objective is a fundamental re-thinking and radical re-design of government processes to achieve transparency, automatic processing, cost reduction, quality, efficiency and effectiveness in the working of the government. objectives bpr studies were undertaken in the pilot project with the following objectives: easing of the interface between citizens and government and making the government’s dealings and activities more citizen friendly. replacing discretion-based regimes with automation-based regimes. reducing the time cycle of the processes resulting in faster delivery of services and benefits to the citizen. reduction of cost, effort and time of the citizen and of the government expenses in the delivery of services. empowerment of all participants in the processes. increasing the satisfaction level of all stake-holders. selection of departments six departments of government of uttaranchal were selected for bpr studies on the basis of: results of pra and rua exercises conducted. incidence of high level of citizen interface with the government, and expected cooperation from ministers and officials of these departments. scope the general scope of the bpr studies was as follows: to identity the strengths and weaknesses of the existing processes. to study the existing processes at all levels of planning, implementation, delivery, monitoring and review by interacting with various stake-holders such as government officials, employees at various levels in the government and in the field, voluntary organizations and the end user of the facility/service/activity. to set the objectives of the bpr. mapping the transformation process using appropriate bpr tools. it enablement of the processes, excluding software development per se. identification of best practices of adoption and benchmarking with these. to suggest a management information system (mis) for the reengineered processes. to clearly spell out the benefits expected from the reengineered processes. reports at the end of the bpr studies, department-wide reports incorporating the following were prepared: weaknesses in the existing system, in generic and specific terms. opportunities for improvement, in terms of processes and systems, in administrative, legislative and technological terms.  reengineered processes with flow charts. mis reports that need to be generated. benefits from the reengineered processes, to be quantified in terms of time and money. implementation roadmap with time-line. roadmap for change/transformation management. implementation it is clear that while implementing the bpr reports in the respective departments, the most difficult part in terms of time and efforts required, is change management. the challenge is also to integrate recommendations of bpr studies with other it initiatives being carried out in the same or related departments in tandem. electronic service delivery system a pilot system for delivering information and services electronically (using it) has been set up under the project. it comprises of four components described below. portal the portal is the nerve centre of the electronic delivery system for information and services. thus, development of the portal has been the central and most important activity in the pilot project. a portal under the name uttara has been designed and developed with the aim that it will ultimately have: every piece of information about uttaranchal that may be of public interest, a centralized data bank of citizens as well as goua departments, and application software for providing all possible services to the citizens/public. with an n-tier architecture, the portal is designed and destined to grow into a comprehensive, citizen-centric and secured portal of uttaranchal government. information kiosks information kiosks, called soochna kutirs, were envisaged to be set up to serve as the information/service delivery points for the public. a number of them have been put up in public-private partnership in the pilot district of nainital. in addition, one mobile information kiosk has been installed in an automobile van equipped with vsat equipment. it is sent where-ever an information kiosk is to be set up temporarily either to meet an emergent need or to provide service for an occasion, or for demonstration. in the villages, most of the people cannot operate/navigate the portal on their own. the information kiosk operator therefore, functions as a facilitator for enabling computer-illiterate citizens to access information and obtain services through the portal. back end a number of government departments and offices in nainital district have been partly computerized and connected to the portal so that they are able to provide services to the citizens electronically. as the next step, all the block development offices in the district are being computerized and connected to the portal through vsat. communication network a wide area network (wan) has been created for connecting all information kiosks and computerized departments/offices to the portal, i.e. the servers in the data centre located in iit roorkee. the wan uses optical fibre cables, leased lines, public telephone network (isdn or pstn lines), and vsats with a total bandwidth of 2 mbps (figure 4). the portal has also been connected to the internet with a bandwidth of 2 mbps, so that the internet can be accessed at high good speed from outside the wan. figure 4: connectivity diagram features and capabilities of uttara portal as the focus of this it project has been on the benefit to the citizens, the portal had to be citizen-centric. all the data, applications and schemes are arranged around the citizen. almost the entire population of uttaranchal can read and understand hindi. it was, therefore, decided to place all the information of interest to the common citizen in hindi. on the other hand, the information primarily meant for tourists and entrepreneurs from other states/countries is in english. eventually, the first few layers of all websites on the portal will be in english as well as in hindi. the citizen related data must not be accessible to unauthorized persons or departments. likewise the financial transactions, which are proposed to be allowed on the portal at a later date, must be secured against fraud. to that end, the portal has been designed for biometric and smart-card enablement. the feature can be invoked as and when decided by the state government. the portal is expected to be accessed by semi-literate people as well as literates. moreover, citizens are likely to access it for almost any information or service. therefore, identifying easy navigation as the basic requirement of the portal design, any information can be accessed through four alternative routes from the home page, namely, list of services, list of departments, category of service and search. the portal opens with a bilingual (hindi/english) main page leading to individual home-pages in hindi and english, which in turn give hyperlinks to information about the state and government and to individual uttara websites (figure 5). by now, the portal has 107 websites, of which 90 are exclusively or predominantly in hindi and 17 in english. there are another 8 websites containing other information of public interest. figure 5: main page of uttara portal (www.uttara.in) application modules (software) have been developed and placed on the uttara portal to allow the user to search application forms, government orders, general news, employment news, tender notices, faqs, mandi rates and weather reports. non-commercial advertising is available as another useful service to the public for a nominal fee. three on-line interactive services are already in place, namely expert advice, examination results (with marks) and application submission. software modules for on-line grievance filing and on-line tourist room booking have also been developed. awareness and training creating public awareness among the masses and providing training for the various stake-holders were considered essential for the success of the project. efforts were made to create public awareness about the project especially in the pilot nainital district. the awareness activities included press publicity, production and frequent screening of two documentary films and an awareness generation group traveling to various places (janadhar yatra) in the district. the group held exhibitions and organized lecture demonstrations. publicity through cable tv, pamphlets, stickers, calendars, signboards and publicity posters (one sample is shown in figure 6) was also carried out. figure 6: a sample poster used in “janadhar yatra” for publicity training was provided to the information kiosk operators for using the portal and to the government officials for providing services through the portal. training workshops were organized for the information kiosk operators to familiarize them with the portal content and services and to teach them, how to deal with the people who approach them seeking information and services. the other set of workshops were for government officials, which concentrated on: the methodology for providing services through the portal, how to respond to the queries from the public received through the information kiosks, and how to send content updates to the portal administrator. impact assessment an independent third party was engaged to study the impact of the project. the agency undertook an assessment of various project stakeholders in three stages namely, pre, during and post-implementation. the impact assessment was carried out in nainital district. the outcome of the study can be used as and when the project is replicated in other parts of the state or country. the evaluation and monitoring used a participatory approach. primarily the focus was on information kiosk operators, beneficiary rural communities and service-providing government departments. the recommendations would be helpful in working out a more efficient strategy for its replication. conclusions the e-governance project has been unique in many ways. it was started at the initiative of a state government, financially supported by a united nation agency and implemented by an educational institution. it is a good example of how the international agencies like undp, the government, educational institutions and private sector can work in unison for the benefit of the common citizen. while implementing the project, many innovative and pioneering experiments were carried out. uttaranchal is a unique state in many ways. it is a state with a very high literacy rate, rugged terrain and low population density. a large part of the state is covered either by snow or by forest. commuting is largely through road transport and traveling can be both time consuming and expensive. the motorable road density is thin and many villagers have to walk several kilometers to reach a road head. through this project, a successful attempt has been made to use it to bring these marginalized and under-privileged citizens into the main stream and mitigate the difficulties faced by them. information “should be for all and within reach of all” was the guiding principle of the project. it has proved to be an effective tool for delivering information and providing government services to the citizens, especially the less privileged. the project is an important step towards bridging the digital divide, obliterating the myth that computers and it are meant only for the rich and upper middle classes of the society. the ground is set for embarking on a people-oriented it programme, which has become all the more relevant with the initiation of “right to information act” in the country. at the beginning of the project it was felt that the needs and aspirations of the common citizens of the state of uttaranchal, specially the under-privileged, should be assessed through participatory rural appraisal techniques. this, it was thought, will make the project citizen-centric in the true sense and make the project ‘need driven’ rather than ‘supply driven’. the impact assessment carried out at the end of the project has vindicated this premise. using it as a tool for delivery of government information and services to the masses requires major rethinking of the working of the government and its processes. towards this end, a business process reengineering exercise was carried out in six departments. the pra and bpr exercises, prior to providing government information and services to the citizens through it interventions, is a pioneering and unique effort in india. government information and services provided in some other states of india using it pertain only to a single or a group of departments. uttara portal on the other hand is extensive and provides information about every department/unit of the government and is capable of handling a large variety of it-enabled services. the data on citizens can be stored at one place and each department can access the required data for its own use. the data of any citizen gets updated automatically for use by all the departments if a change is made at the portal level. furthermore, the n-tier architecture of the portal permits unlimited opportunities for adding more services on it in a secured manner. the road ahead having developed and validated a model for delivery of information and services in one district, its replication in other districts is a simple and straight-forward task. updating of the portal contents need to be ensured and this could best be done by the state government who is the source and custodian of all information. for an effective delivery of services to the public through the portal, the programme should run with the commitment of the government and management by a third-party on a self-sustaining basis.  references ashby, j. a. (1993) identifying beneficiaries and participants in client-driven on-farm research. afsre newsletter, 4(1): 1–3, 10. bentley, j. w. (1994) facts, fantasies, and failures of farmer participatory research. pp. 140–150. in: agriculture and human values, vol. 11(2/3). inc. spring/summer. gainesville, florida. berman, saul, (1994) strategic direction: don't reengineer without it; scanning the horizon for turbulence, planning review, november 1994; pg. 18. biggs, s. d. (1995) participatory technology development: reflections on current advocacy and past technology development. pp. 11–20. in: proceedings of a workshop on agricultural science for biodiversity and sustainability in developing countries, 3–7 april 1995. biggs, s.d. and dolberg, f. (eds). denmark: tune landboskole. furey, tim r. and garlitz, jennifer l. and kelleher, michael l., (1993) applying information technology to reengineering, planning review, november 1993; pg. 22. leth, steven a., (1994) critical success factors for reengineering business processes, national productivity review, september 22, 1994; pg. 557. lloyd, tom, (1994) giant with feet of clay/ tom lloyd offers a contrasting view of business process reengineering, financial times, december 5, 1994; pg. 8. okali, c., sumberg, j. and farrington, j. (1994) farmer participatory research: rhetoric and reality. london: intermediate technology publications on behalf of overseas development institute. the value of community informatics to participatory urban planning and design: a case-study in helsinki joanna saad-sulonen 1 and liisa horelli2 1 aalto university, school of art and design 2  aalto university, centre for urban and regional studies, finland abstract the aim of the article is to present and discuss the potentials of community informatics for participatory planning and design, as well as for ict-mediated participation in general. the article is based on a case study of the co-design of a shared yard in helsinki. the application of icts meant that tools such as the local website and the urban mediator were used as platforms and media to co-create, share and distribute information concerning the progress of the design of the yard. we argue that ci-assisted participatory planning and design provide a viable perspective and significant contribution to ict-mediated participation in urban issues. introduction the inclusion of stakeholders in planning processes is referred to with different names both in practice and theory, such as collaborative, communicative, deliberative and community planning.  urban planning is also opening up to the use of icts as a major tool for citizen participation. however, the application of community informatics in urban planning is still rare in the finnish context. community informatics (ci) means, according to gurstein (2007), the application of icts for the empowerment of local people and communities. we use the term ict-mediated citizen participation in urban issues as a neutral concept, because it is not tied to any particular field of study, contrary to e-participation, which is very much linked to government and the european union jargon. ict-mediated citizen participation in urban issues comprises aspects of the relationship between participation and technology being addressed in such areas as governance, urban planning, information systems and interaction design, geography, citizen activism and community development (figure 1). figure 1: ict-mediated citizen participation in urban issues according to medaglia (2007), the digital terminology is quite fuzzy and needs further definition (see also macintosh & whyte 2007). e-participation is closely tied with e-democracy and e-governance (oecd 2002). e-participation, which promises to lead to a more participatory form of democracy, is applied in e-voting, e-referendums, e-initiatives, e-consultations, e-petitions, and e-party meetings. e-participation can be direct or indirect. its scope of impact ranges from the reception of information, via consultation to real participation or transaction, such as e-voting, and blogging (mccaughey & ayers 2003). the same kind of ladder of participation can also be applied in e-planning. however, e-planning is not usually included in the e-family, as the field itself is still in a phase of construction. silva, who has edited the first handbook on e-planning (2010), emphasizes the need for developing the relationship between planning theory and the use of icts in planning. he also understands e-planning as being part of the shift towards a more participatory and collaborative type of planning. foth et al. (2009, 99-102) have compiled a summary of the evolving links between planning and technology. most examples concern geographic information systems (gis) and planning support systems. although recent developments explore the potential of using these technologies for enhancing citizen participation (e.g. public participation gis; sieber 2006), they still remain expert-based systems. other recent developments stemming from the area of information systems and interaction design, such as urban computing (paulos et al. 2009) and urban informatics (foth 2009), explore more mundane tools, such as mobile phones and web 2.0 systems, and their availability for use and adaptation in the urban context. neogeography also addresses the potentials of these tools, but focuses on the production of spatially related information by non-professionals (rana & joliveau 2009). e-activism, or cyberactivism, refers to the use of icts and online tools that support the activities of self-organized citizen movements (mccaughey & ayers 2003). community informatics focuses on the empowerment of communities and on the support of community development processes.  ci can also be seen as an enabler of activism (gurstein 2007). although traditionally concerned with the rural context, ci is opening up to explorations situated in urban contexts as well (gurstein 2007; 2010). ict-mediated citizen participation should, in our opinion, be approached holistically. ci offers an interesting perspective in this respect, as it enables the integration of a range of ict-mediated participatory methods and processes, which are embedded in community development and local governance (figure 2). our research problem is the following: what is the added value of ci to participatory urban planning? what are the characteristics and consequences of ci-assisted participatory planning and design? the aim of our article is to present and discuss the potentials of community informatics for participatory planning and design, as well as for ict-mediated citizen participation in general. we will also elaborate their consequences for the empowerment of young people. the article is based on a case study of the co-design of a shared neighbourhood yard around the roihuvuori youth centre, in helsinki.  we argue that ci-assisted participatory planning and design provide a viable perspective and significant contribution to ict-mediated participation in urban issues. we start by framing our theoretical approach after which we proceed to the description of the case study. we conclude by discussing the research results in the light of the theoretical framework. framing the theoretical approach the complexities of urban problems usually require an integrative framework that is built from different perspectives. the framing of our theoretical approach comprises an examination of community informatics and its relationship to the participatory processes of planning and design within the bigger context of ict-mediated citizen participation. community informatics – a field in flux the basic definition of community informatics (ci) as the application of icts for enabling and empowering community processes (gurstein 2007) is still quite open[1]. ci is still a field in flux with on-going discussions in terms of what issues and concepts should be included or excluded. ci strives to bring to communities such information systems (is) that might be able to translate the essence of how the community functions or should function. thus, it is hypothesized that ci facilitates the self-development, self-management and empowerment of the (local) community (gurstein 2007). historically, ci has adopted management information systems (mis) as its model and has attempted to articulate its own strategies and techniques by transferring relevant mis-strategies from the realm of corporations to that of communities. therefore, ci addresses the potentials to develop information systems for empowering communities, in the same way as mis has tried to empower management and corporate organisations (gurstein 2007). ci has also a strong civic drive. it attempts to counterattack the commercialised internet environment by emphasising the relevance of local and public presence and by advocating the need for communities to be in control of their own web portals, applications and tools (schuler 2000; de cindio & ripamonti 2010). ci is also particularly concerned with the question of the digital divide and the use of ict by less favoured groups worldwide. in addition, ci is often associated with efforts that aim at the empowerment of rural communities instead of the urban ones. gurstein (2007) points out that it is more difficult to identify the “community” in urban contexts and the consequent need for appropriate ci-applications, tools and sites. however, we believe that it is the “urban ci” (gurstein 2010), which can enhance ict-mediated citizen participation in important environmental issues of everyday life. this implies the enhancement of the development, maintenance and sustainability of ict tools for participation. we believe that ci provides new opportunities for digitally mediated participation by bringing forth questions that concern the role of informatics for communities.  furthermore, ci offers a community-driven approach to the design and use of ict. last but not least, ci can help communities to become truly glocal[2], by providing them local and translocal networks that might influence global affairs (horelli & wallin, forthcoming; horelli & schuler, forthcoming). due to its background in information systems science, ci seems to imply at times a technology-utopian attitude (pitkin 2001). the embedding of ci in a larger socio-cultural framework, such as participatory planning and design, might be beneficial for both the development of ci and its outcomes for the community. ci in the context of participatory planning and design it is important to recognize that some of the issues related to citizen participation in general, and to ict-mediated participation in particular, are planning issues. due to the increasing complexity of issues to be solved, urban planning can be viewed as closely embedded in community development and local governance (wallin & horelli 2010; see figure 2). as community development addresses issues that are related to the self-organization and self-management of communities, it is naturally linked to community informatics (gurstein 2007). local governance refers to the management and leadership processes of local decision-making bodies, but also to the informal networks, local fora, projects and working groups that “govern” local affairs. the foci of expanded or embedded urban planning are, besides traditional land use and zoning, also the conditions for the development of socio-technical networks, assisted by urban and community informatics (foth 2009; gurstein 2008). the implementation of planning takes place, besides building, also through the communication and co-ordination of community-based activities. the application of icts in this expanded view of urban planning provides a special locus for, what wallin and horelli (2010) present as user-sensitive service design. in this paper, we propose a more generic view and consider all participatory design processes as bridge builders between urban planning, community development and local governance (see figure 2). these processes can include the co-creation of common urban space, communal and public services, as well as digital or hybrid tools for citizen participation. the processes related to the latter are what gurstein refers to as: “appropriating, integrating and repurposing existing technology as community supports, while equally facilitating the development of technologies which in their very design reflect the specific ontology of communities.” (2007,39). this resonates with what lucy suchman (1994) refers to as “artful integrations”, or practices that relate to the integration of hybrid systems of different devices and technical systems.  karasti and syrjänen (2004) use the terms “artful infrastructuring” or the blurring of boundaries between use, tailoring, maintenance, reuse, and design. these definitions also bring forth the relevance of participatory design[3] for ci systems (carroll & rosson 2007). figure 2: the general participatory design2 approach acts as a bridge builder that embeds urban planning in community development and local governance through a variety of methods and tools (adapted from wallin & horelli 2010). participatory urban planning means in general a planning approach that advocates and facilitates the inclusion of stakeholders in the planning process. such approaches have been frequent, although not mainstream, since the 1960’s. with the communicative “turn” in planning in the 1980’s and 1990’s, participatory planning has become a theoretical, if not a practical norm, in many countries (healey 1997). the cycle of participatory planning consists of a continuum of different phases: initiation, planning and design, implementation, evaluation and research, and maintenance. enabling tools support the participatory activities of each phase (horelli 2002; figure 3). these tools enhance the transactions and knowledge creation of the stakeholders during the phases of participatory planning. they can be classified as diagnostic, expressive, conceptual, organisational and political (horelli 2002). horelli includes icts, ranging from expert cad and gis systems, to internet-based tools, under the category of expressive enabling tools. the latest technological developments make it possible to include icts in the other three categories as well. these tools can, in fact, be regarded as different types of patterns that can be chosen for different purposes depending on the context (schuler 2008; de moor 2009). they also make up the ecology of tools necessary for e-planning[4] (wallin et al. 2010). participatory planning becomes e-planning when participatory activities are expanded beyond face-to-face interaction to include ict-mediated interaction that is independent of spatial and temporal constraints. participatory e-planning can be defined as a socio-cultural, ethical, and political practice in which women and men, young and older people take part offline and online in the overlapping phases of the planning and decision-making cycle (horelli & wallin 2010). we have been applying a particular version of participatory planning, called the learning-based network approach to planning and community development (lena; horelli 2006). in this approach, the cycle of participatory planning is seen as a locus for learning and capacity building for the engaged stakeholders (horelli 2002). when participation is seen as a continuous learning process, the resulting empowerment of the individual through competence building will foster confidence in further participation (horelli 2002; koskinen & paloniemi 2009). thus, the learning process can also be enhanced by applying tools, such as icts, in a way that increases the understanding of the use, adoption and even adaptation of the ict tools. figure 3: a schema of the methodological approach to participatory planning and design in the study presented in this article, we examine the phases of initiation, and planning and design of the co-design of a common yard in helsinki. we identify the different ci tools that act as enabling tools for the participatory urban planning process as well as enhance the learning process of the stakeholders (see appendix 1). application of ci-assisted participatory planning and design in a shared neighbourhood yard roihuvuori, a residential area of 7400 inhabitants, is situated 10 km east of the centre of helsinki. it is part of the bigger mixed-use area of herttoniemi in which we have conducted action research since 2004 (wallin & horelli forthcoming; horelli & wallin in press). the roihuvuori youth centre[5] and its surrounding yard are rented by the youth centre from the helsinki real estate department. the need to co-design the 6500 m2 yard came up in the local forum meeting in december 2008, which was held at the roihuvuori senior centre, next to the youth centre. a fenced part of the yard is in active use by a local kindergarten that uses the youth centre building in the mornings. the rest of the yard is open to everybody, but only the western corner is in active use, by a group of local alcoholics. the yard is not maintained and trees and shrubbery have grown wild between granite rock formations, typical of the south of finland. the preparation for the co-design and planning of the yard were made in a series of meetings at the youth centre in which the youth centre and kindergarten staff, representatives of local projects, members of the neighbourhood association, researchers (us), as well as local officials from different city departments took part.  this group chose ci-assisted participatory planning as the strategy for the project. the planning of the yard officially started in february 2009, when the helsinki real estate department agreed to hire an architect to facilitate the co-design and to make the preliminary plans on the basis of the negotiations and dialogue with the stakeholders. the phase of co-design lasted six weeks. funding for the implementation was sought from a special neighbourhood fund that granted money to city departments. at the end of the co-design, in june 2009, the city granted 450 000 euros for the implementation of the yard. the role of the researchers was to facilitate, monitor and assess the ci-assisted participatory processes. the theoretical framework described in this article influenced the participatory action research strategy. it guided the methodology that comprised the application of different enabling tools (e.g. paper map annotations, wiki design, urban mediator) and data gathering techniques (observations and focus group interviews). the research questions were: what are the outcomes of the ci-assisted participatory planning? what did the young participants learn? what kind of role does ci play in the project? traditional and ict-mediated participation hand in hand participatory planning is not a common practice in helsinki, where the official municipal planning is mostly top-down. however, the director and the employees of the youth centre wanted to involve adolescents and also other potential users of the yard in the co-design process. this served the goal of improving the integration of the youth centre in the community, which so far had not been welcomed by the residents. the yard was also supposed to serve the day care activities of young children in the mornings. consequently, the kindergarten staff wished to involve young children and their parents in the co-design of the yard. the representatives of the local projects wanted to increase spaces of physical activities for different age groups, including seniors who used the senior service centre, next door. co-design workshops were organised for six different groups: adults, seniors, pre-school children (two groups), young children’s parents, and adolescents. the main method was the “walk around the block” and the annotation of the ground plan by using red and yellow post-its.  in addition, a so called “wiki design”[6] session was organised for the residents by peter tattersall, a student of architecture. a discussion with some of the alcoholics who had taken on drinking in one corner of the yard was also arranged. their participation in the workshops proved however too difficult to organize during the timeframe given. in addition to the enabling methods described above, the goal of the application of community informatics was to expand the face-to-face participatory process, by involving residents and particularly adolescents in the strategic use of online tools (see table 1). the internet was thought to provide opportunities to those who could not take part in the workshops. table 1: the list of the various ci tools used in the first phases of the participatory planning process in roihuvuori. ci tool description purpose of use / participatorypurpose of use / participatory planning phase key actors target group mailing lists collection of e-mail addresses to contact others /initiation phase + planning and design phase various local actors (e.g. youth instructor acting as secretary in the meetings, kindergarten worker, social worker) different existing groups (e.g. initial working group, parents of the kindergarten children, senior residents) urban mediator (um (http://um.uiah.fi/hki and http://um.uiah.fi/hel) online map-based tool. anyone can start an “urban mediator topic” for the collaborative gathering of location-based information related to a chosen theme to get inspiration / planning and design phase group of adolescents youth instructor researcher acting as facilitator young people in helsinki   to report results of the participatory planning workshops / planning and design phase participants in workshops (grouped by age groups) architect leading the workshops researcher acting as facilitator participants from other age groups roihuvuori residents roihuvuori community website (http://roihuvuori.com) a local website running on a platform provided a local website running on a platform provided by. maintained and updated by volunteers from roihuvuori. the website includes different theme pages, a discussion forum, information about the roihuvuori residents’ association, and newsfeeds from the city of helsinki website and finland’s main newspaper. to inform residents about the ongoing participatory planning processes / planning and design phase to archive the documentation of the participatory planning process / planning and design phase volunteer webmaster researchers acting as facilitator director of the youth centre spokesperson of the roihuvuori residents’ association helka ry tech. support roihuvuori residents   irc gallery (http://irc-galleria.net) a finnish web platform that enables the creation of one’s own online diary. it is popular among teen-agers. to inform friends about the participatory planning project / planning and design phase group of adolescents youth instructor researcher acting as facilitator friends and acquaintances of the group of adolescents   facebook (http://facebook.com) an international social networking website to inform roihuvuori residents /planning and design phase youth instructor facebook roihuvuori page admin roihuvuori residents on facebook   floobs (was available during the study at http://www.floobs.com) a finnish online video broadcasting platform that was running between 2007 and 2010. to inform roihuvuori residents who could not be present during the public presentation / planning and design phase group of adolescents youth instructors researcher acting as facilitator and mediator webmaster of roihuvuori.com helka ry tech. support roihuvuori residents who could not make it to the architect’s presentation existing mailing lists were used first, in order to reach out for the different age groups. it was then decided that the roihuvuori local website should be used as the main interface for publishing information regarding the ongoing participatory planning processes. the neighbourhood association of roihuvuori maintains the local website, which runs on a platform provided by the helsinki association of neighbourhoods, helka ry (horelli & wallin in press). most of the content of the website was published by a volunteer webmaster, but the discussion forum was open for all parties. in order to translate the ground plans, annotated by different age groups, into annotated online maps, and to share and distribute information concerning the different visions for the yard, we proposed the application of the urban mediator software (saad-sulonen & suzi 2007; saad-sulonen 2007). urban mediator (um) is a framework that enables to create, collect and share location-based information (see http://um.uiah.fi). um is an example of ci applications, even though it is still a research tool in beta phase and hosted by the university. um offers a set of tools that enables users to set up topics of interest in order to collect location-based information. the topics are managed and maintained by the users or groups of users (see figure 4). figure 4: ideas of the youth group on the ground plan of the site (top) and the architect’s proposal (bottom). these can be accessed on http://um.uiah.fi/hki during the initiation phase, only the tools already familiar to the stakeholders, such as mailing lists, were used. during the planning and design phase however, the different stakeholders experimented with new tools (table 1). these tools enabled them to reach out for others and include them in the participatory process, which then took place in both face-to-face and ict-mediated mode. young people learning digital citizenship besides involving the young people in urban design, the instructors of the youth centre wanted to provide them with a work-experience type of activity by organizing a series of ten participation events for them. this was thought to activate more adolescents to visit the centre, which was relatively new in the area. the roihuvuori youth centre has a computer room with four pcs, which made it easy to integrate the use of ict in the activities of the group. the instructors also thought that the adolescents might become technology experts in the project. a group of seven young people was recruited by the youth instructors during one of their regular field trips to the local school. the chosen group comprised two boys and five girls in the age of 13 to 17 years. the group met at the youth centre ten times during two months. the sessions lasted between two and a half to three hours on friday afternoons. the program of the sessions was set up by the youth instructors, in collaboration with one of us, who acted as the technology and media facilitator (see appendix 1). the goals of the sessions were to get the adolescents acquainted with one another, to collaborate with other participants, to analyse the yard, and to learn how to handle various ict tools. the last planning session comprised a collective self-assessment. the youth instructor and the researchers discussed with the adolescents what they had learnt.  the group gave many positive answers ranging from technical skills (the urban mediator tool), via planning and design skills (how to transform what appears as an ugly yard into a nice place), to collaborative work and consensus-building skills (working in groups). they also stressed the importance of personal growth, as well as emotional and cognitive skills (overcoming shyness, increased confidence in oneself, ability to network with other adolescents and with adults; see appendix 1). consequently, the ci-assisted participatory planning and co-design were an opportunity to learn on different fronts, which empowered the adolescents to become digital citizens: both expert ict users and active persons (see figure 5). figure 5: the youth group learned important skills relevant to the digital citizenship by increasing both participation abilities and the knowledge of ict use. the involvement of young people in the participatory design (the workshop, the wiki design session, and the final presentation event) opened up new realities of collaborative planning, including the necessity to work with people that they would not normally interact with. the face-to-face interactions enabled them to realize that adult residents, architects, and even people they considered as having authority (for example the director of the youth centre) are, after all, not as one of them had feared, “thinking machines”. the adolescents confessed at the end of the project that they had been surprised by the informality of the process, although they realized that it was a serious endeavour. the use of the urban mediator enabled the young people to think and act as masters of technology, instead of being passive users and mere consumers (gurstein 2001; 280). the urban mediator, which had been developed with a co-design approach, has a set of flexible features that enable the user to tailor the functionalities according to their own needs (saad-sulonen and suzi 2007; botero & saad-sulonen 2008; saad-sulonen & botero 2008; see figure 4). the handling of these tools required the adolescents to be active decision-makers, who had to simultaneously address strategies of collaborative action, as well as to appropriate the technology in order to support these strategies.  for example, the group chose together a shared username and a password so that anybody from the group could edit and moderate their urban mediator topics. this obliged the group to experience a process of building common understanding of their responsibilities towards the information to be published via um. it also triggered the building of collaborative ownership of their project. the group did not want to appoint a topic administrator, but preferred a situation where anyone could be the administrator. despite the fact that this project, because of limited funding, did not further the co-design of the urban mediator, some of the young participants expressed, however, ideas for refining it and making it more attractive for young people. when they were asked, whether they would be interested in participating in the co-design sessions of um development, they responded positively. we can say that their answer hints to the possibility of intertwining participatory design processes for the development of icts with those of participatory urban planning. the iterative spiral of participatory planning (figure 3) could therefore include, not only the use of icts, but also their co-design by the communities of stakeholders. the catalytic role of community informatics koskinen and paloniemi (2009) have presented a model of environmental policy action as a social learning process in which two alternative paths to participatory processes exist. the first one is involvement, which means organised encouragement. the second one is authentic participation, which is self or group motivated. we can similarly regard ci-assisted participatory planning and co-design as a form of social learning and empowerment. this project provided both involvement of young people and authentic participation that was self and group motivated (see appendix 1). one of the shyer girls told us that she had developed more confidence in voicing her opinions. and an assertive boy said that he had learned to listen more to others. the role of ci was significant as a catalyst of collective behaviour in the group (see also rettie 2008). in order to find design solutions, the youth group used a diversity of channels to find information and also to involve their peers to the process. first, the group got acquainted with the ci-type of tools, such as the um, and learned to apply them. they used the um to ask others to mark on a map of helsinki interesting places that can provide inspiration for the design of the yard (figure 4). the group also made use of other ict-based information channels, such as facebook and irc gallery platforms, in order to inform others of the participatory planning project they were involved in (see table 1). the young people acted as, what wellman et al. (2003) label, “portals”. each young person in the group diffused information about the participatory project via their accounts on social media sites, and invited members of their own (trans)local networks to influence the co-design of the yard. the ci-assisted participatory planning approach also created what percy-smith (2006) refers to as spaces for dialogue between the young and adults. one of the young participants had, since the first sessions, expressed the idea of a graffiti wall for the yard. he discussed this idea with the other group members, the youth instructors and the different adults whom he encountered in the process. the graffiti wall, which is controversial in the context of helsinki, became part of the group’s own proposal and was later included in the architect’s plan. this plan was available for comments via the urban mediator. one of the comments, left by an adult resident, showed that not all adults are against the ideas of the young: “the proposal looks generally good, this graffiti wall is a daring bet and even though it probably has its opponents, i believe that the adolescents will like it”. the youth group also used the video platform floobs for online and real-time broadcasting of the presentations in the final session (see table 1 and appendix 1). the young acted as technical experts for the whole neighbourhood, providing it with the possibility to follow the session via the neighbourhood web site in which a video window was embedded. in sum, the youth group put efforts on many fronts and learnt different skills in order to address the complex situation of their own participation and to involve other young people. it was apparent that several aspects of ict-mediated participation, such as eplanning, the use and appropriation of existing ict tools and social media, and the development of new features and tools, came into play. they reinforced both each other and the participatory endeavour as a whole. the application of ci did not however succeed in engaging the whole community of roihuvuori. in spite of efforts to mobilise diverse groups, only a small minority of the residents came to the different meetings and used the online tools. the design process had even an adverse effect, as a citizen movement was started by parents of small children who wanted to preserve a former open-air playground and who regarded the co-design project as a threat to their cause. additional challenges encountered also included the lack of information sharing by city officials regarding the funding grant and the production of the final plans for the yard. finally, in the implementation phase that is ongoing at the time of writing this article, the group of young people is no more involved in following up the project, even though the initial aim was to involve them. one can speculate that it is due to the fact that the youth instructor, who was leading the planning sessions, has moved to another job. nobody at the youth centre has taken it upon him/herself to pursue the collaboration with the young people. also, the architect who had run the participatory workshops has not been hired for the implementation phase. important questions therefore remain: how should participation itself be organised and designed and how should the political conflicts of power be dealt with (susskind et al. 1999; sibbett 2002; fortunati 2009). conclusions our research problem dealt with the questions concerning the added value of ci to participatory urban planning and the characteristics and consequences of ci-assisted participatory planning and design to ict-mediated citizen participation. the added value that ci seems to provide to participatory planning is that it involves a step towards a more holistic understanding of the relationships between planning and technology. whereas the oecd and also european union jargon around e-participation is closely tied to top down definitions of democracy and imposes ready-made software solutions for e-voting, e-petitions etc., ci brings forth a local and collective bottom-up perspective. it is evident that the integration of ci and participatory planning and design enrich traditional urban planning, which turns into e-planning. on the other hand, e-planning provides significant tangible and intangible contributions to ict-mediated citizen participation. one of the characteristics of ci-assisted participatory planning and design is that the application of the different participatory design processes enhances the embedding of urban planning in both community development and local governance (see figure 2). participatory design of both the yard and the application of ci cut through urban planning, community development and governance, depending on the different stages of the planning process and its implementation. for example, during the planning and design stage, an array of participatory methods, both face-to-face and mediated by icts, enabled stakeholders to take part in both the design of the yard and in the adaptation of various tools for engaging with a larger community. another characteristic is that the socio-cultural and political process of participatory planning and design has to be enhanced by both traditional and ict-tools in complementary ways.  thirdly, the use of multiple channels for the gathering and diffusion of information seems to be important. the consequences of ci-assisted participatory planning and design can imply diversified experiences of learning, besides concrete results in the form of a design in which the stakeholders can find at least some of their important ideas.  if the planning process is continuous and comprises several sessions during the planning cycle (see figure 3), it is possible to build capacity in digital citizenship skills, as was the case with the youth group in the case study. the future challenges comprise the need to identify and define the range of relevant trans-disciplinary approaches that can address issues of ict-mediated participation holistically and in a citizen-driven manner, keeping in mind the economic aspect as well. references botero, a. and saad-sulonen, j. 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(eds.) digital tools in participatory planning. aalto university. centre of urban and regional studies. series c27. 135-142 appendix 1 the table lists the process of young people’ s involvement in the planning of the neighbourhood yard, with their own feedback and the general learning issues. sessions description feedback from participants learning issues session 1 presentation of oneself and motivations for joining the project first encounter with the yard / exercise introduction to um (+) satisfaction with familiar faces and that “normal” and “real” people are involved (not just “boring types”) (-) more time for  getting to know each other importance of getting to know each other overcoming uncertainty in terms of joining a new group and the project session 2 first attempt to create a um topic (-) only three participants in the session which made it difficult to make decisions writing a text of the project is difficult learning by doing development of  technical skills session 3 refining an explanatory text of um topic (groups of 2) making links and explanatory texts in the irc gallery (+) good feeling /best feeling so far (+) working in groups of two helps (+) the competition idea gave a nice feeling group work ability to understand the strategy of participation -  proposal to org. a competition at school in order to get ideas from other young people, in addition to the use of um development of  technical skills session 4 examination of the material being interviewed by a reporter from the youth department   (+) best session (+) got a good idea of what young people  really want (-) no checking of the places mentioned by other young people ability to analyze the collected material ability to present the project and the group’s perspective to strangers session 5 participatory planning workshop with the architect translation of proposals to um (+) the architect was a nice guy (+) it was good to be able to see exactly what the relevant  ideas were (-) too little time ability to work in a group and to build consensus ability to articulate design-related ideas ability to work with a professional dev. of technical skills session 6 (extra) participation in the wiki design session organized for the roihuvuori residents   (+) a lot of nice people (+) nice to use materials like cardboard and legos (+) easy to work with adults (-) too little time (-) difficult to build on the proposals of other people (-) those who could not take part in the session were sad ability to collaborate with adults ability to work with and build on the ideas of other age groups session 7                checking of  comments on um advertising the final presentation in the irc gallery and facebook getting acquainted with the real time, online video broadcast platform floobs (+) floobs was fun writing info texts about a public event in one’s own language, targeted at one’ s own age group session 8 preparation of the  presentation for the final event practicing of video recording and broadcasting on floobs (+/-) stress related to the public presentation (-) difficulties in writing the script for the presentation dev. of technical skills learning how to make a public presentation and to communicate the group’s message session 9 final presentation meeting (architect presents his plans, youths present the process they have followed) video recording and online broadcast (+) own presentation (+) the architect’s proposal (+) the small size of the audience (-) no introductions and shaking hands when people came in learning about participatory planning processes, actors and activities involved becoming confident to speak in public session 10 collective assessment of the whole process interviewing of young people by the researchers viewing of the video recording of the wiki design and the final event (+) what was done felt important (+) the process was successful (+) collaboration and group work was successful (+) it was a serious project (+) learned a lot learning how to reflect on the whole process and to pin point what was learnt   footnote [1] community can mean 1. a territorial unit 2. a local or translocal community of interest 3. a virtual community. the focus of ci is the local, territorial community, which, however, comprises various local and translocal communities of interest. some of them are virtual. [2] glocal means here the combination of local, regional and global, by using ict-assisted and non-mediated social networking for shared purpose, such as politics, business or environmental protection. thus, the mainly analytical concept can also be used in a strategic way. however, there are different types of glocal influence or interaction, vertical and horizontal, scaling up and scaling down (khondker, 2004). [3] we differentiate in this article between participatory design, which refers to the general participatory design processes, and participatory design. the latter is a field of inquiry and practice that promotes stakeholder participation in the design of information and computer systems (e.g. kensing & bloomberg 1998). [4] e-planning can refer to the: 1) provision and delivery of planning services (building permits etc.) 2) offline planning with e-tools as one technique 3) co-production and application of e-tools and platforms in community development 4) planning of virtual objects and spaces with e-tools (for example in second life).  e-planning in this article refers to the second and third type comprising both online and offline planning activities. [5] the youth department of helsinki maintains several local youth centres, which are open for young people in the age of 9 to 18 years. besides being open meeting places, supervised by youth instructors, the centres also offer various activities ranging from computer and internet use to theatre and dance. [6] wiki design is inspired by wikipedia on the web. instead of co-writing articles, the participants can propose design and planning ideas by using different objects and symbols, such as lego blocks, candies, magazine pictures, cardboard and paper, which are placed on a scaled model of the area in question (tattersall 2009). tl'azt'en learning circle: information technology, health and cultural sandra jarvis-selinger1, kendall ho2, helen novak lauscher3, brandi bell4 university of british columbia. email: sandra.js@ubc.ca university of british columbia university of british columbia concordia university introduction canada’s rural and remote first nations communities face challenges such as lower health status relative to the national population and diminished access to certain health services (e.g., specialists) as a consequence of factors such as geographical isolation and the social determinants of health. according to the royal commission on aboriginal peoples, there are disproportionately high rates of social and community ill health among first nations in comparison to the canadian population in general (department of indian and northern affairs canada, 1996). in 2002, registered first nations residents had a life expectancy of 73.9 years, compared to 82.2 years for all other residents of british columbia (british columbia vital statistics agency, 2004). the age standardised mortality rate (asmr) among registered first nations was more than twice as high as the asmr among other bc residents (british columbia vital statistics agency, 2004). health encompasses not only health care delivery, but also education, community and family networks, traditional knowledge exchange, linguistic vitality and identity. this approach is not dissimilar to the one used in the blueprint on aboriginal health (2005) produced from the meeting of first ministers and leaders of national aboriginal organizations, which states “the term health embraces a holistic approach encompassing the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual well-being of people living in harmony with well-functioning social systems in a healthful environment. health is also grounded in traditional beliefs. the blueprint focuses on population health strategies that address determinants of health” (health canada, 2005 p.7). research has revealed that insufficient access to care can be addressed through available and relevant health information and education via the internet, commonly known as e-health (ho, karlinsky, jarvis-selinger & may, 2004) and information and communication technologies are often presented as a means of mitigating the challenges unique to health service delivery in rural and remote first nations communities. according to a report by the first nations and inuit health branch, first nations and inuit communities are well suited to realize the benefits of e-health (first nations and inuit health branch, 2005). to this end, the government of british columbia is committed to ensuring that 366 remote communities are provided with high-speed networks (network bc, 2006). the provincial health services authority plans to expand e-health services into these remote communities as they gain connectivity (provincial health services authority, 2005). recognizing that communication between community members and decision-makers is a key success factor; e-health projects must be developed and implemented with mutual respect, trust, and synergistic cooperation among all stakeholders. yet, recent research suggests that e-health is not in and of itself a standalone solution to these challenges (ho, jarvis-selinger, dow, sharman, steele, carty, novak-lauscher, gunasingam, 2004). rather, e-health should be viewed as a strategic addition to a comprehensive approach to community health. lack of access to health services is only one of many issues affecting canada’s rural and remote first nations communities. for e-health to provide optimum support to first nations communities in british columbia, it is important to recognize the unique contexts specific to these communities, as well as the historical and present day consequences of marginalization. as such, access cannot be seen as an end in itself . attempts at improving first nations health (at both individual and community levels) through the use of information and communication technologies must therefore address the broad issues affecting health, including socio-cultural, geographical, policy and cost factors (ho, jarvis-selinger et al., 2004). these innovative applications should not only actively attract connectivity investments to the community, but also create expanded access to health services when connectivity is established. moreover, the process of defining health and health priorities must be community-driven. the remainder of this paper is devoted to describing a collaborative rural community-based first nations e-health initiative that exemplifies the aforementioned principles. community learning centre concept a community learning centre (clc) is a unique and innovative model of delivering health care and health information based firmly on the idea of holistic community engagement. it is made up of two interrelated components: 1) a community-based facility housing internet-linked computers accessible to all community members free of charge; and 2) community developed web-based resources relevant to community defined needs and priorities. the guiding vision of a clc is to create a space in the community where individuals can develop social linkages through the use of information technology. in particular, a clc can support the acquisition of health information as well as research and technology skills by facilitating access to, and uptake of, relevant health information resources that are developed by and for community members. in this environment, youth are encouraged to share their knowledge of computers with adults and elders; similarly, adults and elders can help youth contextualize information they discover with the use of computers. this environment can also help professional and non-professional community health providers’ access information for continuing professional development and healthcare delivery. as well, it may increase community awareness of, and proficiency in, it use and research, stimulate job creation, and contribute to a diverse local economy. additionally, in first nations communities, professional healthcare providers (e.g., nurses, physicians) are in high demand and limited supply. as such, community leaders not formally trained in healthcare have, in some cases, become default health service providers. clcs in this way can play a role in supporting these individuals by being a trustworthy source of information about issues relevant to their community’s needs and furthermore, to educate all health care providers about community health needs and priorities. history of the clc concept the concept of the community learning centre (clc) originated from the instituto tecnológico y de estudios superiores de monterrey (tec de monterrey), which is a private university system in mexico. responding to poverty and poor educational access and levels experienced in that country, the first clc was established in february 2001 in order to provide quality education to geographically isolated regions and to assist community members to develop new skills and enhance their living standards. a clc was implemented through collaboration between the university, the provincial and national government in mexico, and the communities as a social development vehicle to promote the social and economic development of these rural communities and their populations (carrigan, milton & morrow, 2005). tec de monterrey university initiated clcs to provide multifaceted educational content from commerce to health in order to facilitate knowledge exchange and collaboration between faculty, students, and community members. strengthening families through online resources for parents and increasing community leadership through leadership skills development were also essential goals of the tec de monterrey clc concept. tec de monterrey’s community-based clc model is composed primarily of: a network of computers connected to high-speed internet, comprising a hardware and connectivity infrastructure a web portal providing educational materials and opportunities for electronic dialogues between participants a live facilitator (called “margarita” in mexico) at the clc to assist community members to optimally utilize the clc for learning, family dialogues, and community enrichment since february 2001, tec de monterrey has been successful in their clc implementation, and to date they have more than 1,000 spanish-language clc’s located in mexico, with a few jointly developed centers in the southern usa – such as the clc developed through a partnership with arizona state university (arizona state university, 2006). one important reason why this model succeeds is the strong engagement of the academic partner with the communities that this model serves. because of the university’s social responsibility mission, tec de monterrey invested its funding, technological and educational expertise into the establishment of clcs. over time, in partnership with and co-investments from regional, provincial and national governments, clcs continue to expand to more communities. the tripartite partnership between communities, the university, and government has been found to successfully support and address the needs of the communities involved in this initiative. clc modeling in b.c. the university of british columbia (ubc), located in vancouver, bc, considers community empowerment as one of its core values, evidenced by the trek 2000 declaration1. ubc faculty of medicine’s ehealth strategy office (ubc ehealth) has a strong interest in assisting communities in the improvement of access to, and quality of, health. bc rural communities have similarities to those in mexico in that access to quality care and health education is significantly hampered by geographic isolation. this is particularly true for rural first nations communities. building on a strong institutional relationship between ubc and tec de monterrey, ubc ehealth connected with the monterrey tec school of medicine in 2002 looking for opportunities for synergy, and a clc pilot project in rural bc was one of the first initiatives launched. ubc and ministry of management services ubc ehealth’s interest in technology enabled initiatives resulted in the establishment of a relationship with the bc government’s ministry of management services, which has an interest in bringing broadband electronic infrastructure to rural and isolated communities. this relationship is symbiotic in that both infrastructure and content are necessary for the launching of a clc. the ministry was able to provide expertise in network connectivity while ubc ehealth provided health and educational content expertise, leading to a comprehensive plan that could be proposed to rural communities. as a result, ubc ehealth and the ministry jointly envisioned the introduction of high-speed broadband infrastructure and health content to a rural first nations community that would help achieve the following goals: access of community members to general computer training towards use in e-learning and e-health establishment of a broadband-based e-health curriculum for school students by working with first nation community leaders and community health nurses scheduled online continuing health education to community health providers (e.g. community health nurses, first nation elders and leaders, mothers, etc.) on relevant health issues defined by the communities documenting processes to understand and learn for future implementation of clcs and the potential policy impact of the clc concept. the first community with both the educational and the health units being receptive to the clc model was tache, a community within the tl’azt’en nation located 65km north of fort st. james2 with only one road often inaccessible in the winter. it was here that ubc ehealth and the ministry of management services chose to implement the pilot project. tl'azt'en learning circle (tlc): a pilot clc project in british columbia the project in tache began as a clc implementation pilot and was later renamed the tl’azt’en learning circle (tlc) with the consent of the community. it was guided by an ongoing community engagement process and was supported locally by the community through both commitments of time and energy, as well as collaborative efforts towards accessing additional funding and resources. the pilot phase of the tlc project (november 2003 – march 2004) was carried out by ubc ehealth in partnership with the tl’azt’en nation, the bc ministry of management services, and ubc’s community liaison for integrating study and service (ubc-cliss). this pilot phase focused on the following goals: establish a social space for community interaction and sharing of skills and knowledge develop a governance protocol, identifying community expertise and building capacity increase awareness of health determinants and prevention practices, while identifying community health priorities provide youth with training in information technology/web design such that they could create community-based websites and expand the web portal developed during the clc pilot train youth and other community members in a variety of research skills that could be used to gather and examine community health resources and knowledge increase community-based access to, and use of, health information resources develop a web portal that incorporates both physician-developed content and community-developed content relevant to community-defined health needs these goals were developed collaboratively among all project team members throughout its early stages. project goals were informed by the broad goals of the clc model that inspired the project, but were influenced by the interests and expertise of the project partners. for example, the bc ministry of management services could uniquely address the implementation of information technology, ubc ehealth brought experience in research skills training and health needs assessments, and the tl’azt’en nation provided the community impetus and nurtured skill development and capacity building, particularly regarding the health of its communities. each partner played an important role and made contributions that were possible because of their particular ability and expertise. this collaboration represented a multi-faceted partnership with many individuals and organizations involved. while navigating this type of collaboration can be complex, it was vital that all partners were involved throughout the developmental processes. thorough documentation of these initial processes may allow streamlining for future applications. project responsibilities were divided among the project partners. all partners were responsible for ongoing engagement and overall project implementation (e.g., attending project meetings and events); however, each partner brought specific skills and experience to the project and, therefore, took responsibility for particular aspects, as outlined in table 1. this paper describes the pilot implementation from the point of view of ubc ehealth researchers and, thus, focuses on ubc ehealth responsibilities partner primary responsibilities ubc ehealth research skills training guiding and supporting web portal development (including mentoring in design, creating of health-related content, uploading content, etc) maintaining process documents to describe the creation of the clcs tl’atz’en nation defining health priorities recruiting youth production/research assistants (pras) scheduling and arranging for pra training securing physical space and furnishings for the clc/tlc developing and uploading web content ubc-cliss community engagement governance protocol development bc ministry of management services technological infrastructure technical training of pras table 1: primary responsibilities of project partners during the early stages of project development, an initial community visit was made by members of ubc ehealth and the ministry to introduce the clc concept to community representatives and to propose the implementation project as a collaboration between ubc ehealth, the ministry and the tl'azt'en nation. representatives of ubc ehealth and the ministry were introduced to members of the tl’azt’en nation community (particularly those in the band office and those working in education and health), were given a tour of the community and its resources, and participated in a meeting in the band office (which was broadcast to the community). at this meeting, the ministry explained its interest in implementing information technology within the community and ubc ehealth presented its ideas for integrating health into that technology implementation process (based upon the clc model). tl’azt’en nation representatives discussed their interest in the project and offered their thoughts on areas of particular interest (i.e., diabetes, cultural preservation). following the success of this meeting, these groups began work on the pilot project which included ordering hardware and software, seeking further funding and support, and promoting the project within the community. as the project developed, the tl’azt’en nation secured funding from the prince george nechako aboriginal employment and training association, allowing for the hiring of seven community-based production/research assistants (pras), and ubc ehealth secured funding from industry canada to facilitate additional training and community-based activities. support from ubc-cliss was also pledged during this time and a representative worked with the ubc ehealth researchers to plan community engagement activities carried out during community visits (as described below). based on ubc ehealth’s responsibilities in this pilot project (namely, research skills training and guiding the community-based web portal development), three community visits were made by ubc ehealth researchers to tache. each visit had a particular objective: the first visit (january 2004) focused on engaging the community and determining local interests and needs with respect to the planned project and web design training. the second visit (february 2004) centered on research skills training. the third visit (march 2004) involved community-based web portal development. these three community visits most clearly reflected the role of ubc ehealth in the pilot project and the following descriptions provide an outline and summary of ubc ehealth activities. first community visit in january 2004 ubc ehealth researchers and a representative from the ubc-cliss visited tache. prior to this visit, materials were prepared in order to facilitate community engagement including discussing issues of community health and implementation of information and communication technologies in tache. these materials included a draft information brochure including conceptual background of the community learning centre concept and goals (based on information described in the mexican clcs), a graphic that showed a draft “results chain” for the tlc project, and a slide presentation including an ecological model of health in context. these materials were distributed to community members in tache and were used in meetings to engage and inspire discussion. this visit was instrumental in the project’s development, allowing the university researchers to meet with community representatives and the newly hired pras. meetings with the pras involved the ubc ehealth researchers proposing their ideas for the implementation, but more importantly, gave the pras an opportunity to suggest their own ideas and to explain their own perspectives on community health status, the research skills they would like to learn, and community health priorities. in order to build effective relationships and gather information on community health and the health priorities in the tl'azt'en nation, a meeting was also held with the health unit staff. once again, ubc ehealth sought input from the staff, particularly with respect to the notion of community health, health priorities and the potential role of the health unit in the project. open meetings were also held with youth, band administration staff, and elders, where discussions about community health and health priorities helped to further focus the project. in addition, community members helped ubc ehealth researchers to develop the overall vision of community health. an ecological model of health encompassing individual, family, community, health services, social determinants, and environment levels was introduced to the community at various meetings. discussions about this model resulted in adjustments to ensure the community’s vision was reflected in the project (see figure 1). while the five levels of individual, family, community, social determinants, and environment remained, new levels of clan and culture/tradition/language were added (health resources were viewed as an overarching concept). in addition, discussions of local challenges regarding treatment and illness prevention as well as contemporary and traditional approaches to medicine reinforced for project team members the importance of these dimensions for the tl’azt’en nation. consequently these aspects were also added to the revised model of health. figure 1: tlc models of health in context this first research visit resulted in a clarification of the project goals and desired outcomes and saw various community members becoming more involved in the project. at the meetings with pras, health unit staff, youth, band administration staff, and elders, participants were asked to talk about what they felt were the most pressing community health priorities. a list of the identified health priorities was developed based on community discussions and was circulated back to the community for verification. the top five health priorities (i.e., those mentioned and discussed most often) were: dealing with addictions (treatment and prevention) improving diet and nutrition (including information on traditional foods) treating and preventing diabetes using and sharing traditional and contemporary information creating and accessing information about, exercise/recreation and staying active (e.g., skinning, baking, walking, hockey, etc.) in addition, encouraging and providing opportunities for elder/youth interactions (e.g., transfer of cultural knowledge, computer skills, etc.) and linking traditional and contemporary health information were the 6th and 7th priorities, reflecting some of the original project goals. second community visit in february 2004, ubc ehealth researchers made their second community visit. this visit focused on training the pras in research skills to build community capacity and respond to the research needs identified by representatives of the tl'azt'en nation. prior to this visit two preparatory tasks were completed: a training resource binder focused on community-based research was developed for each pra. this binder was a guide for training, which was responsive to the needs and skills of the pras. the pras undertook a research plan on traditional medicine (based on the priorities identified in previous discussions). the research training workshops were adapted to meet the pras’ needs in completing the traditional medicine research plan as a showcase content area for the tlc web portal (this content area focus was decided on by the pras in working with community members, including the health unit staff). training was focused on relevant research issues and skills, including critical analysis of source materials, focus group and interview strategies, and research ethics. pras were invited to add their own ideas and materials to the resource binder in the context of sharing their learning with each other. for example, pras added to the list of relevant online resources as they worked on their project. this second visit resulted in a mapping of the tlc web portal and the tlc space as community resources. in terms of the web portal, pras generated ideas for: (1) format and structure, including layout and graphics; and (2) specific ideas related to health and culture for content concerning their traditional medicine work plan. for the physical tlc space, pras generated ideas and strategies for: (1) resources such as books (e.g., catalogued resource materials for community members to browse); and (2) convening meetings, support groups, and education sessions (e.g., youth teaching elders how to do internet searches). concrete steps were outlined by the pras for meeting the project goals of setting up the tlc space, developing the web portal, and engaging the community. between visits by ubc ehealth, the pras were guided and supported by members of the tl’azt’en community with experience in education and skills in project management. for example, a community member who was an educator and researcher on another project in the community provided mentorship to the pras. in addition a 1-800 number was set up so that pras could call ubc ehealth staff to problem solve any issues or challenges. the traditional medicine work plan and project developed by the pras was to create a comprehensive database of traditional medicinal plants and their uses, and prepare information for the web portal. the pras carried out two main research processes to accomplish this. first they compiled and catalogued existing tl’azt’en archival material (e.g., tape recorded elders’ interviews, databases, and videotapes related to the topic area). next, they interviewed key knowledge holders in the community to identify and fill gaps in the information. the pras also collected photographs of medicinal plants for the website by taking pictures as well as referencing and acquiring permission to use copyrighted material. third community visit in early march 2004 a third community visit was made by ubc ehealth staff, this time with the goal of training the pras in web page development and technical skills, as well as determining a final structure for the web portal as part of the implementation project. prior to this visit, the pras had already worked to develop their skills in web development and research, and had begun to develop the content for the web portal. a pra-selected ‘webmaster’ was chosen and received extended training in web design from ubc ehealth technical staff. it was determined that the web portal would include sections dedicated to health, education, culture, history, elders, and the tlc project, with the initial portal focusing on the following: information on medicinal plants biographies of the pras history/context of tache history of the tlc project health unit information pictures of tache a map of the geographical area family histories elders’ stories information on the dakelh language this stage of the project saw a number of technical difficulties arise as the pras began to work more intensively with the equipment. such difficulties, as well as the looming end of the pilot project and thus of employment for some of the pras, resulted in many frustrations. despite this, by the conclusion of the third visit a web portal template (see figure 2) had been developed and the content areas mapped out (see figure 3). figure 2: web portal template figure 3: content areas map at the end of the pilot project a “convergence workshop" was held in tache to review the pilot implementation, celebrate the achievements of the pras, and plan for future project phases. all project partners, including the government, the university group, and community members, participated in this event and an open house in tache saw the pras present the web portal and reflect on their participation. a community forum featured discussions on community strengths/assets, traditional health, and current community health priorities, while project management-level meetings reviewed the pilot phase results and possible next steps. outcomes and lessons learned as previously mentioned, there was a culminating community event at the end of the pilot to celebrate achievements and plan for future development and sustainability. discussions involved community members, representatives from all community sectors (e.g., education, health, treaties), and funders, as well as community and university project members. themes drawn from the discussions during this three-day event reflect outcomes related to the pilot project. in addition, lessons learned were highlighted during the community discussions. the remainder of this section will first describe observed outcomes as well as lessons learned and will conclude with a discussion of implications. it is hoped that this discussion will be informative to others engaging in similar community-based projects. this project set out to achieve the goals of establishing a community learning centre with two components, namely a social space and a web portal. a concrete project outcome was the web portal comprised of community-developed health content that was implemented by community youth (the pras) who had an opportunity to acquire skills in community health research methods and web design. the tl’azt’en learning circle as a physical space remains a place where community members can learn to use high-speed internet technology to access health information and resources. the web portal continues to be used and functions as the primary web presence for the nation (see http://www.tlc.baremetal.com)3. overall, community members felt the goal of increasing the availability of health resources and information, and use of, health information resources was achieved. the project achieved other outcomes such as providing youth with training in icts and research skills. after the pilot, two of the pras were employed to work in the community applying their research and technology skills (one on a health project related to e-health, and another in the treaty office). pras have also been engaged in various communications activities related to their work at the tlc. for example, the pras co-presented at a provincial conference on community and technology. they were also asked to give a presentation at the elementary school, thus contributing to cross-generational learning and sharing. the tlc project built a foundation for increasing awareness of health determinants and prevention practices, while identifying community health priorities. while much work was done in identifying health priorities and informing the development of the tlc resource, the project did not carry out an evaluation that measured health knowledge preand post-implementation. however, it was observed that the tlc project enabled a greater understanding and appreciation of how various groups in the community envisioned health (e.g., how cultural identity and language restoration are related to health). this learning was salient to government partners; community health priorities and a vision of health as holistic were emphasized and reinforced. further, the model facilitated dialogue and collaboration between youth and elders. community members and pras noted the vast potential of inter-generational learning as well as the value of sharing knowledge with peers, community members and the “world at large” through the internet. for example, the pras expressed pride in the information they were able to share via their web page and hoped “that [their] nation’s learning might contribute to the health of others.” another positive outcome – one that was not specifically planned – was that community, government, funders and academia were able to work together with shared enthusiasm around a mutually interesting and beneficial project. during the pilot, community members identified the ways that information technologies could connect the community and support business ventures as well as create further opportunities for e-health and telehealth. in this project, technology played a role in strengthening the community with the potential of improving health as defined by the community. health or well-being was often spoken of synonymously with cultural restoration and having a strong cultural identity. the importance of recognizing and sharing talents, knowledge and skills within the community, as well as identifying local resources, was highlighted as a potential outgrowth of the tlc. one tension that emerged in the project was the importance of teaching youth traditional knowledge in this type of forum while protecting intellectual property or cultural knowledge. an issue that needs to be discussed and planned for with the guidance of the community is this balance between protection and dissemination. in a technology/internet-based project, ocap issues (ownership, control, access and possession) including security become even more salient in terms of protecting sensitive heath information as well as working out protocols for potential sharing of traditional knowledge. in this project, this issue emerged in the context of storytelling as a vital part of culture, and the vast potential for learning from elders’ experiences and stories. there was discussion of the pras working with elders to build guidelines for recording or disseminating stories, as well as teaching youth how to tell their own stories. the pras consistently expressed their desire and willingness to continue to learn new skills. they felt that their project experience would open doors to other opportunities both within and outside of the community. within the community, as previously mentioned, two pras found employment related to their new skills. discussion at the convergence workshop highlighted the importance of actively finding ways such as this to develop and continue such work in the community. pras also spoke of the potential of their acquired skills and work experiences to prepare them for employment or further education outside the community. while the project did not specifically track the impact of the project on youth out it was noted that information technologies, connectivity and the tlc could bring together community groups and connect all community service agencies (e.g., health, education, school, treaty office, rcmp, youth services, etc.). increased community access to technology resources was a broad community development goal and community members felt that the implementation of the tlc was the primary reason for the community securing broadband network services. discussing and prioritizing future tlc applications generated ideas for strategic planning. while future internet access in all homes was desired, the tlc functions as an “internet café” – a social space, which can contribute to community well being as well as economic development. for example, opportunities were identified for training in educational research, research for and promotion of community businesses and ventures (e.g., artisans, etc.), reduction in travel by use of web-based meetings and communication. it was expressed that the design and implementation of these information and communication services, according to community needs and priorities, were facilitated through this project. lessons learned the remainder of this section outlines several salient lessons that the authors learned through the experiences of challenges and successes throughout the project. personal identity and cultural identity are pathways to health and well-being. for this community, cultural identity and restoration, opportunities for youth to learn the tl’azt’en language, and cross-generational sharing were all aspects of the community-created tlc. training and research that occurred during the project focused on recording and sharing traditional knowledge and understanding cultural pathways to healthy living. health priorities outlined in planning discussions related to individual identity, competencies, self-worth, self-awareness, pride and unity. through the planning processes, community members also helped healthcare providers to better understand the context for community health and well-being as illustrated by figure 1. relationship building is central to community development. in the context of building the tlc, the importance of recognizing and sharing talents, knowledge and skills within the community were highlighted. identifying and increasing awareness of local resources was seen as a central goal of the tlc. beyond, the development and content of the tlc web portal, the tlc space in the elders’ centre resulted in building relationships within the context of the project. awareness of the tlc space as a local resource grew during and after the project as evidenced by organized community activities and learning sessions held there as well as informal or casual use of the facilities by youth. knowledge sharing is reciprocal in nature. sharing knowledge – traditional, technical, cross-generational – is mutually beneficial to all involved. for example, ubc and tl’azt’en engaged in community learning activities and connected with community members to discuss and work together on wider knowledge sharing. it is also essential to recognize the central role of the community in contributing knowledge, as well as the community’s ownership of that knowledge. capacity building and training must be authentic (i.e., applied as opposed to theoretical) and meaningful to the participants. no formal certification was available through this project. the pra position offered on the job training through paid employment. however, it is vital to recognize that training and work done in capacity building projects, needs to have a meaningful reason to occur. it is also necessary to ensure opportunities for trainees to apply their skills both within and beyond pilot implementations to concrete tasks that contribute to the overall goal. community leadership and governance is essential for sustainability. community development projects – even when they are multi-stakeholder – must be community-driven as well as collaborative. a challenge in this project was the lack of a mechanism for broad based community governance. that is, there was no formal community steering body that represented all sectors of the community. as a result, it became easy for certain community groups to have more influence and contact with the decision making processes and resources because they had more involvement in the day to day operations of the tlc. for example, because the pras were supervised by education staff, it was less likely for health staff to benefit from the pras’ assistance. it is clear that an organized process for establishing inclusive community governance would have ameliorated such challenges, and contributed to sustainability through maximizing usage and flexibility of the resource across sectors. tripartite involvement of community, government, and academia is essential to clc success. this project validates the mexico experience that joint involvement, planning and implementation of the clc are essential to its success. each partner brings unique authority, resources, and perspectives to the collaborative process, which is necessary to develop the clc. it is through this iterative cooperation that the clc succeeds through its many steps, from infrastructural establishment to defining community health priorities, content and technical development, capacity building, and evaluation. overall, according to feedback gleaned at the project wrap-up, the tlc project was considered successful in the community. the web portal, physical space and community experts remain in tache. the feedback received from community and organizational partners was that the community learning centre (clc) concept was a worthy undertaking and the partnership created between ubc ehealth and the tl’azt’en nation continued and has fostered new technology projects. for example, tl’azt’en health was a partner in conducting a community end-user consultation to understand potentials and needs relating to the delivery of clinical telehealth programs. one of the pras was hired by tl’azt’en health as the research assistant who conducted community interviews and focus groups. one of the needs identified in this project was for wound management. to that end, tl’azt’en and ubc ehealth recently partnered in a pilot implementation and evaluation of a tele-wound care system. a major limitation of the project was the lack of a formalized evaluation process. funds were used to train and develop capacity for community based technology and tlc personnel. a lesson learned was that some of the resources for capacity building in training and support could have been wisely allocated to community-led evaluation of the processes and outcomes of the tlc project. a key success factor for future clc projects is to be community-driven. there is a need for all partners to work actively together to ensure that such a project remains community-driven, and that a community-driven governance model is established early in the process. engaging in this project helped illuminate how various groups in the community envision health. collaboratively, this community-university partnership developed a way to look at health that includes not only individuals, but also community, culture, the environment, and other factors. it was valuable to us at ubc ehealth to look at health in this broad and holistic way. this vision of health can inform the future of the tlc so that it will continue to meet a variety of community needs and purposes. what has been learned in this collaboration will inform future partnerships between first nations, government, funders, and academia. future directions the tl’azt’en learning centre was conceived as an implementation project with no scope (or funding) for a systematic evaluation. therefore, other than anecdotal feedback and researcher reflection, this project had no evaluation focusing on the impact of the learning centre in terms of language restoration or improved health perspectives. but the lessons learned from this project were invaluable to the project team and led to the creation of another project with a full evaluation component. building on the technology and implementation lessons learned here, the authors have partnered with the ktunaxa nation to create four learning centres in each of their british columbia communities. funded by a grant from the canadian institutes of health research, the project team includes university and community co-investigators. known as the ktunaxa community learning centres (or kclc) this emerging project will continue the momentum begun with the tl’azt’en nation project and use the lessons learned to support building these new community learning centers. in addition the kclc project will engage community researchers over a three year period to evaluate the process of implementation and measure the impact on community members’ health perspectives, interaction with the learning centres, and language restoration. the evaluation of the kclc initiative spans four phases over three years. the first phase focuses on training and preparation. community advisory committees will be set up, community research and technical personnel will be engaged and training will begin in preparation for the launch of the clcs. this phase will draw on the lessons learned in the tl’azt’en nation project. for example, storytelling was an integral component in the tl’azt’en project and will be supported as an evaluation method in the ktunaxa project. in the second phase, the overall evaluation framework and data collection strategies will be co-developed with community researchers and with community advisories. the intent of the second phase is for community researchers to collect baseline data on perceptions of community wellness, technical skills related to the clcs, health concerns, and awareness of health resources. this phase will also focus on creating the technical infrastructure and preparing to upload the health content. phase three will be the ‘go live’ phase, involving the finalization of the health content and uploading it to the clcs. once the clcs are live, community researchers will engage in evaluation processes (for example, focus groups and interviews) to understand and document the impact of the clcs on the aforementioned topic areas, as well as other significant themes that may have emerged over the course of the project. other more technology-related theme areas may also be explored, including assessing the level of accessibility and usability of the clcs’ information and tracking the number of user hits on specific portal pages, etc. the final phase will focus on data analysis, report writing, and communication of results with full engagement from both community and university partners. strategies that include sharing results of the final report will be supported through town hall meetings as well as formal opportunities such as conferences and forums. through the tl’azt’en nation project and now with the emerging ktunaxa projects we believe that providing culturally relevant health information online and engaging community members in building the content will lead to improved health outcomes in the community. further, the health of a community is highly influenced by that community’s social determinants of health. potential positive outcomes and progress in community wellness include: revitalization of traditional knowledge and practices (such as use of traditional language); first nations’ control of community programs; increased employment chances via research, technical and interpersonal skills training; and improved awareness of, and access to community health resources through the community learning centre. in understanding the potential of improved availability and access to health information via the learning centres it is important to keep in mind that… “access in itself is insufficient. rather it is what is and can be done with the access that makes ict meaningful” (gurstein, 2008, pp. 12-13). the tlc project represents one step towards locally relevant public health information available online as well as through the tlc physical space. the project addressed what van dijk (2003) characterized as successive, cumulative, and recursive stages of access. the community consultation processes addressed issues of mental access (overcoming anxiety around technology). material access was made possible through funding for connectivity, and hardware first placed in the community space. skills access (strategic and instrumental skills) was fostered through training, and finally, opportunities for usage access in the community were developed by the pras. in addition to better health information, we believe the clc model which, was piloted in tl’azt’en and is being evaluated in ktunaxa can lead directly to improved social strengths and opportunities for the community. acknowledgements we wish to thank the community of tache, the tl’azt’en nation, and especially the production research assistants whose hard work, resourcefulness and creativity were instrumental in developing and promoting the tlc web portal. the directors and staff of tl’azt’en education and health were integral to moving this project forward. we are grateful to the members of the entire tlc project team including deborah page, vince verlaan, john rowlandson, michal fedeles, and chris steele. finally, we wish to thank john webb for his vision and support. funding for this project was provided by the bc ministry of management services, industry canada, and the prince george nechako aboriginal employment and training association. references arizona state university. (2006). clc: the community learning center at arizona state university. retrieved february 6, 2007, from http://clc.asu.edu/ british columbia vital statistics agency. (2004). regional analysis of health statistics for status indians in british columbia, 1992-2002. vancouver: ministry of health services. carrigan, r, milton, r, & morrow, d. (2005). community learning center network. retrieved february 6, 2007, from http://www.cwheroes.org/laureates/education/instituo.pdf department of indian and northern affairs canada. (1996). report of the royal commission on aboriginal peoples. health and healing part a. ottawa: canada communication group. donner, l, & pederson, a. (2004). women and primary health care reform: a discussion paper. retrieved february 6, 2007, from http://www.cewh-cesf.ca/pdf/health_reform/primary_refore.pdf first nations and inuit health branch. (2001). community services in the 21st century: first nations and inuit telehealth services. retrieved february 6, 2007, from http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fnih-spni/alt_formats/fnihb-dgspni/pdf/pubs/ehealth-esante/2001_tele-rpt_e.pdf gurstein, m. (2008). what is community informatics (and why does it matter)? polimetrica. health canada. (2005). blueprint on aboriginal health: a 10-year transformative plan. ottawa: health canada. ho k, jarvis-selinger s, dow s, sharman z, steele c, carty k, novak lauscher h, gunasingam a. (2004). the role of telehealth in improving access to health services and education in british columbia’s rural and remote first nations communities. vancouver, bc, ubc. (executive summary retrieved february 6, 2007, from http://www.cpdkt.ubc.ca/__shared/assets/879746_ubc_telus_executive_summary147.pdf) ho k, karlinsky h, jarvis-selinger s, may j. (2004). videoconferencing for telelearning and telehealth: unexpected challenges and unprecedented opportunities. british columbia medical journal 46(6):285-9. network bc. (2005). closing the digital divide for british columbia communities. retrieved february 6, 2007, from http://www.network.gov.bc.ca/docs/project_summary.pdf provincial health services authority. (2005). three year service plan: 2005/06 to 2007/08. retrieved february 6, 2007, from http://www.phsa.ca/nr/rdonlyres/5c49c179-7ae6-48dd-8659-021013278dfc/10000/approvedserviceplansections123updatedaug1005.pdf van dijk, j. (2003). a framework for digital divide research. electronic journal of communication/revue de communication electronique, 12 (2). retrieved december 1 2008, from http://www.cios.org/www/ejc 1trek 2000 outlined ubc’s mission and provided a framework for action over a five to ten year period. the intention was to give ubc students the best possible preparation for the new century by renewing and re-energizing faculty and staff, developing new approaches to learning and research, and substantially increasing ubc’s resource base. 2fort st. james is 912 km north from vancouver, bc 3the tlc website has a static front page that was last updated in august 2006 but since then other web pages on the site continue to be developed and uploaded. this activity continues to this day. participatory development of technologies as a way to increase community participation: the cidade de deus participatory development of technologies as a way to increase community participation: the cidade de deus[1] web portal case.   celso alexandre souza de alvear universidade federal do rio de janeiro   michel thiollent universidade federal do rio de janeiro   abstracts: this article aims to discuss the process of development and improvement of a community web portal from the perspective of references such as social capital, solidary technology, local development and community organizing. as a case study we used the cidade de deus web portal (www.cidadededeus.org.br), result of a project of the technical solidarity lab (soltec / ufrj) with community-based organizations (cbos) of cidade de deus. our main hypothesis is that more important than the technology itself, the process of developing this technology in a participatory manner can encourage community participation. keywords: community portal, local development, community development, solidarity technology, action research.   introduction it is fundamental to think about development models that originate from each place’s specificities, which are built on the local actors’ demands and not imposed from outside. but for such it is necessary that these actors articulate and establish clearly what their demands and proposals are. information and communication technologies (icts) may help a great deal in this articulation process. they facilitate integration, establish a greater communication dynamic, permit a record to be kept of the historical process, increase transparency, and allow for a broader debate. however, one point to be emphasized is that, icts work as distance-human-relations mediators, and they will strongly influence the way in which these relations will take place. for icts to contribute effectively to people’s articulation in a democratic way, they have to be thought out, adapted or developed so as to permit a collective and horizontal dynamics. otherwise, they will only help establish other unequal power relations, other hierarchies, in the opposite way to the democracy sought. the objective of this article is to discuss the development and improvement process of a community web portal as an attempt to establish a link between community inhabitants’ and organizations based on a concrete example. the cidade de deus community web portal (www.cidadededeus.org.br) was used as a case study in this article. this web portal was developed as a university extension project by the technical solidarity lab (soltec/ ufrj)[2] in partnership with cidade de deus’ community based organizations (cbos). this portal was developed beginning in january 2008 and was officially on-line on april 18, 2009. as a theoretical approach, we will use references to social capital, solidarity technology, local development, and community organizing. our main hypothesis is that, more important than the technology itself, such a technology construction process undertaken in a participatory way (using, in this case, a methodology called action research) can encourage community participation. this process would also foster, as a result the main aspects of social capital – the strengthening of intra-community relationships (bounding) and the increase of mutual trust and reciprocity. 2. local development and community organizing 2.1. local development the local development concept arose from criticism of the centralized planning models and those models built by developed countries, imposed on developing countries through international financing institutions. these models aimed almost exclusively at economic growth and, in many cases, brought few effective results in the countries where they were implemented. even when these models were able to enable economic development, this was not followed by income distribution nor improvements in the population’s social conditions (furtado, 1998, p. 20). in this sense, the local development concept aims to integrate the social aspect to the economic one, in the belief that they are inseparable. the communities live immersed in habits and cultures, and any economic model should be in dialog with and fit with them if they are to be implemented. the attempt to transfer a development model that does not respect local experiences will be rejected or transformed in the local realm (zaoual, 2006, p. 125). the decentralization of public authority and management at the community level is essential for adapting economic assumptions to social ones. no one is more capable than the community to recognize their main social problems and to identify which barriers an economic solution could face, in response to the local population’s habits and culture. at the local level, the economic and social aspects merge and all solutions built at this level need to consider both of them in an integrated way. democracy is seen by many authors as an essential element for local development. in the case of local development, which can only take place in an environment that encourages participation, its value is conferred by the importance of the collective construction of objectives and actions. otherwise, what happens is that top-down decisions are made, without taking into account what the inhabitants think is most important. but electoral democracy does not necessarily permit the solutions to the problems to be built at local level unless there is also power decentralization. institutions at the local level must have the power to plan and carry out their own solutions (batterbury; fernando, 2006). another important point is the existence of popular and open communication channels. it is no use only to decentralize as a form of electoral democracy with local representatives. channels such as councils and open forums are important, through which the population can discuss government actions. however, more important than the existence of these channels, is the fact that these have the tools and power to really influence political decisions. the network configuration also has fundamental importance in the democracy process, mainly in communities where there is a presence of drug trafficking or other actors who may have influence on the basis of coercion. the network configuration, different from the representative configuration, permits a depersonalization of collective decisions. despite a neighborhood association being a representative entity that uses meetings to make decisions, there will always be the figure of the representatives (president, directors, etc.) as central elements, subject to being corrupted or pressured to act according to interests different from the community. in the case of the organization acting through committees, forums and networks, there is no an element that represents the group as a whole, preventing coercion and permitting greater participation of the people in the decisions. 2.1.1 integrated and sustainable local development integrated and sustainable local development (known as dlis in brazil) is a local development methodology that has been widely applied in brazil. it was promoted mainly by the educational agency for development (aed)[3], in the period of 2001 to 2006. this methodology has as its basis the strengthening of social capital in small regions (franco, 2004, p. 15), usually in small municipalities or big city neighborhoods. one of the base-principles of the dlis methodology is the expansion of the democratic and participatory process at the local level. thus, an objective is that the solutions are produced or, at least, have strong participation by the local inhabitants. according to franco (2004, p. 30), one of the barriers for a community to promote its own development is the mutual lack of trust, which impedes collective action. for this author, social capital is exactly what is missing in these communities. in this sense, social capital is “social power”, that is, the capacity to act and cooperate collectively. according to franco (2004, p. 39), social capital can be understood as “socially expanded cooperation” or as the result of “replicable interaction patterns” generated by cooperative relations (franco, 2004, p. 107). to encourage collective cooperation, the creation of social networks and the existence of democratic arenas and processes are necessary. the social networks permit people to be connected among themselves to exchange information in a horizontal way, with no hierarchies. the democratic processes enable them to have the power to act (franco, 2004, p. 32). for franco, the political-social structure is decisive for the formation of social capital. the ways a community organizes itself, how it solves its conflicts and its mechanisms of self-regulation are essential factors for the understanding of social capital. thus, there are three major barriers to social capital development: centralism; welfarism; and clientelism (franco, 2004, p. 37). violence also contributes to diminishing social capital, since it hampers cooperation and trust. in the case of communities controlled by the drug traffic or any other form of parallel power that uses violence to coerce inhabitants, it is difficult to picture collective actions. the dlis methodology consists of three major phases. the first is participatory diagnostics. in this phase, an actives map and a needs map are drawn. the actives map is the human resources (humans, materials, etc.) which the community possesses and can be used for its development. the needs map consists of resources that need to be obtained or created for the community to develop. the second phase is the local development plan. this plan is built from the actives and needs maps, indicating the actions to be developed and goals to be reached in a period of ten years. in this plan, priority goals are defined, indicating future means to overcome needs, mainly from the use of the community’s actives. the last phase is the priority actions agenda. this agenda is a short-term plan, usually to be carried out in the period of one year, and can be divided into endogenous and exogenous investments. in the first case, the actions are to be carried out by the community itself. in the second case, actions and investments are to be carried out by public authorities, businesses or organizations outside the community. for the second agenda to be put into effect, it is necessary to make a pact with these external actors, ensuring their commitment to the community (franco, 2004, p. 113-118, franco, 2007). 2.1.2. community-based organizations (cbos) an important actor in the discussion on local development are the non-governmental organizations (ngos).  they are an institutional form of local organization. however, there is a great difference between the large organizations which operate in regional, national and even international realms and the small organization which operate locally (devine, 2006, p. 522). these small organizations, known as community-based organizations (cbos) or community organizations, have their own characteristics particularly through having a strong relation with their population. these have a fundamental role in the endogenous development process. in relation to the size of these organizations, they are usually small, since they act in the local realm only. they have almost no employees and very few volunteers (kellogg, 1999, p. 447), since they are usually inserted into poor communities, the population is not able to devote time to non-paid activities. despite the necessity for a council to formalize (make official) the organization, such a council is practically non-existent or figures only on paper. it is generally the organization’s founder who makes the decisions, playing the role of both the council and the president. the main criteria for differentiating a cbo from an ngo would be their local characteristics. this means that these organizations are created by the communities’ inhabitants in the very community where they act, and barely participate in other communities (marwell, 2004, p. 270). this is the criteria which differentiates them from the other organizations, as their mission is not act on a specific theme, but solve the problems in their regions (kellogg, 1999, p. 447). the important characteristic of these organizations that differentiate them from the others is the fact that they are organizations that, first and foremost, know very well the place where they operate, their real problems and the people who live there. for the most part they do not have a strong conceptual or methodological basis, as their work is highly based on the tacit knowledge and not on theoretical knowledge. they are usually generalists, as in their regions the problems are not compartmentalized and, this way, end up having to act in all ends (sport, culture, health and others activities). contrary to large social organizations, they do not specialize in one specific theme. they usually form partnerships with large social organizations (these are focused on a specific theme) to get resources and work as executing branches. some financing operations from large international organizations, development agencies and banks demand base organizations’ participation, since, in most cases, the ones which have access to these funds are regional or national ngos. thus, large ngos are forced to articulate with these community organizations and transfer the funds so that they can carry out actions in the field, being up to the large ngos only monitor, evaluate and systematize information and result indicators (pratt, 2004, p. 2). 2.2. community organizing according to alinsky (1989), community organization can be seen as a strategy to mobilize inhabitants of a small community (a neighborhood or a small town) to solve their problems autonomously through protest or advocating actions. the main problem is how those who do not have power can take it from the hands of those who have it. for alinsky, society is divided in three groups: the haves – those who have the power (whom we could refer to as the rich); the have-nots – those who do not have power (the poor/ excluded); and the have-a-little, want mores – those who have little power but want more (these would be the middle class). those who do not have power, due to their inaction, are conformed. however, in case there is an external stimulus, they can react, as they have nothing to lose. thus, they would be the focus of the community organization. first and foremost, community organization is a pragmatic strategy. according to alinsky, tactics means reaching objectives with the available means.  thus, he questions means and ends with the affirmation that, what matters is analyze whether a certain end justifies a certain means. those who do not want change, usually those who have power, will always use the argument that agree with a certain end, but not with its means. a fundamental concept is power, which according to alinsky (1989) means the ability/ capacity to act. there is no society without power; the choice that we can make is a society with organized or disorganized power. that is, we can fight for equity of power among people or accept an unequal power relation. another important concept is conflict, which is always present in society: on the one hand, there are those who have power and do not want to lose it and, on the other hand, there are those that do not have power, but wish to acquire it. thus, the conflict is imminent, once for the have-nots to obtain power, it is necessary that the haves lose it. as far as the community organizer is concerned, he does not necessarily need to belong to the community, but it is important that he acquires legitimacy and respect in the community. his role is much more of a mediator than a leader. he should encourage and guide debate, but always letting the inhabitants themselves find the answers and ways to solve their problems. he must be capable of inserting himself in his interlocutors’ areas of expertise to be able to communicate. in his book rules for radicals, alinsky presents some rules for those who want to organize a community in fighting for their interests. one of the essential elements is to begin with small, tangible causes, possible to be won in the short term, so that the organized community can envision that they have the power to change the current situation. however, it is important to have many causes, because as soon as one is solved, they can focus attention on another one. this is an ongoing, growing and endless process, with small victories leading to bigger fights. the movement of community organizing had strong force from the 1940s to 1960s, being saul alinsky one of the most renowned community organizers. at this time there was a strong work with low income groups, as black, latin and indigenous people. later, it was noticed that to seek greater changes it is necessary to organize communities and middle class groups, as even mobilizing all these low income groups, they would still be minority and would not have power to demand greater changes. despite alinsky having died in 1972, the movement of community organizing continued through the work of his students and the people influenced by his teachings. the community organization usually focuses on small mobilizations, but it can also acquire a broader nature.  the community organization can also involve the identification of question, the mobilization around them and the formation of a long lasting organization. besides, it can serve as the basis for the formation of wider processes such as social movements (stall & stoecker, 1998, p. 730). in this sense, some community organizing networks were formed to expand the movement at national level. 3. social capital social capital is a term widely used at present, in general referring to the networks in which an individual is inserted and that can bring him/ her some advantages. despite being considered a new concept, the idea of the importance of group participation and the relation with other individuals dates back to durkheim and marx (portes, 1998). however, the first utilizations of the term social capital are recent and credited mainly to pierre bourdieu and james coleman. for bourdieu (1986, p. 241-258), the capitalist economic theories reduced the exchanges only to their mercantile meaning. however, to understand the social structure, it is necessary to analyze the capital in all its forms. according to bourdieu, besides the economic capital, there are the cultural capital and social capital. economic capital are all those whose material assets can be directly converted in money. cultural capital would be related to the formation and education which each individual has and confers him a higher status in society. social capital would be the set of available resources in a network of social relations, in which there is mutual recognition among their members. for bourdieu, an individual’s volume of social capital depends on the size of the network in which he/ she is inserted and the quantity of resources capable of mobilizing on his/ her behalf in his/ her network. for this reason, we presuppose that there is a minimum of homogeneity of objectives inside the network, so that it is possible to mobilize an individual’s resources on behalf of another. bourdieu also affirms that the existence of relations network is not something natural or spontaneous, but a product of investment strategies (conscious or unconscious) which can generate return in a short or medium term perspective. to establish and maintain a relations network, it is necessary a continuous sociability effort and a series of exchanges among the members of a network that continuously affirm and reaffirm the recognition among its members. on the other hand, social capital can be treated under an institutional perspective. according to putnam (1993, p. 167), “social capital here refers to features of social organization, such as trust, norms and networks, that can improve the efficiency of society by facilitating coordinated actions”. in his book, putnam relates the institutional performance of regions in italy to what he calls civic community. the civic community is formed by citizens who, despite their own interests, are sensitive to the collective interest. the role of social capital is that of strengthening the ties of solidarity, trust, tolerance and reciprocity which permits to form citizens of the civic community. as the main indicators for evaluating the existence of the civic community, putnam makes use of the following indicators: the quantity of local associations and the population’s participation; the existence and reading of local newspapers and periodicals; the participation of the population in politics and the way in which they relate to their representatives; participation in unions and parties; the presence of values such as solidarity, cooperation and honesty. the quantity of local associations and the participation of the population indicate a greater capacity to articulate and pressure public representatives to carry out concrete actions in the community, as well as ensuring the availability of more public and private resources. the existence of local newspapers and periodicals permits the dissemination of information within the community, which also results in the population’s greater capacity for articulation and organization. the participation in politics and the way their members relate to their representatives enable the election of community representatives and the creation of public policies adapted to the place. finally, the presence of values such as solidarity, cooperation and honesty make coordinated actions easier. woolcock (1998) discusses the relation between social capital and economic development. in his study, he works with social capital in communities or countries and through two base concepts: embeddedness and autonomy. the first concept was developed by karl polanyi (1980) and reintroduced by granovetter (1985). it suggests that all economic action is inseparable from social relations. at a micro level, embeddedness refers to intra-community relations; at a macro level, it refers to state-society relations. autonomy, at a micro level, refers to extra community relations; at a macro level, it refers to institutional capacity and credibility.  thus, embeddedness and autonomy are two different forms of social capital. for each of the different forms of social capital, woolcock gives a different name. embeddedness, at a micro level, is called integration. autonomy, at a micro level, is called linkage. embeddedness, at a macro level, is called synergy. and, finally autonomy, at a macro level, is called organizational integrity. to achieve development, the four forms of social capitals should be present. at a micro level, as in the case of a poor community, integration has the role of strengthening solidarity within the community and encouraging local exchanges, whereas linkage permits the bringing of resources from the outside and having access to information and opportunities that do not exist within the community. in the macro case, synergy means a good relation between the state and society, while organizational integrity means a strong and efficient state, capable of carrying out the agenda demanded by society. as his main conclusions, woolcock points out that, at the local level, community base organizations should act so as to cultivate integration and linkage, to be able to bring resources from the outside and permit these to be appropriated in an efficient way. at the macro level, the author points out that a strong state and a strong society are not contradictory, both being necessary for development. from the perspective of the formation of networks for local development, social capital represents the social relations that take place both among the members of the community and with those from the outside. the balance between relations intra and extra-community can determine how much benefit the community will have from its social capital. while the intra-community relations can establish solidarity ties, the extra-community relations, mainly in poor communities, may enable the establishment of channels that permit resources to flow in from the outside (wetterberg, 2007, p. 567). social capital has a fundamental role in the formation of public policies appropriate to the local issues of a community. on the other hand, public policies can contribute to generating positive social capital effects in the community. policies that invest in infrastructure (collective assets), which strengthen local networks – so that they can resist private interests – and which encourage the formation of groups and networks open as well to new members, has the effect of directing social capital to the generation of positive effects (trigilia, 2001, p. 437-439). at well, social capital, as a result of information exchange networks, also has a fundamental role in the development of public policies. the networks as institutional ways of fighting for rights and citizenship have a great potential in local development. through these networks, knowledge-flow channels for the needy populations about their rights are created, which in turn can have a decisive role in local development (marteleto; silva, 2004, p. 46-48). 4. solidarity technology the development of technologies is not a purely technical process. economic, social, cultural and political factors are inseparable from technical factors in the decisions made during the construction of a technology (marques, 2005, p. 15, oliveira, 2007). in this sense, academic fields such as socio-technical studies, science and technology studies (sts) and social studies of science (sss) have been growing. these have the non-neutrality of technological artifacts, techniques, technology and sciences as a central element. in these fields of study several authors are prominent such as langdon winner, andrew feenberg, thomas hughes, bruno latour, john law, michael callon, annemarie mole and others. following from this, in the sense of promoting another type of development, based on a socially aware, cooperative and collective logic, it is necessary to develop new technologies, different from those already conceived which are impregnated with the current competitive logics.[4] these technologies are called solidarity technologies (st) by some authors to differentiate them from conventional technologies (ct). this concept has been developed in latin america under the name tecnologia social, which can be translated as technology for social inclusion. we chose not to use the term technology for social inclusion, as the term gives the connotation of charity, a technology geared just for the poor or socially excluded. thus, we prefer to translate the term as solidarity technology, in reference to the solidarity economy, that is, a technology that is committed to the construction of another kind of society. according to the rede de tecnologia social (rts, 2005, author's translation) the “solidarity technology includes products, reusable techniques and/or methodologies, developed in interaction with the community and that represents possible effective solutions for social transformation.” bocayuva and varanda (2009, author's translation), affirm that “a solidarity technology breaks with the conventional and dominating model, when it includes the centrality of grassroots social actors in the role of productive subjects” and place st as a “strategies for overcoming inequalities.” a central issue that comes up in both definitions is the interactions with social actors, and, in this sense, the use of participatory methodologies is fundamental (thiolent, 2005). in the specific case of icts development, the central issue is that the systems are conceived based on the demands of the users and in collaboration with them. another important contribution to distinguishing social technologies from conventional technologies was given by dagnino (2004), which can be synthesized in the following comparative table: conventional technology (ct) solidarity technology (st) segmented: does not permit control by the direct producer; geared towards collective management or promoting collective control; maximizes productivity in relation to the use of labor (it saves labor more than might otherwise be necessary); adapted to small physical and financial units; alienating: does not use the potential of the direct producer (the pace of production is given by the machines). frees the direct producer’s creativity and potential; has patterns responding to the high income external market; oriented to the mass internal market; monopolized by big companies in rich countries (has an always-growing scale of production); capable of making self-administrated projects and small businesses economically feasible. within a hierarchy: demands the image of the owner, the boss, etc. (has coercive controls which reduce productivity). non-discriminating (boss vs. employee). environmentally unsustainable (intensive in synthetic inputs). use of local raw material in a sustainable way; table 1 – comparison between ct and st according to dagnino (2004, author's translation)[5] this table identifies important issues differentiating st from ct. perhaps one of the most important points is the issue of control (feenberg, 1992). many times, regardless of how participatory the methodology, there is a distinction between what is called client and user, that is, who is the owner of the technology (and has the final say in the decisions) and who is not. in this sense, ct is an instrument for the  domination of the user by the technology owner. another fundamental issue of the ct is the high cost derived from the specialization of the technologies. this specialization is a consequence of the dominant technology development process, which is always oriented towards a specific problem: the problem of who will pay for it. the development of technologies through logics other than one based on financial ownership such as free and open source software (foss) and open source hardware (oshw), shows that another possible direction is possible and one which responds to the needs of a majority of the people. it is also important to point out that the sts are still at a largely theoretical stage rather than a concrete one. this is so because of the difficulty in conceiving of these technologies within an environment and logic different from that which one is intending to build. for this to be possible it is necessary to develop a different knowledge structure from that already in place as proposed by dagnino, brandão and novaes (2004) as the seven modalities of socio-technical adequacy (sta):   use the simple use of technology under the condition that changes the way profits are shared. appropriation conceived under the condition of collective ownership of the means of production and implies an expansion of the knowledge on the part of the worker, of the productive, managerial aspects and of products and processes without any changes in the concrete use that is made of these products or processes. revitalization revitalization or power boosting of machines and equipment, but also adjustments, reconditioning and revitalization of these machines and associated work processes. work process adjustment implies the adaptation of work processes to the form of collective property of the means of production (pre-existing or conventional), the questioning of the division of technical labor and the progressive adoption of workers’ control (self-management). technological alternatives the application of alternative technologies to the conventional ones is necessary. the activity generated from this modality is the search and selection of existing technologies. incorporation of existing scientific-technological knowledge this results from the exhaustion of the search for alternative technologies, the development, from that, of new productive processes or means of production, to satisfy the demands for sta. activities associated to this modality are innovation processes of the incremental type. incorporation of new scientific-technological knowledge this results from the incremental innovation processes are exhausted due to the nonexistence of knowledge susceptible to be incorporated into processes or means of production to respond to the demands for sta. activities associated to this modality are radical innovation processes which demand a review of r&d centers or universities and that imply the exploration of the frontiers of knowledge. table 2 – socio-technical adequacy modalities according to dagnino, brandão and novaes (2004) these modalities have some intersections and should be used much more as a framework to think out the construction of something new, than as ways in which each experience must fit. the idea is that this reflection eases the deconstruction process of conventional technologies, and the reconstruction including other criteria (alternative to the techno-economic ones), involved in redesigning these towards sts. 5. the development of the cidade de deus community web portal research concerning network formation among cidade de deus’ community based organizations, detected that there was little articulation among these organizations, and the creation of a community web portal could be a way to contribute to this and to other issues (alvear, 2008). interviews with the organizations indicated that help was required for the creation of web sites for some organizations. from that point, soltec/ufrj began an extension project towards developing a web portal for cidade de deus (cdd) which could be managed by the organizations themselves. thus, it is important to point out that the identification of the necessity to develop a portal arose from research endorsed by the researched subjects and their demands. stoecker (2005) emphasizes that the order of community projects should be: understand the community, evaluate which information is necessary and, finally, which icts better attend to these necessities (that is, the order is community, information, and technology). the development process of the portal followed this pattern. there had been a previous attempt to articulate several organizations in cdd, which was the creation of a community committee in 2002 and a local development agency for cdd in 2003. both had extensive participation at the beginning, but later there were problems that led to a drifting apart and reduction in participation. one of the possible causes of this was a fragmentation that occurred due to political and religious disagreement, and different world views. besides that, as concrete and immediate results were not seen, some organizations ceased to participate (alvear, 2008, pp. 103-104). the portal construction methodology incorporated these issues to avoid facing the same problems. in the first place, the hypothesis which guided the process was that “the articulation of these organizations for the construction of a portal can be a way to establish collective identities, which permit bringing them together on greater issues in the future” (alvear, 2009, p. 2, author's translation). that is, the frequent and on-site gathering of the several organizations in the portal construction meeting to discuss trivial questions would permit the establishment of a collective identity, through the sharing of values, exchanging opinions, and even nurturing affective relationships. this collective identity would permit these organizations to discuss more structural and controversial issues without causing fragmentation (the development of respect for diverging opinions). this hypothesis was mainly based on villasante (2002), who points out the importance of working with less controversial issues until a more appropriate environment is created to discuss more structural themes. furthermore, it establishes a strong dialog with granovetter (1973), who points out the importance of fragile relationships (as for example the organizations’ gathering to discuss the creation of a portal) to create communication channels among different networks (some of these organizations have very different views of the world, and would probably not gather if it were to discuss bigger issues such as politics). furthermore, the aim was to balance a strategic view in the long run with short term results. initially, for some organizations, the objective was only to have an internet site. however, to build a cidade de deus (community) web portal and not only a portal with sites of organizations a deeper discussion was necessary.  the difficulty was to balance this discussion and the pressure for quick results. at some moments the meetings would start to get lag as the members of the organizations seemed unmotivated and wanted more immediate results (besides distrusting the process). at that moment, it was necessary to present prototypes of the web portal, after which, the members would participate in the meetings again. to develop a portal, a participatory methodology called action research was used. this methodology has, as an essential element, the participation of all parties involved in the process (thiollent, 1985). another important characteristic of this methodology is the interaction between research and action (which can be seen in this case as the extension of the university project itself) in an ongoing process. thus, the research served as the starting point for the construction of the portal. during this construction, this research process touched all aspects of the development process, from the software requirements specification to the project evaluation and improvement phase. the first phase of a research action is the contract. this contract is the moment at which the interested parties and the researcher establish a formal or informal agreement about what will be done. along with that is established what is called a seminar in the methodology a group of participants which will follow the research-action process (thiollent, 1985, pp. 58-60). in the case of the portal, this group is made up of the institutions which are participating in the portal (thiollent, 2005). in the first meeting in cdd, which took place in may of 2008, each organization present was supposed to invite other organizations and advertise the construction of the portal so that it could gather the highest number of organizations possible. at that time the contract was agreed upon, that is, what would be carried out by the group and each person’s roles. in addition to that, it was agreed in the first meetings that any organization which carried out social projects in cdd, whether formal or not, could become part of the portal. initially, sixteen organizations participated in the portal construction (or made up the seminar). the majority of these organizations were cbos, as well as one church, one neighborhood association, two small self-managed community groups, and two cultural groups (theater and dance). during the process, this number was reduced to ten institutions, but later it increased back to fourteen. the first phase was the requirements specification. in this phase, we discussed more deeply the portal objectives, the target audience, its structure, and who could be involved. the second phase was the design of the portal in an interactive way, that is, through the presentation of prototypes and ongoing improvements. finally, the third phase was the training of people so that they could insert content autonomously. on average, the meetings took place every two weeks, and lasted from 3 to 4 hours. the design in an interactive way is essential in a case like this. bourgeois and horan (2007, p. 7) place importance on what they call design for redesign, that is, design thinking that the system will have to be redesigned, because only after the users start to use the system can they express their real needs. and besides that, users’ objectives and necessities also change with time. in our case, it was essential to work this way. as the users were not accustomed to working with computing tools, it was difficult for them to engage in this abstraction process, that is, to picture what they would like from and to see in, the tool they were designing. . an important element of this was the creation of a document on portal policies so as to minimize problems with political and religious disagreements. this document established what could or could not be placed in the portal, how it could be introduced into the portal as well as the sanctions on those who did not respect these collectively agreed policies. after the official portal release which took place on april 18 , 2009, the greatest focus of the project was on training members of the portal in developing the content. we diagnosed that we had made a mistake in not working from the start with a focus on communication, as we perceived people’s difficulty in writing texts and producing articles, that is, generating content for the portal. thus, during 2009, we alternated meetings on: discussions to define the articles to be written and training on how to develop articles. these articles had as their objective to permit a survey of the cdd problems among the inhabitants and to question the performance of the current government and the impact of big businesses in the territory. this strategy also had problems, as the people who participated in the meetings are usually coordinators in their institutions. thus, besides having little time to go to the field and interview people and then write articles, they cannot set this as a priority due to the several other activities they have to carry on in their institutions. this being the case, the portal has been having a very low dynamic in generating new content, having only short reports on projects and events which take place in cidade de deus, but without addressing the overall problems that take place in cdd in a critical way. in meetings that took place at the end of 2009, we decided, as a solution, to make a campaign for inhabitants of cdd to sent texts, articles, poems, songs, videos and other contents, as a way to increase the portal’s dynamics, to enhance the cdd people’s participation in the portal, and to debate the problems of the community from different points of view. meanwhile, the role of the institutions would be more towards encouraging debate towards strategic issues for the community and selecting content to be placed in the portal. in this sense, the main action in the 2010 was the teaching of a course on mass media critical analysis, offered to cdd’s inhabitants and free of charge. the objective of this course was to discuss how to make community communication. the objective was to train more inhabitants of cdd so that they could report through the portal what was happening in their community from their point of view – reporting by those who actually live the news. this would be a counterweight to the mass media that usually broadcasts only negative facts about the poor communities, from the point of view of those who do not live these realities. 6. results it is important to understand a community portal and its construction process as a local development support strategy. two elements in this process are fundamental, the articulation/mobilization that this portal generates and the form of organization it encourages. the social actors’ articulation around the portal can be analyzed from a social capital perspective including the internal articulations, called integration, and under the perspective of the external articulations, called linkage. the community portal construction in itself works as a means to establish the community articulation and mobilization (integration), as long as a participatory methodology is applied. as stated by stoecker (2005), the process of implementing an ict project in a community is more important than the results, mainly because of the actions of the local actors. in addition to that, when we talk about community mobilization, we are talking about a territory, a locality, which has problems related to the place itself, but connected to a wider context, the city, the country and the world. thus, this project is related to the concept of community informatics proposed by campbell and eubanks (2010): community informatics is a sustainable approach to community enrichment that integrates participatory design of information technology resources, popular education, and asset-based development to enhance citizen empowerment and quality of life. this can be aligned with alinsky’s ideas, who in 1946 had already defended the importance of the communities’ organizing to fight for local power, this definition of community informatics sets forth an objective to establish a local empowerment. if these communities’ inhabitants do not have the power to solve their problems individually, together they will have the power to fight for their rights and achieve a better life condition. for this reason, the development of a technology in a participatory way is important not only to have a technology suitable to their needs and an instrument to support their actions, but also to build confidence as a result of small victories along the process, and to realize that they have the power to achieve greater victories. according to pigg and crank (2004), the icts themselves do not create social capital. however, these can help in expanding social capital, but to do that there needs to be intentional actions in that direction. still according to these authors, icts can also reduce centralization and improve the quality of the decisions made in the community. the cdd community portal has been developed since the beginning with the intent of strengthening existing relations or establishing new relations among the organizations in the cdd. cordell and romanow (2005) affirm that it is better to invest in icts where there is evidence of positive and strong social capital (that is, where there is already a strong community integration). in the case of the communities that do not have this social capital it is better to invest in projects that do not involve icts. still according to these authors, the icts work better for virtual/online communities, and not for geographic communities (place-based). the case of the cdd portal contradicts these affirmations, as it is an ict project in a geographic community with low social capital (alvear, 2008). that is, the utilization of a participatory methodology to implement an ict in a community can be a good way to increase integration among its inhabitants thus expanding social capital in the community. the portal offers a space called “speak community,” where the inhabitants express their problems which run from unlit light poles on their streets, open-sky waste deposits to problems in the free wireless internet project implemented by the government. in this case, the organizations in charge of the portal can help the inhabitants by providing guidance on how to proceed and advocate for their rights directly with government authorities. when it is the case of a complaint made by many inhabitants, the organizations can act directly with the government taking these complaints in an organized way and putting more weight on their demands for a solution. this way, external articulations (linkage) are established which can help bring more resources for the community. musgrave (2005) speaks exactly about the importance of these community portals in helping in the citizen-government representatives’ direct interaction, defining community portals as: community portal is now viewed as those portal instances developed by activists (i.e. bottom-up driven) within a community network, owned and operated by a non-governmental organization (typically a sub-regional geographic neighborhood group). one of the important results that corroborates the hypothesis that the construction process of the portal can encourage the participation and increase integration is that, after the beginning of the development of the portal, the organizations have been jointly participating in projects and events. one example is the creation of a major cultural spot for cdd to be coordinated by all the organizations, instead of each one participating individually as occurred previously. in addition to that, they are carrying out a collective projects with fiocruz, with unicef, and fighting jointly for a health center in cdd. despite not being possible to affirm that the portal itself is responsible, the fact is that this integration among the organizations has been happening in a much more frequent way after the portal meetings. as a way to evaluate the impact of the portal and its dynamics, we have the following indicators between february 24, 2009 and february 23, 2010: 14 organizations making use of the portal; 27 users with accounts making changes in the portal; approximately 30.000 visits to the portal, including approximately 3.000 visits from outside the country; 120 comments from residents in the forum “speak community,” 17 published articles, 90 news articles posted and 139 events listed. for granqvist (2005), there are three important questions to be asked in community informatics projects: what kind of use do these technologies permit? what kinds of behavior do they encourage? what social values do they reproduce or support? these questions are in direct dialog with the concern about the control that these technologies can have over those who use them. some technologies can permit different uses for different people (depending on their position in the organization’s hierarchy). thus, they encourage a hierarchical organization and reproduce social values such as subordination. in the case of the cdd portal, a search in various content management systems[6] was made to evaluate which one would permit a more horizontal management, that is, a more decentralized and collective control – exactly one of the concerns of the solidary technologies. to do that, we chose a system that has a complete log of all changes, transparent to all users and with the possibility of undoing the latest changes (called version control). this enabled all the users to have complete access to the portal, because if someone abused his/her privileges they would be able to identify who did it and undo his/her changes. compared with sta modalities (dagnino; brandão; novaes, 2004), we can say that we sought technological alternatives and were able to incorporate some adaptations. even with these choices, some limitations were found. in relation to the portal content management, even with the existing technologies, it is possible to make collective use of the system. however, in the case of the system administration, that is, access to the control panel and the more advanced functions (such as to create new user accounts, delete accounts, change passwords, change the portal configurations, etc.), it is not possible to have collective management of the system with the conventional technology – giving administrator’s privileges to all the users, with each one having unlimited power, being able to delete other users or the log. the existing tools are firmly based on two premises: hierarchical administration and administration by highly specialized people. to change that, it is necessary to develop new technologies with the incorporation of new scientific-technological knowledge, the last modality of sta. a fundamental point is to think over and develop new collective decision processes and tools for information systems. it will be necessary to develop new knowledge, as the collective decision processes on information systems cannot be exactly the same as those for self-managed projects, such as for example through plenary meetings. in that case, all the actors are gathered at the same time to make a decision, besides having more opportunities to communicate among themselves and reflect on their problems. in the case of an information system, its users may have difficulties in holding face-to-face meetings, and even to meet virtually at the same time. in addition to that, many of the decisions on an information system need urgent attention because the information must be quickly entered, or else it will become outdated. in that case it is necessary to develop a system that permits a more collective administration a system that offers each member a certain degree of freedom, mainly in the parts that need greater dynamism (those with less sensitive and/or divergent information). on the other hand, this system should provide for forms of collective decisions in its structural and strategic parts. seeking to integrate a cooperative and self-management logic into information systems, we can design a system with administration based on votes, consensus and plenary meetings, but that also incorporates a time variable. for example, to add a new user to the system, one of the administrators would propose such action and, if the majority agreed, or even if no one disagreed during a certain period of time (preferably the shortest possible), this user would be added. the case of adding new users is just an example among the several possibilities of an information system directed toward collective management. 7. conclusions the cidade de deus community web portal is still being developed. despite its group of institutions having autonomy over many issues, having meetings by themselves, and dealing independently with the portal hosting and domain, they still need the help of soltec/ufrj with some actions. as an example, we can mention the production of articles for the initial page and making some more structural changes on the portal. as was said previously, there are some difficulties in relation to the technology itself which was not developed for collective management. but cultural issues are difficult to change, since all the participants of the portal live under this competitive logic in the current society, which makes a collaborative project more difficult. thus, conflicts and arguments occur at times, in which an external actor, a mediator like such as the researcher, has an important role, seeking to establish a balance in the group. the difficulty is that a power imbalance tends to occur, as each person has a different rhythm in relation to technology appropriation, content generation, and management techniques of a community portal, in addition to each one coming from a different initial knowledge point. and it is necessary to always seek to avoid this imbalance; otherwise the community will not be able to fight for a less unequal society, if it is unequal internally in itself. bibliographic references alinsky, s (1989). rules for radicals: a 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[1] cidade de deus (city of god) is a neighborhood (favela) or a poor community in rio de janeiro which has around 65.000 inhabitants and is adjacent to one of the richest neighborhoods in rio de janeiro, barra da tijuca, reflecting very well the inequality present in all the big cities of brazil. it became known outside brazil through the movie “city of god”. [2] soltec (technical solidarity lab) is a laboratory of the federal university of rio de janeiro (ufrj) which acts mainly in university extension projects aiming to apply engineering knowledge on behalf of poor communities, excluded groups and social movements. [3] “educational agency for development (2001-2004) was a public program created to increase the management and entrepreneurial capacity of micro and small businesses, local governments and third sector organizations, mainly when engaged in integrated and sustainable local development processes. […] the aed … process should be concluded in 2007.” source: http://aed.locaweb.com.br/index.php. accessed on 4/mar/2007. author's translation. [4] this affirmation is in accordance with the strong non-neutrality thesis: “a science and technology generated under the auspices of a certain society and, therefore, constructed in a functional form for that society, is in such a way “committed” to the maintenance of this society and is not necessarily available to be used by another society.” (dagnino, 2008, pp. 54-55, author's translation). [5] excerpts in italics supplemented by the authors of this article. [6] a content management system (cms) works as a platform on which a portal can be developed and updated through a web browser, without the need of technical knowledge. the “rede brasil de bibliotecas comunitárias”: a space for sharing information and building new knowledge the “rede brasil de bibliotecas comunitárias”: a space for sharing information and building new knowledge elisa campos machado universidade federal do estado do rio de janeiro. escola de biblioteconomia geraldo moreira prado instituto brasileiro de informação em ciência e tecnologia. graduate program in information science abraão antunes da silva universidade de são paulo. escola de comunicação e artes. librarianship student jailton lira universidade federal do estado do rio de janeiro. projeto de extensão universitária rede brasileira de bibliotecas comunitárias – collaborating researcher kleber tadashi centro educacional unificado capão redondo   abstract: this is a report on the experience of creating the rede brasil de bibliotecas comunitárias (rbbc), an online social network that aims to bring together and share information regarding practices employed in setting up local library collections and making them available to the public; discussing the principles that govern the autonomous management of these spaces; establishing ties and creating exchanges between the different agents and spheres involved in this process; and encouraging society’s participation in the construction of public policy for brazilian libraries. the work presents the theoretical references that make up the foundation of the proposal, the methodology employed and analyzes the data obtained during the first ten months of the network’s existence. keywords: social networks; community libraries; public libraries; public policies for libraries   1 introduction the rede brasil de bibliotecas comunitárias (rbbc) (the brazil network of community libraries) was created after identifying the lack of formal spaces to debate the reality of community libraries in brazil, a fact that became clear during the ii seminário internacional de bibliotecas públicas e comunitárias, which took place in november 2009 in the city of são paulo and was organized by the secretaria de cultura of the government of são paulo state. based on this realization, a group of participants in the seminar, made up of students of librarianship and information science, as well as librarians, researchers in these fields and local leaders in charge of community libraries, decided to create a social network on the internet that would have the following aims: to bring together and share information regarding the practices employed in setting up and providing access to local collections, especially to members of disadvantaged groups; discuss and reflect upon the principles that govern the autonomous management of these spaces; establish ties and promote exchanges between the different agents and spheres involved in this process; and encourage society’s participation in the construction of public policy for brazilian libraries. figure 1: rbbc homepage source: http://rbbconexoes.ning.com [acessed on 30/10/2010] community libraries in brazil exist as spontaneous practices, idealized and implemented by individual or collective agents – average citizens, with or without formal training, with or without institutional support. they are generally set up in peripheral locations as a result of the difficult access to cultural goods in these locations and to the utter absence of actions on the part of the state. these new reading spaces, for the most part, have been created by people that are in no way connected to the fields of librarianship or information science. their aim is to bring together a collection to provide access to books and reading material, especially for children and young members of a given area. the process of socio-cultural exclusion in brazil continues to be a reality to populations in peripheral zones, either in the large urban centers like rio de janeiro and são paulo, or in smaller communities or rural zones, such as the town of são josé do paiaia, in the semi-arid region of bahia. data from the 1st census of public municipal libraries in 2010, created by the ministério da cultura and the fundação getúlio vargas, clearly show that this is indeed the case: 8% of brazilian municipalities in the present day do not have a single public library to provide for their inhabitants; another 12% are currently in the process of implementing such a service. graph 1, below, shows the regional disparities that exist in regard to the presence of these public cultural spaces. graph 1: brazilian municipalities with at least one public municipal library source: 1st census of public municipal libraries in light of this data, one can see that most of the public municipal libraries in the country are concentrated in the south and southeast. the number of inhabitants per public libraries also varies significantly between regions – for example, the city of curitiba, in the south, has approximately 26,000 inhabitants per public library while the city of manaus, in the north, has 1,680,000 inhabitants per facility (cultura, 2009). it is this state of affairs that inspires the creation of informal spaces that provide access to reading material and information – independent spaces, called community libraries.  these differ from public municipal libraries, which are organized and maintained by the state. the rbbc, initially established by a small group of people as a socio-cultural initiative, acquired the characteristics of a social movement in defense of libraries around the country. like the new social movements described by authors such as guindani (2009), castells (1999), downing (2002), kauchakje (2005) and assis (2006), this movement started to take shape via virtual networks, preserving their reformist nature, and using mobilization and integration strategies that are based on internet usage. these networks have fostered among the participants the sharing of skills, knowledge, objects and objectives for the short, medium and long term. 2 theoretical foundations for the construction of the rbbc it is important to clarify that in brazil the community library is seen as an independent social project with no direct ties to government institutions and led by an organized group of individuals with the common purpose of increasing the access of community members to reading material and information, thereby promoting social emancipation (machado, 2008). the community library is in essence a public space; however, in contrast to the state-sponsored “public library”, it does not count on the constant work of librarians to organize and maintain its collection or to provide special services regarding the access of information to the community. it depends on the voluntary work of people who, in the majority of cases, have no formal training and have taken on the responsibility of providing the public with access to books and reading. the fields of librarianship and information science in brazil have only recently begun to make room for studies on the topic of “community libraries.” this means that the country still lacks organized information on the reality of these experiences. hence, the establishment of a social network such as the rbbc constitutes a strategy to obtain information on this type of project. according to marteleto (2001, p.73), “in informal spaces, the networks are formed based on the awareness of interests and/or values among the participants of a community” and the rbbc was formed precisely according to these principles. the social network, in the words of marteleto (2001, p.72), represents “a set of independent participants, bringing together ideas and resources around shared values and interests”. for lozares (1996, apud gonzalez-galvez and rey-martin, 2009, p.15), “social networks are like a fixed set of actors – individuals, groups, organizations, communities, societies – connected to one another according to a relationship or set of social relationships”.  sugahara and vergueiro (2010, p.104) developed a study on the influence of social networks in the study of information flow and they point to the fact that the network has “on principle the participation of individuals and their colleagues as a basis for its definition and expansion.” they also highlight the opportunity provided by these spaces for the “exchange and sharing of information and knowledge.” according to the authors, in order to understand the information flows in social networks, one must investigate broadly, both the connections and interactions of the actors in a given social network as well as its interrelations with similar communities, for the members of these networks also have contact with other networks and social spaces. in this way, it is assumed that as the interactions between adjacent and non-adjacent actors change, so too does the information flow (sugahara; vergueiro, 2010, p.105). social networks on the internet facilitate the possibility of establishing personal or professional relationships with individuals that do not know one another personally. this environment allows for the connections in the network to be strengthened in a situation in which the construction of the network itself is driven by the contribution of its own members, since “it is about sharing interests and needs by way of an open and dynamic system” (gonzalez-galvez and rey-martin, 2009, p.15). in the case of virtual networks, information and communication technologies (icts) should be used as a means and not as “an end in and of itself” (carvalho et al., 2007). as its focus is on a specific community, there is no question that access to technology is a prerequisite for the network to have an impact in improving the conditions of the community libraries involved in the rbbc and, consequently, in the people involved in these projects. keeping in mind that we are dealing with communities that, for the most part, encompass disadvantaged groups, the application of the concepts proposed by community computing is essential. a number of authors (mclever, 2005; carvalho et al., 2007) have put effort into researching and reflecting upon the importance of community computing in developing countries. community it and community librarianship are interdisciplinary fields that promote participatory processes for the construction of social projects capable of introducing significant changes to specific communities regarding access to information and reading materials.  3 methodology based on the principle that “the effective use of information and communication technologies depends on knowledge, skills, competencies and organizational and social support structures”, for the construction of the rbbc, the members decided to adopt a platform that would be as easy to use as possible from the user’s point of view. hence, the tool that was chosen was the online platform ning[1] which, at the time (november 2009), was free of charge. this platform is set up as a social interface in which each user can create his/her own social network and add other networks created by users that share similar interests. since its creation, in 2005, ning has stood out among other social networks because of its focus on subject matter, whereas other well-established networks, such as facebook and orkut, are focused on the user. the next step was to establish the types of relationships and sharing of information, such as how to control and access the rbbc so as to: broaden the debate and discussions regarding community libraries in the country; promote the democratic participation of members; respect the diversity and cultural plurality of the various groups involved; value creative strategies; establish synergy between the actions, projects and people involved. two members of the group were elected as web administrators; they were responsible for monitoring the activities of the network. in respect of democratic principles, the rbbc allows all participants to invite new members, define their own profiles, initiate a new debate in the forum page, include messages from blogs and communicate information about events related to the topic. nevertheless, some areas were considered open to control on the part of the administrators, such as: opening user groups and adding photos and videos. the administrators also have the exclusive ability to send collective messages, such as bulletins and updates to highlights on the network, as well as guidelines for the use of certain resources.  the interventions of the administrators are conducted with the aim of ensuring the quality of the information that is circulated on the network and keeping the focus on the interest topics of the group – the library as a space that provides reading material and information in the country. the rbbc is monitored by google analytics [2] , which allows for the verification of data regarding the number of visits per day and the average time spent on the website, as well as controlling crucial data like the statistics on the network’s national penetration, with the geographical location of its members. other technical data provided facilitates in defining new services that could be used on the network. it is important to clarify that ning has since undergone a change in business direction and has turned into a tool that requires exclusive membership. hence, the rbbc has managed to secure sponsorship from a collection management software company[3]  in order to ensure its continuity. 4 current scenario of the rbbc considering the fact that the experience of the rbbc is still very recent, it has not been possible to develop a detailed analysis of the network. the project is currently in the data collection phase, after which the systematized information can be assessed for the purpose of identifying the different relationships that were established in the new environment. however, we can already present an overview of the rbbc’s current scenario, based on access data such as the network’s geographical scope and the profile of the participants, as well as a snapshot of the most popular content. although the scope of the rbbc is national, based on the data collected from google analytics, we could see that people from all over the world accessed the network. of the 11,647 visits that were made to the network between the period of 26 november 2009 and 26 september 2010 (that is, in the first 10 months of its existence), the absolute majority were made from brazil (11,262 visits), with the remaining 385 visits originating in 40 countries located in africa, the americas, asia, europe and oceania[4]. the 11,262 visits from the national territory originated in over 205 unique brazilian cities[5] . the majority of the visits to the rbbc were concentrated in the southeast of the country, followed by the northeast, south, center-west and north. graph 2, below, summarizes the basic data regarding the main 15 cities that brought brazilian visitors to the rbbc: graph 2: main cities, by visits source: google analytics it is important to explain that the southeast is the region with the most developed internet infrastructure in brazil. according to the brazilian institute of geography and statistics (ibge, 2009), in the last 3 years, there was a 75.3% increase in internet usage in the country; however, regional inequalities are reflected in the number and type[6] of access. during the 10 months of rbbc activity that were analyzed, we observed continuous use of the network, with almost 40 daily visits. as shown in graph 3, there was a higher access rate in 2010 and we hope the rising use of the rbbc constitutes a long term trend. graph 3: visits by time periods source: google analytics the average time spent on the network was 4.01 minutes. a drop in this variable was observed in 2010, but it now appears to be rising to previously recorded levels. the trend can be seen in graph 4. graph 4: average time per visit source: google analytics at present, the network counts on an online community of almost 600 participants/actors. through the mandatory information at registration and usage, it has been possible to identify the profile of the actors, gearing them towards specific content on the network, people with close geographical locations to the new members, as well as information to help them in their activities, which are not necessarily found on the rbbc itself. hence, even in these early stages of the project, the full potential of the social network as a helpful tool is already noticed by the new participants. figure 2: initial identification of the profile of new members of the rbbc source: http://rbbconexoes.ning.com [ retrieved 30/10/2010] one way to track the exchange of information and content that has been circulating on the network is to analyze the forums page, where many types of collection exchanges occur, with a total of 7,500 accesses in the analyzed period. below is a list of the 10 most popular threads, or the topics that were most studied, in the rbbc: title opening date number of contributions introducing the members 15/11 84 meeting of community libraries 19/11 58 public policy for libraries 13/12 25 academic studies on community libraries 22/11 16 arca das letras – rural libraries 29/11 15 sustainability 26/11 14 comments and recommended books, videos, etc. 26/01 13 launch of the book collection campaign 23/11 12 personal accounts and experiences 22/11 10 appeal for books 26/11 09 vaga lume community library 01/12 09 list of community libraries 01/12 09 table 1: list of the 10 most popular forums in the rbbc source: http://rbbconexoes.ning.com [retrieved on 30/10/2010] the network currently lists 60 open forums for debate, the most popular of which is entitled “introducing the members,” in which each participant may introduce himself upon entering the network. this is followed by the forum “meeting of community libraries,” a space reserved for organizing an actual physical meeting for the members in the network, and then by the “public policy for libraries” forum, in which participants can discuss the need for the creation of guidelines and funding for public, community and school libraries in the country. another forum that has brought together interesting information concerns the topic of academic studies on community libraries; the space has become a reference point for new research in the field. the personal pages of the members are another space worth highlighting. it is from the personal homepage that conversations between the different actors in the rbbc occur, and this area had approximately 5,550 accesses. also noteworthy are the areas with audiovisual content – “videos” and “photos” – with 2,400 accesses. at present, the rbbc has 40 videos and 700 photos in its collection, all of which can be accessed by any of the participants in the network. finally, the “events” area, where participants can spread the word regarding activities that take place in their community libraries, has been accessed approximately 1,300 times. 5 reflections on the rbbc it is important to remember that the effects of any experience cannot be identified at the beginning of the process, but rather throughout the length of its duration. existing methodologies suggest the need to monitor an action for a given length of time and only then to evaluate its results and identify its effects. at the moment, we can only point to the first tendencies identified regarding the use of the rbbc, its appropriation and the involvement of its participants. given the 586 members that the rbbc has incorporated in the short time span of 10 months, it is clear that the idea of bringing together people interested in the topic “community libraries” was well received. this confirms the initial hypothesis that there were few open spaces for debate regarding this topic. the area reserved for forums is understood as one that will allow the development of discussions and debates based on topics proposed by the participants, thereby generating a real and effective exchange of information. after analyzing this area, we could attest to the existence of an excess of topics open for debate – in some cases, the topics repeated themselves. nevertheless, it is important to emphasize that, despite being a free and open space, the members did not lose their focus on the topic. all of the contributions were made to express concerns, present proposals, report experiences, present solutions to certain problems, answer questions asked by other members of the network and spread the word regarding actions that met with success in the community or media at large. there is a feeling that the forum section, as well as the section reserved for photos and videos, demand a certain level of control; alterations should be made in order to improve the discussion process. the idea is that if a participant proposes a topic that is already being discussed in any of the other open forums, the web administrator can send the person a message explaining that he or she should enter the open forum and post his or her message there. in this way, the person will be put in the right direction and integrated into the appropriate interest group. such a mechanism could also streamline and enrich the debates that are currently very fragmented. it is clear that sending photos and/or videos of the libraries and the projects and actions that the members undertake is much preferred by participants. there is no question that the ease with which one attaches an image or uploads a short film is greater than that of elaborating a text or answering a question proposed in a debate. hence, it makes sense that these were the tasks that were most incorporated by the participants. in a collaborative fashion, the rbbc participants are putting together a collection of photos and images, all of which are related to the topic, and this has turned the space into yet another source of material for researchers and laypeople interested in the matter. in addition to the debates in the forum section, contact between leaders of community libraries, students of library sciences, librarians, researchers and interested laypeople is frequent. in some cases, it is by way of individual messages that the participants prefer to share ideas and information regarding projects and processes that involve their personal experiences. in other words, the rbbc has become a medium for the establishment of ties between projects, institutions and people as well as between academia and society. it is important to emphasize that the administrators have thus far made very few interventions. some of the forums were reorganized so as to give continuity to the discussions and only two people had their access denied because they were using the network to send spam to the other members. all of the uploaded videos were screened and allowed on the network, since they were in keeping with the topic. as for the photos, only four failed to be accepted, as they were not directly or indirectly related to the group’s topic of interest. as a means to encourage debate and inform users of the tools available on the network, a newsletter was developed and sent to all members. the newsletter highlights ongoing discussions in the forums, comments on recently uploaded videos and photos, as well as tips to improve the performance of the network’s members. the group has also put serious effort into organizing a physical meeting at some point in the future. the idea is to bring the discussions from the network to the physical meeting and then continue the debates at a distance, on the network, as a cyclical, ongoing process. the aim is that the network will feed the physical meeting and vice versa. however, a physical meeting requires the formation of partnerships, which require a complex set of exchanges and should be established prudently and at the appropriate time. it is our hope that these support mechanisms not only help to make the network a concrete reality, but also enrich the internal relationships, thereby ensuring the project’s ongoing continuity, strength and enhancement. 6 final considerations with the creation of the rbbc, yet another opportunity has been established to effectively make use of information and communication technologies (icts) by an offline community – maintainers of community libraries in brazil. in this case, icts were used in a deliberate manner to serve as a communication medium for groups of people that currently work separate from one another with the aim of enhancing the exchange of information and creating new knowledge. the rede brasil de bibliotecas comunitárias, or rbbc, an open and dynamic social network, has allowed people involved in the project of creating reading spaces around the nation to share common interest and needs. one could say it is a potential environment for social integration. by way of the rbbc, associations between academic studies, institutionalized practices and independent and creative actions are triggered by average citizens, who have boldly taken on the challenge of dealing with the lack of access to information and reading material in this country. references assis, é. g. de. (2006). táticas lúdico-midiáticas no ativismo político contemporâneo. unpublished dissertation, universidade do vale do rio dos sinos, são leopoldo. retrieved may, 5, 2010, from http://pontomidia.com.br/erico/rodape/ericoassis-dissertacao.pdf  brasil. ministério da cultura; fundação getúlio vargas (2010). censo das bibliotecas públicas municipais, 2010. brasília: minc. carvalho, a. r. et al. (2007) apenas acesso participativo e universal ao conhecimento. congresso da sbc. anais do congresso da sociedade brasileira de computação, 27,  2247–2261. retrieved may, 5, 2010, from  www.sbc.org.br/bibliotecadigital/download.php?paper=681 castells, m. (1999). a sociedade em rede. são paulo: paz e terra. cultura em números: anuário de estatísticas culturais 2009.  (2009). brasília: minc. downing, j. d. h. (2002). mídia radical: rebeldia nas comunicações e movimentos sociais. são paulo: senac. retrieved may, 5, 2010, from   http://books.google.com.br/books?id=oqumpk1fcb4c&printsec=frontcover&dq=rebeldia+nas+comunica%c3%a7%c3%b5es+e+movimentos+sociais&ei=_36es_p3civeyat3x6tgaw&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false giddens, a. (1996). para além da esquerda e da direita. são paulo: unesp. gonzález gálvez, p.; rey martín, c. (2009). redes sociales como fuente de capital social: uma reflexón sobre la utilidad de los vínculos débiles. risti: revista ibérica de sistemas e tecnologias de informação, 3, 13-24. retrieved may, 5, 2010, from http://www.aisti.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=59&itemid=63 guindani, j. f. (2009, 2 junho). alienação  ou libertação? quem tem medo da internet? observatório da imprensa, e-notícias. retrieved may, 5, 2010, from http://www.observatoriodaimprensa.com.br/artigos.asp?cod=540eno001 ibge. (2009). acesso à internet e posse de telefone movel celular para uso pessoal. brasília: ibge. retrieved may, 5, 2010, from http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/presidencia/noticias/noticia_visualiza.php?id_noticia=1517&id_pagina=1 kauchakje, s. (2005). alternatives pour recomposer les liens sociaux  et la civilité dans les rapports sociétaires au brésil. revista res socialis, fribourg suisse, 24, 165-178. machado, e. c.  (2008). bibliotecas comunitárias como prática social no brasil. unpublished doctoral dissertation, escola de comunicação e artes, universidade de são paulo. marteleto, r. m. (2001). análise de redes sociais: aplicação nos estudos de transferência da informação. ciência da informação, brasília, 30(1), 71-81. retrieved may, 5, 2010, from  http://www.scielo.br/pdf/ci/v30n1/a09v30n1.pdf mclever jr., w.  (2005). uma informática comunitária para a sociedade da informação. in marques de melo, j. sathler, l. direitos à comunicação na sociedade da informação (pp. 64-102). são bernardo do campo: unesp.  retrieved may, 5, 2010, from  http://www.lucianosathler.pro.br/site/images/conteudo/livros/direito_a_comunicacao/65_102_direitos_a_comunicacao_informatica_comunitaria_mciver.pdf prado, g. m. (2009). biblioteca comunitária: território da memória, informação e conhecimento in: braga, g. m.; pinheiro, l. v. r. (org.).  desafios do impresso ao digital: questões contemporâneas de informação e conhecimento (pp. 365-386).    brasília : ibict. sugahara, c. r.; vergueiro, w.  (2010). aspectos conceituais e metodológicos de redes sociais e sua influência no estudo de fluxos de informação.  revista digital de biblioteconomia e ciência da informação, campinas, 7(2),102-117. retrieved may, 5, 2010, from  http://www.sbu.unicamp.br/seer/ojs/viewarticle.php?id=237 [1] web address: http://www.ning.com/ [2] web address: http://www.googleanalytics.com/ [3] web address: http://www.alexandria.com.br [4] countries ranked in order of number of visits: portugal, china, usa, argentina, angola, pakistan, chile, uruguay, germany, colombia, japan, france, italy, belgium, united kingdom, são tomé and príncipe, spain, senegal, cape verde, denmark, cuba, the netherlands and russia. [5] there are approximately 5.565 cities in brazil. the exact number of cities from which the website was accessed cannot be determined, since google analytics was unable to recognize the origins of 49 visits. [6] at home or in public centers. what are community wireless networks for? greta byrum, resilient communities program at new america. email: gretabyrum@gmail.com introduction community wireless networks (cwns) have long been a testing-ground for the precepts of community informatics (ci), defined as "a sustainable approach to community enrichment that integrates participatory design of information technology resources, popular education, and asset-based development to enhance citizen empowerment and quality of life" (stoecker, 2005). depending on their design, cwn projects may serve many of these goals in different ways; yet it depends on how the networks are built and used, and who is doing the building and using.i thus, ci scholars have asked fundamental questions about how to understand or define the "communities" of cwns: are they geographically or virtually composed and defined? and how do they function to build relationships, or to foster collective visioning and collaboration toward achieving collective goals that is, to build community? in his editorial in the journal of community informatics special issue "wireless networking for communities, citizens and the public interest," michael gurstein (2008) asks "whether there is a wireless community informatics beyond that of facilitating access. perhaps, the broader concept of a wireless ci is nothing more than a peculiar artifact arising from the circumstance that many of the early wireless innovators, while having somewhat parallel backgrounds to the early community networking innovators (progressive politics, university education, technical proficiency, youthful) often referred to themselves as 'community networkers'." this paper will evaluate claims about social and community benefits emerging from cwns by synthesizing the findings of three empirical research projects looking in-depth at the impact of particular networks. thought these studies come from different disciplines, each examines two fundamental questions: what, if any, social utility do these networks have beyond or by virtue of facilitating internet access; and what is the "community" of the cwn(s) examined. these studies have not previously been compared, since they are drawn from across communities of practice; yet comparison of their findings provides a framework to evaluate claims of broad social benefit emerging from cwns as well as to understand, leverage, and work from actual documented outcomes. practitioners seeking to design and implement networking projects, as well as policymakers in the us, europe, and developing world contexts searching for local connectivity solutions, can build realistic expectations by exploring the cwn efforts discussed here. additionally, this paper will introduce a collaborative research methodology used by the confine consortium that could be adapted to introduce a set of intentional, collective goals beyond broadband access into the practice and process of community networking. as we move into another era of investment in local wireless networking as a potential broadband solution, it is important to understand the successes and failures of past efforts, and to create a framework for evaluating social impact and finding the most suitable and appropriate use cases for this technology. background cwn advocates have projected benefits from digital inclusion to economic development that should emerge by virtue of creating free public wi-fi access (schuler, 1994,1996; antoniadis et al., 2008). yet in the 2008 joci special issue on wireless networking, tapia and ortiz's article demonstrates how, in practice, many municipal-community wireless projects did not live up the rhetoric that was employed to "sell" them to local governments and stakeholders. specifically, tapia and ortiz illustrate how the two cases they focus on (portland and tempe) foundered on the shoals of sustainability (in particular, lack of sufficient funds for maintenance and upgrades) and adoption (lack of interest or buy-in by intended beneficiaries). in these cases as in philadelphia, san francisco, santa clara, east palo alto, and other localities where local actors tried to provide free public wi-fi in the mid-2000s failures of sustainability and adoption ended the projects, in some cases with millions of (public) dollars and effort lost along the way. yet at the same time, many networks have thrived, mostly in europe. these include some of the largest and longest-standing cwns in the world: ii for example, guifi.net, at approximately 25,000 nodes and 15 years old, covering large swathes of catalonia, spain, and now and reaching into other parts of the world; the athens wireless municipal network, at 3000 nodes and 13 years old (awmn, 2014), covering athens and broad swathes of greece; freifunk berlin, at 12 years old and approximately 400 nodes; and wireless belgië, at 10 years old and approximately 700 nodes (data via avonts, braem, and blondia, 2013). none of these successful networks is municipal or city-led, though they tend to fall mostly within particular geographic areas and depend for expansion and maintenance on local offline populations, and in some cases are supported or leveraged by local municipalities. in fact, each of these networks depends on the efforts of a local volunteer workforce of technologically savvy individuals. all are also part of the confine (community networks for the future internet) consortium, a federated community network test bed and research effort supported by the european union's seventh research framework programme to explore and demonstrate the social and technological potential of cwns for practitioners, researchers, and policymakers. meanwhile, in the us, the obama administration is currently working with the national telecommunications and information agency (ntia) and representatives from other federal agencies, along with municipal stakeholders, to pilot and support muni-community broadband solutions. along with municipal governments and ngos, the us department of housing and urban development (hud) and other agencies are investing in local wireless along with other solutions, as privately supplied communications infrastructure has not been able to close the broadband gap: 28% of americans still do not have broadband access at home (ntia, 2014). as we move into another era of potential investment in local wireless networking as a potential solution to this problem, it is important to understand the successes and failures of past efforts, and to create a framework for evaluating their social impact across different fields of practice. a "bigger idea" for community wireless networks to sit inside data about cwns can be captured and analyzed in terms of infrastructure-nodes, users, and traffic-or in terms of collective action, organizational theory, dynamics of innovation, information theory, or common pool goods management; or in terms of diffused impact such as user participation in social, civic, educational, or economic activity. research on the impact and potential social benefits of cwns thus presents multiple challenges. existing literature tends to be scattered across multiple fields: primarily, communication studies; computer science; and economics and organizational theory. moreover, researchers face various challenges arising from the dynamics of interacting with-and methodically analyzing-the "communities" of cwns themselves. christian sandvig's (2012) study finds that researchers lack context on how to systematically approach the study of cwns-partly because the networks (and networkers) themselves have such a range of motivations. thus, sandvig points out that the way in which a researcher contextualizes cwns affects the questions she asks, the disciplinary methods she uses, and her conclusions: "while comparison across similar projects might be practically useful, all of these cases still beg for some larger idea to sit inside." sandvig goes on to classify the existing approaches to studying of cwns as: a cycle in the evolution of technologies and infrastructures (per sawhney, 2003), in which technologies created to fill gaps supersede the systems they were meant to supplement; an expression of a desire for professionalization, making particular "hobbyist" skill sets marketable; an example of user autonomy or protest, in which communities create networks to protest insufficient service in their area; or learning or innovation communities (von hippel 2005) user-driven affinity groups that enjoy tinkering with technology. the question of understanding and demonstrating the social value or future relevance of cwns-their "bigger idea"-may depend on synthesizing these contexts, with a better understanding of past successes and failures. it may be that cwns fit into various of sandvig's contexts-or all of them-over the course of their life cycles. it may be that they simultaneously represent some or all of these things to different participants. or it may be that researchers have yet to capture another, additional context or an even bigger idea for cwns to sit inside. yet as sandvig points out, without a more deliberately defined context, it is difficult to gauge what we should expect from cwns, and how tools of policy or practice can build from their actual social and technical benefits. currently, many practitioners especially those emerging from the confine consortium are crafting a policy framework based on the idea of cwns as a model common pool resource (baig, roca, navarro, and freitag, 2015). but without broader social participation, and without alignment between the social goals of community network organizers and the needs and practices of the broader public, it is hard to imagine how this will occur. the following synthesis of key case studies across different disciplines will provide a basis for integrating intentional community-building processes. these case studies are frequently cited among practitioners as useful investigations into the question of whether, and how, cwns can actually provide community-building benefits beyond provision of access. use #1: disciplining the market the history of community networking, dating back to the early days of the popular internet, shows an evolution not only of networking technologies themselves, but of the claims made about their attendant social benefits. as the internet gained popularity in the early 1990s, groups of users started creating internet-based communication platforms such as shared message databases and groupware. some observers wrote about the potential of this first wave of "community networks" as an almost ideally suited participatory medium for community and civic organizing (schuler, 1994 and 1996); yet many of the first networks focused primarily on providing access, with the assumption that social impact would follow. a responsive set of research suggested that early practitioners of "community networking" applied "technocratic" or "jeffersonian utopian" assumptions that novel uses of technology in themselves had the power to solve longstanding social problems (bar et al., 2004). many researchers asked whether cwns could actually add social capital to the communities they served (tonn et al., 2001; sandvig, 2004). another vector of impact is suggested by auray et al.'s 2003 report, commissioned as part of the european union's fifth research programme. the star (socio-economic trends assessment of the digital revolution) issue report a policy paper created to inform regulatory and allocation decisions represents an era in which the potential of community wireless networks was just being explored and several contextual assumptions about impact were first applied and critically examined. the study uses limited field research to shape recommendations to maximize the socioeconomic potential of cwns. the report analyzes the interaction between the social and technical components of existing cwns in order to understand not only how these networks emerge and take shape, but also how regulations on various levels, and actions on the part of local governments, could affect the development and impact of this infrastructure. the report's conclusions are based on four cases: researchers conducted face-to-face or telephone interviews with representatives from the citizens' network in brussels; the consume community in london, uk; paris sans fil in paris, france; and wireless lyon, france. the authors point out that case selection was "spontaneously limited by the open or closed nature of these communities. for instance, it seemed that very lively communities could have been analysed in greece…but our repeated approaches to their leaders did not meet with success." it is worth noting that of the four central cases examined in the star issue report, the citizens' network in brussels has been absorbed into wireless belgië; the consume network in london, uk has disappeared; paris sans fil in paris, france posted a last wiki entry in july 2007 saying it had been usurped by the mayor's municipal wireless network (paris sans fil, 2007); and wireless lyon has disappeared, though lyon now hosts a yearly conference on wireless and mobile computing (wimob). in fact, auray et al. find that while cwns often do not survive, their primary impact will be in disciplining or improving the practices of commercial providers. the report's case studies do not give a sense of why or how cwns offer any shared unique social value beyond this impact: the history of the adoption of technologies shows that initial not-for-profit uses can give way to more professional offerings based on market economy practices...even if these communities are in the end supplanted by industrialised, standardised services, they have already changed the perception of wireless networks and the demand for high-speed services. per sandvig's (2012) rubric, the star issue report thus places cwns within the context of user protest as part of a cycle in the evolution of technologies as a force of market correction. similarly, other researchers have argued that wireless networking technology could change the telecommunications landscape, giving communities new power to shape both industry and policymaking around telecommunications access (strover and mun, 2006). nevertheless, benefits or outcomes emerging from community wireless projects are limited to their ability to shape the market, not particular social outcomes they offer communities beyond internet access. use #2: building learning and innovation communities in the years following the star issue report, a body of research on the social potential of wireless networking as communication infrastructure built by and for communities again posited a suite of secondary community benefits emerging from wireless networking (meinrath 2005, powell and shade, 2006; cho 2008). this framework asserts that because community wireless infrastructure requires that users actually contribute to network design and construction by placing equipment on rooftops in their communities, the physical networks themselves are shaped by the process of social cooperation. thus some researchers argued that homegrown wireless networks would be more responsive to their users than traditional commercial networks (antoniadis et al., 2008). while this framework and approach would demonstrate the relevance of ci principles to cwns especially participatory design of information technology resources, asset-based development, and citizen empowerment some researchers warn of limitations to this kind of social impact (kavanaugh et al., 2005). in particular, maria bina (2007) applied organizational theory and the tools of political economy to understand the social impact of cwns. her analysis includes a wealth of empirical evidence examining the motivations of community networkers, drawn from three stages of research: an initial set of exploratory interviews with wireless community enthusiasts; statistical analysis of a survey effort distributed over the network listservs with assistance by participants; and finally, a complementary interview procedure to confirm survey findings. like the authors of the star report, bina discusses the difficulty of sampling community wireless participants in a systematic way: "getting access to the study population in order to detract a suitable sampling frame was challenging due to the fact that there is no documented or objective information regarding the actual number, the geographic distribution, and the contact details of wireless community members." thus, her quantitative analysis is drawn from only 106 survey responses from members of the athens wireless municipal network (98% male, mostly between the ages of 18-35) the very wireless networking community in greece that the star issue report authors were unable to engage, and a cwn which has to the current day survived the expansion of standardized commercial offerings in the same area. bina's analysis and interpretation find that "wireless communities are mobilized by highly interested individuals who receive intrinsic gratification from working with a new technology within an intimate space grouping together common-minded individuals with whom they socialize and commit to knowledge and resource sharing practices." she goes on to discuss the resulting introverted nature of wireless communities, questioning whether cwns have the capacity to create shifts in broader technological, economic, or social contexts, or whether they will simply remain a hobbyists' domain. the study's final interview stage produces further findings on the possible impact of community networking, suggesting that it can create some social goods, including knowledge diffusion and the expansion of connectivity into underserved areas. however, the production of social goods or impact, bina says, is discussed with unequal levels of enthusiasm among respondents. while some respondents spoke of social welfare goals in her interviews, concrete actions cited as contributing to progress towards them was limited. bina does not rule out the potential of cwns creating social benefits; in fact, she discusses the establishment of cooperative relationships with government agencies, municipal authorities, and academic institutions as a possible vehicle for positive impact. yet she points out that increasing an external focus on a diversity of social goods or other extrinsic goals might paradoxically undermine the central principle motivating participation and thus the sustainability of virtual innovation or learning communities like awmn: individual and social enjoyment of the process of collaborating with like-minded individuals: "should this divergence dynamic strengthen, it will challenge wireless communities' self-sustainability capacity." use #3: pioneering low-cost or free municipal wireless access models like bina's analysis, alison powell's 2008 study draws on engagement with a well-established community network: ile sans fil (isf) in montreal. it is also the only one of the examined research studies that takes a ci approach, asking whether isf has succeeded in its self-articulated goal of building communities by building networks. like bina, powell used surveys distributed over the network's group listserv followed by interviews to compile empirical evidence on the network's successes and failures in achieving its social goals. powell further employed participant observation, identifying herself as a member of the community, thus applying a "necessary subjectivity" to her observations. her engagement with the isf community was long-term, and her presence in it provided the key to her ability to draw participation from organizers and members. while bina used the tools of organizational theory to examine the motivations of community networkers, powell focuses on questions around the co-development of technologies and cultures by examining how concepts of "community" and "technology" are interrelated in the discourse and practice of community networking groups. she posits that the crucial step for community networker organizers, or "geek-publics," is to broaden their self-defining "argument-by-technology" about the benefits of connectivity to serve as a broader platform for participation by surrounding "community publics." powell finds that while isf (unlike awmn in bina's analysis) has a coherent vision of the social and economic development impact they imagine will emerge from the community wireless network in montreal, that vision diverges from the way that users ultimately employ the infrastructure. while organizers hoped that the network would enable users to build physical community and social links, in practice users tended to circumvent the intentions of the network design and simply use the network for access to free, anonymous wifi service. further, powell finds that while isf perceives itself as collaborating and engaging cooperatively with the broader community, many members of the "community public" do not experience it that way. rather, like bina, powell suggests that isf's most significant long-term social impact is in the mobilization and development of its "geek public"-much like bina's "highly interested individuals who receive intrinsic gratification from working with a new technology." in terms of economic development, powell finds, like auray et. al, that the most significant impact is in disciplining and improving the practices of the industry and the model of service provision-as one participant reports, "we have done a great job of domesticating free wifi in montreal." powell reports that by the end of her study, ils sans fils, like paris sans fils, was poised for a takeover by the municipal government, though in the case of isf she calls it a "gentle institutionalization" implemented through public funding for staff to manage network volunteers. thus while isf has failed to deliver on its stated ambitions, its impact is demonstrable on both the municipal and wi-fi service provision models. the current opportunity: confine, collaboration, and ci the confine consortium takes as one of its core goals the development of sustainability strategies for cwns. it is also explicitly a cross-disciplinary community, composed of researchers and practitioners, that is analyzing itself and as such, has customized its own methods for data-gathering. rather than adopting a methodology from one particular discipline, confine partners have employed tools often used by cwn innovators in particular, collaborative online editing tools such as piratepad and etherpad to collectively both design and answer research questions. in 2013, confine partners jeroen avonts, bart braem, and chris blondia shared collaborative dynamic online document asking about challenges for cwns over group listservs and left the responses open, allowing respondents to modify questions and frameworks, draw comparisons, or find suggestions for strategies or practices in others' responses. the researchers created three initial categories of topics relating to the practices and challenges of community networking: social, economic, and legal challenges. they then posted the text pad on a public site. word about the online conversation spread via informal relationships and mailing lists; participants commented into the text pad, responding to each other and adding new categories: for example, contributors forked the category defined simply as "legal challenges" into organizational, geographical, technical, and legislative and regulatory challenges. thus the research framework and the knowledge base were co-designed with respondents, much in the way that open-source communities iterate and fork source code on collaborative platforms such as github. the resulting document is useful for research purposes, but also creates a shared knowledge base useable by the practitioners themselves (navarro, braem, and dimogerontakis, personal correspondence, 2014), and allows the community to articulate shared goals and strategies around these challenges. this method of engagement reduces some of difficulties found by researchers in engaging inward-looking communities, though the informal outreach methods may also reinforce insular tendencies and limit participation to "geek publics." however, this research perhaps goes deepest in identifying a set of sustainability challenges and clarifying processes and strategies for addressing these challenges across several cwn groups. confine partners have since responded by documenting, adapting, and expanding a set of sustainability principles, tools, and strategies first developed by the guifi.net community. the resulting documentation was presented at the ictd2015 conference by confine partners roger baig, ramon roca, leandro navarro, and felix freitag. perhaps the greatest contribution that ci researchers can make to catalyzing broader social impact from cwns would be to create a diversity of specializations among learning or innovation communities using collaborative tools like the online document editor deliberately expanding the pool of participants and targeting the initial questions to address identified community-wide issues or goals. a collaborative process outlining the potential uses of a new network to address community challenges explicitly beyond broadband access can move among different online and offline platforms, providing bridges among different communities. this would help new community and municwns better address the needs, interests, and practices of more diverse publics. it could also create an intentional shift toward participatory design of information technology assets and citizen engagement. discussion: the current opportunity the three empirical research studies examined above, chosen as explicit tests of the extrinsic and broader social benefits claimed for cwns, show similar findings across their different disciplinary contexts. while ci-aligned outcomes such as participatory community development and citizen empowerment do not emerge simply by virtue of the establishment of a cwn, examined networks have had success disciplining the broadband market, expanding access to underserved areas, fostering innovation communities, and demonstrating alternative service models and types of partnerships. yet also across all case studies analyzed, the "community" of the cwns tends to be insular not inclusive of broader publics beyond providing internet access and in fact the inward-facing nature of cwn communities appears to be one key to their sustainability. in order for networking communities to keep from becoming insular and thus having limited socioeconomic for host communities impact beyond provision of access, cwn organizers must engage and strategically align their goals with broader publics and political bodies. in her recommendations, alison powell suggests that, in order to aim for social goals that are better aligned with the practices and needs of broader place-based communities of users, network organizers must create: ...different kinds of collaborations to prevent new kinds of divides from forming between educated, professional users of wifi and other people in the local community… as complex as the internal relationships may become, policy-makers and community organizers should attempt to leave space for visionaries, idealists, artists and geeks to think, talk, and hack their way into new publics. what diversity of innovation and vision beyond access to networked technology could be supported by collaborative networking projects? in fact, there is an opportunity to change the insular nature of many virtual networking communities by expanding the focus of "geek publics" beyond technology to include other affinity-based communities that incorporate technology as a tool: for example, arts and media-making, community organizing and development, or resilience and preparedness. following bina's findings, one key to sustainability for cwns may in fact be participant self-selection and the enjoyment of crafting a platform for hobbyist knowledge-sharing-even if that knowledge sharing is deliberately cross-disciplinary and extends beyond facilitating access to other socioeconomic, sociopolitical, or cultural goals. a ci framework can provide historical context and tools for information-based community development in order to help networked publics self-define, set goals for broad and diverse social benefits in the context of past successes and failures, and potentially, build hybrid networked communities that collaborate to innovate. using the synthesis presented here, practitioners have an opportunity to build from the documented uses and capacities of cwns to create wireless cis, and to advocate for policies and investments that will support broad community benefits. organizers who understand social outcomes can build on the proven ability of cwns to shape markets, expand access to underserved populations, and most importantly to explore new kinds of partnerships and collaborations in order to forge new affinity-based innovation and learning communities. to leverage that potential, cwns must be seen as a tool or platform in service of a broader vision defined by an intentionally defined (and intentionally inclusive) community rather than building network infrastructure as a goal unto itself. tools such as the collaborative text pad used by the confine consortium or even routers, wires, and devices -are simply tools: it is the intention and composition of the organizers and innovators that makes the difference. acknowledgements this work was supported by the confine integrated project. endnotes i for the purpose of this analysis, "community wireless network (cwn)" refers to community-led broadband networking projects that use 802.11 wireless protocols and equipment across substantial network segments, even if they also use wired links. ii many of these projects now incorporate both wired and wireless technologies, though they have historically emerged from the community wi-fi movement discussed in joci's 2005 special issue. references antoniadis, p. et al. community building over neighborhood wireless mesh networks. technology and society magazine, ieee 27(1), pp48-56. auray, n., beauvallet, g., charbit, c., fernandez, v. 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(2001). community networks or networked communities? social science computer review, 19(2), 201-212. visions, participation and engagement in new community information infrastructures john m carroll, michael a. horning, blaine hoffman, craig h ganoe, harold r. robinson, mary beth rosson pennsylvania state university abstract through the past seven years, our research group has engaged in a participatory action research collaboration with a variety of community partners to explore understandings, possibilities, and commitments for a new community networking infrastructure in state college, pennsylvania. this paper describes a case study of multifaceted information technology infrastructures, and of collaborating with the plethora of actors and institutions that are stakeholders in such infrastructures. information technology projects increasingly depend upon the commitment and energies of a great diversity of stakeholders. understanding better how such broad projects move forward is critical to society. keywords: participatory action research, information infrastructures, community networks, location-based services, feed aggregation. introduction community networks are ensembles of online tools and information for users who live in proximity to one another. early community networks employed relatively simple text-oriented messaging such as bulletin boards and email lists. they posted local opinions and classified ads, but also focused on educational equity, minority cultural preservation, needs of the homeless, public health, domestic violence, and political dissent (schuler, 1996). they tended to be created and maintained by hobbyists, who often creatively adapted equipment and approaches eschewed by more mainstream computer installations. these efforts made information technology into a civic activity, as contrasted to a professional service or consumer product. in the latter 1990s, community networks migrated into the web, and experienced a brief and intense period of growth. they exploited the enhanced accessibility of the internet, and the expressive power and technical simplicity of early html. there were ironies in this; for example, posting community information became easier, but engaging in community discussion became less easy. but the internet of web 1.0 rapidly attracted commercial interests on a global scale. in just a few years time, most websites of local merchants and nonprofits pointed to their corporate/headquarters portals. many specialized sites developed. government information migrated to government sites. tourism information migrated to tourism sites. by the early 2000s, the concept of community network had fragmented into a chaos of redundant and commercial or semi-commercial portals, often carelessly maintained. we believe that the overarching objectives of community networking are to enhance end-user participation in the design of community technology, and in the production and exchange of community information. however, the context for community networking has changed: user expectations about internet services are far more demanding. people expect up-to-date information, and value-added interactions. a new generation of community networks incorporating wireless access, location-based services, syndication and feeds, recommendation and sharing, and other web 2.0 functionalities is at hand. yet, creating community network infrastructures that can support richer interactions and dynamic information requires tools that are far more sophisticated than html editors. end-user stewards of community information and technology often lack the required tools and skills. since 2003 our research group has participated in an extended participatory action research project (whyte, 1989) with a variety of community partners in the town of state college, pennsylvania. state college is a town in the united states with a population of some 42,000 living in the rural center of pennsylvania; another 40,000 people live in surrounding townships. the town of state college is immediately adjacent to the main campus of pennsylvania state university. in this project, we have worked closely with some twenty community non-profit groups, including the local food bank, sustainable development groups, a group that builds housing for the economically disadvantaged, a child welfare group, a group that coordinates local emergency response, the local public access television station, the local heritage society, local arts groups, the downtown improvement group, the regional library, as well as the local schools and municipal government. as a participatory action research project, our goal has been to learn while doing; to directly cooperate with community members and institutions to facilitate community interests and activities with respect to information and technology; and in so doing to learn more about possible models and techniques for community-oriented and community-based technology. we work closely with community partners to understand what our neighbors do, what they value, and what they want to do. we jointly analyze problems and opportunities, and plan and carry out initiatives. in this paper, we present a narrative overview of this project, organized as three activity threads that describe how we facilitated (1) a community learning process to help community members think about technology possibilities with respect to their own goals and interests, and begin to develop skills required to interact with these; (2) a series of empirical requirements studies and prototyping efforts exploring more concretely how community members could appropriate new technologies, such as location-based wireless services and feed aggregation; and (3) a strategic planning process to help community leaders envision new infrastructure possibilities, recognize their stakes in these possibilities, and become committed stakeholders in the planning. each of these activity threads has allowed us to enlist key community allies. the three activity threads enable, support, and enrich one another. taken together, they suggest an emerging “model” for constructing multifaceted social and institutional infrastructures, integrating community technology and community activity, and enhancing civic participation and engagement. community learning one thread of our project is community learning. in 2003, many community groups had developed web pages to enhance their visibility to the larger community, as well as to organize specific functions such as making announcements and receiving donations. with us national science foundation support, we organized a 4-year project to leverage these efforts into a community-wide informal learning process about information technology. we investigated how community groups were organizing themselves to articulate goals, to learn skills, and to institutionalize effective practices with respect to information technology, particularly the novel technologies emerging through the web. we had a specific interest in investigating whether and how groups might want to incorporate collaborative interactions and services into their web sites; this derived in part from our research interests in web-based collaboration (e.g., ganoe et al., 2003). to make the project manageable and focused, we structured it into three cycles of 2-year partnerships. in each cycle, we recruited four local nonprofits to work with us; they reflected on how they were currently using the web, what was going well or poorly, and identified key information technology tasks they would like to accomplish. we also asked them to think about the organizational roles and processes they would need to sustain a learning process that could help to address such challenges in the future. in return, we helped them reflect and plan, and we helped them address specific technology needs. the outcomes from our community learning investigation varied through the years. early on, we documented fascinating examples of how even technologically sophisticated groups were often disempowered with respect to their own information technology. for example, a sustainable community planning and development group centered on the local water ecosystem (spring creek) had hired a local web designer. this contractor created a website design that the group considered a cliché (emphasizing images of frogs, grasses, and a pond), and that did not convey their mission (farooq et al. 2007). they were unhappy, and refused to even allow the site to go public because the pages used bamboo in its background – “an invasive species […] stuff we pull out”. they also felt powerless; the designer hosted their datasets and other information on his server, and was not responsive to their concerns. in another example, we discovered that one of our partners was securing its database by isolating from the internet the machine that hosted the database. this was effective, but also made the database more cumbersome to access and maintain. some of the challenges we observed among the local nonprofits were management issues. thus, many groups had no technology plan whatsoever. their reasoning was that it did not make sense to plan for technology when they had so few resources to invest in it. most of the groups relied on volunteers as their webmasters and system administrators, but volunteers tend to come and go in nonprofit groups. one group we worked with was still using a database that no one currently in the group understood how to maintain. also, some of the challenges we observed were identity issues: one group leader told us flatly that no one joins a local nonprofit group to manipulate software. (see merkel et al., 2007). the learning episodes had both shortand long-term implications. in the short-term, members of our partner groups became more comfortable, literate, and skilled with respect to web technologies like html. for example, we assisted the sustainable development group by introducing low-tech approaches like sketching and scenarios to envision the website they wanted (one that emphasized a wider range of environmental impact issues, such as storm water runoff). they were able to control these media to better specify what they wanted from a web design, and eventually to build their own more satisfying version of a website (fig. 1).  in the longer term, the groups experienced greater autonomy and control of their own web information technology, and began to develop practices that could sustain transformation. this group subsequently decided to build technology-related knowledge management practices within the group itself, reducing its future dependence on outside technical experts. the group began to maintain a record of website management activities, so that future volunteers could more easily and reliably learn to maintain the website. fig. 1: before/after images of spring creek website we also helped to organize a series of community information technology workshops (citws), both to recruit more partners and to disseminate our findings and recommendations to the larger community. at these events, we and other community members provided tutorials and demonstrations of new technologies and approaches. there have been five such workshops: october 2003, october 2004, august 2005, august 2006, and april 2010, with a sixth scheduled for october 2011. the first four citws progressed from fairly small events that were focused on recruiting partner organizations and sharing results, to broad discussions of information technology needs and resources of community nonprofit organizations, including half-day and full-day tutorials on new technologies (see carroll, bach, rosson, merkel, farooq & xiao, 2008 for details on citws 1-4). the first citw focused on helping potential partners to problematize information technology and to share their ideas and goals. we reviewed projects we had previously completed in the blacksburg electronic village (carroll, 2012), and demonstrated new web technologies. the content of the succeeding citws highlighted the information technology achievements and plans of the state college community. in some cases, these were particular designs, such as the revised web site for the sustainable development group. in other cases, these were organizational practices to better ensure an it learning process that would enable a group to address design and technology management challenges in the future. from this work, we identified a series of organizational learning patterns (carroll & farooq, 2007; kase et al., 2010). for example, as mentioned above, the sustainable development group developed management practices to create better documentation, to enhance organizational learning. this is especially critical for community nonprofits, which necessarily depend on volunteer members for critical information technology tasks. however, volunteers are not always it professionals, and there is high turnover among volunteers. we observed a pattern we called scaffolded documentation in which key knowledge assets are identified and minimally documented. this pattern applies recursively:  if knowledge assets not yet documented come to light, a starting set of documentation can be generated. if knowledge assets are inadequately documented with respect to some current need, their documentation can be (minimally) enhanced to meet that need. this pattern is unlike the comprehensive information management practices one might find in the commercial or government world, but it is robust and efficient in the local nonprofit context. more recent citws have had an expanded agenda, looking more broadly at community-level planning processes for it infrastructures along with enabling tools and skills. at the 2006 citw we discussed results from a community survey (carried out in spring 2006) that showed that while the vast majority of community groups do have a strategic plan, most do not engage in strategic planning for technology; most do not have a budget line item for technology; and most have no paid technology support staff. twice as many respondents were dissatisfied as satisfied with the technology training possible in their organization. and by far, information management and website design were identified as the the biggest challenges facing community organizations.  a major theme in the 2006 citw was skills and concepts for content management systems, joomla in particular. several tutorial sessions were provided as well as a discussion of whether and how the community might organize to adopt and support content management systems. the most recent citw focused on how web 2.0 tools might support common organizational tasks, as well as enabling groups to  reach out to the community in a more effective fashion. for example, google’s online tools for documents and calendars were demonstrated as lightweight ways to accomplish collaborations and communication within an organization. tools and services for creation of rss & calendar feeds were also demonstrated as a way to publicize the issues and events of these organizations, and to streamline this through services like facebook and twitter. while these web 2.0 services are in personal use by many web-savvy digital natives, the idea of interlinking these services to better achieve community information and outreach goals is not something these community organizations have been considering. for them, maintaining an it infrastructure along with an online presence is often experienced as one more demand on already limited resources. with live presentations of the lightweight configurations needed to create targeted and effective web mashups, we introduced web 2.0 tools that not only are of value to individual organizations but also serve as building blocks for improved information sharing within the community. looking back, a key to the citw process has been the involvement of anchor community institutions, for example the regional public library, the local public access media (created in the us initially as outputs of regulatory structures for cable television, and similar to open channels in european countries), and a set of downtown businesses (via the downtown state college improvement district, dscid). an important factor in building and sustaining this long-lived and broad community learning process is a stable cohort of individual actors: from 2003 on, we have been collaborating with many of the same community leaders. ideally, local government should be a central stakeholder in the community’s technology learning and infrastructure planning. the borough of state college was directly involved in the planning process for the 2006 citw, and part of the event was held in the borough hall. however, the primary actors in local government can change abruptly and organizational memory can be lost. local elections in november 2006 brought in new supervisors who had not participated in previous citw processes, were largely unaware of what was involved, and were skeptical about the role the borough should play in planning for local it infrastructures given the availability of commercial service providers. since 2006, the borough government has played only a minor role in the citw process. in summary, we learned that community groups face diverse and significant challenges with respect to information technology. they are poorly resourced for information technology because they are poorly resourced in general. for the same reason, they lack planning and management practices for technology, and knowledge management practices in general. they often lack specific technical skills and knowledge because they rely on the unpredictability of volunteering. however, we found that with modest support, the groups we partnered with were eager and creative in adapting their practices. through the citw process we observed that nonprofit groups were very receptive to opening up a community discussion about technology skills and practices, unmet challenges, and new possibilities.  technology explorations the second thread in our project is a series of empirical requirements studies and prototyping efforts that have explored how community members might react to and appropriate new technologies (e.g., aggregation of local community information, and location-based, mobile, and wireless services). in the summer of 2006, we participated in a series of webinars produced by the james s. and john l. knight foundation and intel corporation examining wireless infrastructures as an approach to providing pervasive internet access to urban communities, with a particular focus on the knight-supported wireless philadelphia project. working with both knight and intel, we planned a complementary community wireless project in state college, to explore the new civic affordances of wireless community networks, such as volunteering-on-the-fly for community service, place-based discussions of community issues, and place-based access to community heritage information (carroll & ganoe 2008; carroll & rosson, 2008). we carried out a series of interviews, surveys, and focus group discussions with members of community groups (burge et al., 2009). we observed a high level of interest in our scenarios, but also apprehension about the perceived difficulty of managing mobile interactions. we concluded that we needed to provide people with direct experiences of emerging new technologies.  the resulting technology explorations have included participatory design work with community leaders as well as public field trials of design prototypes within the community. to help community members visualize and obtain a concrete sense of how technology could support community activities, we developed prototypes that presented information about community events with a focus on mobile, location-sensitive presentation and interaction. in one case, we partnered with the central pennsylvania festival of the arts, a group which produces both a five-day summer festival (of the same name) and a one-day new year’s eve celebration (“first night”) annually, so that we could understand how significant community events are planned and organized. we chose to work around these major festival events because they evoke a critical mass of community participation. working from an open-source wiki engine (jspwiki), we developed a prototype that offered an interactive calendar of events, where visitors could see what activities were coming up in the next few hours, search events by time and location, and visit the individual pages of events to read additional information, view pictures, or share comments with others. this prototype was accessible on the web or on any device with an internet connection; the presentation was simplified for fast loading and minimal clutter for small mobile device displays.  once we had developed an initial prototype, we conducted field trials of the wiki-based tool during two popular community events: the 2008 central pennsylvania festival of the arts in the summer and the first night state college 2009 activities on new year’s eve.  community members were made aware of the prototype, and we recruited a small number to take handheld devices with them during these events so that they could try out the prototype and provide feedback. while this early prototype presented benefits to the community members who participate in these community events, it was not without its limitations.  the database of information about the events (time, location, descriptions) was manually compiled and entered (by us) and thus was not easily editable by the public. wiki pages could address an event or events, but users had to use the special wiki syntax we had developed to specify the event’s time, categories, location, etc. for these to appear on the summary calendar pages, to be searchable or to have map-related capabilities. furthermore, because the prototype was aimed at specific community events it did not yet reflect a model for long-term use or community integration that could increase awareness and appropriation by community members. the next iteration of the prototype addressed some of these drawbacks. we partnered with statecollege.com, a local commercial portal for news, events, business information, and so forth for the state college area. statecollege.com already hosted a calendar that citizens could use to publicize local community events. while statecollege.com was a commercial endeavor, its interest in promoting the information needs of our community partners made some type of collaborative partnership attractive. moving from our wiki platform, we integrated our mobile event prototype design with their desktop-oriented community calendar. while functionally similar to the wiki-based application, the mobile event tools we developed in partnership with the statecollege.com calendar enabled users to submit events that are merged into the database. once in the database, these events appear on the calendar, and are integrated within the statecollege.com site, thus inheriting mobile and desktop views, user commenting, and search. in short, we merged our prototype’s features with theirs and built on this to not only better achieve our aim but also to improve their community calendar. this prototype was field tested during the 2009 central pennsylvania festival of the arts. one contrast between our first wiki-based system and the new prototype was that calendar events were now editable only by the person who originally submitted the event (and site administrators). one positive was that other community members did submit new events related to the arts festival, but a downside was that some entries had errors that could no longer be fixed by our team or the central pa festival of the arts staff, because they were not entered by us. while we could email statecollege.com with fixes (for example, locational directions to an on-campus event in a building instead pointed to an open field), this process took time and some issues did not get corrected before the event. fig. 2: first night 2010 mobile design – event list and awareness notification (left); event details, directions and comments (center left); search page that includes keyword search capabilities and location awareness features (center right); and map view of search results (right). overall, we felt the prototypes were evolving in the right direction to support community activities, but we still needed to explore more options for leveraging technology. we conducted one final iteration with the revised prototype as part of the first night state college 2010 website itself. first night 2010 was another community festival similar to the central pa festival of the arts. this time we did not partner with statecollege.com; this allowed us to work directly with the first night state college database and integrate features for enhanced viewer awareness. in retrospect, one conflict between the vision we developed with our non-profit community partners and our partnership with statecollege.com was that the latter understandably saw ownership of the data on their site as part of their business model. while clearly for the community, a moderated calendar is still not really by and of the community. we also felt that there was room for improvement in developing a prototype into something that more exactly met the needs and opportunities of a community wireless network. part of the basic rationale for wireless access is that the network use can occur in many different locations, and these many different settings may cause different activities to be possible or useful. taking location-sensitive development and community ownership of information as two points of design re-focusing, we began creating an updated prototype. we were still interested in the opportunities for community network use of mobile technologies, but we shifted to community usage scenarios that make more direct use of web 2.0 services. keeping in mind our aim to evoke and support a wide variety of community interests and goals, we focused on the potential impact of real-time information feeds, from both internet-based and local community organizations or individuals. we also generalized our exploration of location-specific services, such that the location-specificity would apply to multiple forms of community information, not just calendar events. a primary concern in this was to enable various individuals and groups within a community to develop, share and maintain information as part of a community system. we support the aggregation process through web information standards for web feeds (e.g. rss, atom), which allow us to pass up-to-date information from a source to a viewer. we have recently begun to explore the usefulness of these aggregated feeds of community-related information as a means of gathering and presenting diverse information from across a community in one central location. fig. 3:. civicinity news feed page (left) and arts festival calendar (right). the current prototype – civicinity – leverages this simple concept of feed aggregation (fig. 3). feeds push content from a web-based source to readers, so they provide regulars updates as the source updates its content; feed technologies have been widely adopted by all sorts of outlets, including professional media, amateur bloggers, and social networking systems like facebook. this relatively simple concept gave us considerable community participation power, as our system could now provide access to all sorts of relevant community information. using the rss or atom standards, any web-accessible site can syndicate its content automatically, making it available to clients without having to publish multiple versions or multiple times. civicinity uses these standards to gather news and stories published by a wide variety of community organizations, groups, and individuals, aggregating them in one place. we also included calendar updates, so as to expand the coverage of the shared information and to support our earlier interest in location-specific event information. calendar information sharing is supported by the increasingly popular icalendar format that handles updates in a manner similar to feeds. thus we used rss, atom and ical, to develop a site that aggregates a wide variety of information from across the community in one location. the information presented is composed of stories, news, events, and posts made by the community, eliminating the need for our team to manually add information, or for community members to submit individual updates for re-publication. civicinity is now a one-stop shop for community news, community events, as well as convenient access to the sites and organizations that generate this information. currently we are expanding our technology explorations with civicinity. for example we have prototyped new features that allow viewers to customize their interactions with available community information. entries are labeled and categorized by source type, allowing for easy discrimination among professional media such as local newspapers, government outlets such as the centre county government, and sources affiliated with the university such as penn state live. by making use of these categories, readers may choose to explore feeds of a similar type, for instance accessing less recent stories that are not shown in the default view.  civicinity users who authenticate (log in) can also select specific feeds to see or not see.  additionally, readers can share community information entries with other members of their online social networks or to their email contacts.  we are currently conducting a series of laboratory experiments to study the effect of these design choices on users’ reactions to the site, and in particular their perceptions of the value of community news and the efficacy of the community in meeting its goals. infrastructure planning after the third citw workshop, a group of community leaders from the regional library, the public access television, and a child welfare group initiated a planning process directed at creating a more continuous community learning mechanism and a more comprehensive information infrastructure for nonprofits, and for the community in general. these efforts were important in helping to organize and realize the next citw. they also helped to focus community discussion about information infrastructures. thus, after the third citw, there was a concerted effort to engage the municipal government of state college to coordinate development of an infrastructure. the james s. and john l. knight foundation, a u.s.-based organization which supports innovation in journalism, media and community engagement, offered to support this initiative under its knight communities program (www.knightfoundation.org). unfortunately, after a local election, state college turned strongly away from playing this coordinating role. the fourth citw initiated a discussion of developing and supporting a standard content management system (cms) configuration for local nonprofits. after our fifth citw workshop in 2010, a group of community partners including the regional public library, local public access media, and our youth services bureau met to discuss the currency of local information sources and the concept of a more comprehensive community calendar. this led to the idea of developing software that would support a wide variety of feed types in order to maximize adoption from our local non-profit groups. for our lab, this meant that we developed software that would aggregate “news” from both rss and atom feeds pushed out from various community websites (i.e. as already described for the civicinity prototype). in addition, we developed a calendar aggregator designed to collect ical feeds, which are supported by such projects as google calendar, apple ical, ms outlook, and ibm lotus notes. we pursued the information aggregation approach for multiple reasons. first, we recognized that the solution to a robust community calendar was not to simply gather and present local community information via a portal, but instead work toward a more dynamic vision of continuous collection, where the information we present is created and broadcast from a wide variety of community sources. the benefit of this is first that non-profit groups would not have to visit and update yet another ‘community calendar;’ instead they simply push their information updates using the technologies on our site. second, we saw that the same principles could be used to aggregate local content from non-profit organizations, and we felt that non-profit messages would be more likely to be read by members of the community if they were located in spaces that were information rich. part of the challenge for smaller non-profits, in other words, is that they often have just a few items of “news” and “events” to promote each year. in our discussions with our community partners we decided that a centralized calendar that housed all of these items would be a richer source of information than the sparse, disaggregated information that was currently available for citizens at multiple non-profit websites. as a result, our research team spent the next several months developing the web-based civicinity prototype to meet these objectives. our prototype contained 43 local feeds from a wide variety of information sources, including local professional media, non-profit groups such as the local food bank and red cross, local schools, independent bloggers and local government. one early finding that came from this iterative process of developing a prototype and discussing these designs with our community partners was the realization that the information design needed some sort of filtering mechanisms. we soon realized that there were significant differences in the number of times that each of these organizations updated their own content. the food bank, for example, might release an announcement for an event weeks in advance, while the local newspaper updated twice a day. when all of these feeds were aggregated together, it quickly became apparent that the more regularly updated feeds would push other important events off the page. as a result, we designed the presentation of the aggregated information such that they were distributed into different sections of our page that we called “breaking news”, “community news”, and “penn state university news”. the goal was to not “bury” the less frequent updates within the steady stream of the more regular updates. our monthly meetings focused on both software design issues and the larger goal of developing a plan for implementing the software on a community wireless network. at this point, our group faced the challenge of building a network without local bborough council support. on october 6, 2008 our local bborough council met to discuss prior plans to implement a wireless network in the downtown area. at that time, the council received a resolution to discontinue planning and development of a municipal wireless network, based on information they had received that the private sector was expanding wireless access, albeit primarily private access, to parts of the borough. as a result, council members voted unanimously to suspend the project. in our additional correspondence with local borough it employees, we learned that the bborough council decided not to move forward with these plans in part because a recent survey conducted by the borough showed that most downtown residents in downtown already have access to high speed internet. at the monthly meetings with our non-profit partners, we discussed this decision and determined that part of our initial focus must thus be to demonstrate the value of community wireless access, i.e. beyond simply ensuring internet access to residents. we agreed that the project should focus on three immediate concerns. first, we envisioned that a community wireless network downtown should provide new opportunities for non-profit organizations, businesses and local government to interact with both community members and visitors. second, we also recognized that such a network would be used by a variety of wireless technologies accessing our network with different tasks in mind. based on this observation, we began to explore designs that would support both a mobile and desktop version of our site. we also began to explore the potential of geo-location services. the interest in geo-location grew out of the recognition that location information about events could enhance civic, social and economic interests and support new kinds of interactions on mobile computing platforms. for instance, individuals who view our information might be more ready to volunteer for local activities near them. they could also obtain directions to activities, or track news events occurring near places they frequent. we also discussed the potential for location-based advertising that could be of benefit to the local businesses participating as stakeholders in this planning process. it is important to observe that our community partners are not commercially motivated, but nonetheless have seen the potential for a collective venture between local business and non-profits, as a means for developing a sustainable community wireless network. a final goal expressed at these meetings focused more directly on what might be a long-term sustainable model for a community wireless network. our members expressed two areas of concern. first, there were technical questions relevant to the hosting and maintenance of such a network. most of our community partners have it expertise and are already spread quite thin in their respective positions. many work full time to support their specific organizations, while also volunteering additional services for other groups in the community. while they were eager to lend support to the initial development of a network, they knew that plans should take into consideration long-term support. in addition to this concern, our members also recognized that a project of this scale would need a business model that supports both implementation and sustainability of the network. routers, isp providers, and page updates all incur some costs, and our stakeholders questioned how we would sustain the infrastructure. given these concerns, the members of the planning group recommended that we discuss our plans and the civicinity prototype with members of the business community, who might see the commercial potential of a wireless network and who would perhaps be amenable to supporting larger non-profit goals. business members in our downtown area are members of a local non-profit known as the downtown state college improvement district (dscid).  the dscid promotes the interests of local businesses downtown and also works towards advertising and maintaining a positive image for downtown state college to attract visitors and promote community.  as a result, we approached the executive director of dscid to discuss interest in working with our other non-profit partners on the project. the dscid director saw in our project the potential to advance his own organizational mission. since those initial meetings we have collaborated with him to craft a resolution of support for our civicinity plan from the dscid board of directors, and will continue with the board’s support to obtain a resolution of support from the state college borough council. it is important to note that his goals for a community network were very different from our non-profit partners, but that both groups of stakeholders saw the potential of a cooperative agreement. for the dscid, a wireless network had the potential to meet two overarching needs. first, it could increase the time that individuals spent downtown once they were there, as they used our network in various cafes and restaurants to locate services, identify sales, and perhaps discover reasons to soon return. second, the director discussed a need to make it easier for individuals to visit the downtown area, given the concerns such as finding parking. we discussed at this point the idea of developing parking availability on our public network and of incorporating public transportation schedules. we also began to discuss commercial activities on the network such as location-based advertising that could leverage the location-aware features of mobile devices and new browser standards that would allow the businesses to target customers using our network at a nearby location. in addition, we considered the potential uses of a wireless network for providing multi-day updates from local restaurants and other establishments that would be interested in promoting sales and daily specials. after these initial meetings with our community partners, we created a scenario-based survey presenting the envisioned potential social, economic, and civic uses of a wireless, location-aware community information system. scenarios have proven valuable in engaging the local community in a participatory design process by allowing us to present concrete stories of use through which we can generate interest and more nuanced feedback from the community. we presented three distinct scenarios, each designed to describe social, economic and civic activities that could be done on wireless devices, along with a 194-item survey to assess the interests and motivations of potential users, to 404 participants from the local community. controlling for a range of factors such as length of residence, current civic and online activities, and technical competence, both social and civic uses were seen as more appealing than economic uses. and overall, those respondents who were not already engaged in civic and social uses of the internet were somewhat more likely to be interested in our civic and social scenarios. from a practical standpoint, such a survey allows us to provide data to our various stakeholders concerning what designs we expect to optimize use and user satisfaction. for example, less interest in potential economic uses may present an issue for our business-oriented partners but also such insights can be applied to the ongoing design. of course, scenarios do not predict the long-term effect of our design, such as how users will perceive the system over time and how they will use it in the long term. but they do give us insight into the interests and motivations of those who will live with the community network as we continue the participatory design process. since our initial meetings, some tensions have surfaced between the commercial and nonprofit partners, as they negotiate the goals and plans of the wireless community network. in part, the tensions arose from different visions. the dscid was tasked with the goal of serving the business interests in the downtown; the non-profit stakeholders represented the interests beyond the downtown area. while both could quickly agree that coordination of local commerce and nonprofit information was mutually beneficial, differences emerged over implementation details. to address these, we organized another series of meetings, the result of which was to reinforce the two side’s mutual interest in moving forward with planning and seeking initial resources. at present, we plan to test the mobile version of civicinity using the wireless connectivity that already exists in the downtown area. once we assess the potential with both groups of stakeholders we will revisit their goals and discuss plans to move forward in a way that meets both sets of needs. summary and concluding remarks the internet paradigm has dramatically expanded the possibilities for a wide range of actors and roles in shaping information systems. the most recent developments in this paradigm, popularly known as web 2.0 tools and technologies, have enabled an era of enhanced participation and end-user design. community networking is an important, yet distinctly challenged arena of organizational participation in web 2.0 development. in the united states, for example, community nonprofit groups bear substantial responsibilities for providing social services, such as food and affordable housing for disadvantaged people, and civic services, such as libraries, public media, and arts and heritage support for all citizens. the core mission of these groups is to engage and empower people where they live. they are all about citizen participation. yet these groups are poorly resourced in general, and especially under-resourced with respect to information technology. they must rely on hardware donations, on open source or discounted software, and on volunteer expertise. participation and end-user design are essential. in this paper we described our long-term participatory action research collaboration with a variety of local nonprofit groups in state college, pennsylvania, and more recently with representatives of local businesses. we have presented this work as three interwoven story threads: (1) a community learning process in which the goals and interests of community groups were connected to technology possibilities and the skills and concepts required to achieve these possibilities, (2) a series of requirements and prototyping studies exploring and demonstrating how technologies, such as location-based wireless services and feed aggregation could be useful, and (3) a community planning process to envision new infrastructure possibilities, recognize their stakes in these possibilities, and become committed stakeholders in the planning. each of these threads of activity helped us to recruit key community allies. in many cases, the three threads were symbiotic: our initial efforts to help local nonprofits develop sustainable information technology learning practices made the citws seem an obvious and modestly incremental step. but that step brought hundreds of additional community members into the project. our technology development and prototyping have helped our partners appreciate that possibilities are quite achievable and can be practical, but also that they have key roles to play in those outcomes. our prototypes have encouraged partners to set more ambitious technology goals. these activities, in turn, helped our community leaders recognize that a broader planning process was feasible and necessary, and that an alliance among non-profits and businesses is a cornerstone in such a process. fig. 4: three threads in our project. the centrality of community learning to community networking cannot be overstated. but it is neither feasible nor sufficient to enroll community volunteers in commercial tutorials. in our experience, community nonprofits do not, and in many cases cannot budget for such training, and worse, the volunteers are not engaged by the prospect of such training. however, we found that technology learning was more attractive when community members describe their own experiences and innovations to their neighbors, as in the citw series. this creates a virtuous cycle between technology exploration and community learning: information technology provides a rich canvass for modest innovations, and sharing results engenders a culture of participation in technology learning and innovation. we observed that learning about information technology was more clearly motivated in the context of planning community technology infrastructures. part of this is that learning in a real context makes learning matter more. but part of it is that conceptualizing community networks as information infrastructures emphasizes how community activity and information draws its value from network externalities. it is not an accident that aggregating community information and making wireless access available throughout the community were the central themes in our technology explorations. these enhancements do not merely add to value to a community network, they multiply value. the specific lessons of this project are of course provisional. they are primarily directions for deeper investigation. our experience encourages a conception of effective community action as coordinating engagement and initiative along multiple threads of activity. in our case these have consisted of community learning, technology explorations, and infrastructure planning. we suggest that achieving a culture of participation requires such synergies. in the section on community learning we highlighted the benefits of working with key “anchor institutions” in our community network planning. we found that working with the local library, public access media, the borough council and a child welfare group in our community provided the basis for a large and growing network of communications among a wide variety of community partners. each of these organizations had their own tacit knowledge of the needs of a significant set of stakeholders in the community, whether human service organizations, the community’s civic groups or public media. these anchor institutions were essential in representing those diverse needs as part of the shared learning process. in addition, our interactions with this anchoring group of stakeholders led to additional contacts over the years with other community partners who have also helped (and are continuing to help) inform the directions for our research. in the section on technology explorations we reflected on challenges that can arise when partnering with commercial partners. statecollege.com is a locally owned news and information portal that has been working for several years to create a web presence as a hyperlocal news source. to some extent their goals were aligned with our action research agenda, in that we both aimed to create a multipurpose community information portal. however, our partnership dissolved in part because their commercial orientation led to constraints on research access to databases and server data. admittedly, commercial organizations have good reason to be leery of providing access to external parties and we certainly understood such concerns. nonetheless, the access limitations meant that there were corresponding limitations on the changes we could make to our experimental prototype as well as the usage data we could glean to guide prototype evolution and refinement. as a side effect, the non-profit organizations that were contributing data or feeds to the site were unable to learn much about how their information was being used by members of the community. this commercial partnership, in other words, had trade-offs that worked against a sustainable working relationship. while statecollege.com had the time and financial resources to invest in a community network, the proprietary nature of the organization was too limiting for a collaborative partnership. finally, the discussion on infrastructure and planning emphasized how important it is to demonstrate the added value of community networks to our community partners. when we began to explore the idea of a wireless community network that would use our civicinity portal as a landing page, our local government initially understood this to be simply an issue of access. our challenge was to move them beyond thinking of networks in terms of who had access and instead consider how the network could be leveraged to improve aspects of community life. currently we are working with our partners to develop a small-scale wireless network in a busy section of downtown. the wireless network will use the civicinity portal as its landing page. we have taken this approach to provide data to our community partners that can motivate them to reach out to and engage residents in the longer term. we have learned that our community partners, particularly the borough council and our local businesses, need to see how the network can benefit the community organization, citizens, and local businesses before they are willing to put large investments into infrastructure.    while the research presented here shares specific experiences and offers a set of initial lessons learned, it is important to underscore that cultures of participation are by no means entailed by the internet or by web 2.0. at most such a culture is afforded by these more interactive online technologies. moreover, web-based information systems like facebook and the ensemble of google applications show in a compelling way that global consolidation of services, and the relegation of many users to the more traditional role of information and service consumers is still a likely trajectory technology will only entrain cultures of participation when it is integrated into multifaceted social and institutional infrastructures, predicated upon the interdependence of technology and human activity, and aimed primarily at enhancing participation and engagement among the greatest possible variety of human actors. acknowledgements this work was sponsored by the united states national science foundation (under award numbers 0342547 and 0511198), by the james s. and john l. knight foundation, by intel corporation, and by the edward m. frymoyer endowment. a short paper version was presented at the 3rd international symposium on end-user development (carroll, horning, hoffman, ganoe, robinson & rosson, 2011). references burge, j.d., campbell, l.m. & carroll, j.m. (2009). community wireless networks: field exploration of non-profit participation. symposium of human-computer interaction at asist 2009, conference of the american society for information science and technology (columbus, ohio, 26 october). carroll, j.m. (2012). the neighborhood in the internet: participatory design research projects in community informatics. london: routledge. carroll, j.m., bach, p., rosson, m.b., merkel, c.b., farooq, u., & xiao, l. (2008).  community it workshops as a strategy for community learning. first monday, 13, 4 (http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2052/1955) carroll, j.m. & farooq, u. (2007). patterns as a paradigm for theory in community-based learning. international journal of computer-supported collaborative learning. 2(1), 41-59. carroll, j.m. and ganoe, c.h. (2008) supporting community with location-sensitive mobile applications. in m. foth (ed.),  handbook of research on urban informatics: the practice and promise of the real-time city. hershey, pa: information science reference, igi global. carroll, j.m., horning, m., hoffman, b., ganoe, c.h., robinson, h. & rosson, m.b. (2011). community network 2.0. proceedings of 3rd international symposium on end-user development: is-eud. (torre canne, brindisi, italy, june 7-10). berlin: springer lecture notes in computer science, pages 270-275. carroll, j.m. & rosson, m.b. (2008). theorizing mobility in community networks. international journal of human-computer studies: special issue on mobility, 66, 944-962. ganoe, c.h., robinson, h.r., horning, m.a., xie, x. & carroll, j.m. (2010). mobile awareness and participation in community oriented activities. com.geo 2010: proceedings of the first international conference and exhibition on computing for geospatial research and application. (washington, d.c., june 21-23). acm, new york, ny, pages 1-8. ganoe, c.h., somervell, j.p., neale, d.c., isenhour, p.l., carroll, j.m., rosson, m.b. & mccrickard, d.s. (2003). classroom bridge: using collaborative public and desktop timelines to support activity awareness. acm uist 2003: conference on user interface software and tools. new york: acm, pages 21-30. farooq, u., ganoe, c. h., xiao, l., merkel, c, rosson, m.b. & carroll, j. m. (2007). supporting community-based learning: case study of a geographical community organization designing their web site, behaviour & information technology: special issue on computer-support for learning communities, 26, 1, 5-21. kase, s., zhang, y., carroll, j.m. & rosson, m.b.  (2010). synthesizing it case studies of nonprofits using a multiple-level patterns-based framework. ieee transactions on professional communication, 53(3), 216-232. merkel, c., farooq, u., xiao, l., ganoe, c., rosson, m. b., and carroll, j. m. (2007). managing technology use and learning in nonprofit community organizations: methodological challenges and opportunities. in proceedings of chimit 2007:  symposium on computer human interaction for the management of information technology (cambridge, ma, march 30 31, 2007). acm, new york, ny, article 8. schuler, d. (1996). new community networks: wired for change. new york: addison-wesley. whyte, w.f. (1989). advancing scientific knowledge through participatory action research. sociological forum, 4, 3. 367-385. glocality: thinking about community informatics and the local in the global and the global in the local. michael gurstein one of the peculiarities of conceptualizations in the age and context of the internet is the continuing desire to retain the traditional categories of the pre-internet age. we talk of rural development and urban environments, of the "local" as feature of spatial connection and the "global" as the field in which large processes and interconnections take place. and yet, the dominant even pre-dominant feature of the internet is that where it has become embedded into the on-going realities of the daily lives of users these polarities and to a very great extent even the gradations that link these polarities tend to disappear. thus for example the "wired cottages" in the countryside where ever less eccentric professionals (and others) and their families are able to live lives enriched both by the sophistication and information richness of "urban" life while yet having the advantages of space, clean air and dyi opportunities in food and shelter which only the physical environment of "rural" areas afford. equally, the opportunities for embeddedness in family, clan, language, and cultures which are traditionally seen as characteristic of rural environments are now equally available if in these instances, technologically mediated, in environments of acute population density. even more evident are the opportunities to be completely immersed in one's local environment with the related intensity of interaction, depth of commitment and detailed levels of quite specific particularized geography-based knowledge; while at the same time being fully engaged in areas of global significance with equal intensity and density of interaction and knowledge but in this instance with collaborators and partners who are dispersed globally and with a vast diversity of cultural, linguistic and other particularistic characteristics. and these connections are happening quite synchronically with little or no evident discord or dissonance between them and including the inter-penetration of the global linkages with the local to the mutual benefit of both. this phenomenon has even sparked it's own terminology with discussions (as in several of the articles in this special issue) around the "glocal" (as a neologism covering the "local" in the context of the "global" and the "global" in the context of the "local") and glocalism, glocalization and so on. the apparent "ambiguation" or problematizing of these dominant dualities of social analysis is to a degree unique to our age and follows directly as an impact and a product of the internet where it is possible to be present (at least in a "digitalized" form) in the local, global and in virtual space all at the same time. (note the very useful discussion of the conceptualization, terminology and uses of "glocalization" in wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/glocalisation) in this context i see community informatics as an important harbinger of an increasingly depolarized future since the intent with ci is not to reinforce the rural or to privilege the local or to find fissures and archaisms in the urban or ways of anchoring the global. rather the intent with ci is to recognize the continuity of connections, of culture, of trust, of shared norms of common goals even amid the discontinuities and flux of daily (urban) life; while using the magical tools of the modern age to empower and self-manage the transformation of even the most isolated and closed off of social contexts. thus ci is by it's very nature "glocal" on the one hand providing even in the most "rural" and remote settings continuous and powerful connections to the global and the opportunity to be present in the global at will and on a multitude of dimensions depending on the interests and values of the individual. on the other hand ci represents the continuity of "community" interconnections as the foundation of social being even in the most fragmented and anomic of urban environments and moreover with the technology platform providing the means to enable and sustain these connections over time and through space. a special issue of joci which presents research and practice in this area of bridging thus is highly welcome as a way of reinforcing and illuminating this aspect of ci not only as a basis for local empowerment and localization of services and service delivery but also as a conceptual and practical substrate for ordering and making intelligible many of the cacophonous changes which otherwise appear both random and threatening. towards systems design for supporting enabling communities the i-reach project in cambodia kim dara <kimdara2001@yahoo.com> long dimanche <dimanche.long@gmail.com> seán ó siochrú <sean@nexus.ie> the i-reach (informatics for rural empowerment and community health) project in cambodia is nothing if not ambitious[1].  the goal is to create the basis for community-owned ict enterprises for rural areas, providing voice, data and content services – including community radio and video to the local people at affordable rates and tailored to local needs. the community-owned telecommunications cooperative is not a new idea – consider the many hundreds of rural telephony cooperatives in the usa alone, and other diverse examples around the world[2]  many emerging community wireless initiatives could be similarly characterised.  however, cambodia is a particularly challenging environment to work in, with a centralised state machinery, limited ict and optical fibre infrastructure, and many areas lacking basic services such as water and electricity. rural communities are characterised by high levels of poverty and illiteracy, and a very poorly organised civil society still suffers the traumas of cambodia’s history. that the project was launched at all is testimony to the willingness of canada’s idrc (international development research centre) to work in difficult environment, and the presence of progressive elements in cambodia determined to build a better future. i-reach is a three year programme funded by the idrc and run by the ministry of commerce in cambodia. ultimately, its goal is to generate and document research results that can be applied more widely. it achieves this through nurturing two pilot community-driven ict enterprises into existence that can greatly improve communications internally and externally, enhance economic, social and education facilities, and generate opportunities for micro-enterprises. in the latter stages, ireach will engage in policy-influencing activities that hopefully will see the pilot projects’ successes replicated within cambodia and more widely. begun in may 1st 2006, the plan for each pilot is to have a dozen or so village hubs dotted around an area about 20 kilometres wide, located in publicly accessible buildings such as commune (local government) offices, health centres, pagodas and schools, each with a computer and staffed by a local community facilitator. these are linked together through a backbone wireless network centred on the pilot hq where additional computers with training and other facilities are located, alongside a community radio station serving the area and run by locals. spread out up to a kilometre away from each of the village hubs are a number of (fixed) telephones – perhaps half a dozen linked via wifi to the hub and by voip to all other phones, each in a location that allows for use by the public. each pilot is connected to the outside world initially via satellite, with the capacity to interconnect into mobile and fixed telephony networks. thus, each pilot is intended to be a mini rural network with several dozen telephones accessible to local people, computers and internet training in village hubs no more than an hour’s walk away, a range of services focusing on local needs – health, education, agriculture, fishing, services etc. – available and supported; all of it animated by its own community radio station and most of it powered by solar or other sustainable energy sources. over time and as regulation permits the initiative could begin to generate income from telephony and other services and ultimately become a sustainable enterprise owned and run by the villages with the potential to expand into neighbouring areas and, with appropriate policy and regulatory support, be replicated elsewhere. behind it all is the idea that low cost wireless technologies, that are scaleable and easy to maintain, have the potential to revolutionise our approach to the provision of rural icts. so goes the theory. and so, hopefully, will eventually go the practice. in the meantime, however, the i-reach team is confronting some of the realities of attempting such an ambitious project in an environment where there is high mobility among a young workforce and where suitably trained and experienced researchers are rare.   the project is already several months behind its overly optimistic schedule.  the two pilot areas comprise several communes around kep, a coastal fishing and farming area in the south; and around kamchai mear, an agricultural district in the east near the border with vietnam. they were selected during the preparatory phase of the project for a number of reasons including a reasonable proximity to phnom penh, political support for their development, their contrasting economic basis and locations, and in one case the presence of a rural university. led by two very committed khmers, and guided by the idrc and an external adviser, the preparatory phase took almost nine months. during the course of that time the ministry to be responsible for the project was identified and negotiations concluded, the director was appointed, the manager and external consultants lined up, and organisations identified to support and manage each pilot (maharishi vishnu university in kamchay mear, and a cambodian ngo in the case of kep). the final project document was designed involving all partners, and submitted to the idrc for approval.  at launch, a daunting set of tasks confronted the team, comprised at that point of the director, manager and several advisors. recruitment of the central and pilots teams was the first obstacle. drawing up terms of reference, advertising, and dealing with the enormous number of applications took no longer than usual, about two months. however, finding high quality and committed staff, willing to work in rural areas, is difficult in cambodia given the limited pool of third level graduates, especially with experience. despite a major effort in formal recruitment, most staff were in the end identified by informal means, through the team networking with those involved in development. while effective, and the quality of the team is perhaps now the project’s greatest asset, this approach was slow in filling all the positions, and a gender balance was unfortunately not achieved. at the central level the main jobs filled were a research manager and a webmaster (the latter left to study abroad after a few months – a not infrequent problem). among the pilots, recruitment of pilot coordinators, research coordinators, and multi-media coordinators stretched well into 2007.  ongoing capacity building is also a central concern for i-reach, right down to the local village staff and volunteers, and a concerted effort is underway to enable the entire team to develop their skills and teamwork capabilities. as the teams were gradually forming, work began on baseline research and on participatory methods of determining local needs and interests, led by external advisers and overseen by the research manager and pilot coordinators. this yielded useful results and was also a positive process within the community. an early milestone was the creation of an interim pilot committee in kamchay mear, using a transparent and democratic process of election, comprising a gender balanced and diverse group of local villagers. the process significantly enhanced the standing of the project locally. a similar process followed later in kep. the kep pilot suffered overall delays because the initial institution identified to oversee the pilot backed out, and a new ngo had to be identified – the centre for social development – and negotiations concluded. a second major task at the pilot level was the renovation and equipping of each pilot hq, in buildings donated by the local government. alongside this, the process of specifying the ict technology requirements and engaging contractors for installation also began. the latter involved a number of components, each with it own issues: external connectivity, of which there were various options, none ideal and all expensive; the backbone network of the pilots linking the village hubs; and the local wifi networks interconnecting the voice phones, and networking the computers. alongside was the radio station.  both areas soon encountered delays. the intention was that funding would be found within cambodia to renovate the offices, and general commitments were entered into. however the institutional and bureaucratic barriers were such that after long delays it was decided to go ahead using the project’s own funds. even then, finding suitably qualified builders was difficult in these rural areas. the ict infrastructure aspects were put to tender but a combination of inadequate specification of what was required, limited technical capabilities of supplier companies in cambodia, and the generally slow pace of contract development there contrived to create one delay after another. contracts were finally signed in may 2007, and work got underway. furthermore, no progress at all was possible on building the radio station since a decision on the granting of a broadcast license by the appropriate ministry is still pending.  thus a year into i-reach, progress on the ground, apart from the research and the formation of local committees, has been minimal. only in may 2007 was sufficient progress made to have the end (of the beginning) clearly in sight.  in mid summer 2007, pilot staff (who had been making do in various locations) finally moved into their hqs, and they are now connected via satellite to the internet. by late 2007 nine village hubs were connected to the broadband networks, each with its own local wifi network. the radio license remains stalled into 2008. even in the absence of such basics, the teams pressed ahead as much as possible with the plans. from within the community, ‘content developers’ have been recruited in both areas and are working with pilot staff to create audio, video and internet content. podcasting, vodcasting, and a ‘village megaphone’ system (used for instance in the philippines) will substitute for the moment for full broadcast radio, and a few programmes might even be broadcast by a commercial station from a city close to kep.  with the internet in place, and content under development, villagers are finally seeing long-anticipated and long-promised benefits. i-reach's current committed funding is until april 2009 and it is now clear that accomplishing the targeted objectives will require more time. the obstacles faced up to now, serious as they are, were primarily to do with putting the prerequisites of the project in place. they bring i-reach to the starting point in the community, deploying the physical tools.  the next stage is even more daunting: on the one side, developing services and generating real benefits using these technologies: and on the other, building up the capacity of the local communities to actually develop, run and operate the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ aspects of these initiatives. community institution-building takes time and sustained commitment, from the external professionals introducing the activities into the area, but especially from the communities themselves. the enthusiasm of the local people to date, and their willingness to embrace news ideas and learn new skills, is heartening. [1]  the i-reach website is at http://www.ireach.org.kh/ [2]. see seán ó siochrú, bruce girard (2005). community-based networks and innovative technologies: new models to serve and empower the poor. new york. undp   http://www.propoor-ict.net/     abstract for saving toronto hydro telecom's one zone project from itself: alternative models for urban public wireless infrastructure andrew clement university of toronto <andrew.clement@utoronto.ca> amelia bryne potter <ameliabpotter@gmail.com> introduction this field note examines the development of a major municipal wi-fi service and how its private sector financial and governance model has reduced its potential benefit to the public. it discusses the case of toronto hydro telecom, a publicly owned corporation, and its one zone wi-fi project, which appears to be faltering despite initial optimism and technical success. currently being considered for sale, if the company is sold a major opportunity will be lost. if the company remains in public hands and pursues a more publicly oriented model, rather than continuing with the commercial competitor approach, it could be using its technologies and public assets to yield much greater financial and social benefits in the long term. depending on whether the sale proceeds, toronto hydro telecom can serve either as a cautionary or inspirational tale that encourages other municipal governments with similar assets to take an active role in developing civic broadband networks. the case of toronto hydro telecom’s onezone in 2006 toronto hydro telecom (tht) boldly announced that it would shortly begin rolling out city-wide wi-fi bringing affordable, ubiquitous internet access to the 1 million households and 80,000 businesses in canada’s largest city. at that time, tht as a city government-owned private corporation, seemed well positioned to take the lead in providing universal internet connectivity. tht already operated a 450-kilometre fiber-optic network providing data services to many of toronto’s major businesses. with the recent acquisition of the city’s street lighting poles by its sister company it could relatively cheaply and easily deploy meshing technologies to blanket the entire 600+ square km of metropolitan toronto. tht launched the first phase in september 2006 with wireless coverage of downtown toronto (6 km sq). after a 7-month free period which attracted more than 40,000 registered users, in 2007 one zone now is offered at commercially competitive rates ($29/month, $9.99/day, $4.99/hour). in important respects, the tht one zone has been a resounding technical success. for example, novarum, an independent broadband wireless consulting firm which had recently tested the leading wireless services in north america, announced that one zone was by far the leader in terms of performance, delivering internet upload and download rates at 5 mbps. according to their report, “most impressive was the fact that this exceptional performance is being delivered in the challenging environment of a dense urban canyon.” while the number of subscribers has understandably fallen considerably from the free trial period, tht still plans to extend the service to cover the rest of toronto, if the return on investment (roi) is favorable. however, behind this story of apparent success and promise lie several complexities, shortcomings and missed opportunities. these are mainly related to tht’s pursuit of a commercial competitor business model, which neglects the many unmet networking needs of torontonians and inhibits the integration of this initiative with complementary public networking projects. as a private corporation, tht’s principal mandate is to make money for its sole shareholder, the city of toronto, but it gives no indication of pursuing the more socially oriented goals common to municipal projects, such as reducing socio-economic disparities (aka ‘closing the digital divide’), improving municipal services, or enabling civic networking applications. in effect tht is seeking to make a profit from toronto residents by charging them for access to facilities they already own, such as conduits, fiber cabling and streetlights. instead of hiding a taxation scheme in this way, tht could more efficiently and directly provide services of benefit to the public. vision of a tht public interest network operating on a public utility model, tht could provide, among other things, the basic residential internet service needed by nearly all toronto citizens. based on tht’s cost figures, if the service were to be offered ubiquitously as originally planned, the average annual household cost would be about $100. if this were included in taxes, the ~60% of households currently subscribing to internet service would save on average $300-400 per year. those households that currently rely on dial-up would save less, but have much better service. given that connection cost is a major deterrent for those with lower incomes, we can expect that many of the households which currently do not have internet access would get it for the first time. initial wireless connectivity could be later supplemented by more reliable and higher capacity fiber connections, as tht expands its network. in addition, a tht citywide fiber/wireless network could be an important boost to city departments and other civic services that have growing needs for networking, such as education, libraries, police and emergency health services, the ontario smart meter program, parking, parks and recreation, and building inspectors. not only would the city’s major institutions, most notably schools, be better served if linked via city-controlled fiber, they could further serve as ‘anchor tenants’ that would then make connecting residences and businesses in their vicinity much cheaper. structuring the network with open architectures, where isps or businesses with networking needs could purchase bandwidth from tht at wholesale rates, would also help foster competition among commercial providers and stimulate a variety of innovative new services. the key challenge: governance model toronto hydro telecom faces a number of hurdles in achieving this public benefit vision for its wi-fi and fiber networks. these include such common challenges as a lack of access to licensed broadband spectrum; threat of opposition from incumbent telecom providers; and uncertainly about the future of wi-fi technologies. yet, the most significant challenge tht faces in acting in the public interest may be its governance structure. tht’s current financial status as a private corporation, formally requiring a profit-over-public-interest orientation, resulted from provincial re-regulation of the electricity industry in the late 1990’s. legislation passed by the neo-liberal government of the time required cities in ontario to privatize their public electricity distribution enterprises and spin off certain company assets, such as telecommunications, into separate, private corporations, one of which became tht. the perverse result is that while the taxpayers of toronto still own tht, they are in effect blocked from using it as a means to directly serve their networking needs. at the same time, because of the fetters on its borrowing powers, it is prevented from acting as a fully independent private sector actor. the tension inherent in this ambiguous status has recently come to a head and toronto hydro telecom is now at a critical juncture. in january 2008 its parent company, apparently in response to a number of purchase bids, announced that it was soliciting expressions of interest from prospective buyers of tht. in march however, under pressure from cupe local one, the union representing 27 of tht’s workers, toronto mayor david miller asked toronto hydro to hold off on the sale, so the city could “consider whether there are other models that work". cupe local one has mounted a public campaign to keep tht public, mainly highlighting the wide range of social benefits that would be lost were tht to be sold. it is also pointing out that even in strictly financial terms the estimated $50m that would accrue to the city from a sale at this point would sell short its profit potential. (see: http://keeptelecompublic.ca) a decision on whether the sale will go ahead is expected by early june 2008. toronto hydro telecom has the resources and experience to build a broadband network that would serve the public interest, but this opportunity has so far been missed because of political shortsightedness at all levels of government, and tht’s consequent focus on a commercial, competitive model. this could change with strong political leadership at the municipal level.  the city of toronto’s political will is the best hope in stopping the sale, as well as for achieving a more publicly beneficial wi-fi and fiber network for toronto. ultimately this likely means directly confronting the provincial legislation that led to tht’s legal and ownership structure. but more immediately this will involve working creatively within the current framework, finding ways to instruct tht to operate in the public interest. an important precedent for this is the priority that toronto hydro energy, tht’s sister company which distributes electricity in toronto, places on energy saving measures, which are counter to its short-term financial interests but respond to strong popular and political pressures to promote long-term environmental sustainability. a similar argument can be made for universal, affordable broadband services. it remains to be seen whether the city of toronto and toronto hydro telecom will step-up to this challenge, but if they do, the citizens of toronto stand to gain a valuable public infrastructure appropriate to this information age. wider lessons while tht one zone has so far been disappointing, its successes, shortcomings, and opportunities provide some useful lessons for other city governments. broadband has become a crucial infrastructure for a wide range of everyday services and transactions, as well as for communication and economic, political, and social participation. as such, the availability of affordable, high quality broadband is increasingly important. while federal and regional governments can, and should, play a role in promoting broadband infrastructure, local governments are often well positioned to address community broadband needs. as providers of other basic infrastructure services, local governments have experience managing large-scale projects. they are also well suited for guiding infrastructure creation best developed and maintained over the long-term. local governments may play a fundamental role in helping communities to build-out fiber-optic networks, which require significant investments. fiber may first be laid to serve particular kinds of users, such as schools and hospitals, and later extended to businesses, and, finally to homes. while fiber networks are in development wi-fi can help extend connectively to those locations not yet served by fiber. the technological possibilities are at hand. what is needed is for local governments to deploy their assets creatively and assertively – by putting public interest ahead of short-term profit-seeking. depending on the outcome of current struggles around the future status and direction of toronto hydro telecom, it may serve as a cautionary tale of missed opportunity, or an inspiration for other municipalities seeking to serve their citizens’ telecommunications needs. stay tuned. _________ this field note draws on clement, a. & potter, a. b. (2008) internet infrastructure for all: time for canadian municipalities to step up! in moll, m. & shade, l. r. for sale to the highest bidder: telecom policy in canada (pp. 109-119). ottawa: canadian centre for policy alternatives (ccpa). a version of this paper with extensive endnotes can be found in the community wireless infrastructure research project (cwirp.ca) publications collection of the university of toronto’s research repository at: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/10240 sensitizing concepts for the next community-oriented technologies: shifting focus from social networking to convivial artifacts federico cabitza, carla simone, denise cornetta university of milano-bicocca, milan, italy. email (f. cabitza): cabitza@disco.unimib.it introduction the theme of the mutual interplay between communities and technologies is not new. for many years this theme has been of interest to research groups that gather in more or less focused venues, such as the c&t conference series. these however could hardly be put under the still too frail rubric of "community informatics" (gurstein, 1999, 2007). moreover, this theme also appears in broader research ambits, as is often the case when a concept, if not a term, becomes popular or it appeals heterogeneous research agendas. however, we believe that the way in which the community-technology interplay has been addressed in all these strands does not overtly establish its specificity, either in terms of theoretical foundations, intended stakeholders or involved technologies. in other words, the research questions that underlie this complex theme and the understanding of what the main issues are have not to date achieved a level of maturity and consensus around which a "thick" and tight research community could have established itself and thrive. one reason for this can be that the notion of community itself is very broad, in spite (but also in virtue) of very technical and specific speculations from the humanities and social sciences (notably sociology, anthropology, philosophy and psychology) (wellman, 1982). indeed, hillery (1955) fifty years ago had already collected 94 definitions of this concept, pointing out that his list was not be taken as comprehensive and definite at all. the term "community" has thus come to be used to denote disparate situations and very different social aggregates and structures: as rightly noted by preece (2001), communities can be easily characterized by their physical features, such as size, location and their boundaries: in this way, communities of place are pinpointed. alternatively discriminants can be found in the nature of people's relationships, where so called "strong ties" characterize closely-knit groups, while "weak-tie" relationships are recognized when people do not depend on each other for life supporting resources, irrespective of their value for personal and community welfare (granovetter, 1973). on a more conventional basis, some light form of connectivity, a common concern or interest, the sharing of some common resource, the existence of a central repository of information, or even just the use of a common application (e.g., ims, muds, fora, and now social networking sites like facebook and twitter) are considered enough to identify a community (preece, 2001): in this light, one can consider the simplest "ideal types" (weber, 1978) communities, like the so called "communities of concern", "of intent" and "of interest" according to the case, which can be either physical, virtual or hybrid (i.e., offline-online). on a more technical level instead, the detection of stronger ties or actual acquaintance among the members of the community, of constant social interactions, of a common ground (koschmann & lebaron, 2003) or a specific language (community jargon) can characterize so called "discourse community" (borg, 2003) or "knowledge communities" (cabitza et al., 2014); whereas assessing a sense of belonging, reciprocal trust, or even participation in and co-production of the same practices can be considered necessary features to either recognize or circumscribe more complex community forms, as in the case of the well-known concept of "community of practice" (wenger, 1998). the large number of theories and the heterogeneity of key terms that scholars have relied upon (even in the focused venues mentioned above) to call a group of people a community (see e.g., (andriessen, 2005) for a review of the most relevant ones) is one of the signs that makes us consider the foundations of the "community informatics" structure frail. in response to this, we are not claiming the need for a precise classification, since this would necessarily impose a predefined set of categories with which the existing open-ended and blurred community types mentioned above would be somehow forced to be associated. rather, we advocate the definition of a set of so-called "sensitizing concepts" (blumer, 1986), that is terms and expressions that "give the user a general sense of reference and guidance in approaching empirical instances [... and] merely suggest directions along which to look" (blumer, 1954). these concepts are necessary for a research community to grasp the complexity behind the surface of the phenomena observed, in order to characterize, compare, and discuss the results and findings that have been collected in different settings. this is a precondition to identify a common research field in which the various contributions are not scattered in a disorderly fashion and can each build on top of other contributions. a symmetric argument can be done for the technology. for the most popular technologies supporting a community, their development is left in the hand of few big players while the research community is just observing and reporting on their usage in different contexts. even when alternative proposals are developed, typically tapping in on the existing content management platforms, the demand for a critical mass of users to be involved in performing meaningful validations is stifling the development of real alternatives and the quest for disruptive innovation: the validation of this latter is then feasible only in controlled contexts where the real life of a community is difficult to reproduce. the same holds for the learning curve that requires users to spend time to appropriate new, and sometimes increasingly complex, functionalities. last but not least, the understanding of the true interplay between the technology and the supported community requires longitudinal and cross-sectional studies that are difficult "in the wild" and practically unfeasible in more controlled situations.however, irrespective of the difficulties mentioned above, innovation has to be pursued both in the development of new, and empirically grounded, functionalities, and in the novel usage of existing ones. the aim of this paper is to contribute to the identification and discussion of some sensitizing concepts that we deem relevant for the study of the community technology interplay and for the design of the latter: for this design-oriented attitude, we purposely present these concepts in terms of "affordances" (cabitza and simone, 2012). we use this term in the spirit of gibson's usage (1977) to point to the offering or provision of either resources or opportunities to someone who recognizes them and is able to exploit them to become capable of performing some action, or get some value or benefit. consequently affordances can be exhibited both by a technology that supports a community for its proficient users, and by the community itself for its integrated members, in a strongly symmetrical and correlated manner, as we will see later. speaking of affordances and recognizing the intertwined nature of the social and technical structures (mumford, 2006) that offer them is the approach we propose, and that we find justified by the need to connect the analysis of the current state of the research on communities & technologies with the conception of design principles and concrete functionalities that could take other steps forward in this research field. towards a set of sensitizing concepts as recalled above, the intersection of the (inter)disciplinary trajectories mentioned in section 1 has generated a number of different definitions, each of which connotes specific characteristics that have emerged in particular studies. this proliferation happened with little concern for the confusion it could generate: different situations have been denoted by the same name, and different names have been used for essentially the same phenomena. other denotations consider partial characteristics of communities and as such do not seem able to connote them in a way useful to understand their nature and functional needs. sometimes the adopted technology is part of the characterization, while some other times this is left outside. this can be the case either because the technology was totally absent, or because it was considered as a marginal factor in shaping the community itself. for example the very articulated, and sometimes misinterpreted in its widespread usage (cabitza, 2014a), concept of community of practice (cop) (wenger, 1998) does not take into consideration how technology can influence the existence, the building and maturation of a community. the effort to move towards a more stable foundation of research on communities & technologies requires us to get rid of the occasional definitions that can be found in the literature in order to present them in a more structured way, according to some criteria. this approach has been taken for example in (andriessen, 2005) but the result, although appreciable, is not fully satisfactory as it was biased by the choice of a set of big organizations as the source of its empirical evidence on the one hand, and on the other hand it did not consider the role of the technology as one primary driver of the phenomena under study. we propose an alternative way to approach this problem by grounding on a study performed at the end of the 90s by mynatt et al. (1998). although the reference technology looks now to some extent outdated, this study still offers a convincing conceptual framework that captures some of the main tenets of the notion of a community: this latter is perceived as an emerging phenomenon/structure within the society, and not as a bureaucratic or opportunistic or even ideological means to obtain organizational performances or the welfare of some categories of people. this study uses the term network community. this term acknowledges that technological change produces new patterns of social life (jacobs, 2001) and was first proposed by castells (1997) in his analysis of the global and local effects of information technologies. thus, in virtue of widespread infrastructures (i.e., the internet) and the "electronics grass-roots culture" (p. 354) network groups and individuals are enabled to interact globally and interactively, but also privately (jacobs, 2001). also carroll and rosson (1996) used the expression "network community" to capture the idea of a community augmented by a networking technology offering different kinds of support of the interaction among its members. this general definition was then specialized by mynatt et al. (1998) through the identification of some "affordances" that characterize a network community: the term affordance is here particularly appropriate as it links the idea of a community as a space of opportunities for its members with a set of services that a supportive technology can offer to seize those opportunities and gain the related benefits. the concept of network community from its very expression shed light on its two components that shape and transform each other, technology and community. in what follows we will outline the main affordances of these two macro-classes of structures. technology affordances to outline the discourse on the affordances of community-oriented technology, we have to distinguish between two main dimensions of human interaction that information technologies can support through specific functionalities to maintain a network community alive and healthy: communication and cooperation (see table 1). this is a primary distinction that was discussed also by bannon (1989), to point out that these two dimensions are not mutually exclusive of course, but intrinsically different: indeed, any cooperative effort entails lots of communicative acts; also, but not necessarily only, to articulate activities and coordinate efforts. on the other hand, any form of communication, as a bidirectional process, entails some minimal cooperation and mutual alignment (or at least the intention for it) between who sends and who receives a message. this entanglement notwithstanding, the related human interactions can require different, although combinable, functionalities. more precisely, a necessary condition for a tool to support communication is to allow its users to share content and resources with others, namely "to put things in common", like pictures, pages, textual messages, any multimedia content: however, mutual comprehension is not granted by (nor required for) simply sharing information and electronic objects. on the other hand, understanding is necessary in messaging, as a higher level of communication, because meanings also are intended to be shared and exchanged, not just data. when also a context and a situation is "shared" along with linguistic messages, we can speak of sharing an experience, that is the necessary condition for socialization, in which the highest, in the sense of the richest, form of communication occurs. some form of communication is also necessary in cooperation, although this can be nothing more than the unilateral interpretation of stigmergic signs (christensen, 2013) that promote awareness in the actors involved in interdependent tasks about what is going on, and as a spur for related decision and action. as is widely known in cscw, actors can cooperate even without sharing common goals but rather in virtue of some positive dependency of their tasks (schmidt and bannon, 1992), or of their outputs. a more articulated kind of support is requested in collaborative tasks, where actors not necessarily involved in the same tasks cooperate by sharing goals, and to some extent also concerns and interests. being involved in the same tasks produces an opportunity for a collaborative socialization; that is a co-located interaction while engaged in a collaborative effort. this dimension crosses otherwise dissimilar domains, like organizational "ordinary work" (with all its invisible and tacit elements (star and strauss, 1999)) and the various entertainmentand leisure-oriented pursuits, provided that a somehow structured articulation of actions is needed for their accomplishment. to give a purposely border-line example: attending the same event organized within a community to get acquainted to each other is a way to socialize that can entail a minimum of cooperation, like filling in a form within a calendar tool for deciding the best time to meet as with e.g., doodle.com. more often than not, a mainly communication-oriented functional support will suffice to spread the invitation to all the interested people, as it is afforded in social networking sites (e.g., facebook and meetup). on the other hand, collaborating to organize such an event requires a completely different support from the mediating technology: basically, something whose complexity could range from any electronic document to keep track of the confirmations received, to-do jobs, list of victuals and cuptlery, up to more articulated resources, like online polls to decide the place, the party's theme and spreadsheet to keep track of the money spent or the contributions in kind by everyone. this latter support is oriented to enabling some form of structured collaboration on top of communication, but it also has to allow for informal interactions, unexpected resolutions, collective deliberation and voting, and open and unstructured participation by the people involved. table 1: dimensions of technological support for communities, and desired outcomes for the community of users. community affordances the phrase "community affordances" was first used by mynatt et al. (1998) to denote what a community offers to the people recognizing that quality. in what follows we consider the affordances the authors identified in that seminal work, and re-elaborate them in light of the empirical research results reported in the specialist literature since then. second, we extend that first set of affordances to capture additional features of the interplay between community & technology. persistence a community has to offer its members a durable, although evolving, structure of participants. the lack of an almost stable group of people to refer to and to count on can undermine both the motivations behind, and the survival of, the community itself: the latter is based on a growing mutual acquaintance and on an increasing set of conventions that shape the mutual interactions of the community members. the same holds for the technological infrastructure: it has to afford stable, although evolving, modes and means of interaction. the current and popular social networking sites (ellison and others, 2007) do not offer this affordance, although they allow their members to circumscribe their potential interlocutors in terms of groups, "circles" and clear-cut boundaries between their friends and "all the others": indeed, "adding friends", "removing friends" and "liking their posts" are not only possible but actually promoted actions afforded by these tools underestimating the possible negative side-effects on the community members (as reported e.g., in (marturano and bellucci, 2009; kross et al., 2013; sabatini and sarracino, 2014)). in other words, these social networking sites aim to facilitate socialization among their members but are primarily based on a quantitative and merely communication-oriented notion of it. from the technological point of view, their persistence is on the one hand guaranteed by the provider once a critical mass of members has been reached; on the other hand, just for this reason, the technological persistence is fully outside the community space of control (we will later come to this point). engagement engagement refers to the nature of the interactions a network community can afford to its members. the overall engagement within a community is the product of the mutual engagement of its members through the channels provided by the networking technology. we can refer to the articulated connotation offered by the notion of community of practice (cop) (wenger, 1998) to briefly describe what the engagement stands for. the engagement encompasses several kinds of commitments: to simply share an interest (champin et al., 2012); to agree with the main purposes behind the building of the community (nathan, 1995); to perform collaborative actions accordingly; to create the conditions for this to happen as what is called a common enterprise; to contribute to the maintenance of the shared repertoire that is the protocols and conventions that the practices of the community have formally and informally established; to contribute to a social knowledge creation and to participate in social learning processes (vesiluoma, 2007). the engagement within a community can vary in degrees of intensity: at a specific point in time, some members can feel strongly committed; others can show a peripheral participation (typical of newcomers as in the case of the cop); others can exhibit different degrees of listening (crawford, 2009). individual and mutual engagement is deeply situated in a specific context and then can vary in ways that cannot be anticipated. the technological infrastructure has to be able to support the above mentioned commitments and be plastic despite their variations. usually community members have associated different roles to account for this fact or are simply free to exploit the offered affordances. this is only a partial solution as in the first case the smooth transition from one behavior to another is fragmented by the very notion of role; in the second case, not all behaviors are recognized and equally supported. boundaries a network community affords recognizable boundaries, i.e., it is always possible to determine what belongs to its "ecology", what is outside it and what is allowed to cross the border: the latter can obviously vary depending on the situation. this affordance characterizes the networked community in that it allows one to identify several kinds of communities: communities living within organizations; civic communities, often called civic networks (gurstein, 1999) whose members interact with the overall population and the different levels of institutions that define various spheres of citizenship; communities of place whose bounds strongly depend on the fact that its members share where they reside, work or otherwise spend a continuous portion of their time (taylor et al., 2008), and so on. by the way, this affordance refers to only one specific dimension of a community and denoting this latter according to this dimension only is probably inadequate, if not misleading, to fully understand the nature of the group of people at hand. on the other hand, this dimension is useful to make the degree of "institutionalization" (andriessen, 2005) of the community itself explicit, that is its degree of formality of the relationships with its "outside" context. as visionarily emphasized in (mynatt et al., 1998), the space in which a network community lives is made up of both a physical and a virtual component: these two components are at the same time distinct and highly interconnected, as one cannot exist without the other. the technological evolution of the last decades has only made this phenomenon more evident. how this aspect is still poorly understood is testified to by the persistent emphasis on so called "virtual communities" as if their members could live and interact in the virtual dimension only. how this kind of myth is artificial is testified to by the fact that the communicative capability offered by the electronic social networks (the paradigmatic virtual spaces) are also used as a means to negotiate interactions in the physical world. in any case, the current technological infrastructures are not totally adequate to support the interplay between on-line and off-line activities when they mainly afford communication-oriented and information sharing functionalities: the affordances aimed at supporting various forms of collaboration among the community members seem to play a relevant role in bridging the physical and the virtual components of the interaction space (preece, 2002) in a more comprehensive way. this is an area where further research has to uncover and better understand the mechanisms by which community members blend these two components in their daily practices. limitations the life of a network community is influenced by different kinds of constraints or limitations, among which those temporal patterns that mynatt et al. (1998) dubbed 'periodicity' to account for just one relevant category related to temporality (jackson et al., 2011). the situations and conditions influencing the community behavior can occur and recur within the community or in its broader context (that is even outside its boundaries), in both their physical and virtual spaces of interaction. the limits can be either self-imposed, i.e., established by the community members in terms of rules, policies or more tacit conventions that govern their mutual behavior, or they can be determined by the community context: the resulting "rhythms and patterns" take a different value for the community as in the first case they can be a means to strength its bonds through formal and informal negotiations and agreements, in the second case they could contribute to undermine its survival. altogether, constraints bound actions and interactions, and can hence increase predictability, "providing a base for the mutual production of expectations about social life within the community" (mynatt et al., 1998); on the other hand, since constraints are situated and change consequently over time, they require the community to be dynamic, resilient and reactive to unpredictable events. the technological infrastructure has to afford suitable means to support this combination of contrasting conditions. in other words, this infrastructure has to provide the community members with the awareness of the current constraints, their "strength" and related "slack", and to support their activities in accordance and compliance with those; moreover, it has to equally sustain the reflective behavior of the community members that leads to the adaptation, appropriation and continuous redefinition of those constrains with respect to the changes of the contextual conditions. this brings to the last affordance proposed in (mynatt et al., 1998). authoring we quote the words by which mynatt et al. (1998) described authoring: network communities allow their participants to use and manipulate their space, whether as designers or users, in the sorts of flexible interactions described above. [. . . ] the very ecology: social, virtual and physical, is in a very real sense available to participants to author and reauthor continuously in the process of living in and developing the community. this is probably the most visionary affordance those authors discuss: it anticipated an argument that years later was taken up by a number of researchers under the rubric of end-user development (lieberman et al., 2006) and that is still a controversial research topic as it questions (carroll, 2004; fischer et al., 2009; cabitza, 2014) and to some extent aims to overturn (cabitza and simone, 2014) -the role of users and designers in the practices related to ict development. the technological infrastructure has to afford and facilitate authoring by the community members: we will come back to this issue in the next sections. mynatt et al. (1998) propose three additional dimensions that in our opinion can be incorporated in the above mentioned affordances. first, network communities are linked to a space where the notion of locality refers both to the physical and virtual space: this can be a way to decline the affordance of boundary; second, network communities keep alive through their ability to pursue reliable social rhythms: this is part of the periodicity affordance as described above; finally, network communities are entities that evolve through the continuous reformulation of the bindings between technology and sociality: this in our opinion is intrinsic to the affordance of authoring as this is the way a network community can adapt to the changing social and technological context. instead, the five basic affordances do not explicitly take into account (at least) two features of a network community: trust as a basic kind of relation that supports the creation of social capital (putnam, 2001) and what we denote as conviviality, that is a more nuanced way to conceive of cooperative engagement. these two affordances were not explicitly considered by mynatt et al. (1998) probably because their experience was linked to communication and the technologies popular at that time to support it, more than to collaboration and knowledge sharing that are nowadays a common concern. trust is discussed here below while conviviality will be discussed in a more detailed way in the following section for its importance in our proposal. " trust trust is, much like community, a term where several distinct literatures exist and several ways to categorize them (levi, 2001) as a number of scholars have so far recognized its importance "in the construction of social order, cooperation, institutions, and organizations, and even every-day interactions"; also putnam et al. (1994) considered trust as a critical element in his original accounts of social capital. a traditional but yet sufficiently precise way to define it conceived trust as a "bet about the future contingent actions of others" (sztompka, 2001). as such, trust cannot be afforded directly, but can be promoted in a person by exhibiting a trustworthy behavior, or by what coleman and coleman (1994) call "intermediaries in trust" and mutti (2007) "reputational diffuser", i.e., individuals or either private or public institutions that, in virtue of their trustworthiness, certify the reliability and trustworthiness of other individuals/institutions. online platforms adopt simple mechanisms to diffuse trustworthiness, reliability and reputation, like average scores derived from individual assessments of previous transactions, or the number of contents produced, and of people who "liked" it. however, criticisms have been raised whether these mechanisms can represent trust-worthiness properly, even assuming the platform displaying these indicators as a proxy intermediary, or trustworthy in itself (dwyer et al., 2007; fogel and nehmad, 2009). the above mentioned affordances can be used to characterize a given network community by describing the degree to which these (and possibly others that could emerge in the future or that we have simply forgotten) affordances are offered to the community members. in so doing, any term that can be used for the sake of conciseness to denote a specific community corresponds to a configuration (of affordances) that can be compared with other existing configurations and discussed in relation to them. this is one of the good practices that could contribute to the establishment of a (scientifically sound) research area in which each study has still to learn from the others and conceptual frameworks have still to be formulated to both account for the contribution that different disciplines have brought to the study of communities & technologies, and for the impact of the technological infrastructures on the nature of the network communities themselves. indeed, the affordances offered by a network community are not only useful to characterize it through a static snapshot; rather, they are even more useful to understand how the community and its technological infrastructure co-evolve and influence each other in the unfolding of the phases constituting its life cycle (gongla and rizzuto, 2001). figure 1: a three-component model of conviviality, in relation to sociality and cooperativity. affording conviviality the two dimensions of human interaction we considered in the section "technology affordances", namely communication and collaboration, can occur both online and offline in network communities, specifically in virtue of their hybrid nature. the difference between online and offline should not be considered only in terms of the quantitative aspects related to the higher communication bandwidth that physical proximity entails (if for no other reason than because also body language and proxemics come into play); but also on a qualitative level, because offline interactions can act as potential triggers for a more complex and deeper involvement and relationships among the community members, that is not mediated by simply the linguistic medium. however, also the opposite influence can occur: internet use can strengthen social contact, community engagement and attachment (kavanaugh et al. 2005) and transform the physical community into a more integrated network community (wellman et al. 2002). this is why in figure 1 we considered the transition from purely either online or offline interaction to a hybrid interaction as an indicator of the positive evolution and maturation of a community. when the social interactions allow people to achieve engagement in, draw pleasure from, and take enjoyment in the intentional and goal-oriented participation in the same -possibly co-locatedconversations and tasks, we speak of conviviality (see figure 1), giving this term a specific meaning within the community informatics discourse. we conceive this concept as a further level of community affordance, that is a condition that is made possible or even being promoted by conscious, voluntary and convinced membership in a community if some facilitating preconditions exist. operationally, we also say that conviviality can be achieved by the members of a community that get acquainted with each other through engagement in the same activities, in the pursuit of personal and community welfare. in other words, it encompasses sociality and cooperativity, but it also places the experience of these dimensions within a context of gratification and satisfaction (see figure 1). the term 'conviviality' has been used several times in different scholarly contexts in the last forty years, especially in sociology, usually by relating it to a "set of positive relations between the people and the groups that form a society, with an emphasis on community life and equality rather than hierarchical functions" (caire, 2010). in this effort, scholars have stuck to the traditional and literal meaning of the word more or less closely. in fact, dictionaries usually refer this term to what pertains to "social events where people can eat, drink, and talk in a friendly way with others" (cf. merrian webster 2014). as rightly noted by schechter (2004), conviviality "in a basic sense" is to be seen as but "a social form of human interaction". also caire and schechter noticed that the social interaction should be intended as purposefully aimed at "reinforcing group cohesion through the recognition of common values" (caire, 2010) "through a positive feeling of togetherness (being included in/or part of the group), on which the community's awareness of its identity is based." (schechter, 2004). in this line, also polanyi (2012) in 1974 denoted a community as "convivial" when it aims to share knowledge; as caire and van der torre (2010) summarizes in regard to this point: conviviality in a community entails that its "members trust each other, share commitments and interests and make mutual efforts to build conviviality and preserve it" (our emphasis). the twofold idea that conviviality is something more than just socializing or getting involved in the same cooperative effort and that it regards valuable knowledge that is developed and circulated in social practices (cabitza et al., 2014) is a starting position that is close to the one proposed by illich (1973) in the 1970s to refer to an ideal value and condition where the individuals' creativity, imagination, and energy are maximized while their freedom is realized not in spite of, but rather in virtue of "personal interdependence" (caire, 2010). this concept has then be retaken by putnam (1988) in the 80's as an "enhancement" to his theory on "social capital" and a "condition for civil society"; to be then more recently reformulated in the context of urban communities by authors like gilroy (2004) and peattie (1998), who defined conviviality as a set of "small-group rituals and social bonding in serious collective action" (p. 246), lamizet (2004), who defined it as both "institutional structures that facilitate social relations and technological processes that are easy to control and pleasurable to use", and by caire (2009) in the context of smart cities, where conviviality was seen as "a mechanism to reinforce social cohesion and as a tool to reduce mis-coordinations between individuals". we propose to focus on the concept of conviviality in the same mould as the authors mentioned above. however, differently from the literal meaning of the word and some of the past contributions, we propose to avoid speaking of conviviality (in technical terms) when this can be reduced to the "jolly hanging out" of peers in some common social occurrence. on the contrary, we stress the role of the personal enjoyment and engagement of most of the members of a convivial community in being part of a common enterprise and open-ended accomplishment. this means we present conviviality as an emerging collective property of a community, which nevertheless is composed by individual feelings, that is a condition their members can enjoy and exhibit in a perceivable (observable) way. in figure 1 we denoted the necessary "ingredient" to have conviviality when either sociality or cooperativity (or both) has been established within a community with the greek letter epsilon. this is done for a twofold reason: first of all, this ineffable element can be of relatively small extent or scope like the small positive quantities mentioned in mathematical calculus, but yet present, in any relevant form. second, when thinkers have started to pinpoint this dimension in their reflections on the welfare of communities and the nature of social human relationships, they have historically thought of greek terms starting with epsilon, like eudaimonia (that is happiness, welfare, human flourishing, good spirit) and eutrapelia (in latin, urbanitas, defined by illich, 1973 "graceful playfulness in personal relatedness", p. 7): these are all terms connected with the idea of civic friendship that, according to aristotle, is the foundation of the polis, what holds communities together, and what through which citizens can partake in the good life (pangle, 2006). linking conviviality to a condition that cannot be reduced to any form, however complex, of sociality or cooperation alone has two immediate consequences on how to derive and use the construct for the design of networking technologies. first, conviviality in communities (as an analytical construct) can be measured: this can be done by assessing it through a number of equally valid, reliable and standard psychometric tools that address a number of correlated dimensions, like subjective well-being, life satisfaction and happiness (kahneman & krueger, 2006) of their members or, the other way round, their self-rated anxiety or depression (bagby et al, 2014). in the literature there are a number of rating scales that in community psychology and related disciplines have been validated to assess "social engagement", "enjoyment in social activities" (e.g., the intrinsic motivation inventory by ryan et al., 2008), social participation and community integration (sander et al., 2010). in a user study that we are currently conducting in the context of network communities of place (where place is circumscribed in the same city area or neighborhood) we have administered to hundreds of social media users a multidimensional questionnaire combining together a short tool to evaluate the "attitude to exchange" and three standard assessment tools, the sense of community rating scale (mtsoc, prezza et al., 2009) the general self-efficacy scale (gses, scholz et al. 2002) and the satisfaction with life scale (swls, diener et al. 1985): our idea is to contribute in defining a conviviality rating scale and validate it empirically in large-scale user studies. once individual constructs are represented by short sets of items, partial or global cumulative scores can be obtained through standard statistical techniques to extract a quantitative, yet indicative indicator of the overall level of engagement and enjoyment in community activities. this allows us to compare trends either between different network communities (in cross-sectional studies) or in the same community over time (in longitudinal studies), as well as against relevant events like the introduction and adoption of new functionalities offered by the networking technology. this can be a convenient way to also assess the impact of the networking technology, as well as to prioritize changes to the application and initiatives of community promotion. although such a standard rating scale still does not exist, it should not be ruled out that such a contribution could come from the community informatics field sooner or later, in a multidisciplinary effort combining contributions from psychometrics (especially from the so called field of the psychology of well-being or positive psychology, cf. huppert et al. 2005), user-centered informatics and community studies (that is an academic field drawing on both sociology and anthropology and the social research methods of ethnography in studying communities). the application of psychometric tools to the members of a community could be used in either confirming or rejecting hypotheses on the involvement in the community and impact of this latter on the quality of their life. for instance, it can be argued that conviviality is a phenomenon that is more frequently or clearly observed when the members of a network community used to meet in the physical world on a stable basis; or that getting also involved with conscious commitment in cooperative tasks whose goals have been set collaboratively is another contributing factor for conviviality: in the same vein, wenger (1998) speaks of the "joint enterprise" to create a positive organizational atmosphere that could "convey a sense of familiar conviviality" (p. 24) for the effect this latter can have on the value produced by the "mutual engagement" of the community members. alternatively, one could conjecture that conviviality is more likely to occur, or emerge, in those network communities that exhibit typical traits of communities of intent, communities of knowledge, or communities of practice (see above) rather than in communities bound together just by common intents, concerns, interests and place. this could be because the voluntary nature of the coming together of the members of these kinds of community, and the gratuitous efforts usually paid for either its own sake, or the feeling to contribute to the community's welfare are the elements that, yet hard to detect and assess (schmidt, 2011), make a collaborative effort a positive experience, potentially enriching the actors involved. in the same way, it could be argued on a scientific ground that current social networking sites still fall short of creating conviviality-facilitating conditions, in the apparent paradox of highly facilitating connectivity (a precondition for communication, see table 1), but also surrogating and potentially de-empowering real-world relationships (cf. kraut et al. 1998; wästlund, 2001; turkle, 2012). this latter hypothesis could be related to the growing number of studies providing some evidence that the use of social networking sites, especially facebook, is associated with typically socially destructive feelings (ryan, t. and xenos, 2011), like jealousy (muise et al., 2009), frustration (chou and edge, 2012), and envy (krasnova et al., 2013, tandoc et al, 2015); with narcissism (mehdizadeh, 2010) and histrionic personality disorders (rosen et al. 2013); with the perception of low relative social value (blease, 2015) and social trust (sabatini and sarracino, 2014); with depression (moreno et al. 2011); with a decrease in subjective well-being over time (sabatini and sarracino, 2014; verduyn et al., 2015) and even in the overall quality of life (kross et al., 2013). nevertheless, irrespective of the specific conjecture on what facilitates or hampers conviviality in communities, further user studies and research in this strand could either prove or reject them and foster a debate that is useful to the development and experimentation of novel networking technologies. second consequence: conviviality relates to the quality of the relationships occurring between community members and between them and the social structure to which they feel they belong. this means that, differently from communication and cooperation (which are both interaction modes and the virtuous conditions these allow to achieve, as reported in table 1) it is difficult (or plainly wrong) to think of conviviality in terms of supportive functionalities, and conviviality can be neither guaranteed nor maintained by any networking technology per se. nevertheless, we believe it should be considered one of the most important potential conditions to afford within a community and that its elusive nature should neither worry nor puzzle the designers of networking technologies, at least not any more than the discourse on user experience (ux) should, in its relationship with the usability discourse. a short digression on the parallel between usability and sociability (preece, 2001) and ux and conviviality should make this last point clear. usability is concerned with how intuitive and easy it is for the users of technology to learn to use and interact with a product (preece, 2001). a "new genre" or "component", in preece's words, of usability, that she called sociability, specifies this concept in regard to "how members of a community interact with each other via the supporting technology" (ibid. p. 351): sociability then regards how intuitive and easy it is for the members of a network communities to interact with others via the networking technology, that is how such a technology is easy to use for users to communicate and cooperate with each other. for its close relationship with the concept of usability, indicators of good sociability have been enumerated mainly on the quantitative side and with an emphasis on community performance: the number of participants in the community; the number of messages; the number of messages per participant; how much reciprocity, indicated by the number of responses per participant; the amount of on-topic discussion; the number and type of incidents that produce uncivil behavior; average duration of membership and so forth (preece, 2001). once the concept of usability has strengthened in the literature and professional practice,, the concept of "user experience" (ux) has then been proposed to go beyond its functional and non-functional aspects, i.e., instrumental and performance-related, to "look at the individual's entire interaction [...] as well as the thoughts, feelings and perceptions that result from that interaction" (albert & tullis, 2013, p. 5). thus, ux focuses on the satisfaction component of usability, and on the user' perceptions and responses (cf. the iso definition), including emotions like pleasure, delight, joy and fun (bargas-avila & hornbæk, 2011). in the same manner as preece has derived the concept of sociability from that of usability, we can consider conviviality related to ux, that is to the extension of the individual dimension of the emotional response to the social dimension, and hence related to recent studies focusing on ux "in the social" (cf. the concept of co-experience, battarbee and koskinen, 2005) where authors speak of delightful, joyful or "good social experience", which has a potential to "inspire behavioural and emotional change" (hassenzahl & tractinsky, 2006). as ux requires ethnographic and psychometric methods to be evaluated (albert & tullis, 2013), the same holds for conviviality. as ux is difficult to be enframed in specific requirements (differently from usability) and it is said to be related to "hedonic, affective or experiential aspects of technology use" (hassenzahl & tractinsky, 2006), also conviviality can be related to the hedonic, emotional, affective or experiential aspects of human-human interaction and be therefore better characterized by principles to consider in the design of a specific class of artifacts, as we will see in the last section. convivial artifacts we ground our idea of convivial artifact on similar ideas recently outlined by other researchers interested in urban planning (e.g., (banerjee, 2001)) and in the design of icts supporting urban communities (antoniadis and apostol, 2013). in this line, we believe that to design "tools for conviviality" is different than designing for sociability only, which in some way is related to the augmentation of the "communicative side" of sociality, and that it is also different from designing for collaboration in organizational domains, where structured patterns, protocols and coordinative conventions exist (schmidt and bannon, 1992; schmidt, 2011). the expression "convivial tool" was first used by illich (1973), who spoke of conviviality just to introduce this particular class of tools, and consequently the societies where these tools are used (illich, 1973). in his work he made a clear reference to the latin root of the word con-vivium (to live together, and only after to have a nice time together) and characterized a convivial tool as a tool specifically designed to unite people, in both its production, use and continuous accommodation (harris and henderson, 1999), which would not alienate them, and indeed would give them opportunities to enjoy life together. furthermore in illich's words, convivial tools are "responsibly limited [...] modern technologies [that] serve politically interrelated individuals rather than managers [and corporate profit-related aims]". more precisely, illich defined a convivial tool as "that which gives each person who uses it the greatest opportunity to enrich the environment with the fruits of his or her vision": it is therefore a tool empowering the user and giving her both voice and the opportunity to have an impact on her world; and a tool whose "renewal would be as unpredictable, creative, and lively as the people who use them" (illich, 1973), so envisioning "in nuce" the affordance that has been called authoring in the previous section. in light of illich's seminal contribution, and coherently with the technical definition of conviviality we discussed in the previous section, we define convivial artifact as any technology (and the related technique of use and exploitation) that either allows or facilitates (cf. the concept of affordance) people to experience life within a community as a convivial (i.e., pleasing, gratifying, edifying, self-fulfilling, self-expressive, etc.) experience. convivial artifacts are then a class of artifacts that are aimed at promoting sociality, cooperativity, self-expression and autonomous and creative intercourses among individuals, and therefore both communication, and what adds to this latter dimension the will to act together, that is collective deliberation, collective planning, and cooperative action (nowicka and vertovec, 2013) aimed at reaching purposes collectively set by means of lines of action collectively agreed upon (see table 1). to denote an artifact as convivial requires both an intended and explicit aim of the artifact (i.e., supporting behaviors in a community that can be traced back to the conviviality spectrum); and a post-hoc verification of the positive impact of the artifact on the related subjective dimensions of the members involved, through one (or more) tools like the ones mentioned above. in regard to the first criterion, examples abound: social media supporting the exchange or co-production of value, like those by which people can collect requests and distribute commodities within ethical purchasing groups (mezzacapo, 2014); or organize and manage local exchange communities, like time banks (bellotti et al. 2014) or borrow-and-loan groups (of which also reading groups and "diffuse libraries" are common instances), and the activities of voluntary associations are all means that exploit the "communicative side" of social media to connect and link people together, but then go beyond that side, to enable both online and offline collaboration and joint action. as antoniadis and apostol (2013) also argue, "sharing information with neighbours is a critical requirement for creating convivial physical, and not virtual, communities and for a more informed and cohesive participation in public affairs" (our emphasis). in this light, the anti-conviviality of social media like facebook is summarized by antoniadis and apostol (2014), by enumerating a number of critical points: these tools "exclude those that do not have a facebook account and/or internet access"; they influence the "collective image" of the communities that choose that platform to gather and socialize; and do this through "numerous small but important design details [that are] externally decided [and imposed to the users, and are] exactly the same [...] for all places in the world, such as ] the presentation order of the various posts and the moderation rights of the administrator, the level of anonymity allowed, the permanence of the recorded information over time, and the user interface such as wording, colours and menu items" (antoniadis and apostol, 2014); and, finally the corporates behind these tools own all the information generated therein and generally exploit it "for commercial or other purposes, raising serious threats related to privacy, surveillance, and censorship." similarly, we had the opportunity to talk with the founders and administrators of some of the most successful facebook groups that are administered according to the "social street" manifesto and guidelines , and that have recently gained great attention from the italian mass media: in these interviews and talks, we found people generally enthusiastic about their initiative, but also realistically wary of the capability of a sociality-oriented social media such as facebook to support people engagement in constant, not sporadic, collaborative tasks. related to this latter point and also to the second criterion by which to rightly deem a technology as convivial, we advocate more new research aimed at validating both the sociability and conviviality of the social media adopted by a community, and at assessing the satisfaction by which communicationand cooperation-oriented functionalities are exploited by the members of the community for the creation and improvement of the community social value (i.e., social capital, trust, members' wellbeing, etc.): briefly put, an assessment of the level of conviviality reached by the network community with the psychometric tools mentioned above. design principles for convivial artifacts these considerations shed light on a potential set of high-level principles that could inform the design of convivial artifacts. obviously, following these principles does not guarantee the building of a convivial artifact, especially according to the experiential dimension of the second criterion mentioned above; nevertheless, so doing would help prioritize specific areas of improvement and investment in related functional and non-functional requirements. in what follows we draw a first tentative list of these principles, which can be mapped into the community affordances discussed above (see figure 2). this list is just a first step on which we advocate further research from the communities & technologies field to identify more fine-grained requirements. this effort would go in the same mould of the work by caire (2010), who observed that the requirements for convivial tools should include: the sharing of knowledge and skills (how to accomplish and promote this exchange); the dealing with conflict (how to minimize it, how to cope with it once it bursts out); and the feeling of 'togetherness' and belonging to the same community (similarly to our agenda, how to promote and evaluate it). our principles are: collaboration-orientedness. a convivial digital tool should support (and in some cases even enable) collaborative tasks, not just chattering: this means to go beyond (in an inclusive manner) the "social networking" model of communication a la` facebook (cabitza and cornetta, 2014), which basically entails a common artifact where people create connections (their "social network"), and share with acquaintances their preferences, messages, information on events, and various content, but usually do not co-create content (as, e.g., in the google doc platform). this does not mean that we underestimate the potential of technology-mediated communication to allow a motivated group of people to achieve important results collaboratively. we are just stressing the important limitation that is entailed by believing that only communication could be effectively supported by technology, and "the rest will follow". as is widely known in the cscw community since its beginning, affording communication is simply not enough to promote collaboration (grudin, 1988). to move beyond this, it is necessary to conceive systems that also provide task-specific value, such as services to promote informal and emergent economies based on sharing and coproduction, as for example ethical purchasing groups, used goods exchange communities, time banks, book-and-thing loan groups. this can be done by integrating together functions like those provided by different services that are nowadays quite scattered in the internet, as for example through doodle1 and meetup2 to organize meetings; i-petitions3 and livepetitions4 , to aggregate consensus and sensitize people around a specific topic; everyblock5 , to aggregate and discuss local news and information, such as "local photos posted to flickr, user reviews of local businesses on yelp, lost-and-found postings from craigslist" 6 , and many other vertical systems to organize used stuff exchanges, barter associations, shareable goods inventories, time banks and other kinds of community exchange systems (e.g., streetbank7 , frecycle8 , neighborgoods9 and, in italy, locloc10 , sfinz11 and superfred12 .) these goal-oriented components could motivate the physical aggregation of people, and their re-appropriation of common spaces in the local territory that they inhabit. for instance, in the condiviviamo project`3 , we developed a drupal-based module by which to enable the construction and management of a collective and diffuse (i.e, distributed) library14 . this library is constituted of all of the books shared by the citizens living in the same neighborhood, and willing to lend their own books in exchange of the right to borrow those of others. the service is intended to help interested users index and expose their books, search among all the books so collected, keep track of current loans, send timely reminders, and the like but, above all, to organize encounters for handing over the books physically, seen as an opportunity for lenders and borrowers to get to know each other and comment on their common readings. the potential for conviviality of these services lies in the fact that these systems support the organization of real encounters in the physical world, and therefore that they are also aimed at promoting their non-use (cabitza, 2014b), that is the condition in which the user can do without the technology sooner or later and feel comfortable in quitting its use (exactly like meetup, after all) or even abandoning it.bounded openness. this principle can be articulated in two different, but somehow related, levels of analysis. first, we can consider it from a functional and operational point of view. this means that the convivial artifact should be open-source, non-profit, and provide a modular set of components where most of the community members should be able to choose among some possibilities and configure by themselves (or at least understand the available options and vote for a specific configuration): most current content management systems, like drupal or joomla, are already highly modular and allow for the incremental enrichment of their basic social features. thus, bounded openness regards the capability of a system to be "opened" and appropriated also by means of hard tinkering and ad-hoc development, beside a large amount of potential alternative configurations that have been predefined by the original developers of the platform (cf. bounded). this would allow the platform to be customized to a great extent, or accommodated in the words of harris and henderson (1999) to the community's needs, and yet not been perceived as open as a city square, but rather as a particular home, which is furnished and decorated to its inhabitants' will and taste. appropriation and domestication are important processes to make community shelters more familiar to their inhabitants, even when these shelters are but "virtual", as social media are. in fact, in existing social networking sites, users produce all (or most of the) content. but, as also noticed by antoniadis and apostol (2014) the commands to produce this content, and the structures through which to "consume" it, even the ways to share it (i.e., across what platforms, with which limitations) are imposed from above and subject to change with no notice or consultation (cf. the introduction of the timeline in facebook). this contributes to undermining the feeling of being in common virtual place; it corroborates the idea of being guests of some host that houses you (probably just to observe you, or take some opportunity to sell you something); and above all, it totally stifles the community affordance of authoring. for these reasons, we also advocate the possibility that the most it-skilled members of the local community adopt a convivial artifact able to extend the baseline platform with "contributed modules" or to adapt existing extensions developed by the community of other developers, possibly by "branching out" the standard profile and distribution, as it is usual practice in the developer' communities of the successful open-source platforms. the same phenomenon has been described by gaved and mulholland (2010) and denoted with the phrase "grassroots (initiated) networked communities": in these communities the networking platform is in the full control of the community members, and not something that some private for-profit corporation makes available to them, usually with a business model based on advertising, user profiling, and more or less direct product selling and brand promotion. on a second level of description, we characterized the concept of bounded openness also in other terms (cabitza et al., 2013) to stress how the symbolic and textual representations have to be managed to be sufficiently "malleable" to any real context, that is the support must adopt open-ended terminology defined in a bottom-up fashion, while of course avoiding the babel tower drift. more concretely, this kind of openness means that a convivial artifact should let users associate the occurrence of certain symbols, or configurations of signs, with application behaviors that do not change irreversibly the state of the system; or if they change it, they also provide an explicit indication of what relation symbol-command has been activated, and why (i.e., on the basis of what rule or operationalized convention). in this mould, we have begun investigating how lightweight functions such as side annotations could be realized to reflect and promote the local and extempore conventions of the users involved while avoiding the risk of pinpointing and freezing them "hardwired" to the application logic of the system (cabitza et al., 2009; cabitza and simone, 2012). selective inclusiveness. within a community, boundaries can be necessary for the identity of the social structure that recognizes itself within those boundaries. however, boundaries also contribute to creating an "inside" and an "outside", which is the basis for any discrimination and for the specific process by which even conviviality can turn into a "mask [of] the power relationships and social structures that govern communities" (caire, 2010) after taylor), and can be "achieved for the majority, but only through a process by which non-conviviality is reinforced for the minority" (ashby, 2004). for this reason, the platform should not encourage the idea of communities as self-standing entities. rather, it should promote the conceptual arbitrariness and pragmatic convenience of any division in human ensembles, by enacting a mechanism by which the community creates (and maintains) sharing policies that allow for multiple overlapping subsets of the whole community that include people with common concerns on the basis of multiple criteria. in the open-source drupal-based project mentioned above, condiviviamo, we call these community subsets incommunities (or accomunità in italian) as these groups are ways to (virtually) gather together people with something "in-common". examples of incommunities abound: people living in the same floor of the same building, or in the same unit or wing of this latter (which usually encompass several floors); the board of the directors of a single condominium; the group of apartment owners; the people working in a specific building; the people living in the same street, or (of course) in the same neighborhood and (or) city area; people going to the same school (in a specific street) or working for companies located therein. in short, an incommunity is any group of people having some characteristic that is valuable for the producer of the content to be shared. notably, this characteristic can also be highly dynamic, volatile and defined withn the system on-the-fly, as in the case of the incommunity that encompasses all of the people within a 5-minute walk or within a mile of where the content producer is "now". the concept of incommunity mirrors that of "circle", which was first proposed by adams (adams, 2012) and then adopted (and widely popularized) by the google plus platform; however it also differs from this idea in two aspects: first incommunities are defined by the community itself (new incommunities are proposed by the people, but then consolidated only on a collective agreement basis); second, when a content is shared in some incommunity, that is when a member of multiple incommunities shares a content with the other members of (some of) these incommunities, an explicit operation of intersection is available, and it is indeed the default option (that is, the content is shared with the members that belong to all of the incommunities mentioned). the same goes for the access to the other services of the platform15 , as this latter should be able to route both content elements and available operations on the basis of community membership. obviously the mechanism of the incommunity is just an example of how a convivial artifact could address the requirement of selective inclusiveness. much further research is needed to assess how people in real communities would want to adopt this "variable geometry" sharing mechanism and appropriate this more articulated notion of "circle" for their situated needs and aims. although it is difficult (or arbitrary) to draw a clear relationship between the community affordances and the conviviality-oriented principles outlined above, figure 2 represents the endeavor to illustrate how many aspects of the community potential and the augmenting technology are intrinsically related, and how promoting aspects of either sides of the diagram can actually produce a positive impact on the other side (and vice versa). the qualitative relationships should be verified with ad-hoc studies of technology impact assessment in the line drawn above. figure 2: relationships between community affordances (on the left) and the principles envisioned for convivial artifacts (on the right). conclusions this paper has proposed a set of sensitizing concepts in terms of affordances that a network community and its technological infrastructure should offer to its members; in regard to the community affordances we did this by revisiting and extending the set of sensitizing concepts originally proposed in (mynatt et al., 1998). we also introduced the affordances of trust and conviviality and discussed the latter one to some extent in light of several previous research contributions by seeing it as an important facet of community interaction. affording conviviality within network communities requires reflecting on how supportive technologies, what we denote with the general expression of "convivial artifacts", have to be conceived. to this aim, we have made the point that there is a need to explore new dimensions along which communicationand cooperation-oriented functionalities can be combined to better support sociality and cooperativity within network communities, and thus go beyond what we called the "facebook model of socialization". this model is mainly, if not exclusively, based on self-image projection, self-representation and communication (zhao et al., 2013) and its evolution would entail a stronger focus on cooperation-oriented support (see table 1), as a necessary, but far from sufficient, precondition to get the community members to enjoy conviviality in their social interactions and activities. the paper also proposes an initial set of three principles that should inform the design of convivial artifacts. all of them go in the direction of allowing community members to be in full control of the artifacts they are using to support their communication and cooperation, with a minimum set of restrictions that are imposed by the networking technology. this means that the members of a network community should be put in the position of playing their preferred role (more or less active) to contribute in making the community itself a pleasant "environment" where to live, through their preferred level of mutual engagement and technology appropriation. this vision sheds light on the conception of technological platforms for various kinds of communities that we are currently developing and validating in the field. the points discussed above motivate our focus on conviviality in our vision for the future of community-supporting technologies. as designers of artifacts that are shared and used within a community for its welfare, we have proposed the concept of conviviality as an operational parallel of similar concepts in the ux discourse, as delight, self-expression and pleasure: in the ux domain these concepts apply to the interaction with technology and related services and extend usability concerns; on the other hand, in community informatics we propose conviviality so as to extend sociability: that is, for its connections with the concepts of social interaction, community life and co-interaction, we propose to measure it on collective psychometric dimensions as a multidisciplinary approach to technology design, adjustment and evolution. in an even more ambitious perspective, the paper aims to contribute to the construction of a conceptual ground where the outcomes of the research regarding the interplay between communities and technology can be interpreted and characterized, compared and validated; in so doing, we believe that a common ground on these themes can be established within a mature research community which is able to overcome the fruitless 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(2013). the many faces of facebook: experiencing social media as performance, exhibition, and personal archive. in proceedings of the sigchi conference on human factors in computing systems, chi '13, pages 1-10, new york, ny, usa. acm. gofred: municipally-owned ict utilities in fredericton, new brunswick mike richard1 & duncan philpot2 e-novations, city of fredericton, canada. email: mike.richard@fredericton.ca phd candidate, department of sociology, university of new brunswick. fredericton, capital of the canadian province of new brunswick, is home to approximately 55,000 residents. fredericton is relatively isolated, peripheral to the major cities in the country. the city airport is home to only one airline and there are no international flights. fredericton's major economic activity is support for the provincial government. because of this, the fredericton municipal government has sought to brand itself around its knowledge economy, centered on its two universities (university of new brunswick and saint thomas university), several cultural institutions, as well as significant it and engineering sectors. in relation to this branding strategy, the city of fredericton owns and runs its own not-for-profit telecommunications company as a utility. this company, a local internet service provider (isp) called e-novations (www.e-novations.ca) was founded in 2001 to provide a locally-owned alternative to the larger commercial telecoms that previously had no competition in the city (for more, see: fred-echronicles). in the last year e-novations has rebranded its services as gofred (www.gofred.ca). the municipal company serves to demonstrate that fredericton is not a sleepy little town in the middle of new brunswick, and has helped attract ict groups and scholars to the city. as noted by powell (2008), atlantic canada has struggled to retain and expand its workforce, and fredericton's branding project has been a response to this challenge. fredericton demonstrated its worth to the ict sector by becoming the first "free wireless city" in canada by incorporating a city-wide wireless service called the fred e-zone in 2003 (city of fredericton, online). this service is described as a 'best effort' service, and the network is usually functional. gofred does not guarantee that the service will be as reliable as private or personal networks, but it is a significant offering compared to larger centers which may charge for similar wi-fi service. fredericton won a canadian information productivity award (cipa) in 2004 with the development of this service. this helped draw attention to the city, and the project has led fredericton to be featured around the world as an up and coming it city. it has also drawn the attention of various group and scholars who are interested in the impact of a free wireless service (e.g. o'donnell & richard, 2006; middleton, 2007; middleton & crow, 2008; powell, 2008). gofred's mission is to offer lower cost connectivity to benefit local businesses and government while reinvesting the money paid by members of the service to continually enhance the services they provide. to do this, they have begun to offer commercial internet to fredericton businesses at a 75% price advantage beginning in the fall of 2013. furthermore, they want to provide services that incumbent carriers such as bell and rogers have refused to provide private dark fibre networks suited to data transfer for businesses and local organisations (see: markoff, 2010). gofred provides free wireless to citizens. wireless hotspots are supported by the revenue generated by their paying customers, which use the extra network capacity available to broadcast the free wi-fi. in turn, hot spots are hosted by businesses that purchase their connection from gofred. gofred's private services operate on a philosophy of net neutrality. however, on the free fred-ezone wireless service, gofred makes an effort to block access to certain websites (e.g. porn websites) as well as track suspicious high usage activity (e.g. spammers). while this serves the policy of moderating what kind of content is accessible to the public, pragmatically this is in an effort to save bandwidth. gofred services extend to a wide variety of public and private sector users. the service connects about 30 other buildings in within the city of fredericton as well as 35 municipal buildings, both universities, the provincial electricity company new brunswick power, the provincial government, and the city's airport. two non-profit agencies (the playhouse performing arts centre and the local ymca), as well as many private sector companies, including firms such as the commercial it security service q1labs, also use gofred. the service also extends to the federal government and connects the federal potato research center to canarie (canada's advanced research innovation network). the gofred business model is to provide low-cost, high quality lan and internet connections (i.e. dark fibre) to the local community. they buy their bandwidth from bell and rogers, and employ contractors to work on connection projects. while the city of fredericton employs approximately 650 staff, gofred technically has no employees and is run entirely as a municipal utility by staff. service work is conducted by contracted companies around fredericton. when gofred, previously e-novations, emerged in the late 1990s when the canadian radio-television telecommunications commission (crtc) deregulated telecommunications, allowing for multiple non-dominant carriers to exist. gofred is a registered crtc provider, operating its network through fibre cabling carried on public utility poles and through underground conduits. its service was originally intended to cover most of the city's business center and municipal facilities (blackwell, 2004). e-novations applied for federal funding from the smart community initiative of the federal government department industry canada. the smart communities initiative began in the late 1990s in order to increase the number of people accessing and using information technology (for a commentary on the movement, see: moser, 2001). the smart community program guide suggests that such communities will: "pursue a smart agenda [that] should transform their social, economic and cultural processes rather than make cautious incremental improvements in the delivery of services and information to citizens" (industry canada, 1999). although e-novationswas not successful in its application to this initiative, the fredericton city council directed the staff involved to keep going with the project. with the success of its predecessor's initial projects, gofred has continued to expand its services to keep up with the needs of its customers. gofred's focus is aiding the economic development of the city by providing telecommunication services, so that its client organizations can focus on the core aspects of their businesses. gofred maintains a philosophy of offering organic service whatever utility their customers ask for, they attempt to provide. further, gofred makes the effort to show their customers exactly how the connectivity functions. whereas bigger telecoms function on non-expertise of their customers, gofred attempts to demystify the connection process as much as possible. one service that has recently appeared is co-op internet, which came about when customers wanted to pool their resources together to purchase high quality, enterprise level internet. gofred also offers cloud data storage and back office systems to not-for-profit organizations so they can use their funds to aid their organisations rather than spend it on operating data management services. a stated purpose of the network is to provide a living lab for it organizations in fredericton. in keeping with this principle, one of its members, it security specialists q1 labs (an ibm company), tracks and deals with security issues that threaten gofred and e-novation customers. q1labs also uses the gofred network to test out their security software. by using the data gained by their trials on the gofred network, q1 labs hopes to sell these products to larger corporations outside of fredericton. the gofred network services supply q1 labs with real time data for analysis to help with product development (see: http://q1labs.com/). in a world where telecom providers are continuing to merge, converge, increase in girth and dwindle in number, services like gofred challenge the centralisation of ownership and a growing dependency on outside assistance. as successive governments push the information society policy agenda forward, telecommunication providers are necessary, but they challenge local autonomy (bodnar, 2004; philpot, beaton & whiteduck, 2014). the central issue is with the dominance enjoyed by the largest of those providers (e.g. bell canada, rogers). already well established, these carriers have the funds to capitalise on the need for connectivity over smaller, local providers, who are then purchased, pushed out of the business or bankrupted. some local people in cities the size of fredericton will of course be employed by the large telecom companies to deliver local services, but problems arise when the local population finds itself dependent on expertise outside the city (philpot, beaton & whiteduck, 2014). given that gofred is owned and run by local community members who are employed by the municipal government, the service provides opportunities for the city to develop local enterprises and initiatives. establishing local enterprise provides the means for fostering ict skills within the local community, and allows jobs to remain in the local economy. with larger national providers such as bell and rogers, many of those opportunities are transient. while some revenues generated by the created jobs and the use of the services stay within the city, large service providers must inevitably focus on capturing new and larger markets, which means their attention is ultimately national rather than local. the profits that larger telecoms accumulate benefit corporate objectives, rather than those of the local community. while gofred and e-novations do have to rely on bell and rogers for some of their services, they make a point of employing local contract workers, which has added benefits for the city itself. for the future, gofred faces two main challenges. first, there are the local challenges of satisfying the city council and its board of directors. this involves managing the expectations from both customers and the city councillors. secondly, there are challenges from the telecommunications industry and the crtc regarding behaviours and actions around the internet and net neutrality. ultimately, because it comes under the regulatory control of the crtc, any crtc decisions that affect the role of internet service providers with respect to issues of net neutrality will have to be enforced by gofred. this threatens gofred's philosophy towards net neutrality, and they are determined to fight against it as much as they can. other challenges include making people aware of the service. currently, gofred does not spend any money on mass advertising everything is passed by word-of-mouth --whereas bell and rogers have significant advertising budgets. while we do not have any statistics about how many people are aware of gofred, anecdotally we can suggest that many are still unaware of the services it provides. gofred could be a useful model for other communities, but there is a catch. offering dark fibre networks for local businesses requires an existing fibre network to use. usually this means that dark fibre networks are only possible in larger population centers where fibre has been laid and remains available for purchase or lease. often this also requires purchasing or leasing from another provider as well. the gofred strategy may be more attractive for high-population areas, because it would likely require significant funding from both federal and provincial governments in smaller communities, particularly ones that do not already function to serve the government and public sector industries. nevertheless, the example of gofred has shown some of the benefits of a city choosing to own and run its own internet utilities. while challenges are inevitable, moving towards local ownership and service means that skills and talent will continue to remain local and rooted in the needs of the local community. references blackwell, g. (2004). installing the e-zone. wi-fi planet, 14 may 2004. retrieved from: http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/columns/article.php/3354281 bodnar, c. (2004). "sewers and asphalt: the stuff of digital dreams? the reregulation of telecommunication industries and democracy in canada". in moll, m. regan shade, l. (eds.), seeking convergence in policy and practice: communications in the public interest. volume two. ottawa, on: canadian centre for policy alternatives, pp. 183-200. city of fredericton. technology, research & education. retrieved from: http://www.teamfredericton.com/en/communityprofile/researcheducation.asp#fred-ezone the fred-echronicles. no. 1 the chronicle of e-novations & fred-ezone. retrieved from: http://www.teamfredericton.com/en/publications/resources/fred-echronicles.pdf industry canada. (1999). smart communities: program guide. ottawa: government of canada. markoff, j. (2010). scientists strive to map the shape-shifting net. new york times, 1 march 2010. retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/science/02topo.html?_r=2&src=sch&pagewanted=all middleton, c. (2007). a framework for investigating the value of public wireless networks. paper presented at the 35th research conference on communication, information and internet policy, september 2007. retrieved from: http://www.cwirp.org/files/middleton_tprc_2007.pdf middleton, c. and crow, b. (2008). building wi-fi networks for communities: three canadian cases. canadian journal of communication, 33(3), 419-442. moser, m. (2001). what is smart about the smart communities movement? ejournal, 10/11(1). retrieved from: http://www.ucalgary.ca/ejournal/archive/v10-11/v10-11n1moser-browse.html o'donnell, s. and richard, m. (2006). turning municipal video surveillance cameras into municipal webcams. national research council of canada. retrieved from: http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/ctrl?action=rtdoc&an=8914253&lang=en philpot, d., beaton, b., and whiteduck, t. (2014). first mile challenges to last mile rhetoric: exploring the discourse between remote and rural first nations and the telecom industry. journal of community informatics, 19(2). powell, a. (2008). co-productions of technology, culture and policy in north america's community wireless networking movement. unpublished doctoral dissertation, concordia university, montreal. let's get together: exploring the formation of social capital in a malaysian virtual community dr. shafiz affendi mohd yusof1 & kamarul faizal hashim mail2 associate professor of information systems, university of wollongong in dubai, uae and universiti utara malaysia, malaysia. email: samohdyu09@gmail.com lecturer of information systems and deputy director of co-curriculum, universiti utara malaysia, malaysia. email: kfaizal@uum.edu.my introduction over the years, virtual communities have been growing and gaining popularity in the global context. a virtual or online community is a group of people connected through the internet and other information technologies. the rapid evolution of information and communications technology (ict) has transformed, networked and bound people into a larger virtual society (gurstein, 2008). it was clearly noted that virtual communities have become an important part of modern society and the influence of virtual communities is increasingly pervasive, with activities ranging across various domains social, educational, political and business. the quest for a better understanding of virtual communities is demonstrated by the proliferation of research conducted by community informatics researchers over the past few years (gurstein, 2008). having a strong understanding of community informatics is important as it helps to draw a better picture of the effect of ict on empowering and enabling community activities (gurstein, 2007). virtual communities built on social network structures began to appear in 2002 and are now among the most popular web-based applications (finin, ding, zhou & joshi, 2005). according to chao et al. (2006), many people are interested in participating in virtual discussions to seek solutions for certain problems as well as to share their knowledge with others. interestingly, some of the web communities, particularly those of professional groups, have brought advantages to their parent organizations. the rapid growth of ict provides a new place and new ways for society to meet, collaborate, socialize, and shop (turoff, 1991; burnett, 2000). according to tuuti (2010, p. 4), "this change has been caused by new ways of interacting on the internet that the so called web 2.0 has brought with it. individuals are able to create and publish their own content, follow and comment on others' content and collaboratively organize the vast amount of information available." such sites allow individuals to publish personal information in a semi-structured form and to define links to other members with whom they have relationships of various kinds. recently, an understanding of social capital is becoming recognized as critical and significant, as distinct from the financial, human, intellectual and other types of capital in today's communities. social capital theory describes the norms, values and behaviors which are shared by a community (cohen & prusak, 2001). those components function as strong glue which binds the members of human networks and communities together and encourages them to cooperate and work together. a community with a good fund of social capital is more likely to easily resolve collective problems and foster individual and community growth (putnam, 1995). existing community informatics literature identifies social capital as one of the three important concepts used to understand the intersection between community and technology (william & durrance, 2008). ict can play an important role in developing social capital within a community. for instance, pigg and crank (2004) conducted a meta-analysis that highlighted ict capabilities in extending social networks, mobilizing shared resources, and enhancing the bonding and bridging of community. simpson (2005) stresses the importance of icts in helping individuals to effectively participate in community activities which in turn provides better opportunities to strengthen a community's social capital. however, to what extent ict (i.e., virtual community) can be used to develop social capital within a virtual setting is still not clear. for example, pigg and crank (2004) have clearly noted that understanding the role of ict in creating social capital is still at a nascent stage and thus requires further research. they further assert that examining the development of social capital using ict is important as this platform is said to have the ability to contribute to and enhance social networks, provide access to resources, and enhance solidarity in social groups. hence, in recent years, based on our literature analysis, we found that research has begun to use several theoretical lenses to help explain ict adoption and usage of social capital concepts although such findings have not been fully supported as yet (toland, 2012; matei, 2009; mignone & henley, 2009). in line with such studies, to the best of our knowledge, this studyi is the first of its kind to examine the development of social capital within virtual community. in essence, the end goal of this study is to understand the key factors that influence the formation of social capital and to what extent each of the factors matters in the success of a virtual community in malaysia. a qualitative approach is employed to give an in-depth understanding of the formation of social capital elements in united the subang jaya (usj) e-community. the rest of this paper is organized into the following sections. the next section explains the background of the study and the section that follows discusses social capital in general, while the third section presents the specific dimensions of social capital employed in this study. the fourth section explains the research methodology. the fifth section presents the research findings and the last section offers some concluding remarks and discusses the study's implications and future research directions. background of usj e-community the united subang jaya (usj) e-community (www.usj.com.my) was founded on 26 october 1999. this self-funded web community belongs to the residents and ratepayers in the subang jaya municipality, selangor, malaysia. the usj e-community has 24,500 registered members and is managed by several volunteers. the volunteers have different backgrounds with respect to race and religion yet work together to acculturate residents in usj-subang jaya and fellow malaysians and to maximize the benefits of ict applications at work and at home. the usj e-community includes a web forum where members can discuss any issues related to the subang jaya municipality. this community was awarded "best community website" and "best community development website" in 2000 by pikom and by the my malaysia internet awards. the sample for this study was: 1) usj e-community core members and 2) usj e-community members from eight geographic locations (subang jaya, sunway, puchong, serdang, seri kembangan, kinrara, and putra heights). they were contacted through emails and notices about the research were also advertised on their virtual community site. capitalizing on the social aspects the notion of social capital was first introduced by lyda judson hanifan in her discussions of rural school community centers (hanifan cited in smith, 2001). she used the term 'social capital' to describe tangible substances that count for most people in their daily lives. the major concern of rural school community centers was the cultivation of good will, fellowship, sympathy and social intercourse among those that make up a social unit (hanifan cited in smith, 2001). bourdieu (1983) first used the term to refer to the advantages and opportunities accruing to people through membership in certain communities. with regard to social theory, coleman (1988) used the term 'social capital' to describe the resources of individuals that emerge from their social ties. coleman argued that social capital differs from financial and human capital, since social capital inheres in interpersonal relations and describes the durable networks which form social resources among individuals and groups as they strive for mutual recognition (coleman, 1988). social capital is part of the necessary infrastructure of civic and community life because it generates 'norms of reciprocity and civic engagement.' social capital can be viewed as a common framework for understanding the depth of a community's social connectedness. putnam (1995) argued that stronger economic growth and effective local and regional government are linked with high levels of social capital. he suggests that social capital refers to features of social organization ? such as networks, norms, and social trust ? which facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit. social capital is not just the sum of the institutions which underpin a society; it is the glue that holds them together (the world bank, 1999). cohen and prusak (2001) suggest that social capital consists of the stock of active connections among people ? the trust, mutual understanding, and shared values and behaviors which bind the members of human networks and communities together and make cooperative action possible. social capital can also be seen as the goodwill that is engendered by the fabric of social relations and which facilitates action (adler & kwon, 2002). social capital at the firm (company) level is created through the connectivity or relatedness between human resources of the firm and the creation of knowledge value, sometimes termed 'intellectual capital' (chaminade & roberts, 2002). social capital is also used to refer to the network of social relationships. networks are not merely the result of historical accident; they come about as individuals spend time and energy to connect with others. according to putnam (1995), social capital represents features of social life such as networks, norms, and trust which enable participants to act together more effectively to pursue shared objectives. dimensions of social capital in their comprehensive review of the conceptual literature, nahapiet and ghoshal (1998) divided social capital into three dimensions: structural, cognitive and relational. structural social capital refers to the ways in which motivated recipients gain access to actors with desired sets of knowledge and intellectual capital. this dimension of social capital is usually studied using a network approach, in which the frequency of contact and resulting social distance among actors in a particular firm or organization are plotted to form a web-like diagram illustrating actor interaction patterns. in contrast, cognitive social capital recognizes that exchange occurs within a social context which is created and sustained through ongoing relationships (nahapiet & ghoshal, 1998). similar to the notion of community of practice (brown & duguid, 1991) and some aspects of virtual community, cognitive social capital refers to the shared meanings which are created through stories and continual discussions within a specific, often clearly defined, group. these shared meanings are self-reinforcing in that participation in the community is dependent upon an a priori understanding of the context and continual contribution to the on-going dialogues. the third dimension of social capital deals with the relational aspect, which is concerned with the underlying normative dimensions that guide exchange relationship behaviors. norms exist when the socially defined right to control an action is held not by the individual actor but by others (coleman, 1990). therefore, norms represent degrees of consensus and as such are a powerful although fragile form of social capital (nahapiet & ghoshal, 1998). within a community context, narayan and cassidy (2001) stated that social capital comprises seven components: group characteristics, norms, togetherness, sociability, connections, volunteerism and trust. these characteristics are important in any type of community. table 1a summarizes these social capital components. table 1a: social capital components for this study, all seven of narayan and cassidy's (2001) social capital components are used as our theoretical framework through which to explore and understand the formation of social capital. research methodology we conducted an exploratory qualitative case study of the usj virtual community to understand the formation of social capital elements within a malaysian e-community context. a case study approach is employed for two reasons: (1) the description of a situation can be used to infer some conclusions about the phenomenon under study in a general manner, or (2) the particular case offers something interesting, unique, or new and can provide a detailed understanding of a social process, organization or collective social unit (myers, 2009; yin, 2003). the uniqueness in this case lies in the participants chosen for this study, which included all registered members listed on the usj virtual community website. the interesting aspect about studying this virtual community in depth is that it is one of the most active virtual communities in malaysia and among the first virtual communities developed in malaysia. participants participants were chosen using the snowball sampling technique. snowball sampling allows the researcher to identify a variety of members in the sample through referrals, where one participant informs the researcher of other potentially good interview subjects capable of offering rich descriptive data. for this study, we contacted key members of the usj virtual community and asked them to name other members whom they thought would be able to offer in-depth descriptions of the community. these members were then asked to refer other members, based on their longevity of membership or the role they play in the virtual community (e.g. administrators or moderators). data collection semi-structured interviews and an open-ended online questionnaire were used as data collection techniques. the interview protocol was prepared and designed based on the seven elements of social capital suggested by narayan and cassidy (2001); the open-ended online questionnaire used similar questions to those of the interview protocol but its design was adopted from a world bank-validated questionnaire (grootaert et al., 2002). the purpose of employing semi-structured interviews was to generate a set of rich descriptive data from community members, administrators, and moderators. the semi-structured interview technique was chosen for two reasons: 1) it "…provides [a] desirable combination of objectivity and depth and often permits gathering valuable data that could not be successfully obtained by any other approach" (gall, borg & gall, 1996, p. 452); and 2) it allows the researcher to ask probing questions without being constrained by a fixed set of standardized questions (mason, 2002). the semi-structured interviews were conducted within a fairly open framework, which allowed the researcher to communicate in a conversational yet focused mode. we thus had some flexibility in asking respondents about a general topic and then followed up with more specific in-depth questions. one of the advantages of the interview as a technique is that it allows researchers to probe respondents when their answers are not clear or when a point requires further clarification or justification. one of the main reasons we employed an open-ended online questionnaire was to give the respondents an alternative way to participate in the study. in this information age, online questionnaires are the most convenient and prevalent method of information gathering for many people. many respondents preferred this form of communication given the time and space constraints of a personal interview. some of the advantages that an online questionnaire offers are that it can collect huge amounts of data in a comparatively brief amount of time, and it reduces the need for researchers to manually enter or process the data (information technology services, 2008; wright, 2005). another advantage of online survey research is that "it takes advantage of the ability of the internet to provide access to groups and individuals who would be difficult, if not impossible, to reach through other channels" (garton, haythornthwaite, & wellman, 1999; wellman, 1997 cited in wright 2005, para.7). data from online questionnaires can also be automatically validated while the respondent is entering it; for instance, if a date is entered in an imprecise format or outside a prescribed range, the online questionnaire can provide an error message asking the respondent to re-enter the date properly and resubmit the questionnaire (information technology services, 2008). data analysis to analyze the data, this study employed an interpretive/hermeneuticii technique. this method describes a phenomenon through the meanings that people experiencing the phenomenon assign to it rather than those that researchers assign to it. interpretive research permits the interaction of actor and situation to develop freely (kaplan & maxwell, 1994) and attends to three types of data: 1) language (as spoken by actors in the situation or written in literary genres such as state documents or personal diaries); 2) acts and interactions (including nonverbal behavior); and 3) physical objects used in these acts or incorporated into written documents (such as census questionnaires or mission statements). the data are accessed through three methods: 1) observing/participating; 2) interviewing; and 3) reading documents (yanow, 2003). using transcriptions of the data, this study took an interpretive approach at the most basic level (the data level), in which we coded for themes within and across the data gathered from the semi-structured interviews and online questionnaires. our aim was to analyze the texts obtained from the respondents-both from the open-ended questionnaires and interviews-and from them generate a useful, informative and detailed picture. since this is a qualitative study, the small number of responses should not be problematic. in addition, the numbers of responses received are inconsistent from one question to another due to either missing data or incomplete responses from the respondents. the main concern of a qualitative study is to offer rich and informative descriptions and discussions of the phenomenon at hand, especially when no other studies have been conducted on it and investigation is therefore only at an exploratory stage. for that reason, numbers are not as important in a qualitative study because our goal is not to generalize, as it would be with a quantitative study. instead, the aim of this study is to begin building a preliminary in-depth description of the process of social capital formation in a virtual community. descriptive statistics were included in the tables for each dimension solely to give the reader a quick overall understanding of the number of respondents in each category. those numbers are not intended to imply or validate any statements or conclusions. what is most important in our study is what underlies each of the dimensions in terms of the respondents' perceptions and descriptions. research findings demographics of the respondents a total of 42 respondents participated in the study. the open-ended online questionnaire had 32 respondents while the semi-structured interviews had 11 respondents (see table 1). table 1. data collection techniques as for the demographics, 28 were male and 14 were female (refer to table 2). the largest age group was age 42 and above, while the second largest age group was 29 to 35 followed by the group aged 36 to 42. table 2. demographics of informants as for the education level of the respondents (refer to table 3), most respondents' education level was postgraduate, followed by diploma holders and then undergraduate degrees. six respondents did not disclose their level of education. the occupations of the respondents included executives, managers, doctors, lawyers, academics, computer specialists, engineers, and customer support and service employees. table 3. education level of respondents most of the respondents (n=31) have been living in the usj community for more than six years, while the others (n=7) have been living there between one and six years (see table 4). however, four (4) respondents did not disclose their years of residency to the question. table 4. years of usj community residency of respondents group characteristics the first way to understand the formation process and the factors that contribute to social capital in the usj virtual community is to examine the group characteristics. in order to look at group characteristics in detail, we asked respondents about the following aspects of their virtual community: 1) participation, 2) leadership, and 3) decision making. participation to describe the level and frequency of participation, we first asked respondents what attracted them to this virtual community. answers fell into three broad classes: 1) community wellbeing this category of responses relates to getting to know the community better and having a strong sense of community. some of the respondents talked about the willingness to help each other in the community, the friendliness of people, getting to know the neighbours and interesting people, and an interest in community development. as illustrated by one respondent: "the community itself...a bunch of great and diverse people" 2) obtained information these responses viewed the community as a channel where members can share and obtain news from their community, their country and the world. the respondents' interests were the latest news and what people were thinking, current political and social issues, and common community concerns. as one respondent mentioned: "to know what's happening in the community, country and world...to discuss issues" 3) effective communication -these responses saw the virtual community as a medium of communication. they could share information with other community members, who could then respond to the information; talk about current happenings in the community; and communicate with friends via chatting. a precise example of this type of response is: "an avenue to be heard" we then asked the respondents how frequently they participate in this virtual community. almost half of the respondents (n=23 of 42, 55%) participated in the virtual community more than once daily, the rest visit the virtual community between once daily and once a week. respondents were also asked whether they participate in other virtual communities aside from usj. a majority of them (n=38 of 42 91%) do visit other websites for these reasons: 1) to obtain information, 2) for social networking, and 3) purely for communication and interaction. many of the respondents talked about obtaining the latest news, updated information that is not available in the mainstream media and gaining knowledge about other communities. here is an example quoted from one respondent: "to gain latest news and what people are thinking" as for social networking, respondents mentioned reasons such as networking with other virtual communities, getting involved with the activities within a community, and simply for fun. the final reason, communication and interaction, included being able to participate in different discussion forums and interest groups, and getting updated information from other virtual community members. leadership next, we looked at group characteristics relating to leadership. we asked respondents how new leaders are selected in the virtual community. according to the responses, most of the leaders are appointed by others (n=24 of 42, 58%). some are selected because they are an owner of the group (30%), and others through an election (12%). we also wanted to have some idea how leaders make decisions within the usj virtual community. the results showed that most of the decisions made by the leaders are based on consensus (n=24 of 36, 58%), followed by "gut feelings" or based on intuition (19%), and finally top-down (3%). three (3) respondents did not response to this question. decision making we wanted to know how virtual community members get involved in the decision making process. we classified their answers into four thematic categories: 1) discussion of the issue, 2) consult on the issue, 3) vote, and 4) do not get involved. many of the respondents talked about getting into a discussion of issues and said that such a discussion could become a constructive debate, but with some rules. the respondents also mentioned that sometimes the discussions can be long so online is better than a face-to-face meeting. members of the virtual community also get involved in decision making by being consulted on certain issues. this usually happens with members that are very senior, are knowledgeable or expert in some area or have some experience on an issue. they are consulted when a decision is needed to be made in their area of expertise; for example, someone knowledgeable in construction might be consulted on weighing and selecting the best proposal to build something in the community. decision making can also be done by voting. when a decision is split between two good proposals, the leader might ask members to cast their vote. the final option mentioned by some respondents is that they are not invited to participate in the decision making process at all. as one respondent commented: "huh?...decision making?..:)" we also asked respondents to comment on what the leaders' roles are during decision making in the virtual community. most of the responses can be categorized into two broad roles: 1) moderator (n=19 of 39, 48%), and 2) administrator (n=15 of 39, 39%). the other five responses indicated no differences in the roles (13%). this is interesting due to the nature of these roles in a virtual environment. usually a moderator is in control when it comes to discussion forums and mailing lists but an administrator has more control in terms of the overall appearance of the webpage or conduct of the virtual community. one could say that an administrator is a higher ranking officer than the moderator when it comes to the virtual environment. some of the comments made by the respondents regarding leaders as moderators cited actions such as moderate opinions, moderate the discussions, monitor the threads, solve disagreements and keep order in the forums. as one respondent put it: " to moderate that opinions and things are done fairly and in accordance to good conduct and governance." as for comments on leaders as administrators, respondents stressed roles such as preventing misuse, setting rules and regulations, championing a cause or project, weighing the facts and not overruling unilaterally, and bouncing ideas around and crystallizing them later. here is an example expressed by one respondent: "express rules and interpret rules and place punishment on those who don't follow the rules." generalized norms the second component in describing the formation process and the factors that contribute to social capital in a virtual community is generalized norms. generalized norms are concerned with how members of a community help each other in going about their daily chores and how fairly members of a community treat each other. helpfulness of people first, the respondents were asked about giving donations back to the usj society. the respondents had three options for this question: 1) donate, 2) drive the donation, or 3) not interested to participate in charity work. many of the respondents (refer to table 5) are willing to donate and if given the chance would be interested in driving (organizing) the donation initiatives. however, a small number of respondents would not be willing to participate in fundraising activities. table 5. respondents' willingness to participate in donation drive second, we probed whether respondents were willing to go the extra mile in providing assistance or services to sick, handicapped or elderly people in the virtual community. the result shows that a majority of virtual community members are willing to provide services to less fortunate individuals in the community. many of them in their lifetime have given once (57.5%; refer to table 6) or regularly (12.5%) to this cause. on the other hand, a number of respondents have never (30%) provided these kinds of help or services to other community members. table 6. respondents' willingness to provide help and services last, we asked respondents what types of help or support they have given to fellow virtual community members (e.g., financial, advice, or other). the results show that a majority of the members have given financial help or support to fellow members (n=19 of 42, 49%). a good number of respondents have also given advice to other members of the virtual community (35%). other forms of help or support include recommendations or introductions to people who can help, and doing charity, social or community work (16%). three (3) respondents did not share the types of help or support they received within the community. fairness of people for this category, we wanted to observe how fairly people treat other members of the virtual community. we asked respondents whether there is a lot of prejudice within the virtual community. the majority of the members (n=29 of 39, 74.4%) believe that there is no prejudice within the community, while a small number of members believe that prejudice does exist within the community (25.6%). we further asked respondents who answered "yes" to this question to give some examples of prejudice within the virtual community. the responses were prejudice against those with different opinions or political inclinations, racism, domination of forums, and censoring of others that do not agree with their views. we also assessed the issue of members of one race feeling they are being treated fairly by other races during the discussions in the virtual community. the results show that the majority of members feel they have been treated fairly (n=27 of 37, 73%) during their discussions; the rest were divided between "no" (10.8%) and "not sure" (16.2%). togetherness the third component in understanding the formation process and the factors that contribute to social capital in the virtual community is togetherness. togetherness is concerned with how well members of a community get along with each other and how close members of a community feel to each other. in order to assess how well people get along with each other, we asked respondents to tell us how often they get involved in activities with their virtual community members (refer to table 7). most of them get involved once a month (55%), followed by a small number that get involved from twice a month to once a week (9%). quite a number of respondents (36%) never get involved in activities with their friends from the virtual community. table 7. respondents' involvement in virtual community activities continuing with the above question, we asked respondents to name some of the activities that they participate in with their fellow community members. the answers varied from dining together, playing games, going to clubs, socializing, donating to charities, helping out in organizing community activities, and working with young people in the community. everyday sociability the fourth component in illustrating the formation process and the factors that contribute to social capital in a virtual community is through everyday sociability. everyday sociability refers to how members of a virtual community socialize with each other in their everyday activities. in this section, we first queried the respondents on how strong their feelings are towards the virtual community. the majority of the respondents have very strong (n=8 of 38, 21%) to strong (45%) feelings towards their virtual community while thirteen (35%) respondents categorized their feelings as average. we then asked respondents whether other members of the virtual community have visited them at home. a majority of respondents answered "yes" (n=27 of 37, 73%) to the question, with 27% saying "no". last, one question asked respondents to name the three most important methods of communication between members of the virtual community. the top three were: 1) forums (39%), 2) e-mail (29.3%), and 3) short message service (sms)/phone (24.4%). the traditional way of communication which is "visits" to homes of other members seem to be the least important way. neighborhood connections the fifth component in measuring the formation process and the factors that contribute to social capital in a virtual community is neighborhood connections. neighborhood connections are concerned with how dependent members of a virtual community are on one another, and how willing they are to help out and build networks with each other. first, we asked respondents whether they would ask someone in the virtual community for help or advice. of the 38 responses, 30 (78.9%) answered "yes" and we then requested examples of the help or advice they had solicited. the answers fell into three broad categories: 1) seeking opinions, 2) needing expert advice or services, and 3) dealing with community or societal issues. the first category, seeking opinions, mostly related to information technology or other technology queries, travel and food advice. expert advice or services related to wanting or looking for an expert that could handle or solve a specific problem ? for example, the best contractor, the finest gardener, or a trustworthy cleaner. assistance dealing with community and societal issues related to feedback on life problems or intimate personal issues such as rape or religion. the "help" responses included help received from a neighbor when the respondent's house was burgled, assistance looking for properties to rent, offering a job to a community member, looking after a house, and help with computer problems. in terms of advice, the responses included giving out phone numbers for a repairman, providing suggestions/ideas, or offering comfort and assistance to members that are facing a personal problem. donations included giving to a charity, offering free or discount vouchers, gathering items needed for an orphanage, and raising funds for a certain cause. the last question we posed regarding neighborhood connections asked how many close friends the respondents had in the virtual community. the choices were no friends, 1-3 friends, 4-5 friends, 6-9 friends, and more than 9 friends. the results show a wide range of responses (refer to table 8). ten of 38 respondents (26.3%) do not have any close friends but nine respondents (23.7%) have more than nine friends and nine respondents (23.7%) have 4-5 friends. overall, 28 of 38 respondents (73.7%) report that they have one more close friends in their virtual community. table 8. number of close friends in virtual community volunteerism the sixth component in describing the formation process and the factors that contribute to social capital in a virtual community is volunteerism. volunteerism is concerned with whether members of a virtual community volunteer in activities, what their expectations are during volunteering, and whether there is criticism if one does not volunteer. in order to see whether volunteerism existed in the virtual community, we asked the respondents whether they were a member of any volunteer organizations and if so which one(s). most of the respondents volunteer in organizations such the residents association, church community service, neighborhood watch, retirement home, football association, rotary, desamentari project, and boy's brigade. next we asked the respondents for additional information related to their expectations when volunteering in those organizations listed above. we gave the respondents the choice of the following expectations: 1) improve well-being; 2) make more friends; or 3) other, please specify. the majority of the respondents expected to improve the well-being of the community (n=38 of 42, 90%), followed by expecting to make new friends (7%). only one respondent specified that they expected to help the unfortunate. we then asked respondents whether they thought they would be criticized or whether others would have a negative impression of them if they did not participate in any volunteer activities organized by the virtual community. almost all of the respondents (n=39 of 42, 92%) said that they would not be criticized if they chose not to participate in any volunteer activities. as a follow up to the question above, we asked the following: if you were given the opportunity to volunteer or organize any activity for the virtual community members, what would it be? answers included 1) charitable activities, 2) excursion trip, 3) photography outing, 4) family day, 5) protest on certain issues, and 6) kindergarten talent contest. trust the last component in describing the formation process and the factors that contribute to social capital in a virtual community is trust. trust is concerned with the degree to which members of a virtual community trust each other in their everyday activities. we examined this component of trust by first asking respondents whether they would announce to their virtual community members if they were to suddenly leave town for a day or two. the options were "yes" or "no". a majority of respondents (n=23 of 36, 63.9%) answered "no," that they would not disclose or announce their whereabouts to other virtual community members. in addition, we probed respondents as to whether they would let other virtual community members take care of their children. again they were given the options of "yes", "no" or "never". many of them answered "no" (n=16 of 35, 45.7%); about 17.1% of the respondents answered "never" (17.1%), indicating that they would not let other members take care of their children. there was however a sizable group of respondents that would let other virtual community members take care of their children (37.1%). seven (7) respondents did not response to this question. next, we inquired about how honest and trustworthy the officials and administrators of the virtual community were perceived to be, and asked respondents to provide examples of their actions. overall, the major themes respondents focused on were actions taken to suspend users if they crossed the line (by being rude, saying something unkind and by being insulting and threatening) of religion and race, keeping confidential information undisclosed, and initiating fund-raising efforts. last but not least, we gathered feedback on what elements of the virtual community could be built up or improved to make it more trustworthy and encourage members to participate. we categorized the answers into three broad themes: 1) getting to know each other, 2) openness and diplomacy about views expressed, and 3) other. for getting to know each other, respondents talked about organizing functions outside the virtual world, more regular face-to-face meetings, having a stronger community spirit, and more social interaction. for openness and diplomacy about views expressed, respondents talked about being more willing to accept opposing views, becoming less egoistic and more understanding, avoiding arguments, and increasing cooperation among members. the "other" category included having a good relationship with local authorities, and having accurate news and information updated regularly on the virtual community website. discussions the main objective of this study was to explore the formation process of social capital in the virtual usj community. social capital plays an important role in achieving a comfortable level of community, whether it is virtual or not. our argument is that, as the use of ict becomes more and more prevalent in today's work and social life, the virtual communities that are emerging may have roles and social impacts equal to that of any physical community. hence, the reason we have made the connection between the physical and virtual community is that these two aspects cannot be totally isolated; they are intertwined in their roles in and effects on the success of any community. in the past, there have been many studies focusing on social capital but not specifically linking social capital and virtual community. each of those studies has its own perspectives and uniqueness in terms of its methodology, context and variables used. for example, a recent study by jeffres (2013) aims at understanding how citizens used their communication channels to influence their local government to make decisions. he conducted the study using measures of social capital. one of the insightful findings was that media use such as the internet as a communication medium has an influence on the civic engagement and actions in urban areas. while toland (2012) in her research investigated the impacts that icts have at the regional level, and the role they play in developing local, regional, and global networks in new zealand. the findings of this research help us to understand the relationship between the soft networks created by social capital and hard ict-based networks. another study conducted by matei (2009) has investigated the diffusion patterns of encryption and also explored the role played by social capital in shaping such patterns. he applied an integrated theoretical framework developed by everett rogers (1962) called 'diffusion of innovations' and social capital theory. interestingly, he concluded that wireless networking is becoming a more prevalent home technology and the key factor that influences adoption of encryption technology in the residential (home) market is based on wealth and strong formal civic capital. furthermore, related research done by mignone and henley (2009) has further examined the bonding, bridging, and linking elements of a social capital framework which involves the aboriginal peoples in canada. the focus of this research was to investigate the role of social capital in the successful implementations of ict in the aboriginal communities and they found that not only the question of what type of connectivity matters (in terms of the content of the networks), but also how the networks are developed and implemented (in terms of community social capital). while each of the above studies has examined variations of factors that impact social capital, none of the studies have considered using the seven components of social capital as suggested by narayan and cassidy (see figure 1). in this study we have explored how these seven components are formed in the virtual community of usj. the following sub-sections discuss our findings surrounding each of the social capital components proposed by narayan and cassidy (2001). group characteristics in the usj virtual community, we began by examining the first social capital component, group characteristics, in terms of participation, leadership and decision making. these characteristics are important in any type of community. most people who participate in a virtual community do so because they want to get to know the other community members better. usj community members are willing to help each other so that the community is better able to promote a sense of belonging between different races in the community. in the long run, the community will be a safer place to live. cultivating this sense of belonging is very important nowadays because it aligns with the government's 'one malaysia' initiative. the usj virtual community serves as a medium of communication. community members are able to communicate with each other, make public announcements, meet new friends, bring forward issues pertaining to the community and much more. this is achieved in part by the discussion forum which is moderated by the webmaster. in addition, through this medium, the community members can appoint new leaders for the upcoming annual general meeting. the community can use the discussion forum for nominating new members for the next general meeting, or even for casting their votes which can save time and money. this is how leaders in this community are appointed. apart from casting votes and appointing new leaders, the discussion forum is also used for decision-making processes. as we found out, the decision making process in the usj virtual community may be done by: 1) discussing the issue, 2) consulting on the issue, 3) voting, or in some cases 4) members do not get involved. all these decision making processes are conveniently done online. generalized norms the second social capital component, generalized norms, is concerned with how willing members of a community are to help each other in going about their daily chores and how fairly members of community treat each other. our results show that community members are willing to help each other in almost every way, including donations, providing services to the handicapped and elderly people, and also to an extent offering financial help and support. in terms of how community members treat each other, most respondents seem to feel that everybody respects each other. only a few respondents felt that some of the members of the community are prejudiced -for example, towards a certain race or religion. prejudice and racism do not necessarily occur only between majority and minority groups; there can also be prejudice between subgroups within the majority, or subgroups within the minority. several factors can play a role in determining whether or not a person is perceived to be prejudiced. for example, older malaysians remember, or perhaps experienced, the race riots of may 13, 1969 when more than 2000 people lost their lives. even today, the younger generation of malaysia is constantly reminded of the "black" day. with each generation that is born, however, prejudice and racism decreases. today's community members do not think very much about the color of another person's skin; whereas 30 to 40 years ago, it made a big difference in a person's attitude towards those of a different race (perlmutter, 2002). moreover, nowadays people are more likely to form their own opinions and beliefs after being exposed to other cultures in the larger cities. togetherness, sociability and connections the third, fourth and fifth social capital components are togetherness, sociability and connections, all of which are concerned with how well members of a community get along with each other, how close members of community feel to each other, how members of a virtual community socialize with each other, how dependent members of virtual community are on each other, and how willing they are to help out and build networks with each other. the common theme that stretches among these three components is that of 'relationships'. in the usj virtual community, face-to-face activities are held as frequently as possible, in order to give the community members many opportunities to participate. activities such as workshops, lectures, discussions, parties, sports and picnics help community members socialize and meet face-to-face, which in turn builds a closer relationship between them. a community can be seen as a web of relationships, requiring all parties to work together in order to create something that is good. but what makes a community work even better are relationships that are positive, co-operative and respectful. in this way everyone works for the good of the whole and towards a common purpose. another key to forming effective relationships is to face differences directly. for example, the usj virtual community includes among its members many different races, religions and opinions. differences between people are interesting. in a conversation where each person listens to the others, they may each discover a new truth that integrates the two opposing perspectives (heap, 2001). this is more rewarding than arguing, fighting, or grumbling to someone else. learning to face differences takes time and can be uncomfortable, but confronting and attempting to understand them is a good exercise and is needed for a harmonious virtual community. volunteerism the sixth social capital component is volunteerism, which is concerned with how often members of a virtual community volunteer in activities, what their expectations during volunteering are, and whether they are criticized if they decide not to volunteer. according to the fair labor standards act, a volunteer is: an individual who performs hours of service for a public agency [or organization] for civic, charitable, or humanitarian reasons, without promise, expectation or receipt of compensation for services rendered. (mcgruckin, 1998, p.5). most of the respondents in this study say that they belong to at least one volunteer organization. examples of these organizations are residents' associations, church community service, neighborhood watch, retirement home and many more. it is proven that the commitment to the community increases when people volunteer (ginsburg & weisband, 2002). volunteerism is a form of selfless action that promotes community spirit and civic participation while at the same time changing the volunteer's self-concept so as to promote further volunteerism (omoto & snyder, 2001). active volunteers are motivated to do so because they value equitable and rewarding relationships and thus are more likely to continue their services (pandey, 1979). therefore, acts of volunteerism are a precondition to promoting and sustaining the loyalty and commitment of a community's members. trust the last component that contributes to the formation process of social capital in a virtual community is trust. trust is concerned with the degree to which members of a virtual community trust each other in everyday activities. this study found that the usj virtual community has some trust issues. the community members are still somewhat uncomfortable with their virtual neighbors, reluctant to ask fellow members to look after their kids when they need to do some errands or to tell their neighbors where they are going for a day or two. some suggestions that respondents believe would help cultivate trust and cooperation among members are more face-to-face meetings, more functions to build community spirit and more social interactions in the physical community. putnam (1995) states that trust is the essential component of social capital. he further asserts that trust increases cooperation: the greater the level of trust within the community, the greater the likelihood of cooperation, the end result of which is enhanced trust among members. nahapiet and ghoshal (1998) emphasize that, over time, a culture of cooperation will surface among this trusted group of people which can then be strengthened through social interactions. however, this social relationship can become weak if it is not maintained. thus, interaction is a precondition for the formation and maintenance of social capital (bourdieu, 1986). research implications this study has several key implications. first, we found that the success of a virtual community rests on several social capital dimensions, including group characteristics, norms, togetherness, sociability, connections, and volunteerism. therefore, it is evident that people value and enjoy the social relationships they obtain from their engagement in a virtual community. on the other hand, despite the strong sociability aspect, we also found that the formation of trust is still a challenge to develop in the virtual environment. essentially, people are only enjoying the relationship at a surface level; to go beyond that, the level of trust needs to be enhanced. based on our understanding of sociability factors, the community needs to formalize some guidelines and recommendations on designing the user interface so that people are more willing to be engaged in more trustworthy/trusting and effective virtual community. in addition, the board of directors of the virtual community could also introduce and develop new rules and policies regarding issues such as ethics, appropriate usage of community forums, and engagement in the virtual community. second, it is clear that users have their own preferences in using information technology. thus, for a virtual community to optimize its sociability aspects, the technologies underlying the virtual community need to be able to accommodate the differing preferences of the members. for example, instead of using purely text-based technology such as email or discussion forums, is designers could introduce elements such as video streaming (face-to-face) or links to social network sites such as facebook, twitter and linkedin which would allow people to become more comfortable developing personal relationships and friendships as well as professional connections. third, the internet in general offers a new dimension and an unbounded opportunity for business to be conducted locally and globally. more specifically, a virtual community that "lives" on the internet has numerous implications and applications for businesses and industries that are able to penetrate the virtual community as a new market. a virtual community might find it advantageous to have a 'one-stop-shopping' platform; businesses might seize such an opportunity by offering goods and services via such a platform. two other implications of this study are that: a) virtual communities can create new business opportunities wherein vendors and retailers can promote and sell goods and services to the virtual community members and b) businesses who take advantage of these opportunities can, in turn, help build, attract, and sustain a new form of virtual community. in short, the virtual communities offer business opportunities, and those business opportunities can also build virtual community. finally, community members with a higher level of involvement contribute more value to a virtual community. our results show that increased community member involvement is likely to enhance the formation of social capital. with higher level of involvement within the community it can promote better sense of community; help share and obtain information about other members within the community; and provide a platform for better communication among members. besides that, online community administrators should strive to motivate all members to participate in community activities, whether they are individuals who have a long tenure and experience in the community or brand new to the community. the community could do this by organizing and encouraging attendance at periodic face-to-face meetings to introduce participants to one another. these activities will enhance social interactions and build trust. conclusions and directions for future research in conclusion, we found that group characteristics, norms, togetherness, sociability, connections, and volunteerism as important factors that build up social capital among virtual community members in malaysia. however, trust on the other hand received less empirical supports. perhaps one of the reasons is that trust as a component of social capital was not examined at an in-depth level by the researchers. it is important to give more emphasis on measuring the role of trust as it can help understand its impact in the development of social capital within online community context. there is no doubt that social capital is an important resource for the long-term survival of virtual communities because social capital helps members become more tolerant, less skeptical, and more sympathetic in their social relationships. last but not least, social capital provides vast opportunities for community members to resolve collective problems more easily. therefore, by each member doing his or her part, the community could advance more smoothly, particularly when the members are bonded by close relationships. as a consequence, such relationships will contribute to building a more effective virtual community. this finding is strongly supported by a recent study conducted by burmeister (2012) who found that one of the most significant values for a senior citizen targeted virtual community to exist is a high sense of belonging to a community of peers. for future investigation, we suggest that the research should be broken down into different stages, each of which would examine a group of two to three variables. for example, one study might look at the variables of 'trust' and 'togetherness' and attempt to describe in detail the role of trust and togetherness in the formation of social capital in a virtual community. another study might examine how social capital is formed and what role it plays in other forms of virtual communities such as an online gaming community, especially how players build trust between each other in a very competitive virtual environment. another area which could be explored would be to investigate how bloggers build social capital in cyberspace through their writing and commentaries. references adler, p. & kwan, s-w. 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(2003). case study research: design and methods (3rd ed.). newbury park, ca: sage. i this study was sponsored by the ministry of higher education (mohe) of malaysia under the fundamental research grant scheme (grant no. 11700). ii the word hermeneutic, meaning interpretive, is a branch of philosophy concerned with human understanding and the interpretation of written texts. the word derives from the greek hermes in his role as patron of communication and human understanding. research in action for community informatics: a matter for conversation   matthew allen internet studies, curtin university, australia, m.allen@curtin.edu.au marcus foth queensland university of technology, austrialia, m.foth@qut.edu.au   there is a central and continuing problem in research about, and the everyday practices of, the adoption of information and communications technology (ict) for social development. icts have, over the past three decades, demonstrably led to greater levels of interpersonal engagement, group organizational success and general social improvement knitting people together, for productive results through networked information and communication: from the support of local community to empowerment, from local opportunities to global interconnection, we find unexpected and pervasive effects of the internet on community. yet, we also find geographically based community and identity penetrating the internet, reminding us that at all times we are locally based, even if technically mobile (haythornthwaite and kendall, 2010: 1088; see also katz and rice, 2002)   this effect is not just the result of what is done on the internet but also stems from the way the infrastructure that enables us to go ‘online’ becomes part of our everyday places. as hampton et al. conclude, “an infrastructure for wireless internet connectivity within urban public spaces may have unanticipated and positive consequences for participation in the public sphere” (2010: 721). gordon and de souza e silva (2011) coin the term ‘net localities’ to describe these new qualities that emerge from the digitisation of the city and the urbanisation of the internet. at the same time, the networked relations that icts enable and embody can also be seen to have become more superficial, fleeting and less rich. such is the impression given by ‘friending’ behaviour (lewis and west, 2009), constant status updates (kramer and chung, 2011), and anonymously alarming random online encounters of chat roulette (kreps 2010). it can be hard to harness the power that networked icts provide for collaborative information creation and exchange, distributed multi-vocal conversations and widespread, low-cost dissemination without, at the same time, becoming so fixed upon the technological possibilities that the necessary work of forging trusted, informed and active relationships between participants otherwise ‘linked’ through email, the web, and social media remains undone or, at least, underdone. as turkle provocatively declares in alone together: “the new technologies allow us to ‘dial down’ human contact, to titrate its nature and extent” (2011: 15). from this latter perspective, technically mediated sociality runs several risks, including a loss of the sense of place within which social interaction occurs (wellman et al., 2003), excessive valorisation of individuality in place of collective identity (as in bloem et al, 2008), and reification of the electronic processes of connection in place of the positive enactment of human relations (willson, 2006). icts then might give us only the appearance of meaningful intersubjective connections, masking the absence of connection, or perhaps now in the networked society, simply giving a poor substitute for that which might previously have been possible. yet these risks are not inherent within the adoption, use and exploitation of networked forms of communication (see for example postill 2009). perhaps these risks can be better understood as the consequences of failing to attend closely to the dialogic relationship between technology and society in which one can never be understood as distinct from the other but simply differently observed modalities of innumerable actions within the field of human existence. whether one is merely intrigued by, or deeply committed to, the premises of actor network theory concerning the interpolation of humanity and technology, self-evidently in our society “the differences between technology and person get folded up into a new network of identities. we need to understand what that network is, how it changes the way we see each other, and how it alters our identity as human” (evans, 2010). equally we might say that meaningful intersubjective connection is always at risk in any form of social interaction: it is at risk precisely because it is also the goal we seek. the circumstantial fragility of its attainment lies not in the means (technologically mediated, enhanced or substitutive) by which we seek it, but in the very project we set out to achieve. icts then are neither the solution (as often claimed) nor the impediment. yet they play a central role in contemporary social life in achieving intersubjectivity, which is a state of shared understanding of differences in perspective (see gillespie and cornish, 2010), from which then we can forge effective social relations not only recognising differences but making them part of the formation of relations and consequent effective action. whether they play a positive or negative role most likely turns on the degree to which technologies are seen as conversational: are the technologies imagined and used, as part of the relationship process, to host, create, and enable conversations? in what ways are they framed as an extension of, replacement for, alternative to the processes of co-present human interaction and, in turn, reframe what we mean by conversation? as hutchby identified more than a decade ago: technologies for communication can become implicated in our ordinary conversational practices while, at the same time, those very practices may not only adapt to but also shape the cultural meanings and communicative purposes that such artefacts have (2001: 3).   in posing these questions, we wish to emphasise a quality of networked icts that is too often overlooked. while ‘networks’ have allowed dramatic increases in the exchange of information between people by publishing, broadcasting and other analogous forms, as well as increasingly enabling automated information transfers between people and devices, and the devices themselves, icts have their most deep and profound effects and are most intimately entwined within the lives of people when they enable dialogic speech, performed consciously with and for others, in a moment where, without others, there is no conversation. to converse is to conjoin, even in difference. conversation subsumes different individuals’ speaking into a single collaborative act of speech, and links intimately speaking and listening as two components of an equally indivisible whole. fundamentally, then, conversation (and not information exchange) is a pre-requisite for any attempt to achieve an effective and appropriate intersubjective basis for social relations. harnessing icts for conversation not only requires more priority to be given to applications that promote active dialogue rather than dissemination and reception, but also requires designed technological contexts which cue users that conversation is the goal and process. it should also be understood that the forms of the ensuing conversations can be quite different to those which we might understand from our experiences with physically collocated discussion: they can be distributed, both in space and in time; they can involve dissimilar forms of speech which nevertheless all count as contributions to the conversation; and dialogue may occur more reflexively than unconsciously (see for example a discussion of wikis as ‘conversational knowledge management’, wagner 2004). the importance of conversation, of a more traditional form, is also the origin of this special issue of the journal of community informatics. its genesis was a workshop run by the guest editors as part of the 2010 making links conference held in perth, australia. making links has run annually since 2004 and aims to “engage interested people, organisations and groups working at the intersection of social action and it – including community workers, educators, trainers, not-for-profit organisations, people who work with marginalised groups, activists and researchers” (making links website: http://www.makinglinks.org.au/about/). the conference has a strong history of providing opportunities for community and third-sector workers and organisations to educate each other (by both learning and teaching) about the potential for icts to improve social justice; it has also emphasised the role that university-based researchers have in contributing their knowledge and providing examples from outside of the immediate fields of practice of community activism. perhaps most tellingly, the conference aims to build “networks amongst workers and activists interested in how ict can be used to support social justice”. in other words, while networking, in the technical sense, is the focus, the goal is to create networks in a socio-political sense through the shared interest in icts. in this respect making links follows a long tradition of utilising common attention to icts as a mechanism for achieving deeper and distinct collective identities for social justice (allen, 2010). at the 2010 conference, we held a workshop entitled research for action: networking university and community for social responsibility, which enabled conversations to explore how ‘academic researchers and community practitioners and activists can work together to explore the use of information and communication technologies, social media, augmented reality, and other forms of network technologies for research and action in pursuit of social responsibility’. of the many insights from that day, three stood out. first, that research for action implies that the grant or article or any other component of the political economy of institutional research is not the primary motivation and, if it were, would impede the effective research process. second, that the question always remains: who is the researcher? even in the act of researching and working within communities, this question will remain unanswered as a prompt to ethical and inclusive practice. third, that the involvement of universities within communities may proceed on the basis of ‘research’ but always involves significant elements of that other great mission of the academy: to educate and foster learning. (for more see: http://www.netcrit.net/events/research-for-action/ ). the excellent papers in this special issue continue, in a more distributed form and enriched by additional contributions as a result of an open call, the productive discussions which occurred in 2010 and help us to answer the question that persisted when the workshop came to an end: how might we make effective research for action, given these critical insights about research motivation, identity and the link with education? they present an eclectic and informed approach to the whole question of participatory research focused on icts within a community setting, not only reporting on the practice of community informatics but reflecting on how it exemplifies and explains the political and pragmatic importance of participatory research. to begin, ridolfo presents an intriguing account of the development of an ‘archive 2.0’ approach to the management and use of the documentary heritage of the israelite samaritans held by the michigan state university. he emphasises that there are two key pre-conditions to the effective use of emerging ict capabilities in this kind of community-oriented project for a digital humanities. first, ridolfo argues, the authority and importance of the “cultural stakeholders” of archival materials must be recognised, and not just the interest of scholars. second, having recognised that authority, researchers and developers of systems to make archival material more available must learn from the community whose past and contemporary identity are founded on that heritage and design the technology based on what they learn. crucially, ridolfo’s work demonstrates the central power of the conversations held between community and researcher, conversations in which each participates equally (but differently) towards a more inclusive and effective end result. williams and craig, in describing more than a decade of work in new zealand to provide computer access, skills and opportunities to disadvantaged communities, also reveal the importance of the close integration of community voices and ict development. the success of this ‘computers in homes’ (cih) scheme rests not just on the way researchers have worked in communities with a participatory action research approach but on the way that this participatory model is now part of the community’s own approach to its development and improvement. in other words, “community informatics research … has been intrinsic to the [cih program’s] evolution” and, most recently, the goal has been to “facilitate ownership of the storytelling by the participants themselves”. carroll et al., outlining more than seven years’ of work within the state college, pennsylvania community, highlight one of the emerging challenges for community informatics in the current era compared with earlier times when computer networks were first developing and had no widespread social currency. discussing the arrival of the world wide web, carroll et al. note that “posting community information became easier, but engaging in community discussion became less easy”. they outline how, with the growth of more user-centred technologies generally known as web 2.0, some of the problems which the web caused for community information networking eased. yet, tellingly, they found that it is the conversations within communities, not between community members and experts, which have the greatest significance: “when community members describe their own experiences and innovations to their neighbours… [t]his creates a virtuous cycle between technology exploration and community learning”. echoing both of the previous articles, day cautions that community informatics remains an academic construct of value only when its academic practitioners ensure their work is grounded in the “day to day activities of community life” and that community voices are to the fore. day usefully describes how, in achieving this aim, the community voice needs to be empowered by “community learning” involving “dialogic exchanges …between community learning network nodes”. what is most interesting in day’s analysis of the experiences in brighton of community informatics is how this community learning informs and shapes the higher education institution (university of brighton) as much as the community which it serves. o’reilly-rowe approaches the question of learning from a different perspective. writing of the experiences of shared popular education through buildthewheel.org, he argues that there is a “synergistic relationship between popular education and digital culture”. the effective use of icts may no longer be something that needs to be developed within a specific community setting because the ongoing development of networked information systems is enabling sharing of and feedback on information in ways that do not depend so clearly on pre-existing personal networks. citing mark deuze (2006), o’reilly-rowe makes clear the potential for the newer forms of digital culture associated with social media to reorganise “the production and consumption of knowledge” so that it serves community development and activism, without necessarily needing to make ict use the central focus of that developmental process. yet technologies do not of themselves solve problems. saeed et al. studied the way that the european social forum (esf) adapted itself to network communications in organising and managing itself. while on the face of it, a distributed, multinational ngo like the esf should naturally benefit from online technologies, in fact there were considerable problems. saeed et al. astutely identify from their ethnographic research that technologies themselves can stand between participants, alienating them from the social processes essential to the forum and its political goals. we also note their cautionary tale: the esf is often of interest to researchers and its members have become disenchanted with the way too much research has turned their organisation into an object of curiosity. the final two articles in this collection provide clear insights into the way that research and practice in community informatics can achieve the desired goals of inclusion, effective use of icts, and the development of resilient communities empowered by that use. light et al. report on the process by which action research must first begin with “participant making”. in other words, people from communities working with researchers do not just become participants by being placed in that relationship. rather, academic and other researchers must take the lead in working with people so that all can share in an experience which shifts from them being ‘in the university’ or ‘in the community’ to a contingent shared place where their identity is determined by being a participant in a joint process. this work requires a “considerate” process of engaging all to understand what might be achieved, how and with what consequences. as detailed in their account of participants utd!, light et al. clearly show that conversations, where personal trust can emerge as an outcome of intersubjectivity between different domains of understanding, are the key to this quest for consideration. bilandzic and venable conclude this special issue with a thorough argument for the fusion of the traditional values and practices of participatory action research with user-centred design, in the context of urban informatics. they argue that community informatics can lack sufficient attention to the opportunities for engaging community members in design practices especially in urban environments that are marked by a much looser sense of collective identity and greater degree of networked individualism. while the ultimate goal of the forms of action research proposed might be to “enhance the communicative ecologies of individuals in the context of their everyday urban life”, nevertheless, the methods resonate closely with those proposed and enacted by the authors of the other articles presented here. the people whose lives are to be enriched are both subjects of research and co-researchers themselves. these people may indeed be the very academics conducting the research, suggesting auto-ethnographic practices which relocate academics within the city, as much as making the citizens into researchers themselves. in all cases, as bilandzic and venable state, “the involvement is extensive [emphasis added] rather than just consultative”. this declaration suggests effective research depends not on the fractured listening / not speaking of ‘consultation’ but on the dialogic unity of listening and speaking together. we began this introduction by pondering why it is that icts might at one and the same time both enrich our social lives and also thin them out, suggesting that the answer to this problem may lie not with the technology itself but with the complexity of the project of achieving meaningful and productive social relations. technologies can be said both to aid this project and hinder it; yet, to the extent that we, humans, are technology itself, perhaps the answer lies more in the dialogic exchanges which bring us together, however they might be mediated. and, in reflecting on the diverse stories of success and failure reported in this collection, what emerges also is that technology is not just the object of discussion, but most often provides the language through which our conversations now occur. in the 1980s and 1990s, community informatics served to include communities and their needs and wants within the emerging possibilities of a networked society on the basis that, mostly, communities were excluded from such opportunities. now, perhaps, community informatics addresses the problem of the surfeit of connectivity. participatory action research, and variations that consider the question of connectivity such as network action research (foth, 2006), including the design of and learning about technological systems, should now recognise that no longer do communities need to become informatic in their practices but must, instead, be empowered to choose what kind of informatic life they can lead. and the conversations which lie at the heart of such research, while ostensibly being about technology and its affordances, are best understood as debates about politics and identity, purpose and means which can these days only be conducted if thought about in terms of the technologies we might be forced to use, forced to choose, and hopefully empowered to appropriate and refashion. sussman (1997: ix) might have noted that “where there is technology, there is embedded politics”. perhaps a more challenging circumstance is that, today, where there is politics, we speak it in the language of technology.   references   allen, m. 2010. de-tooling technology: networked computing as an environment, purpose and medium for social action. 3c media: journal of community, citizen's and third sector media and 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http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol8/issue3/wellman.html#s2 willson, m. 2006. technically together: rethinking community within techno-society, new york: peter lang. towards participatory action design research: adapting action research and design science research methods for urban informatics mark bilandzic queensland university of technology, brisbane john venable curtin university, perth abstract this paper proposes a new research method, participatory action design research (padr), for studies in the urban informatics domain. padr supports urban informatics research in developing new technological means (e.g. using mobile and ubiquitous computing) to resolve contemporary issues or support everyday life in urban environments. the paper discusses the nature, aims and inherent methodological needs of urban informatics research, and proposes padr as a method to address these needs. situated in a socio-technical context, urban informatics requires a close dialogue between social and design-oriented fields of research as well as their methods. padr combines action research and design science research, both of which are used in information systems, another field with a strong socio-technical emphasis, and further adapts them to the cross-disciplinary needs and research context of urban informatics. introduction: urban informatics – a research field at the intersection of people, place and technology the introduction of information and communication technology (ict), particularly the more recent introduction of mobile and ubiquitous computing technology, continues to trigger profound changes in everyday life. icts have entered and become an established component of our cities, infrastructure and daily environments. they have blurred the borders between the physical and the digital and reshaped the way people interact and communicate with each other. people’s interaction and communication patterns in everyday life constantly and seamlessly shift back and forth between physical and digital spaces. the domain of daily sociability and experience has become a ‘hybrid space’ (de souza e silva, 2006) – a space that encompasses the infrastructure (dourish & bell, 2007), affordances (norman, 1999) and other characteristics of both the physical as well as the digital.[1] urban informatics is a research field that has emerged through the rising significance and need to investigate this ecology in the context of urban life and environments. it has been defined as “the study, design, and practice of urban experiences across different urban contexts that are created by new opportunities of real-time, ubiquitous technology and the augmentation that mediates the physical and digital layers of people networks and urban infrastructures” (foth, choi, & satchell, 2011). in order to study urban experiences and everyday urban life, it combines members of three broad academic communities: “the social (media studies, communications studies, cultural studies, etc.), the urban (urban studies, urban planning, etc.), and the technical (computer science, software design, human-computer interaction, etc.) …” (foth, 2009, p.xxix). it engages in social, cultural and urban studies to understand the urban context, and works in close partnerships with city councils, communities, local organisations as well as public state and government institutions to adapt, develop and pilot innovative technologies and techniques from the fields of ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) and human-computer interaction (hci) in real-world settings. urban informatics is closely related to community informatics (ci), but goes beyond what is referred to as ‘urban community informatics’ (gurstein, 2010), i.e. the application of ci goals to urban environments. urban informatics shares some common goals with ci, yet has a stronger focus on urban studies and addressing issues in the urban context through relevant innovations drawing on mobile technologies, ubicomp and hci. whilst ci has a strong focus on empowering communities, i.e. "transfer responsibility and authority to communities and away from central institutions" (gurstein, 2007, p. 79) and in doing so tends to look at communities as a whole, urban informatics regards communities more as a network of individuals (wellman, 2002) and strives to enhance the connectedness between these networked individuals. it is not necessarily driven by the idea to enhance the notion or formation of a community as such, or to necessarily support shared community goals or ideals. urban informatics is rather interested in how ubicomp artefacts can enhance the communicative ecologies (hearn & foth, 2005; tacchi, slater, & hearn, 2003) of individuals in the context of their everyday urban life in general. hereby, urban informatics research is actively involved in the design, development and evaluation of such artefacts. the vision of ubicomp is to embed computing "into the fabrics of everyday live" (weiser 1991), focusing on technologies and networked computing devices that become an integral part of people’s daily communication and interaction habits as well as perceptions of the world (schmidt, langheinrich, & kersting, 2011). mobile phone communication, wireless internet, location-based mobile services, interactive public screens and electronic road pricing systems are examples of ubicomp scenarios and technologies that have become mundane – their infrastructure is not only being actively lived by people, but also affects their spatial behaviour (forlano, 2009; gordon & de souza e silva, 2011; willis, 2007) as well as practices in urban public spaces (crawford, 2008; humphreys, 2010). urban informatics, as a core field of research in the intersection of urban studies and ubicomp, aims to understand and shape such communication and interaction patterns in the hybrid space as they evolve. it cannot wait until a new technology has become mundane, but needs to actively take action and learn through reflection by participating in early design, evaluation and re-design of new forms of ict. this endeavour requires not only the capacity and methods to design, develop and deploy innovative technology, but more so a deep understanding of individual people’s everyday life and inherent interplay with their social environments and urban infrastructure. the success of both ci and urban informatics applications depend on whether they are accepted and adopted by people and effectively used in their social or community processes. whilst ci has a strong focus on investigating the ‘effective use’ of ict (gurstein, 2003), i.e. the ability for a particular community to benefit from a particular ict, it does usually not engage in addressing experienced issues through proactive development or redesign of new technologies. research on technology acceptance provides strong empirical evidence that people’s acceptance of technology primarily has two determinants – perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use (davis, 1989; venkatesh, davis, & morris, 2007; venkatesh, morris, davis, & davis, 2003). the nature of most ci studies implicitly covers the evaluation of perceived usefulness (and sometimes, but to a far lesser degree the usability of deployed ict), however, it usually lacks hci related aspects such as user-centred iterative design-development-evaluation cycles to feed experienced issues back and keep amending prototypes until they reach a stable design. this gap has been addressed by the special issue on “community informatics and system design” in the journal of community informatics (joci, 2007), in particular (bourgeois & horan, 2007; de moor, 2007), but in practice the vast majority of submitted ci articles has no or only weak goals towards exploring opportunities through proactive design, development and evaluation of new ict. hci and ubicomp on the other hand have a strong focus on design, development and evaluation, but traditionally not used to study how technology interplays with people’s everyday lived experience (cf. mccarthy & wright, 2004). we regard urban informatics as a field of research that interlinks and complements the foci from various disciplines, i.e. (1) urban sociology and its broad focus on urban everyday life and issues in the urban context, (2) ci and its focus on evaluating effective use of ict in real-world settings, (3) ubicomp and its focus on engineering and development of new ict and (4) hci and its focus on interaction design and usability studies. the underlying belief of urban informatics is that only through such an inclusive and cross-disciplinary approach can innovative ict opportunities be successfully identified, designed, developed and deployed towards organically adding value to people’s lives and everyday tasks. this approach also aims to avoid techno-utopianism (pitkin, 2001) and to detect potential negative socio-cultural consequences of new technology at an early stage. the topic of this paper is concerned with how the cross-disciplinary requirements described above can be tackled methodologically. how can the individual disciplinary lenses through which urban informatics is investigated be combined towards a methodological framework that comprises and mutually nourishes findings towards trans-disciplinary impacts? hence, we formulate the underlying research question of this paper as following: what would be the characteristics and structure of a good method for conducing urban informatics research? in particular, urban informatics researchers often find promising opportunities in ubicomp technology when studying the urban context. the question is what happens when the analysis process identifies that a design intervention, based for example on a new technology has a potential to provoke the desired action and change? at this point researchers face challenges related to incorporating action and social change, with design and development-oriented process models and inherent goals. how can goals to improve a social setting be incorporated with engineering oriented goals towards design, development and evaluation of a new technology artefact? the scope of cross-disciplinary research activities in urban informatics urban informatics as a discipline is primarily concerned with bridging the gap between needs and issues of people in the urban context, and opportunities provided by ict. urban informatics involves both studying and understanding socio-cultural aspects of people, space and place and also solution-finding through planning, designing, building and evaluating innovative technology artefacts. urban informatics embodies a “transdisciplinary approach to understanding the city as an ecology that consists of technological, social, and architectural layers” (foth, et al., 2011). its research agenda covers topics, methods and issues raised across all three of those layers (figure 1). figure 1: urban informatics covers topics, methods and issues across social, technology and design-oriented sciences applied in the urban context. the underlying belief is that people networks, places and infrastructure cannot be studied merely as social and physical phenomena, but rather as an ecology of social, physical and technological domains. the discussions in space project at the urban informatics research lab at queensland university of technology for example has spread across urban planning, hci and communication design to explore opportunities of interactive public screens to engage local residents in urban planning related questions. research outcomes address the urban planning (schroeter & houghton, 2011) as well as hci community (schroeter & foth, 2009) creating interdisciplinary links and identifying opportunities for practitioners as well as researchers in both fields. other urban informatics projects have studied different residential lifestyles to inform the role and design of ubicomp technology in inner-city apartments (foth, satchell, bilandzic, hearn, & shelton, 2012), or have investigated ways to facilitate community networking in an australian urban renewal site through location-based mobile phone services; hereby the study has again produced cross-disciplinary outcomes, i.e. for managers and researchers of urban renewal sites on the one hand (klaebe, adkins, foth, & hearn, 2009) and the mobile systems design community on the other hand (bilandzic & foth, 2009; bilandzic, foth, & de luca, 2008). these projects illustrate how urban informatics forms a nexus of social, urban and technological studies towards understanding urban life from a holistic point of view. this nexus builds strong ties between academia and public institutions or industry in order to design and evaluate digital technology artefact as organic parts of people’s experiences in the context of urban life. based on this understanding, we propose following tasks and activities to frame the cross-disciplinary spectrum of research efforts that an urban informatics project can have: first, it engages in understanding and analysing a wide spectrum of contemporary issues and needs in the urban context, e.g. sustainable and healthy living, well-being, citizen engagement or social connectivity and experiences. hereby, it embraces social, cultural and urban studies (e.g. gordon & de souza e silva, 2011; jacobs, 1961; meyrowitz, 2005; putnam, 1995; watters, 2004; wellman, 2002; w. h. whyte, 1980), theories of space and place (e.g. auge, 1995; lefebvre, 1991; massey, 1991; oldenburg & brissett, 1982; relph, 1976; soja, 1996; tuan, 1977), critiques of everyday life (e.g. certeau & rendall, 1984; lozanovska, 1989, 2002), place-making strategies (project for public spaces, 2000; schneekloth & shibley, 1995; walljasper, 2007) and relevant tools from these fields that help understand and address urban issues and phenomena from a social and cultural perspective. in parallel, urban informatics studies keep track of opportunities provided by ubicomp technologies (hornecker et al., 2006; poslad, 2009) and focuses on ubicomp as a domain for potential solutions to the identified issues. analysing the characteristics of the identified issues as well as capabilities and opportunities provided by ubicomp technology, an urban informatics study informs the role which ubicomp could and should have in the identified context. it proposes important contextual parameters to be facilitated or improved by an existing or future ubicomp artefact. at the same time, based on the elaborated analysis and understanding of the social and cultural context, it informs the design of the technology according to its role. once the purpose and role have been defined, it embraces human-centred design and development methods (e.g. ballagas, 2008; foth & axup, 2006; hagen & robertson, 2009) to shape a first prototype of an artefact. reflecting on the initial definition of its role and purpose, the artefact is iteratively evaluated in the real-world context against its effective use and impact on the social setting, and re-shaped until it reaches a stable design. eventually, the outcomes are reported to two different stakeholder groups; on the one hand, urban planners, architects, and managers who are concerned with design of urban public spaces in general, such as local governments or institutions in the urban context; for this audience, it is not of upmost importance which technology comes to use, or whether it is an innovative or existing design artefact, but rather if a particular social or organisational impact can be achieved by the artefact, and if yes, how? technology is not considered for the sake of introducing technology, but to solve a targeted issue. it is seen as a means to tap opportunities (hornecker, et al., 2006) that would not exist otherwise. on the other hand, urban informatics studies feed evaluation of real-world use results back to design and technology-oriented research fields such as ubicomp and hci. these can then be incorporated into requirements for future work in those fields. methodological challenges in urban informatics with the cross-disciplinary orientation of research efforts embodied in the mission of urban informatics come some significant methodological challenges. in particular they raise questions situated in the intersection between the social and technology-oriented goals, i.e. how can outcomes from social, cultural and urban studies be interpreted and translated into implications for design of new technology? how can the social and cultural context of an urban site organically shape the design of an artefact as it is being developed? how can a new artefact be evaluated in a way that the outcomes feed new questions back to social as well as technology oriented members of the research community? engineering as a field focusing on design and technology-driven studies, has powerful tools to build useful technology artefacts and continuous technological improvements to these artefacts, but generally lacks the potential to deal with “messy human situations” (baskerville, pries-heje, & venable, 2007). it has little or no tradition in understanding the social context, which is necessary to shape an artefact’s design from a socio-technical perspective. shaping technology so they fit into messy human situation is “highly relevant to the success or failure of it artefacts” (baskerville, et al., 2007, p.17). dealing effectively with complex, messy human situations is especially critical when ict becomes a significant part of everyday life and infrastructure, such as through mobile and ubicomp technology. in this context, bell and dourish propose that “…perhaps dealing with the messiness of everyday life should be a central element of ubicomp's research agenda" (bell & dourish, 2007, p.134). coyne notes “the move to the everyday promotes methods of research that engage with narrative and socially situated ethnographic study, rather than the transportation of phenomena to the laboratory, or isolation into the calculative world of variables and quantities” (coyne, 2010, p. 74). based on such thoughts, we consider the very transition from understanding the dynamics of a social-cultural environment towards informing the design and organically embedding a technology artefact in this socio-cultural environment as crucial for the success of an urban informatics project. however, using isolated tools from either engineering or social sciences does not meet the methodological requirements to achieve these goals. the question is, what would be effective mechanisms to incorporate and cross-fertilise insights from the social as well as technological perspective? ethnography provides explicit tools to help understand the facets of a socio-cultural setting in a detailed and fine-grained manner. however, having its roots in social sciences, traditional ethnographic research does not necessarily imply or propose specific implications for the design of an artefact (hughes, king, rodden, & andersen, 1995). furthermore, an ethnographic study in its traditional form can sometimes take years, a “prolonged activity” (hughes, et al., 1995, p.59) largely unsuitable to informing system design. a compromise established to bridge the dichotomy between understanding social aspects of a setting and technology design goals are methods that follow a “quick and dirty” principle of ethnographic research.  however, such ethnographic techniques – mainly applied to inform the design of a specific artefact – might ‘marginalise’ theory (dourish, 2006) and miss important social contexts and human factors of the targeted environment that are crucial to understand what role design and technology can or should have at the targeted site in the first place. from this point of view, ‘quick and dirty’ ethnographic studies explicitly aimed at finding implications on design seem to be methodologically paradoxical in some sense. the role and significance of ethnography in the context of ubicomp and hci has caused some earlier confusion. dourish (2007) reminds us that ethnography might not outline obvious implications for design, but should rather be recognised through its core strength, i.e. understanding, describing and capturing social and cultural phenomena, which inherently might embody aspects relevant to designers. in urban informatics, we recognise the importance of ethnographic research, yet we are specifically interested in how it informs the role and design of future technology. thus, in its constant efforts to investigate ‘implications on design’, urban informatics continuously seeks for methodological approaches that provide an informed trade-off between traditional ethnographic studies, that are often too lengthy and time-consuming for the sake of ‘just’ informing design, and ‘quick and dirty’ methods that might ‘marginalize theory’ hence miss important social or cultural aspects of the underlying site. from a methodological point of view, an umbrella framework that addresses these needs requires tools from soft as well as hard science disciplines. situated in a similar dichotomy between design-oriented thinking and investigation of relevant social aspects in organisational settings, research in information systems (is) has faced similar methodological challenges as urban informatics. is research targets information technology that is implemented to improve effectiveness and efficiency in organisational settings (silver, markus, & beath, 1995). the is research field is concerned with technical as well as social issues related to the effective use of information technology in the organisational context. based on this interdisciplinary setting, is research embraces various ontological and epistemological traditions, as well as applied methodologies. review studies of established is journals show two predominant research approaches in is research (schauer & frank, 2007; wilde & hess, 2007). on the one hand, there is more design-oriented is research (predominantly focused on by for example, the german ‘wirtschaftsinformatik’), and on the other hand, studies that are more aligned towards behavioural sciences and theory building or testing (e.g. particularly in the american field of is research). implicitly, the practical as well as theoretical contributions of different is studies are often polarised, i.e. either focused on design and technical innovation of new is artefacts (hevner, march, park, & ram, 2004; march & smith, 1995), or oriented towards it-related, but social, cultural and behavioural organisation specific issues. realising the importance of a dialogue between both ends of the is-research spectrum, is methodology literature has extensively discussed action research (ar) and design science research (dsr) as two methodological frameworks that address design-oriented issues from a technical, as well as socio-cultural perspective (baskerville, et al., 2007; cole, purao, rossi, & sein, 2005; figueiredo & cunha, 2006; iivari & venable, 2009; jarvinen, 2007). in the following section we discuss the relevant outcomes of this discussion and how urban informatics, as a comparatively young field of research that faces similar methodological challenges, can learn and benefit from it. action research and design science research in is action research (ar) is research which investigates a phenomenon through intervention in a problematic situation. it is distinguished by simultaneously working to achieve two goals, that of making an improvement in the problematic situation while at the same time researching the phenomenon or phenomena of interest. typically a researcher who acts as an expert works together with laypeople (the clients) who have an interest in resolving or improving the problematic situation. the researcher and the clients decide upon a course of action (typically recommended by the researcher), carry out the course of action, and the researcher studies what happens during and after the intervention. both the client(s) and the researcher benefit from the collaboration. the act of intervening allows the researcher to study complex organisational phenomena that occur before, during, and after the intervention and usually to study and characterise the benefits and difficulties of the intervention itself. indeed, the research may (but also may not) involve development and/or application of new techniques and technologies that are the main topic of the research (iivari & venable, 2009). action research has had a long history, both within and outside of the field of information systems. while at its heart, the idea of collaborative investigation by researcher and client is a simple one that has probably been conducted as long as people have been engaged in ‘research’, ar has its modern roots in work conducted at the tavistock institute, as exemplified by that reported by kurt lewin (lewin, 1951). another seminal work on ar is that of susman and evered (susman & evered, 1978), who laid out its key principles.  as the field of is became more interested in the social issues of technology intervention in organisations (e.g. the application of power and its consequences during is development), ar was a natural approach to adopt. ar has been used heavily in researching and developing systems methodologies. for example, checkland and others used ar as the main approach for the development and refinement of soft systems methodology (checkland, 1981; checkland & scholes, 1990). the rise of the use of ar within the field of is has coincided with a general broadening of the is field to accept (if not embrace) a plurality of both positivist and interpretive research methods and paradigms. a watershed event in this broadening was the 1984 ifip working group 8.2 working conference held in manchester in the uk (mumford, hirschheim, fitzgerald, & wood-harper, 1985). there are many versions of action research, both within and outside of the field of is (baskerville, 1999). within the is field, the work of susman and evered (susman & evered, 1978) continues to be heavily cited, but today the approach of canonical action research (davidson, martinsons, & kock, 2004) is the most commonly cited and applied. participatory action research (par) (argyris & schön, 1989; wadsworth, 1998; w. f. whyte, greenwood, & lazes, 1989), which was developed in the field of organisational behaviour (ob) has also been used in is. par is action research that “involves practitioners as both subjects and co-researchers (argyris & schön, 1989, p. 613). the involvement is extensive rather than just consultative, with active participation “throughout the research process from the initial design to the final presentation of results and discussion of their action implications” (w. f. whyte, et al., 1989, p. 514). participatory design (pd) or its earlier version cooperative design (kensing, 2003; schuler & namioka, 1993) address similar issues, but can be considered to be related to information system development in practice rather than in research per se. closely related to par and closely related to each other are community based research (cbr) (israel, schulz, parker, & becker, 1998) and community based participatory research (cbpr) (minkler & wallerstein, 2003; wallerstein & duran, 2010), which both arise in the field of public health. cbr and cbpr extend par by involving members of a community with the goals of improving the research rigor and relevance, but also addressing power imbalances and empowering the community (israel, et al., 1998; wallerstein & duran, 2010). ethnographic action research (ear) was developed for use in research on community-based ict for development in the field of media and communication studies (tacchi, foth, & hearn, 2009; tacchi, et al., 2003).  in comparison with par, ear extends the engagement with the participants or client community by studying its needs using ethnographic methods, such as observation, participant observation, in-depth interviews, and feedback mechanisms. in comparison to more traditional ethnographic methods, ear facilitates practical application through activities of planning and action based on what is learned through the ethnography. network action research (nar) (foth, 2006) can be considered a form of cbr or par in which the intent is to increase the enfranchisement and participation of a community by seeking to understand and involve its different social networks and sub-networks and helping the community to develop not just one but a set of ar projects in which the members of the different networks become actively involved and lead for themselves. this variety of different ar approaches offers many possibilities for developing a research approach to support urban informatics. in general, the various approaches to ar described above differ largely in the manner and extent to which the practitioner/participant community is engaged, its needs understood, and its empowerment to decide how the research will be conducted and it what ways it will benefit. setting aside the issues of the manner and extent of participation by the clients (or co-researchers) for the moment, the ar process is largely the same. baskerville (1999) describes the action and change orientation of the action research approach in a simple two stage process: the diagnostic stage and the therapeutic stage. this simple process is more commonly expanded with three iterative activities relating to the therapeutic stage and a final stage specifying the learning (which is related to both the action to improve and the research outcomes), resulting in five stages as shown in figure 2 (lewin, 1951; susman & evered, 1978). in the diagnostic stage (stage 1), the researcher and the group of problem owners collaboratively analyse a social (or socio-technical) setting, and hypotheses are formulated about the nature of the research domain. the therapeutic stage includes iterative steps of action planning (stage 2), action taking (stage 3), and evaluating (stage 4). learning (stage 5) is concerned with reflection and capturing lessons both for the benefit of the participants and to be reported as the outcomes of the research (lewin, 1951; susman & evered, 1978). figure 2: the action research process model as described above, there is a long history in the information systems field of the use of action research. somewhat more recently, the design science research paradigm has received significant renewed attention, culminating in the 2004 mis quarterly paper by hevner et al (2004) and the desrist (design science research in information systems and technology) international conferences (2006-2011). the renewed interest in dsr stems from a frustration by some in the is field with its increasing focus on gaining an empirical understanding of the current situation and its (seeming) lack of respect for research that creates new technologies to solve existing problems. the discussion of dsr in the is field has covered a broad methodological and theoretical ground, including fitting dsr activities into a broader set of research activities, development of formulations of is design theory (gregor & jones, 2007; venable, 2006b; walls, widmeyer, & el sawy, 1992) and methodologies for conducting dsr (e.g., peffers, tuunanen, rothenberger, & chatterjee, 2008).  in relating dsr to other forms of research, venable (2006b) developed a framework of four activities: problem diagnosis, solution technology invention, evaluation, and theory building. he noted that the solution technology invention is the key activity that distinguishes dsr. the activities of problem diagnosis and technology evaluation are conducted in other (empirical) research paradigms, whether positivist or interpretive. an important aspect of dsr is that it seeks to solve general problems, not just specific, situated (one-of-a-kind) problems, so that the knowledge produced about the solution developed can be adapted and applied (in practice) to other specific, situated problems (instances of the general problem) (venable, 2006a). a number of papers have set out processes for conducting dsr, including nunamaker et al (1991), vaishnavi and kuechler (2004), venable (2006a), and peffers et al (2008). figure 3 below distils out the key activities. figure 3: the design science research process model while the above papers concern dsr in the information systems field, the same ideas can be applied to urban informatics. in order to make improvements (in this case to the urban environment and people’s experiences of and in it), problems must be investigated and diagnosed (using empirical methods and paradigms) to inform design of novel solution technologies (e.g. applications using mobile and ubicomp) using the dsr paradigm. following the development of new technologies, they should be evaluated to provide evidence that the new technology has utility with respect to solving the relevant problem or making a desired improvement. it is proper evaluation that justifies the use of the word “science” within dsr. in the dsr methodology area, somewhat more recently, there has been extensive discussion of the differences and similarities between ar and dsr (iivari & venable, 2009; jarvinen, 2007), their respective roles (iivari & venable, 2009), and why and how they could be fruitfully integrated (baskerville, et al., 2007; baskerville, pries-heje, & venable, 2009; cole, et al., 2005; sein, henfridsson, purao, rossi, & lindgren, 2011). such an approach ensures a more relevant grounding of a dsr effort in realistic understanding of relevant organisational problems and supports naturalistic evaluation (venable, 2006a) of the designed new technology. baskerville et al (2009) take inspiration from soft systems methodology (checkland, 1981; checkland & scholes, 1990) to develop a method they call soft design science methodology. the method includes explicit steps for identifying a problem, generalising the problem, developing a generalised solution, checking that the generalised solution relates back appropriately to the original problem, and implementing and evaluating the solution. sein et al (2011) explicate their action design research methodology. a key tenet of the method is that new information systems are or should not be developed in isolation from the environment(s) in which they would be used in a top down fashion and are not designed and implemented fully formed, ready to go. indeed, designs for new technologies instead emerge from the interaction of designers and users and the authentic evaluation of the new technology (cf. “naturalistic evaluation” in venable (2006a)). they propose that there should be tight coupling between the research activities of building, intervention, and evaluation (bie) in a cycle, with extensive participation by key stakeholders (researchers, problem owners, and system users). from this perspective, one could assert that it may be fruitful to borrow soft dsr or action design research wholesale for use in urban informatics research (figure 4). however, it is fruitful to more critically consider how is and urban informatics are similar and different before doing so. in fact, there are significant differences between the two research fields, which will warrant adapting rather than adopting is research methods combining ar and dsr. figure 4: participatory action design research incorporates technological innovation with methods to shape design according to the socio-cultural context. participatory action design research: adapting action design research for urban informatics table 1 below contrasts the is and urban informatics research disciplines. the information systems discipline focuses largely on improving organisations, largely businesses, and therefore largely on goals relating directly or indirectly to profit. urban informatics on the other hand focuses largely on the community or societal level, and therefore mostly on social good as a goal. perhaps more importantly for our purposes here, the decision makers for information systems are largely managers, who mostly agree about the goal of profit, and therefore largely can reach agreement on the goal(s) and the solution(s) to pursue, as well as the kind of improvement desired and how one can determine whether it is achieved or not. in urban informatics on the other hand, there may be a multiplicity of clients and other stakeholders, e.g. city planners, government, developers and local organisations, not to mention the public. it is important to build effective partnerships (foth & adkins, 2006) between these communities and to get a mutual understanding of their individual goals and motivations when conceptualising solutions to shared problems. another significant difference is the relatively closed nature of the environment of is versus the quite open nature of urban informatics. this includes aspects such as the technological environment, the users, and the context of usage itself. urban informatics largely targets members of the public as end users. their backgrounds, motivations and needs can be very heterogeneous and relatively hard to predict compared to the ones of employees in an organisational setting. similarly, the technological environment in urban informatics is almost completely open – anyone can use or not use (satchell & dourish, 2009) whatever application they want within a given public space. furthermore, any member of the public can typically select the space where s/he uses (or doesn’t use) an application. the user context in urban informatics is open, mobile and widely varying from situation to situation in people’s everyday lives, whereas in business organisations, the environment is typically more closed, fixed (although wireless access changes this) and predictable. finally, a key difference is that the role of place, space, and location is essential to urban informatics as they significantly affect the user’s situated context and experience (lentini & decortis, 2010) whereas it is of low relevance, largely incidental within the is field (although its role is increasing for some application areas). characteristic information systems urban informatics level organisational community or society dominant goal profit social good sub-goals (e.g.) efficiency, effectiveness well-being, health, social connectedness decision maker management/employer government / public institution environment / user context closed, fixed, predictable open, mobile, diverse user access private, limited access public, access for all users employees public usage largely mandatory completely discretionary role of place, space, and location low relevance essential table 1: contrasts between information systems and urban informatics research the implications of these differences are important when considering an appropriation of is methodologies for urban informatics. a combined ar and dsr approach needs to consider these issues carefully, be able to cope well and clearly with them, and be adaptable where possible. to sum up, soft dsr (baskerville, et al., 2007, 2009) or adr (sein, et al., 2011) from the is domain, would need to be adapted to the context of urban informatics, not simply adopted wholesale. indeed, rather than adapting soft dsr or adr, it might be more fruitful to pick and choose different aspects of the ar and dsr approaches described above to fit the unique requirements of research in urban informatics. we do so and propose a new method called participatory action design research (padr) below. figure 5 below gives an overview of the padr method we have developed, which combines variations of ar and dsr approaches to meet the needs of urban informatics. the reminder of the section will explain how this adaptation might be achieved, according to the usual context and stakeholders of an urban informatics project. figure 5: participatory action design research – a research method for urban informatics as can be seen in figure 5, padr has five phases or activities: diagnosing, action planning, action taking design intervention(s), impact evaluation, and learning and creation of actionable knowledge for the client. these five phases/activities are explained below. (1) diagnosing and problem formulation: for problem diagnosis, approaches are needed to identify stakeholders, analyse problems and develop shared understandings and agreement about “the” problem(s) to be solved. however, the phenomena to be researched in an urban informatics setting are not objective, but rather are socially constructed. the problem needs to be understood as variously experienced by a diversity of members of the public. hence, usually not only the ones who the research is for (i.e. clients), but also the ones who would be affected by and who would be users of the technologies to be developed (i.e. the wider urban community and members of the public) need to be embraced as stakeholders and research partners in the urban informatics context. they need to be given a voice and treated as research collaborators rather than subjects when it comes to identifying issues in their everyday urban lives and finding solutions to these issues. thus, an approach for participative problem setting (or problem formulation) is needed as shown for phase 1 in figure 5. we therefore propose that suitable techniques be borrowed from other action research approaches (see earlier descriptions above) such as participatory design (kensing, 2003; schuler & namioka, 1993), community based research (israel, et al., 1998) or community based participatory research (minkler & wallerstein, 2003; wallerstein & duran, 2010),  network action research (foth, 2006) or participatory action research (argyris & schön, 1989; wadsworth, 1998) to better engage stakeholders as clients and co-researchers. where the problem domain is complex and not already well understood (which is generally the case in urban informatics), ethnographic methods (as shown for phase 1 in figure 1 above) need to be used to gain a sufficiently rich understanding of the communicative ecologies in a particular site, and can be appropriated with action research goals. as described in the section of action research further above, colleagues from social as well as technology-oriented fields have recognised the need for a more integrated approach that bridges the gap between ethnography and action taking or design. as noted above, tacchi et al. (2009) developed and tested a tailored ar variation, ethnographic action research (ear), combining action research principles with ethnographic inquiry. the primary goal of ear is to gather a rich understanding of a social setting, in particular identify problem areas and their roots. the goal in the padr context is to understand the underlying problems in their social setting, and thus also inform the design and requirements of technological solutions. this is the basic goal of what taylor refers to as design-oriented ethnography (taylor, 2009). such approaches are largely (but not completely) ignored in the is field, especially in dsr. importantly, in urban informatics the context is one that rapidly changes, particularly as new technologies and social media applications are adopted and gain momentum on a monthly and sometimes even weekly basis. in their recent book gordon and de souza e silva describe how “location and location-based media are evolving so rapidly that we are sure that between now and when this book is actually published, we will be looking at a different world” (gordon & de souza e silva, 2011, p. ix). with the rapid developments and uptake of such technology, people constantly appropriate and change their everyday practices and patterns of sociability, interaction and communication. to accommodate this, one cannot simply use ethnographic methods wholesale as traditionally used because they would take too long. therefore, a shorter, simpler approach needs to be taken, e.g. as described in tacchi et al (tacchi, et al., 2009; tacchi, et al., 2003), which typically take a month or less. furthermore, problem analysis and formulation techniques can be borrowed from soft system methodology (checkland 1981, checkland and scholes 1990), soft design science (baskerville, et al., 2009), or other problem solving methods.  techniques such as rich pictures from ssm, cognitive maps (eden 1988, eden and ackerman 2001, ackerman and eden 2001), or a variation called coloured cognitive maps (venable, 2005) may be more helpful in eliciting and sharing problem understandings. definitions of utility and what is to be evaluated in the application of and intervention with the artefact arise out of the formulation and definition of the problem(s) to be solved. these approaches also provide techniques to facilitate and obtain agreement about the problem(s) to be solved. summing up, the urban informatics researcher together with the clients and other stakeholders needs to make use of ways to organise and facilitate participation, ethnographic means to investigate the diversity of needs from the variety of stakeholders in the community/public to be served (or just affected), as well as techniques for analysing, formulating, and socially constructing the problem(s) and obtaining agreement about it/them. (2) action planning: as described further above, urban informatics often faces the situation where action requires a design intervention, e.g. creating a mobile phone application or ubicomp artefact. design, development and evaluation of such artefacts usually follow the traditional dsr process (hevner, et al., 2004; iivari, 2007), i.e. problem identification/requirements analysis, design, implementation, and evaluation.  as shown in figure 1 phase 2, action planning for using dsr begins with opportunity identification (cf. ‘suggestion’ activity in vaishnavi and kuechler (2004) and the early part of ‘theory building’ in venable (2006a, 2006b)), in which an idea for a suitable new technology to address the issues at hand is identified for development. another problem at this phase is how to translate the findings from diagnosing (phase 1) to design implications for the artefact to be developed. how can the findings be captured and communicated to all stakeholders as a basis to collaboratively work towards a shared solution? design personas, a common tool in interaction design might be useful here, in particular to create “composite user archetypes” (cf. cooper, reimann, & cronin, 2007, p. 82) with the main motivations and needs of members from the wider community. further, since a fully participative approach is being taken, it is important that the participants are involved as co-planners (i.e. participative planning as shown in figure 1) for the action taking, i.e. the design, development, testing, and implementation and evaluation of the new technology. this should lead to increased participation, better fit of the design to the diverse requirements, and more complete and realistic evaluation in the action taking and impact evaluation phases (phases 3 and 4). (3) action taking: as essentially a dsr project at this point, this phase is concerned primarily with design and development of the technology, as well as preliminary testing (particularly including usability testing of prototypes of the designed system). as shown in figure 1, this phase involves participative design, prototyping, and usability evaluation. participative design has been discussed earlier in this paper and in the literature (kensing, 2003; schuler & namioka, 1993). in terms of prototyping, adr (sein et al 2011) recommends the use of various prototypes – alpha and beta prototypes – in regular and “authentic” evaluation as part of the bie (building, intervening, evaluating) activity (i.e. phases 3 and 4). how one can evaluate an artefact with a prototype in such an open environment, without unnecessarily disrupting people’s lives and without a full implementation needs to be carefully considered. here the recommendations in baskerville et al (2011), who identify evaluation goals and how to achieve them using a combination of ex ante and ex post evaluations, may be helpful. how to keep the clients and end users actively involved in the cycles of this activity also will require care (which should also be considered during the action planning phase). experience prototyping (buchenau & suri, 2000) provides opportunities to gather an understanding of existing and future conditions through actively engaging end users with early prototypes and communicating ideas between designers, clients and end users at an early stage. at an absolute minimum, a usability evaluation is important before releasing a system to the public at large. indeed, as shown in figure 1, iterating back to the participative design and prototyping activities during action taking may be warranted, both due to usability issues or other issues discovered using other ex ante evaluation approaches. (4) impact evaluation: in respect to the overall goal in urban informatics, the first step (diagnosing) and last two steps (evaluation and learning) are pre-set by the ar framework. in step 1, researchers, clients and stakeholders collaboratively define an issue or point of focus and any actions or design interventions taken are evaluated according to how they have contributed to the initial setting. as shown in figure 1, impact evaluation should also be conducted participatively, following a cbr, cbpr, or par approach. furthermore, since the impacts may be subtle and varied across the different stakeholders and the use of the technology in its socio-technical context may create a whole new ecology, ethnographic methods may again be very useful and we suggest their use at this phase. longer term evaluation may be useful, but again a quicker form of ethnographic study may be appropriate as in ear. furthermore, embedding design and usability evaluation methods from hci will also provide valuable insights to the hci community about new artefacts and interaction methods being used in real world, rather than in artificial laboratory settings (ballagas, 2008; brush, 2009; hagen, robertson, kan, & sadler, 2005). where the impact evaluation is found to be wanting, i.e. where the original design goals are not met or important new problems arise from the technological introduction, a decision may be made (by mutual agreement) to iterate back to an earlier phase of the research (as shown by the middle arrow in figure 1) and to replan the research and then to redesign and re-implement the system to better meet those needs based on what shortcomings have become apparent. this decision will of course be impacted by many factors including resources and the interest of the participants. (5) reflection and learning: at some point in the study, the development has ended (for the time being) and the evaluation has reached a conclusion of sorts (although longer term, longitudinal evaluation may be ongoing). at that point it is essential that all the participants take time to reflect on what has happened and determine what has been learned. this is in line with all forms of action research and padr is no exception. guiding the participant client(s) and stakeholder(s) through a careful and explicit process of reflection and learning will ensure that the learning is authentic and realistic. collaborative reflection and learning will also enable client(s) and stakeholder(s) to carry that knowledge forward for the benefit of themselves and the rest of the involved community – in the ongoing adoption and use of the developed technology as well as for the next round of development, adoption, and/or use of future technologies by the community and its members. the feedback of client and stakeholder (and researcher for that matter) learning to the next round of development and adoption is shown by the outer arrow in figure 1 above. furthermore, it is important that the learning be communicated to those not involved in the padr research project. in the field of is, dsr strongly suggests that the knowledge learned about the designed artefact and its utility in the context of the community and its situation be specified in the form of a design theory (gregor & jones, 2007; venable, 2006b; walls, et al., 1992), in this case as a uidt (urban informatics design theory) rather than an isdt (information systems design theory)! conclusion early in this paper we posed the following research question. what would be the characteristics and structure of a good method for conducting urban informatics research? in answer to this question, we have developed and proposed a new research method for urban informatics – participatory action design research (padr). padr supports urban informatics research to develop new technological means to resolve contemporary issues or support and improve everyday life in urban environments, e.g. using mobile and ubiquitous computing. we described urban informatics as a research field that studies the convergence of the physical and the digital towards hybrid space infrastructures, emerging technologies and their impact on this hybrid space in the context of urban public places. we drew requirements for a methodological framework that meets the cross-disciplinary needs of the urban informatics research landscape, in particular studying socio-cultural urban life and context as well as opportunities to develop new technologies to improve them. such research has to recognise the urban hybrid space as an ecology of people, place and technology, rather than viewing them as separate entities in their disciplinary research silos. we highlighted methodological challenges in combining these domains, in particular in respect to bridging the gaps between ethnography (understanding the community-based socio-technical problem space), participative involvement and empowerment of the community of concern, action taking (solving the problem) and design-orientation (creating innovative design artefacts). we identified is as a research discipline that is situated in a similar dichotomy between design-oriented thinking and investigation of relevant social aspects, which hence faces somewhat similar methodological challenges to urban informatics. we broadly discussed literature and recent developments in is methodology aimed at tackling these challenges, in particular the convergence of action research and design science research (baskerville, et al., 2007; cole, et al., 2005; figueiredo & cunha, 2006; iivari & venable, 2009; jarvinen, 2007). we further discussed various forms of action research that draw in participative and ethnographic approaches. however, drawing on differences between is and urban informatics research disciplines we highlighted the need for ar and dsr approaches to be adapted rather than adopted for urban informatics and suggested various aspects to be considered. in particular, we suggested drawing techniques from different variations of ar, such as ear, par or network ar, and including principles of pd or cbpr according to the particular setting of the research project. design-oriented ethnography and design personas might serve as tools to bridge the gulf between outcomes from social, cultural and urban studies and implications for design of new technology. as artefacts are not only technologically, but more so socially constructed, they have to evolve, grow and be shaped by and within the organisational context (iivari, 2003), rather than introduced overnight. with these suggestions for adapting ar, its variants, and dsr, we propose an outline of a new method – participatory action design research (padr) – to suit the needs of urban informatics and its usual research context and stakeholders. we believe that padr has the potential to bring the design of ubicomp in the urban context closer to what has been earlier discussed as ‘social construction’ (bijker, hughes, & pinch, 1987) or an ‘ensemble view of technology’ (orlikowski & iacono, 2001, p.26). in doing so it will also enable closer collaboration between academic researchers and the communities that they serve and benefit. while we have carefully reasoned about the requirements and design of padr, thus far, the new methodology has not been tried out in practice. a next stage in its development would be to do so. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank marcus foth, greg hearn, richard medland and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on earlier versions of this paper. references argyris, c., & schön, d. a. 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[1] in this context we look at the impact of recent ict developments on urban life in developed countries. though, as the mobile phone and other ubiquitous technologies enable developing countries to leapfrog into more advanced economies, similar impacts might be relevant for urban life in developing countries soon. lighting up the dark: telecenter adoption in a caribbean agricultural community   paola prado roger williams university, rhode island   abstract:  this study surveyed the residents of el limón de ocoa, a remote mountaintop agricultural community in the dominican republic, to examine how the community has integrated the use of information and communication technologies (icts) since the establishment of a local telecenter in 1997. as the longest continuous-running independent telecenter in the caribbean nation, this site provides a rich testing ground for the study of the impact of community-driven ict adoption in under-privileged rural areas of the western hemisphere. analysis of survey data found that this remote agricultural community was able to leverage icts available at the telecenter in ways that promote social change, foster community prosperity, solidarity, and well-being. keywords: digital inclusion, information and communication technologies for development (ict4d), telecenters, community informatics, dominican republic introduction digital inclusion presents a daunting challenge to governments in latin america, where longstanding patterns of social inequality and widespread poverty prevail in many areas. in the dominican republic, a caribbean nation where one-quarter of the population lives below the poverty line of two dollars per day (world bank, 2009), structural and socio-cultural barriers severely limit the adoption of information and communication technologies (ict) outside major urban centers and elite segments of the population. aware of the negative effects of digital poverty on economic development and social well-being, the dominican government was among the first in the region to officially embrace a program of digital inclusion as a path to economic prosperity. inspired by the joint partnership between the massachusetts institute of technology (mit) media lab and the instituto tecnológico de costa rica to deploy little intelligent communities (lincos) in the mountains of costa rica in 2000, the dominican government embraced a national telecenter program that touted ict adoption as a tool for human development in poor rural areas (badilla-saxe, 2008; granqvist, 2005; lincos, 2008). the program now operates 68 telecenters known as centros tecnológicos comunitarios (community technology centers). the telecenters have met with some measure of success, increasing digital literacy, and promoting education, well-being, and health care, as well as entertainment, in the communities they serve (prado, 2009). this government-run program is funded and managed by the office of the first lady, margarita cedeño de fernández, a recipient of the international telecommunications union’s 2007 world information society award, commended for her role in addressing digital poverty among marginalized populations (international telecommunications union [itu], 2008). in spite of the qualified success achieved by some of the telecenters that are part of this national network, digital exclusion remains the norm for the vast majority of the rural population in the dominican republic. furthermore, as the government gears for a change in political leadership mandated by term limits, the long-term sustainability of the government-funded telecenter network may be threatened. at a time when this and other telecenter initiatives face increased scrutiny from government officials, donors, and scholars in the field, it becomes increasingly important to empirically examine whether telecenters can provide an effective tool in promoting digital literacy and human development. to that end, this study examines the impact of the longest continuous-running independent telecenter in the dominican republic, in operation since 1997. located in the mountain hamlet of el limón de ocoa, this is the first community-built telecenter established in the caribbean nation, and one of the very first such telecenters established in latin america (el limón, 2008). as such, this site, which is not connected to the national network of telecenters and does not receive government funding, provides a rich testing ground for the study of the impact of telecenter and ict adoption in a remote agricultural location. this research analyzes the extent to which the residents of el limón appropriated the use of icts available at the telecenter, and how these resources impacted the development, prosperity and well-being of this community. informed by a development communication perspective, the study examines the impact of the telecenter within a comprehensive, contextual framework that allows for unexpected consequences of ict adoption to be considered. it measures not only technological benchmarks but also gauges local perception concerning the telecenter’s impact on human development. the topic is important, given that knowledge gleaned from studies of ict initiatives in the global north (i.e.: western europe, canada. and the united states) may differ substantially from that obtained through systematic mapping of the nuances and particularities specific to telecenters in developing nations (wilson, 2004). measuring the role of telecenters in community development ever since the 2003 world summit on the information society (wsis) identified digital literacy as a central component in the fight against poverty, community technology centers, also known as telecenters, have emerged as a tool in the quest for digital inclusion (international telecommunications union, 2003). telecenters now operate throughout the developing world under various combinations of ownership and management structures: they exist as commercial or non-profit ventures, franchises, governmental or academic initiatives, or hybrid partnerships that combine some or all of these elements (prado & janbek, 2008). given the varied operational and administrative conformations, telecenters can be identified differently in different countries. proenza, bastidas-buch, & montero (2001) defined telecenters as public spaces where individuals may access information and communication technologies. this definition, which reduces the telecenter to a location that provides access to specific technological applications, fails to capture an important dimension of the role these facilities play in remote and impoverished rural communities, where they can provide a communal meeting ground along with physical access to communication technology devices (i.e.: telephone, computers, facsimiles, etc.). therefore, this paper defines a telecenter as a public space where icts are accessible (proenza et al., 2001) in a way that creates a meeting ground where the community can access and produce information that is relevant and useful, in the manner proposed by schilderman (2002). in this conception, the availability of icts may directly contribute to the flow of information into the community, yet new knowledge also emerges from the sharing of information among community members who visit the telecenter and those in their circle of influence. scholars likewise disagree on how to best evaluate the contributions that can flow from telecenters to local communities. several studies link the effectiveness of telecenters to empirical measurement of the number of computers in use, number of people trained and number of jobs created in the general workforce (anta & valenti, 2004; eastin & larose, 2000; figueiredo, camara, & sabin, 2005; gumucio-dagron, 2003; gurstein, 2003; rodríguez garcia, 2002; whyte, 1999; whyte, 2000). still, some scholars have widened their evaluation of telecenter performance to include the impact on the well-being and  human development of users, and the creation of self-sustaining infra-structures that benefit the community as a whole (menou, 2001; rothenberg-aalami & pal, 2005). the latter studies link individual skills training to overall community development, transcending deterministic benchmarks that merely measure technological competency among individuals trained at the facilities. this approach has led to evidence that telecenters in the developing world can help communities vault capital and technical barriers to benefit from the global flow of information in tangible ways (baggio, 2008; blattman, jensen, & roman, 2003; jensen, 2007; roman & colle, 2002). insofar as the services offered at a telecenter support community goals, they can foster the well-being and prosperity of the whole community, and accomplish results that go beyond merely providing opportunities for individual development through skills training and work force development. a telecenter that provides a meeting place where the community comes together to produce content and collect information that is relevant and useful to its needs can build social capital and effectively strengthen community ties (schilderman, 2002; sorj, 2001; warschauer, 2003). telecenters that follow this model provide a setting for the kind of learning communities where individuals contribute and interact with each other, working together to collect information and to develop solutions to community problems, learning how, rather than simply learning (brown & duguid, 2000; wilmore, 2001). still, after a decade of observations and case studies, it is clear that the effective operation and sustainability of community telecenters can be fraught with substantial challenges. a complex array of structural, cultural, socio-economic or cognitive factors can prevent or restrict individual access to and use of icts (norris, 2001; servon, 2002). such factors can present considerable obstacles to digital inclusion, perpetuate existing inequality, and contribute to the reality of digital poverty (mossberger, tolbert, & stansbury, 2003; norris, 2001; servon, 2002; van dijk, 2005). for the purposes of this study, these factors are examined in three categories: 1) structural, 2) socio-cultural, and 3) individual (cognitive-emotional). structural challenges various structural barriers can impede community access to and reliance on a telecenter. in rural communities, where obstacles to sustainability differ considerably from the challenges encountered at urban telecenters, the formula for telecenter effectiveness can be elusive. telecenters situated in remote, impoverished locations, such as the one that is the subject of this study, commonly contend with power fluctuations due to unstable electrical grids, difficult access due to poorly maintained or non-existent roads, and restricted financial resources absent government subsidies (baggio, 2008; benjamin, 2008; hernandez et al., 2007; mori & assumpção, 2007; sorj, 2001). technical and financial limits to connectivity represent a common stumbling block to the regular practice of digital literacy among the poor (roman & colle, 2002). in the dominican republic, inefficient or inexistent telecommunication links represent a major structural challenge. eighty percent of dominicans remain disconnected from the internet and less than three percent of internet users have access to a broadband connection (itu, 2010). endemic rural poverty also presents a challenge, driving rural migration to urban areas and abroad. almost half (42.2%) of dominicans live below the poverty line, a large proportion of them in rural areas (oficina nacional de estadística [one], 2004; world bank, 2008). basic sanitation is scarce; more than 3.3 million lacked indoor plumbing and relied on latrines in their homes and almost 100,000 people reside in shacks or quarters not meant for human shelter. such widespread poverty places icts beyond the reach of those whose income does not adequately meet basic needs of food and shelter. in settings where grinding poverty and limited work opportunities prevail, learning is often perceived as a path to potential individual economic gain and digital literacy becomes a job creation tool. more often than not, technology skills training can become an individual ticket to a job in the big city rather than a tool for community-building. insofar as a telecenter provides skills training that contributes to population outflow in a way that negatively impacts the community’s ability to fulfill its needs, it inadvertently contributes to rural exodus and fuels the growth of urban poverty belts. socio-cultural challenges rural residents can also face socio-cultural barriers that prevent regular use of icts. reduced skills sets, education level, language barriers, and pre-conceptions based on age and gender are only a few examples of why some people remain at the margins of digital society (roman & colle, 2002; warschauer, 2003). individuals who are functionally illiterate or unfamiliar with the logic of digital technologies may find it harder to engage with the technologies available at a telecenter (proenza et al., 2001). in the dominican republic, where 13% of those over the age of 15 cannot read or write (world bank, 2008), many people face a particularly steep learning curve for technology adoption. low student retention past elementary school aggravates this pattern, which prevails in remote rural areas where enrollment beyond grade school requires a daily commute to distant urban centers. expectations of conformity to traditional age and gender roles can also lead to self-imposed or societal curbs on educational achievement. furthermore, in a culture where machismo prevails, rural women who reach the stage of motherhood are commonly expected to stay home and limit their activities to home-making and child care duties. these factors contribute to the challenge of engaging individuals in a learning community, whether or not icts are present. individual (cognitive-emotional) challenges at the individual level, competency in the use of icts requires a learning process that can prove particularly challenging for those who live in poverty. obstacles to learning include lack of education or personal skills, the absence of a supportive social network, anxiety or disinterest, as well as the absence of content that is relevant to one’s life (van dijk, 1999; van dijk & hacker, 2003). another factor that may curtail involvement with the telecenter is the perception that some individuals may stand to benefit more than others from available courses and training, and the conflict that this dynamic may engender among peers in a small community. individual self interest has been identified as a compelling driver among social change agents who overcome such challenges and go on to embrace and propel technological adoption in their communities (wilson, 2004). indeed, garside (2009) suggested that motivation, confidence, and trust in the use of icts provide useful indicators of telecenter performance. this study borrows from the latter concepts to examine community engagement and sense of ownership regarding the el limón telecenter. the telecenter at el limón de ocoa the setting for this study is el limón de ocoa, a rural community perched at an elevation of 3,000 feet on the south side of the country’s central mountain range. this hamlet is populated by a tight-knit group of individuals, the majority of whom belong to one of the four main family groups that settled the area. an estimated 120 adult residents live in the community year-round. el limón can be reached by driving up the mountain two kilometers on a partially collapsed, pock-marked unpaved road that is often severely eroded by tropical rainstorms. residents reach the nearest urban center, san josé de ocoa, by driving, walking, or riding pack animals and motorcycles down the mountain to the closest paved road, where bus service is available. most of the homes in el limón are built of wood planks on a cement slab, and a few homes are entirely built of cement block. almost all are equipped with an outside kitchen and outhouses. regardless of the building materials, every home is painted in bright colors, as is common throughout the dominican republic. the 65 families that live here subsist on a diet of legumes and starch (mostly rice, beans, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, avocados and plantain) sometimes complemented by sides of animal protein (codfish, chicken, and sausage). local crops and fruit trees provide for a diet that is more varied and nutritious than elsewhere in rural communities in the country’s arid southwestern region. the federal government has been mostly absent from el limón, where the population live in a setting reminiscent of nineteenth century caribbean rural life. much of the barebones infra-structure in place originated from foreign donors, not from local government (luna, 2002). the extent of public service to this area amounts to one crumbling access road and two one-story structures that house a grade school staffed by two teachers on the department of education payroll. the area lacks health clinics and any type of government facility. in this setting, the centro tecnológico de información (technology center for information), the community-built telecenter, provides a public space where community leaders hold their meetings, and where residents of all ages gather night and day to use the phone lines, charge cellular phone batteries, access the internet, attend classes and workshops, and find entertainment. local residents first connected to the internet in 1997, when members of the ecopartners project at cornell university visited the area to install a 2.5kw micro-hydroelectric plant that first brought irrigation and electrical power to the community. under their guidance, local residents pooled efforts to connect pipes, raise poles, and stretch power lines from home to home, at times vaulting over rough terrain by using tall trees as electrical poles. irrigation pipes now reach most conucos¹, providing a constant flow of water for crops and for use in the homes. constant irrigation has enabled productive farming on the terraced landscape, and allowed the community to abandon a centuries-old pattern of subsistence based on charcoal-making and other extractive practices. there is a plentiful supply of clean water at each home, delivered outdoors by the same pipes that irrigate the conucos. in the process, visiting researchers established a small telecenter, donating a laptop and training two young villagers on its use. the electricity, irrigation, and telephone links that ensued substantially altered the life of the community. the 3,000 watts generated by the plant powers each home with 35 watts of energy, which most residents use to light a single fluorescent bulb and a small black and white television set (katz, 2008). five hundred watts power the school, the telecenter and its computers, lights, wi-fi equipment, and a local area network (lan) that connects el limón to the phone landlines in san josé de ocoa. scope of study this study is informed by wilson’s (2004) strategic restructuring model (srs), which defines information and communication technologies as an asset or a resource that is the object of negotiation among political actors. the model, which defines digital poverty as a challenge that is more political than practical in nature, vaults discussion of ict adoption beyond the challenges of technological diffusion alone. interpreting the individual actions of social change agents within the context of the structural, institutional, economic, social, and political issues that frame their efforts, wilson situates the challenge of digital inclusion within a comprehensive framework that eschews technologically deterministic performance benchmarks. informed by wilson’s holistic understanding of the many factors that facilitate or hinder successful technology adoption in impoverished rural communities, this descriptive study examines the extent to which the community of el limón appropriated the local telecenter, their perceptions of this public space, and their use of icts. more specifically, this study seeks to understand whether this remote agricultural community was able to leverage the presence of the telecenter in ways that foster community prosperity and solidarity. methods this research was based primarily on data collected through an interviewer-assisted survey administered to a snowball sample of adults 18 years of age and older in the community of el limón. data collection took place over the course of three subsequent days in october 2008, aided by a telecenter administrator who accompanied and introduced the researcher to respondents in their homes, at two colmados², in the evangelical churchyard, and the telecenter itself, which locals refer to as las computadoras (the computers). at that time, the researcher also conducted in-depth interviews with three telecenter administrators and two public school teachers who serve the community. interviews utilized a semi-structured questionnaire guide adapted from existing literature in the area of technology adoption (eastin & larose, 2000; united nations conference on trade and development, 2007; whyte, 1999). the survey protocol, modeled on whyte’s (1999) recommendations for evaluations of telecenter performance and fink’s (2006) guidelines for survey research, captured information about ict usage, measuring the number of computer users, the skill sets learned in terms of software and applications, and self-described level of proficiency in their use. the questionnaire also inquired about factors considered in the literature as potential contributors or disruptors to sustainable adoption of ict in rural communities. these consisted of four main categories: 1) perceptions of structural factors that could affect reliable and convenient telecenter access, 2) socio-cultural factors which may negatively impact the sustainability of the telecenter over the long-run, 3) cognitive and emotional reasons why individuals use (or not) the telecenter, and 4) perceptions of the impact of the telecenter in the overall well-being and prosperity of the community. the latter category measured the perceived impact of telecenters on community development and social change at both the individual level (personal development), as well as on the community at large. this study relies on non-probability sampling to describe how a small rural community appropriated the local telecenter and its icts. while its results cannot be generalized, its findings provide insight into the impact of telecenter adoption in this particular rural setting, and may contribute to our understanding of these dynamics in similar remote agricultural communities in the region. results respondents (n = 47) consisted of 25 men (53%) and 22 women (47%). one-third (32%) of these were between the ages of 18 and 24, another third (32%) were between 25 and 44 years of age, and 36% were age 45 or older. a majority (61%) had not completed elementary school. among those who did, one went on to finish high school, and four held a college degree. the low educational attainment in this community ranks it below the national average, which estimates 48% of eligible pre-teens and teens enrolled in middle and high school in 2004 (world bank, 2008). twenty-four people among those surveyed had visited the telecenter over the course of the previous month. an almost equal number claimed they seldom went there. among those who visited, 21 claimed they went to the telecenter to become better prepared for work and to learn new things. seventeen said they went there for fun. only 12 used icts at the telecenter on a regular basis, three or four times weekly. nine of these were between the ages of 19 and 25. five of them relied on icts at the telecenter for both work and personal reasons: they surfed the internet, downloaded music, and chatted online on a regular basis. according to telecenter supervisors it is the underage children who most often use the icts at the telecenter. it is important to note that while only adults were part of this survey, children comprise an estimated two-thirds of the overall population in el limón, (katz, personal communication). those who visited the telecenter did so for work purposes (12 respondents), and to find information about health care (15), child care (12), farming (14), and animal care (12). thirteen respondents sought out the telecenter for information about water sanitation and emergency preparedness in the event of hurricanes or tropical storms. only six people used the telecenter to contact the government. another three learned to read and write at the telecenter. some of the individuals who did not visit the telecenter regularly nevertheless indicated they learned how to use icts there. eight of them learned how to use a computer and to find online news and information at the telecenter. that is also where seven learned to access e-mail and chat online, and six learned to download music and photos, and publish blogs or web pages. the telecenter made it possible for these individuals to practice digital literacy, albeit not on a regular basis. almost no one used the telecenter to access e-government sites or to purchase goods and services through e-commerce.4   the overwhelming perception in the community was that the telecenter brought positive change to el limón. almost everyone agreed that the presence of the telecenter helped locals solve problems and provided a source of news and information. practically all agreed that the telecenter helped empowered the community, fostered closeness, and trained young people for modern life. most also agreed that the telecenter brought neighbors together to address common issues, helping them prepare for storms, imparting information about how to keep the water clean, and opening new markets for the goods produced in the area. many credited the telecenter for providing information about health and child care. in this setting, few people saw the telecenter as a catalyst for enmity or jealousy. still, seven thought that the telecenter wasted some of the community’s resources, and four people argued that the telecenter benefited only a privileged few and decreased productivity. on the other hand, everyone was proud of the telecenter and trusted the information they received there. although structural factors often contribute to limit telecenter access in remote rural areas, they did not seem to prevent access to the telecenter in el limón. almost everyone found it simple to access the building on foot, despite the dismal road conditions in the area. the telecenter staff earned praise for being knowledgeable, keeping computers in good repair, and providing convenient hours of operation in a comfortable and centrally-located setting. a back-up solar panel provided redundancy in the event of power loss. discussion almost everyone in el limón shares in a sense of ownership and pride where the local telecenter is concerned. the telecenter has promoted community engagement even among those who do not visit regularly or at all. there was ample consensus that the telecenter had brought great benefits to the community by introducing knowledge, education for the young, and commercial opportunities (mostly in the form of telephone contact with brokers in outside markets which allowed farmers to schedule crop harvests based on market value). there was also widespread agreement that the telecenter reinforced communal ties, bringing the community closer together to solve problems and build prosperity. everyone trusted the telecenter, and were pleased that most services were offered free of charge. furthermore, there was little evidence that the telecenter had engendered conflict or envy among individuals or groups in the community. the use of icts is most prevalent among adults younger than 26 years of age. cultural and societal expectations may play a role in limiting the use of icts among women, haitians, and older adults. a majority of the young women surveyed in this study who reported being adept in using icts stopped visiting the telecenter after they bore children. ethnicity also surfaced as a limitation to ict use: migrant haitian farm workers living in nearby bateys³ were under-represented among telecenter visitors. older adults who declined to engage in digital literacy and ict use nevertheless embraced other activities at the telecenter that were not ict-related: they sought out the telecenter to attend workshops and courses about irrigation, water management, health care, animal husbandry, and farming. older adults who were reluctant to embrace icts themselves nonetheless enthusiastically supported ict use by children and young adults. they also valued use of the telecenter for non ict-related purposes, praising it as a meeting ground that benefits the community as a whole. it bears note that the telecenter housed literacy classes for a few adults, and offered a place where many more acquired and eventually practiced digital literacy skills. the computers attract a constant stream of children to the telecenter day and evening. in a setting where child-rearing is a communal activity, the two telecenter administrators act as surrogate parents, rotating the children to allow each equal time at the computer, coaching them through homework, and supervising their use of games and access to the internet. every adult surveyed agreed that the telecenter has been extremely beneficial to the younger members of the community. road conditions may be dismal, yet local residents, most of whom reach the telecenter on foot or by motorcycle, almost always arrive to find it open. two coordinators keep the equipment in order and provide helpful guidance to visitors. locals found the facilities comfortable and convenient, and identified few structural constraints that would prevent their use. an incident of computer theft a few years back was resolved with some informal sleuthing and peer pressure among neighbors. in this small community where almost everyone is related by family ties, there are few robberies. it bears note that many residents praised cornell researcher jon katz, who led the installation of the mini hydro-electric plant and the creation of the telecenter. the researcher is widely recognized as the catalyst for social change in this community. according to one respondent, “all we have came about because of jon.” social change agents and local champions such as katz have been shown to be essential in ensuring sustainable ict adoption among underprivileged populations (james, 2004). in el limón, where a foreign researcher was the initial catalyst for change, telecenter coordinators culled from the community became the local champions who ensured thirteen consecutive years of sustainable telecenter operation. the overall sense of ownership and engagement of local residents with their telecenter confirms findings that telecenters that treat stakeholders equitably and operate in a transparent manner from the outset, setting concrete goals with the consensus and participation of community members, are more likely to achieve sustainability (hosman & fife, 2008). in el limón, the positive impact of the telecenter in the community spread beyond those directly involved in using icts to include their extended families and acquaintances in a network of beneficiaries of the diffusion of innovation. information flowed outwards and beyond the computers onto and through traditional oral communication channels in a way that increased the knowledge capital of the entire community. conclusion while only a minority of adult residents in el limón has embraced the use of icts at their local telecenter, many more have found that the telecenter offers news, information, education, and a meeting ground that binds the community together in a way that helps them solve problems, build social capital, and promote well-being. those who use the telecenter on a regular basis are motivated by a desire to learn and improve their work skills, but also go there in search of entertainment. the centro tecnológico de información in el limón de ocoa is unanimously valued by the connection it provides to outside resources as well as for the connection it promotes within the community itself. there are indications that cultural taboos may limit the extent of digital inclusion in el limón. older adults who praised the use of telecenter icts by the young balked at the idea of adopting the technology themselves. this finding supports earlier research (roman & colle, 2002; warschauer, 2003b) that found individuals limit their participation in telecenters based on presuppositions about what is considered appropriate behavior for their age or gender. heeks and león (2009) have suggested that this dynamic may reinforce, rather than redress, existing patterns of inequality in remote rural areas, as younger and better educated members outpace older individuals in digital inclusion. yet, in a close-knit community like el limón, where individuals share in a common sense of ownership and goodwill towards the telecenter, youth advancement is perceived as beneficial to communal prosperity. more research is needed to further illuminate the role telecenter adopters play as opinion leaders, and to gauge the overall impact of knowledge that emerges from communal information sharing. in a nation where institutions remain weak and close alliance with ruling political parties can damage the survival of any initiative associated with previous administrations, lack of government support may have benefited the long-term sustainability of a project that runs independently and receives funding from sources outside the country. still, its sustainability remains precarious; monthly connectivity fees, equipment repairs, maintenance and upgrades tax the community’s limited resources. absent a consistent revenue base and continued goodwill from outside donors, the telecenter could eventually fail. elsewhere in the dominican republic, many telecenters within the centros tecnológicos comunitarios network, fully funded by the office of the first lady, have yet to generate the level of local support and participation that exists in el limón. free from the fluctuations of political players, committed by ties of kinship and communal solidarity, and supported in part by foreign donors, the residents of el limón forged a tenuous path to sustainability. more importantly, they have reaped unexpected benefits from a telecenter where effectiveness is evident in measures of human development that transcend the mere number of people skilled in the use of 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(1999). understanding the role of community telecentres in development: a proposed approach to evaluation, in gomez r. and hunt p (eds), telecentre evaluation: a global perspective, report of an international meeting on telecentre evaluation. ottawa: international development research centre [idrc] whyte, a. (2000). assessing community telecentres: guidelines for researchers. ottawa: international development research centre. wilmore, d. (2001). establishing a community of learners: the use of information technology (it) as an effective learning tool in rural primary or elementary schools. retrieved may 15, 2008, from http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/vol_3_2001/discuss_summary_april2001.html wilson, e. j. (2004). the information revolution and developing countries. cambridge, ma: mit. world bank. (2008). world development indicators 2008: poverty data. retrieved march 29, 2009 from http://siteresources.worldbank.org world bank. (2009). dominican republic at a glance. retrieved june 10, 2010 from http://devdata.worldbank.org/aag/dom_aag.pdf footnotes ¹ conucos. conucos are small plots of arable land assigned to individual families or homes for the purposes of subsistence farming and small-scale bartering or sale of produce. ² colmados. a colmado is a small market that sells foodstuffs and other common household goods. ³ bateys. bateys are rural enclaves where migrant sugar cane workers live, often in extreme poverty. 4 the government of the dominican republic does not yet offer a wide range of e-government services and the growth of e-commerce transactions has been slow due to the public’s limited access to credit cards. wireless networking for communities, citizens, and the public i wireless networking for communities, citizens, and the public interest: global perspectives alison powell & sascha d. meinrath, guest editors new wireless networking breakthroughs have inspired communities to build their own communications infrastructures and have spurred the development of innovative applications and services. wireless networking for communities, citizens and the public interest has leveraged inexpensive and flexible technologies and provided broadband access as well as community media applications. community wireless networks have mobilized groups of citizens, local governments, non-profit organizations, and development agencies to collaborate in creating locally-appropriate communications tools. throughout the history of community media, moments have arisen where the confluence of technological development, economic efficiencies, and social necessity have realigned our fundamental notions of what it means to live in a civil society. the current critical juncture, where geospatial communications like wired telephones are being replaced with individual communications like mobile devices demonstrates the powerful roles for community wireless networks in this transformation. around the world, new initiatives have developed, appropriated, and integrated emerging wireless technologies to provide access to local media, promote digital inclusion, solve communication problems, and promote civic engagement. this special issue documents the state of the art in research on community wireless applications, and presents assessments of community wireless projects in a variety of local contexts: from large urban centers in north america to rural locations in asia and latin america. together, the papers and field notes in this special issue reflect on a community-centric approach to communications infrastructure development. these works describe the challenges – both practical and theoretical – that face community wireless networking, as well as the implications many of these projects have to support social and economic justice around the globe. the papers in this special issue demonstrate that community-based approaches to wifi development are part of a broader integration of technology, organizational capacity, and local culture. social goals are part of most community wifi projects, and integrating these goals and the technical structures of wifi networks is part of what makes many community wifi projects successful. both full papers and field notes explore this integration and focus on various facets of the community wireless networking movement. the papers included in this issue explore different theoretical approaches that help situate community wireless networking as social and technical phenomena. adria provides a meta-theoretical discussion of how wifi networks reconfigure space and time -using the medium theory of mcluhan and virilio to suggest that wifi networks have the potential to integrate local geographical and temporal experiences. the other papers use empirical approaches to assess the social aspects of community wireless networking. tapia and ortiz explore the claims made by operators of municipal-community networks that these projects are addressing the digital divide. using a textual analysis of claims made in documents including “press releases, requests for proposals, letters of intent, and other official policy documents,” as well as interviews with key informants in us municipal-community projects, they interrogate the extent to which networks facilitate meaningful digital inclusion. both cho and forlano explore the social aspects of community wireless networking in more detail: cho focusing on the development of networks and forlano on their use. cho reveals how the development of community wireless networks (cwns) builds social capital for the participants. she develops the concept of “place-peer community” to explain how wifi projects define “community.” cho also describes how contributions to community wireless networks help to develop ‘civic bandwidth’ among their contributors. like tapia and oritz, she identifies cwns as developing a discourse that connects the development of digital information and communication technologies with efforts to improve communities. forlano explores the new social relationships created through the everyday use of community-based wifi networks, examining the gap between media representations of wifi as an “anytime, anywhere” solution and the socio-cultural practices of people using free wifi hotspots in new york city. as she discovers, freelance workers use wifi hotspots to create temporary working environments that eliminate some of the isolation of working without a fixed office, while providing a basic infrastructure including network connectivity and electrical power. these wifi hotspots support communities of mobile, flexible workers who establish relationships with a particular place and its people. together with cho’s insights about the social capital mobilized through the process of developing community wifi networks, this suggests that wifi hotspots may have a unique role to play in redefining the experiences of community in urban areas. the field notes in this issue offer a window into the realities of local experiments with wifi technology. the impacts of the projects they document depend on the local political context (clement), the community’s capacity (dara, dimanche, and o siochru; bhagat), the potential for community and industry partnerships to create new ways for community members to gather data and to aggregate it (samanta), and how changing our assumptions about the role of wireless infrastructure can open up new opportunities for affordable broadband (pietrosemoli). these notes highlight how local contexts influence what is considered the “public interest” and how community wireless projects can best serve the general public. for example, clement criticizes the toronto hydro wireless project, considered a technical success, because its governance structure forces the network to be operated for-profit rather than as a public service. samanta provides an outline of some potential social uses for an experimental wireless network that could aggregate data from numerous wireless devices. some suggested uses of this network include collecting ambient audio data that, when mapped, could provide quality of life indicators. in the global south, the public interest is served by the communication and applications made possible by wireless networks established in previously un-served areas. in these contexts as well, important challenges also emerge. bhagat assesses the results of a mesh network built in mahavilachchiya village where a local entrepreneur developed a wireless network as an extension of a computer school where local children learned ict skills. this wifi connectivity project extended internet access to homes, and encouraged more local residents to use the internet. however, bhagat also notes that connecting the village to the internet may have negative impacts as well: introducing new forms of media and new social expectations to the village and disrupting historical cultural norms. dara, dimanche and o siochru explore how local political and social contexts impact the design and deployment phase of one local wireless network. from the challenging context of cambodia, they report on the first phase of the i-reach project, a distributed mesh network providing internet connectivity and local media using solar-powered devices. the project’s challenges in obtaining permission from local government, sourcing material, and recruiting qualified local staff and contractors underscores the notion that community-based infrastructure implementation is a social (and an institutional) as well as a technical endeavor. ermanno pietrosemoli and his international team of wifi researchers have deployed wireless links spanning hundreds of kilometers. by proofing out a methodology for creating low-cost, long-distance wifi, pietrosemoli forces us to question the notion that wifi is just for local networking. as a potential backhaul solution, wifi may offer an exceptional value for communities and constituencies that would not otherwise be able to afford broadband connectivity. across these paper and notes, a common thread linking the articles is the importance of establishing local strategies for leveraging wireless technologies in the public interest. as many of these papers point out, the rhetoric of public interest accompanies the development of community wireless projects; however, delivering on this rhetoric requires integrating wireless networks with existing cultural and social capital resources. “success” requires thinking of wireless networks not just as resources for connectivity, but as elements in the development of community. by describing some of the possibilities and challenges of this approach, we hope that this special issue provides inspiration from around the globe. beyond access: libraries are the new telecentres michael gurstein editor in chief: the journal of community informatics, vancouver, canada. as those who have been in and around community-based ict/internet access (community informatics) initiatives well know, the primary dilemma for these activities (e.g. telecentres) is how to ensure sufficient sustainability, organizational stability and programmatic flexibility to allow for survival once the immediate round of funding, which helped them to launch, runs out. (note that i've elsewhere discussed my thoughts on next generation telecentres (ngts) and re-thinking telecentres: a community informatics approach, which outline what i see as the updated role for telecentres or, as i discuss below, libraries.) contrary to earlier predictions and often intemperate assertions that the market would resolve all internet access and use issues, the need for community-based internet access facilities has not disappeared; neither in the global south nor the global north as a consequence of the "mobile revolution". rather, what has happened as a result of the widespread distribution of mobiles is that the need for "access" has shifted to focus more particularly on those falling into the gaps in the overwhelmingly commercial and for-profit internet environment: the poor, the illiterate and semi-illiterate, migrants and those with physical disabilities; in many instances a diminishing group as the cost of access declines, but not one that has or will disappear altogether. and alongside this group there is the increasing number of people who require support and enablement in taking advantage of the access which has been made available: those requiring training, those requiring moral support in entering into an unfamiliar technological space and those with specific interests or needs achievable through the use of icts but who lack the knowledge or skill (and resources) to realize these effectively. in the initial round of funding for public internet access, both in the north and in the south, the challenge of sustainability was not, by and large, overcome; many, even most, telecentres failed, and programs to support public internet access were abandoned. this was in part due to a perceived decline in need (those who remained without internet access often being socially "invisible" and economically and politically marginal), but also partly because the fashion among funders and policy makers shifted elsewhere (primarily to mobiles). notably, while the funding agencies-governments in the global north, multilateral aid agencies and development-oriented foundations in the south-proved to be fickle in their support, many governments in the global south, and particularly those with very large rural populations and very low levels of connectivity, have proven to have rather more staying power. a number of them-notably pakistan, indonesia and bolivia among others-have recently launched or re-launched broad community-based ict access and service delivery programs (very often focused on e-government services). even in the face of rapidly escalating mobile penetration, and statistics which, in theory, prove that the "access issue" has been solved through the (apparent) use of mobiles for internet access, many countries have recognized the need for facilities offering public access to the internet. this is particularly the case since the cost of internet use among the very poor (who are disproportionately rural), the training challenges and the economic and social development opportunities involved indicate the need for something more than simply widespread mobile use or even commercial internet cafes if the true potential of the internet is to be realized. a significant consideration in this, of course, being that large proportions of mobile users in the south either don't access the internet via their mobiles because of cost or don't understand that they can access the net-facebook for many evidently is not the internet. as a result, they make no wider use of opportunities for internet access. alongside these new governmental initiatives (only some of which have made provisions to avoid the difficulties experienced by earlier programs) it is heartening to discover a parallel initiative sponsored by the bill and melinda gates foundation which responds directly to the earlier failures while recognizing the continuing requirements, particularly in the global south and in countries in transition for internet access and "beyond". this new initiative has taken the lessons learned at such cost from earlier programs and moved them forward in new and exciting ways. even the program's name, beyond access, indicates the learnings on which the program appears to be built and gives evidence of the renewed spirit which is animating it. (my comments below are based on my having had the opportunity to participate in a regional meeting of beyond access in bali in october, 2013.) the program is built around competitive grants to individual libraries (or innovative elements in library systems). the funds support the innovation and there is a strong focus on regular regional meetings of the grantees with grantee teams including the library champion, a local ngo which is active in support of the access innovation and a local governmental policy maker. there is a strong emphasis in these meetings on skill development (related to project management) for the individual teams and in creating peer-to-peer links between teams and linking individual teams into a broad program-based social software supported (facebook) network. there is also the strong indication that ongoing moral, programmatic and (ad hoc) financial support (the program has guaranteed funding for three years) will be available (from the core staff). this funding would support moving the individual initiatives forward, propagating the innovative practice/program to additional libraries in the region, and for new initiatives as they might be identified by grantees in their ongoing activities. it might be worthwhile to list a few of the elements of the program which indicate what has been learned and how they have moved on from earlier initiatives: 1. library-based the first and most important evident learning is their decision to use libraries as the base for broader internet access and use programs. this approach, which many of those involved have long recommended, provides the local initiatives with an immediate ongoing organizational base for financial management, physical presence and access to skilled personnel; and perhaps most importantly gives it a framework which would allow for continuity and the potential for growth. 2. ongoing support the program has indicated that it will provide ongoing support to the individual grantees, which is a direct response to the problem encountered by so many telecentre programs where grants were given to people in the field and then the grantors effectively moved on to something else leaving the grantees without adequate training, mentoring, or the possibility of backstopping through ad hoc funding for emergency or bridging purposes. 3. links to policy by including policy makers as part of the team invited to the regional events, the program is indicating a recognition of one of the failings of earlier programs which was the lack of any linkage in most instances into appropriate policy-making structures. this absence left the individual telecentre without the necessary linkages to possible funders when the time came that additional funding was required. (notably in many instances the earlier programs were sponsored out of ministries of telecommunications or industry rather than ministries which had an interest in on-going support for locally based social and economic development.) 4. links to local ngos similarly with local ngos also being represented in the teams invited to the regional meetings. while in many instances telecentres were closely linked to specific ngo programs, often these were ngos developed specifically for the purpose of working with the telecentre, and when funding or other issues arose in many instances these ngos lacked the broad base of community support that was necessary to make an effective response. 5. capacity for innovation a major failing of the earlier telecentre programs was that the structure of funding was fixed so that the activities undertaken within the telecentre were generally built into the funding contract and there was little or no flexibility available to allow the telecentre to evolve or to respond to local requirements, opportunities, or difficulties. the beyond access program has indicated specifically that funding is available for new or enhanced programs or for the extension of existing programs to new locales. in fact the workshop that i attended had a section devoted specifically to helping the teams identify, design and plan for the implementation of just such innovations! 6. financial continuity as noted, the earlier programs had limited time and funding frames and generally suffered from a lack of secure continuity beyond the initial grant, reflecting the ways in which most government and donor funding is based on year-to-year budgets and program cycles. beyond access has indicated that they have a minimum of three-year funding and have extended the security that this provides to the individual grantees in the sense that they have indicated additional funding would be available as might be required to support the initiatives during the entire life of this first stage of the overall program. 7. networking peer-to-peer bizarrely many of the first round telecentre programs not only did not promote peer-to-peer contacts and the creation of networks of mutual support among individual telecentres, in many instances they actively resisted or undermined the creation of these networks (there was suspicion and fear that such networks might gain political influence and thus challenge bureaucratic and centralized policy management and decision-making). in contrast to this, beyond access is actively promoting and supporting the development of peer-to-peer relations among the individual initiatives and the creation of an overall network of initiatives for mutual support, idea and experience exchange, and so that they might become a basis for influencing ict and development policymaking. (the workshop i participated in was organized at the same time and place as the 8th iteration of the internet governance forum in bali, indonesia, precisely to help make this connection.) of course, my window on beyond access is a narrow and limited one and i have not had a chance to more closely observe its activities in relation to specific funded projects, but even with this limited perspective it was extremely heartening to see a resurgence of the grassroots energy and creativity that i last saw in the initial stage of the telecentre movement being rekindled through the beyond access initiative. i have very considerable optimism for their activities, if only because they seem to be doing so many things right that were done wrongly in earlier programs. conducting ict research in voluntary organizations: reflections from a long term study of the european social forum saqib saeed, markus rohde and volker wulf university of siegen hölderlin str. 3, 57076 siegen, germany {saqib.saeed, markus.rohde, volker.wulf}@uni-siegen.de abstract recent literature highlights the low technology adoption of voluntary organizations in their organizational settings. due to the social importance of this sector, it is important that universities and researchers carry on action research projects in such settings to improve it usage. these organizations are quite diverse in their organizational structure, scope, application area and working. furthermore, they differ from traditional organizations in their objectives, rationale, operations and work practices. appropriate technology design requires a deep understanding of organizational work practices, paving the way for ethnographic action research studies in these settings. in this paper, we want to present our experiences with conducting an ethnographic action research at the european social forum, which is a european network of heterogeneous social activists participating in the anti-globalization movement. we will discuss the problems that we faced in our fieldwork to help other researchers comprehend these difficulties in advance as they are planning fieldwork in such settings. introduction voluntary organizations are an important part of every society along with the government and business organizations, particularly forthe role they play in the betterment of society. their tasks range from advocacy on behalf of citizens, providing support in the field (e.g. setting up clinics or schools), participation in rescue/rehabilitation activities in case of natural calamities and so forth. as a result, the scope, size, nature and application areas of these voluntary organizations are quite diverse and could range from small community organizations to large foundations and transnational non-governmental organizations (ngos) with hundreds of volunteers. as the size and operations of these organizations grow, the need for efficient procedures is more profound. modern information technology applications prove to be helpful assets in increasing the work efficiencies; however, this diversity makes technology design processes quite complex. hence, there is need for extensive ethnographic studies to understand work practices before the actual technology design (cf. saeed et al., 2008). there are many factors, which make it usage in this field of application very specific. the operations of these organizations are neither regulated by some pre-defined standard operating procedures, nor do they focus on a business driven decision making. instead, political sensitivity, solidarity and consensus are aspects that are vital to their working methodology. furthermore, their focus of work may change abruptly due to external events such as the political situation or a natural disaster. this implies that during system design one has to be more vigilant, as one cannot transfer one scenario to another similar instance. the practices are not standard, as external factors can influence them, and actors may behave differently in similar scenarios. furthermore, in transnational networks, the diverse backgrounds of the actors, in the different languages and working habits or even the culture itself add further complexity to the technology appropriation. other challenging factors are the scarcity of funding and of human resources for the establishment and maintenance of it infrastructures. it support in voluntary organizations has become a growing area for research not only due to the above-mentioned challenges but also due to the social importance of these organizations in our society. our focus has been to understand their work practices and to improve their work processes by designing appropriate technology. in this context, the ethnographic action research approach could be quite helpful in identifying work practices. ethnographic action research is an approach combining both action and ethnography research used in ict projects. it mainly focuses on four steps: plan, do, observe and reflect (cf. tacchi et al., 2003). in this contribution, we will reflect on the issues we encountered while carrying out a field study at the european social forum. the rest of the paper is structured as follows: section 2 describes the related work and section 3 highlights field settings in detail whereas section 4 highlights the research approach followed in our project. section 5 discusses the implications for conducting field research in esf settings and the next section briefly discusses the overall project results, followed by a conclusion. action research in voluntary organizations: the related work regarding the technology involvement in voluntary organizations can be classified into three categories. one set of researchers carry out empirical/design work within a single organizational boundary to help in improving internal processes (cf. mcphail et al., 1998; o’donnell, 2001; pini et al., 2004; cheta, 2004; farooq et al., 2005; farooq et al., 2006). the second set of researchers analyze multiple organizations to provide a macro level perspective, but looking primarily at the internal organizational aspects (cf. pilemalm,2002; kavada, 2005; o’donnell et al., 2007; voida et al., 2011). the third set of researchers focused on the inter-organizational issues of voluntary organizations. in this context, mclver highlighted the technical requirements for a software application that supports multilingual, collaborative legislative work among transnational ngos (cf. mclver, 2004; mclver, 2004a). rohde (2004) applied a participatory design approach to electronically networked iranian ngos by tailoring a web-based cooperation platform. stoll et al. have looked at the coordination practices of nonprofit networks and found that this coordination and awareness process is quite complex and that informal interactions also play an important part in the coordination process (c.f. stoll et al., 2010; stoll et al., 2010a). kavada (2009) has analyzed the role of mailing lists in the preparation process of the esf 2004 to understand the parameters affecting the collective identity in the usage of mailing lists. fuster morell (2009) analyzed the governance of online creation communities to understand the relationship between platform providers and a user community with a case study of the esf collaborative tool “openesf”. despite the above-mentioned scientific work concerning it usage in voluntary organizations, there is no study that highlights fieldwork difficulties in such complex transnational settings. in this paper, we will reflect on our experiences of conducting ethnographic action research in this environment. field settings in order to gather empirical findings, we focused on the european social forum (esf), which is a regional network of the global world social forum, attracting european trade unionists, workers and social activists participating in the anti-globalization movement. the organizations participating in the esf are quite heterogeneous with different political ideologies, application areas and motives, but they come together for joint actions. initially, the esf was an annual meeting but later it turned into a bi-annual event. since its inception in florence (2002), it has moved to paris (2003), london (2004), athens (2006), malmo (2008) and recently to istanbul (2010). there are two important organizational entities responsible for organizing tasks--the european preparatory assembly (epa) and the organizing committee. the european preparatory assembly is an open meeting place scheduled normally 3-4 times a year in a european city. anybody can attend these meetings and raise his/her voice on issues related to the esf. it is also the decision-making body for political issues concerning the esf. on the other hand, the organizing committee is responsible for providing logistics support for the main esf event. representatives of the organizing committee usually report their progress at epa meetings to other european activists. the rotating organizing responsibility for hosting the esf means that each time a new set of actors takes on the organizing responsibility; often attracting new activists from the esf movement. organizing the esf is a complex task and typical responsibilities of the organizing committee include: arranging the funding for the event, providing a means for proposing activities by organizations, arranging rooms, supplying interpreters and interpretation equipment, scheduling the activities to available locations and preparing a program, mobilizing activists to attend the esf, collecting the registration fee from activists, and arranging food and solidarity accommodation for volunteers and other interested activists during the forum. this highlights the complexity of the organizational settings where geographical and cultural diversity coupled with the differences in working habits and the heterogeneous scope, size and the application areas of the involved civil society actors further complicates the work. our intention for selecting this as a field setting for our research was to highlight the implications for technology design in such complex social settings. figure 1(a): demonstration at esf 2010 in istanbul figure 1(b): epa meeting in paris october 2010 “ict4cso” objectives and methodology we initiated a project called “ict4cso” in october 2007. the objective of the project was to analyze the impact of ict applications on the work practices of social activists and to identify design guidelines for future systems. we were particularly interested to investigate the organization, coordination, knowledge sharing and communication practices of activists, involved in transnational cooperation. the objective of our work was to enrich the body of knowledge on technology use in social settings. furthermore, identified design guidelines could serve as a baseline for technology appropriation in this socially important sector. in this project, we decided to follow an approach based on the ethnographic action research, so our first task was to understand the organizational dynamics, determine important stakeholders and obtaining their trust in order to make them share their knowledge. the research cycle which we followed is outlined in figure 2 (future steps are in grey). objective to identify the impact of ict applications on the work practices of social activists engaged in multicultural co-operations at esf; and to find better design ideas for future prototypes to better support esf activists in their work. research design ethnographic action research 31 semi structured interviews 8 field visits (26 days) grounded theory as analysis tool major research questions  how communication is carried out in complex networks of heterogeneous social activist networks? how the complex task of organizing the esf is coordinated? how knowledge transfers take place between different organizing committees? does modern ict have a special role in this knowledge transfer process? how do social activists use technology for their communication and collaboration needs in a multicultural environment? what kind of problems do they face? how is technology developed, appropriated and transferred among esf activists? table 1: overview of ict4cso project we gathered empirical data from january 2008 to october 2010. in order to collect empirical data we used a triangulation of methods: observation, semi-structured interviews and content analysis of esf artifacts (websites, mailing lists, and internal documents.). in order to have sufficient empirical data, we decided to gather data from two esf cases. the first case happened in september 2008; we gathered empirical data, analyzed it and came up with some design guidelines. we also discussed these design guidelines with activists using paper-based mockups. in order to further evaluate the appropriateness of our design ideas, we performed a second analysis cycle after esf 2010 as shown in figure 2. we again analyzed the new set of data and compared this to the old set of data to understand differences and similarities. figure 2: research methodology cycle we did interviews with 31 different activists who played different roles during the esf activities such as organizer, volunteer, attendee and technology developer. in order to gain a multicultural perspective, the interviewees were selected to include different countries, including greece, italy, france, germany, sweden, turkey, uk, norway, czech, austria and hungry. some interviews were conducted during field visits and some were conducted by telephone. all interviews were recorded and the recorded content covered about 20 hours. the content was later transcribed to avoid information loss. along with the interviews, we had respondents fill out four e-mail questionnaires and we attended three skype text chat meetings, whose logs were also preserved. during our investigation period eight field visits were carried out, which lasted for about 26 days. the field visits were carried out during the esf, epa meetings and network meetings held in berlin (germany), vienna (austria), athens (greece), istanbul (turkey), paris (france), malmo (sweden) and istanbul (turkey). during the field visits, we took notes. in order to conduct an analysis, we relied on a grounded theory approach (strauss and corbin, 1998). we did not establish a hypothesis that we wanted to evaluate at the start of the project, instead we looked for patterns to identify core issues and our assumptions were rooted in empirical data. as a next step, we grouped the core issues and identified design guidelines, which we later compared to the second cycle of investigation after the esf 2010. as a next step, we plan to design prototypes based on our design ideas (wulf et al., 2011). these prototypes will be evaluated in real world settings and will then be be realigned according to their effectiveness. challenges in the field the difficulties associated with an action research approach is well known, as it requires an extensive amount of work and time to understand the organizational structure, influential actors and working methodologies and to develop a trusting relationship. however, these problems are further compounded in the case of voluntary organizations. in the following, we will discuss the implications for fieldwork in the esf. access to the field the first methodological consideration was the question of how to carry out empirical work in such loose and fluid organizational networks. one approach was to focus on some participating organizations and to observe how they work under the umbrella of the esf, or, secondly, to only focus on the meetings of the esf where all participating actors converged toward each other. it was observed that in order to fully understand the dynamics of communication in such organizational settings, a focus on esf meetings was more helpful as one could analyze the responses and the feedback of all other stakeholders. this in turn required an extended time, because currently the esf is held bi-annually. in order to have enough empirical data, it became clear that we had to gather empirical findings of at least two such events. furthermore, the european preparatory meetings were only scheduled every 3-4 months, so this meant further that in order to gain sufficient empirical data, we needed considerable elapsed time. another difficulty was getting access to the physical meetings. the official website of the esf was not regularly updated and the websites of older esf forums were also no longer active. we tried to find e-mail contacts of activists involved in the esf via internet and emailed a number of them. luckily, we received a response from one activist who also volunteered for the website maintenance. she invited us to the next epa meeting and we found the starting point for our involvement. the absence of a central physical office and the limited online presence made accessing this network quite difficult and it took quite some time to find an actual esf community and information on their physical meetings. later on, we found that these networks have a strong personal network structure. every activist has a strong local network where he/she is based and some of them participate on other broader levels such as european or global networks.. therefore, these activists, who participate at more than one level (world/national/regional etc.), are the information hub that communicates and connects these different levels of social movements. once you are able to find a person in this network, even if it is on the local level, you can reach activists even in other geographical locations just through their networking. due to the increased virtual presence of online content, an online ethnography (cf. hine, 2000; wittel, 2000) approach in fieldwork has also gained recognition. this approach may look suitable for loose social networks like the esf, which have periodic physical meetings but no central office. it has been observed that most of the social organizations lack a welldesigned online dimension due to a lack of financial and human resources. furthermore, if they are successful in setting up some tools, continuous maintenance is a complex task and software artifacts may disappear over time. as a result, an exclusive online ethnography only, may not be a suitable approach. balanced information access another important obstacle is the difficulty of accessing information. it is always important to understand historical and contextual information, but the majority of voluntary organizations do not maintain any documentation of their work. they normally lack workforce, which actually means that most of the tasks are carried out by only some “dedicated” individuals and only they know firsthand information, which creates limited transparency. in order to deal with this issue, we first analyzed the roles of activists, whether they participate only once as some kind of visitor, or whether they are regular participants , organizers etc. as a result, interviews were of different length and a different set of questions was used based on the interviewees’ affiliation level and background. this made the possibility to gain feedback from different activists quite complicated, as sometimes the same individual carries out most of the tasks. thus, a multi-perspective view about issues remains absent, since only one individual performs the tasks. due to this uneven information among actors, many times conflicting statements appear in interview contents. this makes the situation very difficult, as it turns out to be difficult to know whom to trust. the best approach would be to enlist multiple views on an issue, and then to see where the perceptions of people converge. this should be given more emphasis. due to rapid changeover of esf organizers and the absence of an organizational knowledge base, people who remain participants of the process from the beginning onwards, turn into knowledge experts and gain strategic importance. sometimes, these people may not be willing to share information with researchers attempting to document their knowledge. in the absence of documented knowledge, their personal profile becomes strategically important as a knowledge source. on the other hand, some activists may refuse to reproduce old information as they become passive and so they may not want to talk about past events. another important obstacle while conducting the interviews was the availability of activists. during the epa meetings, it was difficult to engage activists in interviews as epa meetings also provide them with the chance to (re)establish their own contacts. as a result, we established contacts with potential interviewees and discussed briefly about our work, and only later, we conducted telephonic interviews. also social activists are politically sensitive; therefore, social activists need to be sure about your identity before they share any knowledge, as they may fear encountering an agent of some sort. the establishment of trust requires a regular exchange in the form of meetings, but since the epa meetings are scheduled every 3-4 months, it takes a long time to establish trust with political actors. since the actors joining the esf do not belong to a single but rather to different organizations that have their own motivations, the establishment of trust becomes an even more complex task. furthermore, the organizing committee changes for every esf, so one has to establish trust again with each new group of actors. however, this can be achieved by participating in the group's activities, such as offering minute writings support during their meetings or the maintenance of websites etc. it was also observed that some activists do not want to talk about it issues (despite using e-mail regularly) as they think that they do not have enough knowledge about it. if you ask them to give feedback on ict usage, they always prefer to refer to other people in the network that are more well-informed technologically. another important reason for not indulging in information exchange is that there are many researchers focusing on these activist organizations. being an important platform, the esf is approached by researchers from social science, political science, organization science, information science etc., but when people from different schools of thought contact them to ask for the same tasks, they become bored quickly. a swedish activist commented on it in the following words: “in general, i must say that people here are extremely negative to researchers because there are so many of them. i asked them about you, another german researcher, and they were saying oh no.”[interview with swedish activist 08/08/2008] adhoc practices another important aspect while working with social organizations is that they do not operate under standard operating procedures, which means that they may behave differently towards the same problem at two different points of time, so planning in advance becomes difficult. as a result, predefined technological solutions may not work, and you always have to think of contingency plans during technology design (cf. hirsch, 2009). describing this, one activist commented in the following words: “you have to be also aware of the limits of the organizational capacities, so it’s very difficult to be very well-organized in the process, you have people that have little time in terms of getting the result within the time table of the forum, because they don’t work full time for the forum but they work for other organizations. they are just participating voluntarily mainly, apart from a little group that is normally in the esf hosting country and so you have also to take into account this problem” [interview with italian activist 19/02/2010] furthermore, the decision-making is not supported by a business rationale; instead, it is carried out by agreement of the actors involved. the implication of this aspect for field research is that technical requirements may change due to changes in the working process. we also experienced a similar problem when after the first stage of our analysis (after esf 2008) we found that many activists were not happy with the process of reducing the number of activity proposals which made it into the final program. some activists doubted that big organizations were able to keep their activity intact and smaller organizations were supposed to combine their activities with other organizations to reduce the program’s contents. as a result, we proposed to design a software prototype on the top of the esf website, which could graphically show how the merging process took place, thus making it more transparent. however, during the esf 2010 it was observed that due to a couple of reasons this kind of prototype was not needed anymore. the primary reason was the low number of proposed activities as compared to available logistics and many organizations learned that in order to attract a bigger audience it is better to merge your proposal with other organizations, especially local organizations. as a result, the merging process was not very controversial in the esf 2010 and most activities remained intact, unless someone wanted to merge his/her activity with others. similarly, political events can change the priorities at any moment, and they may even affect their working process. hence, for gathering continuous information it is better to continuously interview activists to acquire updates about their activities. multicultural issues there were also some common problems, which are associated with every multicultural field setting. some of the activists were unable to understand english. we employed different approaches but the activists who were neither able to speak nor read english were eliminated. some activists needed the set of questions beforehand to understand them, whereas some activists only sent back the filled-in questionnaires and declined to be interviewed. an activist highlighted this weakness in the following words: “most of the people that participate in the esf in a broad sense do not necessarily have sophisticated foreign language skills, so they don’t have the capacity to maintain a connection internationally.” [interview with italian activist 19/02/2010] skepticism about technology some activists were quite skeptical about technology and were of the opinion that instead of being supportive, technology hampers their activities. they think that to rely on technology is not suitable for political work, e.g. it takes less political motivation to join a political mailing list while sitting at home instead of joining a protest. as a result internet culture has weakened the real political actions. furthermore, some activists think that due to the diverse backgrounds of those participants organizing the esf, an it artifact may not attract all the participating actors. the swedish activist further commented on this phenomenon in the following words: “i am a bit skeptical because with these organizations in noc (esf 2008 organizing committee) we have nothing in common. there is no basis for the internet tools. among them there are maybe a dozen who are really actively interested in the european social forum.” [interview with swedish activist 08/08/2008] an important reason for such skepticism is the failure of it applications to deliver in these settings. normally, it introduction in social settings is a volunteer work, having no accountability. as a result, volunteers introduced tools that they liked irrespective of whether they were appropriate or not. furthermore, most of these applications happened to be immature thus lacking the required functionality. as a result, instead of helping, this made people lose their interest in using technology. one italian activist described this in the following words: “to adopt one technology or two to put more force and energy in building a web [site] or not also depends on the personal passions. it was some people that were really into this and they pushed forward and it happened, so it is not a real decision that we want to do that. there is someone who is available to do something, it is ok.” [interview with italian activist 24/02/2008] similar comments were made by another activist who was involved with the it activities for the esf. “i think these tools could play a huge role in the events but the people who are coordinating the work of the epas just don’t care, they are not from this culture, generation, they do not really use the internet.” [interview with french activist 16/11/2009] “ict4cso” results in this section, we will briefly describe the results of our project. our investigation showed that some activists are skeptical about technology use in social forums, but still it does help during the organizing process. the collection of activity proposals, the merging of the activity proposals and the publication of the forum program would become difficult without technological support. there is a major obstacle that these organizations lack funding and human resources to establish appropriate technology systems. since the inception of the esf, there have been many initiatives to employ technology support in organizational settings and as a result many different applications have emerged, which later disappeared. therefore, there is a need for adopting a strategic point of view in this regard. further details can be accessed in our contribution in saeed et al., 2009. in our user-centered evaluation, we found that there are some design deficiencies that hamper activists in using the available web 2.0 platforms. as in the esf process, some activists participated on behalf of their organizations and some activists in their individual capacity, but on the esf web platform there is no possibility of distinguishing whether the content is produced by an individual or by an organization. this (whether the content is the result of an individualistic point of view or the view of an organization) could discourage people from participating in the discussions.. similarly, the web application only allows english language conversations but not all activists were fluent in english, which also hindered communication. in addition, the structure of the website was difficult to explore and finding content related to specific interests was difficult. furthermore, the user interface elements need to be re-structured. we proposed improving the user interface, designing for multi-lingual collaborations and supporting recommendations and enhanced searching features that help to distinguish between personal and organizational profiles. further details can be accessed in our paper saeed and rohde, 2010. it was also observed that organizing the knowledge about previous esfs is quite helpful for the new organizing committee. nevertheless, the conventional knowledge transfer procedures do not work in this scenario because of a huge asymmetry between knowledge holders and knowledge seekers, once the organization of the esf is over. we termed this specialized knowledge as nomadic knowledge. the implications of nomadic knowledge transfer have been discussed in our contribution saeed et al., 2010. the esf mailing lists are the main communication tool. activists use this for information sharing, planning joint actions, information about other parallel social forums, content sharing, for collaborative working and discussing organizational issues. we proposed some design improvements to the mailing list for it to better serve the needs of esf activists. further details can be found in our contribution saeed et al., 2011. furthermore, we also looked at how technology infrastructure has evolved over a certain period of time. it was observed that technology design in esf did not focus on an assessment of actual needs, instead the availability of financial and human resources were the major deciding factors. due to the changing nature of the event organizers, even the organizing committee does not know the requirements of a system and when they become aware after the event, they have no further interest in documenting this for new organizing committees. as a result, the requirements are gathered by using a hit and trial method which affects the maturity of it applications. the change of it infrastructure at each esf event results in the loss of important information and also the constant change of the system demands the users to become acquainted with the new graphical user interface which lowers their motivation to use the system further (unpublished). conclusion ict research in voluntary organizations is an important area not only due to scientific challenges but also because of the social responsibility of researchers. universities and community organizations need to work jointly on action research projects to empower this sector in improving organizational processes. in this paper, we discussed our experiences of a project we carried out at the european social forum, where our focus was not only on scientific research but also on benefiting the esf community from our research results. we briefly discussed the findings of our project that highlight that technology could be an important enabler for this community, but there is need for synchronizing the technology design with their work practices. as most of these organizations rely on a volunteer work force for their functioning, their shortage of time and high turnover may not allow for the development of a structured organizational memory and most of the organizational knowledge resides in some individual brains. the participation in these networks is mostly based on personal interests and if these “knowledgeable” individuals leave the organizational process, they also take away core organizational knowledge. 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(2011). engaging with practices: design case studies as a research framework in cscw. proc. of the 2011 international conference on computer supported cooperative work, hangzhou, china, marc <div id="article"> <h2 id="article_title"> how does internet usage influence the social capital, connectedness, success, and well-being of grassroots-level inventors in sri lanka? </h2> <div id="article_author"> chaminda nalaka wickramasinghe, nobaya ahmad </div> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 1. introduction </h3> <p> the internet has changed the nature and transference of information and communication. now called the world's largest knowledge depository and most efficient communication channel, the internet can increase technology transfer to developing countries, leading to their success in technological and economical development (undp, 2001). apart from the technological and economic influences of information and communication technologies (ict), an argument is emerging regarding their influence on social and psychological aspects of life. icts, led by the internet, will bring significant technical, economic, and social changes to different types of communities in different parts of the world (thakur, 2009). not all of these changes will be positive. according to the recent studies, internet usage has influenced knowledge development, social thinking, and subjective well-being (kraut et al 2002; contarello & sarrica, 2007; weiser, 2004). the internet has redefined the way social relationships are progressing (kraut et al 2002). a recently concluded world values survey found a positive relationship between internet usage and happiness (kelly, 2010). the many influences of internet usage, in other words, will go beyond objective definitions of success in life, and may also influence social and psychological aspects of individual and community life (pigg & crank, 2004). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 2. context of the study </h3> <p> a research report by the national endowment for science, technology and the arts (nesta) on the new realities of innovation indicates that the internet is rapidly creating product users as grassroots-level inventors (nesta, 2008). in addition, the internet has been identified as a critical success factor for modern innovative businesses (sparks & thomas, 2001). further, internet usage is considered one of the major contributors to improvements in r&d activities and innovation (kafouros, 2006). as the number of inventions has grown with the expansion of the internet, there is also evidence that internet usage has influenced inventors (wipo, 2007). a survey of the state of georgia's independent inventors also indicated that the internet is among the top three resources of commercially successful inventors (georgia tech enterprise innovation institute, 2008). according to the previous literature, independent inventors are the major source of technological innovations in most developing countries (gupta, et al., 2003). the majority of the patent applications in developing countries have been put forward by ordinary individuals of those countries (weick & eakin, 2005). however, owing to the drastic growth of the organizational and cooperate innovations, attention given to the individual, independent, or garage inventors has been very modest. hence, there has been no formal definition to recognize independent-level inventors (wettansinha, wongtschowski & waters-bayers, 2008). </p> <p> in eastern literature, the lowest layers of a system are often called the grassroots level. owing to the drastic growth of cooperatives, and institutional and university inventors, ordinary people engaged in inventive activities have become the lowest layer of the innovation system. hence, the present study defines grassroots-level inventors as local individuals of a country, involved in patentable inventive activities and trying to obtain patents for themselves, for their own reasons and own rewards, outside the formal organizational structures of firms, universities and research labs (wickramasinghe c. n., ahmad, rashid & emby, 2010). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 3. research problem and aim of the study </h3> <p> owing to the independent nature of the grassroots-level inventive activities, they do not receive the resources, knowledge, and social attention required by employed inventors in multinational companies or research institutions. hence, the objective and subjective achievements and social connectedness of grassroots-level inventors heavily depend on the information, knowledge, and resources they gain from available sources. the internet has proven its ability to provide most of the resources, or at least easier ways to access the required resources for poor and underprivileged communities of the society (sarrica, 2010). hence, the internet has been a significant driving force in the continuation of the grassroots-level inventive community in modern knowledge society. even though the influences of internet usage on objective achievements have studied extensively, the influence of internet usage on social and subjective achievements of the communities has not been studied to such an extent. comprehensive efforts to explain the empirical evidence of the objective, subjective, and social impact of internet usage on grassroots-level inventive communities in lower and middle income countries are especially rare. </p> <p> sri lanka is a multi-ethnic, lower middle-income island nation in south asia with a population of 20 million in 2009. relative to other south asian countries, sri lanka has a comparatively high income level and human development index, but the country has fallen behind the technological development compared to countries in neighboring south-east asia (wickramasinghe & ahmad, 2009). in sri lanka, 85% of the annual patent applications are forwarded by grassroots-level independent inventors. this percentage has grown throughout the last decade. (wickramasinghe c. n., ahmad, rashid & emby, 2010). however, most of the objective success measures for grassroots-level inventors, such as the number of patents, patent citations, commercialized inventions, and profits, have not been very promising (wickramasinghe c. n., ahmad, rashid, & emby, 2011). these inverse objective outcomes have raised questions about why these grassroots-level inventors continue to engage in inventive activities, and how internet usage has influenced their inventive lives. therefore, this paper aims to explore the influence of internet usage on the social capital, community connectedness, and objective and subjective well-being of grassroots-level inventors in sri lanka. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 4. theoretical model </h3> <p> recent literature on internet usage has focused on the influence of internet usage on the social capital, community participation, and empowerment of different social segments of the society (haythornthwaite & kendall, 2010; robinson & martin, 2010; p&eacute;nard & poussing, 2010). a number of studies explain the influence of internet usage through social networking and the subjective well-being of social groups (bruke, marlow & lento, 2010; sum, mathews, pourghasem & hughes, 2009). however, none of the studies attempts to explore how internet usage might influence the social capital, connectedness, and objective and subjective success of grassroots-level inventors. based on the theoretical and empirical evidence of the previous literature, the researchers developed a correlational research model to explore how internet usage influences the social capital, community connectedness, objective success, and ultimately the subjective well-being of grassroots-level inventors in sri lanka (figure 1). </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/2757/version/2003/3540/12840/figure1.png" class="article_image" width= "580" height="276" alt="figure1"> <div class="image_caption"> figure 1: hypothesized theoretical model of the study </div> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 5. method </h3> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 5.1. conceptualization and operationalization </h3> <p> <strong>5.1.1. internet usage</strong> </p> <p> even though the internet can be used for various general and casual purposes, in the present study internet usage is operationally defined as the grassroots-level inventors' use of the internet for knowledge and information collection, sharing, and communication. rodgers and sheldon (2002) developed the web motivation inventory (wmi) scale centered on four factors: researching, communicating, surfing, shopping. they used a 5-point likert scale including three items for each factor (rodgers, jin, rettie, alpert, & yoon, 2005). in the present study, researchers measured the grassroots-level inventors' usage of the internet only for their information, knowledge, and communication needs. therefore, items that measure the shopping motive were considered irrelevant. researchers modified the wmi scale items to develop a shorter scale, while keeping the five likert points: 1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral, 4= agree, and 5= strongly agree (& alpha; = .868). </p> <p> <strong>5.1.2. social capital</strong> </p> <p> phillips and pittman (2009) defined social capital or capacity as the extent to which members of a community can work together effectively to develop and sustain strong relationships to solve problems, make group decisions, and collaborate effectively to plan, set goals, and get things done (phillips & pittman, 2009). social capital improves subjective well-being by giving opportunities for the community members to share knowledge, resources, and feelings (winkelmann r., 2009). hence, social capital is one of the primary features of socially organized communities, allowing citizens to resolve collective problems (wiesinger, 2007). as grassroots-level inventors are involved in inventive activities as individuals, measuring their individual social capital is considered meaningful. therefore, the present study approached social capital from the individual perspective to identify how grassroots-level inventors received required resources from their social relationships. past studies confirmed that individual-level relationships with family, friends, neighbors, and other social organizations positively contributed to subjective well-being (helliwell & putnam, 2004; hooghe & vanhoutte, 2009). the present study measured individual social capital using gaag's (2005) 17-item resource generator scale, integrated with the response structure of granovetter's (1973) strong, weak, and absent social ties. in present study, 17 items of gaag's individual social capital resource generator scale were translated to sinhala language by changing only the currency of item number 4 to sri lankan rupees. the researchers also modified the response options of the resources generator scale as follows: 1=no, 2=official level, 3=friend's friend, 4=friend, 5=relative, and 6=family member. higher summated scores represent strong social capital, and lower summated scores represent weak social capital (& alpha;=.737). </p> <p> <strong>5.1.3. community connectedness (sense of community)</strong> </p> <p> community connectedness, or sense of community, is a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members' needs will be met through their commitment to be together (mcmillan & chavis, 1986). past studies have found social connectedness and sense of community positively correlate with subjective well-being (helliwell j. f., 2003; helliwell & putnam, 2004; winkelmann r., 2009; helliwell j. f., 2007). on the other hand, lack of social contacts strongly negatively correlates with subjective well-being (dolan, peasgood, & white, 2008). davidson and cotter (1991) found that a strong sense of community positively correlated with the happiness of the people (davidson & cotter, 1991). instruments exist to measure the sense of community (community connectedness), but they are very long (doolittle & macdonald, 1978; davidson & cotter, 1986). however, frost and meyer (2009) measure the community connectedness of the lesbian, gay and bisexual (lgb) community using a relatively shorter scale. because the lgb community is a community of interest rather than a neighborhood community, this scale was adapted to measure the connectedness of the grassroots-level inventive community. frost and meyer's community connectedness consists of 8 items adapted from a 7-item community cohesion scale used in the urban men's health study (umhs). they added one item, "you feel a bond with other [men who are gay or bisexual," taken from herek and glunt's (1995) community-consciousness scale. their study has shown high validity and cronbach alpha internal consistent value (frost & meyer, 2009). in the present study frost and meyer's community-connectedness scale was modified by replacing the specific words related to lgb community with words related to the grassroots-level inventive community. even though the original frost and meyer's scale has only 4 likert like responses (1=strongly disagree to 4=strongly agree), the present study used more options to describe the nature of connectedness of grassroots-level inventors. it suggested a 7-point likert like scale (& alpha;= .822). </p> <p> <strong>5.1.4. objective success</strong> </p> <p> according to the theoretical argument of the present study, all material and objective outcomes mediate the people's subjective well-being. hence, the tangible and explicit outcomes of the innovation process are not the ultimate success that inventors could achieve. objective success was defined as a mediator variable of the subjective well-being. the present study adopted the hauschildt's innovation process approach to evaluate the objective success of the inventors (hauschildt, 1991). hauschildt explained the importance of measuring the success of innovation at different stages of innovation process. according to him, not every invention goes through all different stages of the innovation process. therefore, measuring the success of inventors only by patent or commercialization measurements is not showing the reality of success. adhering to hauschildt's framework, the present study adapted five different objective measurements to measure inventors' success at each stage of the innovation process: 1) idea generation stage-receiving a patent, 2) competitive evaluation stage-winning an award, 3) market entrance stage-commercialization, 4) market survival stage-surviving in the market, and 5) income earning stage-earning a profit. the researchers initially developed the objective success measurement and asked for advice and comment from a selected panel of experts. when the researchers consulted the work of weick, she advised the use of a limited number of items with dichotomous responses because that is straightforward to measure and avoids complex comparisons (weick c., personal communication, 12th august 2008). weick and eakin (2005) also measured the commercial success of inventors using a multi-item dichotomous (0, 1) scale. therefore, objective success is calculated as the summation of five items measured using a dichotomous scale (0, 1); the patent grants, award and rewards, commercial startup, commercial continuation, and profitable inventions. in the questionnaire researchers asked respondents to state how many patent they received, how many awards and rewards they won, how many inventions started to commercialize, how many were still commercialized, and how many of the inventions earned profits. respondents who reported values higher than one were considered as one, and others considered as zero. by calculating the summation of dichotomous responses, researchers generated the continuous objective success variable ranging from zero to five. that is higher than the four scale values, the minimum recommended range of scales in structural equation and path modeling (hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2009). </p> <p> <strong>5.1.5. subjective well-being</strong> </p> <p> according to the literature, definitions of subjective well-being consist of emotional aspects, which are mostly measured by happiness, and cognitive aspects, which are mostly measured by satisfaction with life. subjective happiness scale (shs) and satisfaction with life scale (swls) are the most administered scales to measure subjective well-being (snyder & lopez, 2007; diener e., 2009). the satisfaction with life scale has been tested for its reliability and validity by the authors, and the test has shown a high level of consistency, validity, and reliability to measure the life satisfaction of different type of domains (diener, emmons, larsen, & graiffin, 1985; pavot & diener, 1993). the subjective happiness scale is a validated instrument that has been widely used, notably in 14 different studies with 2,732 participants (university of pennsylvania, 2007). results have signified that the subjective happiness scale has high internal consistency, and is stable across different types of samples. in order to measure both emotional and cognitive aspects of subjective well-being, integrating the subjective happiness scale and satisfaction with life scale has been practiced by the pichler (2006), rogatko (2010), and (lyubomirsky s., 2008) and therefore, lyubomirsky recommended the researchers to use the integrated scale in the present study (lyubomirsky s., personal communication, 21st february 2010). therefore, in the present study, subjective well-being was measured using a summation of original subjective happiness scale 4 items (lyubomirsky & lepper, 1997) and satisfaction with life scale 5 items (diener, emmons, larsen, & graiffin, 1985). both the scales have seven point likert like responses from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7) (& alpha;= .776). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 5.2. population and sample </h3> <p> even though not all inventors apply for patents, patent databases are recognized as the only available central depositories of the innovation skills of a nation (jaffe, trajtenberg, & romer, 2002; koch, 1991). hence, the researchers searched the sri lanka national intellectual property office (slnipo) patent database for grassroots-level inventors who applied for patents during the years 2000-2009. researchers identified 640 independent inventors as the target population of the study. then the researchers selected 200 inventors using the stratified random sampling technique based on their living districts. this sample represented 31 percent of the target population. researchers were planning to evaluate conceptual models using model fit indexes of the structural equation modeling. according to the literature 200 is the minimum sample size when the model has more parameters to estimate (kline, 2010). hence, the selected sample size was able to generate results with an acceptable level of power. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 5.3. participants </h3> <p> table 1 depicts the demographic profile of the respondents in the sample. the majority of respondents are middle-aged males. two-thirds of the respondents are married, and 60 percent of the respondents had completed either a vocational or university level education. the majority of the respondents are self-employed, with freedom of choice about what they are doing. two-thirds of the respondents live in rural areas of sri lanka; according to the existing rural-urban classification in sri lanka, 80 percent of the population is rural. </p> <div class="image_caption"> table 1: demographic profile of the respondents </div><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/2757/version/2003/3540/12842/table1.png" class="article_image" width= "562" height="264" alt="table1"> <p> demographic factors of the respondents in the sample, such as age, gender, marital status, education, and employment status are similar to studies on independent inventors in developed countries. the majority of those studies found that the common independent inventor is a middle-aged married male with a high level of education and is involved in self-employed economic activities (sirilli, 1987; amesse & desranleau, 1991; weick & eakin, 2005; georgia tech enterprise innovation institute, 2008). however, previous studies have identified that a majority of independent inventors are living in metropolitan rather than rural areas. at present the urban and rural classification in sri lanka has been done based on the size of the lowest political administrative divisions of the country. in most developed countries the classification is based on the density of the population (united nations, 2007). apart from the differences owing to these classifications, in general sri lankan grassroots-level inventors show a demographic profile similar to independent inventors in developed countries. hence, the sample of the present study is a representative cross-section of the universal independent inventors' community. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 5.4. procedure </h3> <p> the required data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire known as the sri lanka independent inventors survey (slis 2010), which was carried out by the researchers from the months of february to august 2010. researchers invited the randomly selected respondents to participate in data collection panels organized at centers located in four metropolitan districts in sri lanka. after explaining the aims and objectives, researchers explained the structure of the questionnaire and specific instructions to answer it properly. after clarifications, respondents were asked to answer the questionnaire and by quickly scanning for missing values, researchers ensured that respondents answered all the questions in the questionnaire. after collecting the data, researchers entered the data into the spss software package and conducted the exploratory data analysis (eda). during the eda, researchers tested the assumptions of outliers, normality, linearity, and multicolinearity. owing to the fact that researchers were planning to adapt the path analysis statistical method for model development and comparison, researchers tested the multivariate normality and multivariate outlier of the variables in the model using critical values of the mardia kurtosis. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 6. results </h3> <p> table 2 presents the correlation between the variables in the present study. further, it depicts the maximum expected ranges, means, and standard deviations of the variables. </p> <div class="image_caption"> table 2: pearson product movement correlation coefficients of variables in the model </div><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/2757/version/2003/3540/12843/table2.png" class="article_image" width= "580" height="198" alt="table2"> <p> according to table 2, the respondent grassroots-level inventors have a high moderate level of subjective well-being (m=41.1, sd=7.051). then again, they have achieved only moderate-level objective success (m=2.52, sd=1.490). even though the respondents have shown a high level of community connectedness (m=43.275, sd=6.265), they have achieved only moderate-level social capital (m=54.200, sd=9.405). respondent inventors are also moderate-level internet users (m=12.845, sd=4.393). </p> <p> according the pearson product movement correlation coefficients (r), all the exogenous variables of subjective well-being show moderate level correlation at .01 level. however, the relationships between objective success and internet usage (r=.161, p&lt;.05), and objective success and social capital (r=.192, p&lt;.01), show only low level correlation. further, the relationship between objective success and community connectedness (r=.129, p&gt;.05) is not statistically significant at .05 level. hence, the results indicate that inventors' community connectedness has no influence on their objective achievements of their inventive activities. according to the correlation analysis, there was no threat of multicolinearity between exogenous variables of the hypothetical model. hence, the researchers continued data analysis with path analysis using spss amos software version 19. after two iterations of modifications by removing insignificant paths of the model, the researchers were able to develop the optimal model of the study (figure 2). </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/2757/version/2003/3540/12841/figure2.png" class="article_image" width= "580" height="369" alt="figure2"> <div class="image_caption"> figure 2: modified final model of the study </div> <p> all the indices presented in figure 2 satisfy the generally accepted cut-off levels recommended by kline (2010). hence, the modified model presented in figure 2 can be considered the statistically significant final model of the present study. all the exogenous and mediator variables of the model were able to explain 32% of the variance of the ultimate dependent variable, subjective well-being (r<sup>2</sup>=.320). hence, internet usage, social capital, community connectedness, and objective success are able to explain 32% of the variance of the happiness and satisfaction of grassroots level inventors in sri lanka. </p> <p> according to figure 2, internet usage has a significant positive direct influence on the social capital (& beta;=.303, p=.000), community connectedness (& beta;=.161, p=.021), and subjective well-being (& beta;=.207, p=.000) of grassroots-level inventors in sri lanka. even though the expectations were high for the influence of internet on the technological development of developing countries, results indicate that there is no significant direct influence of internet usage on the objective success of grassroots-level inventors in sri lanka. however, through social capital, internet usage indirectly influences objective success. bias-corrected percentile bootstrapping of 2000 samples indicates that the indirect influence was statistically significant (& beta;=.058, two tailed sig.=.001). hence, internet usage has significant indirect influence on the objective achievements of grassroots-level inventors in sri lanka through influence of social capital. however the strength of the influence is not very strong. </p> <p> unlike with objective success, internet usage has a significant direct influence on the subjective well-being of grassroots-level inventors in sri lanka (& beta;=.207, p=.000). further, through social capital and community connectedness, internet usage has indirect influence on subjective well-being. according to the bootstrapping results, the indirect influence of internet usage on subjective well-being through social capital and community connectedness is statistically significant (& beta;=.122, p=.001). statistical results of the present study indicate that internet usage is a significant predictor of social, community, and subjective well-being of grassroots-level inventors. however, internet usage is not a significant strong predictor of inventive achievements and success of grassroots level inventors in sri lanka. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 7. discussion and conclusion </h3> <p> even though there has been hype about the impact of the internet on the technological achievements of developing countries, findings of the present study do not support that argument. according to the path analysis results, internet usage has not significantly influenced the objective success of grassroots-level inventors in sri lanka. the findings suggest that even though there is moderate-level internet usage among grassroots-level inventors, still there is a significant gap between inventors' internet usage as information and communication medium to gain knowledge. the comments made by the respondents at the discussions also suggested that the majority of them have no internet connections at their homes and they are not aware how to search for patent and innovation information on the internet (wickramasinghe, 2010). the results indicate the impact of the internet on inventive success has been exaggerated in developing countries like sri lanka. therefore, the lack of internet access and a knowledge divide about the usage of digital content in sri lanka might explain the low impact of internet usage on the objective success of grassroots-level inventors. </p> <p> community connectedness also shows no significant influence on objective success. unlike in industrial countries, there is no platform for collaboration among the grassrootslevel inventors in sri lanka. findings related to community connectedness indicate the physically scattered and individualistic nature of the grassroots-level inventor community in sri lanka. even though they are emotionally attached to each other, in a practical sense there was no attachment among inventors to support each other. therefore, emotional attachment was unable to provide fruitful contributions to the inventive activities through knowledge and resource sharing among the members of the community. according to the comments made by the grassroots-level inventors at the panel discussions, there is a desperate need for forming a common platform that would allow the convergence of grassroots-level inventors in sri lanka to build stronger ties. hence, technological policy developers have to consider this as a prioritized need to be satisfied sooner rather than later. </p> <p> social capital has been the only significant influential factor of the objective success of grassroots-level inventors in sri lanka. it suggests that grassroots-level inventors in sri lanka are receiving required resources from their individual social relationships rather than within the inventive community. hence by providing opportunities for inventors to interact with social structures and groups that can contribute to their inventive activities, sri lanka might be able to increase the success of its technological inventions in the future. </p> <p> even though internet usage and community connectedness do not significantly influence objective success, both these variables significantly contribute to the subjective well-being of grassroots-level inventors in sri lanka. findings suggest the significant value of internet usage on developing social capital, community connectedness, and ultimately subjective well-being among the inventive community of sri lanka. although grassroots-level inventors have not achieved a high level of objective success from their inventive activities, whatever they have achieved from their inventions positively influences their general happiness and satisfaction with life. hence, inventive activities have been a significant life domain of grassroots-level inventors of sri lanka, contributing to their subjective well-being. this might be the reason that they are continuing in inventive activities, even as they do not achieve higher objective success. </p> <p> the internet has been identified as a tool that allows technological knowledge transfer from developed to developing countries. hence, most developing countries have given serious attention to developing internet-based information and communication technologies to bridge the digital divide without concerning "for what." however, the present study found that internet usage among grassroots-level inventors in sri lanka is at a moderate level, and that internet usage does not significantly influence the objective success of the inventors. hence, current internet usage might not influence innovation development in sri lanka. therefore, technological knowledge transfer has not happened in sri lanka as expected. however, findings of the study suggest that internet usage has been a significant predictor of happiness and life satisfaction among the inventors. therefore, the internet has been a significant contributor to the subjective quality of life of the inventors. that suggests that inventors use the internet as a social communication medium rather than a technological knowledge source. findings of the study suggest that not only are improvements needed in sri lanka's infrastructure development and internet access, but also that inventors must improve their own technical awareness and language skills before gaining the potential of the internet as a technological knowledge source. </p> <p> the study found that subjective happiness and satisfaction largely depend on inventors' self-evaluation of existing outcomes and expectations for the future. therefore, inventor assessment programs in developing countries should not overemphasize assessing inventors based on pure objective measures such as number of patents, patent citations, awards and rewards, commercialized inventions, or profitability. overemphasis on these factors might create pessimistic thinking and uncertainty among the inventors about their inventive lives, and could create extra burden on the inventors, perhaps even leading some to give up inventive activities or find easier ways to achieve subjective success in life than being an inventor. therefore, independent inventors in developing countries should be considered national assets, and should be evaluated in a more constructive way than with a potentially destructive straightforward "successful" or "unsuccessful" binary type of evaluation. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 8. references </h3> <div class="reference"> amesse, f., &amp; desranleau, c. 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(2008). acculturation, social connectedness, and subjective well-being. cultural diversity and ethnic minority psychology, 14 (3), 246-255. </div> </div> ejikei new concept regarding management of security cameras yusaku fujii1, naoya ohta2, hiroshi ueda3, yoichi sugita4 1department of electronic engineering, faculty of engineering, gunma university <fujii@el.gunma-u.ac.jp> 2department of computer science, faculty of engineering, gunma university <ohta@cs.gunma-u.ac.jp> 3library and information technology centre, gunma university <uep@mc.gunma-u.ac.jp> 4department of electronic engineering, faculty of engineering, gunma university <m07e627@gs.eng.gunma-u.ac.jp> abstract we propose a new concept regarding the management of security cameras in which those who own and manage images (the owner) and those who have the right to view the images (the viewer) are separated by means of the encryption of the images. using this concept, encrypted images are transferred from the owner to the viewer only when both the owner and the viewer consider it necessary, such as in the case of crimes; then the encrypted images are restored for viewing by the viewer. by this method, the images can be viewed only when absolutely necessary. this concept was proposed to prevent the risk of privacy violation, as well as to reduce the unnecessary psychological burden that third parties may be subjected to, with the aim of promoting the placement of security cameras throughout local communities. recently, the use of security cameras has spread throughout the world. along with this trend, concern regarding the violation of privacy has grown. when security cameras are used, the owner, manager and viewer of the images captured by the security cameras are the same person. however, in most cases, the recorded images are not viewed unless a crime occurs. this is because the probability of crimes occurring in most places is low and the labor expense associated with viewing the images is high. however, the psychological burden on the general public related to the recorded images of a security camera system being freely viewed by the owner is huge, and has been an obstacle to the further spread of security camera systems. by managing the security camera system using our concept, it is possible to markedly reduce the negative effects associated with the introduction of security cameras, such as concerns over the violation of privacy, without reducing the positive effects, such as crime prevention at places other than those requiring high-level security and constantly manned surveillance, i.e., most communities; while providing recorded images to investigating authorities in the case of crime,. in a practical example carried out in kiryu city, gunma prefecture, a personal computer (pc)-based security camera system is owned and managed by the owners of retail stores affiliated with the merchant association, and images are encrypted and stored in the system. to view the stored images, special software installed in the pcs at police stations in kiryu city must be used. only when the owner of the retail store and the police determine that it is necessary to view them, are the stored images transferred from the owner of the retail store to the police. then the stored images are viewed by the police and used as information for investigations. the encrypted images that are stored at each retail store are automatically deleted after 30 days if no incidents or accidents have occurred. in order to ensure that the system is in line with our concept, the declaration “we will always accept inspection by the police” is posted at each retail store using the system in the case of the example in kiryu city. we also propose the following to ensure further assurance. the use of security cameras that are embedded with several conditions, such as an access password and an encryption key, in a format that prohibits rewriting and that are sealed such that they can be removed only by breaking. sealing by a public agency. the seal should specify the person who sealed the camera and the viewer of the images. by this method, even passersby can understand merely by observing the appearance of the camera that the images captured by the camera are encrypted and cannot be viewed unless an incident occurs. our concept was originally developed for the purpose of promoting the spread of the e-jikei network, which was proposed by us as a management system for security cameras. in the framework of the e-jikei network, each citizen should observe their surroundings from a sense of responsibility as a citizen of the society; and as a means of realizing this, pcs, free software and pc cameras are being used. it is considered that a local community in which many citizens watch and observe the neighborhood has a high crime-prevention ability. it is noteworthy that since the stability and reliability of each system is not necessarily very high from the viewpoint of crime prevention and the ability to identify the criminal, it is possible to use inexpensive hardware. in addition, the basic concept is that each citizen introduces the system voluntarily; thereby the financial and personnel burden on the public administrative side is limited. furthermore, because the captured images are dispersely owned and managed by individual citizens, the risk of privacy violation is considered to be lower than in the case of a conventional system in which the images captured by many security cameras are owned and managed in an integrated manner by an organization, such as the police. in many areas, including maebashi city, gunma prefecture, our system has already been installed and used successfully. however, the number of people who are concerned about the risk of privacy violation is large. our analysis has revealed that this fact is the most serious obstacle to the proliferation of the e-jikei network[1-3]. we hope that, using our new concept, which is characterized by privacy protection, the e-jikei network and the security camera system will become widespread in local communities across the world and will contribute to the realization of a safer and more comfortable society. acknowledgments this study was supported by the research aid fund of the research foundation for safe society and the grant-in-aid for scientific research (b) 19300239 (kakenhi 19300239). references y. fujii, n. yoshiura and n. ohta, " creating a worldwide community security structure using individually maintained home computers: the e-jikei network project", social science computer review, vol.23, n0.2, pp. 250-258, 2005. y. fujii, n. yoshiura and n. ohta, " community security by widely available information technology", journal of community informatics, vol.2, no.1, 2005. h. ueda, y. fujii, s. kumakura, n. yoshiura and n. ohta, "e-jikei network project/japan : enhancing community security", egov, vol.11, no.12, pp.9-11, 2006. modeling social inclusion systems fabio nauras akhras renato archer center of information technology, brazil. email: fabio.akhras@cti.gov.br introduction social inclusion is a complex multidisciplinary many-faceted problem that is far from having the same kind of formal basis that other scientific disciplines have achieved. nevertheless, the formal languages used by disciplines that address social issues with a rather formal approach, like cognitive science and artificial intelligence, can provide a starting point on which to build a formal basis to support the design and analysis of social inclusion systems. social inclusion systems involve processes of participation, mediation and interaction in which cognition and learning are situated in broader sociocultural contexts and where the notion of learning community becomes central. taking this into consideration in the light of a conjunction of factors related to social, economic, technological, cultural, environmental and human conditions that characterize a social system, we are working on the definition of an ontology and models that can be used to improve precision in the design of social inclusion systems, and support their analysis. exploring theoretical perspectives from social and psychological sciences, we have defined an initial set of formal entities that can provide a foundation for the previously mentioned purposes. these entities constitute a basic ontology, which is based on five categories of concepts: social situation, social activity, social networking, social process and social affordance. while ontological development in sustainability science has emphasized a problem-solution approach (kumazawa et. al., 2009), we believe that issues of social inclusion will be more naturally addressed by a situation-transformation approach, which is the focus of our ontology. the ontology is being developed to drive observations and analyses that we are carrying out in several projects of social inclusion support that we are currently developing. in the paper we present examples taken from one of these projects, which involves rural communities learning an internet language and using it to model their social context and address their opportunities for social inclusion. it includes a careful design of content and activity and consideration of the social context, and so addresses many issues related to the design of social inclusion systems (akhras, 2009; 2011). this project is being developed in a region where rural communities have potential for developing an agriculture that can be used for the production of biodiesel, which is viewed as a way of generating income and promoting social inclusion to these communities. a program of training farmers to cultivate plants that can be used to produce oil is being developed in the region as part of a government plan to increase the production of renewable sources of energy by small farms in order to provide social inclusion. this is the social context of the community in which our program of digital and social inclusion is being applied. the program includes the production and use of audiovisuals on subjects of the social context of the learners as a way of providing visual representations of aspects of this social context to be used in the projects that the students will develop for digital inclusion. the project follows a view of learning that emphasizes the role of the context in learning and points to the importance of learning in authentic situations. therefore, the project situates learning for digital inclusion in the social context of the learners and is based on authentic activities of project development that address issues of these social contexts. the focus is on allowing the children to address their social context in digital inclusion activities. to do so, the children of the community are involved in the development of small projects of learning portals in which the students learn the html language and use that language to create content for learning portals on subjects that are relevant to their community. these projects of learning portals provide the authentic activities that make learning for digital inclusion meaningful for the children. in a workshop developed with students and teachers of isolated rural communities living on the banks of the amazon river they produced the portals shown in fig. 1. the students focused their portals on issues of housing in their village, while the teachers addressed issues of sanitarian infrastructure in the villages. fig. 1. digital inclusion for social inclusion in isolated rural communities living on the banks of the amazon river part of our work on this project involves eliciting the notions that arise, in the light of our ontology and models, so that they can be stated in precise terms. these notions will support the design of social inclusion systems and provide a framework for the development of units of analysis of social inclusion phenomena. the next section presents a discussion of some theoretical perspectives from social and psychological sciences, which can provide an initial set of notions that can constitute the basis for the modeling of social inclusion systems. then, in section three we introduce the ontology that we have developed, and in section four we discuss its application, showing some examples. overall, the aim is to identify and discuss the issues that arise in supporting social inclusion in individual and community contexts, and explore a way to express these issues in precise terms and models to lay the groundwork for the development of a formal approach to address and support social inclusion systems. theoretical perspectives for modeling social inclusion systems a theoretical perspective to support the modeling of social inclusion systems will come from the definition of the units of analysis of social inclusion phenomena. this includes assumptions about the role of the context, the people and the interaction between them in social inclusion systems, and considering issues of time, change and causation, as well as issues of physical and psychological phenomena related to social inclusion. in formalizing social inclusion phenomena, a central issue to be addressed is the relation between people and their environment in social inclusion processes. in this regard, we follow gibson´s theory of perception (gibson, 1979), which treats contexts and psychological processes as aspects of a holistic unit. according to gibson, the organism and environment uniquely differentiate to fit one another forming a distinctive ecological niche, in such a way that the structure and functioning of the organism implies the environment as well as the particulars of the niche imply the structure and functioning of the organism. a fundamental notion of gibson´s theory is the concept of affordances. the affordances of an environment are what it offers to an organism, such as the opportunities for actions or the dangers that exist in an environment for an organism. however, affordances are located neither in the environment nor in the organism. instead, they are intended to capture units of analysis of perceptual activity that refer to both the environment and the organism in a complementary way. therefore, affordances can be interpreted as significances-to-the-organism in the environment, which lead to possibilities for action. an important aspect of affordances is its dynamic character, i.e., affordances that were not present at a certain point may become present after the organism grows, matures, and learns. in general, we can say that after certain interactions between the organism and the environment, affordances that were not present before might become present, as well as some affordances that were present might not be present anymore. in addition, there are positive and negative affordances. while positive affordances may be beneficial to an organism a negative affordance may not (sanders, 1997). in our ontology, the definition of the affordances of a particular social context will provide the means to make precise the opportunities for social inclusion in that particular context, as well as those aspects of the social context that can preclude people from achieving social inclusion. another aspect of the relation between people and their environment that is relevant for modeling social inclusion phenomena is the activity that people develop in their social contexts. in this regard, we follow a view that also addresses the mutuality of organism and environment in development and is based on the notions of assimilation and accommodation (piaget & garcia, 1991; von glasersfeld, 1995). according to this view, knowing and doing cannot be separated, and the activity and context of an experience become an integral part of the meaning of that experience. it follows that it is from the way people act and organize their activities in situations that they construct or revise their knowledge and views of their social context and of the possibilities to promote changes in this context. in activity theory, vygotsky (1978) also addresses the mutual involvement of the individual and the social context in development through the concept of activity, emphasizing holistic units of analysis. according to activity theory, individual thinking is a function of social activity. in terms of our ontology this raises the need to define modeling entities that address the interaction between social contexts, states of social development (and knowledge) and social activity. modeling these interactions will make it possible to capture the dynamics of social inclusion processes as activities occur in social contexts and transform social development states. it will also make it possible to capture how activity in social situations allow people to participate in a community of practice, accessing the views and practices of the other members of the community, and making sense of all kinds of information related to that community. from this view comes the notion of development as apprenticeship, which involves becoming a member of a community of practice as a way of moving from peripheral to full participation in the world (brown, collins & duguid, 1989; lave & wenger, 1991), which is the ultimate goal of a social inclusion process. in our ontology, in order to provide the means to model the dynamics of social inclusion processes, we also need to define modeling entities that address the temporal dimension of the interactions that occur between social contexts, states of social development and knowledge, and social activity. to take this aspect into consideration in our ontology we follow the transactional perspective proposed by altman and rogoff (altman & rogoff, 1987). this approach addresses not only the relations between individuals and their environments, but also the temporal qualities of these relations, considered as inherent aspects of phenomena, and embodying the flow and dynamics of the individual's relations to social and physical settings. therefore, considering the issues discussed above which emphasize the importance of the contextual and temporal aspects of phenomena, and adopt units of analysis that address the interaction between person and environment, we have outlined a theoretical view that emphasizes five aspects as holistically coexisting in any social inclusion process: the social context the social development state the social activity the social networking the social process the affordances for social inclusion the aim is to develop a theory that takes into consideration the current social situation of individuals or communities (the social context and the state of development of the social context the social development state, including the state of knowledge that is relevant for the social inclusion of the community), and provide means to help determine how and which activity (the social activity) and interactions (the social networking) in this situation, and from situation to situation (the social process), may provide opportunities to individuals and communities for social inclusion (the affordances for social inclusion). in order to develop such a theory we have developed an ontology and an initial set of models based on the ontology, which are briefly described next. ontology and models in the development of an ontology and models to provide a formal approach to social inclusion systems some of the research questions to be addressed are: how do particular aspects of an social situation affect how people (individually or in group) can achieve a social inclusion goal? (the role of the social context) what particular social development states allow people (individually or in group) to achieve a social inclusion goal from engaging in particular kinds of activities and interactions? (the role of social development states) what will people do in a given social situation to achieve a social inclusion goal? (the role of the social activity) what kind of interactions people will develop in a given social situation to achieve a social inclusion goal? (the role of the social networking) how do the particular ways in which activities and interactions can evolve over time allow people to achieve a social inclusion goal from engaging in particular kinds of activities and interactions at particular times? (the role of the social process) how do particular kinds of affordances of a social situation allow or preclude people (individually or in group) to achieve a social inclusion goal from engaging in particular kinds of activities and interactions at particular times? (the role of social inclusion affordances) addressing and integrating these issues, we have arrived at an ontological perspective in which the elements of social inclusion systems are conceptualized and organized in terms of five main ontological categories: social situation addressing issues of the social context in which social inclusion is to be promoted, including issues of the social development state and goals (the first and second questions above). social activity addressing issues of the social activities and of the connections between the social context and the social development state through social activity (the third question above). social networking addressing issues of the social interactions and their connections to social activities (the fourth question above). social process addressing issues of the sequence and time-extension of social activities and interactions in a social inclusion process (the fifth question above). social affordance addressing issues of the opportunities for social inclusion afforded by social contexts to people (the sixth question above). therefore, these five ontological categories address the six aspects of social inclusion systems presented before. social situation refers to the social context and the state of development of the social context. social activity represents the activity developed in the social context and its connection to the social development state. social networking represents the social interactions developed in the social context and their connections to social activities. social process represents the way social activities and social interactions are connected in time, and social affordance refers to the potential of social situations to the development of social activities, interactions and processes in ways that provide opportunities for social inclusion. modeling social inclusion systems our approach to the modeling of social inclusion systems is based on the five ontological categories introduced above. the first two of these categories are described in more detail in the following sections, presenting some examples of social situation and social activity which show how the models help to elicit issues of situations and transformations that are relevant to address in the analysis of the social inclusion project that is being carried out in rural communities. social situation in order to address issues of the social context in which social inclusion is to be promoted, we have developed a model to describe social situations. according to this model, social situations are described in terms of their structure and dynamics. the structure of a social situation is defined in terms of social components, which are the units that constitute social situations, relations between social components, properties of social components, potential states of social components and possible transitions of state between them, and images of social components. the structure of a social situation also includes relations of abstraction and aggregation between social components. in addition, in order to describe more complex structures of social situations, we may also define hierarchies of abstraction and aggregation of social situations. some examples taken from the project in rural communities, are: social situation = community of agricultural families social component = ` state of social component = income (low) transition of state of social component = income (low, higher) image = people being trained in agricultural techniques abstraction of social component = income is a kind of benefit aggregation of social component = income is part of production abstraction of social situation = community of agricultural families is a kind of rural community aggregation of social situation = rural school is part of community of agricultural families state of social situation = agriculture of vegetables state of social situation = agriculture of oleaginous plants transition of state of social situation = community of agricultural families (agriculture of vegetables, agriculture of oleaginous plants) the dynamics of a social situation is defined in terms of social actions and the agents that perform social actions in the social situation. the definition of the dynamics of a social situation includes the identification of the elements of the structure of the social situation that are the preconditions and effects of a social action, the causes and consequences of a social action, or the context of a social action. in addition, there can be relations of abstraction and aggregation between social actions. some examples are: social action = plantation of oleaginous plants agent = farmer precondition = proper soil (in the complete model, to reach this condition it will be necessary a series of social actions, including the training of farmers in new agricultural techniques) precondition = proper seeds effect = material for biodiesel cause = need of income consequence = family benefit context = biodiesel production abstraction of social action = plantation of oleaginous plants is a kind of agricultural activity aggregation of social action = plantation of oleaginous plants is part of producing material for biodiesel as social actions occur in social situations they give rise to a sequence of social actions, which is defined in terms of a course of social action. courses of social action may involve actions developed by different agents and in different situations. the elements of the social situation structure and dynamics defined for a given social context constitutes a vocabulary of social situation for that social context. social activity the explicit account of the structure and dynamics of social situations presented above makes it possible to characterize the occurrence of some higher-order aspects of social situations linked to the occurrence of social actions, which can be meaningful in terms of characterizing social inclusion activities. for example, exploring the connections between aspects of structure and dynamics, which have a meaning in terms of social inclusion phenomena, we can describe the changes that are caused in a social situation by social actions. in this regard, three aspects of a social situation that can be combined to provide an account of social activity that can contribute to the interpretation of social inclusion phenomena, are: the structure of the social situation (social components and so on), the nature of the social actions developed (preconditions, effects and so on), and the social development state (described in terms of social components). therefore, components and actions of a social situation are used in the definition of social activities. when social actions occur in a social situation, the combination of the above three aspects may give rise to certain patterns of social activity that can denote, for example, aspects of what has been achieved in terms of changing social development sates through social actions to promote social inclusion. therefore, in order to support this kind of analysis, patterns of social activity are defined in terms of the concepts that constitute our ontology of social situations (structure and dynamics). for example, the action 'plantation of oleaginous plants' per se has no meaning in terms of social inclusion. however, if we consider the structure of the social situation, the nature of the activity, and the state of social development (in which particular kinds of seeds are to be planted to generate material for the production of biodiesel as a way of increasing income), we may be able to identify the occurrence of some patterns of social activity that can be described as follows. an agent of a social situation (the farmer) uses components of the social situation (the seeds and soil available) to generate a new component of the social situation (material for biodiesel) that changes the state of a component of the social situation (increase the farmer´s income) promoting social inclusion. in this example, uses and generate are patterns of social activity, while changes will characterize an issue of the social process. in more formal terms, we can have the following definitions for these patterns: pattern of social activity = uses social component (an agent uses a social component through a social action) agent = farmer social action = plantation of oleaginous plants social component = seeds of oleaginous plants pattern of social activity = generates a social component (an agent generates a social component through a social action) agent = farmer social action = plantation of oleaginous plants social component = material for biodiesel these patterns of social activity are the more basic ones. other more complex patterns may be modeled in similar ways to represent other aspects of social activities that are relevant to consider in the analysis. for example, in order to characterize the social process changes we need to consider the way in which the social activity affects the state of social development, producing a transformation in the social situation, given by a transition in the state of the social situation from the state of "agriculture of vegetables" to the state of "agriculture of oleaginous plants". this can be modeled in terms of the following patterns of social activity, which involve the previously modeled patterns: pattern of social activity = generates transition of state of social situation (a social action generates a transition of state of a social situation) pattern of social activity = generates social component (farmer generates material for biodiesel through the plantation of oleaginous plants): agent = farmer social action = plantation of oleaginous plants social component = material for biodiesel social component = transition of state of social situation = community of agricultural families(agriculture of vegetables, agriculture of oleaginous plants) pattern of social activity = generates transition of state of social component to higher (a social action generates a transition of state of a social component to a higher value) social component = income state of social component = income (x) agent = farmer social action = plantation of oleaginous plants state of social component = income (y) transition of state of social component = income (x, y) relation between social components = greater than(income (y), income (x)) therefore, the purpose of the patterns of social activity is to provide units of analysis of social inclusion phenomena centered on the social actions performed in the social context (as shown in the example, from patterns that provide an explicit account of the use and generation of components of the social situation to patterns that provide an explicit account of the generation of transitions in the state of the social situation). the set of patterns of social activity defined in the context of a given social situation constitutes a vocabulary of social activity for that social situation. social networking the explicit account of the structure and dynamics of social situations also makes it possible to identify the existence of some aspects of social networking that are relevant to characterize issues that affect social inclusion. the aspects of a social situation that can be combined to provide an account of social networking, are: the structure of the social situation (social components and so on), the dynamics of the social situation (social agents and so on), the social development state (described in terms of social components), and the social activity that may be developed in the social situation (patterns of social activity). the combination of these aspects of a social situation may give rise to certain patterns of social networking that can denote, for example, aspects of the connections between elements of a social situation, that can facilitate, or preclude, social inclusion. to support this kind of analysis, patterns of social networking are defined in terms of the concepts that constitute the ontological categories of social situation and social activity. for example, in order that the material for biodiesel generated in the farm can be sold there must be a connection between the farmer's community and the biodiesel producers. this involves a networking between entities of two social situations: the community of agricultural families and the biodiesel production plant, which includes the following elements: social situation = biodiesel production plant social component = material for biodiesel social component = money value of material for biodiesel social component = biodiesel social component = seller of material for biodiesel social action = buy material for biodiesel agent = biodiesel producer precondition = seller of material for biodiesel effect = material for biodiesel aggregation of social action = buy material for biodiesel is part of producing biodiesel therefore, we can say that an agent (the biodiesel producer) of a social situation (biodiesel production plant) perform a social action (buy material for biodiesel) through which it exchanges with an agent (the farmer) of another social situation (the community of agricultural families) a component of its social situation (money value of material for biodiesel) by a component of the other social situation (material for biodiesel). this may characterize a pattern of social networking that can be defined in the following way: pattern of social networking=exchange of a social component (an agent of a social situation exchanges a social component with an agent of another social situation through a social action) agent = biodiesel producer social situation = biodiesel production plant social component = money value of material for biodiesel agent = farmer social situation = community of agricultural families social component = material for biodiesel social action = buy material for biodiesel therefore, patterns of social networking provide units of analysis of social inclusion phenomena that focus on the social networking. the above example address the social networking that allows the exchange of components between two different social situations. making the social networking explicit in that way provide a better account of the kinds of networking that are needed in order that social inclusion can be promoted, and may help to find ways in which the creation of this networking can be stimulated. as before, the set of patterns of social networking defined in the context of a given social situation constitutes a vocabulary of social networking for that situation. social process the definition of patterns of social activity and patterns of social networking will allow the analysis of sequences of social actions with regard to the ways in which these patterns are connected in time to denote particular kinds of social processes. therefore, to provide this higher-level of analysis, addressing the relations that develop over time between aspects of social activity and of social networking, which are meaningful in terms of interpreting social inclusion processes, our ontological account of social processes involves the definition of properties of course of social action. a property of a course of social action is defined from the meaningful ways in which patterns of social activity and of social networking, developed in different times, relate to each other in the course of social action. in the previous example, in which the social action "plantation of oleaginous plants" produced the patterns of social activity uses "seeds of oleaginous plants" and generates "material for biodiesel", these patterns were associated to a social process that produced a change in the state of a social component (increase the farmer´s income). this change in the state of a social component characterizes a social process that can be described in terms of a property of course of social action, as follows: property: change (change of social component in a course of social action) time 1 of the course of social action: social action = plantation of vegetables pattern of activity: generates social component = vegetable production pattern of activity: generates state of social component = farmer´s income:x time 2 of the course of social action: social action = plantation of oleaginous plants pattern of activity: generates social component = material for biodiesel pattern of activity: generates state of social component = farmer´s income:y y greater than x again, this is one of the more basic properties a course of social action can exhibit the change in the state of a social component. other more complex properties can be defined to address several other aspects of social inclusion processes. of the many properties that may be defined, some may be considered more significant than others, depending on the social inclusion theories or the experimental evidence that they address. our purpose is not to argue in favor of any specific set of properties but to provide a framework to make precise the definition and use of these properties to create systems to promote social inclusion. so, for example, if a social inclusion system is to be created following the approach of development as freedom (sen, 1999), then the properties of course of social interaction to be defined should reflect concepts of this approach. so, for example, the changes that will promote social inclusion should be defined in terms of social opportunities, market arrangements or development of individual capabilities, which is the way they are addressed in the approach of development as freedom (sen, 1999). on the other hand, if the particular situation of social exclusion requires a different approach, based on a different theory, then the properties of course of social action that will be defined to support the social inclusion system may be different. in order to define these properties, the literature on the social inclusion theory should be searched, to identify properties which productive social inclusion processes should have, re-interpreting the natural language descriptions of these processes in terms of the definition of desirable properties of courses of social action, and then using such definitions to support the design and analysis of the social inclusion system. therefore, the definition of the social inclusion system will depend on this analysis, and will come from the definition of the set of desirable properties, which will be those that are considered to be relevant to promote social inclusion, according to the particular social inclusion theories or experimental evidences being considered as a basis for the creation of the social inclusion system. in summary, in the first level (social situation) we have an account of social actions (like plantation of oleaginous plants) and social components (like farmer's income). in the second level (social activity) we have a more meaningful account given by patterns of social activity (like generate material for biodiesel) and the patterns of social networking (like exchange material for biodiesel by its money value). in the third level (social process) we have a still more meaningful account of social inclusion phenomena given by properties of course of social action (like change the farmer´s income). building on these accounts, the next level will provide an analysis of the affordances of social situations for promoting social inclusion. social affordance following gibson (1979), we can say that the potential of a social situation to promote social inclusion at a certain time is determined by the affordances of that social situation with respect to certain kinds of social interactions. among the more basic kinds of affordances are the social actions whose occurrence a social situation can afford to an agent. these affordances denote opportunities in a social situation for particular kinds of social actions. for example, if there is an archive in a social situation with a certain kind of information, and if it is possible for an agent to access that archive (perhaps using the internet), then we can say that the particular social situation affords to an agent accessing that information. these basic kinds of affordances may depend on the particular state of development of the social situation (like the availability of internet access) and may change as the state of social development changes. in addition to these basic kinds of affordances, other higher-order kinds of affordances may be defined to denote the affordances of social situations with regard to the possible occurrence of patterns of social activity, patterns of social networking and properties of course of social action. these affordances will provide information about the potential patterns of social activity or of social networking that can occur in a social situation, and, as a consequence, about the potential courses of social action exhibiting certain properties that can be developed in the social situation. this will help to define the opportunities in a social situation for social activities, social networking and social processes that can facilitate or preclude social inclusion. a positive affordance may facilitate social inclusion while a negative affordance may not. therefore, in order to provide an ontology that allows to conceptualize the positive or negative opportunities for social inclusion in social situations, we have identified three kinds of social affordances. according to this conceptualization, a social situation may afford the occurrence of particular kinds of social activity (patterns of social activity), the existence of particular kinds of social networking (patterns of social networking), and the development of particular kinds of social processes (courses of social action with particular properties). in the example given in the previous section, the plantation of oleaginous plants promoted a change in the state of the farmer's income, increasing the possibilities of social inclusion in the community. however, in order to produce oleaginous plants the farmer needs to be trained in new agricultural techniques. therefore, we can say that a social situation in which the farmer has access to a training program in these techniques affords the development of a social process that will promote an increasing in the farmer's income. this can be described in terms of the following affordance of social situation: if in time 1 of the course of social action: social action = plantation of vegetables pattern of activity: generates social component = vegetable production pattern of activity: generates state of social component = farmer´s income:x and in time 2 of the course of social action: social action = training in new agricultural techniques pattern of activity: generates social component = knowledge of new agricultural techniques then, in time 3 of the course of social action, the social situation affords: social action = plantation of oleaginous plants pattern of activity: generates social component = material for biodiesel pattern of activity: generates state of social component = farmer´s income:y y greater than x and property of course of action: change (change of social component in a course of interaction) at this point, the relations between the ontological categories may be described in terms of the following views that result from the analysis in each category. social situations provide a view of the social actions that occur in the situation and of the social components that affect or are affected by these social actions. to obtain a more meaningful interpretation of what happens in a social situation, the social activity ontology provides a view of the patterns of social activity that occur in a social situation, and the social networking ontology provides a view of the patterns of social networking that exist in a social situation. the social process ontology adds the time dimension to social actions providing an interpretation of the social process that occur in a social situation in terms of the properties that develop in courses of social actions. in addition, given the sets of social actions, patterns of social activity, patterns of social networking and properties of courses of social action, developed in a social situation, it is possible to find out what has been achieved in terms of social inclusion and to provide opportunities for further achievements. this is the role of the ontology of social affordances that builds on the other four ontologies to provide an account of the opportunities for the development of social actions, patterns of social activity, patterns of social networking and properties of courses of social action, that can advance further the social inclusion process. conclusion in this paper we have presented an approach to support the modeling of social inclusion systems. the ontology and models presented are intended to provide a precise basis to support the design and analysis of systems created to promote social inclusion. the approach addresses five main ontological categories: social situation, social activity, social networking, social process and social affordance. the main characteristic of this approach is its focus on the integration of the various aspects involved in creating and analyzing systems to promote social inclusion, addressing at the same time the social situation, the social activities, the social interactions, and the social processes that are present in any social inclusion context. the concern with the context of social inclusion pointed to the need of addressing in precise terms the notion of social situation, including the consideration of its structure and dynamics, leading to work on the development of a social situation theory in a way that is similar to work on situation theory (barwise & perry, 1983). this is the basis for the development of theories of social activity, social networking, social process and social affordance that complete the model. further work includes the advance of these developments and their application to support the analysis and creation of social inclusion systems. our long-term goal is to provide a precise basis on which to analyze, understand, and improve systems to promote social inclusion. acknowledgements the work reported in this paper is being sponsored by the national council of scientific and technological development (cnpq) of brazil, and by the sao paulo state research support foundation (fapesp). references akhras, f. n. (2009). a learning to learn approach to digital inclusion in social contexts. in: proceedings of the 3rd international idia development informatics conference (idia 2009), south africa, p. 40-49. akhras, f. n. (2011). situating learning for digital inclusion in the social contexts of communities. journal of community informatics, 7(1&2), pp. 1-11. altman, i. & rogoff, b. (1987). world views in psychology: trait, interactional, organismic, and transactional perspectives. in: stokols, d. and altman, i. (eds.), handbook of environmental psychology, john wiley, pp. 7-40. barwise, j. & perry, j. (1983). situations and attitudes. cambridge, ma: mit press. brown, j. s., collins, a. & duguid, p. (1989). situated cognition and the culture of learning. educational researcher, 18(1), 32-42. gibson, j. j. (1979). the ecological approach to visual perception. boston: houghton mifflin. kumazawa, t., saito, o., kozaki, k., matsui, t. & mizoguchi, r. (2009). toward knowledge structuring of sustainability science based on ontology engineering. sustainability science, 4, pp. 99-116. lave, j., & wenger, e. (1991). situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. cambridge, england: cambridge university press. piaget, j. & garcia, r. (1991). toward a logic of meanings. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. sanders, j. t. (1997). an ontology of affordances. ecological psychology, 9(1), pp. 97-112. sen, a. (1999). development as freedom. oxford: oxford university press. von glasersfeld, e. (1995). radical constructivism: a way of knowing and learning. london: the falmer press. vygotsky, l. s. (1978). mind in society. harvard university press. code of ethics for community informatics researchers udo averweg & susan o'donnell2 information services, ethekwini municipality and university of kwazulu-natal, south africa. email: averwegu@durban.gov.za national research council, institute for information technology and university of new brunswick, canada. email: susan.odonnell@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca preamble this draft code of ethics for community informatics (ci) researchers is intended to evolve. we invite ci researchers to contribute their ideas and perspectives based on their experiences of doing ci research and as new ethical concerns emerge. the need for a code of ethics for ci researchers was identified at the 2nd annual conference of the community informatics research network (cirn2005) held in cape town, south africa during 23-26 august 2005. following this conference, the lead author undertook to formulate a code of ethics for ci researchers. the current document grew from an intensive collaborative iterative process with the second author. this document is now opened for general comment and feedback. this code of ethics for ci researchers is intended to be an evolving document – additional ci researchers may wish to contribute their perspectives and new ethical concerns may emerge in future. many countries have codes of research ethics and formal research ethics review boards in place for research involving humans, including research involving community participants. in these countries, researchers cannot proceed with their research until their research plans or protocols have been approved by an ethics review board. in many other countries, codes of research ethics are in development. ci researchers have a particular responsibility to conduct ethical research because the aim of ci research in general is to assist communities often marginalized communities to reach their development goals. process for contributing to this draft the open journal system that publishes the journal of community informatics (joci) has a built-in commenting system allowing readers to post comments below this article. we invite readers to contribute their energies to this drafting process by posting their comments on the system. questions to get started can you describe an ethical issue you experienced in your own ci research and does this draft code of ethics offer useful guidelines to address this issue? is it desirable to have an international code of ethics (such as this one) rather than national or community codes of ethics to address research in its local or national contexts? can you identify sections or points in the draft code of ethics below that need to be revisited and revised? do you have specific suggestions for revision? 1. aims the aims of this document are to: develop a voluntary code of practice for ci researchers; contribute to the maintenance of high standards in ci research; and contribute to the broader ethical and professional debates within the ci profession. 2. ethical guidelines to be addressed in practice by ci researchers guidelines or “codes of practice” offer a framework for the work of ci researchers. making ethical decisions involves addressing a series of dilemmas: decisions have to be reached by the ci researchers involved and ethical guidelines enable these decisions to be made from an informed position. an “ethical conscience” is needed so that making ethical decisions become an automatic part of the ci research process. the following are proposed as the minimum acceptable ethical standards of conduct for ci researchers: the objectives of ci research the objective of ci, as with other research, is the formulation of new knowledge or insight into the means to enable and empower communities through the use of information and communications technologies; the overall research aims of any ci study should be to benefit society and minimise social harm; the specific objectives of any research study should be negotiated with the subject communities so as to include both the objectives of the community and of the ci researchers; and this negotiation should include issues such as appropriate (and inappropriate) methods, rules for research conduct, ownership of data and the means by which this data may be disseminated and under what conditions. respect for human dignity ci research should aspire to protect the multiple interests of the person and the community from bodily to psychological to cultural integrity; decisions by community members and others in respect of participation in research must be made from an informed position; research participants and communities must be protected from undue intrusion, distress, indignity, physical discomfort, personal embarrassment, and psychological or other harm; and research must be conducted with respect for all within the community and for all communities in society regardless of race, ethnicity, culture and/or religion. c. using a subject-centred perspective ci research entails an active involvement by research participants and ensures both that their interests are central to the project or study and that they will not be treated simply as objects; a subject-centred approach should recognise that researchers and research participants may not always see the harms and benefits of a research project in the same way; the ci researcher should endeavour to ensure that participation in research is voluntary; research must be conducted with respect for under-represented social communities and with attempts being made to avoid their exclusion and/or marginalisation; and the ci researcher should endeavour to ensure that subject-centred research is conducted with respect for and awareness of gender differences. d. respecting free and informed consent research participants must be assured of and enabled to achieve the capacity and right to make free and informed decisions; research should commence only if prospective participants have been given the opportunity to give free and informed consent about participation, this free and informed consent has been given and if and as it is maintained throughout their participation in the research; and evidence of free and informed consent should ordinarily be obtained in writing. where written consent is culturally unacceptable or where there are good reasons for not recording such consent in writing, the procedures used to seek free and informed consent should be documented. e. respecting vulnerable persons, justice and inclusiveness participants whose diminished competence or decision-making capacity make them vulnerable such as children, institutionalised persons or others who are vulnerable are entitled to special protection against abuse, exploitation or discrimination; no segment of the population should be unfairly burdened with the harms of research; research should neither neglect nor discriminate against individuals and groups who may benefit from advances in research; the ci researcher must endeavour to balance professional integrity with respect for national and international law; the concerns of relevant stakeholders and user groups must be adequately addressed; and the ci researcher should reflect on the consequences of research engagement for all participants and attempt to alleviate potential disadvantages to participation for any individual, category of person or community. f. respecting privacy and confidentiality standards of privacy and confidentiality should protect the access, control and dissemination of personal information; and information that is disclosed in the context of a professional or research relationship must be held confidential. g. balancing harm and benefits the foreseeable harms of research should not outweigh anticipated benefits; research participants must not be subjected to unnecessary risks of harm; ci research is intended to produce benefits for the participants themselves, for other individuals or for society as a whole or for the advancement of knowledge; ci researchers have a duty to maximise net benefits to the participating community; and the ci researcher should reflect on the consequences of research engagement for all participants and attempt to alleviate potential disadvantages arising from participation for any individual, category of person or community. h. ensuring accuracy, appropriate use, ownership of data and research results the ci researcher must endeavour to ensure factual accuracy and avoid falsification, fabrication, suppression or misrepresentation of data; all data must be treated with appropriate levels of confidentiality and anonymity; ownership of the information that results from the ci research shall vest jointly with the community participating in the research and with the researcher; the anticipated use of such data should be made explicit in advance of the research being conducted and should be a part of the research protocol negotiated with the community and any change in such use should be negotiated with the community participating in the research; reporting and dissemination by the ci researcher must be carried out in a responsible manner; and the research results should be communicated to the community in a way that meets their needs. i. using appropriate research methodology appropriate research methods must be selected on the basis of informed professional expertise; and methodology and findings must be open for full discussion and peer review. j. research anchors the research process should not involve any unwarranted material gain or loss for any participant; any debts to previous research as a source of knowledge, data, concepts and methodology must be fully acknowledged in all outputs; the ci researcher will not seek personal advantage to the detriment of the ci community; and the ci researcher will accept full responsibility for any research to be undertaken and deliver what the researcher purports to deliver. 3. ethical guidelines for research involving aboriginal communities the ci researcher must understand the cultural responsibilities that accompany traditional knowledge or sacred knowledge and strictly comply with community expectations and protocols in possessing such knowledge; community jurisdiction over the conduct of research must be understood and respected; communities must be given the option of a participatory research approach; ci researchers must fully inform the community leadership or appropriate authorities and obtain prior approval from the community leadership or other appropriate authorities before research can be conducted in the community; confidentiality concerns of the community must be respected and addressed; ci researchers should recognise that the principle of individual autonomy may be reinterpreted in culturally specific ways that defer individuality to the interests of the aboriginal community as a whole; inclusion of cultural knowledge in research must be under mutually agreed terms and with the guidance of the knowledge holders in the community; aboriginal peoples and their respective communities retain rights to their knowledge, cultural practices and traditions that are shared with the researcher(s). it is the responsibility of the ci researcher to support mechanisms for protection of cultural knowledge that is shared during the research; research must be of mutual benefit to the community and researchers; ci researchers should support the development of education, research and training (including training in research ethics) for aboriginal peoples and communities; ci researchers have an obligation to learn about and apply aboriginal cultural protocols relevant to the particular aboriginal community; ci researchers should make the best effort to translate publications or reports into the language of the community; ci researchers should ensure that there is effective on-going communication in a manner that is accessible and understandable to the community; aboriginal communities have rights to control and determine their proprietary interests in the collection, use, storage and potential future use of data; all aboriginal communities have a right to participate in the interpretation of data and/or review of conclusions drawn from the research to ensure accuracy and sensitivity of interpretation; and community members have the right to due credit and participation in dissemination of results and publications must recognise the contribution of the community where appropriate and in keeping with confidentiality agreements. it is the discretion of the community partners as to how their contributions will be acknowledged. 4. ethical considerations for researchers in different countries canada: tri-council statement (tcps) on ethical conduct for research involving humans http://pre.ethics.gc.ca/ 5. acknowledgement excerpts made from “an eu code of ethics for socio-economic research” (2004), ies report 412 by the institute for employment studies, brighton, united kingdom, the tri-council statement (tcps) on ethical conduct for research involving humans, canada and the canadian institutes of health research guidelines for health research involving aboriginal peoples. community & technologies, community informatics: tensions and challenges for renewing democracy in the digital era fiorella de cindio civic informatics laboratory, computer science department, università di milano, milan, italy. email: fiorella.decindio@unimi.it introduction from their very beginning icts (information and communication technologies) have been applied in and shaped organizations and society. for quite a long time, the adoption of icts within organizations was carried on to support hierarchical organizations in the private and public sectors, with frequent implementation failures due to the freezing of ideal (formal) procedures into software. socio-technical (mumford, 1985) as a pointer to this branch of literature) and participatory design approaches (see for instance (briefs, ciborra and schneider, 1983), schuler and namioka (1993), (bødker, kensing and simonsen, 2004) have been proposed as a way of understanding the real behavior of organizations, so as to avoid failures and preserving the quality of working life. the specific kind of organizations called "communities" have been first introduced by the german sociologist ferdinand toennis to explain the changes occurring in society in the late xix century (toennis, 1887). he introduced the distinction between gesellschaft (a well-structured organization, or "society") and gemeinschaft (commonly translated as "community"). the main difference between them lying in the existence of a (formal or informal) contract among the participants of a gesellschaft (society), while a community may be described in the more general sense as a web of personal and social relations, held together by a variety of circumstances. in the '70-'80's of the xx century, two mutual related phenomena emerge. on the one hand, the gesellschaften begin to adopt less hierarchical structures that allow them to better respond to a market and a world, more and more dynamic. on the other hand, computer systems evolve from the monolithic edp (electronic data processing) model, typically implemented in general-purpose mainframes, to more and more distributed architectures. together, these two changes open a new perspective, which was well captured by terry winograd in an unpublished note (1981): "in the decentralization of work and the distribution of expertise we see a movement toward reducing our dependence on centralized structures and expanding the importance of individual "nodes" in a network of individuals and small groups. the use of computer communication in coordination makes it possible for a large heterogeneous organization to function effectively without a rigid structure of upward and downward communication. this shift does more than reorganize the workplace. it puts forth a challenge to the very idea of hierarchical organization that pervades our society. it may open a new space of possibilities for the kinds of decentralized communal social structures that have been put forward as solutions to many of our global problems." in this context "communities" gained new attention as emerging forms of online aggregations, mainly because of the "intuition" of howard rheingold who called "virtual communities" the social relationships which emerge when a bbs (bulletin board system) is used to enhance and strengthen social ties among people in a local area, and beyond (rheingold, 1993). the movement of community networks (schuler, 1996) re-enforces rheingold's intuition, with communities being recognized as of significance in the business sector, where "communities of practice" are seen as having value since they foster knowledge creation and sharing (wenger, 1988), (wenger, mcdermott, snyder, 2002), (faraj, jarvenpaa, majchrzak, 2011). software technologies, which enable virtual/digital/online/web communities, are largely inspired and based in computer supported cooperative work (cscw) and groupware applications. however, as jenny preece observed (preece, 2000) "superficially, the term online community isn't hard to understand, yet it is slippery to define." faraj, jarvenpaa, majchrzak (2011) go further and argue that online communities are "fluid objects" whose dynamic depends on tensions that enlighten different, co-existing factors. similarly, tensions do exists between the two groups of researchers that focus on the interplay between communities and icts: on the one hand, community&technology, mainly established around the biannual c&t international conference, rose in 2005 as a branch of the biannual ecscw (european computer supported cooperative work) conference; on the other hand, ci, having the journal of community informatics (joci), the "ciresearchers" mailing list and the annual conference hosted in the monash center in prato, italy as its main venues. learning from diversity three main "tensions" feature the diversity between c&t and ci, both quite well established disciplinary areas. highlighting these tensions is a fruitful way to enlighten the field and provides opportunities for a better understanding and more effective action. a first tension between the two "sides" of the two groups: there are researchers focusing mainly on communities (how they are supported, shaped, enabled, empowered, destroyed? by ict), while other researchers mainly develop technologies (that support, shape, enable, empower, destroy? communities). the actual and deep interplay between the two perspectives is less frequent than one would expect, and seldom occurs. those who work with communities are faced with such great and urgent needs that they are led to consider and use existing technologies and focus their attention on social issues and outcomes. also developing software is a complex task, and those who are engaged in it are led to limit social issues to the appropriate design of user interfaces, user experience, interaction design and the like. the recent financial constraints limiting resources available for research projects and social initiatives worsen the situation. a second tension between research and action. i would like to argue the need for a tight connection between these in this field by referring to figure 1 (slightly changed) used in (hendler et al. 2008) to illustrate the challenges that the (social) web presents to software engineering and application development. the picture indicates that applications: come from a creativity event ("idea"); have to be designed considering both technological and social aspects; after being developed and tested in the "micro" (typically a lab), have to face complexity by being tested in "the macro", i.e., in initiatives with "real" users taking place in real-life settingsi ; the outcomes of these initiatives have to be carefully analyzed also in terms of the desired vs. achieved impact (smith, macintosh and millard, 2011) to iterate the process.ii the lack of a tight connection between research and action is a source of serious problems: researchers who develop prototypes without testing them in real cases lose relevance in relation to the companies that deploy their innovations; activists who undertake field projects (to support communities) without a scientific solid background run a greater risk of failure and doing damage. a third tension between the two halves of the world: the once-called "developed countries" which are passing through a dramatic crisis, and the once-called "developing countries" which are now the only ones which in some ways are still "developing". because of this, differences are somehow shrinking, enhancing the possibility to learn, each from the other side. roughly speaking (may be, too roughly), the c&t group privileged technology and research in the developed countries; the ci group privileged communities and action in developing countries. encouraging a merging between these poles would allow tensions to stimulate reasoning through diversity. figure 1: slightly changed from (hendler et al. 2008) a major challenge ci/c&t action research uses and develops technologies mainly rooted in cscw. in its turn, cscw arose from the above-mentioned failure of procedure-based information systems to support white collar and knowledge workers and managers. this is not a mere technological evolution. as winograd suggests in the above quoted claim, the vision, and the challenge, is that the use of computer communication makes it possible for a large heterogeneous organization to function effectively without a rigid structure of upward and downward communication." "this shift" he says "puts forth a challenge to the very idea of hierarchical organization that pervades our society. it may open a new space of possibilities for the kinds of decentralized communal social structures that have been put forward as solutions to many of our global problems." [italics by the author] unfortunately, the tension towards innovation gradually faded away from cscw and the field suffered because of the increasing role, expectations and goals of the big software companies. in the same years, emerging grassroots initiatives such as virtual communities, free nets and community networks kept alive the original tension towards ict-empowered social innovation. community informatics and c&t come from these efforts, and the recent community informatics declarationiii captures the idea that "the internet is a social environment, a community space for people to interact, to develop and exercise their civic intelligence and work together to address collective challenges." but the internet has also become a huge machine for surveillance and ultimately for individual and social control (morozov, 2011), (greenwald, 2014). in this scenario, the merging of the efforts and perspectives of ci and c&t should and could help face the challenge. social media have been effective in empowering civic engagement, protests movements and political activisms (see for instance (wulf et al., 2013a) on the tunisian revolution and (wulf et al., 2013b) on a palestinian demonstration movement). as manuel castells wrote (castells, 2012): "the precondition for the revolts was the existence of an internet culture, made up of bloggers, social networks and cyberactivism." however, the step from protest movements to a different way of managing public affairs is substantial (de cindio and peraboni, 2010). if and when activists engaged in field projects of social change are successful, they need to find ways to let their grassroots movements evolve into organizations able to govern themselves and the society, without losing people' expectations of participating and getting involved in decision-making. can technologies conceived and designed for different purposes and for a different audience support this evolution from protests to a democratic and distributed government? can the construction of new organizations, of a new society based on effective and sustainable forms of people's involvement in policy making, of a democracy for the digital era (kaldor, 2013), be actually based in facebook, twitter and the like? facing these challenges requires a major effort in the development of technology (again from the "research program" envisioned in the 1981 winograd's note) "to enable large heterogeneous organizations to function effectively without a rigid hierarchical structure." while communication and coordination aspects have since then been widely considered and implemented, what is still missing are comprehensive software solutions able to deal with issues such as: effective deliberation and decision-making in (large) distributed organizations (grassroots movements as well as small businesses around the world) (concilio and de liddo, 2015) knowledge gathering, composition and sharing (with argumentation features to support deliberation) in (large) distributed organizations (convertino et al., 2015). several promising efforts in these directions do exist, but an extensive review is out of the scope of this note. italian as well as international experiences are presented in a dossier by the italian senate about the development and the use of civic media (senato della repubblica, 2013) that provides evidence of such efforts and of their early results. it is worth mentioning, among the others, respectively: (a) the online deliberation software liquidfeedback, developed "to empower organizations to make democratic decisions independent of physical assemblies while also giving every member of the organization an equal opportunity to participate in the democratic process." (behrens et al., 2014, p.13); (b) tools such as compendium, evidence hub, deliberatorium, coming from the extensive effort for developing argumentation and visualization tools that is ongoing at the knowledge media institute of the open university (de liddo and buckingham shum, 2014) and at the mit center for collective intelligence (klein, 2012). however, not only technology matters in facing those challenges. all these software applications implemented in a specific context are situated, socio-technical systems (dourish, 2004). the specific socio-political and cultural environment is influential in determining either the success or the failure of each online deliberation initiative. let's consider the case of liquidfeedback: it is an open-source software conceived of and designed by activists in the pirate party of germany, a closed and homogeneous group, to aid their internal decision-making processes (domanski, 2012). we have contributed to its use (embedded into a richer website) in two larger italian civic contexts, i.e. open to the general public. (bertone, de cindio, stortone, 2015). the analysis of these two initiatives shows that the different outcomes can be partly explained by the fact that one as compared to the other shows some distinctive traits of a community in terms of collaboration and a strong sense of commitment. these cases suggest that the effectiveness of these tools in supporting new forms of democratic governance and distributed decision-making is greater if the target organization is familiar with technology and shares a rich gemeinschaft. both these features are present in a couple of political movements that are gaining national relevance in their countries: the movimento 5 stelle (literally "five-star movement") in italy, which is now the second largest italian party, and podemos in spain. local groups of the movimento 5 stelle tested liquidfeedback, and now activists in m5s lazio are developing a liquidfeedbackfork called parelon (parelon parlamento elettronico onlineiv ) as a tool for m5s representatives elected to regional councils. local groups of podemos are using loomio , which is again, a fork of liquidfeedback, developed by activists in new zealand. loomio's slogan is "the easiest way to make decisions together." hopefully, research will analyze the outcomes of these experiences. it is worth continuing testing these tools also for a larger and open audience of citizens. again, taking advantage of the lessons learned in the early experiences mentioned above, we believe that local initiatives have more chance to succeed. especially, the city looks to be an appropriate social environment as it provides a good gemeinschaft dimension: sense of belonging, occasions for physical meetings, people orientation to solve together some basic needs. in the last decades of the xx century, these traits have been sustained by online initiatives such as community and civic networks (schuler, 1996). the "social streets" (www.socialstreet.it) are online social aggregations that recently became popular in italy. the mimic community networks in the new technological setting, by using facebook as their organizing platform. as community and civic networks suffered from their low impact on city life (de cindio and schuler, 2012, p.2) and then disappeared, the social streets may follow the same trajectory if they are not able to envisage ways for making the social relationship they help to establish somehow effective for allowing citizens to have a say. however, recent experiences of ict-enabled participatory budgeting (stortone and de cindio, 2014) indicate that it is indeed possible to establish decision-making practices involving from hundreds to thousands of citizens (depending on the city size). though further experiences and their rigorous analysis is still necessary, we believe that the local/city context more than the regional/state/national one can lead to an envisaging of new forms of democratic, active, informed participation to the public life. as ceccarini (2015, p.30) maintains in his recent book "la cittadinanza digitale" ("digital citizenship"), the decline, the disenchantment, the malaise, the distrust, the "partisan de-alignement" (dalton, 1994) between the citizens and politics refer to the traditional modalities of civic engagement: first of all, the vote and political parties, more in general participation through membership in organizations based on delegation/representation. this does not necessarily imply a citizens' de-engagement, but calls for a new model of "taking part" in the digital era, where online and offline are the two sides of the hybrid global world. the hope is that the merging of the two research communities contributes to answering this challenging demand. acknowledgements i'm greatly indebted to the anonymous referees and to the editors whose critical but encouraging comments allowed a substantial improvement of the paper. endnotes i took this expression from kari kuutti (univ. of oulu) online profile it may be worth recalling that hendler et al. (2008) mention doug schuler's public sphere project (at that time at the url trout.cpsr.org, now moved to www.publicsphereproject.org) as a way to "explore[s] how the web can encourage more human engagement in the political sphere. combining it with the emerging study of the web and the coevolution of technology and social needs is an important focus of designing the future web." http://cirn.wikispaces.com/an+internet+for+the+common+good+-+engagement%2c+empowerment%2c+ and+justice+for+all https://www.parelon.com see for instance: https://www.loomio.org/g/ji6ibocj/cercle-podem-algiros-podemos-algiros, https://www.loomio.org/g/u9fprl6x/circulo-podemos-villanueva-del-pardillo references behrens, j., kistner, a., nitsche, a., and swierczek, b. (2014). the principles of liquidfeedback. berlin, interaktive demokratie e.v. http://principles.liquidfeedback.org/ bertone, g., de cindio, f., stortone, s. (2015) liquidfeedback in large-scale civic contexts: framing multiple styles of online participation, in g. convertino et al. (eds.), special issue on large-scale ideation and deliberation: tools and studies in organizations, journal of social media in organizations, 2(1). http://www2.mitre.org/public/jsmo/pdfs/02-01-liquid-feedback.pdf bødker, s., kensing, f., and simonsen, j. (2004). participatory it design: designing for business and workplace realities. cambridge, ma, usa: mit press. briefs, u., ciborra, c. and schneider, l. (eds) (!983) systems design for, with, and by the users. proc. of the ifip wg 9.1 working conference on systems design for, with, and by the users, riva de sole, italy, 20-24 september, 1982, north-holland. castells, m. (2012). networks of outrage and hope: social movements in the internet age. cambridge, uk: polity press. ceccarini, l. (2015) la cittadinanza digitale, bologna: il mulino. in italian. concilio, g. and de liddo, a. 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(eds.), "tales of the unexpected: vision and reality in community informatics", proc. of the cirn-diac conference, prato, italy 27-29 october 2010, univ. of washington. accessed on may 14, 2015 at: http://ccnr.infotech.monash.edu/assets/docs/prato2010papers/dicindiofinal.pdf de cindio, f., schuler, d. (2012) beyond community networks: from local to global, from participation to deliberation, the journal of community informatics, 8(3). http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/908 de liddo, a., and buckingham shum, s. (2014) new ways of deliberating online: an empirical comparison of network and threaded interfaces for online discussion. in e. tambouris, a. macintosh and f. bannister (eds.), electronic participation, proc. of the int.confr. epart 2014, lcns 8654, 90-101. domanski, d. 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(2011) 'a three-layered framework for evaluating e-participation', int. j. electronic governance, 4(4), 304-321. stortone, s. and de cindio, f., and (2014) "bipart" of participatory budgeting. a software platform for new political practices, m. janssen et al. (eds.) electronic government and electronic participation, ios press. toennis, f. (1887). gemeinschaft und gesellschaft. leipzig. wenger, e. (1998). communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. cambridge university press. wenger, e., mcdermott, r., snyder, w.m. (2002). cultivating communities of practice. harvard business press. winograd, t., computers and the new communication, unpublished note, august 12, 1981. wulf, v., aal, k., abu-kteish, i., atam, m., schubert, k., yarousis, g.p. randall, d., rohde, m. (2013) fighting against the wall: social media use by political activists in a palestinian village. in: proceedings of international conference on computer human interaction (chi 2013). wulf, v., misaki, k., atam, m., randall, d., rohde, m. (2013) 'on the ground' in sidi bouzid: investigating social media use during the tunisian revolution. in: proceedings of acm conference on computer supported cooperative work (cscw 2013), acm-press, new york. community networking and civic participation: surveying the canadian research landscape graham longford university of toronto <glongford@sympatico.ca> introduction social scientists and policy makers have been grappling for a number of decades with an apparent decline in civic participation in many western liberal democracies (putnam, 2000). the mass media and the rise of new information and communication technologies (ict) are often implicated in explanations for the decline (putnam, 2000; sunstein, 2001; kraut et al, 1998). on the other hand, some have claimed that the new ict hold the potential to help reverse this trend by revitalizing and strengthening democratic participation and community involvement (etzioni, 2004; lévy, 2001; rheingold, 2000). much of the debate focuses on the quantitative and qualitative aspects of participation in “virtual communities,” such as whether or not they promote the development of social capital. the following paper explores the relationship between new ict and civic participation by examining the role played by specific kinds of ict-enabled community organizations, namely community networks, in fostering civic participation in local, geographically-based communities. unlike the polarized and largely unresolved debate about civic participation and virtual community, there is considerably less controversy about the impact of community networks and related community-based ict initiatives on local civic participation. existing research and anecdotal evidence suggests that community networks foster civic participation in the emerging information society by providing access to new ict for those threatened by digital exclusion, and by providing, via training and other services, opportunities for their effective use within communities to promote communication, information sharing, community involvement, social development and local learning (gurstein, 2004). this paper documents community networking’s achievements in civic participation by reviewing the growing research literature on community networks, and by examining a number of case studies from an on-going research project of the canadian research alliance for community innovation and networking (cracin). early results from cracin’s research reveal a number of noteworthy successes, while raising questions for future research as well. the paper also finds that community networks in canada currently face a number of challenges that jeopardize their ability to sustain, let alone advance, the gains made in recent years. conceptual and methodological overview for the purposes of this paper, community networks are defined as community-based ict organizations committed to universal access to the internet and to the use of ict systems to promote local economic and social development, civic participation and community learning. a number of definitions are offered in the growing academic literature on community networks. schuler, for example, defines community networks as enabling electronic environments that promote citizen participation in community affairs (2000). gurstein describes a community network as “a locally-based, locally-driven communication and information system” designed to enable “community processes and [achieve] community objectives” (2004). carroll and rosson (2003) define community networks as community-based ict initiatives that “support interaction among neighbours” by facilitating “information dissemination, discussion, and joint activity pertaining to municipal government, public schools, civic groups, local events, community issues and concerns, commerce and economic development, and social services” (381). while community networks take a variety of forms, they have in common the broad ideals of promoting economic and social participation by using ict to enhance the informational resources available to geographic communities and their residents (gurstein, 2000; keeble and loader, 2001b). civic participation refers to individuals’ active engagement with and involvement in their communities. common forms of civic participation include, among other things: donating time and/or money to charitable organizations; belonging to and/or participating in community groups; attending public meetings; voting in elections; attending religious services; and maintaining social networks with friends, neighbours and co-workers. civic participation is a key indicator of both individual and community development and community well-being. social capital refers to the social networks maintained by individuals and within communities, including ties to family, friends, neighbours, local businesses and co-workers, and the norms of reciprocity and trust which arise from them (putnam, 2000: 19). high levels of social capital have been linked to a variety of positive benefits, including economic growth, civic participation and individual and community well-being (woolcock, 2001). social capital and civic participation are mutually reinforcing. face-to-face interaction among neighbours and community members involving deliberative and collaborative work within voluntary organizations fosters interpersonal trust and social norms of tolerance and cooperation. social capital, meanwhile, is supportive of civic participation in so far as the latter is reinforced by healthy levels of trust in people, confidence in public institutions, and a sense of belonging on the part of community members. the broad methodological approach reflected in this paper is that of community informatics. as an emerging interdisciplinary research field, community informatics is concerned with the study of the enabling uses of information and communication technologies in communities – how ict can help achieve a community’s social, economic, cultural, and political goals (gurstein 2000). community informatics brings together the perspectives of a variety of stakeholders – community activists and groups, policymakers, users/citizens, artists, and a range of academics working across disciplines (communication studies, cultural studies, computer science, information studies, sociology, political science, urban studies and geography). community informatics methodologies and evaluation frameworks for assessing community networking projects, including their impact on civic participation, are still undergoing development and refinement (o’neill, 2002). o’neill’s review of such methodologies and evaluation frameworks suggests dozens of candidates that might serve as useful indicators of civic participation and social capital in relation to community networking initiatives, which she groups according to a number of broader categories. figure 1 contains a list of selected indicators adapted from her work. the following review of existing research on community networking and civic participation draws attention to a number of these indicators. 1.    community involvement ·          levels of online interaction ·          rates of participation in community groups ·          density of social networks 2.     access facilities ·          ict penetration rates (household, school, etc.) ·          public ict access facilities 3.      usage information ·          listserv and bulletin board postings ·          two-way information flow ·          user characteristics 4.     attitudes and awareness ·          sense of place ·          self-efficacy 5.     information content and structure ·          depth and quantity of community information ·          diversity of content ·          public opportunities to post content 6.     operation and management ·          implementation (top-down  or bottom-up) ·          funding sources ·          volunteer participation ·          community outreach adapted from o’neil, 2002, 92-93. figure 1.  indictors of civic participation in community networking civic participation in canada: recent data and trends the work of putnam and others suggests that there has been a significant decline in civic participation in the major industrialized democracies since the end of wwii, particularly the united states. while there is a dearth of historical data, a number of recent studies have shed light on civic participation patterns and trends in canada (minister of industry, 2004; canadian centre for philanthropy, 2000). canada appears not to have suffered the same precipitous decline in civic participation and social capital that putnam found among american citizens over the last few decades. with the exception of notable declines in formal political participation, there is little evidence that civic participation in general is in crisis. according to a 2003 statistics canada survey, 60 percent of respondents belonged to at least one community group, including recreational and sports clubs, trade unions, cultural or religious groups, and school, neighbourhood or community service organizations. many participate in these groups at least once per week. the canadian centre for philanthropy has found that almost 80 percent donate money to charitable groups. in addition, respondents reported relatively extensive social networks among family, friends and neighbours and a majority reported a strong sense of belonging to their local community (statistics canada, 2003). a minority of the population reported participating in political activities, with 28 percent having signed a petition and one-fifth having attending a public meeting. many other studies and surveys have found a marked decline in formal political participation in canada as well, as measured by voter turnout and membership in political parties (statistics canada, 2003; gidengil et al, 2004). having said that, while the data indicates that perhaps half of all canadians are at least somewhat engaged in civic life, when quantified in terms of the time, effort and money donated to civic groups and causes by individuals, it appears that a much smaller group of canadians – roughly 25 percent of all volunteers are responsible for contributing the lion’s share. this group has been referred to as canada’s “civic core” (reed and selbee, 2000). furthermore, this “civic core” is a relatively unrepresentative group of canadians who tend, on average, to be middle-aged, well-educated, and affluent (reed and selbee, 2000). the statistics canada survey also confirmed that individual levels of community and political participation were positively correlated with increased household income and educational attainment. such findings suggest that canada’s “civic core” is in need of enlargement and diversification by, for example, overcoming some of the typical barriers that impede civic participation, including economic insecurity, lack of information about opportunities to participate, and lack of time. community networks, as we shall see below, have a role to play in reducing such barriers. community networking in canada: a brief overview while the origins of community networking in canada can be traced back to a number of experiments in the early 1970s, dramatic growth in community networking took place in the early 1990s, as personal computers and modems became increasingly affordable. one of the first and, initially, most successful community networks in canada was ottawa’s national capital freenet  (ncf), which was established in 1992 as a community-based, non-profit cooperative project by a group of enthusiastic volunteers, university professors, and private industry donors. in addition to providing free dial-up internet access, ncf offered access to information posted by over 250 community organizations and government agencies and hosted listservs for dozens of specialized interest groups. modeled on this and other successful initiatives, dozens of other community networks were established in communities across canada in the early nineties. by the mid-nineties, 35 community networks were spread across the country, located in most major cities as well as a number of regions and smaller communities, serving a total of between 250,000 and 600,00 canadians (shade, 2003). typical services offered by these networks included free or low-cost dial-up internet access, email accounts, bulletin boards and listservs, access to public computer terminals, ict training sessions, content development and, later, web hosting and on-line training and discussions forums. community networks in canada take a variety of forms, but are typically comprised of a few paid staff, a voluntary board of directors, and a larger group of volunteers who participate in activities such as training, technical support, fundraising and content development. community networks are often affiliated with public institutions such as universities and public libraries, as well as with non-profit community organizations such as social service agencies. funding and other forms of material support are typically provided through a combination of membership fees, government grant programs, cash and in-kind donations from individuals, volunteer labour, and equipment donations from corporate benefactors. the one constant across all community networks is the contingent and unstable nature of this funding and support. this compels staff members to be constantly engaged in fundraising and program and grant application activities and to be continuously recruiting, training, motivating and renewing their volunteer staffing base. these activities inevitably divert energy and resources from other core activities, such as developing, maintaining and promoting content and the other services provided by the network (moll and shade, 2001; rideout & reddick, 2005). in the mid-1990s, community networking received a significant boost of support through the federal government’s connecting canadians initiative, a suite of funding programs designed to make canada “the most connected nation on earth”. programs like schoolnet, the community access program (cap) and urban cap, and the smart communities pilot programs were directed primarily at providing technical access to the internet in locations like community centers, public libraries and schools. other federal programs have pursued related goals, such as rural broadband connectivity, on-line training and education, and the development of canadian content on-line. altogether, over $400 million has been spent through these programs in support of almost 10,000 community-based ict initiatives. community networks were major recipients of funding under the connecting canadians initiative and became lynchpins in the development and success of many of the community projects. community networks were natural partners for community organizations such as libraries and community centres seeking to establish public internet access sites under the cap program and, today, community networks manage hundreds of such sites across the country. in addition, community networks have been active providing computer training, technical support, and content development for many cap sites and various volnet, librarynet and schoolnet projects (moll and shade, 2001). for the last decade, a small group of researchers and practitioners have endeavored to document the achievements and benefits of publicly-supported community networking in canada. work by clement (clement and shade, 2000), the canada west foundation (1997a,b), gurstein (2004), moll and shade  (2001), ramirez et al (2002), and rideout and reddick (2005) has highlighted their many contributions to local civic participation, social inclusion, information-sharing, community learning, and human and social capital development. for all their success, however, community networking initiatives in canada stand at a crossroads. with internet access rates approaching 70 percent, their continuing relevance and necessity have been called into question. major funding and program cuts were announced in 2004 and both federal and provincial governments have for some time appeared poised to withdraw significantly from supporting community networking, even while a number of recent studies have pointed to the continuing need for public funding for the sustainability of community networking initiatives (industry canada, 2004; rideout & reddick, 2005). waning government interest in community networking has placed thousands of community-based ict initiatives across canada in jeopardy and threatens to undermine the significant progress recently made in closing the digital divide and enabling individuals and communities to access the benefits of new ict. in 2003, thanks to a grant from the social sciences and humanities research council of canada (sshrc), a group of canadian community informatics researchers, community networking practitioners, and federal government policy and program personnel launched the canadian research alliance for community innovation and networking (cracin)[1], which is conducted case studies and more broad-based research on community networking in canada. cracin research documented the activities and achievements of a handful of community networks in order to ensure that the benefits of community networking achieved in the last decade would be recognized and taken into account in ict policy making. cracin researchers were interested, among other things, in the role played by community networks in fostering local civic participation and social capital, and in affording new electronic public/deliberative spaces to local communities. cracin researchers inventoried and analyzed relevant initiatives and programs at the case study sites, documented how these contributed to civic participation and social capital development, and attempted to identify best practices, challenges encountered and lessons learned. this paper summarizes preliminary cracin research on civic participation, including a longer background study entitled, community networking and civic participation in canada: a background paper, prepared with the support of the federal department of canadian heritage (2005). community networking and civic participation: international and canadian research perspectives and case studies while debate continues regarding the broad civic implications of the internet, there is considerably less doubt and skepticism among researchers with regard to the contributions to civic participation and social capital made by community networks. much of the concern about the detrimental impact of internet use on civic participation and community stems from concerns about the displacement of face-to-face social interaction within proximate communities by faceless and placeless on-line interaction within virtual communities. given that community networks strive, by definition, to use ict to increase civic participation and social cohesion within local, proximate communities, such concerns do not readily apply. community networking practitioners tend to view civic participation as both a central tool and goal of community networking. the best practices in community networking treat community members as active designers of the network and producers of local content, and strive, through training and other forms of support, to help transform them into skilled agents in the use of ict to pursue individual and collective goals (gurstein, 2004; pinkett, 2003:366; ramirez et al, 2002; silver, 2004). the following review of international and canadian research highlights three main aspects of civic participation in community networking practice: 1. community networks as catalysts of local civic participation information and services, and their impacts, provided by community networks to foster local civic participation, as well as their uptake and use by the community  (e.g. local information, ict access and training, service directories, discussion forums, cultural content, etc.); 2. community networks as sites of civic participation how community networks facilitate civic participation in the development, management, operation and evaluation of the networks themselves (e.g. community participation in network governance and design, recruitment of technical volunteers, community participation in producing content, etc.); and 3. community network involvement in broader ict policy making and governance how community networks have inserted themselves into ict public policy making and governance at the regional, national and international levels. international research on community networking and civic participation a growing body of international research literature documents the civic participation practices and experiences of community networks in the united states, europe, south america, africa, asia, and australia.[2] early accounts of u.s. networks such as san francisco’s the well and the cleveland free-net paint impressive records of achievement in fostering civic participation and social capital both onand off-line (hafner, 1997; rheingold, 2000; schuler, 1996). in recent years, considerable research attention has been focused on the blacksburg electronic village (bev) in virginia, and to a lesser extent on networks in seattle, boulder, santa monica and minneapolis, among others. numerous studies have documented the ways in which these networks stimulate civic participation and build local social capital (beamish, 1995; carroll and rosson, 2003; kavanaugh, 1999; kavanaugh and patterson, 2002; kavanaugh et al, 2005; schuler, 1996; silver, 2004; virnoche, 1998). while often touted as a model of what community networks can accomplish with respect to civic participation, bev’s achievements are not necessarily generalizable to all communities, however, as a number of researchers have pointed out (kavanaugh and patterson, 2002). the town of blacksburg has many characteristics conducive to success, including its relative affluence, its existing social capital and the high level of education of its residents compared to surrounding areas, and the fact that, as a university town, it was populated by many “early-adopters” of technology keen to experiment with innovative applications. furthermore, it is also worth noting that a gradual decline in the vitality of the bev network has been observed recently in terms of the amount of civic participation and relevant local content, with some commentators citing as explanations the ‘top down’ management approach and predominantly commercial vision of the network adopted by the three institutional partners (silver, 2004: 323; carroll and rosson, 2003: 386). in europe, the digital city of amsterdam (dds) was one of the most spectacular community networking successes of the 1990s. the research documentation of the achievements, as well as the eventual demise, of dds offers useful insight into the connection between community networks and civic participation (lovink and riemens, 2004; lovink, 2002, van den besselaar, 1997). dds originated out of the grass-roots initiatives of a loose coalition of artists, computer hackers, media activists and community organizations collectively known as the amsterdam public digital culture, who were committed to creating a vibrant and accessible “digital public domain” in amsterdam and the rest of the netherlands. originally launched as a ten-week experiment in e-democracy to coincide with municipal elections, the dds network expanded rapidly over the next few years, recruiting at its height (in 2000), a reported 160,000 registered users, and many more site visitors. ultimately, however, dds was something of a victim of its own success. the publicity it attracted both in the netherlands and internationally attracted more and more users from outside amsterdam. the dds experienced such rapid growth in its user base that within just a couple of years a mere 25 percent of its registered users actually resided in amsterdam (day and schuler, 2004). the increasingly deterritorialized nature of its user base slowed the development of locally relevant content and allowed an increasingly entrepreneurial management team to run the network unchecked by local users (lovink and riemens, 2004; lovink, 2002). dds was eventually privatized and repurposed as a commercial isp in 2001, the inevitable result, most commentators argue, of the network’s failure to sustain local participation in management and content development. the milan community network, or rete civica di milano (rcm), has been a more sustained (if less spectacular) success than its dutch counterpart (de cindio, 2004). today rcm has 15,000 registered users and over 700 discussion forums accommodating a wide range of interests and issues. rcm continues to foster civic participation and local social capital through a variety of initiatives and programs (casapulla, et al, 2001). schauder has documented the achievements of australia’s victoria community network (vicnet).  vicnet provided internet access, ict training, and support to community organizations throughout the state of victoria (schauder, 2004). vicnet was one of australia’s first isps, and it helped establish over 500 public access sites across the state and trained over 100,000 individuals on internet use. over 38,000 people joined vicnet’s various on-line communities and it at one time hosted over 5,000 community web sites, thus entrenching vicnet as an important thread in the social fabric of the state. the ‘reach for the clouds’’ initiative, meanwhile, which notably wired a  high-rise public housing project in melbourne, showed early signs of success at reinforcing social capital within the diverse ethnic groups residing in the complex (meredyth, et al, 2002). community informatics research from countries outside the oecd has produced similar findings. finquelievich, for example, relates the experience of argentinian community networks, which played a central role in mobilizing and coordinating large scale civic protests and activities in response to the country’s december 2001 economic crisis. citizens, communities and neighbourhoods engaged in a massive, grassroots effort to mobilize and coordinate various political and mutual aid activities, including the formation of “neighbourhood assemblies” to plan and put in place services such as soup kitchens and child care. community networking groups such as indymedia argentina played a crucial role, she argues, by setting up web sites with event notices and electronic discussion forums which supported and complimented the in-person, face-to-face activities of neighbourhood residents and community activists (finquelievich, 2004). a growing literature also shows how community networks have provided opportunities for increased civic participation among disadvantaged groups, including low-income earners, racial minorities, women, and youth. community networking initiatives in u.s. inner-city african american neighbourhoods have been the subject of a number studies, and have revealed positive impacts in terms of increasing awareness of community issues and resources, increasing communication and information-sharing among residents, and expanding social networks (alkalimat and williams, 2001; hill, 2001; pinkett, 2003; schön et al, 1999). green and keeble (2001) and vehviläinen (2001) have documented effective community networking initiatives targeting disadvantaged women. projects and initiatives offering internet access and ict training to children and youth have also been studied (clark, 2003; sandvig, 2003). canadian research perspectives on community networking and civic participation with the exception of wellman and hampton’s well-known research on the wired toronto suburb of “netville’, few canadian studies of community networking have focused on civic participation per se. nonetheless, a number of existing studies provide both anecdotal and more systematically-derived evidence of community networking’s impact on local civic participation and social capital development. moll and shade, for example, have tracked the progress and development of community networks in canada for much of the past decade, documenting the success of networks such as ottawa’s national capital freenet (ncf) and halifax’s chebucto community net (ccn) in engaging community members and organizations in the use of ict for local community-building (moll and shade, 2001, shade, 2003). ncf is a member-driven, non-profit organization that has served as a key entry point onto the internet for thousands of members of the ottawa community and surrounding region, many of whom would not otherwise have been able to access the internet due to the cost or other restrictions. in addition to helping community members acquire basic internet access and ict skills, ncf and its members provide and update local content. at its height in the late-nineties, ncf had approximately 60,000 users and enlisted over 250 organizations in posting information to the ncf network, including information on health, social services, recreation, education, federal and local government, and women’s issues. individuals and local groups established an eclectic series of community discussion boards on topics ranging from sports, dogs and arts to astronomy, beerand wine-making, and mental health (moll and shade, 2001; shade, 2003: 43). in halifax, meanwhile, the chebucto community net (established in 1993) offered low cost internet access, email accounts and web hosting services to individuals, community groups and local businesses. in partnership with the halifax regional library, ccn offered free ict training courses to local community members, and operated a program to provide recycled computers to persons with low incomes for the purposes of training and distance education. ccn’s “chebucto neighbourhood” community billboard provided access to information on over 200 local businesses, community groups, social service agencies, health care organizations, arts and culture groups, government offices, and churches. ccn also operated a web camera mounted on top of the tallest building in halifax, which has been used to raise community awareness of events like the “tall ships” festival and, of local issues such as the controversial harvesting of thousands of trees in the city’s point pleasant park in 2000 to ward off a beetle infestation. the canada west foundation (cwf) reported on the activities of 29 community networks from across canada in 1997 (canada west foundation, 1997a, 1997b). two cwf reports detailed the many ways in which community networks fostered civic participation, from providing free or low-cost access to the information highway as a public good; training users to become more sophisticated producers, as well as consumers, of local information and services; to engaging and attracting community members as volunteer technical support and training personnel (1997a). while a number of the networks surveyed by cwf were small, a handful served substantial populations of users. in addition to ncf’s 60,000 users, for example, networks in toronto (38,400), hamilton-wentworth (15,000), edmonton (9000), victoria (18,000) and vancouver (9000) enjoyed relatively heavy use given the preliminary state of public internet awareness and development at the time (1997b). while varying in size, most of the networks studied enlisted anywhere from 25 to 250 local individuals, organizations and businesses as information providers, and relied on the unpaid time and effort of between 25 and 150 volunteers each to operate the networks and provide content and programming (1997b). a number of researchers have also studied the impact of federal government programs related to community networking, including the community access program (cap) and the community learning network initiative, both of which sought to have an impact on, among other things, civic participation. according to a recent evaluation, the roughly 8,000 remaining public internet access sites supported by the cap program continued to serve a vital public good by providing internet access and ict training to hundreds of thousands of canadians, particularly those from groups affected by the digital divide, i.e. low income households and those in rural communities (industry canada, 2004). cap fostered civic participation in terms of providing the basic infrastructure, in the form of technical connectedness, for citizen participation in the knowledge-based economy and society. furthermore, in addition to helping to narrow the digital divide significantly, the report also concluded that cap offered a number of other benefits to individuals and communities consistent with fostering civic participation, including: “increased knowledge about, comfort with and use of the internet and ict; exchange of information and ideas among citizens; social/cultural development and better integration of users into the community (e.g. through opportunities to meet or communicate); and even some improvement in the economic situation of users (e.g. development of job skills, assistance with job search, selling locally produced goods over the internet.” (industry canada, 2004:vii). rideout and reddick have conducted research on the importance and impact of both the cap program and the community learning networks initiative with respect to ameliorating the digital divide in canada (rideout and reddick, 2005). while critical of the short-sighted way in which governments have funded and implemented such programs, they argue that sustaining community networking initiatives is critical to providing individuals and communities afflicted by the digital divide, and various other inequalities and developmental challenges, with opportunities to access the requisite tools, skills, and information for participating fully in the knowledge-based economy and society. balka and peterson as well conducted a survey of internet users and usage at a branch of the vancouver public library in 1999 (balka and peterson, 2002). according to their findings, while the library’s public internet terminals were heavily used for entertainment rather than civic purposes, they did “seem to lead to social cohesion to the extent that [they provide] a mechanism for the formation and cohesion of local social groups … [and] to the extent that many patrons use the internet to maintain contact with family and friends” (369). other researchers have been somewhat more circumspect about programs such as cap which, they argue, operate on the basis of a rather technical and narrow definition of access which prevents them from being used as effectively as they could be, suggesting that the full potential of community networking initiatives to stimulate civic participation has yet to be tapped (clement and shade, 2000; gurstein, 2004). ramírez et al studied the civic engagement practices of 11 canadian community networks of varying size and organizational form (ramírez, aitkin, kora and richardson, 2002). focusing on how community networks engage community members and local partners and stakeholder organizations in the project of community networking itself, their research reveals that community engagement “is an ongoing interactive process characterized by commitment to ever-changing community needs and interests” (2002: 2). the authors found that the on-going process of engaging and mobilizing community-members in the project of community networking involves the following best practices: 1. community engagement is an inclusive and ongoing process, involving a broad range of community stakeholders; 2. community engagement is based on partnerships with community organizations, business, as well as local government, formal and informal leaders; 3. the engagement of community “champions” is key to a successful “smart community” 4. communication is ongoing and active 5. project management is flexible and responsive to changing local needs and interests. ramírez et al provide numerous examples of these best practices being adopted by the networks that participated in their study. no review of canadian research on community networks and civic participation would be complete without acknowledging the extensive research conducted by wellman, hampton and various collaborators. wellman and hampton conducted a two-year study of the social life of “netville,” a new suburb built on the outskirts of toronto in 1996-97 that was wired with an experimental network owned and operated by a technology firm in partnership with the residential developer (hampton, 2003). while the network lacked many of the organizational attributes of the other grassroots community networks discussed here, the netville studies found that the wired residents of netville used ict to expand and deepen their networks of social ties, and that they displayed a greater propensity to form ties with neighbours compared to their non-wired counterparts (418-421). one final area in which community networks in canada have attempted to foster civic participation revolves around the development of public policy and governance mechanisms related to ict. while, as in most other countries, the opportunities for meaningful public involvement in agenda-setting and policy making with respect to new ict have been limited, community networks and related advocacy organizations have lobbied vigorously to inject public interest concerns into these processes (clement, moll and shade, 2001). through organizations such as telecommunities canada, community networking advocates have inserted themselves in policy consultations, discussions and debates on new media and the information highway since the mid-1990s, beginning with the canadian radio-television and telecommunications commission (crtc) public hearings on convergence (1995) and new media (1998). community networks were also active during the consultation and report-writing phases of the industry canada-sponsored information highway advisory council (ihac), which issued major agenda-setting reports and recommendations on federal information highway policy in 1995 and 1997, and again in 2000-2001 during the work of the national broadband task force. however, while community networking advocates in the 1990s achieved some success in carving out a space for public interest voices in ict policy discussions, their concerns have taken a back seat to industry and government eagerness to develop the commercial potential of the internet. finally, community networking organizations in canada have also become increasingly active at the international level, participating in global conferences and forums on global media governance in an attempt to exert influence on such multilateral processes as the world summit on the information society (wsis) (moll and shade, 2004b). while the preceding survey reveals some noteworthy achievements by canadian community networks in the area of civic participation, with the exception of the work of wellman and his collaborators on the “netville” case study, there has been little in-depth research focused on community networking and civic participation per se. what evidence has been found of benefits to local communities in terms of increased civic participation and social capital is often anecdotal. the limited nature of existing evidence and indicators of civic participation and social capital within canadian community networking leaves a number of important questions unanswered. for example, while there is evidence of a certain degree of civic participation, as measured in terms of the number and diversity of community web pages and discussion lists maintained by the networks discussed, there is little in-depth analysis of their usage from either a quantitative or qualitative standpoint. how many community members actually make use of these resources? how up-to-date is the information they contain? what is the level and quality of on-line discussion and debate? cracin’s research agenda was designed, among other things, to document and assess the impact of community networks on local civic participation and social capital in greater depth and with somewhat greater rigour. in collaboration with participating case study sites, cracin documented the achievements of community networks in this regard. preliminary work entailed an academic literature review and on-line documentary research. on-going research included field work and interviews at participating case study sites, as well as the development of appropriate indicators of civic participation and social capital incorporated into a survey administered to case study sites and other community networks across canada in late 2005 and early 2006. the final section of the paper introduces a number of cracin case study sites and presents preliminary findings in the form of brief inventories of civic participation-related activities and outcomes at selected sites. cracin case studies in community networking and civic participation vancouver community network (vcn) the vancouver community network (vcn) offers a variety of free networking services to individuals and non-profit groups in vancouver and british columbia, including dial-up internet access, computer training, e-mail accounts, listservs and web site hosting. vcn has 11,000 individual users and over 1,200 non-profit groups that take advantage of its services. vcn hosts over 100 listservs on its sympa system, enabling individuals and groups to set up electronic mailing lists to share information and discuss issues of mutual interest and concern, ranging from arts and culture to politics, health, and sports and recreation. vcn has a volunteer board of twelve, over 50 active volunteers, and 1,000 donors (chan, 2004). encouraging broad civic participation in the use of electronic public space is one of vcn’s primary missions. vcn provides network access, training and technical support to community-based non-profit groups to enable them to more effectively accomplish their goals in the areas of community development and civic participation. vcn partnered with the federal government, among others, to launch the “604 connect!” program through which over 400 area non-profit groups acquired internet access, training and support. in 2001, vcn also launched a community learning network pilot program designed to explore the effectiveness of community networking in support of community development and local civic participation. vcn worked closely with numerous community groups and community centers to develop interactive websites to make their programs better known and more accessible to the local community. groups such as the carnegie centre, collingwood neighbourhood house, ray-cam cooperative centre, and kiwassa neighbourhood house were trained in the use of an open source website content management system, which enabled community members and groups with limited computer and web development skills to produce and edit local content on the site, including news articles, event calendars and descriptions, discussion boards, and link lists. many of vcns public computing initiatives focused on using ict to organize and empower marginalized individuals and groups. vcn has coordinated 32 public internet access sites throughout the region, as part of the federal cap program. many of these sites are situated and designed to serve the poor, new immigrants, youth, and the homeless, including the residents of vancouver’s downtown eastside neighbourhood, one of the country’s poorest. among the many non-profit organizations with web sites hosted by vcn is the west coast domestic worker’s association (wcdwa), an independent advocacy organization which helps domestic workers organize and advocate on their own behalf on issues such as employment rights and immigration. in 2003-4, in conjunction with wcdwa, vcn helped to develop and run the “computer literacy project” computer training program specifically designed to meet the needs of domestic workers. other vcn projects have included the development of a spanish language portal containing community, health and legal information and resources for spanish speakers, and, in partnership with the 411 senior centre, an on-line seniors gateway to legal information and resources to empower seniors and their advocates to better access benefits, services and programs. kuh-ke-nah network of smart first nations – k-net (nishnawbe aski first nation) in 1994, keewaytinook okimakanak (ko), a council of first nations chiefs from 5 nishnawbe aski nation (nan) aboriginal communities in north-western ontario, established the kuh-ke-nah (k-net) regional community network, in an effort to leverage local connectivity to promote education and community development (beaton, fiddler and rowlandson, 2004, ramirez et al, 2004). a total of 49 nan communities are spread across a territory the size of france, and average roughly 400 members each. except for a few weeks in winter, the remote nan communities are accessible by plane only. residents have struggled for decades with high unemployment, dependency on social assistance, above average rates of suicide, and below average rates of high school completion. nan communities also lack basic health and educational services taken for granted in much of the rest of canada. considerable stress and dislocation are imposed on nan communities as a result of residents having to leave to access medical treatment, and children as young as 13 leaving to attend high school in population centres hundreds of kilometres away. k-net has worked in partnership with federal and provincial governments for a number of years to connect nan communities to the internet. thanks to these partnerships, some nan communities have progressed from having a single phone in the community to residential broadband access in less than a decade. recent k-net initiatives in tele-health and on-line education contribute to social capital and civic participation in nan communities by enabling residents to access vital services that previously were available only by flying to larger communities hundreds of kilometers to the south. ko tele-health currently offers telemedicine services to 5 ko communities, with plans to add 19 more to the network. the k-net internet high school (kihs) enables students in 13 nan communities to complete grades 9 and 10 on-line via internet access to curriculum materials and trained teachers. in addition to reducing the sense of isolation and disconnectedness felt by residents of such communities, k-net services such as ko tele-health and kihs play an important role in strengthening local communities by enabling residents who might otherwise be forced to leave to stay in the community, and by encouraging those who have left to return (ramirez et al, 2004). in addition, k-net provides a host of other network, training and content development services, such as video-conferencing, and individual, family and community homepages which enable community members to stay in touch with friends, family and community. k-net is host to first nations community portals, 11206 listed personal homepages, over 22,348 email addresses, as well as various chat rooms and school web sites. k-net also hosts the turning point discussion forum, an internationally recognized on-line forum devoted to engaging aboriginals and non-aboriginals in discussions of mutual interest and concern, and to improving cross-cultural communication and race relations in canada. with an average of 4.3 million hits a month, the k-net portal (knet.ca) provides a significant on-line presence for ontario’s remote first nations. st. christopher house community learning network (toronto) st. christopher house (sch) is a non-profit social service agency which has served less advantaged individuals and families in western downtown toronto since 1912. sch offers a broad range of community-based social service programs, serving over 8,000 community residents a year. in an effort to tackle the digital divide, sch is host to a cap project called bang the drum, which offers free internet access, computer tutorials and comprehensive lessons on website design and programming at various sites within its catchment area. in february 2005, sch launched an ambitious community learning network (cln) web portal. the sch cln enables users to add and edit various kinds of content on the site in both public and private areas, co-construct pages and resources related to sch programs and services, create community event listings and announcements, set up discussion forums, establish community group web sites, participate in on-line training courses, translate pages into various languages, and create or post materials to support informal learning on a wide variety of subjects of interest to community members. as a social service organization committed to community engagement and participation, sch adopted a participatory design approach to the conception, design and implementation of the cln as an open source tool (luke et al, 2004). with the assistance of a private web development firm and the support of community informatics researchers from the university of toronto, sch embarked on the development of the cln portal, beginning with an assessment of sch staff and community needs and the development of a blueprint for the web portal. successive prototypes of the sch cln portal were released on sourceforge and tested on groups of sch staff and community members over the next year and half, until its final public launch in february 2005. while the design and implementation of the cln was not without its tensions, all participants agree that the process was a rewarding and successful one that is far more likely to engage members of the community than had the cln been designed and implemented in top-down fashion without consultation (luke et al, 2004:18). conclusions and directions for future research cracin’s on-going research on community networking in canada was directed to provide a detailed overview and analysis of the civic participation practices, experiences and achievements of its community networking partners. based on the evidence collected, the community networking organizations, sites and initiatives described above have had a perceptible impact. as key players in providing free or low cost internet access and training, community networks help to maintain vital public on-ramps to the information highway for hundreds of thousands of canadians. in addition, the community networks documented in cracin’s research demonstrate a strong commitment to civic participation, both in terms of the innovative uses they make of ict to stimulate and support community engagement and development, and in terms of how they engage community members in the project of community networking itself as volunteers, content providers and board members. many are also actively involved in regional, national and even international dialogues and debates about ict policymaking and governance as well. having said all this, what is increasingly evident is how fragile and tenuous many of the gains achieved by community networks are. cracin sought not only to validate the role of community networks in promoting civic participation, but to also identify and acknowledge the challenges and difficulties they currently face in maintaining and advancing their work in this area. the vagaries of government program implementation and funding inhibit long-term planning and hiring decisions and tax the resources and energy of staff, who must continuously prepare funding applications, participate in evaluation exercises, etc. community networks also struggle to maintain the interest and engagement of members when the latter achieve greater independence, or can afford to pay for their own hardware and commercial internet access; securing the engagement of participation of “information haves” within communities remains a struggle. cracin undertook research on civic participation at its partner community networking sites in order to better understand and appreciate these difficulties, to shed light on how government policies and funding programs might alleviate or exacerbate them, and to offer practical suggestions and solutions for overcoming them.[3] acknowledgements a previous version of this paper was prepared on behalf of the canadian research alliance for community innovation and networking (cracin) for the department of canadian heritage, as a background paper for cracin workshop #3: community networking and civic participation, held at the coast plaza hotel, vancouver, b.c., february 25-27, 2005. cracin acknowledges the generous support of the department of canadian heritage in providing funds to help stage this event. the views expressed in this paper are those of the author alone. the author wishes to thank brian beaton, andrew feenberg, michael gurstein, alexandra samuel, mark surman, and duncan sanderson for their comments on previous drafts. valuable research assistance was provided by the following graduate students attached to the cracin project: brandi bell, diane dechief, nicolas lecomte, katrina peddle, cathryn staring parrish, and ken werbin. references alkalimat, a. and k. williams. 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(1999). “living networked in a wired world,” contemporary sociology 28(6). wellman, b., and k. hampton (2000). “examining community in the digital neighborhood: early results from canada’s wired suburb,” in t. ishida and k. isbister, eds., digital cities: technologies, experiences, and future perspectives, heidelberg: springer-verlag 94-208. woolcock, m. (2001). “the place of social capital in understanding social and economic outcomes,” isuma, vol.2, no.1 (spring). 1. http://www.cracin.ca 2. a number of very useful edited collections have appeared in recent years to document the work of community networks in this regard, including: michael gurstein, ed. (2000) community informatics: enabling communities with information and communication technologies. hershey pa: idea group publishing; keeble and brian d. loader, eds. (2001a) community informatics: shaping computer-mediated social relations, new york: routledge; stewart marshall, wal taylor, xinghuo yu, eds. (2004) using community informatics to transform regions, hershey pa: idea group publishing; schuler, douglas and peter day, eds. (2004a). shaping the network society: the new role of civil society in cyberspace. cambridge, ma: the mit press; tanabe, makoto, peter van den besselaar, toru ishida, eds. (2002) digital cities 2, computational and sociological approaches. lecture notes in computer science 2362, berlin: springer-verlag. 3. a collection of papers documenting the cracin research and its findings is scheduled to be published sometime in 2009. from exploration to design: aligning intentionality in community informatics projects ammar halabi, university of fribourg, fribourg, switzerland. email: ammar.halabi@gmail.com amalia sabiescu, coventry university, coventry, united kingdom salomão david, università della svizzera italiana, lugano, switzerland sara vannini, università della svizzera italiana, lugano, switzerland david nemer, university of kentucky, lexington, ky, usa introduction community informatics (ci) has a strong problem-solving and pragmatic orientation, being concerned with "effective use" (gurstein, 2003), action, and contributing to community well-being. the methodological approach of ci "foregrounds social change and transformative action" (stillman, 2014, p. 201). in such spirit, the most valuable type of knowledge that research can elicit is "actionable knowledge" in the vein of community-based participatory research (cbpr) (roche, 2008). the relation between eliciting knowledge and designing action appears to be at the core of informed ci research, yet it is more elusive than in other design and development disciplines. by foregrounding communities, ci research distances itself from traditional it design which focuses on creating and adapting novel technologies and interfaces. ci also aspires for a more inclusive approach, in which different stakeholder visions and a wider set of actions are examined to support the well-being of communities (gurstein 2007). therefore, the problem of transitioning from exploration and knowledge production to designing action, which is an acknowledged issue in it design (taylor 2009; rogers 2004), is amplified in ci, as authority over design is distributed among researchers, community members, and organizations. this is especially the case with the adoption of participatory approaches to research and design, which involve forms of collaboration and partnership with target communities (carroll & rosson, 2007; merkel et al., 2007). this article aims to unravel some of the dynamics of transitioning from exploratory to design stages in community-based design interventions. the article considers all types of ci interventions, but is particularly concerned with two kinds of approaches: first, participatory research and design; second, those approaches involving data-intensive exploratory methodologies such as ethnography. these approaches present unique challenges, mainly due to the distribution of research and design processes among different stakeholders, as well as to the large quantity of data generated during exploratory phases (e.g. a sizable number of interviews and observations). we empirically build our study on three community-based research cases from our work in syria, brazil, and mozambique. the cases are diverse in their initial goals, locations, methods, structures and stakeholders, yet they all employed qualitative, data-intensive methods, and were committed to collaborative exploration of problems and desired actions through participatory approaches. the article finds that the transition from exploration to design is most significantly marked by shifting design intentions, which in ci projects are multiple and constantly evolving as they are informed by the knowledge and interests of different stakeholders. the crux of successful ci projects resides in aligning design intentions towards a common vision, manifested in the formulation of design goals agreed by stakeholders. the article discusses the process of aligning design intentions by analysing empirical data from the cases along three analytical categories: knowledge pathways, stakeholder involvement, and conceptual and methodological framing. it further discusses the resulting framework against relevant participatory research and design literature. related work the transition from exploratory research to design has been investigated in various disciplines concerned with studying design and action informed by socially-grounded research. researchers have developed various vocabularies to refer to that transition. in action research (ar), this transition has been subsumed in "action planning" (susman & evered, 1978; bilandzic & venable, 2011). in design science research (dsr), moving towards design action is relevant either to the "suggestion phase" (vaishnavi & kuechler, 2013) or to "theory building" (venable, 2006), where technological possibilities are identified and decided. finally, researchers using ethnography often speak of "design implications" (taylor, 2009). these labels, however, have different nuances: ar's "action planning", is active, intentional, and involves choices, while "design implications" derived from ethnographic field studies often refer to a range of possibilities that can be inferred without explicit choices being made. closer to the ar end of the spectrum, this article focuses on the notion of "formulating design goals" as an intentional, inter-subjective transition from exploration to envisioning change-oriented activities that can be afforded by the research endeavour. the article critically engages with two main observations on the transition from exploration to design in existing scholarship. the first is that design is wicked and emergent, and the second regards the intricate relation between design and knowledge. design is wicked and emergent researchers have frequently pointed out that real-world design problems are wicked and ill-defined: working on design problems involves continuous refining and structuring of those problems (jonassen, 2000). moreover, leaping from what is known to identifying a problem and devising a solution involves creativity, which is poorly understood (vaishnavi & kuechler, 2011). this "wickedness" in design problems and the "creativity" needed to solve them suggest that talking about the transition from knowledge to action is challenging, which could explain why this transition is still replete with unknowns, despite the contribution of a number of studies which addressed it. scholars also argue that design is emergent and contingent upon the social settings it is embedded in (sein et. al., 2011; venable, 2006; horan & wells, 2005). to harness this emergence, participatory design projects in community contexts have worked on enabling public participation and innovation by creating supporting spaces and settings (björgvinsson, ehn, & hillgren, 2010; merkel, 2004), connecting publics (horan & wells, 2005; disalvo et al., 2011; björgvinsson et al., 2010), and creating supporting tools for communication and consensus (bodker & iversen, 2002). these works look at design/planning/action as an object that requires participatory learning and participatory expression to come into being, and suggest creating suitable environments to support its emergence. in this article, we go a step further to examine how this emergence unfolds and we analyse various pressures and choices involved in formulating design goals in community-based research. the connection(s) between knowledge and design it is widely acknowledged that design and planning of action should be informed by rigorous knowledge of the situation. this applies to various designand action-oriented disciplines, and is as well emphasized in community-based research and design (pipek et al., 2000), where the importance of garnering socio-cultural understanding is stressed (bilandzic & venable 2011; horan & wells 2005). authors have duly pointed to the complex relation between knowledge and design: knowledge can take various forms; can be produced by scientists and local communities alike; its interpretation, filtering and operationalization for decision making stem from various interests and are subject to power differences (bardzell, 2010; irani et. al., 2010); it is, in turn, involved in asserting and gaining power through establishing legitimacy (arnold & stillman, 2009); and its construction is intimately tied to the methods and conventions of its creation (latour, 1986). process-wise, knowledge production and design decisions are majorly intertwined and iterative (sein et. al, 2011). this article condenses these distributed observations about the role of knowledge in informing design with communities, and relates them to other critical factors that influence this transition: the stakeholders who produce and interpret knowledge and take design decisions, and the conceptual and methodological frames that shape the wider setting where stakeholders operate and negotiate various understandings and decisions. study methods to address the aim of examining the transition from exploration to designing action, a methodological approach was adopted that combines inquiry, retroactive observation on practice, and critical reflection. this approach draws on a cyclical pattern of inquiry, action, observation and reflection that can be found in the work of john dewey (e.g. 1938, 1991), in scho?n's work on reflective practice (1991), and in most forms of ar and participatory action research par (e.g. reason and bradbury, 2001). the fundamental assumption underpinning these approaches, and implicitly our own study, is that observation and reflection on action contribute to generating knowledge and devising novel perspectives and understandings that can be employed to improve further practice. these outcomes are particularly fruitful when reflection is undertaken in collaborative settings involving active inquiry and sharing of ideas. in our study, observation and reflection were conducted on our accomplished or on-going research projects to generate new perspectives and to think critically through processes and outcomes. three projects conducted in syria, brazil and mozambique were selected as case studies to give concreteness to this reflective exercise and to facilitate cross-analysis at later stages. the cases share a strong orientation towards participatory and qualitative approaches. yet, they also illustrate diversity in terms of location, socio-cultural context, research goals, methodology, and project structure. through cycles of analysis and reflection on the three case studies, the scope of our investigation, and the initial research question were gradually refined. we concentrated on "formulating design goals" as a key focus for our analysis, and we focused on ci interventions that use rich data to inform design. the two research questions guiding the investigation were: how are design goals formulated in ci interventions that rely on data-intensive exploratory methodologies? what factors and dynamics shape them? three analytical categories emerged as common and important across the three cases knowledge pathways, stakeholder involvement, and conceptual and methodological framing (see halabi et al., 2014). in a second stage, cross-analysis was undertaken to understand how similar issues played out and were solved differently in the cases selected. this gave rise to the concept of "aligning design intentions" which we used as a unifying theme for our findings. the emergence, evolution and alignment of design intentions in each case was examined by means of the first three analytical categories and then contrasted across cases. this process of iterative comparison, hypothesizing, and then back to verification with qualitative data resonates with inductive analysis in sociology (e.g. becker, 1953; 1990). in the next section, we introduce the three analytical categories, along with the concept of "aligning design intentions". by this we sketch a conceptual framework for reflecting on the transition towards design. aligning design intentions: a conceptual framework although the three analytical categories emerged empirically through our iterative analysis, they resonate with similar concepts treated in ci, design, hci and par literatures. these are further outlined below. knowledge pathways refers to the trajectories taken by knowledge, from knowledge production episodes (e.g. informal conversations, storytelling, and interviews) to insights that inform design, and beyond, making their way into the community ecology with varied impacts. by using this notion, the study calls attention to the variety of knowledge instances that inform design, coming from different sources, and featuring different degrees of interpretation. knowledge sources can be formal and researcher-sanctioned, if they follow rigorous procedures for data collection and analysis, or can be informal (e.g. local group conversations). the term "knowledge" has been preferred over the one of "information". this recognizes that it incorporates both explicit and tacit dimensions (christie, 2004; nonaka et al., 2000), which are dynamic and reconfigured during the process of research and design. while the data generated through formalized procedures are instances of representational knowledge (i.e. information, see christie, 2004), these can be used to trigger and inform new reflections and knowledge instances. a sizable number of studies engage with the interplay between knowledge and power in ci research (arnold & stillman, 2009). realizing that including certain types of knowledge while discarding others is entangled with the exercise of power, researchers have been concerned with the validation of various types of knowledge (tacit and explicit; common and scientific). this is a critical point in making community-based research and design initiatives inclusive, while observing academically sanctioned measures of validity. these views are exemplified in feminist and postcolonial studies (harding, 2003; briggs & sharp, 2004), in their appropriation in design studies (bardzell 2010; irani, 2010; winschiers-goagoses et al. 2012), in community-based research (green, 2001), and in participatory approaches to research and development (dearden & rizivi, 2008). stakeholder involvement refers to the degree of stakeholder participation in decision-making along different stages of an initiative. it is also concerned with the various interests and agendas brought by the stakeholders. for this study, involvement in exploratory and design stages is particularly relevant. involvement can be quantified in terms of participation in actions ranging from data generation, interpretation, and informal knowledge production episodes, to decision-making in design activities. attention to various stakeholders, their interests and roles has been emphasized through the notion of "participation" in design, development, and research, which stems from ethical and practical preoccupations to collaborate with people and communities within the scope of the initiative. some of the knotty issues echoed by researchers include: the identification of rightful stakeholders in community-based projects (heeks, 1999; vines et. al., 2013), tensions and conflicts associated with different local agendas held by different stakeholder groups (sabiescu et al., 2014; vines et. al., 2013), knowledge differentials and challenges posed by informed participation in design (bidwell and hardy, 2009; mutenda et. al., 2011), and the types of stakeholder involvement and participation afforded by a project along a project timeline and in relation to the importance of decisions taken (heeks 1999; mutenda et. al., 2011). conceptual and methodological framing captures the process by which the space of possibility for research and design decisions is defined and limited through conceptual and practical choices that can be advanced equally by researchers and community members. in this sense, choosing a particular theory and methodological framework, and the way to structure project activities, are all framing actions, because they limit the space of possibility for design processes and outcomes. framing approaches are analysed in this study in terms of structure (highly structured vs. free-flow), and with reference to landmark framing judgements. in design, "framing judgment" refers to deliberation acts that define and limit "the space of potential design outcomes" (nelson & stolterman, 2012: 199). they are intentional acts that set boundaries for the design process conceptually, creatively, and practically, deciding what is kept and what is left outside (ibid.). framing is less explicit as a concern in approaches popular in ci. however, it is recognized that the mental and theoretical frameworks we adopt, as well as the material means available, have a significant role in shaping further learning and future action (including the design of technology). this has been well highlighted in the social sciences (e.g. becker, 1990), and in research on the social construction of knowledge in science and technology (latour, 1986). during cross-analysis, we identified a common pattern in the findings that prevailed along all three analytical categories. this pattern showed a movement that occurred during the moments of transition towards design (formulating design goals), which implied a shift in design intentions. simply described, the transition towards design required aligning the intentions and agencies of various knowledge sources, stakeholders, and framings to formulate common design goals and generate momentum towards common action. arnold & stillman noted a similar issue under the label of "translations of interest", which "refers to an alignment of participants such that their resources, agencies, authority, brute force and so on, are articulated rather than in opposition or tangential to one another" (2009). while the authors were concerned with how ci initiatives deal with the translation of interests to reach community "empowerment" as an umbrella goal, we observe a relevant pattern on an empirical level, involving the ci initiative, and during the moments of formulating design goals. thus, when interpreted in light of arnold & stillman's exposition, aligning design intentions is a movement to gather momentum (or power) for formulating common design goals and committing to them, where the intentions of diverse actors (including the researchers) need to be distilled and aligned. this resonates with discourses that stress the need to consolidate various visions in community-based research and design. for example, par (as a research framework and orientation) has been adopted to build a "common vision" between that of the researchers and the community (sabiescu, 2010). similar participatory approaches have been also adopted to build a "common vision" to contribute to social capital and the capacity to act (calabrese 2006), and to "align perspectives" and reach "common goals", "common understanding", and "common interest" in cbr partnerships (green, 2001). various pd approaches aspire to accommodate diverse visions by creating inclusive spaces and tools to facilitate the interaction between designers and stakeholders (e.g. muller, 2002; sabiescu et al., 2014). building a common vision is therefore a primary concern when there is a multiplicity of stakeholders involved in collaboration. this concern combines various aspects related to aligning different sources of knowledge and multiple interests. by coining the term "aligning design intentions", we frame design as being both intentional (driven by subjective agency) and diverse in origin (several people, institutions, and forces are involved). thus, we highlight intention as the critical element that needs to be aligned for common action to take place. knowledge, interests of various stakeholders, and the pressures brought by conceptual and material framings all become dimensions of a process underpinning the alignment of design intentions. we summarize the features and the implications of the concept of "aligning design intentions" in the following points. first, and as the label suggests, it views the transition towards designing action as a collective product of interests and intentional acts. second, it views intentions involved as diverse and shifting. thus, it highlights heterogeneity and tension within and between community groups and in contact with the ci project. third, it highlights action as political, power-laden, and as an issue of confrontation and struggle facing material and social reality. it also implies that enough momentum of intentions pointing in the same direction is required for action to take place. finally, it does not pre-assume a clear division between the "community" and the "researcher" or the "ci project" since the utility of such distinction depends on the particular case under examination. it looks at them as being on the same level of analysis, where everybody is an actor with intention and capacity oriented towards a certain direction, although those capacities are often disproportionate and need to be discussed. the conceptual framework we introduced, combining the concept of "aligning design intentions" with the three analytical categories, is useful to describe how decision-making and planning in ci interventions occurs. it is also useful as a tool to reflect on progress, or to analyse failure. we concretely show this in the analysis and the discussion in the remainder of this article. cases and analysis this section introduces three community-based research projects conducted in syria, brazil and mozambique. the cases have been selected to illustrate diversity in terms of location, socio-cultural context, research goals, methodology, and project structure. we present each case using the three analytical categories underpinning the process of aligning design intentions: knowledge pathways, stakeholder involvement, and conceptual and methodological framing. a summary overview of the three cases is provided in table 1. case 1: oh.diy and the search for better management the first case is concerned with the "open hardware and do it yourself" (oh.diy) group, which brought together volunteers and arab speakers interested in learning and sharing information around hardware making and electronic design. the case of oh.diy (a part of a wider collaborative community) was observed within a project that involved a two year participation and online ethnography that started in december 2011. the study examined how communities and voluntary groups used online social tools to collaborate and what problems they faced (halabi, zimmermann, & courant 2013). the overarching concern of moderators in oh.diy has been to devise an effective approach to govern the group, encourage members to participate, and enrich the movement of open hardware in the arab-speaking sphere. this concern crystallized in different concrete goals derived from members' interests and from their learning through activities and interactions in the group. the case of oh.diy shows how group moderators deliberated on designing and tweaking their online space. knowledge pathways initially, yameni (a founder and a moderator) created a facebook group for oh.diy and invited new members. members started sharing news on open hardware and brainstorming ideas for arduino projects and workshops. members also discussed various topics ranging from recent blog posts on printing robot bodies using 3d printers, through posting questions about the correct way to use a certain transistor, to posting invitations for translating relevant articles. subsequently, yamen suggested creating a space dedicated for organization. he suggested that when the group grew in size, it needed a place to brainstorm, plan, and focus on organizing hardware-making workshops to go beyond sharing information. this insight was driven by his aspiration and observation that the main group was not a suitable place for organizational discussion, and it resonated with the interests and observations of the two other moderators (including the researcher), who joined in the effort. after experimenting with different tools (email, a message group) they decided to use a facebook group for management as well. in the process, they frequently exchanged their reflections on difficulties and best management practices learned through trial and error (with the researcher often basing his reflections on his field notes). this helped aligning a common understanding on how to deal with management and adapt this practice from other groups in the community which were pleased with the results. the moderators then created a meta facebook group for planning and organization, named "oh.diy organization". stakeholder involvement members' involvement in the design of their digital space reflected the structure of the community itself. during the beginnings of oh.diy as a group on facebook, yamen invited close colleagues and friends, including the researcher, to discuss future activities and how they would promote the group. at that early phase, the group was small (10 to 20 members), and members generally took decisions together. as the group grew, members needed an independent space to discuss group management. after communicating over email and text chat, that decision was taken by yamen, the researcher, and sara (another moderator). after experimenting with google groups and teamlab, they created a new facebook group titled "oh.diy management". shortly after, they invited two new members who were highly active in open hardware and in discussions on the main group. since then, the moderators have used the new organizational group for discussions around management and activity planning. this flow shows who was involved in the design activities and when: from having a small oh.diy group (where decisions and design activity were open to all founding members) to creating a dedicated space (where most active members are the ones who mainly deliberate on design before sharing their proposals with the rest of the community). conceptual and methodological framing the researcher, in addition to being personally interested in the group, was involved in studying the practices of its members and their use of online tools. at that time, the researcher was not bound to inducing a certain change or outcome. he started as a participant observant, but as the study progressed, he became actively and equally involved with other members (inspired by collins' notion of "participant comprehension", 1984). this was possible as community members used online social tools and were continuously reflecting and re-configuring their digital environment (halabi, courant, & zimmermann, 2013). data was gathered by capturing screenshots and field notes of online activity and discussions. this allowed the researcher to integrate with the interests of other members, and to adopt local conceptual categories both in collaborating with them and in analysing data (such as the understanding of "community", "collaboration", "management", and "participation"). in the same spirit, when yamen brought up the issue of configuring management, the researcher participated with him and sara in discussing and creating the management group. their decision to adapt facebook for management as well came from their collective experience, time commitment, the existence of the oh.diy group on facebook, and their conviction that facebook is a popular platform in the arab world. the moderators discussed continuously over email and chat, and thus co-constructed viewpoints and co-debated how to interpret the links between causes and effects. therefore, the researcher's conceptions were not qualitatively distinct from those of group members, but since he systematically gathered and analysed data which contributed to a "longer memory" of the group, this allowed him to become a facilitator for reflecting on members' activities and practices (carroll & rosson, 2006). case 2: abc is not easy as 123, the case of keyboards in the favelas of brazil the second case presents a study about the use of icts by favela (urban slums) residents in community technology centres (ctcs). favelas are mostly inhabited by people from marginalised social classes and referred as "subnormal agglomerations" and zones of social abandonment (nemer & reed, 2013). favela residents get poor services for their basic needs, such as health and education, as well as low access to technology and the internet. based on fieldwork from may to october 2013 in the favelas of vitória, brazil, this study highlights the motivations, engagements, and adoption of icts by marginalized people in ctcs, such as telecentres and lan houses. it attempts to understand the experience of the marginalised in ctcs, and how their experience informs the ways we should think about what constitutes empowerment vis-à-vis icts. for this paper, we focus on the experience of favela residents with the computer keyboard. we lay out the users' struggle and bring to light their design suggestions for the qwerty keyboard, which was an alphabetical keyboard (ak). ak has been claimed to be inefficient by several scholars (see granata et al., 2010), yet, such studies were conducted in countries where the participants were already used to the qwerty keyboard. in the favelas, where the people were not raised around western artefacts, people perceived that an ak would improve their experience with the technology. even though designing an ak may not be the most suitable layout in the end, it would certainly be a first step towards a keyboard that could better fit the locals' needs and expectations (nemer et al., 2013). knowledge pathways computers have emerged as symbols of modernity in both the developed and the developing world, and currently are seen as bridges to promote social and digital equalities. because computers have been imported from the centre united states and western europe to nations on the periphery, they are often perceived as sites of resistance and struggle. one of the struggles that favela residents had was with the standard qwerty keyboard, which they found frustrating and upsetting: "i'm trying to learn how to use this thing [computer] but it doesn't make sense, i waste so much time to write [type] something because i can't find the right letters [keys]. it gets in the way of learning this thing [computer], i feel angry and unmotivated. but that's ok because when i find the damn letter [key] i don't push it, i punch it!" (rosana, 47, itararé). this barrier caused anger in the persistent, but even worse it caused avoidance: "i don't have the patience, if i have to write [type] something i ask my son jadson to do so. he comes here and gets everything done quicker than me. i know that this way i won't learn anything, but we have so many problems already." (alice, 39, itararé). the letter keys were not the only issue in the ctc. the arrangement of the numerical keys was often contested by the users: "as you can see, i'm always on the phone and i'm used to these numbers [keys]. it starts up here with the number 1, and then goes down to 9 and then 0. every time i have to write [type] my cellular [phone] on face [facebook], i have to do it two or three times because these numbers on the keyboard are upside-down" (pedro, 16, são benedito). the community was discouraged to make improvements not because of lack of will, but lack of technological expertise and of the rhetoric behind the "untouchable perfect western" technology, which did not allow them to deconstruct the "black box" keyboard. to deeply understand their complaints and ideas, the researcher organized a focus group at the ctc. when asked about how they would improve the keyboard, answers reflected this sense of powerlessness and voicelessness: "we can't change this keyboard", "it came like this, there's nothing we can do", "we are not capable or have the power to change this". after the researcher explained the possibilities of a potential change, they proposed a keyboard in alphabetical order and numbers following the telephone dial pad. stakeholder involvement although the researcher performed an active role in approaching favelas residents, organizing focus groups, and asking questions about their technology use, the findings shown here attempt to represent their genuine experiences. the researcher did not polish participants' voices in order to make them fit into a pre-defined theoretical framework. hence, the study's findings shed light on the perspectives of favela residents in order to bring the experience of those who are usually found at the "bottom of the pyramid."ii the research involved 56 participants all of whom resided in the favelas. 14 in-depth and semi-structured interviews were conducted in each ctc (with an average of 35-60 minutes per interview). the selected users visited the ctcs at least twice a week, 30 were female and 26 male and they fit into two age groups: 15-24 and 24-45. the focus group involved seven participants: four female and three male users of the ctc who volunteered to take part in the meeting. conceptual and methodological framing in order to conduct the study, the researcher used methods drawn from critical ethnography, such as participant observation, interviews and focus groups (nemer, 2015). critical ethnography is a logical way to access cultural understandings about the values that surround technology use. this methodology provides the researcher with a powerful tool to resist domestication and encourages the researcher to not ask only "what is" questions but also "what could be" (denzin, 2001). following this line of thought, the researcher examined the design implications emerging from the community's opinion about, and struggles with the technology in four ctcs. although design goals were not stipulated before engaging with the field, the researcher wanted to understand the experiences of favela dwellers with technology, which were western artefacts, and analyse the potential consequences of such technology in non-western contexts. hence, interviews were shaped to address the nuances of participants' experiences with the artefacts. case 3: the community multimedia centre of ilha de moçambique the last case is based on a project, called re-act, which focused on mozambican community multimedia centres (cmcs), venues including a telecentre and a community radio (unesco, 2004). the project aimed to investigate the social meanings that different stakeholders attribute to cmcs and to design and implement actions to improve their performance. re-act included a research-intensive phase and an action-oriented phase. data gathered in the first phase was meant to inform the second, which involved the design and implementation of customized small budget 18-months long improvement actions for the cmcs considered. knowledge pathways re-act employed a structured approach for both its research-intensive and action-oriented phases. yet, attention was paid to adequately involving local stakeholders through semi-structured interviews and questionnaires with different cmcs stakeholders, photo-elicitation, and observations. finally, the researchers, cmc directors and local communities moved from learning to design by holding collaborative co-design sessions. first, a hands-on co-design workshop was held in maputo, involving re-act researchers, initiating agencies and cmc directors. it consisted of three main sessions, aimed to (i) present from the exploratory phase and give "food for thought" on cmcs weaknesses and strengths; (ii) reflect on outcomes and key design elements (beneficiaries in the communities, their specific needs, the possibilities of the cmcs to help); and (iii) choose one improvement action per cmc and adapt it to each centre's context and infrastructure. second, two co-design workshops were organized at each cmc location to discuss final design details, one involving representatives of the communities and cmcs staff members, and one involving staff of the cmc only. upon analysis, the selection and initial design of the actions for improvement were not determined by data outcomes only, but also by the previous knowledge of cmcs' directors. the case of the cmc of ilha de moçambique is illustrative in this regard. the action involved creating a website to promote sustainable tourism on the island. due to its rich history and significant natural and cultural value, in 1996 ilha de moçambique was declared by unesco a world heritage site. the island has therefore started to arrange infrastructures to host incoming tourists. the local community has shown interest in the preservation of the island and in making tourists attentive to local values, the environment and community development. the director's decision to implement a promotional website for ilha de moçambique managed by the cmc was aligned with the main insights coming from the data, e.g. the need to improve the telecentre part of the cmcs more than the community radio part, and the need to localize and personalize telecentre services according to the specific local reality. yet it also relied heavily on the director's knowledge of the context: the island is a world heritage site, visited by many tourists, it features an active association of little entrepreneurs in tourism, and it has a scarce online presence. this design choice aimed to benefit both the cmc and the local community, by (i) empowering the cmc to provide a novel service for the community, which would both generate new income and create a stronger link between the cmc and the community; and by (ii) promoting the social, cultural, and touristic value of the site, thus potentially attracting new sources of income for the community at large, as well as ensuring its conservation. stakeholder involvement although re-act had clear "top-down" design and implementation goals that determined its knowledge-gathering and design activities, its framing continuously dipped into local knowledge and aimed to encourage local stakeholders to get involved in decision-making processes. the role of local stakeholders became more prominent as the project progressed. researchers were involved in all phases of the project: they designed and implemented the data gathering activities; they pre-analysed the data; they organised workshops and focus groups with local stakeholders; they facilitated the selection of one improvement action per cmc process; they acted as consultants in the consolidation and implementation processes of improvement actions. community members and the directors of the cmcs were involved in three ways: they were interviewed and observed in order to learn and open up perspectives that could only emerge through local input; they participated in a first workshop to brainstorm and decide the actions for improvement to be designed; they were involved in co-design workshops to refine the design of the selected actions. conceptual and methodological framing the project's conceptual and methodological framework resided in the belief that a "design-reality gap" (heeks, 2002) is often at the basis of the failure of information and communication technologies for development (ict4d) interventions, and that the specificities of different local contexts are frequently neglected in "top-down" project designs (heeks, 2008; unwin, 2009). consequently, re-act framed its methodology in the theory of social representations (moscovici, 1961) to give voice to local perspectives without neglecting the expectations of funders and initiating agencies (vannini, 2014). the same way, the strategy of co-design (sanders and stappers, 2008; ramachandran et al., 2008) was chosen to mark the transition from exploration to design, by dipping into local knowledge to foster community ownership and create enduring links between the cmcs and their communities (david et al., 2013). table 1. summary overview of the cases showing the movement of aligning design intentions along the three analytical categories used discussion: aligning design intentions in this section we use the three analytical categories introduced (knowledge pathways, stakeholder involvement, and conceptual and methodological framing) to elaborate on how the transition between exploration and design introduces a set of tensions and challenges tied to the need to align the design intentions involved. this illustrates the use of the framework as analytical tool to juxtapose the cases and bring to surface a richer understanding of the transition towards design. knowledge pathways: aligning intentions involves filtering and reshaping knowledge the transition from an exploratory phase, concerned with data generation, interpretation and reflection upon findings, to selection and decision-making for formulating design goals (and back), is one of the core concerns of this paper. one of the most revealing aspects of this transition is related to the pathways taken to produce, analyse, interpret knowledge and allow it to inform the formulation of design goals. the three cases presented highlight key aspects and landmarks in this process, and illustrate different takes and approaches. re-act generated a large data corpus and a substantial set of findings. the aim of the first co-design workshop was to enable cmc directors to use these findings to inform the design of improvement actions. but did cmc directors really formulate their ideas drawing only on the data they were presented or engaged with? as one of the re-act researchers noticed upon reflection on the data, some of the ideas for improvement actions formulated were hardly related to the insights and data collected in the exploratory phase. cmc directors formulated ideas in a setting where they had been listening to distilled information about communities' perceptions of cmcs, and after engaging with interpretation of visual materials generated by local people. still, the knowledge and impressions of the cmcs and local communities appeared to determine their decisions just as much as, and in some cases even more than, the information that they had been exposed to throughout the co-design workshop. while they could engage with the data in fostered speculation, in some cases it served mostly as a trigger for reflection, allowing them to delve into their own pool of knowledge and experience with their communities and cmcs. in the oh.diy case in syria, the researcher also noticed that a small part of the data collected was used in discussions with community members, and that the formulation of design goals was often based on general impressions and anecdotes of events remembered and practices that seemed to work. these cases indicate as well that only a fraction of the information gathered during the exploratory phase of the research, mainly driven by the researcher's intention, may have direct links with the formulation of design goals. we notice here that the formulation of design goals is necessarily related with aligning or solving tensions between the knowledge(s) of various stakeholders, including researchers/designers and community members. this process often involves filtering and reshaping knowledge that is commonly understood and valued, but may also display a quality of "contagion", by which knowledge produced through formalised and informal events mutually influence each other. due to this, despite the concern for rigor and precision in formulating "scientific knowledge", the knowledge that informs design with communities is often much less comprehensive from a scientific point of view (especially in qualitative research where data tends to be abundant and heterogeneous). this echoes the challenges that researchers find when they attempt to account for and explain the role played by comprehensive field studies in their design decisions (grudin & grinter, 1994; nardi, 1996: 92). when reflecting on the role of knowledge(s) in formulating design goals in the cases described, what appears to happen in effect is a movement close to the spirit of par, where the interests, memories, and experiences of community members are given a central role in formulating design goals and deciding strategic movements towards action (sabiescu, 2010; montero, 2000). this does not undermine the role of data-intensive qualitative field studies and their "thick descriptions" (geertz, 1973) in opening the space for formulating design goals (for a critique on the role of ethnography in design, see dourish 2006). yet, their contribution appears to be less concerned with directly informing design, and more concerned with creating a space for reflection in which community knowledge(s) are encouraged to surface. therefore, data-intensive research methodologies of this type appear to be most promising not as direct sources for informing design, but rather as triggers for engaging with, surfacing and contributing back to communities with knowledge that is already theirs in tacit form. this also highlights the need to deal with the anxiety caused by the difficulty of linking all the details of those thick descriptions with the formulated design goals. stakeholder involvement: following existing community structures as with many community-based design and research projects, the three cases presented could only involve a limited number of community members, with some members participating in certain phases and some in others. at the same time, each project aspired to represent a collective voice of community members, and further instil it in the formulation of design goals. this section examines patterns of stakeholder involvement in relation to two aspects: firstly, related to the role of participating stakeholders in community structures; and secondly related to role of stakeholders in the project itself, particularly their participation in knowledge production, interpretation and decision-making. emulating research and design strategies on existing community structures in each of the three cases, patterns of stakeholder involvement in the processes leading to the formulation of design goals followed pre-existing patterns in the community with respect to roles, responsibilities, hierarchies and power structures. the three projects aimed to access and improve the already existing local realities by respecting and emulating the local hierarchies and contexts. the focus group held in the favelas of vitoria involved frequent users of the ctc, who were the most interested in technology and the different ways to appropriate it, despite their limited knowledge on deconstructing the artefacts. in the oh.diy case, group moderators were the most involved in deciding design goals, followed by active members, which was the same for almost all community activities, not only during design. re-act had a more complex structure, involving three social groups at three different stages: cmc directors, cmcs staff members, and representatives from the beneficiary communities. emulating community structures naturally privileges members with positions of responsibility, or opinion leaders. we suggest that this is not far from the way we choose to follow the structures and rules of communities we are involved in as researchers and practitioners. following these structures and practices is a way to align various intentions and ensure acceptance, collaboration and effectiveness. this can be considered necessary for projects to be accepted and appropriated by the communities, especially when researchers are involved in contexts that are different from theirs (puri et al., 2004). this can be contrasted with works that assume a strong social-activist stance, where researchers choose to position their work in opposition to existing social structures for dismantling them and encouraging change (e.g. see the works of disalvo, 2012 on adversarial design and hirsch, 2008 on contestational design). these works render explicit the friction of going against the interests and intentions of those having a stake in the opposed system, but they also demonstrate the necessity of social mobilization for achieving social change. in other words, instead of solely leaning on existing social structures, "social re-structuring" becomes necessary within the scope of designing action for social change. roles of sakeholders: how much leverage should researchers bring to design? different patterns of community involvement in the process of knowledge production and decision-making can be highlighted in the three cases. yet, by looking closely at how knowledge made its way into design, the role of the community appears strategically relevant in the three projects. in the favelas, the researcher was immersed in the context, and observed possible issues related to technology design and use. this process required validation by community feedback to align his interpretation of the issues related to the keyboard layout with the opinions and experience of the participants. although the researcher intentionally sought not to become a main part in formulating design implications, he actively used his skills to resist domestication by encouraging the participants to think critically about the western artefact (the keyboard) and to propose improvements. in re-act, the research team was responsible for data generation and analysis, for the presentation of the main research outcomes, and for structuring the different levels of involvement and participation of local stakeholders into the design process. the position of cmc directors and the communities gained prominence in formulating concepts and design goals for improvement actions. cmc directors formulated ideas on actions during the workshop in maputo. in later community-based workshops, the role of cmc directors, staff, and local communities superseded that of the re-act researchers in taking design decisions and transitioning to action. taking a comparative perspective, the researcher in the oh.diy case adopted the practices of community members and took the role of a peer assistant for formulating design goals. this minimized the friction for aligning design intentions that would have been more starkly present if new tools and practices to produce and interpret knowledge for design were introduced. indeed, this friction was more felt in re-act and the favela, where researchers appear to have been in privileged positions for data interpretation and decision-making. however, this enabled bringing in expertise and resources to facilitate wide forms of designed action. framing: between free-flow and strong structure the three cases present us with interesting insights about framing. ethnographic approaches have been embraced by two of the projects. in the cases of oh.diy and the favelas, there was a deliberate goal for researchers to lower profile, interfere as little as possible and allow a natural course for knowledge production through active observation and engagement with community members. the oh.diy case, for example, started as unbounded observation taking note of any aspects of community interaction that could potentially be of interest. similarly, the researcher in the favelas made sure to let the participants express their opinions clearly without jumping into early and misleading conclusions. the main goal was to allow participants to formulate or surface their own goals in accordance with their values, and therefore contribute to the expansion of agency (sen, 1999). however, later in the project course, when some leads from the analysis became solid and where the design intentions of various stakeholders needed to be focused and aligned, both the oh.diy and the favela cases moved towards a more structured approach. differently, the re-act case adopted a structured approach and a well-defined theory that guided and fixed landmarks in its methodology for data generation. even if listening to the different local voices was a goal of the project, the theory of social representations and co-design were the lenses that defined what was to be included. the first co-design workshop had well-outlined spaces for presentation of information, discussion, creative engagement, brainstorming and decision-making. co-design was adopted as a method to include local voices and afford another level of community participation. despite the readiness to associate fixed framing and structured approaches with a limitation of design possibilities, it seems that freedom and plentiful choice are not necessarily the hard-line prerequisite for insightful and relevant action. as one of the researchers remarked in his reflections on oh.diy: "when we have a more open way of participating and the researcher keeps a lower profile (i.e. ethnography), we benefit more from the fact that people can express freely and act for themselves. but equally, we cannot tease out things that people would otherwise express if the discussion was structured and targeted." it becomes clear then that in all three projects, transitioning to design involved a shift in activities, tools, resources, and methods in order to focus and align design intentions. structure, creative patterns of engagement, tools and even the limits set can act as triggers to generate ideas or surface needs and goals that were not brought to conscious attention beforehand (for examples on framing design environments with community members see horan & wells, 2005; disalvo et al., 2011; and björgvinsson et al., 2010). conclusion this paper engaged with understanding some of the dynamics of the transition from exploration to design in ci interventions, with a particular interest in how this transition unfolds in participatory projects, or those employing data-intensive exploratory methodologies. we conclude that the central issue faced by community-based projects in their transition from exploration to design is related to aligning various design intentions to derive shared design goals reflecting a common vision towards design. we proposed three analytical categories for examining the transition from exploration to design and the processes underpinning the alignment of design intentions: knowledge pathways, stakeholder involvement, and conceptual and methodological framing. these categories have been used to analyse the knowledge-to-design continuum in three case studies, all of which employed data-intensive qualitative methodologies and had a concern with accommodating local voices in design. the methodological implications resulting from the analysis can be summarised as critical points to consider and reflect upon: first, the difficulty of accommodating the variety of opinions and voices present in a community appears to find a response in the way patterns of stakeholder involvement follow community structures. for instance, emulating community structures implies that leading roles in a new initiative are assigned to people that tend to play leading roles in the community organisation. second, the notion of "knowledge pathways" allowed a close examination and a critical reflection on the role and contribution of researcher-sanctioned, "scientific" knowledge in informing design intentions, in relation to the fluid, dynamic knowledge produced in community interactions. the analysis indicates that this knowledge base, even if dwelling on a large data corpus, is less a direct source for informing design goals, and more an occasion for triggering reflection and stimulating new knowledge production episodes where issues pertinent to the formulation of design goals are revealed. while this observation does not undermine the role of "thick descriptions" in informing community-based design, we note that for the purpose of formulating design goals, the role of large piles of data and information may be on the same level of importance as knowledge emerging from informal events in communities. yet, the process of knowledge production itself appears to be important for aligning design intentions, as it enables the creation of a shared space of interaction and knowledge exchange in which a process of "contagion" occurs. this process of contagion affects the quality of the knowledge produced through both formalised and informal production episodes, and is a crucial step in aligning design intentions and formulating a shared vision. third, the examination of framing approaches and framing judgements revealed that the degree of structure adopted in a certain methodological approach appears to affect the formulation of design goals, by gradually limiting the space of possibilities for taking decisions along the design continuum. this process is a counterpoint to the one of knowledge production. we argue that, while the knowledge that makes its way in design is rarely directly sourced from scientific, researcher-sanctioned methods, the degree of structure imposed upon a project affects significantly the space of possible design solutions that can be envisaged based on this knowledge. therefore, data-intensive research methodologies of this type appear to be most promising not as direct sources for informing design, but rather as triggers for engaging with, surfacing and contributing back to communities the knowledge that is already theirs in tacit form. endnotes i all personal names of community members have been replaced by aliases. ii bottom of the pyramid: the three billion people who live on less than us$2 per day (heeks, 2008) references arnold, m. v, & stillman, l. 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(2012). design democratization with communities: drawing toward locally meaningful design. international journal of sociotechnology and knowledge development, 4(4), 32-43. emergent digital activism: the generational/technological connection fernando adolfo mora professor of management, mbas, international business and health management, st. george’s university, grenada. email: famorac@gmail.com introduction since the year 2011, social and political activism, revolts and demonstrations have spread like fire in different parts of the world and for the most varied reasons. new forms of technology mediated activism have started to emerge and become commonplace alongside traditional media as vehicles to monitor, gather information and denounce atrocities or abuses in situations that encompass natural disasters, social justice protests and strikes, civil wars or election processes. nevertheless, a large body of the literature that attempts to describe the relationship between information and communication technologies and activism fall short in their analysis of current digital activism because their technological references belong to a pre-web 2.0 world. the analysis and reviews take different directions to try to present the influence of the new technologies in the development of social and political movements. discussions are related to the validity of considering internet enabled activism as a new model of participation or not (anduiza, cantijoch & gallego, 2009), or to propose analytical structures that can be applied to understand these new developments (garret, 2006). in a more recent work, earl and kimport (2011) classify internet activism into the categories of e-mobilizations, e-tactics and e-movements as a way to show how internet tools can help traditional movements improve their reach, information handling, petitioning or even, online organizing. however, this classification does not take into account the social software and media that have become so pervasive globally and which have been mastered by a widespread youth culture that, as noted previously, is taking over social and political movements at this time. the idea that social media can foster political participation and social activism is not new. howard rheingold introduced the concept of the smart mob in 2002, referring to a crowd that acts coordinately as a result of the technology-mediated synchronized participation of a number of individuals. basically, the concept requires the development of a culture of participation, a high degree of networking and knowledge sharing, and the use of specialized information and communication technologies. since rheingold's inception of this idea, the wide spread use of mobile devices and ubiquitous computing has grown exponentially, within a maturing web ecosystem that facilitates the interaction, engagement and coordination of crowds towards social and political activism, using a wide variety of interconnected technological devices and systems. in this article, these new forms of participation are called digital activism, following the reasoning given by mary joyce (2010) who argues that it is a sufficiently broad term to encompass many of the other terms that have been used such as cyber-activism, internet activism, online activism, e-activism, or even social media activism, as well as to incorporate the use of the mobile telephone, smart or otherwise, and even systems that collect and process data obtained from sensors, cameras and devices connected within networks. the purpose of this article is to review the literature on current digital activism by considering first some of the systems and techniques that have been used to promote digital activism. many of the recent examples of digital activism involve an emerging, computer savvy, networked, "youth culture" that, as lynch (2011) points out, "communicates differently, interacts differently, and has different expectations of the public sphere compared to previous generations" in these countries. therefore, this paper also attempts to connect from a review of the literature how some of these new youth cultures make use of technology mediated tools for social interaction, crowd engagement and participation, through a networked and apparently leaderless social and political activism. from the standpoint and interest of community informatics (ci) research (gurstein, 2007) this is quite important because it allows to see how new groups and communities of users have been empowered to become active political participants, through their access to digital tools, and the creation of networks of knowledge and participation where know-how is disseminated . the last section of the article examines three cases of digital activism that evolved into mobilization and new forms of organization, which occurred during the period 2010-2011 when this study was conducted. those cases where reports on the successful use of social media to create a new virtual public spheres for protest and denunciation, which evolved on the mobilization of people into actual localized demonstrations, that contradicted traditional hierarchical political channels, and which seemed spontaneous and leaderless were chosen. the purpose is to show how in quite different contexts, with varying degrees of openness, accessibility, needs, aims actors, vulnerabilities and capabilities, develop multiple strategies to induce mobilization and produce effective and original digital activism practices. technology for social and political participation the ecology of social media has grown to a point where social interaction, conversation and participation have been enhanced to a degree not experienced before. technology allows the creation of knowledge within a certain context and also provides the channels for building the relationships and connections through which this knowledge can flow. this new space takes the form of a complex network with nodes (actors), links (relationships), clusters (groups, communities) and bridges (inter-cluster connections). thus, network creation and reconfiguration becomes the most important enabling tool for social and political participation. knowledge is embedded within these networks; the actors just have to find out "who" has it and "where" it is located in the realm of the net (siemens, 2006). therefore, current developments in digital activism have to be viewed through the mirror of the technology that is available for their development. since around 2004 the term web 2.0 was coined to designate the new developments and more specifically the new mentality of the web, based on information sharing, collaboration, participation, co-creation, inter-operability and a higher level of digital communications (o'reilly, 2009). the web 2.0 draws its power from the social interactions that occur through many different devices (computers, portable devices, servers, appliances, sensors) that can connect to the web by means of different channels. thus, a form of self-propagating social networking becomes central, which allows the spontaneous formation of very active communities that possess collective intelligence, expressed through user-generated content in variety of forms. for example, tagging of content is left to users within social networks, which allows for new classification and search systems based on the wisdom of people. even, new software can be peer-produced through open source (os) programming, fostering constant innovation and entrepreneurship. also, the active participation of users as co-developers allows the improvement and continuous update of applications. web software modules can be reused in user tailored new configurations or mashups, giving rise to new powerful services. by the same token, collection and management of data generated by social networking and by the use of web applications and services becomes fundamental for increasing connectivity and interaction, adding, as a consequence, more intelligence to the network. mary joyce (2011) presents a framework to classify digital technology in the current web ecosystem according to seven activist functions: documenting, broadcasting, mobilizing, co-creating, synthesizing, protecting and gathering and transferring resources from her observations of the recent egyptian uprising in early 2011. documenting encompasses the desire to tell the story, to inform, as well as to transmit some ideas about the social movement in process. blogging is one of the widest used tools for the creation of a narrative and discourse for social and political activism. multi-media tools are available for documentation purposes, from audio recordings to video clips such as youtube channels. in many occasions blogging initiates a connecting phase when the blogger leads the reader to an activist social network in facebook or twitter. broadcasting takes the form of one-to-many or many-to-many using digital communication systems in order to share information about protests, meetings, human rights violations, crisis and evolution of movement actions. cell phone text messaging; twitter microblogs; facebook groups; and even real-time video transmissions are among the most popular ways of broadcasting a social or political movement. in many cases broadcasting is conducive to mobilization using the above-mentioned social media technologies combining them, whenever possible, with traditional media such as radio and tv. co-creation requires collaborative technologies such as wikis, communities of practice or decision making tools, generally used by more private sub-communities participating in coordination and organizational tasks of the social or political movements. synthesizing the large volume of data and information gathered is an important step for historical and legal reasons in the long run, tools allow simple means of reporting by posting comments, messages or multi-media information, aggregation of content into a searchable database, the creation of mashups of different web 2.0 facilities, most commonly in the form of situational maps. protecting technology helps activist to avoid censorship and state surveillance. one recent example of this was the hacking done to circumvent internet blockage during the egyptian protests in january 2011, to combine standard telephony with other tools to make audio phone recordings available as twitter messages. finally, technologies for crowdsourcing fund raising can be used for transferring resources to finance movements. as it appears, social connectivity contributes to the development of altruist communities where resources flow in an organic way. chi et al. (2010) view three interacting categories for the understanding of the characteristics of technology mediated social participation (tmsp): the context of social or political participation, people as social agents, and the tools that enable the participation. this framework is very interesting from the standpoint of community informatics because when we analyze each one of these categories, and their interactions, in a particular situation we can see more clearly the role that digital systems and new social media play in certain situations, as well as understand better the characteristics of the social actors that would be engaged more easily through technology mediated activism and the social processes that are involved. for example, choice of a particular digital technology for social participation will depend on whether the social movement is being instilled within a highly closed country where media is constantly monitored or if the application involves mobilization to a designated physical space, or if it requires widespread participation like in cases of election monitoring and disasters. similarly, issues about access to digital infrastructure and devices and mastery of programming methods and computer hardware come into question. situations where people have access to advanced digital communication systems are prone to digital activism practices. whereas there are social crisis where the use of sophisticated technology is limited to a more educated and wealthier elite and, in order to increase participation, perhaps older methods such as sms's have to be integrated with more current methods. therefore, understanding the context of socio-political activism becomes fundamental to provide the appropriate technologies according to the situation being faced. the second category proposed by chi et al. (2010) relates to how people interface with social participatory systems as well as to how individuals interact with each other through these technologies, areas that are still under development from practical and theoretical standpoints. very few models of interaction between users and social participating systems have been proposed. preece and shneiderman (2009) have formulated a framework that shows four successive levels of social participation: reading, contributing, collaborating, and leading in which the number of individuals moving from one phase to the other diminishes progressively. the framework could help explain social participation in some technological tools such as wikipedia where a somewhat linear progression of participation is expected. nevertheless, we find it quite limited for digital activism that results from a variety of non-linear processes among which social networking is the chief catalyst for user involvement in social or political movements. in a study of activists around the world brodock, joyce and zaeck (2009) found that social networks are the preferred point of entry or gateway of digital activism. therefore it seems obvious that the favored initial tool for activists is the creation of connection or entry points to the movement's social network, generally in the form of a facebook or twitter group. in this case relationships, and the way to access them, become more important than spotless web pages with captivating pictures and well-thought content. this fact also may help to prove that, in some regards, the dynamics of digital activism remain similar to that of traditional methods, which depend heavily on relationship building to attract new participants. danah boyd (2010) has introduced the term networked publics to refer to online social networks, as spaces for social, cultural or civil interaction, beyond close friends and family, which are created through technological means and perceived as a collective that emerges with its own characteristics resulting from the interplay of people, technology and practices. in other words, networked publics are dynamic spaces, which require constant engagement of the participants with streams of information and new interactions. again, this concept is particularly important for community informatics (ci) because it refers to the construction of new spaces of interaction through digital means. in boyd's work she points out to six characteristics of digital information, which we think play an important role in the development of social networks as networked publics for digital activism and which have made social networks so pervasive in current social and political movements practices. the first characteristic proposed by boyd (2010) is the persistence of online information once it has been created, in the form of stored files that can be opened at any time by anyone. this is the power of sites like blogger and wordpress that makes blogging simple and available to anyone, and which provided the means for grassroots journalism, or the case of youtube which gives social network participants the possibility of creating and posting audiovisual content. the replicability property offers the possibility of duplication, transfer and modification of content by participants of the social network. for example, the now old-fashioned "forward" of emails has been surpassed by the retweet tool of twitter, where no longer is necessary to send the content but a shortened url with the web address of it. this is also the logic of rss (real simple syndication) feeds, which allow the automatic generation of content derived from other sites or blogs in the web. in third place, there is also the extraordinary potential for the multiplication of participant's visibility through the scalability of generated content. this entails channels or interconnections through complex and many times massive networks where all kinds of media (serious or otherwise) are scaled. someone's personal network of twitter "followers", through their respective social networks, can amplify a simple 140-character tweet many times, reaching unimaginable audiences. one of the ways to achieving scalabality in networked publics is through the searchability property of social networks, which allows participants to find content, to be found by others and to reconfigure the social network in a very dynamic way. this is what tagging content does; it leaves a mark such that the content and its producer can be located in the web by means of powerful search algorithms and data mining techniques. the last qualities, mobility and locatability (boyd fuses these two in one word, (dis)locatability, 2008), are introduced by the pervasive presence of mobile technologies among social network participants, allowing them to be active in networked publics regardless of their physical location (mobility), giving at the same time the possibility of providing precise information of their whereabouts (locatability). castells (2009) takes the concept of technology-mediated communities of practice and the networked culture to explain the origin of a digital activism. castells sees in these mobilizations the presence of individuals that having constructed their on-line identities with values, interests, practices that transcend traditions, loyalties and hierarchies, seek in like-minded communities a place for personal expression and also a trench to resist oppression, to protest against injustices and to dream of a better world. thus, web 2.0 social networking sites serve as connecting places of these communities, creating some class of third place, where frustrations, ideals, reactions against institutions, support to causes can be expressed and shared without restrictions to peers. moreover, if individuals are connected through mobile devices and smart phones, the private resistance and disobedience sentiments can be synchronized into the form of a large mobilization that will certainly surpass planning and predictions, into what castells has termed an instant insurgent community. reinghold's smart mob, which etling, faris and palfrey (2010) define as a digitally organized social or political demonstration that impacts at a certain time and space trying to call attention upon a defined cause. the combination of the scalability and locatability properties of social networks make mobs possible and effective. in a relatively short time, we have witness the widespread use of microblogging for digital activism. twitter became a rather popular and ubiquitous technology, easily implemented in smart phones, which from the contextual category standpoint, can be used as broadcasting tool in situations where traditional media is controlled or censored. in different situations that have been widely reported, people has found microblogging as a tool simple to learn, requiring minimal effort to produce information, and quite useful to report incidents and serve as simple means of citizen journalism. twitter enables fast flow of information through a network of followers by amplifying the information cascade through practices like retweeting or tagging. it also highlights topics through the trending topic feature making certain flows of information more visible at a certain point in time, making it very useful for digital activism (lotan et al., 2011). also, twitter has changed dramatically the way journalism is now practiced by increasing the number of sources of information and the characteristics of its flow during events. however, when applied in large-scale crowdsourced social participation systems, the amount of information that twitter produces is so large that sometimes what is important, relevant and current can be buried within thousands of messages that become noise. thus, new methods, based on artificial intelligence, are being researched, designed and implemented such that the signal-to-noise ratio of the social information gathered is increased and the purpose of the social participation system is realized. one recent example is swift riveri a software platform that performs semantic analysis, filtering and classification of real-time data from different sources, improving the quality of the information being originated in the social networks associated with the participatory system. the overflowing amount of digital information generated online is growing exponentially and will certainly continue to grow. the problem for digital activism is how to give meaning to these vast amount of data that is generated from tweets, blogs, sms's, wikis, news feeds, comments, tags, photos, videos, status updates, content in participatory systems (links, stories, notes, pictures, etc.) and so on. organization of this information as well as methodologies for its retrieval require curatorial tools to help activists "sift through and make sense of these massive content streams in the immediate term while also helping to manage and preserve information in the long term" (liu, 2010, 19). one aspect that cannot be overlooked in this analysis and which is related not only to the tools but also to very basic aspects such as access to broadband internet connectivity is what has been termed as the digital divide, which in this case involves not only computer skills but also the possibility of successfully accessing networks and communities of practice through the internet. in the case of digital activism perhaps the most important aspect to consider is what van deursen and van dijk (2010) define as "strategic internet skills" through which refer to the ability of the activist to use the internet for very specific goals, which implies a certain savyness or hacking capabilities that often goes way beyond basic usage. this form of digital divide may well account for the lower age of the digital activists, and for being predominantly male and well educated middle class individuals (rice and haythornthwaite, 2006) as will be also consider in the following section. however, it is also important to state form a technological standpoint that cell phone technology and the development of 3g/4g access to the internet could lead to improve access in certain regions of the world like india and africa which have very underdeveloped standard phone landlines or cable tv deployments. some important developments in term of activist technology have come from countries like kenya where the technology has had to adapt to what is available there, in this case the simple cell phone text message. finally, it is important to point out that the digital divide may be due to political control by authoritarian regimes such as in the case of the middle east, in which case access to this technology advances very slowly. a digital youth culture in the new young cohorts around the world, there is a complex interaction between the local and the global. the local may be characterized by the lived experiences of social hardship, intolerance, corrupt politics, poverty and religious fundamentalism. while the global exposes young people to new cultures, technologies, widespread connection to peers all over the world, diversity, openness, new perceptions of life and consciousness about social issues. these new digital activists have a global networked perspective without loosing grasp of their local realities, struggles and cultures. they view activism as globalised, networked, open, collaborative and shaped by new information and communication technologies (juris and pleyers, 2009). throughout the world local cohorts of young people have been raised familiarized with the language of computers, the internet, video games, information management and sharing, social networks, and specially mobile phones. nevertheless, although internet penetration has been growing faster in recent years, prenky's digital native definition (2001) as someone with a different way of thinking and information processing and technology savvy would have very many different tonalities at an international level. palfrey et al. (2011) point out to three aspects that would affect the experience of younger generations of growing up immersed in a digital culture: access to digital technology, digital literacy in a connected world, and digital engagement for socializing, learning, creation, business and activism. therefore a simplistic generalization of youth into some kind of "global digital native" stereotype is not possible, because the degrees of access, literacy and engagement are quite different from nation to nation and each case may have to be considered according to the state of advance of these aspects in a particular country. in spite of that, it is possible to affirm that the general global trend is an intense engagement of youth with digital technologies for entertainment, socializing, learning, participating, creating and story telling. three large categories that describe degrees of intensity and sophistication in the engagement of youth with digital media termed: hanging out, messing around and geeking out have been recently suggested by researchers (ito et al., 2010). through these activities young cohorts connect with each other in order to share the contents and media that make them different from other generations. these practices allows young people to develop their own discursive practices, their particular way to tell their story and describe the world, to connect and share, that make the digital generation conscious of its singularity, something that aroldi (2009) has termed a "generational semantic". we can see all of this at work in varying degrees of expression in different examples of current digital activism all over the world. hanging out refers to the process of getting involved in digital social interactions of various kinds such as meeting, communicating, exchanging, sharing and playing using social media. although deemed as irrelevant, superficial or banal (buckingham, 2008) by many, it constitutes the basis for the development of a networked identity for digital youths. as hammelman and messard (2011) point out, participation in social media contributes to youth identity formation by exposing them to the world culture at large and to different expressions of diversity. this in turns empowers them to voice opinions to friends and acquaintances in social networks, participate in social causes and explore what their peers are doing in the rest of the world. all of this is done through the non-threatening and friendly environment that social media provides, for the most part far out of direct control from family and governments. although previous reports from the usa and other developed nations had shown that only a minority of young people were being empowered to engage in social participation or political activism (buckingham, 2008), the events of 2011 in different parts of the world have started to show signs of a maturation of youth cohorts in their engagement with social media for digital activism. as it is well known, one of the most popular social media environments that provide facilities for connecting, constant communication, adding content, finding new friends and other simple community features is facebook. for some theorists, social networking sites such as facebook help digital youths in their identity construction by relationally situating the individual among a network of peers using visual resources (photos and videos), cultural content preferences (links, causes supported, events), some explicit statements (status updates) and a variety of social ties and associations (friendships) (miller, 2011). this idea of being connected, networked, relationally linked and also relationally defined, is what makes facebook powerful and also what brings the idea of collective identification, cooperation, participation and crowdsourcing content generation into fruition. the next degree of involvement of youth with digital technology as proposed by ito et al. (2010) is the idea of "messing around", which for the authors represent a more intense, social-media centric form of engagement. this requires a deeper understanding of social connectivity, on how to implement blogs or wikis and a more technical background on the production of graphical material, videos or photography manipulation. similarly, the involved digital youth have a broader spectrum of web 2.0 technical choices to pursue his/her interests, and also communities and interests groups are formed to support this level of involvement. the last stage of involvement of youth with digital technology requires more technical skills, continuous access to digital media, specialized knowledge and connection with specialist networks. this is the world of the young hacker who engages with software, gadgets, games, digital video, and communication systems in a proficient and creative way. it is not surprising that the ideas of sharing, openness, decentralization, free access, cooperation and freedom that have characterized the so-called hacking movement have found in the web 2.0 a natural medium for its development. hackers are considered a social movement that takes advantage of their mastery of technology, creativity and ability to innovate and solve technical problems to promote social change (breindl, 2010). by geeking out, tinkering with technology, building internet mashups and being exposed to newer digital media young hackers have contributed decisively to the newer forms of digital activism that are predominant nowadays. the generational/technological connection in the previous sections we have explored how digital activism, within the current social media ecology available in the web, can eventually evolve into practical activism and how world youth culture has prepared itself to take advantage of this technology-based ecosystem in order to advance their protests, causes, solutions, from virtuality into real-life situations. we can see how a generation that has been regarded as mostly oriented to seemingly ludic trivial tasks (such as getting together, gaming, browsing, navigating, sharing, messaging, posting, listening, searching and engaging with media just for fun), through its familiarity and expertise with the use and design of social media technologies, disrupts and transforms traditional activism by providing new environments for relationships, creativity, participation, organization, mobilization and social leadership emergence. it is not difficult to imagine how these practices transform activism going from the virtual space to physical spaces using non-conventional and as feixa, pereira and juris (2009) put it even highly "theatrical", expressive and creative forms of protest and demonstration. let's take a look at some recent examples and how the connection between these younger generations and technology is made in each case and how it facilitates digital activism. a. from clicktivism to practical mobilization using van laer and van aelst (2010) four-quadrant classification, it is possible to classify digital activism using two dimensions. one of them measures the dependency of activism upon digital tools. activism can then be digitally supported, when it uses the same traditional methodologies of social movements, somehow enhanced by the new communication media. on the other hand it would be digitally based if its methods are novel and require the use of telecommunication networks and sophisticated computer software. the second dimension measures the relative participation threshold based on risk, commitment, effort, or intensity of the digital activism practice. this serves as a way to differentiate between relatively simple, low-risk and inexpensive practices like signing an on-line petition all the way to participating in a smart mob involving a concentration in a certain square in a particular day, which could entail a possible confrontation with the police. the more acquainted with participatory and social media tasks and tools available in the web ecology spectrum, such as making connections, adding comments, tagging photos and videos, sharing information, expressing opinions, the more likely an individual will engage in social or political on-line activities without the burden of rigid hierarchical lines and the heavy ties and loyalties that political proselytism produce. however, it is still unclear how these new forms of digitally enhanced social interaction, engagement and participation stop being just the more comfortable, effortless, even lazy, asynchronous "clicktivism" or "slacktivism" (morozov, 2009; rotman et al., 2011), go beyond the awareness stage and translate into synchronous, face-to-face, time and space bounded sophisticated ways of mobilization, demonstration, protest, or social auditing actions. in this regard, let's look at a situation which shows how the path from clicktivism to practical activism can be navigated through digital activism methodologies. an unprecedented heat wave towards the end of july and beginning of august 2010 hit russian territory. more than 500 forests were ignited across the country with large lines of gigantic flames, killing over 50 people, destroying homes and thousands of trees. in cities like moscow, unusually high temperatures and the smoke produced by the fires were blamed for nearly doubling its typical mortality rate. many sources pointed to government negligence and ineptitude to control the fire. in particular, the dismantling of the once huge soviet-era state forestry service with more than 70,000 rangers and 200,000 additional workers that protected about 775 million hectares of russian forests as well as the introduction of new regulations that atomized forest supervision (kirilenko and sindelar, 2010). as fires spread uncontrollably, the russian blogosphere with its associated communities and social networks started to expose the failure of the government in handling the disaster. nevertheless, as asmolov (2010) has pointed out, the russian online community had to go beyond denunciation and clicktivism to produce practical alternatives in those situations were the government was lacking. this was only possible because there were established trusted bloggers and networks that engaged each other in a highly complex interaction, enabled by the increased connectivity that current technology provides, leading to a self-organized form of coordination that somehow replaced the government in the midst of the crisis. it is important to notice, as a recent study by etling et al. (2010) has indicated, that the russian blogosphere is a peer-produced space which, so far, has had very limited government control, becoming an open space for the discussion of public concerns in a way that is conducive to active political and social mobilization. as incredible as it may seem, russian bloggers started to respond in practical ways by locating and buying firefighting equipment, training volunteer firefighters, raising money from donors for the purchasing of all kinds of items and sending them to the different locations were aid was needed. new leaders emerged from the ad-hoc network of bloggers and related social networks that originated. according to etling et al. (2010), the russian blogosphere can be considered a social network system that combines the typical features of open blog platforms (e.g. blogspot, wordpress) with features of closed social network services (e.g. facebook, myspace) including 'friends,' communities, groups, and different kinds of file sharing options. this may have had facilitated the diffusion of the crisis response but at the same time it created an overwhelming amount of information and requests that needed response. in order to expand the number of reporters and information management beyond the capacity of regular blogs and social networks that were actively reporting the situation, a coordination crisis mapping platform was deployed by the russian on-line it community in response to a petition by some bloggers. the platform was a crowdsourced crisis mapping implementation in russian of ushahidi, named help map (author, 2011). it was basically implemented to aggregate the reports from those in need responding to the basic question: "what is needed?" and the reports from those that were in the capacity of providing help, by responding: "i wish to help". offers of help included transportation, food, clothing, homes and many others. in parallel to that, a coordinating center was activated and other civil society organizations like the orthodox church and volunteer groups were included in this self-organized network of social actors. the response of the on-line community revealed the altruistic potential of the russian society, especially because of the timid or ineffective official response. in this process, digital activists and internet users in general took a lot of responsibilities in their shoulders in a critical moment where they felt that the russian government was failing to provide the required coordination and the help needed to the population. some sort of "virtual self-organized emergency command" emerged from the synergy between an existing dedicated and trusted online community whose discourse served as the main motivator for the response, a leadership that sprung organically from the already existing social networks, and the rapid deployment of a coordination center based on help map. this provided an alternative form of governance when it was most needed, supplanting in many instances governmental functions. the situation described integrates context, technology and people in a complex way, which is still difficult to model with our current understanding of the interaction of these factors. b. from digital spaces into the square in january 2011, a rising younger egyptian generation was perhaps the main contributor for the upending of hosni mubarak's cruel regime that had been in power for over 30 years, probably longer than the ages of those involved in the revolts. according to wael ghonim, a young egyptian google executive turned into one of the main activists, the revolt belonged first "…to the internet youth. then it belonged to the egyptian youth. then the revolution belonged to all the people of egypt" (joyce, 2011). linda herrera (2011) called this egyptian generation the "facebook generation" or the "facebook rebels", because according to her analysis of the situation of youth in egypt since 2006, it would be hard to imagine that the uprising had happened as it did without a decisive participation of these young cohorts with the tools they employed to subvert the established government. by january of 2011 there were 4.7 million of facebook users in egypt, 78% of which were 15-29 year old youngsters, representing a penetration of only 5.5% with respect of the total population and 22% of all facebook users among the arab countries, within a system with a relatively high internet freedom ranking according to the arab social media report of the dubai school of governance (2011). according to the same report, in the first quarter of 2011 almost 2 million new egyptian facebook users were added in egypt, one of the fastest growing rates in the world. making use of this emerging public space for social and political protest, the facebook page "we are all khaled said" was created as a protest channel to bring justice for the crime of this young citizen journalist. a day of rage and protest against torture, corruption, poverty and unemployment was organized for january 25th (2011), which at least 85,000 people pledged on facebook to attend to the event. additionally, social networks were sparked with changes in profile pictures with egyptian flags and messages inviting to the demonstrations and status updates with allusive slogans. the original protest became a series of protests and civil resistance that extended for several weeks until finally, mubarak resigned on february 11th, 2011. the whole situation gained international attention through facebook, twitter feeds and youtube videos in spite of attempts from the government to infiltrate social media and shut down internet connectivity. the ensuing strategy of the revolutionaries can be summed up in the words of an activist, quoted by philip howard (2011) saying: "we use facebook to schedule the protests, twitter to coordinate, and youtube to tell the world." many wonder how thousands of people who seemed to be under a mass state of apparent lethargy rose and inspired by the youth, took the streets in a peaceful way even in the midst of repressive state forces. but there was a long process by which north african youth learned how to use web 2.0 tools to bypass state censorship. hammelman and messard (2011) describe how this deeper involvement with social media exploring and production was progressively fostered in egypt prior to the uprisings in january of 2011. one example of this is the april 6 youth movement (a6ym) which, as early as 2008, had organized a social media based demonstration that attracted quite a few online supporters but which did not have an important repercussion in the streets. this group was also involved in the we are all khaled said facebook page, which reached a membership of 350,000 in january 2011 (khamis and vaughan, 2011). also, a form of polychromatic blogging had started to develop in egypt since 2004, allowing the dissemination and analysis of ideas and the evaluation of the social and political situation of the country. according to khoury (2011) this process was necessary to change people's perceptions of politics, to awake consciences, and to foster a renewed open debate by means of a space for expression that was not completely understood by governmental censorship. young people had the great responsibility of crafting a social discourse using a fresh and original language with a voice that was able to captivate thousands of dormant egyptians. all of these youth virtual sites containing articles, reports, opinions, images, links, and videos, became an alternative to the more traditional, state controlled and non-appealing traditional media and a form of digital activism that was necessary before moving to real spaces and more confrontational situations. blogging and social media based citizen journalism intensified during the revolution in tahrir square and other egyptian cities. twitter became one of the most important media for professional and citizen journalism reporting, with information flowing back and forth from bloggers, journalists, activists, individuals and a variety of organizations tweeting or retweeting messages (lotan et al., 2011). the need to hack or geek out the technological means available, in the midst of possible regime intervention in the media ecology, required less spontaneity and more preparation with the help of international groups and activists. workshops to learn about strategies and techniques for social media support of non-violent political change used in other countries were conducted during the months before the climax of the revolution in january of 2011 (hammelman and messard, 2011). young egyptian activists were trained in video camera operation and steady shooting, video production, mobile phone photographing in stress situations and basic audio engineering principles for open public spaces (ishahini, 2011). in another effort to gain digital media expertise, young activists also learned how to use digital tools to maintain the anonymity of users while online, in order to circumvent the fact that the government closely monitored the internet, social media sites and mobile networks and, in many occasions, censored the flow of information (khamis and vaughn, 2011). the egyptian revolt showed how a new generation that had matured politically and technologically in a very short time, took the historical opportunity to make their voices heard. these youth groups were highly organized in loose networks, as those enabled through social media applications, and which do not resemble classical political parties or classical movement structures. this organic movement was so strong that it literally dragged the traditional opposition groups and parties into the streets, following the movement and initiatives taken and led by the youth (traboulsi, 2011). new expressions of collective leadership emerged from these new cohorts that had proven a way of motivating, reaching and mobilizing everyone, without distinctions of age, social status, religion and gender. although social networks were the sparks of the egyptian uprising, filiu (2011) asserts that it was the leaderless dynamic of the organization, which was the key to the revolution, much more than the social networks. however, the evidence collected thus far seem to show that digital technology was instrumental in facilitating this organizational structure, although this needs to be demonstrated. c. beyond weak ties some critics have surfaced recently that undermine the role of on-line social networking as an effective channel to produce real commitment to a cause and therefore mobilize activists from their comfortable computer rooms into the messiness, often painful, and usually bloody face of street protests and long term revolutions (gladwell, 2010). however, this is based on pure observation, perhaps relaying in a romantic view of past movements that had other methodologies to transform weak ties into stronger ones. perhaps more detailed and well-designed studies of some of the cases might lead to surprising results. for instance, harlow (2011) interviewed leaders and analyzed the contents of two facebook pages that were created to protest the killing of a prominent lawyer in guatemala in 2009. in a country with one of the lowest internet penetration rates in the world, the social network based movement was able to mobilize more than 50000 protesters into the streets, a movement that led to the creation of an organization that has continued its work as pro-justice and anti-violence group. as in the egyptian revolution and the guatemalan protest, in the case of the spanish indignados protests in may 2011, these insurgent communities based on the existing social networks of individuals and the new connections that are produced through the different platforms, emerge and become central to the movement. calvo, gómez-pastrana and mena (2011), conducted surveys, interviews and focus groups among protesters that were part of the movement. results show that of 250 surveyed, about 75% came to the march of may 15th (emblematic of the movement) through facebook, tuenti (a spain-based, invitation-only private social networking site) or twitter. it is also interesting to quote from this study that only 35% of responses gave to on going face-to-face friendships a relevant role in the access to the information about the march, which means that the vast majority of participants got it from their on-line social networks. this is important because the preliminary study stresses the role that weak ties (granovetter, 1973) play in web-enabled social networking as a way of connecting someone's personal intimate network or community with others that can have similar social and political interests, integrating them into a larger social realm, thereby expanding the horizons of individuals. as tufekci (2011) has expressed, large pools of weaker ties are crucial to being able to build robust networks of stronger ties, internet social media is a key to this process. we can see the power of weak ties in networking quite clearly in the indignados movement in spain, which is also an interesting example of the role that social media plays into moving someone from low risk activism to a more involved status, like attending a simple march at first, and then committing to camp out in puerta del sol in downtown madrid for several weeks. according to haro barba (2011) what has been called the "15m movement" belongs to a series of social protests in spain in the last five years, which have relied heavily on digital tools to organize and call for action and demonstrations in designated public spaces. this is the case of the 14-m movement right after the march 11, 2004 bombings in madrid to protest the manipulation of the information and which led to the subsequent lost of j. m. aznar of the presidential elections (castells, 2009). these protests have given birth and invigorated what haro barba calls multitudes vigilantes (vigilante crowds), which have a strong web presence that allows a networked, self-organized and plural horizontal environment for interaction, knowledge creation and the generation of bursts of activity which go beyond the online realm into public spaces. these digital activists address causes related to issues of justice, human rights and social inequalities, that traditional spanish political parties, with their hierarchical power structures, internal struggles and disinterest, do not seem to be capable of engage well with. in december of 2010 fabio gandara, a 26-year old lawyer, and two friends started a facebook group called juventud en acción and a blog (elola, 2011). by january they expanded their proposal with another facebook group to serve as umbrella for individuals, bloggers, ngo's, activists groups, citizenship movements and so on. through active discussion in the groups created, they ended up with a web site called dry-democracia real ya (true democracy now) where new individuals and organizations joined backing up the initiative. by mid-march the first small face-to-face encounters were started; later, in may 2nd a meeting with 300 activists was called in the retiro park in madrid. more organizations with suggestive names such as juventud sin futuro (youth with no future), no les votes (do not vote for them) or asociación de desempleados (unemployed association), added their url's to the dry platform. the self-organization of the protest converged quickly and in may 15th an estimated 80000 indignados took the streets in different cities across spain. in the following days all kinds of people started to gather and camp out at puerta del sol, especially tech-savvy young people between 19 and 30 years old, with university degrees, but for the most part unemployed or underemployed, and frustrated with traditional politics. in the mean time, twitter was used as a broadcasting media for those involved with hashtags that related to the camp out suchs as: #spanishrevolution, #acampadasol, #nonosvamos, #democraciarealaya, etc. one of the interesting things about this progression, from few activists in the digital domain to a full blast mobilization, is the interplay of internet resources, on-line social networks and offline traditional activist techniques where weak ties end up strengthening through on-line interaction at first, followed by face-to-face meetings, concentrations, assemblies, projects and so on. a very important question here is how those who mobilize political resources through digital media are able to mobilize those without these resources. in wael ghonim testimonial book revolution 2.0 it is possible to see the close relationship between digital media and traditional forms of political activism, especially the use of the streets and open spaces, use of public meetings, communication with political parties and independent activists. which leads to the conclusion that these important interconnections cannot be neglected and depend exclusively on digital media. conclusions throughout this article it has been shown that it is difficult to understand digital activism without a deeper comprehension of the dynamics of cyberspace, the immediacy that it provides, the amplification and multiplicative properties that social networks possess, and the way that knowledge is created, stored and shared in an incremental and dynamic way. moreover, it was argued and shown with recent cases that the new generational cohorts are ready for digital mobilization and active participation in current social and political events due to their mastery of technology and their desire for openness, freedom and diversity that they experience in digital culture and which leads to aspirations of a more just world and the distrust of hierarchies and command chains. in spite of the digital divide present in many world societies, these global youth cohorts have been molded in the culture of networking, participation and creativity that social media provides, thanks to their access to the internet and to the widespread use of cell phones. networking and subsequent mobilization have been considered fundamental to social movements whether they are online or offline, therefore the results experienced in the egyptian uprising and the spanish protests have awakened the interest in improving digital mobilizing methods or structures (techniques, methods, systems, devices, software) that facilitate collective action such that he ideas of cooperation, wisdom of crowds, collective intelligence, participatory cultures, and networked leadership can flourish in a variety of new organizational forms, which are determined by the context where digital activism is exercised. technological developments will come through the work of committed individuals that had been called "movement entrepreneurs" (meier, 2011). these digital activist developers, sort of socially conscious hackers and networked leaders, will continuously innovate the growing arsenal of enabling tools with new ideas and implementations. they will come from the cohorts of young activists that have been engaged in the many recent social and political uprisings and demonstrations, and certainly will produce a continuous stream of innovative ideas to improve the arsenal of digital activists. however, it is important to stress that the developers and the users are the ones who determine whether a certain digital technology will be employed for good or evil purposes. in other words, in spite of the fact that the web 2.0 has develop from the ideas of openness, collaboration, participation and social networking, not necessarily it will automatically produce similar effects in political activism. digital activists can have a wide variety of expressions, depending on his/her political orientation, which could even include anti-democratic or terrorist activities. one aspect that has not been considered in this article, and which might be worth of extensive research, is the development by governments of digital technology in order to counteract digital activism, as well as the rise of a certain forms of sponsored pro-governmental digital media. however, what is very important to consider is the amount of effort and funds that authoritarian regimes spend in ways to control digital activism. from the simplest form of shooting down internet performed by mubarak in january of 2011, to more entertaining ways such as the venezuelan government orchestrated overnight production of trend topics in tweeter, to highly sophisticated control schemes of internet surveillance technology used by china and russia and which is little by 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(2010). internet and social movements action repertoires: opportunities and limitations. information, communication and society, 13(8), 1146-1171. first mile challenges to last mile rhetoric: exploring the discourse between remote and rural first nations and the telecom industry duncan philpot 1, brian beaton2, tim whiteduck3 phd candidate, department of sociology, university of new brunswick, canada. email: duncan.philpot@unb.ca research associate, keewaytinook okimakanak director of technologies, first nations education council introduction although a great deal of hard work has accomplished much in terms of connecting remote and rural first nations to the internet, there remains a significant hurdle still to be surmounted. this hurdle refers to the discursively constructed and reinforced relationship between first nations in canada and the canadian state. this discourse, which portrays first nations as needful surrogates to the canadian government and the telecommunications industry, has influenced and reinforced the information and communication technologies (ict) divide challenging these communities. this digital divide refers to the disparity among different people and communities in their efforts to achieve equitable and affordable access, ownership, control and use of digital infrastructure and ict applications. canada's digital divide reflects the considerable political, economic, social, and cultural challenges facing remote and rural first nations and citizens (see: fiser, 2010; mcmahon, o'donnell, smith, walmark, beaton & simmons, 2011). these challenges also characterize the relations between first nations and the canadian state. for remote and rural first nations, surmounting the digital divide entails dealing with at least two challenges. the first challenge is that, due to treaties, first nation groups and the government of canada are constantly struggling to define their complicated relationship. though they are able to share land under the treaty agreements, first nations also have to deal with the canadian government's expensive, urban-based bureaucracy. for the federal government, this has often resulted in a perceived dependency on their services and programs that are too often structured and delivered from a foreign, urban-based perspective. often, this relationship has meant that the government has not recognized first nation autonomy or honoured treaty obligations (the recent idle no more protest has drawn significant attention to this issue. for example: dru oja jay, 2013). this has made it difficult for the canadian government and first nations groups to develop an aboriginal digital strategy that will benefit both groups. rather, the government has relied on large telecommunication carriers and other private sector, urban-based telecom providers to deliver its information society agenda using millions of dollars of public funds that now flows directly to the private sector instead of to the first nations communities. the second challenge is that first nations are often forced to partner with corporate institutions and private sector providers to develop their broadband infrastructure and ict due to urban-centric government funding programs and requirements that are often created with corporate input. the relationship between the first nations and the state has been forced to become a relationship between first nations and the telecommunications industry, and too often these partnership relationships limit local community economic development in favour of corporate needs. what we argue is that this is a result of a discursive environment in which first nations broadband issues are dealt with within a discourse of dependency benefitting only the telecom service industry and governments. in this paper, we examine the development of broadband expansions into northern ontario, canada as a means to exploring this relationship between first nations, the government of canada, and the telecommunications industry. using this case, we argue that the discourse surrounding first nations telecom development dependency has been broadly influenced by the decisions, programs and services involved in this project. by showing how it has been influenced thus far, we also provide examples of how first nations in canada are resisting these challenges to dependent relationships by taking control of their telecommunication infrastructure and the applications they require to support their local economy, appropriately labelled as first mile development. this is in contrast to how the rhetoric of government of canada and the telecommunications industry reconstructs a dependency model under the guise of aid. previous research has focused on a discussion surrounding canada's broadband development policy and the need to frame it in relation to the specific needs of first nations (mcmahon et al., 2011). this present paper focuses specifically on the discourse of canada's broadband development policy to answer two central research questions: 1) how is the discourse established by the government and telecoms, and 2) how is this dependent service relationship challenged and reshaped by remote and rural first nations? background: colonisation and dependency dependency, we suggest, applies to the dysfunctional relationship between groups which involves one party attempting to force another party to focus on and utilize their services and structures at the neglect of their own needs (mcknight, 1995). while the concept of dependency is often associated with individual behaviour, we suggest that the practice of dependency is so widespread that it has become the norm for corporations, governments, and institutions to adopt similar practices to protect and maintain their own existence at the expense of the people and the communities they claim to be serving. in this case, the telecommunications industry works to obtain a client-base for the sake of its own survival. protecting their monopoly control of telecom services in remote and rural first nations using a variety of legislated policies, pricing and transport strategies becomes acceptable business practices to government control agencies and the corporations. the communities are able to access the required services but are forever using their scarce resources to innovate and use these communication tools without the economic and social benefits that come from owning and controlling the infrastructure themselves. the grammatical justification of today's version of dependency between first nations in canada and their relationship to the canadian government and their corporate sponsors has its roots in the historical colonization of canada. the first aspect was fundamentally economic and political, with many of the current issues rooted in the indian act of 1876. this act was a means for the european colonists to define first nations, who were occupying lands that colonists wished to take possession of, as a distinct population. the act attempted to legalise the assimilation of first nations into the developing canadian society, characterised by the use of residential schools that required children to renounce their own languages, regulating first nations to reserve lands, and by making first nations identity a legal issue (coulthard, 2007; palmater, 2011). as the new settlers freed themselves of their european colonial masters, they became the settler colonizers who were required to honour and protect the binding treaties with the original peoples, now referred to as first nations. with these acts, the state of canada had secured power, or biopower (focuault, 1980), over the newly defined first nations population. within these new definitions, the canadian state has attempted to develop a cohesive discourse within which first nations issues are determined. first nations on the other hand, continue to successfully assert their right to self-determination based on the treaties entered into with the federal government and the original colonial powers that began settling in canada with the assistance of the first nations. recent developments come from the services industry. john mcknight (1995) argues that vast industries have developed to assist people who have been marginalized from the wealth generated by capitalism. services originally established to assist "the poor" have transformed the poor and those in need of these services into "clients." systems that provide social services (counselling, financial, etc), criminal justice and health and medicine have undermined the confidence of people and communities to address their own problems by promising to provide more professional and knowledgeable substitutes (mcknight, 1995). mcknight argues that these institutions have created a "serviced society" in which service industries feed on the very disempowerment they purport to address. as a consequence, the telecommunications industry is dependent upon needy groups, while remote and rural first nations have been forced to depend on that industry for its communications issues as a result of government policies and programs that support the telecom industry using public funds instead of funding the communities directly to build and control the telecom services they require. we suggest that service industries, such as bell aliant, have colonized first nations into the serviced society due to the narrative which frames possible interactions. these colonizing industries have made first nations communities their clients and customers through the constructed surrogate identity within the discourse surrounding remote and rural first nations. we argue that first nation community members are perfectly capable of building, owning and controlling these essential services to their own economic and social benefit. as a result of this conflict, it is the telecom service providers that benefit from the federal government programs that result in first nations being their customers. the grammar which frames this situation portrays first nations as a population that needs to be processed into a serviced product. these telecommunication activities have become a service someone else provides for a fee. as communities evolve from self-sufficient environments to dependent environments, service industries have grown dependent on marginalized communities to support their infrastructure and access to public funding opportunities. many service industries are now dependent on groups like remote and rural first nations to provide them with their rationale to exist. when first nations attempt to provide the services themselves in their communities, the service industries resist these attempts because depriving them of the resources they have become dependent upon challenges their own existence. local ict developments made by remote and rural first nations are now being described as first mile initiatives. a community which adopts a first mile approach does so through the development and maintenance of both an ideology of local economic, social, and cultural development, and a practice of pushing for local ownership of ict infrastructure (paisley & richardson, 1998). often the adoption of a first mile development strategy by these remote and rural communities is a result of the telecommunication industry being focussed on using their own resources to develop the competitive urban environments and unattractive government programs to develop their infrastructure in these regions. first nations ict developments have occurred since the 1970s in the remote first nations across northwestern ontario, with the most commonly used technologies being radio, television, and telephony (o'donnell, miliken, chong & walmark, 2010). prioritising broadband connectivity occurred in the mid-1990s, when several first nations began to expand their presence to the internet. at the national level, the assembly of first nations (afn) the national organisation representing first nations across canada passed five resolutions at their annual general assembly in 2009 with regard to the need for adequate broadband connectivity and access to ict. they later outlined an e-community strategy for a first nations broadband network at another meeting (o'donnell et al., 2010). this e-community model is focused on bringing affordable, sustainable, and adequate broadband networks to first nations and ensuring that the communities can manage their networks effectively, including training and employing local it support staff. the model ensures that the infrastructure development is driven, owned, and controlled by first nations, meaning the revenue generated by using these technologies and the local employment created to support their use will benefit the local economy. the afn has recently solidified their resolution regarding this position (assembly of first nations, 2011). several policy suggestions have been introduced to deal with supporting local and regional telecom developments, such as funding appropriate rmos and building local capacity through local and regional ict skills development (see: whiteduck, t., 2010), but these have yet to see fruition. the close links between the federal government and the telecommunications industry is an example of how such a policy imbalance appears and is maintained through the maintenance of particular discourses: in this case, one of dependency. as we allude to above, the grammar of the relationship between the first nations as a distinct group and the state did not always exist. rather, it was molded through an emergent discourse which had to be crafted through various legislative acts. this serves to attempt to assimilate first nations culture into the values and practices of canadian culture (kulchyski, 1995). with regard to telecommunications infrastructure, this imbalance as the status quo has put many groups in the position of being forced to rely on outside expertise and external service providers (alexander, 2005; mcmahon, 2011). gramsci (1971) argues that for true democracy to flourish, such ideology must be completely eradicated and replaced by a counter-hegemony, developed by people within the oppressed group. these people confront the discursive suppositions, theories, and analyses of the ruling group's intermediaries through the common senses of the oppressed group. we show how a counter-hegemony, through previously subjugated knowledge, is being developed through the work of the first nations community members using first mile concepts today. the dialectic of the afn's e-community model is vital to development of a new common sense rooted in the remote and rural first nations' experiences of broadband development. this present study shows how several developments by remote and rural first nations, the afn and their partner organizations work to confront the corporate and government ideology. methodology one of our goals is to assess where the canadian government, telecommunication companies, and first nations using first mile concepts, currently stand on the benefits of remote and rural first nations broadband development. we have chosen to examine the discourse in their reports and documents. the message of the dependency over broadband development is characterised by how these documents frame the imbalances as natural. examining the discourse in these documents enables us to explore the (re)production of the dominant telecommunication ideology as well as the resistance from the first nations. our case study is isolated to the expansion of broadband coverage in northwestern ontario, as the most data available was in reference to this situation. this study uses critical discourse analysis (cda) to examine historical development of the northwestern ontario broadband expansion project. we focus on three dependent parties: 1) first nations organizations using first mile concepts (keewaytinook okimakanak (ko) in ontario); 2) the federal government (specifically industry canada and aandc); and 3) corporate companies (represented here by bell aliant, the company that partnered with ko to apply to the government program for the fibre network construction funding). our application of cda draws upon the work of michel foucault (1979; 1980), whose work intended to show the applications of power through the discursive construction of a social group (i.e. criminals, homosexuals, workers, etc.). the goal of cda is to conduct a description, explanation, and critique of "the ways dominant discourses (indirectly) influence such socially shared knowledge, attitudes and ideologies, namely through their role in the manufacture of concrete models" (van dijk, 1993, p. 258-259. see also: fairclough & wodak, 1997; van dijk, 1985; wodak & meyer, 2001). this work is a part of a larger project in association with remote and rural first nations communities. the first nations innovation project contributes to and learns from these wider networks. we acknowledge the contributions of our collaborators and partners across canada working on broadband development in remote and rural communities. together we are building understanding about the many issues involved in developing and using broadband networks and applications in these unique community environments. the three first nation organization partners in this research project are first nation owned and controlled organizations at the regional level. these three organizations keewaytinook okimakanak (ko), first nations education council (fnec) and atlantic canada's first nation help desk (acfnhd) are supporting the rural and remote first nations in their respective regions on their networks to develop and use broadband infrastructure, networks and applications for community, social and economic development (first nations innovation, 2013). as mentioned, based on the data we analyzed, we focused exclusively on the situation in northern ontario working with keewaytinook okimakanak. analysis and discussion this analysis explores publically available documents of industry canada's broadband canada program and aandc's first nations infrastructure fund, which is part of a recent expansion of broadband services into rural areas. the project we focus on in particular is the northwestern ontario broadband expansion project. the history of this project was gathered through reports from the ko first nations, bell aliant, and the governments of canada and ontario. the documents discussed below are ones which had discussion related to the northwestern ontario broadband expansion initiative. we were forced to exclude some other documents from bell aliant simply because there was no mention of first nations. highlighted are the main features found in the public discourse of their publically available documents, press releases, and websites. upon analysis, the framing of first nations identity was identified as a central concern based on the framing of first nations in bell aliant and governmental documents. neglect of discussion regarding the issue was also recognised as a concern. background industry canada's broadband canada program was intended to expand broadband service into remote and rural areas of canada. one of the funded projects is the northwestern ontario broadband expansion initiative, a "state of the art backbone fiber optic network to 26 first nations by laying 2300 kilometers of fiber optic cable across the far north" (nishnawbe aski nation, 2012). a key partner in this development was ko-knet, the group who supports many first nations in the region to develop their broadband infrastructure and services (keewaytinook okimakanak, 2012). other funding partners in this initiative include the province of ontario, aboriginal affairs and northern affairs canada (aandc), health canada, northern ontario heritage fund corporation (nohfc) and bell aliant. although the industry canada program had the broadband mandate for canada, aandc is actually leading the roll out of the project on behalf of the other project partners. ko-knet led the request for proposals (rfp) from providers and invited the nishnawbe aski nation (nan), which is the regional political territorial organization, to work together to ensure the project was successfully supported by all governments. when bell aliant responded to the rfp, ko-knet worked with nan and bell aliant to complete the business case and funding submissions. in the end nan took the administrative lead for some of the project roll-out, with the majority of public funds being contracted directly to bell aliant and ko-knet's formal role was removed from the project planning. prior to the development of this project, ko-knet had been supporting the ict needs of many communities in northern ontario since 1994 (see http://knet.ca/info/history for an abridged history). amidst their work, they have brought e-health and e-education to remote areas of canada, utilizing the latest technology available. while the introduction of broadband and fibre technologies occurred in the early 2000s, it is only just recently that these technologies are making their way into the north of canada. since 2001, ko-knet saw broadband and fibre as necessary to continue to serve the population of northern ontario. it has only been just recently that the canadian government's renewed focus on northern development has allowed more progress to be made. the result was a call for applications by industry canada in 2009 for a variety of companies to compete for funding which would cover 50% of eligible project costs (see: http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/719.nsf/eng/h_00001.html). in the case of groups providing services to first nations communities, their funding opportunities would cover more than 50% of eligible project costs. ko-knet was the initial first nations project technical lead in the development of the fibre construction project. this 82 million dollar project was ultimately one of the 84 that received funding assistance. bell aliant was the telecommunications company selected by the first nations in northern ontario through their rfp process to partner with to complete the broadband infrastructure development project. bell aliant is required by the canadian radio-television and telecommunications commission (crtc) to provide telephone service across the region. they also have ongoing contractual relationships to provide broadband connectivity in the first nations across ontario, quebec, and atlantic regions with organizations including ko-knet. bell aliant annual reports from bell aliant (ba), a subsidiary of bell canada, as well as bell canada enterprise inc. (bce) were used to understand the telecommunications' industry's discourse regarding the broadband expansion project and perception of their partners. reports were taken from 2006 (when the merger of aliant's operations with bell occurred) to the latest available report in 2011. this covered the period of time when negotiations were made with keewaytinook okimakanak, nishnawbe aski nation (nan), bell aliant, and the governments of canada and ontario. the presumable audience for these reports is likely potential/current investors and interested customers. the language of these reports reflects both an attempt to appease potential customers and investors of the company's future plans, but also reflects the non-importance of first nations as people and community to canada's economy. their discussion, or rather the lack of it, renders first nations invisible and continues the colonialism efforts to own and control telecommunication infrastructure across the north. bell canada has offered telephone service to remote and rural communities in northwestern ontario since the 1970s, long before their acquisition of the former aliant inc, but noted the high costs associated with connecting such groups. before 2009, no mention of first nations as a specific group was observed in ba or bce reports. however, this is also indicative of the telecom paradigm regarding serviceable areas as well as those high cost service areas (hcsa). in 2010, due to the developing partnerships, their language briefly changes. they specify that the northwestern development is in partnership with the governments of ontario, canada, and the nishnawbe aski nation (nan). this is the only time nan is mentioned in their reports as of this time. prior to this, discussion regarding remote and rural communities in northern ontario and quebec are subsumed into the broad categories of "rural" or "regions." discursively, the language in ba's reports switch between "rural and remote", "rural and regional", "rural", or "high-cost serving area", and often appear to mean the same groups. ba and bce's non-specific language demonstrates how telecoms reports reinforce the invisibility of the remote and rural development issue and first nations in general. their language does, unintentionally or not, neglect the identity of their partners and depowers the partner groups while reinforcing their position as benevolent aid. in the 2010 report, ba is more careful to note that $55 million of the $81 million estimated cost will be jointly funded by the ontario and canadian governments for the northwestern development (bell aliant 2010 annual report, 2010, p. 66). ba freely admits that these partnerships make this possible as they would "not normally be able to [expand our telecommunication infrastructure] given that they are remote, complex, and costly to service" (ibid., p. 66). as of the end of 2011, ba had received $47.5 million in government assistance. the project's end was slated for late 2012 but has since been extended to 2014, with one major component (project #5 the matawa first nation region) being deferred and the millions allotted to that portion of the project being re-allocated to the other portions of the project to cover ba construction cost over-runs (beaton, interview). regarding the discourse of dependency, this is demonstrated by ba in their 2011 annual report when they discuss how the benefits of connecting remote and rural first nations is to obtain more potential customers. ba expects that "[the project] will provide more customers access to our broadband internet service than the current infrastructure permits. these partnerships allow us to expand our telecommunications infrastructure to areas where it would not otherwise be economically feasible for us to do so" (bell aliant 2011 annual report, 2011, p. 56). as noted above, corporate service colonialism cannot co-exist with the first mile self-sufficiently motive because telecoms cannot survive without dependent customers. the language of their reports reflects both this and their desire to reinforce the hegemonic notions of capitalist business ventures. the lone mention of nan in the 2010 report highlights ba's reproduction of first nations as dependents while reinforcing their service agenda. these reports also fail to address that ko-knet played a significant role in developing the proposal for the fibre development from which ba benefited. the very lack of discussion discursively reproduces the notion of dependence on the telecommunications industry to serve the first nations rather than working with them to operate their own infrastructure. this is an outward appearance of sensitivity, as ba later reverts to the non-descript language. their reports deny first nations their identity as partners to ba and demonstrate how the hegemony of ba as the main participant in this endeavour is reproduced through the omission of their first nations partners. government of canada samples from the government of canada were taken from specialty documents, press releases, and reports from aboriginal affairs and northern development canada (aandc), industry canada, and the digital economy consultation paper. reports and press releases from the ontario provincial government and ministry of aboriginal affairs were also examined for a provincial example. searches were conducted on each government program's website using the search terms "first nations" or "first nations and broadband". articles were selected for their relation to broadband development, particularly in ontario for example purposes. keyword searches were again conducted regarding broadband development. in aandcs six reports on the implementation of canada's economic action plan, rural broadband is mentioned in four of them, from the december 2009 update to june 2011. the sixth report features four paragraphs on broadband projects in a feature called "south of the 60th parallel" in the section titled "other initiatives of importance to aboriginal people" (june 2011). it features little else other than a small description of the broadband infrastructure development program, specifying whom it will "serve." it also specifies, or admits, that the program is a "one-time incentive for the expansion of infrastructure in areas where there currently is no business case for the private sector to deploy on its own," which assumes that telecom industry interventions are the default solution. $185 million in grants and contribution funds from industry canada to "develop and implement a strategy to extend broadband coverage to as many un-served and underserved households as possible" (ibid.). the june 2011 update is about 11,000 words in length and discussion regarding remote and rural broadband development amounts to 184 words (~0.02%) of the total count. many other issues are given equally little attention in the report, which is indicative of how the remote and rural first nations broadband situation gets little attention within the discourse even when the discussion focuses centrally on first nations issues. industry canada's press releases broadly discuss how remote and rural broadband development is important for economic and business development as well as telehealth, distance learning, and quality of life. the ontario provincial government's few press releases emphasize similar projected outcomes. outwardly these appear promising because these developments agree with what first mile groups emphasise as needed improvements. but, likely without the pressure placed upon the government and the telecommunications industry by the people of keewaytinook okimakanak and other first nation organizations, this situation would be non-existent. the digital economy consultation paper (government of canada, 2010) continues this pattern of discourse. this paper was presented at the time as a document intended to stimulate discussion, with a closing date for submissions of 2010. submissions came in from many experts and scientists with evidence and support for changes to digital economy policy. since that time, three years ago at the time of writing, the federal government has offered neither a follow-up nor a timeline for introducing the actual federal digital economy strategy. the canadian government position puts it in sharp contrast to almost every other western developed country that have clear information society policies in place. the majority of the consultation paper remained urban-centric in its goals and it is implied that they are only concerned with where its wealthiest companies can secure canada's position in the global digital economy. the effort the paper's rhetoric makes to change canada's history is interesting. they state that "[f]or generations, we have sought as a country, through appropriate frameworks and policies, to promote the creation of and access to canadian creative content made by canadians, designed to inform, enlighten and entertain, and that is reflective of our linguistic and ethnocultural diversity." this rhetorical flair is oddly positioned next to the fact that discussion regarding first nations is almost non-existent in this paper. the brief discussion of remote and rural communities note that they "present unique challenges" and that broadband development must ensure that "citizens and communities have more than just basic broadband, but the speeds and capacity for economic growth" (government of canada, 2010). further, the creation of "canadian content for under-represented communities" and how "aboriginal canadians are under-represented in ict occupations" is also briefly noted in the paper. first nations, under this rhetoric, are an untapped cultural and economic force to benefit canada's position in the global economy. given the minute focus on first nations, it is no surprise that there were only four submissions in response that focused on aboriginals/first nations within the information society. notably a submission from a consortium of first nations groups, including the three partners involved in this research project (whiteduck, j., burton, whiteduck, t., and beaton 2010), was among those few (others: congress of aboriginal peoples, 2010; larose, 2010; mcmahon & smith, 2010). remote and rural first nations this section summarizes both the samples examined to compare to the historical discourse of broadband development as well as how first nations communities are using these opportunities to publish their subjugated knowledge. samples from remote and rural first nations on broadband development was taken from keewaytinook okimakanak's ko-knet websites. due to its involvement in the northwestern ontario project, the nishnawbe aski nation's (nan) website on the expansion initiative was also examined. websites were chosen as primary sources for examination in some cases due to the absence of available publications or reports from those groups. in many cases, websites served both as the formal publication and as a means of distributing updates and project developments. common themes observed were the concentration on jobs and the benefits to health and educational services with full participation of the communities involved in the projects. as an outlet for news of developments, ko-knet's e-community website (http://e-community.knet.ca/) works to endorse initiatives which will utilise the new ict tools available for community self-sufficiency, such as videoconferencing for e-health, e-learning, e-business, and e-work. discursively, this works to emphasize that ict in the communities will both employ local first nation community members as well as assert autonomy from dependence on outside assistance. ko-knet also promotes the identity of first nations as autonomous, modern people who have been utilizing ict tools for many years. this information is contrary to what the government of canada or the telecommunications industry would suggest. telecommunications companies focuses on potential customers and profits, while government reports focus primarily on the benefits of building up a first nations workforce for the benefit of the canadian economy. nan's website (2012a) on the northwestern ontario broadband expansion initiative echoes many of the benefits cited by ko-knet, with more emphasis on the economic benefits and less on the community development. curiously, nan chooses to cite many figures from the federal and provincial governments (2012b). nan's rhetorical choices place the emphasis on governmental voices rather than first nations, contributing to a discourse already dominated from the government and telecom industry perspectives. first nations using first mile approaches to e-community have capitalized on the use of the internet and their locally owned and managed network infrastructure to show the developments and benefits of the applications and services that they require. keewaytinook okimakanak's e-community online environment is documenting the various community owned and managed e-services that are now available in the remote first nations as a result of their ability to own and manage their local broadband infrastructure. local jobs, professional skills and revenue generated is now staying in these communities and new innovations and opportunities are able to be explored and developed using their ict infrastructure. the first nations' relationship with both the government and bell aliant continues to be a challenge for all the same reasons discussed throughout this paper but now all three parties are able to meet to discuss everyone's needs. everyone depends on each other to be doing the work required to support local development and opportunities. summary discourse from the government of canada and the telecoms regarding remote and rural first nations demonstrates a traditional, colonial approach in the discourse of broadband development: from the non-existence of the issue, to one of concern for a needy group. the proposed solutions as presented by bell aliant and the government agencies also demonstrate that they see fibre connection as a means of making remote and rural communities more urban, more able to contribute to the global economy. bell aliant identifies additional revenue from the resource extraction industry in the region as a rationale for their investment in the fibre construction project. this is simply an updated form of political colonialism with first nations and their treaties being ignored. we would like to remind readers that many of the documents examined in this study focused on first nations/aboriginal issues exclusively. broadband development remains an issue that is given lip service in press releases and reports, and neglected within the wider discourse. in their presentations, press releases and media interventions, government sources tend to present an image of helpless people in need of extra funding and private sector intervention. while intervention is indeed required due to the lack of resources available to remote and rural first nations, the representation of the situation by the government of canada reflects that of a parent (canada) caring for a child (first nations) by way of day care (telecoms). this colonial approach employed by both the government and the telecom industry to working with first nations must change. first nations and their organizations on the other hand are producing evidence that they are able to develop, own, manage and operate the infrastructure required to deliver the broadband services they require. the first nations are demanding that governments and industry recognize that these developments are using funds that only exist because their communities have this unique treaty relationship with the crown. during nan meetings, the leadership of the first nations made it very clear that the $60 million of public funds raised for the construction of the fibre network are first nation dollars that they are choosing to invest in this project. with all the changes being made to the project, and with several first nations being left off the planned network and with the project cost over-runs, the government officials might consider having the first nations manage their own project instead of leaving it in the hands of the telecom industry. in northwestern ontario, the first nations have a proven record of building and managing their own networks and infrastructure but this history was ignored when the government used public dollars to pay the telecom industry to build and own the infrastructure to serve these communities. conclusion historically the federal government has a legal responsibility to ensure that first nations are not exploited in their dealings with corporate entities, also known as the crown's fiduciary relationship. however the federal government's close links with telecommunications companies, as well as its policies that flow public funding directly to this industry instead of to the first nations or their organizations, have called the fiduciary relationship into question. forcing first nations to be dependent on the telecoms is yet another form of paternal colonial governance that furthers the relationships that benefit these urban centres at the expense of developing remote and rural communities. these relationships also means that many first nations communities end up being disempowered and unable to deal with the issues themselves as all the government resources are used to take care of the telecommunication corporations. as mcknight notes, this is the dilemma of a service economy attitude: the need for need (1995, p. 96). an attitude of defeat combined by the rhetoric of care is the material upon which the service economy builds its success. in other words, a service industry survives by needing people to need it. this attitude, as we have shown, is reinforced in the dominant discourse from both government and the telecom industry. both consistently reinforce the feeling of disempowerment by continuing to silence first nations in their reports and documents, as well as reinforcing the need for care by those who can provide. ignoring the first nations, their history and experience, has resulted in an incomplete project with millions of dollars in public funds being spent on taking care of the telecom company and its way of doing business. it is perhaps ironic to consider how the telecoms have more need of first nations than is evident from their reports. along with fibre expansions to remote and rural first nations, telecoms are eager to lay down fibre for the ring of fire mining projects in northern ontario. what telecoms need and are able to access with government assistance in the process is first nation permits to access the land for their fibre network. as well, telecoms such as bell aliant are now benefiting from using this government funding to serve remote and rural first nations as a means to help subsidize their expansion to these mines. what we have shown is how first nations are combating this rhetoric of colonial-imposed helplessness and delivering concrete alternative approaches that support community ownership and control of the infrastructure and applications. ko-knet, fnec, and acfnhd have all sought to show how remote and rural first nations communities can take on the work, create new opportunities and build sustainable jobs and infrastructure. while not dismissing the need for partnerships to provide the fibre to the regions, they emphasize the need for jobs and infrastructure to be locally owned and managed by community members. only then will these communities begin to escape the cycle of dependency being imposed by colonial processes and programs that benefit only private industry and public institutions in urban centres. if progress is to be made from the government's perspective, it must be that policies must be drawn which do not (re)produce this dependency. the situation does not need policy which continues to serve the telecom industry's needs rather than remote and rural first nations. we need policies that "recognize the right to work, the right to income, the right to real authority, the right to care rather than be served, the right to tools that allow people to produce rather than consume, the right to working neighbourhoods, the right to working farms, and the right to be free from racism. these are the rights we really need not more service" (mcknight, 1995, p. 98). remote and rural first nations using first mile have made it their objective of doing this for themselves. the least the government of canada must do is create the policies and programs that support them in this endeavour. acknowledgements this study was conducted as part of the first nations innovation research project (http://fn-innovation-pn.com). project partners include keewaytinook okimakanak (ko), the first nations education council (fnec), 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(eds), aboriginal policy research volume 6: learning, technology and traditions. toronto: thompson educational publishing: 128-139. available from: http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/mod/book/view.php?id=1722&chapterid=704 paisley, l., & richardson, d. (1998). why the first mile and not the last? in l. paisley, & d. richardson (eds.), the first mile of connectivity: advancing telecommunications for rural development through a participatory communication approach. communication for development. rome: food and agriculture organization of the united nations (fao). available from: http://www.fao.org/docrep/x0295e/x0295e03.htm perley, s. (2009) representation and participation of first nations women in online videos. journal of community informatics, 5(2). van dijk, t. (1985). handbook of discourse analysis. volume 4: discourse analysis in society. london, academic press inc. van dijk, t. (1993). principles of critical discourse analysis. discourse and society 4(2), 249-283. whiteduck, t. (2010). first nations schoolnet and the migration of broadband and community-based ict applications. in white, j., peters, j., beavon, d., dinsdale, p. (eds), aboriginal policy research volume 6: learning, technology and traditions. (pp. 105-117). toronto: thompson educational publishing. whiteduck, j., burton, k., whiteduck, t., & beaton, b. (2010). a first nations perspective on a digital economy strategy and an aboriginal connectivity strategy. consultation paper, submitted to industry canada's digital economy strategy consultation and to indian and northern affairs canada. retrieved 9 august 2012 from: http://deen.gc.ca/wpcontent/themes/clf3/upload/1938/aboriginal-connectivity-afn-first-nation-submission.pdf wodak, r. and meyer, m. (2001). methods of critical discourse analysis. london: sage publications. mishkeegogamang tepacimowin networks connie gray-mckay1, kerri gibson2, susan o'donnell3, the people of mishkeegogamang first nation chief of mishkeegogamang ojibway nation phd student in clinical psychology, university of new brunswick senior research officer, national research council, institute of information technology, university of new brunswick photo 1 mish lakeview 1. introduction mishkeegogamang first nation is a rural ojibway community in northwestern ontario. mishkeegogamang community members of all ages use a wide array of information and communication technologies (ict) as tools in daily life, and as a means to support individual and community goals. this collaborative paper tells the story of how mishkeegogamang uses ict for community development, drawing on 17 interviews with community members, and several community member profiles. a basic descriptive quantitative analysis is also provided, giving information on frequency of use of a wide variety of technologies. the research discussed in this paper takes a community informatics approach (gurstein, 2003). community informatics sees mishkeegogamang's digital infrastructure, technology and services as potential tools for community development and social benefit. community informatics theory suggests that the introduction and use of ict into mishkeegogamang offers the community more capacity for independence, resistance, and social, cultural or economic activities. a broad range of ict use by community members will be explored, including the mishkeegogamang website, the busy yet invisible use of social networking sites, youth and ict, ict for health and education, and ict to support traditional activities. finally, a section on challenges and needs for facilitating ict use is also provided. mishkeegogamang has collaborated on a rich chronicle of its land and people in the mishkeegogamang book: the land, the people, and the purpose (heinrichs, hiebert, & the people of mishkeegogamang, 2009). the current article is written as a new chapter in that book, documenting how community members use ict in their daily lives and for community development. there have been no similar past explorations that have addressed this area. in addition, within the broader literature on first nations in canada, there have been few to no published accounts of community members' perspectives and uses of ict. this study is part of a broader collaborative research project called first nations innovation, which explores how remote and rural first nations are using information and communication technologies for community development. to date we have also published papers and articles about technology use in fort severn first nation, another community in the sioux lookout zone of northwestern ontario (gibson, kakekaspan, kakekaspan, o'donnell, walmark, beaton & the people of fort severn first nation, 2012; o'donnell, kakekaspan, beaton, walmark, mason & mak, 2011). we also published an article from both fort severn and mishkeegogamang focused on community members' perspectives on telemental health (gibson et al., 2010). despite the fact that there are some exciting first nations ict initiatives, little published research exists on how first nations community members perceive and use ict (o'donnell et al., 2010; gideon, 2006 and what is needed, from their perspectives, to support continued effective use. for example, a variety of successful ict initiatives for wellness have been implemented in and by first nations communities. within the fort chipewyan first nation community in alberta, community members are able to connect with indigenous spiritual elders in other communities and locations by harnessing the power of videoconferencing and offering a tele-spirituality clinic this actually grew out of an initial telehealth program (gideon, 2006). for parenting and guiding our children, lorainne kenny of lac seul first nation developed the "raising the children: a training program for aboriginal parents" resource which has since been shared online, in videos and text http://www.raisingthechildren.knet.ca/manual/video). furthermore, interested individuals can participate in interactive online discussions about the materials. these are only two of many important and inspirational initiatives that use ict as a tool to contribute to further community development and wellness in first nations communities. we know that living a traditional lifestyle is valued by many first nation community members, and at the same time we know that a growing number of people are connected to the internet and use technologies in their daily lives. for instance, 100% of mishkeegogamang community members who participated in the interviews reported having an email address; another 76% reported having a computer in their home. for this reason, it is important to explore how technology can positively influence indigenous peoples' lives. clearly, living a healthy, balanced, and more traditional lifestyle, and using modern ict are not mutually exclusive activities. building on this argument, the specific ways that technology can support traditional activities will be explored in that respective section. the mishkeegogamang book also emphasizes how new and traditional can co-exist, "a hunter might be wearing the latest in hunting wear, but have a beaver hat on his head" (heinrichs, hiebert, & the people of mishkeegogamang, 2009, p.37). the approach taken with the current article, and the greater first nations innovation project, is to see individuals as actively engaging with technologies and using ict as tools for the betterment of their own and their family's lives, in addition to community development. too often individuals are seen as passive users of technology where in reality there are many passionate people who use technologies as a tool to meet important goals: this paper seeks to highlight these instances, and illustrate how various ict can be used in purposeful and positive ways. therefore, community informatics theory will also be applied to the information discussed, to highlight how ict can enable people living in mishkeegogamang to address individual and community goals. at the same time, there is no question that technology use can have negative impacts. indeed there are many concerns about the negative impacts that technology can have on language, social relations, and lifestyle. however, it also is evident that technology has positive consequences such as connecting loved ones separated by distance, allowing individuals who cannot leave their home to access medical or mental health care and allowing emergency births to take place safely and within the community. 2. mishkeegogamang first nation mishkeegogamang is nestled in an area where lake st. joseph meets the albany river, and is accessible year-round due to a provincial highway which traverses through the community (mishkeegogamang ojibway nation, 2010). it is located approximately 500km northwest of thunder bay, and 30km south of pickle lake. mishkeegogamang spans two reserves (often referred to as 63a and 63b), and is comprised of multiple smaller and separate communities (sandy road, ten houses, bottle hill, among others). approximately 900 residents live in mishkeegogamang (with approximately 500 community members living off-reserve in various locations). photo 2 mish book the mishkeegogamang community history book, the land, the people, and the purpose, is key resource on the community and its background, and is a collaborative work that provides an engaging and important history of the mishkeegogamang ojibway nation. the book was a collaboration of the community of mishkeegogamang (a variety of community members, elders, leaders) and authors marj heinrichs and dianne hiebert. 2.1 origins and elder stories mishkeegogamang, formerly known as osnaburgh house band, is part of the anishinaabe nation: it was the first community to sign james bay treaty no. 9 in 1905. the land that mishkeegogamang community members historically and originally lived on is expansive and not limited to the points on today's modern map of ontario. this emphasis was noted well in the history book where it is explained that mishkeegogamang's true land and boundaries can only be intimately understood by "hunters, trappers, and elders who have spent their lives here." nevertheless, the knowledge of the land and its boundaries, as well as community members' first existence and interactions with the land, is ever-present and preserved in the community's oral history. within the history book, the community members share knowledge and stories dating back to the days of creation. according to records, the ojibway people had first contact with the europeans at sault ste. marie in 1623 (heinrichs, hiebert, & the people of mishkeegogamang, 2009). it was during this time that northern ontario was becoming very popular due to the fur trade. slightly more than a century after the hudson's bay company (hbc) had moved into the ojibway territory, the osnaburgh house was founded on july 31st, 1786. mishkeegogamang took on the osnaburgh name, being called osnaburgh first nation, for centuries until 1993 when the community changed back to its original and real name (mishkeegogamang ojibway nation, 2010). 2.2 challenges and areas of strength like all communities and all things, mishkeegogamang experiences both strengths and challenges. a community member who participated in this research reflected on mishkeegogamang and some of the characteristics of the community. "they have a good sense of their own history. and of course, one of the most important aspects of a community's identity is its history; its sense of history; its knowledge of its own history. i think they are also very strong in other cultural traditions. they're very good on the land. they're very good hunters, and they know this area very well. and i think it is part of the fabric of their entire culture, the kind of knowledge that they have, and they pass it down from one to the other. and people like (mishkeegogamang community member) here. (mishkeegogamang community member) is a historian really. like he doesn't have the degree in history or anything but he knows everything there is to know about our traditions and our culture. like he could tell you about the comings and goings of a muskrat and at the same time, tell you about... the traditional rule of women and child-rearing, going back 600, 700 years. you know, he's that kind of person. there are quite a few people like that here." (mishkeegogamang community member ) in regard to challenges, the mishkeegogamang book highlights both the strengths and adversities that the community has faced. of specific interest to this paper, the rural location of mishkeegogamang can sometimes present challenges in terms of access to certain services that may not be currently available within the overall community. the geographical spread of mishkeegogamang can also amplify this. the community could address this situation in various ways, including capacity-building at the community level, as well as considering the use of certain ict to help address various community goals and to connect them with certain services if certain community members so desire. even though the mishkeegogamang book does not address the use of information and communication technologies, a chapter does look at the use of more traditional technologies, like snowshoes and other tools. mishkeegogamang elders address the issue of technology in the following excerpt, and it would seem wise to apply this perspective to the use of ict and newer technologies as well: "technology is a gift given to people by the creator. if they abuse it, it will be taken away from them. in much the same way that animals and plants must be respected and cared for, so it is taught that technology must also be properly used" (heinrichs, hiebert, & the people of mishkeegogamang, 2009, p.59). 3. community broadband and ict infrastructure in the discussion of the active use of technology in mishkeegogamang, and the services dependent on that technology, one essential piece of the story is the history of connectivity in mishkeegogamang. this section describes the history and the key people and organizations that have been involved in developing the connectivity infrastructure. broadband technologies require technical infrastructure to function. the technical infrastructure in mishkeegogamang would not exist without the effort and commitment of key individuals within the community, and a key organization ko/k-net. two individuals have been central to technical infrastructure development in mishkeegogamang: jeff loon, community member and project lead in mishkeegogamang, and jamie ray, a k-net staff member. for the past several years, they have collaborated to help support the technical infrastructure the community depends on. in addition to their contributions, other community members have also helped support technology use in the community "behind the scenes" (j. ray, personal communication, march 10, 2011). prior to 2004, the community's technical infrastructure and connectivity capacity was very limited. dial-up connections were available but "high-speed" or faster broadband connections were not yet a reality for community members. during this time, certain other communities in the sioux lookout zone were able to access higher broadband speeds via new cable or satellite connections to their communities; however mishkeegogamang was relying on dial-up using regular telephone lines. beginning in 2004, due to the work and advocacy of community members and ko/k-net, mishkeegogamang received a new t1 cable connection (b. beaton, personal communication, march 8, 2011). it allowed the development of a community high-speed wireless network and videoconferencing services in mishkeegogamang. four videoconferencing units were installed in the community at the health centre, the band office, the missabay community school, and the "safe house." computer equipment (and subsequent connection to the community network) was also installed at a variety of centres within mishkeegogamang, including: the band office, school, nursing station, wahsa adult education centre, resource centre, naps police station, tikinagan family services, laureen's store and band finance office. the broadband build was funded by the government agency fednor, based on proposal submitted by ko/k-net and approved in 2003. mishkeegogamang managed the broadband development in the community, completing all the required project reports and contracting ko/k-net to do the installations, set-up, and training. jeff loon was the community project lead and the technician trained in the set-up and maintenance of the technical infrastructure. ko/k-net worked with the bell telecommunication company to bring the t1 connection to the health centre. furthermore, the broadband north firm was instrumental in getting the original radios onto the bell tower to provide service to the band office. the community uses a licensed and protected wireless system (j. ray, personal communication, march 10, 2011). this means that the frequency used has been allocated to the community and other devices will not cause interference. the research discussed in this paper takes a community informatics approach.. two towers that were built for this project: one large red tower near the health centre, and another tower located at ten houses. nearby buildings or homes obtain wireless internet access from these two key points. 4. study approach and methodology how are remote first nation community members using ict? what are community members' perspectives on various technologies? how can ict be used to support community development in the areas of culture and traditions, health and wellness, and education and the economy, to better meet the needs of these communities? photo 3 videocom visit to mish these key questions are at the heart of the community-based research collaboration between mishkeegogamang and the first nations innovation project. first nations innovation is a partnership of three first nations organizations (keewaytinook okimakanak, atlantic canada's first nations help desk and the first nations education council) in ontario, nova scotia, and quebec and the university of new brunswick. this community research in mishkeegogamang first nation was conducted in collaboration with keewaytinook okimakanak who provided expertise, feedback and support throughout. the kuhkenah network (k-net, http://services.knet.ca/) is ko's private telecommunications network that provides ict, infrastructure, and support to first nations communities across northwestern ontario and other locations in canada. the ko research institute (http://research.knet.ca/) is the research arm of ko, exploring issues relevant to first nations with a particular focus on ict use. finally, ko telemedicine (http://telemedicine.knet.ca/) is ko's community-driven and community-led telemedicine program serving first nations. we conducted this research at the invitation of mishkeegogamang chief connie gray-mckay, and we worked closely with erin bottle of mishkeegogamang (in the photo above, left, with first nations innovation team member) who was the community liaison and community researcher for the first phase of this project. photo 4 videocom team first nations innovation team members first visited mishkeegogamang during a week in februarymarch 2010. our community visits included both research and outreach activities (training in video production and a community video festival). the five team members who participated in this initial visit appear above. in total, we conducted 17 interviews with mishkeegogamang community residents; 14 in-person and three later on the telephone. participation was anonymous, voluntary, and confidential, and interviews took approximately half an hour. a random sample was not sought: we attempted to invite and interview participants who held a variety of roles in their community but the sample is not representative of mishkeegogamang. the interview guide included questions on frequency of technology use and attitudes toward the use of various technologies for different types of community development. all participants were over 18 years old. participants held a variety of roles and positions within the community, including health workers, teachers, family members and caregivers (e.g., mothers), elders, leaders (band council members), community workers, part-time workers, technology support workers, and others. there were 11 women and 6 men who participated in these interviews. the research protocols were reviewed by the research ethics board of the university of new brunswick following the community member interviews, two first nations innovation team members returned to mishkeegogamang in september 2010. the goal was to engage the community members in taking the information collected in the spring to the next step, and to collaboratively create a story of how mishkeegogamang community members engage with technology. during the second visit, we connected with many community members along the way and visited several community hot spots areas/buildings that were frequented by many community members (the community school, radio station, health centre, band office, etc.). several helpful individuals volunteered to have their stories of technology use profiled in this report. it is our hope that this article will serve as a springboard and help engage more people in terms of positive use of ict for community development. 5. ict use by community members in mishkeegogamang many topics will be examined, ranging from an exploration of how frequently community members use various ict and what technologies they use on a daily basis, to how they adapt them for educational, health, and business use, as well as supporting traditional activities. current use will be discussed, along with past use and ideas for future use where applicable. figure 1 5.1 how frequently community members are using ict first we will explore how frequently community members are using a range of ict in their daily lives. community members were asked to report on how frequently they used a variety of technologies, including "older" technologies (e.g., telephone and newsletter) and more recent innovations (e.g., facebook). community members categorized their frequency of use along the continuum of "never" to "daily". for the purpose of depicting regular use of ict among community members, the chart at the left (everyday/regular use of information and communication technology in mishkeegogamang) shows regular use defined as weekly or more often of various technologies. community members reported engaging with a wide range of technologies on a regular basis;: it is interesting and perhaps surprising to note how many community members use email and computers on a daily basis (88.3%). in fact, participants report engaging with computers and email slightly more than they watch television! watching videos online is also quite popular, though participants are still watching television more often. this could be due in part to the limited bandwidth available in the community, as watching videos online requires significantly more bandwidth than merely looking for information or sending emails. clearly, community members are also engaged with technologies that are community-driven and community-led: 64.7% of those interviewed reported listening to community radio on a regular basis, and 23.50% reported reading the newsletter on a regular basis. as for the newsletter, even more participants reported reading it on a monthly basis (65%), since it is often published monthly. however, these numbers appear to speak to the enthusiasm of certain readers who like to engage with the material on a more frequent basis. 5.2 mishkeegogamang community website (http://www.mishkeegogamang.ca) photo 5 mish website mishkeegogamang recently reconstructed their website, and the opening page is displayed in the screenshot onat the left. the website's changes have increased its visual appeal and made it much more user-friendly. the community's focus on making an appealing website is evidence of the importance it places on using ict to reach out and communicate with community members and visitors. dianne heibert was initially involved in developing the website: training of other community members will be occurring in the near future to expand the group who is involved in updating and maintaining the site. the website hosts the archive of community newsletters, information about community activities and resources (e.g., how to contact the band office, the health center, etc.), provides important community background information about natural resources and ongoing land claim issues, shares elders' stories, and showcases pictures of various community members and families. 5.3 social networking photo 6 mish social nnetworking section driving through the beautiful rural community of mishkeegogamang, a passerby would not be privy to the flurry of interactive activity occurring between households in the community. many community members actively engage with social networking sites, like facebook or myknet.org (see budka, bell & fiser, 2009, for an excellent study on myknet.org). community members are using the technology to interact not only with family and friends from afar, but also with other local community members. among those interviewed, 14 community members reported having a facebook page, and five reported having their own myknet.org site. among those participants who use these specific social networking sites, many are accessing them on a daily or at least regular (varying between daily, several times a week, and at least once a week) basis. for instance, 65% of the facebook users are accessing the site regularly. in addition to using the sites for information exchange and updating friends and family members about issues, avid users often take advantage of the real-time chat/text options, and games that are offered on facebook. several participants noted positive or neutral experiences with regards to facebook and social networking sites in general, however other participants also noted the importance of being mindful of appropriate use. this issue will be addressed further in the section on challenges and needs related to ict. finally, there was a tendency for participants to comment on their observations of the younger generation and facebook: clearly, use of social networking sites is not limited to youth, and a good portion of those interviewed actively engage with these sites, however, community members noticed that social networking was especially popular among youth. "facebook is pretty big, right. i just got an account here just a while ago. and i know that's how some kids get messages to each other. instead of using a phone, they just try to be fancy and use their little facebook." (mishkeegogamang community member) 5.4 community radio "we're still kind of 'old school' up here…radio is the number one broadcast system." -mishkeegogamang community member photo 7 mish community radio radio is definitely one of the technologies that mishkeegogamang community members are most fond of. the radio station has existed for decades, and its programs have changed over the years to reflect community interests: in the early 1990s, the radio station provided lively music for community dances. mishkeegogamang has adapted the use of the radio for a variety of activities. community members are able to access all kinds of information via the radio. first instance, community members can access health information via the radio: the community health representatives and local nurses hold monthly radio shows to raise awareness about certain issues. the radio is also used for recreational purposes, like radio bingo. several members of the first nations innovation team feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to meet theodore mishene, the radio station coordinator (please see the mishkeegogamang community newsletter for a profile on theodore's extensive experience with the radio station: http://www.mishkeegogamang.ca/pdf/mishsept10.pdf). one first nations innovation team member went "on air" with theodore to discuss this paper and mishkeegogamang's use of technology. after the researcher finished her english update, theodore translated into ojibway. the researcher recalls how fascinating it was to hear both languages being used to engage community members on the topic. according to interview information, 65% of the mishkeegogamang community listen to the community radio on a regular (daily and weekly) basis. only 12% of the sample reported "never" listening to it. 5.5 community newsletter the mishkeegogamang community newsletter/community update is a creative and positive resource that community members (and visitors!) appreciate. as soon as you arrive at the band council you can see the familiar blue mishkeegogamang colors and logo of the newsletter, with the mishkeegogamang book and other helpful resources, neatly arranged on a table. the newsletter is also available online, on the community website, so that community members and anyone interested in the community can easily access and read it. the community update documents recent happenings in the community, and has a goal of focusing on positive community development a refreshing change from the typical media coverage. the newsletter featured pieces by the respected and talented marj heinrichs (who was also a co-author of the mishkeegogamang book), as well by a variety of passionate community members. in the community interviews, participants were asked about how frequently they submit articles to the newsletter, and how often they read the newsletter. 29% of the community members surveyed reported that they contributed to the newsletter, by writing a story, on a yearly basis if not more frequently (and indeed 12% reported that they contributed on a monthly basis). as might be expected, an even greater number reported reading the community newsletter. 23% reported reading the newsletter on a regular basis, 65% reported looking at it monthly, and 12% annually. not one participant reported having never read the newsletter! clearly, this points to the degree of success and engagement that the newsletter, a more traditional ict, has achieved within mishkeegogamang. 5.6 ict for traditional activities community members who were interviewed reflected on the ways that technologies can support traditional activities, like being "out on the land". participants had several creative ideas for ways that technologies could be a tool in promoting land-based activities. for instance, the following participant describes how community members involved in a thriving tree nursery in one community could virtually interact, via the internet or videoconferencing for example, with individuals in other communities to share knowledge around their practices. "communities, they can use the internet or telemedicine (videoconferencing), they can share ideas regarding say, for instance, i know in the wabigoon reserve, they've got a tree nursery there going on and it provides a lot of employment for the people that are living there. so i mean they can always share ideas around and start stuff like that tree nursery and little garden and stuff like that." -mishkeegogamang community member one individual explained how ict were being used in school classes to help students explore different geographical areas and different first nations communities. these virtual visits can compliment real-life and hands-on visits, allowing students to explore some of the land and different communities and locations while seated in the classroom. while reflecting on the use and integration of ict with more traditional and land-based activities, it could be interesting to pair some of these virtual explorations using google earth with more traditional story-telling and elders' accounts of their visits and past explorations of the same places. "we started using google earth to determine where the school is, like in retrospect to different reserves, and zoom in. i took my kids to sandy lake, which is about seven hours north of here...…it's a fly-in (community), but with winter roads. and we zoomed in on the community and we saw where the northern (store) was and we knew where everything was before we even got there. so yeah, the kids liked that, so i mean that would be a little bit land-based. also things looking at different climates and things like that, we use google earth for. also, there's a slew of maps around here that we can use." -mishkeegogamang community member the ojibway language is integral to culture and community in mishkeegogamang. a community member reflected on how ict and translation programs could be very beneficial for community members, potentially supporting increased communication in ojibway. "you know, in terms of the use of technology, if we had the things (information) that were translated into our own language, i think that would be very important. it's easy to communicate in english, but it's just as easy for people here if not a lot easier, to communicate in ojibway." -mishkeegogamang community member building on this point, the importance of language is described in the following quote: "we need to retain language. language is a big one. because you know, language is a basis of who you are. it's a basis of your pride, of where you've come from as a nishnawbe person. to me, the only reason i'm living here today, feeling strong about who i am, is because i learned my language first. i lived on the land with my grandparents." --mishkeegogamang community member video can be used to preserve traditions and experiences, and these memories can be shared with future generations and used to educate youth. "i think that even if you're a younger kid growing up, seeing those things (snowshoeing outing) on video kind of gives you a sense of what you should be doing as you're growing up, like at a certain age ... when you hit a certain age, like take part in certain traditions and stuff like that. i think for having that on video and showing the kids while they're younger, …they'll be more inclined to do it as they get older, i think. so the video's a big aspect of it. like even the pow-wow that you had on tape yesterday (at the community video festival) would be really great to show young kids and stuff because they might not remember it, like the last time they've been to one or they might not have made the one last year, and they're getting older and they should still know it, just in case they miss it." -mishkeegogamang community member another community member explains how ict could be used to capture traditional experiences that could then be integrated into an educational setting. "well, what i was thinking about is if they could record (via video)…when they go on these outings how to properly, say, skin a rabbit. it could be something that can be shared, so if they can't do it, at least they could watch it. they could watch it first and then they could actually go out and do it. i think it's important, hands-on education is the most important thing you can do….and how to properly set a snare…like go through the whole process. you could use mathematics…it should be this far apart…they could do like a pre-thing and then you could take the kids out and get them really ready to be excited about what they're going to do. they could show them a video about what you're going to do. so what would require videotaping the cultural worker. i think too, it would help to educate…as to why things are done a certain way. and i guess the only other thing is that there are still a number of things that can't be recorded for respect. there are just some things we still can't do with modern technology because it's inappropriate and not acceptable. " --mishkeegogamang community member elders are a key component of anishinaabe culture, they provide a precious resource of traditional knowledge and stories. one community member suggested using ict to help preserve the knowledge of mishkeegogamang elders. "the other thing too that could be done is the keeping of elders' testimony, elders' lives…using them to educate your community about culture. those would be good because our elders are dying away so fast. as long as that's not recorded, it's going to be lost if we don't record those teachings." --mishkeegogamang community member finally, one community member suggested that video could be used to help document mishkeegogamang's important ongoing relationship with the land. this material could be used within the community as a shared history but could also be used, if appropriate and/or necessary, to educate "outsiders" on the meaning that community members associate with traditional activities. "i think it would help out like, for example, it will show that mish is still involved with land-based activities, especially if you had it posted on the website …so these land-based activities in video projects, i think, would really help out, like the hunters and gatherers in the community and also to show that these companies and these corporations that, we still exist on our lands. we need our lands. so in that sense, it would also help out like some of the people, too, that are getting videoed and they can actually see themselves and they have to laugh at themselves. and having them be a part of that would be really cool too." --mishkeegogamang community member 5.7 ict for health and wellness mishkeegogamang has a long history of ict use in healthcare, and has a health center located on the main reserve (it opened in 1998, prior to that a nursing station was available for community members). this health centre is visited by a physician once every five weeks, and is permanently staffed my nurses. the community telehealth coordinator also works out of this centre. dating back to the 1970s, betty johnson, a nurse who works in mishkeegogamang, recalls using cameras to take pictures of wounds or injuries of community members who were not able to access health services at an urban center. the images would then be sent to and interpreted by physicians in sioux lookout or other urban centers who would collaborate with community health professionals to establish a care plan for the patient. dating back even further, health workers in mishkeegogamang used the radio to participate in "radio rounds" and receive radio updates for every patient who was in care outside of the community. this process allowed for increased communication among the urban and rural mental health professionals, and allowed the mishkeegogamang nurses to develop appropriate follow-up plans for patients who were returning home. perhaps most importantly, these radio updates allowed family members who were still in the community to be aware of the health status of their loved ones. a variety of ict tools can be used in the area of health and wellness; videoconferencing is one of the most popular technologies and it is often used in telehealth and telemental health initiatives. telehealth refers to using videoconferencing or other technologies for a variety of health purposes: connecting health care professionals with each other for case conferences, connecting health care providers with clients, providing education, among other activities. telehealth is used in a variety of specialties including primary care, maternity care, dental care, and mental health. mishkeegogamang and keewaytinook okimakanak telemedicine (kotm) work together to provide community members with a range of telehealth and telemental health services. within each community that kotm partners with there is a community telehealth coordinator (ctc). this individual works at the health center and is responsible for connecting clients and health workers with telehealth services; without this community worker, accessing these types of services would not be possible. in mishkeegogamang, darlene panacheese worked as the ctc for several years and currently crystal kakekayskung is the ctc while darlene is on leave. according to our data, 18% of participants use videoconferencing (in general including for health purposes, receiving educational information, etc.) monthly or even more frequently. next we will explore the positive benefits of telehealth for the mishkeegogamang community. photo 8 darlene ctc darlene panacheese,, featured in the photo above with her youngest child, used videoconferencing to access prenatal classes and education to prepare for becoming a mom again. darlene wanted to remain in mishkeegogamang with her family yet she also wanted to access prenatal classes which were not offered in the community; by using videoconferencing she was able to connect with a maternity center in thunder bay. darlene is definitely one of the technology champions in mishkeegogamang. she has been working as a community telehealth coordinator for the past several years, and she is very experienced with helping community members use various technologies to support their health and wellness. when darlene became a ctc, she was trained on how to use the unit, and she is now very comfortable with it and finds it very easy to use she jokingly refers to the telehealth unit as her "little friend." darlene's training has allowed her to become a support for other users in the community: she has travelled to the school and to other locations that have videoconferencing units in order to teach people how to use the unit and engage with others through videoconferencing. when speaking with darlene, she recalled her experience of helping a community member give birth. the mother could not make it to the urban center because of a bad storm, and darlene was called to help the health center staff connect through telehealth with the physician in the urban center. because the mother knew darlene and was so comfortable with her, in addition to darlene's technological expertise, darlene was asked to stay during the labor and birth. darlene recalls that the mother said she felt a peace of mind knowing that she was able to give birth in her community while also being under the supervision and care of the physician. darlene sees many advantages to telehealth. first, telehealth allows community members to access health services while remaining in mishkeegogamang. this means that people can remain with their family, and maintain their responsibilities, while accessing healthcare. in addition, using telehealth is an environmentally friendly way to access services no travel is required! telehealth also allows for family visits which darlene feels is very important. if an individual is hospitalized in an urban center their family members can come into the mishkeegogamang health center to connect with them through videoconference and visit. darlene sees the family visits as incredibly helpful in terms of providing encouragement and keeping families connected. photo 9 crystal ctc crystal, the current community telehealth coordinator in mishkeegogamang,, finds many aspects of her job rewarding. one of her favorite activities is the children's dental clinic. during these sessions crystal (in the photo at right) uses videoconferencing to connect mishkeegogamang children and their families with dental clinics located in urban areas. crystal operates the ent (ear, nose, and throat scope) to look into the mouths of the children so that the dentists are able to have a complete image of the child's dental health. she enjoys watching the excitement on the children's faces as she says they truly enjoy seeing what the technology is capable of. who said that dentist visits could not be fun? like darlene, crystal also sees great benefit in telehealth family visits. she recalls how telehealth has enabled community elders to connect with siblings and family who are hospitalized elsewhere, and she remembers how happy they all looked to see each other. in addition to these types of telehealth activities, crystal enjoys the educational sessions that are provided. about once a month, kotm offers educational sessions via videoconferencing to all community members who are interested. topics cover a broad range of topics from mental health to how to complete log reports for local medical drivers. the musical events which take place over videoconferencing are also quite enjoyable to crystal: young community musicians can connect with each other over videoconferencing to play music for each other and showcase their talents. photo 10 darlene and sophie elder videoconferences.. historically, elder visitation videoconference sessions have been offered to mishkeegogamang community members on a monthly basis. the purpose of these events is to connect elders from various remote and rural first nations communities through videoconferencing. this allows the elders to visit with family and friends that they have not seen in-person for years, and provides them with the opportunity to speak in their own language. furthermore, these events often have an educational component where there is a brief presentation about a relevant health issue, followed by a traditional lunch that is provided to the participants. during the christmas holidays, elders unite to celebrate together singing holiday songs and sharing stories. fortunately, these events can also be accessed by individuals of any age group and location for they are broadcast by web stream over the internet: that way if an elder or family member is unable for whatever reason to attend the videoconference event (most often held at the health centers), they are able to participate by accessing any computer that is connected to the internet. sophie, a community member, is responsible for coordinating the elders' visitations and she says that her favorite part of the event is just being able to see everybody and say hello (she appears in the photo with darlene). during the last elder's visitation event there were more than five different first nations communities connected. telemental health, noted previously, is the use of videoconferencing and/or other technologies for activities that relate to mental health and well-being, including such things as education, group work (e.g., sharing circles, support groups), individual therapy, assessments, and so on. a previous paper, involving mishkeegogamang's community telehealth coordinator crystal kakekayskung as a co-author, was written about community members' perspectives on telemental health (gibson, et al., 2011). the work presented the range of attitudes and perspectives that remote and rural first nation community members have toward the technology, highlighting both the perceived advantages and concerns. 46% of interview participants reported that videoconferencing for mental health and telemental health was a good idea for their community; 23% reported neutrality; and 31% did not think that it was a good idea. one of the main conclusions of the paper was that in order for first nations telemental health initiatives to be successfully, they must be community-driven and community-led. it is our hope that by engaging mishkeegogamang community members in the discourse about use of technologies, that these various initiatives can be better tailored to meet community needs, as community members see appropriate. video as a communication tool for health and wellness activities is growing in popularity among first nations (see martha's story: http://media.knet.ca/node/6397; video resources on parenting at http://www.raisingthechildren.knet.ca/manual/video, among others). there are many types of videos, including those that are professionally-made and those that are user-generated. because video has such great potential for communication and education we asked mishkeegogamang community members about their interest in using video for health and wellness. 94% of mishkeegogamang community members who were interviewed reported that they would be interested in seeing videos developed to educate first nations people on health and wellness issues. participants were also asked about what topic they would like to see the videos focusing on. first and foremost, participants were interested in resources on physical health and wellness, followed by videos on substance abuse and addiction, and sexuality/sexual health. in addition, community members were asked about who they would like to see "star" in these health and wellness videos. the majority (57%) preferred to see community members and people they were familiar with be featured in the videos, professionals were another choice (there can be overlap in terms of professionals and community members, like in the case of community health representatives and community telehealth coordinators), and finally 7% were interested in seeing celebrities or well-known individuals present the information. 5.8 ict for education photo 11 mish ict ed group a variety of educational programs offered to mishkeegogamang community members take full advantage of ict in their curricula. the keewaytinook internet high school (kihs http://www.kihs.knet.ca/drupal/) is the first internet high school to be approved by the ontario ministry of education. kihs allows community members to obtain high school credits and an education while remaining on-reserve. tammy and lorne, kihs teachers in mishkeegogamang, were happy to discuss the role of ict n kihs programs. they explained how students enrolled in kihs can come to the mishkeegogamang classroom and work on their lessons using the available workspace, computers, and internet. often students will have teachers who are located in other communities, therefore the local mishkeegogamang classroom, staffed with kihs teachers and valuable support workers and other staff (e.g., daisy munroe and blair fowler), is an important and useful resource that can facilitate increased supervision and learning. for instance, blair works under the transitional program which gives him the opportunity to work with students who are in the process of transitioning into one of the educational programs and in need of "brushing up" on certain skills. kihs classrooms are located in twelve first nations communities in northern ontario. at least once a month the various classrooms and students unite through videoconferencing. the internet is obviously an integral component of kihs, allowing for connections between students and teachers, while also serving as the primary resource for critical information-seeking. wahsa (http://www.nnec.on.ca/wahsa), harnessing the power of the radio, has provided secondary education to first nations in the sioux lookout zone since 1991. when compared to kihs, wahsa offers more independent learning which can be appreciated in any setting, especially in the comfort of your own home. wahsa has been touted as the first high school program to address "drop-out" rates, offering the first and original on-reserve educational program. wahsa has programming for individuals of all ages, and it is open to everyone. when a student is enrolled in wahsa, books come through mail delivery and completed lessons are returned to urban centers (e.g., sioux lookout). students typically complete approximately twenty lessons per unit, and testing can be completed at home. mishkeegogamang community members enjoy the independence and flexibility afforded by these educational programs. for example, tanya bottle has enjoyed experiencing multiple learning environments, including kihs, wahsa, and plar (prior learning assessment and recognition). tanya explained how she appreciated the flexible learning pace associated with wahsa: she could choose to approach a unit at whatever pace was best suited to her own learning, tackling projects at a faster pace than typically available in a classroom environment. photo 12kihs students michelle and julie kwandibens, appearing in the photo above, are two additional examples of mishkeegogamang youth who are enrolled in kihs and taking advantage of the educational opportunities within their community.. 5.9 ict for administration and work photo 13 mish band office as a receptionist and frontline worker at the band office, tanya bottle uses technology for all kinds of activities on a daily basis. tanya said that she could not imagine doing her job without the fax machine or the computer! she also noted that if her community had cell phone coverage, it would greatly facilitate contacting band council members and staying in touch with community members. tanya is not alone in her interest in having cell phone service in mishkeegogamang. in fact, 76% of the community members in the study stated that if their community had cell phone service, they would use it. despite the fact that there is currently no coverage, 53% of the participants still had a cell phone, which they used when visiting larger centers with cell service, such as sioux lookout. many mishkeegogamang community members reported using ict for administrative and work purposes. 59% of the sample reported creating documents using a computer on a daily basis and this increases to 77% when we include those who are creating documents on a weekly basis. only 6% of those interviewed reported "never" creating documents using a computer. community members were also asked about how frequently they use a computer in an e-centre or other office in the community (e.g., health centre if they are employed there): 46% reported using a computer in an office in the community on a daily basis; and this increases to 64% when looking at regular use (weekly or more often). it is evident that the internet and websites have become a prominent resource for information: 88% of those interviewed reported reading information on a website on a regular basis. not one participant indicated "never" having read information on a website. 5.10 youth and ict photo 14 missabay class while in mishkeegogamang in september of 2010, a first nations innovation researcher had the privilege of visiting the grade 7 and grade 8 class at the missabay community school. crystal, the community telehealth coordinator, accompanied the first nations innovation researcher on the visit. since the previous community member interviews had only been with adults, the two class visitors were curious to learn about how the youth were using technology in their daily lives. the youth were excited to talk about their technology use and compare their use with that of the adults' in our sample. interestingly, the students even developed their own chart of technology use, noting how often they have used a broad range of technologies, including (but not limited to) email, radio, and online video. perhaps it is no surprise that the youth were convinced that they were using technology more frequently! videoconferencing is one technology that the youth are still becoming acquainted with: a project using videoconferencing to connect the missabay class with other classes in africa and other countries was planned for 2011. during the community interviews, certain participants discussed the use of ict by youth. several participants recognized that the youth in mishkeegogamang were very engaged with the technology, and often more so than the adults. these quotes demonstrate how ict can be used by youth in a positive way, while at the same time highlighting the importance of responsible and respectful use of ict.. "we need to gain some kind of control as to what our kids are doing on the internet, especially if they're going to be disrespecting one another. that's the only concern i do have with the technology that is being created, especially the internet. but other than that, if they were taught to use it properly, i think it would be a very useful tool for them, to develop their own projects for school or whatever." --mishkeegogamang community member "i have a nine-year-old who is really interested...…and she is actually showing me how to edit and make a little video. i don't know how to do my own video, so yeah, that's pretty neat. i talked to her about respecting and like only certain things should be put on video, not to make fun of people." --mishkeegogamang community member 5.11 creative purposes photo 15 mish video during the spring 2010 first nations innovation visit, the community hosted a video festival to raise awareness about local talent and creativity. the video festival was offered at a few different venues, including the kihs classroom, the missabay community school, and the resource centre. videos featured were made by different individuals from first nations across the sioux lookout zone. there were even a couple of videos from mishkeegogamang. the photo above is a screenshot from a youtube video that was included in the community video festival. this video was of children at the missabay community school who were singing a song they had collaborated on called "love, love, love." many community members and interview participants reported an interest in seeing more videos created by members of mishkeegogamang and they recognized that there was some very exciting talent and creativity within their community. when the community members were surveyed, 65% reported wanting to see fellow community members creating traditional videos. another 14% were interested in seeing videos focused on different issues and activities within the community. the three quotes below demonstrate the strong interest in traditional videos. "more traditional stuff, you know, to do with traditions around this community because every community has its own traditions that they observe. i mean, i've been here for a long time, but to know specifically those kinds of cultural things, i think would be good. and it also exposes the ... the younger ones to that because ...…they're the up and coming generation ... this is what they're going to be left with basically." -mishkeegogamang community member "one of the videos that really stood out for me was the one where that young boy wrote about a girl who was being abused and his song...…there was two videos where there was a traditional (dancer) and you see the kids just being captured like that. and we actually got back over and there were some kids outside dancing. so that kind of tells me that in the next few weeks we have to bring in some dancers and so we're going to bring in different types of dancers to the community." -mishkeegogamang community member "more traditional videos, i guess, on parenting. probably like a bunch of elders can get together and to do a video on parenting the traditional way." -mishkeegogamang community member many individuals are already engaged with using various ict for creative purposes, like creating videos. for example, all of the community members surveyed reported using cameras to take pictures; 41% of the sample engages with creative picture-taking on a regular basis. further, 8% of the sample reported creating videos yearly. this number will likely grow quickly, as many individuals reported that even though they weren't creating videos at the time of the interview, they had a strong interest in creating them in the near future. in addition, the community and first nations innovation hosted a video training workshop in the spring of 2010, led by cal kenny (k-net's multimedia producer), and the community's kihs students are involved in a video creation activity. 5.12 the future: virtual visits during the interviews, participants were asked whether they would be interested in having "virtual visits" with people in their own community, in other first nations in the sioux lookout zone, and with those even further away (e.g., thunder bay or other locations across the world). participants were asked to imagine that these video/virtual visits were easy to do, and free. participants were very interested in having this type of connection. 92% of participants were interested in the idea of having virtual visits with people who lived in different areas across canada and the world, 72% were interested in having virtual visits with people living in first nations communities in the sioux lookout zone, and 62% were interested in virtual visits with other mishkeegogamang community members. geographical closeness was one reason that was commonly cited for the lack of interest in having virtual visits with local community members. nevertheless, some individuals saw potential uses in virtual visits between community members. for instance, the community is spread across many kilometers, meaning that it is sometimes difficult for community members to connect and attend certain events if they are separated by such a distance and do not have the means to travel. one participant thought that virtual visits would be ideal in the educational milieu, and that they could be very useful in terms of connecting teachers with parents. "it'd be great for parent/teacher interviews and anything like that, like people that couldn't make it, that'd be really good. oh yes, that'd be great." -mishkeegogamang community member 6. challenges and needs related to ict in order to facilitate the positive engagement of mishkeegogamang community members with these various information and communication technologies, certain challenges and concerns need to be addressed in order to support effective use of ict (gurstein, 2003). training training of community members on a continuous basis, focusing on honing skills, encouraging the adaptation of ict to community needs and interests (instead of simply following mainstream use), and supporting critical thinking about ict, could contribute to the sustainability of effective ict use within mishkeegogamang. community technology champions could be engaged in this venture, and enlarging the circle of potential trainers would be important. several community members are already knowledgeable in creating and editing videos (having been trained during the video training workshop offered by cal kenny, the multimedia specialist at ko/k-net, and having previous experience/training as well) and they would serve as a great team for educating and collaborating with other interested community members who have stories they wish to tell and share. adapting ict to community needs and concerns throughout the community interviews, the theme of concern around positive and healthy use of ict was apparent. community members often reported excitement and interest in using ict, while at the same time expressing some concern over damaging or negative uses of ict (e.g., gossip and cyber-bullying on facebook). as a community, it will be imperative to collaboratively encourage respectful and safe interactions on social networking sites, and on the internet in general. for example, when individuals are using media to share their creative work, including such things as videos and traditional stories, it is important to be able to share such resources and knowledge within a respectful environment. negativity and disrespect will only hinder participation and engagement. in order to engage with ict in a healthy and enjoyable way, it is important to have a good understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of using different types of ict. for example, some community members have reportedly expressed some concerns around google earth and invasions of privacy,; others are curious about who might have access to their telemedicine session. these are important and valid concerns and in order to promote positive engagement with ict, questions like these need to be addressed, and critical thinking around using ict needs to be encouraged. fortunately, there are technology champions within the community who could work with community members to answer questions like these. for example, the community telehealth coordinator has knowledge of the process of videoconferencing and telemedicine and can answer any questions around confidentiality. also, some interview participants commented on the importance of using ict in a balanced way. many technologies can facilitate and compliment active lifestyles and positive community events (e.g., gps while out on the land, videos of traditional activities, using the radio station to facilitate community dances, video festivals, etc.), as opposed to simply contributing to sedentary problems. finally, most ict and accompanying software are based on the english language. despite the fact that the majority of community members speak english, preserving their traditional language is of utmost importance. the community radio station connects with its audience in both languages: perhaps the respect that the radio station shows to the ojibway language helps explain why it is one of the most embraced technologies in mishkeegogamang. video-making can also help capture and preserve traditional language and practices at the same time: interview participants were quick to notice the potential that exists there. financial support the ict services that are offered in the community are associated with costs, even though many programs are funded, some integral programs are at risk of discontinuation because of a lack of financial resources. the elder visitation videoconferences require a budget allowance for the traditional food that is offered to the participating elders. as of recently, the organizers have had challenges finding the resources and support that is required to provide lunches to the participants. this is unfortunate in light of the success and excitement that surrounds this event. in the future, key "stakeholders" could brainstorm and collaborate on ways to address this issue in order to ensure a continuation of this excellent program. in addition, continued community involvement in determining what educational sessions to offer via telehealth would be beneficial. limitations of the ict infrastructure one challenge facing the community is generating ongoing funds to make the community network and infrastructure sustainable. the initial community connection was built 100% by public funds; however there is no funding for ongoing support and maintenance of the network. in certain other first nation communities, once the infrastructure was in place the community took over the network to run it as a community business, supported by the community network users. however this model was not adopted in mishkeegogamang. the subscriber units were installed when people asked for them, and a small installation fee was charged but there was no process in place for subscribers to pay for ongoing costs; those living close enough to a tower just used the service. the result is that so many people are using the network that the bandwidth is often fully used and there are often problems getting an internet connection. so for example, when some people are sharing files, downloading music and watching videos, the health centre may not be able to access enough bandwidth to do health administration on the network. because the community is not currently collecting funds for the network, there is no money available to perform the necessary maintenance and upgrades to the network. the community wi-fi points needing replacement will not be serviced until somehow funds become available to upgrade the network. the result is that everyone in the community wants and needs the internet but they do not have high-speed or reliable service because the infrastructure is overloaded and slow. currently, repairs and upgrades are made on an ad-hoc basis. as kihs relies on the internet for its infrastructure, the mishkeegogamang classroom could benefit from a stronger and faster internet connection. in fact, it is likely that the entire community of mishkeegogamang could benefit from this, as the current state of the infrastructure makes it difficult to engage in some activities that require large amounts of bandwidth like uploading videos, for example. mobile infrastructure currently, the community of mishkeegogamang does not have cell phone coverage. overall, there appears to be a fair amount of ambivalence concerning whether the community would benefit from cell phone service. some community members who were interviewed reported that they were concerned about the decrease in privacy and personal time that could result, while others were clearly interested in obtaining cell phone coverage. seventy-six per cent of the sample stated that they would use the cell phone service if it was available. it could be helpful to explore this possibility further, in addition to seeking out more feedback from community members, and other first nations who have introduced mobile service to their community (e.g., fort severn first nation and keewaytinook mobile). 7. discussion and conclusions the community members of mishkeegogamang use a wide range of interactive and robust technologies as tools for a variety of activities. community members communicate and stay informed on important issues via a blend of "older" and "newer" technologies. these include the community radio and community newsletter, as well as the community website, and social networking sites. all (100%) of community members interviewed reported using a landline telephone daily, and this is only slightly more than those who use email on a regular basis. among community interview participants and those profiled, exciting ideas of how to use ict as tools in goals of health, wellness, and education were explored. in addition, the use of technology to support traditional and land-based activities also intrigued community members. several individuals reported an interest in having traditional knowledge and meaningful teachings preserved and archived through video. the information discussed in this paper presents possible ways forward for continuing to engage with technology in positive ways, and for creating and sustaining an environment that facilitates that. for example, there is interesting potential for projects that unite elders and youth, like using ict (e.g., video) to record elders' stories and important teachings. there was also interest in continuing to keep the mishkeegogamang website updated, and making it more of an interactive sharing space for community members (e.g., conceptualizing the website as more of a portal). it will be important to continue to learn and engage with community members about technology use. the community interviews that were completed for this study were only with 17 community members, all of whom were adults. it would be interesting to engage in a discussion with more community members (especially youth!) to learn what the concerns are, and how a positive environment for ict engagement can be better supported. also, how can technology use be better supported in the community for example, a community member may want to try videoconferencing but may lack the training (this is often the case for first time videoconference users, because in many organizations training is not available or offered on a regular basis). a knowledgeable community member, like one of the community telehealth coordinators or any community member who has videoconference experience, could become a technology mentor. excited and interested older students who are learning about new technologies (like videoconferencing) can also be involved in connecting with other schools and communities, as well as introducing their family members or other community members to the benefits of certain technologies. in conclusion, it is evident that there are many talented and passionate individuals in mishkeegogamang! we hope that community members will continue to enjoy and benefit from using ict as support tools for community and individual development, across many different domains. acknowledgements the research team would like to thank mishkeegogamang first nation chief connie gray-mckay for inviting us into her community and making it possible for first nations innovation to conduct outreach and research activities with the community. we would like to thank erin bottle for being our community liaison, and darlene panacheese and crystal kakekayskung for being our "tour guides" around the community. we would also like to thank heather coulson of keewaytinook okimakinak for acting as a liaison during our visits. we also acknowledge the work of nrc analyst betty daniels who performed data entry and analysis for this project. furthermore, we appreciate the information and knowledge that brian beaton and jamie ray of ko/k-net shared with us in helping develop a section of this paper. in addition, we value the feedback that members of the first nations innovation project gave on this paper and the overall project. finally, a warm thank-you to all the community members who participated in the interviews and the community discussions, and to those who volunteered to be "profiled" in this paper: you made us feel welcome as visitors to your community and we are learning from your ideas, stories and experiences. we have great memories of our visits, and for all of this we are sincerely grateful. this research was conducted as part of the first nations innovation project: http://fn-innovation-pn.com funded by in-kind contributions from the partners keewaytinook okimakanak, the first nations education council, atlantic canada's first nation help desk and the university of new brunswick and by grants from the social sciences and humanities research council of canada (sshrc). references budka, p., bell, b., & fiser, a. (2009). myknet.org: how northern ontario's first nation communities made themselves at home on the world wide web. the journal of community informatics, 5(2), online: http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/568/450. gibson, k., kakekaspan, m., kakekaspan, g., o'donnell, s., walmark, b., beaton, b., and the people of fort severn first nation (2012). a history of communication by fort severn first nation community members: from hand deliveries to virtual pokes. proceedings of the iconference 2012, toronto, canada, february. gibson, k.l., coulson, h., miles, r., kakekakekung, c., daniels, e., & o'donnell, s. (2011). conversations on telemental health: listening to remote and rural first nations communities. rural and remote health 11, online: http://www.rrh.org.au/publishedarticles/article_print_1656.pdf. gideon, v. (2006). canadian aboriginal ppeoples tackle e-health: seeking ownership versus integration. in k. landezelius (ed.) native on the net: indigenous and diasporic peoples in the virtual age (pp.61-79). abingdon, oxon: routledge. gurstein, m. b. (2003). effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. first monday, 8 (12), 1-16. heinrichs, m., hiebert, d., & the people of mishkeegogamang. (2009). mishkeegogamang: the land, the people & the purpose.. kelowna, b.c.: rosetta projects. mishkeegogamang ojibway nation (2010). excerpted at http://www.mishkeegogamang.ca/about.html o'donnell, s., kakekaspan, g., beaton, b., walmark, b., mason, r., mak, m. (2011). a new remote community-owned wireless communication service: fort severn first nation builds their local cellular system with keewaytinook mobile. canadian journal of communication, 36(4) 663-673. o'donnell, s., molyneaux, h., gorman, e., milliken, m., chong, c., gibson, k., oakley, p., maitland, j. (2010). information and communication technologies to support health and wellness in remote and rural first nations communities: literature review. fredericton: national research council, 136 pages. o'donnell, s., perley, s., walmark, b., burton, k., beaton, b., and sark, a. (2009). community based broadband organizations and video communications for remote and rural first nations in canada. in stillman, l., johanson, g., and french, r. (eds.), communities in action).(pp.107-119). newcastle upon tyne, uk: cambridge scholars publishing. analysing urban community informatics from a resilience perspective richard heeks & angelica v. ospina centre for development informatics, idpm, seed, university of manchester, uk. email: richard.heeks@manchester.ac.uk; angelica.v.ospina@gmail.com introduction there is a long history of analysing community informatics from a variety of economic and social perspectives. loader & keeble (2004), for example, identify evaluative lenses around access, skills, regeneration, civic participation, and social exclusion. other lenses have included livelihoods (e.g. parkinson & ramirez 2006) and gender (e.g. gurumurthy 2009). but as yet, there have been few if any attempts to analyse community informatics through a resilience lens. the purpose of this paper is to fill this gap: to develop a model of resilience and then use it to understand the relation between resilience and community informatics. it is timely to do this because of the rapid rise of resilience up the community development and local governance agendas in recent years. in particular, our focus here will be on urban communities given the growing number of activities such as: in the global north e.g. local resilience forums in the uk (cabinet office 2011), and the eu's transitioning towards urban resilience and sustainability project (turas 2013). in the global south e.g. the formation of the asian cities climate change resilience network (acccrn 2013), and unisdr's making cities resilient campaign (unisdr 2013) globally e.g. rockefeller foundation's (2013) 100 resilient cities challenge. while drawing from a variety of evidence, our main interest will be on low-income urban communities because these have been most prone to the shocks (such as those arising from climate change) which have prompted the interest in resilience (rosenzweig et al. 2011, world bank 2012). they have also, in recent years, been the sites of rapid diffusion of new information and communication technologies (icts) and so represent an appropriate focus in seeking to investigate the intersection of community informatics and resilience. in the following section, we discuss the meaning of resilience within a community, building a systemic model from the literature on resilience but also from the literature on vulnerabilities, livelihoods and adaptation. next, we use this model to analyse community informatics, looking at the ways in which icts may strengthen but also weaken aspects of resilience. finally, the paper reviews the resilience perspective as a basis for understanding community informatics, and draws some conclusions for future practice. conceptualising community resilience past work on resilience resilience means the ability to withstand and recover from short-terms shocks, and to adapt to long-term trends. it is those shocks which have triggered the literature on urban communities and resilience, including terrorism (coaffee 2009), natural disasters such as earthquakes (comfort 1994), and climate events (whittle et al. 2010) including climate change in particular (leichenko 2011). given the non-specificity of resilience it is of equal relevance to any type of external shock and looks neither at the causes nor effects of those shocks much of the literature has dealt with generic threats to urban communities (godschalk 2003, ernstson et al. 2010). however, resilience itself is not often conceptualised in any depth within this literature. in some cases, resilience is more written around than written about. this may include use without even definition (e.g. crichton 2007) but more often resilience is used as a largely taken-for-granted catalyst or metaphor or stepping stone that leaves the focus of the literature mainly elsewhere. for example, coaffee (2007) analyses not resilience itself but the urban governance responses that an interest in resilience trigger; while prasad et al. (2009) and ahern (2011) similarly identify strategies for building resilience via only a brief definition of the core term. ernstson et al. (2010) take resilience based in systems theory and then use that as the basis for their investigation of urbanisation. pickett et al. (2004) take this line to its conclusion by studying resilience not as a real property but as a metaphor that provides insights into the urban planning process. where resilience is engaged with more directly in the literature, then sometimes the depth of engagement may be restricted to defining the component parts of the definition (whittle et al. 2010), identifying the socio-technical nature of resilience (godschalk 2003), or broadening to explain categories of resilience: e.g. physical, social, economic, institutional and natural (razafindrabe et al. 2009); or social, economic, institutional, infrastructural and community (jha et al. 2013). these remain broad-brush approaches and may be contrasted with literature that offers a few specific factors that are seen as related to resilience, e.g. social capital (simpson 2005); a diversified economy, planning, and people (campanella 2006); or wealth, institutional stability, reliable public infrastructure, global interconnectivity, and natural resource dependence (tanner et al. 2009). even the relatively few examples of specificity are challenged by limited overlap and agreement, perhaps because urban resilience is being approached from different foundations including ecological, hazards/risk, economic, and governance/institutions (leichenko 2011). we therefore identify a knowledge gap; a requirement for a more thorough conceptualisation of resilience, particularly as applicable to urban communities. only by understanding resilience properly can we effectively make use of it as a concept: for design of future community informatics initiatives, for implementation of current initiatives, and for evaluation of past initiatives. modelling communities as systems our starting point for understanding resilience is a systematic and systemic understanding of communities, based around the model shown in figure 1. full details of the derivation of this model can be found in ospina & heeks (2010) but, in brief, it was created from the following principles, which draw particularly from the sustainable livelihoods approach and from sen's capabilities approach: that communities face a number of acute shocks and chronic trends. climate change may take prominence among these, particularly given its strong connection to resilience, but there will be others from environmental, social, and economic domains. these shocks and trends interact with a set of key vulnerability dimensions such as livelihoods and finance, socio-political conditions, health, habitat and migration, food security, and water supply. a community can be conceived as a "livelihood system". actions within the community are determined by the assets available (human, natural, financial, physical, social and informational capitals), by the institutions that shape behaviour, and by the structures that organise those assets and institutions. the adaptive capacity of the community to cope with (withstand, recover from, and change in the face of) external shocks and trends, represents a series of livelihood capabilities. however, only a sub-set of these are converted into actual strategies and actions ("functionings" in senian terms). the overall functionings of the community are diverse but a sub-set represent specific adaptations or adaptive actions that respond to the contextual shocks/trends. these actions, in turn, alter the determinants and capabilities of the community. the overall actions also drive the outcomes of social, political and economic development seen within the community and beyond. figure 1: communities as adaptive systems: components and processes (adapted from ospina & heeks 2010) systems can be understood through three main aspects: structure (e.g. components and relations), process (functions), and properties (laszlo & krippner 1998, skyttner 2001, fisher 2010). figure 1 shows the structure and process of a community, but not its properties. it therefore says nothing directly about resilience since resilience is neither a systemic structure nor a systemic process, but a systemic property (gallopin 2006). adaptive capacity of systems such as communities derives not simply from the structural elements but also from the properties of those elements in systemic combination (norris et al. 2008). to progress further, then, we need to understand more about what resilience as system property is. we noted above the limitations of much of the literature dealing with resilience. but there is a fraction of more conceptual literature of relevance here that recognises resilience as a systemic property. some of that literature, particularly early work, sought to treat resilience as a monolithic property but more recent work has broken it down into a set of sub-properties. a review of these latter sources suggests that resilience sub-properties can be grouped in two main categories, according to their foundational or enabling contribution to resilience. foundational sub-properties of resilience analysis and synthesis of the conceptual resilience-as-property literature (carpenter et al. 2001, walker et al. 2004, folke 2006, nelson et al. 2007, plummer & armitage 2007, resilience alliance 2010, miller et al. 2010, osbahr et al. 2010) suggests that resilient systems have three core characteristics, referred to here as 'foundational sub-properties'. the first of these sub-properties robustness relates mainly to the ability of the system to withstand; that is, to maintain its characteristics and performance in the face of environmental fluctuations, including shocks (developed from carlson & doyle 2002, janssen & anderies 2007, tierney & bruneau 2007). generic features of robust systems include reinforcing connections between components and processes, which help spread the effects of any external disturbance, and strengthening individual structures (such as institutions) to avoid their collapse in the face of stressors (gunderson 2000). for example, in relation to climate change such strengthening would encompass physical preparations such as levees, flood storage basins, greenspaces and tree planting (gill et al. 2007). the second foundational sub-property is self-organisation, which refers to the system's ability to independently re-arrange its functions and processes in the face of external disturbances, without being forced by the influence of other external drivers (carpenter et al. 2001). self-organisation is critical given both the uncertainty of reliance on external systems e.g. during a disaster, and the potential mismatch between external and local system interests. it enables local diagnosis of problems and mobilisation of resources to initiate solutions (tierney & bruneau 2007), and relies strongly on the capacity for cooperative decision-making and action within the community; a capacity that will be based significantly on the nature of social networks within the community (fuchs 2004). the capacity for local collective action will also relate to the nature of local power over structures and resources (such as leadership within the community and representativeness and trust) and psycho-social dimensions (e.g. belief, motivation, hope, perceived self-efficacy) within the community (brouwer et al. 2007). the third foundational sub-property of resilience is learning: the capacity of the system to generate feedback with which to gain or create knowledge, and build the skills, attitudes and other competences required to innovate and adapt to change. experimentation, discovery and innovation can all be seen as aspects of both short-term response to shocks and longer-term transformational change (folke et al. 2010). these may be enhanced by the combination of local knowledge with that sourced from outside the community (folke et al. 2003). enabling sub-properties of resilience further review of conceptual literature suggests the existence of an additional set of sub-properties redundancy, rapidity, scale, diversity, flexibility, and equality that enable resilience, and that facilitate the operationalisation of the foundational attributes described above (godschalk 2003, folke et al. 2003, seixas & berkes 2003, tompkins & adger 2004, adpc 2006, marshall & marshall 2007, callaghan & colton 2008, magis 2009, cuthill et al. 2010). redundancy is the extent to which components within a system are substitutable; for example, in the event of disruption or degradation. one part of this can be asset diversity, but this is not simply an issue of scale but the ability to access assets that are both in some sense 'surplus' and interchangeable. redundancy may also involve the overlap of processes, capacities and response pathways that allow for partial failure within a system without complete collapse (rockefeller foundation 2009). rapidity means how quickly assets can be accessed or mobilised to achieve goals in an efficient manner (norris et al. 2008), and is key to ensuring the system's ability to identify the emergence of problems and decide and implement a course of action in a timely manner. this will have a particular value in responding to acute disturbances such as disasters and will relate to a variety of assets but especially information and finance. scale refers to the breadth of assets and structures a system can access in order to effectively overcome or bounce back from or adapt to the effects of disturbances (folke et al. 2010). it involves, for example, access to structures beyond the immediate community level which enable access to resources that may not otherwise be available. these structures may be informal social networks or formal institutions such as extended markets or state organisations, which are shown to be important in responding to external stressors (few et al. 2006). diversityis the availability of a variety of assets, institutions and institutional functions that enable a range of response options (e.g. in terms of livelihoods, land use, adaptive infrastructure choices, etc) (folke et al. 2005, hopkins 2009). it also encompasses diversity of knowledge and reference frames (galaz et al. 2008). this reduces the potential fragility of a 'monoculture' response to external stressors, helping the absorption of disturbance, spreading of risk, and stimulus of competitive reorganisation and renewal (folke et al. 2003, nelson et al. 2007, rockefeller foundation 2009, ifejika speranza 2010, clements et al. 2010). diversity of system elements also "provides the basis for innovation, learning and adaptation to slower, ongoing change" (biggs et al. 2012: 425). closely linked to diversity and combined into a single sub-property for the purposes of what follows, flexibility refers to the ability of a system to undertake different sets of actions with the determinants at its disposal, better enabling it to address problems and utilise opportunities arising from external change (folke 2006). flexibility partly relates to the ability of system elements to be recombined in different ways, but also to the existence of knowledge (e.g. from wider networks) that can suggest those different combinations and courses of action; and to an adaptability of decision-making processes to allow alternatives to be considered. equality is the extent to which the system affords equal access to rights, resources and opportunities to its members, given evidence that more unequal systems are less resilient and less able to adapt (adger 2001, magis 2009). at one level, this is about the distribution of access to resources and institutions, but it is also about the nature of decision-making: whether this is able to produce shared goals by being participative and transparent (tompkins & adger 2004). conceptualising community resilience based on the review above, we can now summarise resilience as a series of foundational and enabling sub-properties with definitions and key markers as shown in table 1 (ospina 2013). table 1: community resilience sub-properties: summary of definitions and key markers (ospina 2013) these resilience sub-properties constitute dynamic, interrelated, and imbricated attributes that interact with available assets, institutions, structures and capabilities (system components) in a livelihood system, and ultimately enable adaptation as realised functionings (system processes). the realised adaptations contribute to the achievement of development outcomes, including feedback into the capacity of the system to withstand or adapt to future disturbances and uncertainties. these connections form the resilience model that is reflected in figure 2. figure 2: communities as adaptive systems: resilience as a system property (adapted from ospina & heeks 2010) to summarise, the analysis of systemic adaptation is concerned with the relationships between components, properties, processes and outcomes in a given system (nelson et al. 2007), as reflected in figure 2. here, external shocks or trends within a particular context act as a stimulus that requires a response. the capacity of the system in this case a community to respond through adaptation can be understood in two ways. first, as a set of structuro-functional components. second, as a set of (sub-)properties. together these interact to create the adaptive capacity of the system/community, which can be thought of as the system's capabilities what it is able to be and to do in making a response to acute or chronic external stressors. therefore, resilience interacts with assets and other components to shape the trajectory of functioning and adaptation (norris et al. 2008). having laid out the conceptual basis for community resilience, we will now use this framework to analyse the relationship to resilience within the context of community informatics. analysing urban community informatics through a resilience lens this section takes the resilience framework and uses it as a lens for the analysis of urban community informatics; mainly drawing evidence from literature on specific projects or interventions. there are two ways this could be approached. either, as here, analysing each of the sub-properties in turn to understand ways in which community informatics has affected them. or, one could analyse community informatics interventions one-by-one to understand the specific impact they have had on community resilience: this will be the subject of future work (ospina & heeks 2014). given space constraints, we acknowledge that what is achieved here can only be illustrative rather than comprehensive. as noted previously, our particular interest will be low-income urban communities given that they represent the intersection of a pressing need for greater resilience and a recently-grown availability of icts. however, the relatively limited evidence base means we will, at times, have to move beyond this boundary. icts strengthening foundational sub-properties icts and robustness icts can help strengthen the physical preparedness of communities by helping those communities optimise the location of physical defences. for example, in a number of cities, geographic information systems (gis) have been used to plot flood plains and watercourses, enabling the improved planning of maintenance and installation of storm drains (kluck et al. 2010). icts can also strengthen institutions needed for the system to withstand the occurrence of external shocks. this can occur by developing the capacity of individual institutions: for example of local government to deliver services or to make good decisions (schuppan 2009). but it can also occur by drawing institutions together into networks and partnerships that expand urban governance capacity, creating so-called 'smart city' or 'e-city' governance models (paskaleva 2009), or by placing local institutions as one actor within multi-level networks that are global in scale (sun et al. 2010). icts and self-organisation self-organisation of urban communities requires that they have internal, independent capacity to take decisions and actions, something conceivable in terms of the information chain (see figure 3). figure 3: the information chain (adapted from heeks & kanashiro 2009) a first step will be provision of appropriate data and information for decision-making processes. icts of course have a key role here. most often, digital information about, say, climate events or climate change will come from outside the community (ospina 2011, world bank 2012). this does not per se install external drivers that may divert and undermine self-organisation, but of greater fit with self-organisation will be ict use to generate data within communities themselves; an option which is increasing with greater availability of mobile phones. these have been used to report on-the-ground data during urban disasters or in relation to wash (water, sanitation, and hygiene) services, though as with all ict systems there is still a reliance on external sources for hardware, software and telecommunications (hutchings et al. 2012, world bank 2012). digital tools such as public participatory gis (in some cases with linked decision support systems) are increasingly used to help communities make decisions (bugs 2012, wallin & horelli 2012). this support for self-organisation via icts increases dramatically if we extend the scope of 'self' to also cover local government. although lagging behind the extent of use in the global north, use of icts in local governments in latin america, africa and asia is expanding fast, and assisting with data gathering, processing and decision making of relevance to climate and other-related shocks (e.g. revi et al. 2006, world bank 2012). the 'action' component of the information chain is less associated with icts but the capacity for all elements of the chain creating information, making decisions, taking actions can be impacted by new technology. some of these capacities, such as learning or general provision of resources, will be discussed in relation to other sub-properties. however, table 1 specifically identifies social networks, leadership and trust. icts can be seen to foster robustness by supporting social relations and social networks that reach outside the urban community; for example links to relatives based in rural areas (skuse & cousins 2008, morawczynski 2009). but mobile phones also strengthen the social networks within urban communities, enhancing their ability to self-organise responses to external disturbances within those communities. they do this by enhancing communication within these networks, and thus building trust and social capital within the individual bonds of the network (duncombe 2006). experience in urban communities of using other icts such as online discussion forums has been more mixed, but there are signs that it can increase the density of contact within these communities and enable forms of self-organisation that spill over from the virtual to the real world (kotus & hlawka 2010). as might be expected, icts have been highly effective in strengthening the capacities of community leaders (e.g. ogbu & mihyo 2000, ben-attar & campbell 2013). icts and learning the increasing mediation of learning via icts means that, necessarily, communities will increasingly be building their base of information, skills and knowledge through digital technologies (bishop et al. 2006, garrison 2011). the opportunities for learning are expanding as more online educational resources of relevance are developing (e.g. wilson et al. 2011), though it will be some time before these filter down to engage low-income community members in developing countries. more accessible have been digital tools such as web 2.0/social media applications to support processes of collective learning, particularly among institutions working in or with low-income urban communities (gtz 2008). this can be understood in terms of kolb's (1984) learning cycle: the sharing of experiences such as changes in the urban environment, group reflection on this evidence, the development of understanding through conceptualisation, and then the translation of these frames into active experimentation within the local area. this has been seen, for example, in the intensive use of icts in the learning and action alliances that have supported reflection and built collective knowledge around urban flood risk management (manojlovic et al. 2013). icts strengthening enabling sub-properties icts and redundancy redundancy refers to the potential of icts to increase availability of resources to such an extent that there is some spare, excess or possible substitutability of assets. one key way in which icts can contribute to redundancy is by supporting access to additional financial capital. icts mobile phones especially have been associated with an outflow of financial remittances from urban to rural areas, but they also enable inflows from richer urban and overseas diaspora social contacts into low-income urban communities (skuse & cousins 2008, bowora & chazovachii 2010). although difficult to characterise this as creating 'spare' income, it does move communities in the direction of redundancy in terms of both financial capital and other assets purchased with the money. icts e.g. mobile systems also offer a channel for income flows that substitute for income that can no longer be produced locally during periods of acute shock, for example reversing standard urban-to-rural flows (morawczynski & pickens 2009) just as asset redundancy can improve the resilience of urban communities, so does redundancy in institutions and organisations (e.g. markets), which allows a community to continue to operate even in the event of partial failure of some of its components. one example is the broadening of urban job market channels through use of icts such as the babajob system for informal sector employment in india (heeks 2010a). this has functional overlaps with existing informal networks, thus providing a substitutable, redundant channel for job market operation. another example is m-commerce such as the cellbazaar system in bangladesh which provides redundancy in retail channels for urban communities, creating substitutable trading links (zainudeen et al. 2011). icts and rapidity a core functionality of icts is the increasing speed with which they process and communicate data. they are thus strongly associated with increases in systemic rapidity within urban communities for all information flows, transactions and services that they handle. for example, icts enable greater rapidity of access to, and mobilisation of, financial assets via m-finance applications (duncombe & boateng 2009). this, in turn, enables greater rapidity of mobilisation of the assets and services purchased with this money. similarly, by speeding up the accessibility of data, icts speed up the whole information chain (see figure 3). so, for instance, mobile-based disaster management systems enable more rapid disaster early warning, response and recovery including coordinative decisions and actions (yap 2011). icts and scale by connecting low-income urban communities to distant and/or higher-level institutions, icts can improve the scale of assets and structures to which these communities have access. telemedicine and related applications can provide access to the information, knowledge and other capabilities of the wider health system (blaya et al. 2010, gomez & passerini 2010). urban weather forecasting and early warning systems similarly provide connections to wider capitals (informational, human, social, etc) and systems (shaw 2012). icts can also improve the breadth of access to economic structures: tapping poor urban producers into wider markets (see the cellbazaar example mentioned above), or into regional and global supply chains (munoz & choi 2010). most directly, this can improve scale of access to financial assets. as well as linking urban communities to "higher-level" systems, icts can also assist by enabling community organisations and enterprises to scale, and by facilitating cross-community interactions and partnerships (schaffers et al. 2011) icts, diversity and flexibility icts typically provide a supplement rather than substitute for pre-existing sub-systems of data processing, communication, transactions and services. as such, they necessarily increase the diversity of any system such as an urban community. but they also significantly increase the potential for diversity of decision-making and action within the community, because they increase the diversity of information flows into the decision-making process (shachaf 2008, hampton et al. 2011). this would include providing information on a more diverse range of actions than might otherwise be known, in part through the more diverse social connections that icts enable; as already described. initial generations of icts were associated with inflexibility and the idea that they set procedures and systems in "electronic concrete" (heeks 1999). however, more recent icts are much more flexible not only incorporating an ever-wider range of functionalities but also more-readily enabling users to themselves re-purpose the technology. this means that icts can facilitate greater flexibility within social and economic development components of urban communities (forcheri & molfino 2000, ritchie & brindley 2005). they can also form the foundation for new, collaborative forms of urban innovation, particularly social innovations (deakin & allwinkle 2007). icts and equality the 21st century's "mobile revolution" has brought almost all members of low-income urban communities within reach of digital communications, with the majority of the population owning a mobile and with access to mobile telephony being close to ubiquitous (ling & horst 2011, wesolowski et al. 2012). this has been a significant equaliser and its impact on equality will continue to expand as an increasing range of services becomes available via mobile phone. alongside examples already cited around use of m-money, this extends to the development of skills via m-learning (e.g. zolfo et al. 2010) and to the political sphere. the spread of icts has seen improvements in access to government services provided online via pc and mobile (scholl 2010), but the impact of icts has gone beyond this to foster greater inclusion in political processes. for example, in uganda, mobile phones and social media (e.g. facebook and twitter) have been widely used for campaigning and civil activism that can draw low-income groups into political activity (cipesa 2012). icts can also open up governance in other ways: improving "transparency and accountability in the delivery of social services" (world bank 2004: 5) by allowing urban citizens to monitor public processes, and supporting the participation of citizens in urban planning decisions, for example through use of ppgis (public participation geographic information systems) (bugs et al. 2010). in this way, icts help level the playing field of political power, shifting power somewhat from traditional institutions to the community. icts weakening resilience it is, therefore, possible to identify many ways in which icts are strengthening resilience in urban areas. however, the ever-greater penetration of icts into the lives of low-income urban communities should not be read simply as positive in resilience terms, since icts may also weaken resilience sub-properties. we give two brief illustrations here. icts form a global digital infrastructure which encourages and enables local communities to become part of global digital networks in economic, political, social and cultural spheres. as noted above, this strengthens robustness and scale and it is not necessarily at odds with self-organisation . . . but it can be if local capacities and systems atrophy in the face of external connections; where, for example, icts support global supply chains at the expense of local ones (audirac 2005). this can create a dependency on wider connectivity that can undermine the ability to organise and act locally and independently. all new technologies are almost inherently levers of inequality because of their uneven patterns of adoption and use: in other words those with initially higher resource endowments are in a position to make faster, better use of new technologies thus increasing the endowment gap in relation to those with initially lower endowments (heeks & kenny 2002). the picture with icts is not simple, with gaps closing over time: e.g. in terms of gender inequalities in access to icts (brannstrom 2012). but gaps evolve from a divide of access to an emerging gap of skills for effective use, and from a divide of older generation to an emerging gap of newer generation technologies (heeks 2010b, van deursen & van dijk 2010). thus icts are simultaneously strengthening and weakening aspects of equality. conclusions and recommendations resilience is key to the future of urban communities and is particularly important for low-income communities that are most vulnerable to future shocks. if they are not resilient, they will increasingly fail in the face of the growth in external stressors, not least the expanding impact of climate change. because this is widely-recognised, there has been ongoing interest in urban resilience for many years. resilience-targeting actions have also been on the rise but both interest and actions are likely to have been held back by a conceptualisation of resilience to date that has simultaneously been too broad and too shallow. debate has fragmented around multiple definitions, and has stuttered due to the lack of an all-embracing framework. in this paper, we have developed a fairly clear but also comprehensive framework for understanding resilience as a system property, with an urban community being one such system. we have then shown how this resilience framework could be used to analyse community informatics. in this case we undertook an aggregated and cross-cutting evaluation of evidence from a variety of community informatics cases and projects, providing an overall sense of the impact on resilience. it was seen that icts can both increase and decrease community resilience and the framework thus helps understand both the pros and cons of community informatics. of course there have been limitations given that this has been a post-hoc reinterpretation of evidence based on a relatively few cases. there is a consequential need for further work applying the model in greater depth and durante hoc. we hope, though, that this paper does provide at least a proof of concept for the resilience model as an analytical framework for community informatics; showing how icts can be linked to the rising resilience agenda. there remains, though, the "so what?" question: the more difficult issue of what new, additional insights a resilience perspective on community informatics offers compared to others. the main value would appear to be the transcendent nature of resilience: whereas other lenses for understanding ci gender, skills, economic regeneration, civic participation are always partial, resilience offers a lens that is at the same time both fundamental and over-arching. by investigating properties, a resilience approach to community informatics ensures that icts are understood in relation to foundations; to the core of what communities require in order to survive and prosper in the 21st century. so the not yet fully-proven potential of resilience is that it includes important aspects that other approaches may miss, and that it is better at targeting more important issues and priorities. it refocuses our attention on community informatics from the short-term to the long-term, and adds both breadth and depth to our planning, implementation and evaluation. more evidence about that potential can emerge from conceptual work, undertaking further analysis with the model. but it may be more likely to arise from its application to practice, something which as discussed next will also require further work. developments for practice the resilience framework could be used in practice to evaluate community informatics projects pre-, duranteand post-hoc; not merely helping to understand them but also prompting revisions that will deepen the formation of community resilience. further developments would be needed for this to be possible, including moving from general markers of each resilience sub-property, to specific indicators which could be measured either using rating scales or more objectively. urban resilience indexes of this type do already exist for example the disaster resilience index (cutter et al. 2010) or the resilience capacity index (brr 2013) relying on conventional measures largely available within the public domain. however, these have only been applied to us cities. these indices touch on some aspects of some of the resilience sub-properties such as the human and institutional capacity markers of robustness and learning, the gap marker of equality, and perhaps some element of scale; however, the major part of resilience is left untouched as the focus is largely on components and functions rather than properties. un-habitat's city resilience profiling programme is under way at the time of writing and seeks to bring metrics to bear on the issue of urban resilience. details of the underlying urban systems model are relatively sketchy but again it relates to components and functions of city systems, not to properties (lewis 2013). there thus remains a space to create a true resilience index which recognises resilience as a property of urban communities viewed as systems. appendix a gives an example of an initial move in this direction, though clearly requiring further work which at the time of writing was being undertaken via piloting of rabit the resilience assessment benchmarking and impact toolkit to evaluate the impact on resilience of icts in low-income urban communities in costa rica (ospina & heeks 2014). rather than attempting some form of cross-community benchmarking, this will use the framework on a community-specific basis, getting community representatives to discuss the connection of icts to the resilience sub-properties and their meaning, relevance, priority, etc. for their particular community. we hope this will prove a fruitful way forward in seeking to deepen the connection between community informatics and community resilience. references acccrn (2013) acccrn, hong kong http://www.acccrn.org/ adger, w.n. 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(2010) mobile learning for hiv/aids healthcare worker training in resource-limited settings, aids research and therapy, 7(35), 1-6 appendix a: sample survey sheet for assessing impact of community informatics on resilience the cancellation of the community access program and the digital divide(s) in canada: lessons learned and future prospects chris blanton masters student, school of library archival and information studies, university of british columbia, canada. email: cdlblanton@netscape.net introduction the term digital divide has many definitions (gurstein, 2003), but generally refers to a persistent inequality between groups of individuals in their ability to participate in society through the medium of information and communication technologies (ict). the term can have a broad or narrow scope; it can be used to refer to a lack of access to the internet or to a lack of ability or willingness to use digital information technology (van dijk and hacker, 2003). discussions of the digital divide in canada have encompassed "issues of technology access and affordability, technology as a primary means of individual or community development, geographical access, and constructions of different types of community (virtual, interest, geographic, and the technology infrastructure of communities)" (rideout and reddick, 2005). in april 2012, the government of canada officially ended its community access program (cap), canada's longest running government initiative to close these divides. cap was a federal program that provided grants for internet access and training in remote, rural, and underprivileged communities ("ottawa cuts cap", 2012). cancellation of the program removed a major source of funding from thousands of access sites across canada, throwing into doubt the future of the community networking projects that they support. this paper begins with a description and history of cap, including the events leading up to its cancellation, and then evaluates the government's claim that the program is no longer needed, looks at the effect that its cancellation will have on the organizations that operate cap sites, and concludes with a look at the future of public internet access in canada, considered both as a question of national internet policy and from the perspective of community informatics and first mile approaches to addressing the digital divides. cap: a brief history1 cap has contributed to bringing computer and internet technologies to canadians across this country, and has successfully achieved its objectives. in these challenging times, the government remains committed to prioritizing expenditures and returning to budget balance. cap was scheduled to end march 31, 2012, and will not be renewed. letter from lisa setlakwe, director general of the regional operations sector of industry canada, posted on-line by cbc news ("ottawa cuts cap public web access funding", 2012). the community access program (cap) was launched in 1995 under the auspices of the canadian ministry of industry (industry canada). cap was one of a number of programs in the canadian government's connecting canadians initiative, whose agenda was to make available access to the internet, and thus, to the developing information-based economy, for people and places that would not be likely to get such access through market-based solutions.2 cap attempted to meet this goal by providing funding for access sites operated by partner organizations (grant recipients) in schools, libraries, community centres, friendship centres (non-profit community institutions providing services to aboriginal peoples, especially in towns or urban areas), and other social service centres (moll, 2012). the cap grants provided money to the host organization for computers, internet connectivity, and ict training (rideout & reddick, 2005). typically an access site would consist of a small number of internet-connected computers, serving as public access terminals, with associated peripherals such as printers, and sometimes with stand-alone software such as word processing or spreadsheet management programs. in many cases, the hosting organization would provide some level of technical support and computer training to the users of the access terminals. a companion program, the cap youth initiative (cap-yi), provides funding to young interns to work at cap sites. initially, cap grants were intended for communities with a population of 50,000 or less, reflecting a concern that rural and remote areas of the country were being missed in the initial build-out of the internet in canada. four years later, the program was expanded to include urban areas (rideout & reddick, 2005), to address fears that economically or socially disadvantaged urban dwellers were at risk of being left behind as well. the initial goal of cap was to have 10,000 access sites in place and operating by 2001. this target was never met (the greatest number of operational sites was 8,800, achieved in 2003). subsequently, the liberal party promised in its 1997 platform to connect all rural communities with populations of 400-50,000 to the internet by 2000. the years 1999-2004 could be considered "the golden age of connectivity policy in canada" (moll, 2012). the government of the day envisioned the program moving beyond simple network access and infrastructure for economic development to encompass a broadly defined objective of connectivity as a vehicle for social cohesion, with the program's vision, policy, and financial support all aligned to this objective. 2004, however, marked a significant turning point in the fortunes of cap. the original program was scheduled to end in march of that year. the liberal government of paul martin (who succeeded jean chrétien as prime minister in 2003) renewed cap for a term of only one year, beginning a period of successive annual extensions that left cap's community partners in a perpetual state of suspense about the security of their funding from year to year. at the same time, the focus of the program was narrowed from broad society-building goals to a two-fold objective of promoting internet access in the neediest communities, and of delivering government services on-line. table 1: milestones in the history of the community access program. as the minority liberal government of paul martin was succeeded by the minority conservative government of stephen harper, cap continued to be scaled back. in 2006 its funding was cut by 65%, in 2007 its funding was allowed to lapse completely for nine weeks before being reinstated, and in 2010 the minister of the day attempted to impose provisions that would close all cap sites that were within 25 km of a public library (a decision that was eventually reversed in response to public protests). by 2001, industry canada was no longer accepting applications for new cap sites, and after a decade of funding cuts and narrowing terms of reference, the number of active sites had fallen from a probable high of 8,800 to one or two thousand by program's end.3 cap has been open to criticism for being at times too narrowly focused on technical access, computers and connections, at the expense of addressing human and social needs. this limitation seems in part to be a natural consequence of being administered by industry canada and therefore heavily influenced by industry canada's departmental mandate.4 it is also in part the result of logistical considerations (it is easier to deal with a few thousand access sites as opposed to the individual needs of several million end users). the funding model is sometimes criticized for not providing large enough follow-up grants to match the initial start-up grants, leading to sustainability problems. the program also experimented with requirements to provide canadian content on-line, which proved to be a distraction from the program's core objectives and went beyond the competency of industry canada to administer (rideout & reddick, 2005). cap also struggled to adapt its original program, tailored for serving rural and remote areas, to canada's cities: in particular, it was difficult to identify "communities" within the urban context that were willing to serve as partners and champions for cap sites, a challenge which led to problems with long-term sustainability (gurstein 2007, note 41). on balance, however, cap has proven highly successful at meeting its objectives of increasing the capacity of local communities to access and share information online (moll, 2007a, 2007b). the digital divide: mission accomplished? according to industry canada, the government cancelled cap because it had met its objective to make internet broadly accessible. cap launched in an age when only 10 per cent of canadian households had internet service at home. as of 2010, that proportion had grown to 79 per cent (holmen, 2012). the canadian federal budget of 2012 noted that 94% of canadians lived in an area where broadband internet access was available for purchase, and claimed the program had "outlived its usefulness" (freeman, 2012). government members of parliament responded to constituents upset at the cancellation by repeating the government's talking points, and some even went further. when questioned whether low-income people would lose internet-access as a result of the government's decision, okanagan-shuswap mp colin mayes responded: "life is about priorities and you have to set those priorities and decide what's important to you. people always find the resources to find what's high on their priorities, whether they're poor or not. those are the decisions you have to make in life, whether you're poor or not" (wickett, 2012).5 the most-cited source of information on the internet access divide in canada is statistics canada's canadian internet use survey (cius). the 2010 iteration of this survey found that 79% of canadian households6 have internet service. of the remaining households, 56% said that they did not have internet access because they had no need or interest in it. over time, surveys of internet use in canada consistently identify a category of "core non-users" who have not used the internet and have no intention of doing so in the future (for example, in 2003, core non-users made up 60% of all canadian non-users) (rideout & reddick, 2005). thus, after factoring out the core non-users, the latest stats can figures suggest that approximately 12% of canadian households would like to use the internet at home, but can't, whether because of the cost of the service or access equipment (20% of non users), lack of a device that can be connected to the internet (15%), or a lack of skills, knowledge, or confidence (12%).7 local unavailability of internet access was not frequently mentioned as a cause for non-use, which is consistent with middleton & sorensen's (2006) finding that "for most canadians, home internet access, if they want it, is available on a commercial basis."8 these aggregate figures, however, conceal some significant inequalities related to income, age, education, and geography. the most glaring divide was along the lines of income: 97% of households in the top income quartile had access, compared to 54% in the lowest quartile (corresponding to incomes of $30,000 or less). people who live alone are much less likely to have internet access than households with three or more people (58% compared to 93%). three provinces had household access levels of 73% or less; new brunswick's level was 70%. the cius completely excludes the territories (yukon, nwt, nunavut), who almost certainly would have much lower than average rates of access. mckeown, brocca & greenhof (2010) found a significant disparity in internet access and usage between urban and rural areas in the cius data for the years 2005, 2007, and 2009, particularly in the availability of high-speed access. this gap showed signs of narrowing somewhat over time; nevertheless, only 54% of residents of small communities reported having used a high-speed connection during 2009, as compared to 76% of canadians living in communities with a population of 10,000 or more. although the internet has experienced a rapid rate of diffusion in canada compared with earlier technologies (mckeown et al, 2010) and is becoming more equitably distributed over time (howard et al., 2010), statistics show that reliable broadband access remains elusive in rural and remote communities (mcmahon et al., 2011), and for the poorest citizens, residential access of any sort remains an unaffordable luxury. the government's claim that the community access program is no longer needed is also belied by direct observations of use of public access terminals in communities across the country. longitudinal research shows that between 1997 and 2005 use of public internet access sites held constant, with site users constituting roughly 7% of all internet users and 15% of low-income internet users (rideout & reddick, 2005). in the city of victoria (british columbia), the manager of public service told reporters that the library has seen no indication that the demand for free public access is going down, despite the increasing availability and up-take of residential internet access described in the nation-wide surveys. the computer stations are well used and often have a queue; a wide cross-section of people use them, including those of limited means, students, and seniors without the knowledge to set up a home computer (holmen, 2012). in smithers (bc), where cap funding for library-based public access began in 2005, use of the public terminals increased 43% between 2005 and 2012, exceeding 9,000 accesses per year in the last year data was available (hudson, 2012). in the 12 member libraries of alberta's shortgrass library system, 37,500 users accessed the internet for a total of about 54,000 hours in 2011 (quinlan, 2012). cap has also been instrumental in bringing internet access to remote and rural communities. in northwestern british columbia, cap funding brought internet into isolated settlements and provided for public terminals in first nations band council buildings. the community of una river used a cap grant to deploy a community wi-fi network, and other recipients used cap money to pay for secondary radio towers to boost their internet speeds (hudson 2012). in both ontario and british columbia, rural library-based cap sites are regularly used by members of mennonite or hutterite colonies (faith-based communal settlements with limited contact to the outside world): in eastern ontario colony members use cap terminals to register births (newman, 2012); in alberta, many of these low german speakers do not have broadband internet access in their colonies and for them the public terminals offered by the regional library system are their primary point of contact with the english-speaking world (quinlan, 2012). to sum up, then, the aggregate statistics, adduced by the government and its supporters as evidence that cap is no longer needed, in fact hide significant residual gaps in internet access along lines of wealth, age, education, and geography, with poverty being the single greatest predictor of exclusion from the "information society." even if the objective of the community access program is narrowly defined as elimination of the access divide, it is clear from the evidence that cap has far from outlived its relevance, and that if withdrawal of cap funds leads to the closure of cap sites, many of their neediest users will face hardship or be cut off from the internet altogether. responses to the end of cap what happens if sustainability funding is impossible to achieve at the community level? what will happen to the connected communities if long term sustainable government funding does not occur? what will happen to communities that have to unplug? vanda rideout, 2002 given the diversity of organizations that operate cap sites, it is not surprising that the closure of the program affects them in different ways, nor that they differ widely in their strategies (and capabilities) for responding to the loss of cap funding. for some large urban and regional library systems that operate cap sites, the 2012 announcement was something of a non-event. for example, both the hamilton (on) public library and the vancouver island regional library (bc) had been expecting the cancellation of the program and prepared contingency plans. hamilton reallocated funds from its computer training budget to keep public access terminals open ("funding loss won't hurt library program", 2012). the vi regional library absorbed the loss of nearly $95,000 per year in cap funding from within its existing budget and promised local communities on the island that they would see no changes in service at its branches (miles, 2012). at the other extreme, the public library in guelph (on) seemed entirely unprepared for the program's cancellation; a spokesman for the library predicted the loss of the program would impair the library's ability to provide services and could offer no plan for dealing with the situation other than "let's hope [the computers] don't break." ("library fears losing free internet access", 2012; o'flanagan, 2012).9 some mid-sized libraries also planned to juggle their budgets to protect services at the access sites, such as the okanagan regional library, which stood to lose approximately $4,000 per year per branch. the system's executive director promised that the libraries would continue to offer public internet access, but warned that the cuts would have a ripple effect throughout the system, affecting other departments and services (wickett, 2012). for recipient organizations that used the cap funding for capital expenses and software upgrades, rather than operating expenses such as isp fees, the loss of the grant money was not expected to have an immediate effect, but still placed the long-term viability of the access sites into question. even the victoria public library system, which reassured patrons that it considered public internet access to be a core service and would absorb the $26,000 short-fall into its operating budget, also said that it planned to reduce the frequency of computer upgrades (holmen, 2012). the public library in kitimat (bc) used its cap funds to pay for hardware and software upgrades and maintenance, not operations, and therefore expected no impact to services in the next 18 months. for the longer term, it was hoping to turn to the friends of the library to raise the $5,000-$6,000 necessary to replace the cap grants (orr, 2012). in pictou county (ns), libraries will continue to offer public access terminals but services will be scaled back: hardware and software upgrades will be less frequent and training will not be available ("feds cut cap site funding," 2012). the smallest public libraries, especially stand-alone libraries in small rural communities, have the fewest resources to respond to the loss of the cap funding. in norwood (on) the asphodel-norwood public library continued access for the current budget year by dipping into library reserves. municipal officials suggested that the library look into cutting other services to redirect funds to internet access, and debated the wisdom of imposing a small access fee (freeman, 2012). the burns lake (bc) public library immediately announced that it might have to stop providing free internet access unless either the village of burns lake or the regional district of bulkley nechako could provide replacement funding. alternatively, it warned, it might consider charging for internet access (billard, 2012). in eastern ontario, the whitewater region public library had been receiving $10,500 for its 3 branches. at least one branch is downgrading to a slower internet service, despite heavy use by the kayaking and tourist communities. the regional library will be forced to choose between buying books and maintaining internet access, but will try to resort to fund-raising to close the gap (newman & mercury, 2012). in recent years, many community centres have lost their cap grants as the industry canada has preferentially directed funding towards public libraries (moll, 2012). the remaining access sites located in community organizations are especially vulnerable to the loss of federal grant money. many of these relied on cap funding for day-to-day operations and had to scale back services immediately or shut down their public terminals altogether. in pictou county (ns), sites located in community centres were expected to close ("feds cut cap site funding", 2012). in salmon arm (bc), the downtown activity centre offered two public-access terminals to at-risk youth, which they use for applying for jobs, child-care subsidies and income assistance, for doing job searches, and preparing resumes. the centre plans to continue to provide some sort of access, but it may not be able to serve all of its current clients (wickett, 2012). ceed, an organization in maple ridge (bc) dedicated to sustainability, provides public internet access terminals for government service access, resume writing, and job searches. it now is using money from fund-raising events to maintain the service (rantanen, 2012). on a larger scale, the government of nunavut has recognized the value of the public access sites in the territory's small, widely scattered, and generally isolated settlements through its immediate intervention to replace the entire $85,000/year in cap funding received by the territory with funding from the territorial department of education ("nunavut takes over community internet access funding", 2012). to date, there has been no general movement on the part of other senior governments across canada to follow nunavut's example. policies and alternatives: the future after cap up to now, the fate of access sites that lose cap funding has tended not to be good. rideout and reddick (2005) documented the closure of 1,200 sites roughly around the same time long-term secure funding for the program was withdrawn in 2004. the same authors received anecdotal evidence following the conclusion of their formal study to suggest that a further 1,000 sites had to close because of a loss of cap funding. by 2005, the number of funded cap sites had dropped to 3,768. there is circumstantial evidence to suggest that a significant proportion of the sites de-funded in the decade of 2000-2010 completely ceased operations.10 if most cap sites are not viable without government funding, and given that there are still millions of canadians who depend on these sites for internet access, what alternatives will these users have in the future? and what options does canada have for a post-cap national policy on internet access? in the wake of the cancellation of cap, industry canada suggested that users of former cap sites who needed to access e-government services (such as employment insurance claims and benefits) could use public terminals at service canada locations. this option seems impractical in communities such as guelph, ontario, where the public library cap sites serve on average 300 people a day, of which 40% are job seekers. there is only one service canada location in guelph and it is only open between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m (o'flanagan, 2012). although comprehensive research on the subject is not available, it seems improbable that public terminals in federal and provincial government offices could accommodate all of the people canada-wide who currently use cap sites to access government services. it also seems unlikely that the private-sector will step in to replace cap sites with commercially operated telecentres (e.g., cybercafés, internet cafés, or pay-per-use internet terminals). in a few cases, most notably in popular tourist destinations, cybercafes and similar businesses may offer an option, but even where they are present, cybercafes do not provide the same services as community access sites. a community access site is rarely just a place for access. activities, services, and programs are in support of community activities; access is obtained in a context of broader social or economic goals or activities, which are communal and not just individual, and the site is designed, staffed, and equipped specifically with these goals in mind (gurstein, 2007). for new computer users and those lacking in computer skills, the training, mentoring, and technical support services offered at even the most basic of community access sites will typically not be available at a cybercafe. also, the access revolution provided by nearly ubiquitous public wi-fi has ironically been a step backwards for the poorest canadians. much of the commercial public-access internet in canada now requires users to provide their own devices. those who cannot afford home internet access (or a permanent residence to connect it to) are also unlikely to afford the price of a tablet computer or a low-end laptop. if the group most vulnerable to the loss of free, community-based telecentres are the very poorest citizens, one possible way to end a wealth-based digital divide is simply to make sure that every citizen has enough income to pay for basic services, including, if he or she wants it, internet access. this end could be accomplished by a national income redistribution system, often called a "negative income tax" or a "guaranteed minimum income." such approaches are used to some extent in european social democracies and experiments in north america have shown that a guaranteed minimum income could actually be more efficient than narrowly targeted and closely supervised social welfare programs (anderson, 2010; forget, 2010; segal, 2008). in the case of the digital divide, the desired outcome would be that each low-income person, after paying for such necessities as shelter, food, and clothing, would have enough discretionary income to afford a computer and internet access (if living at a fixed address), or a data-ready mobile device (if not). however, in the current political and economic climate, it seems unreasonable to expect that canada would undertake such a dramatic change of policy regarding income redistribution, whether by a negative income tax or some other means. furthermore, if such a program was designed simply to replace the existing social welfare programs, it is questionable whether the guaranteed income paid to disadvantaged canadians would leave them any better equipped to pay for ict services than they currently are today. a simple dollar-for-dollar replacement of the former cap grants by other levels of government is also unlikely. most provinces already face growing public debts and struggle to fund existing priorities such as health care; given that the closure of cap sites only affects a small percentage of the electorate, and in the case of the poorest users, those who are least likely to vote, there has been little political will for the provincial and territorial governments (with the lone exception of nunavut) to intervene. as for local governments, the communities that stand to be harmed the most by the loss of cap funding will tend to be ones whose revenue base is simply insufficient to support the provision of new public services. furthermore, rideout and reddick (2005), citing studies from the early 2000s, have concluded that neither local governments nor corporate sponsors tend to be effective partners for not-for-profit organizations operating community access sites. some community organizations and small libraries have considered pay-for-service internet access as a possible response to loss of cap funding (billard, 2012; bodnar, 2007; freeman, 2012), a model that could potentially apply to other not-for-profit telecentres as well. on the face of it, this seems contrary to the mandate of community access sites to provide access to all users, including those for whom lack of money is a primary reason for not being able to get services elsewhere. in fact, free (as in no charge) access has never been a requirement for a site to participate in the cap. in new brunswick, at the height of the cap program (2001) 68% of the sites had membership fees and 64% charged course fees (reddick, 2001). some organizations offer a combination of free and paid access depending on the time and purpose. the hotspot in squamish bc, for example, tried to balance access with revenue generation: "some groups, seniors for example, can come in for free all day, one day per week. access is free after school for homework and job search; resumé and government online usage is always free. outside of that, the standard charge is $1 per 30 minutes use of a computer and internet connection" (moll, 2007b, p.11). however, just as even small library card fees can prove a significant deterrent to library use, nominal usage charges may well deter users from using public access terminals. perhaps public access sites in heavily frequented tourist destinations such as whistler-squamish could thrive on this model, but it is an open question whether other types of public access sites could attract enough paying customers to keep the lights on.11 the most likely national connectivity policy to replace cap is an extension of the immediate response to the 2012 budget: that the federal government will continue to download responsibility, both for supporting e-government access and for addressing the remaining digital divides, onto public libraries. given that public libraries obtain the majority of their operational funding from towns, cities, and regional governments, the result is a significant transfer of responsibility from the national to the municipal level. some libraries, such as the greater victoria public library, explicitly acknowledge public internet access as one of their core services and have allocated resources to provide it. patron pressure will likely force most libraries that can afford it to take this approach, even if it requires cutting back in other departments to free up the required funds. whether the public access terminals and wi-fi access are paid for from the library's core funding or are supplemented with fund-raising from the community and grants from donors, it will generally be the large city libraries and major regional district libraries that have the resources to take on this mission. smaller library systems and their users across canada won't be as lucky (wicket, 2012, quoting a report by hamilton public library head librarian ken roberts). as the executive director of okanagan regional library system put it, "it's the little stand-alone places-like radium hot springs, midway or grand forks-[that will suffer]." ("funding loss won't hurt library program", 2012). consequently the greatest impact nation-wide of the loss of the community access program will not be found in the divide between the rich and the poor (although that divide will continue to exist and will doubtlessly worsen to some extent) but in the divide based on place and local economics, with the key factor being a community's ability and willingness to support a healthy public library system. cap and what comes next: a community informatics perspective the federal community access program is not in itself an application of community informatics; indeed it is a classic example of the type of top-down program typically run by a large government department, complete with all manner of administrative controls and restrictions, intended to provide accountability but in practice limiting the ability of recipient organization to meet local needs and adapt to local conditions (gurstein, 2007). on the other hand, cap funding has been a key enabler for community informatics projects, such as a wi-fi network to serve isolated older men living in a low-income toronto neighbourhood (moll, 2007b), or a community networking centre that offers volunteering opportunities to new immigrants who are having difficulties breaking into the canadian job market (dechief, 2012). it is not surprising that ci practitioners have had something of a love-hate relationship with cap, some praising it on the one hand as "a little-known national success story" (moll, 2007a, para. 1), others decrying its "very limited success ... and very great difficulty in achieving any degree of local sustainability" (gurstein, 2007, p. 58). from the perspective of community informatics, then, the "golden age" of community networking in canada may not have been the height of the cap program around the turn of the millennium (as suggested by moll, 2012), but the early 1990s, when local activists were setting up the "free-nets" and telecommunity networks that gave ordinary canadians their first opportunity to connect to the internet. by the end of the decade, the increasing replacement of dial-up access with broadband service and the ubiquity of nominally free e-mail services such as hotmail and gmail led to a general decline of these community-owned and funded facilities (bodnar, 2007). for many community organizations, accepting cap funding became something of a devil's bargain: they gave away much of their autonomy and became dependent on federal grants, which, after 2004, had to be renewed year-to-year. still, the years of the cap program could at least be called a "silver age" in which federal funding allowed local organizations to continue to provide access to disadvantaged and underserved canadians and to experiment with new icts on a community level. with the withdrawal of cap funds, the application of community informatics in canada appears to be entering a third age, the exact nature of which has yet to become clear. clearly there is still a need for public access sites: if they were all to vanish overnight, as many as 10% of all canadians and nearly 50% of the poorest people in the country would be cut off from what has become a prerequisite to full participation in the modern canadian economy and civil society.12 rideout and reddick argue that the not-for-profit organizations that operate public access sites are delivering community and government services to citizens such as education, skills training, literacy training, and health information and services. as these are public services offered for the public good, they should be supported by public funds, which means support from federal, provincial, and municipal governments (rideout & reddick, 2005). but is this realistic to expect? moll (2012) speculates that the policy emphasis on social cohesion, a general thread running through many of the initiatives of jean chrétien's government, including cap and its siblings in the connecting canadians family of programs, was a reaction to the neo-liberalism of the 1980s and early 1990s, and that the erosion and final cancellation of cap under successive martin and harper governments represents a swing of the pendulum in the other direction, resulting in a withdrawal of the state from its role of providing for the common good combined with increasing pressure on voluntary organizations to adapt to a managerial model that imitates the practices of for-profit enterprises. as howard et al. put it (2010, p.123), "digital divides may persist if the state retreats too much from investment in public goods such as telecommunications infrastructure, informational literacy, and cultural content production"-and this caveat describes the very situation that we currently are in. the unhappy conclusion seems to be that, in canada, only the two senior levels of government have the revenue base necessary to provide funding consistently across the country, yet neither seem disposed to do so. one possible response to this quandary may be to reframe the problem. when the community access program was restricted in its scope to providing connectivity, as important as that objective is, the program became the prisoner of diminishing returns. as the majority of canadians become connected participants in the networked society, it becomes increasingly harder to reach the remaining ones who are left out. however the 10% who rely on public access sites to connect to the internet are only part of a much larger population with unaddressed needs. in the case of literacy, there is a small core group of people who cannot read at all (the pure illiterate), but also a much larger group of people who are unable to perform basic tasks associated with daily living or employment because of inadequate reading skills (the functionally illiterate). a similar situation exists with ict use, where many people have access to icts, but cannot use them effectively (sensu gurstein, 2003).13 by extending the scope of the government's ict policy from a narrow focus on access (and on those who are excluded from access by absolute poverty) to include any canadians and canadian communities that are not currently using the available icts to their full potential, the program or programs that would succeed cap would have a much higher visibility and a potentially broader base of political support. what constitutes effective use of the internet, or other icts, is very context-specific; it is tied to the citizen's individual needs and circumstances, and to the characteristics and processes of the community in which the citizen is placed. this is why promoting effective use of the internet and icts in general is a problem ideally suited to a community informatics approach. thus any programs or programs that attempt to take the place of cap should have an expanded mandate to give community members "the knowledge, skills, and supportive organizational and social structures to make effective use of [icts] to enable social and community objectives" (gurstein, 2003, "access and beyond", para.19). the broadband divide and the first mile the exclusion of remote and rural communities from full participation in the economic and social life of the nation because they lack affordable and reliable broadband access to the internet remains a challenge for any program that aims to fill the void left by the end of cap. the government of canada included as part of its recent economic stimulus package a three-year plan to fund broadband projects in unserved communities (mckeown et al., 2010). this program, broadband canada: connecting rural canadians, was not extended past its scheduled 2012 expiry; the federal government appears headed in the direction of relying on commercial operating companies for further build-out of broadband in remote areas, perhaps under the impetus of regulatory incentives or concessions.14 telecommunications planners often use the term "last mile" to describe the connections that link private homes and businesses to the service provider's network backbone, or, in general terms, the neighbourhood-level infrastructure for a particular ict ("what is last-mile technology?", 2005). as a paradigm for ict deployment, the term "last mile" implies a pre-existing, centrally planned and managed network, to which individual premises and communities are connected incrementally, and generally at the convenience of the network operator. at the margins of the network, where costs per subscriber are higher and the operating company experiences diminishing returns on investment, new subscribers are added slowly, if at all. the original use of the term "first mile" in opposition to "last mile" in this context has been attributed to the african activist and poet, titus moetsabi (paisley & richardson, 1995). a first mile approach inverts the relationship between the community and the network by giving primacy to the community's needs and expectations. it advocates development that is initiated by and controlled by the local community, not imposed by external agencies or forces. the community is enabled to formulate its needs and concerns before the planning and implementation of the ict infrastructure begins. after implementation of a first-mile solution, the community retains ownership, control, and even day-to-day operation of the technology. because the community owns the technology, it can use it in any way that it needs to, using it for new purposes or mixing it with other technologies, which is often not possible when the access network is controlled by a commercial operator with no obligations to the community (mcmahon, o'donnell, smith, walmark, & beaton, 2011). the first mile approach to broadband development can be employed for any geographically and socially distinct communities of place, but, as mcmahon et al. (2011) point out, is especially well suited to first nations and inuit communities. a first mile approach to bringing broadband internet access to isolated and lightly populated regions is a natural complement to a nation-wide objective of promoting effective use of the internet and icts in general. the proximate result of a first mile implementation, namely, the availability of broadband connectivity throughout the community, provides parity with urban and other well-serviced areas where both fixed and mobile broadband are readily available. the community can then leverage the availability of high-speed internet to set up a free telecentre, for example, or to acquire low-cost terminal devices, or devise its own ict training and coaching programs, or adopt whatever other initiatives it finds most appropriate to promote effective use for all members of the community, including those who are disadvantaged or have special needs. (the website www.firstmile.ca showcases a variety of initiatives by first nations communities across canada that exemplify this model). local ownership of network infrastructure does not directly address aspects of the digital divide such as lack of adequate end-user hardware and software, or the need for contextually appropriate ict skills development, but there is reason to hope that it can serve as a catalyst for other initiatives that do so. the focus on community involvement and community ownership in the first mile approach greatly increases the likelihood that the new connectivity will be used to deliver community-based and culturally relevant services, will be integrated with education and training for effective ict use, and will promote social and economic development within the community. conclusion as canada's flagship program for promoting internet access for all canadians, the community access program enjoyed a reasonably successful 17-year run, bringing internet access into remote and sparsely populated areas, as well as making it available to some of canada's neediest citizens. in particular it has been a boon to public libraries, being one of the contributing factors to what has become the nearly ubiquitous presence of library-based free internet access. the winding up of the program over the last five years, culminating with its final cancellation in 2012, has thrown into sharp relief what is perhaps the program's greatest failing: an inability to develop thriving and sustainable institutions dedicated to delivering ict solutions relevant to the communities in which they were rooted. like the community networks that preceded them, community telecentres in canada seem doomed to become a thing of the past, except those embedded in organizations large enough to fund them out of their existing revenue streams (this by and large means the public libraries in urban areas and the branches of large regional public libraries). despite government claims to the contrary, a significant and persistent digital divide still remains. age, education level, and rural location are sometimes factors in the inequality of access, but the single biggest predictor of a person's inability to receive ict services is poverty. as community organizations and small, stand-alone libraries in remoter regions are forced to stop providing free internet access, the rural poor will suffer disproportionately and become doubly divided from the on-line public squares and marketplaces of canada's economic and culture life. those in larger centres who are able to access the remaining public internet terminals will still find themselves at a disadvantage compared to members of households where internet-enabled devices are available to them whenever they want. there is also a hidden divide experienced by those who have network access in the home and devices to use it, but are unable to make effective use of the internet and other icts, either because as individuals they do not have the skills and training necessary to get the full benefit of their ict use, or because the digital tools and content available to them are not relevant to the contexts and processes of the communities in which they live. any program that seeks to build on the successes of cap needs to be able to address these different forms of digital divide; any program that seeks to avoid the failures of cap must be flexible enough to allow each community to visualize and implement the icts best suited to it. endnotes 1. unless otherwise attributed, all information in this section is taken from moll (2012). 2. other programs under this agenda included schoolnet, volnet, librarynet, and the smart communities programs (clement et al., 2004). 3. exact numbers are hard to obtain for the latter years of cap's life, but moll (2012) estimates that there were about 3,000 sites in 2009. 4. industry canada is a department of the canadian government, established by the department of industry act, whose mandate is "to help make canadian industry more productive and competitive in the global economy, thus improving the economic and social well-being of canadians." it specializes in micro-economic policy and is primarily concerned with establishing conditions necessary for the success of canadian enterprises (industry canada, 2012). 5. mayes' words are reminiscent of the infamous quip by former u.s. fcc chairman michael powell: "you know, i think there's a mercedes divide. i'd like to have one; i can't afford one" (shade, 2002). 6. in the early days of the internet, many white-collar workers had access to the internet at work but not at home. this situation is probably uncommon today except in remote areas where residential broadband is unavailable and thus the workplace is the only place with full-speed access. in urban areas, home access is probably a good proxy for access in general. 7. question ha_q02 "what are the reasons your household does not have access to the internet at home?" respondents could select more than one answer from the list or supply their own; thus the percentages in this category do not add to 100%. 8. these figures include any type of internet access, including dial-up; they do not take into account differences in speed and reliability of service. 9. ultimately, the guelph library was able to make up its $6,800 finding shortfall through fund-raising: late in 2012, a city councillor launched a social media campaign that collected enough donations to pay the full cost of providing public internet access through 2013. however the library board remains without a plan to fund its public access terminals in 2014 and beyond (may, 2012). 10. the government of canada estimated that cap funds make up just 20% of the cost of running a typical site with the other 80% leveraged within the community itself (moll 2007a). but this statistic raises the question why cap sites typically close when they lose their cap grants. there seems to be a lack of research on this topic, but it is probable that in some cases the site has outlived its usefulness, and the removal of the grant provides the impetus for the grant recipient to reallocate the remaining 80% of the funding to align better with the organization's core mission. alternatively, i suspect that some of the support counted towards the leveraged 80% takes the form of grants-in-kind, while the cap funds provided the recipient agency with an irreplaceable source of cash needed to pay for expenses such as isp fees. 11. another related possibility, an an alternative to the pay-for-service model, would be to obtain revenue through advertisements that would display on the public access terminal periodically throughout a user session. i have not seen any mention in the literature of community access sites that have attempted this, most likely because a typical community access site simply doesn't have an audience big enough, compared with other advertising media, not to mention that people who cannot afford their own internet connection are probably not a particular attractive target for advertisers. 12. it is worth pointing out that the kind of access provided by public access terminals is a necessary but not sufficient condition for full participation in contemporary canadian life. a person who uses a public internet terminal a few hours a week can accomplish many things, but will not have the same opportunity to learn about and master icts as someone who has them always at the fingertips. "there is a divide between families that can afford internet access and can access it in their own home (and can develop the technical skills necessary to productively use the internet) and those who cannot." (howard et al, 2010). hyperconnectivity the trend for households to have an ecosystem of interconnected and internet-aware devices such as media players, game consoles, or smart appliances is likely to even further widen the gap between haves and have-nots. 13. one concise definition of effective use is that it is "the capacity and opportunity to successfully integrate icts into the accomplishment of self or collaboratively identified goals" (gurstein, 2003, "effective use," para. 2). 14. the only initiative for extending rural broadband in the 2012 budget was a promise to attach conditions to the upcoming auction of 700 mhz wireless spectrum. according to the government's budget plan, these conditions would require auction winners that end up with control of two or more blocks of 700 mhz spectrum to "deploy new advanced services to 90 per cent of the population in their coverage area within five years and to 97 per cent within seven years" (finance canada, 2012, p. 177). references anderson, e. (2010, november 19). to end poverty, guarantee everyone in canada $20,000 a year. but are you willing to trust the poor? the globe and mail. retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com billard, r. (2012, april 25). feds slash public access funding. lakes district news. retrieved from http://www.ldnews.net bodnar, c. (2007). the vancouver community network, social investing and public good models of ict development. journal of community informatics, 3(4). cla. (2012, april 12). canadian library association dismayed at cancellation of community access program [press release]. retrieved from http://www.cla.ca/am/template.cfm?section=home&contentid=12834&template=/cm/contentdisplay.cfm. clement, a., gurstein, m., longford, g., luke, r., moll, m., shade, l. r., & dechief, d. (2004). the canadian research alliance for community innovation and networking (cracin): a research partnership and agenda for community networking in canada. the journal of community informatics, 1(1). coleman, r. (2002a) economic value of cap sites as investments in social capital. gpi atlantic. retrieved from http://www.gpiatlantic.org/publications/abstracts/econvalue-cap-ab.htm coleman, r. (2002b) impact of cap sites on volunteerism. gpi atlantic. retrieved from http://www.gpiatlantic.org/publications/abstracts/econvalue-cap-ab.htm feds cut cap site funding. (2012, april 8). the news (pictou county, ns). retrieved from http://www.ngwnews.ca finance canada. (2012). jobs, growth, and long-term prosperity: economic action plan 2012. ottawa: publishing and depository services, public works canada. retrieved from http://www.fin.gc.ca forget, evelyn l. (2001) the town with no poverty: the health effects of a canadian guaranteed annual income field experiment. canadian public policy 37, 283-305, doi:10.3138/cpp.37.3.283 freeman, b. (2012, july 19). federal cuts will hurt local libraries. campbellford emc. retrieved from http://emccampbellford.net funding loss won't hurt library program: head librarian. (2012, apr 26). dundas star news. retrieved from http://www.metroland.com/communities/100153/dundas_star_news gurstein, m. (2003). effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. first monday, 8(12), 1-18. gurstein, m. (2007). what is community informatics (and why does it matter)? milan: polimetrica sas. holmen, r. (2012, june 7). greater victoria libraries' internet access safe, for now. victoria news. retrieved from http://www.vicnews.com howard, p. n., busch, l., & sheets, p. (2010). comparing digital divides: internet access and social inequality in canada and the united states. canadian journal of communications, 35, 109-128. hudson, a. (2012, may 04). feds cut support for computers. the interior news. retrieved from http://www.interior-news.com industry canada (2012). mandate. retrieved from http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/icgc.nsf/eng/h_00018.html library fears losing free internet access. (2012, april 19). tribune. retrieved from http://www.guelphtribune.ca/ may, w. (2012, december 21). free internet access at guelph libraries saved; future funds uncertain. the guelph mercury. http://www.guelphmercury.com mckeown, l., brocca, j. & veenhof, b. (2010, october). connecting rural canadians: a review of policy, measurement and outcomes. tprc 2010. retrieved from http://ssrn.com/abstract=1989081 mcmahon, r., o'donnell, s., smith, r., walmark, b., beaton, b., & simmonds, j. (2011). digital divides and the 'first mile': framing first nations broadband development in canada. the international indigenous policy journal, 2(2). middleton, c., & sorensen, c. (2006). how connected are canadians? inequities in canadian households' internet access. canadian journal of communication, 30(4). retrieved from http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/1656/1794 miles, t. (2012, april 25). federal cutbacks will not jeopardize library internet access. lake cowichan gazette. retrieved from http://www.lakecowichangazette.com moll, m. (2007a). success doesn't compute for the federal community access program. center for policy alternatives, 14(2), 2. retrieved from http://archive.iprp.ischool.utoronto.ca/cracin/publications/pdfs/final/moll_success_doesnt_compute.pdf moll, m. (2007b). the good news about cap. making waves, 18(2), 10-13. retrieved from http://204.174.116.67/goodnewsaboutcap.pdf moll, m. (2012). a brief history of the community access program: from community economic development to social cohesion to digital divide. in a. clement, m. gurstein, g. longford, m. moll, & shade, l. (eds.), connecting canadians: investigations in community informatics. edmonton: university of athabasca press. newman, s., & mercury, r. (2012, may 02). cap cuts hurt. arnprior chronicle-guide. retrieved from http://www.metroland.com/communities/100073/arnprior_chronicle_guide_emc nunavut takes over community internet access funding. (2012, may 26). cbc news [web site]. retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2012/05/26/north-cap-funding-nunavut.html o'flanagan, r. (2012, april 18). guelph library loses funding for free internet. the guelph mercury. retrieved from http://www.guelphmercury.com orr, c. (2012, june 22). library fine for time being after computer access funding slashed. the northern sentinel. retrieved from http://www.northernsentinel.com ottawa cuts cap public web access funding. (2012, april 6). cbc news [web site]. retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2012/04/06/ns-cap-funding-cut.html paisley, l., & richardson, d. 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(2005). sustaining community access to technology: who should pay and why! the journal of community informatics, 1(2), pp. 45-62. segal, h. (2008). guaranteed annual income: why milton friedman and bob stanfield were right. policy options, 29(4), 46. retrieved from http://www.irpp.org/po/archive/apr08/segal.pdf shade, l. r. (2002). the digital divide: from definitional stances to policy initiatives. in p3: policy and program forum, 16. retrieved from http://archive.iprp.ischool.utoronto.ca/publications/shade_digitaldivide.pdf statistics canada. (2011). internet use survey [press release]. retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/110525/dq110525b-eng.htm van dijk, j., & hacker, k. (2003). the digital divide as a complex and dynamic phenomenon. the information society, 19(4), 315-326. doi: 10.1080/01972240390227895 wickett, m. (2012, may 02). computer access cut in salmon arm. salmon arm observer. retrieved from http://www.saobserver.net what is last-mile technology? (2005). techtarget.com. retrieved from http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/last-mile-technology using text/sms for an online database of election returns roberto verzola executive director, philippine greens institute <rverzola@gn.apc.org> abstract a text/sms-based system to ensure the integrity of election tallies through a database of precinct-level election returns maintained by a nationwide network of volunteers background the results of the 2004 philippine presidential elections remain under a cloud of doubt for many reasons: 1) during the canvassing of presidential returns in 2004, the administration party blocked opposition requests to compare the provincial totals with the municipal breakdowns; 2) a year later, recorded conversations were made public revealing that winning presidential candidate and incumbent gloria macapagal-arroyo had talked many times to a commissioner of the commission on elections (comelec) about the election tally in several mindanao provinces, where results turned out to be highly questionable. their conversations ranged from references to military officers who refused to condone the cheating to election officials who might have to be kidnapped for refusing to cooperate; 3) the comelec commissioner subsequently fled the country, a virtual admission of guilt, though he resurfaced after a few months to face questioning; 4) the administration party resorted to technicalities to prevent a credible impeachment process; 5) the winning presidential candidate reneged on her promise to set up a truth commission to investigate the matter; 6) potential government witnesses like a philippine army general were ordered not to testify before investigative bodies and were harassed when they did testify; and 7) the administration continues its efforts to put an end to independent activities by citizens and civil society groups toward determining the truth behind the this election. a major cause of this persistent doubt is the absence of a credible institution that can tabulate results honestly and truthfully and which the public trusts. for the reasons listed above, the public does not fully trust the canvass conducted by comelec and congress. for many years, a citizens' group, the national movement for free elections (namfrel), has conducted a relatively credible parallel count of national elections. however, its credibility has also suffered serious damage recently (see verzola, roberto. “the true results of the 2004 philippine presidential elections based on the namfrel tally”. kasarinlan, vol. 19 no. 2. 2004). namfrel lost its credibility because: 1) it kept quiet about the discrepancies between its tally and the official results; 2) the pace of its count in different regions showed a bias in favor of the winning candidate; 3) it stubbornly refused to release to the public the breakdown of precincts it has counted, data that is essential to the appreciation of its results; and 4) the comelec commissioner suspected of rigging the elections was recorded on tape telling the winning candidate privately that namfrel had turned “sympathetic” to their side. the basic election unit in the philippines is the precinct, where voters go to cast their ballots. each precinct has around 200 registered voters, and the philippines has approximately 250,000 voting precincts. ballots are counted manually by election officials in each precinct right after the voting closes, in full public view. by midnight or early morning after election day, the canvass is usually over. the tally sheets are filled up and signed, and the ballots and tally sheets are stored in metal ballot boxes. these are then padlocked and transported to municipal centers, where another manual canvass of precinct results takes place. the results of the municipal canvass are then tallied in provincial centers, and eventually at the comelec central office for the national results. the manipulation of results can happen at the precinct level, but big-time cheating takes place primarily at the municipal, provincial and national levels. the project the author has been involved in developing a system to help realize honest and truthful tabulations in future elections by enabling any citizen to determine whether the results in one's precinct have been properly tallied in the subsequent canvassing and tallying up to the national level. a citizen can do this by: observing the manual precinct tally to confirm if it is honest and jotting down the precinct results which one has determined to be truthful; and monitoring the national tabulation of precincts to ensure that the online results for one's precinct are identical to what one saw and jotted down and then adding one's confirmation to the online results (or questioning them if they are different, and sending in one's own report). details of the project the manual, open counting of ballots at the precinct level is already relatively transparent. cheating at this level can be minimized if citizens and volunteer watchers simply observe this tabulation process, jot down the numbers themselves, and report any anomaly. the challenge is to ensure that these precinct results will retain their integrity as official canvassing proceeds from the precinct to the municipal, provincial and finally national levels. the project will ensure this by: organizing a network of trained volunteers, at least one per precinct, committed to send in truthful precinct election returns via text/sms for posting in a common database immediately after a precinct finishes its tabulation; setting up and maintaining a national database of precinct election returns that is accessible to the public (by text/sms, email, web, file download, data cds), where precinct-level data will remain disaggregated and individually verifiable by the public. the biggest challenge in developing and implementing this approach is in fact the social, not the technical, aspect of recruiting more than 250,000 volunteers and keeping cheaters out of this army of volunteers. recruitment is initiated by a group of convenors who are known to be honest, who then invite only those whom they personally know and trust and can be relied upon to send in truthful reports. these will in turn invite others, in a classic tree-like expansion of exponential growth. invited volunteers submit their personal data by text/sms to a national database of volunteers. they are trained to send simulated reports using text/sms, after which they become full members. they can then invite and train more volunteers. the volunteers comprise what we call the network of citizens for honest elections and truthful statistics (nocheats). on election day, after the voting, the canvassing starts in each of the 250,000 precincts. the volunteers, at least one per precinct, observe the canvass and then text the results and other observations to build a national database of precinct level election returns. while the project relies mainly on its trained volunteers to maintain the database, any citizen with a cellphone can also confirm online precinct entries or even send in their own reports. this can be useful to cover precincts where we have no volunteers, or to flag cheats who have managed to infiltrate our network of volunteers. we can then screen questioned reports and compare these with official precinct returns. what is different with this project most computerized election systems rely on automatic counting machines that process ballots at high speed to generate electronic totals. these are then automatically communicated to central databases for the national totals. people are excluded from the system. as a result, the system becomes much less transparent. there is no way to relate the final results to the numbers that ordinary voters actually saw at their voting centers. the main feature that distinguishes this system from other computer-based systems is that this system relies on an army of people rather than an army of counting machines. it makes the entire tally more transparent, not less, by making available to any citizen not only the outputs (totals) of a computerized tally but also the inputs (breakdowns). this is what the philippine congress refused to do in its 2004 canvass when it refused to open municipal breakdowns for comparison with provincial totals, and this is what namfrel refused to do in its 2004 operation quick count when it released only the national total of precincts tallied and refused to breakdown this total by region and province. the system starts with citizens who saw the individual ballots (input) being counted, and who confirmed that the precinct totals (output) are accurate. it relies on such citizens in every precinct to make sure that the citizens' copy is identical to the online precinct results (input). if the public can do this for every precinct in the country, and they can also download the entire database for independent analysis, to reconstruct for themselves the municipal, provincial and national totals (output); then they can truly ensure for themselves that the election tally has been honest and truthful. the key is not to replace people with machines, but to use technology to make the process more, not less, transparent to people. implementation details the system can be implemented with standard hardware and software, and with some programming that is relatively standard. the current crop of advanced desktops should be able to handle the processing load easily. one desktop running free software (linux/gnu, mysql, and glue code in php, perl or python) will handle the bulk of database operations. another machine will handle the incoming reports and a third will handle the response to incoming queries by text/sms and over the web. there are some but minor challenges in structuring the databases to optimize for speed and in designing the user interface for friendly text/sms interaction. because text/sms messages may not exceed 160 characters, between five and ten messages are needed for one complete precinct report. this report consists of the precinct number, the sender's full name and zip code, the total votes cast per position contested, and then for each position contested, the candidates names and votes received. incoming text messages are saved unmodified to a text file. a parallel text file of information about the reporting mobile phone, extracted from the volunteers’ database, is generated. these two files comprise the system's audit trail, and they are saved regularly to data cds and made available to the public. for security reasons, the volunteers’ database is not available to the public.  as the text messages arrive, they are parsed to build a database of field reports, one record per complete precinct return sent in from a particular phone. a report about the same precinct sent in from another phone is stored on a separate record. a flag marks a complete record (i.e., all messages comprising a complete precinct report that has been received). complete records are reviewed for wrong or inconsistent entries and texted back to the sender, who may send changes, or a final confirmation. once a report is confirmed, it becomes read-only. the database of field reports is optimized for replying to queries. at regular time intervals, the database of field reports is scanned for confirmed records. if conflicting reports exist for a precinct, their credibility index is computed (reports from volunteers carry a greater weight than reports from the public; reports with more confirmations are more credible; etc.). the report with the highest index will be used. the database of precinct election returns is then updated. this database is structured optimally for repeated computations of municipal, provincial and national summaries of election results. these summaries are stored on separate files, and may be downloaded by the public anytime. because precinct details will remain disaggregated, those who personally witnessed the canvassing in their precinct may, at any time, confirm that their local precinct returns and the online precinct returns are identical. this is the key to the credibility and usefulness of the system. future possibilities the potential of the network for other types of quick, nationwide information gathering is enormous. depending on the inclinations of the volunteers, the network can, in between elections, direct its attention to corruption in government, opinion polls, survey taking, etc. with exciting possibilities for democratization as well as fund-generation for the network itself. it must be ensured, however, that none of these other activities will undermine the main mission of the network to keep elections honest and statistics truthful. a system which empowers ordinary citizens to ensure the honesty and credibility of national and local election tallies is a worthy legacy to leave our children and grandchildren. it may even set a good example for the rest of the world. community informatics and older persons: the necessary connection community informatics and older persons: the necessary connection   michael gurstein, ph.d.   as is well known, there is a looming demographic crisis in developed countries with a rapidly aging population (people are living longer) and a rapidly declining birth rate. the effect of this is to put significant strains on overall economic activity and particularly on health care and support systems, as the aging population results in an increasing need for health care and medical interventions and for support and care services.   these trends are emerging on top of broader long term processes towards the medicalizing and professionalizing of various natural or quite widely distributed physical and biological conditions such as pregnancy, menopause, and aging itself and away from family and community self-help and self-reliance in these areas. the result of this is to shift what had otherwise been practices and interventions done by relatives, friends, neighbours and so on in people's homes and informal facilities into the very high cost environments of professional actions and medicalized and technologically focused institutional care.  not surprisingly these trends combined with the aging population are putting very severe strains on national (and private) health care systems and funding.   and yet, we know instinctively and research evidence itself is beginning to emerge that particularly in the case of older persons individualized, medicalized, institutionally focused care may be precisely what is not needed and may have the effect over the span of the final decades of life to not only reduce the quality of life but even the length of life itself.   we know that individuals including or even especially older persons are happiest and healthiest and thus less likely to need interventions from the formal medical system if they are living surrounded by family and friends and firmly embedded in communities where they have support, friendship and love. as well, we know that communities have traditionally had ways of giving respect to and supporting their elders seeing this as a necessary element for the effective conduct of life within the community.  as well we can observe that traditional communities and even their counterparts which have evolved as for example as ethnic enclaves in the midst of modern urban environments have developed means to facilitate aging in place and with dignity and companionship through the use of religious institutions and congregations, ethnic organizations, fraternal societies and so on.   those with sufficient vision in the medical and health care systems recognize and value these parallel structures of support and act so as to reinforce these where ever possible even in the face of frequent bureaucratic resistance and inertia and the quite frequent attempts to shift the balance in these areas to fee for service and for profit organizations and interventions.   of course, there are many causes for the breakdown of community processes for support of older persons including population mobility and family fragmentation, cultural change, and the physical geography of modern urban living.  however, one contributing element has to be seen as being the way in which care for the older person is understood as being something to be shifted to the medical system rather than as a responsibility (or opportunity) for the family or community. and one element of the medicalizing of aging is that the form that medical care takes and particularly technology-enabled medical care is to focus on the individual as a "patient" interacting as an individual with different elements of the medical and hospital system--with aging being treated as a "disease" for which somehow medical intervention and its technology supports can find a "cure".   even in the response to our call for papers for joci's special issue on community informatics and older persons we found that bulk of the papers received were focused on "informatics" as applied to the circumstance and condition of individual older persons in relation to the health care system rather than towards older persons in and with their communities.  but of course, our intention in developing this special issue of joci was precisely to focus attention among those concerned with the well-being of older persons on the role that icts can play, not simply as a support to individual older persons seeking to retain their independence and autonomy but rather as a support to communities supporting their older population or as a support to older persons living their lives in and with their communities.   in this way, the questions we wished to address with this issue went directly to the heart of the role that a community informatics can play in modern and developed societies. thus we saw community informatics as having a role in providing support to and enabling communities to do what they had traditionally done with their older population -providing social (and thus emotional) continuity and connectedness, providing increasing amounts of care and service as the capabilities of the older person declines over time, and overall providing for a respected role and place for the older person as part of community life, continuity and well-being -but now enhanced by the use of icts.  in this way we were looking to identify ways to overcome some of the barriers which contemporary society seems to place in the way of communities being able to cost-effectively look after their own or alternatively of individuals finding ways of getting support from their communities rather than looking to the support and intervention of impersonal professionalized and institutional systems.   i am delighted with this special issue on ci and older persons precisely because it demonstrates in example after example how icts can be used as supports for communities supporting their elders--helping to provide medical assistance, supporting families supporting their seniors, giving older persons additional meaning and companionship in their daily lives, providing a means for delivering caring services in times of emergency and so on.  what the articles in this issue demonstrate effectively and forcefully is the supportive role that icts can play in enhancing the capacity of communities to support and provide service to their older persons.  as well, they demonstrate the manner in which icts provide an additional means for older persons to maintain and reinforce their connections with their families and communities.   as the body of evidence grows linking community embeddedness to individual health, longevity and well-being for older persons, the significance of tools such as icts which can contribute to providing linkages for this embeddedness and for cost-effective means for the provision of support services for older persons, will continue to grow apace.  there is increasing insight into these processes and connections from a community focussed/community informatics perspective. this in turn is leading to an enhanced  understanding, planning and implementing of these connections, thus providing community informatics with an area for practical, conceptual, research and not incidentally employment growth into the future.   taking some of the lessons from the papers in this special issue -lessons such as appropriate methods of ict instruction for older persons, issues of hardware and software design, strategies for effective social insertion of icts into environments dominated by older persons and so on all can be noted and usefully translated into new product design and development, strategies for ict enabled social engagement, and recommendations for service development and implementation.   as we in the "developed world" move into a future where the ratio of those in retirement age as against those in the working ages becomes dangerously unbalanced, the need for vibrant, active, well-resourced communities as supports, enablers, service providers, caregivers will dramatically increase.  it should be evident from the articles in this special issue that icts as enablers of communities can assist in these efforts by increasing intra-community communication, by facilitating service at a distance, by supporting social inclusion among others.    there are thus huge new challenges and opportunities for community informatics practitioners and researchers to take their broader insights in the inter-relationship of icts and communities and apply these as the bases for public programs and not for profit and private initiatives in response.   i would also like to thank and congratulate dr. gene loeb, the special issue editor and his contributors for making an outstanding special issue possible.  gene, an "older person" himself is the model of how energy, creativity, a positive attitude, and involvement in a community (in his case the community of those researching technology and older persons), when enabled by icts can do marvellous things and have significant impacts in the world.   council community directories as a source of information about local health services in rural australia rob eley centre for rural and remote area health, university of southern queensland eleyr@usq.edu.au delwar hossain centre for rural and remote area health, university of southern queensland hossain@usq.edu.au introduction the pervasive impact of information technology has reached all levels of society. the use of computers and the internet has profoundly changed the way people access information with consumers increasingly turning to the internet to obtain information that they previously obtained elsewhere. in australia it is estimated that over 2 million unique persons or 10% of the total australian population accesses the yellow pages online per month (roy morgan research, 2006). home internet access is increasing at a rate of 5% per year and in 2006 an estimated 72% of queenslanders had access to the internet from their homes (the queensland government chief information office, 2006). health care service providers like many other businesses use the internet as an integral part of their strategy for the total provision for health. in the uk the white paper “the new nhs: a modern dependable” identified the internet and digital tv as vehicles for the dissemination of health information (the department of health, 1997). within australia state health departments are developing extensive service provider databases. four example, south australia has developed the human services finder (www.hsfinder.sa.gov.au/) which is advertised as “the place to access information about health, housing, family and community services from the private, public and community sectors in south australia”. a similar system is being developed in queensland (www.health.qld.gov.au/13health/pdfs/faqs.pdf). these web-based directories are designed in part to replace hard copy which is frequently out of date. however, health service providers express concern that state directories will not provide information at the local level (eley and baker, 2007). instead local information may continue to be provided by alternative sources. many city and shire councils have web-based local service directories that contain information about health services. these community information directories would appear to be an ideal location for detailed information about local health services. as stated in the foreword to warwick shire council’s community information directory “service providers based in town have many services available to them, but often they are not well known or not accessible in a consolidated format. this directory may assist in increasing the awareness of these services and facilitate their access by service providers and users” (http://www.warwick.qld.gov.au/) the question remains as to whether these directories are utilised by the general public. to our knowledge, no surveys of town residents’ use of council directories for access to specific services have been undertaken. this study by the centre for rural and remote area health (crrah) provides the findings on awareness and use of community directories undertaken in four towns in southeast queensland. study objectives the objectives of the study were to determine: the general public’s awareness of council web directories; the general public’s use of those directories for information about health services; other sources used by the general public for information about health services. the project also evaluated the four community directories as to ease of access, and use and content. recommendations were made as to improvement. methodology data source data were collected from four towns in southern queensland. all towns are inner regional as classified by the australian standard geographical classification (asgc) based on physical remoteness from goods and services (australian bureau of statistics, 2001) and as rural (between 3 and 5 on the 7 point scale) by the rural, remote, metropolitan areas classification (rrma) which combines size and remoteness (department of health and ageing, 2006). town populations are indicated as ranging from 5000 to 12000. each town has its own community information directory (however named) which provides an extensive range of health service information. indicated in table 1 is the information provided for each health service provider in the directories. table 1 information offered for each health provider in the on-line directories town a b c d name x x x x description x x postal address x x webpage y x x x phone x x x x fax x x x email y x x physical address x x x x contact person x x position x x opening hours x x x = provided for all services y = provided for services that pay for additional information to be entered two directories (towns c and d) are council developed and maintained, while a third (town b) is generated from another business database run by the town’s chamber of commerce. the fourth directory (town d) is privately developed and maintained but endorsed by council. the directory home web site is hyper-linked from the council web site. survey instrument a questionnaire was developed and refined following pilot testing with a group of people similar to the intended audience. the questions asked for the two demographic details of sex and age, followed by eight closed questions involving either yes/no (q1-4), multiple selection from lists (q5 and q8) or single selection from a likert scale (q6-7). questions asked were: do you use the internet? are you aware of the existence of your town’s community information directory? have you ever accessed a hard copy of the community information directory to find out information about health services? have you ever accessed the community information directory on the internet to find out information about health services? how many times have you used the directory in last year for information about health services? what information did you look for? did you find the information useful? did you find the information easy to use? what sources of information do you use to find the health services you need data were collected during november/december 2006 by three different methods in each of the four towns. mail survey: 1000 questionnaires were distributed to households in each town by a commercial distributor. distribution was random within each town clinic survey: questionnaires were delivered to each of 21 waiting rooms in doctors’ surgeries (14), hospitals (2), physiotherapists (1), dentists (1) and radiology facilities (3) personal interview: two research staff undertook “cold intercept” in the streets of each town split over two consecutive days for a total of 12 hours per town. pedestrians were approached and those who consented to participate were asked the same questions that appeared in the postal and clinic questionnaires directory review all four town directories were reviewed by the two members of the research team and four other colleagues. opinions were gathered on presentation of the directories on each web site, ease of access to the directories, categorisation of entries and the searching facilities. how comprehensive the entries in each directory were of health services in each town was determined by comparing to a list of health services collected from a number of alternative sources including telephone directories, databases of allied health professionals, other research project databases, word of mouth, professional organisation membership lists and internet searches. ethics the study received ethics approval from the university human research ethics committee and all necessary permissions for collecting survey information on the streets were received from the police and the town councils. data analysis data were coded, complied, tabulated and analysed in accordance with the objectives of the study. analyses were preformed using spss v14. descriptive statistics were used to describe the health information used and the selected characteristics of respondents. chi-square (c2) and correlation tests were used to determine relationships between health information used and demographic information. the coefficient of contingencies was also calculated to measure the strength of association between the variables. a 0.05 level of probability with an accompanying 95% confidence level was used as the basis for measuring the level of significant relationship between the variables. results responses distribution of responses according to the method of data collection is presented in table 2. the highest proportion (42%) of responses came from the mail survey and equal numbers (29%) from both the clinics and the street interviews. the response rate for the combined clinic and postal surveys was 13.0%. table 2 distribution of respondents according to the method of data collection source number distributed number received percent of total responses mail 4000 467 42 clinic 2100 326 29 interview 432 29 total 1125 100 internet use sixty percent of the respondents in the study locations used the internet. the percentage of respondents who use internet services was the highest (c 2 = 20.396, p<.0001) in town c (69.7%) and lowest in town d (51.6%) (table 3). the clinic respondents used internet services significantly more (68.0%; c2 = 16.299, p<.0001) than those of mail (57.9%) and interviews (52.9%). table 3. use of the internet by town town number surveys returned response to question number who use internet percent who use internet a 401 395 225 57 b 195 193 110 57 c 300 297 207 69.7 d 229 219 113 51.6 total 1125 1104 655 59.3 use of the internet was negatively correlated with age (r = -.939, p<.05). over 83% respondents in the 18-24 age group used the internet as compared to fewer than 20% of the over 65 years of age group. there were no significant differences between males and females in the use of internet services by the different methods of data collection in any of the four locations (c2 = 4.92, p>.05). table 4. use of the internet by age age responses percent of total responses number who use internet percent who use internet 18-24 91 8.4 76 83.5 25-44 371 34.6 288 77.6 45-64 388 36.1 230 59.3 64 222‪ 20.7 43 19.4 total 1072 100 637 59.4 awareness of information directory only the 655 people who use the internet were asked questions to determine whether respondents were aware of their own town or shire council’s community information directory. less than one-third (29.8%) of the respondents who used the internet were aware of their council’s information directory. there were no differences in awareness according to the method of data collection (c2 = 1.286, p>.05) or to the sex of the respondents (c2 =.043, p>.05). however, there were town differences in awareness of the town directories. as shown in table 5 over 40% of the respondents from town a who use the internet were aware of the directory as compared to 22-25% from the other towns (table 5) (c2 = 19.060, p<.001). table 5. awareness of the town community information directories town number who use internet number aware of council directory percent aware of council directory a 223 91 40.8 b 108 24 22.2 c 206 51 24.8 d 111 28 25.2 total 648 194 29.9 awareness of local directories was as high for the over 65 years (42.9%) of age as it was for those in the18-24 years (40.8%) age group. both these groups were over 10% higher than the other age groups (c2 = 8.877, p< .03).  use of directory of the 195 people with awareness of the council directories 25.4% indicated that they had accessed the council directory for the purposes of acquiring information about health services. accessing the council directory for health services did not differ among towns (c2 = 2.318, p>.05) including town d which had stressed the value of their directory for health service information. overall the total access to the council directories for health information was 7.2% of the 655 who use the internet and only 4.1%, or 1 in 25, of the total 1125 respondents. the 47 people who had accessed their council directory for information about health services were asked how often they had accessed the data base and for what information in the last year. the majority of respondents (66%) had accessed their council directory between 1 and 4 times in the last year. respondents had looked mainly for doctors followed by hospitals, community health clinics, dentists and podiatrists. other sources of health information all 1125 respondents were given the opportunity to indicate where they find information about health services. the greatest source of health information was doctors or other health persons (81% of respondents) followed by phone directories, friends and family members (38-48%; table 6). internet searches were only used by one in ten people. table 6. source of information use for health services source number percent doctor or other health person 910 80.9 yellow/white pages 535 47.5 friend/neighbour 503 44.7 family member 433 38.4 radio/tv 138 12.2 internet search 121 10.7 community newsletter 89 7.9 council 58 5.1 commonwealth carelink 54 4.5 other – go to hospital 17 1.5 other – pharmacy 8 0.7 respondents were able to select more than one category directory evaluation centre staff concluded that access to the directories from most council home pages was not straightforward. two of the four directories were not mentioned on the home page and were located within drop down menus labelled “business” and “community”. all four sites required at least four mouse clicks before any entries were displayed. with specific request to health, none of the sites had any mention of health on the council home page. the categories in which health services were listed are varied and considered to be somewhat confusing. the directory for town a for example, offered 20 main categories including one named health and lifestyle. this category in turn contained another 20 sub categories. although health service providers could be found in several of the sub categories of health and lifestyle, they were also scattered elsewhere appearing in sub categories within three other main categories of community, government and professional. finding a provider through the home page’s categories therefore involved some trail and error. the third area reviewed was that of the search function within the directories. directories tended to have searches linked only to the name of each entry. thus many omissions occurred when searching for health services. for example, in one database entry of physio, physiother or physiotherapy all result in listing a provider named the physiotherapy centre. however, another provider names the therapy centre which also offered physiotherapy was not listed by this type of search as the word/part word physiotherapy was not in the title. furthermore searching was not considered by the reviewers to be intuitive. in one of the directories there was a full list of doctors listed in the sub category medical practitioners within the main category professional. given the other choice of health as a main category in the database, professional was not the place where one would intuitively look for doctors.  not one reviewer found this listing at the first or second attempt. finally the completeness of content was reviewed. this was highly variable from site to site. while two directories contained a range of private, public and community organisations the two others were limited to public and community organisations. however, in one of these directories the definition of community organisation has been extended to provide suppliers and includes medical practitioners, dentists, chemists, optometrists and other providers of private allied health. in the other directory no health professionals in the private sector were in the database. discussion the data collected for this study is drawn from one region in southern queensland; however. a brief search of the internet will reveal that similar community directories are offered by councils in many parts of the world. as this method of information transfer is now common practice it is believed that the results will be of more general interest. response from the mail and clinic surveys was in the region of 15%. concern is always expressed as to how representative results are of the population. however, the researchers are confident that the responses are representative as the data collected on the street from demographically similar people yielded similar results. the low response rate suggests that interest in health is low. only when support is needed is it sought. this only emphasises the fact that information about health services needs to be complete, easily accessed and in a format that is easy to use. the overall 60% internet access figure is consistent with the queensland government figure for household internet access across the regions of southern queensland (the queensland government chief information office, 2006). this is 13% lower than in the metropolitan areas of brisbane and the gold coast.  the regional variation is highest for older people. the state average of 38% internet access for people over 65 drops to around 20% for the region which is consistent with that for four towns in this survey. although computer and internet access have been increasing every year, the age differential is an important consideration in the manner that information is presented. this is especially important in the area of health as elderly people are those who are most likely to make demands on the health services. consideration should be made for council community directories to be made available in print versions. currently only town c prepares a print version of their directory although the town d data base may be printed off the internet. computer access and internet access are related to region, age, income, employment and level of education (the queensland government chief information office, 2006). it was therefore not unexpected that use of the internet would be higher in town c which is closest to brisbane, has a higher employment rate, has the most cosmopolitan population, hosts a large regional university and other tertiary education institutions and has a competitive internet service provider market. town d which had the lowest internet access has a relative socio-economic disadvantage when compared to the other three towns (australian bureau of statistics, 2003) and a slightly older population (office of economic and statistical research, 2005). across all towns about a third of respondents were aware of their council directories. town a whose directory was privately produced, had the highest level of awareness. this directory is directly referred to and linked from the council home page as a source of town information. town c’s directory is also listed on their home page as a “community directory”. it would be interesting to determine if this latter terminology attracts further investigation by browsers to the site. the other two directories are only discovered through drop down menus and are not advertised on the council home pages. an additional factor that may contribute to the level of awareness of the town a directory is that it is run as a private business and contains entries from all sorts of commercial enterprises, who pay for their entries. the directory is thus a very comprehensive source of local information and is more likely to be accessed for other purposes than the directories that restrict entries to public and community organisations.  the level of awareness raises an important issue especially for those directories with the stated aim to provide health service information. councils are likely to question if the directories are a good return on investment. however, perhaps a more relevant question is whether councils can increase awareness with minimal extra work? even among people with awareness of the site the use of council directories to access information about health services was very small.  in the current study access to all computer sites for information about health services was 10.7%. rural queensland thus falls well behind the reported us figures of between 40 and 60% of on-line users accessing health information (baker et al., 2003; hesse et al., 2005; miller and reents, 1998). the advantages of on-line databases are that they can be dynamic, reflecting the latest information. they offer the opportunity to provide up to date comprehensive details about the service such as hours of operation, cost, restrictions etc. however despite this technology the vast majority of our respondents still rely on age-old systems. as noted recently the internet has not replaced the role of social ties in citizen information behaviour (pettigrew et al., 2002). in agreement with other reports, doctors in the 21st century are still the most important and trusted source of health information (pennbridge et al., 1999; rokade et al., 2002). tradition alone will dictate that word of mouth and printed sources of information, most notably the phone directory, will continue to be used for years to come. pettigrew reported that barriers to using community information systems include factors having to do with technology, geography, economic circumstances, search skills, cognitive capacity, and may be psychological or information related (pettigrew et al., 2002). all these barriers have the potential to affect the use of council web-based directories. in comments that were offered, our study participants did not indicate that there were technological, geographic or economic barriers to internet use. nor were knowledge (cognitive) or confidence (psychological) barriers a stated issue. an additional barrier could simply be one of personal choice. this is substantiated by a recent survey in which the reason for queenslanders not obtaining a computer or having internet access was stated to be “no need/not interested” by 64% of those people who didn’t have a computer (the queensland government chief information office, 2005). during the course of this and other ongoing studies it has been discovered that sources of information about health services are fragmented and inconsistent in appearance and content. notwithstanding the age effects related to access and choice noted above, it is suggested that council directories may be the best source of complete local information especially in small rural towns. however, for community information directories to serve their intended function we believe that some changes are required. awareness of directories must be addressed and in particular location of the directories on the web sites could be improved. all of the directories in this study required four mouse clicks from the home page. it is our contention that such an important area as health should be highlighted on council home pages and access to the database made directly through a tab. ideally directories should be standardised especially as they often are a source of information to town visitors. however while this may not be practical; other changes are. directories should be made as simple as possible; simple to access, simple and intuitive to use and should offer simple instructions. a category for health should exist and contain all health services. if directories are found to be lacking in any of these areas then the audience may be lost. it is strongly recommended that directories are field-tested by the users and not just the developers. internal trials by centre staff would suggest that this has not been the case in the directories studied. search functions must be intuitive and complete. consumers who identify omissions in searches easily lose confidence in the value of the database. in this study it was determined that directory search facilities require some familiarity with search techniques and knowledge of limitations to yield complete results. as none of the directories provide search instructions it is not clear to users what terms to use. for example in one directory, entry of the words counsellor and counselling yielded 1 and 6 entries, respectively. this inconsistency in results compromises the directory usefulness, especially for people who are not very conversant with searching. in order for people to make a community directory their first port of call about local services they must be confident that the data is complete. discussions with the directory developers revealed that the councils do not include private organisations partially to keep costs down. they also believe they have no obligation to do so as part of their community service, as private providers have alternative means of advertising. they were unaware that in their own rural areas many private health professionals are subsidised by federal government programmes to provide public service and by definition should be included. the bottom line however, is that a directory that is not comprehensive has a much reduced value as a source of information about health services. furthermore all encompassing local directories are likely to build a much larger consumer base of people who will by choice use that source of information as their first port of call for local information. it is our contention that health is such an important issue that all providers regardless of financial standing should be included. the biggest challenge for any directory is to provide up to date details such that consumer confidence is maintained. health service providers must recognise that their entries are important and that time spent updating information is as important as face to face contact with clients. how to achieve inclusion of all services and how to maintain up to date information will be challenges. one solution may be to offer password protected access for providers to update their own information. conclusion traditional sources of information about health services will continue to be very important especially for people who are reluctant or unable to embrace the new technologies. despite this we would strongly endorse making community directories as the source of information about local health services. major commitment will be required by councils and by health providers. our findings suggest a) more advertising is required to make people aware of the existence of community directories, b) resources about health should be prominent on the home page, c) all health and allied health professionals should be included in the directory in clear categories, d) directories need to be intuitive to use with clear instructions on use and searching. references  australian bureau of statistics, 2001. australian standard geographical classification (asgc). canberra: abs. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/66f306f503e529a5ca25697e0017661f/a3658d8f0ad7a9b6ca256ad4007f1c42!opendocument australian bureau of statistics, 2003. socio economic indexes for areas  2001. canberra: abs. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/84d68d8d34deecbaca2571800020da7f!opendocument baker, l., bundorf, m. k., & alerts, t. c., 2003. use of the internet and e-mail for health care information. journal of the american medical association, 289, 2400-2406. department of health and ageing,  2006. review of rural, remote and metropolitan areas (rrma) classification system. http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wcms/publishing.nsf/content/rev-rrmaclass-sys-1 eley, r., & baker, r. 2007. key issues in rural health: perspectives of health service providers in queensland. australian journal of rural health, 15 (6) hesse, b. w., nelson, d. e., kreps, g. l., croyle, r. t., arora, n. k., rimer, b. k., 2005. trust and sources of health information. the impact of the internet and its implications for health care providers: findings from the first health information national trends survey: archives of internal medicine, 165:2618-2624 hmso, 1997. the new nhs: a modern dependable. retrieved. from miller, t. e., & reents, s., 1998. the health care industry in transition; the on-line mandate to change. new york: new york cyber dialogue. office of economic and statistical research, 2005. queensland regional profiles, 2004. retrieved from pennbridge, j., moya, r., & rodrigues, l., 1999. questionnaire survey of california consumers' use and rating of sources of health care information including the internet. western journal of medicine, 171(5-6), 302-305. pettigrew, k. e., durrance, j. c., & unruh, k. t., 2002. facilitating community information seeking using the internet: findings from three public library-community network systems. journal of the american society for information science and technology, 53(11), 894-903. rokade, a., kapoor, p. k. d., rao, s., rokade, v., reddy, k. t. v., & kumar, b. n., 2002. has the internet overtaken other traditional sources of health information? questionnaire survey of patients attending ent outpatient clinics. clinical otolaryngology and allied sciences, 27(6), 526-528. roy morgan research, 2006. single source, australia.  www.roymorgan.com.au/ the queensland government chief information office, 2005. 2005 queensland household survey of computer and internet usage. brisbane: department of public works queensland government. http://www.governmentict.qld.gov.au/05_projects/household.htm the queensland government chief information office, 2006. 2006 queensland household survey of computer and internet usage. brisbane: department of public works queensland government. http://www.governmentict.qld.gov.au/06_projects/household.htm information and communication technologies for education in an algonquin first nation in quebec emily lockhart1, anita tenasco2, tim whiteduck3, susan o'donnnell4 university of new brunswick, canada. email: emily.m.lockhart@unb.ca education director, kitigan zibi anishinabeg first nation, canada kitigan zibi anishinabeg first nation, canada researcher and adjunct professor, department of sociology, university of new brunswick, canada kitigan zibi kikinamadinan introduction kitigan zibi anishinabeg first nation is an innovative rural community in quebec. located 130 kilometers north of ottawa, it is the closest first nation to the canadian capital. in both population and territory, kitigan zibi is the largest of the ten algonquin communities. broadband connectivity and information and communication technologies (ict) are important to the community and incorporated into everyday operations. the education sector in the community includes kitigan zibi kikinamadinan (high school and elementary), paginawatik (junior and senior kindergartens), wazoson (daycare), odekan head start program, and a post-secondary student support program. this sector services approximately 206 students and 85 families. the education sector also provides services to members of the community who attend provincial school in the nearby town of maniwaki. the education sector's ultimate goal is to give hope and encouragement to each student to reach his/her full potential academically, emotionally, socially, physically, and spiritually. according to staff interviewed for this article, kitigan zibi and paginawatig school encourage each student to become a life-long learner. the community as a whole is passionate about trying to ensure that students are given as many educational opportunities as possible. our study explores the use of technology in the education sector in kitigan zibi. it focuses on the situation of having technology readily available at school but less so at home. the transition from a technology-filled classroom to limited or no ict access at home is a challenge, not only for individual students but also for their families and the community as a whole. although education is the main focus of the paper, broadband networks and ict are heavily embedded into all the service sectors in kitigan zibi. the use of these tools by service providers is important but can only be sustained and developed if all members of the community have access to, and are able to actively and effectively use, icts both inside and outside the home. how kitigan zibi is using technology in its broader range of community services is explored in a separate study by the research team (o'donnell, tenasco, whiteduck, & lockhart, 2012). the current study is based on a survey of connectivity and ict use in households with school-aged children and interviews with community education service providers. it is evident from the interviews that ict connectivity and use are important parts of the education sector in kitigan zibi, and that providers expect both will continue to evolve to better serve the community in the future. first nations education, ict, and broadband connectivity a few background remarks are appropriate for readers unfamiliar with the situation of first nations in canada. in law, first nations are sovereign political entities in treaty relationships with the canadian state. since the arrival of the european colonial powers more than five centuries ago, first nations across this land have been engaged in an ongoing struggle with the state to maintain control over their lands and resources (royal commission on aboriginal peoples [rcap], 1996). alongside the ongoing treaty issues is the need for first nations to control their community services as well as the infrastructure and resources they need to deliver those services in a holistic manner. across canada, first nations face serious funding challenges for education. in 2009, the first nations education council (fnec) reported major shortfalls in funding in quebec, relative to the population growth and the increased cost of living in first nation communities. fnec noted that although provincial funding had increased, it was not sufficient to meet the needs of the growing communities. in 2008 alone, there was an annual funding shortfall of $233m in the province for first nations education (fnec, 2009a). furthermore, fnec argued that although first nation young people between the ages of six and 16 are entitled to an education comparable to that received by non-native students, first nation schools are unable to provide it as a result of this chronic underfunding (fnec, 2009b). this severe lack of funding is attributed to an outdated funding formula designed by the federal government department, aboriginal affairs and northern development canada (aandc). the formula has not been modified since 1988 despite changes in the field of education and ways of learning, and advancements in technologies and scientific discoveries. fnec argued that while new technologies for educational purposes are available in most mainstream schools, most first nations schools are struggling to acquire the funding they need to provide their students with these tools (2009b). a recent field study of the situation across mainstream schools in canada (arntzen, krug & wen, 2008) found that information and communication technology is widely acknowledged as an emerging and increasingly important part of k-12 education. most provincial departments of education recommend that ict be integrated into k-12 curricula. the kitigan zibi elementary and high schools are certainly on board with this recommendation, and both have been incorporating technology such as smart boards, videos, computers, and educational software programs into their lesson plans. incorporating technology into teaching and learning can only be sustained with ongoing funding. it is important to recognize that it is the quality, rather than the quantity, of technology use that is more critical to students' success. lei and zhao (2007) found that different types of technologies had a positive impact on students' grades. one group includes specific subject-related technologies, such as those produced to help students improve their reading skills, or to introduce math curriculum for all types of learners at all levels. the second group of technologies focus on the students' creativity, design and construction skills. these types of programs enhance computer skills and give the students control over the technology in a way that is unique to their individual or group needs and desires. administering quality technology use implies several requirements. first, funding is needed for access to those computer programs that are not free to users via the internet, such as multimedia packages, editing programs, and subject specific programs. second, training for educators to use the various programs is essential to ensure that students are getting the most out of the particular learning program. finally, to ensure that students are able to maximize their learning experience via these programs, it is important that they are accessible from home. having technology readily available at school but not at home may contribute to differences in computer skill levels between students (kuhlemeier & hemker, 2007). the literature provides significant research on ict use at school but little research on how students are using ict at home. our broader research project is exploring how rural and remote first nation communities in canada are using broadband networks and ict. our community research in fort severn first nation and mishkeegogamang first nation in ontario has highlighted both the successes and the challenges associated with the broadband infrastructure and connectivity in these communities (gibson, gray-mckay, o'donnell & the people of mishkeegogamang, 2011; o'donnell, kakekaspan, beaton, walmark, mason & mak, 2011). connectivity in rural and remote communities across canada including first nations communities is substandard for many reasons, ranging from costly and difficult technological challenges to non-existent or ineffective government policies. it has been a struggle to develop the "first mile" of broadband infrastructure in ways that support community-based ownership and control of services (mcmahon, o'donnell, smith, woodman simmonds & walmark, 2010). in addition, federal policies and funding programs have not supported access to, or effective use, of technologies by community members (gurstein, 2003; o'donnell, milliken, chong & walmark, 2010). whiteduck (t., 2010) documents a number of the challenges in providing technology and support to first nation schools, as well as the leadership taken by key first nations organizations in building the infrastructure. at the national level, the first nations leadership has recognized that broadband infrastructure is essential to support first nations and to close the gaps between first nations and mainstream education, health, economic development and services. in 2010, the afn published an e-community ict model that highlighted the need for communities to secure broadband infrastructure and human resources (whiteduck, j., 2010). in december 2011, the first nation chiefs-in-assembly passed a resolution for a first nations e-community strategy (afn, 2011). one objective was to apply the principles of ownership, control, access and possession (ocap) (schnarch, 2004) by first nations over sustainable broadband systems. research questions and methodology the review of the literature suggested three main research questions for this study: to what extent is the kitigan zibi education sector using broadband and ict? how, and to what extent are community households with school-age children using ict? what challenges are households experiencing with connectivity? our study was conducted in collaboration with kitigan zibi first nation and in partnership with fnec. together they facilitated meetings with community leadership, setting up interviews with community service providers, and conducting the household survey. the research protocols, reviewed by the research ethics board of the researchers' home institution, follow the ethical guidelines for doing research with first nations communities outlined in the tri-council policy statement (government of canada panel on research ethics, 2010). to answer the research questions, the study used two different methods. the first was a survey on residential technology use distributed to households with school-aged children of which 94 were completed, 61 with high-school students and 33 with elementary school students. the second method was to conduct seven semi-structured interviews with community service providers who worked in the education sector. this mixed methods approach combined qualitative interviews with a quantitative survey and gave us a clear picture of how ict is an integral part of the education services in kitigan zibi. it also provided insight in to the connectivity challenges for households with school-age children in the community. study findings ict and the education sector in kitigan zibi technology is an integral part of life in kitigan zibi first nation. service providers are quickly adopting new programs and tools to be more effective and efficient in the delivery of services to members of the community. in the education sector in particular, technology is integrated into many aspects of teaching and learning. for example, smart board technology has become a vital piece of lesson planning and educators are using these tools in creative ways to introduce new topics, to incorporate and preserve the algonquin language and culture, and to target all types of learners. another important tool is the internet, as one educator noted: ...in the world we live in today, you can't live without the internet. as a teacher, myself, i use it so much now. i don't visit the library; i don't have to do much research anywhere but on the internet. there are lesson plans out there; we have smart boards; there are smart board lessons out there that i can download. you know, it's where i go for my information for my lessons and i build my units with it, so i'd be lost without it. further demonstrating the effectiveness of the community's strategy of integrating a range of technology in education, another educator explained: i find that's an advantage for students in our community that might not be there in other communities, just the technology itself, having an elementary and high school computer lab for our students to access and getting new computers every few years and even having the smart board technology that a lot of schools don't have. we're really doing a lot in our community. a number of students leave kitigan zibi to obtain a post-secondary education in nearby centres such as ottawa and montreal, which has encouraged educators in the community to make post-secondary preparation a key focus of their teaching strategies. one educator explained: "in my classroom, it's a larger reflection of the sort of the stated objective or the community-wide goal, and that is to put our young people in a position to make some very smart decisions about the role of technology in their postsecondary existence." classroom use of ict as discussed in the literature review, the quality of technology use is more relevant than the quantity when it comes to student success and increased grade averages. lei & zhao (2007) found that having a computer in the classroom was only advantageous if students were using it for educative purposes, and that it could actually hinder learning if it was not being used in this way. when students overused computers, they tended to lose focus and spend time doing things that were unrelated to school (2007). one high-quality use of technology in education involves subject-related programming. in kitigan zibi, educators are using these types of programs, some of which are available online. one educator explained that raz-kids and dreambox math are "…both very good programs that the kids use themselves." these subject-related programs require that teachers or schools purchase an annual license. another technology considered to be good quality for educative purposes is the type that allows students to actively create something. kitigan zibi students are highly engaged in innovative and creative uses of multimedia technologies to script, shoot, edit, and upload videos, as well as produce other types of artistic projects. students at the high school level are introduced to new concepts, skills and approaches surrounding the use of technology for individual and group creativity. upon seeing the work created by the students in the technology classes, one can see that the students involved feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. educators at kikinamadinan strive to give their students not only the knowledge and skills they need to use technology to develop and launch their creative projects but also a better understanding of how technology may affect their lives. speaking to this, one educator said: regardless of the career they choose, the path that they take, technology is going to play a part. even [if] it's a matter of a student turning their back on a particular type of technology, they're making informed decisions and they're knowing what precisely they are turning their back on.... people have extensions of themselves that are digital or technological so we put them in a position to make some smart decisions about how to use those tools. families with school-aged children and ict at home with ict so intertwined into the delivery of education services, it is important that students and their families are able to stay connected from home. a steady flow of connectivity from school to home allows both students to access information for assignments and teachers to prepare lesson plans. home connectivity allows parents and other family members to access online information about support within the community, such as healthcare, daycare, cultural and housing services, that provide the holistic support necessary to ensure the best progress for the students through the education system. the survey found that 73% of kitigan zibi households with school-age children are accessing the internet from home, and 27% are not connected to the internet. that statistic implies that less than 73% of households in kitigan zibi overall are connected to the internet. it is important to keep in mind that in surveys of the canadian population as a whole, families with students at home tend to report higher rates of technology use than households without (statistics canada, 2002). kitigan zibi families with school-age children are connecting to the internet in a variety of ways, by computer, through mobile phones, game consoles, tablets and other devices. computers, mobile phones and game consoles were reported as the most common technologies used in the home. as indicated in chart 1, more than half of the respondents (55%) reported using a computer or laptop to access the internet. other popular methods of connecting to the net were through mobile phones (47%) and game consoles (34%). chart 1: how kza households are connecting to the internet the most common uses of the internet services are illustrated in chart 2. these include online music, social media websites, youtube and accessing the internet. 44% of respondents indicated that they access health and wellness websites and 21% said that they used it for e-learning. the community website (http://kzadmin.com) was also mentioned on the survey and 32% of respondents indicated that they use the site . chart 2: internet services used at home by kza families with school-aged children the finding about e-learning is important here. less than one-quarter of the households with school aged children are accessing e-learning from home. while there could be a number of reasons for that, including a lack of connectivity, the lack of support or training for parents or students, or cost, we must ask: how are students expected to continue improving their computer skills and to engage in e-learning if they are unable to access the programs that are available at school from home? it is critical to acknowledge that a student's success involves an ongoing learning process, which involves engaging with their schoolwork while at home. connectivity allows students to not only have access to the various programs they are using in the classroom but also communicate with other students and teachers via web-discussions, blogs, or email. as the kitigan zibi education system continues to increase its engagement with ict, students and parents need to be able to stay up to speed with similar ict at home. household connectivity challenges of those who responded to our survey, 17% indicated that they had 'no service' in their home. others were waiting to get connected or trying to get connected, but were having difficulties with this process for a number of reasons. respondents indicated that high speed internet was a fairly recent service in the community and some had not yet been able to change from dial-up to high speed. other reasons for the lack of household connectivity were that respondents were uninterested, their computer was inadequate, or they used the internet at the home of a family member. sharing computers between households is a common trend in other first nation communities that we have visited. in some cases, people are unable to connect because their homes are located outside the service area. one community member said: "the school has a lot of connections, buildings have connections, but where i am right now, i could connect only one wireless with the bell canada turbo chip because i don't have cable. cable has not come to my place. it stops maybe a mile away." the bell turbo stick is an option available to remote homes situated outside of the zone that bell canada services with land lines. however, these devices are costly. some of the survey respondents indicated that they chose not to use the internet at home because of the high costs associated with it, and that sentiment was echoed in some of the interviews we conducted. as one community member explained, "we're too far, so we'd only get dial-up service and that's too slow. and to buy that ...like the bell turbo stick or whatever, it's pretty costly, so it's like, do i want to invest in that?" one community member expressed concern about cost saying: "there are community members who have children here who as parents just can't afford it. and so we can't really use it as a tool for everyone because they can't go home and use it." discussion and conclusions kitigan zibi anishinabeg is an innovative rural first nation community, continuously integrating technologies into their everyday operations. community members are, for the most part, using ict to stay connected with others. the community's education sector in particular has placed considerable focus on the importance of ict for teaching and learning. our study found that kitigan zibi was following the wise practice of quality of ict use over quantity. quality ict use, engaging in innovative and creative use rather than just time spent in front of a computer, is linked to increases in students' grade averages. the community's educators are adamant about staying up to speed with the latest programs for enhanced learning and student creativity. they are working together to ensure that kitigan zibi students are receiving the education needed to achieve their post-secondary, career, and life goals. the community is preparing their students to become contributing members of the kitgan zibi community and society at large. given that ict is woven into the fabric of the education system's everyday functions, it seems only logical that students should be using these tools from home in order to continue developing their skills. however one-quarter of the students' homes do not have internet connectivity. homes with internet connectivity and school-aged children are using ict mainly for social outlets and entertainment. our survey indicates that e-learning is not a trend for these families, although the students in the household are engaged with e-learning from school. technology has considerable value for kitigan zibi. our interview participants recognize the importance of bringing all community members on board as the collective moves forward. addressing key challenges that keep community members from having access to and actively and effectively using technologies are important priorities. kitigan zibi will be successful in integrating ict into everyday educational activities in the community only if all community members are able to access and use these technologies effectively. as ict use continues to develop in the kitigan zibi education system, it will be important to consider the effects this may have on students who are unable to access similar services from home. using ict at home could be considered as an essential element for the continued skill development and improved learning for these students. our study found that the primary barrier to household connectivity was lack of connectivity or affordable connection options in their local area and the cost of connectivity. these findings speak to larger challenges faced by kitigan zibi and most other rural and remote first nations in quebec and across canada. the study indicated that some households in kitigan zibi are having difficulties finding the money to pay for internet connectivity. this situation reflects the experiences of many people living in other first nations across canada. it speaks to the need for all federal policies related the digital economy to ensure provisions for access to affordable broadband for everyone. to ensure quality use of ict, the community education sector must receive adequate funding to continue to administer, develop and deliver these programs in the schools. the current funding arrangements for first nations education will require a more holistic approach that supports first nations in their ict activities and programs for education. broadband infrastructure provides connectivity to the community and all the services and homes in the community. canada has no effective broadband strategy. the federal government's "digital economy strategy" has yet to be revealed. the national leadership of first nations continues to document the need for, and lobby for, a comprehensive first nations e-community strategy for broadband connectivity in first nations that includes resources for ongoing support and maintenance (afn, 2011; whiteduck, j., 2010). the study points to the need to integrate a much more holistic concept of technology into federal first nations education policies. federal policy should ensure that first nations have the partnerships, resources and capacity necessary to provide broadband services and support ict use in their communities. this includes support for communities to own, operate and maintain their local networks in a sustainable manner. in this way, broadband networks can support ongoing needs in the education sector as well as all other community services sectors. first nations can also provide internet services to households, businesses and other organizations in the community. at minimum, all households in first nations across the country should have the opportunity to be connected to broadband internet. options will need to be increased for kitigan zibi families without the money to use ict at home. a strong focus on universal service and the right to internet access must be considered as a key point to this argument. access to information and education is essential for the betterment of the student, their family, the education system and the community as a whole. acknowledgements a special note of appreciation is extended to kitigan zibi first nation for welcoming us into their community, showing us some of their achievements, and allowing us to conduct this research in collaboration with them. thank you to chief gilbert whiteduck and members of the community leadership for accepting our project and working with us to complete it. a special thanks to our community liaison, anita tenasco and our first nations innovation research partner tim whiteduck at the first nations education council for coordinating our visits and offering continuing support throughout the entire project. we would also like to thank all the kitigan zibi community members and residents who participated in this study and shared their experiences with us. those who consented to be named are: jean-guy whiteduck, keith whiteduck, judy cote, warren mcgregor, cheryl tenasco-whiteduck, and anita tenasco. the kitigan zibi study was conducted as part of the first nations innovation project (http://fn-innovation-pn.com). the first nations innovation partners the first nations education council, atlantic canada's first nation help desk, keewaytinook okimakanak, and the university of new brunswick contribute in-kind resources to the project. the social sciences and humanities research council has supported our work with four research and outreach grants since 2006. references arntzen, j., krug, d. & wen, z. (2008). ict literacies and the curricular conundrum of calling all complex digital technologies "tools". international journal of education and development using information and communication technology (ijedict), 4(8), 6-14. assembly of first nations. (2011). first nations e-community strategy. resolution 53/2011, special chiefs assembly, ottawa, december 5-7. first nations education council. (2010). presentation of a paper to the advisory committee on the financial accessibility of education. presented to the advisory committee on financial accessibility of education (acfae). first nations education council. (2009a). general information on the chronic underfunding of first nations education. retrieved from http://www.cepn-fnec.com/pdf/etudes_documents/info_general_eng.pdf first nations education council. (2009b). management of first nations education by the federal government and chronic underfunding.retrieved from http://www.cepn-fnec.com/pdf/etudes_documents/fiche_complete_eng.pdf gurstein, m. (2003). effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. first monday, 8(1). gibson, k., gray-mckay, c., o'donnell, s. & the people of mishkeegogamang. (2011). mishkeegogamang first nation community members engage with information and communication technologies. canadian communication association (cca 2011) fredericton, june. government of canada panel on research ethics. (2010). tri-council policy statement: ethical conduct for research involving humans (tcps2). retrieved from: http://www.pre.ethics.gc.ca/pdf/eng/tcps2/tcps_2_final_web.pdf kuhlemeier, h. & hemker, b. (2007). the impact of computer use at home on students' internet skills. computers and education, 49(2). lei, j. & zhao,y. (2007). technology uses and student achievement: a longitudinal study. computers and education, 49(2). mcmahon, r., o'donnell, s., smith, r., woodman simmonds & j., walmark, b. (2010). putting the 'last-mile' first: re-framing broadband development in first nations and inuit communities. vancouver: centre for policy research on science and technology (cprost), simon fraser university, december. o'donnell, s., tenasco, a., whiteduck, t. & lockhart, e. (2012). broadband-enabled community services in kitigan zibi anishinabeg first nation: developing an e-community approach.canadian communication association conference, university of waterloo, ontario, may 30. o'donnell, s., milliken, m., chong, c. & walmark, b. (2010). information and communication technologies (ict) and remote and rural first nations communities: an overview. presented at the canadian communication association annual conference (cca 2010) montreal, june. o'donnell, s., kakekaspan, g., beaton, b., walmark, b., mason, r., & mak, m. (2011). a new remote community-owned wireless communication service: fort severn first nation builds their local cellular system with keewaytinook mobile. canadian journal of communication, 36(4), 663-673. royal commission on aboriginal peoples. (1996). people to people, nation to nation: highlights from the report of the royal commission on aboriginal peoples. ottawa: minister of supply and services canada. schnarch, b. (2004). ownership, control, access, and possession (ocap) or self-determination applied to research: a critical analysis of contemporary first nations research and some options for first nations communities. journal of aboriginal health, 1(1): 80-95. statistics canada (2002). information and communication technology: access and use. education quarterly review, 8(4), 12. whiteduck, j. (2010). building the first nation e-community. in j. p. white, j. peters, d. beavon, & p. dinsdale (eds), aboriginal policy research vi: learning, technology and traditions (pp.95-103). toronto: thompson educational publishing. whiteduck, t. (2010). first nations schoolnet and the migration of broadband and community-based ict applications. in j. p. white, j. peters, d. beavon, & p. dinsdale (eds), aboriginal policy research vi: learning, technology and traditions (pp.105-117). toronto: thompson educational publishing. contributions from visitor research to ci and ict4d theory and research methodology trish alexander, school of computing, university of south africa. email: alexapm@unisa.ac.za helene gelderblom, department of informatics, university of pretoria. email: helene.gelderblom@up.ac.za estelle de kock, school of computing, university of south africa. email: dkocke@unisa.ac.za introduction case study context this paper reflects on the research methodology and associated research methods used to gain a comprehensive understanding of the level of interaction and engagement of visitors with a biotechnology exhibit at five science centres in south africa. this case is used to illustrate similarities between community informatics, ict for development and visitor research and how research focussing on the free-choice or self-directed learning that takes place at science centres can possibly also be useful within community informatics. the exhibit which was studied uses video, audio and a touch sensitive screen to provide information about biotechnology, associated topics and careers. this is in line with the objective of the science centres to provide non-formal science education by discovery learning and using interactive, living science and technology. the centres strive to provide imaginative, enjoyable, hands-on learning experiences to the public in general and the youth in particular. this is similar to the goals of science centres throughout the world: "the informal setting of the science center is a rich learning environment that nurtures curiosity, improves motivation and attitudes toward science, engages the visitors through participation and social interaction and generates excitement and enthusiasm, all of which are conducive to science learning and understanding" (barriault and pearson 2010, 91) the five centres are located in three noticeably different kinds of environment. two are in large cities both of which are major tourist destinations. they are easily accessed and independently located they are not part of premises owned by a sponsor or other organisation although the one is in a large shopping mall. two other centres are located on university campuses, one of which is a well-resourced university in a city and the other a less well-established university in a rural area. the fifth centre is considerably less ambitious in terms of numbers of exhibits and is located in a classroom (science laboratory) at a secondary school in a high density, low socio-economic residential area. all of the centres have frequent, scheduled visits from school groups with learners from preschool to those in tertiary education. these make up the majority of the visitors for all the centres. two centres (one university campus and the school) are located so as to cater predominantly to less advantaged citizens. both are visited almost exclusively by organised school or university groups although efforts have been made to reach out to the surrounding community as well. the remaining centres are in areas that are easily accessed, and hence are visited by large numbers of tourists, family groups, and self-motivated individuals as well as the previously mentioned school groups. the research authority (the sponsor) who commissioned the research is also involved with the development and deployment of the exhibit and with the science centres. the tender document gave directives regarding the research methodology to be used: data should be collected using at least fifty questionnaires or interviews at each centre and the interns at the centres should collect the data. the brief clearly explained that independent research of a high standard was required. however, the independent evaluators (the authors) noted that using untrained, unsupervised and relatively junior staff members to collect data is risky and quoted literature that says that limited data can be collected from visitors to museums using questionnaires and even exit interviews (allen 2004). hence they proposed that quantitative and qualitative data should be collected using questionnaires and exit interviews but these should be supplemented by interviews with senior staff at the centres and by systematically and carefully observing visitors using the exhibit. research areas in order to decide which research traditions and paradigm should be used it is important to examine the research topic and to decide which research discipline it fits within. the research described here can be considered to be ict for development (ict4d) firstly, as south africa is accepted as being an emerging economy or developing country and is a highly unequal society (has the highest gini coefficient in the world 63.1 (data.worldbank.org › indicators)); and secondly, one of the most evident aims of the science centres is to provide support to schools, educators and communities from less advantaged areas and hence has development as a goal. ict4d, also known rather less commonly as development informatics (heeks 2014), is clearly not synonymous with community informatics but there is a noticeable overlap between them when the community involved is socio-economical disadvantaged and benefits from the project which either introduces ict or looks at the impact of previously introduced ict on the community (de moor 2009a; turpin, alexander, and phahlamohlaka 2013; stillman and linger 2009). the communities being served in the case which this paper studies are: firstly, a well-defined and coherent community of practice those who want to promote science, technology, engineering, environmental studies and mathematics (steem) as disciplines and potential careers; and secondly, visitors from far more inclusive, place-based communities located relatively close to the science centre. each of these communities has an identity (which may be fairly consistent with those of individual community members or reflects diversity). all of the visitor communities have a high proportion of young people, whose knowledge of steem and interested in related careers can be stimulated by participation in informal and enjoyable learning experiences. although not all community members are socio-economically disadvantaged, a high proportion of the groups visiting the centre are from under-resourced schools and the educational goals of science centres fit well with development. having established that this project fits into both ict4d and ci, we look at a third sub-discipline known as visitor research, which focusses specifically on the people who visit museums (in particular science museums), science centres, zoos and aquariums, and the many other types of place-based venues ("designed spaces") intended for free-choice, but nevertheless quite focussed, learning. this type of educational research often refers to the community in which the centre is located (rennie et al. 2010; falk and needham 2011), the personal, socio-cultural and physical contexts within which learning will occur (falk and storksdieck 2005) and the impact of the centre on less advantaged members of the community (falk and needham 2011). many of the exhibits in science centres utilise information and communication technologies in some way (salgado 2013) (this will be elaborated on further in the literature review) and hence the overlaps between visitor research and both ict4d and ci can be established. the inclusion of this sub-discipline is the unusual aspect of the research presented here as it proposes a deviation from ci and ict4d research, neither of which is necessarily linked to a physical place of limited size, and both of which emphasize the communications aspect of ict. in contrast, visitor research uses the internet and mobile communication only to a limited extent, for example, within the building or campus as a means to guide a visitor through exhibits (moussouri and roussos 2013; hornecker and stifter 2006). there is some similarity between this type of research and ci or ict4d research into telecentres or multipurpose community centres as the idea of free-choice learning resonates with constructivist learning used by both ci and ict4d in those and other environments. this paper this paper focuses on the research approach used in the case study and not on the results of the investigation into the use of the exhibit. it considers the research context, the stakeholders, and the contribution to knowledge of the case study to the sub-disciplines of ict4d, ci and visitor research rather than the conclusions arrived at regarding the use of the exhibit. it will however use data collected and the example of the evaluation of the exhibit in the five different contexts to illustrate the need for that research approach. the structure of the paper is as follows: the objectives are explained using a description of the problem and then formalising this as research questions; the research methodology of this paper (not of the case being studied) is stated briefly; a literature review follows which focusses on visitor research, related theory and models, and data collection methods some examples of technology for free-choice use of ict by disadvantaged communities located in public spaces other than museums and science centres are also described; in the findings the case being studied is presented and this discussed in terms of the literature in a separate section. finally the conclusion presents the argument that visitor research and its associated theory and methods can contribute to the insights of researchers in ci and ict4d into development, communities and context. objectives problem statement within the relatively established field of information systems (is) the use of theory is encouraged but there has been an on-going concern related to the development of native theories. straub (2012) refutes that this contribution is insufficient by providing quite an impressive list of native is theories. it is partly for this reason that a suggestion has been made that community informatics, which is considered to need "a stronger conceptual and theoretical base" (stillman and linger 2009), might align itself with is to some extent in terms of a framework. this view of a lack of use of theory in ci is shared by stoecker (2005) and gurstein (2007). gurstein (2007) says that ci research is practice oriented and hence not driven by theory or method and he points out that there is a lack of a generally accepted set of concepts, definitions or even a common understanding of what ci is. he adds that some people consider ci itself to be a methodology of community development that happens to use ict as a primary means to facilitate community communications. however, just as is the case where claims regarding a lack of native is are questioned, in ci the lack of theory can also be disputed although theories which originated in other disciplines are mostly used. there are many strong discussions related to social capital, underpinned by bourdieu (for example used by kvasny (2006) to support social reproduction theory). goodwin (2012) makes a powerful case for the value of discourse theory in ci. social network theory and associated work by wellman is used (williams and durrance 2008). orlikowski's structurational model of technology and structuration theory (giddens) remain important in ci (pang, lee-san 2010; stillman and stoecker 2005). however the concern goes beyond the use of theory as there are also disagreements about practical aspects of research (methodological techniques and practices). for example, there is disagreement regarding whether the large number of case studies in ci research is good, with some seeing this as an opportunity for the practitioners and scholars to collaborate (williams and durrance 2008), others welcoming the opportunity this provides for "rich, 'lived' stories about authentic information and communication requirements, rather than the more abstract 'user' requirements often elicited in classical is development projects" (de moor 2009a, 5) and a contrasting opinion that the case studies are often purely anecdotal, and lack rigor (stoecker 2005). action research is also a common ci research approach (gurstein 2007; de moor 2009b; stillman and linger 2009) and the apparent understanding that ci is meant to address community change, with the community actively participating, implies that this action research is in fact participative action research (stillman and denison 2014). there have been various attempts previously to strengthen ci methodology as explained by de moor (2009a, 1), "... my aim was to identify some underlying methodological strands that, when woven together, could help to strengthen the fields of community and development informatics in terms of coherence, generalizability and reusability of research ideas and the practical impact of their implementation." a very similar concern regarding the academic standing of ict4d has been voiced by members of that research community, namely that, unfortunately, there is little evidence of researchers building on one another's work (best 2010; heeks 2007); there are no standardized methodologies or even agreement on how research quality can be ensured (burrell and toyama 2009); and there is a tendency to prioritize action over knowledge with few authors contributing to theory building (heeks 2007; walsham and sahay 2006; walsham 2013). this paper is not proposing one particular "solution" to the problem but to look at possibly useful theories and associated methodology from a branch of educational research in order to add to the rich traditions of theory and practice already emerging in the related disciplines of ci, ict4d and is. research question how can theories from visitor research add to ci and ict4d theories and associated methodology? research methodology the research methodology used in this paper is an explanatory case study: the case studied is a contract research project to evaluate a biotechnology exhibit in five contexts. the research process is described and reflected on, and the contextual model of learning is used in order to explain whether the evaluation was effective and why. hence, we are not reporting on the outcomes of that empirical research but are using it as an illustrative example focussing on the research process used and its effect. the evaluation is fairly typical of visitor research, which is being proposed as a topic or stream of both ict4d and ci research (while also remaining a topic in science education). literature review visitor research as explained in the introduction, science centres strive to increase the visitors' interest, curiosity and attentiveness to science as well as to increase their factual knowledge and to inspire them to extend their science learning and even eventually to choose a career related to science (falk and needham 2011). visitor research is in many respects educational research and since constructivist and socio-cultural theoretical frameworks are becoming dominant in education research generally these are also favoured in research involving technology-enhanced learning (kaptelinin 2011) and when studying free-choice learning during a science centre visit (barriault and pearson 2010). since a science centre is one of many types of community information hub, visitor research fits well with community informatics research much of which uses these same theoretical frameworks. visitor research is interested in finding out what intrinsic factors, such as identity (falk 2011; werner, hayward, and larouche 2014) and extrinsic factors (including context), motivate and promote interaction and self-directed learning by people visiting the centres (falk and storksdieck 2005; rsa dst 2005; moussouri and roussos 2013). the informal science education (ise) program at the national science foundation (nsf) (usa) promotes ise project evaluation and believes that attitudes and practices regarding evaluation have changed dramatically over the last approximately twenty-five years (allen et al. 2008). in addition, assessing the impact of a particular exhibit or group of exhibits or the science centre as a whole is frequently undertaken in order to satisfy funders that their investment is having the desired learning outcomes or at least to show that visitors have positive experiences (barriault and pearson 2010), and there are many examples of resultant reports (falk, needham, and dierking 2014; schmitt et al. 2010; horn et al. 2008). impact studies are difficult and expensive and hence particular strategies and even tools have been developed, namely the framework for evaluating impacts of informal science education projects (allen et al. 2008) and the visitor engagement framework (barriault and pearson 2010). a detailed discussion of these different tools is beyond the scope of this paper but evaluation has many aspects other than gains in knowledge of concepts. it includes (all related to stem concepts, processes, or careers): attitude (towards) stem-related topic or capabilities awareness, knowledge or understanding engagement or interest behavior skills (allen et al. 2008) some of these tools and guidelines have theoretical bases such as the contextual model of learning (falk, randol, and dierking 2012; falk and storksdieck 2005) and a subsequent identity-related visitor motivation model (falk 2011). the visitor engagement and exhibit assessment model (veeam) underlies the visitor engagement framework (barriault and pearson 2010). information and communication technologies (ict) in science centres one strategy used to achieve the goals of science centres is the use of information and communication technologies (ict), which have the potential to assist such centres in achieving their goals (falk and dierking 2008 cited by kaptelinin 2011; quistgaard and kahr-højland 2010; hall and bannon 2005; clarke 2013). the design, development and deployment of an information technology-enhanced exhibit in a science centre is a particular example of a ci artefact as it is the use of ict by a science centre to add to the learning that occurs there. the results are, however, frequently not as good as expected (kaptelinin 2011). hence the afore-mentioned models are used to evaluate not only tangible exhibits but also the increasingly frequent exhibits that use interactive multimedia to simulate scientific phenomena (londhe et al. 2010). kaptelinin (2011) calls this use of ict "technological support for meaning making". digital (interactive multimedia) exhibits can stand alone or be web applications accessed via mobile technology (hornecker 2008; hsi 2002; hornecker and stifter 2006). assessment of actual use of the artefact by end users (including evidence of uptake) and reasons for this is the primary goal of visitor research. sufficient actual demand for and use of the artefact underpins its viability in the long term (sustainability of associated projects) and its scalability (roll out to an increasing number of sites). self-reported scales of attitude and behavioural intention to use cannot measure this adequately. consequently there is interest within the visitor research stream in the design features of these interactive multimedia exhibits which attract visitors and assist them in meaning-making (kaptelinin 2011; quistgaard and kahr-højland 2010; barriault and pearson 2010). many important design considerations involve human computer interaction aspects (allen 2004; ardito et al. 2012; hornecker 2008; reeves et al. 2005; hall and bannon 2005; st john et al. 2008; lyons 2008; vom lehn, heath, and hindmarsh 2005; crowley and jacobs 2002; dancu 2010; crease 2006). contextual model of learning "in science centers, the learning is much more multi-dimensional and any assessment of the learning experience needs to take into consideration the affective and emotional impacts, the very personal nature of each experience and the contextualized nature of that experience." (barriault and pearson 2010, 91) in order to take context into account, research is often carried out in the natural setting in which the phenomenon being studied and related events occur (ethnography, case study or field study). when looking at learning from a socio-cultural point of view it is important to study the learning within the social context in which it occurs: in the case of a science centre this means observing the exhibit-related communication within groups and how the interaction with the exhibit and movement within the larger physical space encourages learning (barriault and pearson 2010). the contextual model of learning examines twelve key factors grouped into three contexts (falk and storksdieck 2005). personal context: 1. visit motivation and expectations; 2. prior knowledge; 3. prior experiences; 4. prior interests; 5. choice and control; sociocultural context: 6. within group social mediation; 7. mediation by others outside the immediate social group; physical context : 8. advance organizers; 9. orientation to the physical space; 10. architecture and large-scale environment; 11. design and exposure to exhibits and programs; 12. subsequent reinforcing events and experiences outside the museum; however falk and his co-authors, while claiming that each of these factors influence learning, acknowledge that they have not been able to identify relative importance of the factors and as yet can only claim that complex combinations of factors influence learning. data collection methods observation is often used in visitor research, but observing groups is more difficult than observing an individual and hence video and audio recording (of conversations within the group) is often recommended as it allows for detailed analysis of the data (barriault and pearson 2010). exit interviews are also frequently used. both methods can provide both quantitative and qualitative data and both require skilled design of the forms or transcription sheets and data analysis. the majority of published evaluation reports for interactive science exhibition use more than one means of data collection and most analysis is qualitative although a descriptive statistical analyses are also found occasionally (table 1). the reason for the predominantly qualitative analysis is that these evaluations generally provide detailed descriptions of human behaviour rather than data collected from a large number of visitors (such as counting visitors or recording the frequency of generic actions). but this is not universal, the black holes experiment gallery summative evaluation (londhe et al. 2010) does use descriptive statistics extensively. table 1: data collection methods used in the literature technology for free-choice use in ci tables 2 and 3 present five examples of ict for free-choice use by disadvantaged communities that are not located in museums or science centres. all of these projects can be considered to be ci as well as ict4d. the first four are in public spaces. the hole in the wall computers are often not in a building but under a roof or awning opening onto a sidewalk (mitra 2000 photograph reproduced in abbas, van der vyver, and marais 2013). the e-governance service delivery kiosks discussed by misra (2015) are located within a number of different types of settings (common service centres (csc) under negp, krishi vigyan kendras (kvk), village resource centres (vrc), village knowledge centres (vkc)) all of which are dedicated to provide resources for accessing information but some of which are for profit. although at the time that the paper was published these were kiosk-based and in centres, the intention is to migrate to mobile technologies (misra 2015). the third example, is kiosks located in community health centres which provide health related information (specifically focussing on mental health, hiv/aids and drug abuse) (bean, davis, and valdez 2013). the digital doorway has also largely selected locations suited to its intended users (largely primary and secondary school learners) (abbas, van der vyver, and marais 2013; van der vyver and marais 2013). hence these digital kiosks are mainly installed at schools in deep rural disadvantaged communities in south africa. the final example is not intended to be installed in a fixed location, it is a mobile care data application and this mobile character is essential to its usefulness (de la harpe et al. 2013). table 2: examples of technology for free-choice use of ict by disadvantaged communities located in public spaces other than museums and science centres some of these projects have been reported on extensively and have been evaluated in various ways. we have not done extensive reviews of them and hence the descriptions of evaluations described in table 3 are simply illustrations of the types of evaluations done. the discussion after the presentation of findings from the research case studies will refer to this again. table 3: examples of evaluations of technology for free-choice use of ict by disadvantaged communities findings background to the research example this extensive study took place over eight months and many people were involved in collecting data including staff at the five science centres. as described in the introduction, each centre has a unique environment and caters for different kinds of visitors some of whom are from surrounding communities and others who are tourists; the location of the centre has a large influence on who visits it and why. hence, the needs of the visitors vary as was evident in the results from the study. it is for this reason that data from each centre was analysed and discussed separately in the final report. the following are some of the questions that needed to be answered. who interacts with the exhibits and who does not interact? (demographic information) how much and what kind of interaction takes place? (time, apparent interest, apparent understanding, sections attracting attention) how engaging and effective are the audio-visual components? how easy is the technology to use? research methodology of the research example informed by the literature, a multi-methodological approach was used for the research described in this case study. the staff at all the science centres suggested that training in data collection would be useful for interns but that it was even more important that permanent staff members acquire this skill. they also thought that more senior staff should assist interns to collect data, particularly during the exit interviews and observation. hence a two day workshop was held that was positively received and we believe this improved the quality of data collected in the field. quantitative and qualitative data were collected from: semi-structured interviews with staff members; observations, questionnaires, and semi-structured exit interviews with visitors. data collection forms were designed, tested during a pilot study and a training workshop, and changed in response to proposals from the workshop. these were printed and were filled in manually when data was collected. audio recordings using smart pens were supposed to support the written data but few useful recordings could be obtained. video recording, particularly covert recording, has been found to be very useful in similar published studies but this option was not used, partly for operational reasons, such as cost and theft, and partly for ethical reasons as many visitors are children and explicit parental permission would be difficult to obtain. a framework from the literature (the visitor engagement framework) was used for thematic analysis in the final report regarding the visitors' responses to the exhibit which was submitted to the client. however we will use the contextual model of learning, an analytical theory for visitor research, in the discussion of the findings that follows. since this paper's primary objective is to add to ci and ict4d theories and associated methodology, the contextual model of learning is proposed as a useful theoretical approach and this is illustrated by using it to gain insight into the practical challenges that arose related to the research design. such lessons provide tangible and relevant information informed by current research about these methods. the discussion follows each finding (sometimes precedes a set of findings) and is written in italics. this is subsequently summarised in table 4. however, a second aspect (how those contexts affect the visitors' responses to an exhibit) will be illustrated very briefly by some examples after that (table 5). practical lessons learned from the research example interview knowledgeable people visits to the centres and obtaining insights from people (the science centre staff) who are very knowledgeable about the context, early in the research process, were extremely useful. the information obtained helped us to make the research locally relevant to the various environments by asking the "right" questions in ways that were appropriate for the diverse visitors. this enriched our data beyond what could be obtained from visitors to the centre and broadened the scope of the research while still retaining its focus. these important early interviews also gave us an opportunity to tell the science centre staff what to expect from us and our research and to work out some of the logistics. the staff members are immersed in the physical and sociocultural context of the science centre and have already made their own meaning in terms of the use of an exhibit. using them as colleagues and hence equal status participants in the research but also as insightful information sources is important. difficulty eliciting information from visitors beyond the obvious the literature (particularly the framework for evaluating impacts of informal science education projects) advises that studies of this sort should be alert for unexpected responses, activity and interaction. the researchers were keen to uncover information that was new and tried to craft questions to make respondents think hoping that this would reveal this type of information, but many respondents simply left out questions that they thought were difficult. hence the interviewees seemed reluctant or unable to reveal their personal contexts, such as prior knowledge, prior experience and prior interest that the interviews were attempting to uncover. other personal factors are a lack of personal interest in the research project as there is no expectation of benefit. time constraints, and an awareness that the rest of the group were waiting were socio-cultural context aspects that exacerbated the problem. experience in use of data collection techniques the data collection skills needed should not be underestimated and unintended outcomes in the research usually relate to this and research planning to a greater extent than to the exhibit. for example, it is preferable to carry out interviews in a quiet place so that rich qualitative data can be obtained. hence, centres which sent staff to the data collection workshop collected better data than the untrained contributors. skilled and experienced data collectors, who had more time and a quieter environment, might have noticed and addressed some of the factors preventing interviewees from providing useful data and probed more deeply. this was discussed in the workshop and the suggestion was made that interviewers explain that the interviewee was also now "doing scientific research" through the data collection process. the data collection was supposed to be supported by audio recordings using smart pens and training was provided but although the pens were received enthusiastically they were not used much. either the user only said what she wrote (transcribed for us) or they were not used at all or the environment was so noisy that the best use that could be made of the audio is to provide evidence of the surrounding racket. experience helps interviewers in creating a bond between themselves and the interviewees and in arousing interest in the research. the personal context of the interviewer (skills and confidence, acquired through prior knowledge and experience in particular) result in a greater choice of interview techniques and control over the data collection. therefore, the personal context of the interviewer is as important as that of the interviewee. possible unintentional filtering-out of data the choice of who should collect data is based on cost and convenience but influences the results and limits the amount of "hidden" data that is revealed as embedded staff might have preconceived ideas. this interpretation is based on the fact that there was a strong correspondence between what the science centre staff said in the initial interviews and the data collected at the corresponding centre and the fact that the same issues were not always duplicated at other centres. alternatively this could mean that these individuals know and accurately report the relevant information in early interviews and that it did not change much between the time when the interviews were conducted and when most of the data was collected. this second "reading" of the results implies that the centres are very different and the lack of duplication of issues raised is to be expected. we have no way of determining which of these is true other using independent observers to triangulate the data. this is a 'personal context' linked to motivation and expectations issue but is extrapolated to groups of stakeholders (independent researchers, funders, staff at the centre). negotiated cost of data collection the budget is a big consideration for a funder, and when the research is in response to a tender this is a particularly sensitive issue. hence prior to the call for proposals, issues of research methodology were already prescribed such as the collection of data by people already in loco and contracted. the independent researchers who were awarded the contract addressed the issues regarding the type of methodology, who would collect data and what planning and preparation was required immediately in their proposal. however they also needed to be prepared to negotiate regarding price and to add a data collection workshop at no cost in order to add additional ways of collecting data (observations in particular). despite the fact that the sponsor fully supported the suggested compromise the outcomes were not perfect. the observations turned out to be very valuable as did the early interviews between researchers and science centre managers. this illustrates one aspect of how different stakeholder's mandates can affect research (and in particular contract research) (a socio-cultural issue). time as a socio-cultural context the issue of scheduling proved to be a major factor. the reality of the wider socio-cultural context of visitor research, particularly where it takes place at a university or school or depends on school groups, means that scheduling has to fit with the real world circumstances of school holidays, and other events that require the data collectors' time. this need to coordinate, that is, plan and reach a mutually acceptable agreement with the science centres in terms of time is of course evident in all fieldwork unless the researcher is unaware of the negative effects of imposing a schedule on his "hosts". in this case only minimal data could be collected from one of the sites and the greatest difficulties in scheduling, despite serious efforts to make arrangements, were experienced in the two least advantaged sites. the issue of conflicting interests regarding time was evident at a second level where a pre-agreed time could not easily be arranged, this was with the visitors to the centres. since most visitors are in a group, stopping individuals to interview them or get them to fill in a questionnaire is intrusive, results in rushed, minimal or incomplete answers and a small sample. the use of less intrusive data collection methods, namely, observation, and access to the knowledge of staff accumulated informally over time is essential to compensate for this. expectations related to location the practical issues and lessons learned related to data collection which are discussed above relate across all five science centres. however there were noticeable differences in sociocultural norms that were evident between communities we will use one extreme example to illustrate this. the smallest centre was located in one classroom of a school in an impoverished section of the city. the researchers were greeted warmly and with great respect, they were unusual visitors in many respects, and it was considered to be an honour (with possible benefits in the longer term) that they were there. it was clear that the staff at the centre and the school children wanted to make a good impression and hence the staff and learners focussed on what they perceived as evaluation of their responses more than learning. the result was that much more effort was put into answering the questionnaires and interviews than, for example in a large centre in "the city". children were on their knees with their ears to the audio speakers to hear exactly what the exhibit soundtrack "said" and to record it exactly. the small section of content was replayed repeatedly so that the "correct" answer could be given. it would have been totally misleading to combine the data from this setting with that of university students voluntarily visiting a science centre as a leisure activity and feeling that their role was to point out problems so that they could be fixed. summary of findings it is important to understand the differences between using the contextual model of learning in order to look at the research process, and its more common use in visitor research as a device for organizing the complexities of learning within free-choice settings. table 4 summarises the findings provided above and emphasises the roles of the three contexts of the contextual model of learning (see the discussion in the literature review) in terms specifically of data collection. table 5 looks at the roles of the three contexts of the contextual model of learning in the analysis and hence to a certain extent in the results of the original research. the key factors indicated in table 5 are listed in the discussion on the contextual model of learning in the literature review. table 4: the contextual model of learning related to data collection table 5: the contextual model of learning related to the data analysis and findings discussion the design issues referred to in tables 4 and 5 are very practical and relate to the usefulness of the exhibit in a public space, with many groups of visitors and many distractions. however, lessons can be learned from them that relate more generally to ci projects, particularly where an artefact may be used in a public space, for example a mobile device app used while travelling on crowded public transport. these relate to ease of use of the artefact or system within a noisy and distracting environment, to the form of feedback (the effort required to read or hear, the chunk size, multiple channels and repeatability providing redundancy to compensate for missed words), to issues of time and to issues of expectations (related to how to serve interests related to context). good ideas do not necessarily translate into useful artefacts and genuine and detailed insight into the variety of locations of use and the diversity of users is necessary. in addition, an iterative process, as recommended in design science research, is needed for the design of digital products (exhibits, apps and tools of various sorts) for use by the public as predicting usage patterns and barriers to use by diverse end users is often found to be unreliable. the location of use of mobile devices is even less predictable than is the case for science centres and the number of distractions is likely to be even greater. although the design of an artefact is generally not endlessly customisable, the end users are often described as though they fall into a small number of homogeneous categories. some additional descriptors that make a big difference may be missed. this relates to both personal and socio-cultural context. some very interesting examples of technologies or demonstrations of scientific principles are big in size, elaborate, expensive, not portable or will only be used briefly (for example a digitally-augmented exhibition on the history of modern media (hornecker and stifter 2006). these cannot feasibly be duplicated and hence are ideal as interactive exhibits for an science centre and would be evaluated there. however, a science centre could also be used as a temporary location in which to evaluate technology-enhanced artefacts intended to be rolled out to communities at any public space (schools, clinics, shopping centres, or multi-purpose community centres). the first four examples described in the section: technology for free-choice use in ci and tables 2 and 3 could have had preliminary evaluations in a science centre using methodologies suitable for visitor research before they were installed in their intended locations. a science centre could even be used as a place to evaluate interaction with, or use by members of a community, of technology that might not eventually be located in a public space as long as there is some way of observing or otherwise collecting data such as logging interactions via a mobile phone. examples are the artefacts described by misra (2015) and de la harpe (2013). however, the difference in temporary and intended subsequent physical context must be taken into account when doing this evaluation. as was found in the analysis in table 5, the science centre environment (or any public space) usually has more noise and human activity than a private location (private office, home) and this is distracting and the design of the artefact should take this into account. understanding the impact of the physical context is important to artefact design, for example a mobile device app used while travelling on crowded public transport. there are a number of advantages of doing preliminary evaluation of a digital artefact in a science centre. firstly, a science centre has many visitors and it is an ideal place to stimulate, inspire or spark an idea during a brief contact with a topic. it has large numbers of diverse visitors who are open (even intending) to interact with exhibits with the purpose of learning. however, just as in communities, there are distractions, including alternative activities and the visitors have a choice regarding which activity to participate in. hence the visitors are a convenient sample (possibly in some cases a representative sample) within an environment that may be quite similar to the eventual environment of use. secondly, this is an ideal environment to study group interactions with an exhibit involving joint discovery and shared explanations. this links to what is referred to as a minimally invasive educational environment (sugata et al. 2005) where learning is largely unassisted or unsupervised and there is group self-instruction or peer-assisted learning. hence it is an ideal space in which to look at multiuser interfaces such as multi-touch screens (hornecker 2008; lyons 2008). as this is an informal learning environment, it is an ideal place to study gamification (in particular multiplayer educational games). as seen in our research, the environment (community or socio-cultural context as well as physical environment) is important; there may be several science centres in a country and comparative case study research where different located communities and environments are involved are of interest to ci. furthermore, a number of data collection methodologies can quite easily be implemented in this environment. the literature supports this idea but observation (including recorded video) was most valuable in our study and this is supported by literature (for example barriault and pearson 2010). findings regarding data collection are summarized in table 5. in a public space such as a science centre, observation can easily be covert or unobtrusive; informed consent can be obtained by notices in the science centre saying that there are cctv cameras used both for security and research, and the images will not be published or used for advertising so there are not expected to be ethical issues (research ethics). audio recordings of private conversations might need to be handled separately if you are interested in shared explanations. it is necessary to provide incentives in order to persuade visitors to spend time and possibly reveal information that they consider private. bean et al. (2013) had a similar experience in their study of kiosks located in community health centres. finally, the existing infrastructure and established patterns of use by visitors provide a stable research support structure; the science centre has existing security and other infrastructure. disadvantages, as noted by the literature are that the visitors are typically only going to interact briefly with any exhibit (hornecker 2008; hornecker and stifter 2006; horn et al. 2012) and, although certain families or individuals might visit the science centre regularly it is difficult to track them and they are probably a small minority of visitors. issues regarding time constraints are described in table 3. a science centre is not the place to track on-going use of technology by particular users. another disadvantage noted earlier and resulting from the brief interactions and informal learning is that it is difficult to identify actual learning gains and to quantify impact of an exhibit or artefact . research methodology and theory from visitor research can be applied within a science centre, but even if the research is not intended to take place there, a science centre has resources such as in-house experts with extensive design experience and knowledge of the visitors and these experts can be valuable contributors to artefact design for ci design science research. in our experience the staff at the science centre were enthusiastic supporters of evaluation projects and new (cheap) exhibits. a question that is less easy to answer is whether visitor research methodology can be transferred to ci research outside the science centre. as illustrated in the examples in tables 2 and 3, any ict intended for community use in public venues is similar to ict use within the specific public space of a science centre. this applies particularly to field studies relating to evaluation of the human computer interface, take up and actual use of the ict (including usability and user experience). specifically: what lessons can be learned from visitor research methodologies that can be applied to ci research methodology outside science centres? a science centre can be used as a supporting research resource physical, personal and socio-cultural contexts and the associated key factors should be taken into account as in the contextual model of learning observation is a primary way of collecting credible data where group interactions, peer-assisted learning, unsupervised engagements with the technology, minimally invasive education and free-choice and self-directed use are involved. conclusion ict4d and ci research can learn from methodologies used to study aspects of learning when visitors interact with exhibits at science centres since ict4d and ci projects also intend to build capacity within a community. hence these fields share a developmental goal, namely to create informal and experiential learning opportunities which may lead to employment opportunities. visitors to a science centre and community members using technology at a telecentre or using their own mobile phones are active participants whose observable actions are clues to their meaning-making while they engage with the activity. as one rather different example, m-learning projects are often presented as ict4d projects and these have very strong similarities with visitor research in terms of self-directed education. models from visitor research could therefore be used and possibly be extended to provide insights into use of technology for profitable outcomes. this paper has illustrated this by describing some challenges regarding methodology in a particular project, evaluation of an ict-enabled exhibit in a number of science centres. just as the physical context, socio-cultural context and associated personal visitor identity and context are important in learning, these can be seen to be important in the research process as well. an exhibit that works in one science centre may not, for a variety of reasons, work at another; a research effort in one context may need to be adapted for another. thus the contextual model of learning can be applied to the research learning as in this paper (although admittedly this was not the intention of the originators and hence could be seen as an extension of the model) as well as to the visitor's learning which is how we propose using it in assessing developmental gains in ci and ict4d. the unit of analysis, however, clearly differs when using this model in its original and in this extended way. the case presented in this paper is used to illustrate ideas and was not used to assess the learning effectiveness of the exhibit. however throughout that analysis the noise, distractions and design of the exhibit formed the physical context and were seen to limit the visitors' ability to engage with the exhibit and hence any learning; the socio-cultural differences at the higher level of the community and within groups were evident in the ways in which individual members responded to (and reported their) interaction with the exhibit. personal context was not successfully used to assess learning gains largely because the other two contexts formed such serious barriers that little individual interaction occurred. references abbas, faizah jummai, abraham gert van der vyver, and mario alphonso marais. 2013. 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"social networks and social capital: rethinking theory in community informatics." the journal of community informatics 4 (3): 1-20. yoon, susan, karen elinich, joyce wang, christopher steinmeier, and jacqueline g. van schooneveld. 2012. "learning impacts of a digital augmentation in a science museum." visitor studies 15 (2): 157-70. doi:10.1080/10645578.2012.715007. teaching open data for social movements: a research strategy alan freihof tygel, maria luiza machado campos, graduate program on informatics ppgi, federal university of rio de janeiro (ufrj), brazil. email: alantygel@ppgi.ufrj.br celso alexandre souza de alvear, technical solidarity lab, ufrj, brazil. introduction since the year 2009, the release of public government data in open formats has been configured as one of the main actions taken by national states in order to respond to demands for transparency and participation by the civil society. the united states and the united kingdom were pioneers, and today over 46 countries have their own open government data portali , many of them fostered by the open government partnership (ogp), an international agreement aimed at stimulating transparency. the premise of these open data portals is that, by making data publicly available in re-usable formats, society would take care of building applications and services, and gain value from this data (huijboom & broek, 2011). according to the same authors, the discourse around open data policies also includes increasing democratic control and participation and strengthening law enforcement. several recent works argue that the impact of open data policies, especially the release of open data portals, is still difficult to assess (davies & bawa, 2012; huijboom & broek, 2011; zuiderwijk, janssen, choenni, meijer, & alibaks, 2012). one important consideration is that "the gap between the promise and reality of ogd [open government data] re-use cannot be addressed by technological solutions alone" (davies, 2012). therefore, sociotechnical approaches (mumford, 1987) are mandatory. the targeted users of open government data lie over a wide range that includes journalists, non-governmental organizations (ngo), civil society organizations (cso), enterprises, researchers and ordinary citizens who want to audit governments' actions. among them, the focus of our research is on social (or grassroots) movements. these are groups of organized citizens at local, national or international level who drive some political action, normally placing themselves in opposition to the established power relations and claiming rights for oppressed groups. a literature definition gives a social movement as "collective social actions with a socio-political and cultural approach, which enable distinct forms of organizing the population and expressing their demands" (gohn, 2011). social movements have been using data in their actions repertory with several motivations (as can be seen in table 1 and listing 1). from our experience, an overview of several cases where social movements use open data reveals a better understanding of reality and a more solid basis for their claims as motivations. additionally, in some cases data produced by the social movements was used to build a counter-hegemonic discourse based on data. an interesting example is the citizen public depth audit movement which takes place in brazil. this movement, which is part of an international network, claims that "significant amounts registered as public debt do not correspond to money collected through loans to the country" (fattorelli, 2011), and thus origins of this debt should be proven. according to the movement, in 2014 45% of brazil's federal spend was paid to debt services. recently, a number of works tried to develop comparison schemes between open data strategies (atz, heath, & fawcet, 2015; caplan et al., 2014; ubaldi, 2013; zuiderwijk & janssen, 2014). huijboom & broek (2011) listed four categories of instruments applied by the countries to implement their open data policies: voluntary approaches, such as general recommendations, economic instruments, legislation and control, and education and training. one of the conclusions is that the latter was used to a lesser extent than the others. social movements, in general, are composed of people with little experience of informatics, either because of a lack of opportunities or of interest. although it is recognized that using data is important for a social movement's objectives, the training aspect still hinders a wider use of it. in order to address this issue, an open data course for social movements was designed. besides building a strategy on open data education, the course also aims to be a research strategy to understand three aspects: the motivations of social movements for using open data; the impediments that block a wider and better use; and possible actions to be taken to enhance the use of open data by social movements. the main reason that motivated our choice of driving an integrated approach between education and research was the need to create an environment of exchange. it is not uncommon to hear from social movements that researchers only use them for publishing papers. beyond returning the results afterwards, our aim is to offer benefits at the moment of the research, and thus to create a better relation between researchers and participants, rather exchanging experiences than just collecting data. this paper describes the methodology and the research associated with the development of an open data course for social movements, in the hope that this approach can be interesting to researchers and practitioners working in the community informatics field. in the sections that follow we first picture the open data scene and selected social movements in brazil (where this research was undertaken); then we present some open data education experiences, and the methodological inspirations and research ideas that led to the development of the open data course. a detailed description of the course is followed by an analysis and synthesis of its outcomes, and conclusions. open data in brazil and social movements in this section, a general panorama of open data in brazil is given, together with some perspectives on the use of open data by social movements. open data in brazil the first concrete action of the brazilian government regarding the publication of data on the internet was the federal transparency portal, released in 2004. even without using the term "open data", this initiative offered citizens rich information about public expenditure. the main goal of the federal transparency portal is to fight corruption and misuse of public money. besides the federal transparency portal, all brazilian states also have their own versions, as well as many cities. between 2004 and 2011, several legal instruments were published in order to create a political infrastructure to support a wider open data policy. finally, at the end of 2011, brazil joined the open government partnership (ogp) and published its freedom of information act (foia), the so called access to information law (brasil, 2011). however, a recent evaluation of the first two years under the law showed that only 69% of the demands received responses, and only 57% received satisfactory answers (michener, moncau, & velasco, 2014). shortly after the publication of the foia, the brazilian open data portal was released. it is presented as a tool "for promoting dialogue between actors of the society and government, to establish the better use of data on behalf of a better society". at the present time, it numbers almost 500 datasets, and more than 4000 resources. open data and social movements a closer look at the activities of social movements reveals wide use of data in their discourses and forms of actions. data is used to denounce specific situations, to attest the results of their actions and to understand the contexts where they are working. table 1 shows some illustrative campaigns driven by social movements and identifies the data that was used. table 1: examples of use of data by social movements. besides those examples, where civil society organizations use official data to ground their discourses and claims, there is another use which is worth mentioning: social movements which produce data themselves. for example, comissão pastoral da terra (a christian service for rural areas), built a database of violent events in rural areas, and two maps of environmental justice, one covering the whole country, and another focused on the state of minas gerais. moreover, the solidarity economy movement promoted a mapping in brazil which identified almost 22,000 solidarity economy enterprises, whose basic aspect is the absence of an employer-employee relation, i.e., a self-managed cooperative model. this database was used to build the cirandas.net system, the social and economic network of the solidarity economy movement. (tygel & alvear, 2011). with this outlook, we can conclude that data is an important element in social movements' elaborations. but some elements still hinder its use, in particular the lack of education and training. education in open data a prominent initiative on teaching open data comes from the school of data, an initiative by open knowledge and peer 2 peer university. the school works "to empower civil society organizations, journalists and citizens with the skills they need to use data effectively", under the slogan "evidence is power". in 2014, the school of data organized 90 events taking place in 30 countries, reaching over 2000 participants. besides europe, where most of them happened, school of data reached places like lebanon, nigeria, indonesia, mexico, brazil, bosnia and herzegovina, tanzania and philippines training and exploring data about water, elections, and many other issues (school of data, 2014). open knowledge offers courses in germany, with a special focus on data journalism. initiatives on open data education have been reported in countries including the united states, the united kingdom, spain, australia, and especially in denmark, where the focus is on standardization of open data strategies between different government institutions (huijboom & broek, 2011). fioretti (2011) also notes the importance of using open data in schools, emphasizing that it could help connect school curricula with real life and stimulate active citizenship in the students. the need for some skills to understand data, such as mathematics, was also mentioned. fioretti proposes two main lines of action: using open data, and producing open data as an official school policy. popular education as research method based on the previous discussion, we proposed and delivered an open data course designed for social movement activists. the course has its pedagogic foundation on the popular education theory (freire, 2005), which suggests an emancipatory practice, where several kinds of knowledge are considered valid, not only the academic, and the knowledge building is a joint approach between educators and educandsii . the popular education starting point is the educands' context, experiences, and knowledge. this theory is grounded mostly on paulo freire, a brazilian educator and philosopher, whose early work started with teaching the alphabet to workers in the north-east of brazil, one of the poorest regions of the country, in the 1960's. the main work of popular education is the book pedagogy of the oppressed (freire, 2005), written in 1968 when he was in exile, ideologically persecuted by the civil-military dictatorship in brazil. it was only published in his own country in 1974. pedagogy of the oppressed was translated into more than 40 languages, and has already has 50 editions in brazil. to understand the concept of dialogicity (dialogue between ideas instead of imposition of one idea over another), it is worth citing freire's analogy of the "banking" education iii : for the anti-dialogical banking educator, the question of content simply concerns the program about which he will discourse to his students; and he answers his own question, by organizing his own program. for the dialogical, problem-posing teacher-student, the program content of education is neither a gift nor an imposition bits of information to be deposited in the students but rather the organized, systematized, and developed "re-presentation" to individuals of the things about which they want to know more. (freire, 2005, p. 95) in the case of open data teaching, it is important to offer the student-activists, who already use data in their work, a systematized view of the whole process, and to present some tools that allow them to enhance their data based analysis and synthesis capacity. by understanding the context where people already use open data in social actions, it is possible to teach in a way based on students' interest in knowing more. methodologies derived from popular education for open data teaching are explained in detail later. although it not was not fully applied in this research, the participatory action-research (par) concept (morin, 2004) also inspired this work. this methodological paradigm associates a transforming action with every research intervention, the planning and application of which should always be carried out with the researched subjects. using the par perspective in community informatics research is a natural choice, since both approaches are centred in the community, both for practice and analysis. in the community informatics field par was used to build a portal in a poor community in rio de janeiro, brazil. in that case, research about community based organizations was the starting point to build a web portal run by those organizations (alvear & thiollent, 2011). one of the main examples of par in brazil is the work of michel thiollent, who suggests that action research consists in coupling action and research in a process, in which the implied actors participate, together with the researchers, to interactively elucidate the reality in which they are inserted, identifying collective problems, seeking and experimenting solutions in real situations. simultaneously, there is production and use of knowledge. (thiollent, 2009, p. 14) fals borda and rahman (1991) also emphasize the importance of generating knowledge from practice in latin american context. in this perspective, par is an appropriate methodology to generate knowledge for oppressed groups and social transformation. finally, baskerville (2007), within a more pragmatic north american par perspective, presents some possibilities for developing information systems using this methodology. later, we discuss the research results gathered from the open data course according to a par perspective. course description motivated by research on use and publication of open data by social movements and grounded on popular education principles, an open data course was developed. according to the dialogicity principle, the course objective is double: (i) to tackle the issue of open data education, indicated to be one of the factors hindering the use of open data; and (ii) to use the time in training to observe the activists using data and gather information for the research. the course programme was elaborated seeking a balance between the social aspects of the use of data, the principal motivation, and the technical issues that are inherent in the tools for data manipulation. the methodology switches between expository stages and individual and collective activities by the students. it is expected that the students can at least achieve a critical view about data, understand the possibilities and limits of its use, be aware of the political questions involved in data production and publishing, and, finally, have a technical starting point for manipulating data. the course is divided into four stages of four hours each, but can be adjusted to needs of the people involved. a website containing teaching materials, links to data sources, and a discussion forum was developed, which in each presentation of the course is supplemented with more data. only two requirements are asked of people interested in attending the course: a basic knowledge of informatics (web navigation) and access to a computer (which could also be offered by the organizers). good quality internet access provided by the organizers is also highly desirable. first stage introduction the first stage starts with a short description of the course, and the participants are informed that they will also be contributing to a research project. this stage is intended to get people on the same level, by discussing the sociotechnical and political aspects of data. the aim is to start from the educands' own experience, as suggested by the popular education approach. for this, all participants are asked to present themselves, state their expectations and why he or she decided to take part. afterwards, a challenge is proposed: some socially relevant statistical results are presented (see listing 1), and the educands are asked to find the data sources related to those figures. following the inverse path (information to data, rather than the opposite), we expect to raise curiosity and show, in practice, the importance of knowing what is behind the statistics. listing 1: example of data driven statements used to stimulate a critical view of data sources (based on brazilian statistics agencies) in the sequel, several open data related topics are discussed: how does data arise: a data path is presented, from the occurrence of something, passing through its systematization to its publication. concepts such as facts, dimensions, and measures are discussed, together with the political motivations and consequences of those design choices. this topic is intended to put data neutrality in question, by showing that data produced by research is an outcome of several choices, made according to some goal. data visualization: the same dataset can be observed in many ways, and the conclusions to which one may come heavily depend on this. visualizing data as tables, graphics, networks (graphs), or maps may reveal different aspects and induce several kinds of conclusions. open data: in this topic, we motivate the understanding of open data using analogies (see table 2). in the sequel, we define open data according to the david eaves' three rules: data must by findable in the web, published in machine readable formats, and cannot have licenses which prevent re-use (eaves, 2009). a debate about linking and semantically marking data through the use of linked open data (lod) is also proposed with examples.v transparency policy: at this point, we present the context of open data in brazil and in the world, especially through transparency policies. it starts with the freedom of information act (foia), and goes up to internet governance, with the recent brazilian regulationiv based on three foundations: net neutrality, privacy and freedom of expression. international efforts on transparency, such as the open government partnership (ogp) are also presented. synthesis: after presenting all topics, educands are asked to discuss how open data is related to their activism. table 2: open and closed analogies to help understand what open data is. second stage data sources the second stage of the course is dedicated to an overview of some important datasets on the internet. it is worth noting that some of them are not "open" by the classical definition (eaves, 2009), mainly because the raw data is not available for download. however, when an aggregate data querying system is offered, it makes data even more useful for common user than if raw data was available. different forms of accessing data are discussed. we recognize that, in respect to data access means, there is a trade-off between the ease of analysing data and the autonomy one can have in assessing one's own conclusions. when a database is published as raw data, following all open data principles, this still might not help a citizen who wants to know how much was spent on education is his city. large volumes of data coded in specialized formats (e.g. r, spss, sas, sql, xml, rdf) allow a high level of autonomy in the analysis, but special skills are needed to work with it. on the contrary, aggregate data, reports and charts allow people to have access to this information, but it has already passed through someone else's filter. figure 1 depicts this debate. figure 1: trade-off between interpretation autonomy and software skills needed. besides the means of data access, we propose a classification of data according to the type of provider: data produced by the state: this is the wider category, since the state has structural conditions and legal liability to produce data. in brazil, the biggest data producer is the brazilian institute of geography and statistics (ibge, in portuguese), responsible for demographic, economic, geographic and many other sorts of data. the unified health system (sus, in portuguese) is also an important data generator, mostly about health and illnesses. worldwide, the united nations (un) and the world bank are also important data suppliers. even though they are not governments, most of their data is compiled from country data. it is important to emphasize that this kind of data carries with it the visions and ideologies of those who generated it. all the design choices made during the data production, including definition of facts, dimensions, and measures, in some degree follows the government intentions. data produced by the state and shown by society: in many cases, data produced by the state is not open, and when it is open, there are no tools for the citizens to easily analyse and take their own conclusions. specialists are needed in order to translate data into useful information. in order to tackle this issue, many society-driven applications using official data have been recently released. in many cases, they help visualize data in a way that leads to conclusions against the states' interest. one example is the brazilian's "congress owners" application. based on raw (and hard to analyse) donation data published by electoral justice, a civil society organization has developed an application where people can easily access and visualize the amount of donations received by politicians and parties, or paid by enterprises or economic sector. data produced by society: the case where organized groups of the civil society produce their own data is interesting because: (i) as in the case of state data, data produced by the civil society contains its ideological influences in the design choices; (ii) it allows other perspectives on subjects already explained by the state. data related stories can oppose well established hegemonic opinions. one example is the brazilian map of environmental injustice. agribusiness is considered to be a good development alternative for the country, based on its relevant contribution to the gross domestic product. the map shows 82 occurrences of environmental injustice related to the agribusiness (from a total of 501), where activities of this sector cause damage to poor communities and/or to the natural habitat. table 3 shows a number of society driven databases. it is worth noting that, in some cases, the funding for building those databases comes from the government. in principle, we consider that this does not hurt society's autonomy and freedom to put their views forward in the design process. table 3: examples of society driven databases, used by social movements with several purposes. in the final activity of this stage, educands are asked to add new data sources to the course web page, according to their interests. new sources can come from students' experiences, or be searched for during the class time. however, it is important to find the exact link, since this is reported to be a difficulty, as it will be seen later. third stage tools in the third stage, the focus is on tools for manipulating data. the goal is to present the means to work with the raw or aggregate data resulting from queries. it begins with an introduction to the comma separated values (csv) format, which is an open, universal and easy-to-use way of exchanging tabular data. concepts such as primary and foreign keys are also discussed, in order to help comprehend how relationship between tables and databases can be made. nevertheless, database design is beyond our scope. this is an essentially practical stage. several tools are presented, so that each student can choose which one he or she wants to work with, according to individual interests and ability with computers. the first tool presented is a spreadsheet editor. the task consists in downloading a csv sheet with a two dimensional table (production of food in tons, by type of food and year) and drawing a line chart. students are also asked to plot percentage changes between first and last year production. the second part of the task consists in working with dynamic tables, which allows building analysis frameworks with more than two dimensions. other tools presented are related to map building and infographics drawing. sometimes a mathematical background revision is necessary, since working with number variations requires some previous knowledge of percentages. fourth stage final work the fourth and final stage is dedicated to a jointly decided activity. the goal is to develop some data based communication product, based on the three previous stages. ideally, there should be more than one facilitator in the room, so that the work can be divided into groups, with each group being accompanied by one instructor. suggested options include: writing news text based on data, and building infographics and maps on specific subjects. the intentionality what and why we want to communicate is discussed first. then, we evaluate the feasibility of the task is there data about this subject? and finally, the communication instrument is chosen. in the end, results are presented and an evaluation of the course is done. the next section brings an analysis of presentations of this course, and draws out some research results based on the experiences gained. course analysis the course described above was presented five times in the second semester of 2014, in brazil. while three presentations happened in rio de janeiro, one was held in vitória (state of espírito santo) and another in porto alegre (state of rio grande do sul). two presentations were held in a workers union and three in universities, organized by groups who work with social movements in extension projects. a total of 52 students enrolled and participated in at least one stage. there were no fees to pay, and the only requirements were basic informatics knowledge and access to a computer, sometimes provided by the organizers. table 4 shows a summary of the presentations. table 4: summary of the presentations of the open data course for social movements. the analysis will be based on two instruments: an evaluation questionnaire that all students were asked to fill in, and a participant observation gathered during the presentations. the goal of the analysis is to respond to the research questions: (i) why social movements use data (motivations); (ii) what are the mains problems (impediments); and (iii) what could be done to enhance the use (improvements). also, the evaluations about the course can be used to improve it. questionnaire based analysis all the participants were requested to answer a questionnaire after attending the course. thus, we assume that the opinions given are strongly influenced by the discussions held over the course. this decision was taken having in mind that: (i) open data is not a subject of the educands' everyday life; so, answering before the course could lead to meaningless results; (ii) according to the popular education methods, we expect each educand to be able to relate content unseen before with their experiences, and in the end to synthesize their own conclusions about the process. table 5 shows the questionnaire and the mean, maximum, and minimum values for numerical questions. table 5: questionnaire answered by course attendants all the numerical results are in over a base of 15 (n = 15), and n/a means "not applicable". the median age of participants was 31 years, with the youngest being 25 years old and the oldest 48. they considered themselves to have medium knowledge of informatics. before enrolling, participants were asked to have some informatics knowledge, but no admission tests were given. some participants were exclusively activists or academics, but most of them were activists with some academic involvement. there were journalists, lawyers and social scientists, all engaged with some social movement. no participant had formal informatics training, meaning that no one was an informatics expert. the teacher's performance was well rated, but this was somehow expected in a free course. on the other hand, no one rated him or herself with very good participation performance. in question 7, only one participant seemed to have very different expectations about the course content. all the others marked 4 or 5, indicating that open data is not so distant from non-informatics people's lives, at least for those who answered the questionnaire. in order to analyse questions 4, 8 and 9, we will pick answer elements and classify them according to research goals: motivations, impediments, and improvements. question 4 was aimed to catch motivations, but impediments and improvements were also cited. question 8 raised only impediments, and question 9 only improvements, as intended. an effort was made to extract concrete elements from the discursive text. an equilibrium was sought between merging similar statements and not losing the diversity of opinion. these concrete elements extracted can be seen in the appendix, in tables 6, 7 and 8. sometimes, the separation between the classes is not very clear. all impediments (e.g. "open data portal is hard to use") have implicit improvements (e.g. "open data portal could improve usability"), as all improvements also have implicit impediments. some motivations (e.g. "use spending data to fight corruption") also could be interpreted as impediments (e.g. "few spending data is available") or improvements (e.g. "more spending data must be made available"). we tried to classify according to the respondent's intention. observation based analysis in this section, some remarks are made based on the 68 hours observation of the course. this observation was driven inspired by the ethnographic method of participant observation (atkinson & hammersley, 1994). within this approach, the researcher plays an established participant role in the studied scene, in this case, as an educator, taking field notes during the class. ethnography inspired methods are complementary to objective and quantitative evaluations since, according to atkinson & hammersley (1994), ethnography deals with the "analysis of data that involves explicit interpretation of the meanings and functions of human actions", and "represents a uniquely humanistic, interpretive approach, as opposed to supposedly 'scientific' and 'positivist' positions." since two of our research questions deal with human actions and feelings what are the motivations of social movements for using open data and what are impediments that block a wider and better use we considered the participant observation an appropriate methodological direction. we aimed to comprehend the point of view of the educands, and this was done from the educator stance, which certainly influenced the analysis. as described earlier, in the first stages of the course participants are shown statistical statements (see listing 1) and are asked to search for data that generated those figures. below, we list some behaviours observed: the first impulse of users is to paste the phrases directly into a web search engine. normally, the results are news commenting that statement, or reports containing that information, and never the actual data source. for some people, it is difficult to understand the difference between the statements and the data sources from which they were originated. one way to overcome this misunderstanding is to slightly rephrase the statement and ask what would be the new figures. for example, relating to statement 1 (listing 1), we would ask: "how much land do the 0.1% of the biggest landowners possess?". overall, only few people reached the actual data source. this shows that one of the main problems of data sets and their query/download systems is that they are frequently hidden in the deep web, i.e., regular search machines cannot find them. in the second stage of the course, some data sources are presented and divided into three categories. about this stage, we would like to remark: in general, although interested, users are unfamiliar or unaware of data sources. this ignorance is, as expected, worse for society driven ogd based applications, and for data produced by social movements, which usually have no official means of dissemination; students were stimulated to add new data sources to the course website, according to their own interests or activism. in some cases, participants inserted already known data sources, but in most cases data sources were found during the activity. the third practical stage revealed one of the strongest difficulties in open data usage: the manipulation of software tools, particularly of spreadsheets. the knowledge about csv tabular files, considered as a fundamental skill to use data on different systems, was practically absent. this problem got even worse because of the inability of the most-used proprietary spreadsheet application (ms excel) to deal with such kind of file. libreoffice, its open source counterpart, facilitates this task. another issue that was highlighted at this stage was the mathematical difficulty faced by most of the students. dealing with statistical open data requires, most of the time, simple mathematical operations. therefore, sometimes a small revision of percentage was necessary. unfortunately, the fourth stage of the course did not work as expected. this stage was only reached in two of the five presentations described in table 4. in the first one, students, mainly journalists, decided to individually write stories and impressions about open data. they were published in the course website. the second experience reached closer to the goal: participants decided to investigate a local case of environmental injustice. data about enterprises, population health, environmental licensing and other issues were gathered, but no final product was obtained. in the remaining three presentations, the time ran over twice, and once the students said they were tired, as this course was run on two full days, at a weekend. one possible way to overcome this issue is to propose this work at the beginning of the course and organize tasks during the other stages. this has the advantage of motivating students with a concrete problem during the course. nevertheless, the challenge remains: how to prepare the course without predefining the problem. another option would be to increase the number of hours, which would depend on participants' availability. synthesis as explained above, by a simple rephrasing, an impediment or a motivation can turn into an improvement. by doing a careful analysis of tables 6, 7 and 8 (see the appendix), an improvement classification tree was built. it is aimed at orienting actions for the engagement of social movements in open data in the brazilian context. the classification tree can be seen in figure 2. figure 2: classification tree for open data engagement actions, systematized from tables 6, 7 and 8. the first classification is a distinction between information technologies (it) specific and open data policies related issues. there is no intention to imply a duality between social and technical issues, however, one can easily recognize that some elements are directly related to information technology, and others are not. the it specific issues are divided into training and open government data (ogd) publication. the first class encompasses cited impediments which could be approached with educational investments, and the second is related to actions to be taken by government data publishers. our proposed course tackles all cited educational demands, except data publishing, since it still demands a higher level of informatics knowledge. as to ogd publication related issues, the need for better search engines was the most cited enhancement. the right side of the tree presents general issues related to transparency policies and open data publicity. we can conclude that in order to improve open data usage, actions must be taken far above data level. in this case, the whole structure for information access must be enhanced. difficulties in claiming the foia within local government levels were reported, as well as accessing information on private foundations that run on public money. finally, many participants suggested that more publicity on open data already available would also improve usage. conclusions this article described a methodological strategy used in research on open data and social movements. an open data course was proposed in order to help understand the motivations for the use of open data by social movements, the impediments to succeed with this, and the improvements that could help the engagement of society by means of open data. the results of five presentations of the course were organized into a classification tree of possible open data engagement actions, shown in figure 2. training related actions should be fostered as part of a transparency policy, but social movements should also prioritize open data in their agenda. some improvements related to ogd publication could be addressed by using new technologies being developed under the linked open data (lod) framework. by semantically annotating data with commonly used vocabularies and ontologies, the lod approach offers the technical means to link different data sources and jointly query them. a solid set of tools to implement lod is being developed (auer, bryl, & tramp, 2014), but strong efforts must be made to hide the complexity of the representation and to highlight its benefits, so that it can be recognised as a viable option. other improvements are only possible through the effective political willingness of governments to be transparent. as a methodological approach for research in informatics, the course was found to be an efficient tool, since it accomplished its dialogical function indicated by the popular education theory. at the same time as they were subjects on an open data education action, the educands that participated on the course acted as objects in a research project. on one side the dialogical approach resulted in a set of appointments for open data publishers; on the other side, in a satisfactory educational experience, as shown by the good educator evaluation (table 5) and by the rich answers collected (tables 6, 7 and 8). the open data engagement actions gathered here are not supposed to be complete. the methodology used to raise these actions allows only to affirm that they can improve the use of a specific actor, a social movement, that thinks about open data with a special intentionality. nevertheless, our efforts add to a number of other initiatives (atz et al., 2015; davies, fernando, & josé, 2013; gurstein, 2011; ubaldi, 2013; veljkovi?, bogdanovi?-dini?, & stoimenov, 2014; zuiderwijk & janssen, 2014), encompassing other actors, and aiming to picture a desired open data scenario in the future. acknowledgements a. tygel is supported by capes/programa de doutorado sanduiche no exterior grant 99999.008268/2014-02. m. l. m. campos is partially supported by cnpq-brazil. we would like to thank all the educands who took part in the courses, and especially to the organizers of the 5 presentations: journalists' union of rio de janeiro, citizenship university/federal university of rio de janeiro, organon (federal university of espírito santo), and gpace (federal university of rio de grande do sul), all in brazil. we are also grateful for the valuable contributions of the editors and reviewers. endnotes i according to http://data.gov/open-gov/, accessed on 26/12/2014. ii freire proposed the terms educator and educand in order to express the dialectic relationship between them in the knowledge building process, in opposition to the typical oppressive relationship between 'teacher' and 'student'. iii in freire's work, the "banking" education concept occurs when "education becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat." 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(2012). socio-technical impediments of open data. electronic journal of e-government, 10(2), 156-172. appendix table 6: motivations, impediments and improvements indicated in answers to question 4. question 4: why have you attended to the course? why do you think open data is important? # motivations impediments improvements 4.1 work with data and link different information to create arguments there is a mismatch between amount of data released and the capacity of social movements to analyse it make investments in education for open data use 4.2 be able to work with data driven journalism there are many barriers to access information promote publicity about existence of data 4.3 use data to denounce injustices open data is unknown for most social movements improve knowledge about how to search for data 4.4 data can give basis to stimulate new claims there is no full transparency in government actions enable access to information, without discrimination 4.5 translate data into information for readers most of the people have little informatics ability 4.6 produce data in juridical research 4.7 open data can stimulate analysis 4.8 open data can stimulate new data 4.9 validate/legitimate arguments in communication with data 4.10 use data to understand the capitalist society 4.11 understand the resistances against oppression with data 4.12 fight corruption using spending data 4.13 make better use of information, a central point in class conflicts 4.14 unveil data manipulation table 7: impediments pointed in answers to question 8. question 8: what is the main impediment perceived by using data? # impediments 8.1 the lack of knowledge about data production process makes interpretation difficult 8.2 it is hard to understand data connection and linking possibilities 8.3 finding data in the web is hard /open data portals are complicated 8.4 access to data outside the web is hard / foia application is complicated 8.5 data organization is confused 8.6 data formats does not help its use 8.7 the state presents data through different platforms, which increase the need for training 8.8 the need of specific software tools makes data usage harder 8.9 some important data is concealed 8.10 most data is outdated 8.11 the querying interfaces present too much information 8.12 access to raw data is hard 8.13 government agencies do not follow common data standards 8.14 data interpretation is difficult, especially on specific subjects 8.15 linking data from different sources is difficult without appropriate tools and metadata table 8: improvements indicated in answers to question 9. question 9: how do you imagine that the use of data could be improved? # improvements 9.1 provide user-friendly interfaces 9.2 provide education on statistics/mathematics 9.3 standardize open government data 9.4 provide user-friendly language (avoid technical terms) 9.5 provide wider training possibilities 9.6 promote more advertising of open government data initiatives 9.7 promote more advertising of social movements open data initiatives 9.8 foster more research on open data and social movements 9.9 improve data search engines 9.10 increase the offer of open data sources 9.11 avoid the need of intermediaries for data interpretation 9.12 improve open data portals from the first mile to outer space: tamaani satellite internet in northern quebec rob mcmahon1 & thomassie mangiok2 postdoctoral fellow, first nations innovation project, department of sociology, university of new brunswick, canada. email: rob.mcmahon@unb.ca pirnoma technologies inc., canada. introduction across canada, discrepancies of access to broadband systems exist between urban centres and rural and remote aboriginal communities. in recent years, governments and public and private sector organizations have been partnering to address these digital access divides. in the historic and ongoing context of colonialism, aboriginal peoples and their respective governments are engaging with these development processes to support their digital self-determination in the emergent network society (mcmahon, 2011). some of these projects employ a 'first mile' approach that foregrounds how community-based institutions and aboriginal governments are driving broadband development (mcmahon, o'donnell, smith, walmark, beaton, & woodman simmonds, 2011; o'donnell, kakekaspan, beaton, walmark, & gibson, 2011). these projects offer examples of the 'effective use' of icts by aboriginal governments in the delivery of public and community services (gurstein, 2012). this process situates aboriginal broadband infrastructure development in terms of community-driven control, management, and capacity-building (alexander, 2009; bredin, 2001; carpenter, 2010; fiser, 2010; mignone & henley, 2009; o'donnell, milliken, chong, walmark, 2010; ramirez, 2007; whiteduck, 2010). reflecting broader concerns over self-determination, many aboriginal governments and organizations involved in these projects stress community engagement and autonomy over broadband systems design (o'donnell, perley, walmark, burton, beaton, & sark, 2009; whiteduck, beaton, burton, & o'donnell, 2012). this aligns with a long history of communications infrastructure development undertaken by aboriginal peoples in areas like print, radio, and television media (alia, 2010; roth, 2005). most existing first mile research describes work undertaken by first nations communities and organizations (mcmahon, o'donnell, smith, woodman simmonds, & walmark, 2010). this article provides an example from the inuit territory of nunavik. we describe the cultural, social, economic and political contexts that the people of nunavik the nunavummiuti and their regional government navigated to establish broadband infrastructure in the region's 14 northern villages. focusing on first mile development processes, we organize our paper in three thematic sections, and highlight a case study from the village of ivujivik. in telling this story, we draw on policy documents, 'grey' literature (meeting minutes, websites and media reports), interviews, and our personal experiences and observations. one of the authors lives in ivujivik and draws from his knowledge and experiences. the other author visited two nunavik communities (kuujjuaq and ivujivik) over three weeks in summer 2012. nunavik: political, social, economic and cultural contexts first mile broadband development projects reflect the specificity of the places they emerge from. in the last 50 years, people in nunavik experienced tremendous political, social, economic, technological, and cultural changes alongside their commitment to inuit culture (mcmillan & yellowhorn, 2004; jacobs, 2001). for example, chabot (2003) found that despite the increasing availability of consumer products and wage-based employment, nunavummiut continue to manage resources like niqituinnaq (country food) according to values such as reciprocity and sharing. inuttitut speakers reflect some of the highest aboriginal language retention rates in canada, thanks in part to the work of regional organizations like the avataq cultural institute, local schools, and community radio stations (papillon, 2008). inuit cultural values are also reflected in regional economic development initiatives. for example, in 1967 nunavik's membership-based co-op stores united in the fédération des coopératives du nouveau-quebec (fcnq), which provides various services to residents of the region, including banking, post offices, and cable tv (tulugak & murdoch, 2007). these examples reflect the strong focus of nunavummiut in driving various development projects themselves. nunavummiut face challenging conditions that reflect the uneven distribution of resources and opportunities among individuals, communities, and regions in canada. nunavik's northern villages include some of the country's most remote communities. a population of some 11,000 people is distributed across 14 villages that range in size from 200 (aupaluk) to 2,300 (kuujjuaq). like other remote aboriginal peoples, nunaviummiut experience the historic and ongoing impacts of colonialism and externally-imposed 'development' agendas. their region is rich in natural resources which government and corporate entities target for industries such as mining and hydroelectricity development. many nunaviummiut feel they do not equitably benefit from these activities, which also often result in long-term negative environmental and socio-economic consequences. research demonstrates that residents of nunavik face challenges in securing equal access to economic development opportunities and public services common elsewhere in canada (rodon, 2012). while conditions have improved since the 1970s, a 2006 statistics canada report described housing conditions as among the worst in canada, with little improvement since 1996 (jacobs et al, 2009). statistics from the institute for research on public policy point to high levels of unemployment and household poverty (papillon, 2008). dr. gerard duhaime at laval university provides ongoing reports on these conditions through the nunivaat statistics program website (http://www.nunivaat.org/). nunaviummiut also lack equitable access to transportation, electrical, and communications infrastructures available elsewhere in canada. nunavummiut must also contend with the overlapping and contested administrative relationships associated with the region's governance. until 1912, nunavik was part of the district of ungava of the northwest territories. that year, the quebec boundaries extension act gave quebec responsibility for the territory and its aboriginal inhabitants (martin, 2008a).ii however, the provincial government played little active role in the territory until the 1960s. the government of canada similarly ignored the region, although it stationed federal agents in all 14 communities after world war two (drummond, 2001). in 1975, the inuit of nunavik and the james bay cree signed a major land claim, the james bay and northern quebec agreement (jbnqa). at that time the aboriginal groups lacked formal political structures and the provincial government did not recognize their claims to the land (wera & martin, 2008). however, the cree and inuit parties united to block a provincial hydroelectric development project, a process that culminated in the signing of the jbqna. through the land claim agreement, the nunavummiut received some $90 million, ownership of land (nearly 9,000 square kilometres), and hunting, fishing, and trapping rights. while some observers and residents of the territory critiqued the jbnqa as a 'colonial treaty' (see martin, 2008a), nunavummiut also used it to support various regional and community-based development projects.iii for example, the nunavik land claims corporation makavik leveraged the resources provided through the agreement to set up several organizations such as air inuit, the avataq cultural institute, and taqramiut nipingat inc. (tni). the jbnqa also created the kativik regional government (krg) to administer public services such as policing, transportation, and communications.iv krg can exercise various municipal rights, including raising taxes and setting bylaws. it presently receives the majority of its funding from the government of quebec, with remaining revenues coming from the government of canada, municipal taxes, and royalties from natural resource projects. the jbnqa also created the kativik school board (ksb) and the nunavik regional board of health and social services (nrbhss). ksb was the first inuit-controlled school board in canada. it develops and delivers culturally-appropriate and inuttitut-language educational services. the nrbhss oversees the region's hospitals in kuujjuaq and puvirnituk, and nursing stations in the 12 other villages. both organizations work to adapt health care and educational services to regional contexts, support local capacity building, and ensure public services remain under community control (lavoie, 2001). these regional institutions play an important role in the first mile orientation of broadband development in nunavik. they also demonstrate how residents of the region are working to gain access to public services, build local capacity, and secure autonomy over various aspects of their lives. the involvement of nunavummiut in development projects is also reflected in the region's communications infrastructures and organizations. much of this work is guided by tni, a non-profit organization founded in 1975. in the 1970s, tni staff built local radio stations in several villages, and now every nunavik municipality manages a community fm station. community engagement remains high: telephone lines ring as announcers discuss politics and broadcast music, news and announcements in inuttitut, english and french. these radio stations reflect nunavik's strong history of regional and local political participation: what martin (2008b) describes as an 'inuit agora'. tni is also involved in television production and distribution in the region. nunavimmiut initially resisted satellite tv given their lack of control over the service and because it lacked inuttitut-language content (roth, 2005; soukup, 2006). once they appropriated this new technology, the residents of nunavik began shaping it to meet their needs. cable tv is now available through satellite and tni produces an inuttitut-language series called nunavimmiut for the aboriginal peoples' television network, though in the past decade the program suffered funding reductions (krg, 2012a). these media development processes demonstrate the strong focus of nunavimmiut on building infrastructure and associated institutions to support their self-determined goals. access and broadband infrastructure development in nunavik this first mile focus on self-determined infrastructure development is further reflected in the ways nunavummiut and their regional government bridged the access divides that separated them from the emergent network society (castells, 2010). similar to radio and television development, broadband projects in nunavik reflect the efforts of regional institutions and residents. nunavik's remote location and small, dispersed population failed to attract profit-oriented telecom investors, and so residents made several attempts to network the region themselves. for example, in the 1980s people in kuujjuaq set up a local telephone system that connected houses with one another, though long distance interconnections were unavailable. once the crtc established its universal service requirements for telecommunications, the regional ilec, bell canada (now bell aliant) began offering analogue services, but as of 2012 moderately-priced digital services remained unavailable (krg, 2012a). cellular service is available in larger villages through nunacell (a joint venture between makavik and lynx mobility). starting in the 1990s, regional institutions undertook several first mile oriented broadband infrastructure development projects. early experiments interconnected adult education centres in kuujjuaq, puvirnituq, salluit and kuujuarptik through bell canada's 110-baud envoy 100 email system (krg, 2002). in 1994, the inuit broadcasting corporation's connecting the north symposium in iqaluit linked 400 participants (including representatives from nunavik) with aborigines in australia over a video link. inspired by the event, two years later tni partnered with makavik and industry canada's community access program to set up nunavik net. the project established public access sites in the region's three largest villages (salluit, puvirnituq, and kuujjuaq), utilizing bell canada's telephone infrastructure to interconnect over a long-distance dial-up satellite link to isps in montreal. the project faced high long distance bills and a small customer base, and as a result ended just one year after it launched (blair christensen, 2003). nunavik net demonstrated the limitations of existing infrastructure and technologies, but also introduced the internet to nunavummiut, many of whom began asking their government to develop the service as a public good. after nunavik net's demise, the regional government began exploring how it might support connectivity. krg had jurisdiction over communication development through the provincial act respecting the kativik regional government and the northern villages. along with addressing growing demand for internet access among its constituents, the government required a high-speed data network to support its own operations. in the late 1990s, several public institutions, including krg, ksb, and nrbhss, all began relocating their head offices from montreal to kuujjuaq, further decentralizing their administrative functions to the 14 villages. this transition was part of a long-term goal to bring the institutions involved in nunavik's self-government closer to the region's population. as a result of this transition, krg began planning a broadband network to interconnect offices across the region. this project was funded by economic development canada and the government of quebec's villages branches program. krg worked with ssi micro, a yellowknife-based satellite service provider that connected remote communities across the arctic through c-band satellite. the project enjoyed internal support and was endorsed by residents of the region, but lacked financial resources and faced competition from another nunavik-based project. the federation of cooperatives (fcnq) wanted to expand their digital cable tv network to provide internet services. after two years of negotiations, the competition between the two regional institutions was settled in 2002 when a technical study and survey of user groups concluded that krg's project provided more opportunities for intra-regional communication and greater potential for advanced digital services such as videoconferencing. while the fcnq's network was cheaper to install and operate, it only provided internet access, and expansion required costly upgrades (krg, 2002). the needs assessment found the majority of demand came from regional public services (health and education), which fcnq's network was unable to provide without significant investment. these goals reflected krg's focus on bridging the region's access divide in ways that not only provided internet connectivity for consumers, but also a first mile orientation towards fostering collaboration among regional institutions to support broadband-enabled public services. in short, krg's plan better reflected nunavummiut's aspirations towards self-government. in 2002-2003, krg received $5m from federal and provincial funders. by 2004, the government completed installation of 4.3m satellite dishes in all 14 villages. local networks consisted of licensed wireless spectrum (2.5ghz) leased from the inukshuk corporation. with this ground infrastructure in place, krg began looking for ways to access expensive satellite space segment. they partnered with two other aboriginal technology organizations (keewaytinook okimakanak in ontario and keewaytin tribal council in manitoba) to form the northern indigenous community satellite network (niscn). in spite of their differences, the three partners shared a first mile orientation towards developing regional and local capacity, and retaining a measure of control and ownership of broadband infrastructure.v an opportunity for the nicsn partners to secure satellite bandwidth became available in the early 2000s, when telesat canada applied for an orbital slot to launch their anik f3 satellite. as a condition of their orbital license, industry canada required the company to set aside 'public benefit' space segment for non-profit and public institutions. the nicsn partners gained access to this space segment, and through the subsequent national satellite initiative (nsi), used it to support public service applications and internet access in their respective regions. in nunavik, krg set up tamaani internet services to manage their portion of the public benefit transponder. through tamaani (which means 'here' in inuttitut), krg aimed to balance its needs as a public administrator with its mandate to supply universal coverage throughout the region. in december 2004, tamaani was launched as a not-for-profit cooperative network, housed as a department inside krg. in its first two weeks of operation, staff completed 120 installations, and villages quickly ran out of modems. the network became a victim of its own success: demand outstripped available capacity. an opportunity to secure additional space segment arose in 2006, when the federal government announced the second round of nsi funding. the three partners consolidated in a formal joint venture and applied for funding under this program (krg, 2008). during two years of complex negotiations, tamaani suffered human resource and technical challenges, and users became frustrated with the slow, congested, and unreliable network. public service providers like the nunavik board of health and social services remained skeptical about tamaani's capacity, which threatened the network's long-term viability. figure 1 tamaani hq in 2008, krg finally received its nsi round two funding. the government improved ground infrastructure in the villages, upgraded their network management centre, and hired additional staff, including two field technicians. in 2009, krg received additional provincial funding to install videoconferencing equipment in the 14 villages. every community's krg office or northern village town hall now houses a fixed videoconferencing unit. in 2010, a further infrastructure boost came through industry canada's broadband canada program, which provided funding for two transponders, and further local upgrades. in february 2012, tamaani doubled its minimum internet access speeds (from 128kbs to 256kbs) (krg, 2011). 'tamaani 2.0' launched with a redesigned website, social media, and new tagline: "still remote, but no longer isolated". as of 2012, the network offered over 459 points of service to businesses and organizations, and had 2,142 residential subscribers (krg, 2012b). as of mid-2013, regional competition for internet access is available through xplornet, a commercial satellite operator. local competition exists only in kuujjuaq, where an entrepreneur set up nunavik communications in 2006. nunavik communications faces challenges given the high cost of commercial satellite bandwidth and low customer base, and recently began leasing space segment backhaul from krg. despite these developments, nunavik continues to face a digital divide vis-a-vis southern canada, and krg continues to advocate for funding to improve and build infrastructure. tamaani's history reflects the strong focus of krg and its constituents on shaping broadband infrastructure to not only address the region's access divides, but also to support the nunavummiut's efforts to assert their autonomy and self-determination in the development process. institutional development and politics this first mile orientation towards broadband development in nunavik is further reflected in the institutional structures and political activities associated with tamaani. compared to some other first mile projects, tamaani's network management reflects a more centralized approach. this is partly due to the self-government arrangements established through the jbnqa. krg's nicsn partner ko-knet blends centralized network operations with a strong role for locally-owned and operated isps (fiser & clement, 2012). this partly reflects ko-knet's role as part of a federated tribal council composed of politically autonomous first nations. in contrast, the situation in nunavik reflects a different context. a regional government owns and operates tamaani's infrastructure, centrally managing it from kuujjuaq (with help from local agents). while locally-elected representatives drive krg's decision-making, the government centralizes regional public service institutions (including broadband providers) in the regional hub, kuujjuaq. while most of tamaani's services are centrally managed from this network operations centre, the regional government engages residents of the villages by training and employing technicians (on a part-time basis). these local agents sign up new customers, manage accounts, and assist with minor repairs. in exchange for this work, they receive free internet services, a small commission, and an hourly wage for special projects.vi krg chose this approach given the lack of capacity in the villages (some of which consist of only a few hundred people) and its centralized approach to network management. over the long term, this arrangement aims to build capacity and engagement among communities by supporting local broadband champions. however, tamaani's centrally-managed structure may limit the involvement of these individuals in technical, financial, and administrative decisions. as part of krg's administration department, tamaani is directly accountable to the government's regional council and executive committee. the executive committee mandated tamaani to deliver equitable access to all 14 communities, and to this end staff work out regional efficiencies and cross-subsidize between customer types (smaller residential and commercial customers and larger public service anchor tenants) to manage their limited satellite space segment. working with its nicsn partners, tamaani pools revenues and shares operations and maintenance costs. tamaani staff also devised a strict fair access policy: until 2012, all users were subject to a daily download limit of 250mb (for basic service) or 500mb (for power users). improvements made possible through nsi round two and broadband canada allowed tamaani to drop residential prices, provide faster speeds, and increase download capacity, but download limits remain necessary, given limited satellite space segment. tamaani's governance arrangement reflects the decisions of elected representatives drawn from nunavik's 14 villages. staff must secure the executive committee's authorization for all major decisions. although they work together, in the past the committee has criticized some of tamaani's development work. for example, representatives expressed disappointment about the network's performance during the challenging years between 2007-2009. although tamaani operates with an independent budget, it is financially and organizationally housed inside the regional government. annual revenues presently cover network operations and maintenance costs, with surplus funds reinvested in the network.vii the organization also accesses external support from other governments, and staff are engaged in efforts to identify funders to support the network's development and long-term sustainability. funding agreements for satellite space segment are presently scheduled to expire in 2016 and 2019, with no new funding announced as of early 2013. faced with this situation, krg is working to advocate with the government of quebec and the federal government to secure additional support for space segments or alternative infrastructure. the regional government wants to ensure that telecommunications development associated with natural resource projects in nunavik will not only provision companies, but also benefit communities. to this end krg and makavik released parnasimautik: plan nunavik, which lays out their vision for the region, including the importance of regional broadband infrastructure (including a 25-year plan culminating in a fibre optic backbone) (krg, 2012a). in this section, we demonstrated how tamaani's governance structure engages nunavummiut in the network's development and ongoing operations. through its relationship with the executive committee and support for local agents, tamaani's organizational structure is grounded in the specific circumstances of a decentralized model of self-government in nunavik. these links between broadband development and self-government are further reflected in the regional government's advocacy efforts on behalf of nunavummiut. these processes and relationships reflect some shortcomings and challenges, including a tendency towards regional centralization in kujjuuaq, the lack of a substantive role for local technicians, and uncertainty regarding long-term access to the publicly-subsidized space segment that the network relies on. however, they also reflect a clear example of first mile oriented governance. broadband applications in this final thematic section we describe how tamaani's development process reflects first mile approaches to the development and delivery of broadband-enabled public services in nunavik. this demonstrates how it articulates with the self-government aspirations of nunavummiut. given nunavik's remote location and lack of infrastructure, service providers must employ innovative ways to deliver health and education services to the region's population. to this end, krg works closely with the kativik school board and the nunavik board of health and social services, both of which relocated to kuujjuaq from montreal in the late 1990s. these two institutions offer justification and funding support for tamaani, and view connectivity as essential to their provision of broadband-enabled services. ksb signed on as an early tamaani anchor user and supported several funding applications. through this partnership, krg could access matching funds from the government of quebec's villages branches program, which provides connectivity funding to schools and municipalities in the province. after tamaani completed service upgrades through broadband canada, ksb signed an additional agreement to secure more bandwidth and advanced services. starting in 2013, ksb's head office will receive a 6 mbps connection, and all schools will receive 3 mbps connections. now that infrastructure is in place, ksb is using videoconferencing equipment for meetings and teacher-training. it is also looking into using the system to deliver online courses. figure 2 a local teacher the regional health provider in nunavik also recognizes the importance of connectivity. before tamaani, nrbhss accessed a health network funded by the provincial government (called the reseau de telecommunications sociosanitaire) in the 1990s (krg, 2002). in 1999, the two hospitals (in kuujjuaq and puvirnituq) connected to montreal over a 640kbps bi-directional link, while nursing stations accessed the internet over 56kbps links. as demand increased, the nrbhss lobbied for more connectivity support, and in 2005 began discussions with krg regarding the potential to sign on as an additional tamaani anchor user. when the provincial government expressed skepticism over the network's capacity, the regional health organization argued in favour of tamaani, in part due to its ties to the region. in 2010, after tamaani's network stabilized following the nsi round 2 upgrades, the provincial government approved the service contract, and krg set up a dedicated 3mbps connection for the hospitals in kuujjuaq and puvirnituq, and 512kbps bi-directional links in the 12 nursing stations (krg, 2008). additional funding from the provincial government supported the nunavik telecommunications network, a virtual private network that runs on tamaani's infrastructure and interconnects 30 health sites, including hospitals and nursing stations. connectivity costs are provided by the centre de services partagés du québec (cspq), which contracts directly with tamaani and works with nrbhss for service delivery.viii tamaani and the nrbhss are now working with the cspq and provincial ministry of health on a regional e-health vision to develop future applications. medical staff use the health network for remote diagnosis, training, tele-psychiatry, administrative meetings, and sharing of electronic health records. when several nunavik villages suffered a tuberculosis outbreak in summer 2012, nursing staff used the network to digitally transfer x-rays to hospitals in southern quebec. the interrelated development patterns of tamaani, nrbhss, and ksb reflect the close relationships between several institutions associated with self-government in nunavik. they demonstrate how a first mile orientation can support the co-construction of broadband-enabled public and community services, and infrastructure development. without these two core anchor tenants, it is unlikely that tamaani could generate the level of infrastructure and connectivity services presently available in nunavik. at the same time, without tamaani, the shaping and delivery of health and education applications by regional service providers would look much different. in short, these first mile development processes locate the platform of delivery for education and health services both geographically and 'virtually' in nunavik. case study: the first mile in ivujivik to this point, we have focused on how regional organizations in nunavik build, manage, and utilize tamaani's broadband infrastructure. we now turn to a short case study of first mile broadband in one of nunavik's villages. ivujivik, which means "place where ice accumulates because of strong currents", is the northernmost village in quebec. the community of 340 people is only accessible by air and by sea barge, and receives electricity by means of a diesel generator. it is home to a radio station, school, nursing station, co-op store, northern village town hall, daycare, and youth centre. several businesses are based in the village, including artists and an information technology (it) company. along with their 'day jobs', many residents continue to live off the land, gathering murre appak eggs and hunting animals such as beluga whales and walruses. the town is proud of lydia angiyou, who was recognized by the governor general of canada in 2006 for saving local children from a polar bear attack. ivujvik is one of the villages in nunavik that did not sign the jbnqa in 1975, but it is still represented by krg. figure 3 ivujivik village thomassie mangiok grew up in ivujivik. he remembers when access to the internet arrived in the village. it was a great addition to services that would ultimately allow nunavummiut to easily and freely access previously unavailable information. in the past information was mainly available through local organizations, and although finding books, videos, music and other media was possible, it was difficult and expensive. internet access was a boost for the people of nunavik, who were ready to absorb and contribute data throughout the world. mangiok asks readers to imagine living in one of the most isolated areas in canada, still adapting to living conditions introduced by governments and by consumerist values publicized through external media like television and radio. these one-way broadcasts did not give audiences control over content. he describes this arrangement as comparable to parents talking to their children, who are not yet able to ask questions. for mangiok, tamaani's success and high traffic proved that nunavummiut are hungry to absorb the content that its connection to the world offered. many people now use the internet to debate issues on forums like qanuuk.com and social media like facebook. recently, they used these platforms to discuss a major referendum on regional self-government. figure 4 ivujivik main street nunavummiut also use broadband to support economic development. thomassie founded pirnoma technologies, an it support, graphic design, and web development company based in ivujivik and dependent on tamaani. working with two friends from akulivik and inukjuak, thomassie set up nunavik's only inuit-owned and operated it services company. thomassie grew up as a gamer with a keen interest in programming. as a teenager, his family did not own a computer, but he remembers accessing the internet through the school's dial-up connection. connectivity has improved since then: pirnoma staff working in different villages share files and information over email, use online storage tools, and hold meetings with instant messenger. pirnoma also does graphic design work, and created the tamaani logo, which is an igloo made up of 14 blocks of ice that represent the nunavik villages. figure 5 pirnoma pirnoma is now working on translating the ubuntu open source operating system into inuttitut, for which staff are looking to secure funding. between 2007 and 2011, pirnoma staff also taught it troubleshooting courses (leading to microsoft a+ and cisco n+ certification). graduates work in regional organizations such as the fcnq and krg. the courses are funded by krg and administered through ksb for delivery at local schools or adult education centres. pironoma could not function effectively without being able to send and receive information, access remote services, or download support software through the internet. when tamaani became unreliable, pirnoma used another service provider for a time. xplornet provided more bandwidth with less technical problems and more reliable internet access, although it lacked tamaani's portable modems. after nsi round 2 and broadband canada, tamaani was reborn with reliable and better service, and pirnoma started using tamaani's services again. pirnoma offers one example of how a competitive local it organization can be created and thrive despite the challenges of connectivity in ivujivik. two local agents manage tamaani customers in ivujivik. they sign up new customers and maintain the local earth station. both agents, aulla qaunnaaluk and mosusie audlaluk, became interested in the job for the free internet and because of their personal interest in technology. they received training through pirnoma (subsidized by krg) in the late 2000s, and spoke with pride about acquiring the knowledge and skills to become "real technicians". however, both noted the position does not require a high degree of expertise, and rely on krg field technicians for major problems. figure 6 local agent ivujivik's school, which includes elementary and secondary classes, used both tamaani and xplornet for a time, until the regional network's service improved. until june 2012 all classrooms shared a single connection, which made the internet painfully slow. the school does not have a local technician on staff, so a volunteer with a background in it manages the network and troubleshoots problems. ksb staff recently set up a dedicated videoconference link provided by tamaani primarily for use in teacher-training from the université du québec en abitibi-témiscamingue. users experienced challenges setting up the system and scheduling meetings, but quickly picked up the technology. staff who remember when computers first arrived in classrooms are now using smart boards. the local nursing station uses tamaani's network to schedule telemedicine appointments with physicians in montreal. nurses use a portable videoconferencing unit's stethoscope and camera for remote diagnosis. they also use the internet to provide information on health and wellness, and use videoconferencing for administrative meetings and training. these activities help with cost-savings, lessen travel requirements, and improve access to health care. figure 7 the nurse despite their successes and energy, people in ivujivik face considerable challenges in using tamaani's services. in part this is due to the village's remote location: it is difficult and expensive to purchase new equipment and undertake repairs. the village's small population also limits its technical capacity. that said, ivujivik offers a vibrant example of how people living in a remote village in canada are using the broadband infrastructure shaped by their regional government to support various local initiatives, including access to public services and as a platform for economic development. their story shows how nunavummiut are employing a first mile approach to broadband development. as thomassie writes, tamaani is as essential to nunavik as our mouth and hands are to our being. conclusion this paper has focused on how people and organizations in nunavik have worked to secure digital self-determination in the development of broadband infrastructure and associated institutions and applications. we have argued that given its strong ties to local and regional institutions, as well as its efforts to establish broadband infrastructure from the ground up in a region that otherwise lacked connectivity options, tamaani reflects a first mile development pattern. we situated these processes in the specificities of how aboriginal self-government is shaped in nunavik, as associated with the jbnqa. as such, we demonstrated how first mile projects emerge as endogenous development patterns situated in diverse contexts, and undertaken by a variety of groups. we also highlighted some of the challenges faced by nunavik's first mile project. our goal is not to evaluate tamaani's development path, but rather to demonstrate how it reflects challenges alongside successes. we contend that this history provides examples of how a regional broadband development project helped build local capacity, encourage community engagement, and foster autonomy and self-government among nunavummiut. endnotes i our use of the term "nunavummiut" refers to someone who lives in nunavik. while most of nunavik's residents are inuit people, the term also includes non-aboriginal people. ii while first nations have relations with the federal government through the indian act, inuit in nunavik do not have indian status and so have direct relations with the provincial government. iii support among cree and inuit people was divided and not every community ratified the treaty. iv krg is a territorial rather than an ethnic government, which means non-aboriginal residents can vote in elections, and each village is governed by a municipal government that remains in inuit control only as long as they maintain a population majority. v ko-knet already operated a multi-point satellite network from its hub in sioux lookout, ontario. in this venture, the organization invited partners to act as regional internet service providers. this arrangement was structured as a co-operative: the members all benefitted from shared economies of scale and knowledge exchange. as a partner in this co-op, krg pays ko-knet a monthly network management fee (for the operation of the gateway and the network hub, and associated interconnection costs). as of 2013, this fee was set at $1,275 per month for each of the 14 villages in nunavik. this fee includes a $400 discount per community that krg receives because it manages bandwidth distribution. the revenue generated from this arrangement goes back into the co-op, either to support operations and maintenance, or towards a shared nicsn public benefit fund. vi this model is different from the nunavut broadband development corporation (nbdc) model, which is a non-profit intermediary between the commercial network service provider (ssi micro) and community users. ssi micro operates the qiniq satellite network on a for-profit basis. the company shares a portion of its profits with local agents, who are paid a commission for their work. vii since 2004 tamaani has generated a small financial reserve, less than 10% of total revenue. viii cspq and the provincial ministry of health provide funding to purchase 21mhz of dedicated bandwidth from telesat (at commercial rates) to support health services in nunavik. references alexander, c.j. 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(2008). the way to modern treaties: a review of hydro projects and agreements in manitoba and quebec. in t. martin and s.m. hoffman (eds.), power struggles: hydro development and first nations in manitoba and quebec (pp.55-74). winnipeg: university of manitoba press whiteduck, j. (2010). building the first nation e-community. in j.p. white, j. peters, d. beavon, & p. dinsdale (eds). aboriginal policy research vi: learning, technology and traditions (pp.95-103). toronto: thompson educational publishing. whiteduck, t.,beaton, b., burton, k., & o'donnell, s. (2012). democratic ideals meet reality: developing locally owned and managed broadband networks and ict services in rural and remote first nations in quebec and canada. keynote paper for the community informatics research network (cirn) conference, prato, italy, november. retrieved jan. 15, 2013 from: http://meeting.knet.ca/mp19/file.php/16/publications/2012-cirn-paper.pdf telesupport experiment for agricultural information management in west bengal, india rupak goswami ramakrishna mission vivekananda university goswamirupak@rediffmail.com jhumpa ghosh ray change initiatives, west bengal jhumpa.ghoshray@gmail.com jhulan ghose telesupport project  j.ghose@rediffmail.com introduction for the last two decades development researchers have shown serious interest in information and communication technologies (icts), especially in the context of development (thioune, 2003). during the early years, it was anticipated that icts would become crucially important for sustainable development in developing countries (credé and mansell, 1998) and they have truly shown their potential to assist in achieving social outcomes such as increased availability of healthcare and education, better civic dialogue and citizen participation in social development processes (davison et al., 2000; harris, 2001; qureshi and trumbly-lamsam, 2008). for the past twenty-five years, most developed countries have witnessed significant changes that can be traced to icts and these changes may be observed in different aspects of life – economics, education, communications, leisure and travel (thioune, 2003). icts are also considered as central in the effort to alleviate poverty (kenny, 2001), ensure food security (pigato, 2001) and the empowerment of the rural masses (arunachalam, 2002), although not in the same way as providing sufficient nutrition or adequate shelter is considered as a strategy for poverty alleviation (kenny, navas–sabater and qiang, 2001). while the positive role that icts can play in the development process is well accepted, it is difficult to demonstrate the links between development and the use of icts through rigorous empirical studies. digital technologies are more like catalysts that facilitate these changes rather than being an end in themselves (conroy, 2006). as with any other technology, it is the social context in which they have been introduced and implemented that determines their uses and impacts. the digital revolution is relevant only if it takes into consideration the daily realities and aspirations of individuals (uimonen, 1997). unfortunately, the impact of ict-based projects has generally fallen well below the optimistic expectations of its protagonists. particularly, the non-sustainability of many telecentre initiatives reminds one of the failure of agricultural projects of the past (beardon, 2005). one type of modern ict intervention is the rural telecentre, which has been widely experimented with in third world countries. it is also considered a crucial input for rural development (chapman, 2002; proenza, 2001). a telecentre is a physical space that provides public access to icts for educational, personal, social and economic development (gomez, hunt and lamoureaux, 1999). it has also been narrowly conceptualized as a place that offers connectivity to the public with computers and networks (roman and colle, 2002). increasingly, there is evidence that telecentre projects are more likely to be successful if computer and internet-based services are only one of several components (conroy, 2006). a string of literature is available on telecentre operations in africa (benjamin, 2000; jensen, 2001; mayanja, 2001; mercer, 2006), latin america (hunt, 2001) and asia (harris, 2003; meng, 2002) including india (cecchini, 2003; keniston, 2002; madon, 2005). available literature covers a wide array of topics including – telecentre design (morelli, 2003), content creation (roman and cole, 2003), telecentre analysis (bailur, 2007) and evaluation (hudson, 2001). telecentre sustainability has also emerged as an issue of concern in the development discourse (best and kumar, 2008; harris, kumar and balaji, 2003; whyte, 2000). but, more empirical work is required to develop systematic understanding of the potential and limitations of telecentres as a mechanism for social and economic development (colle and roman, 2002; fuchs, 1997; mcconnell, 2001). issues related to sustainability have been examined in three main areas – financial (or economic), political, and social (bailur, 2007). although the primary focus has been on financial sustainability, social and political sustainability are also important issues (colle, 2005; harris, kumar and balaji, 2003; whyte, 2000). noticeably, studies tend to focus more on organizational issues than on social issues related to telecentres (kumar and best, 2006; ellen, 2003). taking agricultural information management as a point of departure, it is observed that information and knowledge play a central role in rural agricultural development. fao (2000) expresses the view that information and knowledge play a key role in ensuring food security and sustainable development. the world bank (2005) takes a similar stance and observes that information and communication technologies are a key input for economic development and growth. agricultural extension, in the current scenario of a rapidly changing world, has been recognised as an essential mechanism for delivering knowledge and advice as an input for modern farming (jones, 1997) and the role of ict in operationalising this has drawn the interest of practitioners (astroth, 1990; richardson, 2003). the application of ict in the field of agriculture has been reported from different parts of the globe (dodds, 1999; kalusopa, 2005; agwu, uche-mba and akinnagbe, 2008; arokoyo, 2003). reports from india also are not difficult to find (kenny, 2001; kumar, 2004; meera, jhamtani and rao, 2004; mukherjee, 2008). as well, there are on telecentre operations which have concentrated on agricultural information management (harris, kumar and balaji, 2003; thirumavalavan and garforth, 2009). india has a large proportion of the poorest people in the world. at the same time, it has a rapidly growing economy and major commercial and manufacturing capability, including extensive expertise in modern icts. india’s rural infrastructure is also improving rapidly in most areas. therefore, india is now better placed to exploit the potential of modern icts than most less developed countries (conroy, 2006). agriculture is the mainstay of livelihoods for almost 60% of the population and india’s extension system faces a huge task to reach this large client system effectively. icts can be of tremendous help for the efficient functioning of the multi-stakeholder propelled agricultural development. hence, telecentre experimentation with agricultural information management is of paramount interest for agricultural development in the third world. background of the telesupport project significant amounts of information relevant to poverty reduction and sustainable rural development has been developed over time by local communities, and by research, extension and development organizations. intermediary organizations in india often work with functional groups in local communities to promote environmentally sound production practices and to ensure the equal participation of women and marginalized groups in the development process. however, the information generated is scattered in ngos, cbos, individuals, research organizations and universities and therefore not easily available for local communities. also it is generally not available in local languages and in a format understandable to potential users (nrsp, 2006). the telesupport project started off with the purpose of development and testing of a model for two-way communication between rural communities in selected regions in india and european and indian knowledge centres and networks. it was meant to find solutions to local problems in agriculture and natural resources management. the specific objectives for the project were setting up an institutional framework for implementation of the model including utilisation of existing rural ‘telecentres’ for dissemination of information; and setting up a partner-controlled web-based information platform, shared web-based system management and a knowledge base of good practices (ibid). project location the project was implemented with the financial support of the european union in two states of india – kerala and west bengal (wb). change initiatives (ci), an ngo from wb, implemented the wb chapter of the telesupport project. two villages (ghoragacha and madandanga) of chakdah block of nadia district, west bengal were selected for the project operation. the district and the block fall in the new alluvial zone (one of the six major agro-climatic zones of west bengal) of wb state and were considered as being within the irrigated agricultural production system by the state department of agriculture, west bengal. the main occupation of the area is agriculture, and high value crops like vegetables and fruits are extensively grown there. several agricultural research and development organizations are situated near the villages, who work on agricultural research and extension, livestock research and extension, dairy development and fodder cultivation. these were the reason for the selection of the site during the pilot phase of the project as it allowed for access to expert knowledge inputs with relative ease. a survey on information need, perception of villagers regarding icts and e-readiness was conducted during the first two months of the project as a basis for further activities and to facilitate monitoring and evaluation (ci, 2006). the model of information management in the telesupport project telecenters with functional groups of local users were central in the learning process of the model (figure 1). functional groups could be women self-help groups (shgs) or farmer groups. the information and communication flow in the telesupport project focused on good practices (gps). these were defined as ‘technologies or methods that contribute to sustainable agriculture and nrm’. the gps focused on different thematic areas such as soil fertility, ipm, post-harvest, and livestock with cross-cutting issues including gender in development and environment (newman and crul, 2006). figure 1. information and two-way communication flow in the telesupport project (neuman and crul, 2006). the ‘expert pool’ consisted of information providers and knowledge sources from various levels and backgrounds who generated knowledge and could be used to solve problems in local communities. thjs included indigenous or local knowledge which had been developed over centuries by local communities. also the research system comprising research organisations and universities could provide relevant information. intermediary organisations consisting of ngos, krishi vigyan kendras (kvk), farmer organizations and other cbos that played a key role in supporting local communities could also be included. these latter organizations were instrumental in identifying questions from farmer groups, scouting for relevant information in the telesupport database/other web resources, contacting experts and ensuring that the information reached local communities in a timely fashion. radio, tv and journals were considered important in disseminating the information about gps and played a clear role in upscaling information. the knowledge base was built on the infobridge (a dutch partner of the project responsible for the information management on the web) platform and played an important role as a systematic and long-term repository of information. information in various languages and forms could be stored and retrieved (ibid). processes of web-based information storage and retrieval a participatory action research methodology (mcintyre, 2007) was followed for the implementation of the project. the partners in the telesupport project identified the gps and documented them. it included describing the approach/method of application of the practice with a concise summary, and all attributes that were needed to assess the relevance for other communities. persons of the partner organizations trained in using the web-based platform entered all the data using the agreed telesupport data formats. data were directly visible to all telesupport partners, including details of person and time of data entry. gps were published, and thus available for public view, once their quality was assured. the main responsibility for quality checking rested with the organisational data managers (odms) at the intermediary organisations. the infobridge foundation played a limited overall supportive role in ensuring data quality. once the data were visible online, it was checked and feedback was given. the telesupport platform had a feedback mechanism in the form of a forum that allowed users to provide feedback and comment on the gps. questions could be posted to intermediary organizations like ci, experts in the networks or the originators of the gps as part of this communication model (newman and crul, 2006). functional groups in local communities were expected to be able to input, search and review on-line gps that were relevant to local problems. the intermediary organizations ensured that internet connections were available at the telecenters and that the functional groups could receive initial training in using the web-based platform. indirect users of the project were extension agencies, agricultural universities, kvks, media, radio/tv, commodity dealers etc. these users differed in the way they benefited from the shared aggregated information pool. for the extension agencies and kvk, the information could be used directly in their work. for the media, telesupport offered a rich resource that could provide the building blocks for articles and programmes (ibid). model developed by the intermediary agency the model of information management developed by ci is shown in figure 2. change initiatives (ci) established two ‘mobile’ and one ‘fixed’ telecentre which were central to the management of information. the fixed telecentre remained open for seven hours a day (10.00 am to 5.00 pm) and six days a week. the telecentre operator was an agricultural graduate who was also responsible for operating the mobile telecentres in project villages. the mobile telecentre consisted of the telecentre operator (or other project staff) and a laptop having a searchable database of agricultural information in the local language. the mobile telecentre was available in the project villages twice a week on alternate days. the operator checked the agricultural field, talked to the farmers and farm women, visited villagers’ home scouting for the existing farming problems and provided technical assistance to the farmers. the operator would post the answers to the questions asked by the farmers (asked two days previous when the operator last visited the village) on a board placed at a strategic place within the village so that the maximum number of villagers could have a look. then he sat with the shg members in the village and educated them on technical matters related to farming. the operator would answer their existing queries and suggest solutions to the unanswered questions raised by the shg members during the meeting held two days previous. the operator also searched the laptop containing a searchable database in the local language. this database was developed by ci with the help of greenstone digital library software adapted for the local language by a researcher in information science at burdwan university, west bengal. the mobile telecentre operator might also call the operator staying at the fixed telecentre where the internet facility was available. another option was to call the experts directly who had given verbal consent to help in emergency situations. the unanswered questions were then posted to the telesupport expert pool. searching the web resources and project database was another option. in an emergency, the project staff could visit the nearby agricultural university or kvk to ensure that the commitment to deliver answers to the community within 48 hours would be maintained. for frequently asked questions or for posted questions of other network members, the project staff prepared good agricultural practice forms and uploaded these to the project database. figure 2. information management by the intermediary agency (change initiatives) evaluation of the telesupport west bengal chapter ci worked in two villages that were close to the static telecentre. this was visited 12 and 13 times respectively by the villagers within the 4 months of the pilot phase. ci elicited technical questions from villagers and briefed them on the answers to some of those questions. while the number of visitors to the static telecentre was negligible, during the mobile telecentre visits to the villages, more than 80 questions related to crop and animal husbandry were received, among which 42 questions were considered to be distinct in nature. the majority of clients were men (male – 34, female – 8). crop protection, followed by livestock management, were the most important themes of the project in terms of the number of queries received. questions related to livestock management were mostly on ruminants and poultry (cattle–2, goats–4, chickens–2, ducks–5). in most cases, queries were referred to other sources of information for their answer; and the time taken to respond to such questions was typically 2 days. in 45 occasions, a technical expert was consulted for answers. some questions, however, could not be answered due to the unavailability of a suitable expert during the university visit. sometimes, the problem was considered as new by the experts and they refused to offer a recommendation due to the lack of available knowledge. information addressing the queries was supplied to clients in written form, either as printed material (11) or hand-written (36). in addition, 3 video clips were prepared on important best practices and shown to farmers on a laptop during mobile telecentre visits. new technologies for e.g., ‘azolla cultivation’, and ‘perianth mite control of coconut through root feeding’ were introduced during the project tenure. at the time of the project’s termination the telesupport website was receiving some 600 users per month. more than 30 organisations became members of telesupport and documented good practices. the database contained 101 gps and 78 people had registered to use the discussion boards; 375 ‘posts’ had been made on 232 topics. eighty ‘experts’ were available to answer the villagers’ questions. as a repository for gp and related information, a shared database on infobridge was used that contained more than 6,000 information items including 150 projects and some 1,000 documents (conroy, 2007). email and internet facilities were available and readily accessible at most agricultural research organisations and universities. however, some staff members did not use these facilities on a regular basis and others had limited experience with the use of computers. the e-readiness of staff in intermediary organisations was also found to be widely varying. thematic coordinators were found to act as moderators to facilitate the discussion on a good practice description once it had been placed on the discussion forum. however, it is an open question as to whether ‘experts’ would be willing to act as thematic coordinators in the future without financial support. it became apparent very quickly that farmers were interested in information on a wider range of themes than could be provided in the pilot phase of telesupport. the use of a mobile telecentre was an interesting and innovative way of reaching out to more people, especially to conservative muslim women; but, it demanded access to considerable human resources. individuals participated in telesupport with enthusiasm even when the organisations for which they worked (particularly the formal research system) were reluctant to make a formal commitment to the project (ibid). conclusion an appraisal of the telecentre operations may be conceptualised against ten points put forward by conroy (2006) in the working paper on the telesupport project. the telecentre was operated as a not-for-profit which is not natural in indian context (ibid). the services offered during the piloting were solely on agriculture and allied sectors. this fell short of the information need of the communities. the level of e-readiness was considered to be medium for both the project location and the state of west bengal. electricity was somewhat irregular and broadband facility was just starting to expand in the nearby towns during the project period. frieden (2004) in fact observes that broadband connectivity is crucial for successful telecentre operations. community participation was not found to be spontaneous and consistent. this might be due to the reason that the farmers of the project villages were habituated to incentivised (being paid for) participation by local agricultural development stakeholders who were mostly output oriented and focused on demonstrating the success of their institutions. moreover, they needed more diverse informational input for livelihood promotion. that is why, in spite of high relevance of information, farmers’ participation fall short of expectation. some of the farmers found the advice of local experts, who had been researching there for several years, precisely appropriate for their farming situation. the women’s self help groups (shg), participated actively in the project (as shg mobilization was integral to ci’s development strategy). community access to the service was increased to a great extent by the innovation of the ‘mobile telecentre’ and the searchable offline database in the local languages contributed towards the operational sustainability of the mobile telecentre. but, this innovation required additional human and financial resources and this was difficult to sustain for a not-for-profit telecentre. hence, the pilot phase achieved social sustainability with gender sensitivity, but failed to achieve financial sustainability. lack of e-readiness, lack of appropriate resource persons among the stakeholders, absence of any incentive system within the organizational context were some other constraints hindering the operational efficiency of the communication system. interestingly, cole (2005) has also observed the necessity of capacity building of the university staffs while addressing its sustainability. with the termination of the pilot project, ci found it hard to continue with the telecentre operations. capacity building for local youth did continue, and this created a basis for telecentre sustainability into the future. the functional groups are still active but the availability of qualified operators and the committed local expert pool is ruefully missing. the experiment empowered the villagers, especially the muslim shg members, who previously kept themselves confined within the boundary of their household chores. this issue of empowerment through ict is often considered to be important by some authors (arunachalam, 2002). the lessons that were learned and the communication model that was tested in the project villages may prove helpful in the future for grassroot level ict intervention by intermediary agencies of sub-regional scope. this is true for both ci and any intermediary agency working in ict4d. even while the government of india is implementing its much touted vision of establishing common service centres in one hundred thousand villages, this model doesn’t 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"hey, can we make that, please?": on craft as a means of cross-cultural community-building anne weibert, konstantin aal, thomas von rekowski, volker wulf institute for information systems and new media, university of siegen introduction from the arts and craft movement (dormer 1997) to today's diy (tanenbaum et al. 2013); from theoretical thinking about the significance of craft in relation to the making of art (whittick 1984) and everyday design artifacts (bean & rosner 2012); crafting as innovation (yair et al 2001), and crafting as remodeling and repairing (tinari 2010): crafting and the creation of things has been in the focus of researchers for many years, spanning multiple disciplines. this includes the chi and cscw community, where the relation of computing and craft has moved to the fore in recent years (e.g. buechley et al. 2009; mellis et al. 2013). two lines of discourse have evolved. the first is concerned with craft and its significance for the development of the individual (e.g. bardzell et al 2012, treadaway 2009). here, special attention is paid to the creative moment involved (do & gross 2007). the second line of research approaches the concept of craft from a decidedly interdisciplinary point of view, seeking to fundamentally explore and understand its influence on design in hci (e.g. wright et al 2006). whereas other works focus particularly on crafting as a type of activity or on its influence for informing design practice, we seek to explore the potential of craft for community-building processes. our study is based on a network of computer clubs in socially and culturally diverse neighborhoods in germany. providing open and yet guided access to modern informationand computer technology in an after school setting for both children and adults, these clubs seek to contribute to the bridging of the so-called 'digital divide' the disproportionate access of immigrant communities as compared to mainstream society to computer infrastructure (e.g. norris 2001; wagner et al 2002; whitte & mannon 2010). in bridging this divide, the computer clubs aim to foster cross-cultural understanding and respect in the diverse local neighborhood settings (schubert et al 2011; stevens et al 2005). in our comparative study of three craft-based interventions, we seek to understand how craft can be employed as a means to trigger and foster the cross-cultural and technological identity exploration which fosters community-building in socially and culturally diverse societal contexts. related works we explore how craft is an appropriate educational method for generating boundary-crossing effects and a means employed not only for the appropriation of computing concepts but also for the support and fostering of community-building in a socially and culturally diverse setting. in the following, we establish our research approach and study setup by first discussing previous works in the area of crafting and making before relating key aspects to previous works on identity development and community building. the concept of craft on a very basic level, craft has been described as "any process that attempts to create a functional artifact without separating design from manufacture" (löwgren 2006, 200); thus craft as a method is apt to interlink the physical and the digital (wroblewski 1991). previous research has described it as a skill for manipulating materials into physical objects (bardzell et al. 2012; bean & rosner, 2012; rosner & ryokai 2009; torrey et al. 2009). creativity has been identified as a key component of the concept (bardzell et al. 2012, do & gross 2007). bardzell and colleagues describe it as a "pleasurable form of interaction, connected in meaningful ways to self-expression, livelihoods and leisure, creativity and innovation, heritage, and sustainability" (bardzell et al. 2012, 11). focusing on the relation of digital practices and 'traditional' physical crafts, manual work has been identified as a factor which adds value to the artifact created even more so than any potentially valuable material involved (rosner 2009; rosner 2010). following this notion, we understand craft to be an act of making and creating an artifact which in itself speaks to meaningful aspects of identity and everyday life. computing and craft production in recent years, the relation between computing and craft production has become ever more prominent in chi and cscw research (e.g. buechley et al. 2009; mellis et al. 2013), and the three cases we present here can be seen as an example of this. craft-related leisure activities devised by researchers build on the insight that crafting has the potential to link the digital and the physical (e.g. rosner 2010, zoran 2013). other works rely on craft as a cognitive method for sense-making, e.g. through play (e.g. do & gross 2007; kuznetsov & paulos 2010). ratto has taken this one step further, coining the term of 'critical making' for an activity that emphasizes "the shared acts of making rather than the evocative object" (ratto 2011, 253). what stands out here is the collaborative: achievement of "value through the act of shared construction, joint conversation, and reflection" (ibid., 253). crafting and the building of identity identity-building processes are seen to be deeply rooted in learning activities. race, culture and gender have been described as three main factors that shape identity, and their negotiation is a constantly ongoing process (bhabha 1994). hybrid ascriptions to more than one group are possible in the process. this is valid with regard to the shaping of cultural identity (barth 1998; berry 1992), as well as gender identity (butler 1990) where a binary perspective was at first prevalent in scientific research, there has been a shift towards a multifaceted view. craft-based project work supports this in that it relies on crafting as a cognitive method for individual sense-making. it allows for "meaningful ways of self-expression" (bardzell et al. 2012, 11). crafting and community building as with identity formation, the building of a community is a process in constant flow which strongly depends on the negotiations among the various constituent groups. different specifications of adaptation mark the progress: integration, accommodation, separation, and marginalization. the attitude towards one's own identity as well as the intensity of one's relation to other groups are seen as important factors for progress (e.g. berry 1984). crafting ties in to this process in that it speaks to forms of individual expression. at the same time, it allows for collaborative, reflective, shared construction for 'critical making' (ratto 2011). method methodological setup in our study of craft-based interventions as facilitators of cross-cultural and technological identity exploration, we followed a participatory action research approach, combining social science research methods and the regular participation with underprivileged or marginalized groups (mcintyre 2008; whyte 1991). qualitative methods were used in all our three case studies. we relied on field notes and collected transcripts as part of the participatory action research (par) setup (kemmis & mctaggart 1988). the young and adult computer club participants engaged in the par process in the form of regular interviews and feedback sessions, providing feedback on completed project work and upcoming project activities, as well as the overall organization and structure of the computer club. field notes as the main data resource for the work presented here are supplemented by interviews and the artifacts created over the course of the three projects in focus. data collection and analysis the members of our research team are actively engaged in the computer club in the focus of this study, where they routinely act as tutors and have done so since its inception. this is the computer club where the activities we describe and analyze took place. the field notes were taken during the club's weekly sessions and were documented afterwards in the form of detailed minutes. they focus on the observable collaboration and interaction between children and adult participants in the club, their appropriation of media and computer technology in combination with various craft-based activities and the associated processes of community building. data analysis (mayring 2000; krippendorff 2012) was conducted by the authors who were active as tutors in the computer club. our content analysis was led by the study focus on craft as a means to foster community-building in a socially and culturally diverse neighborhood setting. to prevent bias, our research team established a routine of weekly meetings for all the tutors from all the clubs to assemble, report and discuss the progress of the project activities in the various computer clubs that are part of the network. computer club setting at the center of this study is the computer club located in a primary school in one of the large cities in the ruhr area of germany. this club was jointly founded in 2009 by a group of neighborhood residents, a local non-profit organization and managers located in the neighborhood. the surrounding neighborhood stands out in the city because of its high population density, the large number of families, and the comparatively young ages of its inhabitants. almost 58% of the population has an immigrant background. unemployment rates in the area are high, wages are low; access to higher education is often difficult. this computer club is part of a network of computer clubs located in socially and culturally diverse neighborhoods in various cities in germany. contributing to the bridging of the so-called 'digital divide' the disproportionate access of immigrant communities to computer infrastructure as compared to mainstream society (e.g. norris 2001; wagner et al 2002; whitte & mannon 2010) the clubs provide open and yet guided access to modern information and computer technology for both children and adults. with this approach the come_in computer clubs build on the original us initiative of computer clubhouses (resnick & rusk 1996). relying on principles of situated, collaborative learning and constructionist thinking, these computer clubhouses explicitly address inner city youth from educationally and socially deprived backgrounds. they aim to open up chances for disadvantaged local communities in the cities. their success is well documented in research (e.g. resnick et al 1998; michalchik 2008; kafai et al 2009, center for technology in learning 2013). based on this concept, the come_in clubs aim to foster community dynamics and strengthen social ties on the local family, school and neighborhood level (weibert & wulf 2010). furthermore, collaborative project work in the club contributes to the development of individual skills and thus opportunities (weibert et al 2014). the come_in structure reflects the computer club aim: (primary) schools in intercultural neighborhoods in germany have been chosen for the location of the clubs. being a locus for interaction between people of different backgrounds (e.g. economical, educational, migrational), the school as the clubs' location can be assumed to be a starting point for social interaction that does not have to start anew but can build on shared experiences. within this location, the computer clubs aim to be everything else but school: appropriation of computer technology in the computer club results from constant negotiation among its young and adult participants tutors and teachers in an equal position among them. the club provides the opportunity to become acquainted with modern technology and software but it does not follow a pre-set schedule in doing so. club participation is supposed to be intergenerational: children are invited to participate together with a parent or another adult family member or friend. thus project work in the club is intended to trigger intergenerational learning experiences that ideally continue in family and neighborhood contexts (schubert et al 2011). project work in the computer club is decided upon conjointly. the young and adult participants plan and coordinate their club's current and prospective activities in joint opening and closing discussion rounds. to ensure that the voices of children and adults were equally heard in the process, it was decided that one child and one adult per session would team up to jointly moderate these rounds. a 'treasure box of ideas', which some of the clubs keep, makes project ideas accessible for later times: children and adults collect their project plans and ideas for activities on paper cards that are kept in a wooden box. the neighborhood influences project topics (e.g. schubert & weibert 2014; stevens et al 2005) e.g. when magazines about the neighborhood are created, shared experiences like a two-day trip to berlin or a soccer match with a neighboring turkish soccer club result in photoand video-projects, or are processed by means of mit's visual programming language scratch (maloney et al 2004). project setups all three projects in the focus of this study are rooted in neighborhood issues, problems and activities that the young and adult participants had brought into the computer club. all three projects were jointly agreed upon by the club participants and were carried out through combining digital skills and traditional handcraft. participation was completely voluntary; however, a stable group of participants developed in all three cases. computer puzzle the computer puzzle project was one of the first activities of the computer club in the focus of this study. the project developed as an answer to the very basic questions that the young and adult participants had brought to the club, and from their common understanding that computer literacy is a key skill securing access to various parts of public life. in the computer puzzle project, club participants took a very palpable approach to the computer, exploring its constituent parts with screwdriver, pliers and soldering iron (figure 1). the parts were thoroughly examined, and an explanation of their function was provided by a tutor. in the end, one computer was re-assembled and installed for the mothers in the club to work with. in an activity stemming from the main computer puzzle project, some artwork was crafted using the remainders of the computer parts. crafting in the context of this project was concerned firstly with the re-creation of the computer, and secondly with the transformation of some of its constituent parts into something else, whereby an art sculpture was crafted from hard drives and other computer parts. the project developed in 20 club sessions over the course of six months. on average, five women took part in the project, four of whom have a migration background, coming from turkey, macedonia and india. figure 1. club participants explored a computer with screwdriver, pliers and soldering iron. safe routes: designing for safety on the way to school this project was developed because students and their parents were concerned about a dangerous street crossing right in front of the school building, where many accidents and near-accidents had happened. this had caused teachers to devote extra time to educating the children in road safety. some of the children carried the topic to the computer club, voicing their interest in turning it into a project. the outcome was threefold: 1) the club participants decided that they wanted to create a video about dangers on the way to school; 2) children designed reflective vests by creating small animations using scratch (maloney 2004); and 3) children crafted these vests with paint brushes and reflective colors (figure 2). the project took five weeks to complete. ten children, two tutors and a teacher took part. figure 2. children crafted their vest designs with paint brushes and reflective colors. "travelling dragonflies" geocaching project the geocaching activity developed as a craft-based activity resulting from the computer club participants' idea to relate the real-world treasure hunt which is geocaching to their own lives and neighborhood. they decided to craft little individualized objects to be sent on their travels as so-called geocaching 'trackables'. dragonflies were chosen as the shape of the trackables because the school where the computer club is based is called "dragonfly elementary school". the project developed in three subsequent steps. first, the computer club participants designed and crafted the little dragonflies from colorful beads and wire (figure 3), equipped them as so-called 'trackables' with an online identity and travel destination which was registered at a geocaching website. secondly, these dragonfly trackables were released in a nearby cache that the computer club participants had identified in the neighborhood. thirdly, children and adults in the club followed the 'travels' of their dragonflies on physical paper maps and also online. further, they had them compete in a geocaching trackable online race. our field note data covers a time span of seven months where the project unfolded in 36 hours of club work. seven adults and ten children (7 boys and 3 girls aged 7-10) took part in the study. with children and adults from turkey, albania, macedonia, tunisia and morocco, participant backgrounds mirror the diversity of the neighborhood in which the club is located. figure 3. the trackables were designed to be dragonflies. findings computer puzzle adult and child participants alike were drawn to the activity, as they had never explored a computer from the inside. the children in particular liked the exploratory part of approaching the computer with the help of screwdrivers, pliers and soldering iron. as the project continued, the activity shifted more and more towards the adult participants: all of them were female, and they said that at home they did not have much access to the computer. "there's my husband, and then there are my sons... not much time left for me", one woman said. another one added: "at home that's a man's thing." so they enjoyed the freedom to ask a lot of questions and also to learn about the interplay of software and hardware in a hands-on approach, as well as to explore and compare different operating systems. the joint crafting activities let the women develop a stable relationship as a group: when one of them was late for the computer club or failed to show up without giving prior notice, the others from the group would call her and tell her to hurry up and come to the computer club ("where are you? it's computer club!"). also, they would use the crafting activity as a vehicle to discuss other issues from their everyday lives (e.g. informally and casually chatting about their family lives, problems at work or caused by the loss thereof, and the progress of their children at school). also, the women would provide help and advice amongst themselves, e.g. by sharing experiences they had made when facing a certain problem, or in passing on contact information of instances and people to provide help and assistance in the neighborhood and beyond. in this way, a stable and lively community of women emerged, who by means of crafting and their engagement in the computer-related project work did not only notably gain self-confidence in the use of computer technology, but also developed friendships reaching across cultures and beyond the weekly club structure. the project resulted in two artifacts. first, the mothers put one of the old computers back together in the end and installed it with the operating system edubuntu to keep it as "their" computer in the computer club from then on. secondly, the mothers discovered that there is a certain beauty in the various constituent parts of a computer, and they made use of this by designing and crafting an art sculpture from hard drives and other leftover computer parts. safe routes: designing for safety on the way to school all the crafting in this project resulted from computer-supported design and programming work. children in the club created a video about the danger of their route to school. they used different cameras and camera angles to show their audience their point of view. with a camera attached to their heads, the children recorded how they cross the street and what kind of dangers they look for. furthermore, they virtually designed reflective vests at the computer, using drawing software as well as the visual programming environment scratch. these designs were printed and used as template for the crafting of the real reflective vests. in crafting, children were seen to follow a strong desire for quality and beauty. they were always concerned that their designs would be most skillfully crafted and completed and if there was the least doubt that they themselves would be able to achieve that, they would seek help from their teacher or a tutor. in this project, collaboration was mostly linked to aspects of creativity. children turned towards each other and their respective craft creations when it came to developing ideas further, or when someone was short on ideas on how to proceed with his project. that way, ideas that were considered cool, or a detail of a project that was considered as especially skillfully crafted, would 'spread' among the children through being copied by others and included in their creations. besides exchanging design ideas, the children also asked each other for help; those who were very skilled and creative in using the paintbrush and other tools, e.g. making use of the end of the paintbrush to paint very thin lines of color were most sought after. thus, in crafting, the sense of community among the children in the computer club was strengthened: they experienced that they were able to rely on and make use of their skills to transport a message to their neighborhood that was meaningful to them. by collaborating as a group for the creation of this message, they added weight to it so it would receive more attention. "travelling dragonflies" geocaching project within this project, craft activities were concerned with the design of dragonflies from beads and colorful wire, which were then used as "trackables" travelling items in the geocaching project. these designs were then equipped with a travel destination. children could be observed to link the destination to their own personal lives and experiences, e.g. "go to bosnia" one boy wrote, going on to explain: "that's where my family comes from, you know?", or related to their personal familial situation just like the boy who wanted his trackable to go to places "where there are happy people, and friends"; because he was contending with a great deal of conflict at home due to his parents' recent divorce. thus the geocaching project work did speak to the children's identity building in that it made them think about their own personal characteristics when designing their dragonfly trackables and equipping them with a name, a character and a travel destination. at the same time, the crafting element in the project activity also fostered community building. all crafting took place in an atmosphere of competitive collaboration. children were seen to help each other when needed, e.g. when threading beads onto the wire, or in writing travel descriptions well aware that providing assistance to others would merit them with the position of skillful expert, but also knowing the assistance was needed to bring the overall project activity forward. several of them teamed up to create their trackables; in these constellations they had to collaborate on the design, the attached text and the travel destination. at the same time the children showed a strong desire to have their own dragonfly recognized as the most beautiful and skillfully crafted. "hey, can we make that please…?" was a commonly heard request for help, uttered with the greatest confidence that there would be someone (tutor, mother or a more skilled participant) around in the club who was able to join in the crafting, thus securing a high quality artifact as a result. and usually there was. once the trackables had started their 'travels', crafting activity in the club was concerned with following the progress of the dragonflies on maps both online as well as on a paper map hung on a wall in the computer club room. each child would update the position of his/her dragonfly every week using a photo sticker on a pin and thus developing a sense of space and place (and their own position within) in collaboratively shaping an image that showed their own position and the current locations of their dragonflies in relation to the rest of the world (figure 4). figure 4. every week the position of the dragonfly trackables was updated, thus allowing the children to develop an understanding of space and place, and their own position within. discussion in all three project cases, we saw the craft part to be the element to provide the link between lessons of computational literacy and the children and adult participants' everyday lives and experiences. this was the case in the computer puzzle, where the hands-on approach to the computer provided the mothers in the computer club with access to a topic that was not granted in their own homes. through the crafting activity, the mothers gained confidence in the handling of the computer hardand software, so that in the end they even approached it in a non-utile way, crafting an art sculpture from left-over hard drives and other computer parts. in the safe routes project, computer club children turned an everyday problem (the dangerous street crossing in front of their school) into a craft project: the digital designing of the reflective vests made them use and expand their computing skills (using image-processing software and the visual programming environment scratch), the crafting of these vest designs with paint on the fabric of actual vests again linked these skills back to the everyday lives of the school children. and finally, in the travelling dragonflies geocaching project, the crafting part spoke to the participant's identity building in that it made them think about their own lives, individual skills, origins, and wishes. subsequently the project fostered community-building processes in that it made participants think about these individual aspects in relation to the neighborhood community and their position within that community. we saw that crafting does appeal to actors independent of age, gender and cultural background, providing "meaningful ways of self-expression" (bardzell et al. 2012, 11). likewise, crafting supports the ongoing negotiation process of the factors that shape identity; race, culture and gender (bhabha 1994) in a "shared act of making" (ratto 2011) during joint project work activities. in a social learning process, not only are artifacts created collaboratively but personal ties are forged through "joint conversation, and reflection" (ibid, 253). conclusion when he coined the term 'critical making', ratto linked modes of engagement with the world: a reflective, critical thinking approach, and the very hands-on, physical "making, goal-based material work" (ratto 2011, 253). in our study, we took this concept to the socially and culturally diverse neighborhood community setting. we have shown how craft-based interventions speak to individual needs and experiences; how they allow for the development of individual skills such as computational literacy, reading and writing, and how they also allow for traditional handicrafts. building on this, the crafting allowed for more: it let computer club participants act as experts (tanenbaum et al 2013, 2604), providing help and assistance as well as receiving it when needed. it enabled them to develop an eye for the needs of others, discuss different perspectives, organize tasks and work and besides all this, to translate everyday life experiences into "goal-based material work" (ratto 2011, 253) that is apt to foster collaboration, joint reflection, and in doing so, support the building and strengthening of a local community. references bardzell, s., rosner, d. k., & bardzell, j. 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(2013, july). hybrid basketry: interweaving digital practice within contemporary craft. in acm siggraph 2013 art gallery (pp. 324-331). acm. metropolitan wi-fi research network at the los angeles state historic park vidyut samanta vids@remap.ucla.edu chase laurelle alexandria knowles chase@remap.ucla.edu jeff burke jburke@remap.ucla.edu fabian wagmister fabian@remap.ucla.edu deborah estrin destrin@cs.ucla.edu center for research in engineering, media and performance, ucla, los angeles, usa introduction the center for research in engineering, media and performance (remap) at the university of california at los angeles (ucla), has collaborated with the nsf center for embedded networked sensing (cens) to deploy a metropolitan scale wi-fi mesh network in the los angeles state historic park near downtown los angeles. we refer to this network as met-wi. this will be an extension of the university’s network into the communities around the park and will support research in community based urban participatory sensing [1], [2], [3], [4] through cens and cultural civic computing through remap. participatory sensing is a new area of research at ucla and focuses on how people can use their everyday mobile phones as sensors for data gathering on personal, community, and urban scales. our met-wi deployment provides high-speed connectivity in certain areas for test devices, and a platform on which we can test network services in support of user participation in sensing. remap and cens recognize the significant role that community-based data collection can play in public health, urban planning and cultural applications, as well as the amazing potential for participation given the installed base of mobile phones. cultural civic computing [7] is a service-oriented urban computing model in which communities power the processes of imagining, specifying, and designing technology infrastructure for public places. in this model, communities are involved in designing their infrastructure and the services it provides. our met-wi deployment allows us to test out this approach. figure 1: met-wi topology. we are developing a web-based framework that will enable anyone with a wi-fi enabled device such as a mobile phone to describe a “campaign” – i.e. a geographically and temporally constrained series of systematic operations to gather a particular type of data using a network of mobile devices (e.g., geotagged audio level measurements, a common quality of life metric in urban planning), and recruit participants interested in the campaign, who then engage in network-supported distributed data collection, and are able to analyze and publish the results online, and iterate to learn more. we are interested in the network architecture needed in such a scenario to increase individuals’ credibility as data providers to the community and encourage data sharing while protecting privacy. figure 2: campaign framework the wi-fi network will also have a location awareness component. using rf-fingerprinting technology that is part of the cisco equipment, we will be able to geographically locate clients connected to the wi-fi network, and geotag data provided by clients with this location. place-specific services are important to both of our application domains. research experiments will be performed in network support of community-based data gathering and documentary, interface design for diverse cultures, community mapping of geospatial data, and the creation of mobile and location-based multimedia experiences in the park that interweave los angeles history with the local communities’ self-expressed cultures and identities. these will seed larger-scale research projects with the community that could have significant impact in many fields. the next two sections describe some experiments and processes that remap and cens have already begun. urban & participatory sensing the cens urban sensing group is working on technologically-focused experiments using the campaign framework described above. for example, they are developing a sound level mapping campaign that aims to decipher the amount of noise pollution in and around the park area. this campaign uses wi-fi enabled mobile phones to gather data samples of an arbitrary length of time that are then uploaded to a central server. the samples are processed to produce a sound pressure level estimate in decibels that is associated with the network-attested time and location where uploaded. this data will then be used to create a sound map of los angeles that useful to urban planners and developers. one application would be to use this process as a metric for the quality of life in los angeles. more generally, cens is using the wifi deployment to support a variety of projects enabling people to understand and explore their activities relative to communities and the urban environment, including projects such as a “personal environmental impact report” based on location trace information. in a related project, students are exploring whether geo-tagged photographs can be analyzed to estimate daily air pollution by using measures of visibility that can be extracted from the image. cultural civic computing remap is focused on cultural civic computing – on how emerging technologies can be re-envisioned by communities and researchers to enable public exploration of creativity, cultural identity, and the diverse histories of our cities and neighborhoods. through collaborative experimentation with local residents and direct engagement with technology research programs, it aims to increase participation in community investigation of the city, collective remembering, self-representation, and imagining and defining the future of the urban environment. for instance, community members could use a variation of the sound mapping application above to create experiential soundscapes of their neighborhoods in addition to the level map. these explorations into cultural civic computing are developing simultaneously with advances in personal and community gis elsewhere, and we see great potential for interweaving them in the future. remap has also developed prototype location-aware applications using the met-wi network. for example, remap has developed an extensive database of historic media about los angeles and the state historic park. this “geotagged” content is delivered to visitors while walking in the park with wi-fi and location-enabled cell phones, allowing a fascinating exploration of the area’s socio-historical significance. sampling of stakeholders cens and remap are collaborating with the california department of parks and recreation, local community organizations, and industry to explore participatory sensing and cultural civic computing in and around the los angeles state historic park, using the network deployment described above. california department of parks and recreation as this technology research was developing, remap established a formal partnership with california state parks for the purpose of applying new technology towards communal investigation of local history, as well as issues of contemporary life, in the new los angeles state historic park; the park is a 32-acre site outside of downtown los angeles. both california state parks and ucla are eager to work together to explore how emerging technologies can be used to provide new interpretive experiences in their parks especially in this unique urban setting. local communities the communities surrounding the los angeles state historic park collaborated to save this location from industrial development. during the lobbying process, a uniquely diverse neighborhood alliance – encompassing chinatown, solano canyon, and lincoln heights – took root. these communities’ role in helping create the park has only added to the site’s relevance as a historical record of angeleno growth since the 1800s. in light of this sector’s extensive involvement with the site, both state parks and ucla are committed to a research process at the park, which deeply involves local communities. industry remap and cens are collaborating with cisco systems [5] for the network infrastructure and, thanks to nokia’s provision of gsm and 802.11 mobile phones, are pursuing documentary and data collection for community use [6]. remap has also established unique, multidisciplinary partnerships with walt disney imagineering research & development and schematic, a leading interactive design firm. with disney imagineering r&d, we are collaborating on a temporary large-scale experiential installation located within the park, which explores public experience of community history and identity, and is supported by connectivity from the met-wi deployment. similarly, remap and cens are cooperating with schematic to engineer mobile interface design, which adequately supports community-based data gathering and documentation. conclusion a metropolitan scale wi-fi mesh network is being deployed near downtown los angeles in a collaborative effort of the center for research in engineering, media and performance (remap) at ucla, and the nsf center for embedded networked sensing (cens). this work will help realize the potential a large-scale wi-fi deployment could offer a multicultural society for communal documentation of its surrounding environments. this will aid in the creation of healthy and livable cities, as well as enable public exploration of creativity and cultural identity, in conjunction with a greater appreciation of the diverse histories of our cities and neighborhoods. acknowledgements in addition to support from nokia, cisco systems, walt disney imagineering research and development, schematic, and collaboration with the california dept. of parks and recreation, this material is based upon work supported by the nsf under award cns-0627084. any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the national science foundation. references srivastava, m. and hansen, m. and burke, j. and parker, a. and reddy, s. and saurabh, g. and allman, m. and paxson, v. and estrin, d., wireless urban sensing systemstechnical report 65, center for embedded networked sensing systems, ucla, apr. 2006. burke, j. and estrin, d. and hansen, m. and parker, a. and ramanathan, n. and reddy, s. and srivastava, mb, participatory sensing, world wide sensor web workshop, sensys, 2006. parker, a. and reddy, s. and schmid, t. and chang, k. and saurabh, g. and srivastava, m. and hansen, m. and burke, j. and estrin, d. and allman, m., network system challenges in selective sharing and verification for personal, social, and urban-scale sensing applications, hotnets, 2006. reddy, s. and parker, a. and burke, j. and estrin, d. and hansen, h., image browsing, processing, and clustering for participatory sensing: lessons from a dietsense prototype, emnets, 2007 cisco systems inc. retrieved 30 july 2007 <http://www.cisco.com/> nokia sensorplanet. retrived 30 july 2007 <http://www.sensorplanet.org/> remapping la: cultural civic computing in los angeles. retrived 30 july 2007 <http://remap.ucla.edu/losangeles/> what’s in a name community informatics: what’s in a name michael gurstein editor-in-chief: the journal of community informatics <gurstein@gmail.com> when several of us, around 2000-2001 started using the term “community informatics” to describe the type of activity that many of us were both doing and researching, the use of the terminology of “informatics” was rather more limited (at least in the english speaking world) than it is today. the wikipedia entry on “informatics” currently lists some 25 “informatics’s” including health informatics, business informatics and community informatics, but also “urdu informatics”(?)—perhaps only 2 or 3 on this list would have been in more general use before 2000. but going through this list it is clearly more incomplete than not (it doesn’t include either “urban informatics” or “development informatics” for example nor does it include such things as “security informatics”, “nursing informatics”, or “emergency informatics”). all of these latter subject areas appear in the top 100 items in my recent google search on “informatics” and on all which i’ve seen conference and/or book announcements pass across my horizon sometime within the last year or so. in fact, one might look at this and say that the terminology at least of “informatics” is proliferating as fast as did the academic approach of “area studies” during the 1960’s and 1970’s (at least again in the english speaking world). area studies in that context was an academic way of trying to catch up with a very rapidly changing intellectual (and activist) world by developing teaching and research programs in such areas as “women’s studies”, “latin american studies”, “canadian studies” and so on and so on. and to my mind there is a very strong parallel between this former development and the latter one of developing (or at least naming) the study/practice of using information and communications technologies in a particular professional or academic domain as an “informatics”. moreover, it might be useful to carry on a bit with examining the parallelism between the two – area studies and informatics. in most domains in which “area studies” were developed, the naming really consisted of carving out a (topical) area of interest, using this carving out at the experienced (empirical?) or problem-defined level as the subject matter for research/pedagogy. this carved out area however was approached for part from (a generally unexamined) quite conventional disciplinary—conceptual and methodological—set of frameworks. thus for example “canadian studies” was concerned (for the most part) with looking at canada and canadian phenomena from whatever disciplinary (or other) frameworks that seemed most pertinent to the problem area being examined (or to be somewhat cynical from the disciplinary background of the primary researcher promoting the subject area). the practical result of these approaches has been that as times have gotten rather leaner in university research contexts many if not most of these area studies programs have lost out in the competition for scarce resources and have been absorbed back into the main-stream disciplines and academic formations. those that have survived from an academic perspective (issues of short term tactical funding for transient areas of say geo-political strategic interest aside) have been those such as gender/women’s or development studies which have not only been concerned at the topical level but have attempted with more or less success to develop (in each area) a deeper conceptual/theoretical underpinning for the specific way in which those involved are carving out the academic/research world which represents some deeper (and generally critical) insight on how these topic/issue areas are (or have been) approached within the context of traditional disciplines. in the case of gender/women’s studies this has meant linking into the immensely valuable deep critique of conventional epistemology to retrieve “a woman’s way of knowing” (which in turn has opened up a very liberating set of approaches to “knowing” for a range of other emergent epistemological groups--gays/queers, aboriginals and so on). in the case of development studies the link has been into the on-going critique(s) of conventional economics (and other disciplinary areas) from the world of the practical (and problematic) experience of “development”. i think that the same process is likely to hold sway in the area of “informatics” as well. many of those research/teaching areas identified as “informatics” will, once the hype around the term (and of the use of ict in general) dies down, be as they say in un jargon “mainstreamed” i.e. more or less disappear as a separable item within the broad naming and description of the separate areas under examination—urdu or veterinary informatics for example. community informatics is rather interesting from this perspective. from the beginning of the use of the term, ci referred not only to the research area but also to the practice of enabling communities with icts (and many of the early proponents were active in one way or another in both). the fact that so many of the early proponents were both researchers and practitioners/activists with and in communities meant that in their research there was a depth of understanding and engagement with the phenomena being studied which went well beyond simply treating it as an interesting topic area for study. there was a clear recognition of the deeper (community, developmental, community development, etc.) processes at work below the surface phenomena which required integration and interpretation in the context of the research but also gave the researchers access to a very rich set of concepts, theoretical constructs and theory overall in which to embed their analysis and understanding of what they were observing. it is probably too soon to say that there is community informatics theory, but certainly not too soon to say that there is a vibrant discussion towards community informatics theory and that alone distinguishes community informatics from many of the other “informatics’s” that have proliferated in the last decade or so. this alone suggests that ci might have a longevity significantly greater than other of these more recent informatics developments and even survive once the academic/research zeitgeist moves to another interest area. this current issue of joci provides some useful support for the above argument. starting with the very interesting article by williams and durance we see an attempt to place community informatics into a broader (but not discipline focused) theoretical framework in this case network and social capital theory. the jarvis-selinger et al paper examines the interplay between technology and local indigenous communities and without problematizing either the reality or the concept of community gives some practical insight into how (at least these particular) communities adapt to and integrate icts. sylvie albert takes for granted the notion of community while attempting to layer on top of this a statistical analysis of how individual organizations come to self-define one feature of communities, their “smartness” in terms of formal indicators. the paper by as-saber and hossein while something of an outlier in the above context provides some interesting and provocative challenges in thinking about the overall linkages between a community informatics, a development informatics and a business informatics. the two notes from the field—the tragically posthumous paper from guido sohne and that of yusaku fujii and his colleagues both in their way strongly re-affirm the independence and validity of a specifically “community” informatics in that in each case they base their system design on the pre-existence of an active and self-organized community capable of appropriating and using technology in support of collaboratively decided upon objectives. finally we have ricardo ramirez’s fascinating discussion on the nature and techniques for “meaningful participation” provide an essential link from ci (or at least ict) into the extremely rich literature and practice of community participation and governance. playing with the glocal through participatory e-planning sirkku wallin & liisa horelli centre for urban and regional studies aalto university, finland abstract the application of icts has turned everyday life increasingly glocal with both positive and negative consequences. however, the local and the global are not polarities but interdependent categories representing multilayered space, which may be shaped, to a certain degree, through participatory e-planning. by participatory e-planning we mean the socio-cultural, ethical and political practice which takes place offline and online in the overlapping phases of the planning and decision-making cycle, by using digital and non-digital tools. but how does participatory e-planning that mainly serves the community also help stakeholders to play with the glocal? the aim of the article is to present a set of examples from the finnish context and to discuss how community informatics may provide opportunities for stakeholders to deal with the glocal in the area of environmental improvement. on the basis of our comparative analyses and a case study in finland, we claim that participatory e-planning enhances playing with the glocal, if certain technical, organizational and institutional capacities and a supportive infrastructure exist. key words: participatory e-planning, urban planning, community informatics, glocal, hybrid infrastructure of communication participatory e-planning and the glocal everyday life everyday life has become increasingly glocal with both positive and negative consequences. this means that global issues, such as climate change and economic recession, are reflected on localities. local people may also have new opportunities to influence global affairs due to the use of information and communication technologies (icts). in fact, the so-called mobility tools[1], such as cars, cycles, public transport, the internet, mobile phones, etc., as well as the simultaneous reduction in travel and communication costs, have increased the geographies of social networks and the consequent activity space of people, i.e., the geography of locations known to a person (larsen, axhausen & urry, 2006). the availability of icts and especially community informatics (ci)[2] may allow users to understand the larger impacts of their everyday decisions. people will be able to appropriate not only the particularities of the local, but also connections between cities, and engage with broader global networks (schuler & day, 2004; williams et al., 2009). ´glocal` is the phenomenon and ´glocalisation` the interdependent process taking place between the shaping of the local and global, often enhanced by icts. the term was originally used by japanese business people in the 1980s to refer to the global localisation of export goods. the term was first introduced in the oxford dictionary of new words, compiled by sara tulloch (1991, cited in khondker, 2004). currently, the term is being used in a variety of fields, such as culture, politics, business and in environmental protection. according to khondker (2004), understanding the glocal helps in dealing with the macro-micro-relationships which comprise the macro-localisation (expansion from the local towards the global) and micro-globalisation (incorporation of global ideas to the local level). although the glocal is mainly an analytic concept, it can also be used in a strategic way. we are interested in the glocal from the perspective of enhancing the everyday life of communities through participatory e-planning. even the development of particular places is the outcome of both global and local forces (pacione, 2005). yet the local and the global are not polarities but categories representing multi-layered space which may be shaped, to a certain degree, through icts. daily life is increasingly lived on several spatial layers, as working, shopping and even friendships take place in different locations and places. urban planning is one of the major disciplines that seek to examine development in places and the forces that are shaping them. however, the challenge and potential of icts in urban planning are also methodological. the digital terminology, e-planning included, is still fuzzy and under construction (medaglia, 2007). for example, e-planning can refer to the: provision and delivery of planning services (building permits, demographic and statistical analysis, etc.), offline planning with e-tools as one technique, co-production and application of e-tools and platforms in community development, and planning of virtual objects and spaces with e-tools (for example in second life). participatory e-planning in this article mostly refers to the second and third types. in a recent article in this journal, saad-sulonen and horelli (2010) described the characteristics of ci-assisted participatory e-planning as the tendency to embed urban planning in community development and governance, with consequences for diversified experiences of learning citizenship skills. it also tends to apply multiple channels to the gathering and diffusion of information and uses both traditional and ict tools in complementary ways. so what is the position of participatory e-planning within urban planning? and can participatory e-planning that mainly serves the community also help local stakeholders play with the global? if yes, under what conditions does this take place and with what consequences for urban planning and community informatics? this article aims to present a set of examples from the finnish context and discuss how participatory e-planning may provide opportunities for stakeholders to become glocal players. on the basis of our seven-year-long action research that included comparative analyses and a case study in finland, we claim that participatory e-planning enhances playing with the glocal, if certain technical, organizational and institutional capacities and a supportive infrastructure exist. the scaling-up of civil society actors in different localities and countries may then take place with the help of community informatics. the article begins by describing the transformation that has taken place in urban planning towards participatory processes, including the application of participatory e-planning and community informatics. it then proceeds to an analysis of the evolution during the past decade within participatory e-planning in the finnish context. this will be followed by a case study on the glocal application of participatory e-planning. we will close by discussing the results of our analyses. from urban planning to ci-assisted participatory e-planning the history of urban planning since the late 19th century shows a systematic trend towards more participatory approaches with new concepts and tools. from modernism to agonism in urban planning at the turn of the last century, urban planning was the remedy to heal the ills of the industrialised cities in the western world. the modernist paradigm, based on science and technical reason, dominated until the 1970s. however, the comprehensive-rationalistic planning theory that believed in the controllability of societal development and top-down procedures is still being partly applied in parallel with other approaches in many countries, finland included (bäcklund & mäntysalo, 2010). although the “incrementalist” approach (lindblom, 1959) had already brought new critical participants to the planning process in the 1960s, it was not until the communicative turn from the 1970s on (healey, 1997) that the dominant paradigm in planning was transformed to include a great variety of stakeholders. it then drew largely on habermas´ theory of communicative action (habermas, 1984). currently, theories of urban planning are mostly post-positivist and pragmatist, underlining the importance of participation, collaboration and deliberation (silva, 2010). lately, the critique raised by chantal mouffe (2000) against the neglect of power relations in the habermasian consensus-seeking processes has inspired a new approach, called agonistic planning (hillier & healey, 2008). the latter acknowledges the limits of achieving consensus and accepts the differences that remain unresolved, making planning openly political. however, the post-positivist planning theories are mostly procedural, neglecting the content or substance of planning (gunnarsson-östling, 2011). the few exceptions are the new urbanism with a clear urban vision and the prescriptive postmodern planning, such as the just city-approach (fainstein, 2010). in addition, the mainstream planning literature still lacks discourses on participatory e-planning. participatory planning in the enhancement of the glocal everyday life manuel castells (2008; 2010) claims that globalization constitutes social systems with a capacity to work as a unit on a planetary scale in real time. the seminal capacities at this stage of evolution are technological, institutional and organisational. participatory urban planning can be one approach to constituting systems with capacities on the local level. however, according to the finnish experiences in which new participatory approaches to urban planning and community development have been introduced[3] (horelli, 2006; wallin & horelli, 2010), certain conditions have to exist in order to enhance the necessary capacities. first of all, the citizen groups should be able to see participatory planning and community development as a form of empowerment. booher and innes (2002) point out that only the network approach to planning provides an authentic situation for participation. although networks are difficult to control, they can be geared to in the right direction by applying some core principles or strategies of implementation and embedding. embedding refers to the collective capacity building, learning and coordination process of the stakeholders and key actors, supported by different techniques (see siemens, 2006). secondly, a gender-, ageand culture-sensitive coordination should be an essential characteristic of participatory planning. it is not about enforcement, but about constant negotiation and interacting with different partners. this requires special attention to the balancing of power relations by supporting the potential partnerships and by mediating and managing conflicts (see susskind et al., 1999; innes & booher, 2010). also, the variety of temporalities (bryson, 2007), as well as the necessities and contingencies of everyday life, need to be recognised, for example, by applying urban time policies[4]. thirdly, the content and context of planning should be taken into consideration. unlike the other process theories of planning, the lena approach (see footnote 3) to participatory planning is intertwined with the content theory of planning, by relying on the concept of the supportive infrastructure of everyday life (figure 1; horelli, 2009; 2010). the latter is a concept that has been applied in participatory planning and community development with children, women and elderly people in many parts of europe (gilroy & booth, 1999). figure 1. a heuristic model of the supportive structures that enhance the institutional, technological and organizational capacities to deal with glocal processes. the model in figure 1 comprises a schema of the necessary physical, functional and participatory structures that, after being appropriated by the stakeholders, might enhance the creation of networks of care and mediation, which in turn may bring forth a supportive cultural structure comprising local and even translocal social capital[5]. this helps to deal with the glocal processes around everyday life, for example among migrant women (see jarvis, 2009). it is possible to plan and even to implement the physical, functional and participatory structures of the model. however, the communal culture or social capital is something that emerges only if the residents and other stakeholders are willing to appropriate the structures, such as by using or co-creating them, and networking in a way that creates trust (lin, 2001). participation assisted by icts and e-planning participatory planning turns into e-planning when participatory activities are expanded beyond face-to-face interaction to include ict-mediated interaction that is independent of spatial and temporal constraints. according to silva (2010), participatory e-planning is a new paradigm within the framework of a post-positivist planning theory. the collaborative approach requires new concepts, methods and tools that enhance the involvement of different stakeholders. participatory e-planning can be defined as “a socio-cultural, ethical and political practice which takes place offline and online in the overlapping phases of the planning and decision-making cycle, by using digital and non-digital tools” (horelli & wallin, 2010, p. 60). therefore participatory e-planning can, in addition to face-to-face mediation tools (susskind et al., 1999), take advantage of the wide palette of ubiquitous technology that can be accessed and distributed via many channels and e-devices, depending of course on the context. the tools include sensory networks, radio-frequency identification tags, interactive screens in public spaces, cellular phones and the internet. it is not the technical devices, but their intentional choice and co-ordination that may transform the environment into real-time digital space (mitchell et al., 2003; townsend, 2009). so far, the examples come from special cases around the world, such as the korean new towns, but as the tools become cheaper they can be used for the empowerment of communities. then, the new focus and medium of e-planning, community development and co-governance might be the digital space. although a great deal of hype exists around ubiquitous technology, the real-time city is partly here (foth, 2009). the mobility tools described in the introduction of this article are increasingly changing social behaviour. however, according to the translation model of bruno latour (1987), technology is not a stable and independent entity, but part of the organisation, implementation and use-process. technology may then be approached as a network of human and non-human elements which are constituted and shaped in network relations. the interaction of humans with technology generates change, which is intertwined with the co-production process of technology and its context. this means that the transferring of different technologies from one place to another requires the rebuilding of the whole hybrid, namely the technology and its network (see also arnold, 2007). figure 2. the schema of the hybrid infrastructure of communication (adapted from saad-sulonen, 2005). as participatory e-planning is a generic term, ci-assisted participatory e-planning is its special case. the latter is regarded as a methodological approach which makes use of ubiquitous technology by applying it in the processes of urban planning, community development and local governance for the benefit of the community. it can take place via different channels and digital tools. the internet and web-based communication applications, mobile phones, mappings, gps-tools and their mash-ups, may eventually provide a hybrid infrastructure of communication, if the tools are appropriately co-ordinated (figure 2; wallin, horelli & saad-sulonen, 2010). the latter may eventually become part of the supportive infrastructure of everyday life (figure 1). these content-related concepts can be used in the visioning phase of the planning cycle. in the following section we will describe how e-planning in finland has gradually transformed into a more participatory mode as it has increasingly adopted digital tools in the context of ci. evolution of e-planning towards participatory and glocal approaches in the finnish context the field of e-planning has evolved rapidly in the past decade (silva, 2010). a variety of mapping and gis-based tools have provided a kit for urban planners since the late 1980s. the participatory paradigm in urban planning and the rise of interactive icts have pushed citizen participation forward, and challenged planners and developers to adopt new methods and equipment (foth, 2009; silva, 2010). however, it was not until the beginning of the 2010s that the methods of participatory e-planning with mash-ups of icts, especially from social media, became available (foth et al., 2009; saad-sulonen, in press). this chapter will first describe some applications of participatory e-planning and their gradual transformation towards a more interactive and empowering type in the finnish context. then we will analyse the consequences of the e-planning experiments for participation and decision-making. finally, we will discuss the systematic development of institutional, organisational and technical capacities in the helsinki neighbourhood association (helka). from local web sites and tools to the glocal practices of urban planning the finnish urban planning system resembles more the continental system of planning than the anglo-american one. municipal councils are the main authorities of formal urban planning, and the main developer of urban space is often the city administration. this superior position provides the local planning authority exceptional power to regulate the planning procedure, including the degree of citizen participation. it also decides the content of planning. in finland, the digital planning tools for visualization and spatial analysis have been widely used in planning since the beginning of the 1990s. however, the term “e-planning” (sähköinen suunnittelu in finnish) has not been applied by authorities, nor by citizens. the situation has recently changed, as a great many examples exist that use various web-based planning tools that support citizen participation both inside and outside the formal planning processes. we will present a collection of cases in table 1 that describe the purpose and implementation of participatory e-planning in the finnish context. it comprises four different applications of e-planning. three of them take place in helsinki, the capital of finland, and one in espoo, which is the neighbouring town of the capital. the first case, espoo internet forums (see staffans, rantanen & nummi, 2010), has applied traditional mapping tools of e-planning in a participatory manner and enabled participants to gather information and to comment on the planning process of a specific plan. in 2004, when the development of the espoo internet forums began, this approach was revolutionary. it not only provided information, but also a place for wider public participation in the context of the rigid planning system. table 1. cases of participatory e-planning within urban planning and community development in finland. cases of e-planning in finland purpose implementation the role of icts or ci espoo internet forums (see staffans, rantanen & nummi, 2010) to transform planning into a transparent learning process by creating different types of interactive digital forums that mobilise participants. local web sites in espoo comprising inventory, planning and development forums with interactive mapping and commenting tools. a single channel tool embedded in traditional urban planning. the solution provides the planners and participants specific data concerning the planning case. softgis-methodology (see kahila & kyttä, 2010) to develop a gis-tool that can provide qualitative data of the physical and social environment that is geographically contextualised. the methodology was first developed for research purposes but later on also for participatory planning to be used by the planners. the web-based mapping and commenting tool, based on gis, has been applied in several neighbourhoods around helsinki, turku and vaasa from the perspective of child mobility, adult housing preferences, safety issues, etc. a single channel, gis-based toolkit with several applications for people of different age and locations. currently, the use of technology is being transformed into a more participatory approach. roihuvuori neighbourhood yard (see saad-sulonen & horelli, 2010) to enable the visioning and planning of a neighbourhood yard in helsinki, which mobilised and empowered participants of different ages and gender to shape and appropriate their locality. the traditional participatory planning process was facilitated by an architect who organised several planning sessions with different age groups, extended with ci-activities with adolescents who used digital tools. a multi-channel and -dimensional toolkit, embedded in ci-assisted participatory e-planning. the local web site comprised web and mobile tools, such as the urban mediator, podcasts, etc., that enhanced participation. caddies (see http://www. caddiesproject.eu/) to improve the participatory structures of neighbourhoods in three different countries, by applying ci-assisted participatory e-planning at the glocal level. application of a web-based communication platform that allows mobilising visioning of the neighbourhoods in helsinki, norrköping (sweden) and riga (latvia). ci-assisted participatory e-planning with a set of digital tools (facebook, podcasts, mapping tools, simulations, etc.) at the same time, the second case softgis-methodology (kahila & kyttä, 2010), was being developed in order to gather and analyse locally-based user experiences of environmental quality. softgis was a tool for researchers who could assist planners in their task of urban design and planning. the questionnaire-based data was geo-coded and integrated in the mapping analysis. the softgismethodology has been successful in producing different kinds of urban information. even though it is place-based by nature, it has been adopted in many regions in finland (kahila & kyttä, 2010). recently, the softgis has also been developed to study urban environments in japan and australia. the tool has gradually evolved towards a more participatory mode, as it seeks to provide feedback to the users of the results of the specific planning process. however, it still remains an expert device and not one that enhances participatory e-planning in its deepest sense. empowerment of the residents and the community plays an important role in the last two cases of table 1. in the case of roihuvuori neighbourhood yard (saad-sulonen & horelli, 2010), the researchers and civil servants enabled adolescents to participate in the planning of a common yard around the youth house together with other age-groups, in 2009-2010[6]. the application of icts meant that tools, such as the local website and the urban mediator, were used as platforms and means to co-create, share and distribute information. for example, during the planning and design stage, an array of participatory methods, both face-to-face and mediated by icts, enabled stakeholders to take part in both the design of the yard and in the adaptation of various tools to interact with the larger community (figures 3a and 3b). the approach also enabled the participants, especially the adolescents who took part in media production activities, to think and act as masters of technology, instead of being passive users and mere consumers. figure 3. empowering stakeholders in the case of roihuvuori neighbourhood yard by using icts and face-to-face methods to co-create urban space (photographs by joanna saad-sulonen, 2010). even if the roihuvuori case was a local application, the urban mediator as a tool is globally-based. urban mediator was constructed in a pan-european development project. the tool itself is similar to social media applications, such as bambuser and the now-defunct floobs, and thus it enables glocal information sharing and planning. however, the main contribution of the urban mediator is that it is the first web 2.0 and mobile phone device in the field of urban planning which has integrated community informatics (ci) in participatory e-planning in finland. caddies (helka, 2009; kanervo, 2010) stands for the glocal project creating attractive, developedand dynamic societies together with inhabitants. it aims to spur different resident groups to participate in the shaping of their environments on the neighbourhood level with generic, yet user-driven ict applications in helsinki (finland), norrköping (sweden) and riga (latvia). a variety of community engagement methods and communication platforms (see the participatory infrastructure in figure 1) have been developed and tested in practice within the caddies project. these have enabled a glocal visioning and strategising that enhance the co-production and sharing of knowledge, as well as the implementation of new ideas. for example, the swedish inhabitants were encouraged to arrange events to support sustainable living. in helsinki, local committees and other informal governance structures for local democracy were organized on the basis of the visioning. efforts to build a civil society in latvia, after the soviet regime, were initiated and supported. thus, the caddies project helped neighbourhood activists from different countries to share their experiences and learn from them. the communication structure that enabled the sharing consists of neighbourhood web sites with a variety of digital tools, mash-ups, and integrations of the most popular applications of social media, such as rss feeds and facebook. in addition, a new mobile tool, similar to fixmystreet (http://www.mysociety.org/projects/fixmystreet/), was created and is is under development. the cultural differences of the nordic and baltic countries are small, but still significant. however, the project has been able to share and distribute methods and new content through ci-assisted participatory e-planning that address both the local and global levels in a new way. impact of participatory e-planning on urban planning and community development the number of applications described above is limited, but they indicate an evolution towards a more participatory mode of e-planning in which the glocal dimension has also been recognised. it is evident that icts provide new forms of participation according to the preference and skills of the users. participation does not only take place in official workshops, but in everyday life situations that enable the transmission of personal ideas and proposals through computers and mobile phones. the impacts of participatory e-planning on urban planning are various. one of the shared features in table 1 is that there has been an increase in the number of: new actors and also participants technologies (multi-channel distribution) purposes (multi-dimensionality) contents of planning stages of planning fields or disciplines icts and their use in urban issues have introduced new participants to the processes of urban planning. the traditional forms of participation, i.e., neighbourhood meetings and local rallies, have been complemented by digital arenas of social media applications that invite people who not only live in a place, but feel connected to it, or other active groups who wish to be involved in the planning case. the new participants have access to the case through a multitude of web sites. they can comment and share information in various locations and situations, supported by mobile phone applications and urban screens. commuters and people who spend time on leisure activities, such as shopping or travelling, have an opportunity to take part in planning cases which used to be introduced only to local inhabitants and enterprises. it is also likely that the number of active senior participants will grow when they are able to share their information outside of the on-site meetings. in the cases of espoo internet forum and roihuvuori neighbourhood yard, the context-aware design and implementation of the participatory e-planning tools also succeeded in gathering adolescents and people who would have been too busy to participate otherwise (wallin et al., 2010). in addition to the new participants and technologies, new stages of participation have emerged in the planning cycle. all examples in table 1 indicate that the participation could have started earlier than is the norm in traditional planning. in the case of softgis, the information gathering served the research on the physical and social qualities of the environment, which was used for defining the planning objectives before the opening of the planning procedure. the comparative analysis disclosed that the use of e-planning tools and arenas were the most advanced in the caddies project and in the roihuvuori neighbourhood yard. the social media-based applications that were used brought a new dimension to urban planning. the communities were encouraged to develop their own visions and to process them through planning and other community development actions. thus, urban planning was fed with a new context, purpose and content when interested people put their mark on it. the co-building of the new tools and modes of functioning has been a multi-disciplinary task. architects have joined forces with community developers, software developers, social media professionals and the factual users, i.e. participants from different communities of practice (cops). one of the main outcomes is that the former bureaucratic and closed process of urban planning has opened up. formal participation processes have become a more open field for experimenting and playing. therefore, we can draw the conclusion that e-planning and the use of icts enhance public participation and transform both urban planning and decision-making (figure 4). figure 4. participatory e-planning and the use of icts enhance public participation, and transform urban planning and decision-making. we will take a closer look in the next section at the preconditions which have enabled the helsinki neighbourhoods association (helka) to develop and use e-planning tools in a way that has made it a glocal player. how to become a glocal player? the evolution of participatory e-planning and its impact on urban planning and community development have not happened by accident. the preconditions that have made the evolution possible are the technical, institutional and organizational capacities of the civil society actors. the development of these capacities has been the concern of research on both urban planning and glocal process (see sassen, 2007; castells, 2008). in fact, the development of the capacities of the helsinki neighbourhoods association (helka) began a long time before caddies. helka was founded in 1964. it is a non-governmental umbrella organization for 77 local voluntary associations in helsinki. its main interest has been the enhancement of the everyday life perspective in municipal decision-making and the promotion of sustainable development in planning and housing in the whole capital region of finland. the executive director of helka, pirjo tulikukka, explains that: (t)he big issue for helka is the vision of a local supportive community. the challenge is to co-develop locally sustainable structures that will encourage women and men to construct a better daily life. the nature of the vision is quite soft. it is rather an instrument for sustaining daily life than a goal that is based on hard values. anna kanervo, the former project director of helka claims that “helka´s main strategy has been, for the past ten years, to systematically construct a flexible and dynamic communication structure.” in the 1990s, helka constructed the first local web sites, called the home street (www.kaupunginosa.net), in three neighbourhoods of helsinki. the idea was and still is that helka provides the content management system of the web site and the local activists co-produce and deliver the content. currently, there are 35 active local web sites in the home street. in many neighbourhoods, the web sites have become platforms that integrate other local sites and information services. all sites have a strong local identity of their own due to the dual strategy that separates the content production from the content management system (kanervo, 2010). in addition to technical capacities, the institutional and organizational capacities of helka have increased rapidly in the past five years. as an independent actor and a major provider of the local communication structure, helka has become a key player in participatory local governance and even a recognized partner within the city administration. it translates the local “languages” to the decision-makers and mediates messages both ways. helka is partly funded by the city of helsinki, partly by various projects, such as the local city trails project and the safety project that reduces the fear of crime in neighbourhoods. due to their ict know-how, helka has become a popular partner among technology firms and institutes which wish to develop innovations in the “living lab conditions”[7]. the implementation of the living lab experiments has meant constant iteration between the developers and users. helka has not only steered the objectives of the ict tools, but also formulated the technical requirements of web and mobile applications, which is unusual among non-ict-related ngos. the key to their technological advancement has been the partnerships between the city of helsinki, the helsinki university of technology and some ict companies, which have assisted helka both financially and pragmatically. the catalyst for the development of the three capacities has been the public-private-people-academia partnerships (quadruple-helix). with the resources of creative partnership-networks (lindberg et al., 2011), helka has been able to develop the home street sites and to introduce new web 2.0 semantic tools and services, such as a local calendar and help desk service. in fact, the on-going development of the platforms and tools on the local web sites have not only increased the accessibility to services and events, but also invited people of all walks of life to become co-producers. as an ngo, helka is not part of the establishment as such, but an agile player in the expanding field of environmental and participatory citizen movement. since the early days of neighbourhood activism, helka has also become a key player in the regional development of the metropolitan area[8] in which a model of participatory local governance with contents of digital public services was created. the latter has now been introduced to the baltic region through caddies. the rigid urban planning processes have witnessed a new player, with new means and objectives to improve the environment, not only in helsinki, but potentially throughout the baltic region. thus, we claim, on the basis of the analysis of literature and documents, interviews with key persons and our own experience with conducting action research in one of the helsinki neighbourhoods for several years (saad-sulonen & horelli, 2010; horelli & wallin, 2010; wallin & horelli, 2010) that some of the preconditions for becoming a glocal player lie in the systematic development of institutional, organisational and technical capacities. discussion we asked in the beginning of this article what the position of participatory e-planning is within urban planning. we also inquired whether participatory e-planning that mainly serves the community, helps stakeholders play with the glocal. and, if yes, on what preconditions does this take place and with what consequences for urban planning and community informatics? ci-assisted participatory e-planning contributing to the content of urban planning the nature of urban planning and community development is, in general, dependent on the level of democracy and type of administration of the societal and cultural context (bäcklund & mäntysalo, 2010). irrespective of the varieties that exist, the evolution within urban planning towards more participatory approaches is currently conspicuous in the practices and legislation of western industrialised countries. however, participatory e-planning has not yet been recognized within the planning literature, nor has it entered the mainstream of urban planning (wallin et al., forthcoming). nevertheless, the finnish examples that exist at the fringes of urban planning and community development allow one to see that a dramatic change has taken place within participatory e-planning towards more interactive and empowering approaches in which ci is being applied. the cases in table 1 show that even the purpose of participation has changed, as it is no longer the contestation of the planners´ ideas, but an endeavour to co-create shared visions and solutions, even before the official planning procedure has begun. the nimby attitude (not in my back yard), characteristic of the traditional participation in urban planning, has changed into a yimby (yes, in my back yard). thus, the talking heads have become working hands, as the participants have turned into developers of their own neighbourhood (see case roihuvuori in table 1). the process theories, such as communicative planning, do not usually deal with the content (gunnarsson-östling, 2011). however, ci-assisted participatory e-planning has brought forth most important changes to the content of planning. the applied community and urban informatics do not only deal with location-based data, but with context-related and personalised information about environmental visions and other themes which bring a new dimension to the substance of urban planning and consequently to the community. besides statistics, relevant issues for the community will improve as civil servants and decision-makers have up-to-date and online data. consequently, ci-assisted participatory e-planning seems to contribute to the “substance theory” of urban planning, as the process and tools bring forth radically different means and issues to the public discourse. citizen participation will no longer be just a problem for the planning system, but rather a source of strategic and deliberative knowledge that provides a tool for the anticipation and management of urban functions. capacities and infrastructure as preconditions to play with the glocal the comparative analyses and the case study on the involvement of helka in the caddies project revealed that ´playing with the glocal` is a complex, multi-dimensional process that takes a long time to develop. playing has meant here an effort to cope with issues related to environmental improvement, locally and beyond. the precondition for helka to become a glocal player was the systematic development of skills as a civil society actor. the co-creation of its technical, organizational and institutional capacities allowed helka to transcend the local to the regional, and eventually to transnational levels. helka had both technical, social and cultural know-how to glocally apply a collective bottom-up perspective (borja & castells, 1997; nielsen & simonsen, 2003). however, besides these capacities, helka also had the opportunity to be involved in the co-creation of a set of tools that to a certain extent was similar to the hybrid infrastructure of communication (figure 2). the latter comprises a variety of coordinated tools and platforms of real-time technology. for example, the interactive screen at the herttoniemi metro station could inform the residents where the zumba or french lessons were in the evening, or encourage women and men to take part in the informal co-governance of the neighbourhood through the meetings of the local working groups and forums. these configurations were part of the informal local governance which strived to better the supportive infrastructure of everyday life (figure 1). in practice, the latter turned out to be a typical assemblage (dovey, 2011), i.e., a bundle of resource attributes and a network of people, places, activities, services and technology. these intersecting and interdependent people-place-network-relations constitute diverse realities that are seminal in the co-management of complex urban activities (jarvis, 2009; horelli & wallin, forthcoming). this requires, according to innes & booher (2010, p. 200), the building of resilience and community capacity in the face of inevitable new challenges. an expansion of the scope of community informatics the glocal cross-border networking around participatory structures and environmental improvement by a variety of municipalities in different countries meant not only an expansion of the concept of e-planning, but also of community informatics. according to gurstein (2007), community informatics refers to the application of icts for the benefit of shaping local communities. however, local communities have begun to influence global communities. they are becoming glocal players who promote the type of glocalisation that khondker (2004) calls macro-glocalisation, meaning that it takes the practices of local citizens as the starting point. playing with the glocal through participatory e-planning is so far a metaphorical term, as our cases come from a tiny culture and the “glocal players” are representatives of only few countries. however, our examples can be regarded as weak signals that indicate the future course. many questions remain unanswered. for 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(ed.), handbook of research on e-planning: icts for urban development and monitoring (pp.1-14). hershey, pa: igi global. staffans, a., rantanen, h. & nummi, p. (2010). online environments shake up urban planning – developing local internet forums. in s. wallin, l. horelli & j. saad-sulonen (eds.), digital tools in participatory planning (pp.37-58). espoo: aalto university, centre for urban and regional studies. susskind, l., mckearnan, s. & thomas-larmer, j. (1999). the consensus building handbook. a comprehensive guide to reaching agreement. london: sage. tulloch, s. (compiled) (1991). the oxford dictionary of new words : a popular guide to words in the news. oxford: oxford university press. wallin, s., amati, m., saad-sulonen, j. & horelli, l. (forthcoming). urban and community informatics transforming participation in urban planning: lessons from helsinki and sydney. wallins. & horellil. (2010). the methodology of user-sensitive service design within urban planning, environment and planning b: planning and design, 37(5), 775–791. wallin, s., horelli, l. & saad-sulonen, j. (eds.)(2010). digital tools in participatory planning. espoo: aalto university, centre for urban and regional studies. wellman, b. (2001). physical place and cyberplace: the rise of personalized networking, international journal of urban and regional research, 25(2), 227-252. williams, a., robles, e., & dourish, p. (2009). urbaning the city: examining and refining the assumptions behind urban informatics, in m. foth (ed.), handbook of research on urban informatics: the practice and promise of the real-time city (pp. 1-20). hershey, pa: igi global. [1] the relational mobility tools are part of network capital, because they enhance the accessibility of ties in a social network, increasing the value of social resources and the support they provide (rettie, 2008). [2] community informatics is the study and practice of community development which enables neighbourhoods with icts to achieve the community's socio-cultural, economic, political and environmental goals (gurstein, 2007, p. 11). community networks or networked communities are gradually emergent and bottom-up, meaning that they are co-developed by the participants themselves (wellman, 2001). [3] the learning-based network approach to planning and community development (lena) is a method and a set of tools to analyse, plan, implement, monitor and evaluate planning and community development. it was originally shaped within participatory projects with young people and women, and later on applied in the context of time policy and time planning (figure 1; horelli, 2006; 2010). lena is based on post-structural planning theories (booher & innes, 2002; hillier & healey, 2008), as well as on the theory of complex coevolving systems (mitleton-kelly, 2003). the latter implies the parallel existence of tensions created by order and chaos, the emergence of phenomena and processes, the self-organisation of different stakeholders, and their co-creation of products and systems. [4] urban time policies mean public policies and planning interventions which affect the time schedules and spatio-temporal organisations that regulate human relationships at the local, regional and even national or european level (mareggi, 2002). in practice, time policy is implemented through time planning which deals with the coordination of several interventions that take place on different levels and varying sectors of administration. the measures consist of diverse activities, such as working, care of children, use of services, mobility management, as well as the shaping of the dwelling and the neighbourhood. [5] social capital refers to the possibility to mobilise resources, embedded in social relations and networks, for the benefit of some purpose (lin 2001). [6] the yard was constructed according to the plans of the participants in the summer of 2011, after which the users continued to fine-tune the place. [7] a living lab is a citizen-business-public partnership operating in real life environments which provide human-centric, user-driven innovation services (mitchell et al., 2003). [8] this took place well before caddies, in the citizen channel project in which the four major cities of the capital region asked helka to develop and test a cross-border model for regional participation in urban planning. helka was able to create a model of participatory local governance that enhances co-operation over municipal borders, especially in the field of transportation and library services. the promises and perils of open government data (ogd) the promises and perils of open government data (ogd) tim g. davies zainab ashraf bawa this special issue of the journal of community informatics explores the promise and practice of open government data (ogd). in the last decade, ogd has risen from being a niche cause in a few developed countries to becoming pervasive in the policy agendas of governments across the world. in the recently launched open government partnership (ogp), discussions around ogd have become the focus of a significant networked movement of technologists, activists, the private sector, and civil society actors. the online publication of structured datasets by governments is seen as playing an important role in driving the transparency and accountability of states, enabling new forms of civic participation and action, and stimulating economic growth and development. over 100 ogd initiatives are active across the globe, ranging from community-led ogd projects in urban india, to a world bank sponsored ogd programme in kenya, government-led developments in brazil, civil-society initiated work in russia, and a world wide web foundation supported programme in ghana. while ogd has become a focus of global attention, we are still to understand how it plays out in national, sub-national, and local community contexts. the papers and notes in this special issue make a contribution towards a more nuanced understanding of ogd policies and practices. they explore particular historical trajectories of government policies with respect to openness, data management and data-use, and look at different approaches to publishing, creating and using datasets of relevance to the processes of governance. in doing so, they provide a sharper understanding of the key challenges of ogd: the practical details that advocates of ogd need to engage with when they recognize that government data cannot simply be treated as a neutral and uncontested resource. the papers also suggest to ogd advocates that they must account for the differences in people's capacities to access and use data because these differences eventually shape, at least in part, the impacts, outcomes and distribution of benefits of ogd. the papers also question an implicit orthodoxy that the consequences of ogd will inevitably be "good developments" (yu and robinson, 2012) and therefore, the conventional wisdom as to who the winners and losers of ogd policies might be. to raise such questions is not to argue for or against openness, but to suggest that approaching ogd as a tool of pro-social change necessitates a critical understanding of how ogd creation and use operates in practice and in diverse settings, and that advocates and architects of open data need to account for these complexities when deciding how to act. this issue is offered as a constructive contribution to the developing debates and practices of ogd as global infrastructures, technical architectures, and grassroots movements co-evolve. it was published as a rolling issue, with an initial set of papers made available in april 2012 in advance of the first plenary meeting of the open government partnership, and a further set of papers and field notes added up until the end of 2012. our goal in adopting this approach was to combine the benefits of the peer-review and editorial processes involved in putting together a journal special issue, with the demand for practical and policy relevant analysis in a rapidly emerging and evolving field, where developments far outpace the speed of conventional scholarly publishing. this introductory essay was revised with the closure of the rolling issue in december 2012. the earlier version is archived here. many discussions of ogd focus on it as a new phenomena: a technologically enabled discontinuity from the past. an exclusive emphasis on ogd as part of "the next big thing" can mask the historical processes which have shaped the current advocacy, practices and tools of ogd. what counts as government data emerges from the rich history and long-standing practices of state record-keeping and archiving systems, and the deployment over time of various technologies of governance. these historical practices point us to the state's changing political rationalities regarding openness and secrecy of government information. the meaning of "open" in ogd draws upon successive experiments with openness across a number of fields of endeavor. while tracing a complete historical trajectory of ogd merits a standalone paper, in this editorial essay we want to discuss how visions of openness have evolved over time and informed ogd advocacy and policies in different parts of the world. in the course of this discussion, we will refer to the papers and notes that feature in this special issue, and explore how they variously challenge, build on, and provide new framing for ogd policies, projects and advocacy. visions of openness: code, data, government "open data" is just one of a number of high-profile labels with the prefix "open". open government, open access, open innovation, open education and open knowledge are some of the other initiatives and movements in this area. many of these draw from the emergence of "open source" as the inspiration for their development (willinsky, 2005; berry, 2008, lathrop and ruma, 2010). yet, "open" is an incredibly broad and multi-dimensional term. wittgenstein’s notion of "family resemblance" concepts (wittgenstein, 1953) is useful here to capture the overlapping intentions and meanings of openness. when you look at open access, open source and open data, for example, there is an evident resemblance, like looking at members of a family, but this resemblance cannot be put down to some simple property all members of the family have in common – there is a much more complex set of similarities and dissimilarities at play.   in many settings, specific notions of "open" are primarily articulated in opposition to some "closed" sets of arrangements that are being challenged. for example, the application of intellectual property rights (iprs) to software, emerging from the 1970s onwards, in environments where peer-to-peer norms of source code sharing were already established, stimulated the articulation of "open source" (and free software) as the preservation of existing relationships between programmers (berry, 2008). this oppositional construction can allow many parties unhappy with the status quo to collaborate in calling for change, whilst not necessarily specifying in full what the goals of that change are. however, as the note from asne kvale handlykken in this issue outlines, advocacy for openness may need to be prepared for the long-haul, as short-term policy wins can quickly be eroded by non-implementation or counter-lobbying from vested interests. handlykken paper uses a case study of the adoption of the open source policy in south africa to draw out a cautionary tale for those who would see the existence of open data policies as the end of an openness campaign, suggesting some of the political and practical obstacles that a policy commitment to open data could face in a complex political context. whilst the connection between open source and open data is often drawn, the strongest equation in many national discourses on open data is with open government. distinct from “open data”, narratives of "open government" have generally been understood as a reaction to long-standing cultures of governmental secrecy, and, more recently, to the limited scope for citizen participation in policy making (yu and robinson, 2012). the latter position has emerged, in part, as a response to the gap between government practice and new or evolving articulations of the democratic rights of citizens. open government is conceptually linked to democracy, and seen to be an intrinsic good for modern states. a significant number of ogd interventions in countries such as the uk and india have initially been justified on the basis of the contribution open data can make to ‘open government’, emphasising citizen entitlements over the state, and the need to foster greater transparency and accountability in decision-making and resource allocation processes. however, other advocacy for open data draws more upon technological narratives of openness as facilitating new modes of production, enabling more efficient delivery of services, or as supporting the role of competitive market forces in the operation of government services. jo bate's paper in this issue asks about the different understandings that ogd advocates in the uk have of the open data agenda. it questions whether open data movements risk being co-opted as part of a neo-liberal project of state deregulation rather than acting in the interests of social progress and democratic futures. drawing on interviews with participants from across the uk's open data movement, the paper looks at how political differences and differing visions of the goals of openness have been downplayed in the advocacy for government data: "the result of converging pressures and interests". bate's paper also explores the tensions emerging in ogd, mainly between practices driven by a logic of citizenship and participation in government and those driven by "hegemonic capitalist institutions" and an interest in market over social provision of services. the paper ends with recommendations for a deeper dialogue and broader debate informed by perspectives from community informatics, compelling us to think where we are headed in the development of ogd. katleen janssen’s paper takes a specific look at the relationship between the right to information movement, which has strong connections to transparency and accountability conceptions of open government, and the emerging open government data movement. janssen asks whether ogd is set to increase effective access to information, or whether a focus on ogd could displace attention on the legally binding right to information, and could lead to concerns about the intellectual accessibility of information being neglected as ogd releases rely on technically skilled intermediaries to turn data into accessible information. visions of openness: data as a common resource one route to an understanding of how openness manifests itself in contemporary ogd initiatives is to draw a distinction between the openness of processes and openness of artifacts. smith et. al present an account of openness in ict for development (ict4d) which focuses on process. they describe openness as "a way of organising social activities that favours: a) universal over restricted access, b) universal over restricted participation, and, c) collaborative over centralized production" (smith et. al, 2008), emphasising openness as a multidimensional continuum in which some data or some governmental activity could be more or less open. openness here is presented as incorporating a set of values and ways of working. by contrast, the widely used opendefinition.org (okf, n.d.) (which draws inspiration from the open source definition (osi, n.d.)) offers a binary definition of what it means for an artifact to be open. it states that to be open, data must be accessible online, published without technical restrictions to re-use, and provided under a license that allows the data to be re-used without limitation, including across different "fields of endeavour" (i.e. commercial and non-commercial alike). the legal status of the artifact is generally regarded as particularly important by open source and open data movements in order to facilitate the creation of a common pool of data that can be freely "mashed together" without concerns about incompatible restrictions that may have been placed on different datasets by their owners. whether this "common pool" of data constitutes a true commons or public good, accessible to all, is a key question to ask in the development of open (government) data. berry has explored how the common pool of source code sought by open source advocates may function more like a "club good" than a commons, promoting the freedom of the virtual guild of technically skilled developers, but doing little to promote the freedom of non-technical actors and communities (berry, 2008). openness as a process generally needs to be rooted in local communities, whereas in a world of increasingly aligned intellectual property regimes, openness of artifacts is more prevalent. bhuvaneswari raman's paper in this issue explores the power relations underlying specific ogd initiatives linked to land ownership information in the local settings of bangalore. by looking at the forces that have driven the move towards open data and identifying the groups to whom data is being made open and accessible in practice, raman highlights the potential risks of opening data in the context of unequal access vis-à-vis the capacity to use that data. this raises a significant challenge for the construction of a common pool of freely licensed data, where a binary logic that regards data as open or non-open dominates. in practice, however, "open" and "closed" are not absolutes. these concepts are relative in that both state institutions and communities continuously negotiate the boundaries of entitlements, legal interference and autonomy through various historical, social and tacit practices of opening and closing information. analysing the state of ogd in government institutions, rolie cole's note suggests that in practice, institutions have always negotiated a space between closed and open access to data, adopting numerous strategies to accommodate degrees of openness. cole predicts that such strategies will stay with us for a long time to come, with opendefinition notions of openness continuing as one of the many ways in which data will likely be made open. government data: partial, incomplete, unreliable? government data is not always a pre-existing, complete entity. "datasets" to be made open often exist in the form of paper records, surveys, reports, entries in registers, and files. when demands for this government data are made, officials have to collate it from their archives as well as from different departments that are responsible for providing the same services or resources. anne thurston’s note, based on the experience of the international records management trust, argues that even when data is available, if the underlying records from which it is generated are not well managed, the potential for that data to be used to effect change are diminished. the incompleteness, or what is referred to as the "mess" of government data, stems to a substantial degree from the historical practices of maintaining records, and what (and how) government officials interpret as explicitly constituting "facts" in these records. further, officials often bear a good deal of "government" and "public" data on their person and in their memories. data is often "embodied" in this way because officials may only be able to provide services and develop infrastructures by overlooking or bypassing the regulatory frameworks which prevent straightforward fulfilment of claims (bawa, 2011). if they were to "officially" maintain such records, they would at least implicitly be implicated in the very "illegalities" around which the data is to be collected and which the state is trying to curb. further, as historian ann stoler (2002) argues, governments classify some information as "secret" because the state itself is unable to resolve the problems posed by the information. thus, government officials rarely maintain records of street vendors in cities and the state of sanitary infrastructure because, among other reasons, they are unable to resolve the challenges posed by these conditions. the need to protect their interests or those of their constituencies, constitute additional reasons why officials maintain some data as secret or inaccessible. this partial nature of government archives is highlighted in nithya v. raman's field note as she details efforts to access data on bus routes and public toilets in chennai. raman's note highlights not only the practical challenges of getting hold of datasets from diverse institutions, but that frequently the datasets available may not offer the most authoritative information for a given issue. information may exist instead in the head of a key actor, or "informally" recorded in notes and paper records, which are not comprehensively encoded as structured data. in focusing on getting structured datasets, we gain a lot in terms of the share-ability of formally structured information. but there is also a potential loss or missed opportunity of engaging with the depth of tacit knowledge which is not easily translated, encoded and deciphered in open datasets. it is then important to ask whether absolutely complete, true and verifiable information is the primary tool for interactions between citizens, communities and the state, or whether open information, available in any form, is the key to fostering negotiations and bargaining between government officials and citizen groups? the same technologies that support the opening of government data also provide citizens with the opportunity to scrutinize their governments. many datasets (such as public toilet or bus route and timing data) play a dual role in supporting service provision (finding the next bus or public toilet) and enabling citizen scrutiny of public services (i.e., analysing whether provision of services meets the commitments made by politicians, or identifying corruption where records of payment made for providing a service do not match local realities). this accountability may require a combination of government data, secured either through the government (as in, for example, the release of local government public spending data in the uk) or through right to information (rti) acts, enabling grassroots data-sourcing supported by technically capable civil society groups. in this way, civic ogd impacts may not result simply from national policy or from a pool of data dominated by government produced data. as raman concludes in her note, a combination of approaches to access data and pursue accountability are required. at the same time, it may be useful to question whether it is accountability that is desired in all circumstances, or whether responsiveness and trust are elements that need to be present for certain rights to be fulfilled, and for particular socio-economic groups to claim political space in state and society. an answer to this question necessitates that we attend to the specificities of contexts, claims and histories of state-citizen interactions to concretely understand the impacts of ogd. ogd and influence on decision-making early narratives of ogd implied that simply releasing open data would be enough to promote improved policy making and to increase government accountability. however, rather than a cohort of citizen "armchair auditors" using data to directly influence government decisions (mcclean, 2011; maguire, 2011), ogd feeds into decision making in more subtle (though not less significant) ways. the paper from simon mcginnes and kasturi muthu elandy questions whether more data is always better, looking at unintended consequences of publishing performance data. focussing on how data can be used by citizens and policy makers to make choices over public services, or to punish and reward service providers, they explore the discontinuities at work when data is released. their findings suggest that whilst gains transparency may bring benefits, there is a complex rather than linear relationship between more data and greater pro-social impact. sharadini rath's paper in this issue discusses the importance of communicating analyses of ogd to government officials and elected representatives, and engaging them in interpreting the data. rath describes how she was able to take a range of government datasets and use them to produce analyses and digital graphical representations (in this case, maps) in order, as a party outside government, to provide an evidence-based input into policy and planning processes. however, on their own, the statistics generated did not provide answers. it was in taking this data to local elected representatives and initiating a dialogue around them that rath uncovered the meaning of the data. local officials were able to bring "their deep knowledge of local conditions and possibilities" into conversation with the data, although even the insights gained from this process did not necessarily drive politicians to take action. rath's paper highlights that the extent to which the exploitation of underused state data resources can drive change depends not only on the arguments and ideas that data can support, but also on the political landscape and the extent to which informed local actors can influence the institutional locations where policy and resource allocation decisions are made. while rath describes working with government provided data, producing data to inform government decision-making can be an important form of action for communities, especially when this data is provided in open ways that allow it to be combined with other sources. the same technological shifts that break government monopolies on analysing and managing information can also shift the balance of power when it comes to producing information. shashank srinivasan's note describes a process of co-producing data on the tso kar basin in ladakh with the changpa people in order to support more informed decision-making about development activities in the area. when combining grassroots information with existing top-down data structures, sensitivity is required from those encoding the data to ensure that local knowledge and practice remains visible and is not discounted in the process. shashank describes the challenge of translating the changpa community's perceptions of their landscape into a structure that could be fed into a geographic information system (gis). shashank's note also raises key questions about the role and extent of involvement of external facilitators and agencies in creating and actualizing ogd. architectures of ogd although many of the factors that influence the potential impacts of ogd are influenced by histories of government data and the politics of openness, ogd actors are also constructing new spaces, platforms, tools and practices that seek to create new relationships between states and citizens. each of the hundreds of ogd initiatives taking place across the world need to make decisions about which technical platforms to adopt, the processes by which to choose data, and the extent to which an ogd initiative provides support for particular groups to engage with open data resources. a number of notes in this issue address the practical choices involved in the development of an ogd initiative. open data portals and directories that catalogue discrete datasets have become the public face of many ogd initiatives. these portals and directories vary in the extent to which they provide a space for citizens to request, engage with and even collaborate on producing data. sometimes, they are simply a place where government hosts the data it chooses to make public.  wolfgang both's note describes the process of creating a data catalogue in the city of berlin. here, city officials did not simply want to replicate the catalogue of contents that other cities or states were opening up. instead, they collaborated with the department of economics and technology in an online survey to identify priority datasets to be released. the survey, which attracted primarily more technologically savvy respondents, highlighted some of the datasets that citizens were most interested in, although the final decision of what to release first was also driven by a pragmatic focus on which datasets were easier to release. tom demeyer's note describes how in amsterdam the process of opening up government data was driven by an "apps competition", inviting developers to build prototype web applications using datasets. app contests have played an important role in giving form to the potential of open datasets, providing tangible examples of what data can do. however, they also face limitations, with few resulting in applications that are sustained long-term. demeyer describes how the amsterdam app competition incentivised release of government datasets, providing a means to engage with different government departments. in evaluating the competition, demeyer raises a number of key issues from the need to pay attention to privacy when opening government data, to the challenges of securing an ongoing supply of data instead of one-off releases of datasets which can quickly become outdated. the construction of technological platforms and intermediary tools to provide access to open (government) data is an area of rapid development. many open source and community projects are working to create data-specific tools, such as openspending.org which is developing a standard platform to capture and analyse country budgets and other public spending information. as these tools develop around specific datasets, there is a need to connect them with bottom-up community issues, and to identify the interventions that are needed for both, the architecture of ogd initiatives as well as the development of grassroots capacity to avoid the emergence of new data divides (gurstein, 2011). fiorella di cindio's paper addresses the design of online platforms for open data from both technical and social perspectives. drawing upon learning from over 10 years of designing online civic engagement, di cindio's paper provides a model for thinking about the development of deliberative digital habitats: online spaces where data can form part of civic dialogue. she outlines the importance of considering technological and social dimensions of these online spaces as well as being attentive to issues of ownership. di cindio also suggests paying attention to whether data created through civic dialogue is being managed in truly open spaces, or whether it is being lost to proprietary systems. this shift in perspective, from ogd driving functional "apps" to ogd feeding into wider civic discourse highlights the importance of tracing the ways in which increased access to data will, in practice, impact decision making. connecting with community grounded research into ogd impacts: we published this as a "rolling issue" of the journal with paper published between april and december 2012. we did this in order to support a conversation around the meanings and practices of ogd from critical and community perspectives. even in this short time, the conversation has been developing, although note always towards a more nuanced understanding of openness. the papers in this issue explore how the technological possibilities of open data can be both enabling and disabling, depending on the specific contexts of communities and their relationships with information and the state, and the approaches taken to open up the data. further research and critical practice continues to be needed to provide the insights that can guide ogd in directions that will work to the advantage of the most marginalised and excluded. this is work we hope to contribute to over 2013 and beyond on a project entitled ‘exploring the emerging impacts of open data in developing countries’ as part of the web foundation and idrc open data research network. in the april 2012 version of this introduction we set out give five key themes emerging from the issue that have been instrumental in shaping our own research plans, and that we hope can also provide you with directions to explore in considering the powerful potential, and significant challenges, of making ogd work as part of progressive change: grounded descriptions of local practice: a number of the papers and notes in this issue show both the challenges, and opportunities of working with ogd at a local level. description of diverse cases of ogd use in practice and accounts that go beyond anecdotes are vital to support the design of open government data policies and practices. we have seen that ogd is not a panacea, but it can be a useful tool for creating new ways of working, and for negotiations, bargaining and claiming political space.   identifying the impacts of technological structures: the digital architectures and data standards involved in ogd, whether created inside government, by corporations, or by open-source community efforts, all impact upon what can be done with data: what is recorded and made visible, and what is hidden or hard to access. it is therefore necessary to excavate and explain how these "back-end" systems of technology and information curating processes impact the "front-end" of what appears as "data" to the rest of the world. this would also involve analysing proprietary and openly available technologies, and how each of these tools and platforms affords/disables the possibilities of opening information in particular ways.     understanding framings and frameworks of openness: ogd initiatives are interventions in political space. whilst much ogd advocacy has sought to downplay politics, the new political formations created by shared interests in open data should not be ignored. research needs to understand ogd in the context of relationships between communities and power.   exploring the relationship between ogd and law: writing and documentation have been deemed as powerful tools in history. documenting and publishing information changes the status of the information. published information acquires the status of evidence, over time, as it circulates in different spatial and temporal contexts. at the same time, ogd advocates conceive of data obtained through rti and freedom of information (foi) legislations as "evidence" of infractions committed by the state. it now becomes necessary to explore this "evidentiary paradigm" (ginzburg, 1989) that underlies published information, and to understand the emerging relationship between ogd and law. the implications of this relationship extend to state-citizen interactions, notions of "openness" and "secrecy", and the manner in which technology will be deployed for opening data.     imagining and exploring alternative ogd practices: the ogp and other formal and informal global collaborations are promoting shared knowledge around ogd practice, often drawing on templates from developed countries. jo bates' paper ends with a recommendation for "civil society, local communities, and domain experts" to develop "tools and resources that empower people to imagine alternative futures". there are many possible futures for ogd policies, platforms and practice. imagining and exploring these alternatives is a key part of identifying the approaches that can connect ogd with the concerns of communities, and with serving the interests of those most marginalised.   references bawa, zainab. (2011). where is the state? how is the state? accessing water and the state in mumbai and johannesburg. journal of asian and african studies, 46(5). berry, d. m. (2008). copy, rip, burn: the politics of copyleft and open source. pluto press. ginzburg, carlo. (1989). "clues: roots of an evidential paradigm", in clues, myths and the historical method. baltimore: johns hopkins university press. pp. 96–125. gurstein, m. (2011). open data: empowering the empowered or effective data use for everyone? first monday, 16(2). lathrop, d., & ruma, l. (2010). open government: collaboration, transparency, and participation in practice. o'reilly media. maguire, s. (2011). can data deliver better government ? the political quarterly, 82(4). mcclean, t. (2011). not with a bang but a whimper the politics of accountability and open data in the uk. okf open knowledge foundation. (n.d.). open knowledge definition. retrieved march 4, 2010, from http://www.opendefinition.org/ osi open source initiative. (n.d.). open source definition. retrieved from http://www.opensource.org/osd.html smith, m., engler, n. j., christian, g., diga, k., rashid, a., & flynn-dapaah, k. (2008). open ict4d. stoler, ann. (2002). colonial archives and arts of governance. archival science, 2(87-109) willinsky, j. (2005). the unacknowledged convergence of open source, open access, and open science.first monday, 10(8) wittgenstein, l. (1953). philosophical investigations. (p. m. s. hacker & j. schulte, eds.) yu, h., & robinson, d. g. (2012). the new ambiguity of "open government." towards systems design for supporting enabling communities time, space, and the wireless community network marco adria director of the graduate program in communications and technology university of alberta <marco.adria@ualberta.ca> abstract wireless zones are of increasing interest to scholars and practitioners of community informatics because of their promise of universal access to technology. they have been established quickly by municipalities, cooperatives, and private companies, especially in urban centres. the spatial organization of wireless zones conforms to the design of urban spaces and to existing or envisioned transportation routes. following transportation routes for the design of communication infrastructure has its roots in the 19th-century strategy of threading the telegraph network through the continental railways. the implications of such a strategy for community uses of technology are considered in this article. drawing on medium theory, it is argued that participation in community informatics in an era of virtual identities and mediated communication requires attention to the broad effects of technology, particularly in connection to changing conceptions of time and space. an important implication for community networks is that a preferred design option for the network may be to establish clusters of wireless islands that are characterized by the use of both mediated and non-mediated communication and by place-based wireless content. the reduction of distances has become a strategic reality bearing incalculable economic and political consequences, since it corresponds to the negation of space (virilio 2007, 149). introduction wireless zones have been established by municipalities, cooperatives, and private companies, especially in urban centres, but also in small rural communities (vulcan 2004). these zones are of interest to those studying and organizing community networks because they seem to resolve or address the problem of providing universal access to members of a community. a wireless zone may be located either indoors or outdoors, with access to users provided through devices such as laptop computers or personal digital assistants. the spatial organization of wireless zones can be considered in relation to the historical design of urban spaces and of transportation routes. in the 19th-century, the business strategy was adopted of threading the telegraph network through the continental railways. the implications of a similar strategy for community uses of technology are considered in this article. drawing on medium theory, i argue that in an era of virtual identities and mediated communication, participation in community informatics requires attention to the broad effects of technology. conceptions of time and space are reconfigured by wireless zones. some implications of this change for community networks are offered. municipal wireless zones have been established in large u.s. cities such as philadelphia and san francisco and in some canadian cities including st. john, new brunswick, and edmonton, alberta. the extent to which these zones are free (that is, allowing people to use the system without financial charge), ubiquitous (covering a large geographical area), and open (without limits on the content available to users) varies considerably. wireless philadelphia was an early adopter, establishing a wireless zone in 2004 that now covers a large part of the landmass of the city, some 10 square miles (proof of concept acceptance 2007). the project includes an initiative to provide subsidized access to high-speed internet for low-income citizens. the project has not proceeded as quickly as planned, after the private provider, earthlink, found that the cost of hardware was higher than anticipated (snags 2007). in edmonton, a wireless zone has been established in core areas of the downtown (edmonton 2007), with free access provided in spaces in and around city hall. plans for extending the network would result in forming a northeast axis of approximately 10 kilometres, beginning at the university of alberta’s main campus south of the north saskatchewan river, following the light-rail transit (lrt) trains across the river, through the downtown core of the city, and to the lrt’s northern terminus in suburban belvedere. beyond metropolitan edmonton, a wireless zone has been contemplated as one of the amenities associated with the construction of a fast-train corridor between alberta’s two major cities. the edmonton-calgary corridor wireless zone would also form an axis, but over a much greater distance. a 300-kilometre wireless corridor would be formed north to south, tracing the major highway connection between the two cities and also tracing the route of the proposed fast train. wireless zones and medium theory to set wireless zones for community development in its domain of inquiry, we should note that the theoretical basis for community informatics remains relatively underdeveloped (stoecker 2005; de moor & weigand 2006). it has remained rooted in an ethos of praxis, with practitioners and scholars concerned mainly with explaining the values by which the social movement may be sustained (buré 2006; schuler & day 2004). medium theory provides a possible theoretical basis for community informatics because it is concerned with identifying imbalances and contradictions in human perception following from historical media innovations. it also provides a relevant critical perspective, since it argues for a broadly-based social ecology of media. it allows for systematic analysis of the embeddedness of technology use in social groups, which is integral to the practice of community informatics. the french medium theorist paul virilio (2006) sees technology as the most profound of influences on human perception. he regards media innovation as invoking the same effects on perception as that of the larger category of technology. an elision of media into the broader category of technology follows the practice of medium theorists such as innis (1951), marshall mcluhan (1964), and, more recently, joshua meyrowitz (1985) and ronald deibert (1997). medium theorists argue that new technologies create new social and psychological environments, in which large-scale changes in patterns of behaviour may be discerned. changes in the patterns of social action described by medium theory are not directly caused by technology but are more likely to become potent in the new environment. a new medium favours some changes and discourages others. for example, the almost universal use of television has served to increase the permeability of divisions in the stages of child development, since through television children now witness (previously private) adult conversations (meyrowitz 1985). establishing a primetime viewing period in the evening reduced, but did not eliminate, differences in what was once viewed as properly belonging to childhood and what is now considered to be associated with adulthood. deibert (1997) points out that the bias or favouring aspects of a technology do not appear spontaneously as individuals and groups abruptly drop certain social preferences and adopt others. instead, a ‘web of social preferences’ changes over time. the changes in question are therefore inter-generational changes, not intra-psychic ones. social preferences are relatively intractable in the short term. furthermore, over longer periods of time, technologies that are used intensively may ‘reverse’ their effects, in one historical era helping to create a shared sense of identity and a shared purpose, but in another era encouraging atomism and anomie (mcluhan & mcluhan 1988). community informatics theorists and medium theorists are not concerned with mutually exclusive theoretical concerns. for example, scholars of community informatics try to address the unintended consequences of technology adoption and therefore have in part adopted the lens of medium theory. medium theory’s central insight is that social and economic blind spots are created by new technologies. these blind spots may aggregate to form a regime or a ‘bias’ of either space or time (innis 1951). a society’s dominant technology represents an orientation to or emphasis on one of the human senses, which then becomes associated with a widely held bias of space or time. writing, with its emphasis on the visual sense, is associated with a bias of space, and this bias has been intensified by the proliferation of the screen display. with the invention of writing, information could be delivered over vast territories, favouring the rise of empires. mcluhan referred to this historical shift in his epigram, “an eye for an ear” (mcluhan 1964). the oral culture and social environment were left behind, although not entirely, since orality constitutes much of the content of the new medium. for those seeking to understand and respond fully to the implications of technological innovation, there is work to be done in identifying the blind spots associated with the design, adoption, and use of the new technology. like community network scholars and practitioners, medium theorists seek to assess a new technology in its social context by comparing local cultural changes with the pattern of changes observed in previous historical eras. the advent of wireless zones which herald some uses of technology will be widely recognized and acknowledged. others will remain invisible. medium theory, while seeking to assess and describe, does not eliminate human agency from new social environments. change is possible, but often in incremental terms and in circumscribed contexts. jacques ellul (1981) states the following in a way that would provide a roughly representative statement for other prominent medium theorists: [i]t was never my goal to go back, to declare that technology must be eliminated. i was looking for a new direction. . . . all this led me to concentrate on local initiatives, that is, to rely on direct and close relationships to form groups for investigating the issues that require people to take a stand on technology and the technological system, but which are also very concrete (80-81). the use of the internet for mediating local activities corresponds to either of two basic models described by feenberg and bakardjieva (2004). these are the ‘consumption’ and ‘community’ models. the consumption model involves searching for and retrieving information, which is made available for a market price. in the consumption model, users rarely talk to one another, because price is the medium of communication: privacy, anonymity, reliability, speed, and visual appeal are desired properties of this virtual space, mobilizing armies of designers in search of competitive technical solutions (1). by contrast, the community model represents ‘relatively stable, long-term online group associations mediated by the internet’ (2). these associations are largely uneconomic, providing returns that are connected to the community’s values, norms, and meanings (etzioni & etzioni 1999). the community informatics ideal is based on the community model of internet use described by feenberg and bakardjieva. it seeks what kellner calls more ludic uses of technology, that is, the more playful kinds of uses representing a ‘more ecological mode of social organization’ (kellner 1998, 14). such an ecology is decentralized, immersed in humanistic concerns, and responsive to direct human observation and concrete social action. yet the consumption and community models of the internet described by feenberg and bakardjieva are themselves a set of recently developed conceptual alternatives to the more historically stable model of military logistics described by virilio (2006). this is the model that gave life to the internet and which is still used to inform certain aspects of the consumption model. two fundamental aspects of the internet as a social environment will be discussed: changing conceptions of time and of social space, including altered patterns in the movement of people in urban areas. some implications of these changes are then suggested for communities seeking to use wireless zones within the praxis of community informatics. changing conceptions of time implied by the wireless zone media innovations are associated with changes in how people conceive of time. as noted, innis has drawn attention to the biases of either time or space that have been introduced by the widespread adoption of a new medium. radio in north america in the 1930s and 1940s, for example, was associated with an increasing centralization of administrative power (innis 1951). considering the influence of the internet on conceptions of time, we should observe that the communication environment of the internet is ‘always on.’ this implies new patterns of interaction for individuals and groups. time is continuous and unpunctuated by interventions by individuals or groups. to take a familiar example, online discussions continue without discernible beginnings or ends. mass popular culture, which is propagated by the internet and forms the main point of interest for millions of users, takes the form of a ‘flow,’ largely unpunctuated by clock or calendar. similarly, the internet’s influence on communication was presaged by the social effects of the telegraph (lubrano 1997; standage 1998). following the practices introduced by the telegraph, the internet is oriented to a market of prices. with the advent of the telegraph, the practice of arbitrage, that is, of buying cheaply in one location to sell dearly in another, was reduced in importance (carey 2003). the telegraph introduced what were to become elaborated practices of buying and selling in time rather than in space. such practices as futures, options, and hedging followed. the internet has extended the exchange of information and prices throughout the day and night without pause. for scholars and practitioners of community informatics, continuous time in a market of prices means that the bracketing of social life with concrete action has become, as it were, an anachronism. action is seen as continuous in time, without any advantage accruing to individuals and groups choosing to live and work in proximity to one another, rather than in a virtual relationship. decisions, too, are now part of a seamless rolling forward in time. historical examples of the development of technologies can illustrate this interpretation of technology. consider the missile crisis of 1962 (adria 2003). on october 22 of that year, in response to a perceived buildup of soviet weapons in cuba, president kennedy requested that canadian defence forces adopt a state of heightened readiness. on october 24, kennedy demanded that cuba remove its missiles and imposed a blockade. at about 1 p.m. that day, the canadian units of norad assumed, 42 hours after being asked to do so, the state of readiness requested by the u.s. the delay became a source of bitter political criticism and the eventual defeat of the diefenbaker government at the polls the following year. the soviet missiles had been moved to a location close enough to the u.s. that the time-frame for decisions to act had been condensed to an unacceptable degree. virilio notes that, 10 years later, in 1972, when the normal waiting time was down to several minutes – ten for ballistic missiles, a mere two for satellite weapons – nixon and brezhnev signed the first strategic arms limitation agreement in moscow. . . . [t]his agreement . . . threatens from one day to the next to reduce the warning time for nuclear war to less than one fatal minute –  thus finally abolishing the head of state’s power of reflection and decision in favor of a pure and simple automation of defense systems (virilio 2006, 155; italics in the original). there is no claim being made here that the internet, or any technology, necessarily or directly causes one decision or another to be taken in either world politics or community networks. however, communities should remain sensitive to the direction of changes in patterns of behaviour favoured by the internet, in the manner described by deibert (1997) in his study of the structuring effects of the printing press. the conversation, the small group discussion, and the congress are displaced by the internet to be supplanted by interactions between individuals and groups separated in space. like the cellphone, the wireless zone ‘thickens’ time because it allows people to do more than one thing at once, at the expense of spontaneous expression and a wider expanse of authentic human relationships (fortunati 2002). changing conceptions of space and the wireless community network with the telegraph and then the internet, fundamental changes in how time is conceived have been accompanied by shifts in how space is regarded and used. just as time is ‘thickening’ as wireless zones are established, space will continue to be ‘filled up’ with programmed activities that are recorded, tracked, and archived by surveillance technologies. to understand modern organization, states nigel thrift, we must understand the capacity to ‘register, understand, and engineer smaller spaces and times’ (2001, 2). the wireless zone is an engineered smaller space in which an intensified monitoring of human activity is made possible at all times. a useful comparison of the community network and the internet may be made to reveal something of changes in the uses of space by considering the intention of individuals and groups in the respective creation of each. the community network arose out of the intention to create meaningful spaces within which democratic processes could be renewed. the originating intention of the internet, by contrast, was to protect and isolate space as a strategy of consolidating national security. the network’s purpose would be to decentralize information and communication capacities to reduce the effects of nuclear strikes on u.s. soil. commenting on the consequences for space introduced by the telegraph and then the internet, virilio states that [t]he countryside, the earth is henceforth give over, definitively consecrated to war by the cosmopolitan mass of workers, an army of laborers speaking every language, the babel of logistics (2006, 85). virilio points out that the internet has not changed as a technological form since its inception. its design continues to rely on speed, simultaneity, and vectors as organizing principles. the speed of communication has been increased to the level of simultaneity, with applications allowing for real-time interaction, including videoconferencing, instant messaging, and internet phones. the vector is concerned with accurately predicting locations, trajectories, and destinations. with the release of google map, earth, and street, the vector fully constitutes the design of the urban infrastructure and gives form to the wireless zone. the wireless zone encourages certain patterns of movement for individuals and groups in space, which are moderated and managed by the city’s architecture. the architecture of the city is revealed in the design of the built environment and includes buildings and homes, but also bridges, streets, airports, utility rights of way, open fields of vegetation or rubble, security checkpoints, and bodies of water. the internet conforms to the architecture of the city and to its main function, which is to ensure that the movement of people is more or less predictable and at all times subject to direct control. for example, the prolonged occupation of the streets by large groups has historically been suppressed since it has been regarded as an incitement to violence. the vast surface of the urban street is to remain a vehicle throughway in constant motion. even insubstantial resistance to this principle, in the form of slow driving, has given rise to the new mental maladjustment of ‘road rage.’ similarly, the presence of the fraction of the population who migrate from one place to another is a permanent feature of the city – a cohort that the community informatics ideal seeks to serve and support. the design of the city provides for the continuous movement of migrants through zoning regulations which give progressive economic advantage according to the relative permanence of homes. the homeless inhabitants of the city, too – those who are on their way to nowhere in particular – are maintained in circulation within the city. this is accomplished through enforcing ordinances against loitering, but also through enacting parking bylaws which do not allow any part of the roadway to remain covered with a vehicle or anything else for more than a day or two. the infrastructure for wireless zones are physically entwined with this movement-managing infrastructure of the city. the equipment for wireless philadelphia includes towers owned by the private company earthlink, and licenced by the philadelphia city department of licences and inspections. routers are located on light standards at a density of 30 per square mile and licenced by the department of streets (proof of concept acceptance 2007). the intertwining of community networks, technology, and the urban infrastructure is reflected most clearly in the ownership and management of the base network by incumbent telecommunication companies. design alternatives for wireless community networks the community network could take into account changes in conceptions of time in several ways. it might create opportunities for face-to-face gatherings in which people meet one another for impromptu purposes and allow for chance encounters with strangers. similarly, it might ensure that summaries of asynchronous conversations are provided in different modes; the outcome of an asynchronous discussion that has unfolded over several months, for instance, could be presented orally. by understanding changes in conceptions of time, and responding to these changes deliberately and concretely, community networks would be in a better position to make meaningful use of new wireless zones. likewise, community informatics as a social movement and as an ideal is constituted by individuals and groups whose ethos for establishing a network is that they are not moving. instead, they contribute to the development of a meaningful place, which is part of the identity of the community. if the city is constantly on the move in the ways described, the community network’s use of wireless zones might be designed to alleviate or at least take account of architectural elements that would undermine the community network’s vitality. one method that might be used to strengthen the connection of the community network as wireless zones are established would be to reject or modify the strategy of full virtualization. attention might be given to siting the physical space of the community network in historically or symbolically significant locations. this would underline the community network’s commitment to a particular space. in this way, the ‘community’ model of the internet described by feenberg and bakardjieva could be confirmed. in response to the increasingly opaque office towers in cities, visibility could be provided to the interior of the community network’s premises from the street at all times of the day. regular congregation within the space could be organized for such community-building activities as social rituals of various kinds, regular and spontaneous celebrations, and meetings for administration and governance. encouraging the flexible and morphological use of space in the community is a possible means of complementing or resisting the implications for space that are extended by the wireless zone. community networks using wireless zones as a key part of their strategies may wish to create forms of interaction and organization that are alternative to those characterizing the logistics and tactics of programmed space. mcluhan noted that with the introduction of the television into the home, the circle of the family had been disturbed and had now become a semi-circle (mcluhan & szklarek, 1999). the use of metaphorical and material circles has informed first nations culture and practices and could be considered by the community network as a potentially useful design principle. finally, the urban tapestries project in west london is a prototype for producing locally developed cultural work as the core of a community wireless zone (urban tapestries project 2007). here, a public authoring system was used to demonstrate the creative and socially progressive activities that are possible in a wireless zone. communities posted their impressions of the sounds and sights of city spaces. neighbourhoods explored new ways to learn about local history and contemporary issues. using relatively inexpensive and easily obtained components, ‘feral robots’ were even commissioned to record local levels of air pollution in communities, for subsequent analysis. the ubiquitous cosmopolitan blanket of wireless access may not be desirable for community networks. instead, a cluster of wireless islands may be preferable. within each wireless island, the design principles could emphasize the strategic combination of physical and virtual space, network and face-to-face interaction, and small group transactions and convening the congress. wireless community networks in time and space a totalizing view of technology is evident in the work of virilio, as it is in the work of martin heidegger, jacques ellul, and marshall mcluhan. from this perspective, technology is seen as a demiurge, that is, as ultimately influencing and shaping all human experience. such a view underestimates the diversity of technological forms, the varying intentions of users, and the resiliency of human agency. the method employed by these theorists, however, is to uncover the unrecognized structuring influences of technology as a means of understanding its full scope in human life. achieving such an understanding need not be grounded in an anti-technological stance, but may be rooted in the conviction that without understanding of what is at stake in technological change, meaningful social action in response is impossible. if the gestalt of medium theory could be stated in a word, it might well be to understand. medium theory provides a route to insight and rich description, from which strategies for action may be devised. community informatics as an area of study and praxis has developed through several eras of technological development already. the wireless zone represents yet another stage in this progression. by grounding its practical and strategic work in the fundamental categories of time, space, and the movement of people, and by fully employing the explanatory power of medium theory, community informatics could anticipate a sound basis for further development. the approach may also suggest practical methods for understanding and responding to the social consequences, intended and unintended, of the wireless zone. references adria, m. (2003). arms to communications: idealist and pragmatist strains of canadian thought on technology and nationalism. canadian journal of communication 28, 167-84. buré, c. (2006). digital inclusion without social inclusion: the consumption of information and communication technologies (icts) within homeless subculture in scotland. journal of community informatics 2(2). carey, j. (2003). time, space, and the telegraph. in communication in history: technology, culture, society, crowley, d., & heyer, p., eds., 157-65. toronto: pearson. de moor, a., & weigand, h. (2006). effective communication in virtual adversarial collaborative communities. journal of community informatics 2(2). deibert, r. (1997). parchment, printing, and hypermedia: communication in world order transformation. new york: columbia university press. edmonton introduces free public wireless internet access. 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(2007). retrieved november 26, 2007 from http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/60382.html standage, t. (1998). the victorian internet: the remarkable story of the telegraph and the nineteenth century’s on-line pioneers. new york: walker. stoecker, r. (2005). is community informatics good for communities? questions confronting an emerging field. journal of community informatics 1(3). thrift, n. (2001). timing and spacing. paper presented to ‘spacing and timing: rethinking globalization and standardization. palermo, italy, 1-3 november. urban tapestries project. (2007). retrieved june 27, 2007 from http://urbantapestries.net. virilio, p. (2006). speed and politics. m. polizzotti, tr. los angeles: semiotext(e) ____. (1997). open sky. j. rose, tr. london: verso. vulcan gets connected to wireless. (2004). retrieved november 26, 2007 from http://cgi.bowesonline.com/pedro.php?id=71&x=story&xid=117087 empowering chronically ill patients and their caregivers using remote monitoring technology janelle howe director, disease management, healthcare partners medical group lori larson care coordinator, healthcare partners medical group chan chuang associate medical director, region vi, healthcare partners medical group jeremy rich director, healthcare partners institute for applied research and education a medical neighborhood is a community comprised of patients, informal caregivers, (family and friends) and clinicians engaged in promoting positive health behaviors while enhancing satisfaction and improving patient-driven health care. this clinical community may help decrease emergency department visits, hospital admissions, readmissions, complication rates, and acuity of health issues while increasing clinician office visits because patients are more activated in their health. health information technology is expanding rapidly as medical groups in the united states continue to evolve. remote monitoring technology can detect a patient’s disease symptoms earlier. this can lead to improved clinical outcomes, greater patient self-management, and less costly interventions. interactive voice recognition (ivr) is a form of remote monitoring technology that enables the patient’s clinical team to intervene sooner when a patient’s symptoms worsen. earlier treatment means a better outcome for the patient. by keeping patients in their chosen residence, this can lead to happier and healthier individuals while reducing the need for higher cost, more intensive care settings. this technology can also expand nursing capacity and help those struggling to manage their condition to better understand what is happening with their health and promote more active management of their condition. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd) is an escalating public health problem and a cause of chronic morbidity and mortality. it contributes to substantial health service use and overall cost of care. copd is an airflow limitation that is progressive and not fully reversible. moreover, the toll of copd can extend beyond the physical; feelings of isolation, depression, and loss of independence are common [1]. the national heart, lung, and blood institute estimates that by 2020, it will be the third leading cause of death in the united states. whereas 24 million individuals in the united states are estimated to have copd, only 12 million are diagnosed and actively managed [2,3]. early identification for diagnosis and treatment remains paramount to reduce disease progression and acute exacerbation. the 4 components of active management include (1) assessment and monitoring, (2) risk factor reduction, (3) management of stable copd, and (4) exacerbation management [2,3]. furthermore, patient education is important to help manage copd and should include disease awareness, medication administration, lifestyle changes, and disease exacerbation recognition. early exacerbation recognition can reduce hospital admissions, bed days, and emergency department (ed) visits, thus improving patient quality of life and decreasing cost of care. the current prevalence of copd at our organization comprises approximately 21,000 individuals. copd remains one of the top 10 diseases at our medical group that results in hospital admissions and 30d readmissions. in 2008, we launched a patient-centered health management program for copd patients with a focus on self-management; including, early symptom identification, using zones of copd symptoms, and medication management for flare-ups. this program was supported by registered nurses who initially met with patients in the clinic and conducted follow up with in-person meetings and by telephone to ensure the patient understood their copd selfmanagement plan. in 2011, we launched a pilot remote monitoring program using ivr technology to help expand clinical capacity and improve the application of user-friendly technology for older, chronically ill patients. many of our patients have visual, auditory, and dexterity impairment. therefore, it was imperative that the technology be easy to use, avoid burdensome set-up, not require battery changes, nor have monitor displays or internet connections. additionally, we opted for patients to enter their symptoms onto their telephone keypads instead of speaking into a phone because of potential speech impairment due to wheezing that is common with copd patients and could obscure symptom reporting. we wanted our health technology to be scalable and embraced by as many older, chronically ill adults as possible. moreover, we wished to evaluate the patient and clinical staff’s perceptions of this technology with regularly scheduled satisfaction questionnaires. after compilation of this survey, de-identified data was in composite form to patients and staff for their critical review. the ivr survey calls are based on copd symptoms corresponding to green, yellow, and red zones. self-management strategies are emphasized, highlighting symptom recognition and action plans are based on the national jewish health research and science program copd self-management plan. the action plan consists of various colored zones indicating increasing severity of symptoms; these green, yellow, and red zones contain questions pertaining to 4 categories of copd symptoms: breathing, sputum, thinking, and energy. the red zones indicate an emergent situation requiring physician intervention, whereas the yellow zone indicates symptoms of lesser severity that necessitate case manager initiation of the action plan. the green zone is baseline for the patient and does not require clinical involvement. patients complete the nine question survey weekly. these individuals enter their disease symptoms based on categories of copd exacerbations. patients answer the questions using their telephone keypad and their response is recorded by pressing 1, 2, or 3; these numbers respond to the green, yellow, and red symptom zones. the calls occur at noon, and if no response, there is a “back-up” call at 7:00p. the frequency of calling is either on thursday or monday and thursday; this once or twice a week calling schedule is based on patient and clinician input. reports are transmitted to clinicians in an actionable format; total score (9-27 total points); change greater than 2 from previous call, longitudinal trending, and no answer or an incomplete survey results are available to clinicians for evaluation and reaching out to patients within yellow and red zones. currently, at our organization, remote monitoring expands clinical capacity within our medical neighborhood. with this technology, 5% of the survey calls trigger nursing contact after every ivr survey. the program helps support the administration of emergency prescriptions whereby patients recognize worsening copd symptoms and follow-up in either the urgent care center or their physician’s office instead of an emergency department visit or hospital admission. this helps keep the patient at their chosen residence, eases caregiver burden, and decreases unnecessary health utilization. to further evaluate and refine the program, clinicians complete anonymous formal surveys every three months. the majority state that the ivr reports are easy to read and actionable; “we know which symptoms the patient is experiencing.” it also frees-up time and allows the staff to focus on patients who are more at-risk for exacerbation (“yellow and red zones”) than patients who are in the “green zone” or regularly in a yellow zone to a particular question as this may be “normal” for them. the technology did not substitute a nurse call or face-to-face meetings with patients; it supplements clinical contact and helps expand clinical capacity. similarly, after every 3 months, patients and family members complete anonymous formal surveys that related the following results: the majority responding that they appreciated that the calls were easy, did not take too much time (~2-3 min) and helped them (family, caregiver, patient) become more involved in the patients’ healthcare. ivr technology encourages patients to monitor their own symptoms; it is more effective than our paper handout on “zones of symptoms.” ivr has encouraged patients to report exacerbation symptoms with survey, when before the system; a patient might have been hesitant to call their nurse. conclusions engaging patients to proactively manage their health is a hallmark of patient-driven care and plays a critical role in the design, construction, renovation, and maintenance of the medical neighborhood. thus far, our ivr technology pilot program shows patients and family members recognizing exacerbation symptoms, improving treatment adherence, and decreasing hospital and emergency department visits. moreover, this technology helps expand the clinical capacity of staff thereby reducing stress and permitting our personnel to focus on the most at-risk older patients and help improve their quality of life. as we progress forward, there remains scant information using these technologies to activate informal caregivers in the health care of a loved one. this may serve as food for thought as medical organizations strive to meet the communities’ aims of better health, better care, and reducing costs while improving clinical outcomes. acknowledgements the authors gratefully acknowledge our patients, their family, and clinicians for critical input; support for this program is provided from the gordon and betty moore foundation and center for technology and aging, san francisco and oakland, california respectively. references arnaert, a, wainwright, m. (2008). developing a home telecare service for elderly patients with copd: steps and challenges. canadian journal of nursing informatics, (2):49-83. chuang, c, levine, s.h., rich, j. (2011). enhancing cost-effective care with a patient-centric chronic obstructive pulmonary disease program. population health management, 14(3):133-6. sussman, r. (2009). prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of copd. journal of managed care medicine, 12:5–9. book review: community-driven projects: reflections on a success story a case study of science education and information technology in south africa. reviewer: michael gurstein phd, editor in chief: the journal of community informatics, vancouver, canada j. phahlamohlaka (ed.). (2008). community-driven projects: reflections on a success story a case study of science education and information technology in south africa. pretoria: van schaik publishers. i first encountered this book while working in south africa a year or so after it was published in 2008. i was introduced by mutual friends to the primary editor (and author) jackie phahlamohlaka who was then, as he is now, working as a senior researcher with south africa's prime research agency, the council for scientific and industrial research (csir). when i finally got around to reading it, some months after i had received it, i was as the expression goes "gob smacked"... the book was the best case study and guide book to the practicalities — limitations, opportunities, risks and rewards — of community informatics (ci) that i had encountered. of course, neither the terminology nor the conceptual apparatus of ci was used, and much of the activity described in the book took place at a time (1992—98) and in locations far away from where ci was being formulated (i.e. in a relatively remote former (apartheid era) township — siyabuswa — in north central south africa, some 90 minutes from pretoria in the centre of mpumalanga and the ndebele kingdom). the results of this program — the siyabuswa educational improvement and development trust (seidet)— are presented in this book. the story at its simplest is that of jackie and friends from his community, having had the quite remarkable opportunity for those pre-democracy times to get a higher education (including for jackie, an idrc sponsored scholarship at dalhousie university in halifax, nova scotia) spending a considerable amount of their free time and personal resources in launching a community-based after hours (saturday) education process for young people in their community. these young people, because of the villainy of apartheid, had been denied an effective (in most cases any) education in the sciences and thus were denied access for all purposes to almost the entire range of contemporary sector employment opportunities. that they were able to launch this program, essentially on their own with almost no resources except some small material and moral support from their alma mater, the university of pretoria and particularly the community and community institutions of siyabuswa, is a truly remarkable story and it is one that pushes its way forward throughout the various parts of this book in narrative and almost short story form. idealistic young people go out into the world and then returning to their home communities to share the benefits of what they have learned, is the ideal expressed in many contexts but not always one that is realized in practice. the simplest parts of the story are the basics. the school that was launched provided instruction using local teachers as volunteers to teach local young people. that the school was remarkably successful in its primary objective of helping young people from the community gain sufficient instruction to enter into post-secondary education is well-documented in the book through the listing of the graduates from the program and their later accomplishments (evidently achieving a success rate double that of the norm from similar schools around south africa). but the book is more than simply this "success story". it goes into very significant detail on the actual processes — including mistakes and failures — through which the school was developed and run, first in its initial struggling days and then as it sought ways of solidifying itself and ultimately expanding and diversifying (developing satellite programs, developing a for-profit-arm, extending its partnership with the community and the university of pretoria, and so on). the book on one level is a "community development story" but at another level it is a "community informatics story", recounting how the siyabuswa community was activated and became, to a degree, self-empowered through its interactions with and support for the new technologies involved in the educational processes and most important in the processes of innovation themselves, as precipitated by the educational activities and their technology tools and supports. but the siyabuswa/seidet story is even richer than that in that it provides exceptional detail on the role of the university as a support to the education initiatives in a variety of ways, initially as providers of small sums to support travel and other out-of-pocket expenses; but eventually in much more complex and mutually beneficial areas including training of teachers, curriculum development, providing a venue for student (and faculty) research and so on. the story of an old and deeply conservative afrikaans language university finding a way of supporting a community-based initiative in a former township area is not specifically presented (it most certainly should be in a follow-on document) but it can be seen between the cracks in the failure of well-intentioned but top-down initiatives driven from pretoria, and in the evidently somewhat lengthy development of processes of collaboration between individuals and groups coming out of two very separate realities and finding methods for working together based on mutual respect and a recognition of the necessary contribution of each. the on-going story of how those who succeed in the larger world are able (not without difficulty) to maintain their rootedness in their smaller community world (and the intervention of the ndebele king in support of this) is a fascinating account in itself. and as well there is the basic structure of the book which is as a collection of papers, many of which are looking to situate the experience and the university-based research in the larger (although to my mind not always necessarily relevant) worlds of academic and discipline-based theory. in this regard, of particular interest for community informatics researchers is the account given of the development of the research partnership between the university of pretoria and the siyabuswa community — a great deal of learning can be derived from this particular segment(s) of the book. the book does not currently appear to be in press or available via amazon or other on-line services but perhaps the author(s) and publisher could be persuaded to republish it (or even better make it available as an open access on-line source). i know if it was available in this way i would use it as a primary text for my introduction to community informatics course. from digital divide to digital inclusion and beyond: a positional review david nemer phd candidate, school of informatics and computing, indiana university, indianapolis, united states. email: dnemer@indiana.edu the term digital divide holds a particular social and academic caché, but it is problematic in that it can lead to technologically deterministic thinking. it does not necessarily offer nuanced understandings of socioeconomic conditions under which the marginalized live. the term digital inclusion might be more useful, but it is still ambiguous since it may privilege the "digital" over other factors such as education and appropriation. this paper explores the different ways that scholars have been thinking about the digital divide and digital inclusion. it starts with perspectives of the digital divide that address issues of physical access to information and communication technologies (icts), education and technological savvy, and culture and sociopolitical empowerment. it also considers the scholarship that appropriates the perspectives of digital inclusion, different definitions of the term, different criteria by which inclusion is determined, implications of such perspectives, and the problems such scholars aim to solve by exploring digital inclusion. this literature review examines issues around the digital divide and digital inclusion, focusing on proposed initiatives to use digital technology to decrease the gap of access that exists between groups of different socioeconomic backgrounds. research on digital divide access between icts and social and economic development has been undertaken for decades. it has, in many ways, been limited by initial efforts at conceptualizing, understanding, researching, and responding to the issues of the digital divide (west 2006). perhaps the most obvious factor characterizing the digital divide is the extent of physical access to icts and the internet (loader and keeble 2004).1 chinn and fairlie (2004) describe the digital divide as the inequalities between any groups in terms of access and use of digital technologies. in this sense, the digital divide is usually concerned with statistics of access and can contribute by acknowledging where the gaps and problems are situated. is access enough? during the 1990s and into the early 2000s, scholars and government-sponsored studies mainly focused on the physical access to technology as the solution to the digital divide. the australian government (australian national training authority 2002) tried to promote better education to isolated students by simply offering internet access in order to improve the communication between students and teachers. caspary and o'conor (2003) advocate that providing ict access, as a given, to rural communities in developing countries would bring them economic benefits. the office responsible for online government services in the united kingdom, e-envoy, claims that the "opportunities to physically access the internet are now available to all" (office of the e-envoy 2003, 5). although this overall picture of increasing opportunities for access to icts appears as a significant step toward tackling the digital divide, the literature also suggests that it may act to disguise widening differential access and use of icts (loader and keeble 2004; correa 2008). in other words, digital technologies have advantaged those who already had access to other resources rather than people who didn't have such resources (van dijk 2006; west 2006). these digital gaps may aggravate current disparities between social groups because new technologies provide convenient access to information, a tool needed for taking part in a democratic society, as well as providing access to education, employment, trade, wealth, and health (correa 2008). studies have shown consistently that individuals who have access to icts, from the telephone to the internet, tend to have more schooling, higher incomes, and higher status occupations than do those who do not have access. chinn and fairlie (2004) propose a model that confirms the importance of per capita income in explaining the gap in computer and internet access. based on this model, they were able to tell the percentage of the population from countries such as the united states and china that were deprived from accessing computers and the internet (chinn and fairlie 2004). as already mentioned, the digital divide has been conceptualized as a gap between the "haves" and "have-nots" (van dijk 2006). this approach offered that spreading digital technology within the marginalized population would solve the problem of inequalities of the digital divide (peter and valkenburg 2006). to reduce these inequalities, the primary effort of policy makers has been to provide physical access to digital technologies such as computers and the internet (correa 2008). conversations regarding access focus on the technology and, as one might expect, largely on "haves" and "have-nots," which is problematic. the focus on technology access overemphasizes technological solutions, such as donation of laptops or programs like one laptop per child (olpc) (warschauer 2004). this does not leave space for other ways people come together and benefit from community technology access programs, including those providing community labs (such as community technology centers). these programs are used to find ways for community involvement in determining the technology and access services useful for them (bailey and ngwenyama 2009). van dijk (2005) and selwyn (2004) warned about the negative consequences of such a simplification of the issues around technology and access: providing software and hardware and not paying enough attention to the human and social systems which must change for technology to make a difference (warschauer 2004). furthermore, simply providing access to icts may persuade people that, as digital technology expands through society, the issues of the digital divide are solved. in addition, it may lead to the conclusion that digital inequalities are vanishing among developed countries and connected people (hargittai and hinnant 2008; van dijk 2006). accessing icts and the internet is different from accessing the content that nests on them (van dijk 2004). people may be excluded politically, economically, and socially if they don't attain the ability and appropriate the skills to use the internet (newhagen and bucy 2004). consequently, as more people are using the internet to communicate, retrieve information, and even contribute with content, "encouraging remaining non-users onto the first rung of the internet ladder will remain an important challenge to guide policy in the next few years" (office of the e-envoy 2004, as cited in livingstone and helsper 2007). however, academics and policy makers have increasingly conveyed that it is necessary to shift the focus from a simplistic and binary conceptualization of internet access to a more advanced and complex approach (correa 2008). in order for "individuals to fully realize the benefits of the internet we must help them move up the ladder-to move from basic activities such as e-mail and browsing to more advanced uses" (office of the e-envoy 2004, as cited in livingstone and helsper 2007, 4). helsper (2008) argues that there remains significant debate around the social and cultural aspects that may have helped or hindered the digital divide. in this sense, the digital divide cannot simply be understood as an absolute measurement of exclusion from access to icts (loader and keeble 2004). since 2002, research on the digital divide has been moving beyond physical access to pay closer attention to concepts that are concerned with issues around culture, empowerment, social mobility, and differentiated uses of the internet (e.g., de haan 2004; hargittai 2002; newhagen and bucy 2004; van dijk 2006). as the technological digital divide is decreasing between those with access to the internet and those without, the meaning of the term digital divide is evolving. evolving digital divide the emergence of this second wave of research on digital inequality has been identified as the (1) usage gap, (2) second-level digital divide, (3) emerging digital differentiation, and (4) digital inclusion. usage gap: van dijk (2005) has argued that access problems of digital technology gradually shift from the first two kinds of access, mental and material access, to the last two kinds, skills and usage access. when the problems of mental and material access have been solved, wholly or partially, the problems of a usage gap, structurally different skills, and uses come to the fore. the author proposed to define digital skills not only as the skill to operate computers and network connections but also as the skill to search, select, process, and apply information from a superabundance of sources and the ability to strategically use this information to improve one's position in society. they are called instrumental, informational, and strategic skills, respectively. second-level digital divide: hargittai (2002) and correa (2008) refer to the second-level digital divide as the production gap. this gap separates the consumers of content on the internet from the producers of content (reilly 2010). new applications have made it possible for anyone with a computer and an internet connection to be a creator of content, yet the majority of user-generated content available widely on the internet, like public blogs, is created by a small portion of the internet-using population (reilly 2010). emerging digital differentiation: van dijk (2002) and hacker and van dijk (2003) conceptualize the digital divides as recursive and thus a dynamic phenomenon where gaps close at one stage and open at another. for example, if internet access gaps are bridged, internet skill gaps or internet usage gaps occur. this approach suggests that characteristics of internet users play a more important role in shaping internet adoption and use than the characteristics of the network. the emerging digital differentiation approach tends to evaluate the social and political role of the internet critically, with slightly pessimistic, dystopian undertones (peter and valkenburg 2006). digital inclusion: crandall and fisher (2009) suggest digital inclusion is the rallying cry of the twenty-first century. they claim that digital inclusion goes beyond access to computers and the internet for all, regardless of physical, cognitive, or financial ability; it means technological literacy and the ability to access relevant online content and services. hache and cullen (2009) extend the definition by arguing that digital inclusion is the process of democratization of access to icts in order to allow for the inclusion of the marginalized in society. they claim that digital inclusion should be seen as a wagon to social inclusion that ensures individuals and disadvantaged groups have access to the skills to use icts, further indicating these individuals will be able to participate in and benefit from electronic-mediated, growing knowledge within an information society. what is digital inclusion? digital inclusion definitions, just like those for the digital divide, are misunderstood, especially in relation to the information society. the term has often been used, particularly by international organizations and the public sector, as jargon in appealing and populist policies, such as when providing tablets in exchange for popular votes (vicknasingam and mazlan 2008). the term has also been used for new and dazzling solutions for almost all gaps in contemporary society: poverty, social inequality, educational needs, social injustice, unemployment, violence, and crime, among others (bonilla and pretto 2011). such inconsistencies lead to ambiguities in understanding why and what it takes to be included in the information society. lemos (2003) questions these widely accepted assumptions, calling them the tenets of digital inclusion and exclusion. he proposes that the "information society," in which inclusion is a dogma and reflects the absence of discussion, provides the material conditions to access technology without questioning the cognitive processes involved, such as providing tablets to public schools and expecting the tablets to improve the quality of children's education. some may believe this is the way that society should be included in the information age. yet lemos (2003) rhetorically asks: what is this information society? who is this included person? and what would he do with the possession of these new tools? never mind. let this be the happiness of companies, ngos and tech companies which are going to sell us, under this ideology, more and more technological toys. (1) digital inclusion should examine the extent to which initiatives enhance interactions and possibilities of the marginalized people to participate and actively engage in current socio-technical dynamics. therefore, it is not just a terminological or semantic discussion about the term "digital inclusion" but a social reading combined with the analysis of political interfaces between the actors involved, seizing their critical and constructive senses (kok 2006). hence, digital inclusion policies and appropriation of technology should afford new social realities for those who have been marginalized from (information) society. appropriation and policies of digital inclusion bonilla (2005) proposes possible ways to escape from an inclusive logic that is linked to an economistic perspective, meaning that being "included" means to be a consumer. to the author, being a consumer of technology means to accept epistemologies from the west (united states and europe) concerning the "have-nots." in order to include someone digitally, bonilla seeks perspectives and policies that create opportunities so that the marginalized are able to participate, question, produce, decide, change, and become an integral part of social dynamics in all instances. such perspectives are summarized in one ideology: appropriation of technology. appropriation appropriation, therefore, should be at the core of every attempt to promote digital inclusion. for example, the program of socio-digital inclusion in brazil tries to tackle the issue of the digital divide by "allowing the appropriation of technology and development of people in the most different aspects, stimulate job creation and income, and promote quality of life for families, provide greater social freedom, encourage the construction and maintenance of an active society, educated and entrepreneurial" (bonilla 2005, 12). the appropriation of technology presented in the definition above, and in many other digital inclusion initiatives, must be understood in order to promote personal and community empowerment. the use of technology can actually make a difference and improve people's lives when incorporating appropriation in digital inclusion initiatives. anthony akubue (2000) defines it as the technology that is suitable to the social and economic conditions of the geographic area in which it is to be applied. furthermore, he suggests that appropriating technology is environmentally sound and promotes self-sufficiency on the part of those using it. according to mori and assumpção (2007), appropriating technology means that people who attend community technology centers (ctcs)-e.g., telecenters, infocenters, and lan houses (units of public icts access)-would be "taking over" the digital technologies, "making these people" own them. policies in ctcs the ctcs are also seen by gomez (2012) as potential units of digital inclusion in which people in communities need to act with autonomy and independence. in these units, managers have policies to enforce rules of use for the digital technology, which goes against the autonomist perspective. thus, marginalized people are submitted to a passive use and limited access to the icts since they have to follow these policies imposed by the units. not only do internal ctc policies hinder people's appropriation of technology, but governmental policies also hamper this appropriation when they don't take into consideration institutional and community structures (bonilla and pretto 2011).these standard governmental policies for dissemination of ctcs for access to digital technologies (telecentres, infocenters, and lan houses), seem to be the main strategy for promoting digital inclusion, especially in countries like brazil and india. in brazil and india, these governmental policies are followed as most of the population does not have the financial resources to buy their own icts (neves 2010; rao 2005; warschauer 2004). dias (2011) argues that although mobilizing large investment efforts by the government may seem significant actions to promote digital inclusion, the results and consequences of such efforts are still poorly evaluated. this is especially true in social and political aspects where only 4% of internet users in brazil use the free public access centers, while 45% of the internet users goes to lan houses (cybercafes) (bonilla and pretto 2011). the authors suggest lan houses are more sought after than public free units as the users have more freedom in lan houses than in free public units, where excessive control policies for digital technology use are in place. schwartz's (2006) critique of public policies aimed at digital inclusion shows the various political and conceptual errors that characterize the actions taken by the governments, such as providing lines of credits with low interest rates so new lan houses could be opened, but no education or training is given to the owners to run the facilities (nemer, gross, and true 2013). these public policies are further critiqued by pretto (2001), who supports initiatives that allow the "inclusion of citizens, not as mere consumers of products or information, but as reasonable people that participate in the contemporary world as ethical beings, and autonomous decision-makers" (45). in this sense, it would be necessary, for example, to evaluate whether or not the basic computer courses provided to the marginalized population actually contribute in some way to the formation of participative and autonomous individuals. these alternatives invite scholars to reflect on the course of policies and actions that call themselves digital inclusion in order to avoid ambiguities and shortcomings (pretto 2001). another alternative proposed by schwartz (2006) consists of "a concept of digital emancipation as a way to enhance the results obtained from traditional digital inclusion programs or to redesign them" (2). the digital emancipation, as proposed by the author, aims to "organize the production and demand for goods and services produced digitally by the communities served by digital inclusion programs" (2). these emancipatory perspectives seek to change the focus of policies and actions, emphasizing the production of digital content combined with the digital and traditional cultures, overcoming barriers in communities, and encouraging them to be autonomous (schwartz 2006; bonilla and pretto 2007). this approach emphasizes the importance of coordination of digital inclusion initiatives with educational and cultural issues and promoting political participation of citizens through ict use. it has been observed that cultural and educational issues are present when discussing digital inclusion (castells 2005). however, these issues are also often insufficiently addressed: the digitally marginalized have three great ways to be excluded: first, they do not have access to the internet. second, they have access to the communication system, but with a very low technical capacity. third, (for me is the most important form of exclusion and the least addressed) they are connected to the internet and do not know how and what information to seek, how to combine information with one another and how to use it to improve their lives. this is more serious because it broadens and deepens the most serious exclusion of all history, is the exclusion of education and culture because the digital world increases dramatically. (castells 2005, 132). beyond digital inclusion: the role of education, poverty, and citizenship in empowering communities digital inclusion must go beyond the physical connection and access to the hardware; in fact, it is not the access to the technology that will promote inclusion but how the technology will meet the social needs of local communities. implementing digital inclusion programs must empower communities, fight poverty, promote citizenship, and provide better education (nemer and reed 2013). education education is seen as an area that benefits digital inclusion since it shares the same belief that people's relations to digital technology should go beyond the technical perspective and mere access of it; it should promote its use with critical consciousness (freire 2005). according to warschauer (2002), education must be taken into account if meaningful and empowering access to new technologies is to be provided. palacios (2005) criticizes the digital inclusion initiatives that address the low educational and cultural aspects, highlighting the interplay between literacy, hegemonic culture, and digital inclusion: since we are in a society of exclusions, of extreme polarizations, the population that is digitally excluded is also excluded educationally and culturally. even in the sense of culture that we call hegemonic, from the elites, or academic and school [...]. so if you give access to a person and she/he is semi-literate, she/he would have great difficulty reading because she/he doesn't have a major skill in terms of western culture a culture that is driven by capitalism, that person would do very little in having access to a computer. (2) palacios understands that literacy is a prerequisite for the use of ict, which reflects on the need, or not, to be literate to interact in digital environments. the more inserted and participatory into the contemporary dynamics, such as to be enrolled in school, the faster the people will understand and be familiar with the digital process. however, with the convergence of media, it is possible that a semi-literate person could produce, interact, and trigger dynamics of content production in several languages, including increasing the person's literacy processes in all these languages. there is a great difficulty found among those that are raised in a strictly analog culture. whether literate or not, they wouldn't understand, at least not immediately, the digital logic, such as the need of electricity and the on and off button. some people from this culture, by facing an unknown environment, may feel alienated and scared, requiring training to feel comfortable in this new digital environment and culture. palacios (2005) believes there are several possibilities at play in the dynamic construction in contemporary culture, not a single path. oliveira (2003) and buzato (2007), point out that the link between digital inclusion and education in developing countries boils down to the holding of school activities in ctcs. this seems to be a very useful opportunity for students. however, the authors highlight a continued consumption of information by the students at ctcs, and they don't see any links between the practices at these spaces and pedagogic dynamics learned at school. also, these "links" are not proposed, planned, or encouraged by public policies. in developing countries such as brazil, public schools find themselves experiencing great pedagogical, structural, and technological difficulties (oliveira 2003). few students have access to computers in their schools, and the number of teachers who propose learning or cultural activities articulated directly with icts is even lower. buzato (2007) criticizes such situations where icts are used in an instrumental perspective, with poorly taught basic software courses, or to do a search on the internet, which does not alter the dynamics already established by the school. bonilla (2009) argues that the technological spaces in the public schools should be considered public centers to access icts. since technological spaces are already inserted in the schools, opportunity exists to link the digital culture and the pedagogic places to better digitally include the students. that is, such spaces should be used for intertwining school with everyday life, within the community, within the work place and culture, to promote a "space for the integration of young people in the culture of their time-and their time is marked by contemporary digital processes" (186). this approach would educate and create a digital culture among the population, allowing them to better understand the role of digital technologies in their lives and increasing the chances of appropriation and conscious use of icts. poverty since great social and educational needs are concentrated in the poorest parts of the population in developing countries, the focus of digital inclusion programs is to fight poverty in a sustainable manner. fighting poverty is constituted as one of the central arguments in the formulation of public policies dealing with appropriation. this is usually addressed with an welfare dependency approach in which people are seen as passive recipients of aid rather than as active transformers of their environment, becoming another issue superficially tackled in studies and digital inclusion initiatives (virilio 1996). according to schwartzman (2004), poverty comprises a complex issue that has no simple cause or treatment. accordingly, schwartzman suggests studies around this theme have given an understanding of the survival strategies of the poor and the way public and private resources are aimed at solving the problems of poverty becoming (in)effective in the concerned sectors. additionally, identifying the difficulties of adopting policies could change the living conditions of these marginalized populations, which "often fail to achieve the expected results, or have negative results, even when resources are available" (97). this happens because the generation and maintenance of poverty is part of the capitalist economic model and public policy. this model is focused on compensation, seeking only to maintain the balance between the forces in tension without effectively solving social issues. it does not offer the "instruments"-training, communication channels-required by the marginalized in order to demand their rights (schwartzman 2004). in this sense, we can assume that hunger is not the greatest problem of poverty; the lack of citizenship is the greatest issue because it prevents the poor from becoming subjects of their own destiny, even working to see that hunger is reduced (demo 1998). citizenship the argument of citizenship becomes the justification for political actions. several authors, including lafer (1988), correa (2002), and arroyo (2001), have discussed and focused on citizenship as a dynamic concept that evolves according to different historical contexts. arroyo (2001), by performing a historical analysis of the concept in the brazilian society, notes that "they need to redefine the concept of citizenship, restoring the issues of citizenship in other words, social citizenship rights, human rights, the basic human rights" (43). not only is there a need to rebuild the notion of citizenship but also to build different technologies for citizenship (eubanks 2011). "in order to do so, we must jettison the thinking that binds the marginalized to the distributive paradigm and narrows the vision of social justice in the information age. within the confines of access-only approaches, it is impossible to acknowledge or understand the experiences" (98) the marginalized "have with icts in communities, the social service system, and the low-wage workplace" (98). eubanks claims that "it is impossible to recognize, and therefore transform, the real world of information technology" (98) without adding the sense of citizenship. promoting digital citizenship also encourages digital inclusion; digital citizens use the internet regularly and effectively (mossberger, tolbert, and mcneal 2008). this perspective of citizenship is linked to the effectiveness of social and human rights by building participatory and dynamic public space. public space, according to lafer (1988), "is not the territory within the meaning of geographical locations and boundaries, but first and foremost a political and legal concept … that results from the action of its members" (219). therefore, public space is a prerequisite for the construction of citizenship and the realization of rights. arendt (2000) states that "the process of assertion of human rights, while the invention for living together, requires a public space, to which only you have access through citizenship" (22). correa (2002) also suggests the political process of building citizenship "aims to create opportunities for equal access to public space as a condition of existence and survival of humans as members of a political community" (221). based on lafer (1988), arendt (2000), and correa (2002), therefore, citizenship can be understood as a constructive political process and constitution of the realization of social and human rights. the understanding and experience of public spaces as spaces comprised of claims, constructions, and realizations of human rights, as argued by correa (2002) and berwig (1997), or as "spaces of all spaces and not the government," as claimed by toro and werneck (1996, 16), is therefore an essential condition for citizenship. equal access to public space goes beyond the elimination of poverty and social inequality; it means promoting democracy, political participation, and social engagement. such issues are not addressed in the measures of compensatory policies, as observed in many policymaking and digital inclusion projects; it represents human rights institutionally legitimized by the capitalist state. consider that, through icts, various spaces and digital information resources have been established in recent years. icts help make a space for dynamic communication and through the constant expansion of cyberspace. this is where social, economic, political, cultural, and subjective processes flow. additionally, consider that the right to access information and communication is part of fundamental human rights. citizenship is effective through living collectively in public space, and cyberspace is also part of the contemporary public space. access to communication through icts, therefore, should be on the list of human rights in contemporary society (bonilla and pretto 2011). equal access to ict extends beyond the proposed digital inclusion, which is based predominantly in overcoming poverty and social inequalities. the full use of icts is comprised of human rights, citizenship, and the dynamics of a generation of "new human rights." it is part of the contemporary condition of self-organization, collaboration, and horizontal processes that build the foundation for the establishment of a new social organization. therefore, no single technological solution will be an answer to the digital divide, however it may be defined. there are no silver bullets, whether wired or wireless, state or market-driven, mobile or fixed. these technologies need to be seen in the wider communication and informational environment in which they operate (wilson, best, and kleine 2005). issues related to digital inclusion are much more complex and multi-layered, as they cross economic, social, and cultural boundaries (helsper 2008). in this sense, the term digital divide is insufficient to explain the potential of icts in organizing the people around their goals of social transformation, or digital inclusion, even though it has a broad power of communication. in the absence of a term that best expresses the potential of icts and has "communication power," using the popular term digital inclusion, while pointing out their ambiguities, contradictions, and implications, seems to be the right way to go. footnotes 1 "internet" is often spelled with a capital "i." but according to markham and baym (2009), capitalizing means that "internet" is a proper noun and implies either that it is a being or a specific place. references akubue, a. 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(2002). reconceptualizing the digital divide. first monday, 7(7). doi:10.5210/fm.v7i7.967 warschauer, m. (2004). technology and social inclusion: rethinking the digital devide. cambridge: mit press. west, d. (2006). lenses for digital inclusion. the international journal of technology, knowledge & society, 2(1), 121-129. wilson iii, e. j., best, m. l., & kleine, d. (2005). moving beyond" the real digital divide. information technologies and international development, 2(3), 3-6. do icts help to maintain social capital in the disaster recovery phase? a case study of the l'aquila earthquake serena tagliacozzo1 & caterina arcidiacono2 phd researcher, institute for risk and disaster reduction, university college london, uk. email: serena.tagliacozzo.13@ucl.ac.uk full professor of social and community psychology, university of naples federico ii, italy. the use of new interactive communication tools, particularly social networking sites (snss), has grown considerably in the last couple of decades. according to boyd and ellison (2007), snss are defined as web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile, ar-ticulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and make visible their social net-works. new information and communication technologies (icts) are changing the way in which we communicate and interact with each other (hu, johnston & hemphill, 2013). these communication tools allow for a switch from one-directional communication (from the issuers to the receivers) to multi-directional communication where everyone can spread and exchange information. in addition, with this new form of communication, networks are no longer related to a specific space and the people who live there they are now outspread networks (sutton, 2010). this study examines the role played by icts in re-creating places of socialization and maintaining social capital in a post-disaster reconstruction scenario after the disruption of the physical environment that was once important for the creation and maintenance of these relationships. it aims to investigate whether (and how) icts can work as communication tools by allowing people that are dislocated post-disaster to maintain contacts with their previous social network and, therefore, to "virtually" restore the broken offline social fabric. first, we will analyze the literature on the role of icts, paying particular attention to snss for community building and maintenance of social capital. we will then briefly describe how new media have changed the concept of place and social relationships, and why the maintenance of social capital is crucial for disaster recovery. our preliminary task is to introduce the case of l'aquila before and after the earthquake of 2009, and the methodology and results of our research. literature review the role of icts for community development and maintenance of social capital social capital refers to the "resources embedded in one's social networks, resources that can be accessed or mobilized through ties in the network'' (lin, 2008, p. 51). some authors (szreter & woolcock, 2004, putnam, 2000) have identified three kinds of social capital: bonding (which refers to the bonds between people who are similar in terms of social identity), bridging (namely the connections between those who are unlike each other yet are 'more or less equal in terms of their status and power) and linking (relationships between people who are interacting across explicit, formal, or institutionalized power). the resources embedded in these networks can work either at the individual or the collective level (kawachi, kim, coutts & subramaniam, 2004). they are useful in an individual´s personal life, reducing personal stress (cohen & wills, 1985), whilst they can also be used to mobilize collective actions and foster civic engagement (putnam, 1993, 2000). we are interested here in analyzing the first function of social capital, particularly how new media such as social networking sites can support the creation and maintenance of the ties and resources that constitute social capital. social networking sites are becoming popular all over the world as they are able to produce instant communication and help people to connect, keep in touch, and exchange information quickly. these tools allow people to create "portable communities" (chayko, 2009), in the form of groups whose members connect via online and mobile technologies, regardless of the frequency with which they meet on a face-to-face basis. with these tools, social interaction has become increasingly disconnected from the particulars of time and space (giddens, 1991; meyrowitz, 1985). indeed, these tools have been proven to maintain existing ties within a network (bonds-raacke & raacke, 2010). this is particularly true when physical co-presence is impossible or impractical because of the inaccessibility of physical public locations. for instance, some authors (ellison, stainfield and lampe, 2007; steinfield, ellison and lampe, 2008) have noted that facebook is able to sustain the relationships between college students and their previous network when they have to move to other locations due to work or study reasons. further, facebook has strong technological capacities that bridge online and offline connections (phulari et al., 2010). more recently, grieve et al. (2013) demonstrated that facebook supports social connectivity online, although online and offline connectivity were found to be distinct. the authors concluded that "it seems that facebook use might provide an alternative form of social connection to the connection experienced in offline environments. if so, the utility of facebook connectedness may have specific implications for the social bonding of those individuals who are either unable, or unwilling, to connect with others in traditional environments" (p. 608). services such as email and instant messaging and other icts can help people to keep in contact, even if they don't meet very often in the real world. in this sense, they may be able to change the natural pattern of decline of relationships by maintaining relationships that would otherwise be destined to fade away (cumming, lee & kraut, 2006). similarly, social networking sites can bring together people that would otherwise not be connected in the real word (best & krueger, 2006). in particular, by providing information on other people's interests and hobbies, they may help to convert latent ties (ties that are technically possible but not yet activated socially) into weak and bridging ties, making the interaction between people socially relevant and based on common interests (ellison et al., 2007, 2010). in other words, snss can help reveal the interests and expertise of existing contacts and, by doing so, strengthen these ties on the basis of a common and shared ground (steinfield, dimicco, ellison & lampe, 2009). the literature on community informatics has largely reported on the use of icts for community development, showing that icts can foster cooperative behaviors and community interactions around specific social dilemmas (hu, johnston & hemphill, 2013), promote social learning and innovation (gurstein, 2012) and support cooperative social mobilization (harlow & harp, 2012) finally, snss enable people to access a broad network of contacts from whom to seek information and favors (jung, gray, lamp & ellison, 2013), to mobilize resources (ellison, gray, lampe and flore, 2014) and to expand the diversity of their social ties (hampton, lee & her, 2011) hence fostering the "bridging" dimension of social capital (hofer & aubert, 2013). even if some argue that these tools primarily sustain the creation and maintenance of weak ties, the less formal social ties created and maintained through social networking sites could be very important and useful in day-to-day life and crisis situations (granottover, 1973). online social interactions with people encountered only on the internet should be considered a crucial part of one's social capital. social mobilization and democratic engagement seems, for example, to be supported by the internet only through interaction with bridging, but not bonding ties (hampton, 2011). information and communication technologies: a place to build relationships in the above section we have discussed how social networking sites can support the creation and maintenance of people's social capital. as we mentioned, with these new technologies, net-works are no longer embedded in a specific place and are turned into virtual communities. the con-cept of place is complex and has been widely debated in the literature. according to canter (1991), places are a confluence of cognitions, emotions, and actions. thus, in conceptualizing the term "place" we have to consider the combination of emotions, beliefs, and memories attached to a phys-ical space. in this respect, in order to describe relationships between human beings and spatial set-tings, other more effective concepts have been developed. the concept of "sense of place" (sop), for instance, refers to the meaning attached to a spatial setting by a person or group (jorgersen & stedman 2001) while the concept of "place identity" refers to 'those dimensions of self that define the individual's personal identity in relation to the physical environment' (proshansky, 1978, p. 155). the combination of beliefs and emotions attached to a place are an integral part of the per-son's identity and are able to create a psychologically significant relationship between the person and the space (place attachment) (altman & low, 1992). these concepts, therefore, are more geared towards the description of the complex relationship between a person and a place composed of manifold dimensions, than towards the description of a specific physical space. indeed, new interactive technologies have changed the meaning of "place" and " community". there is no unanimous consensus about the extent to which virtual environments are able to reproduce a sense of place. some of the dimensions of this construct seem to be inherently bound up with physical characteristics of the space. for example, relph (2007) argues that virtual environments are not able (or are not completely able) to reproduce the genius loci, the spirit of place that lies in natural landmarks or remarkable buildings and structures. however, the extent to which virtual environments can recreate the experience of place is still a matter of debate (see, for example, turner, turner & burrows, 2013; arora & khazanchi, 2014). with respect to this issue, the distinction made by harrison and dourish (1996) between "space" and "place" is of particular relevance. while the former is the three-dimensional natural artefact where events occur, the latter is a space endowed with social meaning and cultural expectations. if we consider "the place" in terms of the space where social relationships are built and a community is created and developed, it does not need to be bound to a physical space. rather, virtual spaces have proven to boost a sense of community, namely a sense of emotive interconnectedness, belonging, mutual trust, and mutual satisfaction of personal needs (mc millian and chavis, 1986), as well as physical spaces (rovai, 2002). as outlined by harrison and dourish (1996, p.9) "non-spatial environments exhibit placeness, too". in related work, wellman (2001) argues that the last century has seen a constant shift in the way in which social relationships are built and maintained. online ties are maintained through a series of deliberate actions (e.g. sending an email to a group of people) while in-person interactions in physi-cal spaces can also occur by happenstance. new means of transportation have allowed for a switch from a neighbour-to-neighbour relationship to a place-to-place relationship, connecting households that are no longer in the same neighbourhood (wellman & leighton 1979; wellman 1979, 1999). mobile technologies enable us to make a step forward: they "shift community ties from link-ing people-in-places to linking people wherever they are" (wellman, 2001, p.30). this resulted in the liberation from a physical space and in emphasizing the social dimension rather than the spatial di-mension of the place. in this respect, cairncross (1997) advocated that new communication technol-ogies have caused "the death of distance" in that they allow everyone to interact with each other regardless of their location in the world. in a more recent study, mok, carrasco and wellman (2009) re-affirmed that new forms of communication supplement, rather than replace traditional communi-cation channels (e.g. face-to-face interactions) and suggested that distance still matters for the inter-actions between individuals, except for those mediated by emails. a growing but still emerging field of community informatics is the one dedicated to urban in-formatics, an interdisciplinary area that studies how ubiquitous technology changes the way in which public spaces are perceived, used, and socially constructed (shin & shin, 2012, bilan-dzic & venable, 2011). according to this discipline, social relationships nowadays take place in "hybrid spaces" (de souza e silva, 2006) that encompass dimensions of both the physical and digi-tal environments. in the aftermath of a disaster, the physical spaces that are usually instrumental in fostering social relationships may be inaccessible because of the widespread disruption. this, along with a possible short term or long term relocation of the people affected, may make difficult the maintenance of social capital, which is crucial for community recovery following a disaster. social capital in disaster recovery according to kaniasty and norris (1995, p. 1), "disasters impede the exchange of support because they disrupt social networks through death or injury, relocation, changes in routine activities, and physical destruction of environments conducive for social interactions". indeed, it has been demonstrated that the relocation following a natural disaster and the resulting loss of the community ties are linked to an increase of psychiatric symptoms (kilic et al., 2006; najarian, goenjian, pelcovitz, mandel & najarian, 2001) and health problems (uscher-pines, 2009). on these grounds, it has been suggested that the primary efforts after a disaster should be directed towards restoring or maintaining natural communal and social supports and rebuilding social networks and the sense of community. disaster research has largely reported on the role of social capital, especially in the disaster recovery stage. in his studies, aldrich (2010, 2011a,b) noted that the recovery process is widely dependent upon the kind of relationships people can rely on. analysing the recovery process of three big disasters, these being the kobe earthquake, hurricane katrina, and the indian ocean tsunami (aldrich, 2010), he found that, even if after hurricane katrina the level of financial aid was higher than that in the aftermath of the kobe earthquake and indian tsunami, the recovery process in the former was not as vibrant as in the latter disasters. he thus concluded that the variation in the recovery could be caused by differences in community characteristics, such as trust and social capital. immediately after a disaster, the first responders are usually local residents and neighbours, and bonding ties provide physical, emotional and financial support in the first instance (hawkins & maurer, 2009). contrary to what is commonly believed in the aftermath of a disaster, we do not revert to panic and selfish behaviours (fischer, 1998). decades of studies on human reactions in the event of a crisis or disaster have largely demonstrated that panic is not a common reaction (quarantelli, 2001; mawson, 2005; drury, cocking & reicher, 2009). rather, there is a collective mobilization of resources and people towards the affected area. this is a period known, in disaster management literature, as the "honeymoon phase' (dass-brailsford, 2010), when solidarity and mutual helping behaviour between survivors and between survivors and external helpers predominate. however, as the community moves from the response and short-term recovery phase into the longer-term recovery process, the social support around it decreases and affected people find themselves facing the widespread disruption of their social, economic, and physical environment (kaniasty & norris, 1995). in this respect, in the long term, bridging social capital plays a primary role in providing the sharing of information, resources, supplies and food, and linking social capital allows for survivors to connect with ngos and the government. interactions with external resources and authorities offer a larger support for recovery, and "eliminate vulnerability of livelihood and make a safer and sustainable environment" (nakagawa & shaw, 2004). some negative elements of social capital in disaster recovery should be noted. while bonding ties provide emotional and financial support and security, especially for low-income communities, the lack of resources and social equity within the community persists, and is exacerbated after a disaster, making the recovery process more difficult. many articles on the aftermath of katrina amongst other disasters argue that "communities with both local bonding and extra-local bridging/linking social capital demonstrated more resilience than those neighbourhoods solely with bonding ties" (aldrich, 2011b, p.23; elliott, haney, & sams-abiodun, 2010). in spite of being clearly relevant for disaster recovery and community resilience (norris et al., 2008), disaster researchers have rarely addressed the connection between social capital and place. cox and perry (2011) are among the few that have analysed this aspect in the context of disaster recovery. in their study, they describe a socio-psychological process, termed reorientation, that people use to cope with the social and geographical change caused by a disaster. "the reorientation process emphasizes the critical importance of place not only as an orienting framework in recovery but also as the ground upon which social capital and community disaster resilience are built" (p.398). however, the impact of digital technology on supporting the processes of adapting to the loss of relational and geographical spaces is still unclear. previous studies on icts in disaster recovery studies on the use of social media in disaster situations have focused mainly on the response phase. for example in their study on the california wildfires, sutton, palen & shklovski (2008) stressed the ability of these technologies to spread information quickly across a distributed network of people. other uses of social media during disasters investigated by previous studies include the ability to inform others about one's own safety (vieweg, palen, liu & sutton, 2008), to send and receive requests for help (acar & muraki, 2011), to raise the situational awareness of the relief agencies by providing information on what is happening in the event (gao, barbier & goolsby, 2011; lindsay, 2011) and to donate and receive donations (lobb, mock & hutchinson, 2012). additionally, in some cases, such as the tohoku earthquake that hit japan in 2011, internet and social media can become prominent as a communication tool during a disaster, since that network outage makes contacts via cell phones impossible (ifrc, 2013; doan, vo & collier, 2012) only a few studies have examined the use of social networking sites in the recovery stage for the maintenance of contacts with friends, relatives, and acquaintances after the dislocation and major changes in the social and physical environment produced by a disaster. one of these (lev-on, 2009) studied the use of the so-called katif.net website (with some features of a social networking site) set up by an israeli community forced to relocate after israel's disengagement from gaza in 2005. this tool allowed people to keep their community alive by maintaining contacts with members of their previous social network, and influencing their context by stating their opinions about the disengagement. recently, shklovski, burke, kiesler and kraut (2010) studied the use of information and communication technologies in the aftermath of hurricane katrina in new orleans, and found that people used these technologies to maintain a sense of interconnectedness and community during evacuation. those who remained outside new orleans used information technologies to keep in touch with friends and acquaintances. nevertheless, "mediated communication was not enough to assuage their sense of loss and maintain their sense of belonging" (shklovski et al. 2010, p. 14) and the absence of these individuals from the physical environment contributed to them fading out of the community's awareness. similarly, semaan and mark (2011, 2012) analysed the use of facebook in an iraqi community dispersed after the war in 2003, as they sought to reconstruct their social scaffolding and create a list of trustworthy people from whom to seek help and information. they concluded that snss could support the maintenance of the social infrastructures that might help to overcome the problems caused by the disruption of the physical environment after a disaster or conflict. it appears then, that there is a growing stream of literature (e.g. farinosi & trerè, 2010; og-awa, 2013, osterag & ortiz, 2014) reporting on the use of social media for community building and social mobilization in the wake of a disaster. these studies suggest that digital media support the creation and maintenance of online discussions around topics relevant for community recovery, which then translate into offline social mobilisation and civic engagement. current research research objectives in the literature review sections we have seen that icts, including snss, support the mainte-nance of social capital, particularly when face-to-face interactions are made difficult by the frequent relocation of people in the modern world. these technologies facilitate a shift in attention from the physical dimensions of the geographical "space" to the relational dimensions of the socially con-structed "place". but what happens when the physical spaces once conducive to social relationships are suddenly disrupted by a disaster? in this paper we argue that virtual environments can serve, to some extent, similar functions of sustaining the creation and maintenance of social relationships as the ones previously fulfilled by physical spaces. in the absence of a physical square or road where people can meet, the virtual envi-ronment created by the social networking sites can represent a place for socialization, replacing the unavailable physical spaces. in order to check its validity, we applied this argument to the case of the disruption of the physical environment caused by the earthquake that hit the city of l'aquila (central italy) in 2009. as we are going to see in the following section, l'aquila's main socialization point was the historical center of the city, which has also been the area most affected. the disruption of the city center led to the sudden disappearance of the place where the public, social, and working life occurred. studies on the use of social media in disaster situations have focused mainly on the response phase. moreover, the recovery phase represents one of the least understood aspects of emergency management (berke, kartez, & wenger, 1993; rubin, 1991). the general goal of this study is therefore threefold: to make a contribution to the literature on the disaster recovery phase to make a contribution to the literature on the use of icts in disaster recovery to examine whether icts can fulfil the same function of sustaining the creation and maintenance of social relationships as the one fulfilled by physical spaces in the aftermath of the l'aquila earthquake that occurred in central italy in 2009: in particular, the aim of the current research is to explore the use of snss by the residents of l'aquila following the earthquake, in terms of the following purposes: to communicate with others both during the response and recovery phases to search for news both during the response and recovery phases. to keep in touch with relatives, friends, and acquaintances who have been displaced or with whom it is more difficult to meet after the earthquake. to look for information, practical help, or emotional support when facing problems in the recovery phase. case study on april 6, 2009, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit l'aquila, a city in central italy with a population of approximately 70,000 inhabitants. in physical terms, the earthquake was not exceptional (alexander, 2010) but the vulnerability of the buildings and infrastructure that collapsed caused 305 deaths and 1,500 injuries (camata, biondi & de matteis, 2009). the zones most affected were the historic city center and the surrounding villages. in the aftermath of the disaster, the government decided to accommodate people in tents and hotels, most of which were located on the coast, far from l'aquila city (alexander, 2010). after several months, some of the survivors were accommodated in the houses of project c.a.s.e. (complessi antisismici sostenibili ed ecocompatibili) and in the m.a.p. (moduli abitativi provvisori) (contreras, blaschke, kienberger & zeil,, 2014). these buildings were located very far from the previous center of the city with poor public transport and no nearby services or amenities. as a result, residents needed to rely massively on private cars for transportation (alexander, 2012) and to travel for a long time to reach public facilities and meeting points. moreover, in the allocation of transitional housing, little attention was given to the preservation of the social fabric (alexander, 2012). this situation caused, in the short term, the break-up of families and, in the long term, a more permanent fragmentation of the previous community and a tremendous negative effect on social cohesion, making social gatherings more difficult. according to a microdis survey (2009), 71% of those interviewed declared that their community had been deeply changed after the earthquake, while 73 % suffered due to the lack of meeting places. similarly, alexander (2012) noted that these transitional shelters have led to a substantial break-up of the social fabric and to increased difficulty in recreating a sense of place among citizens. in addition to the cited dispersion of the previous social fabric, l'aquila citizens also suffered the loss of the previous meeting points in the city. as already mentioned, the areas most affected by the earthquake of 2009 were the historic center, which was also the place of socialization for the residents. this is well explained by the words of contreras, blaschke, kienberger and zeil (2013, p.6): "comparing the human body and the structure of a city, the central district in l'aquila is the social, financial, institutional and cultural heart of the city; if the heart is not active, it is not possible to talk about recovery in the city, even if other parts or new parts in the city are active. as in the case of the human body, if the heart is not pumping blood through the vessels, there is no oxygen for the other organs in the body and it will soon die". even after several years, part of the city centre is still cordoned off and the recovery process is proceeding slowly (contreras, blaschke, kienberger & zeil, 2014). alongside and simultaneous to the gathering of the interviews presented in this paper, one of the authors also conducted an ethnographic analysis of the post-disaster context, through informal interviews with l'aquila residents. results revealed an almost total disruption of the previous meeting places within the city which had produced significant changes in the way in which l'aquila citizens met and socialized. indeed, social life in l'aquila shifted from the streets and ancient roads of the historic center to closed places such as shopping centers (the main one called "l'aquilone"), private homes, and cinemas. however, these new meeting places were met with hostility from the residents, as they were continuously compared to the joy and warmth of the city before the earthquake "before, when we went out, we went to l'aquila center and now we have to go to commercial centers and i don't like to go there…i never go there. if i can avoid it, i don't go there because i don't like these places. (m, personal communication). the genius loci, the spirit of place that lay in the built squares and roads of the ancient center of the city has long gone, along with the places where socializing once occurred. this is well explained by the words of some residents: "in l'aquila, it is difficult to meet because there isn't the square anymore, there isn't the corner anymore, there isn't the column of the porch where you .. " (v., personal communication) and "there are no meeting places anymore...before, we were saying, "see you in the square"...you went out and you knew that you could meet friends in the square or in the main road..."(f, personal communication) this situation has also led to the new necessity for the people of l'aquila to organize their social gatherings purposely whereas, before the earthquake, socializing was described as "natural, without the need to organize it" because people met casually in the streets of the city center (personal communication). as outlined by wellman (2001), in-person interactions in public spaces can be led by happenstance. however, the sudden disappearance of these spaces has pushed many people in l'aquila, as we shall see, to maintain social ties through deliberate computer-mediated actions. the features of the l'aquila recovery make it a particularly suitable case study for our research questions. methodology instruments and participants we carried out thirteen (n=13) semi-structured interviews, with key residents of l'aquila aged 14-53. open-ended semi-structured interviews are interviews aimed at the following: building a co-partnership with citizens involved in the process and developing a sense of mutual trust with them; allowing the interviewee's discourse to flow freely in terms of their use of language and choice of topics; deepening the field of research by elaborating questions that would enable them to enter the topic of the investigation and bring this to the foreground. by using this methodology, we intended to analyse, without prejudices, the actual use of new media by a sample of l'aquila citizens affected by the earthquake that occurred in 2009, and to investigate the deep motivations that sustain this use in the aftermath of this disaster. our intention was to collect an insight into the social life in l'aquila after the earthquake and explore how this social life is supported by the virtual environment created by social networking sites. for this purpose, a qualitative tool was believed to be the best option. before starting the interviews, people were informed about the general goals of the research and verbal and written consent to the participation was collected. participants were also advised that they had the right to withdraw their participation at any time during the interviews if they felt uncomfortable about any aspect of the interview. participants included 6 males and 7 females aged 14-53 (m=30, 3), all of whom were either workers or students in different areas. the distribution of the participants was as follows: 2 young students under 18 years old 6 participants in the age range 18-29, four students and two workers 3 participants in the age range 30-40, all workers in different sectors 2 participants over 40, all of whom were workers in different sectors it should be noted that many of the interviewees were young people below 30 years old whereas the average age in l'aquila in 2011 was 43.5 years (tuttaitalia.it, no date). this aspect should be considered when analyzing the results and it is included within the limitations of this study. before starting the interviews, people were asked whether they were social media users. nine people declared that they used just facebook. this result is not unexpected as facebook was the most used sns in italy in 2011, whereas the use of twitter was quite limited (maggi, 2011). we therefore decided to focus our study just on this social networking site. four of the people were not social media users at all. nevertheless, we considered it important to understand their perception of the importance of these technologies as tools that allow for the maintenance of the l'aquila social fabric in the aftermath of the disaster. indeed, they declared not to use these tools because they preferred to maintain contacts in person rather than online, and not because they could not see the utility of them. interviewing people who were not social media users allowed us to have a different perspective on the topic analysed. the sampling methodology followed a purposive rationale. the purposive sampling technique allows for the selection of participants who are thought to be relevant to the research (bird, 2009). indeed, although too small to be considered representative of the whole population, the sample taken in analysis can provide a good insight of the actual use of social networking sites in the aftermath of the l'aquila earthquake, as it included people coming from different strata of the population: workers in public and private administration and in the media industry, students from the local universities and high school, and students not residing permanently in l'aquila. this last category is of particular interest as l'aquila is predominantly a university city and many students come from different cities and regions of the country. this element is confirmed in a document prepared in 2012 by the l'aquila city council stating that, od a population of 24,000 students enrolled at l'aquila university before the earthquake, only 36.3% were residing permanently in the l'aquila province (l'aquila city council, 2012) the interviews were collected in l'aquila during the course of two visits (the first time in january 2011, and the second nine months later, in september 2011). the situation in the city had not changed substantially between the two visits as the reconstruction process was still proceeding. the interviews were conducted in private houses and social centers in l'aquila; they lasted for between 25 and 60 minutes each, and were audio-recorded and transcribed. research questions we conducted a study using thirteen face-to-face semi-structured interviews concentrating on the following areas: tools of communication and information during and after the earthquake. goals for using internet and social networking sites, along with changes in these goals after the earthquake use of social networking sites in order to keep in touch with friends and relatives, to ask for emotional support or to search for useful information. a sample of the questions asked can be found in the appendix at the end of this paper. data analysis to analyse the interviews, we used an approach based on content analysis (berelson, 1952). since there is a dearth of studies on this topic, we performed an inductive content analysis (lauri & kynga ?s 2005), where categories are derived from the data and particular instances are ob-served and then combined into a larger whole or general statement (for a description of the process of analysis in inductive content analysis please see elo & kyngas, 2008). the open coding and creation of categories was supported by the maxqda software. maxqda (http://www.maxqda.com) is a professional software for qualitative and mixed methods data analysis. it allows researchers to organize and categorize qualitative data by sorting these into groups and attaching to the single groups specific codes, colours, or symbols. the researchers started with a rough codification of the first interviews. the material of the other interviews was assimilated, when possible, to these catego-ries; otherwise new categories were created. the resulting categories were then grouped in macro-categories. the codifying process was carried out separately by the two authors, after which their results were compared in order to reach a shared set of codes. two main macro-categories were identified: 1) tools of information and communication, which includes two sub-categories: tools of information, tools of communication; 2) internet and social networking sites after the earthquake, which includes five sub-categories: internet, social networking sites and changes in the way of use, utility of new technologies for the community, applications of the social networks, obstacles to the use of social networking sites and proposals.. the results of the specified macro categories are discussed below. results tools of information and communication tools of communication immediately after the earthquake, people used mobile phones to contact relatives and friends. alternatively, they went in search of them or obtained information about them from third parties. mobile phones seemed to be the fastest tool with which to communicate: they are easily portable by people who are fleeing their homes and they enable them to contact others quickly. most of those interviewed reported difficulties in communicating via cell phones immediately after the earthquake as the phone lines became overloaded. for this reason, many of them went to ascertain the safety of parents and friends personally. one of the interviewees noted that, in order to fix the problems with the phone lines, the authorities installed some antennae in the tent camp the following morning. within hours or days of the earthquake, the internet became an essential communication tool. facebook and e-mails were used at that time to verify the safety of relatives and friends. those who did not have facebook used e-mail to contact others. about three or four days afterwards, i connected to the internet with a portable pc to see my e-mails and i received e-mails from the people who had lessons with me.. (f, 27) for the others, facebook was the easiest form of communication, informing others about their safety and searching for news about the safety of friends and acquaintances. some of the interviews report that, receiving messages from worried friends and acquaintances on facebook made them feel better because their inner equilibrium was unstable and they needed to know that someone cared about them and their safety. two years after the earthquake, facebook users recognized the importance of this tool for keeping in touch with friends and relatives who were evacuated or with whom it is more difficult to meet. one of the interviewees, a masters student now studying outside the city of l'aquila, contends that facebook was fundamental in order to maintain and continue contacts with his friends. the importance of facebook to keeping in contact with others is even higher if we consider that many people and families decided not to return to l'aquila after the earthquake because of the lack of employment opportunities and long-term recovery plans. one of the other interviewees, a high school student, explained that when she came back to school after the earthquake, she was unable to find some of her classmates as their families had decided to move to another city. therefore, she has used facebook mainly to keep in touch with her social network that has dispersed after the disasters. the other people interviewed, non-facebook users, mainly used cell phones and e-mails to keep in touch with others. tools of information in terms of information tools, people searched for information immediately after the earthquake, switching on car radios, receiving calls from those in the city center or, in the morning, reading newspapers provided by the civil protection agency. many of the interviewees described that they became aware of the seriousness of the situation just by talking over the phone with friends and relatives living in the most affected areas. because some zones of the city did not report significant damage, many people failed to fully realize the consequences of the earthquake in the very early stage of the emergency. on the morning after, the first pieces of information were provided by the newspapers distributed by the civil protection agency, by television, or by the people at the tent camp. those with internet access connected to the web via portable pcs. with respect to this issue, one of the interviewees (m, 27 years old) noted that there are fewer people with non-portable computers in l'aquila now than before the earthquake. in the weeks and months after the earthquake, the most widely used tool to search for information was the internet. people used search engines such as google.com or the website of the geophysics and volcanology institute (ingv) to check recorded aftershocks. meanwhile, the website of a local newspaper, ilcapoluogo.it, was constantly updated. these websites were still being used two years after the earthquake by the interviewees, who were seeking news about the reconstruction or about the tremors that continued to affect l'aquila area. many of them stated that they kept up to date simply by going around the city and talking with others about the news. few of them (two interviewees) declared using facebook as a source of news through links and public pages. internet and social networks after the earthquake internet most of the interviewees were able to connect to the internet a few days after the earthquake through internet keys or, more often, from computers at the homes of friends where they were being accommodated. students from elsewhere returned immediately to their home cities and connected from there. the internet was used as a tool of communication with others through e-mails and facebook, and was also used to search for news about the earthquake. people did not describe any significant change in the goal of using this tool but many of them noted that they had connected to certain websites much more often than before. for example, ilcapoluogo.it, a web journal that reports local news, was visited by most of the interviewees in the days after the earthquake for updates on the situation in l'aquila, and it was still being used for this purpose two years later. one of the interviewees, an employee in a public office in l'aquila, reported using this website to find out more about orders and regulations after the earthquake. it is worth mentioning that almost all the interviewees declared that, after the earthquake, they constantly checked the recorded aftershocks on the invg the website of the volcanology and geophysics institute, which has the role of monitoring seismic warning systems and volcanic activities all over italy. this could be considered a way of maintaining a certain control over the situation in circumstances where the main feeling is that of impotence: we are always on the ingv website...yesterday, going on this website, i said to myself that, before the earthquake, nobody knew it…but now we are always on it to find out whether there has been a tremor…(f,32) social networking sites and changes in the way of use four of the interviewees were not social networking sites users. the most common reason for not having an account was that these people used different ways to keep in touch, preferring "human contact" rather than virtual contact. the others were all facebook users, although they also have accounts on msn, which is much less used nowadays than when it first appeared. facebook was mainly used by these people in order to keep in touch with friends and relatives, and less often to search for news. among the interviewees, facebook users referred to a change in the way and the goals of using this tool after the earthquake. due to the lack of meeting places, facebook became, for some of them the place to meet with friends. especially for younger people, the disappearance of the historic center of the city led to the lack of meeting points where they could develop their social relationships. one the interviewees, a 16 years old girl, noted that she and her friends use facebook much more than before the earthquake, as they now talk via facebook instead of going into city or l'aquila center. as we have discussed in the case study section, several changes in the physical and social environment occurred after the earthquake in the city: the socialization places moved from the ancient streets and squares of the historic center to shopping centers, such as l'aquilone, built in the surrounding of the city. nevertheless, for the most part, the interviewees felt a sense of hostility toward these places, comparing the joy of walking in the streets with the sadness and boredom of being enclosed in the commercial center. they therefore prefer to use facebook to talk and virtually meet friends rather than to go outside in an unfamiliar environment. we use it more than before, instead of going into city or l'aquila center we talk through facebook…because there is not much desire to go out, so you go on the social network and you talk to your friends there (f,16) a boy or a girl aged 16, he/she is on facebook every morning and evening, always...because they are unable to meet their friends as often as before…before, they went to the center of l'aquila, now they can only go to l'aquilone, but it is a shopping mall and sometimes they get bored, so they are always on facebook because it is a way of spending time…(f,27) in this regard, three of the interviewees reported concerns that the use of facebook since the earthquake may have broken or weakened human contact between people. others stated that facebook had become the main tool for organizing social life and meetings between people. in fact, in complete contrast to the situation before the earthquake, when meeting one another was normal and almost "natural", two years later, social interactions were organized by l'aquila citizens on a day-to-day basis. in such a situation, facebook, as a tool for contact between people, enabled them to organize meetings in the real environment. another person interviewed declared that once facebook was not the main way to organize a meeting, whereas now 90% of the meetings are organized via this social networking site. utility of new technologies for the community most of the interviewees recognized the importance of the internet and social networking sites for maintaining the social fabric in l'aquila. indeed, before the earthquake, moving to the city center and meeting each other was much easier. many people prefer therefore to rely on facebook to keep in touch with friends and acquaintances rather than to go to physical places difficult to reach without a private car. as noted by one of the people interviewed, the only tool people have in the m.a.p. or in the c.a.s.e. project is facebook, and they use it to contact friends and to organize offline meetings. facebook has been fundamental…because we have kept in touch with the people that moved out via facebook… (f, 31) i have noticed that a new internet café has opened in the center and it is always full because, in an area so affected, it is a way of maintaining contact with reality…(m,37) now there are many people for whom is difficult to move from a place to another because they don't have a car…before the earthquake you went to the city center, in the square…especially the youngers and the elders…now, if you live 20km from the city center you can't even take the scooter and so many of them use facebook to keep in contact... the students interviewed pointed out that the internet played an important role in sustaining university activities. for example, it has been used to spread and send news about the university to the students after the earthquake and to book guest flats for students from other cities. applications of social networking sites with regard to the use of facebook as a means of expressing emotions after the earthquake, many of the interviewees declared that they did not use facebook for this purpose, preferring to express emotions privately. similarly, only one of the interviewees reported using facebook to keep herself updated about the situation in l'aquila. on the other hand, when asked whether they used facebook to solve practical problems or obtain practical help, many of the interviewees replied that they did not seek help by posting announcements on facebook but used the facility offered by facebook to contact others in order to find help amongst friends and acquaintances. in other words, facebook allowed these people to remain in contact with a broad social network whose members have provided them with useful information to solve practical problems. i sent private messages through private chat to those i thought might be able to help me...(f,32) one of the interviewees, a civil protection operator, declared that, after the earthquake, many people contacted him via facebook chat to receive information about the reconstruction process. i was a sort of "virtual assistant", meaning that people instead of calling me, they sent me a question via facebook and replied by the same mean…a sort of email...but i think that, doing so, they felt me more as a human being because the emails are very formal..(m, 27) as we have already mentioned, l'aquila is a university city where many students used to commute weekly to their hometown. after the earthquake, many of these students returned to their city, also because of the difficulties in finding suitable accommodation in l'aquila. for them it was therefore difficult to keep updated about their assignments and university activities. facebook has allowed them to chat with the other students at the university premises and receive updated news. obstacles in the use of social networking sites and proposals people did not report any significant problems in the use of social networking sites, apart from some initial connection problems after the earthquake. we also thought it would be interesting to investigate where l'aquila citizens would put cybercafés or spaces with free internet access in the l'aquila area. their possible collocation matches the new meeting points: most of the interviewees would put internet cafes in the shopping centers that have sprung up since the earthquake. in the same way, people pointed out the importance of also putting them in m.a.p. and c.a.s.e., where, as they say, they had previously been absent. others declared that they would also put spaces with free computer and internet access in the city center to "push people to return to the city (f,32)". from these answers, it is clear that, two years after the earthquake, the internet has become, for l'aquila citizens, a way of staying in touch with others. conclusions given the demonstrated importance of social capital in disaster recovery, we have, in this study, tried to investigate how l'aquila citizens have used the internet and social networking sites as new places for socialization, enabling them to maintain their social capital after the earthquake. indeed, the disappearance of the meeting places within the city has made it difficult to engage in face-to-face interactions. four of the thirteen people interviewed were not users of social networking sites, while the other nine were all facebook users. in the following sections we are going to compare the results of our study with the results from other similar studies in order to highlight the gaps filled by this research. we will then emphasise how the results of our study can provide information that is relevant for the development of best practices in post-disaster management. conclusions for theory in the response phase, the communication tool used most by the people interviewed to ascertain the safety of friends and relatives was the cellphone, thanks to its easy portability. in addition, the first contacts with friends and relatives via cellphones were the first means of obtaining information about the situation in the city. this finding matches the results of a study on the california wildfires (sutton, palen & shklovski, 2008), in which most of the (questionnaire) respondents reported having sought information using mobile phones to contact friends or family. some hours after the earthquake, many of the interviewees connected to the internet and used facebook and e-mails to contact friends and relatives. as in the research on the virginia shootings (vieweg, palen, liu & sutton, 2008), facebook has been used as a tool for confirming the safety of people and for reassuring others about one's own safety. nevertheless, the interviewees have also used more traditional tools to receive news about the situation, such as television, radios, newspapers, and simply chatting with other people. just weeks after the earthquake, the internet was used to search for news by people connecting to ilcapoluogo.it, a constantly updated local web journal, and ingv.com in order to check for aftershocks. these results are substantially comparable with the communication tools used after the great tohoku earthquake that occurred in japan in 2011. in that case, the most used communication tool was the radio (68%) followed by non-smartphone cell phones (38%) and the internet on personal computers (20%) (ifrc, 2013) regarding the use of facebook in the recovery phase, most of the interviewees recognized that, since the earthquake, facebook had become a virtual place where people could meet and talk. consistent with the literature on social networking sites (bonds-raacke & raacke, 2008), the interviewees used this tool primarily to connect and communicate with friends and relatives, especially after the disappearance of their meeting points as a result of the earthquake. in this sense, facebook has helped the citizens of l'aquila to maintain social bonding ties with friends and relatives with whom it is much more difficult to meet in person. this is also consistent with a broad range of literature demonstrating the importance of social networking sites in maintaining social ties when physical meetings are difficult or impossible (lewis & west, 2009; best & krueger, 2006). additionally, facebook provided the affected people with a broad and diversified network of contacts from whom to seek help and information. social networking sites facilitate the creation and maintenance of bridging ties (jung, gray, lamp & ellison, 2013; hampton, lee & her, 2011), which provide the social infrastructures that may help to overcome the problems caused by the disruption of the physical environment and the breakdown of infrastructure following disasters or conflicts (semaan & mark, 2011, 2012). others have pointed out that, two years after the earthquake, facebook was the main communication tool, making it possible to organize meetings in person. since the disappearance of the historic center where people could meet casually, the new need for organizing social interactions was raised. facebook served as a facilitator of the in-person interactions when these were unable to occur by happenstance due to the disappearance of the meeting points that were once so central to such interactions. according to the literature on the social networking sites, these tools may be able to change the natural pattern of the decline of relationships, keeping alive relationships that would otherwise be destined to fade away (cumming, lee and kraut, 2006). from our findings, we acknowledge that the use of new media by the people interviewed in relation to the maintenance of social capital is threefold: to keep in contact with friends and relatives with whom it is more difficult to meet in the physical environment and that can provide emotional and financial support. to keep in contact with acquaintances and people with whom they have weaker ties but that can provide informational and companionship support to organize offline meetings where the disruption of the physical and social environment caused by the earthquake has limited the opportunity to meet by chance. these findings are not new for the existing literature. the innovative aspect of our study is the examination of these findings in terms of the concept of place, as characterized by the sense of space where social relationships are built and maintained. the aim of our study was to investigate the use of new media as a means of maintaining social capital in a sample of citizens in l'aquila after the earthquake. in doing so, we intended to test the validity of our argument, namely that new media might create spaces of socialization that are comparable, to some extent, to the physical places that are no longer available as a result of a disaster. from our results, we found that new media have been used by the people interviewed as an alternative place of socialization through which to maintain contact and keep alive their social fabric. in this situation, where meeting places have become inaccessible and the physical environment is unfamiliar because of widespread disruption, facebook (the social networking site used by the interviewees) provides a virtual space for the maintenance of social capital. new media are the new "squares" for meetings and socialization. this finding is consistent with the words of a blog activist interviewed by farinosi and trere (2010) in their study on the political activism on social media after the l'aquila earthquake: "the web was important because obviously the l'aquila squares do not exist anymore, there are no physical spaces to meet and the multimedia square, the virtual square became facebook, the blogs and forums where citizens and committees exchange ideas and give appointments"(para 37). nevertheless, as already mentioned in the literature (relph, 2007), it is unclear whether new media are able to recreate the genius loci, the spirit of place that lies in the built forms and landscapes. natural landmarks and built forms contain the memories of our past, which support the creation of our identity and are not easily replaceable by virtual places. the memory of the city, with its ancient squares and roads remains inherently connected to the memory of one's personal life, as outlined by d. (26 years old, personal communication) "my life has been spent in the historic center, i have attended the nursery, grammar school, middle and high school and university in the historic center, so every day of my life i was in the historic center". if, on the one hand, for those familiar with the use of new technologies, the digital environment can help to resume, to some extent, the relational dimensions of the place, on the other, it is probably not able to recreate the emotional and affective dimensions attached to the spatial settings as described by the concepts of sense of place (jorgersen & stedman 2001) and place identity (proshansky, 1978). however, the extent to which virtual environments can recreate the experience of place is still a matter of debate (turner, turner & burrows, 2013; arora & khazanchi, 2014). conclusions for practice studies on the recovery phase (aldrich, 2011a, 2011b) have demonstrated that social capital is a crucial element in achieving an effective community recovery after a disaster. consistent with the existing literature, our findings showed that new media could provide a suitable place to maintain social capital even when physical spaces are no longer available because of the disruption caused by a disaster. indeed, disaster managers and governmental organizations should fully exploit the potential of new media to support the maintenance of the community's social fabric. new technologies could be developed in the aftermath of a disaster to respond to the community's needs of socialization and social support. limitations of the study there are several limitations to this study. firstly, the data were gathered several years ago (two years after the earthquake), and a follow-up study will probably be required in order to check whether the results of this study are still valid for the current situation in l'aquila. the generalizability of the results is also affected by the small size of the sample interviewed. it should also be noted that many of the interviewees were young students between 14 and 30 years old and therefore more likely to be familiar with the use of new technologies. the results and arguments of this research need to be expanded and further verified by using different data collection methods, including quantitative surveys able to measure if social media support the different dimensions of the social capital in the post-disaster context. finally, the research presents a general discussion of the potential benefits of the use of snss in the disaster recovery phase, but it does not take into consideration how icts might differentially benefit various social groups within a community or how to address the problems of the digital and knowledge divide. future directions although limited, this research may have the potential to open up an interesting debate on the web-mediated construction of the concept of "place" in the wake of a disaster. to what extent can new media be used to maintain the relational dimension of place after the spatial settings once central for social relationships are disrupted or severely damaged by natural or anthropogenic disasters? which dimensions of physical spaces can be transferred to the virtual environment? do disasters always imply a loss of the sense of place, namely of the emotional dimension attached to the spatial dimensions where the events of one's personal life have occurred? if not, which elements in the type/severity of the disaster or in the recovery process management may lead to this? does the disruption of the physical environment that is important for fostering social relationships automatically lead to people turning to digital media in order to keep alive their social fabric? future researchers should analyze further how people use new technologies to maintain their offline social networks after the changes in the physical places produced by a disaster, and how existing technology can be implemented in this direction. moreover, the relationship between offline and online social networks is a field worthy of further exploration. references acar, a. & muraki, y. 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(2001). physical place and cyber place: the rise of networked individualism. international journal of urban and regional research, 25(2), 227-52. appendix: sample of questions asked which were the main meeting points in the city before the earthquake? where do you meet now with friends and relatives? have your relatives/friends been relocated after the earthquake? how did you contact your relatives/friends/acquaintances immediately after the earthquake? how did you gather information on the situation immediately after the earthquake? how have you maintained the contacts with friends/relatives/acquaintances during the period from the end of the emergency phase until now? has something changed in the way you contact others? how have you kept yourself updated about the reconstruction process? which were the motivations you used internet/social networking sites for before the earthquake? have these motivations changed some way after the earthquake? have you used the social networking sites to express emotions after the earthquake? have you used the social networking sites to ask for practical help in order to overcome some challenges you had to face during the reconstruction? if you had the chance to put spaces with free computer and internet access into the city, where would you put them? e-governance in the developing world e-governance in the developing world in action: the case of districtnet in uganda arjan de jager international institute for communication and development victor van reijswoud divine word university papua new guinea <vvanreijswoud@dwu.ac.pg> introduction in the developing world, information and communication technology (ict) is often welcomed as an important instrument for accelerated change. ict programmes are used to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of organizations and to help align processes with best practices from the developed world. governments in the developing world are under considerable international and national pressure to review and update their processes. internationally, donors and governments in the developed world are urging governments of developing countries to increase transparency, support decentralization, decrease corruption and participate in global digital information sharing. nationally, the private sector demands more openness and willingness to participate in transparent relationships, and citizens are asking their governments to provide better, faster services and to extend their information and service offerings to rural areas. as a result of these pressures, governments in the developing world are challenged to change more than ever before (united nations, 2003). e-government is defined by the united nations as “a government that applies ict to transform its internal and external relationships” (united nations, 2003). ict allows a government’s internal and external communication to gain speed, precision, simplicity, outreach and networking capacity, which can then be converted into cost reductions and increased effectiveness two features desirable for all government operations, but especially for public services. ict also enables 24/7 usefulness, transparency and accountability, as well as networked structures of public administration, information management and knowledge creation. in addition, it can equip people to participate in an inclusive political process that can produce well-informed public consent, which is, increasingly, the basis for the legitimacy of governments. this paper reports on the experiences of districtnet, an ongoing e-governance programme in the east african country of uganda. the goal of the paper is to evaluate the programme against a theoretical background, and also to draw practical lessons from the programme that could provide guidance to new e-governance programmes in the development context. the paper begins by providing some theoretical background for e-governance, which is important to better understand the objectives and design of the districtnet programme. in section 3 we discuss the programme, focusing on its beginnings and its achievements so far. in section 4 we evaluate the programme in a larger context and elicit lessons learned from districtnet. understanding e-government the work of governments is being reshaped by two ineluctable trends. the first is the movement away from centralized, vertical and hierarchical government machines towards polycentric networks of governance based upon horizontal interactions between diverse actors within complex, multi-layered societies. the second trend is the rapid introduction of ict aimed at the transformation of the generation and delivery of public services. the concept of e-governance is the convergence between these two trends (coleman, 2005). in order to get a better understanding of the potential impact of ict on government processes, we need to start with a general overview of the role that ict and information systems can play in the optimization of organizational processes, transcending the traditional perception of ict as mere technology. we then identify types of e-governance and e-government, describe the status of e-governance internationally, and conclude with guidelines for successful e-governance programme design and implementation. ict for change information and communication technology are important initiators and drivers of change in an organization. the use of ict creates new possibilities, and ultimately ict has the potential to reinvent organizations and their services (leer, 2000). dennis and haley wixom (2000) identify three strategies for the implementation of ict in an organization: business process automation (bpa) business process improvement (bpi) business process reengineering (bpr) the three approaches have an increasing impact on the organization. the goal of bpa is to increase the efficiency of the work of the users. it does not intend to change the work in an organization, but automates the existing processes. in the development context, this often implies that manual processes are supported or replaced by automated processes. for example, data is no longer stored in paper files, but a database management system is introduced to manage information; however, the same information as before is stored, without considering its quality and usefulness. the goal of bpi is to reconsider the processes used and information stored, and to improve upon them by introducing some moderate changes that are generally incremental or evolutionary in nature. the new practice is enhanced both through making the users more efficient and by changing how processes work in order to make them more effective. in practical terms, this means that processes are examined carefully to see whether existing problems can be eliminated during the introduction of ict. however, bpi does not lead to completely new processes or new tasks for an organization, since it builds on the existing processes. bpr[1] focuses on the fundamental and critical rethinking of an organization’s processes. following the introduction of new ict, the organizational processes are evaluated, changed or eliminated, and new processes are added in order to improve performance in terms of costs, service delivery, quality and speed. in the development context, we observe that many e-governance programmes focus on the first-time introduction of ict. this opens up new horizons and allows organizations to deliver new ict-enabled services that they have not previously been able to offer. it is important to realize, though, that in this introductory or implementation context, bpr can be very technology-driven. although business process automation, improvement and reengineering are often considered in a private-sector context, their focus is definitely not limited to the private sector. rather, they are general concepts for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of organizations. while ict is not essential to these concepts, nowadays it lies at the heart of most practical initiatives. domains of e-governance heeks (2001a) identifies three main domains of e-governance, based on taxonomies proposed by ntiro: e-administration: improving government processes e-services[2]: connecting individual citizens with their government e-society: building interactions with and within the civil society the main purpose of the e-administration is to improve the internal workings of the public sector by cutting process costs, managing process performance, creating strategic connections within government bodies, and creating empowerment. shortening the lead time for passport applications from two weeks to one day is an example of e-administration. e-service initiatives focus mainly on improving the relationship between the government and its citizens by increasing the information flow between them – which, notably, involves two-way communication – and improving the service levels of government towards its citizens. public service institutes offering citizens the opportunity to apply for business licenses through a government website is one example of e-services. e-society initiatives extend the previous e-services domain by focusing on institutional stakeholders, such as private sector service providers, other public agencies, and not-for-profit and community organizations. in addition, e-society focuses on building long lasting partnerships and social/economical communities: for example, through the creation of a business community portal. practically speaking, the three domains of e-governance are seldom separate in their implementations; rather, they involve overlapping activities as part of the same initiative. to put it more strongly: good e-governance programmes must take into account all three domains. figure 1: overlapping domains of e-government (adapted from heeks, 2001) where is e-governance now? the united nations’ world public sector report 2003: e-governance at the crossroads, prepared by its department of economic and social affairs, provides three main conclusions on the current status of global e-government. first, using an extensive survey, the report concludes that developing countries are creating and implementing e-government applications similar to those currently used in developed countries. in fact, says the survey, developing countries are providing “information and services” that “are as – or more – sophisticated and mature” than those currently used in some developed countries. still, developing countries face certain challenges that are greater than those faced by developed countries in pursing e-governance. for instance, they must contend with limited financial resources and human capital while trying to develop a sufficient ict infrastructure, build overall educational and technological skills, and finance widespread on-line access to rural areas and other under-served populations. in describing the methodology for its telecommunication infrastructure index, the united nations report admits to placing less weight on the use of mobile technologies than on a country’s personal computer density, number of internet users, number of telephone lines, and on-line population. regardless, there is evidence that developing countries are addressing e-governance implementation issues through the innovative use of currently available technologies, including radio, television and mobile technologies. the two additional conclusions of the united nations report are, first, that both developed and developing governments have made little use of on-line transaction services, and secondly, that participation in e-government ranges from “rudimentary” to non-existent. finally, the report asserts that there is no single strategy for achieving e-governance success, as governments must respond to the specific needs of their particular societies. these conclusions and assertions present areas of opportunity where developing countries can pursue their e-governance strategies through practical, innovative applications. guiding principles for successful e-governance in its 2003 report, the united nations defines guiding principles for success which include the reasons that governments and users go on-line. the guidelines for successful e-governance are grouped in three categories: the reasons for governments to use ict in their operations and to go on-line the ability of governments to use ict and to go on-line the reasons for users to use ict to communicate with the government the following compelling reasons are identified for the government to use ict in its operations and to go on-line: priority development needs that require government involvement. e-government applications are best embedded in areas that are perceived as closely related to the priority development needs of the society. this approach creates broad support, making it easier to overcome inherent difficulties and to sustain attention, commitment and funding. efficiency and effectiveness as key success criteria of government involvement. it is best if the role that the government plays in such areas is judged partly or predominantly by factors that ict can bring. the link between ict applications, optimization of government operations and achievement of important social development goals is a very convincing argument for the continued development of e-government. the ability of a government to use ict in its operations and to maintain a successful on-line presence depends on a number of factors: availability of (initial) funding. even initial pilot e-government operations should start with a good understanding of costs involved and with assured funding that follows careful analysis of opportunity costs. whenever advisable and feasible, funding should be treated as a business investment and should carry expectations of returns. skills and culture of the civil service. civil servants must be able (through ict, change and programme management and partnership-building skills) and willing to support e-government, or at a minimum, must be eager to learn and change. the culture prevailing in the civil service determines the assessment of expected loss of jobs, prestige or power that e-government applications might impose upon individual civil servants and thus the eventual strength and effectiveness of the anti-change lobby (if any such lobby exists). co-ordination. the necessary “backroom” co-ordination and effort within and between government agencies must take place before any e-government application goes on-line in order to avoid duplication, assure interoperability and meet the expectations of users. legal framework. e-government introduces unique legal requirements and these should be realized and dealt with early in the process. ict infrastructure. infrastructure needs should be assessed against the background of requirements and desired results of e-government development plans. an insufficient assessment risks underestimating requirements and limiting results, or alternatively overestimating requirements and leading to the possibility that ict infrastructure will simply become expensive and idle office furniture. political leadership and long-term political commitment. the chief executive officer of the public sector must be committed to e-government, must lead and build broad support for it, and must be eager to learn. this commitment generates the all-important positive signals that the civil service needs to receive from its top leadership. public engagement. the public should have a personal stake in e-government development. their engagement should be reinforced by actively, genuinely and continuously soliciting people to participate in the development of e-government applications so that these are custom-crafted to the way people live and work. plans for development of human capital and technical infrastructure. there should be a vision and plans for closing the existing gaps in ict skills and access. otherwise, neither the public administration nor the citizenry can hope to become ict literate and capable, which are important ingredients for e-government success. partnerships. early on, the government should involve business firms and civil society organizations (csos) as its partners in securing financial resources, skills improvement, better access and adequate capacity to service the ict network. however, partnerships should never be forged at the cost of transparency, accountability or economic soundness of investments. monitoring and evaluation. setting clear responsibilities and realistic benchmarks for e-government development, as well as for its transparent monitoring, is an important ingredient for eventual success and helps build the overall transparency and accountability framework in the public sector. finally, there must be compelling reasons for the users of e-government to go and stay on-line: perception of added value. any design of an e-government development must incorporate a calculation of the added value that the application intends to bring to individual users. this calculation should be congruent with the needs, desires and/or expectations of the users. access and skills. it should be made easy in terms of time, cost and effort for the potential users of e-government to actually use it. imaginative solutions for increasing the level of this ease of use must be part of any e-government development plan. they should include, but also transcend, attention to individual access and skills. privacy and security. security and privacy concerns culturally defined as they are must be addressed early on, openly and with demonstrated professional aptitude. the public is likely to expect a breakdown in this area and news (even informal) of even one lapse in privacy or security is bound to become a huge setback with long-lasting consequences. model for evaluation it is important to evaluate the performance of e-governance programmes in the developing world. limited, often temporary funding requires governments to implement the 'first time right' approach. most of the evaluations are quantitative and founded in the ontological tradition of science, like the longitudinal survey published in the united nations’ world public sector report 2003 and the work on e-governance and e-commerce by the institute of development policy and management (see, for example, heeks, 2001; molla, 2004). few qualitative and epistemological studies on e-governance have been reported. in this paper we will focus on the evaluation of an e-government programme that started in 2002 in uganda and has gone through the first pilot cycle. information about the programme has been collected through document analysis, interviews and participative observations in the context of an “action research” arrangement (argyris et al, 1990, baskerville, 1999). districtnet is analyzed along the lines of the theoretical framework presented above: the programme is analyzed according to the criteria associated with its domains (e-administration, e-services and e-society) and the levels to which the programme has supported (automated) or changed existing processes and/or introduced new processes (that is, its engagement with the bpa, bpi and bpr strategies defined by dennis and haley wixom). figure 2 below presents a growth model. the programme is also analyzed along the guidelines of successful e-governance as identified by the united nations. this measurement is related to the principles outlined in section 2.4 and is used to identify the 'lessons learned' presented at this paper’s conclusion. figure 2: e-government development cycle we assume, based on the work of heeks (2001a, 2001b), that meaningful e-governance optimizes the operations of the government (through e-administration) and supports human and societal development (by implementing e-services and e-society). in line with the united nations’ world public sector report 2003, we consider e-governance that does not result in an optimization of the government processes to be 'wasteful' and e-governance that has very limited or no impact on the development objectives of the country at large to be 'pointless'. districtnet – uganda over the past fifteen years, uganda has shown a remarkable recovery from economical, social and political turmoil. however, in spite of this recovery, uganda is still a poor country and the penetration of ict and level of internet use is low (see national indicators in table 1). table1: national indicators of uganda. in: tusubira et al., 2005. national indicators uganda population (000.000) 23.4 poverty (% of population below $1 per day) 26.8 adult literacy rate (% ages 15 and over) 68.9 urban population (% of total population) 14.9 gdp per capita (us$) 243 surface area (000 km2) 241 computer usage and internet ownership of computers (% urban/rural) 3.5/0.4 internet access (% urban/rural) 4.2/0.1 it is against this background that the district administration network programme (districtnet) started in 2002, with the general aim of introducing ict to improve transparency of the local government and to improve communication within districts to support decentralization (weddi, 2005). the programme was focusing initially on supporting e-administration, and the possibilities of e-services were to be investigated during programme implementation. e-society was not within the scope of the programme however, the overall development objective supported by this programme is government decentralization[3]. until may 2005, the programme was fostered by uganda’s ministry of local government (molg), and the initial investments and running costs were financially supported by dfid[4] (uk) through the international institute for communication and development (iicd) in conjunction with the molg. set up of districtnet the idea for districtnet emerged from a roundtable conference[5] organized by the iicd[6] in march 2001. the workshop was themed “ict for rural development” and brought together participants from rural and up-country institutions in the public and private sectors. workshop participants identified the following problems at the district and sub-county local government levels[7]: the lack of a convenient mode of communication between the district and the lower local governments, leading to poor follow-up and coordination of activities, thus resulting in delays and inaccuracies. the use of paper-based record-keeping for a variety of data and information, including council minutes and statistics, resulting in many records being lost, or, in the case of those available, being in a form that makes it difficult to find and share information. the use of manual maintenance and processing of financial records, which are consequently often out-dated and inaccurate, leading to reduced transparency and accountability. the numerous reports that have to be prepared manually and submitted from lower local governments to the district, and then from the district to central government ministries, leading to slow and often inaccurate processing the limited access to important information: for example, on government policies; government, donors and ngo programmes that are planned or ongoing; general development information on agriculture, health, etc. in order to address these problems, the introduction of ict at the district and lower local government levels was proposed. emphasis was put on data and voice communication between the district headquarters and the pilot sub-counties and on the introduction of an integrated information system for storing, analyzing and managing financial information. based on an analysis of the needs in the districts and the possibilities of ict, the programme aimed to achieve five overall goals[8]: increased availability of management information, measured by the time needed for sub-counties to answer queries from the district headquarters. increased coordination between headquarters and sub-counties, measured by the volume of data/communication. reduced costs of coordination between headquarters and sub-counties, measured by the amount of physical travel by officers. improved it skills, measured by the usage of the systems. increased availability of public information, measured by the amount of information spread through notice boards, radio, and websites, as well as the number of information requests by citizens and the number of queries answered. the districtnet programme was initially designed to be implemented in four districts in uganda (mbarara, lira, mbale and kayunga), covering the country’s west, north, east and central regions. the kayunga district was selected because of the unique challenges caused by its remote location. uganda consists of 76 districts,[9] which are further divided into sub-counties (with over 900 in the country) and then into parishes. the selected districts were characterized by their long-term political commitment; in addition, the geographical breadth of the programme was chosen to provide a base for its evolutionary growth, based on the premise that pilot districts would inform neighbouring districts about their achievements, in the end leading to regional capacity development. within the four districts, eleven sub-counties were selected for participation. proposed technical solution the proposed technical solution envisaged to realize districtnet was, for the most part, simple and straightforward. to improve the communication between the offices in the district, voice and data communication links were needed to connect all of the offices in the district headquarters, some of which are as far as two kilometers apart. a client-server based local area network (wired and wireless) was to provide the communication in the headquarters. within the headquarters, pc's were installed with standard office applications (microsoft suite), logics (an access based management information system developed by molg in conjunction with development partners), geographical information system software (arcview) and financial software (navision, which was chosen in part because it was already in use in one of the districts). the connection from headquarters to the sub-counties was less straightforward, and the solutions were determined on the basis of three parameters: access to a land line connection access of the sub-county offices to the electricity grid the distance from the sub-county to the headquarters four sub-counties were selected because they were not connected to the electricity grid and consequently alternative energy sources, such as solar energy panels, would be used. overall, the programme identified five different options for data and voice communication (see table 2). table 2: up-country connectivity solutions in the districtnet programme. the last column lists the amount of times each solution was selected in the programme proposal. 1 land line an external modem is used for the data exchange 7 2 mobile phone i mobile phone with data accesories and asociated software 4 3 mobile phone ii as above with adstional antenna 2 4 broadband wireless wireless access to hq lan where thesub-county is within a 15 km range and with line-of-sight. 1 5 hf radio with data comm radio set with antenna, power supply, modem. 6 implementation of districtnet the implementation of districtnet was designed as a pilot programme to prove the concepts and to build a body of knowledge. iicd supported the formulation and implementation of the programme via research, strategic advice, capacity development (in ict skills and soft skills) and general programme management. at the start of the programme, there was virtually no experience with the use of ict at local government levels. some ict programmes had been implemented in uganda, but all at the central government level. of course, the programme was aligned with the plans of the uganda communications commission (ucc), the regulator in uganda, to spread internet connectivity to district centres, and with those of the local government development program (lgdp-i) to restructure government structures to better address the national goals of economic growth and poverty alleviation. the implementation plan of the programme can be characterized as “phased” (shelly et al, 2001) but executed simultaneously at four locations (i.e., the four districts). the whole programme plan from design, through procurement, implementation, training and evaluation was expected to take one year. however, although it was projected to start in may 2002, the programme did not take off until february 2003. at the time of writing, the pilot phase is about to be finalized.  soon after the programme’s kick-off, the ict infrastructure implementation began. local area networks (lan), email and internet services were purchased and installed to establish the first connectivity between the offices in the headquarters and between the headquarters and the offices in the sub-counties. the implementation of the ict infrastructure in the four districts did not move at the same pace in each. as expected, implementation in the kayunga district, because of the specific challenges caused by the district’s geographical location, initially moved more slowly than in the other locations. parallel to the implementation of the ict infrastructure, the chief administration officers (cao) and their staff of administrators in the districts embarked on the evaluation, improvement, and redesign of processes. the starting point for the evaluation was the need to increase access to relevant and timely information in the district headquarters and between the headquarters and the sub-counties. districtnet and e-administration at the start of the programme, the basic data was collected at parish level and forwarded to sub-county administration. the sub-county’s responsibility was to collect and compile all data from the parishes, and then forward it to district hq. then, the district hq, as with the sub-county administration, checked the data for completeness and forwarded it to molg, where digital recording took place. all data was in hard-copy form, and was physically transported by road. in order to ensure uniformity, standardized forms were used at all levels. the process is depicted in figure 3. several problems occurred in this process. in the first place, the data which was collected at the parish level took a long time before reaching district hq and molg. we observed information backlogs of three to six months. secondly, data was lost in transport, never reaching the district hq and molg, for reasons that were not very clear. indeed, some data was never collected properly in the first place. for example, in one district less than 20% of the information required for budget and planning reached the molg. this implied that in 80% of the sub-counties, the planning and budgeting process was seriously undermined. these two problems guided the programme design. currently, the basic data is still collected at the parish level and forwarded to sub-county administration using the same hard-copy standard forms. the first change was implemented at the sub-county level: the eleven pilot sub-counties are now responsible for the digitization of data. after digitizing the data and checking its completeness, the sub-counties forward the data via email and/or floppy disk to district hq, resulting in a timely delivery of the data needed for planning and budgeting purposes. the third change was implemented at district hq, where district planners (who were trained to use data analysis tools) now perform data analysis and provide timely feedback to the sub-county administration and the parishes.  a fourth change is in the improvement in lead times for the data’s arrival at molg, as the four pilot districts are now able to transfer their information electronically to molg. moreover, molg can now work much more efficiently and effectively because it is no longer responsible for digital recording, thus allowing more time for analysis and informed decision-making. the process is depicted in figure 3. figure 3: business process improvement in districtnet in the reverse feedback flow, the decision was made to send relatively little information, using low-end tools, to provide feedback from molg to the district hq and from district hq to lower local government levels. this feedback mechanism enables lower-level governments to finalize their planning and budgeting processes. this process still needs (and deserves!) further development, and much more staff training is required. however, at this stage we can say that the system is a unique example of e-administration and e-services for east africa, and it has had an enormous impact on the government planning in the four pilot districts. the support for decentralization supported through ict’s deserves further documenting and dissemination. districtnet and e-services efforts to offer direct information services to the citizens of the four pilot districts began in 2004. in this respect it should be mentioned that uganda is a strongly decentralized country, which is a “disadvantage” for implementing e-services in that most governmental information services (e.g. business licenses, tax forms and information) are already available to the citizens in hard-copy form at the sub-county level. as a result, offering these types of services in electronic form is not among the programme’s direct priorities. nevertheless, since 2004 various districts have piloted a programme offering electronic information services on business licenses, land registration, and tax revenues. in 2006, after two years of these pilots, the iicd will establish a research project to analyze which user groups are in need of what type of information services. the challenge at this level of services is to create information outlets at the sub-county level in the districts, in order to provide citizens with relevant data such as market and price information for agricultural commodities. districtnet and e-society e-society was and is not within the scope of the programme. districtnet was to focus on e-administration and e-services. as a result, this domain has been neither developed nor evaluated. challenges and obstacles the implementation of districtnet was considered a major challenge from the start. although there were some experiences with a similar implementation of e-governance at a local level in the kinondoni municipal council in dar es salaam in tanzania (menda, 2005), the rural locations of the four pilot districts and the scale of the project posed some new and unexpected problems. in the implementation phase, the importance of large-scale continuous capacity development became immediately apparent. the levels of professional technical ict knowledge (i.e. the knowledge to implement an ict infrastructure) as well computer literacy (the ability to operate the computer and its applications, as well as awareness of the opportunities ict creates in organizations) proved to be lower than anticipated. when combined with the huge staff turn-over in local governments, this circumstance demanded the establishment of continuous  training programmes at the district hq. in addition, the implementation of the ict infrastructure began slowly, and the implemented solutions were inadequate. this problem was caused in part by the fact that the districts themselves did not take up ownership of the programme until may 2005, when it was decided to make the districts directly responsible for implementation. this shift in responsibility improved the quality of implementation greatly. another problem was that districtnet faced significant delays in the implementation of e-services because of a strong technological focus at the start of the programme. decisions needed to be taken on the type of hardware, software and network connections that were suitable in the programme’s rural context. not until the discussions on the type of technology to be used were concluded could the project proceed to the level of e-services. the first years of the programme were dedicated to enabling e-administration and e-services. because of the battles over defining which technologies were needed in the programme’s rural settings, the services offered by the districtnet programme remained for quite some time focused on e-administration. by 2006, though, these technology fights were consuming less energy, and therefore the programme was developing increasingly in the area of e-services. conclusions and lessons learned districtnet is a complex and rich programme that can serve as a reference / learning model for other e-governance programmes in a development context. in this last section we will apply the theoretical framework presented in section 2 in order to evaluate the level to which e-governance has been implemented in the programme. on the basis of the evaluation, we will formulate some lessons learned that can guide other e-governance programmes at local government levels. e-governance implemented in section 2, we developed a matrix to determine the focus of e-governance and the level to which the processes in the organization are affected. we postulated that meaningful e-governance programmes optimize the processes of government and human and societal development. in order to evaluate whether this has taken place, the three focus areas of e-governance (e-administration,  e-services and e-society) need to be considered, as do the levels to which the government processes are automated, improved or redesigned (bpa, bpi and bpr). what can we conclude for the districtnet programme in uganda? the design of districtnet allows the programme to extend in all three areas of e-government, supporting the processes at the local and sub-country levels by offering new services for the citizens, and by creating the conditions for the eventual involvement of business communities and non-governmental and community organizations. the programme is designed not only to automate the existing processes, but also to emphasize the improvement of processes. for instance, the budgeting and planning processes underwent radical improvement. the old budgeting and planning processes have been re-structured and optimized, and the new processes have created dramatic improvements in efficiency and effectiveness, thanks to the use of ict.  similar positive results were recorded for the information sharing of the sub-counties with the chief administration officer and district planner. most of the initiatives were problem driven. hence, the programme has so far had very little space for e-society initiatives. some actions for e-society were integrated in the development of a new communication structure for information sharing through the newly established websites (each of the pilot districts has a website offering generic information about the district). the programme has had the most impact at the e-administration and e-services levels. the programme was able to optimize and, where possible, restructure processes in these two areas of e-governance. however, the programme has so far not been able to re-design processes at the e-services level. the results of the programme are plotted in figure 4. figure 4: the extent to which the focus areas of e-government were implemented in districtnet lessons learned to conclude this paper, we want to elicit some lessons learned from the districtnet programme in uganda. we focus our lessons through the three main categories identified in the united nations’ world public sector report 2003. in addition to the points raised in the un report, we identify six new lessons in three categories: focus of ict in government operations think big, but begin small create feedback loops in e-governance programmes ability to use ict in government stress capacity development as a key success factor recognize that fighting technology takes time strategies for connecting citizens emphasize that information is a commodity ensure content availability and usage the six lessons are explained in the three categories below. ad 1. focus of ict in government operations districtnet presents a good example of embedding the introduction of e-government in the larger context of priority development needs in a country (in this case, the government's decentralization programme). as districtnet shows, e-governance programmes are complex and need constant attention and care. improvement in efficiency and effectiveness may be important at a national level, but at an individual level it can also be considered as a threat and thus a reason to resist or even undermine the programme. however, the programme is most likely to achieve good results (i.e. improvements in efficiency and effectiveness) and constant attention and support when it is part of the success of high priority development programmes in the country, and where results of individuals are benchmarked against national development goals. think big, but begin small gradual and phased implementation of the programme is the key to success. in other words: think big, but begin small. districtnet has been designed as a pilot programme. the main goal was to build knowledge and gain experience. new programmes should build on these experiences because the underlying idea of the pilot is to create a nation-wide e-governance network. it is important to integrate this goal in the design of the next phases of this pilot programme. create feedback loops in e-governments programmes in countries like uganda, civil servants at the local levels are often asked to gather data but seldom receive feedback on the impact of their data-collecting activities. a good feedback mechanism in an e-governance programme creates a tool to provide the local levels with information, and the improved information position of the officers at the local government levels enhances their commitment to the introduction of e-governance. ad 2. ability to use ict in government our observations from the districtnet programme show that in a development context the ability of local governments to design, implement, use and maintain e-governance in action should not be over-estimated. this might be an important difference with e-governance programmes in the developed world. training and capacity development is key to the success. stress capacity development as a key success factor five types of knowledge and skills are necessary for successful ict implementation, as well as sustainable e-governance: professional technical knowledge to implement and maintain the technical infrastructure professional business knowledge to guide and check the quality of suppliers implementing and maintaining the technical infrastructure (tendering, quality control, service level agreements) computer literacy at the government level, such as basic knowledge about how to operate the computers and their applications, and an understanding of the role ict can play in the improvement of work processes computer literacy among users, such as basic knowledge about how to operate the computers and e-government applications ict change management skills among management and administrators professional knowledge may be available in the country; however, this knowledge is less likely to be found at the level of the local governments, and is seldom found in the rural areas. as a result, obtaining quality ict consulting services is difficult. computer literacy is often defined as the ability to use office applications; however, e-governance programmes also demand that staff have a good understanding of the role that ict can play in their organization and in their work. in the developing world, the level of computer literacy among the people in the rural areas is extremely low (see also table 1). consequently, in the design and implementation of an e-governance programme, one cannot assume any level of computer literacy. training in the programme should focus on developing the skills to operate and maintain the applications used in the e-governance programme, as well as on educating people about the possibilities of ict for government operations. when ict solutions are outsourced, business-related skills such as supplier and contract management are vital, since the quality of service of ict suppliers in rural environments is often low. training should not be purely technology-driven or organization-focused. in a rural setting, the introduction of ict does not automatically lead to the use of the new tools. resistance, fear and lack of understanding need to be managed carefully and skilfully to persuade the users to use the new ict. training can serve as a tool to change the attitudes of users in the organization. it is advised that the training simulates the day-to-day working practice as anticipated in the desired situation. training should not be limited to the borders of the organization, but should also include community leaders and potential champions in the communities. their role is vital for carrying knowledge to the surrounding communities. recognize that fighting technology takes time in districtnet’s initial stage of implementation, the primary focus was on developing the ict infrastructure to enable e-administration and e-services. often in e-governance, the primary focus is on these technical aspects, and the organizational and social aspects are treated with less priority. it takes time to change this technology-focused attitude, and the issue needs to be addressed from the start of the implementation process. ad 3. strategies for connecting citizens connecting the citizens to the programme is probably the biggest challenge, especially with local government in rural areas. one of the reasons for the success of districtnet is that it has been using traditional means combined with modern (ict-enabled) strategies to distribute information to the citizens. in the excitement of the introduction of new technology, programmes tend to forget to include the traditional means for information distribution, such as radio, television, bulletins, bulletin boards, and even word-of-mouth. the traditional communication channels are the first ways to make use of the new ict-based communication channels. in uganda, as in many parts of africa, mobile telephony is gaining rapid acceptance as a means of spreading information (see, for example, the wide range of information services offered through sms). the reach of mobile telephony has increased dramatically in recent years and has penetrated deep into the rural areas of africa (scott et al, 2004). the design of districtnet could benefit from a closer integration of mobile telephony with the ict-enabled solutions. the spread of information to citizens through a special (free) sms service could have increased the e-services dimension of the programme. emphasize that information is a commodity the success of e-administration and e-services programmes relies heavily on the quality of data and information. the availability of quality data and information is too often taken for granted.  programmes must remember that information is a commodity: the quality of data should be monitored, while the quantity of data at higher levels has to reduced information is not “just lying around”; it should be derived from the right datasets. therefore, lobbying at all levels, and especially at the political level, is needed to ensure that the necessary data can be collected and used. incentives should be in place for data generation at lower local government levels (e.g.: direct outlets of data should be present at the level at which the data is being collected). the districtnet project taught us that potential users can be trained in using the services offered and that the staff members of the project can be trained in basic ict applications, project management, and financial management. at the operational level, the rule that “people learn when they see how they can use their skills and knowledge” was proved valid once again. the difficulty is in training the staff members how to use the data at a more strategic level, so they can transform the data into useful information and knowledge. thus, two critical factors in good governance programmes are the creation of information flow procedures and the development of solid training programmes in information management. in districtnet, an information flow toolkit for information officers at higher local government level was provided during training sessions. the kit was developed in a participatory way. ensure content availability and usage the availability of information is key to keeping momentum in an e-governance programme, and the way the users employ this information is the measure for success. access to information, and thus the success of ict projects, is determined by: awareness: do the potential staff members and end-users know the services exist? connectivity: are the services and information available? affordability: can government administration and citizens afford the access to the information without external financial support? capability: have the potential users and the staff members of the project the skills required for access? sustainability: will similar services be available in the (near) future? districtnet experiences show that the content needs careful management in order to keep citizens attached to the project. we have noticed that centralized management of local information does not work, as the information is not in line with the local needs and is often outdated or arrives too late to be useful. conclusion districtnet has created a wealth of experiences and provides a rich model of reference for other e-governance programmes in africa. the programme is a showcase of what e-governance in rural areas can look like. new technologies have been introduced and tested, and the programme has provided evidence that the introduction of ict at the local government level can lead to major improvements in performance. at the same time, the programme shows that the low penetration of ict skills and equipment in countries like uganda limits the way such initiatives can move into e-administration and e-services, and makes e-society unreachable for the moment. governments need to continue their efforts to develop ict infrastructure and to increase the penetration of ict skills among their citizens, especially concentrating their efforts on the rural areas, while development partners should establish more research programmes to ensure the successful implementation and support of ict. annex i: local government administrative structure in uganda references argyris, c., putnam, r., mclain smith, d., action science: concepts, methods, and skills for research and intervention. jossey-bass, san francisco, 1990. baskerville, r., investigating information systems with action research. communications of the association of information systems, vol. 2, article 19, 1999. bitwayiki, c., de jager, a., building capacity for embedding: the districtnet uganda programme. iicd, 2004 (capacity.org-2004; download available at www.capacity.org and www.iicd.org). coleman, s., african e-governance: opportunities and challenges. commission for africa, 2005. (download available at www.commissionforafrica.org). dennis, a., haley wixom, b., systems analysis and design: an applied approach. wiley, new york, 2000.  hammer, m., champy j., reengineering the corporation: a manifesto for business revolution. harpercollins, new york, 1993. heeks, r., understanding e-governance for development. i-government working papers no. 11. institute for development policy and management, university of manchester, 2001a. (download available on www.man.ac.uk/idpm) heeks, r., building e-governance for development: a framework for national and donor action. i-government working papers no. 12. institute for development policy and management, university of manchester, 2001b. (download available on www.man.ac.uk/idpm) iicd., the ict roundtable process: lessons learned from facilitating ict-enabled development. international institute for communication and development, the hague, 2004. kintu, m.j.r., mbeine, e., output to purpose review districtnet uganda. fit uganda, 2004 (download available at www.iicd.org). leer, a., welcome to the wired world: tune in to the digital future. pearson, harlow / london, 2000.  menda, a., computerising local government in tanzania: the kinondoni experience. iconnect online, 2005. (www.iconnect-online.org) molla, a., the impact of ereadiness on ecommerce success in developing countries: firm based evidence. development informatics working papers no. 18. institute for development policy and management, university of manchester, 2001. (download available on www.man.ac.uk/idpm) scott, n., batchelor, s., ridley, j., jorgensen, b., the impact of mobile phones in africa. commission for africa, 2004. (download available at www.commissionforafrica.org). shelly, g., cashman, t.j, rosenblatt, h.j., systems analysis and design. course technology/thomson, boston, 2001.  tusubira, f.f., kaggwa i., ongora j., uganda. in: gillwald, a., ed. towards an african e-index: household and individual ict access and usage across 10 african countries. the link centre, wits university school of public and development management, 2005. united nations, world public sector report 2003: e-government at the crossroads. united nations, department of economic and social affairs, new york, 2003. weddi, d., transforming local government: e-governance in uganda. iconnect online, 2005. (www.iconnect-online.org) [1]    the term business process reengineering has attracted enormous attention through michael hammer and james champy’s book reengineering the corporation (1993). in this article we do not promote their radical reengineering approach, but consider bpr as a means to fundamentally reconsider the tasks and responsibilities of an organization, and the processes and tools by which an organization may implement these tasks and responsibilities. that is, ict can be introduced and used as a trigger for bpr. [2]    the original taxonomy of ntiro, adapted by heeks, identifies e-citizen and e-services as two separate classes. in this article we prefer to use the term e-services only, which includes the class of e-citizens. [3]    districtnet programme proposal, 11th february 2002. [4]    uk department for international development [5]    the roundtable conferences organized by the international institute for communication and development are conferences oriented towards mutual and participative programme formulation. for more information on the roundtable concept, see (iicd, 2004). [6]    interenational institute for communications and development [7]    mentioned in the programme proposal of districtnet, 11th february 2002. [8]    in the original programme, eight expected outcomes were defined (as described in kintu, mbeine, 2004), but some of them showed so much overlap that we have grouped them together. [9]    in 2005 the number of districts was increased from 52 to 76 by “local governmental reorganization” collecting data in chennai city and the limits of openness nithya v raman transparent chennai project centre for development finance http://www.transparentchennai.com advocates of open data promise big benefits. some documented successes have come in the form of increased savings to government and the creation of useful software applications that help residents navigate their cities and government services better, especially in the west. but open data advocates expect much more. the push towards open data is also premised on its ability to make governments more transparent and accountable to their people, on its ability to empower citizens vis-à-vis governments. according to gavin newsom, the current mayor of san francisco who has embraced open data, "it will change the way citizens and governments interact but perhaps most importantly, it is going to change the way elected officials and civil servants deliver programs, services, and promises... i can't wait until it challenges and infuriates the bureaucracy" [1]. can such benefits be expected in the indian context? i have collected a great deal of data in india, thanks to a project that i started and run called transparent chennai, which collects and creates maps and data about important civic problems, especially those affecting the poor [2]. my experience with collecting government data at the city level suggests that accessing these benefits may require that open data policies take into account some of the peculiarities of the indian context, and the ways in which the indian government stores and uses data. what we found in chennai was that existing policies to make data more available to the public have failed to overcome systemic local obstacles to openness. despite the presence of the right to information act (rti), seekers still had to navigate a complex bureaucratic system to access the information they required, one which continued to actively resist giving out information to the public. government knowledge in chennai was also much more fragmentary than i expected. our research found that information about city services tended to be incomplete, for ultimately rational reasons that were not always immediately apparent. as a result, advocates of open data policies run the risk of glorifying government data that is frequently inaccurate or incomplete, often in ways that are biased against the poor. such fragmentary data also often does not provide the kind of knowledge that is required for holding government accountable for better performance, undercutting the goals of open data policies. two narratives about collecting data in india will help to illustrate some of these peculiarities. these accounts are taken from my own experiences, as well as a data collection diary maintained by an intern for transparent chennai, meryl sebastian, who was tasked with gathering data for the project. these accounts are taken from our efforts to collect data on two issues -public toilets and bus routes [3]. bus routes the city has a vast network of public transportation. it has a metropolitan transport corporation (mtc) that manages approximately 700 bus routes, two existing train lines managed by the southern railways, a suburban train line and a mass rapid transit system, and another rail line under construction that is managed by the metro rail corporation. however, at the time that transparent chennai started looking at the issue in late 2009, there was no publicly available map of bus routes in the city, or of the two existing train systems, or of the new planned metro rail [4]. we decided to focus first on creating an easily searchable map of bus routes in the city, but getting detailed information on routes for this map from the mtc proved to be nearly impossible. meryl started by calling the office of the managing director of the mtc repeatedly, but the phone rang endlessly with no answer. she finally managed to speak to his assistant who told her to speak to mr. sampath, a senior officer in the operations department. mr. sampath picked up his phone only on the third try, and despite having been referred to him by the managing director's office, he suggested that meryl first send a letter directly to the managing director asking for the information and getting approval for him to release it. since letters sent by mail had not yielded results in the past, meryl decided to visit the office with a letter in hand introducing herself and our project, and asking for the information we required. the guard outside the mtc office examined her letter, and sent her to the public relations officer who told her that that the mtc did not have any maps or shapefiles [5] for bus routes, and that all the information we needed could be found on the mtc website. this was not actually true. the website only identified the major bus depots that buses passed through on each route. the bus depots were usually at least a couple of kilometers apart, with at least ten stops between them, about which no information was available on the website. the mtc's website was also designed so poorly that unless you knew the exact name of the bus depots nearest to your starting point and destination, you could not find the routes. moreover, none of the information was available on a map. in other words, the site was almost entirely useless for anyone who was not already very familiar with the bus system and with chennai. meryl pressed the public relations officer further for detailed route information. he shook his head again -the information was too extensive to be given out, he argued, but he nevertheless referred her to mr. sampath, the senior officer in operations whom she had already spoken to earlier on the phone. meryl reached mr. sampath's office just as he was leaving. he looked over her letter, and asked his assistant to give her access to the information. the assistant then took meryl to the office of a senior official in the traffic planning and development department, a man named r. kumar. he told meryl that there were more than 650 routes in the city, and that it was not possible to give her detailed information on all of them. he also told her that the mtc itself did not have up-to-date route maps or digital lists of stops for all the routes. when she pressed him further for any detailed information about routes, he conceded that he could give her detailed route information for five to ten routes, provided she first got approval in writing from mr. sampath for releasing this information. satisfied, meryl returned to our office to prepare a letter for mr. sampath to sign. a few days later, she called mr. sampath's office again to schedule a meeting to give him our request letter. he told her that they would all be busy with board meetings until the monday of the following week, and asked her to come to the office on tuesday with her letter. on tuesday, when she called again to schedule an appointment, he said that there was a function happening that the entire office would be attending, and asked her to come the next afternoon instead, and to meet mr. kumar, an officer in the traffic planning department, instead of coming to his office. the next day, meryl went to meet mr. kumar, who told her it would not be possible to give out route details for even the 10 routes he had promised. he claimed the mtc itself did not have this information for any of the routes, which contradicted what he said in his last meeting. according to him, the last time that the mtc had updated official records of detailed route information was in 1972. the reason they had only put the depot information on the website, was because bus depots remained the same even though the routes that the buses took to get from depot to depot changed quite frequently. when meryl insisted that he give her at least some of the information, mr. kumar directed a member of his staff, mr. murugavel, to give meryl a list of routes, and detailed information on stop names for a few of them. mr. murugavel, while he was putting together the list of routes, told meryl that information about bus routes and specific stop locations were written up in registers at the mtc, and occasionally updated on computers when people who had the skills to do that were available. however, bus routes changed frequently, and they were easier to update in the registers than on the computers, so the information on the computers lagged far behind. according to mr. murugavel, bus routes and bus stop locations were highly contentious issues, and there were frequent debates about where bus stops were needed. publicly committing to routes would make responding to pressures from residents and powerful people like local politicians for changes in routes much more difficult, and so the mtc was reluctant to make information about all stops available to the public. he gave her for the list of routes, and listed the names of all the stops for 22 major routes, and asked her to come back if she needed anything more. although the mtc's own database of routes and stops was not well organized, mr. murugavel was highly conversant with the details of routes and stops. indeed, he had compiled the list of stop names for these 22 routes entirely from memory. he also told us the routes that were the most used, and would give us full geographical coverage of the city, all without consulting a map, a register, or a computer. public toilets although some surveys like the national family health survey showed that there were much higher levels of access to sanitation in chennai than in other cities, low-income women workers who we spoke with said they needed more well-maintained public toilets in the city, not just at their houses, but also at their workplaces like market areas and informal industry clusters. the transparent chennai team wanted to find out more about toilets -how many there were, where they were located, how they were planned, and how they were funded -so that the public toilet infrastructure could be better directed towards meeting workers' needs at home and at the workplace. however, answering these questions proved to be far more difficult than we originally imagined. we first decided to get an accurate count of public toilets in the city. one afternoon, i called the chennai corporation and asked for the department that took care of public toilets. after many long holds, phones being hung up, and failed attempts to transfer my call to the correct department, someone finally connected me to the buildings department that managed all corporation owned structures. the man on the other end of the phone chuckled when he heard that i was interested in public toilets, and then told me that although the buildings department was responsible for the construction and maintenance of public toilet structures in the city, they maintained no central register of toilets at the chennai corporation's main office. to get information about the number and locations of toilets, he told me that i would have to approach each of the zonal offices individually. at the time, there were ten zonal offices in chennai [6], and i asked meryl to visit each office to get the total number and locations of all the public toilets. the process we followed was the same for each zone, but the offices responded with varying levels of cooperation. for one zone, meryl left our office armed with a letter of introduction specifying the information she required and a vague address taken from the corporation website, and searched for the zonal office with an increasingly irritable auto-rickshaw driver. when she finally arrived at the office, neither the assistant commissioner nor the executive engineer was available, so the personal assistant to the assistant commissioner sent her to the letters department. there, she was asked to make a photocopy of her request letter. the original was kept with them, and the copy was given to her, both stamped with the date of her visit, and she was asked to come back after two days. two days later, the executive engineer was there, and like many of the other officers we interacted with on this issue, he seemed both confused and amused by her interest in toilets. he chided her for coming in the afternoon, because the work would have been completed more quickly in the morning, but immediately put two engineers to the task of preparing a list for her. after another hour of waiting, she had a hand-written list of toilets and toilet addresses in her hand, and she returned to the office triumphantly to type it up. other zones were not so easy. in one zone in northern chennai, meryl met with the assistant commissioner. he told her that the list of public toilets was with the executive engineer who was away on a trip to delhi, and asked meryl to come back the next week. when she returned to the zonal office, both the assistant commissioner and executive engineer were in meetings. she waited for two hours until the executive engineer found time to meet with her. although the assistant commissioner had personally directed the request letter to the engineer, the engineer was not sure whether the list of toilets could be given out to a member of the public without explicit approval from the corporation commissioner, the senior-most bureaucrat in the city. meryl told him that she had collected the same data from seven other zones without any problem. the engineer nodded, and asked her whether she had already obtained the data from zone 9. she said yes, and he then called the assistant commissioner of zone 9 to ask whether it would be prudent to give out the information. finally satisfied that a list of public toilets was safe to give out to a member of the public, he instructed the engineering department to prepare the list for her. after waiting another 45 minutes, she left the office with a list of the 31 toilets in the zone and their addresses. in this way, zone by zone, with multiple visits, many letters of introduction, and much careful coaxing, meryl slowly put together a list of toilets and their addresses in the city. only one zone provided her with a map of local infrastructure [7], the rest gave her lists of toilets and addresses. her list showed that there were 572 toilets in the city, what seemed to us like a vast under-provisioning of toilets. after all, the 2001 census counted only 670,000 toilets in the city for 827,000 houses, so there was clearly a need for public sanitation of some sort. however, before we went public with the data, we decided to file a petition under the right to information (rt) act for the same information so that if we were challenged on the data, we would have a paper trail showing from where we had obtained it. the rti also required follow up with each individual zone and took much longer than the stipulated 30 days waiting period. when the results finally came in, we were shocked. the total number of toilets jumped from 572 to 714. every single zone reported a different number of toilets under the rti than they had reported voluntarily to meryl. we were particularly befuddled because some reported more toilets than they had listed for us originally, but some actually reported less, meaning that engineers had seemingly given us addresses for toilets that did not exist. however, we found even more inconsistencies in the database. using the addresses given to us and armed with a gps unit, we physically mapped all the toilets in one zone zone 4 in the northern part of the city, which had a high percentage of slums and informal workplaces. it emerged through the physical mapping that many of the toilets had incorrect addresses, and our team spent hours searching for them in the warren of streets in that zone. some toilets included in the database had already been demolished by the city. others were clearly in disuse, and had been for years, and really should not have been included in the listing of current toilets.  from our local interviews, it appeared that zonal level bureaucrats had good reasons for keeping the number of toilets unclear. contracts for toilet maintenance were a source of income for many ward councilors, and lower-level bureaucrats were paid off to ensure that the contracts went to the right people. although we do not have proof that this is what happened, people we interviewed in the field told us that non-existent toilets were being used for creating fictional maintenance contracts so that councilors could benefit from them. this also could explain why toilets that had been in disuse for years were still counted in the official register -they made money for local councilors. conclusion these two narratives, one about public toilets and one about bus routes, provide insights into the process of data collection from government sources, and provide some important lessons for advocates of open data. firstly, simply passing a law on open data may not be enough to make government data widely and easily available to the public, the way in which such data has become available in some other nations. even though indian citizens currently have a right to access government information, members of the transparent chennai team still found it extremely difficult to get access to basic data on civic issues. much of this difficulty came out of a culture of fear among lower level bureaucrats to give data to the public without explicit approval from their superiors. unless systemic barriers to openness are addressed, such as this type of culture within the bureaucracy, legislating for more openness may not be as effective in india as elsewhere.  secondly, opening up existing government data alone will not be enough to increase government accountability and to evaluate government performance, especially on issues concerning the poor. when we were collecting information, we found large gaps and egregious errors in the government's written data. there was no centralized list of toilets, and the list of toilets from one zone misidentified toilet locations and counted non-existent and un-used toilets. bus routes data missed out on all the stops between bus depots.  it was also true in both of these cases that officials were actually well-informed about toilets and bus routes, but that this knowledge was held informally, as personal knowledge rather than as a shared database for their department. in these cases, inaccuracies or gaps in written data were useful to government officials in different ways. in the case of toilets, it appeared that elected representatives profited from them. for buses, the lack of publicly available lists of bus routes enabled the mtc to respond more quickly to complaints from residents. as a result, focusing on existing government data was not enough to understand the state of civic services. these gaps and inaccuracies in data are particularly true for issues concerning the poor. despite the amount of time and energy it took to create high quality data on the numbers and locations of toilets in the city, we did not have much more information to really evaluate government performance on providing access to sanitation than we did before, besides the total number of toilets in the city and the percentage of usable toilets in zone 4. this is because other pieces of data against which the map or our survey could have been usefully compared were simply unavailable. maps of places where toilets would have been needed -slum areas [8], large market areas where street vendors operated, bus stops and bus depots, clusters of informal sector industry, waiting areas for daily laborers -were not available either from the government or other sources. and because many of these spaces and activities, like street vending or informal industry, are considered illegal by the government, it is unlikely that the government will ever collect information on them. demographic information by ward was available from the census, but this was not comparable with the toilet maps because the census used completely different ward boundaries than the corporation. statistics like access to sanitation were only available for the city as a whole, and not disaggregated to the zone or the ward level. after all of our efforts, we had a lot more "data" about sanitation, but we did not necessarily have much more information to evaluate government performance on providing sanitation in the city. our experience suggests that getting access to government data alone is not enough to hold government accountable for service provision in the indian context, particularly for the poor. advocates of open data who are concerned with government accountability will have to find innovative means of supplementing existing government data. endnotes [1] claire cain miller, "local governments offer data to software tinkerers," new york times, december 6 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/technology/internet/07cities.html [2] transparent chennai's mission is to collect, process, and map data on neglected issues in the city, particularly those affecting the poor. on issues for which government data is lacking or incorrect, we work with residents to actually create their own data. our work can be found at www.transparentchennai.com. [3] the choice of these two issues was not accidental. when i was still working as an urban policy researcher at the think-tank in which transparent chennai is housed, i organized a public consultation for informal sector workers. both public sanitation and public transport were issues that came up repeatedly at the consultation, and these were the issues that we decided to focus on at first in our work. [4] the new chennai metro rail website has a schematic map of the three rail routes [5] shapefiles are a format commonly used for geospatial data. [6] since then, the corporation has expanded to 15 zones. [7] this was a printed map, which ended up being nearly useless for geo-coding the infrastructure because the map was so unclear. [8] we did have access to a map of unrecognized slums in the city produced by a consultant, but this map was not part of the city's official record. place-peer community and civic bandwidth: towards place-peer community and civic bandwidth: a case study in community wireless networking hanna hye-na cho visiting researcher, institute for communication arts and technology, hallym university, korea cho.hanna@gmail.com abstract this article presents findings from an ethnographic case study of one urban community wireless networking (cwn) group, wireless toronto.  a key purpose of the study was to understand who participates in them?  why?  what (if at all) do cwns have to do with “community”? data was collected using participant observation, surveys, and in-depth interviews. analyses relied on a conceptual framework consisting of ideas related to social capital, community networks, community informatics, and constructivist visions of technology.  findings revealed that diverse notions of community were central parts of volunteers' discourse, especially when attempting to understand their overall rationale for provisioning free (public) wi-fi.  in particular, the article discusses how these notions of community related to ideals of “place-peer community” and “civic bandwidth”.  overall, the study argues that urban cwns are social and civic networks of individuals whose short-term social implications are practical (i.e. local community participation) and long-term implications, symbolic-ideological (social constructions of technology and community). keywords: community wireless networks, community networks, community informatics, social capital, wi-fi, civic engagement, constructivist visions of technology, civic bandwidth, place-peer community introduction bandwidth.  beer.  fun.  free. these are all words that come to mind when i think of the group of self-professed geeks known as wireless toronto.  on the surface, there is very little about this community wireless networking group that suggests any activity that might merit serious attention.  indeed, the emphasis of the group is social, and the underlying mission of the group is obscured by the lighthearted and casual nature of its meetings, socials, and members.  convening once a month for a brief meeting at the centre for social innovation, the small group of (mostly male, mostly geeky) volunteers continues onto a nearby bar for drinks and more conversation.  there they toast to victories both small and large, and strategize how to improve and increase public access to free wireless internet.  why? volunteers might say because it’s fun, it’s an interesting way to learn about wireless infrastructure and play with open-source software. and, in some small way, they feel that they are helping their local communities by giving people access to ict (information communications technology) not provisioned with commercial interests.  at the heart of this explanation, there seems to be a kind of technological utopianism, reminiscent of the wildly optimistic first decade of the internet.  however, if we accept the social constructivist view of technology that sees how we talk about technology as constitutive, and recognize that discourses about technologies can shape how they are used in a given society, then examining the logic and motivation for these kinds of grassroots, bottom-up ict initiatives, is useful for understanding how the struggle to define the use of new technologies can also be a struggle for political and social agency.  a closer look at this group of volunteers reveals a group of diverse individuals, who – while appreciating the opportunity for camaraderie based on a shared interest in wireless networking technology – are brought together by more than an interest in socializing or learning.  that is, they are brought together by a shared vision of how technology could be used to connect people in and to their communities.  the research project presented in this article is a collection of different kinds of inquiries about the social consequences of technology, brought together through a case study of one community wireless networking group, wireless toronto.  rather than focus on technical aspects of community wireless networks (cwns), this study considered their social aspects, with particular interest in how “community” is manifest in their logic.  for example, what visions of technology are expressed by the people who participate in them? why is community important in the design and use of communication technologies? using ethnographic methods of research and applying inductive modes of analysis to findings, this case study examined the rhetorical and real-life notions of community found to exist in the discourses of wireless toronto volunteers, how this shaped their participation, and how these conceptions were related to their local community of place (toronto).  specific research questions included, what notions of “community” and “the public interest” are held by volunteers in community wireless networking groups?  how does this relate to wireless networking technology (wi-fi)?  findings were analyzed using concepts relating to social capital, community informatics, and technological visions (constructivist perspective).  the article begins by considering the underlying rationales of democratic communication and civic participation relevant to many cwns.  next, it describes the specific case of wireless toronto, followed by an introduction of the project’s conceptual framework and methodology.  a summary of the project’s key findings is presented, with particular interest in the diverse ways “community” appeared in volunteers’ discourse.  using the ideas of “place-peer community” and “civic bandwidth”, the article also considers how the wi-fi networks and visions for community engendered by cwns such as wireless toronto overlapped in a way that catalyzed individual contributions (private investment of social capital) and can be seen as a way to foster access to material and symbolic public assets (low-cost/free internet bandwidth and collective social capital).            democratic communication & civic participation in an age where global and virtual flows of people, information and culture seem to have diminished the nature and importance of the local, these community-driven ict initiatives are important developments.  this is underscored by the current trend of citizen disaffection and global decline in traditional patterns of political participation (barney, 2004; inglehart, 1997; institute on governance, 2005; putnam, 2000).  understanding the changing landscape for democratic communication and civic participation requires careful consideration of its communication structures.  who has access to the public sphere?  what mediating factors are there in the exchange of information and communication goods?  whose interests do they serve?  too often, the answer is found in the realm of private interests, where profit, not citizenship, is the ultimate goal. in short, we are witnessing a shrinking of the public sphere, which by turn, undermines our ability to create or sustain a civic and democratic society (mcchesney, 2004). yet alongside this decline in public space is the rapid spread of digital media.  as fenton (2005) asserts, a key question around new media becomes, “what is [its] role in establishing a social imaginary?” referring to the set of values, expectations, images and symbols common to a particular social group and the corresponding society (taylor, 2004), the social imaginary is an important way of understanding how the symbolic acts upon the actually existing; legitimizing and shaping the choices and trajectories of a given society. these discussions around the need for democratic communication structures and the civic potential for new ict are foundational to any nuanced understanding of the relationship between cwns and “community”.  that is, while there is no clear answer to affirm or disprove either the utopian or dystopian perspectives around the civic potential of new ict and the internet (dahlgren, 2000; dutton, 1996; macgregor wise, 2003; norris, 2001; poster, 1997), it is generally agreed that the civic potential of new ict can be realized only through the agents who engage in its reflexive and democratic use.  moreover, it requires equitable access to the networks and bandwidth. this ideological view of new ict and the internet was one that came to mainstream attention during the 1990s, with the founding of community networks (cns) such as the national capital freenet (ottawa), cleveland freenet, and big sky telegraph (montana).  while their basic aim was to ensure affordable access to the internet to members of their local communities, they were also built with the view that they could help citizens build organizations, provide local information, and develop bonds of civic life and conviviality (carvin & surman, 2006; kavanaugh & patterson, 1996; schuler, 1996). today, community wireless networking groups such as nycwireless, consume (london), ile sans fil (montreal) and wireless toronto have built technical infrastructures in much the same spirit.  unlike these first cns, which used fixed line connections to provision individuals in private settings (i.e. homes), cwns leverage the low cost of wi-fi networking technology[1], to encourage the public sharing of internet bandwidth within a given locality. case study:  wireless toronto this research project was based on a case study of the canadian community wireless networking group, wireless toronto.  founded in april 2005, wireless toronto is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit community group dedicated to the provision of free wireless internet in toronto’s publicly shared places.  the basis of their “no-cost” provision is twofold.  first, the costs of setting up and providing free wireless internet access are paid for by venues (i.e. the café or restaurant in which the hotspot is located pays for the cable/dsl connection and wireless router). second, the labour and technical assistance required to install equipment and software, are provided for free by wireless toronto volunteers.  with a network of over 30 hotspots located throughout the city of toronto, the group’s efforts are targeted to a general population of wireless internet users. modeled after cwns such as nycwireless and ile sans fil (montreal), wireless toronto was founded in april 2005, after an initial presentation and discussion convened through the local toronto chapter of the interest-based social networking group, socialtechbrewing. unlike “user-groups” (i.e. the “wi-fi toronto meetup group”) that are interested simply in the mechanics of learning and playing with the technical components of wi-fi networking, wireless toronto has an explicitly stated interest in going “beyond access”.  that is, members, who come from various computing, artistic, academic, and social justice backgrounds, aim to facilitate public awareness over the social and economic benefits of non-commercial, community-based provision of wireless internet, as well as encourage new and innovative approaches to building community with the technology.[2] research setting: city of toronto a culturally diverse metropolis, toronto is the most populous and economically prominent city in canada.  on the global stage, toronto is a city whose reputation as a “creative city”[3] has grown steadily over the last two decades. the city also prides itself as a leading hub for tourism, arts and business (lorinc, 2006)[4].  toronto has also begun to aggressively pursue ict development, in order to position itself as one of the top cities in the world for ict research, education, business and development.[5]  the ict sector is currently one of toronto’s largest private sector employers, and is the 3rd largest ict sector in north america, behind san francisco and new york, based on employment.  at the same time, toronto is also one of the most active regions in the canadian nonprofit and voluntary sector, where one in four of its residents volunteers.[6] 2nd wave cwns wireless toronto focuses on provisioning wireless internet connections in urban public places.  dubbed the “second wave” of community wireless networks (shade and powell, 2005; townsend, 2005), wireless toronto and cwns such as nycwireless, ile sans fil (isf) and share the grassroots, not-for-profit orientation of first-wave cwns.  however, their focus is on free public access within a metropolitan, urban context using a “hotspot” model, and they are further differentiated by the primacy given to the development and deployment of captive portal suites, specifically, wifidog.[7] in short, they are set apart by their emphasis on the “community”, not the “wireless” part of their goals.  rationale for research in the short period that cwns have existed, they have attracted a steady stream of academic interest.  yet much of the research looking at cwns are inquiries and assessments that focus on technical, policy, and political economic issues (bar & galperin 2004; meinrath, 2004; powell, 2005; sandvig, 2004; townsend, 2001).  discussions concerned with any socio-cultural and civic implications of these groups are only beginning to take place; that is, a qualitative line of inquiry that questions sociological motivations, processes, and outcomes of this emergent community practice. for example, what understandings of community are advanced in these community wireless networking groups? to what effect?  how are these notions of community relevant to developing alternative modes of democratic and civic participation?  these questions underscore the usefulness of looking at wireless toronto as a case study, and hopefully, findings presented here will be helpful for understanding the broader group of 2nd wave cwns.   as powell (2005) notes, community groups have had an important role in determining how wireless internet networking infrastructures have been integrated into the broader political and economic cityscape. to be sure, the implications of these community wireless networking groups appear to be many. however, this research was most interested in understanding, what do these technologically-driven projects and groups have to do with “community”?  this follows mackenzie’s (2005) observation that despite the centrality of wi-fi based devices and networks, attention in these groups seems to move away from wireless technology itself toward the technology as a way to bring people into association with each other. that is, how the notion of “community” has been central to the naming of many of these wireless networking projects. there is a gap in the research and literature dealing with cwns as well as cns, that addresses how symbolic and instrumental notions overlap in initiatives that aim to foster community.  for example, the case for community networks as a way of strengthening local social capital is well-developed (borgida, sullivan, & oxendine, 2002; hampton & wellman, 2003; pigg & crank, 2004).  however, it remains unclear whether it is more important to focus on the potential for community within the networks (i.e. the social and technical infrastructures involved in building them), or within community network organizations (i.e. the people, relationships, and visions that are involved in creating and sustaining them)?  even less clear is whether we can say the same for cwns.  this research helps us to begin to answer these questions, by shedding light on what cwns are, looking at what visions and understandings of community are manifest in their projects, and sensitizing us to some of their potential implications.  methodology a central aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of what community wireless networking groups are, who participates in them, and why.  the study was also interested in understanding and describing the complex interplay between new technologies and civic life.   hence, general research questions guiding the collection of data were, “who are the people involved in this wireless community networking group?  and for what reasons do they participate?” questions also included, “what notions of ‘community’ and ‘public interest’ are held by volunteers in this wireless community group?  how do these logics manifest themselves in the motivations, goals and values held by individuals and the group? in order to answer these questions, a research plan was developed to examine 2 key areas:  1) volunteer motivation and participation; 2) the relationship between the notion of community and wireless networking.  using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods for data collection and analysis, the study employed an ethnographic, case study approach. sources of data included: data gathered from a web-based survey distributed to a general population of wireless toronto members and volunteers (20 respondents) data gathered from interviews with volunteers (8 informants) data gathered during site observations and informal conversations with volunteers (participant observation); and organizational documents such as press releases, website interfaces, and meeting minutes. field research for this study was completed in toronto between september 2005 and april 2006.  wireless toronto was chosen as the focus of the study following my own involvement with it in april 2005. my ongoing participation in its growth, and evolution afforded me invaluable insights and access to information within the research site.  over 100 hours of participant observation, through immersion in the group’s activities (i.e. monthly meetings, special events, learning workshops), informal conversations with various volunteers, as well as in-depth interviews with individual volunteers comprised the core of the research project.  a web-based survey and organization-generated data (i.e. email discussion listserv archives) and documents (i.e. meeting minutes, press releases) were additional components.  in all, the multi-method, qualitative approach taken in this research can be viewed as being in the interpretive or naturalistic paradigm (lincoln & guba, 1985).  the majority of findings discussed in this article draw upon interview data.  a total of 8 wireless toronto volunteers were interviewed, and were selected using what patton (2002) calls “purposeful sampling”.  in this method of sampling, informants were selected because they were seen to be information rich and illuminative; they were seen as useful manifestations of the phenomenon being researched.   this method was appropriate since the aim of the study was to gain insight about the phenomenon, not form empirical generalizations from a sample to a population (patton, 2002: p. 40). interviews were open-ended, and followed a semi-structured format.  they took place over a 2-month time period, and questions were iteratively adjusted in order to incorporate new elements as they emerged (strauss & corbin, 1990). conceptual framework understanding the context for this research requires an understanding of how and in what ways the social impact of ict and the internet have been conceptualized.  in this, the present analysis adopts a constructivist approach (berger & luckmann, 1966) to discourses about technology (bijker, hughes, & pinch, 1987). several theoretical perspectives were useful for conducting and analyzing my research.  to understand the complex interplay between new technologies, new forms of social organization, and civic life, my research plan engaged key themes from research interested in the connection between social capital and ict such as how they impact social networks (wellman et. al, 1999), foster new forms of social interaction and community (hampton, 2001; matei & ball-rokeach, 2001), and are thought to support democratic life (malina, 1999; dahlgren, 2000). following these insights, research questions were organized around core notions of social capital and community.  in order to understand the relationship between technology, community development and social change, my research plan also delved into the literature and research on community networking (bell et. al, 2004; dutta-bergman, 2005; kavanaugh & patterson, 1996; venkatesh, 2003) and community informatics (day & schuler, 2004; kling, 2007; gurstein, 2000). the connections between how the various literatures and concepts bear on the current research is visualized in figure 1. figure 1:  conceptual framework as figure 1 illustrates, the core concepts of community, social capital, and visions of technology are useful for understanding and interpreting the research questions posed by this study.  however, certain concepts are more directly connected to findings from a particular subset than others.  for example, understanding who and what cwns are, is closely connected to the literature and insights on community networks, while understanding questions of “why”, is closely linked to visions of technology and social capital.  community and social capital in recent years, discussions of community have been overtaken by those focused on social capital.  popularized by putnam (1995), social capital has existed as a sociological concept since it was first investigated by tonnies (1887) and durkheim (1893).  in fact, social capital studies themselves originate from community studies, and the two are often considered synonymous.  simply put, social capital refers to the norms and networks that facilitate collective action (woolcock, 2001: p.70).   it is a useful conceptual tool that facilitates understanding across sociological and economic perspectives, while emphasizing the importance of seeking democratic solutions to social problems.   as a concept and theory, social capital has drawn much intellectual interest and research in the past two decades (bourdieu, 1986; coleman, 1988; fukuyama, 2003; hooghe & stolle, 2003; woolcock, 1998).  social capital and community are two closely related concepts.  williams (1983) defines “community” as something that indicates actual social groups, a condition of being that is felt to be more immediate than ‘society’.  for sociologists, the types of relationships constitutive of any community are of key interest.  this theoretical emphasis on social relationships is crucial to understanding community.  that is, recognizing that the concept of community commonly and fundamentally refers to a set of relationships that operate within specified social boundaries or geographic locales (burt, 1989; granovetter, 1979).  however, these sociological insights should be combined with the recognition that community also has an ideological component, in that it refers to a sense of common character, identity or interests (fernback & thompson, 1996). in this symbolic-ideological vein, cohen (1985) describes how community is constructed from real-life experiences and perceptions, but is often constructed within the imaginary.  indeed, anderson (1991) argues that even nations are socially constructed, “imagined communities”[8]. as such, one should not read “imagined” as “spurious” or “invented”; as any community that extends beyond the proximal, or face-to-face incorporates this element of imagined commonality.  day and murdoch (1993) further describe how people tend to blend the symbolic-personal with the geographic place when talking about “community”: “…people's location within particular places tended to be an important part of their lived experience...and a major resource drawn on for many purposes...so far as individual actors and their social experiences are concerned, the boundaries between analytically distinct components of life, such as economic relations, cultural understandings, and political goals, may be extremely ill defined.”  (p. 184) in the urban context, the study of community becomes even more complex, as the heterogeneity of individuals’ geographic, symbolic and experiential constructions of community increases.  amit (2002) observes, in the terrain of complex societies (such as those found in modern cities) that the universally salient concept of community appears to gain even more analytical prominence.  indeed, however much scholars bemoan its sloppy use and countless manifestations, community continues to provide a conceptual medium that accommodates the interrogation of the intricate interactions between modernity and sociality (amit, 2002: p.2). community networking research & community informatics a natural starting point for conceptualizing the social implications of cwns is research on community networks (cns).  much of this research applies a social capital perspective in their analyses.  technological and social hybrids, community networks are social networks that link people as well as machines (garton et. al, 1997).  typically based in particular geographical locations, electronic community networks are said to be similar in spirit and motivation to public libraries.  they are run by and for the community, and often emerge out of a desire to foster equal access to ict, and stimulate the development of social capital (bell et. al, 2004; schuler, 1996).  community network organizations are responsible for creating and maintaining the networks that represent an important form of social capital, especially when considered as a community-based partnership.  they provide online and offline channels through which community members can meet, interact, and exchange information and resources.  hence, these increased interactions and connections among community members should also correspond with a rise in overall social capital (blanchard & horan, 1998; gore & vidal, 1998). dutta-bergman’s (2005) research even suggests that communities that make access to ict a priority are more successful than those that do not.  a key response from academics and practitioners involved in these first community networks was the formulation of a theoretical framework known as community informatics (ci).  along with the resource-focused perspectives from research interested in social capital, the asset-based approach of ci research and theory was useful for analyzing and understanding data collected for this study. simply put, this perspective describes research and practice that is specifically interested in local action through ict (keeble & loader, 2001).  in particular, the “effective use” perspective encouraged by ci researchers bears directly on the approach exemplified by many cwn initiatives.  that is, a perspective which contends that providing access to ict is more productive when developers recognize that “effective use” requires design that emphasizes the larger contextual needs encompassing access (clement & shade, 2000; gurstein, 2003).  this includes factors such as access to hardware, consideration of how information accessed through the internet is used, users’ motivation to achieve access to these infrastructures, and inclusivity and diversity of participants (baker, 2002: p. 105). visions of technology like the notion of social capital, visions are useful for communicating across different groups – developers, users, producers – and facilitate the alliances necessary for producing particular artifacts, uses, and systems.  knowing which visions of “what”, “where”, and “how” are held by individuals within any collaborative enterprise, is crucial to understanding its practices, goals, and outcomes. visions are especially helpful to our current discussion, as is using a social constructivist approach (bijker, pinch & hughes, 1987; marvin, 1988; sandvig, 2002) to try to link the activity of individuals to wider social processes. in sawhney’s (2001) analysis of several large-scale infrastructure network developments, he describes how metaphors were used to evoke visions of grand futures in order to facilitate movement in situations where uncertainty stymies action. that is, evoked imagery (or visions), provides impetus for forward movement. in all, we are reminded that despite the sophisticated work required of building any advanced telecommunication infrastructure, its development is always future-oriented and so always involves imagination, requiring a leap of faith that leads its participants into the “primordial marshes of human fancy, vision and gut feelings” (sawhney, 2001: p. 47). in the case of free/open-source software (foss) developers – with whom cwn group volunteers share certain characteristics rullani (2005) argues that being part of the community means sharing not only a production process, but also a space in which individuals are forced, through their interactions, to share their “vision of the world” with the others, in order to give meaning to the incoming challenges and problems of the community. within the foss community sharing a common vision is an important element of each member’s reflexive identity, and sets parameters around who belongs, why, and how to belong.  as sandvig (2002) summarizes, “visions are more akin to fallback positions that organize thinking about the use of communication technology when no deep thinking has occurred; convenient ways to conceptualize networks through simplification.” ultimately, visions also express social criticism of the present by describing an idealized future. as corn and horrigan (1984) argue, visions of technology lever the simplifying power of metaphor in order to inform and explain the guiding principles behind the development of a given technological system.  hence, identifying and understanding which visions are shared by social groups and their members helps us to understand what role they bear upon shaping the desired results of community-based projects and developments.  findings up to now, we have reviewed the research topic and context of the case study.   key concepts and research relevant to understanding the overall aim of the project were also reviewed. the following section presents key findings from the survey and interview data collected for this research project.  however, findings focus primarily on the data collected from the 8 informant interviews.  the section begins with a brief picture of who participates, followed by findings on why they participate.  finally, it summarizes the way “community” appeared in their discourse[9]. member and volunteer profile a basic aim of this research was to understand “who are wireless toronto (wt) members and volunteers[10]?”. according to survey data, the typical wt member was male, independently employed, and had an average age of 31.  there was one female in the group (aside from myself).  the youngest member was 20, and the oldest was 45.  looking at the age and gender of the members, we find that the population is atypical of the canadian volunteer population, where the most active are people in their middle years (between the ages of 35 and 54) who volunteer at the highest rate. during the research period, there were approximately 30 members of wireless toronto, and 10 volunteers[11]. wireless toronto volunteers are what peter drucker (1989) has defined as ‘knowledge workers’, and with an average age of 31, most members also belong to what tapscott (1998) refers to as the “net generation” (net-gen). the first generation to grow up surrounded by digital media, tapscott characterizes net-geners as knowledge workers who have more transient lifestyles and tastes, and prefer to volunteer for individual causes rather than partake in traditional forms of political and civic participation. volunteer motivation:  personal and public interest as in any association or club, individual volunteers were motivated to join wt for a variety of reasons. broadly speaking, motivations could be organized in terms of how they fit in volunteers’ personal interests, or in “the public interest”.   for example, motivations that were deemed related to volunteers’ personal interest included social networking, professional/work-related goals, learning, and of course, provisioning access to free wi-fi.   reasons that were in the “public interest” featured descriptions of more altruistic goals focused on issues of access and communication, and were frequently based on ideological beliefs that valorized non-commercial, and publicly controlled information infrastructures. viewed in terms of social capital, volunteer participation in wireless toronto can be seen as something that increased their individual social capital, but also could be seen as increasing the collective social capital of their community (figure 2). figure 2: motivations and outcomes overall, findings were consistent with results from shade and powell’s (2005) survey of ile sans fil members, which found that people participated for a variety of reasons, notably the convivial, social nature of the volunteer group.  on the other hand, findings from this project also showed that ideological beliefs, particularly those relating to community and the public interest, were significant factors in many of the volunteers’ interest in wireless toronto. notions of community this study set out to investigate the perceptions, motivations, and strategies related to “community” that were manifest in the volunteer group, wireless toronto. previous sections dealt briefly with the “who” and “why” of participation; the following delves into questions relating to “what for” and “how”. listening to informants’ description and use of the notion of community, it became clear that the way that they sensed it was important to understanding their motivations for participating.  they talked most frequently about notions of community characterized by relationships and interaction that primarily were face-to-face, and existed in “bricks and mortar” environments (in simplified terms, “real-life”)[12]: the local community of wt volunteers and their local community of place (toronto).  less importantly, informants articulated senses of community that were connected primarily to imagined senses or visions of community.  this included a broader (global) community of community wireless networking groups, as well as the community of users who existed as part of the rhetoric-based vision of place-peer community.  real-life the strongest and most readily expressed notion of community that emerged from the data, related to the community of wireless toronto volunteers.  while volunteers acknowledged the existence of other communities (i.e. end-users, venue-sponsors, local neighborhoods), the felt community of wt volunteers appeared to be of key importance.  indeed, a significant short-term outcome of their participation was this community of diverse individuals brought together by a blend of social and technological interests.  a sense of belonging in this volunteer community appeared to be integral to many informants’ commitment to the wireless toronto group and projects; that is, a community which informants understood as being part of their real-life. this was reinforced by the importance informants attached to offline versus online interactions.  indeed, most volunteers considered face-to-face socializing with others as being the most important way they established and cemented a sense of community and belonging within the group. i think the face-to-face is very important, as is having everyone in one room, when we do things like vote.  votes get put up to hands, and it's important to connect the face to the email.  [and] the monthly meetings are a great way for people to mix, develop friendships, and make sure we're all still friends and on good footing with each other. (r2) indeed, meeting other wireless toronto volunteers in real-life was described as being crucial to creating a sense of community and trust: i went down to that first meeting, and they seemed like nice people.  everybody seemed to be wanting to do something, there was a spirit of cooperation among the people there, no disharmony in the group.  basically, it just seemed like a nice group of people, i dunno.  it's the sort of the thing you don't really evaluate or throw into words necessarily you just kind of come away with a gut feeling. (r7) ultimately, the local community of volunteers involved interaction that took place both online and offline, but was more clearly formed by real-life, face-to-face experiences. another important notion of community that appeared in volunteers’ discourse connected to their local community of place, toronto.  interview data showed that volunteers’ participation in wireless toronto facilitated an increased sense of belonging within, and connection to place, especially for individuals whose ties to toronto were fewer and weaker than others. being able to take hold of things, work on them, make things work, and just change the lives of the citizens of toronto through things like wireless toronto makes me feel a lot better about being a citizen of toronto. (r8) actually, it’s made quite an important difference not so much in how i see toronto, but in how i see myself in terms of fitting into toronto. (r6) even for volunteers with deeper and strong ties to their city and neighborhood, the effect of their involvement with wt on their sense of toronto increased their sense of broader community. …for the last 9 years, i have been rather stuck in my own area where i live and work....as a city-wide initiative, [wireless toronto] helps get my attention focused on areas outside of my immediate neighborhood.   in all, the strongest and most immediate senses of community understood by informants were the ones described by volunteers that were understood in terms of “real-life”. these were the community of wireless toronto volunteers, and toronto as a community of place.  monthly meetings, hotspot installations, and the need to strategize for different neighborhoods around the city spurred volunteers to explore and connect with a range of different people and places found in the city. .  imaginary and rhetoric-based in contrast to the real-life senses of community found in wireless toronto volunteers’ discourse were notions that were informed by “imaginary”[13] senses of community.  one of these was the global cwn volunteer community.  comprised of like-minded individuals drawn together through their mutual interest in providing low-cost/free wi-fi internet access in their communities, for most volunteers, this community was one they participated in through online interaction and socializing.  informants expressed a clear sense of belonging to a broader “community of interest” (wilmott, 1986) where members came together through the internet-based discussions in order to solve common problems, develop related skills, or share common practices.  for example, half of the informants interviewed for the study were found to subscribe to one or more community wireless networking group mailing lists, or received rss feeds from community wireless networking-related websites (eg. wirelesscommunity.org, isf’s development site) an imagined community of hotspot users also emerged as an important notion of community in volunteers’ discourse.  its significance lay in how this community was who wireless toronto’s efforts were supposed to benefit.  that is, one of the key purposes of wireless toronto initiatives was to connect and encourage interaction amongst people in the local communities where hotspots were set up.  even though this was a goal “in the public interest” whose outcome was likely to surface only in the long-term, and perhaps not at all, this notion of community featured prominently in informants’ discourse.   listening to informants’ descriptions of this particular community, it was clear that there was an important connection in their minds to a broader rhetoric of community as related to their ideologically-laden goals of creating information infrastructures in the public interest. interview and observational data found that real-life notions of community were expressed implicitly in volunteers discourse.  on the other hand, notions of community that were informed by rhetoric were often expressed more explicitly.  for example, explanations of how the term “community” was meant to identify the group as being independent of private (i.e. profit-oriented, top-down) interests and non-corporate (i.e. bottom-up, informal). when asked during interviews “what's ‘community’ about wireless toronto?” informants gave varying responses, all of which echoed this one:  the ‘community’ in community wireless is that it's built by citizens who care, not by a company trying to make money. (r8) in other words, this explicit notion and use of “community as grassroots” among wireless toronto volunteers, could be seen as an expression of collectively held values and short-term motivations for participation.  well-connected community  another important notion of community that existed in volunteers’ discourse was that of a “well-connected” local community. this notion was primarily rhetoric-based, in that it did not appear as something informed by real-life experiences or descriptions of real-life in informants’ discourse. volunteers viewed their participation with wireless toronto as contributing something positive to their place-based community of toronto.  that is, providing non-commercial access to ict, and exploring new ways for opening up “civic bandwidth” through “place-peer community” were seen as consequences of cwns that could contribute positively to the civic health of their community.  however, this notion of community was articulated with less clarity and frequency.  still, its importance becomes clearer when we connect it to goals expressed by volunteers that centred around the public interest. place-peer community the notion of a well-connected community found in volunteers’ discourse consisted of social as well as technical dimension, and it is conceptualized here through a neologism, “place-peer community”.  distinctly future-oriented, this notion could also be described as a vision of community made possible by the wi-fi technology and deployment of community-based “captive portal pages” in wireless toronto hotpots.  in this way, it also relates to stated motivations to go “beyond access”. a key technical component of this vision is wifidog. a development project spearheaded by the community wireless networking group ile sans fil in montreal, wifidog emphasizes the implementation of locally-relevant “captive portals”[14] for each hotspot. setting up free wi-fi hotspots and providing access to the internet is seen as the first step, aimed at drawing laptop users “from their basements and home offices into public spaces. [following that] the next step of the [wifidog] project is to use the network of hotspots to create a sense of local community[15]” (lenczner, 2005). this vision of place-peer community, as related to the implementation of wifidog within hotspots providing free internet, is described by this volunteer as a unique opportunity to encourage social interaction: the log-on page is an opportunity to get some information about where you were, what was going on there, and how you could connect to things where you happen to find yourself.  ironically, people may stumble upon their community its activities and organizations, and the issues that are present in it through the web.  so what this log-on page does, is add to the layers and layers of little ways and doors one can open and say, “hey, here's a way you can connect.”  (r4) as indicated by this description, this particular notion of community features proximity-based social ties that leverage the affordances of computer-mediated communication (i.e. asynchronous communication, many-to-many) while also encouraging in-depth connections with the underlying context of those relationships (i.e. the neighborhood in which the hotspot and location-based portal is accessed).  intended to summarize the various threads of this idea, the somewhat awkward neologism place-peer community is introduced here in an effort to bring together the myriad different vectors – wireless networks, mobile wireless devices, social software, physical spaces, peoplethat constitute the hybrid (physical and virtual; real-life and imagined) community thought to be catalyzed when local users are given free internet access, and presented with content via the location-specific “community portal” within a local hotspot.   positioning the word “place” before “peer” also gives primacy to the specific geographic location that different hotspots and community portals would be connected to.  for example, place provides the local context of the interaction: [the community portal] provides an interface that would give you some information about where you were, what was going on there, and how you connect to things in and around where you happen to find yourself.   in other words, reinforcing the strength and character of the local, and the diversity of specific neighborhoods and their character.  (r4) meanwhile, peer denotes other people who occupy the same place, accessing the internet through the free wi-fi hotspot.  different from non-users who may also (synchronously) be in the same place at the same time, or frequent (asynchronously) the same physical space regularly, they are peers by virtue of being mobile internet users who also occupy a shared cyber-place.  the socio-technical emphasis on what wireless toronto aimed to provision appealed to volunteers who were sensitive to the possibility that offering no-cost wi-fi in public spaces might engender atomization rather than interaction:  getting people into public spaces is a very good thing.  but you get people into public spaces, and then you get them to look down into the computer screen?  so what we're going to do is get these computer geeks or people who like to use computers, users, whatever on the chats and all these other things…so that they're making use of the online environment.  (r1) consequently, the vision of a location-based portal page that encouraged users to access location-specific information (place), along with potential for social networking amongst fellow users (peer), was found to be a vital part of how volunteers connected the notion of community to the provision of free wireless internet.  it is important to emphasize that the logic of the place-peer community that emerged in volunteers’ discourse was not an attempt to advocate or create virtual surrogates for local communities of place.  rather, it was an ideal that sought to catalyze and/or reinforce them.  in short, it aims to extend users’ opportunities for communication within communities of place by levering the potential of mobile technology and social software to explore the possibility of encouraging (digital and physical) forms of propinquity (korzenny, 1978; webber, 1963).  this is especially pertinent for urban environments, where new principles of technological space and the recombinant interplay between urban space, icts, and physical movement challenge the very idea of city and community (borja & castells, 1997; graham, 2004; mitchell, 1995). this vision of community held by the volunteers was equally rooted in the technological possibilities of social software and mobile communication as well as the imperatives of a geographically-bounded local community.  in this way, it affirms the view espoused by scholars such as fernback and thompson (1996), who argue that although virtual community has advantages, it cannot adequately replace the community of the physical realm. still, the vision of place-peer community was not a central motivation for all.  asked, “how big a factor was the idea of the community portal in attracting your attention to this project, or this group?” some volunteers noted that it was an important element of the initiative that caught their attention, while others indicated that it was not a vital part of their motivation for joining.  yet as a vision, the rhetoric and imagined potential of place-peer community was something that appealed to volunteers, and existed as an important part of their symbolically constructed discourses of community.  discussion the centrality of the word “community” in community wireless networking groups is unmistakable.  findings from the case study presented in this article showed how different notions and beliefs about community were important to why volunteers participated, and to what end.  on one hand, some discourses of community were connected to visions and ideals based primarily on rhetoric.  for example, the notion of a well-connected community of place (toronto), and their vision of place-peer community.  on the other hand, some discourses of community were more closely connected to informants’ real-life experiences, such as the felt community of local and global cwn volunteers.  the following section discusses the interplay between these visions, motivations, and imagined/real-life senses of community.  this is accomplished by delving more deeply into the notion of civic bandwidth. civic bandwidth empirical analysis showed that volunteers were not directly motivated to participate in wireless toronto in order to “close the digital divide”, advance altruistic goals relating to access, or take advantage of opportunities for learning and professional development. however, all volunteers expressed clear ideological beliefs about the democratic potential of technology, and the civic necessity of access to ict, and conceptualized the connection as something described here as “civic bandwidth” this term describes a pattern that emerged in interview data, where volunteers described being motivated by a diverse range reasons related to both their own personal interests, as well as to the public interest.  yet despite these variances, volunteers communicated a clear goal (or ‘vision’) of doing something that would facilitate better access to digitally-based information and opportunities for civic communication and interaction.  that is, they aimed to create and provide access to civic bandwidth and in doing so, help lay the infrastructural groundwork for a virtual commons (rheingold, 1993; vasuvedan et. al, 2004); in other words, “articulating the new public domains that connect physical urban spaces and the potential public sphere of the electronic networks” (broeckmann, 2004: p. 379). civic bandwidth comprises both technical and social elements.  as a whole, it can be thought of as a kind of conduit that enables users to access information, social networks and other resources within their community.  however, users in a given community are often restricted from accessing this kind of civic connection and tapping into its potential for various reasons, one of which is cost.  initiatives that aim to lower (or eliminate) these barriers such as community wireless networking groups (wt) – do so in several ways.   as the shaded boxes in figure 3 highlight, access to freely provisioned technical bandwidth is a first step.  but technical bandwidth alone does not constitute civic bandwidth.  hence, cwns strive to ensure that access to internet connectivity comes with opportunities to connect to locally relevant information and social networks.  this is seen to be a technical task that can be accomplished in each cwn hotspot through a required login at a location-specific community portal page (i.e. wifidog).  of course, realizing the potential benefits of social interaction and community-based opportunities for gaining and sharing social capital is one key component of civic bandwidth that remains an imperative of individual users. *shaded in boxes represent those elements/pathways constituting “civic bandwidth” that cwns aim to provide. figure 3: cwns and civic bandwidth in all, the notion of civic bandwidth is useful for understanding the socio-technical nature of wireless toronto’s goals, as well as some of its key ideological underpinnings and implications.  as an organizing vision, civic bandwidth was seen as a way to facilitate better access to digitally-based information and opportunities for civic communication and interaction; that is, doing something to help lay the infrastructural groundwork for a wireless “virtual commons”[16]: you can't make a community happen; what you can do is provide a room for community to happen.  maybe get them together in the room; something happens, great.  if something doesn't, okay.  that's what the technology can do.  technology can build the room, kind of open up the door, and hopefully people will get in there and make use of the technology.  (r5) in other words, communities may ultimately be about people, but healthy communities also need structures that serve their communicative and social needs.  this echoes the asset-based language of the community informatics approach, which says that access to ict is more productive when developers recognize that “effective use” (clement & shade, 2000; gurstein, 2003) requires design that emphasizes the larger contextual needs encompassing access. alongside the vision of a futuristic, technologically-mediated place-peer community in the public interest, the notion of civic bandwidth was an important motivation for many volunteers’ initial participation.  it did not describe an actual part of what the group accomplished in creating, but was a commonly held vision that described at least one aspect of each volunteer’s interest in the initiative. community and civic bandwidth:  rhetoric vs. reality broadly speaking, the most important reasons volunteers gave for their participation related to the public interest;  specifically the benefits of a well-connected community, and a desire to contribute something to the existence of more democratic and civic communication systems.  overall, these reasons were more important than those related to volunteers’ personal interest.  significantly, it was found that wireless toronto volunteers’ motivations related primarily to goals and visions connected to the group’s rhetoric (i.e. place-peer community, virtual commons), rather than the reality of their community of place (toronto)or their local volunteer community. although their logic was imperfect, the imagined ideals and rhetoric of community were an important part of what motivated wireless toronto’s diverse group of volunteers to contribute their social capital toward a public good (civic bandwidth). this finding confirms what scholars such as amit (2002), cohen (1985), and corn (1996) assert to be the enduring resonance of community as an organizing concept and force. by contending that a sociotechnical, community-centred vision of social life is possible, even necessary, members and volunteers of wireless toronto appeared to equate “community” with the “public interest”.  this is not surprising, since the notion of “community” is a symbolically constructed and inherently protean term (cohen, 1985).  the broader goal of this study was to understand some of the social impact of these kinds of groups, and to highlight the connection between the interpersonal, structural, symbolic and practical/experiential in the constitution of individual’s social imaginary and participation in these kinds of initiatives.  specifically, how is the logic and notion of community useful for understanding what these urban cwns are, and their social impact?  to this end, the article emphasized the importance of considering how social visions of technology inform and influence how people become part of certain communities of interest.  in the case of wireless toronto, volunteers expressed varying pragmatic and ideological reasons for participating.  yet there was also an organizing vision of a “well-connected community” that emerged in volunteers’ collective discourse.  this overall vision was conceptualized here as “civic bandwidth”, which encapsulates several different socio-technical dimensions of connectedness aimed for by volunteers. however, it is dangerous for volunteers in these kinds of groups to be satisfied with relying on rhetorical notions of how urban cwns and civic bandwidth fulfill any real needs within a given community.  as werbin (2006) argues, there is a crucial difference between ict initiatives that genuinely foster communal life, and those that merely imagine such impacts.  in other words, there is a disjuncture between the rhetoric and reality of these initiatives.  indeed, it is crucially important to acknowledge that the real-life outcomes of these projects may never measure up to the potential and idealism of their rhetoric.  nevertheless, to dismiss their importance because of a perceived overabundance of idealism or dearth of immediately measurable outcomes, ultimately would be cynical and narrow-minded. conclusion clearly, the relationship between community-building and ict is not a linear one, and requires much more than a one-dimensional understanding of how it might work.  moreover, the civic, “well-connected” communities of today’s urban places are imagined in very different ways from the civic, “well-connected” communities of previous generations.  not only are they characterized by different kinds of social ties, but they are facilitated by different kinds of communication technologies.  also, we are becoming increasingly accustomed to technologically-mediated social relationships, in addition to face-to-face social connections.  this is exemplified by findings that show how informants were impelled by visions of community that involved moving towards technologically-mediated forms of place-peer community and civic bandwidth. a collection of different kinds of inquiries about the social consequences of technology was brought together through this study of one community wireless networking group, wireless toronto.  it found that the visions of technology as expressed by its members and volunteers were innately social, and connected to diverse notions of community based on real-life experiences and imagined ideals.  while the logic of community manifest in volunteers’ discourse was not entirely coherent or consistent between individuals, it was a flexible and important construct that facilitated the collective action and contributions necessary for the deployment of the wireless network in their local community of place (toronto). ultimately, this article argues that the implications of these 2nd generation cwns go far beyond what might otherwise appear to be volunteers’ interest in “beer and bandwidth”. the wi-fi networks and heightened sense of community engendered by cwns such as wireless toronto catalyzed contributions (individual investment of social capital) to functionally and symbolically produce a public asset (low-cost/real bandwidth, and “civic bandwidth”).  these findings encourage us to consider the evolving nature of civil society.  too often, we think of ourselves as agents only within the predetermined structures of civil society.  among researchers and policymakers, there is a tendency to think of civic participation only in terms of traditional associations, donations to registered charities, or voting in municipal elections. ad-hoc, loosely organized groups such as wireless toronto pass under the radar, and the opportunity for extending their potential, is lost. the connection between major shifts in technology and a hope for social change has always been strong (jones, 1997).   however, the promise of these expectations relies on more than any intrinsic features of new technologies, and 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(2000).  social capital: implications for development theory, research, and policy.  world bank research observer 15(2). [1] wi-fi networking technology allows any device equipped with a wireless networking card/adaptor to connect to the internet, using radio waves. a router is used to receive information from the internet, and sends it to the device’s wireless adapter.   the device (i.e. laptop) can send information back to the internet through the same process. [2] “what is wireless toronto?”  www.wirelesstoronto.ca  [3] following florida’s (2002) the rise of the creative class, bradford (2004) defines creative cities as “dynamic locales of experimentation and innovation, where new ideas flourish and people from all walks of life come together to make their communities better places to live, work and play.” [4] in 2003, toronto launched a series of a public investments in public arts institutions and philanthropy in the hundreds of millions of dollars. (lorinc, 2006) [5] “ict toronto: an information and communication technology (ict) cluster development strategy for the toronto region.”  (2006) report prepared by the impact group. city of toronto economic development. http://www.toronto.ca/business/pdf/ict_toronto_final_report.pdf [6] according to data from the national survey of giving, volunteering and participating (nsgvp) more than one in four (26%) people living in the toronto cma volunteered for a charitable or nonprofit organization. http://www.givingandvolunteering.ca/factsheets/1997_on_giving_and_volunteering_in_toronto.asp [7] the wifidog project is a “complete and embeddable captive portal solution for wireless community groups or individuals who wish to open a free hotspot while still preventing abuse of their internet connection.”  http://dev.wifidog.org/wiki/about  (put plainly, this means that all the required software needed to manage a network (e.g. a central server and each wireless router/hotspot) is aggregated into one “complete” kit.  however, there is often ‘some assembly required’.)  this particular portal suite was originally developed by volunteers at isf.  wireless toronto has used it since the group was founded in 2005, and nycwireless switched to its use in 2006. [8] that is, the affective charge of nationalism crucially draws on a conception rather than actualization of solidarity, and the idea of community is decoupled from an actual base of interaction. [9] discourse is derived here from foucault: a mutually constituted cultural phenomenon involving how people do social practices and what they see through such modes of operating – the possibilities and limitations social and cultural practices and visions open and close (foucault, 1995). [10] before moving into a more detailed discussion of findings, a brief comment about the use of the term “volunteer” is beneficial here.  according to the national survey of giving, volunteering, and participating  (nsgvp)[10], a volunteer is someone who “performs a service without pay, on behalf of a charitable or other nonprofit organization.  this includes any unpaid help provided to schools, religious organizations, sports, or community associations” (nsgvp, 2004).  participants are people who report membership or participation in a group, organization, or association (ibid.). [11] to be clear, volunteers are meant to be understood as being different from members/participants. here, volunteer refers to those members of wireless toronto who also donated their time and energy to the group, beyond listserv discussions or an occasional meeting.  for example, a member who attended meetings but did not donate their time toward any organizational tasks or projects, was not (for the purposes of this study) considered a volunteer. [12] my use of the term “real-life” (rl) is used here to echo informants’ discourse, as well as contemporary north american vernacular, where “rl” is used to differentiate between things taking place on the internet from those taking place “not the internet”. [13] i use the term “imaginary” here to refer to things that featured little or none of the face-to-face interactions and “bricks and mortar” environments that characterized descriptions of “real-life” [14] a captive portal is a dynamic firewall in which all traffic is blocked until the user logs in (or a disclaimer page is displayed and terms of service were agreed to) (lenczner, 2005) [15] in particular, this could be accomplished through the promotion of local content (news, listings).  at a basic level, this is accomplished by specifying html and rss feeds for each hotspot.  requiring a bit more work would be required to collaborate with local new media arts groups to extend functionality to accommodate text, image, audio, video, and photos. what is also implicit in this statement, is that providing free wireless internet access, is an incentive for mobile users who might otherwise rely on private internet connections for work and play, to choose to do so in public places instead.  attracting people into shared public spaces by eliminating one possible deterrent (i.e. “i need the internet, but don’t want to pay for it if i leave my own home/office to work from a café”) is the first step. the novelty of this kind of community-building thus becomes the form and reason of a networking suite such as wifidog.  furthermore, it exemplifies the argument that “wireless networks don't just network geographic locations, they connect individuals to one another, allowing unparalleled networking and multimedia service opportunities.” (“building the muniwireless ecosystem”) [16] the wireless commons manifesto (vasudevan et. al., 2004) champions wi-fi as a way of breaking down “commercial, technical, social and political barriers to the commons, and argues that a wireless commons could bridge one of the few remaining gaps in universal communication without interference from middlemen and “meddlers” (ibid). the notion of a “commons” – or, a set of community-owned resources that are accessible to any member of that community – is central to understanding underlying logic of these strategies.    trustworthy records and open data trustworthy records and open data anne catherine thurston, international records management trust people assume that good economic data is there, but if it is not, work is flawed or not possible. data should come from records – the veracity of the data depends upon the record. the quality of the records management system makes you trust or doubt data.1 bill dorotinsky, world bank sector manager, public sector and institutional reform, europe and central asia/ co-leader, global expert team   our data and record-keeping crisis has always been with us.  there are a few things that are basic to development, growth and the very being of a nation quality data gathering, storage and retrieval is one. proper record keeping and archiving is another.  these are the soul, body and spirit of a nation. at 50, we have never had an accurate census, people die daily in nigeria and they are literally cast into the earth unrecorded.  thousands are born daily without records. no one in nigeria can tell with certainty, how many policemen, soldiers or civil servants there are today in service. editorial, the nation, lagos, data disaster, august 1, 2011 http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/editorial/14224-data-disaster.html   overview the success of open government, in terms both of proactive disclosure (open data) and reactive disclosure (freedom of information/ right to information) rests ultimately on governments’ ability to create and maintain reliable, trustworthy and accurate information (records and data) and on people’s ability to access it. public authorities need to know what information they hold, to be able to retrieve the information efficiently and to be accountable through this information.  citizens and investors need to know that they can trust the information that governments provide. when datasets are released through open government portals, citizens have the right to expect that the data will be accurate and that privacy will be protected.  similarly, citizens, journalists and others who make requests under access legislation have the right to expect that they will be provided with accurate and authentic information.   there is a growing and widely held assumption that open data will provide the basis for openness in the future.  this paper suggests that real openness must ultimately build upon a foundation of reliable, high quality source records that document government policies, activities and transactions. while it is very valuable to have data flow freely on to the web, the reality is that most government information lies submerged as part of the larger iceberg below and that unless this information is managed, openness is limited and governments cannot be held accountable.  alongside the enthusiasm for open data, therefore, it is important to take a deeper look at the factors that make information, both records and data, trustworthy.  there is an opportunity to make a more substantial contribution to transparency, accountability, anti-corruption and citizens’ rights and economic development by linking open data to accurate, reliable, trustworthy records. this article identifies key records-related issues that threaten the success of open government and open data initiatives, and it highlights the value of the internationally agreed standards and solutions developed by the records profession2. it relates principally to open data, but many of the issues it raises are also critical for freedom of information/ right to information, which remains vital as means of accessing the large areas of government information, for instance internal email communications, that are unlikely to be part of open data. issue one:  significance of well managed records for reliable data the open data movement uses the power of technology and the internet to proactively disclose government-generated information, both to catalyse openness and transparency and to foster economic development.  in both cases, the anticipated benefits are only possible if the records from which the data are derived are complete and have integrity.  open data should enable citizens to take greater ownership of and participate more fully in the life of public institutions by enabling citizens to monitor how government money is spent and to hold public officials accountable. for instance, when data about government spending, aid flows and geographical disbursement is mapped against other data such as crime statistics, school results or hospital infection rates, citizens can identify discrepancies in spending. at the same time, open data should enhance economic and social development, for instance by enabling research leading to product development, attracting investors and supporting industry in achieving a market advantage.  inaccurate data will undermine these goals. early work on open data has focused on releasing datasets without a methodology for ensuring their accuracy and their traceability to reliable information sources. government data relies heavily on evidence derived from official government records, and in many countries, public records are not managed in relation to international standards.  often even basic records management controls are not in place, particularly in the digital environment. without these controls, records are likely to be incomplete and difficult to locate and authenticate; where they exist, they can be easily manipulated, deleted, fragmented or lost.  poorly kept records result in inaccurate or incomplete data, which can lead to misunderstanding and misuse of information, cover-up of fraud, skewed findings and statistics, misguided policy recommendations and misplaced funding, all with serious consequences for citizens’ lives.   while data can be a valuable indicator, to be trusted it needs to be substantiated.  can the records from which the data are derived be trusted? are they complete? are they authentic? how were they generated, by whom and in what conditions?  is there sufficient contextual information to enable them to be understood?  are they being captured and held securely to allow comparisons over time? the degree to which open data initiatives will provide a means of holding governments to account and support economic development depends in large measure on the government’s ability and willingness to manage and make public records available. in the us and the uk, the availability of large datasets and their relatively high degree of reliability has made it possible to provide a growing volume of meaningful data to citizens. in the us, data.gov is a curated web portal that uses standardised metadata templates to facilitate search and retrieval of information by a wide range of interests, from individual citizens to research groups to large corporations operating at the international level.  in the uk, the office of public sector information, operating from within the national archives, sets standards, delivers access and encourages the re-use of public sector information. there are still concerns about the quality, accuracy and integrity of the data, especially where vetting has not been carried out rigorously, but both countries have strong records management traditions that give them the ability to establish a significant degree of trustworthiness and hence to create and share relatively reliable datasets.   as the high expectations for open data are translated into developing country contexts, questions need to be asked about the veracity of the data available and the relationship of the data to the records that should support it. in countries where governments do not address records management, citizens accessing data through open data portals may be provided with unstructured, uncontrolled data; they may receive partial, incomplete or misleading information. as the open data movement develops and expectations evolve, it will be important to do more than simply open datasets to the public. citizens, investors and other users will want to know how decisions have been taken, who has taken what actions and why. as an example, many countries have high percentages of ghost workers on their payrolls.  people who are not working are being paid from funds that should be used to provide services such as education and healthcare, and the people who are working may not be paid a living wage.  payroll data, in these circumstances, is virtually meaningless.  censuses of civil servants or teachers can provide a snapshot in time as a step toward control, but ultimately, control is achieved most effectively when verified employment records are linked to biometric data and mapped against the payroll to provide the evidence of accuracy. in sierra leone, for instance, it has been possible to reduce the civil service payroll by 14% by establishing control of pay and personnel records3. once the necessary controls are in place and maintained, it is possible to provide meaningful payroll data for planning, management and community monitoring purposes. issue two:  significance of context and integrity the open data approach has evolved from principles developed by the dataset community. the international association for social science information services and technology (iassist), professionals working with information technology and data services, has played a leading role in developing and implementing standards.  its members have drawn on subject-based library cataloguing rules for cataloguing datasets.  there has been little involvement of records professionals, whose role is to support the production of accurate and reliable records and who use metadata to capture the context of how the records were created and used and their structure and management through time.  put simply, books and published reports can be managed as individual items, but records must be managed in the context of the other records and information to which they relate if they are to serve their purpose of documenting official processes and actions.  a sequence of records may be needed to provide an audit trail for a transaction or decision.   context and traceability are the core elements for dataset authenticity and reliability. once data has context wrapped around it, it becomes a record.  for instance, expenditure data becomes a basis for transparency and accountability when it is possible to demonstrate where it came from, who authorised it, who saw it and how the money was spent. if datasets are separated from the records from which they are derived, the context is lost. making data available without context can compromise the value of the information and in some cases make it unusable.  when citizens doubt the reliability of the data, the goal of openness and trust in government are undermined.  when open data takes account of the nature and quality of the data sources, it becomes a powerful tool for audit, accountability and anti-corruption, and for business development. issue three:  challenges of the digital environment digital records are extremely fragile.  their integrity depends upon a quickly changing array of hardware and software. unless these records are carefully managed and protected, governments cannot guarantee their availability, authenticity, and usability over time and across sites, with the result that data will be incomplete and untraceable.  governments often focus on the dramatic benefits of digital systems without recognising the challenges of ensuring the integrity of the digital information generated by these systems. the risk is that in the digital environment, if records are not managed professionally, their availability and integrity, and their value as legal evidence and an authoritative source for open data initiatives, can be compromised. they may not remain accessible if they are not migrated to new software or refreshed to newer hardware environments, and they may not be linked to related paper records to provide complete information.  they may be held in multiple locations so that it is not possible to know which is the final or authoritative version; they may be stored on unmanaged network drives or on personal drives where they are unavailable as a corporate resource.   digital records will not remain accessible unless they are captured and held in a safe, neutral and professionally managed repository and supported by complete metadata. a leading digital records expert estimates that there is a six-month half-life preservation opportunity: every six months there is a 50% decline in the likelihood of being able to preserve the reliability and accessibility of the record if there are any problems related to the transfer4. governments and international organisations often decide that digitisation will be a quick means of making records accessible and ending dependence on paper records.  however, digitisation initiatives often fail to put in place a management and quality control framework to ensure that the digitised records meet requirements for legal admissibility, reliability and authenticity, and to ensure safe migration of the records from one generation of technologies and formats to the next. for instance, agencies are often unaware of the requirements for image resolution, metadata fields, standardised indexes and classification structures, and retention and disposition schedules.  in some cases, government agencies assume that hard copy source records can be destroyed as soon as digital surrogates records are created.  however, if the scan is poor, the agency and civil society are at risk. where the agencies keep the hardcopy source records ‘just in case’, there can be confusion about which records are ‘official’ or ‘original’. in some cases, organisations destroy the source records after scanning but create an audit trail to confirm traceability back to the source records.  however, reliable techniques for ‘traceability’ have not yet been established. issue four:  significance of trusted digital repositories for openness trusted digital repositories (tdrs) are an internationally accepted, technology-neutral means of ensuring long-term access to digital records and datasets as assets and protecting their integrity, completeness, trustworthiness and traceability. tdrs can be designed and managed professionally to capture and provide access to authentic data and digital records; link active and inactive datasets to hard copy or digital records that provide context; provide the means to interpret, interrelate and restructure data; and support migration to new software and hardware environments.  where this is achieved, citizens can have confidence that the records and data have not been tampered with or otherwise compromised.  the tdr can be a transparency portal for public access. at present, there are few tdrs outside europe, north america and australia/ new zealand. national archives, with their statutory responsibility for protecting and preserving public sector records are, by international good practice, the appropriate home of tdrs. the national archives of norway is an outstanding example of what is possible.  norway has introduced powerful legislation, records standards and well-defined metadata architectures to guide the process of on-going access to digital records and data. the goal is to ensure that the information provided is complete, accurate, timely, authoritative and above all trustworthy. citizens expect requests for information to be answered rapidly and protest if they are not.  recently, the national archives has developed tdr smart phone-accessibility to enhance citizen access and government transparency. while specific to norway, the approach could be adapted to support developing country requirements and resources. in addition to the work in norway and by national archives across europe, north america and australia/ new zealand, there is significant international work underway on tdr accountability requirements.  for instance, minimum requirements for digital repositories have been defined to include policies, strategies and procedures relating to service levels, legal permissions, the ingest of digital assets, testing compliance and data quality, preservation, migration and access.  there is a significant body of information upon which the open data movement can draw5. issue five:  the need for a community of good practice for public records and open data solutions developed and tested in north america, europe and australia/ new zealand, endorsed by professional bodies, and articulated in standards can provide a pathway for developing the regulatory frameworks and skill sets needed to create the complete, accurate and trustworthy records upon which open government and open data depend.  it is the international norm that national archives should be the lead organisation for developing and implementing records management strategies, working in partnership with others, especially government ict organisations, access to information offices and audit authorities.  they should, according to the international council on archives (ica), facilitate policies, procedures, systems, standards and practices designed to assist records creators in creating and retaining authentic, reliable and preservable records. the archivist of the united states is working with the ica forum of national archivists, chaired by the national archivist of canada, to engage national archivists across the world in supporting the objectives of open government. the us national action plan for the open government partnership has opened the way for introducing good records management as a foundation for effective open government: the backbone of a transparent and accountable government is strong records management that documents the decisions and actions of the federal government. the transition to digital information creates new opportunities for records management, but much of government still relies on out-dated systems and policies designed during a paper based world. to meet current challenges, the u.s. will:  reform records management policies and practices across the executive branch. … the initiative will seek a reformed, digital-era, government wide records management framework that promotes accountability and performance. failure to address the records issue will undermine the long-term success of open data data initiatives and more generally of open government.  however, if the open data and records management communities can find common ground in the open government environment, there is a significant opportunity to enhance openness internationally.  a valuable first step would be collaborative research on the risks involved in releasing untraceable data, for instance in relation to education and healthcare.  this could be followed by the development of a good practice methodology for testing data integrity and accuracy.    ultimately, this collaboration can lay the foundation for trust and genuine openness.   footnotes 1 discussion june 2011 2 particularly:   iso 15489, information and documentation records management iso 30300:2011, management systems for records – fundamentals and vocabulary  iso 30301:2011, management systems for records – requirements  ica-req: principles and functional requirements for records in electronic office environments:  guidelines and training material model requirements for the management of electronic records (moreq2010) (de facto standard).  3 international records management trust project reports 4 discussion with ken thibodeau, june 2011.  dr. thibodeau directed the center for electronic records at the us national archives and records administration in the 1990s, a period when yearly transfers of electronic records increased more than 100 fold. 5 these include, for instance: rac: repository audit and certification, developed by the consultative committee on space data and based on the trusted repositories audit and certification tool, developed by us national archives and records administration and the research library group. the standard (iso 16363) is an audit metric for assessing digital repositories. at this point, the standard can be used by organisations to self-audit their digital repositories, but there is another standard being created that will regulate the formation of national audit bodies and the training of auditors. once these national digital repository audit boards and auditors are in place, repositories can then be externally audited and receive certification as trusted digital repositories. oais: the open archival information system, developed by the consultative committee on space data systems, is an iso standard that articulates the conceptual framework for tdr architecture. aparsen:  this network of excellence brings together a diverse set of practitioner organisations and researchers in order to bring coherence, cohesion and continuity to research into barriers to the long-term accessibility and usability of digital information and data.  information kiosk based indian e-governance service delivery: value chain based measurement modeling harekrishna misra institute of rural management anand, india. email: hkmishra@irma.ac.in introduction e-governance initiatives, despite their acceptance in the form of e-government systems, have so far remained hype-worthy in many parts of the world. e-governance being citizen-centered is dependent on matured e-government systems. thus e-governance is considered a superset of e-government systems. it is often argued that success in rendering e-governance services is attributed to the initiatives that a nation takes in establishing its e-government standards and augments it with e-government maturity. failure stories abundantly reflect the fact that such initiatives with the perspectives of citizen-centric services have not yielded encouraging results. estimates indicate that 35 per cent are total failures, 50 per cent are partial failures, and 15 per cent successes in developing and transitional countries (heeks & molla, 2009). it is argued that e-governance initiatives are often conducted in project mode and each project forms an island for deliveries creating an overwhelming gap between project design and on-the-ground reality (known as design-reality gaps). this gap contributes to failures. despite such discouraging outcomes, e-government initiatives in developing countries have evolved to a level of acceptance among government agencies and backend service provisioning organizations (harfouche & kalika, 2009; mishra,2010). most countries are now in the phase of assessing the "impact" on issues related to "efficiency", "effectiveness", and "equity". this is because most e-governance efforts are now beyond the initial phases of addressing the primary challenges of the "digital divide", "setting up infrastructure", and "spreading awareness" in the context of delivering citizen-centric e-governance services. most countries are now able to showcase their e-governance services and declare the uninterrupted "availability" of these services including overcoming the spatial challenges (bhatia, 2005, bovaird, 2005). while e-governance systems in many countries have evolved to a level of maturity, they have remained supply-driven so far. e-government services are, however, now "mandatory" in nature and citizens are expected to use them. in developing countries the usage of mandatory services continues to reflect the continuation of "digital divides", showing disjointed patterns in usages among rural-urban communities. in rural areas, especially in india, development perspectives like income generation, health and education still influence the success of mandatory services. while it is argued that readiness, availability, and uptake phases of e-governance systems are no longer current for the evaluation of success, most developing countries continue to grapple with these issues (dass & bhattacherjee, 2011, heeks & molla, 2009). moreover there are many additional challenges such as use divide, low latent demand, and sub-optimal usage of e-governance services. in the indian context, many mission mode projects (mmps) under the national e-governance plan (negp) are either in the process of implementation or have been commissioned. negp architecture recognizes the layered properties of national governance that occur in the form of "national agency", "state agency" and "panchayat raj institutions (pris)" aimed at ensuring the delivery of citizen benefits. negp, in order to extend these benefits, has included twenty seven mmps. the mmp approach suggests architectural imperatives through three distinct categories of services which are central projects. these projects aim to meet regional requirements and to extend services provided by non-governmental agencies, business, judiciary, etc. the mmps play a critical role for unification of ict mediated services in india. however, it is a challenge for policy makers to ensure a robust mechanism through which converged services could be rendered to indian citizens seamlessly through various modes. points of services (pos) and their modes of implementation do matter for citizens in india because seamlessly integrated services can be channeled through these pos. information kiosks (ik) today are visible in various forms in india including pcs, mobiles and personal digital assistants (pdas) to act as pos. various ik based e-governance services (ikbes) are being rendered by various agencies like "common service centres (csc)" under negp, "krishi vigyan kendras (kvk)", "village resource centres (vrc)", "village knowledge centres (vkc)" and "e-gram" are available for rendering e-governance services. in some cases as with the cscs, an entrepreneurship model has been adopted and in some other cases like e-gram, pure government services are being rendered. kvks/vrcs are mostly run by agricultural universities/indian space research organization (isro) with government funding while some of them are operated by ngos with external grants. in the entrepreneurship model csc operators are expected to make the business viable by providing b2c, g2c and b2b services whereas in other models business viability is not important. however, such variants of ikbes in rural areas have given the opportunity to study the value additions in the process that lead to citizen acceptance. such study may be fruitful to understand a) how the services are rendered by service providers, b) whether these services are received, used, and accepted by citizens, c) whether a value chain based framework can provide better insights to citizen acceptance of ikbes and d) what influences the viability of ikbes. this analysis is essential because the priorities of the government of india to provide converged services and evolution of uidai are in this direction (uidai, 2010). the organization of the paper is as follows. in section two, availability of information-kiosk based e-governance services in rural india is discussed. this section also presents an overview of the policies supporting these services and the rationale behind establishing such service delivery networks. through this overview, it is explained that there are various forms of ikbes and these either aim for pure e-governance services or a combination of e-governance, e-commerce, and e-business services. in section three, a framework has been developed to understand the acceptance imperatives among rural citizens and information-kiosk operators providing services. the relationship between these service provisioning agencies and rural citizens is presented in the framework. it is argued here that both these categories of stakeholders contribute to the viability and sustainability of e-governance services. in section four, research methods adopted to assess the fitness of the framework have been discussed. in section five, analyses of results obtained through a modeling exercise have been presented. in this section two cases have been discussed to support the findings of the fitness exercise adopted for the model. the concluding section discusses the results of the evaluation of the exercise with a note on the direction for further research. information-kiosk based indian e-governance services the information kiosk is an integral part of the e-governance architecture. an information kiosk in this paper is defined as an information technology infrastructure set up for providing access to e-governance services. till recently, indian e-governance considered the information kiosk as a "point of service" (pos). citizens need to come to these pos to avail services. today, however, with the advance of technology, indian e-governance services are planned for location independent pos like personal digital assistant (pda), and mobiles with wireless application protocols (wap). citizens can use the services on-line at their preferred places. this work is based on the fact that wap enabled indian e-governance services are not yet mature. they are still on pos with a physically restricted space. generally a kiosk is linked to the service provisioning agencies through the internet backbone. some of the forms of information kiosks in india are listed in table 1 below. table 1. generic forms of information kiosks in india forms of information kiosk pos it infrastructure ownership/ services csc in one location catering to 10,000 population personal computer, printer/ scanner, ups, v-sat/ landline / wireless broadband connectivity, internet village level entrepreneur (vle)/ g2c, b2c etc. e-gram panchayat level presence covering a few villages personal computer, printer/ scanner, ups, v-sat connectivity, internet panchayat manages the service through a contract, employee selected from the village kvk agriculture university campus/ ngos -do agriculture related information services, expert advice and sharing innovations vrc in identified location covering few villages satellite based connectivity, space technology oriented infrastructure isro in collaboration with ngos, trusts and government agencies/ tele-medicine, tele-education, watershed management, g2c, agriculture information vkc in an identified and willing village typically connected to vrc hub having 20-30vkcs around 60km radius/ spread spectrum wireless technology/ computers with network partnerships with village/isro/ngo; dtp services, information on agriculture services, health related services, commodity prices, g2c dairy information kiosks (disk) dairy cooperative societies personal computer, printer, ups, landline / wireless broadband connectivity, internet, electronic test equipments cooperative societies, information on live stock, milk collection, members, input services for the live stock itc e-choupal kiosks agri-business and input services personal computer, printer, ups, v-sat connectivity information on on-line commodity price, weather, quality checks for products, market linkages, provisioning of specialist services on agriculture automated teller machines (atm) identified by the banking institutions atm kiosk, v-sat enabled virtual private networks banking services related to transactions railways reservation/enquiry information kiosks indian railways stations/ travel agencies/ cyber cafe virtual private networks of indian railways/ web portals railways information systems/ authorized agencies airline reservation/enquiry information kiosks airlines/ travel agencies/ cyber cafe virtual private networks of airlines/ web portals airline information systems/ authorized agencies mobile and handheld personal digital assistants near to the citizens (business correspondents, cooperatives etc.) landline / wireless broadband connectivity, internet, virtual private networks civil society, cooperatives, banks for financial inclusion services, transport sector; mostly on-line services as presented in table 1, ikbes in india have evolved to a scenario in which various forms of it infrastructure including handheld devices are used for the benefit of citizens (bhatnagar, 2004). many isolated attempts are made to provide ikbes in india with a view to install better governance systems through government agencies, civil society and public-private-partnerships. the aim is to provide a holistic approach to the ikbes to render orchestrated and multi-agent services interfaces. these interfaces are expected to provide g2c, b2c and other business oriented services to the citizen at the pos with virtual private networks (vpn), d2h services and web-enabled applications with various internet bases (toyoma, 2005) while transforming the information kiosk operators to entrepreneurs. csc is an example of this concept which has been rolled out across india (dass & bhattacherjee, 2011, lai-lai, 2001, rangaswamy, 2006). despite prolific advancements in deployment of ikbes, citizen acceptance in using services has been a major concern. the entrepreneurs face challenges in sustaining the business due to meager return on investments in rural areas. more specifically, this situation prevails in the case of cscs. this phenomenon is also global in nature (heeks & molla, 2009, toyoma, 2005). thus there is a need to study the issues and find the reasons behind the poor response of citizens while discovering ways for entrepreneurs to have a sustainable business through ikbes outlets. research motivation e-governance services are generally rendered through a common interface i.e., an information kiosk having various forms. this enabling device aims to transform the very idea of "digital divide" to create "digital opportunities" across the world. literature on establishing ikbes suggests that the establishment of information kiosks (ik) in rural areas is not good enough for delivering the services as desired. maturity in e-governance services are dependent on many factors including convergence in the context of government services and convergence of carriage with better technology interfaces for rural e-governance. user centered designs (ucd) and better usability of iks through the rural citizens' inclination to use technology-enabled services also influence the usability of ikbes (heeks & molla, 2009). global ikbes efforts indicate various challenges during the scale up of such services. these challenges are attributed to "design-reality gaps", "supply-demand gaps", and "trust worthiness" among citizens, intermediate agencies involved in the ikbes, and entrepreneurs and governments (lai-lai, 2001). european union (eu) studies on "user challenge benchmarking" reveal that the size of the nation and the centralized governance structures have enhanced the spread and acceptability of citizen-centric services (i2010, 2010; schellong, 2009). studies also emphasize bridging the significant gap between business, government and citizen interfaces through ikbes networks to minimize the rural-urban divides. the eu study also recommended the provisioning of single-window services through ikbes with the hope of "clustering of government transactions (g2c)". the eu recognized the need for "user-centricity" for citizens through transaction security and multi-mode delivery interfaces such as call centers and mobile services. the eu insists on standardized common portals with converged citizen-centric services across its member countries for better accessibility and transparency leading to trust. the eu study argued that in the eu, ikbes modes have reached a maturity level of 70 per cent in providing government services whereas the maturity level is 84 per cent in business interfaces. the study indicates that ikbes needs to provide a mix of services for common citizens with a proper clustering of services related to business, government and citizen-centric livelihood generating avenues. the eu report on digital competitiveness (i2010, 2009; lai-lai, 2001; mishra, 2010) stresses providing converged services on broadband enabled last-miles, and enhancing ict enabled social capital, enhancing business competitiveness at the last mile through the creation of digital opportunities for business houses and entrepreneurs. entrepreneurship in e-governance service models is an important issue since many countries including india have encouraged the approach in which entrepreneurs are operating information kiosks with their own investments. the approach studies on global ikbes approaches provided the motivation for this work. it is generally accepted that ikbes need to evolve beyond supply-driven modes to collaborative platforms through which business, government, and rural citizens could contribute to the growth of digital competitiveness. there have been instances in developing countries of various ikbes services that were evaluated on the basis of "profit vs. service orientation", "narrowly focused service orientation i.e., only government services", "commercial vs. development i.e., charging fees for certain services and rest are free" etc. the indian scenario is not different from these experimental scenarios. economic considerations for rendering e-governance services are quite important because citizens expect these services as part of their citizen rights. citizens are aware of limitations in availing themselves of services on demand through traditional modes (bureaucratic and manual interfaces) and thus the digital mode of services provides distinct advantages despite the fact that e-services may be priced. this pricing strategy provides the scope for establishing enterprises which can act as service providers and channel services for the citizens. this entrepreneurship model has the potential to generate revenue through transaction fees collected from citizens. as explained in table 1, cscs and e-grams are two forms of ikbes considered for evaluation which generate revenue for the operator. thus the viability of ikbes becomes important. in addition, these two forms of ikbes are predominantly available in rural india. since indian rural e-governance approaches are challenged by heterogeneity in society, culture, political, and state level decentralization there is a need to provide a unique approach for evaluating the appropriateness of ikbes in rural india. it is essential that ikbes in rural india be seen as a value adding proposition. this ikbes concept can evolve to become a micro-enterprise having socio-economic considerations with active support from all stakeholders (toyoma, 2005, lirneasia, 2006). in this paper, the "value chain modelling" (vcm) approach has been adopted for the ikbes based on the eu concept. in figure 1 the basic concept is presented. figure 1. conceptual interface model in figure 1 it is argued that the "demand" of rural citizens on ikbes portfolios will depend on the citizens' perceived value propositions. this perception is based on the opportunities the ikbes provides to enhance their income generation opportunities, market linkages and other livelihood centric services including health, education and other infrastructures. the model intends to capture these attributes as the influencers that "supply" the services with innovative practices on a continuous basis. the upper layer in the model generates services to cater to the needs of rural citizens. each layer in the model is "independent" of the others and is a part of the "layered architecture" (mishra, 2010). layer-i indicates that ikbes service portfolios would not be binding on the rural citizens. similarly layer-ii suggests that ikbes entrepreneurs need to understand and internalize the challenges related to "market orientation" and "networking" among agencies for generating sustainable business opportunities. layer-iii in the model includes all the service provisioning agencies including government to ensure that convergence exists across services through the layer-ii. this convergence binds all the stakeholders for the common cause i.e., value additions to the life of rural citizen. layer-ii in this architecture needs to be viable as a business unit in order to encourage the ikbes operator to accept this model as a business model, remain in the business and continue to engage with all agencies to render services to the citizens. this approach thus provides scope to analyze the behavior of the ikbes with value additions in each stage of the architecture. value chain model for ikbes the value chain management (vcm) model1 embraces every effort involved in planning, sourcing, producing, and delivering while striving for cost optimization (porter, 1985). the vcm model is about controlling costs to provide a competitive advantage to all the stakeholders in the chain. here the concept of "margin/profit" is not the primary focus. in this paper it is argued that rural citizens in india are much more concerned about their livelihoods. their livelihood systems are not only dependent on the production systems but are largely influenced by the availability of information symmetry, input services, and an assured market with better remunerative returns. therefore, a mere "margin led strategy" would be inadequate. in order to facilitate these imperatives through ikbes a robust vcm is necessary. ikbes therefore has a role to play in terms of creating an enabling environment for providing better information management to simulate a "perfect market" condition for the citizens. this perfect market includes availability of government services, availability of inputs for production systems, and innovative service portfolios etc. ikbes owners, therefore, need to transform themselves into social entrepreneurs with business imperatives (drucker, 1985). concurrently, rural citizens need to accept this transformed scenario and support the activities of ikbes entrepreneurs with the same rigour. mutual acceptance, therefore, is a necessity. in this paper the mutual acceptance of stakeholders in the vcm is measured via three dimensions. the first dimension is "acceptance of rural citizens" of the value propositions available to them through ikbes. the second dimension is "acceptance of the ikbes entrepreneur" and the third dimension is "viability of ikbes services". the vcm proposed in this paper is argued to be influenced by "business values", "government values", and "socio-technical values" (drucker, 1985; porter, 1985). the business value explains returns that a stakeholder can perceive during a transaction with ikbes. government values are indicative of the availability of government services that a citizen can avail at the ikbes. socio-technical values are determined by the trustworthiness and ease of use of technical infrastructure and transparency maintained at the ikbes. in addition, the ikbes entrepreneur also looks at this investment with returns in the form of social recognition and leadership in the village. in table 2 below these dimensions are discussed in detail. table 2. vcm details the model presented in figure 2 is based on the explanation provided in table 2. as presented in figure 2, the viability of an ikbes is quite important because citizens are expected to pay for the services they receive. in order to provide paid services to citizens it is also equally important that ikbes operator has the entrepreneurial skills and they are in a position to channel those services through networks supported by various agencies including government. besides, these operators should also be able to invest in the centre and thus investment risks are to be examined. two major concerns are addressed in the process of ascertaining viability and they are "citizen acceptance" and "entrepreneur acceptance". in table 2, these concerns and the process for addressing them are presented. citizens in the process of receiving service through ikbes as an improvement from the traditional mode are likely to look for the trustworthiness of the ikbes operator, as well as service availability on demand and quality of service. it is argued that "citizen acceptance" in rural india will depend on the avenues created for them through ikbes, identifying a socially worthy entrepreneur who has wider acceptance in the area, and providing quality service on demand. acceptance of the ikbes entrepreneur too is equally important since this would be a catalytic agent between the service providers and rural citizens in the vcm. the ikbes operator needs to have a market with an assured stream of revenues that may be made available through a network of government agencies, business entities and other sources in the service supply chain. this scenario is best understood through vcm model supported measurements. the overall viability of the ikbes is, thus, dependent on these two contributors i.e., the rural citizens' acceptance and entrepreneurs' acceptance of the services being delivered. figure 2. proposed vcm figure 2 presents alternate "hypotheses" that are presented through "dependencies" (d) as follows: citizen acceptance= d {business values, government values, socio-technical values} ------- (1) ikbes entrepreneur acceptance = d {business values, government values, socio-technical values} -------(2) ikbes viability = d {citizen acceptance, ikbes entrepreneur acceptance} -------(3) figure 2 presents the proposed model. three hypotheses presented above, however, do not reflect the coefficients through which the dependencies will be measured. the task in this paper is to measure the overall fitness of the model proposed. through this fitness exercise the justification of the relationships between the "variables" constructed will be discussed. this justification will provide predictive abilities to the investor who would understand the implications of the ikbes management. in table 3 below, the variables are presented for clarity of the application of the hypotheses. the lisrel 8.80 software has been used for examining the fitness of the model and to generate relationships through a structural equations" based "path diagram". table 3. variables used research method this research work involved secondary surveys on ikbes approaches in india. based on the secondary survey, two forms of ikbes were considered for examining the fitness of the proposed model. the first form of ikbes was "e-gram", which is a state supported service targeted at rural citizens in the indian state of gujarat. the services are related to government agencies providing g2c services including information on agriculture, land records, birth and death certificates. the other form of ikbes includes the "csc", which is based on the entrepreneurship model. the organization chosen in this case is "sahaj e-village", which is a state level agency (sla) providing csc networks in six states of india and aims to provide b2c and g2c services. the state of west bengal was chosen to survey the cscs because it is the headquarters of the organization and support was available for visits to two districts (howarh and north 24paragana). the paper aims to examine the "fitness" of the model proposed and the sampling plan known as "purposive sampling" (nunnally,1978) was adopted for this reason. the purpose was to include some forms of ikbes that would be representative of both "business" and "government" dimensions. this is because of the overall perception of rural citizens and ikbes owners that e-governance efforts are directed by governments. thus responsibilities lie with the government to ensure availability and viability of ikbes services (bhatnagar, 2004, lai-lai, 2001, rangaswamy, 2006, toyoma, 2005). figure 3. the sample size and composition the purposive sampling plan included ikbes owners and rural citizens. a primary survey was conducted based on the questionnaires via likert scaling (1-extremely negative, ..., 7-extremely positive). the proposed model tries to estimate the preparedness of various stakeholders in the acquisition process. "stimuli" are aimed at the stakeholders and a "summation" is needed to understand the overall preparedness of the organization for which the "likert scaling" method has been adopted to conduct the survey and analysis (mcliver & carmines, 1994, nunnaly, 1978, spector, 1988).thus a higher value indicates a higher level of acceptance. the sample respondents were visited personally during the survey, hence the response rates of the primary survey was hundred percent. however, a sample size of only 58 could be obtained. this was due to the dispersed locations of ikbes centres. figure 3 presents the composition of sample size and respondents. out of 58 samples, citizen respondents numbered 34 whereas the number of owners of csc and e-gram were 10 and 14 respectively. in table 4 below the variables and their measures used for data collection are listed. table 4. data collection instruments variables questions/ measures citizen-business-value (czbv) there is remunerative return for the ik operator citizen will visit efficient ik repeatedly citizen has the ability to pay for services through ik citizen-government-value (czgv) citizens are happy to receive services through ik citizens require hassle free single-window government services citizens save time to receive government services through ik citizen-socio-technical-value (czst) citizen perceive better social status for ik operator ik operator feels proud to provide services through ik ik operator is at ease to operate ik entrepreneurship-business-value (erbv) ik operator has the flexibility to provide services on demand ik operator desires to invest in ik for better services citizens are willing to get innovative services through ik operator entrepreneurship-government-value (ergv) ik operator can earn through government services delivery government is willing to channel more services through ik ik operator has the trust in government to deliver services entrepreneurship socio-technical-value (erst) ik provides the avenue to provide technology oriented service services through ik has the due recognition ik is well appreciated for providing many services on-line viability-customer (vicv) price of services rendered by ik is reasonable time taken to get service from ik is manageable number of services available in ik on demand is adequate viability-business (vibv) there is a market for it enabled services in the vicinity people are willing to pay better price for innovative services there is scope to converge all the services through ik viability government (ving) government can provide all the services through ik government can rely on ik to provide services with security people can trust ik to get government services viability socio-technical (visa) ik operator can render services for less money ik operator can manage the technical challenges services through ik have high social value *note: ik is the acronym used for information kiosk limitations of this method this research method may reflect biases because of the creation of a meta-model through structural equations using metrics of higher order along with exogenous and endogenous contributors. in order to limit these biases structural equation results have been examined through expected benchmarks. this has been part of this work and explained in later sections. besides this validation, case-based methods have also been adopted. since focus of work is on the cscs, a second mode of ikbes in the form of e-gram is also taken up for understanding the applicability and suitability of the model. modelling technique the aim of the paper is to measure acceptance of services rendered by ikbes centres by rural citizens. it also intends to measure the acceptance of services rendered by the service level agreements (slas) and other service provisioning agencies including the government. in addition, the paper aims to measure this mutual acceptance in order to predict the viability of the entire process so that sustainable ownership of ikbes services is attained. thus a predictive approach is taken up in this paper through structural equation modeling (sem) using the lisrel 8.8 software. figure 4. path diagram (output of lisrel 8.8 used) it is a known fact that a model tries to approximate reality. theoretical model testing studies involve unobserved variables and survey data. in virtually all cases we cannot expect to have a completely accurate description of reality. if the model helps us to understand the relations between variables matching (fitting) the data we may judge it (the model) as validated (bollen & lennox, 1991). during the validation process it is essential to understand the relationship between variables governing the outcome of the proposed model. adequacy of a model is typically determined using conceptual definitions of the unobserved (endogenous) variables along with observed variables (exogenous). increasingly, model-to-data fit and parameter estimates form measurement models that utilize structural equation analysis, are being pursued. model-to-data fit and parameter estimates are derived from the hypotheses and from structural models utilizing structural equation analysis. for theoretical model testing researchers tend to agree that specifying and testing models using unobserved variables with multiple item measures of these unobserved variables (endogenous) and survey data involves: i) defining model constructs, ii) stating relationships among these constructs, iii) developing appropriate measures of these constructs, iv) gathering data using these measures, v) validating these measures, and vi) validating the model (i.e., testing the stated relationships among the constructs). since the proposed model is considered a tool to predict the overall viability of ikbes, regression analysis in general and multiple regression analysis in particular carry specific importance for validation of the model. however, methodologists in the social sciences have warned against regression's potential for coefficient bias and sample-to-sample coefficient variation because of measurement error in the independent and dependent variables (cohen & cohen, 1983). sem, which is considered a superset for regression analysis, is a more powerful technique on the other hand. sem is best understood when examined with identification, specification, estimation and test-of-fit of the model (cohen & cohen, 1983, pedhazur, 1997). model specification is done through developing a "measurement model" as shown in table 3 above. model identification bespeaks a conceptual "path diagram" carved out of the measurement model, which is presented in figure 2 above. path diagram and measurement equations are derived from the primary data collected and have been presented in figure 4 above. the estimation considers a linear structural relationship (lisrel), which is an algorithm under sem that adopts the process of structure analysis through measurement equation (dillon & goldstein, 1984, spector,1988). the path diagram presents the measurement errors, path coefficients, and relationships that each variable provides in the test-to-fit exercise. in table 5 below, the variables used are discussed for clarity and understanding the path diagram (figure 4). table 5. metrics used analysis analyzing the fitness of a model of this kind is always contested by various researchers. a plethora of indices are in circulation for understanding and evaluating the fitness of the model. table 6: goodness of fit statistics it is quite evident from various studies that an index strongly favours is at times refuted by another researcher. therefore, while there is no assured index to base the findings in favour, it is essential to understand the underlying principle of its applicability and make the findings contextual. in table 6 some indices are presented to verify the fitness of the model proposed. all the indicators are well within the limits of the prescribed benchmarked values and may be concluded to enjoy higher validity. besides, the primary survey indicates (table 7) the respondents' views towards the value chain that ikbes can extend. table 7. primary response analyses (mean values) most responses are within the range of 4 and 5 in the 7-point likert scale (average). significantly, however, crgv, crst, erbv, erst, and ergv show better response in support of the value chain. implications in this paper fitness of the model has been examined with the help of a small sample size in order to examine the appropriateness of the proposed model. the proposed hypotheses have been tested against the overall fitness of the model. the fitness of the model as presented in table 6 suggests that the results conform to most of the benchmarked values. apart from this test, the fitness exercise through the lisrel software based sem generated a structural equation which is presented below. servicev = 0.24*citizena + 0.65*entrepre, errorvariance = 0.17, r² = 0.83 -----(4) this equation (4) explains the relationship between dependent exogenous variables "citizena" (citizen acceptance); "entrepre" (entrepreneur acceptance) with dependent endogenous variables "servicev" (service variability of ikbes) based on the inputs received from equations (1), (2) and (3). the dependencies have positive relationships with r2 of 0.83 (good fit) and less error variance. it implies that citizen acceptance and entrepreneur acceptance are two useful contributors to the overall viability of any ikbes set up. it is noted from the sem findings that entrepreneurship needs to be given more importance (0.65) in comparison to citizen acceptance (0.24). further analysis on "citizen acceptance" suggests that citizens' inclination towards accepting ikbes services are influenced to a greater extent by business values (0.45). this implies that the availability of business opportunities and managing-related information on this matter will lead to better acceptance. however, government services and socio-technical values contribute significantly (0.21 and 0.24). thus due care needs to be taken while providing services through ikbes services to the citizens. as regards the entrepreneurs who operate and manage ikbes, there is a larger focus on business value (0.37). this implies that ikbes needs to include business networking along with revenue earning streams through various agency networking. government networked services have more weight (0.27) than the socio-technical values (0.23). this indicates that availability of government services is likely to contribute to the entrepreneurs' acceptance of the challenges and render ikbes viable. a close look (table 7) at the primary responses received suggests that business, socio-technical and government dimensions of the entrepreneurship expect to contribute to the value chain. case based validations case based research is quite often used for quantitative and qualitative empirical research (nunnally, 1978). while a case based study is normally organized to track a specific task at hand it is difficult to display generalization through it. however, it provides a base for building a model to predict a specific outcome. case based research can use multivariate data analyses methods such as principal component analysis and linear regression. this research is aimed at building a model while testing and using it for prediction. besides, case based study is beneficial for making observations, documentation, and analyses. the case based approach is very useful for the evaluation of software engineering methods and models. the modeling approach proposed in this research is an attempt to understand the application of software engineering principles with a focus on ucd in order to examine the outcome (lirneasia, 2006). in this work, controlled studies have not been included; the study has been used instead to understand the characteristics of problems through modeling. thus, a case study based research is deemed suitable (dube & pare, 2003). case based study also supports replicable observations in software engineering models that might lead to confirmatory conclusions (lee, 1989). it also provides scope to identify the causal link leading to success or failure of the information systems developed. a "focused group" discussion approach was taken to conduct this case based study and was independent of a sampling plan. measurement was based on the "likert scale" ranged from 1 to 7. the highest value in the scale reflects the positivity of the result. in this section cases related to forms of ikbes have been presented and evaluated based on the vcm methods. the forms of ikbes models chosen are "csc" and "e-gram". the rationale behind choosing these two forms is discussed in section 4. cases on cscs the first organization is "sahaj e-village ltd" based in eastern india and is an sla for six states. table 8 presents the rollout status of cscs. all the cscs are controlled by state level nodal centres through regional coordination centres (rccs). table 8: rollout status of cscs (as on 31st march, 2011) the organization manages all the rolled out cscs through a centralized data centre. major services include collecting electricity bills from consumers of various state-level electricity distribution companies, railway reservation services of the indian railways, e-education in collaboration with microsoft, and other services innovated by the village level entrepreneurs (vles). case of a vle operating csc: the lady vle, a graduate in agriculture, is involved with 3000 farmers of the surrounding villages. she took the support of sahaj to set up the ikbes to provide agriculture-related services to farmers and other services related to government and business houses. the vle has all the equipment to test the soil as well as a store to supply agricultural inputs with the help of which she created self help groups (shgs) to promote vermin-compost practices. yet her average monthly revenue through the ikbes amounts to rs.1000, which is not commensurate with the investments. services planned by the government are not available through the ikbes leading to citizens' lack of trust in the latter. in figure 5 the vcm-based findings have been presented. it is noted that sahaj needs to network with the appropriate agencies for g2c services and b2c services. both the vle and citizens complained about the non-compliance of the promises of sahaj during the setting up of cscs in the area. government apathy, poor connectivity, and non-availability of information on demand are some of the major constraints related to sustainability of business through the ikbes and winning the trust of citizens. however, the vle did admit to an increase in her social acceptance due to csc adoption. she has expressed hope that government services would be organized through the ikbes which sahaj needs to facilitate with immediate effect. figure 5. vcm based case analysis -csc cases on e-grams the government of gujarat launched e-gram services covering 13,685 gram-panchayats (group of revenue villages). it aims to provide government services like the issuing of birth and death certificates, recording of rights for land, providing information on agriculture services etc (g2c). the number of g2c services rendered per e-gram centre averages 226 annually. the latter also provides b2c services including utility payments like electricity bills, railway reservations etc. the average revenue an e-gram entrepreneur earns on an annual basis amounts to rs.1,129/-(inr). each panchayat takes care of the installations by engaging a local youth on a revenue sharing basis. a citizen is charged for the services (range is rs.10-rs.15/per transaction) as determined by the government of gujarat. case of a panchayat e-gram operator: this case is related to a panchayat catering to over 12000 people with 2500 households. the government sponsored e-gram has been in force since 2006. the panchayat has appointed a lady village computer entrepreneur (vce) to provide services to the villagers. the vce, a married woman with a degree in commerce, is trained in computer applications. she earns a monthly salary of rs. 2500 from the panchayat. the panchayat's revenue stream is based on g2c services, utility services, and other infrequent dtp jobs. figure 6. vcm based case analysis: e-gram b2c services are not available and panchayat is interested in investing in this opportunity. the vce is quite content because of the social leadership and recognition she has earned through the vce status. but she expects integration of other services like agriculture, education, and other g2c services. she has emphasized that the disk operated through dairy cooperative should also be networked for better services. during focus group discussion the citizens expressed their satisfaction with regard to the g2c services mainly because of the saving in transaction cost and time. besides, they are happy that corrupt officials do not demand money for such transactions anymore. figure 6 amply suggests that government values for citizens and the panchayat are quite high. the vce and panchayat having earned social values and technology is not a hindrance to providing services. however, citizens need more attention in terms of coverage while their association with the e-gram needs to improve. citizens think that business-related services would provide the right direction for this e-gram form of ikbes. overall ikbes viability measurement overall viability of the ikbes model is presented through equation 4 in section 5.1. figure 7 presents the results of a comparison between the two forms of ikbes case studies that have been conducted. figure 7 indicates that entrepreneur acceptance is higher in both the forms. the score (out of 7 point scale) is attributed to high socio-technical acceptance in the village. both entrepreneurs who have emerged as social leaders gained in respect after installation of the ikbes. the viability of ikbes in the case of e-gram is higher because of government services that were made available. however, citizen acceptance remains a concern for both the forms. tables 6 and 7 and figures 4, 5, and 6 confirm the validity of the analyses based on primary survey, model output, and two case studies. this validity indicates a high influence of entrepreneurial acumen including government services as is evident from figure-7. e-gram is government service oriented and this is an ideal case in terms of laying the foundation for a sustainable value chain through entrepreneurial skills of ikbes owners. figure 7. ikbes viability: csc and e-gram conclusion the paper is directed to developing a measurement model to assess viability of the ikbes based e-governance efforts in india. the rationale behind developing such a model lies in understanding the contributors of the success enjoyed by ikbes based on the vcm approach and the performance of cscs vis-à-vis e-gram. figure 7 reveals that the success of the ikbes depends more on entrepreneurship values. success of entrepreneurship is more dependent on services through government support and networks as shown in figure 6 (case of e-gram). this paper showcases an approach to assess ikbes viability through vcm modeling. it has taken e-gram and csc as two sample ikbes models prevalent in india. both of these models are similar but with different viability issues. as discussed earlier, e-gram is sponsored by government agencies and operated by panchayats who are part of the indian governance system. csc however, is a pure entrepreneurship mode. both the models are based on e-governance models with no limits on channelizing b2c and b2b services in addition to g2c services, and are therefore homogenous. thus interactions with citizens are bound to be similar. e-grams lack entrepreneurship acumen. the success rate of the cscs has not been encouraging. overall, e-grams have been performing better than the cscs. however, these cscs have also provided the desired social leadership and acceptance in the community. under both forms of the ikbes citizens have accepted operators as trustworthy entrepreneurs in varying degrees. this means that service orientation through innovative practices can support the viabilities of the ikbes. this study therefore, provides scope for academia to advance this work to assess other forms of ikbes models and helps planners and practitioners in e-governance engaged in providing citizen-centric services through service kiosks while ensuring viability for these kiosks. limitations and future scope of this work this research is focused on the development of a model to assess/predict viability of the ikbes. in the process a small sample size and purposive sampling plan were adopted that might not have been free of biases. thus, overall feasibility of the model needs better treatment in the context of testing hypotheses with greater rigour for assessing the model's "fitness". further research needs to include a larger sample size while considering more forms of the ikbes. assessment of fitness of the proposed model and its validation through alternate constructs and contributors are some of the future research agenda. acknowledgements the author gratefully acknowledges the support of sahaj e-village limited and national informatics centre, anand, gujarat informatics limited, gandhinagar, gujarat in accessing both the forms of ikbes centres. their kind support to facilitate discussion with the entrepreneurs and citizens is also highly appreciated. earlier version of this paper was presented in the 5th international conference on theory and practice on electronic governance (icegov2011); published in the proceedings of the acm (misra, 2011). footnotes 1a value chain: looks at the value each link/segment adds or detracts from products as they move through the chain gives a true picture of real profits by taking into effect 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(2010), unique identification authority of india strategic overview, unique identification authority of india, planning commission, government of india, new delhi. retrieved on january 23, 2011 from http://uidai.gov.in/uid_pdf/front_page_articles/documents/strategy_overveiw-001.pdf profile of a smart community defining the networked community movement sylvie r. albert assistant professor of strategy, laurentian university <salbert@laurentian.ca> abstract a number of geographical communities are strategizing around improving their telecommunication infrastructure and developing innovative online applications to create social and economic development, and take advantage of the knowledge economy. telecommunication networks allow communities to import and export knowledge, to promote innovation, and to eliminate physical borders. these ict-focused communities create partnerships to promote synergy within and between industry clusters, between community or regional organizations, to involve more local users in e-projects so as to develop a culture of use, and to develop alliances internationally. the purpose of this paper is to profile these networked communities by discussing factors that define and influence them while testing the level of agreement that exists among communities in relation to these constructs. introduction and influencing factors the new millennium argument is that telecommunication is the new transport mechanism that can bridge the gap between large and small, improve access for business and residents, and generate new capacity (landabaso, 2000). fast sailing ships and railways expanded trade and shaped international politics in the 18th and 19th centuries. steam and electricity revolutionized the organization of work in the 19th and 20th centuries. automotive technology, highways, and airplanes changed customs, lifestyles, population distribution and shrunk the globe (icf, 2008). electronic media and broadband are the next level revolution encouraging a flatter world (friedman, 2006). authors such as mcallister (2004) and wohlbruck and levy (2001) have suggested that economic disparity between regions may diminish because of information technology it is making it possible to do business and operate from any location, and when accessibility is provided through the availability of affordable bandwidth and access devices, a greater proportion of the world’s population can participate. a number of authors have since reported the cost savings, economic and social development opportunities afforded by broadband, including castells (1996, 1997, 1998), industry canada (2002a, 2002b, 2004), dawe & curri (2003), and annis, mcniven & curri (2005). as several authors have noted, technology is an enabler not a driver, nor a panacea to all problems and therefore, this paper does not adopt a modernistic view of icts. there are two important facets to consider – the impact of the technical and the social on communities (arnold, 2007) and the outcomes or the transformation of networked societies is reliant on the proper planning and utilization of both (rooney, 2005). this paper does not argue that there is a ‘one-size-fits-all’, or that there aren’t any social disadvantages stemming from ict adoption. rather, it attempts to look at common constructs and attributes of networked communities that can be utilized to evaluate, benchmark, and measure. transformations are possible, as demonstrated among others by examples in sunderland (uk) and spokane (usa). often quoted by the intelligent community forum (bell, 2006), these networked communities have developed a new vision focused on opportunities available in the knowledge economy and the use of broadband to overcome tremendous challenges posed by a changing economic environment. icts, when it is used to expand and improve existing or developing social system, can allow regions to buy and sell knowledge, and market products around the world (kellar, 1998). among the benefits reported are reduced health care costs, improved communication; benefits to industry from building capabilities, and developing key technology clusters; job creation opportunities including knowledge jobs and those resulting from innovation and new service delivery; and environmental benefits from sustainable technologies and reduced emissions (technology partnerships canada, 2007). this paper will also not dwelve into the concept of community as a larger system, for example, in referring to communities of practice. as explained by arnold (2007), the concept of community means different things to people and the sense of attachment varies among individuals. communities in this paper are geographically-based, with residents sharing a common attachment to organizations and the culture within. the internet, the increased demand for applications requiring high speed, and increased use of wide area networks by businesses and organizations have encouraged action on the propagation of broadband. it has also encouraged discussion on the future role of information and telecommunication technologies in developing communities. in the mid to late 90s, a number of broadband projects surfaced around the globe, some stemming from high velocity technological and knowledge areas such as california, others from smaller communities who could foresee the need for broadband in their future development. canada was one of the pioneers calling for proposals to implement demonstration projects in each of its provinces to investigate the potential use communities would make of telecommunication technologies. these pilot projects were labeled ‘smart communities’ and within the confines of a rough description provided by the canadian national broadband taskforce, each applicant developed a proposal to leverage federal dollars for infrastructure and telecommunication applications. during roughly the same period, other groups around the world were at work encouraging broadband and a new information society. among them is the intelligent community forum based in new york and whose mandate is to encourage the sharing of information among like-minded projects around the world. they labeled these projects as ‘intelligent communities’ with a slightly amended definition to the one proposed by the canadian national broadband taskforce. the networked community cannot be precisely defined. communities differ and no prescription or packaged answer will serve all, with some looking to restore health, re-invent themselves and/or better serve their members. in general, the idea is to work smarter using high-speed telecommunications infrastructures and software to achieve social and economic development goals. the terms “wired community”, “broadband community”, “smart community”, “digital community”, “intelligent community”, and “community network” are today often used interchangeably. the common element is that communities can now be interconnected, internally and externally, both electronically and socially, and that community leaders can now think seriously about things they could never have done before. the networked community has a physical presence in space and time, and people live there on a daily basis, but all their members are virtually connected to everyone else. in the 21st century, the common assumption is that the social and economic well being of communities is very much tied to networking (albert, flournoy, & lebrasseur, 2008). the definitions of factors influencing and defining the network community were evaluated through a survey of projects in canada as well as a review of panel evaluations of international projects to see where the emphasis is being placed and discuss the benefits and challenges for these communities. igbaria and igbaria et al (1999) added to our understanding of networked communities by discussing the impact of influencing factors on the development of networked communities. they proposed that the world is changing as a result of trade, politics, technology, environmental challenges, and social issues and that these are influencing or motivational factors for ict development at the community level. change, and especially economic restructuring, requires communities to re-think their strategy, and sometimes it requires communities to consider a transformation effort. good leadership in all segments of society necessitates an evaluation of the impact of the change that is happening as a result of globalization and technological development, and the possible restructuring that may be required to place the resources in the right projects and efforts. igbaria et al (1999) in their argument on the factors that promote the development of ict-based communities discussed the impact of the political environment of communities as positive or negative motivators; of transformational leaders who want to see change; of economic situations such as when communities need to redress poor economic conditions, or want to prepare for a new environment; and finally, when social and cultural factors such as the increasing use of the internet and broadband applications have the effect of urging leaders into action. many private sector enterprises have long realized this developing phenomenon and have used coopetition, strategic alliances, building new social compacts with ngos (brugmann & prahalad, 2007), and restructuring their value chain to keep up to changes emanating from the knowledge economy. similarly, several communities have embarked on the social re-construction needed to access growing opportunities in using knowledge workers. these examples are worth noting and can become benchmarks for others interested in following a similar route. some of the more advanced thinkers in social re-construction are the networked communities, because they are taking the lead to collaborate internally to find resources and to leap into new fields that can yield positive economic and social benefits. icts are enabling development, allowing communities to extend what they do best to other regions, or allowing them to import what they need from others. it can yield new economic opportunities in the form of new industries and jobs, but more often, it only sustains current assets, or promotes quality of life for at least a portion of its citizens. waiting for national policies is not considered a requirement many communities and regions around the world are taking matters into their own hands whether it is to help minimize impact on the environment and global warming, or to find solutions to the health care crisis, or to find synergistic opportunities in their own backyard to maximize efficiency and encourage economic sustainability. background and defining factors – the canadian example according to the world foundation for smart communities (eger, 2002), a smart community is one ‘that has made a conscious effort to use information technology to transform life and work within its region in significant and fundamental, rather than incremental, ways. this transformation is beneficial to the community and attracts local participation and cooperation among community groups, government, business and education’ (faq, ¶1). the key element in this definition is transformation which assumes wide-ranging projects with implications on several community groups. it includes information technology infrastructure, and this infrastructure must be capable of delivering on content that will allow the region to transform itself (caves, 2001). it also connotes effective collaborations, a well-supported vision, and strong transformational leadership (albert & fetzer, 2005) toward co-building of infrastructure, content, learning, and economic foundations. the smart communities concept in canada needed multi-organizational and multi-sectoral representation on the smart community team (nahapiet & ghoshal, 1998) to better handle the various challenges and build the necessary infrastructure, applications, innovations, and develop a culture of use. when industry canada broadband launched the smart community program in 2002, they were searching for answers on the definition of a smart community and included the following (albert & lebrasseur, 2006; albert, 2003): partnerships: several community players participating at the table, applications: common vision in the development of applications, infrastructure: ensuring the adequacy of the technology infrastructure, leadership and skills: project implementation ability including user needs, user involvement, and skills, vision: common vision, economic development: the desire to co-build economic foundations. a slightly more detailed description of the constructs and measurement is included in appendix (table 1 in appendix). the 2002 canadian survey allowed the researcher to identify a hierarchy of attributes. although all descriptors could be considered equally important, they were not always given the same level of attention by all communities. the canadian smart community pilot projects were representative of large and small cities, of cultural groups, of the flavour of each province throughout the country, and of applicants that could demonstrate innovation. however, prior to the federal government’s announcement, many other communities had made strides in this direction and others followed in years to come. some came from small towns that believed they needed to collaborate to obtain a broadband infrastructure, fearing that they would be left behind in a knowledge economy. others were formed by community organizations frustrated by their level of service from telecommunication providers. still more were formed by community leaders who took advantage of public-private partnerships to improve their lot. the canadian survey included the federal pilot projects and these other networked community projects. background and defining factors – international examples in documents by bell (2001 and 2007), similar but enhanced descriptors to the canadian smart community initiative were offered and under the title of ‘intelligent community’. the intelligent community forum (icf) launched an annual award in the mid 1990s and began receiving international applications from projects who wanted to become recognized as intelligent cities or projects. the intelligent community indicators are described in slightly more details in appendix (table 2 in appendix) and included: broadband infrastructure: ensuring an affordable, sustainable, and expandable broadband infrastructure. knowledge-based workforce, digital democracy, marketing (users): planning for a trained workforce and one ready to operate in a knowledge-based economy, encouraging stewardship where community residents and stakeholders to get involved often online, developing a culture of use, telling your own community and the world about your efforts, and disseminating knowledge. innovation and content: encourage the development of applications (content), research and development, and economic development around icts. leadership, partnership, and vision: encouraging wide-ranging collaborations to develop economies of scale, efficiencies, and synergies, leading by example, sharing a common vision. an intelligent community is described as ‘a town, city, county or region that views communications bandwidth as the new essential utility, as vital to economic growth and public welfare as clean water and dependable electricity. where communities once raced to build seaports, rail depots, airports, and highways to attract businesses and create jobs, many now view broadband communications and information technology as the new keys to prosperity’ (icf, 2008). communities are responding to the challenge of local economic development in the broadband economy. they are working to maintain a high quality of life as places where the next generation can find a good job, make a home and raise their children. they are leveraging their unique qualities and traditional strengths in a new economic environment and they are creating a culture of use. the description of intelligent community is more focused on the user and encouraging a culture of use and is evolving the concept of ‘smart community’ over time. it is also more focused on and looking for evidence of innovation and economic development having defined a bit more clearly the concept of transformation. several dozens of communities and their stories are featured on the icf website and include smaller locations such as pirai (brazil), with a population of 20,000, to larger cities and suburbs such as mitaka (japan) with a population of 170,000, to taipei (taiwan) at 2.6 million habitants. each of these communities have demonstrated a high level of innovation in using ict for economic and social development. whether the process is top down, bottom up, or a combination of both, successful intelligent communities result from collaboration between business, government, non-profit organizations, and individual citizens (mcguire, 2000). the driver of the collaboration is a sense of concern about the ability of the community to compete in the global knowledge-based economy (blakely, 2001; hughes & spray, 2002). leaders from each stakeholder group (multi-sectoral and multi-organizational) are in the best position to know how technology could be applied in the community to meet economic and social needs. the benefits are wide-ranging – one of several conferences on building the next century economy (government of canada, 2004), identified that smart and intelligent infrastructure will serve as the backbone of the e-economy by encouraging investment, strengthening research, enhancing commercialization, and ensuring that all canadians have access to this infrastructure and know how to use it. infrastructure is identified as an underlying requirement to build the networked community and it should no surprise that it becomes the first priority for a number of networks, or as arnold (2007) has suggested, some things lead while others follow, but social networking is the key element in building the networked community. infrastructure on its own has a field of dreams flavour that may or may not entice a transformation process. other factors were discussed as important by albert, flournoy and lebrasseur (2008) such as the need for an evaluation process to attract and maintain collaborators and allow for benchmarking, goal setting, and measurement toward planning for the long-term sustainability of the network. although influencing factors may attract partnerships to the networked community agenda, the future of the initiative will rest upon sound reporting mechanisms that demonstrate a clear positive impact for citizens and stakeholders. analysis – canadian smart community defining factors to validate the defining factors, two types of analyses were performed. the first, a survey of 28 canadian telecommunication networks performed in 2002, and the second, an assessment of 39 international intelligent community applications in 2005 and 2006. eger (1997), tan (1999), and cohill (1999, 2000a, 2000b, & 2001) had already identified some variables through their own projects which lended support to the industry canada broadband construct. however, a perspective from a larger number of existing projects or a survey was missing as most accounts to date had been in the form of case studies. the intent of the 2002 survey was to identify whether canadian smart communities were active in each of the variables defining the smart community construct. the survey was meant to profile the activities of canadian networks and determine if any of the objects and attributes were considered more or less important, or given varying levels of priority. each province was contacted to provide a list of current projects with the intention of performing a census – seventy six projects were found in ten canadian provinces (including the federal government pilot projects) and twenty-eight communities (37% of the known population) responded and forwarded a total of seventy two complete surveys. some of the results of the survey were reported in albert and lebrasseur (2006). smart community is a latent concept because it is relatively intangible. it utilises a number of constructs built from objects and attributes that can be examined using a c-oar-se procedure for scale development (rossiter, 2002). according to the definition offered by rossiter, the objects in smart/intelligent communities are abstract collective, meaning that the set of concrete singular objects form a higher-level category in the opinion of experts. the super ordinate category object is abstract but its sub-objects are concrete singular objects for the ratter, for example, the definition of what constitutes broadband, or collaboration can be clearly described but the combination of several of these sub-objects into a title such as ‘culture of use’ is an abstract concept. each attribute is formative, or adds to the main component. the description of cadieux, roy and desmarais (2006) on the five steps needed to evaluate latent formative constructs outlines the process used for this study. (a) the first step examines the constructs’ unidimensionality to ensure that each item is linked to a single latent construct. (b) the second step looks at the constructs’ internal coherence using cronbach’s alpha. (c) in the third step, researchers address convergent validity by trying to quantify the extent to which items are related to the construct that they comprise. (d) the fourth step involves the constructs’ discriminant validity, which examines the real difference between the constructs to determine if they should be regrouped. (e) the fifth step ensures that the instrument measures are coherent with the reality under study. table 1 in appendix identifies the six variables being measured and the items included in the survey instrument as well as the results of statistical analyses to support the c-oar-se procedure for building and evaluating the scale. the instrument was tested and corrected to improve validity. the cronbach's alpha identified a good coefficient of reliability, showing that items (or variables) measured a single unidimensional latent construct.  the argument presented is that smart community networks should be good at all of the variables identified. for the sake of profiling communities, the researcher categorized scores to identify the top, middle, and low achievers, equally separating each class. a stepwise regression at significance of 0.05 to enter and 0.10 to remove did not eliminate any of the variables. a frequency analysis was performed to identify the percentage of respondents indicating that they either ‘agreed’ or ‘completely agreed’ with each of the statements made. the results (table 3) mirrored the tendencies. vision, infrastructure and partnership were identified as the top three priorities of networks. the regression tests the significance of the six variables proposed against the combined score of all responses. each variable provided a significant predictive ability to the model and showed large absolute values in their partial correlation coefficient. therefore, each variable had unique information to contribute to the equation. table 3: frequency analysis respondents who agree or completely agree vision 84% infrastructure 77% partnership 76% applications 72% economic development 65% users 56% as can be surmised from this table, economic development activities and user needs tended to be lower priorities for most canadian networks activists but a majority agreed that they were working on each of the variables defining a smart community. it should be noted that consistency may be greater in canadian networks since the canadian government had provided some benchmarks on the activities of the first twelve pilot projects. this ‘common understanding’ may not have existed to the same extent in other international networks studied under the intelligent community applications. analysis – international intelligent community defining factors the second level of analysis is the international intelligent community data stemming from 39 applications received worldwide by the intelligent community forum between 2005 and 2006. the questions were open ended and respondents had to describe the activities under each of the indicators. the evaluation was performed by two university professors, one of them with more than ten years consulting and research experience on networked communities. they performed the review of icf files in 2005, 2006 and 2007 and applied their own measurement scale to compare achievement between communities. similar to the smart community achievement scale, the variables or indicators utilized a measurement description scale (table 2 in appendix). the results were recalculated to yield a percentage value to allow the researcher to measure the relative importance that networks affix to each variable and are shown in table 4. the percentage cannot be compared to the first population (canadian smart communities) because slightly different definitions of each variable were measured; however, some comparisons can be made on the level of importance that networks tend to attach to each variable or indicator. for example, similar to the canadian smart communities, intelligent communities tended to spend a lot of time in developing a common vision and partnerships within the community or region. infrastructure was the second most pursued activity in both analyses. content was the third and the variables on user involvement and developing a culture of use ranked last, as it did in the smart community movement in canada. table 4: 2005-2006 intelligent community indicators vision, leadership, partnerships 67% infrastructure 62% innovation & content 59% users – developing a culture of use, knowledge-based workforce, digital democracy 58% discussion of results vision is an important element of smart networks the strongest variable in the study was shared vision toward synergy, risk mitigation, and new opportunities for development. the vision variable is defined as the reason or benefit of the partnership. 84% of the respondents in smart communities and 67% in intelligent communities believed in building multi-organizational partnerships and saw an opportunity for synergy, shared risk, and value in working in a collaborative manner. again, the percentages are difficult to compare because the measures were not equal in both tools and there are international differences as a result of policies and social/culture issues, however, the vision variable was the best achievement in both groups. networks tend to concentrate on infrastructur one of the strongest variables, infrastructure (77% either agreeing or totally agreeing with statements relating to the work being done in the community on infrastructure in canadian smart communities), demonstrated that there is a strong commitment to infrastructure upgrading/development by most community networks across canada and the international case files (62% achievement level in international projects). communities either completely agreed, or agreed that their network is working to ensure that their infrastructure can meet future need, offers adequate speed, and can create economic development. networks are often formed to resolve an infrastructure problem – in fact, networks differed in their ‘ability to attract applications’, ‘pricing’, ‘reliability’, and ‘security’. there was a slight difference in perception on items four (price) and five (reliability of the infrastructure) between groups of networks in the canadian survey. not all networks require infrastructure upgrading, especially in larger centers where private sector has made substantial contributions. however, intelligent communities still report and follow-up on the level of access and the take-up rate to continually improve usage. they also work with private sector to ensure that the technology can keep up to the applications that can yield value for the community. networks perceive the importance of the application variable seventy two percent of the canadian smart community respondents identified that they agreed that applications and innovations are an important component but the numbers indicate that it was not necessarily their top priority. members of community networks were asked to identify their current and proposed level of involvement in developing innovative applications. perhaps it is because community networks are relatively new, and applications are not always at the forefront, especially if the first concern is to resolve an infrastructure problem. inadequate planning and goal setting can affect the ability of community partners to work effectively together and for the network to reach its goals. the extent of collaboration is considered important in smart networks related to the vision variable, respondents are highly involved in partnerships and collaborative activity. seventy six percent of the time, respondents agreed or completely agreed with statements that they are building wide-ranging partnerships such as those involving business, government, non-profit organizations, and citizens. many networks appear to begin as private networks or mush-type networks (municipal, university/college, schools, and hospitals) and grow to include a wider cross section of community stakeholders. this variable continues to confirm the trends toward sharing risks by spreading costs among community partners, and building public-private partnership to maximize efficiency. economic development opportunities are not always planned by networks the economic development variable is an important one, and it is understandable that the community or region would strive to develop a networked community vision with the intent of contributing to economic and social development. however, many respondents felt that they were not properly planning to realize these opportunities. sixty five percent of the time in canadian networks respondents felt they were working on creating economic development opportunities. it would appear that many networks are hoping, from a vision perspective, that their telecommunication network will create economic development, but are not necessarily involved in specific activities to make it happen. foundations must be laid for new entrepreneurial activity starting with a clear understanding of capabilities and a plan for addressing weaknesses as identified by castells (1996, 1997, & 1998). users are not always involved the step-wise analysis identified that the user variable is a good predictor in the model, but current networks tend to pay too little attention to this variable. it is the weakest variable with only 56% to 58% of the respondents in both groups surveyed showing that they were actively working on this variable. it includes the marketing and training efforts needed to create a culture of use, accessibility issues, and user involvement in decision-making. it is not surprising that users are an afterthought, but it is not optimal for most networks since a transformation effort requires building a culture of use which requires user involvement. smart and intelligent community achievement weighs toward achievement in all variables but there is still room for improvement can we call the communities responding to the survey or making application to be recognized as ‘networked’, ‘smart’ or ‘intelligent’? the concept of ict achievement is nebulous and abstract. the overall achievement of canadian networks responding to the survey indicated a good ability to achieve a high score on all variables with a group mean (by project) of 79.8 (therefore almost 80% achievement of the variables), with a t = 8.53 at a significance of less than 0.0005 and a test value of 100 (the mean average was further divided into three groups: top, middle, and bottom scores achieved by each community network. top performers achieved an aggregated score of 86-99%, whereas low performers achieved an aggregated score of less than 75% (table 5)). for intelligent communities, the scores were slightly lower as a result of the measurement system, but similar categories for upper, middle, and bottom thirds were utilised for comparison purposes and similar divisions could be found to the ones in smart community achievement (table 6). performance is based on achievement of the variables from a process point of view, not on actual output based on a benchmarked statistic. it would be difficult to make an effective comparison between small and large communities, democratic vs. socialistic economies, and so on to create a benchmark. therefore, this achievement becomes largely subjective and is this concept would require further research. table 5: smart community achievement (n=28) infrastructure applications vision partnership users ec.dev. smart weight score (%) top n=9 4.88 4.79 4.76 4.76 4.19 4.47 86-99 middle n=11 4.31 4.02 4.38 4.16 3.60 3.85 76-85 bottom n=8 3.63 3.34 3.33 3.40 3.02 2.83 75 table 6: intelligent community achievement (n=39) infrastructure content (applications & economic development) vision & partnership users intelligent weight score (%) top n=11 4.11 4.26 4.16 3.95 70-99 middle n=18 2.79 3.19 3.27 2.75 50-69 bottom n=10 2.57 1.15 2.52 2.14 49 international intelligent communities, as compared to canadian smart communities, fared similarly in the top third but were much weaker in the middle and bottom third. a few reasons can be offered for this discrepancy, a) the international questionnaire was open ended and required a fair amount of descriptions to be provided by the respondent whereas the canadian survey asked specific questions and respondents were able to choose on a five-point scale; b) intelligent community respondents are motivated by an international recognition but are not always aware of standards or evaluative tools needed to complete the application; c) respondents do not always utilise the right resources (i.e. leaders participating in the reporting rather than less experienced staff resources); d) the requirement to complete the report in english could be a contributor to poor quality responses in an international setting; and e) international projects had little time to complete the application process as compared to the canadian respondents. conclusion over the last two decades, many researchers have demonstrated that first world economies were increasingly reliant on knowledge workers. smart communities attempt to ensure that they have the tools (infrastructure and applications) so that their citizens can choose to participate in the importation and exportation of knowledge. they make every attempt to involve users in the planning and implementation of technologies and applications, and make provisions to ensure access for all citizens and training and education for those who need help in order to create a culture of use. networked communities develop partnerships between several sectors and organizations to discuss ways to improve the economic and social environment by finding synergies and improving access to information and resources. finally, networked communities brainstorm on ways to use its assets to encourage a transformation process that includes social and economic development. the results of these surveys may provide a potential model to profile these networked communities and encourage policies that further the development of new projects. the evidence demonstrates a commitment toward ensuring a common vision, sound partnerships, and planning toward the development of the infrastructure in existing networked communities. it would appear that some progress is being made in encouraging a culture of use and in developing a wider range of innovative applications as evidenced by the importance that international intelligent community networks are according to these constructs but there is plenty of room to grow in these constructs of the networked community. changing technologies, innovations, and the varying sizes and abilities of communities make benchmarking difficult, but best practices can be imported or exported which will only serve to strengthen projects around the world. although measurement of networked communities continues to be present, achievement may be better placed on a continuum and measured in terms of its ongoing transformation since benchmarking is difficult. once the original objectives of each network have been met, the collaboration can continue to innovate to provide new levels of service. references agres, c., 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(2001). linking communities to opportunities through telecommunication. economic development review, 17(3), 34-40. appendices table 1: smart community indicators constructs attributes infrastructure 1. ability to attract applications 2. meets future needs 3. speed 4. price 5. reliable 6. secure 7. able to attract economic partnerships 1. multi-organizational 2. multi-sectoral 3. citizen participate 4. business-to-business 5. business-to-government applications 1. convergence 2. broadband 3. attracts economic development economic development 1. infrastructure expandable 2. applications will create economic development 3. innovative applications user access & knowledge 1. support services 2. ensuring skills and knowledge 3. access to technologies 4. providing training table 2: intelligent community indicators constructs attributes culture of use: knowledge workforce, digital inclusion, marketing knowledge workforce: built through training and development, educational programs on new application, and flexibility in access digital democracy: government & community online, portals, participation in decisions, broadcasts, polls, public meetings marketing: dissemination locally and internationally on progress, opportunities, and partnership/information sharing users: encouraging all segments of the population to get involved including elderly and population at risk infrastructure connectivity: % with broadband connectivity, % with access planning: strategic planning efforts, vision development, sustainability planning content & innovation economic development: clustering, job creation, r&d efforts wide range of applications: several sector initiatives, network development, breath of applications innovative applications: innovative and replicable ideas for meeting community needs leadership, partnership, & vision collaboration and partnering from public, private, and non-profit, creating synergy, multi-organizational and multi-sectoral involvement. visioning and achievement oriented through demonstrations of events, symbols & benchmarks community radio provides elderly a platform to have their voices heard in rural macha, zambia gertjan van stam, fred mweetwa   introduction the rural community of macha, zambia has implemented an array of information and communications technologies (ict), as part of a holistic, respectful vision to inspire people in rural communities to reach their collective and individual potential. macha is a deep-rural chiefdom, based in zambia's southern province. the environment is typical resource-limited rural setting, with community members living in scattered homesteads, with very little infrastructure and a subsistence lifestyle. the vibrant local culture can be characterized within the classical african concept of ubuntu. it is governed through traditional structures, involving community leaders as chiefs, (senior) head men, and others. the need for community radio was verbalized for the first time in 2003. the government of the republic of zambia granted a construction permit in 2005. after many interactions and inspections, vision community radio macha received official broadcast license january 2011. this ict platform complemented the arrival of internet (in 2004) and mobile phone (late 2006). as few radio signals reach the remote areas, the radio signal on 92.9 mhz reaches an area with a diameter of about 140 kilometers, covering at least four chiefdoms and reaching a potential 150.000 people. on a literacy scale, macha is a mixed environment, with medical, agricultural, educational and juridical entities that (partially) utilize writing. however, in the larger area community members have little exposure to texts and living in primary orality. as such, the rural areas around macha represent a highly residual oral society. the official language of zambia is english. it is used in official communications. in daily interactions, indigenous languages are commonly spoken. chitonga – or, shorter, tonga is the primary language in the macha area. although the language is written, tonga does not have a literature base. consequently, many people in the community do not use any writings, nor are in contact with written words, and expect orality to be used in daily affairs. this cultural precept hampers non-discursive practices. further, material disadvantages like unavailability of reading materials and lack of paper and pens or formal business structures hamper the use of writing. the older generation, who provides for community leadership, insist on the primacy of orality in tonga culture.   background authors are involved with the introduction of information and communications technologies in the rural community of macha since 2003. continuous work consisted of much community interaction according to the macha works! model(van stam & van oortmerssen, 2010)⁠. consecutive sound-boarding resulted in a humanized expression of technology that aims to translate local customs and activities to facilitate local, national, and international interactions and dissemination. vision community radio macha is an independent society, enshrined in the macha community. its leadership and operations are fully supported by the community without outside operational assistance. the community built the impressive studio facilities. national experts assisted as for the engineering aspects. the radio operates with a team of five full time associates and four volunteers. they trained an other sixteen persons in specifics of community broadcasting.   programming involving the elderly the need for a community wide platform for interaction was recognized during two unrelated community surveys – in education and health on community needs in 2003. during the community meetings to discuss these surveys, it became apparent that a platform for community wide interaction was missing. one of the proposed ways forwards was to start a community radio station. subsequently, the community charged a team of local volunteers. the team performed a specific and targeted survey in 2004. volunteers spoke to different people of different age groups on what kind of radio programs they would envision. most elderly persons mentioned the need to transmit information on culture and intangible heritage as it can shape the future of their children. also many young persons mentioned the need for cultural information. comments included “culture signifies where we come from”, “there is no future without history”, and “without knowing our culture a person does not have a future”. further investigations as to come to more specific needs, and a proposed content of the radio station, unearthed the strong desire to amplify the voice of the cultural custodians as enshrined in elderly people. older people are not readily accessible and dying out. 'when a person dies, a library burns'. especially with the introduction of new cultures and interactions beyond cultural borders, possibly leading to boundary crossings, establishment of a cultural beacon in the community was deemed urgent. the community embraced vision community radio macha right from the start. community acceptance became evident during times of interruptions of broadcasts during periods of technical difficulties. at those times, community delegations visit with adamant requests for restoration of service and programming. much experimentation took place as to the programming of the radio. the first regularly established content became quickly one of the most popular programs at vision community radio macha. it is “butonga tutabusowi”, which means “we do not have to forget tonga traditions”. the program emerged by itself unaided. it did so by elderly organizing themselves to facilitate the activity by establishing a committee. the committee then came to the radio station, and stated its wish to start and facilitate a proposed program to discuss intangible cultural heritage. subsequently, the radio station trained four committee members in how a radio station works, and explained its specifics like the use of microphones, etc. the radio provides the airtime and studio facilities. a radio associate introduces the program and assures the sound quality engineering. the program is a weekly program with a length in the range of half an hour. contents focus on culture and heritage in the local community. for instance, subjects have been courting, marriage, funerals, bathing, rituals, clothing, etc. the community committee decides upon the subject, and who will be present during the program. at least one person trained by the radio station is part of those present. as such, the committee assures a relevant, participatory, and interactive radio program discussing the cultural subject-at-hand. participants guard the program themselves. a typical program involves a panel of four people in the studio, gender balanced with two men and two women. often, an old senior headman introduces the subject. then the panel talks about the matter. this leads to advise and proposed codes of conduct for young and old in the community. after these introductions and positioning, the program proceeds to interact with listeners whom respond by sms. one person gives his/her mobile phone numbers and reads received sms out loud. these contain inquiries or additions and sometimes introduce arguments. sms arrive from a wide spectrum of community members, young and old. discussion of discords and conflicting arguments proceed with a constructive attitude and shared concern. it aims for harmony and sensitization for hurtful impacts and change of conduct. it promotes mutual understanding, civilized dialogue and mutual tolerance. participants are encouraged to take into accounts all sides of arguments, to make sense of them, and then come to harmonized outcomes as community based guidelines. community members are hungry for the program, as it is the prime way to learn about the local culture. the elderly people mention that without the radio station it would not be possible to have their voice heard at a large wide scale. often, they explicitly acknowledge that folk tales and writings are not enough to describe the whole culture. and always gratitude is shown for the radio as providing a platform for elderly to make their voice heard and respected. during the programs, community members send communications of encouragements, often with wishes to have the program 'on air' more often in the week.   findings as per local culture, the radio station is much concerned how to connect the community, how to emanate respect and dignity, facilitate the sharing of opportunities, responsibilities and challenges, introduce visitors to the macha community, implement participatory interactions, and interdependence. its interactions interweave with daily existence and experience in its contextual reality. there are many regards for quality, and little regard for keeping time, or quantitative information. community members mention “it is an effective way to learn about the local culture”. “radio makes sure we have an understanding of how our forefathers used to live”, and “the program helps the community to reflect back to what was used to happen in the past”. the convention for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage refers to “practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups, and in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage”(unesco, 2003)⁠. these manifest mainly in domains such as oral traditions, including language as vehicle, performing arts, social practices, rituals, and festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe and traditional craftsmanship. intangible cultural heritage is fundamental to human existence, it is knowledge and memory of human beings, which is continuously constructed and reconstructed in people's sense of identity established through social interaction(yoshida & mack, 2008)⁠. it is dynamic, evolving, and never static. the radio program emerged not aided by formal deductive procedures, nor in pure logical form, but as a more practical thought pattern. it acknowledges and recognizes the need for the elderly to lead all aspects of the program, as in the local culture it depends on 'who leads and talks' to see what is true. information and communications technology allows for dynamism in interaction with local intangible cultural heritage. the radio program and involvement of the elderly are essential to amplify interaction with local culture and heritage. community members confirm “the program enables us to abstract the good things and included them in the modern culture so it becomes part and parcel of our existence”. elder people comment that the radio program “makes them feel included, part of the community, and part of the modern world”. they testify that the radio provides a unique and complementary platform to be able to share the rich knowledge that they contain. the radio makes them feel included in education, and modern culture, and helps to overcome stigma as unschooled. the radio program is such a success, that the young people copied it and organized their own committee also. they facilitate a program that brings to the front many controversial subjects. elderly people equally contribute to that program.   conclusion community radio is like a cloud that rains information over the community. it is a culturally accepted way of showering information over the community, especially when it is possible for the community to participate in the program via sms. there is a specific and important area of involvement for the elderly in their customary role as heritors of intangible cultural heritage. in macha their involvement is recognized and valued, and amplified by using ict. there is much room for research reviewing the effects of cultural specific social constructions like technologies, literacy and languages, and research methodologies themselves, in light of different cultural realities. such studies are much opportune now internet and travel connects societies at an ever-increasing pace. new insights will enhance conceptualization of interactions, also through assessment of the fast growing transcribable multimedia repository of electronic data like these kind of radio programs by focus groups like participation of elderly in community radio station. references van stam, g., & van oortmerssen, g. (2010). macha works! frontiers of society on-line. raleigh. retrieved from http://journal.webscience.org/339/ unesco. (2003). convention for the safguarding of the intangible cultural heritage. 32nd session of general conference unesco. yoshida, k., & mack, j. (2008). preserving the cultural heritage of africa: crisis or renaissance? james curry. local ownership, exercise of ownership and moving from passive to active entitlement: a practice-led inquiry on a rural community network carlos rey-moreno1, amalia g. sabiescu2, masbulele jay siya1 and william tucker1 1computer science department, university of the western cape, south africa. 2school of art and design, coventry university, united kingdom. email:crey-moreno@uwc.ac.za, amalia.sabiescu@coventry.ac.uk, jaysiya26@gmail.com, btucker@uwc.ac.za 1. introduction the concept of ownership, often in constructs such as local ownership, community ownership, and sense of ownership, is garnering critical attention in community informatics (ci) and information and communication technology for development (ict4d) theory and practice. this interest is motivated less by ownership per se, which at its base resides in feelings of possessiveness towards a target, and more by the way ownership appears to be associated with other key phenomena and processes that can make or break the success of ci or ict4d interventions, and their capacity to last over time. the local sustainability of ci interventions, for instance, requires enduring, committed and effective action, which are best afforded when local people regard an initiative as their own (pade et al., 2008). as indicated by several studies (e.g. ballantyne, 2003; weeks et al., 2002; pade et al., 2008) ownership connects with, determines or stands at the basis of empowered action and control, committed local participation, and the drive to engage in capacity building; all of which can uplift a community's capacity to take agency of and engage effectively in the care and management of a ci initiative. what remains unclear, however, is why ownership is such a key link and how it can be measured in a systematic manner. in other words, how can a concept regarded as fuzzy and unclear (khan and sharma, 2001:13; johnson and wasty 1993: 2) be operationalized and used in systematic measurement? in this paper, we aim to shed light on local ownership from a double practical and theoretical perspective, and examine its meaning as well as the factors that are bound to influence its development in community-based interventions. the questions we intend to answer are: how can 'local ownership' be defined in a way that facilitates its investigation in ci practice, and enables at the same time its theoretical examination and relation with other ci key conceptual constructs? what key factors contribute to fostering local ownership in ci initiatives, taking the case of an externally initiated rural community network? to answer these questions, the paper reports on a study which assessed the development of local ownership in a rural community network in south africa and singled out the factors found to delineate the development of a sense of ownership in local people, as well as driving the exercise of ownership towards autonomous local action. based on a detailed analysis of the development of community ownership in this project, and in constant dialogue with the community informatics and social science literature, the paper makes three key contributions to ci theory and practice, as well as more specifically to future practice in community networks: an operational definition of local ownership and a conceptual model which highlights relations to other constructs such as responsibility, power and control and emphasises the role of local ownership in moving from passive to active entitlement towards community assets or ci interventions an empirical analysis of the development of local ownership in a community network in rural south africa, highlighting the critical factors that led to fostering ownership an examination and critical discussion of factors that are positively related with the development of ownership, carried out in dialogue with ci scholarship and highlighting the bearing of and relations with other critical constructs in ci research, such as participation, empowerment, and capacity building these contributions come at a critical stage in community informatics development as a discipline, in which, we argue, a more solid and critical engagement with theory is required to firmly establish its place and the premises for dialogue with other socio-technical disciplines. 2. background and context 2.1. local ownership: an interdisciplinary exploration ownership is a concept with a committed scholarship in social science research, in particular in the disciplines of psychology, workplace studies, organisational and management studies (e.g., avey et al., 2009; holmes, 1967; pendleton et al., 1998; pierce et al., 1991, 2003, 2009; van dyne and pierce, 2004). in this review, we were interested in a particular facet or type of ownership: the subjective state developed by an individual in relation to a collective, an organisation, a company, or a project. this conceptualisation of ownership has significant advancements in organisational studies, and integrates insights and approaches from sociology, psychology, business and legal studies. in organisational studies, formal ownership is distinguished from psychological ownership. formal ownership is legalized by formal arrangements and is generally understood to cover 1) the right to possession of some form of share or revenues; 2) the right to exercise influence or control; and 3) the right to information about what is owned (pierce et al., 1991). psychological ownership refers to "that state where an individual feels as though the target of ownership or a piece of that target is ''theirs''' (pierce et al., 2003: 86). just as in other social science disciplines, ownership gathereded scholarly attention not only for the importance of the concept per se, but alfo for the way it has been shown to influence subjective attitudes and behaviour, such as job satisfaction and commitment to the organisation (van dyne and pierce, 2004). for instance, ownership has been shown to be positively related with self-identity (kasser and ryan, 1993) and employee involvement and commitment to a company (pendleton et al., 1998). several models have been proposed in organisational studies for conceptualising the genesis, mechanisms and effects of psychological ownership and its relation to formal ownership. in our study, we draw upon an adaptation and interpretation of the model of psychological ownership advanced by pierce et al. (2003), used and validated in several empirical studies (e.g. pierce et al., 2009; van dyne and pierce, 2004), and further extended by avey et al. (2009). the model conceptualizes the roots, mechanisms, and outcomes or effects of psychological ownership. at its core, psychological ownership is treated as a psychological state, a blend of cognition and affect expressing a sense of possession towards a target or object, be it material (such as a house), immaterial (such as an idea) or human (e.g. one's daughter, one's pupil). the authors identify three roots or motives that act as facilitators for developing psychological ownership: efficacy. by using objects effectively, agents develop a sense of efficacy and effective interaction with the environment, which reinforces the drive for possession. self-identity. the possession of objects, roles or functions supports the definition of an individual's identity, for instance the way a person may identify herself/himself as an antique collector (avey et al., 2009). having a place and experiencing belonging. possessing satisfies the human need to belong. the sense of ownership is reinforced by three routes or mechanisms: control. the more an agent experiences a sense of control over an object, the greater the sense of ownership. intimate knowledge. the more an agent engages and becomes familiar with the target, the greater the feeling of ownership developed. self-investment. an agent is likely to feel that s/he owns that which is created or shaped by herself/himself. creations or products of one's labour (e.g. ideas, artworks) are equally representations of the self (durkheim, 1957; locke, 1690; pierce et al., 2003). the dimensions of 'responsibility', 'commitment' or behavioural components such as effective action or performance (central to developmental definitions of ownership) are treated as effects of ownership, or manifestations thereof in the model advanced by pierce et al. (2003). for instance, it is considered that responsibility or stewardship are likely effects of psychological ownership, as the agent tends to care for and nurture the object possessed (pierce et al., 2003). organisational commitment and work performance are likely to be positively influenced by a high sense of employee ownership (pierce et al., 2009). avey et al. (2009) expands the model and proposes a multidimensional concept of psychological ownership comprising territoriality, self-efficacy, accountability, sense of place (belongingness) and self-identity. in community informatics, the concept emerged and gained importance in close relation with practice, in particular depicted as a critical factor conditioning the success or failure of ci or ict4d initiatives (pade et al., 2008). given the focus on practice, the definitions of ownership currently circulated in ci and related ict4d literatures betray their articulation in specific empirical contexts and a feeble theoretical engagement, so that ownership is defined variably as: "processes where local stakeholders take control and responsibility for the design, implementation, and monitoring of an activity." (ballantyne, 2003) "the exercise of control and command over development activities." (molund 2001: 2) "the control over a project or program and commitment to its success." (weeks et al., 2002) as this paper seeks to demonstrate, ownership is at the same time clearly distinguished from and related with other constructs such as responsibility, commitment, and control. as well as seeking to contribute an operational definition of local ownership, the paper will clarify the relations between ownership and other important constructs in ci. some of these constructs have been already approached in previous studies, in particular: ownership is often regarded as closely related with power or control over an initiative (molund, 2001; weeks et al., 2002), a foremost factor for the sustainability of interventions (pade et al., 2008), and mutually reinforced and reinforcing capacity building and community participation in ci initiatives (idem). 2.2. the mankosi community mankosi is a traditional rural community in the eastern cape province of south africa, composed of 564 households scattered across 30km2 of very hilly land. there is an average of 6 people living in each of them, with over 60% being 15 or older. they live in clusters of several thatched roof and mud-brick rondavels, an occasional tin-roofed rectangular dwelling; adjacent to an animal corral and a garden for subsistence crops. in 2013 the government built pit latrines in their yards. affluent people use flat-roofed housing to collect rain water; the rest have access to water points on communal land. most families use open fires to cook, with wood collected from rapidly disappearing indigenous forests; as gas and paraffin is expensive. electricity in the community is quite scarce, and where available, the service suffers from frequent and prolonged blackouts (rey-moreno et al., 2014a). only 2.1% are connected to the grid, and only 13.5% have a generator, solar or gas (rey-moreno et al., 2015b). people in mankosi live on roughly 1 usd a day, obtained from government pension grants and migrant family members. only 13% of the population have completed matriculation (grade 12) or higher. thus literacy can be problematic, where the capacity to read and write isixhosa (roughly 70%) is much higher than english (at most 46.7%), with older people reporting the lowest levels (rey-moreno et al., 2015b). like 36% of south africa's population, mankosi inhabitants are governed by a tribal authority (ta) comprising a headman, 12 sub-headmen and messengers. the headman and sub-headmen's homesteads are local administration sites (bidwell et al., 2013). an ngo started operating in the area 10 years ago, with headquarters at a backpackers. there is a constant influx of tourists over the year, as there is a public boat launch and a well-known surf break nearby. the ngo has development projects in health, education and environmental sustainability, and has helped create some local businesses in the community targeting tourists, e.g. a restaurant and guided river and hiking trips. although the ngo was initiated by people from outside the community, it is currently managed by locals. 3. research design 3.1. initial modelling of the ownership construct this study was guided by a conceptual model (fig. 1) based on an adaptation and interpretation of the model of psychological ownership (pierce et al., 2003, 2009; van dyne & pierce, 2004) and its extension in avey et al. (2009) (rey-moreno et al., 2014a). in the same stance, we treat ownership as a psychological construct (a state inclusive of cognition and affect), multidimensional, evolving and dynamic. the analytical model bears five categories, explained below with reference to the mankosi community network (which is described in detail in section 4): 1. behavioural determinants of ownership. these include patterns of usage (how and to what extent the network is used) and patterns of involvement, referring to types of activities conducted for the development, maintenance and management of the network. the patterns of involvement have been operationalized in relation to the agent's degree of autonomy (autonomous individual, autonomous in group, assisted by external researchers, under the direction of external researchers) for specific project tasks. 2. mechanisms or direct routes to ownership. this category covers the most important mechanisms for cultivating ownership, which can be treated as direct predictors or indicators of ownership of the entire initiative or parts thereof. three mechanisms have been identified: power and control refers to the perceived or actual control an agent has over directing the course of events by direct or indirect action and decision-making. knowledge captures degrees of knowing about the project (e.g. its goal, milestones, etc.) and operational knowledge or skills covering certain areas vital for the advancement of the project (e.g. being able to assist maintenance of solar power and energy storage solution). self-investment indicates an attitude towards action by which the agent deeply engages herself/himself, willingly bringing in time, energy or even identity (pierceet al., 2003). it can also denote a subjective perception of and attitude towards activity outcomes, which are seen and appreciated as fruits of one's creation or labour, or parts of the self (ibid.). 3. relational dynamics (relation target-agent). this category captures the pattern of relatedness between the agent and the target, answering the question: what role, function, or need does the target (the network) fulfil or help to fulfil, for the agent? three components are identified: perceived usefulness: the degree to which the network is perceived to meet collective and/or individual needs and goals of local stakeholders (e.g. helping people save on calls). self-efficacy: the degree to which the agent perceives s/he is able to perform effectively to achieve set goals in relation to or through the mediation of the target. self-identity: the degree to which the agent uses the initiative or a component thereof (e.g. one's role, one's achievements) to define himself/herself or express her/his identity to others (e.g. "when i meet new people, i describe myself as a local researcher for the mankosi community network") and the associated feelings (e.g. "i am proud of being a local researcher"). figure 1. conceptual model for examining the factors and effects around the development of a sense of ownership. based on an adaptation and interpretation of models advanced by pierce et al. (2003; 2009) and avey et al. (2009) 4. sense of ownership. this is the core of the model, and captures the degree to which the network is perceived as one's own, individually and/or collectively. it is important to state that the components within the categories mechanisms and outcomes of ownership can be treated as strong predictors or indicators of a sense of ownership (for instance, a high degree of ownership is likely to couple with a high degree of control and high assumed responsibility). while other ict4d models choose to treat these elements as dimensions of ownership (e.g. ownership as responsibility and control), in here we choose to emphasize the relations of determination among these elements, without denying however that they can be used as indicators of ownership. to mark this distinction, the model designates a core and an expanded sense of ownership. 5. outcomes or effects of ownership. these are attitudes, states and behaviours developed as a consequence of building a sense of ownership. we focus here on two such constructs, though there can be many others identified. responsibility and stewardship. responsibility refers to the degree to which an agent feels responsible and accountable for the network and/or for outcomes of one's own work. stewardship refers to the care and custodianship of resources on behalf of someone. it may equally capture attitudes and behaviours of care and protection over the network, directly or indirectly (e.g. making sure all measures are taken against risks of technical disruptions or thefts; intervening in case of attempted theft). commitment covers the attachment for the initiative and the rationale for maintaining one's involvement in the project (answering the question 'should i maintain my membership in this organization and why?', van dyne & pierce, 2004). finally, contextual factors (pierce et al., 2003) group those determinants that are likely to have an impact upon the project and people's relating to the project. factors can be structural, such as the legislative infrastructure (e.g. physical barriers to participation in project activities due to distance; low formalization of property rights), and socio-cultural, such as mores, customs, socialization practices and traditions (e.g. culturally validated hierarchical decision-making patterns; socially constructed collective types of ownership). relations the model has been built to surface relations between the determinants, mechanisms and outcomes of ownership, as well as the bearing of contextual factors. two types of relations have been hypothesised: one-sided relations of influence and causality (one-sided arrows) hypothesised between on the one hand behavioural determinants and the mechanisms of ownership; and between contextual factors and all constructs pertaining to the core and expanded sense of ownership. mutual determination (double sided arrows) between the core and the expanded sense of ownership the latter corresponding to its mechanisms (e.g. a high degree of control influences positively a high sense of ownership, while a high degree of possession in turns determines a stronger feeling of control) and its outcomes (e.g. high sense of ownership determines high responsibility, and also the more one feels responsible for the network, the more s/he feels it as her own). in addition, it has been hypothesized that the mechanisms category acts as mediator for behavioural determinants. we proposed that behavioural determinants on their own cannot be used as factors for increased ownership, if not through the mediation of mechanisms (for instance, one may make heavy use of services, or have been involved in many project tasks, but s/he is not likely to develop a sense of ownership unless s/he has sufficient control, knowledge and/or self-investment). contextual factors can act as barriers or facilitators for developing ownership (e.g. hierarchical model of decision-making can limit one's sense of ownership by excluding her from decision-making), or can drive orientation towards certain forms of ownership, such as individual or collective. 3.2. data generation and analysis the data used in this paper has been generated by means of ethnographic action research (ear) (tacchi et al., 2003). the ear process, and particularly its core cycle plan-do-observe-reflect, enabled the configuration of three broad initiative cycles, as follows: first cycle (april 2012 june 2013). partnership and free will. second cycle (july 2013 july 2014). establishing trust, ownership, financial and legal resources, and tools. third cycle (august 2014 on-going). providing services legally and learning from it. ear enabled data generation all throughout the initiative, through a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods, further outlined in table 1 below for each of the cycles. table 1. overview of data generation sampling and tools by cycle. the data generated was analysed and interpreted in waves, to enable fast assessment and inform the refinement of the initiative design and corrective actions. at the same time, a growing data corpus was aggregated, which was used for more elaborate inquiries. for the purpose of the present study, focused on assessing the development of ownership, the analysis was done initially on a core corpus of 10 interviews specifically designed to look at the development of ownership and relate it with stakeholders' participation in the initiative, following the model outlined in figure 1 above. based on this analysis, a series of themes have been elicited that outlined the type of ownership developed (rey-moreno et al., 2014a) and the relations with other key components in the model, including the mechanisms of ownership (such as power and control) and the patterns of relatedness with the network (such as self-efficacy and self-investment). in a second stage, these themes have been probed with the larger data corpus, particularly looking at: 1) the evolution of the initiative and the gradual gain in independent community action, on a timeline; and 2) the field notes and reflections of the lead external researcher who has been involved in all stages of the initiative. 4. ownership building in the mankosi community network: the process this section describes the iterative design and development of the mankosi community network (cn), and highlights the evolution of the relationship between the research team and the mankosi community. 4.1. first cycle (april 2012 june 2013) partnership and free will setting goals and sanctioning commitments early visits to mankosi were meant to assess the possibility of using wireless mesh networks operated locally to reduce communication costs (rey-moreno et al., 2013b). previous research showed that rural costs were high compared to their urban counterparts (bidwell et al., 2011). the research team in the field included two people. the first spoke both english and isixhosa (the local language) fluently and was a postgraduate student in computer science. his role was important for bridging communication between academic researchers and the community. the second was a foreign researcher with experience in rural community informatics in several countries. interviews were held with other development agents in the community, which, when put together with the results of previous research in the area by the group and knowledge of the potential of technology, yielded the idea of using public phones on a mesh network to provide cheaper calls within the community. we then held a meeting with the headman, following an acknowledged protocol for anyone wanting to start a project in a rural xhosa community (pade et al., 2008). this meeting covered the idea of local calls, the intervention's pros and cons, and potential benefits to the community. the headman appreciated the intervention's benefits, and called a larger meeting with sub-headmen, messengers, advisors, and other people interested in community development. the project idea was presented again to the larger ta, and after receiving positive feedback, the research group was granted permission to work in the community. those meetings also delineated mutual commitments. the research team agreed to provide eight solar powered nodes (that ended up being ten) to provide voice services throughout the community; and the provision of training for their installation and management. the ta committed to choose the households in to which to place the mesh nodes, and to decide the mechanisms and pricing for calls in order to achieve financial sustainability. furthermore, a ta-endorsed team was expected to manage and operate the network. the research team was given permission to monitor the process for research purposes. the local ngo also joined the partnership by allowing the installation of a data-collection server laptop on their premises. they also agreed to provide access to the ngo's tools and vehicles for local transport. the ta participated actively in the physical design of the network, identifying households that satisfied technical, social and security needs for the project (rey-moreno et al., 2013b). it is worth noting that the ta's node location choices met these needs while simultaneously satisfying local politics, e.g. ten nodes were located in ten of the twelve villages that make up the community. working with local researchers and technicians based on success with previous projects (bidwell et al., 2013), local research assistants (lras) were identified to bridge linguistic and cultural gaps between the research group and the community. a local-born young man played a leading role. he had been involved in previous projects and enjoyed respect amongst local stakeholders. the lras were hired to collect and interpret data via questionnaires and interviews. the fact that there were funds to hire lra's but not for the project itself, e.g. hiring people to operate the phones, created some tension. however, careful explanation of roles and the empowerment nature of the project unlocked a situation where there was a potential for blockage. it is worth noting that all data collection activities were used for dissemination purposes as well, e.g. informing people that the project belonged to mankosi. to increase the sense of ownership, local technicians were expected to install the network. thus, the ta called for and appointed members of the community who were interested to be trained and assist with installation. we offered transportation and food during the proceedings, albeit no remuneration. the response to the general call was encouraging and a team of 4-5 people attended every day over a span of two months. in the initial training sessions, theory was followed by hands-on practical exercises, e.g. basics of electricity followed by dimensioning and installing a solar system. after a sample was constructed by a trainer, trainees constructed additional units by themselves under a watchful eye. training was also provided to end users, by the installation team. at least one member from each homestead attended. the training covered both practical maintenance tasks and in-depth detail about how things work, especially the electrical power. this included concepts regarding security and consumption of battery power. all training was given in the local language. if the trainers were english-speaking, then an lra translated to and from isixhosa. the solar system was modular, allowing each piece to be disconnected for independent repair, e.g. a panel with a user console on top and the wiring beneath (rey-moreno et al., 2013a). the rationale behind the design was explained to trainees in depth, including how to change fuses and replace them with bigger ones, and the consequences of doing so; to encourage end users to learn about solar and electricity basics, and to allow them to gain confidence while facilitating localized maintenance. in practise, most maintenance has been done by the lead local researcher, as he wanted to make sure that he understood the different sources of failures before allowing others to experiment. involvement of local people during installation was expected to increase confidence and provide sufficient technical knowledge to reduce outside dependency. to take this approach further, the local support team was encouraged to replace antennae independently. after the installation of the antennae and some tweaking on the software done with the remote assistance, the local team made the network fully operational by themselves. considering options for financial sustainability from the beginning, a strong emphasis was put on the need to generate some form of income to maintain the network. initially, local people suggested charging for internal calls, contrary to our idea of a skype model where local calls are free. the solar systems were intentionally over-dimensioned to allow users to charge mobile phones. they considered this an additional revenue stream. this extra energy generation was also intended to allow users to plug in other devices such as a light and/or radio, and thus contribute to a sense of project ownership and encourage care of the system. collecting money from charging mobile phones raised questions for some locals, as they considered the system (including the chargers) an outsider intervention meant to provide free services to all. following a meeting organised several months after the stations had been operational, a fee and a mechanism to collect money for charging mobile phones were agreed upon. additionally, they discussed the use of the public phones, which were being used only for ta-related purposes. this discussion surfaced tensions and misunderstandings, as well as a general lack of information with respect to the network and its usage. according to someone hosting a phone: "people in our villages do not use the mesh network because i think we didn't spread or introduce properly the mesh potato network in our villages and people do not pay that much attention to the mesh network because it is just working only to mankosi". consequently, it was decided to allow people to use the public phones for free yet pay to charge a mobile phone. local management of the fee collection did not immediately yield fruitful results. following discussions between the headman and the researchers, a meeting was organised to clarify several misunderstandings, particularly the benefits expected by the people hosting the points and collecting money for charging phones. it become clear that a substantial challenge was the blockage caused by a series of expectations, partly conditioned by previous projects in the community, and partly by the emulation of local hierarchical structure. for example, as in previous projects, local people were hired for various activities. it was expected that the hosts of access points would also be hired and were entitled to keep the money for charging phones. the meeting was an occasion to discuss again community benefits, as agreed in the initial partnership, and reflect on how local people could organize themselves to manage the process properly. they proposed to charge 3 zar per phone and agreed to meet in a month to check on performance, before discussing the idea with the community. the use of internal calls was also discussed. it became clear that they were not many such calls, because they could only call between villages. in their opinion, the project would be much more useful if it enabled people to call mobile phones, i.e. call break out. the research team confirmed this possibility, pointing out that for this to happen, it was necessary that money be collected consistently to pay for an internet connection. 4.2. second cycle (june 2013 july 2014) establishing trust, ownership, financial and legal resources, and tools this cycle started with a meeting held on july 2nd 2013, where a committee composed of a representative from each household hosting an access point was confirmed and given the responsibility for making break out calls a reality. it was decided to create a completely new committee in order to start afresh, avoiding distrust associated with existing development agents in the community. additionally, village meetings were conducted by the lead local researcher, with presence from the research team, to give the opportunity to those community members not able to attend the community meeting to learn about the project and the agreements reached. building local control and accountability mechanisms a new engagement protocol was considered for this cycle. previously, the research team wanted to be part of all discussions, and translation was necessary. in this cycle, the meetings were prepared in advance by the lead lra, and the role of the external researcher became more that of a consultant. in addition, meetings were conducted on local terms, using local language and concepts. for example, when concepts like voice over ip and internet bandwidth were introduced, examples were used that committee members could relate to day-to-day experiences. additionally, discussions were limited to a smaller number of topics so as to not overload meetings. attendees started to make decisions about what to do with the money collected and how to solve problems. more than 10,000 zar was collected during this period. at the beginning of every meeting, each member handed over the money collected in his/her household since the last meeting. logbooks were used to keep track of how many phones had been charged. this mechanism was stressed to users such that they should get their name written every time they charged a phone to prevent abuse and provide accountability. the amount brought by each committee member was often higher than the one reflected on the logbooks. even when a 100 zar contribution was established as a minimum to make sure no one cheated, some members brought more. this included one of the two members exonerated from this quota, as their houses were in areas with other charging options, and so were not reaching the minimum. the money brought by each member was counted, and both the total amount collected in the household and by the committee that month were written back in the logbook. the same transparent approach was taken with expenses, so that all receipts coming from agreed purchases were shown. setting workflows and protocols for local decision-making more people attended meetings than in the previous cycle. to foster flexibility and allow committee members to run private errands, it was possible to postpone meetings where a minimum number of attendees could not be confirmed; and when lead participants were unavailable, other family members could attend in their place. important agreements made earlier were repeated in subsequent meetings, to ensure everybody was on the same page. local people started taking a more prominent role, and it was often committee members leading the discussion rather than the lead lra. in some cases agreements were reopened and introduced delay, yet this approach reinforced the autonomy of the members having taken the decision. decisions were always made collectively (rey-moreno et al., 2014a). for instance, it was realized that there might be some external interest, so the committee was asked for permission to talk about the project to the press, and when possible to invite an lra to do the talking, e.g. during the information and communication technologies and development conference in december 2013 held in cape town, and the department of science and technology budget vote in july 2014. the outside interest in the project and the prominent part played by one of their peers, the lead lra, was an additional boost for their self-confidence, as they want to be a good example for others to follow. the changes in the meeting process were not devoid of challenges. people were not used to making decisions, and in many instances they still turned to the research team to ask for authorization for a given decision, or directly asked them to make the decision on their behalf. the outside researcher was however firm in insisting on non-interference, marking his outsider, consultative role with the phrase "abalungu out", meaning there were no white people interfering in the process, and that he was merely an observer in their meetings. this approach seems to have contributed greatly to independent and confident action, which was proven during the process of lodging the cooperative. when it was suggested that they could receive help from a local expert or from the local municipality, they rejected the offer proving to themselves they could do it alone. milestones within the cycle and official certification at this stage, many milestones initially set for the project were met: installation of lights in households, establishment of the cooperative, application for license exemption, a bank account for the cooperative, a billing system for break out calls and realising break out with an internet gateway. the installation of lighting was part of the demands by committee members as compensation for work done within the project. two led lights fed by the solar system were installed in 7 of 8 houses. installation was done by two locals trained by the research team, and both their work and the materials were paid for by each of the households. as another form of compensation, they were allowed to charge mobile phones for free. both forms of compensation were approved in a community meeting. lodging cooperative and license applications was delegated to the lead lra and the research team, including preparation, paperwork and coordination of logistics. although this process was led by a member of the research team, the decisions and the challenges were shared in the meetings. the official cooperative registration was celebrated with rounds of applause. the same happened with the opening of the bank account, a process that was completely led and completed by locals. from that point, the initial committee members were recognized as board members of an officially registered cooperative. technical implementation of the break out calls and the billing system the billing system was co-designed with the community, and more concretely with the cooperative board members and their families (rey-moreno et al., 2014b). this ensured that: a) the billing system met their needs, b) they understood how it worked and were able to operate it, and c) they trusted the money collection system. during co-design workshops, emphasis was given that both internet service providers (isps) and voice over ip (voip) providers would request payment for any use of their services, so special attention was paid to preventing abuse of the system. the implementation was meant to reduce complexity, and even older people managed to complete the training successfully. when it was expressed that they might forget about the process with a lack of practice, one of the members said that this was good because it would force them to stay awake and committed. the implementation of the billing system and the voip architecture to allow and bill break out calls was done entirely by the research group. this included the discussion with voip providers to get the cheapest per minute prices, and to determine the most suitable technology for the internet gateway. in all cases, the options, and their consequences, were discussed in cooperative meetings, and the providers (the prices at which they buy the minutes) and the prices for the service (the price for which they sell the minutes) were decided by the cooperative board members. it was decided that once the training for the billing system was done in all households hosting the system, and the gateway installed, they would proceed to offer the service. 4.3. third cycle (august 2014 on-going) providing services legally and learning from it this cycle started the moment the cooperative was able to provide break out calls; from july 14th 2014. towards independent operation the meeting protocol was changed again, following the proposal of the lead lra who proposed that cooperative members lead the meetings, and call on the community to attend. this resulted in four cooperative board members (plus one in whose village the meeting was taking place) being involved in the communication campaign. that was the first of a set of logistic tasks that local people have carried out more independently in this cycle. additionally, they acted independently to open a bank account (see previous cycle), activate internet banking, and obtain a tax clearance certificate. they also deposited money several times into the account. amounts were communicated several times during meetings, and then the deposit slip shown during subsequent meetings. they also performed other tasks to foster the use of the service, especially after the concession of the license by icasa in september 2014. this included posters touting the availability and cost of the new service and participation in community meetings to disseminate further information on the new service offered. solving issues and tensions this independent action came with its own tensions and problems, which provided further motivation and encouragement to act autonomously, as the following example shows. one station owner decided to leave the project, and therefore his station needed relocation. this station was problematic from the beginning of the project, as it was unusually close to houses with electricity. it was therefore given a waiver to bring in the 100 zar agreed. in time it became obvious that the problem was that the station was installed in the room of an elder's oldest son, outside the control of the rest of the household. he was charging phones for his friends, either for free or keeping the money. the situation was confronted by the lead lra and other cooperative members, who raised concerns about abuse of the system. the elder asked the cooperative to remove the station from the house rather than him having to pay back the abuses of his children. the station was immediately stored in another board member's house. a community meeting then decided that the station would be relocated to a house in one of the villages that did not yet have a station. a different type of solution was opted for in another case, when the revenues continued to be low from a house situated centrally, and therefore able to serve many people charging phones. a special meeting was called to tackle this issue and it was decided that any outstanding amount was going to be recorded in the operator's logbook, so anyone could see, and he was going to be constantly reminded of paying his debt. he agreed, and has slowly balanced his account. however, in the last meeting, discussions revealed that the problem had deeper roots, as the house owner manifested his belief of being entitled to payment for the services provided, especially since he had been appointed as a host without his express agreement. solving matters locally was considered as important as managing the network with care and transparency, serving community rather than personal goals, and providing an example to all in the community. in a discussion about using university funds to provide more specialized training to some youth members of the community so as to engage them more in the project, the lead local researcher said: "i don't think that will give them a good idea of the project. i'm always worried about the image acts will do, misunderstandings, etc. they may think there is money to do everything for free, and it's not the case." spill-over effects and future plans the public service nature of the project goes beyond the telecommunications cooperative, as opportunities are opened to the cooperative for other projects. for instance, when a partnership with an innovation incubator was discussed to receive marketing training in isixhosa, the local people asked if it could include other businesses in the community. this partnership has not materialized yet, however, it is interesting to observe how much effort they are putting into it. if the interest of national and international researchers already motivated them to perform better, the lead lra is convinced that people would be further motivated and proud if other xhosa people from a big town came to learn about the project. marketing training for the cooperative members seems a pertinent next step. despite the effort that went into offering cheaper break out calls, they have not managed to change local people's habits, who prefer to make cellular calls despite its expense. thus they have asked the research team to study the feasibility to offer the service to mobile phones. this starts a new phase of the project. this might be the first of other services that could be provided by the existing infrastructure, and marketing training could be a good way to leverage them. 5. discussion this section provides a critical examination of the process of fostering ownership in the mankosi community network, along two axes: an outline of different spheres of ownership, and a delineation of key drivers and processes contributing to the development of local ownership. 5.1. spheres of ownership we analysed ownership as a subjective state, drawing on direct questions posed to a series of local stakeholders, through in-depth interviews, and probed relations between the core sense of ownership and the constructs hypothesised to be part of an expanded sense of ownership (mechanisms such as power and knowledge and outcomes such as responsibility). of these, it was found that respondents tended to associate ownership mostly with one of the mechanisms power and control. respondents explained their own, others' or the community's ownership of the network by pointing to their power to decide over inherent matters and to control the project advancement. furthermore, associations between ownership and responsibility were proven, for instance: "we are looking after it, it ours, and we are taking full responsibility of it." (board member and host of an access point) power and responsibility were used by people as indicators or proxies to explain their sense of ownership (rey-moreno et al., 2014). however, ultimately ownership was found to be clearly distinguished from these constructs as well. the conceptual essence of ownership resides in a sense of possessiveness, while constructs such as power or responsibility were used to reveal the motivational bases for a sense of ownership, especially when prompted to justify their feelings of possession for the network. the sense of collective ownership prevailed over manifestations of personal ownership of the community network (rey-moreno et al., 2014). personal ownership was restricted to limited areas of the project or tasks. for instance, people were aware that their ownership of network equipment was only a form by which something that belonged to the community was entrusted to them for safekeeping. as the case of the person stepping out of the cooperative showcased, a station could change hands and still belong to the community. this differs from a more common understanding of community networks, where each participant "owns the part of infrastructure it has contributed" (baig et al. 2015). while collective ownership of the network was agreed upon unanimously, the power to manage and maintain the network was entrusted with, i.e. delegated to, a selected group of people, who were board members of the cooperative. the mandate given from the community to board members was replicated within the cooperative, where a handful of people were delegated with the responsibility of exercising the ownership on behalf of the others based on their skills and their commitment (rey-moreno et al., 2014). the people entrusted with the management of the network, who actively exercised power, derived a unique sense of ownership. although the qualitative study could not lead to definitive measurements, it appeared that the greater the exercise of power and involvement in the project, the stronger the sense of ownership, and with this, the greater commitment to its success. for example: "i have been through it from the beginning so it is like a son that is growing on me." (board member and host of an access point). whereas from the perspective of the larger community who delegated power, delegating the exercise of ownership implied as well a transfer of responsibility to the most capable and knowledgeable of their members, who were held accountable for the success of the network. "the board of members of the cooperative [should be responsible], because they said that they are the one (sic) that who were going to drive it into success." this transfer still retained an element of collective responsibility, entrusted with the community as a whole: "i believe that as people of mankosi we should work together and maintain the existing project for the future. if that (failure) can happen, for me it will mean that we have failed to work together to develop our community." (board member and host of an access point). another layer of collective ownership focused on the relation with the external team of researchers. due to the trust and harmonious collaboration between the board members and the external team, the exercise of ownership could be partially delegated to the latter without jeopardizing the local sense of ownership. this resonates with kaplan's idea of the possibility of the external team being considered as part of the community (kaplan, 1996). 5.2. fostering collective ownership: key drivers and processes we also looked at the gradual development and exercise of local ownership as manifested through practical decision-making and action, and in relation to this we examined the factors that appeared to significantly drive it or be related to it. based on this analysis, we acknowledge that the development of ownership is a highly specific, locally-bound process, likely to grow and expand following local ways of being, social hierarchies, and emulating local channels of communication and interaction. the process is, however, not controlled fully on local terms, nor shaped purely by local structures. an external intervention is bound to put its mark, especially if it is enduring and if it delivers on its promises, so that a community starts to benefit from its results. ownership grows and is shaped in a space configured at the encounter between the local environment and the elements of outside intervention, and in so doing it creates its own, hybrid ecology. this ecology comprises and is dynamically configured by a complex and evolving set of factors, actors and processes. guided by the initial model of ownership (fig. 1) we encompassed a series of processes and factors to take into account, focusing on the clusters evidenced in the model as conducive to or impacting upon ownership (behavioural determinants, mechanisms, relational dynamics, and the bearing of the local context). the relations between ownership and what we consider to be outcomes or effects of ownership (responsibility and commitment), are treated in-depth in a prior publication (rey-moreno et al., 2014). herein we focus on the factors that foster collective ownership. the bearing of the local context (emulating local structures and articulating new ones) in the mankosi community network, the development of ownership was a process that unfolded gradually, highly influenced by the local structures and environment, but also arriving to challenge these. at the beginning, the exercise of ownership followed existing power structures (rey-moreno et al., 2014). as the project progressed, alternative patterns started to emerge and then crystallise. rather than contributing to retain power for the powerful, the project appeared to enable the emergence of local cells for decision making and taking action, based on capacity and commitment. this process was not without tensions. although the role of the youth was acknowledged as pivotal due to their skills, when the youth were present in the meetings, their contribution was minimal. "(w)e'll ask when your mother/father is here" was a typical phrase. on the other hand, the development of a sense of ownership may challenge pre-existing local ways of thinking and doing. as a member of the board explained, "i didn't know that you could still getting a little bit of money without having to go outside of the community to work hard. just slowly, talking to people to set up the rules getting a bit of money, starting a business that can help people in the future locally." when participation matters during the initial stages of analysing ownership, we were aware of the importance of local participation, as amply argued in the ci literature (see for instance pade et al., 2008). our first hypothesis was that participation would be positively related with the development of ownership to a greater extent if participation (patterns of involvement) would be doubled by the three mechanisms exercise of power, knowledge, and self-investment (see fig. 1). participation in a position of power, for instance, was thought to have a higher likelihood to influence the development of ownership. the qualitative analysis done did not enable us to map precisely the extent to which these three factors determined patterns of relatedness between participation and ownership building. yet, it was apparent that expressions of ownership displayed differences in relation to the role one held in the project and the type of involvement associated. of the three mechanisms power, knowledge and self-investment the ones appearing to influence ownership development and its outcomes (responsibility, commitment) most strongly were power and knowledge. moreover, people whose knowledge was perceived to be greater were deemed by peers as most fit to take decisions and act on behalf of others. knowledge, power, and empowerment capacity building and empowered action and control are all factors linked to ownership building and the exercise of ownership in ci and community development literature. in the mankosi community network, the most important factor positively related to the manifestation of a sense of ownership was local empowerment. it was found that the more local people felt empowered to take independent action, the more they felt entitled to the community network and acknowledged that it belonged to them. in the project's early days, people were reluctant to decide and take autonomous action, as they over-relied on external expertise (for instance, they expected to be paid to continue operating the network). this reluctance to exercise control over the course of events manifested in many other development projects in the community and might be related to the historical process of disempowerment that south african rural communities have been subjected to both during pre and post-apartheid periods (lyon et al., 2001). empowerment proved to be more important than the knowledge or capacity built, as it acted as a driver for people to consciously and actively seek to garner the know-how needed to perform. in the latter stages, for instance, it was found that people had forgotten the knowledge imparted in the first, network setup, cycle. yet, this was not a setback, as people were motivated to engage in continuous training. in the long term, however, people appeared to be aware that knowledge and capability to manage the network were required for becoming the only owners of the network and end the reliance on the external team (rey-moreno et al., 2014). building self-efficacy and self-identity these were two of the most elusive concepts, yet the later developments of the project, especially during the third cycle, proved that self-efficacy and self-identity were some of the most important factors positively related to the development and exercise of ownership. during early stages, self-efficacy was encouraged by involving people in the setup of the network, so that every landmark in the project was perceived as an achievement afforded by community action, rather than purely a result of external intervention. self-identity, on the other hand, was cultivated indirectly, by giving local people reasons to take pride and joy in the external recognition of the initiative. later, such occasions were created through local agency. when outside parties demonstrated interest in the project, having a local researcher act as interface and representative of the community was a further reason of pride and contributed to increasing both self-efficacy and self-identity. finally, these two states were manifested when people took autonomous action during the certification activities and in all encounters with administration bodies and other institutions, in which they acted as community representatives. perceived usefulness this was initially reckoned to be a key condition for people to feel inclined towards ownership (i.e. i want it to be mine because it is useful), proved to have a more complex role. researchers later learned that the project was not fully understood at the onset, and that its benefits were not readily apparent. merely acknowledging usefulness was in itself a development, the result of a process, and required knowledge of the project, exposure to its outcomes, and awareness of its future developments. when the project was seen as beneficial on these terms, positive spill-over effects into ownership outcomes (particularly commitment), were noticed. for example: "i think that now that everyone is committed to the project at this stage, everyone wants to use it for a good thing. because there are plans, like with the school, the maintenance (that they will pay for it), the bank account... the plans are there to use the money for every effective stuff." (lead local researcher). it is interesting to note here that there was also a strong sense of perceived usefulness in collective terms. 6. local ownership: a definition and conceptual model the empirical analysis was used to scope and shape the characteristic features of ownership that can be developed around a technology intervention in a local community. it also served to better probe the constructs and relations initially hypothesised in the model of ownership illustrated in figure 1. on this basis, an operational definition of ownership and an analytical model for shedding light on the development of ownership, and the different forms it may take, are provided below. 6.1. definition local ownership is defined with reference to a local community or a closely knit group, and a target of ownership that requires active care if it is to provide benefits and usefulness for the community/group (e.g. a technology project, a community network, a cooperative). in this sense, local ownership is devised as a construct that bears a dual cognitive-affective and behavioural dimension, comprising a (collective) sense of ownership and the exercise of ownership. (collective) sense of ownership refers to a psychological state comprising beliefs and feelings of (collective) possessiveness and entitlement towards a target. this state is manifested by individual community members, and can blend elements of individual possessiveness (it belongs to me) and collective possessiveness (it belongs to us). in the empirical study discussed in the previous sections, a collective sense of ownership prevailed over individual ownership. yet, this can be attributed to the existence of a strong collective ethos characteristic of mankosi (rey-moreno et al., 2014), which may not be manifest in other contexts. the likelihood is that a great variety in expressing blends of individual and collective sense of ownership could be demonstrated by individual actors and communities in situated cases. exercise of ownership comprises decision-making and activities that can range from strategic planning to hands-on actions that serve to run, manage, or care for the target in ways that ensure its continuity and/or maximize its usefulness for the community or individual members. the exercise of ownership can be enacted locally (either collectively or through representative members), entrusted to/assumed by other parties, or take mixed forms. the case of mankosi is an example of a mixed exercise of ownership, with a local component (a board of members were given the power to decide and act on behalf of the community) and an outsourced component (undertaken by an external research team). as a blended construct, local ownership can take manifold forms depending on different nuances acquired by either the sense or the exercise of ownership. for instance, full local ownership implies that a (collective) sense of ownership has been developed, and that ownership is exercised as well locally in an autonomous manner. our interest is to understand what forms of local ownership are significant in community informatics projects, and how they can be cultivated. to this purpose, the following section introduces a model that relates different manifestations of ownership with a scale from passive to active entitlement. 6.2. conceptual model premises as any conceptual model, the one proposed below for the development of local ownership resides on both a take of perspective and a simplification or reduction of reality. the perspective employed seeks to evidence how the development of local ownership is associated with taking steps from passive to active entitlement, with a particular interest in shedding light on the way external interventions are received in local communities. the model focuses on the community as the main unit of analysis, the intent being to understand how local ownership is manifested and can be developed at a collective level. this implies that the analysis is not geared towards finding replicated patterns in individual members, but rather complementarity and consistency in the development of a sense of ownership and the exercise of ownership, either collectively or through representative members. however, the collective dimension does not preclude focused analysis based on multiple units of observation, including individual members and relations between them. figure 2. conceptual model for examining the components and factors of local ownership, inclusive of (collective) sense of ownership and local exercise of ownership overview and components the model interprets the development of local ownership in relation to the likelihood of bringing about passive or active entitlement. in both constructs, entitlement denotes that the community has developed a sense of owning the target and is entitled to reap its benefits. passive entitlement implies that the agency of an external party is required to make the target work and provide benefits for the community (e.g. educational facilities managed entirely by an external agency), analogously to a service, product or resource that requires minimum or no action on behalf of the community and is self-sustaining (e.g. local woods or rivers). active entitlement denotes willingness and capacity to manage/run or make the target work for locally defined goals in locally defined terms. in other words, active entitlement means 'owning the next decision', and being prepared and able to act upon it. to understand under what conditions a sense of ownership can be associated positively or conducive to either passive or active entitlement, we focus attention on a series of pathways (or routes, mechanisms) for the development of ownership, starting from two behavioural drivers: involvement and use (as described in section 3.1). from the two behavioural drivers, six main pathways for developing a sense of ownership are identified. these are associated with involvement (power and control, knowledge, self-investment), use (perceived usefulness), or both (self-efficacy, self-identity). the constructs are as defined in section 3.1, where these were marked as either mechanisms for the development of ownership, or constructs characterising the relation between the agent and the target. in figure 2, these are treated like pathways conducive to different forms of local ownership, by reinforcing either or both the exercise of ownership or the sense of ownership. in particular, the constructs power and control, knowledge, self-investment, and self-efficacy are regarded as conditions for the exercise of ownership and essential components in cultivating local ownership that eventually leads to active entitlement. for this to be reached, it is necessary that the community as a whole or key members in the community will have developed the will and capacity to manage and care for the target. the sense of ownership developed through these routes has a higher likelihood to take forms close to responsibility and commitment, either collectively, or through representative members. mankosi is an example where collective responsibility for the network was developed, in association with delegated forms of responsibility for those members that were actively involved in its management and maintenance. the case of mankosi also displays some unique features, as the exercise of ownership blended local and external agency. forms of local ownership with a more feeble or no presence of the exercise of local ownership can be developed, which lead to passive entitlement, where the community does not support or manage actively the target that satisfies a need. for instance, a sense of ownership can be developed in time from a high appreciation of usefulness and/or by identifying with the target, without engaging actively in its management or care. territoriality is an example of the way ownership may be manifested by taking these routes, referring to attitudes and behaviour of protection for the target and their rights over it or defence when an external agency jeopardises it. in sum, a feeble or no presence of the exercise of ownership mediated by the four pathways power and control, knowledge, self-investment, and self-efficacy is likely to lead to a sense of passive entitlement. on the contrary, active exercise of ownership is likely to lead to a sense of active entitlement, where the community has developed the resources (behavioural and psychological) to make the target work for their own defined ends in their own defined terms. model use and limits the model does not attempt to exhaust the manifold forms of local ownership or sense of ownership that can be developed in a community, but point to the essential coordinates that are likely to be conducive to such forms that are connected either with active or passive entitlement. it has been specifically devised to shed light on 1) the elements to be taken into account for contributing to developing forms of ownership that relate to community autonomous action and management of interventions; and 2) the bearing of ownership in explaining such processes as community participation, local action, or sustainability in the evaluation stages of a project. to this purpose, the model dwells on a simplification of complex processes. it is intended as a tool for capturing snapshots in highly dynamic processes, without exhausting their intricacy. limits are associated as well with its being tested in a unique empirical context and against extant literature. testing in other empirical contexts is necessary for probing, in particular, the role of the local context in determining peculiar forms of ownership and the processes leading to their development. 7. conclusion this paper provided a practice-led inquiry into the development of local ownership in an externally-initiated community network, and consequently examined its scope and the factors that went along with this development. this analysis contributed to developing a definition of local ownership and a model that sheds light on how different forms of ownership can be developed in community settings, which are conducive to either passive or active entitlement towards the target of ownership. one of the takeaway messages from our paper is that ownership is a critical element to take into account when looking at how a community may receive, appropriate, take action within, and eventually sustain externally initiated interventions. at the same time, as the model proposed highlights, not all forms of ownership that can be developed around ci interventions are necessarily conducive to local commitment and readiness to sustain such initiatives autonomously. the link between ownership and sustainability, which is one of the most important in ci scholarship, appears to be conditioned by the forms that local ownership can take, which depend on the mechanisms by which they have been developed. the likelihood for ownership to lead to sustainable local action is higher if local people are actively involved in the exercise of ownership, for instance if they are involved in positions of power, exercise control, and garner enough knowledge around the initiative to contribute effectively to its management. a detailed analysis and interpretation of the manifestations and process of ownership development in the mankosi community network provided an exemplification and illustration of the theoretical claims advanced. while the conceptual model we contributed puts forward a reduction of complex processes, the case of the mankosi network illustrates the rich and dynamic ecology in which local ownership develops, a hybrid ecology created during the intervention and nurtured by a variety of factors, stakeholders and processes pertaining to the local context, external, or born in the interaction among the two. in this ecology, ownership manifests, in a first instance, as a state, a feeling, a sense which can be either individual, or shared. in the case of the community network we analysed, collective, rather than individual ownership prevailed: the network was perceived as belonging 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(2003). supporting ownership: swedish development cooperation with kenya, tanzania and uganda. sida evaluation, 2(03). commons or gated community? a theoretical explication of virtual community and the example of craigslist   daniel schackman state university of new york at new paltz   abstract an explication of theoretical concepts of community, virtual community, the commons, and gatekeeping exemplified by craigslist.org, a virtual community in which gatekeeping is revealed to have considerable salience.  specifically explored are the following questions: does the openness of virtual communities threaten the principles on which they are based, creating a tragedy of the virtual commons? do restrictions on free and open access in virtual communities transform them into the cyberspace equivalent of gated communities? is there a more balanced construct of virtual communities that can fulfill their missions as virtual commons while protecting themselves from the tragedy of the commons? many pioneers of the internet came of age in the era of social liberation and consciousness-raising of the 1960s.  exploring and settling the new terrain of cyberspace, they built intentional communities of free expression, knowledge sharing, and inclusiveness, in the hope of developing a utopian information society.   succeeding generations of web entrepreneurs and organizers have also been inspired by these ideals.  thus, the web has been colonized by virtual communities such as the well, content-sharing spaces such as napster, knowledge communities such as wikipedia, and social networking sites such as facebook..  however, as the internet has matured, cultural, social, economic, legal, and community influences have also had an impact on the development of these virtual communities and virtual networking spaces.   the result: this heretofore-open range is being fenced in.  the well has been acquired by salon.com and now requires paid membership; napster was shut down by the american legal system, only to resurface as a co-opted commercial venue; wikipedia has instituted safeguards to prevent egregiously erroneous and inflammatory entries from becoming permanently published text; and facebook has introduced more options for users to limit public access to their pages. one of the most popular virtual communities, craiglist has as its foundation the pioneering, utopian ideals on the web, and has attempted to strike a balance between the idealism of free expression and the realities of spamming and scamming.  however, the architecture of the portal itself may be unwittingly undermining the principles on which it was founded.  a virtual community that is grounded in a number of communities of place, craigslist is an innovative hybrid of the virtual and the real worlds, and stands at the forefront of community development in the information age.  explicating theoretical concepts of community, virtual community, the commons, and gatekeeping, exemplified in practice on craigslist, reveals the complexity of developing a virtual community as a commons.  specifically explored herein are the following issues: rq1: does the openness of virtual communities threaten the principles on which they are based, creating a tragedy of the virtual commons? rq2: do restrictions on free and open access in virtual communities transform them into the cyberspace equivalent of gated communities? rq3: is there a construct of virtual communities that reflects their missions as virtual commons while acknowledging the steps they take to protect themselves from the tragedy of the commons? conceptualizing community and virtual community in order to contextualize the explication of theories pertaining to virtual communities and the exemplification of craigslist, an elaboration of the concepts of community and virtual community is presented. conceptualization of community community is defined here as an interdependent social network of people with shared interests and goals for the community.  such a community can exist in a specific geographic location where community members live contiguously ¾ a community of place (pigg and crank, 2004); or it might be located in a wider geographic space such as a metropolitan area where there is some physical distance between members in their day-to-day lives; or come in occasional events or meetings ¾ a community of interest (newman, 1981); or lastly, occur as a social network developed in the on-line “virtual” space of the internet ¾ a virtual community. over the past decades in u.s. society, the strength of local communities has been questioned by academicians, policy-makers, and the general public, and responsibility for a perceived decline in “community” assigned to a number of factors: increasing suburbanization; social, economic and geographical mobility; and the breakdown of the nuclear family unit with the dispersion of contiguous extended families.  for those who believe that strong, tight-knit communities are one of the major components of a healthy society, there is a call to restore that sense of community across the american geographic and cultural landscape. frontier mythology of rugged individualism notwithstanding, throughout american history communities have been a central focus of the landscape, from native american pueblos, to the first european settlements at st. augustine, jamestown, and plymouth; from bucolic, rural towns to sprawling suburbs to urban areas with a multiplicity of neighborhoods.  alternative communities set apart culturally, and in some cases geographically, from the mainstream have also been a presence through american history, including religious communities of the amish, utopian hippie communes in the 1960s and 1970s, artist communities, urban ethnic enclaves, and gay and lesbian neighborhoods.  american popular culture has memorably represented the good and bad in our communities:  the close-knit small town values of our town and it’s a wonderful life, and the big city alienation of the crowd; the simmering moral decay just below the idyllic surface of small town u.s.a. in peyton place and twin peaks; the post-war suburban paradise of leave it to beaver and father knows best, the rampaging suburban teens in over the edge; the patriarchal conspiracy of the stepford wives; and the mean streets of urban decay and violence where law and order attempts to keep those streets safe, to the youthful urban promise of friends and sex and the city. conceptualization of virtual community the internet, and its applications such as email lists and bulletin boards took root in the 1970s in american research universities. on the prototypical email lists and bulletin boards, a virtual community was formed as researchers working together on projects eventually began using the ‘net’ to discuss other interests, in particular role-playing games and science fiction (burnett & marshall, 2003).  this opened the door for an inclusive, utopian vision of the internet to develop (turner, 2005); a venue beyond the limits of geography and time, where information from the utilitarian to the trivial could be shared by all in an egalitarian space, and a place in which otherwise marginalized people could participate. it was also envisioned as a venue for bringing people with common values together, which might facilitate the development of real world social networks (castells, 2001).  pioneers such as howard rheingold envisioned beneficial social networks, or on-line communities, created and maintained on the internet (rheingold, 1993).   however, these visions of liberation have been counterbalanced by a more cautious concern about the prospect of the internet both perpetuating the inequalities of the real world and also lacking the strength of interpersonal ties in communities of place (proulx & latzko-toth, 2005). moreover, smith (2002) described six aspects of virtual interaction that differentiate actual and virtual communities: virtual interaction is aspatial, asynchronous, acorporal, has limited bandwidth, astigmatic and anonymous. considering the seminal virtual community the well, he described that it was difficult for the members to define all forms of potential infractions of community standards and the appropriate consequences because there were always new perceived infractions being made by new members that had not yet assimilated into the community. origins and characteristics of craigslist one notable virtual community that formed in the 1980s was the well.  an acronym for whole earth ‘lectronic’ link, it was founded by the whole earth review as an extension of its idealistic vision of an egalitarian society.  in the early 1990s, new jersey computer programmer craig newmark was a member of the well (“craigslist: about: mission and history,” 2005).  newmark describes himself as a classic nerd in high school, complete with a plastic liner to protect his shirt pockets from leaking pens, with taped-together black glasses, and lacking social skill (kornblum, 2004).  when in 1994, newmark took a job in san francisco, he used email to contact new acquaintances, and to provide information about local events and activities.  “in 1994…i saw a lot of people helping each other out on the well and in so-called news groups.  i figured i should do some of that, too, and that it would help me connect with people better” (“on the record: craig newmark,” 2004, august 15, p. j1).  soon, the friends on his list (thus, craig’s list) were sending emails not only about events, but also jobs and housing.  word-of-mouth helped the list grow, and in 1995, newmark decided to set up a website to handle the expanded traffic.  by then, commercialization of the internet was underway.  gunkel and gunkel (1997) compare the colonization of cyberspace to the age of european discovery of the new world, fueled by commercial interest.  newmark however, has attempted to keep his venture from becoming aggressively commercial.  although it has been a for-profit corporation since 1999, craigslist uses the “.org” domain designation to signify its “service mission and non-corporate culture” (“craigslist: about: pr: factsheet,” 2009). as of september, 2010, craigslist had 30 employees, all of whom worked in san francisco.  its operating costs are paid for by “ad fees for jobs in 18 cities, brokered nyc apartments, adult and therapeutic service.” (“craigslist: about: factsheet”, 2010) today, craigslist is a world wide web portal  ¾ defined on webopedia.com (2006) as a web site with a wide variety of services and other offerings ¾ that provides community classifieds about community activities and events, housing, jobs, personal connections, sales and bartering of goods and services for over 700 locations in 70 countries, including the u.s. (“craigslist: about: pr: factsheet,” 2010).  the original local site for san francisco also serves as the home page of the portal.  discussion forums ¾ pages to post messages with opinions about a variety of topics from movies to gardening to philosophy ¾ are offered simultaneously across all the sites for all craigslist visitors to participate in from anywhere in the world. the format and style of the craigslist local sites are constant: very plain, with no frills.  all sites use an english-language template, with most postings also in english.  newmark and craigslist ceo jim buckmaster have expressed interest in translating sites into local languages (pfanner, 2005), but english remains the portal’s lingua franca. as of 2010, there were over than 50 million visitors to the sites in the u.s. alone, and over 20 billion page views per month in its sites around the world.  the portal was ranked the seventh most visited english-language site on the web.  there were at the time over than 50 million new classified ads each month, and over 120 million postings in 100 discussion forum categories (“craigslist: about: pr: factsheet,” 2010). it has had the third largest market share among u.s. web sites featuring classified advertising, after ebay and monster.com (yee, 2005).  craigslist itself does not advertise, instead attracting web users by word-of-mouth (vargas, 2004).  however, they are not completely averse to marketing; a pr firm has worked with craigslist since 1994 (gordon, 2004). the portal was estimated to bring in at least $100 million in classified advertising revenue in 2009 (stone, 2009, june 10). recent controversies have brought negative attention to the portal and its operations. in light of incidents involving prostitution via craigslist, the portal made an agreement in 2008 with 40 state attorneys general to charge $5 or $10 for erotic services ads, the proceeds going to child trafficking and exploitation efforts of law enforcement agencies in those states. (techweb, 2009, march 6). however, this did not seem to deter such advertising; in fact, the portal was expected to make a $44 million profit on such postings in 2010.   in the spring of 2009, the so-called “craigslist killer” was arrested in light of evidence that he lured his victims by responding to their ads for personal services on craigslist (larosa & cramer, 2009).  on august 15, 2010, markoff committed suicide while in prison awaiting trial (larosa & cramer, 2010, august 18). after the headline-grabbing murders, craigslist eliminated the erotic services section, and in a break from past hands-off policy, monitored each message in a new adult services section (abelson, 2009. may 14).  however, continuing concerns about sex-related crimes that may have resulted from these advertisments, and the bad publicity that the adult services section was bringing to the portal, led to the management shutting down the new section entirely on september 3, 2010.  this was portrayed by the portal’s legal representation as a defeat in craigslist’s effort to cooperate with law enforcement on these issues.  in what may have been a parting shot at their critics, the place on the home pages where the section’s link formerly resided were initially replaced with one word: censored (miller, 2010, september 15).  further dents in the public image of the portal and of newmark himself may have been made with wired magazine’s august 2009 issue, with the cover story: “why craigslist is such a mess” (wolf, 2009, august 24). the article depicts newmark and his ceo jim buckmaster as stubbornly resistant to change: “think of any web feature that has become popular in the past 10 years: chances are craigslist has considered it and rejected it. if you try to build a third-party application designed to make craigslist work better, the management will almost certainly throw up technical roadblocks to shut you down.” (wolf, 2009, august 24). the wired article portrays newmark as almost pathologically untouched by the impact of craigslist on society and on the business of traditional and emerging media, as he spends his time diligently handling customer service by answering thousands of emails every year. in 2004 ebay also founded as a free community posting site in 1995 and now a massive multi-billion dollar commercial venture bought a 25% share in craigslist from one of its founders in a non-hostile action (“craigblog: archives,” 2004). ebay itself had already started a division called kijiji.com, a network of community web sites with classified ads in locations in over 30 countries around the world, all in local languages, now including 186 u.s. locations including some overlap with craigslist. more recently, the association between ebay and craigslist has taken a downward turn, as ebay has sued craigslist for diminishing the value of its investment and thus its control (“ebay sues craigslist”, 2008, april 23), and craigslist has sued ebay for improperly using its access to craigslist information to help it establish the competing kijiji (“craigslist sues ebay”, 2009, august 28). explicating theories of community, virtual community, the commons, and gatekeeping turning to the theoretical underpinnings of the concepts of community and virtual community previously described, a consideration of the salience of these theoretical frameworks to the development of virtual communities is discussed.  particular attention is paid to pertinent aspects of craigslist. community the early twentieth century work of dewey presents some perspective on the concept of community.  dewey (1927/1998) linked the concepts of community and democracy.  dewey asserted that democracy “is the idea of community life itself” (dewey, 1927/1998, p. 295).  his concept of community described a group of individuals actively working together toward a common good, and all benefiting from the results of those efforts, which catalyzes the community to continue to maintain it.  these active forms of association are differentiated from what dewey described as natural bonds of interconnection, such as between parent and child.  when there is an aspiration on the part of individuals to share the labors and fruits of common activity, and when the aspirations are communicated with a common set of language and symbols, there is community. it is interesting to note that here dewey was not focused on geographic concepts of community with physical proximity, described later by pigg and crank (2004) as “communities of place” (p. 59).  his concept of community concentrated on the harnessing of interconnections among people without specifying physical location.  because of this, his concept has some salience for virtual communities as well as real world communities.  of key interest is the notion of shared goals.  it is interesting to note that dewey’s theorizing was in the context of developing a model for communities to coalesce into a “great society” of democracy and shared goals (1927/1998), a concept that links to the public policy and social changes in the u.s. in the 1960s as the internet founders came of age. in real world communities, social and physical barriers (such as those in gated communities) can be set up to discourage the infiltration of individuals who do not share the goals of the group, or share in the labor.  some on-line communities replicate this with registration procedures, including an agreement to be checked off by the subscriber to adhere to community standards that are defined.  abusers of those standards can be exiled from those communities.  however, in open virtual communities such as craigslist, there are no such requirements to register.  additionally, there are no requirements for a minimum level of contribution, i.e. the shared labor that dewey discussed.  craigslist users can simply “lurk” on message boards without ever posting anything.  this behavior is a bit more difficult to get away with in some virtual communities such as chat rooms in which there is an on-screen list of who is in a particular room, since others in that virtual space may cajole a “lurker” to contribute to the conversation or leave the room.  dewey’s discussion of communication in communities also presents a challenge for virtual communities.  in real world communities, it is very difficult to participate in a group if one doesn’t speak the language, understand the unspoken forms of communication, and comprehend the customs and values that guide interpersonal exchanges in day-to-day life.  on the internet, the non-verbal communication issue has been addressed to some extent through the use of emoticons, icons representing facial expressions.  however, as emoticons are not generally accepted in business communication, there is the potential for misunderstanding and a potential for failure to convey underlying meanings.  the language issue also has an effect; though programming languages themselves have become standardized for global software developers and web producers, and there remains the potential for the technology to catch up and to facilitate communication among users across linguistic divides through “universal translator” software, as inspired by star trek.  at this stage of development, english still dominates on the web (“internet world users by language”, 2009) and in world commerce and communication (mydans, 2007, october 9), and that linguistic bias can be a barrier to the concept of the internet as a democratic environment.  on craigslist, all of the local sites are in english, requiring some familiarity if not fluency, as well as access to a keyboard with latin alphabet capabilities in order to post messages. for example, messages on the local craigslist sites for tokyo, moscow, and egypt viewed in september, 2010, were almost exclusively in english and the roman alphabet. this may result in the users on craigslist being limited to an elite educated class in the non-english speaking cultures in which the portal is a presence with local sites, or by attracting a core enclave of english speaking expatriates living in these international cities.  dewey also described that standards and values of communities must be transmitted to new members effectively.  for on-line communities, it can be a challenge when people forget the details of the standards they agreed to adhere to when first signing up, or even forget that they are signed up as members even though the community may send a reminder, for instance, once each month.   open web communities such as craigslist risk that their participants may never read the standards at all, as there is no requirement to read them other than when registering for an account, though they may or may not really read before agreeing to the terms of use and instead simply use the community to further their own individual interests or agenda; there is thus ample opportunity for the portal to be used by people who do not know or do not care to know its vision, mission, and community standards. also of note is the seminal work of park in the early decades of the last century.  park (1929/1952) specifically defined community as one with a geographical location.  in his thesis on human ecology (1936/1952), he proposed that the interconnectedness of human society has many similarities to that of other species in nature.  park differed somewhat from dewey’s concept of interconnectedness by employing darwin’s principle of “competitive co-operation” (park, 1936/1952, p. 146).  in this concept, cooperative activity for the common good is complemented by the limiting of population numbers to a manageable size, and the maintenance of balance among competing forces (park, 1936/1952).  in real world communities, this can be achieved through immigration quotas, strong civic institutions and regulations as counterweights to commercial interests. in virtual communities, limits can also be set on numbers for community memberships, though that is rarely enforced; or there can be a general limitation on numbers of postings each member can make.  the latter is rarely defined; however, when an on-line community member is judged by a moderator to have reached his or her limit, the member can be encouraged, or given an ultimatum, to limit their activity in the community.  if these efforts are not successful in encouraging the member to limit their postings, further messages can be blocked. on craigslist, there is no evidence of any limits on the number of registered members, though the management reserves the right to close accounts of offenders against the terms of use. moreover, membership is not required to post or respond to an ad, though it is suggested for people posting a number of messages (“craigslist: about: help: user accounts”, 2010). balancing of competing forces can be more difficult to achieve and maintain in virtual communities. park asserted, building on his 1929 work considering real world communities, that it is the competition for land for commercial, residential, and transportation use; the distribution of that land’ and the locations of these developments, that help define a community (park, 1936/1952).  competing forces shape the character and content of virtual communities as well.  for example, postings on craigslist are, as a result of the openness of the posting system, prone to abuse by scammers and spammers that use the valuable “real estate” on the local sites thus making it more time-consuming to find legitimate postings. the housing section also may be the most vulnerable to abuse, as the basic idea of gaining or granting access to one’s residence in order to find a place to live or a roommate, without any vetting of seller or buyer, lessor or lessee, require a considerable degree of trust in other members of one’s community, and of community standards. there is continuing concern among fraud investigators about fake house and apartment rental postings on various craiglist sites across the u.s., in which the alleged landlord requires easily cashed-in money orders or bank checks to secure a home rental (keill, october 8, 2009). while this section certainly replicates a similar function of real estate classifieds in print newspapers, the functionality of the web could conceivably allow for more basic protections (e.g., a clean criminal record, easily retrievable in a search of police databases, as a prerequisite for posting or being allowed to obtain housing via craigslist).    the portal does offer users the option of using an email encrypter that creates a temporary address for users for each posting that they make, for example: anon-123456789@craigslist.org.  users may also choose to provide their own email addresses without encryption, as well as other contact information such as telephone numbers.  a less prominent link in the lower left corner of the craigslist home pages (2010), among other miscellaneous information links, describes how to “avoid scams & fraud.”  the lack of prominent focus on the basic maintenance of the security of community members, though perhaps based in a belief that these are sophisticated, savvy web users, may give a slight edge to those whose nefarious endeavors detract from the well-being of the community.  but perhaps the element of trust is more important to the development of community than the occasional infractions caused by such a lack of protection and thus these can be absorbed by the community without causing major damage. more recently, putnam & feldstein (2003) have proposed a revitalization of communities through the development of social capital, in which interdependence among groups of people is developed for the greater good.  dewey’s approach to community has salience here as well, and is even extended to encompass the concept of broader societal benefits from these strong communities (putnam and feldstein, 2003).  in earlier work, putnam (2000) put the responsibility for the dissipation of community in american society primarily on television and suburbanization, and he has expressed some ambivalence about the role of the internet in furthering this decline by facilitating individual users’ retreat into virtual environments and withdrawal from real world communities.  he and feldstein find some hope in web portals such as those of craigslist.  indeed, craigslist is an example of a virtual community that seems to be attempting both levels of social capital building, by including individual web sites for many communities of place around the world and thereby fostering local community building; and by opening discussion boards across all of the portal’s local sites so there is a broader non-place based craigslist community. moreover, the actual location of each of the discussion contributors does not appear on their posts. craig newmark says that developing a sense of community is a major goal of craigslist.  “if you are a newcomer to a city, you can get basically all you need to create a new life, in one site” (“from tiny newsletter,” 2005).  he laments the loss of interconnectedness in communities of place in american society, and hopes that the local craigslist sites will help to re-establish those social networks (“on the record: craig newmark,” 2004, p. j1).  the potential was seen most poignantly in the many postings on craigslist related to hurricane katrina in september, 2005; by people looking for missing loved ones and friends and requesting assistance, and by people looking to offer their help.  craigslist spotlighted affected cities in the list of local sites that appears on each local home page. however, as castells (2001, p. 126) observed, “…people do not build their meaning in local societies, not because they do not have spatial roots, but because they select their relationships on the basis of their affinities.”  the transience that craigslist both addresses and perhaps helps to facilitate creates a paradox; as people pick up and move to a new city, building their lives on craigslist, they may also understand that if this new place does not meet expectations they can repeat the process again, especially as their most important social relationships are no longer-place based.  this understanding may actually cause them to have less commitment to plant roots and make strong efforts to develop broader social networks in a community of place.  an aggregate of community members with this perspective might have a negative impact on a community of place, as, per castells’ concept of “real virtuality” (1996), the “real” communities in which they spend their time are in a virtual environment. virtual community as communities are a manifestation of society, so virtual communities are a manifestation of the information society. webster (1995) defines the term “information society” in five connected ways: the technological aspect, involving the convergence of information and telecommunications; an economic component, in which the availability of information contributes to national economies; the occupational impact, in which the number of jobs that involve information technology surpasses the number of jobs that do not (e.g. service jobs, factory jobs); the spatial effect, linking disparate geographic spaces by telecommunication networks; and the cultural aspect, concerning the amount of information that is readily available.  castells brings interesting perspective to the development of the information society from his earlier work as an urban planning scholar.  he has brought that background to his theorizing about cyberspace as a “space of flows” (1996, p. 412) in which human activity and interaction now breaks the boundaries of time zones and geographic distance. castells described the emerging virtual environment of cyberspace as the “culture of real virtuality,” (1996, p. 372) in which people are not only able to use the internet to create new personae; but also, combined with the availability of content that they can choose to consume as a reflection of their constructed identities, allows them to experience the world primarily through this perspective rather than through a proscribed real life.  the internet hastens the blurring of fantasy and reality. that being stated, contradicting popular stereotypes of computer geeks living virtual fantasy lives on-line and not participating in their communities of place or having meaningful human interaction, evidence of greater participation in real world communities by frequent internet users has been documented (hampton and wellman, 2000; howard, rainie, and jones, 2001; katz, rice, and aspden, 2001; in castells, 2001, pp. 120-122).  the internet, including the world wide web, is an emerging mass medium that shifts the dynamic from the passive experience of content consumption to an interactive experience.  internet users can interact with each other all over the world any time of day or night.  those with access to computer hardware and software can also be active creators of content.  thus emanating from this new mass medium is a new “interactive society” (castells, 1996, p. 358) that facilitates the creation and development of virtual communities. in addition to facilitating local community building, craigslist’s mission is “being a collection of communities with similar spirit…” in a broader-based, non-geographically specific concept (“craigslist: about: mission and history,” 2005).  craig newmark has said that part of his goal for craigslist is to help maintain the early utopian vision of the internet founders (taafe, 2004).  others have varied perspectives about the portal.  craigslist has been described with a number of metaphors: as a virtual version of a bulletin board of postings in a local supermarket (morganella, 2004, p. 7d; cited in kornblum, 2004, p. 7d) or a posting board in a college community (fine, 2005, p. s1).  internet pioneer howard rheingold compares craigslist to rick’s café in the film “casablanca” (rheingold, 2005; cited in altschul, 2005), echoed in proulx, & latzko-toth’s (2005, p. 49) conceptualization of virtual communities that uses the “metaphor of a desert watering-hole”.  newmark himself compares his creation to a kind of commons (“on the record: craig newmark,” 2004, p. j1), a shared public space. everard (2000) discussed the power of virtual communities to connect people with common interests across geographic boundaries.  he poignantly described the emotional bonding that can develop in these virtual communities, by describing a community in which one of the moderators died weeks after everard joined it, resulting in an outpouring of support among community members (2000).  everard proposed that a “newly international localism…is finding expression in ‘virtual’ communities” (2000, p. 63), which seems an apt description of the activity on craigslist.  nayar (2004) describes the options for the construction of identity in virtual space, which are more limited in real space.  this may impact virtual communities in that some of the members might be representing themselves in an idealized way that is not as easily verified as in the real world.  so a virtual community may develop on a shaky foundation, especially if members begin to exhibit their less desirable personality traits.  if relationships are built on trust, how can a community be built where trust is violated at such a basic level of representation?  another consideration is that on-line, some people actually tend to show particularly undesirable aspects of their personalities, feeling a sense of security in the relative anonymity to express themselves in otherwise socially unacceptable ways.  this may impact the development of virtual community as members deal with such disruption; if members become unhappy they can easily leave the virtual community, while leaving is a much more logistically complex choice in a community of place.   lessig (2001) described the painful episode he and his students experienced when an anonymous intruder into his law class web site at yale caused great distress to the students, paralyzing the utility of the site as many decided not to expose themselves to the intruder’s tirades; the anxiety and fear that emerged in the face of these attacks was also felt deeply in the real world classroom environment.  however, it is worth considering that virtual community members who may be presenting a more idealized version of themselves can be very effective in that environment while playing the role of the avatar that they have created.  bakardjieva’s (2005) study of internet users in vancouver, bc considered a series of reasons why people use the internet, including social isolation, relocation, family and social networks around the world, and finding a community of interest.  the heavy focus on socialization in the context of shifting populations in the real world highlights the potential positive impact of virtual communities. further, she describes two models of internet use: “‘the consumption model’ and the ‘community model’” (2005, p. 165) to distinguish commercial activities from social and civic uses.  this is a good reminder that virtual communities are only one facet of internet use, that people’s membership in virtual communities may be taking place alongside their consumer interests, which have many opportunities for expression in the classified ads on craigslist.  indeed, the strain between commercial and civic forces for dominance of the internet has been a constant issue.  commercial uses also suggest that when people buy things on the internet, they are bringing them into their real world environments – anything from a car to a movie to hotel reservations.  this further suggests the potential for virtual communities to serve real world interests as well.  if people are used to going on-line to purchase products, then they might also be able to get used to going on-line to find out about community activities. craigslist is in fact a marketplace not only of ideas and community development, but also of items for sale, housing for sale and rent, and potential employment.  so a broader interpretation of community development, including these commercial functions, might serve a practical application of virtual community for social capital building in real world communities, as exemplified by craigslist.  the commons with the emergence of web 2.0 collaborative online communities and social networks, there would seem to be a need for both scholars and practitioners to have a greater shared understanding of some of the core principles of the construct of the commons. dietz, et al (2002, p. 18) stated: “the term commons is used in everyday language to refer to a diversity of resources or facilities as well as to property institutions that involve some aspect of joint ownership or access.” they go on to further define the term common-pool resource as “…a valued natural or human-made resource or facility that is available to more than one person and subject to degradation as a result of overuse” (dietz, et al, 2002, p. 18). this refinement of the concept is a valuable foundation for understanding the research in this field. moreover, there has been an emerging literature of so-called new commons studies, described by hess (2000, p. 4) as research about common-pool resources “that are human-made and technologically driven.  they can exist at global, regional, and local levels.” in this presentation, hess (2000, p. 14) asserts that the internet itself “…is possibly the most complex of the new commons.” hess (2008) continued her explications of new commons with further categorization, including that of the knowledge commons developing as a result of the global dissemination of information over the internet. further, van wendel de joode, et al (2003) described the structures of open source software development as illustrations of key advantages and challenges for common resource distribution. ostrom, who in 2009 received a nobel prize in economics “for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons” (sveriges riksbank, 2009), defined eight principles of effective commons management for common-pool resource institutions (cprs), including clear boundaries for groups, locally tailored rules, citizen participation in rule modification, respect for that process by outside authorities, systemization of behavior monitoring by community members, a system of increasing sanctions for each infraction, and conflict resolution that is affordable an accessible by community members (ostrom, 1990).  more recently, ostrom and colleagues have considered the issues in sharing common-pool resources as less of a tragedy than as a drama (dietz, et al, 2002) the cornerstone of the theoretical construct of the commons is the social dilemma described as the tragedy of the commons.  in this construct, individual members of a community over-utilize the common resources they share, thus depleting those resources for everyone in the community (ostrom, 1990). ostrom and other scholars have developed this theoretical model from the seminal work of hardin (1968), in which he used the conflicts that arose in sharing medieval grazing commons as illustration of the concept.  this concept on the surface seems to have little pertinence to virtual communities, given the bounty of cyberspace; how could it possibly run out?  is not the internet, according to its pioneers, a commons in and of itself?  certainly, the internet has many restrictions imposed by international and domestic government regulation, cultural values, and the digital divide that keeps many people outside the gate.  in turn, each smaller community in cyberspace faces issues that may impact its continuing well-being or even existence, as related previously in describing the implications of their design, and the impact of infractions and intruders that can be destabilizing forces) or tragicomedy (hess and ostrom, 2006). furthermore, hess and ostrom (2006) have edited a volume extending the concept of the commons to the information society, describing efforts to counteract the commoditization and regulation of intellectual property and content sharing with open access, digital archives, and collaborative mechanisms. in a study of a virtual community for croatian scientists called connect, srbljinovic, et al (2008), found that most of ostrom’s principles were met, however principles about gradual sanctions and ease of conflict resolution were not found. they attributed this discrepancy to a lack of resources for the development of online conflict resolution applications and the small population of this particular community that as such did not have multiple layers in its governance structure. these limitations may not be found in the expansive territory of craigslist, but the results of this study offer a glimpse of these theoretical models in practice. the concept of overuse of a commons and the concept of the prisoner’s dilemma is applicable in this discussion of craigslist. it should be noted that hardin’s (1968) utilization of this model has been challenged by more recent scholarship that offer a more complex construct of the roles of stakeholders, private and public property, and the shifting official governance of common resources (dietz, et al, 2002). ostrum (1990) described the prisoner’s dilemma game concept developed by dawes (1973, 1975), in which two players are faced with the choice of cooperating or not cooperating to share resources to achieve a goal (such as freedom from prison).  the paradox emerges that they will likely both choose to not cooperate and hope that the other player will cooperate and the first player will thus win, but in actuality they will both lose.  such situations create complexities in developing collective action meant to improve the lot of all participants.  craigslist and other virtual communities face the possibility that some members may decide to follow their own self-interests in their utilization of the community’s resources.  if a critical mass of community members decides to do this, the utility of the communities for all members may be irrevocably compromised.  for example, if a virtual community is overrun with spammers and scammers, legitimate community members may decide to leave the community, depleting the most valuable resource of all, the members themselves. an open, non-moderated, self-policing community such as craigslist has a particular challenge, as the free exchange of ideas may not always correlate with other ideals and goals of the community.  in real world communities, again, violators of community standards can be dealt with in various ways that excises them from the community.  the violators can do little to disguise themselves and return.  in virtual communities such as craigslist, spammers and scammers can always come back in other guises.  however, some safeguards can be installed. gatekeeping gatekeeping is a particulary useful theory to employ in the study of virtual commons. according to shoemaker and vos (2009, p. 3), “gatekeepers determine what becomes a person’s social reality, a particular view of the world.” further, they state in reference to online news consumption that the “…high level of interactivity turns audience members into gatekeepers” (p. 6). in virtual communities, the interactivity of message posting makes the communication process more complex, as message senders become receivers and receivers also act as senders. even though many virtual communities appear to be relatively open to all who want to participate, the messages themselves remain mediated in many communities, either through moderators or rules enforced by community members themselves.  these systems involve choices by the virtual community leaders similar to those of publishers and programmers of traditional media: which messages are allowed to be transmitted to receivers and which postings are not permitted or posted then removed, levels of access to messages, prominence of messages and message categories.    the “in” and “out” decision points, or gates (shoemaker, 1991), in this case may be embedded in the programming code that governs the communities (per lessig, 1999), or controlled by community members. it is important to understand, however, that even in “unmediated” communities the founders of the communities are often the true gatekeepers who have created the framework of rules, regulations, and enforcement in which community members act as much as their surrogates as they do as free agents.  community members may feel empowered by this sense of control, and they can choose whether or not to accept the role of mediator and buy into the community standards or not, just as members of communities of place can choose to take part in a local neighborhood watch.  they also bring individual perspectives; as shoemaker (1991) described the limitation of mcquail and windahl’s (1981, pp. 100-101) version of white’s (1950) gatekeeper model featuring the presciently named ‘mr. gates’, “…multiple gatekeepers may each have their own role conceptions or positions in the gathering, shaping, and transmission of news” (shoemaker, 1991, pp. 10-11).  shoemaker describes the dichotomy in previous conceptualizations of gatekeeping between those who believed multiple gatekeepers were merely playing a functional role as enforcers of organizational decisions (gieber, 1956; westley and maclean, 1957; bass, 1969), and those who believed that these gatekeepers were individuals who brought their personal characteristics and values to the task in addition to organizational concerns (white, 1950), in a hierarchical, vertical organizational system (shoemaker, 1991).   in virtual communities on the web, the organizational structure is perceived as vertical, with community members as equals.  the importance of the founders and coders of the community, followed by moderators if the community has them, followed by community members, would suggest a more horizontal organizational structure than might be portrayed by promoters of these communities as relatively pure, egalitarian communities. this is indeed the model that craigslist has ended up with through its idiosyncratic development, as wolf (august 24, 2009) so succinctly stated: “…if the craigslist management style resembles any political system, it is not democracy but rather a low-key popular dictatorship.”shoemaker recounts, “the process of gatekeeping is the process of creating social reality” (1991, p. 27)—a particularly important concept to consider when analyzing virtual communities that are intentionally set up to provide a portal into a specific version of reality.  in this case, the success or failure of the gatekeepers to keep intruders from entering the gates and causing destruction to the community within is at issue. further, lessig (2001) argues that regulation on the internet is embedded in the codes that are developed in the programming itself.  here, the design of a given portal or site is in and of itself a gate, made up of smaller gates at various parts of the sites. the rigid adherence of craigslist to a very particular format, and the closely held control of that format by its founders, has seemed to make it difficult for the portal to act with agility and alacrity to guard against intruders. craigslist seems to operate, perhaps in some slight dissonance with its public service ethos, with a laissez-faire marketplace-of-ideas approach that leaves it open to spammers and scammers. while postings can be flagged by readers as miscategorized, prohibited or spam, it is unclear that these measures can have any hope of stemming the constant flow of these infiltrations that return again and again via different email addresses it remains to be seen whether the experience of users encountering spam and scams, coupled with the increasingly sour public image of craigslist and the involvement of law enforcement agencies on a number of issues, has a long-term effect on the use of these community web pages. conclusion the theoretical concepts of community, virtual community, the commons, and gatekeeping, as manifested on craigslist, describe the intricacies of developing a virtual commons that meets the idealism of internet trailblazers who founded virtual communities when cyberspace was just beginning to be explored.  while it does not seem as if virtual communities such as craigslist, continuing to thrive and grow around the world, are facing anything like a tragic demise, the paradoxes and complexities that they face indicates that they are to one degree or another straying from their ideals as open commons.  thus, in actuality they are entities that more closely resemble real world gated communities than they do commons. while this 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(2005, january 19).  ‘we make it up as we go along’: online business: amy yee meets the two unlikely leaders of craigslist, a homespun internet phenomenon.  financial times, p. 9.   title: older and online: enhancing social connections in australian rural places older and online: enhancing social connections in australian rural places helen r feist, kelly parker, graeme hugo introduction there are three pervasive trends impacting on societies worldwide: the ageing of our populations, the continued urbanization of human societies and the increasing reliance on information and communication technologies (icts) to stay connected with each other. each of these global trends has significant influence on small rural communities. fertility decline and urbanization have dominated global demographic trends in the second half of the twentieth century, along with a continued steady increase in life expectancy over the 1900’s (kinsella & velkoff, 2001). generally people in western societies no longer live as intergenerational, extended family groups. families are often mobile and dispersed, divorce rates are higher, and single parent families and new family structures (such as same sex couples, childless couples and blended families) have become more common (fry, 2003; c. phillipson, bernard, phillips, & ogg, 2001). for older people this means that living longer is often combined with changing family and social structures, including fewer children and grandchildren to offer both emotional and physical support in later life. urbanization and globalization has increased the dispersion of these family ties; for example in rural australia there is a greater likelihood of younger family members moving to urban areas for work and education opportunities, leaving higher proportions of older people in rural and remote locations without familial supports and with dwindling population numbers. low density rural populations can equate with less localised services and socialisation opportunities (alston, 2007; cheers, 2001; joseph & cloutier-fisher, 2005). demographic changes leading to the ageing of our populations have occurred at the same time as rapid changes in technology and technological capabilities (bernard & phillips, 2000). technology has become an integral part of every-day life for many people. it will continue to become even more integrated into aspects of society including work, education, service delivery, communication and social activities in the future (czaja & schulz, 2006). with the future roll-out of high-speed broadband across australia in the coming years, the recent developments in web based mobile phone and tablet technology, and wireless and 3g internet enabling improved communication and connection regardless of place, now is the ideal time to consider how new technologies will play a part in improving community participation and social connectedness for older people in rural regions. a current consensus among social gerontologists is that life satisfaction and psychological well-being among older people are influenced to some degree by their levels of social activity and sense of connectedness (beckingham & watt, 1995; klein & bloom, 1997; morrow-howell, hinterlong, & sherraden, 2001; phillipson, allan, & morgan, 2004). the importance of social networks, particularly family and kinship relationships has consistently been reported by older people as an important factor in the quality of their lives (antonucci, 2001; bowling, 1997). fast (2008) found that family and friends were ranked second in importance after health for older people, and older people have reported family, activities and social contacts as the three most important factors giving ‘quality’ to their lives (farquhar, 1995). reduced social contact, being alone, isolation and feelings of loneliness have all been associated with reduced quality of life (victor, scambler, bowling, & bond, 2005). while social networks have important implications for supporting and/or protecting the well-being of older people these contacts may not necessarily be localised or closely connected (gilleard & higgs, 2005; feist, 2011). older people with limited proximate network ties may have more difficulty ageing in their communities, while those with family nearby have more potential for assistance (wenger & keating, 2008). this is particularly relevant in rural areas where time and distance still exercise constraints on interactions outside of the local environment. it is even more pertinent for older people who may have additional challenges connecting with others because of restricted rural transport options, lack of knowledge and access to new technologies, and physical health limitations. icts offer the opportunity for relationships between people to occur regardless of location, distance or mobility; providing an ideal medium to foster and strengthen both localised community connections and dispersed social network ties for rural older australians. these technologies offer potential for increasing quality of life for older people including: enhanced communication strategies, integrated service delivery, better access to community information, promotion of lifelong learning and self-efficacy, and as a medium to connect with community, family and friends. in order for all community members to remain integrated within a world that increasingly relies on icts it is important that older people are offered opportunities to adopt and use new technologies such as computers, web-based mobile phones and the internet. the study the ‘linking rural older people to community through technology’ project aims to improve access and connection to personal networks and the wider community for older australians in rural locations through the use of new technologies. the first two phases of the project involved a paper-based survey (n=858) and follow-up in-depth interviews (n=201) with people aged 55 years and over living in the rural murray lands region of south australia. see figure 1 for a map of the study region. a wide range of data were collected including information about participants’ connections to their communities and wider social networks; and their attitudes to, and current use of, technologies such as mobile phones and personal computers (feist, parker, howard, & hugo, 2010; hugo, feist, parker, & howard, 2010). figure 1: map of the murray lands study region this has been followed with a sub-sample pilot study with 48 participants over six months; providing them with their choice of either a laptop computer or an apple ipad, 3g internet connection and self-directed, personalised tuition. participants were assigned to one of three small groups (n=14, n=7 and n=14) or one-to-one in-home learning with a visit from a tutor (n=13). groups took place in localised areas and assistance was provided with transport for those travelling to take part in groups. both groups and individuals met with researchers weekly for six weeks and then fortnightly for the remainder of the six months. individuals had tuition for one hour and the groups for an average of 2.5 hours. in addition, on-going support was provided by researchers by telephone and email during office hours. one participant withdrew from the pilot study due to illness and other personal circumstances. at the completion of the pilot project participants will retain ownership of their selected devices and will receive on-going internet connection, and support and advice from researchers for a further six months. methods the ‘linking rural older people to community through technology’ project has adopted a mixed method approach. the sub-sample pilot study involved a pre-test survey of participants’ computer and internet attitudes and efficacy prior to commencement and will be replicated as a post test survey. this builds on the quantitative survey data and qualitative data from social network interviews collected in phase one and two of the project. the phase three pilot study has also collected data from weekly participant activity log sheets, information on data usage from internet accounts and participant observation field notes. emails from participants have been collated throughout the pilot study and used as additional qualitative data. a second interview replicating the phase two interview will be carried out six months after the completion of the pilot study and 18 months after the original interview. this interview will provide information on changes in participant social networks as a further post-test measure of the pilot study. at the time of writing this field report post-test survey data collection and analysis is not complete from the pilot study. however, several participant vignettes have been developed as case studies. four of these vignettes will be presented here as notes from the field, highlighting the potential various applications of new technologies have for improving the social connections of older people living in rural areas. ‘robert’1 robert (bob) lives in a very small rural community, riverton, with a population of less than 300 permanent residents, located on the river murray in the north of the study region. the town is chiefly a holiday and retirement community with limited services. bob is 65 years old and lives alone. in the survey bob self-reported his health as being ‘fair’; mainly due to on-going chronic back pain. he retired to riverton, south australia from western australia (over 2,000 kilometres away) six years ago with his wife, and since that time his wife has died. the loss of bob’s wife, his poor health and lack of family and other social contacts in riverton and south australia has seen him become more socially isolated. at the time of the phase two social network interview bob nominated only two contacts in his social network: a person providing in-home personal care and a local friend. after prompting he expanded this list to include his two children living in other states in australia that he maintained limited contact with, and an un-named group of ex-mining colleagues from western australia with whom he had lost touch with. bob selected a personal computer at the start of the project, at the recommendation of his son. he had very limited experience with computers before leaving work almost ten years earlier, and mentioned that he hadn’t enjoyed working with computers then. researchers met with robert one-to-one in his own home throughout the six months of the pilot project. the visits with bob started with very simple tasks such as turning the computer on and off and learning to use the mouse. he often expressed concern about not remembering how to do something shown to him because he felt quite isolated and had no one else to ask. yet, within weeks bob had set up an email account and in two months had become more confident using email, searching on the internet and was using skype to contact his son and family. email is perhaps the new communication skill that has most dramatically changed bob’s life. through his new email activity bob has reconnected with many old work friends who now send him daily joke emails, stories, and information about the mining industry in which he used to work in. this has enabled bob to feel more connected to not only his previous career, but also to the community he has left behind in western australia. bob has also used email to enrich the relationship he has with his son, enabling them to arrange skype2 contact, in particular with the grand-daughter he has never met. in addition to strengthening his social ties bob has utilised email and the internet to begin actively managing his own retirement funds through his investment fund’s website and email contact with his accountant. having easy access to this information has renewed bob’s interest in this process and has led to bob taking an active interest in his future retirement plans and activities as well. week by week researchers have noticed an increased brightness in bob’s disposition as he gains more confidence with his computer and internet skills and as he connects with more social contacts. email may be a common, often taken for granted, part of everyday life for most individuals. for most participants in this pilot study having an email address was one of their first goals. within three weeks of commencing the pilot study almost all participants (n=44) had an email address and were beginning to use itthem, mainly to connect with dispersed family members and friends but also to send jokes and practice emails to each other. for bob, as with other pilot study participants, living in an isolated environment with limited contact with friends and family located in other states and very few localised social ties, email has enabled him to reconnect with old friends and strengthen family ties while at the same time take a more active role in his own future. ‘joan’ joan is 81 years old and lives alone in a rural township of about 2,000 people. joan retired from a nursing and teaching career only five years ago, mainly due to poor health. joan described her health as ‘fair’ with difficulties in mobility and manual dexterity; she also has an on-going illness that requires regular trips for treatment to the nearest capital city, a three hour drive away. joan moved to laxhill less than two years ago to be closer to three of her siblings, and she has become quite involved in the local community through community groups and the local church in this time. joan selected a personal computer at the beginning of the pilot study, with the view of updating her existing old computer. in the survey she described her comfort levels with computers and the internet as high and indicated that she felt ‘new technologies made it easy for her to stay in touch with family and friends’ but also that she would ‘use new technologies more often if she had more advice and support’. joan already had an email address and was reasonably comfortable searching the internet for information; however she expressed an interest in being able to use the new computer (with its built in camera) for making skype calls to her family members. while now physically closer to some family members joan also has four other siblings living in other states of australia and one brother living in vietnam as well as two children and some grandchildren living long distances away. after installing skype on her laptop and practising a few times within the group joan was confident enough to use the application to speak to her family members. on one of her weekly feedback sheets she describes skype as being “great fun” and how she particularly enjoys spending time chatting with her grandchildren. towards the end of the pilot study she learnt how to take photos from the skype calls and enjoyed showing other group members the photos of her grandchildren making funny faces and crowding around the computer screen together to talk to ‘gran’. of great importance to joan is the contact she has been able to have with her ageing brother who is living permanently in vietnam, but who also travels worldwide on a frequent basis. not only is she able to maintain regular contact with him, regardless of his location; but she has been able to have a visual understanding of where he lives and see that he is well. when joan talks about these conversations she includes a description of how things look, for example recently describing that “it must be very hot at the moment in the us because he was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt when we talked last week, and he just looked so hot and bothered”. clearly, the visual nature of the contact with her family is just as important to joan as the conversation itself. equally important for someone such as joan, with poor health, unable to travel great distances easily and who is living on a low, fixed income; is the ability to maintain very regular contact with dispersed family members at a small cost. being able to make regular contact with extended family for a low cost was a key advantage of new technologies for many participants. by the end of the first month most participants had taken an interest in skype and over half had installed the program on their devices. participants in this pilot study had family members in germany, england, the united states, hong kong, china and vietnam they wished to contact and skype was also being usedtilised to make contact with children and grandchildren all over australia. for one participant this had enabled him to ‘meet’ his baby grand-daughter for the first time and he has been able to use skype to watch as she opened a present he had sent to her. another participant is planning to read her young grandson a story at night just as she does when she goes to visit him. many of these intimate face to face family connections are difficult, if not impossible, without the use of an application such as skype because of poor health, physical distance and the cost of travel and long-distant phone calls. ‘anne’ anne is 68 years old and lives alone in east willows; a new housing estate of about 40 homes located on the river murray, chiefly inhabited by retired couples and nestled within in a dairy farming region. the nearest town with facilities and services is 20 minutes drive away and the nearest regional centre, murray bridge, is located 35 minutes away. anne described her health as ‘fair’ in the survey but ‘better than a year ago’. she reported having depression and chronic fatigue syndrome since the death of her husband less than two years ago. anne has only lived in this area permanently for just over two years; prior to this she lived with her husband in the capital city of adelaide, a 75 minute drive away, and they used the property as a holiday home. thus, anne has not only been adjusting to widowhood but also to rural living. during the interview process anne described her retirement from work to care for her husband before his death, the subsequent loss of her husband and the physical distance from her previous support networks since moving as having a huge impact on her sense of self-confidence. anne had some experience using a computer as part of her previous job role but had struggled with usingtilising those skills since that time. in the survey anne nominated three statements she identified with relating to new technologies: ‘i would use new technologies if i had more opportunities for training’, ‘i would use new technologies more if i had more advice and support’, and ‘i would use new technologies if they were easier to use’. in the pilot study pre-test survey anne listed ‘contacting family and friends’, ‘accessing information’ and ‘to be reachable by family and friends’ as all ‘very important’ motivators for using new connection technologies. under motivations to use new technologies she also wrote “to move with the times and be in the 21st century”. anne joined one of the pilot study groups in her local area and selected a laptop computer as her device. she chose the laptop because she was keen to regain her lost word processing, data management and spreadsheet skills; however her interests developed in a very different direction as the pilot progressed. anne’s lack of confidence in her own abilities soon became very apparent and in the early weeks she was often reluctant to ask for assistance or try new things. she spent a lot of her time playing solitaire on the computer to build up her confidence in using the device and would often retreat back to solitaire if she was feeling overwhelmed by the information being offered. however, after only a few weeks in the pilot study anne had set up an email address and was slowly starting to use it independently, along with looking for information on the internet. shortly after this anne suggested that she would like to learn more about facebook and the following week arrived at the group to let us know that a friend had helped her to set up a facebook account and she now wanted to learn how to use it. while anne appeared quite overwhelmed at times by the concept of communicating on facebook she also emphasised to the researchers that she felt it was important to ‘push’ herself to take this step because it was where all her family and friends were communicating. “if i want to be able to talk to them i need to be able to use facebook, it’s how they all stay in touch...it’s where they are”. anne continued to challenge herself throughout the pilot and developed a core group of friends on facebook, although she still found some aspects of it quite confusing; such as writing on her ‘wall’ as opposed to writing on the ‘walls’ of her friends, and understanding what information was public and what was private. however, with support she has enjoyed viewing photos of friends and family members, particularly her young grandson who lives in another state, writing birthday messages, and re-connecting with friends who live overseas and in other states of australia. anne’s level of self-assurance improved dramatically over the course of the pilot study, as evidenced by her responses to the question on the weekly activity feedback sheets about what she had enjoyed doing: “just doing it”, “knowing i can”, “each time i learn so much, but i want more”. overall, pilot participants were keen to understand how facebook worked and many wanted to look at the facebook sites of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren but most did not want to actively participate in this medium. the idea of using these sites was not popular, mainly due to the negative coverage facebook has received in the media in australia associated with bullying and privacy issues. for ssome, they had heeded advice from their children about not having a facebook profile. however, six participants did adopt facebook as a medium for connecting with family and friends who, like anne, realised that it was through facebook that they would be able to communicate freely with their wider social network living both in other states of australia and overseas. ‘elsie’ elsie is 87 years old; she lives alone on the dairy farm she farmed with her husband for over 50 years. while hampton has several dairy farms and houses clustered together there are no services, shops or public transport in the settlement. hampton is located 15 minutes across the river from a large town and 20 minutes from the regional centre of murray bridge. elsie is no longer driving but manages at home with some in-home support for housework and assistance with transportation. she appears active and independent and is determined to remain living in her local community, despite being relatively isolated. elsie has a small, scattered family. her son manages the dairy farm and lives nearby; she also has a daughter living in another state of australia, two granddaughters living in the local capital city (over 90 minutes drive away) and a grandson living in the usa. in the initial unprompted network list elsie only nominated two network ties, one social group and one service provider. after prompts she also added her six family members and five community services she accessed. before her involvement in the project elsie’s only experience with new technologies was using a mobile phone, where she described her comfort level as 'moderate'. she indicated she had no experience with personal computers or the internet. in the survey elsie nominated three statements on attitudes to new technologies that she identified with: ‘new technologies are too complex for me to use’; ‘i am too old to learn about new technologies’, and ‘i can see no use for new technologies in my life’. after becoming engaged in the survey and interview phases of the project, but before being selected for the pilot study, elsie decided to challenge her own attitudes to new technologies and enrolled in a local computer course and purchased her first personal computer and internet connection. the shift in her attitudes and approach to new technologies was clear from the results of her pilot study pre-test where, less than eight months later, she indicated the following statements best applied to her attitudes to new technologies: ‘the internet is useful for finding new information’; ‘new technologies make life easier and more interesting’; ‘i like playing games on the computer’, and ‘new technologies are useful for contacting family and friends’. in the pre-test elsie described the following motivations for using new technologies as 'very important': ‘contacting family and friends’; ‘for games and recreation’, and ‘for education and learning’. she also described ‘accessing information’ and ‘being reachable by family and friends’ as important. under this elsie had added "to combat loneliness and boredom" as a further personal motivator. for the pilot study elsie selected an ipad, having only recently purchased her own personal computer. as with most other participants who selected the ipad (n=16), elsie adapted to the ipad technology very quickly. within weeks of starting the pilot study her weekly activity sheets included requests such as: “i want to learn about downloading music from itunes”, “how do i put email addresses into my contacts lists”, and “how do i delete unwanted icons from my home page?”. elsie also enjoyed using the ipad for playing games, such as solitaire and sudoku and within two months she was interested in downloading an application for playing an interactive, on-line version of scrabble. elsie explained that when her grandchildren were little they would come to her house and they would play the board game scrabble together. she wanted to re-engage this activity with her grandchildren utilising an on-line version of the game that would enable her to play despite the large distances that now separated them. elsie is now regularly playing scrabble not only with her two granddaughters but also with other members of the pilot project. in fact, a core group of five pilot group ipad users, who all live in different parts of the study area (and three keen researchers), are regularly playing the on-line version of scrabble together. while some of these scrabble players have been hesitant to play a game with people they have never met their enthusiasm for scrabble is slowly overcoming their reluctance to play with strangers. players are also getting more confident about using the ‘chat’ function associated with the on-line game and are beginning to connect socially while playing. for elsie, this has not only helped her meet her goal of combating loneliness and boredom by widening her group of friends it has also strengthened her relationship with her distant grandchildren through an old family tradition with a new twist. discussion the four vignettes presented here highlight positive examples of the introduction of new technologies into the lives of older people living in rural australian communities. for the vast majority of pilot study participants utilising their new devices and internet accounts to make contact with family and friends; through email, skype, facebook and on-line games was their main priority. in addition to these mediums other methods of interaction between group members have been introduced; such as a pilot study football tipping pool which has 25 members from across the pilot study region and the project blog site http://www.ruralolderpeople.blogspot.com/ which is open to participants to view tutorials, pilot information as well as photos and comments about the project. the aim of these vignettes is not to suggest that this process was quick and simple, or that these positive results would apply to all older people. as selwyn (2003, p.577) suggests ‘much academic and political interest in older adults and technology has been based on an implicit assumption that ict use is an inherently useful and desirable activity’. exploring how older people adopt, learn and utilise new technologies is valuable for understanding how new technologies can be incorporated into maintaining social connectivity, independence, service delivery and access, and quality of life for older people. however, it must be remembered that this does not offer a panacea for all people or all issues associated with isolation, ageing-in-place and positive ageing experiences. nor is it simply a matter of accessibility to new technologies and a reliable internet connection along with a course of instruction – although these certainly help. these four example show that certain aspects of new technologies can make very positive changes to the lives of some older people, and that older people are open to the advantages new technologies offer them in enabling social connectedness – given the right equipment, personalized and localized tuition, hands-on experience and long-term advice and support. conclusion it has been suggested that older adults who practice lifelong learning and adopt new skills as they age enhance their sense of well-being, including improved health, richer levels of social and civic engagement and greater resilience to external life stressors and crises (field, 2009; 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(pp. 33-42). bristol, uk: the policy press. 　 footnotes 1all names of people and towns have been changed to protect the anonymity of participants. 2‘skype’ is a trademark of the skype limited company journal of community informatics technology and older persons issue overview gene loeb, ph.d. center for mental health of elderly, united state   today there are large-scale efforts globally to provide older persons with technology. from a small village in zambia, to an eye clinic in ireland, and to an elder community in hong kong, technology is being utilized in a variety of ways to enable older persons to communicate, play, to obtain telehealth information, and to remain in their homes instead of being institutionalized. this escalation in technological applications is propelled by several circumstances, coming together at the same time--a large increase in the numbers of elderly in many nations such as the united states and china, revolutionary developments in the technology itself, increased knowledge about aging and the needs of the elderly, and a growing concern for the care of older persons. additionally, economic considerations drive the quest for technology able to provide maximum care while minimizing costs. in the united states, there is a concerted effort aided by technology to help older persons remain in their home as they age rather than go to a nursing home including through the use of  such devices as sensors to monitor health issues, and computers and related devices to enable emergency and other communications. this issue reports on the use of technology in support of older persons and particularly focusing on older persons in their communities and with their community relationships and it draws from a variety of settings and a variety of technology enabled applications. these latter include technology to support telehealth, leisure, obtaining information, communications, and gaming; psychological supports including to avoid loneliness and game playing; the installation of infrastructure to bring broadband or radio connections based safety to an elder community; internet training and intergenerational communications; and including a closeup of one researcher's long term membership in a computer learning group, with deep insight into the member's psychological changes as they age in a computerized environment. one major element connecting each of these studies and uses of technology for older persons is the information and communications technology framework understood within a community focussed -community informatics orientation. each application has, at its roots, a community. these articles could not be understood without realizing the effects of the technology applications upon a community, or the community's effect upon the application. only by examining a group of studies and reports of technology use such as this one by and for older persons does one recognize the profound interaction between the elder's community and the ict applications which are directed towards them, usually as individuals.  in the case of telehealth, for example, sensor derived information and reports are sent through the internet to a community of medical providers collaborating to care for the patient.  in the use of online communities, groups of persons link together online for a common interest. even in the use of wii for physiological development of the older person, the activities were done in the context of a group for social reinforcement. this community information focus is seen globally in the design and implementation of the applications as well. in the rural zambian village of machsa, residents worked together to get the radio and internet technology and maintain it. the elderly of a small hong kong community are protected by an alarm system linking them with caregivers to provide services when needed. in the united states, a group of seniors take computer classes led by another senior while another group plays “brain training” or cognitive growing activities online. a purposeful effort was made to select studies that 1) reflected a variety of technical applications representative of a community informatics framework, 2) a variety of geographical locales, and 3) significant and promising research approaches.  an intention of this special issue and this selection is to stimulate further research and applications development reflecting this strong element of community as a core contributor to the well-being o fthe elderly. thanks are offered to the dependable cadre of reviewers, the assistance of the capable jennifer dicman, the special efforts of dr. wayne lamonde, of the university of denver for his exceptional reviewing and editing work, and to the chief editor and prolific community informatics professional, dr. michael gurstein. overview, comments on studies while it is true that the use of technology makes a large difference in the lives of many elderly, the technology itself cannot be designed in a vacuum. the lives and environment of the technology user needs to be considered in its development. in life-based design against loneliness among older people, leikas, et al, apply what they call a "form-of-life based design" approach to understanding the daily lives of the elderly and drawing from this direction as to their needs as a basis for technology design. development of technology interventions must start with a knowledge of the environment of the user and in this instance the elderly user.and particularly those who are suffering from loneliness..  barbara barbosa neves, et al, in too old for technology? how the elderly of lisbon use and perceive ict, examine the attitudes of elderly of lisbon, portugal, concerning their use of cell phones, computers, and the internet linking it with their use of technology. their results provide insight concerning social participation and access to information, and, overall how to  increased technology confidence and skills. paula j. gardner, et. al, in their useful study, getting turned on:, using ict training to promote active aging in new york city, used the premise that a planned, consistent thorough ict training program would show positive results. this program, oats, took place in four new york city locations. this program provides a model by partnering with over 50 non-profit organizations..  among the results of participation in the oats computer training program are "increased and sustained computer use, improved ability and confidence with computer and internet technology, and a substantial and positive effect on social connectedness, access to information, and social and civic participation.” helen r. feist, et al, in their report of the initial part of a pilot study, older and online, enhancing social connections in australian rural places, focus upon increasing the social relationships of the rural elderly. their study provides insight into supporting the use of icts by the elderly and give useful vignettes of several of their participants. in a small city, in canada, susan o'donnell et al, in older adults and video communications: a case study, present the use of visual tools for communications among elderly including skype, and video conferencing. in an exciting preliminary study, a.j. kok et al, seniors skyping: a professional, academic, and community collaboration, also presented the use of visual tools for inexperienced users in a nursing home in the united states and one in china. there study present a practical exploration of the preparations that needed to be made, such as training in use of the camera and the need for cueing of participants and thus provide important insight into the future design of such programs. while many of these studies provide a close look at characteristics of the participants, norma linton, in roadblocks and resolutions in the technological journey, provides a unique 12 year longitudinal examination of the challenges of learning about new information and communication technologies by elderly members of a computer club.  this valuable ethnographic study describes social networks and the difficulties of learning this technology late in life.   use of technology for communications is highlighted by several articles, each differing in research methods.  burmeister, et al, in sustaining online communities involving seniors,  looks at two means for seniors to communicate, an email list, neat, and the web portal, greypath.  the researchers briefly  introduce  these  with two case studies, and then offer an in depth look at the factors leading to their continuation.  the paper uses a conversational tone to describe many features operating within groups and positive effects on participant development while recognizing and utilizing the differing needs of group members. in another study involving the greypath portal, burmeister, in what seniors value about online communities, another research method, a new design methodology was employed to determine values resulting from technology use.  the key moral and social values were emphasized.  consequently, social values were found to predominate for  members of greypath, who were questioned what was important to them about an online community. they especially valued neighborhood as community.  elizabeth spradley, in recareering happily after: an analysis of job transition storytelling in aarp's magazine and related message boards, comments on an aarp magazine message board are analysed in relation to job experiences. the comments, termed histories uses communications theory to study the content and effects. this novel study of the use of the histories revealed a virtual community with this interest, as a means of social support and discipline unsupportive storytelling. several articles describe the provision of an ict infrastructure and its results on elderly. gertjan van stam and fred mweetwa  in this outstanding article, community radio provides elderly a platform to have their voices heard in rural macha, zambia report on community radio, accompanied by phone and internet.  this rural culture relies on oral communications and the radio is valued highly by the community.  the elderly are greatly involved inn putting on their own regular radio program.  most elderly persons mentioned the need to transmit information on culture and intangible heritage as it can shape the future of their children. also many young persons mentioned the need for cultural information. comments included “culture signifies where we come from", “there is no future without history", and “without knowing our culture a person does not have a future”.there was the strong desire to amplify the voice of the cultural custodians as  enshrined in elderly people. don samuelson and jim ciesla, in the united states, wrote in the getting illinois low income seniors and people with disabilities online demonstration stop sba project, about a federal government funded program in which  24 apartment buildings in illinois, with low-income elderly, fitted with broadband, internet access. a computer lab staffed daily with a professional, is there to explain services and train elderly residents. carmen ng, in hong kong, reports on a unique emergency service for seniors using ic technology.  after a disastrous cold spell in 1996, in which many homebound elderly died, the senior citizen home safety association (www.schsa.org.hk) was established to give 24-hour emergency support service to the elderly.   in serving  seniors with simple technology-from indoor to outdoor emergency support and care, a “personal emergency link service, an integrated communications system connected to landlines was started.  it is now joined by personal locater service with a one button for service call device for those elderly outside.  financed by donations and fee for service, it is staffed by 300 employees and social workers. it has aided over 150,000 persons in 15 years. several articles looked at different ways to treat health issues of elderly. blaithin anna mary gallagher et al, focused on social exclusion of elderly with vision problems in reviewing several ict projects in ireland and other european sites. they write, in aging, vision impairment and digital inclusion in ireland of several promising programs to provide computer literacy and adaptive devices to participants. jeremy rich et al, in empowering chronically ill patients and caregivers using remote monitoring technology, document the development and use of a remote, patient-operated monitoring system for elderly with certain health issues in the united states. the emphasis is the cooperative development of the system between the elderly participants, the medical community, and the instrument developers. brian beitzel, in his point of view article, how not to forget your next appointment: use technology to combat the effects of aging, refers to research to explain the effects of using forms of ci technology for cognitive stimulation, exercise, puzzles, and games, to maintain mental health. maiga chang, et al, in tele-physical examination and tele-care systems for elderly people, describes a detailed technical ci system to diagnose and get treatment for elderly. the system, involving graphs and diagnostic tools, allows for the elderly participant to “examine” himself, using instruments, and sending the results to the medical community. this project demonstrates the cooperation of the scientific developers, the medical community, and the elderly participants. galit nimrod, in online communities, as a resource in older adults' tourism researches the use of internet for the purpose of obtaining information rather than use for pleasure. he uses the seeking of tourism information as the objective and analyses the communications on several online communities for topics pertaining to elderly, and the characteristics of the communications. several articles explore ict and leisure programming. lynda jeanine sperazza et al, reports, in tomorrow's seniors: technology and leisure programming,  analysed  recreational use of computers,  dividing residents of a nursing home into two groups, the older seniors, and the younger just 65 and below “boomers”. the types of computer use was inspected, email, facebook, and games. recommendation of more game use was presented. justin keogh, et al examine the benefits of using the nintendo wii video game product by elders in a new zealand nursing home. the study, can the nintendo wii sports game system be effectively utilized in the nursing home environment: a feasibility study?  views participant use of wii, the social aspects ie. interaction with others, and benefits in fall prevention. residents mostly played wii golf and interacted with others in this small community. it was also accepted by staff demonstrating that this is a viable device for adaptation in other nursing home communities. intergenerational use of ci technology was examined in two different studies ulla bunz, in revisited: communication media use in the grandparent/grandchild relationship, the use of technological devices between elderly and their grandchildren are studied. two theories related to usage, “media richness theory”, and “social influence theory,” were used with the variety of communications media  used in the grandparent-grandchild communications. the differences in usage between the landline, cell phone, via email, via letters or cards, or by instant messenger were investigated. other considerations were also observed. yunan chen, et al, used a popular social networking online game, qq farm  in an intergenerational communication study in china.  in i communicate with my children in the game: mediated intergenerational family relationships through a social networking game, the communication  was found to add to the richness of intergenerational communications helped by the characteristic that both didn't need to communicate simultaneously. the game displayed activities of each person and reassured them that each was fine. the game added to the richness of the family dynamics, not substituted for it. “for older people, getting in touch with their adult children and receive caring and loving messages are crucial for their health and well-being.”     meta-synthesizing qualitative research in information systems hossana twinomurinzi, school of computing, university of south africa. email: twinoh@unisa.ac.za roy d. johnson, gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria. email: roy@up.ac.za introduction there is a continuing debate about the lack of information systems (is) theory and an accompanying over-reliance on theories borrowed from other disciplines versus the assertion that there are indeed is theories although some not well known (straub, 2012). this paper offers a tool to assist in building is theories at comprehensive (macro), mid-level (meso) and micro-levels. comprehensive level theories attempt to bring together all the factors from different contexts into one all explanatory theory. middle level theories target multiple factors that are particularly important to a domain. micro-level theories focus on single-factors of a phenomenon within a domain (ward and hudson, 1998). theory is an important lens in all research and there are always tradeoffs in choosing what theory to adopt in a research project (harris, 1975). theories are adopted because they enable and guide a researcher to analyze, explain, predict and prescribe a phenomenon in its context (barrett and walsham, 2004; gregor, 2006). despite the importance of theory, there is a deep seated concern that there is no core is theory (weber, 2003), and that the means of developing theory in is remains unclear. the lack of theory building tools in is has resulted in ad hoc is frameworks and little known is native theories (straub, 2012). such theories and frameworks often ignore the contributions of previous findings (ward and hudson, 1998). there is a need for new and contemporary is theories rather than continuing to refine existing theories which are unlikely to fit the context of today (kalmar and sternberg, 1988; webster, 2014). the research challenges of today are much more complex (e.g., poverty, globalization, human-trafficking) and require more than one disciplinary perspective to solve them (galliers, 2011). the problems are interdependent, not isolated to particular sectors and are often not predictable (klein and huynh, 2004) calling for a multidisciplinary approaches. the field of is can learn a great deal from viewing problems in a world increasingly influenced by rapidly changing technology. the call for the creation of new is theories does not in any way belittle the importance of theory refinement, rather, the call is for new theories that place value on adding a new perspective to the field of is in particular. it is wasteful to have such a rich set of qualitative is findings and not be able to tie them into comprehensive, mid-level or micro-level theories. community informatics as an interdisciplinary area within is leans a great deal on qualitative approaches to present the rich experiences of people within the community setting (joci, 2015). the full extent of ideas emanating from such deep studies are as such not fully developed into substantive theories that better explain the role of ict and the internet in emancipating communities (ward and hudson, 1998). there is on the other hand a danger to creating theories for the sake of creating theories. a poor theory-development approach can result in a poor design, whereby constructs are thrown together in a theory without properly fitting them together (kalmar and sternberg, 1988). the 21st century has seen growth in the use and employment of qualitative methods as an accepted means of inquiry in is. the growth of qualitative methods is evidenced by the rise in academic journals with special tracks or entire publications dedicated to qualitative methods. while the qualitative approach brings a much needed contextual perspective, one of the greatest contentions is that findings from qualitative research are often isolated and stand as irreconcilable islands of knowledge doomed to irrelevant speculation and to re-inventing of the wheel (walsh and downe, 2005). it is argued that the isolative aspect of qualitative methods makes such findings difficult to integrate into policy initiatives, to situate into larger programs, or even contribute to the improvement of other similar studies (scruggs et al., 2006; zimmer, 2006). policies and wide-ranging programs are typically designed to be as broad and inclusive as possible. qualitative meta-synthesis (qms) is a qualitative method of inquiry that uses as data the findings from other qualitative studies. qms focuses on a particular phenomenon of interest, and infers relationships between the studies to create a common frame of reference about the phenomenon (zimmer, 2006). the appeal of qms arises from the process of integrating similar qualitative studies. a fuller understanding of the phenomenon thereby elevates the solitary findings to more conclusive stances (thorne et al., 2004), creates higher levels of abstraction (jensen and allen, 1996) and leads to the development of theory (estabrooks et al., 1994). the theories created from qms are better able to inform policy and practice in preference to the isolated findings from the constituent qualitative studies. the development of higher levels of abstraction also appeals to the generalizability of qualitative findings in practice (sandelowski et al., 1997). this paper presents the qms as an approach and a means to bring together qualitative findings in is. the remainder of the paper is structured as follows. the history of the qualitative meta-synthesis approach is discussed and is followed by six guidelines for using the qms method in is. two is papers are examined to identify how qms has been used in is plus examining the strengths and weakness when qms was applied. finally, common misunderstandings of qms are highlighted. the qualitative meta-synthesis (qms) approach qualitative meta-synthesis (qms) is informally ascribed to the authors of grounded theory, glaser and strauss (1967). in their syntheses of the process of life and major life transitions, qms was described as an extension of grounded theory in status passage (glaser and strauss, 1971). qms has since been described with different terms such as meta-study, meta-ethnography, grounded formal theory, qualitative meta-analysis and meta-synthesis in human sciences research. the 'meta' concept refers to the need to look back and reflect on what has transpired in a particular field to date. qms has predominantly been used in the evidence based fields of medicine and education. for example, a 1985 qms study revealed a self-care paradox in nursing studies eventually leading to the creation of a model to guide self-care by nurses (stern and harris, 1985). a more recent qms study of type 2 diabetes papers revealed the critical necessity of paying attention to the little discussed subjective issues in the self-management of type 2 diabetes (gomersall et al., 2011). in education, qms uncovered four themes about how academics perceive the integration of information literacy; collaboration, information literacy pedagogy, information literacy skills and knowledge (derakhshan and singh, 2011). qms has also been applied in other fields such as management to create a better understanding in transformational leadership (walsh and downe, 2005). more recently, two is studies in e-government maturity models adopted the qms method and created more generalised models to understand e-government maturity (lee, 2010; siau and long, 2005) to be compared later in this paper . important misunderstandings of qualitative meta-synthesis qms is at times confused with similar approaches that use findings from more than one constituent study as their data, such as: quantitative meta-analysis (qma), secondary data analysis/critical literature review, metatriangulation or qualitative comparative analysis (qca). comparisons of these similar approaches to qms follow. qms versus quantitative meta-analysis (qma) there is a sharp contrast between qms and its quantitative counterpart, the quantitative meta-analysis (qma). qma seeks to combine and summarise past quantitative research by using statistical methods (card, 2011). the aim of qma is to estimate the strength of the relationships between the constituent studies using statistical measures such as correlation coefficients and weighted averages. for example, adam mahmood et al. (2000) meta-analysed it end-user satisfaction from 45 end-user studies published between 1986 and 1998. adam mahmood et al. (2000) found positive and significant support for the influence of nine variables on end-user it satisfaction in divergent contexts. the qma study does not take into account the contextual influences that may affect each of the satisfaction studies. qma seeks to increase certainty in cause and effect relations while qms seeks to understand and explain the findings from a group of similar studies (walsh and downe, 2005). qma aggregates data and reduces it to a single unit for greater certainty. and though qms reduces uncertainty, it does not attempt to move towards absolute certainty. qms does not seek to neutralize alternative experiences, but rather to reveal them as well as build procedures to reveal those alternative experiences (thorne et al., 2004). qms versus critical literature review/secondary data analysis qms goes beyond a critical literature review or secondary data analysis to integrating the findings from relevant qualitative studies on a given phenomenon. the result is a common understanding and not a consensual worldview. qms does not seek to justify the unnoticeable political and ideological dynamics innately embedded in previous research (thorne et al., 2004). qms is about understanding interpretations and not synthesizing the interpretations (thorne et al., 2004). as a method, qms seeks to achieve more and not less, where differences are discovered in the findings they are retained and complexities are enlightened (thorne et al., 2004). for example, shen and khalifa (2010) critically reviewed the literature on the worldwide popularity and rapid proliferation of social networking sites (sns) to understand why people use sns. they found, among other things, that social influences play a role in the usage of sns. the study does not explain the differences in the studies that were investigated but rather used the theory of acceptance and use of technology (taut). qms versus metatriangulation metatriangulation is a qualitative approach that similarly explores multiple constituent studies in an attempt to gain greater insight from an emergent theme or resultant theories (lewis and grimes, 1999). although the steps of metatriangulation are similar to qms the emphasis of metatriangulation is the relationships between the data in the constituent studies and the inferences drawn from the data because of the influence of a selected paradigm (saunders et al., 2003). hence, the substantive theory from metatriangulation emerges from the meanings that are uncovered by different paradigms. on the other hand, the substantive theory from qms emerges from the relationships between the findings of the constituent studies. metatriangulation when used reflexively (saunders et al., 2003) can play an important role in defining the quality of qms constituent studies and in helping understand why some constituent studies come up with different findings. by using metatriangulation to understand power and it, jasperson et al. (2002) discovered how it may be seen as a driver for organizational change or a process used by interested parties to affect the systems in place depending on the paradigm adopted. by using qms on the other hand, lee (2010) finds commonalities in the maturity models of e-government without having to understand how meaning was assigned to each of the findings of the constituent studies because of the paradigm that was adopted. qms versus qca the essence of qualitative comparative analysis (qca) is based on the intrinsic human nature of comparison and the quantitative idealism for certainty in cause and effect relationships. qca is also a technique that attempts to summarize the commonalities between similar cases as probable causes of a phenomenon (rihoux and ragin, 2009). in qca, an attempt is made to control the contextual conditions as in experimental designs. the exception is how commonalities in the cases are treated as strong indicators of the cause of a phenomenon. the strength of the relationships between cause and effect are then measured using traditional quantitative approaches such as statistics. for example, kohli and melville (2009) compare successful it innovators to understand the underlying nature for their success. qca enabled them to find the greatest commonality as developing a specialized set of competencies. qca uses raw data while qms uses secondary data as its source. although qca and qma both attempt to define cause and effect relationships, qms places its emphasis on describing the whole picture based on secondary data. qms does not compare and contrast but rather seeks to integrate creatively (sandelowski and barroso, 2003). this makes qms an amalgamation of the interpretations of primary data from other authors (zimmer, 2006). concerns and criticisms of qualitative meta-synthesis there are three overarching criticisms of qms (scruggs et al., 2006) which we challenge: the nature of the qualitative approach is antithetical to being summed up, which qms attempts to achieve, qms trivialises the diversity and significant differences of the qualitative methods employed in each constituent study, and qms is relatively new and therefore lacks evaluation criteria and generalizability. we consider each of the three criticisms respectively and propose solutions from is to overcome each criticism. qualitative meta-synthesis is antithetical to the qualitative spirit in integrating qualitative studies, there is the real risk of violating the fundamental spirit of the qualitative approach; that meaning is socially constructed based on the context (zimmer, 2006). qualitative research honours multiple perspectives rather than making an attempt at arriving at single truths (thorne and paterson, 2000). critics of qms question the extent to which a researcher is able to portray the subjective experience of the primary data from the constituent studies, yet the subjective experience is three times removed from the primary data. given that the data of the constituent study are the first level of interpretation, findings become a second level and the qms thereby evolves to the third level of findings. this would give qms its own epistemological slant. the criticism further highlights the importance in qms of making explicit the process and the trail of how the interpretations emerge into a theory or framework (sandelowski and barroso, 2003). in this paper, we argue that qms brings together the different perspectives of a phenomenon to give a broader and more holistic perspective. for example, the paper by lee (2010) makes an effort to bring out the subjective experience of each of the constituent studies while at the same time preserving each of the meanings that arose in those studies. qms trivialises other qualitative methods summarising qualitative findings runs the risk of destroying the integrity, scholarly intent and the epistemological commitments of the constituent studies (sandelowski et al., 1997; zimmer, 2006). the process of qms disassociates the findings of the constituent studies from the context in which they were carried out but in so doing casts doubt on the merit of the results, as to whether the results retain the qualitative flavour within which the studies are philosophically situated (zimmer, 2006). it is therefore questionable how qualitative approaches which do not have similarity in purpose can be synthesised. it is argued that different epistemological commitments will lead to the generation of different kinds of knowledge which then increases the challenge of theory formulation as prescribed in qms (jensen and allen, 1996). the scope and depth of the different qualitative approaches may also make the approaches less compatible. for example, phenomenological studies are narrow but deep and less agreeable for abstraction; grounded theories are broad in scope, not extremely descriptive and seek more generalisation; while ethnographic studies are very culturally specific (zimmer, 2006). to overcome the danger of incompatibility of qualitative approaches, we propose that qms must appeal to the truth claims in interpretivism as follows: engage the methodological procedure with rigour, reveal the pragmatic value of interpretive accounts, and acknowledge that a correspondence exists in the intersubjective understanding and agreement between the interpretive account, the interpretations of others, and the phenomenon under investigation (zimmer, 2006). nonetheless, some approaches have a degree of intersubjective understanding between them. for example, grounded theory and some schools of ethnography share epistemological underpinnings in their symbolic interactionism backgrounds (lowenberg, 1993). zimmer (2006) further recommends the use of the questioning style of hermeneutics (gadamer, 1994) to unearth more meaning from the constituent studies thereby opening up more intuitive analysis beyond depending on the intersubjective understanding between different qualitative approaches. unearthing more meaning is possible since the different qualitative approaches share a common process which acknowledges the inevitable influence of a researchers own situatedness (zimmer, 2006). grounded theory is about inductively generating theory from data (glaser and strauss, 1967), transcendental phenomenology with describing individual experiences of phenomena via the objective and epistemological stance of the researcher, and hermeneutic phenomenology on describing and understanding individual experience from the ontological perspective of being-in-the-world, that is of shared or taken-for-granted contexts and meanings (denzin and lincoln, 2005). a simpler approach to counter the criticism of incompatibleness of qualitative approaches is to analyse those which use similar qualitative methods and have similar epistemological underpinnings (zimmer, 2006). lack of criteria in qms the relative newness of qms means that some aspects of the method are not fully established and that its rigour is still questionable (walsh and downe, 2005). the risk is that qms can be captured by novice researchers who want to avoid the hard work of collecting original data or interacting with human-beings (thorne et al., 2004). qms calls for a great emphasis on reflexivity (walsh and downe, 2005) and should therefore be carried out by those who have expertise in the area or a strong commitment to the area (sandelowski and barroso, 2003). to overcome the lack of criteria, jensen and allen (1996) suggest using an important criteria of credibility. credibility is regarded as faithfulness in handling data and remaining true to its source to the extent that the constituent studies are able to recognise their experiences from the meta-synthesis. credibility can also be accomplished through peer-review (paterson et al., 1998; walsh and downe, 2005) and by internally validating the substantive theory that emerges from the qms using quotes from the constituent studies and externally validating the substantive theory against existing literature or theory (jensen and allen, 1994). for example, lee (2010), attempts to establish credibility by reviewing some of the constituent studies to the resultant common frame of reference. the criticisms of qms theory not being generalizable (scruggs et al., 2006) is a reductionist criticism which is countered in the appreciation that qms is an ever-expanding exercise that constantly peels back the multi-layered contexts to reveal a phenomena not previously seen through the standalone constituent studies (sandelowski et al., 1997). qms method as adapted for is the approaches that have been used in qms differ (sandelowski and barroso, 2003) but have the same fundamental essence (thorne et al., 2004). in this paper, we have aggregated the different approaches while taking into account the nuances of the is field and the above criticisms; the following proposed six guidelines are the result: guideline 1: plan a great deal of effort is required in any major research undertaking. thought should be given to how the activities and important research needs will be met including funding, meeting facilities, travel and others. a research proposal that meets the requirements of research funding reviews will ensure that the minimum and necessary requirements have been addressed. there ought to be provision for contingency funds as such studies tend to take more time and effort than anticipated. a project manager may also be considered necessary, otherwise the research leader will need to play this role. the following areas represent important aspects to consider in the planning phase: determine the is field in which the problem is situated (thorne et al., 2004). establish an is research team that is committed to the phenomena under investigation (paterson et al., 2001). big teams come with collaboration challenges while small teams sometimes lack all the skills needed to complete the tasks. it is equally necessary to manage the group dynamics within the team otherwise interpersonal conflicts could threaten the entire research effort. establish the purpose and scope of the study (paterson et al., 2001). establishing the scope of the study determines how manageable the qms exercise will be; the narrower the better, the wider the more difficult. scope has an effect on the generalizability of the study (walsh and downe, 2005). it is more desirable to have a narrower and tighter aim at the beginning. for example, a set of papers produced over a period of time could be carefully selected from an is conference series with a known preference for the qualitative method. develop the is research question (paterson et al., 2001). guideline 2: inclusion criteria to retrieve and assess primary research the nature of the qualitative method means that some primary research material may be quite lengthy, and may only be found in book chapters or unpublished manuscripts. back-tracking using references and appeals to known authorities has been shown to be helpful (walsh and downe, 2005). defining what qualifies to be part of the research defines the degree of quality. quality in qualitative studies is a fiercely contested issue because of the contextuality of each study. the following guidelines assist in defining quality and the choice of primary papers: a. record and make explicit the is inclusion criteria which will be used to retrieve the primary research (thorne et al., 2004). papers which refute the claims of other studies must be allowed as part of the papers to be retrieved. three methods to assess the primary research are offered (sandelowski et al., 1997). integrate the findings of a single researcher's multiple studies in a related is field. the danger of this approach is that it could limit multiple viewpoints since only one researcher is considered. synthesise studies by different investigators in a related is field. quantitatively summarise key elements across the qualitative is studies. a superficial summary should be avoided. it is necessary to acknowledge and choose one of the above methods and remain transparent by giving reasons and implications of the chosen approach (walsh and downe, 2005). b. rigorously appraise the primary research first for relevance to the research question and then for scholarly is quality (walsh and downe, 2005). some qms researchers completely bypass the quality requirement opting only for relevance. to measure for rigour and relevance, a technique which proposes a set of qualifying criteria can be adopted. an example of qualifying criteria are the critical appraisal guidelines of atkins and sampson (2002) who propose a set of five criteria classes each having a set of qualifying questions that can be used to evaluate qualitative single case study research: the way of thinking (e.g., is a credible argument given for why a case study is appropriate?), the way of working (e.g., have the criteria for analysis been confirmed by an independent researcher?), the way of controlling (e.g., are the criteria used to select the appropriate case and participants clearly described?), the way of supporting (e.g., does the study describe an orderly process for the collection of data?) and the way of communicating (e.g., are the aims and objectives of the study clearly stated?). the rigorous appraisal process could start out with one reference and broaden the search as the retrieval process ensues, with the synthesist progressively selecting the materials to be analysed (bates, 1989). c. make explicit the contexts of the constituent studies, the related assumptions behind each of the findings and their effect on the findings (paterson et al., 2001). d. detail the event timelines placing the constituent studies in temporal relation to each other (sandelowski and barroso, 2003). guideline 3: meta-data-analyse once the primary papers have been identified, most will have developed their own new metaphors and concepts that relate to the context of the primary research. it is necessary to translate such metaphors, ideas and concepts from one constituent study to the other so as to preserve the contextual signifiers from each constituent study while at the same time elevating the constituent studies into new meanings (noblit and hare, 1988). the translation is easier when the qms is focused on similar is topics. however, caution should be exercised when different methodologies have been adopted in the constituent studies. classify and make clear the constant targeted comparisons by deliberately searching for similarities and differences in the findings of the constituent studies to clarify the overlapping and defining metaphors used in each study. explore each constituent study for imported concepts since some may import terms from outside the field. an understanding of imported concepts will depend on prior knowledge of a field (sandelowski and barroso, 2003; thorne et al., 2004). three reflexive methods can be embraced for the translation: make explicit the original authors meaning of key themes, metaphors, phrases, ideas, patterns, concepts and relations using a table while preserving meaning as far as is possible (paterson et al., 2001; walsh and downe, 2005). many times these are descriptive rather than interpretive and may require going back to original sources which the studies cited. adopt a hermeneutic and dialectic approach (zimmer, 2006) or any other data analysis method such as the grounded theory or meta-ethnographical approaches (walsh and downe, 2005). employ a multifaceted system for grouping data based on criteria such as method, sample, date of publication, and specific issues related to the phenomenon of interest (paterson et al., 2001). guideline 4: meta-method the choice of research method has an influence on the results of any study. every method has an epistemological underpinning, which constrains what to consider and what to ignore. boeije (2010) constructs the influence of qualitative research method along a continuum of data transformation (table 1 and explained in table 2). table 1: quality of qualitative studies as a degree of data transformation source: boeije, 2010 table 2: data transformation in qualitative studies it is necessary to rate and make explicit the degree of data transformation chosen in the constituent primary study. for example, how would findings elicited from grounded theory and phenomenology be compared because the data are vastly different (noblit and hare, 1988)? a reflexive translation process is needed to explicitly recognise the different methodologies prior to and during the analytic stage (sandelowski et al., 1997). it is therefore important to integrate rather than simply organise the findings by: comparing the research designs and making transparent their epistemological assumptions (paterson et al., 2001), checking the relations between the constituent studies for dissonance or similarity, and through juxtaposition use the compare and contrast method. attempts to force-fit to illustrate homogeneity should be avoided, it is better to comprehend how the links are reciprocal, complementary or conflicting and, ensuring a hermeneutic dialectic in the process to confirm the whole makes sense to the parts and vice-versa (walsh and downe, 2005). guideline 5: metatheorise at this point, the influence of theory in each of the constituent studies is considered. theory in its purpose to analyse, explain, predict and prescribe research has its boundaries defined by the domain and the core problems in that domain (gregor, 2006). theory further has different levels of abstraction as some are comprehensive, middle-level and micro theories (ward and hudson, 1998). the structure, the process and the degree of persuasiveness (kalmar and sternberg, 1988) of each of the theories adopted in the primary studies should as such be reciprocally translated and synthesised based on the theory's concepts. translating integrates rather than compares the findings of one to another using metaphors and concepts that could be applied to both. translating is sometimes straightforward and reciprocal and at other times may be conflicting or even overlapping. overlaps and conflicts can signal another emergent category that has not previously been identified. therefore, differences should not be ignored in pursuit of only similarities since, "deviant data may be the raw material for another perspective" (walsh and downe, 2005: 209) and the absence of deviance can be suspicious (sandelowski and barroso, 2003; thorne et al., 2004). the deviance can be overcome by: analysing the constituent studies for the implication of their theoretical orientations to the topic, research question and for future theory development (paterson et al., 2001) and aggregating the findings and determine the magnitude of the different abstractions of theory adopted in the primary study based on whether the theory is a comprehensive, middle-level and micro-level theory and on whether the theory is designed primarily to analyse, explain, predict or prescribe (thorne et al., 2004, p. 1346) guideline 6: meta-synthesise deconstruction and generalise the final stage follows to dynamically and iteratively deconstruct current ideas about a phenomenon and come to a clearer, deeper, "more socially responsible" theoretical understanding (paterson et al., 2001: 111) of the phenomenon. deconstruction requires thinking, interpretation, creation, theorisation and deep reflection to transform the findings into new clusters of metaphors (thorne et al., 2004). the clusters of metaphors that begin to emerge form the core themes of the new comprehensive, mid-level or micro-level theory. this theory should be capable of: reflecting the tensions between contradictory or alternative explanations if the tensions suggest a lack of congruence and conveying explicitly the value of the theory to the greater whole, the parts of the research question and the field in which it is situated (walsh and downe, 2005). qms applied in information systems qms has twice been applied to is in the field of e-government to create a better understanding of e-government maturity models by siau and long (2005) and lee (2010). e-government is a growing area of research, which suffers from a plethora of frameworks and models aimed at specific contexts. because of the diversity in perspectives, it was timely to reflect on what a common framework could contribute to the field of e-government. both studies emerged with unique common frames of reference for e-government maturity. in the next section, we offer a discussion using tables for a side-by-side comparison of the two papers, using the proposed qms guidelines. plan the narrowness of scope in each paper was helpful for comparison. both papers sought to meta-synthesize the different existing maturity models of e-government in order to reach a common frame of reference. the two papers were written five years apart. it is not clear from either paper if a research team was established and it is questionable if a research team would have added any value (table 3). table 3: two is papers using qms on guideline 1: plan inclusion criteria to retrieve and assess primary studies the inclusion criteria used by both papers contain the repositories searched, timeframe, quality and context of each constituent study chosen. all the papers reviewed by siau and long (2005), with the exception of one (moon, 2002), were included in the metasynthesis by lee (2010). moon's (2002) model is an adaptation of hiller and belanger (2001). lee (2010) included siau and long's (2005) model noting that siau and long's (2005) model was equivalent to the model by gartner (baum and di maio, 2000) with one dimension, e-democracy, incongruently included (table 4). table 4: comparing two qms papers on guideline 2: inclusion / exclusion criteria context context is a fundamental principle of qualitative research without which a study may not qualify as being qualitative. there is a need for balance between making explicit the context and the amount of information that will be allowed in a single paper. the context can be represented by including the following five requirements of qualitative research (denzin and lincoln, 2005): define what is studied and where it is studied, identify the qualitative strategies of enquiry to be used, articulate the research tools for collecting and analyzing empirical data, associate how the research design connected to the context, and reflect on how the data enabled the researcher to speak to the problems of context and change. only lee (2010) presents a degree of detail for some of the primary studies but not for all studies. siau and long (2005) only provided the purpose of the primary studies but not the context of any studies. relevance or quality lee (2010) acknowledges his choice was not to assess the quality of the primary studies citing the newness of e-government as an is field, implicitly opting only for relevance. siau and long (2005) do not assess the primary studies for their quality and opt only for relevance. it is not surprising that relevance is chosen over quality as is seeks to make the basic and pure sciences relevant in the real world (lee and hubona, 2009). nonetheless, quality is necessary to determine whether the primary study remained true to the philosophical underpinnings that govern the research traditions that were adopted. further, it is necessary to make explicit the level of analytical quality employed in each of the primary studies as an important criterion of qualitative research. meta-data-analyse the primary studies there is value in juxtaposing the studies in order to see explicitly and refer to how the research designs and terms are related to each other across the different primary studies. techniques from hermeneutics and grounded theory are helpful in enabling the process of relating commonalities from text. none of the papers juxtaposed the research designs used in the primary studies. with regards to the terms, since the meaning of a term is only related to the context from which the primary study was taken, it gives further justification to making explicit the context of each of the primary studies. both papers adopted a table to juxtapose the terms used across the primary studies to derive common terms. lee (2010) used an interpretive approach to relate the terms from the different papers. siau and long (2005) do not make explicit their approach to relating the metaphors but rather attempted to force-fit many terms into one another, eventually abandoning those terms, which did not conform. siau and long (2005) critiqued some of the findings as being too narrow and thereafter propose a means to amend the findings. it is antithetical to the nature of qms and qualitative studies to propose amendments to findings but rather to accept findings seeing that the qms analyst is already at least three times removed from the primary data. it is also quite unreasonable to disregard the contextual and lived experience, which each primary study attempts to bring out (table 5). table 5: comparing two qms papers on guideline 3: meta-data-analysis meta-method to compare method meta-method touches on the issue of pluralism in qualitative research where different qualitative approaches employ different epistemologies, philosophical traditions and practices. some qualitative approaches are regarded as eclectic where all methods are regarded as equal and the choice is made based on what is available and at hand while others are regarded as pragmatic where the ontologies may be combined. different analysis approaches yield different layers of interpretation, or different views of the same phenomenon. none of the papers mentioned the research designs that were used in the primary studies (table 6). table 6: comparing two qms papers on guideline 4: meta-method meta-theorise the process of translating and synthesizing concepts into categories requires a great deal of creativity and reflexivity. it is necessary during the process not to yield to the temptation of discarding meaning from qms studies in favor of 'better' expert approaches, as this would suppress deviance. rather, the extent of deviance should be made explicit, an inherent feature in qualitative studies. techniques from qualitative research designs can assist as in the steps of meta-data-analysis and meta-method. lee (2010) adopts content analysis to meta-theorize while siau and long (2005) are not explicit in the approach used but appear to force-fit terms into categories, abandoning some in preference for other terms which conform (table 7). table 7: comparing two qms papers on guideline 5: meta-theorize deconstruct and generalise the common frame of reference is able to reflect the dissonances and similarities between the primary studies as well as be able to give relative explanations as to why there are differences and similarities. each primary study should be identifiable in the substantive theory. lee (2010) explains the new common frame of reference linking it to the different primary studies. the limitations as well as the areas for further research with regards to e-government as an is field are made clear illustrating what could and could not be achieved by the analysis. siau and long (2005) briefly explain the new common frame of reference but they neither relate it back to the constituent studies nor do they illustrate the contribution to the is field of e-government (table 8). table 8: comparing two qms papers on guideline 6: meta-synthesize conclusions is has over the past years seen an appreciation of the qualitative approach, with an increasing number of is conferences and journals including calls for publications that use qualitative methods. qualitative approaches appreciate that context differs and are comfortable with an apparent dissonance of results. unfortunately, the appreciation of dissonance means that the results of such qualitative studies often stand alone. community informatics, as a field within is, leans a great deal on qualitative research methods to reveal the often unreported rich and intricate insights about the role that ict and the internet can play in emancipating communities. community informatics is therefore exposed to the lack of collated substantive theories that better explain the field to a novice researcher and practitioners. novice researchers and practitioners often have difficulty in appreciating dissonance, or understanding that divergent findings can be appreciated. a substantive theory that brings together the dissonant findings from community informatics would make a significant contribution to is. qualitative meta-synthesis (qms) seeks to overcome the isolationist tendency by bringing together the solitary and dissonant findings and inferring relationships between them to result in a common frame of reference about a phenomenon under investigation (zimmer, 2006). such a common frame of reference has implications for both is theory and is practice. for is theory, the common frame of reference can be the beginning of is theories. for practice, the frame of reference can serve as the basis for policies that are relevant to divergent contexts. for example, a great deal of research has been done on ict for development yet the area is yet to produce a substantive is theory or make a functional contribution to policy reformation. in this paper, we presented qms as a suitable approach that can bring together the various findings from qualitative studies in is from which substantive is theories can be built at comprehensive, mid-level and micro-levels. we revealed how qms has not been rigorously applied in is and as such has not produced the wealth of insights that are possible from qualitative studies. the paper considered how qms has been applied in other fields similar to community informatics and looking at the unique nature of is, developed a set of guidelines to be followed in is. the qms guidelines when rigorously applied do not violate the basic tenets of the qualitative paradigm. the meta-synthetic process can be carried out in the same hermeneutic spirit of the interpretive or critical paradigm. the theory(s) generated from qms are more generalizable and allow for a greater contribution to is theory and practice. acknowledgements we acknowledge the invaluable feedback given by carol saunders, cathy urquhart, shirley gregor, michael barrett and geoff walsham in reviewing drafts of this paper. references adam mahmood, m. o., burn, j. m., gemoets, l. a., and jacquez, c. 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(2006). qualitative meta-synthesis: a question of dialoguing with texts. journal of advanced nursing, 53(3), 311-318. the use of mobile phones for development in africa: top-down-meets-bottom-up partnering laura hosman illinois institute of technology elizabeth fife university of southern california abstract the african continent currently boasts the highest mobile telephony growth rates in the world, bringing new communications possibilities to millions of people. the potential for mobile phones to reach a large and growing base of users across the continent, and to be used for development-related purposes, is becoming widely recognized, evidenced by the growing number of development-oriented projects, applications, and programs that specifically make use of mobiles. pent-up demand and limited resources have led to innovative usage and services being developed at the grassroots level. yet much remains to be done by governments in order to support further growth of telecommunications markets and services, while the private sector, non-profits, and academics all have an important role to play in the development process as well. the phenomenon of top-down-meeting-bottom-up partnerships that are springing up across the continent offers the potential for cultivating the necessary feedback loops between various actors involved in the development process, in order to create relevant applications that meet real needs. keywords: top-down-meets-bottom-up, development, mobile technology, africa, innovation, ict introduction for at least the past decade, political leaders and policymakers have been stressing the paramount need for africa to harness technology in order to join the information society and take part in the global knowledge economy (see, e.g. akpan, 2000; southwood, 2008; farrell & isaacs, 2008). the significance of achieving this development goal for the continent has been articulated as such: “to be left out of the information revolution will be a consignment to irrelevance and eternal oblivion” (jimba, 1998, p. 68). many have speculated that due both to the absence of land-line infrastructure in africa and to the new wireless technologies available for ict connectivity, the continent may be able to leapfrog the traditional development trajectory, adopting the newest, cutting-edge, high-speed technologies that would usher in the ict revolution (see, e.g. jensen, 1998; nevin, 2000). these predictions have been partially right: africa is indeed experiencing an explosion of mobile phone sales, and currently is the world’s fastest-growing wireless phone market—a boom that has exceeded all expectations. this explosion is certainly good news for the continent, in terms of economic development and quality of life improvement, as people are able to communicate as never before. there is an extremely important role to be played by mobiles in the context of african development, and a great deal of creativity has been exhibited in the creation of applications which take advantage of the mobile phone’s capabilities. however, the predictions that foresaw millions of computers and laptops across africa connected to satellite-provided internet at low prices, contributing to a continent racing towards the information age (fleming, 1996) have been far off the mark. unfortunately, the hyperbolic rhetoric referenced above sheds no light on effective policy formulation or on methods to effectively confront development challenges, and in fact can lead to unrealistic expectations and create an aspirations gap—not the desired result. this article will highlight some of the breakthroughs and the development possibilities promoted through the use of mobile phones, while arguing that an important area for future research, theory-building, and development activity is at the nexus of where bottom-up needs and innovation meet top-down capabilities and funding. such partnerships can potentially address sustainability issues, and create a feedback loop between needs identification and technological expertise. many of these initiatives involve partnerships, which can be between communities, companies, and universities, and can also involve individuals such as entrepreneurs, researchers, practitioners, and students. numerous examples of such initiatives are presented, and the article also makes an initial step in the direction of building a theory of top-down-meets-bottom-up partnerships for development projects. the structure of the article is as follows. the next section gives a brief overview of mobile telephony in africa. this is followed by a discussion of the concept of mobile phones being used as tools for development. next comes an overview of top-down development initiatives, followed by a section highlighting bottom-up innovation, specifically using mobile phones. the subsequent section brings these together and highlights partnerships involving “bottom up” meeting “top down,” while also discussing the potential of such partnerships. the following section describes socio-political development potential vis-à-vis mobile phone use. finally, the article discusses the challenges that remain in promoting further development with the assistance of mobiles. mobile telephony in africa estimates of africa’s average annual growth rate in mobile subscriptions stand at 65 percent or higher. this is the highest growth rate in the world. in 2001, the number of mobile phone connections surpassed the number of land-line connections on the continent, and the number of mobile users has only continued to grow: 89 percent of african telephone subscribers are mobile users (itu, 2008). the international telecommunications union reports that as of 2007, the percentage of mobile phone subscribers in africa had reached 28 percent, even though continent-wide coverage had only reached 60 percent (itu, 2008). even so, macro-level statistics such as these are inherently misleading, both because the notion of a subscriber in the developing world is complicated and shared use of phones tends to underestimate the actual number of users (de silva & zainudeen, 2007), and because they do not reflect the disparity between connectivity in urban and rural settings. the vast majority of connectivity takes place in the major or capital cities across the continent. in rural locations, where the world bank estimates that 65-70 percent of sub-saharan africa’s population currently resides,[1] connectivity is still nearly nonexistent. different countries comprising the continent are not equally serviced, either: south africa and gabon have the highest mobile phone penetration rates, with around 87 phones per 100 persons, while eritrea and ethiopia have the lowest, with approximately 1.4 mobile phones per 100 inhabitants (itu, 2008). curwen and whalley (2008) estimate that in fact only a few african countries have what can be termed a large subscriber base: south africa (30 million), nigeria (18 million), algeria (13.5 million), morocco (13 million) and egypt (12.5 million). a few other countries have between 1 and 5 million subscribers, and many of the rest fewer than half a million subscribers. this suggests much future growth, keeping in mind potential economic constraints. the potential and limitations of mobile phones for development there is broad agreement among scholars that the adoption and use of mobile telephony in developing countries has positive economic effects, even though estimates of these effects vary. waverman, meschi, and fuss (2005) have found that mobile phones are having a positive and significant effect on economic growth in developing countries. in fact, they find that because mobile phones provide the primary method of communications in developing countries with no or few fixed lines, the growth impact for developing countries may be twice as great as for developed countries, in which attributable growth would be split between fixed-line and mobile-phone use. similarly, garbacz and thompson (2007) have found that countries with less developed ict use may experience stronger general economic growth due to the use of mobiles. in their analysis of the relationship between mobile use and growth in african wto-member nations, keck and djiofack-zebaze (2006) find that a 1 percent increase in access to mobile networks may result in a 0.5 percent increase in real gdp per capita. mobile telephony can lead to economic growth in a number of ways, both directly and indirectly. the telecom sector itself also generates employment, which ranges from construction workers needed to carry out infrastructure deployment, to service-related employees, to gray sector workers who sell top-up airtime cards along the side of the road. the use of mobile phones to conduct business reduces costs and increases the speed and efficiency of transactions. in african nations, the micro-entrepreneur stands to gain the greatest amount from use of the mobile phone (unctad, 2007). unfortunately, one reason that it is mainly the micro-entrepreneurs that stand to benefit economically is because across the continent there is an underdeveloped small and medium enterprise sector—a phenomenon known as the “missing middle” (kauffmann, 2005), a term coined in the context of africa to describe an economy consisting of both microand macro-sized participants (and often dominated by foreign-based multinationals). this point leads us to a larger, and thornier, issue regarding mobile phones and development. although there is great reason for optimism in the growth rate of mobile phone adoption and increased communications capabilities across the continent, there is simply no reason to be content to stop with mobile phones, for they—as well as technology itself—represent incomplete solutions to greater development challenges. the history of economic growth is a story of technological innovation and adoption (easterlin, 1996; sachs, 2005a). yet the simple provision of and access to technology is necessary, though it is far from sufficient. ict’s impact on economic growth (and socio-political development) depends not only on its own level, but also on the level of other complementary factors (edwards, 2002). perhaps the most important of these factors is the level of human skills and capabilities required to make use of the new technologies. the most effective method for states to develop such capacities is through education (lee, 2001; jamali, wandschneider & wunnava, 2007). developing an economy populated with a workforce that is able to access, adopt, and create technology for its own advancement is a worthwhile goal, but it will take an honest, circumspect evaluation of whether and how technology can enable, empower, and enhance existing experiences, and a rejection of the too-simplistic notion that technology alone is the answer that will change everything (adelman, 2001). if technology is to be adopted, this will require a long-term investment on the part of governments and all participants and shareholders, first in human capacity building, and second, in the technology projects themselves. there are numerous other areas in which governments must actively assist in realizing these development goals. some of these will be addressed below. in addition, it is also important to recognize that focusing on mobiles alone and relying on them to lead the african continent to economic growth is not a satisfactory endpoint. there is a difference between a populace that is able (enabled) to communicate and one that is able to access, process, use, synthesize, and produce information and technology—in other words, the difference between experiencing a communications revolution and entering the information society to participate in the knowledge economy. the requisites for achieving an information-literate society differ in terms of skill sets, capabilities, investments, infrastructures, and timelines. while it will remain essential for all nations across the continent to continue promoting and enabling ict adoption within their borders, the presence of mobile phones has already provided inspiration for the creative and thoughtful development of a multitude of relevant applications that allow people to enhance their political, social, and economic capabilities through the use of these technologies (marsden, 2008). while we recognize these limitations, mobile telephony is, in the short to medium term, expected to be the main form of ict used across africa (unctad, 2007), thus this article will explore how mobile technology can be maximized for social and economic benefit across africa. changing the traditional top-down strategy over the past few years, in large part due to the work of c.k. prahalad (2004), there has been a growing recognition of a largely untapped potential market: the four billion people at the “bottom of the (economic) pyramid” (bop). the acknowledgement of this segment of the population as a potential market represents an attitudinal shift on the part of large, western multinational corporations (mncs), which are now eager to expand their reach to include it. however, quadir challenges the top-down strategy that generally has been employed with bop initiatives: simply treating the poor as consumers does nothing to increase their incomes or therefore their purchasing capacity, nor does it stimulate much-needed entrepreneurship (quadir & morse, 2003).[2] thus, given the large number of “early mover” (and mainly top-down) initiatives that have failed in recent years (london & hart, 2004), there is also a growing comprehension that reaching this group and realizing successful ventures will require a new business strategy—one heretofore not addressed in the literature or theory of emerging market business models. mncs interested in doing business with bop residents may be wise to consider projects that add societal as well as economic value. in practical terms, this also means that engaging a bottom-up approach will lead to greater chance of project success. by understanding what the technology recipients in the developing world truly want and need—what their pressure and pain points are, as well as what their unique societal concerns may be—projects are more likely to address existing needs and, as such, stand a much better chance of succeeding than those thought up by a research and development team in a far-off locale with the aim of selling a product that their company already makes. one method for corporations to understand the needs of the poor is to engage directly with them. nokia, for example, sends “user anthropologists” around the globe to engage directly with the poor in order to uncover what they would find of value in a mobile phone (corbett, 2008). nokia has used innovation from the bottom to become the handset leader in india by using its innovation to create 200 million customers. through observing the unique needs of indian customers, particularly in rural villages where most of the population resides, it segmented them in and put new features on handsets relevant to their unique needs. another method identified in the literature is to engage in partnerships (hosman & fife, 2008). while the case has been made for public-private partnerships, and these are currently held in extremely high esteem by governments, ngos, development organizations, and firms alike, a new form of partnership—that of partnering with universities and researchers, will be described below. such partnerships may help corporations radically redefine their role in the developing world, in terms of not taking a technology-centric approach nor even a profit-oriented approach in their attempts to find the best solutions to a given challenge. there are signs that corporations are open to adopting such an approach: in a recent interview, bill gates indicated that microsoft is open to such a “creative capitalism” approach (kinsey, 2008). developing the business model for bottom-up and top-down mobile phone usage in the african context research communities are growing steadily around the study of mobile phone use in the developing world—several areas of study can be identified, including: a. the factors that drive adoption, b. the impact of use, and c. the relationships between mobile communications and users (donner, 2008). within these categories can be found a multitude of approaches, frameworks and definitions, often derived from disciplinary origins of the activity such as sociology, developmental economics, private enterprise efforts, or policy reports. we argue here that a common language for assessing and describing mobile solutions could be developed through the use of a business model framework which could be specifically relevant for collaboration between public and private entities and the world of practitioners and researchers. the critical question of “who pays?” and the possibilities for revenue generation in the long term are often roadblocks to investment in rural and poorer areas of both developed and developing markets. showing return on investment is needed to develop convincing models that will drive comprehensive solutions in healthcare, governmental services and other areas. making the business case for sustainability, we argue, will help galvanize institutions and private industry to move forward. one example of this approach is the “budget telecom model” described by samarajiva and zainudeen (2011), who show how mobile operators in bangladesh, india, pakistan and sri lanka have been able to make profits while serving customers at the bottom of the pyramid through technological and service innovations and depth of understanding of mobile phone behavior patterns. the success of mobile operators such as bharti airtel in india and recent expansion into many african markets will perhaps usher in similar business models (samarajiva & zainudeen, 2011; fife & dewan, 2011). thus far, bharti airtel has faced difficulties, however, in bringing its affordable mobile service model to rural africa, given its challenge vis-à-vis established regional carriers such as mtn and vodacom. a standardized framework for describing the business model for broadband that allows classification of current and future business models based on the categories identified below is proposed. this will support knowledge building and creation of an ongoing business model repository. the particular model suggested here is the visor model, which is composed of five elements that constitute its acronym: the value proposition, user interface, service platform, organizational model and revenue model and includes analysis of relevant is and it factors which may be important differentiators in the delivery of digital applications, services and general access (el sawy & pereira, 2011). it also allows for modeling of likely evolution paths of a business model as the effects of change develop further. considering the development of mobile infrastructures in the african context from a business model standpoint with a unified framework, such as the visor model that brings together multiple elements and underlying drivers, can support thinking about development activities that are by necessity based on use cases that drive revenue to support a mobile infrastructure. most importantly, it will allow a healthy interaction between research and practice in a way that advances both. researchers will have a better common language and framework to communicate with, which will help them generate new types of business models specific to the developing world, and practitioners will have a way to examine the universe of models with the same language, allowing interaction between the two groups. the term “business model” is often employed in many ways and frequently addresses only one element, such as revenue, growth opportunities or the firm’s internal processes, which include administrative processes and management, as well as the technology infrastructure that enables production or service delivery (schafer, smith & linder, 2005). the visor model attempts to integrate several different approaches to business model development, and also includes unaddressed key elements, such as the user experience and interface factors (el sawy & pereira, 2011). while these factors are not explicitly recognized in many approaches, they figure prominently in theories of diffusion of innovation and are equally relevant to technology offerings in the developing world where “appropriateness” and “fit” are often issues. at its core, a good business model must address a few central questions, as peter drucker is quoted, “who is the customer? and what does the customer value? … how do we make money in this business? what is the underlying economic logic that explains how value can be delivered at an appropriate cost?” (mageretta, 2002). these questions are even more critical for serving needs in resource-strapped environments where affordability, value and ease of use are requirements. in these respects, the visor model, illustrated below in figure 1, shows the core elements of a complete business model and includes how a firm responds to customer/user needs, latent or established, thus creating and delivering maximum value to the customer in a sustainable manner, and optimizing cost of value creation. a successful business model then, is one that is able to deliver the greatest value, maximizes willingness to pay on the part of target users, and also minimizes the real cost (tangible and intangible) for the provision of services. this is achieved through the optimal mix of the interface experience, service platforms and the organizing model. figure 1. elements of the visor model value proposition “value proposition” addresses why particular customer segments value a product or service and are willing to pay for them. willingness to pay, which also assumes the ability to pay, an added tension in resource-deprived environments, is a direct function of whether applications provide “value creation” in that they satisfy an unmet latent end-user demand, or “value substitution” in that they provide an alternative means to an existing application or service. given ability-to-pay issues in the developing world, creative ways of addressing this critical element are key. interface the successful delivery of a product or service is heavily predicated on the user interface experience in terms of ease of use, simplicity, convenience, and aesthetics. for instance, the use of cartoon figures and other representations as a replacement for text-based services have been developed to meet the needs of an illiterate user base. service platforms the it platforms that enable, shape, and support business processes and relationships are needed to deliver products and services, as well as to improve the value proposition. keeping in mind infrastructure limitations and device accessibility, as well as training, service, and maintenance issues, technology requirements need to be scaled for the environment and existing capabilities. for instance, it is difficult to make the economic argument for broadband fiber to the home in “hard-to-serve” areas where incomes are low, population is sparse; alternative infrastructure such as wireless may be the best solution. organizing model this describes how an enterprise or a set of partners will organize business processes, value chains, and partner relationships to effectively and efficiently deliver products and services. the collaboration between a multitude of public and private entities is the current trend in many development projects; understanding the mechanics, interests and motivations in these partnerships is necessary, as well as management of stakeholders. revenue model in a good business model, the combination of the value proposition, the way that offerings are delivered, and the investments in it platforms are such that revenues exceed costs and are attractive for all partners. the sustainability (i.e., capacity to create revenue) of a project or service needs to be identified and cultivated. in the case of the “budget telecom model” this entailed mobile operators understanding income patterns of consumers, for example shifting from larger-denomination top-up cards to electronic micro-top-up cards of small denominations (samarajiva & zainudeen, 2011) innovative bottom-up and top-down mobile phone usage in the african context consideration of business models is a means to bring together bottom-up innovation and top-down solutions. regardless of the use-case for mobile devices—personal communications between friends and family members, or as support to an inadequate public health care system—in the end, provisioning, servicing and other elements that make mobile technology available must have resources to support maintenance and growth. bottom-up innovation is often driven by high necessity and very tight budgets of those occupying the “bottom of the pyramid,” while top-down innovations are created by those trying to discover how to make money while providing services to these same poor people. interaction between the top and bottom can exist, however, when deliberately managed. the level of innovation demonstrated from the bottom has been impressive, to the point where global companies have started to talk about applications “trickling up” from developing to developed world markets (kahn, 2008; marsden, 2008). ironically, the developed world may be behind in adopting some of the newest technologies, because technologies obsolesce slower than they can be invented. thus, when people have finally adapted to the latest “new” technology, they may be loath to re-adapt a short time later when the “newest new” technology comes out. this can mean that the latest technologies are deployed in the developing world because of the very cost savings enabled by the new inventions. as a result, voip and long-distance wireless technologies are currently being deployed in remote and rural locations around the world. these projects were unimaginable just a few years back, but the cost savings realized by technological breakthroughs have now made them feasible (hosman & fife, 2008). it also means that numerous multinational corporations are pioneering their new products and even locating facilities in the developing world, as they try to figure out how to do business there—and are discovering that they may need to radically rethink their business models, and how they produce, invent, design, and market their products and services (kahn, 2008; london & hart, 2004). the following are examples of bottom-up inventiveness demonstrated by those with limited budgets: beeping—the practice of sending an unanswered call, ring, or “beep” to another phone, with a code that is understood by both sender and receiver. for example, one ring may signify “call me,” while two rings may mean “i made it home safely.” beeping has no cost, as an unanswered call accrues no charges (heavens, 2007). taking beeping one step further, cell-life (www.cell-life.org.ze), a charity organization focusing on hiv/aids issues, sends short message service (sms) messages out to all missed calls (beeps) that the health clinics receives, thus pushing information back to inquirers at no cost to them (marsden, 2008). fishermen in tanzania and elsewhere use text messaging to receive weather reports, as well as to ascertain market prices before bringing their fish back for selling (wray & mayet, 2007). farmers also use text messaging to check prices at local markets to ensure they get a fair price for their produce. services have been set up that send text alerts to jobseekers about potential employment opportunities, which saves time and travel costs. small business owners send text messages to keep in touch with their customers. mobile phone airtime is being used directly as currency. this obviates the need for paying a middleman to transport money from one location to another. in uganda, local conservation groups halted the planned sale of a section of the country’s mabira rainforest after collecting over 11,000 names on a petition that was conducted purely through sms. they collected the names through an online petition people could access through their mobile phones (jay, 2007).many of these innovations make use of sms, or “texting,” in original ways, to accomplish tasks that people in wealthy countries are able to do in other ways. to give some examples of corporations pioneering their latest products in the developing world: motorola has developed the “motophone,” which is thinner than its popular razr phone, gets up to 400 hours of standby time on a single battery charge, and has a special screen designed for text messaging that works using reflected light, and thus has no need for an internal lamp. it is anticipated to retail for just $30 (kahn, 2008). intel has been testing a specialized wi-fi platform that can send data over antennas located over 60 miles apart from one another. this breakthrough represents a great step forward for rural areas where it is too expensive to lay cables. intel has already installed and tested the hardware in south africa, india, panama, and vietnam (greene, 2008). metropolitan life insurance company has created a business unit called click2go that makes it possible to buy life insurance instantly, simply by sending one’s name and national id number by sms. this service costs r10 (us$ 1.30), covers a person for six days, and pays out r60,000 ($7,811) in the case of accidental death (clickatell, 2007). this service essentially provides just-in-time life insurance to anyone with access to a mobile phone, with no need for medical tests, paperwork, or visits to brokers, and thus provides coverage to many who may not have considered it a possibility before. mtn nigeria, celtel and safaricom offer pre-paid top-up cards both in africa and in britain, partly to enable nigerians living in britain to buy airtime for family members back home as a convenient alternative to sending smaller amounts of money (mwanza, 2007). though some larger african banks are opposed to this practice, where there is a profit to be made, other corporations will rise to address the demand for this service. levi strauss south africa has launched a mobile phone service that will facilitate hiv/aids testing. people can send an sms with the word “hiv” and their post code or town name, and the two nearest aids testing locations will be texted back. the project is a partnership between levi strauss, south african hiv clinicians society, karabo.org.za, and new start. all of the testing centers in the program offer anonymous, confidential, free hiv testing, as well as counseling. the campaign is also aimed at removing the stigma associated with getting tested—an important first step in controlling the spread of the disease (iafrica.com, 2007). nokia has launched a mobile phone and accessory recycling initiative in east africa (comprising kenya, uganda, rwanda, somalia, and tanzania) in the effort to address fears that second-hand mobiles are posing an increasing toxic risk in africa (malakata, 2007). at this point in time, the phones are sent back to europe for processing/recycling. perhaps in the future, such recycling could be done directly in east africa. motorola, ericsson, and flexenclosure (a swedish startup) have been testing wind and solar-powered base stations for mobile networks. not only is this an environmentally-friendly initiative, it also saves on the costs of using diesel generators, because the fuel to power them is expensive and, because they can be used to power many other machines, they are prone to theft (mayet, 2007; sistek, 2008). given the environmentally friendly aspect of these innovations (as well as the rising cost of fuels around the globe) these innovations are likely to find wide application in the developed world, as well. vodacom offers a number of innovative services to make sure its low-balance users stay customers. they offer a service whereby one caller can send a “call me” sms free-of-charge to another caller (of course, this is merely an extension of the “beeping” method described above). they also offer a “sponsor” service that allows a user to volunteer upfront to accept the charges for calls made by specific numbers made (a sort of sponsored “my faves” service). taking this one step further, vodacom also allows customers to transfer both airtime and funds directly through sms, with no restrictions (sanders, 2006). vodacom’s competitor in south africa, mtn, also offers this service—providing evidence of where competition among telecom companies tends to benefit the customer. vodacom also allows merchants to accept credit card payments via sms (sanders, 2006). “bottom-up” meeting “top-down” initiatives the argument has been made that when ict-related development projects are well thought out, technologically appropriate, and designed with long term sustainability and the empowerment of the localities in mind, they can bring about real socio-economic benefit (hosman & fife, 2008). yet, the question remains of how to effectively address all of the above conditions. discovering the true needs and demands of the poor requires their input and involvement. determining whether these needs can best be met through technology, and then establishing how to do so, may best be done by those with pre-existing technological expertise. the challenge is to establish a feedback loop between the top and bottom, in order to understand local communities’ needs and, if called for, develop appropriate technology-based projects. scholarly study on the topic of bottom-up meeting top-down initiatives is nearly non-existent. while this will remain a crucial area for future research, we feel confident asserting that university-based researchers have an important role to play in establishing the feedback loop between the bottom-up and top-down. for example, calibrating solutions to needs and user perceptions requires extensive interaction and “in the field” market research (donner, gandhi, et al., 2008). understanding individual circumstances is a vital element to understanding how technology can best address needs and the design of the user interface. communicating the “value proposition” was necessary to get women slum residents in bangalore to use a mobile solution that provides information about housekeeping jobs. while the user interface was well thought out and the service met an identifiable need, the women users did not understand how a small box could have the information they wanted. thus, they believed that talking to their friends would be a better way to learn about jobs. identifying the realities on the ground, adjusting solutions and monitoring adoption through time are critical to successful “bottom-up” innovation and illustrate an important role for academic involvement (donner et al., 2008) in business model development. academic researchers are auspiciously positioned to serve in this facilitating role for a number of reasons. scholars often have access to resources, which includes the ability to apply for grants to fund initial and continuing research both at home and in the field, as well as a laboratory for doing research back at their home university, and contacts with other scholars to solicit additional input. most scholars who study or are involved in development have good intentions and want to see technology assist development. researchers focused on human development emphasize the importance of engaging and empowering the community, and of placing the focus on the people and the process, not on the technology—in other words, their motivations may differ from a government or corporate representative. as such, collaborative partnerships between universities, governments, and communities have been identified as important success factors in the promotion of community-empowering projects (marshall & taylor, 2005). to this partnership list, we would add non-governmental organizations and businesses, for it has been shown that these actors also have an important role to play in the development process. in addition, a project embarked upon under the auspices of a university, as opposed to being governmentor corporate-led, can bring about a sense of legitimization in the eyes of the local technology recipients, who are therefore likely to be more accepting of the project (marshall & taylor, 2005). a number of university researchers themselves appear to have begun already to embrace this bottom-up/top-down role, which is evident from the numerous collaborative examples below. still another aspect of top-down meeting bottom-up development is the growing recognition of the importance of training local people to become producers, and not merely consumers, of technology. this takes the concepts of sustainability and empowerment one step further, as it promotes locally-driven development solutions. some examples of top-down/bottom-up initiatives include the following: eprom (entrepreneurial programming and research on mobiles) forms part of the mit design laboratory. over the past two years, they have been teaching mobile phone programming within the computer science departments of six universities across east africa. this training is designed to give students proficiency in mobile-based codes, software, and general programming, in order to be able to design their own applications, with the needs of african users in mind (eprom website). there is also a pilot program underway which teaches entrepreneurs how to develop, market, and launch their own mobile phone application, in order to promote their commercial ventures (eprom website). participants in these courses have already contributed innovative applications, such as one computer science graduate who created an sms-based bulletin board system to help connect buyers and sellers in nairobi (eprom website). kiwanja.net is a well-known website/database/information clearinghouse/ngo supporter. all of kiwanja’s activities are related to mobiles and development. they have proposed to continue and expand the efforts begun by eprom, first by developing software and tools such that mobile phone programming can be done on phones rather than computers. second, they have proposed to expand the training and education for such programming by placing it online, so that it may be taught on a much wider scale than just in universities (mobility.kiwanja.net). stanford university has partnered with makerere university, mweka college of african wildlife management, and university of the western cape to conduct classes via cell phones. ericsson and sony ericsson collaborated to provide mobile smart phones equipped with video cameras, audio recorders, and internet capability, as well as technical and other support for the pilot version of this course (silicon valley, 2007). through a joint project between the tier research group at the university of california, berkeley, and intel research berkeley, the amita telemedicine organization was formed. rural healthcare workers in many african nations can contact city hospitals in emergencies, or for diagnosis assistance. in certain locations around the continent, smartphones are being used to assist with survey-taking and record-keeping, as well as being used for sending photographs, emails, and written or verbal descriptions of maladies and for assistance with diagnoses. this assistance is obtained from experts across the continent and around the world, through a diasporic expatriate network (many expatriates who have left their home countries for western locales consider contributing to this community one way of “giving back” to their home country) (luk, ho & aoki, 2008). this project is one of numerous collaborative endeavors that the tier research group is involved in, in order to design and deploy new technologies in emerging regions. in uganda, a dutch ngo initiated a project that takes getting information about crop prices to the next level, encouraging networking among farmers. in this network, farmers share information and tips with one another over sms. these tips range from helpful hints on how to raise ducks for extra income, to information that helps to coordinate the planning of what to grow, and when, to maximize income for the farmers, so that the farmers have knowledge at the macro level instead of just the individual level—when one district chose to grow cassava, another district knew to choose another crop; when bird flu broke out, all farmers were warned. additionally, this program is enlisting literate farmers to teach their not-yet-literate neighbors how to read, so that they can send, receive, and understand the texts (ssendi, 2007). though their efforts are not strictly mobile-oriented, inveneo, a non-profit company based in san francisco, provides innovative ict solutions to those in rural and remote locations, mainly in africa. inveneo creates ict devices that spring from a consideration of external environmental conditions, energy supply (or lack thereof), and long-term energy costs facing a client. their solutions tend to be ultra low-power or solar-powered computers and servers, and they make use of wi-fi and voip to take advantage of available and affordable technologies. one unique aspect of inveneo’s focus on project sustainability is that they recruit, train, and certify local ict professionals, so that these smalland medium-sized business entrepreneurs perform the installation, maintenance, and support for the projects. this not only keeps costs down for the projects, it also promotes sustainability by building local expertise and abilities, which benefits the local economy. this focus on the “local” is even more important once one factors in maintenance and support. it is, of course, difficult to identify where innovative initiatives originate, where the bottom-up and top-down meet. the above examples are meant to illustrate that innovation of all kinds is on display, and when feedback loops can be established between top-down and bottom-up insight and expertise, all involved will benefit. socio-political development potential vis-à-vis mobile phones not all development is of an economic nature, of course. social and political issues are equally important, and must be factored in to development considerations. some research—though not a great deal—has considered the social impact of mobile telephony in the developing world. de silva and zainudeen (2007, p. 2) rightly point out that the “social” use of ict is not to be considered frivolous—the ability of family members to stay in touch with one another contributes to a better quality of life, to give but one example. there are also important advances being made in the realms of health and education across the african continent. in the field of tele-health, applying new technologies has the potential to benefit countless africans. a limited number of exemplary programs exist as examples for what could eventually serve the entire continent: 1. dr. teresa peters in cape town, south africa, came up with the idea of sending sms messages to patients, reminding them to take their medications. this is extremely important for patients diagnosed with tuberculosis or hiv/aids, as the treatment programs for these diseases require patients to take medications at certain intervals throughout the day, and missing a dose can necessitate recommencing the entire expensive treatment program (wright, 2004). 2. doctors and medical students in uganda and kenya participated in a pilot program wherein they were equipped with hand-held personal digital assistants (pdas) that helped with diagnoses, medication dosage recommendations, contra-indications, drug interaction information, and even drug availability in the region, all in real-time. the doctors who participated in the program were very enthusiastic about the pdas, with more than 90 percent claiming they would spend their own money to buy their own; after the program they felt they could no longer function efficiently without one (wright, 2004). 3. the adoption of mobile computers and wireless technology has been slow in hospitals, clinics, and health-care centers across africa, but the potential for increased productivity and quality of service is great. in addition to the above-mentioned access to information, and doctors being able to collaborate with other specialists around the globe with the aid of images available in real-time, patients will also benefit from having their health history information readily available at any hospital or clinic they come to for care. 4. in south africa, teachers lacking access to projectors in lecture halls are now able to share their powerpoint slide decks with all smart-phone owning students (which is the majority) through wi-fi, and the wi-fi enabled phones act as bridges to students with bluetooth devices—which are more common than those with wi-fi (marsden, 2008). the above are but a few anecdotal examples of mobile-enabled social development initiatives across africa, and the authors recognize that for meaningful adoption of ict--mobile or otherwise, within the educational context, requires long-term teacher training and support, integration into the pedagogical process, and access to the requisite technologies (chigona et al., 2010; hosman & cvetanoska, 2010). there is also an important role for mobiles in the political process. in theory, mobiles can facilitate democratic processes by enhancing communications abilities toward political and community ends, increasing the possibility for people to make their voices heard by government and to reduce their reliance on government-controlled media as the source of their information (kyem & lemaire, 2006). the 2000 presidential elections in senegal provide a good example of mobile telecommunications being employed to ensure fair voting conditions. senegalese citizens armed with radios and mobile phones manned the individual ballot stations, reporting fraud as well as phoning in results to local radio stations. in the event, it proved difficult for the 19-year incumbent to alter the results, and he peacefully abdicated power to the electoral winner. on the other hand, use of texting in the 2011 nigerian elections did not prevent violence from occurring at polling stations, but it may have lessened the amount that ultimately did occur. similarly, though widespread use was made of sms during the election campaigns in zimbabwe, it was not employed specifically to prevent the pervasive violence that occurred surrounding these elections. in a mixed-outcome example, video-phone images of police torturing detainees in egypt have brought worldwide attention to the alleged widespread use of torture by egyptian authorities. as a likely-unanticipated result, however, the egyptian government closed down the association for human rights and legal aid, a group that has raised torture cases in egyptian courts (stanek, 2008). these examples both underscore that even though information is thought of as a great equalizing, democratizing force, repressive regimes can still limit its use, and use it to their own intimidating advantage. the theory that mobile phones and increased information lead to greater levels of government accountability and democracy is widely held. however, to our knowledge, it has not been subjected to any rigorous empirical testing, and the examples above demonstrate that positivist assumptions require critical examination. supporting further adoption and innovative usage: the challenges ahead the argument was made above that relying on technology alone to provide development solutions is an incomplete answer, and that governments have an essential role to play in the development process. at the same time, we acknowledge that “most states in africa can be described as states that generally fail to meet the basic needs of their people” (agbese, 2007, p. 42). not only does this mean that much work remains to be done by many african governments in terms of governmental development itself, in building institutional capacity, and in reducing corruption and repression, but it also means that many may question a state’s prioritization of technology issues in the absence of basic needs being met. our argument to this question is that the meeting of basic needs and the utilization of technology should not be thought of as an either/or, which-comes-first proposition. they are not mutually exclusive, and may be pursued in complementarity. ict can provide dramatic changes in quality of life and opportunity. given this article’s focus, the current section highlights areas where there is room for improvement in how african governments deal with information and communications technology. according to infodev, most african countries had, by 2007, created national ict policies (farrell & isaacs, 2008, p. 6). while this is undoubtedly a step forward, they also find a large disconnect between the formulation of these policies and their translation into reality (p. 1, 7), underscoring the fact that there are numerous challenges ahead as african nations attempt to move from policy proclamations to action. as of late 2006, more than one-third of africa’s state-run telecommunications companies had been privatized, with several more set to undergo privatization in the near future. while it is generally agreed that liberalization of this sector is a positive development, there are those who express concerns, rightly pointing out that divestiture itself does not cultivate competition, and that liberalization can be detrimental to the interests of the citizens of a state if it precedes the establishment of an independent regulator (mccormick, 2002). state regulation of the telecom sector must be independent, effective, and transparently managed, in order to inspire investor confidence and fair competition that will benefit consumers. in addition, governments must not be too hasty to make concessions to foreign investors, but must also contractually ensure that profits will remain or be reinvested in the country, or must search for local investors. if they do not do this, they risk allowing telecom investment to be yet another form of neocolonialism, as western multinationals rush in to take advantage of the high profits available due to the extraordinary growth rates, and then ultimately repatriate these profits abroad. they also risk leaving behind rural areas, for in cases where it is not profitable to provide services to such locations, corporations will not do so of their own volition. instead, governments can require the provision of services to rural areas in order to be awarded the license. appropriate regulation will promote market growth and a visibly open, transparent, and even-handedly run telecom industry will have a spillover effect—some even claim it will have a multiplier effect—on other sectors across the economy in two ways: it will encourage technology transfer as other industries take advantage of telecommunications for business operations (which they currently are not) and the government’s efforts at effectiveness and transparency in the telecom sector will be rewarded with investor interest and confidence in other sectors (bodammer, et al., 2006). deregulation in the telecom sector must also address compatibility and interoperability issues. in many sub-saharan countries, rival telecom companies do not allow customers to place calls to competitors’ networks, with the result that many people find it necessary to carry multiple phones on separate networks, which is highly inefficient and unnecessarily expensive for consumers. this could easily be changed with regulation. in addition, governments can regulate lower roaming fees and tax rates—both of which in africa are among the highest in the world. doing so would promote economic activity. african governments can look to kenya, tanzania, and uganda, where celtel has provided the world’s first borderless mobile phone network, one that serves a region experiencing a high degree of border-crossing for work-related activities. also, the deloitte consulting group recently released a study (2007) claiming that the high tax rates on mobile phone services in sub-saharan africa are short-sighted, economically-speaking. deloitte calculated that by cutting taxes on mobile phone services, the governments would see their overall economies grow at a higher rate in the long term, and that as a result, their overall tax receipts would actually rise in the medium to longer term. in other words, consumers, private enterprise, and governments would all benefit from a cut in mobile-specific taxes, as the indirect benefits to the economy of affordable access to telecom services far outweigh any short-term benefits to the budget (deloitte, 2007). one unique aspect of the telecom industry is that it enables other industries to perform their own functions more efficiently, promoting growth and productivity in nearly all sectors—yet across africa, businesses are not yet taking advantage of this aspect of telecom services. fewer than 10 percent of the region’s businesses provide mobile phones for their employees, and over 80 percent of mobile phones purchased in sub-saharan countries are for personal—not business—use (mbarika & mbarika, 2006). governments are understandably eager to tout the rising employment rates and incomes experienced by those working within the telecom sector and in complementary service jobs (such as vendors who sell prepaid cards or minutes on their own mobile phones). yet, much more could be done to promote telecommunications-related development in other sectors, as well as the savings of disposable income that results from the increased wages that have accompanied the telecom boom. as it stands, most street vendors, “minute-sellers,” and others operating in the gray economy are still living at subsistence levels. there is very little opportunity for saving money across africa, either on the individual level, or for funds that could contribute to the building out of a business. there are initiatives that are targeting the unbanked through the use of mobile phones, and these should be encouraged, as should policies that promote the development of a small and medium enterprise sector in the economy. policy insights & recommendations the numerous examples noted above give evidence of mobile solutions that are addressing identifiable needs on a limited scale and scope; success seems more likely when local users are meaningfully involved in the development process. we consider this an extremely salient policy point, as well as the overarching theme of this article. future initiatives will have greater chances of success when feedback loops and long-term partnerships are established so that top-down initiatives and skill-sets meet bottom-up user-needs, creativity, and knowledge. then capacities are developed at local levels, and technology-related initiatives are more likely to become relevant and be adopted, ultimately able to contribute to quality of life improvement. other players are also critical to the process of integrating solutions on a nation-wide or regional basis. the coordination of various stakeholders in the private and public sector and establishment of structures that provide collaborative input from academic researchers and practitioners can support better and more meaningful investment decisions and enhance the link between policy objectives and successful outcomes. since historically there has been a gap between governmental rhetoric and implementation across sub-saharan africa concerning widespread ict promotion, provision, and adoption, we believe that governments can learn from some of the best-practices and successful cases enumerated above. acknowledging the specificity of individual contexts, broad recommendations for policy makers include the following: 1. where the private sector can be involved, the application of a “business model” approach to ict solutions for development is needed to ensure that solutions meet real needs, will be utilized, will be sustainable and will involve the partnerships needed to ensure delivery and sustainability. the elements of the visor model detailed in this paper highlight key components to successful product adoption. the applicability of this model can be explored more fully in future work, but here the main attributes are listed: organizing model: public-private partnerships; user experience: careful study of the population that will use the service; value proposition; service platform (it); and revenue/cost for all partners. 2. additional enabling policy practices can include allowing interested local groups to form and address challenges that affect them, which allows local competencies to develop—relevant for local and regional governmental and civil society formation (hosman, 2010). also, governments can encourage the realization of creative projects, and in particular public-private partnerships at local levels, which can prove concepts that may lead to scaling. 3. likewise, scaling solutions for health, economic growth, and education require at a base level that governments prioritize the creation of structures, such as a public health system, so that necessary services can be delivered comprehensively and mobile technology can support the speed, efficacy and cost-efficiency of delivery. similarly, long-term public commitment to the use of ict in education is necessary to ensure meaningful adoption of technology into the curriculum, as is policy that recognizes the concerns and needs of teachers in the technology adoption process. other policy recommendations include promoting sufficient telecommunications-sector competition, transparency, and services pricing, eliminating roaming charges, and lowering taxation rates (see, e.g. gillwald & mureithi, 2011; gillwald & stork, 2008). these policy actions can actively promote not only additional ict uptake, but affordability for even the poor to have access to mobile technology. conclusion there is great cause for optimism regarding the staggering level of mobile phone diffusion across africa. the creativity that is being exhibited in the use of mobile phones across the developing world, and particularly in africa, underscores the fact that needs are not being met. mobile phones remain an incomplete answer to the greater issue of underdevelopment, and the push for complementary development areas, such as human capacity and institution building are needed to fundamentally address issues of poverty. much work remains for african governments to do in terms of policies, structures and regulation that supports ict adoption. we have argued that meeting basic needs and pursuing technological advancement need not be mutually exclusive endeavors: where appropriate, technology can be employed in the pursuit of meeting development challenges. technology alone will not create demand; realistic assessment of the ways in which technology can complement and amplify current capabilities is in order before further resources are invested in the ever-increasing number of ict-related development projects. in the short term, however, development efforts that target the mobile phone have demonstrated both creativity and the possibility for quality of life improvement. there is great potential for increased partnerships that focus on the nexus of bottom-up and top-down development, in order to cultivate a productive feedback loop between the various actors involved, to conjoin needs identification with appropriate 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[2] mobile phones may have been an anomaly in the developing world, for they meet an immediate and basic need—person-to-person communication over distance—for which there is great demand universally, and even the poorest of the poor around the world have demonstrated a willingness to spend a large proportion of their incomes on being able to communicate. this is not the case for all goods and services. a case study: growing community partnerships with a service-learning intergenerational computing course jean f coppola pace university, united states abstract this article presents an interdisciplinary and intergenerational technology research project. uniquely trained undergraduates enrolled in an intergenerational computing service-learning class instruct older adults in geriatric facilities. geriatric facilities have few staff to work with older adults for technology activities. this model is based on mutually beneficial partnerships. information on best practices, research instruments, classroom exercises, and lessons learned is presented for replication into the reader’s agency and discipline. a statistically significant change in students’ attitude and advocacy toward older adults was found, as well as a more positive perspective and awareness of careers in the field of aging. synopsis older adults represent a rapidly increasing percentage of the population, yet limited attention is being given to older persons in terms of internet access, as well as computer usage, hardware, and software. this article presents an award winning interdisciplinary and innovative intergenerational technology research service-learning project.  in this project, specially trained undergraduate students enrolled in an intergenerational computing service-learning class instructed older adults in geriatric facilities.  geriatric facilities, especially in these difficult economic times, have few staff to work with older adults for technology instruction or related activities.  this model based on mutually beneficial partnerships with geriatric facilities, government agencies, and higher education institutions will be discussed.  information on best practices, partnerships, pre/post research instruments, classroom exercises, and conclusions will be presented for replication into the reader’s own agency and service-learning ideas transposed to the reader’s discipline. a statistically significant change in students’ attitude and advocacy toward older adults was found, as well as a more positive perspective and awareness of careers in the field of aging after these civic engagement and in-class activities. moreover, students were willing to continue community service after the conclusion of the course. background this project was developed because of concerns by the county government office in regards to the rapidly growing senior citizen population and the strong desire to provide awareness of career possibilities in the “silver industries” to college students.  at the same time, local higher education institutions wanted to start a service-learning research project and create win-win community partnerships while successfully integrate service-learning in the curriculum.  the higher education institutions agreed to assist the government agency in helping them close the “digital divide” thus addressing the technology needs of the aging population, as well as changing the perception of older adults by college students, while persuading them to work with the older adult population in their career choice. introduction according to the u.s. census bureau (2010), by 2030, nearly one in five americans will be aged 65 and older.  the projections include a rapid escalation in the united states of the over 65 population between the years of 2010 and 2050.  the projection of u. s. residents aged 65 and over is estimated to comprise a population of 88.5 million by 2050, which is more than doubles 2010’s figures.  simultaneously, the technology explosion is creating a world that depends on technology for everything from purchasing groceries to obtaining directions.  the problem is that older adults, the fastest growing population, often are not comfortable with or can afford connectivity to the internet. the perception by some may be that the internet is well-matched for older adults because of available free time and less physical activity (norris, 2001). common elderly impairments, including hearing, vision, or motor skill disabilities, significantly impact computer interaction thus fostering the “grey digital divide” (mcgaughey, downey, 2009).  the digital divide, defined as the gap between new technology and the ability to use (and sometimes, afford) it, is widespread among older adults, and especially those with physical limitations.  many older adults, however, find computers technically intimidating, and are reluctant even to learn how to use them.  for example, in this study some older adults were found to be afraid of breaking the computer if they did something wrong on the screen, thus wanting the college students next to them while working on the computer. the very group that would benefit the most from spending their leisure time emailing friends and family for improved communication, gathering of health and drug information, shopping, and connecting with others in on-line communities, often are not capable. this case study fosters technology use in the elderly population to stimulate cognitive functioning while improving the overall quality of life socially, emotionally, and practically.  older adults in an individualized and non-threatening learning environment are assisted by college students to overcome their fear of computers, to learn a new set of communication skills, to be mentally challenged, and to improve their daily life functions and to foster independence. the literature suggests that the elderly would be less fearful of computers and more apt to adopt the internet / e-mail if they are delivered in an elderly-friendly way.  the hypothesis is that by college students teaching the elderly computing technology in an intergenerational tutorial setting, the fear most often associated by seniors with computing can be circumvented, and college students will change their attitude and advocacy toward older adults in one semester. literature review older adults are making significant gains in internet use (fox, 2004) and their use of online communication and entertainment activities have also  increased significantly (jones & fox, 2009). approximately 48% of older adults use the internet (zickur, 2010).  use of social networking sites has quadrupled since 2008, with an increase in use from 4-16%. the fastest growth in the use of social networks has been in the over age 74 group.  recent surveys show that older adults who use the internet most frequently use e-mail, searches, and health information (zickur, 2010). one recent study found that older adults were interested in learning technology that supported activities that they were familiar with (seals, clanton, kelly, et al., 2008). a recent survey of a sample of 216 older adults between the ages of 5680 years found that  29% owned a computer, 56% used the computer and 26% used e-mails (keil, 2005). the internet proves essential to the elderly in connecting with family, friends, and lost acquaintances, thus avoiding social isolation.  it also provides valuable health related information and healthcare options (seals, clanton, agarwal, doswell, & thomas, 2008).  research has shown that frequent internet use by older adults may improve cognition (seelman, collins, bharucha, & osborn, 2007). other studies have shown that technology enriches daily functions, increases independence, and improves the overall life quality of older adults (cresci & jarosz, 2010; stark-wroblewski, edelbaum, & ryan, 2007). the use of technology also has implications in monitoring older adults in their homes and assisting them to remain independent. home based systems allow healthcare providers to monitor older adults and obtain real-time data in order to inform the senior about their functioning and provide detailed information to the senior so that participate in his/her own care (kaye, 2011). bridging the digital divide by making computers and internet use more accessible to older adults has implications for improved health and quality of life. despite this, there are many older adults who do not have access to computers and the internet. older adults are often reluctant to embrace computer technology, and experience fear and anxiety  (schlag, 2007). some fear that they will break the computer and therefore area reluctant to use them (chien, 2008). many older adults have age related impairments in hearing, vision, and motor skills which make using a computer difficult (burgstahler, 2002).  many older adults do not retrieve health information because of a lack of computer literacy or access to computers.  this is particularly true in low income elders who live in vulnerable communities (mead, et al., 2008). thus, this aged population that has so much to gain from utilizing a computer are often unwilling or unable to operate a computer (mann, belchior, tomita, & kemp, 2005). lorence and park (2006) assert that initiatives in the us aimed at reducing the digital divide have not been effective and emphasized that in order for the elderly to experience the benefits of health information technology it is necessary to identify and support policies and interventions aimed at increasing the use and access of computers and the internet by the elderly use of technology as a catalyst in the service-learning project the core of this research is based around a unique course entitled, intergenerational computing. it is a multi-disciplinary course offering with an innovative approach. in this service-learning course, students learn about both the process of aging, as well as computing technology. the course goes beyond simply having students do community service to help the elderly. the students receive theory and training specifically for teaching technology to the elderly. the students have textbooks and readings for the course in the areas of social gerontology, service-learning, and technology in action. students acquire knowledge about the aging process together with applied computing in order to prepare them for structured technology educational activities with their older adult learners. first, students are assigned to teach an intergenerational relative or neighbor computing skills to learn excess “patience” and techniques as they begin to register for the course for about five lessons. class requirements include essay reflections and blogging of each activity. role-playing with various props and assistive technology devices allow students to emulate an older adult with visual, hearing, and motor skill disabilities. interdisciplinary focus sensitivity training role playing with various props and assistive technology allow students to emulate an older adult with visual, hearing, and motor skill disabilities. as the course developed from a one-day event in 2005, to a semester pilot in 2006, and then progressed to multiple sections over different campuses in the following years, it became evident that a more robust sensitivity training for the undergraduates would improve outcomes over each subsequent semester. sensitivity training would “soften” the grey digital divide for the enrolled students. with such a gap in their developmental stages the faculty leading the project agreed that it would be helpful if the students could “walk in the shoes” of the elderly. the students needed to see and feel what older adults in their 70s, 80s and 90s may experience. the original sensitivity training, based on a shoestring budget, began with toothpaste, vaseline, old sunglasses, masking tape, and cotton balls. old glasses with toothpaste or vaseline rubbed on them were used to simulate different eye impairments and therefore the students could try to see the computer as an older adult with visual impairments.  simulation glasses are commercially available that simulate impairments such as cataracts, macular degeneration, and glaucoma.   to mimic arthritis of the hand, the students taped two fingers together and tried to type on a keyboard.   cotton balls were utilized to simulate some loss of hearing. as resources and grant funding increased, sensitivity included students sitting in a wheelchair, wearing a back brace, and utilizing a cane or walker for mobility.   lightweight garden gloves are utilized to pick up mediation and deposit pills into weekly medication dispensers.  popcorn kernels were also provided to students for insertion in their shoes, as well as water wet adult diapers.  few students, however, accepted the challenge for the wet diaper exercise, but those students that participated, blogged about their experience, which turned into an eye-opening episode. this sensitivity training has a strong impact on the students as recorded in their blogs shared with classmates and their reflection paper.   students discussed this memorable event in their blogs and stayed fresh on their minds while instructing the older adults on the computer as confirmed by their weekly blogs. understanding accessibility in windows operating systems as part of the training process, it is imperative that students understand the vast amount of accessibility options that are available on windows operating systems. “accessibility,” as defined by microsoft, “is about removing barriers…to meet the needs and preferences of a diverse set of individuals that might use the product.” microsoft has been committed to incorporating accessibility options into its windows operating systems, mainly through extensive customization options, features, and settings. students are trained to learn the most important accessibility customizations for our geriatric patients. microsoft windows xp, the still-predominant operating system on most computers  offers an “accessibility wizard” which enables our students to easily pick and choose which settings need to be enabled for our geriatric patients. the elderly usually have difficulty with rapid-click motions and small text size. a common difficulty is seen with the computer mouse.  users often state it is difficult to “double-click” or “right-click.” as such, the accessibility wizard offers the option to increase the detection speed between the double-click function as well as create new functions or patterns for right-click capabilities. “sticky keys” are also available for combination functions from the keyboard. this option prevents users from having to press multiple keys at once, for example, typing a capital letter by pressing “shift + x.” sticky keys allow the user to press shift, release the key, and then press the letter without having to press both keys simultaneously. another capability that our students learn is how to easily increase the icon size and text size on the screen. by navigating to the display properties | appearance | effects dialog box from the control panel, students can enable “use large icons” or adjust the font dpi for better-viewing. the narrator feature, which is “a text-to-speech engine for people who are blind or have low vision” is available for announcing all mouse-clicks, dialog boxes, menu options, or typed text. playback speed can be selected as well as the preferred playback voice. many of our patients prefer to browse the internet and settings can be customized to adapt to those with disabilities in color recognition. an accessibility group of options is available by navigating to internet options | general | accessibility from internet explorer. default options can be set to ignore specified colors on a web page or distinct formatting styles for improved clarity. in addition, we explained to our students that a custom cascading-style sheet can be created to override all settings to create a uniform browsing experience. since windows 7 was released on october 22, 2009, all mainstream computer manufacturers are including the operating system pre-installed on new pcs. in addition, corporations are starting to adapt  the new features. the accessibility options are vastly improved in windows 7, even offering a self-guided tour that our students and geriatric patients are able to utilize together. windows 7 utilizes the “ease of access center,” which provides quick access to common tools and functions that were somewhat scattered in windows xp. we also show our students how to use the built-in questionnaire, which features a survey that windows will use to automatically adjust settings accordingly. the same functionality is available, such as mouse clicking, keyboard adjustments, screen text size, and narration. a series of demonstrations are shown to the elderly to better assist them. methodology & research questions using a one-group pretest and posttest research design, students who participated in the gerontechnology program were interviewed before starting their work with older adults and then after the project was completed (n=165). as shown in table 1, the average age of the students was 21.8 years, and 52.7% were males with 47.3%  female. table 1: profile of student participants (n=165) number percent age at enrollment      mean      standard deviation   21.78 years   5.19   gender      male      female 87 78   52.7% 47.3% ethnicity      hispanic      african american      caucasian      asian      other 27 15 96 18 9 16.4%  9.1% 58.2%  10.9% 5.5% year      freshman      sophomore      junior      senior   12 47 53 53   7.3% 28.5% 32.1% 32.1% notes:  *higher scores indicate more positive interest. mean scores increased between pre and posttest, with statistical differences in 2 specific action areas. students who enrolled in the course had different plans of study, although the majority of students were business majors (59.4%).  over 90% of the students that responded did not have any previous coursework related to older adults. the hypothesis was that students’ attitudes toward older adults, and their interest in advocating for older adults would improve after the gerontechnology project.  the results shown in table 2 indicate that between the pretest and the posttest there was a statistically significant mean increase in both attitude scores and students’ interest in advocating for older adults.  table 2a: students’ interest in advocating for older persons with specific action action pretest mean posttest mean discuss aging issues with classmates 3.29 3.38 encourage others to become involved in aging issues 3.20 3.44* work with other college students to form an aging committee 2.70 2.94* meet with local congress representative about aging issues 2.51 2.69 go to albany and discuss aging issues in nys 2.12 2.28 notes:  *higher scores indicate more positive interest. mean scores increased between pre and posttest, with statistical differences in 2 specific action areas. table 2b: students’ coursework and volunteer experience   previous coursework related to older adults (60+)   response      no previous coursework 93.3      previous coursework 6.6 volunteer experience with older adults (60+)        previous volunteer experience 34.5      no previous volunteer experience 61.8 also, a more positive perspective and awareness of careers in the aging field after these civic engagement and in-class activities prevailed. moreover, students were willing to continue community service after the conclusion of the course. educational impact & value of project for the educational institution undergraduates thrive on the opportunity to use all of their college-acquired skills on service-learning projects and seeing the projects actually work at making a difference in peoples’ lives. for example, a business student commented he had to learn to work as a team, collaborate with alumni donating computer equipment, understand tax donations, as well as work with community partners for installation and customizations to fit their needs. this student saw the big picture and continued his projects beyond the scope of the course.  faculty need to provide opportunities to students for enhancing their soft skills, and activitybased learning, while teaching students to become responsible citizens. this project provided students with a high level of satisfaction. many students indicated that this intergenerational computing class was the best course they have taken during their time in college. as some students self-reported, it changed their lives. community partnerships and replication of study since october 2005, all partners in this innovative research consortium carefully planned, developed, and implemented the core program component, including curriculum for the service-learning course entitled intergenerational computing. this intergenerational computing program is a best practice model of success for positive partnerships between community organizations that optimally utilizes their assets. a cross section of community organizations formed a consortium including county government, higher education institutions, and a geriatric care organization. this allowed the program to continually add the innovative research findings to refine the curriculum, bring educational skills to teaching the seniors while the eldercare staff advised, assisted and supervised. some critical success factors for replication of this study include: partnering with a health care complex wanting technology infusion and able to provide space and staff support. health care institution leadership must come from the top. the health care staff must willingly be supportive and encouraged to participate in the development and continuation of a successful program including but not limited to planning, senior selection, anecdotal feedback, and graduation. partnering with university or other educational institution of higher education that can provide leadership for obtaining donations and maintenance of computer equipment. resources for installing internet connectivity, software, and furniture either via donations, grants, and/or internal funds. staff or students willing to assist the seniors between classes (perhaps on a limited schedule) partnering with faculty that can provide leadership for curriculum development, service learning course development, and willingness to spend additional hours above normal class requirements. academic institution that supports civic engagement activities and capability to obtain proper enrollment in courses with students willing to teach the elderly. health care staff willing to remind senior participants to attend sessions where needed and assist those with mobility issues to come to the computer lab. findings results have shown through observations via the nursing staff, as well as by preand postassessment instrument that the adoption of technology led to an improved quality of life and increased independence.  the older adult participants (average age 77.76) gained a greater sense of well-being and self-worth, a more positive outlook on life, increased cognitive functioning (preliminary results see table 3), control group data is being analyzed, but preliminary results suggests that the significant improvement is not a learning effect. table 3: profile older adult participants   percent age of participants        mean 77.76 years      standard deviation 10.59 gender        male 24.0%      female 76.0% ethnicity        african american 16.0%      hispanic 12.0%      caucasian 72.0% residence        nursing home 24.0%      assisted living 44.0%      independent living 32.0% notes:  n=116   table 4: improvement in senior moca scores   n mean standard deviation pre moca scores – experimental group 25 17.76 4.30 post moca scores – experimental group 25 20.80 4.16 notes:  paired t-tests reveals a significant improvement (p<0.001) in moca scores between pre and post test decreased levels of depression, and reduced social isolation.  this reinforces findings of past research in the literature.  for example, after “graduating” from the course, united xxx (new rochelle, xxx) nursing staff reported that the older adults felt more purposeful and had increased confidence.  they also were capable of learning something new, developed new relationships, and learned a new means of communication with family and friends.  the senior participants reported that they were more in accord with the world at-large by not being “left behind”, were capable of looking up heath related information, and were mentally challenged by computer activities. conclusions the senior citizen participants were proud of their accomplishments.  the older adults sent and received emails with their families. moreover, the elderly researched information, such as their own military records, or those of a husband.  many older adults enjoy working 1-on-1 with the college students week after week, illustrating an additional 2-way social impact.  students were surprised at the ability of the senior citizens to quickly learn, and enjoy the process. one unexpected result of this intergenerational endeavor was the special bonds that developed between the elderly and undergraduate students through these meaningful interactions. the benefits were far reaching, and a much valued intergenerational, as well as life changing experience for some. to the undergraduate students, it became clear that senior citizens are capable of learning at any age, were thirsty for acquiring new skills, and greatly respected their young teachers. the results of this joint venture with higher education, service-learning students, health-care providers, and governmental department of senior programs and services proved successful. the project will continually be expanded during the upcoming semesters. references burgstahler, s.  (2002).  working together: people with disabilities and computer technology.  seattle, wa: university of washington, do-it. chien, t. (2008). factors influencing computer anxiety and its impact on e-learning effectiveness : a review of literature. proceedings of ahrd 2008 international research conference. cresci, m. k., & jarosz, p. a. (2010). bridging the digital divide for urban seniors: community partnership. geriatric nursing, 31(6), 455-463. fox, s. (2004). older americans and the internet. pew internet and american life project report. retrieved january 9, 2011 from http://www.pewinternet.org/ppf/r/117/ report_display.asp kaye, j. (2011). putting pegabytes to work: home-based assessment technology can help elders manage their health. aging today, 31(1), 9. keil, j. m. the digital divide: internet and e-mail use by the elderly. medical informatics and the internet in medicine. 30 (1): 19-23.kinnevy, s. & morrow-howell, n. (1999). the perceived benefits of intergenerational tutoring. gerontology & geriatrics education, 20, 3-17. lorence, d.p. & park.h. (2006) new technology and old habits: the role of age as a technology chasm. technology and healthcare 14. 91-96. mann, w. c., belchior, p., tomita, m. r., & kemp, b. j. (2005). computer use by middle-aged and older adults with disabilities. technology & disability, 17(1), 1-9. mcmurtrey, m. e., ronald e. mcgaughey, james p. downey (2009). "seniors and information technology: a potential goldmine of opportunity?" international journal of intercultural information management 1(3): 300-316. microsoft corporation. (2008). accessible technology: a guide for educators. accessibility business unit. redmond: microsoft corporation. norris, p. (2001). "digital divide: civic engagement, information poverty, and the internet worldwide." cambridge university press. pippa, n., (2001) digital divide: civic engagement, information poverty, and the internet worldwide, cambridge university press. schlag, p. a. (2007). older adults' experiences with computer technology. doctoral dissertation, university of georgia, athens, ga. seals, c.d., clanton, k., agarwal, r., doswell, f., thomas, c.m.  (2008).  lifelong learning:  becoming computer savvy at a later age.  educational gerontology, 34,   1055-1069. seelman, k., collins, d.m., bharucha, a.j., osborn, j.  (2007).  giving meaning to quality of life through technology.  nursing homes:  long term care management, 56,  40-42. stark-wroblewski, k., eldelbaum, j. k., ryan, j. j. (2007).  senior citizens who use e-mail.  educational gerontology, 33,  293-307.  u.s. census bureau. (2010). the next four decades the older population in the united states: 2010 to 2050.  retrieved march 10, 2011, from http://www.aoa.gov/aoaroot/aging_statistics/future_growth/docs/p25-1138.pdf  zickur, k. (2010). generations 2010. retrieved january 12, 2011, from http://pewinternet.org/reports/2010/generations-2010.aspx <h2 style="text-align:center">"this is what modern deregulation looks like" <a href="#foot1" name="ref1" title="francis maude (minister for the cabinet office, uk government). presentation at the international open data conference, wellcome trust, london, november 19 2010">[1]</a>:<br /> co-optation and contestation in the shaping of the uk's open government data initiative</h2> <h3 style="text-align:center">jo bates<br /> manchester metropolitan university</h3> <h3>introduction</h3> <p>open government data (ogd) emerges as one of the latest in a series of initiatives that have drawn on a developing logic regarding the socially progressive potential of 'open' models of information production and distribution. open initiatives, through breaking down knowledge to the raw data and code, and abandoning models of false scarcity that restrict access, interpretation, and re-use, suggest the possibility of a significant reconfiguration of modes of understanding and production that have previously been shaped by dominant interests. however, open initiatives such as ogd emerge into a historical process, not a neutral terrain. within the uk the convergence of a range of political and civil society networks engaged in the shaping of ogd marks a fruitful site of analysis for beginning to explore the interaction of hegemonic capitalist institutions with modes of production and citizenship that potentially contest key parts of its logic. </p> <p>whilst some advocates of ogd define it as apolitical (or, highlighting the reductionism present in such claims, non-partisan), this article will evidence that a deep seated political struggle is in progress. the civil society ogd initiative can be understood as part of the wider emergence of a new 'bloc' of historical actors frustrated by practices, deepened within the neoliberal era, that restrict and create asymmetries in the flow of information at the same time as technologies have developed that ease its sharing. it is therefore important to understand the relationship between these ogd advocates and the historical context in which they emerge, the scope for dominant interests to shape the initiative and the necessary progressive interventions that might need to be made in order to counter this threat.</p> <p> whilst the dominant narrative of ogd is guardedly optimistic with regard to its progressive impact on society, some critical studies of ogd have begun to emerge that are primarily focussed on the "effective use" of ogd (gurstein, 2011), its potential role in "empowering the empowered" (benjamin et al, 2007; wright et al, 2010), and contextualising ogd in relation to broader modes of governance (longo, 2011). this article further problematises the dominant optimistic narrative, arguing that the shaping of ogd is open to significant contestation. the aim of the article is to critically contextualise ogd within contemporary capitalist processes, focusing particularly on the situation in the uk where the ogd initiative intersects with the uk government's programme of forced 'austerity' and marketisation of public services, in order to better inform the engagement of those acting for progressive ends.</p> <p>the arguments put forward are developed through interviews and attendance at a variety of local, national and international ogd events, complemented by analysis of academic and policy literature. interviews were conducted during the period february to july 2011. thirty-three potential interviewees were contacted between january and may 2011 through a process of purposive sampling, informed by event observation and desk research, in order to gain insight from a cross section of people and groups engaged in shaping the initiative. two interviewees were also self selecting in response to a message about the research to the 'open-government' open knowledge foundation mailing list. the framework for selecting interviewees covered peripheral and core participants active within civil society ogd initiatives (where core participants were those that had at some point undertaken an official role advising the uk government on open data/public sector information), as well as key players in local authorities, the civil service, and the private sector. many of the interviewees were active in more than one of these areas, for example civil society and business, and these multiple areas of activity are represented in table 1. interviewees were further categorised by gender. unsuccessful attempts were also made to speak to politicians engaged in shaping ogd. in total, twenty-one interviews were completed.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img style="width: 585px; height: 464px;" alt="table 1" src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3038/version/2079/3941/15512/845_table.png" /> </p> <div style="text-align: center;">table 1 categorisation of interviewees and codes for citation </div> <p>the interviewing process began with those with more peripheral civil society engagement before moving closer towards the core, which primarily included government advisors, civil servant, psi industry representatives. interviews with those with more peripheral involvement were largely semi-structured and aimed at gaining understanding of participants' activity, ideas, and intentions regarding their engagement with ogd, and their interpretation of the ogd domain. interviews with those closer to the core were generally unstructured and shaped around the time availability, background and experiences of interviewees. whilst still exploring interviewees' ideas, intentions, activity and interpretation of ogd, these later interviewees were also used as 'expert informants', particularly in relation to policy issues and internal government politics. due to the sensitive political nature of some of the discussions all interviews were carried out on the condition of interviewees' anonymity in the research report. this was designed to promote more open discussion with interviewees. interview data referred to in the body of the article is therefore cited with reference to the category of interviewee (see table 1 for category codes), rather than individual names or identifiers.</p> <p>the rest of the article is structured as follows. in the next section, i introduce civil society advocates of ogd and their demands. i also discuss their definitions of ogd which situates their advocacy and role within the socio-economic domain. this is followed by a contextualising account of the political economy of valuable public datasets which has evolved in the uk over the last 40 years. the article then goes on to outline key policy developments around ogd and the broader field of public sector information (psi) re-use that have emerged recently, focusing on significant attempts by state actors, drawing on a neoliberal ideological current, to appropriate the initiative on behalf of dominant capitalist interests under the guise of a 'transparency agenda'. next, significant sites of potential appropriation by profit seeking interests are highlighted and briefly discussed in relation to the impact that this could have on socially progressive ends. finally, the vulnerabilities of civil society ogd advocates in their capacity to respond progressively to this situation are examined, prior to the article concluding by offering a number of recommendations for intervention in the shaping of ogd. the article, therefore, aims to outline the deep seated material and ideational structural processes that ogd is being developed within, prior to considering the potential for people to critically intervene and shape ogd for progressive ends.</p> <h3>the ogd initiative</h3> the demands of the civil society ogd advocates are for the online publishing of: <ul> <li>unrefined or raw public datasets <a href="#foot2" name="ref2" title="public sector information is generally divided into two categories. distinctions that draw on notions of market failure, public goods and competitive markets tend to use the 'unrefined' versus 'refined' or 'upstream' versus 'downstream' distinction. the office of fair trading (2006, p. 53) proposed that psi is 'unrefined' if the public authority is the sole supplier of data as it would be uncompetitive to produce it commercially, whereas psi is 'refined' if its supply would attract competition in the market. pollock (2008, p. 7) similarly argues 'upstream' information cannot be sourced from anywhere other than the public body, whereas 'downstream' information could be provided by another organisation if that organisation had access to the relevant 'upstream' information. an earlier categorisation (proposed in 2000 by the treasury) is based on the reasons for data collection and processing. here, 'raw data' and 'value-added information' are used to highlight the distinction between data that are collected because they are central to government's core responsibilities ('raw data'), whereas information is 'value-added' when the use value of 'raw data' has been enhanced through, for example, manipulation, analysis, summarisation, and making it easier for end-users to use (newbury et al, 2008, p. 10). these distinctions are therefore crucial to policy, and further research into their development would be beneficial.">[2]</a></li> <li>in an open, non-proprietary, technical format</li> <li>licensed for use, re-use and re-distribution without discrimination</li> <li>at marginal cost (which for digital resources is generally equal to or close to zero)</li> </ul> <p> this is in line with the open definition (okfn [1], n.d.) developed by the open knowledge foundation (okfn), which takes substantial inspiration from the open source definition (osi, n.d.). the definition, therefore, stipulates that in order to be defined as 'open', licences are not allowed to discriminate against type of user, for example, licences which prohibit commercial re-use are not allowed. interviews with civil society advocates and event observations evidence there has been some debate around non-commercial licences, since some ogd advocates perceive a risk of commercial interests appropriating ogd into non-open systems, or corporate profits being subsidised through fully open commercial re-use of data. however, because problems emerge in defining 'commercial', restrictions can lead to licence interoperability issues which restrict innovation, and there are concerns that non-commercial terms could restrict emergent 'open' production models, most ogd advocates have tended to agree to commercial re-use despite their concerns. although the open definition prohibits non-commercial terms, share-alike clauses are sanctioned. data owners can therefore apply share-alike conditions to stipulate that re-users should apply a compatible licence on any derivatives or modifications to the original, thus going some way to prevent appropriation into non-open systems.</p> <p> the civil society networks that make up the ogd community are complex and engaged at different levels both with one another, the state, public bodies and the business community. the literature around ogd suggests civil society advocates are drawn from a number of domains, including open knowledge activism (okfn &amp; access-info, 2010), transparency/right to information activism (okfn &amp; access-info, 2010; davies, 2010), psi re-user businesses (davies, 2010), and the linked data/semantic web community (tinati et al, 2011). interviewees from all categories highlighted that some of these civil society networks have been engaged in the field of information policy since at least the 1980s. this is particularly the case amongst private sector re-users of psi who use public data to develop products and inform business processes, and transparency campaigners engaged in the push for access to government and environmental information. over the years, individuals from these networks have taken up positions both advising, and directly employed within, the state (interviews: core civil society &amp; civil service). this historical context to ogd is something that some more recent advocates are not always aware of, and tensions occasionally surface as a result. as one advocate stressed, "the open data crowd sometimes don't see what has been going on out there... so, they come up with ideas that could be problematic like this thing of saying let's release all the data" (interviews: peripheral civil society).</p> <p> a number of further characteristics can be drawn from civil society interviews and observational data. it is difficult to define the community politically; advocates are drawn from across the political spectrum, including liberals, social democrats, conservatives, neo-marxists, libertarians left and right, apolitical, and so on. what tends to draw this disparate group together is a tendency to advocate some form of enhanced citizen participation and empowerment with respect to the state and/or corporate power, and/or an interest in digital innovation. for many, therefore, ogd is not an end in itself, it might simply be a needed input into a new product or the first step towards the semantic web, whereas for others it is necessary for some broader social end, whether radical or reformist. whilst some advocates are traditionally employed e.g. as academics or journalists, many are developers or consultants either independent or linked to an ogd related organisation or project. these organisations are funded through a range of means including consultancy and service provision, but also through public digital innovation funds and competitions aimed at promoting innovation for economic and social ends. many individuals are engaged with the initiative on a voluntary basis, although a small number are employed directly by ogd organisations. at least one individual is funded by a philanthropic organisation, in this case, the shuttleworth foundation, a foundation founded by south african entrepreneur mark shuttleworth which invests in promoting social change through funding individual "change agents" working on innovative, open knowledge projects (shuttleworth foundation, n.d.).</p> <p> at a national level the social background of core ogd advocates tends to be elite: highly, often elitely, educated white men from the higher social classes. local networks are more socially mixed, although white males still significantly dominate. the more peripheral or less public, the more socially mixed appears the community; however, it would still be accurate to describe it as a community with significant social privileges. a sense of disquiet about the social and gender makeup of the community does emerge in interviews and informal discussions with some peripheral civil society advocates, and at times this appears attuned to a wider sense of unease about class and gender relations in the uk. to categorise the civil society ogd community active within the uk in terms of national borders is slightly misleading, since a significant proportion of those engaged are not uk nationals, and the community has significant cross-border engagement within the eu and beyond.</p> <p> whilst the 'open government data' initiative has only emerged publically over the last two or three years, the object of this policy initiative datasets produced or owned by public sector bodies and the governance and ownership of such datasets, has been under the scrutiny of civil society actors, including the business community, since at least the 1970s. the data that ogd advocates are interested in, and want opened for anybody to use, re-use and re-distribute, tends to be quantitative datasets (okfn &amp; access-info, 2010), examples of which include geospatial, statistical, environmental, organisational, transport, spending, cultural, archival, and company data. some of these already exist as datasets that can be re-used although possibly at a prohibitive cost e.g. mapping data, whilst some are data that have not previously been re-usable including some that have not yet been universally digitised. an example of this latter category is data on allotments, which are small plots of land for individual cultivation at low rent, which local authorities in the uk have a legal duty to maintain 'adequate provision' of relative to demand.</p> <p> the national archives estimates that 15-25% of information products and services currently depend on re-use of such public sector information (psi) (the national archives, 2010). psi re-users have traditionally had to licence datasets for re-use from public bodies, and whilst some of these have been provided free of charge, many valuable datasets such as those produced by trading funds (e.g. mapping and meteorological data) have attracted charges above marginal cost. it is the ogd initiative's focus on democratising re-use of this key economic resource through 'open' licensing that brings it into the socio-economic domain, rather than being understood primarily as a technical or 'computerisation movement' (kling &amp; iacono, 1988), or a more rights-based access to information movement. whilst the recognition that the socio-economic aspect is core to ogd is not always apparent amongst some advocates, it is by analysing the initiative through this lens that an understanding of the deep-seated social struggles that ogd connects with is able to emerge.</p> <h3>historical context: the political economy of valuable public datasets</h3> <p> through positioning ogd as a socio-economic initiative with an interest in publically funded datasets, it becomes imperative to contextualise its emergence within the broader field of the political economy of valuable public datasets that has evolved over the last 30-40 years.</p> <p> the growing commercialisation of information has been a cornerstone of the capitalist economy over the last thirty years within both the private and public sectors. as burkert (2004) argues, psi only emerged as a policy issue in the 1970s when ict developments allowed the separation of information from the processes that generated it, discussions developed about the extent of state functions, and scrutiny of state secrecy began to grow. the business model for psi tends to be sales of large datasets and information products to both public and private sector organisations. an office of fair trading survey estimates that 78% of these sales are of refined (value-added) data (oft, 2006, p. 75). it is further estimated that of those businesses that purchase psi (unrefined and refined), 28% are using psi to create consumer products, 44% to create products for industry, and 39% for their own business purposes (oft, 2006, p. 28-9).</p> <p> neoliberal restructuring of the uk's public sector began in the 1980s through the privatisation of public assets and marketisation of public services. during this period public bodies came increasingly to look to their informational assets to generate revenue, to sustain themselves as direct public funding was reduced, and to provide a protective barrier from competitors in increasingly liberalised markets. ordnance survey (the uk's mapping agency), for example, whilst always having charged for its datasets was subject to increasing government mandated commercialisation since 1983 culminating in its 1999 change of status into a self-funding trading fund (evans, 2006). similarly, the postcode address file, which the royal mail owns and manages, grew into a valuable public asset as mail delivery was liberalised (postal services commission, 2006). selling both unrefined psi and value-added information products became an important source of revenue for data rich public bodies. businesses were willing to pay to secure re-use of psi to build their own, sometimes competing, value-added products and services, to use infrastructural data (e.g. mapping data) in their own systems, and to perform market research. further, as the demand for digitalised access to data has grown, public bodies have entered into digitalisation contracts with private companies that have then claimed intellectual property rights (ipr) on the lucrative digitalised data. the digitisation of genealogical data held by the national archives is a key example.</p> <p> however, the growing commercial exploitation of psi did not simply boost the reserves of public bodies. as the government privatised public assets and encouraged the outsourcing of public services, datasets needed by public bodies became increasingly owned or managed by private interests that extracted profit by selling data back to public authorities or demanding payment to undertake data retrieval. further, data and information that was previously shared openly between public bodies became restricted as newly privatised organisations went into competition with one another, and data markets emerged within the remaining, but increasingly commercialised, public sector with data 'owners' charging other public sector bodies for re-use. such markets could make up a substantial proportion of the data owner's revenue; however, data pricing policies often led to data/information deficits in cash-starved public bodies, potentially contributing to reduced innovative capacity and responsiveness.</p> <p> the liberalisation agenda also brought increased scrutiny of public sector bodies' anti-competitive practices. public bodies whose 'public task' was to collect and manage key datasets, were expected to compete in the market on the same terms as private competitors in the field of 'refined' products and services. increasingly, public bodies came under pressure to provide key 'unrefined' data sets at marginal cost (generally zero for digital goods) in an effort to promote an innovative and competitive market for psi re-use.</p> <p> set within this broader context some public bodies feel threatened by aspects of the emergent ogd initiative and the support it has received from some within the state. further, in the context of large scale public sector cuts any threat to an institution's revenue stream is going to be looked upon by some with suspicion. whilst peled (2011) argues that the "passive-aggressive" attitude of some us public agencies to the usa's ogd programme is the result of the value of data in inter-organisational power politics, such an analysis is reductive in scope since it decontextualises organisations and individuals from deeper structural processes. an understanding of the political economy (accounting for both material and ideational factors) of valuable public data adds a deeper layer of analysis when questioning why ogd advocates can sometimes face entrenched resistance from within public bodies to their proposals to make data flow. with this context in mind, the article will now move on to consider recent developments aimed at opening up 'unrefined' and 'raw' public data for all to re-use at marginal cost.</p> <h3>the transparency agenda and open government data</h3> <p> there is significant cross party support for ogd in the uk; both the labour and conservative parties had commitments to ogd in their 2010 general election manifestos. the initial impetus from the uk government for opening up government datasets for anyone to use, re-use and distribute at marginal cost came under the previous labour government. whilst the issue of psi re-use has been a relatively specialist policy issue for many years, more widespread active engagement with the issue began in the last five years. during this period a number of research studies (mayo &amp; steinberg, 2007; newbery et al, 2008; oft, 2006) were commissioned or undertaken by government bodies, and in 2009 tim berners lee and nigel shadbolt were appointed as government information advisors. these moves culminated in the launch of the data.gov.uk website (january 2010), and the opening up of a number of ordnance survey datasets (april 2010). work also began on the new uk government licensing framework, leading to the new open government license, launched in september 2010, which allows anyone to use, re-use and distribute the data it is applied to. however, interest has developed significantly since the change of government to a conservative-liberal coalition in may 2010. the new coalition's 'transparency agenda', which is central to a number of major policy and legislative proposals including open public services (hm government, 2011a), a new right to data (hm government, n.d.), and the formation of a public data corporation (hm government, 2011b), has ogd at its core.</p> <p> the formation of the public sector transparency board in june 2010 was one of the earliest actions of the new government. chaired by self-confessed ogd "zealot" francis maude (minster of the cabinet office), the new board is comprised of, amongst others, civil society ogd advocates tim berners lee, nigel shadbolt, rufus pollock (co-founder of the open knowledge foundation and co-author of the cambridge study) and tom steinberg (director of mysociety). the publishing of big datasets has also been a priority for the coalition, with the opening of the combined online information system (coins) treasury spending database, all departmental spending over 25,000, and the recent announcements regarding the publishing of significant amounts of nhs, education, criminal justice, transport and public assets data. central government also mandated local authorities to open up their spending over 500 and executive pay data, and encouraged them, along with other public bodies such as the police and public transport authorities, to open up other datasets under open licenses.</p> <p> the positioning of ogd under the brand of 'transparency' is itself interesting, and partially masks the underlying political economic context and interests of the psi industry in ogd policy. the utilisation of the 'transparency' label is politically appeasing in the uk context as it appeals to a widespread public desire for increased transparency and accountability following the mps expenses scandal in 2009 <a href="#foot3" name="ref3" title="the 2009 mps expenses scandal resulted from the release of information which evidenced the widespread abuse of the allowances and expenses members of parliament were entitled to claim. the wikipedia article on the topic provides a good overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/united_kingdom_parliamentary_expenses_scandal.">[3]</a>. however, whilst ogd might potentially support modes of transparent and democratic governance, the current 'transparency agenda' should be recognised as an initiative that also aims to enable the marketisation of public services, and this is something that is not readily apparent to the general observer. further, whilst democratic ends are claimed in the desire to enable 'the public' to hold 'the state' to account via these measures, there is an issue in utilising a dichotomy between the state and a notion of 'the public' which does not differentiate between citizens and commercial interests. the 'we' in this construct thoroughly displaces the notion of citizens as state ("we are the state") to a 'we' that is a mass of private interests (both individual and commercial) outside the state. the construction of interests that arises here is significant since it shapes the way that people think about how they engage with society, encouraging those attracted to civic engagement into an embrace of solidarity with profit seeking interests, distanced from the ever suspect notion of the state. as with the use of the term 'transparency' to mask the serving of commercial interests, this construction of interests can work to mask the relation between corporate and capitalist-state power within neoliberal capitalism. whilst this is certainly not a new phenomenon it is one that is still valuable to point out.</p> <h3>leveraging the marketisation agenda: the public data corporation, open public services and defining the 'public task'</h3> <p> if we peel back the cloak of transparency from the uk government's engagement with ogd, a different interpretation of events begins to emerge. focussing in on the public data corporation, open public service reform, and the effort to define 'the public task' in psi re-use regulations, the article will now go on to examine ways in which powerful groups within the state are attempting to shape ogd and use it to force broader agendas wrought by an ideological faith in the primacy of markets over social provision.</p> <p> interviews evidence that the decision to form a public data corporation (pdc) is a subject of some concern for a range of civil society and some state based (local government) ogd advocates. the aim of the proposed pdc is to "bring together government bodies and data into one organisation and provide an unprecedented level of easily accessible public information and drive further efficiency in the delivery of public services" (cabinet office, 2011), and therefore constitutes a significant change in the organisation of psi production and supply. there is a significant amount of confusion about what specifically the pdc will be and the reasoning behind it, as well as scepticism amongst some civil society ogd advocates that its formation is a good policy decision. the desire of the government for the pdc to be "a vehicle which will attract private investment" (cabinet office, 2011) has also been a cause of both apprehension (interviews: peripheral civil society), with suggestions that a primary motivation could be a push to create an entity suitable for privatisation (interviews: civil service). a number of peripheral civil society interviewees reported that the transparency board (perceived by many as the civil society advocates' key connection with the state) has been kept at a distance consulted, but not listened to during pdc negotiations. however, some members of the transparency board did refute this claim and were content with the level of input the board had in its advisory capacity. in spite of these issues, some peripheral civil society interviewees reported that through the organisational efforts of the open rights group, a number of advocates were able to meet and discuss the issues and put forward a number of suggestions in the cabinet office's pdc public engagement process.</p> <p> at the point of writing (september 2011) it is unclear specifically what the public data corporation will become. in july 2011, the government moved ordnance survey, the met office and the land registry (three key trading funds) under the responsibility of the department for business, innovation and skills (bis) in preparation for the formation of the pdc as a self-contained public data organisation within bis. at present it is the responsibility of the shareholders executive (which is also located within bis) to act in the best interests of the government as a trading fund shareholder. however, it is clear is that there are elements of the shareholder executive and hm treasury (the uk's ministry of economics and finance) who are concerned about the ogd model, perceiving risks to state revenue gained through the exploitation of data assets. these concerns, however, are critiqued as "old school" by some within the state (interviews: civil service). interviews with civil servants evidence that a range of actors within government and the civil service are instead drawn to the conclusions of the state commissioned cambridge study (newbery et al., 2008), which rufus pollock (co-founder of the open knowledge foundation, member of the transparency board, and key ogd advocate) contributed to. the cambridge study argues that the socially optimal policy is for unrefined digital data to be available for re-use at marginal cost (generally zero for digital resources), whilst the charging regime on refined psi products should remain intact. these refined products, it is argued, would then be in fair competition with other suppliers, since there would be equal access to unrefined data inputs. such a model, they highlight, also immediately addresses competition concerns raised by the office of fair trading against trading funds' re-use of unrefined data (oft, 2006). in a further paper, pollock goes on to argue that the optimal charging model would be direct state subsidy or, in some cases, charges to update the database (pollock, 2008). these economic arguments thus draw heavily on a liberal economic paradigm with strong emphasis on supply-side policies based on removing constraints on commercial production through liberalisation and marketisation, combined with taxpayer subsidisation of infrastructural resources such as data.</p> <p> drawing on the conclusions of the cambridge study and the earlier pira study which first articulated the argument that "eliminating licence fees would produce additional taxation revenues to more than offset the lost income from psi charges" (pira international, 2000, p. 6), some interviewees put forward arguments claiming that an increase in commercial innovation around psi re-use as a result of easing restrictions on producers would lead to increased tax revenue. however, this claim needs some dissection, something also recognised by a number of peripheral civil society interviewees. even if liberalisation does promote industry growth, it is more likely that 'islands' of developers and companies would be concentrated in certain cities and countries rather than be spread evenly. there is, therefore, no evidence to suggest that corporate and income tax revenue would enter the treasury of the state, or business rates to the local authority that paid for the production and supply of the data. this could leave vat on some new consumer products as the only tax revenue stream that is positively affected. however, the increased competition being created in the production of these consumer goods could also lead to reduced prices, and thus, reduced or unchanged vat revenue. these potential risks in ensuring a flow of revenue to fund marginal cost supply suggest funding may have to be diverted from other parts of the public sector unless the state uses some other mechanism (e.g. corporate taxation) to increase total revenue which presently seems unlikely, or there is a sudden reduction in required revenue in other areas of the public sector. further, whilst the uk state might try to incentivise uk based developers and businesses to become first movers in the innovative re-use of ogd through a range of supply-side policies, this does not deal with the pressing issues of tax avoidance and evasion, nor does it address the problematic relation that could ensue between a profitable uk re-use industry that is supplied with free data from states with no or few such businesses to tax.</p> <p> whilst these academic reports focus on the specifics of the psi market, it is important to recognise that there are groups within the state who are ideologically attracted to the conclusions of the cambridge study, and are using ogd to push an agenda of marketisation and liberalisation beyond psi markets (interviews: civil service). as francis maude (minster for the cabinet office) articulated, ogd is "what modern deregulation looks like" (maude, 2010). the coalition's appropriation of the initiative to ideologically motivated ends emerges most forcefully in their recently released open public services white paper (hm government, 2011a). not only is the title of this white paper interesting as an apparent attempt at domesticating the notion of 'openness' to something more resembling blanket marketisation of public services, but the paper also states categorically how ogd will underpin this effort. the white paper proposes that all public services, other than national security and the judiciary, should be opened to competition from the private and third sectors. further, it argues that ogd is required to give people the information they need to make good choices in their use of public services, and to provide potential competitors with the information they need to challenge the public sector providers. such information includes "how much services cost to run, the amount providers are being paid, and whether those providers are meeting user needs" (hm government, 2011a, p. 35), as well as departmental business plans and procurement contracts. the dominant logic within these claims rests on the notion of citizen as consumer and giving private sector competitors access to commercially sensitive information, potentially putting public providers at a significant disadvantage in a marketised system that many citizens do not want. as some ogd advocates have highlighted, this marketisation agenda also risks creating further barriers to transparency in public services. crucially, access to information is threatened unless accessibility and re-usability of data and information is built into contracts between government and service providers; or, in some cases, unless the cost for the relevant public body to access information from private providers falls within the costs allowed for freedom of information requests.</p> <p> related to this issue of marketisation of public services, interviews with civil servants and policy research suggests a key issue currently drawing considerable interest from regulators (the national archives) and other interested bodies is the definition of 'public task' which arises out of the psi re-use regulations. psi re-use regulations state that public bodies (with some exceptions) must allow re-use of their information without discrimination or unnecessary restrictions if its production is part of their public task. whilst the regulations also currently allow charging at above marginal cost, this obviously is of significant interest to the ogd initiative. a key issue is that although the regulations only apply to data which falls within the remit of a public body's 'public task', it is not often directly defined what a public body's 'public task' actually is. the national archives (tna) has recently published guidance on the term (the national archives, 2011), encouraging public bodies to produce statements of 'public task' in advance of any potential complaints under the re-use of psi regulations. in relation to the current scrutiny and cutting of public services, concerns may be raised about the desire to push public bodies to define their 'public task'. the advisory panel on public sector information, in which tna participate, proposes that there is a "dichotomy between public task in the narrow context of public sector information and information trading, on the one hand, and the broader philosophical issues of public services and national policy on the other...if the project and principles get embroiled in the latter it would be difficult to reach any conclusion" (appsi, 2011). however, such reductionism in order to more easily reach a conclusion is problematic, particularly when removing the discussion from the context it exists within could provide a backdoor to force the marketisation of public services.</p> <h3>the psi re-use industry</h3> <p> whilst it is clear that the uk government is attempting to use the ogd initiative to leverage its marketisation agenda beyond the specific psi re-use market, it is also important to consider the nature of the ogd/psi re-user business environment. interviews and observations suggest that some at the periphery of the ogd initiative have tended to conceptualise ogd as being about small start-ups, voluntary 'civic hackers' and other micro/small enterprises. this is unsurprising given the heavy weighting towards micro/small businesses in the uk's it sector and the large numbers of 'civic hackers' active in the ogd community; however, the potential re-user industry for ogd is broader than this. the psi re-use industry comprises a range of industries and includes multinational corporations (mncs) such as google and lexisnexis, conglomerates such as daily mail and general trust whose dmg information division is the parent company of the uk based landmark information group, as well as an array of smes, micro enterprises, independent developers, and voluntary 'civic hackers'. the focus on key valuable public datasets, as argued above, draws the ogd initiative into the same space as this much broader psi re-use industry. whilst there are certainly differences between the data uses and demands of established psi re-user businesses and the ogd community, it is evident that ogd advocates are also pushing for key datasets that are of importance to key interests within the psi re-use industry, for example, unrefined trading fund and transport data.</p> <p> the locus association represents the psi re-use industry in the uk, and is a founding member of the psi alliance which represents industry interests at the european union level. these organisations' members are drawn from both uk/eu based companies and multinationals with business interests in the uk/eu. connecting the locus association and the psi alliance is michael nicholson: the former managing director of intelligent addressing ltd a private firm acquired by the state in 2011; deputy chair of the psi alliance; former chair of the locus association; and, expert member of the uk government's advisory panel on public sector information (appsi) which he joined shortly after his psi related complaint against ordnance survey was overturned by appsi in 2007. whilst nicholson is perhaps best known in psi circles for his complaint against ordnance survey whilst at intelligent addressing, interviews with civil servants and online research suggest he also has a strong network of connections within national government. further, he has worked alongside key ogd advocates at psi/ogd events such as the 5th communia workshop organised by the open knowledge foundation in 2009, where he presented alongside rufus pollock (okfn) and tom steinberg (mysociety).</p> <p> nicholson's vision is clear: he wants the state rolled back to areas of market failure and statutory requirement, and he wants marginal cost re-use of psi procured (not collected) by the state to meet its requirements for 'good government' (nicholson, 2009). unlike in some industries, the psi re-users tend to be in alignment in their lobbying approach. as one industry representative stated: the position of businesses represented by the psi lobby is to stop the public sector competing in the market by pushing for marginal cost re-use and more transparency in licensing conditions in order to ensure a "fair and level playing field" (interviews: business interest).</p> <p> whilst the ogd advocates tend to want zero-cost data that is openly licensed, these companies are willing to pay to re-use datasets, albeit at marginal cost, and they want licenses or contracts that guarantee their supply (interviews: business interest). the psi re-use industry is engaged in developing a wide range of products for both business and consumer markets often utilising high level skills to work with complex datasets such as legal, geographical, and business data. whilst the uses of psi are numerous, there are a number of industry developments that are worth outlining and considering in relation to broader social ends: google's public data project, financial market interest in weather data, and the smart cities initiatives.</p> <p> google, a member of the psi alliance and regular participant at ogd events, is currently developing its public data explorer project. as part of its mission to "organise the world's knowledge", google has expanded its range of services into the field of organising the world's public data, making it universally accessible and usable (yolken, 2011). as a result of its acquisition of swedish non-profit gapminder's trendalyzer data visualisation technology in 2007, google is able to offer a range of interactive visualisations through which citizens and policy makers can explore patterns in public data. in this sense they are partially aligned with elements of the ogd community, including data journalists, advocating for data re-usability for democratic reasons. however, of particular concern here is the risk of monopolisation of data interpretation by companies such as google through the use of seemingly high quality and easy to use interpretive tools whose inner processes are closed to analysis. some civil society interviewees raised this issue of closed-source analysis tools as a potential problem, although others dismissed the concern arguing that competitive economic processes should counter any monopolisation threat.</p> <p> the financial markets are also interested in psi in order to develop new products. lloyds of london, along with others, are lobbying to have their position in the market for meteorological data improved in order that they are better placed to develop insurance products around extreme weather events (berr, 2008): a potentially lucrative site for investment as climate change takes hold. weather derivatives (hedging business ventures against the weather) were also highlighted by an interviewee as another area of potential expansion (interviews: civil service). popular in the usa and traded on the chicago mercantile exchange, an exchange well known for its 'innovative' derivatives and futures trading, it is not currently possible to develop such financial products in the uk market due to the lack or high cost of meteorological data which is collected by the met office. what must be questioned here is the extreme inequity inherent in a system whereby protection from a societal problem such as climate change is offered on an individual, rather than social, basis to those that are able to afford protection. further, it should be questioned whether the development of markets that aim to exploit, rather than resolve, the growing risk and instability in our weather systems is socially beneficial.</p> <p> a further development, and one that is related to the concern over open public services, is the emergent smart cities projects. whilst many independent and civic developers have taken advantage of open public transport data, the significant issue in this field is in relation to further corporate takeover of the infrastructural systems that urban services and utilities are based upon. as the future of cities, information and inclusion report states, in a section labelled "battle for the smart city": </p> <blockquote> managing rapid urban growth and global warming will give rise to a multi-trillion dollar global market for smart cities and infrastructure...industry leaders will have clear visions for the growth of citiesand will promote those agendas with city officials." (institute for the future, 2010) </blockquote> <p> whilst this is billed as a 10-year forecast it is already a present reality in the uk with mncs' (e.g. cisco, ibm, and oracle) smart city visions receiving favourable appraisal from some state based interviewees. these mncs are keen to take over and develop new 'smart' integrated urban infrastructures, such as public transport systems. in order to develop such systems they need access to and the ability to integrate the same types of databases that independent developers and 'civic hackers' are pushing to get opened. there is therefore a significant risk of corporate monopolisation of the shaping of urban infrastructures, something which, among other issues, risks profit seeking, rather than sustainability and local governance, shaping their development.</p> <p> these examples are not intended as arguments against opening up data, since there is little doubt that such corporations could gain access to and re-use of this data anyway if it was deemed beneficial by the government, and this would potentially be at a cost unaffordable to independent developers and citizens thus leading to even greater corporate monopolisation. what is argued, however, is that it is necessary for ogd advocates to be aware of, engage in critical discussion about, and act in response to this broader environment that they are working in.</p> <h3>vulnerabilities in the emergent ogd community</h3> <p> whilst the ogd community is not a homogenous mass interviews with civil society advocates and observations evidence significant divergences in contextual awareness, strategy and politics within the community some generalisations can be made. whilst many within the ogd community are engaged in developing ogd tools and products for business, civic and personal reasons, interviews indicate many also have some philosophical or socio-political reasoning behind their engagement in an 'open' initiative. as stated above, many have a high commitment to civic principles and draw on a range of normative concepts which motivate their activity, including concepts such as freedom, justice, equality and the commons. interviews suggest that many advocating for ogd are still shaping their understanding of the environment they are working within. what is crucial to understand at this point is how aware are advocates of the context they are engaged in, what response does the community have to this situation, and are ogd advocates vulnerable to co-optation by dominant interests? key issues that emerged in interviews and which will now be examined are contextual awareness, sidelining of critique, and meritocratic governance.</p> <p> interviews suggest that the awareness of the broader context outlined above within the ogd community is quite limited. whilst there are some advocates that are broadly aware of the context of ogd in relation to the psi re-user community, there are many that are not. further, in relation to coalition policy the awareness of how ogd is being used to push forward a marketisation agenda is very limited. rather, advocates often contextualise ogd in terms of transparency, participation, innovation, and countering information asymmetries by reclaiming public data from monopoly capture (whether public or private). a number of factors emerging from interview and observational findings can help explain these patterns. many advocates, as is to be expected, are simply drawing on hegemonic liberal logic of consumer choice, freedom, competitiveness, innovation etc and framing their resistance to forms of dominant power within its borders. further, the action orientation of much of the community can displace it from consideration of broader contextual issues, as can a tendency towards compartmentalisation in problem solving, possibly drawn from a programming logic that emerges within sections of the community. further, there is a significant issue regarding the sidelining of critical discussion in favour of prioritising getting the data opened, and there is concern from some advocates that critical discussion could be further limited by the restrictions on those individuals and groups who have been drawn closer to the state through advisory roles and contracted provision of products and services.</p> <p> whilst in recent months some critiques have begun to emerge publically at the edges of the community <a href="#foot4" name="ref4" title="see the 'challenging openness' session in may 2011 at the futureeverything conference in manchester (http://vimeo.com/25652682) and a small number of presentations at the open knowledge conference in berlin, june 2011 e.g. chris taggart, 'global open data: a threat or saviour for democracy?' (http://vimeo.com/26390698) and michael gurstein, 'open data louder voices?' (http://vimeo.com/26414945)">[4]</a>, the tactic of putting off dealing with critical discussions is one that has emerged relatively strongly in interviews with civil society advocates that are aware of some of the key issues. the priority, it is argued, is to get data opened, and then, once this is achieved, deal with any problems. whilst the logic behind this pragmatic approach is perhaps understandable for those focussed on opening up data, it also poses a number of significant issues. firstly, it stifles critical understanding within the broader ogd community, leading to the possibility of politically naive interpretations of ogd becoming increasingly dominant. secondly, it detracts critical attention from those within the community that are supportive of this broader marketisation agenda. thirdly, there is a sense of elitism in how norms are being established not to address key issues within the broader community, a process that will result in some advocates being divested of the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of that which they are fighting for. finally, it can lead to community insularity as those on the outside that could complement its work potentially begin to perceive it as politically naive and thus decide not to engage.</p> <p> a further issue that emerges is in relation to the 'meritocratic' mode of governance within the community, something which is explicitly referred to in the open knowledge foundation's governance principles (okfn[2], n.d.) and which is also observable in practice. as an initiative that is engaged in high level policy and legislative changes and in some cases an attempted remodelling of state-citizen relations, concerns do sometimes arise towards the periphery of the movement about how this mode of governance functions. governance concerns emerging from interviews and informal discussions with more peripheral advocates highlighted a number of concerns including a lack of democratic decision making and a sense of a socially elite, masculine, and technologically driven model of 'merit'. further, attempts to engage the community with these concerns sometimes blatantly, sometimes more subtly often faltered, either being ignored or not being prioritised by the community. it is also apparent from interviews that the broader community is very unclear about what specifically the political positions are of those advocating on behalf of the community to the state, particularly in relation to their views on the role of the state and the public sector. this is a crucial issue given the context, and one that some advocates will not be aware of given lack of contextual awareness. since there is no democratic governance and a lack of public discussion of relevant issues within the community, there sometimes emerges a strong sense of disconnect between the broader community and its 'representatives'. this is problematic, and betrays an elitism that makes the community vulnerable to assimilation into others' agendas. further, whilst there are a number of individuals that are actively engaged in progressive activity outside of ogd and trying to bring the two together in various ways, the ogd community as a whole is quite isolated from the wider public relative to its relationship with those in positions of power. this is something which deepens the sense of elitism and leaves the ogd community vulnerable to reproducing a top-down mode of governance.</p> <p> drawing on interviews and observations it is apparent that whilst there are certainly people engaged within the ogd community that would highlight similar issues, they are not the majority. there is a sense that significant sections of the community are limited in their ability or desire to engage a deep appreciation of the complex social inequalities that ogd has emerged, and will evolve, within. amongst some more politically and socially aware advocates concerns have therefore arisen that these issues combine to make the community "politically a bit naive at some points" (interviews: peripheral civil society) and vulnerable to co-optation by elite interests.</p> <h3>conclusions and recommendations</h3> <p>in summary, there are significant social and political stakes being played for in the shaping of ogd in the uk. whilst some of the more politically aware data activists have taken a strategic line of downplaying potential risks and issues in order to push the ogd agenda, there has been significant co-optation of the initiative into an ideologically framed mould that champions the superiority of markets over social provision. as the most vulnerable in society are facing substantial public spending cuts, the ogd model risks being interpreted as, and potentially becoming, little more than a corporate subsidy. the continuing scandals that have surfaced from the uk's political classes over the last two years, combined with the broader socio-economic and political context, should make anyone sceptical of the current administration's cloaking of this initiative under the veil of transparency and participation. these factors combine to point towards a process of co-optation and closure rather than opening.</p> <p>in spite of these problems, it cannot be argued that ogd is the cause of this broader context. further, the supply-side push is towards a model of open means of production within this sector, and the initiative has the potential to create a supply of data that is also required for more progressive political projects. it is important in the final analysis of ogd, therefore, to ask the following questions: is there more or less social benefit to be gained from resisting ogd entirely and restricting information flows and information interpretation through inducing false scarcity? and, does ogd open up possibilities for a progressive future based on socially and politically egalitarian principles that takes us beyond these immediate concerns?</p> <p>it is difficult to make a (non-reactionary) argument against the free flow of data and information, however, it is crucial to understand the implications of co-opted partial approaches to openness, particularly if they risk weakening public institutions already under significant political and market pressure. as the above discussions of the social and political interests engaged in shaping ogd indicate, a progressive future for ogd based on egalitarian principles is not guaranteed. the emergence of ogd in the uk at this specific time should be recognised as being the result of converging pressures and interests. to observe this process in an overly fragmented way opens up progressive civil society advocates to significant vulnerabilities. the shaping of ogd is a political and social struggle. failure to engage in this context does not make it apolitical; it simply creates a vacuum for vested interests to harness the power of ogd for private gain. if there is any potential in shaping ogd towards a progressive future, this struggle must be widely appreciated and understood and it must engage those beyond the current ogd community. in particular, the following recommendations are made that community informatics practitioners and researchers might work with:</p> <ul> <li>engage with organised civil society, local communities and domain experts in sourcing datasets to be opened, advising on the collection of data, and in developing methods of data analysis</li> <li>engage at a grassroots level to understand common social and economic anxieties that are presently being exploited by vested interests in the media and political spheres, and develop, with organised civil society, local communities, and domain experts, tools and resources that can engage and critically inform such concerns</li> <li>development, with organised civil society, local communities, and domain experts, of tools and resources that empower people to imagine alternative futures, and better understand the processes that produce such futures</li> <li>engage with those outside the data/information domain who can use data to tell stories and produce cultural resources that don't look like data/information</li> <li>promote democratic, inclusive and engaging modes of governance and discussion within the ogd communities</li> </ul> <h3> references</h3> <p> appsi. (2011). <span style="font-style: italic;">minutes from the advisory panel on public sector information meeting 1st march 2011</span>. london: the national archives. retrieved july 10, 2011 from <a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/meetings/010311appsi-meeting-minutes.pdf">http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/meetings/010311appsi-meeting-minutes.pdf</a></p> <p> benjamin, s. et al. (2007). <span style="font-style: italic;">bhoomi: "e-governance", or, an anti-politics machine necessary to globalize bangalore?</span> retrieved september 14, 2010 from <a href="http://casumm.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/bhoomi-e-governance.pdf">http://casumm.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/bhoomi-e-governance.pdf</a></p> <p> berr. (2008). <span style="font-style: italic;">supporting innovation in services</span>. department for business, enterprise and regulatory reform: london.</p> <p>burkert, h. (2004). the mechanics of public sector information. in g. aichholzer &amp; h. burkert (eds.), <span style="font-style: italic;">public sector information in the digital age</span> (pp. 3-22). cheltenham: edward elgar.</p> <p>cabinet office. (2011). <span style="font-style: italic;">public data corporation to free up public data and drive innovation</span>. retrieved january 15, 2011, from <a href="http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/public-data-corporation-free-public-data-and-drive-innovation">http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/public-data-corporation-free-public-data-and-drive-innovation</a></p> <p>davies, t. (2010). <span style="font-style: italic;">open data, democracy and public sector reform: a look at open government data use from data.gov.uk</span>. retrieved september 3, 2010 from <a href="http://practicalparticipation.co.uk/odi/report/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/how-is-open-government-data-being-used-in-practice.pdf">http://practicalparticipation.co.uk/odi/report/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/how-is-open-government-data-being-used-in-practice.pdf</a></p> <p>evans, a. j. (2006). the national geographical information policy of britain national policy/: 1746 1999. <span style="font-style: italic;">gis korea 2006: proceedings of the gis international conference korea 2006</span>, 275-299. retrieved july 20, 2011 from <a href="http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/papers/06-1/06-1.doc">http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/papers/06-1/06-1.doc</a></p> <p>gurstein, m. (2011). open data access vs. open data (effective) use. <span style="font-style: italic;">first monday, 16</span>(2). retrieved june 1, 2011 from <a href="http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3316/2764">http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3316/2764</a></p> <p>hm government. (2011a). <span style="font-style: italic;">open public services white paper</span>. the stationary office: london. retrieved july 24, 2011 from <a href="http://files.openpublicservices.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/openpublicservices-whitepaper.pdf">http://files.openpublicservices.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/openpublicservices-whitepaper.pdf</a></p> <p>hm government (2011b). <span style="font-style: italic;">plans for a public data corporation</span>. retrieved july 24, 2011 from <a href="http://pdcengagement.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/pdc/">http://pdcengagement.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/pdc/</a></p> <p>hm government. (n.d.). protection of freedoms bill. retrieved march 21, 2012 from <a href="http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010-12/protectionoffreedoms.html">http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010-12/protectionoffreedoms.html</a></p> <p>institute for the future. (2010). <span style="font-style: italic;">the future of cities, information and inclusion</span>. retrieved july 24, 2011 from <a href="http://www.iftf.org/inclusion">http://www.iftf.org/inclusion</a></p> <p>kling, r., &amp; iacono, s. (1988). the mobilization of support for computerization: the role of computerization movements. <span style="font-style: italic;">social problems, 35</span>(3).</p> <p>longo, j. (2011). #opendata: digital-era governance thoroughbred or new public management trojan horse? <span style="font-style: italic;">public policy and governance review, 2</span>(2).</p> <p>maude, f. (2010, november 19). presentation at the international open data conference, wellcome trust, london.</p> <p>mayo, e., &amp; steinberg, t. (2007). <span style="font-style: italic;">the power of information/: an independent review</span>. opsi: london. retrieved july 10, 2010 from <a href="http://www.opsi.gov.uk/advice/poi/power-of-information-review.pdf">http://www.opsi.gov.uk/advice/poi/power-of-information-review.pdf</a></p> <p>newbery, d. et al. (2008). <span style="font-style: italic;">models of public sector information provision via trading funds</span>. department for business, enterprise and regulatory reform: london. retrieved july 30, 2010 from <a href="http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file45136.pdf">http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file45136.pdf</a></p> <p>nicholson, m. (2009, march 26). <span style="font-style: italic;">psi/: state control or public freedom? paper presented at the 5th communia workshop</span>. london. march 26 2009. retrieved on july 12, 2011 from <a href="http://www.communia-project.eu/communiafiles/ws05s_mjlnicholson.pdf">http://www.communia-project.eu/communiafiles/ws05s_mjlnicholson.pdf</a></p> <p>oft. (2006). <span style="font-style: italic;">the commercial use of public information (cupi)</span>. london: office of fair trading. retrieved july 27, 2010 from <a href="http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/reports/consumer_protection/oft861.pdf">http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/reports/consumer_protection/oft861.pdf</a></p> <p>okfn &amp; access-info. (2010). <span style="font-style: italic;">beyond access/: open government data and the 'right to reuse'</span>. retrieved september 14, 2010 from <a href="http://www.access-info.org/documents/access_docs/advancing/beyond_access_7_january_2011_web.pdf">http://www.access-info.org/documents/access_docs/advancing/beyond_access_7_january_2011_web.pdf</a></p> <p>okfn[1]. (n.d.). <span style="font-style: italic;">open definition</span>: defining the open in open data, open content and open services. retrieved may 2, 2010 from <a href="http://www.opendefinition.org/okd">http://www.opendefinition.org/okd</a></p> <p>okfn[2]. (n.d.). <span style="font-style: italic;">governance</span>. retrieved july 2, 2011 from <a href="http://okfn.org/governance/#meritocracy">http://okfn.org/governance/#meritocracy</a></p> <p>osi. (n.d.). <span style="font-style: italic;">the open source definition</span>. retrieved june 23, 2010 from <a href="http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd">http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd</a></p> <p>peled, a. (2011). when transparency and collaboration collide: the usa open data program. <span style="font-style: italic;">journal of the american society for information science and technology</span>, (early view). retrieved on august 23, 2011 from <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.21622/pdf">http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.21622/pdf</a></p> <p>pira international. ( 2000). <span style="font-style: italic;">commercial exploitation of europe's public sector information</span>. office for official publications of the european communities: luxembourg</p> <p>pollock, r. (2008). <span style="font-style: italic;">the economics of public sector information</span>. working paper, university of cambridge, cambridge. retrieved on july 30, 2010 from <a href="http://rufuspollock.org/economics/papers/economics_of_psi.pdf">http://rufuspollock.org/economics/papers/economics_of_psi.pdf</a></p> <p>postal services commission. (2006). <span style="font-style: italic;">postcomm's proposals for the future management of the paf: a consultation document</span>. london: postal services commission. retrieved july 24, 2011 from <a href="http://www.psc.gov.uk/documents/1237.pdf">http://www.psc.gov.uk/documents/1237.pdf</a></p> <p>shuttleworth foundation. (n.d.). <span style="font-style: italic;">shuttleworth foundation</span>. retrieved september 14, 2011 from http://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org</p> <p>the national archives. (2010). <span style="font-style: italic;">the united kingdom report on the re-use of public sector information 2010</span>. london: the national archives. retrieved april 11, 2011 from <a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/psi-report.pdf">http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/psi-report.pdf</a></p> <p>the national archives. (2011). <span style="font-style: italic;">guide to drawing up a statement of public task</span>. london: the national archives. retrieved 24 august, 2011 from <a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/guide-to-drawing-up-a-statement-of-public-task.pdf">http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/guide-to-drawing-up-a-statement-of-public-task.pdf</a></p> <p>tinati, r. et al. (2011). <span style="font-style: italic;">exploring the uk open-psi community</span>. paper presented at the sharepsi: removing the roadblocks to a pan european market for public sector information re-use conference, brussels, 9-10th may, 2011. retrieved june 8, 2011 from <a href="http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/22293/">http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/22293/</a></p> <p>wright, g. et al. (2010). <span style="font-style: italic;">report on open government data in india</span>. centre for internet and society: bangalore. retrieved march 14, 2011 from <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/openness/publications/ogd-report">http://www.cis-india.org/openness/publications/ogd-report</a></p> <p>yolken, b. (2011, july 1). google public data: enhancing data discovery and exploration. paper presented at the okcon 2011: open knowledge conference, berlin, 30 june 1 july 2011.</p> <h3>endnotes</h3> <p><a href="#ref1" name="foot1">[1]</a> francis maude (minister for the cabinet office, uk government). presentation at the international open data conference, wellcome trust, london, november 19 2010</p> <p><a href="#ref2" name="foot2">[2]</a> public sector information is generally divided into two categories. distinctions that draw on notions of market failure, public goods and competitive markets tend to use the 'unrefined' versus 'refined' or 'upstream' versus 'downstream' distinction. the office of fair trading (2006, p. 53) proposed that psi is 'unrefined' if the public authority is the sole supplier of data as it would be uncompetitive to produce it commercially, whereas psi is 'refined' if its supply would attract competition in the market. pollock (2008, p. 7) similarly argues 'upstream' information cannot be sourced from anywhere other than the public body, whereas 'downstream' information could be provided by another organisation if that organisation had access to the relevant 'upstream' information. an earlier categorisation (proposed in 2000 by the treasury) is based on the reasons for data collection and processing. here, 'raw data' and 'value-added information' are used to highlight the distinction between data that are collected because they are central to government's core responsibilities ('raw data'), whereas information is 'value-added' when the use value of 'raw data' has been enhanced through, for example, manipulation, analysis, summarisation, and making it easier for end-users to use (newbury et al, 2008, p. 10). these distinctions are therefore crucial to policy, and further research into their development would be beneficial.</p> <p><a href="#ref3" name="foot3">[3]</a> the 2009 mps expenses scandal resulted from the release of information which evidenced the widespread abuse of the allowances and expenses members of parliament were entitled to claim. the wikipedia article on the topic provides a good overview: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/united_kingdom_parliamentary_expenses_scandal">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/united_kingdom_parliamentary_expenses_scandal</a>.</p> <p><a href="#ref4" name="foot4">[4]</a> see the 'challenging openness' session in may 2011 at the futureeverything conference in manchester (<a href="http://vimeo.com/25652682">http://vimeo.com/25652682</a>) and a small number of presentations at the open knowledge conference in berlin, june 2011 e.g. chris taggart, 'global open data: a threat or saviour for democracy?' (<a href="http://vimeo.com/26390698">http://vimeo.com/26390698</a>) and michael gurstein, 'open data louder voices?' (<a href="http://vimeo.com/26414945">http://vimeo.com/26414945</a>)</p> book review: favela digital: the other side of technology nemer, d. (2013). favela digital: the other side of technology. vitoria, brazil: editora gsa. isbn: 978-85-8173-059-2 reviewed by ammar halabi1 phd candidate, university of fribourg, fribourg, switzerland. e-mail: ammar.halabi@unifr.ch "favela digital" is a visual account of david nemer's observations of how technology is imported, used and re-purposed in the everyday lives of people living in the brazilian favelas of vitória. the author is a brazilian researcher who is currently pursuing his phd in informatics at indiana university, bloomington. the material in the book came from his six-month ethnographic study in the favela where he collaborated with a team of young local photographers to record snippets of the everyday experiences of people as they encounter digital technology. the author aspires to highlight the otherwise unobserved ways in which the people in these economically and socially marginalized communities appropriate technology in various aspects in their lives. as well it illustrates the potential of those tools to empower even as there is the need to resist and respond to the pressure that the technology carries based on its originally having been designed and produced without having them in mind. the book is a collection of photos followed by testimonials given by people living in the favelas, the author's own observations, as well as quotes from academic texts. with this format, the author aims to involve both academics and the general public in reflecting on the politics of technology making and how it unfolds in the lives of marginalized communities. by giving us a grounded first-hand account, david nemer's book is engaging and compelling. with its relaxed flow and non-structured format, while abstaining from adopting analytical categories to group the presented material, it enables the reader to reshuffle and juxtapose ideas and concepts while prioritizing the perspective of favela residents. with such a "view from the inside" of some of the life values of people in the favelas and how they make their choices with technology, the book emphasizes our need as researchers to remain grounded and connected to people while participating in shaping future interactions with technology. david nemer succeeds in illuminating aspects of the complex relations between technology and everyday life. on the one hand, he shows how technology empowers as people use it to connect with each other, to play, to work, to express themselves and to obtain governmental services. on the other hand, he also shows how it deepens social and economic divides, pushing those marginalized even further beyond the margin. this can be seen in the context of the disinterest of tech providers and decision makers, and the distance between technology makers and the favelas, which renders it is difficult for those living in the favelas to get decent internet connection or access high-quality training. this juxtaposition of ideas does not restrict us to viewing technology only as either a demon or a savior, but also as a product and a shaper of various agencies: makers, governments, users, sellers, the rich, the poor, the elderly, children, and those who are trying to better their life conditions. these agencies might be in harmony, while at other times they come into conflict, so with the effects of technology, which reflects and mediates those human agencies. to be sure, this does not bring new arguments to disciplines concerned with the social studies of technology. however, it adds flesh to the bones of these arguments, and brings a concrete perspective from the rich lives of favela dwellers. with this, the book does not seek to analyze one aspect (western makers) while mystifying the other (native locals). instead, it grounds the view towards technology, showing how it is not to be looked at as external or as a modern outsider in the favelas, but as collections of gadgets, toys, tools, connection channels, and frustrations that are locally appropriated and used for fun, play, safety, paperwork, and communication. in other words, it tells us in the words of people living in the favelas: "these are the tools and devices that we have; this is how we get them; this is how and why we use them; and this is what we wish for". the book therefore pushes us to think about the making of future tools and policies while considering delivery, break-ability, toxicity, play-ability, simplicity, cheapness, contextuality, connectivity, sociability, usability, and harsh weather. it is among works that we can use to communicate and discuss the activist message behind socialand community informatics to manufacturers, decision makers, and the wider public. the book's format is refreshing. the presentation of photos delivers a visual perspective on the locations of fieldwork of ict4d, community informatics and social informatics that is seldom showcased in conventional scientific publication practice. moreover, since the texts are printed in both portuguese and english, this offers the book to a wider audience and makes it accessible and critiqueable by those involved in its production. in a sense, the book therefore calls on academics in ict4d, community informatics and social informatics to "free" their field data and find innovative forms to make it available to the public. finally it is an intriguing example of how academic research in socialand community informatics can be promoted to become an issue of public critical attention. with the proliferation of the internet and with a significant amount of human transactions taking place over communication media, discussing the rights to digital access and literacy becomes ever more important. <h2 style="text-align:center">two worlds of open government data:<br /> getting the lowdown on public toilets in chennai and other matters</h2> <h3 style="text-align:center">michael gurstein</h3> <p>on the face of it (so to speak) locating public toilets would appear to be a natural for <a href="http://opengovernmentdata.org/">open government data</a> (ogd). most cities have such toilets--maintained at public expense for the use of residents with an urgent need. data on such facilities should be relatively accessible from municipal government offices and making that information available to the general public as a service via a mobile app is an obviously useful application and seemingly win-win-win... a win for municipal government--they get to appear public-spirited and supportive of citizens/tourists; a win for app maker and the platform providing the app--what better application for a globally accessible smart phone than a map of facilities for folks on the run; and a natural for private sector sponsorship particularly as in the case of a leading provider of info and apps on public toilets, http://www.sitorsquat.com who are sponsored by proctor and gamble (the "leading toilet tissue" brand); and of course a win for the user whoever/wherever they may be.</p> <p>good news for ogd all round and the folks at <a href="http://sitorsquat.com/">sitorsquat.com</a> (sos) have quite naturally seen the marketing potential and have their marketing information and campaign laid out foursquare on the website. a public-private-partnership at its best and a potential sponsor's dream!</p> <p style="font-weight: bold;">sitorsquat.com demographics</p> affluent: $49,000 average<br> high income (&gt; $100,000): 33%<br> demographics: female: 60% / male: 40%<br> age range: 20 60<br> college/post-grad: 67%<br> <p>...and so they have plans for going global by providing to their top drawer "demographics" a database of, and access to one million public toilets globally. and good luck to them!</p> <p>in a developed country (global north?) context this information, once having been made available through municipal goodwill, efficiency and ogd spirit; and combined and compiled with sponsor-supported entrepreneurial zeal, would immediately be added to the global database and become another "app" available to smart phone users if/when they ever have the need, on a visit to san francisco, vancouver, chennai or timbucto.</p> <p>however, as a bit of a caution, it might be well to take a look at the experience of nithya raman and her colleagues in chennai, india; who, perhaps responding to the urgent exhortations made by the sos folks to globalize the opportunities for responding effectively to nature's calls, undertook to get access to the equivalent ogd on public toilets available in chennai.</p> <p><a href="http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/877/908">a paper in the current special issue</a> of the journal of community informatics on community informatics and open government data gives a quite dramatic account of their efforts to obtain information concerning the number and location of public toilets in chennai city, a subject of considerable interest to a rather different 'demographic" from that of the sos group--</p> <blockquote> <p>...(those living in) "slum areas, ... street vendors..., those (at) bus stops and bus depots, (workers in the) clusters of informal sector industry, (those in) waiting areas for daily laborers and so on"...</p> <p>we first decided to get an accurate count of public toilets in the city. one afternoon, i called the chennai corporation and asked for the department that took care of public toilets. after many long holds, phones being hung up, and failed attempts to transfer my call to the correct department, someone finally connected me to the buildings department that managed all corporation owned structures. the man on the other end of the phone chuckled when he heard that i was interested in public toilets, and then told me that although the buildings department was responsible for the construction and maintenance of public toilet structures in the city, they maintained no central register of toilets at the chennai corporation&#8217;s main office. to get information about the number and locations of toilets, he told me that i would have to approach each of the zonal offices individually.</p> <p>at the time, there were ten zonal offices in chennai, and i asked meryl to visit each office to get the total number and locations of all the public toilets. the process we followed was the same for each zone, but the offices responded with varying levels of cooperation. for one zone, meryl left our office armed with a letter of introduction specifying the information she required and a vague address taken from the corporation website, and searched for the zonal office with an increasingly irritable auto-rickshaw driver. when she finally arrived at the office, neither the assistant commissioner nor the executive engineer was available, so the personal assistant to the assistant commissioner sent her to the letters department. there, she was asked to make a photocopy of her request letter. the original was kept with them, and the copy was given to her, both stamped with the date of her visit, and she was asked to come back after two days. two days later, the executive engineer was there, and like many of the other officers we interacted with on this issue, he seemed both confused and amused by her interest in toilets. he chided her for coming in the afternoon, because the work would have been completed more quickly in the morning, but immediately put two engineers to the task of preparing a list for her. after another hour of waiting, she had a hand-written list of toilets and toilet addresses in her hand, and she returned to the office triumphantly to type it up.</p> <p>other zones were not so easy....in this way, zone by zone, with multiple visits, many letters of introduction, and much careful coaxing, meryl slowly put together a list of toilets and their addresses in the city. only one zone provided her with a map of local infrastructure, the rest gave her lists of toilets and addresses.</p> </blockquote> <p>in this instance ms. raman and her colleagues, armed as they were with the very strong indian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/right_to_information_act,_2005">right to information (rti) legislation</a> were able to insist on gaining access to the information. it should be noted however, that the "data" being provided through ogd means was, it appears, largely spurious and reflected what the local officials wanted their higher-ups and others such as the media to believe (and accept without further question).</p> <p>from our local interviews, it appeared that zonal level bureaucrats had good reasons for keeping the number of toilets unclear. contracts for toilet maintenance were a source of income for many ward councilors, and lower-level bureaucrats were paid off to ensure that the contracts went to the right people. although we do not have proof that this is what happened, people we interviewed in the field told us that non-existent toilets were being used for creating fictional maintenance contracts so that councilors could benefit from them.</p> <p>in the indian context, the compilation of this type of information is by no means straightforward and in this instance became a quest requiring numerous queries, recalibrations of data requests and ultimately site visits to authenticate information being provided. the reason of course, being that public toilets are provided and maintained through public funds. in many instances those toilets do not exist and may not have ever existed or at least not existed in recent times and yet contracts are being regularly awarded (evidently to local politicians) for the maintenance of these toilets. in this way was revealed a small and localized form of corruption but one that is of considerable significance not only from a financial accountability perspective but also for the poor for whom these toilets have been paid but not provided and for whom no other equivalent public facility may be available.</p> <p>in this context as well, i should also mention the nuanced and sophisticated analysis of this (type of) phenomenon by <a href="http://tgc.janastu.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/reportsubmittedtosircamay2011.pdf">bhuvanaswari raman and zainab bawa</a> who, while recognizing these types of lower level issues put them in a broader context of "structural conditions" and "underlying dynamics" specific in some sense to the indian environment, but also more generally applicable in ldc contexts . their analysis is that while these phenomena are occurring at the local level, their real cause and ultimate resolution only happens as a result of much higher level reform, structural change and political resolve.</p> <p>along these latter lines, on my way to brasilia for a research meeting associated with <a href="http://www.opengovpartnership.org/">open government partnership</a> annual event i had the opportunity to present a short course on community informatics to a group of information science graduate students at <a href="http://www.marilia.unesp.br/">unesp</a> in marilia, sao paulo province, brazil. most particularly though, i had a chance to interact with them and with one of their professors, ricardo santana who, with his students is doing some very interesting work in the area of ogd.</p> <p>in the interactions with ricardo and the students i began to realize that his approach to ogd and what i understood as being the "conventional" approach to ogd were in fact, quite different or at least they were starting from quite different assumptions. ricardo and his students were focusing their work on government transparency and transparency of a particular kind--i.e. financial and programmatic (operational) transparency. they were concerned to examine budgets, to observe transactions, to get data on logistics. the type of observational, behavioural, factoidal data that is the current stock in trade of much developed country ogd--the voting behaviour of elected members, the routes and timings of government service workers (garbage pick-up, bus timings) , the location of public toilets of interest to upscale "demographics" and so on were of significantly less interest.</p> <p>what i began to understand was that most of ogd colleagues from developed/oecd countries, are starting from a default position that their governments' probity, honesty, and at least a degree of financial transparency, could be for the most part assumed. on the other hand, ricardo and his students (as with nithya raman and bhuvanaswari raman and zainab bawa and their colleagues) -were of necessity starting from a default position where government administrators could not be assumed to be acting in the public interest. not that they were necessarily all involved in mal-administration or more seriously in self-dealing, or misdirection of funds; but rather that given historical evidence means were not now currently in place to ensure transparency of operations and decision-making and that these needed to be implemented and including providing opportunities for crowd-sourced processes of accountability.</p> <p>thus, they were starting from a situation where ogd was not a neutral output to be reconfigured, managed, analysed and displayed. rather ogd was an artifact in itself to be analysed, accredited, authenticated and ultimately something to be created as an output of a significant process requiring legal support (as for example through rti legislation), technical and forensic skill, persistence and ultimately courage. this latter since in certain instances very significant and powerful interests might be at work and obtaining illicit benefits and willing to go to very considerable lengths to maintain these interests (including as in <a href="http://www.asianage.com/india/12-rti-activists-killed-report-calls-them-sitting-ducks-891">the indian rti instance murdering individual rti activists</a>!)</p> <p>what this meant for these researchers was that rather than focusing on "apps" and ogd uses that might provide additional "convenience" for the end-user, they were using official formal government commitments to ogd as the fulcrum through which they could get the information/data tools to expose mal-administration and even in certain instances, corruption, self-dealing, insider theft and so on.</p> <p>the ogd "game" that they are playing is for them and for their country aery powerful one since it is going to the very root of how government is practiced and held accountable and (hopefully) precipitating long term change in public service management, policy and structure. this means among other things that the connection between ogd and right to information (rti) in the developing country context is a necessary and symbiotic one. rti gives researchers the legal right to access certain information that otherwise would not be available, while ogd provides the methods, formats and methodologies by which (some of) this information can be made most useful and usable as a means for introducing and enforcing government financial and operational transparency.</p> <p>as well, it means that programs such as that of the world bank's providing ogd consultants and app developers from developed countries to less developed countries (ldc) as a form of technical assistance may be inappropriate since the areas of their experience will be of much less interest than for example, might be the skills of a public administration management expert, a forensic auditor or a specialist in procurement fraud.</p> <p>ogd however, may in the ldc context be among the most practical and significant developments ever initiated through ict initiatives since it goes to the very heart of governance structures and accountability and moreover not simply at the more public national levels but equally at the local, regional and specialist levels such as education financing. as an example, one of santana's students in brazil is looking at the gap between the ostensible procurement of food for school lunches (a very significant social measure instituted under lula's government) and the shortfall in actual quality and quantity of lunches served to students. having access to the procurement data, the budget information, and information concerning the lunches actually served (including their contents) will give ricardo and his student some very substantive and potentially quite explosive insight into possible mal-administration in procurement. as well, it is part of their research program to develop tools for making this type of information available for "crowd-sourcing" review and comment and thus ultimately providing parents with the ammunition they would need to actively intervene into the situation if and as problems are identified.</p> <p>in the developed country (dc) context one can (and does) for the most part begin with the assumption that there are significant checks and balances in place to ensure probity in these processes--audits, oversight committees of elected officials, publicly accessible budgets, an information tool enabled public and so on. in many ldc contexts many or even most of these accountability mechanisms may be lacking and it is into this breach that ogd and its proponents may now be allowed to step and among other outputs to develop the methodology for crowd-sourced (enforced) accountability, transparency and information access. thus one of the mechanisms that ricardo santana and his students are building into their ogd designs is the means for "crowd-sourcing" of observation and review of budgetary and procurement processes and through these public actions providing reinforcement, "bureaucratic space" and support for those public officials who are striving to act in the public interest but who in developing and emerging countries may need to have their efforts towards administrative reform and modernization amplified and reinforced.</p> <p>the challenge (and opportunity) thus is to see ogd not as is often the case in dc contexts, as simply a means to provide business with additional resources for consumer services or as a support to commercial enterprise or as a basis for additional citizen as consumer convenience, but rather as one of the fundamental building blocks for the promotion and maintenance of structures of good, effective, transparent and accountable governance. moreover, these differences in starting points for ogd in dc's and in ldc's should inform the design of ogd programmes and not incidentally software supports.</p> <p>there is it appears, two possible worlds of "open government data"--one the world of smart phones, and ipads, of apps and upscale "demographics" of interest to sponsors like proctor and gamble; and the contrasting world of slum dwellers without access to sanitation, of populations subject to systematic mal-and even corrupt administration --worlds where app providers and the folks who make the ogd available to them go public with multi-million dollar ipo's and ones where those with the courage to pursue public information may be putting their lives at risk.</p> <p>data as with information is power and this power may be of even greater significance when its benefits accrue to the powerless rather than to the already empowered.</p> utilization of electronic government services in mexico: a matter of trust celene navarrete claremont graduate university <csnava@hotmail.com> introduction an increasing number of government initiatives focused on the implementation of online services are being established in several countries. in nearly every country the government has some sort of internet presence . however, the use of e-government services by citizens is still not an extended practice, even in countries that lead the world in e-government technologies. according to the pew internet and american life project , 34% of american adults have used government websites. in fact, a recent report shows that americans are more likely to contact the government via telephone rather than face-to-face or online . in europe, citizens show a higher preference to use government services through traditionl delivery channels (face-to-face, telephone, fax and mail) . in less industrialized countries, little published information exists about individuals’ use of e-government services. research has mostly been conducted at the macro level to understand the socio-economical factors that impact the successful implementation and development of e-government initiatives (e.g. political stability, adequate legal framework, economic environment, culture of services) . lack of trust in the government and in the reliability of the internet to conduct transactions has been found to be an important determinant of use of public services online . studies suggest that a cognitive process takes place when individuals evaluate the degree of trustworthiness of the factors that intervene in the online government-citizen relationship—i.e. the attributes of government agency and the legal and technological safeguards that guarantee a secure transaction (i.e. data encryption, seals of secure transaction) . trust is a critical element particularly in those services that involve the disclosure of personal and financial information (e.g. tax filing/payment, vehicle registration, traffic ticket payment). however, there is evidence that the creation of perceptions of trust is not uniform across cultural borders. recent research in e-commerce suggests that a variety of contextual and cultural factors have implications on the production of perceptions of trust of potential customers of online services (e.g. familiarity and experience with the internet, the cash and self-service culture, unreliable postal service, lack of regulatory systems for electronic payments) . this study proposes that local and cultural constraints need also to be addressed in the context of e-government. the consideration of local needs and dynamics can be particularly relevant in less industrialized countries that have historically coped with corruption in public services and where access to the resources needed for the use of icts is still limited for the majority of the population (e.g. education, access to computers, conectivity). moreover, despite the growing interest in e-government in developing regions, much of the existing literature in trust and e-government is mostly based on industrialized nations and therefore limited when applied to other settings . this exploratory study seeks to answer the following research questions: do the attributes of the government agency (e.g. ability and integrity) influence the formation of perceptions of trust about the government in relation to the utilization of electronic government services in mexico? do perceptions about the reliability and security of the internet affect trust in relation to utilization of electronic government services in mexico? as the first step in studying the cultural factors that influence the formation of perceptions of trust with respect to e-government services, i conducted two focus group sessions in aguascalientes, mexico. the findings of this study will be employed to refine a survey, which will be applied in mexico and the united states in the second stage of my dissertation research. studying e-government utilization in mexico will be useful to identify themes that are relevant for the mexican culture and that might have been overlooked in previous research. to date, little published information exists about mexicans’ perceptions in relation to e-government use. in addition, this study will provide evidence of the extent to which differences in the utilization of e-government services correspond to the local sociocultural reality. this paper is organized as follows: first, i provide an analysis of the literature on trust and e-government services. second, i describe the current state of e-government services in mexico. third, i describe the research methodology employed in the collection of data for this study. fourth, i present the focus group results including demographic data, followed by a discussion of the findings. finally, i conclude the paper with a discussion of the limitations of this study and directions for future research. background e-government services and trust e-government has been broadly defined as the use of information and communication technologies (icts) to improve the internal processes of government and the delivery of information and services to citizens . much has been said about the benefits of e-government to citizens. for instance, more convenient and reliable services , decreased corruption (transparent processes, reduced bureaucrats’ discretionary power) , increased trust in the government among others. however, current research shows that citizens are not employing the promised benefits of e-government services . the lack of interest that citizens show on the use of e-government services can have a variety of explanations. for example, trust has been found a key component in online transactions that involve the disclosure of personal and financial information since it mitigates perceptions of risk or adverse consequences when deciding to purchase products or services online . for purposes of this study, trust is defined as the set of beliefs about the online vendor and the internet that lead to the willingness to engage in an online transaction . the effect of trust on the decision of conducting online purchases has been extensively reported in electronic commerce studies . recent research in information systems and political science suggests that lack of trust in public agencies and the internet can also prevent citizens to obtain public services online. for example, rand europe conducted a cross-country survey to examine citizens’ views of e-government compared to traditional modes of interacting with government. participant countries included the european union member states, the united states and switzerland. findings reveal that people perceive the convenience of time and location of online services, but individuals tend to prefer traditional service delivery methods when the transaction involves disclosure of personal information or when limited experience exits about the use of the internet. similarly, reddick suggests that experienced users of the internet need to trust the state government to actively engage in online transactions. trust in the federal and local governments were not found significant predictors of e-government services use in this study. carter and belanger administered a survey in a community event which reflected that citizens with high levels of trustworthiness in the internet and the state government are more likely to use transactional services. they extended previous work in electronic commerce (technology acceptance model and diffusion of innovation theory) to assess users intentions to use the services provided by the department of motor vehicle and the department of taxation in virginia, u.s.a. the previous analysis of the literature on trust and the utilization of e-government services suggest among other things that: first, trust in the internet is characterized as a set of specific perceptions about the legal and technological mechanisms that make the internet a reliable and secure environment for transactions . for example, potential customers of e-government services tend to feel more comfortable carrying out transactions over the internet if the website displays seals that guarantee a secure transaction and use data encryption for the transmission of information. second, trust in the government is related to impressions about the attributes of public institutions. individuals’ perceptions of e-government are usually based on their impressions about the traditional government —that is, people who distrust the government tend to be less positive about e-government services. for instance, people who have confidence in the ability, integrity and benevolence of the government are more likely to interact with the public sector online . however, despite growing interest on trust and utilization of e-government services, little is known about the creation of perceptions of trust about public agencies and the online environment in developing countries. most existing research is based on evidence from industrialized countries, primarily the united states and the european union member states. this reflects the fact that e-government is an emergent area of research, and that the implementation of e-government technologies is still in its early stages in many countries . however, there is evidence that the socio-cultural characteristics of the environment influence the formation of perceptions of trust and shape the way in which people make choices with respect to the use of icts . for example, lunden & walczuch found that potential customers of online stores in societies that do not tolerate high levels of uncertainty (e.g. latin american countries) are more likely to develop trust through a cost-benefit analysis of the potential risk involved in the online transaction. people in these cultures tend to value the ability (or competence) of the online vendor more deeply and strive for clear rules that provide feelings of security and normality about the online transaction. resistance to technological innovation is common in these cultures. additionally, gefen and colleagues found that a shared code of moral values about appropriate behavior between the government agency and citizens contributes to the creation of trust when using e-voting systems in the u.s.a. and south africa. thus, it is important to add to the current body of knowledge in e-government, evidence that considers the particular socio-cultural circumstances of the society where e-government technologies are implemented. e-government services in mexico mexico has made gradual progress in the use of icts for government operation and provision of information and services to citizens. according to the 2005 un e-government readiness report, mexico ranks in the 31st place among the 179 un member sates, and 2nd in latin america. the e-government readiness index assesses the technological sophistication and functionality of e-government portals for the provision of information and services, the country’s telecommunications infrastructure capacity, and the adult literacy rate. at the state level, the use of icts for e-government provision is still in its early stages. according to a preliminary evaluation of e-government portals in mexico, almost half of 32 state portals (47%) provide informational services and links to state agencies; and only 25% provide transactional services . three states from northern mexico, sonora, sinaloa and nuevo leon, lead the e-government rankings . some of the public services available online or through automated kiosks include fulfillment/payment of income taxes, payment of traffic tickets and request of personal documents (e.g. passport, birth/marriage/divorce certificates). regarding the demand side of e-government services, little published information exits about individuals’ perceptions of public services provided through the internet or automated kiosks. however, indirect evidence about the way mexicans will embrace e-government can be taken from e-commerce research, due to the direct relationship between e-commerce and e-government diffusion . according to the mexican association of internet (amipci) , e-commerce (online shopping) usage in mexico had an accelerated increase (81%) in the last year, with 219 million dollars in online sales. in 2004, mexicans preferred online stores including travel, departmental stores (music, books, electronics) and entertainment services (concert tickets). despite the recent rapid growth of online shopping, online sales only represent 1.4% of the total sales in the industries previously mentioned. in addition, the actual percentage of mexicans who have conducted transactions online is still small; 17.7% of mexicans have access to the internet, and of those only 5.8 % have conducted online transactions (2005 census-inegi). the greater disparities in access to resources such as education, income, telecommunication infrastructure, access to icts, the cash culture, and unreliable postal service seem to be the main reasons impeding the mexican society to fully embrace online shopping and perhaps will also have a significant impact in the assimilation of e-government services. overview of e-government services in aguascalientes aguascalientes is a state in central mexico with a population a little over one million inhabitants (2005 census-inegi). to conduct the focus group interviews in aguascalientes is particularly relevant for this study since this state has a solid and reliable infrastructure in e-government services. the state government portal ranks in the 13th place (from a total of 32 states) in terms of functionality and sophistication according to a recent study . it offers access to a variety of informational and transactional services. a total of fifteen public services are offered including request of personal documents (e.g. the unique population registry identification (curp), birth certificates, marriage/divorce certificates, etc.), renewal of motor vehicle registration, payment of traffic tickets, online crime report, among others. statistics still show low rates in computer use and internet access in aguascalientes. according to the 2005 census (inegi 2005), only 29% of the population use computers, and 68% of those who use the internet (18%) access the internet from other place than home. in aguascalientes, any citizen can have access to e-government services at automated kiosks aimed at segments of the population that have limited access to computers and internet. cash payments are also accepted in these terminals. methodology two focus group interviews were conducted in aguascalientes, mexico. twenty-five students at the autonomous university of aguascalientes (uaa) accepted to participate in the focus group sessions. volunteers were divided in two groups of 12 and 13 participants respectively. a focus group protocol was designed to guide the discussion. questions were grouped in four sections according to the following themes: 1) impressions about electronic government services over traditional delivery services methods, 2) perceptions of trust in relation to the reliability and security of the internet and their impact on electronic transactions, 3) perceptions of trust in the government and their effect on electronic transactions, 4) other important barriers in the use of e-government services. at the end of the session, participants completed a survey comprising questions related to demographic characteristics, and computer and internet usage. in addition, interviews were conducted with the state’s chief of automated kiosks operation, and chief system’s engineer, to gain understanding of the development and operation of e-government services in aguascalientes. results participants demographic data demographic data is presented for the total of participants (25) in the two focus groups. frequencies and percentages were calculated for demographic characteristics, computer and internet usage. table 1. demographic characteristics characteristic frequency percentage age 21 8 32 22 10 40 23 4 16 24 2 8 32 1 4 total 25 100 gender female 6 24 male 19 76 total 25 100 the majority of participants were between 21 and 22 years old (72%) and two thirds of them were male (76%) (table 1). in terms of computer use, all participants use computers at home (100%), 92% in the school, 52% cybercafes, 32% in relative’s homes, and 36% at work (table 2). as for internet use, 76% of participants access internet at home and 92% in the school. seven participants responded that they utilize internet at work (28%) and twenty-four in cybercafes and a relative’s home (94%). almost half of participants have used internet in the past five years. only 12% are recent users of internet (2 years). the majority utilize the internet four or more days per week (72%), with only 12% saying they use it two days a week (table 2). table 2. internet and computer use characteristics characteristic frequency percentage computer use home 25 100 work 9 36 school 23 92 cybercafe 13 52 relative’s home 8 32 other 5 20 i don’t use computers 0 0 internet use home 19 76 work 7 28 school 23 92 cybercafe 14 56 relative’s home 10 40 other 2 8 i don’t have access 0 0 internet usage over time less than 1 year 0 0 1 year 0 0 2 years 3 12 3 years 1 4 4 years 7 28 5 years 2 8 more than 5 years 12 48 i don’t have access 0 0 total 25 100 internet usage per week 1 day 1 4 2 days 3 12 3 days 3 12 4 days 5 20 5 days-daily 13 52 total 25 100 according to table 3, online shopping is still not a widespread practice. only 20% of all participants have bought products online. the preferred method for online purchases is the bank deposit. for those who still prefer to go to the point of sale, the primary obstacles for online shopping include disclosure of credit card and personal information, and high shipping costs. table 3. use of online shopping characteristic frequency percentage conducted online shopping in the last year yes 5 20 no 19 80 missing 1 0 total 25 100 preferred payment methods online credit card 2 0 deposit 11 0 cash 1 0 check 0 0 other 0 0 total barriers for online shopping i don’t find what i’m looking for 0 0 not familiar with payment methods 0 0 shipping delays 0 0 shipping is expensive 2 0 prefer to buy in the store 0 0 don't like to provide information about my credit card 5 0 don't like to disclose my personal information online 5 0 other 1 0 focus group findings this section summarizes the main findings of the focus group discussion. findings are presented according to the major topics addressed in the discussion. general impressions about electronic government services participants in both focus groups have visited state and municipal government online sites. only two participants have used federal websites. however, participants said that they have made greater use of online information than transactional services. in terms of preferred methods for obtaining services, personal attention by public servants is the most used method. although some participants have used self-service methods such as automated kiosks and internet portals, this is not a common practice among all participants. for those who have obtained services through electronic channels, the most used services include: request of birth certificates and the unique population registry identification (curp), renewal of motor vehicle registration, payment of income taxes, and use of mailboxes for comments and suggestions in government portals. in general, participants showed a lack of awareness of which services are offered through the internet and automated kiosks. participants who have conducted e-government transactions became aware of services by exploring government websites, using online search engines or information passed through word-of-mouth from family and friends. participants concurred that the government have not employed a strong publicity strategy to inform citizens about the benefits of electronic services. trust in the government participants showed a generalized sense of distrust in the government. they make judgments of trustworthiness about the government based on the performance of public servants. experiences with public servants exhibiting bureaucratic and inefficient practices are discouraging participants to use government services through the internet. participants believe that public servants will not be responsive if any problem arises from the online transaction. for instance, one participant who had a negative experience with services described how this influenced his lack of confidence in electronic services: i paid 68 pesos for requesting a land use permit. when i came back to the office to pick it up the officer told me that i had requested the wrong permit. i told him that it was not my fault and that they had told me what permit i had to request… i asked him to credit the money back to the new permit or give me my money back instead. however, he said that was not possible that i had to pay for the new permit as well… if this happens when you obtain the service in person, i cannot imagine what it would happen when something like this occurs with services through the internet. who will take responsibility for mistakes? for them (public servants), you (the citizen) are always responsible for mistakes. participants also suggested that face-to-face interaction with public servants is the mechanism they use to cope with the lack of confidence in public servants. they want to make sure that everything went okay with the purchased service. for most participants, the lack of human presence when using the internet to receive services introduces a certain level of anxiety about online transactions. this is not surprising since mexicans have traditionally interacted in person with the government to receive services . the provision of services through electronic means implies breaking current habits in the purchasing behavior of mexicans. another participant also expressed his distrust in online transactions and its preference for receiving services in person: in my case, when i have requested some services in person, public officers did not know how to help me or how things really worked in their department… imagine that i request a service through the internet and something goes wrong with the transaction… how i can feel confident that they are qualified to provide the service through the internet (if they are inefficient). therefore, i prefer to deal with them in person instead of using the internet. another factor that impedes use e-government services is distrust of the government’s capability to keep personal and financial information confidential. participants feared their financial information could be sold by public officers. this is particularly related to a highly publicized case in 2001, when public officials sold a database that included electorate information to one of the six largest information brokers in the united states. trust in the internet participants perceive the internet as an unsafe environment to conduct transactions. this was revealing since participants belong to a segment of the population that has a high level of exposure and familiarity to technologies. although participants were aware of technological safeguards available for identity authentication and protection of personal information (e.g. data encryption), they still fear hackers could steal their financial information in the middle of an online transaction. for example one participant commented on his lack of trust in current technologies used for protecting information: the security measures for protecting users of online transactions are not as reliable as in other countries... in the middle of a transaction a hacker can gain access to your credit card number. i would not trust in the banks and government to give them my credit card number... in addition, participants showed their lack of confidence on banking institutions, which they fear could report erroneous or unauthorized charges related to e-government services. they noted that to dispute credit card or identity fraud can be a very complex and time-consuming process. participants are not satisfied with the current consumer protection programs offered by bank institutions. they think that even though they could report problems to the bank they would be financially responsible for unauthorized charges. for example, one participant described the reasons for his lack of confidence in bank institutions: my main concern (when using a credit card) is that you could not dispute erroneous charges to the bank. (the bank) would tell you that you used the service, i performed the transaction and it is not my problem if other person used your credit card number instead of you. although perceptions of uncertainty and risk about the use of credit cards have diminished in the last years in mexico , participants’ responses suggested that there is still a generalized preference for the use of cash. for those few participants who have purchased online, the preferred method for online payments is the deposit. however, this method of payment is not necessarily suitable or convenient for e-government because citizens still would need to make a trip to the bank instead of receiving the service from home. collectivism and purchasing behavior what others think or feel with respect of e-government services impacts the purchasing decision of potential consumers of e-government services. for most participants is essential to rely on the opinions of members of their social group with whom they identify (e.g. friends and family) when making decisions about purchases of products and services. this is a common cultural practice in collectivistic societies like mexico where connectedness and relationships with others are emphasized . individuals who act motivated by personal preferences or internal drives tend to be regarded as unauthentic or out of the group. others’ opinions and views usually guide personal actions. for instance, one participant described how others’ opinions about online transactions could significantly impact the diffusion of e-government services: you will have to give it some time to see whether electronic services work… maybe in one or two years if i see that a lot of people are making online transactions (with the government) i will be willing to do it too, but so far, i think only a few people are conducting electronic transactions… to me (in trusting a service), it is more important if a friend or a relative tells me that they did an online transaction and everything went okay instead of relying in electronic companies that ensure a secure online transaction. i trust more the opinions of somebody that i know. the chief of automated kiosks operation also commented on the central role that others’ opinions play in the use of electronic services through automated kiosks: … we have had many problems (with the automated kiosks) lately. we try to have them always working but if one person has a problem (with the transaction), that person is going to make that ten people do not use the kiosk. the negative experiences and perceptions of one citizen have a lot of impact in others opinions about our services. discussion this study has identified different factors that are impeding individuals to fully participate of the benefits of e-government services. first, resources such as full access to icts and skills to use the computer and the internet do not necessarily influence the use of e-government services. although the participants of this study come from a segment of the population with access to education and icts, they did not appear to be interested in conducting transactional services with the government through the internet. this suggests among other things that the provision of government services comprises far more than just having access to computers and internet connection (e-government kiosks), social and cultural practices need also to be taken into account for the diffusion of online services. for example, to overcome the obstacles of the cash culture (or the generalized sense of distrust in credit cards), some states in mexico (e.g. aguascalientes, colima, chiapas, yucatan) are facilitating payments using cash through automated kiosks. payments based on cash in kiosks might prevail until the levels of comfort in the use of credit cards change. second, trust in the government is another obstacle for the utilization of e-government services. perceptions about the performance and integrity of public servants have a significant impact in the use of transactional services through the internet. specifically, individuals do not trust the government’s capability to protect their personal and financial information. negative experiences with public services (in person) harm the reputation of e-government services. in mexico, distrust in the public service has historical roots. mexicans have historically coped with a culture of corruption in public services . for example, according to transparency international, mexicans paid about us $ 1 billion in bribes to obtain public services in 2003 . in that year there were almost 101 million acts of bribery related to 38 types of public services. one of the main challenges for the public sector is to educate citizens about the potential of e-government for reducing corruption. this might increase the use of services. to date, receiving public services in person appear to be the main mechanism individuals use to cope with the lack of trust in the public sector. third, individuals do not trust the safety of the internet to carry out transactions that involve the disclosure of personal or financial information. the lack of confidence in the programs available for customer protection against credit card or identity fraud (e.g. verisign secured seal) appears to be closely related to this. in addition, the cash culture that still prevails in mexico is also feeding people’s fears about the use of credit cards for online transactions. finally, for potential users of e-government services is very important how others (e.g. family and friends) perceive online transactions. relying on the opinions of close others to guide personal actions is a common practice in collectivistic countries like mexico. the effect of persuasion on purchasing behavior has been widely documented in social psychology. for example, studies have found that consensus information, information that involves others’ views about a product or service, significantly impact purchasing decisions of members in collectivistic cultures (vs. individualistic cultures) . the findings of this study suggest that the cultural dimension collectivism may be another variable that could affect the cognitive process that take place when individuals evaluate the degree of trustworthiness about e-government services. however, additional research is needed to examine the influence of collectivism on the decision of using e-government services across different cultural contexts. research limitations some limitations were identified in this study. first, the demographic information of participants does not necessarily reflect the characteristics of the entire population of mexico. the sample of this study limits to an educated population with high levels of exposure to computers and the internet. the replication of this study using other segments of the populations can increase our understanding of the implications of personal characteristics on the use of e-government services. second, this study do not captures the evolution of perceptions of trust across time. that is, confidence in e-government services might evolve as the population becomes more acquainted to online transactions. therefore, the findings of this study need to be viewed as preliminary evidence of the different factors that impact the formation of initial trust in e-government services. conclusions studies that consider the effect of cultural constraints and conditions in the use of internet-based government technologies are still limited and mostly based on industrialized countries. the purpose of this paper was to identify the socio-cultural factors that contribute to the formation of perceptions of trust about the government and the internet with respect to the use of e-government services in developing countries. two focus group interviews were conducted in a state in central mexico. findings reflected that cultural practices such as the inefficient performance and dishonesty of public servants, the generalized sense of distrust in bank institutions and the purchasing habits in the population are impeding citizens to fully benefit from the potential of e-government services. in societies like mexico where traditional resources needed for the use of information and communication technologies are still limited in the majority of the population (e.g. education, access to computers, connectivity), socio-cultural practices and dynamics introduce additional challenges for the diffusion of e-government. more important, the recognition of cultural priorities can make the difference between success and failure in e-government initiatives. the findings of this study will be used to improve a survey that will be applied in two cultural contexts in the second stage of this study. community informatics as innovation in sociotechnical infrastructures john m carroll 1, patrick c shih2, jessica kropczynski3 distinguished professor, college of information sciences and technology, the pennsylvania state university, pa, usa. e-mail: jmcarroll@psu.edu research associate and lecturer, college of information sciences and technology, the pennsylvania state university, pa, usa. e-mail:patshih@ist.psu.edu postdoctoral researcher and instructor, college of information sciences and technology, the pennsylvania state university, pa, usa. e-mail: jnk14@ist.psu.edu introduction community informatics (ci) is the joining and convergence of community with information sciences and technologies. it integrates the oldest social institution of human kind with the newest frontiers of material society. it is an area of social science and computer science; it is an area of research and understanding, and of activism. it is and should be multifaceted and multivocal. there is not one trajectory for ci, but many. ci is concerned with the challenges and opportunities for human community in an age increasingly dominated by technology. this includes investigating long-standing technical challenges and approaches, for example, day's (2014) analysis of inequity in access, and the challenge of deploying better models of public access computing. it includes a commitment to holistic analysis of how information technologies are changing human relationships (de michelis, 2014). ci includes recently codified technical challenges and approaches, such as foth's (2014) program for integrating digital and physical activities and concerns, and supporting community interactions beyond mere awareness or approval, and bødker's (2014) focus on identifying emerging communities and practices in longitudinal studies. it also includes broader and emergent challenges, such as gurstein's (2014) call for continuing articulation of internet rights and responsibilities of citizens, or de cindio's (2014) and schuler's (2014) agendas for how the internet can expand the concept and practices of citizenship. ci also includes concerns with broader engineering practices to guide development of community systems and assess their impacts (simone, 2014), and with the future course of community technologies, such as de moor's (2014) description of inter-community interactions. in this paper, we characterize sociotechnical innovation as a trajectory for ci: by this we mean integrated innovations in the information and technology infrastructures of communities that enable innovation in communities themselves as social systems. we frame our work with the observation that this trajectory already has a significant history in ci. in the balance of the paper, we describe recent research emphasizing technology affordances of mobility and hyperlocality, aggregation and suprathresholding, information analytics, local digital currencies, reputation management systems, and crowd-based coordination. finally, we present "innovationstarter" an envisionment scenario that enables community innovation infrastructure by incorporating and leveraging each of these technologies made possible through previous work in ci. community networks and sociotechnical innovation our work grows out of the tradition of community networks, a genre of locally based initiatives in community activism and community development centered in north america during the early 1970s through the early 1980s (e.g. schuler, 1996; carroll, 2012). in quite a few cases, innovative information technology infrastructures were developed in community contexts, and were creatively appropriated by community members who benefited from new interactions and co-productions, and new opportunities to learn about technology and to participate in society. the berkeley community memory (bcm; rossman, 1975) was a mainframe-based system deployed in 1973. it was presciently focused on enabling member-initiated activities such as arranging ride shares, finding chess partners, and reviewing restaurants. it is often remembered for the member-organized alameda county vietnam war memorial. these are interactions and social co-productions we take for granted today. they were unprecedented in 1973. the core functionality of bcm was electronic bulletin boards (so-named because the public access terminal in leopold's record shop was right below a physical bulletin board). this functionality became widespread in late 1970s and pervasive through the 1980s. santa monica public electronic network (pen; rogers et al., 1994) was a municipal community network, that is, run by local government. it was established in 1989. while the original vision was dissemination of public information, citizens appropriated the network overwhelmingly for discussion (as in bcm, all citizens could participate or even initiate forums) and local email (pen was a closed network, not integrated with the internet). the city established public access terminals in libraries and other public space, and usage was far less demographically skewed toward wealth, youth, higher education, and males than was, or still is, typical. for example, one third of users were female (versus a norm of about 10% at that time). the system was so widely used that in the local elections of 1990 all 30 local candidates organized and campaigned online. pen is remembered for the penfemme women's group which, among other things publicly confronted anti-female online behavior, and for an episode in which homeless citizens publicly and successfully lobbied the local government for improved showers and lockers. the blacksburg electronic village (bev; cohill & kavanaugh, 2000) was a web-based community network deployed in 1993. it was focused on community education about the web, and on community development through the web. the bev was an early adopter of the web; the first specifications of hypertext markup language (html), the foundation of the world-wide web, were published as the bev was being planned. nevertheless, the bev was quickly appropriated. in 1994, blacksburg's schools were connected to the internet. the public library and the blacksburg seniors, among others, began offering courses and tutoring on internet and web skills. between april 1994 and april 1996, accesses to bev web pages increased by a factor of 1000 to about 50 accesses per month per capita. by 2001, citizen access to the bev (and the internet) was nearly 90%, greater than it is today for citizens of the united states. also by the time, more than 700 community groups and local businesses had established websites (80% of the total), including dozens of web-based businesses. (for more detailed discussion and discussion of other cases, see schuler, 1996; carroll, 2012). in their times, community electronic bulletin boards (1973), municipal networks (1989) and open, web-based community systems (1993) were new technology infrastructures. in these cases, the new infrastructures were widely and creatively appropriated for civic purposes (sharing rides, remembering local war dead, enhancing the visibility of marginalized citizens, regulating misogynistic behavior, developing community capacity). we see these projects as concrete demonstrations of sociotechnical innovation, the possibility of creating new infrastructures for innovations in community itself. in the balance of this paper, we frame a contemporary example of community informatics as innovation in sociotechnical infrastructures. in the next six sections, we describe recent research emphasizing technology affordances of mobility and hyperlocality, aggregation and suprathresholding, information analytics, local digital currencies, reputation management systems, and crowd-based coordination. finally, we present an envisionment scenario for a community innovation infrastructure incorporating and leveraging these technologies. mobility and location (hyperlocality) contemporary web and mobile networking enables hyperlocality, people can share or access content pertaining to the geographical locale they work and live in as they move through and carry out activities in that very locale. hyperlocality raises new and transformative affordances for community information infrastructures; members can create, share and comment on community information when and where it is of interest. they can leverage interstitial time, the time between major goals and activities, for civic activity. they can civically capitalize on ephemeral social opportunities, such as passing someone in the street. they use the physical community itself as an information index for information and interactions pertaining to the community (carroll et al., 2015a). the affordances of mobility and location are illustrated by a community heritage app lost state college (han et al., 2014b). the app allows people to browse photos and descriptions of local landmarks and upload their own images related to local history with a brief description (figure 1). the image, its location in the community space, and the description are logged for other users. thus, the functionality is analogous to generic social media photo sharing (e.g., instagram), but hyperlocated: the images and descriptions are contributed by and viewed by neighbors, and are drawn from places and events in the local community, celebrating the memorable moments that happen around us in the local community. figure 1. lost state college allows people to capture and share images and stories related to local historical landmarks lost state college exploits affordances of mobility and location for reflection and local heritage construction. a subsequent app, community animator (carroll et al., 2014), allowed citizens to characterize their interests and make themselves available for discussions with others while they are in public places (figure 2). when the user signs on, the app pinged proximal other users with compatible community interests. figure 2. (left) login to community animator (center) select interest areas (right) nearby citizen conversation in-progress aggregation (suprathresholding) suprathresholding discounts the attention burden of establishing and maintaining awareness of what is going on, easing one's ability to retrieve from and contribute to community information, a prerequisite for generalized participation in community activity. local community information, when examined source-by-source, is very sparse. local newspapers, nonprofit groups, businesses, bloggers and forums each generate relatively few news items or posts. analogously, local community interactions online, examined site-by-site or service-by-service, often fail to exceed the threshold of community perception few posts and even fewer comments. web 2.0 infrastructures can suprathreshold inherently sparse information and interaction by aggregating various information feeds (carroll et al., 2015a). local news chatter (lnc; figure 3) is a smartphone application that aggregates local news articles and tweets from local twitter accounts, based on term frequency in the articles and tweets. the analysis updates hourly, presenting the index terms through a tag cloud (han et al., 2014a). local news and local tweets are both relatively sparse information channels when viewed topic by topic, but aggregating the two channels in one display, and presenting a collection of news story-tweet aggregates suprathresholds the local news space, making it more animated and more interesting. formal and non-formal news sources are continually contrasted, and local tweets suggest potential neighborhood contacts. lnc leverages existing twitter infrastructure and practices, and repurposes existing news content and tweets. thus, it requires little learning for users, and no new content creation. figure 3. screenshots of lnc. tag cloud presented with different tag sizes (left) and corresponding local news article (right). lnc addresses community news generally, but the design concept can be extended to more specific community news concerns. community incident chatter (cic; figure 4) aggregates local news articles and social media information for local emergencies (shih et al., 2014a). in this case, information aggregation supports not only awareness, but mobilization and coordination of helping throughout the community. figure 4. left: a tag cloud that presents current local incidents (left); local news article about the fire incident (right). analytics: quantifying digital traces beyond integrating geographical places with information and interaction pertaining to those places, and aggregating information feeds across the community, social media content can also quantify digital traces of users in the local community. in the community poll application, we used a sentiment analysis algorithm to extract polarity of public opinions from tweets about local news topics (cp, figure 5). this was embodied as an add-on to local new chatter called "public attitude meter" that displays the average sentiment scores in a bar graph (shih et al., 2014b). if the meter score is positive, a thumbs-up icon will be displayed next to the text, whereas a thumbs-down icon will be shown if the meter score is negative. moreover, each individual tweet also has a positive or a negative attitude indicator in which a positive tweet shows a green bar whereas a negative tweet shows a red bar next to the user profile image. figure 5. screenshots of the community poll application. a tag cloud displayed depending on the time window (left) and corresponding local news articles, tweets, and a result of public attitude meter based on the sentiment analysis (right). the goal of community poll is not to accurately calculate sentiment, but to present a data-grounded artifact for reflection and discussion. based on user self-reports, the public attitude meter evoked curiosity about the sentiment score and drove people toward local news topics they would not otherwise have pursued. it encouraged people to more actively participate in discussions on social media by voicing their opinions and concerns. with an interest in identifying locations of community interest, the arts festival application supported a four-day community summer arts festival (artsfest), including check-ins, photo sharing, identification of favorites, and integration with data on prior years of the festival (shih et al, 2015c). figure 6 presents a heatmap visualization of geotagged photos taken throughout the festival. the irregular distribution of photos indicates places that attracted more photo taking in some areas of the festival over others. this kind of analytic suggests places of popular interest for other festival attendees, as well as less visited places that might need more exploration. these analytics revealed interest patterns that would be otherwise costly to uncover by survey methods. figure 6. heatmap of geotagged photos at artsfest in addition to geolocational data, we also analyzed the structure of social media metadata such as temporal patterns to triangulate crisis activities. community incident report (cir; figure 7), is a novel emergency planning system that integrates police reports, local crisis information, and social multimedia content to foster citizens' awareness of local emergency information and to assist emergency planners in planning for recurring and cyclical events (shih et al., 2015b ). cir retrieves police reports, local news articles, tweets, and photos during a timeframe related to specific incident tags selected by the user. the locations of the police station and the hospital are also presented on the map so that the emergency planners could easily estimate the response time to the incidents. neither police reports nor social media alone is able to fully capture the rich context surrounding all the local incidents during a large festival of this scale. cir can be used by local emergency planners as a way to alert citizens of crisis, gauge citizen perception on local crisis events, and involve citizens in the deliberation and planning process. figure 7. the cir interface. local currencies: new frameworks for economic exchange/cooperation various alternative currency and exchange paradigms have emerged through the past couple of decades, enabled by information technologies (carroll & bellotti, 2015). these paradigms attenuate the supervision of large institutional actors; for example, crypto-currencies do not require banks, and peer-to-peer micro-enterprises, like airbnb, do not involve centralized hotel corporations. they often strengthen economic interactions within local communities, for example, local currencies, like berkshares, and the bristol pound. they also strengthen co-production (carroll, 2013), reciprocal value exchanges, for example, voluntary service exchanges, as in time-based currencies/timebanks, require cooperation to succeed at all (for example, services involving learning), and nearly all dyadic service exchanges produce mutual well-being as an outcome. timebanks are an interesting example. a core principle of timebanking is equity: everyone has time, and everyone's time is worth the same. this principle is somewhat ideal, but it enables an exchange framework in which people marginalized by the mainstream economy can participate on an equal footing with other community members. participants earn time credits by providing services to one another, while at the same time building social capital and a sense of personal worth (carroll, 2013). doctors in the national health service of the united kingdom can prescribe participation in a timebank for patients with depression and feelings of isolation. in the timebank, members receive credit for services such as accompanying elderly members who are shopping or visiting elderly people in their homes, making it more possible for the elderly to live on their own (ryan-collins et al., 2008). the timebank is innovatively conflating the traditional roles of recipient and provider of health services. the mobile timebank (mtb; figure 8) application enables finer grain service requests and offers, and has the capability for location-based requests (han et al., 2015). this allows people to participate in timebanking exchanges more opportunistically, and with less planning overhead. thus voluntary service exchanges can become a part of everyday activity. this directly addresses one of the known limitations of current timebanking, namely, the relatively limited range of services on offer (bellotti et al., 2014; shih et al., 2015a). figure 8: screenshots of the timebanking smartphone app. add task view (left); task list view (right). reputation management systems while timebanking and other non-profit systems are steadily growing, similar commercial peer-to-peer businesses that match service or goods requestors to providers are positively exploding. examples include airbnb for accommodation, lyft for transportation, taskrabbit for odd jobs and yerdle for giving stuff away. as these commercial services are successfully challenging conventional economic models, we seek to help their non-profit cousins such as timebanking to also realize their potential for significant growth, economic impact and societal benefits, particularly for those who are poorly served by the conventional economy. one of the incentives for volunteer participation is establishing reputation and building social capital (carroll et al., 2014). to establish a reputation in the timebank system, we designed a reputation management system that shows additional information on member's profile page that contains a full summary of one's personal information, specialties, and timebanking activities (figure 9). thisinformation can also be used for matching services or making recommendations when members are requesting or looking for services. the reputation management system could be leveraged to help users build trust and social capital within a local community. as with many introductions and exchanges hosted by online services, the users of these services often feel more comfortable engaging with strangers when the exchange is supported by reputation-based systems. this is typical of sales on sites such as ebay or amazon or professional networking service sites such as linkedin. identifying local stakeholders when it comes to a particular issue has always been a challenging task due to the difficulty in externalizing tacit knowledge from recent institutional memory. incorporating reputation-building mechanisms in future timebanking, volunteering, and peer-to-peer systems is essential to easing the coordination of local community projects. figure 9. screenshots of the profile page. profile page for a member (left); a review page (middle); profile page for an institution (right). crowd-based coordination a key challenge in solving complex tasks is to bring enough interested bodies together. crowd based coordination efforts have been shown to help users organize mass participation efforts as well as handing off intermediate work through microtask management. experimental platforms such as catalyst (cheng & bernstein, 2014) and foundry (retelny et al, 2014) have been developed to aid the coordination of mass participation events. we developed future state college (fsc; figure 10), a smartphone app that supports the municipal planning processes through enhanced citizen awareness. the municipal government of state college, like many municipalities, develops a decadal master plan to guide local development. the master plan includes many detailed sketches and other images of future streetscapes. a user of fsc can access plans and images from the community master plan based on location through their personal mobile device. our design rationale is that situating the planning materials in the physical places to which they refer will make planning more vivid and concrete, and thereby more accessible to citizens, removing the participation "costs" of attending formal planning reviews, and helping bridge the gap between municipal planners and community residents (carroll et al., 2014). figure 10. screenshots of fsc. local master plan (left) displayed on a map (right). envisionment scenario the aforementioned section demonstrated how hyperlocality, suprathresholding, smart analytics, peer-to-peer currencies, reputation management systems, and crowd-based coordination could be leveraged as sociotechnical infrastructures to facilitate community activities. we envision a platform that acts as a clearinghouse for calls to action from local governments and organizations by designing these affordances into future community platforms. even in a small community, local groups and initiatives can be siloed, a community hub that integrates information presented by hyperlocality, suprathresholding, and smart analytics mechanisms may increase visibility for these groups and projects and allow for new avenues of community participation. timebanking implemented with reputation management features can be used to incentivize action and participation through equity hours rather than relying on community funding. we propose innovationstarter (figure 11), a crowd-based coordination that incentivizes crowd-based community participation by rewarding citizens with timebank hours in exchange for participating in community tasks. innovationstarter capitalizes upon hours to not only incentivize action, but organize tasks at hand. hours committed to a future project can be used as a threshold to organize action and will only be deducted from a timebank users' account if the activity takes place. furthermore, a particular number of hours needed for specific tasks may be used to acquire volunteers with specific skill sets or necessary tools to carry out a task. figure 11. innovationstarter imagine a local news story about a nation-wide increase in community vegetable gardens. the story appears on innovationstarter and a large number of citizens begin discussing the desire for a community vegetable garden, and a few reference locations in town that are otherwise unused lots that may be ideal locations for such a project. the city notes the attention that this issue has received, identifies a location that is suitable for a community garden, and posts a call to action on innovationstarter. a local government planner creates a map of the proposed project, given the space available, she estimates necessary labor for the activity. she posts the activation threshold for the activity as 2 persons with ground tillers for 2 hours of work, 10 people (each with one packet of 20 vegetable seeds and a trowel) for 3 hours of work to arrive 2 hours after the start of the activity and spend 2 hours planting. future activities are scheduled to water, weed, and harvest vegetables on a regular basis. the citizens that participate in the activity receive online testimonials regarding their attitude and work ethic to complete the project which make them more reputable community members to engage in prestigious projects, or when posting their own requests. while citizens that invest in hiring an outside company to create and maintain a community garden may feel a sense of pride as they pass the garden, we believe that a citizen created garden will instill a deeper sense of community among those that participated and citizens that are aware of the initiative. innovating with sociotechnical infrastructures in community informatics the concept of smart cities is widely referenced, though the idea is often limited to management of fairly low-level service infrastructures (electricity, water, sewage, etc.; harrison et al., 2010). the concept of smart cities is exciting, and could be more exciting if extended to innovative sociotechnical infrastructures and civically smart cities (campbell, 2012; schuler, 2014). naturally, smart cities, like any other smart ideas of humans, are likely to be dystopian in some unanticipated respects. we are not arguing for sociotechnical innovation as a singular trajectory or paradigm for community informatics. rather, we want to include this trajectory, which we trace back to the community networks of the 1970s and subsequent decades, among approaches in the future of community informatics. we identified a set of contemporary technologies that present new affordances for the design of community information infrastructures, mobility and hyperlocality, aggregation and suprathresholding, information analytics, local digital currencies, reputation management systems, and crowd-based coordination. various app development projects, in our group and others, are exploring how these affordances can be utilized in community systems, and how they can be integrated in information and technology infrastructures of communities to better enable innovation in communities themselves as social systems. a research challenge in smart cities is to understand complex urban systems through formal and informal channels of information so that innovative adaptation strategies can be available not only for emergency management, but for routine local development. smarter infrastructure is one of the primary goals of smart cities. the idea of the smart city often alludes to capitalizing upon opportunities to aggregate and manage big data in a way that benefits the growth and development of a city (celino, 2013). urban performance depends not only on the hard infrastructure, or physical capital of a city, but it is increasingly linked to the availability and quality of knowledge, communication, and social infrastructure through social capital and awareness (coe et al., 2001). social capital connects communities to themselves and aids in the urban competitiveness to adapt, learn and innovate (campbell, 2012). social infrastructure can be a great deal of work to maintain, especially given the amount of information generated by a city. crowd-based coordination aids in the process of activation thresholds, roles, and building reputation systems in a local community to create new forms of collective community engagement. our envisionment scenario describes how several themes of community informatics may come together in one platform. a moral challenge for smart cities (and for smart societies) is ensuring that everyone can participate in and benefit from innovation, and that community infrastructures incorporate and innovate with current technologies. this not a simple matter of providing access to smartphones, a technology our proposals in this paper depends upon. thus, while overall access to smartphones is still lower in sub-saharan africa than in europe,for example, some african countries had tenfold growth in mobile telephony in the past decade; in south africa and nigeria nine in ten people own mobile phones; 34% of south africans own smartphones (poushter & oates, 2015). the berkeley community memory and the blacksburg electronic village innovated at the leading edge of information infrastructures, but in both cases, the leading edge of technology quickly became mundane. what seems more significant from the vantage point of 2015 are the sociotechnical innovations of electronic bulletin boards and web-based community systems that were enabled, and that were eventually emulated across the world. there may always be emerging technologies within the grasp of a few and beyond the grasp of many others. we do not have to support or agree with this, if we choose to deal with it. innovative community infrastructures of the past made emerging technologies more available more quickly, driving creative appropriations for civic purposes. this success pattern can and should be continued and developed. in this paper we have examined a range of separate sociotechnical innovations that can be composed into an innovation infrastructure for communities, innovationstarter. however, we know that separate sociotechnical innovations also have a linear-historical relationship: technology-in-use tends to evoke further problematization and ideation in designers, and further creative appropriations in users (the task-artifact cycle; carroll et al. 1991). sociologists have come to a similar view extending ideas of structuration of organizations and communities, that technologies are open to new uses that are not embodied in the technology itself but in situated practice (orlikowski, 2000). challenges of adoption and deployment are central to ci, but through partnerships with community organizations we have found environments in which relatively simple systems have grown and developed into more robust projects. these systems cannot only provide hyperlocal awareness, information aggregation, and regular analytics, but can also be used to support partnerships and collaboration strategies among community stakeholders. a further direction in sociotechnical innovation as an approach to community informatics is better understanding this historical co-evolution. communities today face complex challenges to improve quality of life for citizens while nurturing economic and socio-economic development. designs that experiment with open and user-driven innovation for interacting with urban landscapes and adapt community sentiment can act a valuable common resource for citizens in smart cities. references bellotti, v., cambridge, s., hoy, k., shih, p. c., handalian, l., han, h., & carroll, j. m. 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(2014). c&t: two characters in search of a context. paper presented at the communities and technologies future vision workshop, january 22-24, university of siegen, germany. accessed may 15, 2015 at http://www.uni-siegen.de/infme/start_ifm/veranstaltungen/workshops.html. life-based design to combat loneliness among older people life-based design to combat loneliness among older people jaana leikas, pertti saariluoma, rebekah ann rousi, erkki kuisma, hannu vilpponen introduction technologies should be constructed to improve the quality of life. they are meant to help people in realizing their action goals in life, and thus, making life easier. thus, to improve people's quality of life, technology should not exist for itself, but rather for bringing added value to people's daily life (cockton 2008; leikas and saariluoma 2008; mesthene 2003). this is the key to consumer satisfaction. developers should understand how people can and wish to live with technology, not only how they use it. for example, nanotechnology, which is used in designing paper machines, does not exist for its own sake; rather it guarantees, e.g., that the newspapers we read during breakfast look appealing. the concept of user need and its variations has been used to point out that technologies are made to serve people. this concept has also found a solid role in the design of functionalities of technologies from a human point of view (kaasinen 2003; pahl et al. 2007; ulrich and eppinger 2008). however, the connections between various technologies and everyday life are rather complex. thus a mere intuitive idea of a user or customer need is seldom sufficient for designing artefacts or systems that would improve the quality of people’s daily life. relying only on this particular concept leaves many important questions unasked. the current human-technology interaction (hti) research has brought user needs to the fore with its emphasis on assessing the experience of interacting with technology already in the process of being developed. hti research thus concerns mainly immediate usage situations; it does not provide any concepts for studying those needs that arise from the entire contents of people’s life and that could be met with the help of technology. such design would have significant novelty value to the user in the short run, but its use could decrease in the long run if the product itself did not fit in the user’s form of life (marchitto and cañas 2011). concentrating only on immediate usage situations easily sets aside the more important question of what a technology is actually used for. in addition to examining user needs in usage situations, it is important to ask how the analysis of human life could be integrated in human-technology interaction (hti) design. all too often projects in ict-service design have failed due to the fact that their design has been based on intuitive thinking of human-technology interaction instead of research on people’s actions, goals and daily life. the wireless application protocol (wap), for example, failed because the starting point for the design was the invented technology and the new ways to apply it. issues such as user acceptance and user experience were tackled too late (ramsay and nielsen 2000). these kinds of technology-driven cases, with the starting point in the technology itself (rosson and carrol 2002), are common in the area of technology design. they may serve well in developing new technologies as such. however, to ensure that we have products that satisfy the users and fit into their daily routines, an analysis of people’s lives and living conditions is needed (leikas 2009; saariluoma and leikas 2010). furthermore, we need clear conceptualizations and methodological processes that would describe how to apply this knowledge in technology design. efficient design procedures would mean satisfied users and lead to less costly solutions for clients (mayhew and tremaine 2005). form-of-life analysis: the whys and what fors the principal aim of life-based design (lbd) is to release technology that will be widely accepted by people (leikas 2009; saariluoma and leikas 2010; saariluoma and leikas 2011). this is realised by a thorough exploration of people’s forms of life, values and everyday contingencies and an efficient integration of these into the design as the actual drivers of hti design processes. lbd is a multi-dimensional and holistic approach, which emphasises the importance of understanding people’s lives as a basis for the creation of design ideas and for concept design. it derives design goals for new technologies from human research based on the analysis of forms of life. a holistic approach means that, fundamentally, all design issues in lbd are biologically, psychologically and socio-culturally motivated. the process of lbd begins with a form-of-life analysis and ends by clarifying the way in which new technologies can be incorporated as working innovations into life. different phases in the procedure guide the designers' thinking along the design process. people's forms of life may differ according to the combination of a number of factors such as age, family and marital status, social status, profession, health issues, education, gender, and skills. these factors ultimately impact everyday needs, e.g., related to communication and companionship. these two in turn influence the ways in which people experience and evaluate available products and services and the kind of ‘worth’ that technology could offer them (cockton 2006). being the main component of lbd, the form-of-life analysis aims at discovering information about different facts of life, i.e., different situations in life that people live in, their values and actions (leikas 2009; saariluoma and leikas 2010). the nformation that is gathered in the very first stage of the design process is then efficiently entered into the design with the help of technology-supported actions. the general goal is to get a clear understanding of the properties of that particular form of life. the main steps in this investigation are:  -       analysis of a selected form of life, -       definition of design goals; what people need in their life, and how technologies could improve their life, -       analysis of the role and function of the technology in use; how technology is used in life to reach the action goals. -       explication of design relevant problems; extraction of all the design-relevant human-based problems to define possible problematic side issues and putting them under scrutiny, -       analysis of typical actors; a realistic understanding about potential users or actors and their properties, such as education, age, gender or technology skills, -       analysis of contexts; including both physical and social conditions and social relations activated before, after and when using the technology, -       analysis of other relevant characteristic actions. the form-of-life analysis should generate human requirements for the product or service. these human requirements define how people’s life in a specific form of life should be improved. this is information which explains the why’s and what for’s that should guide the design process from the beginning to the very end. the human requirements create the basis for the next phase in the design by introducing the design theme and the explanatory facts behind it. they are based on the methods and results of human life sciences and do not yet define the requirements for technological concepts, which could be used in addressing the defined design goals of the specific form of life. situations in life constitute different facts of a form of life that make the kinds of real needs that arise from people’s everyday contexts understandable. they include actions, tasks and activities (anderson 1983, 1992; sun 2008; kuutti 1996; mayhew 1999; nardi 1996). the circumstances of a situation in life can be determined by, e.g., illness, wealth or poverty, youth or old age. the importance of situations in life is that they dictate what life can be and thus can make it comprehensible as to what kinds of everyday contexts people live in. to use an extreme example, poor women in developing countries cannot easily get education, but in developed countries it is quite possible even for older adults to study at universities. of course, situation in life is one but not the only pivot concept upon which lbd can be grounded. there are other ways to carry out lbd. values and actions in life can equally well serve as starting points. we can design for some defined systems of values or for some specific action. there are also other types of facts in life that we can begin with. however, the situation in life is an important ground, and therefore there is some justification in choosing it here as a pivot problem. loneliness a situation in life this paper introduces loneliness as a situation in older adults’ lives, for which to apply lbd. we assume that reduction of the effects of loneliness or the feelings of loneliness would improve the quality of life of older people, which in turn could add new value to their lives and also substantial benefit for the relatives and the society as far as the homecare of the elderly is concerned. our aim is to illustrate the kinds of design processes needed when developing services based on these considerations. loneliness is a factor that in most cases essentially decreases the quality of life (cattan et al. 2005; masi et al. 2010; rosedale 2007; russell et al. 1984; stokes 1985). many older people experience loneliness: up to 32% of adults over 55 report feeling lonely at any given time (masi et al. 2010). loneliness is unlike social isolation, which appears often simultaneously with loneliness. our social networks can usually be objectively measured, but loneliness is always a subjective feeling. for example, living alone does not necessarily mean that a person is lonely, whereas someone can feel lonely even when surrounded by many people. it is clear that loneliness can provoke depression in the way that a person without contacts to other people can become depressed and turn inwards (stuart-hamilton, 2000). loneliness can be negative, but depending on people and context it can also become a positive experience of solitude. it has been noticed that people experiencing loneliness have more interpersonal mistrust than those who do not. they rate themselves more negatively, and do not trust themselves as much as those who feel less lonely (masi et al. 2010). they also have a lower feeling of self-worth, and are more likely to expect others to reject them. they behave in ways that increase the probability of rejection. shyness, anxiety and anger tend to be higher among those suffering loneliness. overall, lonely people seem to lack self-confidence and social skills (cattan et al. 2005; masi et al.; 2010). the loneliness of older people differs from loneliness among other age groups (asher, hymel and renshaw 1984; cattan et al. 2005). it plays a crucial role in older people’s social capacity. according to studies, approximately 30% of older people are in danger of becoming isolated due to a decreased number of social relationships (holmén et al. 1992; prince et al. 1997; samuelsson et al. 1998; tijhuis et al. 1999). changes in social practices, such as less visiting among neighbours, more home based entertainment, and changing socio-demographic patterns, such as a larger number of older people living alone, have led some older people to experience diminution in contacts and communication. even older people who have children and who are visited regularly by them sometimes lack companionship and opportunities for involvement with peers. when entering the fourth age, and especially the last elderly phase, the feeling of loneliness tends to become even more common. the fourth age is a phase when a person needs an increasing amount of help from others to manage in everyday activities (stuart-hamilton 2000). during the fourth age, the need for care and dependence on others increases due to illnesses and declining functional capacity. also, during this period the need for social services, especially health care services, increases (karisto and konttinen 2004; jyrkämä 2005). this is influenced by loss in meaningful relationships and a decline in functional capacity, which is often a result of restrictions caused by chronic illness and lack of meaningful participation. health problems prevent some people from getting out, and this may also lead to boredom and loneliness. studies show that living alone and being socially isolated tend to increase the likelihood of experiencing loneliness. in contrast, having an intensive social network decreases the feeling of loneliness (jylhä 2004). studies concerning the relationship between old age and the feeling of loneliness are somewhat contradictory. in general, cross-studies show that people feel lonely more often when older than during their younger years (holmén et al. 1992; prince 1997). on the other hand, it has been shown that age as such has no clear connection to the increase of loneliness, and that the incidence of loneliness is relatively stable among age cohorts (creecy et al. 1985; samuelsson 1998). the number of people experiencing loneliness seems to increase among people over 75 years of age but evens out after the age of 90 (anderson 1992). moreover, men of a much older age have been found to have more experiences of loneliness than those of younger ages, which may be related to moving to institutionalised care, becoming widowed or experiencing poor health (tijhuis et al. 1999). age may also relate indirectly to the increasing experience of loneliness through weakening health and functional capacity (holmén et al. 1992; mullins and elston 1996). also, decline in cognitive capacity, low income, infrequent social relationships and diminishing participation in networks, as well as infertility, depression and anxiety are all related to the experience of loneliness (lampinen 2004). depression amongst older people is unfortunately often a consequence of isolation. it can sometimes even lead to suicidal thoughts, and thus be the main reason for the decision for institutionalised care. there are different ways to prevent depression; physical exercise and social relationships are some. studies show that physical activity strengthens the essential components of a mentally healthy human being (korhonen 1999). these components include self-confidence, self-appreciation and self-assertion. it is also known that loneliness can have physiological consequences. loneliness is a stress factor, which in turn has links with many aspects of our bodily health. blood pressure, sleep problems, adrenocortical activity, diminished immunity, white blood cell count, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and cholesterol are examples of the physiological problems associated with loneliness. even cognitive decline and alzheimer's disease are a part of the problematic consequences. it is thus evident that loneliness can be serious and problematic for a human being, and interventions are needed to decrease the feeling of loneliness. foundations of intervention practices for loneliness after studying the properties of the chosen situation in life, we can start designing concept ideas and technological solutions to improve the quality of life in this context. loneliness is not a simple phenomenon, as it may have many different causes. due to this, it is essential first to consider different types of interventions that are required. thus, in the following, we discuss the foundations of intervention practices for loneliness, and explicate design-relevant problems. typical intervention procedures in cases of loneliness have been socially activating in nature. naturally, the intervention practices must target not only social but also individual factors inherent in loneliness. both are commonly eliminated by means of interaction, peer or treatment groups. in groups, social learning can undermine the underlying factors of loneliness. people experiencing loneliness can directly get in contact with other people and make friends; they can learn to cope with their emotions and communication practices. they can also learn social skills and improve their social cognition (cattan et al. 2005). more concretely, these groups can facilitate social skills training, caregiver support, education and self-help education. they also give social support. they can work against negative feelings experienced during social encounters and help people experiencing loneliness build their social self-confidence and break social isolation. an important theme is also that of correcting maladaptive social cognition. recently, contextual factors in relation to loneliness have been receiving more attention in scientific studies. the results indicate that the amount of participation in social networks and their positivity is lower among people experiencing loneliness (stokes 1985). an especially important part of a social network is a spouse or a partner. it has also been noticed that people experiencing loneliness are often linked with others who are experiencing the same. it is more difficult in these cases to break out of loneliness if no additional intervention means are used. negative interaction models are typical to people experiencing loneliness, as they often communicate negatively and thus raise negative feelings in their environment (masi et al. 2010). a relatively obvious contextual factor of loneliness is the geographic distance from relatives and friends. this kind of social isolation is a major property of loneliness. therefore, one of the main strategies of intervention must be based on breaking the vicious circle of social isolation. very often people are isolated as a consequence of their inability to get out and form social contacts, and in turn the isolation decreases their capacity in this respect. they may lose their social skills and thus be unable to form social relationships. consequently, they will be trapped into loneliness. social media now offers many possibilities to improve socialising with people who live geographically far apart. with the help of fast internet connections, it is possible to keep up contacts with other people even between different continents. in this way, the issue of distance has become a technical matter. more challenging cases of loneliness are those in which people cannot organize any possible solutions to their problems of loneliness due to psychological or contextual reasons. the properties of loneliness introduced above can be used in building intervention practices. thus enhancing social relations becomes a significant challenge for designers who are interested in preventing loneliness by means of lbd. in the following, possible models of technological solutions for decreasing loneliness are introduced. from situation in life to concept design life-based design stresses the importance of enhancing people's quality of life through understanding the cultural, social and psychological facts and values that explain people’s actions during a life stage (leikas 2009). loneliness has its roots in social and psychological factors. consequently, avoiding loneliness is a social and psychological precondition for a good life. in literature, there are observations which suggest that people experiencing loneliness actively use the internet. this suggests that these might be people who could benefit from technological systems developed to decrease the feeling of loneliness (stepanikova, nie and he 2010). however, there is no definite positive relationship between the feeling of loneliness and, e.g., usage of social media (prezza, pacilli and dinelli 2004). the pivots in loneliness are social relations. therefore, it is logical to think that social media might provide a proper technological context to develop services for intervention into lonelness. social media refers to a group of mainly web 2.0 based internet services, which allow users to provide content. some of these are suitable for building genuine social relationships and some are much less so. despite many anti-technology arguments throughout the mass media, communication technology and social media do not have to restrict or replace other forms of social contact. quite the contrary, these technologies should be seen as tools to facilitate them. as has been evidenced in the facebook phenomenon, a vast majority of users appreciate the way they are able to re-connect with old acquaintances, friends and family with the help of social media. this would seem to be of benefit to older people, too. being able to expand connections to reach those whom you once knew, or even making new friends with similar interests and experiences, should work to decrease the feeling of loneliness. of course, one of the main obstacles for older people using social media as a tool for gaining and finding social contacts is not just whether or not they can use the technology but also whether or not their friends and peers are present in cyberspace. prevention of loneliness presupposes face-to-face contact, although genuinely interactive kinds of social media can form the basis for the prevention of loneliness. in this context, the interactive web refers to interaction among human beings. not all types of social media and all types of internet uses are suitable for creating social contacts. there are many non-personal social media services such as wiki blogs which are not interactive. these are not the most suited media for preventing loneliness. instead, they are able to provide entertainment or infotainment. one can also use social media in ways which are less purposeful. it is easy to hide oneself behind avatars instead of using the net to meet people in real life. entertainment and simulated human relationships can reduce the sensations of loneliness, but they cannot replace genuine human face-to-face contact to prevent loneliness. this means that, generally speaking, web-phone, phone, chat-roulette, messenger and facebook, might in principle, provide good tools for building relationships and finding people. however, they are not designed directly for these goals. the problem on a general level is that these services are not directly targeted to people experiencing loneliness and, therefore, they do not necessarily offer means to resolve difficulties people have with respect to their negative strategies and emotional patterns. possible models of technological solutions in concept design, we innovate technical solutions to solve problems or to improve possibilities in a defined situation in life. this means that we define people’s actions that can be supported with a technology and the role of technology in achieving action goals. here, the solution ideation is based on the idea of a service for lonely people. this means that anyone willing to look for help via the internet could log into the service that provides all the major intervention aids for eliminating loneliness. the solution relates to what kinds of activities the service should provide to people experiencing loneliness. this is a central design problem. therefore, we make some suggestions, which seek to explicate the process of designing a concept of service with different subservices. the following subservices can be seen as logical steps in concept design: 1. discourses; a) everyday chat an easy way to build trust between people and to approach other people. b) hobbies another important type of relatively neutral way to approach other people with similar interests. c) thoughtful consideration earnest chats to deepen relationships. 2. sharing; a) memoirs memoirs and the possibility to find people with similar backgrounds, can be used in the search for friends. b) photographs –an easy way to communicate with people. 3.tutorials (brief videos on communication, feelings and social habits); a) tutorials – brief pieces of information presenting typical problems associated with loneliness and coping with communication and emotional models. b) social discourse practices – can be helped by presentations. 4. events; a) information about where one can meet other people. 5. friend finder; a) a service to contact other people via definable criteria. the main design goal here is that the contents of the service are directly targeted towards older lonely people. this means that people who identify themselves in this group can immediately be included in and interact with the service. from this holistic service they can find what they desire, including other people with similar needs, just by logging into the service. thus, one could say that this type of a service is in fact a special interest service for lonely people. older people as users of technology according to the lbd paradigm, the main concern in design is to understand what the possible technological item is used for (saariluoma & leikas 2011). this is related to how people use technologies in their lives and the kinds of action goals they have when they use a specific technology. another basic issue is to ensure that people can use the technology in question. this forms the problem of usability. at the conceptual design phase, it is important to discuss how people will use the product or service and what kinds of realistic possibilities they have for this. in addition, the intended users have to be considered in terms of their skills, willingness and facilities to use the technology being designed. this means that we have to have a good idea about what kinds of technologies older people have learned to use. this knowledge makes it easier for us to think about the criteria for user interface design. technology generations mental models of older people often reflect the historical timing of computing innovations and their diffusion into productive and cultural spheres, linked with the time period in which a cohort comes of age (mcmullin et al. 2007). in designing for older people, research into technology generations can be of real benefit as it brings to the fore the kinds of mental models involved in the direct usability thinking of different age groups (leikas 2009). sackmann and weymann (1994) introduce four generations based on the experience of technology usage available in the formative period. these are the pre-technical generation, household revolution generation, advanced household technology generation, and computer generation. studies have also outlined different technological eras (lim 2010) generally divided into the ‘mechanical’ (m) era (people born before 1930), the ‘electro-mechanical’ (em) era (people born 1930 – 1960), and the ‘digital-software’ (ds) era (people born after 1960). lewis, langdon and clackson (2007) have similarly categorized the time era during which one was born and the interface technology. their categories are the electro-mechanical era (pre-1928), followed by the remote control era (1928-1964), then the dominated by displays era (1964-1990), and finally the era where, post-1990, layered menu systems are generally prevalent and popular. three major interaction styles of consumer products have been identified by docampo rama (2001). these are the mechanical style (1930/1940), the electro-mechanical style (available 1930-1980), the display style (available 1980-1990), and the menu style (implemented 1990 ->). docampo rama (2001) introduces three technology generations, which are the electro-mechanical generation (those born before 1960), the display generation (those born 1960-1970), and the menu generation (those born after 1970). mcmullin, duerden comeau and jovic (2007) have studied the phenomenon from an ict technology point of view and have discovered five technology generations. these are the pre-atari generation (those born prior to 1955), who came of age before computing technology had widespread cultural appeal or was widely used; the atari generation (those born 1955-1963) among whom the atari home video games became popular and in whose workplace the first pcs were introduced; the console generation (those born 1964-1973) who used the commodore64, trs-80, tetris, apple macintosh and windows 3.0 and who had great opportunities to use the new computer technology at home; the windows generation (those born 1974-1978) who used microsoft, windows 97/98, excel, adobe pdf, email, simcity, doom and witnessed the launch of the internet in the mid-1990s, although it was not immediately or widely embraced during this period; and finally the internet generation (those born after 1978) who are familiar with the internet, yahoo, google, instant messaging (msn), windows xp and ipods. usability and user experience usage of ict technology is concentrated around a triangle which consists of the hand, eye and ear. common examples of these devices are keyboards, mouse pointers, mobile phones, remote controls, card readers, digital displays of many household machines and the touch screens of different automated machines. in order to cope with the technologies in our everyday life we need to have relevant capacity at least in our hands, fingers and eyes. unfortunately these are the very body parts that will eventually be affected by ageing and many will experience a decline in their capacity. modern technology brings forth difficulties for older adults for two reasons (leikas 2009). firstly, design is not consistent with the experience that older people have gained from technology during earlier periods in their lives, i.e., it does not reflect the experiences of earlier technology generations. the looks of the devices may be strange and the operational logics unfamiliar. user interfaces are incomprehensible, as they do not seem to have any relation to the life that the person has lived nor the experiences that he/she has earlier gained with tools and equipment. secondly, the changes in people's physical and cognitive condition brings about many problems in using ict appliances (gill 2004). for example, hearing, vision and mobility impairments may arise in parallel, and combinations in these make it difficult to use ict products and services. decline in motor functions of the hand can make holding a handset difficult and keypad or touch screen operation slow and inaccurate. for users of a wheelchair or a walking stick, access to machines and devices can be difficult. however, difficulties in using a technology do not always arise just from poor usability but also from many other factors, such as previous experiences in the usage of that technology. this is connected to the importance of consistency in operational logics of user interfaces. thus the way of using devices and applications should be familiar and somehow congruent with earlier experiences. for many older adults with declining cognitive abilities and vision, consistency in the user interface is one important aspect of usability. the feeling of self-efficacy arises from the experience of competence, i.e., from the feeling that one is able to use a system or device. in older people's lives, self-efficacy is an essential factor of coping. if we wish to eliminate the difficulties encountered with usability, it is essential to find usability metaphors which remind the user of past technologies, such as the use of the traditional ringtone as an option in modern mobile phones. it is also important to eliminate any unnecessary steps in accessing a service, and it is essential to consider the difficulties of usage caused by age-related decline in vision, hearing and dexterity. the main thing is to maintain familiarity with the kinds of interfaces the target people have used over the years. elimination of unnecessary steps in accessing the service can be achieved by icons with familiar metaphors for older people and accompanied by clearly readable texts. there must be direct icon based navigation, in which all conceptual themes, such as touch screens and other modern ui models, regardless of the age of the user, are considered. life-based design procedure for service design the aim of this paper is to describe a model for the lbd procedure for a certain service based on a specific fact describing human life. this fact has been referred to as a situation in life, which means a stable contextual and psychological state in life. it is the kind of life fact which can be taken as a pivot problem for design thinking. in our example, the subject has been loneliness among older people. first, we identified the situation in life as well as the form of life with which it is associated. after that we analyzed the main human properties of a particular situation in life. we then identified social isolation and the reasons for this isolation. we separated the cases where the cause for isolation is social and individual factors from those where the cause is contextual. next, technical means for avoiding or at least decreasing these problems have to be sought. finally, a usage culture for this type of technology among people who require it has to be created. this means that we have to solve the usability problems as well as inform people about the existence of the technology and create a need to use it. if any of these points in the road map remains unsolved, the attempt will fail. the following steps summarize our procedure for service design to decrease the feeling of loneliness amongst older people: 1.    identify the pivot problem loneliness among ageing people 2.    analyse its human dimensions mental and conceptual properties of loneliness found in large psychological studies 3.    conceptualize the technical solution models a service for loneliness 4.    harmonize the model with the human and contextual information what kinds of sub-services are required? 5.    analyse possible usability problems usability metaphors and simplified procedures icons and interaction language discussion technology for older adults should not be targeted only at the design of technical aids for compensating the decline in functional capacity. it should be applied to support the strengths of older people and to facilitate their participation in society. the knowhow gained during the course of aging is a remarkable asset, which should be utilised in society in different ways. older people have tacit knowledge of life, which is meaningful and beneficial for the whole community. this is why technological solutions should be facilitating the usage of this knowledge for the common good and increasing the role of and participation opportunities for older adults as members of society. people should be adequately prepared for the technological change in the information society. the change should thus be carried out in terms of people, based on the life world and positive experiences they have of technology. these experiences form the true value that technology brings to the lives of people, and can be discovered only by focusing on people’s lives and the values that people follow in them. if this principle is accepted, the information society will proceed in a meaningful manner. the issue of replacing social relationships with technology has many times been brought up in discussions about older adults and technology. this is of course, possible in cases where the already limited contacts of a lonely person are replaced by, for example, new solutions utilizing ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence. however, technology should be seen also as a facilitator for social networks. it cannot remove isolation, but it can remove the feeling of loneliness by creating social networking possibilities for people who are not able to leave their home due to a motor disability. this is why each case should be examined from the point of view of individual needs in relation to opportunities provided by technology. the core idea of life-based design is that the knowledge about the structure of the forms of life can be used when designing technologies such as ict-services to improve the quality of life. in this way, we call attention to the fact that designing for life is focused on new possibilities instead of merely solving problems. technology will ultimately change the structures of the society and daily lives of people in a profound way. what kinds of expressions the society will have depends significantly on the design approaches for ict society. promoting social relationships, preventing loneliness and facilitating meaningful roles for older people are all challenges for technology design. life-based design is one potentially useful approach for meeting the human demands of the information society. references anderson, j.r. 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(2008). product design and development, fourth edition, mcgraw-hill, new york.   integration of ict into curricula in western cape schools: the activity theory perspective nhlanhla wilton mlitwa1& kesewaa koranteng2 associate professor, it department, cape peninsula university of technology, south africa. email: mlitwan@cput.ac.za masters student, it department, fid, cape peninsula university of technology, south africa. introduction information and communication technology (ict) and its continuous innovations have improved efficiencies in various domains of modern living. efficiencies through e-government (dwivedi & bharti, 2005; gupta, 2011), e-commerce (goel, 2007), e-health and e-learning solutions are such examples. access to quality education in particular, is enhanced through web-enabled educational software, systems and networked applications (jhurree, 2005; bunt-kokhuis, 2012). educational software aids in simplifying difficult concepts, making learning fun and easy (simkins et al., 2003). most significantly, mobile (m) and electronic (e) learning in particular, allow learning to be done anywhere and at anytime (goi & ng, 2009). with access to ict, all learners in south african (sa) schools can benefit from these efficiencies. however, access to educational technology in sa is still limited to the advantaged few in the more urban areas whilst many learners in disadvantaged areas remain on the periphery during the time of writing this work (mlitwa & nonyane, 2008; nonyane, 2011). for this reason, the government has undertaken, through the e-education policy of 2004, to equip schools with ict. the goal was to empower schools with ict facilities to improve the quality of education so as to improve learning outcomes (eom, et al., 2006) in all schools. this policy provides for the deployment of educational hardware and software to every school in sa, and for a full integration of ict into curricula, including the e-skilling of teachers (by integrating ict skills programs into the teacher-training curriculum). research problem the main problem was that whilst policy provisions are inspiring, schools in rural areas remain under-resourced, lacking basic infrastructure including ict resources. even in urban areas with notable initiatives such as the 'khanya project' and 'gauteng online', universal success remains elusive, as many schools are yet to be catered for (the khanya project, 2010; gauteng online, 2010). it is also unclear why a number of schools remain under-resourced, with the majority of teachers still computer illiterate. unless the situation is clearly articulated and understood, learners in affected schools may continue to be marginalized, with bleak chances of being competitive in their future careers and ultimately, of improving the quality of their lives. research objective the aim of our research was to understand the challenges in the integration of ict into schools and schools' curricula in disadvantaged areas of the western cape, so as to inform possible solutions. a research question "how can the discrepancies in the deployment and integration of ict into curricula in disadvantaged schools in low income communities in the western cape be addressed" was raised as a basis for the investigation. the following sub-questions were also identified: how is ict being deployed into disadvantaged schools? how is ict being integrated into school curricula in these areas?, and why are teachers not integrating ict into curricula in disadvantaged areas? methodology the work of the paper is predominantly qualitative, in that data is descriptive and explanatory rather than statistical. given the appropriateness of a case studies for in-depth insight into social phenomena (yin, 1994), a case study method was used. in this respect, the interpretivist paradigm was followed, using both secondary (literature) and primary (semi-structured interviews) data sources. content analysis in conjunction with a theoretical framework the e-schools activity theory framework, was used to analyse and interpret data. since the aim of the study was to identify specific cases with conditions typical to the problem under investigation, a purposive method of sampling was used to select participant samples in 4 schools (i.e. kulani secondary, sithembele matiso secondary, macassar secondary and marvin park primary in the western cape (wc)). purposive sampling is a technique used to select a sample from a research population, purely according to the intentions (judgment) of the researcher as guided by the purpose of the study (babbie, 2010). this technique is most appropriate when a researcher has "clear characteristics of the participants needed" (mlitwa, 2011), and where a sample can be selected upon which conclusions about the targeted population can be drawn (babbie & mouton, 2001). in this instance, the researcher can approach only the members of the population that are ready and willing to offer data (kumar, 2005). the wc province was selected in acknowledgement of progressive efforts of the khanya project where all schools are expected to be equipped with ict resources. the province was also selected on the basis of its close proximity to the researchers. the provincial department of education (doe) list of schools was used to identify and select school for our sample. one school was selected from an informal settlement and one from a formal township among traditionally black (african) residential settlements. another school was selected from a low income suburb and from the traditionally coloured informal settlement area of the wc. the idea of this mix was to draw insight from the variety of underprivileged contexts in the region. as outlined in table 1 below, coordinators of ict programs in the wc doe, and in schools (e-schools coordinators) as well as educators were the population from which research samples were selected. guided by the literature background, our research question/s and research objective have been translated into five issues for investigation, (1) motivations for ict integration and use in schools; (2) status of ict deployment in sa schools; (3) status of ict integration into the curriculum; (4) status of ict skills among educators, and; (5) explanations as to the status of ict deployment (see table 1). table 1: selection of participation samples ict as a tool and a catalyst for development ict is said to improve educational efficiencies, and is a significant means to address educational shortcomings in the developing world (mlitwa, 2011; gutterman, et al., 2009). against this background, world governance structures committed through the millennium development goals (mdgs) to exploit ict in redressing social inequality among world populations, by halving the poverty, disease and illiteracy rates by 2015 (mdg report, 2008). achieving universal access to primary education is presented as the second highest priority (after poverty reduction) in the mdgs, with ict as the major enabler (nonyane, 2011). similar undertakings have also been instituted by multinational institutions and in continental structures. at multi-national level, the global e-schools communities initiative (gesci) i emphasizes the deployment of ict in schools, to improve teaching and learning in developing countries (gesci, 2009). continental structures in latin america, asia, and africa, have also turned to ict for solutions in advancing the quality of, and access to education (idb, 2000). the policy forum ii on the integration of ict into education by ten asian countries in 2007 (world links, 2007) is an example. in the same light, the association of southeast asian nations (asean) also established the unesco schoolnet project in 2003. the goal was to improve teaching and learning outcomes through teacher training as well as the integration of computers into school programs (asean, 2010). in africa, the new partnership for african development (nepad) also established the e-schools initiative with the objective of providing computers to every school on the african continent (the nepad e-africa commission, 2010). through this initiative, nepad also undertook to advance ict skills to primary and secondary school students as well as educators. through this initiative, nepad also undertook to coordinate ict curriculum and content development in all schools in africa, so as to enhance the quality of schooling across the continent (ibid). within individual countries, south africa also established the e-education policy in 2003 (doe, 2003). in this policy, ict is viewed as a resource for teaching and learning, and an enabler of the development of the school as a whole. on this basis, the e-education policy aims to equip schools with ict to improve management and administration; to facilitate the incorporation of ict into the curricula; and to improve communication and engagement as well as collaboration between teachers and between learners (doe, 2007). the goal is to ensure that every learner is able to use ict confidently and creatively and to develop the skills and knowledge needed to achieve personal goals. in this quest, further provisions are to integrate ict into all south african schools by the year 2013 (doe, 2003). the idea is to push for universal access to ict, through the deployment of networked computers, educational software and online learning resources to all schools in south africa. the intention is to enable the development and distribution of electronic learning content so that every learner, teacher, manager and administrator has the knowledge, skills and support needed to integrate ict into educational processes. guidelines to integrate ict into the teacher pre-service and in-service training programmes are also outlined in the policy. to facilitate implementation, the policy provides for the assigning of a "dedicated teacher to manage ict facilities and to champion the use of ict", and the provision of technical training for teachers in every school (doe, 2003). ict facilities and ict skills are important, but need to be productively integrated into the curriculum if they are to make a positive impact in education (mlitwa, 2010). a curriculum entails the philosophy, the content, the approach and the assessment of a learning programme (harvey, 2004). integrating ict into the curriculum therefore, implies the alignment of educational technologies with pedagogy. given that the e-education policy was put forward in 2003, it is logical to expect that reasonable progress in the integration and deployment of ict into the school curriculum, should have taken place by the year 2012. this study investigates the dynamics of the e-education policy implementation, with emphasis on its goal to deploy and integrate ict into curricula, in all south african schools. selected schools in underdeveloped areas of the western cape were chosen as case samples. activity theory (at) was used to provide an analytical framework for the study. a theoretical framework: activity theory (at) at is used as a framework for examining and transforming networks of interacting activity systems (hardman, 2005). the activity systems transform one condition to another, hence are considered to be the instruments of re-organisation (engeström, 1987). the basic components of an activity system are comprised of the subject, object, mediating artifacts (i.e. tools), rules, community and division of labour (ibid). the subject is an individual or entity (actor or actors) from whose perspective an object is to be viewed (daniels, 2004). in the case of this study, actors are the government (doe), teacher training institutions and schools at the institutional level, as well as provincial e-schools co-ordinators, schools ict coordinators and individual educators. an object is the reason for an action or the goal (engeström, 1987). as detailed in figure 1, the goals of the doe, and the provincial and school level implementers vary in terms of roles, though overlapping in the main goal of achieving full integration of ict into curricula, and in improving the quality of learning outcomes. figure 1: e-schools activity theory analytical framework mediation refers to the use of tools to mediate human activity (vygotsky, 1978). the tool is the artifact to be created and transformed during the development of the activity itself (uden & damiani, 2007). rules are the norms and regulations that are either implicit or explicit, but influential in the activities that take place (engeström, 1999). the community represents groups, rules and arrangements such as the division of labour (owen, 2008). the problem with goal implementations in a multi-level and complex activity system such as the e-schools process is that it needs clear rules and guidelines across different actors if it is succeed. whilst implicit guidelines may be ambiguous, subject to misinterpretation and manipulation, the worst situation would be a complete lack of rules or guidelines and enforcement procedures. rather than a predictive theory, at is a descriptive framework, a concept and a theoretical approach or a viewpoint (mursu et al., 2007). in most instances at is used to analyse human activity from a needs-based and goal-oriented viewpoint (i.e. people are driven by needs and therefore have specific goals to achieve) (mlitwa, 2011). consequently it is used to understand human interaction through mediated tools and artifacts (hashim & jones, 2007). an activity is seen as a factor that ties the actions to the context, hence an activity is a basic unit of analysis in activity theory (engeström, 1987). since human actions derive their meaning from the context, "actions without context are meaningless" (mursu, et al., 2007:6). thus actions must be viewed within a context (leont'ev, 1978). as outlined in figure 1, different functions (activities of different actors) in the policy implementation process investigated in this study are such units of analysis. the use of activity theory in this research as indicated in figure 1, the at work-activity concepts are used to present the e-schools programme as an activity system. an actor is an individual, a group of people (engeström, 1987) or even an entity/institution (mursu, et al, 2007). the motives/goals refer to the doe policy undertaking to deploy and integrate ict into curricula in all school. this goal is associated with relevant activities such as budget provision, communication with relevant stakeholders, monitoring and enforcing the implementation. at a teacher training institution, the goal is simply to see the teacher training programme integrated to include ict, and to produce ict literate (and competent) teachers. at a school level, coordinators want to see full deployment, maintenance and use of ict for educational purposes in their respective centres of operation. under this framework, the goal of teachers is to competently use ict to improve learning outcomes. mediators are factors that can enable or inhibit the successful achievement of a goal (vygotsky, 1978). for example, it is unhelpful to have clear goals, actors and rules, but lack financial resources; coordination of activities and of the integration process; basic infrastructure such as classroom and electricity; or to not have ict literate teachers. the transformation process combines the enabling factors, the tools and the activities, in order to achieve a positive outcome (uden & damiani, 2007). the relevance of at in this study is that it provides a holistic operational view of phenomena at hand. from an at perspective the e-school activity theory analytical framework (figure 1) aids in understanding the factors affecting the successful realization of the government's e-education policy goal (i.e. universal access to ict for teaching and learning). information flows and linkages between the components of the activity system are important in the success of the work-activity. without duplicating the content of figure 1 and the preceding discussion, the framework was useful in clarifying the context of the investigation, to frame the concepts, work-flows between actors, and to clarify mediators (including tools) as well as activities in this project. in conjunction with the content analysis tool, the framework also informed the identification of themes towards the analysis and most significantly, the interpretation of data. to this end, findings expose the current status of ict integration into schools and schools' curricula. findings findings are presented in tables 2 & 3 and discussed in sections that follow. table 2: status of ict deployment, its integration & teacher skills table 3: summary of findings, causes and explanations discussion of findings deployment of computers into schools the goal of the main actor (the national doe) according to the theoretical framework in figure 1 was to ensure that all schools are equipped with physical infrastructure in the form of computers, internet and computer-based educational programmes. secondly, the assumption in the theoretical framework is that success in this endeavour is dependant on a positive interaction between this intention (goal), the responsibilities of each actor in the framework, the enabling environment in terms of the presence of all enabling mediators, and the correct implementation of all activities by respective parties. however, findings (table 2) reveal a disappointing learner-to-computer ratio. that is, out of the 4 schools, macassar secondary has the lowest ratio of 10 learners per computer (mc_f29), followed by kulani secondary with a ratio of 24 learners per computer (kh_b35). although macassar had the lowest learner computer ratio in comparison to the other 2 schools in the sample, the ratio is still not practically ideal. whilst a ratio of 1 learner per computer is preferable, such an expectation would understandably be utopian in a context of a developing country. on this basis, a compromise standard of 5 learners to 1 computer has been adopted in developed countries (usa doe, 2000). despite the policy support however, the situation is disappointingly sub-marginal in sampled schools. whilst the learner per computer ratio is 10 learners per computer at macassar (mc_f29), and 24 learners per computer at kulani secondary schools (kh_b35), the situation is worse at marvin park primary and sithembele matiso secondary. marvin park has a ratio of 33 learners to 1 computer (mv_f37), and 76 learners per computer at sithembele matiso (sm_d25). the reality of these 33 learners sharing one computer can lead to non-completion of individual learning tasks, and ultimately, stagnation in academic progress. on the other hand, although the ratio of 33 and 76 may be numerically lower than the ratio of 312 learners per computer in many underdeveloped countries, a better situation would have been expected in 2011, given that the policy had been in place since 2003. given the pressure of assignment deadlines for learners, the practicality of 33 learners sharing 1 computer is questionable. at 76 learners per computer, it is even harder to imagine the integration and application of ict into curricula that require learners to complete tasks individually. although both macassar secondary and marvin park primary had internet connectivity, access to the internet was limited (mc_f32). for example, only macassar had a full internet connection. in this instance, both teachers and learners were using the internet. it is regrettable as well, that learners were only allowed to do so after school hours (mc_f33). even then, learners need to apply for permission before they could be granted access (ibid). during the period of access, a learner is granted only a few minutes, which is hardly adequate to complete an assigned task (mc_f33). though the school seemed to have full internet access, time restrictions meant that access was not full and thus limited for learners. as if the limitation of internet was not inhibiting enough to educational processes, two additional schools sithembele matiso secondary (sm_d27) and kulani secondary (kh_b38) did not have any form of internet connectivity, whatsoever. as a result, some of the teachers had to travel to nearby schools to access the internet (sm_d27). if the main goal of ict integration is to improve teaching, learning, and ultimately, learning outcomes, limited access reduces such benefits to learners. in this unfortunate situation, both teachers and learners are deprived of the benefits associated with the use of the internet (i.e. fast information distribution, anytime anywhere access, communication, administrative assistance, accommodation of various levels of learning, increased learners understanding, distribution of learning materials and so on). in terms of the analytical framework in figure 1, deployment and integration of ict into schools' curricula are the goals that depend on key mediators to succeed: enabling policy, finance, availability of basic infrastructure such as electricity and classrooms, competent coordinators, skilled educators and effective communication between all stakeholders. discrepancies in mediating factors, including unclear communication channels between all stakeholders, are correlated to the negative status quo. integration of computers into school curricula findings indicate that very few courses/subjects were facilitated with computers in the sampled schools. only 3 out of 9 subjects in marvin park (mv_f59; mv_f62) and 3 out of 12 subjects in macassar secondary (mc_f20; mc_f21) had a computer-facilitated aspect. sithembele matiso only had 2 out of the 12 subjects (sm_d35; sm_d40) whilst kulani secondary had only 1 out of 13 subjects (kh_b5; kh_b51) that had any computer-facilitated elements. mediating factors towards this end according to figure 1 would be the presence of infrastructure, computer-based educational programmes, clear curricula and skilled teachers, supported by activities where trainers provide adequate training to the teachers, suppliers provide resources and coordinators do their part. findings reveal a clear discrepancy in these respects, which suggest significant gaps in the e-education policy implementation process. ict skills amongst educators as has been mentioned, very few subjects in these four schools were taught using subject specific learning programs (mc_f22; mc_f24; mc_f44). in macassar secondary, 3 subjects out of 12, maths, computer application and life orientation (mc_f20; mc_f21). in marvin park, 3 subject out of 9 english, maths and science (mv_f59; mv_f62). in sithembele matiso, 2 subjects out of 12, maths and science (sm_d35; sm_d40), and in kulani secondary, one out of 13 subjects maths (kh_b5; kh_b51). in addition to a lack of educational software for the rest of the subjects, a lack of relevant skill and access to training opportunities among the majority of teachers is also a strong limiting factor. with regards to training, most educators in sampled schools had only received basic computer literacy training (kh_b13; mc_f11; sm_d14; mv_f18), which did not help improve competency in using educational software. findings reveal a bleak picture in terms of the student to computer ratio, and the progress in terms of ict integration into curricula in schools. limited ict literacy among educators in sampled schools emphasizes this point. these three aspects are the key objectives of the policy. given the period in which the policy has been in existence (since 2003), the status suggests clear failure in the policy implementation process. the framework (figure 1) suggests that successful deployment and integration of ict into schools, and a high computer literacy among teachers would depend on a number of mediating factors: an enabling policy environment, the appointment of competent coordinators, clarity in the ict component in teacher training institutions, clear channels of communication between all stakeholders in the activity system, basic infrastructure at school and a continued provision of relevant education software in schools. whilst the policy, the will and some promising initiatives are is in place, there seem to be contradictions in terms of implementation priorities among national, provincial and school-level stakeholders. for example, most coordinators were aware of what they should be doing when there are no facilities, or when facilities are inadequate or malfunctioning. the case of schools with facilities (computer and internet) but restrictions on learners using them demonstrates this point. conclusion and recommendations considering the findings, we conclude that the goal of the e-education policy to ensure universal access to ict, full integration of ict into school curricula, and that teachers are competent and able to teach using ict has hardly been achieved. if the inhibiting factors are not addressed, learners in affected schools will continue to lack ict access and the associated opportunities towards quality education. this can hinder their progress in life and their future contributions to the country's economy. with a policy having been in place for over a decade, it would be expected that supporting factors such as financial resources would be available for this purpose. however, financial issues continue to be cited as the main hindrances in schools. within school budgets, ict related facilities also appear to have a very low priority. given clear policy pronouncements however, this can be more attributed to poor coordination of human and financial resources than to a lack of political will. at the time when the quality of school education is in dire need for improvement, it is clear (unfortunately so) that the current model of deploying ict resources into schools is not working. a recommendation therefore, is that authorities should review the efforts made to deploy ict into schools and possibly appoint personnel to audit the process, including the funding model. however, the problem in the sampled schools is larger than just financial limitations. there is also a clear lack of common understanding between school communities and policy makers, with teachers and ict coordinators not knowing the ict deployment details for their schools. the work activity framework in figure 1 presents this aspect as key mediating factors whose presence or absence would determine whether the outcomes sought are achieved or not. on this point, we recommend a revised communication process between the national, provincial and local (school) coordinators on the full details of ict deployment in schools. in other words, school principals and coordinators must be aware, and be clear about the number of computers, maintenance needs and procedures as well as specific software and connectivity details required in their schools. the supporting technical and social environments (figure 1) are also necessary. a supporting social environment is a secure environment where facilities are not vandalized, and there is a willingness of teachers and learners to make use of ict in education. the actual delivery of tools: computers, internet, educational software, printers, scanners and copiers etc) and its integration into educational programmes are also emphasized in the framework. the causal factors for the poor status of ict integration according to the educators were a lack of educational software and relevant ict (kh_b49; mc_f29; sm_d53; mv_f21). furthermore the organisations involved in deploying ict into schools mainly focused on specific subjects and not into the full curricula (the khanya project, 2010). in this regard there seems to be a misunderstanding of priority needs in support of e-schools programs teachers tend to limit ict relevance only to maths and science subjects (kh_b5; sm_d9; mv_62), with a complete neglect of other subjects. with the e-education policy advocating for a full integration of ict into school curricula it would be expected that funds have been allocated to achieve this goal. however, funds allocated for the acquisition of ict resources (i.e. education software) are cited as inadequate, lacking, or completely unheard-of, which suggests unclear guidelines in this activity system. nonetheless the problem seems to be bigger than poor coordination of financial resources. there also appears to be a lack of clear guidelines for implementation. we recommend that stakeholders in the e-schools activity system (authorities and e-schools coordinators) liaise with schools to ignite the implementation process. educational authorities should also invest in teacher training programs and ensure that competent facilitators are appointed to train educators. also the training programs provided should be constantly revised. further, whilst tools are important, the work activity framework presents a need for technically skilled teachers as a basis for a successful integration of computer technology into curricula. in other words it is only when teachers are skilled that they will be able to use educational technology to facilitate teaching, thus emphasis should be placed on helping teachers to master subject specific learning programs, before expecting them to use these in their classes. considerations for further research a theoretical framework in figure 1 offers a practical approach to viewing a complex socio-technical phenomenon such as the deployment of ict, and its integration into schools' curricula. practically, the work offers analytical tools that can assist planners, policy makers and other interested parties make sense of the underlying factors surrounding the implementation of technology policies in the societal settings. a replication of a similar study in other provinces, as well as a comparison of ict deployment efforts between technologically developed and disadvantaged schools in future studies, is also recommended. acknowledgements we thank the people and institutions that contributed to the successful completion of this study: the western cape department of education (wced), the sampled schools, the interview participants, your time and contribution is appreciated. endnotes i the global e-schools and community initiative (gesci) is based on the consensus belief within the united nations, that education in developing countries needs critical attention. funded by ireland, sweden, switzerland and finland, gesci has undertaken to invest in, and deploy ict to improve teaching and learning in developing countries (gesc, 2009). ii this forum develops policies to ensure a successful integration of ict in the classroom. the i-schools project (to develop open content to enable the equal access to education for learners), and the smart schools program (that promotes access and use of ict for teachers) are some of the collaborative initiatives of the forum (world links, 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(2007). the asia policy forum on ict integration into education a final report. www.world-links.org/files/asia_policy_forum_final_report.pdf [5 july 2012]. online communities as a resource in older adults’ tourism galit nimrod ben-gurion university of the negev, israel abstract purpose of the study: previous research found that tourism is a subject commonly discussed in seniors’ online communities. the present study aimed to explore tourism-related contents in these communities and to discover specific age-related themes. design and methods: the study applied an online ethnography (netnography) approach, and was based on a full year’s data from 14 leading seniors’ online communities. the final database included 3,425 posts. results: contents were divided into three main categories: ‘practical information exchange’, ‘search for contacts’, and ‘travel stories’. specific age-related themes referred to retirement, seniors’ tours, health insurance concerns, and special rates for elders. implications: results indicate that online communities serve as a resource in older adults’ tourism both before and after traveling. dedicated to seniors, they also provide a sphere for expressing age-related issues, which are probably less discussed in other online forums. keywords internet, social networks, leisure travel, later life introduction a balanced approach to computer training for older adults suggests that training should focus equally on online and offline aspects of computer learning, and that this may enhance users’ sense of well-being. hence, seniors should learn to use the internet as both a means to an end and as an end in itself (xie & jaeger, 2008). accordingly, the internet can serve as a resource in older adults’ leisure in two ways, the first being an activity in itself. it may serve as a source of information and entertainment, offering many enjoyable activities such as games, online courses, blogging and many more. it can offer occupation and meaning and help older adults to maintain and even expand their social relationships. the second role of the internet is being an instrument for learning, planning, and purchasing offline leisure services. the endless information available on the world wide web may help seniors learn about various leisure opportunities and make plans. the internet can be used in the process of decision making regarding almost every leisure product or service. moreover, it can be used for purchasing leisure services and products, from hiking shoes to organized tours. this article focuses on older adults’ tourism, and aims to explore how a specific web-based activity, namely, participating in seniors’ online communities, is used as a resource by older tourists both online, as an activity in itself, and offline, as an instrument for travel planning. literature review the older tourists segment has been growing rapidly in the past decade, due to the aging of populations in many countries and the changes in older adults’ sociodemographics and travel patterns (for review see patterson, 2006, ch. 4; schröder & widmann 2007). overall, today’s seniors are healthier, richer, more educated, more independent and more obligation-free than older people in the past (martin & preston, 1994; zimmer, brayley & searle, 1995). they place tourism high in their priorities (statts & pierfelice, 2003), and they are distinct from former cohorts of seniors in that many of them have travel experience, both in groups and alone, in connection with their work lives as well as a result of traveling for pleasure (hayslip, hicks-patrick & panek, 2007). these trends and characteristics made seniors an attractive target population for the global tourism industry. the growing senior segment has also been drawing increased attention from tourism researchers. studies examining tourism in later life have explored several areas of interests, including descriptive characteristics of older adults’ tourism behavior (e.g., georggi & pendyala, 1999; hossain, bailey & lubulwa, 2003), associations between various sociodemographics and seniors’ tourism (e.g., peterson, 2007; zimmer et al., 1995), motivations for tourism (e.g., sellick, 2004; shoemaker, 2000), factors influencing decision making (e.g., bai, jang, cai & o’leary, 2001; kerstetter & pennington-gray, 1999), constraints on tourism in old age (e.g., burnett & bender baker, 2001; fleischer & pizam, 2002), differences between older tourists and younger tourists (e.g., you & o’leary, 2000; gibson & yiannakis, 2002), associations between retirement status and travel activity (e.g., blazey, 1992), and sub-segments within the older adults’ segment (e.g., pennington-gray & lane, 2001; shoemaker, 2000). although these studies were very diverse, they shared a common feature: most of them used quantitative methods. the dominance of the quantitative approach was criticized by patterson (2006), who argued that researchers should further develop and apply qualitative methods that will enable “to gain a better and more in-depth recollection and understanding of the actual trip experience” (p. 40). existing qualitative studies provided some in-depth understandings regarding the roles of tourism in older adults’ lives. gibson (2002) found that for most retirees, leisure-travel was a meaningful component of life, and it became so significant only upon retirement, when they felt that they had more freedom to enjoy it. similarly, a recent study (nimrod, 2008) found that retirees perceived retirement as an opportunity to travel, and that their tourism corresponded with their present realities, as well as with pursuits, relationships and roles adopted prior to retirement. this led to suggesting that tourism served as a mechanism that helped retirees preserve a sense of internal continuity. white and white (2004) found that some retirees celebrated their entrance to retirement by taking long-term travels. these travels served as a neutral, transitional zone between voluntary or imposed endings and new beginnings, where summaries of the past and plans for the future were made. other studies provided insights regarding the benefits of tourism for older adults. weiss (2005), for example, found that traveling provided challenges, often shared with spouses, which involved planning, solving unexpected problems, facing new situations, new people, food and so forth. successful coping with such challenges led to a sense of accomplishment, which was demonstrated by returning with stories and photographs to display. roberson (2001) found that the travel experience provided older tourists with new perspectives of the living conditions in their home countries, and led to more appreciation of them. in addition, travelling led to changes in self-perceptions and attitudes, and enhanced a sense of independence and freedom. previous research demonstrated that older tourists use various information sources in the process of decision making, and that they increasingly use the internet as an information source when they plan a trip or vacation (for review see patterson, 2006, ch. 7). the percentage of information and communications technologies (ict) users among people who are 60 years old and over is still much lower than among younger age groups, and online seniors still tend to be more male than female and have higher education and higher income than offline seniors, but their number grows rapidly every year (boulton-lewis, buys, lovie, barnett & david, 2007; pew internet and american life, 2010).   the “silver surfer” discourse reinforced the notion that older adults stand to benefit from ict in various ways. the main functions described were communication medium, information source, task-orientated tool (e.g., shopping, financial management), and leisure activity (c.f., cody, dunn, hoppin & wendt, 1999; iyer & eastman, 2006; kiger, 2006; loges & jung, 2001; opalinski, 2001; pew internet and american life, 2004; white et al., 1999; white & weatherall, 2000;  xie, 2007). moreover, using the internet seems to have a strong impact on older adults’ well-being. it enhances a sense of independence (henke, 1999), and is associated with higher levels of social connectivity, higher levels of perceived social support, decreased feelings of loneliness, lower levels of depression, and generally more positive attitudes toward aging (cody et al., 1999; dickenson & hill, 2007; fokkema & knipscherr, 2007; nahm & resnick, 2001; van de watering, 2005; white et al., 2002). while an increasing number of older adults enjoy the benefits of ict, for most seniors the information available on the web is out of reach since they lack computer access. this problem is usually described as the digital divide (kiel, 2005), and it results from various cultural and technical barriers, such as computer costs, not knowing how to use it, fear of modern technology (technophobia), lack of available training and technical support, lack of perceived need and difficulties with reading the small letters on web sites. the digital divide is a main concern for many studies that examine the barriers and limitations for participation, intervention programs, and their effect on participants’ well-being (e.g., bradley & poppen, 2003; campbell & wabb, 2003; cody et al., 1999; kiel, 2005; loges & jung, 2001; white et al., 2002; xie, 2007, 2008, 2009). however, it has also been argued that even those who use internet resources face difficulties in locating authoritative and reliable electronic-based information and more senior-friendly web sites (broering, chauncey, gregory & gomes, 2005; curran, walters & robinson, 2007). among the many new possibilities that the cybernetic revolution provided for seniors, online communities that are dedicated to older adults seem to be well accepted and thriving. such communities can operate through diverse applications – email lists, newsgroups, forums/message boards, chat rooms, interactive sites, blogs, and similar online media. the number of seniors’ online communities is growing, and some of them have hundreds and even thousands of members. a recent pioneer study (nimrod, 2010) followed a year of activity in a sample of leading seniors’ online communities. results revealed that the average daily number of threads (i.e., discussions) in these communities has doubled during the research period, and the number of authors and posts (i.e., messages) has tripled. this study also found that one of the salient subjects discussed in these communities was ‘travels’. the present study the present study aimed to examine the tourism-related contents in seniors’ online communities, and to explore how these communities are used as a resource in older adults’ tourism, both online and offline. moreover, as seniors’ use of the communities may be similar to that of younger age groups use of online communities, the research aspired to discover specific age-related themes in these contents. by investigating such themes, insights into seniors’ tourism were discovered, and assumptions about the unique role of seniors’ online communities as a resource in their tourism could be drawn. design and methods the study was based on the same data set that was used in the aforementioned pioneer study (nimrod, 2010), but while the former study utilized a quantitative approach, the current investigation was qualitative and applied an online ethnography approach often referred to as netnography (kozinets 2002, 2006; langer & beckman, 2005; sade-beck, 2004). netnography is based on observations of technologically mediated communication in online networks and communities (hine, 2000; mann & stewart; 2000). the researcher may utilize a participative approach, which is closer to traditional ethnographic standards. on the other hand, the study may also be purely observational, in which the researcher is a ‘lurker’ (kozinets, 2006). the benefit of non-participant observations is that they assure that the dynamics and contents expressed in the examined online communities are not influenced by the researcher’s presence (dholakia & zhang, 2004). netnography suggests the use of specific procedures, including (a) entrée: establishment of research questions and identification of suitable online sites for the study; (b) data collection: direct copying of the texts from the computer-mediated communications and observations of the community and its members, interactions and meanings; and (c) analysis and interpretation: classification, coding analysis and contextualization of communicative acts (kozinets, 2002; langer & beckman; 2005). entrée the study examined a full year’s data from seniors’ online communities, which were selected for the aforementioned study (nimrod, 2010). these communities were chosen out of more than 40 online communities, which, according to their names, home-pages, and welcome posts, explicitly targeted seniors. each forum/chat was reviewed, and those that were relatively new or non-active (less than a few hundred posts) and/or required registration were screened out (to avoid ethical issues). given the public nature of online forums, the study was approved as exempted from human subjects review. the final sample consisted of 14 established communities (see table 1). seven of the communities were from the us, four were british, two were canadian, and one was australian. however, all of them except for one (florida retirement forums) targeted a global audience. two communities had both a forum and a chat room, and the rest had just a forum. table 1: the seniors' online communities examined in this study community name address community type center 50 plus http://discuss.50plus.com forum canada about seniors www.seniors-forums.com forum australia age-net www.age-net.co.uk forum + chat uk cool grandma www.coolgrandma.com forum + chat usa early retirement forum www.early-retirement.org forum usa idf 50 www.idf50.co.uk forum uk florida retirement forums www.kelleytown.com forum usa pensioners forum www.pensionersforum.co.uk forum uk retired magazines www.retiredmagazines.co.uk forum uk retirement community www.retirementcommunity.com forum usa senior-net www.seniornet.org forum usa seniors daily www.seniorsdaily.net forum canada the little-brown-jug forum www.little-brown-jug.com forum usa the over 50 golden group http://theover50goldengroup.net forum usa note. idf stands for i don’t feel data collection data collection for the current investigation utilized a novel computerized system, the forum monitoring system (fms), designed especially for online forum analysis. the fms system is owned by 1st2c ltd, a commercial company. it enables combining qualitative and quantitative methods of content analysis, and assists in monitoring the level of activity over time, outputting basic numeric values regarding sizes and shares of messages, examining the discussions' tone, and creating a basic graphical presentation for the results. after downloading the messages from the internet sites and saving them in a database, the software’s filtering function was used to create a set of messages that relate to tourism. this function enabled to filter the data based on the words included in the posts. the list of key words was derived from the content analysis conducted in the pioneer study (nimrod, 2010), and included thirty-five terms. while some were general terms (e.g., tour, travel, trip, journey, and vacation), others were specific (e.g., flight or hotel). the overall database, after filtering, included 3,425 posts (almost 1,500 pages of text). analysis and interpretation content analysis was used to identify the tourism-related issues discussed in the communities. the database was carefully read and categorized. descriptive codes and categories were generated through open coding, and posts that contained references to more than one issue, were included in a couple of categories, leading to some overlap between them. due to the large amount of data, it was split between the author and a research assistant. the classification was done separately, while constantly comparing codes and categories to ensure analysis consistency. that procedure led to identifying the range of tourism-related topics discussed in seniors’ online communities. thematic analysis was used in order to discover specific age-related themes within the discussion of tourism in seniors’ online communities, the software was used once again to filter posts that contained age-related terms out of the database. the filtering key words were: old, age, aging, elder*(any suffix), senior, retire*, and grand*. four hundred and twenty three posts contained these terms, and were subjected to cross-case analysis and then constant comparison strategies (charmaz, 2006; strauss & corbin, 1998). descriptive codes and categories were generated through open coding. in order to maintain data reliability, the open coding of this portion of the data was conducted separately by the two investigators, and then their analyses were compared and discussed. agreement between coders generally reached 85% and differences were adjudicated. in the few cases of disagreements that were not resolved after discussion, data were left as non-categorized and omitted from subsequent analyses. once this initial coding framework was established, axial coding (making connections between a category and its sub-categories) was used to identify variations found within each category, moving back and forth in collaboration between preliminary sub-groupings and revised versions to refine the codes and settle on sub-categories. later on, selective coding (making connections between discrete categories) was implemented, and the categories that had been developed to form the initial framework were integrated. constant comparison between investigators’ interpretations and between different texts enabled generating preliminary and refined sub-categories and axial links. reflexive and theoretical notations were also used to refine the analysis and shape interpretations. results three types of tourism-related contents in seniors’ online communities examination of the contents posted in the communities led to identifying a wide range of interests and concerns. after grouping the various subjects discussed, they were divided into three categories: ‘practical information exchange’, ‘search for contacts’, and ‘travel stories’. the categories, as well as all sub-categories and their relationships, are illustrated in figure 1. figure 1 a visual illustration of the content analysis’ findings notes. rvs = recreation vehicles. there is a difference between home exchange under ‘accommodation’, and that sub-category under ‘search for contacts’. the first includes discussions of pros and cons of this accommodation method, and the latter includes posts of people looking for exchanges with their online peers. practical information exchange. the majority of posts provided practical information to community members who were planning a trip or vacation. in most cases, discussions began when one participant posted a question, and others replied. replies were usually based on personal experience. the scope of discussed issues was broad, and they were grouped into four sub-categories: ‘destinations’, ‘accommodation’, ‘travels’, and ‘preparations’. ‘destination’ concerns were usually attractions, weather, and food. an example for a typical opening question is a post titled “boston, massachusetts, has anybody been there?”: “i have plans to visit boston last half of may with my friend. we do a lot on foot. is anybody here who has been in boston? would the weather be pretty nice that time of year? would one week be too long? any comments would be appreciated.” replies for this post included comments about the weather, things to do in the city and in the area, recommended tours, museums and restaurants, and even some notes about the history of the city. some respondents provided useful links to relevant websites, and there was no agreement about the optimal length of stay. while some suggested three days, others wrote that there is a lot to do and that one week is a minimum. all replies included comments about personal experiences, such as when and with whom one visited the city, events that occurred during the stay, or unusual interactions. ‘accommodation’ was another main concern, with posts relating to hotels, rentals, time share units, home exchange, and parks for recreation vehicles (rv). such posts were usually responses to a specific question, such as “does anyone know anything about renting a place in istanbul for about a month, or even two?”, or even more focused: “rice lake area (gore’s landing) victoria inn – anyone been up this way of recent, or stayed at this inn?”. however, information about accommodation was also often provided in response to a general question about a destination. in response to the aforementioned post about boston, for example, some replies provided information about nice and conveniently located hotels at reasonable prices. participants were aware of hotel reference websites (such as ‘trip advisor’), but they seemed to better trust their peers from the online community. the ‘travels’ sub-category included posts relating to transportation, driving, rv and cruises. example opening posts related to transportation are: “does anyone know if there is bus service from los angeles airport to palm springs?” and “cheap flights to athens, greece?” another example, related to driving, is: “is there anybody that knows the road and travel conditions from kirkland lake to winnipeg?” ‘preparations’ consisted of discussions of pre-travel preparations, including choosing service providers such as travel agents or tours operators, health insurance, documents such as visas or international driving license, local currency, and communication. examples for questions regarding such preparations are “various tour companies – can anyone tell me the basic differences between a, b and c [company names]?” and “i heard that there was a way to avoid [cell phones’] roaming charges. can anyone help me?” search for contacts. some members used online communities as a platform for establishing contacts, which would contribute to their planned travels. the main contacts identified were travel companions and home exchange. most members looking for travel companions were single older women, who were looking for a female partner, but there were also ads of couples searching for companions, such as “traveling to cannes, looking for other couples to share a glass of wine with”. some members, especially those who were planning a long stay at one destination, were looking for home exchange. for example, one member posted: “we are considering a home swap for a month to tuscany and to provence. we also would like to spend 10 days in rome. do you have any recommendation?” since most community participants were probably from the us and canada, there were more replies when the poster was traveling to a destination in north america than when the destination was in other continents. in the latter case, replies included useful information and references. the person that was looking for home exchange in italy, for example, was referred to the slow travel’s website. there was no evidence in the data that useful contacts were indeed created through the communities (i.e., that members actually met or exchanged their homes). yet it is possible that such contacts were created via personal messages (an application that existed in all communities) to the posters. perhaps repliers assumed that other community members had no interest in such personal correspondence, and thus chose that alternative medium to respond. travel stories. although many posts which included recommendations also included descriptions of personal experiences, there were also many posts by people who shared their travel stories just for the sake of sharing. in most cases, such stories were posted several days after returning home, but there were also members who reported about their experiences while traveling. usually, the reports included detailed descriptions of the visited destinations, attractions, hotels, food, funny encounters, thoughts and feelings. in addition, many of these reports included photos or links to online albums and videos. in some cases, however, the post only included basic details about the trip, and the posters invited others, who were interested in more information, to ask specific questions (“i’ve just returned from a week in paris. if anybody is planning a trip, i may be of some help. fire away.”). both types of opening posts tended to create a discussion. that happened when community members asked questions, and when others, who visited the discussed destination in the past, contributed their own memories, stories, insights, and so forth. age-related themes analysis of posts which explicitly related to advanced age led to identifying four specific age-related themes, which referred to retirement, seniors’ tours, health insurance concerns, and special rates for seniors. posts relating to these themes were mainly apparent in the ‘practical information exchange’ category. theme i – retirement as an opportunity. members seemed to perceive retirement as an opportunity to travel. having more time, and relatively few obligations, they thoroughly enjoyed the idea that they could travel whenever they wanted and for as long as they wished. retirement was perceived as an opportunity even for members that have not retired yet, and tourism was a central part in the plans made for retirement. when discussing destinations, participants mentioned whether they were in their “list of things to do” or not, and they took for granted the association between tourism and retirement: “being a senior i would like to travel more.” retirement was not only perceived as an opportunity to travel more, but also as an opportunity to travel differently. with more time on their hands, participants noted that they could travel under no time pressure, and spend longer periods at a destination. many wrote about planning long trips that were to last several months, or taking such travels, as exemplified in the following correspondence: (post) “like a lot of people in these forums we are hoping to enjoy life a little more after we retire. we are looking at buying an rv, possibly a fifth wheel, and taking it from ontario to georgia or florida for a few months in the winter. we’re at the investigative stage of our plan right now, so we have a few questions…” (reply) “retirement and fifth wheel winters are wonderful! we have been doing it for 10 years and have spent winters moving around the southern usa (florida, texas, arizona, california), and have stayed in one place near puerto vallarta, mexico for the past 2 winters. we can’t think of a better way to go.” traveling in retirement was also perceived as an opportunity to spend time with loved ones. family and friends were frequently mentioned in travel stories. they were companions in joint trips or vacations (often in a vacation unit), or were visited in their own cities and countries. while such experiences were usually described as positive, some members described travels as a getaway from the family: “our main purpose is to have one christmas to ourselves without the kids and grandkids … christmas is too hectic nowadays and we are tired of it…i don’t care if we just sit on one island all by ourselves with great food as long as we are away from the hustle and bustle of the family christmas.” theme ii – seniors’ tours do not fit all. organized tours for seniors were widely discussed, and there was a general disagreement about them. the main two arguments against these tours were their costs and the tours’ participants. the tours were often presented as “terribly expensive as compared to making arrangements through your local travel agent”. in addition, the fact that one’s experience depended on other seniors in the group was unappealing for many. the following post is somewhat extreme, but provides a good example: “nothing wrong with the tour itself, but the average age of the group was distinctly ‘senior’. as a result, getting on or off the bus and finding the right seat was a long process as was taking walking tours of any length. many required emergency washroom stops and most were too tired to take any optional excursions, with the result that the optionals were cancelled for lack of sufficient interest … now we all get old but why rush it? this isn’t to bash ‘seniors’ but if you don’t have to travel like one, why would you?” participants who favored such tours mentioned the company as an advantage: “we go as a group for the travelling portion of the trip which is nice as you meet a lot of people this way”. specifically, it was perceived as a benefit for people traveling alone, such as widows or people that “don’t have a known group of friends to go on holiday with”. another advantage was the tours’ convenience, as “you pay upfront and don’t have to worry about a thing”. accordingly, they also perceived the price as reasonable: “when you look at the big picture they are not expensive. considering all tipping, cancellation insurance, drinks and most meals included, they are a very good value, i think.” overall, it seemed that organized tours for seniors do not fit all, and that they are mostly suitable for people who do not have travel companions, for convenience-seekers, and for affluent travelers. theme iii – health insurance concerns. health insurance seemed to be a main concern. participants were interested to know which companies insure seniors, and what happens if the clients have pre-existing conditions. another concern was getting insurance coverage for long travels, for example: “can someone tell me of a company who they know for sure offers it for those aged 60+ for long term, e.g. the above mentioned 93 days. thanks in advance.” members were considerably troubled by insurance costs (“premiums increase with age and every pre-existing condition”), and exchanged information about insurance alternatives, with extensive details about insurance rates, top-up and add-ons, rebates for no-claim clients, and discounts (e.g., “early-bird” rates). while there was no evidence that insurance rates stopped anyone from traveling, it was described as a constraint that affected travel choice, as demonstrated in the following post: “we ended up spending our winter on vancouver island because our health care covered us there and considering my partner’s age and then length of stay it would have cost us more than we were willing to put out.” theme iv – special rates are great. the impact of age on prices was not strictly negative, as demonstrated in health insurance costs, but often also positive. members enthusiastically shared information about special rates and deals for seniors, such as “golden age pass” for national parks, discounted train tickets, and even getting free-of-charge travelers’ cheques at the bank. they often mentioned what a “great bargain for seniors” these rates were, and explicitly enjoyed them: “book a motel and they will meet you and bring you to their motel free of charge and take you in their shuttle to their motel. you get senior discounts on your tickets too. what a great experience that is.” being able to travel whenever they wanted to (see theme i), participants also enjoyed the fact that they could travel off season and pay less: “dec., jan., and feb. are the off season in northern florida up through south carolina and the best deals are likely in this area. the weather is fine for golf or tennis or walking the beach… there is a huge surplus of units available during this period and renters for 30 days or more get units that monthly run about what the high season is weekly.” discussion netnography, according to kozinets (1998), is useful not only for studying various aspects of virtual communities, but also for examining general topics. accordingly, while the current study aimed to examine the contents of tourism discussions in seniors’ online communities, it also provided some general insights regarding older adults’ tourism. whereas qualitative studies are usually restricted to relatively small data sets, using netnography provided a substantial amount of evidence on the personal reflections on tourism in later life, posted by a vast number of people.  in fact, the number of postings related exclusively to tourism, represents one of the largest qualitative data sets ever examined. indeed, the number of posts examined may be at least partially responsible for the complexity and diversity of the findings related to tourism reported here. despite some weaknesses in the data collection process (see the following limitation section), the data examined in this study was varied and rich, and the current investigation only explored a small part of its potential contribution to the body of knowledge on seniors’ tourism. apparently, members of seniors’ online communities who participated in discussions of tourism did not suffer from the digital divide (kiel, 2005). not only did they use computers and internet, they also used relatively advanced applications, and seemed able to locate authoritative and reliable electronic-based information and more senior-friendly web sites (broering et al., 2005; curran et al. 2007). since most of them used pseudonyms, and without direct questioning, nothing definitive can be said about their socio-demographic characteristics. based on their computer skills and described tourism behavior, however, it is reasonable to assume that their socio-economic and health statuses were relatively well. the three types of contents found in this study suggest that members of seniors’ online communities used them as a resource both before and after traveling. a main usage prior to traveling was the practical information exchange. instead of using formal web sites, or in addition to them, participants relied on their peers’ experience to plan their travels, find a suitable hotel, learn about various attractions and services, and so forth. coming from people who were more or less at the same age, and based on personal testimonials, this information seemed to be perceived as credible and useful, and could be used as significant factor in decision making. the ‘search for contacts’ was another pre-traveling usage. the contents associated with it suggest that members perceived the communities not only as an information source, but also as a task-oriented tool and as a medium that helps maintaining and even expanding one’s social networks. this usage supports previous claims regarding the various usages that senior make of the internet (e.g., opalinski, 2001; pew internet and american life, 2004). moreover, it seems that the online communities are perceived as a means to negotiate travel constraints such as lack of travel companions or limited budget (burnett & bender baker, 2001; fleischer & pizam, 2002). although some community members shared their experiences during their traveling, sharing travel stories was mostly a post-travel usage, which may have contributed to processing and savoring the travel experience. in addition, as suggested by weiss (2005), it may have served as a demonstration of successful coping with the travel challenges, and enhanced a sense of accomplishment. the fact that community members shared their experiences with other members suggests that they perceived them as part of their social network. this may have led to many durable psychological outcomes, such as higher levels of social connectivity and lower levels of depression, which were evident in previous studies that examined the impact of internet use on older adults (e.g., cody et al., 1999; dickenson & hill, 2007; fokkema & knipscherr, 2007). in addition to discovering the aforementioned usages, the study identified age-related themes regarding seniors’ tourism. these themes provided several insights, the first being the strong association between retirement and tourism. this finding is consistent with previous qualitative studies on seniors’ tourism that reported the centrality of tourism in retirees’ lives (e.g., gibson, 2002; nimrod, 2008). another insight is the existence of polarity of attitudes regarding seniors’ tours. the findings provided detailed information about the perceived advantages and weaknesses of such tours. moreover, they suggested that such tours are another means used by older adults for coping with travel constraints. the two other themes, which related to health insurance and to special rates, suggested that senior tourists are sophisticated consumers. moreover, even though it is probable that the community members are relatively well-to-do, they are price-sensitive and tend to compare prices and look for bargains and good value for their money. these findings suggest that the fact that the communities mainly target seniors encourages participants to discuss issues that they would probably not raise in other forums, which target all ages. it is possible that discussing issues such as health insurance or seniors’ tours is perceived as more acceptable and easier with people from the same cohort. therefore, the communities may have distinct role as resource in seniors’ tourism. they are not used just as part of the preand post-travel experience, but also as a sphere in which to share age-related concerns. limitations, implications and future research although this study demonstrates the usefulness of netnography as an exploratory tool for studying various aspects of online communities, as well as general topics, it also has several limitations that result from applying this methodology. there is an inherent bias in this sample -  of those who use the internet and more specifically those who are interested in engaging with others concerning their travels. in addition, as only english-based communities were examined, most participants probably live in english-speaking western countries. therefore, they are not representative of all older tourists. since the data filtering process primarily relied on a linguistic basis, inaccuracies may have occurred. one type of inaccuracy could result from including an irrelevant post in the database just because it contained a specific term. the other type of potential error could be the exclusion of a relevant post in the data set because it did not contain any of the specific terms associated with the subject. still, filtering by key words was an effective tool, which yielded almost 1,500 pages that contained mostly tourism-related texts. the explorative study described in this article mainly provided understanding of the role of online communities in seniors’ tourism. however, the findings also suggest practical implications. some of the age-related themes may be used as consumer insights by providers of services for older adults. they can guide product development, as well as pricing and advertising strategies. moreover, service providers can use the communities as a platform for communicating about services, products, discounts, and so forth. this may be done via advertising in the communities, or by offering technological applications to participants (such as insurance calculators or online photo albums for participants in seniors’ tours, which they can share with their online friends). the findings described in this study are just the tip of the iceberg, as a lot of the data collected may be further analyzed. in fact, each one of the sub-categories described (e.g., ‘hotels’ or ‘rv’) may serve as a basis for a separate examination, and provide many insights about older adults’ preferences and tourism behavior. the main advantage of this 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(1995). whether to go and where to go: identification of important influences on seniors' decisions to travel. journal of travel research, 33(3), 3-10.   users and uses of internet access points in bangladesh: a case study of community information centers (cics) mohammad delwar hossain1 and dr. kavita karan2 lecturer, department of communication, university of wisconsin, whitewater, usa. email: delwarif@siu.edu associate professor, school of journalism, college of mass communication and media arts, southern illinois university carbondale, illinois, united states. the objectives of this study were to look at the patterns of uses and operations of community information centers (cics) in bangladesh. the increased use of information communication technologies (icts) such as internet and mobile phones has rapidly changed the communication landscape of the world. icts are allowing people to communicate and interact in diversified ways. scholars (gurstein, 2011; fountain, 2001; jabbar, 2004; karan, 2004; layne & lee, 2001) found ict applications in political, business, health and agricultural related news and information. the demand for icts has been growing rapidly and the united nations department of economic and social affairs (2009) stated, "today, the innovations and technological advances in the ict field are far outpacing the evolution in development thinking and practice" (p.1). even with the revolution of information communication, there is a large digital divide between developed and developing countries in terms of access and use, along with social and economic constraints. according to the declaration (known as "a community informatics declaration") of the community informatics research network (cirn commons, 2013), "effective use of the internet will benefit everyone. currently the benefits of the internet are distributed unequally: some people gain power, wealth and influence from using the internet while others struggle for basic access," (p. 1). however, policy-related emphasis for access to new media in developing countries has changed the way people communicate with each other. cyber kiosks, cics (gurstein, 2014) and cyber cafes have become access points for information and entertainment. gurstein (2010) emphasized the role of cics, and stated that these centers continue to be the primary means by which computing and the internet is being made available at the community level. in most countries e-government strategies are increasing transparency and accountability with greater citizen interaction and empowerment of better-informed citizens. technology is reaching even the poorest people who are accessing the internet through some social sharing, which means that people are sharing the cost with others who have access to the service. this is a great revolution for people who live in remote areas in the developing countries and thus get access to information related to social, political and business issues (rice, 2009). it has been stated that information is power and those people who have much information are considered powerful in society (zhao, 2008). information-rich societies are more empowered to take reasonable decisions on socio-economic matters affecting their lives after evaluating available alternatives. developing countries have understood these issues, and policy makers have started working toward increasing access to icts for development (karan, 2004; rice, 2009; zhao, 2008). according to the un department of economic and social affairs (2009), "almost all governments across the world have embarked on a long process of continuously integrating icts into their development policies and programs by formulating e-strategies and incorporating icts into poverty reduction strategies" (p.1). according to zhao (2008): the massive processing power of information and communication technologies (icts) has fundamentally transformed the traditional ways of storing, processing and disseminating information, which in turn creates new possibilities in generating economic growth, increasing life span, promoting universal primary education and enabling informed participants" (p.17). bangladesh is one of the developing countries in south asia where national policies are being framed with an emphasis on increasing infrastructure networks to reach the urban and rural areas. apart from these, many community initiatives have started by building information centers, and several corporate organizations have come forward in this process of infrastructure development, training and access (jabbar, 2004). in bangladesh, the grameen bank started an initiative to provide internet facilities to rural people through the cics. the popularity of these centers is allowing people to access the internet, collect information, and interact with people. youth have been the biggest beneficiaries of this initiative and are extensively using the internet kiosks for education, information and entertainment. this study, through a theoretical framework-using case study and survey approaches, investigates the uses and benefits of these cics and the several ways in which the cics are impacting the lives of the rural people in the country. literature review and theoretical framework communication in development the significance of using communication in the development process has been extensively discussed, positively resulting in the building of information societies and also contributing to coordinating development support initiatives for the country. the earliest scholars (lerner, 1958; rogers, 1976; schramm, 1964; rao, 1966) showed the advantages of using icts in changing societies. melkote and steeves (2001) highlighted the importance of communication in the development process. according to them, "the links are perhaps most evident in the case of the information transmission view of communication and the modernization perspective on development. for those who view communication as a process of message delivery, it is easy to view development as a process of modernization via the delivery and insertion of technologies, and/or inculcating certain values, attitudes, and behaviors in the population" (p.38). schramm (1964) emphasized the role of mass media in national development in developing countries, particularly for agricultural and industrial development. arguments of early scholars were based on the notion that people who did not have any access to media were not able to get information about changes in modern life. so, most people in third-world countries were not able to change their conditions, not because of lack of natural resources, but because of lack of access to information. the expansion and development of mass media has supported development through communication and helped in the dissemination of innovations and information to people in communities. mass media acted like "magic multipliers" for development. everett rogers' (2003) research systematically posited the role of media in the development process. with the notion of 'diffusion of innovation,' rogers (2003) showed how communication is one of the important elements in the four step innovation process. according to him, "diffusion is the process in which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. it is a social type of communication, in that the messages are concerned with new ideas" (p.5). in the communication process, mass media act as channels of diffusion. lerner (1958) described mass media as the "most rapid and efficient means of informing an audience of potential adopters the existence of an innovation that is, to create awareness and knowledge," (p.18). this theory has been widely applied in the development sector, particularly in agriculture, public health, and disaster management. in developing countries, policy makers and development practitioners use mass media to disseminate information to make people aware of important public health issues such as uses of sanitary latrines, washing hands after using restrooms, etc. by educating people through mass media and other channels, many health related problems have come under control in third world countries. (melkote and steeves (2001, rice, 2009; rogers, 2003) new communication technologies and development with the inception of the internet and new communication technologies, the debate over the role of media as learning institutions receives increased attention by scholars. the internet and new communication technologies have changed the media landscape and audiences have become interactive. hence, audiences sometimes become suppliers/producers of news (for example the "i-reporters" of cnn,) and sometimes the audience becomes the producer of news. xenos and moy (2007) analyzed the 2004 american national election studies and found a significant correlation between the roles of the internet and providing political news. the internet is not only providing news about political affairs, but also many issues related to development and social change. rogers (2003) also highlighted the contribution of the internet and said it is possible to provide information to a large number people through a single e-mail. he stated, "for certain innovations, diffusion via the internet greatly speeds up an innovation's rate of adoption" (p.216). melkote and steeves (2001) confirmed the immense opportunities in the third-world countries to use the internet for rural development (p.258). they specifically mention the role of the internet in five areas of development: agriculture, community development, participatory communication, small business and international news flow. karan (2004) in a study of seven asian countries on the role of icts found that the internet has been extensively changing the media landscape in asian countries; people living in rural areas are getting information about diverse issues through various forms of new media. according to this author, the internet is helping people to participate in local development, community activities, and social responsibilities. referring to the rural cyber cafes used by farmers in asian countries, she said, "cyber windows with the 'magic box' are helping these so far deprived and exploited farmers and rural poor to access and share information. it is now common to see farmers and vendors waiting at cyber windows every morning to get market information and weather conditions before setting off for work armed with the latest information" (p.10). konieczny (2014) concluded that the pattern of empowerment via ict is traceable throughout the history of human civilization and is continuing with the advancement of the recent technological revolution. developing countries in asia need to benefit from icts for their economic development and social change. in the online journal, digital review of asia pacific, butt and sarker (2010) stated that even though the countries in this region have been working to develop infrastructures, content, and policies to use the facilities of icts to accelerate the process of development, more steps need to be taken to receive benefit in certain sectors like gender and environmental sustainability. digital divide despite the fact that communication scholars (e.g., selwyn, 2006; selwyn, 2004; selwyn 2003) and policy makers have stressed the essence and significance of icts for a long time, it is also a widely accepted fact that people across the world do not have equal access to communication. according to selwyn (2006), "…the underlying premise of the digital divides debate i.e. that there is a perceived 'need' for all citizens to engage with icts in order to survive and thrive in the current information age," (p.289). rogers (1976) also referred to the concept of tichenor et. al's 'communication effects gap.' he said the concept was proposed, "to imply that one of the effects of mass communication is widening the gap in knowledge between two categories of receivers (those in the high and the low socio-economic status)," p.233. the knowledge gap theory also highlighted the issue and says that every new medium creates a gap between information-rich and information-poor people. those people who have high social status would get more benefit from a new medium compared to those people who have low social status (viswanath & finnegan jr., 1996). however, the lack of access has resulted in a 'digital divide' between the developed and least developed countries (ldcs). rice (2009) found wide gaps between people who have access to icts and those who do not have access. he emphasized the importance of icts in social transformation and expressed hope for the inclusion of people living in rural areas in the developing countries, particularly for farmers to get know about agricultural products, new techniques of farming, banking, and other citizen services. according to a united nations' (2010) website of the, "data collected by the international telecommunications union (itu) over six years revealed that, while still significant, the digital divide was shrinking slightly accompanied by falling internet and telecommunications costs between 2008 to 2009 worldwide but the relatively high cost of internet broadband services still deserved concern from policymakers." howard et. al (2010) found a digital divide within the countries, whether they are developed or developing. as an example, they discuss the case of canada and the u.s. and mentioned various reasons for wide gaps in providing access to information communication technologies. bogner, tharp and mcmanus (2014) also found evidence of a digital divide among ict users in the u.s. in this regard, the conceptual foundations of the digital divide provided by selwyn (2004) is well-rounded compared to the conventional theoretical framework. in his definition, selwyn went beyond the traditional dichotomous (have and have not) categories. he advocated reconsidering the concepts such as, access to and use of ict and concluded his arguments by defining digital divide as, "a hierarchy of access to various forms of technology in various contexts, resulting in differing levels of engagement and consequences," (p.351). community development and cics the notion of community development refers to the involvement of citizens and professionals to build a strong local community. hence, the process of community development involves empowering a group of people through skills that are required to bring changes in the communities. according to the website of peernetbc (2014), community development is a process that requires community members to come together for collective action to solve a common problem. ferguson and dickens (1999) defined community development as "asset building that improves the quality of life among residents of low-to-moderate-income communities, where communities are defined as neighborhoods or multi-neighborhood areas," (p.5). in this regard, the relationship between cics and community development is obvious. as many people get access to communication by using the internet in cics, they become more involved in the process of community development. in addition, cics allow people to learn new information communication technologies, which have become imperative for personal and professional development in this age of the internet. new communication technology initiatives in bangladesh: grameen bank, grameen phone and cics bangladesh is one of the most populated and poorest countries in the world. according to the website of the central intelligence agency (2010), currently 156 million people live in the country and more than half the people (52.1%) are illiterate. most people do not even have access to traditional media. despite the fact that governments have been trying to promote the ict sectors since the 1990s, the growth of internet users is not very high compared to the population of the country. most of the current internet users are the urban rich, and the poor in the urban areas and rural populations do not have adequate access to the internet (islam & tsuji, 2011). as rural people do not have access to other media outlets, they lack access to information or any sort of communication. given the impact that icts can have on the development process in the country, the government is developing infrastructure and expanding networks in the country's rural areas. public-private partnerships (ppp) are being encouraged to reach people in urban and rural areas. a series of efforts have resulted in the development of community-based internet service facilities in the rural areas of bangladesh. even though many people may not be able to access these centers, trained persons serving as 'opinion leaders' operate the centers and provide information from the internet to the people as well as disseminating information to persons as required. grameen bank started in bangladesh in 1976 by dr. muhammad yunus under a project aimed at offering banking services to the poor living in rural areas and to support farmers and the underprivileged by giving them loans at very low interest rates. the bank and dr. yunus won the noble peace prize in 2006 for their contribution in building peace by alleviating poverty. one of the additional activities of the bank has been to develop the grameen phone to connect the poor farmers. as well, to help poor people overcome exploitation by the moneylenders, they also started the cics. cics of grameen phone grameen phone established the cics to provide information to those people who lacked internet access and soon these cics were started across the country, with many people reaping the benefits from these centers. islam and hoq (2010) found that different cics have been playing an important role in socio-economic development in bangladesh. grameen phone, one of the leading mobile phone providers in bangladesh, started a new community initiative to provide facilities of information communication technologies (icts) to the people in 2006. to facilitate the process, the phone company set up cics throughout bangladesh. according to the website of grameen phone (2014), more than 500 cics have been established in 450 upazillas (local districts) in bangladesh. the objectives for establishing these cics include "bridging the 'digital divide' by providing information access to rural people, alleviating poverty, educating the underserved and underprivileged on information-based services, building local entrepreneurships and improving capacity, creating employment opportunities for the unemployed youth." at these centers, people are able to use the internet and mobile telephone facilities to connect with friends and relatives, get information from the government websites, apply for jobs, and get the latest information about market prices for agricultural and business products. the target groups of these cics are people who do not have any access to icts. referring to the activities and uses of the cics, washington post journalist sullivan (2006) said, "the main purpose of these centers is to help people to download job applications and music, see school exam results, check news and crop prices, make inexpensive internet phone calls or use web cameras to see relatives. students from villages with few books now have access to online dictionaries and encyclopedias," (a12). as this review shows, many studies have described the cics and the development of cics across the country, but none have quantitatively analyzed the uses and impact of the cics. this study focuses on the services of the cics provided by the grameen phone and their impact on the users. the following research questions (rqs) and hypotheses were framed for the study: research questions rq1: how do people use the cics and what are the types of information that they seek from the cics? rq 2: how are the trained personnel at the cics disseminating information to reach the rural people? rq3: what is the role and use of mobile technologies in supporting the cics or being used independently for development? h1: are more educated people more satisfied with cic services. h2: more educated people will seek more news and information related to education and entertainment. methodology case study and survey methods were used to examine the patterns of use and impact of the cics in bangladesh. the case study method provides an opportunity to systematically use different sources of data to inquire about any issue or event. wimmer and dominick (2006) defined it as an empirical inquiry that uses multiple sources of evidence to investigate a contemporary phenomenon. a case study method was used to extensively evaluate the services of the cics and patterns of uses of the centers, whereas the survey was aimed to get specific answers on the uses of the internet. according to tellis (1997), "case study is an ideal methodology when a holistic, in-depth investigation is needed." based on the principle of the case study method, the data collectors also conducted unstructured interviews with the operators and users of the centers. surveys provide an opportunity to get specific answers from respondents. moreover, surveys are structured and help to get a variety of responses from many people. two surveys (one for the users and the other for the operators of the cics) with both closed and open-ended questions were used; the first was used to study the personnel operating the cics in the country, and the second was used to study the impact of the cic on the users. the questionnaires were translated into the local language to collect data from the local people not proficient in english. the questionnaires were brought back from bangladesh, coded and analyzed at a university in the united states. pilot study: a pilot study was conducted to check the problems in the questionnaire on a sample of 5-10 members of the cic and about 20 users of the cics in chittagong city to provide an opportunity to restructure the questionnaire after getting the feedback from the pilot. sample: there are more than 500 cics around bangladesh to provide different kinds of services (website of telenor group, 2014). the centers provide internet service to those people who do not have access to any media. for this study, data was collected from 100 users and 12 service providers of the cics in madaripur and chittagong districts in bangladesh. two graduate students studying journalism in a public university in bangladesh visited these centers to conduct the surveys and interviews. results more than 500 cics operate in bangladesh. the first research question asks how people use cics and what types of information people mostly seek from the cics. the results (see table 1) show that more than half (58%) of the centers are located in the upazillas. of the other locations, 16.7% are in districts and unions respectively. districts, upazillas, and unions are units of local government administration. where unions are in lowest level and districts are in higher level of this local government system. table 1: profile of cics a detailed analysis of table 1 shows that all the centers are privately owned. one or two persons who have been trained in the use of computers and are familiar with the software generally manage them in 83.3% of the centers. they are bilingual, (english and bengali) to ease the process of translation when required. equipment in the centers includes computers (100.0%), phones (83.3%), stationery and other supplies (50.0%), typewriters (41.7%), fax (33.3%), and photocopying machines (25.0%). about a third (33.3%) of the users are able to access the internet and source out information for themselves while 16.7% of the users get information from the owners or people running the cics. nearly half the users (41.7%) did not answer the question. in terms of modes of operation, 83.3% of the centers were operated with other businesses, and 16.7% were being operated as independent businesses. according to the operators of these centers, there is a variation in the number of visitors on a daily basis. 33.3% of the people visit the centers daily, twice a week, and weekly respectively. in terms of affordability, nearly two thirds (66.7%) of the users found the cost of using the centers affordable, and less than one fifth of the users (16.7%) found the cost to be unaffordable. the survey provided insight into the background of the people and the types of information sought by the rural persons. the demographic profiles (table 2) showed that three quarters (75%) of the users were male. in addition, most of the users (44%) are between 16 and 25 years. table 2: socio economic profile of respondents (gender) more than four-fifths (82%) of the users were between 16 and 35 years, and only 7% are above 46 years. in terms of education, more than one-third of the users are educated up to high school and pre-university (36% and 33% respectively). nearly one-fifth (19%) of the users have graduate degrees. nearly half (41%) of the participants are students and more than one-fifth (23%) of the participants are professionals. the other professions of the participants are (in descending order): business 11%, industry workers 10%, and farmers 7%. in terms of income of the participants, nearly one-third (28%) are dependent students. more than half of the users have a monthly income of tk. 3501 to 7000 (around $100). more than one-fourth (26 %) of the users have monthly income of tk 7001 to tk 10000 (nearly $150). table 3: uses of the cics and types of information table 4: types of information there was high to moderate use of the cics. table 3 shows that more than one-fourth of the users visit the centers weekly (27%) or daily (26%). about one-fifth (22%) visit the centers twice a week, and the least number of the users (6%) visited the centers less frequently, sometimes three to five times in a year. in terms of the cost of using the centers, nearly half (49%) of the users stated that the cost was affordable, more than one-third (34.0%) said it was expensive, and only 17% of the users indicated that the cost was not affordable. more than half (58%) travel less than one kilometer to come to the centers, and about one-fourth (23%) of the people travel more than two kilometers to reach the centers. nearly one-fifth of the people (19.0%) travel about 1-3 km to come to the centers. in terms of purpose of visiting the centers (figure 1), nearly two-thirds (69%) of the users mention that they come to the centers to send emails. figure 1: purpose of visit figure 2: most important service used the other purposes of use are browsing for any needed information (63%), entertainment (60%), and voice chatting (47%). the types of information people sought from the cics are news (table 5, figure 3) (88%), education (59%), entertainment (55%), business (47%), health (27 %), government (23%), agriculture (9 %), and others (3%). the users list job seeking and contact with husband and sons abroad as other types of information they sought in the centers. figure 3: type of information in terms of the most important services (figure 2), 67% of the users stated that they used the centers to get up-to-date information about general issues, and 63% used the centers to communicate with others through emails. people also use the centers for other purposes include entertainment, watching movies, and listening music. the data (figure 4) shows that most of the respondents (87%) mentioned that the information was leading to their personal development as they were better informed. it was also helping them in their education, playing games, emailing, and browsing, and thereby increasing knowledge and learning. nearly half (42 %) of the respondents stated that coming to cics was helping them a lot in their overall development. only 3% were not affected by the cics at all. table 5: impact on personal and professional development figure 4: type of development only 2% of the users were not at all satisfied, while two-thirds (67%) did not answer the question. in terms of satisfaction with the cics, more than onethird of the users (36%) were satisfied. a third (33%) were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. about one-fifth (22%) were not satisfied. only 6% of the people were very satisfied, and 3% were not at all satisfied. the use of mobile phones is a new direction for sending and receiving messages. in terms of getting information from staff of the cic, more than half (57%) of the users received the information while 42% did not. among them one-fifth (19%) received the information from the opinion leaders both sometimes and regularly. more than one-tenth (11%) of the users got their information regularly from the opinion leaders (such as primary school teachers and religious teachers) during major events. hypothesis testing: the first hypothesis predicted that the more people are educated, the more they would be satisfied by using the cics. to test this hypothesis, a chi-square test was conducted. the results support the hypothesis. the pearson chi-square value is 34.238, df=16 and p=.005.(table 6) shows that a majority were very satisfied users (6) and had high school and pre-university degrees. table 6: level of education and type of information sought the second hypothesis predicted that more educated people would seek more news and information related to education and entertainment. to test this hypothesis, a chi-square test was conducted. the results in table 5 show that the higher the education, the more they sought information about education (p=.000), others (p=.000) and entertainment (p=.002). however, this is not true for news (the pearson chi-square value is .692). therefore, this hypothesis is partially supported. the second research question enquired about the problems faced by people in using the cics and their suggestions for improvement of the centers. the results show (figure 5) the three most frequent problems mentioned by the users were; lack of privacy (66%), language barrier (44 %), and inadequate number of computers in the centers (44%). lack of technological knowledge and congested space are the least mentioned (37% and 34% respectively). more than one-third (38%) of the users mention some other problems in the centers, including slow internet connections. table 7: problems of use and suggestions for cics figure 5: problems faced in the center users listed different services that the centers should provide, including planning a few training programs to use the computer and internet (60%), video chat (60%) and fax service (17%). in terms of the usefulness of the centers, 60% found the centers to be very good. more than one fifth (21%) found the centers to be neither good nor bad, and 18% found the centers to be excellent. 83% firmly stated that the government should operate the centers, so that it would be better controlled and also ease the cost of usage. a majority of the users (66%) stated that government should charge a small amount (tk. 5-10) of money for using the services. discussion the objectives of this study were to look at the patterns of operations and uses of the cics in bangladesh. the results show some significant relationships on the operations, uses and gratifications by the people using the centers. most of the centers are privately owned. the cics were started with an aim to bridging the digital divides (grameen phone website, 2010), but it was found that the more privileged groups were using the centers (research and market, 2010). the results of this study showed that most of the centers (74%) are located in the districts and upazillas, which are basically suburbs of the district towns. most of the users of these centers are from high socio-economic groups; 44% are young between the ages of 16-35, and 91% had undergraduate degrees. only 7% of the users stated farming as their professions. the data collectors for this survey (while interviewing the users and operators) found that most of these cics are operated along with other businesses. the owners of the cics run the centers as alternate businesses along with other businesses such as computer training centers, photo studios, photocopying centers etc. as a result, the cics have become business centers instead of information service centers to cater to the rural poor. there is a need for greater ppp to provide better facilities and increase the use for government-related information and interaction. as well, there are problems in the running and modes of revenue collected at the centers as observed by the researchers. the operators of the cic in hathhazari in chittagong mention that grameen phone has supported them in providing some computers and software and established a partnership with the operators to establish the center. the users of the centers stated that only the trainees of the computer training centers are allowed to use the cic as a cyber cafe. as a result, the users of this center have to pay high prices to use the internet. the center does not provide the services that are outlined by grameen phone (such as ensuring the internet facilities for the rural people). the situation was similar in other cics that the data collectors observed. the operators of the centers blamed grameen phone for not following up after providing training and computers to check whether the cics are functioning well and providing the required services to the people. the results of the study also showed that there are several problems in these cics in terms of infrastructure maintenance, training, operating, and the revenues charged for use. hence, people do not frequent the centers, and the operators of these centers are not able to earn enough money. even though more than half the users mentioned that the charges for using the centers are expensive, some cics in remote areas also charge tk50 (more than half a dollar) for sending an e-mail. as people do not have any other option to get internet access in those areas, they have to depend on the cics for various purposes such as getting results of public examinations, sending emails, and application for jobs. the results also show that more than one-fourth of the people are not satisfied with the services in the centers. in terms of the types of information they sought, most of the people mentioned news (88%), education (59%), and entertainment (55%). it can be inferred from this that people use the internet as a mass medium to get information and entertainment. our data collectors talked with people in shibchar upazilla in madaripur district and found little publicity about the services of these centers. most of these centers are also in semi-urban areas. unless marginalized people in the society know about the facilities, they are not likely to access the services. apart from a sign-board in front of the centers, there is no way that people know about these centers. operators both in chittagong and madaripur stated that they do not get any salaries to run the centers. as a result, the operators are not motivated to provide services to the people and have to depend on other small businesses to survive. people positively appreciated the initiatives of grameen phone in providing information though the cics. however, they expect that grameen phone should be serious not only by committing to the cics, but also effectively monitoring their progress. conclusion the journey started by grameen phone in bangladesh has generated more public and private interest in providing information for the people. many telephone operators have converted to cics to provide information services. the bangladesh government has realized the need for cics and has started more than four thousand information centers in the unions. many non-government organizations have also been working in the development sectors to understand the demands of the people in seeking online information. this exploratory study provides an opportunity to understand the patterns of the uses and operations, as well as the problems and challenges that cics present to policy makers. second, this study also provides an understanding of the need to improve the cics to maximize the benefits to larger numbers of people seeking information for personal and professional development. there is a need for increasing the level of awareness, access, and frequency of use particularly among the rural people for whom the services are primarily intended. earlier studies have provided results concerning farmers (butt and sarker, 2010; selwyn, 2006; zhao, 2004) using information for their daily benefit and not being exploited by middle men. at the same time there is a need for both money and training for the personnel running these centers. governments will soon be switching to e-government and there will be a greater need for citizens to use the cics. though the study provides important data, there are a few limitations of this study in terms of the sample and the location of study. given the size of the country, and the limited resources available for 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(2008). the internet and rural development in china: the socio-structural paradigm. switzerland: peter lang ag. what seniors value about online community oliver k. burmeister school of computing and mathematics centre for research in complex systems charles sturt university wagga wagga australia oburmeister@csu.edu.au abstract seniors are involved in online communities around the world. human-computer interaction researchers have investigated how understanding the values of users can improve technology design, but until now few such investigations have involved systems for seniors. similarly, although various aspects of networked communities have been researched, few studies have explored ones involving seniors. this interpretivist/constructivist study reveals what a particular community run by and expressly for seniors, value about their community. of the six key social values identified, their single most important value was ‘belonging to a community of peers’. these values have implications for the design of online communities involving seniors. keywords aged; ethnography; human-computer interaction; neighborhood; user centered design; value sensitive design. introduction many seniors are technologically capable. they are using social networks (karahasanovic et al., 2009; pfeil, arjan, & zaphiris, 2009), engage with each other online and participate in online communities (burmeister, 2009; ito, adler, linde, mynatt, & o'day, 1998). there are many online communities that cater to the needs of seniors. examples include seniornet, australian golden girls, silver surfers, seniors helping seniors and many more. the focus of this study were members of australia’s largest online community for seniors (burmeister, 2008), greypath.com.au (greypath). in the mid 1990s a new design methodology, value sensitive design (vsd), emerged within the human-computer interaction (hci) discipline that focused on values (friedman, 1996). since then many researchers have seen the need to discover the values of users and incorporate them in technological design (flanagan & nissenbaum, 2007; flanagan, nissenbaum, belman, & diamond, 2007; friedman et al., 2008; friedman, kahn, & borning, 2005; silverstein, nissenbaum, flanagan, & freier, 2006). in one such approach, that of values at play (vap) (flanagan, et al., 2007), the first step is that of discovery, in which it is deemed important to discover the values of the users of technology. to date, proof of concept work has built new technology from scratch that incorporates value choices in the design process. there have been numerous values-based studies, mostly to do with school and university students, as well as workplace technologies. this study is the first attempt to discover what seniors value about online community. part of the vap discovery process is to move beyond the discovery of all values of the users, to the key moral and social values. the vap literature advocates a focus on moral and social values, arguing that other considerations such as commercial or usability values are addressed in existing design methodologies. vap does not seek to replace existing methodologies, but is put forward as an additional design consideration. designers cannot incorporate all values of users, but should consider in their designs, the values users consider most critical. in the values literature there are universal values such as human well being, human dignity, justice, welfare and human rights (such as equality of access) (flanagan, howe, & nissenbaum, 2008; schneiderman, 2002). aside from universal values, other values that have been identified in the literature include: privacy (ackerman & cranor, 1999; bowern, 2005), ownership and property (lipinski & britz, 2000), physical welfare (leveson, 1991), freedom from bias (friedman, 1996), universal usability (schneiderman, 2001, 2002), autonomy (suchman, 1994), informed consent (millet, friedman, & felten, 2001), accountability (friedman & kahn, 1992), courtesy (wynne & ryan, 1993), identity and identity management (bers, gonzalez-heydrich, & demaso, 2001; bowern, 2005), calmness (friedman & kahn, 2003), environmental sustainability (brundtland, 1987; friedman, kahn, & borning, 2002), and trust (fogg & tseng, 1999). this paper shows that social values predominate for members of greypath, when they describe what is really important to them about online community. one of the six dominant values, neighbourhood-as-community, appears to contradict some of the literature that sees modern social interaction as moving away from the neighbourhood concept. instead greypath members though not entertaining spatially bound notions of neighbourhood, conceptualise their interaction in neighbourly terms. the greypath portal greypath is a not-for-profit organisation, which manages the portal greypath.com.au. membership is restricted to seniors, which it defines as 50 and over. in sociological terms, participation is not spatially determined, as traditional communities have been (wellman & leighton, 1979), but ubiquitous (wellman & hogan, 2004). that is, the community has members in every state and territory of australia, including some who are travelling (have no fixed address) and overseas members (their chat rooms regularly have seniors participating from europe, the middle east, asia, and north america). greypath has 35 volunteers who freely give of their time and skills to maintain the site. almost all contributors, management, administrators, technical support personnel and ordinary members are seniors. a significant feature of the greypath portal is its multi-faceted approach.  it allows for all manner of users, from novice technology users, to people very technologically literate. it has members who rarely use the site and then only to find specific information, and others who use the site for many hours every day, for social interaction with other members. greypathians can enrol in free or nominal cost courses, they can contribute to or receive information on a wide variety of topics. there are chat rooms and forums, each moderated by a senior volunteer who has a name and a face on the site. method an interpretivist/constructivist philosophy was chosen to underpin this research, based on the nature of the data to be collected and the purpose for the study. it was a study to discover the values of seniors in a chosen online community and therefore their perceptions of their values were crucial. the nature of this study meant that a positivist approach was inappropriate as it would necessarily entail an emphasis on quantitative data. such an approach might have sought to survey members of the online community, to elicit their values. given no prior studies had been reported of seniors’ values when using technology, such a survey could not have been reliably scripted. in order to quantify and then generalise the findings of a survey, the values themselves first need to be established. therefore in order to discover those values, an inductive approach involving in-depth interviews with seniors was seen as more appropriate. interpretivists/constructivists emphasise the meanings of participants within the social phenomenon under study (glesne, 1999; sudweeks & simoff, 1999; wilhelm jr, 2003; williamson, 2002; williamson 2006). this was appropriate to the present study of an online community, because the aim was to understand the ‘meanings’ of participants with regard to their values. for example, in the study it was important to know how people in the particular social context interpret social actions such as friendship, respect or trust, where the researcher needed to understand the meanings that constitute the action, that is the meanings of the people engaged in the social setting (schwandt, 2003). interpretivist/constructivist researchers use an inductive approach, where “researchers develop concepts, insights and understanding from patterns in the data” (reneker, 1993, p. 499). patton (2002) distinguished inductive analyses from hypothetical-deductive approaches, based on the latter requiring variable specification before data collection. since this study was to explore descriptions of values not previously identified in other studies, making such variable specification would have been inappropriate. instead, the nature of the study required an inductive approach, one in which themes related to values would emerge during analysis, and would be grounded in, and checked against, observations and interview transcripts. the observations that preceded the interviewing stage and were the basis of the questions asked during the interviews, are not reported here, but have been partially reported previously (burmeister, 2008). the 30 interviewees for the study were chosen on the basis of purposive sampling, which is appropriate to interpretive research. patton (2002) describes various types of purposive sampling. because no prior study in the domain existed and there were no known specific variables to focus on, the one most appropriate to this study was ‘criterion sampling’. criterion sampling uses a particular set of criteria to guide sample selection. in this study, the criteria for selection of participants were determined prior to the commencement of the sample selection, in order to aid as widely as possible the understanding of greypath members’ social and moral values. there was a four step analytic process for both stages of the research where all categories were values and therefore called ‘value categories’. the clustering of categories into themes was the second step. the next two steps followed the vsd literature, with the aim of the third step being to reduce the total list of value categories, by determining if a value category was a specific instance of a larger category. the final step was to identify the key value categories amongst the many value categories that emerged. the complete process is illustrated in figure 1.  figure 1: four-step analytic process used in study   key values were determined as a result of examining the frequency with which certain values were mentioned, and by examining the emotional intensity with which certain values were expressed. key value categories were taken to be those which were expressed by at least four participants, and those which appeared to provoke the most emotional commitment. gauging emotional commitment was a subjective judgment, resulting from an analysis of the language used, and how it was expressed. the initial categories and themes, determined during the observation phase and after the initial interviews, were continually reassessed and expanded as more data were collected. of the themes identified, the one greypath members considered most important, namely online community values is reported here. results a lot of research has gone into online communities (arnold, 2007; preece, 2000), including online communities involving seniors (burmeister, 2010b; ito, o'day, adler, linde, & maynatt, 2001; xie & jaeger, 2008). there has also been extensive research in concepts to do with community, both online and off-line (boase & wellman, 2006; garton, haythornthwaite, & wellman, 1999; hampton & wellman, 2000; wellman, 1999; wellman & gulia, 1997; wellman & leighton, 1979). some of these studies have focused on particular groups, be they based on ethnicity, gender, particular work groups, school children and many other situations. however, few previous studies have attempted to find out what seniors in particular value about community. figure 2 below summaries the findings of this study, in relation to the theme online community values. figure 2 defining online community through key social values figure 2 captures the idea that all six values are related, and yet, distinct. each value is composed of related concepts as will be explained for each one below. as might be expected, all the values within the theme are closely related. nevertheless, two of the values, mutual support and information sharing, were more closely related than the other ones; hence the doubled-headed arrow that is shown linking them. interview data showed that members who provided mutual support to each other frequently also engaged in sharing information but, people interested in sharing information were not necessarily interested in mutual support. although all six values were important, belonging to a community of peers is placed at the top of the figure to show that, of all six values, interviewees saw this as the most important one. the figure also shows that despite the focus of the values literature being on both moral and social values (benkler & nissenbaum, 2006; flanagan, et al., 2008; nissenbaum, 2004; nissenbaum & walker, 1998), the key values that emerged for this theme were all social values. the results for each of these six values are now discussed in detail. a community of peers for greypathians the major value linked to the theme online community values was that of ‘belonging to a community of peers.’ this value meant they were members of, socially interacted with, and fellowshipped with a group of like-minded people. as seen in figure 2 this value was linked to the other five key values in this theme. the value of belonging to a community of peers was important to greypathians, as illustrated by the following comments: it's a peer interest group as far as i'm concerned, it's older people like myself and it's people who have got those sort of similar interests ... i think it’s very important. i value that very much, i think that gives you comfort. [female, tas, 70-74]  you need to be an older person to value greypath, really, because, a younger person’s not going to see the value that we’re going to get out of it. [female, vic, 75-79] my wife died, and the reaction was wonderful, and people know because they've been through the same thing [they are peers likely to have had similar experiences] and they can give advice and help first hand, because they know exactly what's happened … they're only people of the same or similar age who know these things, and they are very helpful, and very kind. [male, sa, 70-74] in the following example, the participant related her experience in another community of peers to two of the greypath forums, the coffee shop and senate forums. a group of females, you know, as a fifty-five and over, that’s all, and that’s purely social…yeah, that’s on-line… agg – australian golden girls… there’s about thirty-five members, that’s all.  and it’s a social group, once more, and they have – well it’s more like the coffee shop, you now, mixed with a bit of senate, all in one…and they’re easy going people, and you can just talk to them like one female to another, because there’s no men in that, it’s all females.  and you can get a bit of feminine side of everything. [female, nt, 75-79] although a community of peers was important to most participants, there were objections. a few participants said they did not want to relate exclusively with other seniors, as was captured in the following quotation: i don’t think i'd want to go into a retirement home or anything, because it's all seniors. i like to sustain a mixture of groups of people … i like to go to the seniors groups to get information on what's available and things like that, but i don’t want entirely to be in a seniors group. [female, vic, 60-64] a related concept to a community of peers, is that of peer learning. below is a quote from a participant who is an administrator with the australian seniors computer club association (ascca), as well as being a member of greypath. i know older people like to be taught by their peers … someone of a similar age, or similar set up. ... [you can admit that] you don’t know something, but you're not so keen if a younger person tells you, you don’t know it.  also a younger person is far more likely to say, when they're talking about a computer thing, “okay, do this, do that, do the other” and whoops, too fast.  so it's difficult.  so we do like to learn from our peers. [female, nsw, 70-74] several participants liked the way greypath displayed images of the people who contributed help, such as the editor, the experts (for travel information and computer help, for example), and those for other volunteer contributors. the display was valued because it demonstrated that the majority of the online instruction within greypath was provided by fellow seniors. ownership was also seen as an important expression of this value. ownership was typified by expressions such as ‘my’ community. one interviewee described himself as a ‘greypathian’, which is another way of describing that he felt he belonged to this group. it also conveyed a sense of ownership in that he identified himself as a member of the community in this way. also associated with ‘ownership’ were joining the greypath group, becoming a member, and being a member of greypath, as illustrated in the following examples: i think the secret is that word ‘member’.  it makes you feel you are still part of the world, you're not isolated by age. [female, nsw, 70-74] you have to be a member to participate in [many of the greypath activities], which is a good thing – i think it’s a good thing to be a member, instead of being just a spectator all the time. [male, sa, 70-74] this is the only consistent thing that i will go to that i belong to. so that’s why i say it's a community. so i will go and check out what my community is doing, and that’s important to see where they're at. [female, vic, 60-64] by nature i'm not necessarily a joiner or if you like a person who would actively go out of my way to join clubs or organisations.  i guess what's important about greypath to me personally is that it's a way i can do that fairly easily. [male, vic, 55-59] still another reason that this value was important to participants was its association with ones’ fellows (fellowship), as the following comment indicated: i just enjoy it generally.  i like to have my say on different things and reply to different things. … i think a site like greypath fulfils a very important role.  it’s just a fellow feeling you get i think. fellow feeling is the thing: fellow feeling, fellowship. [male, vic, 75-79] related to this concept of ‘fellow feeling’ was the notion of being part of social interaction within a community: it’s a community all in itself… i can go there.  i know most of the people on there, and i know more or less what their feelings are, and i mean you get to know them… so, it’s – it’s social. [female, nt, 75-79] the same person expressed similar sentiments in discussing the greypath coffee shop forum elsewhere: you just get to know people.  it’s almost like chatting to one another, and you know who they are, and you know what’s wrong with them, and you know what – virtually, who their brothers and sisters are, and you know.  once again, it’s social interaction. [female, nt, 75-79] thus, from all these examples emerge a number of different reasons which, in aggregate, demonstrate the importance of the key value of belonging to a community of peers to participants in the present study. there is limited support for these findings in the literature. research by ito et al. (2001) showed that while general public internet use was individualistic, for seniors, especially members of seniornet, internet use was centered around social activity and social exchanges with other seniors. similar findings have also been reported in a study involving chinese seniors who participated in media-rich, technology-based social interaction (xie, 2008). the literature also provides support for the view that older people prefer computer instruction from their peers (alsa, williamson, & mills, 2006; west, 2002). this desire among seniors to learn from peers has also been documented in other settings. scott, roberts and burmeister (2002) reported that the most successful uptake of online banking among seniors occurred when retired staff of the commonwealth bank of australia conducted training sessions. a neighbourhood community among the cluster of values related to greypath conceptions of online community is that of ‘neighbourhood’. participants viewed neighbourhood-as-community as reflecting a closely-knit social network. it is a value that linked to all other values of this theme. for instance, for most participants, the neighbours they chose to interact with were their peers. exemplary quotations include: [it] is like being able to chat to a neighbour across the fence. [female, nsw, 70-74] well quite honestly, it feels as if i'm just talking to the guy next door over the garden fence [laughing]. that's about as simple as i can put it, and i don’t think you could improve on that comment, really. [male, overseas, 75-79] the last illustration was from a man with a disability because of which he was unable to leave his house, and most days, was unable to leave his bedroom. furthermore, he lived in europe, while most greypath members were located in australia. yet despite the disability and the spatial separation, he conceived of other greypath members as his neighbours. one reason for the neighbourhood-as-community conception was provided by a participant who said that, although she lived in a physical neighbourhood of mainly retirees, the people she interacted with in greypath were more like neighbours to her than those physically nearby. this was because she frequently could not leave her house and, even when she did, people in her area kept very much to themselves. in other words, the greypath community provided more of what she thought of as neighbourly interaction, than her actual physical neighbours. this was in keeping with another participant in a similar situation who stated about the greypath community: well i've made quite a few friends there and i mean, if i want to sort of go on about that, like, there's no neighbours these days, you know. so the people i've met on greypath have become my neighbours. [female, vic, 75-79] this sense of interacting in a neighbourhood even extended to a participant describing having a cup of tea with virtual neighbours: whereas, you could sort of, whip over the road to your neighbour, you can't do that anymore, because neighbours are just not, you know, don’t interact anymore. so i think, okay, i’ll get on site, see if anyone's on there. and that's basically how i would describe it – just like a family or a neighbour, that's taken the place of my neighbours. i’ll make a cup of tea and i go and sit at the computer, whereas once i'd make a cup of tea and invite a neighbour over. [female, vic, 75-79] the last quotation also suggests another reason why participants saw neighbourhood as important, namely, that it reflects a depth of social interaction that in some ways is reminiscent of familial ties. that was also borne out by other participants: they have become my neighbours, really because neighbours don’t talk to you anymore. they have become my greypath family. [female, vic, 75-79] for another participant, this familial neighbouring related to discussion of the ordinary affairs of life, rather than to deep and meaningful issues: what i've noticed is that obviously quite a few of these people that are on chat have got to know each other very, very well because they’ve been long term on it and they are family. you can almost feel the family relationship coming through you know [such as] “what did you do today? i went to the bank”. just ordinary sort of conversations that you'd have with your family. that’s really terrific actually. [female, vic, 70-74] another participant spoke of greypath as a replacement family: once your children have all left home, which mine have, you know, all married and gone, you miss … that interaction with family and discussions ... so the greypath takes that over. [female, vic, 75-79] this conceptualisation of the community as a neighbourhood contradicts the work of some studies. for example, wellman and leighton (1979), writing in pre-internet times, saw the concept of community as having left the notion of ‘neighbourhood only’ behind. they envisaged a traditional neighbourhood as a local, spatially bound community that formed just one of multiple social networks in which people participated. although writing somewhat earlier, for berger and luckman (1967) neighbourhood was tied to ‘location’ and it involved a focus on taking place at certain synchronous (not their term) events. they saw social knowledge construction, which was the focus of their book, as people sharing knowledge in a tight-knit, physical neighbourhood at a particular point in time. the difference here is that the greypath community is able to engage in social knowledge construction asynchronously in a virtual neighbourhood, in the traditional sense of what a neighbourhood constitutes. the present study shows that there has been a move from spatiallybound to socially-bound neighbourhoods. for the greypath community, the physical neighbourhood has diminished in importance, but the concept, or metaphor, of neighbourhood has not. at least, for members of greypath, this notion of neighbourhood-as-community has been restored but, without losing the idea that people belong to multiple social networks. some members of greypath are also members of one or more other online communities, such as silver surfers, australian golden girls, and other non-senior specific ones, such as online bridge (a card game), and networks to do with the former occupation of greypath members. an inclusive community the theme online community values also revealed that ‘inclusion’ was important to greypath members. this key value involved inclusion in a broad sense, not limited to including disadvantaged members, but also involving the active effort of including people who had recently joined greypath and its activities. the value also involved showing understanding to other members who, for some reason, needed support. as will be seen in the comments about this value, participants sought to promote inclusive discussions that did not alienate people by being too argumentative, with inclusion being seen as helping to overcome isolation. one reason why participants saw inclusion as important, was that they understood the challenges that come with age. for example, one participant expressed a concern about her failing eyesight: i've got amd, so i'm going to have to do away with a lot of these face-to-face meetings and i will be relying far more on the internet interaction on things like greypath because i can enlarge those and read them and then put them down again.  the thing that really upsets me about sites is the ones [not greypath] that you can't enlarge. [female, tas, 70-74] the implication here was that this participant felt included because of the way greypath considered people with disabilities. related to this association between inclusion and disability was the following comment by a participant who had a disability that was not age-related, but that had worsened with age. he expressed strong feelings about being included: i am, i would say, 95% housebound. i can't get out much and i just log on, the times i know somebody’s there, and we just sit and talk like i'm talking to you now, and it's as simple as that. [male, overseas, 75-79] another reason that inclusion was seen as important was its relationship to the desire of participants not to be isolated: [when people type] “hello i'm new here”, it's [saying] ‘i want to be part of this community i don’t want to be isolated.’ … that’s another issue with greypath that people are egalitarian within it and they're not cliques … and we've created that, that’s created by the ambience of the site and the initial standings and the attitudes that people pick up and then telegraph to others about what's right and what's wrong for the site and what we are and what we aren't. [male, vic, 70-74] the value of inclusion is both applicable to greypath and transferable to a wider context, namely the whole of the australian society. the australian department of education, science and training put out a list of ten values that were required to be implemented within public school curriculums across the nation from 2004 to 2008 (curriculum corporation, 2003). one of those ten was ‘inclusion and trust.’ similarly, by reviewing the development of government policies over the past century, harris and williams (2003) showed that social inclusion had become part of the national identity in australia. also mentioned in the quotation above was ‘egalitarianism,’ used here in the sense of promoting inclusion. like social inclusion, equality has been a significant value in australian society going back to its earliest days. it is now one of the values that immigrants applying for australian citizenship, are encouraged to embrace (immigration citizenship, 2009). greypath members also expressed their frustrations about feeling isolated because of location, as for example, through living in remote rural locations. they did not want others to experience the same frustrations and therefore took deliberate steps to include people, and to help them learn what they needed to know in order to participate fully in greypath community activities. in several cases, people interviewed even said that they had made an effort at their own expense to either telephone other members and talk them through technology problems, or visited them for the same reason. two of the volunteer contributors even made a point of visiting retirement villages and showing interested people there how they could get involved with greypath, because they themselves had found belonging to greypath so personally rewarding, in terms of being included. a community that shares information one of the key things valued by members of this online community was that they could share information, particularly information helpful to seniors. the value of ‘information sharing’ involved seeking information covering a range of topics. it also concerned finding sources of support. however, as figure 2 shows, there is a particularly strong association with the key value discussed next, namely mutual support. one reason that this value was as important for participants was that they felt a need to keep informed. however, in the greypath context, this value was also associated with support: just to keep informed and to keep members informed…i suppose it's an information exchange, but you add that social bit too you know. how are you feeling? don’t do too much. slow down. [female, nsw, 70-74] a lot of … [my information seeking] could be [at] 2 am, 3 am and, … if i ask a question at that time, i’ll get the answer: “oh, i noticed you were having a bad night again” … there's such a wide base of knowledge there that, [if not a direct answer] you'll get at least two to three sites to go to, to get your answer, and they've never let me down. … that's paramount to me, the fact that, it's like knowing if i fall over, there's going to be someone there to bandage me. [male, nsw, 70-74] participants often looked out for information that might be of interest to other members they knew as is illustrated in this example: i have correspondence from people i talk to. we swap dvd discs, and even novels, books, or anything, and i keep them up to date with … any bbc programmes that are to do with australia, and yeah, everyone seems to be grateful, and the other way around. [male, overseas, 75-79] two participants did not participate in forums or other greypath community activities, such as chat rooms or blogs. one of these people had no fixed address, but travelled with her husband up and down the australian east coast, staying in one house-sit after another. they sourced their house-sits from greypath and regularly checked the site for new possibilities. as it turned out, this member did not know that there was a social interaction option on greypath (which she would have used). having started to use the site for the specific purpose of finding house sitting opportunities, her only other contact with greypath had been the newsletters that greypath sent to members. from a design point of view, people like her could be encouraged to participate in community activities with a simple expedient such as links to chat and forum areas, from other parts of the site such as jobs for seniors, epals, house swaps and house sits. another participant used greypath purely as a means to finding information concerning seniors that might be relevant to him. his main focus was part-time employment, but he also used the site to keep up-to-date with political matters affecting seniors. he was aware that there was a community aspect to greypath, but chose not to get involved with that. nevertheless, he also said that he thought greypath was a community, but because he was part of a local, physical community, did not see the need to get involved in that aspect of greypath. in other words, this is an example of a person who was interested in sharing information, without being interested in mutual support. that is, the two values of mutual support and information sharing while closely related for most participants, were not closely related for everyone. the close relationship between the value of information sharing and the next one discussed, providing mutual support, has some support in the literature. some community networks are what arnold (2007, p. 9) described as “instrumental,” in that they exist for a specific purpose. he described examples of where people might engage in social relations to find information about fish or fruit, but their interest is in the fish or fruit, not the other person. he contrasted that with “phatic” communities, which he compared to people meeting at the local tram-stop. discussions may be about fish or fruit, but the communication goes beyond subject matter or informational content. the socialisation itself is the main point of the exchange. arnold’s descriptions are, in effect, a further development of the ideas expressed earlier by wright (2000a, 2000b) who researched the use of discussion boards for social support by participants in seniornet. he found that participants valued community, and that this value was expressed as a combination of informational (instrumental) and emotional (phatic) support between members. similarly, a recent study by pfeil and zaphiris (2010) also distinguished between information sharing and mutual support. they reported that “members are more connected and closer to each other in the social sub-networks that are based on emotional communication compared to factual communication” (pfeil & zaphiris, 2010, p. 1). they further argued that “emotional communication is linked to a stronger inclusiveness compared to factual communication” (pfeil & zaphiris, 2010, p. 26). similarly, for greypath participants, it seems the mutual support activities, more so than the information-sharing activities, build the sense of being part of a community. a mutually supportive community as mentioned above, this value was an important contributor to participants’ experience of a sense of community, and hence, belongs with the theme of online community values. the key value of ‘mutual support’ can be defined as social exchange that may include the simple act of information exchange, but goes beyond it. for greypath members this value was about providing support in a variety of ways to each other, and about relationship building. as seen above, it is linked to both information sharing and to inclusion. several people interviewed said that the chat rooms became most active late at night and in the very early morning. during those times, greypath members from europe, the middle east, asia, canada and the usa were active in the chat rooms. these members appreciated getting news from australia and also offered help where they could. an example of chat, as a means of providing support, is seen in the following illustration: [in the] chat groups it seemed to me that the same people were coming in and they knew each other and they knew their nicknames and it was a very friendly sort of banter thing … and then i found out … there was one [person] from montreal and my husband’s got a cousin over there who's an elderly lady and so i just asked if they would help her and i was delighted that this chap in montreal said “yes, i will go and see this person”. [female, tas, 70-74] other examples of mutual support were: recently i had a problem with a leaking fish tank. i put it up on the coffee shop forum and also mentioned it on chat. i received lots of advice and one member actually contacted his son for advice for me. [female, vic, 70-74] there's emotional support when you need it. … they're just there, it's someone there. [female, vic, 75-79] these comments express the support given by members of the community to each other, even across national boundaries. another example of support was seen in the way that several members demonstrated a willingness to travel small distances to support fellow members. the following comment is from one of the administrators of greypath: i've visited a few when they’ve had a bit of a problem … i'll eventually say look i'll come down and … something’s going wrong. what you're telling me doesn’t make any sense at all … [sometimes they] say: “look will you come and talk to our nursing home?” then i'll go and do that and then that way i'll meet them and others. [male, vic, 70-74] greypath members come from many different backgrounds, including from outside of australia, yet they share the common experience of retirement, of age-related illnesses, of the death of life partners and more, because of their common seniority. (hence, the overlap between this value and that of belonging to a community of peers.) this type of support, arising from shared life experiences, was seen in the following example: we know a few things about each other, and when my wife died a little while ago, the reaction was terrific, there was really very helpful people, really kind. [male, sa, 70-74] other studies of online communities, both with seniors (pfeil, 2007) and with other age groups (preece & ghozati, 1998, 2001), have similarly shown that, when people have comparable life experiences, they tend to be very supportive communities. such willingness to engage with each other’s challenges is an example of one of two main types of social capital discussed by quan-haase and wellman (2002). they claimed that civic engagement, seen in the willingness of people to become involved in their community, is a form of social capital. the other type, that of social contact, is seen in various interpersonal communication patterns. wellman (1997) pointed out that it is the relationships social network members have with other people, which strongly affect their social resources (social capital), mobility, happiness, and many other important things about them. thus, whenever members mutually support each other, or help other members overcome challenges they are facing, they are increasing the social capital available within the greypath community. what is described here as the value of mutual support has been described in the literature in terms of empathy. an empathic community is one that provides participants who have similar life experiences with a place to exchange both informational and emotional support (preece & ghozati, 2001). preece (1998), in a study of empathic support in a community of patients with knee injuries, classified 44.8% of messages as empathic and only 17.4% as concerned with factual information, reinforcing the notion that while information sharing is important, frequently, the dominant focus is on mutual support. in arnold’s (2007) terms, the information sharing value is predominantly instrumental, whereas the value of mutual support is phatic. a community that encourages personal contact the final key value within the theme of online community values was the ‘ability to contact others personally’. this value revealed that participants strongly endorsed extending their socialisation with other community members to multiple forms of interaction. to them it appeared that greypath, as a community, encouraged exploring multiple ways of keeping in touch. although much of the interaction that took place in greypath was communal, having the ability to also engage with community members in other ways was important to many participants. the forums were open discussions, where everyone, even non-members, could ‘listen in.’ chat rooms permitted both private and public discussion. however, many greypath members also had contact with each other outside of greypath. an example of the personal contact, appreciated by members, was that of a participant who won a greypath competition. she wrote (via snail mail) to greypath management and received a written reply as well: i wrote and thanked them for it, how tickled pink i was to get it and he wrote back and said “not many people say thanks, that was nice of you” and i thought oh gee what a nice guy. [female, wa, 70-74] greypath has an epals section and several interviewees said they had developed friendships by making contact with people advertising for an epal on greypath. the majority of the personal contact resulting from this was via email, with some instances of physical exchanges of letters, visits, dvds and more. through such extensions of personal contact participants managed to extend online friendships within the community. one example, which was also used to illustrate the value of information sharing, was: i have correspondence from people i talk to. we swap dvd discs, and even novels, books, or anything, and i keep them up to date with … any bbc programmes that are to do with australia, and yeah, everyone seems to be grateful, and the other way around. [male, overseas, 75-79] during the course of the interviewing, several greypath members in south australia organised a morning tea get-together. this was one of several similar events that members had organised. greypath also advertises social events and locations on their site, so that members, local to that area, can physically meet and socialise. such activities, in addition to telephone calls, the use of voice-over-ip (voip), snail mail exchange, epals, house-sits and house swaps which inevitably, involve physical meetings, and other types of visits, all add to the fabric of community building activities. this supports claims by researchers that online interaction does not isolate people socially, as some have suggested, but instead, leads to increased social interaction both online and off-line (burmeister, 2010a; hampton & wellman, 2003; wellman, 1997; wright, 1999; xie, 2008). in a grounded theory study about the civic engagement of chinese seniors online, xie (2008) reported three different types of computer-mediated communication (cmc). she looked at voice-based chat, text-based forums and media-rich instant messaging (im). she claimed that earlier critiques of socialisation online concerned text-based interchanges, that were no longer applicable in the media-rich context of modern internet usage, although agreeing that text-based cmc environments reduce, or filter out, physical and contextual social cues, making it difficult to develop close relationships online. in her study, close relationships were formed among chinese seniors, even in text-based forums, because of the multi-dimensional use of cmc; that is, users tended to interact in two or more forms of cmc, and therefore went beyond the limitations of purely text usage. similar to xie (2008), the key value discussed in this section indicates that such multidimensional use of cmc was also evident among greypath members. many members engaged with each other in numerous ways both within greypath (chat rooms and forums) and beyond it (physical meetings, telephone, mail, email, im and more). however, there were some members who felt they belonged to the community and had close relationships, even though their primary, or only interaction, was via one of the forums, which were all text-based. the latter view finds support in a study by walther (1995), who claimed that intimate online relationships can be formed with text only cmc, but such relationships take longer to develop than with media-rich cmc. in xie’s (2008) study chat was mostly used for forming new relationships, whilst im was preferred for the further development of existing relationships. similarly, in the few instances where people mentioned the use of im, it was to take relationships that had formed online within greypath to a more personal level. conclusions the above interview results revealed what participants valued about their online community. they valued interacting with peers in a way that was similar to how they used to interact with neighbours. participants valued being able to exchange information and supporting each other. they also valued being able to have personal contact with their online friends and to do so in an inclusive manner, accepting of many points of view. boase and wellman (2006, p. 716) claimed that “frequent internet users have neither a higher nor a lower sense of overall community.” however, the results from this study of greypath users, many of whom were frequent users, dispute their assertion. thirteen of the 30 participants accessed greypath daily, a further three accessed greypath more than three times per week, and a further nine participants accessed it at least, weekly. therefore, the majority of participants in this study could be classified as frequent internet users. however, unlike boase and wellman’s assertion, frequent greypath users appeared to have a heightened sense of overall community. many participants who engaged in mutual support also engaged in information exchange, but the reverse was not necessarily true. that is, some people engaging in information exchange were not interested in mutual support. in addition, the act of seeking support did not always involve information exchange although it is likely to have occurred in a peripheral, incidental way. information seeking was one of the two main reasons participants gave for joining greypath. however, the interview data revealed that, whilst information seeking drew people to the portal, it was the mutual support and community building interaction that predominantly kept them there. the emergent value of mutual support also highlighted a distinction made in the method section above, about this researcher’s decision to undertake an inductive study. a positivist study of 222 australian seniors which investigated how the internet affects social capital and wellbeing, reported that most participants used the internet for four purposes. these were for communication, information seeking, commercial or entertainment purposes (sum, mathews, pourghasem, & hughes, 2008, p. 209). however, they employed a survey instrument in which the questions, and hence, the variables of interest, were predetermined. mutual support, although arguably an important consideration for a study into the wellbeing of seniors, was not considered by the researchers and consequently, was not a survey choice for their respondents. in the above method section it was argued that, because very little values research had been conducted with seniors, variable choices were difficult to make. this study not only informs hci design, but also reveals new categories of investigation for researchers in various fields, such as those in the positivist study, above. were such a study repeated in the future, and mutual support included as a consideration, then the most common responses might not be the same as the four they discovered. the findings from the present study revealed that online community was both a personal and social construct for participants. twenty-eight of the thirty participants viewed greypath as a community. one viewed community as requiring face-to-face physical meetings, and the other only used greypath as a means to an end, in her case finding house sitting opportunities. the former expressed the belief that she felt very much a part of greypath, but that for her, community had to do with face-to-face contact. the latter, did not view greypath as a community in the way that another online community was; it became apparent during the interview that she was unaware of the community involvement opportunities greypath offered. all other people interviewed saw greypath as a community, with the six key values detailed above seen as the things they most valued about the greypath online community. of those six, belonging to a community of peers was the most important value. for the majority of participants, the construct of greypath as a community is demonstrated in the many expressions of support, encouragement and neighbourliness that take place within the site. the close relationship between all six values is best seen in the example of the overseas member who had a disability that meant he was house-bound. he valued neighbourhood, but a neighbourhood of peers, and felt included, despite his disabilities. he exchanged information such as news and dvds, not just for information’s sake, but also for mutual support. he had personal contact with members, including physical visits. the latter actions also demonstrated inclusion, in that those members who travelled overseas willingly included a visit to him in their itinerary. interestingly, other studies of seniors using technology (not just online communities) have demonstrated “that older people show a higher perceived well-being when they have more social interactions” (pfeil, 2007, p. 4). similarly, studies have shown that the social capital available to seniors through participation in online communities was viewed as a significant aid to coping with old age and its attendant limitations (pfeil, et al., 2009; stone, 2003; sum, et al., 2008; xie, 2008). the descriptions above of the perceived benefits derived by greypath members from community participation lend further support to such findings. therefore, from a design perspective, facilitating social interaction is especially important, when the online community involves seniors. this study has for the first time revealed what some seniors (the members of greypath) value about online community. it has debunked the notion that neighbourhood-as-community is a thing of the past. the six key values discovered give designers of online communities involving seniors specific areas to address in their designs. references ackerman, m. s., & cranor, l. 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(2008). older adults and political participation on the internet: a cross-cultural comparison of the usa and china. journal of cross-cultural gerontology, 23(1), 1-15. serving seniors with simple technology – from indoor to outdoor emergency support and care carmen ng senior citizen home safety association indoor emergency support and care in a sudden long-lasting cold spell in the winter of 1996, more than 150 living alone seniors died at home in hong kong due to delays in treatment. such alarming tragedy has moved a number of people’s hearts and motivated them to build a new non-profit-making organization to serve the seniors. bearing a strong social mission to render peace of mind to the seniors, the senior citizen home safety association (schsa) (www.schsa.org.hk) was established in late 1996 to render 24-hour indoor emergency support service, the “personal emergency link” (pel) service by means of an integrated communication system connected to fixed lines (land lines). schsa is a social enterprise financed by donation and fee for services. it is managed by professional social workers with over 300 employees, rendering services to over 150,000 users in the past 15 years. when the seniors pressed for help that required immediate hospital admissions, well-trained operators at the call centre would immediately contact the ambulance control centre, giving them all the necessary information, including the exact location of the seniors for timely arrival of the ambulance, conditions of the seniors for triage, etc. almost at the same time, schsa’s it system would also send the seniors’ health records to the hospitals, helping doctors to prepare for timely rescue before the seniors arrive. simultaneously, operators will inform their family or significant others the hospitals they are sent, followed by the bed number if they are eventually admitted into hospital wards. as of 30, september 2011, schsa has already handled 5.23 million calls for assistance, in which over 279,512 required immediate medical interventions, saving precious lives of thousands of seniors, as well as giving peace of mind to their families. emerging needs of seniors for outdoor emergency support and care yet, there are still unmet needs! “mammy, where are you?” – a heartbreaking statement from madam wong’s children. since the missing of madam wong, her children have tried nearly every means to find their 70 years-old mother and yet, in vain. unfortunately, this is not a single case. even more alarming is the rising trend. according to a dementia prevalence study conducted by the department of health and chinese university of hong kong in 2006, it was found that “among people aged 60 and above, the prevalence rate of dementia increased with age and doubled for every 5 years. while the percentage of people for the age group 60 to 64 suffering from dementia was 1.2%, the percentage increased to 32% for the age group 85 years and above.” a more recent study in 2008 reported that 8.9% of those aged 70 or above has dementia (lam et al, 2008)1. seniors in their early stage of dementia often lose confidence in going out after their repeated bitter experiences of getting lost in the streets. family members also tend to lock their demented seniors at home to prevent them from getting lost. besides dementia, having one or multiple chronic illnesses is not uncommon in the aged population nowadays. many of them are afraid of going out for fear of sudden onset of their diseases, like heart attack, shortness of breath, second stroke, etc. to extend the peace of mind of the seniors and their families from indoor to outdoor, schsa saw an urgent need in providing an emergency support and care similar to pel in an outdoor environment. so, a brand new outdoor emergency support and care service, the mobile link service (mls), was introduced in 2008. being an extension of schsa’s existing core service personal emergency link, mls reassembles the same protocols of pel with additional features, such as location searching for missing seniors. outdoor emergency support and care -the mobile link service mobile link service is a 24-hour outdoor emergency support and caring service for the seniors. it is a service integrating the mobile applications with social services, a classic example of ict application in human services. by using a specially designed one-button mobile link device and via mobile technology, users can easily seek assistance by simply pressing the one and only button to contact schsa’s call centre for timely assistance, such as immediate medical attention by calling ambulance, calling their family members for bringing them to seek medical consultation, requesting location information for guiding them from places to places in case they lost their directions, etc. the service aims at empowering the seniors by increasing their independence in staying in the community without premature institutionalization, enhancing social inclusion of the seniors by giving them peace of mind in enjoying outdoor activities, as well as cultivating a sense of belonging in the community and promote an aged-friendly community by involving the public in offering help to senior citizens whenever necessary. mobile phone has become a more and more popular means of communications for people nowadays. yet, many senior citizens still face obstacles in using mobile phones, especially those mobile phones with complex operation modes, marginalizing them from the society. in one of our surveys that has successfully interviewed 515 people aged 60 years or above, 40% of them reported that they were not using mobile phones because they don’t know how to use it. major complaints include keypads and display fonts not large enough and the functions too complex for use. so, a lot of efforts have been spent to study the user experiences of the seniors and to design an aged-friendly mobile device for use in the mls service. borrowing the proven successful user experience from the indoor emergency support service, the pel service, a simple device with a one and only one button was developed. it has a large panic button for sending emergency support and caring request. there is also a card slide in/out and holding design, allowing the users to put their travel card, favorite photo or anything that will remind them to bring along the device with them (www. mobilelink.hk). when in need, the senior can press the button for assistance, requesting the call centre operators to help calling the police, ambulance and/or their family members for timely assistance. they can also press to request for call transfers to their family, relatives and friends, freeing them from the trouble of remembering their phone numbers or looking into the phone books. with the assistance of a mobile positioning service that involves both mobile technology and rf transceiver, a location tracking service is enabled to help locating the approximate geographical bearings of the mobile link device, together with its moving track, giving good references for identifying the demented seniors getting lost in the street. such mobile application has been proven successful in our service delivery, especially in a highly populated city like hong kong, with lots of high-rising buildings that hinder the effectiveness of gps. in times of emergency, a very loud emergency alarm with specially produced melody can also be remotely triggered to draw the attention of people around to offer immediate assistance, as well as providing directions to the rescue team for more efficient searching. community education programs have been done to get people familiarized with the melody. this has proven to be an efficient and cost effective way to supplement the not yet 100% accurate location tracking technologies. many missing demented seniors have been successfully found when the call centre activated the loud alarm, people around were alerted to attend to the seniors wearing the mobile link device, operators could then talk directly to them, getting the exact location of the seniors. some people were even kind enough to help staying with the seniors until the police or their family members arrive, making sure their safety. user satisfaction survey to better understand the satisfaction level of our users and their caregivers, we have conducted a quantitative research by means of telephone survey to collect their views. a sample of 193 users and caregivers using mls service were successfully interviewed. the findings showed that 88% of them were satisfied with the services. among all aspects, they were most satisfied with the call centre service (89%). they were particularly satisfied with the courtesy of the call centre staff (89%), user-friendliness of the device (86%) and the capability of the call centre staffs to respond to their needs/enquiries (85%). regarding the perceived value of the service, 82% of them expressed that mls has brought them peace of mind, freeing them from the fear of sudden onset of sickness in the street without timely assistance. way ahead mls has indeed freed the seniors from the locked door of the houses! with increased independence enabled by mls, the seniors are empowered and regained their confidences in participating actively in the society, allowing them to lead an active ageing in later years of their lives. they are no longer afraid of going out because of their physical conditions or chronic diseases, allowing them to live happily in the community and fulfilling the “ageing in community” concept promoted worldwide. it is also expected to lessen the chance of unattended deaths outdoor and increase the chance of finding the missing people. the service also facilitated the care of family members, who may be busy at work and cannot take care their aged parents. thus, help sustaining the family care culture and building a caring community. our efforts have gained a number of social recognition2. in hong kong, the number of people aged 60 or above will be increased from 1.2 million people in mid-2009 to 1.4 million people in 2013, from 17% to 19.7 % of the total population. the current share of this elderly segment having dementia and/or other chronic diseases is amounted to over 60%. we will continuously enhance the functions of mls to further improve our services to the seniors. recently, we have added gps and agps to the device to enhance the location search function. we are also adapting the device and service protocols to extend our services to serving other needy segments of the society, like the visually impaired and the mentally handicapped. end 1 lam lc, tam cw, lui vw, chan wc, et al. prevalence of very mild and mild dementia in community dwelling chinese older persons in hong kong. int psychogeriatrics, 2008;20:135-48 2 schsa’s mls has won 4 local awards (the best ubiquitous networking grand award, best ubiquitous networking (mobile enterprise solution) gold award, best ubiquitous networking (mobile infotainment application) sliver award, best lifestyle (social life and community) sliver award of the 2008 hong kong ict awards); the asia pacific ict awards 2009 e-inclusions and e-community award, the grand prize of the digital opportunity award in the world information technology and services alliance (witsa) global ict excellence awards 2010 and world summit award mobile 2010 – m-inclusion & empowerment abstract setting long distance wifi records: proofing solutions for rural connectivity ermanno pietrosemoli fundación escuela latinoamericana de redes universidad de los andes mérida venezuela <ermanno@ula.ve> abstract 802.11 wifi technology is commonly used for creating wireless networks with a range of about one hundred meters. with careful planning and proper antennas, this same equipment can be used to make point-to-multipoint links of tens of kilometers and point-to-point links of hundreds of kilometers. this paper presents some experiments at distances of up to 382 kilometer that were performed in venezuela from april 206 to july 2007, as well as an affordable instrument setup for long distance antenna alignment. introduction for developing countries, wireless allows a leapfrogging over the traditional telecommunications infrastructure. this has been proved in many countries of africa and latin america, where the number of mobile phones has now surpassed the number of land lines in the last decade of the past century or the first of the current one. although fiber optics offers much greater bandwidth, and satellite systems are great for unidirectional broadcast services, they cannot compete with land-based radio from a cost perspective. furthermore, both fiber optic and satellite systems require large investments and considerable expertise which means that they can only be deployed by large organizations with deep pockets that can wait several years before recovering their investments. terrestrial microwave systems, on the other hand, are less capital intensive and can be deployed by smaller organizations and even local communities. since the early 90’s1 we have been experimenting with the means for providing internet access through wireless technology, first using packet radio and later with spread spectrum techniques in our home town of mérida, venezuela. these efforts led to the deployment of a wireless network that spans most of the state of mérida, honored by the organizers of supercomm 1998 in atlanta, georgia, with the superquest award in the remote access category. with the development of the ieee 802.11 standard, the cost of wireless data transmission for short distances plummeted and many people around the world started using devices based in this technology for long distance communications. by overlaying voice over ip (voip) on these networks, telephony services can also be offered in rural or underserved areas at a fraction of the cost of wired services. furthermore, these technologies can be installed by a grassroots community with a moderate amount of technical skills accordingly, wifi, the sobriquet for 802.11 standard based devices, was used by a group of american radio amateurs to demonstrate transmission at a distance of 125 miles in 20042. thanks to a favorable topography, venezuela already has some long range wlan links. since 2001, fundacite mérida has operated a 70 km link between pico espejo and canaguà3. to test the extreme possibilities of long distance wlan, we have successfully used inexpensive wifi equipment to establish links at 279 km and 382 km. finding the sweet spot technically speaking, to test the limits of this technology, it is necessary to find a path with an unobstructed line-of-sight and a clearance of at least 60% of the first fresnel zone. as the distance between sites increases, the curvature of the earth becomes a serious obstacle, requiring higher elevation at both ends. installation on towers or other tall structures is mandatory, and the longest distance links are only possible from high elevations. when searching for an area of terrain in venezuela with high elevation at the ends and low ground in between, we first focused on the guayana region. although plenty of high grounds are to be found, in particular the famous "tepuys" (tall mesas with steep walls), there were always obstacles in the middle ground. our attention then shifted to the andes, whose steep slopes (rising abruptly from the plains) proved adequate to our requirements. pico del aguila has an altitude of 4200 meters and is about a two hours drive from mérida. it has clear line-of-sight to the town of el baúl, in cojedes state. using the free software radio mobile4, we found that there was no obstruction for the first fresnel zone (spanning 280 km) between pico del aguila and el baúl (figure 1). figure 1: layout and profile of the 279 km link between pico del aguila and cerro morrocoy in el baul. hardware specifications once satisfied with the existence of a suitable trajectory, we looked at the equipment needed to achieve our goal of creating a long-distance link. up to this point, we had been using orinoco cards for a number of years. sporting an output power of 15 dbm and a receive threshold of -84 dbm, they are robust and trustworthy. the free space loss at 282 km is 149 db, so we would need 30 dbi antennas at both ends and even that would leave very little margin for other losses. on the other hand, there are the popular linksys wrt54g wireless routers that can run linux. the open source community has written several firmware versions for it that allow for a complete customization of every transmission parameter. in particular, openwrt firmware5 allows for the adjustment of the acknowledgment time of the mac layer, as well as the output power. another firmware called dd-wrt6 has a graphical user interface (gui) and a very convenient site survey utility. furthermore, the linksys can be located closer to the antenna than a laptop; so we decided to use a pair of them. one was configured as an ap (access point) and the other as a client. the wrt54g can operate at 100 mw output power with good linearity, and can even be pushed up to 200 mw. but at this value, non linearity is very severe and spurious signals are generated, which should be avoided. although this is consumer grade equipment and quite inexpensive, after years of using it, we felt confident that it could serve our purpose. of course, we kept a spare set handy just in case. by setting the output power to 100 mw (20 dbm), we could obtain a 5db power budget advantage compared with the orinoco card. therefore, we settled for a pair of wrt54gs as our preferred option for making this link. site survey on january 15, 2006, i went to pico águila to check out the site that radio mobile had reported as suitable. technically speaking, the azimuth towards el baúl is 86°, but since the magnetic declination is 8° 16’, the antenna would need to be pointed to a magnetic bearing of 94°. unfortunately, line of sight was obstructed by an obstacle in the 94° direction that had not been shown by the software, due to the limited resolution of the freely available digital elevation maps. after riding my mountain bike for several hours examining the surrounding area, i identified a more suitable location clear of obstacles, south of the main road and a few kilometers from the originally planned site (figure 2). figure 2: layout of the 279 km path between pico del aguila and el baul in venezuela. figure 3: testing antennas to be deployed at both ends of the link. antenna selection high gain antennas for the 2.4 ghz band were not available in venezuela. as importation costs are considerable, we decided instead to recycle a pair of parabolic reflectors (formerly used for satellite service) and replaced the feed with one designed for 2.4 ghz. we proved the concept with an 80 cm dish. the gain was way too low, so we tried a 2.4 meter reflector with an offset feed. this offered ample gain, albeit with some difficulties in the aiming of the 3.5° beam. the 22.5° offset meant that the dish appeared to be pointing downwards when it was horizontally aligned as can be seen in figure 3. several tests were performed using various cantennas (homemade antenna built with a can) and a 12 dbi yagi-uda as a feed. we pointed the antenna at a base station of the university wireless network that was located 11 km away on a 3500 m mountain. the test site sits at 2000 m and therefore the elevation angle is 8°. we were able to establish a link with the base station at la aguada, but our efforts to measure the gain of the setup using netstumbler, a popular program that reports the strength of the received wifi signal, were not successful. there was too much fluctuation on the received power values of live traffic. for a meaningful measurement of the gain, we needed a signal generator and spectrum analyzer. these instruments were also required for the field trip in order to align the antennas properly. on february, 2006 i traveled to trieste, italy to partake in the annual wireless training event i have been attending since 1996. while there i mentioned the project to my colleague carlo fonda who was immediately thrilled and eager to participate. the collaboration between the latin american networking school (eslared) and the abdus salam international centre for theoretical physics (ictp) in the wireless field goes back to 1992, when the first networking school was held in mérida with ictp support. since then, several activities in which members of both institutions have participated have taken place, notably the yearly training in wireless networking at ictp and the ones dedicated to computer networks in general organized by eslared in several countries of latin america. accordingly, it was not difficult to persuade dr. sandro radiciella, the head of the aeronomy and radio propagation laboratory at ictp, to support carlo fonda’s trip in early april to venezuela in order to participate in the experiment. back home i found a 2.75 m parabolic central fed mesh antenna at a neighbors house. mr. ismael santos graciously lent his antenna for the experiment. after dismounting and reassembling the parabolic mesh dish, we changed the feed for one that works at 2.4 ghz and aimed the ensemble to a signal generator located on top of a ladder some 30m away. with a spectrum analyzer we could measure the maximum of the signal and therefore locate the focus as well as pinpoint the boresight for the antennas, as shown on we also compared the power of the received signal with the output of a commercial 24 dbi antenna achieving an improvement of 8 db, which led us to believe that the overall gain of our antenna was about 32 dbi. of course, there is some uncertainty in this value since we were receiving reflected signals as well, but the value agreed with the calculations made from the antenna's dimensions. once we were satisfied with the proper functioning and aim of both antennas, we decided to do a site survey at the other end of the el baúl link. carlo fonda, gaya fior and i reached the site on april 8th. the following day, we found a hill (south of the town) with two telecom towers from two cell phone operators and one belonging to the mayor of el baúl. the hill of morrocoy is some 75 m above the surrounding area, about 125 m above sea level. it provides an unobstructed view towards el aguila. there is a dirt road to the top, a must for our purpose, given the weight of the antenna. performing the experiment on wednesday april 12th, 2006 javier triviño and i traveled towards baúl with the offset antenna loaded on top of a four-wheel drive truck. early on the morning of april 13th, we installed the antenna and pointed it at a compass bearing of 276° (given that the declination is 8°, the true azimuth is 268°). at the same time, the other team (composed of carlo fonda and gaya fior from ictp, with assistance of franco bellarosa, lourdes pietrosemoli and josé triviño) rode to the previously surveyed area at pico del aguila in a pick-up truck that carried the 2.7 meter mesh antenna (figure 6): poor weather is common at altitudes of 4200 m above sea level. the team at el aguila was able to install and point the mesh antenna before the fog and sleet began. power for the signal generator was supplied from the truck by means of a 12 vdc to 120 vac inverter. at 11am in el baúl, we were able to observe a -82 dbm signal at the agreed upon 2450 mhz frequency using the spectrum analyzer. to be sure we had found the proper source, we asked carlo to switch off the signal. indeed, the trace on the spectrum analyzer showed only noise. this confirmed that we were really seeing the signal that originated some 280 km away. after turning the signal generator on again, we performed a fine tuning in elevation and azimuth at both ends. once we were satisfied that we had attained the maximum received signal, carlo removed the signal generator and replaced it with a linksys wrt54g wireless router configured as an access point. javier substituted the spectrum analyzer on our end for another wrt54g configured as a client. at once, we started receiving "beacons" but tcp/ip packets did not get through. this was expected, since the propagation time of the radio wave over a 300 km link is 1 ms. it takes at least 2 ms for an acknowledgment to reach the original transmitter. fortunately, the openwrt7 firmware allows for adjusting the ack timing. after carlo adjusted for the increase in delay above what the standard wi-fi link expects, we began receiving icmp packets with a mean delay time of 5 ms, as can be seen in figure 4. figure 4: screenshot of the received signal at el baul. 279 km from el aguila. we proceeded to transfer several .pdf files between carlo’s and javier’s laptops, with speeds of about 65 kbps. improving performance with tdma one year after performing this experiment, we found the time and resources to repeat itu sing a commercial 30 dbi antenna, and a couple of wireless routers which had been modified by the tier group led by dr. eric brewer of berkeley university8. the purpose of our modification of the standard wifi mac was to make it suitable for long distance applications by replacing the csma media access control with tdma. the latter is better suited for long distance point-to-point links since it does not require the reception of acks. this eliminates the need to wait for the 2 ms round trip propagation time on a 300 km path. on april 28th, 2007, a team formed by javier triviño, josé torres and francisco torres installed one of the antennas at el aguila site. a solid link was quickly established using the linksys wrt54g routers. this allowed for video transmission at a measured throughput of 65 kbps. with the tdma routers, the measured throughput was 3 mbps in each direction. this produced the total of 6 mbps as predicted by simulations done at berkeley university by the tier team. el aguila to platillón: 382 km thrilled by these results, which pave the way for really inexpensive long distance broadband links, the second team moved to another location that i had previously identified at 382 km from el aguila, in a place called platillón. platillón is 1500 m above sea level and offers an unobstructed first fresnel zone towards el aguila (located at 4200 m above sea level). the radio mobile plot is shown in figure 5. figure 5: layout and profile of the 381 km path. again, the link was quickly established with the linksys and the tier supplied routers. the linksys link showed approximately 1% packet loss, with an average round trip time of 12 ms. the tier equipment showed no packet loss. this allowed for good quality video transmission, but the link was not stable. we noticed considerable signal fluctuations that often interrupted the communication. however, when the received signal was sufficient, the measured throughput was a total of 6 mbps bidirectional with the tier routers implementing tdma. so, the preliminary conclusion is that the 280 km link is stable, and the 380 km one is probably at the edge of the 2.4 ghz link capabilities with low cost equipment. conclusions although further tests must be conducted to ascertain the limits for stable throughput, we are confident that wifi has a great potential for long distance broadband communication. it is particularly well suited for rural areas where the spectrum is still not crowded and interference is not a problem, provided there is sufficient radio line of sight (clearance of at least 60% of the first fresnel zone). it is worth noting that the performance obtained on this long distance links shows the viability of wifi as a low cost alternative to wimax for backhaul applications. similarly, it has also demonstrated the capability of wifi for point-to-multipoint and even mesh topologies9, which makes it the technology of choice for community-based networks for its low cost and limited installation skill requirements, especially in rural areas where the interference problem of unlicensed bands is less severe. in order to make this technology really affordable, an inexpensive method of aligning antennas when the other end of the links is not visible has to be found. the standard method of using a signal generator on one end and a spectrum analyzer on the other is too expensive. software based signal strength indicators like netstumbler can be used for short distance links, but they are not adequate for long distance, because the wifi signal is broadband and it must be relatively strong in order to be decoded by standard wifi radios. a commercial spectrum analyzer is very sensitive and can effectively measure the received power of a single frequency signal like the one produced by a commercial signal generator, but requires a considerable investment . wispy10 is a usb dongle that essentially performs the functions of a spectrum analyzer for the 2.4 ghz band at an affordable price. but we are still missing an inexpensive signal generator. during the air jaldi wsfii in dharamsala11, i was pondering this conundrum and elektra (corinna aichele) told me that in germany they were selling “video senders” – devices meant to transmit analog video signals – which would make for an inexpensive signal generator. after experimenting with many of these cheap concoctions that were transmitting out of band or erratically, i finally found one that can really substitute for a signal generator for antenna alignment purposes because it: a) has an antenna connector that allows for the attachment to the antenna to be deployed; b) allows the selection of 8 different carrier frequencies in the 2.4 ghz band; c) sports a 1 watt (30 dbm) output power, enough to be detected 300 km away; d) is small enough and can be powered by any 12 volt source; and, e) is relatively stable in output power and frequency during the time needed to align an antenna. with this, a kit comprising an inexpensive signal generator and a signal strength detector (figure 6) is finally available for the wireless networking practitioner that allows for the alignment of antennas at long distances. figure 6: low cost antenna alignment set: signal generator (video sender) and spectrum analyzer (wispy). i gratefully acknowledge the funding of this work by ica-idrc through the tricalcar project. 1ermanno pietrosemoli, “wireless data transmission in the andes: networking merida state”, inet’99, san francisco, ca., u.s.a.,1999. 2124.9 miles is the official record http://www.wifiworldrecord.com/2005writeup.html 3fundacite merida http:/www.funmrd.gob.ve 4ermanno pietrosemoili, case study: long distance 802.11, in flickenger, r. 2008 wireless networking in the developing world 2nd edition, pp355-369 5radiomobile, http://www.cplus.org/rmw/english1.html 6abdus salam ictp http://wireless.ictp.it 7openwrt http://openwrt.org/ 8tier (technology infrastructure for emerging regions) http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu/ 9 http://freifunk.net/wiki/freifunkfirmwareenglish 10http:// www.metageek.com 11http://drupal.airjaldi.com/ <div id="article"> <h2 id="article_title"> community innovation and community informatics </h2> <div id="article_author"> michael gurstein </div> <p> innovation is the buzzword of the moment. countries large and small, rich and poor, international agencies, private companies, even individuals, are preoccupied with finding the key to "innovation". what precisely is meant by "innovation," of course, varies from context to context and even within contexts it is difficult to find a hard and fast definition that goes beyond simply referring to "change" of some sort, and hopefully change for the better or change that builds on what has gone on before. </p> <p> that "innovation" has become such a slogan and even rallying call for such a diverse set of actors indicates the degree to which the settled structures and patterns of economies and market places have themselves changed and, in many cases, been significantly disrupted as a consequence of various factors but primarily, the inter-twined mega disrupters of globalization and information technology and now the internet as the necessary and all-transforming linkage between these. innovation as a necessary condition of modern economies is seen as a response, perhaps the only response, to globalized markets and international competition and equally to profoundly disrupted traditional business models in an increasingly wide range of sectors. </p> <p> when companies everywhere have access to roughly the same amount of information and to the same infrastructure of technical support; and when consumers everywhere have access to the global marketplace of goods, new products and the means of shopping for competitive prices, features, or styles; the need to be new, first and different, is, as some have argued, the only basis of a competitive edge. and with the sources of "innovation" being attributed directly to new knowledge, intelligence, and creativity in the labour force, there is extreme pressure on governments to ensure those qualities are inculcated through the education system and nurtured in the institutions of higher learning and publicly funded research establishments, so that their populations and enterprises are able to suitably compete. </p> <p> however, while this may be the most visible and the most "hyped" form of "innovation" it is not the only one. this type of innovation might be termed "competitive innovation" since the intent is to support competitive positioning in hyper-competitive commercial marketplaces. there is, on the other hand, a form of "grassroots innovation" also, understood in the context of social change, where innovation is not concerned with enabling competition but rather with effective adaptation to changing circumstances. </p> <p> this latter type of innovation might be characterized as "social innovation" or "community innovation" since so much of this type of innovation takes place within the context of communities either of place or of interest where trusted peers are enabled to experiment with established routines and practices to find alternative strategies for accomplishing what might otherwise be routine or conventionalized tasks. this type of "innovation" is not concerned with ensuring opportunities for competition in globalized marketplaces but rather in enabling those involved in these communities, and often grassroots communities, to better undertake the tasks for which they normally have responsibility and also new tasks that might become necessary; all within a context of shared community norms, values and goals. </p> <p> meanwhile, governments, in particular, aided and abetted by multi-lateral agencies and egged on by the corporate owned think tanks and ideologues are putting ever increasing resources into competitive innovation, restructuring and re-designing education systems and research establishments in an ever accelerating quest for the "next big thing,". meanwhile community based capacity and facilities to support local grassroots innovation are increasingly starved or marginalized. and yet, of course, it is precisely that kind of innovation and adaptation at the grassroots that is needed in order to confront and overcome the various dilemmas and challenges of the 21st century. finding ways to respond to the changes in local conditions being brought about by climate change, managing environmental degradation, finding alternative strategies for energy consumption and resource depletion are going to require concerted policy action at the national and global levels but also equivalent changes (social adaptations and innovations) at the local level to ensure effective implementation. </p> <p> in this context it is important also to draw a distinction between "social innovation" and "community innovation". social innovation (according to wikipedia) is defined as </p> <blockquote> new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that meet social needs of all kinds from working conditions and education to community development and health and that extend and strengthen civil society. the term has overlapping meanings. it can be used to refer to social processes of innovation, such as open source methods and techniques. alternatively it refers to innovations which have a social purpose like microcredit or distance learning. the concept can also be related to social entrepreneurship (entrepreneurship is not necessarily innovative, but it can be a means of innovation) and it also overlaps with innovation in public policy and governance. social innovation can take place within government, the for-profit sector, the non-profit sector (also known as the third sector), or in the spaces between them </blockquote> <p> in this definition it is clear that "social innovation" refers to innovation at the social level, including in areas such as policy and governance. interestingly, there is no counterpart definition in wikipedia for "community innovation" and yet community innovation having the capacity to find ways to implement social and other innovations, would be key to the successful undertaking of social innovation both at the local level and through aggregation at a regional or national level. in fact, it was precisely this type of innovation-community innovation-that paulo freire was developing in his notions of <em>conscientization</em> becoming conscious of one's circumstances and developing the capacity to respond effectively and this can initially only take place at the local and grounded level. </p> <p> many of the outstanding issues that need to be addressed-adaptation to climate change, the creation of meaningful work, the resolution of cultural/religious conflicts and integration of diverse populations, environmental and resource management for future generations all can only really be accomplished through "innovation" at the local level. this "innovation"-not technical innovation, or once-for-all globally singular innovation, but "innovation" as the capacity of those in local communities to find meaningful, efficient and effective ways to respond to their very local and singular challenges and also, and equally , the challenges which they share with multiple similar communities globally. </p> <p> in practice it is possible, even desirable, to take an alternative approach to "innovation", where innovation is a change or introduction of new processes or products which are novel in the context into which they are being introduced and where such an introduction has the effect of stimulating a localized adaptation and change. in this case, innovation can be seen as something which is fairly widespread in society and something which can occur under a very wide set of circumstances. in this context, innovation can be understood as having significant impacts and benefits not only through the effect of a "trickle down" from elites and high performers but also a "trickle up" from local adaptations and community based novelty and change which, because it is locally based and potentially very wide-spread, can have very significant, and broadly distributed, impacts and benefits. in this latter case, bottom up approach to innovation, the benefits as with the innovations themselves can be seen as being widely dispersed and contributing to general well-being directly rather than indirectly and solely through the creation of competitive advanced technologies and the participation in the benefits of this competition by a relatively limited number of individuals. </p> <p> the opportunity with a community informatics approach is for the community to have some direction and responsibility i.e. "ownership" in the innovation and the innovation strategy. the use of a ci technology strategy ensures that "innovation" is done by, with, and in the community and not simply something that is done "to" or "for" the community. by adopting a ci approach, there is a degree of assurance that the process of innovation will become an on-going element of community life and activity rather than a once for all investment in, for example, a single high profile "innovating institution". </p> <p> it is one of the crucial activities for community informatics to design appropriate strategies and technology supports for these processes of knowledge acquisition, assimilation and processing. similarly the provision of technical supports to communities in their processes of knowledge management may be one of the most significant arguments in support of community focused ict strategies in that the fostering of innovation and innovative capacity at the local level is a major source of advance and a prime basis for economic and social development locally as well as a powerful contributor to national strategies for innovation. </p> <p> this, of course, represents the opportunity for community informatics as a way of feeding information into communities (the basis of innovation being in part novelty and "new" information/ideas), as a way of sharing successful "innovations" community to community and by providing an infrastructure of communications and information management as a platform on which these types of solutions can be enacted. </p> <p> thus, the availability of technology supports at the local level can be seen as a significant contributor to the opportunities for local innovation and, from the perspective of national governments, the investment in the development of local technology infrastructures may be seen within the overall context of a contribution to a national "innovation strategy" and moreover, one that is truly contributing to social change and adaptation and not simply to an endless quest for competitive advantage in constantly changing global marketplaces. </p> <p> such an approach to innovation is of particular value in less developed countries and among marginalized populations where the capacity for change and adaptation may be stifled because of a lack of local opportunity, through lack of access to information, or, through the constant draining of skilled and ambitious young people to more lucrative opportunities elsewhere. thus the current shift of attention (and resources) towards a focus on technological entrepreneurialism, the innovator as individual cultural hero, linkages into global technology and corporate networks while not necessarily impeding local development will likely have only marginal impacts on developments in most rural and marginal communities in ldc's. </p> </div> social networks and social capital: rethinking theory in community informatics kate williams1 & joan c. durrance2 assistant professor of library and information science, university of illinois, usa. email:katewill@uiuc.edu professor of information, university of michigan, usa the emergence of community informatics as a research community was a response to the practical experience of communities adapting to the rapid changes brought on by new information technologies, known outside the united states as information and communications technologies. based on a growing empirical literature we can begin to find patterns consistent with fundamental theoretical formulations. in this article, we are concerned with the related theories of social capital and social networks as taken up in community informatics scholarship. we review these theories carefully rather than taking concepts for granted. in the end, we hope that this analysis can help usher in a new stage of community informatics research, where empirically testing theoretical propositions can be the basis for research design. theory in community informatics is necessary in order to give coherence to what we know about technology in communities, as well as to help to relate this knowledge to all other aspects of our social experience. in this sense, theory is needed inside community informatics as well as in relating our field to other research foci, be they social informatics or many other lines of research into the information society. this paper relies on and contributes to three threads of scholarship: social capital, social networks, and most of all community informatics itself. each of these threads, or bodies of literature, is a contested space where different theoretical and/or research issues are debated. we will summarize these three literatures and discover a basic question in each literature that is key to the possibility of a theoretical synthesis for community informatics. this research aims to contribute to these threads by targeting key contradictions in current theory and pointing toward a new theoretical synthesis based on empirical investigation. three strong and complementary analyses regarding the interaction of social capital and information technology in local communities can be found in simpson (2005), gaved and anderson (2006), and anderson et al (2006). an early version of this article appeared in williams (2005). social network theory social network theory contrasts with the type of sociological theory that defines society as built up of individuals. it starts instead from the relations between individuals, and models society as constituted of networks made up of sets of the relations or ties between the nodes. wasserman and faust (1999, p. 4) identify four additional fundamental principles of models built using social network theory: independence of actors; relations or ties consisting in the flow or transfer of resources; the constraining and/or enabling of individual actors by networks; and the generation of long-lasting ties and networks by social structures. the perspective of social network analysis—which comprises both method and theory—mitigates against studying any single relationship in isolation from the network of which it is part. this is because the dyad, or relationship between two actors, is the building block of a network, but is itself conditioned by the network. across social network studies, the actors or the nodes have been variously defined as individuals, groups, companies, or even countries. the relationship or tie is a flow of resources that can be material or non-material (wasserman & faust 1999, p. 4). the resources might include social support, emotional support, companionship, time, information, expertise, money, business transactions, shared activity, and so on. wellman, carrington, and hall (1988) characterized social network theory not so much as competing directly with other approaches to identifying causality as reformulating basic questions. thus, social network theorists have proposed, for example, substituting world systems theory for single state modernization theory, network communities for neighborhood communities, political networks for psychologistic interpretations of collective behavior, and vacancy chain analysis for individualistic analyses of social mobility. (wellman et al., p. 48) in a social network, every node is not tied to every other node. this results in any given network having particular features. clusters of densely knit areas are where many actors are tied to each other, as, for example, a family. these clusters are connected to other clusters via sparsely connected areas that form what are called bridges, as can be seen in figure 1 (a) below. the clusters themselves may be more or less visibly bounded, or fuzzy, as in an extended family where you might (or might not) include ex-spouses and fiancés. figure 1. networks as ties between people, illustrated in (a) below, or as ties between clusters of people, as in organizations, illustrated in (b) below. from figure 2.4, wellman and berkowitz, 1988, p. 45. resources shared across ties are generally finite, and therefore scarce. as a result, the property of hierarchy enters an otherwise neutral network structure. in this context hierarchy describes the fact that some nodes are at the center of a network and others are less connected and peripheral. because resource flow generally attenuates as it travels from node to node, an actor’s position—as a bridge, or near a bridge, at the edge of a cluster or at the center of a cluster, influences his or her access to resources. in addition to hierarchy, two other characteristics of social networks will inform the analysis in this paper: transitivity and homophily. transitivity means that if a is tied to b, and a is tied to c, it is likely that b is tied to c. granovetter’s work (1973, 1983, 1974/1995) on weak ties, to be discussed below, follows from this principle. homophily reflects that a person’s ties tend to be with people like them. so our personal networks tend to be homogeneous and defined by the following characteristics, in ascending order: gender, occupation, education, religion, age, and most of all race and ethnicity (mcpherson, smith-lovin, & cook, 2001). finally, two overarching approaches characterize social network analysis. whole network analysis looks at the network from the outside, with all the data that one chooses to collect on each tie and each node. personal or egocentric network analysis looks at the network from the inside, with all the data that one chooses to collect on one node (also called ego) and its ties (alters). personal networks wellman’s studies of personal networks in east york, canada, exemplify this egocentric network approach (wellman, 1979; wellman & leighton, 1979; wellman et al., 1988; wellman & wortley, 1990; wellman & hogan 2006). wellman and his research team collected data on the personal ties of residents of a working-to-middle class toronto locale. in 1968 these researchers surveyed 845 people about their six closest relationships and analyzed these partial personal networks. in 1978 they interviewed and surveyed 33 people about their current ties, focusing in their analysis on the reported 403 significant ties. the research started from a network concept of community, defining community as a set of relationships between people. wellman asked: what is community in a “large scale division of labor”—an industrialized metropolis, a so-called mass society? is community lost, saved, or liberated? lost would mean that individuals are not connected to each other and depend on bureaucratic resources for help. saved would mean that people still live in solidarities—the densely knit and geographically bounded networks seen as typical of small settlements and preindustrial societies. liberated would mean that people are neither embedded in solidarities nor alienated, but instead choose their own communities. in the analysis, east yorkers’ communities were either lost, saved, or liberated, generally according to their position in the division of labor. unemployed men and skilled tradesmen lived in community lost (they were self-sufficient or fended for themselves); people near kin or in workplaces that encouraged collegiality lived in community saved; and people climbing an occupational ladder lived in community liberated. it is important to note that even those living in community lost, without social ties, were likely to get their needs met. unless they meet their own needs, like the skilled carpenter who repairs his own home, they likely use what community studies (e.g. gans, 1962/1982) called formal bureaucracies. bureaucracy is a form of organization that is, for the purpose of most community studies, tie-free. an individual with no personal ties can still get resources from any number of institutions: banks, supermarkets, psychiatric clinics, real estate agencies, welfare departments, schools, libraries, public transit systems, and so on—although often money is required. altogether, east yorkers’ ties were to kin, family, neighbors, co-workers, and (in the case of a very few) to fellow members of voluntary or civic organizations. graphic depictions of personal networks, as in figure 2 below, were a part of wellman’s analysis. the majority of the ties were within metropolitan toronto but outside of a one-mile radius of home; transportation and communications technology had loosened (but not separated) people from their immediate neighborhoods. (homemakers were most likely to have neighborhood ties.) face-to-face and phone were the most typical modes of contact, and different contexts served for different ties, rather than a collective setting bringing many ties together. the ties were long-lived, with only one-quarter less than 10 years in duration. four-fifths of the ties were transitive and embedded—in other words, a vast majority of east yorkers’ ties were also tied to each other. the content of the ties—the resources shared—were sometimes multidimensional and sometimes focused, but generally consisted of companionship, emotional support, and small-scale services. specialized information emerged (but infrequently) as tie content: for example, two people were involved in community organizations, an animal rights activist and the mother of a child with a health condition. figure 2. typical personal network of an east yorker. from figure 2.3, wellman and berkowitz, 1988, p. 27. summing up, wellman et al. note, “we have not found communities in the traditional sense. but we have found networks, and they seem to have satisfied most east yorkers.” (wellman et al., 1988, p. 176) in this particular metropolis, the significant ties of people did not conform to a small, geographically bounded community. as we shall see, this finding, generally thought to be true across most metropolitan areas, complicate attempts to identify strong and weak ties. the strength of weak ties social network theorist granovetter (1973, 1974/1995) examined the process of getting a job. he asked how people find out about the jobs they take. he examined the tie between the jobseeker and the person who supplied the information that led to the job. (the jobseekers were all professional, technical, or managerial workers residing in a particular suburb of boston.) his is also a study of personal networks rather than whole networks, and focused solely on personal ties that provide information leading to a job that is actually taken. as such, it is an example of activity-specific network analysis, the activity being jobseeking. some respondents used bureaucratic structures to answer their needs: job agencies and classified ads. but most of the 54 people interviewed relied on their informal networks. one of granovetter’s findings was that study subjects tended to hear of the jobs they took from people who were their weak ties. looking more specifically, the informal social contacts that led to a job were skewed towards being weak ties rather than strong (granovetter, 1973, p. 1371): 16.7% of the contacts the jobseeker sees twice a week or more often; 55.6% of the contacts he sees less than twice a week but more than once a year; and 27.8% of the contacts he sees once a year or less often. granovetter proposed a model that built on the principle of transitivity described above: if a is connected to b and a is connected to c, then likely b is connected to c. furthermore, granovetter noted that if the two ties a-b and a-c were strong, then b had to be tied to c, either strongly or weakly. as a result, in his model all local bridges were necessarily weak ties. figure 3 below illustrates this rule and makes the point that some bridges are more important or critical than others. in figure 3, (b) shows a bridge, a weak tie between a and b, that is more important or critical than the a-b bridge in (a). consider how much further c and d are from b without the bridge. figure 3. examples of bridges between a and b. strong ties are solid lines; weak ties are dotted lines. in both (a) and (b), a to b is a weak tie and a bridge, but in (b), a to b is of greater importance, as the alternative paths from a to b are much longer. from figure 2, granovetter, 1973, p. 1365. information about a job is new information, so granovetter hypothesized that new information comes via weak ties, those that are local bridges in particular, and titled his 1973 paper, “the strength of weak ties.” in other words, weak ties are strong (that is, effective) when it comes to job lead information. in addition, the information paths between the jobseeker and the hiring person were found to be short (granovetter, p. 1372): 39.1% were just one tie long (the jobseeker heard about the job from the person hiring); 45.3% were two ties long (the jobseeker heard about the job from someone who was tied to the person hiring); and 3.1% were more than two ties long. as we discussed above regarding the attenuation of resource flow along ties, information leading to a job appears not to travel very far. this suggests that if a person depended only on a densely knit strong-tie network, that person would be insulated from information that would lead to a job. granovetter reasoned that job lead information from a person’s strong ties might be the same as his or her own job lead information, since a person communicates with strong ties more often, and thus a person might not use them. or, he reasoned, people might avoid querying their strong ties about a job unless they had to, so as not to strain the relationship. referring to prior theory as did wellman, granovetter (1983) examined strong ties between people, believed to result in local cohesion, and weak ties, believed to result in alienation. (as he defined them beyond his original massachusetts study, ties are weak or strong based on time spent together, emotional intensity, intimacy, and reciprocal services.) he theorized that strong ties by themselves generate fragmentation, as subgroups in a community become isolated from each other, and weak ties allow for community integration, connecting these subgroups. the event he studied, the sharing of information regarding job openings, is an example of the integration process. where weak ties are not strong many studies have cited granovetter’s strength of weak ties study; among them several that granovetter later discussed as part of an ongoing dialogue within the field (langlois, 1977; ericksen & yancey, 1980; lin et al., 1981; murray et al., 1981; boomran, 1975; cited in granovetter, 1983). a 2005 search on isi web of science identified 1,668 such articles; a search of proquest’s digital dissertations database, 111 abstracts mentioning granovetter or weak ties. but other research evidence did not completely support granovetter’s theory. to cite just a few studies, various groups were found to tend to rely on strong rather than weak ties for job leads (murray et al., 1981; ericksen & yancey, 1980; and langlois, 1977; all cited in granovetter, 1983; brenes, 1983; watanabe, 1987; triegaardt, 1992; and longjohn, 2001). these groups included newly minted phds, less well-educated philadelphians, non-managerial quebec government workers, clerical finance/insurance/real estate workers, japanese workers, laid-off south african workers, and workers with mental retardation. these results were not explained away by the fact that studies defined a weak tie in different ways, for example, as someone with whom an actor is in less frequent contact, or as a non-kin, non-friend relationship. results testing the strength of weak ties theory in domains other than that of job lead information are also mixed. of the 60 dissertation abstracts (extracted from proquest digital dissertations in 2005) that described their findings in testing the theory, 45% confirmed granovetter, 37% found that both strong and weak ties play a role, and 17% found that strong ties were preferred or preferable in achieving goals. this is summarized in table 1 below. table 1. findings of 60 dissertation abstracts which report tests of granovetter’s strength of weak ties theory (williams 2005 p 32). certain findings are generally accepted. when it comes to personal contacts for job leads, higher-status or higher-skilled jobs tend to use weak ties while lower-status or lower-skilled jobs use strong ties. this could be out of urgency, as when a person is out of work and his or her family and friends help resolve the crisis. or it could be because in lowerstatus jobs employers prefer to hire through an ethnic or other solidary group, because current workers can vouch for, train, and even discipline new hires. generally, people use strong ties for emergencies, for emotional support, or when they do not have weak ties (wasserman & faust, 1994/1999). disadvantaged people are often found to be encapsulated without weak ties outside their community, ties that could provide new information or new resources. the focus of such people, the reasoning goes, is on basic needs and emergencies, which require maintenance of strong ties (lin, 2001). another explanation for the focus on strong ties is that society has a pyramidal structure, and towards the bottom it is not as easy to access people not like you—weak ties (lin, 2001). as we have seen with wellman, however, the personal nature of community makes it unclear whether we can characterize a geographic community by the personal networks of a sampling of its residents. context is a particular lesson here. granovetter studied dyads without looking at the personal networks of the jobseekers. what might he have missed? an exchange between social network theorist granovetter and ethnographer herbert gans (gans 1974a, 1974b; granovetter 1974) is instructive here. granovetter (1973) had generalized from his jobseeker study and commented on gans’ (1962/1982) study of residents of boston’s west end, which was demolished in the late 50s without significant local mobilization. granovetter argued that the lack of successful protest was the result of the absence of weak ties across the community. gans replied that weak ties were necessary but not sufficient. he enumerated six contextual issues that he felt needed to be considered along with social network analysis: at the time there was no precedent for fighting urban renewal; residents did not get information in time; there was a lack of trust or informal contacts with politicians, and no single politician for area; there was no cultural tradition of protesting, and leader of protests was an oddball; settlement houses and catholic church were pro-renewal; and the west end was not one single community, but several neighborhoods. while many of these factors can be restated in social network terms, it is important to see that even the whole network approach granovetter takes in the debate with gans, looking at cliques and the absence of ties between them, could be incomplete, let alone the dyad approach that he took in his own study. at the same time, the discussion between the two scholars helped to replace an old paradigm (strong ties as key and weak ties as a drift into individual alienation) with a new paradigm: weak ties make a society whole. furthermore, later work rooted in social network theory found that weak ties strengthen a community over time, by their very persistence. in sum: the social network literature examines social phenomena as activity across a network of actors with various ties between them. granovetter (1973) asserted that weak ties were strong; in other words, as his data indicated, they were the dominant source of new information—information that led to a new job. scholars have since explored the comparative roles of strong and weak ties. these roles are not completely understood, particularly in disadvantaged settings, and they are explored by the community informatics studies we will review. the fundamental question is how do our social networks help us initiate and sustain social activity. this applies to community informatics as well as to social life in general. social capital the literature of social capital is distinct from, but convergent with, social network theory. this section will review the work of james coleman, robert putnam, and nan lin to demonstrate how this is so, and will arrive at a continuing question in the social capital literature concerning bonding and bridging social capital, a question taken up in the community informatics studies we review. social capital to explain group behavior coleman (1988) advanced social capital as a conceptual tool for resolving two conflicting theories on how microstructures in society generate macrostructures. one theory, typically sociological, held that the actions of people are governed by norms, rules and obligations; the other, usually from the point of view of economics, held that people are independent and self-interested and act to maximize their own utility. the first theory erased agency; the latter did not allow for social or collective organization. social capital, coleman felt, would put economic rationality into a social context. echoing social network theory, coleman identified social capital as something inherent in the structure of relations between actors. his examples were of the trust that is possible within a stable set of people: among diamond merchants based on family and religious ties; among members of secret cells in the korean student movement based on common hometown or school or church; and among merchants in an egyptian market based on family ties and business longevity. he pointed up two features of social capital. the first was multiplexity, where two actors have multiple dimensions to their relationship, as in the case of two friends who attend the same church and whose children attend the same school. closure was the second, where everyone in a set of people knows at least two other people in that set and therefore has recourse to sanctions against any other person in the group. looking for empirical evidence of family social capital, he analyzed data on school dropouts. the data revealed that children in smaller, intact (that is, two-parent) families, where the mother expects children to attend college, evidence a lower dropout rate. he explained this as the children benefiting from a larger measure of social capital from their parents, social capital that expresses itself as attention and support. coleman also measured lower dropout rates among children at parochial schools, and ascribed this to increased social capital represented in their ties to parents, classmates, and teachers. the actors in this close-knit setting would be expected to have both multiplex ties and closure. coleman’s descriptions are generally of social capital via strong ties, and the two features he describes map to strong ties: multiplexing has its analogue in the social network literature where wellman discusses multistranded ties, and the concept of closure echoes the concept of densely knit social networks. in conclusion, coleman warns that family and community ties seem to be weakening, so that in the future we will rely more on formal organizations than on informal networks, echoing community lost sentiments of social network theorists and presaging the work of putnam. social capital to maintain the fabric of civil society putnam (1995, 2000) examines social capital via a focus on the relationship between democracy and civil society. as did coleman, putnam formulates a definition of social capital that relies on social networks: “connections among individuals—social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them.” (2000, p. 19) putnam argues that social capital is declining in the u.s., on the basis of three indicators for which he reports a great deal of survey data: fewer people are members or active in civic associations and organizations; families spend less time together; and neighborliness and socializing with neighbors is down. he covers both bonding and bridging social capital and makes an important point: “in short, bonding and bridging are not ‘either-or’ categories into which social networks can be neatly divided, but ‘more or less’ dimensions along which we can compare different forms of social capital.” (2000, p. 23) this helps to explain gans’ urban villagers: people in strong-tie networks based in microneighborhoods composed of a few blocks each, and very few weak or bridging ties holding the larger west end together. it also helps us reconcile the varying definitions of weak ties and strong ties. the two types of ties are relative, not absolute, and depend on scale. for wellman and many others, strong ties were kin and friends, weak ties were acquaintances and co-workers. the community he looked for and did not find was east york; what he found were personal networks ranging for the most part across metropolitan toronto, on the basis of the phone, transportation, and work and home mobility. for granovetter, strong ties were “see twice a week or more” and weak were “see once a year or less.” social capital to obtain resources putnam’s book (2000) was very much taken up by the media, policymakers, and scholars, some of whom took issue with it. lin (2001) catalogs those who have refuted putnam for his method. he himself takes a different approach, both theoretical and empirical: first laying out a theory of social capital which is more precise than putnam’s usage, and then concluding with a look at new information technologies, more specifically, cybernetworks, as an explosion of social capital. lin (2001) discusses social capital against a background: capital (marx 1887/1938), human capital (schultz,1961; becker, 1964), and cultural capital (bourdieu & passeron, 1970/1990). he defines social capital so as to be measurable, not confounded with its effects, and explicitly based on social network theory: “resources embedded in social networks that can be mobilized when an actor wishes to increase the likelihood of success in a purposive action.” (lin, p. 24) he identifies four controversies within the social capital literature and gives his answers. first, is social capital a collective or an individual asset? it can be seen as both, he says, but you cannot mix it up with trust or norms, which are collective assets only. thus lin comments: “divorced from its roots in individual interaction and networking, social capital becomes just another trendy term to employ or deploy in the broad context of improving or building social integration and solidarity.” (lin, p. 26) second, lin asks if social capital arises from closure or from open networks. he credits granovetter (1973) with establishing that weak ties bring resources too, and summarizes what is generally accepted, though not always proven: dense networks, or bonding ties, help preserve or maintain resources and are activated by expressive action, while bridging ties help with searching for and obtaining resources and are activated by instrumental ties. third, does social capital include all social structural resources that generate returns? not according to lin, or the researcher risks definitional fuzziness where the cause and the effect are the same. fourth, is social capital measurable? yes, and lin briefly discusses two classes of measuring instruments. lin lays out a seven-part theory of social capital with three assumptions upon which this theory is based. first, the assumptions (lin, 2001, pp. 56–58): society is hierarchical and pyramidal with respect to resources: there is a top and a bottom, and the top is smaller than the bottom. different resources show identical or similar pyramids. interactions are more likely at a similar or identical level in the pyramid. two driving forces are the maintaining of resources and the gaining of better resources. for the former, expressive action is the means and the end, it is stabilizing, and it tends to take place between homophilous ties (that is, ties between two people who are alike in some way). for the latter, instrumental action is the means (and not the end), and rather than stabilizing it aims at change, and tends to take place between heterophilous ties. lin’s seven propositions follow (lin, pp. 59–73): social capital pays a return—improves an actor’s outcomes—and is therefore worth investing. accessing social capital is a function of one’s position in the hierarchy, the nature of the tie, and the location in a network. strength of position: higher in the hierarchy means better social capital. strength of strong tie: strong ties serve better for expressive action. strength of weak tie: weak ties serve better for instrumental action. strength of location: closer to a bridge is better for instrumental action. position, tie and location all interact; thus the resource differential across a bridge influences the strength of the location near a bridge. structural contingency: at the top of a pyramid, there is not much further to go, so instrumental action is not as worthwhile. at the bottom of a pyramid, there are so many people and so many homophilous ties that instrumental action is not as possible. the middle of the pyramid is where social capital can best serve for instrumental action. with this as his operating framework, lin then uses the data on growing internet use worldwide, together with a case study of the falung gong movement, to argue, “there is clear evidence that social capital has been on the ascent in the past decade: in the form of networks in cyberspace.” (2001, p. 211) he further points out that those not online are at an ever-greater disadvantage, cut off from this explosion in social networks and social capital. the concepts of bonding and bridging social capital refer to a community’s capacity for accessing resources within itself (bonding) or outside itself (bridging). under-resourced communities are said to depend on bridging social capital (putnam, 2000) similar to strong and weak ties (wellman & berkowitz, 1988); yet it has also been asserted that social networks entirely within these communities muster valuable resources and demonstrate a level of self-sufficiency. this is particularly true for social change, as studies of the u.s. civil rights movement have demonstrated (morris, 1984). others have theorized that such communities mobilize both bonding and bridging social capital (orr, 1999). again, we arrive at a basic question: where, when, and how does a community rely on bonding social capital and, similarly, on bridging social capital? community informatics as previously stated, community informatics emerged as a field of research in search of theory. in our analysis above, it is clear that rich theoretical content is available in the related theoretical frameworks of social networks and social capital. how do the relationships between people serve as the basis of social life? how do our social relationships differ in importance? these theoretical questions are central to understanding technology in communities. specifically, the issue can be broken down as how a community starts to use information technology for its purposes, and how it sustains that use. what social networks are important? what kind of social capital? in the following section we will describe the nature and origins of community informatics and then analyze the research literature that is beginning to coalesce around the theoretical foci of social networks and social capital. the purpose of this section is to elucidate what scholars of community informatics have suggested about the relationship between social capital/social networks and community technology, and to point up an opportunity for further inquiry, an opportunity that the study seizes upon. the section will first define community informatics, and then discuss the roots of community informatics, the main ideas, and those studies in community informatics that use the concepts of social capital and social networks. what is community informatics? community informatics is a field both of study and of practice, although the concern here is primarily with the former. as a new field, it is variously defined, but loader has described it as navigating the interaction between transformation as expressed in information technology or it, and continuity as expressed in a local, historical community (loader et al., 2000; cited in keeble & loader 2001, p. 4). this is a specification or subset of the field of social informatics: “the interdisciplinary study of the design, uses and consequences of information technologies that takes into account their interaction with institutional and cultural contexts.” (kling, 1999) the case study is perhaps the predominant research method to date, with scholars often engaged alongside practitioners as designers of community technology. where social informatics historically has most often concerned itself with organizational settings, particularly business and government, community informatics looks at a third terrain of social activity, the community. the concept of community and the tensions within that concept when contextualized in the nascent information society form the core ideas of community informatics. the challenge of defining and explaining community is not a new one. with the last major wave of u.s. migration from country to city, the fate of community within the metropolis occupied a generation of scholars, who themselves referenced the scholarship of those who had earlier grappled with the migration to cities during europe’s industrialization (e.g., tönnies, 1887/1957). community is variously defined in the social sciences and has been examined in many of its guises in community informatics literature. it may refer to a population living within certain geographic boundaries (local community). this definition is bolstered by the fact that planning and the flow of funds are channeled according to those boundaries and political battles are often fought within these jurisdictions. especially early on, various cities implemented community it projects (for a comparison of four cities, see guthrie & dutton, 1992). but there are communities within these local communities, as for instance the communities of interest that contended—the homeless and their allies, and local business and real estate interests—within santa monica’s public electronic network (rogers, collins-jarvis, & schmitz, 1994). furthermore, there are communities that do not share a geographic locale, most dramatically the diasporic communities that have taken to the internet to maintain close ties with people far away, for example trinidadians (miller & slater, 2000). from these examples it is evident that community may refer to people with a shared identity. it may refer to people with a shared interest or activity (communities of interest, communities of practice), as for instance the work of bishop, mehra, and smith (2001) on a community it tool for african american women working on health issues. it may also refer to a gathering of people in cyberspace according to shared geography, identity, or interest; rheingold’s two books on computer networks (1993) and on cell phone networks (2002), respectively, come to mind. wellman (2002) has more recently advanced the concept of networked individualism, whereby every individual and his or her ties represent a distinct personal community, more or less place based. benjamin (2001) used a recursive definition of community—“people living in a geospatial area who define themselves as part of a community”—in order to analyze why some telecenters succeeded and others failed to attract local involvement. this definition has a history in ethnography and acknowledges that communities are quite often self-identified or socially identified. there are tensions and overlaps between these various communities. the field of community informatics, by looking at the interaction between transformation and continuity, between digital technologies and community, is building up a picture of what community looks like and how it is evolving as we move from the industrial to the information age. below we will review those community informatics studies that make use of the concepts of social capital and social network and present one way to make sense of the apparently disparate case studies that are all grappling with the same interaction. it is worth mentioning that, for scholars in community informatics, the scaffolding of the field features two particular processes that have contributed to the drawing together of english-speaking scholars via conferences, proceedings volumes and at least one journal. the first of these two processes is the series of seven dimensions in advanced computing (diac) conferences sponsored by computer programmers (later professionals) for social responsibility since 1987; this has generated both proceedings volumes and edited books (most recently, day & schuler, 2003; schuler & day, 2004; and schuler, in press). the organizer, douglas schuler, is a cofounder of seattle community network, has launched and operates an undergraduate program in community informatics, and authored new community networks: wired for change (1996). the second process has been anchored in teesside, england, where brian loader and others have generated a flow of authored or edited work (loader, 1997, 1998; loader & hague, 1999; loader & thomas, 2000; keeble & loader, 2001; loader & dutton, 2002; loader, van de donk, nixon, & rucht, 2003; loader & keeble, 2004), at least one conference, and the quarterly journal information, communication and society (since 1998), all while guiding several community it projects. other contributions towards building the field include (1) the work of gurstein (2000) defining community informatics and bringing particular attention to work in australia and canada, (2) conferences organized by him and others from england, australia, and the u.s. via the community informatics research network, and (3) the somewhat more broad but still highly useful conferences of the association for internet research (annual since 2000) and the journals first monday (launched 1996), the information society (1981), and new media and society (1999), and most recently the journal of community informatics (2004). the roots of community informatics it is possible to identify four important social trends that gave rise to community informatics, and these have their reflection in the field’s still-coalescing literature. these four trends are listed below, and they each have generated scholarly work that forms a foundation for community informatics, as we shall see: change in social structure: the network society changing, and even threatening, local communities; change in culture: the hacker ethic; changes in libraries: the community information systems; and change in social inequality: the digital divide. the network society is changing and even threatening local communities. today we have a society characterized by networks rather than organizations, flexible production with a flexible workforce, with an economy that is globally coordinated in real (or chosen, as with e-mail) time. a new space has been identified that contrasts with the space of place (geographic communities): the space of flows, that is, the sum total of all the communications and transportations flows that link the global, mobile network of human networks (castells, 1996). the world’s economies (east and west) took up digital technologies even as they experienced the economic crises of the 1960s and 70s; what has resulted is spaces of place that are threatened, because they are mostly bypassed, by the space of flows. in the industrialized countries, one can think of the u.s. rust belt or vast stretches of the north of england as thus threatened. other spaces of place, such as silicon valley, california, have certainly been transformed, and yet even there the space of flows has left toxic dumps with which the space of place has to cope. as has been mentioned, local governments have responded with digital initiatives of their own. for example, in the early 1990s santa monica, california, made available to its residents free online discussion lists, accessible in public libraries or from home, and access to city officials (rogers et al., 1994). some years later lagrange, georgia, offered its entire population free cable internet (youtie, shapira, and laudeman, 2002). an early reflection in academia of this space of place-space of flows, or network-communities, conflict was a 1996 colloquium that arose from a dialogue between two mutually exclusive groups in urban planning at mit, one focused on opportunities for new technologies and the other on low-income communities. a record of this colloquium, which opened with a presentation by manuel castells, was published as high technology and low-income communities (schön, sanyal, & mitchell, 1999). it discusses, but does not name, community informatics. the hacker ethic is what himanen (2001) calls “the spirit of the information age.” 1 he has defined the hacker ethic as the practice of building computers and writing code for the fun of it, for the creativity of it, and for the community-building. this ethic expressed itself in the origins of the personal computer in the milieu of the homebrew computer club and in the production of linux and other such software. it also expressed itself in projects where hackers joined up with others to produce such tools as the volunteer projects that built on plato, where by 1972 hackers and teachers were writing online courses for all levels of students (woolley, 1994); berkeley community memory, the networked public terminals installed in 1973 to provide an online bulletin board for all passersby (felsenstein & aboba, 1994); community technology centers (ctcs) such as playing to win, opened in 1983 by a math teacher in a harlem housing project (stone, 1996); and freenets or community networks (cns) such as the cleveland free-net, which began life in 1984 as st. silicon’s hospital and information dispensary, an online communications tool for doctors and patients (bluming, n.d.). cns and ctcs each developed into international movements, with associations, publications, and annual conferences for practitioners. community technology projects emerged out of the grassroots—as in inner-city toledo, ohio (alkalimat & williams, 2001) and inner-city wilmington, north carolina (mele, 1999)—and blossomed in both virtual and actual space. community information systems in public libraries came into being in the 1970s, when urban communities in crisis needed places for local information concerning where to find food, health care, housing, civil rights, legal aid assistance, and other local services that were available. in response, librarians began to build community information files as an appropriate extension of their local holdings. (durrance, 1984) these files were collections of flyers, booklets, and directories to help people in need. when card catalogues were converted into online databases, in many cases the community information was as well. when these online databases became web-accessible, in many cases these community information files followed suit, especially where links had been built between cns and local libraries. in some cases libraries took over the operations of cns, extending their activity from collecting information for the everyday needs of individuals and communities to facilitating the creation of such information (durrance & pettigrew, 2002; durrance, souden, walker & fisher 2005). a library school professor at the university of michigan helped shepherd the association for community networking into existence; she organized her students into newsletter editors and eventually archivists for the movement, establishing the community connector (durrance, 1994), an online resource for this movement. today library or information schools are important sites in the us for community informatics teaching, research, and service. the fourth and final social trend that created a foundation for community informatics was the discourse and the activity around the concept of the digital divide. as has been said, this concept emerged as a gap between those who access and use computers and the internet and those who do not. in the united states, the department of commerce was an early catalyst for both research and policy on this issue, launching a series of survey reports on the access and use by individuals of computers and later the internet, and annual rounds of grantmaking (tiaap, later the technology opportunities program, or top) to communities and local organizations to support community it projects. this federal initiative was rooted in the economic imperative to develop a market for computers and for e-business and to develop a skilled workforce via education and public provision of it. experiments such as top (williams, 2006) were echoed by private and other public funders, including technology companies and even the national science foundation, which helped playing to win launch the now-nationwide community technology centers network. one could certainly say that the dot-com technology bubble fueled the digital divide discourse in the u.s., with corporations taking on local and national projects. all these influences created a big tent for study and practice regarding the phenomenon of stratification in information technology access and use. these four trends continue to influence and interweave with each other, and are reflected in a literature that emanates from many disciplines. they express the shifting definitions of community in community informatics and are examples of how transformation and continuity express themselves in these variously defined communities. community informatics and social capital/social network theory social capital and social networks are the two theories that we are using to sift through community informatics scholarship and explore the question of community as it intersects with technology. o’neil (2002) reviewed more than 30 studies of community technology and social capital emerged as one of the top three conceptual frameworks for evaluating such projects. our search of the literature identified a group of scholarly studies, sometimes reported in more than one journal article, that make use the concepts of either social networks or social capital. a number of them also use the strength of weak ties theory. this section will summarize these studies and what they suggest about the relationship between social networks (or social capital) and community technology, what they imply for future research. each of the studies looks at the relationship between technology and community, conceptualizing community either in terms of social networks or social capital, sometimes using the language of both. the analysis is strong on description and narrative, but has not been thoroughly synthesized by equally strong work on general concepts and theory. our objective is to construct a framework that will help explain theoretically this diverse empirical literature. each study defines community technology practically, empirically, as the particular technology project under study. these include: virtual communities, often called community networks (cns), which are facilities in cyberspace using a website or other tools people can use once they get online. telecenters, also called community technology centers (ctcs), which are physical facilities equipped and staffed (often with volunteers) where people can use and learn computers and the internet, usually for free. cybercafés, much like telecenters, but more often for profit, charging fees, and perhaps providing some food with its pcs. high-speed connections in local homes and a local community listserv. the most elaborate instance of community technology in this review of studies is blacksburg electronic village, which supported electronic discussion lists, gave grants for people to develop web sites, provided server space, tech support, and high-speed public internet access points. williams (2005) studied it use by community groups, where the technology use developed organically from group goals rather than arriving in the community as one project. but in general, all these studies are either of virtual tools (cns), physical tools (telecenters/ctcs/cybercafés), or some combination of both delivered to the community. hence it is possible to call them community technology. it must be said that our review of the studies of technology in local communities and social capital/social networks relies on a particular conceptualization of the relationship between technology and society. although in everyday language we are accustomed to speaking of the social impact of technology, technology does not itself cause social change. rather, any particular technology—itself a social product—generates social affordances (gibson, 1977; norman, 1988). these affordances allow for certain possibilities and not others. social forces then interact with the technology, often combining it with old technologies still in place. the results may reflect what designers intended, or what was neither expected nor intended (merton, 1976; tenner, 1996). in a social setting of relative stability and consensus, a technology may be adopted as intended; in a more typical social setting, characterized by social differences and conflicts that may themselves overlap, the results may be more surprising (kling, 1980). therefore, society shapes technology; technology also shapes society (mackenzie & wajcman, 1985; bijker, hughes, & pinch, 1987). the cases in these studies either focus on community technology shaping social networks/social capital or social networks/social capital shaping community technology, or a combination of the two processes. in the following pages, we will review them according to this categorization, summarize their findings with regard to strong and weak ties, and draw a framework by taking all the studies together. for clarity, the studies are listed at the start of each of the three sections in which they are discussed. (a table detailing each study is available from the first author.) does community technology shape social networks/social capital? the following studies examine the effect of community technology on either social networks or social capital: kavanaugh, 1999; kavanaugh & patterson, 2001; blanchard & horan, 2000; hampton & wellman, 2000; hampton, 2003; hampton & wellman, 2003; tonn, zambrano, & moore, 2001; ferlander & timms, 2001; ferlander, 2002; ferlander, 2003; kvasny, 2002; meredyth, hopkins, ewing, & thomas, 2002; clark, 2003; pinkett, 2003; and pinkett & o’bryant, 2003. all but two of the studies find that community technology does indeed contribute to social capital/social networks. of those that explore weak ties and strong ties, only strong ties are augmented in one instance, in an australian housing estate (what the u.s. calls a public housing project); only weak ties are augmented in two instances, in a denver youth-serving telecenter and at the end of the netville project in a toronto suburb; and both kinds of ties are augmented in three instances, in a stockholm cybercafé, at an earlier stage in the netville project, and in blacksburg, virginia (where weak were augmented more than strong). an additional complexity is that each study defines strong and weak ties somewhat differently. these definitions are detailed below and in table 2, also below. in large part these are case studies, together representing fewer than 50 instances of community technology. judging from williams (2003), which used an empirical count in one city (williams & alkalimat, 2004) to estimate a total of 85,000 to 114,000 u.s. public computing sites, these 25 represent a tiny fraction of all the community technology projects in the world. nevertheless, what exactly did they find? kavanaugh (1999; also in kavanaugh & patterson, 1998) asked, what is the relationship between computer networks, social networks, and civic engagement? working in a small affluent u.s. city, kavanaugh interviewed 10 people, each of whom was a member of a social network that had an online presence (kavanaugh, p. 6) by means of the blacksburg electronic village (bev), and found that the information technology, especially e-mail and listservs, reinforced and extended social networks. using the internet to garner resources suggested that it was weak ties social networks, but data from seniors demonstrated that social support, within-group strong ties, were also reinforced and extended by technology. a related study (kavanaugh & patterson, 2001) asked if a community computer network was a way to build social capital. considering again the effect of the bev in the form of listservs, grants for web development, server space, tech support, and high-speed public internet access points, they carried out two surveys of blacksburg residents (n=156 and n=320). they were not able to measure an increase in community involvement and attachment over the period that bev had grown, but they did see an increase in community communication. they found that length of use of the internet was directly related to (1) use of the internet for social capital and (2) a sense of increased community involvement. blanchard and horan (2000) surveyed 342 people in a mid-sized california city that was about to get a virtual community (i.e., a cn). following putnam’s thesis (2000), they wanted to know if virtual communities could “compensate for a decrease in social capital due to a decreased participation in face-to-face communities.” they also asked what topics would attract people’s virtual participation. they concluded that people would indeed make use of a new virtual space and interact with their neighbors, building social capital by using child education resources, community bulletin boards, communicating with family and friends, and participating in government or politics. hampton and wellman (2000) asked how living in a wired neighborhood affects interpersonal relations. they carried out a two-year case study of a middle-income suburban development in toronto (netville) where close to half the residents were provided with a high-speed internet connection and a residents’ listserv. they found that wired households evidenced more social ties of every type: strong, weak, instrumental, emotional, social, and affiliative. their operationalization of strong and weak included three categories: host someone at your home or vice versa (strong); talk with regularly (weak); or the knowing tie, recognize someone by name. based on a survey of 65 wired and unwired households, hampton (2003) analyzed the end stage of the netville project when the community had begun to fight the development project over house repairs and over withdrawing the high-speed internet. he suggested that information technology only contributed to weak ties, defined as above. analysis of participant observation and interview data (hampton & wellman, 2003) finds that a household’s being wired was associated with and a causal factor in more weak ties. tonn et al. (2001) examined 40 cn web sites based in a variety of communities and countries to see what are typical and cutting-edge features of cns and how might they foster an increase in social capital. they looked for nine features they identified as fostering social capital as defined by putnam: helping people be better citizens; fostering direct democracy; helping students interact with the larger community; letting citizens comment on proposed new developments; fostering barter and other alternative economics; building an “organic online community history”; bringing citizens together for mentoring; and paying special attention to seniors and low-income communities. of the 40 cns, eight appeared to have one or more social-capital-building features. ferlander (2002, p. 1) asked, “to what extent can the use of an internet café increase social capital in a local community?” she found that community technology, namely a cybercafé in a disadvantaged and multiethnic stockholm suburb, strengthens both weak ties (defined as ties to people emotionally distant) and strong ties (to people who are emotionally close). her studies investigated the effect of use of two distinct community technology projects (an internet café and a cn) on social capital in a local community. in another small survey, residents expected the cn to generate social capital (ferlander & timms, 2001), but it did not attract enough users to carry on, perhaps due to a requirement that all posts be in swedish, and what might have followed from that, a sense of surveillance by system operators. kvasny (2002) studied a ctc run by the city of atlanta to determine the relationship between participating in a technology-rich environment and one’s life chances and examined the process by which technology reproduced social stratification. she defined social capital, after bourdieu, as social networks that improve one’s social standing, and found that community technology reproduced social stratification rather than fostering people’s social development. inner-city atlantans were given what she called “light training” (p. 200) which would not help them move forward in career or in life. the ctc in fact acculturated them to a new setting for relative powerlessness and exclusion. she proposes that a different approach to community technology could instead boost participants’ social capital. a study by meredyth et al. (2002) asks, “what is community?” in a heavily immigrant, impoverished, multilingual housing estate in australia. these researchers found that community technology strengthens strong ties rather than weak ties. their technology project was comprised of recycled home computers, subsidized internet access, classes, a computer lab, and online community information. they define bonding social capital, or strong ties, as the links within distinct language or country-of-origin networks connecting residents to family and friends in a home country, and bridging capital, or weak ties, as local communication and exchange between residents. they found that the estate consisted of multiple bonding social capital networks with almost no bridging social capital or weak ties, and that the computer lab and the training (the rest of the project had not yet been rolled out), was used only for e-mail and exchange with the diasporic communities—and hence augmented only the bonding social capital. not only does this echo gans’ urban villagers, who were also recent immigrants, the study begins to bridge the two models we are discussing (social capital/social networks as they influence it and it as it influences social capital/social networks). meredyth et al examine the social capital that preceded the community technology as well as that resulting from it. so, in a community where bonding ties predominate, community technology augments and extends those, but not bridging ties. the obverse is true for the other studies in this subset; when they examine people whose ties are mostly weak, community technology augments and extends those ties rather than the strong ties. haythornthwaite and wellman’s finding (2002) may hold here: technology augments and extends what already exists, rather than making any dramatic change. yet augmenting and extending what ties exist is often quite meaningful in and of itself. in an ethnography of a youth-oriented ctc in denver, clark (2003) asks how digital divide policy is actually practiced and finds broad gaps between partners and between policy and practice. she also makes use of granovetter and of oldenberg’s concept of third places (1997) in concluding that young people’s gaming and other typical teen online activities builds their weak tie networks, ties to a “wider circle of resources and opportunities than…through their family or peer contacts.” (clark, p. 109) using bourdieu, she concludes that these networks enable them to “do such things as find employment, locate housing, and otherwise function in society.” (p. 109) pinkett (2003) and pinkett and o’bryant (2003) ask, “how can community social capital be increased and community cultural capital be activated through community technology?” they themselves install new home computers and high-speed internet, and implement computer classes and community-building software in a housing development created by privatizing (selling to a tenants group) a public housing development. they also survey 58 heads of households living in the development. residents were seen to expand their local ties and their access to information. social networks were seen to become more dense, and ties stronger, for those engaged in the community technology project compare to those not engaged. these ties was measured as visiting other residents at home, as well as phoning, e-mailing, and recognizing them by name. do social networks/social capital shape community technology? importantly, all but two of the studies report that social capital and/or social networks do indeed augment or otherwise influence community technology. turning the model in the first set of studies around, reversing the direction of influence, the following studies examined the effect of social networks or social capital on community technology: liff and steward, 2001a, 2001b; borgida et al., 2002; kvasny and keil, 2002; and williams, 2005. most of the previous set of studies considered community deficits in social capital, following putnam, and asked whether community technology might reverse these deficits and improve the situation. the studies that consider preexisting social networks and social capital in the community, before the arrival of the technology project, take a point of view close to the asset-based community development model elaborated by kretzmann and mcknight (1993), in which all communities have assets that can be mobilized to improve conditions. taken together, they report that social capital is a powerful influence on technology. in fact, except for williams (2005) they provide more evidence of projects suffering because of a lack of attention to the positive influence of social capital than of projects that mobilize social capital and see the benefits. their research issues a call for better policy to help such projects take hold and succeed. liff and steward (2001a, 2001b) ask how policy prescriptions guiding the establishment of telecenters stack up against practice. analyzing a rural uk youth-serving telecenter, they find that rather than the prescribed strong-tie reliance, it is weak ties in a community that support the technology and help it serve the community. both types of social capital bolster the technology project; weak ties help more than strong ties. the authors construct a network diagram of the telecenter and its board, staff, partners, and clients in order to illustrate this. in their view, weak ties are deemphasized in policy directives and often overlooked in practice, to the detriment of the community technology project. by strong ties the authors mean more intimate, multistranded, mutual ties based in kinship and the traditional community, and by weak ties they mean “boundary spanners,” people who are in two or more organizations (liff & steward, 2001b, p. 322). borgida et al. (2002) ask what role social capital plays in addressing the digital divide. in a comparative case study of two rural minnesota towns, each of which develop community networks that include internet service provision, they find that the town with more social capital evidences a more positive attitude towards the internet and eliminates income-based disparities in computer and internet use. this town develops its technology collaboratively with support from a local foundation and the department of commerce. the town with less social capital, which pursues networking via an entrepreneurial, competitive approach, evidences a more negative attitude towards the internet and income-based disparities in computer and internet use persist, and are even justified by locals. the two community networks in this town are set up by the municipal utility and a competing businessman. kvasny and keil (2002) investigate responses by two municipalities to local digital divide initiatives and ask why they were less successful than expected. one is the city of atlanta, with its string of city-operated telecenters, and the other is lagrange, georgia, which offered free cable internet access, set-top boxes for web access via television, and e-mail accounts to all residents. in both cases, disregard for existing social networks and social capital kept the projects from greater success. in atlanta, existing social networks brought people into the centers, but their social capital was disregarded. in lagrange, the absence of positive word-of-mouth across poor neighborhoods left people who were not familiar with the internet uninterested and suspicious. williams (2005) investigates 31 grassroots community groups in disadvantaged areas of manchester, england, using information technology and the social ties that support their it use. she asks: “how and to what purpose do groups not expected to use it—because they are formed from “digitally divided” populations—in fact do so? who or what helps them use it?” the study incorporates key concepts from social capital and social network theory, with particular refernce to the scholarship of granovetter, lin, putnam, and wellman cited above. she examines strong and weak ties and bridging and bonding social capital by focusing on where community groups sought and obtained help with it. in this study, having more ties providing it help—and more strong ties, more bonding social capital—was associated with more extensive ict use by the community groups. based on 25 measures of it use, the groups fell into three categories: downloading (using computers and the internet, particularly e-mail), uploading (maintaining a group web presence), and cyberorganizing (helping others to become uploaders or downloaders), in order of breadth of it use. these three categories align with group purpose (tenant groups, cultural groups, and social support groups), suggesting that community groups use it in close alignment with group purpose, much as orlikowski (1993) suggested for business. the 31 groups reached across real or perceived digital divides in accessing help with it; the ties utilized were likely to be younger, white, more male, and more in the workforce. williams uses both quantitative (statistical tests on closed-end responses) and qualitative (narratives extracted from interviews) approaches, and comments that social disadvantage is often oversimplified, not taking into account the phenomenon she uncovers: groups that reach across ethnicity, class, gender, and generations for skilled help, yet stay close to their strong-tie, bonding-social-capital networks, relying largely on people in their own communities. it projects are advised to take into account the relatively invisible but active networks within disadvantaged communities. these scholars’ research establishes that existing social capital and social networks are an influence on a local community’s use of information technology. do social networks/social capital and community technology shape each other? finally, two studies by kavanaugh, reese, carroll, and rosson (2003) and alkalimat and williams (2001) examine both processes, social networks/social capital shaping technology, and technology shaping social networks/social capital. this research explores the model as below: social capital/social networks → technology → social capital/social networks where the arrows signify the process of shaping, or influence. with regard to the first arrow, in the model, kavanaugh, reese, carroll, and rosson (2003) find that the people with more weak ties to start with increase their social capital the most. with regard to the second arrow, they find that community technology does, indeed, build social capital in the local community. in other words, the social networks/social capital that can take the most advantage of community technology is the weak tie, bridging type of social capital. examining again the blacksburg electronic village, kavanaugh et al ask how strength of ties and internet use influence what they call “community involvement and collective efficacy” (kavanaugh et al., p. 265)—a concept close to local social capital. the internet use that the study examines is specifically group use: organizational e-mail, listservs, online bulletin boards and web sites. people with weak ties (members of more than one organization) boost their local community involvement and connections more than people without weak ties (members of just one organization), and they also use the internet more for political purposes. kavanaugh et al define strong ties as thick trust, bonding social capital, and intensive daily contact for support and mutuality within homogeneous and exclusive communities. they define weak ties as thin trust, bridging social capital, less personal, for instrumental purposes, information sharing, and linking homogeneous groups to integrate them into one social environment. alkalimat and williams (2001) start out analyzing the social capital as an input into a telecenter in toledo, ohio (usa), but their findings lead them to an extended model. they define bonding social capital as support from members of the church that founded the telecenter, and from neighborhood residents, and bridging capital as support from local university staff and students and from local government agencies. bonding social capital is the fundamental resource that makes something belong to a community. without this form of community wealth and legitimacy the organization is an artificial construct. bridging social capital is essential in acquiring temporary resources and external support. whenever bridging social capital is dominant the organization is in crisis and in danger of dying or being transformed as an extension of external interests rather than the interest of the original community and its bonding social capital. they also find that sustainability is a function of whether the center produces its own bonding social capital that knits the local community more tightly to the telecenter itself. weak ties and strong ties studies that look at strong and weak ties, or bonding and bridging capital capital, are looking more closely at the shape and texture of the local community that is using it. here the definitions in ferlander (2003) and meredyth et al. (2002) exemplify a challenge in synthesizing the work on community technology and social capital. for ferlander, bridging ties are what she calls “global,” (ferlander, p. 83) to people outside the local community, while bonding ties are to people within the local community. for meredyth et al. it is the opposite: bridging ties are to people inside the local community but not of one’s own language group or nationality, and bonding ties are to one’s own language group or nationality, either local or global. the two studies develop their diametrically opposed formulations despite the fact that both look at multiethnic or multinational urban communities: just outside stockholm with “28% foreign citizens born abroad or in sweden or foreign-born swedish citizens,” (ferlander, p. 8) and atherton gardens housing estate with 64% of tenants “born in asia, predominantly vietnam …[and] only 14% of residents born in australia” (meredyth et al.). in fact, as discussed earlier, the studies define strong and weak ties rather differently. (see table 2.) hampton and wellman operationalize the two (strong and weak ties) as a continuum, from strong to weak to knowing tie. in the sense of a “great good place,” (oldenburg, 1997) clark’s study of a telecenter in denver describes weak ties as young people at the facility meeting people they would not otherwise. alkalimat and williams (2001) define bonding social capital as resulting from connections to the very immediate local neighborhood of the telecenter; bridging social capital as resulting from government and university connections. williams (2005) uses several definitions culled from other empirical work. table 2 below details how strong and weak ties and bridging and bonding social capital (if mentioned) are defined in each study. object of analysis (citation) definitions of strong/weak ties definitions of bonding/bridging social capital community ict package, blacksburg electronic village (kavanaugh 1999, kavanaugh et al. 2003) strong ties = bonding social capital = thick trust = intensive daily contact, in homogeneous exclusive communities capable of exercising sanctions ... support, mutuality weak ties = bridging social capital = thin trust = less personal, links groups to integrate them in one social environment ... instrumental, information resources, increased reach. people who are bridges are members of 2 or more community groups. strong ties = bonding social capital = thick trust = intensive daily contact, in homogeneous exclusive communities capable of exercising sanctions ... support, mutuality weak ties = bridging social capital = thin trust = less personal, links groups to integrate them in one social environment ... instrumental, information resources, increased reach. people who are bridges are members of 2 or more community groups. listserv and high-speed internet in suburban toronto development (hampton 2003, hampton and wellman 2000, 2003) operationalized three kinds of ties: strong ties = invited over, or invited over weak ties = talk to regularly knowing ties = recognize by name (concepts not used) telecenter in rural england (liff and steward 2001b) strong ties = more intimate, multiple bases for interaction, mutuality; kinship, traditional community ties; provide a rance of resources in times of need weak ties = boundary spanning. people who are boundary spanners are members of 2+ groups. (concepts not used) computer classes as beginning of community ict package delivered to australian housing estate (meredyth et al. 2002) bonding social capital = strong ties in small groups = e-mail and exchange with diasporic community bridging social capital = weak ties between many people = local communication and exchange between residents bonding social capital = strong ties in small groups = e-mail and exchange with diasporic community bridging social capital = weak ties between many people = local communication and exchange between residents youth telecenter in denver (clark 2003) strong ties not used or defined weak ties = those fostered in informal meeting places (concepts not used) cybercafé in sweden (ferlander 2003) strong ties = emotionally close weak ties = to people emotionally distant bonding social capital = to similar people = local bridging social capital = to different people = global table 2. strong and weak ties and bonding and bridging social capital, as defined in the community informatics literature. conclusion this examination of community informatics studies that use the concepts of social capital or social networks to examine technology in communities reveals that by and large they contain one of two conceptual frameworks for social transformation, asking one of two questions: does community technology shape social networks/social capital? or, do social networks/social capital shape community technology? in the first question, the technology that shapes the social networks/social capital can be said to represent the social engineering of that community. in the second question, the social networks and social capital that exist in a community can be said to represent the historical community, the continuity. continuity and change are in fact both necessary for community technology. change refers to the launching of a technology project and continuity to the sustaining of that project. along the way, a project may morph, as in clark’s telecenter (2003), from a facility that offers training into one that offers online games and entertainment for teens; or from a single computer lab to a training project supporting a set of independent computer labs, as in the case of prairienet’s east st. louis, illinois project (p. adams, 2007); or from grassroots community networks to public library community information services (durrance, 1984, 2002). the community network that failed in skarpnäck, sweden, created a change, but could not sustain it (ferlander & timms, 2001; ferlander, 2002, 2003). the historical community, the locals, did not make sufficient use of it. for a community to move into the information society and the knowledge economy—to surmount digital inequality—it appears to take both the establishment and sustenance of community technology. examining social networks and social capital can lead to insights about the policy challenges surrounding the launching and sustaining of technology in communities. the role of strong and weak ties in those interrelated processes is not yet well understood. however, kavanaugh’s work (1999; kavanaugh & patterson, 1998, 2001; kavanaugh et al., 2003) suggests that people who are members of community organizations constitute social-capital-rich nodes in a local social network that can use community technology and make it produce more social capital. as technology has diffused, it is now possible to study local community uses that arise organically as community organizations pursue their goals and not only those uses that arise from a distinct project launched to serve people in a locale. dovetailing with kavanaugh’s focus on community organization members as the blacksburg electronic village project matured, williams (2005) examines it use by local groups in manchester, england. such groups may be almost invisible to outsiders as they are grassroots and volunteer-driven, but they arise from some collectively identified sense of community and represent a leadership network in their community. in sum, the core ideas in the literature that has been reviewed here can be stated as follows: across a number of instances of community technology, technology use is directly influenced of social networks, and social networks are directly influenced by technology use. the two questions our studies examine fit together as a historical process. a community finds itself with some form of information technology, technology that has itself been socially constructed. community factors are alternatively independent variables and then dependent variables in an ongoing historical process. it is essential to clarify how our research sequences technology and community historically. with a nod to the companion work of simpson (2005), gaved and anderson (2006), and anderson et al (2006), we conclude with the most summative observation: such is the role of theory in guiding a field of research. references adams, p. 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(2002). transitioning to the knowledge economy: the lagrange internet access initiative (impacts of public infrastructure access working paper 3). atlanta: georgia institute of technology. retrieved from http://www.cherry.gatech.edu/lagrange/publications.htm 1the open-source community model is now widely discussed and has been compared or applied to other social phenomena: cultural creativity (lessig, 2004), curriculum sharing (ishii & lutterbeck, 2001), scientific journal publishing (public library of science, 2003), the practice of science itself, and even the rise of protestantism (willinsky, 2005), to name just a few. male and female internet access usage patterns at public access venues in a developing country: lessons from yogyakarta, indonesia stevanus wisnu wijaya and agnes maria polina sanata dharma university, yogyakarta, indonesia. email: stevanus.wisnu@dosen.usd.ac.id 1. introduction it is believed that providing access to information through the internet will empower people, particularly in marginalized communities in developing countries . people can access the internet by various means, including their own devices and public venues. although some devices are affordable for many low-income people in developing countries, public access venues (pavs), particularly internet cafés, still play important roles . people can access the internet through government-backed pavs such as public libraries and privately owned pavs like internet cafés . the sharp increase in number and usage of these venues demonstrates their vital role for ict and internet access in developing countries . in indonesia, internet cafés provide important pavs as they are found in large numbers in both urban and rural areas. internet cafés in indonesia are located mainly in urban areas of java island and other big cities but, due to infrastructure enhancement across the country, they are also found in many rural areas, such as many sub-districts within gunung kidul and bantul. the wide spread of internet cafés in both rural and urban areas makes it convenient for many indonesians to access information on the internet. the important role of internet cafés in developing countries has led many scholars to explore the patterns of use of these venues, particularly with relation to gender issues . males and females tend to have different usage patterns in what information they seek and their frequency of use. in addition, males and females often have different perceptions of ict usefulness and ease of use . this study examined the differences between male and female internet café users' attitudes towards accessing ict, their frequency of use, the types of information they seek, and the challenges they face. it also sought to discover the empirical realities related to gender issues in ict use in a developing country in order to provide insight for policy makers and professionals who work in this sector. this case study was conducted in yogyakarta special province. yogyakarta was selected because of its large number of internet cafés and their diverse users (furuholt et al., 2005). in 2009, there were more than 400 internet cafés spread throughout rural and urban areas of the province. we analyzed data obtained from a survey of internet access and ict usage patterns in 20 internet cafés in rural and urban areas in the province, using the mann-whitney test to check the significant differences between male and female users. 2. brief literature review public access to information venues. public access computing refers to efforts to provide ict and internet access in public spaces such as libraries, hospital waiting rooms, malls and airport terminals. most public spaces are run by governments which provide free access to ict and the internet. due to increasing demand and economic factors, a growing number of public spaces run by private organizations also provide free or inexpensive access to ict and the internet. pavs potentially allow people equal access to information since anyone can afford to use these venues. in developing countries, pavs play an important role in providing access to information for underserved communities, as most of their homes are not equipped with ict and internet access . in indonesia, pavs are especially important since home internet is not equally available across the country. most pavs funded by the government provide free access or charge only very low membership fees to the community . such pavs are found in both urban and rural areas in developing countries. although the internet cafés are owned by small private enterprises, these venues can provide affordable prices to consumers . internet cafés arose in 1990 in the us, and internet café booms occurred around the world in the late 1990s. in indonesia, the first internet café opened in the latter part of 1990 and the association of internet cafés in indonesia was established in 2000. although internet cafés are privately owned, they play significant roles in providing access to information due to the proliferation of these venues both in urban and rural areas . pav clients include highand low-skilled users who vary as to gender and educational background. in particular, males and females have different internet usage patterns when accessing the technologies through pavs . although prior research reveals differences in internet usage patterns between male and female users, the differences need to be further explored. gender and ict. in general, "gender" includes socially-constructed aspects relating to behaviors, activities and attributes of males and females. traditionally, there are several roles in which males are more dominant than females; for example, males more often decide how the family income is spent. some governing bodies are also dominated by males. males traditionally play bigger roles in the public and community systems than females. considerable research has been conducted to explain the relationship between gender and ict. in this paper, we review findings from several studies to show the underlying issues on gender and ict use in developing countries. according to geldof , males and females are different in terms of access and use of ict in developing countries: males access ict more frequently than females. in indonesia, they have better ict skills. wahid found that more males accessed the internet than females in the education sector. in addition, furuholt et al. (2005) assumed that gender serves as a moderator variable between independent variables (such as individual capability, occupation, financial capacity, media exposure) and its dependent variable (such as frequency of visits to internet cafés). in general, there is a gender-based digital divide: specifically, fewer females access ict than males in developing countries . disparities exist between males and females regarding ict in the education sector, including their behavior upon accessing information through the internet. females tend to be more serious than males in accessing educational materials . in addition, female students have a more highly positive attitude in using ict than male students . male and female teachers also have different behaviors when adopting ict: for example, male teacher trainees spent more hours per week on the computer than female teacher trainees. male teacher trainees also had more skills in using the computer than the female ones. it can be seen that, in the education sector in which males and females get equal opportunity to enhance their it skills, males and females still have different patterns of ict usage. there are also differences between males and females accessing public venues in developing countries. males and females do not participate equally in public venues such as telephone-centers and internet cafés. males visit internet cafés significantly more often than females . additionally, in internet cafés, more males than females visited pornographic sites. the use of pornographic sites in public venues makes females feel uncomfortable about accessing the venues. therefore, it can be seen that there is a direct link between convenient use of public venues and gender . this paper has been greatly inspired by hafkin &amp; huyer who stated the need to refine data on gender and ict in developing countries. one's gender is always relevant where access, use, contents, and impact of ict are concerned. although there have been many research reports describing the issues, data from developing countries are very limited. 3. the context of study internet cafés and internet access in indonesia indonesia is located on the equator between two continents, asia and australia, as well as two oceans, the indian and pacific oceans. it is the world's largest archipelago with approximately 17,508 islands covering an area of 5,193,250 square kilometers of which 2,027,087 square kilometers are land. with an estimated population of 250 million, it is the fourth most populous country in the world. indonesia gained its independence on 17 august 1945 after the japanese occupation (1942-1945), prior to which it was a dutch colony for 350 years. this republic consists of 33 provinces, 445 regencies, and around 69.929 villages. computer education and use in indonesia started in the early 1980s. use of the internet by the general public began around 1995. following this, individuals used computers at internet cafés and some managed to buy their own computers. in 2008, the number of internet cafés increased to more than 12,000 widely spread throughout indonesia. internet use and internet cafés are concentrated mainly in the large cities, mostly in java. the spread to smaller towns and villages has been slow, partly due to the lack of awareness and demand among rural people, and partly due to limited infrastructure. the government has prioritized using ict for educational purposes in all parts of the country since 2000. government and businesses have started using ict at their maximum capacities. as a result, the number of government-backed pavs, such as warintek (information technology café) and warmasif (information society café, which began in 2005) has grown. up to now, 87 warintek venues and 63 warmasif venues have been established in indonesia. however, the number of government-backed pavs is quite low compared to those belonging to commercial businesses or privately-owned internet cafés from 1999 to 2007, the number of internet users increased by 2,500%, from 1 million users to 25 million. considering the country's population of 250 million, the density of internet users is still low (around 10%) when compared with that of mobile phone users (146 million or 63%). two-thirds of internet users in indonesia today obtain internet access through internet cafés. internet cafés in yogyakarta yogyakarta is a province located in java (one of the five big islands in indonesia) this province consists of 4 regencies (bantul, sleman, kulon progo, and gunung kidul) and one municipality (yogyakarta). the province of yogyakarta, our research region, had a population of 3,434,534 in 2007. the population density in the city of yogyakarta is 13,881 persons per km2.. the city of yogyakarta is known as an education and cultural center in indonesia. there are around 120 tertiary-education institutions and many arts and cultural centers. many artists, culture enthusiasts, and students from many parts of indonesia with different cultural and religious backgrounds have come to live in this city. there are also many small and medium-sized handicraft enterprises, which contribute to the economic growth of yogyakarta, as do its educational activities and tourism . in line with the increasing demand for internet access in indonesia, the number of internet cafés has been increasing in yogyakarta, with the highest number of new players in this business in 2000. there were around 400 internet cafés in yogyakarta special province in 2009. at the time of this empirical study, september 2009, the number of internet café users was quite high. internet cafés in yogyakarta are typically found in simple, relatively low-cost premises, with service limited to cyber activities. an internet café in this city has from 1 to 20 computers. typically, they have 6-9 staff divided into 3 work-shifts (08.00 a.m.-4.00 p.m.; 4.00 p.m.-12 midnight; and 00.00-08.00 a.m.). each shift has 2 or 3 staff serving the customers. they assign a computer to each customer and collect the money after the customer ends their session. most internet cafés are open 24 hours a day. some offer more facilities and services to make users more comfortable, such as air conditioning, separate non-smoking areas, soft drinks, and snacks. the cost of access is also reasonable, generally around 2,500-3,000 rupiahs (0.26-0.31 us$) per hour from 08.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m.; the rate is cheaper, at around 2,000-2,500 from 06.00 a.m. to 08.00 a.m., and cheapest, at 1,500-2,000 rupiahs from 03.00 a.m. to 06.00 a.m. 4. methodology this paper is based on a survey of users of internet cafés in yogyakarta special province, in both urban and non-urban areas, in 2009. a questionnaire developed as part of the project on public access to information and ict venues, which was led by the mobile government consortium international and the centre for information and society, university of washington, was the main research instrument for this study. however, we also conducted interviews with internet café users to help interpret the findings. the respondents of this survey were internet café users in 20 internet cafés in yogyakarta special province. in this research, we defined urban or non-urban areas based on the population density of the internet café locations. based on our simple city-tour observations, we decided that the urban areas in yogyakarta are the areas bound by the ring roads surrounding the city of yogyakarta. we divided the city of yogyakarta into 5 parts: north, east, south, west, and central. we chose 2 internet cafés in each part, totaling 10. for the non-urban areas, we selected 4 internet cafés in bantul, 1 in kulon progo, 1 in gunung kidul, and 4 in sleman. we selected more internet cafés in bantul and sleman because the numbers of internet cafés in both regencies are higher than in the other two regencies. the population density in bantul is 1,641 persons per km2 (bantul statistical bureau, 2008), for sleman it is 1,813 persons per km2 (sleman statistical bureau, 2008), for gunung kidul it is 461 persons per km2 while for kulon progo it is 786 persons per km2 . there are fewer internet cafés in non-urban areas, but they can be found in each sub-district of the non-urban areas. the researchers visited each selected internet café to conduct a short interview with the operator and several users. we also distributed 20 questionnaires in each internet café. finally, we obtained 400 respondents to the questionnaires. the questionnaires were distributed from august through october 2009. for analyzing the survey data, we applied the mann-whitney test using the spss software program to check the significance of the difference between male and female users in their information-seeking behavior, purposes of ict uses, and frequency of use. 5. findings and discussion urban respondents urban respondents were categorized by gender, age, educational background, income bracket, and social status. 53% of the respondents were male and 47% were female, indicating that more males used ict in pavs than females. this finding is similar to the pattern of ict usage in developing countries presented by several scholars . most of the respondents' ages ranged from 15 to 35. in the other words, most of them were productive young people. we also found that most of the internet café users were educated people; few users (1%) did not have any formal education and around 8% had only an elementary education. in urban areas, most users (68%) had a college or university educational background. similar research conducted by furuholt et al. showed that most internet café users in yogyakarta were young, educated people. this indicates that there has been no change in terms of the users' background since 2004. we also found that 37% came from the low-income bracket because most of them were students with limited pocket money; 82 % of the users had medium social status. in yogyakarta, it is usually people with that status who have the opportunity to pursue their education up to high school or university. table 1 below describes the urban-area respondents'' profiles. table 1. profiles of respondents in urban areas internet access by gender we studied the relation between gender and internet use in urban public venues in terms of individual's information seeking behavior, purpose of the ict use, frequency of use, and barriers in using ict in internet cafés. information-seeking behavior information-seeking behaviors were examined based on the types of content accessed by the ict users. respondents marked the options that best described their interests in accessing information over the internet. the content accessed was assigned to eight categories: education, health, agriculture, government services, entertainment, news, personal needs, and others. respondents to the questionnaire filled in percentage values for the content that they accessed while visiting an internet café. our empirical data shows a significant difference between male and female users in accessing educational content (p<0.05). the number of male users accessing educational content was higher than that of female users (72 vs. 54), but the mean rank of female users was higher than that of male users (74.5 vs. 54.53). female users tended to visit an internet café for content related to their education, such as digital materials, more often than male users. this finding is similar to those of wahid and green , who found that female users in indonesia and in the asia-pacific region tended to be more serious than male users in accessing educational content and using ict for education-related activities. it also indicates that most female users are educated people, as revealed by hou et al. . in accessing health information, female and male users also showed a significant difference (p<0.05). the absolute numbers of male and female users accessing health information were equal, but the mean rank of female users was higher than for male users (35.62 vs. 25.38). in particular, 6 female respondents stated that they accessed mainly health information through internet cafés. this finding aligns with bakar and alhadiri who found that female users are the primary seekers of information related to health for themselves and their families. one reason is that females are dissatisfied with the health information already available to them and want to explore more . in other words, women are more active in managing health care for themselves or their families by way of seeking health information via an accessible medium like the internet . our empirical data shows no significant difference in interest between male and female users in accessing agricultural, government services, entertainment, news, personal needs and other kinds of information (p>0.05). only 18 urban respondents sought agricultural content when accessing the internet: 13 male and 5 female. regarding information on government services, the mean rank for the 24 male users was 10.64 and that for the 12 female users was 8.10, but this difference was not statistically significant. the low number of respondents in this category reflects the lack of online government services in yogyakarta. more male users (92) accessed entertainment content and their mean rank (82.18) was higher than for the 67 female users (mean rank 77.67). however, the difference was not statistically significant (p>0.05) there was no significant difference, either, as for accessing news content. the total number of respondents who accessed news contents was 132: 73 males and 59 females. the mean ranks were almost the same: 67 for male users and 65.88 for female users. male and female users did not show any significant difference (p>0.05) in accessing content related to their personal needs. the absolute number of male users (64) accessing the internet for information related to their personal needs was higher than that of female users (48). the male users' mean rank was higher too (60.04 versus 51.78). when seeking other kinds of information over the internet, male and female users did not show any significant difference (p>0.05). the absolute number of male users accessing other content was higher than that of female users, but the mean ranks were almost the same (23.25 for males and 23.89 for females). table 2 below summarizes the information-seeking behavior of male and female users in yogyakarta. table 2. information-seeking behavior of male and female users in urban areas ict services our empirical data show some differences between male and female users in their purposes when using ict. the results of our mann-whitney tests show that male and female users had a significant difference in terms of their use of ict for e-commerce and business (p<0.05). only 37 of our respondents used ict for e-commerce and business purposes. most of them were males (27). the mean rank of male users was 21.94 whereas female users' mean rank was 11.05. comparison by gender using the mann-whitney test showed no significant difference for email (p=0.438), chatting (p=0.379), web-browsing (p=0.655), blogging and social networking (p=0.486), phone calls and webcam connections (p=0.882), games (p=0.272) and others (p=0.650)s. more males than females visited internet cafés for these purposes. table 3 below shows the absolute numbers and mean ranks for the various categories of internet use. table 3. ict use differences between male and female users in urban areas frequency of use. the results show that more male users visited an internet café than female users. of our respondents, 30 males visited an internet café daily, while 38 did it weekly and 17 males regularly, approximately 2-3 times per month. as for females, 24 of them visited an internet café daily, 35 weekly, 13 did 2-3 times per month, and 7 once a month. the interesting point is that no respondent stated, "this is my first visit to an internet café". the details of visit frequencies can be seen in figure 1 below. figure 1. frequency of visits to an internet café by male and female users in urban areas barriers in using ict in internet cafés for male and female users in urban areas. respondents were asked about barriers to their use of the internet, such as distance, hours of operation, cost, lack of skills, inadequate services, language, insufficient contents and others. the data show that the number of males choosing location or distance as a barrier was higher than that of female users (35 and 20, respectively). most respondents were students living in boarding houses during their studies and most of the internet cafés surveyed are located near their campuses. since most female students choose to live near their schools but many male students live further away, we concluded that this accounted for more male users' reporting of distance as a barrier. hours of operation were not a significant barrier. since all of the internet cafés surveyed were open 24 hours a day, respondents could visit an internet café any time they wished to. fewer male than female users claimed the lack of skill as a barrier to accessing the internet. according to green , in many developing countries, women are behind men in terms of mastery of technology. wahid also described internet adoption by female users as affected by the perceived ease of use. women tend to use ict when it is easy to use, but men are more likely to explore technology. non-urban respondents table 4 below describes the profiles of internet café users in non-urban areas by gender, age, educational level, income bracket, and social status. in non-urban areas, 60% of internet café visitors were males, while only 40% were females. in terms of education and age, they were similar to users in urban areas: 90% were aged 15 to 35; 49% had a college or university education level, and 43% of users had a high-school education level; 29% had a low social status and 43% had low incomes. table 4. respondent profiles in non-urban areas internet access by gender in non-urban areas information seeking behavior we compared the information-seeking behavior of male and female users at an internet café in non-urban areas. as for urban areas, the content accessed by users was grouped into 8 categories: education, health, agriculture, government services, entertainment, news, personal needs, and others. each respondent reported a percentage for each category of information they accessed when visiting an internet cafe. then, we analyzed the data using the mann-whitney test p< the research results show that male and female users in non-urban area were significantly different when accessing educational content (p<0.05). female users showed more interest in accessing educational content than male users (p = 0.000): 64 female users accessed educational content with a mean rank of 89.76. for male users, the number was 84 with a mean rank of 62.88. this result is similar to that for urban areas. green and wahid also found a similar result when they investigated the information-seeking patterns among men and women. also, there was a significant difference between male and female users in accessing agricultural content. table 5 shows that 31 males, with a mean rank of 19.05, accessed agricultural content whereas the 10 female users had a mean rank of 27.95. we can infer from this that female users were more interested in accessing agricultural content than male users. based on the mann-whitney test, we did not find a significant difference between male and female users in their interest in accessing other types of information. of the respondents, 46 male users accessed health information (mean rank 35.22), whereas only 27 female users (mean rank 40.44) did. information on government services was sought by 35 male users (mean rank 22.36), while the 13 female users had a mean rank of 30.27. the number of respondents who used the internet to access entertainment sites was higher than for any other category. of the 171 respondents, 103 were male users with a mean rank of 85.49, and 68 were female users, with a mean rank of 85.49. moreover, one of the respondents always accessed entertainment when visiting an internet café. in non urban area, it can be seen that male and female users differ in terms of accesing agricultural content and educational content. the details of our findings can be seen in table 5 below. table 5. information-seeking behavior of male and female users in non-urban areas ict services the result of the mann-whitney test shows a significant difference (p<0.05) between male and female users in terms of ict adoption for blogging and social networking. the number of respondents who used ict for blogging and social networking was 135, consisting of 79 males and 56 females. the mean rank for male users was 59.89; and for female users, it was 79.44. female users had a higher tendency to use ict for accessing their blogs and social networking. three female respondents said they always used ict for blogging and social networking when visiting an internet café. there was no significant difference (p>0.05) between male and female users in terms of the adoption of ict for purposes such as emails, chatting, web-browsing, commerce and business, phone calls and webcam connections, games and others. the detailed results can be seen in table 6 below. table 6: differences in information-seeking behavior between male and female users in non-urban areas. frequency of use our empirical data show that overall more male users visited an internet café than female users. male daily visitors reached 43, while only 25 females were daily visitors. thirty female users visited an internet café weekly. there were 21 male users who visited an internet café 2-3 times a month; for female users the number was only 13. only 3 male users and 2 female users visited an internet café about once a month. as in urban areas, no users stated that it was their first visit to an internet café. the details can be seen in figure 2 below. figure 2. frequency of use for male and female users in non-urban areas barriers in using ict in internet cafés for male and female users in non-urban areas barriers to accessing an internet café by male and female users in non-urban areas were categorized as location, hours of operation, cost, lack of skills, inadequate services, language, inadequate contents and others. as for location, or the distance to an internet café from the respondents' residence, 26 male and 10 female users considered it a barrier. a similar proportion was observed for hours of operation, where 11 male and 5 female users considered it a barrier. not all non-urban internet cafés were open 24 hours a day, so users could not always get access the whenever they wished. more female than male users considered lack of skills a barrier, which indicates that males were more skilled than females in using ict. however, more male than female users chose "inadequate services" as a barrier. also, more male than female users chose "not enough content." we therefore conclude that male users tended to need a wider variety of services and content than female users did. more male than female users chose language as a barrier, from which we conclude that female users were more familiar with english. finally, more male users chose "others" as a barrier than female users. the barrier most frequently indicated by respondents was cost, reported by 34 males and 27 females. this must be related to their incomes: most of these users were unwaged young people who relied on pocket money from their parents. 6. conclusion this study raised a simple question: "what, if any, are the differences between male and female users of internet cafés in a developing country?" from its results, we conclude there are some significant differences related to gender. however, given rapid changes in the society in the years since the survey, particularly equality between male and female are getting better which potentially also link to their access to the internet, these results are suggestive rather than conclusive. firstly, based on the respondents' profiles, the number of male users who visited internet cafés was slightly higher than female users in both urban and non-urban areas.this finding is consistent with previous studies. most respondents, both male and female, were young, educated people of middle class social status. however, it is not clear whether social status is a relevant factor in this difference. secondly, there were some statistically significant differences between male and female users as to the types of information accessed. female users were more interested in educational content than male users in both urban and non-urban areas.this finding is consistent with the previous studies exemplified by wahid and green. also, female users in urban areas were more interested in accessing health content which is consistent with the work of bakar &amp; alhadiri . in non-urban areas female users were more interested in accessing agricultural content, than their male counterparts. however, there was no significant difference between male and female users in accessing content in other categories, such as government services, entertainment, news, and personal needs. thirdly, in terms of ict use, there were some significant differences between males and females. in urban areas, male users tended to have more interest than female users in using ict for e-commerce and business, as indicated by the male users' higher mean rank. on the other hand, in non-urban areas, female users tended to be more interested than males in using ict for blogging and social networking. however, there was no significant difference in either urban or non-urban areas between male and female users for such purposes as email, chatting, web browsing, phone calls and webcam connections, games and other purposes. next, regarding frequency of use, there was a significant difference between male and female users. male users visited an internet café more often than female users in both urban and non-urban areas. about 70% of male users reported visiting an internet café daily to weekly, while only around 50% of female users did the same. finally, we found that distance, cost, content and services were considered the most serious barriers to ict use in both urban and non-urban areas. also, some female users in both urban and non-urban areas considered lack of skills as a barrier in accessing ict. in general, these findings emphasize that there are still some differences in internet usage patterns between males and females in developing countries, confirming the conclusion of previous researchers cited that gender still influences how males and females access ict in those countries. not all of the differences were statistically significant in this study but enough were to suggest further research is needed. we believe that social changes-for example, increases in gender equality in a developing country such as indonesia will influence the way males and females access the internet in the future. these results can be used to support further development of public access venues in developing countries, especially indonesia. most pavs were not aware of the role of gender in accessing ict. policy makers might use these results to develop pavs and materials that better address the gender issues. for example, once aware that women were more interested in health information than men, policy makers could develop more "woman friendly" health information systems to increase the effectiveness of their programs. in order to confirm these findings, further research is needed to thoroughly explore the differences between male users and female users in accessing educational and health information and the use of internet services for e-commerce and business purposes. research to explore 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(2008). yogyakarta: indonesia central bank. how not to forget your next appointment: use technology to combat the effects of aging   brian d. beitzel suny oneonta, united states the terms mentally sharp and elderly are typically not expected to describe the same person. because cognitive acuity tends to decrease later in life, strategies to diminish the severity of this decline have long been sought. despite the disheartening prospect of eventual dementia, there are some promising possibilities emerging from research that indicate some activities which might at least delay cognitive decline. wilson et al. (2010) showed that, among a group of elderly residents within a single geographic area, those who regularly engaged in activities that were “cognitively stimulating” postponed the mental deterioration experienced by their peers who did not engage in the same level of cognitive activity. they did not necessarily escape the most-dreaded alzheimer disease nor its severity once they were diagnosed—but the total amount of time spent in dementia was reduced, presumably due to the cognitive activities they had participated in. pillai et al. (2011) demonstrated a similar outcome, claiming that their sample of elderly participants who regularly completed crossword puzzles experienced a 2.5-year delay in the onset of dementia. one leading theory regarding the beneficial effects of cognitive activity on maintaining mental acuteness is the notion of cognitive reserve. although the concept of cognitive reserve suffers from multiple-definition disorder, the general idea is that individuals have a reservoir of cognitive capacity along a continuum of strong to weak capabilities. those elderly who demonstrate mental acuteness later in life are said to have more cognitive reserve than those who suffer from dementia at the same age. activities such as completing crossword puzzles are thought to help build or fortify one’s cognitive reserve (fratiglioni, paillard-borg, & winblad, 2004; gatz, 2005). verghese et al. (2003) showed that certain leisure activities (dancing, playing a musical instrument, reading, and playing board games) had a “protective effect” on the risk of developing dementia. in other words, even leisure activities—not particularly regarded as cognitive—can contribute to cognitive reserve, boosting mental acuity into old age. there is even a suggestion in the medical literature that maintaining healthy social relationships might strengthen cognitive reserve (fratiglioni et al., 2004). a good network of friends is known to improve the risk of cardiovascular disease and contribute to longevity; might it also have a protective effect on cognitive reserve? we don’t yet know, but given the existing evidence of social relationships yielding other health benefits, it is plausible that a positive effect of social relationships on cognitive outcomes could be demonstrated. one question that is difficult to answer from research is whether the elderly person who keeps mentally active, physically active, and socially connected is a different type of person than the elderly person who participates in none of the above. we must rely mostly on descriptive research about the voluntary activities of the elderly to answer questions about the relationship between their activity and their mental condition because randomly assigning them to treatments believed to be ineffective has ethical problems. therefore, in the absence of randomized controlled trials, we must be cautious about making causal claims regarding the effects of these activities on aging. nevertheless, the existing evidence is promising enough to recommend a healthy dose of exercise—cognitive, physical, and social—to ameliorate the less attractive outcomes of aging. a healthy social network inherently demands a group of individuals collaborating for mutual benefit. other activities mentioned above are also typically viewed as group events (e.g., playing a board game). the intellectual exchanges implicit within these social activities are yet another potential avenue for strengthening cognitive reserve. technology can play a central role in all of these pursuits. there is no shortage of “apps” and technological devices that compete for the attention of the elderly—and no shortage of claims about their effectiveness in sustaining cognitive functioning well into the sunset years. research satisfactorily demonstrating these effects is practically nonexistent; however, given the evidence cited above, a rational approach would be to make use of a variety of technological innovations to keep the mind and body active. the ways to leverage technology for cognitive benefit are endless. one could learn to blog, text, or tweet. or start a ning or a facebook account. or create a dvd movie or use a smartphone app to play a word game with a remote friend. or learn to play the wii or an electronic keyboard. variety seems to be important to cognitive acuity, so getting into a “rut” of continually interacting with the same technology is probably not a good idea. the prescription, then, is to keep learning new technologies, maintain those social networks, and get out for a walk regularly. it’s never too early to start, and the mental stimulation may build cognitive reserve that will deliver mental advantages for years to come. with sufficient mental exercise, you might even remember all of your appointments! references  fratiglioni, l., paillard-borg, s., & winblad, b. (2004). an active and socially integrated lifestyle in late life might protect against dementia. the lancet neurology, 3(6), 343–353. doi:10.1016/s1474-4422(04)00767-7 gatz, m. (2005). educating the brain to avoid dementia: can mental exercise prevent alzheimer disease? plos medicine, 2, 38–40. pillai, j. a., hall, c. b., dickson, d. w., buschke, h., lipton, r. b., & verghese, j. (2011). association of crossword puzzle participation with memory decline in persons who develop dementia. journal of the international neuropsychological society, 17, 1006–1013. verghese, j., lipton, r. b., katz, m. j., hall, c. b., derby, c. a., kuslansky, g., ... buschke, h. (2003). leisure activities and the risk of dementia in the elderly. new england journal of medicine, 348(25), 2508–2516. doi:10.1056/nejmoa022252 wilson, r., barnes, l., aggarwal, n., boyle, p., hebert, l., mendes de leon, c., & evans, d. (2010). cognitive activity and the cognitive morbidity of alzheimer disease. neurology, 75(11), 990–996. doi:10.1212/wnl.0b013e3181f25b5e   community informatics for improving health michael gurstein i've been wanting an issue of joci on this topic for some time. my thought is that there is a potentially natural and powerful fit between community informatics and health. maintaining and improving the health of its members is one of the most important functions that a community must fulfil. as well, we know that the cost of health care is in many parts of the world becoming a huge and even unsupportable burden because of the directions in which health care has been evolving. finally, we know that there is a strong and positive relationship between health and one's involvement in social relationships, including those of family, friends and community. thus exploring how information and communications technologies might enable health and health services by, through and within communities would seem to be a natural focus for community informatics. interestingly enough, developing this issue using a community and ict lens to look at issues of health and health services proved to be rather more difficult than i expected. many, even most, of the papers we initially received did focus on icts and health service delivery, even health service delivery to the grassroots, but they reported almost exclusively on the icts and the ict components of the service while ignoring any contribution that was or could be made in those services by or within the community. thus, there would appear to be large numbers of studies on telemedicine and telehealth in general but surprisingly, even astonishingly, few that recognize or incorporate how communities might be a necessary component in how these services are being or could be delivered in marginalized communities. even where it is evident, an extensive infrastructure of local health support is not likely to be available; here, less formal structures of mutual aid and support through networks are often a means for providing services where such services are either unavailable or overly costly for individual residents. equally, research which examines how icts can be used to support community processes which in turn support social inclusion and health and well-being, only appear in a few contributions to this special issue. perhaps not surprising, one interesting counter example of the above is the range of studies from various parts of the world specifically dealing with remote, rural and indigenous communities. in these instances, the case from papua new guinea in the current issue and from several parts of canada in previous issues demonstrate once again that necessity is the mother of invention and present a number of highly innovative strategies incorporating icts (including mobiles) into broad community-based strategies for health maintenance and improvement. the papers in this special issue tend to have a hardware and methodological focus perhaps because the call for papers going out to an audience unfamiliar with community informatics identified that the operative term was the more technological "informatics" rather than the "community" element. the editorial team did, however, ask authors to add this element to papers where it was missing. while to my mind the articles in this special issue fall somewhat short of what i would consider a truly "community informatics" approach to "improving health" my hope is that we do raise some useful questions in this area and make some useful alliances among those who otherwise might not be aware of the opportunities that linking communities, icts and health might present. one further observation based both on the papers in this special issue and on some as yet unreleased documents concerning icts and health from the oecd, is that the model of health care being presented would appear overwhelmingly to be focussed on the individual as the health care "client" and of course, medicine is overwhelmingly focussed on the individual as patient. however, as we are coming to increasingly recognize in all aspects of services in society, it is oftentimes of equal or greater importance for well-being to recognize that the well-being of the individual is to a very considerable extent derived from their position in and interactions with their families, their peer groups and their larger communities. removing individuals from these, even conceptually, does considerable damage to the reality of health and wellness. thus, including communities as a constituent element in ict-based health research, planning and service delivery would appear to be a necessary addition in these areas and including in the design and deployment of ict supports in these areas. thus for example, designing telemedicine programs which ensure that there are trained resources at the patient end to support the service delivery, and particularly the follow-up within the community, would appear to be a necessary component of any effective telemedicine program. equally, ensuring that the delivery of health information, as for example by means of mobiles, is not exclusively focussed on the individual recipient but also takes account of the larger community environment within which the individual will be interacting would be a major contributor to the success both of programs providing health information to individuals and programs looking to receive health related information from individuals. as well, as noted in the article on the young cancer patients in this issue, the role of electronic online communities as on-going supports for those with various types of medical conditions and disabilities is by now coming into wide recognition and is increasingly being seen as a necessary component of on-going health maintenance and support in a variety of areas. i see this issue as the first step in what i anticipate will be an on-going dialogue between those with an interest in icts and health and those with an interest in icts and communities, both having as their overarching concern individual and community health and well-being. my special thanks to the editors of this special issue lareen newman and ali alsanousi both of whom put in major efforts in ensuring that this special issue saw the light of day. game-based communication in mediating intergenerational relationships 　 i communicate with my children in the game: mediated intergenerational family relationships through a social networking game 　 yunan chen department of informatics university of california, irvine 　 jing wen department of informatics university of california, irvine 　 bo xie college of information studies university of maryland 　 　 abstract 　 how might social networking game playing affect intergenerational family relationships? motivated by this important research question, we examined game-based communication patterns among family members. we investigated qq farm, one of the most popular online games available on a chinese social networking site. participatory observations and semi-structured interviews were conducted with sixteen pairs of chinese parents and their adult children. our analysis shows that game-based communication does not replace face-to-face or phone-based communication. rather, it adds a new layer to the existing family communication patterns, which enriches the other forms of family communication and provides a new means for intergenerational family members to stay in touch. game playing provides a light-weighted and relaxed environment for multi-intergenerational family members to stay connected. it serves as an “i’m safe and well” message board for family members to stay connected without imposing an undue burden for anyone. moreover, game playing implicitly conveys caring messages to family members. it becomes a new communicative topic to promote the mutual shaping of online and offline intergenerational family communication. 　 introduction 　 population aging has become a more significant alient issue in contemporary chinese society (lee, 2004). an important concern for any aging society is to maintain the health and well-being of older adults (xie, 2008d; 2009). studies have shown that family relationships play a critical role in maintaining the individual’s psychological well-being and life satisfaction (litwin & shiovitz-ezra, 2010; lou, 2010; george, 2010; phillips, siu, yeh, & cheng, 2008). older adults have a strong desire to communicateion more frequently with their children (lindley, 2009). however, evidence exists that older chinese received relatively poor support from their adult children (ng, 2002, p. 135). much of the intergenerational communication challenges were due to geographical distance (ng, 2002, p. 135), time zone difference (cao, 2008), and busy schedules of the adult children (kimberly & bernheimbrushbbernheim brush, 2009). 　 in china, the family has always been and is still the predominant mode of support for the aging parents (tu & aassociates 1989). however, with the projected sharp increase in the absolute number and proportion of older chinese in china, the family-based old age support system will be increasingly under severe strain. in addition, the traditional family structure is undergoing rapid transformation as young adults migrate to other regions seeking better employment opportunities (silverstein, cong, & li, 2006; glei, & landau, 2005). these ongoing societal changes challenge the conventional family communication patterns that feature the co-location of the aging parents and adult children. 　 recent popularity of online social networking games among older adults in china suggests the potential of online gaming in influencing older adults’ daily lives. anecdotal data suggest social networking game playing has become a co-playing activity for family members.1 these new practices raise an interesting question: how might social networking game playing affect intergenerational family relationships? motivated by this important research question, in this study, we explore how aging parents and their adult children play qq farm, one of the most popular online social networking games in china, and how such game playing may have affected their relationships. 　 related work 　 family relationship plays a critical role in supporting older adults’ psychological well-being, morale, and life satisfaction (litwin & shiovitz-ezra, 2010; lou, 2010; george, 2010; phillips, siu, yeh, & cheng, 2008). family relationship is especially important for older chinese, since family support is weighted more than that from friends in preventing psychological distress (e.g., depression) among older chinese (chi & chou, 2001). older chinese parents living in three-generation households or with grandchildren in skipped-generation households had better psychological well-being than those living in single-generation households (silverstein, 2006). despite their desire for more family communication (lindley & harper, 2008; lindley & harper, 2009), older chinese received relatively poor informal support from adult children (ng, et al., 2002). geographic proximity is an important determinant of the amount and types of support older adults receive from their adult children: the shorter the geographical distance was, the more support older adults received. in contrast, family members who live in different time zones face difficulties in finding common times to communicate (cao, 2008). the busy schedules adult children have and the lack of technology use among older people make it challenging for family members to communicate (kimberly & bernheimbrushbbernheim brush, 2009). 　 digital devices have the potential to alleviate these intergenerational communication challenges (romero & markopoulos, 2007; kimberly & bernheimbrushbbernheim brush, 2009), particularly for family members who live far away. for example, the “homenote” device was designed to promote remote, situated messaging within the family (sellen & harper, 2006). the results highlight the role of digital messaging in enabling subtle ways of requesting action, expressing affection, and marking identity in the family (sellen & harper, 2006). videoor camera-based technologies may be the best technology in connecting family members, since the use of video-mediated communication (vmc) can foster closeness between the communicators (dave & sellen, 2010). one study (ames & go, 2010) found that video chat could be used for family members to reinforce their family identity and values. digital family portrait displays iconic projections of older adults’ daily activities to their remote family members（rowan & mynatt，2005). family window (judge & neustaedter, 2010) uses an always-on video camera to connect family members residing in two households. these devices allow family members to see each other’s daily activities. similarly, devices such as sparcs (brush & inkpen, 2008) and wayve (lindley & harper, 2010) also encourage information and photo sharing among family members. although these image-based systems present new opportunities for facilitating family communication, sharing daily activities with family members also raises privacy concerns (judge & neustaedter, 2010). 　 recently, various game-based technologies have been used to support the health and well-being of older adults. one aspect of this approach is to encourage physical activities. for example, age invaders (khoo & cheok, 2008), an interactive intergenerational social-physical game, allows older adults to play with children in the physical world. unlike standard computer games, age invaders brings the game playing to a physical platform and requires physical movements rather than constraining the user in front of a computer for hours. similarly, voida and greenberg (2010) examined the intergenerational gaming practices of four generations of console gamers and the roles gamers of different generations take when playing together in groups. their analysis revealed a more flexible combination of roles in computer-mediated interactions than the roles found in the physical world. intergenerational game playing can also take place across a distance (davis & vetere, 2008), indicating the potential role of games in mediating geographically distant family relationships. interestingly, the majority of current games still require family members to have commonly available times in order to play together. in this sense, although the game might bridge the physical distance between remotely located family members, possible time constraints among family members still exist. 　 qq farm: an online social networking game 　 we studied family game play on qq farm. qq farm is one of the most popular social networking games on qzone, a major social networking site in china. both qq farm and qzone were developed and built by tencent, inc. in 2009. on march 31, 2010, it was reported that there were 568.6 million active user accounts on all qq service platforms.2 qq farm is designed to encourage interact users from all age groups to play this social game with friends in their social networks. surprisingly, the popularity of qq farm has quicklysoon spread to many older adults who were not playing online game before. consequently, many anecdotal cases of older people engaged in or even addicted to playing qq farm were reported as an interesting social phenomenon.3 unlike many other games that are played mainly among friends of similar ages, it is not unusual for qq farm to be is not unusually plaplayed by among older parents withand their adult children on a daily basis. ourthis study intended to examine the impact of the online game playing of qq farm on intergenerational family interactions to shed light on the role of social networking gaming in mediating family communications and relationships. qq farm offers relatively simple and intuitive game features that can be easily adopted by various types of players. in the game, players can act as farm owners and manage their own farms, such as through cultivating, irrigating, and harvesting crops oin one’s own farm. in addition, players can also visit farms owned by their friends, where players can perform limited actions—some helpful, others mischievous. helpful actions include weeding and irrigating, whereas mischievous actions include stealing the other players’ mature crops. beyond game playing itself, each player has access to a personal message board associated with his or her farm. the personal message board shows log information about one’s farm, including both helpful and mischievous actions by other players. a player can see who visited his or her farm and when, and what actions the other players took. players can also personalize their qq farm space through naming and decorating their own farms. these game features allow players to visit, help and connect with each other during the process of game playing. 　 methods 　 we conducted a nine-month ethnographic study from march to november 2010 to examine the potential influence of social networking gaming on the communications and relationships between parents and their adult children. 　 participants 　 we studied sixteen pairs of parent-adult child (n = 32), each containing one older parent and one adult child. participants were recruited through a the snowball sample. the first two adult children were recruited from the university where the first and second authors are affiliated, and the rest of the participants were referred by people we studied earlier. snowball sampling appears to be the most appropriate method to study players in a social networking game since it allows us to reach to the qq game players through people’s social networks. since the goal of the study was to examine intergenerational game play among adult children and their older parents, we did not include any children under 18 in this study. among the sixteen pairs of participants, seven pairs lived in the same households, or in nearby neighborhoods where they could maintain face-to-face communication frequently. the remaining nine pairs of participants lived in different regions, with all the parents livinged in china and their adult children livinge in the united states, japan, australia, or denmark. in this paper we refer to them as the “local” or “remote” families, respectively. studying the communication behaviors in both the local and remote families allowed us to compare the impact of game playing on family members who do not see each other frequently to that on among those who meet more frequently. 　 the parents being studied were aged from 47 to 66 years old, with an average age of 58 years old (while this age group may not be perceived as “old” in countries like the united states, it is nonetheless commonly perceived as “old” in countries like china. ; ffor instance, the chinese seniors rights protection law defines seniors as individuals aged 60 or older; however in some cases the mandatory retirement age can be as young as 50 or even lessbelow4. ; ffor a more detailed discussion on cultural differences in how old is perceived “old” in the chinese and american societies, see xie, 2008a; 2008b; 2008c; 2006). six out of sixteen parents were over 60 years old and ten were retired by the time this study was conducted. the sixteen adult children were aged from 18 to 42, with an average age of 28. at the time of the study, almost all adult children (15 out of 16) were working or attending college/graduate schools; whereas the majority of parents (11 out of 16) were retired. all participants had more than six months of gaming experience and reached at least the 15th level according to the game ranks designed in qq farm (0 as the lowest and 50 as the highest in the current game system). 　 these sixteen pairs of participants fall into three conditions: the patient and the child both are current players (9 pairs); either the parent or the child is a player (4 pairs); and both the parent and the child are non-players (3 pairs). the non-playing or partial-playing participants served as comparisons for a us to comparison ofe intergenerational communication patterns between the “dual-play” pairs and those having one or more non-playing participants. it is worth noting that among the nine dual-play pairs, four pairs were local and the other five were remote families. participants’ basic characteristics are summarized in table 1 below. 　 table 1. participant characteristics. 　 relation (r) pairs parents-children relationship age occupation playing status living situation r1 father 59 senior official play remote daughter 28 ph.d. student play r2 father 58 retired play remote daughter 29 junior engineer play r3 father 64 retired play local daughter 39 primary teacher play r4 father 66 retired play local daughter 37 university faculty play r5 mother 64 retired play remote son 28 ph.d. student play r6 mother 60 university staff play remote son 29 ph.d. student play r7 mother 63 retired play local daughter 36 account play r8 mother 66 retired play local daughter 42 university faculty play r9 father 64 retired play remote son 28 ph.d. student play r10 mother 54 marketing staff non-play remote son 24 ph.d. student non-play r11 mother 47 account non-play local son 26 undergraduate play r12 mother 56 retired non-play remote son 26 businessmen non-play r13 mother 56 retired non-play remote daughter 26 ph.d. student non-play r14 mother 53 retired play remote daughter 26 housewife non-play r15 father 51 deliveryman non-play local son 18 undergraduate play r16 father 61 retired play local son 28 manager non-play 　 data collection 　 to better understand how game playing influences family communication, we first observed the online game behaviors of six dual-play family members. semi-structured, open-ended interviews were conducted with all sixteen pairs of participants based on the insights drawn from the online observations. observations and interviews ensured that both the actual game play patterns and user attitudes are included in our data set. human subject study approval was obtained prior to data collection. all participant names reported in this paper are pseudonyms. 　 online observation 　 online observations were conducted at the beginning of the study to understand the basic gaming behaviors among the “dual-play” relationships. specifically, one researcher joined each participant’s qq farm friend list and examined their game behaviors through observing their game play activities, which are publicly viewable to all friends in the qq farm. in the study, we first observed the game play behaviors of six pairs of dual-play families daily, including four remote pairs and two local pairs, at qq farm over a period of two weeks. we observed general game behaviors of participants and paid extra attention to their interaction with family members in the game space. brief questions were probed through the instant messaging (im) system associated with the qq farm during the online observation sessions. in addition, we collected the game logs from the personal message board of each participant twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. these logs record participants’ interaction with their online players in the game space. log analysis helped us to understand how, and when participants visit or play with their family members in qq farm. secondly, we followed up with these six pairs of players’ gaming behaviors weekly for three months. in this phase our goal was to understand whether family members continued to play qq farm, and whether family communication existed between the older parent and the adult child over a longer period of time. this observation helped us to discern the potential longer-term impact of game-mediated communication among family members. we developed a semi-structured, open-ended interview guide based on the family play behaviors observed online. specifically, observation data were discussed among authors to identify questions and issues to be addressed in the interviews. family communication emerged as one important factor in family game play that deserves further investigation. in addition to the six pairs of dual-play participants reported above, the interview study was extended to three additional pairs of dual-play participants as well as 7 single-play or non-play pairs to provide comparisons. the interview questions were centered on the following three aspects: 　 how participants played the qq farm game in general; how participants communicated with their family members in general; and how participants played the game with their family members. 　 at the participants’ convenience, interviews were conducted by telephone or in-person. when telephone or in-person interviews were impossible, we interviewed participants using instant messaging (im_ associated with qq farm. of the thirty-two participants, twenty-three of them were interviewed via the telephone, five were interviewed in person, and the remaining four were interviewed through im. each interview lasted from 30 to 60 minutes in length and was audio-recorded for data analysis. interview and observation data were first transcribed into chinese, and then translated into english for further analysis. 　 data analysis 　 data analysis for this study was guided by grounded theory (glaser & strauss, 1967; strauss & corbin, 1998) that emphasizes the co-evolution of data and theory by conducting data collection and analysis simultaneously. following the constant comparative method (glaser & strauss, 1967), immediately after the online observations, the first step was to write a short descriptive summary to record general impressions about the family interaction in game space. after each individual interview was conducted, audio data were transcribed into text as promptly as possible. 　 four pairs of interview transcripts were randomly selected from the sixteen pairs of interviewees for the initial round of data analysis. sample data were analyzed using the techniques of microanalysis or “detailed line-by-line analysis” (strauss & corbin, 1998, p. 57) by three researchers independently. first, open coding was conducted by each researcher to identify salient concepts and their properties (i.e., characteristics) and dimensions (i.e., “the range along which general properties of a category varies, giving specification to a category and variation to the theory”) (strauss & corbin, 1998, p. 101). gaming as a communication medium to mediate intergenerational family communications quickly emerged from this initial round of analysis. once this core category was identified, axial coding was then conducted to systematically explore the properties and dimensions of this category. this led to the formation of the sub-categories (i.e., the three themes of game-based communications). the themes produced by each researcher were compared, discussed and revised through a series of iterations until agreements were reached among all researchers. results of the micro-analysis of the sample interviews were used to guide the next stage of coding, during which one researcher coded the remaining data using the already developed coding scheme. this second stage of the analysis generated similar concepts and themes to those identified in the initial coding stage, demonstrating dependability of the findings. 　 meanwhile, quantitative data (log data about participants’ use of the game) were entered into spss for descriptive statistical analyses. for each sample of six pair’s log data, we summed all log messages, and then calculated the frequency and percentage of the interactive messages only belonging to parent and his/her children by taking their virtual names in qq farm as the input valid. 　 key findings 　 through comparing the dual-play, single-play, and non-play pairs we find that qq farm has become a main channel for family members to stay connected. 　 family communication through qq farm 　 our observations of the “dual-play” pairs suggest these participants constantly interact with their family members in the game space (figure 1). figure 1: playing qq farm: left, a participant (son) playing game while studying; right, discussing game together (parents) 　 analysis of the qq farm log data shows that eight percent of overall game interactions (319 out of 4132 messages) occurred between the pairs of study participants (i.e., a parent and an adult child). overall, each pair of family members had contacted each other in the game space for an average of 53 times during the two-week period. table 2 below shows the game rank, logins and playing time of the six observed dual-play pairs. 　 table 2. game use patterns of the six observed dual-play pairs. relation pairs parents-children relationship age game ranks (levels) time of logins per day playing time (minutes) per day total number of interaction messages over the 2-week period r1 father 59 38 6 30 93 daughter 28 18 6 25 r4 father 63 34 1 5 37 daughter 34 19 5 15 r5 mother 63 22 3 10 47 son 28 15 5 20 r6 mother 60 41 6 30 49 son 29 39 4 15 r8 mother 65 26 6 30 35 daughter 36 24 5 10 r9 father 63 19 2 5 58 son 28 15 5 20 　 interestingly, for many of the dual-play families, communication through game space is more preferable than other forms of communications such as telephone orand face-to-face communication. family members prefer to have some daily interactions but do not need to have daily verbal conversations. xu, a retired high school teacher, explained why qq game became a better way of communication for him to stay connected with his adult daughter. 　 r2-father: it is almost impossible to have daily communications with my daughter, since she lives very far away from me. now i have to [communicate with her] through qq farm. in the game, we don’t really need to “talk”, but i know what she’s doing... this provides a very good way to connect us. sometimes it is even better than phone conversations, because we don’t always have new things to talk about on the phone, especially when we already talked [lately]. then it’s actually better to meet on the internet [in qq farm], leave a message, send an emotion icon and “steal” in the farm. these stealing and harvesting are a way to relax. 　 in comparison, the non-play or single-play pairs often experience a sense of disconnection when talking about their relationships with their family members. maintaining effective intergenerational communication is not an easy task even when family members could meet regularly or live in the same household. zhao, a mother who lives in the city of wuhan, complained about how difficult it was to stay connected with her son who worked abroad. 　 r12-mother: i usually contact my son on the internet (via instant messaging). we don’t talk if he is not online. we usually only have contacts once, or twice a week. sometime we don’t even talk for an entire week. if i don’t’ hear from him for too long, i just give him a call. and if he did not answer, i would be very worried… that’s why i feel the telephone and the internet (im) aren’t good enough for me to communicate with my son, but i have no other choice. 　 this mother feels finding “common times” is a major challenge for her to communicate with her son. also, the lack of common conversational topics hinders intergenerational communications. chen, a father with a college age son who studies inat the same city and goes back home every weekend, still thinks of intergenerational communication as a difficult task for him. 　 r15-father: i don’t have much communication with my son, in fact, quite rare…the only time we could talk is during lunchtime. after that, he goes back to play on his computer. we just don’t have more time to talk. this happens everyday… i tried to communicate more with him or to find other more effective ways to talk to him, but it’s very difficult… he spends lots of time on his computer. other than playing games, he also chats with his friends and study on his computer. i am not sure what he was doing exactly, cause i don’t know much about computers and games. 　 this suggests that there is no time for this father to talk to his son even when they spend every weekend together at home. the 18 years old son spends most of his time in front of the computer. living in the same household doesn’t guarantee common communication times between the son and the father. both the “computer time” that occupies the younger person’s time and the lack of computer skills in the older person limited the opportunities for them to communicate. 　 game-based communication: three key functions 　 in this section, we detail how the qq game was used as a new communication medium to connect intergenerational family members. specifically, the game in our study served three key functions: 1) as an “i am safe and well” message board; 2) helping family members to express care and stay connected; and 3) providing relaxing conversational topics for intergenerational family members. gaming activities serving as an “i’m safe and well” message board 　 a key purpose for communication among family members, especially those who live far away, is to know whether each other is safe and well. as our participants lee and jean expressed in their interviews, they may not need to talk to their family members regularly, but they want to know whether their family members are safe. for most dual-play families, qq farm has turned into an “i’m safe and well” message board for them to stay connected. in this shared space, family members get to know each other’s online activities without having to directly talk or write to each other. lee, a father lives in wuhan, china, told us how, over the game playing, he is able to keep track of whether or not his daughter was safe in the united states. 　 r1father: if my daughter didn’t call or chat online with us for a week, we would worry whether she ran into any difficulties in her life. but i don’t actually need my daughter to leave any message to me [on internet]. as long as i see she keeps stealing crops (in qq farm), i would feel very relived because i know she is safe. 　 similarly, qq game also serves as a platform for parents to know whether their family members are safe during natural disasters, because having online activities would suggest they were not affected. 　 r9-father: when some disasters happened in the united states, like a flood, fire or earthquake, if i saw him [his son] played in the qq farm, i’d know his was safe. 　 many parents feel that playing on qq farm is a sign indicating their family members are safe and well, particularly when other forms of communications are not frequently occurrringed. as one father explained to us: r1-father：since my daughter is playing qq game frequently, that means she is in a very good mood now. i think she should be happy over there [in the united states]. 　 during family game playing, even if no word is exchanged, the behaviors of game playing occurringed in the shared game space can still indicate the safe status of a loved one. the game activities thus help family members to shed away worries even when they don’t have more direct daily communications such as phone calls orand face-to-face conversations. 　 game playing as a way to show “they care about and love me” 　 participants of our study perceive their virtual activities in qq game as a way to show care and love to their parents/adult children. as a result, playing together is often associated with the feelings of “happy,” “not lonely” and “comforting.” 　 peng, a mother, talked about how “stealing crops”, an originally mischievous action, would cheer her up during her busy days or when she was on travelling alone. 　 r6-mother: when i saw my children stealing crops from my farm, i even felt happy… it makes me very happy when they took care of my farm. it feels like i am not alone; i feel energetic there and it ties our family together. no matter wherever i travel, i feel my children are always with me. 　 in qq farm, when mature crops are stolen by others, the owner would no longer gain experience points from growing it. however, different from the common competition mechanism in most computer games, this mother in our study does not care much about her game playing scores. instead, she deems the “stealing” action as a way to connect with her children who live abroad. adult children also seem to have played the game with their parents with the intention of accompanying their parents when they are not around. 　 r9-son: i can’t live with my parents since i am studying abroad now. i think this game has some effects [on the family relationship]. there aren’t that many games for you to play with your parents. playing games online makes me feel like i am with them at home. it makes my parents feel happy during leisure time and also gives me a sense of comforting. 　 beyond playing together, the helpful activities designed in qq farm, such as weeding and irrigating are even more appreciated by parents. many parents are proud that their children are helping them in the game space (by doing, for instance, weeding for them). for instance, zhang, a mother of four, checks her farm daily to see who had helped her. 　 r5-mother: i check the messages in my farm everyday. i know they [her adult children] helped me to take care of my farm; they cultivated grass and removed weeds for me... through these little things i know how much they care about us, which made me very happy… it’s just fun to play with my family, no matter daughter, son or daughter in law, we all play together. 　 these quotes suggest that, although care is not explicitly expressed through verbal or written communication, caring and love are exchanged through the game playing. without calling each other and saying how much they love each other, the caring information is represented through virtual actions through the daily game playing. thus, game playing is fun for parents because they can entertain themselves during their free time, and also because it is a platform for them to be with their adult children and observe what their children doing something for them everyday. 　 game playing promotes more relaxed family communications 　 game playing is perceived as a “fun and relaxing” conversational topic that fosters common interests between the aging parents and the adult children. 　 yang, a son who lives close to his parents’ home and maintain routine face-to-face communications with his parents, found online game playing beneficial to their already frequent family communications. 　 r16-son: sometimes i watch how they [parents] play at home, like how they harvest crops. we talk and laugh together in doing so. i also told them some tips on how to play this game better. sharing game playing experiences just improved our family communication and it’s very enjoyable for us. in general, chinese parents are always concerned with their children’s lives, such as their jobs, their relationships, how they get alone with their wives or girl friends, etc. that’s what our parents always talk to us about when we were growing up. qq farm brought in fun and easy topics for us. the issues they talked to us about previously were all about lecturing us about how to live better. adult children sometimes may feel they are over-controlled and thus not interested in those topics. 　 the easiness and relaxation brought by game playing are also applauded by the older generation, since talking about games provides them with new opportunities to interact with their adult children. 　 r1-father: sometimes we only discuss very serious issues. this [the game] transformed our conversation to a more relaxed way, such as whether you go online today, whether you plan to steal my vegetables, etc. these are very easy and fun topics for us. 　 conventionally, the conversations topics that the older generation prefers to talk to with their children about tend to be serious ones (e.g., those related to work, marriage). in contrast, playing and discussing games helps to convert the previously “serious” family conversations into “fun” and “relaxing” conversations. 　 discussion 　 the findings of this study suggest that qq farm game playing provides an important communication channel for family members to stay connected. this new communication channel enriches existing family communications. while parents still expect to hear or see their adult children regularly, and to discuss serious family manners face-to-face or over the phone, game playing adds on to the existing family communications a sense of continuous updates, fun and relaxing topics that other communication channels may not be able to provide easily. 　 different from phone calls, im or face-to-face contacts, updates from the online game space is constant and continuous. the updates the parents received in the game space were generated naturally through the game playing, and serve as a message board for parents to know their adult children are safe and well. this game-based communication changes existing patterns of family communication in the sense that family activities are no longer reported to each other during common communication times. rather, family communications now involve reading the game activities stored in the shared game space in a non-time sensitive manner. while this new communication mechanism may not be adopted to communicate urgent or other complicated family issues, it is ideal to keep family members be aware of each other’s daily activities through continuous updates without imposing a much burden on either generation. compared with other types of communications, game-mediated communication is more implicit and less intrusive (e.g., it keeps the balance of showing “safe and well” massages without revealing every detail of daily activities). this less intrusivestructive communication mechanism helps adult children to protect their privacy while maintaining constant interactions with their parents. in this sense, social networking game playing may be a good way to take advantage of the benefits associated with the technology while avoiding potential concerns for privacy that has been reported in prior research (e.g., judge & neustaedter, 2010). 　 in addition to being less intrusive, the “caring and love” messages expressed through game play provide family members with a new way to implicitly communicate with each other. in chinese culture, critical emotional ties that connect family members, such as love and care, are rarely expressed explicitly in daily communication (chen & silverstein, 2000). this emotional expression may become even more challenging when adult children live in different households fromwith their parents, since the traditional way of showing care, such as cleaning the house, buying gifts and having dinner together (schwarz, 2010), cannot be easily carried out on a daily basis. qq game serves as a light-weighted communication medium, which could implicitly delivery the love and caring of family members while avoiding the potential awkwardness of saying “i care about you” directly. this implicit way of expression may help tie families closer and supplement the relative lack of explicit emotional expressions in other forms of communications in chinese families. the lack of common conversational topics is a major challenge for effective intergenerational communications. parents interviewed in the study repeatedly expressed their frustrations in not being able to communicate with their adult children, even when the two generations co-reside in the same household. being too “serious” is often used by the younger generation to describe the conversations occurringed between themselves and their parents. as it is shown in our study, discussing serious topics often leads to a sense of being over-controlled among the younger generation and adds stress to their lives. as a result, adult children often avoid engaging in “serious” conversations with their parents. 　 in line with prior research showing the use of computers creates a new common language between the parent and the child (xie, 2006), in the present study, game playing also helps parents to better understand what their adult children are doing in front of the computer. this common gaming experience is then transformed into shared interests that can be discussed in real life. thus, the game playing experience may transcend the online game space and enhances family communications. this finding on the mutual shaping of online and offline relationships is in line with that reported in prior research of older chinese internet users (xie, 2008a; 2007). while this paper identifies interesting intergenerational communication patterns mediated through online game play, it has two limitations: first, although most of our parents participants are qualified as older adults according to the chinese standard, a few parents were only in their early 50s or late 40s; second, this study only investigated the current game playing behaviors between family members. more insights could be obtained in studying the process of transitioning from non-play to game-play period. this transition process could help us better understand how game play influences the frequency and content of other existing family communication behaviors. 　 conclusion 　 maintaining intergenerational communication is no easy task. various factors such as time and distance barriers among adult children and parents, a lack of common conversational topics and differing values all hinder effective family communication. in our study, game playing serves as a new medium to mediate and foster intergenerational family communication. different from other forms of communication that often requires simultaneous engagement, 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(2006). perceptions of computer learning among older americans and older chinese. first monday, 11(10). http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1408/1326 　 endnotes 1  a report of qq farm from chinese website netease (163.com), available at: http://tech.163.com/10/0730/11/6cr9g68a00094il6.html 2  posted by steven chow on november 25, 2010; tencent inc qq: http://www.china-online-marketing.com/news/china-tech-companies/portal-website/tencent-inc-qq/ 3  http://web.pcgames.com.cn/qqnc/xinwen/ 4  the chinese seniors rights protection law http://www.chinalawinfo.com/chyzl/detail.asp?id=202&cid=47 <div id="article"> <h2 id="article_title"> introduction </h2> <div id="article_author"> susana finquelievich and mariana salgado </div> <h3 class="article_subhead"> a bottle of innovation </h3> <p> launching our call for papers on the role of users in socio-technical innovation has been similar to throwing a bottle with a message into the sea. who would find it, and how many researchers, in the vast shores of social studies on the information society, would answer it? what would be the "catch", in terms of research results, of understanding about the routes in which individuals and groups appropriate and turn information and communication technology into something useful for their own specific practices? the call for papers itself turned into a kind of practical research on how users are relevant regarding socio-technical innovation. </p> <p> a number of colleagues have answered this call, indicating the deep interest which exists in the community informatics world concerning an analysis of the processes through which specialists observe innovations carried on by communities or individuals and how these are then able to integrate them into new products. </p> <p> in the last decades studies and experience have shown that users matter in regards to technological innovation. books such as "the co-construction of users and technology" <sup>1</sup> analyse the creative capacity of users to shape technology in all phases, from design to implementation. lately, citizens&acute; labs are also trying to integrate individuals and communities to technological innovation. these latter try to combine the old "collaboratory" concept launched in the 1990s in academic environments, or virtual laboratories, where scientists collaborate though networking, with the newer concepts of citizens&acute; networks, in which citizens collaborate in a digital environment for various uses, and that have become freshly popular through social networks such as facebook or twitter. </p> <p> individuals, groups and communities have actively participated in the process of technological innovation and are increasingly aware of their capacity for making and changing technologies. internet based social networks, open source software, content creation, redesign by use, citizens &acute;participation in living labs, are just a few examples of people actively enlarging the original uses of information and communication technologies (ict). </p> <p> the goal of this special issue is to examine, using a variety of multidisciplinary approaches, the mutual interaction between ict and users. the authors have reflected on the hypothesis that any understanding of users must take into consideration the multiplicity of roles they play, and that the conventional distinction between users and producers is largely formal and artificial. </p> <p> contributing knowledge about the process in which individuals and communities appropriate and makes information and communication technology functional for their own specific purposes is the goal of this special issue of joci. the objective is to advance our understanding of how communities utilize technology, meanwhile as they are creating innovative technology uses. the papers published in this issue consider how users consume, modify, domesticate, design, reconfigure, and resist technological development, as well as the ways users are changed by ict. </p> <p> the papers may be classified into three main categories: social and technological networks, technological and organizational tools for innovation, and experiences with living labs. some of the key issues that are reflected upon are: </p> <ul> <li>case studies about technology appropriation and modification of ict changes by communities. </li> <li>hunting for alternative-uses: analysis of the processes through which experts perceive the changes brought about by communities or individuals and incorporate these into goods or services. </li> <li>follow-up and analysis of the framework of technological relationships between human and non-human agents </li> </ul> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 1. social and technological networks </h3> <p> in his paper "collaborative knowledge creation in development networks: lessons learnt from a transnational programme", fabio nascimbeni reflects on how knowledge is collaboratively created and documented in social networks within international development cooperation (idc) settings, and on the importance of collaborative knowledge production and exploitation within these networks. he argues that knowledge exchange and creation is one of the main added values of networking activities of idc in the network society, and he advocates for networking to be considered a fundamental component of idc interventions. a specific case study shows the impact of collaborative knowledge building on a europe-latin america cooperation programme of the european commission. nascimbeni argues that the importance of networking activities in idc starts from the fact that in current societies the value of a productive connection no longer rests on either labour or capital, but rather in the collaboration of an exchange process among individuals involved in the creation of knowledge, goods or services. the traditional concepts of reciprocity and exchange currently appear once again to be acquiring a fundamental value in social innovation and dynamics. in other words, value creation is deeply embedded in extended social relations. moreover, due to the fact that knowledge is a non-exclusive good, knowledge networks are capable of multiplying the knowledge of individual agents by enabling information sharing and dialogue. </p> <p> cecilia loureiro-koechlin and tim butcher study 80 social network users with a mixed ethnographic approach combining interviews with online participant observation via the twitter public timeline. based on this study they developed a conceptual framework that illustrates how different kinds of relationships can co-exist within twitter through three layers of participation. they present social practices such as the "tweet-up", a face to face users' meeting. the authors assert that online communities and their boundaries on twitter can have different configurations as created by their members. these members appropriate the service and co-create new uses for it, as conventions for their communication, e.g. the use of hashtags. participation occurs in three layers: the first concerns broadcasting; the users are not interested in engaging with others (the individual is "interest driven"); layer two is about topic-focused posting (interest-driven communities); and layer three consists of focusing on people, not topic; these are more social (friendship-driven groups). participants can be part of more than one, so the participation is multidimensional. </p> <p> in the article "appropriation of icts by informal communities in metropolitan cities. the case of the "la salada" market in the latin american context," schiavo, rodriguez and vera analyse cities and their ict development presenting different perspectives on who or what motivates innovation mechanisms: citizens, communities, social practices or/and the spread of information and communication technology. the paper presents the concept of informality in the latin american context and its consequences in terms of ict appropriation and development. the case study described is "la salada" sales market located on the outskirts of the city of buenos aires. social practices and the uses of ict by the community in the market are scrutinized. through the case study, the authors aimed to answer the question concerning what are the dynamics that characterise the process of co-creation of technology in informal communities. the appropriation of ict increased in the year previous to the study through a series of social networks and web sites that relate to commercial activity, the development of e-commerce, organization and promotion of the market. this appropriation happened slowly and in a disarticulated manner in part because of the clandestinity of the market in its beginnings. other reasons for la salada's late access to the "space of flows" are the relatively recent incorporation in argentine of public policies and education initiatives supporting the ict material infrastructure. two portals are maintained for the community and they show the process of appropriation of icts and expand the logic of a productive and commercial system based on informality. the case shows how this aspect of informality can open issues of trust and community identity up to discussion. these special characteristics in turn spark processes of co-creation of technologies in the context of a metropolitan city. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 2. technological and organizational tools for innovation </h3> <p> in their paper "facilitating community innovation: the outils-r&eacute;seaux way", authors lorna heaton, florence millerand, and serge proulx, describe the work of outils-r&eacute;seaux, a french group whose mission is to encourage the development and use of collaborative tools by associative movements. <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux's</em> approach to software development focuses on accompanying the groups work rather than simply providing technical solutions. use of collaborative tools by a group is viewed as secondary, and subsequent, to a group's experience with cooperation. the article focuses in particular on a recent experiment in community-building among a group of citizens in brest, france. their analysis is based on interviews with the staff of <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> as well as with one of the initiators of the project in brest, france. it also draws on an analysis of activity in the wikis developed in the context of this project. the paper specifically focuses on an experiment among a group of citizens in brest. drawing on interviews and an analysis of the content of the project's wiki pages, the authors reflect on the how a training program for group facilitators is in itself an innovative process, where the community becomes an essential element of the innovation. the paper explores the co-evolution of both the technical infrastructure (tools for collaboration) and the community, and demonstrates how outils-r&eacute;seaux mediates between the (social) world of users and the technical world of software developers. </p> <p> rocio gomez, in "the ecology of linking technologies: toward a non-instrumental look at new technological repertoires", focuses on the follow-up and examination of the framework of technological relationships between human and non-human agents. the study allowed the research team to advance the understanding of new technological repertoires (mobile telephone, chat, internet) not as isolated instruments added to the social life of the subjects, but as technological mediations for the construction of social links, that is, as <em>linking machines.</em> gomez states that people do not relate with discrete and individualized technologies, but with authentic technological settings in which both convergent and divergent relationships are generated. she calls this set of technologies <em>the ecology of technologies.</em> the paper suggests eight techno-mediation linking systems which are useful for analyzing the variations of the techno-linking settings of urban young people, that is, the variation in ways in which young people operate different technologies to build and strengthen their social links. the paper further questions some of the frequently overly simplifying conceptions concerning "the young users of new technologies". </p> <p> azi lev -on, in his paper "communities, crowds and focal sites: fine-tuning the theoretical grounding of collaboration online" contributes a bird's eye view of theories that address collaboration in communities on the internet. theories of collaboration in <em>offline</em> communities focus on local dynamics and institutions that produce social control. some pre-conditions for social control that are highlighted in the literature, such as limited exit options, the multiplexity of the community experience as well as clear group boundaries, are identified. it is argued that such theories are of limited value for explaining collaboration in <em>online</em> communities. two alternative routes that are more appropriate for explaining why communities ground collaboration online are presented. the author states that communities seem well situated to support collective actions, in that they enable ongoing communication between members, and introduce exit costs as well as embeddedness in a social network. the paper addresses the questions: can the unique benefits of communities for collective action be reproduced in online environments, and if so where and why? how might <em>online</em> associations facilitate collective action and whether, and to what extent, they can reproduce the strategic capabilities of some <em>offline</em> communities in circumventing the "logic of collective action"? </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 3. living labs experiences </h3> <p> in the paper "rlabs a south african perspective on a community-driven approach to community informatics", parker, wills and wills dare to ask a key question: who are the stakeholders in community projects? there is nothing more powerful than a simple question to frame a paper and a proper context: living labs in south africa (rlabs). this lab developed a mobile instant messenger aggregator that can be used to manage multiple mobile chat conversations, providing real-time support as a counselling medium. the three support channels relate to the vital concerns: debt breaker, drug advise support and national aids helpline. in addition rlabs worked with initiatives related to educating mothers and elders in the use of social media and unemployment. </p> <p> after doing content analysis of several living labs, the authors conclude that not all the projects in living labs have the communities as the main stakeholders, even though the european living lab model requires it. co-creation in this context is an ambition, instead of a realized goal. communities themselves are the main stakeholders in community projects, however, the empowerment of the community to produce a product that is transferable to other markets needs collaboration with the other stakeholders in the living labs. this can only be possible in a social context where governments, business and academic stakeholders are ready to work with communities to support them in a long-term, sustainable, educational and capacity-building relationship. the authors identify a need for further work to transfer the good practice of living labs to other community informatics contexts. rlabs has demonstrated that it is important that key stakeholders come from the community in need. sustainable empowerment through the use of innovative technology needs to be community driven, designed and owned. </p> <p> susana finquelievich 's paper "the emergence and development of a regional living lab: the case of san luis, argentina" describes the results of two field research works on the characteristics and reach of the digital san luis program (san luis digital, sld) promoted by the provincial government and in which local governments have been actively involved. the paper focuses on the use of information and communication technology (ict) in the social innovation processes as promoted by the provincial government through agreements with other social actors. finquelievich argues that the digital san luis paradigm (which she refers to as the quadruple helix) articulates multidirectional interaction among the following social actors: the province&acute;s government, as the policy&acute;s designer and executor; academia, as the producer of knowledge and provider of technology and trained human resources; it enterprises, as technology providers, but also as technology producers; and the community, not only as users of technological goods and services, but also as co-producers of them. </p> <p> after analyzing the characteristics of the san luis digital paradigm, the paper describes its achievements, and analyzes its limitations. the author develops the hypothesis that the whole province is an actual living lab, because its conceptual frame is based on the following goals: placing the province of san luis as a reliable producer of ict goods and services at the national and international levels; reinforcing the relationship of users to the technology; re-formulating the province&acute;s educational system; and mediating between technology production and consumption. </p> <p> mariana salgado, in her paper "museums as living labs. challenge, fad or opportunity?" based on her resaarch on finland museums, describes and analyzes how the museum community has designed, integrated and implemented ict in its organizations. the museum community has participated in the development of a conceptual framework for ict services as well as the resources required to put them to use. due to the similarity between this sort of work and the tasks performed at living labs, the authors believe that museums could benefit from dialoguing with living labs about their methods, networks and new technologies, indeed their entire ecosystems. </p> <p> museums create and use products and services to further their mission of conserving, researching and communicating our common cultural heritage. this paper addresses how museums can make use of and benefit from living labs in their attempts to open their institutions to new audiences and enhance audience participation. this paper also discusses how communities can actively participate in the creation of museum programs and activities. </p> <p> the concept underlying living labs could be useful to the museum community as it attempts to develop research tools that enable active participation in the development of technology and in innovation by means of products and services tailored to their own needs. museums today are constantly changing and assessing their role in society and, as a result, their possible partnerships. they must take a proactive approach to financial and social challenges, and thus ensure that a museum visit continues to be a favorite outing for youth. if museums begin to consider their audiences as major players in experimentation with products and services, a new generation of tailored solutions for the cultural sector will appear. once museums become partners with living labs or position themselves in living lab ecosystems, they will become creative spaces of social and technological innovation. </p> <p> finally, kari-hans kommonen and andrea botero&acute;s paper "are the users driving, and how open is open? experiences from living lab and user driven innovation projects" reflects on the experiences of projects in helsinki, finland, aimed at developing organic connections between technology development and local communities. over the past years, their research group has carried on a number of projects to find ways to facilitate people to influence the development of tools, systems and services for their own digital practices. they have also participated in several initiatives that aimed to develop the living lab approach in helsinki. while both their own research agenda and the living lab approach share many aims and characteristics, the approaches also have some differences. in this field note the authors discuss, evaluate and summarize three of the experiences in light of the role that communities play and could eventually play in innovation processes and the co-creation of technology. although these projects have different goals, they share a basic premise: they all envision that new technology could and should be developed in close collaboration with people. furthermore they also have a relationship with the ideas of living labs and user driven innovation. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> footnotes </h3> <p> <sup>1</sup> http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&amp;tid=10755 </p> </div> life after connectivity: the impact of the community mesh network in mahavilachchiya, sri lanka’s e-village life after connectivity: the impact of the community mesh network in mahavilachchiya, sri lanka’s e-village   alisha bhagat information and communication technology agency, sri lanka <alisha.bhagat@gmail.com> abstract this paper examines the impact of a community wireless mesh network established in the village of mahavilachchiya, sri lanka. the “e-village” in mahavilachchiya, created through a partnership between government agencies and a local ngo, features sri lanka’s first wireless mesh network and has been operational since october, 2006.  this paper incorporates data collected from the government run ict agency and partner organizations, as well as observations of daily internet use in mahavilachchiya. additionally, a survey on internet use was administered to 35 students in mahavilachchiya. the current reach of ict in the village is examined and recommendations are made for the implementation of future e-villages. introduction the information and communication technology agency (icta) of sri lanka has created a pilot e-village in the rural village of mahavilachchiya.  the e-village, located in the north-central province, boasts sri lanka's first outdoor wireless mesh network.  since october 3rd, 2006, this network has brought high speed internet connectivity to two schools and 28 homes. the purpose of this paper is to analyze the after-effects of the wireless mesh network on the village of mahavilachchiya. is ict accelerating socio-economic development as the project intended? this paper examines the ways in which ict is being used in mahavilachchiya and presents ways in which it can be used more effectively. the e-village project has been included in the 2007 sri lankan government budget as well as included in the  ten-year mahinda chintanaya created by the president of sri lanka, mr. mahinda rajapaksha.[1] the government of sri lanka is committed to replicating the e-village across the country. this paper studies the pilot e-village of mahavilachchiya in order to create guidelines for replicating the e-village project. this paper is organized into three parts. the first part describes the development and implementation of a mesh network in mahavilachchiya. the second part uses survey data to examine the current uses of the internet in mahavilachchiya and the ways ict is being utilized in the village. in the third section, the mahavilachchiya e-village is critically examined and recommendations are made in order to make the e-village more effective. part 1: background, planning, and goals the information and communication technology agency (icta) of sri lanka is a government agency under the president’s office. icta focuses on 5 project areas, including e-society under which the e-village project falls.[2]  the e-society project area operates with the goal of “innovatively using ict to meet the social and economic needs of the most vulnerable communities”.[3] the e-village initiative led by icta attempts to take the power of ict to rural communities in sri lanka. the project also hopes to integrate these technologies into the lives of citizens so that they are used for economic, educational, and social development. according to the icta website “the primary objective of the project is to demonstrate the effective contribution of an it infrastructure in accelerated socio-economic development. (in order) to provide increased opportunities for growth and a better quality of life for citizens in rural communities, particularly the youth, by using ict as a tool and enabler for development.”[4] the work of icta is not to question if sri lanka should have internet connectivity, but rather to work on how sri lanka can join the ict revolution as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible. ict must be implemented in a way that has the deepest impact on people’s lives. sri lankans need connectivity, especially rural sri lankans, for whom connectivity can improve job and business opportunities as well as improving the overall quality of life. the physical and economic circumstances of sri lankan villages provide unique challenges to connectivity. firstly, the ict literacy of the country remains very low at roughly 10%, according to a survey conducted by the department of census and statistics in 2004[5]. this is surprising considering that the general literacy of the country is one of the highest in south asia. the lack of ict literacy results in rural users staying away from computers and internet applications. secondly, high capital and operating costs place computers and connectivity out of the reach of many people. lack of constant electricity and difficult terrain add to the barriers of connectivity in rural areas. the lack of english education in rural areas creates an additional obstacle to ict literacy as the majority of computers and computer programs are created with an english-fluent user in mind. villagers are rarely exposed to the english language and even if taught basic computer commands, cannot relate to content on the internet. there is very little existing sinhala[6] content on the internet and the lack of content discourages users in villages from taking an interest in the internet and using it to its fullest. in the case of mahavilachchiya, the introduction of ict into the village was a local initiative. a local english teacher, mr. wanni, educated himself on a second-hand computer and gained a degree of computer literacy. in 1998 he created a ngo called the horizon lanka foundation. horizon lanka was created for the purpose of educating village youth in ict and english. seeing the inadequacies of the local school system in providing students with marketable skills, mr. wanni used horizon lanka as a way of training students for jobs and connecting them with the outside world. over the years more computers were added and more children began to participate in the lessons. around 400 students became ict literate through horizon lanka. a computer center was set up in the village. using a website, the students solicit donations of equipment and help local families to purchase computers. thanks to these programs, over 30 students have computers in their homes. the villagers found ways to better integrate computers into their lives. the children started to use more advanced programs and learned web design and graphic design. the horizon lanka foundation designed its own website and uses it to promote horizon lanka and the work of the students. what makes horizon lanka so remarkable is that the organization operates in a little known village – mahavilachchiya -40 km from the nearest town anuradhapura, and surrounded on three sides by the vilpattu jungle. the population of mahavilachchiya is 22,000 with 6,100 households.[7] most of the villagers are either farmers or laborers with a monthly income of about rs. 5,000 - 10,000 (us$ 50 100). though there is electricity, it was only recently, in december 2006, that the village was connected to the telephone network. initially the students traveled to anuradhapura, over 40 km away, in order to use the internet. the high cost of travel to anuradhapura as well as the high charges in internet cafes greatly limited internet use amongst the village students. in 2004 a tower was erected at the horizon lanka facility to get internet signals. through the work of the horizon lanka foundation, internet was available in mahavilachchiya at the horizon center. the tower at the horizon lanka site brought internet to mahavilachchiya but many students found it difficult to come to the center daily. family obligations and long travel distances in mahavilachchiya made it difficult for students to commute. by 2005 many horizon lanka students already had computers in their homes and as a result students and their families preferred to use the computer from home. the horizon lanka foundation had already laid the groundwork for developing mahavilachchiya as the first e-village site. because of wanni’s years of teaching, the local youth are both fluent in english and computer literate. furthermore, the horizon lanka foundation has worked to provide local students with computers and set up a computer center.the unique situation of mahavilachchiya as a village in which there was already high ict literacy and computer penetration, made it a perfect choice for the implementation of a wireless network which would reach students in their homes. the mahavilachchiya e-village was created through a partnership between icta, horizon lanka, enterprise technology (pvt) ltd (etpl), and the asia pacific development information program (apdip) of the united nations development program. etpl constructed the mesh network, apdip provided the funding, and icta coordinated all four participating organizations. deciding on the mesh mesh networking is one of the most robust networks for rural connectivity. the network is resilient and self-healing and can recover if one or more nodes go down. once the network is implemented, there is no cost for additional clients within the network, making it ideal for a low-income rural setting. the wireless mesh network in mahavilachchiya is the first rural mesh network in sri lanka and was implemented by etpl, who first introduced this technology to sri lanka.[8] numerous setbacks caused by large increases in the cost of certain items resulted in the budget doubling from the initial estimate. additional costs resulted from the changes in recipient location and many unforeseen delays occurred in the process of obtaining the frequency license from the telecommunications regulatory commission (trc).  specifically, there were cost increases in the towers for the mesh box enclosures, the lightening and surge protectors, the antenna mounting, the trc license fees, and the cost of tower construction.[9] in future e-village projects these cost increases could be avoided through better planning.   goals of the project the project objectives according to the final mesh network project report[10] were as follows;  promoting the use of computers in school and training facilitating the search for economic opportunities community chat dissemination of health and educationally important information, and spreading information on how to face current environmental conditions fulfillment of goals promoting the use of computers in school and training the accessibility of the internet has encouraged local students to use the internet as an educational tool. many students use the internet to search for information for research papers. internet usage has fostered english language skills and has improved written and spoken english considerably. after the introduction of computers into homes, 6 students received an “a” grade for their o-level examinations. this was seen as a major accomplishment in the village. potential use: e-learning in local languages such as distance education courses offered by universities. also, students could apply for scholarships and educational programs from home. facilitating the search for economic opportunities students have created their own websites which have created stimulated in the village and in local activities and production. through the influence of international volunteers and visitors, the students have become exposed to a wide range of potential careers, especially those in the ict sector. in a study conducted by the horizon lanka foundation it was found that an average of  4 job seekers come to the center every week to use the resources of the foundation.[11] this number is expected to increase as more villagers become ict literate and aware of the horizon lanka facilities. potential use: business processing outsourcing (bpo) or other outsourcing work could be done by trained students in mahavilachchiya. buying and selling goods could also occur over the internet. for example, farmers could compare prices of farm equipment and local products and services could be sold online. national ngos involved in activities such as craft production could be partnered with the e-village to increase business. community chat online chat is very popular among the students and they use chat to communicate with each other after school. the students also chat with past volunteers, their international sponsors, and friends and relatives in other parts of sri lanka. potential use: students could use chat to pass messages about relevant local events. a community website or chat room utilized by the students could help with dissemination of important local information dissemination of health and educationally important information the students do not regularly view health related sites and the internet has not yet replaced the need to go into the city for medical consultation. students occasionally research medical conditions using internet searches but this is rare. potential use: students could research and write about health and safety issues for distribution in the village. a communications system could be set up with a hospital in case of a medical emergency. spreading information on how to face current environmental conditions the students and their families all enjoy reading the sinhala news online. this gives them access to current country conditions and any changes in the political situation. potential use: once a few more adults are ict literate, they can access websites with current weather conditions and crop prices. they can also get information from sites such as the department of agriculture website which has information on how to prepare for environmental conditions and farming alternatives. long-term survival after the mesh network had been implemented, questions of project maintenance and replication arose. the e-village was created so that it could be scalable and replicated throughout sri lanka. the project should not collapse after its completion and reliance on external donors and stakeholders should be reduced.  in the case of mahavilachchiya, icta and other stakeholders have made an initial investment of time and money to create a mesh network. the project is currently not independently run although horizon lanka has been working on making it so.  long-term survival for mahavilachchiya involves both the maintenance of the organizational structure of the horizon lanka foundation as well as financial stability so that the project is not reliant on the funds of a few individual donors. in the first case, the administration of the foundation must be strengthened and the responsibilities divided amongst a group of stakeholders such that if one person drops out, the project can continue. the stakeholders must participate in design and implementation and periodically be involved in evaluating the project. for mahavilachchiya to become financially sustainable, plans need to be in place to generate income. the fees to maintain the network are born by the supervisory agencies. the connectivity fees are met by icta and etpl paid the salaries of the network monitors. other fees for the maintenance of computers and facilities are paid by individual donors but they are often insufficient. before plans for e-commerce, bpos, or other business can take place, some amount of long-term planning must come from the users and the foundation. the creation of a solid business model and development of a support network through stakeholders will help in insuring a sustainable future for the e-village. part 2: uses of ict in mahavilachchiya at the time of writing, the mesh network had been up and running in mahavilachchiya for a little over 3 months. the researcher traveled to mahavilachchiya and lived at the home of one of the horizon lanka students for a period of 5 days. during this time she observed the casual internet use which took place in student’s homes as well as the formal training given by the horizon lanka academy. the survey instrument was crafted after 3 days of observation of the students’ english communication ability and internet usage. the purpose of the survey was to study internet usage among horizon lanka students. the mesh network has been operational in mahavilachchiya for 3 months and this survey aims to quantify the impact it has had on the lives of horizon lanka students. the survey methodology is attached as appendix a and a copy of the survey is attached as appendix b. the following is a summary of relevant results and responses to particularly pertinent questions. a more detailed description of survey results can be found in appendix c. of mahavilachchiya’s 22,000 people the internet reaches roughly 1,000. according to the survey results, there is an average of 5 people per household for each horizon student. internet is currently in the homes of 28 students, therefore reaching roughly 140 people in their homes. through computers in homes and at the horizon center, there are many residents who have proximity to the internet or to a frequent internet user. although many of the family members of horizon students are not yet ict literate, it is hoped that with time, the students will educate family members about the computer and relevant computer applications. of the 35 students surveyed, 24 have a computer at home with 20 students having internet connectivity. there is a direct relationship between having the internet at home and using it daily. this is represented in the graph below. there is no relationship between the hours of daily use and whether or not the student had a computer at home, probably because motivated students may go to the horizon center. the number of years of english study varied among the students, with an average of 6 years of english study per student. for most students, the years they had been studying english corresponded to the number of years they had been in horizon. the older students, who were more comfortable with english, were able to give the researcher multiple responses to the survey question on internet use. the younger students only gave one response. despite the older student’s familiarity with english, many of them desired more sinhalese content. the various uses of the internet by horizon lanka students are shown in the graph below. the majority of students use the internet for schoolwork. they use internet searches to conduct research. in fact, search engines are their favorite sites. this differs from their most recently viewed sites. looking at the most recently viewed site provides another indicator of popular uses for the internet. students may have certain favorite sites but looking at the most recently viewed site provides a glimpse into which sites were actually being used by the students. this information is shown in the graphs below. students have ambitious plans for the future, with many of them desiring computer-related jobs including programmer, web designer, and computer engineer. the remaining students desire jobs as teachers, doctors, and engineers. seven students, mostly older students, also expressed a desire to work abroad. survey conclusions internet usage in the village is strongly linked to english education.[12] only those who have at least a basic grasp of english are able to navigate various internet functions.[13] the senior students, the ones who are the most fluent in english, are the students who are able to utilize a wide range of functions when they use the computer. these students were the most responsive to the survey and gave the researcher a great deal of feedback on survey questions. the students who are weaker in english use only a few functions such as chat and were less responsive to the survey. the survey results demonstrate the effect of internet penetration on the ways in which the students think about ict. the responses show an increased exposure to international ideas and the world outside of mahavilachchiya. the desire of many students to live and work abroad is one such example. career choice also demonstrates a broadening of horizons. the most popular career choice among men and women is an ict related career. particularly interesting is the desire by so many female students to work in the ict sector. in a village where there exist very few career opportunities for women, this demonstrates a concrete change in thinking. having internet in the home greatly increased the amount of time students spent online. this is particularly beneficial as the majority of students use the internet for assistance with schoolwork. many students who utilize the center listed email, search engines, and chatting as some of their most preferred activities. students are communicating with their friends and others through email and online chat. the frequency in which students listed email and search engines as their most popular uses for the internet indicates the primary uses of the internet and suggests that more education is necessary to teach students about other applications.  more sinhalese content was desired by the older students although it is unclear as to what specific type of content they would like to see and what it would be used for. many citizens, such as the adult residents of mahavilachchiya, are limited in their uses of the internet. parents of the students are limited to browsing sinhalese news sites. the desire for more sinhalese content is indicative of the larger ict for development problem of not having sufficient local content. it is impossible with such a short survey to be able to determine the full breadth of applications for which the horizon lanka students use the internet. students, through exposure to promotional materials, are accustomed to giving certain responses in line with the goals of the foundation. it is possible that students are viewing sites or using the internet for functions such as downloading movies, which they under-reported in the survey. the students knew that the researcher was a representative from icta and this knowledge may have caused them to edit some of their responses. future work remains to be done once the internet has saturated more of the mahavilachchiya community and once the students have had longer exposure to it. a future survey should be more comprehensive and not totally reliant on student responses. the use of tracking software to determine the specific sites visited and time spent on each site might be useful in demonstrating how students really use the internet. part 3: criticism and recommendations there is a tendency in writing such reports to enumerate the many ways in which village life has changed for the better after the implementation of technology. it is important to note that ict and specifically the internet can have a negative impact on communities as well. mahavilachchiya is not immune to the problems of unchecked internet usage. in an article published in the hindu: business line, october 23rd, 2006 entitled “rural surfers find more uses for it than agribusiness,”[14] internet usage is monitored in rural india and the findings are quite surprising. the general perception of internet use in rural areas is that it is used primarily for educational information such as weather reports and agricultural information. a pilot survey on rural internet usage in maharashtra and uttar pradesh however, demonstrated how wrong this assumption can be. using a software tool developed by microsoft, 13 kiosks in the two states were tracked for 120 days. the results were quite startling. in maharashtra, agriculture sites only made up 2% of the total usage. 23% of the time spent on the internet was spent reading newspapers followed by 19% of the time sending email. checking exam results made up another 15% and pornography made up 13% of total usage. the additional 28% of usage was spent on sports, job sites, music, search engines, and other miscellaneous sites. these numbers are significant because they demonstrate the difference between predicted and actual usage. it is important to realize that people in rural areas are also susceptible to negative content on the internet such as pornography or extremist websites and that this media can have a negative impact on the local community. the same statistics are probably not true for mahavilachchiya as the internet users in the village have a different age, gender, and cultural background than the rural farmers in maharashtra monitored by the microsoft software. however the statistics do reveal usage trends for internet use in rural areas. firstly, the fact that only 2% of the time was spent on agricultural sites indicates that either farmers are not taking full advantage of internet resources or that relevant resources do not exist. it is also important to consider that very few farmers are ict literate, something that is certainly true in the mahavilachchiya case.  secondly, the time spent on email and newspapers reinforces the need for local language software to facilitate email communication and news. roughly one quarter of all internet usage was spent looking at news sites. this is reinforced by the results of the mahavilachchiya student survey which revealed that nearly all of the adults who use the internet use it for reading the newspaper in sinhalese.  finally, the large percentage of time spent on pornography (13%) shows that rural people are not immune to negative aspects of internet use and this must be addressed when icts are brought into a community. while the internet brings in different ideas and knowledge, the influence of the western porn industry on local communities is a significant threat. internet porn can greatly affect the way that adolescents in mahavilachchiya view themselves and their peers. there is the potential for detrimental internet use if people are not properly educated on negative content before using the internet. the students were asked in the written survey if they had attended any programs on internet awareness. they unanimously responded that they had not. it is important that awareness be raised among the students about appropriate and ethical internet usage. horizon lanka is extremely understaffed and cannot monitor student usage. it is important that students are given this training so that they are aware of negative content. criticism of the e-village certain pre-existing village problems cannot be simply solved by ict. the lack of job opportunities in the village, for example, can be partially remedied by fostering local industries but cannot be totally eliminated. additionally the education system in the village has to be strong enough that students who use job-seeking sites are qualified to apply for jobs and can respond appropriately to job postings.  in an article criticizing the placement of ict in a village that lacks basic infrastructure, sailaja neelakantan writes “younger denizens of the village plan to use the internet –whenever they get a connection, no, make that if they ever get a connection — to help hasten their exit by searching online for college places and jobs in big cities. not to be a total cynic, but most online content is in english, which they most likely don’t understand well enough to access. and most of the jobs advertised online require qualifications beyond the purview of the village school system.” [15] “what is a kid who goes to a school with rampant teacher absenteeism, no infrastructure to speak of –like desks, fans or electricity to run those fans –going to do with a laptop?” these similar criticisms could be applied to mahavilachchiya and are worth considering. the point made that english is required for students to be able to become fully ict literate is one which horizon is successfully tackling. by combining english and computer education, horizon is ensuring that its students are well prepared to understand and utilize online content. a lack of adequately trained teachers and insufficient modern equipment remain problems. the horizon lanka academy is trying to provide a counterbalance to these problems by providing the students with modern technology, adequate sports and games equipment, and well-trained teachers. horizon also recruits and hosts foreign volunteers in order to broaden the students’ world-view and to improve their english skills. the major question of whether or not the horizon lanka graduates really will be able to find better jobs and opportunities remains to be answered. the eldest batch is currently college-going so it remains to be seen if the internet really does alleviate poverty in the region by allowing horizon students to access a wider range of jobs. further criticism of the e-village could be made regarding the decision to implement the mesh network. no cost-benefit study was conducted on the part of icta comparing the mesh network to other methods of fostering ict literacy such as busing students to anuradhapura on weekends or giving select youth scholarships to study ict. perhaps prior research would have presented other options to the implementation of the mesh network. this research should be conducted before implementing future projects. mahavilachchiya vs. the rest of sri lanka mahavilachchiya stands at the forefront of ict education in sri lanka. the sri lankan department of census and statistics defines ict literacy as “some sort of level of comfort around a computer other than a look or fear and foreboding.”[16]  the percentage of ict literacy for the country in 2004 was only 10%. the amount of sri lankans who were ict literate in the north-central provinces (where mahavilachchiya is located) was only 5% in 2004. the use of computers by the horizon lanka students and the presence of computers in homes have greatly increased the ict literacy of mahavilachchiya although the exact percentage is unknown. the mahavilachchiya e-village project has brought internet connectivity to two schools in the region. one of these schools, takshila public school, has a computer lab and plans to get 20 computers by april, 2007. the other school, saliya mala public school, has one computer with internet connectivity. each of these schools has 500-600 students. there are also plans to set up a computer center at a local police post. these ongoing projects are examples of ways in which the e-village of mahavilachchiya is bridging the gap towards greater ict literacy. the horizon lanka academy is one of the few schools in the country which has computers or internet. according to the department of census and statistics, in a study conducted in 2006, only 17% of schools in sri lanka have a computer lab, 0.5% of schools have laptop computers, and only 6.4% of schools have an internet connection. horizon lanka students have the great advantage of all three resources. the ability to use these resources, something which usually only students in cities have access to, helps in bridging the digital divide amongst rural and urban sri lanka as well as between sri lanka and the rest of the world.  the future of mahavilachchiya there is no long term plan for the future of horizon lanka and mahavilachchiya. without a concrete plan for the future, the outlook for horizon lanka seems uncertain. rumors abound about staff members quitting, the involvement or disengagement of foreign donors, and the perception of mahavilachchiya by various stakeholders. the researcher, in her short stay in mahavilachchiya, was able to observe a few problem areas of the mahavilachchiya e-village. her observations are not by any means comprehensive of the full scope of problems. the students have ambitious career goals but limited paths to seeing these goals materialize. students desire ict careers as programmers or graphic designers but are unclear as to how these goals can be achieved. career guidance is desperately needed by the students as they lack basic job seeking skills such as making a resume and how to behave in an interview. work remains to be done on employing the ict literate students of horizon lanka. fundraising is another major problem at horizon as it is an area that requires constant attention. there are many projects that have been begun through donor funds and were then abandoned, when the funding ceased.  one such example is the gymnasium for which a foundation has been laid but the rest of the construction remains to be completed. another manifestation of this is the irregularity of teachers’ salaries. there needs to be a constant, active, pursuit of economic sustainability options. long-term fundraising mechanisms should be in place so that the project is not dependent on individual donors. furthermore, income generation activities should be developed and pursued so that the project can be self-reliant and the local economy is developed. various models for income generation exist. one option is to attract domestic corporate clients for a bpo. another option is to try to get government contracts. horizon lanka must launch a diverse approach to sustainability including multiple strategies.[17] staffing is a large problem at horizon lanka due to an overall lack of funds. there are not enough teachers or administrative staff to run the foundation smoothly. furthermore the foundation lacks a supervisory committee or strong administrative structure. the weight of business and administration functions cannot rest on mr.wanni, the founder, alone. the workload is too great for one person. many of mr.wanni’s duties should be handled by a professional staff supervised by an advisory board that would be involved in organizational and operational management. the board would ideally be composed of professionals in the ict field.  the members of the board, as a group, should have trustee and legal responsibility for the actions and operation of the organization.[18] the volunteer program should also be revisited in order to alleviate some of the staffing problems. recent political unrest has discouraged foreign volunteers from coming to mahavilachchiya. a refocus needs to be made on attracting local and other volunteers. volunteers with business and ngo administration expertise should be recruited along with teaching volunteers. budget sustainability options some costs of the e-village are covered by icta and other partners. icta pays for the cost of connectivity—approximately 29,000 slr (250 usd) per month. donations from third parties are solicited by horizon lanka but come in sporadically. horizon lanka students are charged a monthly fee to be members of the horizon lanka academy. this fee is 250 slr ($.25 usd) per student. horizon lanka takes in roughly 37,500 slr per month from students. this amount, according to the manager at horizon lanka, goes towards covering the costs of running the center. according to mr.wanni, the costs of running the center are 300,000 slr (3,000 usd) per month. the center is completely reliant on donors to make up the deficit. the e-village presents a unique challenge to financial sustainability. the wi-fi network in mahavilachchiya enables anyone with a computer to use the horizon lanka network free of charge. although anyone can use the network access becomes limited when people misuse it through using too much bandwidth. when users download large files such as movies, they hog bandwidth, limiting the extent to which other users can utilize the network. furthermore, only those with computers may use the network free of charge. others must pay horizon lanka a small user fee. numerous options for increasing revenue for mahavilachchiya and future e-villages exist, each with their pros and cons. when internet usage is not taxed, there is a tendency of users to take the network for granted and misuse it. when the network is taxed, this limits the number of potential users. a few of the options for income generation are as follows: the village as a whole could provide tax support as it is arguable that the entire village benefits from the wi-fi network and computer center. internet users could be charged a fee for downloading beyond a certain amount. all users of the network would be allowed to use email and web browsing. however downloading beyond an established limit would incur a charge. in this way high bandwidth users would be limited and horizon lanka could make additional income heavy users. this could be implemented if the network expands to anuradhapura, a neighboring town and thus expands its range of possible users. the government could finance e-villages through taxes, subsidies, or long-term loans made to local communities. the e-village could adopt an e-commerce model where goods and services from the village sold on the internet and then transported to outside markets for example through bpo outsourcing or selling local products the e-village could link up with other ngos that deal with rural economic development such as through cottage industries. the e-village could link these groups with outside markets and charge a fee for doing so. remittances from e-village students who work outside of the village could be organized and made regular. certain options for increasing revenue, such as increasing user fees, are not feasible for the e-village project. the targeted audience of low-income villagers would be hurt by these increased fees and the number of people who would be able to use the internet would be further limited. however, once the network expands beyond schools, corporate clients could be charged fees that would subsidize low-income users. recommendations for e-village: some things to consider when implementing other e-village networks: rural villages provide obstacles to ict implementation including terrain and cultural sensitivity. the area which is to receive the mesh network should be studied before implementing the project and local people should be aware and receptive to ict. a mesh network when there is line of sight between nodes can be extremely affordable.[19] barriers in physical implementation of the network should be taken into consideration. ict training should target all segments of the population, especially underrepresented groups such as women. training in local languages is particularly significant as it makes ict more accessible. however it is important to realize that the majority of web content is targeted at english speakers. ict education requires some familiarity with english. e-villages should only be started in villages where there is relatively high english proficiency and some computer literacy. in setting up an e-village, ict and english training should come first, computers second, and connectivity should be the final step. simply setting up a network and expecting development and poverty alleviation to occur on its own is not realistic. in order for people to take full advantage of ict for economic and educational opportunities, adequate training needs to take place. villagers must be constantly educated and assisted in using ict for development. the role of a local champion, or team of champions, is crucial. this person(s) is responsible for serving as a liaison between development workers, government, and villagers. they should be well connected and respected within the village community in order to promote the e-village project. for future e-villages a foundation or ngo needs to be in place in the area to educate the villagers on ict use and promote ict education. a national organization which supervises smaller local-level teams would be very effective in disseminating the best practices and experiences across centers. such a team would also make the whole project more sustainable. there must be greater stakeholder participation in design and implementation of projects and the stakeholders should play an important role in monitoring and evaluating the project. one person should not bear too many of the responsibilities. the e-village administration should be designed such that executive power does not rest upon a single person and the project can continue beyond a few individuals. conclusion  ict for development, like all development strategies, cannot occur in a vacuum. it is unreasonable to expect the mere presence of ict to immediately uplift and develop an area. internet connectivity, while connecting people with the outside world, is not effective if one does not know how to utilize ict for economic and social development. without such knowledge a rural ict project cannot be sustainable. however it is also unreasonable for a development project to immediately become sustainable after its inception. the mahavilachchiya mesh project has been up and running for roughly 5 months and cannot be expected to make large-scale developmental changes immediately. in these five months, the impact of the internet connectivity provided by the mesh network has been immense. students who had no viable career paths outside of the village now plan to become programmers and graphic designers. there is greater communication with the outside world. the english skills of students in the village have been improving. plans are also in place to attract a bpo to the village. the enthusiasm and creativity in which the people of mahavilachchiya have been using ict demonstrates that the internet has truly been changing lives. what mahavilachchiya lacks is a clear vision for the future. more development work needs to take place to ensure that the work done in mahavilachchiya is not in vain. the students of mahavilachchiya need guidance in learning to utilize the internet for socio-economic growth. additional work though partnerships with other ngos and the assistance of trained professionals could help the mahavilachchiya e-village achieve its fullest potential. with time the costs of implementing a mesh network will decrease further, making it even more accessible for use in creating future e-villages. when replicating the project a refocus must be made on development partnerships. the mahavilachchiya case demonstrates that internet alone will not immediately cause large-scale developmental change in a region. internet connectivity must be provided as part of an integrated plan with other developmental partners so that the resource is fully utilized and positive change occurs. references enterprise technology (pvt) limited, horizon lanka (2006, november 1) community mesh network for mahavilachchiya, sri lanka gramit (2006) byrraju foundation http://www.byrrajufoundation.org/gramit.htm hamm, steve (2007, january 22). outsourcing heads to the outskirts.  businessweek immunization financing (2007) world health organization  http://www.who.int/immunization_financing/analyses/fsp/process/en/index.html mathes, rohan, (2007, january 8) president stresses integrated village development, daily news  http://www.dailynews.lk/2007/01/08/ neelakantan, shailaja, (2006, august 14) indian villages, internet, and crazy headlines. gigaom, http://gigaom.com/2006/08/14/indian-villages-internet-and-crazy-headlines/ satharasinghe, dr. amara, (2004) computer literacy of sri lanka. department of census and statistics, http://www.statistics.gov.lk/cls2004/index.htm sathrasinghe, amara (2006) computer literacy of teachers, department of census and statistics report  http://www.statistics.gov.lk/education/article.pdf srinivas, hari (n.d.) global development research center, http://www.gdrc.org/ngo/start-ngo tibetan technology center, (2007) tibetan technology center, www.tibtec.org vyas, priyanka, (2006, october 23) rural surfers find more uses for it than agribusiness. the hindu business line http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/10/23/stories/2006102302920100.htm mahavilachchiya e-village partners: icta, (2005) ict agency of sri lanka www.icta.lk horizon lanka, (2006) horizonlanka foundation www.horizonlanka.org enterprise technology. (2006) enterprise technology (pvt) ltd. http://www.enterprisetl.com/ undp-apdip, (2007) asia-pacific development programme, http://www.apdip.net/   appendixes appendix a survey methodology: the survey was developed by the researcher (the author of this paper) and tested on 3 horizon senior students. some words in the initial version such as “exist” were too difficult for the students and were edited by the researcher for the final survey instrument. the survey was administered to 37 horizon students on 6/1/07 during the morning classes. the survey was given to 20 boys and 15 girls. the students ranged in age from 12 to 18. the senior students were given the survey first and then served as testing monitors for the subsequent two batches of students. the survey yielded 35 responses as the english skills of two of the students surveyed were not adequate for answering the questions. the survey sample is representative of the students attending horizon lanka. according to the january 2007 roster, there are approximately 150 students currently enrolled at horizon lanka academy. on the day the survey was administered roughly 55 students arrived for classes. the youngest 20 students were not included in the survey as their english skills were not adequate for reading and comprehending the questions. roughly one third of the 110 age-appropriate students in horizon lanka were surveyed by this instrument.  the researcher instructed the students in english that they were supposed to answer the questions to the best of their ability and there were no right or wrong answers. the students were also prohibited from talking during the survey administration and were physically separated in order to diminish the risk of them copying responses from each other. when students had questions they raised their hands and the researcher or the testing monitors clarified the question or, when necessary, translated it to sinhalese. the testing monitors were prohibited from giving the students examples of responses. students were instructed to give no response if they could not think of an answer. the average time it took to complete the survey varied with the senior students requiring 20 min, the next batch (14-16 years old) requiring 35 min and the final batch (12 to 14 years old) requiring 50 min. the final batch of students found the survey quite difficult with many of them needing clarification on nearly every question. the survey is attached to this report as appendix b.  appendix b horizon lanka student survey: january 6th, 2007 the purpose of this survey is to better understand the impact that the internet has had in mahavilachchiya. thank you for your cooperation. what is your name? what is your age? are you male or female? how many people live in your house? do you have a computer at home? do you have internet at home? where do you go to use the internet? do your parents use the internet? what do your parents like to use the internet for? how many years have you studied english? when did you join horizon? why did you decide to join horizon? what are some things that you like to use the internet for? do you use the internet to help you with your schoolwork? how do you use the internet to help with your schoolwork? what is your favorite internet site? how often do you use the internet (daily or weekly)? how many hours a day do you use the internet? what was the last thing you looked at on the internet? what information or services do you wish were there on the internet? have you attended any special programs on internet awareness? what do you want to be when you grow up? where do you want to live when you grow up?  appendix c what is your name? this question was asked in order to hold the students accountable for their answers. it is unclear if the students would have taken an anonymous survey with the same discipline and care that they completed the non-anonymous survey. the names of the students are not relevant for this study and have not been included in this report. what is your age? the ages of students ranged from 10 years to 19 years. the average age was 14.5 and the mode was 13. are you male or female? the surveyed students were composed of a group of 20 males and 15 females. it is also worth noting that of the 7 senior students ages 17-19, gender was skewed between 6 females and 1 male how many people live in your house? the population of mahavilachchiya is 22,000 people with internet reaching roughly 1,000 people. according to the statistics compiled by the district secretariat, there are approximately 6,100 households in mahavilachchiya.[20] according to the survey results, there is an average of 5 people per household for each horizon student. internet is currently in the homes of 28 students, therefore reaching roughly 140 people in their homes. if there are approximately 150 current students in horizon, there are 150 households or roughly 750 people who have proximity to the internet or a frequent internet user. although many of the family members of horizon students are not yet ict literate, it is hoped that with time, the students will educate family members about the computer and relevant computer applications. do you have a computer at home? 24 of the students surveyed have a computer at home. 11 students do not have a computer at home. do you have internet at home? 20 of the students surveyed have internet at home. 15 students do not. where do you go to use the internet? data analysis was not carried out on this question as all students who responded gave “horizon lanka” as their response. within mahavilachchiya, horizon lanka is the only location available to the students to use the internet aside from individual homes. do your parents use the internet? this question resulted in mixed answers. some students defined internet use as manipulating the computer and therefore did not consider their parents to be internet users. other students defined internet use as looking at or listening to a computer and replied “yes” to this question. from an informal verbal poll of the students, none of the parents were ict literate and were dependent on the children to show them content on the computer. what do your parents like to use the internet for? students overwhelmingly responded that their parents used the internet for reading sinhalese newspapers. again, this did not mean that the parents manipulated the computer to pull up mews sites. rather, the parents asked the children to find them news sites and then read newspapers off the computer screen once the child had called up the website. how many years have you studied english? number of years of english study varied greatly with one student having only 2 years of study and one of the senior students having 12 years of study. the average number of years of english study is 6. when did you join horizon? for 19 students the number of years in horizon corresponded to the number of years of english study.  15 other students had been studying english for a year or two before joining. only one student claimed to have been attending horizon lanka for a year before he began english study. why did you decide to join horizon? data analysis on this question was not carried out because all students who responded gave english, computers, or both as their response. there are a few explanations for this, one being that the students are so accustomed to being asked about horizon that “computers and english” is their stock answer. another reason might be that these two aspects of learning are especially stressed in the horizon academy and students think of them first when then think about horizon lanka. what are some things that you like to use the internet for? some of the older students gave multiple answers for this question. 24 students liked to use the internet for email, 15 students gave research as their reply, and 9 students liked to look at the news. 3 students indicated chat as a favorite use, another 3 indicated downloading, and one student truthfully replied that he enjoyed playing games on the computer. do you use the internet to help you with your schoolwork? students overwhelming responded in the positive to this question with only 4 out of the 35 students saying that they did not use the internet for help with schoolwork. of the four students who did not use the internet for schoolwork, 2 have internet at home and 2 do not. how do you use the internet to help with your schoolwork? data analysis on this question was not carried out as students unanimously answered that internet searches/research was how they used the internet to help them with their schoolwork. what is your favorite internet site? 12 students responded that the horizon lanka site was their favorite while another 12 responded that www.google.com was their favorite site. 2 students said that www.yahoo.com was their favorite and three individual students listed a news site, a cartoons site, and email as being their favorites. how often do you use the internet (daily or weekly)? 23 students use the computer daily and 10 use it weekly. there is a direct correlation between having the internet at home and using it daily. of the 20 students who have internet at home, 17 use it daily and only one uses it weekly. of the 15 students who do not have internet at home 6 use it daily and 9 use it weekly. how many hours a day do you use the internet? students use the internet for an average of 2 hours a day. there was no correlation between hours spent on the internet and whether or not a student had internet at home. this is due to the availability of computers at the horizon lanka facility. the facility is open to all students after school and many students walk in to use the computers during the afternoons and evenings. what was the last thing you looked at on the internet? 17 students responded that the last site viewed was an email site, 3 stated they had been looking at the horizon lanka webpage, and 4 said they had been reading the news. what information or services do you wish were there on the internet? this question was very difficult for students to answer and some of them spent 10-15 min thinking about this question alone. even the senior students had difficulty answering this question. only 10 students answered the question at all with 5 of them listing an answer related to wanting more sinhalese content. out of the other 5 respondents, two listed “information”, one listed “educational content”, one listed “more information for rural villagers” and one listed “tv shows”. have you attended any special programs on internet awareness? this was to determine if the students have had any formalized instruction or workshops on ethical computer usage. the students unanimously answered no and when probed further revealed that no such lesson had been given to them either formally or informally. the teachers admitted to discouraging the students from playing games on the internet but not actively censoring or commenting on what content students view. what do you want to be when you grow up? computer-related jobs including programmer, web designer, and computer engineer were the most popular choices with 18 students selecting a computer related job. 7 students selected teacher, 6 selected doctor, and 2 indicated they would like to be engineers. where do you want to live when you grow up? the majority of students, 28, gave sri lanka as their response, some respondents specifying mahavilachchiya. the other 7 students listed various foreign countries. [1] mathes, rohan, “president stresses integrated village development” ( daily news, 1/8/07, sri lanka), http://www.dailynews.lk/2007/01/08/ [2] the other project areas include re-engineering government, information infrastructure, ict and private sector investment, ict human resources development, and ict policy, leadership, and institutional development [3] icta website, www.icta.lk [4] ibid [5] satharasinghe, dr.amara, “computer literacy of sri lanka” ( department of census and statistics, 2004) http://www.statistics.gov.lk/cls2004/index.htm [6] sinhala is one of the two national languages of sri lanka. the other is tamil. [7] district secretariat, mahavilachchiya, anuradhapura, statistics compiled for 2006. [8] enterprise technology (pvt) limited website,  http://www.enterprisetl.com [9] these additional costs were covered by etpl [10]“community mesh network for mahavilachchiya, sri lanka”, november 1, 2006, enterprise technology (pvt) limited, icta, horizon lanka [11] in a study conducted by nirosh and chamila from horizon lanka in october 2005, internet usage was monitored weekly for the month of october. while this study is useful in determining how many children and adults used the internet during the first full month of implementation, it is not fully reliable. the data collected on internet usage is highly subjective as it was self reported by the children themselves. the children are unlikely to report the actual reasons they were using the internet if they deviated from the norm. a future study could use monitoring software or involve random checks in order to approximate actual internet usage. [12] computer literacy and english literacy build upon each other. although according to the study “computer literacy of teachers” by dr. amara satharasinghe, deputy dirctor, department of census and statistics, sri lanka “a statistical test carried out on relationship between english language literacy, computer awareness, and computer literacy shows there is no significant relationship between english language literacy and computer awareness but there is a significant positive relationship between computer literacy and english language literacy.” the students in mahavilachchiya have been learning both. http://www.statistics.gov.lk/education/article.pdf [13] this limits the use of ict by adult members of the community. while many of the adults enjoy reading local language newspapers online, they cannot operate computers by themselves and require a great deal of assistance from horizon lanka students. [14] vyas, priyanka, “rural surfers find more uses for it than agribusiness” ( the hindu business line, 23/10/06, india) http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/10/23/stories/2006102302920100.htm [15]neelakantan, shailaja, (gigaom, 14/08/2006)  http://gigaom.com/2006/08/14/indian-villages-internet-and-crazy-headlines/ [16] satharasinghe, dr. amara, “computer literacy of sri lanka”, (department of census and statistics, 2004, sri lanka) http://www.statistics.gov.lk/cls2004/index.htm [17] attracting domestic corporate clients and government clients is a strategy employed by gramit, a successful indian ngo in andhra pradesh. more information in the article by steve hamm, “outsourcing heads to the outskirts”, business week, january 22, 2007 [18] more information on organizing an ngo can be found on the global development research center’s site, http://www.gdrc.org/ngo/start-ngo/ [19] another example of a community wireless mesh network exists in tibet and is run by the tibtec ngo. www.tibtec.org. [20] district secretariat, mahavilachchiya, anuradhapura, statistics compiled for 2006 <h2 style="text-align:center">exploring the politics of free/libre/open source software (floss) in the context of contemporary south africa; how are open policies implemented in practice?</h2> <h3 style="text-align:center">asne handlykken</h3> <p></p> <h2>introduction</h2> <div>free/libre/open/source software (floss ) <span class="endnote_20_anchor" title="endnote: both free open source software (foss) and free/ libre/ open source software (floss) are used. in this paper the notion of floss will be used because it also put emphasis on the libre/freedom aspect of the movement of open source software which is fundamental in order to understand the aim of initiatives of open government data, access to knowledge, sharing, collaboration and participation in a digital commons."><sup><a href="#ftn1" id="body_ftn1">[1]</a></sup> policies emerge from the open source and free software movement. south africa adopted a floss policy in 2007 requiring that government uses open-source software and adopts open licenses. the policy was justified as providing support for access to knowledge, citizens participation, democratisation, development and economic growth.   although, south africa as one of the first countries in the world adopted a floss policy in 2007 it does not necessarily mean that open source and open licenses are implemented in practice. this research explores a perceived gap between the promise and practise of the floss policy in south africa.</div> <h2>research design</h2> <p>the case-study and fieldwork was done in south africa in 2010, based on ethnographic methods, incorporating an analysis of literature, policy documents, reports and interviews.  the use of qualitative ethnographic research was preferable in this case, in order to explore the perceptions of the floss policy and practice. the fieldwork was in situ , (baszanger &amp; dodier, 1997, p. 9) and of an exploratory nature. twenty persons were interviewed in the period between april and june 2010. </p><table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="tabell5"><colgroup><col width="133"/><col width="454"/><col width="120"/></colgroup><tr class="tabell51"><td><p>1. philipp schmidt</p></td><td><p>open courseware project at uwc  and researcher unu-merit</p></td><td><p>16.04.10 cape town</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2. marlon parker</p></td><td><p>founder reconstructing living lab and lecturer cape tech university</p></td><td><p>21.04.10 cape town</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>3. paul scott</p></td><td><p>director avoir and manager fsiu (free software innovation unit), uwc</p></td><td><p>29.04.10 cape town</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>4. rasigan maharajh</p></td><td><p>director ieri (institute for economic research on innovation) and ftisa (freedom to innovate south africa)</p></td><td><p>04.05.10 pretoria</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>5. thomas fogwill</p></td><td><p>researcher at meraka research institute at csir (council for scientific and industrial research) </p></td><td><p>05.05.10 pretoria</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>6. marlion herselman</p></td><td><p>director, living lab team meraka</p></td><td><p>group-interview, 05.05.10 pretoria</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>7. mario marais</p></td><td><p>living lab team meraka</p></td><td><p>group-interview, 05.05.10 </p></td></tr><tr><td><p>8. calvyn van zyl</p></td><td><p>ibm open computing and linux</p></td><td><p>06.05.10 johannesburg</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>9. william blankey</p></td><td><p>director , knowledge systems, hsrc (human science research council)</p></td><td><p>group-interview, 13.05.10 cape town</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>10. irma wilkinson</p></td><td><p>researcher knowledge systems, hsrc</p></td><td><p>group-interview, 13.05.10 </p></td></tr><tr><td><p>11. neo molotja</p></td><td><p>researcher knowledge systems, hsrc</p></td><td><p>group-interview, 13.05.10 </p></td></tr><tr><td><p>12. david duarte</p></td><td><p>lead creative commons south africa</p></td><td><p>phone-interview, 14.05.10 </p></td></tr><tr><td><p>13. andrew rens</p></td><td><p>ip fellow shuttleworth foundation and lead creative commons south africa</p></td><td><p class="table_20_contents">interview and seminar 21.05.10 cape town</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>14. marius bock</p></td><td><p>manager ibm south africa</p></td><td><p>23.05.10, cape town</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>15. calvyn van zyl</p></td><td><p>ibm south africa</p></td><td><p>23.05.10, cape town</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>16. eve gray</p></td><td><p>researcher at the university of cape town and runs a publishing strategy consultancy</p></td><td><p>24.05.10, cape town</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>17. nhlanla mabaso</p></td><td><p>cns at wits university, director of ftisa, was coordinator of fossfa, meraka's open source centre </p></td><td><p>phone-interview, 27.05.10, </p></td></tr><tr><td><p>18. dirk visser</p></td><td><p>open innovation studio cape town</p></td><td><p>28.05.10, cape town</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>19. kerryn mckay</p></td><td><p>director african commons projects</p></td><td><p>skype-interview, 01.06.10, johannesburg</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>20.derek keats</p></td><td><p>deputy vice chancellor knowledge and information management wits university, founder avoir at uwc</p></td><td><p>skype-interview, 11.06.10</p></td></tr></table><p><span/></p><p><strong>table 1. list of interviewees</strong></p> <p><span/></p><p>in order to limit the scope of the research we focused on the actors involved in the floss movements as researchers, developers, activists or consultants for government. the interviews explored the perceptions of these actors.. given this study is non-anonymous, it is necessary to be aware of the implications of interviewees participation and interests in floss, and in some cases their involvement in the policymaking process  and how this may affect how they express their perception of government’s implementation of the floss policy. as such this research represents some of the possible meanings and particular accounts of individuals’ views and opinions (byrne, 2003, p. 182).</p> <p></p> <h2>government embracing openness and floss policies</h2> <div class="standard">the floss policy was approved in october, 2006 by the government it officer’s council. the south african cabinet approved the revised foss policy and strategy on 22 february 2007<span class="endnote_20_anchor" title="endnote: “on 22 february 2007 the south african cabinet approved a policy and strategy for the adoption in government of free and open source software, or ‘foss’. in summary, all new software developed for or by the government will, in future, be based on open standards, and government will migrate all current software to foss” (schonwetter, ncube and chetty, 2009). "><sup><a href="#ftn2" id="body_ftn2">[2]</a></sup>. the south african government supported foss already in 2003 by accepting the proposed open source software (oss) policy for government (cabinet memorandu m no. 29 of 2003) put forward by the then department of arts and culture, science and technology and fully supported by the gito council (foss, 2006). a number of different reasons underlay the decision to move to floss: from the cost of software, to perceived gains in flexibility, transparency, and the potential of open icts to drive development, education and economic growth.</div> <p class="standard">as well as requiring a preference for open source software in public procurement , the floss policy also mentions open content which places clear emphasis on legal aspects of openness. open content requirements might be taken to suggest that data should also be shared freely with licenses, such as the appropriate creative commons licenses, that allow for it to be re-mixed and redistributed. the south african government's promise expressed in the floss policy shows a clear preference for using open licenses. </p><p>however, findings from this study reveal gaps between what the policy states and how the policy is perceived by the interviewees to be implemented in practise. the 2006 preference in the floss policy for open source software, open content and open licensing such as creative commons has more recently been contradicted by revisions of the copyright act that aims to lock-down knowledge. initiatives such as the african commons project, creative commons south africa and freedom to innovate (ftisa), south africa are active in this debate and have expressed their concerns. open data initiatives, which are currently being adopted in many countries across the world, may have a lot to learn from the south african experience, where a policy explicitly focussed on technical openness and openness of content has been met with limited interest and implementation in the bureaucracy, and with counter-movements that have actively challenged their implementation. </p>  <h2>gaps and contradictions: floss policy and practice</h2> <p>amongst many of the interviewees for this study it was felt that government could do much more to implement its floss policy. according to rasigan maharajh the director of the institute for economic research on innovation (ieri) and freedom to innovate in south africa (ftisa),  although “the south african government has a good policy on open source, ...i have not seen a tender document which shows preferentially that open source is what is being requested” (r. maharajh, personal communication, may 4, 2010). this highlights that it is necessary to study further how policies are actually implemented, and whether the government can effectively enforce the policy, or if the policy only works as a guideline, if at all.</p><div>derek keats is the deputy vice chancellor at the knowledge and information management unit at wits university, and the founder of african virtual open initiatives and resources <span class="endnote_20_anchor" title="endnote: african virtual open initiatives and resources (avoir) http://avoir.uwc.ac.za"><sup><a href="#ftn3" id="body_ftn3">[3]</a></sup> (avoir) at the university of the western cape. according to keats the impact of floss policy in practice is “almost nothing. it's small, very small, i mean maybe it's 1% or 0.5 %, really small” (d. keats, personal communication, june 11, 2010). there appear to be numerous reasons for this. andrew rens, intellectual property fellow at the shuttleworth foundation and lead the creative commons in south africa offers one: “there is not a great amount of capacity in government, so people are often less likely to educate themselves, and less likely to have time and energy to do that as they have got bigger problems to deal with. in developing countries you have the tension, constantly around lack of resources” (a. rens, personal communication, may 21, 2010). rens explains that, in practice, many government officials are not aware that government prefers the creative commons for content (ibid).</div> <div>another issue according to keats is that “procurements is still done the classic way through tender and the big companies always come back responding to the tender (…) government can do those kind of corporate engineering things, because they are significantly big players. but they don't (...) possibly there are vested interests involved” (d. keats, personal communication june 11, 2010). rens points to how many of the big it contracts specify open source in a tender but then the company provides proprietary software, and as such violates the tender. this in theory means the tender can be revoked and the companies not paid. although this does not appear to have happened often, there is at least one case where this seems to have been the reason for a the tender between the ministry of home affairs and an it company called gijima was revoked<span class="endnote_20_anchor" title="endnote: see more on the gijima case: department of home affairs presentation on ict projects (2011). iec on payment of electoral staff, department of home affairs 2011 strategic plan: further deliberations. retrived april 14, 2012 from http://www.pmg.org.za/report/20110419-meeting-between-portfolio-committee-electoral-commission-national-tre"><sup><a href="#ftn4" id="body_ftn4">[4]</a></sup> (a. rens, personal communication, may 21, 2010). many have argued that the floss policy would promote greater involvement of local smes in delivering government it contracts. however, implementation here appears to be falling short. keats states:</div> <p/> <blockquote>if government where enforcing and living up to its floss policy then floss as a vehicle for ict for development would be right up there, and there would be plenty of opportunities for sme's to innovate and offer innovative services for government based on the fact that they have one more kind of piece of the puzzle piece of the selection process for tenders in their favour and, but that's not happening you know, it's just not happening at all. and i think when the strategy for floss for government was created that was one of the driving factors that said that would create opportunities for local growth (d. keats, personal communication, june 11, 2010). </blockquote> <p>big corporations though are not always a barrier to open source. some  companies investing in south africa, such as ibm, favour open source. calvyn van zyl at the ibm open computing and linux lab in johannesburg says that ibm encourages their employees to use open source because it is also an incentive for learning and that ibm invests in open source because it favours innovation (c. van zyl, personal communication, may 5, 2010). however, the reasons for which companies (large and small) may be supportive of open source are not always the same as the reasons held by campaigns and activists for the floss policy.</p><p>keats points out that “if government were to implement their policy, the open source business models would be hugely significant, and offer massive opportunities, because government spends billions on it every year” (d. keats, personal communication, june 11, 2010). for many, the opportunities of open source are not only about economic value, but about how that value is distributed, and what return citizens get on government it investments. in south africa, washington consensus neo-liberal economic policies were adopted under the mbeki government. rens explains how these policies state that “if you for instance increase gdp on a macro level then it equals wealth. but we end up with things like jobless growth” (a. rens, personal communication, may 21, 2010). according to rens it is important to also be aware of the aspect of development that is related to freedom (a. rens, personal communication, may 21, 2010). movements based on openness and floss can emphasise the development of freedom open source brings: creating incentives for building capabilities to deal with challenges such as the digital divide. according to rens, floss and creative commons can give freedom: “so if you gain in terms of cost, and maybe better software, ubuntu is as good as windows, if not better. the most important thing is that these alternatives give you a freedom you did not have before” (a. rens, personal communication, may 21, 2010). however, government open policies in practice have often focused on cost reduction over freedom promoting aspects of open content and software. if the freedom aspect is not involved, open policies will not necessarily provide empowerment. it is also important to be aware of different understandings of freedom and which citizens and communities benefit or are or are not empowered by certain open initiatives. </p> <h2>openness under threat</h2> <div>in 2011 a revision of the copyright act, including an intellectual property bill, was passed in south africa<span class="endnote_20_anchor" title="endnote: for more information about the revised copyright act see http://www.sabinetlaw.co.za/economic-affairs/articles/parliament-passes-intellectual-property-laws-bill "><sup><a href="#ftn5" id="body_ftn5">[5]</a></sup>. this bill aims to lock-down knowledge with tighter intellectual property (ip) protections. this bill, which is is under dispute, appears to be in tension with the 2006 floss policy. these contradictions can also be seen in wider legislation regarding ip including the traditional knowledge bill and the more recent protection of state information act that was passed in november 2011. revisions of the copyright act and the secrecy bill appear to contradict the floss policy and to also to be at odds with south africa's participation in the open government partnership (ogp). however it might both be that the ip bill is a response to the openness policy, or on another hand a response to the exploitations of indigenous knowledge by international corporations. another reason could be that openness arguments have not been won right across the government. these issues seem to be interrelated and crucial to study further in order to avoid a binary vision of separate policies as occurrence of revolution and counter-revolutions in the discourse of locking down or opening-up knowledge and government data. </div> <p><span/></p><p>such contradictions regarding how openness and access to knowledge is practised by the government were emphasized by the interviewees as essential to deal with. eve gray is an honorary research associate at the centre for education technology at the university of cape town, and is involved in research and consultancy on open access and publishing. according to gray, the government acts in a contradictory manner while passing open policies but at the same time, in practice, locking down knowledge (e. gray, personal communication, april 24, 2010). movements such as the african commons project and creative commons south africa are fighting for the copyright act from 1978 to be revised, and adapted to a digital age. so there is a dispute regarding how the government can lock down knowledge in a proprietary way, while at the same time embracing openness and open policies. the african commons project has a particular focus on how creative commons and the idea of openness and projects based on the sharing of knowledge have potential both in education and innovation. according to kerryn mckay, the director of the african commons project, government attitudes to openness are apparently inconsistent and in some cases it is focussed on closing down knowledge based on the idea that this will forward innovation and the creation of knowledge in south africa. there are some genuine tensions though to address. for example, issues regarding traditional knowledge (dean, 2011) concern how companies from the “north” are commercially exploiting knowledge that should benefit south africa and belong to the commons. further research needs to be done on what is happening currently in this field in south africa (k. mckay, personal communication, june 1, 2010), and to explore how far protecting traditional knowledge can be compatible with open content policies </p><p>both government and citizen inactivity on openness may also be as much of a threat to the floss policy as are counter-reactions to it. mckay suggests that south africans are waiting for the government to do things for them, so that the initiative is not coming from the people themselves. she explains that this may be part of the reason why the implementation of creative commons is slow, despite the potential, and common ground with the already existing values and philosophies in the society. for instance, in india and brazil, according to mckay, the implementation, uptake and undertaking of creative commons is very fast (k. mckay, personal communication, june 1, 2010). </p> <h2>potentials and challenges of floss in a wider context</h2> <p>the role of floss in building citizens capabilities is emphasised by the interviewees to be important. “obviously floss provides huge means for people to equalise, because they don't have to pay for software. so for instance, if you think of accessing government services nobody should have to pay for software in order to access a government service. again, the access to knowledge will also help reduce inequalities” (a. rens, personal communication, may 21, 2010). this statement shows how different aspects of floss are interlinked. the gains of no cost plus business opportunities are emphasised. however, as already noted, for many the governance of floss is also about democratic freedoms. keats points out that “it is nothing wrong having laws that reasonably protect businesses but i think, you know, a lot of the relevant laws are taken to unreasonable levels, so floss as a means to preserve democracy and freedom is very important” (d. keats, personal communication june 11, 2010).</p><p>while floss gives us freedom of choice, the philosophical aspects of floss are fundamental. in the south african context floss has been connected to both the philosophy of ubuntu and the freedom charter. keats points out that there is a need to raise awareness and to bridge those philosophies from traditional communities into the digital world, because most people are not aware of, or do not make this connection  (d. keats, personal communication june 11, 2010).  nhlanla mabaso is director at computer network services (cns) at wits university and the founder of the free software and open source foundation for africa (fossfa), meraka's open source centre, and director at freedom to innovate south africa (ftisa). he emphasises that the ideas from the freedom charter can be transferred to the digital commons:</p> <blockquote>all cultures of mankind shall be open to everybody (from the freedom charter, 1955); ideas of the  commons are not new on the african continent, and in the context of south africa, the history and  fight for freedom and the freedom charter illustrate how these ideas today can be transferred to  the digital commons (n. mabaso, personal communication, may 5, 2010). </blockquote> <p>the digital commons and access to knowledge for development are both significant, however there are also numerous related challenges. according to rens, the digital knowledge commons “changes how the knowledge spreads (…) and moreover the massively increased knowledge flow (a. rens, interview, 21 may, 2010). although the potentials are there, keats says that “we really will only benefit from the digital commons when we become major contributors to it” (d. keats, personal communication, june 11, 2010).  this point is important, and there are numerous challenges regarding access both to ict and internet. according to keats “the biggest challenge is getting technology in everybody's hands (…) we really are far behind in terms of bandwidth and that's the second biggest challenge (d. keats, personal communication, june 11, 2010).  </p><p>in the context of south africa, the issue of inequality is particularly important. there exists a large population who do not have access to computers and internet, or the necessary skills for effective access. further study is needed of 'invisible groups' (wyatt, 2003) or non-user's of technology (oudshoorn, &amp; pinch, 2005). without critical attention it is also possible that only the already empowered population will benefit from developments in floss and open content (gurstein, 2011). </p><p>issues of the digital divide in the context of floss and open data are important to explore further. however, although the idea is often articulated that if access to internet is there, technologies and the digital commons will contribute to development and empowerment, having access to the internet, technology or floss does not necessary imply participation and development. citizens contribution and participation are crucial factors also. access to technologies and internet will not change much for the majority of people if there is no contribution or participation. as keats put it: “i think there is a huge need to continue to raise awareness around the philosophical implications, and linking threats to our freedom in a digital age, to threats to our freedom in other areas because it seems silly to give up... to fight for getting back your freedom... only to have it taken away from you in the digital world, when you start using technology” (d. keats, personal communication, june 11, 2010). there have been a lot of projects related to technology and ict for development, however, according to maharajh: “until dealing with the issue of inequitable distribution of incomes, to say ict for development would do something different is a lot of words but not really concrete things” (r. maharajh, personal communication, may 5, 2010). it appears that the potential of floss and the digital commons is largely dependent on participation and contribution. </p> <h2>conclusion </h2><p>this field note explored a perceived gap between the promise and practise of the floss policy in south africa. based on findings from the fieldwork we argued that diverging interpretations and meanings of openness are interrelated with local context and making of policies. we suggest that getting a floss policy is not enough, but that the politics of implementation and participation of communities matter. it is questionable who will benefit from open policies and it is crucial to explore further questions regarding access, empowerment, inequalities and freedom.</p><p/> <h2>references</h2> <p>baszanger, i., &amp; dodier, n. (1997). ethnography, relating the part to the whole. in d.         silverman (ed.), qualitative research: theory, method and practice (2nd ed., pp. 9 –34). london: sage publications ltd.</p> <p>byrne, b. (2003). qualitative interviewing. in c. searle (ed.), social research methods . london: sage.</p> <p>dean, o. (2011). “a new south africa traditional knowledge bill –sui generis protection for traditional knowledge”. retrieved april 10, 2012, from         <a href="http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/03/18/a-new-south-africa-traditional-knowledge-bill-%e2%80%93-sui-generis-protection-for-tk/">http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/03/18/a-new-south-africa-traditional-knowledge-bill-%e2%80%93-sui-generis-protection-for-tk/</a>        </p> <p>foss. (2006). policy on free and open source software for south african government. office of the government cio department of public service and administration. retrieved april 20, 2012, from http://www.sita.co.za/foss/foss_policy_2007.pdf</p> <p>gurstein, m. (2011). open data: empowering the empowered or effective data use for everyone? first monday , 16 (2).</p> <p>odac. (2012). secrecy bill: the national council of provinces. open democracy advice centre of south africa. retrieved april 30, 2012, from <a href="http://www.opendemocracy.org.za/news/secrecy-bill-the-national-council-of-provinces/">http://www.opendemocracy.org.za/news/secrecy-bill-the-national-council-of-provinces/</a></p> <p>oudshoorn, n., &amp; pinch, t. (2005). how users matter: the co-construction of users and         technology . cambridge ma: the mit press.</p> <p>oudshoorn, n., &amp; pinch, t. (2007). user-technology relationship: some recent development. in e. j. hackett, o. amsterdamska, m. e. lynch, &amp; j. wajcman (eds.), the handbook of science and technology studies (third ed., pp. 541–566). cambridge ma: the mit press.</p> <p>thomas, g., &amp; wyatt, s. (2000). access is not the only problem: using and controlling the internet. technology and in/equality: questioning the information society . london: routledge.</p> <p>wyatt, s. (2003). non-users also matter: the construction of users and non-users of the internet. in n. oudshoorn &amp; t. pinch (eds.), how users matter: the co-construction of users and technology (pp. 67–80). cambridge: mit press.</p> <p></p> <h3>footnotes</h3> <p><a class="endnote_20_anchor" id="ftn1" href="#body_ftn1">[1]</a>both free open source software (foss) and free/ libre/ open source software (floss) are used. in this paper the notion of floss will be used because it also put emphasis on the libre/freedom aspect of the movement of open source software which is fundamental in order to understand the aim of initiatives of open government data, access to knowledge, sharing, collaboration and participation in a digital commons.</p> <p><a class="endnote_20_anchor" id="ftn2" href="#body_ftn2">[2]</a>“on 22 february 2007 the south african cabinet approved a policy and strategy for the adoption in government of free and open source software, or ‘foss’. in summary, all new software developed for or by the government will, in future, be based on open standards, and government will migrate all current software to foss” ( schonwetter, ncube and chetty, 2009). </p><p class="footer"><a class="endnote_20_anchor" id="ftn3" href="#body_ftn3">[3]</a>  african virtual open initiatives and resources (avoir)  <a href="http://avoir.uwc.ac.za/"><span class="internet_20_link">http://avoir.uwc.ac.za</a></p><p class="footer"><span class="internet_20_link"><span/></p><p><a class="endnote_20_anchor" id="ftn4" href="#body_ftn4">[4]</a>see more on the gijima case: department of home affairs presentation on ict projects (2011). iec on payment of electoral staff, department of home affairs 2011 strategic plan: further deliberations. retrived   april 14, 2012 from <a href="http://www.pmg.org.za/report/20110419-meeting-between-portfolio-committee-electoral-commission-national-tre"><span class="internet_20_link">http://www.pmg.org.za/report/20110419-meeting-between-portfolio-committee-electoral-commission-national-tre</a></p><p class="footnote"><span class="internet_20_link"/></p><p><a class="endnote_20_anchor" id="ftn5" href="#body_ftn5">[5]</a> for more information about the revised copyright act see </p><p><span class="internet_20_link">     <span class="internet_20_link"> <a href="http://www.sabinetlaw.co.za/economic-affairs/articles/parliament-passes-intellectual-property-laws-bill"><span class="internet_20_link">http://www.sabinetlaw.co.za/economic-affairs/articles/parliament-passes-intellectual-property-laws-bill</a><span class="internet_20_link"> </p><p><span class="internet_20_link"><span/></p> book review: development communication: reframing the role of media wilson halder university of guelph ontario, canada whalder@uoguelph.ca development communication: reframing the role of media is a welcome addition to the rapidly growing literature of media structures and processes within development communication. this book introduces the reader to not only the decades of development communication history, but it also addresses controversial issues in community informatics by providing meaningful context and case studies designed to stimulate discussion. thomas l. mcphail has written a concise and comprehensive approach to development communication studies for those interested in social change within today’s globalized world. without overburdening the reader, mcphail discusses theoretical assumptions concerning the role of technology for development while asking critical questions in development theory today. mcphail is not afraid to discuss past failures of development communication, such as the low-success rates seen in past top-down approaches to development in the field, or advocate his strong positive opinion towards a bottom-up approach focused on grassroots initiatives of development. readers who are looking for a book that coherently introduces and covers a wide spectrum of communication development studies from modernization theories to the movements of liberation theology to participatory communication, cultural imperialism, and education-entertainment will not be disappointed. by introducing the reader to the modernization era and emphasizing its failure to deliver positive change in low income nations, thomas mcphail argues a paradigm shift is occurring within development communication studies from an economic preoccupation rooted in modernization theory to a broader more inclusive framework involving a bottom-up approach focused on participatory development. the evidence provided illustrates decades of development work that has seen billions of dollars of foreign aid not being used effectively while target beneficiaries and donors alike are aggravated due to the lack of positive social changes . specific examples are discussed, including ineffective management practices for hiv prevention; us foreign aid policies; and the imposition of foreign assistance, values and ideas on the global south. from the outset, this book challenges the reader to examine how information and communications technologies (icts) can act as enablers for growth and development. the book addresses key issues that shape the dominant paradigms in development communication; for instance, gender roles and feminism in development studies as well as the different types and influential roles of various non-governmental organizations (ngos). within the ngo category, mcphail distinguishes between the larger ngos by examining the functioning of the major american foundations, the carnegie, ford and rockefeller foundations, while also describing smaller ngos, such as the communication for social change consortium (cfsc), the world social forum (wsf), and the international development research council (idrc). mcphail also examines some of the conditions required to facilitate technology transfer in order to address the great digital divide, which is the gap between people with effective access to informational and digital technology and those with very limited or no access at all. this book concludes by examining two landmark cases, the case of the sonagachi project in india and the case of the roma, in order to provide concrete examples of how the main theories and actors for development communication explained in previous chapters play an important role in furthering the fields of research and practice in these areas. the first five chapters and the concluding chapter are written by thomas mcphail. mcphail introduces the early phases of development communications (from modernization and liberation movements), theories that sought to replace the economically-driven modernization theory, as well as providing a history of different organizations working in this area. the remaining five chapters are written by eminent scholars in the field of development communication, and highlight the material discussed by mcphail in the earlier five chapters. this approach reflects an interdisciplinary perspective that is currently typical of how the field is being reframed. renee houston and michele jackson focus on bringing a new understanding from the perspectives of technology and context to foster much-needed dialogue between these two perspectives for development through information and communication dissemination. michele rice examines the global digital divide and the determinants and conditions that have contributed to its creation. luz porras and leslie steeves discuss the role of women in development projects and communication in particular. satarupa das and and eva szalvai examine, respectively, the case of the sonagachi project (in india) for health development and the case of the roma. the two landmark cases provide a meaningful context to the conceptual framework that encompasses all of the chapters. the sonagachi project serves as an example that uses participation communication theory in order to empower sex trade workers by advocating and adapting models that allow unhindered dialogue and active social engagement. satarupa dasgupta indicates that this project does not subscribe to the modernization theory of dislodging traditional elements of culture and society. however, satarupa does provide capsulized references to many of the project’s successes and failures, which can be attributed to development communication theories. near the end of the chapter, the case study falls short of indicating any form of efficacy of this intervention model that can be applied to other programs in different conditions and environments. the second case examines the open society institute (osi) and its development communication practices for marginalized issues with the european roma population. eva szalvai provides a background on the origin of the roma people and the disparities that the communities face through gender and racial discrimination that target their belief system, social organization and culture. at the beginning of the chapter, eva provides a summary of social change models and identifies three paradigms: the modernization model, the alternative model, and finally the empowerment model. she later relates these models to their influence on osi and its ability to facilitate innovative solutions based on the latest development communication techniques. the case of the roma project provides an excellent overview of the extent to which icts impact social change by achieving the delicate process of fluent information exchange. i found it particularly insightful how this book continually stresses the importance of grassroots-based communications having the power to intervene in stagnant projects and issues confronted by seemingly insurmountable barriers, as well as the ability to educate and promote positive social change. although this approach to development is not a new one, mcphail describes different examples and situations that would significantly benefit from the perspective of a community or bottom-up grassroots level of communication development. one of these examples comes from renee houston and michele jackson’s chapter on conceptualizing technology. in this chapter they confront the question of whether technology and communication tools influence their context or do they remain constant regardless of context. here they argue that technology as a change agent becomes more creative, more participatory, when it is integrated into the community, encouraging dialogue between the two perspectives of communication tools/technology and context of community. this is identified as ‘context as filter’, which is in stark contrast to a deterministic perspective of ict implementation that lacks the need for developing attention to the needs of the context. still, this book examines the weaknesses of adhering to grassroots movements which stem from some of the challenges that face any participatory form of initiative where researchers fail to hold the primacy of context over technology without ‘accurately idealizing or glorifying the social situation’ and local relations that may be laden with exploitations, hierarchies and internal resistances. these barriers may prevent the elevatation of the community as a whole, thus making development a slow and uneven process. in one of the more interesting portions of this book, mcphail expresses his contention with the three major american foundations and their influence over the promotion of western capitalism and foreign values. mcphail postulates that the general aim of reconstructing the global economy is to give a voice to poorer nations in setting trade rules rather than having the bigger corporations dictating the trade rules governing the communication and information sector (ci) and thus dominating the directions grassroots communication initiatives. overall this book openly challenges the past failures of top-down approaches to communication development. each chapter in this book is formulated to build upon the theories and approaches introduced in the earlier chapters by providing important context to development communication theory and to build upon previous approaches by exposing readers to different perspectives found in this field. the chapters describe in detail the challenges faced by the authors who have written them and some of the strategies employed to overcome barriers which prevented effective communication for development. the identified barriers include: how development assistance is stagnant amongst high income nations, how the number of people displaced due to discourse is increasing, and how foreign aid is stringent about conditions attached to it and much of the southern hemisphere finds itself fighting for basic human rights for health and education. as each of the authors take the reader through specific projects and organizations, the reader learns something new and relevant to the discussions around communication studies and various associated opinions and analyses. as daunting and diverse as the array of topics the book covers may seem, thomas mcphail reinforces the relevance of communication and development work and carefully ensures not to undermine the multiple approaches that can be employed for development work. in chapter four, "the role of non-governmental organizations (ngos)," the author discusses the various orientations of ngos, such as charitable, service, participatory, or empowering, and he argues that the key for ngos to garner mass media attention is in increasing the need to publish evaluative results, and that ngos cannot survive without a communication strategy. thomas mcphail emphasizes that some of the criticisms faced by ngos can be rectified through a combination of two different approaches: a more rigorous, objective and evaluative approach to their work, and the creation of a communication framework, thereby enhancing the transparency of an ngos’ representation of a global, national and/or local public opinion. thomas mcphail’s admiration for the work of the united nations (un) and some of the smaller ngos is evident from his praise for them as powerful agents of change in the field of development communication. his focus on the protection of cultures can be seen in his critical oppositional stance against the world trade organization’s (wto) push for free-trade agreements for the audio-visual sector which, according to mcphail, threatens the preservation of local cultures by subjecting laws of free trade to cultural entities. mcphail argues that these free-trade agreements will eventually assimilate lesser known indigenous cultures into the more dominant mainstream us culture. as easy as it may be to acknowledge the materials that are left out in the chapters of the book, there is a "notes" section at the end of every chapter that includes further information that is insightful and illuminating. this section provides the reader with further clarifications regarding certain contexts that may not have been completely explained in the chapter itself. this may be as diverse as expanding information regarding the role of the us within the united nations education, scientific and cultural organization (unesco) to brief biographies of individuals and organizations whose work was mentioned in the preceding chapter. it is especially helpful due to the short length of each chapter of the book, otherwise the faster readers among us will find themselves near the end of the book sooner than they would like. development communication: reframing the role of media demonstrates an overarching theme stretching to a multidisciplinary audience that is interested in a participatory approach to sustainable development as part of an inclusion model rather than a diffusion model. the book methodically chronicles contemporary development discourse from a modernization approach to an emphasis on participation-oriented process based on shared knowledge of common problems. although some of the textbook details regarding development communication history is excluded, the "notes" section that concludes each chapter presents further information and resources should the reader be interested. this book offers scholars and practitioners in community informatics with distinct concepts in development communication theory and stresses that development is neither one-dimensional nor easily evaluated. it leaves the reader with useful observations and ideas on how the field of development communication is continuously changing in order to improve the effectiveness of its initiatives. i have immensely enjoyed reading and expanding my understanding of development communication, sustainable development and ict studies through this book. participant-making: bridging the gulf between community knowledge and academic research       ann light northumbria university school of design  +44 191 227 4913 ann.light@northumbria.ac.uk    paul egglestone university of central lancashire school of journalism, media & communication +44 1772 894733 pegglestone@uclan.ac.uk   tom wakeford university of edinburgh school of health in social science +44(0)131 651 3969 tom.wakeford@ed.ac.uk   jon rogers university of dundee school of design +44 1382 388871 j.rogers@dundee.ac.uk       abstract   we describe a project that brings together academic and community research partners to look at how issues of knowledge, power and voice are handled in setting up participative projects. this project, participants united, was conceived to address the way that academic knowledge is often privileged at the expense of other insights and ways of knowing. to explore this state of affairs, we designed activities to involve community participants from a range of existing partnerships so that we could collaboratively research the experience of being researched. one of the complex features of this approach is that in researching participation live with community groups, we were simultaneously enacting a particular version of it. given this, we discuss in the paper how we planned for a balanced exchange of ideas at our project summit. we touch on the meaning of ‘informed consent’ required for the ethics approval process in many countries and consider how to share credit, encourage diverse opinion and ensure some value in participating for all participants. we reflect on how we, as academic researchers, became participants and what we made available to our partners in research to do the same.    categories and subject descriptors: h5.m. information interfaces and presentation (e.g., hci): miscellaneous. general terms: design, human factors. keywords: participation, ethics, ownership, reflexivity, voice, creative commons.   1 introduction   academic research tends to assume that participants produce data and that it is the job of the academy to extract knowledge from this material. the paraphernalia of research, such as consent forms and ipr agreements, support this reading of the relationship between researcher and researched. and many academics are happy with this extractive model. however, when the research concerns predominantly social issues, like the design of a technology for people’s use, there are distinct weaknesses with an approach that ignores most of the knowledge-making activity in the room. there are both ethical and practical reasons to treat everyone participating in such research as a direct contributor to knowledge. these reasons become pressing in any attempt to understand the experience of communities and the cultural and political aspects of their interests. this paper starts from the position that the knowledge in communities is valuable to our work as people engaged in researching the implementation of new systems and that we also have a moral responsibility to consider it. we report on our design for a project that researches the experience of being researched and undertakes to ask about this experience collaboratively with community groups who have previously worked with us on participative projects. we do so to open our reasoning to others interested in a more equitable and informative way of involving communities in academic fact-making.   in britain, there is a new political will to engage directly with communities. far from there being ‘no such thing as society’ (thatcher 1987), we are now told that communities are its bedrock, reaffirmed by the new minister for civil society who recently stated that wisdom is “distributed throughout society” (clark 2010). yet, the common perception is still of an inexorable divide between the abstract world of ‘expert’ researchers and the ordinary everyday lives of their fellow citizens. beyond the problems that this perceived gulf introduces, not least in terms of recruiting participants, this lack of engagement rules out many of the processes that have been shown to work effectively with groups and elicit data that can be directly and usefully applied to real contexts. so, what can researchers do to bridge this gulf, not just in principle, but in practical methodological ways?   in this paper, we focus on the experience of participation. we look particularly at participants in academic research projects and particularly at those projects which involve communities. we examine the ethical and pragmatic reasons for an action research approach to the co-investigation of responsible participatory practices in projects about the design of technology. and we do so in a reflexive way, including our ambitions and experiences as researchers. indeed, this paper is predicated on the belief that we must be thoughtful and open before, during and after any research engagement to which we invite other people and that we should only speak of what we know. therefore, in this paper, we give only the experiences of the academic research team, with the intention of writing collaboratively about other experiences as they arise. we talk about how we have become participants as well as how we offer this invitation to (and hope to structure the process for) others.   we are specifically addressing researcher responsibility during research, starting with what comes out of a considerate engagement process, above and beyond any impact that research can have outside these bounds. this might seem a limited topic, but we argue that what follows and its impact on participants and the wider communities around us is highly determined by how these relations are built. this is evidenced in work such as light et al (2009), describing the process of how the ownership of a technology project moved from the research team to become a community initiative.   the paper walks through the planned engagement processes of a small project, participants utd!, that was wholly occupied with researching the experience of being engaged and researched. it is a reflection on several years of participatory work around technology by the four members of the research team, together with invited participants from our partner projects. we use the description to underline our research choices to promote shared responsibility in starting to collaborate with community groups.   it must be stressed that we are not reporting findings of a project designed to produce change in the world as such, but one which looks at the research process itself. thus, most of the paper is taken up with discussing the reasoning behind our research design to draw attention to the shaping of the research processes and provide a rationale for them in social, political and ethical terms. we do so in the knowledge that what marks out effective community/academic projects in complex fields such as ict design, development and use is an investment in balancing power, sharing ownership of ideas and generating mutual respect.   2.theoretical background   depending on one’s academic discipline, research through participation is a more or less acceptable undertaking. a strong movement in the design of interactive systems and product design more generally is to involve potential and actual users. however, much involvement of informants is to reveal problems with proposed design in practical ways, such as finding usability problems or spotting occasions when tacit knowledge has been ignored, rather than working with social and cultural perspectives that might be seen as community-based or democratic. there are notable exceptions to this in participatory design (pd) work, as, for instance, greenbaum and kyng (1991) document, where the wider context of use and social impacts of change form a key part of the research, and political commitments are apparent. building on these commitments, muller (2002) reflects on how new contexts of pd, such as working in communities, differ from those with more tightly defined organizational structures. more recently, disalvo et al (2008) propose forms of engagement particularly suited to community work and bossen et al (2010) revisit a pd context to trace the benefits of a programme of work and find it stretches beyond immediate participants to a wider circle. other recent work, such as that of botero and saad-sulonen (2008) who focus on the participation of citizens in looking at the design of a tool for use in the city, largely concentrate on method and outcome, not means of engagement. light (2010) draws attention to this tendency in pd work and explores the social features that make community pd distinct, including recruitment of participants, typical motivation and researcher accountability.   ict design is not alone in seeing benefit in participatory processes. pain and kindon (2007) suggest that critical, feminist and post-colonial social and environmental geographies are being strengthened by putting principles and politics into action through participative work, but that no orthodoxies have yet evolved as to how. for pain and kindon, who bring a feminist perspective:    ownership of the research is shared with participants, who negotiate processes with the academic researcher. the approaches emphasise social action as a valuable part of research. they are necessarily unpredictable, exploratory, and relational. thus participatory approaches have been heralded as offering opportunities for more emancipatory and empowering geographies with transformative development as their key objective. (pain and kindon 2007: 2807)   by contrast, cooke and kothari’s collection of essays (2001) points to many dangers with claiming to emancipate through participatory processes, reflecting that they necessarily involve power imbalances and also often substantial constraints in what is being offered by way of ownership to others, rendering promises unrealistic.   in traditional sociology, participation is treated with caution not because of unmet promises but because it is seen to call into question the whole epistemological basis of study. taking an approach that adopts the distance of the natural scientist who explores inert phenomena, the social scientist seeks to gain research legitimacy by judging actions from outside the social processes that are the object of study. indeed, the defence of participatory action research mounted by krimerman (2001) in asking “should social inquiry be conducted democratically” is illustrative of the degree to which engagement is seen as a form of defeat: partial, opinionated, ‘gone native’, subjective… the list of illegitimacies goes on. however advocates of action research such as mcniff (mcniff with whitehead 2002) take on this critique: [the] rationalists have a point. while personal claims to knowledge can be justified and valid … these claims cannot stand alone in research contexts without some form of corroborating evidence. … action research can be seen as a disciplined enquiry, where a practitioner systematically investigates how to improve practice and produces evidence for the critical scrutiny of others … [and where] the process of theorizing is an ongoing dialectical engagement with inherently volatile problematics. (2002:103-4) and looking back, the social scientist schutz gives a cogent argument for why sociology is not the study of phenomena outside of the self in the same way that physics may be:   the social world is not essentially structureless. it has a particular meaning and relevance structure for the human beings living, thinking, and acting therein. they have preselected and preinterpreted this world by a series of common-sense constructs of the reality of daily life, and it’s these thought objects which determine their behavior… the thought objects constructed by the social scientists refer to and are founded upon the thought objects constructed by the common-sense thought of man [sic] living his everyday life.  (schutz 1973:6)   such a view goes beyond merely including the subject of the research in the research activity. it resituates the knowledge of different partners, offering a common platform from which to study social phenomena and de-privileging the researcher. in schutz’ view, understanding the meaning of a phenomenon for researchers should be carried out with deference to the meaning-making processes that are already taking place. ‘the social scientist can construct typified models of social activity’ because every member of society has intimate access to these common-sense constructs and members of a scientific community are in ‘a position to engage in publicly controllable interpretative activity’ (heritage 1984:50). further, they cannot afford to ignore them.    a crude reading of this position has the potential to ignore much of what cooke and kothari’s book (2001) illustrates: that knowing is situated and prone to power relations. and potter and wetherell (1987) discuss at length the challenge that researchers have to speak for the processes they are observing, while spivak (1985) calls into question the validity of any attempt to speak for a less powerful group. however, the positions are not exclusive. we can adopt schutz’ stance that we are all meaning-makers. we can also acknowledge later post-colonial and post-modern insights into the political nature of knowing and giving voice to knowledge. to do so is to produce a strong argument for an embodied, situated and engaged form of research, in which social phenomena are constructed and analyzed by participants as part of making the research happen. such a position takes both the shared humanity and the differences in understanding and perspective between people in different social and political contexts seriously.   jones (1999) searches for a theoretical position which accepts the post-modern view of knowledge as partial, constructed and imbued with power relations and integrates this into the construction of political projects and actions. he attempts to resolve the tension raised by the viewing of knowledge as relative but needing to take decisive political action beyond the individual, advocating the development of contextual theories:   [w]here the concepts used incorporate formalized flexibility… concepts only become fully developed in their implementation in specific contexts. and most significantly, contextual theories do not prioritise any ontological field in this process of theory construction: context is simultaneously spatial, temporal and social. (jones 1999: 531)   with these positions in mind, the authors describe the acts of researching and being researched as examples of a kind of practice that requires extensive meaning-making by both researchers and partners (.e. all participants involved), one which produces situated knowledge rather than abstract information, and, thus, one where the value of what is learnt must be in the process as well as in any final outcomes. indeed, one outcome may be many descriptions of process.   clearly this also has implications for researcher reflexivity. we argue that the socially responsible position for this work is one in which the author/researcher speaks as a participant rather than as a person outside the process being described. and we undertake to do so, both in describing our starting point – in writing here – and in reporting back to the funding councils that have supported this work and to whom we wish to address our learning – amongst others – about being researched.   this is not a wholly new position for researchers with certain political/theoretical commitments. for instance, feminist research rejects the objectivity of mainstream social inquiry, adopting instead a variety of situated orientations such as those advocated by trauth et al (2006), where seeking to speak from the margins is a key precept. that they, like us, must explain their positions so fully is indicative of its contrast to much of what constitutes social research.   in sum, in forming our research and in writing here, we are attempting to throw off the mantle of academia which functions like a cloak of obscurity to privilege the researcher’s view. any privilege to be claimed is not exclusive and is owed to researcher experience at reflecting upon social phenomena, not taken as an academic right. so, we have two arguments for avoiding an artificial separation between academic researchers and other participants: the first is that they are also researchers and to underestimate this tendency is to disadvantage the research; the second is that we have no justification to take time and ideas from others as our a priori due, since we are, like those who inform us, merely committed to certain practices of inquiry to earn our bread.  3. from communities to participants   this paper looks at participant-making, at how the constitution of ‘participants’ takes place. to do so, we reflect particularly on the role of preparation, the giving of consent and the implied ownership of outcomes. we do so in the context of working with groups drawn from the rich and diverse communities around us. and although we are working together as participants in particular endeavors that cast us in particular roles and relations, we also heed the words of sen (2006):    [t]he disparate pulls – of history, culture, language, politics, profession, family, comradeship, and so on – have to be adequately recognized, and they cannot all be drowned in a single-minded celebration only of community. sen (2006:38)   we have emphasized process because we see these roles as flexible, as negotiated and as formative. they are formative of the groups we are engaged with, of who we understand ourselves to be and also because they create the potential for outcomes as product of these interactions. so we identify some key transferable learning to emerge from bringing everyone together: * how to support the diverse meaning-making that must inevitably take place in a project where formal researchers meet groups with other priorities, and * how to give this meaning-making space, time and permission to flourish and become a focus.   process is particularly interesting because light (light 2010, light and miskelly 2008) argues that much method breaks down when working with communities on designing social change projects. gone are the formal structures that ensure repeatability. these priorities are replaced by accountability to the intended beneficiaries of the project:   this is not a call to ... abandon political and cultural shrewdness or sensitivity to one’s own position in a group. it is rather an acknowledgement that others in the room operate with these qualities too. (light 2010)   when working in community contexts, purism of methodology and comparability of technique are the least of researchers’ concerns. work with communities, in particular that involving social change, requires researchers to ‘get involved, be flexible, make friends, stay honest, choose sides (selectively), muck in and deliver’ (light 2010). and winschiers-theophilus et al (2010) illuminate the complexity of cross-cultural participatory design activities as part of re-thinking concepts and methods for their work in sub-saharan africa. they seek to keep the core values of participatory design but strip them of cultural bias in their discussion of being participated, also throwing attention back on relations. so, far from maintaining the distance and objectivity that can be understood as integrity in representing knowledge to the international social research community, to succeed at all, work with communities requires integrity in its dealings with others involved directly in the research question. this paper posits some shapes that this might take, working in a british context.   4. participants united   researchers on the participants utd! project were drawn together because they share – with others – the notion that the creativity and experience of communities, residents, groups and individuals is equally valuable to that of academics, other professionals and those in power over them. as researchers, each of us endeavors to work collaboratively with communities and individuals, participating in academic research projects to find ways of ensuring all voices are heard, that they are listened to, and that credit is given where it is due. as a further goal, all are committed to designing projects that lead to radical change in the ways that participants are included in, or become responsible for, the decisions that affect their lives. the group also shares a strong desire to communicate this to the academy, informing and improving the way universities engage with communities through research. indeed, the four of us met first in this combination at a research day organized by a funding council, brought together when we took an assertive stand on processes of participation.   following this recognition of common interest, we committed to work together further and secure money to do so. the result was the small project, participants utd!, which assembled first us, a disparate group of researchers, and then a series of participants with whom we had worked in previous research groups. (this might be considered recruitment by snowballing.) we have now been hosting a series of workshops and a two-day summit designed to bring together people from different communities who have participated in research.  beyond uniting the participants (as its title suggests) the aims of the project are to jointly assess different approaches to, and contexts of, community engagement by researchers, and to collaboratively develop principles, methods and strategies for intervention that can shape future funded research and engagement initiatives.   over the series of workshops the participants utd! research team aims to: 1) undertake a joint analysis of community engagement with all participants identifying whose views are heard and whose are not in the process (defining what communities interpret as ‘being heard’) whilst evaluating different approaches used in different research contexts. 2) explore motivations for, and barriers to, participation and engagement among both academics and communities in the four initiatives involved. 3) share understandings and seek to make interventions in public policy in relation to encouraging and supporting better participation and engagement. 4) generate a needs analysis for training materials that can be commissioned and then used by communities and academics involved in research council collaborations in general (and also the connected communities programme being run in the uk by a group of research councils at present).   four groups of participants have been invited to the symposium to share their experiences of participating in academic research. light, rogers and wakeford (leading the participants utd! research project) decided early on that they would take part in the symposium as a fifth group to share their experiences as academics engaging in research. this manifested our commitment to the idea that every member of a group is a participant and has reflective material to offer the process, although the nature of the contribution may be different. so that this degree of engagement would not leave the group without anyone looking after the running of the day with so many people meeting for the first time egglestone was to be removed from the group and charged with documenting the symposium on video and arranging a neutral facilitator to lead the symposium workshops, thereby freeing up colleagues to take part more fully. beyond the conceptual benefits of viewing researchers as engaged in participation, the approach was anticipated to have the added benefit of enabling the researchers to reflect on the workshop process as it happened.   4.1 the participant groups   apart from the participants utd! research team, the people attending the two-day summit hosted at the university of central lancashire were invited from groups and communities with whom the researchers had worked previously, so that they could become partners in the project. participants had all been involved in academic research either as the subjects of research inquiry or as active participants working with researchers to explore issues together using a series of participatory action research methods. in addition, key facilitators who had been part of research processes previously were invited to join the sessions to reflect their contribution, to reflect on their contribution and to ease the integration of groups.   egglestone and rogers’ group had formerly participated in a large epsrc digital economy research project called ‘bespoke’. the partners’ role in the bespoke project was as members of a team of community journalists working on a housing estate in preston, lancashire within the ward boundaries of callon and fishwick (egglestone and rogers 2010). over two years they have produced audio, video and written content for a community newspaper and website set up to test a new participatory design methodology (www.bespokeproject.org).   light talked to two potential groups about the symposium. the first was a group of east end london men, the geezers, who meet weekly as part of a charity initiative to avoid loneliness and isolation in older men in later life. the geezers had worked with a team of researchers at the university of london as part of an arts project investigating values and future technology with older people (light et al 2009). they continued to pursue their vision of water turbines for use in powering homes (active energy) even after the project ended (light et al 2009, 2010). with the support of engineers, artists and academics, and in particular artist-facilitator loraine leeson, they are continuing to agitate for consideration of ‘lost’ technologies whose time might have come again. they are interested to see how far they, as non-professionals who are fast becoming experts in their chosen field, can have influence on national sustainability policies.   another group who have been considering participation with the project are drawn from collaborations further north in england. sheffield is home to two geographically proximate asian refugee communities who are traditionally on different sides of several emotional and political boundaries: thai karen and burmese people. some of the sheffield-based karen and burmese people have been working together with sheffield hallam university staff to learn community reporting skills and report on events of interest to the two groups, even negotiating the crisis in trust that occurred over the hacking of their website, which amongst other things, has sensitized them to political issues of representation (lockley and green 2010).   the group working with wakeford is drawn from a project based at newcastle university. stemistry (www.stemistry.com/) is a contribution made to science by members of the public who come together to discuss stem cell research and offer their fears, hopes, questions and creative responses. in 2006, wakeford was offered funding to undertake a science dialogue project with people who would not normally be involved in such ‘outreach’ activities, conducted in any way so long as the primary focus was research on stem cells and on its ethical dimensions. (since then this has generically become known as ‘public engagement’ work). two groups emerged as project partners, the united black youth association – made up of young, largely south asian, women – and a tyneside-based writers group. facilitator lisa matthews, undertook a series of workshops with both groups, allowing them to explore the issues and resulting in a series of written outputs under the collective name stemistry.com. subsequently, two uk research councils asked wakeford and matthews to undertake consultations with ‘hard to reach’ groups about stem cell research. the groups involved in stemistry.com collaborated at a residential workshop and helped produce a report which was presented to the research councils.   5. gaining participants, building involvement   the project is devised so that the principal research takes place when all the participants assemble for two days of reflective social activities in a summit. as with any project, someone has to instantiate it and set its goals and this aspect belonged firmly to the participants who had assembled at the research council event and found themselves with a common agenda for change, .e. the academic researchers. there is always a balance to be struck between being overly directive in a new project and overwhelming tentative co-inquirers with an under-developed plan that leaves them too much to create for themselves. neither of these states is optimally motivational. in this instance, we had no compunction about setting clear goals and convincing a research council (the ahrc) to fund us. however, it has been pointed out (e.g. light and miskelly 2008) that the challenges of getting funding require researchers to abandon their more open principles of co-shaping research programmes, leading to issues of ownership of exactly the kind raised by cooke and kothari (2001).   that said, the preston-based symposium offered participants the chance to meet each other, to network and to share and learn new skills from each other. it was designed as a series of open focused but non-directive exercises to elicit ideas and develop contributions in the spirit of light et al (2009) and egglestone and rogers (2010). as well as being recorded, all participants would use film-making to convey their views and experiences.   significantly for our discussion here, prior to the two day summit which brought these groups together formally in the new project, each of the groups spent half a day as part of their existing organization preparing for it. this preparatory workshop was conceived to get over two key ethical challenges in working together, as well as a number of practical ones.   5.1 informed consent   one intention for the preparatory workshop was to ensure that those participating understood fully to what they were being invited to commit whilst being reassured they would be under no pressure to do so. in britain, it is now customary good practice to request informed consent from any participant in a research project. coming from medical research, the standard forms and processes used to gain this consent work to position recruited participants as vulnerable subjects at the whim of researcher procedures, in need of anonymity so that personal information cannot be associated back to them and as donors of information rather than co-creators of knowledge, or as researchers in their own right. this is a barrier to viewing all participants as equal in contributing, if different in viewpoint, interests and/or role.   we have made it a condition of participation in the preston summit that participants are willing to go on record – either in film or written form – as the owners of their information and ideas. we would like to quote them and their affiliations as part of acknowledging their contribution. in the best of all possible worlds, this condition would itself have been part of the negotiation of opinions to happen at the summit. however, if willingness to represent oneself is made a summit entry condition, then some element of choice remains. the groups will only send people happy in the role of spokespeople. to the event. this situates the choice: it becomes a matter of who attends, rather than defining the event they are attending. (this is symptomatic of the way that the limits of time and the dynamics of funding play out to move choice towards increasingly superficial aspects of such projects.)   what the half-day workshop is able to do is allow for ‘informed’ consent of a more meaningful kind than the usual quick read. the ramifications and opportunities of participation (meeting other groups, going ‘on record’, helping to write the guidance in whatever way seems appropriate) have been explored as a slow and thoughtful process with a group that is used to research and has on-hand researchers and facilitators with whom some trust is already established.   the impact of this existing relationship is also of interest here. the medical model of research with subjects assumes that there are no personal relationships involved. the white coat of the researcher in clinical trials creates anonymity for the protagonist. this emphasis on role gives authority and inspires trust institutionally, rather than personally. it may work to manage the potential social awkwardness of conducting research where the only research interest is in people’s bodies. however, the respect of mutual anonymity is a long way from the respect that forms the basis of working with known facilitators and partners of community research. by contrast, in collaborative projects, roles become less prominent researchers are interested in the thoughts and actions of the groups and enter into the work with thoughts of long-term relations. the ‘white coat’ may be the anonymous uniform of the generic researcher, but we are judged on more personal criteria and – since we have worked together with our groups before – on their previous experience of us. so this very trust – yet another kind of knowledge – also goes against the spirit of the written consent form. we cannot ensure that ‘informed’ means knowing what will happen, rather than trusting us that it will be valuable. we can never produce an information stream free of the social relations involved. it may be sensible and fair that any judgment made in a workshop situation is about the people as much as the activities, but it again resists the impartiality of formal notions of consent.   the workshop is also a chance to set the agenda for the bigger meeting in such a way that ethical approval can be gained using material that has been developed with all participants and not agreed by the academic researchers alone. this is important, since the approval process determines more or less completely how topics are to be covered and which processes are to be used. once agreed, the content and processes are not supposed to deviate from what is negotiated between the ethics board and the research lead. in this project, it will be apparent that we (and the facilitators) will be drawing together opinion from four workshops and therefore acting as mediators, but we can, at least, by running these workshops, include the modifications that arise from discussions. this has the further benefit that we are able to demonstrate rigor in seeking informed consent. by behaving consistently with an ethical position, our rigor, ironically, buys some leniency in what we have to commit to as part of getting approval. we are allowed a little more ‘wiggle-room’. this leniency is then itself another tool to prise away at the dominance of the researchers’ agenda over other considerations.   5.2 the principle of exchange   another ethical benefit of the preparatory session exists in enabling the organisers of the preston summit to make it of more tangible value to the range of groups participating. as well as organising travel, accommodation, dietary requirements etc. researchers leading these workshops are inviting their groups to identify someone relevant to their activities they would like to meet. these ‘thematic mentors’ will be drawn from academia and industry and may include (for example): documentary film-makers who will assist community journalists from preston with the crafting of their digital storytelling. at their half-day preparation session hosted by light, the geezers expressed an interest in meeting with a senior executive from british waterways. the research team has committed to identify and invite thematic mentors for each group based on each group’s wishes.   this would-like-to-meet session is a significant one in the politics of working with the groups. the social good of participation can be seen specifically in the shape of what is offered back to participants here and now as well as to some notional group that will benefit in the fullness of time. as dray et al point out (2011):   part of understanding what we have to offer and to gain involves understanding and being clear about the benefits that will come from conducting our work successfully in the field. quite often there is no immediate benefit to the group who is helping us with our work, despite the long-term potential of our learning. for us, on the other hand, there may be a series of professional accolades: as researchers, we may be able to generate publishable research findings and disseminate our work. (dray et al 2011)   the concept of would-like-to-meet is explicit acknowledgement that all of us can have interests in the work and that all of us are committing valuable time and thought to it. given that the rather self-serving goal of understanding more about participation is yet another occasion of asking something from the groups that will benefit the researchers more than other participants (who probably do not stand to gain from the publications that ensue), would-like-to-meet works to redress the immediate balance for those present in the room, in case other benefits do not accrue from getting involved.   another practice we are trying out is compensation for loss of earnings. this acknowledges that two days spent working with us is two days when either an organization or an individual is ‘out of pocket’ because their labour was not used to its usual ends. we would distinguish this from paying participants to participate. it has very different ideological roots, although it appears similar once a standard compensation figure is proposed. by offering compensation, we are again drawing attention to our recognition of other participants as people with busy lives. and we are offering parity with us as researchers, since we are being paid to have this encounter.   we see compensation rather than payment as preferable. the literature on extrinsic motivation (e.g. crompton 2010) suggests that doing an activity for external reasons can distort how it is conducted. compensation is not an incentive; it is a starting condition showing respect. we put more value on the would-like-to-meet activity since it is not unrelated to the meeting activities as a whole. it will be interesting to see how this plays out. our understanding of this exercise is that this form of exchange will be motivating: that participants will be motivated to engage by our obvious interest in their interests. this activity is an integral part of welcoming a variety of groups to work together and express their concerns, and to promoting a feeling that they are valued as having intellectual commitments of their own. and through the process of meeting a specialist chosen by them and supplied by the research group as an offering, the groups are anyway contributing to the shape of the summit and are therefore more able to reflect on shaping practices. in this sense, the presence of the would-like-to-meet strand is not redress; its function of acknowledging the purposes of the groups and providing key content is core to the workshop taking place.   6. voice   the measures outlined above are aimed at encouraging members of our partner groups to see themselves as co-researchers and people whose interests, knowledge, opinions and ways of experiencing research are welcome in the project, and particularly at the principal research event of it, in doing exercises alongside the research group. the previous sections make clear what a diverse mix of people are involved. it will also be obvious that we are not speaking for them here. indeed, this paper could look rather self-focused were this not a paper which we see as preparatory in the same way as the workshops are. we are deliberately not speaking for our partners, but we will be speaking with them as discussions continue.   the last substantive section of this paper addresses this issue: of who speaks, where and when, and for whom. tritter and mccallum (2005) suggest that without clear evidence that involvement is linked to change, individual users or groups tend not to remain engaged. the democratising technology project (the forerunner of active energy and launch-pad for the geezers’ involvement with light, see light et al 2009 and light et al 2010) identified several aspects as necessary to participate in designing ‘the network age’ and, therefore, to make a change:   forum – a space to contribute and people to listen motivation – the desire to contribute articulacy – the vocabulary and fluency to present one’s ideas in a particular domain confidence – the assurance to become involved knowledge – enough understanding to have an opinion agency – an awareness that change is possible and of oneself as an agent of change association – the ability to interpret things together or see links, such as: old and new, people and things, etc. transformation – the act of combining to make new ideas, concepts and associations (light et al 2009).   in that project, work between community groups and researchers focused on these largely internal aspects of participating. gaining in confidence and sense of agency, participants gave voice to more articulated judgments about society and technology (light et al 2009, light 2011) and in some cases took related action (see http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/222061/the-geezers-we-won-t-grow-old-gracefully).   one of the stated objectives of participants utd! was to work with all the participants over the two day summit to identify whose views are heard and whose are not in the process of participating in research. a sub-goal was to learn what communities interpret as ‘being heard’. this project then, looks outwards at forum and those external factors that make participation feel meaningful and fully-fledged.   6.1 voice, power and forum   what does ‘being heard’ amount to? what is forum? even among the research team, opinion differs and our answers are highly contextual. further, it would not be desirable to give one definition; we have already noted that multiple perspectives are inevitable and surely ‘being heard’ means valuing individuals’ contributions. we can juxtapose this notion of participation with one that emphasizes a more generic notion of power; as that of being in control. arnstein’s ladder (1969) was aimed principally at shaping health policy over 40 years ago and has been highly influential (fig 1). it describes types of participation in terms of the power they assign to participants. it supposes that there is power as such to hand over, but, like cooke and kothari (2001), it offers an important critique of tokenism. fig 1: arnstein’s ladder of participation, 1969   replacing the target of her research large health institutions with academic institutions engaged in research activity is problematic. the lower rungs of her ladder do not map directly onto design research based in communities, though notions of empowerment and the basic understanding of a peer relationship with participants in research projects are fundamental to successful engagement. arnstein’s model and her focus on power have been criticized extensively, for instance tritter and mccallum (2005) note that this discounts the act of participation as a goal in its own right.   in our project, the ladder highlights tensions when we do consider power in the project and our agency as participants with a special brief. we might attempt to treat all participants as equal partners, but the funding body will treat us – and only us as accountable for our funding. further, we might hear the views of our partners and thus give the impression that academia is listening, but the discussion might not have impact by continuing into other orbits. so our own power is in question and we cannot ensure that the material we produce as a result of this work will make change or reach the people who might benefit from encountering it. we cannot promise that, even as the initiators of the project, we are capable of being more than token partners ourselves. we may manifest as powerful – and must take care not to exploit this – but we may, in reality, give a glimpse of a system that, far from treating academic knowledge as sacrosanct, actually involves a complex web of alliances and power games. honesty about our status is part of what we are attempting to share in talking openly about the nature of activities and likely outcomes, both here and in all our dealings with our partners. in doing so, we hope to situate the knowledge(s) we are dealing with and open a discussion on what kinds of power communities can aspire to. thus, our involvement as a participant group at the summit can be seen as a means of sharing in the audit of audiences, messages and forum.   6.2 sharing credit   this discussion of voice raises the issue that processes of engagement, however transparent, like the tools themselves, are not neutral. a low level of literacy in one community ought to preclude written consultation, but replacing written consultation with another method or technology is little more than displacement. all participants in a process ought to share in the pursuit of the creation of new knowledge and its dissemination, or, more problematically for research institutions, they ought to share ownership of any intellectual property developed through their involvement in research. and they should benefit financially from its exploitation (rungs 6 – 8 of the ladder). equally, participants must be recognized and credited with any changes to policy or incremental developments in technology, arts or science knowledge to which they have contributed through direct involvement in research.   whilst the statement below an amalgamation of university research guidelines drawn from three uk based institutions as part of a typical collaboration agreement – suggests positive values of openness and transparency, it fails to address or even recognize the fundamental importance and significance of the people participating in research as either the subjects of research projects or active participants working with researchers to explore issues together.   whilst recognising the need for researchers to protect their academic research interests in the process of planning of research, carrying out and writing up research and, where appropriate, handling intellectual property rights (ipr), the academy encourages all researchers to be open as possible in discussing their work with other researchers and with the public. once results have been published, researchers are expected to make available relevant data and materials to other researchers, on request, provided that this is consistent with any ethical approvals and consents which cover the data and materials, and any intellectual property rights in them. (egglestone, team notes, 2010)   just like the consent form that ignores participants as contributors, this agreement supposes that knowledge is an academic preserve. instead, we might view ipr as the most relevant forum that, as academics, we can share as we go forward in creating findings together. and while we do not predict patents in the current project, we do consider the politics of the commons to be relevant to all such endeavors.   a creative commons (cc) agreement, drafted by all parties involved in a research project at the outset of the process could make provision to address some power imbalances with researchers. this project is committed to using cc as a way of enabling all parties to own the data generated and the written outcomes that go to the different audiences, such as policy makers and academic journals.   7.conclusion   we have described the commitments of the participants united! project, premised on a form of social engagement which extends beyond the conventional parameters of participatory design and engaging knowledge from a range of community groups. pu! unites participants (denoting both researchers and community members) to create a summit at which the process of participation is the topic of research and process issues are foregrounded. in this way, we can consider how balance can be established and how gain can ensue for all stakeholders in the exchange of value.   whilst the situations above tackle the process and outputs of collaborative research, the co-design of methods (or the agreement to reject research methods) is crucial to the success of any engagement. current research enquiry procedures make this aspect difficult. research projects require that research questions are stipulated before commencing field studies or identifying and consulting with research subjects. whilst this approach is not unreasonable, it has weaknesses. it places emphasis on the researcher framing the research, the funding body commissioning the research and the institution contracted to deliver the outputs and evaluation. all three are gatekeepers by default. all parties must ‘sign-up’ to the research project before the researcher identifies any participants. participants are then research subjects in the colonial sense of the word. even adopting the most well-meaning and equitable ways of working, this process is what light and miskelly (2008) have called benign imposition. participants utd! has worked within the current system of pursuing funding, then involving partners and gaining consent, but it has used the processes of the research to open up a critical space and time for discussion to try and lessen the imposition. one of the ideal outcomes of the project would be the adoption of a structure where researchers continue to be accountable to the funders, but are also more emphatically responsible to partners on the ground. at present, there is the potential to take what is needed to make the research successful with no thought to the needs of the community. individual privacy may be respected because of the terms of the consent form, but there it ends.   unfortunately, this imbalance of power is inherent in the current process of university research and it is difficult to imagine any significant improvement without dismantling the hierarchical commissioning structures and dispensing with the requirement to start research with a research question. enabling individuals, groups and communities to set their own research agenda by framing the questions they would like to ask is fundamental to notions of agency and ability to design the engagement process.   in the project reported here, we have been striving to incorporate this in a small way, represented most clearly by the would-like-to-meet sessions, where partners’ purposes are pursued, and the structures put in place to share ownership of outputs, such as the creative commons licence. as a consequence of working in this way, we trust that policy makers benefit from having a richer and more comprehensive evidence base.   this paper, then, is a description of how we have taken our theoretical commitments and operationalized them as ethical and politically informed empirical research into the dynamics of academic/community relations. we have aspired to integrate phenomenological (schutz) and post-modern approaches to knowledge by adopting an action research agenda. we have made space, time and permission for different interpretations to appear at all stages of the process, even though we have not been able to build in as much collaborative development as we would have wished. and, beyond method, we have looked at opening the mechanisms of research to appropriation by all participants.   we have acknowledged the power relations in working in this way, building on the former work of each member of the team, but refusing to allow a belief in situated knowledge and the need for contextualization to cripple our ambitions to produce change. we have instead shown how we have constituted ourselves, as academic researchers, as partners managing the funds provided to execute the work and as participants, and detailed our plan to offer participant-making to our community partners. given that our method is action research, it is only appropriate that we should have spelled out our assumptions and expectations ahead of testing them out in the world. this paper is a public statement of our beliefs, hopes and aspirations – the activities of the summit will reveal how far our projections of what ought to improve the dynamics of academic-community research are on target. so, this is only the first installment, but, whereas the voices in this paper are those of early participants, the next accounts will be drawn from a far wider set of speakers and concerns.   8. acknowledgments   our thanks to all our participants, present and former, and to the ahrc for funding this research. 9. references   arnstein, s. r. 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(2010) being participated: a community approach, proceedings of pdc’10, the participatory design conference, sydney, december 2010. examining the ‘e’ in government and governance: a case study in alternatives from bangalore city, india veena v. raman visiting postdoctoral scholar, berkeley center for globalization and information technology university of california, berkeley.  <veenavr@berkeley.edu> innovations in information and communication technologies (icts) have prompted many visions of creating channels of interactive communication between citizens and their governments (grossman, 1995). this is particularly true in developing countries where providing access to technology and bridging the digital divide is promoted as necessary for development. while governments have spent considerably in designing many e-government initiatives, there is relatively little research to examine whether new icts actually serve to strengthen governance and deepen democracy in a developing country. what role can icts play in promoting citizen involvement and participation in government when there are large disparities in access and skill levels? this study examines these questions through a case study of e-government initiatives in bangalore city, the information capital of india. information and communication technologies (icts) is a broadly used term that can encompass many technologies used to produce, process, exchange, and manage information and knowledge. in this study ict is defined as computers, software, peripherals and connections to the internet. though a developing country, india has emerged as the source of many skilled information workers and innovations such as the simputer (a portable, less expensive alternative to conventional portable computers). it exported software and services worth $12.5 billion in 2003-2004 (economic times, 2004). bangalore is the source of 45 % of india's software exports. it has been termed the information capital and the silicon valley of india. in 2002-03, this capital of karnataka state in south india, had software exports of us $2.67 billion (department of it and biotechnology, 2006). it is one of the ‘technopoles’, a hub integrating the region into the global information economy. it has been ranked in a undp survey as the world's fifth largest technolog centers. it is also the site of many initiatives to use information technology for development (singhal and rogers, 2001). yet, sizable portions of the city’s 6.52 million people remain beyond this information economy. according to the state government, bangalore city has just over 60,000 internet connections (department of it and biotechnology, 2005). there is tension between participation in global operations and the local socioeconomic context. bangalore exhibits pervasive forms of asymmetry between those who can participate in the global information economy and those who cannot (madon, 1997). in an effort to satisfy the diverse and often conflicting demands of its citizens while dealing with urban fragmentation, poverty and the high cost of urban infrastructures and services, the local government is adopting information technology. this makes bangalore an interesting site to study e-government initiatives. the prevalence of information technology in government offices and proliferation of government websites add a new aspect to the study of government and governance. role of information technology in government and governance though the terms e-government and e-governance are often used interchangeably, there is a need to differentiate between them. the term government usually refers to formal institutions of the nation-state. it is a set of institutional forms that hold administrative monopoly over a territory with demarcated boundaries and borders, its rules sanctioned by law. it refers to the formal and institutional processes that are used to maintain common order and to facilitate collective action within a geographical boundary (stoker, 1998a). governance is a broader and more inclusive term than government in that it encompasses the activities of a range of groups – political, social and governmental – as well as their interrelationships (stren & polese, 2000). the term governance includes the relationship between government and state agencies on the one hand and communities and social groups on the other and is not tied specifically to a place. it refers to the role of citizens in the policy process and how groups within a society organize to make and implement decisions. it tells a story of the processes of differentiation, networks, trust, diplomacy and coalition building (rhodes, 1997). governance puts an emphasis on the role of citizens in the policy processfrom issue identification, to implementation, feedback and the evaluation of results. citizens maximize the chances of representation for their interests by playing out strategies in the networks of relationships between various institutions. the new strategies are dominated by the network logic, in which power relations are always specific to a given configuration of actors and institutions. information technologies such as the internet, that operate on network logic, can play an important role in governance. information technologies also play an important role in government since governments collect, control and manage extensive information flows. the use of icts within and by governments has been called e-government. the debate on the scope and meaning of e-government includes such organizations such as the united nations, the world bank, organization for economic co-operation and development, gartner research group and rand europe, all of which have tried to define e-government. e-government has been defined as the delivery of information and services online via the internet. a common strand among the various attempts to define e-government is describing it as including different stages or phases. thus for example, the un-aspa study identified five stages of e-government development (emerging, enhanced, interactive, transactional, and fully integrated or seamless), and the world bank model identified publish, interact and transact as the three phases involved. the gartner group adds another phase, “transformation” to the definition. a comprehensive understanding of e-government includes employing information technologies to cut costs and improve the efficiency of government processes, new fee-for-service applications, and very broad expectations for facilitating democratic discourse through an electronic feedback loop between people and government. heeks (1999) labels these as eadministration, ecitizens, eservices and esociety. digital technologies allow governments to develop strategies for improving their performance management by using information systems (heeks, 1999). this is expected to make staff more accountable for their decisions and actions, and be responsive to their clients, and reduce corruption and inefficiency. digital technologies allow decentralization since records and other information can be accessed from anywhere within a network thus creating opportunities for more flexible and responsive decision making. in addition, heeks (1999) suggests that information technology may be used to automate existing human-executed processes that involve information processing, support existing processes in government decision making, communication, and decision implementation; and help in creating innovative methods for public service delivery. according to the e-government handbook published by infodev (2002), “e-government is not simply a matter of giving government officials computers or automating old practices. neither the use of computers nor the automation of complex procedures can bring about greater effectiveness in government or promote civic participation... understood correctly, e-government utilizes technology to accomplish reform by fostering transparency, eliminating distance and other divides, and empowering people to participate in the political processes that affect their lives.” expectations about e-government can be essentially boiled down to fostering transparency, accountability, effectiveness, and participation. however, currently, many e-government initiatives focus on simply adapting ecommerce models as for example developing new ways of providing fee-for-service applications over the internet (holmes, 2001). norris (2003) argues that e-government has succeeded in facilitating information and service provision, not citizen engagement. information technology, democracy, participation and civic empowerment information technologies may or may not be used to foster democratic communication and empower citizens and this holds true for computers and the internet. internet enthusiasts have pointed to the possibility that it could lead to increased political engagement, erase boundaries between the public and private sphere; provide direct links to policymakers; and expand opportunities for political deliberation (porter, 1997; norris 2001). a few studies provide some evidence for this claim (wilkund, 2005; weber, loumakis & bergman, 2003). other studies suggest that, if a correlation exists between information technology advances and civic engagement, it seems to be negative (bimber, 2001, 2003; schudson, 1998). this has prompted some scholars to be more skeptical, arguing that the internet is more likely to reinforce, not reverse, established patterns of political communication, widening gaps between elites and non-elites (norris, 2001; bimber, 2003) which could impair democratic communication and action. democracy is a broadly defined term and is practiced in many different ways. comprehensively defined, democracy includes an elected government, free and fair elections, universal suffrage, freedom of conscience, information and expression on all public matters broadly defined, the right to oppose the government and stand for office, and associational autonomy (held, 1996). based on classic theories of democracy, it is possible to identify three distinct theoretical variations – pluralist, representative and direct democracy. the role of icts in promoting democracy is slightly different under each theory. those who emphasize pluralist democracy argue that icts can improve citizen-government transactions, enhance administrative efficiency in service delivery, improve performance and increase citizen satisfaction with government while heightening the voice of networked groups and civic organizations. proponents of representative democracy stress that icts could improve accountability through the electoral process, allowing citizens to be more informed so that they can evaluate the government, elected representatives, and alternative policy proposals. when information technologies (it) are used to correct the failures of the current political system and increase democratic quality without altering their structures, it promotes continuation of representative democracy (hacker & van dijk, 2000). advocates of direct democracy hope that by facilitating new forms of interaction between citizens and governments, icts can channel citizens’ voices and priorities into the policymaking process (norris, 2003). an alternative conceptualization is provided by barber (2003) in his formulation of thin, plebiscitary, and strong democracy. under thin democracy, experts and elites do the actual work of government and citizens remain watchdogs and monitors. here the role of icts would be to just facilitate the watchdog function. a strong democracy incorporates participatory and deliberative elements without necessarily being a direct democracy. in this case icts would play a role in encouraging widespread participation and deliberation. while the internet may be used to establish privileged networks that leave out many and create social exclusion, it can be considered a new form of public space since its decentralized nature allows many voices to be heard. kellner (1999) argues that the internet should be seen as a site of struggle, as contested terrain. the possibilities for making use of it as a tool for resistance, to circulate struggles should be considered. cyber-activists attempt to carry out globalization from below by developing networks of solidarity. such networking links many social movements thus providing the basis for a new politics of alliance to overcome the limitations of post modern identity politics, to contest the mainstream, and offer alternative views and politics. this is subject to bridging the many of the digital divides that currently exist.  in summary, icts could be used for increasing transparency in government, improving citizen satisfaction by delivering efficient services, providing opportunities for electronic ballot casting and stimulating citizen involvement through civic consultation. however studies suggest that ict has largely been successfully employed in streamlining labor-intensive bureaucratic transactions rather than in participatory or consultative efforts to promote democratic practices (chadwick & may, 2003). citizen participation and engagement is not deterministically driven by adoption of information technology. it is contingent upon individual resources, capacities, and predispositions and on how collective action organizations and other groups use the greater access to information now available to them to influence and mobilize people. though icts allow connections to be made, they are tools; they do not facilitate deliberative engagement on their own. facilitation of such engagement is a cultural-democratic function. icts offer another communication channel, but they cannot address factors such as availability and utilization of resources, ability or inclination for political action. it is the interaction between technology, citizens, and policymaking elites that tends to shape the face of democracy. this is particularly important in developing countries where scarce resources have to be used for ‘development’, which could involve providing drinking water, electricity, roads, education or medical facilities. the role for icts in such cases is enabling access to these services. icts and development employing icts as tools to support economic and social development has a long tradition in development literature (lerner, 1962; schramm, 1964; rogers, 1995). with the advent of the internet, this too has been incorporated into development discourse (heeks, 2002, 1999) and research has emerged concerning how the internet might be used to support the development process (roman & colle, 2003). simultaneously, development as a meta-discourse has been subject to severe doubts and criticisms (biccum, 2002;tehranian, 1999). the role of icts in development is now part of a wider debate about the nature of development itself (morales-gomez & melesse, 1998; hartmann, patil & dighe, 1989). india figured prominently in these discussions (miller, 2001), and in the case studies of successes and failures in using the internet for development (bhatnagar & schware, 2000). the digital divide remains one of the main issues for india. keniston (2004) identifies four areas manifesting a digital divide: disparities in access to icts between rich and poor nations, a linguistic-cultural gap online between the dominant anglo-saxon culture and other cultures, the gap within a country between the digitally empowered rich and the poor; and the emerging gap between the rest of the people and an affluent elite digerati who live in special enclaves and may disregard local conventions, authority and traditional hierarchies. all these are visible in india. the most affluent groups, concentrated in major cities, with a good command of english, education and cutting edge it knowledge constitute the vast majority of users. a majority of india’s population however, live in rural areas, are poor, and have limited access to icts. there is also a great need for a development of indian language fonts to remove language barriers and to facilitate localization of content. e-government provided through kiosks has been promoted as one solution to the digital divide (kaushik & singh, 2004). however, while e-government initiatives have commanded significant resources in implementation and there have been few on-the ground-experience based studies of these implementations.   data collection and research design data for this study was collected between june 2003 and january 2005. the material provided here is part of a larger research project undertaken for a doctoral dissertation. the data collection process for the dissertation included multiple methods and strategies: analysis of e-government websites, policy documents and reports; interviews with policy makers, government executives, and individuals representing three major agenda builders in the e-government space in bangalore; a survey of 993 bangaloreans to assess how citizens contacted and interacted with their local government and their use of information technology; and participant observation and semi-structured interviews with bangaloreans who were part of two initiatives to promote citizens participation in local government called proof (public record of operations and finance) and wardworks. the data presented in this paper is drawn from the analysis of e-government websites, and participant observation and semi-structured interviews with people participating in proof and wardworks initiatives. bangalore city, karnataka: a profile bangalore is the fifth most populous city in india with a population of 6.52 million. the city had a literacy rate of 83%, with a discrepancy between men (76.29%) and women (57.45%), according to the 2001 indian census. in april 2004, the city had only 916,065 telephone connections and just over 60,000 internet connections (bangaloreit.com, 2006). no official statistics were available regarding the number of mobile telephones. the average per capita income in the city for 2002-03 was rs. 18,000 ( rs 43 = us$1) (directorate of economics and statistics, 2003). in 2004, the cost of buying a computer in bangalore was about rs. 40,000. accessories such as printers, and ensuring internet connection for a year can cost anywhere between rs. 5000 to 10,000. investment in a computer can be an expensive proposition. thus, except in upper-income enclaves or families with an employee who could secure loans, home access to a computer and the internet was not a common phenomenon. many people use cybercafes to access computers (haseloff, 2005) but there are no official statistics about the number of cybercafes in bangalore city or the number of people who use them. e-government in bangalore bangalore city, as the capital of karnataka state, is affected by state level policies, and actions. this section provides an overview of state e-government policy and analyzes the e-government services available to citizens. karnataka state has been seen as a pioneer in it. its e-readiness level for 2004 was assessed as the highest in india based on its infrastructure, human resources, policy regimes and investment climate by the department of information technology (kaur, 2005, april 16). in 2001, which was declared as the ‘year of e-governance’ by the government of india, karnataka’s state government announced a number of e-government initiatives (new indian express, 2001, december 24). in 2003, as part of administrative reforms, the government of karnatak (gok) created a position called ‘e-government secretary’. the position of the e-government secretary is a state level office, and the appointee is selected from the indian administrative service. the gok has been widely cited as a leader in e-government and has received awards for its initiatives in this area. according to the official website of the gok department of it and biotechnology its policy focuses on “using e-governance as a tool and delivering a government that is more pro-active and responsive to its citizens.” (bangaloreit, 2006). the objectives stated in the official document ‘e-governance strategy for karnataka’, declare that information technology should be used to usher in an era of electronic governance aimed at demystifying the role of government; simplifying procedures; bringing transparency; making need-based, good quality and timely information available to all citizens; and providing all services in an efficient and cost-effective manner. the government defines e-government as involving “the application of information and communication technologies to bring about more speed, transparency and responsiveness to the various areas of governmental activities resulting in enhanced accountability and empowerment of people. e-governance will cover transactions and information exchange between government and citizen, government and business and within government itself.” the policy declaration further states that the government is convinced that “e-governance can help bridge the gap between the rich and the poor, between the developed and the less developed, between the urban and the rural population by providing equality of opportunity and empowering the poor”. the primary aim of mahiti – the millennium it policy is to use “e-gov as a tool and deliver a government that is more proactive and responsive to its citizens”[1]. to this end, government websites should aid an average citizen by providing contact information that would enable a citizen to find out whom to call or write to, information on services for obtaining a service or grievance redress, icon based kannada interface that would facilitate e-gov access by the common man, a facility for payment of all utility charges online and interactive features that would facilitate democratic outreach. the rhetoric of the policy encompasses employing information technology in service provision by the government and in facilitating democratic outreach between government and citizens. there is a clearly stated expectation that e-government will lead to ‘greater transparency, accountability, equality of opportunity and empowerment of the people’. however, on the official website of the department of it and biotechnology, the following statement appears “e-governance or electronic governance may be defined as delivery of government services and information to the public using electronic means.” to examine what local government services citizens of bangalore city could access through the use of icts, a search was conducted online to access all local government and state government websites. state government websites were included because many state level agencies provide services to bangalore city and are considered to represent government services by bangaloreans. the list of e-government services available to bangaloreans between june 2003 and august 2004 is provided in table 1. table 1: government services accessible to citizens online project department services available what citizen can do? comments mukhya vahini (department information system ) decision support system for chief minister of state information on specific govt. projects -operational not for use by citizens system in place, but not extensively used since fall of s.m. krishna government secretariat lan intra department monitoring files, letters, personnel, budget proposals and court cases not for use by citizens 6 out of 23 departments claim to have software to use the system, claim cannot be verified except at revenue department raitamitra; http://raitamitra.kar.nic.in krishi marata vahini agriculture website ; online agricultural price information system (was visited 32216 times since 17/10/2005); as of may 15, 2006 can get information on farming, weather; crop prices; send emails; comment on website through guest book. weather information incomplete; not updated for 5 months at a time; kannada language fonts do not show up in links. commercial tax http://kar.nic.in/ctax commercial tax department website; check posts computerized; department activities, records computerized can get information, but have to visit offices physically to undertake transactions department activities computerized, but no online transactions can be completed www.bangaloreit.com site visited 164489 times since 28 nov. 2000 ; as of may 15, 2006.   www.bangalorebio.com site visited 218125  times since 12 february 2001; as of may 15, 2006. department of information technology & biotechnology websites; developed kannada software downloadable freely; connections to other relevant sites can get information on policy, bangalore; register with gok; post feedback, send emails; bangaloreit.com address has changed but no correction has been made on website; some links do not work and have not been fixed for 4-5 months results online, computerized counseling education department online allotment of seats to professional courses, class 10 and 12 exam results online refer to information online most used site among 18-25 age group state budget finance department department computerized refer to information site not updated since 2004 targeted public system (tps) food and civil supplies department management information system in place not for use by citizens no information on status of  tps project provided in spite of  repeated phone calls to office, july 2005 cormis forest department pilot projects in using management information system and geographical information system (gis) for mapping not for use by citizens no public information available about status of project according to department secretary, july 2005 crime criminal information system police, home department police stations computerized; vehicle verification counter operational since 2002 no direct contact with computerized systems, can request information in person at the vehicle verification counter www.karnatakahousing.com http://www.khbcustomerinfo.com karnataka housing board, housing department department computerized; website can get information on policies;  house vacancy; application status; download forms; send email, file complaints, provide suggestions kannadasri http://kannadasiri.kar.nic.in/ kannada and culture department website can get information on policy karnataka government insurance department department computerized not for use by citizens planning department computerized data entry and report generation at district level not for use by citizens www.kar.nic.in/pwd/ public works department website; gis use get information, maps of roads; access management information system reports for 2005 mis reports not updated since march 2005; as of may 15, 2006. registration and stamps department department computerized; sub registry offices computerized; get information on stamp fee rates, download formats bhoomi – refer http://www.revdept-01.kar.nic.in/ revenue department computerized land records can obtain land records and documents at bhoomi kiosks; no direct access to computerized data most well recognized project; citizens cannot request documents online, have to physically travel to a kiosk located in their taluk/ district (administrative unit) e-nondhani and kaveri http://www.karigr.org/ revenue department computerized property registration get information on property valuation, download forms, provide suggestions high impact in reducing corruption; as of may 15 2006 website accessible only in english, not in local language kannada. khajane treasury department v-sat based online banking for karnataka treasury – computerized banking not for direct use by citizens expected to speed up treasury payments to pensioners http://rto.kar.nic.in/ transport department computerization of vehicle registration, taxation process; drivers license process get information on policies; track application; download forms no online transactions can be undertaken, however computerization is expected to reduce corruption. computerization of corporations and municipal administration urban development department computerization of birth and death records, pilot projects in property tax in bangalore, this is supposed to work through bangalore one portal bangalore development authority http://www.bdabangalore.org/ urban development department computerized allotment of sites access information on land plots, download forms; file complaints; cannot make online payments as of may 15, 2006 http://www.waterresources.kar.nic.in water resources department computerized database of water sources access information and policies e-tendering announced but not operational as of may 15, 2006 http://www.kar.nic.in national informatics center – karnataka state unit portal providing access to multiple sites for government of india and government of  karnataka departments access information and policies, follow links to external sites most comprehensive website the websites were evaluated for the presence of various features related to information availability, service delivery, privacy and security, and public access. over the past several years, researchers have used different methods for evaluating e-government services. this research adapts measures developed by west (2005) and holzer & melitski (2003). information availability: as of august 31, 2004 all the websites listed in table 1 provided contact information. they had telephone numbers, email addresses and mail addresses. bangaloreit.com and nic provided links to other websites. however, none of them provided any online publications, searchable online databases, or audio clips.  service delivery: bangaloreit.com (5) and nic (7) were the two websites that offered the maximum number of services as of august 31, 2004. none of the websites offered services that could be completely performed online without physically visiting a government office or government kiosk. they did not offer electronic payment facilities where payment could be made through credit card or direct bank deposit [2]. none of the websites allowed digital signatures. on all the websites, even when forms were accessible, the citizen had to print the form and mail it back or hand deliver the completed form to obtain the service, none of them could be counted as transactions fully executed online. privacy and security: none of the websites had visible statements about the privacy of data or the security policies of the government. this is understandable since there were no facilities to enable the citizen to share information with the government online. there were no statements regarding cookies or the disclosure of information to law enforcement officials. public access: public access was assessed based on features that would help citizens contact government officials and use the information provided on the websites. all the websites listed above provided email addresses of the officials to be contacted. however, they did not have search functions that would help citizens look for specific kinds of information. there were no features to help citizens get updates about information on the websites either through email or mobile phone. e-government services for bangalore city were not prioritized for a long time after the mahiti policy was announced. when field work was conducted for this study between june 2003 and august 30, 2004, the only local government website available to citizens was that of the bangalore mahanagara palike (bmp). the bmp is responsible for civic development within the greater bangalore metropolitan area, which covers 224.66 sq. km. (divided into 100 wards) with a population of 6.8 million. bmp handles more than 20 different types of functions that allow it to interface with bangalore’s citizens. the website www.blrbmp.org was created in may 2000 under commissioner k. jairaj. on this website, there were nine sections to provide information : bmp (listing its short history, names of the commissioner, mayor, deputy mayor), protocol (listing of road digging activities), budget (features of the budget), committees (standing committees of bmp), public grievance cell (with a format to register complaints), the garden city (important landmarks of the city), your representatives (names of the councilors), self-assessment scheme (property tax) and the vision (bmp vision statement). one year after the launch of the website, complaints surfaced that the website was not updated, contained incorrect information, and did not contain information that might be useful to citizens (belgaumkar, 2001). confusion about the official site of the bmp began when the bangalore agenda task force (batf) created another website for the bmp called www.blrbmp.com. however, this site was not the official website of the bmp and so did not provide access to any online services. the other local government website that was expected to be accessible was the bangalore one portal. however, this portal did not become operational between 2003 and 2004 due to many delays. a new website was created for the bmp called www.bmponline.org in june 2004. this website had more links than the old versions. however under the tab ‘citizen friendly schemes’, it listed 9 schemes though the links were not functional.  there were no links to the list of councilors or standing committees, no services or information related to services were provided online.  bmp’s official website did not provide accurate information about who the mayor was – it had not been updated when data collection ended on august 31, 2004. there were no email addresses where citizens could reach the mayor or the commissioner. there was no search function or a feature that would enable citizens to comment. there was no statement about the privacy of information since there were no features to facilitate exchange of information between citizens and government. news reports suggest that the situation of lack of up to date information and lack of citizen friendly services continued into the year 2005 (yasmeen, 2005). thus if any of the various stages or phases of e-government models are applied to bangalore city, it would be classified as belonging to stage one, where it is publishing some information and has established its presence online. there were no transactional or interactive features and the mahiti policy goal of facilitating democratic outreach did not materialize on the official websites. thus within the framework of the phased development model of e-government, bangalore city cannot be classified as having successful e-government initiatives that lead to fostering accountability, effectiveness or participation opportunities for citizens. this assessment holds true if we rely exclusively on citizens employing icts to interact with their government as constituting the definition of e-government and e-governance. the case changes if we do not make technology central to our analysis but look for evidence of citizen participation in government and governance and try to examine what role information technology can play in that process. proof : public record of operations and finance without transparency, financial reporting, and structured disclosure norms from government institutions, citizens cannot participate in governance. proof was created as a mechanism to address this problem. beginning in july 2002, the bangalore city corporation has made public its financial statements to provide full and accurate performance information to the city’s various stakeholders. each quarter, a public meeting is held where city government officials meet citizens to discuss the city’s standardized financial statements, a set of performance indicators as well as a report that contains the city government’s management discussion and explanatory statements. citizens question specific expenditure items and request clarification of decisions made. this system operates on the rationale that disclosure of accurate and timely information is a necessary condition for good governance. anatomy of proof in the early 1990s, bangalore became a major destination for software development in india. many multinational companies set up offices in the city, attracting job seekers from all over india (bangaloreit.in, 2005). this resulted in increasing pressure on the city’s infrastructure and greater service demands from the growing population. the city did not have the financial strength to undertake any infrastructure projects on its own and had to approach capital markets for funding. this brought the city government face to face with the realities of its finances. what they found there was inefficient resource mobilization and utilization, lack of information and evaluation, and a lack of transparency and accountability. as the capital of karnataka state, bangalore was seen by the state government as critical to its projected image as the ‘software destination of india’. the chief minister of the state set up a committee – the bangalore agenda task force (batf) – to address these problems (batf, 2003). as part of the changes to city government, the accounting system was revamped. with funds provided to the batf by a private foundation, rs. 15 million was spent in moving the city’s single entry accounting to a fund based accounting system. a management information system was put in place and accounting became a core activity. a fundamental institutional transformation was achieved so that the information flow cycle was reduced from a 48-day cycle to 2 days, creating a single source database that facilitated quick management decisions (batf, 2003). the political support from the chief minister enabled the batf team to overcome resistance to mapping the old system and reengineering it, and training personnel. this change in systems led to a complete overhaul of public works management. the corporation could provide specific details of finances, public works undertaken and status of infrastructure initiatives through the internet, through email and through traditional means such as print. thus the stage was set to enable the city government to respond to requests for information from members of the public. while citizens and the bangalore city corporation have a common interest in the city’s functioning, there was no formal mechanism for them to work together prior to proof. citizens working through four civic groups, janaagraha, voices, public affairs center, and center for budget and policy studies mobilized the community groups to participate in proof meetings. since august 2002, public meetings have been held to discuss the city’s budget, its actual revenues and expenditures, with a detailed list and valuation of its assets and liabilities. the local government in bangalore city consists of both elected representatives and career administrative officers appointed by the state government. the city is divided into 100 wards. each ward elects a corporator. the corporators elect one member from among them as the mayor. the day-to-day administration of the city is handled by the career officers appointed by the state government. this group of people is headed by the commissioner. a special commissioner is his deputy. an additional commissioner handles the city’s finances and there are seven deputy commissioners who work for the commissioner. the proof public meetings are generally attended by the mayor of bangalore city, and the additional commissioner. in the public meetings, citizens present their analysis of the budget. they point out discrepancies in the budget and the additional commissioner of finance responds. this is followed by an open house where citizens question the corporation officials about specific expenses. citizens also participate in the formulation of the corporation’s budget. to facilitate this process, three retired officials from government finance departments lend their expertise to citizens’ discussions and planning during weekly discussions. they prioritize public works from their local areas in areas such as road repairs, footpaths, and drainage; and examine ways to improve the budget, and enhance revenue collection. citizens have been involved in proposing methods to double property tax receipts by researching various issues such as assessment of tax on government residential properties. they also examine whether all the obligatory functions of the corporation are being carried out. wardworks in addition to participating through proof, bangaloreans also participate at the level of their local wards through an initiative called wardworks. wardworks is citizen follow up on public works going on in their wards, relying on the same accounting and information management system that made proof possible. adoption of the new computerized accounting system helps the corporation streamline application of resources, plan for the future, and facilitate prioritization of activities that need funds. it also facilitates the generation of a monthly report called arthika darpana. this allows for the generation of a ward-wise budgetary allocation index. the corporation could also provide online access to ward level budgets. citizens make use of this information to hold their elected representatives and service providers accountable and influence decisions about projects to be undertaken. while ward level works constitutes a relatively small item in the city budget (6%), it allows citizens to participate in selection, prioritization and implementation of various local works. bangalore has 100 wards. when field work was conducted for this research, 10 wards in the city were active participants in wardworks. the leadership of the city corporation, bangalore mahanagara palike, was persuaded by citizens working through the janaagraha civic group to mandate attendance by their ward engineers, health officials and other employees at a monthly review meeting. it was established that points raised in the meetings would be part of the official record. the monthly review meetings involve accessing the ward works index for each ward for a given month and discussing the progress of works with the officials responsible. this gives citizens an overview of how money has been spent and provides a critical formal space to hold the agencies responsible for ward-level issues and press forward with the agenda of their neighborhood vision documents. currently, communities in different wards hold monthly review meetings, where they meet with their corporators, engineers, police inspectors, and other officials dealing with electricity, water and sanitation to discuss ward works and work together in tackling civic problems. some of the most successful wards have been those with serious infrastructure problems. constructive engagement with government officials has occurred when residents selected specific issues and employed a focused approach to meeting officials, pursuing them over time and following up on their issues until they were satisfied with the solutions. these initiatives have some similarities to citizen participation processes in porto allegre in brazil. one important question is the sustainability of these initiatives. is this just a local initiative that will fizzle out or can it be extended to other places? citizens working through janaagraha have moved beyond the local government level to lobby the central government of india. in a measure of their success, their suggestions that for two amendments to state municipal acts – first, to provide urban voters with a legitimate platform ‘area sabha’ to participate in their neighborhood as part of the ward committees (modeled on monthly review meetings) and second, to require municipalities to disclose quarterly audited statements of performance (modeled on proof) have been accepted by the central government of india. on december 3, 2005, the central government announced the jawaharlal nehru national urban renewal mission (jnnurm) – a seven year program to financially support 63 cities and help urban renewal. the goals of this mission include enabling modern and transparent budgeting and financial management systems in urban government, city-wide frameworks for planning and governance, access to basic services, transparent and accountable governance and the introduction of e-government services. suggestions about amendments made by citizens working through janaagraha have been included in the list of mandatory reforms required in the jnnurm. proof and wardworks: what do they achieve? bangalore city corporation is the first local government in india to make its financial statements public. proof meetings are unique in the extent to which citizens are able to require transparency and accountability from their local government in addition to participating in the budgeting process. the public meetings have provided a formal mechanism for citizens to question local government officials on their priorities for the city and request clarifications where required. proof has also led to a comprehensive framework for assessing local government performance. it has enabled citizens to be actively involved in working with the local government to improve quality of life in bangalore. through wardworks, citizens in bangalore are able to engage in participatory budgeting for the first time. in this process, they identified rs 100 million of ward works as priorities for the financial year 2002-03 of which rs 50 million of works was included in the program of works. the process of prioritization led to citizens engaging in dialogue with other citizen groups/associations in their wards. instead of collapsing into chaos, these meetings proved that with enough information and opportunities to participate in decision-making citizens could work together effectively. they were able to compromise when they saw the process as being fair and transparent. they also monitored the implementation of works to improve the value received for their tax rupees and to make their neighborhoods more livable. through the monthly review meetings, citizens interact with their elected representatives and bmp to review works going on in their ward and provide feedback and suggest changes or new additions. these meetings are conducted with along with digital reports generated from a regularly updated database made possible by fbas. this has led to citizen partnership in local government. while the state government has discouraged decentralization and sharing of power in practice, citizens groups have been able to take advantage of a simple computerization process within local government to gain more space for participation in governance. the progress of proof and wardworks has not been without challenges. elected representatives have voiced criticism of citizens working through janaagraha since they feel threatened by citizens who want to participate in the budgeting process and prioritizing ward works. budgeting and deciding on ward works are sources of power for elected representatives. active citizens have been threatened with police cases. it is clear from the multiple statements made by elected representatives in the bmp council that they do not believe in allowing citizens to participate, they see themselves as the only legitimate decision making entities in local government.  why is citizen participation in governance opposed in practice in bangalore? historically, karnataka state has retained a high level of concentration of power at the level of the state government. some of this has been attributed to a legacy of colonial practices. bangalore city figured prominently in colonial government as a cantonment for british troops and this affected how democratic traditions evolved in the local government. bangalore was designated a municipality in 1862 when nine citizens formed a municipal board. however, it did not have a single unified governing body and the british resident held wide discretionary powers. lord mayo’s (british viceroy of india from 1869-1872) doctrine of administrative efficiency in local government at the expense of popular participation which was perceived as taking considerable time to evolve and likely result in inefficiencies, strongly influenced the emerging philosophy of local government (prasanna, aundhe & saldanha, 2000). when the british withdrew in 1947, karnataka state opted for a “weak mayor” system. all the areas around bangalore were consolidated under one authority through the bangalore city corporation act of 1949. the act provided for direct election of representatives by wards (smallest administrative unit in the city). each representative would serve on the city council for five years. the chair of the city council would be mayor--a council member elected by the representatives for a term of one year. the executive authority rested in the city commissioner who was appointed by the state government. all major decisions on daily administration of the bangalore city corporation (bcc), known as the bangalore mahanagara palike (bmp) in kannada, passed through the office of the commissioner. thus, though there was an evoking of democratic local government, the state government in fact retained executive power.   this situation persists today even though the nagarapalika act of 1993 mandated major changes in urban governments. the provisions of the act were aimed at promoting local democratic participation in municipal government. yet, decentralization and devolution of power was thwarted in karnataka during its implementation (heitzman, 1999). even though the citizens elect their local representatives, the power such representatives wield is limited. the indirect election of the mayor and the short, one year tenure, makes the position that of a figurehead with no executive authority. though the bmp is a legislative body that makes policies, it is the commissioner who executes those policies. citizens have no mechanism to hold the commissioner accountable. thus to some extent, decentralization and enhancement of people’s participation in local governance remain principles that are not realized in practice. proof and wardworks as opportunities for citizens to participate in local government have to be viewed within this context. they indicate that information technology introduction at the institutional level can have a major impact even when icts use among individuals is not widespread and is hampered by a digital divide. the role of information technology in proof & wardworks was generating new kinds of information and altering information flows rather than facilitating community networks or e-consultation with government officials. findings indicate that even in this limited role, information technology could facilitate citizen participation. though the participation channels were traditional in nature, information technology made participation possible through new information flows. this is an instance where participation and civic empowerment are the result of icts interacting with the structure and process of local government, in tandem with civic action. these initiatives would not be possible without the new computerized accounting and information management system and public access to that information. however, greater availability of information is not a sufficient condition to promote citizen participation. proof and wardworks relied extensively on educating citizens, building their capacity and identifying the opportunities for citizen participation. considerable time and energy was spent in mobilizing existing neighborhood organizations and resident welfare associations to help generate resources locally and to motivate citizens to participate. discussion the findings from this case study indicate a need for reevaluation of how we define e-governance in the developing world, particularly in the context of citizen engagement and civic empowerment. if the expectations for e-government and e-governance are focused around using icts, achieving citizen participation through e-consulting or e-engagement seem impossible goals. this is because a majority of the population has to deal with issues of physical access to technology, lack of infrastructure such as reliable electricity, lack of relevant content in local languages and disparate skill levels. if bangalore is any indicator, even information capitals in developing countries cannot aim to achieve the goals. secondly, if we assume that for successful e-government there is need for educated citizens, appropriate technical infrastructure and online services that meet citizens’ needs, and commitment from government officials to finance and provide policy leadership on all these aspects, most developing countries will have to wait for a long time to achieve these before citizen engagement and civic empowerment happen through e-government. asymmetrical and entrenched power relations, lack of resources and skills among a majority of the population and citizen needs for basic infrastructure such as drinking water and electricity are daily realities in many developing countries. if governance is the process where citizens mobilize, network and try to influence their governments, it is already happening in developing countries in different ways without extensive use of information technology. thus empowering them in the governance process through information technologies currently is a question of small changes within strategic areas in government that can provide opportunities for participation. defined in this way, the issues for e-governance research are about investigating how institutional structures such as legislation or the budget affect development of governance processes and how information technology might interact with these processes. there is a need to examine how civic groups use information technologies and participate in governance despite pervasive digital divides. if elected representatives see citizen participation as a threat to their power, there is no reason for them to encourage participation. yet, decentralization and multiple actors sharing power are becoming important in network societies though participatory democracy is not the goal of all the actors. future research has to examine how politicians and bureaucrats deal with this tension and what factors promote power-sharing beyond the obvious gains of improving trust in government and an efficient use of resources. proof and wardworks illustrate the need to study the power of 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(1999). global communication and world politics: domination, development and discourse. boulder, colorado: lynne rienner the economic times (december 14, 2004). india's software market shining. retrieved may 15, 2006 http://www.nasscom.org/artdisplay.asp?art_id=3791 west, d. (2005). global e-government 2005, retrieved may 15, 2006 from http://www.insidepolitics.org/egovt05int.pdf wilkund, h. (2005). a habermasian analysis of the deliberative democratic potential of ict-enabled services in swedish municipalities. new media & society, 7(2), 247-270 yasmeen, a. (2005). bmp website goes off screen, the hindu, october 8, retrieved may 15, 2006 from http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/08/stories/2005100819260300.htm 1. the original version of karnataka: the millennium it policy, it for the common man is available at http://www.kar.nic.in 2.there are no statistics about the number of credit card users in india and particularly in bangalore. according to rediff (http://www.rediff.com/money/2004/jan/22spec.htm), while bangalore has relatively higher credit card usage when compared to other cities, it is still miniscule. the overall number of credit cards in use in india was between 8.75 and 9 million in december 2003. the population of india in 2003 was over 1 billion. a more viable option is likely the direct bank account transaction opportunity which is already in place in many cities. curriculum development for mobile digital literacy skills acquisition using a design science approach judy van biljon, university of south africa. email: vbiljja@unisa.ac.za john traxler, university of wolverhampton / university of south africa ronell van der merwe, university of south africa dalize van heerden, university of south africa introduction digital inclusion is critically implicated in all other operate as mediators to accessing and utilising online resources and services (nansen, chakraborty, gibbs, macdougall, & vetere, 2013). mobile phone technology specifically has introduced a range of new possibilities for economic development, political activism, and personal networking and communication (walsham & sahay, 2006). the rapid diffusion of mobile technology in all societies continues to transform the ict landscape with major potential implications for education (traxler, 2012). one of the challenges is the development of 21st century information and communication technology skills that enable the optimal use of mobile technology in teaching and learning in every sector, as school teachers are vital actors in the skills development chain in schools (ford & botha, 2010; horizon, 2013; jisc, 2014). there appears to be an underlying assumption that teachers already have the necessary skills, knowledge and attitudes to integrate mobile technology into teaching (maccallum & jeffrey, 2009). yet the frequent use of mobile devices does not mean that all students and teachers have the necessary skills (corbeil & valdes-corbeil, 2007). the need for knowledge and skills development is different and even more acute in resource-constrained teacher communities. based on a study in an informal settlement in south africa, steyn, rampa and marais (2013) found that the availability of mobile technology for personal use does not ensure the background knowledge and skills required to make use of ict in the person's work context. accepting the necessity for improving mobile digital literacy skills in teacher communities, this research is guided by the question: how can a mobile digital literacy curriculum be developed using the design science research approach? considering teachers from resource-constrained communities as the community whose skills will be enhanced, the study lies at the intersection between community informatics and development informatics. published literature distinguishes between community informatics and development informatics particularly in relation to communication (walton, 2014). community informatics focuses on the community as a complex sociological phenomenon where the term "contemporary community" can refer to real places, as well as virtual existences, and also a combination of the two (stillman, 2010). development informatics on the other hand focuses on the idea that the beneficial uses of ict need to be maximised to advance development and to gain the commitment to the project of local communities and their leaders (johanson, 2011). the dsr methodology was used to govern the selection and application of research methods in this study. dsr seeks to extend the boundaries of human and organizational capabilities by creating new and innovative artefacts, and endorses relevance and rigor as part of the design process (hevner et al., 2004). the premise of this paper is that dsr offers an appropriate methodology to design information-based artefacts including the curriculum itself in a strategic and holistic way. studying the implementation context is essential in pursuing development goals (walsham, 2013) and is also in line with the relevance cycle of dsr. therefore an investigation was conducted with participating teachers during a science week hosted by the university of south africa. the findings represent views expressed by teachers in the gauteng province of south africa on their professional development needs relating to mobile digital literacy. having confirmed the relevance of a mobile digital literacy skills curriculum development (henceforth referred to as "the curriculum") and also having gained insights into the context, the curriculum was crafted as an instantiation of the mobile learning framework (mlf) proposed by botha, batchelor, traxler, de waard & herselman (2012). the curriculum was evaluated by a focus group of selected experts and again at a workshop with facilitators from gauteng schools. knowledge development and transfer is an essential part of community informatics and, sometimes implicitly, curriculum development is a part of many community development programs. community informatics focusses on the ability of a particular community to benefit from a particular ict (gurstein, 2003) but it does not commonly explore opportunities through the proactive design, development and evaluation of new ict (bilandzic & venable, 2011). examples of community informatics projects include the application of information technology in educational contexts (mlitwa & koranteng, 2013); investigating how pennsylvania's "classrooms for the future" policy is implemented in a rural school districts (stone, 2014); and the adoption of digital publishing tools by educators working in the popular education methodology (o'reilly-rowe, 2011). as noted previously, although these projects evaluate the benefits derived from educational artefacts (policies and curricula) they do not look at their design and development. realising the importance of both streams of the is-research spectrum, action research (ar) and dsr have been proposed as two methodologies that address design-oriented issues from a technical, as well as socio-cultural, perspective (baskerville, pries-heje, & venable, 2007). considering community informatics research, livari and venable (2009) advocate a tight coupling between building, intervention and evaluation activities, and extensive participation by key stakeholders (researchers, problem owners, and system users). that is in line with dsr and justifies the selection thereof for curriculum development. furthermore, dsr as methodology has been used in community informatics projects e.g. a project on establishing academic/community relations (light, egglestone, wakeford, & rogers, 2011) but its use for curriculum development in community informatics has not been described in any depth. therefore the description of the use and usefulness of dsr as a research methodology for curriculum design in community informatics is proposed as a novel contribution. literature overview mobile digital literacy digital literacy has been defined as "the awareness, attitude and ability of individuals to appropriately use digital tools and facilities to identify, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, analyse and synthesize digital resources, construct new knowledge, create media expressions, and communicate with others, in the context of specific life situations, in order to enable constructive social action; and to reflect upon this process" (martin, 2005). mobile digital literacy is associated with learning with mobile devices (ng, 2013) and with surviving and indeed flourishing in societies characterised by massive mobile connectedness. the skills and capabilities related to the use, exploitation and potential of mobile devices is a subset of the larger agenda of digital literacy. (traxler, 2012). unpacking mobile digital literacy even further, ng (2011, 2012) identifies not only technical knowledge of mobile devices but also the cognitive and socio-emotional knowledge. cheung and hew (2009) summarize the pedagogical uses of mobile technology devices as communication and sharing, investigating, capturing data and analyses, assessing, task management, accessing multimedia and representing meanings. this confirms the technical, the cognitive and socio-emotional dimensions described previously, but on the operational level of curriculum design it is necessary to link those dimensions to a specialization. considering mobile digital skills, we came across three different, but overlapping, definitions of mobile digital literacy specialization (figure 1). mobile digital literacy can refer to any one of a subset of the following: a specialization of literacy, the ability and confidence to manipulate a specific symbol set and tool set (not only pens and words but mobile digital technology, its signs and meanings). it is particularly important for societies characterized by universal mobility and connectedness (traxler 2012). a specialization of (institutional) digital literacy (rodrigues, 1985) and hence contributes to generic academic, social, expressive, employment skills and roles. a pre-requisite for mobile learning, is important for institutions taking into account the progression of e-learning towards mobile learning and co-opting mobiles into essentially conventional pedagogies. figure 1: dimensions of mobile digital literacy for any of these categories, it would be a mistake to assume that mobile digital technology merely passively contained and transmitted learning and knowledge; any technology (especially one as powerful and widespread as mobile digital technology) transforms what is known, what is worth knowing, how it gets to be known, how what is known is transformed, shared, preserved, discussed and distributed. this 'epistemological revolution' must be recognised in the development and delivery of the curriculum. furthermore, a comprehensive definition of mobile digital literacy should see it as not only underpinning lifelong learning in a mobile society but also subsuming and extending the existing e-safety curriculum (kritzinger & padayachee, 2013). this is important for teachers since it builds on parts of the curriculum already in place or under preparation. these sets of mobile digital literacy skills can be represented by a venn diagram. considering the activities and deliberations of the various digital literacy subsets, we find that the teacher community is at the centre of the overlapping sets. each of these definitions can be interpreted, enacted or delivered in ways that might be functional, compliant or conservative at one extreme, or might be critical, engaged or political at the other extreme. thus in figure 1 we have added the dotted line as the third dimension, out of the page, to represent that. all of the dimensions involve understanding and choice sometimes between options and sometimes within features. to ensure optimal use, the teacher needs sufficient knowledge to make appropriate choices and connections or must find new ways of engaging with the technologies. as discussed, the need for mobile digital literacy development has been established (ng, 2013) and maccallum (2009) calls for research to identify the discriminating variables influencing the adoption of mobile technology by teachers. in the next section we take a closer look at mobile digital literacy curricula. mobile digital literacy curricula a curriculum is a comprehensive plan for an educational training programme or course to fulfil the needs of society (pinar et al 1995). a curriculum is context dependent and informed by the epistemology of the people that develop the curriculum as well at the dominant learning theories that guide the expected learning. curriculum development has often been seen as the domain of educationists, with limited involvement of stakeholders other than a few subject experts (taba & spalding, 1962; tanner & tanner 1975). over the years there have been numerous attempts to articulate explicit curriculum development methods (for example, brown, 1995; driver & oldham, 1986; walker 1971). in the case of a dynamic, practical skill, such as mobile digital skills, inputs from all stakeholders are critical (steyn, et al., 2013). in-depth coverage of the ontology of curriculum design is beyond the scope of this paper but it should be stated that philosophy in presenting the content is aimed at in-depth understanding and individual construction of knowledge, so the epistemology of the curriculum is interpretivist and the learning theory constructivism. note that the philosophical paradigm of the curriculum content may not be the same as that of the curriculum design methodology. the dsr methodology as applied here included both positivist and interpretivist approaches in the relevance cycle and in the design, implementing and validation. in general, it is worth asking about the benefits or otherwise of combining or aligning the various philosophical positions. in this case where positivist and interpretivist positions are at work in these kinds of discussions; there is the possibility that they rest on conflicting or contradictory axiology or epistemology. there is no south african qualifications authority (saqa, 2014) accredited unit standard for mobile digital skills development. non-accredited, vendor-related mobile digital skills agendas abound, but the cost and location constraints make these inaccessible for teachers in resource-constrained environments. furthermore, these may not have sufficient generality, criticality or impartiality for use in education. towards developing appropriate mobile digital skills curricula for the south african context, botha et al. (2012) proposed a framework for mobile learning to empower and cultivate an ethical mind set. the following outcomes can be abstracted from their framework: acquire domain knowledge, i.e. understand mobile technologies in education and the relevant issues for active participation. develop skills to enable mobile learning practice, i.e. demonstrate how a bouquet of mobile technologies can enhance teaching practice. understand the role and impact of domain knowledge in relation to the application context, i.e. appreciate the challenges associated with creating content, evaluating mobile technologies and its use in a given context. the framework is presented modularly so that it can be adapted for different contexts. the fact that it was developed for a south african context makes it particularly relevant to our intended use and therefore it was chosen as a point of departure for the curriculum. the design science research approach according to hevner et al.(2004), the information systems research is characterized by behavioural science and design science paradigms. while the behavioural science paradigm seeks to "develop and verify theories that explain or predict human or organizational behaviour", the design-science paradigm seeks to "extend the boundaries of human and organizational capabilities by creating new and innovative artefacts" (hevner et al., 2004) . in a seminal dsr paper, marc and smith (2014) identify four design artefacts and two design processes produced by dsr. the artefact is defined in terms of the following elements: constructs (e.g. vocabulary and symbols) that characterize a phenomenon, models (e.g. abstractions and representations) that describe tasks, situations, or artefacts, methods (e.g. algorithms and practices) that show how to carry out activities toward a goal, instantiations (e.g. prototype systems) are physical implementations. many is researchers interpret the explicit guidelines and evaluative criteria for dsr (hevner & ram, 2004) as a 'recipe' and hence think of dsr as a 'method' as opposed perhaps to a methodology, but the purpose-driven creation of artefacts and the introduction of these artefacts into otherwise natural settings shows that dsr has its own particular facets (baskerville, et al., 2007). weber(2010) maintains that dsr is a research approach, something between a hands-on research method and a more general philosophy of science, or research paradigm. this means that there is flexibility to use different research methods within a dsr project. the clarity of structure, designated relevance-and-rigor cycles and the flexibility of selecting the data capturing methods made dsr seem an appropriate methodology although it has not often (if at all) been used for curriculum development in community informatics. research design as stated, the research presented here is guided by the question: how can a mobile digital literacy curriculum be developed according to the design science research methodology? ethical clearance was obtained from the ethics committee of the school of computing at the university of south africa. all research participants completed an informed consent form (which allowed permission to use the data) before taking part in the data capturing activities (survey, focus group and workshop). we should of course recognise that research with fluid, powerful, complex and abstract technologies amongst 'naïve' subjects from outside the academy is problematic notwithstanding processes of formal approval (traxler 2013). the objective of developing an artefact (such as a curriculum) while producing a knowledge contribution (such as testing the dsr methodology in a new context) fits the design science paradigm. design is proposed as one of the primary modes for engaging in educational research (sloane, 2006). there are many similarities between dsr and design based research (dbr) (de villiers & harpur, 2013) but dsr was preferred due to the detail provided on how to structure the study and implement the different steps. the three successive design cycles namely the relevance, design and rigour cycles advocated by (hevner et al., 2004; hevner, 2007) are depicted in figure 2. the study was designed in terms of a relevance cycle as explained in section 3.1 and a rigor cycle as explained in section 3.2 with the design cycle as the basis of the process. figure 2: framework adapted from hevner, marc, park, ram (2004) relevance cycle design in the relevance cycle contextual factors relevant to designing a mobile digital literacy curriculum for school teachers were investigated. a survey was used to capture data regarding the teachers, the school and the infrastructure (including technology). given the importance of technological feasibility (corbeil & valdes-corbeil, 2007) it was necessary to consider the mobile devices that teachers are using when engaging in teaching activities and also for personal use. the survey questions (provided in appendix a) focused on the following: whether primary and secondary level teachers are interested in educational / interventions to promote the use of mobile technology in their teaching environments the extent to which primary and secondary level teachers use ict in their teaching teachers' attitude towards mobile technology in teaching and learning data was gathered at a mobile learning session during a community engagement science week hosted by the university a general invitation was sent to all the schools in the area. the science context might have introduced some bias towards technology, but on the other hand perhaps this group of teachers (who are expected to be early adopters of technology) might voice a need for mobile digital literacy development that could apply to the rest of the teaching population from whence they come. fifty-three educators responded (43 teachers, 5 school facilitators who were previously teachers and 5 university lecturers). the gender distribution was 43% male and 57% female. the session started with an overview of mobile technology affordances followed by a discussion on specific applications relating to video, audio, images and presentations on mobile technology. finally an interactive session, using twitter and socrative (www.socrative.com) occurred. this was admittedly a format driven by technological perceptions as opposed to sociological perceptions but this matched the expectations of the group. data was captured during the socrative session where respondents completed the online questionnaire to introduce them to the application and then created their own questionnaires. data capturing was limited to closed questions but the participants were observed during the session and the three authors present subsequently discussed their observations to improve their interpretation of what occurred. the results from the survey are presented in 'results', below. design cycle the development of the curriculum as part of the design cycle supports a connection between the construction and evaluation of design artefacts and processes (hevner et al., 2004). the mobile digital literacy curriculum was designed as an instance of the mobile learning framework (mlf) (botha, et al., 2012). using the mlf constructs we crafted a curriculum accommodating distance learning and the needs of the teacher community. the first design was followed by two evaluation iterations consisting of the following activities. focus group of domain experts open and targeted invitations were extended to individuals, ten of whom volunteered their time and expertise for an expert review. these included domain experts in: open distance learning (odl); ict provision; curriculum development; facilitators and teachers at gauteng schools; and lecturers at the university. the procedure was as follows: the mobile learning curriculum framework was presented to representatives from the different contexts, namely odl, technology provision, university lecturers, the gauteng schools facilitators and teachers. the workshop started with an overview of the mlf (botha, et al., 2012) followed by a presentation of the curriculum as an instantiation of the mlf. one representative for each perspective gave feedback in terms of the appropriateness of the curriculum and a reflection on the findings followed. workshop with education specialists and facilitators subsequent meetings were held with the education specialist in e-learning and curriculum designers from the department of education to discuss the practical implementation of the proposed curriculum. the findings are presented below. results survey findings are primary and secondary level teachers interested in any educational intervention to promote the use of mobile technology as a tool in their classrooms and teaching environments? according to the responses, 43 of the respondents (81%) replied 'yes' (appendix a, question 8) and therefore we conclude that there is a need for formal mobile digital literacy courses. to contextualise the course development and decide on the entry level, one would have to take cognizance of the mobile technology used by the teachers. therefore the next section analyses general ict use based on the responses from the respondents. general ict usage by teachers concerning the availability of ict in the school: 37% of the respondents replied that there was a computer laboratory in their school supplied by the department of education; 17% replied that there was a computer laboratory in the school funded by the school's government body and 24% replied that there was a combination of a private laboratory and a laboratory supplied by the department of education. the fact that 21% skipped this question (a higher percentage compared to that of other questions) might indicate some confusion about the ict service provision in the school. figures 3 and 4 depict the technologies that were available versus the technologies that were said to be used in the classroom. for all the types of technologies, except for tablet pc or notebook without internet access, the number of technologies used is always less than the number available. figure 3: access to available versus technologies used in the classroom. ict usage for teaching to what extent are primary and secondary level teachers using existing ict as tools in their teaching? figure 4 depicts technologies used in the classroom and shows that multimedia productions (57%), including presentation software such as ms powerpoint, are used more in teaching than other technology such as computer simulations (29%) or the creation of broadcasts (podcasts, vodcasts and videos) (12%). figure 4: technologies used in the classroom teachers' attitude towards the use of mobile technology considering the question, 'what are teacher's attitude towards the use of mobile technology as a tool in teaching and learning?' a large majority (81%) of the respondents believe that mobile technology can be used for teaching. this is in contrast with the fact that only 37% allow mobile devices to be used in the classroom. we ought to observe however that any formulation of these kinds of questions has a built in bias a question that might be logically equivalent is: "why should mobile technology be excluded from the classroom and from learning in spite of its universality outside the classroom?" but this would presumably elicit a rather different response. the reason for this discrepancy is not clear but one can speculate that a lack of mobile digital skills may be one reason why teachers are not using mobile devices for teaching and learning, despite the fact that they agree with the principle. in summary, the findings confirm the relevance of designing the curriculum for mobile digital literacy skills development and provided some insights on what technology teachers were using (as presented in 'workshop with facilitators', below). focus group findings the respondents focused on the issues that they consider important; in each case the main insight is mentioned as supported by quotes from the participants where applicable: open and distance learning (odl): the importance of considering the odl context. "strive for open time and open access but keep it manageable." "consider having portfolio's instead of examinations." technology context: many challenges mentioned relating to the stability of the system providing internet connectivity, the lack of ict support and the power hierarchy in approving changes. teachers' context: a mind shift is needed as many teachers are wary of using technology for teaching and technology is not an unqualified good. "not all doom and gloom, some teachers are positive about going the cell phone route." "wi-fi is essential as paying for data is a problem." "hands-on how-to course is what teachers need." lecturer's context: the focus should be on practical issues such as infrastructure and accessibility. "the medium is the message." "consider future proofing versus usefulness." facilitators' context: many school principals have adopted mobile devices for personal and professional use but there seems to be a lack of adoption at facilitator's level and that was suggested as a good place to start. "a mind shift is necessary to see phones in a more positive light." "taking leave to attend lectures may be a problem, online distance learning may be better." as evident from the quotes, the feedback was on an overview level. despite the attendees being knowledgeable, positive and responsive, the session facilitator was unable to obtain more specific and detailed inputs. on a methodological level this raises questions about the usefulness of a focus group for evaluating an artefact in detail. alternatively the use of decision support tools to guide the process could be considered. workshop with facilitators meetings were held with the e-learner specialists and facilitators and the following information was obtained: mobile devices have been delivered to some primary and secondary schools in gauteng for the use of the learners; all are android devices. the devices have wifi and 3g connectivity. the cost of the 3g connectivity is covered by the state. amongst others, google applications (gmail, google docs, google sheets and google drive) are preloaded onto these devices. the devices have photo and video camera facilities. the google educational sites are available to teachers and learners. in most cases the technology was delivered without any training on how to use it. the current practice of providing technology for teaching and learning without providing skills development initiatives highlights the need for such an organized effort. clearly stated access and cost implications are important, particularly for financially constrained community development courses. discussion contribution in terms of dsr guidelines since the curriculum meets the requirements for an artifact (dsr guidelines proposed by hevner et al. (2004)), the process of creating the curriculum (might) be seen as being dsr. table 1: application of the dsr guidelines contribution in terms of community informatics research the use of the dsr paradigm for curriculum development provides structure to the research process and was found useful in informing a community informatics methodology where design and the evaluation of the artefact is involved. as noted, there are specific guidelines in dsr which often cause it to be seen as a method rather than a methodology or a paradigm. this can be considered restrictive for community development research projects. however, where community educations is planned to lead into formal qualifications there is a top-down-meets-bottom-up interface where bottom-up community needs meet top-down qualification certification and that is where the dsr the guidelines and process requirements were found useful in managing the interaction. the linking of digital skills development in a community with formally accredited qualifications is important in validating the quality of the learning and thereby adds credibility to the qualification. considering the two evaluation cycles, it was noted that the focus group of domain experts continuously diverged into new questions instead of focusing on the detail of the curriculum presented for evaluation. the dynamic, lively, yet somewhat unfocused discussion generated useful data but did not meet expectations in terms of evaluating and answering specific questions. in the words of one participant: 'getting these people to focus on the questions is like herding cats'. although the participants did not evaluate the curriculum in the detail expected, the general discussions supported the outcomes identified for the curriculum and the syllabus. this raises a question on the usefulness of focus groups for assessment and the suggestion was made that individual expert reviews may be a better assessment method. underlying differences in epistemology is a reason why researchers from different disciplines often find it hard to work together (burrell & toyama, 2009); that could also have been a disrupting factor in this group. however, given the necessity of getting different perspectives during evaluation (light, et al., 2011), the inclusion of people from different disciplines will have to be managed through the data capturing strategy rather than avoided. in summary, dsr was found useful as an approach in guiding the research and allowing the flexibility to choose research methods. however, that flexibility harbours the possibility of choosing an inappropriate method and as such researchers should be mindful of aligning the methods with the expected outcomes. for example, the method should support the outcome, i.e. diverging outcomes (as in exploring and unpacking) or converging outcomes (as in confirming and evaluating). given the realisation that research from a technical perspective into design-oriented issues should be brought on par with the socio-cultural perspective in community informatics (bilandzic & venable, 2011) the exploration into the use and usefulness of dsr in community informatics with education as application area seems a timely contribution to the discourse on research methodologies in community informatics. conclusion curriculum development is a community informatics concern. based on literature and the findings from our survey the teaching community in south africa is in need of mobile digital skills development. curriculum design as an iterative process driven by community feedback and the criteria of relevance and rigor fits the design science research paradigm and therefore dsr was used as the methodology. the practical contribution to digital inclusion is the mobile digital literacy skills development curricula in the distance education context. the survey for capturing data with the teachers was appropriate as was the workshop with facilitators but the focus group for evaluating the curriculum with domain experts was less fruitful due to the continually diverging discussion. the use of a decision support mechanism may have been useful in addressing that problem. more research is needed to determine the long terms satisfaction of the students who successfully completed the course and employers of the graduated students. the curriculum has been successfully crafted and some important insights have been gained by implementing it, especially regarding the effects of financial constraints. therefore we propose that dsr be included as one of the methodologies in the community informatics research toolkit. acknowledgements we acknowledge prof trish alexander as critical reader and the national research foundation of south africa for supporting this study. the research was done when the university of south africa hosted prof john traxler as a visiting researcher. references baskerville, r., pries-heje, j., & venable, j. 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(tick all that are relevant) desktop computer, without internet access desktop computer, with internet access laptop, tablet pc or notebook without internet access laptop, tablet pc or notebook with internet access digital reader (portable device to read books, newspapers, etc. on screen) 2. in this last year, which of the following devices did you have access to – not necessarily used it in the classroom? (tick all that are relevant) mobile phone without internet access mobile phone with internet access digital camera that can take only still images digital camera or video camera that can take videos 3. in this last year, which of the following devices did you have access to and used it in the classroom (or used it to create tasks, homework) (tick all that are relevant) desktop computer, without internet access desktop computer, with internet access laptop, tablet pc or notebook without internet access laptop, tablet pc or notebook with internet access digital reader (portable device to read books, newspapers, etc.) on screen 4. in this last year, which of the following devices did you have access to and used it in the classroom (or used it to create tasks, homework) (tick all that are relevant) mobile phone without internet access mobile phone with internet access digital camera that can take only still images digital camera or video camera that can take videos 5. indicate which of the following online communication methods do you use (tick all that are relevant): send and receive emails chatting online (fb, twitter, bbm, whatsapp or mxit) use online dictionaries or encyclopedia (e.g. wikipedia) search online for practical information (e.g. latest movies, airline tickets, shopping, etc) learning with educational software and applications, games and quizzes 6. indicate which of the following technologies you have used in your classroom (tick all that are relevant): digital books or textbooks (e-books) exercise software, online quizzes and tests multimedia production software (powerpoint, video editing, digital recording) broadcasting tools (podcasts, vodcasts, youtube, fb, etc) computer simulations 7. indicate which of the following methods do use to communicate online with your students and other friends (tick all that are relevant): black berry messaging (bbm) whatsapp mxit sms facebook (fb) part of the department of education's computer labs, such as gauteng online private computer lab operated by the school and sbg combination of the two 8. answer only yes or no to each of the following. 8.1 mobile technology should be used as a tool for teaching and learning 8.2 i use mobile technology should be used as a tool for teaching and learning 8.3 should a formal course teaching you about the use of technology in the classroom be available, would you pay to do such a course? appendix b: summary of the mobile digital literacy skills curriculum short course in mobile technology in teaching and learning target group people who wish to gain skills in the use of mobile devices to enhance teaching and learning. applicants require basic mobile phone-, windows-and internet skills. a teaching qualification is recommended but not mandatory. background and need for the slp educationists, teachers and lecturers need knowledge, skills and values to make optimal use of mobile technology in teaching and learning. currently there is no formal module where this knowledge and competencies are presented, taught and examined in a comprehensive, coherent and complete way. purposes of the slp the main purpose of empowering the person with knowledge and skills to use mobile learning is: · to introduce the educator to the unique affordances of mobile technology in the educational context; · to empower the person in educational situations to harness the unique affordances of mobile technologies in an effective and efficient manner; · to critically investigate mobile technology and applications for their usefulness in a given educational context. tuition method the unisa open and distance method for blended learning will be followed. study material will be provided according to the model for blended learning. at least one compulsory assignment has to be submitted for evaluation and feedback. feedback will ensure interaction with learners and this may be re-enforced through the use of online discussion sessions and social media technologies. kind of assessment formative assessment will be used in the feedback on assignments. summative assessment will be implemented in the evaluation of a portfolio. duration semester (6 months) language medium english total credits 12 notional hours 120 admission requirements · senior certificate or an equivalent nqf level 4 qualification · internet access · mobile phone (smart phone with internet access) level of the slp nqf level 5 specific outcomes: the specific outcomes that a student should reach are: to demonstrate a clear understanding of mobile technologies in education to demonstrate skills in the application of a representative bouquet of mobile technologies to enhance their teaching practice. to show an appreciation for the challenges associated with user created content, evaluating mobile technologies and institutional use and usefulness in a given context. to show an awareness of the roles and responsibilities of educators in promoting the ethical use of mobile technology. assessment the specific outcomes are assessed by various methods in identifying, evaluation and applying the gained knowledge. formative assessment will provide the student the opportunity to improve their knowledge by engaging with various forms of assessment that include a portfolio including written essays, peer assessment and projects. these formative assessments contribute towards the semester mark. summative assessment is a compulsory two hour fully online test that is conducted at unisa. syllabus the syllabus is a combination of different types of knowledge (concepts, processes, contexts) skills and values, and includes the following topics: orientation and awareness definition and examples of mobile devices used in teaching and learning. for example the types of devices ( e.g. smart phone, feature phone, low end). best practices in using mobile devices (mobiquette). ethical and legal considerations in using mobile devices (creative commons etc.). cost considerations including infrastructure, operating cost and maintenance. exploration of mobile technologies in teaching and learning locating appropriate content creating appropriate content evaluation and sharing content applications engaging with content communication practical implementation of the use of mobile technologies in teaching and learning in a specific context assessment of the students teaching and learning context development of a mobile technology teaching and learning profile consisting of appropriate services and applications. exploration of the educator's roles and responsibilities in the ethical use of technology identify ethical issues in the use of mobile technology in education identify issues in their own context of using mobile technology in education assessment of mobile voice agricultural messages given to farmers of cauvery delta zone of tamil nadu, india m. ganesan*1, jayalakshmi umadikar2 and suma prashant3 1, 2, 3: iit madras' rural technology and business incubator, iitm research park, taramani chennai, india. corresponding author (email): ganesanmuthiah2009@gmail.com *formerly: senior project officer, iit madras' rural technology and business incubator introduction enhanced farm productivity and farmers' livelihoods largely depend on how the relevant technology information and farm inputs are accessed by farmers. singh (2011) reviewed various delivery mechanisms of agricultural extension services available to farmers in india. this study showed that an innovative approach towards farmers was practiced during the green revolution period for disseminating agricultural information to farmers in india. however, this approach had facilitated only resource rich and irrigated land holding farmers in utilizing the government support while small and marginal farmers were not able to be part of this extension model. in the earlier practice of extension, farmers were contacted on a one to one basis, which had been a very effective but an expensive and unsustainable practice. another approach was the farmer field school which consisted of schools without walls where groups of farmers met periodically with facilitators during the crop season. an important learning from the farmer field schools was that of sustainability without outside funding sources. singh further emphasized that a new approach using information and communication technology for the dissemination of agricultural information that is relevant and reliable needs to be developed to achieve a real impact on farm productivity and livelihoods. according to the national sample survey, only 40 per cent of the farmer households accessed information about agricultural techniques and inputs (nss, 2005). farmers access information from progressive farmers, input dealers, mass media, public extension workers, cooperatives, output buyers/processors, government demonstrations, village fairs, study tours, krishi vigyan kendras and private companies. but, the most important sources of information are progressive farmers, input dealers and mass media (surabhi and gaurav, 2009; surabhi et al. 2010; ashutosh et al. 2012). , ict in different forms has been widely taken up in india by various local or national non-governmental organizations followed by private and public sector agencies (saravanan, 2010), as a tool to disseminate agricultural information amongst farmers. mobile application plays a key role in fulfilling the agricultural information needs of the farmers as it has many advantages such as easy and convenient access, reach to areas where there is no other ict infrastructure like internet, fixed lines etc., and is easily afforded by farmers (ravinder and vister, 2010). according to the telecom regulatory authority of india, the number of wireless mobile phone subscribers has reached 867.80 million as on march 2013 and india is the second largest wireless market in the world (trai, june, 2013). further, rural subscribers are continuously increasing every month, as compared to urban subscribers. the increasing trend in mobile phone use, particularly in remote rural areas, provides an opportunity to bridge the rural and urban digital divide. several mobile phone based agricultural extension projects have been deployed in india like, aaqua (krithi et al. 2011), avaaj otalo, (patel et al. 2010), mobile digital video (rikin et al. 2009). similarly, iffco kisan sanchar limited (iksl), bsnl, reuters market light (rml), nokia life tools, fisher friend project, rubber board and department of agriculture, haryana state provide services through sms and voice messages containing agriculture related information like market price, weather updates, news on agricultural policies and best agricultural practices (ictfsecbp, 2009; fafchamps & minten, 2012; saravanan, 2010). the department of agriculture, government of tamil nadu, in collaboration with iitm's rtbi has been disseminating agricultural information to farming communities of five delta districts, through voice messages delivered on farmers' mobiles. for the farmer, the costs of the service are zero, as the messages, delivered as incoming voice calls, are free for farmers. dissemination process of mobile voice messages on agricultural information figure 1 presents the dissemination process of mobile based voice messages containing agricultural information. the agricultural extension officials of the department of agriculture, in the state are responsible for preparing the content of agricultural information, while uniphore software systems (the technology partner in this initiative and a company incubated by rtbi) is responsible for developing and dissemination of agricultural information to farmers' mobile number through voice messages. information was sent on a monthly basis and the message duration lasted for a maximum of one minute. the messages were relayed during august, 2012 to july, 2013. from the call records, it was found that a total of 3,833,650 voice messages with an average of three to four messages per month per farmer were delivered to 123756 farmersthe messages contained agricultural information covering various aspects such as fertilizer application, pesticide application, best agricultural practices, seed varieties, insurance and government schemes. the analysis of the voice messages revealed that a large percentage of messages were on government schemes (29.53%) followed by best agricultural practices (23.36%) and fertilizer application (23.36%). table 1 presents the category of information disseminated through mobile voice messages to the farmers. table 1: category of agricultural information delivered through mobile voice messages figure 1: dissemination process of mobile voice messages on agricultural information the present study mainly focuses on the assessment of mobile voice message (containing agricultural advisory information) service given to farmers in five delta districts of tamil nadu. the specific objectives are: to describe the socio economic characteristics of the farmers in the study area to find out the sources of agricultural information which farmers are accessing to find out the adoption level of agricultural information disseminated through mobile voice messages to examine the usefulness and trustworthiness of agricultural information disseminated through mobile voice messages to examine the level of satisfaction of farmers with the mobile voice messages in terms of audio quality, content and language of messages to determine the relationship between the socio economic characteristics of the farmers and adoption of agricultural information delivered through mobile voice messages the remaining sections of the paper are organized as follows: section 2 describes the methodology in which we outline the study area, sampling procedure & sample size, data collection & variable measurement as also data analysis and section 3 presents the results and discussion. section 4 covers the conclusion and recommendations for further research. methodology the study area the study was carried out in five districts of cauvery delta zone namely thanjavur, thiruvarur, nagapattinam, cuddalore and tiruchirapalli of tamil nadu, india (figure 2). the study area lies in cauvery delta agro climatic zone. it lies in the eastern part of tamil nadu between 10º-11º30' north latitude and between 78º15' 79 º 45' longitudes. the total geographic land area of cauvery delta zone is 14.47 lakh ha, which is equivalent to 11.13 per cent of the tamil nadu geographical area. this area experiences an average annual rainfall (mean) of 1078 mm and most of the rainfall is received during the north east monsoon season. rice is the principal crop being grown here and the next important crops are pulses such as black gram and green gram, being grown as rice fallow crops. vegetables like brinjal, chillies and greens are also being grown in a limited area in the well-drained fertile lands, depending upon the underground water source. in light clay loamy soils under garden land condition crops like groundnut, maize, gingelly and irrigated pulses are grown. banana, sugarcane and ornamentals like jasmine, rose, chrysanthemum, crossandra and nerium are the annuals being grown. coconut gardens, bamboo and wood lots are found scattered in the delta in different densities. mangoes, jackfruits, citrus of various kinds guava, pomegranate and custard apple etc., are also being grown in specific pockets. figure 2 map showing the study areas sampling procedures and sampling size all the five districts of cauvery delta region were selected for the study because all the registered farmers in these districts receive and participate in the mobile based voice messages initiative. the districts are thanjavur, nagapattinam, tiruchirappalli, thiruvarur and cuddalore. this is followed by a convenient sampling of 40 farmers from each of the districts, forming a sample size of two hundred (200) farmers, for the study. data collection and variable measurement the primary data for the study was collected from the farmers through telephonic interview using a well-structured questionnaire, while the secondary data was obtained from journals, conference proceedings, internet etc. the farmers considered were those who had already registered their mobile number at http://www.tnagrisnet.tn.gov.in/website/index.php run by the state department of agriculture, government of tamil nadu. the registered mobile numbers of the farmers were collected from the technology partner (uniphore software systems, chennai). the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents such as gender, age in completed years, education attainment in the form of primary school, middle school, high school, higher secondary school, graduate and post graduate, land holding size classified as marginal farmer (those who have <2.50 acres), small farmer( those who have 2.51 5 acres), medium farmer (those who have 5.01 12.50 acres) and large farmer (those who have 12.51 acres and above) as well as individual farming experience of the respondents were collected. the farmers were requested to inform about current sources from where they get agricultural information. this question was asked to compare the sources of information with the delivery of agricultural information via mobile phone through voice messages. following this, the farmers were asked whether they adopted any of the information that was delivered through mobile voice messages. the farmers' perception of usefulness of voice messages was also captured (all of the messages were useful, most of the messages, few of the messages, and none of the messages were useful). level of satisfaction over mobile based voice messages with regard to audio quality, simplicity of language and content of the voice messages was measured (very satisfied, satisfied and not satisfied) and finally they were asked to answer whether the information that they received through their mobile phone were same or better than that of the current sources of information which they were accessing. data analysis data collected for the study were analyzed with the use of simple descriptive analysis (frequency and percentages) and inferential statistic (chi-square) using spss (statistical package for social sciences). results and discussions socio-economic characteristics of the farmers analysis of the farmers' socio-economic characteristics was carried out and the summary of the result is presented in table 2. majority (91%) of the farmers were male while only few (9%) of the farmers were female. the higher proportion of male farmers could be due to the fact that most male farmers were primarily responsible for doing farming while females were assisting the males in most of the farming activities apart from doing other work such as manual transplanting, weeding and attending to value addition activities for their agricultural commodities. this might be because of the gender division of labour based on their cultural background as well as prevailing norms and values of the people living in the study area. this finding is in agreement with the report of xiaolan and shaheen (2012) who stated that the farming occupation was usually dominated by males though they were assisted by their female counterparts. the data on age of the farmers shows that 44.00 per cent of the farmers were 46 years and above, 37.00 per cent of them fell within the age group of 36 45 years and finally 19.00 per cent of the farmers were below 35 years. this finding implies that most of the respondents were within the active age group of 45 years and below. age factor was found to be significant in agricultural information accessibility and utilization (meera et al. 2004). the analysis of education of the farmers shows that most (43.50%) of the farmers had studied high school and 27.50 per cent of them had gone up to graduation and 13.00 per cent, 9.00 per cent and 5.50 per cent of the farmers had middle school education, higher secondary school education and primary school education, respectively. two of them had studied up to post graduation and one had obtained a doctorate degree. education is one of the important social factors that improve the attitude towards accessing agricultural information and their adaptation. the effect of education on adoption has been argued by several researchers. for instance, in separate studies, it was reported that education of the respondents was found to have significant relationship with their ability and interest to access agricultural information and its adoption (ango et al. 2013; rehman, 2013; ani et al. 2004; okwu and umoru, 2009). the landholding size distribution shows that 62.00 per cent of the farmers belonged to the marginal and small categories while the remaining 38.00 per cent were medium and large farmers. those farmers with land holdings less than five acres constituted the highest proportion of the farmers. this indicated that the farmers in india are generally small and marginal farmers (surabhi and gaurav, 2009; surabhi et al. 2009). the years of individual farming experience show that 54.00 per cent of the farmers had been involving in farming activities for 11 to 30 years, while 27.00 per cent had farm experience of more than 31 years . this clearly suggests that farmers have got enough experience in cultivating and managing their agricultural crops. table 2: distribution of the farmers based on socio-economic characteristics (n=200) sources of agricultural information table 3 has been furnished with data on agricultural information sources used by the farmers and the data reveals that majority (93%) of the farmers relied mostly on agricultural extension officers for obtaining agricultural information followed by television/radio (75.50%), friends & family (68.50%), newspaper/magazine (60%), farm supply vendors (55.50%), local farmer organizations (43.00%) and on their own experience (36%). with respect to getting information from agricultural extension officers, the result of the present study is contradictory to singh et al. (2009) who found that extension officers were not regarded as a major source for getting information frequently. several authors had reported that the most common source of information used by the farmers were progressive farmers followed by input dealers (nitin, 2012; ashutosh et al. 2012; surabhi et al. 2009; glendenning et al. 2010). progressive farmers still act as an important source of information in india. table 3: distribution of farmers according to source of agricultural information (n=200) adoption of agricultural information delivered to farmers' mobile phone the main purpose of delivering information through mobile phone was to make farmers aware of the usefulness of modern crop management practices in enhancing a crop's productivity and subsequently to convince the farmers to adopt the technologies communicated. as indicated in table 4, majority (54.00%) of the farmers did adopt the information disseminated through their mobile phone while 4.00 per cent of the farmers had not yet adopted the information, but they were certainly intending to adopt the information obtained through mobile voice messages in future, once they had sufficient confidence in the messages received. however, 42.00 per cent of the farmers mentioned that they were not interested in using the information in the near future as the information was irrelevant to them. on the other hand, the reasons for successful adoption of the information by some of the farmers might be due to the fact that these farmers got the relevant agricultural information at the right time. getting reliable, relevant information in time was important for farmers for farm decision making as reported by glendenning et al. (2010). table 4: distribution of the farmers according to adoption of agricultural information delivered via mobile phone (n=200) usefulness of mobile voice messages the mobile voice messages delivered to registered farmers contained agricultural information covering different aspects of fertilizer application, pesticide application, pest management, disease management, best agricultural practices, seed varieties, seed treatment, weeding and government schemes. the information was sent on a monthly basis and the message lasted for a maximum period of one minute. the messages had been relayed for about ten months with 10 15 messages being delivered on an average to each farmer. in order to understand the usefulness of voice messages, the farmers were asked how many messages they found useful in their daily farming practices. the findings are given in table 5 and the results showed that 52.00 per cent of the farmers had expressed that either all or most of the agricultural information was useful, while 14.50 per cent of them expressed that information contained in half the number of messages was useful and 18.00 per cent of the farmers said that only few messages were useful. only 15.50 per cent of the farmers indicated that none of the voice messages were useful to them. this might have been due to the information not being relayed to the farmers at the right stage of the crop or the information not being relevant to the crops they were growing. table 5: distribution of the farmers based on perception of usefulness of voice messages (n=200) trustworthiness of mobile voice messages with regard to trustworthiness of the voice messages, the data from table 6 reveals that 92.50 per cent of the farmers felt the information received could be trusted, while only 7.50 per cent of them felt otherwise. patel et al. (2010) who conducted a field study of interactive voice forum among the small farmers in rural india reported that farmers preferred to obtain information from known and trusted experts rather than from other farmers. this confirmed that the information source is certainly important for farmers to take farm decisions. similarly, surabhi and gaurav (2009) stated that although mobile phone can help in disseminating agricultural information to improve the farm productivity and rural incomes, trustworthiness of information is one of the important aspects that need to be considered while delivering to farmers to meet their needs and expectations. table 6 distribution of the farmers based on the trust worthiness of voice messages (n=200) farmers' satisfaction with mobile voice messages with reference to satisfaction level of farmers, the data from table 7 indicated that almost all the farmers (100%) were very satisfied with the audio quality, simplicity of language and content of the voice messages. it implied that the agricultural information that was disseminated through mobile voice messages could be easily comprehended by farmers. agwu et al. (2008) had carried out a study on adoption of improved agricultural technologies disseminated through radio farmer programme in nigeria and stated that the level of satisfaction of individual farmer will largely inhibit their utilization of this source of information. with respect to comparison of mobile voice messages with other sources of information, the data from table 8 indicated that majority (62.50%) of the farmers did express that the mobile voice messages were better as compared to other sources of information that they were accessing. table 7: distribution of the farmers based on the level of satisfaction with mobile based voice messages (n=210) table 8: distribution of the farmers based on the usefulness of voice messages when compared to other sources of agricultural information (n=200) relationship between socio economic characteristic of the farmers and their adoption of agricultural information disseminated through mobile voice messages (table 9) farmer's decision on whether or not to adopt agricultural information relayed to them is an important variable that could determine the usefulness of the mobile voice messages. the socio economic characteristics like gender, age, education, land holding and farming experience may influence this decision either positively or negatively. the farmers were divided into three categories (farmers who have adopted the agricultural information, farmers who have not yet adopted but certainly intend to and farmers who do not intend to) for doing our analysis. the chi square analysis was carried out on this data and the results show that all the socio economic characteristics of the farmers had no significant relationship with the adoption of information. there was no significant relationship between gender of the farmers and adoption of agricultural information disseminated through mobile voice messages. similarly, age of the farmers had a non-significant relationship with adoption of agricultural information. this indicates that irrespective of age group (older or younger) and gender (male or female) farmers accept the agricultural information. also education of the farmers had a non-significant relationship with the adoption of information. this could be, because, all the farmers were educated to some extent. landholding size of the farmers had a non-significant relationship with the adoption of information. this implied that regardless of the land holding size the decision to adopt the agricultural information was uniform. farming experience of the farmers also had a non-significant influence on adoption of the agricultural information. the non-significant relationships in the present study indicated that adoption of agricultural information was unlikely to be influenced by any of the socio economic characteristics of the farmers studied. the findings are in line with ani et al. (2004) who reported that age and farming experience of rural women farmers in nigeria were not found to have any significant relationship with adoption of farm technologies. however, education was found to have significant relationship with adoption of information. mamudu et al. (2012) reported that farm size, age and education of the farmers significantly influenced the adoption of modern agricultural production technologies in ghana. similarly, agwu et al. (2008) indicated that age and farming experience had significant influence on adoption of improved agricultural technologies disseminated through radio in nigeria. table 9: relationship between socio economic characteristics of the farmers and their adoption of agricultural information disseminated through mobile voice messages conclusion and recommendations based on the findings of the study, it could be concluded that mobile voice messages are an effective communication channel for disseminating agricultural production technology information to the farmers. the findings revealed that the majority of the farmers who listened to the agricultural information delivered through mobile voice messages were male and were within the active productive ages of 36 to 45 years. all the farmers were found to have received some form of education. it was also found that the majority of the farmers had adopted agricultural information received through mobile voice messages. it was observed that almost all the farmers were very satisfied with the mobile voice messages as they had effective audio quality and comprehendible content of agricultural information. further, the language used to relay the information in the voice message was very simple and easy to understand by the farmers. majority of the farmers were of the opinion that the agricultural information received on their mobiles was better than other sources of information they were accessing otherwise. based on the chi-square analysis, it was observed that the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers had no significant influence on the adoption of agricultural information disseminated through mobile voice messages. it indicates that irrespective of the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers, they were willing to accept agricultural information disseminated through mobile voice messages. on the basis of the findings in this study, it is recommended that there should be a further research on the impact of mobile based voice messages on agriculture being practiced across the delta region, particularly for small farmers. the information can be collected through focus group discussions and individual interviews with farmers at the village level. the objective of this study should be to seek answers to: are the mobile based voice messages providing a more effective way of fulfilling farmers' information needs for timely, relevant and reliable information? are farmers benefitting from yield improvements as a result of adopting recommended practices such as new varieties, best cultivation practices, pesticide applications, fertilizer applications, etc., received through these mobile voice messages? the answers to these questions will have important implications for the department of agriculture in state and central governments, agricultural information service providers and policy makers. references agwu, a.e., ekwueme, j.n. and anyanwu, a.c. 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(2011). delivery mechanism of agricultural extension services to farmer in india: an overview. indian research journal of extension education, 11 (1). surabhi mittal and gaurav tripathi. (2009). role of mobile phone technology in improving small farm productivity. agricultural economics research review, 22 (conference number), 451-459. surabhi mittal, sanjay gandhi and gaurav tripathi. (2009). impact on small farmers and fishermen through use of mobiles in india. 111 eaae-iaae seminar 'small farms: decline or persistence' university of kent, canterbury, uk, 26th-27th june 2009. surabhi mittal, sanjay gandhi and gaurav tripathi. (2010). socio-economic impact of mobile phones on indian agriculture. working paper no. 246. trai (telecom regulatory authority of india). (2013, march). retrieved june 25, 2013 from http://www.trai.gov.in/ xiaolan fu and shaheen akter. (2012). impact of mobile telephone on the quality and speed of agricultural extension services delivery: evidence from the rural e-services project in india. international association of agricultural economists (iaae) 2012 triennial conference, foz do iguaçu, brazil 1824 august 2012. field note apps for amsterdam tom demeyer waag society, amsterdam tom@waag.org frank kresin waag society, amsterdam frank@waag.org carine van oosteren department for research and statistics of the city of amsterdam c.oosteren@os.amsterdam.nl katalin gallyas dienst economische zaken gallyas@ez.amsterdam.nl abstract access to information is (in)valuable. information, and indeed knowledge, eventually builds on data. local governments generate and own many of the most valuable datasets. now that the internet provides us with the means and the tools, access to public sector information (psi) is increasingly seen to be a valuable stimulator of innovation. to stimulate awareness, encourage development and help the release of open datasets in our locality, we recently organized an app contest, much in the vein of the "apps for democracy" initiative in washington dc, called "apps for amsterdam". it was organized in collaboration between the city of amsterdam, waag society (media lab), and hack de overheid (a coders' open data community initiative). recognizing the potential advantages in terms of transparency, efficiency and innovation, the political environment is often quite supportive of open data initiatives. many issues arise, however, when actually involving local council departments in implementing an open data policy. while some of these questions are practical or technical in nature, others are financial. privacy concerns are important and many issues revolve around the quality of data and accountability of the people responsible for that data. in apps for amsterdam the general approach has been to provide "pilot" datasets -a one-off subset of the actual information available. this is very valuable both for city officials as well as for developers and designers. the question arises how can we move from here towards a sustainable open data practice? we have learned to address some of the issues, but have yet to find answers to many others. in this note, we will discuss our learning, the questions that arose in the process and the effects on transparency, efficiency and innovation. apps for amsterdam from february to may 2011, the city of amsterdam hosted an open data app contest that promoted the wide (re)use of public sector information (psi): apps for amsterdam. apps for amsterdam was modeled after the successful apps for democracy contest that was held in 2008 in washington dc, usa. apps for amsterdam was organized in collaboration with waag society -a media lab, the open data activists "hack de overheid" ("hack the government"), and the department of economic affairs of the city of amsterdam. the department of economic affairs participated in this programme because it was interested to understand the apps market and showcase the economic value of open data. during the three months that the contest ran, many data sources were made available, much publicity was gained and many applications were built. while all participants considered the contest to be a success, they also felt that this was just the first step. this field note explains the rationale of the project, gives an outline of the contest, and its practical implementation in amsterdam. the outcomes and lessons learned follow. we conclude with recommendations for future app contests in europe and beyond. apps for amsterdam was conducted with the support of the eu programme open cities, the national service innovation and ict (sii) programme, the virtual creative collaboration platform (vccp) project, and the eu seventh framework programme (fp7). url: http://appsforamsterdam.nl/ rationale the city of amsterdam recognizes the potential that lies in the (re)use of the data it collects in the course of its operation. however, it comes from a tradition where data is locked in silos and even its own departments have some difficulty in getting access to others" information. mainly, it sees three possible benefits in the use and uptake of open data: (1) enhanced transparency of the local government; (2) new inventions, innovations, services and ensuing businesses; and (3) enhancing the efficiency of the bureaucracy itself. while these benefits sound attractive, until now there has only been anecdotal evidence, and the argument that these will materialize once the proper conditions are in place. to strengthen the case for open data, good practices are required which show and inspire those who can act to make open data a reality: namely politicians, civil servants, citizens and high-tech entrepreneurs. in this setting, hosting an open data competition was an interesting, light-weight way to motivate data owners to share their data, and programmers and entrepreneurs to apply their skills to come up with applications. the competition achieved both. outline apps for amsterdam was modeled after apps for democracy, that according to its website (http://www.appsfordemocracy.org/) yielded 47 web, iphone and facebook apps in just 30 days. the website boasts a $2,300,000 value to the city at a cost of $50,000 probably an unprecedentedly wise capital investment on behalf of the local government. based on this competition, a short but useful guide was produced (http://www.appsfordemocracy.org/guide-to-creating-your-own-apps-for-democracy/) that was drawn upon while outlining apps for amsterdam. apps for amsterdam was divided in three time periods and had three main events: the official kick-off on the 16th of february 2011, a hackathon on the 12th of march, and a prize ceremony on the 25th of may. planning for the first period started in december 2010. it consisted of preparing the collaboration agreement between the partners and the budget, as well as the regulations for the contest, the website, opening preliminary data sources and planning the kick-off event. also, people were asked to take part in the jury. the second phase of this initiative consisted of chasing, unlocking and posting more data, feeding the press and the network, and preparing and hosting the hackathon. during the third phase, after the deadline for the entries was closed, the public were allowed to vote on the applications that had been created. while the jury cast their votes, preparations for the prize ceremony were underway. these preparations included finalizing the programme and inviting the participants and some inspiring speakers. implementation the three project partners waag society, hack de overheid and the city of amsterdam set up the contest, involved their networks, and drafted the rules and regulations. apps for amsterdam had the following rules and regulations: open to any kind of application (web, phone, tablets, social networks etc) applications should use a minimum of one data source from the local government applications should at least be working prototypes participants could submit more than one application participants could be teams or individuals applications should be entered using the apps for amsterdam website applications were judged around the following standards: originality usability level of maturity societal and economical value sustainability after the contest potential use in other cities, regions and countries prizes were awarded using the following scheme: prize number independent company amount gold 2 2.500 2.500 5.000 silver 2 1.000 1.000 2.000 bronze 4 500 500 2.000 honorary mention 10 100 100 1.000 public 2 1.000 1.000 2.000 mobility 2 1.250 1.250 2.500 totals 20 7.125 7.125 14.250 the number of prizes was purposefully high so as to give many people the gratification of success, even if this meant that the majority of prizes were relatively low amounts of money. the prizes were determined on the basis of the suggestions in the guide that was developed from apps for democracy. the jury consisted of knowledgeable representatives of the city administration, agentschap nl, hack de overheid and waag society and a well-known application development expert. it turned out that finding new and relevant data was the hardest part of setting up the contest. it took many days of efforts from all organizing parties to gradually open up more datasets. demands made about the format and quality that data should be provided in were intentionally liberal in order to make it easy for data owners to participate. where "open data" usually requires open standards, full metadata describing the datasets, an email or telephone number for support and questions about the data, were also sought. however, it was decided early in the process, that a very strict adherence to these requirements would make it too hard for many of the participating local government departments to find qualifying datasets. in this respect we decided that "any data" was better than no data at all. the contest itself proved to be the most effective driving force pushing the local government to "unlock" datasets. at the kick-off, there were a modest number of ten datasets. this number increased to twenty-two during the second phase. key to making the data available were officers inside the departments who understood the rationale of open data and were able to identify the right people to address the practical issues regarding actually exporting relevant data from the various systems. these "liaison officers" proved to be an invaluable intermediary between the contest organizers on the one hand, and middle management and systems people in the various departments on the other. some of the more interesting data that became available were incident data from the fire department, soil pollution data, traffic flow data, trash collection schedules, location of public toilets, public art works, and special needs" parking. the hackathon was organized by hack the government and attracted over 100 participants, mainly coders, civil servants and data owners. the line-up of data owners, mainly the above-mentioned "liaison officers", got a huge applause when each one of them presented their datasets. majority of the day was spent in coding. by the end of the day, over a dozen valuable demos and prototypes were presented to an enthusiastic audience. outcomes 48 apps entered the contest, and twenty-one prizes where delivered. the first prizes were won by: an energy label app (http://www.appsforamsterdam.nl/apps/energielabel-app), that allows users to see how energy efficient the buildings in their neighborhood are; the oco school finder (http://www.appsforamsterdam.nl/apps/oco-scholenzoeker), that allows parents to select a school based on a set of criteria, 178x amsterdam (http://www.appsforamsterdam.nl/apps/178-x-amsterdam), a tool for exploring and enjoying all the nationalities of amsterdam. about 150 people attended the kick-off, more than 100 people attended the hackathon, and nearly 200 were at the prize ceremony. the website has been visited more than 150,000 times (february-december 2011), leading to almost 700,000 page-views and over 2.5 million hits. while the contest was running, two parties in the amsterdam city council teamed up to draft an amsterdam open data charter, that was later embraced by the city council and the local government [1]. another outcome is that the economic development board of the city of amsterdam (edba) embraced open data as one of its three "iconic" projects. open data has been identified as an important stimulus for innovation, transparency and efficiency in the ""city of the future"". the programme will officially start from september 2011. the apps for amsterdam contest has provided the civil servants of amsterdam with a clear communications mandate and a status to negotiate the need to release data with the city officials and policy makers, avoiding long-winded top down policy decisions. lastly, based on the perceived success of apps for amsterdam and some of its counterparts in other dutch cities, a national open data contest will be launched in september 2011. lessons learned what was the contribution of apps for amsterdam to its primary goals: more transparency, more efficiency and more innovation? according to the department for research and statistics, the contribution of apps for amsterdam was mainly in the domain of "transparency" rather than efficiency or innovation. the departments involved developed a greater awareness of the extent, the vastness and richness of available data sources. taking advantage of open psi involves a number of steps. the first step is to increase the awareness of this treasure. our contest was based on datasets provided by the city of amsterdam, but the datasets available for the competition were only a fraction of the total available in the city. the second step to make the most of data is to understand in what way it can be used. it is very important to increase this awareness, including increasing local government awareness of what can be done with its existing datasets. the next step is to find out what possibilities datasets have in combination with other datasets. for this step, engagement with users outside the government is of vital importance. developers can (and must!) think of opportunities that civil servants cannot imagine. collaboration between the activists of hack de overheid, media lab waag society and the city of amsterdam was very smooth. with these three partners, a necessary base in society was guaranteed; not quite grassroots, not exactly top-down. as the government does not necessarily have the tools, expertise and network to execute these kinds of projects on its own, this turns out to be a good working model for fertile innovation process. the contest has given the city a better insight in what datasets are the most useful to start prioritizing in order to facilitate open data efforts. one of the interesting aspects of organizing the contest was the "crusade" through the various city departments to try and get data available for the contest. with a very good turnout of city officials during the kick-off, most of the people the organizers had spoken to were already aware of the contest and were almost always very supportive. unfortunately this does not translate into immediate availability of useful datasets. this has a number of reasons that will be outlined here. one thing that is very hard for people to judge is the potential for privacy infractions from sharing datasets as open data. this results in an understandable, but in some cases quite unnecessary reticence. on the other hand, we have acquired access to datasets that made us uncomfortable, being relatively sensitive in terms of privacy, and even to datasets that, through a technical blunder, contained quite serious privacy violation that we had to fix with haste. another issue is that enthusiasm for open data is just not enough. getting the data out of the databases and into a format that is more widely useful is usually not done by the same people as those involved in policy-making. because it is not yet implemented in the everyday working culture or standard practice of people dealing with data, policy and practice have to be invented ad-hoc, even if it is just for a one-off event. this is sometimes too much to ask, and progress stops at some indefinite point where either responsibilities are unclear or urgency is not recognized or technical hurdles prevent it. the quality of the dataset descriptions was variable. some were very complete, came with a fact sheet of dimensions used and the meaning of various codes. others needed weeks of emails to get the necessary information in order for developers to be able to understand the data. in many of these cases, this was the first "experiment" of its kind, and thus a learning experience for all involved. moreover, a single contest does not by itself result in a sustainable open data policy. in terms of local datasets in amsterdam, we have only two new datasets (out of about 20) that are updated regularly and that have an existence after the contest. this is not much, especially since the applications built on the other sets are doomed to fade away as the data gets stale. the issues around privacy, accountability and licensing need legal expertise which, in turn, can enable public administrators to assess the viability of opening data. issues around formats, access and delivery mechanisms need technical expertise to ensure that the resulting files can be reused with ease and confidence by developers. sustainable and affordable implementation needs policy advice to prevent the efforts from stopping later on, and enable entrepreneurs to build lasting services. a case can be made for installing some kind of expert body, associated with and trusted by local government officials and social partners, that would be able to assist in resolving these issues until open data becomes standard practice. recommendations in general, the lack of attention to the phase after the contest could be seen as a missed opportunity. the prize money was not enough, and not intended to cater to the need of taking a prototype and making it sustainable. there may have been private initiatives for further development, but if these did take place, they were not widely shared nor researched. therefore, the follow-up should be made a crucial part of the next contest. this makes the effort more efficient, and will have a positive effect on the sustained availability, and currency of the datasets. also, for the next contest, it would be an improvement if the number of datasets increased substantially. this would make the contest much more attractive and the possibilities for application developers would increase exponentially. another lesson is more specifically one for the department for research and statistics. this department has a lot of datasets but these are most often tables, in excel spreadsheets. these tables are not optimally useful for developers, because of the lack of proper, formal description of the contents and of the aggregation involved. developers would need information on a different, less aggregated level. the department for research and statistics can provide developers with more useful datasets, but there is always the need to be aware of privacy issues where available data becomes so detailed that the information can be singled down to individuals or households. more interaction with developers is necessary to explore the needs and possibilities. the project was predominantly funded by the municipality economic affairs (and eu project open cities -www.opencities.net). we need to explore the more possibilities of sponsorship by public companies. because of the tight budgets, we did not use local media advertising. it may be useful to see how to involve traditional (local) media. in this way, more people can be reached, and thereby demand and (re)use for datasets and applications will grow. conclusion in conclusion, all of the organizing parties, including the local government itself, are very pleased with the results. the contest yielded some new data, a lot of applications, and a lot of attention, including spin-offs in official policy. apps for amsterdam was a start in this direction. it is now followed by a national contest called apps for the netherlands. the contest has proven that even with a few incentives, a great deal of results can be achieved by making psi data more widely available under favorable conditions. the next steps will entail paying more attention to the sustainability of the data sources, and the business potential of the applications built using this data. in terms of the original goals of more transparency, greater (government) efficiency and stimulation of innovation, it is still too early to draw conclusions based on hard facts. but the parties involved feel that, taking into account the lessons learned and recommendations outlined above, these goals are indeed attainable. endnotes [1] see the legislative proposal resulting from this at http://www.bestuur.centrum.amsterdam.nl/bestuursarchief/2010/stadsdeelraad/voorstellen/ravo20100928d66vvd-opendata.pdf (in dutch). the proposal concludes with the following short-term recommendations: 1) to start pilot projects with open data in amsterdam-center. starting with the budget and some datasets that are relatively easy to provide as open data; 2) to cover the expenses of these pilots, find connection with initiatives in the greater amsterdam area, and with the planned investments in modernizing the it infrastructure in amsterdam; 3) where necessary, provide one-off subsidies to developers to make accessible applications based on open data; and 4) evaluate these pilots in the fall of 2011 and, when judged successful, work towards a general policy of 'open by default'. participatory development of ict entrepreneurship in an informal settlement in south africa jacques steyn1, mmamakanye rampa2, mario marais3 head of school: school of information technology, monash university, south africa. e-mail: jacques.steyn@monash.edu senior researcher: csir meraka institute, pretoria, south africa. e-mail: mrampa@csir.co.za principal researcher: csir meraka institute, pretoria, south africa. e-mail: mmarais@csir.co.za 1. introduction the research question addressed in this project was whether it would be possible to equip some individuals in a poor and disadvantaged community with entrepreneurial skills to start information and communication technology (ict) related businesses. in order to avoid the shortcomings of top-down approaches to development projects, a participatory action research methodology was followed. individuals with rudimentary ict knowledge were chosen to participate. the project was implemented in an informal settlement (zandspruit) north-west of johannesburg, south africa and was called participatory entrepreneurship development (ped). the project included a diverse mix of stakeholders: the school of information technology (it) of monash university (south african campus), ungana-afrika (a ngo focusing on using technology to develop under-served communities), the meraka institute of the csir (a technological r&d institute reporting to the south african parliament), medupe (one of zandspruit's community-based organisations, orcbo's), which offers advanced ict training courses combined with business skills training), and zandspruit community members. medupe was the main source of participants that wanted to become local ict entrepreneurs. the selection of tools used within the participatory action research framework was: participatory rural appraisal (pra) (cavestro, 2003), rapid rural appraisal (rra), ideo's human centered design toolkit (ideo, 2008), and ethnographic action research (ear) (tacchi et. al., 2007). based on the assumption that knowledge of how a new business is established and operates is a fundamental requirement, participants received training in basic business concepts. through conversation and brainstorming, participants (as representatives of the zandspruit community) had to identify community needs, and how new businesses could address those needs. it was hoped that with their knowledge of ict, ideas would be generated for the establishment of new businesses (run by local entrepreneurs) that could harness the potential of ict. 2. background entrepreneurship there is no consensus on the meaning of "entrepreneurship" and there is no settled single theory of entrepreneurship (anderson and starnawska, 2008; swedberg 2007). robinson (2002) indicates a range of meanings, from what might be called high-level entrepreneurs to low-level entrepreneurs although he does not use these terms. definitions of high-level entrepreneurs build on joseph schumpeter's framework with "revolutionary innovation" as the fundamental notion. schumpeter assumes productivity and efficiency as the major drivers, characterized by the introduction of innovative products, services, processes, or organizational systems. such entrepreneurs are highly creative individuals, and they typically constitute a minority of a population, while they have a significant impact on large-scale economies, such as national or large geographical regions (the usa, european community, japan, hong kong and taiwan). low-level entrepreneurs are of the kind presented by israel kirzner's "alertness" approach to entrepreneurship (1973), which focuses on imitation. in this class of entrepreneurs it is not the big innovative ideas that are in focus, but low product novelty, and the re-allocation of the factors of production. for kirzner it is not technological innovation which is the crux of entrepreneurship, but about being alert to discover profit-making opportunities, that is, spontaneous discoveries to make money. gunning (2000) offers a useful summary of kirzner's theory of entrepreneurship. kirzner's definition "is commonly adopted by emerging economies in an attempt to catch up to more developed nations" (robinson, 2002:8). low-level entrepreneurs are local and small-scale, and the entrepreneurial activity not characterized so much by innovation as by filling a gap in a local market. this project takes the kirznerian route, and not the high road of schumpeter. our operational definition of entrepreneurship is localized to include anyone starting a new neighborhood business to meet a local need. it is not schumpterian novelty that we are concerned with, but filling a gap by replicating business ideas that have been successfully implemented in other locations. the broad context within which this research was conducted is within the framework of social activism. self-generated economic activities in poorer communities are mostly limited. without getting involved in the critical debate whether ict might contribute to the economic empowerment of such communities, for the purpose of practical implementation, it was assumed that whatever the answer is to this question, it is a worthwhile exercise to expose this community to the possibilities and potential of ict. being researchers as well as social activists, our basic driving value is doing something rather than nothing in order to equip the poor with self-empowering tools. participation in the par approach initiating, deploying and implementing information and communications technology for development (ict4d) projects in developing communities has proven to be very challenging as shown by the large number of unsuccessful projects over the past decade. such failures are often not reported. these projects rely on donor agency funding, and in order to ensure continuous funding, reporting often highlights the positive experiences. in south africa, telecenters in particular have been hugely unsuccessful (snyman and snyman 2003). the situation has not changed over the past decade. these failures have been described by heeks (2008) as suffering from the limitations of what he calls the first phase of ict4d. participants in the field of ict4d have realized this and sustainability has now become an important element in project planning. heeks calls this more recent approach ict4d 2.0, which not only refers to newer technologies (such as social media) but also to different approaches to managing projects and initiatives. participation in itself is not sacrosanct however. the term has been used for a variety of approaches as an easy solution to the criticism of top-down development projects. there are levels of participatory approaches, which vary from "co-option" to "true participation" where local people and development workers operate as equals. sherry arnstein (1969), a social worker, working in the area of citizen participation, proposed a ladder identifying eight levels of participation, which we number for the purpose of easy referencing: manipulation therapy informing consultation placation partnership delegated power citizen control the first two rungs (manipulation and therapy) essentially are non-participatory: they are flawed efforts that substitute for real participation, since in reality they aim to cure or educate the participants or the public to 'realize' that what the power holders propose needs to happen. the next three rungs form important steps towards genuine participation but lack the characteristic of enabling decision-making power by participants. they are described as tokenism. "informing" too often constitutes one-directional communication; no feedback channel being provided. "consultation" provides participants with a platform to express their views, but no guarantee is given that these views will be taken into account in the decision-making process. in "placation" participants will be formally consulted, but decision-making power still exclusively lies with the power holders. rungs six to eight can be interpreted as proper participation or proper citizen power. "partnership" allow participants to truly negotiate with the traditional power holders. decision-making responsibilities are shared. in both "delegated power" and "citizen control" the have-nots hold the largest share of decision-making power. "citizen control" extends this since the participants here also hold full managerial power. bradley and schneider (2004: 9) also describe different levels of participation, depicted in a scale of participatory approaches, from extractive to empowering. rapid expert analysis, questionnaires, and key informants are put in the extractive methods category. under the intersection of extractive and empowering, bradley and schneider write that "opinions are shared, but power is not" and "empowering methods (are) used for extractive purposes". empowering methods are in-depth, joint analysis, learning and actions, as well as visual diagrams and group discussions. expressed informally, par is about "making a difference" not what the implementers think that "making a difference" entails, but informed by the participating community, or more precisely, their representatives. through conversation, mutual understanding and agreement is reached about what the appropriate ict implementation would be. conversation does not mean negotiation. in negotiation, parties compromise based on their potential power, which has the possibility of unequal power relations. conversation is a two-way dialogue, and in the case of par, of ideal equal conversationalists, but driven by the community rather than by the initiators. hence in par the community is the power player, and the implementers are in the service of the community. ideally, but not very realistically since implementers are almost always project funders and initiators, the only power implementers have is technical knowledge of ict systems and of course theories and models of knowledge. such knowledge-power is shared, not for the sake of gaining control, but to serve; to suggest technologies that will enable the participating community to reach whatever goals they might have. the assumption is that icts deployed through a participatory approach will benefit communities by more accurately reflecting the actual needs of community members, rather than the perceived needs of external researchers. par therefore requires a significant degree of collaboration between various internal and external stakeholders: researchers, community representatives, and implementers (which may be a government, a donor agency, or an ngo). all parties should learn from the project. communities will learn new technologies and organizational practices, while researchers will adapt their hypotheses and theories by drawing on techniques such as grounded theory (baskerville and pries-heje 1999; gregory, 2010). interpreters of ict4d projects have identified a number of challenges associated with participatory approaches and reflect similar issues to those identified in the field of development studies. bailur (2007) found that villagers lacked time to participate in a community radio and it project in india where other priorities are more critical to their daily survival. frohlich et al (2009) report on a research project in india that sought to democratize content creation and pursue a user-centered design approach to the creation of digital stories on a camera phone. some stakeholders in the project questioned the quality of content being created by community members and sought to take greater control over the process, whilst the selection of participants became a political issue, pointing to a need for deeper recognition of power distributions in the community. in many cases, participation is used to co-opt community members where external actors (consciously or unconsciously) limit the scope of community responses and actions (bailur, 2007). in reality, participatory projects are typically still initiated by outside actors and therefore take place within the context of a significant power imbalance. prominent ict4d and development scholars such as avgerou (2010) have emphasized the importance of a more politically aware, critical perspective on participation (also see hickey, 2005). the zandspruit community the zandspruit informal settlement located in the north-west of johannesburg (south africa) has an estimated 42,500 inhabitants (maluleke luthuli and associates, 2008) of which 26,250 are in informal households and 16,250 in formal households. the population growth rate of the informal households is estimated at 17% per annum. according to the latest available formal figures (the national census of 2001, as the 2011 census reports had not been released at the time of the research) the area mainly houses men between the ages of 20 and 39, which suggests that the population predominantly consists of migrant laborers. in general the residents' educational levels are low. twelve percent have received no schooling, 27% completed primary school, 50% completed secondary school and 11% obtained some form of higher education (6% a diploma and 5% a degree). zandspruit is a relatively stable community in that three quarters of its population have lived there for five years or more. formal unemployment in the community is high at 28%, but informal trading seems relatively active compared to other known regions, although no formal analysis was done on this. on average, based on the very old 2001 census figures (no recent figures could be found), individual income within the zandspruit region ranged between r1600 (us dollar 190 approx., depending on the exchange rate) and r3200 (usd 380) per month. according to euromonitor international (2012), south african household incomes (on the lower end of the scale) increased by 14.4% on average over the decade period ending 2011. if this is also true of individual income of members of the zandspruit community, income at the time of the research project ranged from r1824 to r3648. euromonitor gives the poorest 10% a household income ofusd427. a large number of households (more than 1000 of the 6537 households recorded in 2001) reported no income (maluleke luthuli and associates, 2008). whatever the exact numbers, income is very low and at subsistence levels. as with many other similar communities in south africa, there is limited access to ict services beyond mobile telephony and a number of smaller (two or three seat) and a larger (eight seat) internet café. there is no community radio station serving the zandspruit community directly. as far as possible, the project looked to leverage existing technologies within the community, including mobile telephones and a digital doorway installed at the emthonjeni community center (digital doorway, no date; stillman et al., 2012). the digital doorway is a robust computer kiosk, based on the hole-in-the-wall concept (mitra 2003), with educational content and applications designed to be very rugged and low-maintenance in order to be deployed for public access (smith, cambridge and gush, 2006). zandspruit's socio-political-techno-economic environment except for one participant, all involved in the project were from the zandspruit community. some of the participants were also involved in the running of the emthonjeni community center where the majority of ped workshops were held. emthonjeni is socially situated between two relatively distinct sections of the community, and funded by religious organizations (predominantly christian churches) and ngos rather than by government or by community members themselves. emthonjeni might be physically "embedded" in the community, but being funded externally, it is not "owned" by the community, and thus to some extent it is politically and socially separate. a significant number of government departments, external ngos and researchers from various universities are active in the community. as a result, there is some degree of fatigue experienced by the community, being over-exposed to all these external players, especially as all this involvement has led to very little socio-economic impact, despite many promises. the zandspruit community has had several civil protests because of poor infrastructural service delivery. the community is dissatisfied with government bodies. one participant noted (reaffirmed by other participants) that conducting research as participants in our project were required to do is a politically sensitive issue and can be dangerous. it was pointed out that interviewing people in the community about possible solutions to local problems might create expectations, and if not realized, might lead to further dissatisfaction. early on in the project this was identified as a risk. through discussions with participants the project was de-politicized, while the research team emphasized the 'neutrality' of the project by making no promises, and by making explicit that what is important for us is to better understand their lives, as well as by inviting community members to attend the "needs analysis" presentations. about fifteen interviewed individuals attended the presentations. finally, whilst there is relatively limited access to icts in the zandspruit community, there are nevertheless a number of existing information and communication technologies and services in use within the community. there is a free service provided by the digital doorway, mobile phone access is available through paid services offered by national mobile operators, and mobile phone devices and sim cards are readily available. yet, there is low local ownership, access to, and understanding of the technical and business aspects underpinning these services. due to the lack of understanding of the full potential of icts and related business opportunities, there was relatively little interest in the creative appropriation of specific technologies or technology features to serve specific community needs. most of the suggested business ideas considered only the very basic and general use of icts. 3. methodology several qualititative methodological tools, such as formal and informal discussions, interviews, brainstorming and group interaction were used. the main methodological paradigm used was participatory action research (par). participatory action research the research team was sensitive to the shortcomings of top-down approaches, and as change agents followed the guidelines of participatory action research (par), operating "from the middle" (stoecker, 2005: 47). however, the research team, with ample experience of working with such communities, was also well aware that communities in developing regions (at the so-called bottom of the pyramid) often do not have the required knowledge or skill sets to act as change agents, and therefore needed to be equipped to participate effectively in the project. such knowledge also includes knowledge about what it means to be active participants. one major drawback of earlier ict4d approaches was that many projects were implemented from the top downwards. donor agencies, governments and others in positions of power decided what communities needed without performing needs analyses or consulting with communities. with the move towards ict4d 2.0, more inclusive methods of project implementation and management such as participatory action research (par) have become significant. action research may be a relatively novel approach amongst ict4d practitioners and researchers, but the method has been in use amongst development scholars, business analysts, and social scientists for more than half a century. there is no single definition of action research, as pointed out by cronholm and goldkuhl (2004), who approach the method from a business perspective. they state that "action researchers are researchers that intervene in a business change process." (2004:47). action research in ict is not limited to business processes, but may be applied to any ict project, or product development, such as community radio and internet cafés, or mobile telephony applications. ict4d is not only interested in business processes, but also in the social domain and knowledge and skills distribution. participatory action research was introduced to counter the difficulties of quantifying human behavior as attempted by scientists within the framework of positivist science. par as applied in this project is a qualitative approach (creswell, 1998; reason and bradbury-huan, 2001; whyte, greenwood and lazes, 1989). one of the major originators of par was the columbian sociologist fals borda (1925 2008) who encouraged the adopting of a perspective on problems from the periphery or bottom-up (borda, 2001). if researchers one-sidedly influenced the kind of ict system deployed or managed, we would be imposing a top-down approach. the "target" audience or community for whom a system is designed or implemented should be actively involved in the technology design and operation. this involvement may be on many different levels, and in any or all of the phases of a project including, ideally, at the project conceptualization phase. mostly due to time and cost constraints, such detailed involvement is not always possible in practice. it should also be obvious that entire communities cannot be involved, but preferably legitimate representatives. in many cases engaging with a community involves "working from the middle" with intermediaries or brokers bridging between researchers and research participants. selecting representatives is a complex process, but it is a necessary approach for community involvement. as long ago as the 1970s manfred max-neef (1982/1992) identified this as a critical issue for development projects. in ict4d the importance of community participation is also touched upon by, among others, bala (2011), who argues that relationships and trust between communities and other role players are essential for success. ramírez (2011) argues that even measuring the success of a project should be participatory. these ideas link up with a more social approach to ict projects (in line with the notion of ict4d 2.0) as opposed to the more classic technologically-deterministic approaches of earlier ict project implementation. more recently the trend has been that researchers are skeptical about the "universal" benefits of icts and seek out the human factors affecting the sustainability and impact of ict4d projects (avgerou, 2010). within the par framework there is a wide range of available applications and tool sets, and as mentioned in the introduction, pra (cavestro, 2003), rra, ideo, ear (tacchi et. al., 2007) toolkits have been used. 4. the ped approach building entrepreneurship through participation the ped project pursued a relatively radical participatory approach to ict services development within a marginalized community. the approach sought to overcome many of the challenges of traditional (and existing) participatory methods to ict project implementation. the ped project aimed to develop ict-based solutions to community problems by stimulating entrepreneurship amongst community members -i.e. to develop awareness of entrepreneurial opportunities, based on needs assessment by a selected group of community members. the project may have been facilitated and initiated by outsiders, but it was completely shaped and implemented by the community. it was designed to facilitate real participation by following empowering methods in order to achieve rungs six, seven, and eight of arnstein's participation ladder (as mentioned previously). possible ict solutions in this context could be completely novel ict applications, or an adaptation or application of existing ones that would benefit under-served communities. first, by adopting and promoting a participatory approach to service development, the action researchers sought to ensure that the services accurately reflected the needs of citizens in the area, and thereby ensure sustainability through ongoing demand. second, by stimulating a strong entrepreneurial, 'business' orientation to service development, the project aimed to incentivize participation (and bottom-up needs identification) by local actors looking for a potential source of income/ employment whilst also ensuring long term financial sustainability of the services developed when initial donor funding is completed. the ped project as mentioned above, a par method was followed. during the lifetime of the project, continuous sensitivity to the bottom-up approach was important to such an extent that the community participants performed the community needs assessment, analyzed the results and were part of a creative participatory idea generation session, as well as further developed and in some cases implemented those business ideas. the project sessions themselves were also conducted according to participatory principles. the community nominated participants who, after receiving some training, created their own list of possible ict services that could be deployed for the benefit of their community. participants were exposed to participatory methods as well as to possible ict solutions as inspiration for innovation, and were guided through a process of business development including needs assessment, business idea generation, business modeling, feasibility analysis, and business plan writing. additionally, participants were supported in establishing their own ict businesses to meet the needs of the local community. this project, designed by ungana-afrika in close consultation with the meraka institute and monash university, used participatory methods to facilitate bottom-up innovation and local ownership. the ped project employed a participatory approach on two levels: the participants used participatory methods to include other community members in their ict needs assessment and ungana-afrika employed participatory methods in working with the participants to collaboratively identify and develop business ideas. this approach resembles (and was to some extent influenced by) the living lab philosophy (følstad 2008). the conceptual process flow followed in this project consisted of two main stages: development of needs-based business ideas (phase 1-3 below) incubation of business ideas (phase 4-7 below) these two stages were further sub-divided by the project team into the following 8 phases: stage phase 1: contextual analysis phase 2: needs assessment phase 3: participatory idea generation stage 2 phase 4: conceptualization and business modeling phase 5: feasibility study & analysis phase 6: business plan development phase 7: start-up & implementation support phase 1: contextual analysis the first phase of the project included site selection (zandspruit was chosen because of the monash university link to this community); gathering of demographic data on the area; identification of other initiatives and organizations operating locally; stakeholder identification; meetings with local stakeholders (monash community liaison and community leaders); the search for potential participants with entrepreneurial potential and ict knowledge (suggestions for several individuals who fitted this description were provided by different community leaders); and ultimately the selection of the participants by medupe. medupe combines an ict training course (based on the international/european computer driving license) with business skills training. a total of sixteen people, with slightly more women than men, had taken these classes. all members of medupe were free to apply to join ped if they wanted to, but were in no way obligated to do so. based on their response to an application form that asked them about their motivation for joining the project they were included as ped participants. in our selection, gender balance was an important criteria for selection. finally a total of nine participants (five women and four men) were identified for the project. phase 2: training for community needs assessment in a workshop ped participants were trained on how to use participatory methods for ict needs assessments. a diverse mix of methods was taught by drawing on the techniques previously mentioned (pra, rra, ideo and ear). these methods were converted into practical guidelines in the form of a hands-on reference manual (van gendt-langeveld and makuru, 2011). the logic behind the choice of this approach was to enable the project to operate on principles of equal footing and collaboration with community members and to ensure that the outcome was not one-sided but rather of mutual benefit. the benefit to the community was envisaged as being socially relevant ict services, as determined by community members, and entrepreneurial opportunities. these members, the participant entrepreneurs, were to identify viable business opportunities within the community, while the role of the external researchers was to facilitate the process of empowerment and knowledge transfer on needs assessment methods (and business development) and eventually develop new models for ict-enabled solutions specifically geared towards the identified opportunities. participatory methods were also used in teaching the methods workshop. for example, a method was used to facilitate "interactive introductions" (undp, 2006), which is an exercise that demonstrates the value of listening. in this workshop the participants also received an inspirational talk on social entrepreneurship; 'the possibility of doing good and living well', and on their power as individuals to achieve. to ensure that participants had sufficient knowledge of socially beneficial ict possibilities, they were sensitized to the broad potential of icts in general; and, because of their local potential, of mobile applications and the digital doorway (dd) option in particular. the intention here was to give the participants a frame of reference in order to stimulate their innovative thinking while performing their community needs assessments. two workshops were held to teach participatory methods for needs assessment. ped's hands-on participatory methods manual (van gendt-langeveld and makuru, 2011) provides details of 43 different methods. it was distributed and the participants practiced a selection of methods. the workshops also covered explaining and practicing the participatory attitude of observing, listening and non-interference, and dealing with gender and as well as with sensitive political contexts. ped's participants decided on their own needs assessment goals and drafted detailed plans on which methods to employ, when and with what means, to reach those goals. one-on-one mentoring sessions supported the participants during the two-month period when they were creating and executing their individual needs assessment plans. the one-on-one mentoring sessions included site visits, and telephone calls initiated through please call me (pcm) messages in order to minimize costs for the participants. phase 3: participatory idea generation in this project the participants were supported in developing entrepreneurial ideas that they could implement in their community. the creative process in which business ideas are crafted from identified needs can be stimulated by non-steering and non-critical means, but encouraging participatory approaches. in ped this was done in phase 3, where the ict needs assessment results from phase 2 formed the input for a participatory business idea generation process involving individual potential entrepreneurs and ungana-afrika staff. during a workshop the participants shared their needs assessment results and partly individually, partly collaboratively, they subsequently generated business ideas. adaptations of the following participatory facilitation methods were used from the ideo toolkit: 'participatory co-design', 'empathic design', 'find themes', 'extract key insights', and 'create opportunity areas' (ideo, 2008). in the empathic design element empathy maps (gray, brown, macanufo, 2010) were used to map out the needs, desires and environment of target customer groups. the goal of this process was to truly understand community members' needs and use this knowledge to envision beneficial products and/or services. phase 4: conceptualization and business modeling once ideas were discussed, a quick screening of the potential for the generated business idea was conducted in the conceptualization and business modeling stage. the techniques and methods used in this phase were explained in a workshop setting, whilst participants were assisted in applying them through one-on-one engagements. one of the main tools employed here was the business model canvas (osterwalder, 2010). this tool, consisting of nine building blocks, involves the mapping out of a first vision of the business model, based on the needs identified in the previous phase. phase 5: feasibility study & analysis participants conducted their own feasibility study and analysis, which consisted of the following components: environmental analysis: external factors impacting on the business model were assessed in order to understand how environmental dynamics could affect the business. these factors include market forces, industry forces, key trends and macro-economic forces. pricing and market determination: the pricing of similar products and services in the market was analyzed, and a target price was determined for their own offering set, based on its differentiation value and the price sensitivity of their own customers. legal and operational structure: the most appropriate legal framework for the enterprise was discussed; whether it was to be operated as a sole proprietor, partnership, or some form of company. the operational structure was also determined, along with key personnel requirements. financial analysis: financial spreadsheets were prepared to evaluate the financial potential of the business. sales projections and cost structures were used to do a break-even analysis and cash flow forecasts, and to determine funding requirements and identify possible funding sources. technical, social, and management feasibility: this was assessed where applicable and included the social and technical context of the future business and potential tensions as well as the background and suitability of the people placed in management positions. swot analysis: a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (swot) analysis was employed to evaluate all aspects of the business idea, identify risks, and draw conclusions in terms of overall feasibility. for each of these components, tools and tips were provided on how to go about generating the information. phase 6: business plan development information generated through phases 1-5 provided all the necessary input for the participants to produce their business plans. in a workshop ungana-afrika demonstrated its business plan template which guided the participants through the business planning process. ungana-afrika's one-on-one mentoring continued in this phase as well. phase 7: start-up & implementation support the participants were, and at the time of writing still are, supported with any difficulty they encounter starting their businesses. 5. findings data was collected through three different questionnaires at different phases of the project. the main purpose of the questionnaires was to monitor and evaluate ped's approach. data was also collected as comments by participants in a feedback workshop, and from personal reflections of ungana-afrika researchers involved in facilitating the ped process. the findings can be presented in three main categories: the relationship between researcher/facilitator and participant/entrepreneur; the relationship between participants/entrepreneurs, researcher/facilitator and the wider environment/potential service users/community; and the main outputs of the process including the evolution of business or service ideas in response to the environment and the ped process. figure 1. key relationships of the ped process: environment and outputs. relationship: researcher/facilitator and participant/entrepreneur through its community engagement initiatives, monash university played a major role in community liaison. at a meeting with zandspruit community leaders, medupe was selected as a good source for participants with sufficient prior ict knowledge. it was assumed that their relatively strong ict interest and level of proficiency (icdl/ecdl) would enable the participants to make suggestions on the type of required ict applications. results of the baseline evaluation showed that the participants rated their own ict knowledge as adequate. on a five point likert scale, six out of nine rated their knowledge as average, one as high, and one as very high, while one did not answer the question. the community regards most of medupe's members as young/future community leaders which provides them with easy access to a broad base of the community and an advantaged position for performing a community needs analysis. as such they formed good 'intermediaries' (see section on participation in ict4d projects). the medupe members were invited to participate in the ped project and twelve applications were received, of which nine joined the project while three applicants were unable to commit the time and effort required. the average age of the participants was 27.5 years. about half of the participants had finished high school (grade 12), the remainder had completed grade 11. only one participant had any entrepreneurial experience. eight of the group participated through all the phases of the project, although some completed only part of their (extensive) business plan. one participated until phase three, but then had to drop out due to other obligations. only one participant was not a zandspruit community member. five of the participants were female, four were male. participants generally spoke setswana amongst themselves, so english was at best a second language. some of the participants were involved with the emthonjeni community center and were involved there in providing various social services to the community. results and responses the goal of the ped project was the development of entrepreneurial capabilities and culture amongst participants, while the primary envisioned output was generating specific business ideas that could be targeted for more detailed elaboration and commercialization. with regard to entrepreneurship, participants acknowledged several benefits. for example: at the beginning most [of us] thought 'i don't want a business', but now [our] attitude is different. now there is light, i might want to start a business another respondent suggested that: we can use what we learned, not only by starting a business ourselves, but also helping others who want to start a business expanding on the entrepreneurial process, a participant found that: i learned from the needs analysis that you have to think of the people you are working with all respondents indicated that the ped process had helped them to come up with their business ideas. the scope of topics of conversation between participants was broad, and covered general business concepts, and as such stimulated ideas beyond icts. in one session, participants discussed types of possible businesses and one respondent noted that: through the needs analysis i realized i did not want to run an internet café even though this self-discovery in a sense defeated the ict-entrepreneurial angle of the project, at least in a more general sense it opened up vistas for participants. some way through the project, one participant felt that not finishing high school severely limited her potential, so she went back to school. despite the participants having had exposure to ict (their icdl/ecdl training using regular desktop computers and via their cellphone), the lack of in-depth understanding of ict was a major limitation on their ability to make suggestions and identify opportunities for new services. the implication of this is that for generating truly innovative ict applications, entrepreneurs require ict knowledge of much more depth and breadth than was possible to convey during the lifespan of this project. during feedback on the ict sensitization workshop one participant suggested that "the information on ict was too complicated". the diversity and complexity of the technologies being used in the community was therefore a challenge for the participant-entrepreneurs. this resulted in a dilemma. if researcher-facilitator input was too intense and involved, the proposed solutions might not have reflected the real needs of the community. a very fine balance is required to lead community participants to useful solutions, but those solutions cannot be created by solely by the researcher-facilitators, otherwise the project would end up following the top-down approach, defeating the purpose of following a participatory approach in the first place. responses to the question "what do you think the digital doorway can do?" were generally positive in the initial phase. here are some examples of suggestions from the participants (copied here without language correction): views on the digital doorway during the initial phase of the project: it can help develop computer skills it can help the other people to develop in terms of ict it can help the community via information of anything they search for it helps when you want to do research or for playing games etc. advertise government bursaries, jobs (info) including the universities and private sector enhance people's knowledge regarding technology. entertainment help educate computer literate people help with communication, research views on the digital doorway during the mid-term evaluation were the following: it can develop people one on one and help them to understand what they are doing and to help the kids with their homework research is the only one to assist us can help the community with information, service provided by government, entertainment can help people to do research about their business or anything that they want to research interestingly, about half the answers relate to developing skills for using ict; which incidentally is one of the primary goals of the digital doorway project. participants viewed the potential use of mobile phones during the initial phase of the ped project as follows: mobile phones can be used for internet transactions networking and communication calling, networking with people and also google information internet & to contact friends, family and a lot more sms info telecommunication, internet, banking sending emails, sms, direct calls email sms, emails views on mobile phones during the mid-term evaluation were the following: communication and knew to send messages to the other and use network communication to communicate interaction e.g. communication, research internet banking, communicating, facebook-ing, mxit-ing, emailing documents generated business ideas participants were required to generate business ideas on three occasions during the lifetime of the project. the first was as part of the baseline questionnaire, taken before the participants had performed their needs analysis. the second was part of the mid-term evaluation which directly followed the needs assessment phase, and the third occurred after the needs analysis and business idea generation workshop. the possible business ideas collected before the needs analysis was done, as well as those reported by the participants right after they had finished performing their needs assessment, revolved around popular and commonly known icts. no novel suggestions were made. the suggestions were on the level of technology propagation (perez 2002) rather than high-level entrepreneurial innovations of the schumpterian kind. suggestions focused on the icts themselves, rather than on possible services that could be rendered by icts. after the business idea generation workshop, which seems to have opened the minds of participants, almost all business ideas now reflected community needs in general. beyond ict-specific businesses only one idea (internet café) was ict specific. the following business ideas were created. the numbers indicate the number of participants suggesting the kind of business. the ict orientation column indicates whether the business would predominantly be an ict business (strong), ict-dependent (medium), or the core business not being ict-related, but supported by ict (weak). initial set of business ideas table 1. initial business ideas the initial set of business ideas had a strong media focus. media is driven by ict, but the core business of media is information rather than ict itself. however, an entrepreneur could make money by creating the necessary ict channels and support. skills development does not necessarily imply ict skills, although ict could be used in the development of the skills. intermediate set of business ideas table 2. intermediate set of business ideas with the exception of ideas relating to a business center and a youth advisory center, halfway through the project the set of ideas were still strongly ict focused, and not yet on the use of ict as support tools. final set of business ideas the final set of business ideas is surprising, and indicates that participating community members do not consider ict as valuable tools to assist in meeting their primary needs. table 3. final set of business ideas apart from the internet café, cinema, skills development center and employment agency, none of the business ideas relate to ict. from an expert ict position, we would have expected many more proposals of how ict could assist even in the proposals for other, non-ict kinds of businesses. for example, surprisingly, no proposals were made along the lines of, say, using ict to show different kinds of exercises in the fitness center or exercise class schedules, or the use of ict design tools for carpentry and even 3-d printing. the exception was for the fitness center business plan for which office it equipment and internet access were budgeted for. there were, however, no explicit references to innovative ways in which ict would be utilized for these businesses. for example, the suggestions for the tourism tour cruise and the garden service did not include any reference to ict, such as web-presence for these businesses, or of ict as management or business support tool. as there are no gardens in zandspruit, such a business would serve communities in other neighbourhoods where there are gardens. the only benefit for the zandspruit community would be income generated elsewhere, while the service itself is of little direct value to the local community. the very limited extent of such suggestions points to a lack of proper understanding of the power of ict and of business processes in general, most likely due to the fact that participants' ict skills and business knowledge are not advanced, and their knowledge restricted to the user level. ped's spreadsheets for financial analysis that were distributed for the purpose of feasibility analysis are now used by one of the start-ups. business ideas eventually implemented an internet café was established, the implementation of the fitness center is in progress, and movies were shown for children at the community center. the other proposed businesses are not ict-related (although by some stretch of imagination, dj-ing might be squeezed into this mold if a computer is used for the playlist). table 4. business ideas eventually implemented additional business ideas implemented after completion of the ped project since the completion of the project the following ideas were generated as business opportunities. the "computer software usage training" idea which was implemented is aimed at skills development. table 5. additional business ideas after completion of the ped project 6. discussion the aim of the ped project was to encourage (and utilize) a relatively strong and radical participatory approach to ict service development. it was important for the project to ensure that the proposed technologies and services met the needs of citizens and could lead to sustainable solutions run by local entrepreneurs. this would be assured by encouraging the community-based exploration of ideas from the bottom-up, and to incentivize participation based on possible economic benefits, whilst ensuring long term financial sustainability when initial donors complete ther funding. unexpected consequences of the project included self-discovery and empowerment (e.g. one participant recognized her short-comings and decided to go back to school), and an increased entrepreneurial drive (by realizing that starting a business does not have to be an obstacle). the expected outcome, that participants would generate novel ideas for implementing ict solutions was not achieved. regarding possible businesses, ict was not regarded by participants as a primary tool that could assist in meeting the needs of the community. generated business ideas focused on other perceived needs relating to health, sport, entertainment, jobs, and basic food supply shops (e.g. butchery, vegetables). perhaps due to a lack of an understanding of ict and of business, there were no suggestions on how ict could serve in a supporting role for these possible businesses. from a technology perspective it was found that participants were unable to effectively identify innovative opportunities related to icts. the expectation that ict solutions would be proposed by participants for the many problems in the community was also not met. they seemed unable to relate the needs and demands of the community to innovative ict solutions. even though this project took the kirzner's low-level definition of entrepreneurship as the point of departure rather than schumpeter's high-level definition, results were nevertheless somewhat disappointing as apart from the internet café no ict-specific opportunities were identified. there seems to be a lack of understanding of and disconnection from the broader ict techno-business ecosystem. in order to bridge this gap, a longer-term exposure to the potentialities of the broader ict and business ecosystem environment is required before appropriate, workable ideas can be generated. however, there were outcomes that indicate individual (rather than social) empowerment, a more needs-based/ service-oriented outlook, and increased business acumen in our participants. after completion of the project, participants continued to use the skills and tools gained through the ped process, often in ways not previously envisioned. examples are: one participant is now pursuing a degree. she has used the community research processes as part of her studies, and found the market research aspects particularly useful. prior to the project, innovative community members at the emthonjeni community center would start projects as they themselves perceived them, but now they request input from the target members. an after school sports project was established based on community needs. acquiring budgeting knowledge was useful as participants realized that short-term, such as month-to-month financial budgeting is not wise, and there was a shift to much longer term planning. one participant indicated that she felt more empowered, and had a stronger sense of self-esteem as a result of implementing the ped processes. when talking to people about her projects, she feels that people think "you know what you are doing!". another participant has started his own business training people to use computer software. he is using ped's financial spreadsheets in his business. from an entrepreneurship and idea generation perspective, it is clear that as participants became more familiar with the ped process and accepted the open nature of the engagement, they were able to explore a more diverse mix of business opportunities. this is a potentially valuable lesson in that it highlights the value of open participation in stimulating true entrepreneurship and identifying a wider mix of ideas than those initially proposed or suggested by the researchers/ facilitators. although many of the ideas had a low ict orientation, the ped process seems to have contributed to the development of an entrepreneurial awareness and capabilities which potentially feed into other existing and future projects, such as the internet café and emthonjeni's activities. nonetheless, this project also highlighted the difficulty in offering apparently strong ict users an opportunity to become ict entrepreneurs. nevertheless, the project opened the minds of participants beyond the specific goals of the project. from a politico-economic perspective, the adoption of an 'entrepreneurship' and strong business orientation tends to assume that the development of services takes place independent of the social and especially, political context. however, as participants observed, researching a new service has political undertones and can be potentially a politically explosive exercise. in many cases, the low income of citizens in marginalized areas (and especially high security costs to safeguard against theft) also means that ict businesses may never be financially sustainable. kuriyan and ray (2008) examine similar contradictions involved in the "profit in the bop" (bottom of the pyramid) approach to icts. from a research funding perspective, the cycle of funding puts constraints on the efficient implementation of possible positive outcomes. in practice funding is typically available for a relatively short period of time, after which funders require feedback reports. this puts pressure on the initiators and reduces the time available to conduct deeper training and exploration of the technology. this in turn may lead to a focus on implementing the project rather than following the substantial body of evidence provided by the community participants that suggests that sustainability is only possible through strong, long-term participation. ped's participants are still supported by ungana-afrika on a support-request basis. although the results were mixed, some of the findings were informative. one important insight is that lack of in-depth knowledge is perhaps the most important inhibiting factor for pro-poor innovation and the establishment of innovative business ideas in disadvantaged communities. complex technologies, such as ict, require an understanding of their entire ecological landscape before innovative solutions could be generated. understanding business in general needs to come first before support systems for those businesses could be understood. perhaps, if the focus of this project had first been on business, as a follow-up, a project more focused on ict results might have been different. yet, having followed a phased approach, we think that we have addressed the priority of understanding business first. although community members know their local circumstances better than any outsider could, they lack the bigger picture as well as a vision of how icts would fit in the local setting. another insight is that communities do not necessarily regard their needs as ict-related, and do not easily discover potentialities of how ict might assist in meeting their needs. these findings have implications for ict4d projects. the successful implementation of ict4d initiatives that might lead to entrepreneurial business requires extensive background knowledge. programs such as ped are one step in the right direction to equip locals with background knowledge, although ict background knowledge was not the focus of the project. 7. conclusion the initial aim for ped (participatory entrepreneurship development) was following a participatory approach, in order to stimulate bottom-up ict innovation and ict entrepreneurship in a disadvantaged community. having completed the project, we have realized that the aim for innovation perhaps was not very realistic. the business ideas generated through the ped initiative certainly do not meet criteria of schumpeterian innovative entrepreneurship nor even the lower level expectation of kirzner's definition of entrepreneurial imitation, at least regarding ict-specific implementation. most suggestions for innovation did not even have an ict component. for community members to participate sensibly in generating ict business ideas, requires and demands levels of knowledge and skills the participants do not seem to have. they need to be business and tech-"savvy" in order to be innovative. the school system in south africa in general does not stimulate such knowledge, while the quality of schools in informal settlement areas is generally worse than in established suburbs. the world economic forum ranked south africa 133 out of 142 countries for quality of the educational system and for quality of math and science education 138th (wef, 2011). being entrepreneurial, in itself, already requires advanced skills that the education system fails to provide (endeavor sa and fnb 2010:7). the deck of cards is stacked against the poor on many different levels. easy solutions, such as ict and specifically mobile technologies heralded especially by mass media to be the universal solution to all the problems of the poor, disregard the complexity of community life, and the vast amount of background knowledge and skills required to sensibly make use of ict. even though results are encouraging from the perspective of entrepreneurship stimulation, empowerment, and sustainability of activities, the problem remains that innovation using ict was not amongst 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(1989). participatory action research and action science compared: a commentary. american behavioral scientist, 32(5) 612-623. design for sustainability: countering the drivers of unsustainability in development projects mario marais and isabel meyer, council for scientific and industrial research, south africa. email: mmarais@csir.co.za introduction the vast majority of development projects, and in particular information and communications technology for development (ict4d) projects, fail to reach their objectives and only a small number of projects effect change that lasts (heeks, 2002;toyama, 2010). the sustainability of a project is an important but ill-defined concept. sustainability has been defined from various perspectives, but many of these definitions remain at the concept level, and are not useful in terms of pointing projects towards sustainability. sustainability is important from a number of different perspectives. firstly, it relates to the usefulness with which funder money is spent. it is a key measure of investment success. projects that fail, or that deliver benefit only for a limited period of time, represent lost investment as well as the opportunity cost associated with investing the money in a project that could have made a difference. aid fatigue is often the outcome (zoomers, 2005). projects that fail to sustain benefits represent interactions with beneficiaries where the hope of change was raised, without delivering on that expectation. a case in point is the history of telecentre failures in india, where enthusiasm was replaced with disappointment (rao, 2008). finally, sustainability and sustained benefit is important in the sense that it creates an environment within which beneficiaries can enable their own growth, given the assurance that the newly realized benefits will remain accessible as catalysts of further change. in this article we focus on developing an understanding of sustainability as a key measure of investment success. we specifically focus on the aspects that drive unsustainability and how to counter them. the intent is to provide practical mechanisms by means of which design for sustained benefit can become one of the key project objectives. these mechanisms could inform structured approaches to development projects, such as the logic framework (w.k. kellogg foundation, 2004). also, they could assist the conceptualisation, design and execution of projects in order to meet the objectives of development organisations, for example the oecd dac criteria for evaluation of development assistance (oecd, n. d.). our approach is to take a systems view on change, and to differentiate between the donor system and the beneficiary system. the beneficiary system comprises the community as well as the system(s) that are delivering services to the community, for example the south african government departments such as the national department and provincial departments of education. the donor system comprises the funding agency as well as the implementing agency. we consider sustained benefit as something that will result when the relationships that support sustained change in the beneficiary system have been enabled to the extent that benefits will continue to be generated. fundamental drivers exist to counter sustainability in the donor system as well as in the beneficiary system. for example, in the authors' experience, funding is typically available over relatively short time scales, leading to project reviews and project termination before sustained benefit could be realised. also, the beneficiary system may not have the inherent capacity to absorb and manage the intervention, which would lead to a natural decay over time of the benefits that were realised. these examples point to fundamental elements that need to be in place in order to ensure sustainability. the drivers of unsustainability need to be understood, and projects need to be designed to include processes, systems and feedback loops that will counter the drivers of unsustainability. the challenge in ict4d initiatives is for the donor system to engage with the beneficiary system in such a way that the benefits demonstrated by the project are adopted and sustained, and that value is delivered while dealing with numerous project-level operational complexities. in practice, this ideal is difficult to achieve. however, in order to work towards sustainability, projects can be designed to probe and understand the beneficiary system and to react appropriately much more so than is typically the case. this article explores the above concepts relative to ict4d implementations. the theoretical departure point of this research is the adoption of a systems approach to understand the drivers of sustainability. this approach enables the authors to address the fundamental fact that a project is a mechanism that could initiate long-term sustained change and sustained benefit within a beneficiary environment. the focus is to inform project design to demonstrate the practical ways in which sustained benefit can be supported. the research approach was to translate existing literature on sustainability concepts into practice, and to demonstrate the use of the concepts through a project-based case study. the learning from the case was developed into a generalised framework. this article firstly explores the practical, project-level meaning of sustainability. possible drivers of unsustainability in ict4d projects are then presented, at systemic as well as at project level. this is followed by an outline of the characteristics and project-level mechanisms that will promote sustainability. the focus is on the design for sustainability, and on project level mechanisms that will facilitate this approach. finally, the concepts are contextualized relative to the ict for rural education development (ict4red) implementation, which entailed the deployment of tablet technology as part of the development of a 21st century teaching and learning environment in all 26 schools of one education circuit in a rural area of the eastern cape province of south africa (ford, botha and herselman, 2014). the practical meaning of sustainability the very first question to consider when talking about sustainability is whether or not it is indeed necessary for a project itself to be sustainable. some projects are merely intended to demonstrate that change in a system is possible, and this needs to be clear to project owners and beneficiaries at the outset of the project. however, if sustainability is indeed to be effected in practice, project owners need to be able to interpret the implications thereof in practical and executable terms. sustainability is often defined at a conceptual level, without consideration of the interaction between the project and the environment. for example, the oecd calls for the following question to be answered when evaluating sustainability: "will the benefits of the project continue after the funding has been withdrawn?" (oecd, n.d.) while this question intuitively sounds applicable and plausible, it does not reflect the need to modify the fundamental relationships within the beneficiary system in order to realise sustained change. it is proposed that the question be rephrased as follows: "have the fundamental characteristics of the system been modified in such a way that the system will continue to sustain the benefit that has been introduced by the intervention?" answering either of these questions requires that a number of specific questions be defined at project level. for ict4d implementations, we could argue that the following questions are relevant for sustainability: is there a real need for the benefits to continue once funding has been withdrawn? is this project intended to be sustainable, or should it merely demonstrate that change is possible? what is the scope and nature of the benefits? do benefits refer to access to the technology that is deployed, or to the benefits that result from access to the technology? for how long after the funding has been withdrawn should the benefits be realised? are the benefits required to last over the short, medium or long-term? are the benefits interim in nature, i.e. are they only required to last long enough in order to catalyse the realisation of other benefits? does an inherent demand for funding exist, that should be sustained by the system? is the intervention inherently financially unsustainable, i.e. does it require continued external funding? do the benefits justify the cost thereof? should the intervention demonstrate how long-term benefit may be realised in the environment, in order to ensure continued support and funding once the initial financial aid has come to an end? these questions highlight the need for clear and careful definitions in order to engage with the concept of sustainability; inherent mechanisms need to be defined and understood at project level and systems level, in order to facilitate the achievement of sustainability. some authors have expanded the definition of sustainability in ict4d projects to include environmental, economic, social and institutional elements (marais, 2014), as well as political and technological dimensions (pade-khene, mallinson, sewry, 2011). this multi-dimensional view emphasises the fact that sustainability cannot be considered as dependent on technology only, but that it needs to be considered in the context of a system of influences. one way of making sustainability useful at a practical level is to connect project elements to the various dimensions of sustainability, as was done by pade-khene (2011). this approach ensures that elements of sustainability are taken into account during design and implementation. for clarity and ease of interpretation, we adopt the concept of sustained benefit rather than sustainability in this article, as used by miller (2004). this approach serves to focus the attention on defining exactly what benefits the project needs to deliver, what should be sustained and by whom. in this work our approach to operationalizing sustainability is to highlight inherent forces that counter sustainability within the donor as well as the beneficiary system, and then to identify project-level components for which mechanisms need to be developed to counter these forces. two lenses were adopted in seeking an understanding of inherent drivers of unsustainability. the first was to map decisions made at the systems level, as well as at the level of the project. the view was adopted that "the value that an organization creates is ultimately no more or no less than the sum of the decisions that it makes and executes" (blenko, 2010). in any ict4d project, a number of decision-makers participate to deliver the project and engage with the beneficiary system (meyer and marais, 2014). this combination of role players is then considered to be the "organization" that is making decisions that can either enable or disable sustainability. a focus on decision-making enables an understanding of the context (beneficiary system) within which the project is rolled out, and inefficiencies and lost opportunities within this context, as well as key decisions that could be used to enable sustainability and/ or unlock value (meyer and marais, 2014). the second lens was based on the experience gained by project teams of an ict implementing agency in the roll-out of ict4d implementations. drivers that counter sustainability for the purpose of identifying drivers that counter sustainability, we differentiate between systemic drivers and project-level drivers. the first refers to the inherent nature of the donor and beneficiary systems, and the characteristics of these systems that will oppose the positive or negative effects of change. the second refers to the characteristics of development projects that complicate the process of delivering sustainable change. in both cases the intervention needs to be cognizant of these drivers, and a solution should be designed that pro-actively aligns with or counters them. this shifts the focus from a donor system that is innovating on behalf of the beneficiary system, to innovation that is driven by the beneficiary system in response to its natural dynamics. this is a first step towards the concept put forward by heeks, that ict4d has been following an evolutionary path from pro-poor to para-poor (with the poor) to per-poor (by the poor) innovation (heeks, 2008). systemic drivers we argue that the inherent nature as well as the maturity or readiness for change of the beneficiary system determines the extent to which an intervention will be adopted, and hence the possible sustainability thereof. the following questions can be considered when thinking about systemic drivers of unsustainability: who defines change? donors and project owners may want to effect change that is not aligned with the objectives of the beneficiary system. in practice, required change and the associated objectives are often defined in response to political or other external pressures, without cognizance of the need for change in the beneficiary system. objectives are sometimes defined unrealistically, and without consideration for the sustainability thereof. an intervention is unlikely to be sustainable if the intent of the funders or implementing agency is not aligned with that of the community and with the current systems that are providing services to the community. what level of change is possible, now and in future? while adoption of an entire solution may be appropriate in the long run, the system may at any specific point in time only be ready for small incremental changes. this highlights the need for the intervention to be aligned with the capacity and readiness of the beneficiary system, and to meet the system at the current point in its development path. it may call for the development of modular interventions, parts of which can be rolled out as and when the system is ready for the adoption thereof. is current change in the beneficiary system understood and utilised? all systems are undergoing change (albeit at a very slow pace) and change agents are at work to effect change, either intentionally or unintentionally. an intervention into the system introduces new change and utilizes new change agents. this could create dynamics that are counter to existing forces in the system. this aspect calls for the alignment of the intervention and its change agents with the natural agents of change in the beneficiary system. is the proposed change aligned with the readiness of the system for change? the extent to which a system is able to respond to an intervention depends on the maturity or readiness thereof to engage with the intervention. for example, the deployment of a sophisticated text-based ict solution will be of no consequence or impact in a community where people are functionally illiterate. furthermore, an intervention that demands a large amount of management capacity from a community organization that is already overloaded is unlikely to receive the required focus and attention. this aspect demands that the readiness of the beneficiary system be understood from multiple perspectives, and that the intervention is aligned with the readiness for adoption by the beneficiary system. these questions are by no means complete, but call for the owners of an intervention to be aware of the problems that are associated with intervening in a complex system, and to include means of mitigating these problems during project planning and implementation. project-level drivers development projects have specific characteristics that cause them to be different from engineering or ict projects. this leads to complexities throughout the project cycle, which affect the ability of the project to deliver sustained benefit. an understanding of these differences and complexities creates the opportunity to design projects that counter these effects proactively, and as such reduces the risk of investing in a project that will not deliver sustained benefit. figure 1 outlines a typical project life cycle, as is applicable to engineering or ict projects. elements that characterize development projects are included as contrast to the typical project life cycle. figure 1. characteristics of development projects in the next section this description of the characteristics of development projects is used to identify and analyse the project-level drivers, using a project as a case study. using the ict4red case study to identify project-level drivers the ict4red project is used as case study in this research. the project was aimed at creating a 21st century teaching and learning environment while at the same time deploying tablet technology (botha and herselman, 2013). ict4red forms part of technology for rural economic development (tech4red), which is a joint initiative between the department of science and technology (dst), the department of basic education (dbe), the department of rural development (drdlr) and the eastern cape department of education (ecdoe). the initiative aims to contribute to the improvement of rural education via technology-led innovation (ford, botha and herselman, 2014). the deployments, which ranged from ict, nutrition, health, water, sanitation and energy, focused on the 26 schools of the nciba circuit of the cofimvaba school district in the rural eastern cape province (ford, botha and herselman, 2014). figure 2. twelve essential components of the ict4red project a design science research approach was used by the project team to develop the conceptual framework out of which these components evolved (ford, botha and herselman, 2014). design science research is aimed at design "to change existing situations into preferred ones" (hevner and chatterjee, 2010). each of these essential components represents a specific focus and was assigned to a champion within the project team to lead. the ict4red project was planned in four phases (ford, botha and herselman, 2014): phase 0 desktop research (2011/2012). phase 1 a test of the project design at one school (2012/2013). phase 2 redesign to implement learning from phase 1 in 11 schools (2013/2014). phase 3 final redesign, implementing learning from phase 2 around process and scaling in 14 schools (april 2014/march 2015). the authors were involved as part of the multi-organisation ict4red project team, in the investigation and development of models aimed at understanding and promoting sustainability. as indicated at the start of this section, some of the elements that differentiate development projects from commercial ict projects are contrasted and discussed below, using the ict4red project as a case study. proposals, budgets and strategic intent the origin of a development project and the resulting source of funding is an important determinant of sustainability. we differentiate between top-down and bottom-up approaches. funding is often made available due to political pressure to solve a specific societal problem. the focus is to solve a very concrete problem within a short period of time, which is not necessarily an unreasonable demand in reaction to a real and pressing problem. however, this "top-down" approach is not taking a holistic, systemic view on the problem and is not designed to bring about sustainable change. furthermore, it leads to funding that has a specific "label" or definition, and that forces projects to reflect a specific intent. implementing agencies may have a more practical and holistic view of what is required by beneficiaries, or may want to further a specific agenda, e.g. a technical agenda. this leads to the definition of projects that have multiple (often conflicting) agendas. for example, in the technology deployment project that is used here as a case study, funding was made available under the banner of technology innovation, with the intent to solve the logistics issues with paper textbook distribution to rural schools by providing access to digital textbooks and tablets. there was also a concomitant drive to demonstrate that digital textbooks could influence educational outcomes. the implementing agency redefined this strategy in order to create a realistic opportunity for achieving positive outcomes in a three year project through the improvement of 21st century skills and the creation of a 21st century teaching and learning environment. teacher professional development, rather than a narrow technology focus, was the main objective. the creation of a teaching and learning environment did lead to engagement with the local and provincial educational system. in this context there were many problems which materially affected the project, such as poor school infrastructure and dysfunctional schools, as well as a skills shortage and unfilled posts at school, circuit and district level. this led to an attempt by the project to compensate for these multiple problem dimensions through the creation of the 12 components shown in figure 2. the implication thereof is that the project complexity increased dramatically. another consequence is that the beneficiary system was engaged from multiple angles. this led to key resources being inundated by project requests, such as school principals and a particular district official (as the local coordinator of the project). the capacity of the beneficiary system was stressed. in the project, dependencies were created between the delivery and repair of infrastructure and the roll out of teacher professional development programmes. furthermore, both technological skills and teaching skills were developed simultaneously, which complicated the capacity to meet people at an appropriate point relative to their development needs. a favourable outcome was the ease with which tablets were adopted, which lowered the barrier to technology skills development. in response to these dynamics, the project defined a modular approach to project roll-out and implementation, which would allow for the definition of more achievable project objectives within a specific implementation environment. in some instances, development projects need to be funded from multiple sources, with potentially conflicting objectives. this dilutes the focus of the project, and complicates delivery thereof. in the case of this project the national government funder is not in the education domain. the direct benefit is delivered to a provincial department of education which had limited opportunity to shape the project. however, this department is ultimately directly responsible for maintaining the various support and education systems. a tenuous and complicated government relationship structure was therefore created, which did not have the focus to provide the necessary support for the translation of project level learning into strategies for creation of a long-term sustaining environment. this dynamic also plays out in "bottom-up" approaches where an implementing agency needs to source funding from multiple sources in order to implement a solution that is considered to be useful to the beneficiary system. in addition to managing conflicting objectives, the project owner often also does not have sufficient influence over the multiple role players that affect project success. there is no joint vision and no coordinated strategic intent, and the project success is at the mercy of a number of uncoordinated and contradicting influences that affect long-term sustainability. the final and important source of unsustainability associated with project funding relates to the time scales over which funding is available, and after which funding priorities are reviewed. many funding cycles are over a three-year period. this places pressure on delivery, and leads to the definition of resource-intensive projects that are rolled out over a compressed period of time. a more appropriate scenario where engagement with the beneficiary system has a longer duration would allow for the deployment of temporary capacity to fulfil the resource requirements of the project, and for the development of capacity and skills in the beneficiary system for transfer of the implementation. design by learning solution design in development projects is complicated by the unfamiliarity of the environment, the large number of unknown factors that influence implementation success and the difference in maturity of the problem environment and the solution environment. furthermore, comprehensive funding is not necessarily available at the outset of the project. the implication of these factors is that solution design should take place incrementally. learning should take place with the beneficiary system, and project planning should be adaptable and flexible enough to allow for an incremental design phase. the concept of bricolage is very relevant. bricolage, as referred to by ciborra (cited in ali and bailur, 2007) is the "... tinkering through the combination of resources at hand. these resources become the tools and they define in situ the heuristic to solve the problem". this approach reflects the use of the limited resources at hand in an incremental fashion in order to reach a solution. in the case of the ict4red project, design by learning was reflected in the evolution of an initial 6-component solution to a 12-component solution (ford et al., 2014), and the introduction and expansion of gamification to engage and motivate teachers, which was highly successful (botha, herselman and ford, 2014). furthermore, design by learning prompted the question of what would be a minimum design that would be sufficient to make the first manageable and sustainable incremental change in the system. it prompted the related question of what modular design should look like for this implementation, and what level of modularity would be appropriate for different levels of maturity of the implementation environment. unfamiliar implementation environments: conceptualization, implementation, training and maintenance a solution is often designed without the benefit of understanding all the practicalities of deploying the solution in a specific environment. in the tablet project under consideration, a number of aspects became known during implementation. as mentioned in the previous section, the project team devised various strategies to reward teachers for their commitment. these included gamification and an earn-as-you-learn model where teachers ultimately became the owners of the tablets. principals were eager to participate in-project, and in general maintained a high level of enthusiasm. however, in one case a principal was overloaded by the project demands and fairly or unfairly blamed the project for demanding too much and defocusing his attention. according to him, this led to the poor performance of the grade 12 class in the second year of his school's participation in the project. this reflects the reality that a project such as this one is only one of the many demands on an educator. it may lead to an increase in an educator's diffusion of focus, which affects the attention that will be provided to the project as well as to other priorities. it affects the ability of the project to deliver sustained benefit, in the short as well as the long term. for example, the remoteness and physical inaccessibility of schools due to poor road infrastructure affected the ability to deliver continued operations support. exposure to computers and ict skills were lower than expected, which affected sustainability by placing a higher than expected demand on developing teacher's technical skills (in using applications such as email and presentation software). this required the introduction of an additional training module to reinforce technical skills, which in turn had budget implications. furthermore, the capacity of teachers were stretched more significantly than what was anticipated. the teaching load was high, and teachers had limited capacity to take on any additional projects. resource rich solutions for resource poor environments development projects work at the interface between resource-rich and resource-poor environments, and this interaction in itself generates complexities that counter sustainability. the design of an intervention from the perspective of a resource-rich environment leads to solutions that demand and assume the availability of resources that are not necessarily available in the resource-poor environment. the unintended consequence thereof is that the intervention demands resources from an already resource-poor environment in order to be sustainable. for example, the lack of infrastructure in rural environments (reliable electricity, physical security) and the limited capacity or availability of principals, teachers and district officials to engage with the intervention affect sustainability. furthermore, the design of the ict4red initiative included a full time project management capacity, which complicates the ability to hand over the initiative. the project must respond to these demands and accept the responsibility to develop capacity or to find strategies to ensure long-term access to such capacity. solutions to this dilemma can be reached within the realm of project design. for example, a resource hungry intervention that is too "rich" for the beneficiary system to maintain and use, could be more sustainable if a modular implementation programme is planned for and followed. such a modular programme would allow better fit between the solution and the context within which it is deployed. furthermore, project design should be cognizant of the disjunction between resource-rich and resource-poor worlds, and should ensure that the capacity is brought in to enable the resource-poor environment to be ready for the resource-rich solution, even if temporarily. this requires an assessment of resources that are available in the beneficiary system, a definition of the interim resources that are required and the design and timeous implementation of a transfer and exit strategy. timeframes for gearing resources from key role players in the environment are typically long, and execution of this plan needs to be initiated at the start of the project. for example, the creation of specific project-related positions, that are to be funded by the department of education or any other government department, is dependent on budget cycles and therefore slow. interventions that promote sustainability our discussion above serves to provide examples of some of the drivers of unsustainability that need to be countered at project level, in order to promote sustainability (see table 1 below). this section now identifies mechanisms aimed at countering drivers of unsustainability. these mechanisms consist of project-level policies, processes, systems and structures that promote sustainability. the premise is that such mechanisms need to create interactions with the environment that will enable and catalyse long-term sustainability. in order to achieve this, project-level requirements need to be identified and the project needs to be designed in such a way that these requirements are met. also, the requirements need to be structured in a way that focuses the attention on the overall goal of sustained benefit, and that deals with the inherent conflict and complexity that is created by different role players. in the ict4red project case study, the sources of unsustainability, the corresponding drivers and the resultant key design requirements were identified, as summarized below (following the line of argument presented above, in section 3.1, when discussing systemic drivers). table 1. drivers of unsustainability and associated project design requirements the above requirements, in response to systemic drivers of unsustainability, need to be captured in project structures, processes and systems that will create a project environment that will interact with the larger environment to foster and catalyse long-term sustainability. when defining the mechanisms to promote sustainability, we take a view of the entire system (i.e. beneficiaries as well as donors), and we consider mechanisms that will foster sustainability from a strategic, tactical and operational perspective. we selected this view because it creates an awareness that the behaviour of the system is the result of decisions and actions that are taken at different levels of organisational function that influence each other. the levels differ in terms of scope, extent and time horizon of planning and of decisions made. this view also serves to illustrate the importance of aligning these various levels with the overall goal of creating sustained benefit. definitions of mechanisms in support of sustainability from each of these perspectives are proposed below. for each of the perspectives, project-level mechanisms are defined. table 2. mechanisms that counter drivers of unsustainability in summary: the above analysis links the drivers of unsustainability to project design requirements that will have impacts on sustainability from strategic, operational and technical perspectives. these requirements are intended to counter systemic drivers of unsustainability. they are defined in the form of project-level policies, structures, processes and systems that collectively create the practical project execution environment that will promote sustainability in the entire system. application we used the ict4red project in section 4 to identify project-level drivers of unsustainability. this analysis is now used to illustrate how an understanding of selected elements of the drivers of unsustainability (as reflected in table 1), as well as of the corresponding project-level mechanisms to counter these drivers (as outlined in table 2) can be used to improve project design. drivers of unsustainability resource-rich solutions for a resource-poor world the requirement that capacity for uptake is enabled in the beneficiary system was addressed by training teachers from phase 2 to be trainers of the phase 3 teachers. this builds training capacity in the circuit and exposes the teachers to the management and operational side of training. future training programmes can now be conducted by these trainers. in phase 2, teachers and district officials were used to administer a badge system of micro-accreditation for skills acquired. this system was designed by the project as a mechanism to recognise and reward the acquisition of skills (botha, herselman and ford, 2014). this system made officials part of, and responsible for, an aspect of project operations. in practice the handover of this well-defined activity did work well. a similar aspect was handover of the project management of the training in phase 3 to the district officials. this is an operational-level handover activity, that was intended to build local capacity. this met with limited success due to a shortage in project management capacity within the department. the requirement that resource constraints are understood and designed for was not met in the project. a total cost of ownership (tco) model was developed during the project, and was used to illustrate two different cost scenarios: one using project resources, and the other using resources from the educational system and contractors. the tco model showed that the affordability of the project resource model was poor due to a large project management component and an expensive ict operations support model. the ecdoe manages the constraints in terms of its project management capacity by outsourcing many projects (ecdoe, 2013). the ict operations support infrastructure of the department is also very thinly spread with one ict support person per district, compared to a project model that requires technical support to be based at the school and the regional level. tco models can be one of the mechanisms put into place to ensure affordability, but should be developed during the conceptualisation stage of a project in order to inform the project design. in this project, phase 0, the desktop study, should have contained resource assessment, which could include tco model development. who defines change? the scope of the project was defined by the agendas of the funding and implementing agencies. a dual focus of development of teaching and learning skills and deployment of technology was followed. in education systems with limited capacity, this could complicate project roll-out (see section 3.1). apart from the above, the requirement for joint vision development and the need to counter uncoordinated decision making was addressed at two levels. at the provincial level an ict steering committee was created that was chaired by the head of the ecdoe in order to coordinate ict interventions in the schools of the province. this committee has defined its brief and, at the time of writing, has just commenced operations. at the school level, each school was asked to develop its own acceptable use policy (aup) as part of the training. this made it clear that the school has the authority to decide what would and would not be allowed in their school. a technical committee was also formed at each school with the principal as a member. the committee fulfils a management, training and coordination role. a prime example of operational decisions being made according to the aup occurred at the phase 1 school, where the committee made the decision to allow grade 12 learners to take their tablets home since they judged the learners to be ready to do so. the technical committees function at varying levels of success in the schools. these committees represent the first phase of the establishment of structures that could define change within the system. in order to represent true sustainable change, these structures should ideally be integrated with current departmental elearning and technical support processes. furthermore, at least some multi-stakeholder structures that participate in defining desired change and creating a joint vision should ideally be engaged from inception of the project. the ict4red project steering committee included representatives from the funder and implementing agent, but not the beneficiaries. it was realised that increased interaction between the various role players was required. this lead to an a change in the project design, with a resultant increase in its focus on community engagement and stakeholder engagement. responsibilities were assigned to specific team members for these roles (ford et al. 2014). what level of change is possible, is the beneficiary system ready and is current change in the system understood? the requirement regarding understanding change readiness and change drivers was found to be very important. engagement with the ecdoe regarding the tco models brought to light the large year-on-year volatility of their funding. this volatility results in year-by-year planning which does not fit well with either the five year planning horizon of the tco model or the three year project planning horizon. practical mechanisms such as bridgingand long-term funding is required (see table 2 tactical perspective). as highlighted in table 2, at a strategic level, mechanisms need to be in place to assess alignment of donor systems (implementing agent) and beneficiary systems. the project combines elearning, mlearning, teacher professional development and content aspects, which are dealt with separately within the department of education. this represents ownership, management and budgetary challenges to the department. this could have been investigated in phase 0, the desktop study, so that the project design aligned as far as possible with the departmental structure. in terms of assuring alignment at a strategic level, the monitoring and evaluation (m&e) component of the project was intended to take an developmental evaluation approach (quinn patton, 2011), which was supposed to produce results in order to inform strategic decision making. however, the major focus of the m&e component was on evaluation of the implementation of the training, and not on evaluation of the intervention as a whole. there was insufficient focus on the mismatches in alignment at a strategic level. evaluation of the stakeholder management element should have received more attention, and the creation of more frequent feedback loops to the stakeholders was required. project-level mechanisms to counter unsustainability in table 3 below, mechanisms that were used in the ict4red project to counter drivers of unsustainability are summarised and critiqued. suggestions are also made on how to improve these mechanisms. table 3. ict4red project based mechanisms that counter drivers of unsustainability it is evident from the above table that, while the ict4red project was implementing many of the required actions and approaches for sustained benefit, there was still significant opportunity for improvement in both planning and execution, especially with respect to early and ongoing strategic engagement with the beneficiary system as a whole. promoting sustained benefit in ict4d projects our premise at the outset of this work was that the failure of the vast majority of ict4d projects to reach their objectives can be addressed by a focus on project design for sustained benefit within the larger system in which the project is done. exploration of the ict4red project from strategic, tactical and operational perspectives revealed project requirements at all these levels. in turn, it was possible to identify practical, project-level mechanisms at all three levels. the mechanisms that were identified were generic, and could be customised and applied in any ict4d project. learning from this project, and from the nature of the derived project-level mechanisms, emphasises the fact that planning for sustained benefit should be done from the outset of the project. early identification of factors that would ensure that uptake by the beneficiary system, such as affordability and capacity requirements, can significantly promote sustained benefit. consultation and joint vision development between donor, implementing agent and beneficiary system would profoundly influence planning and execution to enhance the possibility of influencing fundamental changes in the beneficiary system so that benefit initiated by a project can be sustained. a focus on an end-result of sustained benefit would inform the early development and continuous adaptation of an exit strategy that promote sustained benefit. a focus on sustained benefit would further serve to justify and validate investment in the project, from perspectives that are broader than the often-adopted donor-driven focus on efficiency, economy and effectiveness. conclusion sustainability was considered as a key enabler of investment success in development initiatives. an understanding thereof was elicited (in this particular project) by adopting a systems view on interactions between donor and beneficiary systems. a new definition of the concept of sustained benefit was adopted as being a result of the ability of the beneficiary system to sustain changes that increase the generation of benefits. a project is seen as having an increased probability of success when it has identified and engaged with the possible drivers of unsustainability in the donor and beneficiary system at both systemic and project level. the experience gained by the authors on sustainability modelling of ict4d projects, as well as an analysis of the ict4red project in particular, was used in order to identify the drivers of unsustainability, translate them into project level requirements and use these requirements to define mechanisms that mitigate the drivers of unsustainability. these mechanisms are based on the principles of participatory approaches to defining, introducing and sustaining change. the presence or absence of these or similar mechanisms could serve as an indication of the extent to which the project is designed for sustained benefit. the extent of application of these mechanisms was identified in the context of the ict4red project, and the links to sustainability was demonstrated. by reducing the risk of unsustainability and project failure, the implementation of these mechanisms could enhance investment success. the overall approach to engagement between the donor beneficiary systems can contribute to sustained benefit. acknowledgements the officials of the ecdoe for their enthusiastic participation and the members of the csir ict4red project teams for sharing information. endnotes i an example is the inability of a telecentre to prevent water damage to property, since it did not own the building and could not influence the government-agency owner to fix the problem (attwood and braathen, 2010). references ali, m., bailur, s. (2007). the challenge of sustainability in ict4d is bricolage the answer? proceedings of the 9th international conference on social implications of computers in developing countries, são paulo, brazil, 28-30 may 2007. retrieved may 29, 2015, from http://www.ifipwg94.org.br/fullpapers/r0010-2.pdf. attwood, h., braathen, e. (2010). telecentres and poor communities in south africa: what have we learnt? paper presented at the panel "comparative experiences of chronic poverty and access to information and communication technologies (ict)", the chronic poverty research centre (cprc) conference, "ten years of 'war against poverty'. what we have learned since 2000. what we should do 2010-2020", manchester, uk, september 8-10, 2010. blenko, m.w., mankins, m.c., rogers, p. (2010). the decision-driven organization. harvard business review, 1-9. retrieved may 29, 2015, from http://www.rich-kohler.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/making-better-decisions-blenko.pdf. botha, a., herselman, m. 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(2002). information systems and developing countries: failure, success, and local improvisations. the information society, 18, 101-112. herselman, m., botha, a., ford, m. (2014). building a mlearning research framework through design science research. proceedings of the ist-africa conference, mauritius, may 6-9, 2014. hevner, a., chatterjee, s. (2010). design research in information systems. integrated series in information systems, 22, 9-22. new york: springer. marais, m.a. (2015). ict4d and sustainability in: the international encyclopedia of digital communication and society, (iedcs), mansell, r and hwa ang, p (editors-in-chief). john wiley & sons, inc. (isbn 978-111-829-074-3). available at wiley online library http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/9781118767771. doi: 10.1002/9781118767771 meyer, i.a., marais, m.a. 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(2008). social development in indian rural communities: adoption of telecentres. international journal of information management, 28, 474 482. retrieved may 29, 2015, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2008.01.001. toyama, k. (2010). can technology end poverty? boston review, nov/dec 2010. retrieved may 29, 2015, from http://www.bostonreview.net/forum/can-technology-end-poverty. w.k. kellogg foundation. (2004). logic model development guide: using logic models to bring together planning, evaluation, and action. michigan: w.k. kellogg foundation. zoomers, a. (2005). three decades of rural development projects in asia, latin america, and africa: learning from successes and failures. international development planning review, 27(3), 271-296. ageing, vision impairment and digital inclusion in ireland blaithin anna mary gallagher, emma murphy, antoinette fennell ncbi working for people with sight loss (national council for the blind of ireland) changing demographics means our population is ageing. over the next quarter century, europe is projected to retain its title of the “oldest” region in the world. the population of people aged 60+ is increasing at least twice as fast as the population as a whole with the greatest growth in the oldest old, i.e. those aged 80+ (giannakouris, 2008; un population division, 2007; mcgee, 2005) in the republic of ireland the population is 4.58 million (cso, 2011). fifteen percent of the population are aged over 60 (cso, 2007). ireland’s combined life expectancy at birth was 80 in 2006 with a hale of 70 (who, 2008). those aged over 60 in northern ireland comprise 18.7 % of the population (nisra, 2008). by 2031 this will increase to 28 per cent while in the republic of ireland it will take a further 10 years to reach a similar level. (cardi 2011). there is a significant body of work in the field of ageing research in ireland. notably the first longitudinal irish study on ageing has recently published its initial findings based on the participation of 8,000 irish adults over the age of 50 (tilda, 2011). the technology research for independent living (tril) project is investigating new technologies that may support older people to live independently based on an ethnographic approach to gathering user needs (bailey and sheehan, 2009). there is also ongoing research investigating the potential of embedding sensor systems to the homes of older adults to create “aware” homes that can detect information on a person’s functional, cognitive, and social well being (doyle et al., 2011). as the population ages, sensory and cognitive impairments, and physical disabilities, will become more common and therefore issues of access and inclusion to ict for older adults will become more pressing. the recently launched futurage road map for european ageing research has recommended prioritising ageing research to overcome the digital divide and promote social inclusion (walker et al., 2011). population of people with vision impairment according to who there are 285 million people with vision impairment worldwide, comprising 246 million with low vision and 39 million who are blind. approximately 43% of vision impairment is due to uncorrected refractive error (who, 2011). uncorrected refractive error (ure) has been found to be a leading cause of bilateral vision impairment in a number of studies (weih et al., 2000; evans et al., 2004). vision impairment and vision loss increase dramatically with age. “about 65 % of all people who are visually impaired are aged 50 and older, while this age group comprises about 20 % of the world's population“ (who, 2011). in the sensory domain, many aspects of visual processing change with age: decline in visual acuity, increase in presbyopia (inability to change the eye’s focal length), increased sensitivity to glare, and reduced perception of colour (gallagher, 2008). in addition, diseases and conditions which affect vision such as macular degeneration, glaucoma and cataracts become more common. approximately 80% of all people with severe vision impairments are over the age 65 (tate et al, 2005) with women in this cohort outnumbering men by almost three to one (charles, 2007). a new study (2011) commissioned by ncbi shows that there are 224,000 people living with sight loss in ireland. this includes those with mild and moderate vision impairment, as well as those who are blind. age-related macular degeneration (amd) is the primary cause for 23% of people registered blind in ireland. the population of people with vision loss in ireland is set to rise by 21% over the next 10 years to 271,996 people or 5% of the entire population. (deloitte access economics, 2011) it is estimated that at least 30,000 people have ure in the roi while a corresponding population based figure would estimate the figure in ni to be at least 12,000. (jackson & o'brien et al, 2008) about ncbi working for people with sight loss (national council for the blind of ireland) ncbi is a not for profit voluntary organisation and the primary service provider to people with vision loss in ireland. it is partially funded by the state but also has to generate income via fundraising activities etc. while not an organisation dedicated to ageing issues, the vast majority of service users are aged over 60. ncbi's work includes the provision of and training in aids & appliances, both high & low tech, to maximise the independence of service users. ncbi's technology service provides it equipment as well as assistive technology and offers a regionalised technical support service to people with vision impairment on a national basis. the centre for inclusive technology (cfit) at ncbi works to ensure that ict-based products and services in ireland are designed to be accessible to the widest audience, including older people and people with disabilities. ict, older people, & risk of social exclusion it is important to understand the degree of awareness of it benefits and opportunities among older people and to identify ­their needs in relation to accessing it and achieving computer literacy. government and eu policies on making information technology accessible to older people and people with disabilities has been progressive, incorporating principles of inclusion and mainstreaming. in many cases however, there is still a long way to go before such policies are fully implemented and their aims fully realised. computer literacy is today almost as essential as ordinary literacy and numeracy skills and due to the speed of the advances in ict there is a high risk of older people and people with disabilities being left behind. back in 1999 the possibilities of this exclusion were forewarned in a project report which warned that we must "ensure that the older community is not isolated through the development of the information society" (gilligan et al, 1998; 42). another report in 2000 warned that “without basic accessibility rules there is a danger that the information revolution will result in a new and more disabling barrier to full integration and contribution to society" (european disability forum, 2005). as with many communities of older people, those with vision loss who are ageing, may be reluctant to engage with ict. this is especially the case for those people who have acquired vision loss as a result of ageing and have no knowledge about how assistive technology such as screen readers or magnification software packages may help them. ict may be used to assist people from vulnerable social groups and in marginal social contexts, in particular older people, in order to maintain their active participation in social and working life. social isolation has been shown to affect people with vision loss (sloan et al., 2005; caul, 2003 conrod & overbury, 1998; fletcher et al., 1991), as has loneliness (hinds et al., 2003; smeeth & iliffe, 1998; kassa, 1998). with the current ageing of european society, technological assistance (both specialized assistive technologies and the use of mainstream technologies) will play an important role in maintaining independence and promoting social inclusion. older people have a growing interest in participating actively in work & social life today. to meet this need older people must be encouraged to participate in lifelong learning. ict can be used to help provide this group with pathways to improving their knowledge and competences. participation in online social networks is becoming increasingly common and the inability to participate can lead to social exclusion. the following paper outlines four of the projects that ncbi is involved in related to older adults and digital inclusion. many of the projects ncbi has been involved with over that past decade are concerned with identifying and responding to the needs of older adults. equipping older adults with the tools and skills that they need in order to cope with emerging technologies is essential. often the older population are not well versed in these skills and people with vision impairment are at a greater disadvantage. completed projects eatt equal access to technology training (computer literacy project) the overall aim of the eatt project was to increase computer literacy among older people with vision impairments. many older people with vision impairments are unaware of the benefits and opportunities created by assistive technology. this lack of knowledge effectively prevents them from access to inexpensive and widespread information and communication tools such as e-mail and the internet (eatt project consortium 2003). those people with vision impairments who finished school prior to introduction of it training to the national educational curriculum were, as a result, unable to use a computer. this placed limits on their participation in social, cultural, and economic life. (gallagher et al, 2005). research was undertaken in five countries exploring the needs of older people with vision loss in relation to accessing it and it training. research was also carried out with it training providers both in the specialised and mainstream training environments. on the basis of this research, eatt designed, developed, and delivered a range of accessible products including an innovative introductory it course with the main aim to show participants that they can communicate independently using a pc with assistive software, despite their vision impairment. success, encouragement, and independence were key throughout the delivery of the course. the course was made available in english, french, danish, and italian reflecting the languages of the project partners who included. synscentralen, in the county of aarhus, denmark, siadv in france, i.ri.fo.r. from italy and royal national institute for the blind (rnib), scotland. the ncbi (national council for the blind of ireland) managed the project. other products developed as part of this project included: a good practice guide for it trainers to enable them to facilitate the inclusion of people with vision impairment on their courses; an introduction to technology brochure designed to provide basic information about the various assistive technology available for people with vision impairment, and to explain its function; and a website, where all material was available for free download. this website was decommissioned in 2011. the eatt project was successful in that it advanced our understanding of the use of ict by older people with vision impairment. in the years after the project eu funding phase ended it was further translated into polish and german. the course developed was used by many organisations in europe as an introduction to ict. participants in the project were very positive about their experience. eatt was one of the final 32 projects short-listed from approximately 4000 leonardo da vinci i and ii projects for the 2004 leonardo da vinci award, which highlights best practice and innovation in the area of vocational educational training. evision 55+ this project was developed in light of the ageing population and the corresponding increase in the population of people with acquired vision loss. it skills are essential today for participating in work & social environments as well as being increasingly used to enhance opportunities in communication and access to information. this project aimed to facilitate and encourage participants, people age over 55 with sight loss, to increase their participation in social and life opportunities by developing and providing online learning modules specifically designed to meet the needs of this group. the project wanted to widen participants’ knowledge on age-related eye conditions and to give information about maintaining independence and continuing much-loved activities after sight loss. in order to achieve its core objectives, the project first identified the needs of potential project participants by conducting research in each of the partner countries with the target group. this was necessary to find out how best to equip participants with the knowledge and skills required to access the world of social communication via the use of accessible information technology. an interactive website was especially created for the target group (www.vision55plus.net). this website provides the following modules for participants: information on age related sight loss and compensatory mechanisms; daily living skills; computer skills; and internet skills. all information and modules can be accessed freely via the website. project partners included : berufsförderungswerk halle (bfw halle, germany) as the co-coordinating organisation; institut montéclair (france) ; ncbi working for people with sight loss, ireland ; royal national college for the blind, united kingdom ; and visio, the netherlands. this project ended on december 31, 2009. for more information about this project please see the projects main webpage (www.vision55plus.eu). the project was funded under the european commission's life long learning programme. current projects vicon vicon is an eu funded project investigating the development of virtual testing of consumer products and user interfaces. the needs of people with sensory or dexterity impairments are generally not considered when designing user interfaces (uis) for mainstream consumer products. in addition, existing interfaces and controls rarely fulfil the accessibility requirements of users with vision, hearing, and dexterity impairments. vicon will focus on older users (aged over 65) including those with mild to moderate age-related impairments such as hearing reduction, and macular degeneration. in april and may 2010, an ncbi researcher interviewed 23 dublin-based volunteers ranging from 65 to 91 years of age about their experiences – both positive and negative – of two every-day products: the washing machine and the mobile phone. equivalent research was carried out by project partners in the uk and germany, which generated feedback from approximately 60 people in three different countries. each field trial consisted of a combination of interviewing and observation, using the volunteer’s own products (mobile phone and washing machine) in their home. the field trials identified common difficulties that users faced while interacting with the products relating to physical, sensory, and cognitive impairments (fennell et al., 2011). using the information collected during the field interviews, and in particular focusing on the key issues that people reported with the products, vicon aims to develop a virtual user model: a set of computer-generated characters that simulate humans. the movement and behaviour of these virtual humans can be programmed in such a way to mimic varying levels of impairment in vision, hearing, and manual dexterity. vicon is co-founded by the european commission under the 7th framework programme for rtd. industry and research organisations involved in vicon are: university of bremen, germany; fit, germany; doro, sweden; arcelik, turkey; rnid (royal national institute for the deaf), uk and ncbi, ireland. further information can be found on the project website at: www.vicon-project.eu i2web the interactive and collaborative features that define web 2.0 hold great potential to create inclusive networks and virtual communities for older adults who can be excluded in the real word due physical and social barriers. however older adults are more likely to experience difficulties related to physical, sensory, or cognitive impairments, which can impact their ability to carry out tasks online. while the original world wide web, web 1.0, was largely about people receiving information: reading text, viewing images and watching videos, web 2.0 involves more complex types of user interaction that would previously have been associated with desktop software applications (i2web, 2011). web technologies and standards are evolving quickly to enable such web-based interaction but tools and guidelines to help developers create accessible solutions are much slower to appear (cooper, 2007). ncbi, in collaboration with a consortium of researchers and user organizations from across europe, is investigating the accessibility of web 2.0 applications for disabled and older people as part of the i2web project. following an extensive requirements gathering phase the project aims to create new tools to help developers produce applications that are more accessible to these groups (i2web, 2011). as part of this requirements gathering phase, the project has investigated the ways that disabled and older people currently use web 2.0, through interviews and user evaluations. by identifying the way that older users and users with disabilities approach and react to defining features of web 2.0, these approaches and reactions can be recorded as strategies. these user strategies can be encoded into user models, or form broad user requirements for future internet applications and devices, to inform standards, developers, and designers. this work is allowing the project to develop a new approach to accessibility (i2web, 2011). the traditional approach to accessibility can often involve retro-fitting new solutions to inaccessible technologies. the i2web approach is novel in that it is based on the positive strategies that people use and building applications that adapt to the user rather than the other way around (i2web, 2011). the i2web project is co-financed by the 7th framework programme of the european commission under its ict programme. industry and research organisations involved in i2web are: fit, germany; fast, uk; university of york, uk; public-i, uk; ncbi, ireland; mac, ireland, university of ljubljana, slovenia; hp, italy, polymedia, italy. further information can be found on the project website at: www.i2web.eu conclusion to participate as a full citizen in today's society one must have a degree of computer literacy as well as the ability to access and use the internet. digital competence is influenced by factors such as as age, gender, and socioeconomic status, which can in turn influence income, literacy, and level of educational attainment. however, for older people and people with disabilities it is also influenced by accessibility issues whereby physical and sensory disability is not considered at the design process by the ict industry. it behoves us all to ensure that older people are engaging with ict. projects such as those outlined above are one step in this process. as a caring society we should be striving to ensure that we reduce social exclusion. older people have a vast amount of wisdom and skills to share with those who come behind. by being more inclusive we will maintain and build capacity within society. we will harness experience and expertise, which in the long run will be cost effective as we put that wisdom to work. including older people in online social networks and devising intergenerational projects will also help bridge the generational divide that has widened since ict emerged and permeated society. improving access to ict for older people with vision impairment will enhance their participation in social, cultural and economic life, which will benefit society as a whole. references bailey, c, sheehan, c. 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 who, 2007, healthy life expectancy (hale) at birth (years) retrieved from http://www.who.int/whosis/indicators/2007hale0/en/ may 2008 accessibility challenges experienced by south africa's older mobile phone users judy van biljon1, karen renaud2, tobie van dyk3 professor, school of computing, university of south africa, south africa. e-mail: vbiljja@unisa.ac.za senior lecturer, school of computing science, university of glasgow, glasgow, uk. e-mail:karen.renaud@glasgow.ac.uk senior lecturer, school of computing, university of south africa, south africa. e-mail:vdyktj@unisa.ac.za introduction it would not be unrealistic to claim that we are living through a renaissance resulting from the impact mobile telephony is having throughout the world, both developed and developing. this uptake is particularly noteworthy in africa (botha, batchelor, van der berg, & sedano, 2008; jagun, heeks, & whalley, 2008). kleine and unwin (2009) report that tanzanian students spend five times as much on their mobile connection as they are spending on food. aker and mbiti (2010) provide various examples of the beneficial impact mobile telephony has had on development in africa. in terms of both numbers and reach, mobile telephony is the dominant form of telephony in developing countries (jagun, et al., 2008). the reported impact is clearly profound and life-changing and, as such, constitutes the renaissance we refer to here. this warrants further investigation into mobile telephony as a facilitating technology. the aim is to involve all members of the community, including the elderly, in mutually beneficial interactions. researchers in community informatics study the mobile telephony phenomenon to improve the lot of previously neglected and marginalised communities, such as the elderly (loeb, 2011). although the elderly are likely to possess vast reserves of wisdom, we have not yet found an effective way to tap this resource for the benefit of the whole community. this is especially true in developing countries where many of the elderly are not literate. in bygone eras they would have transferred their wisdom verbally within small family units. as "sages", they were respected and consulted about difficult issues and asked to mediate in intractable situations. this is considered one of the few benefits of aging (minichiello, browne, & kendig, 2000). wolf (1998) refers to this concept as generativity: the old contributing to the lives of the young, enriching both generations in the process. there is evidence that digital inter-generational interactions already occur in community centres in the developing world, and that this interaction delivers a range of benefits to their communities (bailey & ngwenyama, 2010). modern urbanised society has weakened the role of the sage, and the rich resource of wisdom possessed by the elderly is relatively untapped. furthermore, the elderly often feel excluded from society (scharf, phillipson, kingston, & smith, 2001). in developing countries, it may also be the case that the elderly are excluded from the global knowledge society (thinyane, terzoli, & clayton, 2009). it is imperative for us to identify suitable mechanisms for capturing and preserving indigenous and experiential knowledge (lwoga, ngulube, & stilwell, 2010) and for including the elderly in our communities and allowing them to benefit from the global knowledge society as well as themselves contributing. andrews (1999), in arguing for the importance of acknowledging and valuing age, rather than ignoring it, quotes (kohlberg & shulik, 1981:72): "if some aging persons do attain a greater wisdom, then among the most important things a student of aging could do is to clarify and communicate that wisdom to others." in utilising the powerful affordances of mobile telephony, as a bridging and facilitating mechanism, there is one particularly pertinent and tough initial challenge to be confronted. whereas the young are completely comfortable with mobile phones, and indeed consider them an indispensable accessory, the elderly often grapple with physical, cognitive and infrastructural challenges related to mobile phone usage (gelderblom, van dyk, & van biljon, 2010; neves & amaro, 2012). the accessibility and usability challenges of mobile telephony, we will argue here, have the potential to deter the adoption of mobile phones, and thus the potential for knowledge transfer across generations, is curbed. against this background the objective of this paper is to report on an investigation into mobile phone accessibility as pertaining to elderly south africans. applying action research methodology, the data was captured by university students who interviewed a cross-section of older mobile phone users across the breadth of south africa. the rest of the paper is organised as follows. the literature review covers technology usage by the elderly and the pertinent accessibility and usability aspects thereof. this is followed by an explanation of the research design and data capturing. finally, the results are discussed. we then highlight the insights obtained from this study regarding mobile phone accessibility for the elderly and explore the potential for facilitating inter-generational knowledge transfer. related research information systems in developing countries (isdc) research has developed an understanding of information systems innovation phenomena, mainly through its attention to social context and strategic concerns associated with socio-economic development (avgerou, 2008). the impact of ict on the emancipation of individuals and communities and involvement in the knowledge society are still limited, albeit less so with each passing year. there is general agreement that the use of mobile phones can have a positive effect on social connectedness, access to information, and social and civic participation (loeb 2012; neves & amaro 2012). however, the elderly community has age-related impairments that can influence their use of their mobile phones. these can be classified as follows (w3c_b, 2012): vision problems reduced contrast sensitivity, colour perception, and near-focus, making the phone difficult to use. physical weakness reduced dexterity and fine motor control, making it difficult to press small buttons. hearing difficulties difficulty hearing higher pitched sounds and separating sounds, especially when there is background noise. waning cognitive abilities reduced short-term memory, difficulty concentrating including being easily distracted, making it challenging to navigate and complete tasks without making multiple attempts. these issues overlap significantly with the accessibility needs of the disabled (rogers, sharp, & preece, 2012). it is clear that accessibility issues can deter acceptance of a particular technology, no matter how potentially useful it is. technology acceptance and adoption are key concepts in a broad field of research areas, including information systems, pedagogy, psychology and sociology, but each has a slightly different focus. information systems research focuses on the factors that could influence the approval, favourable reception and on-going use of newly introduced devices and systems (arning & ziefle, 2007) and term this technology acceptance. sociological studies take a macro-level approach, contemplating the purchasing decision as part of an adoption process that incorporates the user's acceptance or rejection, as well as their use of, technology (haddon, 2003). for the purpose of this study we are considering the acceptance factors from information systems (is) but incorporating these into the adoption phases as advocated by (renaud & van biljon, 2008). we focus primarily on communities within a developing world context. steinmuller (2001) points out that the strides technology makes are often gigantic. he argues that ict has the potential for allowing the developing world to leapfrog some of the gaps between developing and developed countries to narrow the digital divide. raiti (2007) warns that this leapfrogging process could easily neglect the small steps that are vital in encouraging technology acceptance and adoption. one cannot take lessons learned from developed countries and apply them, as is, to developing countries. hence it is vital that we take the time to consider the acceptance factors, especially for marginalised and easily ignored sectors of the community, such as the elderly in developing countries. traditional technology acceptance models, initially developed in the western world, are based on the idea that users either accept or reject the technology and that such acceptance involves a predictable progression through phases such as appropriation (the process of possession or ownership of the artefact), objectification (the process of determining the roles a product will play), incorporation (the process of interacting with a product) and, finally, conversion (the process of accepting the technology) (rogers 2003). renaud and van biljon (2008) proposed the senior technology adoption model (stam) based on an investigation of older mobile phone users in south africa. drawing on the model of silverstone and haddon (1996), stam presents the adoption process as three-phased: objectification, incorporation and conversion/non-conversion. the stam model is illustrated in figure 1. note that, contrary to other adoption models such as rogers (2003) and silverstone and haddon (1996) there is no appropriation phase during which the person contemplates buying a phone and gathers information about available products. the probable reason is that elderly developing world users we studied typically received their phone as a gift (renaud & van biljon 2008); a tendency confirmed by a subsequent south african study (gelderblom et al., 2010). figure 1: the senior technology acceptance and adoption model (stam) (renaud & van biljon, 2008) furthermore, it is important to note that acceptance is a necessary precursor to adoption but other factors come into play post-acceptance. these are currently not reflected in stam. despite this limitation, stam does provide a framework for considering those factors which can derail attempts to use mobile telephony for inter-generational knowledge transfer. some aspects to note: intention to use is determined by perceived usefulness as well as by social influence (i.e. adult children urging elderly parents to use the phone). family relationship plays a critical role in supporting older adults' psychological well-being, morale, and life satisfaction (chen, wen, & xie, 2012). the model emphasises the role of facilitating conditions (e.g. financial constraints and infrastructure) which can derail acceptance. the importance and impact of this aspect on users is argued for convincingly by pather and usabuwera (2010), which confirms its powerful influence as depicted in this diagram. a poor experimentation and exploration experience may lead to the perception that the technology is difficult to use and this is likely to result in rejection, unless the usefulness and facilitating conditions are powerful enough to discount this poor experience. ease of learning is regarded as a key determinant of actual use that impacts acceptance or rejection. note that rejection can be based on actual use or it can even happen in the ease of learning & use phase (even though this is not explicitly shown on the diagram). a related finding is that although older people continue to use their mobile phones, they sometimes do not whole-heartedly adopt them. this is echoed by conci, pianesi and zancanaro (2009) who found that many older people do not go beyond their initial approach to the mobile phone, even after years of frequent usage. non-adoption is an option often exercised, quite reasonably, by the elderly (linton, 2012). the dependency of actual usage on usefulness was found to be stronger than the dependency of actual usage on ease-of-use (venkatesh & bala, 2008) . this is confirmed by the fact that elderly mobile phone users often continue to use the device for communication purposes despite severe and debilitating accessibility challenges (renaud & van biljon, 2008). in developing world contexts, the mobile phone is often also used for both communication and organisation. the importance of the device for communication is more pronounced in an african context since rural users often have little access to any other means of remote communication (van den berg, botha, krause, tolmay, & van zyl, 2008). this confirms usefulness, but does it necessarily lead to full acceptance and consequent adoption? donner (2010) acknowledges the issue of barriers to universal mobile use in developing countries due to cost constraints, linguistic or skill limitations. he argues that the prolific mobile phone sales, despite these barriers, suggest that the benefits outweigh the costs related to the difficulties. developing world mobile phone users need to move to full acceptance for inter-generational knowledge transfer to flourish. we consider full acceptance to be a function of (i) frequency of use (see table 1), (ii) the number of other features used (such as text messaging or camera), and (iii) the number of usability and accessibility problems reported (see table 2). the latter aspect will impact on the first two, showing that accessibility and usability (as explained below) play a pivotal role: accessibility is defined as the degree to which an interactive product is accessible by as many people as possible and the ability to access the functionality and possible benefit, of some system or entity (rogers, et al., 2012). concerning mobile devices, traxler (2005) describes an accessible device as one that meets the needs of users with specific learning difficulties or disabilities, such as visual, hearing, speech, mobility or manual dexterity impairment. the w3c proposed guidelines for mobile phone accessibility for older people, are designed for the use of the web on mobile phones but also cover general mobile phone accessibility as discussed in the section on research design (w3c-a). usability is the extent to which a product (e.g. device or service) can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use (iso 9241-11, 1998). interaction design has evolved since 1998; the latest version of the international standard for human-centred design uses the term user experience rather than usability (rogers, et al., 2012). the international organisation for standardisation's current iso standards (iso 9241-210, 2010) on human-centred design describes user experience as: "all aspects of the user's experience when interacting with the product, including all aspects of usefulness, credibility, accessibility and desirability of a product from the user's perspective". usability has accessibility as one of its essential components (reece, 2002), and we thus concentrate on accessibility since it is a precursor to use. mobile phone interaction is often designed for the average (and young) literate user, yet people of all ages vary and designs seldom suit or meet the needs of any one individual completely (gill & abascal, 2012). the mobile phone user is expected to adapt to the interaction and those unable to do this may be excluded from using a product or service. however, if mobile phones present insurmountable accessibility barriers it is likely that the user will not even embark on the experimentation and exploration phase and will not be able to experience actual use, determine ease of learning & use, or confirm the usefulness of the device. figure 2 demonstrates the pivotal nature of the experimentation and exploration phase, which, together with ease of learning, provide the gateway to confirmed usefulness, actual use and eventual acceptance. here we focus on accessibility, which could prevent the elderly mobile phone user from even entering the incorporation phase. once the accessibility barriers have been cleared, usability becomes important (reece, 2002). if there are no accessibility barriers, and they do enter the experimentation and exploration phase, usability issues could easily trip them up, and this would affect the decision to accept or reject. therefore accessibility is depicted as the barrier to the incorporation phase and usability as the barrier to the conversion phase. oreglia (2010) studied the lives of six chinese rural-to-urban migrants. she notes that there is a steady progression "from access, to use, to effective use" in terms of technologies. this highlights the importance of accessibility. in terms of accessibility barriers, we need to bear in mind that older people give up more easily than younger when using new technology so any barrier's negative effect is magnified for this group (giuliani, scopelliti, & fornara, 2005). research design our research philosophy is interpretive. based on the mapping between the properties of this study and that of action research, as proposed by oats (2009) and presented in the next paragraph, this study can be classified as action research. action research is characterized by six properties (oats, 2009). the extent to which these properties were applied is now discussed: concentration on practical issues: the accessibility and use of mobile phones is a real world problem for the elderly. emphasis on change: the student researchers explored mobile phone usage, usefulness and ease of use issues and also taught the participant to use a new function on their mobile phone, which allowed them to gauge ease of learning.the intervention, of teaching the participants to use a new function, was geared towards knowledge transfer for change and improvement of the user's situation. collaboration with practitioners: the students collaborated with the elderly who can be seen as the practitioners. the involvement of students as researchers in community informatics is not novel. turpin, phahlamohlaka and marais (2009) argue for introducing students to the multiple perspectives approach (mpa) that covers computer science and information systems aspects and they also applied the mpa towards developing students as future ict4d 2.0 champions. their study also involves students as analysts and cultural interpreters. multiple data generation: the data was captured by computer-literate honours students over a period of two years, each of whom interviewed the older, less computer-literate mobile phone users (people above the age of 65), to explore mobile phone accessibility and knowledge transfer aspects of mobile telephony. the interviews were structured according to a questionnaire that consisted of fixed-response questions, open-ended questions and a teaching and learning activity. action outcomes plus research outcomes: the action outcome was to transfer knowledge and skills on the use of the mobile phone. the research outcome was the insights abstracted from the data on mobile phone accessibility. an iterative cycle of plan-act-reflect: this property did not apply to the research done since there was only one formal cycle but informally the students and their elderly participants could and possibly would engage in further discussions on mobile phone use. the fieldworkers were all enrolled for a human-computer interaction module, specialising in accessibility issues and including a section on challenges faced by the elderly. they carried out the research as one of the two assignments in the module. they could choose any mobile phone owner aged 65 or older who was willing to participate. based on the report most interviewers chose family or friends but this was not a universal tactic. the questionnaire, provided as appendix a, outlines the issues covered and the order of the data capturing. the student researchers submitted reports which reported on responses to the questionnaire. they also provided general observations on mobile phone usage by the elderly and specifically on the teaching intervention. in some cases students provided a detailed account with rich insights and quotes while others simply responded to the questions. the data was extracted from the student reports and collated in electronic format for processing. donner & toyama (2009:5) argue that: "qualitative inquiry is the key to unpacking the complexities of technology use in the rich contexts of the home, the community, the workplace". this, however, does not disaffirm the value of quantitative data and analysis and therefore we captured both quantitative and qualitative data and used the quantitative analysis to inform the qualitative inquiry. the novelty of this study lies in the fact that the needs of the elderly mobile phone user are captured through the lens of a squad of younger "researchers". there are a number of reasons for doing this, which can be summarised as follows by: firstly, in order to conduct valid inter-generational research it is essential to involve participants from different generations and to record their different perspectives so as to be inclusive (donner & toyama, 2009). secondly, as toyama and dias ( 2008) point out, direct interaction with the target community is essential in order to uncover particular issues and challenges. thirdly, unwin (2009) cautions that, in order to understand the economic, social, political and ideological factors influencing ict4d initiatives, it is crucial to speak to a wide variety of potential users before implementing a mobile telephony based ict4d initiative. our researchers were able to question a cross-section of both urban and rural south african elderly, thus satisfying this requirement. finally, krauss and turpin (2010) make a strong case for the role of the cultural interpreter in ict4d research. our student researchers implicitly took this role, interviewing the older person in their own cultural setting, deciphering and interpreting and finally reporting on their findings. results and findings the 137 interviewers captured data from 155 participants over a period of two years. they recorded their findings in report format, which was submitted to the authors to support meta-analysis. accessibility in terms of the digital divide, mobile phone accessibility undeniably impacts knowledge transfer across generations. in order to address the situation, we first needed to understand it. therefore the first objective was to investigate mobile phone accessibility as experienced by the elderly and also to get some idea of their actual usage. table 1 highlights some important facts about the profile of 155 participants. twenty nine percent lived in rural areas or small towns and the rest in cities or large towns. more than 50% received the phone as a gift. this confirms the importance of the social influence. in terms of actual usage, 37% did not use their phones on a daily basis, which seems to indicate that they have not yet integrated it into their daily lives and thus they have not progressed to acceptance as based on daily usage. table 2 shows that when analysing the data according to the w3c main accessibility guidelines categories (namely operable, perceivable, and understandable information and interfaces), it was found that most responses focused on problems with the size (namely the display size, display font size, button size and spacing, and the button font size), the sound (not loud enough) and complexity aspects (too many functions, complicated to use, and poorly designed menu structures). perceivable problems were identified from 44% of the participants, operable problems from 56% of the participants, and understandability problems were identified by 30% of the participants. many, if not most, of these senior citizens have overlapping needs, and the responses reflect this in that many identified both visual (perceivable), operable (dexterity), and understandability (cognitive) problems with their mobile phones. this is confirmed by the total count of 207 identified problems from the 155 participants i.e. about 1.4 problems stated per participant on average. note that this count represents the problems stated during the interview, so there could be more problems that were not verbalised at the time. the logical fit with mobile phone characteristics, as presented in table 2, indicates that although w3c accessibility principles (w3c_a, 2012) were aimed at mobile phone access to web interfaces, they are, with minor tweaks, also applicable to the analysis of accessibility problems of mobile phones. the main insights are therefore that: all users experienced at least one accessibility problem. this is based on their individual responses with an average 1.4 accessibility problems per phone. physical accessibility problems (which are the sum of the operable and perceivable categories in table 2) account for (87+68)/155 i.e. effect, on average, on elderly users. cognitive problems accounted for a minority of the problems identified in table 2. however, their impact and severity cannot be discounted since some participants, due to physical accessibility problems, may have been unable to access functionality on the device at which pointcognitive problems would have become evident. the main limitations of this survey is that the student's relationship to the elderly participant and the participant's involvement in the selection of the phone was not comprehensively captured. the next section discusses the inter-generational knowledge transfer. knowledge transfer besides capturing the data using the questionnaire we also investigated the elderly person's mobile phone usage through the eyes of the younger researcher. this is in line with the action research goal of multiple data generation and was achieved by asking the younger person to report on a training session during which they taught the participant a mobile phone function. the function was selected by the elderly person in consultation with the student. there was no prescribed teaching methodology or reporting format. the students were required to report on the function they taught the older person and to report on their own reflections on the process and outcome. note that our scope is limited to the differences in their expectations of technology usage and we did not undertake any analysis of the mental or pedagogical models involved. the older participants selected a variety of functions, based on their familiarity with their own phone. the five most often selected functions were the sending of text messages (33%), using the phone camera (13%), using the internet and email (10%), sending multimedia messages (7%) and setting alarms and reminders (7%). this indicates that alternative communication functions are popular (the elderly person could choose which function to be taught) as well as functions that may help them to remember to do certain activities. we also used the narrative accounts as reported by the interviewer, which reflects how the younger person viewed the learning experience. we used this to identify similarities and contrasts. interviewers were not instructed to comment specifically on the issue. those who did were clearly sufficiently captivated by their observations and experiences to report them and these reports thus contain valuable insights. insight into skill transfer from young to old a number of recurring issues emerged during the analysis. here they are enumerated and illustrated with a quote or explanation: emotional (reactions based on fear): the first task was to overcome the fear of the subject. the initial reaction was to question why they needed messaging as they could speak with a person if required. this was followed by the fear of breaking the phone. cognitive (reactions based on illiteracy): "mrs *** on the other hand she doesn't know that much about cell phones but she has a natural mind and sharp memory on to how to navigate her cell phone; interesting enough for her, i had to use a stepwise model; like 1 click menu, 2 go to setting and then count 5 times click ok then you are on the bluetooth. even though the menus make no sense to her but the sound and the steps made her get it very quick. i showed her 4 times and she is a master on it." cognitive (based on inadequate mental models or information overload). "it was noted that that subject seemed to learn how to get to the text message composer screen by rote, i.e. "button, down, button, button", instead of reading the menu text and selecting a specific option. this had the disadvantage that if she pressed the wrong button, she would get lost and had to start again." this led to a preoccupation with a sequence of steps rather than comprehension of the entire process. from the students' reflections on their experience of teaching older people to learn a new function on their phone, in light of their own learning experiences, the following differences emerged: reluctance to experiment: the younger generation has more confidence in their ability to use technology and found it remarkable that people actually fear breaking the device. self blame: the younger generation expects more from technology and attributes problems they experience to the physical and cognitive design of the device rather than to themselves. the elderly were more likely to blame themselves when they experienced problems. learning approach: the younger user has a more holistic approach to understanding and using technology and were fascinated by the elderly's inclination to rote learn procedures without understanding the interface or gaining an overview before focusing on minutiae. mental models: the technology and metaphors that the students used to explain the task was foreign to the older generations, i.e. they did not have the same mental models. interviewers found themselves having to moderate their use of terminology which they would have used unthinkingly with their contemporaries. discussion the findings demonstrate sustained use of mobile phones despite significant and disabling accessibility and usability problems. this confirms the findings of gelderblom et al. (2010), who noted increased frequency, depth and breadth of use. this can only be explained by considering the prominence of the mobile phone, as an essential communication tool, in developing countries. this means that utility and usefulness trumps accessibility issues and usage difficulties. many people (37%) do not use their mobile phones on a daily basis. they do not appear to have whole-heartedly accepted their phones or integrated them into their daily lives. this warrants further consideration of the accessibility and usability barriers. the goal of accessibility has been addressed by standardisation organisations who define accessibility guidelines. while providing useful criteria, these cannot be used in their original format for our purposes since the elderly users mostly do not have the differentiated knowledge or vocabulary to articulate their requirements, limitations and expectations at the necessary level of detail. therefore the data was extracted from the participants' reported accessibility problems noted in response to question 8 in the questionnaire (see appendix a) and then categorised according to the w3c criteria. based on these findings, the results were summarised in terms of three insights regarding mobile phone accessibility in developing countries, namely: all participants experienced accessibility problems. (all reported at least one classic accessibility problem)2. all were affected by physical accessibility problems (the sum of operable and perceivable categories).3. cognitive problems accounted for the minority of the identified problems but that may be a consequence of physical accessibility problems which bar the elderly from using more than the basic functionality. in this case cognitive problems are not experienced simply because of limited use. note that our findings confirm the w3c guidelines for mobile interaction (w3c_a, 2012). as explained, our data was derived from participants' qualitative responses and then categorised to be comparable to the w3c criteria. therefore we present these as insights rather than guidelines. due to the cost of speciality phones and the practice of handing down phones to relatives when the contract expires, the marketing of specifically-designed phones may not constitute a solution in developing countries. therefore the drive towards universal usability initiated by schneiderman (2001) where devices are designed to be accessible to everyone, instead of a specific group, remains a useful initiative. studies in community informatics have provided guidance on appropriate methods of ict instruction for older persons (loeb, 2011). traxler (2007) warns that attempts to develop the conceptualisations and evaluation of mobile learning have to recognise that mobile learning is personal, contextual, and situated. although this intervention may be at the bottom end of the scale of what is understood as mobile learning, it carries the same complexities. therefore it is problematic to generalise but the findings do provide insights into the differences between the expectations for knowledge transfer and are thus presented as insights for those interacting with the learning elderly user. based on our analysis, which was augmented by the reported research of saunders (2004), prensky (2001) and hawthorn (2000), we contend that the training should: be patient and reassuring overcome fear of breaking the device. do not rush the participant and answer all questions. allow participants to learn at their own pace. provide stepwise instruction: provide only one way to achieve a task: no multiple paths and no complicated menu structures. provide need-to-know information only anything extra will distract. figure 3: inter-generational knowledge transfer mediated by mobile telephony (icons from called www.iconarchive.com) knowledge transfer based on a study of information and communication technology projects in india, walsham (2010) concludes that icts are potentially important contributors towards development for developing communities but only through their integration in wider sociotechnical interventions. gomez and pather (2012) proclaim the importance of the intangible benefits of icts in development, including empowerment, self-esteem and social cohesion. leikas, saariluoma, rousi, kuisma, vilpponen (2012) argue that technology for older adults should support their strengths and enable their full participation in society. they also refer to the know-how the aged possess (what we call "wisdom") and urge that this should be utilised by society as a whole. there is reason to believe that the mobile phone is particularly suited to knowledge transfer between generations, certainly in familial relationships. fildes (2010) reports on how sugata mitra has established a "granny cloud" to achieve this kind of knowledge transfer in the uk and italy. we argue that this may work equally well in developing countries. neves and amaro (2012) studied the use of icts by the elderly in lisbon. one of their participants specifically referred to the phone's ability to support inter-generational communication. would the elderly want to share their wisdom and participate in such a community? related research into online communities, and the social values the elderly attach to them, include the importance of "a community that shares information" (burmeister, 2012). this raises the question of giving advice to people outside their family. mclure and faraj (2012) studied why people help those they do not know. they found that people participated out of community interest, in expectation of reciprocity and because they consider it pro-social behaviour. mitra and arora (2010) argue that this kind of inter-generational learning environment cannot flourish without appropriate care being taken in setting it up, and in enforcing particular constraints. thus technology, while having the potential for being a great facilitator and emancipator, can also act as a brake, or deterrent, if not designed with accessibility in mind. conclusion the main objective of this study was to investigate mobile phone acceptance by the elderly in south africa, as impacted by mobile phone accessibility barriers. to this end we firstly investigated accessibility from the perspective of the older mobile phone user. secondly, we reported on the usage of the phone, and observations made by interviewers while training the older adult to do a new task on their phone. in conceptual terms, our study confirmed the need to understand mobile technology from the perspective of the user and the wider community. that may seem a naïve statement of the obvious, but the implications for developing communities are not always acknowledged. the accessibility movement's focus has been continuously to enhance and extend the capabilities of the individual. ict can also play to the strengths of the community and support community building endeavours. for example, the young can train the older members of the community to use mobile phones. if done appropriately, it may also pave the way for knowledge transfer from the older community members to the younger. this can only be achieved once accessibility problems have been resolved. the contribution of this paper is the exposition of insights on mobile phone accessibility for the community of elderly mobile phone users in developing countries. the findings provide new insights into the differences between the generations in terms of challenges for knowledge transfer. based on the lessons learnt from a successful ict4d project (romijn, 2008), we know that the solutions have to emerge from the community, rooted in the social and cultural context of use. therefore future research will take these insights into account when creating the next step of the project where a procedure for incentivising knowledge and wisdom transfer between older and younger members of the community will be devised. the ultimate goal is to break down existing barriers to support and encourage mutually beneficial inter-generational knowledge transfer. references aker, j. c., & mbiti, i. m. 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(1998). new approaches to the education of older adults. new directions for adult & continuing education, 77. retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ace.7702/abstract on 25 april 2013. appendix a interview procedure: identify at least one research subject who is over 65 years of age and owns a cellular phone. you should preferably include three subjects in your study, but we will accept it if you use only one. use the questionnaire given below as starting point to conduct a limited study on the subjects' interaction with their cellular phones. you have to include all the questions in the given questionnaire, but you may add any questions that you think may contribute to the study. identify a function on the cell phone that the subject has never used (if you use more than one subject you should preferably teach them the same or a similar function). teach them to use the function and gather information to answer the following questions (or any other questions that you want to add): were you successful in teaching them to use this function? if yes, how long did it take before they could use it? how many times did you have to demonstrate or explain the function before they were successful or gave up? with which specific aspects of the function did they have problems, if any? will they use the function in future? if not, let them explain why not. participant questionnaire (please tick or provide the appropriate answer) demographic information w(h)ither community ian pringle around the world, community-based approaches to promote better health and development using information and communication technologies, particularly those concerned with facilitating health and development literacy and social and behaviour change, face significant challenges. access to resources, e.g. skills and funds, is but one of those obstacles; deeper, more fundamental challenges also persist. a good example of an ict-enabled health programme resulting from a community-based approach is phukusi la moyo (bag of life). it centres on a 30-minute weekly radio show, which is heard and discussed by more than 3,000 women in some 250 village-level health groups in mchinji district of malawi. the focus is on safe motherhood. the most interesting thing about phukusi la moyo is how it was conceived and designed and how it continues to be managed. the idea for a mass communication programme emerged from an action-reflection process driven by the groups themselves. representatives of the women's groups worked on equal terms with health experts to develop the programme's key messages and outcome objectives. these in turn were illustrated through actual life experiences, and are actively updated through on-going month-to-month oversight and coordination. community-based approaches, such as the one underlying phukusi la moyo, work from the inside out. they are firmly embedded in the communities they aim to serve. the community is simultaneously the focus of change and a primary actor in identifying issues and strategies to address it. the equitable participation of local citizens and groups aims to make development efforts more relevant and effective by ensuring that the people most concerned are in dialogue with the ones facilitating those efforts and in many cases, providing outside expertise and support. community-based approaches that enable active participation are especially important when the issues and problems at hand are contextually and socially determined and when the solutions have less to do with predetermined right solutions and information and more to do with answers that draw on local knowledge and culture, that is, those that emerge from dialogical processes between and among different stakeholders. as a case in point, the safe motherhood solutions featured in phukusi la moyo are simple and limited in number. in this instance, not just the message information is important but also the way decisions are made about those messages and how they are presented and understood. a community-based approach is not the same as extending services to a local level (though clearly local access to services is important). nor is it to say that community-based approaches should be isolated or divorced from national policies and programmes; quite the opposite. if we are to avoid the risk that a community approach becomes a way for state authorities to offload public responsibilities, it is essential that community efforts function within a larger environment that both enables and values these unique characteristics and contributions. although recognition of the importance of community as an element of development initiatives may have increased recently in some circles, e.g. academia, the opportunities to put community-based approaches into action, individually or at scale, are still scarce and at times it feels as though we are going in the wrong direction. why? the first mile is still the last mile focusing sustained attention on community-based ict efforts is a long-standing problem in the intersecting worlds of national and international development wherein decisions are centralized in capital cities. the paradigm shift proposed in the late 1990s by moetsabi, paisley and richardson with respect to connectivity essentially a call to reconceptualise and reprioritise the last mile as the first is widely relevant and as important in the context of educational and developmental programmes, e.g. concerning health and livelihoods promotion, as it is in relation to connectivity. although such a shift may (or may not) be taking root in some sectors and regions, it has yet to bear fruit on a large scale. what makes a community approach work so well at the local level is also what works against it at national and international levels. just as national development initiatives are by nature external to local jurisdictions, community-based efforts and organisations that manage these generally fly below the national and international radar; as such they often fail to register on the screens of central policymakers and planners. few sites fly more below the radar than the eight village-ict centres of the solomon islands' isabel province. santa isabel is an island with a population of some 30,000 people and as many as eight distinct languages, not including english and solomon pijin. the centres feature two-way radios, email facilities and low-watt fm transmitters. when they are functioning. the centres create content and facilitate information and communication exchanges in local languages in ways that make sense to local people. the network is, in many respects, a model for participatory communication about health and development in a region of unique linguistic diversity and a myriad of social challenges. in 2009, based on a four-day programme development workshop, local health workers paired up with village media operators to design a 13-week radio series about diabetes, youth reproductive health, waste management and sanitation, which was then produced and broadcast, drawing in local theatre groups and folk musicians in the process. regrettably the ict centres are also an unfortunate showcase of the sort of dysfunctionality that results from unsolved tensions between local community and state ownership. when they are not functioning which sadly is a lot of time it is generally a result of equipment breakdowns and a dearth of local capacity and resources. few examples provide a better contrast between first and last mile perspectives. viewed as last mile outposts, the centres suffer from out-of-sight, out-of-mind neglect and are, at least in the minds of disconnected policymakers, perpetually in need of repair, difficult to manage and obviously unsustainable. on the other hand, seen from a first mile vantage point, the centres offer unique opportunities to do just about anything from singing songs and telling jokes to raising awareness of provincial development projects and promoting positive parenting. as the isabel example illustrates, community efforts are localised and therefore offer limited opportunities for the type of large-scale, big-numbers approaches that drive today's development planning. community-based information and communication technologies and media tend to prioritise the use of local languages and dialects, which are often not widely spoken (or valued) and certainly not in the corridors of power in capital cities. likewise, they focus on local contexts and draw on local experts and actors that generally do not resonate beyond their own borders. the result is that community-based approaches are, as yet, not fully integrated into the mainstream of health, development and education planning. they may be seen as desirable as they are in isabel which is itself a significant step forward; however, we have further to go in changing mindsets regarding which mile comes first. one practical solution in this regard has been the promotion of networks and networking among community-based groups allowing them to function at different levels, e.g. with a national presence, and also to build capacity as a sector. the vision of these networks could be described as a community of communities, a national complex of local, participatory organisations and or programmes. community participation is difficult, expensive and troublesome shut up and listen! is the title of an insightful ted talk by ernesto sirolli in which he suggests that "what you do [to provide better aid] is you shut up. you never arrive in a community with any ideas." it is a provocative way of sharing an important principle, essentially that we must grow development solutions from scratch; that prescriptive and predetermined efforts, no matter how well-intentioned, will not succeed because they will be neither relevant to nor sustained by the people that matter. sirolli's is a proposition that clearly echoes freirian principles of adult education and participatory development and communication, penetrating to the heart of the participatory approach. change emerges from a conversation between different stakeholders; however it is a dialogue that must start with decision-making by the people most concerned with what the conversation is about and one that will allow its resolution to emerge from the process. this is not easy to do. real participation requires a balancing act between internal and external interests. it demands a range of methods to consult and converse equitably with as broad a cross-section of the community as possible throughout the development process. communities are far from homogeneous and participation in public life, particularly involvement in decision-making is fraught with larger issues relating to access and power. for these and other reasons, participatory and community-based approaches can also be expensive, requiring a substantial investment of resources, both human and financial. the dysfunctionality of the isabel province's ict centre network is a testament to how good ideas falter because of insufficient consultation and a fearful unwillingness to put the last mile first in the budgeting process. participation is also troublesome. it involves seeking out and acting on people's feedback, which might just include exhortations like sirolli's to shut up and listen. there is little doubt that it is faster, easier and simpler to lay down programmes from a central point than to grow them organically from local contexts. current practices, e.g. in health promotion, are often deeply entrenched, making change difficult and at times undesirable for those with vested interests in the status quo. mchinji district, the site of the phukusi la moyo maternal and child health programme, saw three different district health officers in as many years, making practical, systemic changes to health promotion budgeting difficult to achieve, efforts that were further complicated by the practice of employing local health officials in traditional, top-down approaches. in contrast to sirolli's advice concerning the best way to approach development, i.e. shut up and listen, when the opportunity arises to discuss development and promote the critical importance of integrating community as a strategy, we need to stand up and speak out, perhaps even yell a bit, in order to share experience, propose collaboration and offer tools and practical assistance. proof in the pudding, not the publication community-based approaches are frequently slow, erratic and even messy, at least by comparison with the sort of results-based approach to development that now dominates at the international level. community initiatives may have emerged as an ad hoc response to a problem or represent some sort of compromise or a hybrid of internal and external efforts. chances are community-based approaches are less focused on products and more on processes and that the lines between outputs and outcomes are blurry or broken. to some degree community-based approaches do not lend themselves easily or naturally to evaluation and therefore clear and objective evidence may not be readily available. it is still more likely that a community-based organisation or initiative's proof of success will be in the pudding, so to speak, than in a highly structure piece of research or a published evaluation. perhaps the best evidence that a community approach and the programmes or services that it delivers are working successfully is that they are still there, still in operation. in mchinji, faced with the end of external funding for the phukusi la moyo programme, the women's groups started to pitch in their own funds to keep the programme alive. their contributions represent a small percentage of the programme costs; but are an indisputable demonstration of the value of the programme and send a strong message to the district health office that promised but failed to take on the programme as part of their responsibility for community health. practitioners do realise that mere survival, local testimonials and even demonstrations of love may not offer sufficiently convincing evidence for external decision-makers to make serious commitments nor provide local organisations and actors with adequate tools to use in improving their work. what is interesting is that the drive for better monitoring and evaluation is increasingly coming from community-based organisations, activists and professionals themselves based on the realization that they need to provide better evidence, be more accountable and continually improve their services based on more rigorous observation and analysis. combined with the efforts of researchers and monitoring and evaluation specialists, there is room for considerable optimism that the type of evidence required to convince external stakeholders of the value and importance of community-based approaches will become easier to achieve. let's hope so. references 1 paisley, l., & richardson, d. (1998) "why the first mile and not the last?" in l. paisley, & d. richardson (eds.), the first mile of connectivity: advancing telecommunications for rural development through a participatory communication approach. communication for development rome: food and agriculture organization of the united nations (fao) http://www.fao.org/docrep/x0295e/x0295e03.htm 2 sirolli, ernesto (2012) want to help someone? shut up and listen! ted conferences: http://www.ted.com/talks/ernesto_sirolli_want_to_help_someone_shut_up_and_listen.html impact of mobile phones on integration: the case of refugees in south africa kasky bisimwa bacishoga1 and kevin allan johnston2 phd student, department of information systems, university of cape town, south africa. email: kaskymiami@yahoo.fr associate professor, department of information systems, university of cape town, south africa. email: kevin.johnston@uct.ac.za 1. introduction the integration of refugees into the host country, believed as having the potential to solve their exile related issues (fielden, 2008), has become a much debated topic. while there appears to be little consensus concerning refugee integration strategies and policies that are developed in different ways in different countries (fielden, 2008), to date in the developing world there are insufficient empirical studies on the impact of mobile phones on refugees' integration. social integration is defined as the "maximum involvement and participation of each member of society in social activities" (united nations, 2008, p. 2). it has been suggested that information and communications technology (ict) has the potential to promote refugee integration (cachia et al., 2007). however, it is argued that in developing countries the adoption of icts is made difficult by contributing factors such as high costs, lack of mobility, limited electricity, and inadequate skills (chigona, beukes, vally & tanner, 2009; sinha, 2005). mobile phones are claimed to provide a solution to these challenges since these are quickly becoming affordable, germane and accessible tools to many poor communities (aker & mbiti, 2010). mobile phone is arguably the most ubiquitous modern technology as it's usage has introduced a range of new possibilities for economic development, political activism, and personal networking and communication (kreutzer, 2009; world bank, 2012), and is thus claimed to have a positive influence on social integration (cachia et al., 2007). however, there is need for such claims to be subjected to rigorous research, and that constitutes the aim of this study. a review of literature across disciplines has shown that the study of mobile phone use by refugee communities has had minimal attention (leung, l. 2011). the research question that guided this study was: how does the use of mobile phones by refugees in south africa impact on their integration? the objectives of this study include exploring mobile phone usage patterns among refugees in south africa, as well as the main communication challenges they experience; investigating whether the use of mobile phones has an impact on refugees in terms of social, economic, and political participation; and, exploring how mobile phone usage affects refugees' social integration in south africa. this study focused on refugees in south africa, a country in which the mobile phone market has seen a rapid uptake with the penetration rate estimated over 100 percent (world bank, 2012). it is estimated that the prepaid calls system or pay-as-you-go is the main reason for such high level of growth and the driver of the entire south african mobile phone market (chigona et al., 2009). although south africa is considered as one of the largest recipients of refugees in the world (bourgonje, 2010; unhcr, 2007) in south africa the law makes no provision for refugee camps. refugees choose to settle in urban centres where particular conditions they desire are more readily available such as income-generating opportunities, education, adequate medical care and favourable climatic (kobia & cranfield, 2009; unhcr, 2009). nevertheless, in south africa discriminatory practices and attitudes continue to be manifested against refugees who are denied rights to critical social services (gordon, 2010), and are uniformly victimised in violent practices (vearey, 2012). in south africa, there is confusion between the terms refugees and asylum seekers (cormsa, 2011). for the purpose of this study, the term 'refugee' was used to refer to those who have formally been granted refugee status, as well as those who are seeking refuge. the focus was on refugees from the major african countries, and from countries not considered by the south african department of home affairs (dha) as primary refugee producing countries as in december 2005 (landau, 2011). using a social integration framework, this study explored the potential of mobile phones to enhance the integration of refugees. the findings of this study make two contributions. firstly, to the information systems field where little has been done using a social integration approach to determine the impact of technology on social integration. secondly, to practice, since the findings serve to inform various stakeholders on the success and limitations of mobile phones as a tool for enhancing refugees' integration into a host community. this qualitative study uses a sample of 29 respondents who spanned a range of selection criteria. although this sample is not big enough, the findings of this study are relevant as they identify mobile phone usage patterns, and critical intervention areas to facilitate communication and social networks. these contributions respond to the call from the united nations to encourage ict researchers to contribute to the promotion of social integration, particularly for disadvantaged and marginalised groups (united nations, 2007). this study is crucial since circumstances are adding to the numbers of refugees, and south africa is likely to attract more and more of those refugees (cormsa, 2011). at the same time, refugees are the daily objects of discrimination with the destructive consequences to both nationals and non-nationals in south africa (landau, 2008). the remainder of this paper is divided into four major sections. section 2 provides a literature review on the status of refugees in south africa (2.1), mobile phone usage in south africa (2.2), and social integration (2.3). in section 3 the social integration theoretical framework is described, section 4 details the methodology, while section 5 provides the analysis and implications, followed by the conclusion in section 6. 2. literature review 2.1 status of refugees in south africa reports show that in 2009 south africa was the main destination for new asylum seekers worldwide and has thus rapidly evolved into one of the largest recipients of asylum seekers in the world (unhcr, 2010). this trend will become more pronounced as several african countries are experiencing ethno-religious conflicts, and socio-political and economic instability (crush & ramachandran, 2010). another contributing factor is the striking disparity in living standards and economic development between south africa and other african countries (naudé, 2008). following its first democratic elections in 1994, south africa acceded to and ratified several treaties relating to forced migration and refugee protection (gordon, 2010; kobia & cranfield, 2009). the 1996 south african constitution (the bill of rights) guaranteed fundamental rights to all who are resident in the country, including refugees and asylum seekers (landau, 2011). refugees are issued documentation by the south african government that grant them employment rights. however, the legitimacy of this documentation remains unrecognised by most of employers (landau & kabwe-segatti, 2009). the literature shows that, generally refugees face particular challenges throughout their exile lives (o'mara, 2009). most of time refugees have lost all their assets on their arrival in the host country, do not enjoy any property rights, may have communication challenges and may not possess the required knowledge and skills to survive in the new country frequently they lack supportive social networks (buscher, 2003). in south africa refugees are marginalised and deprived of their dignity (cejas, 2007; landau, 2008). as such, refugees face multiples obstacles in accessing social services they are entitled to by law. for example: in educational services, it has been found that "close to one third of school age refugees' children are not enrolled in schools" (landau & kabwe-segatti, 2009, p. 41). in health services, refugees struggle to access emergency and basic health services due to the unwillingness of some staff members (vearey, 2012). in housing, landlords and rental agencies hesitate to contract with refugees due to doubt over their papers' legitimacy (landau & kabwe-segatti, 2009). refugees do not receive any kind of institutional assistance or financial support from the south african government (cejas, 2007). reports show that, compared to citizens, refugees in south africa are more likely to be vulnerable to poverty and violence as they live in poor housing conditions and have minimal access to services (duponchel et al., 2010). despite this, many of them have demonstrated entrepreneurial spirit to solve problems, innovate and adapt (krause-vilmar & chaf?, 2011). it has been found that "75 percent are economically active, while many are engaged in a multitude of simultaneous livelihood strategies" (krause-vilmar & chaf?, 2011. p.1). however, xenophobic discourse in south africa constructs refugees as a threat to the economic, social and cultural rights and entitlements of citizens (matsinhe, 2009; vearey, 2012). refugees are typecast as "bringers of disease, crime and a variety of other social ills" (crush, & ramachandran, 2010. p. 216). it has been found that the majority of south africans do not welcome foreigners, especially 'black' foreign nationals from african countries (crush, 2012; gordon, 2010). such widespread anti-immigrant sentiment cuts across virtually every socioeconomic and demographic group (gordon, 2010). this situation led to xenophobic attacks against refugees in may 2008, violence that spread nationwide and resulted in the deaths of more than 60 people and the displacement of some 46,000 others amid mass looting and destruction of refugee-owned property and businesses (unhcr, 2009). this large-scale attack marked the latest development in a long series of violent incidents victimising refugees in south africa (crush, 2012). recently, however, refugee issues have begun to preoccupy the south african government, religious communities, as well as local and international non-governmental organizations (ngos). addressing barriers to refugee integration in south africa has attracted a number of scholars, journalists and activists (matsinhe, 2009). this research is part of that trend, and seeks to explore the impact of technology on the lives of refugees in south africa. mobile phones point to one solution due to their ubiquity. leung (2011) suggests that for refugees, a mobile phone is the most critical technology in term of availability. however as donner, gitau and marsden (2011) argue, in developing countries little is known about how people differentially use mobile phones. this paper continues with the review of the use of mobile phones in south africa. 2.2 use of mobile phones in south africa as in the rest of africa, the introduction and growth of mobile phone services has been spectacularly successful in south africa (cellular news, 2009) where mobile phone penetration rate had exceeded 100 percent and is expected to increase substantially (world bank, 2012). in south africa, where mobile phones have become the most easily accessible and convenient way of offering services (cellular news, 2009), an understanding of their usage is crucial. mobile phones are increasingly being regarded by many as an extremely potent tool, a solution for social and economic development in developing countries (dinez, albuquerque & cernez, 2011; heeks & jagun, 2007). widespread mobile phone usage has introduced a range of new possibilities for economic development, political activism, and personal networking and communication (kreutzer, 2009). literature shows that, apart from creating new sources of income and employment, mobile phones provide vital links between refugee populations and their families, and provide a tool to enable refugees to become self-sustainable (diminescu, renault & gangloff, 2009). van biljon & kotzé (2008) found evidence of the impact of social influences such as social pressure from other individuals and groups, and motivational needs such as nervousness and enthusiasm as being among the factors affecting the use of mobile phones. other relevant factors included job status, occupation and income, facilitating conditions such as cost, security and connectivity, and perceived usefulness (van biljon & kotzé, 2008). these influences have relevance in explaining and understanding the use of mobile phones by refugees. in south africa, mobile phone subscribers can access a mobile network either through a contract or as a prepaid service. the prepaid service is a useful alternative to a contract where the subscriber is required to have a good credit history and a regular income to qualify (chigona et al., 2009). thanks to the prepaid service plan, refugees in south africa own mobile phones since it is difficult by means of a contract due to a lack of formal documents. the documentation issued to refugees by the south african government does not have the requisite thirteen-digit identity number, required for most contracts. however, unlike a mobile contract package where the customer has the opportunity of having modern mobile phones, most prepaid customers, including refugees, posssess mobile phones which may not have internet capabilities (chigona et al., 2009). reports have shown that the developing countries are increasingly well situated to exploit the benefits of mobile communication (donner et al., 2011; world bank, 2012). however the use of mobile phones by refugees in developing countries had had minimal attention (leung, 2011). little is known about the impact of mobile phones usage on the integration of refugees in developing countries. 3. social integration theoretical framework social integration is a complex concept which is often given widely different meanings (ager & strang, 2008; atfield, brahmbhatt & o'toole, 2007). it is generally aimed at promoting societies that are safe, stable, tolerant, just, where diversity is respected and all people participate with equal opportunity (stanley, 2005). the theory of social integration has been used by different researchers (e.g. karp, hughes & o'gara, 2008; teoh & pan, 2008), and international organisations (e.g. the african union 2008). the united nations (2009) described social integration as a dynamic process that enables "all people to participate in social, economic, cultural and political life on the basis of equality of rights and dignity" (p. 3). in this definition, social integration is described as a process. in addition, such a process should include all disadvantaged and vulnerable groups and persons (united nations, 2009). this definition was applied in this study, with particular focus on social and cultural, economic, and political participation. fielden (2008) suggested three dimensions for local integration namely the legal, social and cultural, and economic dimensions. a society where there is a lack of social integration can be characterised as displaying the conditions of fragmentation, exclusion and polarisation. these conditions can result in abuse and conflict, neglect and oppression and hostility and combative social relations (united nations, 2007). as social integration takes place, society displays the characteristics of cohesion, collaboration and coexistence (united nations, 2007). these three characteristics can be applied in the social and cultural, economic, and political domains respectively (united nations, 2007). these three domains; socio-cultural, economic, and political reflect the three forms of participation discussed in the following. 3.1 social and cultural participation the key outcomes of social and cultural participation are feeling safe from threats by other people, toleration, welcome and friendliness, a sense of identity and belonging, feeling an active participant in the community, and having friends (atfield et al., 2007). other outcomes of social and cultural participation are the ability to speak the language of the country, and adjusting to the different culture (ager & strang, 2008). interventions in this domain would include active listening and participatory dialogue (united nations, 2007). from a practical perspective, the interventions imply reduction of social inequality by providing equal access to services (united nations, 2007). 3.2 economic participation the outcomes of economic participation include equal opportunities for finding employment and work as entrepreneurs, developing business opportunities and participating in the economic welfare of the community (atfield et al., 2007; united nations, 2007). other outcomes include having equal access to benefits, and equal pay (united nations, 2007). this dimension is important for social integration as it enables the achievement of self-reliance (atfield et al., 2007). interventions in this domain would include dialogue between stakeholders such as community meetings and focus groups (united nations, 2007). 3.3 political participation the outcomes of political participation include attaining legal or citizenship status, entitlements to benefits such as welfare, education or health services, or simply negotiating the legal system or the labour market (atfield et al., 2007). other outcomes are the taking of active and complementary roles in governmental and other bodies which can develop the support needed (atfield et al., 2007; united nations, 2007). interventions in this domain would include providing safe spaces enabling the expression of diverse viewpoints and to seek consensus using civic or democratic dialogue, and to participate in political structures and interest groups (united nations, 2007). 3.4 justification for using a social integration framework to assess the impact of mobile phones on integration social integration is described as a dynamic process (united nations, 2009). whilst social networks are an important aspect of this process, there are other factors outside social networks that help and enable integration (atfield et al., 2007). one of these factors is the use of the mobile phone which has introduced a range of new possibilities, and is thought to impact on society (kreutzer, 2009). sinha (2005) argued that the use of mobile phones enabled individuals to strengthen their social and cultural networks, create economic opportunities, and become more politically aware. however, mobile phone usage may also "amplify pre-existing differences in social integration rather than attenuating them" (puro, 2002, p. 28). therefore, the social integration framework was considered ideal to the purpose of this study as it provided a wide perspective of analysis of social integration, and is people-centred. 4. research method and perspective this study has an interpretive perspective, as the research was seeking to obtain interpretations and explanations of the phenomena under study from the respondents. adopting an interpretive perspective is ideal in understanding the meanings shared through interactions on mobile phones, and how these meanings are assigned to the constructed reality of social integration. therefore, qualitative methods are well suited to the objectives of this study, as it attempted to understand individual experiences and views. 4.1. data collection this study used ethnographic data collection methods. data was gathered through interviews and observation of the behaviour and reactions of refugees in south africa. the fact that one of the researchers is a refugee meant that there was a direct participation in the experience. the researcher tried "to be both insider and outsider, staying on the margins of the group socially and intellectually" (genzuk, 2003, p. 3). the primary data collection method was semi-structured interviews. interviews were recorded and transcribed as soon as possible to avoid losing necessary details. field notes were also taken to gather a variety of information from different perspectives (myers, 2009). language issues were among the difficulties encountered. the interviews were conducted in english, which was not the first language of many refugees in south africa. many of the quotes have, however, been left unchanged. 4.2 sample the sample was selected using a purposeful sampling technique by strategically picking respondents who conformed to the selection criteria, such as their country of origin, gender, age, occupation, length of stay in south africa, and location. the composition of the sample was monitored during the data collection process and the resultant information used to select further respondents. the sample consisted of 29 respondents from the refugees in south africa. it is appreciated that such a sample is not big enough to generalise, however it allows for achieving the aim of this research which is to identify themes which may in turn be explored in further studies. similar interesting studies (e.g. chigona et al., 2009; friscira, knoche & huang, 2012; kabbar & crump, 2007) have used a sample of approximate or even less number of respondents and have adopted similar methodology. the sample of this research reflected and took account of the heterogeneity of refugee populations in south africa, and had representatives of refugees from the major african and other countries. countries included were angola, burundi, congo brazzaville, democratic republic of congo, rwanda, somalia, sudan, tanzania, zimbabwe, ethiopia, uganda, nigeria, bangladesh, and pakistan (landau, 2006). the profiles of the respondents that were interviewed and their pseudonyms (based on country of origin) are presented in table 1. table 1: information on respondents the numbers of male and female respondents were not balanced. however, there are sufficient females to identify gender issues, if any, relating to the use of mobile phones by refugees. amongst the respondents, 25 were between 20 and 39 years of age. this reflects the refugee population profile as most refugees in south africa are in this age group. however, the experiences of teenage refugees who are widely accustomed to mobile phone usage could have enriched the study. the sample was drawn from refugees in cape town, durban, and johannesburg; three cities in which most of refugees in south africa reside. the length of stay in south africa is important, as it impacts on the respondents' experience of integration. integration is viewed as a process which changes over time, as the refugees adapt themselves into the host society (united nations, 2009). table 1 shows that all of the respondents have been in south africa for more than one year and more than half for over five years. occupation reflects the ability of refugees to make use of available work opportunities as part of their integration. the different occupations show how effective the respondents have been in their use of factors such as education, adaptability, aspirations and needs (atfield et al. 2007). van biljon and kotzé (2008) found evidence that a person's situation such as job status, occupation or income has an influence on mobile phone usage. the relevance and impact of the above elements are considered in the analysis and discussion of the findings. 4.3 data analysis thematic analysis was used to search for themes or patterns, important to the description of the phenomenon under study. for the analysis of data, this study drew on the six phases of thematic analysis by braun and clarke (2006) which are: familiarising with data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing them, defining and naming them, and producing the report (braun & clarke, 2006. p. 87). initial themes included convenience, social pressure, social and job status, staying in touch, interaction or connectivity, income, cost and time saving, usefulness, care and security. in this study, the coding was informed by the three dimensions of social integration adopted for the context of this study. based on the collected data, secondary themes were identified and grouped according to the concepts of social integration and the elements influencing mobile phone usage. 5. analysis of findings and discussion this section is divided into two subsections, the first covers mobile phone use patterns among refugees, and the second covers the contribution of mobile phone usage to social integration. 5.1. mobile phone use patterns among refugees no gender patterns were identified in the data. the respondents indicated that the mobile phone services they used included voice calls, smss, call-back, and mobile internet. voice calls and smss were the most used services. whilst illiteracy is a factor in the high use of voice calls in some areas (friscira, knoche & huang, 2012), this was not the case in this study. although the majority of respondents preferred voice calls, as they are more personal and a better substitute for face-to-face communication, the use of sms provided the advantage of being at a more reasonable rate, and one sms can be sent to different persons. this pattern is not uncommon in africa (gough, 2005). "making a voice call is more expensive than sms but i prefer voice calling … we discuss like face-to-face" (bangrase). five of the respondents used mobile internet. they all indicated that they access social networks, particularly facebook, and email via their mobile phones. the five respondents mentioned however, that accessing the internet on computers is more convenient than on mobile phones, arguing that mobile phones screens are too small and that the options are limited. "...the problem with mobile internet is that you don't feel satisfy..." (ugama). two respondents shared that they use mobile instant messaging particularly mxit. "...mxit is cheap...the problem is that it is not like smss that you can send to everybody. with mxit you can chat only with contacts who have been added to the contact list" (connelly). these results confirm biljon & kotzé's (2008) findings that factors such as cost, connectivity, and perceived usefulness all have an influence on mobile phone usage among refugees. van biljon and kotzé (2008) also suggested that there are cultural and emotional social influences on the use of mobile phones, and this was confirmed in this study. the majority of the respondents stated that 'staying in touch' and convenience was their main reasons for using mobile phones. they also keep their mobile phones as a 'security blanket' and for use in emergencies. as such, pearce and rice (2013) argue that in developing countries, resources and social connections are essential to survival. 5.2 the contribution of mobile phone usage to social integration the findings showed that refugees frequently used mobile phones to communicate with their family members and close friends, but not frequently with acquaintances. it is clear that mobile phones are essential tools for refugees, presenting a vital link between them and their families. the following sections examined the impact of mobile phones on the three forms of social integration discussed previously. 5.2.1 impact of mobile phones on social and cultural participation the findings showed that in south africa, newly arrived refugees receive little or no orientation to formal networks such as government or semi-government bodies, charities and faith groups from which they can learn about opportunities for housing, work or education. refugees therefore set up informal networks facilitated by their mobile phones, to share general information on the available opportunities. these informal networks rely on friendship ties often on an ad hoc basis (atfield, et al. 2007). mobile phones enabled respondents to get involved in group activities (informal or formal) or voluntary work. for example, the respondents referred to social interactions in both schools and churches. these findings are not consistent with ager and strang (2008), who reported that refugees in the uk obtained advice from a number of sources such as housing office staff, schools, libraries, and volunteers at drop-in centres. refugees found this advice important, particularly on arrival (strang & ager, 2010). both student respondents stated that they used mobile phones to interact with their colleagues and participate in study groups. "...when we have group assignments, we use our mobile phones to communicate between us...to arrange appointments, to exchange ideas or issues" (angaza). other interactions included language learning classes, keep-fit classes, pub teams, and sports groups. two thirds of the respondents mentioned that they had never participated in formal group activities, or in any voluntary work. the main reason reported was that they were not aware of these groups, they had never been invited to participate or had no time. "...if someone invite me and i have time, i can join...but myself i don't know what is happening around since i work every day from 6 am to 6 pm" (zaidi). lack of trust and language issues were among the reasons respondents gave for not relying more on their neighbours. as a result, refugees tended to turn to co-nationals, and formed networks within them. about one third of respondents hesitated to engage in conversations with neighbours due to lack of confidence in the respondent's language. according to the majority of the respondents, when talking to someone in english, he/she replays it in their home language. "sometimes it happen that i need direction in an area…most of the time if i ask someone he answer me in his language that i don't know if it's zulu or what...this make me confused and uncomfortable... you understand why if one of my friends know the area i call him to lead me…even if he is far?" (somkia). the findings show that mobile phones may reinforce the homogeneity of the group and impact negatively on their integration into the mainstream community. the majority of respondents believed that mobile phone communication creates trust between them and their recipients; trust which increases by the frequency of interaction. some respondents argued that mobile phone numbers are only exchanged between self-chosen friends and acquaintances, to the extent that they do not fear any incoming call even if it's from an unknown source since someone known must have provided it. "i give my phone number only to my friends because i trust them. when i receive a call from an unknown person i don't worry. i suggest he has got my number from my friends" (somia). however, there is greater trust with those with whom they have formed bonded networks, especially co-nationals with whom they frequently interact. these findings are in agreement with dinez et al. (2011), who showed that mobile phones are a valuable resource for social interaction. the findings showed however that, although mobile phones are useful for interaction, problems with language and especially trust hindered some refugees from venturing into relationships outside the group, and mobile phones can thus hinder integration. mobile phones may also "amplify pre-existing differences in social integration rather than attenuating them" (puro, 2002, p. 28). the ease of contact between refugee groups and their families in home countries can hamper integration in a host country. however, for refugees, possessing a mobile phone is crucial for social interaction as well as for care and security. 5.2.2. impact of mobile phones on economic participation most of the respondents reported that mobile phones helped them to generate income or find employment. most respondents referred to cost and time saving. many of the comments referred to the nature of refugee life with its relative lack of permanence in accommodation or work. most self-employed respondents agreed that mobile phones helped them earn income; for instance by allowing them to find and retain customers. others described how mobile phones allowed them to be permanently available to potential customers. zaila, a hair dresser, noted that with her mobile phone, she does not need to rent a space for a hairdressing salon. customers call her to get their hair done at home. buruma, a self-employed mechanic, tells how drivers whose cars have a breakdown can phone him to get assistance. buruma also uses his mobile phone to shop around and compare prices of car parts without moving out of his workshop. rwazi, a taxi driver, uses his mobile phone to reduce waiting time, as most of his passengers call him when they need transport. somel used his mobile phone to supply airtime to casual customers. it is a common practice in much of africa to receive and relay text messages or to provide cell or fixed line services to those without cell phones and those who cannot read or write (gough, 2005). as gough (2005, p. 1) puts it: "a mobile provides you with a point of contact; it actually enables you to participate in the economic system". most respondents agreed that, by enabling them to be contactable, mobile phones helped them to find employment. one third of the respondents obtained employment from employers who contacted them on their mobile phones. however, they did not think that mobile phones assisted them in searching for jobs. some spoke of walking from door to door looking for jobs. only one used the mobile internet to search for employment, although he was unsuccessful. the majority argued that, although it is possible and convenient to apply online, they were not confident against the competition from south african citizens. "...i don't think one can get a job online while all these citizens are jobless" (angela). whilst there was interest in m-commerce, few respondents could provide the necessary documents to purchase a suitable mobile phone. "i know that with an appropriate mobile phone, like those advertised on tv, one can manage his business and save money...unfortunately great cell phones are only sold on contract...refugees don't have recognised papers [refugees documentation]; no green id, no bank accounts..." (conzale) and "...they'll ask you to bring a green id" (rwazi). such statement shows that digital inequality can take many forms including differences in access to type of mobile phone device. an interest in mobile banking was expressed by several of the refugees. "... i find it [mobile banking] interesting because i can do it at home and save my money for petrol, my time...i prefers stay watch my tv that standing on the queue at the bank" (nigel). whilst dinez et al. (2011) affirm that mobile banking has become pervasive as a means of financial inclusion, some respondents pointed out that they were unable to use these banking services. "...from the very day a bank clerk told me that refugees are not entitled to all bank services, i became reticent…i believe all innovations in bank services are not for refugees" (ethumba). such a statement shows another form that digital inequality can take, that is the differences in opportunities to engage in different mobile phone enabled activities. as such, the benefits offered by mobile banking are limited for refugees in south africa. although some south african banks have begun extending services to refugees, refugees are excluded from a number of services such as saving accounts and loans (landau & kabwe-segatti, 2009). in south africa, refugees receive documentation that is not recognised by certain authorities and employers (landau, 2011). consequently, most refugees in south africa experience unequal access to the best quality mobile phones devices, and opportunities for engagement in different mobile phone enabled activities such as mobile banking. most refugees believe that self-employment is their only chance for survival since mobile phones enabled them to earn income, find employment and save costs. however, this study shows that the economic impact is faced with barriers such as documentation and exclusion (landau, 2008) what can be referred to as being on the wrong side of digital inequality (pearce & rice, 2013). 5.2.3 impact of mobile phones on political participation mobile phones are considered to enable political activity and mobilisation (kreutzer, 2009). campbell and kwak (2009) claimed that mobile phones have added a new dimension to civil society. however, the respondents found little to support these claims. most of the respondents mentioned that they rarely interacted with authoritative individuals. "i think it is wasting time and airtime trying to raise any issue to the government people, they've got their political program you can't change..." (zimbala). however, there was general consensus amongst the respondents that mobile phones, especially using voice calls, are the best medium to interact with authoritative individuals. the main reason cited was that mobile phones enabled a direct link with the person concerned, which is not the case with others media such as letters or emails. "...at least with the cell phone you talk to the person you needed, it's not like a letter which ends unread into a bin" (tanzam). this study found that most of the respondents used mobile phones to discuss their rights and obligations, as well as the issues concerning their refugee community. these issues included capacity building, fair treatment and life improvement. one respondent, burinyi a member of a pressure group stated, "sometimes refugees experience trouble when registering or when applying for a course...in such case they call us for assistance...we contact the concerned school to solve the issue". although respondents recognised the role played by mobile phones in facilitating interaction with authoritative individuals, they did not believe that their concerns have any impact or can influence any government reaction. in certain issues, especially in emergency situations, they reported that they did not receive reliable service. respondents mentioned that there is sometimes no response or delays in responses when they contact government agents, including police, health care workers and employers. respondents maintained that the lack or delay in response occurs once authorities recognised their foreign accents. consequently, in emergency situations refugees mostly use south african citizens to call on their behalf in order to receive reliable service. "...my friend was stabbed, i called the emergency and the police for help...they came about 40 minutes later, he was dead...my friends condemned me saying i should ask a south african to call for me" (somkia). although there is discrimination, mobile phones can assist in political participation but this is limited. according to fielden (2008), economic, social, and political participation are the three major domains in which integration policies take place. the overall findings in this section show that, in enabling the development of networks, mobile phones impact on the formation of social capital, a term most commonly used to refer to the nature and impact of social networks which, in turn facilitates integration. mobile phones also directly enable respondents to participate economically, socially and to a certain extent politically. 6. conclusion the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of mobile phones on the integration of refugees into south africa. semi-structured interviews were conducted with 29 refugees in south africa who spanned a range of selection criteria. this sample was selected taking into account the heterogeneity of the refugee populations in south africa. the analysis of the data used thematic analysis and grouped the themes according to the concepts of social integration and the elements influencing mobile phone usage. the study found that mobile phone usage played an important role in the social integration process. mobile phones contributed to many of the expected outcomes of social and cultural participation. being in mobile contact with members of their bonding networks helped refugees overcome isolation and feel accepted, safe and confident, but this was not an outcome of integration. respondents found it difficult to break away from bonding networks due to difficulties with language and lack of trust of outsiders. the effect of the use of mobile phones on economic participation was strong. respondents consistently stated that mobile phones were important for generating income and searching for employment. however, these benefits were found to be hindered by barriers such as an inability to obtain the necessary documentation, and exclusion due to language or even accents (landau, 2008). few respondents had anything positive to say about the possibilities of achieving political participation. most of the respondents used mobile phones to place voice calls to authorities as they believe that only voice contact is likely to receive any response. however, there was scepticism about the possibility of receiving support or understanding from public authorities. it is sobering to think that refugees in south africa believe that any indication that they are foreign such as their accents can result in poor service. by using their mobile phones to communicate, refugees can strengthen their cultural and social participation, create economic opportunities, and stimulate their political participation. in south africa, the context of refugees makes it clear that they are on the wrong side of the digital inequality divide. as result, they do not have the opportunity of engaging in many mobile phone enabled activities, decreasing potential benefits. little is done to orient the refugees to organisations that cater for their needs. however, the respondents reported using mobiles to talk to organisations and individuals about issues concerning their refugee community such as fair treatment and life improvement. it is clear that there is discrimination, but mobile phones can assist in political participation but the potential is limited. the benefits that can be derived from social networks change over time as refugees form new relationships and learn how to get ahead rather than get by (atfield et al. 2007). refugee integration is a process which requires mutual adjustment and participation. however, it is clear that the mobile phone can play a major part in social integration. integration is a subjective process and the respondents presented their point of view. this may not be the overall experience of refugees in south africa. the size and composition of the sample may limit the potential to generalise from this study. however, the findings of this study provide scope for further research, perhaps with larger sample sizes or over time. research could investigate whether without mobile phones refugees would integrate into the host country faster. in addition, the experiences of teenage refugees who are used to mobile phones could be considered in future studies. research using quantitative methods could be conducted and perhaps with a control group to compare the mobile phone use by refugees and by citizens. the responses could be then compared with the findings of this study. notwithstanding the limitations of qualitative methods, this study has been able to throw light on the role played by mobile phones in enhancing the integration of refugees into the mainstream 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(2012). mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people). http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/it.cel.sets.p2 <div id="article"> <h2 id="article_title"> rlabs: a south african perspective on a community-driven approach to community informatics </h2> <div id="article_author"> marlon parker, julia wills, gary brian wills </div> <h3 class="article_subhead"> introduction </h3> <p> stoecker's (2005b) review of the emerging discipline of community informatics raised the question, "<em>who gains from community informatics: the academic, the market or the community</em>?" there are many stakeholders in a community project, such as academia, business, industry, people who live in the community, and community workers. community involvement and empowerment is seen as central to community informatics, although strategies to initiate and sustain empowered communities have been elusive (unwin 2009). </p> <p> bradley's (2006) vision of community informatics is that it increases well-being and the quality of life for all. many communities do not have the infrastructure or training to develop and engage in information technology. in the first major work on community informatics, gurstein (2000) observes, </p> <blockquote> "community informatics is concerned with developing strategies for precisely those communities unable to take advantage of some of the opportunities which the technology is providing" (online text). </blockquote> <p> within this definition there is a clear role for local communities to become empowered and to engage with technology, thereby having access to information which would increase their communal life experience, and social technology is often seen as a catalyst for social change (european commission, 2010). de moor (2008) suggests that for community informatics as a discipline, community empowerment may be enhanced though the use of action research within the 'living labs model.' </p> <p> this paper investigates the concept of <em>stakeholder</em> in community projects through: </p> <p> a) presenting a case study of an african living lab, a community-driven technology project aimed at empowering youth in its locality. </p> <p> b) describing the secondary roles of other stakeholders in the project. </p> <p> c) discussing factors that helped or hindered the success of the project. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> the role of stakeholders in community informatics </h3> <p> a key concept within any community project is the stakeholder, and there are two classical definitions. first, in capitalist business, stakeholders are those who deposit money in a venture and expect a return (oxford dictionary, 2010). a second, broader, definition was proposed by freemen (1984), as those who had a vested interest and who can affect or are affected by the organisational project. </p> <p> the difference in these definitions reflects a difference in attitude between those who see development as a business paradigm with definite funding, commercial aims, and commercial ends, and those in civil society who are interested in creating an effective community. </p> <p> in community development, stakeholder roles are those that 'act' as stewards for the institution. stakeholders have "<em>a latent or expressed interest in the organization accomplishing its mission or goals and do not see it as something to be mined for personal gain and then discarded when convenient"</em> (avglin, 2000). </p> <p> stoecker (2005a) investigated the planning of research by 'elite' funding groups in a community project and noted that their interaction with agencies and institutions involved a top-down approach. stoecker suggested that such an approach could cause conflict with the community workers and community members, who may not have been seeking financial or business project outcomes, and who were more passionate about its continuing success. part of the challenge within community informatics is to enable the community to be a major stakeholder in regeneration and the creation of innovative digital technological solutions (morris, 2006). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> living labs </h3> <p> a working definition of living labs is: </p> <blockquote> "functional regions where stakeholders have formed a public private partnership of firms, public agencies, universities, institutes and people, all collaborating for creation, prototyping, validating and testing of new services, products and systems in real life contexts" (core labs, 2008). </blockquote> <p> living labs are a real life interactive space where technology, communities, and commercial interests engage in qualitative action research which changes as necessary with reflection and analysis facilitating the generation of working models and theories. </p> <p> eriksson et al (2005) identified commercial, technological, and societal actors and their interactions as essential components for living lab research. where technology is new, it may be uneconomical for society and not commercially viable and thereby excluding the broad public from the opportunities offered by the technology. </p> <p> the aim of living labs is to create a collaborative work environment, where: </p> <blockquote> "integrated and connected resources providing shared access to contents and allowing distributed actors to seamlessly work together towards common goals" (hribernik, 2005). </blockquote> <p> living labs' core belief is community empowerment. as bergvall-kareborn (2009) state in evaluating a living lab project, "<em>community influence is key</em>". </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> discussion of community in living labs </h3> <p> a concept analysis was undertaken of the summary public documentation of living labs funded projects in 2009. there were 97 projects analysed, the stakeholders mentioned in the projects were classified under the headings of: business and tourism, region, government, community, city, technology, and academia. the results suggested that although community is central to the living lab concept, partners from the community are named as stakeholders in the project descriptions only thirteen times, less than business, academia, technology, region, and government (figure 1). </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3160/version/2142/4118/16729/figure1.png" class="article_image" width= "580" height="385" alt="figure1"> <div class="image_caption"> figure 1: authors' concept search for stakeholders enoll funded projects: source enoll pdf files (2009). </div> <p> dutilleul et al (2010) analysed the social dimensions of the european living lab. the participation of community or 'users' was perceived to need further investigation; in particular "<em>how can we prevent knowledge asymmetries from making the role of the user in the innovation process a subordinate one?</em>" (p.80). they noted that user interests have not been well researched and identified a number of factors which make user-driven living labs difficult to achieve. a second factor highlighted in the article was that the user groups: users as individuals; user mobilisation and user co-operation needs stronger motivation than just the technology in order for them to engage in the project. thus there was evidence of top-down management in living lab practice, rather than an approach to generating community empowerment. </p> <p> addressing the difficulty in making the community central to the development process, mirijamdotter et al., (2006) suggested developing a community-based living lab model. their model is need-oriented, rather than product-oriented, as needs were considered more sustainable, more likely to energise, and more likely to be raised by the community. in this model, the community would explore different ways to fulfil their needs and avoid being monopolised by one business, project, or provider. a civil community group in south africa became a living lab by identifying the community's needs and helping the community address those issues; it is called rlabs. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> case study of reconstructed living lab (rlabs) </h3> <p> this case study is explored through the narrative of the founder, his presentations, and documentation from the stakeholders. rlabs' features are unique in the living lab model, being community designed, community driven, and with its innovative technology developed at the grass roots level. athlone is a district of cape town and is situated on a region known as the cape flats; where rlabs originally started, its community can be described as a community in tension due to it being "<em>socially deprived and characterised by violence, drugs and gangsters</em>," (parker et al 2008). </p> <p> in 2007, a group of ex-gangsters and drug addicts gathered at a community ngo, impact direct ministries (idm), with a desire to use their past experiences to improve the life choices of others in the community. these individuals were not a sample of the community, but were social champions in that they were people who were motivated to change the culture of their communities. they had limited academic qualifications but were prepared to take some action themselves and be agents for change in their communities. </p> <p> stage one of the development of rlabs grew out of a collaboration project between idm and cape peninsular university of technology (cput). . through further links with government and academic stakeholders, in its second stage rlabs piloted action research through the living lab model, being the first living lab in the western cape region of south africa. <p> in stage three, rlabs officially registered as a social enterprise and is currently managed by a board of directors consisting of local community members, and by an advisory non-executive board consisting of representatives from business, academia, community, and government agencies. rlabs' three stages of development are shown in figure 2. </p> </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3160/version/2142/4118/16730/figure2.png" class="article_image" width= "580" height="435" alt="figure2"> <div class="image_caption"> figure 2: three stages of rlab construction </div> <p> rlabs aims to increase the empowerment, encouragement, and development of community members who may be or are headed for difficulties through the creation, dissemination, and application of knowledge. it aims to do this through the use of innovative ict solutions to facilitate the health and social care of residents , looking to empower the residents to change their community themselves. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> <em>community-driven ict solution: mobile technology</em> </h3>the development of third generational technologies (3g), mobile phones have led to a new technological and social landscape (goggin & clark, 2009). in particular, it has provided youth culture with a "<em>texting</em>" language which is fast and individualistic to this age group (castells et al 2007). features which make the mobile phone unique as a communication tool include its privacy, its small size, its affordability in both price and running costs, its relative freedom from the mains electrical network, its portability, its connectivity with other media technologies, and its provision for on-line communication. </p> <p> south african mobile phone subscribers in 2008 were 45 million, an increase from the year before. compared to fixed land-line subscriptions of 4.4 million, it can be seen that the mobile phone is the telecommunication tool of choice in south africa (economic watch, 2010). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> <em>texting and new mobile technology</em> </h3> <p> according to nitsckie & parker (2009:8), "<em>mobile instant messaging (mim) is technology which provides communication between one or more participants over a network or the internet. instant messages conversations initially used text-based methods but have recently also added sound or voice, video and images. extended functionality now includes file transfers, group chat and conference services. instant messaging, as opposed to email, happens in real-time</em>". instant messaging is also very cheap in comparison to text messaging in south africa. </p> <p> rlabs developed a mobile instant messenger aggregator that can be used to manage multiple mobile chat conversations, providing real-time support as a counselling medium. the community provided development space for innovation of the new product (parker, et al., 2010). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> <em>secondary stakeholders</em> </h3> <p> secondary stakeholders were essential to rlabs development. academia, government, and industry have produced tangible tools, help, advice, and inputs which have enabled the community to achieve rlabs' aims. a summary of the role of stakeholders and their place in the rlabs project are (parker 2010): </p> <ul> <li> <strong>community</strong>; steering committee; open forums; development space; linking of ngo partners; workshops; provision of services; choice and patent of new technology </li> <li> <strong>academia</strong>: incubation space for ideas; original networking to government and link to western universities; research; internships basic training for volunteers; research visits; international collaboration; testing of technology. </li> <li> <strong>government</strong>: endorsements; steering committee; agencies; internships; cosifa; living labs of south africa endorsement. </li> <li> <strong>industry</strong>: work groups; technological help; agreements; contract research; provision of technology tools </li> </ul> <p> a) <strong>academic stakeholders</strong> </p> <p> the cape peninsula university of technology (cput) partnered with impact direct ministries when rlabs started out as a community project. the university of southampton, uk, and aalto university, finland, joined the project with advisory and research support. the academic partners are an important element in providing training to the community in skills which are essential for technological innovation. the academic partners were prepared to invest in people in deprived communities. this collaboration between academia and community is necessary to move theory into practice. </p> <p> b) <strong>south african government and innovation partners</strong> </p> <p> the government of south africa is leading african technological change. its aim is that through innovation, communities can address fundamental issues such as health and education, to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life. the government describes its plan to innovate as different from both the indigenous tradition and the imported western business models. the living lab model was chosen by the south african government, noting '<em>the start of the project is community-driven</em>' (living labs in south africa, 2009). </p> <p> demonstration of the south african government's support for localised innovation initiatives is shown by its partnership with finland to enhance south africa's innovation development through the cooperation framework on innovation systems between finland and south africa (cofisa). the overall objective of the cofisa programme is to enhance the effectiveness of the south african national system of innovation contributing to economic growth and poverty alleviation. this led to the foundation of the living labs in southern africa network, of which rlabs was one of the founding members. the initial stage of rlabs, including its feasibility study and business plan, was funded by cofisa. this funding and strong networking was important in enabling rlabs to move to a social enterprise organisation. </p> <p> the importance of the social champion is highlighted through this project. unwin (2009) notes that "<em>successful ict4d initiatives...require visionary champions who are able to generate the necessary commitment to drive them forward</em>" (p.366). the social champion, a university lecturer was essential in networking with organisations to set up the living lab pilot study and the living labs in south africa (llisa) network. </p> <p> c) <strong>business links</strong> </p> <p> by developing technology in-house, rlabs was not reliant on an external product and imported technology. the role of industry in rlabs has been to adopt innovative technological ideas, and to support the piloting and production of the jamiix platform. the industrial and academic champions were from the local community and were willing to invest in community regeneration. cofisa enabled meetings with international business groups who became important partners in the project. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> outcomes from the project </h3> <p> the following contact support centres using rlabs' mim solution have been set up and supported from the lab. </p> <ul> <li>drug advice support (das), launched in 2008, enables multiple advisors to assist during a given advice support session. the advisors are volunteers who have received training and offer advice services to users and families impacted by drug abuse. by june 2010, the das system has 57,062 subscribers. </li> <li>debt breaker: the number of consumers being over indebted has increased to an estimated 60% of the 19 million who require assistance in south africa. debt breaker, launched in april 2009, is a collaboration with a local debt counselling company to offer debt counselling via mobile phones to consumers who are excessively indebted. debt breaker services more than 1000 people via mobile technology. </li> <li>national aids helpline: in august 2009, rlabs collaborated with non-profit organisation cell-life to provide mobile counselling services to people impacted and affected by hiv/aids. by june 2010 this service provided services to 4,998 subscribers. </li> </ul> <p> mim has been patent protected and used by projects in europe, asia, and south africa, and brings an income to the living lab project which increases its sustainability. in 2010 the mobile counselling application was a finalist in the international bees award for best use of mobile social media<sup>1</sup> . </p> <p> the rlabs academy offers a series of courses to the community including advanced social media, online safety and ethics, entrepreneurship, and leadership. rlabs also runs training for the community with classes in social media; as well a mobile phone service for the unemployed in the region is provided through job advertisements by means of text messaging. </p> <p> rlabs has generated an income through employing people from the community to provide consulting services to other community groups, individuals, and businesses interested in social media for innovation. one of the projects that was developed out of this services and empowerment programme is she's the geek<sup>2</sup> which specialises in the use of technology to empower vulnerable women and also focus on digital marketing for well-known brands. </p> <p> the rlabs social franchise has been licensed in asia, europe, and south america. as well, rlabs partnered with the world bank at the official social media innovation fair in south africa in 2010<sup>3</sup> . </p> <p> further development plans include establishing rlabs in brazil, finland, kenya, portugal, malaysia, namibia, nigeria, and tanzania. plans for further research and evaluation will include the measurement of community outcomes, including the sustainability of the project. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> discussion </h3> <p> in areas of social deprivation and under developed educational achievement, such as small communities in south africa, projects presenting technology alone are unlikely to transform a community (stoecker, 2005a; castells, 1996). looking at the ikamva youth organisation in cape town, evoh (2009) noted that </p> <blockquote> "a combination of icts, proper training of teachers and the involvement of community-based organizations such as ikamva youth, will help to realize the greatest social and economic returns to investments in educational technologies" </blockquote> <p> evoh (2009) goes on to suggest that the sustainability of projects relies on sponsorship from government and private agencies. a major weakness of community empowerment is its dependence on external funding (schuurman, et al., 2009). being controlled by those with funding was a situation which the rlabs community wished to resist. it was envisioned that selling its innovations and services to non-government groups world-wide would enable the community to sustain itself. by 2011 this has begun, but the marketing of community developed products has not been straightforward. </p> <p> part of the challenge to community informatics is to enable the community to be the innovator of new technology (morris, 2006), and to be the major stakeholder in their community's regeneration. sustainable change has to be led by the community (bell, 2004). </p> <p> in theory, the living lab model requires the community to be the main stakeholder. however, the content analysis results of figure 1 suggested that this is not the situation with the majority of projects. this adds weight to folstad's argument that co-creation is an ambition rather than a realized approach (folstad, 2008: p.108). </p> <p> in its active approach to co-creation, rlabs identified five essential elements as important. </p> <ol> <li>a network of ngo agencies working together meant that rlabs was seen as a part of the community as well as being held to account to benefit the community. the programme draws from local experience and resources. social capital has been found in the community first and not in the information and communication technologies (icts) or in funding agents. the central role of voluntary activity in the set-up stage cannot be over emphasised. </li> <li>the adaptation of technologies used by the community members was seen to be central to the project's success. new technologies imported by outside 'experts' involving an uncertain community buy-in process was thereby avoided. </li> <li>identifying key champions in the community and as part of the stake-holder network are important to ensure successful activities. one of the roles of the champion is to identify the next person to be empowered. the mantra of rlabs has been, "<em>if you are on a course this year, you will be running it next year</em>". this philosophy has enabled activity to be increased through the organisation and new areas of innovation to be sustained. </li> <li>a strong social networking system, using different types of media, is important for supporting and strengthening activities in the community. rlabs has partnerships with community organisations, businesses, government departments, academia, and international partners, and these were key to ensuring sustainability of its activities. a well developed collaboration space was provided to facilitate and manage the partnerships with the community. this gave the project a presence and focus point in the community </li> <li>other stakeholders facilitated the development of rlabs through setting up a social climate in which social innovation was encouraged. the south african government has operated as an enabler of living lab models being undertaken by communities, creating a climate where community development through technology is possible and helping to create networks where the community can gain initial advice and funding. the role of academic stakeholders to train and encourage staff is important, as is the distribution of research and development amongst the various stakeholders at reduced cost. </li> </ol> <p> after three years, some of the challenges that rlabs faced and lessons that other initiatives taking a community-driven approach to community informatics could learn from are as follows: </p> <ul> <li>finding social champions is vital to the sustainability of the project. an organisational development of the persona of the champion has tried to ensure the recruitment of positive role models from the community. </li> <li>access to funding for community-driven informatics type projects has proved to be challenging when the approach is driven from an under resourced community. as collier (2008), stated in his book the '<em>bottom billion'</em> normal funding streams require guarantees of outcomes and a return:none of which is secure in under developed communities. community engagement also requires patience and time, collier states at least five years is required before researchers can build trust in a deprived community. most funding bodies ask for a return in two to three years. </li> <li>there is a lack of low-level and easy to understand research approaches from academic partners. this lack of appropriate language and research methods which the community could understand led to the rlabs members not understanding the research paradigm. rlabs managed to overcome this through mobilising more champions on the ground but a stronger community research mentorship programme is needed. it is not helped by the low educational achievement throughout the community due to low access to education and an historical culture of little social mobility into financially stable employment. </li> <li>rlabs has shared intellectual property (ip) with its partners. however, due to the distributed nature of research and development, and co-creation of innovations and technologies, working out the percentage ownership of any ip has proven to be difficult. guidelines to ownership should be available to avoid any uncertainties later in the process. developing strong business models that allows the community to benefit from the community informatics activities and to achieve sustainability is still lacking and rlabs is developing these on a need basis. </li> <li>although rlabs has and is continuing to expand its programmes nationally and internationally the process of expansion is tedious, due to both a lack of resources and funding. community empowerment to produce a product that is transferable to other markets needs collaboration with government and large corporations. however, rlabs has managed to find new partners internationally, for example vodacom, and aalto university. the rate of voluntary giving through the community remains high. </li> </ul> <h3 class="article_subhead"> conclusion </h3> <p> rlabs is testament to a bottom-up approach to social innovation. it supports stoecker's view that the community is interested in projects and being co-creative in innovation. it also increases the likelihood that living labs can provide transferable theoretical modelling that is of use to the field of community informatics., further work is required, however, to ensure the transferability of good practice to other situations. </p> <p> rlabs has required the community to be the main stakeholder in the project and has sought a sustainable model of social transformation. this fulfils the criteria of bradley for community informatics as how it benefits socially excluded groups. this can only be possible, however, in a social context where governments, businesses, and academic stakeholders are prepared to work with communities in a long-term, sustainable, educational, and capacity-building relationship. although academia and industry were involved in rlabs, the key academic actors and software developers were from the athlone community. it would have taken longer for people from outside to gain entry at a level that the community would trust. </p> <p> for community informatics to benefit the community in an empowering way, rlabs has demonstrated that it is important that key stakeholders come from the community as far as possible. outside stakeholders can assist, train and refine: they can also provide barriers to growth by reducing community capacities or enhance growth by giving opportunities to community members to network in different circles. for sustainable empowerment, however, innovative technology needs to be community driven, designed, and owned. further investigation is needed as to the groundwork necessary for such a symbiotic relationship to develop. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> footnotes </h3> <p> 1 http://memeburn.com/2010/10/local-ngo-nominated-for-prestigious-international-social-media-award/ </p> <p> 2 http://shesthegeek.co.za) </p> <p> 3 http://blogs.worldbank.org/category/tags/rlabs </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> references </h3> <div class="reference"> avglin, r. v. (2000). <em>stakeholder community development.</em> http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/114/anglin.html. retrieved january 2012. </div> <div class="reference"> bell, d. loader, b. d. pleace, n. and schuler, e. (2004). <em>cyberculture</em>. london, routledge. </div> <div class="reference"> bergvall-kareborn, k. holst, m. and st&aring;hlbr&ouml;st, a. (2009) concept design with a living lab approach. in <em>proceedings of international conference on system sciences,</em> hicss, 1-10 hawaii. </div> <div class="reference"> bhavnani, a., chiu, r. w. w., janakiram, s. and silarszky, p. (2008) <em>the role of mobile phone in sustainable rural poverty reduction</em>. ict policy division global information and communications department, world bank. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/extinformationandcommunicationandtechnologies/resources/the_role_of_mobile_phones_in_sustainable_rural_poverty_reduction_june_2008.pdf. retrieved january 2012. </div> <div class="reference"> bradley, g. 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(2008). a place to discuss the meeting of theory and practice on evolving virtual communities. in <em>proceedings of 5th prato community informatics and development informatics conference</em>, prato, italy. </div> <div class="reference"> dungre, a. r., deshmukh, p. r., kalaiselvan, g., &amp; upadhyaya, s. (2009). application of qualitative methods in health research: an overview. <em>online journal</em> of health and allied sciences, 8(4). </div> <div class="reference"> dutilleul, b.birrer, a. j. mensink, w. (2010). unpacking european living labs: analysing innovation's social dimensions. <em>central european journal of public policy</em> 4 (1) </div> <div class="reference"> economy watch (2010). <em>south africa telephone statistics: number of fixed lines, mobile phone penetration rate</em>. telephones mobile cellular. http://www.economywatch.com/economic-statistics/south-africa/telephone_statistics. retrieved january 2012. </div> <div class="reference"> european commission, (2010). <em>empowering people, driving change: social innovation in the european union</em>. france, bureau of european policy advisers. </div> <div class="reference"> http://ec.europa.eu/bepa/pdf/publications_pdf/social_innovation.pdf retrieved january 2012. </div> <div class="reference"> european network of living labs (2009). <em>aims and objectives of enoll projects</em> . http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/. retrieved january 2012 </div> <div class="reference"> eriksson, m. niitamo, v.p. and kulkki, s. (2005) <em>state-of-the-art in utilizing living labs approach to user-centric ict innovation a european approach</em>. technology (2005) volume: 1, issue: 13, pages: 1-13. </div> <div class="reference"> evoh, c. j. (2009) .the role of social entrepreneurs in deploying icts for youth and community development in south africa. <em>journal of community informatics</em> 5(1). </div> <div class="reference"> freeman(1984). strategic management: a stakeholder approach analysis. boston: pitman http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=npma_qeiopkc&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=pr5&amp;dq=strategic+management:+a+stakeholder+approach&amp;ots=6_dle7q9mi&amp;sig=pncwmhhupuwyhgw886trhuf5cwu#v=onepage&amp;q=strategic%20management%3a%20a%20stakeholder%20approach&amp;f=false retrieved january 2012 </div> <div class="reference"> folstad, a. 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(2004). <em>content analysis for new media: rethinking the paradigms</em> (2004). new research for new media: innovative research methodologies symposium working papers and readings, pp. 47-66retrieved from http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~herring/newmedia.pdf. retrieved january 2012 </div> <div class="reference"> hribernik, k. (2005) <em>brainbridges</em> referred to by mirijamdotter, a., st&aring;hlbr&ouml;st a., s&auml;llstr&ouml;m a. niitamo, v. p. and kulkki, s. <em>the european network of living labs for cwe user centric co-creation and innovation</em>, in cunningham, p. and cunningham, m. (eds.), <em>exploiting the knowledge economy vol 3</em>, washington: ios press, pp 840-848. </div> <div class="reference"> living labs in south africa (2009). <em>home page.</em> retrieved october 2009 http://llisa.meraka.org.za/index.php/living_labs_in_southern_africa. retrieved january 2012 </div> <div class="reference"> mirijamdotter, a., st&aring;hlbr&ouml;st, a., s&auml;llstr&ouml;m, a., niitamo, v.-p. and kulkki, s. (2006) the european network of living labs for cwe user-centric co-creation and innovation. in. cunningham, p. and cunningham, m. (eds.), <em>exploiting the knowledge economy: vol 3</em>, amsterdam: ios press, pp 840-848. </div> <div class="reference"> morris, c. (2006) a comparative study of eadoption activities in south africa and mozambique. in cunningham, p. and cunningham m. (eds.), <em>exploiting the knowledge economy vol 3</em>, washington: ios press, pp 635-643. </div> <div class="reference"> mxit lifestyle (2009) <em>mxit and your business</em>.. http://www.nitsak.com/e-marketing/mxit.html retrieved january 2012 </div> <div class="reference"> nitsckie, w. b., &amp; parker, m. b. (2009). mobile instant messaging: "help at the </div> <div class="reference"> fingertips of addicts". <em>information &amp; design papers and reports</em>, paper 24. http://dk.cput.ac.za/inf_papers/24/. retrieved january 2012 </div> <div class="reference"> oxford dictionary (2010). http://www.oed.com/ </div> <div class="reference"> parker, m. wills, g. and wills, j. (2008). <em>community in tension (cit)</em>. electronics and computer science, university of southampton, technical report ecstr-lsl08-002. </div> <div class="reference"> parker, m. (2010). rlabs.in james, t. (ed) <em>enhancing innovation in south africa: the cofisa experience.</em> p78. pretoria; department of science and technology. government of south africa. </div> <div class="reference"> parker, m., wills, g., &amp; wills, j. (2010). using mobile instant messaging to support the substance abuse problem amongst youth in south africa. <em>4th international development informatic association</em>. cape town </div> <div class="reference"> robson, c. (2002). <em>real world research</em>. 2nd ed. oxford: blackwell press. </div> <div class="reference"> stoecker, r. (2005a). <em>research methods for community change</em>. london: sage. </div> <div class="reference"> stoecker, r. (2005b). is community informatics good for communities? questions confronting an emerging field. <em>journal of community informatics</em> 1(3), pp 13-26. </div> <div class="reference"> schuurman, d., evens, t. and de marez, l. (2009). a living lab research approach for mobile tv<em>.</em> in <em>proceedings of the 7th european interactive television conference</em>. leuven, belgium, new york: acm, pp 189-196. </div> <div class="reference"> unwin, t. (2009). <em>ict4d</em>. cambridge: cambridge university press. </div> <div class="reference"> vodacom (2009). commercial website. http://www.vodacom.co.za/personal/main/home. retrieved january 2012. </div> <h3 class="article_subhead"> appendix a: acronyms </h3><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3160/version/2142/4118/16731/table1.png" class="article_image" width= "539" height="240" alt="test image"> </div> <div id="article"> <h2 id="article_title"> implementing state-level technological literacy policy in rural pennsylvania </h2> <div id="article_author"> jeffrey a. stone </div> <p> pennsylvania state university<br> 200 university drive<br> schuylkill haven, pa 17972<br> (570) 385-6267<br> stonej@psu.edu </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> introduction </h3> <p> the need for a technologically literate workforce is a defined public problem in the united states. consequently, federal and state governments have been actively funding policies designed to build technological literacy or so-called "21st century skills" among k-12 students. the lack of a uniform definition for technological literacy, an absence of student assessment, and the decentralized nature of the k-12 system have made it difficult to determine if these policies and programs (federal and state-level) have been effective. the study discussed in this article uses a mixed-methods approach to examine the implementation of one state-level technological literacy policy: pennsylvania's classrooms for the future (cff) program. </p> <p> public education represents the largest public enterprise in the united states, both in terms of public investment and bureaucracy. given the complex, loosely coupled, and diverse nature of the educational system, investigations of educational policy implementation require a consideration of street-level characteristics and environmental context. efforts to build technological literacy in public schools require understanding and support from so-called "street-level bureaucrats"; i.e., the teachers and administrators responsible for policy implementation. existing implementation research suggests that successful implementation requires street-level attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors commensurate with policy goals. </p> <p> pennsylvania's cff program has involved over $150 million in state expenditures, but little is known about how the policy is actually being implemented. the purpose of this study is to begin filling in this information gap by analyzing how cff is implemented in one pennsylvania intermediate unit (iu). this study focuses on the implementing agents school district teachers and administrators. the attitudes, behavior, and perceptions of street-level implementers are recognized as being of fundamental importance to policy implementation. given that the cff program intends to make a dramatic shift in public education practices, consideration of street-level context and implementer characteristics is critical to understanding cff implementation. the fundamental question addressed by this study is as follows: how are state-level technological literacy policies implemented in context? </p> <p> this educational policy implementation study investigates the local-level policy context, outputs (activities) and implementer characteristics (attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors) as they apply to the cff program. this study uses a modified "bottom-up"-style approach to policy implementation research by investigating a specific educational policy through the lens of street-level bureaucrats (teachers) and public managers (school and district administrators) with considerations of environmental context. the information obtained from this study is expected to provide insight into: (1) how a state-level technological literacy policy is implemented in context, and (2) how the attitudes, behavior, and perceptions of street-level implementers and public managers affect the implementation of technological literacy policies. </p> <p> first, the article examines the conceptual and practical background of technological literacy and related policies in the united states, with a special focus on pennsylvania and the cff program. the article then proceeds to describe a research design used for investigating the implementation of cff in a set of eight school districts. finally, the results of this study are reported and discussed. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> background </h3> <p> there is no single definition of <em>technological literacy</em>. the definitions are said to be constantly evolving due to rapid technological change (patterson, 2005). a commonly held misconception is that technological literacy equates to simply the ability to use computers or other information technologies proficiently (weber, 2005). while the use and application of computers and information technology is a critical component, technological literacy is an educational outcome that involves more than just computer-based abilities. technological literacy includes "the ability to use, manage, understand, and assess technology" (emeagwali, 2004) and is said to involve three interrelated dimensions: knowledge, ways of thinking/acting, and capabilities. these dimensions are intended to permit individuals to make informed and intelligent decisions about technology and the world in general, thus enabling them to be productive members of modern society (pearson &amp; young, 2002). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> the 21st century skillset </h3> <p> the traditional staples of literacy reading, writing, and arithmetic skills are necessarily foundations for technological literacy, as is the ability to proficiently use information and computer technologies. technological literacy can be considered a new form of literacy that reflects the complexity of the information age and the global economy. the aptitudes that make an individual technologically literate are often called "21st century skills." these skills are based on the ability to use, manage, interpret, validate, and synthesize information. in the 21st century, information is increasingly consumed, synthesized, and disseminated via electronic means. the proficient use of information and computer technologies is therefore a necessity for both academic and professional success. technological literacy sees information technologies as only one element used to solve real-world problems. modern problems may be simple or complex; span disciplinary, geographic, and cultural boundaries; and necessitate collaboration, creativity, and innovation. technical skills must therefore be complemented with traditional "soft skills" such as creativity, cultural awareness, and leadership in order to effectively solve real-world problems. the modern conception of technological literacy therefore stresses technical, cognitive, and interpersonal skills rather than simply the memorization of knowledge. a list of these "21st century skills" can be found in table 1. </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/2755/version/2001/3536/12822/table1.png" class="article_image" width="580" height="238" alt="table 1"> <div class="image_caption"> table 1: 21st century skills components. </div> <p> fundamental to the concept of technological literacy is the ability to think critically and solve problems. such skills are important as computerization has raised the demand for these non-routine abilities (the partnership for 21st century skills, 2008). real-world problems are often open-ended, abstract, multidisciplinary, and require innovative solutions. a technologically literate individual would have the ability to create and/or identify innovative solutions to these problems. the problem-solving process would be enabled by information and computer technologies and would necessarily consider the multiple stakeholders, potential effects, and the issues (social, political, cultural, economic, and technical) that impact the problem. solutions would necessarily be communicated using multiple modes (e.g., oral, written) and multiple media. the modern workplace is said to place a premium on these "portable" skills, as well as the ability to apply critical judgment to a situational analysis (wallis &amp; steptoe, 2006). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> foundations of technological literacy </h3> <p> technological literacy can be thought of as an amalgamation of other theoretical and applied notions of modern literacy. the ability to use, assess, and distill a large amount of information is a critical component of the problem-solving process. the term <em>information fluency</em> is often used to describe this component of technological literacy. information fluency represents the intersection of information literacy, computer literacy, and critical thinking (o'hanlon, 2002). <em>information literacy</em> focuses on the acquisition, generation, evaluation, and utilization of information. information literacy encompasses a basic knowledge of computers, including the functional use of application software and internet search capabilities (wen &amp; shih, 2006; murray et al., 2007). <em>computer literacy</em> has evolved from the original emphasis on computer applications to a focus on the use of information technologies with critical understanding (hoffman &amp; vance, 2005). another term, <em>media literacy</em>, has also intersected with information fluency. media literacy involves the ability to evaluate and critically assess information products for bias and accuracy (minkel, 2002). traditional sources of information have been replaced with more visual, multimedia sources, often with little or no editorial control. media literacy emphasizes the social construction of information and advocates the skills necessary to identify the relationships between information, power, and populations (kellner &amp; share, 2007). </p> <p> a final aspect of technological literacy involves personal and workplace productivity skills. this includes so-called <em>emotional intelligence</em> and interpersonal skills, as well as time management and the ability to adapt to changing priorities and circumstances (wallis &amp; steptoe, 2006). the emphasis on teamwork and the geographic dispersion of many industries means that problem-solving is often collaborative and multicultural in nature. coordination, communication, and leadership skills are therefore essential (wallis &amp; steptoe, 2006; the partnership for 21st century skills, 2008). technologically literate individuals must be comfortable in team situations, knowledgeable about other cultures, and be able to communicate in multiple media and languages. technological literacy also emphasizes the need for lifelong learning; the rapidly changing nature of technology, industries, and geopolitical realities means that adaptation is an essential skill in the modern workplace. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> technological literacy in the united states: shortfalls and consequences </h3> <p> a number of studies (e.g., o'hanlon, 2002; stone &amp; madigan, 2007; hilberg &amp; meiselwitz, 2008) have raised concerns that k-12 graduates reach the university level with insufficient technological literacy skills. technological literacy has become an implicit expectation that public schools, colleges, and universities have for their students. today's recent k-12 graduates are viewed as <em>digital natives</em>, proficient with information and computer technologies and having the personalities, learning styles, and communications commensurate with a connected society (prensky, 2001; hoffman &amp; vance, 2005). research confirms that information and computer technologies are integral to the daily lives of many of these students (o'hanlon, 2002; hilberg &amp; meiselwitz, 2008). </p> <p> however, recent evidence suggests that while information and computer technology plays a large part in students' lives, technology usage does not necessarily translate into being technologically literate. a study by the educational testing service suggests that students use computers heavily for communication tasks (e.g., e-mail, social networking, instant messaging) but lack the problem-solving and advanced software skills necessary to use computers in a technologically literate manner and, thus, achieve academic and professional success (murray et al., 2007; hilberg &amp; meiselwitz, 2008). organization for economic co-operation and development (oecd) assessments of 15year-olds across 40 countries through the programme for international student assessment (pisa) in 2006 showed u.s. students as scoring below the oecd average in both science and mathematics. these assessments measure the inquiry-based skills considered fundamental to technological literacy (organization for economic co-operation and development, 2007). </p> <p> the technological literacy of k-12 and collegiate graduates is of fundamental importance to u.s. national security, economic and otherwise. for example, the bureau of labor statistics (2007) reports that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) careers will experience some of the largest salary and employment growth over the next 10 years. if the u.s. cannot produce stem graduates with the necessary skills to enter this workforce, the u.s. national economy will suffer. recent statistics have indicated that the number of stem degrees granted in the united states has been in steady decline and is not keeping pace with the growth of stem-related jobs (national science board, 2006, still, 2009). these factors, coupled with comparatively poor stem literacy among k-12 students, raises concerns that the u.s. is losing its competitive edge and its economic security (stake &amp; mares, 2001). the global economy means that american workers are competing for jobs with workers in countries that invest heavily in technology education (e.g., india, china). oecd data suggests that performance on the pisa assessments is correlated with the level of gdp growth, further underscoring the importance of the "21st century skills" found in technological literacy. to produce the knowledge workers of tomorrow, schools must produce technologically literate students today. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> educational policy and technological literacy </h3> <p> public policies at both the federal and state levels have begun to address the issue of how to build technological literacy among k-12 students. the federal government invests heavily in public education, both in terms of funding and policy construction. the u.s. department of education, the national science foundation, and other federal agencies fund, evaluate, direct, and otherwise guide public stem education to the tune of approximately $3 billion per year. the federal no child left behind act of 2001 (nclb), though primarily designed to enact standards-based reform in public education, mandates technological literacy for eighth grade students. the nclb also initiated the enhancing education through technology program to provide a federal source of funding for k-12 technology, though the program was discontinued in 2011 (devaney, 2011). the recent <em>national education technology plan</em> has also reaffirmed the need for more integrated use of educational technology in k-12 (u.s. department of education, 2010). efforts by policymakers to build technological literacy into the curriculum have been complicated by a several factors the lack of a uniform definition for technological literacy, the lack of systematic assessment data, the myriad state standards and local-level curricula, and a dearth of policy leadership at the federal level. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> <em>the states as policy innovators</em> </h3> <p> the individual states have been the primary policy actors in building technological literacy among k-12 students. states have been working to share practices, to form a common agreement on what technological literacy actually means, and to devise the best methods of assessment. despite the federal mandate of technologically literate eighth grade students, evidence supporting progress in this area is almost nonexistent. the overall lack of assessment has two main causes. first, the specific reporting requirements for this mandate have not been defined by the u.s. department of education, leaving many states hesitant to invest in assessment tools for technological literacy. this is especially true as nclb has already imposed substantial data collection, reporting, and assessment burdens on the states for other subjects. second, the lack of a federal definition of technological literacy has led to a myriad of competing standards for technological literacy (e.g., the international society for technology in education, international technology education association). </p> <p> one method by which states and local school districts have attempted to build technological literacy into the k-12 curriculum is through so-called "one-to-one" programs. these programs provide a laptop to every student in the hopes of encouraging teachers to build instructional processes more appropriate for teaching 21st century skills. these programs use technology to encourage fundamental changes in traditional teacher and student roles. the shift from traditional pedagogical methods to more collaborative, inquiry-based approaches creates a partnership of sorts in the student-teacher relationship. students assume more responsibility for their learning and work in teams to solve complex, real-world problems. students benefit through increases in collaborative learning, individualized instruction, and interdisciplinary experiences, as well as increasing self-esteem, respect, and self-confidence. teachers see their roles shift to facilitator, coordinator, and instructional designer. expected benefits for teachers are the acquisition of new technological and pedagogical skills and an improved classroom climate (mcghee &amp; kozma, 2003; fairman, 2004). other benefits are thought to be a decrease in disciplinary problems and an increase in academic achievement (bebell, 2005). many of these programs include funding for both equipment and teacher training. </p> <p> transforming educational practice and learning outcomes is inherently complex, but there is anecdotal evidence that one-to-one programs can have positive impacts. one example of an apparently successful one-to-one program can be found in the state of maine, which implemented the maine learning technology initiative (mlti) in 2002. this pioneering one-to-one program targeted all seventhand eighth-grade students in the state. as of 2007 the program had reached all maine middle schools, with 37,000 students participating (clark, 2007). the mlti program was approved by the state legislature in 2002 and was renewed in 2006. formal evaluations have been overwhelmingly positive, citing the aforementioned benefits of one-to-one programs (fairman, 2004; garthwait &amp; weller, 2004). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> <em>pennsylvania's classroom for the future program</em> </h3> <p> pennsylvania's cff program was designed to increase the ability of pennsylvania's k-12 graduates to compete in the global economy. the cff program had two key components. first, the state offered complete funding for the purchase of laptops and software to eligible high schools and technical schools across pennsylvania. second, the state provided teachers with the professional development, training, and technical support necessary to fully take advantage of technology within the classroom using modern instructional "best practices." the cff program places an emphasis on the aforementioned change in instructional processes and learning methodologies, as well as a change in classroom roles. the goal of the cff program was to create "environments for deeper cognitive development through inquiry, real and relevant project-based learning, and differentiated instruction" and to enable pennsylvania students to acquire the 21st century skills they need (pennsylvania department of education, 2009). </p> <p> implementation of the cff program began in 2006-2007. the program was implemented in 447 school districts as of 2009. more than 140,000 laptops were purchased via the program, resulting in an estimated participation of 500,000 high school students as of 2009. all eligible schools must teach courses in "core" subject areas (math, science, language arts, and social studies) and be accountable to the state via nclb requirements. eligible schools were funded through a competitive application process. schools that participate in cff are provided with funding for laptops, software, teacher training and professional development, and supporting equipment. funding is also provided for an on-site "coach" to assist teachers in the use of equipment and software. the pennsylvania department of education also provides web-based resources to enhance curriculum development and instruction (wagner, 2008). </p> <p> actual state expenditures for the cff program totaled $155 million by the end of the 2008-2009 school year. the staggered implementation of the program resulted in only 30 districts and one vocational school being fully funded as of 2008. the other 417 participating districts were at various stages of funding and implementation (wagner, 2008). the 2009-2010 pennsylvania state budget did not provide any additional funds for cff, though additional funding was available in some circumstances through the american reinvestment &amp;amp; recovery act. preliminary evaluation reports from the pennsylvania state university noted the successes of the program (e.g., peck et al., 2009). high school teachers involved in the program were found to be more energized and had a greater appreciation for the value of technology in their instruction. lecture time was reduced as students engaged in more group-based, problem-based learning activities. students were found to be more engaged and teachers were excited by the program (wagner, 2008). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> investigating the implementation of cff </h3> <p> the enormity of the k-12 system, the de-centralized nature of the public education system, and sometimes competing educational priorities (i.e., nclb) make technological literacy programs a particularly complex educational policy issue. the slow development of federal guidance and funding support has led individual states to build their own technological literacy policies and programs. while states often share experiences and best practices, the diversity of state policies complicates any attempt at any generalized evaluation of their effectiveness. the diversity of educational experiences and socioeconomic conditions across school districts further complicates these efforts. more specific, context-dependent information is needed to assess the effectiveness of state policies related to technological literacy. studies that evaluate the implementation of these policies must take into account street-level attitudes, perceptions, understandings, and behavior as well as the context in which implementation occurs. </p> <p> the cff program intends to make a dramatic shift in public education practices by changing how students are taught and how they learn. however, capacity to implement a policy is about more than just the provision of tangible resources. implementers must see the policy as valuable enough to force a break from established practices. policy implementation is said to begin with the first actions and decisions of implementers; as a result, their behavior, preferences, and understandings has great bearing on understanding the implementation process (goggin, 1986). policy "meaning" is created in context, based on the skills, knowledge, values, and biases of implementers, as well as the environment in which implementation takes place (yanow, 1996). policies often contain compromise language that is intentionally vague and sometimes conflicting, leading implementers to exercise discretion (hill &amp; hupe, 2002; hill, 2003). recognizing the understandings, perceptions, and cognitive abilities of implementers <em>street-level bureaucrats</em> is therefore essential to understanding the implementation process. </p> <p> implementing agent discretion has been recognized as an impetus for policy success or failure (riccucci, 2005). many studies of street-level implementation use implementer attitudes and perceptions as proxies for behavior (kelly, 1994; hill &amp; hupe, 2002; riccucci, 2005). consideration of implementer understandings, resources, and motives is considered important for explaining what unfolds in actual implementation (lester &amp; goggin, 1998; o'toole, 2000). the <em>bottom-up</em> perspective of implementation research recognizes that street-level personnel exercise discretion in implementation, and this discretion ultimately is a factor in the eventual "success" of the implementation. consequently, analysis relies heavily on the goals, perceptions, understandings, and activities of implementation personnel (sabatier, 1986; matland, 1995; riccucci, 2005). </p> <p> scholars such as ingram (1990) and matland (1995) moved the study of policy implementation towards <em>contingency</em> theories. contingency theories recognize the importance of the environmental context in determining an appropriate implementation strategy (chackerian &amp; mavima, 2001; deleon, 1999). contingency perspectives argue that both top-down and bottom-up perspectives can be useful, depending on the scenario (chackerian &amp; mavima, 2001). the public education system in the united states is difficult to change, given the high levels of teacher autonomy and the loose coupling of schools and districts (mcdermott, 2006). pennsylvania's funding system for schools which focuses on property taxes as the primary funding source means that educational capacity varies significantly across pennsylvania. as a result, the environmental context is an important factor in cff implementation. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> study design </h3> <p> this educational policy implementation study employs a modified bottom-up, mixed-methods approach to investigate how pennsylvania's cff program is implemented in a set of eight (8) rural school districts. the purpose of this study is to better understand how one state-level technological literacy policy is implemented at the street level. by combining the bottom-up focus on street-level implementers with contingency-style concerns of implementation context, this study provides insight into how the cff policy is implemented. such information can have valuable implications for understanding what makes these policies and programs successful (or not) and can inform subsequent educational policy efforts in this domain. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> research questions </h3> <p> there are three top-level research questions this study will address. the first research question is: <em>how are k-12 teachers using technology to enhance learning?</em> this question is intended to illuminate the on-the-ground outputs (activities) of districts designed to build technological literacy. the second research question is: <em>how are k-12 teachers adapting their practices through the use of cff resources?</em> the activities of k-12 teachers (the street-level implementers) represent the actual implementation of cff. the cff program is designed to facilitate a transformation in pedagogical practices; if teachers are not making this transformation, the policy will not be successful. the third research question is: <em>what contextual challenges exist in cff implementation?</em> local-level context is the setting in which implementation occurs consequently, it colors many of the activities, perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of implementers. this includes personal, environmental, and organizational challenges, as well as the actions of administrators to encourage the implementation process. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> units of analysis </h3> <p> the eight rural school districts participating in this study exist within a single pennsylvania intermediate unit. these districts include 13 middle and high schools. all districts are cff-eligible and all have participated in the state cff program for at least one year. the study involves two distinct groups of participants in each district. the first group is the set of teachers at the individual schools ("teachers"). teachers are ultimately responsible for using the cff equipment and resources, and for being innovators in the implementation of cff-style curriculum content. the attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors of the teachers will be a significant factor in whether or not cff is successful. the second group is the combination of district superintendents, curriculum coordinators (district-level and/or school-level), and school principals ("administrators"). these agents represent the managers in this context. in terms of cff, the leadership actions of administrators tangible and intangible should directly affect implementation of the cff policy by teachers. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> data collection and analysis procedures </h3> <p> data collection involved both quantitative and qualitative methods. custom survey instruments were delivered to both teachers and administrators. these surveys were developed in consultation with the existing literature, as well as input from school administrators, teachers, and faculty colleagues. the set of specific survey questions was broken into three subsets. the first subset targeted technological literacy efforts within the school and/or district (not specific to cff), including questions about technological literacy practices. the second subset of questions was directed at practices specific to the cff program. the third subset of questions included individual demography questions. questions necessarily varied by group but many of the questions were shared between surveys. survey participants were recruited by e-mail. each survey was delivered to participants via the surveymonkey online survey tool (http://www.surveymonkey.com/). the survey responses were then coded and analyzed using spss statistical software. besides frequency analysis, three statistical analysis methods were utilized. the chi-square test was used to detect significant correlations between categorical variables. the cramer's v test was used to verify the chi-square results and to measure the strength of significant chi-square associations. finally, pearson's <em>r</em> was used to measure the strength and direction of significant chi-square associations between ordinal variables. </p> <p> a series of four (4) focus group sessions was also held to gain a deeper understanding of how technological literacy and cff is being implemented in the participating districts. these sessions involved only teachers, were held within four different school districts, and involved teachers from a diverse set of disciplines and levels of cff involvement. each focus group session was recorded and transcribed. focus group questions were broken into three primary subsets. the first subset of questions was targeted at technological literacy efforts within the school and/or district (cff-specific and otherwise). the second subset of questions was directed at teachers' perceptions of cff impacts on their teaching practices. the third subset of questions gathered information on the personal, organizational, and/or environmental factors that challenged teachers' implementation of cff. </p> <p> focus group participants were selected by two methods. first, teachers were recruited via e-mail. second, this researcher worked with district administrators to ensure an adequate number of participants in each focus group. the four districts chosen from the overall sample included the district with the highest amount of cff funding, the district with the largest enrollment, the district with the highest per-pupil expenditures and revenues, and the district with the highest ayp percentages of students assessed as "advanced or proficient" for reading and mathematics among the sample districts. the choice of districts for the focus groups was based solely on teacher participation. qualitative data from the focus groups were coded and analyzed using maxqda 2007 software. </p> <p> a third aspect of data collection involved solicitation and review of sample project assignments provided by teachers in the participating districts. these materials were solicited prior to the focus group sessions. these classroom materials were expected to provide insight into the actual classroom activities of teachers and therefore complement the self-reported data from the surveys and the qualitative data from the focus groups. these materials were both paper-based and electronic (sent via e-mail). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> findings </h3> <p> the following sections describe survey, focus group, and documentation results designed to elicit the on-the-ground outputs (activities) of districts intending to build technological literacy, primarily through the cff program. the activities of k-12 teachers (the street-level implementers) and administrators (the public managers) represent the actual implementation of cff. by gaining this knowledge, it was expected that a clearer picture of the implementation behavior of street-level personnel would be obtained. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> survey results </h3> <p> a total of 151 teacher survey responses were recorded for a response rate of 26.2% (n=574.7 fte). the number of survey responses varied by question. the respondents were primarily female (68.4%, n=114) and white/caucasian (95.6%, n=113). most respondents had received a masters degree (57.6%, n=115). the teaching disciplines of respondents were also varied. teachers from the four "core" subjects represented over half of the respondents (n=113). in terms of specific subjects, 23.0% teach language arts, 15.9% teach science, 8.0% teach mathematics, and 7.1% teach social studies. prominent other disciplines included special education (15.9%), physical education/health (5.6%), and art, business, technology education, and foreign languages (3.5% each). </p> <p> ninety-nine of the 151 teacher respondents were eligible to answer the cff-related questions. specifically, only those teachers who reported themselves as teaching in grades 9-12 were given access to the cff-related questions. this restriction was due to the nature of the cff program, which specifically targets mathematics, social studies, language arts, and science teachers in grades 9-12. of these 99 teachers, 45 (45.5%) reported themselves as cff coaches or users of cff equipment. teachers in grades 7-8 were not given access to the cff-related questions. teachers in grades 7-8 were given access to technological literacy questions that were not cff-specific, as it is likely that these concepts impact their pedagogy. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> <em>teacher survey: technology in the classroom access, use, and integration</em> </h3> <p> teachers were asked a series of survey questions about technology use for classroom instruction. these questions focused on three things: access to technology in the classroom, the frequency of teachers' technology use in the classroom, and the frequency of student technology use in the classroom. all questions involved a set of 16 specific technologies, ranging from traditional office software to more modern web 2.0 technologies and interactive smartboards. a description of these 16 technologies is provided in table 2. </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/2755/version/2001/3536/12823/table2.png" class="article_image" width="580" height="592" alt="table 2"> <div class="image_caption"> table 2: technology descriptions. </div> <p> teachers reported having access to a wide variety of technologies for classroom instruction. traditional microsoft office-style tools word processing (91.6%, n=119), spreadsheets (73.1%, n=119), and presentation software (73.1%, n=119) were the most frequently cited accessible technologies, followed by smartboards (71.4%, n=119), student laptops (64.7%, n=119), and streaming video (63.0%, n=119). web 2.0 technologies such as social networking web sites (5.9%, n=119); rss (10.1%, n=119); podcasting (30.3%, n=119); and blogs (33.6%, n=119) were cited infrequently. this lack of access was to be expected, as all school districts in the study make many web 2.0 sites (e.g., facebook, myspace, youtube) inaccessible to faculty, staff, and students. some web 2.0 technologies like wikis (42.9%, n=119) and streaming video (63.0%, n=119) are frequently provided as internally or externally controlled options in lieu of more public outlets. multimedia authoring software was also rarely cited (26.1%, n=119), despite modern perceptions of students as "visual learners." </p> <p> teachers were then asked to indicate the frequency of their use of these 16 technologies for classroom instruction. the frequency was measured using a six-level scale (<em>not used, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly</em>, or <em>unknown</em>). the results suggest a general lack of technology use by teachers in the classroom. <em>not used</em> was the most popular response for 13 of the 16 technologies. not surprisingly, web 2.0 technologies like blogs, social networking, and podcasts/podcasting were among the most frequently cited as <em>not used</em>. three other technologies presentation software, word processing software, and smartboards were most frequently cited as being used on a <em>daily</em> basis. </p> <p> responses from cff coaches and teachers alone were slightly more diverse. <em>not used</em> was the most frequent response for 10 of the 16 technologies, but cff coaches and teachers most often reported <em>daily</em> use for smartboards (73.3%, n=45) and for word processing, presentation, and database software. student laptops, the core of the cff program, were most often reported as being used <em>weekly</em> by cff coaches and teachers (31.8%, n=44), with only 15.9% reporting <em>daily</em> use. the frequent use of smartboards by all groups is not surprising, as smartboards are one of the more currently popular educational technologies. </p> <p> two additional questions were posed to uncover how technology and technological literacy are integrated into classroom practice. teachers were asked how often they assigned problems, projects, or assignments that required their students to use the 15 component skills of technological literacy listed in table 1. teachers were given a five-level scale (<em>never, daily, weekly, monthly,</em> and <em>quarterly</em>) from which to choose. nine of the 15 skills were most often reported as necessary for <em>daily</em> projects, problems, or assignments. the other six component skills inquiry-based learning skills, collaborative skills, basic computer skills, leadership and coordination skills, cultural awareness, and multidisciplinary thinking were most often reported as being necessary for <em>weekly</em> projects, problems, or assignments. the components most frequently reported for <em>daily</em> assignments included several of the so-called "soft skills" time management skills (74.8%, n=115), interpersonal skills (69.8%, n=116), communication skills (66.4%, n=116), and lifelong learning (63.5%, n=115) along with critical thinking skills (57.8%, n=116) and problem-solving skills (60.0%, n=115). the results for cff coaches and teachers were similar; nine of the 15 component skills were most often reported as necessary for <em>daily</em> projects, problems, or assignments. the other six component skills inquiry-based learning skills, creativity and innovation, collaborative skills, basic computer skills, leadership and coordination skills, and multidisciplinary thinking were most often reported as being necessary for <em>weekly</em> projects, problems, or assignments. </p> <p> when asked how often students use technology to build technological literacy skills in their classes, the teacher responses were more uniform. teachers were given a six-level scale (<em>never, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly,</em> and <em>unknown</em>) from which to choose. teachers most often reported that students use technology in their classes <em>weekly</em> to build 14 of the 15 component skills. the lone exception lifelong learning skills was reported equally between two categories (<em>daily</em> and <em>monthly</em>). the component skills most frequently reported being used via <em>weekly</em> student technology use were critical thinking skills (43.5%, n=115), creativity and innovation (39.1%, n=115), problem-solving and inquiry-based learning skills (both 37.4%, n=115), and basic computer skills (36.8%, n=114). cff coaches and teachers most often reported that students use technology <em>weekly</em> to build all 15 component skills. </p> <p> chi-square and cramer's v analysis was performed to identify significant correlations between the frequency of assigned problems, projects, or assignments that required students to use technological literacy skills and how often students use technology to build these skills. the results (table 3) showed significant correlations at the (p &#8804; 0.01) level for 10 of the 15 component skills, and at the (p &#8804; 0.05) level for three other component skills. these results suggest that efforts to build technological literacy skills often involve the actual use of technology, though earlier results suggest that the set of technologies used may not be diverse. </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/2755/version/2001/3536/12824/table3.png" class="article_image" width="580" height="380" alt="table 3"> <div class="image_caption"> table 3: teacher responses: chi-square analysis frequency of assignments involving technological literacy skills vs. student technology use to build technological literacy skills. </div> <h3 class="article_subhead"> <em>administrators: technology access, use, and integration</em> </h3> <p> administrators were also asked a series of similar questions to elicit information on teachers' access to technology in the classroom, the frequency of teachers' technology use in the classroom, and the frequency of student technology use in the classroom. all questions involved the set of 16 specific technologies found in the teacher survey. </p> <p> administrators reported that teachers in their school/district have access to a wide variety of technologies for classroom instruction. word processing software and smartboards or similar devices were the most frequently selected technologies (100.0% for both, n=21), followed by student laptops (95.2%) and spreadsheets and presentation software (85.7% for both, n=21). web 2.0 technologies such as social networking web sites (9.5%, n=21); real simple syndication (9.5%, n=21); podcasting (42.9%, n=21) were cited infrequently. this lack of access was to be expected, given the aforementioned "blocking" of many web 2.0 sites. some web 2.0 technologies wikis (66.7%, n=21), blogs (71.4%, n=21), and streaming video (81.0%, n=21) were frequent selections. wikis and streaming video are frequently provided as in-house, controlled options in lieu of more public outlets. as with the teacher survey, multimedia authoring software was cited infrequently (33.3%, n=21). </p> <p> administrators were then asked to indicate the frequency of teachers' use of these 16 technologies for classroom instruction. the frequency was measured using a six-level scale (<em>not used, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly</em>, or <em>unknown</em>). the results show a general lack of knowledge on how frequently technology is used by teachers in the classroom, but a more positive perception on classroom technology use than teachers. <em>unknown</em> was the most frequent selection for 10 of the 16 technologies. despite the aforementioned restrictions on web 2.0 technologies, <em>not used</em> was the most popular response for only one web 2.0 technology (social networking, 68.4%, n=19). the office productivity software presentations, word processing, and spreadsheets were most frequently cited as being used on a daily basis. common cff technologies smartboards (81.0%, n=21) and student laptops (52.4%, n=21) were also cited most frequently as being used on a daily basis. </p> <p> administrators were next asked how often students use technology to build technological literacy skills in class. the administrator responses suggest a greater confidence or knowledge that technology is being used in the classroom, despite earlier responses. administrators were given a six-level scale (<em>never, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly,</em> and <em>unknown</em>) from which to choose. administrators most often reported that students use technology in their classes daily to build communication skills (42.9%, n=21), critical thinking skills (42.9%, n=21), problem-solving skills (47.6%, n=21), and basic computer skills (61.9%, n=21). the use of technology to build creativity and innovation skills was equally split between <em>daily</em> and <em>weekly</em> (38.1%, n=21 each), and the use of technology to build students' ability to use, interpret, validate, and synthesize information was equally split between <em>daily</em> and <em>unknown</em> (33.3%, n=21). not surprisingly, <em>unknown</em> was the most frequent selection (either alone or tied) for nine of the 15 component skills. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> <em>teacher survey: how are teachers adapting their practices via cff resources?</em> </h3> <p> as a companion to the earlier questions regarding technology use, teachers in grades 9-12 were asked to identify how frequently they use the cff resources within their school/district. the responses indicated that 42.0% (n=100) do not use the available cff resources, 35.0% use them on a daily basis, 11.0% use them weekly, and 5% use the cff resources monthly. for cff coaches and teachers alone (n=45), 4.4% reported non-use of the cff resources or monthly use, 64.4% reported daily use, and 24.44% reported weekly use. these results suggest heavy integration of cff resources by cff teachers, as can reasonably be expected. </p> <p> in terms of classroom pedagogy, teachers overwhelmingly agreed/strongly agreed that technology is an integral part of their day-to-day instruction (74.8%, n=127), in contrast to the prior results suggesting limited classroom technology use. teachers also frequently agreed/strongly agreed that their classes were structured around active or inquiry-based learning, both overall (74.8%, n=127) and for cff coaches and teachers alone (77.8%, n=45). the responses for these two questions were highly correlated for all teachers (x<sup>2</sup>=165.487, df=16, p &#8804; 0.01; cramer's v=0.573, p &#8804; 0.01), suggesting that the use of technology and active/inquiry-based learning methods go hand-in-hand in the participating districts. </p> <p> cff stresses the need for more active and inquiry-based pedagogy; surprisingly, cff coaches and teachers were most often <em>neutral (undecided)</em> when asked whether cff has encouraged them to use more inquiry-based teaching methods (47.5%, n=97). this may be due to the prior use of such methods by cff faculty; inquiry-based learning has been a popular movement for years in science and other educational disciplines. this result may also reflect the type of teacher most likely to be proactive in their use of cff resources: a willingness to explore new pedagogical possibilities like cff may reflect a prior willingness to explore active/inquiry-based methods. the responses to the two questions on active/inquiry-based learning methods whether teachers' classes were structured that way and whether cff encouraged these methods were significantly related for cff coaches and users (x<sup>2</sup>=36.292, df=1, p &#8804; 0.01). the strength and direction ofthe relationship (pearson's <em>r</em> = 0.468, p &#8804; 0.01) suggests, at least for cff coaches and teachers, that cff is having a significant, positive impact on pedagogy. </p><em>administrator survey: how are teachers adapting their practices via cff resources?</em> <p> administrators were asked to provide an approximate number of teachers who utilized the cff equipment, both within their school and/or their district. the most frequently selected estimates were 6-10 cff teachers at their school (45.0%, n=20) and 11-20 cff teachers within their district (35.3%, n=17). two administrators (10.0%, n=20) estimated that 41 or more teachers used the cff equipment in their school or district. </p> <p> administrators were also asked about the <em>frequency</em> at which teachers utilize the cff equipment in their school and district. the majority of respondents indicated daily use of the cff equipment, both within their school (60.0%, n=20) and their district (57.9%, n=19). it should be noted that a significant portion of respondents indicated they did not know how often the equipment was used (15.0% in their school, n=20; 26.3% in their district, n=19). administrators overwhelmingly agreed/strongly agreed that participation in cff has encouraged teachers to use more inquiry-based teaching methods (85.7%, n=21), though the teacher results suggest that this may be more perception than reality. </p> <p> focus group results </p> <p> the following sections discuss the relevant focus group responses. two of the focus groups involved primarily cff-related teachers, while two of the groups were more diverse (either entirely non-cff teachers or a mix). the four focus group sessions were comprised of 22 total participants. </p> <p> teachers' use of technology and cff resources </p> <p> the two focus groups involving primarily non-cff personnel were asked the question <em>how do you specifically use technology in the classroom to enhance student learning?</em> while this question was not specifically posed to the other two cff-heavy focus groups, all participants were very forthcoming about their use of technology in the classroom. the responses indicate a fairly diverse set of technology uses and student projects in the classroom, more so than is indicated by the survey data. while some teachers indicated minimal technology use (e.g., "i really do not use it that often"), many others spoke excitedly about their use of technology to engage students and provide "fun" demonstrations, in-class activities, and student assignments. </p> <p> the examples of classroom technology use given by focus group participants were fairly diverse. smartboards were the most frequently mentioned technology across disciplines. smartboards are often used in tandem with interactive exercises, discipline-specific software, and especially powerpoint presentations. web searching was also frequently mentioned as a component of classroom technology use by students. in one case, the use of custom-built, internally-controlled wikis was mentioned as an alternative to other forms of out-of-class interactivity. the following descriptions provide examples of technology-related class activities discussed by the focus groups: </p> <ul> <li>developing internet searches to allow students to find information on poets; students then use this information to construct a multimedia presentation on the poet using words, pictures, music, and sound (english literature) </li> <li>providing a wiki so that students may collaboratively create a learning resource for organelles, using a section of their textbook and web-based research (science) </li> <li>conducting experiments in teams with specific job roles. one team member conducts the experiment, a second documents the procedures and results using a wiki, a third creates a movie-based record of the experiment, and the fourth documents the process using paper and pencil (science) </li> <li>streaming discovery education content (foreign languages) </li> <li>using powerpoint and internet searches to research class presentations (history) </li> <li>using blogs for student journaling and interactive discussions (history, english) </li> <li>providing the entirety of course content readings and assignments online (history) </li> </ul> <p> other uses of technology mentioned in the focus groups included online learning games, computer-aided drafting software, and streaming audio. </p> <p> besides the aforementioned uses of smartboards and other cff-specific resources, focus group participants pointed out another vital cff resource the cff "coach" at each school. the role of the cff coach is to help other cff teachers get up and running with a variety of cff tools and resources, as well as to act in a mentoring role for those faculty looking to explore their options. several of the focus group participants noted the important contribution of the cff coach in revealing the possibilities afforded by the cff program. the use of student laptops was infrequently mentioned, though the implication was that the computer-intensive work in the aforementioned projects was performed using cff laptops. </p> <p> cff impact on teaching styles and practices </p> <p> the focus groups involving cff personnel were asked the question <em>how has the cff program changed your teaching methods or style?</em> the focus group responses suggest a more dramatic change in practices and styles than the teacher survey results indicated. participants noted how the cff technologies caused them to re-think their methods; for example, one participant noted, "sometimes i think it's taken me back to the drawing board&amp;hellip;where i need to re-think everything." others noted how the cff technologies had given them a sense of freedom ("it got me away from just standing in front of the room") and opened up new possibilities for instruction and interactivity ("it opened up a definite potential for other things to do"). </p> <p> a few of the younger faculty noted that they had never experienced a classroom without the cff program and, thus, considered the technologies and methods advocated by cff to be part of the basic k-12 experience. these teachers see their role as primarily a facilitator rather than a rote lecturer. the reliance on cff technologies and tools is ingrained: "i teach with my smartboard everyday so like if it doesn't work i don't know what i would do." while some mathematics teachers noted that importance of the smartboard ("the smartboard is the best thing that has impacted teaching as far as math would go"), other cff tools were seen as providing a change of pace for mathematics students rather than a transformative experience. other cff faculty noted the importance of the smartboards as well as the importance of the student laptops. the overall perspective from the focus group participants is that the cff program has impacted these teachers' methods, styles, and procedures. one participant summed it up best by saying: </p> <blockquote> "the way i would describe it is as a mechanic trying to fix a car with an adjustable wrench you can do it, but it's pretty tough. but giving those computers to me was like giving me a set of tools. now i can work on the engine and get it going the way i wanted to." </blockquote><em>administrator encouragement</em> <p> each focus group was asked about their perceptions of administrator support and encouragement. for those focus groups involving cff personnel, the question was phrased <em>how has administration been supportive or non-supportive of cff in your school?</em> for focus groups devoid of cff personnel, the question was phrased <em>do you feel administrators encourage you to use technology?</em> the focus group responses correlate with the teacher survey results. in all cases, teachers responded that administration was supportive of the cff program and/or their use of technology. examples included administrative initiative in getting the cff grant process started and allocating time for interested teachers to get the requisite cff training. the use of special in-service programs for cff personnel was also noted. there was no mention of administrative verification of technology use. for non-cff teachers, the methods by which administration encourages technology use were somewhat perfunctory. one method in particular stands out: "it used to be that we had to write our lessons plans, now we have to type them on the computer." </p> <p> it was obvious during the focus group sessions that the level of participants' technology knowledge and their frequency of technology use impacted their responses. more than one respondent indicated that students seemed to know more about modern technology than the teachers, even going so far as to use students for classroom it support. as implementing agents, teachers must be able to recognize if they lack the requisite skills for implementing policy. teachers must then seek out sources for building those skills. administrators must both encourage teachers and direct them to appropriate learning resources. the focus group results suggest that a minimal amount of training is provided. for tech-savvy personnel, this is not a problem. however, for those teachers with fewer technology skills, the lack of understanding of technology use and the resultant need for training and/or learning resources acts as a barrier to successful implementation of cff and related programs. </p><em>contextual challenges to implementation</em> <p> all of the focus groups were asked the question <em>what personal, organizational, or environmental challenges do you face in implementing cff or any other technology program?</em> the most common "personal challenge" cited was a lack of time to fully grasp the technologies and the program. the general mood seemed to be that teachers are limited, either contractually or personally, to a strict eight-hour workday. teachers overwhelming agreed that other commitments class time, paperwork, keeping current in their fields limited their ability to explore the new possibilities afforded by cff. one participant put it succinctly: </p> <blockquote> "the teachers are already committed to their time in the classroom. they already have to keep current with what they have to do, and then you're offering them new things and while they're enthusiastic they just don't have the time." </blockquote> <p> things like district curriculum and state standardized test preparation were said to take away time for teachers to explore new approaches like cff. participants pointed out that many of the cff personnel at their school used their own time to complete the requisite cff training, and indicated that teachers' willingness to use their own time factored into their selection as cff coaches and users by administrators. enthusiasm among cff personnel was high, but participants lamented the lack of time for collaboration, sharing of ideas, and follow-up training. lunch was commonly cited as a prime time for cff teachers to discuss experiences and share best practices. </p> <p> technical difficulties were also a commonly cited environmental challenge. one focus group remarked about the problems getting a wireless network set up in their school; the delay in getting this connectivity limited the use of cff equipment when it first arrived. these problems were exacerbated by the advanced age of the participating high schools and their inherently wireless-unfriendly building materials. one participant pointed out that teachers need to be in a wireless-enabled classroom in order to use cff student laptop carts, and some of the classrooms that interested teachers use are not wireless capable. laptop connectivity issues also tended to be intermittent in addition to other technical glitches ("we have 30 on the cart, but 30 will never work on a good day"). </p> <p> sluggish network logons were also cited by more than one focus group. the slow login procedure was said to inhibit the use of cff laptops and other computers ("you could have a 40-minute period and the first 15 minutes are devoted to getting everyone up and running"). limited classroom space was also mentioned as inhibiting the use of laptop carts ("it's just not worth it you gotta move desks, i had to move the teacher desk just to have a place to put it so you can open it up so the kids could get the laptops out"). problems with logins, network connectivity, and network outages were the most frequently mentioned environmental challenges for the use of cff resources and technology in general. </p> <p> despite the survey findings of robust classroom technology access, limited computer access was another challenge cited by the focus groups. more than one focus group complained about the small number of computer labs in their high school. technology-specific departments usually business mentioned having technology classrooms, but general-purpose technology classrooms seemed to be sparse. in one high school, only one general purpose lab exists (in the library) and scheduling is done months in advance. this lab is continually booked. while each department has a cart of student laptops that can be checked out, this too presents issues of contention. when asked if the laptops are heavily used, one participant answered "when they work," highlighting the aforementioned technical issues. </p> <p> few organizational challenges were mentioned. one participant pointed out how the philosophy emphasized by cff training materials the idea of learning authentically, via pared-down curricula contrasted greatly with state and district regulations and curriculum guidelines. the pennsylvania state-level standardized exams and other commitments were viewed as a box in which teachers must work, limiting full use of the cff philosophy and resources. differences in academic requirements between districts were also shown to be a limiting factor on technology-centric course offerings. one participant pointed out that his district uses a seven-period day, as opposed to the common eight-period day. this loss of one period reduced the ability of students to take elective courses. as a result, this district focuses on mandatory subject areas and does not have the technology offerings found in other districts. </p><em>document reviews</em> <p> sample projects and assignments were solicited from teachers in grades 9-12. these examples were intended to permit a more accurate examination of how technology is used for student learning. these examples were analyzed to further investigate how technological literacy skills were being built in the participating districts. despite the best efforts of the investigator and the generous support of district administrators, only 15 assignments were received from five districts. the 15 assignments came from the cff disciplines of science (6), language arts (5), mathematics (3), and social studies (1), though examples were solicited from teachers in all disciplines. the example assignments were coded based on their content, their use of technology, and their pedagogical goals (explicit or implicit). </p> <p> the example assignments provided by participating teachers represented a mix of traditional "observe-and-report" assignments combined with more creative, critical-thinking based projects. communication skills, critical thinking, collaboration skills, and creativity and innovation appeared to be the technological literacy skills most emphasized among the sample assignments. written communications were required for 12 of the 15 example assignments. examples of these assignments included chemistry research reports, the production of "newspaper reports" for historical events, and video-driven question sheets. oral presentations were required on three of the example assignments, and one assignment required only visual communication (via an electronic propaganda poster). </p> <p> while six of the example assignments were structured around simple rote observation and/or memorization, four assignments emphasized critical analysis of source material or classroom experiences. creativity was an essential part of four assignments, as was collaborative teamwork among students. examples of assignments emphasizing creativity included the construction of a photo montage describing the themes of <em>romeo and juliet</em> and the use of powerpoint to discuss one of chaucer's tales. </p> <p> in terms of specific technologies, powerpoint was the primary deliverable (3 assignments), though one assignment did explicitly require the use of a blog and a wiki. multimedia presentations and/or content were a common theme, occurring in 12 example assignments. six assignments required the use of external web sites. these sites were used as vehicles for streaming video (2 assignments), mathematical simulations (3), or as multimedia data sources (1). the use of student laptops was explicitly mentioned on only one assignment. </p> <p> the example assignments provided by participating teachers parallel the results found in the survey and focus group analyses. technology use by teachers seems to be fairly narrow, focusing on the use of powerpoint and external web sites. the use of multimedia and external web sites seem to be simply a vehicle for providing visual flair to otherwise traditional, observe-and-report assignments. multimedia did, however, provide avenues for creativity in a few of the example assignments. technological literacy skills are a core piece of these assignments but the emphasis is too narrow, primarily focusing on written skills. while the size of the example assignments sample is too small to make generalizations, the results suggest that innovative applications of technology to build technological literacy skills via student assignments is sporadic rather than widespread. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> discussion </h3> <p> the cff program began implementation in 2006. based on the perceived success of other states in implementing similar programs, policymakers saw the widespread provision of computers and other classroom technologies coupled with a standardized set of training resources as key to keeping pennsylvania competitive by building the technological literacy skills of k-12 students. the policy was a victim of the 2009 state budget battle, though most schools in pennsylvania were able to participate before the cessation of funding, and some continue using the cff equipment and resources even today. the findings in this implementation study suggest that cff faces a number of implementation challenges. </p> <p> the survey and focus group results indicate that teachers perceive their classes as using a limited set of technologies to build a wide variety of skills. despite widespread access to multiple technologies, teachers report that classroom technology use is predominantly limited to traditional office-style software and interactive smartboards. more modern web 2.0 tools are rarely used due to in-house restrictions on internet content. student laptops, the core technology provided by cff, are used somewhat sparingly. despite this, enthusiasm for the cff program among the focus group participants was evident, and both technology and active/inquiry-based methods were widely considered to be an integral part of k-12 pedagogy. </p> <p> despite the focus on a limited set of technologies, teachers report assigning problems, projects, or assignments that exercise all technological literacy skills on at least a weekly basis. this perceived breadth of coverage was not supported by the teacher-provided example assignments. the results suggest a general focus on technology literacy skills rather than technology itself, although the level of that focus is questionable. this finding raises questions about the scope of cff implementation and suggests potential problems with implementation within the participating districts. cff is designed to provide the tools necessary to make a "transformative" change in educational practice. these results suggest that the intended "transformation" may not be occurring within these districts. the finding of sparse technology usage raises questions about whether old pedagogical methods are simply being modified to include a limited set of new technologies (i.e., "old wine in new bottles"). </p> <p> the success or failure of a policy is a product of many factors, including the individual behavior of the implementing agents. without shared understandings of the policy and its implementation between public managers (i.e., administrators) and street-level bureaucrats (i.e., teachers), one or both groups may exercise considerable discretion during implementation. the study results indicate that there exist substantive differences between administrators and teachers in their perceptions of behaviors related to cff implementation. the dissonance between administrators and teachers inevitably results in implementer discretion, limiting the possibilities for systematic assessment and, ultimately, impacting the chances of programmatic success in these districts. </p> <p> administrators had a largely incomplete view of classroom technology access, use, and integration, cff-specific and otherwise. the results suggest administrators in these districts have minimal knowledge about how different technologies are used to build students' technological literacy skills and the frequency with which technology is used in the classroom. administrators also reported a more optimistic outlook about the effect of the cff program on teachers' use of inquiry-based teaching methods than teachers. the findings indicate that administrators may have insufficient knowledge of how the cff program is being implemented, calling into question the ability to accurately assess the success of the policy. administrators need more detailed understanding of how cff is being implemented; without this understanding, teachers may exercise considerable discretion in policy implementation. </p> <p> one potential reason for teachers' limited classroom technology use and integration may be a lack of preparation. focus group participants reported that their biggest challenges were time and training (to more fully comprehend cff, its concepts, and its components) and technical and logistic difficulties (insufficient equipment or rooms, technical glitches). as implementing agents, teachers who lack technology and policy-specific learning resources are limited in their ability to successfully implement policy. as public managers, school administrators must be proactive in helping teachers seek out the resources they need to adequately implement the cff policy. teachers did report that administrators actively encourage cff participation through multiple methods, but it seems as though consistent and timely teacher training is a shortfall of programmatic and administrative efforts. </p> <p> these results are compelling but are limited by the focus on a small set of rural school districts. according to the u.s. census bureau, approximately 27 percent of pennsylvanians live in areas considered rural, though the majority of pennsylvania counties (48 of 67) are classified as rural. the inherent limitation of this research is a lack of generalization; however, the results of this study suggest that further research is needed to determine if the problems and challenges found within the participating districts are common across the state and across socio-economic school profiles. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> conclusion </h3> <p> the purpose of this study was to analyze how pennsylvania's cff program is being implemented in a small set of rural school districts. the results suggest that the cff implementation may not be triggering the transformation in educational practice called for by the policy. teachers perceive building a wide variety of student skills with few technologies, calling into question whether new tools (e.g., student laptops) are simply being made to fit old methods. the two groups of cff implementers in this study teachers and administrators exhibit some dissonance in their perceived implementation of the cff policy. this dissonance increases the likelihood of implementer discretion and, thus, challenges the policy in its ability to achieve its goals within the study districts. the 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(1996). <cite>how does a policy mean? interpreting policy and organizational actions</cite>. washington d.c.: georgetown university press. </div> </div> <div id="article"> <h2 id="article_title"> communities, crowds and focal sites: fine-tuning the theoretical grounding of collaboration online </h2> <div id="article_author"> azi lev-on </div> <h3 class="article_subhead"> introduction </h3> <p> in recent years, internet usage has been moving in an increasingly participatory and collaborative direction, with plenty of venues for users to create and share content, generate information repositories, manage social networks, and organize collective action. online communities enable their members to communicate over time about themes of common concern. members also develop relationships and repositories of information and advice. </p> <p> from a classical rational-actor perspective, the success of endevours that rely on such collaborations by many participants seems puzzling. analyzed through the lens of the "logic of collective action" (olson, 1965), collaborations based on contributions by many individuals without proper incentives are doomed to fail. according to this logic, individual actions dominated by narrow self-interest generally lead people to abstain from contributing to such collaborations, and free-riding behaviors would in turn impede their success . indeed, online collaborations often cannot effectively address the problem of free-ridership, which is at the core of every collective action, and are typically characterized by high percentages of lurkers and a highly unequal division of labor (see lev-on and hardin, 2007; hunt and johnson, 2002). such collaborations typically lack features that may prevent collective action failures, such as continuing relations among contributors, expectations of future relationships which cast a "shadow of the future", or embeddedness of contributors in a densely-knit network or community (see axelrod, 1984; taylor, 1987; hardin, 1995). </p> <p> from this perspective, <em>communities</em> seem well situated to support collective actions. in that they enable ongoing communication between members and introduce exit costs as well as embeddedness in a social network. but can the unique benefits of communities for collective action be reproduced in online environments? if so, where and why? how might <em>online</em> associations facilitate collective action? and, to what extent can such associations reproduce the strategic capabilities of some <em>offline</em> communities in circumventing the "logic of collective action"? </p> <p> after portraying leading theories of communities and collective action, i argue that they are inadequate to explain collaboration in online communities. i offer two routes as substitutes to explain the role of online communities in grounding collective action. the first route involves communities that either generate institutions that support collective actions, or are embedded in larger networks that make exit options expensive. such communities are able to overcome their inherent limitations to ground collective actions. the second route emphasizes the abilities of online communities to attract a large number of self-selected people with shared concerns into a focal location, from which members can be recruited by entrepreneurs organizing collective action. </p><em>communities: offline and online</em> <p> in a classic survey article, hillery (1955) collected 94 definitions of the term "community" from the sociological literature. he found that the two prevalent features attributed to "communities" were <em>interactional</em> and <em>geographical</em>; i.e., inter-member communication and geographic co-location (see wellman, 2001, p. 228). </p> <p> in the 17th and 18th centuries, in parallel with economic, social and technological transformations of daily experiences, the use of the concept "community" in english expanded to include "the idea of a group of people who hold something in common... or who share a common sense of identity even if they do not live in a single locale" (cole, 2002, p. xxiii). gradually, the existence of common physical meeting-places has diminished as a necessary condition for a group to be denoted as a "community"; nowadays communities are "based on what we do with others, rather than where we live with others" (haythornthwaite, 2002, p. 159). </p> <p> the application of the label "community" to internet-based associations has been popularized by rheingold's (2000) influential book about the well community in the san francisco bay area (cf. smith, 1992; hafner, 1997). such an application explicitly undermines one of the deep-rooted dimensions of "communities", i.e. geographical proximity among members. such associations complete the separation of communities from "physical" spaces, and enable a "fundamental liberation from place" (wellman, 2001, p. 238). online communities can develop around a variety of platforms, such as social networks, blogs, forums, and wikis. interactions among community members need not be limited to the internet; they can interact through a variety of offline means, using "whatever means of communication is convenient and appropriate at the moment" (wellman, 2001, p. 248). </p> <p> online communities differ from one another in various respects, notably the kinds and levels of attachment between members (sassenberg, 2002). in some associations the attachment is interpersonal, while in others it is an instrumental identification with the group. but affection and strong ties are not defining or even essential features of such communities. online communities also vary according to other parameters, such as size and cohesiveness. they range from large-scale, well-functioning forms on one end of the spectrum, to small, loose and disorganized forms on the other. some resemble "street corner settings or park squares," while others "exhibit some properties of long-lived social groups or communities" (butler et al., 2002). </p> <p> for many internet users, such associations are important sources of goods, information, support, and sense of belonging (wellman, 2001). other users deem online communities as motors of reciprocity, collaboration, and civic renewal (connolly, 2001). online communities have become a key factor in the experiences of internet users. back in 2001, a survey by the pew internet and american life project showed that 84% of users indicated that they had contacted an online community, and 79% identified at least one community with which they maintained regular contact (horrigan and rainie, 2001). </p> <p> people join online associations for a variety of reasons, including, notably, the opportunity to discuss issues of common concern and obtain information (horrigan and rainie, 2001; ridings and gefen, 2004). by choosing to join a community, people practically select who to communicate with about a specific topic they commonly find worth pursuing. </p> <p> online communities are often categorized according to their prime reasons for interaction (see porter, 2004). for example: <em>communities of practice</em> are composed of professionals such as academics or software programmers, united by common pursuit of knowledge and solutions to problems (wenger, 1998). <em>communities of interest</em> bring together individuals who share an interest in a specific topic, idea, or hobby. <em>communities of support</em> provide information and assistance about problems such as addictions, grief counselling, or health issues (brainard, 2003). place-based communities <em>(i.e., rural/urban online communities)</em> bring together individuals who live in or visit the same locality (cohill and kavanaugh, 1999). </p> <p> a tension exists between the "horizontal" dimension of communities, often characterized by peer-production and user-generated content, and their "vertical" management dimension, which can be highly centralized. online communities have managers, organizers, moderators, and designers who <em>enable</em> the community, and carry out functions that are essential for "the framework around which community may develop" (kim, 2000; preece, 2000). their roles include managing membership (for example, recruiting new members and managing member profiles); managing content (agenda setting, facilitating and encouraging discussions, moderating discussions, preventing "flaming" and removing inappropriate posts, archiving old threads of discussion, producing special events); framing and enforcing policies regarding accepted behaviors and sanctions, as well as technical and financial management. </p> <p> but whereas a small number of people may administrate the platform used by many, still the orientation of the "horizontal" dimension of online communities can be quite egalitarian. unlike firms or governmental bureaucracies, typically no elaborate and formal chain of command and control exists among users, nor any authoritative division of labor; instead, the emphasis is on peers as originators of content, and of peer-based production, monitoring, and sanctioning. </p> <p> the peer-based and often voluntary nature of contributions makes such communities vulnerable to myriad collective action and coordination failures. as kollock (1999, p. 220) argues, "for a student of social order, what needs to be explained is not the amount of conflict but the great amount of sharing and cooperation that does occur in online communities." such sharing and cooperation are manifest not just by the preservation of order, but also by collective efforts to gather funds, create databases of information and advice, and even produce complex public goods (the notable example is the peer-production of computer software). why, then, do such associations succeed in mobilizing collective action, when they do? </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> communities and collective action </h3> <p> to explain community-based collaboration online, some authors borrow established frameworks used to explain cooperation in offline communities, notably ostrom's institution-based account (see kollock and smith, 1996; kollock, 1998; chesney, 2004; van wendel de joode, 2004; vi&eacute;gas, wattenberg and mckeon, 2007). i focus on two contemporary and complementary avenues of research: hardin (1995) emphasizes <em>conventions and "coordination power" as keys for explaining community-grounded collective action, </em>and ostrom (1990) pays attention to <em>institutional structures that support cooperation in such communities.</em> </p> <p> according to hardin (1995), the key to understanding the success of associations to mobilize collective action is their ability to generate conventions, supported by meaningful and effective sanctions and gains. once such conventions evolve and are recognized by a critical mass of community members, they create mutual expectations for compliance, and practically regulate the interactions of community members. (the origins of conventions are not important for our discussion, nor do we have to assume that community members internalize conventions and attribute moral value to them). </p> <p> two key factors support the convergence on communal conventions: <em>the absence of inexpensive exit options,</em> and the <em>multiplexity of the communal experience</em>. the expectations of meaningful exit losses (for example monetary losses, loss of social ties, and loss of sources of information or support) can motivate members to stay when they consider leaving (hardin, 1995). viable exit options, on the other hand, dramatically narrow the "shadow of the future" and may disable meaningful sanctions. instead of voicing concerns or organizing protest, members can just leave, or in the case of online associations, "unsubscribe." </p> <p> moreover, in tightly-knit communities members interact with one another on a regular and continuous basis, and conventions can cover many spheres of daily lives (cook and hardin, 2001). when individuals are embedded in a community in these ways, deviating from conventions may have grave consequences. failures to comply with conventions lead not only to local coordination failures, but also to losses (for self and possibly for significant others) in a variety of spheres in which community members are interconnected. in tightly knit associations, members who fail to participate in a collective action can be sanctioned not only in the context of the specific action, but in multiple contexts. peer-sanctioning is possible and probable-not just by a specific member who bears the direct weight of defection and not only in a specific context-but by <em>all</em> members and in multiple contexts. the probability of sanctions motivates members to abide by local conventions. the common knowledge that anti-normative behaviors would be sanctioned is a signal for potential "defectors." </p> <p> outside the communal context, and without the communal conventions as regulating principles, community members might have followed their short-term self-interest and failed to coordinate on solutions to their shared dilemmas. the salience of communal conventions thus assists members in avoiding coordination failures. in this sense, communal conventions function as coordination equilibria, and the adherence of enough community members to communal conventions establishes a "<em>coordination power</em>" of the community. the existence of a well-coordinated community increases the costs of challenging deeply entrenched conventions, and "makes certain behaviors on the part of relevant others less rewarding than they would be against an uncoordinated group" (hardin, 1995, p. 30). collective actions that are inconsistent with communal conventions are almost certain to fail. </p> <p> in addition to their strategic advantages, communities also support collective action by solving information problems. the thick relationships among members, and their repeated and frequent interactions, facilitate highly efficient circulation of information (for example, about the identities of cooperators and non-cooperators). in this sense communities function as information intermediaries. </p> <p> whereas hardin's work focuses on the emergence of local conventions and the returns from "coordination power," ostrom (1990) focuses on the institutions that ground cooperation. in her seminal work <em>governing the commons</em>, based on extensive fieldwork, ostrom identifies several key variables that affect behaviors, decisions, and outcomes in communal mixed-motive scenarios. several "design principles" are key for achieving long-enduring cooperative outcomes in such scenarios: the ability of association members to create and modify institutions and rules to address local needs; correspondence between the rules and norms governing the use of common resources, and between local conditions; and the ability of most people affected by institutions to participate in customizing and transforming them. these principles are not especially problematic in online communities, and will not be further discussed below.. </p> <p> three additional factors deserve our additional attention; namely, the ability to fashion arenas for low-cost conflict resolution, to establish <em>boundaries</em> to the association, and to <em>monitor</em> cooperation and <em>sanction</em> noncooperators. ostrom (1990) argues that boundaries must be clearly defined to prevent individuals from entering the community, using its resources, and exiting without contributing. in this sense, establishing boundaries is a structural solution to the non-excludability property of public goods. structural boundary rules can involve membership in organizations, personal characteristics, relationship to the resources, or a combination of these properties (ostrom, 1999). </p> <p> creating boundaries requires the ability to identify association members. identification distinguishes members from non-members, establishes whether they have been participating in collective action, and determines whether they are entitled to benefit from the communal resources and under what conditions. </p> <p> regarding the importance of <em>monitoring and sanctioning</em>, social control rests in large part on the ability to <em>identify</em> individuals and hold them accountable for their actions. as a result of monitoring failures, trust in specific association members may fail to develop, and distrust can be generalized to the entire association. </p> <p> a precondition for monitoring is public visibility, such that those who monitor participation are able to identify contributors and free riders. visibility also benefits the community because it discourages defection, due to fear of sanctions and shame from humiliation. visibility can also <em>encourage</em> cooperation. the possibility of being observed makes one act publicly in ways that association members find praiseworthy, and makes possible the provision of associational awards for acting in normatively supported ways. sanctions can include gossip, hostile rumors, loss of relationships with specific community members, damaged reputations, or shunning by all members. the severity and effectiveness of sanctioning can make formal, costly sanctioning unnecessary. </p> <p> ostrom's framework, which is based on research done in offline associations, has been used by several authors to analyze the possibilities of collaboration in online communities. but can such frameworks be unequivocally applied to study collaboration in online communities? in the next section i argue that explanatory frameworks emphasizing expensive exit and emergent conventions and institutions are, as a general rule, ill-suited to explain collaboration in such online associations. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> explaining collaboration in <em>online</em> communities using theories developed for <em>offline</em> communities </h3> <p> online communities, as explored thus far, are similar in some respects to offline communities, but are distinct in significant respects. offline "traditional" communities are commonly characterized as having thick and multi-layered relations among members, and costly exit options. in such environments, communal conventions can become highly efficient means for social control. in comparison with such "traditional" associations, online communities can attract <em>many</em> people. membership is not "by chance" but "by choice" (galston, 1999). but online communities typically lack the thick relations that characterize offline communities, and have viable exit options. the abilities to form conventions, monitor the performance of community members, and sanction defectors can be called into question in such environments. hence, arguably, frameworks used to explain the success of offline community-based collective action are inappropriate to explain much collective actions that occur through associations online. </p> <p> recall that hardin's account of the contribution of communities to collective action relies on their ability to generate conventions that regulate the interactions of community members. much of their success can be attributed to the multiplexity of connections among community members. but when applied to explaining collaborations in online communities, such explanatory frameworks run into a number of obstacles. first, the lives of members of online communities are typically not intertwined in a variety of spheres. when members are densely embedded in their communities, leaving the community entails losing the many benefits it provides in all spheres of members' lives. arguably, the multiplexity of relations in tightly-bound communities is nowadays replaced by limited involvement in multiple narrow communities (wellman, 2001). when online communities focus on relatively narrow spheres, the interactions between members tend to focus, naturally, on these relevant spheres. people belong to various communities, each with its specific function, and the associational experience need not expand beyond this function. in this sense, such online associations fall short of generating a multiplex experience of such "ideal-type" or "traditional" community life. </p> <p> a second obstacle to the creation of "coordination power" in online communities is the ease of exit. "traditional" communities seem to spontaneously evolve over time, and their members may be bound to the community by social, economic, and cultural forces. leaving the community may be costly and sometimes impossible (komito, 1998). by contrast, online associations exist in a competitive environment, where numerous associations vie for users' attention. online communities are quite often the result of "artificial" construction by people or groups with a specific agenda. unprofitable associations can be dismantled and disappear overnight, when someone literally pulls the plug on them. notably, in communities that evolve around peer-production of open-source projects, viable exit options and the ability to "fork" the project are often of utmost ideological importance, and furthermore "open source licenses are designed explicitly to empower exit rather than loyalty as the alternative when voice fails" (weber, 2004, p. 159; see also van wendel de joode, 2004). </p> <p> therefore, unlike some "ideal-type" communities, that are sometimes characterized as despotic due to the punishments that can be inflicted on non-conformists, online communities tend to have the opposite problem of <em>retaining</em> members. since agents usually join for a specific purpose, they may not experience multi-dimensional losses when they exit. members can leave "when there are disagreements or even if things just get boring" (komito, 1998, p. 102). online communities, in this regard, are associations of potential exiters, who can simply leave the association when asked to contribute to collective action. as galston (1999, pp. 59-60) nicely puts it, </p> <blockquote> if we are linked to others by choice rather than accident, if our interaction with them is shaped by mutual adjustment rather than hierarchical authority, and if we can set aside these bonds whenever they clash with our individual interests, then the lamb of connection can lie down with the lion of autonomy.... because they emphasize exit as a response to discontent and dissatisfaction, they do not promote the development of voice. </blockquote> <p> as far as collaboration is involved, the problem with online communities is that their "coordination power" may not be strong enough when needed. in social dilemma situations, weak associational bonds can simply be overlooked in favor of short-term self-interest. when there are viable exit options, and when the embeddedness of members in the association is highly imperfect, community members may fail to participate in the creation of public goods, with no significant adverse consequences. in such cases, conventions fail to perfectly regulate the interactions among association members, and the benefits of "coordination power" are disabled. </p> <p> third, the institutional variables identified by ostrom (1990) as instrumental for driving collaboration in associations are also problematic in the context of online communities. three factors in particular are worth closer examination: monitoring, sanctioning, and boundaries. despite their structural significance, <em>boundaries</em> are rarely established and maintained by online communities. membership is often fluid, and members can join and drop out at will. often there is no meaningful distinction between members and guests, and no clearly stated and enforced membership application procedures or requirements. </p> <p> as regards <em>monitoring and sanctioning</em>, there is a continuum in the degree of institutionalization of online communities. yet often these communities do not authenticate members' identities. hence, monitoring members' actions, holding them accountable, and inflicting sanctions may be impossible. online communities often focus on a single issue, and members join due to their interest in this issue. sanctions, then, are relevant to a <em>single</em> aspect of members' lives-an aspect that was important enough for a member to explore further by joining the community, but still a single aspect. so the possibilities of sanctioning seem quite limited, even when visibility is possible. </p> <p> the remaining factors identified by ostrom (1990), including the ability to construct institutions, rules, and low-cost conflict-resolution arenas, are not particularly challenging or demanding online. local rules and institutions are generally sensitive to the needs and interests of members, and in many communities institutions are peer-produced. the community portal is instrumental for notifying members about rules and policies, for framing the normative environment, and for indoctrinating and socializing newcomers. many communities also include "constitutive documents" such as mission statements, general policies, and lists of frequently-asked questions and answers. local norms are often inferred from typical behaviors or from key attributes of members, and are reinforced over time. conflict-resolution and problem-solving mechanisms vary, and are by and large experimental in nature. they can include a variety of tools for voting, discussion, consensus-creation, iterated peer-production of solutions to communal problems, and more (see van wendel de joode, 2004). </p> <p> note that the obstacles that jeopardize collective action in online communities are not the <em>unavailability</em> of norms, rules, and conflict-resolution mechanisms, but rather their <em>ineffectiveness</em>. due to the viable exit options, local rules may be little more than "parchment barriers" that cannot be effectively enforced when interests are significantly non-aligned. </p> <p> the analysis thus far suggests that online communities may face major obstacles to establishing "coordination power" and motivating members to contribute to non-trivial collective actions. online communities seem to be more vulnerable to cooperation and coordination failures than their offline counterparts. in particular, the single-dimensionality of the community experience, easy exit options, and the absence of clear boundaries, effective monitoring and sanctioning, render the traditional explanatory frameworks of hardin (1995) and notably ostrom (1990) impractical for explaining why online communities induce collaboration, when they do. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> routes for explaining community action online </h3> <p> so far i have argued that collaboration in online communities cannot be analyzed by "traditional" explanations, focusing on social control and its determinants. in the next two sections, i propose two alternative routes for explaining online community-grounded collective actions. the first emphasizes that some online communities are "privileged" over others in that their institutional structure or network embeddedness place them in a better position to mobilize their members to participate in collective actions. the second route emphasizes the functioning of some online communities as a hub for recruiting potential contributors to emerging collaborations. </p> <p> as was noted above, online communities manifest an interesting duality between the inegalitarianism and decentralization of their "horizontal" dimension of peer-production and user-generated content, and the highly centralized control that can be exercised by managers. thus, even when exit is inexpensive and multi-dimensionality is absent, community managers can still "compensate" for some of the shortages surveyed above, by designing a more "pro-social" infrastructure for the community (donath, 1996; kim, 2000; preece, 2000). for example, designers can build into online communities: </p> <ul> <li>boundaries to differentiate members from guests; for example, requiring member registration, charging member fees, or allowing premium access to certain areas of the community. </li> <li>visibility and authentication of identities; for example, requiring unique and persistent identities. the success of the well, the first large-scale online community, to suppress "flaming" and other anti-social behaviors, has been attributed in part to a policy of yoyow (you own your own words) (rheingold, 2000; hafner, 1997; smith, 1992). </li> <li>visual representation of collective actions; for example, software applications can emulate social practices like queues, or provide indicators about members' contribution levels during the production of continuous public goods. </li> <li>online <em>sanctioning</em>; for example, hostile rumors and "flaming," shaming and humiliation in public rituals, "ignoring" or "gagging" objectionable behaviors, filtering out the input of specific users, temporarily or permanently restricting members' rights, and banishing users from particular areas of the community, or from the community altogether (kollock and smith, 1996). </li> </ul> <p> thus, the institutional variables emphasized by ostrom (1990) as essential for community-based collective action can be introduced into online communities by their managers, to a certain degree. however, the variables emphasized in hardin (1995) as essential for cooperation-multiplexity and expensive exit-may be lacking. from this perspective, the communities that are best able to control their members' behaviors are those where the community experience is enmeshed in a variety of other spheres of their members' lives, online and particularly offline. when online communities are partially embedded in offline ties, failures to comply may have consequences in a variety of domains, online as well as offline. in such cases, sanctions for undesired behaviors may be feasible, and expansive exit options may increase compliance. </p> <p> for example, members of some communities of practice are mutually embedded in a professional environment, are familiar with each others' opinions and work, and may meet face-to-face occasionally (see koku, nazer and wellman, 2001, and matzat, 2009 on online academic associations, and haythornthwaite, 2008 on online learning communities). such online communities of practice enlarge the scale of the corresponding offline associations, improve information flows, and make the associations more cohesive. feedback and sanctions can be vital to members' careers, especially when carried out in public before the entire association, and when all disputes are recorded and stored in community archives. in such associations, acting in ways that are inconsistent with conventions may have adverse consequences for members. </p> <p> the convention-based account of collective action may also still be effective in some <em>place-based communities</em> whose members are not spread geographically. such groups have opportunities to "meetup" and organize collective action. information about residents or local figures whose actions are inconsistent with the interests or values of the local community is easily circulated among local residents, for whom such actions have direct implications. in this case as well, failures to cooperate in a specific action may have adverse offline consequences. </p> <p> the successful mobilizing capacities of such place-based associations are demonstrated in a study by hampton (2003, pp. 425-426), who reports on the outstanding success of the residents of "netville" in protesting against the developer's decision to revise local development plans. similarly, and perhaps more impressively, mele (1999) reports on the collective efforts of the residents of jervay place (in wilmington, north carolina), the first public-housing development in the us with a resident-managed website. the residents organized through the web to oppose the housing authority's decision to exclude them from participating in future planning. to appreciate these novel online-based organizational capabilities, keep in mind granovetter's (1973) classic work that demonstrated that the inability of local residents to effectively organize against urban renewal was a consequence of the absence of "weak ties" that may have otherwise been used to mobilize resources and support (see also ishii and ogasahara, 2007 for offline embeddedness of online networks, and dannecker and lechner, 2007 for embeddedness of a social support community). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> online communities as focal sites for attracting contributors to collective actions </h3> <p> so far i have explored one route for explaining community-based collective action-"compensating" for the inherent limitations of online community to support collaboration. such compensation could involve maintaining a pro-social institutional design or embedding the community in larger networks, which increases the multiplexity of the community experience, and enhances sanctioning possibilities and increases exit costs. </p> <p> this section focuses on a second route for explaining the success of collective action in online communities-their functioning as meeting-places for large numbers of individuals with shared concerns, making them hubs from which entrepreneurs can recruit potential contributors. </p> <p> note that different social media projects demand varying skills and investments from contributors (lev-on and hardin, 2007; see also brabham, 2008): </p> <ol> <li>some projects thrive on the cooperation of "non-experts" with <em>minimal skills</em>. in such cases, a large number of "amateurs" is necessary to generate a sufficient amount of contributions. for example, grid-computing projects, such as <em>seti@home</em> (holohan and garg, 2005), slice tasks into small pieces that are sent to volunteers. </li> <li>other projects involve contributions by agents with <em>private information</em>; for example, collaborative journalism or product recommendation sites. in such cases, the larger the contributor pool, the greater the possibility of recruiting the people with local expertise. </li> <li>lastly, complex projects require a division of labor, where different agents specialize in different aspects of the project; for example, the peer-production of open source software or encyclopedias. here, the more volunteers, the higher the probability of finding experts across several aspects of the project. </li> </ol> <p> note that many such collaborative projects do not rely on managerial hierarchies or markets to organize production, nor even on <em>community conventions</em> to encourage contributions. the last point deserves special emphasis, as peer-production is sometimes contrasted with governmentand firm-based production, but conflated with community-based production (see haythornthwaite, 2009). still, many such projects are based on contributions by individuals without prior acquaintance, and with no expectations of future interactions. such massive-scale projects succeed <em>in spite</em> <em>of</em> the near-absence of interaction amongst contributors; inter-member communication is not a key generator of such collective actions (see lev-on and hardin, 2007). </p> <p> paradoxically, then, online communities cannot generate the "coordination power" that induces members' cooperation. at the same time, collaboration between large groups of strangers can succeed <em>without</em> such associations. even in such cases, online communities can be of use to collective action, in that they function as hubs for recruiting potential contributors. </p> <p> online associations have no practical limit on their <em>scale</em>. as a result, they can enjoy input and feedback by many contributors (although, in all likelihood, as the scale goes up the cohesiveness of the association declines). when a member posts a query to the association's online space, a large audience-including some local "experts" or members with private information-is available to provide an answer, comments, or references. if the comments are made public but are deficient or incomplete, other members can provide corrections and feedback. </p> <p> online associations are also <em>self-selecting</em>. as stated above, people choose to become members of associations they find appealing, and can leave when they lose interest. self-selection goes with self-screening: those who stay are not forced to do so, but rather <em>choose</em> to stay; those who leave <em>choose</em> to do so-they typically are not ostracized. in addition, those who stay and become members are likely to be knowledgeable about the central theme of the association, and motivated to acquire further knowledge or even become involved in relevant collective actions if so asked. </p> <p> as a result of such dynamics, online associations can in time develop into "havens for anyone who relishes the opportunity to interact with others who are similar" (shapiro, 1999, p. 49). such associations often include "high proportions of people who enjoy each other and low proportions of people who are forced to interact with each other because they are juxtaposed in the same neighborhood, kinship group, organization, or workplace" (wellman 2001, p. 235). </p> <p> the emergence of large-scale "informal" associations of self-selected members online is a distinct phenomenon. online communities can be composed of a large talent pool, where members choose to participate in exploring and discussing themes they share an interest in. due to their scale and the self-selection of members, online communities can turn into focal sites that attract many potential contributors, who can then be mobilized to participate in collective action. </p> <p> typically such collective efforts are of interest to large numbers of people, but at the absence of organizational infrastructure, such causes may not attract and mobilize enough support (i.e. olson, 1965). for example, citizen-based campaigns to re-evaluate and reconsider public policies (brabham, 2008), orchestrated demonstrations and rallies, or efforts to revise local development plans all require that activists.and. sympathizers are able to learn about the particular projects or events and receive relevant information. successful collective efforts depend on the existence of easily accessed <em>focal sites</em> at which organizers, activists, and sympathizers can converge to coordinate their efforts. <em>online communities can support collective efforts in this sense by providing a channel for people with similar interests to coordinate their efforts</em>. </p> <p> for example, entrepreneurs who focus on gay issues know that online associations of gays assemble a niche audience that can be effectively reached and mobilized, and hence may choose to focus their efforts in such associations. online associations of immigrants allow mobilization efforts in immigration-related themes. even fans of sports, music, or television (baym, 1997) can be routed into impressive collective efforts. for example, if members of a soap opera online association do not like a certain twist in the plot, they can (and do) organize a protest and send messages to the producers or the network. the organized efforts of members of such communities make a difference. producers care about ratings, and when the online association of fans is large and prolific enough, the dissatisfaction of members can have consequences for the careers and earnings of producers, writers, and actors. </p> <p> there are other ways to direct people to emergent collective actions. search engines also assist in routing people to collaborative projects (lev-on, 2008), as do online ads in general-interest sites. but online associations are uniquely situated to route potential contributors to relevant collaborative projects, because unlike search engines they include large pools of agents who select to join the association and have some interest or expertise relevant to the focal theme of the community. hence, online communities can function as effective hubs for routing their members to relevant collective efforts. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> conclusions </h3> <p> in addressing the mutual interactions between users, communities, and technologies, i have analyzed how technologies enable users to organize and collaborate, and how and why they make communication and communities functional and useful for promoting their goals. </p> <p> like their offline counterparts, online communities are rooted in inter-member communication and member-generated content. but factors that traditionally support cooperation in offline communities, such as boundaries, monitoring opportunities, and meaningful sanctions, do not exist in many online communities. furthermore, obstacles for exit are low, and the community experience is often one-dimensional. </p> <p> hence, to understand collaboration in online communities we <em>cannot</em> use the conceptual lenses of traditional frameworks. factors such as easy exit, narrow focus, fluid boundaries, and difficult monitoring and sanctioning, limit the applicability of frameworks such as ostrom's (1990) and hardin's (1995) to explain collaboration in online communities. </p> <p> the key to conceptualizing collective action in online communities lies, instead, in two routes: either in their abilities to compensate for their inherent limitations for supporting collective action by, for example, developing institutions that support and even incentivize pro-social behaviors; or by embedding the community in larger networks. the second route emphasizes the functioning of online communities as meeting-places for many self-selected, like-minded people "organizational hubs" from which potential contributors to relevant collective actions can be recruited. </p> <p> scholars highlight a few consequences of the emergence of large-scale and narrowly focused communities online. hagel and armstrong (1997) argue that online communities constitute a high-quality environment for vendors to target potential consumers, and comprise focus groups for market research. sunstein (2001) argues that due to the convergence of a large number of like-minded people conversing primarily 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york: rutledge. </div> <div class="reference"> wenger, e. 1998. <cite>communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity</cite>. new york: cambridge university press. </div> </div> from rural women’s groups to the world: an exploration of the relationship between local and global networks janet toland school of information management university of wellington new zealand abstract this paper explores the contribution that information and communication technologies (icts) make to regional development. icts offer the potential to improve the nature of information flows within regional settings. this research investigates the impact that icts have at the regional level, and the role they play in developing local, regional and global networks. the ict networks are themselves affected by local regional culture and this research examines the recursive relationship between the soft networks created by social capital and hard ict-based networks. the setting for this research is regional new zealand. one urban and one rural region have been studied over the twenty year period, from 1985 to 2005. in the regional setting tacit or soft knowledge is built up through networks such as “women in dairying” and “grey power”. social interaction and the exchange of information are easier and cheaper in the regional context. within the regional setting these soft social networks interact with hard ict-based networks, and when brought together they can facilitate both national and international information flows. a historical approach has been used to plot the development of both soft and hard networks in the two contrasting regions. in terms of soft networks new zealand became more culturally diverse and tolerant of different lifestyles especially in the urban areas. social capital in terms of volunteering and membership of community groups was high throughout the period though its form changed. as the country worked on developing new global trading links with new partners in asia, there was a parallel fast take up of new icts such as the internet which offered the opportunity to overcome some of the barriers created by the geographic remoteness of new zealand. the focus of this paper will be on the interplay between these soft social networks and the hard ict-based networks and the role they play in establishing national and global linkages. keywords: social capital, icts, regional development, new zealand introduction new zealand’s geographic location as a small country at the bottom of the south pacific poses particular problems for the national economy’s integration into the global economy. new zealand’s relative isolation as compared to other counties means that the costs of exporting and importing are high. primary industries dominate, and exports of meat and dairy products make a large contribution to new zealand’s economy. though the dairy industry has been doing well in recent years this dependence on the export of primary products is a potential liability. however industries such as forestry, horticulture, fishing, manufacturing and tourism have become increasingly significant, and over the past decades, many new industries have emerged and grown strongly, including software, biotechnology, electronics, marine, education exports, media/film and wine (schollman, o'neill, doczi, & kelly, 2002). new zealand is divided into a number of regions, which form the unit of analysis for this research. regions are broadly equivalent to provinces in canada, counties in england or states in the usa. regions are significant as the density of communications within a defined geographic area, together with a common culture have the potential to produce regional centres of innovation (cooke, 1996; storper, 1995). however, regions can also be unsuccessful, rural regions in particular often suffer from out-migration as skilled people leave for broader educational and employment opportunities in the cities. additionally enhancements and upgrades of physical infrastructure in rural areas often don’t keep pace with technological progress. this has caused problems for some of new zealand’s rural regions, and in some cases induces a vicious cycle of decline (schollman, et al., 2002). the aim of this research is to examine the contribution of icts to regional development, looking in particular at the relationship between soft people-based networks and hard ict-based networks. icts open up opportunities for greater engagement with the global economy (amin & thrift, 1994), but whether this potential is taken up or not is influenced by the strength of local regional networks (lagendijk & cornford, 2000). icts contribute to the development and maintenance of networks that facilitate both bonding within the region and bridging beyond the region (malecki, 2002a). however the relationship between hard and soft networks is recursive, the strength of the regional culture also influences the success of ict-based networks (malecki, 2002b). this research investigates how icts assist with bonding and bridging at the regional, national and global levels, and assesses how regional culture impacts on the success of ict-based networks. this article addresses three research questions. 1) are icts helping to progress the nature of information flows within regional settings? 2) do icts improve levels of bonding within the region and bridging beyond the region?3) how does the local regional culture affect the use of icts? 3) how does the local regional culture affect the use of icts? the “learning region” the research investigates the contribution that icts can make to the development of “learning regions” in new zealand. the term “learning region” is widely used in the field of economic geography to identify regions that have been economically successful over a period of time and that have successfully adapted to changed circumstances (cooke, 1996; florida, 1995; macleod, 2000; storper, 1995). such regions are characterised by the following factors: a competitive strategy based on learning; intense intra-regional linkages; capacity for innovation; creativity in both arts and sciences; efficient information flows; and regional norms and values that provide stability (lash & urry, 1994; storper, 1995). why have regions become so significant in the 21st century? the period since the 1970s has been one of radical restructuring, with movements from mass production to flexible specialisation fordism to post-fordism, organised to disorganised capitalism and industrial capitalism to the informational age (macleod, 2000). storper (1995), in investigating regional economic development, identifies that the territorial ordering of product innovation, learning technologies and social interaction networks helps to define learning orientated production systems, within districts such as ne central italy and ille de france. storper is not alone in this as many authors are identifying regions as the most important sites in which to capitalise on the flows of knowledge that abound in contemporary globalisation. regional coalitions create economic and social relations to facilitate interactive learning, innovation networks, institutional thickness and soft social capital. kenichi ohmae (1995) argues that region states are developing around regional centres such as the bay area around silicon valley, and southern china around hong kong. saxenian (1994) in a comparative study of route 128 in massachusetts and silicon valley in california argues that the success of the latter owes as much to its rich technical and commercial relationships as to the competitive rivalries and initiative of individual entrepreneurs. these regional innovation systems are often more successful than national innovation systems due to more effective knowledge sharing, and a common regional culture. morgan (1997) uses a network paradigm to show that flows of knowledge and social capital can be most appropriately nurtured at a regional level where regular interactions can be sustained over time. storper (1995) introduces the concept of untraded dependencies. these include institutional norms and values such as trust, reciprocity and cooperation, as well as regional conventions inherent in labour markets and public institutions. these interdependencies are vital to economic and organisational learning and co-ordination. they are based on collective tacit knowledge that cannot be removed from its human, cultural and social context. in other words, it is knowledge that is territorially specific. soft infrastructures such as conventions, trust-based interactions and civic cultures are inherently esoteric and intricate and therefore harder to identify than more visible public infrastructures such as roads, schools, training colleges, or the formulation of inward investment strategies. florida (1995) describes the learning region as a large-scale version of a knowledge intensive firm. regions must adopt the principles of learning in the provision of a series of inter-related infrastructures in production, human capital, physical and digital communications, alongside an effective system of industrial governance. knowledge flows are important to regional innovation systems. tacit knowledge is more easily transferred within a regional context where constant interaction and exchange is easier and cheaper and tacit assumptions are more easily decoded, than in a national or international context. the innovative capacity of the regional firm is directly related to the learning ability of a region (oughton, landabaso, & morgan, 2002). the learning that takes place between the businesses in a region depends on there being a pool of business intelligence that will trigger demand for new knowledge, and the access and availability of that knowledge. usually regional government plays a key role in facilitating the development of a successful learning region, and well founded co-operation between the private and public sectors is critical in building the networking culture required for inter organisational learning (morgan, 1997). figure 1. information flow within a learning region (adapted from oughton et al, 2002) figure 1 illustrates some of the possibilities for flows of information within a learning region. both the public and private sectors and their interactions are sustained by networks, there are “soft networks” for social interaction, and also “hard networks” that plug into the internet (malecki, 2002a). the competitiveness of firms depends not only on the degree to which they are embedded within local networks of suppliers, but also on the presence of links to external markets. successful regions, like successful companies, maintain connections with other places in the global economy. however, although scanning the external environment is a common activity within firms, this seems to be far less common among cities and regions (malecki, 2002b). organisations’ most valuable inputs will be those that are scarce, e.g. unique resources, a unique patent, or fishing rights, or having the ability to do something better than their competitors. by being localised in a region, organisations are able to utilise factors in their surroundings that are not accessible to their competitors. one approach is to try to create a competitive advantage through learning, and this is most successful when done at a regional rather than an organisational level. the sharing of the tacit knowledge concentrated in a particular geographical area results in a cross-fertilisation of ideas that creates an innovative regional culture. there is a general agreement that in order to develop learning regions more effort needs to be put into promoting inter-organisational flows of information and knowledge (morgan, 1997). the study a framework was developed by reviewing the literature that covered the concept of the learning region and identifying common terms and themes. these terms were ranked according to how often they were mentioned, and ordered into six different categories. these categories are presented as the 6-i framework, shown in table 1. the characteristics that a learning region should possess are: interconnecting; informing; innovating; interacting; infrastructure and income. this framework was used as a basis for data collection and analysis. this paper focuses on the two categories most relevant to the development of hard and soft networks; interconnecting and interacting. the interconnecting category is about building networks, these could be bridging networks that create new national or global links, or bonding networks that reinforce existing regional networks. the interacting category covers social capital and the focus is on bonding. the presence of well-developed soft networks in terms of good social capital has been shown to have a strong influence on the take up of hard ict-based networks, and as these ict networks become established they will in turn help to build up the soft networks (simpson, 2005). table 1. the "6-i" framework interconnecting the existence of networks between businesses, customers, suppliers, community groups and local authorities informing features related to learning such as the presence of embedded tacit knowledge, transfer of best practice, and presence of knowledge workers innovating evidence of ability to create or adopt innovations, the presence of entrepreneurs, and a competitive culture interacting the presence of strong social capital, high levels of trust, a common regional culture, and professional networks infrastructure hard infrastructure in terms of transport and telecommunications links, plus soft infrastructure in terms of regional norms and conventions income economic features such as per capita income, investment and employment levels figure 2 provides more background to explain the interconnections between the six different factors in the “6-i” framework. individual learning feeds into human capital, which provides the competitive individuals who, if brought into contact with each other through appropriate networks, can produce innovations. when combined with appropriate cultural capital, human capital also allows social capital to be formed. the cultural capital of a region is a result of each area’s unique history, and ethnic diversity. regional learning takes place by utilising existing practices and procedures, and adapting them to new problems. the phrase adopted by the otara[1] digital opportunity group “walking backwards to go forwards” sums this up nicely (symington, 2003, p. 11). regions need to learn how best to exploit their existing cultural capital in order to be successful in the knowledge society. high levels of social capital and trust within society will cross over into individual organisations, providing good conditions for the development of organisational learning. the processes within the regional learning system itself are characterised by the existence of networks, institutions, and by a commitment to learning. the system may contain various clusters of small and medium sized enterprises (smes) that are involved in various networks. the networks are critical to a region’s success, as it is through interaction between the different actors that innovation occurs. the outputs of a successful regional learning system will be innovation, leading to economic development and social cohesion. within the regional learning system itself strong bonds will exist between the smes and other actors within the region. it is also important that bridging links stretching beyond the region, both nationally and internationally are present. bridging is essential for regions to develop and find markets for their innovations. figure 2. the learning region: inputs, processes and outputs regional networks take time to develop and in order to answer these questions historical methods were chosen as the most appropriate research methodology. historical methods consist of a collection of techniques and approaches which draw on both traditional history, and social research (mason, mckenney, & copeland, 1997a, 1997b). historical methods provide a powerful set of tools for addressing broad, big picture questions (neuman, 2003). historical methods were used to investigate how regional information networks build up over time, and the role that icts play in the development of these networks. two contrasting regions of new zealand were selected for study: southland is located in the south island of new zealand and has a mostly rural economy; wellington is in the north island and includes a major city plus suburban areas. in order to cover the period from 1985 to 2005 data was collected at three intervals throughout the period, the years of 1985, 1995 and 2005. for each of these years data collection was carried out by searching for relevant articles in three daily newspapers and one national weekly magazine. in new zealand there are no national newspapers, each regional area has its own newspaper(s) and the focus is on local events. each publication was scanned for material relevant to the factors identified in the “6-i” model. summaries of relevant newspaper articles were entered into an access database and grouped by topic under the relevant “6-i” code using pattern matching (miles & huberman, 1994). this process resulted in a database that held over 2,400 articles. as the findings were written up. the initial coding was refined and some articles were reassigned to different categories or classified as irrelevant. the data from the newspaper articles was supplemented by twelve interviews with key figures in each region, together with government reports and regional and national statistics. interconnecting analysis of the regional newspapers revealed four significant trends around the area of “interconnections”. there was evidence of a strong push to develop global trading linkages with new partners in asia, russia and the middle east. information technology was making a major impact on organisational form. new zealand was becoming more connected as access to both national and global information networks increased. throughout the period both the business and community sectors provided examples of clusters, joint ventures and networks. bridging links were being developed both through trade and the exchange of information. the following sections provide a more detailed analysis of each of these four trends. building global trade links building up global trade links was a pressing issue for new zealand during the period studied. the reduction in traditional export markets made it necessary to look for new markets and also to find new products to sell. the strong growth in many asian economies during this period provided an opportunity of which new zealand was quick to take advantage. exports to asian countries increased; trade links were improved through visits by trade delegations; and export links were established by asian business people based in new zealand. new zealand was not alone in this, many countries were keen to develop trade links with the asian tiger economies, but new zealand’s relative proximity to asia gave it (along with australia) an added incentive. however, there was a fear of an “asian takeover” that still exists to the present day, and asian investments in the new zealand economy were seen as a mixed blessing. though there was a general desire to grow trading networks with asia, there was a reluctance for key new zealand assets, such as large dairy farms to pass into foreign ownership. table 2: exports to major trading partners as a percentage of total exports (statistics new zealand, 2006) uk australia japan usa korea china other [2] 1985 9.00% 15.00% 15.00% 14.00% 3.00% 2.00% 42.00% 1990 7.00% 20.00% 16.00% 13.00% 3.00% 1.00% 40.00% 1995 6.00% 21.00% 16.00% 10.00% 5.00% 3.00% 39.00% 2000 6.00% 21.00% 13.00% 14.00% 5.00% 3.00% 38.00% 2005 5.00% 21.00% 11.00% 14.00% 4.00% 5.00% 40.00% though trade with asia grew strongly, as table 2 shows, australia was still new zealand’s top export market and trade with the uk remained significant, japan and the usa were also consistently important as trading partners. the success in reaching new export markets was not matched by an increased diversification in the range of products on offer. primary products, particularly agricultural products, still made up the bulk of exports. the agricultural sector utilised new zealand’s “clean, green image” to make sure its products appealed to affluent consumers in overseas markets. dairy farming in particular became increasingly streamlined and successful. this success did not allay the on-going concerns of successive national governments and their economic advisors that an economy based heavily on primary products was too exposed to the vagaries of the global marketplace. the emergence of the networked organisation in 1985 the use of icts was beginning to have a major impact on organisational form with a wide range of business and government organisations setting up networks to link their branch offices around the country. newspaper articles reported on ten different organisations that were either implementing or considering implementing a network. by 1995, most large organisations already had a computer network and the emphasis was on upgrading existing systems. many of the upgrades were necessary due to the increase in network traffic caused by internet usage; others were due to the switch to new multimedia based systems. in 2005 the trend for spending significant amounts on upgrading it infrastructure continued, for example a district health board and a government department both announced $4 million upgrades. some of the upgrades involved integrating information and making it available in electronic form, others focused on improving network capacity. the emergence of the networked organisation was a global trend. throughout the period studied the use of icts by organisations became so widespread, that by 2005, it was unusual to find a business that did not make some use of a computer. what was happening in new zealand was similar to what was happening in many other countries around the world. gaining access to national and global networks in 1985 what the press termed the “information explosion” was beginning to impact new zealand with the increasing availability of information at the global, national and regional levels. the information flow worked both ways; as well the explosion of international information entering the country, new zealand was also able to send its own domestic information out to the rest of the world. a significant trend in new zealand was the widespread adoption of videotex[3] systems across a wide range of sectors including agriculture, tourism, finance, horse racing and public libraries. by 1995 the internet had taken over from videotex as the main conduit for information exchange and its use was growing rapidly. it was being used as both an information provider and a marketing tool. the availability of the internet was increasing especially in wellington where victoria university offered internet access to the local business community through its subsidiary netlink, and the first internet café and the first internet bar were opened. in 2005 the government launched an innovative digital strategy (ministry of economic development, 2005) which included the development of two major national networks. a shared voice and data network would link up all government agencies with the dual aims of cutting costs and enabling collaboration and the advanced network would provide gigabyte data links between universities and research institutes in order to facilitate collaboration in research and the development of e-learning. the 2006 census reported that 60.5% of people throughout the country now had home access to the internet, in wellington this was 65.5% and in southland 53.1%. the data revealed a real hunger for information and new developments in icts, particularly the internet, were eagerly seized upon as a means of improving contact with the rest of the world. time and time again new zealand stood out as a very fast adopter of new technologies when compared to other countries. more and more information came into the country, however the flow of information out from new zealand to the rest of the world was much smaller, and the use of icts tended to amplify this imbalance. for example in wellington, one local broadband provider estimated that in 2006, seventy percent of the traffic over their network was international, 20% national and only 10% local (naylor, 2007). in southland, the local broadband provider also confirmed that most traffic was international. there was evidence of a physical movement of people which complemented the links made through icts. new zealand students spent time in other countries, and overseas students were hosted in new zealand. the increased mobility of people reflected global trends as air travel became relatively more affordable and people became more affluent. networks, joint ventures & clusters the growth in clustering and networking was a worldwide trend, and many countries were exploring the benefits of these approaches. these strategies offer the benefits of economies of scale for small businesses who want to compete in global markets. they also enable research and development costs to be shared by a group of organisations. as small businesses make up a large percentage of the new zealand economy the potential advantages offered by clustering are of particular interest. both wellington and southland contained active networks, though there was a tendency for these to be sector-based rather than connecting up different regional players, public sector organisations linked up with other public sector organisations, schools linked with other schools. where cross sector networks were present they had typically been initiated by the local economic development agency, for example, a partnership with tertiary education institutions in order to develop initiatives to tackle local unemployment. networks that encouraged research and innovation were mainly present at the national level, linking universities, crown research institutes, and large private and public sector organisations. at the regional level the focus was on building up networks to develop the local community, such as building links between schools and local employers to provide work experience and employment opportunities. the picture that emerged in wellington and southland was one of opportunities that were only partially realised; though clusters and networks were in evidence at certain points during the period studied they did not remain consistently successful. evidence for interconnecting an interconnected region will have active networks operating at global, national and regional levels. the global and national networks provide evidence of bridging and the regional networks relate to bonding. throughout the period studied new zealand developed more international connections, and icts made a major contribution to the build-up of global, national and regional networks. icts had a major effect on organisational form as businesses and public sector organisations throughout the country became more networked. icts also enabled new zealand to become more connected to the outside world, firstly through videotex, then the internet and most recently through advanced networks. research-based networks linking universities, crown research institutes and large organisations were present at the national level. in terms of building links for international trade, both rural southland and urban wellington followed a similar pattern, with local government, business and the education sectors all involved in developing overseas links. evidence of the development of the networked organisation was found only in the wellington region and mainly in national government. both regions helped to develop national and international networks by means of student exchanges; however from 1995 onwards the internet was used extensively within the wellington region to build national and international networks, whereas no similar data was found for southland. active networks were found in both regions, though these tended to be based in particular sectors for example, business and education. in southland rural networks were particularly active. those regional networks that went across a number of sectors tended to focus on unemployment and retraining and had often been initiated by local government. though there was evidence of clusters, no such initiatives had been consistently maintained throughout the period studied. however, by 2005 local government in both regions had conducted surveys of local organisations to identify common needs and issues (our way southland project team, 2005; wellington city council, 2006). to summarise, the results for this category were generally positive, new zealand did become more connected at global, national and regional levels, and icts played an important role in facilitating these connections. however, icts tended to intensify existing inequalities; the urban region was more successful in using icts to build global connections than the rural region, this was mainly because it had better ict infrastructure to begin with and it was able to capitalise on that. the use of icts also increased the imbalance between the volume of information coming into new zealand and the amount of information being sent out. interacting three major trends were identified for this category. the most significant trend was around the area of regional community which included factors such as crime levels, the growth and/or decline of community spirit, and initiatives by local government to develop their regional communities. regional bonds were strengthened by the activities of voluntary, professional and women’s groups which are discussed in the second section. the third section reports on the growing pressure from mãori and pacific islanders to address issues relevant to their communities; from 1995 onwards the growing asian population was also included in this category. the following sections provide a more detailed discussion of these three factors. regional community at the national level two major reports on the state of the nation were released in 1985. the statistics department released the results of a survey carried out in 1981 to assess the quality of everyday life in new zealand. the results showed that most people were happy with their lives, and content with their jobs. relationships with both family and neighbours were frequent, with more than 70% having at least weekly contact. most new zealanders trusted the police. one-third of the 7000 respondents reported belonging to a job related organisation such as a trade union or professional organisation. only 5% belonged to an interest or a pressure group and 10% were members of a cultural organisation. the social monitoring group also released their first report which took a broad look at social trends and revealed that from birth onwards, inequalities are evident among children based on family, social and economic circumstances, with mãori and pacific islanders being particularly disadvantaged (new zealand planning council social monitoring group, 1985). the difference in attitudes between rural and urban new zealand is illustrated by the example of the homosexual law reform bill which was proposed by the mp for wellington, and strongly opposed by the mp for southland, who organised a national petition against it. a local council in wellington was the first employer in the country outside central government to appoint an equal opportunities officer. in southland the traditional rural culture was given as the reason for the region having the highest percentage of scouts in the country. in 1995 wellington seemed to have become more culturally diverse with greek, polish and italian festivals taking place. in southland cultural diversity was not so evident but there were some indications of liberalisation; school principals opposed the reintroduction of corporal punishment in their schools and the local access radio channel introduced a “wimmin’s” programme. wellington’s public libraries were the busiest in the country per head of population with 2.4 million visits to the 13 outlets in 1994, while the problems of the rural economy saw southland take the record for the busiest citizens advice bureau. concerns about crime rates were a major issue in both regions. following a national trend the crime rates in both southland and wellington had declined from the previous year, but there were increases in violent crime. in 2005, articles again discussed crime levels and initiatives to address them, such as the education and social services centre being set up by an ex-gang member in wellington. in southland four local authorities collaborated to produce a community outcomes report which promoted southland as a great place to live, with a diverse economy and a well-educated and skilled community (our way southland project team, 2005). in line with other countries such as australia and the uk, new zealand was becoming more liberal, and more ethnically diverse. homosexual law reform happened at a similar time to that in other countries. however, new zealand did demonstrate strong leadership in the area of social reform when it became one of the first countries to legalise prostitution, with the passing of the 2003 prostitution law reform act. in global terms new zealand can be regarded as a liberal, progressive and tolerant country, which is open to new ideas and accepting of alternative lifestyles. interviewees confirmed the importance of regional culture and indicated that cultural identity was often stronger in the less populated, more remote regions. strong bonds were found within both regions. usually, these were sector-based with the local council often acting as the network hub. in southland a picture emerged of a traditional rural culture with conservative values. both regions became more liberal over the period studied; however, as would be expected the urban region was more tolerant and ethnically diverse than the rural region. voluntary groups the 1985 articles mentioned a wide range of different voluntary groups from the new zealand computer society to the red cross to the women’s division of federated farmers. nationally, women’s issues were to the fore.,the government had appointed a minister for women’s affairs, who was busy collating information from forums held countrywide to identify women’s’ priorities and concerns such as job sharing, flexible working hours and part-time work. the level of voluntary activity in southland was particularly high, with rural women’s groups being particularly active. a 1985 survey of 230 rural women in southland revealed that more than 60% of the sample held office in a voluntary organisation such as cot death society[4], federated farmers, plunket[5], or various church and sporting groups (allan, 1985). in 1995 voluntary groups were still very much in evidence; articles mentioned grey power, the citizens advice bureau, residents associations, homeless shelters, women’s groups and employment trust. women’s groups were active in both regions. in wellington a new women’s centre was officially opened and 135 business women attended a seminar on entrepreneurship. in southland the women interested in self employment (wise) group held its first meeting. in 2005 women’s groups, particularly rural women’s groups were again significant. in southland the activities of several different groups for rural women were noted including women in dairying, rural women new zealand, women in farming and rural women in business. rural women nz celebrated its 80th birthday and the chairwoman reflected that although today the organisation was talking about getting broadband into rural areas many of the issues discussed by the group had remained the same over the years such as health, isolation and school closures. many rural women now had full-time jobs off the farm and used icts, such as the women in dairying web site as a way of keeping in touch with their peers. research into sustainable development in new zealand has shown that rates of volunteering in the form of unpaid work are relatively high compared to other oecd countries and have remained stable over time (statistics new zealand, 2008a). however, the form of volunteering has changed with people being more ready to commit to episodic volunteering for a one-off event rather than being prepared to make a long-term commitment to a particular organisation (centre of philanthropy and nonprofit studies, 2006; evans & saxton, 2005; merrill, 2006). the data collected provides strong evidence that new zealand has a high level of social capital, and this was consistent throughout the entire period studied. though it is not possible to directly compare levels of social capital with other countries, evidence suggests that the level of volunteering in new zealand is markedly above what is usual. the voluntary sector was active in both wellington and southland, but the close knit networks of the rural women’s groups in southland stood out as being particularly significant. mãori, pacific island and asian issues table 3 shows how the ethnicity of the population changed between 1985 and 2005. the country was becoming more ethnically diverse as both the pacific island and asian populations grew, particularly in urban areas. table 3: ethnicity as a percentage of total population (statistics new zealand, 2008b). note ethnicity is self-declared and respondents can belong to more than one ethnic group 1986 nz 1996 nz 1996 wellington 1996 southland 2006 nz 2006 wellington 2006 southland european 81.2 71.7 71.8 84.4 67.6 69.8 78.6 mãori 12.4 14.5 12 11 14.6 12.8 11.8 pacific island 3.7 4.8 6.2 1.16 6.9 8 1.7 asian 1.5 4.4 5.27 0.67 9.2 8.2 1.2 from 1985 to 2005 the newspaper articles reported on a range of initiatives which provided evidence that mãori and pacific island communities were becoming more involved in civic life. in 1985 there was increasing pressure from the mãori and pacific island communities for their voices to be heard. the waitangi tribunal[6] was considering a claim to give equal status to the mãori language in all spheres of public life, a claim that was eventually granted in 1987. a mãori women’s secretariat was to be set up within the ministry of women’s affairs. in wellington both the mãori and the pacific island communities were attempting to have a bigger say in the field of education. one very visible sign of the growing recognition of mãori culture was the construction of marae[7] in central government offices and some educational institutions in wellington. in southland the mãori community was also very active, particularly in looking after their young people. in 1995 pacific islanders were making a contribution to wellington’s cultural life with a festival in the city centre and an art exhibition. pacific islanders were also becoming involved in local politics with more pacific islanders standing for local elections. in southland the focus was on improving employment prospects for pacific islanders by running courses aimed at encouraging pacific island people in business. there was some resistance to this growing ethnic diversity, a 1995 national business review poll showed that new zealander’s were not too keen on immigrants from the pacific islands and asia--57% of people thought there were too many pacific islanders, and 51% too many asians. there was much less resistance to white immigrants from australia, britain and south africa. a school in southland was accused of racism and treating mãori students differently, by a mãori teacher who claimed there was no support from the principal and other teachers; this was a symptom of a wider concern about mãori language programmes being under threat in southland. despite their increasing involvement in civic life, a 2005 conference for pacific islanders noted that the average weekly income for pacific people was $412 as compared to $637 for new zealanders of european descent, and unemployment was 6.5% as compared to 2.5%. speakers urged pacific islanders to break the cycle of dependency on the state, develop more political clout and start up their own businesses. icts were beginning to play a role in the empowerment of mãori and pacific islanders, for example in 2005 an online database was launched containing the names and iwi[8] affiliation of 98,000 mãori which made it easier to keep in touch with whanau[9]. there was growing pressure to recognise the rights of indigenous people in many countries around the world during the period studied. moves to revive indigenous languages and preserve culture were also widespread. new zealand is a bi-cultural country and the treaty of waitangi[10] signed in 1840 recognises the rights of mãori people. throughout the period studied the voice of mãori and pacific islanders became stronger and they were increasingly involved in the political and cultural life of the country. the growth in the asian population also reflects an increasing mobility that was happening worldwide. though some evidence of racism was found this seemed to be less prevalent in new zealand than in other countries such as australia and the uk. evidence for interacting in an interactive region, individuals within the region will share a common culture, social capital will be high and crime rates will be low. there will also be evidence of active social networks through work, sport, voluntary groups and similar. there is strong and consistent evidence of high social capital in new zealand at both the national and the regional levels. though crime was a common concern in both regions, with other issues some clear differences emerged between urban wellington and rural southland. as might be expected, the urban region demonstrated more evidence of liberal values and cultural diversity, while the rural region had stronger traditional values and was less open to change. cultural identity was stronger in southland; in wellington, cultural loyalties tended to be to the local authority area rather than to the region. by the end of the period community groups had become well aware of the contribution icts could make to regional development. in 1985 and 1995 ict networks were mainly used by the government and private business. by 2005, icts were widely used in the voluntary and community sectors. this trend was observed in both regions and was reinforced at a national level by the publication of the government’s digital strategy (ministry of economic development, 2005). community groups were using hard ict networks to complement and reinforce existing soft networks. though ict networks were identified as playing a role in building interaction within a region they were seen as complementary to rather than as a replacement for face-to-face contact. to summarise, the results for this category were very strongly positive. at both the national and regional levels there was plenty of evidence of good social capital, and active citizen involvement in civic life. this was observed in both the rural and the urban region, though the strongest social bonds were evident in rural southland. by the end of the period studied community groups in both regions were making extensive use of icts to reinforce local bonds though there was less evidence that icts were being used at the global level. conclusions the following three research questions were posed at the beginning of the article. 1) are icts helping to progress the nature of information flow within regional settings? 2) do they improve levels of bonding within the region and bridging beyond the region? 3) how does the local regional culture affect the use of icts? there is no question that between 1985 and 2005 major advances in icts improved both the quality and quantity of information flows, regionally, nationally and internationally. this was a global trend, but new zealand stood out as being a consistent fast adopter of new technologies. new zealand is an isolated country and its citizens have always had a strong desire for contact with the rest of the world; icts were seized on as a tool that could facilitate this. though these bridging links grew stronger they were imbalanced. there was much more traffic into new zealand from the outside world, than there was leaving the country, and the use of icts increased this inequity. icts also increased the inequity between regions within new zealand; the urban region was able to utilise the internet to build global connections much earlier than the rural region. icts were also being used to improve the quality of information flows between organisations within regions. usually the strongest bonds were between organisations in the same sector. schools linked up with other schools; community groups connected with other community groups. in a true learning region there is a “spill over” effect, the innovative use of icts by one group within a region will be picked up and imitated by other stakeholders. there was no real evidence that this was happening. there were examples of good innovative use of icts by schools, but this learning was not being passed on to different sectors within the region. how did regional culture affect the use of icts? at various points throughout the twenty year period studied, regional initiatives were set up around establishing clusters, setting up high technology zones or developing partnerships between education and business; but there was no evidence that such initiatives built steadily over the years. proposed changes at the regional level were often met with infighting and local resistance, which inhibited any long-term development. building effective and long lasting soft people-based networks is a much harder task than setting up a regional ict network. part of the problem may be that new zealand, with a population of around four million, is just too small. this means that individual regions don’t have the critical mass necessary to make it attractive for organisations from different sectors to form networks at the regional level. having said that, one of the aims of the national government’s policy of providing broadband funding for rural schools was to produce a “spill over” effect in the rest of the region. another possibility is that effective regional infrastructure takes longer than anticipated to fully develop, particularly when it involves the co-ordination of soft networks. social capital is strong in new zealand, and was found to be consistently so throughout the period studied. many examples of soft networks were found within both regions, though the views of the rural women’s networks in southland stood out as being the most widely reported in the local press. out of the 38 articles that were collected about voluntary groups in southland, half concerned the activities of women’s groups and their views on matters such as rural isolation, education and the potential of ict. though there was evidence of a relationship between the soft networks that existed at the regional level and the utilisation of hard ict networks within a region, this was difficult to quantify. rural women might discuss broadband as a potential tool for overcoming rural isolation, but it is hard to directly measure the impact that it had on the rate of adoption of broadband in their region. however, there is no doubt that rural women were becoming more significant as a lobby group for high quality ict networks in rural areas. one indication of this is the fact that at a 2011 symposium on rural broadband held by the telecommunications association of new zealand (tuanz)[11] over 50% of the presentations were given by females, as compared to 15% at a similar event in 2006[12]. the growing awareness by community groups of the potential contribution of icts to regional development was significant. in 1985 and 1995 ict networks were mainly used by the government and private business, by 2005 icts were being widely used in the voluntary and community sectors. this trend was observed in both regions and was reinforced at the national level by the publication of the governments digital strategy (ministry of economic development, 2005). community groups were using hard ict networks to complement and reinforce existing soft networks. as new zealand developed trade links with new economic partners in asia, the domestic population became more multicultural. these factors were not unrelated as there were many examples of asian investment in new zealand, and of asian new zealanders setting up businesses to export goods to their birth countries. though not directly related to icts, increasing multicultural diversity helped to build bridging links with new trading partners in both asia and the pacific islands. icts are undoubtedly making a significant contribution to bonding and bridging in new zealand, but their full potential has yet to be realised. the bridging links are not balanced and bonding links are failing to connect the different sectors within a region. though strong soft networks exist they tend to be located within specific interest groups. the learning that is taking place within education and community sectors needs to be leveraged so that it can benefit an entire region. if these different networks can be brought together, so that soft regional networks become fully interlinked, then icts can be utilised to create more effective connections both locally, within new zealand itself, and globally, between new zealand and the rest of the world. both southland and wellington are committed to learning to use ict to improve community and economic development in their region. local and regional government bodies, notably venture southland, wellington city council and wellington regional council are all working hard to encourage digital co-operation between the different stakeholders in their regions. in 2005 venture southland produced a digital strategy (venture southland, 2008) for the region in response to the national digital strategy (ministry of economic development, 2005) produced by central government. in wellington, the wellington regional strategy (2010) has a “connected community” and an “entrepreneurial and innovative community” as two of its key performance indicators, and in 2006 wellington city council outlined its ict policy (wellington city council, 2006). the two regions are working to improve their ict connections at the local level, both in order to strengthen local communities and also to improve their 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(2010). wellington regional strategy. from http://www.wrs.govt.nz/ endnotes [1] otara is a suburb of auckland, new zealand’s largest city [2] other countries who were ranked in the top ten for exports between 1985 and 2005 include germany, taiwan, philippines, hong kong and belgium [3] videotex delivered information (usually pages of text) to a user in computer-like format, typically to be displayed on a television [4] these days cot death is more generally known as sudden infant death syndrome (sids) and refers to the unexplained deaths of infants in their sleep. [5] plunket is a new zealand not-for-profit organisation which provides support services for under-fives and their families [6] body set up to enforce the treaty of waitangi (see next page) [7] traditional maori meeting house [8] similar to tribe or clan [9] extended family [10] the treaty of waitangi was signed on 6 february 1840, by representatives of the british crown and various mãori chiefs. the treaty established a british governor in new zealand, and gave mãori the rights of british subjects and recognised mãori land ownership. [11] tuanz rural broadband symposium, 8-9 november 2011, taupo, new zealand [12] tuanz rural broadband symposium, 29-31 march 2006, timaru, new zealand engaging academia: strengthening the link between community and technology douglas schuler professor, civic intelligence, evergreen state college, washington, usa. email: douglas@publicsphereproject.org this paper develops the case that academia needs to change in several ways if it is to be socially relevant in relation to communities and the ongoing development and deployment of new information and communication technology. it also explores ways in which academia can move in these directions, specifically (1) ways to integrate community more profoundly into the enterprise; and (2) using the perspective of civic intelligence to orient and promote coherence and coordination. "socially relevant" in general means that the research helps to encourage information and communication systems that support human development, social learning, collaborative problem-solving and self-governance. an important aspect of this work also includes transparency and oversight in relation to the development of these systems as well as substantial input into their development. moreover, because the build-out of these systems has such profound implications of surveillance and control, the early warning function is particularly critical. this is an exploratory paper that is intended to be used to advance ideas and further discussion. it is primarily addressed to the academic community that is focused on the use of new information technology in the social lives of "ordinary" citizens. historical opportunity there is a vast race in progress. unfortunately it is more-or-less invisible. each day the computer and media behemoths (and those who are beholden to them) strive to shape information and communication systems in critical ways to best suit their objectives. one of these ways, historically unprecedented on this scale, is the wholesale capture of our personal information for their use. another, of course, is the staggering amount of data being swept up by the intelligence agencies of the united states (and, presumably other countries; not to mention criminal enterprises.) at the same time, the potential power of new ict to support public problem-solving seems to be increasingly unattainable yet essential. this is critical at a time when many of the economic and political elites of the world are unable or unwilling to effectively and equitably address the problems that degrade lives of people worldwide. as peter berger and thomas luckmann stated, "special problems arise as a result of differential rates of change of institutions and subuniverses" (1966). this is particularly true in regard to cyberspace: technology doesn't stand still waiting for its reasoned and critical consideration to catch up. habermas (1996) states that the "public sphere" needs to serve as a "warning system" that must "not only detect and identify problems but also convincingly and influentially thematize them, furnish them with possible solutions, and dramatize them...". while many of our traditional problems inequality, oppression and war, for example show remarkable durability, new problems such as mass surveillance, biological warfare, climate change, and complex, interlinked, and incomprehensible financial systems are now part of the portfolio. we raise the question of how the norms and practices in academia could be transformed in ways that would make academia more relevant in shaping information and communications to empower citizens and communities with public problem solving capabilities (see, e.g. briggs, 2008). at the same time it is possible and necessary for research to be both rigorous and vital. there is a historical opportunity and need to integrate theory and practice more deeply, to renegotiate the interrelationships between research and action, to increase the relevance and influence of the academy for social good. this will mean interrogating and reinventing to some degree the "purpose" of the academy why it does what it does. it will also require a reinvention of many of the approaches we adopt in our academic and intellectual work. it should be made clear at the onset that this critique is not intended to suggest that everything the academy does is wrong or that the ideas here have never been raised or, moreover, are currently in use. the critique of the academy as often being not relevant to people's lives or being unable to engage productively with social change movements is, of course, not new. participatory action research (whyte, 1991), which has its roots in the 1940s, was introduced as an antidote to these issues. par sought to integrate research and action, working with people through participation and inquiry to study the world, change it, and reflect upon the work. the development of participatory design (schuler & namioka, 1993) also follows this basic perspective. pd was pioneered largely in the scandinavian countries (ehn 1988; nygaard, 1983) as a way to empower organized labor in the face of impending information technology use. pd is focused on engaging a wide range of stakeholders, including primarily the people who will be the ultimate users of the systems, in the design of the systems. the argument here is not that critiques of the academy are without precedent. prior critiques, along with the participatory approaches discussed above, are all valid to this discussion. the difference in the rationale described here is one of diminishing relevance particularly in relation to the civic intelligence of communities, civil society, and, broadly, the non-elites of the world (schuler, 2001). the recommendations here are for more abiding relationships between the academy and communities, increasing attention to community problem-solving approaches, and generally more and better coordinated work in this area. transdisciplinarity (stokols, 2012) and collaboration are also key. the civic intelligence of the world's citizens needs to be improved (and it can't be mined or harvested) so that they can play more productive roles in addressing the problems we all face both locally and globally (de cindio & schuler, 2012). engaging the community is necessary not only because of responsibility and social debt. whether this is acknowledged or not, discursive arenas such as the biannual communities and technology conference are among the best situated for this type of work. the challenges are great. from large historical, cultural forces to departmental politics and personal biases, we need to re-evaluate the historic opportunities and challenges of the academy in relation to the needs of the world at large. reinventing research the assertions below are directed primarily towards the educational / research sector although i'd like to think they would be relevant to other sectors including business and, particularly, government. the relevant academic communities, at the very least, include the social science community as well as computer science and other design-oriented communities. the social processes, behaviors, and other phenomena in relation to information and communication technology may be changing too quickly for meaningful intervention on the part of academia and civil society. if this is true, then their work is likely to become ever more irrelevant over time. as langdon winner (1986) pointed out decades ago, "because choices tend to become strongly fixed in material equipment, economic investment, and social habit, the original flexibility vanishes for all practical purposes once the initial commitments are made." if this is true, facebook could become the exemplar for social networking although academics and community members and society at large may have critical needs for other systems deliberative ones, for example; or ones that don't use personal information for private profit. however, because this work may not be immediately measurable or does not have an adequate funding stream it may be passed over for academic attention. the argument is often made that the market will provide society with what is needed. (a variant says that the profit-oriented computer platforms, applications, and services only provide people with what they want.) this is a risky and unproven argument especially in the context of the quickly changing ict environment (including policy). the argument, scarcely hidden, is that democracy can be reduced tout court to economic forces, often abbreviated as "the market," a theory not embraced by democratic theorists or political scientists. on the contrary, this argument blithely sidesteps the crucial role of people, including those with little or no money, in agenda-setting, decision-making, and other participatory processes. the argument is basically one of uninformed wishful thinking. it purports an easy "answer" to issues of democracy and public problem-solving. however, the direction taken by technology will not be decided by quality of arguments but by actual results in relation to these questions: what will people use in the future, what willl they use it to do, what roles do they play, and which policies guide the technological direction? the argument in this paper is not based solely on the idea that our research is too slow. if that were the only reason then the chore before us might be to speed up the research somehow; make it more efficient by, say, "cutting out the middleman" or outsourcing it. the speed of change in the non-academic world and the significant implications of the changes we're seeing in relation to the build-out of information and communication technology and its implications are the most relevant points here. yes, research should be faster, but, more importantly, it should be relevant (without sacrificing rigor) and this points most profoundly towards a deeper and more enduring relationship between communities (i.e. people) and the academy. current approaches to research don't need to be replaced; they do however need to be expanded, mostly by transcending self-limiting and somewhat arbitrary boundaries between what researchers should be doing and what researchers are allowed to be doing. there is much to be gained through improving the relationship between academics and the community. at the same time there are risks to each side. part of the problem is where to draw the line between what is research and what is "just" informed inquiry (or activism or community development or all three). another part is drawing the line between research and development, implementation, and sustaining. the "pecking order" of the various approaches, where community work becomes less-than in relation to the other academic pursuits perhaps because it perceived as less theoretical is also relevant. the way of thinking that asserts that science is entirely objective and value-free also presents friction. the approach may serve to absolve scientists of responsibility beyond the immediate boundaries of their research and their discipline. unfortunately, it can promote irrelevance and moral confusion by denying them a voice in the discussion (including possible critique or warnings) and future deployment of the fruits of their labors except of course if they were immediately remunerative. the belief in the inherent objectivity (and, hence, superiority) of measurement and numbers implicitly denigrates the idea of salient and local knowledge which is often so critical to community use of technology. physics or chemistry, for example, search for universals facts that would be remain forever true regardless of the context. social science, on the other hand, can only be characterized at this level if at all by statements that would be banal at best, useless (or useful in bad ways) at worst. computer scientists and other technology designers could become more central in the ongoing evaluation and evolution of community use of technology. they could extend their work beyond the one-offs, demos, proof-of-concepts and experiments-in the lab, not in the streets and into the development of open, evolving and enduring infrastructures. this would necessarily involve other community members (see next section) and researchers (particularly social scientists) from other locations in the academy. there are many ways in which a transfer to civic use might be accomplished, including anything from making their products open source, to involving community members in the design of artifacts or services, to establishing and serving in a local community-innovation organization. and educating the public is especially relevant but not generally as fundable as research. the community of stakeholders working in this area also needs to be expanded. current divisions between data-gathering and policy development can lead to problems. academics may object to the way that the data they've produced is misinterpreted or simply inserted instrumentally into a system of values and priorities at odds with their own. social science research, for example, may reveal that certain groups tend to score lower using some testing instruments than other groups in certain types of cognitive skills. these results may be used by others to justify spending less on educational programs aimed at those groups while the researchers thought that these groups deserved additional support in order to improve their scores. while not the subject of this short article, the question of the legitimacy of social science and other academic / scholarly pursuits will not be brought up only through the efforts of those working solely "at the grassroots" from the "bottom up." support for these enterprises will not magically appear without sustained effort directed towards our own community and fellow academics and funders. (but, in the absence of this support, we should acknowledge that working without remuneration if it is plausible brings its own rewards, more autonomy to name but one.) stronger community focus the questions of why and how researchers should engage with communities is deeply related to the purpose and practice of community informatics. community informatics is a field for researchers and practitioners working purposefully. we have further responsibilities towards the communities we are engaged with in addition to providing interesting facts and theories about how they use (or don't use) technologies to the research communities so that new research can be conducted. one such responsibility is to "do no harm". the second goes beyond the first by suggesting that we are actually striving, sometimes strongly and sometimes less so, to empower the communities we work with. the relationship should be building capacities including the ability to define and develop its own research agenda to be conducted in partnership with the academy (bruce, 2008). these responsibilities place constraints on activities. (for one thing there would, in many cases, be a shift from "big data" use to more reliance on the salient knowledge (ganz, 2009; defilippis, 2004) specific communities need). more significantly, however, the responsibilities open up new opportunities which, along with ideas for what to do with obvious opportunities, are discussed in this article. a stronger community focus suggests several changes, many of which have become more common. due to myriad problems from the historical "drive-by" approach to community research in which researchers would enter a community, gather data there and then vanish, many research projects are adopting community-based participatory research practices. communities also question the nature of the research projects in which researchers are there one day and gone the next. clearly longer relationships are needed but the relationship often ends at the same time the grant money runs out based solely on the expression "community and technology" that motivated this and other position papers in this special section, the academics who study that interactive relationship are omitted from the field of "community and technology". whether this is intentional or not, it reinforces the view that researchers study communities and technology from the outside and the idea that researchers are or can be members of the community and can work collaboratively as peers on analysis, design, development, and other engaged enterprises is not always considered. a focus on communities and technology should engage communities more directly and more strongly. below are four important approaches that would help advance this focus. each of the bullet points below the various approaches suggests several significant implications. note that they are not exhaustive, nor of course are they trivial to institute. other people with interests in this field are encouraged to improve this list. invite the community into our enterprise we must make our conferences and other events affordable and accessible we must learn more about the communities we work with and build enduring relationships we must involve the community in research; they can identify research questions and priorities and, presumably with some assistance lead the inquiry effort co-design with the community we help provide design tools and other aids we share our research goals with them and find out what they want we encourage communities to develop their own research agendas and we will assist them in the work serve the community we take their current and future needs and concerns seriously we adopt stances in a general way that support them we help promote genuine change we develop technology that communities can use and continue as best we can to ensure that it evolves and is supported strengthen our community we identify and develop shared resources and projects we identify and develop shared challenges and visions we collaborate with other communities including activists, civic organizations, community organizers, researchers and academics, students, government officials, artists, musicians, etc. etc. we hope to encourage and help launch long-term collaborations that result in campaigns, projects, and useful artifacts or other resources. we can also make the case to ourselves, our department, our funders, etc. that integrating and embracing community into our work more fully helps strengthen our efforts. although one of the proper roles of the academy is helping society at large (whose labor and taxes makes academic life possible), the argument that the world needs us is incomplete and misleading. our work will be richer when we rethink the importance of community and of the human and natural world generally. our work will be more relevant and, hopefully, the support will come. ideally because have made the convincing case that it is needed. what would be lost if community informatics researchers moved their work further in the directions outlined here? i argue here that thoughtful movement in these directions need not sacrifice any of its core values. a stronger community focus need not rule out research or rigorous methodology. on the contrary, it is often the artifacts of the way the academy is institutionalized that need some transformation to help community informatics researchers and practitioners do their jobs better. orienting our enterprise how does theory play a role in academic work that is more engaged in the communities that we exist within, that informs and that is informed by our work? are there intellectual foci that would help orient our community and scholarly work and help strengthen our roles and legitimacy? the theory and practice of civic intelligence is intended to help answer these questions. civic intelligence is the capacity for groups to work together for the common good, to address shared challenges effectively and equitably. this concept is very much aligned with the goals and practices of community informatics and the goal of collaborative problem solving specifically. it could help serve as a focus for a number of research and practice initiatives and thus foster indirect coordination. the idea of one or more foci is important because collective action depends on implicit and explicit coordination among the players. as part of this exploration i have developed a civic intelligence capacities framework that seems to be nearly complete. among other things, it is intended to be used for diagnosis in relation to our current work as well as planning for enterprises that are advancing civic intelligence whether they use the term or not! and that includes the communities and technology community. we've organized our findings over several years and present the five categories of capacities that help support civic intelligence. knowledge; including a variety of knowledge-based capacities such as theory, knowledge of problems, skills, resources, self-knowledge and meta-cognition (thinking about and improving one's own thinking); attitude and aspiration; including a variety of capacities that are typically seen as non-cognitive but are essential for civic intelligence such as values, civic purpose, empathy, and self-efficacy; organizational capital; including the processes and structure of the collectivity that are needed to complete tasks effectively, such as personnel, work practices, and access to resources; relational and social capital; including reputation, social networks, social capital, opportunities; and financial and material resources; including money, buildings, land, and the like. the figure below lists the main capacities within each category. the framework can help us consider the stronger community focus points that were discussed above. beyond that, the framework could be used to help develop and conduct a transition into a more engaged (and legitimatized) academic / community relationship. in using the framework, two guidelines must be kept in mind. the first is that most (if not all) of the capabilities pertain to any group; each will take on different characteristics depending on the group and the challenges they face. the organizational structure of a large corporation will probably be far more hierarchal than a coalition of non-profit organizations. a large financial company is unlikely to be motivated by social critique such as structural inequality. the second guideline is that although the capacities are presented in a logical and discrete way, the capabilities are not employed autonomously, nor in the absence of ongoing processes. for example, the self-knowledge (column 1) of a group may reveal that the social imagination (column 2) capability should be improved; hence they use their social network (column 4) and financial assets (column 5) to identify and hire people who can promote team development and creativity (both column 3). the framework could also be used in ways more directly related to this essay's themes: increasing the ability of the academy to more effectively engage in the deployment of ict that would benefit people. one approach along these lines might be to use the framework to depict how various capacities of, say, academia, might look in an ideal world which could be compared to the reality. the framework can be used to evaluate and diagnose various manifestations of a more engaged, stronger link between academia and community in relation to technology in a broad sense. this could include technological development, community development, policy development, media creation or many other focused activities. the idea of communities identifying strengths and weaknesses within their community using the framework in relation to various goals seems to have potential. it could be determined, for example, that a community needs to develop a broader social network or think about diversity within the group. they may decide to think more about timing or even consider the use of humor within their tactics. conclusions and next steps this paper advances the idea that the cultivation of civic intelligence can and should become a shared objective of the community informatics community. faced with unprecedented challenges, civic intelligence is urgently needed by communities all over the world. how communities manifest and cultivate civic intelligence will undoubtedly assume different forms in different situations. it will also face a variety of challenges, many of which will be unique to individual communities. to some degree, the social sciences (especially those which are unrelated to the acquisition of money or power) have been circumscribed by internal as well as external forces into a position of relative irrelevance. social scientists and other relevant academics and researchers need to rethink how their work is conducted especially since the context of their work has changed dramatically. to a large degree this will mean transcending the traditional limits of the discipline, both externally and self-imposed. this includes who can conduct research, where the line between theory and practice should be redrawn, which research is legitimate and, perhaps most importantly, why research is being conducted which, in turn, helps inform the how research is conducted. while universal theories may be largely inappropriate for the scholarly enterprises that we are focusing on here, many if not all of the other activities associated with academic research are still important. seen from a civic intelligence perspective however, some elements must change. for one thing, design is becoming increasingly important. this means not waiting for others to develop, for example, software for community collaboration, or a new deliberative protocol that meets their needs. evaluation is very important and it may take several forms. moreover, because things seem to be more in flux than they were previously, the results of an evaluation might not yield the same results when evaluated a second time. it is also important to embrace natural experiments more consciously. the resources for setting up your own experiment are often not available. finally, giving more thought to meta-research becomes much more important. it will be important for researchers and community members to better coordinate their work; thus working on larger projects through their work on smaller projects that are worthwhile in their own right but also contribute to a greater whole. it won't be enough to "go it alone." the six points listed below characterize stages that are likely to be essential in any pursuit of civic intelligence. critique or question start here even if the critique or question is inchoate learning necessary at all stages of the process; without this we are lost transparency people need to understand how things work-especially those processes that seem to produce and enforce the "rules" that we are expected to follow inclusiveness we need not to just hear the unheard voices, they must be integrated into the decision-making cultural shift from power politics to problem solving governance sharing not government "efficiency" and/or citizen "autonomy" rewrite for academia in this position paper, the assertion is made that the non-pure (or "soft") sciences need to change in relation not just to the opportunities and threats afforded by new information and communication technologies but to other new realities of 21st century life. moreover, the changes recommended here are not just reactive and adaptive (to processes presumably out of their control) but assertive and proactive in their role in encouraging a future world that is more sustainable and more equitable for everybody. courage, boldness, leadership, and compassion in addition to intellectual vigor and curiosity will be necessary. this paper, while developing additional supporting arguments, is very much in the tradition of community informatics (gurstein 2007) in which empowerment, actualization, social mobilization etc. of communities are explicit goals. theory and practice are equally privileged and this is built into our self-concept. communities, also, are the primary foci of attention. on the other hand, we know that communities are not sublime. they come in a variety of shapes and sizes; communities, as with people, are capable of bad deeds and intentions as well as good. working with them more intensely will not necessarily put an end to all the problems we face. however, working with people and communities at a deep level is key to the "strong democracy" (barber, 2003) approach that we often advance. finally, it is becoming clear how absolutely necessary it is to pursue and cultivate the pooled intelligence that dewey affirms below: while what we call intelligence may be distributed in unequal amounts, it is in the democratic faith that is sufficiently general so that each individual has something to contribute, and the value of each contribution can be assessed only as it entered into the final pooled intelligence constituted by the contributions of all. john dewey, 1937 references barber, b. 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(2010). the whale and the reactor: a search for limits in an age of high technology. university of chicago press. exploring e-participation in the city of cape town laban bagui1, prof. andy bytheway2 research fellow, cape peninsula university of technology, south africa. email: labanbagui@gmail.com adjunct professor of information management, faculty of informatics and design, cape peninsula university of technology, south africa. email: andy.bytheway@gmail.com 1. introduction the south african 1996 constitution has provided for a representative, deliberative and participative democracy. the constitution emphasises the participation of all people in government at all levels, because its aim is to repair the errors of the past and to create a more just, equal, and peaceful country (republic of south africa, 1996). the government is organised around three spheres or levels of legislation: national, provincial and local representation. all spheres have legislative powers, from national to local, and respectively enact acts of parliament, provincial acts and bylaws. the south african scheme for public participation, whereby the needs of communities should actually be heard, was designed after the example of the brazilian city of porto alegre, where the process was run at the level of the municipalities as close as possible to the citizen (department of provincial and local government, 2007). some progress has been achieved in south africa. for example, at the transactional level it is possible to deal with corporate and personal tax issues on-line, and there is increasing use of text messages to inform citizens in different ways using their cell phones. however, at a time when public disorder is rising, and the citizens of the country are feeling more and more ignored by their government (piper & von lieres, 2008), the country desperately needs more effective public participation (republic of south africa, 1998; rsa cogta, 2009:34; carrim, 2010). at the same time, the adoption and use of new technologies by citizens is rising rapidly. this paper uses actor network theory (ant) in an analysis of an exploration of the use of mobile, web and social media technologies in achieving e-participation in the city of cape town. the paper continues with a presentation of the city of cape town, a review of e-participation, methodology, the translation of e-participation in the city of cape town, and a discussion of the findings followed by a conclusion. 2. the city of cape town the city of cape town is the largest metropolis in the western cape province. the city is a cosmopolitan place with communities of all races, religions, and languages; with various levels of education, earnings and wealth. the city is divided into 24 subcouncils and 111 wards. this study has chosen to look only at subcouncils 17 and 16 within the boundaries defined in 2006 (polack, 2011b). this choice was motivated by representation (they include most variations of culture and lifestyle that exist within the city), and accessibility within the limits of the project resources. cape town's 2006 ggp (gross geographic product), defined as the final value of all goods and services produced by the city in one year, is r123 582 million. economic growth (the yearly percentage change in ggp) of 6% was achieved in 2006 (city of cape town, 2010a). cape town (city of cape town sdi/gis, 2008) can be divided into two major types of community arising from the apartheid era: previously underprivileged and poor areas (very much represented in subcouncil 17); and previously privileged and wealthy areas (very well represented in subcouncil 16). over 90% of the western cape province population lives in the city of whom 52% are female and 48% are male. around 50% are coloured, 35% are black, 10% are white and 5% are indian or asian (statistics sa, 2010). in addition, there are communities of foreign nationals of unknown numbers. the place of the individual within the city's framework is such that his/her voice must go through many bureaucratic layers before it reaches the decision-making table (city of cape town, n.d). this section continues with a depiction of two socially representative subcouncils of the city. 2.1 goodhope or cape town subcouncil 16 goodhope (subcouncil 16) includes wards 54, 74 and 77. the area was a white only zone during the apartheid era and is still trying to manage the inherited stigma of the district six removal. the area is the most densely populated of all the subcouncils and hosts the seats of the parliament of south africa, the provincial government of the western cape and the local government of the city of cape town. this subcouncil includes the core of the city's business hub where thousands of people come to work every day in a broad range of industries including banking, hospitality, filming and events. there are also numerous community-based organisations including the camps bay rate payers association (http://campsbayratepayers.blogspot.com/), long street residents association (lsra), central city improvement district (ccid), and many more political organisations as present in council. there are also mosques, churches and temples. 2.2 athlone and districts or cape town subcouncil 17 athlone and district or subcouncil 17 includes wards 46, 47, 48, 49, 52 and 60. it is mainly inhabited by "coloured people" in an uncharacteristic mix of communities, cultures and peoples. the subcouncil is part of the "cape flats" that was populated with displaced "district six" inhabitants during the apartheid era. there are descendants of indigenous khoe and san people, and also of indians, malaysian, chinese, bantu and caucasian origin. the area is problematic with social disintegration effects including: family breakdowns, single parenthood, breakdown of the authority of parents and teachers, high unemployment and unemployability rates, high crime and violence rates, substances abuses, despair and acceptance of a victimised image (ramphele, 1991; wachira, 2009:1-13). speaking of the effect of social disintegration in this area, amanda dissel (1997) cites don pinnock (1996), arguing that young people join criminal gangs to fulfil a need for a rite of passage which is lacking in their post-apartheid environment. in the past, traditional societies provided these rites to create a sense of direction, social acceptance and importance for the group: "they create structures and rituals that work for them, carve their names into the ghetto walls and the language of popular culture, arm themselves with fearsome weapons and demand at gun-point what they cannot win with individual respect." (pinnock, 1996:13) the community has responded to the situation by generating and collaborating with organisations well-known from the city authorities including: impact direct ministries (idm) (http://www.impactdirect.org.za/), themba care (http://thembacareathlone.blogspot.com/), the rlab (http://www.rlabs.org/), people against gangsterism and drugs (pagad) (http://www.pagad.co.za/); political organisations including da, anc and cope; mosques, churches and other temples. 2.3 the mobile, web and social media channel in cape town the mobile, web and social media channel in cape town is approached by looking at the penetration of technology in communities, services available on networks and platforms used for interacting. 2.3.1 penetration according to goldstuck and wronski (2011), the penetration of mobile, web and social media has deepened and the users' age curve has flattened to the extent that these channels have gone "mainstream". the use of mobile web applications such as mxit and bbm has surpassed experts' predictions. for example, mxit (2012) claims more than 44 million registered users in south africa, with 19% of them coming from the western cape. 2.3.2 services cellular networks operators including vodacom, mtn, cell c, 8ta and virgin mobile offer a variety of services to customers; ranging from mobile telephony, sms, ussd, internet and web access. on top of that are service operators allowing individuals to interact with local government services online, for example to pay their electricity, water, traffic fines and other bills (e.g: https://www.ibuy.co.za/, http://www.ipay.co.za/, https://www.paycity.co.za/default.aspx, or https://www.energy.co.za/ ). 2.3.3 platforms individuals in the city's communities interact with each other on social media applications including mxit, bbm, aim, or facebook. they increasingly use internet enabled devices (goldstuck & wronski, 2011). 2.4 the government of the city of cape town and the mobile channel this section paints a picture of the structure, the functioning and the purpose of the mobile channel of the local government of the city of cape town. 2.4.1 the local government of the city of cape town a) the city council the local government of the city of cape town is constituted of a city council and an administration or executive management team. the city council is the legislative body responsible for the governance of cape town. that body makes and implements by-laws, the integrated development plan (idp), tariffs for rates/services and the annual budget, and also enters into service level agreements; in addition, it debates local government issues, ratifies or rejects proposals, acquires and disposes of capital assets, and appoints the executive mayor, the executive deputy mayor and the city manager. decisions taken by the city council are implemented by the city's executive management team. by-laws and policies are formulated and monitored by council's portfolio committees which advise the council (polack, 2011a). the city council is elected for 5 years and comprises 221 councillors, half of whom are ward councillors and the rest are proportional representatives according to their political parties' strength. for the legislature that started in june 2011 and will end in june 2015, the city council seats are distributed amongst the most prominent political parties, dominated by the democratic alliance (da) which holds 135 seats and the african national congress (anc) which holds 73 seats. other smaller parties hold a smaller number of seats (polack, 2011a). the city council is chaired by a speaker who presides over meetings and oversees the process of public participations (polack, 2011a). b) the administration of the city the city administration is double-headed with a political head called "executive mayoral committee or mayco" supervised by the city's executive mayor and an administrative head or executive management team organised in directorates under a city manager. typically, the composition of mayco changes more often than the management team. directorates are very broad in scope and the one responsible for the department of information systems and technology (ist) is corporate services. the ist department holds the largest budget of that directorate (city of cape town, 2011b). the racial structure at staff levels of the city administration indicates that: 50% of staff are coloured, 30% are african (black), 19% are white and 1% are indian; within top and senior management, 50% are white, 30% are coloured, 19% are african and 1% are indian (city of cape town, 2011:95). these figures suggest that the strategic decision making in the city is racially dominated by whites. c) public protection the community's last recourse in an argument with the city is the office of the city ombudsman (city of cape town, n.d) tasked to investigate and mediate residents' complaints about the municipality; also the office of the public protector and the western cape public protector, to advise on, investigate and redress improper and prejudicial conduct, maladministration and abuse of power in state affairs (office of the public protector, n.d); finally there is the office of the western cape consumer protector. however, it is always possible to take legal advice from a lawyer, preferably a member of the cape bar council (the cape bar council, 2012) and to seek justice in court. d) the city functioning in understanding the functioning of local government in the city of cape town, a range of documents and sources, in addition to those already referenced above, is evidence of the relevant recent changes: the constitution of the republic of south africa (rsa,1996) is acclaimed as one of the most inclusive constitution in the african continent, guaranteeing equality of treatment for all south africa's diverse population. local government: the municipal structure act 117 of 1998 provides for the establishment of municipality and their sub-divisions. local government: the municipal system act 32 of 2000 provides for the organisation and the functioning of municipalities so as to insure a sound achievement of public participation. local government: municipal electoral act 27 of 2000 provides for election events for local government office. national policy framework for public participation (2007) encompasses legal community participation obligations of municipalities (department of provincial and local government, 2007:30) city of cape town cellular telecommunication infrastructure policy (city of cape town, 2002) provides for the control, development and installation of cellular telecommunication infrastructure in the city. city of cape town language policy (2002b) provides for the fair and equal use of national languages on communication platforms including websites in the city. city of cape town public engagement policy (2009) provides regulation for means to be used for engaging with community members. e) participation in public participation the city reported that 20 997 citizens were engaged in public participation in 2010 (public participation unit, 2011). that number contrasts with the city's population of more than 3 million inhabitants (statistic sa, 2010). 2.4.2 cape town mobile, web and social media resources and initiatives the government of cape town has chosen to invest heavily in information technology, following a "smart city" strategy. an enterprise resource planning system (erp) has been deployed. billing and procurement systems benefited significantly from the erp; then a geographic information system (gis) was incorporated to improve planning; human resource management (hr) was added; and a complaint notification system called the "c3 system" was plugged into the erp system. beyond the erp implementation, the 'smartcape' initiative put pcs in libraries for public use; the construction of a whole optical fibre network throughout the city is being undertaken (city of cape town, 2010; odendaal, 2011); new safety systems to monitor and control crime are being implemented around toll free numbers, gis, and other south african police service (saps) databases. all these will impact highly on the provision of transactional services to citizens. but such innovations does not seem to contribute much to citizen's other needs such as for housing, sanitation, security, legal environment and other community infrastructural facilities. do these innovations open efficient channels for public participation in government? the local government of the city of cape town has also started to use mobile, web and social media to communicate and engage with individuals and community organisations; that includes: sms messages that are sent to ward forum members and availability of toll free numbers around particular issues (e.g.: water-related enquiries contact 0860 103 089, send an e-mail to watertoc@capetown.gov.za or send an sms to 31373 open 24/7. (@cityofct, 24/02/2012)), an information rich website at http://www.capetown.gov.za; a page on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/city-of-cape-town/113648061978937; an account on twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/cityofct; a youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/cctecomm this shows that these channels are now perceived by the city to be valuable in reaching out to individuals in communities. 3. e-participation in government the combination of communications technology in business, communities, government and in the life of every individual makes an interesting mixture that challenges all our assumptions about our roles as consumers, employees, tax payers, public service recipients, or simply community members. that mixture opens up opportunities for all to participate in the governance of society as implied in this study of a case of representative democracy. macintosh (2004) defines edemocracy as: "the use of information and communication technologies to engage citizens, support the democratic decision-making processes and strengthen representative democracy" (macintosh, 2004:n.p). here the study chooses to use the term "e-participation" to place a clear focus on the engagement of citizens, and the role of communication technologies in engaging them. the following sections briefly review the literature concerning: e-participation research, e-participation stakeholders, and the mobile channel. 3.1 e-participation research public participation is complex, because the public can engage with government in many ways and at different levels. at one level transactional it is now possible to submit tax returns online and to pay traffic fines (to pick just two examples available in south africa); at another more strategic it is possible to try and influence long term policy making by lobbying and voting online: these are elements reflecting e-participation activities. e-participation is an emerging research field which according to sanford and rose (2007:410) derives its importance from: the participative imperative deduced from the right of all the stakeholders in society to participate in the formation and execution of public policy the instrumental justification, namely that it can be instrumental in more effective policy making and governance a technology focus: "ict has the potential to improve participation in the political process through: enhanced reach and range (inclusion); increased storage, analysis, presentation, and dissemination of contributions to the public policy and service debate; better management of scale; and by improvements to the process of organizing the public sphere debate" (sanford & rose, 2007:410). in a review of the field, sæbø, rose and flak (2008:417) shaped e-participation research around a narrative where e-participation actors (citizens, politicians, government institutions, voluntary organisations) conduct e-participation activities (online political discourse, econsultation, eactivism, ecampaign, etc.), in the context of some factors (information availability, infrastructure, underlying technologies, accessibility, etc.), which result in certain effects (civic engagement, deliberative and democratic) determined through e-participation evaluation (quantity, demographics, and tone and style) allowing the improvement of e-participation activities. theories and methods, here, are borrowed from related and already established research fields. this depiction makes of the field more of an e-participation improvement effort thus limited to technicalities lightly considerate of outcomes such as development, environment preservation or peace. that framework was revisited by medaglia (2012:348) who added "transparency and openness" as directions into e-participation evaluation type of research. this paper subscribes to that approach and to approaches that have in heart the outcome, and see e-participation as a means to an end. henceforth, this study explores the network of actors meant to foster the achievement that e-participation promises. the next section reviews selected prominent advances of e-participation in the world. 3.2 e-participation global review the closer we come to the actual formulation and implementation of government policy the more difficult it seems to influence anything. early opinions concluded that "online citizen engagement in policy-making is new and examples of good practice are scarce" (oecd 2003). and it has been reported that more than half of all e-government projects fail (heeks 2002). however, experts have since suggested frameworks for assessing the quality of an implementation of e-government and thus of e-participation; and the prospect of success is still seen as very real (andersen & henriksen, 2006; gupta & jana, 2003; heeks, 2006; macintosh, 2006; undp, 2007; tambouris et al., 2007; thakur, 2009). of course, success can be seen from two perspectives. from the citizen's perspective success would comprise more appropriate services, more effectively delivered, at a lower cost to the individual. from the government's perspective, success might derive from these same things (where the views of the public carry some weight) but in other circumstances a government might have quite different ambitions to consolidate its own power base and collect more tax revenue, whilst delivering fewer services at the lowest possible cost. the european commission has funded numerous research projects within its boundaries with the objective of exploring, understanding and describing e-participation initiatives or "efforts to broaden and deepen political participation by enabling citizens to connect with one another and with their elected representatives and governments, using icts" (avdic et al., 2008; tambouris et al., 2007). the democracy network of excellence or demo-net is one of them. demo-net brings deep insight into e-participation by providing research directions, research network, working definitions, case studies, first-hand findings, frameworks, models and pertaining theories (avdic et al. 2008; tambouris et al., 2007). other countries in the world have worked on e-government and recorded various results which impacted on e-participation. according to dutta and mia (2011) the ten countries with the best technology readiness are: sweden, singapore, finland, denmark, usa, switzerland, taiwan-china, canada, norway and republic of korea; the united nations (un, 2012:126) considers the best ten e-government countries to be: republic of korea, netherlands, united kingdom, denmark, usa, france, sweden, norway, finland, and singapore. it is interesting to observe that some countries including egypt, kazakhstan or the russian federation with a lower technology readiness and with not an exactly effective e-government, rank rather high in their implementation of e-participation (un, 2012:44). furthermore, the use of mobile, web and social media for e-participation translates in initiatives including monitoring some service delivery like with "fixmystreet" (www.fixmystreet.com) websites present in many countries; neighbourhood watch against burglary (www.usaonwatch.org); offenders watch (www.watchsystems.com); e-petitioning websites (www.e-petitioner.org.uk); data (www.opendatainitiative.org, data.worldbank.org) and open government (https://opendata.go.ke, opengovernmentinitiative.org) initiatives aiming at satisfying e-participation requirement of informing the public; and was crucial in spurring the arab spring (anderson, 2011) in north africa and the middle-east. 3.3 e-participation and e-government in south africa 3.3.1 legal environment and institutions at national level in line with international trends and best practices, the government of south africa has devised strategies and plans for all spheres and has started to adopt/enact egovernment with laws, policies and standards on the acquisition and the use of ict. high level strategic objectives and directives aligned with the attainment of the millennium development goals (mdgs) of the united nations included the introduction of the notion of "developmental local government" in the core of the country's model of local government (republic of south africa, 1998); 'batho pele' (people first) principles were set forward to improve service delivery (dpsa, 1997); policies and frameworks established the environment within which it is selected, acquired and used in government (department of public service and administration, 2001); the activation of constitutional provisions regarding access to information and the protection of certain information (republic of south africa, 2010:2) was enacted; regulations of electronic communication, transaction and applicable security (republic of south africa, 2002; republic of south africa, 2006) were also enacted. state owned entities and bodies were created and other organs saw their prerogatives extended to carry through the strategy at all levels, including the departments of public service and administration, local government, communications, science and technology, the government information technology office council (gitoc), electronic communication security (pty) ltd, the universal service and access agency of south africa (usaasa), the independent communications authority of south africa, the ".za" domain name authority (.za dna) and the state information technology agency (sita) (farelo & morris, 2006; department of public service and administration, 2007; department of public service and administration 2008). in addition, all government spheres have websites and portals where a plethora of information is available to the public, for example: http://www.dpsa.gov.za, http://www.capegateway.gov.za and http://capetown.gov.za. the network readiness rank of south africa in the world has been assessed as 61st (dutta & mia, 2011) and its overall egovernment index rank which was 97th in 2010 (un, 2010) is now 101st with an e-participation rank of 26th out of 32 groups (un, 2012:126,134). there are at least as many sim cards in circulation as there are people. mobile operators have implemented cutting edge services on their networks and cover all the populated parts of the country. hence there is a generally positive context within which to proceed with egovernment and e-participation. it is not surprising therefore that researchers have already suggested ways of implementing m-government to fit south african needs, all calling for a synergy of stakeholders (maumbe & owei, 2006). 3.3.2 e-participation in the western cape province: strategies and initiatives one role of provincial government is to establish local government or municipalities and to take responsibility for major infrastructure within the boundaries of the province. as early as 2001, the western cape province started a move towards e-government, initiating studies and devising strategies and plans (provincial government of the western cape, 2001; city of cape town & provincial government of the western cape, 2003). the provincial e-government (also called cape online strategy) has led to a range of projects for the development of a strong enabling footprint including: cape gateway, cape view, cape change, cape net, and cape procure; also projects for connecting with online communities including khanya (education), elsenburg (agriculture), wesgro (trade and investment), western cape tourism and cape nature conservation (provincial government of the western cape, 2001; city of cape town & provincial government of the western cape, 2003). all of these projects are either up and running or completed (for example the cape gateway or the cape procure) while others like the cape net are approaching maturity or are still growing. the initiation of an ambitious broadband strategy will enable further development. in her state of the province address this year 2012, premier helen zille reiterated a vision of the place of an inclusive provincial broadband strategy that will create the conditions needed for increased economic growth and jobs creation: "our broadband strategy will involve partnerships with a number of potential stakeholders, including licensed telecom service providers, commercial banks, the idc and the dbsa, local businesses as well as local and national government. in other words, the roll-out of this broadband network exemplifies our "better together" approach. (zille, 2012)" in its effort to achieve a true "knowledge economy" the provincial government of the western cape works with all the other spheres of government, businesses, communities, and with agencies such as sita (to which it outsources most of its infrastructural work). the city of cape town benefits from the western cape provincial projects and e-government infrastructural capabilities. 4. research methodology the research question addressed here concerns the extent to which the use of mobile, web and social media helps or hinders e-participation in the city of cape town. the methodology used follows a qualitative approach in line with its exploratory aim. literature and document reviews, focus group and in-depth interviews provided valuable data and informed the development of an actor network theory (ant) analysis of the achievement of e-participation in the city of cape town, from which final results and conclusions were derived. the study performed a literature and document review online and in libraries, following up on the trail of relevant information about the adoption and enactment of e-participation in the city of cape town. the study also undertook 16 in-depth interviews and 1 focus group of local government officials and community members between october 2010 and march 2011. respondents were all required to have a mobile phone and to be able afford the minimum cost expected for its maintenance; therefore they tended not to be the poorest within the community. this paper considers e-participation as a socio-technical network constituted with humans (community members, councillors, line managers and agents of the city), structures (citizen based organisations, non-governmental organisations, city council, policies, and bylaws) and technology (mobile phones, the world wide web, social media and backend systems called here the mobile channel). e-participation translates the common interest of actors (here public participation stakeholders) to express their needs and opinions to the relevant governmental body, using the mobile channel. 5. actor network theory and e-participation one way to explain the spreading of innovation, such as the adoption of e-participation using mobile, web and social media, is through the identification and recognition of the influential consortium of "actors" that instantiated the idea and carries it through. if innovation fails it can be argued that the primary actors involved in constructing the supporting network of alliances didn't succeed in stabilising the network (mcmaster et al., 1997). this is the domain of actor network theory (ant), "the sociology of translation" (law, 1992), a method of investigating socio-technical phenomenon. ant was developed with the idea that knowledge lies within processes, systems and artefacts: social processes like consultation, conceptual systems like the structuration of e-participation within public participation, and material artefacts like the technological infrastructure that constitutes the mobile channel in e-participation (callon, 1991; latour, 1992). it considers agents, communities, organisations and machines as actors that interact within and by means of actor-networks. in ant, an actor is a human or nonhuman entity that is able to make its presence distinctively perceived by other actors of the network (law, 1987). actor-networks here are heterogeneous networks of mutually constitutive resources and actors, ensuing with an actor being understood as being a network as well (callon & law, 1997). that particular characteristic has two facets: an actor can be thought of as a 'black box', the content of which need not be considered even though it might contain other networks or further complex intricacies (callon, 1986); similarly, a whole network can be 'punctualised' into a single point, as an actor in the network, thereby masking its inherent complexities (law, 1992). ant gives to the human and to the nonhuman the same analytical treatment (analytical impartiality), uses the same vocabulary in the process and allows or considers humans to associate or interact with nonhumans as if they were human, and vice versa: respectively it is built upon agnosticism, generalised symmetry and free association (tatnall & gilding, 1999). that approach implies that if applied to e-participation, in such a network: individuals, local government and mobile, web and social media will be considered without party taking or judgment; humans (individuals in communities, in specialised organisation and in government) and nonhumans (community organisations, businesses, local governments, mobile phone or backend ict infrastructure) should be regarded as being of the same abstract kind, they would be considered as actors and networks; relationships can exist between human and nonhuman elements such as cellular phone, social network websites or the local government of cape town. to illustrate this, the mobile channel suggested in this study would be able to charm a prospective participant into changing her or his behaviour and equally the prospective participant would be able to modify the channel to fit its preferences. the network here is the context for a 'continually negotiated process' that maintains its cohesion and its existence. actors are only considered in relation to, and not separated from, other actors or parts of the network. networks are characterised by the degree of alignment of interests (common history and shared space), coordination (adoption of convention, codification, and translation regiments) and irreversibility of iterations of the network. ant defines the constitution of a network within a model of translation, comprising four principal moments or stages: problematisation, interessement, enrolment and mobilisation of allies (callon 1986). problematisation is a process that defines the problem to be solved by the emergence of the network. in this moment, key actors strive to delineate the nature of the problem and develop a solution to be implemented, for which they also determine the role of other actors. these key actors attempt to establish themselves as an 'obligatory passage point' (opp) which must be negotiated as part of the solution (tatnall & burgess, 2002). e-participation strives to carry community needs through to local government decision makers in such a way that they can use it within the norms, regulations and capabilities under their control. clearly, for all the technology that might assist, there will be a degree of negotiation and obligation involved. interessement is concerned with engaging with and imposing on other actors, identities and roles defined during the problematisation. the processes here can be based on coercion or negotiated engagement from key actors, coming between the targeted actor and some others they were associated with, to redirect the interest of the targeted actor towards their own (law, 1986). concerning e-participation, interessement would be about public awareness and engagement strategies, policies and initiatives around the use of mobile, web and social media technologies for e-participation, and a general jockeying for position between the actors in a context where concepts of power and influence are primary, but not always clearly understood and by no means stable in nature. enrolment sees aligned interests coming together. acknowledging that roles were previously allocated and accepted, actors now set out to act upon them, leading to the institution of a stable network of alliances. the group of primary actors will grow accordingly, contributing towards the maintenance of that stability. such a network or portion of a network can be considered a 'black box'. e-participation roles are occupied in order to organise events, inform the public collect submissions, and inject them in the decision making process via available channels. mobilisation happens when a stable nucleus has formed around the proposed solution to the given problem. actors are then encouraged to enrol yet others into the network. hence, maintaining the alignment of interest remains of the utmost importance to prevent the opening of the 'black box', leading to the possible destruction of the network. experience in e-participation indicates that alignment of the key actors can easily lead to quite different kinds of success and failure, as seen by the different role players. within the ant framework, innovation is 'translated', following an inertia generated by certain actors in the network (tatnall & gilding, 1999) and ant looks at the formation of that network. the key question here is: what differences might eventuate in the case that mobile, web and social media technologies are used for e-participation? 6. critics of ant and alternatives ant is subject to many critics including: limited analysis of social structures (loss of sight of the intricacies of social structures), problem description (detailed narrative issue), amoral stances (the agency and intentionality of nonhuman issue), and symmetrical treatment of human and nonhuman (human and nonhuman comparability issue) (walsham, 1997; rose et al., 2005). with these critics, it is tempting to think about using for instance structuration theory (giddens, 1984) or activity theory (engeström, 1999) instead of ant. however, structuration theory while suggesting a social ontology and allowing envisioning the inter-connexion of "structures" and "agents", falls short on research methodological recommendations (rose & scheepers, 2001); activity theory offers a framework for analysing an "activity" between a "subject" and an "object" but not the relationships between "activities". ant permits filling these gaps by providing methodological principles and guidelines on investigating the contribution of technology (mobile, web and social media) into the production of an activity (e-participation) from the negotiated relationships between actors engaged in other activities and networks. walsham (1997) suggests being flexible in using ant, by possibly drawing from structuration theory in order to mitigate the limitations in its analysis of social structures by keeping in mind that its focus is not morality but understanding of the socio-technical phenomenon and by considering its generalised symmetry as an analytical tool which has limitations but provides important insights. this paper does not draw from alternatives suggested here, and uses ant and all its components as analytical tools or lenses in its attempt to generate reliable and unbiased results. 7. respondents' and participants' words on e-participation in cape town the study accounted in this paper realised eleven in-depth interviews and one focus group. this included interviews of two community members in subcouncil 16 and a focus group of three individuals in subcouncil 17; and nine interviews of local government officials: bridgetown focus group: the focus group took place in bridgetown with three participants recalled here as r1, r2 and r3. they are all smartphone users. r99: is a female journalist with very strong views, using a smartphone lsra: is an entrepreneur and a spokesperson for the longs street residents association one of the most active and vocal community-based organisations within cape town. he owns a smartphone. council: is a strong white and mature afrikaner. he has an important position at the city council and doesn't show his cellular phone. rl: is a strong and mature coloured woman. she is a councillor and owns a very old mobile phone. rc: is a coloured man. he is a subcouncil official in athlone and district and owns a smartphone. rw: is a mature, energetic and smiling white woman. she is a member of the mayoral committee and owns a regular mobile phone. rta: is a strong and mature white man, an alderman at the subcouncil 16 (goodhope). he owns a smartphone. rs: is a high ranked manager in the city it department. he owns a smartphone. rns: is a former senior manager in the it department. he is of "indian" origins and owns a smartphone. rppu: is a coloured mature man working for the public participation unit (ppu) of the city of cape town. he owns a smartphone. sita: is a coloured man and senior it manager at sita. he owns a smartphone the table (see table 1) that follows presents a selection of commentary from interviewees and focus group participants. the data is presented following ant translation steps. the next section presents and discusses the translation of e-participation in the city of cape town step by step. 8. translation of e-participation in cape town the findings are presented in this section following ant translation steps with reference to the literature and document review, focus group and in-depth interviews, and conclusions will be derived from them. e-participation in the city of cape town can be understood as the result of the country's strategic commitments and initiatives to achieve that just, peaceful and prosperous south africa (republic of south africa, 1996). these strategies and plans can be read in the legal environment and institutional arrangement at all levels of government. the section continues with a depiction of some relevant legal and institutional elements at national, provincial and local levels, with a hint about community members from the city subcouncils which were the focus of the study; and by positioning the mobile channel within the lines of communication between the stakeholders. 8.1 actor, network, punctuation rules, opp taylor (2004:117), taylor & bytheway (2006) and taylor et al. (2010) identified a set of 4 interacting conceptual stakeholders for community informatics: individual, businesses, community, and government (see figure 1). the paper considers them as e-participation actors, and adds a fifth actor who can be situated within the lines of communication between the stakeholders: ict constituting the mobile channel or mobile, web and social media in the case of this study (see table 2). that consideration is made to comply with the ant requirement of generalized symmetry. furthermore that grouping simplifies the complex of relationships between members of each group of actors, and provides a sense of "punctuation" as understood with ant (see figure 1). however, the study focuses on the interaction between individuals in communities and the local government. interactions with other stakeholders mentioned here were included where appropriate to support arguments. figure1: community informatics model for relationships (adapted from taylor & bytheway, 2006) 8.2 problematisation of e-participation in cape town at this stage of the translation, the focus is on the identification of the problem and the development of solutions and strategies to achieve objectives. the problem to be solved is that the apparent weakness of traditional public participation channels may lead citizens to violent demonstrations as they seem to perceive these to be the best recourse to being heard in government. one solution would be to improve the process using mobile, web and social media channel in cape town. that involves providing the government with the ict capabilities and getting the other stakeholders to buy into the proposed solution. a priori, the government of south africa positioned itself as the opp, by setting up the rules as provided by the legal environment described earlier and arranging institutions to make e-participation happen (see section 3.3). documents suggested and it was confirmed by interviewees that the government of the city of cape town inherited that position, and enacted, invested in ict and developed systems. the city seeks legitimacy and high standards of processes in service delivery. this is suggested by reported investments and initiatives and words from officials (see sections 2 and 6). this implies that there is a vision that includes all individuals in decision making, and a belief in greater accountability, effectiveness and coherence in delivering services. however, despite regulatory provision to use all means affordable and useful for inclusive decision making, there is the interpretation that redefines the role of the community member as a passive observer whose role is "to participate, not govern"; summon to be heard at a chosen time. that seems to have removed the capacity for real inclusion from local government preferred face-to-face interaction with the public. additionally, the legal environment of public participation, the structure, the organisation and the functioning of government were seen to be preventing the necessary transformation required to accommodate the emergence of e-participation: an interviewee qualified the government to have a "heavy administration". clearly, at this level, the stage was set but a lot still remains to be considered including re examining the attitude of officials towards community members, providing community members with information which will benefit from their genuine hope that the government can improve, and which will also benefit from officials' acknowledgement of their work being misunderstood. the quality of the next step, interessement, should be helpful here. 8.3 interessement this moment of translation recalls all the efforts by the government to promote its strategy and to work towards its implementation; the legal environment and existing investment in ict do not suffice to achieve e-participation. one of the most important issues of egovernment implementation is at stake, namely: government transformation that will properly accommodate new technologies and achieve the organisational and procedural changes that are necessary for success. interviewees pointed to difficulties experienced by some decision makers, as well as members of the public and businesses trying to get in contact with government using the new technology. another issue inherited from the apartheid era is the lack of e-skills, with the majority of the population being decades behind in terms of the skills commonly found in developed countries and amongst the advantaged portion of the population. another issue impeding the progress of adoption of e-participation by the public is their perception of the government which is seen as not listening and non-responsive, "a black hole". this adds to the public perception of the government as being almost totally ict illiterate, while the public themselves have the skills to interact with one another using web capabilities on a pc or on a mobile phone, even on the move; things that officials are not yet well acquainted with. on the other end, officials do not trust individual accounts which are considered to be inconsistent and too emotional to provide any basis for an objective input in decision making. in addition, community members showed ignorance of regulations and ignorance of government structures, organisation and functioning. this might result in misinterpretation of government actions and initiatives. thus, discomfort in using and poor knowledge of government initiatives including c3 system and the city website will, in the future, prevent individuals from accessing these available channels and content. the mobile channel, despite a strong backend system, is weak. respondents said that they have never received an 'sms' from a government department or from a city official; furthermore, that channel is only considered for 'sms' because it is what officials so far deem useful and understandable. but 'sms' is still too expensive for the average mobile user to be considered as an effective way of interacting with government. at the same time, mobile web applications like mxit or twitter are gaining momentum with the public; but these applications, internet service providers, and other mobile operators are private businesses looking for profit and only avail their products for a price. local government does not understand or is reluctant to go that route, according to officials who still find social media more ludicrous than useful. furthermore, even though the national framework on public participation provides for councillors to use any means at their disposal for public engagement, the city policy is rather vague when it comes to technology such as 'cell phones, website, internet and email to community organisation'. there is no word on social media, mobile web and other applications that the people often use. in cape town it's still all about what the respondent "council" called 'foot work'. there is little prospect of achieving the benefits that are seen elsewhere, for example in the demo-net project, and this examination of interessement reveals barriers to successful transformation that are too significant for e-participation to be a reality in the cape town context. 8.4 enrolment national government set roles for all stakeholders of e-participation within its strategy documents, policies and laws. local government as the service delivery arm should foster public participation, reaching out and opening up to all the other stakeholders or actors of the network, via any channel available. for many reasons evident at the interessement phase, there is still a long way to go. individuals are expected to participate by submitting their views to government whether via an organisation or on their own capacity, by any means, electronic or not, especially for those means (public meetings, toll numbers, councillors, etc.) availed by local government. poor perception of government, high cost of communication, and unclear mobile communication channels are some elements not favouring the role of the individual. communities which are visible through representative organisations are expected to make their needs and opinions known using all legal means over and above those available to a single individual. despite a lot of work on the ground to identify the needs, the little consideration that is given to community organisations hampers their significance. businesses are expected to accompany the whole process and to allow underprivileged communities some opportunities to participate. despite being ready to work with local government, businesses perceive that they are still not given the opportunity to make a viable business out of carrying the community's voice. mobile, web and social media should help to improve the collection of needs and opinions, by allowing to realise community deliberation, by speeding up the processing of information, by recording more information and availing a direct link between a decision maker and each member of the community. it has already gained an important place in individual, businesses, communities and government life, but it is not yet well adopted to render exchanges possible between all actors. these advances include: the availability of cellular networks over the whole city providing access to internet, a guarantee for reaching web applications and social media from a mobile phone. the increasing and impressive social media membership and activities on mxit, facebook, and bbm, individuals and organisations, making enormous amount of information available about their preferences and their needs. initiatives including smartcape, sap erp system, the use of mobile telephony, sms messaging, gis system, c3 notification system, the validation of councillors and officials using technology, a portal rich in information and a presence on social media indicate a certain openness to change and technology innovation. the belief that mobile devices can be useful for work whereas web and social media are just for fun prevents officials from reaching out to individuals online where they are easily accessible. these elements assert of a problematic enrolment as a result of a questionable interessement, and suggest an even more problematic mobilisation of all these poorly aligned allies. 8.5 mobilisation of allies at this stage of translation, a collective effort is needed to take the use of mobile, web and social media for public participation to a broader public and gain their acceptance as contributing to solving poor articulation of needs. interviews did not bring important evidence of councillors embracing mobile, web and social media, and making of it an essential tool of public engagement but rather indicated in their attitudes as to how unready they are to take up e-participation. similarly, community members also arrive at this stage with an unclear attitude towards e-participation and therefore are not ready to take up the use of mobile, web and social media for public participation. hence, despite all the good deeds undertaken and endeavours performed, for many reasons at the interessement and enrolment steps, the result is very small in terms of capability and will to mobilise more allies: a stable nucleus has not yet formed that will mobilise new allies and grow e-participation network well enough for the city to benefit. 9. conclusions as a developing country aiming to achieve mdgs, south africa has ostensibly chosen the ict route to support its strategy. a mandate was given to local government as the service delivery arm of the government. within cape town, actions have been taken but results have been disappointing: community unrest prevails and seems to be worsening. the application of ant using data gathered from literature and document review, in-depth interviews and focus group in cape town, reveals dynamics favouring and impeding the achievement of e-participation in the city. in ant terms, the hopes and expectations of individual actors are dashed by the limited extent and quality of the network that presently supports them. the use of mobile, web and social media technologies is widely expected to be an important feature of improving public participation in government in the city of cape town, but it is found that the necessary transformation that would enable it is far from complete. problematisation was achieved and provided a momentum for an uptake, but interessement is slowing the whole process down with various issues of transformation; enrolment hampered by inadequate interessement does not see all actors acting as their role would like them to: and at the end because of all the issues mentioned earlier e-participation is still at its beginnings in cape town. the study presented here is limited in scope (resource, time and space) and uses ant which is still a contentious methodology. further research should broaden the scope of the study to the whole city and use complementary methods and adjustments to ant for more reliability. research should look at ways to get local government to connect with stakeholders using mobile, web and social media by generating models and deriving strategies and action plans that foster the inclusion of all in e-participation in policy making. references andersen, k.v. & henriksen, h.z. 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(2009) digital habitats: stewarding technology for communities. portland, or: cpsquare.</strong> </p> <p> <em>digital habitats: stewarding technology for communities</em> by wenger, white and smith, has been out for two years and it has had numerous positive reviews. the book is well written, indeed, and it is extremely clear and enjoyable to read. </p> <p> the book focuses on the area where the interplay between technology and communities intersects, which the authors identify as "digital habitats". in practical terms, a digital habitat is "the portion of a community that is enabled by a configuration of technologies" (p.38). a digital habitat, like its biological counterpart, is a dynamic entity, which needs to adapt to environmental changes. it is thus important to determine its technological landscape and the space for maneuvering with in it. the authors also introduce the concept of "technology stewardship" to refer to the emerging practice of helping a community "choose, configure, and use technologies to best suit its needs" (p.24). these activities are carried out by certain members of the community, the "technology stewards", who take a leadership role. </p> <p> the authors start out by clarifying the intentions of the book in a section entitled itinerary: a reader's guide. they explain that the book is equally targeted for "deep divers", "attentive practitioners", and "just do it-ers", thus spanning interests in theory and practice. the structure of the book makes it easy to choose which chapters one wants to focus on, depending on one's interest. </p> <p> part i: introduction, reviews the key concept of communities of practice (chapter 1), presents a brief history of the relationship between digital technology and communities (chapter 2), and introduces the concept of technology steward (chapter 3). </p> <p> part ii: literacy, starts with chapter 4, where the four perspectives on the technology involved in a digital habitat, namely the tools, the platforms, the features, and the overall configuration, are introduced. in chapter 5, the three polarities of rhythms (togetherness/separation), interactions (participation/reification) and identities (individual/group) provide a three-axised lens for making sense of the varied landscape of tools at hand. chapter 6 focuses on the relationship between activities and tools, through a set of nine "orientations" or key community activity patterns that the authors have identified through practice. </p> <p> part iii: practice, addresses directly existing or aspiring technology stewards. chapter 7 provides them with guidelines for assessing the situation and the needs of their communities in terms of technology. chapter 8 proposes seven different strategies for technology acquisition. chapter 9 focuses on the daily practice of technology stewardship. chapter 10 comprises a collection of checklists, tables and questions to assist technology stewards in their practice. </p> <p> part iv: future is a reflection on the future of technology stewardship. chapter 11 looks back at the set of polarities introduced in chapter 5 and examines how they interact with trends in digital habitats. finally, chapter 12 offers thoughts on a possible learning agenda for technology stewardship. the book then ends with a glossary. </p> <p> despite the ambitious aim to simultaneously target various audiences, the book addresses mostly people who are, or could become, technology stewards in their communities or in some other networks of people. the book provides a wealth of practical information on how to go about the activities required by this challenging, yet often unrecognized role in communities. unfortunately, the more reflective aspect of the book leaves the "deep diver" type of reader hungry for more. </p> <p> for example, i was disappointed that the references to other works were kept to a minimum. i would have appreciated a short explanation from the authors about how they position this book with respect to other similar works. in the context of organizational studies, for example, nardi and o'day introduced similar concepts back in 1999, in their book <em>information ecologies</em>. </p> <p> while the book emphasizes the role of the technology stewards, and part iii is concretely addressing the practice of technology stewardship, the authors do not reflect on what are the factors and processes that would help to identify what kind of community members would make for good technology stewards. whereas a lot is said in the book about how technology stewards can identify and develop their own practice, little is said on how others (either fellow community members or external facilitators) can support the technology stewards or even how technology stewardship can be collaboratively achieved. </p> <p> reading this book will probably not bring any major revelation to members of the community informatics (ci) research community. issues related to the interplay between technology and community, and the empowerment of communities through the adoption of a community-based perspective to technology lie at the core of ci and are continually addressed by ci researchers. moreover, the theoretical framework of the digital habitats is based on the concept of communities of practice by wenger (1998) and on the work of lave and wenger (1991) on situated learning (lave and wenger, 1991). both works are known to the ci community and they have influenced the discourse within ci. in that sense, the reading of digital habitats often brings a feeling of d&eacute;j&agrave; vu. </p> <p> despite the criticism i have brought forth, i do recommend this book for everybody who is interested in the relationship between communities and technology. as mentioned, the book is definitely highly valuable for practitioners. the extreme level of clarity of the book makes it also useful for the "deep divers" battling with research concerns. reading the book attentively unlocks one's own reflection process and helps to pay attention to the big picture and the big issues related to the interplay between community and technology: issues of literacy, learning, tools, leadership are all brought forward and effectively placed in a historical and practical context. </p> <p> in summary, if you haven't read digital habitats, by all means, do! and if you are not yourself in the role of a technology steward, remember to offer the book, after you finish it, to someone who might make a good technology steward, as "a growing number of people identify with the role when it's pointed out to them" (p.33). </p> <p> references: </p> <div class="reference"> lave, j. and wenger, e. (1991) situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. new york. cambridge university press. </div> <div class="reference"> nardi, b. and o'day, v. (1999) information ecologies. using technology with heart. massachusetts institute of technology. </div> <div class="reference"> wenger, e. (1998) communities of practice. learning, meaning, and identity. cambridge. university press </div> </div> opportunities and challenges for first-mile development in rural hawaiian communities jenifer sunrise winter1, wayne buente2, patricia amaral buskirk3 assistant professor, school of communications, university of hawaiʻi at mānoa, united states. email: jwinter@hawaii.edu assistant professor, school of communications, university of hawaiʻi at mānoa, united states. assistant professor, school of communications, university of hawaiʻi at mānoa, united states. introduction increasing recognition of the 'digital divide' faced by first nations communities in canada and the united states has highlighted the role of community-driven broadband development in improving the quality of life and enabling self-determination in indigenous communities. like other first nations, native hawaiians struggle with linguistic and cultural preservation, and to gain equal access to educational and economic opportunities and health care. many rural communities, including those comprised of indigenous hawaiians, suffer from a lack of critical infrastructures. to date, efforts to address these disparities through information and communication technology (ict) deployment have focused on a top-down approach at both the federal and state level, with the exception of limited community-based efforts that have largely focused on urban gaps and are not specific to native hawaiian concerns. in this paper, we describe specific challenges faced by native hawaiian communities in developing affordable, high-quality broadband access. we begin with a review of discussions about community-driven broadband development and digital self-determination, and then present hawaiʻi as a case with unique physical, political, and socio-cultural challenges. finally, we conclude by exploring the potential for community-initiated broadband projects that will enable more self-determination for indigenous hawaiians in the planning and management of broadband networks and services. community-driven broadband policy ict infrastructures integrate themselves within a web of socio-technical elements. according to kim, kelly, and raja (2010), broadband policy is best thought of as an "interconnected multilayered ecosystem" (p. 15). within this ecosystem, a broad range of stakeholders interact and subject the development of broadband infrastructure to social, economic, and political factors. stakeholders comprise media policymakers, governments, telecommunication service providers and local communities. however, media policymaking is hierarchical, centralized, and market-oriented, following a "rationalistic linear direction, with simple objectives and top-down decision making" (ramirez, 2007, p. 89). for the united states, broadband policy is driven by market forces "primarily dominated by a duopoly of the telephone and cable companies" (techatassanasoontorn, tapia, & powell, 2010). given the reluctance of telecommunication companies to service unprofitable areas, municipalities have attempted to address the inequitable distribution of broadband networks. justifications for public investment in local broadband solutions include promoting economic development, developing e-government, promoting civic engagement, and narrowing the digital divide (middleton & byrne, 2011; tapia, kvasny, & ortiz, 2011; wolff, 2011). often these initiatives are public-private partnerships operating along a spectrum of various network ownership and pricing schemes (hudson, 2010). cities that espouse utopian goals such as affordable broadband have significant challenges meeting these aspirations. for example, tapia, kvasny, and ortiz (2011) noted a tension between the public rhetoric of digital inclusion by city officials and the reality of profit maximization among the private companies that had developed municipal networks. hudson (2010) concluded that municipalities need to understand user demand particularly among low-income and disadvantaged populations and also the context where political and business cultures may collide. applying actor-network theory, po-an hsieh et al. (2012) observed these same tensions between government and service providers. in addition, the authors discovered tensions between the government and residents. advantaged residents, who did not adopt municipal broadband, attacked the broadband initiative as an unfair subsidy to socio-economically disadvantaged residents. overall, the complexities of deploying broadband solutions through municipalities have led to an increase in the number of municipal projects that have been abandoned or failed (tapia, powell, & ortiz, 2009). in opposition to the "top-down" approach offered by municipalities and other telecommunication service providers, underserved rural and remote communities reflect a need for alternative approaches to developing broadband infrastructure. ramirez (2007) argues that rural and remote communities "tend to be complex, dynamic, and subject to multiple policies and influences, often beyond the comprehension of urban-based policymakers" (p. 89). echoing this sentiment, tapia et al. (2009) note that the typical tensions between municipalities and private industry may appear distant to local communities. the next section will highlight some different community-based approaches toward broadband development. recent research on broadband implementation argues that the best approach is one that incorporates both top down elements and bottom-up community driven goals. using a comparative case study among three different geographic contexts, tapia et al. (2009) found the most sustainable broadband models were local wi-fi networking projects that encouraged integration with local community organizations. terming this a public hybrid approach, key elements of the network are identified as digital inclusion strategies, community capacity, media and community content, and public service. applying a hybrid approach has the greatest potential to deliver broadband services that are "affordable, nondiscriminatory, and universally available in order to ensure universal access to all" (p. 370). likewise, middleton and bryne (2011) studied a user-generated wi-fi networking hotspot project and concluded that user-generated approaches can "contribute to useful islands of connectivity in the short term" but are "unlikely to provide the usable, reliable infrastructure needed as a platform for a digitally engaged citizenry" (p. 173). public hybrid broadband emphasizes not only the technological infrastructure of the network but also situates the network within a context of the existing stakeholders and community. as such, this approach to infrastructure development helps to move media policy toward a balance between social goals and economic development. as noted by mcmahon (2011), hybrid approaches privilege decentralized, local, and participatory governance structures which are in line with the goals of community informatics (gurstein, 2003). another approach to broadband policy privileges the unique needs of rural and remote communities. as mentioned earlier, typical approaches to broadband development favor solutions located far from local communities. this last-mile approach frames rural and remote communities as 'problems' that are "addressed by simply linking unserved communities to already existing systems and infrastructures" (mcmahon et al., 2011, para. 4). in contrast, the ``first mile`` approach places decision-making about broadband development firmly within the specific needs of local communities. in addition, these initiatives seek to address the digital divide in "ways that support community-based involvement, control, and ownership" (para. 4). through control and ownership of the ict infrastructure, the first mile approach is well-suited to serving the needs of first nations communities and governments which have been historically subject to "paternalistic, colonial-derived development policies" (para. 1). research on first nations and icts contends that the first mile approach has particular resonance for indigenous peoples for two reasons. one is the lack of infrastructure present in first nation communities. sandvig (2011) highlights several factors that prevent native americans from accessing icts. private telecommunication providers are uninterested in these communities because of undesirable demographics, difficult terrain, and legal barriers due to native sovereignty. there is also a lack of technical expertise within the native american community itself. another reason relates the need of indigenous peoples to balance equitable access to icts with unique, locally-grounded indigenous rights, cultural identities, and resources (mcmahon et al., 2011, para. 19). for example, christen (2012) challenges the common internet meme that "information wants to be free" noting that that the meme "does a disservice to the task of understanding the ethics of information circulation" (p. 2877). christen argues to recognize the alternative ways of imagining information creation, circulation, and the practices of access among indigenous communities. this requires understanding the significance of cultural protocols regarding the distribution, circulation, and reproduction of cultural materials and knowledge. for example, ritual objects can be "disconnected from the practices, people, and places that they need to be efficacious" (p. 2885). by understanding cultural protocols observed by indigenous communities, we begin to define the parameters of online access to cultural information. in this way, effective first mile broadband policy becomes a path toward digital self-determination (mcmahon, 2011). self-determination icts have the potential to enable agency and self-determination for indigenous communities and other disadvantaged groups. in this sense, self-determination refers to using icts to acquire greater freedoms and rights, political recognition, and community identity and empowerment (bandias, 2010; mignone & henley, 2009a, 2009b; singleton et al., 2009). according to mills (2002), the internet functions as a tool for self-determination in two ways: first, because it can provide access to a wide variety of information across borders to members of the group, it can foster a sense of identity. this is particularly important for dispersed groups such as the kurds or tibetans. second, it can provide a new way to act in the global political realm to lobby on many different fronts for its self-determination claims. such "cyberdiplomacy" can be important for both territorially dispersed and territorially compact groups. (p. 80) mcmahon (2011) compared the strategies of indigenous groups on broadband development policies in both the united states and canada and identified greater opportunities for cyberdiplomacy among indigenous groups in the united states. this was due to a "clearly defined, formal relationship between federal policymakers and indigenous communities" (p. 132). this formal relationship provided an avenue for native americans to critique federal funding allocation strategies where they failed to consider the unique context of developing broadband in their communities. as a result, mcmahon documents the successful incorporation of "digital self-determination" as cyberdiplomacy in u.s. national broadband development policy (p. 131). self-determination can also occur through community ownership of the ict infrastructure thereby encouraging the development of agency, social capital, and empowerment. mignone and henley (2009a, 2009b) demonstrate the value of applying a social capital analysis of ict implementation in aboriginal communities in canada. in doing so, their research highlights not the technology, but rather the relationships and norms that are strengthened particularly by owning the icts and thus the "means of production" (2009b). similarly, singleton et al. (2009) note how endogenous ict initiatives foster empowerment more effectively than external, or top-down, approaches. in the following section, we investigate the unique policy context that comprises hawaiʻi. we adopt a case study approach, first describing the unique characteristics of hawaiʻi; then discussing the current deployment of broadband and also policy statements from key stakeholders in the broadband arena. lastly, we analyze the possibilities for greater self-determination among native hawaiians through broadband access to icts. the case of hawaiʻi hawaiʻi is the most geographically isolated population center, a volcanic island chain with seven populated islands located in the central pacific ocean. nearly 290,000 descendants of the polynesian people who settled the hawaiian islands live in hawaiʻi today, constituting 21.32% of the total state population (u.s. census bureau, 2010). at the time of first western contact in the late eighteenth century, native hawaiians had a complex society, with a stable political order, a sustainable economy based on fishing and agriculture, and a rich culture and spoken language, ʻōlelo hawaiʻi (van dyke & mackenzie, 2006). like many other first nations groups, hawaiians face the challenge of revitalizing and preserving traditional language and cultural practices that have been replaced or eroded as the result of centuries of western influence. the indigenous people of hawai'i, or kānaka maoli, may share many challenges with other first nations groups in the united states and canada. however, there are a number of unique characteristics that have shaped hawaiian ethno-cultural identity and legal status. one important distinction is that hawaiians do not constitute a tribe by law. this distinction arises from hawaiʻi's colonial history. in 1893, the independent kingdom of hawaiʻi was overthrown by a small group of non-hawaiian residents who established a provisional government in violation of international law. hawaiian lands were taken from the kānaka maoli and ʻōlelo hawaiʻi was forbidden in schools (andrade & bell, 2011). hawaiʻi was ultimately annexed by the united states, becoming the territory of hawaii.i decades later, in 1959, hawaiʻi was admitted to the union as the fiftieth state. as a whole, the native hawaiian population is underrepresented in educational attainment, experiences poorer health, and has a lower-than-average median income (asian and pacific islander american health forum, 2010; white house initiative on asian americans and pacific islanders, 2010). as a result of these developments, "native hawaiians are now at the bottom of the socio-economic scale in their own islands" (van dyke & mackenzie, 2006). further, although indigenous populations have unique characteristics and should not be combined in the rubric of "rural and remote communities" (mcmahon, 2011), a disproportionate number of native hawaiians live in rural or remote areas of the state that are less likely to have affordable broadband offerings. therefore, native hawaiians stand to benefit from acquiring effective access and use of the internet to improve chances to be a productive, active, and informed citizen (gurstein, 2009; mossberger et al., 2007; servon, 2002; katz & rice, 2002). however, outside of policy rhetoric, there is little evidence that broadband deployment has focused on the specific needs of the native hawaiian community. broadband in hawaiʻi the hawaiian homes commission act (1921) led to approximately 200,000 acres of land placed in trust for native hawaiians by the state of hawaiʻi (andrade & bell, 2011). in total, there are 75 home land areas with a total population of 30,858 spread over remote areas of six islands (united states census bureau, 2010).ii an estimated 17 percent of hawaiʻi's rural population, representing about 7,700 households, currently has no access to broadband ("hawaii gets help providing broadband to rural areas", 2012). native hawaiians represent a disproportionate number of those living in underserved areas. this represents approximately 9,800 families living on hawaiian home lands, with an additional 25,000 awaiting deployment of necessary infrastructure (hee, 2012 jun 7). following united states telecommunications reform in 1996, the federal communications commission created the universal service fund (usf), which includes a program to provide affordable telecommunications for high-cost rural and remote areas. sandwich isles communications (sic) is a telecommunications company that has been licensed by the department of hawaiian home lands since 1998 to be the exclusive provider of telecommunications services in the hawaiian home lands. at present, some tracts are served by the local incumbent, hawaiian telecom, but the majority receive service from sic. this was described as a step towards ensuring access to the economic, educational, and social benefits of broadband for all native hawaiians. in 2008, sic received $13,408 for each of 1967 lines to hawaiian home lands residents, in some cases drilling through lava to lay fiber-optic lines. over the past several years, there have been many challenges to the usf fund use for high cost areas, with sic cited as an example of fund abuse (united states house of representatives, 2009). in may, 2013, the fcc rejected sic's request for a decade-long waiver of new rules intended to reduce fraud and abuse of the usf. the universal service reform act of 2010 was intended to modernize the usf by shrinking its size and focusing on broadband deployment. currently, the fcc's national broadband plan includes proposals to replace some usf components with the connect america fund (hudson, 2011; holt & galligan, 2012). this plan will provide hawaiian telecom with $400,000 to subsidize broadband provision to 519 households ("hawaii gets help providing broadband to rural areas", 26 july 2012). however, this reform includes capping rural service provider subsidies, leading to up to a 33% reduction in revenue. first nations groups testifying before congress in 2012 argued that these changes will create an environment in which small companies cannot survive, leading to bankruptcies or drastic reduction in service. the president of sic, albert hee, explained to congress that "i may be forced to tell the more than 6,400 native hawaiians who have come to rely on my company for life-saving telephone service and life-changing broadband connectivity, that we can help them no more" (akaka, 2012, para. 14). in a separate testimony before congress, hee argued that: affordable broadband helps native hawaiians to overcome their geographic isolation by providing access to healthcare, education, commerce, public safety, and social interaction. it also provides native hawaiians with an unprecedented opportunity to further our cultural revitalization -preserving, protecting, and promoting our culture for generations to come." (hee, 2012, para. 3) at the state level, in august, 2011, governor neil abercrombie announced the "hawaiʻi broadband initiative", an economic development project intended to provide affordable ultra-high-speed internet access to all hawaiʻi citizens by 2018 (office of the governor, state of hawaiʻi, 2011). the plan, like the hawaii broadband task force report in 2008 (auditor, state of hawaiʻi, 2008), focuses on economic development. while the digital divide is addressed, the unique needs of native hawaiians are not specifically mentioned. at the state level, kokua wireless is a community-based initiative to provide free wireless to those who cannot afford it (kōkua means to assist or cooperate). spearheaded by a technology entrepreneur and the cio of the city and county of honolulu in 2005, the project is self-funded by volunteer businesses or individuals who purchase an antenna to share internet access via wi-fi (kokua wireless, n.d.). initially limited to the urban center of honolulu, it has expanded to other areas on the islands of oʻahu, hawaiʻi, maui, and kauaʻi. this project is laudable and represents a true community-based effort, but it is limited to urban centers and would not scale to areas that lack basic infrastructure. hawaiian self-determination in 1993, a century after the overthrow of the hawaiian monarchy, president clinton apologized on behalf of the united states for its role. by confirming in the apology resolution that native hawaiians are an "indigenous people", congress characterized the relationship between the united states government and native hawaiians as being "political", rather than "racial" (van dyke & mackenzie, 2006). this moved hawaiian sovereignty claims forward and also clarified the obligations of state and federal governments towards native hawaiian welfare. a growing movement for native hawaiian rights and legal scholars' demonstration of the illegality of the 1893 overthrow formed the basis for the hawaiian sovereignty and self-determination movement (andrade & bell, 2011). among native hawaiians there is no consensus about what sovereignty should entail. competing models include total independence, a nation-within-a-nation, or quasi-independent state organizations such as the office of hawaiian affairs. the office of hawaiian affairs (oha), created in 1978 as a semi-autonomous organization within the state of hawai'i, manages 1.8 million acres of royal lands that are held in trust for native hawaiians. oha's mission statement reads: "to mālama (protect) hawaiʻi's people and environmental resources and oha's assets, toward ensuring the perpetuation of the culture, the enhancement of lifestyle and the protection of entitlements of native hawaiians, while enabling the building of a strong and healthy hawaiian people and nation, recognized nationally and internationally (office of hawaiian affairs, n.d., para. 2). oha has positioned itself to be involved with any future hawaiian government that emerges. despite differing opinions within the hawaiian community about what form sovereignty should take, according to andrade and bell (2011), there is agreement on the following four principles: 1) formal u.s. recognition that hawaiians are the indigenous, first nations people of hawaiʻi; 2) self-determination of hawaiian ethno-cultural identity, traditions, language, and practices; 3) restitution for the loss of lands, language, education, livelihoods, and health stemming from wrongs intentionally or unintentionally perpetrated by america; and 4) restoration of a native land base formed by hhca [the hawaiian homes commission act of 1921] and ceded (hawaiian crown and government) lands. (p. 25) since 2000, various forms of a bill seeking to initiate a process through which native hawaiians can seek federal recognition as a sovereign group have been brought before congress. this native hawaiian government reorganization act (introduced by chairman senator daniel akaka in the u.s. senate committee on indian affairs) would create a basis for the establishment of a native hawaiian nation within the united states. the current form of the bill integrates a new hawaiʻi state law that created a roll commission seeking to identify and list native hawaiians. at present, the office of hawaiian affairs is gathering names for this kanaʻiolowalu registry (office of hawaiian affairs, 2012). once completed, the roll will be published, and a convention will be held to develop a "hawaiian government entity" (reyes, 2011, para. 23). within the hawaiian community, there are some who believe that the passage of the act would actually harm native hawaiians' ability to form a sovereign, independent nation. this internal conflict has been cited by members of congress as a means to deny passage of the bill (reyes, 2011). a second characteristic that distinguishes native hawaiians from other groups is the size and dispersion of the native hawaiian community. the majority of hawaiians are mixed race, "thereby making race or blood quantum an inadequate measure of hawaiian identity" (andrade & bell, 2011, p. 20). in the 2010 united states census, 527,077 individuals identified themselves as hawaiian, and the kanaʻiolowalu registry would potentially be open to any of these individuals. a cultural renaissance in the 1970s has led to a resurgence of interest in hawaiian culture and language. once considered a dying language, ʻōlelo hawaiʻi now has over 24,000 speakers in hawaiʻi (united states census bureau, 2010) and is one of two official state languages. hawaiian is the only native language in the united states that is increasing its number of native speakers, in part due to a series of highly successful language immersion schools where all students are taught in hawaiian (staton, 2005). mccarty (2003) notes that "immersion schooling has succeeded in strengthening the hawaiian mauli [essence of life], awakening consciousness and self-determination within the native hawaiian community, and enhancing children's academic success" (p. 154). in addition to the immersion schools, there are a number of academic programs working to support and revitalize hawaiian culture. these include the kamehameha schools (k-12 education) and a number of undergraduate and graduate degrees in hawaiian language and culture throughout hawaiʻi. web-based resources such as ulukau, a "hawaiian electronic library", make a wide array of learning materials available, including hawaiian language newspapers from the 19th and 20th centuries (ulukau, n.d). hawaiian digital self-determination the previous section documented the empowerment of native hawaiians through cultural and political self-determination efforts. an important question remains concerning the potential for native hawaiians to employ icts to acquire digital self-determination. as seen above in the example of language regeneration, the tremendous potential for icts to increase self-determination has not been lost on native hawaiian groups. however, the experience of municipalities offering top-down broadband development policies provides little evidence for fostering social inclusion. attempts to apply the policy rhetoric of digital inclusion to broadband development risk a "further mistrust of authority and an exacerbation of cultural problems at the root of social exclusion" (tapia et al., 2011, p. 225). in addition, the current somewhat parallel ict policy frameworks in canada fail to acknowledge the specific and diverse contexts of indigenous groups (mcmahon et al., 2010; mignone & henley, 2009a; 2009b). in contrast, tribal governments in the united states have been able to establish formal relationships between federal policymakers and indigenous communities that recognize digital self-determination. former hawaiian homelands commissioner alapaki nahale-a invoked congress' responsibilities, noting, "we believe ensuring equitable access to broadband is an important step in congress's clear intent of advancing the rehabilitation and welfare of native hawaiians" (department of hawaiian home lands, 2011, para.2). given the contested claims to sovereignty for the native hawaiian community and their geographic dispersion, the internet may be an ideal tool to provide a wide variety of information among a politically and geographically dispersed group (mills, 2002). therefore, what is needed is for native hawaiians to advocate for culturally-informed and community-driven ict strategies at the federal, state, and local level (mcmahon et al., 2010). ocap (ownership, control, access, and possession) and native hawaiians the principle of ownership, control, access, and possession (ocap) is best defined as self-determination applied to research (schnarch, 2004). ocap represents "a political response to tenacious colonial approaches to research and management" and has become a "rallying cry to many first nations" and a "wake up call for researchers" (p. 80). given hawaiʻi's colonial history (trask, 1984; turnbull & ferguson, 1997), we adhere to these principles to guide our own understanding of research on the potential of broadband networks to meet the social, political, cultural, and community needs of native hawaiians. o'donnell et al. (2011) has provided a helpful way forward by linking the principles of ocap to self-determination and broadband networks: first nations must retain access and possession of the capacity and resources to effectively manage the content, traffic and services on their local network. second, that first nations have a right to own and control the local broadband network in their communities in order to support the flow of information and services. (p. 5) one potential way to link ocap principles with both native hawaiian's self-determination and the benefits of broadband availability is by strengthening the assertion of hawaiian values. trask (1984) argued that the hawaiian cultural revival in the 1970's and 1980's began a process of mental decolonization which led to cultural revival and political organizing. as a result, the recognition of indigenous hawaiian values marked a strong contrast to western culture: hawaiian values revealed a culture whose religion, politics, and economics were grounded in a fundamental love for the land and its people. this culture presented an admirable and to many hawaiians a preferred alternative to the haole or western way of life. (trask, p. 126) watson (2010) noted that in pre-contact times: with a lack of motorized transportation, most travel required people to sleep out beneath the sky. we made do in nature's many elements. our intimate relationship with our earth mother, papahanaumoku, and sky father, wakea, granted us exemplary knowledge about navigating the land and utilizing it to survive. to sleep out on the land was to sleep in the bosom of our mother, and since the dawn of time, humans have known no greater or more confining rest than when lying against their mother's heart. (p. 125). in addition to valuing the land, handy and pukui (1958) and watson (2010) describe the kauhale living system of pre-contact hawaiʻi that placed strong value in the kinship of the extended family. the kauhale system provided "greater social and community support for all individuals" (watson, 2010, p. 126). disease brought in by foreigners ultimately undermined the kauhale system by reducing the numbers of family members available for land and community responsibilities with a "cumulative effect on the extended family and family systems in hawaii" (p. 127). as a result, native hawaiians: out of necessity left their kauhale living systems, and moved into the growing urban environments developed to suit the needs of missionaries and western businessmen. the mimicry of western living in hawaiʻi's growing urban sectors reflected the foreigner's desire to model life in hawaiʻi after their places of origin. (p. 127) land and kinship are two examples among others where broadband can advance the assertion of indigenous values among native hawaiians. o'donnell et al. (2011) demonstrated that ocap principles helped the fort severn first nation to improve government, health, and education services. these services were identified as community priorities through intensive community workshops and consultation with fort severn community members. in a similar way, we believe that ocap principles applied to broadband may offer ways to assert indigenous native hawaiian values such as land and kinship. however, we offer this suggestion as only a possible way forward for native hawaiian self-determination and broadband. as schnarch (2004) reminds us, research is a tool for promoting changes that can transform people's lives. as researchers, we adopt ocap as a practice that places, at the forefront, the understanding that "american values and economics have undermined and transformed hawaiian culture" thus "increasing racial oppression and exploitation of hawaiians" (trask, p. 108). within this space, we believe a participatory research plan can deliver significant benefits to native hawaiians and their communities through native hawaiian ownership, control, access, and possession of broadband networks and applications. need for broadband in this section, we highlight several instances demonstrating a need for broadband to serve native hawaiian interests. in april of 2013, the office of hawaiian affairs announced the launch of their website, "kamakakoʻi: the cutting edge", designed to further engage the native hawaiian community in addressing indigenous concerns (office of hawaiian affairs, 2013). the website gives voice to issues important to the hawaiian community and provides effective interactive tools for political mobilization. it offers forums for discussion, information on legislation, email alerts, informative videos and the ability to utilize social media sites to share content. another entity that takes full advantage of the new technological capabilities of broadband is ʻōiwi tv, a native hawaiian television station established in 2009. it offers high quality media rich content that utilizes cloud tv technology to deliver interactive content and video on-demand to television and all mobile devices. the channel delivers community based education, entertainment and commerce to its 220,000 hawaiian households (ʻōiwi tv, 2011). hoʻolaupaʻi, part of the ulukau digital archive of hawaiian language materials, is a collection of hawaiian-language newspapers that were published between 1834 and 1948. digital images of dozens of newspapers are included for use by those studying hawaiian language and history. project contributor keola donaghy notes that "because of this access, and the number of people who have and are achieving fluency in hawaiian, we are no longer dependent on translations, sometimes dubious, of these source materials, or non-hawaiian accounts of events of that era… it is helping to broaden the base of hawaiian knowledge, which provides a firmer foundation to move into the future." ("keiki kawaiʻaeʻa and keola donaghy, hawaiian language: digitization of hawaiian language source materials", 2010, para. 8). while the examples of the kamakakoʻi, ʻōiwi tv, and hoʻolaupaʻi projects show a desire and ability within the native hawaiian community to create culturally-enriching media, as with many other underserved populations, native hawaiians have lagged behind other races with respect to accessing and using the internet. a 2003 study on online health information practices among asian americans, native hawaiians, and other pacific islanders found that "lack of internet access is a major issue for native hawaiians" (office of disease prevention and health promotion, section 3). research by jayakar and park (2012) determined that the demand for public computing internet services (ex. public libraries) indicates an unmet need for broadband. for example, low usage of public computing internet services within a community may require a campaign "to educate the public about internet use and provision of computer literacy and technical assistance" (p. 57). for native hawaiians, we believe this is not the case. a recent national survey of public library computer centers found that 32% of the american public 14 years old or older have accessed the internet using a library computer or wireless network within the last two months. public internet access in libraries was highest among people of mixed race and native hawaiians or pacific islanders (becker et al., 2010, p. 32). 72% of library and computer network users checked email, and this was the highest among people of mixed race, blacks or african americans, native americans or alaska natives, and native hawaiians or pacific islanders (p. 34). furthermore, almost two-thirds of users used library computers on behalf of another person to seek information or carry out an instrumental activity. the use of library technology was highest among people of mixed race, blacks or african americans, american indians or alaska natives, and native hawaiians or pacific islanders. one of the authors spoke with two public librarians at the naʻālehu public library on the island of hawaiʻi. this library serves a predominant population of native hawaiians. in conversation, they confirmed the findings from the national survey noting the popularity of wi-fi access and their two public computers (personal communication, july 25, 2013). because native hawaiian populations, particularly those in rural areas such as naʻālehu, may lack access to broadband, many members of the community are not able to access or take part in projects like kamakakoʻi, ʻōiwi tv, or hoʻolaupaʻi. we conclude with some thoughts on fulfilling the potential and promise of first mile broadband policy in hawaiʻi. conclusions this exploratory study described challenges faced by native hawaiian communities in developing affordable, high-quality broadband access. hawaiʻi was presented as a case with unique physical, political, and socio-cultural challenges. we noted that, at present, a top-down approach at both state and federal levels limits community-initiated broadband projects that will enable indigenous hawaiians greater digital self-determination. this research raises the question of to what extent native hawaiians can achieve similar broadband policy gains in comparison to other first nations groups. at the very least, current broadband policy in hawaiʻi requires a shift from a technological imperative to one focused on culturally-informed and community-driven ict strategies. research exploring the digital divide in hawaiʻi is limited at present, but our research highlights two areas for future concern: 1) the perspectives of native hawaiians living in rural and remote communities, and 2) a critical examination of public discourse around broadband policy in hawaiʻi. endnotes i. where appropriate, we use diacriticals to reflect hawaiian spelling of words (e.g., hawaiʻi). in some cases, the proper name of the entity does not employ these, so they are omitted (e.g., territory of hawaii). ii. of 75 total areas, 55 were reported as populated in 2010. references akaka, d.k. 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(2011). citizen political enfranchisement and information access. in p. napoli & m. aslama (eds.), communications research in action: scholar-activist collaborations for a democratic public sphere (pp. 240-256). new york, ny: fordham university press. <h2 style="text-align:center">unintended behavioural consequences of publishing performance data: is more always better?</h2> <h3 style="text-align:center">simon mcginnes, trinity college dublin</h3> <h3 style="text-align:center">kasturi muthu elandy, trinity college dublin</h3> <p> </p> <h2>1. introduction</h2> <p>several trends are increasing the amount of data available to citizens. one is ever-increasing internet access, which facilitates public dissemination of information on an unprecedented scale. at the same time there is demand for greater transparency and freedom of information; knowledge is power, the “oxygen of democracy” and so on. this view underpins a growing movement towards publication of data wherever practicable. manifestations of this trend include the open data movement, which seeks to make many kinds of public sector data freely available, and the semantic web, which aims to link freely-available data in useful ways (berners-lee, hendler, &amp; lassila, 2001; hogge, 2010). </p> <p>government data are now produced for public consumption on a range of subjects. for example, data are published on the performance of public bodies, including hospital waiting list statistics, police crime data and school performance league tables. it is thought that publishing data will facilitate performance improvement and deter corruption (uk government, 2011). the idea has spread to the private sector, with, for example, the salaries of the highest-paid ceos being published.</p> <p>yet it is not clear that the anticipated benign outcomes are always realised. anecdotal evidence suggests that publication of data can produce unanticipated negative effects. for example, the publication of school league tables may be associated with declining performance in some schools; data showing a diminishing threat of crime seem to be linked with a pervasive, heightened sense of danger; publication of ceo salaries has been blamed for accelerating inflation in directors’ pay levels. these problems seem to stem from<i> </i>the collective impact of individual behaviour when people react to information. </p> <p>individuals respond to their environment, which includes data. considered together, the government organisations being measured, the media which report on performance, and the public who receive reported performance data constitute a complex social system. like many complex systems, this system has the potential to exhibit unpredictable and counterintuitive behaviour. although the publication of data may be well-intentioned and “promotes a spirit of openness that may be valuable for enhancing trust”, it may well also “inadvertently reduce, rather than improve, quality” (werner &amp; asch, 2005). </p> <p>this paper looks at how and why perverse outcomes may arise from the publication of data, with an emphasis on government performance data. the analysis does not focus on problems accruing from measurement per se, which have been explored in detail elsewhere (bird et al., 2005; pidd, 2005; wankhade, 2011). instead, attention is paid to issues that arise when data are <i>published</i>, and in particular to the impact of published data on mass behaviour. </p> <p>the paper is structured as follows. the next section reviews the widespread use of performance measurement and performance indicators. section 3 discusses the emergence of unintended consequences in complex social systems. section 4 explores unintended consequences when performance measures are published. section 5 concludes with a summary of findings and suggestions for further work.</p> <h2>2. performance measurement and performance indicators</h2> <h3>2.1. background</h3> <p>performance measurement (or &quot;performance management”) has become popular since the 1980s, particularly in the west, thanks to business thinkers such as rockart (1979), deming (1986) and kaplan (kaplan &amp; norton, 1993). it works by identifying representative indicators of performance for some task or function. the measures often focus on highly visible aspects of output quality such as exam marks, waiting lists and response times. numerical values are obtained to track the indicators over time, and target values are set so that conclusions can be drawn about performance. this way of assessing quality strongly contrasts with the idea of <i>inspection</i>, where an observer experiences a system or process first hand and forms some intuitive judgement about its relative merits. </p> <p>the idea of applying “scientific” measurement techniques in business was inspired by statistical process control, and was appealing to western firms as it became necessary to compete with rising eastern economies such as japan (forester, 1993). the idea spread from business to government, and performance statistics are now used routinely in many countries in education, health, transport, emergency services and other fields (data.gov, 2012; data.gov.au, 2012; data.gov.uk, 2012; goddard &amp; mannion, 2004; tbcs, 2012).</p> <p>the resulting performance data are often published in the form of league tables (figure 1), which rank providers according to their performance scores. league tables provide a convenient, compact and easy-to-understand way of communicating complex performance outcomes. a league table is simply a list of comparable service providers, ordered according to some statistic. for example, schools may be ranked according to average exam marks or the proportion of students achieving a particular grade. the provider with the best score appears highest in the list, the next-best score appears second, and so on, down to the provider with the worst score at the bottom of the table. </p> <center> <table width=603 border=1 cellpadding=8 cellspacing=0> <col width=243> <col width=95> <col width=100> <col width=101> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p align=justify style="margin-top: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt"><b>school name</b></font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt"><b>average</b></font></p> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt"><b>gcse points</b></font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt"><b>5 gcse a*-c<br>(incl. eng. &amp; maths)</b></font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt"><b>5 gcse a*-c<br>(all subjects)</b></font></p> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><br> </p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">pitburgh grammar</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">738.5</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">100%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">100%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">newtown boys' grammar</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">551</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">99%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">99%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">roundell's</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">529.9</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">97%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">99%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">newtown girls grammar</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">526.6</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">100%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">100%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">the jensen school</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">512.9</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">98%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">98%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">collar valley</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">504</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">78%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">86%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">fernroad community college</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">493.6</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">64%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">79%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">harlton grammar</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">489.5</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">97%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">99%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">west deerland</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">481.7</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">91%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">99%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">st michael's church of england aided</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">475.5</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">68%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">80%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">st winifred's</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">460.1</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">79%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">100%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">st william's</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">454.9</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">88%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">88%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">christchurch</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">452.1</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">75%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">100%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">cookton</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">446</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">63%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">94%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">broadway community college</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">436.2</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">60%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">79%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">gormley valley</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">436.1</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">59%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">100%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">highcombe</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">435.6</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">86%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">95%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">hardmouth</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">434.5</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">0%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">99%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">bigton community college</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">426.6</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">59%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">77%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">dufer college</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">420.3</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">57%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">78%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">bentonley</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">418.6</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">61%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">79%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">south rufus community college</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">418</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">60%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">76%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">the queen's</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">405.2</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">68%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">77%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">rotunda house</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">362.9</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">73%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">100%</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=243> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">mary court</font></p> </td> <td width=95> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">339.8</font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">54%</font></p> </td> <td width=101> <p align=right style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">85%</font></p> </td> </tr> </table> </center> <p align=center style="margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.35cm; line-height: 100%"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt"><b>figure 1: part of a performance league table</b></font></p> <p>policymakers are often enthusiastic about the potential of performance management to improve public services, and assume that measurement will necessarily lead to improvement. but the mechanisms for improvement may not be spelled out. in the context of education “much of this work is characterized by the assumption that (performance indicators) will somehow ‘speak for themselves’ and strikingly little effort has been made to explore how they can be used to promote school improvement” (strand, 1997). </p> <p>often a “carrot and stick” mechanism is implicit. performance measures may be “attached to regulatory mechanisms whereby organisations are rewarded or punished according to the outcome” (jacobs et al., 2006). it is assumed that this will motivate service providers to achieve more (carrot), while “naming and shaming” will motivate poor performers to improve (stick). if performance data are published, it is expected that service consumers will react rationally, by selecting the best-performing providers. on the face of it, this is a sensible use of transparency, with potential benefits for all involved. figure 2 summarises the process.</p> <p> </p> <p align=center style="margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.35cm; line-height: 100%"> <img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3041/version/2082/3945/15549/figure2.png" alt="figure 2: assumed model ofperformance measurement process" height="334" width="660"/><br/> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt"><b>figure 2: assumed model of performance measurement process</b></font> </p> <h3>2.2. criticisms of performance measurement </h3> <p>the principles of performance measurement are not universally accepted, however. for example, in education, some countries (such as wales and northern ireland) do not use performance indicators for schools, and others (such as australia and the republic of ireland) have legislated explicitly against the publication of performance indicators for schools because of “dissatisfaction with the lack of contextualisation … and the negative ‘side-effects’” (bird, et al., 2005). finland, whose education system is ranked highly relative to other countries, reportedly has no school rankings or even assessments of schools (gavrielatos, 2009).</p> <h4>2.2.1. lack of supporting evidence for performance measurement</h4> <p>performance indicators are often used as part of “evidence-based” management (pfeffer &amp; sutton, 2006). the data are taken as evidence of actual performance and are acted upon. but, perhaps ironically, there appears to be little strong evidence for the efficacy of using performance indicators. once a performance measurement scheme is in operation, it becomes difficult to assess any resulting changes in systems and communities (goddard &amp; mannion, 2004). for example, the uk national health service (nhs) is a large and complex healthcare system, embedded in a larger and even more complex socio-economic-legal system. the size and complexity of this supersystem makes it essentially impossible to disentangle the effects of targets and measurement from the effects of other factors. the uk government claimed success from its use of hospital waiting time targets, citing apparently genuine reductions in measured waiting times for hospital admission (propper et al., 2008). but it was reportedly impossible to attribute causality with any certainty, and it is not clear that overall benefit resulted; other functions “may have been adversely affected by the emphasis on waiting times” (goddard, mannion, &amp; smith, 2004). because it is so difficult to know whether performance measurement schemes actually have a positive impact, bird et al (2005) argue that “because of their usually tentative nature, (performance indicators) should be seen as ‘screening devices’ and not over-interpreted”. </p> <p>some findings suggest that the use of performance indicators can even be counterproductive, and have highlighted potentially “serious dysfunctional consequences” arising from the use of performance measurement “as a means of control” (goddard, et al., 2004). evidence from psychological research supports this concern. despite widespread belief in the power of feedback to improve task performance, experiments show that receiving feedback can be detrimental for particular kinds of task—notably, for complex, non-rote tasks which rely heavily on cognitive resources (kluger &amp; denisi, 1996; visscher &amp; coe, 2003). it can be argued that professional work in education and healthcare are indeed complex tasks in this sense, and so provision of performance feedback may not necessarily be helpful (vulliamy &amp; webb, 2001). doubts have certainly been raised about the use of performance indicators in healthcare, citing their tendency to encourage “unnecessary interventions, discounting clinician judgment and patient preferences”. one study found that the existence of cancer screening targets tended to lead physicians to screen patients unnecessarily, even when screening was contra-indicated (werner &amp; asch, 2005). </p> <h4>2.2.2. assumption of control and neglect of contextual factors</h4> <p>performance management starts from the presumption that the individual or organisation being measured has control over outcomes. it tends to ignore contextual influences on performance. this can be problematic, since most individuals and organisations participate in larger systems over which they lack control. smith (1995) argues that most performance management schemes will fail, because they are “based on inadequate models of production and control”. for instance, nhs hospitals are part of a large system which constrains their operation in many ways. arguably, comparing the output performance of nhs hospitals is unwise, because they are part of the same system and their performance variation is due mainly to location and patient demographics. critics of performance measurement often cite this failure to consider context; “differences in patients … are not always reflected in results” (sipkoff, 2007); “the star ratings did not allow for the different environmental circumstances within which pcts (primary care trusts) operate and which affect their performance” (jacobs, et al., 2006).</p> <p>a similar argument can be made with regard to the use of performance measurement in education. it is argued that most of the variation between schools can be explained by environmental factors such as location and student socio-economic status. according to brown (2005), “primary school league tables … are an unfair measure of school performance … in that they generally tend to favour those schools which are located in more affluent areas with relatively few social problems”. yet the crucial information about location and socioeconomic status is largely ignored when performance data are generated, and it is typically absent from published data (bosker &amp; scheerens, 2000).</p> <p>it is a truism to say that approximately half of all service providers will be below average. nevertheless, the structure of a performance league table requires that providers be ranked, regardless of how significant the measured performance differences are and irrespective of whether this measured difference is within the control of the provider. faulty inferences about relative performance can result, and providers may be subject to inappropriate intervention by overseeing bodies (jacobs, et al., 2006). if service providers observe that they have been placed in an irrational measurement system, they may quite rationally be motivated to respond by gaming the system or manipulating data in order to improve their apparent performance. </p> <p>ironically, there is evidence that providers often do not trust their own published performance data. according to mannion and goddard (2003), the publication of nhs outcomes data had low impact because practitioners had little faith in it as an accurate measure of their performance; “quality improvement activity was driven more by intrinsic professional motivation and pride rather than extrinsic incentives” (davies et al., 2000). this finding is echoed by research, discussed later in section 4.3, which suggests that people naturally tend to be influenced more by their own perceptions and the perceptions of those around them than by formal information. nevertheless, despite their lack of trust in their own performance data, service providers learn to use the data for political purposes. for example, data showing poor performance can be used as evidence for the benefits of accountability or to justify requests for greater resources (berman, 2002).</p> <h4>2.2.3. other criticisms of performance measurement</h4> <p>performance measurement is a good example of a policy that sounds simple and easy to implement, but which can turn out in practice to be complex and problematic. many complications can emerge. for example, it can be hard to reach agreement on suitable performance measures, particularly in large organisations where each unit’s goals need to be congruent with those of the enterprise. unsurprisingly, studies have found poor alignment of performance measures across public service organisational hierarchies (micheli &amp; neely, 2010). measures are necessarily selective and may represent only a small part of the whole performance picture. they may ignore aspects of performance which are important but do not lend themselves to quantitative measurement. it may be clear what numbers are needed, but it may not be practicable to collect them; often, proxy factors must be used instead. at a fundamental level, organisations often have conflicting goals and it may not even be clear what, precisely, constitutes “good” performance (adab et al., 2002; hodgson, farrell, &amp; connolly, 2007).</p> <p>once in operation, the usefulness of performance indicators may be reduced by poor quality data, uneven collection and statistical uncertainty (adab, et al., 2002). measured performance may be due to chance, yet statistical significance is rarely reported when performance data are published. arguably, the majority of performance data are statistically insignificant. for example, short measurement periods make for less significant results: “over a 4-year period, it was difficult to identify consistently improving (or deteriorating) schools”; more reliable results would require impractically-long measurement timescales (bird, et al., 2005).</p> <p>a major criticism of performance measurement schemes arises from the emergence of gaming and other perverse outcomes, particularly in the public sector (pidd, 2005; smith, 1990). according to bird et al (2005) many perverse outcomes are “anticipated by practitioners but … ignored in the design of (performance indicators)”. for example, a familiar perverse outcome is the so-called “ratchet effect”, where high achievement merely results in increased expectations. to avoid progressively higher targets “the agent has a strong incentive to report persistently low levels of performance” (goddard, et al., 2004). this was reportedly a problem in the centrally-planned soviet economy. a common response by service providers is to return distorted figures that show moderately but not overly good performance (goldstein &amp; spiegelhalter, 1996c).</p> <p>moreover, a characteristic of league tables is that they are usually based on composite measures. this means that a provider’s rank depends strongly on the algorithm used to combine scores for individual aspects of performance, and is therefore “sensitive to changes made to the weighting system and to the aggregation rules. some hospitals can jump almost half of the league table as a result of subtle changes” (jacobs, goddard, &amp; smith, 2005).</p> <p>even when measures are not subject to the above-mentioned problems, changes in circumstances can render them less useful over time (sipkoff, 2007; smith, 1995). for example, van thiel and leeuw (2002) illustrate how changing crime patterns in the netherlands invalidated established methods of measuring crime, creating the impression that the police were performing badly when their performance had, in fact, improved substantially.</p> <h3>2.3. conclusion</h3> <p>performance management is based on an optimistic but unproven rationale: that measurement will drive up quality. theoretically, the measured indicators will be a good proxy for overall performance and providers will respond as expected, by improving their performance. however, evidence suggests that other outcomes are equally possible. providers may be judged according to factors they cannot control, and the resulting indicators may not adequately reflect their actual contribution (bosker &amp; scheerens, 2000). according to this view, “ambiguity over causation means that strong assertions and punishing actions are not warranted by the weak evidence provided by performance measures” (davies &amp; lampel, 1998). a more helpful use of performance indicators would perhaps be to compare different systems, rather than comparing providers within a single system (adab, et al., 2002).</p> performance measurement regimes which also involve the publication of the performance data set up additional behavioural effects in the public, in service providers, and even in the media. yet there is little understanding of “the complex behavioural consequences that may arise as a result of the collection and dissemination of performance data” (goddard, mannion, &amp; smith, 1998). those publishing performance data have tended to simply assume that publication will automatically have the desired effect of improving performance. but introducing performance data into an already-complex organisational and social system risks the creation of unintended consequences. figure 3 illustrates the process, showing how individuals, responding to data according to their own circumstances, create a complex system. service providers gather data on performance, which are disseminated by means of various media to the public who act in response. much research-to-date on performance measurement has focused on the left-hand oval in figure 3 (service providers). however, the two right-hand groups (media and service consumers) also play a part in this complex system. <p align=center style="margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.35cm; line-height: 100%"> <a href="863-5250-1-pb.png"><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3041/version/2082/3945/15550/figure3.png" alt="figure 3: complex systems (publication of performance data)" width="700" height="329"/></a> <br/> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt"><b>figure 3: complex system (publication of performance data)</b></font></p> <h2>3. complex systems and unintended consequences</h2> <h3>3.1. background</h3> <p>the preceding section looked at the practice of performance measurement. this paper is concerned with <i>unintended consequences</i> that may arise when the resulting performance data are published. the literature on unintended consequences has a long history, going back at least to the influential sociologist robert k. merton (1936), who framed the problem in the context of social policy. merton identified reasons why policies may fail to produce desired outcomes. he introduced the concept of the <i>self-fulfilling prophecy</i>, where policy designed to prevent a particular outcome has the unintended result of creating it. merton explained how ignorance, error, and wishful thinking on the part of policy-makers can cause well-intentioned policies to fail. </p> <p>since merton’s time, examples have multiplied of policies which, designed to produce one outcome, have led to another (gillon, 2000; margetts &amp; hood, 2010). for example, in higher education, the policy of increasing participation has led to the emergence of a “graduate barrier” between technicians and engineers/scientists (mcgovern 1996). as more better-qualified job applicants present themselves, the qualification level demanded by employers for each post must increase, simply so that the employers can distinguish between applicants—regardless of whether possession of the required qualification actually increases competence in the post. this in turn makes it necessary for job-seekers to obtain increasingly higher-level qualifications, closing the pernicious loop (duru-bellat, 2009). </p> <p>laws and regulations intended to deal with particular social problems often have perverse and counterintuitive effects. for example, in the us justice system, mandatory arrest policies designed to protect the victims of domestic violence, “led to an unexpected increase in the number of victim arrests”, shifting “the risk of arrests in domestic violence cases from aggressors to victims” (hovmand et al., 2009).</p> <p>experiences with technology offer a rich seam of unintended outcomes (tenner, 1997). for example, learning technologies can have both benign and harmful consequences (mcginnes, 2011). according to hermann, the installation of telephone systems in a sparsely-populated area of australia led to “the loss of community: no longer could neighbors spend long periods talking on two-way radio at virtually no cost. the new technology was supposed to support and develop the region rather than to reduce its sense of community” (2000). in healthcare, it produces a variety of unanticipated effects, including increased workload for clinicians, workflow problems, escalation in requirements, changes in communication patterns and practices, new types of error, changes in power structures, and overdependence on technology (campbell et al., 2006). </p> <h3>3.2. causality and constraints</h3> <p>when confronted by complex systems it is tempting to think simplistically about cause and effect (wagner, 1999). the internal mechanisms that produce the behaviour of social and organisational systems are usually complex and are generally inaccessible to non-insiders. unwanted outcomes, such as perceived educational failings, poor health outcomes, and rising property prices, are highly visible aspects of these complex systems. it is tempting to address the unwanted outcomes head-on, by trying to constrain them directly through legislation or some other top-down mechanism. for example, low exam marks and poor health outcomes may be “fixed” by setting targets.</p> <p>despite this temptation, theory tells us that it is usually not possible to control complex systems by constraining their outputs. the outputs of a system arise through the dynamic behaviour of the <i>whole</i> system. attempting to constrain the output of any system is liable to backfire, since it may cause unpredictable behaviour elsewhere in the system (von bertalanffy, 1950). unwanted outcomes can reliably be “fixed” only by changing the behaviour of the whole system, and this can in turn be altered only by making changes to the inputs and components of the system, not merely by constraining its outputs. </p> <p>an illustration may be useful. if the intention is to control the output pressure from an air compressor (figure 4), one might try to do this by fitting a valve on the output. the valve allows air at the required pressure to escape; any excess pressure is retained inside the compressor’s tank. it is easy to see that this solution might work in the short term, but would quickly go wrong. the compressor’s pump would continue to operate until the pressure of the tank exceeded safe limits, at which point failure would occur (the tank would explode, or the pump would break down, or the valve would fail). what is needed instead is a device which monitors the pressure in the tank and regulates the pressure by controlling the operation of the pump.</p> <p><br><br> </p> <p align=center style="margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.35cm; line-height: 100%"> <img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3041/version/2082/3945/15551/figure4.png" alt="figure 4: air compressor" width="618" height="193"/> <br/> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt"><b>figure 4: air compressor</b></font></p> <p>social systems are, of course, much more complicated than this simple example and different in kind. but it is reasonable to think that trying to fix social systems by constraining outcomes could be equally ineffective and harmful. as in the compressor example, constraining the system’s outputs is ineffective because it does not control the system’s overall behaviour in a sustainable way. by analogy, we could hypothesise that desirable changes in social systems should be achieved by first analysing the specific causal mechanisms that produce unwanted outcomes, and then trying to determine what system-wide changes would produce the desired results. there is no guarantee that the required changes can feasibly be made, or even identified, but this approach could give an understanding of how outcomes are formed in the real social system, and this may help inform policy formulation aimed at inducing desirable change. </p> <p>this idea is of course not new. for example, the field of operations research grew out of a realisation that real-world systems are amenable to rigorous quantitative analysis (forrester, 1987). in sociology, the idea of the evidence-based “realist review” has emerged as a way of helping policy-makers understand outcomes (pawson et al., 2005). it offers a method of reviewing the literature on prior research, inspired by the use of systematic reviews in the “hard” sciences (higgins &amp; green, 2008). realist review depends on the existence of reliable prior evidence of the effects of different policies. the analysis of causal mechanisms, proposed above, could be one way of generating research findings that would be useful in realist reviews on policy outcomes in different circumstances. </p> <h3>3.3. modelling causal relationships</h3> <p>complex social systems of the sort described above are amenable to the techniques of system dynamics, a set of techniques which evolved in response to the need to understand and manage complex systems (forrester, 1987). system dynamics can help explain how outcomes emerge in diverse systems including business scenarios, biological systems, and social policy. <i>causal loop diagrams</i> (figure 5) show how factors are related and how change in one factor impacts others (cavana &amp; mares, 2004).</p> <p align=center style="margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm"><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3041/version/2082/3945/15552/figure5.png" width=514 height=339 border=0 alt="figure 5: a causal loop diagram (fragment)"><br/> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt"><b>figure 5: a causal loop diagram (fragment)</b></font></p> <p>the outputs of these systems typically depend in complex, non-linear ways on the interaction of multiple elements. for example, factors may affect one another in circular “feedback loops”. in a <i>positive </i>feedback loop, factor a increases factor b, which in turn (often through some unseen but complex mechanism) recursively increases factor a. unless the cycle is damped, exponential growth may occur. for example, price inflation leads to salary inflation, which in turn fuels price inflation; unless action is taken to limit either type of inflation, both may spiral out of control. the other type of feedback is <i>negative</i> feedback; this causes loops to display stable, self-correcting behaviour which often leads to equilibrium. this kind of stability occurs when water is poured into a bowl and quickly finds its own level. </p> <p>politicians are often tempted to think simplistically about the effects of policies. but the feedback loops and other non-linear relationships in social systems can give rise to counterintuitive patterns of behaviour, such as sustained oscillation, overshoot and chaotic fluctuation (barlas, 2009). the science of chaos has emerged from the observation that even simple systems can exhibit complex, unpredictable behaviour. this applies equally to mechanical systems, natural systems and social systems (hsieh, 1991). for example, there is a widespread assumption that economic equilibrium will be achieved when barriers to economic action, such as import tariffs and regulation, are removed and “perfect information” prevails. but there does not seem to any reliable basis for this assumption, and some analysis predicts that the result of global financial deregulation will be sustained oscillation rather than equilibrium (minsky, 1992).</p> <p>adam smith first wrote of the “invisible hand”, that leads individuals, acting out of self-interest, to create unintended outcomes to the benefit of society (smith, 1759). the invisible hand is, of course, a metaphor; it is a shorthand way of talking about complex chains of causality, usually in the sphere of economics. similarly, when politicians speak of “market forces” they are employing a comparable shorthand to summarise the behaviour of complex socio-economic systems (aydinonat, 2008). it is often assumed that the complex causal chains characterised as market forces will have benign, stable outcomes. however, such a belief seems, at best, optimistic when the complexity and non-linearity of the underlying systems are considered (forrester, 1971).</p> <h3>3.4. unintended effects of information provision </h3> <p>the invisible hand can be seen at work when individuals act en masse in response to information. there are many situations where the publication of information, often in a spirit of transparency, seems to destabilise a complex situation and create an unintended effect (hood &amp; heald, 2006).</p> <ul> <li><p> frequent references in the news media to “the global financial crisis”, when no recession exists, have been blamed for exacerbating perceptions of financial instability and precipitating consumer behaviour likely to increase the risk of recession (whitlock, 2008). </p> <li><p> the swine flu “panic” of 2009, which was out of all proportion to actual risk, was blamed on repetitive, alarmist coverage by news media (leet, 2009). </p> <li><p> it has been claimed that the online publication of house price data “provides an unusually high incentive to overstate the price at which a property sold” and may drive price inflation (brown, 2006). it can be shown that all parties with a financial interest (vendor, agent, mortgage lender, purchaser and government) benefit financially if the price is overstated.</p> <li><p> in a similar vein it is claimed that the policy of publishing ceo salaries may drive salary inflation rather than inducing moderation in salary levels: “corporation(s) do not want to pay their candidate just the average but rather a salary that is in the 75th percentile” (lansing, 2007).</p> <li><p> the publication of grade information by colleges may facilitate grade inflation. data were published by one institution about the grades achieved in different modules, to help potential employers. however, students responded by using the information to choose modules where it was easiest to obtain higher grades (bar, kadiyali, &amp; zussman, 2009).</p> </ul> <p><br><br> </p> <p>these last two examples illustrate the problem that unwanted outcomes may arise even when the system is operating as intended. that is, when the data are accurate and well-understood, and when individuals react <i>logically</i> to the data. as an illustration, consider a “money saver” website which helps consumers locate cheap flights and discounted goods, which were previously difficult to find. quickly, thousands of people learn about the website and use its advice to take advantage of online bargains. they have behaved rationally and are pleased to have saved money. however, because of the financial impact on the companies involved, they remove the discounts. consequently there are fewer bargains around, so prices have effectively increased. this is an example of market forces in operation, facilitated by the web. but it does not lead to the expected benign outcome in the form of reduced prices. </p> <p>in public procurement it is thought that competition is facilitated by the publication of information about open contracts and requirements. many vendors may then tender for contracts, competing on price. it is hoped that “market forces” will ensure that value-for-money is obtained. this is similar to the idea of haggling, extended to cover the procurement of complex and expensive artefacts and services. haggling can result in a lower prices; therefore (so the reasoning goes) it makes sense for the government to ask suppliers to bid against one another, and providing information is thought to be the best way to do this. but evidence suggests that transparency in government procurement can have negative as well as positive effects. one consequence which contributes to project failure is “winner’s curse”, where vendors are driven unwittingly to outbid each other to the point of bankruptcy (jørgensen &amp; grimstad, 2005). </p> <p>transparency is also thought to inhibit corrupt activity. again a simplistic model is used, but this time the metaphor is of the <i>card game</i>: if the players’ hands remain “above board” (on the table, where everybody can see what is happening) then “underhand” activity is impeded. it seems self-evident that transparent decision-making is preferable to decision-making behind closed doors. yet it has been shown that, in various scenarios, transparency may increase opportunities for corruption. one example has been reported in connection with olympic competitions, where transparency in judging procedures may have had “the perverse effect of facilitating collusion by insiders”, leading to illegal vote trading (zitzewitz, 2010). </p> <p>in each of the above cases, the provision of information leads to consequences that are unintended and undesirable. this demonstrates that, while transparency is no doubt beneficial in many cases, it is unsafe to assume it will always be beneficial (hood &amp; heald, 2006). instead, those wishing to publish should endeavour to understand more precisely how access to data produces particular outcomes. although complex social systems tend to exhibit unexpected and counterintuitive behaviour, the behaviour is nonetheless capable of being understood if the systems are analysed in detail, and this can allow the impact of policies to be understood and predicted. by examining the causal relationships in each situation, better decisions may be facilitated about what to publish.</p> <h2>4. understanding the unintended effects of performance data provision</h2> <p>this paper is concerned with the outcomes of one particular type of transparency policy: publishing <i>performance</i> data. information alters behaviour, and the behavioural change may not necessarily occur in intended or benign ways (stan, 2007). it is beyond the scope of this paper to give a full account of the various ways in which publication of performance data may produce unwanted outcomes. but in the next section we look briefly at ways in which the behaviour of providers, the media and the public can be affected. </p> <p>first we examine factors involved in the understanding of performance data, since everyone—provider, media or public—must interpret the data before being able to act on it. there is evidence that a substantial proportion of the public do not understand published performance data well (bird, et al., 2005; which?, 2007) and it is reasonable to assume that the same applies also to service providers and those in the media who report on performance data.</p> <h3>4.1. issues affecting the understanding performance data</h3> <p>a well-known issue in dealing with data is <i>information overload</i>; if too much information is provided, some must be ignored. this is a problem in today’s information-rich environment, where people are bombarded every day with messages from myriad sources. many are advertising messages which have been carefully (and expensively) crafted to capture attention and influence behaviour in subtle ways. it may be difficult for performance data to compete with other messages, particularly if presented in an unvarnished way (heath, 2012). </p> <p>when performance data are reported in the media, there is often a lack of context and explanation; these things do not typically make good copy. on their own, the “raw” data can easily be misinterpreted. correct interpretation may rely on specialist (e.g. statistical) knowledge, which the average reader lacks (davis, 2006). the absence of contextual information means that even raw performance data are not truly “raw”, since they have, embedded within them, various assumptions that the reader is unaware of. in the absence of this context, interpretation will inevitably be flawed.</p> <p>the psychology of perception tells us that the human capacity for conscious attention is extremely limited. the brain uses strategies to limit the amount of processing required for the incoming flood of sensory perceptions. one strategy is simply to ignore or shut out information (<i>selective perception</i>). <i>confirmation bias</i> is a similar type of effect, where the individual interprets new information in ways that support existing beliefs, thereby lessening the need for costly mental processing in order to reconcile conflicting ideas. the mind naturally directs attention towards information that can be interpreted <i>automatically</i> (unconsciously), since this is most easily processed. numerical and textual data require conscious, analytical effort to interpret, which is costly in terms of cognitive resources. graphs and images are easier to assimilate, because they rely on unconscious perceptual processes, and so their interpretation is effectively effortless (whitehouse, 2000). </p> <p>performance league tables can be particularly misleading, because the mere position of a provider in a list is interpreted automatically and unconsciously (goldstein &amp; spiegelhalter, 1996b). league tables ignore statistical uncertainty; “there may be no real difference between many of the units sequenced in the table—though this may not be obvious from the single-point estimates used” (smith, 1995). a service provider’s position in a league table may well be a poor reflection of actual performance. yet the unconscious interpretation of a league table is that the providers near the top are “good” and those further down are “bad”. messages received unconsciously in this way are powerful and can drive action without the need for conscious reflection (bargh &amp; morsella, 2008; howell, 2002). </p> <p>emotion is very important in perception; it helps us attend to the most important aspects of our surroundings and to avoid the high cognitive cost of attending to unimportant details (bradley, 2009). sensationalist media reporting exploits this effect. lurid coverage has a strong emotional impact and therefore captures the reader’s attention. emotion strongly influences memory, and messages with emotional impact are remembered far better than neutral subject matter. this helps explain the snowballing effect of media coverage in relation to phenomena such as swine flu, bse and knife crime. the more emotionally arousing a subject is, the more the observer overestimates its salience, and the more likely it is to be remembered (fuller, 2010). </p> <p>the mere fact that an issue has been reported in the media draws one’s attention to it, increasing its apparent salience. for example, news reports about crime figures generate a heightened sense of danger, regardless of actual risk (callanan, 2012). unfortunately, when performance statistics are reported in the media, coverage is likely to be biased towards evidence of poor performance, since this generates an emotional response in the reader and is therefore inherently “newsworthy”. this alone is likely to create imbalanced perceptions.</p> <p>individuals are susceptible to a range of other unconscious cognitive biases which affect the interpretation of data. for example, research into decision-making suggests that receiving additional information, which might be expected to improve decision-making, can increase confidence to an unwarranted degree and can thereby degrade the quality of decisions (davis, lohse, &amp; kottemann, 1994). individuals may also suffer from anchoring bias, overestimating the importance of some aspect of a situation merely because it is foremost in their attention (campbell, sharpe, &amp; system, 2007). they may construe data in self-serving ways, indulge in “motivated forgetting”, and so on (anderson &amp; huddleston, 2012). </p> <p>reasoning is particularly subject to unconscious influence. despite the longstanding tradition of reason as the gold standard in decision-making, research suggests that many or even all decisions are made unconsciously, in response to unconsciously-perceived factors (haggard, 2009). although we may feel that we make decisions consciously and rationally, the brain is adept at rationalisation, which provides plausible (but often inaccurate) explanations for decisions after they have been made. when people make decisions about subjects that matter to them, they use <i>motivated reasoning</i>, a form of conscious thought which seems logical and balanced but is, in reality, irrational. in motivated reasoning, different aspects of a situation may be given have undue weight according to their emotional resonance (molden &amp; higgins, 2012). </p> <h3>4.2. effect of performance data publication on organisational behaviour</h3> <p>the provision of performance data can affect the behaviour of all parties involved in the performance measurement cycle: service providers (and the organisations which oversee them), the media, and the public. one well-documented result of performance measurement is <i>gaming</i>: the provider responds to measurement not by improving performance but by strategically adjusting circumstances so that better performance figures are obtained. this practice has been aptly described as “hitting the target but missing the point”. gaming has been addressed in depth by researchers, and many inventive examples have been reported (bevan &amp; hood, 2006). </p> <p>publication raises the stakes for service providers, since it increases the probable impact of performance figures. the public are likely to interpret league tables in a naïve way, and providers know this. one result can be demotivation. for example, where schools are poorly-placed in school league tables, this can mean humiliation and demoralisation for children, parents and teachers—despite the fact that the differences in measured performance may be insignificant, the school’s scores may be affected by the socio-economic status of its pupils, which it cannot control, and there may be many instances of excellent practice within the school (bandura, 1997; gavrielatos, 2009; visscher &amp; coe, 2003).</p> <p>the news media also have a significant role in the performance management cycle. many people get their information about performance data largely or exclusively through the media. of course, those working in the media are just as susceptible to all of the potential distortions recounted above that may occur when performance data are interpreted. if they do not understand the data well, they cannot report them accurately. but media reporting is also subject to a range of other distortions. for example, it is selective and therefore can never present a full picture. often, there is a focus on <i>bad</i> news, since this is newsworthy. if performance statistics appear to show evidence of poor results, the media are likely to preferentially report these in favour of other positive but less exciting results. </p> <p>when performance data are published, a well-intentioned desire to provide balance and analysis can cause coverage to shift from the data to the presentation of alternative views and interpretations—which may be poorly informed. in addition, research has shown that media reporting is inherently slanted according to the expectations of the readership, particularly in low-feedback situations such as performance reporting (gentzkow &amp; shapiro, 2005; mullainathan &amp; shleifer, 2005). this means that people tend to receive the message they expect.</p> <p>in summary, the message eventually received by the public about performance is likely to have been manipulated at source and distorted en route. it may be shorn of context and inherently misleading. the public are liable to misinterpret it, for all of the reasons listed in the preceding section. it is reasonable to assume that information affects behaviour. but the question is, how? </p> <h3>4.3. effect of performance data publication on behaviour</h3> <p>firstly, there is evidence that the public are not particularly interested in using published performance data, preferring to obtain information informally through interpersonal relationships (marshall et al., 2000; meijer, 2009; pidd, 2005; sipkoff, 2007; which?, 2007). research shows that humans are strongly driven by the behaviour of others, regardless of whatever knowledge they may possess (cialdini, 2001). this “social proof” leads to herd behaviour. when the amount of information about options increases, it may “exceed the individual’s cognitive capacity and conformity—choosing the most popular item—becomes more likely” (sasaki et al., 2011).</p> <p>where members of the public are prepared to consult and use performance data, and react en masse to information received, the “invisible hand” is at work. results suggest that the presence of information affects patterns of consumer activity, giving rise to “information cascades” (bikhchandani, hirshleifer, &amp; welch, 1992). “individuals can respond actively to media and in ways that appear to be in their own best interests but, collectively, the results can be both self-defeating and on a mass scale” (davis, 2006). for example, in financial markets, the lack of confidence in a particular stock may lead to selling behaviour, which causes the stock price to drop, triggering more selling and further price drops. media reporting of knife crime statistics is thought to be behind an “arms race” in which youths increasingly feel the need to carry knives because of a greater perceived need for protection (mcnally, 2009). </p> <p>the anticipated behavioural impact of performance data publication is consumer choice. league tables offer the prospect of “shopping around”, picking the provider which offers the best performance. yet this prospect may be illusory, particularly in the case of large, location-dependent public services such as hospitals and schools (bosker &amp; scheerens, 2000). in practice, and for a variety of reasons, many service consumers have little real choice about where to receive medical treatment or which schools to send their children to. </p> <p>where true choice exists, its use may not be uniformly distributed. gurstein’s (2003) notion of “effective use” is relevant here; uneven public take-up reduces the value of published data and this “skewness” has the potential to produce unintended effects (davies, 2010; gurstein, 2010). for example, in the case of school league tables, evidence suggests that middle-class parents make most use the data provided (visscher et al., 2000). if these parents misinterpret the tables in the expected ways, it is likely that they will oversubscribe to the “best” schools in any district, leaving the “worst” schools for the children of working-class parents. since academic achievement is strongly associated with socio-economic status, this could lead to increasing polarisation between high-performing “best” schools and poorly-performing “worst” schools. in other words, an accident of league table ranking becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. there is circumstantial evidence for this phenomenon. it has been observed in the uk that house prices are inflated around schools with better performance scores. according to one report, a 10% rise in the number of 11-year-olds attaining the expected level in tests adds 3.3% (£5,860) to average house prices (montia, 2009). </p> <h3>4.4. summary</h3> <p>the rationale for publishing performance league tables is that informed service consumers can make better choices, and that this will drive up the performance of service providers. but performance data are selective, and they may be inaccurate and misleading. league tables imply performance differences even when none exist and they invite misinterpretation. service consumers may misinterpret data, ignore it, overreact to it, or react in irrational ways. in short, the “current official support for output league tables, even adjusted, is misplaced” (goldstein &amp; spiegelhalter, 1996a).</p> <p><br><br> </p> <p><br><br> </p> <table width=719 border=1 cellpadding=8 cellspacing=0> <col width=58> <col width=94> <col width=116> <col width=386> <tr valign=top> <td width=58> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt"><b>who</b></font></p> </td> <td width=94> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt"><b>stage (see </b></font>figure 3<font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt"><b>)</b></font></p> </td> <td width=116> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt"><b>potential effects</b></font></p> </td> <td width=386> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt"><b>risks</b></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td rowspan=6 width=58> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">service provider</font></p> </td> <td width=94> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">(a) provide service</font></p> </td> <td width=116> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">see (e)</font></p> </td> <td width=386> <ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">see (e)</font></p> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=94> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">(b) model service</font></p> </td> <td width=116> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">inaccuracies when service provision is conceptualised</font></p> </td> <td width=386> <ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">oversimplifying a complex process.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">invalid assumptions about:</font></p> <ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">the way in which service is provided.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">the range of factors influencing success.</font></p> </ul> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=94> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">(c) choose measures </font> </p> </td> <td width=116> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">inaccuracies/ omissions when measures are chosen </font> </p> </td> <td width=386> <ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">chosen measures correspond poorly with success.</font></p> <ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">badly-formulated measures.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">use of proxy measures.</font></p> </ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">measures reflect only a subset of success factors.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">provider lacks control over the measured outcomes.</font></p> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=94> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">(d) measure performance </font> </p> </td> <td width=116> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">inaccuracies/ omissions when performance is measured </font> </p> </td> <td width=386> <ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">low statistical significance.</font></p> <ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">small samples.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">inaccurate/noisy measurement.</font></p> </ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">deliberate misrepresentation.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">provider defensively subverts measurement.</font></p> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=94> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">(e) alter behaviour</font></p> </td> <td width=116> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">perverse alteration to the way the service is provided</font></p> </td> <td width=386> <ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">gaming, intended to produce good indicator values despite lack of improvement in service.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm">“<font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">working to the indicator”; improving measured service to detriment of non-measured services.</font></p> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=94> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">(f) prepare statistics</font></p> </td> <td width=116> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">inaccuracies/bias when statistics are prepared</font></p> </td> <td width=386> <ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">provider misrepresents actual performance.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">provider manipulates data to optimise statistics.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">use of league tables or other misleading format.</font></p> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=58> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">media</font></p> </td> <td width=94> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">(g) report on statistics</font></p> </td> <td width=116> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">selective/biased/ incorrect reporting by media</font></p> </td> <td width=386> <ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">misinterpretation of statistics, leading to erroneous reporting.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">interpreting data according to a particular political viewpoint.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">selection of most extreme negative results.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> “<font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">false balance”; giving spurious credibility to alternative view.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">omission of context needed to interpret figures correctly.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">deliberate distortion in support of an agenda.</font></p> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td rowspan=3 width=58> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">public</font></p> </td> <td width=94> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">(h) interpret statistics</font></p> </td> <td width=116> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">misunderstanding/ biased interpretation/ selective uptake by public</font></p> </td> <td width=386> <ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">cognitive biases</font></p> <ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">overestimating the importance of data.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">selectively accepting data that supports prior views.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">reasoning distorted by emotional relevance of data.</font></p> </ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">choosing media outlets that support prior opinions.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">failure to understand what the figures refer to.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">absence of context needed to interpret data correctly.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">misinterpretation through lack of statistical knowledge.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">attending to only the most extreme results. </font> </p> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=94> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">(i) alter behaviour </font> </p> </td> <td width=116> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">inappropriate behavioural change by public </font> </p> </td> <td width=386> <ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">irrational responses.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">overreacting to insignificant performance differences.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">social proof – following others regardless of information.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">force of habit ignoring significant performance differences.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm; margin-bottom: 0.04cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">changing anything, if you can’t change what you need to.</font></p> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">not changing through lack of choice.</font></p> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=94> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">(j) consume service</font></p> </td> <td width=116> <p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">see (i)</font></p> </td> <td width=386> <ul> <li><p style="margin-top: 0.04cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt">see (i)</font></p> </ul> </td> </tr> </table> <p align=center style="margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.35cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 9pt"><b>table 1: potential unanticipated effects of publishing performance data</b></font></p> <p>the morale of service providers may be damaged. overseeing organisations may misinterpret data and intervene unnecessarily. the media will inevitably—intentionally or unintentionally—distort the message, helping to produce a reaction that is misaligned with actual performance, particularly when the relevance or importance of the tables are emphasised by government and media commentators. conscious of the impact of public opinion, and unable to control factors which influence their measured performance, service providers may alter their behaviour to game the system, without necessarily improving performance—even when doing so may be damaging to the services they provide. table summarises the many unanticipated effects which are possible.</p> <h2>5. conclusion</h2> <p>the publication of government performance data is conventionally considered to be beneficial. “formulated in terms of ‘access to information,’ transparency policies claim (that) numbers are best for making visible the workings of public services systems” (stan, 2007). it is reasonable to claim that information is beneficial, when it is in short supply. but it can be argued that untrammelled transparency is not necessarily benign (bannister &amp; connolly, 2011; hood &amp; heald, 2006). “the information age truism that knowledge is power does not seamlessly scale into ‘more knowledge is more power’ … an honest, unvarnished view of how individuals and institutions actually behave in information-rich environments—as opposed to how we might like them to behave—does not assure that greater quantities of data will lead to better-quality results” (schrage, 2003).</p> <p>decisions about social policies, taken naively, have the potential to lead to untold outcomes. when unwanted situations occur, in society or in other spheres, it may be tempting to try to fix them without a clear understanding of how they arise. in the case of public services, the unwanted situation is a perception of poor quality, and the fix may involve performance measurement and “naming and shaming”. yet the mechanisms by which this fix might generate improvement are often unclear. the evidence is that, in general, it cannot be assumed that desired result will be obtained.</p> <h3>5.1. implications</h3> <p>the system of measurement and publication of performance data includes service providers, the media and service consumers. it is, in effect, a large and complex information system with global reach. with the internet, information systems have the potential for widespread and far-reaching public impact (adab, et al., 2002). combining this unprecedented reach with performance management is an experiment which could invite large-scale perverse consequences with concomitant social and financial cost. </p> <p>it is tempting in this research to offer solutions designed to make the publication of performance data “work” more reliably. but each performance measurement situation has its own dynamics, and so any solutions are likely to be situation-dependent. for example, the dominant factors leading to perverse outcomes when school league tables are published are not necessarily the same as those which influence outcomes when hospital statistics are published. this makes it necessary to investigate each specific situation, to determine how and why the provision of particular types of performance data can cause particular consequences. armed with this understanding, we may be able to find ways of avoiding less desirable consequences through interventions designed to suit specific situations.</p> <p>it could be that the technological imperative is rendering this advice moot, however. in recent years the vision of an idealised, global “infosphere” has emerged, inspired by the power of the internet to disseminate information quickly and easily. this view foresees a democratic scenario similar to the economist’s ideal of “perfect information”, where everyone benefits from equal and unfettered access to data on a range of topics. the semantic web<i>,</i> with its vision of linked open data, is one manifestation (berners-lee, et al., 2001). it envisages that easy interchange of data will be beneficial to all, because it will lead to a kind of equilibrium in which the public and organisations are equally empowered to act on data. the result will presumably be “market forces” that tend to improve economic and social outcomes. it is beyond the scope of this paper to debate the feasibility of this vision, but suffice to say that it rests on some untested assumptions. from the evidence summarised in this paper, it is also conceivable that free movement of open data could instead decrease stability, leading to chaotic behaviour in the global infosphere with unintended, undesirable outcomes (hsieh, 1991). </p> <h3>5.2. further research</h3> <p>research is needed to find ways of predicting the effects when performance data are published on a mass scale, to explore the emergence of both intended and unintended outcomes. it is not sufficient to assume that intended, benign outcomes will (or do) emerge when data are published. one research goal could be to identify patterns in behaviour that occur in different situations, which might allow generalisation about the effects of publishing data. we are testing the use of system dynamics for this purpose, simulating the effects of performance data publication on behaviour in domains such as education and healthcare. given that many of the behavioural consequences seem to stem from issues of perception and interpretation, another useful approach would be to explore alternatives to the exclusive use of numerical performance data that may moderate some of their negative effects. these include the use of “soft” information to complement “hard” statistics, sampling, and alternative visual representations such as control charts (adab, et al., 2002; bird, et al., 2005).</p> <p>more generally, we are interested in the effects of information on “crowd” behaviour. information has hitherto been considered innately benign, for the most part. but now that mass dissemination of information is cheap, quick and easy, it may be than a more finely-graduated theory is needed to explain the effects when information is disseminated to a wide audience. again, simulation is one possible method of enquiry, coupled with appropriate theoretical analysis to identify the variables and causal relationships underlying so-called invisible hand or “market forces” mechanisms.</p> <h2>6. references</h2> <p> adab, p., rouse, a. m., mohammed, m. a., &amp; marshall, t. 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and expand public computer centers, encourage sustainable adoption of broadband service, and develop and maintain a nationwide public map of broadband service capability and availability.” ntia was required to make all grant awards by september 30, 2010 and has done so accordingly. based on this legislation the ntia developed and now administers the broadband technology opportunities program (btop) which is the federal funding mechanism for three project categories: (1) comprehensive community infrastructure, (2) public computer centers, and (3) sustainable broadband adoption (sba). the public policy objective of these projects is to increase broadband internet usage and adoption, especially to vulnerable populations where broadband technology traditionally has been underutilized. many of these projects include digital literacy training and outreach campaigns to increase the relevance of broadband in people’s everyday lives. elders, socioeconomic status, disabilities and computer use it is well known that the digital divide refers to the gap between people with effective access to digital and information technology and those with very limited or no access at all (servon, 2002). it includes the imbalance both in physical access to technology and the resources and skills needed to effectively participate as a digital citizen (compaine, 2001). nowhere is the “digital divide” more starkly apparent in the united states than between the old and young. while 89 percent of adults 18 to 29 years old use computers and 95 percent regularly use the internet, among those 65 years old and older only 42 percent use computers and 40 percent use the internet (u.s. census, 2011). among adults with home internet access 80 percent of 18 to 29 year olds connect via broad band but only 31 percent of those older than 65 do so by broadband (u.s. census, 2011). the digital divide is also a prominent barrier based on household income. while 96 percent those living in households with incomes over $75,000 use computers and 95 percent access the internet regularly, only 58 and 63 percent of those living in households with annual incomes of less than $30,000 use computers and the internet, respectively (u.s. census, 2011). members of minority groups are also prominent in the digital divide. for example latino and black americans are less likely than whites to access the internet and to have a home broadband connection. while about two-thirds of latino (65%) and black (66%) adults went online in 2010, more than three-fourths (77%) of white adults did so. in terms of broadband use at home, there is a large gap between latinos (45%) and whites (65%), and the rate among blacks (52%) is somewhat higher than that of latinos (pew commission, 2011). a very low percentage of poor, lesser educated, or minority seniors go online. while complete statistical profiles on computer use and internet access in specific underserved populations are either nonexistent or incomplete, it is reasonable to assume that people in these groups are far less likely to have computer skills, own a computer and effectively use the internet. a recent survey of elders living in low income housing developments in illinois showed that less than 5 percent currently use broadband. if the results of this survey are valid, for all practical purposes, low income seniors in illinois are not using the internet. this vulnerable population is missing out on the many educational, job training, informational and health benefits that internet usage can bring. that, in turn, costs american society. the getting illinois low income seniors and people with disabilities online project given the demographics of the digital divide and given the legislative and programmatic framework described above, the getting illinois low income seniors and people with disabilities online demonstration btop sba project, the” internet training program,” was conceived, designed, funded and implemented. briefly stated, the goal of the internet training program was to get approximately 3,000 low income seniors and people with disabilities who live in 23 public housing facilities, subsidized housing buildings in the northern portion of illinois engaged in regular and sustained computer and internet use. this goal is to be achieved by installing computer centers in the 23 housing communities, installing permanent internet connectivity, implementing a unique program of customized computer training developed by the grant applicant, and giving people who successfully complete the training program free computers. given the project’s origin in the arra economic stimulus legislation the project was designed to create over 100 jobs. a final goal of the program was to develop a model of best practices that would be thoroughly formalized and documented and thereby made transferrable to other state coalitions attempting similar efforts. in order to achieve this final goal, the program has secured the services of university-based researchers who are conducting a thorough program evaluation and who are disseminating the model of best practices to the academic and lay communities. the internet training program has been implemented in a portfolio of 23 hud and public housing buildings in rock island, moline, henry county, rockford, dekalb, grundy county, joliet, oak park, kankakee and chicago, illinois. the value proposition of an on-site and staffed computer learning center in each building, with a broadband network, and free computers and connectivity to residents was of interest to the housing owners. the outline of the internet training program the primary emphasis of the internet training program is to get the seniors excited about the benefits of being online and using the internet. the end result is to get them to a “driver’s license” level of skill to use on the information superhighway— not to train them for indy or nascar racing at one extreme but hopefully not to park the car in the garage at the other extreme. internet training program encourages seniors to drive on and fully explore the information superhighway. the choice of the nature, speed or destination of their driving objectives is up to them. the critical distinction is between being “online” and “offline.” once the senior is online, the possibilities for driving trips are virtually endless. getting and using the driver’s license on the information superhighway phases of the program there are five phases in the internet training program in getting the driver’s license. the first is to get program participants to understand and appreciate the practical benefits of internet use. this is done by illustrating real life examples of how other seniors are using the internet to do practical things: using e-mail with children and grandchildren, having video chats with friends and neighbors, accessing information through google, keeping up with news, hobbies and other interests, communicating with government and health care resources. the second is to develop a program participant profile with background information and current interests, as well as an assessment of current internet uses and a description of things to do. what have the participants been doing with their pre-internet lives? how have they spent their time? what do the find of interest? the third is to engage the participants in a structured but self-paced training program that will move seniors through a curriculum designed to achieve internet literacy and skills. the training program has to be relevant to the learning objectives of the seniors. there have to be early successes and “aha” moments. the fourth consists of periodic assessments along the way so that the end of the program real skills are achieved which are relevant to the interests of the program participant. this involves not only the receipt of the driver’s license but its use in getting to desired destination. the fifth and final phase consists of personal “travel” consultation which will help the program participant learn the additional skills to navigate the internet in ways of particular interest to them. this is when the training program converts itself to something of a “travel agent” function, explaining destinations and the best ways of getting there. implementation of the program there are three critical elements in the design and implementation of an effective internet adoption program for seniors living in senior housing communities. the first involves the development of a solid baseline of information on all of the residents in the building which can function as a starting point. this will include: (1) demographic and background information; (2) surveys on their existing familiarity with typing, computers and the internet; and (3) questions on their initial thoughts on how computers and the internet might be helpful to them and which internet skills and applications they would like to develop and use. the second involves training and the intervention strategies, the approaches and programs use to raise the awareness levels of participants with respect to the personal and practical benefits that could result from the development of internet skills, and the use of broadband and applications. it involves a combination of off-line and on-line training in developing those skills in a combination of large group presentations, small group training, and one-on-one sessions in both classroom setting and the computer lab. ultimately, most of the training will be on-line and self-paced, directly to the participants in their apartment units. the third involves ongoing and post-program evaluation. what internet skills were actually developed? how are the skills being used? what testing and assessments were done, how and when? did off-line seniors become on-line internet subscribers? what did it take in terms of cost to convert a previously off-line resident to an active user with an internet account? a certification of a driver’s license” level of computer and internet competence for travel on the information superhighway? and finally more general questions about the program are important components of the evaluation, such as: what can be done to make awareness-raising efforts, the education and training and the sustained use of the internet more efficient and fun? how can the overall process be improved? how can it become more cost-effective? were the increases in the appreciation and use of the internet results justified by the costs? developing the base line of information: the btop sustainable broadband adoption (“sba”) application lists a number of categories for which information is to be collected: age/birthdate, ethnicity, gender, household income, educational achievement, the nature of disabilities, the employment status of the individual and the primary and secondary language of the seniors. the information creates a simple baseline for the demographic profile of a user community. more information would be useful in actually implementing a program: the name of the individual, the unit number, marital status, number of years living in the building, family and friends, prior residence locations, education, work experience and hobbies – any of which could suggest areas of interest that could be supported by the use of email and the internet. the background survey information on the senior can be gathered during an informal discussion, over coffee. no computer need be involved. the other goal of this discussion is to make a human connection and to promote bonding and trust between the potential program participant, the training program and the trainer. the importance of the personality and teaching skills of the trainer to the success of the awareness raising and training programs cannot be overestimated. a second category of information to be collected relates to the prior experience of the senior with typing, adding machines and other office equipment, and with business or office work experienced in informal or volunteer settings. experience in organizing holiday dinners, picnics, family reunions are examples of organizational skills that may be not be thought of as such. the informal one-on-one conversations will lead into all sort of background information that has relevance to the underlying importance of internet adoption, if not to the obvious utility of those skills and experiences. these points can be made later in classroom settings, in computer labs or in conversations over coffee or “around the water cooler.” the internet can make current instances of these types of prior experiences of this type better, faster and easier. these conversations should also involve questions about computer experiences at school, home or work, the interest of the senior in developing or improving internet skills or specific questions about a cell phone, obtaining an email address, or the use of the computer or the internet. the last question will ask the senior to assess their own computer/internet skills on a likert-type scale. the goal is to determine internet literacy prior to the introduction of awareness-raising or training. the third category of information to be generated by the survey relates to the expression of the initial interest of each senior in the development of specific internet skills: (1) connecting to children and grandchildren; (2) setting up an email account; (3) sending and receiving email messages; (4) attaching documents and photos to messages; (5) learning to use google and other search engines; (6) accessing information on healthcare, medicare, medicaid and drug programs; (7) budgeting, banking and paying bills; (8) accessing online games and entertainment; (9) accessing government financial support program; and (1) connecting to hobbies and interest groups. solitaire, scrabble and other online games are used to teach pointing, clicking and dragging mouse and cursor skills. the overall goal of the discussion of these skills and applications are to enable the senior to see the benefits of the internet as real, practical, personal and fun – the joy of learning. the goal of the intervention strategy: the basic goal of the intervention strategy – or training – is to illustrate the practical benefits of the internet in sufficiently practical terms so that the seniors will see personal through a progression of interim steps to become and active user of the internet and a subscriber to a broadband internet service. the design of the training process: crossing the digital divide in a process not an event or single act. the btop applications recognizes that there are a number of steps involved in crossing the digital divide and being active online. there are seven specific steps to help a senior from being off-line and digitally uninformed about the benefits of the internet to being an active internet user and subscriber. step one – awareness raising: the first step is to use normal communications like flyers, printed materials, “announcements,” group meetings and “buzz” to explain the benefits of broadband and internet use that seniors have experienced in using the internet. this is a general explanation of internet benefits, so that seniors can identify areas of possible personal benefits to them. these materials can be available on video monitors in places where seniors congregate – lobby, community room, etc. step two – particularizing the benefits to the individual: the second step is to make an assessment of the individual’s off-line interests and experiences as well as the basic level of comfort with computers and the internet. this helps to determine how the senior’s existing interests might be enhanced through the internet and to engage in a friendly, non-technical discussion of how the use of a computer and the internet might help the individual to more fully explore existing interests and develop complementary ones. steps one and two are awareness raising activities, to illustrate personal and practical internet benefits. step three – education and training: the third step is to develop the basic knowledge and skills to be comfortable using a computer (mouse, cursor, keyboard, etc.) as well as how to access the basic application programs and the web. this involves the implementation of a learning curriculum with large and small group meetings, classes, computer labs and one-on-one tutoring using on-line materials and handouts illustrating the learning program. the process utilizes senior-friendly training programs and other applications oriented to beginners and first time users. step four – the initial evaluations of student progress: each of the lessons should include opportunities to demonstrate the understanding of the materials in that lesson. at the end of each lessons there should be a review of the course to assure that the participant understands and is competent with the skills required to receive a “driver’s license” and a computer to be used in their own apartment. there are several purposes for these evaluations. first, it is important to make sure the training is effective. second, it is important to make sure that the skills and understandings are being realized. finally, it is important to “reward” the senor with tangible evidence of their success at learning a new skill, in a type of “graduation ceremony.” step five – certificate of achievement and the receipt of a computer: the fifth step involves the certificate of achievement, the “driver’s license on the information superhighway.” this entitles the resident to a computer for their apartment and broadband connectivity. it is reasonable to require the recipients of a free computer and free internet connectivity for two years to demonstrate their commitment by starting and completing a learning program through a combination of on-site training in a clc and a “virtual program” using distance learning programs specifically designed for seniors and their interests. the objective of this step is to the individual to demonstrate sufficient knowledge and skill, like with a normal driver’s license, to be awarded a “driver’s license” to be used on the information superhighway. step six – actively using the internet: this is the step when the use of the internet becomes part of the everyday routine, like waking up with coffee, reading the newspaper or using the phone. it’s important to have a computer in one’s home so that everyday use of the internet can become part of the everyday routine, to be used at times when offices, libraries and on-site clcs are not open. by this time, the senior has crossed the digital divide and has “adopted” the internet as a working tool in their everyday lives. step seven – becoming a subscriber: the final step is for the senior to conclude that the internet has demonstrated its value so that the senior regards it as a priority expenditure in the budget, whether fully paid for by the senior, or paying the remainder of the cost after the application of subsidies through the universal service fund or the property budget. for seniors who can’t or won’t pay the subscription cost, there is always the option of using the on-site computer learning center and becoming an “active user,” like someone who prefers to use the public library rather than buying their own books. the overall program was directed to enabling seniors to see the value proposition. concluding comments at the time of this writing, the internet training program is almost fully implemented and the program evaluation is ongoing. the evaluation will lead to a full-length report that characterizes the program and describes its major successes. anecdotal evidence suggests that the participants “bond” with the trainer through the use of one-on-one interviews directed to the resident’s experiences and interests. the group discussions on internet applications and topics of general interest helped to promote understanding of the practical values of the internet. initially, the use of the internet was simply a way to gather information of interest to residents. but getting online quickly and communicating easily and cheaply with children, grandchildren and friends seems to make the whole exercise practical to the participants. references american recovery and reinvestment act of 2009, pub. l. no. 111-5, § 2, 104 stat. 328 (1991). compaine, b. m. (2001). the digital divide: facing a crisis or creating a myth? cambridge, massachusetts: mit press. pew commission, the (2011). the social life of health information. pew research center’s internet & american life project. washington, d.c. servon, l. (2002). bridging the digital divide: technology, community, and public policy. malden, ma: blackwell. united states bureau of the census (2011). adult computer and internet usesrs: select characteristics 2000-2010. u.s. census bureau, statistical abstract of the united states. * * * * don s. samuelson has 40 years of experience in the development, ownership, construction, marketing, management and redevelopment of all forms of government assisted housing for families and seniors – state finance agencies, hud and public housing authorities. this experience includes the development and management of on-site computer learning centers for residents of these facilities and people in the surrounding communities. he partnered with connected living® to develop the btop award that created the getting illinois low income seniors and people with disabilities online demonstration project and he serves as a consultant and evaluator to the project. he is a graduate of dartmouth university and the university of chicago law school and he served as a peace corps volunteer. jim ciesla, a health economist, is a professor in the public health and health education programs at northern illinois university. his area of scholarly interest is the outcomes of treatment and services for people in disadvantaged populations. he is the author of numerous refereed publications in this area. dr. ciesla has taught health economics and health care finance at niu for seventeen years. he earned his masters of health administration degree from tulane university, and his ph.d. in health economics and health services research from the university of south carolina. towards the internet as a global public good towards the internet as a global public good michael gurstein i think now that the smoke from wcit/dubai is starting to clear a little, perhaps it would be a good idea for some of the fog to lift as well. it seems to me that basic to some of the broad base of confusion(s) which seemingly were at play in dubai (and certainly were pervasive for those who weren’t there on the ground) is a fundamental (and to a very considerable degree–manufactured) confusion between “interests” and “values”. the quote (variously attributed to von clausewitz, palmerston and anon) that “states don’t have friends, they have interests”, probably should be updated in the context of a (facebook et al) broad redefinition of the nature of “friends”–to the phrase “states don’t have values, they have interests“.. to me, that pretty much sums up the posing and play acting that went on in dubai and particularly frames a useful (i.e. fog free) understanding of the outcome. clearly (to my mind at least) the us and others in the (internet) freedom league were promoting fairly specific commercial/national “interests” (security, trade, capital and revenue flows, profits, tax regimes etc.etc.) under the broad guise of internet freedom/hands off the internet. nothing particularly surprising about that (the obverse at least for me would have been the surprise). equally of course, the guys in the black hats on the other side were pursuing national “interests” –security, trade, capital and revenue flows, profits, tax regimes etc.–but as seen by and supportive of their team/errr side/errr coalition of the signers… nothing surprising about this either, and again one would be surprised if it wasn’t thus. however, what is surprising is the way in which the (internet) freedom league was able to frame the discussion (they have been reading their lakoff) so decisively as being one of (their) “good” values vs. the others “bad” interests! where this gets even more surprising and foggy is why the internet technical community and civil society by and large chose to take sides in this arena rather than siding for the internet (and the “values” that both, but particularly the technical community so vigourously and widely have been espousing). rather than for example, arguing for the internet as a global public good and for the development of arrangements and mechanisms to ensure the continuity and development of the internet in the global public interest, for whatever reason they (both the technical community and cs) chose to get lost in the fog of battle and accept the public declarations of the purity of the “values” of one side, over the rather inept, if somewhat more honest declarations of “interests” (in wcit outcomes and ultimately in the operation of the internet) by the other side. (the role of the itu in all this as a slightly disingenuous “honest broker” is to my mind largely beside the point in this follow on discussion.) but now that the smoke is clearing and hopefully for some at least, the fog is lifting there is now a very significant role for the technical community and cs (in their respective roles and hopefully as a united coalition of coalitions) to articulate and lead the fight for a vision of how the internet can function as a global public good (as opposed to a battlefield of multiple private interests) and what the governance structure (or process) for such a beast might look like. brief research report skyping with seniors: an academic, professional, and community collaboration between china and the us adrian kok dominican university (chicago, usa) ajkok@dom.edu kate williams university of illinois at urbana-champaign (usa) hui yan nankai university (tianjin, china)   introduction & method this report briefly describes a collaboration and discusses results and implications of a skype experiment conducted with seniors at the clark lindsey retirement village in urbana, illinois, and volunteers with the senior self-help cooperative in beijing in march 2011. the project was part of ongoing collaboration between the community informatics research lab at the university of illinois at urbana champaign, faculty at dominican university and nankai university, and two local organizations who were already using technology. our first research product was a quantitative comparison of our two countries’ national internet surveys (williams & yan, 2009); all three authors later presented research in two conferences in beijing (at coinfo 2010 and at peking university). with one of us (kok) a social work scholar focusing on older adults, and all of us interested in how to overcome digital inequality, the skype event was envisioned and embraced during a discussion at the beijing cooperative. thanks are due to dr. abdul alkalimat (also of u of illinois and the community informatics research lab) for proposing the idea as we talked with the senior self-help cooperative. after returning to the us and continuing planning with staff and volunteers at clark lindsey and the senior self help cooperative, a one-off cultural exchange on music, culture, and health took shape. the 60 minute program included introductions by both sides, song and dance by all the seniors in the us, folk songs by seniors in china, songs by the a senior choral group in the us, a tai chi demonstration by seniors in china, and finally a question and answer session involving both chinese and american seniors. a trial session assessed the sound quality and the logistics of the setup involved the activity directors of the two senior organizations, the researcher in china, and interpreters from the university. follow up included a photo essay written immediately by the china organization’s staff and a morning-after focus group in the us. the larger research program that links the three authors entails questions about how local communities can enter into the information society and thrive. there were three research goals: a) to determine the logistics and issues with enabling a successful skype setup; b) to assess the short term impact of one session on skype on seniors’ perception of and use of technology and c) to assess other unintended impacts. the research method used here was primarily involved observation, focus group, a short questionnaire administered after the focus group, and using the photo essay as field report. results & implications there were two major sets of logistics issues that needed to be considered – before and during the skype session. one of the issues that needed to be addressed prior to the skyping related to the appropriate time to have the session given the constraints of programming and time difference. the other related to the concerted communication effort by researchers to involve the chinese administrators to develop a program that suited the likes of both parties. the logistics issues that researchers need to consider include the technical setup of the audio visual elements which related to screen projection, lighting, sound and picture quality, size of the screen to enhance the interconnectedness among participants. the element of turn taking between parties for communication needed to be established prior to the start of the program and co-ordinated by a host from each of the participating parties. eye contact with among participants was crucial. the other logistics issue that was crucial was the support provided by effective translators on both sides. the session was enthusiastically attended by more than 80 seniors at clark lindsey and 14 at the senior self help cooperative. in illinois, they were amazed that they were able to interact with persons from china – a country whose culture, customs, history, and people interested people very much. the positive experience led many clark lindsey seniors to reminisce about their travel experiences to china years. many had specific questions about chinese family dynamics, one-child policy, and retirement ages and how the rapid growth and modernization had changed china and its people. many mentioned the interactions that they had with specific seniors on the china side during the question and answer session. the participants in the focus group were overwhelmingly very positive about their experiences and were interested in future skype sessions involving other cultures as well as more with china. they wanted smaller group discussions, repeat events, so as to form relationships with seniors in china. the technology, amazing at first, became invisible and “normal” as the event unfolded, even though it was a first for most. the focus group conversation emphasized cultural exchange and personal connection and almost excluded technological questions! on the china side, seniors had largely less contact with information technology and were likewise highly engaged by the experience with americans, spontaneously taking full ownership of the session and technology (mic, camera) as soon as they saw how the skype chat worked. at the end, the much larger american group did likewise, with an impromptu goodbye queue forming so that each person stopped at the webcam to wave and say a personal hello and goodbye. implications first, this experiment being entirely unfunded demonstrates that a lot can be done on a shoestring. technology was volunteered and improvised on both ends and worked perfectly. second, it is easy to be surprised by cultural differences. not until the session began did we see that senior means many things around the world. residents of clark lindsey are in their 80s; volunteers with the senior self-help cooperatives are in their 50s and 60s. although everyone actively bridged this without hesitation, it was in effect a generation gap on top of the cultural and language gap. retirement age in china was 50 until recently and is now 55; in the us it is 65 and going up. the cooperative organizes younger old people to help older old people in china who typically live at home, not in senior housing like clark lindsey. third, we affirmed that learning technology is a breeze when the lesson involves something that people love and want to do—with other people if at all possible. the informatics moments that we have reported on elsewhere (williams 2012) are moments when people seek help with a task they want and need to accomplish using technology. the technology is subordinated to the task, or the lesson falters. for example, bridging the digital divide by learning the mouse with a game of solitaire works better (for solitaire players) than any explanation or demonstration. most importantly for this short report, we affirmed that communities considered digitally divided—seniors in both our countries, particularly of middle to lower income in china—navigate the digital age with enthusiasm and skill. to bridge more digital divides, we must continue to rely on the creativity of communities that others may overlook. building and sustaining long-distance research communities such as we are doing will also help social science avoid being captive to any one culture or country, and this is part of the mission of the journal of community informatics. works cited williams, kate, and yan, hui. “toward global measurement of the information society: a u.s.-china comparison of national government surveys.” first monday [online] 14 no. 10 (2 october 2009) http://www.firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2576/2306 williams, kate. “informatics moments.” library quarterly 82, no. 1 (2012). open data what the citizens really want wolfgang both senate department for economics and technology, berlin this note outlines the approach taken by the department of economics and technology in the berlin city administration to crowd-source a list of priority datasets to make available as open data through an online voting process. the freeing of public data is a rather new approach, especially in the european continent. public practice has until recently often been conducted with official secrets and closed documentation. civil society's request for opening public data files confronts the public administration with unknown challenges. although most democratic countries have a "freedom of information act" (foi), this does not mean that they have simple procedures for transparency. official authorities still control access to information and maintain the power of interpretation. the german foi law gives the citizens the right to ask for special documents. but because a request for documents is seen as a private interest, applicants are asked to pay a fee in order to obtain the documents. in some fields such as environmental information, a special law permits free access to information about air pollution or water quality. but in other fields, information and data remains unavailable. public transport organisations, for example, are not willing to open their real time traffic data because of concerns about quality control or how the data might be used. citizen demand for types of data and information not covered by foi is growing. people are asking for more information about planning applications and building sites, noise pollution and other issues. responding to this demand, openness of datasets, distinct from foi processes can be a tool for more democracy and legitimacy of our political system. the department of economics and technology in the berlin city administration was interested to explore the potential of providing open data it services. could large amounts of public information be a basis for the state providing data-as-a-service to citizens? if so, what categories and datasets are people really interested in? berlin could adopt some of the dataset categories used in the data catalogues of cities such as london, paris or san francisco to berlin. but will people in berlin react to this categorization in the same way? will they look for the same datasets? therefore, instead of deciding what open data to focus on by replicating the focus taken in other cities, we asked people in berlin about their dataset priorities in an (anonymous) online vote: a kind of crowd-sourcing. online voting the online voting tool used was installed on the city platform berlin.de (www.berlin.de). those, who participated in the online voting procedure were not required to register and no facility for comments was provided. the voting site was locked with a barrier to ensure that only one vote came in from each ip-address. this was to prevent the same individual from voting multiple times. the vote was open from september 23rd till october 30th 2010. more than 1,300 voters participated. the voting consisted of three parts: a list of 20 categories of open data, a question soliciting general interest in open data, and a question about the activities the voter might carry out with open data. in the first section voters could select three categories of main interest out of the 20 available: indicating a first, second and third choice of priorities. the list included categories for: administration data, education data, health data and waste data, among others (see the full list in the appendix). these categories were selected based on the most used content of the berlin city portal website, and based on the structure of data catalogues of other cities. each category was described by three terms to outline the sorts of datasets that every category might contain. for example, pollution involved categories such as respirable dust, co2, pollen density. the second part asked voters if they would frequently read open data, and the third part asked the voters if they would work with the public data and edit them for other people. the second and third questions were taken from an open data survey conducted by sas deutschland (http://www.sas-navigator.de/content/dokumente/studien/e623/views624/) in june 2010, to allow us to compare our results with that survey. the sas survey studied general interest in open data in germany, but did not look at the detailed categories of datasets citizens may be interested in. the survey was performed by a professional demoscopic market researcher. the sas results are statistically representative of the german population. they found that 88 percent of the people are in favour of the opening of public data files. about 81 percent see open data as a chance for more participation. 69 percent said they would read the open data frequently. and only 16 percent saw any danger in the opening of public files: for example, privacy issues. the sas representative sample (sample size 1,018) was structured for four age groups: 18 29, 30 44, 45 59 and more than 60 years. this allowed the sas results to be disaggregated by age and by other demographics. berlin results after one week, we had about 1,000 votes and after two weeks about 1,100. by the end, there were 1,338 votes. not everybody selected three categories, but the odds-on favourites were clear. the results were stable after the first week of voting, i.e. new voters did not significantly alter the final ranking. figure 1: open data favourites the voters elected the "city planning" category with 11.9 percent as the top priority. second was "administration" with 10.3 percent, at the third place was "environment" with 7.8 percent. looking at the first, second and third choice voters made of their own priorities we find a good statistical distribution. the order of the list of datasets impacted on voters' choices, but giving voters three choices minimizes the impact of this. environment was first on the list of options and it had more first-choice votes than city planning which was at the end of the list. however, city planning got more third-choice votes. the voters appeared to give their first-choice votes to more known categories such as "administration" or "environment". it appears that later, when they checked the list in more detail, they found other interesting categories. it is here that we see "inspections" or "population statistics" getting significant second and third-choice votes. . figure 2: full result the total result gives an impression of the priority of datasets and highlights the more and less interesting categories for public data. the first five categories cover nearly 50 percent of the interest expressed. our second question asked if the users would read open data frequently. more than 92 percent answered "yes". this is much higher than in the sas representative sample of germany as a whole. the overall average in that survey was 69 percent. however, in the age group of 18 to 29 years the sas value was 79 percent, and among the highly educated demographic, this value reached 83 percent. we find the same pattern for the answer to question three "will you work with these data and edit them for other people?" our voting exercise received 52.9 percent positive answers. again, this is much higher than the average in the sas survey which had 26 percent positive responses. but it is closer to their age group 18-29 with 42 percent positive feedback. this suggests that the profile of our voters may have had some bias. setting priorities and looking ahead with this online voting tool, we got advice about which public files to open first. this procedure gave an impression of the more and less interesting categories, ranging from "administration" to "waste", for priorities in freeing public datasets. five categories cover nearly 50 percent of the voters' interest. but the voters are not typical for the average population. a comparison with a representative survey in the same field shows, that we received votes from a young and highly educated internet user group. this has to be considered when freeing public data files for all citizens. however, crowd-sourcing priorities is still a great chance to engage interested user groups, both with the voting for data categories and in their use. this is a modern contribution to develop our democratic systems in europe. in practice, response to the online vote has helped us to start with datasets of public interest. the first datasets on "geography and city planning" or "environment" are available now as machine-readable data. we have also focussed on harvesting "low hanging fruits" i.e., simple datasets with free licences and limited complexity. starting with such datasets brings early success to support the development of our open data portal: http://daten.berlin.de. in the next step, we can analyze the monthly user statistics of the data portal in order to extend the content and categories and to match user needs uncovered through web analytics. the first applications based on berlin datasets are now available via different online application stores. appendix list of categories: environment, pollution (respirable dust, co2, pollen density) city markets (weekend, flea, christmas) events (concerts, long night of the museums, the sciences, the industries, sport events, etc.) recycling+waste (special waste, buyback centre, glas container) infrastructure (cycling roads, facilities, public telephones) traffic (building sites, closed roads) public transport (cancellations, delays) opening hours (libraries, museums, exhibitions) administration (office, forms, opening hours) consumer counseling family (kindergarden, parents money) education (schools, universities, adult education centre) living (house index, rent index, housing allowance) health (hospitals, pharmacy, blood spending, emergency service) pets (veterinary, animal shelter, animal keeping) inspections/control (water, products, food, kitchen, hygiene) law (laws, consultation, mediation) crime (crime map, recent cases, search) city planning (building sites, planning, airport) population statistics (demography, employment, buying power) visualizing qualitative spatial data to understand social epidemiology in public health william r. buckingham introduction this research focuses on the application and conceptualization of on form new spatial media (nsm) (crampton 2010). drawing on ideas from participatory mapping (ghose and huxhold 2001; ghose 2003; elwood 2006; sieber 2006; goodchild 2007) and its related sub-fields, this work describes a new web delivered spatial framework, both in technical design and in a discussion of the implementation with public participants. building on the connections that exist between health and place, this paper will look to connect two distinct literatures, that of qualitative and participatory gis, and health geography to produce a new model to collect both narratives and explicit locations from participants in order to characterize the complexities of peoples' understandings and interactions with place. by coupling with commonly used tools such as deprivation scores, the capture of qualitative data through a new spatial media (nsm) portal can complement and refine the place-based understandings of the public health officials and researchers. ultimately, the research builds on the linkages created between these bodies of literature to create a system to capture the context of deprivation and to build and test the potential for new spatial media in order to contribute to a transdisciplinary body of knowledge. to accomplish these objectives, this study describes the development of one implementation of nsm. this development includes not only the design of the system, but a small case study to demonstrate the potential to capture data about place, social equity-inequities around access to resources--and public health. this paper begins by evaluating literature from social epidemiology and geography about health and place-based research as well as a brief discussion of the background of participatory mapping that underpins the nsm development. following the literature review, a technical description of the design of the new spatial media system will be provided. following the technical framework, a description of the implementation of the system along with discussion of some of the findings obtained through a limited case study where the system was deployed is presented. finally, a brief discussion of the transdisciplinary potential of the nsm system and the conclusions of this research path will be briefly touched upon. connecting health and place the connection of health and geographic location has foundations in the ideas postulated by snow in the 1800's that geography and society have a role in disease. in particular, the literature emanating from the field of social epidemiology is pertinent. probably the leading proponent of this set of ideas within epidemiology is nancy krieger of harvard university. krieger's work on geo-coding health disparities has been invaluable in epidemiology (krieger, waterman et al. 2002; krieger, waterman et al. 2002; krieger, chen et al. 2003; krieger, chen et al. 2003; krieger, chen et al. 2005; krieger 2009). combining area-based socioeconomic measures (absms) to better understand the societal impacts of disease, krieger's public health disparities geo-coding project, has identified absms that are useful predictors of health outcomes, and has demonstrated the potential of geo-referenced data to better understand and evaluate epidemiologic phenomena (krieger 2009). however, despite krieger's successful adoption of geo-coding and gis, her work has remained firmly in the domain of quantitative analysis, neglecting to realize the potential of incorporating qualitative place-based information to further the understanding of the social framework contributing to the question at hand. despite these criticisms, kreiger's work is innovative because she explicitly focuses on understanding geography to aid epidemiology while at the same time staying aware of the potential and the pitfalls surrounding the use of gis (geographic information systems) in these analyses (krieger, waterman et al. 2002; krieger, chen et al. 2003; krieger, chen et al. 2005; krieger 2009). others in social epidemiology highlight the need to incorporate non-traditional data. 'macintyre and ellaway' are a prime example of this. they highlight factors that might influence health (employment, education, transportation, housing, retail, recreation, "incivilities", policing, land use, health services, environmental hazards, social networks and social cohesion, cultural norms and values, geology, climate) (macintyre and ellaway 2003). they also describe environments that contain both health promoting and health detracting components 1. physical features of the environment shared by all residents. 2. availability of healthy environments at home, work and play. 3. services provided to support people in their daily lives. 4. sociocultural features of a locality (including degree of community integration). 5. reputation of an area (perception by residents, service or amenity planners, and investors). furthermore, questions about whether the poor health of people living in deprived areas is due to the genetic characteristics of the residents or a result of features of the local environment are asked. in this literature, it is postulated that people with more educational and financial resources may range over wider territories for a number of activities (i.e. recreation, employment, educations, retail) than do people with a more local orientation or less money. yet, throughout their work they do not specifically address space and place. rather, they leave these as unspoken concepts contained within small area aggregated data. as social epidemiology has focused on the spatial inequity of the landscape, numerous relationships between geography and health have been articulated. patricia o'campo and her colleagues (o'campo, xue et al. 1997) found that per capita crime is positively correlated with low maternal education and low birth weight. additionally, low wealth and high unemployment are negatively correlated with prenatal care access. o'campo also posits that poor birth outcomes are more prevalent in areas with a high degree of social integration and low informal social control. in other words, people or groups with strong internal social links but wider social isolation have worse health outcomes. this relationship between social isolation and internal social cohesion has been found to have a negative affect on health by others as well (shaw, dorling et al. 1998; stansfeld 1998) and is informative to the research attempting to conceptualize how to spatially capture social isolation on a map. geographic correlations between crime and poor birth outcomes is also highlighted by sampson (2003). sampson's work found that more than 75% of tracts with high homicide rates also contained a high level of clustering for low birth weight and infant mortality. these connections indicates geographic "hot spots" that are likely to exist for a number of unhealthy outcomes beyond just poor birth outcomes (sampson 2003). sampson postulated that low social capital (trust, reciprocity and voluntary associations) equates to greater risk of poor self-rated health. sampson argues that the challenge is to integrate multilevel methods from epidemiology with complex spatial processes (e.g. spatial relationship between crime and health), articulating the need for multilevel methods for contextually based research. both sampson and o'campo et al make a clear case for the social drivers of birth outcomes. however the lack of qualitative context is notable and is an area where geographically framed qualitative data can be useful to further develop the context in which these outcomes exist, and therefore, as this study proposes, allow researchers to construct a more robust frame of study to capture the drivers of a shifting infant mortality rate. social epidemiologic research has also spent considerable resources characterizing deprivation at small areal units (kirby, coyle et al. 2001; sampson 2003; martens, derksen et al. 2004; messer, laraia et al. 2006). sampson states that deprivation appears to be adequately assessed by personal and household circumstances (i.e. household income or household "family" structure). area-based measures of deprivation are not optimal substitutes, though they are often an accessible means to understand the social makeup of small areas. to improve on area-based measures, health policy needs to target people as well as places (1473-74) essentially making the case for qualitative data in addition to the aggregated quantitative place-based data. prominent examples of deprivation indices include messer et al, the scottish index of multiple deprivation (simd), krieger (2003), kirby et al 2001 and marten's et al 2004. in all of these cases relevant census data served as the main driver, though by basing an index on national census characteristics the potential for replication may be limited to the country of origin a good example being the simd. each of these indices is limited to the areal unit, with extensions to the personal level lacking and requiring further development. supplementing areal-based measures with local qualitative data can provide a deeper understanding of the social context of both place and conditions. one way to make this leap is through developments in participatory forms of cartography and geographic information. the roots of participatory mapping participatory mapping is a methodology that can aid in understanding the lived landscape from the perspectives of the residents (al-kodmany 2000; ghose 2003; elwood 2006). in particular, participatory mapping can provide new insights into the landscapes of health in a location. participatory mapping is a precursor to the idea of new spatial media postulated in this paper, which is the culmination of years of effort to democratize mapping for a larger public. while these research efforts have been largely present following an important meeting of gis practitioners and social theorists at the friday harbor wa conference in 1992 (sheppard 1995), it might be argued that this effort rather began in the late 1960's with the work of bill bunge and the detroit geographical expedition and institute (dgei) (horvath 1971). through the dgei, bunge sought to not only provide his students the tools to map their community, but also to arm them with the knowledge necessary to explain the representation being constructed. criticisms of bunge's work are similar to those that can be leveled against much of the ppgis (public participation geographic information systems) literature a high technical barrier to entry, limited community engagement (in numbers) and limited longevity beyond the researcher's presence (though in this case due to job loss rather than disinterest). current ppgis efforts are aided considerably through the use of desktop gis and more recently through web mapping technologies. at the same time, the low tech methods of bunge's day also created accessibilities that ppgis efforts have struggled to replicate. scribes and paper are easier to come by than computers with the requisite components to effectively run a gis. the technological barrier to entry in the dgei model is quite low and to date, has not been replicated in the ppgis literature. by building on the recent ideas of new media, this current work attempts to return to bunge's vision of participatory mapping, with an explicit focus on mapping aspects of context around health and place through the construction of an online new spatial media mapping system. the development of new spatial media another area that is brought to bear on the proposed new spatial media is work in qualitative gis. both kwan and ding (2008), jung (2009) and jung and elwood (2010) have described work that relates most closely with the system created here-geographic systems that connect qualitative representations with spatial data capture and analysis . kwan and ding's "geo-narrative" is connected to matthew's et al (2005) and hagerstrand's (1970) time geography by linking time and space in a gis framework to understand the qualitative landscape of lived experience. specifically, kwan and ding focus on the qualitative method of narrative analysis a mode of study which analyzes the stories of people's lived experiences around a major event at a specific point in time (clandinin and connelly 2000; chase 2005). building off the ideas of visual methodologies from gillian rose (2001), kwan and ding developed a plug-in for arcgis (esri, 2011) that facilitates the visual interrogation of narratives. using a space-time coding scheme, events from the narrative were coded for both location and time. once coded, a 3-d space-time diagram was constructed allowing for visualization of the lived experience and the interpretation of that experience by the researcher. ultimately kwan and ding's work is an extension of previous work by kwan (2000) merging the ideas of space-time paths and qualitative analysis in gis. jung (2009) and jung and elwood (2010) take a slightly different approach to the problem of incorporating qualitative data into a spatial framework. jung and elwood build links between traditional caqdas (computer aided qualitative data analysis software) and gis, rather than building new modules within a gis to support qualitative data (matthews et al 2005, kwan and ding 2008). while jung and elwood's work (jung 2009, jung and elwood 2010) demonstrates a powerful means of integrating off-the-shelf gis and qualitative analysis software, the barrier to entry is still quite high. by using commercial gis and caqdas software packages, the tools don't ameliorate the steep learning curves that can be prohibitive to quick and simple analysis of qualitative spatial data and to non-expert users who don't have the expertise to adopt these technologies for their analytical aims. by removing the expert context surrounding these packages the bar to entry is reduced and users are able to quickly visualize and analyze their datasets without the cumbersome loading of large software packages. the consequence is obviously that the magnitude of analytical capabilities is far reduced, but maintaining all of the qualitative spatial data in a spatially enabled database allows a migration to a more sophisticated suite of analysis software that can provide the desired analytical packages. ultimately, however, crampton's (2010) idea of new spatial media appears to present a framework that best fits this overarching lineage and diversity of applications. devoid of a formalized definition, new spatial media corresponds to the broad definition of geoweb an idea of web 2.0 as a diverse and ultimately participatory (started and contributed) framework for the construction and use of spatial information. crampton's description of new spatial media encompasses volunteered geographic information, neo-geography (turner 2006), and digiplace (zook and graham 2007)-all current forms of internet-based map and data coalescence. however, all of these labels have too narrowly defined their territory to be properly situated as an overarching descriptor for this phenomena. nsm does not suffer a limiting definition because it is without prior definition. crampton has coined the term and yet he has made no attempt to provide the idea with a formal definition. without a strict definition, the space can be freely navigated, keeping in mind that any nsm framework should posses some basic characteristics: 1) it should be people-powered, 2) it should be open to many or all people, 3) it should reside either on the web, through mobile devices or both. nsm offers the potential to return the entire field of participatory gis to the open and accessible ideas that bunge first used in with his colleagues in the dgei. the combination of ideas from bunge and participatory mapping and crampton's concept of new spatial media have driven the development of a new system to capture qualitative geographies specifically to understand health and place through digital methods. an implementation of new spatial media new spatial media, as conceived below, involves designing and building a framework for collecting, consuming, visualizing and analyzing qualitative spatial data that can in turn be implemented using new spatial media technologies. this paper will focus on the collection and consumption of data in a partnership between public health and the public at large, especially low income and minority residents. construction of the new spatial media system. previous attempts to link qualitative data, maps and analysis have focused on integrating powerful caqdas software within a geographic framework, either through linkages or through customized application connections (kwan and ding 2008; jung and elwood 2010). this work takes a different approach. recognizing the depth of qualitative software capabilities, and the high barrier to entry into use, this work seeks to re-imagine qualitative software for a simple and focused geographic analysis. this is not to argue that the method developed is superior to the previously reviewed works, but rather to suggest that this work takes a different approach one that is accessible to a wider audience, both for entry and analysis of data. figure 1 represents a visual interpretation of the interconnected components of the nsm system developed in this work. the subsequent sections will describe the technical and conceptual details of each of the components shown in figure 1. figure 1 conceptual diagram of the interrelated parts of the constructed nsm system database and hardware structure for nsm as implemented, the nsm system shown in figure 1 lives on the world wide web. however, from a technical standpoint, the system is supported through a more traditional hardware and software model a model that unfortunately still requires significant overhead both in terms of startup and maintenance. this is acknowledged as a drawback in the setup as it is currently conceived, though the development of cloud-based database and hosting capabilities through services such as amazon.com and others provides a potential for near term improvement of this flaw in the system. the base hardware requirement is an internet enabled server setup. there are no minimum hardware requirements beyond the ability to support postgresql with a minimum of three gigabytes of storage space. the postgresql documentation does not offer specific technical requirements beyond a "modern server" (postgresql 2011). for the purposes of this work, the application and database domain is housed on a windows 2008 server virtual installation, behind a firewall housed in the department of community and environmental sociology computing cooperative. the system is installed to include a basic internet address of http://vgi.apl.wisc.edu. due to the length of the web address for the specific applications, the link shortener bit.ly was used to significantly reduce the character length of the address and to also make the web address easier for participants to remember. the applications postgresql, postgis and openlayers are loaded on the server to support the web application, data collection and visualization. postgresql provides the relational database to store submitted data, as well as to serve the data to the visualization and coding applications. postgis is a plug-in for postgresql that enables the base database to store and serve spatial information. through the deployment of postgis, geographic shapes can be loaded into the database through the data entry application and the database can link the spatial coordinates and type (point, line or polygon) of the feature for later viewing. further this spatial linkage allows the submitted data to be re-presented for subsequent attribution through the coding interface. the final server-side component is the web-based mapping application openlayers which provides the user with a javascript implementation to load standard internet maps based on one of the major providers of spatial map data (open street map, google, bing, yahoo) as well a custom cartographic input provided through a web mapping service (wms) that is published and available online. for this application, the base data chosen comes from microsoft's bing maps service. through informal observation of users of internet-based maps, it was noticed that the users expected the maps to behave in a manner similar to applications like google maps, bing maps and yahoo maps-meaning the slippy map nature with tiled base data. openlayers allows for this type of map interaction, while at the same time providing opportunities to develop new tools to enhance the beyond the pre-packaged capabilities provided by the map provider. hence, the openlayers user experience is visually similar to what a user expects from a mapping application, with a minor difference in layer management and zoom bar design that can visually cue the user that the system is outside of the standard framework with which they are familiar. nsm data entry the primary mode of public engagement with the research process occurs in the data entry module. located in figure 1 box 1 the data entry module provides the users with a question prompt and the means to answer the question. this application is a combination of multiple files from the web server providing the framework to combine into the web-based presentation. the application is fully customizable, providing the ability to adapt the questions and spatial character of the questions to tailor new questions and responses. stored within a json document (javascript object notation) the question is provided in clear text and the type of expected response can be defined in this same document through a simple declaration of answer type. this clear text customization is a deliberate attempt to enable the system to be adaptable to any desired study framework. this provides an opportunity for the application to exist beyond the application in this study, in a simple, useful format for any imagined spatial survey questionnaire. linked with the json question definition is a php (hypertext preprocessor) document that provides translation of the data input in the webpage for storage in the postgresql database. this translation is a requirement to ensure that the responses from the participants are formatted correctly, enabling the database to properly store and subsequently re-present these data in later modules. through the php document, the data entry application is dynamic, allowing for each user to offer as many answers as needed to a question with the php code instructing the database to produce new columns automatically in order to accommodate the novel answer form. figure 2 figure 2 shows the web-based standard form for the data collection module. the question at the bottom may consist of multiple elements free-form answer, multiple choice answer, spatial representation or a combination thereof. the combination of these multiple forms enables each data point to be linked with a spatial representation despite these forms appearing as distinct during the interview process. through the json document mentioned earlier, the questions can be adapted throughout the course of the research to focus on particular themes as they emerge. further, the data entry application allows for a free-form entry of data in a final component. this free-form data entry is akin to the social mapping ideas postulated by bunge in the late 1960's. outside of the realm of the structured interview process described for the data entry portion, this component enables the public user to own the application and tailor the response to a feature or event in which they are particularly interested, even if it exists outside of the structured interview. for example, a resident engaged with the survey could use this free form response to highlight an area of interest that they wish to share with other community members who might use this application. it is this free-form idea that allows the community to take ownership of the application for purposes beyond the structured survey. this free-form entry was created for two reasons. first, it provides the public with greater ownership of the process and allows them to adapt this system to be potentially more useful to the general public than just a structured set of interview responses. second, these free form entries can contextualize the structured responses during analysis and allow a richer understanding of the spatial character of the study to emerge. nsm public viewing situated in figure 1 box 3, the public viewing interface is a unique component of this method that is outside the framework of many of the qualitative and participatory gis applications described in chapter 2. the nsm public viewing interface allows the participants to directly view the responses to the structured query. designed as a simple internet map viewer, the participant data is loaded into the map and the user is afforded the opportunity to click on the shape and view the content connected to the specific shape. while the visualization interface is also accessible to the public if enabled by the researcher (in this study the application address was provided to the public), the public viewing portion ensures that the submitted data remains accessible by the community for further use outside of the current study. it is hypothesized that the free form entry portion of the data collection module will prove to be the most fruitful data in this application. however, by providing all submitted data it allows the community participants to own their responses and gain value from the research process. from an ethical perspective the greatest challenge to this public viewing application is the protection of privacy for both users and non-users of the system. during this work, the community stakeholders who partnered to provide space and access to the community were asked to serve as moderators to the public viewing portal. these moderators were provided with the power to review submissions and remove potentially offensive or dangerous posts before approval for public viewing. despite stated desires to ensure that all data would be provided to the public users through this application, from a legal and privacy lens, this was untenable. therefore, a moderation scheme was enacted. in subsequent iterations of this framework, a "flagging" method for offensive content will be implemented, bringing the entire framework into line with the principles of a "wiki" (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/terms_of_use). the ramifications of this type of gated access is beyond the purview of this study, but warrants greater discussion. implementing the system: using new spatial media to capture information about public health and social equity a case study the rapid growth of location based services, in the form of twitter (with geo-location activated), gowalla, foursquare, facebook, google+ and others, is an exciting development for public health surveillance efforts. many of these technologies have been widely embraced by a demographic that is difficult for public health officials to survey that is, 18-35 year olds. however, these means to monitor this particular age group does not necessarily provide information about the broader population especially those with low incomes or the elderly. to attempt to include these populations, the system described above was implemented and a transdisciplinary effort was undertaken to utilize the nsm system to develop an understanding of the potential of geographic qualitative information to both enhance public health outreach efforts, but also to provide a reusable tool to the public for continued use for efforts beyond those purely driven by public health officials. in order to deploy the nsm system described earlier it was critical to target specific populations. to select areas for deployment, a deprivation index was calculated to determine areas of greatest need. this index was created following the work of lynne messer and her colleagues in constructing a standardized deprivation index (messer, laraia et al. 2006). to construct the index, principal components analysis was performed using data from the 2000 united states census for the geographic area of dane county, wisconsin, usa. the results of this analysis are presented in figure 3. the targeted areas of interest are identified in the circles labeled a and b. circle a represents the highest deprivation score not only in the county but in the entire state of wisconsin occurring at the holt commons in the lakeshore area of the university of wisconsin-madison campus. in contrast, circle b the kennedy heights neighborhood is in the second quintile of deprivation. though not in the highest deprivation quintile, the kennedy heights neighborhood is an area of transition that can be masked by the unit of analysis required by the quantitative deprivation index. the implemented survey attempted to understand the potential of using community-based participatory mappings to enhance the deprivation index by obtaining local context that the deprivation index could not provide. figure 3 to conduct the survey, contacts were made with viable testing locations and partners in the three geographic locations. once these contacts were established a data collection session was negotiated. residents in each location were invited via posters placed in public locations to take part in a survey about their health and their neighborhood and they were offered the sum of $10 for completing the survey. before commencing, residents were asked to read and sign a statement of informed consent required by the uw-madison social sciences institutional review board. once signed, participants were given a brief set of instructions to orient themselves with the system and then they could take the survey at their own pace. the participants in each location were recruited on a first-come, first-served basis. no formal sampling techniques were used to invite participants. at holt commons, 34 undergraduate students elected to participate, all between the ages of 19 and 21. in conjunction with a tuesday evening food pantry, 26 participants were recruited at kennedy heights, with a demographic of 20 percent white, 30 percent black and 50 percent hmong (an asian ethnicity), ranging in age from 20 to 58. at the urban league, participants were recruited as they entered the urban league building to take the survey in the modern computing lab. participants here resided in areas across the city with a racial breakdown of 30% white and 70% black, all between the ages of 27 and 54. the entire sample was self-selecting which may have resulted in sampling bias as those who were not comfortable with technology may have chosen not to participate. the survey itself asked residents to contribute locations in the form of polygons (for areal questions) and points (for questions where a single location would suffice) along with written descriptions that corresponded to the submitted points. questions included asking participants to draw their neighborhood boundaries on the map: to provide locations and descriptions of negative events and areas: to describe positive aspects of the neighborhood and provide locations of where these aspects exist: as well as other questions about access to healthcare, healthy food, recreation and others. additionally, the residents were encouraged to take the url and continue to use the survey outside of the testing site. a second interface for viewing the submitted data gave residents the option to continue use. unfortunately, at the time of writing, this viewing site has been largely unused. the initial survey question asked residents to delineate their "neighborhood". it had been hypothesized that this initial question would illustrate dramatic differences in access to refute the deprivation scores (which we empirically know to be flawed with respect to the holt commons community). however, when comparing the results of the survey from kennedy heights with holt commons some surprising results were discovered. the size of the neighborhood polygons contributed for area b were less than half the size of the polygons contributed in area a. during the transdisciplinary analysis, the public health officials involved felt that this result indicated that social isolation existed in the kennedy heights neighborhood of which they were not previously aware. the community team quickly decided that further outreach was required to support this neighborhood. in light of these findings, the literature on neighborhood definition may offer some explanations. chaskin (1997) states that neighborhood is a spatial construction where the residents share both proximity and the circumstances that come with it. choldon (1984) goes further and defines neighborhood as a sub-community. both of these definitions appear to provide reasonable explanation for the findings in these areas, as both populations are unique in either age or race/ethnicity after the respondents provided their neighborhood, they were then asked about topics ranging from safety, to access to food and healthcare as well as positive aspects of their neighborhoods. despite defining neighborhood in the initial question, the fluid nature of the definition was demonstrated as locations outside of the defined neighborhood were often provided during subsequent questioning. the contributed responses yielded some unexpected connections between place and health. safety, drugs and fights were acknowledged stressors by participants in kennedy heights, along with comments about gangs as a safety issue as well. in contrast, the holt commons population failed to mention safety as a concern in over half of the responses. when safety was mentioned, lack of lighting was the focus with a secondary mention of an attempted assault that occurred earlier in the year. the geographic component of these safety events were all tightly clustered with the neighborhood polygons indicating a close relationship between the neighborhood and places where safety was an issue. when discussing access to food, the kennedy heights respondents mentioned good food in greater volume than the other sites. this is an interesting finding in light of a lack of adequate grocery options on the north side of madison. however, the respondents were all attending a food bank that was providing many types of vegetables, along with other healthy food options, which was directly mentioned in the contributed text as a health benefit. in contrast, the holt commons population mentioned good food and unhealthy food in a number of responses the term good not necessarily referring to healthy. by soliciting responses in conjunction with a food bank the responses in kennedy heights may be been skewed resulting in respondents mentioning "good food" more frequently than they would have in a alternate setting. this type of bias is important to consider in each of the questions confounding the analysis of both the answers and the comparisons between areas. as a geographer, it appeared prudent to focus on expanding the geographic context beyond simply a numeric framework of the deprivation index to ensure that social equity concerns could be targeted effectively. transdisciplinary partnerships make sense as the best path forward to implement this type of framework. the content described above is only a portion of the larger data collection, but it illustrates the first steps in this type of partnership. the questions in the survey were designed in conjunction with a public health community expert to both evaluate the potential to capture qualitative spatial data about community, healthcare, access and stress, and to construct context that could be used in subsequent studies. the transdisciplinary partnership model designing this study in a transdisciplinary manner was a learning effort for all parties. after the data gathering was completed, there was a realization that a process to facilitate transdisciplinary partnerships in this context would be beneficial. this partnership would begin at the stage of questionnaire design. this can be conceived of as a multi-stage effort or single-stage depending on the goals of the study. the implementation described above is a single stage effort to characterize the health landscape, but it was designed to offer potential, both in content and method, for further study. at the conclusion of the design of the questionnaire, the effort rests solely with the geographer who then implements the survey in the system. this involves working with a json document containing the survey structure to construct both the question, as well as the spatial data type that will be captured in each question. once the survey is constructed, the public input application is modified through the json document to ensure that the geographic footprint, as well as the center of the map captures the area of interest. these technical pieces do not require an expert in geography and computing technology, but can increase the efficiency of the study. once the survey is constructed, the partners in public health can take the online survey forward to the community of interest. this would involve either securing computing resources to take to the community or setting up sessions at community centers where online computing access is available. the long term presence of community teams from the city public health agency in these areas can create relationships that will make the study much more effective. further, these relationships will allow a more complex set of questions to be implemented. at this point the survey can either capture general contextual information as in the case study, or the survey can be motified to ask more involved questions about birth outcomes a target population of new mothers. the flexibility in the type and detail of the questions is illustrative of the flexibility inherent in this application. upon completion of the collection of the survey data by the public health team, the transdisciplinary group was reconvened. the resulting data were loaded into the coding module to begin the analytical coding these data. coding was conducted by both geography and health experts to provide multiple modes of understanding to be applied. once the data were coded the iterative process of visualizing the coded data and subsequently applying secondary codes and re-visualizing the data occurred. this process was used to construct hypotheses that about the nature of health in the three neighborhoods that were tested in subsequent analyses that are beyond the scope of this paper. each of these sets of data was constructed to allow these data to be exported to arcgis or r for statistical and spatial analysis exports that while offering more robust analytical tools were not utilized by the team at the time of this writing. once this process is complete, the team could construct further questions to implement in the system if the tool was considered to potentially yield deeper insights. at that point the cycle would begin anew. or the team could take the generated hypotheses and implement other means of inquiry or, more likely, a combination could occur. ultimately, the process could follow this course or only portions of this course to provide both contextual and substantive information that is necessary to support this type of public health inquiry. in terms of social equity, this type of qualitative geographic inquiry offers a new means of capturing and understanding the landscape of social equity outside of quantitative measures. currently, community-based teams from the health department in madison and dane county work directly with neighborhoods to implement programs and determine areas of need. the approach is decidedly low technology, consisting of paper surveys and no geographic understanding of the area or its spatial makeup. this type of participatory mapping framework, coupled with outreach efforts in a health department can increase the number of residents reached through efforts to encourage people to participate in this type of application. further, combining a survey mechanism with a simple online map for general input and publicizing this through both public health and community partners encourages residents to engage in an effort to not only aid public health monitoring, but also to support community organizing efforts of all kinds. conclusions this study demonstrates that a contextual picture can be painted to complement an area-based deprivation index a device commonly used in epidemiology (kirby, coyle et al. 2001; ahern, pickett et al. 2003; krieger, chen et al. 2003; rich-edwards, buka et al. 2003; reagan and salsberry 2005). given the broad potential, it is important that a sound implementation strategy is developed to ensure that the nsm system is set up in a manner that both supports in-depth research and encourages its use. in addition, the opportunity to capture residents' qualitative descriptions and geographic locations is a boon to understanding the differences in social equity between areas with similar or even inverted deprivation scores. bunge's invaluable work in the 1960's paved the way for community-based mapping efforts that focused on increasing social equity. however, the use of this type of methodology for these purposes has not been widespread. at the same time, public health officials have implemented a number of surveys largely about place without explicitly capturing place-based representations. this work demonstrates that place-based understanding of community can help to clarify the social context of place and its impact on health. quantitative indices of health determinants are powerful and useful research tools. however, in isolation these indices can both mask areas of health inequity and highlight areas that are not in need. on the other hand, these deficiencies can be accounted for using qualitative spatial data that is collaboratively collected through community participation,. in turn, the community use of new spatial media has the potential to empower residents to claim a stake in their own health representations, as well as reaping benefits for residents in enabling their use and understanding of these new forms of social interaction. when a nsm system similar to that described in this research is deployed, it offers the potential for transdisciplinary partnership and a richer body of knowledge. in turn, this combination can allow public health officials to better serve populations in greater need and can also extend an offer of collaboration and ownership of their own health presentation. references ahern, j., k. pickett, et al. 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"mapping digiplace: geocoded internet data and the representation of place." environment and planning b: planning and design 34: 466-482. community revenue collection system community revenue collection system guido sohne † this report from the field was prepared by guido sohne in 2003, and submitted for publication in the journal of community informatics before his untimely death. as both a tribute to his work and dedication to the field of community informatics, as well as a valuable resource for the community, the journal is honored to have the opportunity to share this paper. the editors. --------------table of contents • community revenue collection systems • why computerize? • potential market • problems of manual or centralized systems • fault tolerant technology • cost-effective mobile technology • scalability • benefits for government • increased collection efficiency • control of the collection process • efficient time utilization • minimal training required • future revenue streams? • the proposed solution • platform • features • custom software • basic solution • smartcard solution • long term prospects • implementation strategy • feasibility study • functional specification • prototype development • pilot project • implementation • upgrades • index community revenue collection systems copyright © 2003 guido sohne a proposal to implement a proposed community based revenue collection system that is suited for operation in environments with little or no infrastructure. permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this entire document without royalty provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. why computerize? for government to match in performance with the growth and expectations of its constituents, it must dramatically increase its fiscal depth without incurring costly recurring overheads. automated systems have been proven to be capable of introducing massive efficiencies to business processes that can result in increased revenue. applying technological solutions towards the strategic goals for government will be a key step towards transforming government into an entity that can keep abreast of the needs, requirements and expectations of today's modern world. the benefits of computerizing revenue collection are many but there are some aspects, detailed below, that are especially important to a computerized revenue collection system or otherwise appear to be unachievable using traditional solutions. potential market it is clear that there are many organizations that should be included in the collection system but for one reason or the other, have been able to avoid or evade paying taxes due to the assemblies. these organizations represent a significant potential source from which revenue can be generated. with the current manual system of revenue collection, it is not always clear when and where undercollection is taking place. when payments are missed or are collected late without penalty, cash flow is adversely affected, resulting in reduced or late revenue that can be reduced using an automated system. problems of manual or centralized systems a dramatic increase in the size of the current revenue base suggests practical problems mostly in additional overheads and resources required in scenarios where a manual or centralized system is to be utilized. problems such as high costs for collection, fraud, underpayment and leakages in revenue could be made worse by massively expanding the current taxable base without the use of adequate computerized solutions. the problems of tracking and identifying fraud or rogue revenue collectors are only compounded by the usage of manual or centralized systems due to the resources and overheads needed to monitor and control such problems. a decentralized, automated revenue collection system allows for increased and timely access to information that would otherwise take too much time and effort to generate from the available hard copy records. fault tolerant technology in order to be able to reach as many people as possible an automated revenue collection system must be able to function effectively in areas where there are no roads, electricity or telephone services without which the reach and adaptability of the system will be adversely affected resulting in reduced potential revenue. receipt related fraud can be effectively checked by automating all aspects of the cash collection process. this implies that there is a correlation between fraud control and fault tolerance because each aspect of the revenue collection that is not automated is a potential area in which fraud can occur by bypassing programmed checks and balances in the automated revenue collection system. an automated system should also be readily able to run on commonly available batteries and should be capable of surviving prolonged power outage or complete loss of power by recovering to a reasonable known working condition without loss of critical data when power is finally restored. cost-effective mobile technology mobility is central to the ability to collect additional revenue in the field. it is not necessary to have an expensive laptop or personal computer when automating a series of simple, well defined business processes in as cost-effective a manner as possible. the technology required to achieve mobility has historically come at premium pricing. with the broad adoption and dramatically increased unit shipments of cheap mobile computing devices, the cost of achieving mobility has come down drastically. with time, one can expect equivalent technology to become available at increasingly reduced price points, especially in cases where unit orders are in significant volumes. scalability these challenging requirements point to a low cost, decentralized, mobile computerized revenue collection system capable of handling a vast volume of data in environments with little or no infrastructure. scalability also determines the manner in which the system can be deployed, whether wholesale or piecemeal and has the potential to dramatically increase the total cost of the proposed system if it is not designed to be smoothly scaled both upwards and downwards. a well designed solution to these requirements will enable all the design goals to be achieved in a manner that can scale up to millions of people in order to be viable as a government class solution. benefits for government government can mobilize additional revenue by increasing collection efficiency as well as by expanding its revenue base. with increased reach and fiscal depth, the many challenges facing government can be addressed in some measure simply by having access to more financial resources. as such, the primary aim of computerized revenue collection must be to dramatically increase cash receipts in order to effectively sustain the utility and generate an acceptable return on investment related to the system. increased collection efficiency leakages that occur because of untimely collection, fraud and under-collection could be reduced by streamlining and automating the revenue collection process. penalties may be automatically applied to late payments. daily reporting of cash receipts and due payments to be collected should be automatically generated by the system. control of the collection process the process of revenue collection can be tightly controlled to avoid fraud, evasion and under-collection. daily reconcilations will have to be made for each collection officer. the system should be able to automatically remind the collection officer when payments are due and monitor the level of bad and doubtful payments presented by the collection officer, alerting supervisors to possible problems. fraud control can be enforced by ensuring the collection device ceases to operate if reconciliation is not performed for a specified time. further collection will be stopped and supervisors will be immediately alerted to recover the collection device and monies owed. efficient time utilization the revenue collection process must mitigate any delays in payments by factoring in the cost of the delay in payment. actual transactions should immediately alert the collection officer of amounts due, automatically recording actual spot collection amounts. late collections then become the problem of the payee instead of the revenue collecting organization. minimal training required little or no training should needed to utilize and interact with the revenue collection solution to avoid time consuming, costly and difficult bottlenecks in the collection process such as training of the payee or the collection officer. if training is necessary, it should be done by means of the collection device itself which should have a comprehensive reference as well as a tutorial for operations. future revenue streams? a number of additional services can be offered using the proposed solution. depending on the expertise and resources needed to implement a given additional service, joint ventures could be established between government and private sector to deliver various additional services. instant lottery with imaginative additional services extra revenue can be collected such as via an instant win lottery system that could double a small fixed amount. the payee could, for example, have a chance to double his money. a suitable probability for the chance to win would ensure that this will result in additional revenue for government and help capture a portion of the lucrative lottery market. public transport a bulk sum could be paid in advance on a periodic basis that will guarantee the payee to travel free of charge on public transport, encouraging the use of public transport services and making transportation expenditures by the payee more readily manageable due to using a prepaid system. health insurance individuals can make payments that will go towards subsidizing their health care costs by taking advantage of the fact that not everyone falls ill at the same time if they are able to make regular payments towards their health care. such an additional revenue stream would have to carefully considered and extensive consultation and partnership with insurance and health care professionals would be needed to ensure that the system would be workable. poll tax a small poll tax can result in massive additional revenue if it can be cheaply applied to many people. the overheads involved in collecting poll taxes can become very high due to the difficulty in reaching many people and determinining if they have duly paid their poll tax. making the poll tax more effective and less onerous would involve collection of small amounts on a frequent basis from many people. the proposed smartcard solution is designed around making such activity feasible in a cost effective manner. the proposed solution the proposed solution to computerize revenue collection combines the mobility and cost effectiveness of handheld computers with a plan to increase revenue collection by writing software to implement processes to be determined in functional specification after feasibility study has been undertaken. platform the proposed solution would utilize handheld computers as mobile databases that hold the information that is needed to conduct transactions and provide services. data will be stored on smart cards that will be presented by the person being processed by the revenue collector. due to the battery powered nature of handheld computers, the system will work where there is no electricity and where there is no telephone service until it needs to be recharged or if there are fresh batteries available. widely available handheld computers capable of meeting revenue collection needs can be purchased for as little as $100, implying that an increased depth of computerization for operations can be achieved with handheld computers when compared with traditional desktop computers costing in the region of $1000. features the principal strength of the proposed solution lies in the combination of the mandatory design goals tabulated below. minimal cost a computerized solution for revenue collection should cost as little as possible per person using the system. per person costs can be reduced by buying cheaper units, by buying fewer units or by sharing units between as many people as possible. mobility in order to share units between as many people and to make each unit capable of reaching and serving a larger market, units need to be extremely portable and capable of being shared between personnel from a pool of available units. robustness the ideal solution will incorporate features that will make reliable operation of the system possible in a tropical environment. this especially includes the software that runs on the system, which should be as reliable and foolproof as possible, surviving prolonged loss of power. infrastructure tolerant each unit of the solution must be able to withstand the loss or absence of certain key infrastructures such as electricity and telephone without impairing the ability of the personnel using that unit to collect revenue. battery powered ideal solutions will run on battery power, either using standard, disposable batteries bought off the shelf or rechargeable batteries that can be topped up when and where there is power available from a mains outlet. custom software the battery powered, highly mobile and infrastructure tolerant features of the handheld computer combined with the development of software that can effectively control, monitor and increase revenue collection activities will result in a robust system that can meet the requirements described in why computerize? while providing the desired benefits for government. the negative impact of inadequate or incomplete software that has not been expressly designed to accomodate the business processes of government could seriously impede the desired benefits for revenue collection. to avoid this, business process will be documented in a functional specification that will serve as a basis from which software will be developed to meet the design goals as well as conform to a functional specification. basic solution software written for the basic solution will be focused on enabling the operator of the device to record transactions in the field. periodically, data will be downloaded on the device for the purpose of making possible predetermined collection routes and set collection priorities and guidelines for operators of the device. data that has been collected will periodically be transferred to other systems for storage, analyis and reporting. the main advantage of the basic solution lies in the reduced cost of the equipment as compared to the smartcard solution. certain complexities with the smartcard solution such as the loss or destruction of smartcards are also avoided by the basic solution. smartcard solution the basic solution, unlike the smartcard solution, requires that data for transactions be preloaded onto the handheld computer. without accurate and sufficient data, a transaction will only be able to record new data instead of being additionally able to analyze previous transactions. such an approach is generally better suited for information collection activities rather than transactional activities. this disadvantage of the basic solution is worsened because data needs to be preloaded into a device with a small memory, and having access to less data limits the mobility advantage of using a handheld computer. the smartcard solution improves on the scalability, reach and scope of what is achievable using the basic system by guaranteeing access to complete historical data by storing it on a smartcard. having eliminating the need to preload data for transactions, any handheld computer should be capable of servicing any transaction. additional future modules, services or products could be added on to the smartcards by planning for the expansion of the system, primarily in the area of investing in smartcards with larger memories. with up to date and complete historical data available, late or missed revenue due could also be taken into account and factored into the payment due. analysis of the historical data can be used to influence an amount to be collected based on specific predetermined criteria. smart software can result in fewer potential loopholes in the system. since each transaction is recorded both in the smartcard and in the handheld device, the fault tolerance of the solution is also improved to the point where the loss of the handheld computer in the field does not mean that the data is completely lost. long term prospects in the near future such devices with equivalent capabilities will appear at lower price points that will facilitate wider implementation of the same concept, with the same software that works with the original mobile technology device given to the payee. implementation strategy feasibility study discussions need to be made with the various stakeholders to determine how the system should actually function and project how much additional revenue can be generated in various scenarios to assess the total costs and benefits. functional specification a technical specification based on results of the discussions will describe in detail how the system will operate. this specification will be used to document operational and technical objectives that the system will have to conform to in such a manner that an independent contractor would be able to supply an adequate solution given the information contained in the specification. prototype development a working prototype solution will be implemented in close collaboration with the various stakeholders with the goal of having a working system no matter how basic, right from the beginning that matures into a trusted, familiar and tested product. pilot project a limited number of the products will be tested in the field to ascertain whether the solution will be able to be adopted on a large scale. based on the feedback, it will be possible to determine whether such a system could be made to work on a large scale. implementation depending on the cost/benefit and availability of financing, a number of the products will be made operational and actual revenue collection will be able to commence. upgrades new software modules that represent additional products and services that will function with the payee mobile technology device will be periodically introduced on an as needed basis. no changes will be need to be made to the mobile technology devices and handheld devices except to load them with additional software, perhaps to transact with higher value, niche revenue streams. this process will be similar to repeating stages one to four for each additional product. index • battery powered: features • benefits for government: benefits for government • case for computerization: why computerize? • centralized systems: why computerize? • collection efficiency: increased collection efficiency • complete system: smartcard solution • controlling the collection process: control of the collection process • cost-effective mobile technology: why computerize? • custom software: custom software • decentralized systems: why computerize? • efficient time utilization: efficient time utilization • fault tolerance: why computerize? • feasibility study: feasibility study • features: features • functional specification: functional specification • future prospects: long term prospects • future revenue streams: future revenue streams? • handheld computers: platform • health insurance: future revenue streams? • infrastructure tolerant: features • instant lottery: future revenue streams? • limited deployment: pilot project • low cost: features • manual systems: why computerize? • massively scalable: why computerize? • minimal system: basic solution • mobility: features • outline of proposed solution: the proposed solution • pilot project: pilot project • poll tax: future revenue streams? • potential market: why computerize? • production system: implementation strategy • prototype system: prototype development • public transport: future revenue streams? • robustness: features • scalability: why computerize? • training: minimal training required • upgrading the system: upgrades • wide deployment: implementation community revenue collection system table of contents community revenue collection systems why computerize? potential market problems of manual or centralized systems fault tolerant technology cost-effective mobile technology scalability benefits for government increased collection efficiency control of the collection process efficient time utilization minimal training required future revenue streams? the proposed solution platform features custom software basic solution smartcard solution long term prospects implementation strategy feasibility study functional specification prototype development pilot project implementation upgrades index some observations on the practice of open data as opposed to its promise roland j. cole sagamore institute for policy research united states this note is a contribution to the continuing debates and analyses about what can and should be done to make public data open. in this note, i share some observations about current practices surrounding public data. in general, these observations lead to the insight that absolutely open public data is and will continue to be rare. instead, various types of data are apt to be more or less open, and the reasons for the degree of openness may vary from one situation to another, that is by type of data, by country, by type of institution, etc. observation #1: reluctance to share first, willingness of public agencies to provide datasets varies not just country by country, but agency by agency and government by government. the division i have read most about concerns the openness of city bus schedule data, in part because this is tracked for us transport agencies by an organization called city-go-round at http://www.citygoround.org. the city-go-round website includes a list of transport agencies and whether or not they provide open transit data. the site contains a good discussion of degrees of openness and displays examples of the various degrees of openness from different agencies. one of the transit agencies they track, the bay area rapid transit system (bart) in the bay area in california, is famous for their openness and their willingness to publicize applications built on their data by third parties. other transit agencies are famous for their willingness to sue entities that had the temerity to try use their data. for instance, railcorp, a new south wales state-owned train company threatened to sue an australian who had developed an iphone application that provided some of the railcorp timetables (see http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/03/06/train.app.sued/, viewed on february 8, 2012). why might a public agency be reluctant to share public data, such as city bus schedules? i have encountered six reasons, although there may be other reasons as well. homeland security: homeland security is a fear that the data will be misused for terrorist purposes for instance, using city bus schedules to plan a disruption on a city bus. this reason appears more often in conjunction with maps of critical infrastructure, such as gas pipelines or electrical transmission lines. legal constraints: these primarily take the form of privacy or intellectual property restrictions. privacy appears as a reason not to share when individual data is involved, such as names, birth dates and the like. although techniques for anonymizing or aggregating such data do exist, often agencies lack the resources or expertise to apply them. intellectual property (ip) restrictions stem in part from the concern that trade secrets or other confidential material will be disclosed. the confidences involved may be those of the government or an outside entity that submitted data. ip restrictions also stem from a concern that copyrighted material may be reproduced or distributed or otherwise used outside the scope of the rights that the government has. in the us, works created by federal government employees in the course of their employment are not subject to copyright, and the government usually obtains unlimited rights to final reports submitted to it, so those materials do not raise this concern. but that still leaves government-held material, such as proposals submitted to obtain government grants, which often contain proprietary material delivered for grant review purposes only, that cause concern. cost: although the agency may be required to gather such data for its own operations, it almost never arrives in a form that can be automatically made open. sometimes that data needs to be anonymized or aggregated to alleviate privacy concerns. other times, in order to make the data useful to outsiders, it needs to be re-formatted and placed in open data sources in specified formats, usually electronic. note that city-go-round, the transit data-tracking organization mentioned above, does not deem us transit data open unless it is available to outsiders in a specified electronic format. sometimes, the agency itself may not have the in-house capacity in terms of technological expertise and assistance to maintain their data in open formats, and they may not have the budget to outsource for such services. note that the costs of formatting for openness can be significant. in the 2011 round of us federal budget talks, one of the line items considered for elimination was the electronic government fund, the us governments effort to make more of its data open. the president initially proposed around $34 million for the electronic government fund, which pays for transparency projects such as data.gov, the us portal for many databases of public federal data. the final budget passed was $12.4 million, up from the $8 million that was proposed at one point. (http://www.ombwatch.org/node/11943, viewed february 8, 2012). revenue: the agency may be receiving revenue from providing its data on a less than open basis. i was part of a group that offered to place all of a particular us states statutes on an open website, available to everybody without charge for access and without restrictions on further reproduction and distribution. (in the us, state statutes are generally not copyrightable, although a particular collection and arrangement of them may be. for instance, some publishers provide not just the raw text of each statutory section, but citations to and short summaries of court cases that have discussed that particular section. the raw text can be made open by anyone, but the publisher-written case summaries are subject to copyright. in our case, at issue was the raw text.) the legislature of that state opposed us, because it was selling an electronic copy (of the raw text only) for $90,000. it would sell us the same copy, but the terms of sale would prohibit our turning around and making the contents available for free (as described above). in some other cases, the agency is not itself receiving revenue, but one or a few outside re-packagers of the data are doing so, and the agency or the key legislators for it may be receiving in-kind services (or other less legal considerations; or may have a political preference for private enterprise) that leads it to want to perpetuate the situation. for an example of in-kind services: one us publisher of court cases tries to correct any typos, misspellings, or grammatical errors in court opinions before publishing them, so the judges do not look bad. there is no requirement to do so, and a low-budget competitor may not bother, (or consider it tampering), so the court system may be less eager to cooperate with such low-budget competitors. power: the old adage knowledge is power extends to the modern definition of information as trade secret which has value because it is not generally known. even if the agency is not receiving revenue by keeping the data less than open, it may be receiving recognition, or other forms of power and influence, by controlling access to its data. ownership mentality: we live in the information age, where products in digital form, such as sound recordings, video recordings, software programs, and electronic databases have been used by their owners (not always their creators) to make large amounts of money, in large part because intellectual property laws (copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret) gave the owners rights to control their distribution and use. mike masnick of techdirt (http://www.techdirt.com) writes on this subject often. one of his most extreme examples, albeit not a digital product and not a government, involves an antique shop that felt it had a right to stop people from copying the designs of the products it sold, even though it had not created those designs, merely having bought and re-sold the products involved. (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110505/00331514160/antique-shop-takes-ownership-culture-to-new-level-sues-over-lamps-it-doesnt-own.shtml, viewed may 16, 2011). a similar reluctance to let others use our data, even when it costs us nothing and is not producing revenue or power for us, is sometimes behind a lack of open data from some sources. observation #2 degrees of openness some of the literature of open data seems to imply that data is either open or closed, where open is available for unlimited use without charge and everything else is closed. however, in reality, there are a range of positions on open data and openness, where the gamut expands from available for unlimited use without charge to highly classified, and a number of policies in between. i have already mentioned agencies that have exclusive or highly-selective arrangements, or high-cost prices. some agencies are under legal constraints to limit use of their data, or even access to it, by type of recipient. for instance us health and insurance agencies can only share medical data with entities who are themselves covered under the appropriate health information law generally providers and insurance firms. someone who wanted to develop an analytical tool to sell to hospitals and insurance agencies, but was itself a software firm, may not be allowed access to the health data. agencies that collect data from firms in a given industry may have constraints on both some individualized data (because it would reveal trade secrets) and some industry-wide data that could facilitate price coordination and other prohibited activities. a forest service agency, for instance, might be authorized to collect and publish data on lumber yields for various species of tree per square meter in various areas, but be prohibited from collecting and publishing the prices charged per board foot for various species. the point is that agencies can (and do) offer varying degrees of "openness," not just a binary choice between none and all. observation #3 sources of error different types of data have different levels of reliability and different sources of error. some errors are inadvertent, but others are purposeful -for instance, asking individuals to report their own behavior that is considered bad is not apt to produce accurate results, although clever questions by the data-gatherer, such as a media polling organization, may produce something more accurate. for instance, in a us congressional race several decades ago, a candidate had very outspoken views against certain minorities. almost no one would directly admit to favoring this candidate. however, the percentage of people who said that this candidate was equally qualified as her opponent, closely tracked the percentage of the vote she eventually received. in other words, asking will you vote for this person under-reported her eventual vote total; asking do you consider her as equally-qualified as her opponent closely tracked her vote total. similarly, vague or confusing questions may produce answers that are less accurate than would be produced by better questions, and inferior data-gathering methods, such as less precise thermometers, or less trained data gathering staff, or staff that cannot or will not work around their own preconceptions, may produce less reliable data than might have been obtained with better training and better instruments. these differences influence not only the value of each individual element, but the value of different types of analysis applied to the less-than-perfect dataset. for instance, some measures of central tendency, such as the median, are much less sensitive to outliers than the arithmetic mean. if the agency aggregates before opening, say to protect individual identities, the form of aggregation could be very sensitive to the type of data. to give a concrete example: the us federal communications commission does release data on the availability of broadband services (how many suppliers, what speeds, etc.) aggregated by zip code. however, each zip code represents a defined area for delivery of us mail, and may vary from a few hundred square feet to many square miles in size, and may have similar variations in population, from several hundred to many thousands. plus, the fcc deems an offering to a single site inside the zip code to be equivalent to an offer to each and every site within that zip code. by the time one gets to the level of an entire state, many of these differences average out, but for analyzing a sub-state region, many consider this form of aggregation extremely misleading. that is, using only one or two observations per zip code gives highly unreliable data about that zip code usually grossly over-estimating the values being gathered and using zip codes as the aggregating unit, when they vary so widely in both geographic size and human population, distorts both per-person and per-area statistics. even if the data is of known reliability, various analyses applied to it may not be. a classic case is the lessons drawn by opposing political parties from the same set of vote totals. my general answer is to let a thousand flowers bloom, so long as those flowers can include critiques of these analyses. observation #4 the resources divide even if the agency is perfectly even-handed in offering and delivering data, certain analyses of certain datasets may require enough funds or expertise that only a few are apt to even try. in those cases, open data may actually exacerbate gaps between haves and have-nots. the rich will be able to hire experts to help them use the data; the poor will not. i have heard anecdotes, although i do not have a citation, that successful real estate brokers use complex analyses of public land data to out-negotiate community groups that have access to the same data, but have neither the expertise nor the resources to hire expertise to perform similar analyses. the need for resources may occur at the data stage: you need computers to receive electronic data, for instance, and you need mechanisms for converting to electronic data if the agency only provides paper copies. the need for resources may occur at the analysis stage: some knowledge of statistics, computer programming, analytical models, etc. is often needed to make sense of data and to make judgments about what the agency has done to gather and present the data and about analyses performed by others. the need for resources may occur at the presentation stage: some knowledge of and access to graphics and other presentation elements may be crucial to making effective use of data and analysis for instance, an application for a smartphone has to be easy to use as well as clever in working with the public data. some attempts to have citizen involvement in community planning in the 1960s illustrate all three of these gaps. absentee landlords and others arguing with local citizens over various proposals for urban renewal always had more public data to analyze, much better analyses to present, and much better means of presentation. these inequalities were sustained until and unless the citizens groups gained access to comparable analytical resources, through volunteers or public funds. observation #5 practice accommodations the adage where theres a will, theres a way can be pertinent to understand the different ways access to data has been managed in the past. indeed, adopting varying degrees of openness is one of the ways that agencies and the users of their data reach accommodations in relation to the reluctance to share and concerns about different sources of error. here are some of the other accommodations i have observed: legal constraints: beyond the technical accommodations of anonymization and aggregation, sometimes the law is changed. hipaa, the health insurance portability and accountability act of 1996 (p.l. 104-191), did its accommodation by authorizing sharing among those agreeing to observe certain protocols regarding the security of the data to be exchanged. cost/revenue/power/ownership: these can be treated together because successful accommodations to them usually involved collaborations that share the expense and value from datasets. for instance, the data user might pay the agency some amount that would help offset costs and even provide some revenue for an agency, and would share credit and glory in ways that would reward the agency in political terms for participating. the result might not be as much net financial gain to government as an exclusive or extremely high-priced distribution, but would serve some of the non-revenue goals of the agency in ways that more limited distribution would not. note the frequent failure of collaborations between agencies and outside users that do not provide for some ongoing means of covering costs or that do not provide benefits to both sides. they usually fade away after an initial burst of enthusiasm. several cities, for instance, have conducted high-publicity contests for the best use of agency data that resulted in some very innovative and impressive applications. but those that required continuing activity by either the agency or the outsider soon faded away unless the project included some continuing stream of benefits to those that had to continue the activity whether the agency, the outsider, or both. (see russell nichols, do apps for democracy and other contests create sustainable applications dated july 11, 2010, viewed at http://www.govtech.com/e-government/do-apps-for-democracy-and-other.html on may 16, 2011). sources of error; the accommodations to this issue are not just technical, although appropriate statistical and analytical techniques do play a role. another form of accommodation is less limited distribution. if many different outsiders are working with the same data, the probability that differing perspectives will be applied goes up, increasing the probability that errors will be dealt with appropriately. although we can note that the probability never goes to one: we can all think of situations where everyone turned out to be wrong. resources divide: the agency (or others in all cases in this paragraph) can deal with the data level by providing, or working with others to provide, the data in some generally known electronic format. the agency can deal with the analysis level by providing examples of analysis, references to experts and information about analysis, and even giving grants for analytical activities (note that many agencies do in fact pay for numerous analyses of their data through grants and contracts to private parties). the agency can then deal with the presentation level in the same way as the analysis one by providing examples, references, and even resources for making presentation materials based on their data. thinking separately about the data, its analysis, and its presentation, can help the agency promote more equality of data use among the groups that would benefit themselves and the agency's service to the public by obtaining and using the data. conclusions in conclusion, we note the wide-ranging diversity that actual practices surrounding open data produce. even if there were one best way to produce and use open data, the various agencies and the outsiders working with them would fall short of the ideal in a multitude of different ways. if there are, as i suspect, many different best ways to produce and use open data, the multitude of ways in which open data gets produced and used and the results gets even larger. but i, for one, do not think the variation will decrease. we will continue to increase the amount of public data. we will continue to increase our ability to gather and make use of it through advances in hardware, software, scientific understanding, and the like. given the current world situation, our concerns about its misuse, its errors, and the unevenness of resources to exploit it will not decrease. therefore, i predict that we will continue to see varying degrees of openness around public data into the foreseeable future. socio-technical approach to community health: designing and developing a mobile care data application for home-based healthcare, in south africa retha de la harpe, hugo lotriet, dalenca pottas, mikko korpela 1. introduction the aim of this report is to describe the design and development considerations related to a mobile home-based healthcare application for care givers in a community in the western cape, south africa. in order to do this we first describe current practices of health care givers in the western cape in capturing and reporting the data of their patients in practice. although the overall aims of home-based healthcare are the same everywhere in the world, the context of a particular country is important because it determines how home-based healthcare is implemented in practice. in this instance the design and development of the mobile care data application were undertaken by a local university as part of a funded project to stimulate innovation by using informatics to address real needs in communities. the main question focused on in this report is: from a socio-technical perspective, what are the considerations for designing and developing a mobile application to facilitate the capturing and processing of patient data by care givers in a particular community? the supporting sub questions are: what are the contextual aspects that need to be considered for the introduction of m-health solutions? how did the university doing the development work engage with communities to ensure sufficient participation in specific projects? how did care givers participate in the design and development process of mobile solutions? how the mobile user interface was designed according to the care givers' preferences of using mobile phones? the study therefore centered on the interaction between the university and the care givers. for this study service design methods were used to determine the design considerations since these provide a mechanism to depict a service path and ways for understanding the different stakeholder experiences' of the service. only once it was understood how care givers interact with patient data, was it possible to design the mobile user interface. a socio-technical approach was adopted and the reasons for using this approach are discussed in the materials and methods section. the literature review in the next section provides context on home-based healthcare in general and more specifically in south africa. this is followed by a section on community engagement in general and how universities should engage with communities around innovation. the literature review is concluded with aspects of mobile health (mhealth) and how patient records have been used to identify all the issues that were important for this study. the remainder of the report is organized to explain the methods and materials, followed by the results and a discussion of the results. the report is concluded with what the results mean and with suggestions for further research. 2. related research the literature review highlights relevant considerations indicated by other studies for this research study. the main theoretical concepts for this study are the mobile care data application (mhealth), the user of this application (care giver) in the context of home-based healthcare for a specific community and design and development by university students as part of university-community engagement. the sub sections for this section are therefore home-based healthcare, community engagement, mhealth and patient records. 2.1 home-based healthcare home-based healthcare (hbhc) also referred to as home based care (hbc) is the provision of basic nursing care needs by trained or informal semi-trained caregivers to people in their own homes. this service is available to people who have mental, physical, emotional and social needs. hbhc is particularly relevant to third world countries whose public health systems and facilities cannot keep up with the growing needs of the population (who, 2004). the need for hbhc in south africa is enormously high due to hiv/aids, tb, cancer and other chronic illnesses. a large part of the population lives in rural areas cut off from services and infrastructure as well as overburdened public facilities substantiates the reason for hbhc as such an important aspect of primary health care in south africa. in south africa these services are provided by local non-profit, non-governmental organizations. the department of health of the government of the western cape province in south africa indicated their commitment in their annual performance plan 2011/2012 to manage the burden of disease with an improved integrated community health care service delivery to address the millennium development goals 4, 5 and 6. tanser et al. (2001) state that good health system management relies on informed decisions regarding resource allocation. decisions often occur in the absence of data that allow the pattern of resource allocation to be assessed. data collection and analysis are therefore of great importance to the improvement of health care services at an hbhc level of delivery. however, data recording in hbhc is problematic for many reasons such as caregivers in the communities' use of paper-based data recording, which is both time consuming to record and to process and the paper-based data being prone to getting lost or damaged by environmental factors like rain. electronic data collection is hampered because access to computers is very limited and computer literacy is scarce. mobile/cellular phones are however common, most ngo caregivers are required to own one for communication with supervisors. this opens up opportunities for the use of mobile devices for the collection of data. 2.2 community engagement by tertiary institutions although admittedly community engagement by health institutions in general is important, the primary engagement relationship that is of importance in this instance is the engagement by a university with the care workers in a community. therefore this section examines literature that relates to engagement by tertiary institutions. in poorer communities the position of the individual is never separate from the community to which the person belongs, e.g. care givers operating in groups and visiting patients/clients where often family members, friends or neighbors are present during the visit (van zyl, 2010). the condition of the individual, health or poverty related, becomes a collective problem where others in the community take up the responsibility of caring for those in need even if these persons themselves experience difficulties this became evident from the findings of an ethnographic study on home-based healthcare (van zyl, 2010). negative health-related impacts on the community include violence, substance abuse, sexual violence, early onset of sexual activity and teenage pregnancy (mosavel, et al., 2005).some positive aspects identified in their study are the joy and pride of individuals who are able to make a difference in others' lives and the strong support networks of friends and family. a community-based participatory research (cbpr) framework was developed by mosavel, et al. (2005:2578) to negotiate a mutual agenda between communities and researchers to ensure that the research is relevant to the communities. their framework incorporates the communities concerns and priorities while stressing the intersecting roles of poverty, violence and other cultural forces that impact the health and wellbeing of the community members. lavery et al. (2010) suggest that guidelines are required to deal with the role of communities for the evaluation of new technologies in global health for meaningful community engagement. the success of the proposed collaborative university-community network will depend on the stability of the network and this will be the case if more actors from both the university and community "join" the network because they want to align their interest to that of the network. 2.3 mobile health mobile health (mhealth) is a component of ehealth and to date no standardized definition of mhealth has been established. global observatory for ehealth (goe) defines mhealth as "medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, personal digital assistants (pdas), and other wireless devices" (who, 2011). the core utility of the mobile phone, voice and text messaging, can be used as well as more complex functionalities and applications including general packet radio service (gprs); third and fourth generation mobile telecommunications (3g and 4g systems); global positioning system (gps); and bluetooth technology. in 2011 there were an estimated 5.9 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide (international telecommunications union, 2011). in spite of the many benefits that mhealth could offer in healthcare, most mobile applications are still primarily in developmental and pilot use stages with many issues still not well understood (maglaveras, et al., 2002; & rice, 2009; lee et al., 2009; svanæs et al., 2008).there are therefore not yet extensively documented best practices that could guide the design and development of mobile applications and there are still many complexities associated with this type of technology that could influence the design, development and eventual adoption of mobile solutions. in spite of this, in the case of south african home-based healthcare situations, mhealth applications are potentially viable because the extremely high penetration rate of mobile phones in the country means that there is the potential for the many care givers who own mobile phones to potentially capture patient data at the point of care. since mhealth is a component of ehealth it should not be seen as a possible replacement of ehealth but rather an extension of certain aspects of health (in the broadest sense), e.g., the mobile interface providing additional possibilities to capture and access data at other locations than where the patient folder is kept (paper-based) or where the workstations are located (ehealth). in practice a mix of different approaches, will probably be used in order to, for example, utilise the 'ecological flexibility' (berg, 1999) of paper documents in conjunction with electronic and mobile systems. 2.4 patient records patient records are used in healthcare for coordination and cooperation of a large collection of healthcare stakeholders that form large and complex networks (berg & bowker, 1997; hanseth & monteiro, 1997; fitzpatrick, 2000). healthcare records, or in this case patient records, are configured according to the needs and practices of the organizations they serve. patient records are used over time by different stakeholders for different purposes and in different ways. the nature of what and how data is captured and used in patient records reflects the highly subjective judgments of their users, e.g., the, care givers, etc. although there are many initiatives and market trends to convert patient records to electronic records, in reality most healthcare organizations still use a mixture of paper-based and electronic patient records (saleem, et al., 2009). the focus of this study is not on the merits of paper-based versus electronic patient records but rather on how the patient record is used during interactions of healthcare data stakeholders and patients. little evidence was found in literature to indicate what constitutes a mobile health record (mhr). the nature of the workflow in providing home-based healthcare services will determine how data is structured and used in any mobile solution. 3. materials and methods 3.1 socio-technical approaches carayon (2006) considers the trends of working across organisational, geographical, cultural and temporal boundaries and the increasing role of the customer (in this case the care giver) in product/service design that contribute to increased work system complexity. patients, families and care givers are becoming increasingly co-collaborators in home-based healthcare services and this collaboration with healthcare service providers will influence the way technology is incorporated into home-based healthcare service provision. there is a need for developing principles for the design of socio-technical systems in addition to considering the impact of such systems on people (carayon, 2006). he indicated that further research is required to understand the work of designers of socio-technical systems and to identify or develop methods that can help to improve their design. these methods need to consider how, for example, care givers, could become active collaborators in designing ict solutions. during the implementation of socio-technical systems the following need to be considered: issues of participation; feedback; training and learning; project management; and organisational support and management commitment (carayon, 2006).ghaffarian (2011) argues that new socio-technical approaches in information systems (is) research can capture the contingencies of contexts and situatedness of actions. 3.2 research methodology this is an interpretive study to explore and understand the design and use of home-based health records in a community in south africa. the research strategy was an ethnographic study and the qualitative methods to collect the data have been observations, in-depth interviews and studying of documents and artifacts. during the observations the emphasis was on how the caregivers and healthcare professionals provide a care service to patients at their homes. a specific consideration was how caregivers use and record data and how healthcare professionals utilize data. the research design provided for various activities that included pre-work and fieldwork where a team of students, including designers and it developers were assembled, the study of home-based healthcare literature and documents, discussions with hbhc stakeholders that enhanced the understanding of hbhc, and the selection of a specific community in the boland (in the vicinity of cape town) that was accessible and affected by many of the social-economic factors evident in south africa (e.g. poverty, crime and disease) was selected. a further step was to describe and analyze the "home-based care landscape" to depict the organizations, political structures, stakeholders and relationships between them. as part of context mapping, a service design method, the activities and services of hbhc were identified to depict the care path available to the citizens of that community. the purpose of context mapping is to reveal the users' conscious and latent needs, experiences, hope and expectations. service design addressed the care service from the clients' perspectives with the aim to ensure that care service interfaces are useful, usable and desirable from the client's point of view and effective, efficient and distinctive from the supplier's point of view (miettinen, 2009). although the client in hbhc is primarily the patient, the informal care giver who supports the patient, in most cases family members, friends or neighbors, as well as the caregiver can also be regarded as the client of the service. for the purpose of this study the caregiver is considered as the main client with the patient and supporters the main beneficiaries and the healthcare facility the supplier providing the care service. the healthcare facility for this study is a hospice (which in south africa refers to a non-governmental body that provides dignified care and support to patients that are either terminally ill or suffer from life-threatening diseases) and the main stakeholders working for the hospice are the healthcare professionals, the sisters, administrative personnel and managers. next as part of a service design approach, the method of observation and documentation was used as part of the ethnographic study. the care service of a caregiver to two patients at their homes was filmed. the camera "followed" the care giver and recorded the care process. this allowed the researchers to study the process in more detail to also uncover the activities that happened in the background. other service design methods used was scenario-based design to develop specific scenarios and touch-points for hbhc this was done by developing storyboards with the users, context and a story with a specific background, tasks, goals and actions. a low-fi prototype was used to determine the flow and navigation of the data for the mobile interface. with this method the caregivers became co-designers of the mobile interface. the results presented by these different design methods were analyzed to identify problems experienced by the caregiver when interacting with the patient record or care reports. the interns used an agile approach to develop the mobile interface and they were interviewed to determine their experiences during the development process. they were able to indicate the problems experienced during the process as well how they interacted with others. the testing of mobile interface and back-end systems were investigated through observations and interviews. the results were analyzed and interpreted to derive the findings and obtain deeper insights of how the design and development of the mobile interface happened in practice. 4. results 4.1 data and service flows the township community suffers from the socio-economic factors that influence the wellbeing of a community. there is a high incidence of hiv/aids and tb and the home-based care needs are typical of a poor community. the caregivers are citizens from the township who have received basic home-based care training. the hospice is responsible for the home-based care service to ten areas representing communities in a town in the boland in the western cape, south africa and its immediate surroundings. the township selected for the ethnographic study is one of the poorer areas. figure 1 is a photo of the "homes" in the township. figure 1 township in the western cape, south africa the hospice reports to the department of health, the south african hospice board and several funding organisations providing funding for the service. the landscape of the community is illustrated in figure 2. the organisational structure at the facility is as follows: the patient care manager is responsible for the service to the patients. a senior coordinator is responsible for all the caregivers and they replay all information to her. each area is coordinated by a caregiver or enrolled nursing aid and they see the caregivers on a daily basis. each area is serviced by a qualified sister who is responsible for the initial assessment of the patient and continuous progress of the care plan. a copy of the care plan is left at the home of the patient as well as at the facility. each care plan is revised every three months which means that the care plan is collected from the patient's home and brought to the facility. figure 2 landscape model depicting the care service provided by the healthcare facility to the community the caregiver completes a daily care report after each visit of a client and a copy is usually left with the patient. once a month the care giver is required to summarize the daily care data on a monthly care report. this is problematic and time consuming since many of the caregivers have limited literacy skills and find it difficult to transfer and calculate the data from one form to the next. headings often appear in columns in one form and then in rows for the next. figure 3 an example of a current home-based care plan figure 3 shows a care plan that needs to be followed by the caregiver for the specific patient. much of this is duplicated daily as the caregiver visits patients just to demonstrate adherence to the plan with patient signatures required as proof. figure 4 -an example of a monthly summary report to be completed by the care giver the healthcare professional in this community mainly deals with the patient's care data, i.e. the initial and ongoing assessments based on the patient's condition. the caregiver carries out the care plan which guides the caregiver in what type of care the patient requires. caregivers capture during their visits their observations and submit a daily report to the facility. the patient may want more information about his/her condition and progress whilst the primary caregiver supporting the patient may need more information about the patient's condition and care requirements and may also want to share experiences with other primary caregivers. the caregiver supervisor collects the forms with the data from all the caregivers and processes these to prepare the patient and visit summary reports. 4.2 issues and problems experienced by caregivers the following were found during the investigation: in the home-based care service path little to no attention is given to the caregiver's data recording and communication needs; patients and their supporters have little to no access to useful information that may be relevant to their care; data recording and processing is still manual resulting in many hours spent by caregivers and administrators on these activities rather than the care service; reporting of cases is cumbersome because access to data is not easy and processing is still mostly manual; managers do not have sufficient quality data to manage their caregivers' visits. it is clear that the current manual data capturing process with paper forms and reports does not support the needs of a sufficient care service and in fact is complicating the care process. 4.3 development of prototype through co-design a lo-fi prototype, with a cardboard template of a mobile phone was used. caregivers enjoyed this method that allowed them to provide input and give their preferences without them being confronted by technology. figure 5 illustrates this method. figure 5, a caregiver co-designing the mobile phone interface the findings from this co-design activity are: initially the caregivers were skeptic of the phone capability; lo-fidelity prototypes are easy to understand; it helped to understand their navigation and data entering preferences they preferred not to enter text but use drop down lists and selection boxes; they were excited about the digital memory and automatic functional advantages. findings specific to the method are that hand drawn materials are friendlier than hard coded technology, hand drawn materials are more susceptible to change than hard coded technology, and paper prototyping saves valuable time on programming. once the data elements to be captured were identified and the navigation of the sequence of capturing the data elements was sufficiently understood the developers continued with the implementation of the prototype of the mobile interface. the development of the mobile application was done with java, combined with an open source database management system. the developers found their active involvement during the design with the caregivers extremely useful. the initial prototype with the mobile phone and hard-coded interface was sufficient to get an idea of how the interface would work but could not support the additional functionality required for the mobile interface to work in practice. a complete redesign of the back-end to the mobile solution was needed and this was difficult because of all the constraints of the mobile interface. many problems were experienced, e.g., programming for the different handsets used by the care givers that were not smart phones but feature phones with limited functionality; and the impact of network availability and cost of data transmission on decisions for transmitting data. figure 6, an example of one of the mobile interfaces the findings of the development phase are: (1) the role of designer was crucial to obtain a good understanding of how to design an appropriate mobile interface; (2) the translation of the mobile interface design to code was difficult because the limitations of mobile phones used as well as the level of the users presented serious constraints on what was possible and appropriate; (3) different versions of code is necessary to support the different mobile phones used; (4) network coverage and availability is an important consideration that influences how and when data is transmitted; (5) the translation from the emulators used to develop the mobile application on a personal computer to the actual phone did not always produce the same results on the mobile phone; (6) it was difficult for team members to understand what each other has done and to learn how to use the new development tools; and (7) testing was much more difficult than expected where mobile applications introduce more variables to consider during testing. the team of interns working on this project represented different disciplines (information technology, design and social sciences), different levels (third year, btech and masters students; different nationalities and cultures (xhosa, english, afrikaans, lusophone (portuguese), francophone (cameroon, democratic republic of congo), anglophone (south africa, nigeria). the diversity of the team contributed significantly towards a better understanding of and sensitivity for context and the role of humans and environment in the design and development of technology solutions. the findings specific to the team are: (1) the inclusion of non-it persons in it development adds much value with a better understanding of the problem setting and the persons who will use the solutions resulting in more appropriate and relevant solutions; (2) the diversity of the team resulted in a better understanding of each other's role in the team and exposed them to many alternative views; (3) mentoring of more junior members by the more senior students happened automatically; and (4) all the students indicated that their involvement in the project exposing them to the difficulties experienced in communities in stress allowed them to become better people with more appreciation of their role in technology development. 5. discussion the current paper health record, forms and reports do not support an effective home-based healthcare service. digitalizing the reporting part will certainly allow more time for patient care. a service design approach considers the entire user experience. in the case of home-based healthcare the following user experiences were considered: the caregiver (main focus of the project), but also in at a secondary level (in this instance) the experiences of the patient, the patient's supporter and the healthcare professional. by considering all the service moments and touch-points it is possible to identify the areas that need to be improved. capturing data is then only one part of the user experience but is influenced by the other parts. the design for a data recording device therefore needs to become part of the user experience by improving the experience. this is only possible if the needs of the user, in this case the caregiver, are sufficiently understood. this confirms the importance of considering situatedness of the care givers during their work practices to obtain a better idea of designing appropriate user interfaces for that specific context. the different interfaces to support the different care activities support the notion that a health record can never just be a single entity. it is a collection of different components used by different persons for different purposes. it would therefore make sense to rather identify all the possible data elements that can possibly be part of a health record and then only map those that are relevant for a particular service moment to the interface that supports that interaction moment. the design considerations are summarized as: (1) the home-based healthcare record should be designed in such a way that it supports the different user experiences; (2) useful interfaces need to be designed to ensure better adoption by the user; (3) only the data elements required for that service moment should be mapped to the interface; (4) it is important to understand who the user is before designing interfaces, records, reports, etc. that they will use; (5) it is important to consider other communication modes than text, e.g., visual communication, to cater for illiterate users; (6) the context of the community is very important because the social complexities will determine how the solution should be designed; (7) the design should consider cost restrictions and the need for only basic functionality; the design should support the entire care service path where all the service moments provide for different activities and use of devices/technologies. these considerations should guide the development of the different concepts and prototypes and the user (caregiver, patient, supporter, healthcare professional, authority, etc.) should be actively involved in the process as a co-designer. by first obtaining a sufficient understanding of the problem setting and the people who will be using the mobile solution a better understanding of the needs can be achieved. during the requirements elicitation process it is important that the users, in this case the care givers, become active co-designers with the designer, who has a good understanding of using the design techniques and with the involvement of the developers. the design of the technology part of the mobile solution is not simple and sufficient attention should be given to this aspect to ensure that all the complexities are sufficiently considered. further research is required to investigate how the users interact with the different concepts and prototypes to allow for refinement and fine-tuning of the solutions. the different interfaces will support access to the health record components and further research is also required to determine how the methods used to design and develop a mobile solution for a specific group within a specific community can be used for adapting to other contexts. security and privacy implications for mobile home-based healthcare solutions also need to be considered in addition to interoperability and standards. the active involvement of the care givers strengthen the relationship between the community and university and by recognizing the community members' input contributed towards a sense of empowerment. the university interns gained from their involvement in this project by learning from each other and learning to value the users' input. it is therefore possible to have a meaningful university-community engagement as involved partners in designing useful innovative ict solutions. 6. conclusion through observation, user profiling and participation of the users, understanding of the service design challenges experienced by care workers in hbhc can be constructed. iterative propositioning, prototyping and experiment are methods used to describe and create patterns underlying the user behavior (miettinen & koivisto 2009). patient records used by hbhc and the data collection for the purpose of these records need to be critically analysed. the use of innovative sociotechnical methods has the potential of realising restructuring and design solutions. technologies used to achieve this should be appropriate to the context of its intended use. supportive networks and sustainable systems are required if they are to be useful in the long-term. further research in this direction holds significant potential for useful outcomes. references berg, m. (1999). patient care information systems and health care work: a sociotechnical approach. international journal of medical informatics, 55: 87-101. berg m &amp; bowker g c. (1997). the multiple bodies of the medical record: toward a sociology of an artefact. in: sociological quarterly, 38(3): 513-37, 1997. carayon, p. (2006). human factors of complex sociotechnical systems. applied ergonomics, 37: 525-535. fitzpatrick g. (2000). understanding the paper health record in practice: implications for ehrs. in: proceedings of health informatics conference (hic2000), adelaide, australia, 2000. ghaffarian, v. (2011). the new stream of socio-technical approach and main stream information systems research. procedia computer science, 3: 1499-1511. available at: http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/s1877050911000408 [accessed may 4, 2011]. hanseth, o. &amp; monteiro, e. (1997). inscribing behaviour in information infrastructure. in: accounting, management and information technologies. 7(4): 183 211. international telecommunications union. (2011). the world in 2011: ict facts and figures. available at: http://www.itu.int/itu-d/ict/facts/2011/index.html [accessed june 1, 2012]. katz, j.e. &amp; rice, r.e., (2009). public views of mobile medical devices and services: a us national survey of consumer sentiments towards rfid healthcare technology. international journal of medical informatics, 78: 104-114. lavery, j.v., tinadana, p.o., scott, t.w., harrington, l.c., ramsey, j.m., ytuarte-nuñez, c. &amp; james, a.a. (2010). towards a framework for community engagement in global health research. trends in parasitology, 26(6), 279-83. available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20299285 [accessed may 4, 2011]. lee, h.j., lee, s.h., ha, k., jang, h.c., chung, w., kim, j.y., chang, y. &amp; yoo, d.h. (2009). ubiquitous healthcare service using zigbee and mobile phone for elderly patients. international journal of medical informatics, 78: 193-198. maglaveras, n. koutkias, v., chouvarda, i., goulis, d.g., avramides, a., adamidis, d., louridas, g. &amp; balas, e.a. (2002). home care delivery through the mobile telecommunications platform: the citizen health system (chs) perspective. international journal of medical informatics, 68, 99-111. miettinen, s. &amp; koivisto, m. (2009). designing services with innovative methods. kuopio academy of design, finland, 2009. mosavel, m., simon, c., van stade, d. &amp; buchbinder, m. (2005). community-based participatory research (cbpr) in south africa: engaging multiple constituents to shape the research question. social science &amp; medicine (1982), 61(12): 2577-2587. available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15955605 [accessed september 4, 2010]. saleem, j.j., russ, a.l., justice, c.f., hagg, h., ebright, p.r., woodbridge, p.a. &amp; doebbeling, b.n. (2009). exploring the persistence of paper with electronic health record. international journal of medical informatics, 78:618-628. svanæs, d., andreas, o. &amp; dahl, y., (2008). usability testing of mobile ict for clinical settings: methodological and practical challenges, science, 9:24-34. tanser, f., hosegood, v., benzler, j. and solarsh, g. (2001). new approaches to spatially analyse primary health care usage patterns in rural south africa. tropical medicine and international health, 6(10): 826-838. van zyl i. (2010). mutual isolation and the fight for care: an ethnography of south african home-based healthcare contexts. cape peninsula university of technology. 2010. western cape department of health. (2011) annual performance plan 2011/20112, western cape. world health organisation, (2004). comprehensive communityand home-based healthcare model searo. regional office for south-east asia. new delhi. searo regional publication no. 40, 2004. editorial: linking the local with the global within community informatics liisa horelli aalto university helsinki, finland douglas schuler the evergreen state college and the public sphere project seattle, wa, usa the idea for this special issue arose from a discussion on an electronic mailing list devoted to community informatics (ci). with its focus on “community”, a contested concept with scores of definitions and meanings, the uneasy and fuzzy line between community and not-community is obviously critical to the study and practice of community informatics. the discussion reignited the idea that ci should be used for the benefit of global communities as well as “local” ones. the diversity of opinions and the amount of interest that was aroused show us that the topic was worth exploring in more depth. when we first began this enterprise about two years ago – encouraging authors, collecting and reviewing papers – we had no idea that the local/global distinction was about to be further assaulted, first by the arab spring and, shortly after, by the occupy wall street movement. interestingly, these powerful movements demonstrate a rich interplay of local and non-local forces, including community, solidarity as well as material forces comprising large numbers of non-violent protesters and the sometimes lethal resistance with which they were met. because community informatics is a young field of research and practice, we have the rare opportunity to help shape our field. it might not be possible to conceptualize a social enterprise that is relevant today without explicitly acknowledging climate change, environmental degradation, oppression, poverty, human rights, war, militarism and other "global" problems that face us all, however indirectly it may seem to some people. how should these manifest "global" concerns be factored into our enterprise? and how does the role of ict, which lays at the foundation of our enterprise, change the way we answer these questions? as ci integrates research and engagement, its view of localism and globalism needs to be informed through those perspectives. community informatics is the study and practice of information and communication technologies for the benefit of the community (gurstein, 2007). regardless of the agreement on this broad definition, there are inherent tensions within the ci community and with the ci perspective itself. is, for example, a "virtual community" a real community? and are there any compelling reasons to remove all non-electronic communication from our enterprise, knowing the fluidity of information and communication and our propensity for using a variety of approaches? another tension, of course, is between the local and the global, the focus of this special issue. what's local and what's global? how do we define the two terms so that they are meaningful and useful to our work? perhaps these terms even distract us from conceptualizing our enterprise in ways that are more useful. as ci implicitly embraces the tension between the local and the global, on some level, global and local suggests two (or more!) types of forces, sometimes acting against each other, sometimes acting in concert. how do practitioners of ci address this clash or intermingling of forces? does it advocate larger barriers, shelters, or hiding places from these forces or do they work to inspire or promote an engaged type of collective intelligence that goes beyond "using icts?" the idea of community invokes localism, while informatics, especially networked and varieties of mass communication, offers a variety of challenges, generally of a globalist flavour, to the local, often beleaguered community. is localism always kind and considerate — in a word, neighbourly — and globalization always anonymous, unfeeling and exploitive? if, for example, a league of local communities developed a "bill of rights" for local communities around the world and demanded its adoption worldwide, would this be a "global" effort? or does local always mean the particular? what processes are considered to be forces of glocalization? how do these forces originate, diffuse, and make their effects felt? and what should ci researchers and practitioners do in relation to those forces? is the issue trying to help communities use icts more effectively, or is it working in a general way to develop communication systems that will help local communities intelligently address the problems that they and the rest of the world face?in some situations, for example, this would mean helping to develop collective problem-solving tools so people can more effectively resist oppression or fight the status quo. the holistic view of community informatics would suggest that all people would have the right to be full citizens of the world with the rights and responsibilities that accompany that status. rationale for the special issue one of the rationales behind this issue is that as communities are becoming increasingly glocal, ci is no longer only for the empowerment of the community per se. it is also applied to the shared, translocal electronic space that in turn might impact local communities. consequently, ci can be seen as one of the driving forces that could help shape equitable and sustainable development in the world. this brings forth both the emergence of new transnational identities and global citizenship. it also highlights the role of civil society as the site of many public interests that take place in different kinds of public spheres. these might resist corporate and governmental actors who seek to appropriate and segment the electronic space. the multi-scalar politics of local actors comprise, according to saskia sassen (2004), at least three types of local-global conflicts in which cyberspace becomes a place where informal and non-cosmopolitan political actors can be part of the political scene: the direct local-global transactions in which the scale of struggle remains the locality and the object is to engage local actors in other places around the world who are engaged in similar localized struggles with similar local actors, for example the arab spring revolts; multi-scalar interaction in which localized struggles are aimed at engaging global actors, such as the wto or multinational firms and banks either at the global scale or in multiple localities, such as in the occupy wall street movement; and local political practice which transforms a single event into a global media event, which in turn serves to mobilize individuals and organizations around the world in support of that action, such as the zapatista movement in mexico. however, our findings have revealed a complex dynamic between local situations and concerns and other, more “global” situations. it seems that any typology that attempts to characterize local, glocal, and global phenomena would need to account for several elements, namely the principals or stakeholders that are engaged, their transactions, their network configuration, and the patterns of transactions and interactions through the networks. managing the glocal requires capacity and competence perhaps the local-global transactions, suggested by sassen, only emerge when the motives for glocal mobilization and transactions are highly charged, either politically or economically. therefore, only one of the six articles in this special issue includes protest movements that fit the typology described by sassen. the rest of the articles represent the more ordinary or “normal” appropriation and expanded deployment of ci in everyday life. the geographical distribution of the articles covers all the continents, except south america, and they deal with both rural and urban areas of the developing and developed countries. the first set of three articles focus on the different kinds of empowering activities of civic associations in which the glocal transactions play a certain role, although not to the extent described by sassen. the settings, rather, deal with various micro-environments with a global span. the second set of articles comprise analytic descriptions of the state of the art of the broad band or multi-scalar conditions for applying ci in–, and across, specific regions, countries or even continents. the shared theme in all of the articles is that for meaningful and effective application of ci for glocal purposes, the acquisition and maintenance of necessary technological, organizational, institutional, and social capacities and competencies is required. the community´s ability to bond and bridge, using deliberation and other skills, is decisive in becoming a glocal player. on the other hand, the ability to manage glocal transactions is becoming increasingly important today at the local level. therefore we need, as peter jones claims in his point of view, conceptual frameworks to help define, differentiate and yet also conjoin what is local, global and glocal. this would also help the balancing of the local and the global in the use of icts, so that the explicit consideration of trans-locality and globalism within ci does not mean paying less attention to the local community. efforts to deal with the glocal in their article “beyond community networks,”fiorella de cindio and douglas schuler focus on the necessity of designing and implementing online deliberative environments and tools, as well as thinking beyond the community to encourage active, influential, and intelligent engagement. on the basis of several efforts in italy and the united states, they recommend that communities must necessarily work with and integrate both local and non-local perspectives. they also build the case that in the quest for more active and effective civic intelligence (schuler, 2001), the need exists for more purposive modes of communication, including deliberation that can be supported through informed development and use of technology. the design of such deliberative tools must explore and balance needs and opportunities in two ways: (1) developing tools that embed democratic participation protocols that have stood the test of time in the offline world while leveraging the affordances of icts to reduce traditional space and time constraints; and (2) conceiving new participation modalities that rely on digital networked technology and extend people’s deliberative capabilities.findings and recommendations based on experiences with software developed by the authors and their groups, namely e-liberate and opendcn, are provided in their paper, so that “successful models evolve through trial, use, and refinement” (handler et al., 2008). the paper also reminds us that "digital inclusion" work must be ongoing for the result of this work to actually help create a more genuinely democratic society. david sadoway investigates in his article “from associations to info-sociations: the co-evolution of civic associations & icts in two asian cities” the ict-linked organizational, participatory and spatial transformations in four cases of civic environmental associations in hong kong and taipei. these information associations, which the author calls ‘info-sociations’, are civic-cyber organizations, movements and counter-publics that use icts and operate at polycentric scales. they are multimodal (employing an array of icts including social media); multiplexed (blending virtual and physical practices) and multi-scalar (varied in geography, from the local to the global). the participatory transformations imply the reconfiguration of public (cyber)sphere via online forums, news or blogs, interactive map mash-ups, and multi-mediation with audio, video and text. they also tend to construct cyberspaces of hope by creating counter-spaces through catalyzing ideas and ideals. however, the question remains, are civic associations ably shaping the uses and applications of icts towards the just and livable city for all? the aim of the article by sirkku wallin and liisa horelli is to present finnish examples and to discuss how community informatics may provide opportunities for stakeholders to “play with the glocal” in the context of participatory e-planning in finland and beyond. the endeavour is a complex, multi-dimensional process that takes considerable time to develop. the preconditions for an ngo to become a glocal player have been in the finnish context the supportive infrastructure of everyday life, as well as the systematic development of competence as a civil society actor. this implies the co-creation of technical, organizational and institutional capacities which enable people and groups to transcend the local to the regional and, eventually, to transnational levels. the glocal cross-border networking around participatory structures and environmental improvement by a variety of municipalities in different countries has meant an expansion, not only of the concept of e-planning, but also of community informatics, as the local communities have begun to shape the global ones. ci adoption constrained by the national and regional structures janet toland, in her article “from rural women´s groups to the world”, applies a historical approach to plot the development of both people-based “soft” and business-based “hard” networks and their impact on the regions in new zealand. she examines how icts enhance the bonding and bridging roles of social capital in the development of local, regional and global networks. two regions, an urban and a rural one, have been studied from 1985 to 2005. tacit or soft knowledge has been built up through networks such as “women in dairying” and “grey power”. the soft social networks interact with hard ict-based networks within the regional setting. when they have been brought together they can facilitate both national and international information flows. new zealand has become culturally more diverse and tolerant of different lifestyles especially in the urban areas. however, the bridging links are imbalanced and the bonding is failing to connect the different sectors or silos of the “learning regions”. the question remains, how to enhance the organizational and institutional competencies of the stakeholders in the ict-assisted bonding and bridging in the context of regional networking, in order to transgress the boundaries of silos and sectors? marco adria and dan brown point out in their article “ambiguity and uncertainty in the ‘last mile’”, how broadband networks are an important means by which rural communities around the world can gain access to global networks of knowledge and communication. in fact, the rural broadband can be seen as a critical nexus between global and local flows of both capital and ideas. nevertheless, alberta, canada, in spite of a significant investment into the construction of a unique high-speed, high-capacity fiber-optic network, connecting rural communities throughout the province, ranked in 2005 among the last canadian provinces in terms of rural broadband access, three years after construction. the authors examine the reasons for this, by applying weick’s (2001) sense-making framework. a primary finding is that several areas of ambiguity and uncertainty were related to rural broadband adoption, which created self-fulfilling prophecies about the broadband network's construction and use. these resulted in constraints in the bonding and bridging of social capital that is necessary for “effective” adoption and useby rural communities. although the african continent currently boasts the highest mobile telephony growth rates in the world, bringing new communications possibilities to millions of people, much remains to be done by governments, as well as the private sector, non-profits, and academics in order to support further growth of telecommunications markets and services. laura hosman and elisabeth fife highlight in their article “the use of mobile phones for development in africa” some of the breakthroughs and the development possibilities promoted through the use of mobile phones in different parts of africa. they argue that an important area for future research, theory-building, and development activity is at the nexus of where local, bottom-up needs and innovation meet top-down capabilities and funding. this requires support, however, from the government, the private, and the third sector for the technological, institutional, social and organizational capacity of the stakeholders. last, but not least, peter jones reflects in his point of view on the different definitions of the “glocal”, by applying the conceptual framework of hodges´s (1989) model. glocal is, according to the author, a dynamic and mobile locus that runs throughout the community. the phenomenon has historical roots, because humanity´s roots can be defined as a journey or transition from the local (in africa), to global and finally to glocal again. jones ends by asking: are the nomads, migrants and refugees the true glocals of today? final thoughts although it can change trajectory, stop, or even reverse its course, the process of globalization seems to be continuing its apparently inexorable diffusion throughout the world. we can safely assume that networked, digital technology will continue to play a strong role in this. this secures the place of technology in the consideration of what happens to real people in real places, i.e., what takes place “locally” and how this creates effects and is affected by non-local events and activities. thus, the end of the story is not yet written. we believe that there is considerable theoretical and methodological work to be done in the area of local meets global. on the other hand, we believe that there is much room, and reasons to encourage, the development of social movements, in addition to technological innovations in the service of securing a better future. the nascent, interdisciplinary field of community informatics can and should play a role in this exciting new venture. references gurstein, m. (2007). what is community informatics (and why does it matter)? milano: polimetrica. handler, j., shadbolt, n., hall, w., berners-lee, t., & weitzner, d. (2008). web science: an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the web. communications of the acm, 51(7), 60–69. hodges, b.e. (1989). the health career model. in s.m. hinchcliffe (ed.) nursing practice and health care (1st ed. only). london: edward arnold. sassen, s. (2004). local actors in global politics. current sociology, 52(4), 649–670. schuler, d. (2001). cultivating society’s civic intelligence: patterns for a new ‘world brain’. journal of information, communication and society, 4(2). weick, k. (2001). making sense of the organization. malden, ma: blackwell publishing. mobilehci conference paper format older citizens and video communications: a case study mary c. milliken, susan o’donnell, kerri gibson, betty daniels national research council canada abstract research is absent on how older citizens are using video communications that offer rich opportunities for social connection. our case study focuses on how and why 16 citizens aged 55 and older in a small canadian city are regularly using video communications, such as online video, video calls and videoconferencing. we conducted quantitative and qualitative analyses to explore their motivation for using video communications, the barriers and challenges they face, and the benefits they experience – in particular social presence. it behoves developers, marketers and researchers of communication technologies to recognize that canadian citizens over the age of 55 comprise a valid user community in its own right. keywords older citizens, video conferencing, video calls, online video, social presence, user-generated video introduction by applying kostakos and o’neill’s (2004) conceptualization of technology users as “citizens,” we understand the various roles of technology within the public, private and social spheres of users’ lives. with this construct, we are reminded that all users, regardless of age, have political, economic, social, and community rights and responsibilities that can be extended to the new information and communication spaces created by information and communication technologies (ict). people of all ages use ict. however, like its design and marketing, most research on ict has been youth-focused and ageist (cutler, 2005). studies often exclude older users (hendricks & cutler, 2005, in cutler) or use cross-sectional comparisons between different age groups rather than treat older citizens as a separate and valid user community (kim, 2008). comparative research typically shows older citizens using fewer types of ict less often and less extensively than their younger counterparts (czaja, 2006; lin, neafsey, & strickler, 2009). these findings imply a ‘failure’, rather than a different approach to adopting and adapting all types of technology (loe, 2010) by this demographic. from 2005 to 2009 in canada, rates of daily internet use at home for personal reasons rose from 59% to 69.1% for citizens aged 55 to 64, and from 62.8% to 65.9% for citizens 65 and older (statistics canada, 2010). while there are long-standing digital divides between different income, education level and age groups (middleton, 2005; zamaria & fletcher, 2007), a recent study by comscore shows that the number of citizens aged 55 and up using facebook and twitter for social networking increased 13% and 35% respectively between 2009-2010 (cbc, 2011). this level of growth confirms at the very least that canadian citizens over the age of 55 comprise a valid user community in its own right. that realization has significance for developers, marketers and researchers of communication technologies, since this age group is becoming a larger proportion of the canadian population. the 65-and-over population made up a record 13.7% of the population in 2006 (census, 2006), and the number of seniors is projected to increase from 4.2 in 2005 to 9.8 million in 2036 (statistics canada, 2007). we still know very little about how this segment of our population uses the internet, and almost nothing about their use of video communications; research on how older citizens are using online video, video calls and videoconferencing – technologies that offer rich opportunities for social connection – is almost non existent. to make an original contribution to this underrepresented area in communication research, we developed a case study that focuses specifically on how and why 16 older citizens (55 to 77 years old) living in fredericton, new brunswick, canada, are using video communications. the paucity of research led us to wonder about what older citizens thought about video technologies, and why they used them, so we looked specifically at their answers to provide us with a snapshot of what types of video communications they use, for what purposes, and in what contexts. then we conducted quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data to help understand how and why older citizens using video communications, what their motivation is to do so, what barriers and challenges they face and what benefits they experience. why study older citizens and ict? the canadian internet project, a longitudinal study of canadians’ internet use, has shown that digital divides persist for age, education and income (zamaria & fletcher, 2007). however canada has one of the highest rates of internet use in the world, and use has grown in all age groups along with the spread of high speed connections (statistics canada, 2010). in popular culture, advertising and other forms of representation, older citizens are often typified as frail, resistant to change and disinterested in learning. older citizens, however, do not share this view of themselves (cutler, 2005). ageist attitudes have a mutually reinforcing relationship with technological development; they affect not only technology design and marketing, but also how ict is adopted and adapted by users (cutler, 2005). when it comes to adoption, how older users interact with new technology is subject to both “external” and “internal” expectations that older users are automatically less capable than younger people. external expectations are held by other people, including the ict industry. internal expectations are how older citizens judge their own abilities to adopt and adapt technology (broady, chan & caputi, 2010). technologies have the potential to help combat ageism when they are assistive, useful, reduce disability and promote independence; and when they come with adequate training and support that accommodates the cognitive, sensory and physical needs of older citizens (cutler, 2005). technologies perpetuate ageism when the device functionality, design and marketing targets ‘digital natives’ (prensky, 2001) exclusively. why study video communications? communication technologies have the potential to facilitate routine tasks and support autonomy in ways that will improve older citizens’ well-being and quality of life (gitlin, 2000, 2002). they can facilitate social interaction and communication (dickinson & hill, 2007), improve entertainment, provide health-related information (xie & bugg, 2009), services and benefits (bertera, bertera, morgan, wuertz, & attey, 2007; tse, choi, & leung, 2008); provide better access to services and caregivers (hirsch, forlizzi, hyder, goetz, kurtz, & stroback, 2000; marziali & donahue, 2006); enable learning, mental stimulation and challenge (kim, 2008); decrease loneliness and isolation (fokkema & knipscheer, 2007; sum, mathews, hughes, & campbell, 2008); and help to improve self-esteem, as well as people’s satisfaction with both specific aspects and the overall quality of their lives (shapiro, barak., & gal, 2006; slegers, van boxtel, & joles, 2008). many researchers believe that video technologies are beneficial for their ability to enhance social presence. social presence theory was first developed by short, williams and christie (1976) and has been used to explain the relationship between the quality of interaction, the capacity of video-mediated communication and the conveyance of social cues (roussel & gueddana, 2007). social presence is the degree to which people feel they are with each other in a collaborative, virtual environment (see biocca, harms & burgoon, 2003; hartmann, 2008). social presence occurs on three levels: first is the sense of “being together” or co-presence, co-location, proximity, or a tangible sense of the other person on a physical and sensory level, and mutual awareness of the attention people pay to each other. the second level is “psychological involvement” or saliency, immediacy, intimacy and the ability to make oneself known. the final level is “behavioural engagement”, which becomes manifest in visual cues (rettie 2003; biocca, harmes & burgoon, 2003). the theory is often used in research about videoconferencing, for example o’donnell, walmark and hancock’s case study on its challenges and benefits for remote and rural first nations communities (2010). one shortcoming of social presence theory has been the lack of qualification attached to different types of connection made possible through the full range of experience during mediated communication (ijsselsteijn, van baren, & van lanen, 2003). researchers have overcome that limitation by examining the relative degrees of social presence in a wider array of communication tools, like instant messaging, email, voicemail and video-chat applications (pessoa albuquerque, & perkis, 2008). although no statistical data exist on the use of video communications by canadians, a recent study shows that americans have been watching, downloading and uploading videos at a steadily rising rate since 2007 (purcell, 2010). the lack of research into how older citizens use video communications is likely due to the relatively recent emergence of the technology. research into video communications is a relatively new field; after all, youtube only first appeared in 2006. researchers also tend to use young students as research subjects because they are frequent ict users and they are convenient to recruit. some research examples include a previous study conducted by the authors with university students who used youtube, in which we analyzed the potential for civil engagement and a ‘virtual’ public sphere (milliken & o’donnell, 2008; milliken, gibson, & o’donnell, 2008; milliken, gibson, o’donnell & singer, 2008), the importance of socio-cultural context on video consumption (o’donnell, gibson, milliken & singer, 2008) and gender differences in the production and consumption of video-blogs (molyneaux, o’donnell, gibson, & singer, 2008). research method the case discussed in this paper is that of 16 older citizens living in fredericton, new brunswick. new brunswick is one of canada’s most rural atlantic provinces; it has fewer than 1,000,000 inhabitants and struggles to maintain its population. the city of fredericton is the provincial capital. it sits in the valley of the saint john river, which flows to the bay of fundy. it is a small but growing city, with more than 50,000 people living in the urban area and another 25,000 or more in the greater area. two universities perch on the hill overlooking the downtown beside the river, and the residents’ education levels are higher than the canadian average. the fredericton city government launched one of north america’s first free-to-users municipal wireless internet networks (fred e-zone), and the city continues to maintain, upgrade and extend the service. this case study looks at 16 of 62 adults who participated in a study of technology use, a breakdown of which is available in table 1 below. we were able to attract a broad socio-demographic spectrum of residents that can be compared to census data for fredericton (statistics canada, 2006). the 62 participants aged 18 plus were 50% female and 50% male (census: 53% female, 47% male). the age ranges were 27% aged 18-34 (census: 34%), 19% aged 35-54 (census: 34%), and 23% aged 55 plus (census: 32%). because we were attempting to match census categories, we did not ask individuals for their age, but rather, their age group. this sample [n=16] was made up of five females and three males aged 55-64 years, as well as four women and three men aged 65 and older. the 10 women and six men aged 55 to 77 discussed in this case study are all fredericton residents. the study was administered on the university of new brunswick campus in fredericton from june to september 2009. study participants were recruited through posters on notice boards around the city and on campus, through a local newspaper article, a university e-newsletter and researcher networks. we did not gather data on income levels or professions, but we did ask about formal education levels; and the biggest difference between the census and our sample was that 81% of participants had post-secondary education (census: 58%). of the 16 adults aged 55 and over, 10 had university degrees, one attended but did not complete university, two had college-level diplomas and three had completed high school. all listed their first language as english. only three of the participants had lived in atlantic canada for fewer than 10 years, and 12 (75%) had been born in canada. only four self-identified with a different cultural affiliation than simply “canadian”. one 55+ year old woman self-identified as “anglo, white canadian, lesbian”, and three women in the age category of 65+ self-identified individually as “irish/canadian”, “canadian/scottish”, and “english (british)”. we also asked about their use of computers and video communications. as illustrated in table 1, of the sub group [n=6] that completed both the survey and the interview, all rated their level of expertise using a computer from 3 to 5, where 1 was “no expertise”, and 5 was “expert”. one male interviewee had college-level education and rated himself at level 3, as did one female with a university degree. of the participants with university degrees, one male and two females rated their computer expertise at 4, and one male rated his abilities at 5. to be eligible for the study, participants had to have experience with online videos, video calls and/or videoconferencing. all participants had watched an online video. only two participants had never participated in a video call and seven had never been in a video conference. participants were invited to take part in two phases of the study: a survey with multimedia content, and a structured interview. research protocols were reviewed and approved by the research ethics board of the national research council of canada. the sixteen participants in this case study completed a 90-item questionnaire, which used both closed (e.g. likert scale responses) and open field response formats to assess their current technology use. participants received a $15 honorarium. quantitative data were analyzed using spss statistical software for frequencies. qualitative data from the open-answers in the survey were used anecdotally to explain these trends and specific responses. of the 16, six participants (three women, three men) completed a private, in-person interview that averaged one hour in duration. the researchers used a structured interview guide totalling 90 items in eight sections, with a mixture of both open and close-ended questions. participants received a $15 honorarium. interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using nvivo qualitative software.   table 1: characteristics of participants # age group sex highest level of education identify with cultural affiliation rate level of computer expertise on a scale of 1 (no expertise) to 5 (expert) participation 1 55-64 f university anglo, white canadian, lesbian 4 survey 2 55-64 f university canadian 4 survey and interview 3 55-64 f university canadian 4 survey and interview 4 55-64 f university canadian 3 survey 5 55-64 f university canadian 3 survey 6 55-64 m university canadian 4 survey 7 55-64 m university canadian 5 survey and interview 8 55-64 m college level canadian 3 survey and interview 9 65+ f university canadian 3 survey and interview 10 65+ f university (below bachelor) irish/canadian 2 survey 11 65+ f university canadian/scottish 3 survey 12 65+ f college level english (british) 3 survey 13 65+ f high school canadian 3 survey 14 65+ m university canadian 4 survey and interview 15 65+ m high school canadian 4 survey 16 65+ m high school canadian 2 survey participant use of online video to be eligible for this research project, participants were required to have previously used online video. the findings show that every participant has used and plans to continue using online video (see table 2). the majority (63%) watch online videos at least several times a week. participants most frequently watch videos for news and current affairs, for entertainment and amusement, videos made by friends or family, and sports. they not only watch online videos that have been forwarded to them, but also actively search for videos online. with such a small sample, the split was close between the participants who post videos online every month or so (44%) and those who have never or rarely posted a video online (56%) (table 2a).   table 2: use of online video a. how often do you use the technologies below? check the option that is generally applicable for each technology. never/ rarely every month or so every week or so several times a week every day watch videos online (i.e. youtube, sports or news site, etc.) 12% (2) 6% (1) 19% (3) 63% (10) digital camera – taking videos 44% (7) 37% (6) 19% (3) upload a video to share with others online 56% (9) 31% (5) 13% (2) post a text reply to online video 75% (12) 19% (3) 6% (1) camcorder for videos 88% (14) 12% (2) b. how often do you view online videos? check how often you view online videos for each purpose. viewing online videos (about) ... never/ rarely every month or so every week or so several times a week every day entertainment /amusement 19% (3) 19% (3) 12% (2) 50% (8) news / current affairs 25% (4) 6% (1) 19% (3) 50% (8) sports highlights / interviews 62% (10) 6% (1) 19% (3) 13% (2) videos made by friends / family 37% (6) 19% (3) 38% (6) 6% (1) learning how to do something at home 50% (8) 31% (5) 13% (2) 6% (1) health information 63% (10) 25% (4) 6% (1) 6% (1) videos made by peers work or professional colleagues 63% (10) 31% (5) 6% (1) videos made by people from different cultures 62% (10) 38% (6) videos made by people living in rural or remote communities 81% (13) 19% (3) participants perceived the usefulness of online video as a tool for “keeping informed”; “not only to communicate with each other but to communicate with the rest of the world!” participants suggested that video could be used to clarify a message or illustrate ideas and engage an audience, and because “numerous people can view the same video”, online video could be a useful tool for generating discussion about a particular topic. some of our participants saw a greater value in business-related uses, or to provide background information for volunteer work, while others saw greater value in using video for personal communication. participants said online video was a good way to keep in touch, clarify issues, enable more frequent and clearer communication, and to create opportunities for interactive exchange by coupling video with other ict. there was also potential for cost and time-savings, and for avoiding the challenges of travel since: “transport can be difficult and older people maintain their homes. parents are rural but children are urban (video) helps them keep in touch”. most of our participants thought short online videos were a good way for people in fredericton or greater fredericton to communicate with each other, because “any form of communication is good” and because video “adds a personal touch”. however, some did not see video to be necessary for communication at the local level, and suggested “why not just visit?” even more (92%) of our participants saw sharing short videos online as a good way for people in remote and rural communities to communicate with people in urban communities, although most (81%) never or rarely intentionally watched videos made by people living in remote or rural communities. several participants expressed concerns with online video, specifically about “inappropriate use and distribution”. it was suggested that “there need to be some guidelines re content, impact on target group/individual. i’m thinking specifically of any kind and to any degree of “hate” videos. otherwise, it’s a good mode of connection”. one finding that was particularly interesting for the researchers was the absence of a clear preference for either professionally produced or user-generated videos based on production values. for some participants, unless the technical issues are really severe, quality issues can be forgiven if the video is short and the message compelling. for others, quality is central to their engagement with the video. rather than suggest that one form is more accepted than the other, one participant explained: i don't think there's a single answer to that. there were some very good ones done by people at random, and there's some bloody awful ones done by government. i think both have a role.… if the subject is right, then i don't think it matters who does it, as long as they are reasonably competent. all our participants had experience using video technologies and none were resistant to the idea of increasing their use. however, many of these citizens cited age as a factor in how they, as opposed to younger people, accept and use technology. for example, when asked if they thought online videos might help build a sense of community, one participant answered: oh, i think they can. … i think that your generation, not my generation, is doing a lot of this anyway. i think facebook has done a lot of that. youtube does a lot of that. but i don't think, for my generation, the '70s and above, i don't think it does much except when we're pulled in to see something. .. i think the young kids that are coming through are more savvy with this stuff, and they will certainly want to use it better. participant use of video calls and videoconferencing participants were required to have previously used video calls or videoconferencing to be eligible for the study. more than half (56%) use video calls (e.g., skype, messenger with video) every week or so (table 3), primarily with family and friends. some know how to set up or receive video calls, whereas others have participated in calls, but do not have the technical expertise to set up or receive them. skype calls are most often made from home computers, although some participants used it when they were travelling. everyone who has used skype for an extended period commented that there has been technical improvement in the video, audio and reliability of the application over time. videoconferencing refers to more sophisticated and expensive equipment (tandberg and polycom units) in a specific room setting, often in an institutional environment. twelve of our participants (75%) never or rarely use videoconferencing (table 3) but some use it regularly, if infrequently, as part of educational, business or volunteer activities, in locations where there is technical support and participants are members of an audience who do not operate the equipment. table 3: use of videoconferencing and video calls how often do you use the technologies below? check the option that is generally applicable for each technology. never/ rarely every month or so every week or so several times a week every day video calls via the internet (ie skype, windows live messenger) 31% (5) 13% (2) 31% (5) 25% (4) videoconferencing using room unit (tandberg, polycom) 75% (12) 25% (4) many participants believe that video calls and videoconferencing are useful tools with potential applications in personal lives, business, education and volunteer work. video calls were the “next best thing to being there”, for “sharing information”, and they could potentially produce better results than phone calls. benefits were the ease with which people could get together, and that everyone can “feel connected to other participants” most of the study participants believe that if people have the technology, live video chat, video calls and videoconferencing are good ways for people living in remote and rural communities to communicate with others in more urban settings. video calls save expense and time by eliminating the need for physical travel and reducing time spent away from work. video call technologies are “…almost as good as face to face and more immediate than phone”; they “may make for better communication” and overcome distance and time barriers between distant locations in situations where “… face to face communication is very restricted. i’m thinking of nunavut”. video communication “makes it easy to communicate on a daily basis. good to monitor aging parents”. participants feel closer to the other person they are talking to when they can see a face. as one participant explained: when you're talking to people that live a thousand miles away or whatever, and you haven't seen them for a while . . . with a video you feel closer. there's closer contact with them and you don't think: well, i haven't seen that person for three years. i mean, you say: well, i saw them yesterday. so i guess your ongoing relationship is closer because of the video. video calls are enjoyable, and allow connection with both family: oh, you know, i'm a grandmother. seeing my granddaughter's little piece of art that she brings home from school, this is a crisis … you're always trying to get the little one to do it when he's being skyped. come on, now, crawl. get in the dog's dish. come on … and with friends: … when you're talking to friends, facial expressions mean a lot … i have a friend in new mexico who's an artist, so when she's finished getting some works ready to do in an exhibition, she can take me out to her studio and show me her stuff. whereas before, she'd take a digital picture and we'd put it up, … because it's not live, i can't ask her a question, so … live time, helps. in more formal settings, some participants believe there has to be a reason for the visual component in a meeting, or it can be distracting. as one participant explained: in many cases, it's the organization proving how technologically savvy it is by having access to videoconference calls. because it's there, we want to use it. … i don't know why they're not talking on the bloody phone really … why, if you're trying to demonstrate something, and if you want to show somebody how to … connect a widget to a wadget then, obviously, a picture is worth a thousand words, but if it's just a conversation, why bother? others do not see video calls as useful in their lives, and have some concerns that using video calls “… would encourage being shut in unnecessarily”. with the written comment, “helpful for students but not as effective as tim horton’s”, one participant seemed to suggest that video calls are more valuable for younger people, but that face-to-face meetings at a coffee shop are preferable. if the equipment was easy to use and adjust to the point where it was ‘invisible’ it would “… get the technology out of the consciousness and get the message”. however, the technology is not at that level of easy use, which limits how people use the technology and what they use it for. to avoid technology problems, one participant described how it is more practical to use a home computer rather than a moving or mobile connection: i know a number of people that use skype and video … but they're using it all the time from a fixed setup. you know, let's say, grandma to grandkids, right? because once you set it up … anything that you end up tearing down or putting away and then coming back to put it together, it's just not that straightforward. even though almost all of our users had high speed internet service, some still experience bandwidth and network traffic issues. they understand and accommodate network issues by scheduling calls to avoid high-traffic periods, but if the technical barriers to video communication can not be overcome, they resort to another means of communication. in one instance, our participant explained: my son's in taiwan and we were trying to use skype and getting his computer and isp running, enough bandwidth and ours, and connecting and getting the time right and everything else. he often just said: to heck with it, and phoned us. technical issues can interfere with enjoyment; when there are equipment problems, such as “making sure the blasted camera is working, which it sometimes is and sometimes isn't, and i never really have found out why. … basically, i don't really enjoy the technology very much at the level i'm operating it in.” when technical issues recur consistently, “… the bottom line is, it's such a pain in the proverbial and more often than not, i confine myself to instant messaging and writing.” and yet, if a stable connection can be made, issues with technical quality do not necessarily interfere with the call because the content takes precedence over technical clarity. as one female participant explained: “it's sort of like passport pictures … you're kind of fuzzy today, but maybe that's how you feel. i don't know. i mean, you deal with it.” we asked participants specifically about using video technology for health. most agreed that using live video chat, video calls or videoconferencing may be a way for people to communicate with health professionals. it: “might allow for longer doctor’s visits”, better access and or more timely service; savings in time waiting, travel, money, “especially for rural people. it can take a long time to travel and much could be accomplished in video chat”. a video call might cut back on the number of trips patients or clients have to make to hospitals, offices and clinics. regular video calls might be a good way for health care professionals “… to monitor changes in patients” through “regular ongoing contact”. countering this optimism, a retiree from the nursing profession commented that in her experience, doctors are only rarely the first health care professionals to incorporate technological tools into their practices. some participants thought it might be best to have certain boundaries around the technology usage. for instance, using video calls or videoconferencing in health care situations “… should be used to supplement consultations or identify need for further consultation”. another participant suggested that video would be best used only “if it is strictly an information delivery consultation”, rather than an examination or diagnostic process. another suggested that medical professionals would benefit from these technologies “… especially in atlantic canada where resources/expertise tend to be centralized” in urban settings, while much of the population lives in rural areas. discussion and conclusions this case study focuses on older citizens living in a small city in canada who are frequent users of ict. as an investigation of an under-studied population, it makes a compelling case as to why this group should be given singular attention. all the participants in our study use online video, video calls and videoconferencing on a regular basis. they are actively using online videos; for most, watching a video online to learn about news and current affairs or for entertainment and amusement is an integral part of their weekly routine. they more often post, forward and share existing videos than produce videos themselves. participants recognize the intrinsic value of video to improve a sense of connection, or increase the social presence that comes from seeing the person with whom they are communicating. our finding suggests that earlier research on ict and social presence applies to older citizens and video communications (biocca, harms & burgoon, 2003). participants who have regular contact with family and friends used video calls because the technology increased the social presence or the sense of being together in real time, whether they were in contact to discuss the artwork of a grand daughter or a friend. seeing the other person in the conversation allows engagement with a deeper connection, even after a long time had passed since they had met in person. the social presence enabled by video increased their engagement in the activity. the ability for the person to make him or herself seen on video has value, since social presence is not just about seeing other people; it is also about being seen, and presumably, heard. they could forgive some technological issues and would ‘suffer through’ poor quality of sound or image for the value of content and connection. videoconferencing is used much less frequently than video calls by the citizens in this study. they did not have direct contact with the equipment because someone else usually ran the session. psychological involvement is enhanced by videoconferences in employment or volunteer work situations, when used for demonstration or to see results of activities at other locations. in some cases, videoconferencing was seen as a useful tool that might help improve communication or resolve a problem. however, if there was no particular visual function, the visual component could be a distraction. most study participants recognize the value of social presence in video and use diverse technologies flexibly and critically. they have a functional approach to technology, but they also use it for fun. older citizens are interested in technology and the benefits it can offer, and they would likely use it more often if it better accommodated their needs. this requires adjustment to external expectations and sensitivity to internal expectations of skill development on the part of ict and instructional design. physical limitations exist, but none of the participants in our study fit the ageist stereotype of being disinterested in technology. the older citizens in this study are critical users. none had to be “convinced” that video communication has overall value, but some were sceptical about how various applications of technology would be necessary for them. they recognize the power of video to engage, inform and entertain, but would be more interested to use it if they have adequate reason and support. the value of video calls and videoconferencing was proportional to its perceived usefulness: if it improved communication, was used by a loved one or enabled demonstration of something visual, then it had value. the relative value of video communication tools is also related to their ease of use. when there were technical problems, our users would overcome barriers to use by adapting, getting training often from their children or by turning to other methods of communication such as the telephone, email and online chat. our users were aware that there could be risks and potential for abuse in online videos and video calls or videoconferences, and recommended standards, controls or safeguards be put in place to protect users. our study confirms earlier findings by broady, chan and caputi (2010) that older citizens do have internal expectations about their own ability to use technology, and that they may project that thinking on other people. while citizens may face technological barriers beyond their control that prevent them from using video more often and more fully, for some, their self-assessment is tinged with internalized ageism about their technical abilities or proclivity to use ict; they attribute the affinity for technology to younger people and their own frustration with technological challenges to their relative age, rather than other factors such as shortcomings in technological design. the potential for a technology like video communication to facilitate routine tasks and support autonomy in ways that will improve older citizens’ well-being and quality of life (gitlin, 2000, 2002) can only be realized when it is useful and properly designed to be accessible for older citizens. they will adopt and adapt it to their needs, but the long-held ‘age barrier’ to technology use would be more quickly overcome if the design process involved a wider range of user input. it should be noted that older citizens face technological barriers to use that are not only related to age, confirming earlier research by hernández-encuentra, pousada and gómez-zúñiga (2009). similar to harley (2009), our study confirmed that older citizens are often using these tools to enable intergenerational communication in both the private and public spheres of their lives. as such, these citizens have political, economic, social, and community rights and responsibilities in the new information and communication spaces created by ict. therefore, it behoves developers, marketers and researchers of communication technologies to recognize that older citizens are not a homogenous group of disempowered, under-resourced, under-skilled people; instead, they form a viable and valid group of technology users, with different patterns of adoption, adaptation and reasons for using ict than other demographic groups. this case study provides a snapshot and descriptive analysis of video communication use in a moment in time in the lives of a small group of citizens aged 55 and above, living in fredericton, new brunswick. our findings cannot be generalized to the larger population. however, our work provides an interesting starting point for involving a group of citizens in the development of a video-enabled ict that is useful and adaptable to their needs, has adequate support and training, and could be incorporated into an activity they already do. follow up studies to see whether that experience would move the use of video into other areas of their lives (i.e. if they used it in volunteer work, would they then use it at home?) would then provide useful insight into the adoption and adaptation patterns of this valuable demographic. another interesting area of research would be to address older citizens’ ambivalent relationship with audio and video quality and its relationship to content. some questions that arose during our study included: whether the expectation of good quality sound and image was the result of a life-long experience of professional video production, versus today’s youth experience with youtube videos of varying quality; whether it was a question of taste or if it was faculty-related. we found the ambivalent relationship these citizens had with technical quality and video content interesting, since there was no clear preference between user-generated and professionally-made videos. our participants were critical viewers for whom the quality of image and sound was important, but they readily forgave shortcomings in quality if the content was compelling. another interesting area of further research about usage patterns and engagement is the possibility that citizens relate to peers better than to younger people in videos. acknowledgments our study was conducted as part of the b-com (broadband communications) project at the national research council institute for information technology in fredericton, new brunswick. the authors 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(2007). canada online! the internet, media and emerging technologies: uses, attitudes, trends and international comparisons. canadian internet project, year two highlights 2007. retrieved from www.ciponline.ca reflecting on the glocal through the conceptual framework of hodges´s model peter jones intermediate support team, older adults & independent scholar lancashire care nhs foundation trust preston, lancashire, england abstract this article introduces hodges’ model which is a conceptual framework. this model will be used to explore the concept glocal and the more familiar terms local and global. these two latter terms are central to the purposes, spatial, cultural and academic diversity of community informatics in theory and practice (also associated with urban, rural and social informatics). actual and more speculative definitions of glocal are offered. the overall purpose of the article is to offer new perspectives at a conceptual level. these perspectives are of relevance to community informatics practitioners and informatics scholars generally, as they may potentially provide avenues to conjoin and integrate thought and practice across informatics communities. introduction to hodges’ model the purpose of this article is to introduce, explain and demonstrate how a conceptual framework can inform our reflections and deliberations upon three key dimensions central to community informatics: the global, local and the more recent emergence of the concept glocal. these three concepts, even if not referred to explicitly must underpin discourse within and the development of community, urban and other forms of informatics scholarship and practice. this paper aims to highlight to the reader broader aspects of global, local and glocal and the possible utility of a conceptual framework such as that presented here. the article begins by introducing hodges' model (hodges, 1989). the formulation of the model is explained, specifically its structure and how the model's four knowledge (care) domains are derived. the model's full title is hodges' health career – care domains – model, hereafter also referred to as h2cm. following this the model provides the basis for a series of brief statements that might inform some definitions of glocal. with the model introduced, readers should begin to see how the model can support reflection and interdisciplinary perspectives. the bulk of the article then explores what appear to be key themes namely: globalization, literacies, information and its technology, communication, and human rights. of the three figures, the first two support the introduction; and the final figure maps some key community informatics concepts to hodges' model. hodges’ model was developed in the context of learning disability and community mental health nursing education, with applications also in health visiting. although developed in health and social care in the 1980s by brian e. hodges, a senior lecturer (ret.) at what is now manchester metropolitan university in north west england. hodges' model can be used and applied universally. this is by virtue of the fundamental structures that the model relies upon; namely, distinguishing between the self and other plus making a distinction between phenomena that are the purview of the sciences on the one hand and the humanities on the other. this division of what is existential (i, self, others) and what is epistemological in terms of how tasks, activities and phenomena are described provides a conceptual space, a currency that once understood is readily accessible to all. pivotal to the scope of the model is informatics. the model’s basic form and structure is defined by two axes (or continua) which intersect. this basic 2 x 2 matrix form is a well-recognized device within academic and management consultancy that has been previously referred to as a johari window (lowy and hood, 2004). the model is generic with the structure giving rise to four quadrants which can be described as care, or knowledge domains. the model is literally constructed around the following questions brian hodges originally asked himself. to begin, who are the recipients of care? well, first and foremost individuals of all ages, races and creeds, but also groups of people, families, communities and populations. then hodges asked: what types of activities tasks, duties and treatments do nurses carry out? they must always act professionally, but frequently according to strict rules and policies, their actions often dictated by specific treatments including drugs, investigations and minor surgery. nurses do many things by routine, according to precise procedures. if these are classed as mechanistic, they contrast with times when healthcare workers give of themselves to reassure, comfort, develop rapport, empathy and engage therapeutically. this is opposite to mechanistic tasks and is described as humanistic; what the public usually thinks of as the caring nurse. in use this framework prompts the user to consider four major subject headings or care domains of knowledge. namely, what knowledge is needed to care for individuals groups and undertake humanistic mechanistic activities? through these questions hodges’ derived the model depicted in figures 1 and 2. figure 1. axes figure figure 2. knowledge domains informal and rather ad-hoc study of h2cm on the website http://www.p-jones.demon.co.uk/ has linked hodges’ model to person centered care, the multi-contextual nature of health, information and informatics (jones, 2004a,b). other fields of relevance include emergence, consilience (wilson, 1998), visualization in the social sciences and more recently the thought of the french philosopher michel serres (jones, 2007). h2cm was created to meet four educational objectives: 1. to produce a curriculum development tool. 2. to help ensure a global holistic assessment and evaluation. 3. to support reflective practice. 4. to reduce the theory-practice gap. the axes within h2cm create a cognitive space; a third axis projecting through the page can represent time; be that an educational, health or other ‘career’. the model's utility (its universal potential referred to above) appears to lie in large part in the way that an act of partition can simultaneously represent reductionism and holism. many other dichotomies can also be identified and represented using this framework, for example; subjective-objective, socio-technical, physico-political. taking the latter as an example community informatics is concerned with access to information technology. political activism can further funding of the same, while implemented policies facilitate physical and virtual access. what h2cm can do is prompt the user that there are three other pages to reflect and write upon. of the many ways to locate the concepts of local, global and glocal within the model we can begin by taking the model literally and reading its structure. in use the model is situated, there is a context of application. h2cm is not prescriptive: beyond the structure determining the knowledge (care) domains, the content that is placed in the model is user and situation determined. in health care the individual, a unique person is central, the model provides a conceptual space to represent a person's physical (sciences domain) and emotional – mental health (interpersonal). these two upper domains sit on the individual axis. when the model was created the 'group' was included to encompass the family unit and key relationships there – spouse, mother, guardian and the community as a dynamic care environment. the 'group' can be extended further of course, to incorporate regional, national and global health as per the auspices of governments, the united nations and world health organization. if the model can readily be identified with anything it is the ubiquitous brainstorming tool. science and technology are intrinsically linked to the concepts of local and global. this brief consideration of definitions revealed some scientific formulations of glocal. science and technology provide us with an ever extending sensory capability. hodges' model provides the basis for an atlas of thought and what is salient in a given situation. once outside the context of a medical emergency, h2cm reminds us that situations are global. there are four points to the compass, four pages to 'read' and re-cognize. the next section provides some interpretations of glocal informed by h2cm. interpretations of the glocal there is a rich interdisciplinary stock of literature in this field even if glocal is relatively new. eriksen (2001) notes: people’s lives are neither wholly global nor wholly local – they are glocal (page 302). the term glocal is also used in other disciplines such as health informatics, as per scott et al. (2004) with a glocal e-health policy: ‘glocal’ is a term that has appeared recently in the global health literature, and is a blend of ‘global’ and ‘local’. its value lies in providing a succinct reminder of a simple but profound insight—in our networked world; what happens locally has global impact, and what happens globally has local impact. reflecting on the need for tools such as hodges' model in health, okano and samson (2010) resort to quadrant form models as they describe a theoretical framework for promoting creativity in public spaces. they utilize the conceptual comparisons and dichotomies of singularity, complex, local and global. as introduced above hodges' model is a high level framework. one application is brainstorming which can be group, or in this case individual based glocal is an index. glocal is a designator of constant change. it is the nudge that pushes us to realise the need for the 'stocktake' and sustainability. glocal is the terminator the divide between the local and global that is simultaneously inclusive and exclusive. glocal is a splace (it is both physical and virtual a space and place) as such glocal lies between the dichotomies. glocal is a panoramic series of snapshots that flow from local to global and back again. glocal is the absence of a fixed point. it is a locus that is mobile, that runs through a community. glocal is a new still emerging methodology, an extended form for conceptual triangulation. an example is citizen science. glocal is the möbius strip – a topological reminder of where we are (see below). glocal is a convulsion of the internal and the external; micro and macro; the past, present and future. glocal is mobile – dynamic. glocal is valuing memory and the ability to forget. glocal has voice, reach. something i can possess – mobile communications and the solutions offered – makes the world accessible. globalization: mapping minds, commerce and resources significantly for this paper wikipedia notes that the term globalization: …was first employed in a publication entitled towards new education in 1930, to denote a holistic view of human experience in education. [author’s emphasis]. day and night are a universal experience for humanity that differs markedly through the life course and by virtue of locale. how we navigate latitude and longitude (day and night) has also greatly influenced human history and what is described as local and global. although myth has previously served to explain the unknown, myth has also been bound up with what was distant and also unknown. more pragmatically jared diamond (1997) draws attention to the significance of the lay of the land (the continents) on human development. not just in our notions of local and global, but the capacity of civilizations to survive, innovate, flourish and expand. the orientation of the major continents, that is n-s (africa) or w-e (eurasia); for diamond has had an invisible and yet critical impact upon human political, scientific, socioeconomic and cultural development. if human history is about anything, it is about how what is local has become global. from the above origins of globalization in education, the term is now strongly associated with economics, trade, markets, employment, policies and commercial goods. if community informatics is concerned with the community based interchange of information, then globalization extends to the flows of goods, capital, services and more recently labour. globalization challenges what is local, by seeking to remove the barriers to what is (usually) remote and global. the cultural, economic and socio-political literature has long debated globalization (robertson, 1995); see also part 1 held and mcgrew, 2003). there is an ongoing global outbreak of brands and branding, with a search for the 'language of business'. glocal has also emerged from this and what is termed internationalization, ensuring a product (frequently software) is adapted for foreign markets. for example, luiz et al. (2011) identify the big mac® as a truly 'glocal' food. 'new politics' must by definition be local and global. the local is equated with control, but when this lies in the form of political power we speak of the heart of government and centralization. then of course, talk of the local is all too often diminished in developing nations and rural communities globally. a role for community informatics is claimed in helping to empower indigenous peoples and communities. issues that are the focus of several schools of informatics – community, urban, social, citizen – come to the fore, such as; accessibility, equality, engagement and equity. national power alternately is evinced in the ability to project power abroad. a foreign local becomes local(e). as history testifies what is then imported is a glocal mix; not just commercial goods, but customs, culture, languages, genes and even disease (for example, european diseases to the americas) that can challenge what was previously local. a nation can exercise influence in specific continents – for resources, or strategic position only in so far as other states tolerate that movement – that muscular twitch (bland and hille, 2011). globalization, the term may be new, but as a process it has a history (hopkins, 2004). maps have played a major contribution, marking trade routes and territories. the transformation of the 3d globe into a 2d representation is an act of projection. perhaps we can liken the local and global to the sides of a strip of paper? the globe with its topography is a topological object: an oblate spheroid. imagine an operation that puts a twist into the strip. suddenly we have a möbius strip (one surface with one edge). the inside and outside swap over; is this glocal? is this why community informatics is difficult to conceptualize, since at this (global) level the community is akin to the individual? referring to the military virilio (2000) turns our usual conceptions inside out: for american military leaders, the global is the interior of a finite world whose very finitude poses many logistical problems. and the local is the exterior, the periphery, if not indeed the 'outer suburbs' of the world. for the us general staff, then, the pips are no longer inside apples, nor the segments of the middle of the orange: the skin has been turned inside out. the exterior is not simply the skin, the surface of the earth, but all that is in situ, all that is precisely localized, wherever it may be (p.10). local consumption and the market demand for rare earth elements and minerals prompts glocal formulations. suddenly, there is economic urgency to either finding new supplies, or substitutes. there are national debates on the viability of our global way of life. questions about renewable and non-renewable natural resources span the past three decades at least. does ray's (1980) optimism still reassure us globally that science and technology can find alternate processes and artificial materials? indigenous industries that are part of the global market look nervously at diminishing natural resources. we could argue that glocalization is a socioeconomic condition provoked by an injection of geopolitics. whether globalization is ultimately a treatment or side effect remains to be seen, heard and touched.. glocal and the rise of literacy forms if the origins of humans can be located in africa (marshall, 2011), then of course humanity quickly became a global phenomenon with a local, global and eventually a glocal effect. we often speak of tracing humanity’s roots and journey, but this transition from local, to global, to glocal can itself define our journey. talk of travel is often symbolised by images of crossroads. crossroads now give way to the cross-contrails? are crossroads merely a linear bisection? or do travellers create a chiasmatic junction (a crossing-over of pathways), moving like impulses flowing east-west and west-east to the glocal centre, a nexus of communities and cultures? according to cunliffe’s (2001) book about the voyages of the ancient greek explorer pytheas, early mariners navigated using a text called a periplus. providing some of the earliest recorded observational views of the world, the periplus described coastlines by landmarks, winds and topography. h2cm acts as a periplus for learners, an aide memoir and reflective tool, a space to record those initial sightings and learning encounters. the model provides placeholders for knowledge, the exact position, content and process of revision are not fixed. hodges’ model provides the coastline in template form; the context defines the topography – the landmarks. glocal is a form of co-ordination that subverts co-ordinates. as soon as we venture beyond the local and travel abroad, language and literacy assumes sudden importance. can we understand these other people – the locals? can they understand us? the very dialogue around local, glocal and global involves translation, trans-location and transcription. old literacies are challenged by new. how such encounters are resolved is rarely additive, the linguistic operation is all too frequently one of subtraction. the dislocation and ultimate oral obliteration of languages may result and is a fact of human life. globally is humanity less literate – if languages die? glocal is the realization of the telomeric property of languages. they live and die. fitness for purpose also prompting the creation of verbal artificial languages (see: journal of universal languages: http://www.unish.org/ ) and programming languages. from local to glocal – beginner to expert what is the difference? technologies furnish literacy demands of their own. literacies that force governments to acknowledge that if the population does not embrace information and communication skills and the lifelong learning that this implies then national economic performance will be compromised (european commission, 2009). figure 3 is provided to provide some indicative content that can be related to community informatics, thereby illustrating the scope and use of the model and its knowledge domains. there are a number of associations and constructs implicit in the model's structure and content. for example, each of the knowledge domains can be associated with the individual and purpose (interpersonal); process (sciences); practice (social); and policy (political) which are included in figure 3. furthermore, travelling in a clock-wise manner around the model from the interpersonal domain we can connect the knowledge domains thus: psycho-somatic, physico-political (which accentuates physical access to technology), socio-political and psycho-social. figure 3: some key concepts from community informatics, several aspects of local, global and glocal and literacy forms mapped on to hodges' model. this also highlights both local and global applications of the model. as a whole can we argue that h2cm is itself glocal? if so, glocal is both structure and content. informatics: earth and sky – searching for what is glocal as already noted the model can be used in informatics. previously, in jones (2007) the model was used to demonstrate the socio-technical structures in nursing informatics. all too often in information technology projects the technology is emphasized at the expense of human factors. figure 3 also reveals information and communication technologies as a driver for the literacy forms identified to date. the literature shows a concurrent rise in the study of informatics, with several disciplines boasting faculty, courses, papers, journals and conferences. community informatics is a prime example, but as already noted there are many examples urban, gender, social, citizen, health, nursing and others. information technology and new media forms imbue familiar concepts and relationships with new meanings; for example, friend, customer, forum, conference. burke (1984) described the process of 'casuistic stretching' "a way to navigate the vocabulary of terms and their usage, as well as their various relationships to other terms;" (dilger and rice, 2011, page xvi). with our dependence on digital telecoms space, weather may soon have a local impact – solar weather affecting satellites. bizarrely and optimistically the one thing that unites all the people's of earth is the night sky. this vault, this global progenitor of wonder, myth and meaning has been lost to the urban dwellers. each day tens, hundreds, thousands … and more local dwellers move. they give up what is rural. they press the light switch. they switch the stars off. cities are no longer local. they are conurbations, cosmopolitan complexes of post codes, geocodes, splines and hubs. the value of dark skies is now gaining voice and practice. glocal is the genie being pushed back into the bottle as the need to restore the local to the city. other movements are emerging: car free cities by 2050 as per the designs of the european commission (2011). the cure for local pollution though depends on global action. locally we turn on the pc. globally we must switch off the lights: and not just on earth day in order to see again. if global and local are defined spatially and perceptually there is a sense of permanence. can we argue therefore that what is glocal is transient? this could clearly be the case when community informatics considers the devices and forms of informational exchanges that occur. if globalization is epitomized in our digital communications then are the satellites glocal? from a community informatics perspective it is satellites that frequently facilitate information technology and communications access in rural and remote regions. satellites transit the sky and yet are permanently connected to the ground; permanent that is only for as long as they are operational. after this, bereft of fuel, they still retain kinetic energy that enables them to become space junk. statistically, we are in danger at a personal level and locally of not only being locked-in due to some clinical cerebrovascular catastrophe, but also locked-in globally as near earth orbital debris traps all our glocal deliberations (marks, 2011). the term ‘glocal’ may also articulate what has been realized in many quarters--the existence and value of the middle, or in politics the third way. this is the role of the terminator. glocal is that black-white divide; the demarcation of day – night. perhaps there is casuistic stretching here? time is the same whatever our subjective experience. the difference is that glocal has stretched 'time'. we speak of the 24-hour market. does your watch tell internet time? do you even have a watch? time is stretched. sunday newspaper magazines speak of 'quality time' so difficult for people, for families to find, to recognise. . ever closer examination of the clear back-white demarcation that is the terminator from space , shatters the global illusion: locally we see dusk, twilight. migration and the related issue of refugee status lead to a certain ‘ungainliness’ in policy as many governments have found. in 2011 the governments of italy and france sought amendments to the eu schengen area agreement to deal with exceptional circumstances. there have always been peoples who have travelled, nomadic tribes for whom local is relative. the 20th and 21st centuries thus far have been characterised by the challenge to the nomadic lifestyle as territories and the local ecosystems change. the irony here lies in the answer to the question: are migrants and refugees the true ‘glocals’? as to the local – global dimension, at a time when socioeconomically we rely on our technologically enabled glocal memories (goertzel, et al., 2010). of course that most precious form the individual, personal, local memory is being challenged by dementia. perhaps, the debate merely introduced here is reflected in the need for specialists and generalists and those that can span this divide. are they glocalists too? conclusion in this article a conceptual framework developed in health and social care education has been introduced as a prospective tool to aid reflection and debate on existing and still emerging concepts in community informatics scholarship. after explaining the rationale for the model's development, structure and content a figure (3) was provided that framed concepts germane to community informatics practitioners. as a conceptual framework h2cm may be a candidate conceptual space (or given its large scale a series of conceptual spaces) after gärdenfors (2000). this is a possible avenue for future research. cousin (2010) introduces a new avenue of research in threshold concepts. these are the initial concepts that learners new to a discipline must master in order to progress. one of the potential uses of the model is to help define the scope of nursing. that is, what are the boundaries of nursing? what are the tasks and practices that a nurse can legitimately perform? community informatics and related disciplines, such as digital humanities, can surely benefit from a tool that in helping to map the scope of a discipline can also be used to outline a curriculum. key to empowering communities is enabling individuals to realize their potential. the term ‘career’ in this model’s full title refers to the health career in the sense of ‘life chances’ [after hughes (1959)] that are afforded to a person. this health translation from individual, family: to community is clearly a characteristic shared with community informatics in theory and practice. the conclusion then is that there is a need for a generic conceptual framework to help define, differentiate and yet also conjoin what is local, global and glocal. references bland, b., hille, k. 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(1998). consilience: the unity of knowledge, london: abacus. acknowledgements i would like to express my sincere thanks to the editors and the anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions. visualisation techniques for facilitating decision making in urban planning andrew j rixon, stewart burn csiro, australia <andrew@anecdote.com.au> <stewart.burn@csiro.au> abstract public participatory geographical information systems (ppgis) are becoming widely recognised as powerful tools for informed participatory decision-making processes within urban planning projects. this paper presents a case study discussing how a ppgis software tool was designed and used to both facilitate dialogue and discussion amongst key stakeholders engaged in an urban development project and provide representation to the communities located around the development site. in particular, the paper demonstrates a new methodology for visualisation of qualitative social data which enables stakeholders to explore community perceptions and attitudes. the paper concludes by considering how this new methodology for visualizing qualitative social data may improve collaborative decision making by stakeholders as well as providing a means towards community representation and empowerment. introduction there has been a significant increase in stakeholder and community involvement in planning and management strategies since the publication of arnstein’s (1969) seminal text on citizen participation. participation is now recognised as an important component of community development and neighbourhood planning approaches. australia, as a signatory to united nations local agenda 21, has legislatively recognised local participation as fundamental to ecologically sustainable development. in particular, strong community involvement in planning processes ensures that the values and knowledge of the community is considered, which enables communities to take ownership and charter their futures in a more sustainable manner (howard 1998). to enhance the community participation in planning there is a need for geographical information systems (gis) technologies to be more amenable to public participatory processes. in this respect, public participatory gis (ppgis) applications are now emerging as ways to address such issues of stakeholder and community involvement, empowerment and governance (mccall 2003). common to ppgis approaches is the use of visualisation and mapping techniques with a group of participants to enable knowledge elicitation and interaction. visualisation is a powerful technique for breaking down the barriers of traditional communication and tapping into group creativity. in particular, as discussed by (morgan 1993), visualisation and metaphor are powerful tools for facilitating organisational change. more specifically, utilising visualisation techniques within group facilitation may provide key benefits such as: helping to support the development of ideas. helping to ensure that participants from different cultural and educational backgrounds can intuitively access the information presented. helping to include selected ideas into the group’s collective graphic memory (lugt 2000). it is unclear in general, however, whether graphic visualisation techniques (such as capturing ideas with pictures rather than words) employed in group brainstorming processes may interfere with the divergent thinking phase required in brainstorming activities. as suggested by (lugt 2000): ‘the problem appears to be that no matter how quick the sketch, making a graphic representation on paper takes more time and contemplation than simply verbalizing the idea. this evokes some kind of a first idea screening, introducing judgement into the divergent thinking phase’. interestingly, unlike the limitations provided by traditional visualisation techniques used for brainstorming within general group facilitation processes, ppgis approaches appear to provide a key strength in this area. ppgis enables residents to articulate their preferences spatially via gis, and strengthens and deepens communication about neighbourhood issues (talen 2000). indeed, local communities and residents can use ppgis very effectively to characterise their local environment and incorporate their local knowledge into the gis (talen 2000). like all group processes, ppgis benefits from a facilitator who is skilled in guiding participants through the process, enabling dialogue and discussion to emerge. as with conventional facilitation, successful outcomes for ppgis approaches are more likely with a facilitator skilled in building trust and relationships with the group participants (ball 2002). apart from managing the group’s interaction processes, the platform and technologies utilised by ppgis has seen the facilitator taking on extra responsibilities to enable participants to explore and get access to: the local area coverages available in gis. the types of neighbourhood features involved (e.g. streets, intersections). the means for basic navigation of the gis tool functionality (e.g. turn layers on and off, change scale, zoom to areas of interest). the ways in which local knowledge can be explored and evaluated within a gis context (talen 2000). as ppgis approaches find new ways to explore the experiences and perceptions of community in everyday life, such as ‘sense of place’ (pretty et al. 2003), the need for suitable, complementary visualisation approaches becomes critical. such new visualisation approaches for ppgis must recognise that notions such as the sense of place associated with particular localities and particular groups of people is often qualitative, fuzzy, metaphorical or mystical (mccall 2003). a key strength of ppgis in mapping local knowledge is its potential for gis thematic layers to reflect the social or environmental images obtained from a diverse group of participants. current gis interfaces, however, require specialist knowledge and are weak in providing general public access and usability. such interfaces provide little capacity to handle qualitative interpretations of space or capability for expression of personal ideas of place and locality. as such, enhanced capabilities for ppgis software applications are sought to support both the public participants and the ppgis facilitator in the development of better interfaces, data models, and qualitative interpretations and expressions of data (carver 2001; ball 2002). inspired by (mccall 2003) and seeking to extend the work and principles drawn from the “mapmaker’s dream of mapping the intangible” (bosworth et al. 1998), this paper addresses a new approach for including fuzzy, qualitative social data into ppgis visualisations. in particular, the paper demonstrates a technique by which qualitative social data can be visualised at the street level for an urban locale. the development of the means for the visualisation of qualitative social data within the ppgis application was created to give stakeholders and urban planning professionals the ability to consider local community perceptions and attitudes within the case study area. to facilitate scenario discussions for changes to street structure, space syntax theory was used to provide just-in-time visualisation of the impact of street changes on traffic flow throughout the urban street network. finally, this paper seeks to contribute to the field of community informatics (gurstein 2000) addressing how the use of information and communications, specifically ppgis software, may facilitate collaborative decision making regarding urban planning as well as providing an opportunity for representation and empowerment of communities within regional and urban planning environments. visualising traffic flows introduction to space syntax theory space syntax models the spatial configuration of urban spaces by using graph theory representations. such a configuration of space identifies patterns that can be used to study urban structures and human behaviour (hillier et al. 1984). street structures are generalised into space syntax models by abstracting the streets into nodes and edges, with the points of intersection between streets as edges (see figure 1). figure 1: a fictive small town and its graph representation. once the urban street structure has been ‘decomposed’ into its representative ‘graph’, the techniques of space syntax analysis can be applied. the common measures used within space syntax analysis are connectivity and integration. connectivity measures the number of nodes that interconnect a given node; in graph theory this is known as the degree. integration is a measure of a street’s mean depth within its urban environment, and is dependent on the radius (or depth) chosen. see (jiang et al. 2002) for a detailed description of these measures and how to calculate them. the integration of a node within a pedestrian network has been found to relate empirically to the amount of utilisation it receives (hillier 1996). higher connectivity nodes offer greater accessibility to a larger number of other nodes, resulting in proportionally greater utilisation. this holds true in urban street contexts as well. sreets that offer greater access to a large number of other streets act as conduits for more origin/destination pairs than streets with less connectivity. such streets consequently experience more throughput than less connected and accessible streets. integration is a quantitative measure of this connectivity applied to pedestrian movement, also known as ‘movement potential’. using this method, it is possible to analyse a whole city and produce a coloured map in which, based on the analysis, the relative importance of a particular route within the system, can be shown. as noted by (steadman 2004), space syntax theory does not in itself aim to model the absolute rates of movement in an area, but rather demonstrates a statistical distribution based on the spatial configuration. implementing space syntax to facilitate discussion of scenarios based on changes to street structure and integration within a case study area, ppgis as a software tool utilises space syntax techniques. in particular, the space syntax approach provides the capability to perform rapid, just-in-time computations to allow the visualisation of movement potentials based on the current or proposed street structure and connectivity. the key steps in implementing the space syntax model within the ppgis software were: iterate through all lines (i.e. the streets) held in the gis datafile (esri shapefile) to obtain a collection of nodes. for each node, a street intersection which shares the node defines the new edge for that particular node. calculate specific space syntax indicators such as ‘connectivity’ and ‘integration’. visualise the gis datafile by using the simple graded colour scale (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet) () which first finds the maximum value and proportionality and assigns each colour based on the lines’ space syntax score relative to this maximum value. current components for working with gis data (such as esri’s mapobjectslite control) have reached a high degree of sophistication and usability, easily enabling development and prototyping of such algorithms. figure 2 shows an example of a visualisation from a space syntax model for movement potentials based on a certain street configuration in the case study area. visualising social elements social data was collected for the case study area by using a telephone survey of participants in the area. the telephone survey was designed to allow for the investigation and determination of social indicators such as ‘sense of place’ and ‘community satisfaction’, as well as general demographics and usability statistics specific to the case study area. the telephone survey included questions allowing for: boolean (yes/no) responses: e.g. ‘do you walk in this neighbourhood?’. scaled responses (1–5: 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree): e.g. ‘i feel safe living in this neighbourhood’. qualitative responses (captured narrative): e.g. ‘what are the best things about living in this area?’1 figure 2: colour grading of movement potentials calculated by space syntax theory. the social survey data responses were stored within a microsoft access database, keyed on street name/street id. this provided a simple link to the spatial/visual data held within the gis database. thjs was also keyed on street name/street id. as discussed, the social survey allowed for a mixture of boolean, scaled and qualitative responses all of which are scored quantitatively. for each street and any given indicator, the ppgis software tool collates the scores for the set of questions which comprise the indicator, and creates an aggregate score for that indicator as applied to a particular street. the algorithm operates over the network of streets within the current gis database and then visualises all the streets and the indicator using the graded colour scale discussed previously. when an indicator is chosen which contains all boolean, scaled and qualitative responses, the algorithm first calculates the boolean score, scaled score and qualitative score for each street and then performs a simple addition operation between all the indicator component scores to form the street’s total score. future changes to the algorithm would see that weightings were used to help overcome any scale bias which may result from the simple summation operation used. table 1 demonstrates a sample set of questions which comprised a sense-of-place indicator. for each question, the response is quantified and then scored for each street in the case study area. the scored value is aggregated to form the sense-of-place indicator and then visualised based on a relative scale across all the streets contained within the entire case study area. table 1: sample questions comprising the sense-of-place indicator question type what would you say are the best things about living in this neighbourhood? great place to live qualitative people are always moving in and out of this neighbourhood scaled it is very important to me to live in this neighbourhood scaled i would be unhappy if i had to move from this neighbourhood scaled how long have you lived in this neighbourhood? scaled by choosing specific questions, it is possible for unique indicators to be created for and by participants and stakeholders. these indicators form the basis for performing visualisations within the ppgis software tool. examples of such visualisations created and used by stakeholders during a facilitated session were: traffic flow options – preferences of speed limits. traffic flow options – preferences of pedestrian overpass. sense of place – overall. community satisfaction – overall. community satisfaction – based on services. figure 3 illustrates an example of a visualisation of the sense-of-place indicator within the case study region. the simple colour-coding technique employed within the space syntax visualisation was used to present gradations for the indicator. figure 3: visualisation of total sense of place in survey area. conclusions design principles are emerging to aid in building more usable systems from the perspective of both the end users, as well as providing tools for more seamless group facilitation. a design philosophy proposed for building ‘tools which inform dialogue debate and deliberation’ emphasises a key technique of progressive revelation of information to the user (pereira et al. 2005). the ppgis software tool described in this paper followed this design principle by: integrating social data with gis data. utilising simple colour scaling to visualise features and ‘indicators’ on the gis map. providing the capacity for the ppgis facilitator to design flexible visualisation queries that allowed for ‘real-time’ exploration of the social data/perceptions by stakeholders. the design technique of progressively revealing levels of detail within the application demonstrated simplicity and usability amongst a varied group of participants. in particular, the simple colour grading used to visualise both movement patterns and the social perceptions and attitudes from the case study area, provided a useful way to engage stakeholders in discussions on the effects of changing street structure within their local areas of interest, as well as providing access to the virtual community represented within the ppgis software. this paper has considered a case study demonstrating how ppgis software provided a visualisation tool aiding group facilitation, contributing to stakeholder decision making and discussion in urban planning scenarios. moreover this approach has provided a means for community representation amongst the key stakeholders and decision makers. the ability to capture and visualize a community’s social data provides a powerful means for representation of that community in board level discussions. we found this representation to be invaluable in helping stakeholders to develop a real understanding and appreciation of their communities. finally, the ability to visualize a community’s social data provides a powerful means for engagement of the community itself in dialogue and understanding around core issues and aspects of urban planning and development. such engagement is the first step to community empowerment, a strong basis by which communities and urban planning professionals can charter their way towards a sustainable future. appendix a question type question scaled 1-5 (strongly disagree-strongly agree) it is very import to me to live in this neighbourhood scaled 1-5 (strongly disagree-strongly agree) people are always moving in and out of this neighbourhood scaled 1-5 (strongly disagree-strongly agree) i don't have much confidence about the future of this area scaled 1-5 (strongly disagree-strongly agree) this is a good place for children to grow up scaled 1-5 (strongly disagree-strongly agree) i feel safe living in this neighbourhood scaled 1-5 (strongly disagree-strongly agree) it is easy for me to get to where i need to go in my neighbourhood scaled 1-5 (strongly disagree-strongly agree) there is not much to do in this area scaled 1-5 (strongly disagree-strongly agree) i would be unhappy if i had to move from this neighbourhood scaled 1-5 (strongly disagree-strongly agree) this area is well maintained scaled 1-5 (strongly disagree-strongly agree) people here would get together to protect the interests of the neighbourhood boolean do you rollerblade in this neighbourhood for enjoyment? boolean do you jog in this neighbourhood for enjoyment? boolean do you cycle in this neighbourhood for enjoyment? boolean do you walk in this neighbourhood for enjoyment? boolean visit for: aboriginal cultural centre boolean visit for: sporting events boolean visit to see what's happening boolean visit for: fun and recreation boolean visit for: peace and quiet qualitative what are the things that you least like about living in this neighbourhood? qualitative why did you move here? qualitative what would you say are the best things about living in this neighbourhood? qualitative what activities do you do in this neighbourhood for enjoyment? scaled 1-5 (highly unsatisfactory-highly satisf) the control of traffic in your area scaled 1-5 (highly unsatisfactory-highly satisf) the opportunities for young people's recreation in your neighbourhood-for example, skateboard parks scaled 1-5 (highly unsatisfactory-highly satisf) the condition of parks in your neighbourhood scaled 1-5 (highly unsatisfactory-highly satisf) the accessibility of these services to you scaled 1-5 (highly unsatisfactory-highly satisf) the range of different shops and services in your neighbourhood scaled 1-5 (highly unsatisfactory-highly satisf) the variety of different green areas in your neighbourhood scaled 1-5 (highly unsatisfactory-highly satisf) the level of traffic noise in your neighbourhood scaled 1-5 (highly unsatisfactory-highly satisf) the walking distance to shops from where you live references ball, j. (2002). "towards a methodology for mapping 'regions for sustainability' using ppgis." progress in planning 58: 81-140. bosworth, m. and j. donovan (1998). "a mapmakers dream : public involvement applications utilization of gis." ncgia specialist meeting on "empowerment, marginalization, and public participation gis" (http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/varenius/ppgis/papers/). carver, s. (2001). "participation and geographical information: a position paper." position paper for the esf-nsf workshop on access to geographic information and participatory approaches using geographic information. gurstein, m. (2000) community informatics: enabling communities with information and communications technologies, idea group publishing, hershey pa hillier, b. (1996). space is the machine, cambridge university press, cambridge, england. hillier, b. and j. hanson (1984). the social logic of space, cambridge university press, cambridge. howard, d. (1998). "geographic information technologies and community planning: spatial empowerment and public participation." ncgia specialist meeting on "empowerment, marginalization, and public participation gis" (http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/varenius/ppgis/papers/). jiang, b. and c. claramunt (2002). "integration of space syntax in gis: new perspectives for urban morphology." transactions in gis 3(6): 295-309. lugt, r. v. d. (2000). "developing a graphic tool for creative problem solving in design groups." design studies 21: 505-522. mccall, m. k. (2003). "seeking good governance in participatory-gis: a review of processes and governance dimensions in applying gis to participatory spatial planning." habitat international 27: 549-573. morgan, g. (1993). imaginization: the art of creative management, sage publications. pereira, a. g., s. c. quintana, et al. (2005). "gouverne: new trends in decision support for groundwater governance issues." environmental modelling and software 20: 111-118. pretty, g. h., h. m. chipuerb, et al. (2003). "sense of place amongst adolescents and adults in two rural australian towns: the discriminating features of place attachment, sense of community and place dependence in relation to place identity." journal of environmental psychology 23: 273–287. steadman, p. (2004). "developments in space syntax." environment and planning b: planning and design 31: 483 486. talen, e. (2000). "bottom-up gis : a new tool for individual and group expression in participatory planning." journal of the american planning association 66(3): 279-294. 1 for a listing of the questions asked in the case study see appendix a. preserve the anonymity of the case study area used, some questions have been removed. bridging the digital divide: a bilingual interactive health kiosk for communities affected by health disparities kristen bean, olga davis, hector valdez introduction although many factors contribute to the gaps in health outcomes and access to health care, the minimal access to health information on the internet experienced by underserved communities has contributed to health disparities (kreps, 2009; moiduddin & moore, 2008). the u.s. department of health and human services (hhs) has identified health information technology as a means to improve the health and health care of the underserved (moiduddin & moore, 2008). this suggestion was based on the association found between receiving health information through technology and increased health status. for example, racial and ethnic minorities and people with low-income tend not to use technological sources to obtain health information and have worse health outcomes than racial and ethnic majorities (lorence, park, & fox, 2006; moiduddin & moore, 2008). the significant difference found in the use of technology to receive health information is often referred to as a digital divide. the digital divide is the gap between people who have and do not have access to the latest technology tools and the educational opportunities tied to this access. the divide is growing along racial lines (kreps, 2005). kreps (2005) noted that the digital divide has led to significant health disparities, or differences in health and health care across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. the use of computerized kiosks containing health information in accessible spaces for communities affected by health disparities is a new concept. moiduddin & moore (2008) reported that there is minimal research that has assessed the prevalence of use and attitudes of underserved communities towards the use of information technologies. only a few studies on the use of interactive kiosks for underserved communities were found. two research studies on the use of bilingual, interactive kiosks showed significant differences among spanish-speaking users; one study had only 16% spanish-speaking respondents (leeman-castillo, corbett, aagaard, et. al., 2007), while another had 50% spanish-speaking respondents (guanipa, nolte, & lizarraga, 2002). these studies do not explain reasons for the significant difference between spanish-speaking users and what aspects of the different kiosks affected the prevalence of use. there are several reasons why underserved communities do not use information technologies. some reasons include concern about confidentiality, disclosure, and privacy. zeng, reynolds, and sharp (2009) reported that there is a trade-off between the accessibility that technology provides and confidentiality of personal information. for example, community members often need support when they are using a technology for the first time. if a community member is typing confidential information into a computer and needs support, the person supporting them could possibly see their confidential information. technologies that provide health information should explicitly reveal where the information was gathered. a study of seventeen internet users revealed that none of them checked for disclosure statements while searching for health information on the internet (eysenbach & kohler, 2002). it appears that internet users blindly accept information gathered via the internet, while research shows that non-users are more cautious. a study of patients with type 2 diabetes showed that patients who did not regularly use the internet were 20% more likely than internet users to have privacy concerns related to technology (watson, bell, kvedar, et. al., 2007). underserved and minority communities are often served by community health centers (chcs) with limited funding and training to provide electronic forms of communication. in general, social service professionals have not used technology as often as other professions due to their belief that technologies are not helpful to their work and their lack of self-efficacy with technology use (zhang & gutierrez, 2007). chcs provide medical services to people who are uninsured or insured by medicaid because of limited income. a study of chcs throughout the united states revealed that 75% of these people did not use electronic health records, which are the most commonly used form of health information technology in medical offices (shields, shin, leu, et. al., 2007). it is important to assess the effectiveness of interactive health kiosks in providing health information for underserved communities, because social service professionals could benefit from clients' utilization of interactive health kiosks to obtain health information. social service professionals often have large caseloads and limited time to explain health information to clients. although social service professionals have been concerned that using information technology could prevent the maintenance of a therapeutic relationship with clients, they should consider the benefit that technology brings to geographically isolated clients (csiernik, furze, dromgole, et. al., 2006). for example, eighty-five percent of social workers work in metropolitan areas, while there are many people in need of services outside metropolitan areas (national association of social workers, 2006). the participants in this study lived in areas with limited access to services, which is associated with health disparities. there are also limited bilingual social workers (national association of social workers, 2006); therefore, a bilingual interactive health kiosk could greatly benefit spanish-speaking clients' access to health information in their first language. in moving towards the development of kiosks placed in communities affected by health disparities, qualitative data provides more description of community attitudes toward the kiosk technology. one qualitative study of the attitudes towards the use of a kiosk was found. this research analyzed the community's feedback to a cardiovascular disease prevention website and kiosk designed for latinos. themes of community feedback include, but are not limited to: information should be easy to read, targeted for the population, and interactive/animated (padilla, bull, raghunath, et. al., 2010). although these findings cannot be generalized to other communities, they help to guide the development of future kiosks for communities affected by health disparities. theoretical implications community based participatory research (cbpr) is an approach that emphasizes equitable partnerships and promotes the sharing of power, knowledge and resources between investigators and research participants in all stages of research and application. this approach highlights a commitment between partners (community and research) and utilizes an ecological perspective that identifies multiple determinants of health. cbpr is built on the principle that when users of research are brought in from the very beginning of the research-planning process, studies lead to stronger findings that are more practical and relevant to community needs. cbpr draws on four key principles in engagement of the community: 1) engage in collaboration and equitable partnerships in all phases of research; 2) build on the resources and goals already present in the community; 3) create and invest in long-term and robust partnerships; and 4) engage in research as a cyclical, iterative process (schmittdie, et al, 2010). the ecological perspective is appropriate when using cbpr, because it includes an examination of the determinants of health from the individual, community, and policy levels. rather than looking at isolated events, the ecological perspective looks at the context in which events occur (bronfenbrenner, 1979). negative health outcomes are not blamed on individuals but they are examined within the context in which they take place. the ecological perspective takes into consideration the physical environment, the social, cultural, and historic context of individuals. in this study we proposed that the community be defined as people living in communities affected by health disparities, health system leadership, community stakeholders and clinic staff. this study presents examples of ways in which community feedback and participation may be integrated in research. the role of culture cultural relevance and culturally appropriate services are important components to effective healthcare services and research strategies, particularly in cbpr. there are different ways to consider culture in underserved populations. the most common way is to consider the ethnicity of a particular underserved group, such as the hispanic/latino community. while ethnic and minority groups are never homogenous, there are always cultural components based on shared norms, values, and beliefs that render one's world view and can conversely also affect one's sense of health and health care. research focusing on cultural factors in hispanic/latino communities has often cited cultural factors such as familismo, personalismo, respeto, and simpatia as cultural considerations for working with hispanic/latino communities. according to marin and marin (1991), familismo is "a cultural value that involves individuals' strong identification with and attachment to their nuclear and extended families, and strong feelings of loyalty, reciprocity, and solidarity among members of the same family". personalismo is defined by paniagua (1994) as an orientation toward people rather than toward impersonal relationships. it is alleged that mexican americans relate more to people than to impersonal (institutional) relationships. huerta and macario (1999) define "simpatia" as the need for smooth interpersonal relationships in which criticism and confrontation are discouraged; "respeto" is defined as the need to maintain one's personal integrity and allow for face-saving strategies. such cultural characteristics can have dramaic effects on a community's concept of health, health promotion, prevention, and treatment. other research in counseling latino alcohol and substance abusers (gloria, 1996), prevention of aids among hispanics (marin 1989), treating diabetes in the hispanic population (2005), cultural constructs of acculturation (cuellar, 1995), and parental control (halgunseth, 2006) has shown that cultural characteristics have impacted the medical and health treatment process. method bilingual interactive kiosks containing information on hiv/aids, mental health, and substance use were placed in the waiting areas of two community centers in the phoenix metropolitan area. a description of the development of the websites and information on the kiosks is described in a previous publication (davis, mcbride, bean, in-press). the kiosks were strategically placed at these sites based on community partnerships working together with researchers to identify the placement of the technology to best serve communities affected by health disparities. community centers supported the use of the interactive health kiosk for its additional resource to community members to access health information. the interactive health kiosks included a: 1) website of information on hiv/aids, mental health, and substance use, 2) frequently asked questions page where participants would anonymously ask questions and answers would be posted on the website within 3 days, and 3) needs assessment survey requesting demographic and health information. the kiosks also addressed ethical issues, such as privacy, confidentiality, and disclosure (jones, 2009). it employed a privacy screen which blocks the view of surrounding people and is viewed only by the individual standing directly in front of it. confidentiality was ensured in several ways. no personal information, such as name or address, was collected anywhere on the website on the kiosk. the kiosk also automatically reset to the homepage after sitting idle for a couple of minutes. because the kiosk included sensitive information on subjects such as hiv/aids, it is important that new users do not know what parts of the kiosk previous users have accessed. the website did not save any history of previously viewed pages. each page on the website of the kiosk included a disclosure statement about where the information was gathered. interactive parts of the kiosk, such as the frequently asked questions (faq) page, also included a disclosure statement and encouraged users to seek professional medical advice. between september 2009 and march 2010, the investigators collected qualitative data through kiosk visit observations and interviews. two investigators conducted bi-monthly visits (n = 26) to the interactive health kiosks. individual unstructured interviews were conducted with community members in the community center lobbies. community members waiting in the lobbies during bi-monthly visits were encouraged to use the kiosk and were provided with an explanation of the kiosk's purpose. the community members were asked different questions, such as "have you ever used the kiosk before?", "did you take the needs assessment on the website?", and "what would make the kiosk more attractive to use?" we also received anonymous questions (n = 11) through the faq page of the kiosk. we posted bilingual responses to the questions on the faq page on the kiosk. results the two community health center waiting areas consisted of diverse populations of males and females, caucasian, african american, hispanic/latino, and native american people at each site visit. due to many people coming in and out of lobbies for appointments, the exact population of community members that were available to interview is unknown. a sample of community members (n = 100) participated in unstructured interviews and/or were observed in the health center lobbies. four themes emerged from the unstructured interviews and observations of community members' interface with the interactive health kiosks: 1) market to people with lower health literacy, 2) address community wants and needs, 3) be conscious of computer competency, and 4) be sensitive to participants' response to technological support. market to people with lower health literacy many community members did not understand the function of the kiosk. the kiosk is a black box with a clear screen on the front that shows a computer screen above a keyboard. a large bright yellow sign was placed on the kiosk that simply reported "receive health information here" in english and spanish and described how to change the language from english to spanish. regardless of the information signs, people continued to confuse the kiosk for other things. one person commented that it looked "like a job application machine at wal mart." another person asked, "is it to pay bills? what is it?" during the site visits, the site visitors would explain the purpose and function of the interactive health kiosk to community members. the site visitors observed that community members who had previously received explanations of the kiosk would forget the purpose. a young hispanic woman who had been present for the majority of site visits surprised the site visitors by commenting that the kiosk was for "something like health, right?" visual signs and verbal explanations by site visitors did not clarify the function of the kiosk to some community members with lower health literacy. community members also suggested the kiosk needed to be more visually attractive to attract users. an accent health television, which featured short shows with celebrities discussing different health conditions and thought-provoking quizzes about exercising and healthy eating habit, was in one of the kiosk site areas. the accent health television engaged the majority of the community members waiting in the lobby, while the black box appearance of the kiosk prevented community members' being interested in it. the homepage of the website on the kiosk had pictures and text describing the website. a young man at the site which housed the accent health television observed that "the kiosk looks boring." he proposed it needed "stickers on it or a cool screen saver" to attract people's attention. an interactive health kiosk must include visual and auditory stimulation in order to attract people with lower health literacy. address community wants and needs many community members reported that mental health, hiv/aids, and substance use were topics that were important to them. a young african american woman reported that it was good that the website "hit three major topics" [mental health, hiv/aids, and substance use] in a short period of time. on the frequently asked questions (faq) page, kiosk participants were asked what topic was most helpful on the kiosk. most participants reported that mental health (n = 6) was the most helpful topic. community members also asked the site visitors about personal mental health issues (n = 3). one kiosk user asked an anonymous, personal question about her medication for a mental illness on the faq page: "it seems to me that i am unable to find a combination, or singular medication, that works for me without a myriad of side effects, mostly nausea... will i ever be able to accomplish this?" drugs was also reported as a helpful topic (n = 5), but no one inquired about substance use in person or on the faq page. while only one participant reported that aids was the most helpful topic and no community members inquired about hiv/aids in person, three other participants asked individual questions on hiv/aids on the faq page. one participant asked "what others ways can you get hiv/aids… by kissing someone of any races or share something with someone? or anything so i can keep myself safe." although the kiosk only contained information on mental health, hiv/aids, and substance use, community members inquired in person and on the faq page about other issues. kiosk participants inquired about employment, cancer, flu shots, and pregnancy. community members also asked the site visitors if the kiosk provided information on jobs and flu shots in the community. inquiries regarding cancer and pregnancy, which were more personal, were asked on the faq page. one kiosk user asked "how do you know that you're pregnant? what symptoms are you supposed to go through if you are pregnant?" the person who posted this inquiry may have been afraid to ask the question in person, so the faq page provided the community member with a safe, confidential place to inquire about a personal issue. community members also reported their needs in order to use the kiosk. some people reported that there was no incentive to use the kiosk or take the needs assessment survey on the website. one woman passionately expressed that she had filled out survey after survey and each one offered to bring services to the community, but the services never came. after taking the needs assessment survey, a young man reported: "i answered 24 questions and got nothing." this implies the importance of building rapport and credibility with the community before providing an intervention for the community. the kiosk users also reported that they needed a stool to sit on and large font in order to use the kiosk. the kiosk screen that we used was approximately at eye-level while a person was standing, but community members felt that could not stand long enough to receive all of the information on the website or to take the needs assessment survey. community members also reported that the font on the kiosk was too small. although kiosk users had the option to change the size of the font, the primary font was increased to accommodate the needs of kiosk users. be conscious of computer competency the major reason why community members did not want to use the kiosk was their reported intimidation of computers. hispanic/latino and african american community members were more likely to report their dislike of or intimidation by computers. when invited to use the kiosk, community members reported: "no way, i don't touch those things" and "i don't know how. my kids do, but not me." although site visitors were there to assist community members to use the kiosk, community members who reported feeling intimidated by computers immediately responded with strong resistance to the idea of using the kiosk some kiosk users did not know how to use the mouse to scroll up and down to view the entire website. a suggestion to address intimidation in using the kiosk included using a touch screen kiosk. be sensitive to participants' response to technological supports overall the community members responded well to the site visitors, were naturally curious about why the site visitors were there, and the purpose of the kiosk. site visitors received comments from community members regarding the kiosks, such as: "it's great that you're trying to do good for people" and "that's pretty cool!" a hispanic/latina woman who had been present in the lobby during many site visits inquired, "how's that computer thing going?" and reported that she took the needs assessment the other day. the community members' friendliness and willingness to interact with the site visitors reflected acceptance of the site visitors and the technological support that the site visitors provided. although community members were friendly and inquired about the kiosk while the site visitors were present, they were less likely to use the kiosk and take the needs assessment on the kiosk while site visitors were present. for example, a hispanic woman who had been present for many site visits reported taking the needs assessment on a day when the site visitors were not present. an electronic tracking system of the needs assessment surveys showed that many surveys were taken after kiosk site visits were conducted. this indicates that community members were more comfortable using the kiosk when site visitors were not present, which may reflect privacy concerns. discussion this interactive health kiosks study informs future engagement in the development of interactive health kiosks and other informational technologies using cbpr with underserved communities. the implications were discussed based on the four components of cbpr: 1) engage in collaboration and equitable partnerships, 2) build on resources and goals already in the community, 3) create and invest in long-term partnerships, and 4) engage in research as a cyclical process. this interactive health kiosk study engaged in collaboration and equitable partnerships and provided outreach efforts for community participation by visiting the two community kiosk sites in the phoenix metropolitan area. since many of the community members who used the kiosks were not computer competent, site visitors invited community members to use the kiosk and helped community members to use them. if needed, community stakeholders, such as social workers, may need to receive training on the kiosk as well. the site visitor was sometimes able to help participants to feel at ease and show them how to use the kiosks. community stakeholders, who already have built rapport, may be a better resource to provide community members with support on an interactive kiosk. the feedback received from community participants will continue to be used to update the kiosk site and make it more sensitive to the needs of the community. semi-annual focus groups will engage community members and stakeholders for feedback on experiences with the website and suggestions for change and on-going development of the website. the goals of the communities with which our study engaged indicated a desire and need for increased health literacy in the areas of mental health, substance use, and hiv/aids. this information was originally provided on the kiosks. as community goals change, the intervention should adapt. for example, during the development of the kiosk website, the economy began to limit resources available to the community. also, a flu epidemic threatened the community. information was added to the kiosk on resources that were available to the communities that used the kiosks, such as flu vaccine locations, in addition to the original information on mental health, substance use, and hiv/aids. although it can sometimes be difficult and time consuming to adapt interventions based on communities needs, it is critical to cbpr and to fulfilling the needs of the community. the outreach efforts for the interactive health kiosks strengthened the long-term relationship between the research partners and the community. community organizations and stakeholders were engaged and asked to express their needs related to supporting the community with health. community organizations were grateful to receive the kiosks at their community center locations because they were a part of the process of developing the information on the kiosks. the participating community organizations were consulted regularly and their responses to their requests for changes to the kiosks were shown through changes to the kiosk. for example, one community stakeholder and manager of a participating community organization requested an increased font size option on the site. this change was made to the website, and the stakeholder was informed. continuous contact will be made with community stakeholders will be made to maintain a relationship with the community and provide a needed and effective intervention to the community. the kiosk may not be effective in impacting health disparities alone. a cyclical relationship with the community will provide information to research other strategies to intervene in communities affected by health disparities. therefore, although the findings of this study can be used as a guide or starting point for future developments of health kiosks in other communities, not all of the findings will be generalizable and applicable to other communities. for example, some findings were similar to a previous study on kiosks, yet some needs of the community were different (padilla, bull, raghunath, et. al., 2010). community members should be engaged to learn about the unique needs that the kiosk can address in other communities. in addition to lessons learned regarding engaging underserved communities during the cbpr process, this study of bilingual interactive health kiosks indicated that information technologies can benefit underserved communities if they are culturally appropriate. the kiosks provided an opportunity to provide health information to people who had limited access to health information. the participants took advantage of the site visitors' support to teach them how to use the kiosk, while participants also benefitted from opportunities to confidentially use the kiosk. the kiosks created a space for participants to ask questions that they would not usually trust to ask in person. this was an unexpected advantage to information technology. while this study demonstrated that diverse communities may use health kiosks, a limitation of this study is that we were unable to track how many users were spanishand english-speaking. ip addresses can be used to track this information, yet wireless ip addresses prevented us from tracking how many people accessed the spanish and english versions of the website on the kiosk. barriers to use must be removed before some underserved communities will utilize information technologies. although it appears that some community participants trusted the information technology and believed that the questions they asked on the faq page were confidential, other community participants expressed a lack of trust in the kiosk and technology in general. social service professionals need to be conscious of certain populations' lack of experience and distrust with technologies. it can be helpful to have a social worker or direct support staff who has built rapport with the community to introduce the technology to establish the community member's confidence in technology. participants also suggested that touch screen computers may be used for kiosks, which could increase the usability of the kiosk for people who struggle with computer literacy. in addition, content displayed on the computer screen of the kiosk may look like communication tools other than computers, such as books or pamphlets, which could increase familiarity among most people who are not computer literate. finally, it can be helpful to employ a community advisory board (cab) that offers 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"information technology acceptance in the social services sector context: an exploration." social work, 52(3), 221-231. qualitative research without money: experiences with a home-grown qualitative content analysis tool andy bytheway adjunct professor of information management, faculty of informatics and design, cape peninsula university of technology, south africa. email: andy.bytheway@gmail.com background even if they receive bursaries, a majority of research students in south africa (and many elsewhere) work with very little money to cover their research expenses. this is a small but significant feature of the digital divide that denies access to resources that are needed by those living and working in difficult circumstances. the research tools that are commercially available are impossibly expensive for the average research student on the african content and therefore remain a dream for many of them. it is surprising that many african universities have not yet undertaken to provide the sorts of facilities that are widely needed, by means of "site" licences, thus leaving each researcher to do what they can, within their own resources. but there is another perspective on the use of these tools that does not concern funding: experience with two commercially available qualitative research tools (in two doctoral and two masters research projects) suggests that sometimes little of value is actually gained. this is not an indictment on the capability of the tools, rather it is a comment on the ability or willingness of researchers, and their supervisors, to step up and develop a proper capability to learn about and deploy these tools effectively. this may be something to do with problematic educational backgrounds (on the one hand) and needless complexity and sophistication of the software tools (on the other), but what is certain is that these tools are quite outside the capability of a researcher using the standard personal-productivity "office" suite. a combination of research and data management competencies seems to be essential, more than come from routine personal use of a pc for research purposes. this is not a research paper, and so there is no attempt here to provide the detailed evidence that would substantiate these perceptions of difficulty. instead, the paper reports on one initiative that took a pragmatic stance, looked inquisitively and critically at the actual capability of the microsoft office suite, and set out to develop a basic tool the "qualitative content analyser" that could match the essential features of the commercially available packages, and be made available to research students at no cost. as will be shown, this was a successful initiative that brought useful and unexpected benefits. research in a disadvantaged context four research projects in cape town each presented a relatively large volume of research data that needed to be analysed: a funded study of teaching with technology in six schools in cape town, a masters study of e-participation (also in cape town), a series of conversations with educators in different countries around the world, and, a doctoral project looking at the "africanisation" of south african retailers. taken together, these projects led to a volume of interview data that took some hundreds of hours to transcribe and that challenged all those involved to analyse the data so as to begin to produce useful outputs. working all of the potential meaning out of the evidence remains a task that is yet to be completed. the "teaching with technology" project alone generated some 52 interviews that required more than 400 hours of team effort to transcribe. in each of these cases, the prototype "qualitative content analyser" was used and allowed useful outputs to begin to be produced. this was the context for the project. the remainder of this paper now reviews qualitative research (in the briefest possible way), examines the tools that are available to support it (including the new analyser), and presents some evidence as to how it works and what it does for the researcher. qualitative research (in a nut shell) to find standard texts on the origins of research in the social sciences we must reach back to the 1980s and beyond (for example rummel & ballaine, 1963, and howard & sharp, 1983, as cited in gill & johnson, 2002), but some of the earliest work that laid foundations for modern qualitative analysis can be attributed to schutz (schutz, 1959). at a time when our understanding of data structuring and concepts of data normalisation were at best primitive, schutz based his explanation of qualitative analysis around something he called the "denotatum" (plural "denotata"). his essential idea was that when we study something typically text but possibly images or other sources we recognise an idea, or a concept, that is denoted by a short section of the text or by elemental ideas that the evidence signifies. his ideas positioned the denotatum as a "first order construct", that denoted a more significant thing we can refer to as the "second order construct" what today we call a "category" that can be designated by a "code". some of schutz's more interesting work concerned the reliability of categorisation, and he argued that in order to attribute a category to the source (through the denotatum) it is necessary to have "criteria" that validate, or legitimise, the attribution. in an example dealing with the categorisation of comic strips in the usa, he developed a tree structure where each node becomes the criterion for the next categorisation: figure 1: categorising comic strips (schutz, 1959) for the present purpose we can avoid a discussion of why schutz might have wanted to do this research, but we are reminded how tortuous things were in the 1950s; not only is schutz unable to refer to the idea of the "binary tree" to help us understand how he is thinking, the typesetter must have worked for some time to lay out the words and lines in the original figure. nevertheless, this is an interesting indication of what was to come that we would want open-ended tree structures and networks to accommodate the complex coding structures of modern social research. if we refer to a more recent example, in a series of conversations with educators around the world (that we will see more of later) a retired engineer running computer classes in a "senior citizens club" in the usa was asked why senior citizens come to learn about computers, and he said ... a lot of times their children or grandchildren have bought a new computer, and they give the old one to grandma or grandpa, and they have no idea what to do with it! some of them determine that they just have to learn about it, others are very tentative. [retired engineer, pensioners' club, los angeles, 2011/05/01] we gain a little insight on a first reading, but of course we have to dig deeply to get the most from a monologue such as this. consider the assertion that "they have no idea what to do with it!". this is a comment on the state of mind or capability of the senior citizen, and we might code this as denoting some aspect of a category we call learner capability. adopt the terminology first used by schutz, wherein he uses the word "denotatum" to indicate the unit of meaning that associates a chunk of text with a category, we summarise the categorisation thus: of course, whether you consider "learner capability" to be an arbitrary idea, or something already defined by specialist educators, or something that needs to be measured in a quantitative way, all depends on the definitions of the categories in use and the objectives of the research. and there are many other meanings in this short extract, even to choose just the words "new computer" puts a whole different slant on things, hinting that there are issues of technology availability, ownership and use. these open questions are indicative of the mental gymnastics that every qualitative researcher has to go through and they justify what strauss and corbin refer to as "micro analysis" (strauss & corbin, 1998, p.p.57 et sec) the minute examination of and reflection on, every word and phrase in a text, and every possible meaning. in the example of the senior citizen's club, we might find from a reading of the full transcript that the structuring of categories in the way that schutz did it is something like this: figure 2: one way of starting to think about the computer classes but immediately we can see some of the issues. this is not just about binary trees, a "parent" node might have many "children". there might be many levels. some concepts recur, as in the case of professional (which occurs on both sides). some are singular (teacher, learner) but some are quantifiable and may have to be further refined to indicate how many hours are available (full time, part time), or into what kind of "part time" they fit. then, we realise that all we actually have here is demographic data, and it hardly begins to touch the issues of why gramps comes to class, and what his children's children had to do with it. the state of play today it is surprising that many of the standard texts on research methods pay so little attention to this question of coding and categorisation. to take a small sample (conveniently located on the shelf at the author's left shoulder) some books make no mention of coding at all (huysamen, 1994; gill & johnson, 2002) and others reduce it to a single entry in a glossary in an appendix (saunders et al., 2009); one useful source when getting started is anol bhattercherjee's free-to-download book that introduces social science research (bhattacherjee, 2012), wherein he explains some of the basics. but the definitive text book that is usually referenced today, is based in grounded theory and takes a broad sweep across the length and breadth of qualitative research (strauss & corbin, 1998). even though strauss and corbin offer the "basics of qualitative research" their treatment of coding is extensive, detailed, and quite forbidding to the novice researcher who has no experience of the qualitative research and its practice. hence, a serious problem faced by research students is the huge variety of possible sources of help and guidance concerning qualitative content analysis methods, the wide variation in approach, and the lack of detail or practical advice. at one end of the spectrum is the sometimes fierce academic debate around grounded theory (glaser & strauss, 1967), at the other are the summary overviews specifically written for students (such as saunders et al., 2009 already quoted). at the seriously academic end of the business of research the long-term debate about the place of qualitative research in the wider milieu of information systems research continues (myers & klein, 2011). some of the clarity that was offered in the early days by schutz and others has been lost in the more recent debates; when one looks at specific examples (graneheim & lundman, 2004) it is not at all clear that the application of the approach is done with sufficient clarity and discipline. so, what are research students to do? at the heart of qualitative research is the material that comes from interviews, documents, and correspondence. in the simplest possible terms, the analysis of the data that comes from this kind of research is done by deconstructing the material gathered into components of text, that can then be categorised as single units; when done, the coding allows the extent of the evidence in different categories to be assessed and themes to be developed that represent the output from the analysis. and hopefully a basis of the final results to come from the research. hence, we have a simple arrangement of ideas (see figure 3 below): text is de-constructed into components, or "chunks" chunks are allocated to "categories" categories are used to develop "themes" based on significance and patterns themes may also be informed by the occurrence of words it would be normal to regard words as the atomic or smallest indivisible unit of analysis, but specific applications or interpretations of the technique work in detail with phrases as well as words, and with synonyms and antonyms; some of the commercial analysis software claims to work at truly atomic levels, for example at the level of individual pixels in an image. here, however, we will avoid all of those complications and atomic details. we are looking for a comprehensible idea that will assist young research students who are just starting work with qualitative content analysis. figure 3: a simple representation of qualitative content analysis of text one detail, however, is very important. if we are to accommodate the above structuring of ideas into a software tool, we have to pay attention to the design of the data that will serve the analysis process. applying the rules of data normalisation, we find two many-to-many relationships that must be resolved: a chunk may indicate many categories, and a category will accommodate many chunks; further, a chunk will contain many words, and a word may occur in many chunks. the latter (words in many chunks) we can live with for the moment, but the former needs attention. hence, adopting the notations of an entity relationship model, we have: figure 4: data design for qualitative content analysis this is a viable data model for the design of a simple database that can contain our research data. commercial tools that support research at this point we can ask how the technology of the modern computer can help us. this is not the place to go into a detailed discussion of the available tools, but it might be useful at least to summarise two commercial examples (as they are promoted by their owners) and to provide links to the web sites that support them: nvivo 10 is the latest version of nvivo, and it comprises "software that supports qualitative and mixed methods research. it lets you collect, organize and analyze content from interviews, focus group discussions, surveys, audio and now in nvivo 10 social media and web pages. with nvivo you can deeply analyze your data using powerful search, query and visualization tools. uncover subtle connections, add your insights and ideas as you work, rigorously justify findings, and effortlessly share your work." (qsr international, 2012) the web site for nvivo is to be found at: http://www.qsrinternational.com atlas.ti has very similar capabilities, and for version 7 they "have carefully reviewed every single aspect of previous incarnations of atlas.ti and, in close consultation with our users, have added new features and made changes and improvements to existing ones. while the basic operations of atlas.ti (segmenting, coding, memoing, etc.) remain the same, there are numerous areas in which users will be delighted to find significant changes. they make working with the program even smoother, easier, faster, safer, and more productive than ever before. all work flows have been examined and streamlined, powerful--and in some cases, radically innovative--new features added, and the overall experience significantly improved." (atlas.ti scientific software development, 2012) the web site has an extensive tabulation of features: http://www.atlasti.com both web sites provide comprehensive lists of the features, and (with some digging) copious detail about how the products work. some of the features might be seen as nugatory, for example: why include transcription features when there is very capable free-to-download software that does the same thing? the answer of course is that it is a matter of convenience. and if someone else is paying, why should the young researcher worry? other features are potentially extremely useful, for example inter-coder reliability testing, but on close inspection that also is achieved by linking to an open facility on an academic web site. in order to indicate the scope and capability of these two software products, there is a table of features at the end of this paper; the table also includes the equivalent features of the analyser that is the subject of this report, but before going there it is worth looking at the requirements of such a tool in a little more detail. requirements of a qualitative content analysis tool what are the requirements of a tool for qualitative content analysis? from a utilitarian perspective, and in the light of some experience, we can identify requirements such as the following: compatibility: first, notwithstanding all the other things we think we need, we quickly learn that compatibility with other tools is critical. there is no value in a tool that produces charts that cannot be imported into your document preparation system; no one wants to invest valuable time loading data into a system from which it will never be recoverable. we need to move this stuff around and preserve it for the future. usability: closely behind compatibility are issues of usability. at least one tool (that will remain nameless here) is available for free download that has no user instructions, no help system, and no clear structure for navigation. we have all become used to very high levels of usability, and we tend to judge everything against our well-loved examples of the best. when we have our research fundamentals to worry about, we do not want to be struggling with systems that are difficult to use. data management: we are dealing with high volumes of data, usually but not exclusively textual, that we have garnered at high cost. it is important that it is handled in an elegant way that maximises the benefits that we can derive from its availability in an analysis tool. it can be argued that data design in situations like this is critical. without proper normalisation of data structures (for example), someone working with spread sheet software would quickly find it difficult to adapt their data to a variety of analytical needs, and to produce the elegant summary reports that support one's published research. coding and analysis: here we need the tool to accommodate the best principles of good qualitative content analysis, so that our limited skills can be amplified and guided by a helpful coding and analysis environment. support for rapidly changing patterns of coding and categorisation, dynamic charting of frequencies, and succinct summary reports that help us to know how far we have got. reporting: at the end of the day, this is all directed to the production of insightful, reliable and understandable research outputs that comprise the foundation stones or building blocks of published work. here, we are principally looking for the means to select and include quotations from sources in order to support our arguments, and for some statistical overview of the frequency and density of the categorisation that we have achieved. team work and management: increasingly, we find ourselves working in partnership with others, all around the world, and the more we can aggregate and share our research data (within the limits of ethical research data management) the better will be our collective understanding of the world we live in. the process of research can be seen as a chain of activities that make clearer where a tool like this might be applied. perhaps in the event it is rarely this simple, and the figure shows only a part of the whole process (the later stages), but it reveals key stages at which different features of an analyser can help: figure 5: a view of the later stages of the research process, as it relates to a research support tool implementation of the data structure this view of the process needs to be accompanied by a view of the data structures that support it. as indicated earlier in figure 4, there are at least five tables of data required: interviews: the key data about who was interviewed, when and where, and the complete content of the interview transcript. chunks: the portions of the transcript that represent singular elements or components of the conversation (or narrative) that will probably be candidate quotations for use in written work. denotata: the abstract ideas that links a chunk to a category. categories: the categories that represent the typology into which we wish to locate the results of our analysis. words: the actual words that were used, indexed across a project to show what was said by whom. in the event, four additional tables were introduced: interviewees: the persons responding to requests for interviews. interviewers: the people doing the interviews. exclusions: common words that have no significance to the research housekeeping: some operational data needed for continuity of working the figure that follows shows the data structure and relationships that were implemented in the analyser. figure 6: the implementation of the data structure implementation of the functionality data management is achieved by means of microsoft access (in its 2010 version), using "forms" for control, data entry, deconstruction, analysis and reporting. a single control panel provides access to all functionality: figure 7: the control panel the working forms for data management are too numerous to illustrate here, there is a full set available for review at the web site that supports the analyser. however, as shown by the tabs in the control panel there are forms for: the creation and editing of basic data about interviews, interviewees and interviewers. the creation of chunks of text from the full interview text ("deconstruction") and for the categorisation of the ideas evident within the content of those chunks. the construction of a complete word index so that occurrences of words within chunks can be easily found. and that is just on the first tab. behind that there are facilities to browse around the data, produce reports and charts, and undertake the analysis of co-occurring pairs. working with the interview text is achieved using two forms that deal with deconstruction (behind) and categorisation (in the foreground): figure 8: forms for data entry and browsing once the categorisation is complete, it is possible to browse endlessly around the data. here the forms are colour coded: green areas indicate to make a choice, and the pink areas allow direct transfer to alternative related views of the data: figure 9: browsing around the data perhaps more interesting is to show some of the outputs that are available for reporting purposes. outputs fall into two categories: charts that show the frequency of occurrence of categories, and textual output for use in written reports, papers and theses. the charts and tables are all based on standard microsoft access charting facilities, and they can therefore all be manipulated by a user who is confident to change chart types, edit the properties of data series and axes, and so on. first, consider a simple chart of the frequency of occurrence of all categories within the interviews. the data that has been used here is from eight conversations with educators around the world (from which the earlier example was taken), and it charts all categories: figure 10: a frequency analysis of category populations it is very easy to select just the categories that are of interest at a particular point in an argument (in a paper, or in a thesis), and just the interviews that are of interest; it is also possible to apply filters based on the demographic data and according to the group or type of interview that is the focus of a discussion. a case in point is when one wishes to analyse frequently occurring pairs of categories, occurring together in a single chunk on repeated occasions. this is somewhat akin to factor analysis in inferential statistics, where with recurring patterns the answers to questions are identified and given meaning. in qualitative analysis the discipline is not so tight (it all depends on the subjective decision of the coder when deciding what comprises a reliable "chunk", and which are the appropriate categories), but the results are immediate and can be very useful. in the eight conversations with educators from which the illustrative sample data is taken, the following analysis of co-occurring pairs resulted: figure 11: analysis of co-occurring pairs it is here that we can make the transition from simple frequency counting to narrative and discussion. what we see in the above chart is that educational activities were frequently referred to in conjunction with information technology; almost equally, technology was frequently associated with problems and challenges. for many readers this might sound like a familiar outcome, but with analytical data such as this at hand, a narrative about the research results can be identified, structured, and supported with real evidence by the extraction of related chunks, as quotations, as we have already seen in this paper: figure 12: a quotation taken from the analyser (with attribution), and inserted earlier into this paper the commercial tools talk about the user creating "memos", and perhaps it is at this point that the reader who knows them would be expecting to see how the analyser contributes to the construction of portions of a paper or a thesis, in order to develop the "themes" that are so often the final product of a qualitative analysis. in fact it does not go that far, but it does provide for the selection and output of portions of the text, based on an arbitrary selection of chunks by the researcher whilst browsing the data, or based on the selection of chunks that relate to frequently occurring pairs of categories. these selected quotations can be exported en bloc, to the windows clipboard, so that they can then be pasted into the written work in microsoft word or in any other facility that needs them. we shall see a few such extractions in the final paragraphs that follow here: the analyser has been used in a short survey of its users in order to draw conclusions about its utility and the way forwards. but now, it is necessary to report on the implementation and early experiences with the analyser. implementation of the qca package as indicated at the start, the initial impetus for this project came from the difficulty in affording and accessing commercial software products that would do this kind of work on large volumes of qualitative research data. at the start the initiative was tentative and there was no firm intention to develop and deliver a package that could be distributed widely. however, interest in the package developed quite quickly and despite the formative nature of the program code and the functionality, the analyser served to assist five or six research students through their data analysis. these early experiences were quite positive: qca was a very simple tool to use allowing playing around with data and an important range of possibilities in accordance with my knowledge of databases and query language: it was giving me flexibility and helped me to gain a lot of time when i was analysing my data. [researcher two, masters project, cape town, 2012/09/10] already we see from this comment that embodying the research data in an open environment (open from the user's point of view) like microsoft access had advantages: the data was available, it could be manipulated quite easily using raw sql, and it was a simple thing to export data into excel (where some researchers are much more comfortable working). however, this was not an indulgent exercise in "free time", the researchers involved were under pressure: i wanted to be using it for the specific purpose i needed it for. that was one main reason why i was seduced by its simplicity. as a matter of fact i was already used to utilising other software for various needs and learning numerous new features was not going to help me there. clearly i was thinking: don't give me something that does a million things i am not looking for; i wanted to do something and it was able to help me there, and that was it. [researcher two, masters project, cape town, 2012/09/10] here there was a need, and the need was served by the availability of a regime with which to organise, store, analyse and report the data. sophistication and complexity was the last thing needed. the functionality of the analyser was found to be useful, particularly when familiar with access and its capabilities: in the beginning, i had an impression that it was complex and not easy to use. this was due to the fact that i know i am not good at ms access. i was scared to touch things around and navigate with the fear that i could mess everything up. with time … that fear went away and i started playing with its navigation tabs, right hand click option, and the menu ribbon. now, i am confident with it. i found useful all the features [of the analyser] that i used. [researcher one, masters, cape town, 2012/09/05] it is somehow user friendly: it is something i have seemingly seen somewhere. i think that it is easier if consideration is given to the extent of the presence of microsoft systems in personal computing. but since there are increasingly users of other systems including open office, star office or mac stuff, in addition to the equally increasing use of web platforms (whether through google or microsoft), i would foresee a divide [requiring some kind of] bridging to reach linux, mac os, and online platforms fans. [but] something free … will give a more opportunities to those who just can't afford mesmerising commercial packages. [researcher two, masters project, cape town, 2012/09/10] having the availability of a package also stimulated thinking about research and the capability to do it effectively and efficiently: i principally used the qca for my analysis of data involving a sort of analysis design (was i going to use themes or just categories or will it be just flat hermeneutics?), the implementation of the design (the analysis itself), and the reporting of findings (interpretations and insertions). qca followed the technic that i used and borrowed from various authors and helped to speed up the process. i first had to read the whole transcript to get a general idea; then i would select a bunch of text i will comment upon, and eventually create categories; i would then do that for all the interviews; from the categories i would develop a higher level narrative with main categories and eventually themes. [researcher two, masters project, cape town, 2012/09/10] and so we can conclude that the availability of this analyser has added something to the work of these young researchers, and assisted them to understand how qualitative content analysis works. both those quoted here had a shaky background in terms of how this kind of research works, and both had difficulty learning from the available texts: the reality on the ground is that, i almost knew nothing about qualitative research. as i said, research books are so eloquent to explain quantitative approaches of research but there is no clear or easy to understand guidance on qualitative approaches, [despite it being widely said] that interviews and case studies are qualitative by nature. i can say that the training on qualitative research is not as adequate as on quantitative research. since the beginning, i believed that [qualitative research] was relevant, but i was not sure how, because i did not clearly understand what it involves. now, i think qualitative research is better than quantitative due to its ability to uncover reality. [researcher one, masters, cape town, 2012/09/05] those involved in the early experience are left optimistic and encourage the project to move on: i think marketing it to institutions of higher learning would be a good idea. i understand that these are the people who are mostly involved in research. as i am going [home] to rwanda, i will spread its awareness there. i think it has a potential to be widely used. [researcher one, masters, cape town, 2012/09/05] conclusion: status of the project at the time of writing, the third major release of the analyser was under testing. the objectives of the project were to assist young african researchers who needed assistance with qualitative content analysis and this has been demonstrated. the tentative idea that there is merit in this approach has crystallised and encourages further development. in order to conclude this report of what is really a work in progress, the six areas of functionality were identified earlier provide a means to summarise what has been achieved: compatibility: from the start, one of the researchers with appropriate experience was able to organise and export the data to other tools, and to apply raw sql queries of his own design. compatibility is not a problem, and the strict normalisation of the data has proven to be a good and useful foundation for dealing with the data on a wider basis than within the analyser. usability: there are several levels at which usability needs to be judged: at one level some basic understanding of how microsoft office works is needed. although it is possible to remove the standard office facilities programmatically, the office "ribbon" sits there at the top of the screen and invites the user's attention. occasionally, these facilities are useful (for example to refresh all records when processing is interrupted) and it is especially helpful to open the raw data tables and to have the confidence to work with them directly. this is not quite the same situation as if we were building a double-entry book keeping system. but at another level the user needs to be protected from minor glitches in the operation of the program code, for example when null values come in variables that can not accommodate them, and more work needs to be done to avoid the irritating messages that come from within the analyser, even if all that is necessary is to press the "escape" key to bring things under control. data management: microsoft access proved to be a reliable tool with which to manage the data, and the situation for researchers who might otherwise fall into the trap of un-managing their data has improved markedly. as any researcher knows, gaining access for interviews can be tortuous, transcribing the conversation takes up to eight times longer than the interview itself, and with such an investment in time and energy it is very important to have the qualitative data in a place (and in an schema) that maximises the possibility to get good results from it. when all the torture of collection and transcription is done, we want to be sure that no barriers remain in working with the data. there were other unexpected benefits, for example with data quality. the analyser in its early form was very simple, and it came to mind to add in a spelling check facility. at first sight this seemed beyond possibility, but on investigation it was possible with just one very simple additional line of visual basic code, and in use it is of course, the same spelling checker that we are all used to in microsoft word. coding and analysis: the speed with which coding and analysis can proceed is heartening. it really is possible to throw up a chart, look at the results, and modify parameters so as to bring the focus to the evidence that makes the argument. we are warned in the literature that qualitative content analysis is an iterative process, and that is proven by the early experience. a key need of the researcher is to have the ability to rapidly change coding structures, and to adapt the hierarchy of higher and lower level codes so as to bring elegance and persuasion to the discussion and analysis of results. ideas for improving the means to do this continue to come to light, and will be implemented. reporting: here a simple approach has paid off. although the early users were not aware of it (and requested facilities to automatically print off outputs) any chart, table or text within the analyser can easily be printed with no special facilities, and in the end the clipboard is the author's best friend. even the charts (such as those reproduced here) are very easily grabbed from the screen, pasted into an image editor, and moments later are cropped and pasted in the finished document. experience suggests that there is no strong need for more sophisticated reporting facilities provided that users are happy to work the details themselves inside their document preparation software. team work and management: at the very start of this initiative it was clear that there would be a need to work as a team, because in the largest research project several different people had undertaken the interviews, the burden of transcription had been shared with others, and the coding (still in progress at the time of writing) is also shared between team members. hence, there are different pools of data in the care of different researchers, and it all has to be brought together. microsoft access is not in any sense a web-based regime for data management (although data can be uploaded to the web, it is just that functionality outside of windows is very limited) and in an application like this problems of sharing are compounded by the need to manage unique keys (in the data tables) in a way that avoids duplication across different operators, undertaking different coding on different source texts. an early attempt to deal with this by the use of randomised keys (one feature of access) was only partly successful, and therefore it was necessary to code a rather tortuous utility that is able to merge categorised research data and bring many sources into one place. however, this is really only a work-around, and more effort will be required if the qca package is to be improved for team working. more than just merging the data is needed in a team-working situation. nevertheless, the intention of this initiative was not to be clever, or complex, but to provide a relatively simple (and completely cost-free) solution for researchers working with qualitative data for the first time. in that, it seems to have succeeded. references ©atlas.ti scientific software development (2012). atlas.ti. available from: http://www.atlasti.com/index.html [accessed 30 august 2012]. bhattacherjee, a. 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(1998). basics of qualitative research?: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. thousand oaks: sage publications. appendix: a tabular comparison of features anytime anytime? anywhere?: reframing debates around municipal wireless networking laura forlano ph.d. candidate, communications columbia university lef45@columbia.edu abstract over the past three years, cities across the united states have announced ambitious plans to build community and municipal wireless networks.  the phrase ‘anytime, anywhere’ has had a powerful impact in shaping the way in which debates about these networks have been framed.  however, ‘anytime, anywhere’, which alludes to convenience, freedom and ubiquity, is of little use in describing the realities of municipal wireless networks, and, more importantly, it ignores the particular local characteristics of communities and the specific practices of users.  this paper examines the media representations and technological affordances of wireless networks as well as incorporating the practices of those that build and use them in an attempt to reframe these debates. introduction in may 2007, i opened my mailbox to find a curious letter from verizon (the us telecommunications company). “unlimited calling – that’s anytime, anywhere,” the letter announced. the phrase, ‘anytime, anywhere’ has become synonymous with the freedoms associated with the current era of mobile communication. it can be found everywhere from advertising slogans and newspaper articles to policy papers and business plans. as such, the concept has had a powerful impact in shaping the way in which debates about municipal wireless networks have been framed over the past three years. however, as i will illustrate in the following discussion, the language of ‘anytime, anywhere,’ which alludes to convenience and ubiquity, is of little use in describing the realities of municipal wireless networks, and, more importantly, it ignores the particular local characteristics of communities and the specific practices of users. this paper examines the media representations and technological affordances of wireless networks as well as incorporating the practices of those who build and use them in an attempt to reframe current debates about community and municipal wireless networks. these debates suffer from a technological determinism that has crippled their ability to envision alternative, and more innovative, solutions to address the challenges of building sustainable networks. specifically, these top-down, ‘if we build it they will come’ strategies for communications infrastructure deployment, will fail without a reframing of these debates that is linked to local concerns and practices. background in the past decade, a range of mobile and wireless technologies – hardware and devices, software and applications, equipment and networks -have widely proliferated in both developed and developing countries. mobile and wireless devices include mobile phones, personal digital assistants (pdas), blackberry’s, laptops, routers and antennas. currently, there are 2.8 billion mobile phones in use; 1.6 million are added daily ("a world of connections", 2007). these devices communicate with one another through cellular networks and wireless networks operating on standards such as bluetooth, infared, radio frequency identification (rfid), near field communication (nfc), 802.11x (wifi) and 802.16 (wimax). these wireless standards are rapidly being embedded into personal documents (passports and driver’s licenses), products (consumer electronics, clothing and packaged goods), places (architecture and the built environment) and people (rfid-implants in japanese children). in 1985, the federal communications commission in the united states designated a small slice of the electromagnetic spectrum as unlicensed, meaning that no license was required to innovate in the hardware, software or applications using this spectrum. this spurned a wealth of inventions including microwave ovens, cordless telephones, baby monitors and garage door openers in addition to a wide variety of other consumer home electronics. in the late 1990’s, the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee) standardized 802.11x or wireless fidelity (wifi) networks, which use unlicensed spectrum. wifi allows for the sharing of a single broadband internet connection with a group of users. there are several models for the deployment of wifi networks including decentralized hotspot networks, centralized networks of hotspots, and mesh networks. currently, there are 143,429 wifi hotspots in 134 countries1. mesh networks allow a group of computers to be connected wirelessly regardless of whether or not they are connected to the internet. however, if one of the computers in the network is connected to the internet, all of the other computers will also be connected to the internet. in the near future, it is believed that mobile and wireless devices will be enabled with mesh receivers that allow them to create ad-hoc networks with the devices around them, again, regardless of whether or not they are connected to the internet. beginning in the late 1990s, early adopters of mobile and wireless technologies founded wireless user groups (wugs), free networks groups (freenets) and community wireless networks (also referred to as community wireless organizations), and began experimenting with, developing software for, and building wireless networks in their cities. many of the individuals involved in community wireless networks emerged from the free libre / open source software (floss) movement. some of them developed an interest in the potential of wifi sharing and community wireless when they found that they could not get high-speed internet access in their own homes (bar & halperin, 2006; hampton & gupta, forthcoming; jungnickel, 2008; longford, 2005; medosch, 2006; meinrath, 2005; powell & shade, 2006; sandvig, 2004; townsend, 2005). thus, they found ways to share internet access wirelessly with the nearest wired building sometimes across significant distances.2 today, there are thousands of wugs, freenets and community wireless networks worldwide in cities including seattle, new york, champaign-urbana, san francisco, san diego, portland, austin and boston in the united states, in montreal and toronto, canada; london; berlin; paris, budapest; tallinn, estonia; belgrade, serbia; johannesburg, south africa; and canberra, australia; among others.3 despite similarities in the beliefs and values of community wireless networks, these groups vary considerably in size, membership and activities from country-to-country based on political, economic, legal and socio-cultural factors. for example, while one community wireless organization cultivates the growth of networks in new york’s parks and public spaces, another reaches across the berlin rooftops, and those in montreal and budapest center on cafés. in addition, while groups in seattle, champaign-urbana, montreal and berlin excel at the development and distribution of open source software, other groups such as the one in new york are more active in policy advocacy, outreach and education. community wireless networks are examples of the way in which the community form of organizing can be applied in the area of telecommunications infrastructure albeit on a relatively small scale. in new york, nycwireless has been building free, public wireless networks in parks and public spaces in partnership with city parks organizations, business improvement districts and local non-profit organizations since 2001. specifically, nycwireless has built hotspots at bryant park (in partnership with the bryant park restoration corporation) and eight locations in lower manhattan including city hall park, the south street seaport, the world financial center winter garden, and the 60 wall street atrium (in partnership with the downtown alliance, a business improvement district). nycwireless has also worked with community access, a non-profit organization that provides affordable housing for people with psychiatric disabilities, to build wireless networks in three residential buildings in manhattan, brooklyn and the bronx. in 2006, nycwireless built wireless networks in stuyvesant cove park (in partnership with solar one, an environmental non-profit organization), brooklyn bridge park (in partnership with the dumbo business improvement district) and madison square park (in partnership with the 34th st. alliance). beginning 2004, there were a number of significant efforts to bring community wireless groups together face-to-face, as well as to link them with other media activists. most notably, these were the national community wireless networking summit in champaign-urbana, il and the fresh air free networks in djursland, denmark. in october 2005, the world summit for free information infrastructures in london, england brought together participants from the community wireless, open source and open mapping communities (groups working on open source geographic information systems). in march 2006, a second national community wireless networking summit was held in st. charles, mo and in may 2007 an international community wireless network summit was held in columbia, md. in addition, in october 2006, an event was held in india and, in august 2007, another event was held in ghana. several years later, after the early experiments by community wireless networks, municipal governments became interested in the possibility of deploying municipal wireless networks in order to increase economic development by lowering the cost of internet access for poor communities and small businesses. in 2004, philadelphia became the first large city to announce plans to build a municipal wireless network. a public policy debate ensued, and in november 2004, verizon succeeded in passing state legislation in pennsylvania that prevented municipal governments from providing broadband services. while philadelphia was allowed to continue with their project, a total of 15 states have passed anti-municipal broadband laws in recent years. this legislation requires that cities give telecommunication and cable companies the right to disallow plans to build municipal wireless networks4. despite this, since 2004 over 350 cities – including boston, chicago and san francisco, los angeles, houston and austin -have deployed, planned or are seriously considering building municipal wireless networks including regional/citywide networks, hotzones and public safety networks (vos, 2007). there are several common ownership models for municipal wireless networks: privately-owned networks, public-private partnerships, publicly-owned and community-owned networks. most municipal wireless networks such as those in philadelphia, san francisco and chicago have been conceived as privately-owned networks in which earthlink or another internet service provider builds and owns the telecommunications infrastructure. while the city is a partner, they do not share in the burden of the costs but rather provide various in-kind supports and services. several smaller cities have designed public-private partnerships or publicly-owned networks where the city is a financial partner. one example is st. cloud, florida. more recently, in 2007, many of the municipal wireless projects mentioned above have been unable to identify a business model and have been cancelled or discontinued. for example, in san francisco, earthlink failed to reach an agreement with the city because it wanted the city to become the lead user of the network and agree to buy a portion of the network’s bandwidth to ensure that the company would be able to make a profit. in recent years there have been a number of studies about community wireless networks in the united states and europe (bar & galperin, 2004; bar & galperin, 2006; gillett, 2006; w. lehr et al., 2004; longford, 2005; medosch, 2006; sandvig, 2004; werbin, 2006). these studies have documented the emergence of community wireless networks in the united states (bar & galperin, 2006; chang et al., 2005; forlano, 2006; meinrath, 2005; sandvig, 2004), canada (longford, 2005; powell & shade, 2006), australia (jungnickel, 2008) and europe (medosch, 2006). in addition, there have been studies of municipal wireless networks (fuentes-bautista & inagaki, 2006; william lehr et al., 2006; powell & shade, 2006; sandvig, 2006; sawada et al., 2006; sirbu et al., 2006; strover & mun, 2006; tapia et al., 2006) as well as the role of urban interfaces for public engagement (chang et al., 2005). however, overall, scholarship in this area tends to focus on the technical, economic or policy aspects of wireless networks rather than exploring media representations, or technological affordances and uses of wireless networks. more recently, there have been several studies about the use of wireless networks in cafes and public parks (gupta, 2004; hampton & gupta, forthcoming; hampton et al., 2007). theoretical framework this paper adopts a number of concepts that have long interested scholars of communications and science and technology studies (sts): causality in technology-society relationships (technologically determined vs. socially constructed); the process of technology development (production vs. consumption); and the social consequences of technological change (revolution vs. evolution, utopia vs. dystopia) (boczkowski & lievrouw, 2007). for the purposes of this study, mobile and wireless technologies are situated within boczkowski and lievrouw’s (2007: 10) definition of “media and information technologies,” which refers to a “broad class of socio-technical systems that are studied in both sts and communications.” in particular, the following four facets – historical scope, infrastructure, materiality, and the interplay between materiality and symbolic content and meaning – are most important (boczkowski & lievrouw, 2007). carey’s ‘ritual view of communication’, is employed as a key theoretical framework. carey argues that most american studies of communication employ a ‘transmission or transportation view of communication’ and the ‘effects’ tradition that views communication “basically as a process of transmitting messages at a distance for the purpose of control,” (1988: 15). in the last decade, since the mainstream adoption of the internet, there has been an overwhelming emphasis on the ways in which communications transcends geographic constraints. carey writes that such studies focus on “persuasion; attitude change; behavior modification; socialization through the transmission of information, influence or conditioning,” (1988: 15). in contrast to the ‘transmission view’, carey advances a ‘ritual view’, which builds on earlier studies of communication by harold innis as well as concepts of culture advanced by clifford geertz, raymond williams and stuart hall. innis (1951) theorized that all media could be identified as either time-biased or space-biased. time-biased media such as oral tradition assert their control over the maintenance and preservation of ideas in time while space-biased media such as paper expand the reach of ideas in space for the purposes of control. for the purposes of this study, wireless networks can be understood both as space-biased and as time-biased media. this is because while wireless networks allow users to connect to the internet, they are also located in bounded physical and digital spaces where users often commune together. carey’s ‘ritual view’ elaborates on innis’ theorizing about time-biased media, asserting the following: first, “communications is first of all a set of practices, conventions, and forms”; second, communication is a process through which shared culture is created, modified, and transformed”; and, third, communication should be “directed not toward the extension of messages in space but in the maintenance of society in time,” and on the “sacred ceremony that draws persons together in fellowship and commonality,” (1988: 18). by adopting the ‘ritual view’ as the key theoretical framework, this paper seeks to understand the practices and cultures of community wireless organizations and users of wifi hotspots and the way in which they maintain associations in time. the social construction of technology (bijker et al., 1987) and actor-network theory (latour, 2005), frameworks developed in science and technology studies, has been applied in organization studies and techniques such as user-centered design have grown in popularity in ubiquitous computing. thus, this study employs actor-network theory as the main methodological framework that allows human and technological agents to be seen as having equal status in a network. actor-network theory is well-suited for a study of mobile and wireless networks in light of future ubiquitous computing scenarios, which imagine a world of networked people and objects (weiser, 1991). another advantage of using actor-network theory as a framework is its emphasis on ‘following the user’ in order to uncover relevant practices, technologies and places. there are several key concepts from science and technology studies that will be helpful in describing wireless networks. these are affordances (j. j. gibson, 1977; norman, 1990), infrastructure (star, 1999; star & bowker, 2002) and values (nissenbaum, 2001). first, affordances are “the perceived and actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine just how the thing could possibly be used” (norman, 1990: 9). by examining the affordances of wireless networks, we can begin to understand the possibilities enabled by the technologies, regardless of whether or not they are realized, as well as those that are discovered by users. second, the concept of infrastructure as “relational and ecological—means different things to different groups and is part of the balance of action, tools, and the built environment, inseparable from them. it also is frequently mundane to the point of boredom, involving things such as plugs, standards, and bureaucratic forms” (star, 1999: 1). star describes the following properties of infrastructure: embeddedness, transparency, reach or scope, learned as part of membership, linked to conventions of practice, embodies standards, built on an installed base, becomes visible upon breakdown, and fixed in modular increments. a related concept underscoring several of these properties is that of the invisibility of infrastructure, in that it becomes taken for granted and thereby disappears into the background unless it breaks down (star, 1999). building on these concepts, boczkowski and lievrouw suggest that “particular artifacts should be conceptually situated within a broader landscape of related, and often unnoticed or invisible, material things, such as filing cabinets, magnetic tape and optical disks, telephone poles, library shelves, or wireless bandwidth” (2007: 11). third, the concept of values is important for understanding the way in which community wireless organizations build on the affordances of wireless networks and embed a range of socio-cultural, economic and political values into the infrastructures that they design. nissenbaum (2001) poses the following set of questions regarding the embodiment of values in the design of technologies: what is the locus of control? are they transparent or opaque? do they support balanced information exchange? do they discriminate against users? do they enhance or diminish trust? for the purposes of understanding wireless networks and community wireless organizations, these questions are reframed and expanded. specifically, are wireless networks centralized or decentralized? are they open or closed? do they use proprietary or open source software? are they visible or invisible? is access free or paid? methodological framework this paper draws on four sources of data. first, in order to depict media representations of mobile and wireless technologies, i use lexisnexis5 to search key words such as ‘anytime, anywhere’ and anytime, anyplace’ in the general news section of all major newspapers, as classified by lexisnexis, for all available dates. my searches conducted on may 31, 2007 retrieved over 1800 results. i selected examples to illustrate my key points. second, in order to discuss the technological affordances of mobile and wireless technologies, i draw on the results of participant-observation from my experience sharing my internet connection wirelessly since november 2004. in may 2006, i began using a router configured by nycwireless that allowed me to track its usage. i observed my own use of “my little wifi”, the name of my own wireless network, including features such as the network name or service set identifier (ssid), ‘splash page’ and router as well as interviewing one regular user of my network, my next door neighbor. third, in september 2003, as a communications researcher, i launched a special interest group (sig) on the socio-economic implications of mobile and wireless technology for nycwireless6, a non-profit community wireless organization in new york. the sig, composed of artists, architects, policy wonks, engineers and social researchers, explored a number of pressing issues facing advocates of free, public wireless networks including advertising and signage, messaging and advocacy, and measurement and use. preliminary work on the survey design employed in this project was conducted by sig members in the summer of 2004. building on my participation in nycwireless as a researcher, in january 2005, i joined the organization’s board of directors. in this role, i represented community wireless groups nationwide on the fcc’s consumer advisory committee7 (cac) for two years from march 2005 to november 2006. in addition, i participated in regular monthly board and general meetings, testified at new york city council hearings conferences, and attended national and international summits focused on community wireless networks. fourth, i draw selectively on data collected through a survey and in-depth interviews with wifi hotspot users in new york. i conducted a 40-question online survey on the use of wireless networks in cafes, parks, and other public spaces between october 2006 and april 2007, in new york, montreal and budapest. the survey was conducted with support from a small grant from microsoft research in partnership with local community wireless organizations: nycwireless (new york), île sans fil (montreal) and the hungarian wireless community (budapest). the survey resulted in 1362 responses: new york (614), montreal (370) and budapest (378). in new york, the surveys were publicized through fliers, on listservs, via e-mail announcements, and via the login or “splash” pages of the wireless networks of partner organizations. in new york, the downtown alliance, a lower manhattan business improvement district, placed a link to the survey on their website. the survey was included in new york city council member gale brewer’s monthly e-mail announcement. in montreal and budapest, the survey was publicized only online. the survey was conducted using surveymonkey8, an online survey tool. the survey provided a valuable way of identifying informants for in-depth interviews. the survey asks three types of questions about the use of the wireless internet: general questions, technology and internet access-related questions, content and activity9 related questions, and standard demographic questions10 (see appendix for survey protocol). these questions were informed by a number of earlier surveys that have included questions about the use of mass media and the internet such as the pew internet & american life project and the general social survey. more specifically, the survey asks about the location of use, purpose and reason for use, frequency and length of use, types of technologies owned and used, access to the internet, problems using the network, type of information and websites accessed, and kinds of activities pursued. in addition to the survey, 29 one-hour, open-ended interviews were conducted with users of wifi hotspots. media representations by examining the media representations of technologies one can begin to understand how they are socially constructed. earlier studies of electricity (marvin, 1988) and cyberspace (mosco, 2004) have illustrated that media representations of technology typically tend towards technological determinism, alluding to radically utopian visions of convenience, freedom and ubiquity or extremely dystopian scenarios of the future. rarely do articles depict a balanced or objective view of the technologies in question because, overall, there is a lack of technical literacy regarding science and technology in the popular media. often, the language used to describe new technologies is adopted directly from engineers or scientists, those charged with innovating the technology, or industry experts, those who aim to profit from the technology. specifically, with respect to mobile and wireless technology, the field of ubiquitous computing has been integral to the creation of visions, expectations and futures that resonate in the mainstream media. this is particularly true with respect to the linking of the phrase ‘anytime, anywhere’ to mobile and wireless devices in order to connote desires of convenience, freedom and ubiquity. the phrases ‘anytime, anywhere’ and ‘anytime, anyplace’ have been widely used in the mainstream media over the past several decades to refer to a variety of topics from fishing to free expression, perfume to politics, debates to disarmament inspections, and even terrorist bombings. some of the earliest uses of the phrase can be found in the late-1970s and early 1980s. for example, in 1977, a satirical christmas article claims that a boy could go fishing “anytime, anyplace, anywhere, anyhow, any day” despite being 2,000 miles from water (shales, 1977). in 1978, an article about a political campaign quoted a hawaiian candidate for governor, ariyoshi, as saying, “he would debate fasi ‘anytime, anyplace,’” (cannon, 1978). another article about beirut, cites an advertising campaign in an english-language weekly, which states, “anytime, anyplace, an explosion can happen.” (friedman, 1983). in 1986, an article about a security system quoted governor michael s. dukakis, “it could be the ultimate deterrent against auto theft anytime, anywhere,” (dole, 1986). the phrase is also the title of a popular hadda brooks jazz song and the tagline from a martini advertisement. in fact, the phrase ‘anytime, anyplace’ and related concepts can be found in advertising from airlines to newspapers and dating services in addition to the common associations with mobile and wireless technology (see figures 1-4 below). figure 1-2: continental airlines advertisement, new york, ny, 2007; new haven register advertisement, new haven, ct, 2007. figures 3-4: lavalife advertisement: “click with singles anywhere, anytime on your mobile phone at mlavalife.com,” new york, ny, 2007; verizon wireless advertisement, new york, ny, 2007. in recent years, the phrase ‘anytime, anywhere’ has been primarily linked to the convenience, freedom and ubiquity of mobile and wireless technologies. such language seems to play an important role in framing debates about these technologies by emphasizing mobility, globalization and the totalizing of physical space rather than the importance of local, bounded communities – including community wireless groups and the lived practices of users – as will be described in more detail later in this paper.11 search term number of articles anytime, anyplace 804 anytime, anyplace and mobile or wireless (in heading or lead paragraph) 58 anytime, anywhere over 1000 anytime, anywhere and mobile or wireless (in heading or lead paragraph) 632 figure 5: lexisnexis search of general news in all major papers, may 31, 2007 in the early 1990s, the phrase ‘anytime, anywhere’ began to be used to describe the potential for mobility and portability. for example, in 1990, an industry expert can be seen to forecast as follows: “we foresee a tiny communicator that everyone will carry around…the trend is toward portability. that means getting and sending calls anytime, any place,” (zeidenberg, 1990). another company advertises, “the ‘personal communicator’ a portable battery-operated device able to send or receive written or spoken messages at any time, from almost anywhere,” for busy executives (kehoe, 1992). in 1991, an industry analyst claimed, “we'll have computing anytime, anywhere,” (clark, 1991) at&t’s ceo at the time stated that the company is, “letting people connect with each other in ways that satisfy their need virtually anytime anywhere,” and government officials asserted, “the goal…is cellular telephone service “anytime, anyplace,” (fehr, 1994). often, the language is used to describe customer wants, needs and the promises of a technological future. according to the ceo of airtouch, a defunct u.s. wireless communications company that was formed in 1994, “they want nationwide, seamless service that enables them to (make and take calls) anytime, anyplace,” (wiseman & kim, 1994). for example, “even while they promote a wireless future, nearly every player agrees that fulfilling the vision of "anytime, anywhere" communication is a few years off,” (zitner, 1994). in addition, the term is used to describe changing media consumption habits. people are spending less time in traditional places such as ‘at home’ or ‘at the office’. for example, in 2006, the guardian writes, “the bbc must fundamentally change to meet the challenges of an age where people demand content ‘anytime, anyplace, anywhere’ on a variety of devices, not just tv or radio,” (o. gibson, 2006a). bbc director general mark thompson describes the emergence of “martini media”, referencing a popular drink advertisement with the “anytime, anyplace, anywhere” tagline (rigby, 2000). thompson asserts that, “we should aim to deliver public service content to our audiences in whatever media and on whatever device makes sense for them whether they're at home or on the move,” (o. gibson, 2006b). in 2001, microsoft used the slogan ‘anytime, anyplace, any device’ to promote its “grand strategy for mediating our contact with every computer on earth,” (goldberg, 2001). finally, the phrase ‘anytime, anywhere’ has also been used to describe more advanced computing applications such as text-messaging, e-mail and business applications that are touted as enabling workers to be more productive. for example, an article about camera phones indicates that they, “capture the precious and horrid times of our lives -anytime, anyplace,” (johnson, 2004). another article explains that wireless carriers, “sell customers buckets of minutes that can be used anytime, anyplace,” (solomon, 1999). the ceo of motorola, ed zander, refers to a new era of convergence that is occurring, “on the road in the form of hand-held gadgets that can connect anytime, any place,” (fost, 2007). greg wilfahrt, the co-founder of sms.ac, an online text-messaging company, states, “is there ever a drawback to having anytime, anyplace connectivity,” (finan, 2005). another article says that people, “prefer text messages because they can read them and respond anytime, anywhere, and quietly, without disturbing anyone,” (knapp, 2007). an article on smart phones claims, “access to e-mail anytime anyplace seems to go without saying,” (fitzgerald, 2004) and another argues that, “productivity is about when and how work is done, not where. employees can be productive anywhere at anytime,” (knook, 2007). finally, this language has infected debates around municipal wireless networks finding its way into articles, requests for proposals and government brochures. for example, suffolk county executive steve levy says of a county-wide wireless project, “people could connect to the internet anytime, any place,” (lambert, 2006). the city of houston’s wireless network is promoted with a red, glossy brochure that promises connectivity ‘anytime, anywhere’. with respect to municipal wireless networks, the language is particularly problematic because it lures citizens with promises that are unlikely to be met and, if delivered, are probably significantly more costly than anticipated. due to the properties of wireless technology, it is unlikely that cities will be fully-covered by the network’s signal and, furthermore, may not penetrate many residential or corporate buildings without incurring significant costs for repeaters and the like. discussions about municipal wireless networks would appear to suffer from a lack of public understanding about the properties of wireless technology. affordances of wireless networks the concepts of affordances (j. j. gibson, 1977; norman, 1990), infrastructure (star, 1999; star & bowker, 2002) and values (nissenbaum, 2001) are useful in building a more nuanced understanding of mobile and wireless technologies, in particular, wifi networks. the most obvious affordance of a wifi network is its ability to provide connectivity to the internet. a typical wifi network currently reaches between 300 to 1000 feet with some variation depending on the type of equipment and the way in which its software is configured and set up. because its signal reaches a relatively small, bounded geographic area, people must be situated within close range of the network in order to get online. thus, it is often common to observe people clustered within range of wireless networks whether they are at a café, in a park or public space or merely standing on the street trying to get a signal. however, it should be noted that a wifi network does not map onto existing physical or architectural boundaries. instead, it reconfigures these in a number of ways by permeating walls, bleeding into public spaces and breaking down certain traditional notions of privacy and property while re-enforcing others. for example, an interview with an architect revealed that the availability of mobile and wireless technology significantly changed the ways in which their clients wanted to use the spaces that were being designed for them. when asked where the office was likely to be, clients responded that they might like to work next to the fireplace; or, that they might like to move from room to room while they were working. this contrasted with the architect’s preconceived notions about the use of the rooms that they were designing. in another interview, wireless-networking experts from edinburgh remarked that hotel staff were puzzled when guests called in requesting to stay in specific rooms of their hotel. when asked, guests replied that reception from the recently installed free wireless network in the bar downstairs was stronger in those rooms. this reconfiguration of space is also reflected in the organizational culture of information technology companies such as cisco and ibm, which have embraced more flexible employment models for their full-time employees. according to an interview with a cisco wireless sales employee, works starts, “when he decides that it starts”. he is not encouraged to go to the office and, instead, works primarily from home. however, when he does go to the office he is free to choose whichever office he pleases, even those currently held by senior management, since there are no assigned desk-spaces for the majority of staff. in this way, the laptop computer and mobile devices themselves become the office. furthermore, while the cisco employee works on project teams, they are ad-hoc teams, meaning that they can be dynamically reconfigured as needed. as a further example, according to a recruiting seminar by ibm held at the columbia business school in 2006 ibm employees are allowed to work anywhere that ibm has an office. one ibmer reported to having spent most of his summers working from budapest, hungary. a further example: on a rainy day in june 2006, i went to city hall park to observe the use of the wireless network. city hall park is a small park in downtown manhattan surrounded by office buildings, including city hall itself. understandably, there was almost no one in the park let alone with a soggy laptop computer on their lap. that is, except for myself. i looked around and concluded that it was probably a very bad day to do research on the wireless network. however, upon conducting an analysis of the spectrum being used on the network, i found it buzzing with activity (see figure 6). figure 6: spectrum analysis of city hall park, june 2006. in fact, to my surprise, there was more traffic on the network than i had ever before observed. the area underneath the red line in figure 6 represents the total amount of traffic on the network. the small green triangle at the top of the chart indicates that this is a spectrum analysis of the open wireless network at city hall park (ssid: cornercast). my hypothesis for this observation is two-fold. first, it is possible that the network was being accessed by people, invisible to me, who were located in the buildings surrounding the park. second, there was a college graduation ceremony taking place and it is possible that the videographer was uploading live video of the ceremony to the internet. thus, due to this affordance of wireless networks, i concluded that my enthographic observation would be further bolstered by the use of technical data including log data and spectrum analysis. star’s concept of infrastructure as relational and ecological refutes the language of ‘anytime, anywhere’ because mobile and wireless technologies must take on different meanings depending on their user(s). thus, while promises of convenience, freedom and mobility may respond to some needs and desires, clearly the technologies must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis depending on the user and the environment in which the technologies are being used. for example, in my interviews, i uncovered many users who repeatedly use the same wireless network on an almost daily basis for as many as twelve hours a day. while still relatively flexible in their use of the network, it is possible to argue that, for these users, specific times and specific locations matter more than the promise of mobility. furthermore, i have encountered users that share connectivity, such as sharing a paid wireless internet account, thereby challenging commonly-held business assumptions and reducing profitability for the providers. these uses contradict the telecommunications industry’s drive for ubiquitous, always-on connectivity because by sharing a wireless account with a friend or colleague they are merely ‘sometimes on’. similarly, others may work regularly at a café where others go to get online but deliberately not connect to the internet because they want to be offline (hampton & gupta, forthcoming). it is these nuances that are often not accounted for in media representations. star explains that infrastructure often becomes visible only on breakdown. wireless technology both conforms to this logic and counters it. wireless technology is perhaps more invisible than most infrastructures. unlike other infrastructures such as electricity, water and basic telecommunications, which are marked by switches, faucets, and wires, there are few signals that wireless networks exist at all. often, wireless networks are not marked, announced or advertised. it is often only possible to find out that a network exists with a laptop computer that has a built-in receiver that lists the names of the nearby networks. the secure socket identification name (ssid) is sometimes the only indication of the network; sometimes the ssid is not even ‘broadcast’ or announced to the public so only certain users know that it is there. however, when a wireless network is expected to be available but is not working, is when there is a considerable amount of informal interaction among users increases as people share their frustrations. however, there are also a number of ways in which wireless networks, and their affordances, become visible to those who use them. most obviously, the clustering of people hovering over their computing devices in public spaces signals that they may in fact be online. in addition, based on experience sharing a wireless network for the past four years, i have learned that the rapid blinking of green lights on my router -when i am not online -indicates that other people are using my network. these lights function to make visible the availability of a shared resource, the unlicensed wireless spectrum, which can be used to allow many people to access the internet at one time. furthermore, the nycwireless ‘splash page,’ a web page that loads when one opens a browser and prompts a user to login, displays a list of the users that are currently or recently online. the ‘splash page’ also functions to make visible the presence of a physical community sharing a resource. finally, my wireless router (see figure 7 below), a clear plastic lunchbox with a solar system motif, designed and built by nycwireless board member rob kelley, makes wireless networking technology more visible to me. through the plastic shell, i can see the router’s circuit board and blinking lights, thereby literally transforming ‘black box’ technology into a designed object. figure 7: wireless router designed and built by rob kelley, nycwireless, 2006. community wireless networks have been active in educating people about the existence and availability of these networks, thereby making visible unlicensed spectrum, technologies and the communities that use them. one way in which community wireless networks attempt to make networks visible, is through public outreach. in new york, nycwireless has conducted a number of public outreach events including wireless park lab days (september 2003), and new york live (august 2004), spectropolis (october 2004), manchester live (november 2005) and berlin live (november 2006). new york live connected new york and budapest for five days for five hours a day via videoconference, manchester live connected new york and manchester for a one-hour city hall meeting and berlin live connected new york and berlin for a simultaneous community wireless meeting between nycwireless in new york and freifunk in berlin. a future event is planned in 2008 to connect new york and shanghai. finally, it is important to understand that while the values of community wireless organizations differ from group to group around the world, the organizations are committed to using open source software to build decentralized, open networks that provide free, public internet access to their communities. anytime? anywhere? the previous two sections of this paper have discussed the ways in which mobile and wireless technologies are presented in the mainstream media and explored some of the affordances of wireless networks. the last section will present selected findings from the survey and in-depth interviews conducted in new york, which illustrate the need for a reframing of discussions about mobile and wireless technologies in the mainstream media, in the telecommunications and information technology industry, and in public policy discussions of municipal wireless networks in line with the ways in which they are being used. in february 2007, the pew internet & american life project reported that 34% of all internet users have used a wireless connection and 27% have logged on from a place other than home or work (horrigan, 2007). the following sections will highlight the most important findings from the survey of wifi hotspots conducted in new york between october 2006 and april 2007. according to this survey, respondents had used wifi at starbucks (34%), bryant park (33%), the new york public library (23%) and independently-owned cafés (21%) in the previous six months. with the exception of bryant park, all of these entities comprised multiple locations throughout the city. for example, starbucks has 153 locations in the new york area (within a five mile radius) where a t-mobile hotspot is available.12 the new york public library has 69 locations with free wifi access in the bronx, staten island and manhattan; queens and brooklyn operate their own library systems.13 and, certainly, there are hundreds of cafés throughout the new york area that offer free or paid wifi access. in may 2006, at a city council hearing held by the committee on technology in government, bryant park restoration corporation executive director dan biederman testified that their wifi hotspot attracts 250 users per day. the bryant park wireless network, which was built in 2002, is one of the first, largest and most widely-used and well-known free, public wireless networks in the world. the project was sponsored by intel in its initial phase and is currently sponsored by google. the organization invites new yorkers to “turn bryant park into your new office,” according to its web site. one of the main reasons for the popularity of bryant park’s wifi hotspots is that it is outside. survey respondents said: “it is the best office in the world…i can have my feet in the grass and the world at my fingers,” and “i love the park and being outdoors while still feeling like i am getting work done,” and that the park allows them “to let the kids play outside while i work.” other popular sites visited by over 10% of respondents include: 60 wall street atrium, battery park, city hall park, college campuses, jetblue terminal and union square park. starbucks (15%), bryant park (10%) and independently-owned cafés (12%) were also the most frequently used hotspots. one of the most significant findings of the survey is that the availability of wifi is an important factor in attracting people to the location where they most frequently use the wireless internet. 40% of respondents indicated that wifi is the reason that they went to the location and 30% said that wifi is sometimes the reason that they went to the location. a smaller 26% indicated that wifi is not the reason that they went to the location. however, in total, it is possible to argue that wifi is a factor in attracting over 70% of the respondents to this location (the most frequently used as identified in the overall survey). in addition, when choosing between two coffee shops of similar characteristics and quality, 75% respondents answered that they would choose one that provides wifi access over one that doesn’t; 20% say they might; and, 5% said that wifi would not be a factor in their decision. these findings have potential implications for economic development, and supports the observation that wifi may enable commerce and productivity which would not have occurred otherwise. in fact, in new york, since at least 2002 park organizations and business development organizations have deployed wifi hotspots in order to attract people to parks and public spaces. however, to date, there has not been any research to verify that their assumptions are correct. in addition, there are still significant differences between specific wifi hotspots. while some, like bryant park, are incredibly successful; others do not attract nearly as many users. this seems to support the idea that there are multiple factors that draw people to specific wifi hotspots. for example, one respondent that interviewed, a full-time employee at a university club in mid-town, commutes 20 minutes each weekend in order to use the bryant park hotspot to work on his food and wine web site, from which he eventually hopes to earn a supplementary income. he likes bryant park because it is “comfortable” (in particular, he mentions the patented chairs that include a desk and cup-holder) and he is familiar with the area since he regularly goes there after work (see figures 8-9 below). figures 8-9: new york city’s bryant park and patented chair design (august 2006) his weekend trips represent additional subway journeys and potentially money spent on food and beverages or possibly even shopping while he is out and about. in addition, his website may soon generate additional taxable income. as such, it is possible to argue that the wifi hotspot increases city revenue in the form of subway tokens and taxes on purchases. according to the survey, the primary purpose for the use of wifi is for both work and personal use (63%). a smaller number of respondents indicate that they use wifi for personal use only (28%) and even fewer say that they use wifi only for work (11%). it is often difficult to separate personal and work activities since laptops and the internet have become embedded into everyday life. it thus makes sense that the majority of respondents use wifi for both work and personal use. however, respondents who cannot access their personal e-mail at work or prefer to use their own computers for personal e-mail are among those who primarily use wifi hotspots for personal use. this is an interesting reversal of traditional dichotomies about private and public behavior. normally, it might be assumed that people conduct personal activities in private spaces such as homes or offices. however, in this case, people explicitly go to public spaces such as parks and cafés in order to do personal activities. this is also supported by ethnographic observations at a café on manhattan’s lower east side in new york in may 2006. there it was found that, in part due to the crowded nature of the café space, people often went outside to make phone calls. while the indoor café space would be regarded as relatively more private as compared to city sidewalks and streets, people went into more public spaces in order to make their phone calls. in addition, since the café was often frequented by regular freelancers, it is possible that while the people inside the café were “familiar strangers”, those on the street were completely anonymous and therefore afforded a greater sense of privacy. when asked the reason that they used wifi, 58% indicated that they wanted to get out of their home or office. 27% replied that they wanted to get information when they were passing by and 23% wanted to see familiar people or be part of a community. these limited responses do not begin to account for the wide variety of reasons that respondents gave when prodded for more details about their reasons for using wifi. for example, some emphasized that it was convenient to where they lived or worked saying, “i live in harlem and work at wall street. i don't want to carry my laptop all over the city,” or “for work i regularly travel between baltimore and boston. starbucks is ubiquitous and consistent.” others mentioned that a friend lived nearby or that it was a central location for client meetings. finally, a few mentioned that they liked accessing it from their car. some didn’t have or couldn’t afford internet access at home. for example, one respondent said, “it's near where i am in the mornings and i can't get wifi access at my house.” others wrote that they used it because it was free and/or easy to use, explaining, “it's free. i'm in manhattan frequently and my home office is in brooklyn. it's the only way for freelancers to stay in touch. i can't afford a blackberry or treo.” some were having problems with their regular internet provider. others were in-between meetings, traveling or waiting for something i.e. flight, train, or laundry. for example, one person wrote that they needed a place to work between two meetings, another wrote that before they got a high-speed cellular wireless card, they “would use these hotspots to check email in between meetings when away from the office,” another wrote that they used wifi, “when i have time between work appointments (free time in my schedule and not enough time to go home).” finally, some enjoyed the atmosphere/environment or liked the coffee and/or food at a particular location; and, finally, others wanted to relax or work while having breakfast or lunch (hampton & gupta, forthcoming). in order to better understand the reasons that people use the wireless internet, respondents were asked to answer open-ended questions on what they like about the wireless internet. freedom of movement to work in different places i.e. living room; mobility, portability and flexibility; and, the ability to work outdoors or remotely outside of the home and/or office were cited by nearly one third (29%) of respondents. for example, one person wrote: “i can sit anywhere in my room or apartment or even outside…i don't have to sit at my desk,” and “i depend on it. it makes working at home much more pleasant. when i've been on the road, i use open wifi access points to keep in touch with friends and work.” others explain: “the ability to work from somewhere that isn't my home/office,” “the convenience of being able to get work done in a 'pastoral' setting” and “the location's beautiful…i can do work there instead of in the office or at home.” another group of respondents, 28% of the total, stress the convenience of the wireless internet; in particular, the lack of wires, cables and cords. they write: “[there are] no wires! i’m a nervous type…like to change positions location a lot. additionally, i work from home so leaving the house while still being productive is a plus,” and “i can get onto the internet without having to plug into anything.” 23% of respondents reference connectivity, the ease of access to information and the ease of use. for example, one respondent writes: “the ability to access the wealth of information on the internet wherever i am. i can always find the answer to a question.” 9% cite the widespread availability of the wireless internet; 8% mention that it is (usually) free of charge; and, 5% say that it is fast. conclusion over the past year, in 2007, municipal wireless networks have struggled to identify appropriate business models, failed to create workable private-public partnerships and, as a result, a number of high-profile projects have been cancelled. as this paper illustrates, there is a disjuncture between the ways in which mobile and wireless technologies are represented in the mass media with the ways in which they are used. both representations and uses make up the social construction of these technologies. i argue that there is a need to reframe debates around municipal wireless, which are currently plagued by overly technologically deterministic language referring to ubiquitous, anytime, anywhere connectivity. such language is misleading for policymakers, businesspeople and citizens because it envisions a top-down network infrastructure that may be cost-prohibitive and possibly even unnecessary. for example, a municipal wireless network is unlikely to cover every residential building without significant expense deploying equipment to repeat the signal inside these buildings. furthermore, the materials from which buildings are made could interfere with the reception. however, upon hearing that their city will have a ubiquitous municipal wireless network, citizens may have an incorrect perception of the network’s coverage. finally, this language assumes that place is irrelevant and homogeneous i.e. one place is just the same as any other place, and therefore ignores social needs and usage patterns. the empirical data presented above illustrates a myriad of reasons why people choose specific locations where they can access wireless networks. for example, one person liked bryant park because the chairs are comfortable, another because they can bring their kids along while they work. by reframing debates around municipal wireless networks in line with user needs and behavior, it might be possible to envision different business models, partnerships and policies for these networks. municipalities have been eager to adopt the same models as other cities such as philadelphia, san francisco, boston and chicago. instead, cities should consider their unique advantages, needs and cultures before embarking on projects to build municipal wireless networks. this might allow cities to plan network infrastructures that may not be ubiquitous but that focus on meaningful sites of everyday life rather than merely ‘anytime, anywhere’ connectivity. for example, a city might focus on public parks, churches, schools, cafes and other locations where people tend to congregate. however, it should be noted that these locations will vary substantially from city to city depending on political, economic, socio-cultural, environmental and architectural factors. a better understanding of the city’s potential users would allow the city to design networks, applications and services that could be tailored to the user’s needs. this bottom-up strategy might allow cities to avoid the current difficulties surrounding municipal wireless networks. in fact, in san francisco, meraki, a wireless networking company, is already implementing a bottom-up network built on users’ needs and specific demands. in summary, making space for alternative business models, partnerships and policies requires the development of new conceptual frameworks. the current language of ubiquity and anytime, anywhere access is derived from computer science and related technical disciplines. designing networks for people requires concepts that describe human behavior. while ubiquity and anytime, anywhere access may describe the technological promises, people’s needs and uses are located in specific places of meaning, culture and community. bibliography a world of connections. 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(1994, december 4). for sale: a new world of wireless; 'pcs' could offer a phone in every pocket, an antenna on every coke machine. the boston globe. 1see jiwire.com for more information. accessed on may 9, 2007. 2it is interesting to note that this was a similar motivation (i.e. to obtain low cost access to the internet) for many of those involved in the earlier development of community networks 3see freenetworks.org for a more comprehensive list. accessed on may 3, 2007. 4see http://www.freepress.net/communityinternet/=states for more information. accessed on may 9, 2007. 5see http://www.lexisnexis.com/ for more information. 6see nycwireless.net for more information. 7see http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/cac/ for more information. 8see surveymonkey.com for more information. 9questions on activities were adopted from the 2000 pew internet and american life project’s daily tracking survey (www.pewinternet.org) and by an earlier survey by keith hampton and neeti gupta developed in 2004. 10questions on standard demographic variables were adopted from a february 2005 survey by knowledge networks (www.knowledgenetworks.com). questions on occupation and industry were informed by the 2000 u.s. census (www.census.gov) and new york city economic development corporation (http://www.nycedc.com). 11a recent search of the general news in all major newspapers using lexis nexis resulted in over 1800 articles of which 690 referred to mobile or wireless technology (see figure 5). 12see www.starbucks.com for more details. accessed on june 20, 2007. 13see www.nypl.org for more details. accessed on june 20, 2007. call centres and their role in e-governance: a developing country perspective sharif n. as-saber department of management monash university, clayton campus wellington road melbourne, vic 3800 – australia sharif.as-saber@buseco.monash.edu.au khalid hossain policy officer livelihoods programme oxfam gb, bangladesh house: 4, road: 3, block: i banani, dhaka 1213 bangladesh khalid.shiblee@gmail.com abstract poor governance has been undermining the service delivery and development initiatives undertaken by the majority of developing countries. many of these governments have now started using e-governance as a mechanism to engender change in their governance systems for achieving development goals and to ensure better service delivery to citizens and other stakeholders. arguably, it also ensures improved public sector efficiency, accountability and responsiveness. call centres have been used in recent years by a host of developing countries including india, korea and malaysia, as an e-governance tool to achieve the above-mentioned objectives. the paper argues that a successful adoption of call centres by governments has the potential to provide better service delivery at reduced costs, increase public sector efficiency, minimise corruption and improve the accountability, transparency and responsiveness of the public sector. it is, however, acknowledged that such initiatives in developing countries are fraught with numerous challenges that include the lack of infrastructure, low tele-density, lack of political commitment and vision, bureaucratic inefficiency and administrative corruption. based on the extant literature and available evidence from a range of developing countries, a tentative framework is proposed to encapsulate the nature and operation of call centres as an e-governance tool. the framework also identifies the challenges call centres may face, the external environment they are influenced by, and the role they play in achieving better governance. key words: information and communication technology (ict); egovernance; call centre; developing country; good governance. introduction the use of call centres by the business community has already become a common phenomenon in both developed and developing countries. in recent years, the call centre industry has experienced a phenomenal growth worldwide (as-saber, et al., 2004). call centres provide fast, efficient and relatively cheaper business solutions to business enterprises in managing their day-to-day activities. similar to business entities, governments all around the world need to provide various services to their citizens and other stakeholders. in this connection, there appears to be a reasonable prospect of implementing business-type call centres as an e-governance tool in delivering better services including the dissemination of important information to citizens and other stakeholders. from this perspective, ‘e-governance could be defined as the application of information and communication technology (ict) in establishing interaction between the different levels of government, business, and the citizenry’ (adbi, 2007:1). bhatnagar (2004:19) acknowledges that ‘any kind of use of information and communication technology’ in delivering service to, and communicating with, citizens and other stakeholders could fall within the realm of e-governance. ict, however, encompasses a wide range of technology applications such as computing systems; digital broadcasting networks; telecommunications technologies including telephony; and electronic information resources including the internet and cd-roms (selwyn, 2002; university of oxford, 2007). ict being the nucleus of e-governance, is also the key resource and driver of setting up call centres. call centres carefully utilise some of these ict components. in a call centre, employees receive inbound and make outbound calls using automatic call distributors (acds) or predictive dialing systems (taylor and bain, 1999). call centres are increasingly using the voip (voice over internet protocol) network to combine both the voice network (traditional telephone network) and data network into one integrated network for all communication needs (the contact, 2005). as call centre activities range from mere response to a simple query or information dissemination to the delivery of a complex business solution, the operators may also need to rely on the live portals of the organisation including intranet with specialised access to classified information on key service areas of the organisation. it often complements email communication, web portals and various web-based service provisions. from a citizen’s perspective, it adds some human involvement that reassures citizens of the authenticity and effectiveness of the web-based service provisions. considering such potentials, governments in many countries have already started using call centres as an e-governance tool (uk national audit office, 2002; yong & tan, 2003; contact news asia, 2008; i4donline, 2008; citizenship and immigration canada, 2008) customer service delivery by local government is seen to become a major growth area for the call centre industry in the 21st century (uk improvement and development agency, 2008) discussion of this paper begins with an overview of call centres from both public and private sector perspectives. it will be followed by a discussion on the role and necessity of e-governance and its extent of adoption in various developing countries. from a developing country perspective, it will then examine if any pattern is emerging with respect to the use of call centres in e-governance activities. in light of this deliberation, a tentative framework will be proposed. a discussion of associated limitations of the proposed framework will follow together with some of its implications for business and government in developing countries. the call centre, its evolution and prospects: an overview in its research report on call centres, the union research centre on organization and technology (urcot) of royal melbourne institute of technology (2000:1) adopted the definition of the call centre as ‘an operation that uses telephone and computer technology to deliver services to customers’. the report primarily emphasized inbound or outbound telephone traffic handled by call centre employees. however, taylor and bain (1999) described the customer service oriented functions of call centre employees through the concurrent use of telephones and computers. starting with the minimum requirement of using telephones, call centre activities may extend to include the use of the internet in the era of technological advancement primarily through the use of e-mail and voip. call centres, as communication networking hubs of business, cover functions ranging from telemarketing in an outbound context to acting as help desks in an inbound context (kinder, 2001). butler (2004: xviii) kept the notion of call centre ‘as customer contact centres, customer support centres, helpdesks, and derogatorily, as cost centres’, without distinguishing between the inbound and outbound contexts of call centres. from a government’s perspective, it could be considered as a device to create awareness about, or surveying, the households in terms of their opinions about specific government policy measures and service provisions on the one hand; and to respond to specific queries and provide limited service offerings to its citizens on the other. in a survey conducted by noetica in 2002, call centres were predicted to be an integral part of e-government (noetica, 2002). in terms of business administration, management and marketing, the call centre is a relatively new phenomenon (as-saber et al., 2004). however, since its emergence in 1980s, the call centre industry has expanded rapidly across north america, europe, australia and asia (taylor and bain, 2004). almost two-thirds of worldwide customer contacts are now carried out by call centres (day, 2000). successful call centres are focused on efficient operation, and customers’ and shareholders’ value creation and optimisation. the efficiency, in this regard, lies not only in effective and prompt responses to customer calls, but also on originality, high skills and precision in setting up and implementation of organisational goals and strategies (as-saber et al., 2004; brown & maxwell, 2002; deery & kinnie, 2002; holman, 2003). burgess and connell (2004) argue that one of the main forces behind the wide adoption of call centres is the flexible nature of their operation. its use has evolved from internal business re-organization which is adaptable to both public and private sector operations, in both market and non-market activities (burgess & connell, 2004). ict could be seen as an enabler to create such flexibility and significantly improve the public sector performance with better citizen access to public services and improved quality of service delivery (yong and koon, 2003). stahl (2005) opined that government might be the largest user of ict and has the major power in regulating the technology. from this perspective, it could be assumed that the use of ict in call centres by the government would be relatively less complex in terms of regulation and convenience. moreover, customer-centric use of call centres by private businesses could be considered analogous to the citizen-centric approach of any government’s e-governance project. call centres increase the efficiency and profitability of business. with a similar use of such centres in an e-governance project, government also has the opportunity to increase efficiency in its overall governance process and make its commercial activities more viable. while discussing the location of call centres, as-saber et al. (2004) mentioned that to serve the needs of local companies, the location might either be within the firm’s domestic jurisdiction or companies based in one country could use the services of call centres based in another country. businesses, however, could choose the locations of their call centres depending on their business advantages and strategic directions. the question might arise whether government departments and enterprises have a similar focus on call centres. the locational advantage factor of call centre outsourcing might not be observed as an important factor for government call centres as the related theories of international business that are prevailing at this moment are focused on call centre operations of private businesses (as-saber et. al., 2004). for that reason, it may be argued that a line should be drawn between public and private call centres. in a report, the national office for the information economy of australia argued that despite some of the comparable activities, government call centres are different from private sector call centres in terms of their knowledge base and skills sets (noie, 2003). the report opined that the call centres of the commonwealth of australia are more knowledge and skill intensive compared to private sector call centres. australian government organizations such as australian competition and consumer commission (accc), austrade and ausindustry could respond to more than three-fourth of the inbound calls they receive from citizens within 20 seconds. the australian taxation service and the australian customs service also operate call centres fulfilling the requirements of both g2b and g2c linkages (noie, 2003). in a separate study, american management systems and the purdue university center for customer-driven quality reported that public sector call centres in the united states perform better than private sector call centres’ for b2c and b2b operations. however, in another survey, kinder (2001) found that the intensity of the use of call centres by the public sector is less than that of the private sector. he argued that the technology used in earlier models of call centres were less appropriate for the public sector operations than the private sector. nevertheless, the adoption of newer models like the service solutions integrated call centre (ssicc) model has shown an increment of call centre application by the public sector (kinder,2001). the reports on public sector call centres’ performance and the study of kinder (2001) show that future prospects for call centre use by governments would be positive. these findings emphasise the aspects of ‘e-commerce’ and ‘e-service’ delivery within the public sector enterprises through the use of call centres. e-governance and call centres although e-governance and e-government are used interchangeably in most of the literature, saxena (2005:499) argues that an important distinction exists between e-governance and e-government as ‘government is the institution itself, whereas governance is a broader concept describing forms of governing which are not necessarily in the hands of the formal government’. this paper deliberates on the role of call centres within the scope of governance, with a primary focus on e-governance. holmes (2001) argues that a special and improved public service delivery that assists the economic development of a country might require a movement for e-governance. e-governance of a government focuses on services covering the term ‘e-business’ or ‘e-commerce’, which is broader than the usual ‘e-commerce’ as it not only comprises the business to citizen (b2c) link but also government to citizen (g2c), government to business (g2b), government to government (g2g) and business to business (b2b) links. the united nations department of economic and social affairs (undesa, 2003) has put emphasis on creating public value through e-governance, which is focused on providing services, passing laws and regulations and taking necessary actions as per citizen’s preferences. creation of public value does not depend entirely on measuring the performance of policies and public institutions or making decisions related to resource allocation. selecting the proper method of delivery is one of the decisive factors in the successful creation of public value (undesa, 2003). call centres together with other service delivery channels could consequently be considered as an important e-governance tool which could complement widespread dependence on internet-based operations. in this connection, bhatnagar (2004:19) acknowledged that e-governance could be ‘used in a loose manner to describe the legacy of any kind of use of information and communication technology’. telephony and associated technologies used in call centres, therefore, form parts of e-governance. as call centres have the potential to facilitate better service provision, government departments and enterprises are increasingly becoming interested in using call centres as an e-governance tool. it could provide them with opportunities to deliver better services to citizens as well as engage them in policy making and implementation dialogues. there are, however, many factors that play a role in both the governance and technology-readiness of a country where a suggestion for a call centre as an e-governance tool might be viewed as ambitious and ambiguous. nonetheless, evidence from both developed and developing countries suggests otherwise. for example, in countries where governments own service operations in areas such as telecommunication, power supply or transportation, service provisions are treated as commercial and customer-oriented and constitute a part of governments’ service obligations to their citizens, e-governance has already started playing an important role. other essential government functions such as tax collection and infrastructure developments, maintenance of law and order and providing social security, are not falling behind. when these entities provide service to citizens as well as collect revenue, both b2c and g2c links are established simultaneously. in this way g2g, g2b and b2b links could be established through e-governance with a focus on revenue-based and customer-oriented service delivery. the use and benefit of call centre as an e-governance component can justify the framework mentioned by ho (2002) that shows the shifting from the bureaucratic paradigm to an e-government paradigm. call centres can assist the shifting process as bureaucratic red tape could be minimized through open and flexible call centre operations. in this connection, based on a systematic content analysis of 270 municipal web sites in california, musso et al (2000) provide a theoretical framework that makes a distinction between the business reform and civic reform model in governance mechanism where technology is used. based on this distinction, musso et al (2000) further argue that technology driven reform processes could be based on entrepreneurial (good management) or participatory (good democracy) models of governance structure. the role of call centres within the governance structure is different to the role of web sites as call centres provide direct telephone contacts between citizens and the public service providers. although, the use of call centres within the public sector is still in its embryonic stage and fraught with significant challenges, call centres have the potential to provide a better, more democratic option compared to web-based information sharing and service delivery systems. as call centre activities within the e-governance network are likely to ensure better service delivery, improved access to information, enhanced two-way communication and encourage e-democracy through citizen’s participation in the decision making process, it could be argued that the model of using call centre for e-governance neither follows a complete business reform model nor a civil reform model, rather it follows a hybrid model comprising ingredients from both models. heeks (2008) does not agree that e-government should only have the involvement of internet related applications, which some argue as prerequisites of e-governance. e-governance consists of three different domains namely (a) e-administration, (b) e-society, and (c) e-citizens and e-services (ntiro, 2000; heeks, 2008). according to heeks (2008), it is important that all of these domains are taken into consideration while charting for improvement in government processes, building external interactions and connecting citizens. he further argues that both talking and listening to citizens remains as important segments of the process with respect to informing citizens of public sector activities and incorporating valuable inputs from them while preparing policies of public interest. while internet does not entirely provide this opportunity, call centres can play a significant e-governance role in this regard. singapore presents a good example. while discussing the case of e-governance in singapore, siew and leng (2003) argued that simply the addition of the letter ‘e’ with governance, linking technology use with governance, is not the fundamental goal of the term ‘e-governance’. they consider that the basic goal of e-government should be to ‘rethink all aspects of governance and the service delivery to see how it can take advantage of technology and new business models to improve the efficiency of internal processes, as well as change the nature of government interactions with both individuals and businesses’, in order to facilitate the vision of “many agencies, one government” (siew & leng, 2003:20-21). the singapore government owns and operates a significant number of business enterprises including singtel, an asia-pacific telecom giant. call centres are used by the singaporean government as an important e-governance tool. e-governance and call centres in developing countries during the first decade of call centre emergence, most call centres were operated within the rich industrialised countries. the relocation of call centres to countries with relatively cheap but skilled labour forces has become a trend since the mid-1990s (burgess and connell, 2004). together with the relocations, new call centres mushroomed in certain parts of the developing world to cater to the increasing demand of call centre services from major multinational corporations (mncs). mncs worldwide had found it easier and cheaper to outsource call centre services to developing countries. however, only a handful of developing countries were able to benefit from this demand as countries required a large pool of educated people with necessary technical, social and language skills. advancement of ict is one of the main features of those developing countries where call centres were mainly outsourced. social and language skills and the personality of call centre employees are also treated as valued and important requirements by employers. as a result, among all developing countries, india has become the most popular destination for call centre outsourcing by mncs because of the availability of cheap and qualified people with knowledge of ict and proficiency in english (as-saber et al., 2004; bean, 2003; thompson et al., 2001). other than india, countries such as the philippines, malaysia, south korea and china are other major call centre hubs in asia (voice & data, 2003). it is argued by kinder (2001) that even if internet-based transactions are cheaper, consumers in general have greater access to the telephone and thus internet use in these areas is criticized as intensifying social exclusion. this is an important factor for developing countries where social exclusion already exists to a large extent. telephone usage could therefore be argued as a more viable option than the internet, hence justifying the use of call centres by the public sector rather than adopting the online mode of e-governance. based on the level of ict infrastructure, the united nations department of economic and social affairs (undesa) (2008) has come up with an e-governance readiness index (see table 1). it suggests that most developing countries are lagging behind their developed counterparts in e-governance readiness. however, a few developing countries such as korea and malaysia are doing reasonably well in this regard. table 1: e-governance readiness and infrastructure data 2008 country internet per 100 users pc per 100 users cellular subscribers per 100 users main telephone lines per 100 users broadband per 100 users e-governance readiness index (2008 rank) developed sweden 76.97 83.49 105.92 59.52 25.87 0.9157 (1) denmark 58.23 69.46 107.25 56.89 31.73 0.9134 (2) united states 69.10 76.22 77.40 57.15 19.31 0.8644 (4) canada 67.89 87.31 52.51 64.12 23.57 0.8172 (7) australia 75.12 76.61 97.02 48.81 19.15 0.8108 (8) united kingdom 56.03 76.52 116.39 56.15 21.71 0.7872 (10) japan 68.27 67.45 79.32 43.02 20.09 0.7703 (11) singapore 39.21 68.02 109.34 42.32 18.19 0.7009 (23) developing south korea 71.11 53.18 83.77 55.99 29.27 0.8317 (6) malaysia 43.77 21.54 75.45 16.83 3.48 0.6063 (34) brazil 22.55 16.09 52.90 20.54 3.14 0.5679 (45) china 10.35 4.22 34.83 27.79 3.85 0.5017 (65) philippines 5.48 5.37 50.75 4.30 0.15 0.5001 (66) indonesia 7.18 1.47 28.30 6.57 0.05 0.4107 (106) india 5.44 1.54 14.83 3.64 0.21 0.3814 (113) bangladesh 0.31 2.42 13.25 0.79 0.00 0.2936 (142) afghanistan 1.72 0.32 8.11 0.53 0.00 0.2048 (167) ethiopia 0.21 0.39 1.09 0.91 0.00 0.1857 (172) chad 0.60 0.16 4.65 0.13 0.00 0.1047 (182) source: undesa (2008) the index reveals an interesting trend over the last few years a significant move has taken place towards cellular phone ownership. table 1 suggests that in both developed and developing countries, mobile phone ownership is currently much higher than the ownership of fixed (main) telephone lines. in developing countries, in particular, where fixed line phones and internet (including broadband) connections are not so common, the cellular phone networks could be used to deliver call centre services. for example, in india, in mid-2002, the tele-density was 4.4 which represented 44,000 telephone lines per one million population (yong, 2003b; yong & phureesitr, 2003). tele-density in india, however, was reduced to 3.64 in 2008 if one only included fixed lines. interestingly, cellular subscriptions skyrocketed during this period, from 4 it jumped to 14.83 per 100 users (undesa, 2008). that means, the number of cellular phone connections jumped from about 40,000 in 2005 to more than 148, 000 in 2008 per one million people. access to the internet and broadband are significantly low in india. in 2008, the density levels in these two categories were 5.44 and 0.21 per 100 users (undesa). therefore, communication through fixed line telephone and cellular phone is still a more feasible option than the internet. a similar situation exists in countries such as china and south korea. although the level of internet access is much higher in singapore and malaysia, the combined access to fixed lines and cellular phones outweighs internet access levels (yong, 2003b; yong & phureesitr, 2003; yong & tan, 2003; tan & yong, 2003, undesda, 2008). as government could not argue against creating a technology-driven better government, the adoption of call centres as an elementary means of e-governance, cannot be ruled out. from a developing country context, ict-driven initiatives such as call centres are important development measures. nobel peace prize winner dr muhammad yunus (2000), who founded the grameen (village) bank and empowered millions of rural women through successful implementation of micro-credit program in many developing countries including bangladesh, as well lhas acknowledged the importance of such initiatives in developing poor economies. in this regard, alauddin (2004) presents evidence involving grameen telecom (a subsidiary of grameen bank) in promoting telecommunication facilities in rural bangladesh through the village phone (vp) program. the number of subscribers under the vp program, which was 28 in 1997, increased drastically within 7 years to a staggering 100,000 by the end of 2004. this not only justifies the opinion of dr yunus but also rationalizes the opportunity to implement call centres in a poor developing country like bangladesh in spite of its very low score in the e-government readiness index. in this way, this initiative from a private company like grameen telecom has established the fact that government could achieve bigger success in its e-governance process through using simple telecommunication technologies through call centres. butler (2004:126) argues that the ‘call centre’s main focus is about the people working there and the people being served, not the technology’. the focus of e-governance is also to serve citizens through efficient public services. referring to the experience of south africa, theunissen (2001) argued that cellular telephone technologies should be adopted as viable and crucial means of e-governance that might be linked to public sector call centres. hence the tele-density and internet penetration scenario in various developing countries with varying levels of development supports call centre use in e-governance programs. countries with reasonably high internet penetration could utilize both telephony and internet in their call centres and countries with low internet penetration could rely primarily on call centres through the simple features of telephone technology and a limited use of internet. kinder (2001) mentioned the labour-intensive nature of the call centre as a point to argue for in its adoption by public administrations in developing countries that is as a generator of significant employment opportunities. sharp (2003) argued for the enhancing the value of the workforce in call centres through training and other incentives, as he found out that 70% to 80% of total operational expenses in call centres were due to personnel-related costs. while discussing the variable market conditions for any industry, hill (2005) opined that the industry development and cost structures are affected by local labour costs and availability. labour-intensive industries are easily adaptable in developing countries due to the availability of cheap labour. considering the labour costs associated with call centre operations and developing countries’ accessibility to cheap labour, it could be argued that using call centres as a means of e-governance in developing countries would not involve huge costs for the government. it would rather increase efficiency and save costs by reducing the need for face-to-face service provisions. government could deflect the savings for technological advancement of call centres that are involved in e-governance projects. call centre performance could be enhanced through training, employment security, electronic performance monitoring and a good pay level (batt & moynihan, 2004:37). the relative ease of implementation and cost savings generated thorough the use of call centres in developing countries are likely to contribute positively to the performance of e-governance. adria and chowdhury (2004) argue that in the design, implementation and maintenance processes of call centres, centralization should be an important consideration to ensure service quality and support operations. some of the conclusions of the analysis by adria and chowdhury (2004) are based on case studies they conducted on the use of call centres by several government organizations in north america. from the experiences of e-governance projects in a number of developed and developing countries, it is also observed that e-governance often comprises the feature of providing centralized services to citizens through a ‘one stop’ call centre service. in a study on successful e-government solutions in the united states, chircu and lee (2005) have found that ‘offering a one-stop e-government solution’ is one of the key success factors of e-governance. as-saber, et al. (2007) and tambouris and wimmer (2005) also argue in support of one-stop government as a dominant driving vision for global e-governance initiatives. in this regard, tambouris & wimmer (2005) have emphasised the use of call centres as single points of communication access for customers requesting any public service. corruption is a major concern across the world. the situation in developing countries is, however, much worse compared to their developed country counterparts. the recent survey by transparency international (2005) has revealed that the top 25 corrupt countries are from developing world. the question is can call centres become a catalyst in reducing corruption? a rural citizen through a single phone call from a mobile phone to a public sector call centre could find information on a government’s recent agricultural policies. when the call centre provides him with the information, government is able to increase transparency through the dissemination of government rules. the rural citizen is empowered through accessing the information directly thus reducing the brokerage power of intermediaries. reduced face-to-face interaction between citizens and businesspeople with public servants due to the use call centres could reduce administrative corruption and limit the discretionary powers of public officials. through the elimination of redundant staff and reduction of costs associated with travel for citizens to interact with government, call centres could assist in achieving e-governance goals of improved civil service performance and more efficient service delivery (as-saber et al, 2004, 2007). one-stop service through call centres could improve government finances as associated transaction costs for government processes between different agencies are reduced due to the deployment of call centres (bhatnagar, 2004). so far, the realistic and optimistic survey reports regarding successful use of call centres by government are limited to developed countries. as the discussion is still whirling around the extent of call centre adoption by public sectors in technologically-advanced developed countries, it might seem an ambitious choice for governments of developing countries to use call centres as an e-governance tool where tele-density and the rate of internet use are very low. nevertheless there are examples of government initiatives in developing countries to set up public sector call centres in order to augment government’s move to ensure good governance. malaysia has successfully adopted e-governance initiatives as a part of former malaysian prime minister dr mahathir mohammad’s vision 2020 program (karim & khalid, 2003). the overall e-governance project in malaysia aims to cover g2c linkage through e-services, g2b linkage through e-procurement and g2g linkage through other pilot projects. the electronic channels that are used in e-services range from home or office computers and public kiosks to wireless devices and interactive voice response (ivr) systems (yong, 2003a). ivr systems facilitate clients’ (in this case citizens and other stakeholder) communication with a call centre network (robertson, 2002). call centres, therefore, are an integral part of the e-governance process in malaysia. call centres are increasingly using the short messaging service (sms) to receive queries and feedback and also to provide basic information to clients. in many developing countries including india, sms is considered as a legal document (srivathsan, 2004). the g2b linkage in malaysia through the e-procurement project allowed for the use of sms and fax. inter-agency and intra-agency communications within the government also feature these messaging systems (yong, 2003a). numerous steps taken by the malaysian government in its e-government project do not necessarily involve internet-based applications, though those are prominent, signifying a broad arena of delivery channels for e-governance other than websites. it also indicates that e-governance in its advanced stage in a country would attempt to find better delivery channels. as a consequence, wider use of call centres plays a greater role within the e-governance process and improves the public value dimension of e-governance. india provides a good example of promoting call centres as an e-governance tool. in association with local bodies and government agencies, the department of information technology of india has established integrated service centres known as friends (fast reliable instant efficient network for disbursement of services) (yong & sachdeva, 2003). call centres constitute an essential segment of the friends network. for example, as a part of friends centres, a citizen call centre is established at kerala’s capital thiruvananthapuram to provide information related to general citizens’ transaction over the telephone. this call centre provides information on different government services and also informs the procedures to obtain those services quickly and easily. this call centre has established a strong g2g linkage across different departments such as civil supplies, motor vehicles, revenue, state electricity board, state water authority and universities. this citizen call centre, which is equipped with manpower conversant with rules and regulations, can be accessed from anywhere within the state of kerala between 9 am and 7 pm of each working day (kerala state it mission, 2005). in a different move to provide enhanced services to citizen, the indian railways has taken steps to set up a call centre which would ‘provide the exact position of trains, arrival-departure information, fares, concessions, cancellation rules, break journeys, lost ticket rules and journey planning’ to its customers (public sector technology & management, 2005). andhra pradesh is another state of india that highlights the role of the call centre in improving its governance system and structure. with its 2,75,068 square kilometre area and more than 70 million people, this state is larger than many other developing countries in terms of both area and population (compare infobase private limited, 2005). the following comments made by the chief minister of andhra pradesh emphasises the importance of call centres in his state: this call centre initiative is part of our vision to offer citizens the benefits of technology and bring down government-public interface. the role of government has undergone changes over the years. as governments are getting gradually flat, we are keen to provide simple interface for people and offer all services to them by reducing interface...the effort is to provide a corruption-free administration. this can be best addressed with fewer interfaces of government functionaries with the citizens. therefore, we have embarked upon this it project and plan to link them up to all departments in the state as we go along (the hindu business line, 2003). the government of thailand, in a similar fashion, has implemented a project worth us$2.8 million to set up a one-stop call centre linking 20 ministries. after its implementation, calls to the call centre increased by more than 65% in the first quarter of the year (public sector technology & management, 2004). the public sector call centre in thailand has successfully established g2g, g2c and g2b linkages. the above examples indicate the potential contributions of call centres to the e-governance practices and processes within the developing world. they also signify the possible benefits of using call centres for governments, businesses and individuals from a developing country context. it could be argued, therefore, that call centres have the ability to streamline and enhance the e-governance process and aid to achieve better governance in developing countries. call centres as an e-governance tool: some constraints using call centres as an e-governance tool should not be seen as without difficulty. there are several constraints that are widely considered to impede the operation and outcome of public sector call centres. corruption and trust: the public sector in developing countries is marred with numerous problems including widespread corruption, lack of resources and inefficiency. as a consequence little improvement could be done through the operation of call centres within an e-government framework. dean (2001:8) observes that ‘both service quality and perceived customer orientation of call centres affect customer loyalty to the providing organisation’. as the integrity and quality of public sector service provisions in developing countries are often viewed with concerns and scepticism, citizens and stakeholders may not be interested, and willing to put their trust in utilising call centre facilities operated by government employees. e-governance readiness, digital divide and tele-density: most of the literature discussing the prospects of e-governance also mention the challenge of overcoming the ‘digital divide’. more educated and technology-affluent segments of any society get greater access to any ict-related initiatives while the underprivileged segment of the population does not enjoy similar access. the overall difference between developed and developing countries with respect to access to ict resources could also be seen from a similar perspective. the concept of the digital divide has been elaborated by panagopoulos (2004:121) in the following manner: access issues remain paramount in any discussion about the potential of digital government. even as the total global online population increased 20 percent between 2000 and 2001 (to 514 million users), only about nine percent of the world’s population enjoys regular internet access. however, internet access is not the only issue in the digital divide. access to other ict related resources should also be taken into consideration. developing countries also have a mixed scenario of internet access among their populations. tele-density is an important segment within the digital divide. as broadband connections are not universally available, simple internet connections also need to rely primarily on fixed (main) telephone connections. tele-density is thus an important precondition for both call centre operations and internet connections. table 1 shows that many developing countries don’t have broadband access and need to rely on dial-up networks for their internet service provisions. they also lack the necessary level of tele-density including cellular phone connections to run viable call centre operations. it is, nonetheless, a positive sign to see that some developing countries such as korea, malaysia, brazil and china are doing better than other developing countries in this regard. according to the e-governance readiness index published by udesa (2008), these countries have significantly higher scores compared to other developing nations. korea in fact scored higher than a number of leading developed countries such as canada, australia, the uk and japan (undesa, 2008). it ranks sixth among 182 nations. while sweden topped the list, china, india, and afghanistan rank 65th, 113th and 128th respectively with chad being the last (167th) (undesa, 2008). cost: kinder (2001) is of the opinion that transactions in call centres are five times cheaper than paper-based transactions while the cost is ten times higher than that in internet-based transactions. costs in call centres arise from equipment and telecommunication charges, property-related charges and the salary of staffs. in selected european cities, 58% of the cost of call centres is on staffing, 7.5% on property and rest is for the use of technology. political commitment and development priority: political commitment is a major precondition of the successful implementation of any e-government initiatives (as-saber, et al., 2007). however, karim and khalid (2003) argue that some governments in developing countries do not have the commitment to implement e-governance and these governments are also poorly equipped to develop and propose successful policies. therefore, the issue is not the suitability of call centre as a tool to offer e-governance in developing countries; rather the administrative cultures and government policies of those countries prohibit a commitment to implementing e-governance as a good governance tool. according to undesa (2003), the ability of the government for successful e-governance depends on the availability of funding, and the skills and culture of the civil service, co-ordination, the legal framework, ict infrastructure, political leadership and long-term political commitment, public engagement, plans for development of human capital and technical infrastructure, monitoring and evaluation and partnerships. regrettably most developing countries have a very poor record on those parameters required for successful e-governance. the united nations survey on e-governance readiness reflects these deficiencies (undesa, 2008). another important consideration for governments in developing countries is to set up the right priority portfolio. given the ongoing need for food and basic infrastructure including transport, health and education, call centres and e-government may not be considered as an immediate priority area for development. awareness: broad-based public awareness campaign are required to inform the public of any e-governance activities (metamorphosis, 2008). citizens and other stakeholders should understand the goals and objectives of public sector call centres, their links to e-governance and the extent of benefit they can achieve from such operations. call centres or any other e-governance initiatives will fail to perform and people will remain sceptical if they are not well-informed about any such operations. public briefings, community consultations and promotions through the various media outlets could help overcome this problem. legal barriers: there could also be legal barriers that may not allow call centres and other ict-based systems to operate. for example, in many developing countries, sms is not considered as a legal communication. telecommunication deregulation and legislating appropriate acts and policies are essential pre-conditions for a viable and smooth operation of call centres within an e-government framework. unfortunately, it remains as a major problem in many developing countries (as-saber, et al., 2006). call centre and e-governance in developing countries: a possible framework in a study on the use of call centres by the local public administrations of selected european cities, kinder (2001) took the stand that public administration could utilise call centres as a key driver of its technology function in order to strengthen public governance. despite the fact that kinder’s view is based on his analysis of public sector call centres in developed countries, its ramifications are not limited to the developed world. it is widely understood that e-governance is no longer an alien idea for developing countries as well. governments in developing countries are increasingly willing to accept the use of call centres as an important segment of their e-governance programs. as mentioned above, india, malaysia and thailand provide striking examples to substantiate this statement. although the above discussion suggests the need to formulate or adopt an integrated theoretical framework of call centre and e-governance from a developing country perspective, no such framework has been attempted to date which incorporates call centres as an e-governance tool. a tentative framework, therefore, is proposed (see figure 1) with an aim to show possible links between call centres and relevant governance issues including e-governance in a developing country context. figure 1: call centres and e-governance in developing countries: a proposed framework the framework shows four key variables of the call centre operation from an e-governance perspective. these include: linkages in terms of g2g, g2c and g2b; a focus on customer service and cost-cutting through trouble-free service delivery in a timely manner. it emphasises the need to eliminate or minimise bureaucratic red tape as call centres do not require any face-to-face encounter between the customer and the service-provider; it is characterised by simple technology applications including telephone and voip to maintain a two-way communication network (inbound and outbound). it provides a centralised form of e-services using an efficient workforce it aims to reduce administrative corruption, empower citizens, increase efficiency in service delivery and improvements in areas such as transparency, responsiveness, government finance and civil service performance. the framework also demonstrates the dyadic role of internet as an instrument of call centre operation and as one of the primary e-governance implementation tools. in addition, the framework emphasises that call centre operations are not without problems. as mentioned in the earlier section, call centres may face a number of challenges, viz., cost-pressures; lack of long-term vision and political commitment together with indecisiveness in priority-setting; tele-density and deficient infrastructure including the digital divide; a lack of public awareness about the use and benefit of public sector call centres; legal requirements; and bureaucratic red-tape and corruption. a systematic interplay of these issues, together with the socio-economic, political and cultural environment may influence the policy making and implementation of public sector call centres within the e-governance architecture in developing countries as a cost-saving and waste-saving mechanism (through reduced use of paper documents and for saving the transportation and other related costs of face-to-face service delivery), call centres have the potential to contribute to sustainable development as well. a well thought-out call centre operation may help in building a better government for a better future. the above framework provides some guidance to policymakers and public sector call centre managers with respect to the nature and prospect of such operations. as the relevant issues are identified and discussed, it will provide them with a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities of operating call centres from an e-governance perspective. it also offers researchers and academics with the prospect of conducting empirical research to validate or further enrich the framework. conclusions achieving good governance is one of the primary objectives of every government. various means have long been used to achieve this objective. the new-found ict-based governance system, popularly known as e-governance, has now attracted significant attention as a mechanism to offer improved service delivery and attain better governance. in recent years, call centres have emerged as an important e-governance tool. from a consumer and service-providers’ perspective, call centres are widely recognized as an effective e-governance instrument capable of delivering better services including the dissemination of important information to citizens and other stakeholders. given the flexible nature of the call centre operation and its potential benefits, governments in developing countries are increasingly adopting call centres as a means to implement e-government. although some developing countries, such as india, malaysia and korea, have already achieved considerable success in implementing public sector call centre activities, it is not always been easy. such initiatives often face significant challenges that may include the lack of infrastructure, low tele-density, lack of political commitment and vision, bureaucratic inefficiency and administrative corruption. strong political commitments with a well-planned and systematic use of call centres within the e-government framework could help overcome these challenges. nonetheless, given the nature and complexity of the issue and to better-understand the important albeit intricate relationships across all factors relevant to public sector call centre activities, it could be considered helpful to draw a systematic conceptual framework focusing on call centre operation and performance from an e-governance perspective. accordingly, the framework proposed in this paper attempts to integrate call centres into a broader schematic architecture highlighting the connections across call centres, e-governance and good governance. it also shows the various types of linkages across government, citizens, businesses and other stakeholders. in addition, the framework underscores the importance of the various environmental variables and their impact on call centres and e-governance. the proposed framework has implications for policymakers, public service managers and call centre employees. it is likely to provide a recipe for future 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(2000). it can be bangladesh’s super highway to prosperity. key-note address delivered at the tech-transfer 2000 – north america conference, atlantic city, usa, april 28-30, 2000. recareering happily ever after: an analysis of job transition storytelling in aarp message boards elizabeth louise spradley stephen f. austin state university abstract the aging population – those 55 and older – are an increasing percentage of the us population and workforce. yet, they are struggling to obtain full-time employment when displaced. experiences of the aging worker are of concern to those investigating organizing processes and use of technology related to employment. this particular research study analyzes computer-mediated storytelling on the american association of retired people’s magazine and related message boards revealing: 1) construction of a storytelling virtual community, in which community members 2) utilize stories as social support and 3) discipline unsupportive storytelling. introduction as americans are living longer, healthier lives and as economic conditions necessitate, americans are participating in the labor market beyond the 65-year marker (department of labor, 2008). however, this is not to say that aging americans do not experience challenges in their employment experiences. rone (1983) recognizes that the unemployment rates in the us of the aged 55 plus population may be masked and misunderstood because this population is more likely to be affected by unsuccessful job searches and job market alienation. between 2003 and 2005, the department of labor’s bureau of labor statistics found that 8.1 million workers were displaced. a displaced worker is “20 years of age and older who lost or left jobs because their plant or company closed or moved, there was insufficient work for them to do, or their position or shift was abolished” (p. 1). in the same news report, the dol indicated 728,000 workers ages 55 to 64 were displaced and 135,000 workers 65 years plus were displaced. a notable result of the three-year study is that only 25% of the 65 plus age range were reemployed. aging workers have documented lower reemployment rates when displaced. another noted challenge to the aging worker is lower wage. in 1979, men 65 and older earned an average $219 per week verses the $291 per week earned by men 16 and older (department of labor bureau of labor statistics, 2008). in 2007, the disparity remains. in 2007, men 65 and older earned an average $686 per week verses the $766 per week average of men 16 and older. women fair similarly with women 65 plus earning an average $534 per week in 2007 and their 16 plus counterparts earning $614 per week. studies seeking to better understand the challenges and experiences of the aging worker are timely considering the current economic and social climates. estimations from the department of health and human services (2005) indicate that the 65 and over population will increase from 35 million in 2000 to 55 million in 2020. as the aging population swells in america so does our concern with understanding their experiences, and in particular, their experiences with career change and technology use. given the aforementioned economic and social landscape for the aging worker, i am left asking, “how does the aging worker use storytelling via technology to manage job transitioning?” to get at this question, i turn my focus to the american association of retired people’s magazine and online community because of their unique invitation to storytelling via their published articles and message boards. the organization of this analytic essay highlights contributions of narrative theory to the understanding of how storytelling functions in a virtual community, identifies the methods used to collect and analyze stories shared on the aarp’s message boards, and reconstructs the aarp’s virtual community as a storytelling organization and how it functions in regard to (un)supportive storytelling. narrative, antenarrative, and storytelling while a comprehensive review of narrative as a discourse analysis method and as data is beyond the scope of this paper (see boje, 2001; mumby, 2004 and riessman, 2008 for more thorough reviews), this section does highlight basic differences between narrative, antenarrative, and story constructs and explores the power of story in the storytelling organization. riessman (2008) notes the plurality of meanings associated with the term narrative, subsequently challenging all who dare to define and differentiate this term with a daunting task. narrative is defined as, “events perceived by the speaker as important are selected, organized, connected, and evaluated as meaningful for a particular audience” (p. 3). czarniawska (1998) argues that there are three criteria of narrative: 1) original state of affairs, 2) an action or event, and 3) a consequential state of affairs differing from the original. plot binds these three criteria together constructing meaning for speaker and audience. jerome bruner (2002) describes plot as being set into motion by peripeteia – a sudden shift or rupture in the action. an important distinction in the study of narratives in organizational communication is between the terms narrative and story. boje (2001) describes a crisis of narrative in modernity – the nonlinear, fragmented, polyphonic story that fails to fulfill the criteria of narrative. many narratives do not fulfill the expectations set for what constitutes a narrative because storytellers do not always communicate chronologically and often leave out portions of the narrative. stories, as an alternative term, have been described as pre-narratives, narrative fragments, and folksy (boje, 1997, 2001; gabriel, 2004a, 2004b). gabriel (2004a) argues that time constraints and unskilled storytellers result in “fragmented, cursory, or incomplete” narratives that are more accurately conceived of as “embryonic narrative fragments that may be regarded as ‘proto-stories’, but contain hardly any plot or characters” (p. 24). therefore, plot may be an agreed upon defining characteristic of narrative; yet, plot may be incomplete in individuals’ storytelling. antenarrative (boje, 2001, 1999, 1995, 1991) is proposed as a way to assist researchers with an alternative approach for analyzing stories. antenarrative provides narrative researchers with a way of describing storied communication that lacks completion and linear emplotment, and antenarrtive also provides narrative researchers with a way of exploring the multiple meanings voiced through storytelling. to grasp boje’s postmodern, antenarrative approach, he creates a discursive metaphor with the las angeles’ play tamara, in which the characters and plot progress on different stages simultaneously throughout a home and audience members follow characters to different scenes. tamara illustrates, “the plurivocal interpretation of organizational stories in a distributed and historically contextualized meaning network – that is, the meaning of events depends upon the locality, the prior sequence of stories, and the transformation of characters in the wandering discourses” (boje, 1995, p. 1000). in other words, narratives are performed for an audience, who has only a partial glimpse at the development of the narrative. in application to organizational communication, narrative and stories have been analyzed in terms of deconstruction (boje, 1995; boje et al., 1997; martin, 1990, 1992), reflexivity (boje et al., 1999), storytelling systems (boje, 1991, 1995), control/resistance and identity (gabriel, 2000; mumby, 1987; trethewey, 2001), dialectical relationship with organizational lists (ziegler, 2007), and the unmanaged (gabriel, 1995, 2000). the storytelling organization of boje’s research with disney (1995) and an office-supply firm (1991) demonstrates how stories become the “medium of interpretive exchange” (boje, 1995, p. 1000). at one extreme, the storytelling organization can oppress by subordinating everyone and collapsing everything to one ‘grand narrative’ or ‘grand story.’ at the other extreme, the storytelling organization can be a pluralistic construction of a multiplicity of stories, storytellers, and story performance events that are like tamara but are realized differently depending upon the stories in which one is participating (boje, 1995, p. 1000). boje (1995) introduces a type of organizing – storytelling. furthermore, boje’s storytelling organization is characterized by power and how powerful stories shape meaning for organizational actors. rich, deep analysis of storytelling is necessary to understand how story powerfully constructs one reality as “the natural order of things” (boje, 2001, mumby, 1987). mumby (2004) argues that narratives reveal taken-for-granted structures of everyday life and act powerfully to control both teller and listener. controls in the organizational structure constrain time, movement, space and discourse (gabriel, 2004a, p. 24). conversely, organizations may enable storytelling as the preferred mode of organizational discourse (boje, 1991). “the power to story is hegemonic at the micro level – very subtle, taken-for-granted, and even softly spoken stories told by others and even to ourselves that scribe a meaning onto our existence that can be imprisoning” (boje, et al., 1999). in other words, the same stories that can serve interpretive sensemaking functions can also function to imprison or discipline. the same stories that function to provide and seek support can be unsupportive. mumby (1997) argues that hegemony is oft conceptualized as power through consent and challenges organizational communication scholars to return to the dialectical roots of gramasci’s conceptions of hegemony, which comprises simultaneous expressions of control and meaningful resistance. rather than analyzing stories to determine whose story is best, analysis should focus on hegemony – that is, whose story is salient and powerful in marginalizing other stories and interpretations (boje, et al, 1999). buzzanell and ellingson’s (2005) analysis of the “good worker” master narrative, boje’s (1995; boje et al., 1997) deconstruction of grand narratives. martin’s (1990, 1992) deconstruction of the caesarean story, mumby’s (1987) ideological analysis of the ibm story, and trethewey’s (2001) dialectical analysis of the master narrative of decline serve as exemplars in exploring storied discourse to reveal hegemonic structures and marginalized voices. using antenarrative, it is not sufficient to identify patterns in stories being told and simply categorize the stories to determine their function. instead, antenarrative challenges research on storytelling to delve deeper into storytelling to determine whose interests are being served by the storytelling and whose voices are being silenced. the following analysis uses a virtual storytelling organization to analyze storied communication centering on career change and the power implications of the organizational actor’s storytelling. methods the aarp is an appropriate organizational context to identify organizational spaces where stories of career transitioning among the aging population are welcomed and shared. according to their mission statement, the aarp, american association of retired people (2011), is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization seeking to enhance the quality of life and lead positive social change for the aging population, which would include supporting its members during the uncertainty of career change. since its founding in 1958, the aarp’s membership has swelled to 39 million; half of the us population age 50 or older are members of the aarp. surprising to many is the percentage of members that remain in labor market. forty-four percent of aarp members work part or full time (aarp, 2008). due to the large number of aarp members continuing in the labor market, the organization has undertaken advocacy and support for the aged worker including those changing jobs. a number of magazine articles, bulletin articles, online resources, and most recently, message boards have been created by the aarp to support career change. this research focuses on two magazine articles that precipitated into message boards and characterize antenarrative storytelling and the power of narrative. while there were 42 online groups on aarp’s website centered on money and work issues,19 specifically related to profession and workplace issues, membership in these groups was low (10 members on average), and number of message posts was also low at the time of this study. whereas, the message boards on the aarp magazine’s webpage pertaining to similar issues had high membership (20-40 members) and high numbers of posts (200 plus in a number of cases). in particularly, two message boards stimulated from published magazine articles related to job transitioning.  first, an article entitled presto change-o by samuel greengard spawned a popular message board that received 241 posts between september 7, 2006 and march 11, 2008.  this message board was designated for those who were experiencing “occupational transformation.” a second article entitled follow your dream by dan miller was a platform for a message board that received 52 posts between september 25, 2007 and february 22, 2008.  miller’s article encouraged readers to find their vocational calling in life.  all poster’s user names have been changed in the writing of this analytical essay but permission was not sought from each user for inclusion in this study[1]. storytelling begins in the magazine’s articles as the authors highlight later life career change success stories, and storytelling is extended to the members of the message boards as they author their personal stories, which are characteristic of the fragmented plots of antenarratives.  the message board for presto change-o encourages posters to “tell us about your experiences, and share advice with fellow readers who might be considering an occupational transformation of their own.”  similarly, the message board for follow your dream asks posters to “share your story here.”  the aarp’s magazine engages its readers with hopeful, inspiring stories of “recareering” and finding “your purpose, your mission, and your calling” and, then, invites readers to articulate their own stories in a public space.  thus, the message boards on the aarp’s magazine’s website become a site par excellence to investigate intersects of story and job transitioning of aged workers. data analysis to look at how the aging worker uses storytelling to discursively manage job transitioning, i employ three different analytic lenses to the data.  first, i used a grounded analysis approach (charmaz, 2000) to code message board posts.  initial coding revealed the function of storytelling on the message boards, to seek and provide social support, and subsequent coding developed thematic categories of support and resistance storytelling in this online space. aarp posters’ stories are multi-faceted, in situ narrations of the triumphs, challenges, and disappointments of both volitional and forced career change conceptualizing the aarp and its virtual community as complex, political spaces, in which some discursive patterns of meaning may suppress alternative meanings, i, as the researcher, find myself seeking a multifaceted approach to underscore concealed, marginalized discourse and how that discourse is contextually and how that discourse may function similarly or differently from the dominant discourse in constituting a community of social support. by adopting a political reading of narrative, however, it is possible to demonstrate that story-telling is not a simple representing of a pre-existing reality, but is rather a politically motivated production of a certain way of perceiving the world which privileges certain interests over others (mumby, 1987, p. 114). the following analysis begins to unpack how understandings of career change are shaped by perceptions of optimism toward later life job transitioning. greengard and miller’s aarp magazine articles and message boards the aarp’s magazine articles by greengard and miller begin the storytelling chains by featuring a number of stories of career change to support the authors’ arguments.  to better grasp how readers turned message board posters accept, connect, and contest the published articles that spawned the virtual communities, analysis will begin with the storytelling and discursive patterns established at the managerial level by the aarp authors who composed official renderings of career change plots and morals.  greengard (2006) employs five later life career change stories in an article focused on the challenges and rewards of pursuing career change while contemporaries are retiring.  the opening story of greengard’s article features henry stewart, who traded his public relations job for a $20,000 culinary arts degree and $8 per hour job at the marriott renaissance worthington hotel at age 50.  like henry, rebecca armstrong quit a lucrative career, only in architecture, to return to school.  rebecca sought a service career as a neonatal nurse at age 55. rebecca who financed the career change using equity in her family’s apartment, is spending more than $100,000 to attend columbia.  “this change isn’t about making more money.  it will take me until about 2011 to get back to my income level as an architect,” she says. both henry and rebecca’s stories feature individuals who are finally pursuing persistent, unfulfilled dreams through career changes. greengard utilizes these two success stories in conjunction with three others to argue that, “for those 50-puls workers who have made the leap successfully, the reward of career change is personal satisfaction.”  this article is void of tragic stories but is not without warnings of tragic ends. pay cuts, discrimination, lack of social support, lower status, and less respect are labeled potential tragedies of changing careers at age 50.  despite the noted negative consequences, greengard’s article only features the success stories.  in addition to foregrounding success stories in the article, greengard introduces readers to career change terminology.  changing careers is metaphorically linked to gambling, leaping, and making lemonade.  career change is positively termed as “recareering,” “starting over,” “connecting to dreams, desires, and youthful aspirations,” a “joint venture,” “personal satisfaction,” “living life to its fullest,” “shifting existing talents,” and an “opportunity.”  the image of career change constructed by greengard’s discourse and, especially, storytelling is an image of fulfillment.  while greengard’s article is saturated with optimism from start to end, miller’s (2007) article, follow your dream, begins pessimistically before taking a sharply propitious tone on which it ends. miller (2007) introduces readers to career change through two arguments.  first, “the american workplace is changing,” as, “companies are dismantling pension plans, cutting health insurance benefits, and replacing the gold watch with the pink slip.”  second, “in a workplace where jobs come and go like feathers in the breeze, we must have a sense of continuity in our lives that goes far beyond our daily job.”  combined, these two arguments support miller’s encouragement to readers to pursue a vocation. there are three principal terms miller uses in regard to career: job, career, and vocation. in miller’s estimation a vocation is likened to a calling and leads to “fulfillment, a sense of peace, and accomplishment.” miller highlights how career change can lead one to one’s vocation.  just as greengard introduced his readers to optimistic career change terminology so does miller. miller discusses career change as an “opportunity to fully engage your calling,” “reawaken[ing],” “freedom,” being “productive and fulfilled,” and a “new season.”  stories, even if fragmented, include plot and a moral/lesson to some degree, and the stories in greengard and miller’s articles are no exception.  the paramount plot line is as follows: individual or couple becomes dissatisfied with job, which leads to introspection, which leads to career change, which leads to satisfaction.  as the plot unfolds (not necessarily completely or sequentially), there is a plurality of morals invoked by the storyteller or reteller.  morals include: career change is worth the sacrifice; career change will usher in fulfillment; career change is a sign of your confidence; and career change results in self-knowledge.   note that both plot and moral, like story selection and terminology, frame career change favorably emphasizing the positive and reframing the negative as worthwhile and an opportunity for constructive change. of interest to this study is not to simply read and analyze the published articles; but, this study seeks to examine how the discourse in the articles becomes reproduced or resisted by readers in their message board posts, and to disturb a monolithic reading of aging career change (boje, 2001). i am interested in how the aarp magazine articles and message board posters develop discursive patterns that function hegemonically and how social actors “identify with, resist, and transform” the these discursive patterns by voicing their experiences (mumby, 1997, p. 345).   therefore, the subsequent sections of this portion of the analysis shift the focus from the original magazine articles to the postings by aarp the magazine readers. the two message boards ranged in the amount of posts, length of posts, and content of posts.  greengard’s article stimulated 241 posts that averaged two paragraphs per post, and miller’s article, published a year later, stimulated 50 posts that averaged a paragraph per post.  in both cases, posters accepted the invitation to “share your story,” but posters differed in how they embodied the role of storyteller.  some posters reproduced the language, the plot and the morals presented by greengard and miller while some posters produced divergences in plot and morals at least partially resisting the authors’ positive spin on later life career changes.  in the analysis a good number of stories are quoted or paraphrased to demonstrate how this population of 50+ is experiencing career change, and in many cases, i have only selected portions of the posted story to include, not because i am trying to rewrite the posters narratives adding superficial coherency and sequentiality to them (although in some cases this may inadvertently occur to my own dismay), but because i have limited space and must make judicious decisions about inclusions and omissions.  the analysis of the message boards begins by demonstrating how storytelling constitutes a community, in which social support and discipline characterize the function of narration. community “telling stories about difficult times in our lives creates order and contains emotions, allowing a search for meaning and enabling connection with others” (reissman, 2008, p. 10).  the virtual community established through the aarp’s magazine and invitation to posters to share their stories and connect with others’ stories is communicatively constituted through storytelling about difficult times.  storytelling is the “medium of interpretive exchange” for posters networked together through computer-mediated technology (boje, 1995, p. 1000).  cyber support is growing area of research interest as the academy seeks to understand how social support functions in a virtual community (wright, johnson, bernard, and averbeck, 2011).  as sharf (1997) notes in her study of a breast cancer list serv, virtual communities have unique organizing dimensions: membership that fluctuates, virtual rather than physical representation, and geographic barriers that have been broken through computer mediation.   message boards are complex virtual communities due to the fluctuations in membership and the varied participation of membership overtime.  for example, some community members limit the participation in the message boards to reader-only roles while other members post multiple stories and develop conversations with other members.  an excellent illustration of dialogue that occurs between members in the community is discernable from jaba’s (2006 oct. 10) request for information in medical transcription based on sarah’s prior story about working contractually from home as a medical transcriber.  less than two hours after jaba’s request, sarah posted a response detailing how she returned to a community college to take courses in medical transcription.  then, twenty minutes later jaba wrote, “i appreciate the information.  thank you.”  not only did jaba receive direct feedback from the original target of the post, others, like sandy, a former medical transcription teacher, chimed in to offer stories of hope and success with transcription. up to this point in the study, the content of the messages boards in its storytelling structure have been analyzed, but inextricably linked to content is function.  while storytelling may have a cathartic and self-gratifying function for the narrator, within the community storytelling functions as social support for the members.  of the four identified dimensions of social support (emotional aid, material aid, information and companionship in monge and contractor, 2001), the career change stories principally layered dimensions of emotional/psychological aid and information.  stories functioned to advise, validate, and encourage. advise members of the virtual community engaged in storytelling to both solicit and provide advice, that is information, to one another.  jaba’s dialogue with sarah and katelib described earlier demonstrate the informative utility of career change stories and how stories are provided with(out) (in)direct solicitation.  becky’s request for assistance demonstrates how an unfinished story seeks informative resources of the community in order to pursue recareering happily ever after. i had been working, for the same company, twenty-nine years.  i will be 55 in october and last november 15, 2005 my department was eliminated.  i have worked very hard in trying to find another job.  it is so depressing…  i was a very good employee, at my last job, and went above and beyond, and got along with everyone.  (they called me an employers dream employee)  i would love to take more classes but can’t afford it.  the ten months i have been off has really taken a toll on our finances and getting worse even though i collected unemployment the first six months.  i really don’t want to dip into our retirement money.  do you have  any suggestions as to what else i can do?  i am currently open to going part time even though i had been searching for full time positions. rebecca kelso (becky, 2006 sept. 18). the same day becky appealed to her aarp community for help, candice answered her saying, “dear becky, i found a few resources you can look into.  www.seniorjobbank.org http://www.aarp.org/money/careers/employerresourcecenter/bestemployers/ i wish you all the best” (candice, 2006 sept. 18).  stories like becky’s mobilize the community to respond to community needs. posters also conflict, albeit usually indirectly, over best courses of action.  in terms of justification for their way of doing career change, posters affix their advising story to the big story of career change as worthwhile. good point about having the resources to gamble on a new career, but i found a community certificate program, very intensive training in the latest technology, that is a very reasonable alternative to paying the high price of grad school.  most good community colleges have a lot to offer for very little investment.  true, i had to quit my fulltime job for 4 moths and do part-time work and the books are expensive, but it was well worth it (karla, 2006 oct. 10). this personal experience advises the community as a whole to “gamble” on the grand narrative of recareering, but to do it karla’s way – an inexpensive, intensive community certificate program.  other posters story their advice advocating graduate school, entrepreneurship, contributing to and posting on job boards, reading recareering literature, volunteering, and working from home. validate and identify stories also functioned to validate and identify with one another’s experiences.  primarily, posters responded to other posters that shared similarities such as returning to school, being downsized, having similar political views, and sharing occupational interests.  jasmine and amy’s conversation demonstrates how storytelling about career change within the virtual community can function to validate choices to engage in career change and facilitate relational development between two or more participants. way to go, jasmine!  i love your definition of retired – that you have retired from everyone’s elses expectations.  that is profound.  you inspire me, and help me relax a little when i consider my student loan total.  what kind of classes are you taking (amy, 2007 oct. 8)? amy: thanks for your response…  keep in touch and let me know what your plans are and how you are doing in school.  we are having mid-terms this week.  ugh (jasmine, 2007 oct. 8)! …i just finished midterms to, and i agree with your ugh!  it was tough, but i think i did well in most things.  that’s one thing about being an older student, we do not waste our time or money – we do the work.  i’m at a private college too, more $ than i’d ever dreamt.  i had no choice unless i wanted to move…  thanks for responding, it is good to connect with a fellow student (amy, 2007 oct. 8). as amy concludes, “it is good to connect with a fellow student.”  social isolation of late life career change is apparent but addressed through technology in this virtual community.  stan (2007 oct. 16) directly addresses feelings of social isolation, one of the biggest things that i have run across is how other perceive you if you don’t have a job.  they base who you are by how much money you have and what you do for a living not by your vocation (as defined by the article).  it’s very unusual to find someone to listen, if you don’t have a job you’re a bum. the message boards enable validation and identification that posters may not be experiencing elsewhere and provides a space where they can “find someone to listen.” encouragement as posters articulate their career change stories, many are grappling with questions of identity, purpose, capability, and depression.  struggling to make sense of their lived experiences, stories become opportunities to seek and provide encouragement.  “you go girl!!!!!!!!  my hats off to you.  you just gave me inspiration.  if you can do it at your age i am 59 i can too” (dana, 2006 oct. 1)! the message board as a storytelling organization has a constructive utility for many community members.  it is not simply a space to voice one’s story; it is a space to advise, connect, and encourage other career changers, for which many posters verbalize their thankfulness.  amy (2008 jan. 30) responded to riley’s congratulatory email by saying, “thanks for the encouragement!  i’m so glad to hear of your joy in you ot work…  thanks again for your posting!” seeking support through economic and social challenges the aarp has recognized social and economic conditions that challenge aging workers, such as ageism/discrimination, downsizing and early retirement, technical computer skills/training, income level, social security, socioeconomic status and increased cost of living and health care.  conceivably, the aarp is doing more to address the social and economic context of aging career change than any other organization.  the social and economic context impacts the lived and told stories of career changers and message board participants.  invited into the storytelling community, the message board posters extend their requests for and provisions of social support beyond the positively framed conditions and outcomes of career change.  in many instances, posters resist the powerful storylines that emphasize hope, sacrifice, and opportunity and feature plot lines of struggle that highlight the uncertainty and difficulty of later life career change. resisters such as jason and taylor recognize that career change success stories tend to have characters with education and at least middle socioeconomic class status.  taylor’s (2006 sept. 14) story is characterized by his age (57), his “dead end job,” his limited access to resources to start his own business, his lack of “pension or investments,” and his experience with age discrimination at work. those aging workers who were downsized, outsourced, “let go” or forced to retire report a variety of stories, many of which follow script from greengard and miller’s articles that they received the much needed push to find a more fulfilling career.  however, stories from those of lower economic classes are more tragic.  posters such as cal (2006 oct. 14), who has been out of secure employment for three years, describes her anxiety, lack education, anger toward governmental agencies, unsuccessful pursuit of a job, and fears of homelessness.  the aarp message boards represent a space for cal to give voice to her experiences and participate in a supportive community. in addition to socioeconomic class that contextualizes community members’ career change experiences, a number of posters storied their experiences with ageism, a continued pressing social, political and cultural issue even 40 years after the age discrimination act (roscigno et al., 2007).  frank (2006 oct. 14) writes, “as we age, employers don’t want experiences or leadership they want monkey robots that will do exactly only what thy want you to do.”    danny  (2006 oct. 14) agrees with this sentiment posting, “age discrimination is definitely out there and i seriously believe is the cause of why i cannot land another good paying job.  just can’t prove it…”  posters go beyond storying their discrimination experiences to warning each other.  great article, but be careful what you choose.  i returned to college to get a teaching credential because of the supposed teacher shortage in california.  another ‘older’ cohort and i both had a great deal of trouble getting jobs.  i was even told blatantly that the school was looking for ‘the right fit’ and they hired only young people.  though illegal, schools can screen us older folks out, and often do.  i lost my job during a hip replacement, and cannot find another because of the perception that we older folks cannot keep up, even though i am better than when i got my credential!  so beware of jobs that cater to youth, even if there is a seeming shortage of workers (randi, 2006 oct. 15)! storytelling reflects the organizational and societal context in which it is told.  ageism and socioeconomic class issues pervade posters’ stories as obstacles to achieving the aspired plotline that greengard and miller describe in their articles.  furthermore, stories marked by economic and social woes embody antenarrative principles of fragmented, uncertain plots.  seeking stable employment in a different career, these message board posters are voicing story fragments, unfinished narratives.  for a number of the posters struggling through difficult times, the message board constructively functions as a networked community of social support to make sense of the troubling social and economic context.  for others, as they seek cyber support, the community to which they turn turns on them. discipline and power in a storytelling community by and large the storytelling community was saturated with stories that reified the discourse in greengard and miller’s articles; nevertheless, a handful of stories (primarily in the message board spawned from greengard’s article) resisted the positively framed discourse of career change. can’t thank you enough for that spirited article.  without a doubt it touched the lives of “many,” who much like myself, are entering into a time a great challenges.  the 50+ era.  there was one concern, however, that disturbed me.  in each situation where someone in your article took the bull by the horns, as it were, and ran with it, all seem to have large sums of financial resources that “allowed” them to make the career changes that they made…  the majority, while reading your article, no doubt felt like dropping everything and search out that long awaited dream.  nevertheless, “dreams” in today’s world cost $money. $  forgive me if i sound negative, however, how many entering 50+ can actually afford to plop down $20,000 or more… on a venture?  not to mention if they have that type of money sitting around “at all.”  many are trying to hold on to any remaining mortgage payments still due that waits for “no one.”  i would think that the majority of those entering retirement aren’t looking to make drastic life style changes for the sake of seeing if they can still “grab the old brass ring.”  …  yet, being more realistic, the majority cannot and will not succeed in a world that is not truly interested in the elderly or 50+ as you put it...  yours truly, “tell it like it really is…” jason (2006 sept. 11). jason highlights how the aarp magazine articles and posts on the message boards cast the career changer in a role that assumes its character has the resources to pursue career change.  in response to jason, taylor additionally uses this public space to question the ability of the average aging american to change careers successfully. on the subject of job changes, sadly, i must agree with jason.  i’m 57 and one of the baby boomers who is without any pension or investments.  i’m in a dead end job, and would love to start over, but i have no resources to start my own business.  as to job discrimination – ironically, i’m working for a company handling the medicare part d. prescription plan, working with a 50+ population, and i barely got this job!  interviewers were all younger than i am, and clearly not impressed by my job history (which fit their criteria perfectly).  in a call center of 400 agents, about 90 percent are age 30 or younger.  most have no idea of how to relate to more mature clients.  i certainly thought that in a business that dealt almost entirely with clients in my age group, discrimination would not be a problem.  obviously, it’s rampant in today’s marketplace (taylor, 2006 sept. 14). jason and taylor’s cynicism is targeted toward the economic class of the characters in the published stories and their access to education and other resources to successfully change careers.  resistant stories on the aarp presto change-o and follow your dream message boards express a concern with the lack of agency an individual with limited access to resources has to alter his(er) employment future.  stories of hardship, stories of lower socio-economic classes are excluded from the published articles, and a number of posters are quick to illuminate this imbalance. resistant stories range in the degree to which they differentiate themselves from the career change success hegemony.  on one hand there are posters like taylor that take an unapologetic resistant stance on career change discourse, and on the other hand there are posters like ray who are apologetically resistant to the dominant discourse. i later found out that i had been replaced by a 22 year old who was being paid $2.00 less an hour than i was making.  i may be wrong, but i am beginning to feel that part of the problem is my age.  of course, i have not been the brightest bulb in the pack, or i would have gotten a degree instead of raising children and believing that the future would take care of itself.  i am in good health (thank god!) and feel that my experience can be of value.  i just have to figure out, to whom.  sorry to say that i am running out of ideas and depression is setting in.  any way that is my tale of woe.  i am very sure that there are others out there in the same boat (ray, 2006 oct. 2). ray, unlike jason and taylor, apologizes for being depressed and “running out of ideas” as if her “tale of woe” is deviant because it does not fit the mold carved out by greengard or miller.  this begs the question of how socially supportive the storytelling community can be if participants begin to feel guilty for telling stories that fail to reify the positive framing of others’ career change stories. those that deviate from the dominant story whether candidly or hesitantly, especially in regards to the moral, often find themselves targets of other posters’ commentary.  emma (2007 nov. 3) makes a request to “hear from other ‘positive’ people who would like to share what the topic of this discussion is supposed to be about.”   denny (2006 oct. 3) also disciplines those who deviate from the grand story. one thing is sure.  setting around feeling sorry for yourself and blaming the government and large corporations for your situation will not improve your life.  taking a leap of faith and getting involved in doing something you love will greatly improve the quality of life.  as you improve your attitude and expectations you will find most people want to help you succeed and you will!  in life, failure is not an option. denny utilizes storytelling to offer a critique of a number of previous posts that lament their “tales of woe.”  emma and denny see the storytelling community as a place of social support, as long as the stories shared conform to plotline and type of support that the majority of community members have established as normative.  yet, denny’s critique does not remain unaddressed.  some posters actively resist conformity that would silence their stories of unsuccessful career change.  willie (2006 oct. 6), who is currently in debt, reemphasizes the lack of agency many job hunters experience. you know what would be real nice?  to have someone reach out a helping hand and say, “i would love to have you join my organization.  i see you are a valuable asset.  i would love to help you be successful contributing to this world.”  i just cannot imagine that happening after all of this time, pain, and investment. not all narrators feel a sense of control over the story being told.  willie aptly describes what it feels like to be out of control and the desire to have a hero, in the form an organization, ride in and save the day with a job. being a member of a storytelling community entails self-expression, but how is self-expression tempered by conflict between community members?  inevitably, conflict arises between 1) those that have accepted the dominant discourse that recareering is a volitional act of self-improvement and sensemaking that career change is both constructive and attainable and 2) those that contest either parts or the whole of such discourse.  as barge (2004) indicates, a postmodern view toward organizational discourse moves us to consider the tamara-like quality of stories and storytelling within organizational life.  a single unified coherent story that links organizational members together does not exist; rather, organizational members are like the audience members in tamara, wandering about, chasing different stories, exploring different plots for making sense of their unfolding experience (p. 107-108). indeed, as posters both accept and contest the constructive assumptions of career change, a multitude of career change plots, contextual constraints, views on agency, and experience emerge. the social support or cyber support (sharf,1997) intimate the relational complexity and functionality storytelling, thus, challenging transactional conceptions of social support (monge and contractor, 2001). while well-intentioned posters participate in the virtual community requesting and dispensing social support, posters are simultaneously advising, validating, and encouraging one another to align their story with the positive outcomes associated with job transitioning, thus disciplining their stories.  notwithstanding, a portion of posters were able to use the community space to resist the dominant discourse and relate to one another articulating how their experiences diverged from the published articles and other posters.  the aarp career change message boards represent multi-vocal storytelling that is being made sense of as both the individual and community participate and engage in interpretive exchange. conclusions message boards open organizational spaces for aarp the magazine readers to invoke storytelling as “the medium of interpretive exchange” (boje, 1995, p. 1000).   on one hand, the computer mediated exchange subverts posters from chasing storylines conventionally through the corridors and offices of an organization; on the other hand, the computer mediated exchange makes the tamara of postmodern organizations accessible to all participants in the virtual community to trace through the polyphonic stories of career change (boje, 1995).  with that said, the accessibility of (re)reading and the freedom and anonymity associated with a virtual community may exacerbate the disciplining power of career change as a constructive, worthy pursuit as posters ostracize or correct posters whose stories challenge these assumptions.  just as organizations cannot be reduced to a single story (boje, 1995), career change stories of the aging worker cannot be either.  reductionism fails to acknowledge “a multiplicity, a plurality of stories and story interpretations in struggle with one another” (boje, 1995, p. 1001).  this study highlights the constitutive function of storytelling in a virtual community to provide social support and simultaneously deny social support to posters who refused to conform to the storytelling patterns of career change as positive. there are number of notable contributions this study makes.  first, this study highlights storytelling in a non-profit virtual community comprised of the aging population.  the aarp is designated with the charge to advocate on behalf of the aging population, and, there may be a temptation to uncritically analyze communication generated by the organization and its membership.  however, this type of reductionism masks the hardships of (in)voluntary career change at 50 plus that becomes evident in the fragmented, resistant storied discourse that some posters dare share in the virtual community.  second, supportive storytelling becomes a powerful discursive pattern on the aarp message boards that serves as a template as to how community participants were to appropriately communicate with one another.  busselle and bilandzic (2008) explain how schema and mental models of a story contribute to the story construction process.  arguably, when the posts are inconsistent with the dominant discourse, the posts are labeled, even self-labeled, resistant or cynical. overall, such storied discourse as recareering, discovering your calling, job transitioning, and connecting to dreams foregrounds the favorable possibilities related to changing careers while backgrounding unfavorable precursors and consequences to changing careers.  while posters are met with hostility when pointing this out, message boards provide a degree of anonymity, in which resistant storytelling may be voiced.  finally, this study reveals the utility of message boards as a communal, public space in helping storytellers provide support for one another during a difficult time – career change. reflecting on the study, further inquiry should investigate how stories differ based upon media richness.  being able to compare and contrast story construction across media (e.g. face to face versus computer mediated) would deepen an analysis such as this.  challenges to finding social support networks for comparative data on aging career change are discouraging.  access to these networks through corporate downsizing may be quite difficult, but such networks may exist in job placement agencies or continuing adult education courses with easier access.  furthermore, the 65+ demographic statistically uses the internet less than any other age group.  pew internet and american life project (2004) report that eight million americans 65 or older used the internet in 2004, and while this represents a 7% increase from 2000, it is remains only 22% of 65+ population.  this is a significant limitation to using only computer-mediated communication for this demographic; yet, as this segment of the population increasingly uses the internet, research should be concerned with how this demographic socially interacts through it.  as aging americans increase their use of the internet for such things as social 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(2007). the story behind an organizational list: a genealogy of wildland firefighers’ 10 standard fire orders. communication monographs, 74, 4, pp. 415-442. introduction getting turned on: using ict training to promote active ageing in new york city   paula gardner, phd research scientist, bridgepoint collaboratory for research and innovation, bridgepoint health assistant professor, dalla lana school of public health, university of toronto pgardner@bridgepointhealth.ca julie netherland, phd deputy state director, new york drug policy alliance new york, ny jnetherland@drugpolicy.org tom kamber, phd executive director older adults technology services, inc. brooklyn, ny tkamber@oats.org   introduction   as life expectancy continues to rise and in the face of accelerated population aging, preserving and improving the health and well-being of older people has emerged as a significant public health issue of the 21st century. creating the environments, policies and programs that support people to live longer and healthier lives as fully engaged members of society has become a priority among governments, academics, and community organizations in many countries including the united states.   active ageing is the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age (world health organization, 2002, p.12).  an active ageing approach recognizes the rights of older people to equality of opportunity and supports their participation in all aspects of community life.  the social environment, which includes social support, social connectedness, social participation, and opportunities for lifelong learning, plays a significant role in engagement in life among older adults and is a key determinant of active aging. seeking ways to enhance the social environments for older adults, communities, service providers and policy makers have recently turned their attention to information and communication technologies (ict’s).   there is growing consensus that access to essential services and information, maintaining and enhancing social support networks, and opportunities for meaningful social and civic engagement are increasingly compromised by a lack of digital access and literacy. this is a particularly salient issue among older adults as they lag behind other age groups in the adoption and use of computers and the internet. technology training programs targeted at seniors have been identified as an effective way to increase computer use and enhance active aging among this population.   the social environment and wellbeing among older populations   there is a wealth of information to illustrate social connectedness, social participation, and access to information are beneficial to the health and wellbeing of older people. belonging to a supportive social network makes people feel cared for, loved, esteemed, and valued – all of which have a powerful protective effect on health (world health organization, 2003).  social isolation has been shown to be a strong predictor of poor health and linked to cancer and cardiovascular disease (hawkley, burleson, bernston & cacioppo, 2003; hawkey & cacioppo, 2003), re-hospitalization (mistry et al., 2001), depression (cacioppo, hughes, waite, hawkley & thisted, 2006), delayed care-seeking, poor nutrition, and premature mortality (sederer, 2006).   access to information and appropriate (e.g., language suitable, designed to accommodate deteriorating vision and hearing) communication systems are predictors of overall health and well-being for older people. a lack of ‘good’ (useful, accurate, relevant) information impedes access to opportunities, benefits, and services and is a significant barrier to staying engaged in life (finkelstein, garcia, netherland & walker, 2008): “seniors who cannot gain access to information and services because of illiteracy, language barriers, lack of technological knowledge, or a general lack of awareness about the help that is available are at a severe disadvantage when trying to connect with others” (mcveigh, 2005).   social and civic participation have also been associated with improved physical and mental health, cognition, and emotional well-being among older adults. older adults who are actively engaged in forms of social participation are less likely to report poor general health or depression (higgs, nazaroo & hyde, 2004), and social support has been found to alleviate cognitive decline among the elderly population (lovden, ghisletta & lindenberger, 2005). civic participation has been positively associated with better physical and mental health in older adults (kaskie, imhof, cavanaugh & culp, 2008) including reduced mortality (musick, herzog & house, 1999) and higher levels of well-being (measured by self-rated health, functional dependency and depressive symptomology) (morrow-howell, hinterlong, rozario & tang, 2003).   ict’s and older adults in the us   the recent and growing interest in aging and technology is the result of two major trends – population aging and the digital revolution. it is estimated that by the 2030, there will be 72.1 million older americans (almost twice their number in 2007), and by 2050, most of the older population (approx 50 million) will be over the age of 75 (administration on aging, 2009).  the aging society is also an information society, and while the aging population grows, so does the use, development, design, research and sales of information technology (it). internet use for example, has risen in the united states from approximately 10% in 1995 to over 75% today (pew, 2009). these two trends are only beginning to coincide however, so that the fastest growing segment of the population is the least likely to use the fastest growing technologies. recent reports illustrate the “age-based digital divide” continues to persist, and although older adults are increasingly using computers and the internet, today fewer than half (45%) of seniors over 65 and 27% of seniors over 75 are online compared to 78% of people 50-54, 87% of those 30-34, and 93% of 12-17 year olds (pew, 2009).  in addition to lagging behind in adopting these technologies, older adults report having fewer skills and are less confident in their abilities to use computers than younger cohorts (fox, 2004).   computer and internet use among older adults is not a simple matter of “users” and “nonusers”; the adoption and use of it among this population is a complex process that depends on a variety of factors and occurs across a continuum from “silver surfers” (confident and competent older computer users) (cody, dunn, hoppin & wendt, 1999) to “offline seniors” (individuals with no interest or desire in using the technology).  a summary of the literature indicates the key factors influencing the use of it among older adults are both individual (e.g., age, gender, marital status, socioeconomic status, health status, personal attitudes, and perceived benefits of going online (morrell, mayhorn & benett, 2000; selwyn, gorard, furlong & madden, 2003; u.s. department of commerce, 2002) and environmental (e.g., access including hardware and software design) (ownby, 2006).   the impact of computer and internet use on older adults is overwhelmingly positive; use has been associated with lower levels of loneliness and higher levels of social connectivity, decreased depression, and improved self-esteem and cognitive functioning (czaja & lee, 2007; straka & clark, 2000; white, mcconnell, clipp, branch, sloan, pieper, et al., 2002). in a review of the literature, hendrix (2000) highlighted several additional outcomes: enhanced self-efficacy; fulfillment of need for meeting people; fun and mental stimulation; enhanced personal control and self-determination; improved education and skills development (e.g., monitor their health status); and increased social interaction.   training has been found to be particularly important to improving attitudes, knowledge, and confidence, as well as the sustainability of these outcomes among older adults. teaching methods have been identified as playing a significant role in facilitating older individuals’ interaction with and ongoing use of technologies. in particular, a friendly approach (gagliardi, mazzarini, pap, giuli & marcellini, 2008), supportive environment (hickman, rogers & fisk, 2007) and a relevant curriculum (segrist, 2004) are important.   in summary, the aging and technology literature highlights the increasing use of digital technologies among older adults, the benefits from use, the complexity of use patterns and behaviors, and the role of training in facilitating the uptake and sustained use of ict’s among older people. the literature additionally makes several “calls” for future work in this area: the need for more training opportunities for older people (willis, 2006), a more comprehensive understanding of the ways in which older adults utilize computers in their everyday lives and the impact this use has on their health and well-being, and the need for more research to determine how best to train older adults to use new technologies (czaja & shultz, 2006).    the purpose of this study was to address some of these gaps in the literature and assess how participation in a senior’s technology training program older adults technology service (oats) influences the social environments and active ageing of community-dwelling older new yorkers. the study objectives were: a) to assess the impact of the oats program on the computer skills and utilization of participants; b) to assess the impact of the oats program on the health and well-being of participants as measured by changes in: i) social connectedness, ii) access to information, and iii) social and civic participation.   the training program oats (older adults technology services)   in the typical arena of organizations and agencies providing services to older adults, technology programming often plays a marginal role (i.e., a service appended to providers’ “core” competencies such as meals provision and case management and provided through volunteer or non-specialist staff).  as a consequence, technology programs are often delivered in fragmented, or ad hoc fashion, and falter due to erratic staffing, inappropriate curriculum, technology breakdowns, poor funding, and limited capacity. comprehensive, community-based technology training programs such as oats offer a more effective model that is comprised of multiple components – a professionally trained staff, a well-designed and implemented curriculum, the centralization of services including professional development for training instructors, course scheduling, and curriculum development, and experienced, effective leadership.   oats was founded in 2004 to engage, train, and support senior citizens in using technology to improve their health, finances, and civic and social engagement. utilizing a community-based approach, oats has partnered with over 50 non-profit organizations to deliver 10,000 classes and train 6,500 seniors in the city of new york. oats courses are 10 weeks in length and students meet twice a week for 1.5 hours of in-class training (30 hours total).  all classes take place at the partner sites in computer labs with internet access and enough computers for each student.  class size ranges from 10-15 students. all of the classes are taught by trained oats instructors and follow a curriculum developed by oats and provided to students in a manual they receive as part of the training.   methods   the study employed a mixed method design and data were collected via telephone surveys, ethnographic fieldwork, and in-depth interviews. telephone surveys: surveys consisted of open and close-ended questions and were administered in 3 waves – pre-training, immediately post-training and in a 6-month follow-up. ethnographic field-work: eight site visits were conducted to observe oats classes. data was collected using participant observation and informal interviews with participants during the trainings. in-depth interviews:  in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff from each site that had duties or responsibilities directly related to the delivery of oats programs (e.g., program directors or technology lab coordinators).   the study was conducted across four sites within new york city. sites were selected that demonstrated interest in supporting an oats program, served diverse constituencies in different parts of the city, and had the capacity to support basic lab-based classes. the design included at least one new site (i.e., had not offered oats courses in the past). the community partners provided site-based computer labs for training, collaborated with oats staff on program implementation, and conducted outreach and recruitment. to be eligible for the study, participants had to be registered in an oats training course at one of the study sites, over the age of 50, fluent in english, and able to provide consent.   data analysis   telephone survey data were coded and analyzed using spss software. qualitative data (ethnographic field notes and in-depth interviews with service providers) were analyzed using the principles of grounded theory, assessed using established standards of rigor for qualitative research, and analyzed using nvivo. final analysis integrated qualitative and quantitative data to identify key findings. results sixty-six older adults (n=66) completed all three waves of data collection (see table 1: characteristics of study participants).  forty-six were women and 20 were men, and they ranged in age from 55 to 85 years of age (mean age=70)[1].  in terms of relationship status, 42% were married, 35% widowed and 23% were single or divorced.  almost half (48%) of all participants lived alone, most were either white (52%) or african american (35%), and english was the primary language for the majority (89%) of participants.  the group was overall well educated; most had received at least a high school education and 44% were college graduates. three quarters (76%) were retired, 10% were unemployed and seeking work, with the others still working (full or part-time). level of income was concentrated in the low (45% lived on $1000-2000/month) and moderate (39% lived on $2000-3000/month) range[2].  the majority of participants (89%) were living independently and most (78%) reported feeling happy with ‘good’, ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ health.   table 1: characteristics of study participants characteristics of participants (n=66) n % age    (mean=70 years)    55-64 15 23   65-74 35 53   75+ 16 24 sex   male 20 30   female 46 70 relationship status    married/common law partner 28 42   separated/divorced/single 15 23   widowed 23 35 living arrangement    alone 32 48   spouse/partner 28 42   other family 4 6   roommate 2 3 race/ethnicity   white 34 52   black/african american 23 35   latino/hispanic 6 9   asian 2 3 primary language    english 59 89   spanish 3 5   other 4 6 education     some high school 4 6   high school graduate 16 24   business, vocational, or technical school 4 6   some college 13 20   college graduate 29 44 employment status    full-time 5 8   part-time 4 6   retired (not seeking employment) 50 76   unemployed/looking for work 7 11 monthly income       <1000 1 2   1000-2000 20 45   2000-3000 17 39   3000-4000 3 7   >5000 3 7 self-rated health    excellent 11 17   very good 20 30   good 29 44   not so good 5 8   poor 1 2 self-rated happiness    happy all the time 9 14   happy most of the time 42 64   content 14 21   unhappy most of the time 1 2 level of independence (self-reported)   completely independent 59 89   sometimes get help 4 6   most of the time get help 1 2   use paid service 2 3   the impact: increasing confidence and skills and enhancing the social connectedness, access to information and social participation among participants   findings demonstrate the impact of the oats computer training program on older adults across various measures: increased and sustained computer use, improved ability and confidence with computer and internet technology, and a substantial and positive effect on social connectedness, access to information, and social and civic participation.   confidence, ability, and computer use increased significantly for students who completed the oats training, and these outcomes were sustained over time. in post-course telephone surveys 94% of study participants reported an increase (64% significantly; 30% somewhat) in their confidence using computers, and 98% reported an increase (47% significantly; 27% somewhat) in their ability to use computers. prior to the oats course 51% of participants reported using a computer regularly (daily or several times per week) whereas immediately after the training 95% reported regular use. six months after the oats training 93% (63/66) of the participants were still using their computers and 89% reported they had maintained their skills and were still able to do what they had learned in the course.   improved skill was also reflected in the ways in which participants used the technology. over the course of the study the older adults expanded the types of activities they did on their computers and also broadened their explorations on the internet. for example, prior to taking the oats course, six participants (of the 66) used the internet to search for information, whereas in the six-month follow-up, 63 (of 66) were doing so.  almost all participants had a “first-time” story they shared (either in postor follow-up surveys) which illustrated new skills, knowledge, and their improved prowess with the technology:  “i’m the recording secretary at our temple. in the past i wrote it out and gave it to everyone. now i type it into my computer, save it to a file with a date… it’s a very big thing for me.” (74-year-old woman) “i don’t get help, now i’m the computer person.” (58-year old-woman) “i use pandora now to listen to music. and i installed some new games to play.” (72-year-old man) “i went online and got a parking sticker for a state park, then i used mapquest to get directions to the park.” (75-year-old man) progress in individual ability and skills were also demonstrated by changes in computer-related vocabulary among participants; there were a lot fewer “whatchamacallits” and “hoosits” in the post-course surveys, and instead people made reference to the “usb cable”, “address bar”, and “search engine”. for those who have grown up in the digital age, it is easy to forget how much of our language is technological and how we assume fluency in the language.  as one participant reminds us, this assumption makes life challenging and frustrating for those who are unable to, “speak the language”: “the first line on anything is ‘take the usb cable and plug it into the ----’ what hole? what’s a usb?” (76-year-old woman) analysis revealed that the oats training course also had a positive impact on social connectedness, access to information, and social and civic participation among study participants. for example, 64% of participants reported that the amount of time they spent communicating with friends and family increased as a result of the oats training. prior to oats training 1.8% of participants used email as their primary and 24.6% as their secondary form of communication with family whereas after the training, 8.8% reported email as their primary and 49.1% as their secondary form of communication with family. email was not seen as a replacement for the telephone by study participants, but as another tool for staying connected and one that, in certain situations, was seen to be more effective than the telephone: “i use email now for my kids and grandkids cause they’ll ‘catch it’–cause that’s what they’re into. they get back to me faster than if i leave a message on their telephone.” (65-year-old female) “email is good for me–i have trouble hearing on the phone.” (66-year-old male) it was common for study participants to describe feeling more connected to their families in ways they were unable to before their training: “i’m part of the family again, i get family emails, i’m part of the gang.” (73-year-old female) email communication was used by participants to stay in touch with friends and relatives both near (in new york city) and far. it was seen as particularly important for older immigrants providing a new way to stay connected to family and friends who lived in other countries: “i have family in the philippines–now i feel very connected to them.” (74-year-old female) email was also seen by many to be very important for staying in touch with grandchildren: “my main support person in my life is leaving – my grandson is going to college. this is my main reason for taking oats. i need to be able to stay in touch with him.” (78-year-old female) the training also enhanced participant’s ability to access information. in the post-course survey for example, 89% reported that their ability to access information increased as a result of the training (56% significantly increased; 33% somewhat increased). “before it was like i was in the best library in the world but all the books were laying all over the floor and not organized–now they are on the shelves and i can find what i need.” (60-year-old male)   analysis also illustrated a significant increase in the frequency with which the group used the internet as a tool for gathering information (see figure 1: frequency of using computer to access information). prior to taking the oats course 22% of participants said they used the internet regularly (often 12.5%, very often, 9.4%) to get information compared with 78% who reported regular use (often 51.6%, very often 26.6%) in the six-month follow up survey. indeed, prior to the oats course, 44% of participants (28) said they never used a computer to access information whereas six months later 100% of participants who were still using their computers (63/66) reported they did so.   figure 1: frequency of using computer to access information as a result of their improved online abilities and increased use of the internet as a source of information, participants described feeling better informed. when asked if they ever felt like they were missing information, 47% answered “yes” in pre-oats surveys, compared with 14% in the 6-month follow-up surveys.  the many students who added comments such as “not anymore” when answering “no” to this question further illustrated this change. the computer training program and the concomitant increase in computer literacy also had a positive impact on participants’ social and civic engagement. forty-four percent (44%) felt their awareness of social activities had increased as a result of the oats training and 24% reported that the number of social activities they participated in had increased. “my social life is a lot better since learning the computer. i can find cheap hotels, book trips, find dance classes!” (69-year-old female) as their skills and confidence improved, participants increasingly used their computers to learn about cultural events and activities available in the city (49% reported doing so in follow-up surveys). follow-up survey data illustrate other ways participants used their computers to increase their awareness and participation in online and offline social and civic activities (see figure 2: computer use for social and civic participation).   figure 2: computer use for social and civic participation   one of the most interesting ways improved civic engagement was demonstrated related to the election campaign and presidency of us president obama. obama and his team used digital media strategies such as facebook, twitter and online organizing techniques extensively in his presidential campaign.  additionally, there has been a substantial growth in digital media sources that are not just supplementary to traditional media, but replace it.  as such, for the many (like many of the study participants) who are interested in following obama’s political (and personal) life, access and ability with digital technologies is a must. many participants reported that keeping track of obama and following his presidency was a key motivator for their computer use and a focus of their online searching. these participants were very pleased with the kinds of information they could access from the internet in this regard, as well as the speed and interactive nature of the information:   “you can watch him give a speech, see his schedule and then see a slide show of photos of him and his family living in the white house!” (73-year-old female)  “i like to follow the president now, how could i do that without it [the computer]?” (61-year-old male) the social lives of study participants were also affected directly by physically attending the in-person classes. students spent a considerable amount of time in the classes (twice a week for 1.5 hrs) and described the classes as “fun” and a good place to meet people and make new friends. in post-course and follow-up surveys many participants said they missed the social interaction with students and the instructor and some experienced a significant decrease in their level of social activity when the class ended.   in summary, participation in the community-based oats training program facilitated knowledgeable, confident, and enthusiastic online computer users. the trainings promoted the successful adoption and sustained use of ict’s and served to enhance social connectedness, increase access to information, and facilitate opportunities for social and civic participation among study participants.   discussion ict training for older adults: building, maintaining and restoring community in new york city   in the united states, the ability to use information technology is now assumed by most to be a prerequisite to living in the “information age”. indeed, without the skills and knowledge to effectively use computers and access the internet, it is becoming increasingly difficult to negotiate the myriad of resources and information required (and available) to be fully engaged members of society.  as ict’s become essential tools for daily living there is concern that those who use them less – the majority of whom are considered the most vulnerable in our society (e.g., “oldest old”, immigrants, the poor and those with limited education)[3] – may become increasingly disenfranchised and disadvantaged.    the digital divide is not only/simply about age, but also reflects existing political and economic divides (gomez & fernando baron-porras, 2011; j. ci).  in the united states for example, where individualism, independence and productivity are the cornerstone of american social and political values, those who are very old, poor, and/or disabled are much less likely to use ict’s which, in turn, makes them much more likely to be excluded from society.    ict’s have the potential to contribute to individual and community empowerment and capacity building and can be an effective antidote to social exclusion among older adults. results from this study suggest comprehensive, community-based ict training programs (such as oats), can support the ongoing engagement and re-engagement of older adults within society by building, maintaining and restoring their place within their various communities (including city, neighborhood, family, and communities of choice based on interest or identity).    building new communities:   the oats training course and enhanced ict abilities provided participants with opportunities to establish new community ties. first, attending the classes themselves created a new learning community among the students and instructor.  feeling connected to this new community was felt by almost all participants during the course, and continued for many after the course was completed (either through online, in-person or telephone communication).  secondly, having the skills needed to negotiate the internet meant study participants had access to a wealth of information (some of which was new because it was only available online) about their communities of interest. this allowed them to find new opportunities (events, activities, etc) in the city, to get involved, and meet others who shared their interests. for example a student interested in exercise searched the internet and located a walking group in her area that she joined that she hadn’t known existed. becoming online computer users also provided opportunities to become engaged in the vast array of online communities. initially most students were nervous about social networking sites however as their confidence and abilities increased over time so did their interest in exploring these communities. indeed, by the end of the course many participants had joined senior-planet (online site hosted by oats), and several others had become members of other social networking sites including facebook. building new community ties and the friendships that develop within them are very important to participants who described that many of their “old” friends had died and that it was increasingly difficult to make new friends in their later years.   maintaining community:    the use of ict’s also enabled these older adults to maintain important social networks that were at risk of being lost. as siblings, partners and good friends die, older adults experience a shrinking community of family and friends. important social networks can further deteriorate when friends and/or family members relocate. participants reported feeling very upset about losing the in-person interaction with family members and close friends who had moved away and were anxious about losing touch with them. their increased use and ability with computers and the internet provided a new and important communication tool (in particular email) that helped them to maintain these relationships.  wanting to stay connected to grandchildren who had moved away to college was a key motivator for learning ict’s among this group of older adults and they were thrilled (and grateful) with their ability to do so using their new skills.   restoring community:   prior to the computer training many of the study participants reported that they frequently felt “lost” or “left out” during family visits as the conversation almost always included reference to technology (e.g., new ‘gadgets’; technological vocabulary; interesting websites).  their feelings of being isolated from these exchanges changed dramatically however with their new ict understanding and ability. during the post-course interviews it was common for study participants to describe feeling much more engaged and (re)connected with their families: “i’m part of the family again, i get family emails, i’m part of the gang” (73-year-old female).  for the immigrant participants the training provided them with the skills they needed to not only maintain but also restore community ties with their homeland. finding and re-communicating with “lost” family and friends as well as the ability to read local news from their home countries, cities, and even neighborhoods where there were born was extremely important (and very exciting) to these individuals.   the ability of older adults to remain engaged, respected, and contributing members of their communities is essential to their overall health and well being. feeling part of a community – whether it is family, neighborhood, or a community founded on identity or interest – promotes good mental health and overall well being, and is essential to active aging. comprehensive and well-designed and implemented community-based technology training programs such as oats enable older adults to remain engaged community members. making ict’s accessible, useable and useful to this population is an effective strategy for mitigating the challenges of population aging while enhancing the quality of life of older adults and the communities within which they live, work and play.   acknowledgment   the authors would like to thank the fan fox and leslie r. samuels foundation for their generous financial support for this research.   references administration on aging (aoa) (2009). a profile of older americans, 2009. retrieved january 10, 2011 from http://www.aoa.gov/aoaroot/aging_statistics/profile/index.aspx. cacioppo, j. t., hughes, m. e., waite, l. j., hawkley, l. c., & thisted, r. a. 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(2006). technology and learning in current and future generations of elders. generations, 30(2), 44-48. world health organisation. (2002). active ageing: a policy framework. geneva: world health organization. retrieved january 16, 2011 from http://www.who.int/ageing/publications/active/en world health organization (2003). social determinants of health: the solid facts. (2nd ed.). geneva: world health organization. retrieved january 16, 2011 from http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-publish/abstracts/social-determinants-of-health.-the-solid-facts [1] 81 participants were originally recruited into the study and completed survey #1 (pre-). of this group 69 completed survey #2 (post-) and 66 completed survey #3 (6-month follow up). despite the loss, the study sample size remains strong and when compared with other research, the rate of attrition is not uncommon for this population. reasons for the loss are as follows: seven participants dropped out of the oats course due to illness (2), not enough time (3), and new responsibilities caring for an ill spouse (2); two (2) participants did not register for internet service at home and therefore no longer met study criteria; three (3) participants reported they were “too busy” when contacted to complete the post-course survey; and two (2) participants could not be reached (telephone # no longer in service) to complete the 6-month follow-up survey. one (1) participant withdrew from the study. [2] living on this amount is particularly challenging for older adults living in new york city where rents and the cost of living is much higher than in other places in the country.  for a more appropriate measure of poverty for this population see the report produced by the ceo (center for economic opportunity) at http://media.npr.org/assets/news/2009/09/09/poverty_report.pdf. [3] the digital divide exists within the older adult population generally, however it is most pronounced among certain subgroups that are already considered some of the most vulnerable in our society the “oldest old”, immigrants and minority populations, the poor and those with limited education.  1271 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 points of view abuse prevention of street camera network by browsing-history disclosure a street camera network, in which many street cameras are installed at a high density, similar to street lights throughout a nation, will have a stronger positive effect in suspect tracking and crime deterrence in the near future. on the other hand, it will also have a stronger negative effect related to the violation of privacy of ordinary citizens. in order to make such a stronger surveillance camera system, which forcibly captures the images of passersby for the public interest, be accepted as an essential social infra !152 fujii, y., yoshiura, n., ohta, n., takita, a., ueda, h., maru, k. (2016). abuse prevention of street camera network by browsing-history disclosure. the journal of community informatics, 12 (1), 152–156. date submitted: 2015-09-16. date accepted: 2016-02-14. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1271 yusaku fujii division of mechanical science and technology, faculty of science and technology, gunma university, japan. corresponding author. fujii@e-jikei.com noriaki yoshiura department of information and computer science, graduate school of science and engineering, saitama university, japan yoshiura@fmx.ics.saitama-u.ac.jp naoya ohta division of electronics and informatics, faculty of science and technology, gunma university, japan ohta@cs.gunma-u.ac.jp akihiro takita division of mechanical science and technology, faculty of science and technology, gunma university, japan takita@gunma-u.ac.jp hiroshi ueda academic center for computing and media studies, kyoto university, japan. uep@media.kyoto-u.ac.jp koichi maru department of electronics and information engineering, faculty of engineering, kagawa university, japan. maru@eng.kagawa-u.ac.jp http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1271 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1271 mailto:fujii@e-jikei.com mailto:yoshiura@fmx.ics.saitama-u.ac.jp mailto:ohta@cs.gunma-u.ac.jp mailto:takita@gunma-u.ac.jp mailto:uep@media.kyoto-u.ac.jp mailto:maru@eng.kagawa-u.ac.jp the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 structure by a society, it is necessary for this camera system to make ordinary citizens be convinced that it is used only for the public interest. to realize this, a new concept, in which the abuse of a street camera network is deterred by browsing-history disclosure, is proposed. introduction in developed countries in the near future, street camera networks and/or street lights with network camera functionality will be installed at a high density, similar to street lights, in busy and quiet areas. they will be connected using the internet, and high-speed access to the recorded images will take place. these events will happen owing to the reduction in price of electrical devices and internet connections. then, manual or automatic tracking [1] of any suspect will take place with a high efficiency. as for the type of camera, an led street light camera will be advantageous because the costs associated with the installation of the camera and street lights are similarly high as for the storage of the captured images, it is reasonable to assume that images are to be recorded on the camera itself and transferred as the need arises, because most cameras will be installed in quiet areas, of which there many more than busy areas. at present, many surveillance cameras have been installed at a high density in urban areas in developed countries, such as london [2]. in the near future, a street camera network, as a powerful social infrastructure throughout the nation, will appear by means of the additional installation of cameras at a higher density, the connection to a high-speed network, and the introduction of an automatic tracking system. this infrastructure will have a strong positive effect in the tracking of suspects, kidnapped children, and aged wanderers and also a strong negative effect related to the violation of privacy of ordinary citizens. with this powerful infrastructure, it might be possible that a kidnapped child is rescued [3,4]. first, a child exiting a house is observed by the cameras in front of his/her house. then, he/ she is tracked by switching the cameras according to his/her motion. next, his/her present location is known. finally, police cars are sent to that location to rescue him/her. this can be easily carried out with this powerful infrastructure. with this powerful infrastructure, people can be assured that all criminals are arrested. then, people who do not want to be arrested will be deterred from committing a crime. although this belief cannot deter a person who does not care about being arrested from committing a crime, he/she cannot commit another crime again because he/she will be arrested after the first crime. it will be a serious problem if the operators of this powerful system can use the system for private reasons such as stalking and tracking a specific person. in order to make this powerful infrastructure be accepted by society, it is necessary for this system to make the ordinary citizens be convinced that the abuse is perfectly prevented and their privacy is perfectly protected. !153 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 proposed concept to realize this, a new concept [5], in which the abuse of a street camera network is deterred by browsing-history disclosure, is proposed. figure 1 shows an example of the system based on the proposed concept. the system shown in figure 1 works as follows: (1) the city government operates many cameras, which are installed at a high density, similar to street lights, throughout the city. (2) the manager of the city government publicizes the method of operation of the camera system, i.e., the “control condition,” and inputs it into the “recording server” operated by a reliable third party. (3) the operator of the city government starts operation by order with “reason code.” (4) the operator sends a “request code,” which consists of the inputs of the “browser id,” “reason code,” “camera id,” and “time period,” to the “recording server” using the “browsing device.” (5) the “recording server” issues a “permission code” to the “browsing device” on the basis of the “control condition” and records all processes as the “browsing history.” (6) the operator can browse the image files within the permitted range defined by the “permission code.” (7) the recording server discloses the entire “browsing history” to everyone throughout the internet. !154 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ! figure 1. example of a system based on the concept of abuse prevention of a street camera network by browsing-history disclosure in the above system, all browsing acts are visualized and verifiable. abuse of the system is strongly deterred. an ordinary citizen is free from the mental stress by believing that it is very difficult to abuse the system, and their privacy is protected at a sufficient level. discussion with this concept, people can believe that abuse should be surely revealed. then, people who do not want to be revealed will be deterred from abuse. although this belief might not deter a person who does not care about being revealed from abuse, he/she cannot commit another abuse again because he/she will be resigned owing to the first one. to complement this concept, another concept of “self-identification using wireless camera communication” is proposed [6]. in the second concept, each camera should identify itself to the persons around it using wireless communication. for example, each camera sends url of the website, in which the operator in charge, the operating method, the above mentioned “browsing history” are shown, to nearby smartphones using short-distance wireless communication such as bluetooth. we wish to make possible a society in which no criminal can escape and kidnapped children can be rescued and the privacy of noncriminal citizens is perfectly protected. !155 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 acknowledgements this study was supported by the research aid fund of the research foundation for safe society and the grant-in-aid for scientific research (b) 15h02887 (kakenhi 15h02887). references [1] mazzon, r. & cavallaro, a. (2013). multi-camera tracking using a multi-goal social force model, neurocomputing, vol.100: 41-50. [2] surveillance road map, a shared approach to the regulation of surveillance in the united kingdom, surveillance camera commissioner, 2015. https://www.gov.uk/ government/publications/surveillance-road-map [3] y. fujii, n. ohta, h. ueda, y. sugita and k. maru (2008). new concept regarding management of security cameras, 4 (3). [4] y. fujii, k. maru, k. kobayashi, n. yoshiura, n. ohta, h. ueda and p. yupapin. (2010). e-jikei network using e-jikei cameras: community security using considerable number of cheap stand-alone cameras. safety science, 48 (7), 921-925. [5] japanese patent application no.2015-167298. [6] japanese patent no.5757048. !156 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/surveillance-road-map application of activity theory in understanding online communities of practice: a case of feminism shahla ghobadi introduction information and communication technologies (ict) have played a distinctive role in empowering women all over the world (kwapong, 2007; rabayah, 2010; salas, 2010; torney-purta, 2002).the internet has opened up new possibilities for women to communicate, to overcome geographical and traditional gender barriers, and to establish collective identity and solidarity (acharya, yoshino, jimba, & wakai, 2007; jain, 2006; torney-purta, 2002). among different possibilities that the internet offers, online communities of practice (cop) have played a crucial role for empowering women by allowing them to voice their concerns and express themselves more than just through face to face interactions (v. m. moghadam, 2002a). feminism is considered an important indicator of female empowerment and is defined as 'a state of wholeness and awareness toward women's proper place, challenging customary categories and meanings that constitute the existing knowledge of gender' (haines & littler, 2004; j. w. white & kowalski, 1994). while feminist movements in many eastern and western societies have started at similar periods, women's activism in eastern countries has remained within socio-cultural frameworks and has not been successful enough to stretch existing traditional gender barriers. more importantly, though global changes have made eastern women aware of their gender-based concerns, they still fail to demonstrate feminist-related behaviours. currently, the extant literature is limited in providing a comprehensive explanation regarding this issue. this paper targets the above void, and questions why eastern women who have feminist attitudes fail to demonstrate feminist behaviours. based on the insights from activity theory, this study reclaims the importance of online women-related communities of practice for flourishing feminist-related behaviours in eastern societies. the remainder of the paper is set out as the following: an overview of literature on women's activism in eastern societies as well as the literature on female empowerment through ict is provided. this is followed by postulating on the moderating impact of online female-related communities of practice in manifesting feminist-related behaviours among eastern women. the applicability of the proposed framework is examined with the quantitative data collected from 120 iranian women in an online community of practice. the paper concludes by discussing the contributions, and the limitations, of the study, and suggesting avenues for future research. literature review feminist movements refer to 'efforts that aim at establishing and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and opportunities for women' (merriam-webster). these movements have acted as voices for women to raise gender issues and to gradually move into balancing social-related concerns. the starting point for feminist movements in many countries has been obtaining 'rights to vote' such as the united states in 1920 (1910-1930). feminist movements have primarily focused on 'women as a universal entity'. the movements have gradually transformed themselves into 'being concerned with social differentiation that model feminism is about' (cott, 1987). in the pursuit of western feminist movements, feminism in many eastern societies happened in the early decades of 20th century such as indonesia in 1945 and lebanon in 1952. the extant literature also acknowledges that eastern women have played a distinct role in the social movements since the early decades of the twentieth century (afary, 1989). consequently, women have articulated feminist and socialist demands as the movements progress (afary, 1989; tohidi, 2002). however, feminist movements and struggles for suffrage in many eastern societies have not changed themselves into the social transformation and differentiation that modern feminism is about. in fact, the participation of eastern women in social movements has remained within traditional social and cultural frameworks that establish motherhood as the primary role of women, and at the same time, encourage women to receive training to support society, whenever their help and support is required (s. s. moghadam, knudsonâ€martin, & mahoney, 2009). the extant literature recognises a number of reasons for limited feminist-related behaviours among eastern women. for example, tabari (1986) refers to economical difficulties in developing countries as a crucial fact that inhibits the emergence of feminist behaviour. more specifically, if the very survival of the family is dependent on everyone's income, a woman cannot have a unique image of herself as a separate individual. accordingly, there is not a sufficient space for the growth of individualism among family members, particularly, for women. another important reason that restrains the emergence of feminist-related behaviours is the ignorant hostility towards feminism among major segments of eastern countries. apart from the positive impacts of women's activism during socio-political and economic movements, there is still a strong hostility that refers to feminism as "a deviation from women's nature" (v. m. moghadam, 2002b; sherkat, 1993). accordingly, feminism among both eastern men and women is often associated with 'endorsing a shunning of responsibility towards men and family members, and carelessly seeking occupation and social life'. one of the major reasons for this hostility could be the lack of knowledge and awareness toward 'international women's activism' as well as ignorance about 'the origins and concepts of women's movements in many eastern societies' (v. m. moghadam, 2002b). the situation is more critical when few studies refer to situations in which eastern women demonstrate significant feminist-related attitudes but not feminist-related behaviours. for example, kurzman (2008) attempted to investigate feminist-related attitudes and behaviour in a middle-eastern society such as iran. his results showed that feminist-related attitudes among iranian women are not consistently correlated with feminist-related behaviour such as delayed marriage and fewer children (kurzman, 2008). kurzman does not explain the reasons behind this finding; he primarily focuses on the growth of feminist-related attitudes among contemporary young iranians. based on the insights of activity theory, this study addresses the above observation and explains the reason that many eastern women fail to demonstrate feminist-related behaviour, particularly when they already have feminist-related attitudes. theoretical framework communities of practice (cop) the concept of 'communities of practice' refers to a group of people who share a concern, a set of problems or a passion about a topic that motivates them to interact on an ongoing basis and to share, expand, and deepen their knowledge and expertise (gherardi & nicolini, 2000; wenger, 1999; wenger, mcdermott, & snyder, 2002). through establishing strong social relationships, communities of practice have brought about cultural shifts in learning processes (kilpatrick, barrett, & jones, 2003). the situated learning through communities of practice has unique distinctions with the formal learning in which the authentic content is often separated from the real situation. learning in communities of practice is participatory and separated from neither the activity nor the meaningful social arrangements in which the activity takes place. communities of practice offer the possibility of using, rejecting, and expanding knowledge. they can, therefore, promote mutual learning and joint exploration of ideas via communication and knowledge sharing among members (al-saggaf, 2004; buysse, sparkman, & wesley, 2003; johnson, 2001; liedtka, 2000). the growth of the internet as a forum for networking and collaboration has presented new opportunities for communication and learning in communities of practice. there are several collaborative technologies such as listservs, electronic discussion groups, and chat facilities that that can be used as potential tools (johnson, 2001; sharratt & usoro, 2003). web 2.0 presents social networking sites such as facebook, myspace, blogs, and wikipedia as possible forums for the growth of communities of practice (o'reilly, 2007). this progression has extended the possibilities of online communities of practice by allowing knowledge to be shared, discussed, and clarified through a variety of channels and contexts that are not typically found in face-to-face communication (estephan, 2008). online communities of practice might lack the richness of communication that occurs in offline communities of practice (estephan, 2008), but they offer several benefits such as anonymity, attracting more responses, archiving previous discussions, and becoming accessible to a wider community (ardichvili, maurer, li, wentling, & stuedemann, 2006). activity theory activity theory is a socio-cultural lens through which most forms of human behaviour can be explained (jonassen & rohrer-murphy, 1999). according to vygotsky (1978), consciousness is essentially subjective , community-based , and mediated by tools and languages (vygotsky, 1978). more specifically, all human activities are embedded in a social matrix composed of people and artifacts (physical tools and sign systems). social contexts of activity (such as rules and customs in the communities within which individuals live and work) impose tacit and explicit conventions on the accomplishment of activity. as a result, proper analysis of human activities requires examining several dimensions such as subjects and objects of activity, tools, rules, behavioural norms, and the contextual communities in which human activities occur. like any other activity, manifestation of feminist-related behaviour happens in the context of tacit and/or explicit social rules, customs, and belief. in addition, the collective culture that is common to eastern countries emphasises the importance of community in accomplishing activities. there is, however, a challenge, that lies in the presence of simultaneous communities that individuals belong to. for example, people are often members of few communities in which they live, study, and work. the potential conflict between the rules and expectations of these communities makes individuals attempt to harmonise the contradicting expectations, and to continuously alter their behaviour to adjust to the expectations of different communities. the extant literature refers to the important role of tools in facilitating the manipulation of activities. tools can be employed to lessen or increase the impact of a community on the manifestation of any activity, such as the manifestation of feminist-related behaviour. for example, tools can gradually change the nature of an activity and influence the mental processes through which this activity occurs. communication technologies can be applied to gain new knowledge about feminist-related behaviour all over the world and to investigate whether the basis of their comparison is realistic or not. in these contexts, tools can help women assess and re-estimate their performance through being connected to the globe. the activity structure is shown in figure 1. figure 1. the structure of activity (manifestation of feminist-related behaviours) many online communities of practice have been employed to create continuity for formulating women's ideas and demands (v. m. moghadam, 2002a) and to provide women with common goals, visions, moral support, and sense of solidarity (morahan-martin, 2000). notably, the history and the origins of feminist-related behaviour in many countries have strong roots in traditional communities of practice (afary, 1989). therefore, this study proposes that the use of tools (online women-related communities of practice) can facilitate manifestation of feminist-related attitudes into feminist-related behaviour. this is particularly true because eastern societies have not been open to providing an appropriate surface (community) for manifesting feminist-related behaviours. in other words, employment of proper tools can decrease the suppressing influences of community. the next section presents a measurement model in order to examine the applicability of the above proposition. research methodology this study seeks to investigate the association and relationship between the proposed constructs of the model. this is in alignment with positivism, whose ultimate purpose is explaining causal linkage between concepts and objects (neuman, 2006). survey methodology is particularly suitable for researchers who clearly define independent variables and well-represented relations. measurement feminist-related attitudes in order to measure individuals' attitudes toward feminism, this study borrows indicators from general social survey (bolzendahl & myers, 2004; davis, smith, & marsden, 1999). this is mainly due to the fact that the items in this survey capture a series of issues that have consistently been at the core of the feminist agenda for many years (bolzendahl & myers, 2004). according to this survey, feminist attitudes can be measured by three dimensional concerns including: individuals' opinion on (i) abortion, (ii) sexual behaviour, and (iii) gender roles (in the public and family). feminist-related behaviour many techniques may be appropriate to measure feminist-related behaviour such as the analysis of formal and informal documentations, observations, interviewing, or psychoanalyses. white (2006) offers the 'feminist-related activities checklist' to measure feminist-related behaviour, and the checklist is applied to this study. going through the questions, the items were revisited and categorised into two dimensions including: (i) feminist-related works and (ii) feminist-related supports. table 1 and table 2 present brief explanations of the dimensions of feminist-related attitudes and behaviour as well as their relevant questions. 5 point likert scales are used to measure feminist-related attitudes (1: strongly disagree, 2: disagree, 3: no-opinion, 4: agree, 5: strongly agree) and feminist-related behaviour (1: almost zero, 2: low, 3: average, 4: high, 5: very high). a categorical variable was used to take into account if members are the members of any online women-related community of practice. age, education, and the marital status of the respondents were also controlled. data collection data was collected from an interactive online portal. the language of the portal is farsi/persian (iranian language). the portal acts as an online community of practice, which aims to share and expand information on optimism and self-improvement among iranians (both men and women). the boundary of data collection was deliberately limited to one eastern culture (iran) rather than generalising the results to other cultures. this choice was partly because iran's cultural and religious environmental characteristics have influenced women's activism in the course of history. the selected portal is similar to common examples of online communities of practice. this portal was selected largely because it represents a sample of iranians who have a proper access to technology, as portal members are all active members of an online community of practice. this provided the possibility of controlling the access to technology. in addition, the author's fluency in farsi aided the data collection and made analysis possible. table 1. feminist-related attitudes table 2. feminist-related behaviours data was collected in october 2010. the community had 3853 members, and women comprised 37% of its population. the link for the survey was sent to the portal manager. the survey included questions for measuring women's feminist-related attitudes, feminist-related behaviour, whether they were a member of an online community of practice (if yes, they could provide us with the name of the community of practice) and demographic questions. the manager of the portal sent a message to the group. the message included (i) his personal message to the members asking female members to participate in a short online survey and (ii) a link to the survey. privacy and confidentiality were strictly guaranteed. responses were all anonymous. in order to deal with missing data, the completion of the survey required an answer for each question. 120 responses (more than the anticipated 100) which were sufficient for analysis, were collected (9%). the response rate was quite low, which may signify the existing hostility toward answering a survey focused on 'feminism'. however, this response rate does not seem to challenge generalisability of the data. it was even a happy coincidence because the respondents may already have feminist-related attitudes, and since the objective of the paper is to investigate why women who have feminist-related attitudes fail to exhibit feminist-related behaviour, it is appropriate to investigate whether this sample with strong feminist-related attitude demonstrated feminist-related behaviour or not. respondents' characteristics indicated that almost 65% of respondents were in the age range of 25 to 35. sixty percent had postgraduate degrees and 35% had at least a bachelor's degree. sixty percent of the respondents were single, whereas 40% were married. this is an expected result since the new educated generation is believed to demonstrate stronger feminist-related attitudes, and to respond to a survey related to such a controversial topic. data analysis and results overview spss (versions 17) and amos 17 were used for routine statistical analysis and structural equation modeling (sem). amos was used as it is a powerful package for examining the moderating impact of a construct on the relationship between two constructs. the reversed-items in the measurement model were transformed using spss. for sem, the goodness-of-fit for each model was assessed using multiple fit indices. analyses were conducted using raw data and transformed variables when they violated assumptions of normality. an exploratory factor analysis was performed using spsss for each set of focal constructs to examine reliability and validity of the measures; no problems with them were shown. figure 2 illustrates the tested model in amos. as shown, the three dimensions of feminist-related attitudes were conceptualised as reflective multi-dimensional constructs. the multi-dimensional approach is believed to explain more parsimoniously than covariation among first-order factors. the model (figure 2) was evaluated on various indices such as gfi, cfi, ifi, rmsea, as well as adjusted gfi (agfi). the model proved to fit to the data, indicating that the model was a plausible causal model of the observed data (χ2 = 101.704, cmin/df= 1.393, df = 73, p = 0.009; rmsea = 0.05, goodness-of-fit (gfi = 0.89), comparative-fit index (cfi = 0.95), incremental fit index (ifi = 0.95)) (hair, anderson, tatham, & black, 1995). t results supported the uni-dimensionality of the measures. the model was assessed by r square, which indicates how well the antecedents explain an endogenous construct. model explained a substantial amount of variance for feminist-related behaviours (f.behaviors) (r2 = 0.60), abortion (abt) (r2 = 0.39), sexual behaviours (sxb) (r2 = 0.70), and gender roles (role) (r2 = 0.48), which are greater than the recommended minimum of 0.10. figure 2. model 1 (the sample= members, n=120) measurement model cronbach's alpha and composite reliability were calculated to assess the reliabilities for all scales. the alpha coefficients and the composite reliability values varied from 0.8 to 0.95, suggesting adequate reliability. convergent and discriminant validity of the measures were assessed. the items were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis. all items had relatively high factor loadings, except g1 and g3 with 0.48 and 0.42. this indicated convergence of the high factor indicators to their constructs. due to low factor loadings of g1 and g3, these items were dropped from the analysis. it was observed that dropping these items resulted in an increasing rmsea and a decreasing fit of the model: g1: (cmin/df= 1.520; rmsea = 0.066), g2: (cmin/df= 1.461; rmsea = 0.062). there is also the possibility that loadings cannot be identified as significant in small sample sizes. therefore, it was decided to keep these items. average variance extracted (ave) for all of the constructs exceeded the 0.5 criterion suggested by fornell and larcker (fornell & larcker, 1981) . construct discriminant validity was assessed: first, the square-root of ave of the individual constructs was compared with the correlation between construct-pairs. it was found that the square-roots of ave exceeded the correlations in all cases, and this confirmed the discriminant validity of the scales. the above analyses indicated that the measurement model met reliability and validity criteria. thus, these constructs could be used to test the proposed model and the hypothesised relationships between the constructs. structural model path coefficients were investigated, and all the paths were significant at p <0.001. the analysis of the regression weights showed that feminist-related attitudes positively affect feminist-related behaviour (cr=4.327). the first order constructs (abortion, sexual behaviour, and gender roles) had significant associations with their second order construct, feminist-related attitudes, at p<0.001. multiple linear regressions were used to examine the moderating impact of being a member of online woman-related communities of practice on the relationship between feminist-related attitudes and feminist-related behaviours. the sample was divided into two groups: (i) those who were the members of an online women-related community of practice (21) and (ii) those who were not (99). two models were tested for the possible interaction between the moderator variable and the two other constructs. figure 3 and figure 4 illustrate the two tested models. harman's single-factor test procedure (podsakoff, mackenzie, lee, & podsakoff, 2003) was followed and cfa was conducted by loading all indicators on one factor. the assumption of the single-factor test was that a single factor should account for the majority of the covariance among measures if substantial amounts of common method variance was present (podsakoff & organ, 1986). the analysis showed that the one factor model did not fit the data well (cmin/df= 2.856, rmsea = 0.12), while the four-factor model fit was significantly better (p < 0.001). to check if common method variance exists, a two-factor model was conducted by loading the indicators of feminist-related attitudes and feminist-related behaviour on two factors. the analysis showed that the two factor model did not fit the data well (cmin/df= 2.322; rmsea = 0.105). both tests provided evidence that the common method bias was not significant in this study. both models were proved to fit, indicating that the model was a plausible causal model of the observed data (χ2 = 220.98, cmin/df= 1.514, df = 146, p = 0.00; rmsea = 0.064). further investigation on the two models proved the moderating impact of being in a member of an online women-related cop. specifically, the path between feminist-related behaviour and feminist-related attitudes is significant (t value= 3.46 in members compared to t value=2.271 in non members). the proportion of the explained variance and the path coefficients are reported in table 3. as shown, compared to the model for non-members, all the paths are significant in the model for members except the path between (g1 and role) with the t value=1.259. therefore, this variable was deleted and the model was again fitted. there were slight differences in the chi-square and fit of the model (χ2 = 187.072, cmin/df= 1.533, df = 122, p = 0.00; rmsea = 0.067). however, with regard to the importance of the questions and the fairly small sample size, the path maintained. consistent with the research question, the feminist-related attitudes of those 99 respondents who did not demonstrate significant feminist-related behaviour was investigated. the regression of the indicators was used to measure the mean of feminist-related attitudes and behaviour for 99 respondents. it was found that the mean of feminist-related attitudes was 3.78 (out of 5; significant feminist-related attitudes), however, the mean of feminist-related behaviour was 1.76 (out of 5; low feminist-related behaviour). this finding is associated with the research question of this study. this can be explained as 'the sample included women with significant feminist-related attitudes who, due to the suppressing impact of community, have not been able to demonstrate feminist-related behaviour'. in addition, these women have not also employed tools (here, online women-related communities of practice) to lessen the impacts of their community. figure 3. non-members model 2 (n=99) figure 4. members model 3 (n=21) table 3. regression weights (unconstrained) discussion this study is one of the first attempts to understand how technology can be applied to accelerate the process of manifesting feminist-related behaviour in women, particularly in eastern countries. more specifically, this study attempts to answer why eastern women who already have feminist attitudes fail to demonstrate feminist behaviour. activity theory and the origins of feminism in eastern countries (offline communities of practice) were selected to propose the moderating role of technology (tools in activity theory) in the manifestation of feminist-related behaviour. a quantitative study was conducted to check the validity of the above proposition. the findings can be classified in three ways. firstly, the results demonstrated that in a sample of 120 educated iranian women with regular access to the internet, only 21 were members of an online women-related community of practice. this further highlights the limited use of online women-related communities of practice in these societies. secondly, the results showed the significant impact of being a member of an online women-related community of practice for manifesting feminist-related behaviour. specifically, the findings revealed that those women who have been a member of any online women-related community of practice have shown feminist-related behaviour along with accompanying attitudes. however, non-members have failed to manifest feminist-related attitudes to feminist-related behaviour. thirdly, further analysis of the data showed that women who were not members of an online women-related community of practice already had significant feminist-related attitudes, but not feminist-related behaviour. the demographics of these members (young and educated) suggest and confirm the presence of feminist-related attitudes, yet they did not show such behaviour. at the end of the survey, an optional and open question was asked to understand their opinion regarding the importance of being involved in feminism activities in the country. the qualitative data confirmed hostility and lack of awareness toward the concept and definition of feminism. they associated their opinion with statements such as: "no. because this issue causes isolation of women in societies" [referring to the community norms that reject feminism] "if feminist means to say women are much better than men and try to separate the society based on two sexes i would not support it but if feminist means to make a world based on humanity and teach to women to defends their rights, i will support it" [she is not sure about what feminism is] "no, i think women and men are different together and women should not compare themselves with men. they are soft and they should do works that match their personality" [she associates feminism with deviation from the women nature] taken together, the findings suggest that the limited use and popularity of women-related communities of practice contributes to the limited manifestation of feminist-related behaviour of women. the findings also provide an interesting thought that any women-related community might be helpful in this process, yet many eastern women have not been involved in their gender-based concerns and identities. this finding is consistent with the activity theory's recognition of the significant impact of tools on facilitating activity accomplishment. while technology can offer several aids in encouraging women to seek, share, and create knowledge, it should be taken into account that technology is only a beginning step and not a democratising or transformative tool by itself (harcourt, 2000; tadros, 2005). technology should reflect women's value systems and address their needs, and this does not happen only with the establishment of technological systems. it is important to consider economic, technological, cultural, and psychological sets of barriers that technology faces. for example, feminism literature reveals that gender is a political means of classification (evans, 1994). for example, the traditional exclusion of women from the information sphere has happened deliberately or because of limiting factors such as the lower levels of education (jain, 2006; maass, rommes, schirmer, & zorn). similarly, substantial studies have explained how technology can hamper women's efforts because of the inequality where access to communication technologies is concerned (harcourt, 2000). in promoting online communities of practice, the above factors should be considered. 'breaking the fear that many women might have around technologies', 'creating safe cyber environments that support women', and 'using technology in a far more strategic way than just data and information sharing' are among factors that should be considered (leiblum, 2001; morahan-martin, 2000; tadros, 2005). concluding points this study demonstrated the effective impact of using proper tools such as 'online women-related communities of practice' on lessening the impacts of powerful forces such as 'community-related customs', 'rules', and 'conventions' on female behaviour. the findings of this study contribute to the extant literature by investigating a topic that has not received prior attention. future studies are encouraged to explore the mechanisms through which different types of online women-related communities of practice can help women reach social differentiation and potential outcomes. future research studies are also encouraged to explore the mechanisms of empowering women in women-related communities of practice in different cultural contexts, particularly in a variety of eastern societies. references acharya, s., yoshino, e., jimba, m., & wakai, s. 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(2002). cultivating communities of practice: a guide to managing knowledge. harvard business press. white, a. (2006). racial and gender attitudes as predictors of feminist activism among self-identified african american feminists. journal of black psychology, 32 (4), 455-478. white, j. w., & kowalski, r. m. (1994). deconstructing the myth of the nonaggressive woman: a feminist analysis. psychology of women quarterly, 18, 487-487. with a little help from my friends: experiences of building a virtual community for children with cancer paula hicks, jane b. grimson, owen p. smith background approximately 31% of children under 18 years of age have a chronic physical illness or condition. (tak & mccubblin, 2002) this population, along with their families, has a range of medical, developmental, social, emotional and environmental needs (grey & sullivan-bolyai, 1999). spending a lifetime with a serious or chronic health condition can be traumatic and physically and emotionally painful. this is especially true when the individual enduring the condition is a child or adolescent. children and adolescents with chronic illness are faced with a myriad of challenges that their healthy peers may never experience. they can have difficulty coping with the challenges of managing pain, adhering to treatment and sometimes undergoing invasive diagnostic and treatment procedures. in the case of more chronic conditions, children and adolescents may have frequent school absences and potential physical differences. the impact of hospitalization for treatment can add many other concerns for children and adolescents who are not just struggling with being displaced from their community but are also contending with a loss of control in almost all areas of their lives. these problems can hinder a child's treatment and recovery. (boman & bodegard, 2000), (rode, leask-capitulo, fishman, 1999) enduring a chronic disease and its treatment can cause much disruption to schooling, and also to a child's family's social life and relationships. according to the canadian paediatric society (2008), for adolescents, in particular, who are themselves striving for control over their lives and attempting to become increasingly independent from parents, the normal psychological and social changes are often delayed or altered due to chronic illness. (canadian paediatric society, 2008) these issues are due in part to the reduction of developmentally normal activities such as school, sports and socializing which leads to a discrepancy between the physical and emotional development that can be a source of great stress for adolescents. (blum, 1992) addressing the specific needs of these young people through the use of virtual communities has been at the core of some of the research work currently being carried out at the centre for health informatics, trinity college dublin (tcd) in collaboration with the national paediatric haematology/oncology and bone marrow transplant centre, our lady's children's hospital, dublin. virtual communities in health the terms 'virtual community', 'online community' and 'virtual spaces' are used interchangeably to define similar concepts. many researchers have tried to clearly define what a 'virtual community' is. virtual communities usually bring together people of similar interests, or indeed similar experiences, with the resultant communication facilitated through the internet (wellman & gulia, 1999). motivations for joining virtual communities are similar to motivations for traditional face-to-face groups: the need to belong and be affiliated with others or needing information or help in achieving a goal. many friendships are forged through virtual communities via information exchange and social support. according to demeris (2006) the use of virtual communities in healthcare implies a number of potential activities such as: delivery of healthcare services, health information for staff or patients, support tools for sharing and discussing treatment related issues and problems, consulting with experts and sustaining relationships on a number of levels, between patient-doctor and wider among patient-family and patient-peers. (demeris, 2006) the development of such virtual communities for children and adolescents is also vulnerable to concerns regarding child safety and the dangers presented by the internet. the necessity for security and safety of a virtual community needs to be balanced against the necessity of maintaining a formative and viable community to mitigate psychosocial vulnerability of prospective members. virtual communities are one of the tools that can promote patient empowerment through supporting patients in managing disease and helping themselves. demeris (2006) reports the difficulties in evaluating and measuring such initiatives, and as a result there is little evidence as to the real affects that such communities can have on empowering patients and improving health outcomes. (demeris, 2006) compounding these difficulties are the broad range of technologies that virtual communities can comprise of including; videoconferencing, asynchronous and synchronous communication services, chat rooms or online message boards. young people and their use of technology it is generally accepted that we live in a technological age. information and communications technology (ict) is pervasive to the extent that our economy and quality of life depend on it. (fisher, dwyer & yocam, 1996) the use of ict is embedded in the daily lives of children and adolescents; children and adolescents can play, socialize, create and undertake a range of activities that would not have been imaginable ten years ago. children and adolescents with chronic illnesses are, with respect to their use of ict, no different from their peers. the use of ict to develop and maintain relationships is particularly attractive to children and adolescents. they are at the cutting edge of the social and technological revolution of the internet, and are going online at a younger age, accessing a diverse range of mobile and networked media resources. children and adolescents who are experiencing, first-hand, the social and technological revolution of the internet; they are going online at a younger age, accessing a diverse range of mobile and networked media resources. a recent survey of internet usage by irish children between the ages of 9-16 years found that 93% regularly used the internet at home or in school; this is somewhat above the european average of 87%. most popular activities from an irish context (76% in each case) include 'watching video clips', 'playing internet games,' using internet for school work and 'visiting a social networking profile'. (o'neill, grehan, & olafsson, 2011) examples of the growing phenomenon of social networking and online environments are reported on an almost daily basis; three of the most popular of these social networking sites are facebook, myspace and bebo, with bebo claiming to have half a million irish users. these social networks allow customisation of an individual space, as well as communication among users with the ability to share resources (e.g. pictures, videos, etc.). there is unfortunately also a downside to some of these sites; the risks include the unintentional disclosure of personal information, bullying or harassment, and, in a small number of cases, targeting of users by predators. today's 'digital youth' have been the subject of a large scale study at uc berkelely in the us. the study looks at what young people are doing online, how they use online resources and the impact of their use of digital media on schools, families and public life in general. the relative infancy of these new online resources means that there is little longitudinal research of the ultimate impact these technologies will have on society as a whole (ito et al., 2008). technological interventions for young people with chronic illness there is much research into the psychology of chronic illness, and a particular focus on the paediatric psycho-oncology. advances in medical research have made huge impacts on the survival rate of childhood cancer and its subsequent impact on quality of life post-treatment. the resultant shift towards more open communication about the disease, treatment and prognosis have impacted many areas of research. according to greenlee, murray, bolden & wingo (2000), 75% of children diagnosed with a malignancy will survive the disease. (greenlee , murray, bolden & wingo, 2000) the consequences of the increased survival rates through improved technologies and treatments, allied with changes in attitudes regarding full disclosure of disease related information to young people within hospitals have longer term consequences for those who have survived childhood cancer. through improved technologies and treatment protocols, there has been significant increases in survival rates of those diagnosed with cancer. a number of psychological difficulties encountered in adulthood by those who have survived childhood cancer have been termed 'late effects' these refer to phsychological issues which can manifest in survivors in later life. these 'late effects' can result in significant personal, family and social difficulties (boman & bodegard, 2000), lower academic achievement (hays et al., 1992), impaired or decreased social relationships (boman & bodegard 1995). some studies have also looked at the prevalence of post-traumatic stress symptoms in about 5-20% of survivors. (hobbie et al. 2000) kusch, labouvie, ladisch, fleishhack & bode (2000) discuss the importance of structuring psychosocial care in paediatric oncology, and the importance of translating the knowledge now available into daily practice.c a number of initiatives exploring the role of technology in providing new forms of support have been documented. a small study (n=6) by saba (1991) looked at the influence of close friends and peers on the lives of young patients following diagnosis. those who scored higher on a measure of peer attachment tended to have higher levels of hope than those who were more isolated. (saba, 1991) the important role of support from peers with cancer has also been documented (dunsmore & qune, 1995). these connections can support cancer patients with information exchange about various cancers as well as procedures and treatments (enskar, carlsson, golsater & hamrin, 1997). some of the technical initiatives to support these young people include an array of technologies from video, cd-roms, websites, online support groups and virtual reality headsets. earlier initiatives looked at the use of video games to distract from painful procedures. (schneider & workman, 2000) these were followed by more e-learning intervention programmes providing health-related information in an entertaining environment. examples of these include what are blood counts? which was designed to teach children about blood cells and the effects of chemotherapy (peterson, 1996) and kidz with leukemia: a space adventure designed to educate young people with leukemia about the disease and treatment (dragone, bush, jones, bearison & kamani, 2002). the internet itself has also provided a means for obtaining information and support from the world wide web. the internet offers much potential for empowering adolescents, in particular, in coping with their illnesses as independently as possible. starbright world (sbw) is a private computer network for hospitalised children based in the usa; research studies have illustrated the positive impact of a virtual environment on hospitalised children on pain and anxiety. children involved in the network experience significantly less pain intensity and anxiety (holden , bearison, rode, rosenberg & fishman, 1999), (holden et al., 2002). sbw also offers multimedia programmes on health care, and disease specific information. based in australia, livewire is an online community for young people living with a serious illness or disability; a recent evaluation of the community concludes that livewire helps empower and enhance a sense of wellbeing among its young members (third & richardson, 2009). this sense of empowerment, support and friendship is at the core of many online communities. a similar concept, áit eile (another world), was developed by researchers in trinity college dublin and is currently based in hospital schools throughout ireland. áit eile is a virtual community that supports children through a variety of communication and educational activities. maintaining access to education for young people with medical needs is an important aspect to this project. áit eile integrates educational material, multimedia interactive learning games and activities and web resources to support children in continuing their educational objectives while out of school. communication with other hospital schools and mainstream schools is supported through áit eile (another world) in an effort to lessen the impact of hospitalisation on young users. áit eile is accessible through a multimedia pc in the hospital school rooms. the activities offered by áit eile are designed to engage the children and take their mind off their medical condition and treatment through entertainment and fun as well as fulfilling an important educational role. activities are regularly organized for the community of users including art competitions, quizzes, and storytelling events along with guest visitors who visit one site and link up with others via a video link (hicks, woods, power & grimson, 2006). this paper presents the solas project, an online community for children with chronic illness developed to support their communication needs and combat psychosocial difficulties. harnessing this technology to address core psychosocial issues would appear to offer an innovative opportunity, but as this paper will present, using technology in this context offers many social, organisational and technical challenges. solas project the solas system aims to provide a sense of social connectedness to isolated children and provide a learning experience through creative activities, entertainment andshared experiences. solasis an online communications and creativity environment; a particular target group of solas are those whose conditions necessitate them to be in protective isolation. solas aims to empower children through facilitating communication, creative activities and entertainment that will hopefully provide a temporary distraction from their illnesses. solas looked at providing a mobile ward-based solution without the need for supervision. the pilot site was the children's cancer unit of the largest acute paediatric hospital in ireland. ethics approval was sought and approved at three phases throughout this project: the needs assessment phase, the pilot evaluation phase and the final evaluation phase. led by a multidisciplinary steering committee the research approach looked at four key tasks these are described below; 1. methodology needs assessment the needs assessment phase combined a variety of methods to inform the design of the solas system. these included: brainstorming sessions with a steering group comprising key stakeholders from a variety of disciplines this initial phase led to a concept diagram that would be used as the basis for a requirements specification. a multimedia presentation was prepared, outlining the core concepts and components. this was used as a visual aid for the second phase of the needs assessment. a crucial element to the design of the community was a comprehensive needs assessment undertaken with members of the target population by the children's research centre at trinity college dublin (whelan, daly, hogan & greene, 2006). a total of thirteen interviews with children and families were carried out. two focus groups were also held with ten staff from a range of disciplines in the children's cancer unit where the project is based. interviews with children and families parents or guardians of potential participants were initially contacted via their child's medical team once they were found to meet the criteria for inclusion in the project. the group studied was a predetermined mix of age (8 18years), gender, illness type and periods spent in isolation. once the family had expressed an interest in participating they were provided with a project pack. this provided appropriate background material and information relating to the aims of the solas project. if the parents wished to proceed, then the consent process was explained to them, and the importance of their child's consent was also emphasised. following parental consent, the child was then introduced to a member of the project team by an agreed member of the medical team, in the presence of the child's parent or guardian. at any stage throughout the process it was made clear that parents and children could withdraw consent. interviews were held in the ward while children were inpatients or attending the outpatient clinic or, where circumstances dictated, in their family home. all contributions from children and parents were treated in total confidence, with the exception of situations where a member of the project team had reason to believe that the child may be in immediate danger. recruitment of children and families in the oncology ward was difficult due to the transient nature of patients on the ward. compounding this was the level of wellness that impeded the children from taking part even if they wanted to. the interviews took approximately one hour and were recorded by researchers who later analysed findings under four core themes: physical, psychological, intellectual and social implications of illness. though children were given the option of being interviewed separate from their parents, most chose to have one or both of their parents present. a total of ten children were interviewed, with seven of those having a parent present. in the other three instances, the parents were interviewed separately. at the core of the interview was a 'concept' multimedia presentation containing potential components relating to improving communication and providing entertainment for users; opinions and views were elicited for these and other elements of the system along with feedback on design aspects. qualitative open ended questions were asked and children were encouraged to discuss their current uses of the technology and provide ideas of what might be useful components for the solas system. a total of five boys and five girls were interviewed with ages ranging from seven to eighteen. all parents were also interviewed. findings from interviews children and parents were asked a range of questions about the experiences of their illnesses and also their current entertainment and communication methods while the children are in hospital. they were also asked their opinion on the usefulness of a computer system where communication and entertainment was concerned. physical impacts most commonly mentioned included feelings of lethargy, listlessness following chemotherapy, hair loss and nausea. some children spoke about the specific physical implications their illness had. for example, children described trying to manage crutches and feeling too weak to stand or take part in normal activities, such as playing pool. one interviewee spoke of how her experience of being in isolation was likened to 'being in a box' and how the tiredness impacted her; "you're in bed all the whole time, you can't get up and move and you just feel tired and down all the time because there's nothing else to do but sit here". (child) the psychological impact of the illness was quite unique to individual patients. children (and their parents) spoke very poignantly about the negative psychological impact that a cancer diagnoses has had on them. boredom from having to spend long periods of time in the hospital was another common impact mentioned by the interviewees. two mothers described how their sons just 'switch off' when they need to stay in hospital. another mother describes how her young son had started asking her 'why me?' the ward manager felt that alleviating boredom could really help to distract children from their condition: 'they're bored and the more distraction you have, the less chance you have to think of i'm going to be sick, i hate this place..' (ward manager) intellectual and concentration implications in relation to school were also discussed. children had missed long periods of school due to their illnesses. some felt that their concentration was impacted through their difficult treatment regimens and that they would not be well enough to undertake any course work sent to them by their school. one child added that since her diagnosis she was unable to concentrate: 'i haven't been able to concentrate on a book or anything like that since i was diagnosed because there's too much going on, so you just can't concentrate on anything.' (child) social impact of illness raised many issues including losing friends which resulted in high levels of loneliness. most of the children interviewed had missed out on long periods of school due to their illness and subsequent hospitalisation. some children found it difficult to concentrate on the course work their schools had sent to them. this situation was exacerbated as chemotherapy treatment continued. losing friends was an unfortunate impact of being ill, and was experienced by most of the children interviewed, particularly the older ones. a number of factors contributed to this such as being in hospital for long periods, missing out on school, feeling too unwell to contact friends and, for some, the risk of infection meant that they could not spend time with anyone who had the slightest ailment. also, for those from outside dublin there was even less of a possibility of friends being able to visit them while they were in the hospital. this lack of contact with the outside world also had an impact on parents who spoke of not being able to use their mobile phones in the ward: 'your phone had to be off…so it was difficult…i'd have to go down the corridor to make a phone call. i wouldn't even have done that because i would have felt i needed to be there and even if he fell asleep i wouldn't have been comfortable with going off....in case he woke up'. (mother) some children mentioned that they would not like friends to visit because they felt embarrassed about how they looked, and embarrassed about being visited by peers in the hospital environment. there was often a sense of alienation from friends because of the isolating experience of being so ill. one child spoke of the alienation from friends that she experienced through being ill: 'you were sad the whole time that you couldn't do things, and you'd see people walking around town or whatever and knowing [in your] heart and soul that you just didn't have the energy to do that sort of stuff…things people my age would be doing, it was really hard to see that happening.' (young person) though children did make friends with other patients while they were in hospital, this itself also has its complications because children often did not feel well enough to socialise, and also because children were often not encouraged to visit one another's rooms due to risk of infection at sensitive times of their treatment. despite this, friendships were formed. some of the children spoke of the positive benefits of meeting others with a similar condition to themselves. four of the children interviewed had experience of being in isolation ranging from one day to a week. two principal impacts of isolation mentioned by the children and their parents were the fact that they were not able to have visitors and were limited to their room. the experience of the vast majority of children and parents interviewed was that they were very cut off from the outside world in the hospital. in general families spoke of their awareness that visitors were not really encouraged in the ward (due to the serious nature of the illnesses of the children). although most of those interviewed admitted to having a mobile phone with them while in hospital, it is officially prohibited to use mobile phones in the ward. this reinforces the sense of isolation of both the child and parent and makes contact with those outside the hospital difficult. for the children, texting was more popular than making phone calls. this is because texting is a quick way to exchange information without having a conversation which would probably be difficult anyway due to the weakness caused by their illness. staff also felt that increased communication with others would be extremely helpful: 'they're so sick as well that even just a text or a phonecall from their family probably would just make them feel so much better. ' (clinical nurse manager) staff interviews concurred with many of the psychosocial issues addressed in literature such as the need to improve social support (ellerton et al, 1996) and communication (kazak et al, 1995) and were positive that facilitating these areas among this cohort could potentially address some of these issues. one other area of key concern for the staff was not just of the security of the system itself but also of the physical security of equipment in the ward. findings to system design following the needs assessment phase, it was acknowledged by the steering committee that no 'one solution will fit all' due to the diversity of skills, ages and needs of the children. the needs assessment did lead to an informed system design phase and highlighted many of the issues (for example, security) which need to be continually addressed in the system design. it became increasingly evident that the key component tools of solas could be divided into two main categories namely communications and creativity. a selection of communication components will enable users to share their experiences and keep in touch with family and friends. the creativity tools offered by solas are designed to engage the children and distract them from their medical condition and treatment. improve communication allowing children stay in touch with peers at other hospitals, at school, and with family at home via videolink, live chat, email and sms texting. improve socialisation with peers, family and healthcare professionals, thus reducing the sense of isolation felt by children. provide a means to continue their educational objectives through the provision of resources such as multimedia learning games and activities. provide appropriate activities and games which will provide for support and distraction. provide medical information at an appropriate level which will lead to a better understanding about their healthcare condition. solas from a socio-technical perspective gives as much weight to human needs as technical issues in addressing the needs requirements. this is a perspective advocated by preece (2000) who suggests focusing on user-centred design, and attempting to gain an understanding of the user's context and its potential influence on the use of technology. other important areas of research included: audience and environment research the particular environment that the users would be in, required compliance with strict infection control policies, thus influencing the hardware technology choices made. it was also necessary to accommodate children with diverse levels of wellness and mobility throughout their treatment regime. user interface/design research the need to design an effective intuitive system accessible to a target audience of diverse ages and technical/motor skills was of high importance. initial feedback on design was taken during field work with children at the needs assessment stage which fed into the design process. technical research this involved investigating technical facilities and infrastructure within the pilot site, and also involved ensuring the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of the solutions chosen beyond the initial research project funding. children are confined to separate isolation rooms during their stay. compounding this immobility, children can feel lethargic due to their treatment regime. hardware clients need to be mobile in order to be brought to the isolation ward. a broadband connection was installed at a base in the ward and a virtual private network was set up to run independently of the hospital network. 2. system design a critical factor in the development of solas has been the emphasis placed on innovative use of multimedia design techniques to create an exciting and entertaining community which would engage the attention of children of different ages and differing skills. the age group for the current phase is 8 16 years. although this is a broad age group and poses challenges from a design perspective, it was essential that the system not prohibit specific children on the basis of age. the inclusion of these children would ensure that sufficient feedback was received for the evaluation phase. the solas environment offers an intuitive interface to a variety of services. it seamlessly integrates a range of current web technologies, providing a consistent and user-friendly interface via a standard web browser. solas looked at the specific needs of children with cancer, and the need to provide a solution outside of a supervised environment while maintaining the high level of security required. the selection of communication components include video link, sms texting, live chat and email which enables users to share their experiences and keep in touch with family and friends. the creativity tools offered by solas are designed to engage the children and distract them from their medical condition and treatment. in designing a software environment that works in union with varying mobile hardware clients, a number of design requirements had to be considered. these requirements included: adhering to strict infection control policies which influenced the hardware technology used. accommodating children with diverse levels of wellness and mobility throughout their treatment regime. designing an environment suitable for children of a diversity of ages and skill levels. tools provided for creativity include: drumsteps , a musical composition tool, my blog, which allows children to create multimedia blogs, audio stories , which provides audio books for users to listen to online, art, which enables children to express their creativity through art and fun which consists of a variety of single user games and access to appropriate websites on a variety of topics. there are a number of security features which have influenced many aspects of this project. access to solas is password protected and each child must register. family members, siblings and friends can also access solas but access is limited to specific communication resources. figure 1: solas main screen 3. implementation the children's cancer unit consists of a 20 bed unit, which also includes a high dependency area (for isolation) where young people, who are preparing for or have received a bone marrow transplant, are isolated. a wireless virtual private network has been setup and a selection of laptops that were donated by sony ireland are available for use in the ward. the role of a solas facilitator was identified as a requirement in the ward; this person liaises with the medical team and identifies suitable users and also provides an important role of moderator. the solas facilitator registers new users, updates and maintains the equipment when not in use (all equipment needs to be cleaned for the sterile environment before and after use). to date there have been over 300 registered users of solas. the facilitator is available to support the community development in the ward. this is a key role which enables registration of users and family and friends and enables consistent feedback to the developers. building and promoting the community needs continual effort, with specific events or activities being organized regularly. 4. evaluation a fundamental aim of solas was to reduce the sense of isolation felt by children in hospital which would in turn reduce their level of anxiety helping them to cope better with their medical condition and hospitalization. preliminary results are very positive with a rapidly growing user population and increasing use of the system. the children's research centre at trinity college dublin undertook an evaluation of the pilot phase of solas. (daly & greene, 2007) the pilot evaluation was intended to further understanding of how solas works and how it is used. pilot phase evaluation methodology ethical approval was received to undertake a pilot evaluation with users of the solas system. the pilot phase of the project took place over a seven month period throughout the initial implementation phase. two methods were used to evaluate the extent of and ways in which solas was used observation and interview. the researcher observed the use of solas and the process around it (set up, registering new users etc.) and these observations fed into the evaluation. qualitative data were gleaned from interviews with and comments of the key stakeholders (parents, children who used solas and key stakeholders from the medical team). the play therapist in the oncology ward was crucial in identifying potential users of the solas system; she also fulfilled the role of identifying those who fulfilled the selection criteria for inclusion in the pilot evaluation. the criteria included the age of users (8 -18 years), in so far as possible, an equal mix of gender, and length of time using solas. similar to the needs assessment phase, consent was sought from parents and children. participants' individual circumstances and well-being was a priority and they could withdraw consent at any stage in the research process. a questionnaire, contructed at the beginning of the evaluation process, was designed to ascertain whether solas made a substantial change to the hospital experience. it was a quantitative questionnaire which determined the perceptions of children and parents regarding the means of communication and entertainment available in the ward. the challenges of this pilot evaluation included the high turnover of patients in the ward, which meant that not all children had long periods of time using the system this limited the time available within which to conduct this research. a total of 14 solas users participated in the pilot evaluation research. following the initial pilot evaluation it was evident that solas had been enjoyed and appreciated by many of the users. the report from the play therapist on the level of interest amongst young people was very positive: "the teenagers that have been in, most of them have had a shot of it." half of the users involved in the pilot evaluation use solas "a lot". some parents report their children 'perking up' when using solas, indicating that it is helping these children to feel better, at least at the time that they are using it. solas users reported that solas helped them to maintain communication with existing friends and family. "it's a great way of keeping in touch ...... and to keep your mind off the treatment or whatever you're going through." (child) solas was an invaluable source of entertainment and distraction that was much needed, not otherwise provided elsewhere, and had a positive effect on the emotional wellbeing of the child. '..when it was there it was fun and really good to use. when it wasn't there, i was bored like hell!' (child) a more comprehensive evaluation, that is currently underway, aims to examine if solas is able to meet its goals and objectives, identify the potential outcome for its users and the resources required to promote sustainability. it will also explore the experience of the users to ensure that best practice is being developed and maintained. discussion human implications with all the developments in technology and the important role that it can play in the lives of these children, it is still hugely important to look at the human factors of virtual communities. the role that an organisation can play in such developments can have a huge impact on the potential benefits and impact of the system on the end users. this is especially relevant for vulnerable young children. at the outset it was suggested that the play therapist would take on the role of solas facilitator; this would involve registering users and basic 'housekeeping' of equipment (cleaning and storage of equipment). this role has proved to be pivotal in ensuring usage of the system. the 'human' face of solas continues to be as important as the system itself. acceptance among staff was initially a challenge as this invasion of technology was seen in a negative light by some. 'hands on' workshops and information sessions for staff combated some of these initially negative views. challenges for virtual communities some of the challenges that impact the development of such systems include ethical, organisational and environmental issues. the lack of policies and guidelines within hospitals towards internet access and usage can have a negative impact on the developments of technology interventions similar to solas. establishing access policies will help developments like solas by providing reasonable boundaries within which to work while not limiting the potential for the resultant users. focussing on either dangers or opportunities, without recognising the consequences of particular policies or provision for the other, is likely to be problematic, undermining either children's rights or their safety. using existing technical infrastructures within hospital would provide a more cost effective longer term solution along with more possibility for further roll out. these costs while easily absorbed at the initial research phase do have to be considered for the more longer term sustainability of the project. environmental challenges of providing a solution in a high infection risk area is one that can be achieved but can necessitate a compromise on services provided. restrictions and limitations on hardware selections that can be used in the ward are guided by rigid infection control standards. these children are extremely immuno-suppressed throughout their treatment regime, and any potential source of infection risk needs to be eliminated. for example in terms of hardware choices, the original choice would be to have a touch screen and not keyboard based input, as keyboards harbor dust particles; a potential source of infection risk. but these touch screen machines did not have a built in webcam for video conferencing. the solution for solas was to have custom made covers for the laptops which could be easily cleaned. each child is given their own laptop for the period of their stay and the laptop is cleaned thoroughly when the child leaves the hospital. this situation is changing with newer hardware such as ipads, tablets and smart phones potentially offering easier solutions. in the solas community, our endeavours have focused on the social and individual needs of the specific target audience within an ethically appropriate context. with the approach being 'helping people to help themselves', peers communities can enhance this ideal of peer to peer support through enabling a wider context for support. the scalability of solas is something that can be explored further building a broader community across europe and beyond. policies it was necessary to extensively research current legislative guidelines, policies, and international best practise regarding children's access to the world wide web both in hospitals, homes and schools. putting basic policies in place helps members know how to behave, what to expect from each other and provides a framework for social growth. (preece, 2005) achieving a balance between discouraging inappropriate behavior while facilitating the community's evolution requires skill, sensitivity and acknowledgement that the community's purpose and needs may change over time. childnet international is a charity established in 1996 to support both children and parents in staying safe and getting the most out of online technology; the program also helps parents and children to work in partnership with others around the world to help make the internet a great and safe place for children. childnet has consistently argued that setting effective child protection policies online must involve government, law enforcement, industry regulators and hotlines, ngos, parents and carers, schools, teachers and children themselves. (childnet international, 2011) the policies of solas bring together guidelines and best practices provided by a range of stakeholders for safe internet use. these stakeholders include government (departments of health and education), non governmental organisations, along with the recently established office of internet safety (ois); policies are also influenced and guided by similar initiatives such as in the usa. starbright world, which is open to children between the ages of 13 and 20, is based on regulations set down by the children's online protection policy (www.coppa.org). the australian arm of the starlight charity also has an online community called livewire; this community has 3 levels of access 13-15, 15-17, 17 and older. the security within the solas systems means that access is restricted for the communication components to family and peers; each family is given their own private video room and password. other measures involve each user having their own contact list for sms and email which ensures that only those on the list can send or receive communications. it is possible for younger children to have a parent or guardian supervise this list. most guidelines have policies related to specific ages groups: children aged under 9, 10 14 and 15 18 years. within these levels of access, restrictions will apply and predefined content will be accessed and filtered according to the age. a balanced approach to regulation is vital if society is to steer a course between the twin risks of exposing children to danger or harm and of undermining children's opportunities to participate, enjoy and express themselves fully. even though 93% of children use the internet on a daily basis, there seems to be slow progress in using ict to support children in hospital, from communication to education and empowerment. security and safety concerns are not insurmountable. involving the hospital organization as a stakeholder in setting policies will help alleviate some of these concerns. at the core of social support is sharing experiences among people who may never meet. whether we agree or not, computer mediated virtual communities are a part of modern communities that are started and maintained by people who want to share their interests. this has shown to have positive benefits from our solas users. virtual communities offer a framework to provide an efficient and effective means of supporting these children. any web-based development for children and young people is also vulnerable to concerns regarding child safety and the dangers presented by the internet. providing these communities within a hospital setting offers many new challenges, from facilitation and ethical issues to environmental considerations, but these are not insurmountable. establishing such online communities for children and young people needs rigorous security and child protection policies. conclusions empirical research from the needs assessment phase means that we have a clearer understanding of the specific needs of this group of children and young people. it is clear that there is a need for improved psychosocial services for children in hospitals and indeed for this particular group of children in the cancer unit. there are also other groups of children whose conditions necessitate long stays in hospitals and long absences from school who would also benefit from initiatives to combat psychosocial issues. the high levels of boredom and loneliness endured by these children throughout their long treatment regimens have echoed throughout this work. additional requirements from the needs assessment phase beyond the initial prototype leave scope for some further development of solas. some of these include multiplayer games, medical related information and a multilingual version of solas. this research will contribute to furthering the knowledge we have in developing a model based on best practices in the area of online environments for children in hospital. 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(1999b). "virtual communities as communities." in m. a. smith & p. kollock (eds.), communities in cyberspace (pp. 167-194). new york: routledge. whelan, s., daly, a. , hogan, d. & greene, s (2005) "needs assessment of solas: a computer-based psychosocial intervention for chronically ill children", trinity college dublin, ireland (unpublished report) sustaining online communities involving seniors sustaining online communities involving seniors   oliver k. burmeister, school of computing and mathematics, centre for research in complex systems, charles sturt university, oburmeister@csu.edu.au   ros foskey, mental health promotion and prevention service, hunter new england local health network, roslyn.foskey@hnehealth.nsw.gov.au   june hazzlewood, oam, honorary associate, tasmanian university department of rural health, launceston, june.hazzlewood@utas.edu.au   raymond v. lewis, oam, chief executive officer and founder of greypath pty ltd, ray.lewis@greypath.com   abstract   many online communities involving seniors have come into existence, yet not all of these have survived. there are numerous reasons for success and failure in the creation, management and maintenance of these online communities. through an exploration of two communities, neat and greypath, numerous factors are uncovered for the successful sustenance of such online communities. both communities have reached maturity successfully, one continues to enjoy success, the other is on the precipice of continuing to survive or to cease to exist. two critical success factors discovered were valuing members in peer based interaction through a flat structure, and hybridity.   keywords   ageing, design, human computer interaction, reflexivity.   introduction   across the globe the proportion of the population who are old or elderly has increased steadily over the 20th century. this trend can be expected to continue well into the 21st century as a consequence of sustained low fertility rates and increasing life expectancy, especially in many developed nations. consequently online communities involving seniors have been studied in china (xie, 2007), the usa (ito, o'day, adler, linde, & maynatt, 2001; xie & jaeger, 2008), the uk (pfeil & zaphiris, 2010), australia (burmeister, 2010a), and elsewhere. more seniors than ever are making use of the internet and becoming aware of the opportunities this can create in terms of socialisation. as technical ability increases amongst the over 50’s, so do demands for better online services, a greater variety of activities and the desire to explore different possibilities for online socialisation.   reported studies of the network of education, ageing and technology (neat) (foskey, 2002; foskey, hazzlewood, barnett, & lewis, 2002) and greypath community (burmeister, 2009; lepa & tatnall, 2006) have been disparate studies, each time looking at a single community in isolation. in this paper an attempt is made to bring together lessons learned in multiple communities for seniors, yet focusing in particular on these two australian-based communities. this is done through integrating insights from key informants in those communities, including the founders of both communities. it is also done through drawing on findings from an interpretivist/constructivist study of the greypath community.   this paper explores several questions in relation to the experience of neat and greypath for senior’s online communities. how do we create and sustain an engaging online community for seniors? what are the factors that lead to vibrant, active participation in an online community for seniors? what are the advantages to seniors who become involved in online communities? what lessons can be learnt from successful, growing online communities; ones specifically targeting the ageing market?   the two case studies reveal numerous factors for successfully sustaining online communities involving seniors. however, the two factors that stand out are valuing members within peer-based interaction via a flat online structure, and hybridity. the first of these, flat online structure, is multi-dimensional or multi-faceted. seniors who participate in age-designated online communities appear to value personal recognition, along with the opportunity to learn from peers, and to interact socially with members of their peer group. this is facilitated through a flat site structure, to encourage the emergence of reciprocal relationships among members. on greypath, for example, many seniors value being able to make meaningful contributions to their online community, and in doing so, to give back to their virtual community.   hybridity has also been identified as being critical to the long-term success of a senior’s online community. hybridity requires site management which allows for continuous innovation, allowing the community to continue to cater to different and changing member requirements. arnold (2007) described hybrid online communities as instrumental, technical, social, and hierarchical. successfully combining a flat relational structure and hierarchical technical structure within a senior’s online community is obviously complex to implement and maintain. other important factors in sustaining senior’s online communities identified within this study were the dynamic membership allowing for a succession of key contributors, and access to adequate funding to sustain site activities.   introducing neat   the network of education, ageing and technology (neat) is a basic low-tech unsophisticated australian-based email listserv. the list evolved from an australia-wide 1999 international year of older persons event making the connections: non-metropolitan older people and technology (foskey 2000). the three components of the making the connections event had drawn together some of the key people then involved in senior’s technology initiatives across australia at that time through a combination of virtual and face-to-face activities.   neat has always existed as an unfunded, and thus informal, network of people interested in a broad range of issues associated with older people, technology and learning. from its inception in december 1999 until mid-2007 neat was moderated by foskey through the university of new england. in 2007 when foskey changed jobs most of the membership of the list decided they wanted it to continue and the day-to-day management of the list was taken over by russell hardidge from melbourne, although foskey has continued on as the back-up moderator. in mid 2010 when hardidge was no longer able to continue as moderator foskey again took on that role when subscribers indicated the list continued to play a significant role in networking and in access to information. foskey discusses her neat experience:   i am in no way a sophisticated user of technology, as the more technology-literate members of my family will certainly attest! however, as someone with a background in community work and applied research i have long been interested in exploring how we can utilize new forms of media to extend the possibilities for grassroots engagement by older australians regardless of where they live, and their socio-economic and personal characteristics. when i came up with the idea of holding an event focused on older rural people and technology back in 1999 i never expected that this would result in the generation of a community of interest called neat in which i would still be involved over a decade later. i am forever grateful to those who have supported the list over those years for so freely sharing their information, advice, expertise and time, and also to the university of new england for hosting the list without charge for eight years, given that it was never able to attract external funding. the benefits of neat have extended far beyond what is shared between members via the text of an online discussion. as an example, the seniors education center at the university of regina in canada, particularly don king then director of the center, were both virtually and personally involved in the initial making the connections events in 1999 – and this international connection to canada has continued on neat to the present day. i know i am not the only member for whom connections made through the list have extended into personal contact during visits to other parts of australia and overseas.   foskey’s experiences illustrate an important point: that the social ties established through virtual connections do not remain static, nor do they always remain only virtual. over the past twelve years members of neat have collaborated on projects and research, with a focus on older adults and technology via a combination of virtual and physical [particularly conference attendance] venues. the list is an example of faris’ (2002) “glocalization”, strengthening rather than diminishing local cultural identity. the forum neat provides focuses on enriching peer group networks, sharing local and global ideas and creating a place through which information can be exchanged. as hazzlewood, cited in (foskey, et al., 2002), has suggested:   neat is a clearinghouse of easily accessible cross-sectoral information, advice and assistance with the accent on sharing of experiences, ideas and links to further information. the basic list service format enables multi-source multi-destination exchanges with the focus on the three aspects we are all involved in passionate about education, ageing and technology.  members are involved in some way in helping older adults, who grew up in a vastly different and less complicated era, who want or need to access and continue to use new technology via computers and the internet.   in june 2010 when the list moderation was being renewed, subscribers reflected on the value of the network, for example:   yes we want the neat network to continue. ….. we wouldn't be a network if ros hadn't started us off; we wouldn't have stayed a network if russell hadn't kept us going; we won't stay a network if we don't all support neat. (member one. ‘retiree’ president of a national online seniors initiative)   living in a small rural town in the middle of australia it is good to know what`s going on in the world. thank you russell, ros and everybody for your contributions. i often pass on links to our local library, health service and to friends overseas and sons in it, people we meet on our travels; along with our local seniors. (member two ‘retiree’ involved with seniors it initiatives in rural australia)   i too find the neat posts most helpful, even with the aussie slant!  russell did a marvelous job of periodically finding us wonderful articles, special events, activities and newsworthy items and i felt and still do as if i had my own librarian researcher. (member three, adult educator at senior’s learning centre, canada)     the four authors of this paper are all current members of neat. yet whilst neat may draw us together within a shared community of interest, we also bring into this paper our very different experiences in establishing, participating in, collaborating on and researching online communities for seniors. rather than synthesising our diverse perspectives into a single voice we have tried to integrate some of these differences in perspective into this paper to enrich and enliven the discussion.   introducing greypath   greypath pty. ltd. manages the portal greypath.com.au. membership is restricted to seniors, which it defines as 50 years of age and older. according to greypath management, most of the active members are in their late 60s. most members reside in australia, though some reside overseas and many travel overseas, yet maintain contact with their friends through this online community. in sociological terms, participation is not spatially determined, as traditional communities may have been (wellman & leighton, 1979), but rather it is ubiquitous (wellman, 2004). greypath has 35 volunteer contributors who support the site remotely via online means. all these volunteer contributors are seniors, who freely give of their time and skills to maintain the site.   as at august 2009 there were approximately 100 million web sites worldwide. greypath traffic ranked 1.3 million according to the web information organisation alexa (http://www.alexa.com/), placing it in the top 1.5 percent of world-wide sites by traffic. compared to sites such as tripadvisor or facebook, the traffic on greypath is miniscule. however, when one considers that this is a site dedicated to australian seniors, then it begins to show that this is indeed a popular site with a particular age cohort. within australia it is the largest site for seniors.   according to site management pre-october 2006 membership was approximately 45,000 seniors. in october 2006 greypath changed their site dramatically from the initial design, developing a new format with a more accessible and easier to maintain interface. however, that 2006 restructure cost the greypath community dearly, in terms of membership. prior the restructure, the majority of the active members were in their late 70s and early 80s, whereas the majority of the active members in 2008 were in their late 60s (burmeister, 2008). it seems that many previously active members ceased participation as a direct result of the restructure. possible explanations for this generational change in site membership are explored later in this paper.   the value of a website such as greypath is its multi-faceted approach.  it allows older adults to use either a ‘toe on the super highway tarmac’ approach or to explore the highway in cruise control and also the many byways, taking part in surveys, enrolling in free or nominal cost courses, contributing or receiving information on a wide variety of topics. a greypath members’ online destinations will be dictated by their interests and time constraints. greypath is also a safe place, in that it is moderated by volunteer contributors who each have placed their name and face on the site.   who accesses greypath?  a snapshot shows that there is a definite group of people who participate in a number of the various options available, such as the forums and chat rooms. greypath management continue to innovate, with the development of routine video editorials, a multimedia seniors course development engine, a possibly unique approach to a three-dimensional (3d) seniors game, and simple broadcasts of greypath internet tv.   a skim of the participants and the times of interaction might be a basis for a research study on what motivates the contributors.  does a consistent after midnight participation, for example, suggest shift work, insomnia, time when the sole family computer can be accessed, hedge against loneliness as person being cared for is sleeping?  or, are they members living in a different time zone? hazzlewood, a greypath as well as a neat member, described her experience:   on several occasions i joined a greypath chat group and noted that the same people were coming in and they knew each other’s nicknames.  there was very friendly banter was nothing ugly or unhappy about it and i found out that if you look at different times, you could speak to overseas members.  i was delighted to find a chap from montreal who said he would see if he could help my husband’s elderly cousin with her computer problems.   online engagement   internet-based communities are cultural products that exist within specific historical, social and political contexts. it is important to consider the subtle differences in practice between groups and individuals, and to explore the reasons for the choices people make in whether or not to use particular forms of technology (liff & shephard, 2004). the early adopters of online technologies were usually well-educated and of high socio-economic status and it was this cohort of seniors who tended to be most capable of productively employing the internet to meet their needs and interests (dimaggio, hargittai, neuman, & robinson, 2001; wilson & peterson, 2002). however, as the internet extends its reach across society, the ‘late adopters’ are a more diverse cohort of older people (liff & shephard 2004, p. 7).   diversity of social engagement   with the changing nature of the cohort accessing the internet, it is important to acknowledge that it is not only the skills of the user that can present a barrier to the uptake and ongoing use of virtual networks. late adopters tend to be faced with a technology that ‘has been shaped by the interests and preferred methods of interaction of early adopters’ and this can inadvertently contribute to their continued exclusion (liff & shephard, 2004, p. 7). in order for technology to be integrated into a person’s life it needs to be both useable and meaningful. it is important to realize that seniors are as diverse, if not even more diverse, as any other group within the community. an example of the diversity of experience among senior technology users comes from the age differences in a study of the greypath community, conducted by burmeister (burmeister, 2008). the ages of participants in that study ranged from people in their late 50s through to people in their mid 80s. this meant that some senior members of greypath were born prior to the great depression, and were adults during world war ii, while other seniors within greypath were not born until after world war ii. some of these people retired when the world wide web had not yet come into existence. younger seniors, especially those who have only recently retired, may have used computers extensively in their work places and in their homes. in reflecting on her journey as an older technology adopter june hazzlewood, describes the experience as follows:   my journey along the super highway, which could have been a lonely one, was directed and enriched in the company of peer interest cyber travelers.  both ongoing membership of email lists and short-term discrete participation in online learning courses have been important post-retirement virtual highlights.  peer interest online communities such as neat and the national institute of continuing education’s older and bolder group have acted as pebbles in the third age retirement pond as links mentioned to wider interest portals such as greypath are followed up and u3aonline discrete learning courses are accessed.   the online environment does not always take into consideration the diversity in the capacities of the potential users. research has highlighted that the barriers in the uptake and use of technology, is far more complex than the duality of users and non-users implied through terms such as the digital divide (foskey, 2001; gaved & anderson, 2006; hawthorn, 2007)(haythornthwaite, 2006; wyatt, henwood, hart, & smith, 2005). there is also an important distinction between synchronous and asynchronous online interaction. as a listserv neat is an example of a basic form of asynchronous interaction, whereas greypath offers opportunities for both synchronous and asynchronous participation.   chat rooms and real-time online workshops require different skills from discussion boards, email lists and online courses.  basic literacy combined with computer literacy, physical mobility and mental agility can tend to be pre-requisites for interaction in chat rooms and online workshops.  apart from keyboard and mouse skills, hand-eye co-ordination is essential in synchronous online participation to be able to keep up with the conversation and the need for speedy replies while keeping up with the flow of contributions.  those older late ict adopters with less than adequate skills must also learn to use emoticons and abbreviations to save time when commenting and may find the pace of the chat room experience stressful.   asynchronous online interaction via discussion boards, as for example the greypath forums, email lists such as neat and online courses can take place at any time of day or night and may or may not result in immediate replies, depending on whether other members are online at the same time.  however, there is always the risk that a small number of dominant and/or loquacious participants may derail discussion with the less confident members. there is a concern that as technology becomes more complex, and hardware and software more expensive, older later adopters of computer technology can find it more and more difficult to maintain their online interaction.   this diversity of social engagement amongst seniors requires an effort on the part of the designer to understand their distinctive requirements. hawthorn (2007), for example, actively engaged older people in the design of a senior friendly interface after observing how older participants within a training course tended to blame themselves for their failure to learn, rather than either the design and delivery of the course, or the design of the user interface. until hawthorn provided the opportunity the older users were not proactive in requesting design changes that would have made their use of the interface easier. it is important that those managing senior’s online communities provide their users with an ongoing role in the site’s design and development process if these communities are to continue to be vital, meaningful and sustainable.   community   perspectives on what constitutes a community have changed dramatically over time. in the 19th century communities tended to be equated with neighbourhoods (wellman & leighton, 1979), in the mid 20th century communities were understood as social networks of people personally known to one another, and by the end of the 20th century there was the dawning of electronic communities (wellman, 2004; wellman & hiltz, 2004), more recently we have seen the emergence of virtual communities, online communities and communities of individualized networks (arnold, 2007; preece, 2000; preece & ghozati, 1998; wellman & hogan, 2004). a preoccupation with ideologically constructed imagery of community can obscure the emergent, unexpected, unimagined yet empowering variations of online practice (bakardjieva, 2003). an online community, as arnold (2007) argued, is not simply instrumental, technical, social, hierarchical or heterarchical, but also a hybrid creation.   online communities for seniors   some social theorists, amongst them dreyfus (1999), expressed the view that the internet risks decreasing community, through drawing people away from face-to-face relationships. there has been concern that in encouraging global connections that local kinship and friendship ties may become somehow less important. however, research into online social networks has dispelled these fears and presented a more complex picture of engagement (iriberri & leroy, 2009). even with an increase in the use of online technology people still visit their neighbours, relatives and friends, people still help each other.   latent tie theory as articulated by haythornthwaite (2005) suggested that technology had the potential to connect disparate others, who may otherwise have remained unconnected. where technology-based interaction is the only link which exists between people it can tend, haythornthwaite suggested, to remain a tenuous or weak connection that is readily severed. this is why researchers have sought to distinguish mere activity on the internet, from activities that promote a sense of belonging and identity, more in keeping with the concept of ‘community’ understood in terms of ‘participatory activities’ (crystal, 2001).   seniors increasingly belong to multiple virtual communities, for example, in burmeister’s study, he found that many members of greypath also belonged to other online communities. in the main these were either communities to do with their profession prior to retirement, or other senior’s sites. specific references to memberships of other senior’s sites included: aboutseniors; a chat group; a mixed age forum; seniorsite; seniorshelpingseniors; three service groups (for retired veterans); seniorsonline; neighboursreunite; soc (forums not chat); australiangoldengirls; over50goldengroup; friendlyfaces; babyboomerbistro; idf50 (i don't feel 50); sa seniors (sa for south australia); and, silverpeers. several greypath members also belonged to the australian seniors computer clubs association (ascca). ascca is not an online community in the sense being explored within this paper, but rather a coalition of peer-based and volunteer-run local clubs that have provided the opportunity for seniors across many areas of australia to learn about computers and how to get the most out of them.   as crystal (2001, p. 171) pointed out, with few exceptions, the social interaction that takes place online is about ‘real things in the real world’. crystal argued that good social interaction online does not just happen but that the system has to be designed to facilitate interaction. in order for a sense of community to emerge there will need to be just enough order within social interaction so that people can come to know each other, yet not so much order that these social interactions ‘move towards a frozen highly ordered network’ (kogut, 2007, p. 68).   the qualities of the relationships made possible through online socialization is illustrated in the following quote from one of burmeister’s interviews with greypath members:   i remember one message that came in, that was really wonderful.  this woman wrote, and i can't remember it exactly, and it's a pity i can't, because it was wonderful.  she said, it's 10.30 pm and i have just had a wonderful experience and i need to share it with someone, and i'm sorry my friends, it's you that’s going to cop it. i don’t think she used cop it.  she said, i've just been to a school concert put on by, i think it was scott's college in brisbane, i don’t know, but that doesn’t matter, she said, these little children sitting with feet dangling from a piano stool, too short to reach the floor, and sort of expressed it all, the concert was absolutely magic, and i have no one except you my friends to share it with.  and that i thought was just so wonderful, yeah. [female, 70-74]   the creation and sustaining of the neat community   neat is an interesting example of an early online community. it emerged through the making the connections project during 1999 that brought together through three events people interested in the implications of emerging information and communications technologies for older australians living in non-metropolitan areas (foskey 2000). the participants included both people who were already actively involved in senior’s technology initiatives in australia, and new users of ict.   the first of the events held as part of the making the connections was an online conference event launched on national seniors online day on 7th september 1999 by the australian minister for ageing. the online conference attracted 289 registrations from across australia. over a seven-week period the participants logged in from private homes, libraries, online access centres, community organisations, workplaces and universities (foskey2000).   the second making the connections event was a video-conference based workshop held on 13th october 1999 which attracted 80 senior participants from six non-metropolitan sites in australia: the university of new england in armidale new south wales, cherbourg tafe and charleville community centre in queensland, longeranong college in horsham victoria, tumby bay telecentre in south australia and the multipurpose health centre on flinders island. in addition during the day three guest speakers – nan bosler from the australian senior’s computer club association, theresa corbin from the australian consumers telecommunications network, and david mason from the australian human rights and equal opportunity commission were linked in through sydney university.  bronwyn bishop, then australian minister for ageing, also joined in the workshop from parliament house in canberra for the final link-up of the day.   the third and final event held as part of the making the connections project was a more traditional conference held at the university of new england on the 19th and 20th november 1999. this conference was attended by 50 people actively involved in seniors technology initiatives from across australia. the keynote speakers were dr don king, then director of the seniors education centre at the university of saskatchewan in canada, and professor andrew downing, then dean of engineering at flinders university in south australia.   neat emerged out of the networks established through these three events. the list began in december 1999 as an informal online network, managed by foskey through the university of new england, new south wales, australia. the goal was to continue the sharing of ideas, resources and information that making the connections had initiated. by the end of 2001 the neat list had around 100 members, with the majority of the membership being from australia.   in the early years neat members came from a diverse range of backgrounds and from different adult generations. members included seniors, people involved in peer learning initiatives, those employed in government and non-government agencies working with older people, information technology professionals, adult educators along with academics from a range of disciplines. there was also free flowing interaction between members on the neat list – if a request was made for information, ideas or contacts there would be an almost immediate response, which was shared with all the members of the list.   changing levels of engagement   at the beginning of october 2008 neat had 62 members but only a small core of the membership were actively contributing to the list, and these contributions were largely centred on the sharing of information. active interaction between members is now more likely to occur off-list either as a one-on-one interchange, or restricted to a small group online interchange centred around a particular issue. that is, a division between the public sharing of information and a private conversation between peers sharing a common interest has emerged. it is interesting to consider the factors that have led to this pattern. ros foskey, neat’s founder, suggested:   neat emerged in 1999 to fill a specific need for connection between people who shared a common interest. at that time there were no other options available in australia which worked across geographic, organizational, sectoral and disciplinary boundaries. this is no longer the case for other options are now available and therefore the diversity in the backgrounds of the membership of the list has decreased. although a core of long term members remain, membership is increasingly dominated by those who, like me, have some connection with academia. this combined with the now more formal style of interaction on the list has meant it no longer serves the needs of some of the early grassroots senior members who since have left. one of the reasons that there is now less free-flow in the sharing of ideas and experiences on the listserv itself is, i suspect, because over the years some subscribers (most notably some members employed in government bodies) exploited the openness of the list members. they took ideas and concepts from the list into their work often without the permission of the contributor, nor adequate attribution of the source. yet when, as list manager, i had sought government funding, on several occasions, to allow neat to fulfill its potential as a boundary-crossing grassroots initiative, none was forthcoming. one of the ways i can explain the shift in engagement over the past decade, is that neat emerged initially as a community of interest in which most members were engaged in an iterative process of way finding. we were intimately involved in finding our way into and navigating our way around an environment which combined the fields of technology, ageing and learning. over time the sense of excitement associated with an active engagement in exploring this new environment began to dissipate. more and more of the membership began to participate only as spectators, rather than engaging in the action on the listserve. there was a shift away from communality, towards the compartmentalization of interaction into private and public spheres and on the list the membership focused more on information diffusion and knowledge transfer, rather than in generating discussions or conversations between social peers.   since its establishment in 1999 the list has had two moderators. foskey was the moderator until mid 2007, when she was no longer able to continue when she moved employers, which also meant a new host had to be found. this led to a surge of support for the continuation of the list among the membership. russell hardidge stepped forward to take over the role of moderation and the list was moved to a new host. during this process only a few subscribers chose to withdraw from the list as it was no longer meeting their needs. in mid 2010 there was a similar surge of interest in the continuation of the list when hardidge was no longer able to continue as moderator and foskey again took on that role.   succession, in any community organization involves a critical moment in the continued existence of the organization. yet, as comini, fisher and de são paulo (2009, p. 10) suggest in a discussion on leadership succession within ngo’s, the capacity to survive a change in leadership does not guarantee that an organization will continue in perpetuity. although neat survived the transition between moderators the active involvement of those subscribed to the list has continued to decline. most messages that are being placed on the neat list are now purely informational.   in a review of the research literature on online communities iriberri and leroy (2009) identified five stages in the life of an online community – inception, creation, growth, maturity and death. the inception of neat occurred at the making the connections event in 1999. this was followed by the creation of the list with the support of the information technology directorate at the university of new england. the creation of the list was then followed by a period of rapid growth as the list membership expanded through word of mouth and virtual connections. as it matured the effectiveness of neat began to stall, as barriers emerged in attracting the funding resources required to formalize the network.   although relationships, some of which have been sustained now for a decade, were established on neat, the formation of the subgroups and community action has tended to take place within venues other than neat. it is when online communities begin to lose active participation, and to lack valued content that, as iriberri and leroy (2009, p. 24) noted, the online community’s ‘termination may be eminent’. one of the symbols of the stalling of development of neat as an online community is that it has also remained in the same configuration – an asynchronous email list – rather than adapting the wider range of options which have become available over recent years. neat will only survive whilst members continue to identify a need for an informal, unaligned network which links those involved in leadership roles, facilitation and research. the unanswered question in relation to the future of neat is, will it remain as it now is a venue for the distribution of information, will it simply fade into obscurity as an online community, or is it simply in a period of hibernation before springing back into life in another form?   the greypath community   in an interpretivist/constructivist study of greypath, burmeister systematically observed the greypath community for eleven months. then, after analysing the observation data, conducting pilot interviews and analysing that data, he conducted in-depth interviews with thirty of its members. the thirty participants were selected using criterion sampling, a particular form of purposive sampling (patton, 2002). one of the questions he asked these members about was whether they saw greypath as a community? exemplary quotations of greypath viewed as a community were:   they have become my neighbors, really because neighbors don’t talk to you anymore. they have become my greypath family. … i can write anything on the forum, it might be a problem that i have, and sure enough someone will answer it, and i find that that's great, and we all have the same age group … the greypath community understands our age problems, and that's what i find is good. [female, 75-79] often i find something interesting, i’ll cut and paste it and send it to mates and say, look into this … i’d recommend it, because some of the items mentioned are so topical and relevant to the requirements of senior people. [male, 75-79] i reckon it’s a community … a couple of times a year i meet up with 2 of them and we have lunch together … we often send emails back and forth. [male, 65-69] you do get to know them through their writing … well maybe soften your responses, or change what you first thought, you know, as you would do in a community, as you would do talking face to face in a community. [female, 70-74] oh yeah, without any hesitation, oh yeah, yeah, i mean, i have correspondence from people i talk to, we swap dvd discs, and even novels, books, or anything, and i keep them up to date with any programmes … it's just like talking to my next door neighbor.  i am, i would say 95% housebound, i can't get out much, and i just log on, the times i know somebody’s there, and we just sit and talk like i'm talking to you now, and it's as simple as that. [male, 75-79]   twenty-eight of the thirty participants viewed greypath as a community. one viewed community as requiring face-to-face physical meetings, and the other only used greypath as a means to an end, in her case finding house sitting opportunities. the former expressed the belief that she felt very much a part of greypath, but that for her, community had to do with face-to-face contact. the latter, did not view greypath as a community in the way that another online community was. the 28 who viewed greypath as a community expressed those views with terms such as: neighbours, friends, family, belonging, a community of peers, information sharing, and making a contribution.   managing the greypath community   in this section we examine issues to do with the successful management of greypath as an online community for seniors. we begin with a detailed examination of how the greypath portal was created and then examine some issues associated with site management. in keeping with the conversational style of this paper, this section is largely written in first person. it is based on the personal reflections of the founder and chief executive officer of greypath, ray lewis:   greypath began as a post retirement activity/idea for me. in late 2001, a venn diagram of my skills, experience, enthusiasms, interests, age, mentality, disadvantages, work ethic, available funds, technical resources, personality, market needs and more, was compiled. the common area was a privately funded, slow start up, one-man band, seniors interest website.   i then tested this idea on various people and the consensus was generally that it was already ‘done’ and would have limited interest, as seniors had no money and very few were online. i ignored this advice, as i saw it as an opportunity to get established, before seniors did come online.   i then had a deliberately very brief look at some existing seniors sites, and found them to be sorely lacking when measured against the vision i had. the brief look was deliberate, as i wanted to do an intellectually independent, bottom up design and not be mentally trapped by any existing approaches.   before i began building i established some social and commercial objectives. the primary social objective is to "empower seniors and enrich the quality of our lives." the commercial objectives include technical leadership and innovation, an international reach, and profitability.   i had been previously impressed with jimmy carters zero budget approach. it's a powerful notion, because it gives you a chance to take a fresh look at a task or problem where standard solutions otherwise seemed locked in. by mentally not taking in what little i had seen in the work of others, i thought that i could be freer to design my own approach, based upon what i thought any normal senior would want from such a site.   i threw out existing notions on font types, sizes and colors and much more. the end result was a simple site, based around arial 11 and 12 font and three patriotic colors of red, white and blue. it was designed to be user friendly, warm, encourage visitors input regarding any future content they might like and designed so as not to ‘design out’ future unknown needs.  i was conscious that for seniors at that early time, even the simplest computer terms were confusing and had to be re-learned. accessories, programs, mouse, applications and much more were technobabble to them, and could bedevil the new person and put them off computers before they could get to enjoy them. the learning curve is very steep if you do not have a peer group to grow and learn with, as children did at that time.   another major problem was that the new to computing seniors had little natural comprehension of the endless bifurcations and dead end trails they had to follow, to get anywhere in a standard web site’s hierarchical model. they easily fell prey to the ‘death of a thousand clicks’ and gave up. hence i ignored all current (pyramid) site designs and sought to have very broad spread of section tabs located at the top centre on the home page. this led to a greater width and less depth site. seniors could get a grip on the whole coverage of the site, via the main page, and then quickly drill down to specifics under a mental master plan.   to click an icon is not at all intuitive, and so we always said click here. from the point of view at that time “who in their right mind looks under a start button at the bottom of the desktop screen, to find the shut down button?” many simply turned the computer off at the wall, and put up with slow restarts.   the matter of a site name was most difficult. i did not wish to be lost among the existing generics, like all about seniors, seniorweb, seniortech, elderweb, aged this, that and the other, and similar. i sought a name (a future brand) that did not carry overt ageing pejoratives and could make sense internationally as well. cross referencing a few columns of as many relevant and passable words that i could string together, led to grey and path (path as in pathway to knowledge, friendship, entertainment, etc).   with previous industrial marketing experience, (and with attendant prejudices), i decided that any advertising i could afford, would have no residual impact in the grand clamoring for attention in the various media that we all face these days. it would be money simply wasted. seniors are slow to react to once only advertising, and react better to advertisements that are repeated over months (an expensive option).   my strategy was to create online offerings and/or ideas that would justify editorials and that way gain indirect national exposure. i also became an ‘events junkie’, attending and talking to everyone i could. word of mouth and seniors community organizations newsletters and similar were what i sought as well.   once we had some traffic, i began to seek [customer] feedback as to content sought, and tried many things to create a site that reflected ‘what the customer wanted’. unfortunately this was ever evolving as seniors became increasingly familiar with computers and the internet. we often had to lead the way instead – a case of the dim sighted leading the blind.   i was equally aware of some aspects of the nature of mind, and the potential of greypath, if it was done right, to create a tangible alternative community in which one could be a personally recognised and valued member perhaps, rather than maybe a remote and lonely senior somewhere. that idea led to the commissioning of our first 3d community, greypath village, which confirmed those ideas. this 3d community was opened for testing while still under construction. the village was working ok but the sea beyond the village that stood between the village and an island, was not as yet defined.  during this time, an elderly lady sent me a most irate email, telling me that if “you must have a damned swamp in the village, then for god’s sake mr. lewis, put a sign up! i went in by mistake and got stuck and could not get out!” the real point for us was that, the village experience was so immersive for her, that she blurred it with reality.   all the more telling, as our village was contained, at that time, in a small window of about 7cms by 6cms. when i asked others, when they were away from the computer, what size the village was, most people did not recall that it was so small. the first movement down the village track with the mouse and people’s consciousness of their screen and other surrounds went out the window, and they were inside the village in their minds.   unfortunately, despite its great success, the 3d village software (blaxxun interactive) was too complex for me to maintain, and when the developer left to go overseas, i sadly, had to close it down. seven years later we still travel in the hope of being able to create, [with a local university], a sustainable by volunteers, much more advanced and unique greypath village.   in a historical sense it was, and still is, a battle all the way to get tangible support. we are [theoretically] not a not for profit, so do not qualify for any known grants, so until we began to get the first trickle of advertising money, nearly all operational resources have had to be funded personally. it is only through the contributions of some 35 very decent and generous online volunteers, who enable us keep so many areas of the site functioning at its current level.   greypath grew to some 8,000 visits per day and with visitors from 50 or more countries by 2006. at that time we were in the top 2 -5% of world web sites by traffic. in 2006 we closed the original site down for re-build. we had to close down and rebuild, as it was becoming increasingly obvious that the original platform was becoming unmanageable, and simply would not be able to cope with the emerging web 2.0 demands of an increasingly computer savvy seniors demographic. this was a painful decision as many of our visitors had bookmarked the areas of interest for them and went direct to them. the new site, while having the old base url, had the 500+ internal page urls all fundamentally changed, and hence no longer findable.   also, we felt we had a possible legal requirement to have some form of control of member’s comments, etc and needed to now require membership to interact with the site. seniors did not like the site changes initially and were also concerned about the internet security of inputting the limited membership details we needed. traffic fell to a few hundred visits a day, but grew steadily, and is now again in the top 5% of world websites, by traffic. i am sure that not a single senior, now they are used to the new greypath and all of its bells and whistles, would go back to the old site. we are introducing seniors to much greater site interaction in many areas of the site: forums, chat rooms, think tank, surveys, book reviews, photo galleries, progressive stories, and much more. any significant new product development primarily comes through our relationship with final year it and media students at a local university.   the management of greypath   as with the previous section, this one continues largely in first person. it is based on the personal reflections of the founder and chief executive officer of greypath, ray lewis:   the site relies a lot on many kind volunteers who run various sections from their home machines. they include course editors, special interest group managers, forum moderators, various free advisors, course writers, reviewers, and crucially these days, a most valued technical developer.   my personal management requirement is from 8.00 am till 4.00 pm, usually very busy daily activity base, plus some after hours requirements. because of greypath and my other activities, especially in general seniors advocacy and marine environment areas, i stay out of the office on wednesdays to attend to speaking requirements and other volunteer and semi-personal demands.   daily management requirements include new product conceptualisation and specification, daily content management, site promotion and marketing, editorial writing, daily help to enquirers, arbitrating the occasional dispute between members and moderating sexist or racist comments in forums, some new course writing, creating regular polls, surveys and thinktank [a greypath forum devoted to deeper issues] matters, day to day financial management and recording, writing the members mailer, monthly competition creation and management, university project liaison, recruiting volunteers, video creation, daily limited level technical work, seniors book publishing and more.   very many seniors take the site for granted, and most have no idea of it’s personal funding base, volunteer support, and running and development costs. sometimes aggressive complaints about a perceived minor problem here and there (usually the complainants fault), can require some patience in responding to gracefully. such complaints are more than made up for by the many hundreds of grateful thank you emails.   a personal and friendly email reply to someone struggling with a problem (especially from the top man), is of great value to an emerging computer/internet user, and leads to less fear of the computer and more self confidence in using it, to enhance the quality of their lives. greypath volunteers are communicated with via a personal mailer (very open and with private information in it) every 6-8 weeks, plus special one on one contact on an opportunity basis.   aggressive spam protection is required to stop what would now be in excess of 1,000+ emails a day. this is because the various greypath email addresses are very public. however, many seniors do not know how to send an email that is obviously ok (such as appropriate subject headings), and so to not miss a reply to them (the less able and more needy), we need to scan the spam lists daily and recover the odd mistreated email.   the web site (as distinct from the business), is managed via a content management system called drupal. this enables us to easily allocate volunteers various site privileges (editing various sections and more), for them to work on the site from home, to create a consistent looking site (one basic page module), and to add material to many pages in the site at the same time. it’s disadvantage is that it is not at all user friendly, can be complex to use, and i require weekly support and/or advice to keep on top of it.   i also do the accounts and more, as the only director. sales of banner and mailer ads, books, dvd’s, google adsense click throughs and more, are beginning to provide working cash flow. while greypath is externally debt free, it is undercapitalized, and this is greatly to the detriment of what it could do for seniors, given adequate funding.   site changes and their effects on senior participation   as stated above, in october 2006 greypath dramatically changed their site. the fact that the change was going to happen had been advertised to members in the months prior to the change. also, in september, the month prior the change-over, members were able to access a beta version of the new site. similarly, the old site continued to be available until november, one month after the change-over. when the change-over occurred, there were some initial difficulties, but those difficulties do not account for the significant drop in membership that followed the change-over. in the main, the restructure appears to have resulted in the loss of many of the most active members of the site up to that point in time. until that time the active membership, that is, those members actively contributing to and participating in site activities, consisted of people in their late 70s and early 80s. after the site changes, the majority of active members were in their late 60s.   the drop in membership can be explained in part, by drawing on understandings from the psycho-social theory of ageing, selective optimization with compensation (soc) (m. m. baltes & carstensen, 1996; p. b. baltes & baltes, 1990; p. b. baltes & smith, 2002; marsiske, lang, & baltes, 1995). an evolutionary perspective shows that selection pressures have operated in the first half of an individual’s lifespan, to ensure reproductive fitness, as well as effective parenting behaviours. according to soc, progression to successful ageing means one has to go beyond reliance on evolutionary biology, to cultural influences. successful ageing is less a function of biology and more one of increasing the culturally-based resources available to people to help them find supportive compensations for biological losses. baltes and smith (2002) said that the process of optimization is more difficult for the very old, than it is for the young old. they argued that in developed countries people maintain mental achievement levels until about age 70. after that new learning can be severely impaired. to illustrate soc, baltes and smith cite an example of an 80 year old pianist, whom they interviewed in the course of their research:   when rubinstein was asked how he continued to be such an excellent concert pianist, he named three reasons. he played fewer pieces, but practiced them more often, and he used contrasts in tempo to simulate faster playing than he in the meantime could muster. rubinstein reduced his repertoire (i.e., selection). this allowed him the opportunity to practice each piece more (i.e., optimization). and finally, he used contrasts in speed to hide his loss in mechanical finger speed, a case of compensation. (p. b. baltes & smith, 2002, p. 21)   for designers soc thus offers a possible explanation as to why many greypath members were unable to cope with the significant changes that took place with the implementation of the site upgrade. the implication for changes to websites for seniors is that particularly older seniors will experience a significant cognitive load, that needs to be managed. older seniors will need help in managing the cognitive challenges involved in coping with learning to navigate and use the new structures and tools. designers need to create some form of scaffolding or bridging between the old and the new. greypath attempted to have the old and new running in parallel for three months, from september (old site running with beta of new available), through to october and november (for both these months the new site was running and old site was still available). however, three months proved to be insufficient time. perhaps the more significant the changes, the longer should be the allowed period of adjustment?   conclusion   in the last decade many online communities for seniors have come into existence. some, such as sa seniors, have not survived. others, such as neat, have dwindled to a fraction of the membership size they once enjoyed. there are numerous reasons for success and failure in the creation, management and maintenance of online communities for seniors, as illustrated in these two case studies of neat and greypath. both communities have a loyal base of members. in the case of neat it has diminished in membership, but existing members continue to use it and value that community for the connections it has enabled. in the case of greypath, a major restructure in late 2006 cost it dearly in terms of membership, but it has recovered and has slowly rebuilt its membership. greypath is now back to a rating within the top two percent of all websites, not just those for seniors, worldwide, by traffic (burmeister, 2010b).   the success of greypath involves numerous factors. some seniors are drawn to the opportunities for online involvement with their peers, and it is this peer interaction which greypath provides. this preference for peer-based interaction is not unique to online communities. for example, in a study of electronic banking, it was found that many seniors preferred to learn about internet banking from retired bank staff (peers), more than any other source (scott, roberts, & burmeister, 2002).   in greypath, the sense of community that has built up since the site’s establishment, has been through a process of seniors interacting with each other. the 35 volunteers are seniors, the site management is undertaken by seniors, and the membership is restricted to seniors. the importance of volunteerism from among the membership to the success of online communities has also been emphasized by iriberri and leroy (2009). in interviews, members of greypath frequently expressed feeling like they belonged to this community of people who shared their life experiences and with whom they could discuss things relevant to their age group.   the large variety of activities, hybridity, available at the greypath portal, is another of its success factors. people wanting jobs for seniors, travel tips, epals, and much more, will find what they want at this site. if it is not specifically available on the site, then by asking their peers in forums and chat groups, they may readily get access to the help they need. for example, one lady said in an interview that she had a particular problem in her home one day and had no idea how to get the help she needed. she posted the details on the greypath coffee shop forum and got several immediate suggestions. however, the one that solved it for her, came through a man saying that his grandson worked in a related field and he would ask his grandson. he came back onto the forum later that day, having ‘leaned’ on his grandson to get the specific help this lady needed to solve her problem. this variety of activities and information sharing, which to a lesser extent is also seen in the neat community, is another reason for the success of the greypath community. related to this, is that these communities give their members the chance to contribute to the lives of others. making a contribution, giving back to society, enriching the lives of others, are the types of activities that many seniors want to be able to do.   of all the factors necessary to the successful sustenance of online communities involving seniors discussed above, the two that have stood out within these two case studies are the valuing of members in peer-based interaction through a flat structure, and hybridity. after reviewing early hci research involving seniors, preece (2000, p. 129) stated that ‘simpler command sequences’ are important, which partially supports this study’s findings about the importance of a flat site structure.   this paper has explored how creating and sustaining a successful online community for seniors requires active and engaged site management. this is a form of online community management which involves risk-taking and a willingness to undertake a process of continual development and innovation whilst always remaining aware that older users can be slower to adapt to changes in an online community’s configuration, and in particular dramatic change, than younger generations. the factors that have been identified through these case studies as vital for continued vibrant and active online participation are the opportunity for recognition, for contributions to be valued by peers, and mutual engagement, factors also identified by iriberri and leroy (2009) as essential to the success of online communities in general.   the case studies also highlight the importance of external factors to the success of senior’s online communities including the timely access to external funding and support to allow for an online community to continue to 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(2008). older adults and political participation on the internet: a cross-cultural comparison of the usa and china. journal of cross-cultural gerontology, 23(1), 1-15.     an internet for the common good: engagement, empowerment and justice for all a community informatics declaration this document was prepared by a group of community informatics activists and endorsed by consensus of the community informatics community 21.12.13 (a version edited for style and grammar and not content was re-endorsed 28.12.13.) http://tinyurl.com/internetforthecommongood effective use of the internet will benefit everyone. currently the benefits of the internet are distributed unequally: some people gain power, wealth and influence from using the internet while others struggle for basic access. in our vision, people in their communities and everywhere including the poor and marginalized in developing and developed countries, women and youth, indigenous peoples, older persons, those with disabilities -will use the internet to develop and exercise their civic intelligence and work together to address collective challenges. more than a technology or a marketplace, the internet is a social environment, a community space for people to interact with the expectation that principles of equity, fairness and justice will prevail. internet governance must ensure that this online social space functions effectively for the well-being of all. a community informatics approach to internet governance supports equal distribution of internet benefits and addresses longstanding social, economic, cultural and political injustices in this environment. questions of social justice and equity through the internet are central to how the internet and society will evolve. people in different communities must be empowered to develop and adapt the internet infrastructure to reflect their core values and ways of knowing. we support development of an internet in which communities are the "first mile" and not the "last mile." we believe the primary purpose of the internet is not to mine data and make knowledge a commodity for purchase and sale but rather to advance community goals equally and fairly within these distributed infrastructures. we aspire to an internet effectively owned and controlled by the communities that use it and to internet ownership that evolves through communities federated regionally, nationally and globally. the internet's role as a community asset, a public good and a local community utility is more important than its role as a site for profit-making or as a global artifact. the access layer and the higher layers of applications and content should be community owned and controlled in a way that supports a rich ecology of commercial enterprises subject to and serving community and public interests. as citizens and community members in an internet-enabled world we have a collective interest in how the internet is governed. our collective interests need to be expressed and affirmed in all fora discussing the future of the internet. as a collective, and as members of civil society, we have developed a declaration for internet governance based on principles of community informatics. we appreciate your interest and welcome your support. a just and equitable internet provides: fair and equitable means to access and use the internet: affordable by all and designed and deployed so that all may realize the benefits of effective use. the poor and marginalized, women, youth, indigenous peoples, older persons, those with disabilities, internet users and non-users alike; no one, from any community globally, should be without internet access. equitable access within communities to the benefits of the internet, including information, opportunities to communicate, increased effectiveness of communications and information management, and opportunities to participate in system development and content creation. everyone, within all communities, should have the right, the means and the opportunity to use the internet to share the full intellectual heritage of humankind without undue cost or hindrance. respect for privacy -people must be able to conveniently use the internet in a way that is credibly protected against large-scale surveillance or interference by government authorities or corporate interests. infrastructure that ensures the maximum level of personal security and reliability. opportunities for all within all communities to build, manage, and own internet infrastructure as and when it is needed. internet governance by democratic principles and processes including privileging input from communities affected by decisions and ensuring inclusion of the widest possible perspectives supporting the development of our digital environments. a peer-to-peer architecture with equal power and privilege for each node or end point and complete neutrality of the architecture and medium for all users and all applications. recognition that the local is a fundamental building block of all information and communications and the "global" is a "federation of locals." equal opportunity for all to connect and communicate in a language and culture of their choice. recognition and equal privileging of many types of knowledge and ways of knowing, building from the capacities of each individual, community and knowledge society. the means for information freely provided on and through the internet to be freely available for the use and benefit of all. support for collaboration, engagement, education, solidarity, and problem-solving as the stepping stones to civic intelligence and the capacity of communities, civil society, and all people to equitably and effectively engage in informed self-governance. to endorse: individuals and/or organizations hashtag #internetcommons http://tinyurl.com/internetforthecommongood translations: italian | portuguese | spanish | french revisited: communication media use in the grandparent/grandchild relationship ulla bunz florida state university abstract this study extends and replicates some of harwood’s (2000) earlier research investigating media use in interactions between grandparents and grandchildren. more specifically, this research extends harwood’s work by adding the technologies of the cell phone, email, and instant messenger to the media he investigated (face-to-face, written documents, and telephone). such a study allows finding out whether the availability of new technologies has any effect on the grandparent/grandchild relationship. sixty-six dyads (n = 132) of grandchildren and grandparents participated in the study, completing a questionnaire on basic demographics, media use, and relational quality. results show usage divides between grandchildren and grandparents, as well as within the grandparent group. the cell phone and face-to-face interaction are used most frequently in the grandparent/grandchild relationship. technologies such as email or instant messenger are not used much even across the geographic distance they were designed to overcome. follow up tests to a significant anova did not show significant results for medium type chosen based on who initiates contact. face-to-face remains the strongest predictor of quality inter-generational relationships, followed by use of the cell phone, the landline phone, and email (in that order). findings are discussed in light of both media richness theory and the social influence model. though research on issues associated with communication and gerontology has increased over the last decade, the literature in this area is still fairly limited compared to other topics (e.g., communication health-related issues). studies that explore elderly use of communication technologies are even rarer. for the most part, ‘seniors,’ ‘the elderly,’ or ‘older generations’ tend to be referred to only in passing when looking at technology-access statistics in the digital divide literature. the overall consensus seems to be that the elderly as a group still are not using communication technologies as much as younger generations, though a number of seniors have adopted such technologies and, according to the pew internet and american life project, are enjoying them (e.g., fox, 2001; 2004). fox (2004) reports, “wired seniors are often as enthusiastic as younger users in the major activities that define online life such as email and the use of search engines to answer a specific question.” according to fox (2004), in 2000, 94% of wired seniors, sent and received email. going beyond basic access or usage statistics, harwood (2000) investigated seniors’ use of communication media within the context of the grandparent/grandchild relationship. the purpose of the study at hand was to build on harwood’s study, replicating some of his research and also extending harwood’s study by adding the technologies of the cell phone, email, and instant messenger to the media he investigated (face-to-face, written documents, and telephone). such an investigation allows a better understanding of whether the availability of such new technologies has any effect on the grandparent/grandchild relationship. though only a few years have passed between harwood’s study and the study reported on here, even a few years can be considered a long time in technological development terms. for example, in the 2000 presidential elections, all major candidates had websites, but these websites were fairly unsophisticated and their utility limited. sophisticated websites not only were considered a given in the 2004 presidential elections, but in fact web logs (or blogs) as well as online fundraising played a dominant role during the 2004 presidential campaigning (wiese & gronbeck, 2005). thus, within only a few years both technology and its social use and implications changed dramatically in the political arena. likewise, diffusion of technology amongst older people is likely to have increased. fox (2004) indicates that internet users who were in their 50s in the early 2000s and are retiring over the next years or decades will create a “silver tsunami” in the group of older internet users. thus, focusing research on technology use by older generations is important as usage and perception changes amongst that group can be expected. effectiveness of different communication media a large body of literature exists by now that examines the use of different communication media and their effectiveness in information exchange, relationship development or maintenance, or work environments. one theory advanced to explain how people choose between communication media (also discussed by harwood, 2000) is media richness theory. according to media richness theory (daft & lengel, 1986), different communication media can reduce the ambiguity inherent in communication events to varying degrees. the early ‘information richness’ (as the concept was referred to originally) studies and follow-up studies devised a richness continuum along which various communication media are aligned. from rich to lean, the continuum reads face-to-face, video conferencing, telephone, email (added through later studies), informal written documents, formal written documents, and numerical data. daft and lengel (1986) used four criteria to evaluate the information carrying capacity of each medium and determine its ranking on the continuum. the criteria were, personalization, capacity for immediate feedback, language variety/capacity to use natural language, and number of cues or channels utilized. according to media richness theory, richer media lend themselves to more complex communication tasks. also, media richness theory stipulates that there is a ‘correct’ or ‘best’ medium for any given situation and the assumption is that communication or interaction will be most effective when that medium is chosen. in their efforts to test media richness theory assumptions, fulk and her colleagues (fulk & boyd, 1991; fulk, schmitz, & steinfield, 1990; schmitz & fulk, 1991) realized that media richness theory is deterministic in that it essentially defines one specific medium as the ‘best’ for a particular task and does not take into account social influences. fulk and colleagues’ social influence model was developed as an alternative to media richness theory, emphasizing the importance of social contexts such as family/co-worker influence (fulk, schmitz, & ryu, 1995), personal preference, interpretive flexibility of technology (lea, o’shea, & fung, 1995), or even habit (larose, lin, & eastin, 2003). studies since then have shown that a combination of both theories/models/perspectives really allow for the deepest understanding of medium choice situations/studies (e.g., trevino, webster, & stein, 2000; webster & trevino, 1995). domestication theory represents an additional useful theoretical construct here. the theory relies on the assumption that technologies are incorporated into people’s lives in a process and that this process is not just influenced by the functionality of a technology but also by social, cultural, economic, and political aspects (silverstone & haddon, 1996). the feedback resulting from the process of integration then influences the design of technologies. in the grandparent/grandchild relationship all three theories can be applied easily. for example, media richness theory explains why a grandparent may choose a phone conversation over any other medium (face-to-face, email, etc.). the phone may promise direct access to the grandchild (immediacy), especially if the grandchild has a cell phone. the grandparent would also be able to express him/herself most naturally in oral communication across a distance (both natural language and cues). the social influence model may explain why a grandparent chooses a landline versus a cell phone him/herself to make a call. for example, because research has shown that age and computer anxiety are related (dyck, gee, & smither, 1998; dyck & smither, 1994), it could be hypothesized that elder generations are more likely to fear unfamiliar technology (such as the cell phone) in general. the grandparent’s choice might also be influenced by economic factors (not being able to afford a cell phone), or social domestication factors (such as wanting to seem up-to-date to a family member by owning a cell phone). this example shows that a combination of media richness theory and the social influence model is useful in explaining medium choice and that domestication theory can add explanatory power. based on these and related theoretical approaches, it can be hypothesized that the nature of certain communication media may make them more attractive to people under specific circumstances. in the grandparent/grandchild relationship, this should be reflected through the use of one or two preferred communication media rather than equal use of all available media. the following two research questions address these issues. rq1: to what extent does grandparent/grandchild contact occur in face-to-face encounters, over a landline phone, over a cell phone, via email, via letters or cards, or by instant messenger (im)? rq2: how are face-to-face, landline phone, cell phone, email, letter or card writing, and instant messenger associated with one another in the grandparent/grandchild relationship? because the nature of technology-mediated communication enables communication across distances that cannot be achieved through face-to-face communication, a third research question examines geographical distance. rq3: is communication media use associated with geographical distance? the grandparent/grandchild relationship the current study investigated college students and seniors, two groups that in themselves are worthy of study and comparison. college students of the early 21st century still remember a time before ubiquitous computer, internet or cell phone availability, but it is a vague memory due to their young age. in secondary school and at home they were exposed to various technologies, actively encouraged to use and embrace these media and targeted by marketing experts. as children, most were able to access technology from school or had equipment at home. as a consequence, most college students today cannot imagine a fully functional life without their cell phone, and appear to know little about pre-internet ways of locating information (e.g. biddix , chung, & park, 2011; chen & katz, 2009; rakesh & shweta, 2009). seniors, on the other hand, were likely close to retirement or already retired by the mid 1990s when internet technology – shortly thereafter followed by cell phone technology – started to gain the huge popularity that it enjoys today. many seniors were thus taken out of a social environment that provides or even requires the use of technology – the work place. many would have been in managerial or supervisory positions at work before retiring, allowing them to delegate the use of technology if they did not wish to learn about it. once retired, seniors are much less likely to be confronted with technology in their everyday lives in a ‘must have’ fashion as they are fully capable of leading their lives without the technological advances, the way they have always done (e.g. morrow, 2003). at the same time, it is important to note that many seniors are actively seeking out new technologies and excel at their usage (fox, 2004). however, the majority of seniors remain more distant from new technologies than do their grandchildren and for a multitude of reasons (e.g. rice & katz, 2003). however, the study at hand does not investigate isolated groups of college students and seniors. instead, the two generations are connected through the grandparent/grandchild relationship allowing not just a generational comparison, but the study of how technologies are used in inter-generational relationships. in his literature review, harwood (2000) focuses on the use of the telephone by seniors in general, for inter-generational communication in specific, and the advantages and disadvantages associated with the use of the telephone. a number of the disadvantages are reviewed, such as auditory difficulties, inability to plan, and potentially patronizing tone of voice by the younger generation (kline & scialfa, 1996; ryan, anas, hummert, & laver-ingram, 1998; ryan, giles, bartolucci, & henwood, 1986; ryan, hummert, & boich, 1995). these problems would be eliminated if a written medium such as email could be used. grandparents would be able to take their time crafting messages that do not require listening, and they may be considered up-to-date by their grandchildren because of their use of email (although this notion of sophistication may be short lived as we see increasing use of variants of im, virtual environments, and social networking communities). thus, there is the possibility that the increased number of communication media available has had an effect on the grandparent/grandchild relationship. the effect could be positive as explained above, but it could also be negative if, for example, the grandparent is perceived ‘backward’ or ‘old-fashioned’ due to his/her reluctance to use newer communication media. it is also possible that communication media use has become mixed in that one person of the dyad (stereotypically, the grandparent) would use traditional communication media such as the landline phone and the other person (stereotypically, the grandchild) would use a newer technology such as a cell phone or im. based on these considerations the following research questions are posed. rq4: is the use of various communication media related to the source who initiates the grandparent/grandchild communication interaction? rq5: is there a relationship between communication media use and grandparent/grandchild relational quality? method participants and procedures in late 2006, 181 students were recruited from communication classes at a large research university in the south-east of the united states. students completed a questionnaire either for research credit required in their course, or for extra credit toward their course grade. students were asked to complete a longer questionnaire that included the twelve items used for the analyses presented here, and demographic questions. on the questionnaire, students were asked to think of one grandparent only while answering this applicable set of questions. students who did not have a living grandparent were asked to skip this set of questions and their results are not included in this analysis. students were also instructed – both orally and in writing – to pass on to their grandparent another copy of the questionnaire, a consent form and a pre-stamped return envelope. the specific instructions on the questionnaire read, ‘we are interested in your relationship with your grandparent and how you communicate with him/her. if you do not have a living grandparent, please check the box below and then skip this section and continue with the next bolded paragraph. if you have more than one living grandparent, please think of only one specific grandparent while answering the following questions, and make sure to pass the envelope and second questionnaire to that same grandparent.’ students were not advised on whether they should choose the grandparent they communicated with most frequently, or liked best, or any other more detailed aspect that might affect relationships, but were only provided with the general statement cited above. by passing on a questionnaire to their grandparent, a total of 80 grandparent responses were collected.1 due to incomplete questionnaires a total of 66 dyads (n = 132) were identified. measures the demographic questions asked for sex, as well as how old the subject was on his or her last birthday. another demographic question asked participants to estimate how long they had been using the internet including the world wide web or email. participants were asked to estimate the number of years and/or months and write those numbers in the provided space. a final demographic question asked participants to calculate the number of months they have owned a cell phone and write those numbers in the provided space. 2 items concerning grandparent/grandchild interaction were largely adopted from harwood’s (2000) study. of the twelve questions regarding media use and grandparent/grandchild relational issues, two questions concerned geographic distance. participants were asked how far they live from their grandparent/grandchild during the semester, and during the semester break, with six answer options ranging from ‘same town’ to ‘over 500 miles.’ six questions assessed media use. three of these (‘how often do you talk to your grandparent/grandchild typically on a landline phone’, ‘face-to-face,’ ‘by letters or cards;’ seven answer options ranging from ‘almost daily’ to ‘almost never’) were adapted from harwood (2000). due to the diffusion of new technologies over the past years, three items were added with the same answer options, asking about the ‘cell phone,’ ‘email,’ and ‘instant messenger.’ three more questions asked about relational closeness between grandparents and grandchildren, all with five answer choices (from ‘very poorly’ to ‘very well’). these three items on relational quality were adopted from harwood (2000). the first of these questions asked how well the participant got along with their grandparent/grandchild. the second question asked how emotionally close the participant felt to their grandparent/grandchild. the third question asked how good the participant’s communication was with their grandparent/grandchild. finally, the last question of the set of twelve questions investigated who typically initiates contact with the grandparent/grandchild. the answer options provided were ‘grandchild,’ ‘grandparent,’ ‘grandchild/grandparent equally,’ ‘parent,’ or ‘someone else.’ results basic demographics table 1 provides an overview of basic demographics. with regard to cell phones, some additional frequencies will be pointed out to provide a better grasp of the data. first, the person with the longest cell phone ownership (180 months or 15 years) was a grandparent, which may run counter to popular stereotypes. second, only one grandchild did not have a cell phone while 15 grandparents reported not owning a cell phone. third, almost fifty percent of grandchildren (48.4 per cent) reported having owned a cell phone for the last three to five years while only 24.6 per cent of grandparents reported having owned a cell phone for three to five years. these results can be compared to rice and katz’s study (2003, p. 610) who showed that age is a digital divide factor for mobile phone ownership with younger users being more likely to have adopted the phone recently (defined by the authors as within the last three years) and older users (defined as 40+ years) also being the more veteran users (defined there as having used a mobile phone for more than three years). table 1: basic demographics   overall grandparents grandchildren   m sd range m sd range m sd range age 47.27 27.29 17-88 73.86 7.89 42-883 20.67 1.62 17-26 percent female 77     76     77     months owning cell phone 57.88 41.66 0-180 51.11 51.26 0-180 64.55 28.17 0-160 months using internet 83.32 48.25 0-240 59.17 56.61 0-240 106.36 20.58 48-147 age when internet use started     8-83     56-834     8-17 among grandchildren, the shortest period of experience with the internet was reported as four years (n = 1), while 20.6 per cent (n = 13) of grandparents have not yet used the internet. there was one grandparent reporting having used the internet for 20 years (240 months) which indicates usage of the ‘old,’ pre-web internet for approximately five years. grandchildren as a group have not only been using the internet for almost twice as long as their grandparents, but they also started using the technology at only a fraction of the age (and thus, a very different life stage) than their grandparents. this last point is clearly a result of the availability and popularity of the technology itself. 5 these results mirror rice and katz’s (2003, p. 608) results overall which show that younger users as a group are both more likely to be veteran users (longer than three years) as well as recent internet users (within the past three years). rq 1: media use in the grandparent/grandchild relationship research question 1 inquired about the general use of the various communication media by grandparents and their grandchildren for the purpose of interacting with each other. general frequency analyses show a number of differences and similarities, as displayed in table 2. it is important to remember that these frequencies are the result of both recall and perception. they do, however, provide an initial glimpse of how each group perceives its use of communication media in the grandparent/grandchild relationship. overall, participants interacted with each other face-to-face several times a year (68 people chose this answer option out of a possible 132). they almost never (112/132) used im to interact. grandparents reported using the cell phone (22 times out of 66) or the landline phone (20 times out of 66) about once a month to interact with their grandchildren. while the grandchildren reported the use of the cell phone to interact with the grandparents about as frequently (18 out of 66 times), they reported using the landline phone once a month only 10 times, and using it several times a year 27 times. overall, grandchildren report using the landline phone less frequently than they report using the cell phone. email is used by only some participants in the grandparent/grandchild relationship as more than half participants (77 out of 132) reported using it almost never in the relationship. letters or cards were used several times a year (77 out of 132) or once a year (28 out of 132), most likely in the traditional form of birthday or holiday cards. overall the frequencies indicate that the cell phone, landline phone, and face-to-face communication are used more often in the grandparent/grandchild relationship than email, letters or cards, or instant messaging. table 2: frequencies of media use by grandchildren, grandparents, and both cell phone landline phone face-to-face email letters or cards instant messaging gc gp b gc gp b gc gp b gc gp b gc gp b gc gp b almost daily 2 5 7 1 2 3 2 2 1 1 once a week 15 10 25 3 10 13 4 4 8 4 2 6 1 1 once a month 18 22 40 10 20 30 11 13 24 10 6 16 3 4 7 2 5 7 several times a year 21 10 31 27 22 49 34 34 68 9 14 23 36 41 77 2 5 7 once a year 3 1 4 5 6 11 11 11 22 6 3 14 14 28 less than once a year 2 2 4 4 6 4 10 2 2 4 3 3 3 1 4 almost never 5 18 23 16 6 22 37 40 77 8 6 14 58 54 112 note. gc – grandchild(n=66); gp – grandparent(n=66); b – both(n=132) a within-subjects analysis of variance was conducted to examine the relative frequency of communication media use. the anova was significant with f(1, 127) = 268.88, p < .001. for post hoc comparisons, the bonferroni method was applied and the significance level was set to p < .003 (.05 divided by 15 tests). eleven out of 15 tests showed significant differences between two types of media, as displayed in table 3.   table 3: pairwise comparisons for use of communication media by grandparents/grandchildren comparison m1 (sd) m2 (sd) mean diff. t df p cell phone * landline phone 3.74 (1.78) 4.15 (1.59) .41 -2.03 131 .045 cell phone * face-to-face 3.74 (1.78) 4.02 (.95) .28 -1.86 131 .065 cell phone * email 3.75 (1.78) 5.59 (1.84) 1.84 -9.63 130 .000º cell phone * letters or cards 3.76 (1.77) 4.49 (1.09) .73 -4.07 130 .000º cell phone * instant messenger 3.75 (1.78) 6.59 (1.10) 2.84 -16.27 129 .000º landline phone * face-to-face 4.15 (1.59) 4.02 (.95) .13 .89 131 .376 landline phone * email 4.13 (1.58) 5.59 (1.84) 1.46 -6.52 130 .000º landline phone * letters or cards 4.18 (1.57) 4.49 (1.09) .31 -1.89 130 .061 landline phone * instant messenger 4.13 (1.58) 6.59 (1.10) 2.46 -14.89 129 .000º face-to-face * email 4.02 (.95) 5.59 (1.84) 1.57 -9.72 130 .000º face-to-face * letters or cards 4.03 (.94) 4.49 (1.09) .46 -3.38 130 .001º face-to-face * instant messenger 4.02 (.96) 6.59 (1.10) 2.57 -20.79 129 .000º email * letters or cards 5.58 (1.84) 4.52 (1.05) 1.06 5.58 129 .000º email * instant messenger 5.59 (1.84) 6.59 (1.11)   1 -6.20 128 .000º letter or cards *instant messenger 4.50 (1.10) 6.59 (1.11) 2.09 -14.83 128 .000º note. m1 (sd) = mean and standard deviation for the first medium in the comparison; m2 (sd) = mean and standard deviation for the second medium in the comparison. lower mean indicates higher frequency of interaction. º p < .003 rq 2: media use variables in order to assess how the six different media use variables are associated with one another in the grandparent/grandchild relationship (research question 2), the media use variables were correlated with each other. the bonferroni method was used to guard against type i error and the significance level was set to p < .001 (.05 / 36 = .001). with this more conservative method, two correlations were significant. the significant correlations were between face-to-face and cell phone communication (r = .36), and between email and instant messenger interaction (r = .31). table 3 represents the correlation results. another two correlations approached significance with significance levels of .002 (email * cell phone) and .005 (email * face-to-face). rq 3 media use and geographical distance the third research question inquired about the association between media use and geographical distance. two separate measures of geographical distance were applied, distance in miles during the semester, and distance in miles during the semester break. to guard against type i error across the 12 correlations the bonferroni approach was used and the significance level was set to p < .004 (.05 / 12 = .004). significant results were found for face-to-face communication and distance during the semester (r = .58), and for face-to-face communication (r = .63) as well as letters or cards (r = -.29) and distance during the semester break. table 4 displays the three significant and the nine non-significant correlations. table 4: correlations among media use variables   cell phone landline phone face-to-face email letters or cards landline phone .05         face-to-face .36** .11       email .27* -.12 .25*     letters or cards .04 .02 -.17 -.06   instant message .11 .05 .07 .31** -.06 note. ** p < .001; * p < .005 (not significant under the bonferroni method) rq 4 media use and contact initiation the fourth research question inquired about the relationship between media use and who initiates the contact between the grandchild and the grandparent. a repeated-measures anova was conducted with the six media use variables (cell phone, landline, email, face-to-face, instant messenger, letters/cards) as levels of the within-subjects variable media type. the contact initiator (grandparent, grandchild, both, parent) was added as the between-subjects variable. multivariate results showed that there is a significant media type effect with wilks’ lambda = .25, f (5, 119) = 70.81, p < .001. results of the repeated-measures anova also showed a significant main effect for contact initiator, f (3, 123) = 4.50, p = .005. however, there was a non-significant interaction effect between media type and contact initiator with wilks’ lambda = .82, f (15, 329) = 1.64, p = .063. grandparents and grandchildren indicated interacting with each other most frequently via the cell phone (with lower numbers indicating higher frequency, possible range 1 to 7; m = 3.77, sd = 1.78), followed by face-to-face conversations (m = 4.03, sd = .95), landline phones (m = 4.13, sd = 1.55), letters or cards (m = 4.52, sd = 1.06), email (m = 5.58, sd = 1.85), and finally instant messenger (m = 6.59, sd = 1.12). when taking into account the contact initiator, the descriptive statistics indicate that contact initiated by either the grandchild or the grandparents is most often accomplished via the cell phone, followed by the landline phone. however, when respondents indicated that both grandchildren and grandparents were equally likely to initiate contact, the preferred method was reversed with the landline phone first and the cell phone second. when parents were responsible for initiating contact between the grandparents/grandchildren, face-to-face was the most frequent method. independent of the initiator’s role, email was always the second least likely mode of interaction with instant messenger always being the least likely. table 6 shows the means and standard deviations for all media types by contact initiator. paired-samples t-tests were conducted as follow up to investigate whether the differences in media type were significant. to protect against type i error, the bonferroni adjustment method was used and the significance level was set to p < .003 (.05/15 = .003). as displayed in table 7, eleven out of fifteen comparisons were statistically significant. comparisons that were not significant were cell phone*face-to-face, landline phone*cell phone, landline phone*face-to-face, and landline phone*letters/cards. table 5: correlations between media use and geographic distance   cell phone landline phone face-to-face email letters or cards instant messanging distance/ semester .11 <.01 .58* .14 -.19 .04 distance/ semester break .15 .09 .63* .15 -.29* .02 note. * p < .001   table 6: descriptive statistics for media type by contact initiator   grandchild grandparent both parent cell phone 3.46 (1.60) 3.75 (1.90) 3.20 (2.15) 4.61 (1.50) landline phone 4.10 (1.51) 4.11 (1.64) 2.90 (.88) 4.74 (1.39) face-to-face 3.93 (1.08) 4.11 (.85) 3.80 (1.03) 4.13 (.92) email 5.37 (1.97) 5.53 (1.83) 5.20 (1.93) 6.39 (1.34) letters or cards 4.66 (1.06) 4.34 (.98) 4.70 (1.34) 4.57 (1.08) instant messenger 6.71 (.98) 6.38 (1.32) 6.60 (1.26) 6.83 (.65) note. means are displayed in regular type, standard deviations in parentheses. lower means indicate higher frequency of interaction.   table 7: pairwise comparisons of media type variables   m sd t df p cell phone * landline phone -.41 2.32 -2.03 131 .045 cell phone * face-to-face -.27 1.69 -1.86 131 .065 cell phone * email -1.84 2.19 -9.63 130 < .001º cell phone * letters or cards -.73 2.04 -4.07 130 < .001º cell phone * instant messenger -2.85 1.99 -16.27 129 < .001º landline phone * face-to-face .14 1.76 .89 131 .376 landline phone * email -1.46 2.56 -6.52 130 < .001º landline phone * letters or cards -.31 1.89 -1.89 130 .061 landline phone * instant messenger -2.46 1.89 -14.89 129 < .001º face-to-face * email -1.57 1.85 -9.72 130 < .001º face-to-face * letters or cards -.46 1.55 -3.38 130 .001º face-to-face * instant messenger -2.58 1.41 -20.79 129 < .001º email * letters or cards 1.06 2.17 5058 129 < .001º email * instant messenger -1.00 1.83 -6.20 128 < .001º letters or cards * instant messenger -2.09 1.60 -14.83 128 < .001º note. lower mean indicates higher frequency of interaction. º indicates significance at the p < .003 level. with regard to the significant contact initiator main effect, a series of one-way anovas was conducted (one per media type; see table 8). of the six analyses, only one (contact initiator and landline phone) showed significance at least at the p < .05 level. post hoc tests on the significant one-way anova did not show any significant results at the p < .004 level (bonferroni adjustment level, .05/12 = .004). in the interest of space these non-significant results are not displayed here. table 8: one-way anova tests for contact initiator and media type   m sd f df p cell phone 3.75 1.79 2.51 3, 126 .061 landline phone 4.12 1.58 3.22 3, 126 .025* face-to-face 4.02 .96 .44 3, 126 .722 email 5.63 1.82 1.77 3, 125 .157 letters or cards 4.48 1.09 .51 3, 125 .678 instant messenger 6.59 1.11 1.12 3, 125 .344 note. lower means indicate higher frequency of interaction. * indicates significance at p < .05 rq 5:media use and relational quality the fifth research question inquired about the relationship between media use and the quality of the grandparent/grandchild relationship. correlation and regression analyses were conducted. results of the correlation analyses, presented in table 9, show that four out of six correlations (in order from highest to lowest: face-to-face, cell phone, landline phone, email) were statistically significant, ranging at levels from .19 to .41. two correlations (letters or cards, instant messenger) were not statistically significant. table 9: correlations between media use and relational quality cell phone landline phone face-to-face email letters or cards instant-messenger relational quality .33* .25* .41** .19* .07* .08* note. *p<.03, **p<.003 regression analysis investigated the strength of contribution of each of the significant media use variables to relational quality. results showed that the media use variables were significantly related to the measure of relational quality, f (4, 126) = 10.63, p < .001. the r-square measure indicated that approximately 25 per cent of the variance of the relational quality measure was explained by the four media use variables. zero-order correlations show that face-to-face interaction is the strongest indicator (r2 = .17, p < .001), followed by the cell phone (r2 = .11, p < .001), landline phone use (r2 = .06, p = .005), and email (r2 = .07, p = .03). discussion the purpose of this study was to replicate and extend harwood’s (2000) research on how the use of communication media in the grandparent/grandchild relationship affects the grandparent/grandchild relationship. in addition to the communication media assessed by harwood (landline phone, face-to-face, and letters or cards) three newer technologies were added (cell phone, email, instant messenger) to reflect the increased use of these technologies in contemporary society. a total of five research questions were posed, three relating to usage of the six communication media by grandparents and grandchildren in general, and two that specifically addressed the effects of such usage on the inter-generational relationship. how grandparents and grandchildren use communication media research question 1 asked to what extent grandparent/grandchild contact occurs in face-to-face encounters, over a landline phone, over a cell phone, via email, via letters or cards, or by instant messenger. basic frequency analysis showed that most participants had been using internet technology for an average of about seven years. the average participant had been using the cell phone for almost six years. however, closer examination showed a distinct generational gap in experience (as measured by time, not skill) between the two age groups. while about a fifth of the grandparents had never even accessed the internet, all of the grandchildren had been using the internet for at least four years. similarly, that data showed that while on average grandchildren have owned a cell phone for only about 13 months longer than their grandparents have. overall more grandchildren have owned a cell phone for longer than have their grandparents. such data indicates that both technologies have integrated into the lives of the two generations in very different ways. while considerable research exists on cell phone use by younger generations (e.g., campbell & russo, 2003; ling & yttri, 2002) researchers should investigate issues such as seniors’ perceptions of newer technologies and how that influences their usage of these communication media. such research might provide new data to further detail the contributions of the media richness and social influence perspectives. research question 2 asked how face-to-face, landline phone, cell phone, email, letter or card writing, and instant messenger are associated with one another in the grandparent/grandchild relationship. frequencies show that the two generations tend to interact only a few times a month or year independent of medium choice. instant messenger has not really entered the inter-generational communication process. a significant anova and follow-up tests show that all other five communication media are used significantly more often than instant messenger. in addition, the cell phone and face-to-face both are used significantly more often than email, or letters or cards. the landline phone as well as letters or cards are used significantly more often than email. thus, traditional communication media such as face-to-face and the landline phone still make up a good portion of grandparent/grandchild communication while newer technologies such as email or instant messenger are not utilized between these groups even though the nature of the technologies accommodates some of the difficulties older people may experience (such as, slowed reaction time, auditory difficulties, etc.). according to media richness theory, the complexity of a communication task is related to which medium is most effectively used for communication, with more complex communication tasks requiring face-to-face communication while mundane or strictly task related messages can be conveyed by leaner media such as the written media. as grandparent/grandchild communication is always relational to some degree, results are in line with media richness theory. however, the social influence model also provides a possible explanation when this result is examined in combination with the fact that the cell phone is used in the grandparent/grandchild relationship quite frequently. it would appear that the cell phone, which clearly functions like the landline phone but provides a higher degree of convenience, sophistication and flexibility, has become the preferred communication device. in other words, the the cell phone has a higher rate of adoption for the purpose of inter-generational communication than email. while media richness theory provides a good general framework it fails to explain an increasingly complex technological environment which provides a number of choices and multifaceted communication technologies. for example, cell phones are multifunctional mobile devices that provide a more sophisticated communication tool than simple landline phones. most cell phones are still primarily used for voice communication, though a future study might consider adding text messaging via the cell phone as an additional medium. however, the mobile platform of the future will allow an even richer interactive environment. the simple hierarchical model presented by media richness theory may not function adequately to capture this ‘converged’ environment. a social influence model may provide the best fit in this changing environment in that it requires a more detailed and flexible understanding of usage. technologies such as the cell phone which now provide both voice and text cannot accurately be evaluated by the four media richness criteria. this undermines the idea of a ‘best fit’ technology that the theory advocates. social influence approaches allow examination of more complex technologies and situations. for example, tse (2008) showed how it was necessary but effective to teach older people the use of basic computer operating skills first so they were later able to access health information online. a social influence model approach to such complex situations can help determine the importance of each technology involved in reaching the overall goal, while media richness approaches would focus too much on the ‘richness’ or ‘leanness’ of each tool itself. future research should look into this more closely. correlation analysis conducted on the data shows that for those participants who do use email in the grandparent/grandchild relationship, there is a relation between email use and the use of instant messenger and there may be a relationship between the use of email and the use of the cell phone and face-to-face. thus, used in inter-generational communication or by the elderly in general, email may act as the ‘gateway’ to higher frequency of interaction through multiple channels. in other words, people who master the use of email may be more willing to adopt other communication media as well (and even to higher degrees than email itself), including instant messenger or possibly even technologies not yet developed. future research needs to examine more specifically the role that email plays in motivating people to use technologies at all age levels. such research could have important implications for narrowing some of the existing digital divides (andersson, 2004). finally, results shed light on how grandparents and grandchildren use communication media in their interactions when overcoming geographic distance, which was the question addressed in research question 3. correlation analysis showed that closer distance between the two generations during the semester break is related to fewer letters or cards exchanged as well as more face-to-face interaction. these results make sense intuitively – if you live closer to someone, you will probably see him or her in person more often. however, the non-significant correlations also show that technologies specifically designed to overcome geographic distance such as telephony and email do not seem to be related to distance in the grandparent/grandchild relationship, as was concluded already by fisher (1994) who showed that the (landline) telephone tends to strengthen local ties, rather than geographically dispersed ties. mok, wellman, and carrasco (2010) confirmed in their study that distance has little influence on phone usage within 100 miles, but point out that email use is strongly related to distances of 3000+ miles. in sum, factors other than the technologies themselves seem to be key to initiating communication between the generations, as the following section discusses. while these results support the stipulation of media richness theory that face-to-face is the richest medium and should be chosen for the most ambiguous situations, the results do not support the remainder of the media richness continuum that ranks communication media in their usefulness. instead results suggest that media richness theory on its own is too simplistic to explain the more complex communication technologies that have evolved since the theory was formulated. inside the grandparent/grandchild relationship research question 4 asked how the use of various communication media is related to the source who initiates the grandparent/grandchild communication interaction. since the frequency analysis shows that grandchildren have so much more experience (measured by time, not skill) than their grandparents with internet technology, one might easily assume that this experience translates into comfort and thus usage of the medium when the grandchild initiates contact. likewise, since more grandchildren have been using the cell phone longer, one could hypothesize that grandchildren would use the cell phone frequently in their interactions with their grandparents. results showed that the cell phone is the preferred method of contact initiation for grandchildren. however, results also show that this is equally the case when the grandparent is the contact initiator. thus, though seniors overall use the cell phone less than students, the role the phone plays in their lives may be similar, at least in the family environment. results also showed that written communication media such as email and instant messenger were used even less frequently than the traditional letters or cards. since the literature (e.g. kline & scialfa, 1996) has argued that written media may be preferred by seniors as they accommodate problems such as auditory loss, the preference of an oral medium contradicted such a hypothesis. some of the oral interactions may be explained with traditional interactions (such as face-to-face when parents initiate contact, which may occur on holidays), preference of some sort of phone (landline or cell) could be shown for these participants no matter whether contact was initiated by the grandparent, grandchild, or both equally. researchers interested in communication initiation are encouraged to pose more specific questions than were asked in the study at hand to investigate this seeming contradiction between the literature and the result reported here. for example, future research might benefit from more specific questions detailing whether contact is cell-to-cell, or cell-to-landline in which case it might be noteworthy who is the cell phone owner and who is the landline phone owner. similarly, this study asked only about ‘being in touch’ via letters or cards without distinguishing between authoring or receiving these letters or cards. other relationships between contact initiation and medium choice might emerge through more detailed investigation. for the research at hand, results contradict general social stereotypes (such as only the grandparent writing letters or cards, not the grandchild; predominantly grandchildren using cell phones, not grandparents). one possible explanation is that these stereotypes no longer hold true in the grandparent/grandchild relationship. as such, seniors would play a larger role in the social shaping of cell phone technology than they have been accorded so far. finally, research question 5 inquired whether there is a relationship between communication media use and grandparent/grandchild relational quality. relational quality was measured by the concepts of ‘getting along,’ ‘emotional closeness,’ and ‘good communication’ (harwood, 2000). these three concepts were not measured by multiple items or defined more specifically to allow each respondent to answer according to his or her perception which translates into the respondents’ perception of his or her relational closeness with the grandparent/grandchild. results show increased use leads to higher perceived relational quality for the use of cell phones, landline phones, face-to-face communication, and email. when any of these communication media are used, the grandparent/grandchild relationship is likely to have higher quality (however that is defined by the participants themselves). face-to-face remains the strongest predictor of quality inter-generational relationships, followed by cell phone usage, the landline phone, and email (in that order). so far, face-to-face communication remains the ‘best bet’ for developing and maintaining high quality relationships in inter-generational interactions. according to domestication theory, the family dyads investigated here have certainly begun the process of incorporating newer technologies into their family lives, which addresses silverstone and haddon’s (1996) third assumption that adoption moves from a more public to a more private domain over time. of course, it is equally possible that the relational quality in the grandparent/grandchild interaction determines or influences medium choice. a grandchild wishing to avoid prolonged interaction with the grandparent might choose to write a birthday card instead of calling, along the lines of media richness theory’s stipulation regarding the complexity of a communication task as well as the level of ambiguity existing in the communication interaction. likewise, a grandparent or grandchild that gets along very well with the other person of the dyad might choose a richer medium to allow for more complex communication and interaction. future research should investigate whether medium choice is a stronger predictor on relational quality than vice versa, and which other (social influence) factors play a part in this, such as habit or comfort with the technology. concluding remarks and additional suggestions for future research today, the media/information environment we live in is very dynamic and complex and it is difficult if not impossible to array media on a single continuum the way media richness theory did in the 1980s. newer technologies are not discrete; they now combine features in novel ways. this makes it much more difficult to assume ‘one best medium’ or technology for any communication purpose. for example, the cell phone is rapidly morphing into an extremely flexible, multitasking device, especially as the telecommunication infrastructure accommodates more intensive applications. newer mobile devices now access the web, allow one to text in real-time, record audio and listen to audio, view and capture digital images that can be sent immediately to friends, family, co-workers, etc. and these devices provide accessibility from almost anywhere 24/7. some of this study’s results related to the cell phone may merit further, preferably longitudinal research. first, results showed an overall preference for oral communication over written communication in the grandparent/grandchild relationship. second, the strongest correlation between communication media in this research was between face-to-face and the cell phone. third, three correlations between media and relational closeness showed a stronger correlation for the cell phone than for the landline phone. taking these three observations together, it is likely that cell phones are replacing landline phones in the grandparent/grandchild relationship. in the end, the study at hand provides data that indicates a growing importance of the cell phone not just among younger generations, but also for older generations as well as in the grandparent/grandchild relationship. indeed, it is likely that the flexibility of the cell phone as a communication device may help overcome some inter-generational difficulties and lead to grandparents being thought of as part of the ‘family plan’ more consciously once again. domestication theory in particular may be helpful in future studies as it focuses on the process and the reciprocal influence between individual adoption and technology development. at a general level this research supports previous work by harwood and others who draw upon media richness theory. however, the results of this study seem to suggest that social influence theory may be a better long term bet for understanding media use in this environment. finally, future research should examine which grandparent initiates contact with the grandchild.  there is some recent evidence regarding utilizing new communication technology that shows cross gender conversations to be more frequent and of longer duration than conversations between the same gender (leskovec & horvitz, 2007). also, young people utilize texting and im between themselves much more than with people not of their own age (leskovec & horvitz, 2007). it would be interesting to see if this difference is somewhat minimized 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(2005). campaign 2004 developments in cyberpolitics. in r. e. denton, jr., the 2004 presidential campaign (pp. 217-239). lanham, md: rowman & littlefield. endnotes 1 this recruiting process as well as the questionnaire were approved by the institutional review board of university. 2it wasn’t until the time of data entry that the wording of ‘mobile phone’ appeared questionable. the questionnaire did not distinguish the cell phone from the landline portable phone, and both could conceivably be defined as ‘mobile’ telephones. thus, it is possible that some participants, especially amongst the grandparents, interpreted ‘mobile’ as ‘portable’ which could have skewed data for the grandparent group on this variable. since the length of ownership was not used beyond a basic frequency reporting, the data was retained and this note added as a caution. in future research the use of ‘cell phone’ versus ‘mobile phone’ is recommended to avoid any potential confusion with the ‘landline portable phone.’ 3 a grandparent at the age of 42 might seem young, especially since the grandchild is already in college. one grandparent reported being 42 years old, one reported being 52 years old, and all others reported being 61 years or older. during recruitment students were told specifically that they should not ask their parents to participate, but that step-grandparents were acceptable. it is likely that the two grandparents whose age is significantly lower are both step-grandparents, especially since both of these people reported being female and relationships between younger women and older men are not uncommon. 4 this calculation excludes the two grandparents that reported being 42 and 51 years old. the next youngest grandparent reported being 61 years old at the time of the study. 5 the beginning of the internet as arpanet is dated at 1969. at this time, only four computers at four universities were connected. however, even if the grandparents had started using the internet immediately in 1969, they still would have been between 24 and 51 years of age. telecentre functionality in south africa: re-enabling the community ict access environment heidi attwood1, kathleen diga2, einar braathen3, julian may4 research master’s student: school of built environment & development studies, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa. e-mail: heidiattwood@gmail.com project manager: school of built environment & development studies, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa. e-mail: digak@ukzn.ac.za senior researcher: norwegian institute for urban and regional research, oslo, norway. e-mail: einar.braathen@nibr.no director: institute for social development, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa. e-mail: jmay@uwc.ac.za introduction despite the availability and capabilities of information and communication technologies (ict) in low and middle-income countries, the use of these constantly evolving tools remains limited for the majority of resource-poor citizens. this is especially the case for internet-based tools. in south africa, an upper middle-income country, the percentage of the population categorised as individual 'internet users' increased from 5.4 percent in 2000 to just 18.0 percent in 2010 (itu, 2011). in order to overcome these low percentages, government intervention is frequently adopted, especially in rural areas, where it is not profitable for telecommunication operators to build infrastructure as a means to promote the uptake of internet use in poorer communities (usaasa, 2009: 47). in south africa and elsewhere, government sponsored telecentres are a common non-profit mode of delivery, however there is much evidence of recurring problems (gomez et al., 2012). telecentres have many structural components (human, political and technical) which need to support each other in order to create a functional telecentre (benjamin, 2001a; heeks, 2002; proenza, 2002). the failure of one or more of these components, as detailed by roman & colle (2002), hulbert & snyman (2007), and parkinson (2005) can render telecentres non-functional. such failures continue to plague the delivery of public access computing (pac) services in south africa and elsewhere; and in the light of the growth of smartphones, it could be argued that telecentres are not a meaningful mode through which internet access can be delivered (chigona et al., 2011; gomez et al., 2012). however, ict4d has lacked a robust theoretical base (flor, 2012; urquhart et al., 2008) and the literature has been dominated by a rather 'structuralist' and supply-side approach with less attention to individual agency and the demand-side. by considering how elements of agency and structure combine in relation to icts, the choice framework (cf) developed by kleine (2010) is a step forward. this approach facilitates the analyses of people's varied ability to empower themselves and improve their quality of life (qol). using this framework, this article analyses the operational experiences of telecentre provision of computer and internet access, alongside user experiences that reveal how telecentre and other structural issues interact with the characteristics of users and their various sets of resources. based on this analysis, we suggest that pacs should remain a part of the ict debate, although we question the business model that has come to dominate their operation. the article is based on a participatory action research (pari ) project, "community-based learning, icts and quality-of-life (cliq)", which investigated the impact of free computer training and telecentre use on individual qol in poorer communities, at four telecentres in kwazulu-natal, one of south africa's poorest and most populous provinces. using data from project participants through the experience of implementing the intervention over a three-year period, we analyse structural and agency factors hindering or advancing the effective use of telecentres by the local community. sen's capabilities approach (1999), which kleine (2010: 676) drew on when developing her choice framework (cf) underpins our action research methodology and participatory design. after providing an overview of findings regarding changes in qol, as well as impact on participants from the intervention, this paper discusses seven broad factors which impacted on participants' use of telecentres as encouraged through project participation. applying the cf, factors affecting participant and telecentre use are categorised with respect to the agency-structure divide. examples of these structural and agency factors, together with other findings on empowerment and development outcomes are presented visually within the cf. we argue that telecentres can be a conduit to improve the well-being of resource-poor people by improving their access to ict. moreover, as a venue in which community interaction is possible, telecentres also can provide a socially empowering base for a myriad of personal and business information and communications needs. the paper concludes with recommendations for improving ict service delivery and asserts that telecentre use can improve the well-being of poorer people, and that it should remain as one mode through which to strive for universal service access. access to ict in south africa for more than a decade, the south african government has committed itself to achieving universal ict access, particularly for the poor in under-serviced areas (parkinson, 2005). however in order to make effective use of the opportunities resident in access to connected computers, a person needs to be ict literate and have access to a functional and connected computer. this favours those living in urban areas where infrastructure is more available readily (for those who can afford connectivity) but even then, there are significant barriers to ict access. the census of 2011 presents the latest information on household internet use: 8.6 percent of households access the internet from home; 16.3 percent access from their cell phone; 4.7 percent from work; and 5.6 percent from elsewhere. the majority of households (64.8 percent) still have no access to the internet (stats sa, 2012). the department of communications (doc) is expected to address the context of low internet usage. falling under the doc, the universal services and access agency of south africa (usaasa) created the universal service and access fund (usaf) aimed at extending it services to those most in need. usaf's main approach was to provide telecentres for those in resourceand service-poor areas. by 2000, usaasa had helped to establish 65 telecentres containing between one and four computers, telephone lines and internet devices, in mainly rural, disadvantaged areas. an evaluation in 2001 showed that 32 percent of the telecentres surveyed were not operating and only eight percent offered access to the internet (benjamin, 2001b). common problems with structural components leading to non-functional telecentres were: theft; technical problems; managerial weakness and lack of financial sustainability. despite acknowledging deficiencies with regard to functionality, the construction of telecentres in south africa continued, with the doc supporting a reported 154 telecentres and 362 cyberlabs (online computer facilities in schools) by 2009 (usaasa, 2010). in recognition of previous problems, some changes were made over time. telecentres built in the 2000s had ten computers on average and several new telecentres were integrated into government thusong service centers (tscs), designed to bring a "one-stop shop" for citizens to deal with government issues ranging from home affairs to social security. a key advantage to being located within a tsc is access to a satellite connection, through sentechii . this eliminates telecentre responsibility for the provision, maintenance and payment of internet connectivity. in 2007, usaasa embarked on a programme to restore the functionality of existing telecentres before a planned 'handover' of the administration and maintenance of telecentres to local entities. however, difficulties were encountered both by usaasa and by the earmarked local entities. revising their handover programme, usaasa's objectives for their 2011-2012 financial year emphasised partnerships with public and private stakeholders, where usaasa would play more of a facilitation role in the provision of ict infrastructure (gomez et al., 2012). while more government-supported telecentres are being built to meet the growing information needs of underserved communities, community members face varying degrees of effective telecentre operations. state sponsored telecentres continue to show mixed results, with many struggling to operate effectively (parkinson, 2005; hulbert & snyman, 2007), although there are some case studies showing financial sustainability, educational impact and/or community ownership (snyman, 2007; mphahlele & maepa, 2003; etta & parvyn-wamahiu, 2003). given varied outcomes, an argument exists to end the policy of telecentre provision and look for alternatives. however this may overlook important roles that are played by providing pac services, as well as the value that access to off-line computer applications (such as word processing) and printing holds for the digitally excluded. theoretical framework castells (1998) raised the concern that many may be excluded from the new 'information society', leading to socio-digital exclusion and the much discussed 'digital divide'. this can be understood through the concept of multiple deprivations, where exclusion from various goods and services are intertwined and where exclusion from goods and services based on ict constitutes digital poverty (barrantes, 2007). sen's capabilities approach (1999), used as a basis for the 'digital poverty' concept, argues that it is not the possession of an asset, in this case icts, nor the availability of certain utilities that creates well-being (cf. warschauer, 2004). rather, of value is what a person defines as his/her freedoms which allow him/her to use assets, as well as their own characteristics within their environment. from this perspective, the physical availability of icts and proper institutional coordination of its facilities (i.e. ict structures) need to complement a person's ability to make use of the technologies, resulting in social practices that are meaningful to them. sen's (1999) approach is congruent with 'bottom-up' or participatory methodologies in which people decide and act on their values and vision of well-being (white & pettit, 2004; chambers, 2008). kleine's cf (2010: 680) operationalises a model of how individuals exercise choice given existing structures and their own agency (indicated by their resources rooted in personal characteristics), in order to work towards self-defined development outcomes. the degree of empowerment is dependent on the individual's unique combination of two elements: the 'resources' which give them agency and the 'structures' within which they operate. sen's (1999) capability theory (seeing the ultimate development outcome as freedom and facilitated by participation as a means and an end) is reflected in the cf as degrees of empowerment leading to the primary development outcome of choice. kleine's cf is specifically related to icts but also applicable more broadly to empowerment and development (luttrell & quiroz, 2009 and aslop & heinsohn, 2005). research methodology between 2007 and 2011, the cliq project provided local participants with needs-based computer training and free computer use through four state-sponsored telecentres in kwazulu-natal. the research sites chosen under the guidance of the provincial usaasa representative, were tc1 (remote rural), tc2 (peri-urban), tc3 (urban), and tc4 (remote rural). the first three were regarded as functional by usaasa when they were chosen and the latter was deemed "soon-to-be-functional". a participatory action research (par) process entailing alternate activities of qol assessment (including at least an initial, mid and final assessment) and computer training was undertaken in all four areas. two phases of computer training were conducted at each telecentreiii one after both the initial and then the mid quality-of-life assessments (qlas). a total of 162 people were selected to take part and across the four areas, 113 of these participated sufficiently in order to enable qol change analysis, resulting in an attrition rate of 30 percent. overall more women than men participated although a concerted effort aimed for even numbers across gender. from the start of the first phase of computer training until the final assessment, participants needed to have access to working connected computers for computer training and the opportunity to use an allotment of 100 unscheduled free hours on computers in their local telecentre (see table 1). table 1: outline of cliq's participatory action research process (2008-2011) following the principles of participatory action research (within critical theory), participants were able to exercise choice in defining their own qol objectives, as well as in how they used the ideas, insight, knowledge and skill that they gained from classroom-based computer training; from guided reflection on icts and qol; and from interaction with peers and fieldworkers. participation in cliq was centred round the premise that individuals only can empower themselves they cannot be empowered by others. cliq aimed to foster an empowering environment through offering free classroom-based computer training and use, located within a two-year process with structured opportunities for self-reflection and interaction regarding icts and qol. cliq's three project goals are a useful departure point for understanding the different methods used for different aspects of the project and the related research outputs: goal 1: assist participants to improve their qol through provision of free computer training and computer use within a empowering process; goal 2: research changes in participant's qol, with respect to the cliq intervention; and goal 3: build the capacity of participating telecentres and telecentre staff. the first and second goals are the action and research components relating to the research question. firstly, cliq set out to assist participants to improve their qol by engaging with participants in an empowering process, which included participants' sharing and analysis of their own knowledge, views, experiences and goals (during the qlas) as well as computer skills training and use. the second goal entailed the systematic recording and analysis of qla findings on planning, pursuing and reflecting on life goals; the nature of qol and changes in self-defined qol; project participation; and the nature of project impact, which was achieved through iterative investigation of a variety of ict-related, social and economic topics. during qlas (usually 3 days in length), a team of fieldworkers facilitated a range of participatory visual diagramming methods (including mapping, matrixes, visual planning, qol ranking, venn diagrams; and card sorting) with participants individually and in groups. this activity was guided by general participatory research principles, behaviour and attitudes, including flexibility, learning from others, respect, patience, recognition of diversity and bias, sensitivity, participation beyond information sharing, reflection and so on. participant discussion during the creation of visuals (and explanations on completion) was recorded, capturing critical information to be analysed together with the visual. observation, informal discussion and joint activities also yielded information. in addition, a questionnaire was used so that the participants contributed with data which could be used in a quantitative analysis. capacity building became the third goal in response to questioning around the benefit that telecentres would derive from their participation other than direct payment for computer time used by participants (cf. braathen, attwood & may, 2012). the ability of telecentre staff to assist cliq with project implementation was not questioned prior to fieldwork although their willingness was discussed and secured. while assistance with the management of telecentres and the maintenance of computers were not formally part of the initial design, project management activities grew to include this type of assistance which constituted the bulk of cliq's capacity building efforts. the process of capacity building was needs responsive and varied between the telecentres, in most cases addressing the shared needs of the telecentre and the project as cliq could not be implemented in the absence of basic telecentre functionality. the nature of the capacity building activity (like project management) was guided by participatory research principles. the 'by-products' of capacity building (being administrative, observational and communication records) as well as post-field reflection on the experience and perceptions with regard to project implementation, provided insight into issues affecting functionality. results: empowerment and development outcomes overall, two thirds of the total of 113 participants noted that their qol had improved between mid-2008 and mid-2010, while one third noted unchanged or declined qol (22 percent and 12 percent respectively). reasons for changes in qol related to engagement with the cliq intervention as well as the normal course of life. the three main reasons for improved qol were: a) got a job or improved nature of job; b) started or improved an own business; and c) a family member's income increased. the three main reasons for unchanged or declined qol were: d) no change in opportunities; e) lost a job or got and then lost a job; and e) business declined or had to shut down. the outcomes of participants' engagement with cliq show a range of impacts, each supported by a unique story. three quarters of participants (77% of 113) noted that cliq impacted on their livesiv , with just over a third (36% of 113) directly linking this impact to their change in qol. from the list of more than 20 different cliq impacts, the most common impacts mentioned were: felt empowered or increased self-esteem, hope, direction, happiness and/or confidence; more friends, networks and social interaction; attained computer skills; free use of computers; and, acquired greater knowledge of the world or increased access to information. the research design, participatory methods and project ethos were key to the empowerment of participants, particularly individual goal setting and review methods, as well as participants' ongoing interaction with their peers and with cliq fieldworkers (attwood, 2013). some of the variation in impact was due to the varying degrees of intensity of project implementation in the four areas. an implementation ranking was created based on the experience of project implementation (including capacity building activity), supported by data on realised dates of planned activities; information from in-depth interviews on participants' experience of telecentre use; and observation of evolving relationships between fieldworkers and participants. an analysis of individual participation across all activities produced a ranking reflecting which areas had the highest and lowest proportions of participants achieving consistent participation in project activities. input data on individual participation were derived from project management records detailing for each participant and for each activity, whether they participated fully, partially, or not at all. the results in both cases placed tc1 as the best area, followed by tc2 and then tc3, with tc4 reflecting the lowest levels of participation and implementation. table 2 shows nature of change in qol by area. tc1 and tc2, with higher intensities of the intervention and better participation, recorded a higher proportion of participants with improved qol (around 75 percent), when compared to tc3 and tc4 (with qol improvement for around 60 percent). table 2: changes in quality-of-life this quantitative analysis shows that more effective implementation of the intervention led to an increased proportion of participants with improved qol and an increased proportion of participants linking the project impact to their reasons for qol change. good participation was more likely to lead to a direct impact on reasons for qol change, which in turn is more likely to lead to an increase in qol (attwood et al., forthcoming). the main impact findings from cliq (see figure 1) correspond to kleine's examples of secondary 'development outcomes' (2010: 680). issues regarding implementation relate to kleine's definition of 'structure', while factors affecting levels of participation relate both to her notion of 'agency' and to some aspects of 'structure'. so why did implementation and participation differ between sites, when cliq was implemented by the same team of people, guided by the same action research process? methodologically, this was expected due to the par principles of flexibility (with respect to local conditions) and evolving process (incorporating lessons and insights from on-going reflection on implementation), as well as the ever-present diversity of human nature. from participants' reasons for occasional non-participation and the experience of implementing the research together with telecentre staff, key factors aiding or inhibiting effective use of telecentres emerged. factors affecting telecentre functionality and use operationally, the functionality of a telecentre is dependent on a myriad of interconnected factors. the cliq research identified factors on both 'supply' and 'demand' sides, as being critical. the supply factors are similar to those identified in most other studies of telecentre functionality: the technology and equipment; organisation and governance of the telecentre; telecentre purpose, policies and vision; the motivation and skills of the telecentre staff; and the mode and efficiency of state support. these are all elements of structure. on the 'demand' side, ict skills and internet awareness; social spaces, mobility and physical access; socio-cultural factors associated with age and gender; and the financial cost and opportunity cost of using the telecentre, were key factors. these multiple key factors are addressed in the next section. these factors often have both an agency element being the resource(s) held by individuals and a structure component being the formal and informal regulations or norms impacting on the potential use of the resource(s) in question. issues affecting telecentre use generally and participation in cliq specifically are discussed below, grouped under factors or headings that best reflect the way information and insight emerged from the researchv . examples from the analysis are then located and presented visually within the cf (see figure 1). the grouping of factors for discussion has not been altered to correspond with kleine's five specific factors of structure as shown in her cf because this would not be in keeping with the principles of par or of emergent and complex logic models (rogers, 2008) of which the cf is an example. furthermore, the interconnected nature of factors influencing use often means that examples from experience fit into the cf in more than one place. technology and equipment recurring technical problems, identified by benjamin (2001a) to be a major cause of telecentre failure, were present at telecentre study areas. users at the three operational sites reported incidences when the telecentres were without internet access, once lasting for several months at tc2. others issues included the quality of connectivity; maintenance of hardware; selection and maintenance of software; ability to secure and evaluate qualified technical services; stability of electricity supply and security. usaasa provided a sentech satellite connection for tc2 and tc3. while at tc3, the skills to interact with sentech when needed were available, this was not the case at tc2, where none of the telecentre facilitators had these skills. this included the administrative skill or technical knowledge to effectively outsource assistance. for example, a tc2 facilitator contracted a local technician to install an anti-virus programme. the technician installed free anti-virus software, but had charged the telecentre for the 'purchase' of the software. at tc1, usaasa provided furniture and computers but not connectivity. this led to the national non-governmental organisation (ngo) associated with the telecentre entering into an agreement with a private software company who installed a gprs internet connection. however, this connection came with a package including computer interface software, a voucher payment system for controlled access, and remote computer maintenance by the company. this software caused numerous problems at the telecentre for both users and facilitators and was eventually removed. it emerged that neither the ngo director who secured the software, nor the usaasa representative who supported its installation, had adequately evaluated the package prior to installation. a refurbishment centre at the digital hub at tc3 ensured that staff were able to maintain their own computers. however, usaasa's ownership of the telecentre facility and ict equipment proved to be problematic. when the telecentre began leaking after a storm, usaasa did not fix the leaking facility or repair the broken computers. the board of the managing ngo was not prepared to pay for repairs of equipment or housing structures that they did not own, and the telecentre was closed until usaasa were able to address the problem. at tc4, theft of computers on two separate occasions within the fieldwork period, together with a lack of technical and managerial expertise meant that the telecentre was only functional towards the end of the fieldwork period (in the month of may 2010). organisation and governance the initiating process of telecentres emerged as a key factor in the eventual functionality of a telecentre. the tc3 telecentre was born out of a strategic planning process whereby a locally-based national ngo (engaged in small business development and training) had identified the need for digital communication for small business operators. after initial discussions and a proposal to usaasa, the ngo was awarded a digital hub grant and proceeded to negotiate a contract with usaasa. tc3 became highly functional, offering accredited computer training and some free time for computer use by community members. tc3 was locally relevant and run on principles of good governance, however, their lack of ownership of equipment and housing structure based on existing usaasa policies (as noted above) led to a complete shutdown of tc3. the other three telecentres were initiated from outside of the community (by national government or nationally-based ngos) and therefore were not based on locally identified needs nor were they appropriate given local socio-economic conditions. the nature of origin of the telecentre also had an impact on the style of governance and on the ability of the telecentre manager to emerge as a clear driving force regarding telecentre development. the management style and ethos of the "parent" organisation responsible for the telecentre, strongly influenced by the telecentre manager in all four telecentre cases, is a way of capturing the discourse that informs the operation of the centre. roman & colle (2002: 6) list "(t)he value of having local 'champions' (innovators) who can mobilise others" in their list of ten themes for telecentre sustainability. this notion of a 'champion' in technology transfer was originally referred to by chakrabarthi (1974) and adapted by benjamin in describing an "energetic, responsible and trusted manager … who will do whatever they can to make the project work, is known and accepted in the community, and who will bring people in to use the centre" (2001a:3). across the four sites, the telecentre managers varied greatly with regard to style, skill and vision. at tc2, the manager of the telecentre was also the chair of a local community based organisation (cbo) responsible for the telecentre. he exerted substantial influence over development activity in the area and his authoritative managerial style was a prevalent factor in the centre operations. facilitators had no decision-making authority, and even though the manager lacked adequate technical knowledge, all communication regarding technical functionality was routed through him, which slowed the process of achieving solutions. at tc1, the telecentre was housed within the local development centre. in 2008, the development centre was a contested space, with different groups claiming ownership, unclear reporting and accountability procedures and poor communication between the various parties. the development centre manager (also the de facto telecentre manager) at tc1 had relatively low social and political power which hindered her ability to carry out managerial functions. her authority was also not recognised by the local businesses operating from the development centre (allegedly due to her non-local status) making her ineffective in direct governance issues. at tc4, the organisation responsible for the telecentre was a national ngo. the provincial chair of the ngo (also the de facto telecentre manager) was also employed by the municipality of the local town and in 2010, became responsible for the management of all community development centres in the area. the politicised nature of the ngo and the municipality as well as his "dual hat" responsibility for the telecentre (through the ngo) and for the community development centre housing the telecentre (through the municipality), appeared to hinder his ability to establish and maintain a functional telecentre. his lack of a clear vision for the telecentre and its role in the local area, together with his apparent lack of managerial skills resulted in him being a poor champion of ict in the area. the tc3 telecentre was highly functional at the start of cliq activities and the ngo responsible for the centre was run along good governance principles. together with local socio-political ownership of the centre, this greatly contributed towards its success in an area with politically aware and active community members and organisations. this manager was unique amongst the four in terms of her progressive view of development and ethical imperative to provide the community with ict services, and was the only clear example of a strong champion of ict. her clarity of vision, rooted in the developmental reality of the area, informed the organisational structure and rules for the daily operation of the telecentre. the payment, motivation and skill of facilitators (technical and administrative) are important factors in telecentre success (benjamin, 2001a; roman & colle, 2002; lorentzen, 1988; hudson, 2001). at tc2, there was a high turnover of facilitators, with seven different facilitators working at the centre between march 2008 and july 2010. the facilitators were regarded as volunteers, with no contract, no guarantee of a regular stipend to cover their basic expenses, and no clear job description. although facilitators in tc3 were paid a regular stipend, there was still a relatively high turnover. this was accepted by the manager who argued that "…the community appreciate that you use local people. but this often means that they lack skills, so you train them. but you don't have funds to pay them good salaries, so once they have acquired the skills, they move on to better jobs". the manager thus factored staff training into the budget and encouraged staff to seek opportunities to improve their lives, seeing this as the telecentre's contribution to the community. the personal motivation and interest of facilitators, as well as the extent of their inclusion in decision making (resulting from management style) is also a major factor in staff turnover across telecentres. where facilitators were motivated and interested, their actions facilitated participation in, and implementation of cliq. for example, a tc1 facilitator learned to keep basic computer use records and converted these to invoices on a monthly basis, in order to regularly claim payment for hours used by cliq participants. this was due to his motivation to get income into the telecentre. policies and visions usaasa served as the conduit for support of national government to the telecentres, and as the bridge between national policy priorities and implementation. however, between 2008 and 2010, usaasa had just one provincial representative dealing with 23 telecentres and 40 school cyberlabs in kwazulu-natal. all equipment purchases and service provider contracts had to be routed through the national head office, leading to long-term unattended requests for new equipment or solutions to virus problems. as the manager of tc3 commented, she did not rely on usaasa for anything, "because you'll be waiting forever." in 2006/2007, usaasa took a decision to hand over ownership of the telecentres to locally based organisations as they had recognised the uncertainty that was caused by their continued ownership of equipment and facilities, and particularly their inability to maintain them among other problems with the current model. usaasa's handover programme (based on lessons learnt over the years, including benjamin's (2001a) analysis of problems at 65 telecentres in 2000) would probably have had a number of positive effects however, if usaasa had continued with this handover, lack of local transparency around the process by which organisations were originally selected to run the telecentres, was likely to cause problems if not addressed, because these same organisations were mostly likely going to assume ownership. the nature and implementation of state policy falls under structure in kleine's 'policy and programmes' and 'institutions and organisations". cliq also found examples where usaasa's policy appeared appropriate, but where organisational weaknesses prevented effective implementation and monitoring. a concern also related to the discourse within which telecentre activities take place, is whether the purpose of community telecentres is to function as a business or community service. it was recognised in tc3 that the centre could not operate as a business and the manager viewed its purpose as a community service. while they charge for computer training, computer use, photocopying and so on, the manager explained that, "…there are many times when a person would have spent all their money on transport and cannot pay for the photocopy, so what do you do? you can't turn them away, so they don't pay." the parent ngo subsidised the telecentre through their operation of an income-generating consultancy. in turn, by running the telecentre as community service, the ngo was able to operate an income-generating consultancy service, under ngo status. as the manager observed, this cross-subsidisation allows "children and people with 'crazy ideas' to come (to the telecentre) even if they can't pay." in contrast, tc2 operated on a semi-business premise. the local community paid for telecentre services, such as computer literacy classes. the telecentre manager recalled that "(t)he cost for a 'computer literacy' course is r20 an hour, for 30 hours. they pay not less than a 30 percent deposit. when people don't pay on time we charge them 10 percent extra, this often encourages them to pay on time." while tc3 had a clear vision for the telecentre and business plan to financially support an otherwise unsustainable telecentre, tc2 had no business plan and the manager's stated wish for the telecentre to be used to 'assist the community' did not match the business principles he applied to telecentre users. the business potential of telecentres in poor areas is low, as evidenced by the high failure rate of telecentres (particularly due to financial unsustainability). liyanage (2009) in her review of five telecentre networks across four countries presents a number of social enterprise models for telecentre sustainability and tc3 shows that financial sustainability is possible, with creative models of social enterprise. the challenge is to develop creative solutions for financial sustainability. gender and age norms and psychological resources gender norms, a structural issue according to kleine's cf (2010), acted against the participation of women and their sense of choice, as these norms dictated that women should not use icts, or that if icts were part of the women's life, it should not interfere with their traditional reproductive role in the home. one male participant (24yrs) stated, "boys are usually considered as people who have a lot of spare time than girls because girls have more chores than boys and some of the girls are not allowed by either their parents or their partners to participate in other activities". some women stopped attending cliq activities in order to care for young children and others reported that family members were not comfortable with their participation in cliq, because as one participants' mother said, "the lady must always be cleaning the house and cooking" (mother of female participant, 33yrs). some women were able to work around these societal norms and made immense use of the cliq opportunity, while others were not. this, as with persistence in the face of unhelpful facilitators, depends in part on users' psychological resources one of kleine's (2010) ten indicators of agency. a rural woman (20yrs), whose well-being had improved over the first year of fieldwork, was not able to overcome her parents' insistence that she stop attending cliq activities and stop all her small business activity stating, "my whole life has changed because i have a baby now and i have to respect my parents and do what they say". commonly held age norms were that older people should not, did not need to, or were not able to use computers. three women from tc2 aged over 50 years, all demonstrated that older women can learn to use computers and the internet and all of them improved their qol, partly through computer use. one of these women started two new businesses during the fieldwork period, making use of her newfound computer skills to email customers and suppliers, and to access business information on the web. her perception of the benefit of computer use to her business is partly demonstrated by the fact that she would pay to use internet cafes when away from her home area, in order to check her email. lack of ict awareness and skills low awareness of the potential uses of computers with respect to participants' lives was a factor in reducing demand for computer use. at tc4, a number of participants had never seen a computer before and many had a very limited understanding of what computers were or could be used for. for example, participants were surprised that 'computers were not only used for games'; you could talk to someone overseas through the computer; and that national newspapers could be read online. at tc1 and tc4 (the two rural areas) some participants were not even aware that there was a local telecentre. perceptions of who can and should use computers (in additional to prevailing age and gender norms) as well as participants' own perceived eligibility to use computers, also had the potential to prevent use. there were those who felt that computer use was not for them at the start of the project stating, "i thought (computers) were only meant for rich people and it was way too hard for a person like me to learn, until cliq came along and i realised that computers are for everybody and anybody can learn more everyday about them and make their lives easier" (woman, 21yrs). issues of perceived ict access fall within both structure (technology and innovation), as well as 'sense of choice' under degrees of empowerment (see figure 1). social spaces and mobility all telecentres were located within a community centre, which catered for a range of other community needs (except for tc3, which was adjacent to a small library and community meeting rooms), and served as a venue for cliq activities. regular trips to the telecentre to participate in cliq represented a new activity for many participants, with the benefits of meeting new people and being exposed to a range of community activities. after empowerment, extended networks and/or more friends was the second most common impact of cliq (as noted above). this new activity was particularly beneficial for those (often women) who rarely ventured beyond the immediate surrounds of their homestead. a young woman from tc1 recalled that in 2008, "i was a bit of a loner. i didn't want to meet with people. my problem was that i was so depressed... [participating in cliq] ...gave me an opportunity to do other things like coming to the telecentre and spend time there..." and in 2010 she noted increased social networks as a benefit from cliq. for those not living in the immediate vicinity of the telecentre, who had small businesses, it also opened new markets as they would discuss their business and market their goods to new groups of people, both en route to and at the telecentre. new friendships developed between participants, some of whom would meet at the telecentre in between cliq visits. at tc1, a participant recalled, "coming to the telecentre in groups and typing whatever we came across. we did this so that we could practice our typing skills." the two facilitators at tc1 were very enthusiastic and supportive of cliq implementation and participants. by welcoming and assisting participants between cliq visits, the facilitator allowed the telecentre to become a social space where participants could learn and support each other, which built their social networks referred to as 'social resources' under agency (see figure 1)and enhanced their ict skills in an atmosphere of seeking knowledge and personal development. one facilitator spontaneously organised additional computer training for cliq participants, which she used to begin to develop her own training skills and in order to encourage local use of the telecentre. a project ethos of being supportive of, and interested in users' well-being greatly enhanced users' empowerment. negative comments from participants about the dismissive and unhelpful attitude of some facilitators at tc2 and tc3 confirmed the importance of facilitator attitude, skill, and action in promoting effective use of telecentres. financial, time and opportunity costs the distance that people had to travel to get to the telecentre hampered their use of their free computer hours. at tc4, some participants had to walk for three hours to reach the telecentre, and at tc1 some had to pay up to r60 for public transport for a one-way trip to the telecentre. with half of all participants having r100 or less for their free disposal each monthvi , such costs clearly prohibit regular computer use at telecentres, even before the issue of whether they have to pay for actual use or not, was considered. furthermore, many participants relied on irregular piecework or self-employment for income. for unemployed youth, this meant that when temporary jobs were available, they would opt to work rather than further their ict skills. as expressed by a self-employed woman (34yrs) from a rural area, she did not attend some cliq activities because of her need to "put a plate on the table" she was the only adult in the household that could earn any income, as her husband and mother-in-law were ill. at tc2, tc3 and tc4, participants were not happy with the telecentre service. some participants remarked that their telecentre was occasionally closed during normal operating hours or that often the computers or internet was not working. when combining the high monetary or opportunity cost of travelling to the telecentre and the lack of surety that it would be open, together with the possibility that the computers may not be working; deciding to make use of the facilities offered by telecentres is a costly and potentially fruitless exercise. in summary, key factors identified as aiding or inhibiting the effective use of telecentres included: technology and equipment; organisation and governance; policy and vision; psychological resources, together with gender and age norms; lack of ict awareness and skills; social spaces and mobility; and financial, time and opportunity costs. understanding the interactions between these factors and the impact it has on decisions regarding ict use, provides insight into the complexity of ict access and use in pursuit of a better life. this complexity is well illustrated through the capabilities approach utilising kleine's (2010) choice framework. cliq findings within the choice framework from a holistic view of identified quality of life impacts; individual empowerment outcomes; and key factors that influenced the implementation of and participation in the intervention; the compatibility of these research findings with kleine's choice framework was evident.vii this section examines how the cliq findings fit within the cf. figure 1: cliq findings through kleine's choice framework source: kleine (2010), adapted by authors as illustrated in figure 1, kleine's five aspects of structure (shaded text: box 1) can each be illustrated with examples found within cliq's research findings (unshaded text: box 1). for example, the poor capacity of usaasa (s_i&o) to effectively implement their procedural guidelines, stipulating that all computer repairs and replacement needed to be facilitated through the national office (s_p&p) is an example of structural hindrances. another structure example is the selection of inappropriate software at tc1 that delayed cliq training and otherwise discouraged and frustrated users (s_t&i). furthermore, low awareness of the potential of computer use to improve qol among potential local users was also a structural barrier (s_t&i) found particularly at rural telecentres. tc3's community development and service orientation is an example of a facilitating structure (s_d), as opposed to the business model adopted by other telecentres. the cliq data also contains many examples (unshaded text: box 2) of how all ten types of agency resources (shaded text: box 2) affected an individual's level of participation in cliq (and ict use), and subsequently, the influence on degree of empowerment (arrow 4). considering women from tc1 aged between 19 and 34 years, there were separate examples of poor participation due to limitations in a variety of different resources including: poor health; insufficient financial resources to replace income-earning activity with time for self-development; and a lack of self-confidence. variation of outcome goes much further than this, though, as shown by examples of three other women from this same group who were able to maximise their participation in cliq. they specifically used their resources to reach some of their stated goals, such as: the ability to disregard parental views on women's place in the home; the courage to end income-earning business, and use financial resources to study; and the use of enhanced ict skills to take over accounting tasks for an owned business. these examples illustrate the variety of outcomes among participants who share some similar personal characteristics and social environments. when adding aspects of difference like age, gender, cultural environment, family attitudes and so on, the potential for a variety of outcomes vastly expands. arrow 3 indicates an interaction between agency (personal characteristics and resources) and factors of structure. for example, gender norms prevented some women from continuing with cliq when they became a mother, while the same did not occur with new fathers. thus, the combined impact of a person's gender (personal characteristics) with gender norms (s_f&i) disempowered women, but not men. the interaction of structural factors with individual resources directly influenced the nature and implementation of choice (arrow 4). for example, when considering whether or not to use unscheduled free computer hours, those living within walking distance of the telecentre (a_gr) were less affected by the lack of certainty that telecentres would be open during normal operating hours, or whether the internet would be functioning (s_t&i). those who lived further away had to commit more resources (a_fr or a_he) in order to check whether the telecentre was open or notviii , and therefore were exposed to a greater negative impact when they could not use the telecentre's computers. cliq results also included numerous examples of the different degrees of empowerment (unshaded text: box 5) beyond the 'existence of choice,'ix reached by participants which are included under kleine's degrees of empowerment (shaded text: box 5). "for any piece of research focused on a technology which is new to the respondents, the dimension of 'sense of choice' will play a significant role" (kleine, 2010: 680). for participants who had never seen a computer prior to cliq, their 'sense of choice' for communication did not include emailing. social factors, which change over time, also affected 'sense of choice'. two young women (who were keen to join cliq and therefore having 'sense of choice') decided to participate in cliq (exercising 'use of choice'). they both made good use of their decisions to participate (with some 'achievement of choice'), but both later stopped attending computer training or using computers on the birth of their first child, cutting short 'use' of choice and effecting a removal of the 'sense' of choice. despite both seemingly having family and friends to care for their child, they decided to operate within community gender norms (applied by a boyfriend in one case and parents in the other) and ended their cliq involvement. in these two cases, gender norms (s_f&il) enacted through their social network (a_sr), reversed progression up the degrees of empowerment. the degrees of empowerment reached by individuals have impact (arrow 6) on the nature and extent of development outcomes. for example, for some just having the skills to use a computer (unshaded text: box 7) a secondary development outcome improved their self-esteem (a_psr) and this empowered them in their general approach to life. for others, new computer skills boosted their confidence and education, enhancing their personal resources (a_psr and a_ed). these enhanced resources contributed to 'use' and 'achievement' of choice, (e.g. to type a cv and apply for a job) which contributed towards a further development outcome of acquiring a job. while goals are partly reflected by achieved development outcomes, they also fit within psychological resources under agency, as the existence, clarity and appropriateness of goals are a reflection of a person's mental ability to hope, envision, evaluate options and plan (bandura, 1989). this reflects the dynamic nature of the model. except for natural resources, cliq found examples where all nine resources changed over the two years of fieldwork, or were impacted by participants' development outcomes (arrow 8a) representing a feedback loop or recursive causality (rogers, 2008). just as some development outcomes influenced agency resources (arrow 8a) so too do they have the potential to influence structure (arrow 8b). the cliq intervention at tc1, created a group of local people capable of and interested in using computers, many of whom had experienced positive social, personal or economic impacts. through the normal course of life, they 'marketed' the telecentre within the community. for example, a young male initially ridiculed by friends regarding cliq participation, later exposed these friends to potential benefits when he typed and printed their hand-written cv's. the encouragement of new users could increase telecentre use and ultimately improve telecentre sustainability, which in turn would improve access to icts for others (s_t&i). in addition, a local group of skilled computer users acted as a resource which the telecentre could draw on for facilitators (as happened at tc1, where an enthusiastic but unemployed participant became a paid facilitator in 2012) or as individuals that could assist the telecentre with providing the service of typing documents or teaching others to use computers. gender norms or biases (as well as age) are reflected in structure and agency. in structure, they are represented under formal and informal laws that operate amongst a group of people to regulate behaviour. under agency, internalised gender norms and biases form part of psychological resources. a person will have an outlook on life that either conforms to norms (whether or not aware of, or agreeing with them) or resists these gender norms (s_f&il). working against social norms, especially ones as entrenched and pervasive as gender norms requires strength of character, self-esteem, clarity of thought or some kind of wisdom (a_psr). it also requires other resources, like social support (a_sr). examples of this from cliq include a woman who was encouraged to set and pursue a goal of starting a crèche because she heard another participant had successfully done so. examples of empowerment from the cliq process unrelated to icts were those of women and men who felt empowered after befriending other participants who had previously also been relatively isolated in the domestic realm, due either to enforced or accepted gender norms (s_f&il, gender, and a_psr), or in the case of one young man, poor mental health (s_f&il, a_he and a_psr). the multitude of interactions within and between various aspects of agency and structure is complex and potentially endless. kleine's cf is a practical operationalised approach through which to analyse individual choice, based on combinations of structural factors and personal resources. this myriad of agency and structure is part of the process of empowerment, which could lead to a variety of desired development outcomes, and which further illustrates the key feature of emergence in programme theory and complex logic models (rogers, 2008). conclusion and recommendations while there is disillusion with the telecentre model (parkinson, 2005; hulbert & snyman, 2007), the par approach adopted by cliq revealed that individuals can improve their qol through targeted support of public access computing at telecentres. in spite of structural constraints on existing telecentres and participants' limited resources, our research showed that telecentres provide opportunities for people to empower themselves to overcome these constraints when computer training and use is subsidised. kleine's choice framework (2010) is useful in that it systematically operationalises the range of factors and impacts at play when considering the process by which individuals can use icts to improve their own qol. by identifying aspects of structure and agency (and interaction between them) that limit telecentre usefulness, interventions can be designed to strategically target specific structures and resources that would allow for greater empowerment of individuals to actively pursue a self-defined better qol. cliq altered both structure and agency. structure was altered through cliq's assistance with aspects of telecentre management and computer maintenance. agency was altered by providing prepaid computer hours, after computer training within a social and empowering process. cliqs findings on problems with effective delivery and use of telecentres remain consistent with past (benjamin, 2001a; parkinson, 2005) and current findings (gomez et al., 2012). like hubert & snyman (2007), we contend that the action research methodology shows that these issues can be addressed if "the importance of the community as the most feasible departure point" (ibid: 17) is recognised, together with a developmental approach to capacity building. rather than abandon the telecentre as a medium of ict delivery, the exploration of alternative business and service-delivery models that address the structural issues identified, or foster aspects of agency with a view to empowerment, should be considered. among these models, our analysis suggests that one option would be to re-invent telecentres as active citizen development centres. in addition to be being a public venue that provides access to the technical artefacts of ict, the telecentre would be consciously developed as a place where local people interact with each other face-to-face and with others through icts. in this way, the telecentre can become an empowering social space within which users can engage with a wider range of people, ideas and information, to make more informed choices concerning the issues that they deem important. resources to support this will need to be locally relevant and evolving, including needs-based website listings, information on basic human rights, and e-government information and services. this addresses issues of agency as well, avoiding purely technical solutions that may yield a perfectly functional telecentre, but with no users. to be successful, this type of telecentre would need to be staffed by a community development worker with an empowering developmental perspective, who has the technical skills to provide training as as well basic computer and network maintenance, in addition to administrative skills and a personal ethic of good governance. in addition, there is a need to develop adequate empowerment strategies to assist telecentre facilitators to deal with the surrounding power relations (braathen et al., 2012). this approach would also require a shift in discourse, from telecentres being a business to telecentres providing pac services with a development focus. a more fundamental shift would be recognising the complex relationship between information and human rights, and the potential for icts to promote human rights. hence, the un special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom recommended in his 2011 report that "each state" should see to it that "the internet is widely available, accessible and affordable to all segments of population" (la rue, 2011). from a human rights' perspective, an ict grant that allows all citizens subsidised (but not free) use of icts, should be considered as a way of addressing affordability concerns. this sees the telecentre as similar to a public library, based on citizenship rights, rather than dependent upon having the means to pay for access. other options of social enterprise telecentres within a network of telecentres (liyanage, 2009) could secure alternative sources of income to financially assist state-supported telecentres, as tc3 illustrates with its cross-subsidisation model. acknowledgements action research involves a substantial contribution from those that collect data and we acknowledge the work of the team of fieldworkers, trainers and participants. this journal article is based upon work supported by the south african research chair initiative (sarchi) in applied poverty reduction assessment, the south african department of science and technology, national research foundation (nrf) under grant number 64492 and the norwegian research council (nrc). any opinion, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this journal article are those of the author(s) and therefore the nrf and nrc does not accept any liability in regard thereto. endnotes i here 'participatory action research' (par) is used in the generic sense, as suggested by jupp (2007: 122) as opposed to the 'branded' par with freiren roots or any of the numerous other 'branded' participatory methodologies. ii sentech is a state-owned enterprise providing broadcasting and broadband infrastructure in sa, which includes internet connectivity to government departments, municipalities, and other institutions (www.sentech.co.za). iii only one computer training session was conducted at tc4 (delayed by over a year), due to the extended period of telecentre non-functionality. iv impact results were unclear for 19% of participants due to insufficient data and 4% indicated no impact from cliq. v a coding process similar to that of grounded theory (cf. strauss and corbin, 1998) was followed. vi this figure is based on data obtained from the initial baseline questionnaire administrated to all participants in mid-2008. vii examples of secondary outcomes provided by kleine (2010: 680) are easier communication, increased knowledge, greener environment, increased income, increased mobility, more personal time, more voice, and more autonomy. viii given the poor satellite connectivity, calling the telecentre facilitator was not an option. ix all participants had the 'existence of choice' given that their 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(2004). participatory approaches and the measurement of human well-being. esrc research group on wellbeing in developing countries (wed working paper 08). unu-wider. joci 12-3 editorial the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 editorial cosmopolitanism versus traditionalism and the need to talk about a different divide 2016 has brought many different events, but it is not exactly an audacious idea to state that the world has seen better times than those brought by this year. the fact that oxford dictionaries has chosen “post-truth” as the word for this year, show one particular aspect of this troublesome period: reality is becoming a problem. this journal has dedicated two of its three issues this year to data: open data and data literacy. these two related concepts appear as fundamental to deal with a precarious emerging world order: a world awash in bytes, shrunk thanks to the technologies that are at the very base of “community informatics”, but that appears to be dealing badly with such an ease of access to information, having fallen for a renewed notion of “community” that denies both difference and a collective perspective on the future. our world appears to be shrinking in purpose, with many just trying to defend themselves from alleged invasions. the truth is just another victim, and facts are lost in the mayhem. communities are now facing a two pronged questioning: from the “cosmopolitan” side, having long benefitted from globalization, where are seen as artifacts of an inglorious past, where a regressive vision of social life combines with many unsatisfied demands, material or otherwise, to take the form of appeals to collective identity and the exigence of respect for traditional understandings of values and beliefs. in such a view, community is seen as a shelter from a new, better world, that requires less certainty and more boldness from individuals; words like “innovation” and “disruption” are used constantly to remind us that the world we live in is not just different but demanding of a different attitude. !1 villanueva-mansilla, e. (2016). editorial: what is a community, or cosmopolitanism versus traditionalism and the need to talk about a different divide. the journal of community informatics, 12(3), 1-3. date submitted: 2016-11-28. date accepted: 2016-11-30. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: ci-journal.net. aquí debería ir el enlace completo. eduardo villanuevamansilla editor in chief, the journal of community informatics corresponding author. evillan@gmail.com mailto:evillan@gmail.com http://ci-journal.net http://ci-journal.net the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 from conservative positions, it is precisely that static vision of social life what makes communities a positive factor against the brute forces of modernization by liberal politics. communities are seen as traditional bulwarks of such understandings of values and beliefs, which are not to be discussed, that should never evolve, but act as guarantees of stability and safety. a retreat to community is the only guarantee that real men and women can withstand the pressures of a liberal order, promoted precisely by those benefitting from globalization and the dissolution of the old order. of course, the end result is that the actual interests of different communities are ignored: blaming them or demanding that they act as active resistance to globalization just hide the fact that communities are not static, nor can be defined by conservatism, either as a criticism or as a virtue, but that they are also ignored if not despised by those believing fervently in a new order based on social or economic globalization, on a cosmopolitan outlook that almost by definition is enjoyed by a few, by a minority all around the world. also, such an approach denies that communities are suffering from the consequences of both globalization and the resistance to globalization: countries facing obliteration by climate change stand next to communities destroyed either slowly, by homogenizing cultural policies promoted by dominant ethnic or cultural groups, or rapidly, by genocidal warfare promoted by powerful forces of obscurantism. at the same time, other forms of communal living are being praised. besides the banal or self serving, like talking about “co-located workspaces” as communities, all the issues around “virtual communities”, communities of practice, fan cultures and similar conceptualizations of social interactions through digital media, point towards the fact that individuals, at many different levels of many different societies, have a chance to transform their cultural lives through cultural consumption and interaction. the many examples of transnational families using digital messaging to keep in touch, to coordinate action and ultimately to survive, also show the transformative potential of digital devices and networks to add to life, softening the blow of migration for those that choose to do so, or simply making it possible to find shelter and routes to a final destination, for those forced from their lands through violence and terror. all this leads to one fundamental question: how to determine exactly what is going on. it is not just the realities on the ground, but especially important is how discursive or symbolic reality, all that is written and disseminated through media for instance, is being constructed. the alarming abandonment of fact in public discourse is only one example of the urgent need to reclaim facts as the only possible basis for establishing policy and for a sensible, cosntructive dialog about society’s ailments, at any level. community is just a word, but it means different things to different people, and of course, it enables different policy approaches and political demands depending on how you decide to understand it and how you use in a political arena. to discern exactly what is being said by someone using exactly the same word becomes a critical issue for our times. so, there is a new divide, which i will allow myself to call “the reality divide”. do we believe that we can discuss the world, our collective needs and our mutual disagreements, from a consensual, fact-based point of view? those on the side of a negative answer to this question are to be convinced, or just left outside of the conversation? can we manage to deal with our !2 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 collective issues, at the community, social and world levels, without agreeing on the same building blocks of reality? thus, the need for dealing correctly with data is paramount. at joci, we are proud to have added to a potential solution through the publishing of data-oriented issues. my gratitude goes to the guest editors, who did a wonderful job of convening authors and guiding them through the editorial process. also, of course, to the authors, whose writings will help many to face the complicated nature of open data and data literacy in our changing world. joci will strive to add to the wealth of discussion on these subjects, and call for both potential new special issue on related subjects, as well as individual collaborations on the use of data, being big or otherwise, for social and community-driven endeavours. *** as we finish such a singular year, it is time to reflect on the transition that this journal has faced. apart from the switch to a different format, a number of outstanding issue are still being dealt with, and we expect to solve them during the coming months. the significant delay that many contributors have faced in the review process of their articles can only be solved through an increase in participation in that process, for which i request help from the community around joci. we need more and more engaged reviewers. the presentation of the journal will continue envolving, and efforts are being done to allow for incorporating doi numbers to future material. indexing will also receive attention from the editorial team, which will have some changes in the coming months, to be announced during the southern summer months. any suggestions and offers of help are welcome. joci has always tried to be global journal, allowing for all different approaches and points of view to be represented. it is not a completely academic journal, in the sense that we are not bound to all the ever-more-global demands that academics are bieng subjected all around the world, both developed and emerging / developing / poor. our only requirement / limitation is language, as english is still our world’s common academic form of expression; but as a native spanish speaker from the very specific part of the global south called perú, i am also open to suggestions about how to really open up the journal to other languages. please feel free to communicate with me about this and any other matters relevant to the collective effort that joci represents. in the meantime, the world continues turning, and joci will continue being published. see you all on volume 13, march 2017. !3 stimulating citizens to community action in urban areas: media, interpersonal networks and organizations leo w. jeffres the relationship between citizens and local government in urban areas has had a long and colorful history. a century ago political machines in major american cities were the citizen’s representatives for a host of services and personal opportunities, often doled out as ethnic patronage (cochran, 1995-1996; sowell, 1981). while political parties continue to play a role mediating influence between officials and the electorate, today, city halls and elected councils largely operate through grassroots interpersonal channels and the media (krebs, 1998). and citizens hoping to influence actions of their elected representatives must depend on media that increasingly neglect coverage of the routine public business shaping the lives of urban dwellers. into this mix comes research suggesting that americans in general, and perhaps urbanites in particular, are avoiding organizations, even though they have been identified (by social scientists) as a source of social capital enhancing civic action and public life (fost, 1996; putnam, 1995). media and interpersonal channels of communication link citizens to their local community governing bodies, but to what extent does involvement in communication networks actually translate into citizen efforts to influence official actions? the role of media as “watchdogs” is a long-established function that would seem to rest on news and information that not only informs the electorate but also stimulates them to action (lasswell, 1948). however, as newspapers have moved away from coverage of meetings and routine events, particularly of city councils, there is some question as to whether the media are effective in carrying out this function. at the same time, the internet offers direct links between governing bodies and the citizenry while opening up channels of criticism and influence attempts from bloggers and citizen action groups (jeffres & lin, 2006). and this occurs at a time when another source of concern and involvement—organizations—is waning if the forecasts by putnam (1995) and others are true. organizations are seen as opportunities for people to build trust through face-to-face communication (coleman (1988; wollebaek & selle, 2002),[i] and they have been viewed as the embodiment of “social capital” (see wilson, 1997). numerous researchers have linked organizational ties to community involvement, in the united states and other countries.[ii] mayer (2004) describes how social capital is being used by researchers and practitioners in community development to frame local state-society relations and to examine civic engagement and volunteer activities. here we ask how communication channels—interpersonal and mass—and organizational involvement affect citizen attempts to influence their local government, through contacts, letter writing, attending meetings. furthermore, is the influence direct or through general patterns of political involvement that encompass voting and partisan politics? these questions will be examined with data from a survey of a major metropolitan area in the midwest. social capital at the community level the research on social capital[iii] and communication has mushroomed since putnam’s “bowling alone” article. putnam (1993, 1995, 1996a, 1996b; cbs worldwide, 2006) concluded that social capital in the american society is declining as civic organizations disappear and reduce face-to-face social interaction and civic conversations. some of the interest in the concept stems from the prospects for building social capital and its impact on community development (mayer, 2003; warner, 2001). it makes sense to study the relationship between involvement in local organizations and community action since membership in national groups with no local presence provides no obvious opportunity for the interpersonal communication expected to build social trust. involvement in local groups that provide volunteers to improve neighborhoods and solve community problems is important for the urban environment and local governance. block clubs in urban neighborhoods are probably one of the most important examples of organizations impacting local problems. they also can be seen as sources of influence attempts on public officials. research on social capital often has focused on general political involvement, particularly election campaigns, but often integrating local civic involvement (hays, 2007); for a good example see scheufele, nisbet, broussard and nisbet (2004), who look at social settings where citizens discuss politics and its impact on political activity.[iv] if social capital refers to capacity or resources for collective action,[v] then outcomes certainly should refer to influence attempts as examples of such directed behavior. numerous researchers note that the concept of social capital originated to explain how citizens cooperate with each other and engage in collective action, to pursue shared objectives. do people attempt to effect change, to exert influence, to improve life while working with others? community actions or outcomes fall under the umbrella of efforts to improve the quality of life (lochner, kawachi & kennedy, 1999) or promote economic development (warner, 2001); at the individual level these can translate into personal actions where one participates in community improvement efforts or programs (liu & besser, 2003; moy, scheufele & holbert, 1999; scheufele & shah, 2000; shah, mcleod & yoon, 2001). communication and organizational involvement as predictors the link between organizational involvement and communication—particularly interpersonal, or face-to-face communication--is well established. scheufele et al. (2004) asked people how frequently they discuss political topics across three organizational settings, work, church and volunteer groups. we know from the diffusion literature, that it is informal settings where influence is often passed (rogers, 2003). looking at both group membership and face-to-face contact within organizations, wollebaek and selle (2002) found that both were important for generating social trust but belonging to several associations, regardless of the level of interpersonal contact or the group purpose, had the strongest impact on social trust. although their measures are categorized as “neighborliness” rather than communication, lelieveldt (2004) did find such interpersonal measures as talking with neighbors and discussing problems predictive of involvement in a program to improve living conditions of deprived neighborhoods in the netherlands. however, organizations are not the only context for interpersonal communication, and recent research documents the importance of community communication networks, which represent informal exchanges among neighbors as well as ethnic groups and other opportunities in the urban environment (see, for example, jeffres, 2002). one noteworthy example of this is the metamorphosis project documenting the importance of story telling in ethnic communities of los angeles (ball-rokeach, kim & matei, 2001; matei, ball-rokeach, wilson, gibbs & hoyt, 2001).[vi] also, jeffres, atkin and neuendorf (2002) found macro community variables, communication variables (that include media use, channel dependency, neighborhood communication patterns, and interpersonal links), community variables (that include neighborhood activity, community attachment, neighboring and community perceptions) predicting community political involvement and a measure of efficacy at the community level. thus, we clearly need to separate out interpersonal communication patterns from group affiliation as sources of influence.[vii] whether the relationships established in the literature for general civic involvement or political activity can be extended to attempts to influence governance at the community level is the point of our first two hypotheses: h1: organizational involvement will be positively related to civic influence attempts at the community level. h2: involvement in community communication networks will be positively related to civic influence attempts at the community level. social categories such as education and gender are influences on political action and the other sets of variables, so they will be controlled in examining these and subsequent hypotheses and research questions. mass communication variables also play a role, and decades of research have documented the relationship between media use and various forms of political and civic activity (see jeffres, 1997, pp. 205-244). mcleod, kosicki and mcleod (2002) summarize the literature focusing on media effects and political participation; media use stimulates interpersonal discussion about campaigns (e.g., mcleod et al., 1979), and both are related to voting and political activities (chaffee, 1972; pfau, diedrich, larson & van winkle, 1995).[viii] seeing media use as influencing organizational involvement, putnam (1995) blamed television for the decline in organizational involvement, but the literature does not support his displacement hypothesis (moy, scheufele & holbert, 1999) and others have found news and informational uses of broadcast or print media positively related to civic attitudes and one form or another of civic engagement (hooghe, 2003; scheufele et al., 2004; shah, mcleod & yoon, 2001). mcleod et al. (1996) found a host of media use variables and several measures of community integration (including psychological attachment and interpersonal networks) predicting community involvement. again, the links between mass communication and organizational involvement are more complex than that accounted for by a mere displacement hypothesis. media provide audiences with information about organizations and their activities. thus, media use could have a positive or negative impact on joining organizations, depending on whether they have developed negative perceptions based on that information. some evidence points to a positive influence of mass communication on organizational affiliation.[ix] since the media may operate in different ways, the following question is posed: rq1: how will media use variables be related to attempts to influence governance at the community level? other predictors efficacy, confidence in institutions, community attachment, political campaign involvement: people’s civic participation also depends on their connections to the community and political institutions, as well as feelings of efficacy and confidence in those institutions. higher efficacy has been linked to greater involvement in political processes (joslyn & cigler, 2001; rosenstone & hansen, 1993; teixeira 1992), and the sociological literature often focuses on public confidence and trust in institutions as a central outcome of social capital or involvement in organizations ((henkin & zapt, 2006). trust is seen as one dimension of social capital, although it often varies from trust of individuals to trust in organizations, in the government or in the community (bergerschmitt, 2002). banks (1997) defines social capital as both a network of trust enabling people to solve problems of collective action and as a facilitator of individuals’ control over events close to them. a study in italy found that participation in associations generated not a generalized social trust but instead trust in specific institutions (sciolla, 2003). liu and besser (2003) found that a sense of community was related to involvement in improvement activities but general trust was not, in a study of the elderly in small towns and rural areas.[x] community attachment is important for civic actions (hays & kogl, 2007). the concept captures both emotional attachments to neighborhood and community as well as measures assessing the available quality of life. liu and besser (2003) surveyed seniors in small towns to see how four dimensions of social capital (informal social ties,[xi] formal social ties,[xii] trust[xiii] and norms of collective action[xiv]) and sense of community[xv] are related to participation in community improvement activities (measured with a self reporting item[xvi]). while social capital and sense of community predicted elderly reports of participation in community improvement activities, they related differently to their community involvement. sense of community and formal ties had much stronger relationships with community involvement than did informal ties and norms of collective action. generalized trust was not significantly related to their community involvement. education, income, gender, age and length of residence in the community were controlled. in england, mcculloch (2003) measured neighborhood social capital with eight questions tapping neighboring, a sense of belonging, willingness to work to improve the community, importance of relations with neighbors, communication with neighbors and attachment,[xvii] finding the summary scale linked to involvement in community organizations, ratings of local services, organizational affiliation and trust. involvement in the political system through voting and campaign activities represents another outcome as well as an intervening variable in our scenario. as noted above, a substantial literature documents relationships between communication variables, organizational involvement, and such political activity. here we separate out these political behaviors from influence attempts at the community level to see whether the former operates as a mediating variable between communication, organizational involvement and our criterion variables—community-level action that can affect urban governance between elections. based on the literature examined, the following hypotheses are offered: h3: efficacy will be positively related to attempts to influence governance at the community level. h4: confidence in institutions will be positively related to attempts to influence governance at the community level. h5: community attachment will be positively related to attempts to influence governance at the community level. h6: involvement in the political system through voting and campaign activities will be positively relate to attempts to influence governance at the community level. our interest in untangling the web of influences on civic action leads us to the following research question: rq2: will relationships between the criterion variable (attempts to influence governance at the community level) and organizational involvement, involvement in community communication networks, and media use be mediated by efficacy, confidence in institutions, community attachment or involvement in the political system? again, social categories will be controlled in examining the hypotheses and research questions. methods a survey was conducted in the spring of 2004 in a major midwest metropolitan area of the united states using a probability sample of adults interviewed with a (cati) computer-aided telephone interviewing system. the survey was introduced as a regional public opinion poll. traditional items were used to measure marital status, age, formal education completed, ethnicity, household income and gender. other variables are operationalized below. criterion variables public influence attempts: two items taken from miller’s (1991) scorecard for community services activity were used to ascertain attempts to influence public officials--political action. respondents were asked if they had contacted their city council representatives about something or written a letter to a public official. both items were coded as yes/no. in addition, two other measures of overt behaviors that may be important for influencing officials were included; respondents were asked if they attended any political meetings or rallies, and if they had initiated a political discussion; these are combined with the other two items for a second, four-item scale.[xviii] a single item ascertained activity to improve the community through joint action with others; respondents were asked to use a 0-10 scale to tell how much they agreed with the following, with 0 meaning completely disagree, 5 is the midpoint and 10 meaning completely agree: “i am actively involved in helping better my community.” this is a slight modification of the key measure used by liu and besser (2003), and it represents a self-assessment of one’s community involvement. these items were standardized and summed up for an index (alpha = .62). in addition to their role as indicators of the overall concept, these behaviors are important in their own right. a 2005 state-wide new york poll found that only 43 percent of respondents had attended a public forum or meeting, 38 percent had contacted a public official in the past year, 27 percent had volunteered with a neighborhood or civic group, and 18 percent had written a letter to a newspaper or called a radio show (nisbet, 2005).. however, these items are not merely indicators of a single concept but are self-reports of behaviors important in their own right. contacting officials and writing letters are initiatives much too rare among the citizenry if we are to believe that democracy works best when citizens express themselves openly and tell their elected officials what they think. going to a meeting is an effort that not only takes time but also suggests that citizens know where and when the council meets and what’s on the agenda, items more easily obtained online today than in the print or broadcast media. the item asking if respondents had initiated a political discussion is the easiest behavior to enact, while reports of involvement in activities that improve the community may be the most difficult. key predictors communication and organizational involvement organizational involvement—respondents were asked if they belonged to any neighborhood or community organizations, including block clubs, social groups, religious groups, business groups or ethnic groups? the number was coded as a separate variable and the types of organizations were coded as individual dummy variables,[xix] with particular interest in membership in block clubs, a building block for urban neighborhoods. a separate item asked respondents if they were involved with any groups or organizations that try to solve local problems, and the number was coded as a separate variable. a third item asked how interested they would be in “working with neighborhood or community groups working to improve things,” again using a 0-10 scale. for other studies using similar items see hindman (2004), lochner, kawachi and kennedy (1999), and lelieveldt (2004). involvement in neighborhood communication network—three items were used to measure the strength of one neighborhood communication patterns linking residents to neighbors. all three are commonly used in measuring what urban scholars often call neighboring, and they represent informal opportunities for residents to develop relationships and discuss important community or political topics (see lelieveldt, 2004).[xx] responses were standardized and summed up for a scale (neighcom scale alpha = .80). mass media use—the traditional items were used to measure media use: frequency of internet use at home or at work, hours of tv watched yesterday, how often usually watch tv news, hours listened to radio yesterday, days read a paper last week, number of different magazines read regularly, number of books read in past six months, number of borrowed, rented or purchased videos or dvds watched in past month, number of times went out to see a movie in a theater in past month, and how often respondents accessed the internet at home or at work. three items ascertained attention to public affairs topics in the news, providing a measure across the news media that is better focused for our interest in civic involvement. respondents were asked to use a 0-10 scale to indicate how much they agreed with the following, with 0 meaning completely disagree, 5 is neutral and 10 meaning completely agree: i pay a lot of attention to what’s going on with local city and county government; i pay a lot of attention to international events in the media; i pay a lot of attention to news about what’s going on in government in washington, d.c. responses were standardized and summed up for a scale (public affairs attention scale alpha = .75). in addition, the first variable focusing on city and county government will be separated out for scrutiny. other predictors: political efficacy—items modified slightly to fit the context were taken from olsen’s (1969) political incapability scale. respondents were asked to use a 0-10 scale to indicate how much they agreed with each of the following three items, with 0 meaning completely disagree, 5 being neutral and 10 meaning completely agree: 1) public officials don’t care much what people like me think; 2) there’s no other way than voting that people like me can influence government actions; 3) people like me don’t have any say about what the government does. responses were standardized and summed up for a scale (polefficacy scale alpha = .64). confidence in local institutions—respondents were asked to use a 0-10 scale to indicate how much confidence they had in each of nine institutions, where 0 meant absolutely none, 5 was the midpoint, and 10 meant complete confidence: county commissioners, the mayor, the governor, area business leaders, area labor leaders, the metro daily newspaper, local television stations, local religious leaders, and area colleges and universities. responses were standardized and summed up for a scale (institutional confidence scale alpha = .69). community attachment—one item tapped quality-of-life perceptions, asking respondents to indicate the overall quality of life available in the metro area on a 0-10 scale where 0 was the worst possible and 10 the best possible. three others asked respondents to use 0-10 scales to indicate attachment to the city, neighborhood and general area. the quality of life and attachment items have been used in a variety of studies (see lochner, kawachi & kennedy, 1999). responses to all four were standardized and summed up for a scale of community attachment (community attachment scale alpha = .69). involvement in political campaigns—eight items that operationalize milbraith’s (1965) ladder of involvement were used to ascertain political involvement. respondents were asked if they had: worn a button or put a sticker on their car, contributed money to a party or candidate, been active in a political party, solicited political funds, run for an office, or voted in the last major election. responses were coded yes/no and a summary index created.[xxi] results a total of 302 respondents were interviewed, for a cooperation rate of 30 percent, a percentage comparable to other national studies using interviews of this length.[xxii] the sample reflects a diverse community.[xxiii] several of the social categories are related to the measure tapping attempts to influence public officials, which is positively correlated with being married (r=.16, p<.01), education (r=.39, p<.001) and household income (r=.20, p<.01). social categories also are related to organizational connections,[xxiv] interpersonal and neighborhood communication,[xxv] media use,[xxvi] and community attachment.[xxvii] thus, we need to take into account the social categories in subsequent analyses. testing hypotheses the first hypothesis said that organizational involvement would be positively related to civic influence attempts at the community level. as table 1 shows, the overall scale and all of the five constituent items are correlated with organizational involvement, including the number of groups with whom one belongs, the number of groups one belongs to that are helping to improve the community, and membership in block clubs, as well as membership in several other types of groups (school groups, help groups, special interest groups, self-help groups and political groups). in addition, most of these relationships persist with controls for social categories. thus, consistent with the existing literature on political activity, we find organizational ties related to active attempts to influence governance. all of the relationships persist when social categories are controlled (see table 2). table 1: relationships between public influence attempts and organizational involvement criterion variables: public influence scale/constituent items organizational involvement variables five-item scale contacted council rep wrote council rep attended meetings initiated discussion actively involved no. organizations belong to .34*** .28*** .21*** .14* .22*** .18*** .26*** .22*** .12* .05 .29*** .28*** no. neigh-community groups belong to .35*** .29*** .18*** .13* .24*** .21*** .26*** .23*** .16** .08# .28*** .27*** block clubs .15** .16** .15** .15** .15** .15*** .03 .04 .09# .10* .06 .06 general community groups .06 .04 .06 .04 .11* .11* .00 -.03 -.01 -.03 .05 .03 religious groups .12* .07 .12* .06 .12* .08# -.02 -.05 .10* .04 .12* .13* school-education groups .17** .20*** .10* .12* .11* .12* .19*** .20*** .03 .03 .15** .15** fraternal groups .07 .07 .05 .03 .07 .07 .05 .05 .01 .01 .03 .04 youth groups -.03 -.02 -.06 -.03 -.04 -.02 .05 .04 -.06 -.06 .03 .01 professional groups .12* .08 .04 .02 .04 .02 .13* .09# .10* .04 .07 .07 self-help groups .21*** .19*** .12* .09# .12* .09# .20*** .19*** .09# .06 .14** .13* business groups .06 .01 -.01 -.05 .02 .00 .10* .09# .05 .00 .02 -.01 special interest groups .21*** .22*** .15** .14* .15** .13* .20*** .20*** .04 .04 .14** .16** sports groups -.04 -.02 -.09# -.06 -.07 -.05 -.02 -.03 .08 .10# -.02 -.03 political groups .16*** .16*** .09# .08# .12* .11* .10* .10* .06 .06 .12* .13* military groups -.02 -.01 -.07 -.04 .12* .14* -.07 -.08 -.11* -.11* .05 .05 labor groups .10* .11* .01 .01 -.03 .02 .10* .11* .06 .06 .11* .12* general social groups .05 .02 .00 -.03 -.04 -.07 .08# .06 .05 .01 .08# .08# note: the first figure in each row is the bivariate correlation; the figure in the second row is the partial correlation controlling for social categories (level of education; age; annual household income; gender; marital status, and ethnicity. the sample size varies slightly for some correlations from the base of 306 because of missing data. #=p<.10; *=p<.05; **=p<.01; ***=p<.001. table 2: relationships between public influence attempts and media use criterion variables: public influence scale/constituent items media use five-item scale contacted council rep wrote council rep attended meetings initiated discussion actively involved frequency go on internet .28*** .22*** .01 .03 .16** .16** .24*** .16** .26*** .13* .21*** .17** no. hours watched tv yesterday -.19*** -.15** -.10* -.10* -.10* -.08# -.15** -.12* -.18*** -.13* -.07 -.06 freq. watch tv news .03 .00 .04 -.04 .05 .01 .02 .02 -.01 -.02 .00 .01 no. hours listened to radio yesterday .00 .03 .02 .06 .00 .03 .06 .06 .01 .03 -.02 -.03 no. days read paper last week .19*** .12* .16** .04 .12* .02 .18*** .19*** .11* .04 .06 .10# no. magazines read regularly .15** .09# .10* .06 .14** .12* .12* .09# .08# .02 .04 .02 no. books read in past six months .19*** .07 .04 -.04 .12* .03 .13* .07 .21*** .08# .13* .11* no. dvds, videos watched in past month .04 .03 -.07 -.01 .00 .03 .03 -.02 .06 .00 .09# .05 no. times went out to see film in theater .08 .07 -.05 -.01 .06 .08 .10# .06 .06 .05 .07 .04 attention to public affairs news scale .42*** .38*** .31*** .25*** .27*** .18*** .27*** .26*** .28*** .22*** .20*** .24*** pay attention to local city, county gov. news .37*** .35*** .34*** .29*** .21*** .15** .23*** .24*** .21*** .20*** .20*** .23*** pay attention to international news .30*** .24*** .20*** .14** .23*** .15** .20*** .17** .24*** .16** .07 .10# pay attention to national government news .36*** .32*** .22*** .17** .21** .14** .24*** .23*** .25*** ,20*** .19*** .22*** note: the first figure in each row is the bivariate correlation; the figure in the second row is the partial correlation controlling for social categories (level of education; age; annual household income; gender; marital status, and ethnicity. the sample size varies slightly for some correlations from the base of 306 because of missing data. #=p<.10; *=p<.05; **=p<.01; ***=p<.001. the second hypothesis said that involvement in community communication networks would be positively related to civic influence attempts at the community level. we find that involvement in the community communication network is correlated with the scale measuring civic influence attempts at the local level, even with social categories controlled (r=.28, p<.001; partial r=.24, p<.001) and all of the individual constituent variables, although two of the five relationships drop below statistical significance with controls: contacting city council representatives (r=.33, p<.001; partial r=.25, p<.001); writing letters to public officials (r=.15, p<..01; partial r=.09, p<.08); attending political meetings (r=.15, p<.01; partial r=.15, p<.01); initiating political discussions (r=.11, p<.05; partial r=.06 n.s.); and reporting active involvement in efforts to better the community (r=.17, p<.01; partial r=.20, p<.001). even more significantly, when we add the two measures of membership in organizations (total number and number of groups that try to improve the community), the correlations persist (partial r with scale =.21, p<.001). thus, involvement in neighborhood communication networks contribute above and beyond organizational membership in stimulating attempts to influence governance. our first research question asked how media use variables would be related to attempts to civic influence attempts at the community level. as table 2 shows, television has a negative effect on influence attempts, consistent with putnam’s thesis about the negative impact of television, though not necessarily through time displacement. but reading newspapers more frequently, going on the internet more often, and paying more attention to public affairs in the news are positively correlated with the scale tapping civic influence attempts, and these relationships persist with social categories controlled. internet use and television viewing are related to four of the five constituent variables with demographics controlled, and reading the newspaper is related to attending meetings. the third hypothesis said that efficacy would be positively related to attempts at civic influence at the community level. results showed that efficacy was not related to the scale or any of the constituent items tapping civic influence attempts, and controlling for social categories doesn’t alter the pattern much. the partial correlation between efficacy and contacting city council representatives approaches statistical significance (partial r=.09, p<.08). the fourth hypothesis said that confidence in institutions would be positively related to civic influence attempts at the community level. results are in the reverse direction. the less confident one is in institutions, the more likely one is to try to influence local governance (r=-.12, p<.05). in addition, the scale is negatively associated with three of the items (contacting city council representatives r=-.14, p<.02; attending political meetings r=-.18, p<.003; initiating political discussions r=-.16, p<.006) and positively related to one, reporting one is actively involved in helping better the community (r=.16, p<.007). thus, those with the least confidence are more active, although the relationship with the overall scale drops below statistical significance with social categories controlled (partial r=-.18, p<.10); the other correlations retain their significance. as fuchs, shapiro and minnite (2001) note, political involvement in central city neighborhoods historically has been based on conflict rather than consensus-building; to the extent that conflict and dissatisfaction are joined together, we might find that those disappointed in their institutions attempt to influence public actions in the absence of local organizations, e.g., directly contacting their council representatives. the fifth hypothesis said that community attachment would be positively related to civic influence attempts at the community level. results showed those most attached to their community are more likely to try to influence local governance (r=.29, p<.001), and this relationship persists with social categories controlled (partial r=.20, p<.001). attachment also is related to each of the constituent items: contacting city council representatives (r=.14, p<.008); writing letters to public officials (r=.14, p<.02); attending political meetings (r=.16, p<.003; partial r=.11, p<.05); initiating political discussions (r=.20, p<.001; partial r=.11, p<.04); and reporting active involvement to help better the community (r=.25, p<.001; partial r=.26, p<.001), but relationships with making contact with city council representatives and writing public officials drop out with social categories controlled. the final hypothesis said that involvement in the political system through voting and campaign activities would be positively linked to attempts at civic influence at the community level. strong relationships are found between the measure of involvement in political campaigns (wearing a button or putting a sticker on one’s car, contributing money to a party or candidate, being active in a political party, soliciting political funds, and running for an office, and voting in the last major election) and the scale and constituent variables tapping civic influence attempts. these relationships persist with social categories controlled: civic influence scale (r=.46, p<.001; partial r=.40, p<.001); contacting council representatives (r=.24, p<.001; partial r=.20, p<.001); writing a letter to public officials (r=.24, p<.001; partial r=.20, p<.001); attending political meetings (r=.39, p<.001; partial r=.35, p<.001); initiating political discussions (r=.22, p<.001; partial r=.14, p<.02); and reporting active involvement in helping better the community (r=.35, p<.001; partial r=.32, p<.001). the second research question asked if relationships between the criterion variable (civic influence attempts at the community level) and organizational involvement, involvement in community communication networks, and media use would be mediated by efficacy, confidence in institutions, community attachment or involvement in political campaigns. we examined the relationships in hypotheses 1-2 and research question 1 controlling for efficacy, confidence in institutions, and community attachment, finding that most of the relationships persist. thus, the five-item scale tapping civic influence attempts is correlated with the number of organizations one belongs to (partial r=.28, p<.001), the neighborhood communication scale (partial r=.18, p<.003), and the same three key media variables, frequency one goes on the internet (partial r=.21, p<.001), the number of days last week one read a newspaper (partial r=.12, p<.04), and attention to public affairs in the news (partial r=.31, p<.001), controlling for efficacy, institutional confidence, community attachment and involvement in political campaign activities. finally, we entered the predictor variables into a hierarchical regression to determine the impact of communication and organizational variables when entered simultaneously (see table 3). the set of social categories was entered first, with education proving to be the only significant predictor. next we entered four variables, efficacy, institutional confidence, community attachment and involvement in political campaigns; the betas for all but efficacy were statistically significant. finally, the organizational and communication variables were entered, with three key predictors— membership in community organizations that try to solve local problems, attention to public affairs news in the media, frequency one goes on the internet and time spent watching television, the last a negative predictor. the beta for the number of organizations belonged to approaches significance. table 3: hierarchical regression predicting civic influence attempts r square r square change f change significant standardized betas social categories (6 variables) 0.38 0.14 8.36 p<.001 education b=.16 p<.001 key predictors (4 variables) 0.56 0.17 18.0 p<.001 community attachment b=.18 p<.001 institutional confidence b=-.11 p<.03 involvement in pol. campaigns b=.38 p<.001 organizational & communication variables (13 variables) 0.67 0.14 5.46 p<.001 no. orgs. belong to b=.10 p<.06 no. orgs. improving neigh. b=.14 p<.01 attention to public affairs news in media b=.20 p<.001 freq. go on internet b=.11 p<.05 no. hours watch tv b=-.15 p<.003 r=.67, r sq.=.45, f=10.03, p<.001, n=306 note: social categories include the following: age, gender, education, income, white ethnicity, married marital status. other key predictors include: efficacy, institutional confidence, community attachment, involvement in political campaigns. organizational and communication variables include: involvement in neighborhood communication network, number of groups one belongs to, number of groups one belongs to that work to improve community, attention to public affairs news in media (scale), hours watched tv, frequency watch tv news, frequency go on internet, number of hours listened to radio yesterday, number of days read newspaper last week, number of books read in the past six months, number of dvds, videos watched in the past month, number of times went out to see a film in a theater in the past month. these analyses support the importance of organizational involvement, neighborhood communication networks, and attention to public affairs content in the media as stimulants for attempts to influence local governance in urban areas; in addition, internet use and not spending a lot of time watching television are important predictors, and these influences persist beyond campaign involvement, institutional confidence and community attachment. the attention measure appears to account for much of the variance that would be accounted for by newspaper reading; substituting the latter for the former produces a beta that approaches significance in a parallel regression. discussion in the final analysis, all politics is local, the pundits say, but the literature often ignores community or treats it as a stand in for society. that certainly appears to be the case for much of the social capital literature as well. here we’ve focused on the community level in an urban area, finding independent contributions from communication and organizational involvement as predictors of civic influence attempts. furthermore, the neighborhood communication network and mediated channels are important. the “real” interest behind a focus on social capital is understanding what holds people together or discourages them from mobilizing with their friends and neighbors to effect change, to solve problems, to influence the public arena in our urban centers. organizations and communication have been placed center stage in this scenario, providing opportunities for people so interested, motivating people to get involved, or acting as “warning indicators” in societies and communities that have lost some of the potential for civic engagement necessary for a working democracy. slapping the “social capital” label on organizational affiliations or interpersonal communication networks does little to advance these concerns. what we added here were more targeted behaviors of influence, separating out contacts with public officials from general political involvement or engagement. we learn that even controlling for involvement in political campaigns does not nullify the importance of the neighborhood communication network, organizational ties and media channels. our analysis represents an effort to tease out the nature of different aspects of civic engagement, and its relationship to a host of communication variables that make up that system at the community level. is it organizational affiliation alone or in conjunction with informal communication networks that stimulates such engagement? the answer tentatively provided here appears to be that there is a mutual influence. media use plays a more complicated role than suggested by the literature. the finding that time spent with television is a negative predictor of civic influence attempts supports the old “videomalaise” hypothesis (robinson, 1976) rather than putnam’s suggested time-displacement of organizational activities. attention to public affairs news across mass media is a powerful predictor, but we see that internet use alone makes an additional contribution. newspapers and other traditional mass media today provide little of the “watchdog” information that would allow citizens to monitor what’s going on in city halls on a regular basis. but the internet has provided a home not only to city council agendas but also minutes and other mobilizing information (lemert, 1984) important for civic action in urban centers (jeffres & lin, 2006). thus, as political campaign strategists have already learned, the 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(2002). does participation in voluntary associations contribute to social capital? the impact of intensity, scope and type. nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly, 31, 32-61. endnotes 1 wollebaek and selle (2002) examine relations among the following variables: social trust,[1] social connectedness (networks, interpersonal contact, and organizational affiliation), and civic engagement (voting behavior, political interest, reading news in daily papers). results showed that organizational membership was related to all variables--trust, social networks and civic engagement. active participation (face-to-face contact) was related to social trust among young people but to none of the other variables. 2 grant (2001) describes a case study in guatemala where community organizations and informal links were important for mobilization and development of neighborhoods. bridger and luloff (2001) link social capital to sustainable community development. paek, yoon and shah (2004) looked at the community-level context and such factors as home ownership, diversity, and newspaper use, and how they affect civic engagement—measured via items that include volunteering and working on a community project. liu and besser (2003) found that formal organizational ties were related to community involvement measured as participating in local improvement activities in a study of seniors in small towns and rural areas. leonard and onyx (2003) note that the type of connection is as important as the strength of the tie. thus, bridging is associated with loose ties across communities and bonding is associated with strong ties within a limited group. their qualitative study of 39 participants connected through community organizations in new south wales suggests that loose and strong ties are not synonymous with bridging and bonding. results show that people prefer to bridge through their strong ties. the exceptions were ties to professionals, who were highly trusted but defined as loose ties. they recommend a model for a high social capital society might be a chain of well-bonded groups, each with strong links to some other groups. 3 bourdieu (1985) defined social capital as “the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition—or, in other words, to membership in a group—which provides each of its members with the backing of the collectivity-owned capital, a ‘credential’—which entitles them to credit, in the various senses of the word” (pp. 248-249). 4 scheufele, nisbet, broussard and nisbet (2004) measure political activity via seven items tapping voting, attending meetings, contacting public officials, circulating petitions, working for campaigns, raising funds and writing letters to the editor. they integrate into a single model predicting political participation not only interpersonal discussion networks (across three contexts--work, volunteering and church) but also network heterogeneity and attention to both print and broadcast news. scheufele, nisbet, brossard and nisbet (2004) found that the frequency with which one talked about political issues with people in community or volunteer groups was directly related to political participation. a study in france found that people who were members in one or several associations were more politicized, although it did not make them more confident or civic (mayer, 2003). hooghe (1999) found that participation in associations affected social attitudes in the flemish population of belgium. much of the discussion around social capital is consistent with an older model of how to look at relationships among these variables—socialization—although the criterions variable is less political knowledge or norms than social action. for a recent discussion of political socialization, see dudley and gitelson (2002) and other articles in a special issue of applied developmental science (2002), vol. 6, no. 4. 5 also noting the economic origins of the concept, smith and kulynych (2002) argue that the term should be replaced by “social capacity,” largely to avoid ideological associations with the second word of the term. 6 for the most recent research and a comprehensive list of work stemming from this project, consult the website: http://www.metamorph.org. 7 baum, modra, bush, cox, cooke and potter (1999) found volunteers in organizations to have stronger community contacts (visiting neighbors) and stronger social participation (use of community facilities and attending social events) than non-volunteers. they also were more likely to engage in individual and collective civic activities—signing petitions, writing political representatives, writing letters to the editor, attending council meetings, working in social campaigns, working in political campaigns, and getting involved in religious, school, service and ethnic groups. 8 an extensive literature over many years shows positive effects of news media use on both political knowledge and images as well as reports of active participation in campaigns and political processes that include voting (e.g., blumler & mcleod, 1974; chaffee & schleuder, 1986; guo & moy, 1998; mcleod, daily, et al., 1996; smith, 1987). mcleod et al. (1999) looked at willingness to participate in a citizen forum as a dependent variable in a structural model where size and heterogeneity of political discussion networks, interpersonal discussion of politics and community issues, local public affairs media use, and reflection were antecedent endogenous variables. 9 hindman (2004) looks at the relationship between media use and social participation, which includes participation in political groups, boycotts, demonstrations or marches, belonging to groups that took local actions, attending political events, participating in ethnic organizations, and participation in a host of private organizations. in a factor analysis, four factors emerged for analysis—conflict groups (political groups or activities), clubs (hobbies, professional, sports, private interest groups), support (seniors, self help, charity and religious groups), and youth (parent and youth organizations). newspaper reading was positively related to all four types of social participation, while television viewing was positively related to support and youth groups but negatively related to conflict and club participation. internet use was positively related to conflict and club participation. political knowledge, political interest and social trust were related to most of the different types of social participation. 10 looking at social trust, social altruism, equality, tolerance, and humanitarianism as soft evidence of social capital, brewer (2003) found public employment a predictor of civic participation; he argues that public servants appear to be catalysts for building social capital in society at large. using data from the 1975-1995 general social surveys, paxton (1999) finds a decline in trust in individuals but not in trust in institutions or associations. berger schmitt (2002) links social cohesion and trust to the quality of life literature. 11 measured by items tapping number of relatives/in-laws, friends, acquaintances in the community (on four-point scale ranging from none to all). 12 measured with an item asking number of local groups and organizations one belongs to. 13 measured with item asking respondents to tell whether their community is trusting or not on a 7-point scale. 14 measured with three items to which respondents indicated how much they agreed using a 5-point scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree: 1) when something needs to be done, the whole community usually gets behind it; 2) community clubs and organizations are interested in what is the best for all residents; 3) most everyone in (name of community) is allowed to contribute to local government affairs if they want to. 15 measured with two items: 1) “some people care a lot about feeling part of the community they live in. for others, the community is not so important. how important is it to you to feel part of the community?” responses included: little or no importance, somewhat important, and very important; 2) “how interested are you in knowing what goes on in (name of community)?” responses included: not interested, neither interested nor disinterested, somewhat interested, and very interested.” 16 the item was: “in general, how would you describe your level of involvement in local community improvement activities and events? not at all active, not very active, somewhat active and very active.” 17 the items were: i feel like i belong to this neighborhood; the friendships and associations i have with other people in my neighbourhood mean a lot to me; if i needed advice about something i could go to someone in my neighbourhood; i borrow things and exchange favours with my neighbours; i would be willing to work together on something to improve my neighbourhood; i plan to remain a resident of this neighbourhood for a number of years; i like to think of myself as similar to the people who live in thie neighbourhood; i regularly stop and talk with people in my neighbourhood. 18 these items have been used by a host of researchers, e.g., hardy (2004), rojas (2003), schuldt et al. (2001). 19 they included political, special interest (promoting causes), block clubs, school or education groups (e.g., pta, booster clubs), help organizations (e.g., red cross, health groups, rape crisis center), labor groups (e.g., union), religious groups. 20 one asked how many of the 10 closest neighbours one knows well enough to say hello or good morning to when they meet them on the street. two others asked respondents to use the 0-10 scale to indicate agreement: “i often talk with neighbours on the street or while i’m in my yard”; “i spend more time talking with my neighbours than most people do.” 21 alpha is an inappropriate statistic for a summary index based on additive scores of 0-1. 22 see: pew research center (2004) and mcguckin, keyes, and liss (2006). 23 the sample was 45 percent male, 50 percent female, with 64 percent white, 20 percent black, and rest other ethnic categories. about 45 percent were college graduates or had advanced degrees, with 31 percent completing some college, and 18 percent high school graduates. twenty three percent were age 30 or younger, 21 percent age 31-40, 21 percent age 41-50, 15 percent age 51-60, 11 percent age 61-70, and 9 percent age 71 or older. some 41 percent were married and a fourth either divorced or widowed, with 31 percent never married and 4 percent separated. the median household income was about $50,000. while 57 percent identified themselves as democrats (31% strong, and 26% lean towards), 25 percent identified themselves as independents or a member of some other party, and 19 percent identified themselves as republicans (7 percent strong, and 12% lean towards). 24 social categories also are related to measures of organizational connections, with positive correlations between the number of community organizational affiliations and being married (r=.12, p<.05), formal education (r=.21, p<.001), and household income (r=.14, p<.001). only three social category variables are correlated with involvement in organizations that try to solve local problems, education (r=.21, p<.001), income (r=.14, p<.03), and being married (r=.12, p<.05). interest in working with neighborhood or community groups working to improve things is related to education (r=.11, p<.05) and ethnicity/being non-white (r=-.14, p<.01). a few correlations appear between social categories and affiliation with specific types of groups. 25 social categories also are related to measures of communication that connect people to each other and their communities and institutions. age is positively associated with neighborhood communication (r=.20, p<.001), as are education (r=.12, p<.02), household income (r=.21, p<.001), being married (r=.28, p<.001), and ethnicity/being white (r=.15, p<.007), and the correlation with gender (r=.08, p<.10) approaches statistical significance. 26 predictable relationships are found between social categories and measures of mass media use. thus, for example, older respondents (r=.23, p<.001), those who are married (r=.16, p<.004), caucasians (r=.12, p<.03), men (r=.14, p<..02) and those with more education (r=.18, p<.002) pay greater attention to public affairs news. 27 thus, older people (4=.13, p<.02), the more educated (r=.26, p<.001), the more affluent (r=.21, p<.001), and married people (r=.23, p<.001) are more attached to their community. broadband project for the aging in victoria broadband project for the aging in victoria paul gerard budde a new project announced by the victorian government will revolutionise access to healthcare in western victoria. the project is one of 12 projects to receive funding of $4 million through the victorian government’s broadband-enabled innovation program (beip). the new tele-health project will provide patients in need of specialist medical assistance in areas like dentistry, wound management or oncology services access to high-definition, three-dimensional imaging via broadband. it means patients will have access to diagnosis without having to travel to major centres to access specialist healthcare. the university of ballarat will lead the project in partnership with the institute for a broadband-enabled society, grampians rural health alliance, victorian eresearch strategic initiative and hospitals and nursing services in ballarat, horsham, nhill and melbourne. the tele-health project will develop the central highlands and wimmera regions’ ability to capitalise on broadband infrastructure in advance of the national broadband network rollout. the beip supports collaborative projects in developing new ways of working and improving service delivery in business, government and the community through the use of high-capacity broadband. some of the successful projects of the beip include: university of ballarat is developing high-definition, three-dimensional healthcare imaging to allow patients in remote areas to get easy access to specialist care. they are also using new technologies to visualise victoria’s groundwater systems, contributing to the sustainable management of groundwater resources; royal district nursing service limited are developing a high-speed broadband application which allows for remote monitoring of medication intake of elderly patients living independently; moreland city council is developing interactive game technology to assist elderly people to remain active in their home; uniting care, moreland hall is implementing remote video conferencing for alcohol and other drug treatment assessments and related activities; university of melbourne is using internet-protocoltv to deliver education to students and clinicians; alfred health is developing online simulation-based clinical decision-making training; melbourne health is linking primary and specialist care through an immigrant clinical hub. paul budde www.budde.com.au assessing the contribution of information technology to socio-economic development: a case study from rural south africa marita turpin1, trish alexander2, jackie phahlamohlaka3 department of informatics, university of pretoria, south africa. email: marita.turpin@up.ac.za department of informatics, university of pretoria, south africa csir defence, peace, safety and security unit, pretoria, south africa introduction ci and ict4d community informatics (ci) presents an overlap with, but also a critique of information and communications technology for socio-economic development (ict4d). both approaches aim to utilise ict for the development of communities. however, some ict4d approaches have the application of technology as their departure point, whereas ci believes that the community itself should be the departure point of an intervention (gurstein 2007:63). this paper describes an ict4d project that is compatible with the ci ideals of community-centered ict enablement. the paper's central concern is to describe and assess the contribution of ict4d to the communities it is meant to serve. while the ict4d project in the case study followed a community-centered approach, this paper focuses not on the way an ict intervention is conducted but on the contribution it makes to socio-economic development. it proposes to be of value to ci, since it manages to describe a community in a way that the contribution of an ict intervention in the community can be better assessed. problem statement one of the challenges faced by ict4d and ci is that the contribution of ict to the socio-economic development of a community is difficult to describe and assess. "even though millions of dollars have been spent by donor and government agencies around the world on icts, we still do not have sufficient insight into appropriate methods for evaluating the effectiveness of these technologies on especially socioeconomic development" (pather and uys, 2010:2). heeks (2010) indicates that ict4d impact assessment has, to date, predominantly focused on ict4d's immediate impact such as providing infrastructure, as opposed to addressing the downstream impact on the socio-economic development of the community at large. in the ci domain, impact is often assessed by measures such as access to or usage of a telecenter (e.g. kumar and best, 2006). a few researchers have attempted to evaluate the contribution of ict by means of broader approaches, such as the sustainable livelihoods framework (parkinson and ramirez, 2006). however, such work appears to not be widespread. a suggested way forward if one can find a way to describe the larger social system into which ict is introduced, then one can start to investigate the impact of a new entrant into the system, namely ict, on the existing social setting. this may be possible through a systems approach, which according to ackoff (1999) is characterised by its concern for the performance of the total system, even where changes are only made to a part of the system. systems thinking recognises that the performance of a subsystem relative to its own goals does not necessarily lead to increased performance of the larger system. in ict for development, there is a need to indicate the effect of a technology intervention on the whole, or containing social system. in the broader field of information systems (is), the use of systems thinking is promoted by top scholars, all of whom conclude that it is too seldom used: according to alter (2004), there is "surprisingly limited systems thinking in the is discipline." mingers and white (2010) state that although most is researchers view themselves as systems thinkers, very few of them are actually using systems theory. "the is research community has not come to realise the significance" of systems thinking (lee, 2004). similarly, in the field of ict4d, there is an overall lack of systems thinking. when the prominent ict4d publications were searched for evidence of systems-related work, it was found that ist use was extremely limited and fragmented (turpin, 2012; turpin and alexander, 2013). in the current ict4d impact assessment frameworks as reviewed by heeks and molla (2009), there is no explicit use of systems thinking. however, some authors do explicitly address this issue. de moor (2009) argues that while ci implicitly embraces a broad socio-technical systems view, the systems way of thinking is often not formalised in a manner that can support research. petkova et al (2005) suggest that systems thinking should be added to bieber and gurstein's (2002, cited in petkova et al) list of fields related to ci, and argue for increased use of systems thinking in ci. since a distinguishing feature of ci research is its "wholistic" approach, "paying special attention to and being explicit concerning the particularities of the social context in which ci systems are to be implemented" (gurstein 2007:32), ci is well positioned to champion the use of systems thinking in the ict for development domain, and to benefit from system thinking's holistic approach when dealing with communities. this study presents an example of how systems thinking can be used to give prominence to the social context. it presents a social systems framework for describing the communities where an ict4d project is implemented, as well as the influence of the project on the socio-economic development of those communities, as systems served. research undertaken case study context and aims the ict4d case setting is a rural settlement in kwazulu natal, south africa. researchers from the university of pretoria performed information technology (it) literacy training from 2009 to 2011 in tugela ferry, a geographically remote settlement in a zulu tribal area. their point of contact was a christian mission, who invited the university to provide training to workers at the mission institutions that included a school, medical centre and orphan care centre. training took place at the mission school. the two interdependent communities most closely involved and affected by the it project were the traditional zulu community with its centuries old set of cultural practices, including an ancestral belief system, and the christian mission community, with western and zulu staff members as well as a predominantly zulu congregation. the zulu and mission communities served as the research focus of the study. the aim was to describe them in such a way that the influence of the ict4d project on the communities could be assessed. research methodology a single longitudinal case study was performed in an interpretive manner (oates, 2006). the study formed part of the first author's phd, and she undertook the case study research by herself, although she was also part of the project team that performed it literacy training. while the it project was a practical intervention, this case study takes a descriptive and explanatory rather than an action research format. data collection was done during five field trips over a period of two years. data was collected by means of participant observation, the taking of daily field notes, collecting relevant documents where possible, numerous informal interviews and ten formally scheduled interviews. data collection was guided by klein and myers' (1999) principles for interpretive field studies. an attempt was made to collect information representing different perspectives. however, the researcher was a guest of the christian mission and had privileged access to people working at the mission. she could not speak zulu and was dependent on mission workers to translate when she wanted to interact with the more traditional zulus. as such, the mission's perspective may be better represented than other perspectives. theoretical framework the study aimed to describe and assess the influence of the it training project on the community using a systems approach that is, to describe the influence of the technology intervention on the containing social system. as a point of departure, checkland and holwell's (1998) definition of an information system was borrowed: an information system consists of two systems. the first is the system being served, consisting of people that take purposeful action and have information needs. the second is the serving system, which provides support by processing information that assists in the purposeful action of the people in the system served. the nature of the system served, and how this system is understood, must inform what the serving system will look like (checkland and holwell, 1998: 111). in tugela ferry, there were two interrelated but distinct communities with whom the ict4d project team interacted and whom they wanted to assist: the christian mission and the broader zulu community. these were both identified as "systems served". the ict4d project formed the "serving system". the research challenge was to assess how the serving system assisted the systems served. since the point of departure of the ict4d study was that the serving system should contribute to the socio-economic development of the systems served, a manner was needed to describe and assess socio-economic development. roode et al's (2004) notion of socio-economic development provides a human-centred view of development, in contrast with the economically centred notions which have been heavily criticised (e.g. avgerou, 2003; silva and westrup, 2009). roode et al's (2004) definition builds on the work of max-neef et al. (1991) who view development as self-reliance, where self-reliance does not refer to isolated self-sufficiency, but includes horizontal interdependence and vertical integration. roode et al. (2004) refers to "self-reliant human scale development which flows from the individual level to the local, regional and national levels, and which is horizontally interdependent and vertically complementary". this definition contains two key concepts: self-reliance, and interdependence describing the relationships with other key social systems. the research problem then becomes one of indicating the influence of the serving system on the self-reliance as well as interdependence relationships of the systems served. an appropriate systems framework was required with which these influences could be described. from a literature review on systems thinking applied in the social domain, the concept of social autopoiesis was identified as promising (mingers, 2004; 2006; turpin and alexander, 2011). autopoiesis is concerned with the self-production of living entities (maturana and varela, 1987). a living entity produces itself and is self-sustaining. part of its successful self-production is due to the structural coupling between the living entity and key neighbouring systems. the autopoiesis concept of self-production is related to the development notion of self-reliance, and structural coupling to interdependence. whereas autopoiesis is a biological theory, the notion of social autopoiesis uses giddens' (1984) structuration theory to describe the self-production dynamics of a social system: "human social activities, like some self-reproducing items in nature, are recursive. that is to say, they are not brought into being by social actors but continually recreated by them via the very means whereby they express themselves as actors" (giddens, 1984: 2). if structuration theory is used to define and describe social systems, then they are defined in terms of social and cultural practices, rather than by geography or demographics. this appears to be an appropriate way to describe a social system. giddens' structuration theory describes how a social system produces and reproduces itself by means of structures of signification (sense-making), domination (exercising of social power), and legitimation (application of norms). the researchers make the claim that if these self-production processes operate in such a way that the social system is strengthened and becomes more self-reliant as a result, then the system is in a positive cycle of development. looking at how these processes function in the systems served, before and after the technology intervention, will give us an indication of whether the ict4d project has contributed to the well-being of the systems served. the systems framework below (table 1) presents the way in which the concepts of autopoiesis as well as structuration theory were used to describe and assess the social systems of interest in the ict4d case study. the framework was developed during an iterative process of theory development and data collection/analysis on the ict4d case study: table 1: elements of the social systems framework during the preparatory phase, a contextual study is performed of each of the systems of interest, as per klein and myers' (1999) principle of contextualisation. soft systems aids, such as a rich picture and catwoe description (checkland, 1999), are used to provide a rich summary of each social system. the soft systems aids are used here in a reflective manner ("mode 2" use of the soft systems methodology, see checkland and holwell 1998:164) rather than as part of a systems design exercise. the second aspect of preparation involves stating assumptions. when moving from the real world to the conceptual and less detailed systems world, some assumptions and simplifications need to be made. for example, based on demographic evidence, generalisations are made about the traditional zulu lifestyle that may not be true for all zulus in the community. after the preparatory phase has been completed, descriptions of the social systems are performed. first, each social system of interest is described using the concepts of structuration theory indicated in table 1 above. structuration theory is used to capture the "social heart" of the system. the concepts in step ii's columns resemble giddens' dimensions of the duality of structure (giddens, 1984: 29; mendelsohn and gelderblom 2004:93). the structure of domination is split into two, to give separate prominence to allocative and authoritative resources. further, giddens' notion of a social system is made explicit by including the terms "rituals" and "social practices". the systems description done using structuration theory language is supplemented with the application of autopoiesis concepts. part of this component is an assessment of whether the social system is successful in its self-production and structural coupling, and thus whether it is socio-economically sustainable. in developing step iii, a way was sought to describe a social system in autopoiesis language while also utilising the structuration concepts of step ii. no previous examples were available where autopoiesis and structuration theory were combined to describe a social system. steps ii and iii were developed and refined in an iterative process of studying theory, applying the concepts and updating the framework. further details on the concepts of the framework in table 1, and how each was derived, can be found in turpin (2012). application of systems framework to case study step i: preparatory work a background sketch of each social community of interest in the case study is presented below, before these are modelled as social systems. the three communities described are the broader zulu community, the christian mission and the ict4d project. they are described here using historical, demographic and other background information, while the social systems descriptions that follow rely more heavily on empirical data collected during community interaction. the contextual description of the zulu community and the mission are concluded with a rich picture that provides a situational summary of the two communities served. the zulu community msinga, the local municipality in which tugela ferry is located, consists of 96% zulu speaking south africans (statistics south africa, 2012). the homogeneity in population can be ascribed to land ownership regulations: msinga is part of zulu tribal area, according to the traditional leadership and governance framework amendment act of south africa (41/2003). tribal leaders have jurisdiction over land allocation and tribal matters, while the area is simultaneously governed by south africa on the local, provincial and national levels. the community is located in the kwazulu natal midlands, geographically isolated by the deep gorges of the tugela and buffalo rivers. most people live on rocky outcrops that are unsuitable for crop farming. therefore, their subsistence farming primarily consists of herding animals. the municipality is one of the poorest in the country, with an employment rate of only 21% and very few formal sector opportunities. according to the msinga municipality's integrated development plan (idp), developers are discouraged from industrial investment since they cannot purchase land in the tribal area, and because there is a lack of infrastructure and skills. roughly four in five households (the poorer 80%) live in traditional dwellings, do not have access to electricity, have to walk unknown distances to fetch water and do not have access to transport. people do however have access to mobile phones. adults in the households of the poorer 80% are largely illiterate while children have to walk far to school. subsistence livelihoods are not a sufficient means of support, and the only regular income for many is a social welfare payment in the extended family. the 20% of the community that are better off are those who live closer to the town, and have better access to infrastructure, services and a means to earn an income. health care is a concern in the msinga community, including for hiv/aids, tuberculosis (tb) and drug resistant tb. the hiv infection rate is just over 30% (msinga municipality, 2010) and there is a growing number of orphans and child-headed households. while many residents in the community are effectively destitute, the zulu social culture places great value on caring and ubuntu (a humanist philosophy). people willingly look after sick and hungry neighbours and orphans, even if their own resources are limited. it is the recognition of the importance of caring in the zulu community that has enabled a local christian mission to become influential in the area. the christian mission the second community of interest to the ict4d project is a christian mission based in tugela ferry. the mission is an offspring of the work of german missionaries who arrived in the area in the 1850s. the lutheran missionaries were joined by german farmers who were capable craftsmen, had good business skills, and who had a strong work ethic (greeff, 2003). the result was a thriving german farming community closely connected to a mission that was expanding through the kwazulu natal midlands. the current tugela ferry mission started as a satellite of the german mission, but became an independent ministry in 2000. although there are few germans left in tugela ferry, the mission still has german ties and something of the german work ethic has remained. the church currently has a zulu leadership, assisted by a handful of afrikaans speaking south africans. the church maintains good relationships with the zulu tribal leadership and is therefore allowed to have dwellings and to run various programmes in the tribal area. among these initiatives are a mission school, a medical and social services centre and an orphan care centre. the mission school promotes a christian way of living as well as quality education. children of congregation members are taught a christian alternative to the ancestral belief system that is part of traditional zulu culture. in terms of quality education, the school has consistently maintained a 100% matriculation (high school) pass rate, compared to the kwazulu natal provincial pass rate of 60-70% (department of basic education, 2010). children are assisted to gain university or college entrance, thus providing them with opportunities to break out of poverty and a subsistence livelihood. the medical and social services centre focuses on the medical treatment and continued care of aids and tb patients and volunteer nursing as well as social welfare work in the broader community. their philosophy is one of integrated care, promoting a strict medication regime combined with basic hygiene, well ventilated housing and regular meals. the mission hospice admits patients who have been discharged from the state hospital, where, due to a lack of resources, they cannot keep patients diagnosed as terminally ill. the hospice is renowned for its ability to discharge 80% of these patients back into the community to continue with their lives, provided that they continue to follow the strict medication regime and lifestyle taught at the hospice. associated with the medical centre is a social worker who assists with social welfare matters in places of greatest perceived need. she tries to help in areas where the government's department of social welfare, who also has limited resources, does not reach. the orphan care centre concentrates on the large number of orphans and vulnerable children in the community. their programmes include a day crèche, a residence, assistance with the placement of children in foster care, as well as a feeding programme that aims to reduce the care-giving burden of foster families. the orphan care centre takes pride in the fact that there are no "street children" in the town of tugela ferry. whereas the mission school focuses on families in the congregation as their client base, the medical and social services centre as well as the orphan care centre is open to assist any member of the broader zulu community. the mission is uncompromising in the value system that it promotes and that it expects its converts to abide by. however, while they reject the ancestral belief system, they respect the zulu culture and social practices that do not clash with biblical values. the percentage of the zulu community that belong to the tugela ferry mission is small. it appears that their real influence is not in the number of converts, but rather in their education, health care and outreach programmes. figure 1 below provides a visual summary of the two communities described above, as well as the interaction between them. the sketch outline is in the shape of a traditional zulu hut. the wall circumscribes the poorest, deeply rural segment of the zulu community. the door contains the activities centred around the tugela ferry town, where the mission is located. figure 1: rich picture of zulu and mission communities in tugela ferry the ict4d project the third community of interest in the study is the group of people involved in the ict4d project. they bring with them a set of attributes that need to be noted if one wants to consider the way in which the ict4d team influences the communities they intend to serve. this group are all very familiar with ict and believe that it can be a useful tool in some work processes and some aspects of education. they generally originate from a highly educated urban environment. the department of informatics at the university of pretoria (up) became involved in tugela ferry through a personal contact that a up staff member had at the mission. according to the contact person, people at the mission required it literacy training for a number of reasons: it would enable school leavers to get jobs, and it would assist teachers, administrators and nurses at the medical centre to better perform their jobs. during a fact-finding visit to tugela ferry in february 2009, the needs of the mission were confirmed. however, the establishment of a relationship with key stakeholders at the tugela ferry community was far from self-evident. the informatics team were made aware that they should wait for an invitation from a zulu stakeholder in a leadership position, for their project to be culturally acceptable. it took a few months of frequent communication with the community before such an invitation was received. it was agreed that the informatics department would present basic it literacy courses at the newly established computer centre of the mission school, starting with school teachers and extending the training to other mission workers. since july 2009, a number of courses have been presented during school holidays. funding was obtained from unesco for the first round of training. during the first training course, the team leader identified course attendees who performed well and were interested in training their peers. these attendees received train-the-trainer coaching and soon after started presenting courses to their mission colleagues. during a training visit in july 2010, a local community member and businessman was identified who had a vision to set up a computer training centre. several months of planning and negotiations followed. a business site was identified and computers located. in april 2011, the first training took place at the newly established computer centre in the tugela ferry town. it was a train-the-trainer workshop. to date, the local centre has trained 58 people, compared to the 34 that the staff from the informatics department managed to train. however, business management problems were experienced and the computer centre is currently not operational. the department of informatics hopes to help revive the initiative. modelling assumptions having developed a contextual description of the three communities of interest in the tugela ferry ict4d case study, the systems modelling assumptions and simplifications need to be stated. one of these was the decision to describe the zulu and mission communities as separate social systems, even though in reality they overlapped. the reason for this assumption was that although the mission is, strictly speaking, contained in the zulu community, the social and cultural practices of the mission are very different from the traditional zulu culture. the mission makes a great effort to differentiate their value system: they request new members to renounce the ancestral belief system and to take on family values that exclude male domination and polygamy. since the social systems in this study are defined by their social and cultural practices, the zulu and mission social systems can be specified as separate systems. another assumption concerns the homogeneity of the social systems. they will be described in terms of their distinguishing social characteristics even though we know that not all members of the social system will display those characteristics. the demographic analysis showed that about 80% of the zulus in the area have a deeply rural traditional life style. the assumption will be made that we refer to the more rural, traditional zulus when we refer to the zulu social system. the next section proceeds to a description of the social systems by means of the concepts in the systems framework. steps ii and iii: describing the social systems and their influences on each other in step ii of the systems framework, each social system (the two social systems served, and the serving system) is described in terms of the concepts in giddens' (1984) dimensions of the duality of structure. because of space limitations, a selection of concepts will be discussed to illustrate how the framework is applied. social system influences in terms of authoritative resources the first example is the concept of authoritative resources, which helps to describe giddens' structure of domination. according to giddens, resources have to do with people's capacity to perform tasks (mendelsohn and gelderblom, 2004; turpin, 2012). allocative resources refer to material things which help to command the natural world. authoritative resources refer to the capability to command people. in the zulu social system, sources of authority are the ancestral belief system (i.e. the assumed power of the ancestors), the hierarchy of traditional leaders, and patriarchy in the household. some of these, such as the patriarchical system where females have very little power, do not contribute to the self-production of the zulu system or its successful coupling with the outside world. the mission social system has the authoritative resource of the bible as a distinct alternative to the ancestral belief system. further, knowledge is regarded as a source of authority, such as the high value ascribed to education at the mission school, and to medical knowledge at the mission's medical centre. the general principles of the bible as they are applied at the mission (e.g. mutual respect between the genders rather than total male domination), as well as the regard for education, are seen as conducive to the self-production of a social system. the mission aims to develop the authoritative resource base of the zulu community in a way that promotes self-production and interfacing with the outside world. the ict4d social system regards it-related knowledge (apart from education in general) as a source of authority. they aim to develop the authoritative resource base of the mission by providing them with it-related knowledge. from this description, it can be seen that the mission is concerned with strengthening the zulu social system by growing their authoritative resource base in a certain way, while the ict4d project aims to build particular authoritative resources at the mission. social system influences in terms of normative rules another example is the concept of normative rules, which forms part of giddens' structure of legitimation. normative rules are "the sanctioning of modes of social conduct" (giddens, 1984: 18). in order to participate in a social system, one has to be knowledgeable about the system's social rules and act accordingly. during research interviews and observations, the zulu community was found to pride itself on three normative rules. the first is respect, in particular for one's elders and one's own parents. respect is shown in the way people are addressed, and by using appropriate gestures. the second normative rule or value is that of mutual caring, or ubuntu. people readily assist community members in need, even if their own means are limited. the third traditional value is chastity: females are expected to keep themselves chaste until they have agreed to become the wife of a particular suitor. the whole traditional courting process involves the acting out of well defined social rules. the mission social system upholds the same three normative values, although with different motivations and execution. caring is viewed as a christian value: "christ loved the orphans and the widows" (interview respondent 3, in turpin, 2012). chastity is regarded as a biblical value and is accompanied by strict rules of conduct, such as that girls from the mission school are not allowed to have boyfriends, and females from the congregation are expected to wear skirts. while the mission emphasises the value of respect, it does not imply the same degree of inequality between genders as in the zulu system. the mission encourages a more equal treatment of females, and mutual respect between parents and children. apart from the three values that have commonalities with the values of the zulu system, the mission has other normative rules, such as that congregation members are expected to completely break away from ancestral practices and from any form of syncretism. the mission is widely respected in the zulu community, also among the non christians. the mission's practical display of unconditional caring for orphans and the poor, and thus the effective translation of their own values into what is valued by the zulu system, have significantly contributed to their acceptability. some of the key values that characterised the ict4d team were their keenness to make a difference in the community by teaching it skills, upholding academic integrity and a task-oriented approach, where value is placed on the timely and successful completion of a task. the ict4d team's acceptance in the mission was largely facilitated by their keenness to make a practical difference. their success in presenting training to zulu members of the mission was dependent on the negotiation of their own values vis-à-vis zulu values. there was a tension between their task-oriented approach and the local people's people-oriented approach. the ict4d team had to slow their pace at the onset of each new training event, to spend time showing personal interest in the individuals involved and to make sure everyone was given a chance to talk. however, the ability to apply it skills requires a task orientation, and the ict4d team believed that the trainees benefited when they had to learn to be more task oriented. in terms of academic integrity, the it literacy courses had to be of a certain standard because it was certified by the university. some course attendants could not reach the required standard, even with extra tuition. in order to ensure that they did not lose face by exposing them as failing the course, all course attendants received certificates at the prize-giving ceremony. however, some certificates specified that the course was passed and others that the course was attended. in the interaction between serving system and system served, cognisance by the serving system of the normative rules or values of the system served, contributes to the acceptability of the serving system and hence to the influence it will be allowed to have on the serving system. empirical evidence of the contribution of the ict4d social system data was collected as part of the search for empirical evidence of how the social systems influenced each other in terms of the concepts in the framework, and also looking for unanticipated influences. the researchers were particularly interested to see how the ict4d social system influenced the mission. from the empirical data, it could be shown that there were clear benefits to the mission institutions as well as to mission workers in their personal capacity. in the case of the teachers, some stated in follow-up interviews that they used computers for the first time to set up tests and process marks. more than one teacher started using a laptop to assist him or her in running his or her own business. at the orphan care centre, the ability to use spreadsheet software to track and manage donor funding was said to be useful. at the medical centre, nurses could do their record-keeping electronically, to assist with the strict medication regimes and when recording patient data for hiv/aids and tuberculosis treatments. it was clear that the mission, as a social system, benefited from enhanced capability (in terms of allocative and authoritative resources), and this was reflected in their social practices. using the concepts from autopoiesis in the framework (step iii), it was shown that as a result of the it training project, the mission system was assisted to interface more successfully with other institutions and was hence strengthened, as a system, in terms of its self-producing ability. an example of unanticipated influences was that of the zulu and mission systems on the ict4d social system. the two afrikaans speaking ict4d team members both witnessed how they were affected by the caring value system that they encountered; a factor common to the mission and zulu systems, and different from the impersonal, materialist value system that dominates their home environments. in this sense, their normative and sense-making schemes (to use the language of structuration theory) were affected and the ict4d social system was enriched in the process. reflection on results impact of ict4d project on the broader zulu social system a concern when only focussing on the mission, as a system served by the ict4d project, is that the mission does not represent the most needy people in the broader zulu community. what, if any, is the impact of the ict4d project on the poorer 80% of the people in the tugela ferry community? the ict4d project team had no direct access to the broader zulu community due to language and cultural barriers. however, the broader zulu community is the client of the mission. using the systems framework, the influence of the mission social system on the zulu social system was described. it could be shown, as seen in the example of authoritative resources above, that the mission assisted in the strengthening of the zulu social system in numerous respects, through various practical care programmes that were available to the entire community and not only to congregation members. it is then argued that in the way that the ict4d project strengthened the mission social system, it enabled the mission to serve their clients better, and in this way the ict4d project could indirectly contribute to the socio-economic development of the broader zulu community. figure 2: the strengthening influences among the social systems of interest conclusion this study indicates how the communities of interest in an ict4d case study can be described as social systems, using a systems framework that includes general system principles, as well as concepts from giddens' structuration theory and autopoiesis. using giddens, the systems can be described in terms of their social and cultural characteristics. by including autopoiesis notions of self-production, structural coupling and systemic sustainability, the self-producing ability of the systems served can be assessed, as well as the influence of the ict4d project on this ability. in terms of roode et al's (2004) definition of socio-economic development, the systems descriptions can be used to assess the influence of the ict4d project on the socio-economic development of the social systems served by it. this paper has shown how systems concepts can be applied to study the contribution of an ict4d project to the larger community where it was introduced, something which is a challenge if one wants to move beyond counting people trained or connected and beyond the use of economic measures. the study also places the focus on the sustainability of the communities served, rather than the sustainability of the ict initiatives. it attempts to move the attention of development practitioners using ict to the community they are meant to serve. from what has been learned from the ict4d case study, some suggestions can be made to ict4d practitioners and policy makers. these suggestions are phrased in the language of the systems framework used: make an effort to understand the social structure of the system served, in terms of its interpretive and normative rules, as well as authoritative resources; use this understanding to effectively interface and communicate with the system served, and in the process establish structural coupling; having achieved structural coupling, try to influence the processes of social structuration of the systems served from within their own frames of reference; acknowledge and leverage capabilities and resources within the systems served that can help to further strengthen them; facilitate structural coupling between the system served and other social systems that may assist in strengthening the system served; and identify destructive practices that continue to be reproduced in the system served, and find ways to counter these. in conclusion, the paper's aim to be of value to the ci community will be reassessed. the study has contributed to the ci field, by practically as well as theoretically 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(2013). desperately seeking systems thinking in ict4d. proceedings of the 12th international conference on the social implications of computers in developing countries, 19-22 may 2013, ocho rios, jamaica. local democratic values and e-government: barrier or promoter? a case study of a multicultural swedish municipality gabriella jansson1 1. phd student, political science, department of management and engineering, linköping university, sweden. email:gabriella.jansson@liu.se 1. introduction in the light of new public management (npm)1 , increased efficiency demands within the public sector and the alleged individualization in society, the role and function of public organizations has been a much debated issue in recent decades (e.g. peters 2001; christensen & lægrid 2007; gjelstrup & sørensen 2007). the development of e-government and the use of information and communication technology (ict) in public organizations, has added yet another aspect to this debate. e-government is increasingly being emphasized as "the way to 'do' modern government" (nixon et al. 2010, p. xxiii) and is thus moving beyond mere technology implementation. it is presented as a multifaceted reform with powerful transforming potential, with predictions of its effects ranging from overly pessimistic to overly optimistic. in this respect, e-government embodies both hopes of more efficient public organizations and fears that an overemphasis on efficiency will lead to a neglect of the inherent democratic values of public organizations, such as rule of law and principles of equality, equity and solidarity. the latter perspective emphasizes how public organizations have a specific role and responsibility which differ from that of private organizations, that is, they have a public ethos. the overarching aim of public organizations is to serve the public in ways that ensures the public interest and the common good and not merely to meet economic targets or improve cost efficiency. in order for public organizations to create and maintain democratic legitimacy it is important that e-government reforms do not produce trade-offs in policy aims, which in the long run could jeopardize democratic values (bekkers & homburg 2005; cordella 2007; gurstein 2008; kettani et al 2008). this article sets out to increase the understanding of the relationship between democratic values and e-government reforms, with a special focus on public e-services. previous research of public administration has highlighted the centrality of values, in particular democratic values, for the existence of a legitimate public administration (march & olsen 1995; lundquist 1998; peters 2001). there is thus a need for a deeper understanding of how e-government is influencing the possibility of realizing different values in public organizations, as well as what dominant values and perceptions become embedded in the implementation of e-government (åström & olsson 2006). more specifically, our aim will be to analyze the significance of local democratic core values for the introduction of public e-services in a multicultural swedish municipal organization with a strong tradition of developing democratic processes and responsiveness to citizen needs. the following research questions will guide our analysis: (1) how and why are local democratic core values related to the implementation of public e-services? (2) can local democratic values, crudely put, be seen as a barrier or promoter of public e-services? (3) what are the implications thereof? we are interested in how a municipal organization with, on the one hand, a rather specific and, in several respects, vulnerable socio-economic context (from a swedish perspective) and on the other hand, a strong emphasis on furthering democratic processes, approaches e-service implementation. western societies are becoming more heterogeneous, where different preconditions and competences of citizen are not only evident between communities in a country but also within communities. we therefore argue for the need to investigate how democratic values, such as ensuring equality, social justice and fair treatment of citizens, as enshrined in the public ethos, are handled with the increased use of ict in public service provisions. this is particularly important when populations are becoming increasingly heterogeneous, and as a result, displaying different needs and background competences. we will answer our research questions by applying parts of sabatier's and jenkins-smiths's framework for policy adaptation and change (sabatier & jenkins-smith 1993), which focuses the role of core values in processes of change. by doing so, we hope to add to the discussion on how the specific institutional features of public organizations are embedded in or realized through e-government implementation, thus connecting to mainstream debates in public administration and e-government (fountain 2001a; bekkers & homburg 2005; meijer 2007; tolbert 2008). more generally, we hope to contribute to research on the democratic potential of e-government. the democratic potential of e-government has traditionally been regarded to lie in the ability of ict to create more active citizen participation in the democratic decision making processes of representative democracy but also through more participatory and deliberate forms of citizen involvement in public issues thathave been placed under the overarching concept of e-democracy (coleman & norris 2005). however, innovations in e-democracy, such as creating chat forums between elected policy makers and citizens or electronic citizen panels, have been outrun by an emphasis on creating more efficient and accessible public services and information via the internet, known as public e-services (åström 2004; dawes 2008). private companies, with banks as common examples, have provided a blue-print for how public services can be delivered electronically, often with methods and systems deriving from customer relation management (crm) (taylor & lips 2008). cost efficiency and customer orientation are central aims in policy documents from the european union (eu) and the organization for economic cooperation and development (oecd), as well as national policy documents on e-government (government offices of sweden 2008; oecd 2009; european commission 2010). consequently, e-government, at least in its present form, is often viewed as a tool to enforce the economic logic of market-oriented reforms in public organizations, associated with npm (e.g. cordella 2007). at the same time, one of the major aims of e-government is to create a more responsive government: a government that is accessible and citizen oriented, in contrast to the alleged inwards-looking bureaucracy of the past (oecd 2009; european commission 2010). by removing information asymmetries and increasing self-services, citizens can, from a consumer's perspective, become more empowered. nonetheless, observers have highlighted the danger of viewing citizens as consumers and governments as "production companies", as that neglects the public and political character of service delivery and narrows the multidimensionality of citizenship and public administration (fountain 2001b; aberbach & christensen 2005; dutil et al 2007). citizenship involves certain constitutional rights, which, amongst other things, include access to services on an equal basis. these are especially important for exposed groups of citizens, since they are often most reliant on public services, e.g. social security benefits. to these groups, language, knowledge or competence barriers could obstruct an effective use of public e-services, thus resulting in exclusion rather than empowerment (dutil et al 2007; helbig et al 2009). this implies that the implementation of public e-services may have more far reaching consequences than current policy aims of e-government have anticipated and further highlights the need for investigating the values embedded in and realized through e-government. in advanced welfare states, public services are central for the creation and maintenance of trust for the political system, as well as of democratic legitimacy. to many citizens, the political system is embodied in the public services they meet in their everyday life. the character of this meeting is decisive for how citizens judge the political system. in this respect, an adherence to the rights of individuals as formulated constitutionally becomes just as imperative for creating legitimacy as an efficient administration (peters 2001; rothstein 2010). the fact that public services are administrated electronically should not make this aspect less important. according to this logic, public e-services are not only a tool for efficient service management but also a central component in the creation and maintenance of democratic legitimacy. more specifically, this circumstance illustrates the need for broadening the study of the democratic potential of e-government to public e-services. furthermore, it has become increasingly clear that e-government has become a catalyst for different processes of change in which the complex interplay between the technology and specific local institutional settings does not always produce uniform and anticipated outcomes (fountain 2001a; bekkers & homburg 2005). this means that it is necessary to take the wider polity of "government" in e-government, i.e. its public and political character, into account in order to understand its implementation and possible implications thereof (meijer 2007; taylor & lips 2008). the article is structured as follows: first, an overview of the methodological considerations of the study will be described. second, the role of core values in policy adaptation and change will be discussed in order to set the analytical framework. third, we present an empirical narrative of the process of developing public (e)-services in the studied municipality, botkyrka in sweden. here, the implementation of public e-services will be placed into the longer tradition of organizing and providing public services and information in the municipality (hence the "e" in brackets), thus illustrating the establishment of the distinctive local democratic values. finally, we draw together the conclusions of the analysis and discuss some of the possible implications of our findings in order to open up the field for further research. 2. e-government in a multicultural swedish municipality the intersection between the aspects discussed above is displayed in the case of sweden. sweden is not just one of the most advanced countries with regards to e-government developments (un 2008) but it also combines high broadband access with one of the most developed welfare states in the world. public services constitute an integral part of most people's lives and enjoy high legitimacy. in fact, the existence of an effective, impartial and universalistic public administration has been claimed to be the most important factors why sweden displays what has been dubbed a "high quality of government" (rothstein & teorell 2008). within a swedish welfare context, municipalities occupy a central position. they are democratically elected local entities, have their own tax base and are responsible for publicly financed governmental tasks which cover approximately 70 percent of public administration in total (montin 2007). swedish municipalities thus fund and organize a large share of overall public service provisions, such as school, child care and social services, and are, in several respects, the public organization in closest proximity to the citizen. the strong local autonomy of municipalities furthermore gives them much flexibility in e-government implementation: municipalities are to develop public e-services but how and to what extent is up to each municipality (government offices of sweden 2008). the specific case study took place in the swedish municipality of botkyrka during 2009-2011 and is based on textual analysis of central policy documents and reports as well as semi-structured, in-depth interviews with seven municipality officials and three groups of local council members. process tracing of these sources has been used as the main analytical tool for depicting the development of local core values and their role in the development of public e-services (george & bennett 2005). parts of this study, and hence this article, already figure in a licentiate thesis from 2011 (jansson 2011) but have been amended according to the different research aim of the article. botkyrka is a suburban municipality in the stockholm area of sweden and has about 81,000 inhabitants, which makes it the 23rd largest of sweden's 290 municipalities. it is one of the most multicultural municipalities in sweden, with socio-economic conditions below the average. over 100 nationalities are represented in the municipality and 51.4 percent of the inhabitants have an immigrant background, i.e. they were born abroad or with both parents born abroad (compared to sweden at large: 17.8 percent). botkyrka has in some respects been regarded as a transit municipality for newly arrived immigrants who, after a short stay, move on to other municipalities in sweden. however, there is a clear divide between the northern and the southern parts of botkyrka. the southern parts are largely composed of nature reserves as well as some residential areas of single-family houses. here, inhabitants with an immigrant background constitute 16.8 percent and the unemployment rate is only 2.2 percent (sweden at large: 9.8 percent). in contrast, in the northern parts, which consist mainly of blocks of flats, inhabitants with an immigrant background add up to 59.8 percent and an unemployment rate of 6.6 percent. another defining characteristic of the municipality is the constant rule of a centre-left coalition for over 30 years (botkyrka municipality 2010; statistics sweden 2010). botkyrka has, in several respects, been portrayed by the swedish association of local authorities and regions (salar) as a model for other municipalities with regards to furthering citizen involvement and participation in democratic processes, mainly embodied in its success with one-stop government offices (salar 2003; salar 2009). one-stop government offices, also known as "one stop shops", are common public service units where public officials with general competences provide services across administration, authority and sector divisions, placing citizen needs rather than internal divisions into focus. the main aim is thus to avoid citizens bearing the costs of internal divisions by being asked to go from one place to another for obtaining a service or ful?lling an obligation (lenk 2002). as will be described, botkyrka is also considered a forerunner in e-government developments in sweden (salar 2009). botkyrka, as a case for studying the significance of local democratic values for e-government developments, is interesting for several reasons. it is a local community where democratic processes and responsiveness have had a central place in dealings with citizens and where multicultural and socio-economic conditions have made the specific role and responsibility of public organizations the public ethos -more obvious and pressing. furthermore, the advanced level of e-government in the municipality means that it is a forerunner case which could illuminate important and interesting findings for a deeper understanding of the relationship between local democratic values and e-government. 3. values as institutional grounds values are clearly a difficult concept, both theoretically and methodologically. how is it possible to depict and analyze something which is in the heads of actors or in general often unarticulated and taken for granted? in order to be able to relate values to the implementation of a new policy area, in this article, we will rely on sabatier's and jenkins-smith's categorization of policy beliefs amongst a group of influential actors (advocacy coalitions), where so-called "deep" or "near core" values guide the direction and actions of actors (jenkins-smith & sabatier 1993). policy areas are thus here conceptualized as belief systems which consist of certain shared basic assumptions that guide policy choices. from this perspective, values are essential they are the deeply embedded and underlying structures which provide a basis for judgments of situations, actions, objects or individuals. values are, simply put, what grounds institutional arrangements, formal as well as informal, which, to different degrees, enable or restrict actors in their actions. some beliefs and values are, however, more deeply embedded than others (see figure 1). core elements, such as common beliefs, priorities and perceptions of the belief system constrain actors more than others and are consequently more stable over time. this so-called policy core (deep core) involves both personal and normative beliefs, such as common political values according to the left-right scale (equal distribution vs. individual freedom or the role of the state in society) as well as basic policy strategies and aims (near core) for realizing the deep core. in turn, there are also implementing activities (secondary elements), which can be seen as more instrumental decisions or means necessary for realizing the policy core, e.g. administrative rules and budgetary allocations. these are more open to changes over the course of a few years than are the core elements. nonetheless, both policy strategies and implementing activities are ultimately, more or less, the expression of core values policy strategies more so than implementing activities. this means that core values are not a completely abstract phenomenon. they are visible as rhetoric in stated policy strategies as well as in more tangible daily activities and practices. policy belief systems, and in particular core values, thus provide a cognitive filter for how new ideas are interpreted and implemented. these beliefs are products of past policy choices, which provide meaning for, and legitimize, new policy choices. this does not necessarily presuppose a static scenario where actors continue along the same path. reforms that match existing belief systems are more easily accepted by actors and can lead to gradual policy learning. in these instances, belief systems facilitate change and allow for a more effective implementation of reforms without changing core values. in turn, certain changes in the external environment can cause a re-evaluation of belief systems and thus gradual policy adaptation. if the pressures are strong enough, a change of core values also occurs. however, as actors are confronted with new ideas, they tend to respond in a manner consistent with the policy core, committing resources and arguing for their cases in order to defend the core. thus, adaptation and change is motivated by an ongoing process to realize core values (jenkins-smith & sabatier 1993). to summarize, our analysis will rely on the assumption that institutions can be viewed as a hierarchy of different beliefs which either facilitates reforms or constrains them. as public e-services are implemented in botkyrka, the reform is placed into the local institutional setting of the municipal organization, which is viewed here as a belief system for organizing and providing public services. in this belief system, specific local democratic core values have been prominent. next we will turn to analyzing what characterizes these local democratic values and how they have been related to the implementation of public e-services. 4. the process of developing public (e)-services in botkyrka the following section will be organized into two sections. the first section will give an overview of the institutionalization of democratic core values in botkyrka, and what signifies these. in the second section, the relationship between the local core values of the municipal organization and the process of developing public e-services in the municipality will be analyzed. the "e" will be placed into the process of developing public service provisions in the municipality. it should be noted that all the interviews were conducted during the end of phase two (2009-2010) and in the instances where interview candidates are quoted earlier, they are retelling previous events. 4.1. institutionalizing one-stop government offices (1987-2000) in the mid-1980s, it became increasingly clear that botkyrka was struggling with a number of socio-economic problems such as high unemployment rates, low turnout in public elections and low trust for public institutions. according to a leading council member, the socio-economic situation was regarded a potential "time bomb" (interview a). in order to counteract alienation and reduce the gap between citizens and the municipal administration, the local council concluded that the municipality needed to become more available to its citizens. officials in botkyrka had studied the development of one-stop government offices in denmark and reached the conclusion that it could be used as an instrument to address the problems botkyrka faced at the time (botkyrka municipality 1994). because of the high number of inhabitants with an immigrant background, a variety of different needs with regards to access to public services was apparent, in particular for inhabitants with no or little knowledge about swedish society. there was thus a need for a flexible and customized provision of public services and information, which could be attentive to the specific needs of the local community. the first one-stop government office also the first in sweden was opened in 1987. a notion of an open and physically available municipality in close proximity to citizens and in tune with local needs was emphasized here. the municipal leadership reasoned that an improved dialogue with citizens and an increased service orientation would improve trust in the municipality and in public institutions in general, as stated in policy documents: democracy presupposes trust for public institutions. poor public services lead to frustrated citizens and undermine the preconditions for a democratic society... the offices create prerequisites for citizen engagement, for instance by accommodating service supplies to the needs of the clients... (botkyrka municipality 1994) over the years, botkyrka has consistently developed their offices in close proximity to local needs. for instance, interpreters have been made available at certain office hours. the offices have also offered help with issues that are not directly linked to municipal issues but to other public authorities, e.g. health care or social insurances, as well as general questions concerning, for instance, bank loans. for newly-arrived immigrants with extensive need for basic information on the functioning of swedish society and public services, the municipality has, through the one-stop government offices, functioned as the gateway to swedish society in general, and public institutions in particular. in addition, the one-stop government offices have increasingly become a forum for political dialogue and democratic processes, for instance through meetings between citizens and local councilors but also as early warning systems for certain local problems. several of the interviewed municipality officials emphasize the importance of providing services and information that citizens trust and that are adapted to local needs, both for service and democracy purposes. a report from 2000 states that "...little knowledge of the swedish language or swedish society demands external information which is shaped and customized to local needs" (botkyrka municipality 2000). whereas the offices were initially seen as one way of solving a problem and meeting certain needs, the municipal organization has incrementally been built around the offices. according to one higher official, the offices have become "...a giant system for creating engagement, participation and involvement" (interview d). consequently, a consensus of that "this is the way we work in botkyrka" has been established. this has been termed the "botkyrka spirit". it is interpreted locally as a municipality in proximity to the citizen with an aim of improving openness, availability and dialogue (interview e). in turn, the work in botkyrka has acquired national reputation: few one-stop government offices do such extensive work as the offices in botkyrka (öhrling pricewaterhousecoopers 2002). the offices, in several respects, illustrate activities which go beyond the prescribed responsibilities of swedish municipalities. in sum, this period is characterized by the process of institutionalizing one-stop government offices and a specific belief system of providing public services and information accordingly. the time before the development of the offices led up to what we view as a critical juncture, where deteriorating local socio-economic conditions created a realization that the municipal organization needed to have a more active role in supporting and communicating with citizens, both through service and democratic channels. with the development of the one-stop offices, the institutionalization of a belief system began to take place both in rhetoric and in practice. this belief system is summarized in table 1: table 1. the belief system of botkyrka municipality before e-service implementation. in this belief system, availability, dialogue with citizens, flexibility in service provisions (adjusting to nuances in local needs), proximity to the citizen, as well as citizen involvement and engagement are emphasized as important beliefs. in turn, the local democratic core values during this period signify a view where the role and responsibility of public organizations vis-á-vis the citizen is prominent. the practices at the one-stop government offices illustrate a basic notion that not all citizens have the same preconditions but that some require extra support. thus, in order to further democratic values such as equality and fair treatment (including equal access to public services) addressing these differing preconditions is considered essential. acquiring public information and services is hence a collective responsibility and not solely up to the individual. the idea of building trust and democratic legitimacy, in order to facilitate the work of the municipality and contribute to societal integration of citizens, seems to have been decisive in developing the offices. our analysis shows that there are certain elements of a communitarian view of democracy, in which the significance of the community's role in shaping possibilities of citizens and enhancing the common good is recognizable. however, during this period, focus is still on public services as embodied in the personal face-to-face meeting and ict does not yet have a central role in public service provisions. 4.2 towards a web-based municipal portal (2000-2010) the development of the one-stop offices seems to have paved the way for innovative perspectives on the provision of public services, with a search for new ways of furthering availability. in the beginning of the 21st century, key actors within the municipality started to discuss ict in a service application context, which indicated a view of ict as useful not only for internal administration or for, as in the 1980s and 90s, one-way information but also for two-way interaction between citizens and the municipality in the form of self-services. inspired by international and national developments, as well as developments in e-banking, ideas for how e-services could be transferred to the municipal context were triggered. botkyrka became involved in the activities aimed at becoming a "24/7 agency". ict was associated with an increased service supply, availability and an active dialogue with citizens (botkyrka municipality 2002). in 2003, the municipality carried out an inventory of which municipal services could be offered as e-services. this marked the beginning of concrete activities for making e-services an integral part of service and information provisions (botkyrka municipality 2003). e-services and one-stop government offices were regarded as supplementary: both were stressed as means for improving availability, responsiveness and hence, the quality of service provisions. at the same time, experiences from the one-stop offices guided e-service developments, since e-services, just like issues handled at the offices, also involved regular, simpler and routine like procedures. the two service channels were, in certain respects, regarded as "the same thing", as a high-level official puts it in an interview (interview d). with e-services, the municipality could become even more available and reach a wider spectrum of groups, which correlated to an earlier reasoning where flexible and available services according to local needs had been highlighted. the initial steps of integrating ict into information and service channels were rapidly followed by more in-depth and long-term ambitions. the development of an e-strategy, a policy document for the whole municipal administration, in 2005/2006 illustrates a vital step forward. significant for the e-strategy was how e-services were integrated with the other service channels, generally labeled as a "channel strategy". this meant that the municipality prioritized three channels for contacting the municipal organization: the municipal website (via e-services), the contact centre (via telephone, e-mail, letters and fax) and the one-stop government offices (via the personal meeting) (botkyrka municipality 2007). nevertheless, the centrality of the web was concurrently highlighted: the web is the most cost efficient channel with highest accessibility, while the personal meeting costs most in terms of resources. citizens and other interested parties should be able to choose the channel which suits them best in the individual case, but we should steer them towards the most cost-efficient channel (botkyrka municipality 2007). the quotation illustrates the intent to make internet the main channel for contacting the municipality and cost efficiency as a salient reason behind it. the contact centre and one-stop government offices are here meant as supplementary channels for those who cannot or choose not to use the internet. similarly, the continuation of a previous reasoning is noticeable in the e-strategy, where e-services are said to be guided by the same aims as one-stop government offices, that is, increased citizen advantages, customer focus, availability, effectiveness and dialogue, as well as greater openness and transparency (botkyrka municipality 2007). this illustrates how the aims of one-stop government offices continued to govern how the municipality viewed and managed public services delivery. in the years after the e-strategy, ict increasingly became essential for handling the delivery of public services and information, for instance, library services, school and building permit applications or availability functions for disabled were now available on the municipality website. the pace of e-service developments in several ways picked up with more advanced e-services, such as an internet portal for school and child care services, as well as, more recently, the development of a web-based municipal portal (botkyrka municipality 2008). when logging into the portal, one's role as a citizen or municipal employee will determine the kind of information or e-services one reaches. the portal is based on different divisions of roles, either according to tasks (e.g. applications for schools), area of residence, the division of general municipality activities (e.g. "businesses" or "building and living") or more overarching roles (e.g. "parent", "visitor" or youth"). this categorization of roles illustrates the intention to create personalized e-services that provide flexible access to public information and services no matter the time or place. in turn, citizens are meant to become more self-propelled in their dealings with the municipality. the portal is concurrently emphasized as a way of offering more of the municipality (botkyrka municipality 2008). this rhetoric illustrates a continuation of previous policy strategies, i.e. the emphasis on a prominent and responsive municipality that works in proximity, and is available, to the citizen. however, it is obvious that the e-services and the web portal have not incorporated certain needs of the local community, for instance with regards to language requirements. swedish is the only language available on the web. the one-stop offices are here meant to accommodate the needs which the web does not. yet, from a citizen perspective, conducting certain public services on the internet is appreciated. internet penetration in the community is high: 91 percent have access to internet at home (markör 2011). a survey from 2009 shows that 64 percent of the botkyrka inhabitants prefer to get municipal information and services via the municipality web page, compared to 42 percent via the one-stop offices (skop 2010). however, as these numbers indicate, the one-stop government offices still inhabit an important role in the municipality's services. also, it is not a question of either/or many citizens regularly use both channels. the number of errands in the offices has furthermore not decreased and continues to concern public as well as non-public issues. the municipality thus persists to provide services outside the mandatory responsibility of swedish municipalities. according to a high-ranking official, there will always be a need for face-to-face meetings in botkyrka, because of the relatively significant group of citizens in need of special guidance, concerning language issues or information in general: "there have to be ways for those who need a personal meeting and it doesn't have to concern only old people... but it can concern complex questions too" (interview b). thus, even though internet penetration is high, there is an awareness that e-services might not be for everyone or for every type of service. there is a specific flexibility in the face-to-face interaction, which the offices can accommodate. it is concurrently clear that the development and continuation of the one-stop government offices have partly been possible through the continued role of a centre-left coalition in botkyrka. the centre-right oppositional political parties have been critical of the extensive help given to the citizens through the offices. to summarize, the process shows that the web-based portal continues to build on the belief system and hence local democratic core values created through the previous one-stop approach. e-service implementation is motivated through rhetoric which builds on, and is actively connected to, beliefs such as an extended role of the municipality as well increased availability, dialogue and flexibility in the relationship with the citizen. availability and personalized services are through e-services meant to be taken to a new level. however, "personalized e-services" implies very broad, simplified and pre-determined roles. in contrast, the offices, through the personal face-to-face meeting, are able to capture more of the nuances in varying citizen needs, e.g. language requirements. thus, whereas the offices are flexible in the sense of adjustment to personal needs and situations there and then, the portal and e-services are flexible in terms of easy access. nonetheless, during this phase, the practical realization of e-services as the most central service and information channel takes place. e-services thus fit, at least rhetorically, earlier reasoning according to the botkyrka spirit. 5. discussion the above narrative indicates how the local democratic values of botkyrka, in which the prominent role and responsibility of public organizations in furthering equality and social justice is emphasized, continue to inhabit an important place in the implementation of e-services. this is in line with sabatier's and jenkins-smith's view on core values as persistent. in the following sections we will, with the help of our theoretical framework, discuss further how and why local democratic core values have been related to the implementation of public e-services, whether these can be seen as barriers or promoters, and end the discussion with a number of observations concerning the implications of this process. 5.1. the local legitimization of public e-services the long tradition of developing one-stop government offices, in combination with specific socio-economic conditions, has shaped a belief system based on specific democratic core values in botkyrka. these core values involve a view on the role of public organizations as prominent: they have a special responsibility in furthering and supporting equality, equity and the common good. it is thus first and foremost the responsibility of the municipality to support the citizen in effectively acquiring the public services they are entitled to. in turn, this is, by the local policymakers and officials, seen to further trust for, and legitimacy of, the municipality. core values have been expressed through policy strategies which emphasize an available and flexible municipality, as well as a municipality in close proximity to and in a continuous dialogue with the citizen. furthermore, the practices of the offices, such as flexible face-to-face meetings regarding a variety of public and non-public issues, have been the predominant implementing activities for realizing core values. these practices have been based on a street-level bureaucratic ideal in which public officials are given much discretion in handling a heterogeneous population with different needs and life situations. the local context of newly arrived immigrants and low socio-economic conditions has played a significant role in contributing to the specific belief system which was firmly institutionalized both in rhetoric and in practices, before e-services implementation. it is evident that practical change in the provision of public information and services has taken place in botkyrka during the last decade. ever since the initial implementation, e-services have increased in importance and are, at the end of our analysis, regarded as the main channel for public information and services by the municipal administration, as well as appreciated and used by almost half of the inhabitants. public e-services are evidently here to stay, whereas one-stop government offices, although still significant, are being downplayed as a supplementary channel. nevertheless, the rhetoric of central key actors and policy documents shows that the same local democratic core values keep guiding e-service developments, as they earlier on guided the development of one-stop government offices. e-services are regarded as the natural continuation of developing an available, responsive and present municipality and is thus in line with existing ontological beliefs concerning the role of public organizations and the citizen. several types of communication channels are considered to add value to public service provisions, since it benefits different groups and individuals. through e-services, more citizens can get easy access to public services and even more special needs be catered to. public services can become even more flexible and available through non-stop accessibility and personalized internet portals. the one-stop approach of fast and available services, which began with the one-stop government offices, can thus be further developed with public e-services. the experiences of the offices have consequently structured ideas, discourses and practices of e-services. this is evident in how the aims of the e-services are the same as for the offices and how they are, in some respects, regarded as the same thing. in sum, we argue that the local democratic core values have, been decisive for the implementation process: they provide e-services with meaning for municipal employees and citizens and have legitimized and thus facilitated the process. the case study shows a combination of continuing along the tested and legitimate path and responding to changing contextual factors. as the increased centrality of e-services and the web-based portal vis-á-vis the one-stop offices indicates, real changes have been implemented. however, these new implementing activities are used to buffer in-depth changes and contribute to a preservation of core values. thus, local democratic values are here used as a promoter and facilitator of public e-services. 5.2. the local definition of public e-services the analysis implies an overarching conclusion of this article locally defined and institutionalized democratic core values have a fundamental role in how e-services are implemented and why the implementation process looks the way it does. the local autonomy of swedish municipalities is indeed influential in this respect. municipalities are able to interpret e-services according to local core values because the formal institutional context of local autonomy allows them to. the case thus illustrates that the policy of e-services is to a certain extent regarded as value neutral by municipal key actors. the local implementation process boils down to the implementation of a technology which is given meaning largely through the existing belief system of the municipality. although a strong economic rationale, largely based on npm, is evident in global and national articulations of an e-services policy and to some extent in the botkyrka rhetoric the local rhetoric and practices reveal mainly other driving forces of e-services, namely a locally developed rationale and reasoning. accordingly, e-services are not necessarily the revolutionary tool that threatens to overturn democratic values of public organizations. in fact, this presumes a rather deterministic perspective in which the role of the existing local institutional setting is discarded, for instance, with regard to the democratic ideal the municipality adheres to. the botkyrka case illustrates democratic values that partly follow a communitarian view of democracy. this view continues to have a prominent role during the development of e-services. the relationship between democratic values and e-services should thus be seen less in the light of how e-services are defined as policy on a global or national level and more in the light of how local institutional factors in general and core values in particular shape and reshape e-services as a policy. furthermore, by analyzing the interplay between e-services and core values, we have illustrated the significance of viewing the implementation of e-services as part of a process. e-services are not implemented into a vacuum. this also means viewing change as a process: public e-services are incrementally joined and developed in conjunction with past policy processes. 6. conclusions and implications in this article, we have highlighted the need for examining what values and perceptions are being embedded in and realized through the implementation of public e-services. we have approached this aspect by analyzing the relationship between democratic core values within a local public administration and e-government reforms. the following research questions have in turn guided our analysis: (1) how and why are local democratic core values related to the implementation of public e-services? (2) can local democratic values, crudely put, be seen as a barrier or promoter of public e-services? (3) what are the implications thereof? our main conclusion is that democratic core values of the studied municipality, botkyrka in sweden, in several aspects have acted as a promoter and facilitator of the implementation of public e-services. the botkyrka case illustrates how certain organizations find a way of fitting new developments to existing policy traditions and belief systems, thus creating and maintaining trust and legitimacy internally (within the organization) and externally (vis-á-vis citizens and other stakeholders). in our case, local core values are used to reinforce e-services but also vice versa; e-services are used for reinforcing local core values. rather than renegotiating the core values of why e-services are carried out, implementing activities of how to carry out the organization and provision of services are being negotiated with e-service developments. despite the often economic logic of e-services, the local democratic core values of botkyrka are still in the foreground when motivating the development of e-services. the specific local institutional setting thus remains prominent in the development process. more generally, the case illustrates how the democratic potential of e-government can also be studied in the context of public e-services. the conclusions above also touch upon a number of aspects which could have consequences for how public services are carried out and in the long run, for democratic legitimacy. we would like to highlight these in order to point at issues for further research. through the one-stop government offices, the personal face-to-face meeting has long been an important institution for accommodating several of the democratic core values and policy strategies of the municipality, that is, to meet heterogeneous citizen needs through responsive and flexible public services. in comparison, ict is often not as flexible but instead tends to follow standardized ways of offering services, where users often are assumed to have similar preconditions. treating all users the same may increase the risk of exclusion, in particular in a heterogeneous municipality like botkyrka. this exclusion might be created not because of a lack of technical knowledge as such, but rather as a knowledge gap with regards to the swedish public institutions, a language problem or a lack of trust in technology. thus, even though the democratic core values remain strong in the rhetoric of actors, the changing of how services are carried out, i.e. practices, and the view of the citizens as more equal users, might in the end have consequences which could lead to a hollowing out of existing core values. rhetoric can sometimes influence practice by serving as the yard stick by which activities slowly are adjusted to (røvik 2000). in other words, regarding citizens as more equal users could in the end lead to the municipal actors increasingly treating them as such, which in the studied socio-economic context could have consequences for the democratic legitimacy of the municipality. compared to one-stop government offices, the development of e-services has not been driven to the same extent by the specific needs of the local community. instead, the actors have adapted to a modernization process, which is not only regarded as inevitable but which also is, for a single municipality, difficult to shape according to local preconditions. municipalities are usually reliant on existing technical solutions developed by private distributors. although the municipality rhetorically has managed to fit its core values to developments in e-government, the question for the future is if it will also work in practice. core values are not only in the rhetoric of local council members and officials but are also expressed through the practices of these actors. hence, the question for the future is: how important is the personal face-to-face meeting for democratic legitimacy in a local community like botkyrka? today's swedish, and western societies, have indeed become more culturally and ethnically heterogeneous. this places greater demands on public organizations to handle this increased heterogeneity in order to adhere to the constitutional rights of equity and equality. as stated above, there is multidimensionality in citizenship which is not yet accounted for in public e-service provisions. thus, public e-services may to a greater extent have to target issues such as citizenship, equality and competences in order to create a legitimate public administration and a truly "responsive" and "citizen oriented" government. acknowledgements this research was funded by msb swedish civil contingencies agency. references aberbach, j. d. & christensen t. 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(2008). institutions, policy innovation, and e-government in the american states. public administration review, 60(3), 549-663. united nations (2008). un e-government survey: from e-government to connected governance. new york: united nations. <div id="article"> <h2 id="article_title"> facilitating community innovation: the outils-r&eacute;seaux way </h2> <div id="article_author"> lorna heaton <sup>1</sup>, florence millerand <sup>2</sup>, serge proulx <sup>3</sup>, &eacute;lodie crespel <sup>4</sup> </div> <ol> <li>associate professor, department of communication, universit&eacute; de montr&eacute;al. <u>lorna.heaton@umontreal.ca</u> </li> <li>associate professor, department of social and public communication, universit&eacute; du qu&eacute;bec &agrave; montr&eacute;al. </li> <li>professor, &eacute;cole des medias, universit&eacute; du qu&eacute;bec &agrave; montr&eacute;al and research associate, department of economics and social sciences, telecom paris tech. </li> <li>doctoral student, department of communication, universit&eacute; de montr&eacute;al. </li> </ol> <h3 class="article_subhead"> introduction </h3> <p> increasingly, individuals, groups and communities are participating actively in the process of technological innovation. indeed, the novelty of web 2.0 technologies and platforms appears to lie in the fact that the user has the possibility to produce and not just consult a vast array of content and tools (o'reilly, 2005; proulx, 2007; millerand, proulx &amp; rueff, 2010). while users are becoming more and more aware of their ability to make and change technologies to better serve their needs or preferences, participation does not occur automatically for most people. </p> <p> embracing the 'participatory culture' associated with web 2.0 tools and practices (jenkins, 2006a, 2006b) implies not so much learning how to use participatory tools (like wikis) since they are relatively easy to handle as learning how to create, produce and work <em>collaboratively</em> in a networked environment. while traditional views of technology development suggest distinct roles for designers and users (i.e. developing the system <em>versus</em> using it), this conventional distinction tends to dissolve with web 2.0 platforms and tools, as different applications and information from various sources are imported, personalized and combined by users themselves, leading to user-led or community-led innovations in which both the tools and their uses emerge simultaneously (bruns, 2008; jenkins, 2006a, 2006b; mackay et al., 2000; millerand &amp; baker, 2010; millerand et al, 2010; von hippel, 2005). thus, the potential of these new technologies and their uses for civic engagement and creative expression seems to rely heavily on the users' capacity (both as individuals and as a collective) to engage in collaborative practices as well as in a hybrid 'user-designer' role (fleischmann, 2006). </p> <p> this paper discusses the work of a group whose mission is to encourage the development and use of collaborative tools by associative movements. <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em>'s approach to software and tool development focuses on accompanying and training the groups it works with rather than simply providing technical solutions. use of collaborative tools by a group is viewed as secondary, and subsequent, to a group's experience with cooperation. the article focuses in particular on a recent experiment among a group of citizens in brest, france. </p> <p> drawing on qualitative research inspired by the principles of grounded theory, we reflect on how an <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> training program for group facilitators participates in community innovation, where the community itself is an essential element of the innovation. we explore the coevolution of both technical infrastructure (tools for collaboration) and the community, and show how <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> mediates between the (social) world of users and the technical world of software developers in three ways. first, <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> uses a 'trickle-down-meeting-bottom-up' strategy in targeting group facilitators rather than the ordinary members of community groups for its training program. in this, it follows a two-step flow information model where facilitators are expected to share their understanding with the groups they guide. second, training program participants are defined as 'codesigners', as they are trained to choose and customize their tools as well as to experiment with them in practice following a learning by doing philosophy within a 'logic of attention' specific to <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em>'s approach. third, a 'lego approach' to systems development allows for modularity in enabling multiple combinations to fit the singularity of each situation, recognizing the diversity of competencies among participants on one hand, and a potential multiplier effect in networking singular pockets of innovation on the other. </p> <p> the paper is organized as follows: we begin with a brief review of the literatures in community informatics, user-centered systems development, constructivist pedagogy, and group facilitation using icts as they relate to the work presented here. we then describe our methods and research site, highlighting <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em>'s organization and approach, and providing details on the training program under study. the body of the paper presents the three main points of our analysis summarized earlier. we conclude by outlining the significance of this work for community informatics research and practice. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> literature review </h3> <h3 class="article_subhead"> local ict initiatives and community informatics </h3> <p> community informatics encompasses research and community initiatives that aim to address underserved areas and populations (gurstein, 2000; gurstein, 2007; keeble &amp; loader, 2001; williams &amp; durrance, 2008). in the first world, community informatics has evolved as the notion of access has expanded (clement &amp; shade, 2000). from an initial concern with providing free access to computers and increased internet connectivity or the creation of local community technology centers and programs, it now focuses increasingly on digital literacy in the use of computers and new media applications (http://ctcnet.org/; keeble &amp; loader, 2001; schuler &amp; day, 2004), empowerment (kavanaugh, kim, perez-quinones, schmitz &amp; isenhour, 2008), and expression of local community identity (srinivasan, 2006). a number of studies have examined how the introduction of icts may help strengthen local community by stimulating collective action or improving local conditions (alkalimat &amp; williams, 2001; haythornthwaite &amp; hagar, 2005; schuler &amp; day, 2004; shah, mcleod, &amp; yoon, 2001). </p> <p> local ict initiatives are often guided by a belief that they will generate social capital among participating individuals. social capital refers to the idea that the social network of interactions, obligations, trust, and reciprocity among a group of people helps generate resources that they can draw on for individual and communal support (lin, 2001; pigg &amp; crank, 2004; putnam, 2000; williams &amp; durrance, 2008). since the idea draws much of its philosophical underpinning from a communitarian position (onyx &amp; bullen 2000), ict initiatives generally also aspire to increase participation, equity and community wellbeing. gaved and anderson (2006) trace the history of local ict initiatives from the 1970s forward. their review of empirical projects/initiatives points to overall positive effects along the five dimensions that dimaggio and hargittai (2001) identify as essential in ensuring meaningful usage of icts: access, training, skills, support, and purpose. </p> <p> a key tenet of community informatics is to respect the ability of communities to appropriate and use information and communication technologies in ways that reflect local meanings and goals (eglash, 2004; warschauer, 2003). a general trend has been to stress participatory approaches working in collaboration with community members to meet local needs (merkel, clitherow, farooq, &amp; xiao, 2005). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> involving users in designing their systems </h3> <p> an extensive literature considering the interplay of technology users, information systems and organizational contexts has developed in the fields of information systems, social informatics and science and technology studies. traditional, technology-driven conceptions have tended to situate users as one half of the user-developer tandem which suggests distinct, separated stages of work, i.e. developing the system and then using the system. increasingly, however, particularly with web 2.0 platforms and collaborative tools, the conventional distinction between designers and users tends to dissolve (mackay, carne, beynon-davies &amp; tudhope, 2000; millerand &amp; baker, 2010). </p> <p> end-user computing implies blurring the roles of users and developers when users develop applications themselves (nardi, 1993), while participatory design views users as co-designers (greenbaum &amp; kyng, 1991; schuler &amp; namioka, 1993). in discussing rapid application development, mackay et al<em>.</em> (2000) point to the 'fluidity' of the boundary between user and developer. in short, contemporary approaches emphasize the action of co-design, e.g. practice based design, ecological design, contextual design, design-in-use, collaborative design and performativity (beyer &amp; holzblatt, 1998; suchman, 2002; bratteteig, 2003; jackson &amp; baker, 2004; jensen, 2004). furthermore, recent studies of technical innovation, including systems development, portray users as active in the innovation process (oudshoorn &amp; pinch, 2003, 2008). as millerand and baker (2010) note, "the concept of users has morphed from less-than-competent-system-users to holders-of-local-knowledge and validators-of-system-usefulness, who hold potential as local innovators able to negotiate and arrange realignment and use of standards, applications and systems" (p.140). </p> <p> from a simple technology-driven point of view, users often are characterized as reluctant to adopt and use technologies; they are seen as lacking in sufficient interest and in need of training. the need for an improved understanding of user involvement (cavaye, 1995; flynn &amp; jazi, 1998; avison &amp; fitzgerald, 2003; howcroft &amp; wilson, 2003) and developer-user relations (beath &amp; orlikowski, 1994; jirotka &amp; goguen, 1994; coughlan &amp; macredie, 2002; gallivan &amp; keil, 2003) is well documented in systems development. over time, methodologies have evolved from basic technical problem solving approaches to approaches incorporating multiple techniques and use-related activities. the ethics method based on the socio-technical systems theory (mumford, 1983) constitutes the foundation of current user-centered methods, in which social requirements and user participation are emphasized. users may be seen as evaluators of design decisions (e.g. prototyping approaches), as 'social actors' (lamb &amp; kling, 2003) (e.g. ethics and soft systems methodology), and as domain experts (e.g. participatory design). increasingly, information systems are placed within their organizational, social, communicative or pedagogical contexts (lyytinen, 1987; iivari, 1991; iivari, hirscheim &amp; klein, 1998; friedman &amp; miles, 2006). </p> <p> in the context of web 2.0 (participatory web) technologies and platforms, the potential for user participation is amplified by their ease of use (mcloughlin &amp; lee, 2007; murugesan, 2007), which considerably lowers the threshold for participation (barriers to entry). in fact, the premise underlying much of the participatory web is precisely the possibility offered users to produce and not just consult a vast array of content (proulx, 2007). the ubiquitous use of new collaborative platforms and the social web (blogs and microblogs, social networking sites, podcasting, and wikis) has become a major feature of the media landscape (benkler, 2006; castells, 2009) and a number of recent works in media and cultural studies describe new digital environments as preferred spaces for cultural creation and knowledge sharing (jenkins, 2006a, 2006b; bruns, 2008). one of the hallmarks of web 2.0 platforms and applications is an 'architecture of participation' (mcloughlin &amp; lee, 2007) that facilitates user-controlled, collaboratively generated knowledge and community-focused enquiry. in these environments, user participation extends also to the production and transformation of the tools and platforms themselves (millerand et al., 2010). collaborative platforms and tools common to the participatory web are highly malleable (murugesan, 2007), as different applications and information from various sources can be imported, personalized and combined by users themselves. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 'pedagogy 2.0' </h3> <p> conventional principles of social constructivist learning suggest that effective learning occurs when participants interact to create collective activity framed by cultural constraints and practices (lave &amp; wenger, 1991; scardamalia &amp; bereiter, 2003). this approach, inspired by american pragmatism and developed most fully in the work of john dewey, assumes that if individuals are to understand and create solutions for problems, they need opportunities to engage with challenging, real-world problems, to learn through participative investigations and supportive, situated experiences, to express their ideas to others, and to make use of a variety of resources in multiple media. in learner-centered pedagogical frameworks, the accent is placed on active participation with others, including peers, instructors, experts and communities (perennoud, 1983; lave &amp; wenger, 1991). by presenting their work to a wide audience, participants are afforded the possibility to appropriate new ideas, and transform their own understanding through reflection (williams &amp; jacobs, 2004). they can shape their own informal learning trajectories and also become actively involved in those of others. from this perspective, the community is a key component of the learning process. </p> <p> mcloughlin and lee (2007, p. 669) outline the key elements of a 'pedagogy 2.0' learning environment: a curriculum that is dynamic and open to negotiation and learner input, consisting of 'bite-sized' modules, and blending formal and informal learning; multimodal, peer-to-peer communication using multiple resources; learning tasks that are authentic, personalized, participant-driven and designed, experiential, and encouraging multiple perspectives; in which reflecting on one's learning process is a vital component. they suggest that learners develop a range of digital literacies as they use various tools and multiple forms of interaction to create collective activity and propose several ways in which collaboration around web 2.0 tools and platforms may encourage learning in tertiary contexts. gee (2004) refers to affinity spaces where people acquire both social and communicative skills, and at the same time become engaged in the participatory culture of web 2.0. </p> <p> mcloughlin and lee (2007) argue that, by allowing people to interact and share ideas in a fluid way, collaborative tools and platforms can provide the building blocks for an environment that enables multiple forms of support. similarly, in professional development contexts, several authors have noted that "emergent new web 2.0... concepts and technologies are opening doors for more effective learning and have the potential to support lifelong competence development" (klamma et al<em>.</em>, 2007, p. 72). the majority of experiments involving collaborative tools and platforms, and lifelong learning have taken place in the context of private enterprise and have focused on knowledge capture and sharing (see for example fischer, 2011; efimova, 2004). </p> <p> finally, in nonprofit or community contexts, merkel et al. (2005) have suggested that collaborative tools may be particularly appropriate for the types of activities carried out by community groups. the concept of <em>community innovation</em> (van oost, verhaegh, &amp; oudshoorn, 2009) in the science and technology studies literature refers to a type of emergent, user-initiated project in which the community itself is an essential element of the innovation. </p> <p> importantly, mcloughlin and lee (2007) note that while web 2.0 platforms and collaborative tools may stimulate the development of a participatory culture in which there is genuine engagement and communication, careful planning and a thorough understanding of the dynamics of these tools and spaces are essential. moreover, they argue that the deployment of ict tools for learning ought to be informed by pedagogies that support learner self-direction. this insight is shared by merkel et al. (2005) who suggest that, if learning is to have lasting consequences for community development, designers and trainers need to take on less directive roles and fade into the background. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> facilitation and accompaniment </h3> <p> the important characteristics of any learning environment include teaching and various forms of interaction between learners and those who support them. blandin (2006) reports on a continuing research project whose objective is to clarify the exact function training professionals. statistical analysis suggests that, among the variety of roles facilitators assume, the role of accompaniment is specific. in particular, a cluster of activities and concerns (managing positioning, managing integration, working on self-directed learning and individualization, monitoring the learners, motivating them) identify those who accompany computer-supported training programs as a special group. </p> <p> the majority of the literature on small group facilitation suggests that facilitators limit their contribution to process and structure, not content (gregory &amp; romm, 2001). some authors, however, have argued in favor of the active involvement of facilitators in a group's process. for instance, pasmore (1993) suggests that the facilitator, as a partner in the design effort, may make suggestions as to the design of knowledge systems. berry (1993) adds that facilitators play a critical role in bringing things to the awareness of the group and should be seen as part of an interpersonal process that aims to shape perception whether consciously or inadvertently. white and taket (1994: 746) further insist on the importance for facilitators to be critically reflective about their role as facilitators or animators of change. </p> <p> much of the work on facilitation draws implicitly on a two-step flow model of communication in which opinion leaders are important intermediaries between mass communication messages and a receiving public (katz &amp; lazarsfeld, 1955). katz and lazarsfeld argued that people's opinions are strongly influenced by contact with others. media messages are filtered by these opinion leaders who then act to persuade their followers. thus, the influence of media (or of a technology) is neither total (reception is selective) nor direct (given the influence of opinion leaders). time is also an important factor in the model: influence in networks develops over time. the two-step flow is at the base of the diffusion of innovations tradition. research aimed at understanding how networks of influence play out over the internet also use this model (watts &amp; dodds, 2007). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> methods </h3> <p> our research employs a qualitative approach inspired by the principles of grounded theory (glaser &amp; strauss, 1967). in the context of a three-year project (2009-2012) whose primary goals are to trace the circulation of collaborative tools and knowledge among different groups and to question the articulation of users' and designers' actions in the context of web 2.0, we have been following the actions of <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> in a constellation of projects. the observations presented in this article are based primarily on interviews with the staff of <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> as well as with one of the initiators of the project in brest specifically on the subject of the animacoop training program (http://animacoop.net/wakka.php?wiki=pageprincipale). all interviews were conducted in french, recorded and transcribed. the excerpts presented here have been translated by the authors. we also draw on participants' comments and include an analysis of activity in the wikis developed in the context of this specific project. </p> <p> our analysis is also informed by the understanding we have developed of <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux's</em> activities and approach over the course of three years, based on over 50 interviews, observational data, group discussions, and additional documentation. in order to encourage cooperation between the members of our research team, we are performing targeted analyses on eight major themes (such as coordination and tools, relation between designers and users, expertise, governance, contribution, etc.) identified on the basis of our initial research questions, some of which emerge from our data. interview transcripts have been coded using nvivo software. each theme is analyzed individually and then collectively, through sharing of our interpretations and writing analysis memos in an iterative process in the tradition of grounded theory (strauss &amp; corbin, 1990). viewing <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> as a partner in our research rather than its subject, we have periodically shared our analyses with staff members<em>,</em> with a view to confirming or infirming our ideas and to enriching them. as will become clearer in the presentation to follow, reflecting on their practice is a key component of <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux's</em> approach, and this paper also represents one element of that reflection. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> description </h3> <h3 class="article_subhead"> outils-r&eacute;seaux, organization and approach </h3> <p> the french association <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> began in 2003 in response to the growing demand for collaborative network tools from scientific and non-scientific communities in the fields of ecology and the environment. over time it has enlarged its scope and now concentrates increasingly on exploring the significance of cooperation in a context of social economy and solidarity. the same group of five people has worked together since the beginning, and they are now looking at transforming the association into a scop, a sort of employee-owned and managed cooperative. in 2012, <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> deployed its expertise in diversified contexts; it is at the centre of a constellation of innovative collaborative community projects, ranging from e-government projects to networks of musicians to nanotechnologies. </p> <p> <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> divides its activities into three general categories: software development, a service of accompaniment and technical support (helping groups choose and configure modules that will be useful to them from a toolkit of primarily open source collaborative tools), and training sessions on cooperation and the use of collaborative tools, often in connection with social considerations such as participatory democracy, the particularities of associations or group leadership (animation). </p> <p> the <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> approach to development has several particularities. first and foremost, it is centered on the groups and individuals that it works with. with a double goal of helping people to imagine the field of possibilities and enlarge this inventory, and of putting the accent on cooperation, the team is guided by its' client association's needs and group dynamics throughout the appropriation process. </p> <p> another defining characteristic of the <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> way is its accent on accessibility and simplicity. the team explicitly gears its actions to the 'lowest common denominator' in any group, so that everyone can participate. it will typically imagine its tester population as retired people or students in the third grade of primary school so as to design the simplest possible configurations of collaborative tools. this may involve masking certain functionalities, at least temporarily. </p> <p> being attentive to clients' capabilities and their evolution requires a gradual approach to increasing technical skill as well as to learning how to work together. <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> will typically begin by introducing a few, simple collaborative tools and will propose more complex tools only when the people they are working with have become comfortable with the first ones. they also insist on dissociating the experience of cooperation from that of learning how to use computer applications. thus, they will ensure that the groups they accompany acquire 'small, irreversible experiences of cooperation', independently of the use of collaborative tools. the group has found that this approach works best when they start with face-to-face meetings and small groups. </p> <p> <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> thus operates according to a logic of assembling a variety of tools into custom packages that best suit the needs of particular groups. this modular 'lego approach' allows them to customize their offer. from one group to another, <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> draws from the same general toolkit of primarily, but not exclusively, free and open source tools: wiki spaces, templates, mapping tools, shared agenda, etc. a bare-bones wiki, called a wikini, is used as the integrating mechanism to hold everything together. finally, <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> insists that the final package should be attractive in order to encourage user participation. they insist on a graphic identity, and a fluidity and coherence between the various modules, so that users are not immediately conscious of switching between applications. use and user experience become the primary considerations. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> animacoop an experiment in community-building </h3> <p> located near the western tip of brittany in northwestern france, the city of brest is a leader in france in terms of encouraging the social appropriation of information and communication technologies. the city has a population of 150,000 and coordinates its actions with 89 smaller towns and villages in the region. since 1998, brest's internet and multimedia expression (ime) department has promoted a policy and actions for encouraging internet and multimedia use by the largest possible number of citizens, particularly those who might find it most difficult.<sup>1</sup> the cornerstone of its activities is a dense network of public internet access points (papis). in 2010, virtually all public spaces libraries, employment centers and community centers, but also unlikely spaces such as residences for the aged, sports centers or food banks have become papis. thus, citizens can normally find one of over one hundred papis no more than 300 meters from their homes. </p> <p> brest's approach to growing papis illustrates the philosophy underlying many of the commune's computer technology initiatives. the city will provide the equipment and connection necessary to install a papi anywhere upon request, but it does not supply staff. the people who are working at a papi site, say a food bank, are thus encouraged to take an interest in an indirect manner. they can observe the equipment and people using it from afar and become involved gradually, eventually going as far as to propose local development projects. the local politician at the origin of the ime department refers to this as a 'logic of attention', meaning that they try to be attentive to people's requests and concerns rather than proposing solutions in a 'logic of intention'. a logic of attention also implies saying to people: "you are important. what you have to say will be of interest to others" (interview mb june 10, 2010). </p> <p> this participatory approach to it enablement is also in evidence in brest's support for the emergence of local initiatives. following a call for projects, between 30 and 40 projects are supported annually (average investment $2,500). most of these projects are carried through and provide concrete results. from the city's point of view, the time and energy invested by citizens is far greater than the monetary cost. the city mobilizes its resources to organize a meeting of all those involved in the various projects, and this networking creates synergies among various people on a regional scale. brest's strategy thus rests upon multiple, local and small scale initiatives, and the facilitation of links between them. </p> <p> with its network of papi sites and a certain number of ordinary citizens interested and involved in initiatives for community development involving computer and multimedia technologies, the city of brest sees its role as facilitating connections so that people can help each other acquire further competencies. brest also coordinates an extensive program of weekly workshops that are offered on demand and in locations of proximity to where they are requested. <sup>2</sup> here again, the idea is to facilitate so that people who have some expertise in one area can share with others seeking knowledge in that area. the workshops are free and the city pays the instructors who are participants in other projects for the most part. these workshops have been indispensable in promoting the transfer of expertise between projects and locations (briand, 2010). </p> <p> finally, brest has been particularly active in promoting the collaborative use and free and open source software. since 2004, it has organized a biennial forum on cooperative uses:<sup>3</sup> a three-day colloquium that promotes networking at the national level around questions of cooperation, social innovation and participation. </p><!--insert footnotes--> <p> with its accent on local capacity building in a logic of attention, with its project-based organization of community development initiatives, and with its network of multimedia and it animators and facilitators, brest was thus a logical choice for <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> to test its first 'education in action' program. from the city's point of view, the education in action program was a means "to accompany people who want to do something [in terms of group animation] and to acknowledge their importance." (interview mb june 10, 2010). it targeted people working locally to develop and facilitate cooperative projects in their communities, and was designed to allow them to step back from the action to reflect on their practice. at the same time, it would give them some conceptual tools to increase their competencies and enrich their knowledge in their field of expertise. </p> <p> organized with the specific goals of promoting effective use (gurstein, 2003) and introducing associations to the possibilities of open source software, <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> prepared a program specifically on facilitating collaborative projects. the program was funded as a pilot project under the french government's uses of the internet (<em>d&eacute;l&eacute;gation aux usages d'internet dui</em>) program whose objective is to encourage short, online modular training programs for ict facilitators who will later transfer their understandings to the general public. it also received support from city of brest and the regional council of brittany through their innovative uses of multimedia for social solidarity project (<em>multim&eacute;dia en pays de brest, usages innovants et lien social sur les territoires</em>). </p> <p> twelve participants took part in the program. the majority had either a professional background or experience with group facilitation. all were working as community organizers in local communities or with special groups such as youth or various social movements. many were already exploring computer applications on their own, and were seeking to consolidate or acquire more systematic knowledge of collaborative applications, particularly how these tools could be brought to bear in their work. beyond their interest in collaboration and collaborative tools, one of the prerequisites for participation was to have a specific project in mind that would serve as a test-bed for applying the course content. </p> <p> the program proposed an original delivery format a combination of periodic two-day face-to-face workshops, online support, and time and space for experimentation, and was held together with a wiki platform. in the week prior to the first two-day workshop in early april, the participants and the training team presented themselves on one section of the animacoop site established for the course: their background, their reasons for participating in the program, their hopes, fears, something they were proud of, something they needed. </p> <p> the course was designed to take this small group through all the stages in the life of a network as they themselves worked together over several months: </p> <ul> <li>forming the network: presentations and definition of what brings them together in this case facilitating collaborative projects; </li> <li>informing the network: exchanges on each other's projects, leading to the emergence of common experiences and problems; </li> <li>transforming the network: working collaboratively, either in small groups or together; </li> <li>making the network visible: diffusion of the results of cooperative work beyond the network; </li> <li>consolidating the network: evaluation and reflections on how to keep the dynamic going (particularly in the brest region) and on how to open it to others (such as a subsequent training session planned in languedoc-roussillon in the south of france). </li> </ul> <p> the first workshop took participants through stages 1 and 2 as they explored notions of cooperation, making the group and its activities visible as well as several collaborative tools. participants organized themselves into four small groups, according to their personal objectives for the training: leading an ict project in the community; organizing a work group; creating a network; making a community of contributors more dynamic. </p> <img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3155/version/2137/4112/16688/figure1a.png" class="article_image" width=580 height=429 alt="figure1" /> <div class="image_caption"> figure 1. stages in community development </div> <p> subsequently, the groups were to work together about three hours per week with online support as required from the facilitators. the objectives of the group work were to work on common themes in a collaborative manner and to explore various collaborative tools in the process. each participant also spent several hours each week transposing and testing the week's content on his or her particular project. this experience fueled the group discussions. each group posted a weekly progress report detailing what they had explored, how they had organized themselves, and any difficulties they had experienced. </p> <p> the course was held together by an online group space, organized with a wikini. the animacoop space (http://www.animacoop.net) integrated the course components and resources, all of which were visible to the entire group, interns and facilitators alike. all course content, calendar, instructions, participants' and facilitators' self-presentations, was available online. there were also links to various tools and examples of their use in other situations, and spaces that were <em>constructed collectively</em> during the course: a concept box (for developing a common understanding of key concepts), jargon box (glossary), idea box, question box (faq), etc. individuals were given personal wikini pages equipped with a certain number of tools they could use however they saw fit. each group also developed a workspace that was accessible to group members and to others outside the group through the site. since it was wiki-based, each page could be modified by anyone. thus, while they were learning about cooperation, the participants were also learning how to use a wiki. </p> <p> during the months that participants were working in their groups, weekly workshops were offered in brest. participants attended those that were most adapted to their individual projects. the course content included: sessions on specific tools such as rss feeds, shared calendars, collaborative writing and document sharing, collaborative visualization tools such as freemind, mediawiki, open street map, as well as more conceptual sessions on intellectual property, free and open source software, computer-assisted animation techniques, organizing events, journalistic writing for the web and social networks. </p> <p> the collaborative work stage finished at the end of may. after a teleconference whose goal was to share experiences across the groups and to identify common limiting and facilitating factors, each group devoted the month of june to stepping back and evaluating their process with a view to producing a more formal summary account that they could then share and compare with the other groups. a final face-to-face meeting of all the participants was held at the end of june in connection with the 4th biennial brest forum on cooperative uses (http://forum-usages-cooperatifs.net/index.php/accueil 4&egrave;me forum des usages coop&eacute;ratifs de brest). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> analysis </h3> <p> drawing upon our interviews with <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> staff and project initiators, as well as from participants' comments and activity in the wikis, we suggest that the <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> training program participates in community innovation in mediating between the worlds of users and developers in three novels ways: a 'trickle-down-meeting-bottom-up' strategy is introduced to target key intermediary actors, a learning-by-doing philosophy guides the training where participants are positioned as 'co-designers' of their collaborative tools, and a 'lego approach' to system development is adopted to foster modularity and adaptation to local contexts. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> when trickle-down meets bottom-up </h3> <p> community informatics often implies a bottom-up, grassroots approach to community development. in contrast, the animacoop training program was aimed at group facilitators, rather than the ordinary members of community groups. participants all had a working knowledge of internet and an interest in a collaborative approach. thus, the program did not directly address disadvantaged populations. like many local ict initiatives, however, it did seek to strengthen local community by stimulating collective action (haythornthwaite &amp; hagar, 2005; schuler &amp; day, 2004). </p> <p> animacoop was established with funding from the french government's uses of the internet (<em>d&eacute;l&eacute;gation aux usages d'internet dui</em>) program whose objective was to encourage short, online modular training programs for ict facilitators who would later transfer their understandings to the general public. program participants were expected first to learn about cooperation and collaborative tools, and eventually to transfer their understandings to the groups they guide. in this way, knowledge and know-how would diffuse gradually or <em>trickle down</em>, almost automatically. we suggest that the dui program's target of social inclusion is grounded in a belief that this type of initiative can generate social capital among participating individuals (lin, 2001; pigg &amp; crank, 2004; williams &amp; durrance, 2008). the implicit communication model behind the dui program is that of a two-step flow of information (katz &amp; lazarsfeld, 1955) in which opinion leaders (in this case, group facilitators) play an important role in the way messages are diffused among social groups. it explicitly recognizes that social relationships influence how messages are both relayed and received. </p> <p> in the case of animacoop, the trickle-down approach of the dui program is tempered by its meeting with the bottom-up, participatory culture in place in brest. we suggest that this communitarian culture highlights the <em>social</em> dimension of the social capital concept, making the social network of interactions, obligations, trust, and reciprocity a shared resource rather than something held by individuals. </p> <p> a two-step flow model also implies that the message is not fixed, finite and common to all, but open to a variety of interpretations. the 'audience' becomes an active partner in interpreting and actualizing message content. "<em>there's a step between discovery and mastery [of collaborative tools]. doing and getting someone to do: two dimensions. the group facilitator needs some time to appropriate the tools before transferring his knowledge</em>." (participant's comment, animacoop 2010). before coming to animacoop, the participants were already oriented towards a collaborative approach within their individual projects (see, for example, their initial presentations). throughout their learning process, they often reflected on how the course content could be useful to their target populations. for example, different participants mentioned the importance of knowing how to get, and keep, the attention of group members. they were also concerned with ensuring the participation of all group members and not frightening users by going too quickly or by proposing tools that might be perceived as being too complicated. these reflections suggest that considerable thought and effort goes into the trickle-down process, at least in the second stage of the two-step flow. they highlights the active role of those involved, not only in selective reception but also in targeted sending, and remind us of berry's (1993) appreciation that facilitators should be seen as part of a process that aims to shape perception whether consciously or inadvertently. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> learning by doing and codesigning collaborative tools </h3> <p> what better way could there be to learn about cooperation than to experience it? how better to learn about collaborative tools than to use them on a daily basis? we are struck by the high degree of correspondence between course content and its delivery in the animacoop program. in terms of content, the course was designed so that participants would learn about cooperation and collaboration, with or without collaborative tools. they were led to experience all the stages in the life cycle of a network as they worked together over several months. they learnt about collaborative tools by trying to use them in real collaborative situations. </p> <p> the program was designed to be student-centered, with participants' individual projects being a major component. having a collaborative project was in fact a prerequisite for participating in the course. this enabled participants to apply what they were learning in the program to their projects immediately, and to be able to ask questions of the training staff as they arose. they were thus involved in action at the same time as they were learning concepts, facilitating the consolidation of experience. this back and forth between action and reflection is a key element of active pedagogy, which stresses autonomy, reflexivity and collaboration (rouvrais et al<em>.,</em> 2004). in short, the animacoop exemplifies mcloughlin and lee's (2007) 'pedagogy 2.0' learning environment with its dynamic curriculum open to negotiation and learner input, and blend of formal and informal learning; multimodal, peer-to-peer communication using multiple resources; authentic, experiential, personalized, and participant-driven learning tasks; encouraging multiple perspectives; in which reflecting on one's learning process is a vital component. </p> <p> another important facet of the course was participants' work in small groups. these groups provided a space for discussion and the negotiation of shared understandings. as williams and jacobs (2004) have also demonstrated, in working together to try out different tools and apply various concepts, and in sharing their experiences in their respective individual projects, participants tested their assumptions and thought through the different ways that a given collaborative application might help a group. they were able to shape their own informal learning trajectories as well as become actively involved in those of others. in this perspective, the community is a key component of the learning process. this is consistent with merkel et al. (2005), who note that one of the lessons they learned in the context of a training program for community computing was the desirability of interacting around shared activities. </p> <p> the sharing of experiences served to multiply tacit knowledge across projects as well as to anchor it more deeply. in reality, this aspect of the pilot program was the one that proved most difficult to implement. one participant's comments summarize the general perception: </p> <blockquote> the training was interesting for its approach, which makes the student an actor. after [the initial workshop,], we were 'let loose' in small groups to experiment with collaborative work and various tools among ourselves. except, we weren't very used to this type of practice and, with such different projects and concerns, we had trouble coordinating ourselves. the up side of this experience was that it allowed us to observe obstacles to collaboration first hand (lack of time, lack of common goal, participation not sufficiently rewarded, lack of motivation ...). (animacoop participant, 2010) </blockquote> <p> in terms of infrastructural support, <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> provided 'architecture of participation' (mcloughlin &amp; lee, 2007) to facilitate user-controlled, collaboratively generated knowledge, and community-focused enquiry. with participatory web technologies and platforms, the potential for user participation is amplified by their ease of use (mcloughlin &amp; lee, 2007; murugesan, 2007), which considerably lowers the threshold for participation (barriers to entry). based on a wiki, whose basic principle is that anyone can write in or alter what is written on a page, the animacoop site reflected the ideals of openness and accessibility of information and knowledge. all content was organized according to principles of transparency (anyone could view any page of either the standard course content or the production of other groups and participants), modularity and flattened hierarchy. particular attention was paid to supporting and recording the group process (posting meeting notes taken on etherpad, heuristic maps or the collaborative construction of shared vocabularies for example). </p> <p> the animacoop site provided some, simple collaborative tools or links to tools in order to encourage experimentation. in this way, participants were able to selectively appropriate those things they found most interesting or relevant for their individual projects. the platforms and tools common to the participatory web are highly malleable (murugesan, 2007), as different applications and information from various sources can be imported, personalized and combined by users themselves. participants thus became designers in their own right. this supports the observation that with web 2.0 platforms and collaborative tools in particular, the conventional distinction between designers and users tends to dissolve (mackay et al, 2000; millerand &amp; baker, 2010). </p> <p> mcloughlin and lee (2007) note that while web 2.0 platforms and collaborative tools may stimulate the development of a participatory culture, careful planning and a thorough understanding of the dynamics of these tools and spaces are essential. moreover, they argue that the deployment of ict tools for learning ought to be informed by pedagogies that support learner self-direction. similarly, merkel et al. (2005) suggest that, if learning is to have lasting consequences for community development, designers and trainers need to fade into the background. they need to find ways for participants to </p> <blockquote> take control of the design process itself by directing what should be done, by taking a central role in the 'doing,' and by ... maintaining and developing the achievement that is produced. this requires us to find ways to create an environment in which groups can sustain their ability to solve technical problems and direct change themselves(p. 168-169). </blockquote> <p> this philosophy is at the core of both the animacoop course and the <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> approach in general. the association strives first and foremost to approach any situation by being attentive to its situatedness and particularities. it is operating on what they term a <em>logic of attention</em> rather than a <em>logic of intention</em>. <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> staff propose conceptual and technical tools in ways that promote sustainability: starting small and simple, encouraging their clients to reflect on their practices and to ask questions, enlarging the inventory of possibilities gradually, facilitating use and appropriation. </p> <p> in the animacoop project, <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> staff acted more like facilitators than trainers. they positioned themselves as partners in the design effort by making suggestions (pasmore, 1993). in doing so, they demonstrated what has been referred to in the science and technology studies (sts) literature as <em>interactional expertise</em> (collins &amp; evans, 2002). while they may not be multimedia or community group leaders, they knew enough about that work to be able to speak to the participants in a language that is familiar to them. this enabled them to present their knowledge about collaborative applications and computer science in ways that were attractive to and easily understood by their target audience. their interactional expertise allowed <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> staff to position themselves as mediators between the (social) world of users and communities and the technical world of software developers. their attentiveness allowed them to be responsive and to engage this expertise at appropriate moments. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> not one innovation but many multiple combinations to fit the singularity of each situation </h3> <p> each participant in the animacoop project had a project before undertaking the training. each took the collaborative tools that were proposed and combined them in various ways to fit the needs of their specific projects. this modular approach accentuates the malleability of collaborative ict spaces (murugesan, 2007), and highlights the active role of individuals, groups and communities in shaping innovation to fit their needs and according to their constraints. </p> <p> we suggest that the concept of <em>community innovation</em> (van oost et al., 2009) can be useful for describing the type of emergent, user-initiated project in which the community itself is an essential element of the innovation. most of the participants understood their project as an evolving entity, shaped by the activities of a community of actors who, with collaborative tools, would be simultaneously users and producers. throughout the process (as well as before and after the training period) they sought to deal with the dynamics of its growth and stabilization by channeling diverse competencies and expertise. while it was <em>their</em> project for the purposes of animacoop, all those involved recognized that they were just there to help it along. one participant expressed the group leader's coordination and alignment role as follows: <em>"in a collaborative project, the group should have a common cultural base in order to participate actively. the group leader has to be able to adapt to the group ... it is essential that he know his group, and he should act as a facilitator</em>." (animacoop, 2010) finally, in addition to stressing the evolving nature of a project, the concept of community innovation addresses the interrelation between social actors and the technical tools and contextual elements surrounding them. the community is not only source of innovation; it develops simultaneously with the innovation. </p> <p> in the case of brest, one important contextual element is the multitude of locally initiated projects. there is not one community innovation, but many. in addition to providing an opportunity for group facilitators to reflect on their practices and explore collaborative tools, the animacoop project was designed to take advantage of this multiplicity. it explicitly brought these individuals together and provided a space for them to meet and discuss around common interests (interview mb june 10, 2010). participants invariably noted the importance of their face-to-face meetings. this is in keeping with the city of brest's strategy of creating synergies between projects and individuals. local pockets of innovation are the starting point, but there is a multiplier effect in networking them. </p> <p> this is not to say that multiplier effect is automatic, however. one of the animacoop participants had an interesting reflection on the interrelationship between similar projects: </p> <blockquote> it is important not to distance the local actors of a mother project that is interesting, already active and starting to bear fruit. the risk is to try to duplicate existing functionalities and uses and consequently to lose people along the way and to create confusion and fatigue among local actors. we need to guard against creating one project to the detriment of another. we need to ensure that the two fit together so that they complement each other.(animacoop, 2010) </blockquote> <p> sustainability of local ict initiatives has been a concern since the inception of the field of community informatics. externally initiated initiatives have been criticized for providing only short-term benefits to recipient communities (warschauer, 2003). growing local projects is a long-term proposition. the local official at the origin of brest's ict orientation notes that they have only recently begun to see the impact of a participatory approach. he points to a change in the culture of brest over thirteen years, and suggests that with the density of ict developments, new projects are emerging more easily (interview mb june 10, 2010). it seems that the brest region is finally benefitting from a critical mass of ict initiatives, as project facilitators become agents for local development and collective actions appear spontaneously, sometimes without the help of group facilitators (briand, 2010). this echoes farr and papandrea (2004, cited in gaved &amp; anderson, 2006) who suggest that initiatives that are combined together into a 'cooperative network' have much better prospects for ongoing sustainability. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> conclusion </h3> <p> the case presented in this paper contributes to a better understanding of how communities may attain 'effective use' (gurstein, 2003) of icts. the brest region has tried to provide access across the various layers of what clement and shade (1998) call the access rainbow: the "socio-technical architecture or model that illustrates the multifaceted nature of the concept of access." the infrastructuring effect of papis responds to the lower levels of the rainbow, while various projects target social facilitation and ict literacy. animacoop may be seen as one more action within this strategy of attaining effective use (gurstein, 2003). </p> <p> we suggest that <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux's</em> specific approach to the development and use of collaborative tools incorporates several elements of interest to community informatics scholars and practitioners. firstly, the focus of the animacoop program is neither on access at a primary level (the immediate availability of a tool), nor on training and skills (how to use it), but rather on how the tool might fit into a local context. this local context is defined at the outset <em>by the participants</em>. outils-r&eacute;seaux's philosophy is to provide support to these users, and to be guided by their specific needs and diversity of competences. in their devolutionary strategy, the quicker participants take over and make the trainers redundant, the better. what is more, there are <em>multiple contexts</em> in play, as each participant comes to the training with his or her unique situation and perspective. the animacoop training brings them together and asks them to focus on collaborative practices, to interact around shared activities and to learn from each other. the use of collaborative tools by a group is viewed as subsequent to a group's experience with cooperation. this marriage of a 'pedagogy 2.0' learning environment with a panoply of modular collaborative tools provides an 'architecture of participation' (mcloughlin &amp; lee, 2007) to facilitate user-driven, collaboratively generated knowledge and community-focused enquiry. it encourages participants to become codesigners of their own tools as they adapt, customize and recombine them to suit their purposes. </p> <p> secondly, the two-step approach to knowledge transfer and sharing contrasts with many community informatics projects, which tend adopt a bottom-up, grassroots approach to community development. in choosing to accompany group facilitators, animacoop relies on a trickle-down, two-step flow that highlights the <em>social</em> dimension of the social capital concept and positions the social network as a <em>shared resource</em> rather than something held by individuals. the 'audience' (in this case, the participants) has no choice but to become an active partner in interpreting and actualizing message content. </p> <p> finally, through its promotion of both conceptual and technical tools that enlarge the range of possibilities and give communities greater control over the use of technology in their organizations, <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> participates in local innovation. by banking on user-initiated projects, the <em>outils-r&eacute;seaux</em> approach offers one path towards sustainable community innovation. the process is dynamic in that a group's composition, expectations and priorities evolve as they experience collaboration and gain experience (and confidence) with collaborative technologies. as the animacoop program is adjusted and offered again in brest and other regions, the ultimate goal remains: encouraging an emerging civil society in which ordinary citizens become more and more actively involved in shaping their technical and social environments. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> acknowledgements </h3> <p> this paper is based on research conducted in the context of a three-year project funded by canada's social sciences and humanities research council (sshrc). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> references </h3> <div class="reference"> alkalimat, a., &amp; 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(2008). social networks and social capital: rethinking theory in community informatics. <cite>journal of community informatics,</cite> 4(3). retrieved from http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/465 </div> </div> <h2 style="text-align:center">the rhetoric and reality of transparency:<br /> transparent information, opaque city spaces and the empowerment question</h2> <h3 style="text-align:center">bhuvaneswari raman<br /> french institute at pondicherry, india</h3> <h3>1.0 introduction</h3> <p>opening government data (ogd <a href="#foot1" name="ref1" title="open government data (ogd) relating to spatial information is defined in this paper as that information produced by the state and which is visible in the public domain for use in terms of securing information about territory to protect one’s claims or to benefit from land transactions.">[1]</a>) is viewed as a means to facilitate greater transparency of the state, which in turn is expected to catalyse citizens' participation and strengthen their bargaining power vis-à-vis the state (baviskar 2010; florini 2008; undp 2003; saxena and srivatsav 2001; srivatsava 2010; gupta 2008; pope 2003). this paper examines the purported links between ogd, transparency and citizens' empowerment through a focus on opening urban spatial information in the indian context. spatial information is held by the state in the form of land tenure records, archives of survey maps, city development plans, and documents relating to urban development policies and projects. the outcome of opening such information, particularly in the urban context, and the processes by which such information is produced are considered in this paper. </p> <p>in the indian context, two aspects of changes in governance are critical for the discussion on transparency. these include the introduction of e-governance initiatives and the right to information act (rti) (wright et.al 2010). since the mid-nineties, the government of india has introduced e-governance projects for creating a centralized spatial information system using gis maps (moud goi, 2006; rao 2011) and digitized land titles (singh 2005). the significance attached to e-governance initiatives for digitizing spatial information is indicated by the high level of funding allocation by the government of india. the rti act which was variously enacted by different state governments between 1996 and 2002, and finally amended in 2005 as national legislation by the government of india, provides an avenue for citizens to force the state to disclose its information archives, which in this context includes survey maps, land titles and master planning documents. the possibility to open spatial information through the provision of the rti act and various e-governance projects are justified on the grounds that these will empower citizens, particularly those of relatively weaker economic and social background. </p> <p>the term empowerment can be interpreted in different ways. at the basic level, opening spatial information will enable citizens to access information easily (parycek and sachs, 2010, mason 2008; florini 2008). the possibilities for citizens to view and scrutinize government records regarding their land titles and territorial maps will open up spaces to secure their claims, and especially resolve conflicts arising from multiple claims over a particular piece of land (singh, 2005; chawla and bhatnagar, 2004). further, armed with ogd, citizens will be able to pressurise the state to implement "officially' sanctioned master plans and urban development programmes and to hold state officials, particularly "field bureaucrats", accountable for their actions (chawla and bhatnagar 2004; wright et.al 2010). however, there are several other logics underpinning the various initiatives for opening the government's spatial information. the e-governance initiatives discussed in this paper were used as vehicles for reforming institutional practices <a href="#foot2" name="ref2" title="see raman and bawa 2011 for a detailed discussion on the institutional politics that underpin the rationale provided by policy makers for digitizing land records in karnataka known as record of tenancy and crops (rtc).">[2]</a> relating to the recording of land claims, retrieval and management of land records <a href="#foot3" name="ref3" title="see benjamin et. al 2007, for a detailed discussion on the role of multilateral institutions such as the usaid and the world bank in shaping the rationale for digitizing rtc.">[3]</a> (chawla and bhatnagar 2004; ahuja and singh, 2005). both information and decision-making power were centralized in order to realign the influence of senior bureaucrats and field bureaucrats over the process of creating and managing land records (raman and bawa 2011; benjamin et.al 2007; de 2005). </p> <p>the decision to introduce the digitization project in the revenue department of the state government was also influenced by intra-departmental power dynamics relating to control over the process of recording land claims and management of such records (benjamin et.al 2007; raman and bawa 2011). a centralized database of digitized land records was created with differential access privileges. further the government of india intends to set up a "single' "unified' database of information held by government departments of various functions and scales. </p> <p>spatial information was opened at a time when land was viewed as a vehicle for accelerating growth and attracting foreign direct investment into real estate (denis 2010). notably, the financing models of large urban development projects being planned or under implementation rely on tapping real estate surplus for capital (benjamin 2008 shakin 2011). but these projects often encountered delays due to difficulty with land acquisition stemming from lack of clarity of land claims (benjamin 2010; bhatnagar 2002). there was also pressure on the state from multilateral institutions <a href="#foot4" name="ref4" title="see world bank 1993, 2003, and 2004 reports titled ‘housing: enabling markets to work; pro-poor development of land titling and benefits to the poor; regional study on land administration; and, land markets, and collateralised lending; and http://econ.worldbank.org/files/35626_chapter4.pdf">[4]</a> to open up spatial information. </p> <p>as well, these projects generate lucrative contracts for production of gis maps and databases for private sector information technology (it) companies. thus, while transparency of spatial information is used as a justification by the state for projects like bhoomi or gis mapping, there are also other political and economic logics underpinning their introduction. rather than assuming the beneficial effects of ogd and transparency, it is critical to examine not only the outcomes of opening different types of data but also questions of how and why government data was opened. </p> <p>this paper suggests that the outcomes of ogd may differ depending on the nature of information disclosed and conflicts surrounding it. discussions on ogd predominantly focus on the benefits arising from information transparency (florini 2008; graham 2002; wright et.al 2010). although some studies observe the differing effects of transparency initiatives, its resolution is sought in the techno-managerial realm (davies 2010; graham, 2002; fenster 2006). the risks posed by information disclosure are seemingly addressed through better choice of technology for right design or right policies for greater transparency (mason 2008). </p> <p>questions of who decides and what is decided as the "right' policy, "authentic information' and "right design' are important here (mason 2008; gupta 2008). this paper suggests that a techno-managerial approach overlooks the underlying political issues with respect to the construction of different types of information archives and the state's decisions to open information. this may, contrary to the intention of a progressive ogd project, disadvantage relatively weaker groups in protecting their land claims rather than strengthening their power. further, information disclosure in itself will not reduce conflicts (jasonoff 1990). this paper builds on earlier works of benjamin et.al 2007 and raman and bawa 2011, which have argued that projects such as digitisation of land records serve as vehicles to reconfigure land information. it proposes that contrary to the intention of the ogd project, the unquestioned celebration of ogd and the transparency paradigm may serve as a vehicle to reduce political claims into techno-managerial issues, and thereby realize an "anti-politics" agenda (ferguson 1996) to counter contestations over urban territories.</p> <p>an argument for a critical review of transparency paradigms in the context of spatial information tends to be interpreted as a call for opacity, which is not the intention of this paper. rather it argues for situating the debates on spatial information transparency in the political-economic context of information and land in order to understand the workings of power. as kracauer (1927) notes, reality is a social construct and paradigms such as open data and transparency are significant in shaping perceptions about reality. the power of these paradigms is such that</p> <blockquote> ... sublime in its promise of immediacy, comprehensibility, and unity ... is an aesthetic principle that can never be translated into an empirical reality ...no matter how noble the effort ... proposing a model of language, communication and political action based on presence, closure, and single meaning ... that is ahistorical and one dimensional, offering affirmative mimetic reflection than a deconstruction of power. (jarosinski 2002: 63-64) </blockquote> <p>the rest of this paper is divided into two sections. section 2.0 describes briefly the indian state's initiatives for opening spatial information. the following section has two parts. section 3.1 explores the experience of citizens with retrieving information using the provisions of the rti act and with recording or rectifying entries in digitized titles. these cases illustrate the difficulties faced by citizens in retrieving records and the differential outcomes of opening spatial information. such differences are influenced by citizens' positions in the political-economic hierarchy and issues pertaining to constructing a perfect land archive. this case brings to light the issue of competing, multiple records pertaining to land claims held by different state institutions. </p> <p>techno-managerial issues, including the choice of better technology, right design for easy retrieval or greater transparency, are useful to address the problem to an extent, but these do not address the fundamental issue of constructing a perfect, unified, consistent land database. the difficulty with constructing such a database arises from the complexities involved in the accurate capture and representation of information on land tenure forms or the workings of the city. </p> <p>as argued in 3.1, the open spatial data hides as much as it reveals about the history of conflicts surrounding the claims to a particular land. further, focusing on the use of open spatial information, it shows that given the varied interests seeking land information, opening such data may allow for violent appropriation. the stakes involved in seeing land information is high but the ability to mobilise it or benefit from it differs. it then considers the implication of elevating visible information as the legal information. ogd discussions recognize the state's decisions to selectively open data, but pose greater transparency as a way to resolve the conflicts arising from multiple records (see wright et.al 2010). such contra-positioning of transparency versus opacity, legibility versus illegibility or legal versus illegal is counterproductive. </p> <p>at the heart of the conflict in the case discussed in section 3.1 is not only that some claims get recorded and others do not, but also with the competing information in the state domain and which of this information gets prioritised in times of conflict. in such instances, the resolution of conflicts lies in the political realm and hence, is shaped by power relations. it is important to differentiate between technical information on paper as recorded by state agencies and the information that is eventually authorised as legal. for example, as the discussion in the following sections show, land records may be maintained in different forms by various institutions of the state, but not all of these records may be accepted as admissible evidence in the court. this distinction between paper information in the state domain and its legal acceptance is overlooked in the assumptions that greater information transparency in itself will lead to clarification of claims. while there is a clarion call to enhance the visibility of spatial records, particularly from economic elites and large developers (benjamin and raman 2011), the process by which related information is generated remains obscure. this is considered in section 3.2. this is important so as to understand further how power constitutes the context of rationality for ogd and transparency (flyvberg 1998). </p> <p>the discussions in the next two sections suggest the need to review some of the assumptions underpinning the advocacy for open data viz., the neutrality of information and the politics underpinning the construction of a perfect spatial information archive. an absence of a critical review of the paradigm poses a real risk of it being hijacked by powerful interests in society to further their agendas. </p> <h3>2.0 initiatives for spatial information transparency </h3> <p> this paper draws on ethnographic research on two types of initiatives that the indian state undertook for opening spatial information namely, the rti act (rti) and e-governance programmes for digitizing land titles and setting up centralized spatial information system using gis maps. the ethnographic fieldwork was undertaken by the author either independently or as a part of a team. information was collected through non-participant observation and semi-structured interviews with agents embedded in different hierarchies of the state and the local government, citizens, and activists. the state agents interviewed include the elected representatives and field officials of the local panchayat <a href="#foot5" name="ref5" title="panchayats are at the lowest tier of local governance in india.">[5]</a>, a field and a mid-level official of the revenue department, the ex-chief planner of the chennai metropolitan planning department, a senior official of the tamil nadu urban infrastructure finance corporation (tuficpo) and a planner-consultant for cmda. besides, this paper draws on the information available on the project websites and secondary sources. this section sets out the project's rationale, impetus for introduction and mode of implementation.</p> <p><span style="font-style: italic;">state initiatives: right to information act (rti) and digitization of land titles and city maps</span></p> <p>similar to the provision of the freedom of information acts implemented in other countries, the rti act of the government of india (goi), can be used by citizens to view, scrutinise and obtain information kept in government files, government orders, letters, records pertaining to expenditures and incomes of the state or policy documents (baviskar 2010; wright et.al 2010). the act was an outcome of a decade long struggle by the national campaign for people's right to information (ncpri) initiative. in the context of spatial information, this tool has been used to secure information relating to land ownership and the enforcement of master plans. </p> <p>the act's strength is attributed to the simplicity of application procedures. an applicant can address questions to the relevant public information office with the contact address, upon payment of a nominal fee and photocopying charges. the concerned government authority is required to respond within a stipulated period of time. if information is not provided, or if it is inaccurate or incomplete, citizens can complain to a public grievance commissioner, and the erring officer can be fined a fixed amount for each day of delay (baviskar 2010). rti is supposed to benefit all income groups. based on ongoing research in a small town adjoining chennai metropolis, section 3.1 of this paper examines the experience of citizens from the dalit caste a relatively weaker social and economic group, with the use of this act. </p> <p>digitization of land records held by the revenue departments [6] of the state governments [7] was perhaps the first generation of e-governance projects introduced by the goi (meena et.al 2005). land records are critical because land revenue constitutes an important source of government revenue (bhatnagar and chawla 2004; de 2005; raman and bawa 2011; senthil priya and mathiyalgan 2012). the national informatics centre (nic), an autonomous institution reporting to the goi, was mobilised to provide technical support to the regional governments for implementing these projects. discussions in this paper draws on ethnographic research conducted on two projects bhoomi and nemmadi both implemented by the government of karnataka in south india. </p> <p>one type of land record, namely the record of rights, tenancy and crops (rtc) was digitized under the bhoomi project [8]. in addition to rtc, personal information relating to age, caste and religion were digitized to deliver welfare programmes, also known as rural digital services (rds) under the nemmadi programme (gatty 2009; raman and bawa 2011). internet kiosks were set up at the sub-district and district levels, under a public-private partnership (ppp) arrangement, where citizens could retrieve rtc and rds records. in addition, under the 12th five year plan [9], goi introduced a programme called the national urban information systems (nuis) to create a centralised digital urban spatial system using gis maps and a social information system (nuis goi, 2006). the nuis programme consists of two major components namely urban spatial information system (usis) and national urban data bank &amp; indicators (nudb&amp;i). creation of spatial maps using gis technology for each city and town were funded under the usis stream, and the generation of the database on urban population under the nudb&amp;i. </p> <p>the following section examines the suggested association between transparency facilitated by spatial information disclosure, easy access to information, resolution of land conflicts, and citizens' relationship with the state, particularly that of relatively weaker groups. </p> <h3>3.0 transparent information and opaque spaces</h3> <p>this section has two parts. the first, section 3.1, starts with the experience of citizens who tried to retrieve information using the rti act and with recording information in digital titles. through this evidence, it explores the claim pertaining to accessing information, resolving conflicts over claims, and their relationship with the state after the introduction of transparency initiatives. the following section 3.2 examines the decision-making process relating to the coding of information represented in spatial documents such as master plans, maps of city territories and the categories of representation.</p> <h3> 3.1 information transparency, easy access and resolution of conflicts over claims </h3> <p> the case described below traces the experience of citizens from the dalit caste with using the rti act to secure information about a contested plot of land in a small town called marakkanam, in the south indian state of tamil nadu. the town is in close proximity to chennai city. two caste groups namely, the higher caste mudaliars and the socially marginalized dalits, dominate the town and its surrounding villages. the mudaliar caste households controlled the economy and the land in the town until the late nineties. members of the dalit caste depend on salt work, small-scale agriculture and animal husbandry for their income, and are predominantly both economically and socially disadvantaged. the real estate market of marakkanam town and its surrounding villages is influenced by the growth of chennai city. since 2000[10], there is a high demand for land in marakkanam; this has led to the conversion of agricultural land under individual ownership as well as common land into plotted development [11]. </p> <p>one particular plot of contested land is at the edge of a reserved forest called the kurumabaram rare medicinal plants and herbs forest. it is about three acres in size. it is currently controlled by an individual from the mudaliar caste. this person will henceforth be referred to as "a'. "a' claims that he is the rightful owner because there is a land record in his name. this ownership is contested by some residents from the dalit caste residing in a settlement adjacent to the forest. the dalit group's counterclaim is that the land was once a part of the forest and that "a' captured it incrementally and recorded his claims drawing on the systemic power of his caste in the panchayat office. </p> <p> further, a political activist working with the dalit community and a panchayat official interviewed for this research confirmed that the genealogy of the forest land would reveal the common land tenure status of the territory claimed by a. they argue that this genealogy can be constructed only through a reading of different institutional records including the records [12] of the traditional village accountant for marakkanam, the records held by the revenue department and, the old survey maps and titles held by the forest department. the former records in the possession of dalit citizens show the three acres of land as part of the forest commons. the dalit group is struggling to secure the land record archives of the forest department to strengthen their version. another claim is that the common land was allotted to the dalit community but it was encroached upon by "a'. hence, the land should be reclaimed and allocated to them as their community is involved in protecting the herbs and the members depend on the forest for survival.</p> <p> while it is difficult to prove the veracity of different claims [13], it is equally difficult to overlook the assertions of the dalit citizens' group for two reasons. the title held by "a' was issued in the seventies by the panchayat office when members of the upper caste communities dominated it. further, discussions with revenue department officials suggest that it is often difficult to ascertain the boundary between land parcels and consequently, taking into account the location of the contested territory, it is difficult to dismiss the claims of dalit group. </p> <p> despite repeated attempts to secure the spatial records of the forest department using the rti, the dalit group has yet to receive an appropriate response to their queries. according to the group members, they received an evasive response to each of their applications. during their face-to-face meeting with the deputy conservator of the forest department, the officials mentioned that the department cannot disprove "a's' claims to the land with the records currently available to the department. dissatisfied with this response, the dalit leaders are continuing their demand for the release of old records, particularly, the survey maps of the forest department. in 2006, the conflict took a serious turn when the leader of the dalit group was attacked allegedly by the occupier in an attempt to stall the rti. with the help of another local leader, the dalit group established connections with the english media through which they are seeking to fight their case. the conflict is ongoing. </p> <p> the kurumbaram case resembles the experience of several other activists and individuals with the use of rti to secure information. baviskar (2010) notes that instances of evasive replies, dilatory tactics, outright refusal of rti applications and supply of an avalanche of irrelevant information far outnumber the success stories of obtaining information via rti (see samu 2008; http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-11-19). further, in 2006, the government of india attempted to restrict the power of the act by exempting the information stored in government files and government orders, which is critical to trace the trail of the decision-making process. although following the protests by activists, amendments to the act were withdrawn, but keeping the act intact in implementation remains a challenge (samu 2008; baviskar 2010). in addition, citizens do not have uniform capabilities to interpret the data disclosed (gupta 2008; paycerk and sachs, 2010). moreover, although rti is portrayed as a people's movement, a key factor influencing the introduction of the rti act is the campaign leaders' connection with the bureaucracy, activists and intelligentsia (baviskar 2010). my intention is not to deny the usefulness of the rti act but to highlight the differing experience with the use of rti to open up information. </p> <p>the conflict over kurumabaram forest land shed light on the existence of three titles but there is a possibility of other records surfacing as the conflict proceeds. in theory, opening multiple records may provide a way of destabilising the data capture by the elites. the response of the forest department in terms of not releasing the information in the kurumbaram context can be read as a case for more transparency in order that the dalit group can obtain "conclusive evidence'. such a reading would suggest that making visible various competing records held by different state departments would settle the conflict. however, in reality, opening multiple records in the state domain may be inadequate to shape the outcomes of these conflicts for the following reasons. first, the records held by the state may not reveal all the claims to a particular plot of land. citizens record their claims to land in different institutions and in different registers of the state. in this respect, the databases maintained by a particular department are far from complete or continuous. moreover, claims to territory and land are established in several ways including drawing on culture and symbolism (fox 1998; benjamin 2012; srinivas 2005), which are not captured by official records. </p> <p>these imperfections, discontinuities and disjunctures in the archived information stem from a variety of factors including the cost considerations that influence the design and format of databases during different regimes [14], changes in the institutional practices of recording land claims over time, non-recording of certain types of occupancy [15], and citizens playing to different institutions to establish their claims. thus, the multiple records may reveal the multiple histories of claims. second, in the event of such competing imperfect information on land with high stakes, how does one conclude the validity of one record over the other? consequently, the resolution of land conflicts is influenced by political positioning of different groups at a particular place and time. thus, the records held by each department of the state may not necessarily reveal the full story of conflicts or reflect the reality on the ground [16], but rather reflect the political outcome of the contestations over claimed land. </p> <p>moreover, even if the various records in the state domain are made visible, not all visible information may be accorded legal status. in other words, it is critical to distinguish between the information on paper (i.e., technical information) that is opened up and that which is accorded a legal status. for example, the architects of the bhoomi and the nemmadi projects viewed the prevalence of multiple records as a manifestation of "inefficient record keeping', "corruption of field bureaucrats' and the opacity of land records due to lack of modern systems of documentation (chawla and bhatnagar 2004). they sought to resolve the conflicts by identifying a single owner to a single plot of land by according a legal status to the digital rtc. thus, post the introduction of bhoomi, only the digital rtc is admissible in a court of law as legal proof of one's claim to land. in effect, claims recorded or authorised by other institutional channels may be disregarded (benjamin et.al 2007). the elevation of the status of one type of land record, namely the digital rtc, may pose a risk to poor citizens in terms of proving their claims to land which are based on various forms of paper records such as the general power of attorney (gpa), agreement on a stamp paper in front of village elders, and holders' certificates. my intention is not to deny the problem of corruption or inefficiency confronting the state but such a reductionist interpretation of the issue of multiple records allows for submerging land conflicts [17] under the guise of resolution. the issue therefore is not one of more or less transparency, but is about the way in which the paradigm is appropriated in a particular context. </p> <p>another argument for spatial information transparency is that it enables poor groups to see the records of the state to which they did not earlier have access. this is based on an assumption of the poor's total exclusion from the state realm, which can be questioned drawing on the evidence in the anthropological research on state-society relationships in india (gupta 1996; corbridge 2005; fuller and harris 2002; benjamin 2000; chatterjee 2011, 2002). the dalit group of kurumbaram as their other counterparts secure information from the state in different ways including the use of rti, their social networks embedded in local governments and local society. similarly, retrieving the digital data of rds records or rectifying mistakes in the digitized rtc has proven to be a relatively time consuming and costly process as compared to the earlier system, particularly for households from relatively weaker economic or social backgrounds (raman and bawa 2011; benjamin, bhuvaneswari et.al 2005; baviskar 2010). consequently, these groups tend to use their social networks to secure information and restrict their reliance on the new systems. a key document that enabled them to contest "a's' claim in this conflict is the records maintained by the traditional village accountant, which was secured via their inter-generational ties in marakkanam and their networks in the panchayat office. a pertinent question here is why did the dalit group not contest "a's' claims until recently despite having access to the records of the traditional accountant? </p> <p>while acknowledging that the rti act has opened yet another avenue to secure information on land to counter the claims of competing agents, i argue that their ability to wield the tool was shaped by a combination of other factors. these include their socio-political position in marakkanam town, tacit knowledge of local histories and access to the records of the traditional village accountant. it is only over the last ten years, that dalits have managed to secure political power [18] in the area and are beginning to contest the land claimed by other communities. their understanding of local histories is critical in eliciting relevant information from the state as the type of responses to rti application depends on the framing of the question. in fact, as an anonymous reviewer of this paper has pointed out, the rti itself creates the state as a gatekeeper of information. in this light, tacit knowledge about land / territory and access to old records gathered through inter-generational involvement of members of the group in lower levels of the panchayat is critical for the dalit group to continue their struggle. </p> <p>a related assumption is that information transparency will increase citizens' bargaining powers vis-à-vis the state by replacing the power of social networks. in so far as land administration is concerned, as much as technology supports transparency of information, it is also used to centralize power with the respective government departments in order to channel the forms and avenues by which information is circulated. this has, in effect, squeezed the bargaining spaces of the poorer groups (benjamin et.al 2007; raman and bawa 2011; de 2005), who used to rely on their connections with the field level officials to secure information and to access state services (benjamin 2000; corbridge 2005; gatty 2009 [19], raman 2010). the latter's influence over land related issues were curbed under the guise of eradicating corruption [20]. this change is to be understood in the context of close alliances between the senior officials, policy makers and large real estate developers and corporate interests in shaping land policies and urban development programmes (shakin 2011; benjamin 2008; john 2005) [21]. while this is not an argument in support of lower level officials, the issue here is that rather than assuming the intrinsic benefits of the transparency paradigm, it is critical to understand the context in which such concepts are embedded. </p> <p><span style="font-style: italic;">the use of visible information</span></p> <p>mechanisms for disclosing spatial records are a double-edged sword. as much as poorer groups use the rti act to seek information about state actions (see http://www.indiatogether.org/2011/feb/hrt-mumslum.htm; samu 2008), this avenue has been used by the elites to secure information on urban development policies and to pressure the state to evict slum dwellers in the name of enforcing the rule of law (national convention on rti, 2008). in a policy and legal context that is tipped against the poor, there is a risk that transparency initiatives serve the politics of evicting the poor from productive localities of the city and their resettlement outside the city. a counter argument may be that the threat of eviction exists irrespective of the state opening spatial information. historically, the state used the city planning process to evict squatters and to reconstitute claims to urban territory (fox 1998; kosek 1998; dossal 2010). while this is true, when the demand for eviction is made using the rti route, it adds to the pressure on the state toward evicting occupants. in contrast, when the issue is less visible or audible, the poor used to lobby political representatives to stall evictions. this does not mean that the poor seek opacity under all circumstances; they too actively seek to regularise their tenure status through their political alliances. rather, the issue is that the use of open spatial information in the contemporary political-economic context may reduce rather than enhance the political space in which the poor have to manoeuvre to limit evictions. </p> <p> access to information on land records alone may have a limited value unless competing agents have the ability to harness other political and economic resources to benefit from such information. field research on the nemmadi programme (raman and bawa 2011) revealed that some respondents perceived the transparency of their land records as weakening their bargaining power vis-à-vis powerful real estate agents. their views reflected the reality of the workings of real estate markets. </p> <p>the real estate developer is a dominant clientele for viewing the rtc applications and consulting websites at the revenue department in land administration in bangalore (raman and bawa 2011; benjamin et.al 2007; de 2005). the easy access to digital rtc upon knowing the survey numbers [22] makes it easier for developers to secure information on the tenure status of each plot and circumstances of the land owners, particularly, with respect to properties under conflict (benjamin et.al 2007:p.18-22). the information on the physical and legal characteristics of land and the owners' circumstances is critical in land transactions as it influences the bargaining power of buyers and sellers (benjamin et.al 2007; haila 2002). this information is mobilised by real estate developers [23] along with physical force, money and information on family crises to pressure land owners to part with their land (raman and bawa 2011). given the sensitivity of land transactions and the political and economic power of real estate agents and their alliances with lawyers as observed in an indian metro area (benjamin et.al 2007), opening up spatial archives may have a regressive impact on weaker sections of society. </p> <p>the capture of information by real estate developers and its use to influence the state to evict / dispossess weaker groups is not a far-fetched scenario in contemporary indian cities. while one may argue that such capture by real estate agents prevailed prior to opening the data, the effects of opening land information is to be considered in the light of increased competition over land, in the decade of 1990's in indian cities. a few large developers dominate the high-end real estate markets in many cities, particularly in the metro areas. their websites outline [24] the extent of land that they plan to acquire for development. prior to their entry into the market in the-mid 1990s in places like bangalore, real estate was dominated by small developers who relied on their knowledge of local histories and relationships to assemble land for development. </p> <p>state agencies seeking to implement mega urban development projects as well as large developers, faced difficulties in consolidating large tracts of land due to the illegibility of claims on the ground (benjamin and raman 2011). these large developers with financial connections to capital markets in india and abroad [25] have been lobbying for opening spatial information archived in the forms of rti and mutation certificates [26] (benjamin et.al 2007; john 2005). at another level, large real estate developers are also closely connected to the spatial policy formulation process including the construction of city development plans and urban infrastructure programmes (randeria 2011, benjamin 2010; de and chowdhry 2011). they have been lobbying for a host of other interventions such as the new land acquisition bill [27] and a conclusive title project entitled the partnership for land title implementation for urban management (platinum) (benjamin and raman 2011b). (http://urbanindia.nic.in/programme/lsg/project_platinum/final_report_platinum4711.pdf). the india space foundation dominated by venture capitalists and it lobbies is involved in this formulation as well as the implementation of the platinum programme. there is a also proposal to link this with the unique identity card ((uid) programme. </p> <p>it is in the above context, that the conflation of visible land records (i.e. rtc) mentioned earlier as the only legal proof of one's claim to land further disadvantages the relatively poor groups in the city. similarly, the visible master plans of the city become the reference point to label legal and illegal spaces and as a justification for evicting the poor from their economic and residential spaces and resettlement [28] (roy 2011; benjamin 2008). mass demolition and eviction drives have become a normal occurrence in indian metros. the conflation of visibility with legality together with the difficulty in correcting mistakes in digital titles or contesting information coded in plans, in effect, results in further closure of political spaces for the poor to contest state archives or resist eviction. the alignment of different forces the rise of the real estate economy as a driver of growth, the capture of the policy process by relatively powerful political and economic groups in indian cities together with the elevation of open information as the only legal / authentic information has serious consequences for relatively weaker groups to hold on to their claims. </p> <p>the above discussion underscores the importance of situating ogd frameworks and advocacy in the wider political context of spatial information and technologies of its production. as the kurumbaram case revealed, it is difficult to trace the totality of claims to a particular piece of land and visible spatial information may reflect the differential ability of groups to get their claims recorded. the assumption that greater transparency will even out conflicts over land is premised on the power of technology in ironing out power relations in society. the issue faced by the poor is not only about access to data, but also to do with who is seeing the information on their land and how they are likely to mobilise it and the shrinking of the political spaces for contesting visible information. as land information is implicated in the generation of wealth in both urban and rural areas, the politics around urban land is not only about the forms of land development but the manner in which information pertaining to claims are recorded and its institutional location. here, various agents including the state, technologists connected to e-governance companies and large real estate developers have an interest to open spatial information as well as to shape the categories under which such information is coded. the balance of power further disadvantages the poor. the celebration of ogd and transparency paradigms as intrinsically beneficial, without taking into account the power context in which it is embedded allows for the capture of the paradigm by powerful interests in society. </p> <h3>3.2 opaque production of information </h3> <p><span style="font-style: italic;"> the opacity of the planning process</span></p> <p>literature on critical cartography and master plans of the city have shown that spatial records in the form of master plan for cities or policy documents represent particular narratives, identities, representations and thus, the political aspirations of some groups in a city (sarin 1982; nair 2005; holston 1989; dossal 2010; foetidas 2009; wood and fels 1992). the master plan that is opened to the public is an outcome of such opaque lobbying processes. there are several examples to illustrate this point. a nationally well-known real estate development firm that controls much of the land development since the mid-nineties in gurgoan near new delhi, started purchasing land much before the area was urbanized and then lobbied the planning agency for an inter-city state corridor to abut their properties in order to secure high prices (de and chowdhury 2011). another example is the case of the it corridor in chennai where landowners lobbied for declaring the territory as an it corridor [29] [30]. such stories of master plans being shaped by real estate lobbies are common to cities across the world (see holston 1989). similarly, the 2005 master plan of bangalore metropolitan city was influenced by the bangalore agenda task force (batf) comprising it entrepreneurs, real estate developers, architects and venture capitalists, which also played a key role in hiring a french consultancy firm [31] [32]. these groups are among those who lobbied for opening land records information [33]. thus at one level, they are shaping the rules of the game and at another level, appropriating the transparency agenda to actually clear out the obstacles from below. </p> <p>the construction of any information archives involves selection and sorting of information and in this selection, key aspects may be left out due to technical and political exigencies. for example, the master plan for chennai city did not map the category of squatter settlements on account of which there is a risk of some activities and spaces occupied by the poor being labelled as illegal (pfeffer et.al 2010). decisions pertaining to the choice of categories used in master plans and digitized titles remains a black box. similarly, cost considerations influenced the design of databases and the choice of technology for the digitized land titles' project (raman and bawa 2011; see also chawla 2002 quoted in benjamin et.al 2005). all these factors affect the ways in which land related information is reconstituted. </p> <p> increasingly, decisions pertaining to urban planning and development are restricted to a select group of officials and bureaucracies within a particular department. the recent exercise to produce city maps using gis technology under public private partnerships has further pushed the production of maps into the private realm and secrecy [34]. producing gis maps and digitizing land records is a lucrative market for technology companies because schemes have massive state funding. the creation of these maps also contributes towards the infrastructure of the e-governance companies who seek use this information to acquire other consultancy contracts. for example, the company involved in digitizing land titles in bangalore has now moved onto digitizing survey maps. further, they were lobbying the revenue department for introduction of e-governance in 18 districts of karnataka as well other departments such as the food and civil supplies (fcs) [35]. there is limited information about the role of private companies involved in the production of gis maps or e-governance companies digitizing land records and their relationship with the state. while these lobbies are making demands for opening state information, there is little information on how / who shapes the terms of reference for the technical bids on these projects on e-governance. this remains an important question given the limited technical capabilities within the state. not many technologists are willing to speak about these aspects openly. </p> <p>another example is the tight control over information relating to decisions on the implementation of mega-projects and urban renewal programmes within local governments (raman 2010). in bangalore, such information and knowledge is controlled by the triad of the commissioner, deputy mayor, mayor and the head of the special project cell [36] (raman 2010). in theory, these projects are approved by the council to justify transparency in implementation. in practice, the decision-making concerning such projects remains a question. another example is the secrecy surrounding the decisions to de-notify land. some of this land was earlier notified for other uses by planning and administrative agencies in a city centre ward of bangalore. the de-notification process was effected through a parliamentary act which was passed without much debate. this meant that overnight, traders working in the city centre ward were declared illegal and those affected by such changes were taken by surprise (raman 2008). </p> <p>the above discussion demonstrates the opacity of the processes by which decisions concerning land use planning and urban development are made and how such information is produced. these decisions affect the material and legal practices surrounding the use and development of urban land and its control by different groups in the city. contrary to the assumption that state initiatives for opening spatial information will contribute to information transparency and the de-centre power, these have actually resulted in further centralization of the production of information and power. in understanding the source of this opacity, it is useful to examine the questions of "where' and "how' the decision making process takes place with respect to collation, representation and classification of land-related information in maps, titles, master plans and other meta data, as well as the financing of digitization projects and their implementation. decisions on urban land use and development, including the constitution of spatial information in the form of master plans and project documents, are discursively located in several institutions in the public and the private realm. a thorough analysis of the institutional arrangements for urban development is useful to understand this aspect.</p> <p><span style="font-style: italic;">the domains of spatial information production</span> </p> <p> a variety of state and non-state institutions and actors are involved in the production of urban spatial information in india. for example, in chennai, over a period of three decades, the production of spatial information and decisions relating to it have been shifted out of the local governments to that of the chennai metropolitan development authority (cmda), and subsequently, to the tamil nadu urban development project cell (tnudp), and the tamil nadu urban infrastructure financing corporation (tuifco) [37] and the tamil nadu power finance corporation (tpfc) (benjamin and bhuvaneswari 2006). the hybrid status of some of these organisations allows them to refuse to provide information on key decisions on grounds of privacy. this is an issue of serious concern, as the policies of these organisations are geared to generate finance from the capital markets, and private investors such as the il&amp;fs and infrastructure financing corporations (benjamin and bhuvaneswari 2006). the latter institutions are represented in the board of tufico. another recent trend is the location of decision-making and production of spatial information in private companies and consultancy firms (randeria 2011), which also complicates access to key information relating to urban land. more recently, credit rating agencies have a significant influence on decisions relating to investments on land and infrastructure (swain 2011). </p> <p>discussions on ogd have focussed extensively on the performance of tools for facilitating transparency such as the rti or issues associated with project implementation. the conflicts surrounding the information that is opened up or the process by which the information disclosed is generated has received less attention. there is a role for community informatics theory and practice to shed light on the latter aspects to challenge the hierarchising nature of governmental data practices and to counter the capture of the ogd project and transparency paradigm by powerful groups in a society to advance their interests. </p> <h3>4.0 conclusion </h3> <p> this paper argues for situating the discussions on the open government data and transparency paradigm within the wider political economic context of information and land. it explored the outcomes of open government spatial information drawing on citizens' experience with retrieving information through the rti act. the discussions in section 3.1 illustrated the differential outcomes of open spatial information and that these differences arise from a combination of factors including the political and economic positioning of citizens and the specific characteristics of land information. the difficulty of capturing accurate information pertaining to land claims over time poses a challenge to the construction of a perfect spatial information base by the state and therefore the quality of information opened up. further, this paper showed that the visibility in itself is inadequate to protect the land claims of poor groups as this information is mobilised along with other resources including finance and muscle power in land transactions. moreover, not all claims get recorded in various departments of the state and even if they are recorded, not all are accepted in law courts. the evictions and displacement for which such open information may be mobilized are not linked only to the simple issue of legal or illegal status of land, but also to how ogd is implicated in this politics of labelling some information as more authentic/legal over others. in addition, while there is a clarion call for spatial information transparency, the processes by which such open information are produced remains opaque as shown in 3.2. the position taken in this paper is not one of pro or contra ogd or the transparency initiative, but to underscore the need to situate the discussions on ogd and transparency in the context of the nature of information and the premium attached to it. in this light, it is critical to examine the multiple logics that drive the state's decision to open up information rather than assuming the intrinsic benefits of transparency. </p> <p>both the realities of opaque information production processes and transparency of outcomes constitute the two sides of a coin, shaped by the wider dynamics of contestations over urban land, and shaping forms of territorial development. contestations over city spaces have accentuated in recent times with a policy emphasis towards promoting high-end corporate economies and large developers. transparency serves as a useful rhetoric to shape the production of spatial information archives and its modes of circulation. </p> <p>an argument for spatial information transparency without taking into account the wider political economy of information and land and specifically the ways in which information will be mobilised and the power of agents mobilizing it; it may, contrary to the intention of the ogd project, affect the land claims of relatively poor groups in society. to argue that the construction of legality or the working of the land market is outside the purview of ogd and the transparency project is to allow for the easy takeover of the paradigm by powerful interest groups in society. discussions on ogd very rarely focus on the politics of the appropriation of the transparency paradigm. the excessive focus on the techno-managerial aspects to facilitate greater transparency or better implementation as fergusson (1996) argues serves to depoliticize the substantial issues associated with the construction of the spatial information archive. a critical review of the ogd theory and practices is important in order to prevent the capture of the language of transparency and its use for outcomes quite contrary to the goal of accountability and fairness that many ogd advocates believe that they are working for. </p> <h3>references</h3> <p> ahuja, m. &amp; singh, a. p. 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wood, denis and fels, john 1992. the power of maps. new york: the guilford press. </p> <p> wood denis 2010. rethinking the power of maps. new york: the guilford press. </p> <p> wright, glover, pranesh prakash, sunil abraham, nishant shah ( 2010 ). open government data study: india. the centre for internet and society open government data study: india.</p> <h3>acknowledgements</h3> <p>in addition to primary research, discussions in this paper draw on the findings of two published research projects namely, the bhoomi and nemmadi. the bhoomi research was undertaken by a team of researchers including the author in the peri-urban and rural areas immediately outside the city boundaries in six districts between 2003 and 2005. findings of this research were published as "benjamin, raman, et.al 2007. the nemmadi research was conducted along with zainab bawa in 2010-2011 in the rural districts immediately outside bangalore. the author is grateful to members of the two teams whose deep insights and knowledge have helped in deepening her understanding of the politics of urban land and e-governance. however, the views expressed in this paper are those of the author.</p> <h3>endnotes</h3> <p><a href="#ref1" name="foot1">[1]</a> open government data (ogd) relating to spatial information is defined in this paper as that information produced by the state and which is visible in the public domain for use in terms of securing information about territory to protect one’s claims or to benefit from land transactions.</p> <p><a href="#ref2" name="foot2">[2]</a> see raman and bawa 2011 for a detailed discussion on the institutional politics that underpin the rationale provided by policy makers for digitizing land records in karnataka known as record of tenancy and crops (rtc).</p> <p><a href="#ref3" name="foot3">[3]</a> see benjamin et.al 2007, for a detailed discussion on the role of multilateral institutions such as the usaid and the world bank in shaping the rationale for digitizing rtc.</p> <p><a href="#ref4" name="foot4">[4]</a> see world bank 1993, 2003, and 2004 reports titled ‘housing: enabling markets to work; pro-poor development of land titling and benefits to the poor; regional study on land administration; and, land markets, and collateralised lending; and <a href="http://econ.worldbank.org/files/35626_chapter4.pdf"></a></p> <p><a href="#ref5" name="foot5">[5]</a> panchayats are at the lowest tier of local governance in india.</p> <p><a href="#ref6" name="foot6">[6]</a> the revenue department is one of the three departments under the state governments, which is in charge of recording land claims. the others include the department of survey and land registry. </p> <p><a href="#ref7" name="foot7">[7]</a> the federal structure in india is three-tiered with the union or the central government occupying the highest rung followed by the state governments, and local governments right at the bottom. </p> <p><a href="#ref8" name="foot8">[8]</a> in addition to providing rtcs through the computerization process, bhoomi also initially attempted to the digitize mutation certificate, which is a record of the changes in the land boundaries and ownership. the project of digitizing mutation certificates was dropped because of the high costs as well as the complex process involved in updating changes to land tenure (gatty 2009:157).</p> <p><a href="#ref9" name="foot9">[9]</a> five-year plans and the annual plans published by the government of india sets out the states policies and programmes and provides for funds allocation. this is critical because increasingly urban land policies, including decisions to collate information or to open it, are shaped through central government schemes. </p> <p><a href="#ref10" name="foot10">[10]</a> based on interviews with land developers, panchayat officials, and dalit caste political activists in markannam. the current price of the land in the town is between rs. 3,00,000-5,00,000 per acre. </p> <p><a href="#ref11" name="foot11">[11]</a> plotted development refers to a form of land development undertaken by the land owners--either their own or in a partnership between two to three developers. the developers prepare the layout plan, subdivide the land and sell it as residential plots.</p> <p><a href="#ref12" name="foot12">[12]</a> these include old survey books and personal diaries, which also gives an account of intergenerational claims on land. prior to the introduction of the village administrative officer in the revenue department, these records were maintained inter-generationally by the traditional village accountant.</p> <p><a href="#ref13" name="foot13">[13]</a> see benjamin and raman 2011, section 2.1 for a similar conflict on common land.</p> <p><a href="#ref14" name="foot14">[14]</a> for example, projects such as bhoomi contributed to the reduction of the categories of recording the tenure or the forms in which land is held (benjamin and raman 2011b). during the transfer from paper to digital form, several errors crept in in terms of names and places areas, in the digitized version. however, affected claimants did not attempt to rectify these due to the high cost of transactions arising from bribes to senior bureaucrats, and travel cost associated with numerous visits to the government offices (see also benjamin, raman et.al 2007; raman and bawa 2011).</p> <p><a href="#ref15" name="foot15">[15]</a> raman (2010) on how the santhe land was shown in the survey map but over the years the practice of showing it in the records was given up. further, studies on nemmadi and bhoomi suggest that in the translation of land tenure records from paper to digital form there was a reduction in the tenure forms.</p> <p><a href="#ref16" name="foot16">[16]</a> research on land digitization programmes in india and other countries (benjamin et.al 2007; mathiyalagan and punita 2011; mitchell 1996) and the internal audit reports of the regional governments in india (audit report, karnataka, 2007) have highlighted the issues of the inaccuracy and unreliability of information that is made public.</p> <p><a href="#ref17" name="foot17">[17]</a> see ho 2001; smith 1996; haila 2002; mitchell 1996; benjamin and raman 2011for the complexities of capturing land claims, which poses a challenge to the construction of perfect, unified information archive.</p> <p><a href="#ref18" name="foot18">[18]</a> marakkanam residents have been returning dalit candidates to offices in the panchayat election since 1995 and during the time of my field work in 2011, the dalit viduthalai siruthai a caste based mobilisation dominated the panchayats.</p> <p><a href="#ref19" name="foot19">[19]</a> gatty 2009:157 discusses why a majority of small landowners relied on the village accountant, a key field official of the revenue administration to record mutation or changes to their land tenure system even after the introduction of the bhoomi programme.</p> <p><a href="#ref20" name="foot20">[20]</a> corruption is used as an argument to curb the influence of field officials but the role of senior officials remains unchecked.</p> <p><a href="#ref21" name="foot21">[21]</a> see benjamin et.al 2005 pp.39-50 for the working of the real estate market and its connection to the bhoomi programme. also several recent scams brought to light the close connection between senior politicians, bureaucrats and the real estate and it lobbies (see benjamin and raman 2011b).</p> <p><a href="#ref22" name="foot22">[22]</a> it is a number assigned to each land parcel by the department of land survey, which will help to identify its location and actual measurements.</p> <p><a href="#ref23" name="foot23">[23]</a> see randeria 2011 for the process of land acquisition by a private company (adani group of companies) for setting up an sez park in gujarat state in india, which illustrates the role of mafia groups in pressuring the land owners to part with the land.</p> <p><a href="#ref24" name="foot24">[24]</a> an example is the case of a large developer in the country who developed much of the land in gurgaon in new delhi. see also, de and chowdhry 2011.</p> <p><a href="#ref25" name="foot25">[25]</a> see also foreign direct investment (fdi) in retail and real estate, the hindu dated february 10 2005 and icici bank ads among 24 fdi proposals cleared in deccan herald, february 17 2005.</p> <p><a href="#ref26" name="foot26">[26]</a> an example of this is the lobbying for the bhoomi project by the head of an infrastructure company in bangalore. in a private conversation with a retired senior official, it was revealed that the lobbying for the bhoomi came from them as these projects are based on land-based financing. they were stonewalled with the problem of land acquisition. see also benjamin et.al 2007.</p> <p><a href="#ref27" name="foot27">[27]</a> the new bill enacted in 2011 provides for further and stricter clauses to counter opposition/resistance.</p> <p><a href="#ref28" name="foot28">[28]</a> see raman 2010, where, irrespective of the legal status traders were forcibly removed from the territories.</p> <p><a href="#ref29" name="foot29">[29]</a> interview with member of the monitoring committee, chennai metropolitan development authority on 11th november 2011 and ex-mp, south chennai constituency, dated march 2003.</p> <p><a href="#ref30" name="foot30">[30]</a> interview with the chief town planner and secretary, cmda, dated 2003-4.</p> <p><a href="#ref31" name="foot31">[31]</a> raman 2010, phd field notes, interview with the then director, sce consultants, bangalore office on 23rd september 2004.</p> <p><a href="#ref32" name="foot32">[32]</a> see benjamin 2008, 2009 for the role of batf and janagraha for their role in shaping urban land policies particularly bhoomi and the implementation of the reform agenda particularly in the local government. a leading member of batf and the founder-director of janagraha are now lobbying under the banner of the india urban space foundation (iusf) for the implementation of a conclusive land title programme.</p> <p><a href="#ref33" name="foot33">[33]</a> the shaping occurs in several ways some more crude as in the examples of the developers and others controlling the production of plans in an apparently "participatory" manner.</p> <p><a href="#ref34" name="foot34">[34]</a> interview with abdul razack, professor of planning, school of planning, chennai, dated 15th october 2011 revealed that due to availability of large funds, each department of the state is commissioning the production ofgis maps controlled by private consultancies who are reluctant to share this information due to the possibility of generating further income.</p> <p><a href="#ref35" name="foot35">[35]</a> interview with the manager of comat, bangalore. field notes of raman and bawa 2011, nemmadi programme.</p> <p><a href="#ref36" name="foot36">[36]</a> field notes of raman (2010): interview with deputy mayor (2000-2002), bangalore city corporation dated 10th june 2004.</p> <p><a href="#ref37" name="foot37">[37]</a> the world bank has had a significant influence in the institutional reorganization in chennai.</p> 1321 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 points of view facebook’s “free basics”: for or against community development? a recent discussion on a prominent community informatics (ci) listserv revealed arguments for and against the facebook’s free basics platform among researchers in the field. to continue and enrich the conversation, this study first examines the contrasting stances revealed in the ci listserv discussion and derives the ci researchers’ major concerns about the platform. under the light of these concerns, we then explore the nature of facebook’s free basics in relation to community development through analysis of one of the forefront services that free basics offers, i.e., facebook. specifically, we examine relationships between uses of facebook and information technology (it) identity formation and social capital. we argue that although projects operated by private companies may possess potential for supporting community development, much consideration is needed in embracing the technology solutions due to the risks and restrictions they can impose on its users. we also suggest the ci researchers to open the next round of discussion regarding ways to thoroughly assess possible flaws of free basics and help users of the platform make more informed decisions. it identity is a new theory that can help shed new light on the challenges of using platforms such as free basics and their contribution to community development. !217 yim, m., gomez, r., carter, m. (2016). facebook ‘free basics’: for or against community development? the journal of community informatics, 12 (2), 217-225. date submitted: 2016-05-13. date accepted: 2016-05-13. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1321 moonjung yim university of washington information school, usa mjyim@uw.edu ricardo gomez university of washington information school, usa corresponding author. rgomez@u.washington.edu michelle carter university of washington information school, usa mscarter@uw.edu http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1321 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1321 mailto:mjyim@uw.edu mailto:rgomez@u.washington.edu mailto:mscarter@uw.edu the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction free basics is a central platform to facebook’s internet.org which is an initiative launched in 2013. it allows users to access and use facebook and certain other websites for free without mobile data charges, made possible through facebook’s partnerships with local mobile operators in a number of countries (40 at the time of writing), mostly in africa. according to the internet.org website, the initiative was launched “in hopes that one day, everyone will be connected” (“our approach”, n.d.). how realistic is the claim that free access to facebook (and several other sites) will in fact help improve people’s lives as the company claims? for over two decades researchers and practitioners have been trying to seek potential for information and technology for development, despite limited success (e.g. gomez, 2013; gomez & pather, 2010; heeks, 2008; sey & fellows, 2009). is facebook’s initiative perceived by community informatics (ci) researchers as a solution that could lead to this long-awaited success in achieving community development through technology? we address this question through analysis of one of the forefront services offered through free basics, i.e., facebook. we first examine the online exchange about free basics on the ci researchers listserv (http://vancouvercommunity.net/lists/info/ciresearchers) and draw the ci researchers’ major concerns about the platform. then, we enrich the online discussion under the light of “degrees of self” (from information technology (it) identity theory) and “forms of social capital” (bridging, bonding, and maintained) as we illuminate relationships between facebook use and indicators of individual and community development, namely: it identity formation and social capital creation. we conclude with implications for ci researchers’ future discussion. community informatics discussion on facebook’s free basics between december 2015 and january 2016 there was a heated exchange on the ci researchers’ listserv, discussing free basics and its contribution to development. the online discussion exhibited a conversation thread about free basics, and its relation to net neutrality, development, and privacy, involving those against and in favor of the platform. in our experience, the ci researchers’ listserv has seldom had active threads provoking as much participation as the free basics discussion generated. the opponents of free basics centered their arguments on potential threats to individuals from facebook (the corporation) exploiting its position of dominance, abusing people’s privacy, and violating net neutrality. for example, one participant expressed concerns about the giant corporation using its considerable influence to exert pressure on regulators to allow free basics services operation in india. this participant accused facebook of “misus[ing] its special media/ platform position to launch a political campaign in its own favour” and argued, “a new consultation on 'platform neutrality' should be launched” against this. another claimed that “facebook and other providers such as google (e.g. [i]n the us and africa) have provided free services in order to lock in customers and earn revenues from hav[ing] such customer basis.” still, another participant expressed concerns over the corporation’s ability to manipulate individual and/or public opinion. this was supported by the claim that there was a study in the past where “facebook manipulated the newsfeed of thousands of users to add and subtract !218 http://vancouvercommunity.net/lists/info/ciresearchers the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 negative news, and the goal was to see if this affected the tone of the users' comments on their posts in general.” he/she added that “[i]f they can figure out how to successfully manipulate news feeds to shape public opinion, the possibilities are endless…” this comment seemed to imply ethical concerns surrounding facebook’s ability to access and manipulate user created data—which is also related to privacy concerns. moreover, one participant highlighted the importance of local control over content by asserting that “…community internet, by definition having some kind of verifiable local community controls should be able to be selective on promoting local content, and other kind of preferred content, as locally determined, in clear pursuance of community interest and autonomy…”. in contrast, the proponents of free basics highlighted that the daily realities of people should be given higher priority than the discussion on net neutrality. one proponent argued that “[c]ommunity development is underpinned by the effective use of tools that enhance community reciprocity, the development of altruistic environs, the construction of commons[,] and ongoing development of social norms supportive of growth.” he/she added that “[m]y understanding of the indian fb [free basics] initiative is it's all about developing social capital.” it was also claimed that “free basics provides free access to essential internet services like communication, education, healthcare, employment, farming[,] and more.” he/she added, instead of having an argument about net neutrality, we should “go meet the people who don't have internet, and think about how [we can] bring internet access to those people…” it was also pointed out that there was “[a] lack of any reference or research to the ‘on the ground’ aspects of the free basics project” in terms of usage pattern and gains, etc. specific cases where free basics platform has provided benefits to the people in the developing world were mentioned. for example, it was commented that the “mkisan portal (http://mkisan.in/) [that was made] available to remote indian farmers via free basics…provides a wealth of information relevant to farmers…” additionally, one participant insisted that “facebook chose not to side with netflix, microsoft, [the] us government and other corporate and foreign interests all pushing for ‘net neutrality’…—facebook chose instead to help a billion people and facebook is now the target of a very large scale and organised demonization programme as [a] result.” taking a slightly different approach towards a more neutral stance, another argued that developing communities should “experience the pros and cons of these developments and make adjustments if needed,” adding that accusations leveled against the free basics project had yet to be proven. in sum, opponents of free basics largely expressed their concerns around facebook’s exertion of power affecting the internet environment with regards to net neutrality and potential risks to the users as the company might be able to access and manipulate information. in contrast, the proponents mostly focused on what could be gained at the individual and collective levels as a result of using the service and argued that decisions surrounding the use should ultimately be made by the people in the developing world. therefore, the major concerns of ci researchers illustrated in the listserv discussion emerges mostly around what the users of facebook’s free basics may gain versus the risks that the users would be exposed to. we aim to examine the nature and potential contribution of free basics to community development under the light of these concerns. !219 http://mkisan.in/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 facebook’s free basics and community development before we move on to address the ci researchers’ concerns, let us see where the connection lies between the services offered through free basics and community development. we hereby focus on examining facebook—the social networking site (sns)—because it is one of the forefront services that free basics offers. facebook is an example of information technology (it) based platform provided by a private company which is arguably intended for individuals to use and create network effects. it claims to create social benefit as more and more people join the platform to keep in contact and exchange information. in this regard, there is, at least on the surface, a common claim between facebook (whether restricted to facebook or expanded to free basics) and community development projects utilizing it. they both intend to promote social capital through enhancing the quantity and quality of exchanged information—despite the arguable differences in underlying aim, i.e. business driven or development driven. both facebook and community development related it projects have generated unexpected consequences that may or may not match with their original intentions of creating and promoting social capital. we believe this common ground shared between facebook and community development surrounding social capital creation opens up a space for facebook’s free basics to be mentioned in community informatics discourse. before we delve into the nature and possible implications of free basics for community development, we will develop our analytical framework. we will first discuss it identity as a theoretical construct and then describe notions of social capital. doing so will offer a basis to evaluate the ci researchers’ claims in favor and against free basics and the platform’s potential contribution to community development. it identity to explore the topics related to free basics discussed in the ci listserv, we first refer to it identity theory (carter & grover, 2015). it identity formation begins with an individual recognizing the potential for self-expansion through a certain technology, although he/she might not be aware of the full consequence. it must also be possible for the individual to engage in an intense period of exploring and experiencing the technology. if, in this period, a person feels a rapid increase in his/her sense of efficacy, the person may be encouraged to embed the technology into his/her social world and, over time, this embeddedness could lead to it identity formation. once an it identity is formed, an individual perceives use of an it as integral to his/her sense of self and, as life’s problems arise, he/she turns to the technology as a means to solve them. at that stage, the person is so empowered through use of the technology that, in its absence, the individual experiences losses of technological capabilities and competencies, as if a part of the self is lost. while it identity formation is individual, it is related to the social structures in which people are embedded. for example, where meaningful use of a technology extends to a group of people, it gives rise to observable patterns of it use. these patterns constitute shared expectations which individuals internalize as it identities with regard to their own behaviors. hence, it identity’s expression and social impact extend beyond the individual, to the collective or social realm. !220 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 these processes of it identity formation in individual and collective realms can also be observed in community development utilizing it—empowered individuals through the use of a technology constitute as units that possess potential to reach community development by forming social capital at the collective level. applying the notion of it identity to community development field, the question for ci researchers can be: how can it identity formation leading to individual empowerment translate to form collective behavioral patterns in a society which in turn bring about community development through social capital creation? as we can see from above, it identity theory entails the notions of individual and collective realms which provide explanatory power for the theory to be an analytical lens for understanding the potential implications of it for individual empowerment and social capital formation in community development. three different meanings in the course of it identity formation in a study that analyzes young adults’ self-identification with cellphones, carter et al. (2012) found three different types of meanings that undergraduate students formulate as the use of mobile phones become increasingly embedded in their lives: (1) functional meanings, focused on features afforded by cellphones; (2) relational meanings, focused on creating and maintaining social ties through use of the device; and (3) self-identification meanings, focused on the self as a unique individual whose cellphone use permeates all aspects of one’s life. when an individual reaches self-identification stage, he/she would use a wide range of features across multiple social situations and relationships, talk of the device as being “part of me” and of being “lost” or “not real” without it (carter et al., 2012). it identity formation necessarily involves each of these sets of meanings, as a technology becomes increasingly embedded in all aspects of daily life. functional, relational, and self-identification meanings represent the degree (or extent) to which a person views a technology as part of the self. hence, we call the extent of embeddedness of a technology in one’s daily life as “degrees of self” in it identity formation. social capital: bridging, bonding, and maintained in addition to it identity, different forms of social capital can help understand the discussion of free basics and its contribution to development. in brief, social capital can be defined in relation to its purposes: “social capital…is not a single entity but a variety of different entities, with two elements in common: they all consist of some aspect of social structures, and they facilitate certain actions of actors—whether persons or corporate actors—within the structure. like other forms of capital, social capital is productive, making possible the achievement of certain ends that in its absence would not be possible.” (coleman, 1988, s98) the underlying premise of social capital is that the social networks in which people participate have value. given this, the formation and strengthening of social capital are key elements in community development. putnam (2000) describes two different types of social capital: bridging and bonding. he illustrates bridging as inclusive, outward looking network which involves social connections among people from diverse backgrounds. also, he describes bridging as formation of weak ties which are useful for spreading out information and reaching !221 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 out to assets that exist outside of one’s close friends or family. the author highlights the benefit of bridging as “generat[ing] broader identities and reciprocity” (putnam, 2000, p.23). he provides examples of bridging social capital as the civil rights movement, youth service groups, and ecumenical religious organizations (putnam, 2000, p.22). in contrast, putnam (2000) describes bonding as exclusive, inward looking network involving people from similar backgrounds. he links bonding social capital to formation of strong ties that reinforces people’s own “narrower selves” and the connection which can be good for “mobilizing solidarity” and “provid[ing] crucial social and psychological support” (putnam, 2000, p.22-23). the author mentions ethnic fraternal organizations, church-based women’s reading groups, and fashionable country clubs as examples of bonding social capital (putnam, 2000, p.22). ellison et al. (2007) on the other hand introduced the notion of maintained social capital, which illustrates “the ability to maintain valuable connections as one progresses through life changes” (p.1146). the authors argue that this dimension of social capital allows examining whether individuals can keep in touch with social network by going online after being physically detached from it. according to the authors, an example of population related to forming maintained social capital would be college students geographically moving away from home and trying to maintain social network that he/she has built in high school. in sum, the literature has identified different forms of social capital, each with associated norms; bridging social capital is based on weak ties with external relations, bonding social capital is based on strong ties with family and close relations, and maintained social capital is based on the continuity of relations through life changes. these three forms of social capital complement the lens we use to explore free basics and its potential contribution to development. it identity and social capital: free basics and community development using it identity and social capital as analytical lenses, we can derive some implications for facebook’s free basics, to enrich the ci online discussion regarding the platform. first of all, the potential contribution of free basics—and more specifically facebook offered through the platform—to community development via social capital creation would largely depend on individuals’ degrees of self in terms of it identity formation. this is because an individual might be engaged in certain types of facebook use related to certain forms of social capital depending on one’s degrees of self. for example, individuals more closely associated with functional meanings compared to relational or self-identification meanings in terms of it identity would be more active in types of facebook use related to bridging social capital (e.g. consume information about what is happening in the broader world) compared to those related to bonding and maintained social capital (e.g. maintain perpetual contacts with close friends and family by using facebook). in a given society, as more and more individuals form it identity (reaching self-identification level) and thus become empowered through facebook use, the range of social capital created in society through facebook can become more diverse. for example, if people in a society in general perceive facebook as a mere tool (functional meanings), the society as a whole would likely be mostly engaged in activities that are related to generating bridging social capital. however, once more and more individuals give relational meanings to the technology and !222 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 identify themselves with it, the society would be engaged in increasingly broader set of activities that create bonding and maintained social capital. let us address some important tradeoffs and concerns in the use and perception of free basics as a community development tool. first, the way the project is designed might be restricting participants’ choices by, for example, providing only a selective number of services, or influencing people to use certain goods or services over others. as mentioned in the ci listserv exchange, free basics has been criticized of harming net neutrality because if people are offered to access certain sites free of charge on data use, the owners of those websites earn unfair advantage over others (lafrance, 2016). moreover, although its creator has emphasized the openness of the platform in terms of anyone being able to add websites to free basics as long as they abide by the participation guidelines (“free basics platform”, n.d.), facebook nonetheless reserves the last word in reviewing and adding services to the platform. the issues are essentially pointing to the risks of participants losing freedom to make choices that best suits them in improving access to, and utilization of, information through its. moreover, facebook was accused of using its own social networking platform to lobby india’s telecom regulator to operate free basics in the country. the issue implies the possibility that participants of free basics might be exposed to information that reflects interests of certain stakeholders. this might result in participants making decisions that they would have made differently otherwise. privacy is an additional concern, especially as people disclose more and more personal data that is then captured and stored by facebook. though it is claimed that facebook does not store users’ personal navigation information from within the service beyond 90 days (venkataramakrishnan, n.d.), facebook the sns has shown already that there is no limit to data storage: once online, there is technically no “delete” button—the postings can be reposted, shared, and screenshotted. discussion and conclusion regarding the free basics discussion, the fundamental disconcert lies on the use of the forprofit platform of facebook—even if embedded in a broader (though hand-selected) number of services—with the claim that it will help make a better world. it will certainly help facebook increase its market share, number of users, and ad revenue, but will it contribute to community development? we can derive free basics’ potential contributions and limitations in relation to development both at the individual (empowerment through it identity formation) and collective (social capital creation) levels. to some extent we agree that free basics possesses aspects that generate critical concerns by individuals and society—restricting participants’ choices, the implementer possessing virtual political power, and having potential privacy risks. however, despite its limitations, free basics is a platform of which use is largely determined by the participants (though controlled by facebook). the preceding analysis shows that the relationship between facebook use—a crucial element of free basics service—and individual and community development largely depends on individuals’ it identity formation and how they choose to use the technology. moreover, from our analysis, we can see that at least facebook offered through free basics has potential to provide a ground for participants to experience empowerment and a range of social connections. what is also worth considering is the way the platform allows people to exchange and create information that they perceive as !223 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 beneficial for them by using the services offered via the platform. in this regard, the platform leaves some room for participants to co-construct and pursue their own concept of meaningful empowerment and social capital creation. therefore, it is difficult to say that the private company’s initiative is completely incompatible with the creation of social good. we recall that the ci listserv discussion centered around gains versus risks from using free basics. we hereby suggest ci researchers to open the next chapter of discussion regarding ways to thoroughly assess flaws of free basics and help users of the platform make more informed decisions. this might include providing information to the users about how uses of the platform may lead to positive or negative consequences, and that the social good intention may not necessarily result in actual social good for individuals and society. we believe such insight would be especially valuable for the participants in the 40 countries (at the time of writing) who are currently exposed to free basics platform. completely rejecting attempts by business (facebook, for example) to provide social good (through free basics, for example) might mean losing an important opportunity for benefiting different stakeholders, through contributions to strengthening social capital. nonetheless, this does not mean uncritically embracing it either and it would also be important to note that the intent to do good is not enough guarantee that actual good will be done. references carter, m., & grover, v. 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(2013). the changing field of ictd: growth and maturation of the field, 2000-2010. the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries (ejisdc), 58. gomez, r., & pather, s. (2010). ict evaluation: are we asking the right questions? in proceedings of the 4th international idia development informatics conference. cape town, south africa. heeks, r. (2008). ict4d 2.0: the next phase of applying ict for international development. computer, 41(6), 26-33. !224 https://info.internet.org/en/story/platform/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 lafrance, a. (2016, february 11). facebook and the new colonialism. the atlantic. retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/02/facebook-and-the-newcolonialism/462393/ our approach. (n.d.). in internet.org website. retrieved from https://info.internet.org/en/ approach/ putnam, r. d. (2000). bowling alone: the collapse and revival of american community. new york: simon & schuster. sey, a., & fellows, m. (2009). literature review on the impact of public access to information and communication technologies. seattle: center for information & society, university of washington. retrieved from http://www.globalimpactstudy.org/wp-content/uploads/ 2010/12/tascha_public-access-review_2009.pdf venkataramakrishnan, r. (n.d.). internet.org vp: we used the facebook platform to lobby trai just like the people on the other side. scroll.in. retrieved from http://scroll.in/ article/778881/internet-org-vp-we-used-the-facebook-platform-to-lobby-trai-just-likethe-people-on-the-other-side !225 http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/02/facebook-and-the-new-colonialism/462393/ https://info.internet.org/en/approach/ http://www.globalimpactstudy.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/tascha_public-access-review_2009.pdf http://scroll.in/article/778881/internet-org-vp-we-used-the-facebook-platform-to-lobby-trai-just-like-the-people-on-the-other-side developing decentralised health information systems in developing countries -cases from sierra leone and kenya edem kwame kossi, johan ivar sæbø, jørn braa, mohamed mumeneeh jalloh, ayub manya introduction the vast majority of communities in africa, and in the developing world more generally, are plagued by poor health services and poor health status. global efforts to improve this situation have recently gained momentum as part of the un millennium development goals (mdg) project, where three of the eight mdgs, mdgs 4 and 5 (reduce child and maternal mortality) and 6 (combat hiv/aids, malaria and other killer diseases), are health related. the mdgs are addressing the need for changes and improvements at the community level and can only be achieved through active community participation. framed within the global efforts to improve health in poor communities, this article address the issue of community participation through strategies to engage the community level in the design and development of health information systems (his). without reliable information on current situation and trends in health status, it is not really possible to improve the situation, as one would not even know whether the mdgs are achieved or not. with only few years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the mdgs, global agencies such as the who are giving considerable attention to efforts to develop efficient his to measure progress made towards achieving the health-related mdgs (see for example who 2011). in this article we present a case study on the development of the his in sierra leone, a project initiated and initially funded by the who/health metrics network as a pilot for how a least developed country could take advantage of modern ict and develop their his despite very poor infrastructure. illustrated by a case study from sierra leone, this article addresses the issue of strategies for developing decentralised bottom-up his in developing countries more generally, and for the development of community based hiss aiming at empowering local communities and their structures in particular. the project was following a community based participatory approach which we term 'cultivation' (braa, sahay, 2012) in contrast to 'construction'. cultivation denotes a way of shaping technology that is fundamentally different from rational planning and engineering methods as it is based on the resources present in the local social system. given the provision of technology components such as software, hardware and standards, the overall information system is regarded as something that grows into place, based on the potential in what is already present in the community. this community based approach is strongly linked to the central role given to community participation in the who's primary health care (phc) approach (who, 1978), which requires and promotes maximum community trust in the system and participation in developing and running the health services. in terms of information systems and technology, the project has applied a strategy of integrating various smaller subsystems into a data warehouse. the resulting integrated data warehouse includes information of different types, such as data on health services, health statuses and demographic surveys needed to address equity in health services provision and health status and thereby the needs of disadvantaged communities. important in this context is that striving for equity between poor and rich geographical areas and population groups will require an his that, for core components, is shared across a country, state or region to measure and monitor the extent to which equity is being achieved and to pinpoint areas where more resources and efforts are needed. thus, for an his to best address the needs of local communities, it will need to be an integrated part of a larger area his framework. this paradox, that locally based hiss that are addressing the needs of communities need to be part of something bigger in order to be useful, will be described and discussed in this paper using the case study from sierra leone. important in this context is that sierra leone is a small west african country ravaged by a civil war in late 1990s. it is one of the poorest countries in the world and was ranked 180th out off 182 in undp human development index report in 2009 (undp 2009). in order to complement the case study from sierra leone, where the infrastructure is still poor, with cutting edge infrastructure development currently being established in some parts of africa, we give a brief description of an his implementation in kenya, which is similar in content and aim but different in the infrastructure used. in kenya the system is implemented using one central server and "cloud infrastructure" using internet over the mobile network. while in sierra leone the traditional chiefdom structure is using the his to address equity and document their demands for improved health services, in kenya the significant issue is that improved internet and mobile telephone infrastructure is enabling the community level to get access to their own information and to analyse and to disseminate it within a larger framework, and thereby, potentially, to be better able to address their demands. the research presented in this article has been part of the health information systems program (hisp) research network, which started in south africa in the 90's and has since then been engaged in action research, participatory design and open source software development in a number of developing countries (braa et al. 2007). the development and application of the free and open source software called district health information software 2 (dhis2) as a joint collaborative effort across countries and institutions have been an important part of the research in the hisp network. development in both sierra leone and kenya is based on the dhis2. this article will proceed as follows; the next section will provide some background on related research, then we will present the methods applied, before describing the case of sierra leone. thereafter, the case and its implications are discussed using "snippets" from the kenya case before the conclusion is finally reached. background trends in global health and the hisp project the recent years have seen an increasing focus on his as important for effective and efficient health systems, especially in developing countries. the international community has also emphasized the need for better his to track the mdgs, and several initiatives have been set up to tackle the challenge. in 2005, the health metrics network was created as "the first global partnership dedicated to strengthening national health information systems" (hmn 2005). at the same time, many of the challenges countries face with their his come from fragmented systems propagated by the diverse international organizations supporting them, leading hmn to become a strong advocate for the building of national his integrating data from the various health services and health programs as well as from various donor initiatives. following the hmn initiative, many developing countries are in the process of strengthening and revamping their national his. on the ground, however, his development in developing countries has proved difficult due to organisational complexity, fragmented and uncoordinated organizational structures due to similarly uncoordinated donor initiatives all maintaining their own his (braa et al. 2007), unrealistic ambitions leading to a "design-reality gap" (heeks 2002), and more generally, due to the problem of sustainability (kimaro and nhampossa 2005, sahay et al. 2000). national his are including aggregate statistical data of various types from health services and the population served by these services. the primary aim of these information systems has, until recently, been to provide health management and service providers at all levels of the health services with timely and accurate data, based on which, for instance, resources can be allocated and epidemics can be monitored. as part of the hmn approach (hmn 2008), however, dissemination of information to community and political structures, media and the general public has been advocated as an equally important objective for national his, as a way to promote health advocacy, transparency, democracy and good governance. following this, the hmn recommends countries to include free access to health information in their national legislation. communities, widely speaking, will have their interest linked to this latter outwards reaching aspects of the his. in this perspective, organized community structures will use information from his in their efforts to improve health services and for development of their communities more generally. the community is generally seen as a key level for social development in developing countries. such development will rely upon community participation in decision-making for social development at the local level (midgley 1986). community based participatory design (braa, 1996, byrne, sahay, 2006) is extending this perspective of social development to the field of information systems and the tradition of participatory design. community based participatory design in health care in developing countries will most often refer to the design of systems for community health workers, or systems to support various outreach health services in the communities. in this article, however, we will use the term community participatory design in a much broader sense to address the design and development of systems aiming to serve and support the whole community, the organised community structures as well as the general population in the community. furthermore, these systems are also addressing the needs of the health workers working in and for the community. in this way our perspective on community informatics is in line with de moor and de cindio (2007), who are arguing that the requirements for such systems are fuzzy and, as with the supporting ict, in a constant state of flux. the case studies from sierra leone and kenya presented in this article are both reporting from development of his and software carried out within the hisp network. hisp started in three pilot districts in cape town at the advent of democracy in south africa in 1994/95, as part of the new government's reconstruction and development program. equity in service delivery and uplifting of those who had suffered during apartheid, and the creation of a decentralised health system based on districts, were key objectives in the reform process. the role of hisp in this period was to identify information needs and to engage the community of end users and local management structures in the process of developing new health information systems supporting the decentralisation (see braa, hedberg, 2002, braa et al. 2004). it is important to note that the original key members of the hisp team in south africa had background as social/political activists in the antiapartheid struggle and other social movements, or they had background from the scandinavian participatory tradition. as a consequence of the background of the team members and the political context of south africa during these formative years, hisp activists have always explicitly and implicitly seen themselves as political actors in a larger development process. hisp, participatory design and the community based cultivation approach the hisp participatory approach to action research and information systems design was initially influenced by the so-called scandinavian tradition: a number of union-based action research projects carried out in scandinavia during the 1970s and 1980s. the focus in the earlier participatory design projects was on empowering workers, who were affected or threatened by new technology, by exploring ways in which their influence over technological solutions could be ensured (sandberg, 1979; bjerknes et al., 1987). later projects focused on more instrumental design issues and shifted toward producing technological alternatives by involving workers in cooperative design at the workplace (greenbaum & kyng, 1991). adaptation of information systems to the local context, local empowerment through participation and practical learning, and the creation of local ownership through participative processes are central issues in the scandinavian tradition, which, despite the differences in context, have been adapted to the contexts in africa and asia through action research in hisp. the community based participatory approach to the design and development of information systems in developing countries developed within hisp may best be understood through the concept of 'cultivation'. the concept of cultivation (braa, sahay, 2012), in contrast to construction, denotes a way of shaping technology that is fundamentally different from rational planning, engineering methods and the construction of technology. cultivation is about interfering with, supporting and controlling natural organic processes that are in material; as the seeds sprout, they must be provided with proper cultivation; the soil must be prepared and the saplings cared for and nourished. the term cultivation covers these processes, and in our case, adapting the principles, tools and basic set-ups of the health information system, and then helps them grow into place within the local social system of work practices, culture and technologies, through processes of learning. the health information system being cultivated in this way may thus be regarded as a socio-technical system, or an organism, with a life of its own, with its ability to learn and grow. the spread of technology is therefore better understood as a process of technology learning, rather than 'technology transfer'. technology, like institutions, is also shaped through such processes of learning and growing into place. methodologically, cultivation is characterised by incremental and evolutionary approaches, described in terms of 'piecemeal engineering'. the dhis software the key "organising" element in the hisp network has been the continuous and longitudinal development and application of the open source software platform called dhis district health information system. the dhis is a software tool for collection, validation, analysis, and presentation of aggregate statistical data, tailored to support integrated health information management activities, but it can also be adapted to serve other areas. it is designed to serve as a district based country data warehouse to address both local and national needs. dhis is a generic tool rather than a pre-configured database application, with an open meta-data model and a flexible user interface that allows the user to design the contents of a specific information system without the need for programming. the dhis is developed to serve as a flexible tool in what is described as a cultivation approach above. the software is flexible and it can be easily tailored to particular needs and requirements. dhis development has evolved over two versions. the first dhis v1 was developed since 1997 by hisp in south africa on ms access, a platform selected because it was, at that time, a de facto standard in south africa. the second dhis v2 is a modular web-based software package built with free and open source java frameworks, continuously developed since 2004 and coordinated by the university of oslo. methodology this paper primarily describes a case from an ongoing action research project in sierra leone that the authors are engaged in. action research is a form of participative research where the researcher takes part in the change processes in an organization, actively trying to improve some stated problem (checkland and holwell 1998; avison, lau et al. 1999), in this case, the poor provision of health services throughout sierra leone, in particular, at community level. our research, then, centres on understanding the processes at work, while at the same time using this understanding to improve the current situation. we are all, to various extents and changing over time, immersed in change-processes and working closely with the owners of the problems we try to solve. as such, we are involved in open-ended and continuous phases of design, development, implementation, and evaluation of interventions, with a stated aim at improving some given subject, as according to principles of action research (susman and evered, 1978). the authors of this paper have thus participated in most of the events described in the case description later. three of the authors have been involved in the project in sierra leone on an on-and-off basis, spending considerable time in the country through many visits of up to 2 months. the fourth author is a formal employee of the project and a national of sierra leone, working in the ministry of health there for the last 4 years. the fifth author is working in the ministry of health in kenya and played a leading role in the project in kenya, where also the third author participated. the project started in 2006, with the authors given a mandate to improve data management through the establishment of an integrated data warehouse and build institutional capacity for data analysis. the background for this was a situation of fragmented data streams, duplication of data collection, and little use of information from community to national levels. the research approach was thus solution-oriented, without a clear formulation of hypothesis beforehand. rather, the research part of the project was focused on the interaction between technology, organization, and community through a participative cultivation approach in reaching the above mandate. over several engagements, research questions were formulated to help with the various practical challenges that would emerge. central to these were the following two interrelated challenges, 1) to cultivate the system at local level in order to become relevant and useful to the local community, and 2) 'scaling' the system to multiple communities in order to ensure that local decision makers had access to not only their own, but data from across the country to allow for comparison and evaluation. within the larger combined research area, local cultivation and scaling, research questions were open-ended and dynamic. over these years, all authors, apart from our co-author from the ministry of health in kenya, have been repeatedly travelling through sierra leone, engaging in participatory design of software and data reporting forms, and training in the use of these. furthermore, we have been actively engaged in promoting information use at all levels through preparing for and participating in review meetings. the primary mode of engagement has been capacity building, at all levels. this has taken place not only as formal training workshops, but also as on-site training at district levels and in relation to national and district review meetings. these training sessions have all been used in the development process to include the users by getting feedback and inputs from them on how the system could be made more appropriate and relevant for them. training has also been used to foster a culture of information use by discussing how districts could engage with their communities to improve health services. thus it is fair to say that a clear-cut division between training and participative development, and research for that sake, did not exist. in 2008, a three-week training for national and district staff was carried out, focusing on computer use (a large proportion was computer illiterate at the time), using the data warehouse application, and analysing data from an epidemiological point of view. all districts have later been given additional on-site training during their day-to-day work. refresher trainings have been held when district supervisors were visiting the districts, and also as joint workshops for all districts. training has also been an arena to engage with other actors; a workshop was held for representatives from international ngos to look at their information needs and how they could get this information from the new system. all trainings were semi-structured, trying to promote informal discussions with the participants. in addition, more quantitative research methods were employed, especially in relation to data analysis. health data would be processed and analyzed to prepare for review meetings, both in relation to actual use of the data for health management, and for assessing data quality and areas of potential redesign of the reporting forms. for this we used two key data collection forms, for which we had data from most of the country's around 1000 health clinics. data since 2008 were included in this work. kenya represents another action research project that is related to sierra leone in terms of technology, goals, strategy, and people involved. the same methodology has been applied in kenya though the sierra leone involvement spanned more than 4 years compared to the about one and a half year research and implementation that took place in kenya. community participation: the case of his development and use in sierra leone this paper builds on events related to reforming the health information systems in sierra leone in the period 2006-2011; a process that is still ongoing. sierra leone is a small country in west africa, with approximately 5 million inhabitants, and has, as recently as 2001, come out of a decade-long civil war. picture 1 shows the innovative data collection tool for illiterate community health assistants, representing both the sorry state of the country and how this is often solved locally in communities. with this background, many international organizations have been present in the rebuilding efforts, and in 2006 sierra leone was selected along with a few other countries to be a "wave one" country by the health metrics network (hmn), a geneva-based partnership with the world health organization (who). this spurred the events described in this document, of which there have been many participants, from the local clinics and district health offices, to national authorities, ngos and donors in-country, international organizations like who and hmn, universities, and other regional actors like the west african health organization. picture 1: simple but genius data collection tool for illiterates, where stones are put into boxes representing outcomes of births. summary of events the case is a longitudinal action research project spanning many years, and a full description of the process is beyond the scope of this paper, though a short summary is useful to put the discussion in context. first, from 2007, the hmn-led project focused on introducing software to handle aggregate health information from health facilities, with two early goals: geographical coverage of all 13 districts in the country, and content coverage by including as many monthly reporting forms in the software as possible. for this the hisp group was engaged for implementing a data warehouse, using the dhis2 software, and build capacity related to this at national and district level. the first two years were thus about piloting and rolling out this software, with the majority of effort going into capacity building. once geographical coverage had been achieved, the utility of the data increased, and expansion in this phase (2009-10) shifted towards creating the demand for the information, including capacity building at national level and for ngos, as well as development of information products and active dissemination of both these and the processes behind making them. it was in this phase that information use at the community level became a priority, which will be described below. system development system development in order to design or customize dhis2 as an integrated data warehouse (idw) that fit sierra leone, a technical team was established. the team was composed of hisp members, monitoring and evaluation (m&e) officers at national level and district levels, m&e officers from health programs, it technicians, public health officers, and health workers. however, prior to the technical team creation, dhis2 experts from hisp had created a prototype of the idw showing how different data sources can be integrated together and enable a cross data analysis that would generate more meaningful information. the prototype contained the hierarchy of organisational units as given by the moh: national level ? districts ? local councils ? health facilities. this geographical and hierarchical representation of the his matches with the moh structures and channels of data reporting and use. in addition to this hierarchy, data from three different sources were integrated: namely population data, extended program for immunization (epi) and human resource data. data available from 2005 was imported by district into the system for three reasons: show how data from different sources could be integrated, have data to perform training of the software with, and to give a base for comparing newly entered data. at that time, the system was able to generate automatically health worker distribution per population and per district. it was the first time such a graph was available from one system in sierra leone. this is shown in figure 1 below. the prototype was purposefully designed to help stakeholders at different levels understand what an idw is and thus enable their active participation. having seen the potentials of this solution, the first concern of districts m&e officers was to be able to generate health information out of the system by chiefdom, local councils and health facilities. while generating health information and feedback reports by health facilities is obvious because data is captured by health facilities, there emerged a challenge to represent another sub-district level, the chiefdom. if health facilities can fit into chiefdoms and local councils, the hierarchical relationship between local councils and chiefdoms is not one "parent" to one or many "children". local councils are hierarchically above chiefdoms but one chiefdom can belong to two local councils. the representation of such complex hierarchical relationship is not straightforward in the dhis2 hierarchy logic. however, the participation of district m&e officers helped us understand their needs better and we used alternative hierarchies in dhis2 to represent both local councils and chiefdoms. through this participatory process we gradually integrated different data sources hiv/aids, reproductive health, maternal and child health etc and defined required indicators as well as feedback reports that would be used at different levels of the health system. awareness meetings with local councils and other local stakeholders were conducted as part of this process. figure 1: population per medical doctor and per district the initial customization described above took place within a training framework so that the core national team was trained to learn the software which enabled them to participate in the customization. training of the larger group of users, district information officers, health program m&e officers, and the like, was then initiated and has been a core focus for the project. while the software dhis2 was the natural subject of training, it was also a platform to cover issues such as data quality, analysis, and general epidemiology to decide what kind of data was important and what kind of information products should be created. from the onset of the project, a three-week intensive course was held for all district m&e officers, with the aim of preparing them as independent teams for districts, able to work closely with communities and civil society in processing and disseminating relevant data. this was also used to foster local participation, as the training was used to discuss information needs, problems with data quality, and how they saw the new system as being representative of their needs. the developers of the software participated at this training, and discussions about functionality with district staff provided important input to the development process. many new functionalities in dhis2, for instance reporting on data completeness, originated from this training. a second phase of training took place at the local level around the country. in relation to installation of hardware and software in the districts, training was given on-site to m&e officers, and supervisory visits that were carried out regularly also included re-training. in these sessions, the core team would sit with only 2-3 people, focusing on the information cycle from collecting data (at facilities and district offices), processing it (in relation to planned monthly review meetings), presenting and analyzing it and making action plans (at the review meetings with participation from facilities and civil society). infrastructure and his architecture the civil war that ended in 2002 had destroyed many infrastructures and when full-scale implementation started in 2008, roads, power supply, and internet availability were still major problems. internet availability was very limited both in the capital and in the upcountry. the main source of power supply was generators, and getting power from the national grid was incidental. these settings made running a computerized information system very challenging. in addition to these infrastructural challenges, lessons learned from the implementation of software in 2007 showed that keeping the computers virus free and up and running was not trivial. the lack of connectivity made it difficult to update antivirus software in the districts, and consequently the entire ms access based database was often corrupted or destroyed by viruses. moreover, when district health offices called local it service providers for troubleshooting, the solution they often offered was to format the computer without regard to the existing data. being mindful of the issues mentioned above, and keeping in mind that dhis2 is a web based system, a decision was made to go for a replication of instances of the system in every district. in each district a local server, one client computer and a local area network were thus deployed. both the local server and the client computer were low power based and able to run on car battery that can be charged with solar panel or a generator when there is fuel to run it. the operating system (os) adopted was ubuntu linux to make sure that they will be less sensitive to virus and thus not rely on inadequate local it support service. however, existing computers running ms windows os were also included in the network as clients. so while the local server is linux based and runs dhis2, client computers in the local network area can access the same system and work collaboratively on the same database even if they have different operating systems. this networking aspect of the settings was quite useful for district people because they could now work from different computers on the same database. at the national level dhis2 was also installed on a server running the same ubuntu linux os. a local area network was also set up within the moh to enable access to dhis2 within the moh. at the end of every month, district m&e officers are supposed to capture data coming from health facilities within their district, generate an export file from dhis2 and send it to the national level. the export file is sent via email when internet is available or very often in person on a usb pen drive. at the national level the administrator of the system collect the district export files and import them into the national instance of dhis2. on the one hand, although this organization and these procedures look more appropriate to the context, it was very challenging to maintain and keep updated all the local instances of dhis2. for instance, any changes to the metadata in the national database have to be replicated in all other instances to keep them compatible. obviously this requires travelling to all the 13 districts on poor roads. on the other hand the low power computers were not very strong and parts had to be changed because of various failures in the warm, humid, and dusty environment. fortunately, as the government was investing in infrastructure, power supply improved and the system moved gradually from low power computers to regular ones. however, despite the progress in road construction and power supply, internet availability and reliability is still weak and hampering the shift from distributed instances to one central server. information use as the use of the new data warehouse was maturing, work began to start utilizing the data it produced. this is, of course, the reason for the introduction of the system in the first place, but it is also a strategy to improve data quality, as only by use and self-interest in the data the quality would come under scrutiny and new solutions be proposed. the project thus initiated the use of quarterly bulletins, a modest 4-page leaflet comparing all districts on a handful of health indicators, as well as some indicators on data quality. the first bulletin was released in may 2009 and disseminated widely, including all districts and members of a group of international health partners (who, world bank, dfid, etc.). picture 2: the front page of a quaterly bulletin in sierra leone the bulletin contained charts derived from dhis2, ranking the districts from worst to best performers. picture 2 shows the front page of one bulletin. while the data was of dubious quality, based on partly incomplete data, the effect was at least to start discussions about how to improve it. shortly after, data reporting increased significantly, so that the next bulletin had more complete data. in addition to the bulletin, a league table was developed, in which a few key indicators were used to give each district an overall score, ranking them based on data quality, institutional delivery rate, immunization rate, antenatal care coverage and the like. this league table was presented at the annual review meeting at the ministry of health, with participants from all districts. the league table raised much discussion especially in relation to a few indicators that had much variation among the districts. one such example is institutional delivery rate, an indicator directly linked to the millenium development goals about maternal and child health.' the development of the bulletin and league tables were initiated at the national level. the selection of indicators to include was based on relation to the mdgs, and data quality, such as institutional delivery rate (linked to infant and maternal health), and reporting rates of the main data collection forms that contained this data. since the data completeness was an issue, only indicators for which there would be adequate data available were included. in 2009 western area (mostly consisting of the capital freetown) was one of the districts scoring very low in term of institutional deliveries. being very concerned by the poor performance of his district, the district medical officer (dmo) in western area decided on two strategies to improve. first, to collaborate with private facilities (of which the district has many more than rural districts) to get their data on institutional deliveries, and second, to release a note in the newspaper informing the public that maternal and child health care was now to be free of charge in western area district. as shown in the figure 2 below, institutional deliveries have increased steadily in the district. the free maternal health care policy could not alone explain this increase, the involvement of private facilities has to be taken into account, but in any case the results are remarkable and were soon distributed globally by the health metrics network as a strong case for investing in health information systems. the new figures in turn help them plan well and advocate for adequate resources for the district. figure 2: increasing institutional delivery rates in western area, from the hmn results report (2010) districts also have their monthly review meetings, and following the example of the bulletin and league tables, several districts started to make chiefdom league table, ranking the sub-districts (chiefdoms) in a similar way. these review meetings are attended by all district stakeholders such as health partners, community counsellors, health providers, traditional and religious leaders, etc., and have led to a plethora of locally driven initiatives on improving service delivery in their respective communities. the development of a district and chiefdom league tables covering important health indicators, the active dissemination of these, and discussions with key stakeholders on how to improve on these indicators form the highlight of such review meetings. for instance, the use of the chiefdom league table showing performances of each chiefdom on key health indicators (such as institutional delivery, fully immunized children, etc.) in moyamba district has raised a competitive feeling among the local communities. table 1 shows an example of chiefdom league table. table 1: chiefdom league table in moyamba district in this case, kongbora chiefdom, after coming last in the first quarter review, improved to take the first place in both the second and third quarter reviews. fakunya chiefdom was the sixth in the first quarter review, but improved to take second and third places in the second and third quarter reviews. dasse chiefdom was eighth in the first review meeting but took third and second places in the second and third quarter reviews. certificates of this, provided to the paramount chiefs at the review meetings, were brought to local council meetings as proof of good performance, as shown in the picture 3 below. picture 3: p. c banya (kongbora chiefdom) with chiefdom league table certificates (2nd and 3rd quarters) at moyamba district council monthly meeting, where health and other local issues are discussed. by comparing themselves and knowing more about health indicators, local community leaders decided to better organize health service delivery in their community and put more pressure on upper level for more resources and more support. in many communities, local counsellors are now putting in place bye-laws for the traditional birth attendants (tbas) to help pregnant women deliver in the health facility where they can have a clean and safe delivery with trained staff in attendance. the district health management team also organized outreach activities eagerly requested by community leaders (paramount chiefs) after the review meetings to increase the coverage for key health outcomes like childhood immunization. some communities have also used these meeting to advocate for more resources (human, financial and infrastructure) in order to address the low uptake of services in their catchment areas. in some chiefdoms where institutional delivery rates are low, the paramount chiefs mobilized local resources to build birth waiting homes where pregnant women staying far away from health centres could stay until they delivered. involving the communities, including religious leaders, traditional health service suppliers, and the paramount chiefs, the districts are improving the institutional delivery rate, an efficient strategy to reduce infant and maternal mortality. the moyamba dmo is very proud of the interest expressed by the community members who are now determined to improve service delivery coverage in their communities. "using the data from the dhis for the quarterly review meetings, the population better understand the health services performance and are happy and interested to be involved," claimed dr kandeh, the moyamba dmo. "without their interest, we could not move forward and have high performance". being able to show improvement in service delivery by using health information at district level, and regularly share it with key stakeholders, led to a major change in prioritizing health services with the community involvement. the possibility of being part of a larger set of other communities made it easier for local communities to compare themselves with neighbouring communities which in turn triggered the propagation of best practices leading to improvement of health services and high performance. while the data quality shown in table 1 is obviously an issue, as seen from the rather wild percentages for some of the chiefdoms, these problems have triggered a review into denominator data such as population figures which tend to be outdated and not take into account recent migration. online web based access in kenya empowering rural communities participatory design in the cloud sierra leone is one of the poorest countries in the world and the infrastructure is poorly developed. it has therefore not been possible to implement the dhis on a central server, which would have been much easier and which is the "industry standard" of doing things in the industrialised world. as the internet and mobile technology is spreading rapidly in africa, we include a limited case study from kenya, where the infrastructure is much better, and probably quite similar to what it will be in most of africa relatively soon since it is driven by mobile network technology. dhis2 is currently being rolled out in kenya based on a central server solution. initially, the plan was to implement standalone instances in districts around the country, the traditional african way, but during a field visit to machako in october 2010, a district hospital not far from nairobi, the course of action was changed. testing the dhis2 online server in the information office, everything went well until a power cut left the line dead. as it was a hospital, the generator started and power came back, but the internet was gone as it would have to be restarted somewhere down the line. the team was just about to conclude that internet was still not reliable when one of the staff suggested using his "dongle", the modem for the internet over the mobile network, which, it turned out, worked fine as the mobile networks are not affected by local power cuts. immediately after this revelation, internet modems were tested around the country and found to work , and the decision was taken to go for a central server solution, probably the first time for such a country-wide public sector project in africa. however, the server in the ministry of health could not be used as the connectivity was too poor in the building and the server setup not reliable. as a temporary solution therefore, a commercial server was rented through a london based company, meaning cloud computing, although politically it may not be accepted to locate national health data outside the country in the long run. the coast province was selected as a pilot, and the system was implemented in all districts and hospitals there in january 2011. all users were provided a modem and a budget for airtime. the network was working, but the bandwidth was limited many places, and the cost of the airtime restricted the amount of time online. in order to address a multitude of problems the dhis2 lab was literally moved to kenya; the lead developer and others took part in building a local team and engaging in rapid prototyping cycles on site with the users in the coast province. in fact, "rapid prototyping" changed its meaning; working on an online server meant that the system changed as according to users' input, if possible, on the fly, or overnight. after the initial pilot and testing in the coast province, the system was rolled out country-wide during march-september 2011. during a field visit in the western parts of kenya, in nyanza and western provinces, and to remote areas, such as homa bay district, where two of the authors participated, the most surprising finding was that the users in districts and health facilities said they had easier access to their own data, as well as data from the rest of the country, than they had had anytime before. the argument was that they could access their data regardless of power-cuts (when they used their laptop), viruses or computer problems, because the data was "up there", always available, "in the internet". furthermore, they really appreciated the dynamic updates of data from around the country and the messaging system in the dhis that was used for communication between users and the system support team to report bugs and to get help when having problems. "just like facebook" as one user said. the new html 5 standard has the potential to improve the robustness of internet and cloud based technologies in africa, as it allows for offline data entry because browsers implementing this standard are now including a small database. the first version of such a "semi-online" feature was implemented in dhis late august 2011. the user can now capture data offline by using the memory in the browser and "flush" the data (i.e. transfer to the server) when online. this is a very useful feature in africa since internet is not available everywhere and all the time. the following message was posted by a user after the new feature of offline data capture had been included: 2011-09-13 hi, this is wow! i have realized that i can now work with a lot of easy without any interruptions from network fluctuations since some of us are in the interiors where we have lots of challenges with the network. this is so good, a big thank you......... offline data-use is another important optimization of dhis2 for low bandwidth in remote areas: the ability to download data for off-line data analysis and use. a small "super lightweight dhis2" application installed locally is used to download data from a local area and other areas specified by the user, including the indicators and aggregates generated by the system to a data mart, which is then used to generate excel pivot tables used for data analysis. reports, charts and maps are generated when "online" and downloaded in pdf format and archived in the offline application. as the excel pivot tables are not easy to update online regardless of bandwidth, the offline local data mart is actually representing an improvement on some functionalities when compared with the web browsing (see figure 3). figure 3: semi-online dhis2 design and implementation in kenya. discussion 1. health information in a community perspective: how communities can use his for their own development? 2. design strategies: how to best include communities in participatory design strategies? 3. the technology dimension: is modern internet technology appropriate at community level in remote areas in developing countries? 4. the culture dimension: are the his being developed culturally appropriate at the community level? health information for community development the case of sierra leone is, in the end, about improving health for communities throughout the country. this is done by improving access, quality, and use of health information, both for public health staff and for the communities themselves. the public health system is there to serve community health, so strengthening their capacities to analyze the health situation and make appropriate action plans is in itself a way to use information technologies to improve community health. however, as the case shows, the technology can also be utilized to share data with stakeholders in the communities, such as paramount chiefs, civil society, and ngos. for example, preparing data from neighbouring districts or chiefdoms, available from an integrated data warehouse, in league tables that are then shared widely with these stakeholders has been a powerful result from several districts in sierra leone. while the "owners" of the technology are the organized public health services, the information contained therein is shared beyond the domain of public servants, enabling the communities themselves to shape their response to their health challenges. the information system introduced in sierra leone thus contributed both indirectly and directly in enabling communities to improve their situation. furthermore, the case shows that the real benefit was linked to evaluating your own situation in comparison with others. in a context where information about your own situation is sparse, and knowledge about what it should be is even sparser, the availability of comparative data from other districts and chiefdoms can at least give a relative performance indicator. the league tables were especially strong carriers not only of information about the community's own situation, but how the community performed compared with others. the maternal and infant mortality rates in sierra leone are among the highest in the world, but there are domestic differences that may earlier not have been well acknowledged. public health service coverage and utilization vary across the country, and by learning from best practises, while fostering some community competition, the league tables enabled the health staff and the communities they are serving to improve piecemeal, striving to achieve small results that have a big impact on the health status. for instance, the example from western area, where several measures where tried to improve the institutional delivery rate, was in direct response to the poor standing in the district league table. for this to be possible, the data relating to the community, be it district, chiefdom, or village level, must have something to be compared with. the value of the community data increases manifold when available together with data from other communities. the league tables and health information bulletins served both as carriers of information and in a normative way as guidance relating to what indicators were considered of national importance. thus, the local levels could both get feedback on how they performed, and knowledge relating to how they were evaluated. the important point here is that isolated information on the individual communities is of less value than the connection to information on other communities. information technology projects that have a community focus, then, should be wary about the power of transparency and linkages to other communities. while a singular "community system" would provide the community with its own health information, the real benefit comes when comparing one's own information on health status and available health services with information from other communities. communities' use of information to promote their own development, as illustrated by the case of sierra leone, is providing concrete experiences on how the who primary health care approach may be achieved. community participation in the development of the health services is highlighted in the following way in the primary health care (phc) concept article vii, paragraph 4 and 5 in the alma ata declaration: "primary health care: 5. requires and promotes maximum community and individual self-reliance and participation in the planning, organisation, operation and control of primary health care, making fullest use of local, national and other available resources; and to this end develops through appropriate education the ability of communities to participate;" (who 1978) we may argue that without access to good information on the performance and availability of the local health services, local health status, and an overview of trends in other communities, "participation in the planning, organisation and control of the primary health care", as stated by the alma ata declaration, would not be possible. cultivation community based participatory design in this section we will discuss how community participation in the design of information systems may be seen as part of, and incorporated in, the participatory design tradition. in the last section we saw how community participation was an integral part of the who primary health care approach; the community is seen as the key participant in the development of the health services for the community. here we will look into whether such a strategy may also be applied to the communities participating in the development of the information system, which, again, should be regarded as an important pillar in the development of the health services in the community. tracing the history of the participatory design tradition, we see that it has its origins in the progressive movements of the 60s and 70s, in ways somehow similar to the origin of the phc movement. participation for empowerment and social development were the slogans for both movements. there are however some significant differences between the participatory design (pd) tradition as it has evolved over several decades in industrialised countries and the context of community development in africa. first, while in the pd tradition, the workplace has been targeted as the arena for empowerment and action. in the context of the development of health services and improving health in developing countries, it is the community that is the arena for social and political development. second, while the pd tradition was born out of a situation in the industrialised world where workers felt threatened by modern technology and feared joblosses, communities in developing countries are threatened by being sidelined by new technologies and being left out from development. this second issue, that is, how communities may be either sidelined or made to master new technologies will be discussed in the next section. here we discuss the first issue: focus on the community rather than the workplace. as underlined by the alma ata declaration, the health services are there for the community and the community needs to take part in their development. when developing health information systems at the community level, two levels of users are important: health workers and the community. while the health workers are users of the systems in the traditional sense, as being defined in the pd literature, the community is the users of the health services and, as participants in the development, control and planning for improved health services, users of the information systems with the aims to pursue these goals. we thus need to extend the pd tradition to also include the community. greenbaum and madsen (1993) put forward three rationales for using participatory design approaches: a pragmatic perspective, a functional way to increase productivity; a theoretical perspective, a strategy to overcome the problem of lack of shared understanding between developers and users; a political perspective, a democratic strategy to give people the means to influence their own work place. in addition to the three rationales that they suggested, a community perspective has been proposed as strategy to enhance both the community as well as to prepare technical development that goes beyond mimicking the first world (braa 1996): a community perspective, extending the political perspective and aimed at empowering communities to control and master icts to their own advantage by pursuing their own social and political development. in the sierra leone case we have seen that the formal community structures, the chiefdoms, are taking part in the development of the system as part of their strategy to mobilise resources, create awareness and to improve the health services in their own community. an example from the case shows how the districts and chiefdoms took initiatives to improve the system, for example, by being instrumental in the development of data completeness reports and incorporating them in the league tables which enabled the chiefdoms to control and check their own data; a task the district team did not know how to measure by themselves. such direct engagements and initiatives have been important in creating a sense of ownership to the system in the community, which again has lead to the development and dissemination of the health bulletins as a means for the formal community structures to communicate with and mobilise the wider community. such dissemination of information from the his is important to develop further, both as a means for public health advocacy and as a vehicle for community participation. these bulletins may be regarded as first steps towards turning the his into a true interactive vehicle for wider community participation. in kenya, we have seen how direct and immediate access to own data through the internet over the mobile network even at the most remote village level has created a significant level of local initiatives and participation in the further development of the system. clearly, having direct access to your own data and being able to analyse and use it without having to rely on 'middle men', has both created a feeling of ownership of the system and commitment to participating in its further development. the development of the system in kenya has from the start been driven by local initiatives seeking to release the potential on the ground. even the fact that the system is based on the use of modems to connect tothe internet over the mobile network, which is the most significant technical feature of the system, was not planned for. the new solution popped up through interaction on the ground, and changed the course of the entire national project. chatting functionalities enabling users to communicate is another example of unplanned design features developed through interaction on the ground. cultivation is the term we use to depict such an open user centred design and development strategy where the potential in the context is released through active participation in the design and development process. the cultivation approach has been important in engaging at the community level because it provides a practical way for the community to have real influence and to get results through their participation. internet and ict at the community level: appropriate technology? in the 70's and even later, the term appropriate technology was used in development aid circles to denote technology "simple" enough to be used in developing countries which was a rather patronising attitude. in this section we will revisit the term and see whether "appropriate" can be given a new meaning in the age of the internet and cloud computing. when initiating the project in sierra leone, sustainability of hardware and software was a major concern. at that time, there were those arguing that computer technology was not appropriate for rural sierra leone. an initial survey showed that literally all computers where seriously affected by viruses. in order to address this problem a linux based infrastructure was implemented in the districts; a computer without screen was used as a dedicated "no touch" linux server running the dhis software and accessed through wireless network by various users in the district headquarter by their browsers. this infrastructure turned out to be very successful, and indeed appropriate. despite limited initial linux knowledge, the trade-off was a running system without viruses. early in the process, an additional smart technology was also tried: low powered 12 volt computers running on batteries and, the plan was, solar power. this experiment, however, turned out to be not so "appropriate"; the low-powered server did not have sufficient capacity and speed, and users were not happy with screens and performance; various other technical problems put that pilot effort to a standstill. in sierra leone, the internet is not universally available across the country, a situation which is still similar in most parts of africa. the norm when implementing country his in africa has therefore been, as in sierra leone, until today (2011), to capture the data in stand-alone databases implemented in districts, hospitals and health facilities around the country, and to report data electronically by e-mail attachments or physically on a memory stick to the next level. significant human capacity on databases, data management and system support is needed, in order to manage a national his based on numerous standalone database applications with fragile flows of data between them. problems of data reporting, completeness and the maintenance of numerous standalone applications across the country make it very complicated. building a web-based data warehouse on a central server, as is the norm in industrialized countries, and even using a cloud infrastructure, is much simpler technically and in terms of human capacity and needed support structures, for hardware, software and data and database management. ironically, africa would need more human capacity for support and maintenance when implementing a country his than would, say norway, when implementing a similar system, because in africa would need to maintain numerous standalone implementations and complicated flows of data, whereas in norway only one central implementation would have to be maintained. cloud based infrastructure using a central server with universal access would therefore be a very appropriate infrastructure in africa. based on the rapid increase in mobile coverage in africa, new cables down both the east and the west coasts of africa, the situation may be about to change. the semi-online solutions developed in dhis enabled by the new htlm 5 standard which allows for offline data storage in the browser, has been successfully implemented in kenya. this innovative technology is significantly improving the feasibility of web-based computing using another new technology: the cloud based infrastructure, even in rural remote communities in africa. in kenya also, mobile telephones are used to interact with the dhis; data is reported from remote clinics to the dhis and feedback is sent from dhis to the mobile. these examples of new and innovative technologies, including the local wireless network running on a dedicated linux server in the districts in sierra leone, are all characterised by 1) being very appropriate for even rural communities in sierra leone, and 2) being very modern and even cutting edge. therefore, the term appropriate technology for developing countries needs to be given a new and different meaning in the age of the internet and cloud computing; to exaggerate a bit the more "modern" and "cutting edge", the more appropriate the technology. how can culturally appropriate systems be developed? in the section above we concluded that modern internet technology is appropriate at community level in developing countries. in this section we extend the notion of technology beyond the mere "technical", the artefacts and the "things", and see it as being rooted in knowledge and people through use and innovation (fagerberg, 1994) in a socio-technical web (kling, scacchi 1982). furthermore, information systems, such as the community based health information systems in sierra leone, are best understood as social systems (braa, sahay, 2012). following these perspectives, 'cultivation' is well suited as a metaphor to describe the approach followed to develop relevant and socially and culturally appropriate information systems. the argument is that the particular components of the information system, such as hardware, software and paper-based data collection tools may be planted in a local setting, so that the seeds may be similar and context free, but local growing conditions, such as culture, languages and social conditions, are infinitely variable. the developing plant therefore needs to be tended and nurtured by the local community who will then develop a sense of ownership and commitment towards it. in this way the information system understood as a social socio-technical system will grow into place as an expression of the local culture and language. cultivation, as an approach to information systems development, relies upon the development of local ownership and commitment. a bottom-up participatory design and development process is therefore crucial in helping to create such ownership. the sierra leone case demonstrates that the community level his needs to be part of the larger national system in order to be able to analyse data about the local health situation as compared with national standards areas and the situation in other areas. only by enabling the community to use the his to analyse their own situation within the larger context will it be possible to achieve the objective of the alma ata phc declaration which calls for maximum community participation. this means that while local empowerment, commitment and bottom-up processes are crucial, there is an equally important need for making national standards part of the community based his. when striving for equity between communities and regions in a country, national standards are needed to identify and target areas of need (braa, hedberg 2002). this may cause some tension between the local need for flexibility and national need for standards, which may be addressed through a hierarchy of standards where each level in the health system is free to define its own standards and information requirements as long as they adhere to the standards of the level above (ibid.). concluding remarks this paper has looked at how community participation in both the development and use of health information systems has led to a situation where the communities themselves are taking active part in improving their health status. the main contributors to success in this regard have been identified as involving the communities in the development and use of the health information system, sharing data among communities in a transparent and mildly competitive manner, and, as the case from kenya shows, using a mix of cloud computing and offline support to further facilitate the above points also for communities not regularly connected to the internet. it is clear from the case that communities are not just users of the information system, but they are also participating in its development and they are themselves shaping the way information is handled and used at the community level. conceptualising information systems as social systems, cultivation is used as a metaphor to understand how culturally appropriate information systems may be developed through local commitment and bottom-up participatory processes. at the technical level, the cases demonstrates that modern ict and internet technologies may indeed become appropriate technology even for rural communities in africa. the case of sierra leone shows that while the his needs to be based on local ownership and freedom to define its requirements, the system must also include the national standards in order to be useful in a wider national comparative perspective. this implies that community his need to be connected in a larger, national his and that routines for feedback and dissemination are in place. our case shows how communities are leveraging the national integrated data warehouse in sierra leone to make local decisions, which would not be possible without the wider system. references avison, d., lau, f., myers, m. & nielsen, p.a. (1999). "action research. " communications of the acm 42: 94-97. bjerknes, g., ehn, p., & kyng, m. (eds.) (1987). "computers and democracy: a scandinavian challenge." aldershot, uk: avebury; brookfield, vt: gowerbraa, j., hanseth, o., heywood a, shaw, v. (2007). developing health information system in developing countries: the flexible standards strategy. mis quarterly vol 31 special issue august 2007. braa, j., & hedberg, c. (2002). "the struggle for developing district health information systems in south africa". the information society, 18 (3). braa, j., monteiro, e., & sahay, s. (2004). "networks of action: sustainable health information systems across developing countries". management information systems quarterly, 28(3). braa, j., sahay, s. (2012). "integrated health infomration architecture". power to the users. maxwell publishers, delhi. braa j (1996) "community-based participatory design in the third world. 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"small changes: starting a participatory design process by giving participants a voice". in d. schuler, & a. namioka (eds.), participatory design: perspectives on systems design (pp. 289-298). hillsdale, new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates. greenbaum, j., & kyng, m. (eds.) (1991). "design at work: cooperative design of computer systems". hillsdale, nj heeks, r. (2002). "information systems and developing countries: failure, success, and local improvisations". the information society, 18, 101-112. hmn. (2005). what is hmn? retrieved september 20, 2011, from http://www.who.int/healthmetrics/about/whatishmn/en/index.html hmn. 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(1979), computers dividing man and work, swedish center for working life, demos project report no 13, utbildingsproduktion, malmø sahay, s., miller, j., and roode, d. (eds.), "proceedings of the ifip 9.4 conference on socio-economic impact of computers in developing countries: information flows, local improvisation and work practices", cape town, south africa, 2000 susman, g., & evered, r. (1978). "an assessment of the scientific merits of action research". administrative science quarterly, 23(4), 582-603. undp (2009) human development report. retrieved september 20, 2011, http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2009/ who (1978) declaration of alma ata, international conference on primary health care, alma ata, ussr, 6-12 september 1978, http://www.who.int/hpr/nph/docs/declaration_almaata.pdf who (2011) keeping promises, measuring results. health accountability report presented at world health assembly. retrieved september 20, 2011, http://www.who.int/topics/millennium_development_goals/accountability_commission/pr_commission_19may2011.pdf 1314 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 editorial repurposing post offices as community innovation hubs: digital inclusion, equity and deconcentration this will be my last formal “editorial” as editor in chief of the journal of community informatics. as of this issue i am passing the torch along to my long-time friends and colleagues (and former and current joci associate editors) eduardo villanueva-mansilla, associate professor at the communications department, pontificia universidad católica del perú, who will be joined as coeditor (after jan. 1,2017) by dr. susan o’donnell, sociology department, university of new brunswick, fredericton, nb, canada. i have absolutely no doubt that they will carry on with the strengths of joci while moving it into new areas and with renewed energy and creativity. it has been my extreme pleasure to work with the larger joci community over the last 11 years—the 6000 or so subscribers, the 600 or so registered reviewers, the some 100+ authors, and the some 50 or so members of the editorial and advisory boards. together we have done something quite remarkable which is to launch a high quality, internationally recognized journal in a brand new field and with a mandate to be relevant and of interest not only to academics and researchers but also to practitioners and policy makers. that we have had some 2.7 million “article views” since 2006 is a quite amazing result even if i don’t quite understand how this has been possible or what impact it might be having. so thanks to one and all and i look forward to many further years of our mutual engagement with the opportunities and responsibilities of making information and communications technologies relevant and useful to enabling and empowering local communities. **** canada has a new and socially active government after 10 years of darkness and regression under our former conservative prime minister. among the areas that they have signaled (and provided budgetary support for) is the extension of broadband internet capability into canada’s rural and remote regions. as well, the government has begun making steps towards broadening the base of social equity including for indigenous people and for lower and middle income families. and finally, the government has indicated a strong interest in “innovation” as the basis for building a productive canadian economy for the future. !1 gurstein, m. (2016). repurposing post offices as community innovation hubs: digital inclusion, equity and de-concentration. the journal of community informatics, 12 (1), 1-6. copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1314 michael gurstein, ph. d. editor, the journal of community informatics gurstein@gmail.com mailto:gurstein@gmail.com http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1314 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1314 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 i think it is possible to link all of these aspirations into a broad based social and technology policy which i’m calling “inclusion, equity and de-concentration” and focusing this around what i am calling community innovation hubs (cihs). the extension of an infrastructure platform as the basis for broadband internet access is an important step in the process of ensuring social inclusion of those who currently are denied effective internet access and use because of where they live and the lack of an affordable means for internet delivery. however, infrastructure provision is only one element in enabling a broad base of inclusion. as various studies in canada and elsewhere have demonstrated, lack of physical access may represent only a relatively limited portion of the some 15-20% of canadians who currently don’t have access to or use of the internet. as well, there are issues of the cost of internet access (including the cost of the associated hardware and software), issues of training and literacy and simple lack of interest (or a failure to identify a need which the internet would uniquely satisfy as a driver to connect). it is widely recognized that access and use of the internet platform is becoming a significant means for social inclusion including through access and communication with friends and family by means of social media, through the expression (and reception) of political messages and an enhanced opportunity for at least some form of participatory activity, through enabling economic activity for many based on the transformation of existing business (and work) models and the development of new ones based on the internet’s functionality. it can almost certainly be asserted that the absence of access and use of the internet is a significant source of social exclusion in modern society. as we all have become increasingly aware economic inequality has expanded dramatically in recent times and likely not coincidentally in parallel to the infiltration of the internet into all aspects of modern life. while the internet extends opportunities for participation and for certain types of enterprise and employment it equally dramatically undercuts certain skills and employment sectors. this cannot be turned back and the impacts and distributional effects are likely to accelerate rather than diminish. the need then for direct intervention by means of public policy including through enhancing access and use of the internet to reduce economic inequity, will become increasingly acute. an internet platform also provides the opportunity for action at a distance. while this functionality has been used with astonishing effect to facilitate the concentration of business enterprise and activity in certain geographical locales; what has not been explored to any similar extent is the use of the functionality to disperse and decentralize opportunity and activity, to shift activity from the centre to the periphery rather than vice versa. thus the initial investment in a program to extend the internet platform to those currently without such access can be seen as a key and initial element in a broader program for repurposing and integrating social and technology policy, both extending inclusion into previously marginalized populations but as well, beginning a broader transformation for social inclusion, social equity and economic and social de-concentration. if we can begin from a set of assumptions where a common (broadband) internet platform is accessible to almost all canadians (preferably as a human right) we can begin to see this as a basis for broad programs promoting and enabling social inclusion—as for example, the development and delivery of content of specific interest to specific target groups such as the !2 http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/56f0004m/2008016/findings-resultats/socio-eng.htm http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4682368&url=http%253a%252f%252fieeexplore.ieee.org%252fxpls%252fabs_all.jsp%253farnumber%253d4682368 http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/131126/dq131126d-eng.htm https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0ahukewiqvtqziormahvd-mmkhfqkafuqfgg3mam&url=http%253a%252f%252fwww.ejeg.com%252fissue%252fdownload.html%253fidarticle%253d30&usg=afqjcnhgfkuplfowdgxcbo_ecrs7q47gag&sig2=i1-btae38whnhel9d0z6eq http://www.fastcompany.com/3055498/fast-feed/the-internet-is-increasing-inequality-says-the-world-bank http://www.shareable.net/blog/21-technologies-that-will-decentralize-the-world http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/is-high-speed-internet-a-basic-right-crtc-to-weigh-in/article29576878/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 elderly, indigenous peoples, youth, recent immigrants and so on. equally the availability of the universal access platform can provide the basis for activities to mitigate those other factors involved in internet non-use such as literacy, cost of access and hardware and software, the provision of assistive devices, training for digital and other literacies and so on. canada in the late 90’s and through the 00’s pioneered globally in the provision of community internet access services through what were called (in canada) community access program sites (caps) and elsewhere called telecentres. as the cost of local internet access declined rapidly throughout much of canada the immediate requirement for public access facilities (was perceived) as declining as well and the quite successful (particularly in rural areas) cap program was allowed to whither and eventually effectively die (although there are still a few remnants hanging on using student internship funding primarily.) as noted, canada currently has some 85% of the population with access to the internet, however the 15% not currently having access represent quite a significant number of canadians. for some it is a question of cost and the current unavailability of free (or very low cost) internet service (except where available in public libraries) is a still very significant problem. for others it is the cost of purchasing and maintaining a piece of often cranky hardware and software. for others it is a lack of training in how to use computers/the internet often because of a lack of english/french skills (immigrant population) or low levels of literacy. for still others it is a fear of technology and for still others it is an absence of the mechanical devices that will allow those with particular kinds of disabilities to use computers. if only 10% of the canadian population (the figure is generally estimated at twice this) fall into one or another of the categories above we are talking about 3.5 million people in all communities in need of some sort of public internet access and the attendant support. the process of achieving broad based digital inclusion is equally a process of beginning a longer term path to economic and social equity as the previously excluded and marginalized are provided with the means for accessing and using the internet to enhance personal opportunities for interaction, employment and to access social services and supports. and since there is inclusion around the common platform there is the equal possibility of using this platform as the basis for beginning a process of dispersal of the capacity for innovation and of the variety of social and economic opportunities towards the periphery and away from the centre. the broad trend towards the recognition of internet access as a human right is in part based on the observation that the absence of internet access may be a barrier to the exercise of the range of other human rights. if in this context we refocus our internet access conceptualization from how to get the internet out to individual users towards how to enable the universal availability/accessibility/use of internet access, internet supports and other services in local communities a number of disparate elements begin to fall into place. the key to developing such a set of social programmes and initiatives however is to recognize that while the primary mode of accessing the internet is individual for initiatives in support of digital and social inclusion to be effective the activities involved must be “social” or “group” activities taking place in a common social space rather than simply individuals working off a laptop or a mobile. thus what is needed at the local level are common points of contact, social or community spaces where individuals can gather for internet access and !3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/community_access_program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/telecentre http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cap-pac.nsf/eng/home the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 where they and multiple others can be cost effectively supported in the use of the range of other technology devices and supports. earlier (and in its time, effective) iterations of this were the community access centre referred to internationally as telecentres. telecentres were (or rather are as there are still hundreds of thousands of telecentres operating successfully throughout the developing world) physical locales, places where internet could be accessed, which had computers and the requisite software (and often additional supportive hardware) and where other services such as training and computer support was also made available often through student interns (for whom this provided very useful training and job experience). times of course have changed however, even as the bulk of the population has been able to get online through primarily individual based devices such as laptops or mobile phones, there has been left a significantly sized residue of people—the elderly, those with literacy issues, the poor, recent immigrants with language difficulties, among others for whom the availability of access is still a difficulty and where alternatives as for example, public libraries may not be sufficient as a supplier since libraries have other priorities and by and large while they have been willing to provide simple internet access they have not, because of a lack of resources, been able or willing to provide the degree of support and training which many of those looking for access currently require. meanwhile the starving of the public sector by various governments in the last decades has led to the demise of many of the other common spaces where internet access and use might have been localized. (it should be noted here that it is my feeling that the decision that most cap sites would be located in standalone facilities while evidently politically valuable was in fact a mistake for the long term viability of the individual sites and thus the program as a whole. by saddling sites with the need to generate sufficient revenue (at least notionally) to cover the full cost of local start up and on-going rent and maintenance, the program was insisting that the individual sites would be launched with one (sustainability) arm tied behind their backs.) as well, the identification of a physical space for a community hub can further the broad agenda of seeing and enabling communities at the local level to support innovation both of value to the local community and as broader contributions regionally and nationally to a culture and a practice of “innovation” i discussed the notion of “community innovation” quite extensively in an earlier blogpost: there is on the other hand a form of “grassroots innovation” also, understood in the context of social change where innovation is not concerned with enabling competition but rather is concerned with effective adaptation to changing circumstances. this latter type of innovation might be characterized as “social innovation” or “community innovation” since so much of this type of innovation takes place within the context of communities either of place or of interest where trusted peers are enabled to experiment with established routines and practices to find alternative strategies for accomplishing what might otherwise be routine or conventionalized tasks. this type of “innovation” is not concerned with ensuring opportunities for !4 https://gurstein.wordpress.com/2013/04/06/community-innovation-and-community-informatics/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 competition in globalized marketplaces but rather in enabling those involved in these communities and often grassroots communities to better undertake the tasks for which they normally have responsibility and for undertaking new tasks as they might become necessary and all within a context of shared community norms, values and goals. the value of locating a set of services and functions such as those in cap sites in an ongoing facility where most of the physical and managerial elements would be taken care of by others who had the luxury of on-going institutional (and financial) stability was lost in the manner in which cap was deployed. the absence of this further meant that the individual sites were totally dependent on the federal funding program which in turn inhibited their capacity to adapt and respond to changing technology circumstances, public demand and availability of local resources. let’s take for example the possibility that post offices could be repurposed as community innovation hubs (i mention post offices in this context because of the delivering community power proposal in this direction which is currently being promoted by the canadian union of postal workers among others) but we could think about these community innovation hubs (cih) being located in suitably funded and staffed libraries, schools, community centres or even legions, local co-ops, agrep offices and so on. the “delivering community power proposal” is an intriguing one from this perspective. the wide dispersal of post offices, the fact that they are professionally managed and maintained as physical structures, and their wide acceptance and recognition as community common spaces makes them potentially ideal as places for community commons activities where other such facilities might not be available. and of course, the diminishing utilization of postal services, when combined with the variety of reasons for a necessary if diminished continuation of these services has put their economic viability into question while opening up the obvious need for some alternative sources of activity/revenues. these cih’s could of course start with the more traditional functions of community access centres—i.e. internet access, internet training, computer support and so on. but from there they would begin to respond to the overall technology and social changes of the last 20 years and the possible or likely functionalities that one could envisage being located in the variety of cih’s would include among others: (1) internet access facilities including support for new users, training on use and applications, assistive devices for those with disabilities and generally providing a site where internet access and use will be facilitated and enabled for those currently not using the internet but with some interest in doing so (2) a number of local communities are taking the initiative to develop their own locally owned and managed broadband networks in the absence of commercial facilities being made available.  a cih would provide a very suitable local site for these types of activities to be developed and housed. (3) community wifi: similarly with broadband a number of communities have decided (often in conjunction with community broadband) to provide free internet access via community wifi hubs.  a cih again would provide a very suitable facility to house such a service. !5 http://www.deliveringcommunitypower.ca/ https://ccednet-rcdec.ca/en/event/2014/03/13/community-broadband-networks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wireless_community_network the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 (4) a central public repository for specialized software and hardware along with training and support in its use.  this can be anything from help with photos and photoshop to animation and music production. such facilities have proven particularly helpful with teenagers and young adults in giving them a site for personal expression (and just hanging out) while also providing some training is useful on-going skills. (5) a hub to provide digital supports for small business development including help with digital bookkeeping, mentoring in small business e-commerce, help with digitalized machine management and so on and overall to the range of supports and services that are generally available but that may not be widely known in smaller and rural communities. (6) providing support for the range of e-government services. s government services go overwhelming online many people who are not active internet users or who are unsure of how to maneuver in an online environment require support for these activities– including of course for taxation, for various forms of service or support applications and so on. (7) providing support for the range of digitally provided banking (as per the “delivering community power” proposal) and other financial services which equally are going online and where as well, various kinds of in-person support and training may be required. (8) there are many in communities across canada—high school and other students, hobbyists, small scale entrepreneurs and inventors interested in “making” their own equipment and devices who have need to access relatively low cost equipment but equipment which they can individually not afford.  the development of what is being “the maker movement” of those who are looking to “make” technology including the burgeoning activities in “3d printing” as well as use it is now widespread and community hubs where activities of this kind can take place are springing up widely but so far only in major centres. (9) one of the major problems in the electronic era is electronic waste.  there is in most communities a need for a centre where e-waste can be dropped off and where trained staff can refurbish as appropriate and disassemble for scrap as necessary. this can be a source of revenue for the centre. all of the above are in many cases an unanswered need in communities big and small (except for the largest) across canada. they are in need of a physical space for some of the activities and an organizational/management framework for hiring and supervising (mostly temporary/ student) staff. they can be a source of some revenue but are likely to require an on-going subsidy given the public service nature of many of their activities. what the cih does however, is to provide a focal point within small and rural communities and in urban communities with lower income, marginalized and immigrant populations a congregation point for digital access, training and collaboration. a place where youthful (and not so youthful) creative energies can be applied in the digital sphere and as well a place where those currently excluded from the digital economy and society with its benefits (but of course also its risks) can be guided, supported and enabled to become active and contributing participants. !6 http://dmlcentral.net/brazil-kids-using-digital-media-to-teach-each-other-change-culture/ http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=923239 http://www.ohorizons.org/blog/infymakers-winners?gclid=cj0keqjwosk4brcyhsngx4_sybcbeiqaowacjbiiwoiwmyd94yno407h4jaut3y-dwxsifm7piizyfwaam7z8p8haq https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3d_printing http://www.rcbc.ca/resources/additional-resources-links/e-waste optimisation of livestock identification and trace-back system lits database to meet local needs: case study of botswana bojelo esther mooketsi lecturer, information systems, department of library and information studies, university of botswana, gaborone, botswana. email: mooketsibe@mopipi.ub.bw 1. introduction the use of icts as tools for effective governance and service delivery has long been recognised (thompson & walsham, 2010). furthermore, investments in information and communication technology (ict) are driven by expectations of increased usage of technology to run core business activities (bates, 2000). ict developments are normally initiated to serve specific social, cultural or economic goals of a country. depending on the intended purpose of the ict innovation being introduced, the extent of stakeholder consultation done and the amount of effort made to provide for other local needs, the use of such technology may yield unsatisfactory results or benefits for stakeholders. due to the large trade preference of 50% to 93% it gets compared to the 40% it gets in southern african customs union, botswana prefers to sell its beef to the european union (eu) (botswana export development and investment authority, 2008). after the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (bse) or mad cow disease in late 1997 and early 1998, the eu put in place a food law that stipulated that all food products consumed in the eu be traceable. the law further outlined expectations on the traceability of food products, withdrawal of dangerous food products from the market, operator responsibilities and requirements applicable to imports and export. the livestock identification and trace-back system (lits) was undertaken by the botswana government to meet this traceability requirement at a cost of 126 million euro (stevens & kennan, 2005). lits is a system that uses radio frequency identification (rfid) technology. this technology is used to capture data on individual cattle and their owners, and transmits it directly to a central database (burger, 2004). this research seeks to explore the extent to which the livestock identification and trace-back system is used to support farmers in cattle management and to establish if it could be used for tracing stray cattle. this is in line with the government vision that by 2016, the people of botswana will be able to apply the potential of computer equipment in many aspects of their lives (botswana government, 1997). as highlighted by the un report on least developed countries, technology has to be adapted to suit different context and uses (un report of least developed countries, 2007). this adaptation of technology to suit different context and uses is known as community informatics. community informatics refers to the modification and adaptation of ict to help in the attainment of community objectives and needs (gurstein, 2003). in this instance, the community need is to enhance the chances of farmers getting information about their stray cattle. this is based on the premise that "communities have characteristics, requirements and opportunities that require different strategies for ict intervention and development from the widely accepted implied models of individual or in home computer/internet access and use" (gurstein,2003). this implies that there is need to explore the options and viability of adapting and taking advantage of readily available technologies for the enhancement of service delivery. 2. ict use in cattle management (tracking and trace back systems) 2.1 traceability the european union defines traceability as "the ability to trace and follow a food, feed, food-producing animal or substance intended to be incorporated into a food or feed, through all stages of production, processing and distribution" (cooke & hawkins, 2005). the new zealand working group (2004) defines traceability as "the ability to track and/or trace product flows in both fresh production and (in) an industrial distribution chain. traceability implies that products are uniquely identifiable, that at critical points in the production and distribution processes, the identity of product flows are logged, and the information is systematically collected, processed and stored". there are two types of tracing activities, namely, upstream tracing and downstream tracing. upstream tracing refers to the reconstruction of the history of a product from its current place to its place of origin. this is vital in that it allows one to rightly identify where the product originally came from and if need be delimit possible places or stages during which identified defects could have occurred. downstream tracing refers to tracing the events or modifications made on a product after its raw material state. 'raw material' is taken as starting point and the products that contain that raw material are identified (new zealand working group, 2004). specifically concerning red meat, eu regulation (ec) 1760/2000 outlines the requirements concerning identification, registration and labelling of cattle and beef products. the core objectives of the regulation are to: "establish an efficient system of identification and registration of cattle at the production stage. define a common european labelling scheme for the beef sector based on objective criteria at the marketing stage of the food chain" (cooke & hawkins, 2005). 2.2 botswana livestock identification and trace-back system the livestock identification and trace-back system is used to capture data on individual cattle and their owners, and transmits it directly to a central database (burger, 2004). it is comprised of two subsystems namely the database management query and reporting subsystem and the livestock identification and data acquisition subsystem. the database management query and reporting subsystem (dmqr) consists of the national database, dmqr application, basic wan interface, moa and query and reports interface and the disaster recovery plan whilst the livestock identification and data acquisition subsystem consists of the bolus. the bolus, which is inserted in the cow, has a unique id number which identifies the cow and its number is read by a reader which is a hand held device and can be used in kraals or crushes. the information from the bolus is then linked with the following information; cattle owner's name, cattle owner omang (personal identity number), brand, brand position on the cattle, gender of the cattle owner and the animals' colour, location and date. this information is then uploaded to the agricultural officer's personal computer in the district office through a docking station which operates through the government data network. the docking station then uploads the data to the central database in gaborone. the central database comprises the primary server at the moa and duplicate cluster server housed at the department of information technology (department of animal health and production, 2007). as at june 2006, a total of 2,243,007 out of 3 million cattle had been inserted with the bolus throughout the country. once all animals are fitted with the bolus, the system will be the "world's largest livestock tracking, monitoring and management system using rfid technology" (burges, 2000).when animals are slaughtered, the bolus is retrieved for recycling, which keeps the costs low. as at march 2005, a total of 223,120 boluses had been recycled (department of animal health and production, 2007). the system objectives are, over and above meeting the eu requirements to "consolidate existing databases within the department of animal health and production namely the national disease surveillance database, brands database, bmc database, livestock movement permits database, analogue ownership records analogue health and production records" (burges,2004). currently, it is possible to perform the following tasks online; issue movement permits, change ownership documents, log vaccinations, initiate disease reports conduct the census of cattle, issue brands certificates and duplicates, and issue herd cards (department of animal health and production, 2007). there are plans for the system to be integrated with existing it infrastructures within the ministry of agriculture (moa) and government computer bureau to allow online client queries for departments such as: national identity for ownership identification, registrar of birth and death for certification of ownership of brands and livestock, the police for confirming ownership of brands and livestock and the ministry of finance to establish revenue from livestock for tax purposes. 3. methodology the target population of this study was cattle owners, the police, and moa staff, district council officers in the south east, kgatleng and central districts of botswana. the police were chosen as respondents because they receive reports on loss of cattle or the presence of stray cattle; moa staff insert the bolus and scan cattle as and when required, and the district council staff are in charge of stray cattle. a decision was made that all prospective interviewee cattle farmers within the specified distance parameters had the same chance of being included in the study (busha & harter, 1980). different questionnaires were designed and administered for the various respondents and the responses from the different categories of respondents were triangulated to check the reliability of the answers given by one category of respondents against the other (borg & gall, 1989). random sampling was chosen due to the fact that it was difficult to identify an appropriate sampling frame. for the south east the selected main villages were tlokweng and ramotswa, for kgatleng the selected urban villages were mochudi and oodi, whilst in the central district the selected urban villages were palapye and tutume. given the nature of this study, it was decided that data would be collected through the use of questionnaires which were to be administered during face to face interviews. this is because the population under study is diverse, some of the farmers are educated people and some are illiterate. thus the likelihood of the questions being difficult or in a language that the respondents do not understand could not be ruled out. the researcher personally distributed and collected the questionnaires. respondents were given the questionnaires to fill out and in cases where the respondents could not read or write, the researcher conducted interviews them and filled out the questionnaires on their behalf. the questionnaires were directed to household heads in the cattle posts or whoever was in charge of looking after the cattle. for the police, moa officers, and district council staff the questionnaires was administered to the head of duty station. sixty cattle posts were identified and responses were obtained from forty-four of the cattle posts giving a seventy percent response rate. of the fort-four farmers who responded four were commercial farmers. thus commercial farmers comprised nine percent of the respondents. of the six head of stations of police, six moa officers, six district council staff, responses were obtained from four of each giving a total of twelve responses translating into a 67% response rate. 3.1 data requirements below is a summary table of objectives of the research, data requirements and sources that were used to guide the framework of the study. table 1: data requirements 4. findings 4.1 prevalence of stray cattle and related support services stray cattle that are not found translate to loss of revenue. whilst cattle loss can be attributed to other factors such as theft, drought and other issues and as such it is inevitable, failure of cattle owners to retrieve their cattle when they have been collected by government officials as strays is regrettable and avoidable. in botswana, these animals are called matimela which can be loosely translated to mean lost animals. of the interviewed farmers, 45% said they had not lost any cattle in the past year while 55% stated that they had lost some of their cattle. predominantly, the 45% that had not lost any cattle were commercial farmers. while it cannot be concluded with certainty that these lost cattle were collected as matimela, the chance of this having happened cannot be ruled out. this is because whenever a cattle farmer has a cow that does not belong to him amongst his cattle; he is expected by law to report its presence to either the chief, moa officers or district council officers in charge of stray cattle. this practice was also confirmed by those in charge of stray cattle as when asked how the office responsible for stray cattle gets information on stray cattle, all of them said that villagers report to them, the chief or moa officers. the same response was obtained from the moa officers. 4.2 retrieval of stray cattle with regard to retrieval of stray cattle it seems that the chances of recovering missing cattle are really poor as only 18% of the cattle farmers who had lost some of their cattle had recovered some of their animals. this conflicts with what the district council staff in charge of matimela says as they stated that 50% of the matimela they had in the government kraals were retrieved by their owners. 4.3 informing cattle farmers about stray cattle the matimela act states that cattle owners should be informed about their stray cattle within fourteen days of the matimela being collected (matimela act, 1969). of the farmers who were interviewed, 66% reported that they were informed of their stray cattle over the radio whilst 34 % said they were informed through notices. 4.4 radio listenership to matimela program as a way of publicising and improving retrieval of lost cattle, the national radio station has a program where a list of lost cattle held in government matimela kraals is read out. this study established that 57% of the interviewed farmers said they listened to the program every time it was on; though this depended on them having batteries to run their radios. it should be pointed out that the program runs once weekly and does not cover all the government kraals during the session but rather each session focuses on a specific kraal. table 2: farmers informed of stray cattle through source: survey data despite councils being expected by law to widely publicise the information on retrieved stray cattle so as to ensure that the information reaches as many people as possible, this study established that only seven percent of the respondents stated that they had seen the notices on matimela (stray cattle) in places like clinics, councils. there are places like the cattle crushes and boreholes' where almost all farmers go daily to water their cattle where these notices could be put up. the telephone and email were not used at all. the email could be a viable way of informing the public about stray cattle as the government data network (gdn) provides service to all government offices and covers close to 100 villages and towns and connects over 7,000 civil servants (sebusang and masupe, online). 4.5 information included in the matimela list this study also considered the issue of information included in the matimela list. ideally, information included on the list is intended to make it easier for people to find their lost cattle. however, the list as is, means only those close to the cow owners can inform them, but if names were included it would be better. these names could be obtained from the lits database; this is how cattle farmers responded; table 3: information included in notices source: survey data 4.6 cattle farmers' access to forms online when asked if it is possible to access forms relating to cattle management, like cattle movement forms, online, all the cattle farmers who responded stated that it was not possible. this conflicts with the department of animal health and production's claim that it is possible to issue movement permits, change ownership documents, log vaccinations, initiate disease reports, conduct the census of cattle, issue brands certificates and duplicates and issue herd cards (department of animal health and production, 2007). all the moa staff who were asked the same question said it was possible. one can only conclude that there are functions on the moa intranet that are not available to the general public. with respect to the question as to whether or not they would benefit from having access to an online system, 77% of the cattle farmers said that they would benefit from an online system. the benefits they cited are manifold, from reduced travelling expenses to urban villages to get the forms every time they need them, to assurance that they will have the forms as and when they are needed. 4.7 challenges that an online system can pose the cattle farmers interviewed acknowledged that there were numerous challenges that they and the government have to overcome before they could be provided with or even benefit from online services. whilst 6% of the cattle farmers felt that they could use wireless access to the internet to access online services, 70% of the cattle farmers stated that the main impediment was lack of computers and electricity. the study established that 84% had no access to computers and the internet. to deal with this, cattle farmers proposed that they could form syndicates and buy computers, if the government provided their settlements with electricity. in addition, whilst some of the cattle farmers accepted that they are not computer literate, they felt that they could be trained to use computers. forming syndicates to achieve a common goal is something that has been happening in the cattle farming industry in botswana for a long time, for example, cattle farmers group themselves to dig boreholes to share the costs of drilling, thus ensuring that they can provide water for their cattle throughout the year. it therefore should be possible for the farmers to take such initiatives a step further to enhance their cattle management practices. 4.8 use of cell phone in cattle farming respondents were asked how they stayed in touch with those who helped look after their cattle if they did not live with them. this study established that 72% of the interviewed cattle farmers have cell phones and that cell phone signals were available in 97% of the cattle posts. 4.9 cattle farmers' knowledge about lits when asked what the identity number in the bolus identifies, that is, whether it identifies the cow or the cow owner, 91% of the respondents said it identifies the cow owner, which was not correct as the bolus has a unique id number which identifies the cow (department of animal health and production, 2007). in addition when asked what the information from the bolus is linked to, this is how the cattle farmers responded which indicates that the farmers do have a grasp of what information is stored on the lits database. table 4: number in bolus is linked to... when asked what other information they thought could be collected as part of the lits database, the cattle farmers felt that their cell phone numbers, names of next of kin and their village residential addresses could be collected and used to enhance contact between the moa officers and themselves. 4.10 reasons why cattle are fitted with the lits of the interviewed cattle farmers, 80% had fitted all their cattle with bolus whilst twenty percent had not. the majority of those who had fitted all their cattle with bolus said that they had done so to help them in case their cattle are stolen. most of these respondents also indicated that the government expects them to fit all their cattle with the bolus. this correlates with the findings that both the police and traditional leaders use the bolus and the lits database as and when there is need for verification of ownership, either during a dispute, sale or exchange. 61% of the cattle farmers also stated that they fitted their cattle with the bolus to be able to sell them. it should be noted that no one is allowed to sell his or her cattle if the cattle do not have a bolus, as verification of ownership is done using the data in the bolus and the lits database before any sale or exchange takes place. of the 20% who had not fitted all their cattle with a bolus, some had not done so because the moa officers were not available to do so, some because they had been told there was no bolus available, and some because at the time when cattle were being fitted with the bolus, their cattle were not readily available. the other reason given was that, at the time when the bolus was fitted, some of the animals were still small as the bolus is only fitted in cattle that have teeth. the majority (86%) of the cattle farmers interviewed indicated that the police and the dikgosi (traditional leaders) use the database for verification of ownership in dealing with cases of stolen cattle and disputes over ownership of cattle. this probably explains why 84% of the farmers interviewed had fitted their cattle with a bolus. despite the reliance stakeholders have on the bolus for verification of ownership, 75% of the police officers who responded raised a concern that, at times when cattle are scanned, the bolus just reflects numbers and does not give any other data. 4.11 access to the lits database by other stakeholders the district council officers in charge of stray cattle expressed concern about lack of access to the database. they stated that they needed to be allowed access to the lits database to enable them to retrieve relevant data and use such to contact farmers as needed. the same concern was raised by the police officers who responded to the questionnaire. there is need to resolve the issue of access to enable other stakeholders to improve the services they provide. 4.12 recycling of bolus retrieved from dead cattle when farmers were asked what they did with the bolus they retrieved from their dead cattle, 23% said they did not know what to do with the bolus when they retrieved it, 5 percent said they took it to the traditional leader, and nine percent reported that they threw it away. when asked what mechanisms were in place to ensure that farmers returned the bolus after retrieval from their dead cattle, 100% of the moa staff who responded stated that there were no systems in place to ensure this. 4.13 support from veterinary officers it emerged that 86% of cattle farmers were concerned that they got no support from the moa officers to help them retrieve their stray cattle. they felt that the officers should collect data on matimela as they moved around the districts as farmers were always likely to inform them that they had stray cattle in their kraals and that they should use the lits database to get additional data on who owned the stray cattle by scanning them. the current practice is that even if the farmers report the stray animals to the moa officers, the officers do not do anything else except inform those in charge of collecting the stray animals. 5. discussion and implications the findings of this study point to the fact that chances of recovering strays are low especially amongst traditional farmers. there is need to ensure that as much as possible is done to assist the cattle farmers to retrieve their cattle. the following should be considered to reduce loss of cattle and help farmers retrieve their lost cattle in a cost-effective manner. 5.1 management of lost and found cattle more data should be included in the lits database that will enable cattle owners to be traced easily when there is a need. such data would include, for example, telephone numbers and contact details of the next of kin of the farmer so that, where it is difficult to reach the farmer, the next of kin can be contacted to help. there should be a database of farmers in each cattle post or area capturing necessary data including name of cattle post, name, identity card number, contact details and physical address of each farmer, cattle brand of farmer, etc to facilitate communication with farmers on matters pertaining to care and loss of cattle. when the district council staff are in a particular area or cattle post gathering stray cattle, representatives of the area should accompany them to ensure that cattle bearing brand numbers captured in the database for the area are not taken to the government kraals. once the animals have been gathered, the veterinary officer for the area should scan them to retrieve data from the bolus to be used together with the database for the area, to ensure that cattle belonging to farmers in that particular area or cattle post are not taken away. usage of the lits, bolus databases would help in this aspect. the added bonus would be that costs of looking for lost cattle would be reduced especially since it would not be necessary for the district council to collect all the lost and found cattle from the cattle posts and take them to the government kraals which are district based and far from the cattle posts. the farmers would not travel long distances looking for their lost cattle as much as they would otherwise, since they would be informed of where to collect them. it should be noted that the majority of the traditional farmers do not have vehicles and as such they incur heavy expenses in collecting their lost and found cattle from the government kraals. the district council should only deal with cattle without brands, bolus or earmark. 5.2 provision of support services the moa, especially the department of animal health and production, should set up an interactive website to publicise the services it provides and allow for contact with its clients. given the low population of botswana and the communal lifestyle, notices and announcements, which should include names of owners of the lost and found cattle, should be put up at the kgotla, veterinary offices, shops, clinics, hospitals, schools and other prominent places to enhance accessibility of information on lost and found livestock. such notices should also be distributed to other regions so that if lost cattle from other areas or regions are found in a particular area; the owners can get information about where they have been found. a government website specially designed for this purpose could also be set up. there is need to widen the range of media used to inform cattle owners of stray cattle. the veterinary officers should be available whenever lost cattle are gathered or reported to retrieve data from the bolus and generate lists to be used to inform members of the community about the lost and found livestock and identify the owners. 5.3 access to the lits database it is commendable that the database is being used by the police and traditional leaders but there is need to allow them full access to the database to enable them to work with it independently. the access can be restricted to read only if there are concerns of data integrity or privacy. it is also important that all stakeholders get together to discuss ways in which the data base could be used to help them improve service delivery in their respective departments. 5.4 handling of bolus retrieved from dead or slaughtered cattle and monitoring farmers are expected to return those bolus retrieved from dead or slaughtered animals to the veterinary office to update the lits database and for recycling. the study has revealed that some farmers do not return the bolus and do not understand the importance of doing so. the resultant situation is that the lits database does not reflect the actual population of cattle in the country and this may impact negatively on management matters associated with provision of resources, animal health services and general support services to farmers. furthermore, the situation militates against recycling efforts made towards achieving cost-effectiveness in the maintenance of lits. there is therefore need to establish and implement monitoring mechanisms to ensure that farmers return the bolus for recycling and updating of the lits database. the veterinary officers should work with the local authorities to educate farmers about the importance of returning the bolus and regularly check with the farmers concerning the number of their cattle. each time they are out inserting bolus or providing other services, they should collect data from each farmer on cattle available and check if they have bolus from dead or slaughtered cattle. 6. limitations and future research the cattle farming industry in botswana is complex. in some instances the cattle owners stay in villages or spend the week days in towns and only go to the cattle post at month end, whilst in some instances they stay in the cattle posts permanently. a decision was made, therefore, to go to the cattle posts and interview those farmers found in the cattle posts. this inevitably means that the possibility of having omitted those who go to the cattle fields only at month end is high. this, however, does not have any negative impact as their cattle herders, in this instance, were involved since the questionnaire were directed to the head of households or whoever was in charge of looking after the cattle. furthermore, it was not possible to obtain a sampling frame as lists that could have been used were not available since registration for births, deaths, elections or any services are done in the home villages (schapera 1996). 7. conclusion conclusions drawn from the study provide issues to be addressed regarding optimisation of the lits database to enhance the value derived from the system. this study has highlighted that there is potential to use the ict's that are in the cattle industry for other purposes. these will make the system benefits more than they are currently as it will be used to solve everyday problems such as stray cattle. this will be in line with the concept of community informatics that whatever technology is introduced, it should be adapted to betterment of the community. references bates, a.w. 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(2004). a literature review of recent developments in bluetooth networking and animal tracking and monitoring. retrieved october 1, 2012 from http://www.cs.ru.ac.za/research/g01c2974/honours/reports/literaturesurvey.pdf cooke, a. & hawkins, b. (2005). livestock traceability review of current new zealand databases. retrieved august 1, 2011 from http://www.rezare.co.nz/ifms/databasereview/nztetraceabilitydbreview2005-09-27.pdf council of europe. recommendation of the committee of ministers to member states on electronic governance. retrieved august 1, 2012 from http://www.coe.int/t/e press /com//news/2004/20041216_rec_cm.asp department of animal health and production. (2007). livestock identification and traceback system (lits) government pamphlet. gurstein, michael (2007). what is community informatics (and why does it matter)? retrieved august 1, 2012 from http://eprints.rclis.org/10919/. hellstrom j & moore d. 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(2010). ict research in africa: need for a strategic developmental focus. information technology for development, 16(2): 112-127. <div id="article"> <h2 id="article_title"> museums as living labs<br> challenge, fad or opportunity? </h2> <div id="article_author"> mariana salgado </div> <p> on the basis of case studies in finland, this paper describes and analyzes how the museum community has designed, integrated and implemented ict in its organizations. the museum community has participated in the development of a conceptual framework for ict services as well as the resources required to put them to use. due to the similarity between this sort of work and the tasks performed at living labs, i believe that museums could benefit from dialoguing with living labs about their methods, networks and new technologies, indeed their entire ecosystems. </p> <p> living labs include the public, private and civil sectors as key actors as they generate and test new products and services. they are spaces of innovation that engage these actors at the different phases of development. but most importantly, the use of living labs' user-centered design methods is becoming much more widespread. </p> <p> museums create and use products and services to further their mission of conserving, researching and communicating our common cultural heritage. this paper addresses how museums can make use of and benefit from living labs in their attempts to open their institutions to new audiences and enhance audience participation. this paper also discusses how communities can actively participate in the creation of museum programs and activities. </p> <p> the existing literature (eriksson, niitamo, kulkki &amp; hribernik, 2006; eskola, 2011) describes the work carried out at living labs and contrasts it with work done in museums in helsinki where interactive pieces have been produced and implemented through a co-design process involving external collaborators, audience and museum staff. </p> <p> my hypothesis is that if cultural institutions like museums, exhibition halls, libraries and cultural centers acted like living labs, or took part in their activities, they could begin a dialogue with other strategic partners, including an array of research units, and the civil and private sectors. rather than fostering innovation in their own spaces and based on their audiences' needs, museums currently use technological solutions designed for other contexts, adapting theme to fit their needs. by changing the way that museums refer to themselves and their partnerships, it might be possible not only to shed light on possible collaboration strategies but also to review the role of museums in society and the future. though the term "living lab" might be a fad, in the context of this publication it may help facilitate participation in and collaboration with the museum community. this paper also contrasts museums and living labs to highlight their common interests and possible points of convergence. </p> <p> as a result of my research, i believe that museums need to renew themselves in order to better incorporate icts into their communities with a user-centered design approach. user-centered design (ucd) is an approach and a process that heeds the needs, desires, and limitations of a product or service's end users at each stage of the design process. ucd has been widely applied due to its ability to help people appropriate and incorporate new technologies. ucd is a design philosophy and a process. </p> <p> the concepts underlying living labs could be useful to the museum community as it attempts to develop research tools that enable active participation in the development of technology and in innovation by means of products and services tailored to their own needs. museums today are constantly changing and assessing their role in society and, as a result, their possible partnerships. they must take a proactive approach to financial and social challenges, and thus ensure that a museum visit continues to be a favorite outing for youth. if museums begin to consider their audiences as major players in experimentation with products and services, a new generation of tailored solutions for the cultural sector will appear. once museums become partners with living labs or position themselves in living-lab ecosystems, they will become creative spaces of social and technological innovation. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 1. introduction </h3> <p> first, i would like to analyze three projects in museums in finland in which i have participated. i will then describe projects in which interaction designers have worked with museums to open up the discussion while developing products and services for museums. i will go on to present a description of some of the most important and well-known international museums that have invested in the development of technology adapted to their context. museums like the indianapolis museum of modern art, the walker art center in minneapolis and the san jose museum of technology are exploring social technologies (3d environments, videoblogs, photoblogs, weblogs, microblogs, etc) and developing open-source software. in these cases, designers working in the museums' media teams have taken the initiative in integrating technologies. such media teams are generally speaking part of the museums' marketing or communication departments, though on occasion--at the van gogh museum in amsterdam, for instance--designers work in conjunction with the education department. only very seldom is the media team involved in the development of an exhibition from the very beginning. when that does occur, the aim is to understand the possibilities offered by ict as a way to conceive of a different exhibition or a different relationship with the audience. likewise, rarely are the design concepts developed within the museum community. </p> <p> in my previous research in the museum domain (salgado, 2009), i collaborated with museums and exhibition halls in helsinki whose staffs did not include interaction or it designers that could be involved in the conceptualization and implementation of digital services for their specific needs. for these museums, then, the possibility of working with an external partner capable of co-designing tailored digital services was new. in these cases, the projects i worked on not only entailed providing digital services and co-designing implementation with the museum community, but also co-creating a concept geared towards motivating visitors, collaborators and museum personnel to interpret exhibitions. all three of these experiments took place in helsinki from 2005 to 2008. </p> <p> this approach to design in the context of museums was the result of understanding not only how technology facilitates these processes but also the concepts and frameworks that ict is bringing to cultural institutions. the freeor open-source community, for example, has been introducing concepts such as non-market production and peer production (blenker, 2006, p. 90). to successfully bring these concepts to traditional cultural institutions like museums requires paying attention to exactly how they can be integrated. </p> <p> in the experimental projects in two museums and one exhibition hall in helsinki, finland i was part of a team of design-researchers introducing interactive pieces that facilitated and motivated community-created content and sharing. all three projects took place in art and design museums where traditionally the only ones authorized to comment on and interpret the exhibited works are curators. in my interactive pieces, other people in the museum community (museum guards, docents, external collaborators, visitors and cleaning personnel) were able not only to interpret the collection but also to make suggestions on the re-design of software and then to test out those suggestions. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 2. three case studies at two museums and one exhibition hall in helsinki </h3> <p> these three projects served to create a concept and to develop strategies for its implementation in the context of museums. they are presented in chronological order. the analysis of the findings in each of them was used to give shape to the next project. in these cases, the back-and-forth between making and reflecting on what had been made enabled the development of the central concept: designing museum-community participation through the interpretation of art and design work. </p> <p> these three cases demonstrate how institutions can benefit if they encourage and guide the production of community-created content in order to bring new interpretations to their collections. in this paper, the term "museum community" refers to the staff working in the museum; external collaborators contributing to the museum, and the audience. these actors constitute a community insofar as they have common interests regarding the content of the museum and relate to a common space and way to explore that space. moreover, as creators of content they also envision a common goal: to contribute to the museum experience by adding their own insights. </p> <p> in working on these interactive pieces in different museums, the need to integrate ict and its concepts and frameworks into the daily practices of the museum became clear. peer production of content, which was central to these cases, proved a way to genuinely democratize the content of the exhibition and its interpretation. at the moment, however, art and design work at museums is interpreted mainly by curators and experts. </p> <p> 2.1 sound trace in ateneum museum (2005-2006) </p> <p> this project took place at the ateneum museum, which is part of the finnish national gallery. the aim was to design a participative audio tour and a website for the visually impaired and their community. the development team<sup>1</sup> gathered and shared digital comments--"sound traces"--online and onsite that discussed the pieces in the permanent exhibition as well as how to navigate the physical premises. our aim was for the website to contain all existing information on the services finnish museums offer the visually impaired, as well as audio traces on the exhibition that had been left at the museum by the visually impaired (salgado, 2009). </p> <p> <em>sound trace</em> attempted to provide greater access to finnish museums and to enhance the visit experience. it also attempted to create a platform for collaborative sound gathering. visitors and pieces in the exhibition were to open up a pre-existing,<sup>2</sup> dialogue by making it audible. the <em>sound trace</em> project demonstrated both the challenges and benefits yielded by audio content produced by the entire museum community; it also shed light on new possibilities for the visually impaired community. </p> <p> the concept behind the service was developed in conjunction with visually impaired people at a series of workshops and meetings. we also designed a prototype for a texture-touchable screen for a pda (portable digital assistant), a logo, and the layout for the website. we tested the prototype on the museum premises with various encounters with visually impaired people. </p> <p> in the context of art museums overwhelmingly geared towards perception and interpretation, the inclusion of the visually impaired community was particularly significant. through tactile perception, the visually impaired have another point of view on artwork, and sharing that point of view with sighted people was a way to build a bridge to this marginalized community. </p> <p> 2.2 conversational map in taidehalli (2006) </p> <p> as part of the young art biennale exhibition a participative installation called <em>conversational map</em> was set up in the main entrance hall of taidehalli (kunsthalle exhibition hall in helsinki, finland). the aim of the piece was to test how well a participative digital board for comments would function at an art exhibition. in addition, <em>conversational map</em> also set out to establish a dialogue between visitors who were not at the exhibition hall at the same time. i tried to collect digital comments about the works or about the exhibition as a whole. a two-dimensional compiled image of the exhibition was used to form a map. visitors could locate specific parts of the exhibition space and the pieces in it, since their positions were analogous to where they were in the real exhibition space. (salgado, 2009) </p> <p> through <em>conversational map</em>, it was also possible to include in the conversation supporting comments with links to external resources in the internet. inspired by the software imanote (image map annotation notebook), digital comments took the shape of audiovisual material related to the objects in the exhibition. developed at the media lab (housed at the university of art and design at that time and now a part of the aalto university, helsinki), the software was used to navigate the map and to annotate the pieces in the exhibition. due to the nature of this software, visitors' comments, which took the form of text, could also include external links. although the primary purpose was not to test the software, some initial ideas for a new version of imanote came from the observations of how <em>conversational map</em> worked in the exhibition hall. </p> <p> while this interactive piece was up in the exhibition, i collected material on the visitor-created content found on the map and on the notes taken about the conversations in the exhibition venue. this idea of encouraging various members of the museum community to leave their comments in a common interactive piece was re-defined in the next project, <em>the secret life of objects</em>. in this second project, i spent more time attempting to motivate and include more people, such as the museum's designers and guides. </p> <p> 2.3 <em>the secret life of objects</em> in the design museum (2008-2009) </p> <p> the aim of <em>the secret life of objects</em> was to develop services for the permanent exhibition at the design museum helsinki. the people working on the project were from the media lab and the design museum <sup>3</sup> , as well as an external sound designer (salgado, 2009). </p> <p> the goal of my research was to further develop the concept of a participative digital board by co-designing practices and content material with museum staff and visitors. what was admissible as digital content was expanded to include material in the form of image, video, sound and text that came from workshops and events held in the museum. this material was included as links on the map of the exhibition; these links were intended to encourage visitors to make comments on the exhibition. </p> <p> visitors could join in conversations that had been started by participants in workshops or other events. i tried to demystify the role of the expert curator by presenting comments made by children and teens. in this project, there was a clear intention to elicit visitors' creativity by showing multimedia artistic comments such as poems, videos, and pieces of music. furthermore, this project tried to show how, by means of digital technologies, it was possible to use intangible digital cultural heritage (recordings of poetry readings and children's workshops, for instance) to enrich tangible cultural heritage (the design and pieces in the exhibition). </p> <p> <em>the secret life of objects</em> explored creative uses for the museum's collection by forging partnerships between artists, on the one hand, and children and teenagers who play music and do creative writing, on the other. as with <em>conversational map</em>, the use of a participative board with an exhibition map as an interface that could be navigated with the imanote software proved successful. </p> <p> participatory design approaches like those described above could be used to involve those who do not currently play a part in the group of decision-makers. museums need to understand the potential of participatory projects if they want to strengthen the dialogue with their community. </p> <p> both the development of new technology and the shift to a collaborative peer-to-peer culture were taken into account in thinking about future designs for the museum. practices such as tagging, commenting, voting systems, or even bookmarking will likely be a part of the museum-visit experience in the future. these practices serve to open up the visit experience and to provide opportunities for dialogue on the exhibition. however, if one truly wants to forge an open museum in constant dialogue and collaboration with the community, it is necessary to involve all actors in setting the agenda. </p> <p> participatory approaches have spearheaded the development of innovative discourse of the sort carried out at living labs. in the following chapters, i present the hypothesis that making museums a part of the living-lab ecosystem is a way to activate the museum community as creators of concepts for exhibition spaces. museum-community driven innovation could be a way to open a path towards expanding the limits of these lifelong educational spaces. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 3. definition of living labs </h3> <p> our understanding of living labs is riddled with contradictions. some researchers state clearly that living labs are actual living environments (oliveira, 2011; schumacher &amp; feurstein, 2007; eriksson, niitamo, kulkki &amp; hribernik, 2006) where users co-create and test new ideas for products and services. this definition is in line with the pioneer mit living lab created by william mitchell. in that project, the challenges of living environments and the everyday life of people were understood as a source of new ideas for research (niitamo &amp; leminen, 2011). later researchers have understood the living lab to be a research and development methodology (feurstein, hesmer, hribernik, thoben &amp; schumacher, 2008). </p> <p> researchers in the areas of science and technology studies, business studies, computer sciences and design research have contributed to a theoretical understanding of living labs. as a research concept, the living lab refers to a process of developing and investigating a common space for creating and testing products and services. living labs are joint, trans-disciplinary research environments in which stakeholders from both the private and public sectors are involved. the widespread use of the phrase and its evident importance as a research concept in so many fields suggests the need for a common and flexible vocabulary capable of fostering collaborative projects. </p> <p> though their strategies and methods may vary, all those involved in living labs understand the key role of users as drivers of and/or participants in the innovation process. indeed, certain organizations are calling themselves "living labs" to foster a particular understanding of their possible partnerships and their relationships to end users. for example, the department of industrial design at the technical university of eindhoven has branded its integration of education and research as a "living (learning) lab." these "living learning labs" attempt to combine several areas of research in a multiple and open system that enhances lifelong and self-directed learning (hummels, 2010). </p> <p> the technical university of eindhoven is far from the only educational institution to house what it calls a "living lab." another example is the group of students that run a cafeteria at laurea university of applied sciences in espoo, finland. barlaurea is a learning environment for the service sector which has operated since november 2002. it provides students with the opportunity to study, learn about and develop service processes. the environment and approach of barlaurea contribute to the daily studies of the students who work there and participate in all the project's processes. (barlaurea, 2011) </p> <p> sami isom&auml;ki and hanna haapanen (2009) have analyzed the possibilities of using living-labs methods for libraries in the context of the helsinki living lab. though they do not suggest using the term "living lab" to refer to all libraries, they do recommend the living-lab framework as a way to introduce possible future actions in libraries. </p> <p> these examples provide an understanding of the limits of living labs. can any organization that includes its end users in the design processes and develops ideas in collaboration with the private sector be called a "living lab"? in my view, the notion of the living lab can be used to help organizations analyze their possible collaboration with end users, developers and funding bodies. what is the benefit of understanding different organizations as "living labs"? it is a trendy concept that serves to help obtain research and development funding. in some countries, supporting living labs is even part of the national agenda (see, for example, eskola, 2011 in finland). but living labs are not only about fundraising; they are also about how to turn end users into decision makers in organizations. living labs could provide key actors in organizations with research methodologies and concrete tools that enable them to incorporate end users in their daily practices and design processes. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 4. values common to living labs and museums </h3> <p> in section two, i used case studies to describe how certain museums have been implementing participatory approaches and methods to engage visitors. in the previous section, i provided the definitions of living labs, and then offered an overview of the organizations that have decided to apply that term to themselves. in this section, i will explain how museums and living labs share not only methods, but also sustaining values. a comparison of the values of living labs and museums demonstrates how they are related and how much they have in common. </p> <p> the goal of a museum is to acquire, conserve, investigate, communicate and exhibit the tangible and intangible components of humanity's cultural heritage for purposes of education, study and enjoyment (icom, 2007). the goal of living labs, on the other hand, is to provide an arena of experimentation where products and services are co-created by civil, private and public sectors. museums could be the real-life environments in which the products and services that further their goals are co-created. </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3161/version/2143/4119/16739/figure1.png" class="article_image" width= "580" height="500" alt="figure1"> <div class="image_caption"> fig. 1: chart comparing the values of museums and living labs. </div> <p> the column showing the values of living labs was taken from a presentation by alvaro de oliveira (2011), current president of the european network of living labs. </p> <p> in art and design museums, experimentation is mainly focused on exhibition design or the development of themes for exhibitions in a way that offers a new perspective on the permanent collection. even though in some cases museum shops make a profit from exhibitions, the display and marketing strategies (even at the shop venue) are not conceived as a whole. in certain cases, visitors are included as co-creators of exhibitions (see, for example, labar, 2006), or even as curators. but this is a new trend that goes against standard museum practices. </p> <p> museums could act as test beds and spaces for user-driven innovation of services and products. for this to happen, it is necessary to identify and communicate the advantages to the museum community of conceiving products and services on these premises. experimentation, and even failure, must be permitted in the process of developing designs for the museum context so that the museum community can participate actively in the elaboration of concepts and technology for their own use. museums should aim to build collaborative networks with other research units and other sectors of society in order to better understand what they have to offer. </p> <p> the preservation of cultural heritage through its artifacts has been one of the core functions of museums and their collections. part of their mission is to communicate to and educate society through their collections and experts. to that end, they must always expand their network of collaboration in order to accommodate touring exhibitions, artists and artworks. living labs have been offering their services mainly to regional networks, though there is ongoing research on how to export their services (for example, ballad, 2011; apollon, 2011) and how to integrate them into networks (for example, enoll, 2011). museums can benefit from other established networks, like the ones in which living labs operate. </p> <p> historically, museums have engaged their audience in a number of meaningful ways, and audience research has been a core activity even though it is not necessarily related to the museum content, but to the provision of services, for example. not until recent years have experimental proposals attempted to include museum visitors as content creators. museums have also been increasingly committed to inclusion and accessibility in relation to both their physical premises and their content materials, such as brochures and websites. many publications and events evidence this concern (for example, the international journal of the inclusive museum, 2008 and the inclusive museum conference). </p> <p> a number of museums have engaged in open-source initiatives. one example is the artbabble project (2011), developed by the indianapolis museum of modern art and currently used by over 35 museums. it is intended to showcase video art content in high quality format from a variety of sources and perspectives. the creation of services, like artbabble, which can educate about scientific, historical or artistic issues relevant to our society, is a pivotal concern of museums and their programs. furthermore, collaboration with other partners (for instance, living labs) that provide services that support or enrich museums' educational endeavors can benefit all participants (users, developers and other stakeholders). </p> <p> in synthesis, the chart shows how museums and living labs have traditionally used different vocabularies to address similar issues. indeed, living labs and museums share many core values. changing the terms in which museums speak of their own research and development might enable them to become key players in the future ecosystems of living labs. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 5. discussion </h3> <p> living labs are collaborative networks based on the understanding that users must be included in research and development processes. living labs are the result of collaboration between public, private and third-sector organizations. indeed, the strength of living labs resides in the intersection of people, areas of expertise and value creation. the varying roles that specific organizations occupy in living-lab ecosystems include: enabler, end user, beneficiary, and developer. according to minna fred, mika kortelainen and seppo leminen (2011), who identified and described these different roles, the most successful living lab experiences are the ones that are started and continued by the beneficiaries of the living labs. </p> <p> even though the work of living labs sometimes benefit private companies more than communities (kommonen and botero, 2012), they have contributed to spreading the word about the importance of users in innovation processes. experts and museum curators must understand the methods and research tools used by living labs in order to better include their whole community--visitors, external collaborators and all the members of the staff--in the decision-making processes. </p> <p> as early as 2006, lizzie muller and ernest edmonds opened beta_space in powerhouse museum in australia to explore the idea of the exhibition as a public laboratory for interactive art. beta_space is an iterative approach to creating and displaying interactive art that aims to break down the boundaries between art, science, and technology. </p> <p> museums are centers of innovation that, in some cases, have a user-centered approach to design. but this is not enough. if the mission of museums includes communicating and conveying knowledge to the communities to which they belong, they must identify ways and models for doing so. living labs, which work to enhance partnerships with a range of research units, companies and citizens' organizations, could facilitate this transfer of knowledge. </p> <p> most museums concentrate on a certain age group that they have traditionally served and, hence, are familiar with. however, not reaching younger generations especially in art museums might be a problem in the long run. innovation must be nurtured in every organization. reaching new audiences might be a starting point for new dialogues and ideas. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 6. conclusions </h3> <p> many science centers call themselves "living labs." traditionally, science centers have been pioneers in making their facilities available for experimental work and in testing different kind of displays and interactive systems. art, design and history museums can also be places of experimentation, with the risk of failure that that implies, and, in the process, renew engagement with their audience. </p> <p> the three case studies presented here evidence the possibilities for innovation once a museum community takes part in the design process. innovative ideas can come into being when the audience and non-curatorial members of the staff are allowed to participate in the creation and testing of concepts for the museum. in the case studies presented, the museum community is a key collaborator in the development of a concept and the shaping of software for its specific needs. as a design-researcher aware of the possibilities offered by information and communication technologies (ict) and the ideas of the community working with them, i was offering tools for co-creating services in the museum context. </p> <p> many organizations seem to call themselves "living labs," "city labs," or "centers of creation and experimentation with ict from a human-centered design perspective." the need to create these new living-lab-type platforms for collaboration is due to the fact that we have not updated and reinforced traditional centers of collaboration, like museums. combining what cultural institutions like museums have to offer with the services proposed by living labs might get new people involved in said cultural institutions and give rise to innovative ideas. </p> <p> at the same time, museums must open their spectrum of influence to become centers for innovation and experimentation. new spaces for innovation are necessary as they involve resources and participants other than those associated with established institutions. old spaces must also engage in innovation in order to incorporate ict with a user-centered design approach as smoothly as possible. living labs could be a research tool capable of providing the museum community with the means to actively participate in the development of technology for their own needs. it is necessary to appropriate the vocabulary of other sectors of society, like "living labs," in order to motivate collaboration and plan future strategies jointly. </p> <p> communities at cultural institutions (personnel, visitors and external collaborators) do not tend to be technology-oriented, so it is important to take advantage of opportunities to facilitate the appropriation of ict (including social media and digital services). this appropriation happens slowly and not without tensions and negotiation. living labs offer methods and tools for aiding end users as they appropriate icts. </p> <p> museums today could take the initiative in fostering participation in living labs and their ecosystems; they could take on different roles (users, developers, researchers, enabler, etc) or make their own physical spaces and audience available to co-create products and services that make use of living-labs methodologies. other cultural and educational institutions, such as the universities of applied sciences in finland (neloskierre, 2011), have already defined their roles in living-lab ecosystems. museums, though, are still not part of this equation. museums must begin to act like laboratories, that is, sites for experimentation. to this end, museums might begin to call themselves "living labs" and to participate in living-lab-type work. if museums positioned themselves as sites of experimentation within living-lab ecosystems, they could better achieve their mission. otherwise, museums will continue to serve an aging population and fail to engage the concerns of current society. only by listening and trusting the community is it possible to understand the movement of our society towards openness, collaboration and sharing. living labs could provide methodologies, tools and networks that help achieve these goals. living labs could also benefit from collaboration with museums because of their well-established reputation as trusted and knowledgeable institutions with a clear focus on cultural heritage. museums are a stimulating environment for creativity and innovation, and they should take part in living-lab ecosystems. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> footnotes </h3> <p> <sup>1</sup> mariana salgado, anna salmi, arto kellokoski and timo londen </p> <p> <sup>2</sup> it is a pre-existing dialogue because visitors and museum pieces are in a constant dialogue, even before the interactive pieces appear. </p> <p> <sup>3</sup> the direct participants in the project were: svinhufvud, leena; botero, andrea; krafft, mirjam; kapanen, hanna; desousa, diana; eerola, elina; louhelainen, anne; vakkari, susanna and me. external experts that worked with us: atte timonen, lily d&iacute;az, jukka savolainen, marianne aav, tommi jauhiainen. other collaborators were the teachers of the groups that participated in the workshops: rody van gemert, nana smulovitz-mulyana, outi maria takkinen and onnela p&auml;iv&auml;koti. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> references </h3> <div class="reference"> apollon (2011). apollon website. retrieved on april 22, 2011, from http://www.apollon-pilot.eu/overview </div> <div class="reference"> arabianranta (2011). arabianranta website. retrieved on january 21, 2011 from http://www.arabianranta.fi/info/helsinki_living_lab/hll_toimijat/ </div> <div class="reference"> artbabble (2011). artbabble website. retrieved on february 22, 2011 from http://www.artbabble.org/ </div> <div class="reference"> ateneum (2008). ateneum website. retrieved on july 9, 2008 from 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(2006). the wealth of networks. how social production transforms market and freedom. usa: yale university press. </div> <div class="reference"> design museum (2008). design museum website. retrieved july 9, 2008, from http://www.designmuseum.fi/main.asp?sid=2. </div> <div class="reference"> de oliveira, a. european perspective on userdriven innovation (living labs). digital presentation. retrieved on february 21, 2011 from http://www.neloskierre.fi/ </div> <div class="reference"> enoll (2011). enoll website. retrieved on january 22, 2011 from http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/ </div> <div class="reference"> eriksson, m., niitamo, v., kulkki, s. &amp; hribernik, k. a. (2006). living labs as a multi-contextual r&amp;d methodology. in k. thoben, k. s. pawar, m. taisch &amp; s. terzi (hrsg.), <cite>12th international conference on concurrent enterprising,</cite> milan, italy: nottingham university business school </div> <div class="reference"> eskola, a. (2011). living labit k&auml;ytt&auml;j&auml;l&auml;ht&ouml;isen innovaatiopolitiikan toteutuksen kulmakivena. presentation in neloskierre seminar in haaga-helia. finland. retrieved on january 22, 2011 from http://www.neloskierre.fi/. </div> <div class="reference"> feuerstein, k.; hesmer, a.; hribernik, k. a.; thoben, k. d. and schumacher, j. (2008). living labs: a new development strategy. in: <cite>european living labs<cite> (schumacher, j. and niitamo, v. p., eds.), <cite>wissenschaftlicher verlag berlin</cite>, berlin, pp. 1-14. </div> <div class="reference"> fred, m.; kortelainen, m. and leminen, s. (2011). living lab-toiminnan n&auml;k&ouml;kulmia. in <cite>innovoi(tko) yhdess&auml; asiakkaittesi kanssa-n&auml;kemyksi&auml; living labtoimintaan.</cite> edited by anna-greta nystr&ouml;m and seppo leminen. painosalama oy, turku. finland </div> <div class="reference"> hummel, c. (2011). educating designers for smart living: using reflective transformative design in theme-based living labs to design disruptive systems, products and services. presentation in <cite>the international forum on smart living summer school initiatives in asia. taiwan.</cite> </div> <div class="reference"> international council of musems (2011). definition of museum. reviewed on the 20.04.2011. http://icom.museum/who-we-are/the-vision/museum-definition.html </div> <div class="reference"> isom&auml;ki, s. and haapanen, h. (2009). a vision of future libraries. <cite>living lab innovations</cite>. vol. 3. presentation. rfid lab finland. </div> <div class="reference"> imanote (version 1.0) [computer software]. (2007). helsinki, finland: map annotation software. </div> <div class="reference"> indianapolis museum of modern art (2011). ima website. retrieved on february 21, 2011 from http://www.imamuseum.org/ </div> <div class="reference"> international journal of the inclusive museum (2008). retrieved on february 22, 2011 from http://ijz.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.177/prod.75 </div> <div class="reference"> labar w., exhibit commons: using the internet for a new exhibit paradigm, in j. trant and d. bearman (eds.). <cite>museums and the web</cite> 2006: proceedings, toronto: archives &amp; museum informatics, published march 1, 2006 at http://www.archimuse.com/mw2006/papers/labar/labar.html </div> <div class="reference"> kommonen, k.h and botero, andrea (forthcoming). are the users driving, and how open is open? experiences from living lab and user driven innovation projects. special issue: innovation by communities. <cite>journal of community informatics.</cite> </div> <div class="reference"> muller, l. and edmonds, e. (2006). living laboratories. making and curating interactive art. <cite>electronic art and animation catalog.</cite> sydney, australia. </div> <div class="reference"> neloskierre (2011). neloskierre website. retrieved on april 22, 2011 from http://www.neloskierre.fi/ </div> <div class="reference"> niitamo v.p and leminen, s. (2011). living labin historia. in <cite>innovoi(tko) yhdess&auml; asiakkaittesi kanssa-n&auml;kemyksi&auml; living labtoimintaan.</cite> edited by anna-greta nystr&ouml;m and seppo leminen. painosalama oy, turku. finland </div> <div class="reference"> salgado, m. (2009). designing for an open museum. an exploration of contentcreation and sharing through interactive pieces. university of art and design helsinki. finland (doctoral dissertation). </div> <div class="reference"> shumacher, j. and feurstein, k. (2007). living labsthe user as co-creator. in k. s. pawar, k. thoben &amp; m. pallot (hrsg<cite>.), ice 2007 proceedings: 13th international conference on concurrent enterprising</cite>, sophia antipolis, france: nottingham university business school </div> <div class="reference"> taidehalli. (2008). taidehalli website. retrieved on june 21, 2008 from http://web.archive.org/web/20011216212728/www.taidehalli.fi/en/index.html </div> <div class="reference"> van gogh museum (2011). van gogh museum website. retrieved on february 21, 2011 from http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp </div> <div class="reference"> walker art center (2011). walker art center website. retrieved on february 21, 2011 from http://www.walkerart.org/ </div> </div> <h2><center>beyond community networks:<br> from local to global, from participation to deliberation<br></b> </center></h2> <font face="times new roman, serif" size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><b> <center><br>fiorella de cindio<br></b> university of milan<br>milan, italy <br><br> <b>douglas schuler</b><br> the evergreen state college and the public sphere project<br>seattle, wa, usa<br> </center></font> <p align=justify style="line-height: 0.18in"><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">both authors of this paper have been engaged in the community networking movement and its evolution for many years in an ongoing effort to help create online systems that meet human needs. among other things, community networks are intended to help address shared &quot;public affairs&quot; in geographical areas. although this goal is important and laudable, community networking communities are often unable to have their voices heard in these matters. to help address this question &mdash; and the broader problem of inadequate and marginalized citizen engagement society-wide &mdash; we have launched several research / action projects related to community networks and online deliberation. to inform that process we focus on four prominent protest communities in italy. we find that they must move beyond the community network model and perspective in two profound ways. firstly, the communities must necessarily work with and integrate local and non-local perspectives. secondly, the need exists for more purposive modes of communication that we believe can be supported through informed development and use of technology. we take this approach as a useful step in an ongoing process, building on our experiences with community networks as conceptualized in the mid-1990s to help develop and define our requirements for useful online capabilities as they link local and non-local communities in a sustained way that manifests civic intelligence. </span></font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us"><b>keywords:</b></span><span lang="en-us"> community networks, online deliberation, civic intelligence, e-democracy, robert&rsquo;s rules of order, informed discussions, community informatics, decision-making, group processes. </span></font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><b>the historical roots of community networks</b></font></font></p> <p align=justify style="line-height: 0.18in"><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">the advent of the internet, particularly after the us national science foundation relinquished control and expanded access to commercial concerns and the general public, has vastly expanded the reach of communications and has helped create the conditions for the issues that motivated this special issue. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify style="line-height: 0.18in"><a name="goback"></a><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">conceptualized in the 1990s (e.g., schuler, 1994 &amp; 1996), community networks (including free-nets) were probably the first widespread attempt to develop networked information and communication technology (ict) for a wide range of community affairs. as such, community networks have been one of the inspirational sources of community informatics (e.g. gurstein, 2000) as well as the more recent urban informatics (foth, 2008). they give rise to research as well as action perspectives on ict (and information and communication generally) in geographically delineated communities. moreover, they provided empirical concreteness to the concept of civic intelligence, the form of collective intelligence that is directed towards civic ends (schuler, 2001). this was promoted by providing a platform to individuals and groups for developing original ways of exploiting the possibilities offered by ict for developing their own projects (de cindio, 2004), thus allowing citizens to play an active role in shaping the network society. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify style="line-height: 0.18in"><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">in those early days &mdash; especially in the early free-net days &mdash; community networks were strongly local networks, as their names clearly demonstrated: cleveland free-net (schuler, 1996), seattle community network (schuler, 1996), blacksburg electronic village (silver, 2004), milan community network (casapulla, de cindio &amp; gentile, 1995) and so on. this &ldquo;locality&rdquo; was explicitly expressed in a note by community networking pioneer steve cisler within the global community networking partnership (gcnp) mailing list (whose name itself suggests a &quot;glocal&quot; perspective): &quot;community networking occurs when people and organizations collaborate locally to solve problems and create opportunities, supported by appropriate information and communication systems. a community network is a locally-based, locally-driven communication and information system&quot; (de cindio &amp; ripamonti, 2010). hence, we use &quot;local&quot; to mean a focus on a relatively bounded particular geographical location, while &quot;global&quot; means a broader, more diffuse focus beyond particular locations, often extending to locations that were the seat of relatively more power (sassen, 2001). one exception to this was de digitale stad (the digital city) the first initiative in europe, set up in spring 1994 on the occasion of amsterdam's municipal elections. the dds organizers decided not to use &quot;amsterdam&quot; in its name, choosing instead an explicit conceptual frame that transcended city walls.</font></font></p> <p align=justify style="margin-top: 0.08in; line-height: 0.18in"><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">however, at the same time, these initiatives with local orientations were often perceived to be &mdash; and in actuality were &mdash; part of larger (more &quot;global&quot;) networks which were often used to share experiences, software, and answers to technical problems (schuler, 2010). they also banded together along national lines. in the united states, for example, free-nets joined together under the umbrella of the national public telecomputing network (nptn; grundner, 1993); in canada, they organized in the telecommunities canada organization (telecommunities canada, n.d.). in europe, after the first european conference on community networking (held in milan, in july 1997), an effort was made to establish a european association for community networking (de cindio, 2000). </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">the interplay between the local and the global was present in the milan community network (rcm in italian) mission statement (september 1994) below (figure 1) from (de cindio &amp; ripamonti, 2010). these two dimensions, local and global, were also clearly present in the rcm logo which showed milan within the globe (fig. 1). the seattle community network (fig. 1) logo also invoked the non-local through a depiction of the messenger of the ancient gods reclining on mount rainer while communicating with the outside world via the seattle space needle repurposed as a communications beacon. two relevant lines from the scn principles adopted in 1993 under the subtitle &quot;commitment to the world community&quot; are listed under the logo.</span></font> </font></font> </p> <table width=100% border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0> <col width=128*> <col width=128*> <tr valign=top> <td width=50% height=177> <p align=center><img src="908odt_html_1bad887d.gif" name="graphics1" align=left width=261 height=169 border=0><br clear=left><br> </p> </td> <td width=50%> <p align=center><img src="908odt_html_m50fb2f43.jpg" name="graphics2" align=left width=307 height=164 border=0><br clear=left><br> </p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=50%> <p align=left><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">&quot;in addition to serving the local community, we will become part of the regional, national and international community&quot; </font></font> </p> <p><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">&quot;we will build a system that can serve as a model for other communities.&quot;</span></font> </font></font> </p> </td> <td width=50%> <p align=left><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">&quot;rcm in milan is an online and free digital environment designed to promote and favor communication cooperation and exchange of services among citizens and all public and private bodies (non-profit organizations governmental institutions, and private companies) of the local community, opening at the same time the local community to the online communication with the rest of the world.&quot;</span></font> </font></font> </p> </td> </tr> </table> <p align=center><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us"><b><center>figure 1. two community network logos</center></b></span></font> </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><b>limits to community networks </b></font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">one common shortcoming of community networks, however, was their seeming inability to become recognized players in the decision-making process at the local level. although community networks have often addressed important issues on the local policy agenda, the discussions have had little impact on the discussion or decision-making of the political agenda. there are many plausible explanations for this, including how they (and the internet generally) were conceptualized or framed, in addition to political, social, economic and technological ones. one important reason is the lack of institutional mediators and political will. in those early days, local governments (especially in europe) were far from being aware of the importance of listening, interacting, and involving citizens. (one exception was the pioneering and anomalous work on the pen (&quot;public electronic network&quot;) in santa monica, california, the earliest online governmental system that encouraged public participation. unfortunately, with pen, the flood of citizen input was so steady and abusive that ultimately no elected official would take part. still, valuable lessons were learned about unforeseen challenges of this new approach (varley, 1991).) the awareness that citizen participation was possible, and even desirable, became stronger (e.g., caddy &amp; vergez, 2001) after a decade in which local governments used the internet solely for information publishing and the provision of interactive services such as paying parking fines or applying for permits (what is often referred to as &ldquo;e-government&rdquo;). however, in most locations the ideal of &quot;citizens as partners&quot; is still more a good intention and an electoral promise, than an actual policy implemented with concrete actions. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">the community networks themselves must also bear some responsibility for those failures (schuler, 2010a). they failed, for example, to adequately sustain the networks that had formed in large part in response to the necessities of the era (where there were fewer opportunities to access the internet). their mutual adoption of common technological infrastructures (again, out of necessity) was abandoned in the face of the world wide web. the network developers, the organizations and institutions that worked with the developers, and the users themselves apparently did not see the value of maintaining their relationships. the tidal wave of the web rendered many of the prior relationships apparently obsolete. moreover, the way in which discussions in early virtual/online communities were carried on was too often dysfunctional: they were unlikely to be productive in terms of building consensus or encouraging collective action. discussions rarely ended with something explicit, agreed-upon, and tangible &mdash; either a shared position or, when that was not achieved, a clear representation of the competing positions. this pattern of carrying on never-ending discussions, as well as perceived and actual anonymity of the participants, negatively affected citizens&rsquo; participation and helped discourage government engagement with citizens in public discussions. this was due to a combination of social and technological factors. for one thing, the lack of agreed-upon social norms or protocols discouraged productive dialogue. while at the same time there was little progress in the development of technology that could help support the norms or protocols.</span></font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">additionally, at least in the united states, a case can be made that the rhetorical construction of the internet itself played a strong role in the shaping of the social internet. at that time the rhetoric about the &quot;true nature&quot; of the internet and of that received wisdom helped establish what people believed was possible (and what was not) and what was desirable (and what was not). many people (including many community network activists) acted as if the internet was &quot;magic&quot; insofar, for example, that it &quot;routed around censorship&quot; (&quot;information wanted to be free!&quot;). also, in the united states at least, political libertarianism was the reigning creed of the cyberpunditry; the common view was that government should never get involved; it was an obsolete &quot;smoke stack industry&quot; and its presence, even through its possible support of community network projects, was undesirable. moreover it was generally &quot;known&quot; that corporations would never be able to consolidate their control over the internet (although this had happened with earlier media including newspapers, radio and television) (e.g., mcchesney, 1994). and there was a major shift in rhetoric that occurred when the internet was beginning to become more widely known for &ldquo;e-commerce&rdquo; rather than &quot;electronic democracy&quot;. politicians in the early days took their cues from pundits, generally corporate (even though, for example, free-nets had been offering free email years before microsoft's hotmail or google's gmail, etc.) and they echoed the conventional wisdom as if it were the result of their own conclusions. now, nearly twenty years later, faced with financial crises worldwide, they are continuing that approach and are looking towards facebook, and other for-profit web sites that have no particular commitment towards democratic principles, to serve their purposes. this approach, for better or worse, tends to yoke the fate of government-sponsored community collaboration and deliberation systems to wherever the commercial systems take them. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">all of these factors contributed to the failure of several community networks: most of them became stagnant or simply disappeared, some evolved into the web site of the local institution with a marginal role for citizens (as is the case with most of the italian &quot;reti civiche&quot;), while a few of them have survived in spite of ongoing and severe problems of sustainability. another potential way to avoid marginalization was to broaden the scope by adopting a less local, more global (or, at least, non-locality based) perspective. this was the case, for instance, with bcnet, the barcelona community network, whose administrators promoted the global community networking partnership. in this case at least, abandoning (or forgetting) the local origins of these networks was not a successful expedient, as a few years later, these systems quietly closed their doors. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">over the years we have identified and pursued two distinct yet complementary paths that attempt to extend and empower the ideal and the actuality of community networks: (1) maintaining a local focus while trying to overcome the political and technical problems of community networks, also by developing new online environments (or spaces, if you prefer) and tools which pursue the original rcm work in the context of the internet of the twenty-first century,</span> <span lang="en-us">and (2) collecting &quot;global&quot; knowledge that can empower organizations and individuals to act locally, as evidenced by the liberating voices pattern language project (schuler, 2008) that presents 136 &quot;patterns&quot; of social engagement. the more action-research oriented approach adopted by rcm and the more research / theoretical oriented approach of liberating voices attempts to inform local efforts in social amelioration, as well as approaches that transcend the local. the two paths converge and are integrable in many intriguing ways. the pattern language was used, for example, to orient a workshop in milan, italy, for social activists, including members of the protest communities mentioned in this paper. another example, the online community services engine (de cindio &amp; sonnante, 2008) pattern within the liberating voices pattern language, which was informed by experiences with rcm, includes the idea of federating local community networks as one approach towards meeting more &quot;global&quot; needs. </span></font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">using examples of local protest communities in italy that we will discuss in the next section, we show that local issues (especially those of some weight and</span><font color="#0000ff"> </font><span lang="en-us">importance</span><font color="#0000ff"><span lang="en-us">) </span></font><span lang="en-us">very often, if not always, have a non-local component. this suggests a new approach that explicitly and intentionally tries to cross borders, such as those separating the local and the non-local. but, beyond this, there is an increasing awareness &ndash; among citizens as well as in responsible governments &ndash; that in the globalized world, global problems influence and shape the local context. in addition, acknowledging the &quot;global&quot; also helps in identifying and implementing solutions, through learning about successful experiences in other locations and sharing patterns of effective behavior. the lack of distinct demarcation between the local and the &quot;global&quot; (or non-local) suggests that community technologies should be developed to support discussion, deliberation, and sharing of knowledge, both locally and across geographical boundaries. </span></font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">in order to address these points, we first discuss four prominent protest communities in italy that do or could &mdash; or should &mdash; work with and integrate local and non-local perspectives. although a comprehensive look would include an extensive examination of their skills, interests, work patterns, resources, and needs, we will nevertheless only note selected anecdotal observations here. we then present technologies that we have developed building on our experiences with community networks. these technologies, although not &quot;prototypes&quot; as they are used by thousands of citizens, should not be viewed as final solutions, but sort of as running experiments that provide feedback, so that &ldquo;successful models evolve through trial, use, and refinement&rdquo; (handler et al, 2008). </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><b>civic intelligence and not only local governance</b></font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">because of active citizen engagement, governments around the world are facing increasing difficulties in implementing decisions that have impact on the territories they are supposed to administer. some of these difficulties can be attributed to nimby ('not in my back yard') tactics employed by privileged groups that introduce roadblocks into the decision-making process or into the implementation of decisions. on the other hand, it has been shown time and time again that although less energy is consumed and less pollution is caused by lower income communities, it is these communities that are often called on to shoulder much of the burden of a consuming and polluting society. for that reason (among others) the legitimacy of their complaints must also be considered. the question in their case is not &quot;why in my backyard?&quot; but &quot;why in my backyard again?&quot; in many cases the source of the problem can be traced to inadequate citizen participation in the construction of the purported solution, which is often the handmaiden of citizen discontent. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">below we discuss four prominent cases of contemporary italian local protest movements, showing that, in all of them, a significant non-local dimension is present. of course, this does not prove that this holds true in all cases. neither do we suggest that the non-local dimension is fully considered or leveraged in the struggles. and, finally, although the cases are not representational of all possible linkages, we do, however, believe that the boundary between local and global is often indistinct and permeable in an increasingly globalized world. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">1.</span><span lang="en-us"> </span><span lang="en-us">the proposed construction of a high-speed tav (treno alta velocit&agrave;) railway track in val di susa, piemonte has been the focus of a powerful citizens' protest movement in italy for over 10 years (bobbio, 2007). the project is one of several measures undertaken and partly funded by the european union to improve the railway system, in particular by shifting the transportation of goods from trucks to trains. the main issue is the proposed 50 km tunnel whose excavation would have a strong environmental impact on the valley, not least of which is the presence of asbestos in the ground. the project affects three communities: </span></font></font> </p> <ul> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">the local community: elderly and young people, ordinary citizens along with almost all the mayors of the val di susa municipalities, constitute a large majority opposed to the project, and participate in the protest against it;</span></font></font></p> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">piemonte, the region to which val di susa belongs: the deployment of the new railway track could function as a development accelerator for the economy of piemonte. for this reason, regional governments (on both the left and the right), have always been in favor of the project, and have put pressure on the mayors to support the project and convince their citizens that it is needed. this position in favor of the tav has been so directly linked to the regional government that most observers agree that it has been the main reason why the piemonte governor (left-coalition) was not re-elected at the regional elections in 2010; and </span></font></font> </p> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">italy at the national level: the tav protest movements have impact at the national levels because it sets an example for several grassroots protests movements. it also affects the relationships between italy and france, and between italy and the european union.</span></font></font></p> </ul> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">currently (as of february 7, 2012), notav.info (http://www.notav.info/) seems to be the most up-to-date website of the protest movement. it includes rich recent news and videos by no tav activists (comments are not allowed) and is continuously updated. at the bottom of the page, one can find links to the other websites discussing tav (but no links to other protest communities in italy). among other sections, <a href="http://www.notav.eu/">http://www.notav.eu/</a></span></font></font><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"> </font></font><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">runs a very busy and informative twitter channel, as well as a forum on which several different positions emerge (&ldquo;no tav&rdquo;, &ldquo;si tav&rdquo; and &ldquo;forse [maybe] tav&rdquo;), and an archive (<a href="http://www.notav.eu/archive.html">http://www.notav.eu/archive.html</a>) that allows tracking of the process over the past six years. also, when looking at the no tav committee site (<a href="http://www.notavtorino.org/">http://www.notavtorino.org/</a>) one immediately realizes that the tav project has been controversial for many years. this basic fact, however, is totally absent on the official website of the &ldquo;new line torino lione&rdquo; (http://www.torino-lione.it) which includes materials from the two railway companies, the rfi (rete ferroviaria italiana) and the ltf (lyon turin ferroviaire). the home page says that the project is governed by the &ldquo;osservatorio&rdquo; (&ldquo;observatory&rdquo;) which was established in order &ldquo;to seek exchange/confrontation with the territory affected by the project&rdquo; and &ldquo;makes use of the participation of the territory.&rdquo; it is worth noting that this explanation, formerly online, is no longer present (on january 2012). on the other hand, while the protest goes on and appears almost every day in the italian newspapers, this official website is frozen: it includes a section called &ldquo;we answer your questions&rdquo; with a total of 13 questions and answers (but no email or online forms for posing new ones) and a blog whose most recent post (as of october 30, 2011) is over a year old (dated december 10, 2010).</span></font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">it is not apparent which facebook page is most appropriate to the tav controversy: <a href="http://it-it.facebook.com/pages/no-tav/40019706447">http://it-it.facebook.com/pages/no-tav/40019706447</a></span></font></font><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"> </font></font><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">has 30,214 subscribers (&ldquo;likers&rdquo;); while the facebook page linked from the above mentioned official website, http://www.facebook.com/nuovalineatorinolione, has 455 subscribers, and is seemingly abandoned by the page administrator (its last post dates back to december 10, 2010), although it is still used by people who seek &ldquo;official&rdquo; answers to their questions. finally, there is also a si tav page (http://www.facebook.com/pro.tav) with 1,014 subscribers. </span></font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">interestingly, from a local/global perspective, some links to the other protest committee in italy do exist (in contrast to case 3 below). on the other hand, from a translocal/international viewpoint, there is nothing in french or english on the protest community websites, although tav is an eu-funded project and connection with french activists could presumably help support the campaign. the european dimension is described well in a video (http://www.gips.unisi.it/dcc/movie/dcc_eng.avi) which describes a deliberative polling (fishkin and luskin, 2005) session organized in turin on march 24-25, 2007 (intune, 2007).</font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000">the construction of dams via themose(modulo sperimentale elettromeccanico, experimental electromechanical module)project, to protect thecity of venicefrom flooding, is another controversial project. although the inhabitantsof the region are most directly affected bythe project, thepotential rights and responsibilities of people around the world arealso affected in many ways. venice, of course, has specialsignificanceworldwide. it is a united nations world heritage centrewhich people from all over the world visit each year. thus, they are likely to feel personallyconcerned about the city's future. the no mose committee was very active in from 2006 to 2008, in connection with other protest committees, especially the &quot;no dal molin&quot; one (see 3 below). in 2009 the federal judgein charge of public expenses accountabilityremarked (mezzera, 2009) that thedocumentation on the no mose committee website (no longer online) provided him more(and higherquality) informationthan that provided by the officialmoseconsortium site. now the protest has apparently slowed down as the project continues unabated, while the pro-mose forces have strongly improved their online presence through a rich web site and youtube videos in both italian and english. however, as standish (2012) notes, this does not imply that the no mose campaign is dead. the potential of not only national attention, up to now an apparently unfulfilledopportunity, could awaken on the occasion of the dams' inauguration. </font></font></font> </p> <table width=100% border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0> <col width=256*> <tr> <td width=100% valign=top> <img src="908odt_html_5b4004cf.png" name="graphics3" align=left width=100% border=0><br clear=left> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width=100% valign=top> <font face="times new roman, serif" size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><b><center>figure 2. protesting in venice against the construction of a new dam. http://nomose.splinder.com/ accessed january 3, 2010.</center></b></font></font> </td> </tr> </table> <ol> <li><p align=justify><span lang="en-us"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font face="times new roman, serif">dal molin, the primary united states air force base in southern europe, run by the us army in vicenza, a city in the veneto region of italy, is the focus of the third protest community. the object of contention is the proposed expansion of the base, moving troops from other sites in europe, predominantly germany, to dal molin. the project was approved in 2006 by the comipar (comitato misto paritetico regionale) of the italian government. despite a relatively good relationship between the us soldiers and vicenza citizens, and the benefit of economic infusion to the region, the project is strongly opposed by the citizenry. since then (2006), the &ldquo;no dal molin&rdquo; committee sustains citizens' mobilization. the campaign has numerous cross-governmental implications which are presented in rich stories on the movement website (http://www.nodalmolin.it/), which also includes a detailed presentation of the us project. links to the no tav protests, and to a wide spectrum of citizens initiatives (on issues such as democracy, environment, and energy) in italy and few cases abroad, are also present and kept current. it is worth noting the slogan of the website, &ldquo;this land is our land&rdquo;, which evokes woody guthrie&rsquo;s influential and iconic 1940 folksong &quot;this land is your land&quot;, thus making an implicit link to the non-local nature of the problem. the website links to an active facebook page with 13,933 (as of october 30, 2011) subscribers.</font></font></span></p> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">a more recent case concerns the situation occurring in l&rsquo;aquila (the capital of abruzzo, a region in center-south of italy with 75,000 inhabitants) after the earthquake of april 6, 2009. despite government promises for a quick reconstruction, one year after the earthquake, the historical center of the city, its social and economic hearth, was still officially a &ldquo;red zone&rdquo; under military control. all access was denied. moreover, everything remained in the same state as it was immediately after the quake: almost all the buildings were damaged, shaky or destroyed and the streets were still covered by debris. this situation gave rise to a protest movement, extensively described in farinosi &amp; trer&eacute; (2010). these authors describe the so-called &ldquo;popolo delle cariole&rdquo; (&quot;people of the wheelbarrows&rdquo;) movement, whose first goal was cleaning the center by removing the debris with wheelbarrows. the movement used blogs and social media extensively, namely facebook, to organize the protest: &ldquo;the protest flowed from the wheelbarrows group on facebook, to the sunday 'scarriolata'</span> <span lang="en-us">(an italian neologism for '[going] down to the square with a wheelbarrow') on l&rsquo;aquila streets, to the events reported online on the anno1.org internet site and to the streets again.&rdquo; after a deep analysis of the online and offline activities, the authors highlight &hellip; the great importance that the local dimension played in this case study. while most of the studies on social movements have underlined the importance that icts play in strengthening the movement&rsquo;s transnational dimension by allowing distant activists to communicate and share resources, our case study shows that icts can also play an important role in extraordinary situations which are ingrained into the very local dimension of a certain community.</span></font></font></p> </ol> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">however, as padovani (2010) discusses, already three months after the earthquake, when the italian government decided to move the group of eight (g8) summit to l&rsquo;aquila in july 2009 &ldquo;as a show of solidarity with the town&rdquo;, the two most active protest groups, the &ldquo;3 e 32 committee&rdquo; (3:32 was the time the quake occurred), and the epicentro solidale (solidarity epicenter) movement, took the g8 meeting as a &ldquo;golden opportunity &hellip; to make their voices heard, not only nationally but also internationally&rdquo; in order to help speed up the rebuilding process. once again, we note that even a locally focused protest movement may choose to engage with a broader audience in order to meet its goals more effectively. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">we believe that people in these protest communities generally support each other's efforts, although determining how substantial this is in practice is beyond the scope of this paper. interviews with principals in these communities could provide evidence, as could more in-depth analysis of electronic communication via email, web links, or tweets. we believe that this presumed interconnection would add detail to the trans-local picture we are painting without substantially altering it.</span></font> </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><b>communities need deliberation</b></font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">in each of the four cases, citizens of a local community mobilized and engaged when faced with a serious threat. additionally they used the internet for organizational purposes, for sharing documents before and after demonstrations, and for tracking the timeline of the protest. the web sites of these protest committees contain documents, data, pictures, suggestions, opinions, and ideas that are rich and diverse; they reflect the civic intelligence that comes from active engagement (schuler, 2001). these web sites also show that the internet is increasingly the glue that connects one experience to another. and although it cannot provide the necessary human motivation, zeal, creativity, and dedication, it can provide the foundation for tools and services that help focus and integrate this energy. </span></font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">these communities of engaged citizens, organized online around shared interests with strong mutual trust, share many characteristics and challenges with early community networks. unfortunately, they still suffer from the absence of a framework for informed discussion and deliberation that could help the group identify and develop decisions and plans that were collectively approved and could therefore be seen as legitimate. the lack of deliberative facilities constrains and blocks the evolution and sustainability of these grassroots movements after the hot protest moments. de cindio and peraboni (2010) provide extensive empirical evidence for this claim by discussing two cases: the popolo viola (literally, &ldquo;purple people&rdquo;) movement and the cinque stelle (&ldquo;five stars&rdquo;) movement, born under the umbrella of the blog of beppe grillo, an italian comedian and the most popular italian blogger.</font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">as the diversity and number of stakeholders grows, greater becomes the need for deliberation. it is worth noting that the need for online deliberative tools would be perceived as greater if the movements would more thoroughly consider and activate the non-local dimension of their struggle. among the web sites mentioned above, the most advanced is maintained by the dal molino committee. in the left-hand frame, the collection of &ldquo;press releases&rdquo; and &ldquo;recent news&rdquo; contains links to the no tav movement, their demonstrations, and other national events and demonstrations, thus highlighting the need for coordination among different movements.</font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">we are focusing on deliberation because of the complexity of the problems people have to face, the requirements for inclusion and fairness, the contention for bandwidth (even in face-to-face encounters) and the potentially large number of participants. the need for deliberation will always exist, even if there is an absence of it in practice. we believe that structure of some type is necessary for deliberations, especially complex ones involving lots of people. this can be imposed by technology, protocol, and social norms, probably in combination with each other.</font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">deliberative facilities would be helpful for groups of engaged citizens, as well as for local institutions that are willing to involve their citizenry in local governance processes. although our work has been informally influenced by the large number of practical experiments involving citizen deliberation that have been conducted over the past few decades, further study of these experiences is warranted. this work includes the national issues forum network in the united states (<a href="http://www.nifi.org/">http://www.nifi.org</a>), danish consensus conferences (joss &amp; durant, 1995), 21st century town meetings (<a href="http://www.americaspeaks.org/">http://www.americaspeaks.org</a>), and a large number of community charrettes. the national coalition for dialogue and deliberation (<a href="http://www.thataway.org/">http://www.thataway.org</a>) in the united states maintains a collection of links to many projects and approaches. other examples include participatory budgeting (started in porto alegre, brazil) and local agenda 21 processes (which emerged from the 1992 united nations summit on environment and development held in rio de janeiro) have shown great potential as well as serious limitations. evans and theobald (2003) describe the hindrances to participation typical of local agenda 21 processes. basing his research on data from the instituto brasileiro de geografia e estat&iacute;stica (2009), leonardo avritzer (2012) showed that a &quot;participatory divide&quot; exists since the percentage of municipalities with participatory budgeting experiences at the municipal level was highest in brazil&rsquo;s most developed regions. among other limitations, the time and space constraints in exclusively face-to-face settings reduce the number of participants as the participatory process proceeds. this is precisely the difficulty we observed in a field analysis performed in ten municipalities in italy's lombardy region (de cindio &amp; peraboni, 2009) and in a deliberative polling (fishkin &amp; luskin, 2005) session organized in turin on march 24-25, 2007 (intune, 2007).</span></font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">in short, we believe that developing deliberative technologies that promote the creation of informed, complete, coherent decisions that are both inclusive and efficient is necessary, although not sufficient, to more successfully fulfilling the promise and potential of community networks. to this end, we are currently developing and experimenting with software platforms such as e-liberate (schuler, 2009) and deliberative community networks (de cindio, peraboni &amp; sonnante, 2008) that go in this direction. in the following section, we present the motivations that led to the production of these platforms, sketch their features, and show how they can help to address the need for participation. before doing this, we would like to mention several core assumptions in relation to deliberation that help underscore our motivations and our findings so far.</font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><b>core assumptions for online deliberation </b></font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">social context is a critical factor. although this may seem obvious, it is important to mention here that neither community networks nor any approach to online deliberation can have any meaningful existence independent of a social context (schuler, 2010b). this reminder has practical implications for designers of any type of social software, and although we focus on deliberation (rather than on its social context) in this paper, an understanding of social contexts (in general, and of specific contexts) will have critical significance on the overall design of online systems. briefly, the social context can be viewed (1) as a source of &quot;input&quot; (including social conditions and constraints) to a deliberative process and (2) as a receiver of the resulting &quot;output&quot; from the process. the deliberative process refers to the social actors who interact &mdash; directly or indirectly &mdash; with the system, how they interact, and the issues that they deliberate about, while the &quot;output&quot; of the process refers to the form that the product (decision, recommendation, etc.) of the deliberative process takes, the intended receiver of the product (the city council or the media, for example), and how the product will be conveyed to them. this last point should serve as a reminder that engagement will be invaluable in any evolution from a dis-empowered community network to an empowered community network. in other words, even if people are involved in very productive deliberation the decision-makers of the world are unlikely to do anything about it, if people do not engage with them diligently and purposefully. it should also be pointed out that a focus on online deliberation will necessarily preclude people who have no access to the internet (or at least as direct participants). in this case the social context that surrounds the online deliberation dictates that &quot;digital inclusion&quot; work must be carried on in parallel, if the result is increased participation and a more genuinely democratic society. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">no single person or group has a monopoly on the truth. none of the social actors in any complex, public issue can claim to hold an objective and comprehensive representation of the problems (let alone the only representation with those features). experts are often involved to provide &quot;objective&quot; data, but it is often the case that different experts provide different pictures of the pros and cons of a certain action in a given situation. even if this were not the case, expert opinion alone is not sufficient: field knowledge is important as well as expert knowledge and both must be discussed and considered.</font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">online deliberation should be pursued, but it needs to be developed incrementally. e-participation appears so complex that people who are in charge of web sites supporting it have so far tended to use well-known and consolidated applications in order to limit risks. moreover, in approaching e-participation projects, computer professionals tend to pay little attention to issues like social context and history, software usability, varying intensities of participation, and people&rsquo;s widely uneven familiarity with computers. as a result, the benefit that information and communication technologies (icts) ought to contribute to managing participation frequently goes unnoticed, while the vision that the net ought to help augment representative democracy with elements of direct democracy is sometimes challenged. moreover, through the work with italian networks and municipalities, it has been found that &ldquo;participation appears in peaks of social engagement rather than a continuum&rdquo; (de cindio, di loreto &amp; peraboni, 2008).</font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">deliberation does not take place in a vacuum. the best deliberation system, online or not, will not be sufficient if other elements are not present. generally speaking, people, groups and organizations that are deliberating must be willing to do so, and in a forthright way. if one party is the government, then it is critical that the government is transparent, non-coercive, and operating in good faith, i.e., that they are willing to abide by the deliberated outcomes. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">no approach is optimum under all conditions. it now seems fair to say that neither face-to-face nor online venues are optimum for all potential discussions and all relevant participants. both approaches offer substantial opportunities and constraints, and access to information and to the discussion itself; but motivation, and civic skills are still critical. it also must be noted that in an era of increased globalization and issues that transcend local boundaries, it will become increasingly important for people in particular geographical areas to deliberate across these boundaries. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">finally, online deliberation is not a panacea for ailing states, nor a substitute for other communication venues, but it could be part of a productive, holistic approach. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><b>two online deliberative environments</b></font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">deliberation is a complex social phenomenon that encompasses and brings together a broad spectrum of more finely-grained social activities. although deliberation is not particularly amenable to a purely rationalistic analysis and decomposition, developing a set of processes that are seen as legitimate and are sufficiently well-understood that they are not out of grasp of &quot;ordinary citizens&quot; is necessary for democratic participation. for these reasons, our short-term, if not long-term, approach is to develop a variety of flexible &ldquo;plug and play&rdquo; modules that support civic online deliberation at various levels and scale. examples of such modules include tools for supporting informed discussions, regulated (formal) meetings, brainstorming, collaborative editing, and certified citizen consultation (which collect the opinions of large numbers of people). however, at present, few examples exist, probably because deliberation applications are difficult to design and implement for several reasons. other broader explanations, such as lack of profitability, and discomfort with genuine &quot;people power&quot;, not to mention the learning curve associated with learning new civic &quot;languages&quot;, are discussed in schuler (2008). two of these reasons seem particularly relevant. firstly, deliberation is a complex social process which surfaces a number of complex issues. should, for example, online deliberation systems reproduce existing offline processes, or should they strive to improve on them, thus running the risk of breaking rules and procedures that evolved over time and could be viewed as foundation blocks of democratic trust? consider the example of electronic voting: although traditional voting is not without problems, electronic voting systems introduce their own problems, and some people prefer to retain traditional systems that they believe are easier to control. secondly, these applications &mdash; more than others &mdash; require a participatory design approach, which, however, is made difficult by the lack of funding for development and by the fact that people still have limited experience to draw upon within a participatory design process. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">these difficulties, which have to be taken seriously, should not, however, slow down efforts toward supporting online deliberation. we believe that it is important to develop tools strongly rooted in the democratic tradition; i.e., let&rsquo;s try to reproduce what we know to work fairly well in the offline world, removing through the use of icts some of their space and time constraints. these tools cannot be developed &ldquo;in vitro&rdquo;, but need to be tested in actual deliberative processes of increasing complexity to understand what works and what does not, what are the useful functionalities, and what new ones are still needed. this is precisely the kind of iteration suggested by handler et al. (2008). after the creative and design phases, and testing in a &ldquo;micro&rdquo; social context, new tools have to be viewed experimentally in a &ldquo;macro&rdquo; context to observe and collect feedback based on their actual appropriation by users. these outcomes from real uses are input for the new iteration. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">in the following paragraphs we present two deliberative software systems that our groups have independently developed, but that can be seen as two components of the &ldquo;plug and play&rdquo; online deliberative environment that many people see as the ideal approach to pursue due to their fit with the incremental, learning-oriented approach discussed above. at first glance, they can be seen as versions of tools that exist in many (if not most) common software platforms, such as drupal, plone, and joomla. unfortunately, these widely-used tools that support chat, discussion forums, polls and surveys, still suffer from their lack of support for formal and well-known deliberative processes and certified and finalized interactions. the applications described below have been enriched to support deliberation and to overcome the limitations described above.</font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><b>e-liberate</b></font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">this application was motivated by an interest in the prospect of explicitly developing and employing computing technology for social benefit (schuler, 1989), particularly among civil society groups who are striving to create more &quot;civic intelligence&quot; (schuler, 2001). schuler proposed (1996) within a community networking context that &quot;robert's rules of order&quot; (robert, 1990) could be used as an initial building block for online deliberation systems. this proposal was bolstered by the fact that this approach is in widespread use in the united states and similar systems are in use around the world. an online network-based application that could provide non-profit, community-based organizations with technology that helped facilitate effective deliberative meetings when members cannot easily get together in face-to-face meetings could be very useful, especially to organizations with limited resources. interestingly, it was only recently that the idea of deliberative protocols became newsworthy: namely, the occupy wall street movement through their general assembly (&ldquo;mic check&rdquo;) protocol, which has helped make the idea of a protocol for coming to decisions more well-known.</font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">the suitability of robert's rules of order is an important consideration. although the people who have used robert&rsquo;s rules of order could be counted in the millions, the approach will never be a dominant communicative mode in number of users or frequency of interchanges. robert's rules of order was always just one deliberative approach in a universe of possibilities. (this family of deliberative approaches is discussed below in relation to opendcn). our claim is not that robert's rules of order is the only the protocol worth using, nor that it is the best. our claim in relation to robert's rules of order is that it has been battle-tested like no other and, for that reason, we hypothesize that it would make a good initial platform for learning more about online deliberation. we are planning to develop a system that will enable users to develop new protocols that may be more appropriate for their particular situation. for our purposes here, it might be enough to note that meetings that are currently being conducted online or offline using robert's rules of order are not likely to be conducted using facebook in the future, which is not designed (or otherwise suited) for structured, democratic discourse.</font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">beginning in the late 1800s, robert's rules of order was developed over a forty-year period by henry robert to describe an orderly process for people meeting together face-to-face to make decisions fairly. one of the most important design objectives was to ensure that every attendee would have opportunities to make his or her ideas heard while ensuring that the minority could not prevent the majority from making decisions. one of the interesting observations about the robert's rules process is that it seems to be useful at a variety of scales: small groups of five or so can use them, as well as groups numbering in the hundreds. robert's rules of order (and its variants) are now used by tens of thousands of organizations around the world and, in fact, its use (or other formal approaches) is legally mandated in many cases for governmental and civil society meetings. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">robert's rules of order is a type of &quot;protocol-based cooperative work&quot; system (schuler, 2010b). it is related to malone's &quot;semi structured messages&quot; work (1987) and the work done by winograd and flores (1987), which was built on the &quot;speech act&quot; work of john austin (1962) (and others such as conklin (1987) and rittell and webber (1973)). those examples all employ &quot;typed messages.&quot; the message &quot;type&quot; is, in effect, a descriptor of the message content and because it is discrete it is more easily handled by computer applications than natural language. there are several reasons why a strict set of constraints on communication may be imposed. generally, this is done in cases where there is contention for resources. in the case of deliberation, it is the relatively scarce amount of time available for speaking when there are explicit objectives and/or formal constraints placed upon the venue, for example, in a courtroom or within a legislative or other deliberative body. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">using a simple criterion of efficiency, the benefits of using one protocol or another should exceed the drawbacks. in voluntary assemblies, this translates into individuals making a conscious or subconscious calculation of whether the effort of learning the &quot;rules&quot; (such as robert's rules of order) and participating in the assembly is justified by the perceived benefits that are derived from participating. ideally, from the collective point of view, the output should be seen as worthwhile in relation to the efforts put in. we must also remember that the &quot;output&quot; is not only the decision or the motions passed but the state of the collective and individual capacity for problem-solving that improved (or worsened!) as a by-product of the deliberation. this critical aspect of deliberation seems to be receiving some attention (see, e.g., davies &amp; chandler, 2012) but there is still much work to be done. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">as mentioned above, the objective of e-liberate was to move beyond chat, premature endings, and unresolved digressions. the initial plan was to support groups who were already working for social change and try to mimic their existing deliberative processes as closely as possible. this approach was intended to minimize disruption by integrating the online system as unobtrusively as possible into their work lives. incidentally, this strategy has been met by unexpected resistance from software developers who seem opposed to the idea of implementing existing systems. again, as mentioned above, additional or modified functionality to the robert's rules implementation could be undertaken, but generally as a response to user needs. </span></font></font><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">e-liberate is intended to be easy to use for anybody familiar with robert's rules of order. the system employs a straightforward user interface (figure 3), which is educational as well as facilitative. the interface shows, for example, only the legal actions that are available to the user at that specific time in the meeting. for example, a user cannot second a motion when there is no motion on the table to second. also, at any time during a session an &quot;about&quot; button can be clicked to explain what each particular action will accomplish, thus providing useful cues that are not available in face-to-face meetings to help participants better understand and internalize the rules. in addition, meeting quorums are checked, voting is conducted, and the minutes are automatically taken and archived. see </font></font><a href="http://www.publicsphereproject.org/e-liberate/demo.php"><font color="#00006f"><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">http://www.publicsphereproject.org/e-liberate/demo.php</span></font></font></font></a><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"> for a transcript of a meeting.</font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">the system currently supports meetings that take place in real-time over an hour or so as well as meetings that are more leisurely. meetings could, in theory, span a year or so, making it necessary for meeting attendees to log in to e-liberate once or twice a week to check for recent developments and perhaps vote or make a motion. our preliminary evidence, however, suggests that time lags may be extended beyond reasonable limits with this approach. e-liberate currently supports the roles of chairs, members, and observers and these meeting participants can be anywhere where internet connections and browsers exist.</font></font></p> <img src="908odt_html_m6dbf5f23.png" name="graphics4" align=left width=100% height=36% border=0><br clear=left><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><b><center>figure 3. main e-liberate window</center></b></font></font> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">e-liberate, after some modification, is likely to be useful for groups who want to conduct online meetings using robert's rules of order and we will continue to pursue this end by working with actual groups. in addition to improving the usability of e-liberate with basic adjustments, we will pursue three additional lines of development: (1) working with outside groups to continue development, (2) working on ways to augment the system while leaving the fundamental model intact, and (3) serving e-liberate as a general platform for protocol-based collaborative work. in other words, although the system would be extended in various ways, meeting attendees would still be able to employ robert's rules of order to arrive at decisions in an equitable, collective manner. the current plan calls for opening up e-liberate, while maintaining the core robert's rules of order functionality as one of many options, including a looser version of rroo for less formal meetings and, possibly, the general assembly approach adopted by the occupy wall street mobilization for in-person meetings. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">of course deliberation is an ongoing process, not just a sporadic, context-free occurrence with neither history nor consequences. at present, e-liberate supports online deliberative meetings, discrete sessions that are not linked in any way to each other or to other discussion approaches or shared information resources. this suggests, among other things, the need to integrate e-liberate with other collaborative technology, like brainstorming or collaborative editing. one of the most exciting prospects involves integration with other online (and offline) collaboration support systems, including community networks. it is hoped that the proposed ability to inspect and modify the rule-base will make projects like this plausible without necessarily changing the functionality of the basic e-liberate core. it may even be possible to develop a variety of &quot;plug and play&quot; modules that could support exploration in the area of &quot;deliberation-in-the-large&quot;, which includes very large scale deliberations as well as deliberations across organizations or community boundaries (schuler, 2010b). the ongoing nature of deliberation also suggests that an online deliberative tool that helps maintain institutional memory would be especially useful. each of these approaches to augmenting the basic robert's rules model challenges the core system. in many collective enterprises, it is common to break the larger group into smaller, working, distributed subsets like committees or federated organizations cooperating under an umbrella organization, and the system should support that. finally, there are also several capabilities related to integration with other services like e-mail and fax. invitations and other notices are already sent to participants via email and there are other times when e-mail communication should be invoked. we also plan to look into document sharing (the organization's by-laws, for example) among participants and support for image presentation during meetings. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">the developers of e-liberate have begun working with groups who are interested in using the system to support actual meetings. the hope is that non-profit groups will use e-liberate to save time and money on travel and use the resources they save on other activities that promote their core objectives. we developers are enthusiastic about the system but are well aware that the system, as it stands, is likely to have problems that need addressing. it is for that reason we continue to host meetings with groups and gather feedback from attendees. we plan to study a variety of online meetings in order to adjust the system and to develop heuristics for the use of the system. we plan to make e-liberate freely available for online meetings in the near future and ultimately to release the software under a free software license. a more detailed discussion of the foundations, functionalities and issues coming out from the first experiences of e-liberate use are in schuler (2010b). </font></font> </p> <p align=left><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><b>deliberative community networks</b></font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">in 2003, italy&rsquo;s ministry for innovation and technology issued a &ldquo;call for selecting projects to promote digital citizenship (e-democracy).&rdquo; ten municipalities in the lombardy region (mantua &ndash; the coordinator, brescia, como, desenzano sul garda, lecco, pavia, san donato milanese, sesto san giovanni, vigevano, and vimercate), some with previous experience managing community networks, presented a project named &ldquo;e21 for the development of digital citizenship in agenda 21&rdquo; under the scientific coordination of airec (associazione informatica e reti civiche), the association set up in 1996 to promote community networking in the lombardy region. [for a brief description of airec and its activities, see de cindio, 2000].</font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">all ten municipalities were signatories to the aalborg charter indicating their commitment to pursuing the kyoto protocol by involving citizens in sustainable development projects and activities. several had applied the local agenda 21 process that involves the local community, but people&rsquo;s involvement, typically high at the onset, tended to fall off over time. moreover, the use of icts to manage participation had been minor and sporadic (for example, websites with faqs, some documents, and a public forum). it was hypothesized that the causes of decreasing participation (the problem of finding a mutually available time and place, for example) could be mitigated by the appropriate use of appropriate ict applications. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><a name="ole_link6"></a><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">the purpose of the project was therefore to support and enhance citizen participation by creating a social environment on a custom-designed online deliberation platform. this environment is called opendcn (open deliberative community networks) as it aims at improving first-generation community networks by introducing deliberative tools (de cindio, de marco &amp; grew, 2007). opendcn has been developed to allow citizens to use tools that conceptually belong to different spaces (de cindio, peraboni and &amp; sonnante, 2008):</font></font></p> <ul> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">a community space fosters public dialogue on civic issues, as the basis for establishing a climate of mutual trust among participants, for sharing civic intelligence, and for promoting civic engagement. this social disposition cannot be taken for granted, but needs to be cultivated during the participatory experience as the result of dialogue and cooperation among participants, and can be facilitated by specific socio-technical design choices; </span></font></font> </p> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">a deliberative space aims to support purposeful interactions in order to foster the creation of shared vision, strategy, and tactics among the group members;</span></font></font></p> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">a personal space helps participants to build their visibility, reputation, and ties to others, essential in motivating people to participate; and </span></font></font> </p> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">an information space enables the gathering, distributing, and sharing of relevant content provided by citizens to support activities in all the other spaces.</span></font></font></p> </ul> <p align=left><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">as spaces in the physical world are populated by tools supporting the activities that take place within them (kitchens, for example, contain stoves and refrigerators; living rooms have televisions; meeting rooms have projectors, and so on), the online spaces must contain appropriate tools as well. in this regard, opendcn now provides the following tools: </font></font> </p> <ul> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">the informed discussion is an enriched forum with facilities for increasing the interactivity and the rationality of the discussion: the displaying of the messages in a thread of discussion help participants to visualize at a glance in a single web page the nesting of posts and comments, and, if it is the case, to put their own post in the right position; informative resources (documents, links, videos, etc.) that support the discussion are collected together in the right-hand frame of the page, constituting a knowledge base of the issue under discussion. a wiki is included for producing summary documents, individually or collaboratively. each informed discussion can be provided with a topographic map (using google maps) to localize the discussion threads, which can also be categorized with custom-designed markers. posts, comments and informative resources can be rated by the usual web 2.0 features (with &ldquo;stars&rdquo; and &ldquo;thumbs-like&rdquo; icons).</span></font></font></p> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">problems &amp; proposals allows citizens to report about problems and to gather constructive proposals (that address at least one problem). the tool allows citizens to discuss problems and proposals in different ways:</span></font></font></p> </ul> <ol> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">citizens can agree (thumb up) or disagree (thumb down) on a certain problem; in this way the most heated issues should emerge; </span></font></font> </p> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">three actions are available on proposals:</span></font></font></p> </ol> <p align=justify style="margin-left: 0.49in"><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">(a) citizens can agree (thumb up) or disagree (thumb down) on a certain proposal; </font></font> </p> <p align=justify style="margin-left: 0.74in; text-indent: -0.24in"><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">(b) citizens can indicate their support for a certain proposal publicly (non-anonymously): in this case, her/his name and face will be displayed in the proposal subscribers list; </font></font> </p> <p align=justify style="margin-left: 0.49in"><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">(c) citizens can argue for or against the proposal with text.</font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">as in the case of the informed discussion, problems and proposals can be illustrated by informative resources, and can also be categorized with custom-designed markers and localized in a topographic map.</font></font></p> <ul> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">the certified citizen consultation polls participants who choose among alternatives thanks to a variety of polling modalities (plurality voting, approval voting, cumulative voting, borda counting). it is suitable when the opinion of a large number of people must be heard. from a technical standpoint, this tool is essentially an online voting tool (hence, we refer hereafter to &ldquo;votes,&rdquo; &ldquo;voters,&rdquo; etc.). however, in the opendcn platform it can be used to poll community members' opinions or, within a deliberative process, to poll a set of participants (not necessarily all citizens but those participating in the process) for their preference among alternatives that have come out in earlier deliberation steps. unlike most polling tools now available on the web, the opendcn certified citizen consultation implements the protocols developed for online voting developed within an eu-funded project (bruschi, poletti &amp; rosti 2002) that afford the following features rooted in the democratic tradition: </span></font></font> </p> </ul> <p align=justify> </p> <ul> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us"><b>democracy</b></span><span lang="en-us">: </span><span lang="en-us">only eligible voters can participate; </span></font></font> </p> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us"><b>uniqueness</b></span><span lang="en-us">:</span> <span lang="en-us">no one can cast more than one vote;</span></font></font></p> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us"><b>secrecy</b></span><span lang="en-us">: </span><span lang="en-us">also known as privacy or anonymity, where votes must remain secret and anonymous:</span></font></font></p> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us"><b>accuracy</b></span><span lang="en-us">: </span><span lang="en-us">a voter&rsquo;s vote cannot be altered, duplicated or removed without detection.</span></font></font></p> </ul> <p align=justify> </p> <ul> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">the brainstorming tool mimics face-to-face brainstorming. the organizer(s) of the brainstorming identifies a problem (scenario) and asks participants to suggest ideas to solve it. after the session for gathering ideas, participants evaluate ideas by assigning them a score (in a range which can be modified: from 0 to 4, from 1 to 3, etc.). an algorithm, inspired by the one proposed in speroni di fenizio and paterson (2010), based on the calculus of the so-called pareto frontier, calculates and displays the most popular ideas. if only one idea comes out, this means that consensus has been reached on it, and the process stops. otherwise it continues in a further run in which only &ldquo;not dominated&rdquo; (ref, 2009) ideas are included and new ones can be added by participants. </span></font></font> </p> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">the online formal meetings tool structures synchronous online debate with the goal of actually making decisions. this tool is similar to e-liberate, which inspired it.</span></font></font></p> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">the agenda tool allows outlining and the managing of a deliberative process, consisting of a series of steps, each one managed by specific tools (as opposed to e-liberate where the agenda consists of orders of business for the assembly to take up). the organizers of a deliberative process configure it by setting several parameters: 1) timing, with each stage of the process assigned start and end dates; 2) dependencies, which may tie the start of one stage to the end of another; 3) actors, i.e., those who take part in the various stages of the process; 4) initial issue framing, which gathers the material needed to start activity. these attributes are recorded in the process-building module to structure the deliberative workflow. what sets the different tools apart is the modality used to arrive at a shared policy or position. </span></font></font> </p> </ul> <p align=justify style="line-height: 0.18in"><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">the informed discussion tool can be used both as a community tool and as a deliberative tool, including a wiki for optionally summarizing the discussion outcome. the others are typical deliberative tools. experience from actual use revealed the need of an events tool to help maintain and cultivate a sense of community. with that tool citizens can provide news to other people in the neighborhood and elsewhere. also events can be presented on topographic maps that can be categorized with custom-designed markers. we omit, for the sake of space, the description of the social networking features typical of the personal space and of the tagging features, which are used to navigate the information space.</font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">the opendcn software platform has been used in a variety of field cases:</font></font></p> <ul> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">first of all, in the ten municipalities which are partners of the e21 project consortium within which opendcn was designed. the outcomes of this large scale field test are widely discussed in de cindio and peraboni (2009); </span></font></font> </p> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">sicurezza stradale &ndash; road safety is a web site (<a href="http://www.sicurezzastradale.partecipami.it/">http://www.sicurezzastradale.partecipami.it</a>) which allows citizens to use a map to report problems for local government to fix. de cindio (2012) discusses and compares the opendcn approach to similar initiatives, such as the well-known fixmystreet (<a href="http://www.fixmystreet.org/">http://www.fixmystreet.org</a>), to illustrate how some features of the software, together with the design guidelines presented in the paper, induce behaviors inclined to deliberation;</span></font></font></p> <li><p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">comunalimilano2011 was set up to foster dialogue between candidates and electors on the occasion of milan&rsquo;s 2006 municipal elections. this initiative, presented in de cindio, krz&#261;ta&#322;a-jaworska and sonnante (2012), now continues as <a href="http://www.partecipami.it/">http://www.partecipami.it</a></span></font></font><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"> </font></font><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">increasingly taking on the role of a significant online public square, where citizens and members of the city government meet and discuss civic issues. the initiative in the occasion of municipal elections has been replicated in 2012 in the city of genova (<a href="http://www.comunaligenova2012.it/">http://www.comunaligenova2012.it</a>) using the same software. </span></font></font> </p> </ul> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">these experiences have shown the importance of the design of social structure of the online environments where these deliberative technologies are used. guidelines for the design of these &quot;deliberative digital habitats&quot; can be found in de cindio (2012). it is worth noting that all these cases are rooted in a well-defined territory, namely a city. what is still missing is the testing of the platform in a non-local context. </font></font> </p> <p align=left><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><b>challenges </b></font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">the emergence of the web, which happened approximately at the same time that the internet became publicly available, changed everything. the web became so popular, in fact, that most of the other communication services that people used on the internet (such as usenet news, bitnet, gopher, lynx, wais, pine, free-nets, etc.) became virtually unknown overnight. the web, at its onset, was essentially a broadcast, &quot;read-only&quot; (i.e., a non-interactive) medium where information was published, thus supporting information provision, publicity, and non-interactive forms of education. the evolution of the internet (now often called &quot;the web&quot;) could roughly be characterized by the prominence of certain broad types of services: pre-web internet (e-mail, newsgroups, ftp, irc (chat), early community networks); the first web (read-only); form-based input from users; conversational services and &quot;web 2.0&quot; services which were introduced at approximately the same time. we will argue that the next stage ought to be characterized by the use of community and civic-oriented collaborative and deliberative spaces that encourage the strong participation of citizens in the affairs that affect their lives, thus helping to affirm the spirit of the early community networks. in contrast, it should be remembered that &quot;web 2.0&quot;, according to the developer of the concept &quot;is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform&quot;, which he also calls &quot;harnessing collective intelligence&quot; (o'reilly, 2006).</font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">we have arrived at a critical historical moment, where some of the decisions we make now and in the near future can have important implications. we find that local people, and people in &quot;communities of interests&quot;, are already working together using new technology. local people are also doing some deliberation. they are moving towards more productive systems that provide support for education, better decision-making, and more efficient civic processes. at the same time, we have observed that the important issues that people must face today are likely to cross the local boundaries. moreover, when negotiating across local borders and non-local decisions are developed, they are likely to be non-transparent and exclusive. thus, they further complicate the task to develop systems that support these processes. we also note that decisions and other deliberative outcomes are not generally final and singular, but often intermediate, where one decision modifies the context for the next one. a future deliberative system could actually mean that a proposition that has been created and approved online by a citizen's group of sufficient size could be added to a ballot. for example, in washington state (united states), citizen propositions can be added to the ballots via a citizen initiative process. many &quot;products&quot; of various deliberate phases are still transitional. from the glocal perspective, decisions that arise from one locality might feed to another lateral locality, which works on the same issue or in a consolidated umbrella group. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">the challenges faced by people who are developing deliberation technologies are profound. beyond developing technology that does what it is supposed to do, developers must confront many problems which are faced by society at large. if these problems, such as access to icts, are not being addressed at the same time that the more focused deliberation issues are being addressed, then the work of developing equitable and useful services for citizen deliberation risks increasing irrelevance. for example, even if basic access to the internet and to other communication technologies were made less unequal, other problems would still exist. several of these relate to the potential users themselves, including their skills, knowledge, degree of interest, self-image and their internal model of the world, as well as their view of the effectiveness of the participation venues open to them. reversing these trends will require education and training, public (and private) funding, and civic experimentation. also, of course, genuine democracy relies to a large degree on &quot;following the rules.&quot; the challenges associated with people and institutions, who do not &quot;play by the rules&quot; and who, in fact, may be in the government or other powerful groups, are profound. history has shown that it is not obvious who wins in such contests. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">ultimately, civic deliberation is an indispensable element of democracy. it often takes a long and torturous path that begins with somewhat nebulous ideas, mostly held by individuals. gradually, collective bodies transform them to policy or other ideas. civic democracy also contends with how a multitude of concerns become integrated in shared frames that resonate with other shared frames. in the context we are exploring, community networks might surface the concerns and deliberative systems could assist in configuring and fine-tuning the solutions. finally, while deliberative systems can help groups devise more effective and creative decisions, one of their most significant implications may be the collaborative learning that they facilitate and the civic intelligence that they improve.</font></font></p> <p align=left><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><b>conclusions </b></font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">globalization, the intensifying of material, social (including economic), and environmental relationships between people, states, regions and cultures, provides the backdrop for many of the challenges that motivate humanity's need for online deliberation. we have shown how the interplay between the local and the global plays a role in contemporary protest movements. the situation is not confined to protest movements, however. the effects, for example, of the global financial crisis spread to national states which in turn cut funding to municipalities. this causes serious challenges to the provision of services to their citizens precisely when these services are needed most. so the decision about how to use the scarce resources becomes more and more relevant and people ask to be involved in the decision-making through deliberative processes, from simple approaches such as polling to the more complex, such as participatory budgeting. in the &ldquo;augmented&rdquo; world that includes online and offline settings, these concrete deliberations, to be inclusive, must be carried on both online and offline in an interweaved way: some people prefer to participate only offline, while still others may prefer online, while others may prefer both equally. the development of deliberative tools such as the ones we have presented, which support and enhance informed and interweaved deliberation aspire to address this need.</span><font color="#ff0000"> </font></font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">at the same time that different facets of globalization help create the context, others help create the means through which more globalized online deliberation can be realized. the burgeoning online population and the malleable, &ldquo;meta-medium&rdquo; nature of the internet (schuler, 1996) make the prospects of online deliberation especially compelling. the internet has given rise to a wide range of new approaches to gathering and sharing information. many of these new approaches are of the &ldquo;instant&rdquo; variety, including online polls and surveys, flash mobs, and clicking to buy, or just to &ldquo;like.&rdquo; and many new approaches to deliberation are being explored (see, e.g. global voices or slashdot web sites). </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">clearly, the communication ecosystem is undergoing profound shifts. various communication habits are changing as new digital, networked venues are coming online. for example, although some first-generation community networks still exist (rcm and seattle community network e.g.), many have simply vanished. it may now be the case that community </span><span lang="en-us">networking</span> <span lang="en-us">(rather than community networks) may exist, it&rsquo;s not clear that these efforts are being integrated or that the various efforts are mutually supportive. while the need for more &mdash; and more effective &mdash; communication and decision-making strategies, and venues at local and global levels (and all those in between), seems obvious, it is seemingly receiving far less attention than the situation warrants. to this end, we have developed some deliberative approaches, and we are conducting the first tests of use. we plan to continue this work including integrating these components into existing online civic platforms.</span></font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">there are presently currents of thought that suggest that collective intelligence may &mdash; or will &mdash; </span><span lang="en-us">emerge</span><span lang="en-us">, the fortuitous by-product of a billion tweets, polls, and facebook &ldquo;likes.&rdquo; we are dubious about this article of faith and, for that reason, are suggesting that it might be wise to at least hedge our bets by undertaking a vigorous exploration of deliberation. we assert that the idea of deliberating is more important than ever. we also assert that new ways to support the need to reason together, probably with the help of technology, and probably with the help of protocols or structure, can be developed &mdash; if we decide to do so. we believe that society needs these tools now and will presumably need them even more in the future. we cannot assume that facebook or other platforms will supply us with what we need, when we need them. facebook is beholden to stockholders, while democracy is beholden to citizens. </span></font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">we have found that today&rsquo;s &ldquo;local&rdquo; issues (especially those of some weight and</span><font color="#0000ff"> </font><span lang="en-us">importance)</span><font color="#0000ff"><span lang="en-us"> </span></font><span lang="en-us">very often, if not always, have a non-local component. moreover, as the diversity and number of stakeholders with regards to any situation grows, so does the need for adequate deliberation. deliberation needs special attention due to the complexity of the problems people have to face, the requirements for inclusion and fairness, the contention for bandwidth (which of course exists even in face-to-face encounters) and the potentially large number of participants. the need for deliberation will always exist, even if there is an absence of it in practice. so while it is our contention that developing deliberative technology is crucial, technology by itself is not enough. online deliberation can only succeed if people are willing (as well as able) to engage in public affairs. this means that people would need to feel not only empowered to participate but confident that at least some of their efforts will bear fruit. </span></font></font> </p> <p align=justify style="line-height: 0.15in"><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="en-us">developing online deliberative approaches that work will not necessarily be easy. we&rsquo;ve identified several guidelines in this paper that we believe will be necessary for these goals to be achieved. we believe that there needs to be increased energy and focus on civic engagement and experimentation on the part of online system developers. these developers must also form collaborative partnerships with each other, academic institutions, and governmental entities to foster strategic cooperation and integration of approaches. on a more direct level, </span>we argue that there is a need for developing single deliberative tools as well as integrated sets of tools within a rich online civic platform that provides support for different participation/deliberation modalities. the two strategies are complementary and are exemplified by eliberate and opendcn, respectively. developing single deliberative tools allows focusing on a specific participation/deliberation modality, which can either take inspiration from well tested offline processes (as eliberate does with robert&rsquo;s rule of order) or propose new modalities which profit from the possibilities offered by the technologies for enabling processes which are not possible without ict support.<font color="#ff0000"> </font></font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">we believe that creating processes that are more transparent and effective can also ultimately be achieved through an emphasis on community / local deliberation. when the voice of the people is denied or denigrated, protests and other less sophisticated methods of civic expression become the sole way for people to make their views known. unfortunately, cynicism and other forms of withdrawal from civic life are generally more common. although public protests and other demonstrations of civic dissatisfaction, including civic disobedience, are likely to remain part of civic engagement, inclusive and equitable deliberation among and with citizens and citizen groups, remains an essential goal for democratic societies. increased equity and sustainability, as well as fewer civic disturbances are the likely outcomes. the design and implementation of deliberative technologies and their use in actual e-governance projects aim to overcome these limits and empower local communities to play a more effective role in critical decision-making processes. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">although we believe that the internet at present offers immense opportunities for democratic communication, it is not the intent of this paper to &quot;sell&quot; online deliberation or, for that matter, the internet itself. indeed, acknowledging the immense chasm that separates reality from utopian dreams is an extremely important responsibility for democratic communication activists to assume. ultimately, civil society (including academia) must assume leadership, if genuine deliberation is ever to become a part of democratic governance. the dangers of &quot;dumbing down&quot; have been discussed before (see, e.g., braverman, 1974; schuler, 2001) but, like it or not, it is important to remember that clicking on facebook's &quot;like&quot; button is a far cry from the type of citizen skills that are needed in the 21st century. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify style="line-height: 0.15in"><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">we assert that the next stage of ict development ought to be characterized by the development and use of online community and civic-oriented collaborative and deliberative spaces. this would simultaneously affirm the spirit of the early community networks while helping to build the civic intelligence we need to address humankind&rsquo;s challenges now and in the future. </font></font> </p> <p align=left><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><b>acknowledgments</b></font></font></p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">we would like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of those people who developed the tools including, in particular, nathan clinton, antonio de marco, ivan longhi, cristian peraboni and leonardo sonnante. they are not only software developers but also co-designers of deliberative community networks. </font></font> </p> <p align=justify><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">we also wish to thank the reviewers who helped us to significantly improve the paper.</font></font></p> <p align=justify style="margin-bottom: 0.06in"><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">this paper incorporates ideas and some text from a paper presented at cirn in prato, 2007, which have been expanded and updated in this article.</font></font></p> <p align=left><font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><b>references</b></font></font></p> <p align=justify style="margin-left: 0.49in; 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(eds.)(2004). shaping the network society: the new role of civil society in cyberspace. mit press cambridge, ma: mit press.</font></font></p> <p align=justify style="margin-left: 0.49in; text-indent: -0.42in; margin-bottom: 0.03in"> <font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">schuler, d. &amp; namioka, a. (eds.) (1993). participatory design: principles and practices. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum and associates.</font></font></p> <p align=justify style="margin-left: 0.49in; text-indent: -0.42in; margin-bottom: 0.03in"> <font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">silver, d. (2004). the soil of cyberspace: historical archaeologies of the blacksburg electronic village and the seattle community network. in d. schuler and p. day (eds.), shaping the network society: the new role of civil society in cyberspace. mit press cambridge, ma: mit press.</font></font></p> <p align=justify style="margin-left: 0.49in; text-indent: -0.42in; margin-bottom: 0.03in"> <font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">speroni di fenizio, p. &amp; paterson, d. (2010). don't vote, evolve! in e. tambouris (ed.), epart'10 proceedings of the 2nd ifip wg 8.5 international conference on electronic participation, lncs 6229, springer-verlag.</font></font></p> <p align=justify style="margin-left: 0.49in; text-indent: -0.42in; margin-bottom: 0.03in"> <font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">standish, d. (2012). venice in environmental peril? myth and reality. lanham, md: university press of america.</font></font></p> <p align=justify style="margin-left: 0.49in; text-indent: -0.42in; margin-bottom: 0.03in"> <font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">telecommunities canada (undated). telecommunities canada: a brief history. http://www.tc.ca/tcbriefhistory.pdf. accessed february 10, 2012.</font></font></p> <p align=justify style="margin-left: 0.49in; text-indent: -0.42in; margin-bottom: 0.03in"> <font face="times new roman, serif"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">varley, p. (1991, nov./dec.). what is really happening in santa monica? technology review.</font></font></p> <p align=justify><br><br> </p> <p align=justify><br><br> </p> <p align=justify><br><br> </p> information and knowledge transfer in the rural community of macha, zambia information and knowledge transfer in the rural community of macha, zambia gertjan van stam science is using methodologies to study behavior. these methodologies are socially constructed, culture specific, and deeply affected by north american and western language. african cultures feature empathic processes fueled by compassion and the desire for co-existence. it operates on communal, often primary oral, cultures and uses mostly oral tradition in its presentations. oral traditions process knowledge and verbalize data specifically. this case of long term research in which information and communications technology is introduced in a highly oral and rural culture shows that using constructs available in primary oral culture can create outcomes that are a useful function within oral tradition circumstances. analysis of methodologies used during the eleven-year case study suggest that outcomes benefit from interactions that are aligned within oral-culture formats. the case study follows 'the flow of science' analyzing, interpreting, clarifying, constructing primarily in the oral tradition. outcomes appear fruitful in oral traditions. this long term and unique approach opens the door to new ways of understanding in rural africa, and recognition that literacy and orality exist side by side. introduction introductions of scientifically correct 'solutions' to 'problems' in rural areas of africa have reported mixed results. a range of reasons is offered as hampering local adoption of technology. many projects show neither capabilities of sustainability nor properties of scaling up. with the exception of anthropology, little research seems to venture into study and incorporation of aspects of context. this includes omission of assessment of philosophical and practical aspects, including, for instance, issues of orality versus literacy. there is not much evidence recorded on the modalities of long term local adoption and respectful integration of technologies in rural areas in africa. this affects and hampers mutual understanding, for instance in engineering. this paper is based upon eleven-year action research which has been ongoing since 2000 in rural zimbabwe, and since 2003 in rural zambia. the goal of research included identifying and inspiring local talent, introducing information and communications technologies (ict) and participatory oral research methodology, in order to build the necessary capacity and intent for community-led activities to yield sustainable human development outcomes. the research is part of the quest for identifying a logical framework designating dynamics of change in rural african communities and engendering leadership capable of inspiring, initiating, implementing, operating, and scaling up of sustainable progress in the local community. sustainable progress is defined as improved life conditions for all people in this world and progress not only in economic terms but also in terms of intellectual growth, culture, and social well-being. engineering and technological sciences play a major role in achieving sustainable progress (van oortmerssen, 2007). this paper deals with contextual observations with respect to primacy of orality during the research period. it strives to provide tangible input in light of the idea that “development must also be conducted on the terms of those being developed” (sheneberger & van stam, 2011). the paper does not address issues of change within and between orality and literacy. methodology the research prioritizes usefulness of observations, interactions, assessments, interventions, and its feedback to distill thesis of reality-of-universals within the context of the local, rural community. activities strive to discern formats to communicate analysis, interpretation, and clarification suitable for local use, and national and international interaction. the methodology interacts with oral tradition, where empirical and factual data and their measuring-up reside within oral culture. assessment of system choices involves oral processing of data. this processing is an analogy as processing within data networks, for e.g, social networks, and does result in useful outcomes applicable in the local community and, consecutively, the nation. the common cultures in the rural areas under review are oral and word-oriented rather than object-oriented. although some writing occurs, the research strives to unearth relevant entities of interaction while introducing high-technologies. the study was thoroughly immersed in local culture, utilizing oral culture in as many aspects of the work as possible, involving aspects of action research, participatory research, and can be seen as an oral analogy of grounded theory, with complex adaptive system assessments. environment the work takes place in rural communities of macha, zambia, with the control located in murambinda, zimbabwe. the environment is typical resource-limited rural africa, with community members living a subsistence lifestyle in scattered homesteads with very little infrastructure. macha chiefdom contains approximately 21,300 residents in an area of 20 x 30 km. the central area contains health and education institutes that retain a small establishment of medical and education professionals. the vibrant local culture can be characterized within the classical african concept of ubuntu. desmond tutu said that “a person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished.” (tutu, 1999). ubuntu runs counter to the creed of individualism. on a literacy scale, macha shows itself as a mixed environment, with medical, agricultural, educational and juridical entities that (partially) utilize writing, embedded in a large area with community members having little exposure to texts and living primarily in orality. as such, it is a highly residual oral society. although the official language of zambia is english – which is used in official communication indigenous languages are commonly spoken. these languages are part of the bantu group of languages and include lamba, kaonde, tumbuka, ngoni, ila, senga, chewa, chibemba, nsenga chinyanja, lunda, chitonga, kaonde, silozi, nkoya, and luvale. estimates of the total number of languages spoken in zambia vary from 43 to 70, depending on whether some dialects are counted as languages in their own right. urban dwellers sometimes differentiate between urban and rural dialects of the same language by prefixing the rural languages with 'deep'. in the capital of lusaka, most people speak nyanja or bemba. chitonga – or, shorter, tonga is the primary language in the macha area. although the language is written, like most of the more than 6,000 languages spoken in the world today, tonga has no literature base. consequently, many people in the community do not use any writings, nor are they in contact with written words, and expect orality to be used in daily affairs. non-discursive practices are hampered by this cultural precept and aggravated by material disadvantages like the unavailability of reading materials, paper and pens. further, the older generation, who provide for community leadership, insists on the primacy of orality in tonga culture. internet has been available for use in macha since mid-2004. in its early stages, the limited local reach of the local area network only allowed communications with users outside of the continent. until the arrival of (mobile) phone service in late 2006, the only means of local interaction was by face-to-face meetings or carrying notes around. related work in his book orality and literature, walter ong expands on differences in managing knowledge and verbalization in primary oral cultures versus chirographic cultures. ong notes that for those acquainted with literate culture, thought and its expression in oral culture appear strange and, at times, bizarre (ong, 1982). much of ong's observations are diachronic, that is, viewed through history, although in recent work he hints that further research on the differences between orality and literacy might produce new and interesting insights in interpretations of these differences in academics (bingham, nd). there seem to be no (multi)disciplinary models for science on the interaction with, and integration of, technologies in societies utilizing orality as their main means of interaction. only some evidence is presented on the challenges that exist in doing the research itself (brewer et al., 2006). although there is a persistent tendency among scholars to believe that writing is the basic form of language, ferdinand de saussure notes both aspects of usefulness and shortcomings and dangers (waterman, 1956). there are descriptions and analyses of changes in mental and social structures accredited to the use of writing, e.g. jack goody (goody, 1968). plato, too, expressed serious reservations in the phaedrus and his seventh letter about writing. he depicted writing as a mechanical, inhuman way of processing knowledge, a way that is unresponsive to questions and destructive of memory (ong, 1982). research reports show the complexity and vast schism between oral and literate culture. obviously colored by conventional wisdom, and north american and western european intellectual hegemony, orality is explicitly or implicitly attributed with a lack of introspection, of analytical prowess, and of concern with the will (ong, 1982). on the other hand, in a previous work on aspects of the relational dimension of resource allocation, scheneberger and van stam assert that “though the average individual in a community is unable to make large changes in the overall norms and values that define what is possible in the relationship market, certain individuals of high standing are. in the same way, a government may institute price controls that violate the normal equilibriums of a market, a socially significant actor—such as a chief or headman in the rural area—is able to mandate realities within relationship.” (sheneberger & van stam, 2011). sayed observes that “adaptation of technology and the becoming of a person are not separable conceptually from the evolution of the complex system that the community is.” (sayed, singh, saad-sulonen, & diaz, 2011). however, even complex adaptive system studies do not often take into account a measure of orality as a context-sensitive constraint. problem statement studying, debating and communicating about the evidence from deep rural areas evokes feelings of both frustration and excitement. discoveries and additional knowledge are difficult to align with or relate to – extant literature and other research. prescribed execution paths of disciplined methodologies do not fit context-respectful research involving technologies within oral traditions. there appears little guidance in either crossor multi-disciplinary literature, or examples that deal with these issues especially in the context of rural africa. in general, disciplinary science aims for models, described in scientifically accepted ways, into which realities are presented for dissection and scrutiny. in rural africa, tensions witnessed in daily interactions show clearly how current science floats on post-modern paradigms, heavily influenced by western adagio insisting on self-interest as the guiding hand of society. further tension confronts the scientific precept that information can only be validated when it exists in written form. such guidance does not make sense in the communal, oral tradition of rural africa. such thought masks comprehension of the holistic rural african reality and omits the existence of oral interaction formats like sensitization by, and appropriation through, participatory community discussions, formal community meeting (tonga: muswangano), sketches (chisobano), musical lamentations (kuyabila), singing, dance (kutazula), and multimedia (second orality) representations. scientific methodologies invariably consist of transformation of the many relationships and operations of existing reality into a deconstructed, disciplinary, dissected format, and in western, written language – to transform from one domain to another domain as if it is a mathematical laplace transform operation. further, after formulating findings in the transformed and disciplinary deconstructed, disciplinary format, these transformed representations are expanded upon (trochim, 2006). because the research occurred in a part of the world where people operate within a different, indigenous system, such an approach appeared foreign and even offensive, being part of a culture that the people in rural areas do not share. furthermore, people, who operate outside current scientific worldviews and do not value vogue scientific methods, are labeled as uncomprehending of reality and deficient to participate. there appears considerable anecdotal agreement among researchers in various fields that use of software, paper, rational methods, etc – that textualisation is mandatory for good scientific research. other methods of interaction, data storage, processing and studying are severely criticized and the research findings are often rejected. these prohibitions weigh heavily on local and national african researchers and result in an exclusion of local practices from what is understood as 'good scientific research'. valuable information is consequently lost for instance, somatic components while resulting scientific expressions remain foreign to the local community. in contrast with social and health sciences, there are hardly any longitudinal studies in formal or applied sciences in the rural areas of africa. reports mostly involve short periods of observation, often in a rural-urban setting rather than in a 'deep rural' setting. when using the results of such research and discussing them with people in rural areas, findings are not readily understood nor recognized. one could even take the position that there is little evidence that use of software, paper and other tools has been useful in engendering human agency in rural africa. the non-discursive expressions of scientific knowledge when reduced to abstractions in english texts seem to have little discernible effect on or even defacto prohibits the inclusion of oral societies. if the end product of foreign academic research is a take-away text written in academic english, then the foreign academic appropriates local culture for private and foreign profit, leaving the local community objectified and exploited. i postulate that the above calls for a research process aligned within the traditions, primarily oral, so as to link the research more in the environment and maximize the chance of the research yielding applicable and adaptable results. perhaps an alternative way to research can be described as doing research the 'ubuntu way’ which would facilitate acceptance of results in the local, ubuntu environment (khoza, 2005). such research would endeavor to assess the expansive, constantly changing, complex, inter-related communal realities and culture, and exposes evidence of that reality. as such, this paper builds upon the assertion that oral thinking in intelligent people is sophisticated and reflective. of course, all this poses large sets of trans-disciplinary logistic, methodological and conceptual challenges for research. logistically, this calls for long-term ethnographic commitments in a local setting in order to gain an understanding from the community. methodological challenges deal with issues of local relevance, and conceptual challenges deal with how to describe the research in a literal format. research my family and i have been fully immersed in the rural communities of zimbabwe (2000-2002) and zambia (2003-2012). as a result, the local, oral culture has been experienced firsthand (van stam, 2011). i do not speak any of the local languages and had to resort to an intermediate, second language that is english to communicate. all parts of my life – private and public – were regarded as integral part of the community interactions, which is congruent with the totalizing of experiences as per oral culture. from mid-2003 in rural zimbabwe and mid 2010 in rural zambia, i withdrew from daily operational activities to observe the progress in the rural communities and validate from a more distant vantage point. at that time, my relationships with academics intensified in attempt to develop harmonizing theories explaining my observations. a framework of collaborative academic papers was embarked upon from within the rural area itself, explaining the setting up of ict in macha (matthee, mweemba, pais, van stam, & rijken, 2007), observations in economics (sheneberger & van stam, 2011), engineering feats and users' behavior (johnson, pejovic, belding, & van stam, 2011)⁠, and aggregation in a macha works' interactions model (van stam & van oortmerssen, 2010). debate on the activities in macha intensified, as reported observations were scrutinized by academics through public and online debate. although the main theme was the introduction of ict in rural africa, with sub-themes of how to engender appropriate leadership and embed sustainable progress, data-gathering was done explicitly endeavoring to line up with the verbal, word-attentive, and person-interactive context, instead of settling for a quantifying, object orientation. i did interact directly and indirectly with all stakeholders in the communities. all data that was gathered was extensively scrutinized, discussed, studied, and validated in an ongoing interaction with 'local talent' and selected community stakeholders. interactions took place during long, careful conversations with community members and stakeholders, on local, regional and national levels. questions with respect to the environment and circumstances as they existed at that time of interaction were carefully posed, and there was instant feedback of emerging knowledge and deductions. facts were gathered as statements of human beings describing the actuality and the environment in which they exist. the proceedings tried to remain in line with theories and interactive loops of action research, heavily resting on methods of appreciative inquiry. written derivatives were produced in formats allowing for community records only, for instance, in the form of online blog posts. these were just additional to the oral, culturally-stored information. findings on data gathering the research period was filled with a large amount of observation, participation, and lengthy, often unstructured, interviews with people. most of these interactions took place ‘on the fly’ and ‘happened when they happened'. on certain days, more than ten meetings took place; this assured that information on the contents of the verbal exchanges was shared as quickly as possible, and distortions were minimized. data thus collected was stored in an 'oral manner', that is, residing in the minds of people. this information, spoken words, can be recalled, especially when relating them to an event. the data not only contains the record of evanescent sound, but also contains all non-verbal communication such as the season, place, sun position, mental state of the people present, the seating arrangement, and somatic information such as gestures and facial expressions. interaction with a specific stakeholder was instantly followed up with interaction with all stakeholders, assuring quick dissemination of information and a level playing field for all involved. only at a later stage, when the research and interventions were established, did interactions become more individual. this was possible as at that time roles and authorities were firmly established. only early in 2011 did the author feel grounded enough to attempt an enquiry in written format, through an online survey on the use of web 2.0 tools. community members mention that one of the advantages of verbal communication is its efficiency. information exchange takes place faster than the speed of writing/reading (possibly ten times faster (chafe, 1982)). verbal interaction is instant and offers the ability to assess comprehension and effect. however, information requests per se are mostly interpreted as agonistic. a resulting exchange can be charged, and has relational effects for all participants in the verbal exchange. memories of oral people are formidable. the manner in which data is stored can be designated as 'remembrance of the meeting as it transpired'. the existence of data was regularly tested by interviewing the persons to retrieve and re-assess the information. on writing due to the existence of barriers to data collection in rural settings the use of writing and paper was avoided. objections received from the community were: 1) writing instills uncertainty and is unclear. community members commented that “texts allow for word play.” verbal communications were regarded as particularly clear. verbal communication assures certainty on: a) who knows what is being said, and b) non-verbal information like the somatic setting and expressions. especially valuable is the idea that whoever is present will know the information ‘as is communicated’. 2) writing allows those who were not present at the moment of verbal communication to take part in the discussion by reading what was said. this interaction with the information and subsequent effects on existing and new relationships in the community are difficult to control and thus pose significant cultural challenges. it was observed that carrying written texts, or even paper, into a meeting would completely change the atmosphere of the encounter. even writings on the (contents of the) meetings posed difficulties, with apprehension about acknowleding a written text as a representation of that meeting. the latter appeared also related to experiences of written texts being used 'to shame people'. this reportedly occurs when ‘mistakes,’ grammatical or otherwise, are pointed out in the texts, thus bringing shame to either the writer or the person referred to in the text. writings thus appear to be seen as a potent means of exercising control. 3) the written text valued by the community mainly addresses administrative matters of policy or procedures, presumably in line with pre-emptive and imperialistic use of texts in history. other writings follow aggregative thought lines, composing on paper how the words would flow in an oral format, mostly void of any form of abstraction. on data processing processing of the orally stored information was done in an oral equivalent of 'social networks'. networks of community members and stakeholders validated the orally stored data and processed it through meetings and discussions. that way aggregation and abstraction of information was recognizable, and output was evident in various modes of communications. tangible outcomes in change processes are expressions of measures of acceptance of change by a sufficient majority of the community (large numbers of people affirming their support of the change within existing cultural realities, and individual community members displaying explicit comprehension of change and its benefits, each testifying about having a hand in the change). this happens through various formats like stories, songs, and human interactions. the social networks change with membership and existence, are inclusive and in constant flux, assuring relevance and efficiency, and leading to outcomes that empower individuals with the necessary authority to embed the change. the first social networks were local, involving community leaders and stakeholders only. slowly the networks incorporated a wider representation of the community. then, in the same way, the networks became national. over the course of time, networks expanded to become international. the format/presentation of the social networks did vary. they did occur in the form of physical meetings or went on during other events like cultural meetings, weddings or funerals. it all depended on available physical abilities, reach of ict – telephone, internet, radio and travel constraints. research throughput was considerably enhanced by the introduction of an airplane which expanded geographical scope, safety and efficiency. this facilitated the availability and sharing of data, and acceptance of outcomes on national and international levels. during the data processing stage, which takes place during in-person conversations with leaders, groups of people, or other social networks, the community discusses the designation or effect of the matter at hand. often discussions are linked to phenomena. the tangible expression of the result is the one that most easily transfers orally through the community. oral culture heavily restricts experimentation or adding new information without communities’ consent, and the whole process of 'processing new information' by itself is a tool for community acceptance. conceptualization of the information emerges naturally through the process of verbalization, often incorporating aspects of the immediate, familiar environment. as such, the 'new world' is assimilated into the 'old world'. all high-technology interventions, like the introduction of ict or an airplane, are described in a context of events involving people, like a medical doctor sourcing a car on the internet, a local farmer finding information on a potential new cash crop, and key stakeholders flying on the first airplane ride. this correlates with the fact that oral culture does not use or count, statistics or linear facts, but, rather, keeps track of activity or activities in which humans are involved. assessments i posit that as the people involved are mostly intelligent, they are keen masters of mental processes. the use of all verbal communications as per oral cultures is a valuable and valid means of research. local culture primarily validates evidence through oral processing, not through written representation. in practice, oral information can be verified. validation of written communications is deemed impossible as its contents are not registered, nor are the writings secured. it was found that the assessment of the data incorporated aspects of “being together” and other contents that in reductionism are mostly overlooked. while assessing the data, it is always asked “who was present?”, and “what was the disposition of the inter-actors?” all circumstantial data has been acknowledged and has been incorporated. further moral issues were included in the balancing of the data. also, input from the environment was taken into account. for instance, information collected from within cities is valued differently and not necessarily recognized as part of the rural environment. while storing and assessing data in oral cultural formats, assessments of causation include all aspects of the data, including intangibles like character and authority. ironically, what was a simple deduction for the oral person was often a complex assessment for the researcher. i often found himself overlooking a relevant aspect as soon as i turned to documenting my findings and theories. further, the process was recognized as highly hermeneutic, searching for meaning and inter-relational messages in the data, incorporating systems and methodologies involving traditional experience, knowledge and wisdom from history. it was found that the vernacular language, as part of the bantu group of languages, transmits information on interactions, not items. the language deals with the “world of humans” instead of the “world of things”. through verbalization, the community describes the (degree of) interaction with items and developments. this in itself constitutes a means of identification with the development. for observers from other cultures, inherent to language and cultural barriers, this difference in nature and subject of communications is not directly obvious. however, its effects are clearly witnessed, especially during times of difficulties. communications homeostatically deal with 'today', so are highly efficient and relevant for purpose in everyday life in resource-limited environments. further, the environment does not necessitate work with formal deductive procedures, nor in purely logical forms, but with a more practical thought pattern. it depends on 'who talks' to see what is true, not only for the data processing stage, but also during acceptance phases. it is witnessed that even the most experienced people – those who work with ict on a daily basis describe technology in terms of its operations, and assess its benefits mainly in the operational context. lastly, interventions or activities were never readily accepted. much time is needed for new occurrences to mature and to be incorporated in the community and culture. when an intervention occurs more or less unexpectedly, the community default is to 'wait and see which way the cat jumps', or go back to 'the default'. debate my background in engineering, strategy and entrepreneurship played a role in interactions with stakeholders. the inclusive culture of the local community does not allow interactions as an observer only. the local culture demands interchange for information sharing, either by 'being together' or in exchange of information. reactively, the effect that my presence has on the phenomena under investigation is significant. due to the inclusiveness of local culture, this reactivity can be seen as data (chenitz & swanson, 1986). further, my presence and subsequent inclusion in the local community provided  ‘space’ for local talent to emerge and interventions to mature (bets et al., 2012). this paper proposes a complementary view on adherence to scientific rigor, with data, processing, theorizing and dissemination being done within the oral tradition. these distinct phases have uniquely taken place within the culture that exists. further, the study drew considerably from day-to-day observations, and some documents of analysis of separate studies done in macha by macha research trust and others. involving these multiple sources of data enhances the validity of the research (kirk & miller, 1985). in rural macha, social interactions are most important. the methodology can be recognized as a mix of action research and 'partial' grounded theory, in which data is collected and then theorized upon, applying scientific research criteria like significance, theory-observation compatibility, generalizability, reproducibility, precision, rigor, and verification. my experience and exposure, and continual communications with scientists around the world, satisfies the glaser and strauss (glaser & strauss, 1967) requirement for theoretical sensitivity. it is characterized by involving the researcher's personal and temperamental activities in order to have theoretical insight into the area of research, to be able to make something out of it. of course, there is always the possibility of the author forcing insights that do not correlate with observations. backstopping is provided through expansive social networking with peers, facilitating personal peer-review and mentoring during every step in the process. it appears that the data gathering, data processing, and data dissemination depend on the reaction of the receiver, the mood or the occasion, in short, social and psychological factors. although idiosyncrasy will occur, the themes (and formulae) remain. new materials are not introduced, but evidence is presented, fitted to each unique situation. i was often astounded and humbled by the recollection of the details of events, including dates and specific words said, during the testing of recollection of various people. this research yields trans-disciplinary results. it shows that, in the rural african setting, the process of interaction with the specific cultural environment is most important, as it indicates the attainability and sustainability of outcomes, and the ability of the research to be replicated. findings correlate with particular observations. for instance, written do-it-yourself manuals do not deliver expected results. during the study period, a written document was shown only a few times in response to an information request. occasions of documentation being used to search for, or reference to, information, were fewer even when documents were available in the vicinity. skills are taught through apprenticeship, focused on seeing with little need for explanation. leaders emerged after observation and practice. skill is recognized in people directly, not through abstract, measurable assessments. tonga people say “mwana utambaulwi takomeni” which means “a child never talked about, never grows”. the community confirmed, in retrospect, that the process of implementation, acceptance and appropriation of high-technology and infrastructures have evolved the same way: by being talked about. also, in the wider geographical contexts of people in other chiefdoms, the benefits of technologies have become incorporated. this finding was news to the community itself. it led to a new, progressive community name: 'new macha'. all this allowed for recognition and permission for talented young people to emerge as new leaders in the community and take charge of high-technology implementations and operations. although research has been an integral part of the macha environment, the activities of foreign academic researchers, based upon alien academic constructs, are often not understood locally. it is questionable if a rigid sequential process of research problem definition, data gathering, assessment, intervention design, and implementation will lead to the necessary community acceptance at a certain stage. my observations are that most researchers find the exercise in understanding local culture a difficult and time-consuming task. time pressure mostly cuts trials short. disassociation of texts from research is psychologically threatening as current scientists' control over research is closely tied to the handling of texts. however, this paper shows that focus on texts can mask the local culture, and its way of interaction. non-reflective chirographic-typographic mentality apparently blocks comprehension of the complex oral societies, impeding research into how to implement technologies like ict in rural areas in africa. there is a clear need to incorporate processes that are enshrined in oral cultures as to enhance relevance of research and assure its usability. misses, failures of many systems of intervention, projects that do not scale (up), and technologies whose functions start to deteriorate right after implementation; all indicate the need for a fresh approach. the limited number of publications from non-western authors also show that (other) cultures seem unaligned andunable to incorporate current scientific methods and/or paradigms (gitau, plantinga, & diga, 2010). observations of cross cultural expressions show that, in general, much of written language functions to establish subtlety and formality; western oral communication disposes of this in favor of direct, clear transmission of ideas. however, macha's oral traditions do not reject such subtleties. the tradition communicates orally with content full of subtext and diplomacy to maintain the delicate balance of social norms. ong postulates that “oral cultures produce powerful and complex verbal performances of high human worth, and can process data which are possibly no longer even possible once 'western practices' has taken possession of the psyche.” he deduces that “without writing, human consciousness cannot achieve its fuller potential, cannot produce other beautiful and powerful creations.” which includes, “development of science, history, philosophy, etc” (ong, 1982, page 14). these statements might be true when the research aims for applied outcome resulting in an operational earth orbiting satellite, but they are not necessarily true when the outcomes focus on applications in rural settings. acts of rhetoric are necessary as it is the communities' measuring up of the strength of an intervention. activities are tested in the arena of verbal and somatic maneuverings. it was found that changes in current sayings and expressions are indicators of change in the local community. involving many aspects of oral culture is beneficial also in view of the issues of sustainability. even when people are trained in 'a western way', taught skills do not necessary remain or are appropriated. a person often refers to situational, existential thinking instead of categorical, essentialist thinking, referring to the way it was, especially when under pressure (luria, 1976). it is questionable if sustainability of intervention can be secured when underlying research processes are not in tune with local culture. there appears little study in the scholastic world of the possible benefits of using oral characteristics in research. findings in primary oral cultures could be relevant to the second orality, instigated through pervasive computing, omnipresent telephones and emerging video cultures. of course, there also exist real, large draw backs for using oral culture. for instance, there is real complexity of processes. however, applicability of results and ethical alignment are considerably enhanced by appropriate use of orality. there is much room for research reviewing the effects of cultural specific social constructions like science and technologies, literacy and languages, and research methodologies themselves, in light of existing and diverse cultural realities. such studies are much needed now that internet and travel connect societies at an ever-increasing pace. insights will be enhanced through conceptualization of interactions, also through assessment of the fast growing transcribed multimedia repository of electronic data like podcasts or videos created by focus groups and community radio, produced in transparent ways whilst leaving community records. conclusion this paper substantiates the use of orality in research methodology. it shows how adherence to methodological research using orality is taking place in the rural community of macha. it was found that the cultural specificity of text-based, english-language and overly-rational methodologies are ill-suited for interpreting realities in rural macha, while significant benefits are shown when data is kept in the oral, traditional realm. also, it was found that processing of the data done in oral-culture equivalents produces worthwhile outcomes. this paper makes the case for the excitatory potential of oral data, and its usefulness, and offers assertions that point to the existence of entities of data that currently are mostly omitted or even excluded in (multi)disciplinary science. even during transition periods, the role of orality remains significant. as oral cultures have a different way of assimilating technology, this fact must be taken into account in the design of sustainable technological and other interventions in rural africa. acknowledgement the author is grateful to the rural community of macha which includes him and his family in their society. their patience and willingness to withstand all the questions, probing, and conceptualizations are true witness to the strength of community. gratitude to sally green, joseph mutale, fred mweetwa, gerard van oortmerssen, veljko pejovic, and tony roberts, for valuable comments, observations and editing remarks during the process of producing this document. so i wrote. references bets, j., van stam, g., and voorhoeve, a. (2012). “modeling and practise of integral development in rural zambia. case macha.,” africomm. bingham, a. (n.d.). "review of walter j. ong’s orality and literacy." brewer, e., demmer, m., ho, m., honicky, r. j., pal, j., plauche, m., & surana, s. (2006). "the challenges of technology research for developing regions." ieee pervasive computing, 5(2). chafe, w. l. (1982). "integration and involvement in speaking, writing, and oral literature." spoken and written language: exploring orality and literature. chenitz, w. c., & swanson, j. m. (1986). "from practice to grounded theory." addison-wesley publishing company. gitau, s., plantinga, p., & diga, k. (2010). 'ictd research by africans: origins, interests, and impact." ictd. london. glaser, b., & strauss, a. (1967). "the discovery of grounded theory: strategy for qualitative research." aldine publications. goody, j. (1968). "literacy in traditional societies." (j. goody, ed.). cambridge university press. johnson, d., pejovic, v., belding, e. m., & van stam, g. (2011). "traffic characterization and internet usage in rural africa." proceedings of www, march 2011, hyderabad, india. khoza, r. (2005). "let africa lead: african transformational leadership for 21st century business." south africa: vezubuntu. kirk, j., & miller, m. l. (1985). "reliability and validity in qualitative research (qualitative research methods)." sage publications. luria, a. r. (1976). "cognitive development: its cultural and social foundations." harvard university press. matthee, k., mweemba, g., pais, a., van stam, g., & rijken, m. (2007). "bringing internet connectivity to rural zambia using a collaborative approach." international conference on information and communication technologies and development. ieee. ong, w. j. (1982). "orality and literacy: the technologizing of the word." methuen. van oortmerssen, g. (2007). "sustainable progress." caets. sayed, s., singh, a., saad-sulonen, j., & diaz, l. (2011). "co-construction as complex adaptive system." the journal of community informatics, 6(2). sheneberger, k., & van stam, g. (2011). "relatio: an examination of the relational dimension of resource allocation." economics and finance review, 1(4). van stam, g. (2011). "placemark." macha: gertjan van stam. van stam, g., & van oortmerssen, g. (2010). "macha works!" frontiers of society on-line. raleigh. trochim, w. m. k. (2006). "the research methods knowledge base." atomic dog publishing. tutu, d. (1999). "no future without forgiveness." new york: doubleday. waterman, j. t. (1956). "ferdinand de saussure forerunner of modern structuralism." modern language journal, 40(6), 307–309. 1390-7964-2-ce the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 editorial agency and informatics this, the latest issue of the journal of community informatics, brings a variety of research on underserved communities around the world. while this is not unusual, as the mandate of ci is precisely to work towards a better understanding of and greater opportunities for such communities, it is interesting that the particular assemblage of papers collected in this issue reflects the realities of our changing, unstable, shared community, i.e. our planet. the importance of talking, as means and also as an end, is presented in wollersheim, koh, walker, and liamputtong’s paper on unlimited phone service for refugee women in melbourne, australia. the simple act of talking with loved ones or friends, and the freedom that communication on one’s own terms provide, serves to increase individual agency, critical for people suffering dis-empowerment who have little if any support or trust available networks. here, technology enhances life, but it is the action of providing technology that actually produces change, showing that democratizing access remains an issue requiring work. the same issue of agency but in a different context brings rose, racadio, martin, girard, and kolko’s work on the usage of mass public transportation in seattle, usa. their analysis suggests that systems design can be strengthened by considering the needs arising from the lived experiences of the users, who constitute in many countries a group with lower incomes and lesser means than those not using public transportation. the categories of agency are not just positive ones, for example resourcefulness and reciprocity, but powerlessness is also considered. in many countries the telecenter strategy has less relevance than some years ago, or even has been discontinued completely as technology became more readily accesible in many regions. eduardo villanuevamansilla editor in chief, the journal of community informatics evillan@pucp.pe !1 villanueva-mansilla, e. (2017). agency and informatics (editorial). the journal of community informatics, 13(1), 1—3. date submitted: 2017-04-13. date accepted: 2017-04-22. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1390 . http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1300/1247 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1300/1247 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1262/1241 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1262/1241 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1390 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1390 mailto:evillan@pucp.pe the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 however there are still lessons to be learnt from the practice and experience of this specific development associated with ci from the earliest implementations. under the title of community technology / multimedia centers, these common facilities are the focus of both jayakar and grzeslo’s article and cumbula, sabiescu and cantoni’s case study. while the latter reports on a specific and successful south-north collaboration, the former is an assessment of income levels as a function of ctc usage. this connects easily with teeters’ case study on the application of ictd tenets in the usa. her work provides a model based on community health workers, or promotoras, that identifies the main aspects to take into account when designing such projects under the ictd guise. design is also the concern of thinyane’s paper on mobisam, a tool for participation in local governments in south africa, with consideration of not only common factors like education and awareness-raising interventions but also external conditions sometimes left out of the equation such as political stability and communication capacity. three papers confront three very different issues important to those working in the field or doing research with communities, from quite different angles. johnson and sieber approach mapping, a process that has become common thanks to the mass availability of commercial applications on both computers and smartphones, recognizing at the same time how mapping is often under the control of the corporations running the show with these technologies. the geoweb, as a specific implementation of geospatial data tools with the potential to allow development of local applications of many kinds, is presented through two projects in quebec, canada, that showcase its potential and the best practices for using such tools successfully. one promise of technology, of informatics, is to allow people to express themselves. digital storytelling is a significant field of inquiry in the digital media curriculum, and lorini, sabiescu and memarovic’s paper offers an approach for how to use it to enhance participation in co-design initiatives, with local underserved communities. an issue present since the earliest implementations of digital systems is how written text is represented differently from traditional standards as taught in schools, and as considered “proper” writing. non-standard typography demands learning but it is also a new resource, as contended by zelenkauskaite and gonzales, signaling “the knowledge of discourse norms ascribed to texting in a community.” last but not least: thematically an outlier, the final article of this issue offers a view of the journal itself: a bibliometrics and altimetric study of 12 years of dissemination of knowledge on communities and informatics. naudea and van biljon’s contribution allows us, as the editorial team of joci, to ponder our performance. for the reader at large, it offers an approach to understanding the impact of joci that may not replace some of the popular indexes that academia is demanding more often and more forcefully all over the world, but that at least provides a picture of the way the journal is being read and used by the ci community. i do expect it to be illustrative and suggestive. the articles in this issue all reflect on the issue of agency, both individual and collective, which is also a question still in need of debate not only for ci purposes but !2 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1304/1248 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1209/1239 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1311/1242 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1280/1240 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1340/1244 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1362/1245 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1330/1243 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1378/1246 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 also for the larger discussion on “development.” who is the subject of development? if individuals, who benefits from investing in social resources? if discussing the collective, where does the individual belong, if not under the bulk of generalizations brought by sophisticated but reductive indicators and indexes? a matter not to be ignored, and a challenge for further discussion in this journal. *** this new volume of the journal completes a transition started about a year ago. a new editorial team, together with a single editorial board, share the mission of continuing the work started by michael gurstein now our editor emeritus. while michael will continue to be involved in the field sharing his ideas through this medium, the managing of the journal is now in the combined hands of the new editorial team. we expect to continue strengthening the end-product, at all levels, while making the processes of submission and review as efficient as possible. one of our goals is to guarantee regularity and increase response time for reviewing, something that may be more complicated than it sounds. joci, of course, will continue to be an open, free journal, something achieved through your participation and commitment to share and disseminate the work of our contributors. we will also continue to combine regular issues, like this one, with special issues dedicated to emerging or critical themes related to the community informatics field, from the widest possible interpretation of the concept. this means that we will continue seeking partnerships with interested parties to define new special issues. if you, as a reader, think that this journal is potentially an interesting partner for your subject, please contact us. !3 <h2 id="article-title">roadblocks and resolutions in the technological journey</h2> <p id="author">norma j. linton, phd<br /> graduate school of library and information science,<br /> university of illinois, urbana-champaign</p> <img class="figure" title="photograph taken in 2008 by norma j. linton with the permission of the flamingo park resident whose hands are pictured." src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3060/version/2101/3966/15715/779-4613-1-le_html_m10363adf.jpg" alt="photograph taken in 2008 by norma j. linton with the permission of the flamingo park resident whose hands are pictured." name="graphics1" align=bottom width=485 height=329 border=0></p> <p class="caption">a park resident at her keyboard</p> <h3>introduction and context</h3> <p> throughout a twelve-year period, from 1996 through 2008, i conducted an ethnographic study of the uses of information and communication technologies in a u.s. retirement community. my qualitative approach employed the methods of participant observation, extended interviews and hands-on assistance in the form, for example, of computer tutoring. this retirement community, which i call &ldquo;flamingo park&rdquo; (a pseudonym), is in a southern state of the u.s.a. it has approximately 1000 resident members whose average age in the early years of 2000 was 85. </p> <p> flamingo park is an adults-only, continuing care residential community comprised of middle class individuals who live in either small cottages or several apartment buildings. the community is far removed from my place of residence which made fieldwork challenging. for the convenience of research participants and researcher alike, i conducted the study using a protocol that i call &ldquo;intermittent immersion.&rdquo; this entailed periodic visits of residing in the park for one to two weeks approximately averaging once a year. in between visits, contact was maintained with primary participants via various communication devices, such as telephones, and postal and electronic mail. participants entered and dropped out (due to illness or death) of the study at various times during the twelve-year research period. i ended formal data collection in 2008 but by virtue of my continuing contact with some members of the research population, informal data collection continued through 2011. </p> <p> in 1995-96, a few of the flamingo park residents formed a computer club for the express purpose of exploring this technology. i was befriended by a club member in 1996, while visiting in the park, and was thereby drawn into the computer club world. [1] thus began what became an ongoing interaction with some of the flamingo park residents who were aspiring computer users. several dozen individuals aged 70 and above were willing, over the course of twelve and a half years, to share their thoughts and feelings with me about the culture of the park and the role of information and communications technologies (i-c technology) [2] in their lives. by the time i concluded active data collecting, my core participants were in their mid-80s to late 90s and i was in my late 60s. </p> <p> [for a more comprehensive description of my research design, methodology and analysis, link to &ldquo;a design for qualitative research&rdquo; at:] <a href="https://webmail.illinois.edu/owa/redir.aspx?c=90334defb09f4404bf74a23dbb1340a5&amp;url=http%3a%2f%2fhdl.handle.net%2f2142%2f26600"> http://hdl.handle.net/2142/26600</a>.</p> <p> as a result of this prolonged period of interaction i had ample opportunity to observe the evolution and&mdash;in many cases&mdash;the devolution of the park residents&rsquo; i-c technology explorations. i began this study with a focus on the content of computing&mdash;on the information that older adult users might obtain that could enhance their wellbeing. i envisioned information in categories such as health, finance, creative pursuits, interpersonal communication, and entertainment/games. eventually i discovered that information <span style="font-style:italic">per se</span> was not the only, or necessarily the most relevant, issue with regard to computing technology. consider the conundrum of the novice user in the mid-1990s (when web browsers were in their incipient and less robust stages) as expressed by this exchange in one of my interviews:</p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">q: &ldquo;what information do you hope to find with your computer?&rdquo; </span></p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">a: &ldquo;i don&rsquo;t know, i don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s on there. and i don&rsquo;t know how to get there.&rdquo; </span> </p> <p> hearing similar sentiments from more than one research participant, i began to realize that my <span style="font-style:italic">what </span>question was not as germane as a variety of <span style="font-style:italic">how</span> questions. how were beginning computer users going to discover what computers had in the way of information or applications that were useful for them? how were they going to learn of <span style="font-style:italic">any</span> benefits they might have? and it is the <span style="font-style:italic">how</span> questions that are especially significant for the oldest of our citizens. once young computing aspirants envision the what question, the how does not seem particularly puzzling. they are in school, they take courses, they imitate their friends and peers, they &ldquo;look over the shoulders&rdquo; (twidale 2006) of their colleagues, or they ask their local help desks. for senior citizens, many of whom are retirees, a portion of whom are living in age-limited communities, the resources for major task learning may not be well integrated into their environments.</p> <p> in flamingo park in the mid-1990s, for example, there were no communal provisions such as a public space with accessible computers for learning about the digital technology that was being promoted by mass media. in order to explore this mystery several dozen residents banded together to help each other learn about computing. only a portion of them owned computers, but all were curious. initially, the information that they most eagerly sought was <span style="font-style:italic">how to use the machine</span>. one of my roles in the research in flamingo park was to assist the computing efforts of anyone who asked for help. this took place both at computer club meetings and in the homes of individual members. as we worked together, i learned of the many challenges that confronted these older learners. equally noteworthy were the strategies that they devised to resolve the dilemmas that arose in the course of this journey on which they had embarked. </p> <p> these roadblocks and the attempted resolutions for overcoming them are described in the following two sections. with concrete examples, these descriptions constitute a summary of one aspect of my study findings. in order to substantiate the observations, i refer often to specific research participants [3]. the backgrounds of these participants [4] are briefly sketched in appendix 1. the sketches offer an insight into their technological interests and concerns and can serve as a context for this discussion. in the subsequent four sections i consider the ramifications for elder computer users of resolving technological roadblocks.</p> <h3>roadblocks in the path of i-c technology use</h3> <p> there were myriad ways in which the computing progress of computer club members was stymied, slowed down, or even reversed. these setbacks, problems and impediments were met with a wide range of responses, including: frustration, resignation, anger, humor, curiosity, confusion and puzzlement. beginning users tended to blame themselves rather than their machines and thereby absorbed more than a fair share of psychic blows. </p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">1. ill-defined purpose for computer</span></p> <p> flamingo park resident, al swenson, told me in a 1999 interview that people his age should not acquire a computer until or unless they had a clearly defined purpose in mind for its use. the absence of a clear vision of use or of an informed understanding of the function of computers was one reason for the self-described failure in the computing efforts of five or six members of my research population. laslo unterweg, helmut rossler and myrtle likert, for example, had had no previous experience with these devices and were mainly motivated by curiosity stimulated by mass media. although neva evans, too, was moved by curiosity, hers was primed by the demonstration of her grandson&rsquo;s apple computer&mdash;a more personal connection. furthermore, she had a strong system of defense against potential failure, unlike several of the men who believed that they should, by virtue of previous careers, be able to master this next generation of technology. barbara howard, like several women in this study, used her computer initially and occasionally as a glorified typewriter although the &lsquo;glory&rsquo; part of that concept faded as word processing programs increased in complexity.</p> <p> those who had some concrete tasks in mind were less disappointed with their computing endeavors. sam dunlop&rsquo;s purpose was to use the computer to obtain information about a new creative pursuit like designing invitations or in the service of his already established one of making leaded glass panels. al swenson himself, one of the most accomplished computer users in the park, had many visions of how this technology could improve his life. but his computer explorations had a deeper underlying motivation, and that was his strong desire to teach others. it was in order to satisfy this drive that he continued searching for new computer applications that he could share with others. nearly everyone whom i met used their computers&mdash; on however limited a basis&mdash;for electronic communication, but for a fair number of owners, e-mail was more a novelty than a reliable means of staying connected with significant people in their lives. in no small measure, this was a result of poor online connections, but there were a variety of other reasons such as a distaste for typing, distrust of the safety of the &ldquo;www,&rdquo; the desire to <span style="font-style:italic">hear</span> the voices of their family members, and their lack of understanding of how to use the mail programs. except for al, few people used the internet with any regularity during the beginning years of my study, nor did they evidence a clear concept of how it might be of use to them.</p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">2. inability or refusal to redefine computer functions</span></p> <p> several individuals were reluctant to embrace the computer as an information resource. don mcdonald had long used a pc for entering data related to his sales work and &ldquo;loved computers&rdquo; as an apparatus that helped his business. however he looked askance at the &lsquo;crazed&rsquo; internet trawlers he believed many of the club members to be and wanted nothing to do with &ldquo;it.&rdquo; some of the women who were comfortable with word processors were reluctant to stretch their use of computers beyond that. marion probst&rsquo;s attempts to explore the internet were half hearted, and she was content to use her new, expensive mac as a home filing system. [5] will mahler&rsquo;s wife, winnie, who conducted family business on her word processor, was firm in her refusal to use will&rsquo;s computer although she would read printouts of their children&rsquo;s e-mail. this was so even after i showed her several excellent sites related to her strong botanical interests. she had for too long trusted books for any information she desired and did not wish to abandon this resource format. </p> <p> 3. <span style="font-style:italic">overestimation of machine intelligence </span> </p> <p> both laslo unterweg and helmut rossler apparently thought that a computer would bring order to their lives and &ldquo;organize things,&rdquo; as they said. they did not anticipate the amount of micromanaging of the machine that would be entailed. theirs was evidently a future concept of a time when one could say to&mdash;or with a single key stroke command&mdash;the machine, &ldquo;do this for me, retrieve this file for me, systematize these records for me and tell me when/what i need to do with them.&rdquo; they, of course, were not the only ones in the park to be daunted by the many things that had to be done to and for their computers to accomplish even simple tasks. many users found it impossible to either remember the start-up strategies of the computing process or to then build on them. the difficulty of the matter is well expressed in an article by interface design scholars:</p> <blockquote> automation, iteration and branching get to the heart of computing, both the power and the complexity of programming. no matter how helpful, congenial, benign or graphical the interface, once these features are available, end users are in some way programming and will need to acquire the basic concepts of trying to plan for unexpected and unwanted outcomes such as dead ends, anomalous inputs and outputs and appropriate termination. (twidale and jones, 2005, 71) </blockquote> <p> the elderly &ldquo;end users&rdquo; whom i interviewed did not&mdash;with one or two notable exceptions&mdash;have the ability to tailor computer applications to suit their needs. furthermore, they had already contended with sufficient amounts of unwanted outcomes and dead ends in the course of their long lives and could hardly relish being in the vicinity of such mishaps in the digital realm.</p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">4. lack of support</span></p> <p> there were some park residents who were unable to marshal any useful support for their computing efforts. primary reasons for this were inadequate social skills within the park context, a lack of strong family ties, or the inability to make use of the resources at hand (such as the computer club) due to either cognitive or physical limitations. unfortunately, laslo uunterweg suffered from all of these conditions. his deteriorating vision and hearing eventually prevented him from attending computer club meetings, he was estranged from his one close relative and his personality was out of sync with the typical park resident. by nature, he was a loner and disinclined to ask for help from other park computer users. two other men in my study, sam dunlop and nelson jones were, like laslo, severely hindered by poor vision and, in nelson&rsquo;s case, by poor hearing as well. however, the two of them had very close family ties in the form of nearby children or, in nelson&rsquo;s case, a younger, healthier wife, and both men had outgoing personalities and positive worldviews. it was their family support that enabled their continued computer use, however limited that might become.</p> <p> another enthusiastic technology explorer, dr. querengasser, lost most of his social support system when he was transferred to the nursing care center (ncc) as a result of his parkinson&rsquo;s disease. once his wife subsequently died, he was completely bereft of support since many of his fellow ncc residents were beyond the ability to converse coherently and few if any of them shared his interest in the computer he brought with him to his room there. his children did not live nearby nor visit often so i was the only person with whom he could converse about technology for any length of time. during my visits to his room, he and i made a few trial runs on his computer and it was apparent to me that with patient guidance, he would have been able to use it, albeit in a different capacity than before. his would be the very circumstance in which an interventionist use of assistive technology&mdash;such as a specially adapted pc&mdash;would be warranted.</p> <p> myrtle likert, one of the longest of park residents, had never married and had lived alone for many years after the death of her mother. although her hearing and vision, at age 97, were quite good, myrtle started her computer explorations at the rather late age of 88 and had not been able to crack the computing code, so to speak. she was clearly beset by a weakened inhibitory control system, resulting in her inability to focus on one aspect of a computing task at a time. she had outlived the friends she once had in the park and seemed unable to attract any others. </p> <p> not all support problems stemmed from a <span style="font-style:italic">lack</span> of a friend or partner. in some instances close family members exhibited negative emotions towards the new technological &lsquo;member&rsquo; of the household or towards any voiced interest in computing. several non-computing spouses made known their feelings about being displaced as the center of attention through on-going joking. neva evans&rsquo;s husband, peter, felt so threatened by computers that she had to tiptoe around the subject and actually hid her computer. she might have given up her learning efforts were it not for her overwhelming curiosity about this technology. </p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">5. inability to learn the language of computing</span></p> <p> one of my study hypotheses was that computing technology comprised a language&mdash;one that has not only a new vocabulary in the form of a technical jargon, but also its own syntax, including many distinctive verbs. i also suggested that language acquisition becomes increasingly difficult as people age. some scholars continue to find the theory of critical learning useful to explain this difficulty:</p> <blockquote>childhood is the time for learning. many cognitive and motor skills are gained quickly during childhood and are not mastered as easily if the learning process begins later. developmental neurobiologists are keenly interested in this &ldquo;window&rdquo; of opportunity. . . . recent work on the acquisition of language has underscored how profoundly early neuronal activity can influence the organization of the brain. . . . if a child learns a second language early in life, both the native and second language are represented in the same cortical region. in contrast, when a second language is acquired in adulthood, a new language center that is clearly separated from the native language center is established in the cortex. although these findings do not yet explain why young children are able to learn a new language more easily than older individuals, they do support the findings that early experiences affect the way the brain develops (hockfield and lombroso 1998, 992, 93)</blockquote> <p> other research shows that language use, in general, is compromised in older adults due to inevitable cognitive changes. and language comprehension is likewise subject to the vagaries of aging:</p> <blockquote><p>in listening, when the pace is controlled by the speaker, older adults may have particular difficulty in understanding and retaining the information, especially as propositional density (ideas expressed per word) is increased or in noisy environments</p> <p>age-related declines in sensory processes and cognitive capacity impact the ability to derive meaning from text and spoken language, especially as syntactic structure becomes more complex or speech rate is increased. age-related declines also impact name retrieval and the syntactic complexity of production. </span>(stine-morrow and shake 2009, 339-341).</p></blockquote> <p> given the deterioration of even the primary language use in the aging individual, it seems reasonable to assume that undertaking the learning of another language constitutes an enormous challenge. most of the park individuals with whom i spoke despaired of ever learning computerese at even a rudimentary level. is the acquisition of the language an important component of using the technology effectively? with his references to &ldquo;controlling discourses&rdquo; and &ldquo;mastering the language of technology,&rdquo; one scholar suggests that it is. although he was speaking in broad terms in regard to multiple kinds of literacy, this statement is applicable to the specific task of learning computerese:</p> <blockquote>literacy is intimately bound up with language. we need to learn a language before we can become literate users of it and we use literacy as a way to learn other things through languages. </span>(bruce 1995, 10) </blockquote> <p> sam dunlop stated that he could not retain the sense of the words that were used to describe computer functions, implying that this problem constituted an impediment in his computer use and understanding. in the midst of trying to accomplish a computing task, neva evans was beset with terms that she only vaguely understood such as a &ldquo;flash thing&rdquo; or a &ldquo;flash plug in.&rdquo; when barbara howard misnamed a gift of a &ldquo;flash drive&rdquo; as a &ldquo;flush bar,&rdquo; did that make the difference in her understanding of its use? it might if she had tried an online search for that phrase. recalling new vocabulary words was not the only or even the heart of the matter for these computing aspirants. there were more important language learning components that were also missing such as repeated practice drills, use in context, having skilled teachers and a strong drive to learn new information. these flamingo park residents were not, after all, in school or at jobs six to eight hours a day. </p> <pstyle="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 150%; page-break-after: avoid"> <span style="font-style:italic">6. hindering help</span></p> <p> not all proffered help was helpful. early computer users are, understandably, influenced by the opinions of their significant others, their friends, instructors and helpers. what are they to do when these various agents offer conflicting opinions and advice? indeed, what are they to do in the face of the limited knowledge and skills of their informal tutors? neva evans&rsquo; companion, tally, was unafraid of the online world of commerce and enthusiastically conducted business via the internet which included gambling, trading with collectors, and transactions on ebay. on the other hand, neva&rsquo;s son-in-law (&ldquo;a computer genius&rdquo;) vehemently opposed personal exposure in the realm of the internet. and, when these two men created a &ldquo;his and hers&rdquo; desktop/computer environment on neva&rsquo;s computer, she was often buffaloed by how to get into &ldquo;hers.&rdquo; </p> <p> several of the male tutors in the park like sturgis johnson had a &lsquo;my way or the highway&rsquo; attitude and discouraged their acolytes from getting second opinions or taking computing advice from others. the early leaders of the computer club, don mcdonald and al swenson, insisted that the members all have the same kinds of services and equipment so that they could more easily trouble shoot for them. i joked with club members about being &ldquo;aol zombies,&rdquo; which reflected my misgivings about the manner in which they were locked into a rigid set of reduced choices. in the interest of facilitating group instruction individual needs were not always met. thus, club members who did not own pcs or subscribe to aol were usually on their own simply because al and don did not know other systems. </p> <p> there was confusion in the wake of tutors who took command of the machines of others, often changing the appearance and/or functions of a user&rsquo;s machine. when trouble-shooting remotely (as sturgis did for barbara howard and an outside tutor wanted to do for other park residents in 2009), the user could be unclear as to how a problem was solved and thereby distanced from the process of computing. when such proxies sent e-mail on behalf of an incapacitated user, the latter lost privacy and autonomy and, possibly, her/his virtual community. and for some categories of computer users in the park, there was no reliable help at all; this was especially true for apple/mac users, who were regarded by club members as another specimen of exotic park fauna.</p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">7. computing despite technology</span></p> <p> manufacturers of soft/hardware act, no doubt, with the belief that their products aid in the process of using i-c technologies. however, their rapidly changing iterations foiled many of the flamingo park computer users who could not keep up with them and who resented being confronted with continuous learning curves. <font color="#000000">the necessity of having to switch&mdash;when her computer had to be replaced&mdash;from a windows xp to the vista operating system wreaked havoc on barbara howard&rsquo;s mind, from which she never fully recovered. this event was the beginning of the end for her&mdash;one of the most persevering computer users in the park. changes in operating systems, interface designs, peripherals and levels of program complexity test the abilities of many computer users. but when present <span style="font-style:italic">in conjunction</span> with the aging bodies and brains of older users, the demand is a formidable one. </p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">8. failure of embedment </span> </p> <blockquote>the domestic space can be described in terms of three main elements: social space, technological space and physical space. . . . the technological space consists of the household technologies that are embedded in the physical space and used by the members of the family as part of the social space. (vankatesh, chen and gonzalez 2006, 110-11)</blockquote> <p> very few computer owners in the park placed their computers in the shared spaces of the household such as the living room. helmut rossler was a notable exception and one or two others, such as laslo uunterweg, did not always tuck their machines &lsquo;out of sight.&rsquo; since these early computers were large desktop models that required more than one person to set up, they tended to stay put, once situated. an initial misplacement, however, could interfere with changing computer needs. this occurred, for instance, in the cooper household when marvin cooper lost interest in using the computer that had been placed in the sun porch, which doubled as a tv room. as his attention shifted to watching tv at increasingly louder volumes, mary cooper was unable to concentrate on her tasks at the computer. contrariwise, helmut could never &lsquo;forget&rsquo; about his computer as it was front and center in his primary living space. perhaps it was too present, silently reprimanding him in front of others for his technological stumbles. </p> <p> if, on the other hand, a computer was too discretely placed out of sight, it might become out-of-mind for the potential user. in myrtle likert&rsquo;s cottage her computer was rendered almost invisible as it became surrounded by cardboard boxes that overflowed with her collected &lsquo;treasures.&rsquo; occasionally, park residents had to pack up their possessions and disrupt their routines. this happened to many people in the wake of changes in the zoning codes of the city in which the park was located. cottages had to be remodeled and their inhabitants temporarily or permanently relocated. this remodeling-induced relocation was hard on laslo because it took months to resettle him and during that time, his computer along with his treasured scientific tools were inaccessible. sometimes, park residents voluntarily relocated when better cottages became available. the mahlers chose to switch cottages for a better view, but once will mahler&rsquo;s computer was boxed up it took him the better part of a year to organize his things and reconnect it. during this time, he seemingly got out of the habit of computing and (apparently) never returned to using it as frequently as before. </p> <p> the most painful kind of relocation for park residents was the downsizing of a household in the wake of a spouse&rsquo;s death or due to the need for assistance in daily living. with severe space limitations residents were hard pressed to include large computing systems, nor could all of them afford to replace them with smaller models. [6] of the five individuals who did bring their computers with them to the assisted living building, two used them very little. all things considered, i would argue that the computing technology of many park residents did not achieve embeddedness and therefore cannot be seen as truly domesticated. </p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">9. loss of primary support system: the old vs. new computer club</span></p> <p> the computer club was a major source of support in its first years of existence in the 1990s. but as the years went by and members gained experience, they wanted more from the club than it could provide. even in the beginning it was not intended to serve as a training venue. after the initial meeting that attracted more than one hundred attendees, interest in the club dropped off sharply and soon consisted of a core of thirty to forty attendees&mdash;a miniscule percent of the total park population of almost one thousand. the probable reason for this lack of attendance was because most people had hoped for hands-on instruction rather than don mcdonald&rsquo;s &lsquo;under the hood&rsquo; expositions (although this did attract some of the male members). at first, the club didn&rsquo;t even have a computer on which to demonstrate functions. as al swenson pointed out, the club was not a class; it was just a club&mdash;in his view, a &ldquo;comedy club.&rdquo; many club attendees, however, tried to treat the club as a class in the absence of other options. there was also a core group that continued to meet for the socializing it provided even though their computer use was not thereby advanced. </p> <p> by 2004, al and don had grown tired of trying to find new topics of interest and they turned the leadership over to a younger man, george brinkley, just as the club meeting location was moved to a new building. that core group of old club members soon found that the cozy ambiance provided by don and al&rsquo;s jocularity was missing. some of them were deterred from attending by the longer distance to the new building. the men with vision and hearing problems said that the lighting and introduction of amplification in the new meeting room bothered them. the second-generation leaders of the club held meetings monthly instead of weekly and not at all during the summer. furthermore, a younger cohort of residents with a possibly more advanced level of i-c technology experience began attending meetings. thus, on every dimension, the original members were distanced from the familiar face(s) of the computer club. they had lost a cherished part of their social network even as they, by virtue of aging, were becoming frail.</p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">10. absence of good infrastructure in the park </span> </p> <p> early i-c technology adopters are, to begin with, alone within the greater social order. without the support of other users of an interactive technology, they have no communication partners and there is little impetus for the provision or broadening of an infrastructure to support the technology. this &ldquo;critical mass&rdquo; phenomenon (markus 1987) was operative in flamingo park for at least the first decade of the computer club&rsquo;s existence. although repeatedly frustrated in his attempts to make park administrators aware of the need for technological infrastructure beyond telephones, al swenson kept trying. the park wasted many years before it arranged for the at-your-elbow help barbara howard and others needed to progress with their computing. it wasn&rsquo;t until the club had attracted a regular attendance of thirty or so individuals that park administrators in the late 1990s arranged for a larger room, a projection screen and a single, used computer to be available for the club. it took another couple of years to arrange for an internet connection. </p> <p> around 2004, or eight years after the inception of the computer club, park administrators were persuaded by club members to provide a few items of equipment such as a proper computer projection system. in order to raise money to purchase a new computer, club members conducted raffles for lesser items. the room in which this equipment was located was not a dedicated space for the club, and the computer equipment was locked up between meetings. unlike some other retirement communities, the administrators of flamingo park did not provide public computers for use by residents who did not own them. and in the absence of such a computing center, there was no programmed instruction of a hands-on nature. had the park directors had a more visionary view or understanding of i-c technology, many more park residents might have learned to use computers or at least have gained some acquaintanceship with the phenomena that mass media outlets were promoting. </p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">11. traumatic life changes and physical decline</span></p> <p> the deaths of their wives had drastic impacts on the computer use of several husbands. helmut rossler&rsquo;s chronic depression deepened after his wife&rsquo;s death and his subsequent move to the assisted living building. although he took his computer with him, he rarely used it and he did not take it to the nursing care center once transferred there, where he spoke only of waiting to die. the death of dr. querengasser&rsquo;s wife after he was transferred to the nursing care center added to his isolation and lessening of interest in all things. illness and sensory loss also impacted use, as was the case with several of the men suffering from macular degeneration. cognitive decline resulted in the loss of interest in computing by a number of the research participants. the burden of taking care of ill spouses was another reason for a disruption in computer use.</p> <p> [the following figure summarizes interviewee computer use by household, as well as changes in their household locations and health conditions throughout the research period.]</p> <p align="center"> <img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3060/version/2101/3966/15722/779-4613-1-le_html_md460eb9.jpg" name="graphics2" align=middle width=719 height=719 border=0></p> <h3>resolutions and partial solutions for roadblocks</h3> <p> efforts by these older explorers to solve technological problems and improve their computer use did not always achieve the desired result. nonetheless, the following set of attempted strategies and work-arounds demonstrate the strong desire by many club members to acquaint themselves with the technological advances of their society. for other members, however, the best solution they found for their aggravation was to walk away from the computer. </p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">1. opting out</span></p> <p> a few of the computer club attendees quietly stopped computing. will mahler and myrtle likert are examples of individuals who simply decided to occupy themselves with other tasks that they reportedly found satisfying. for myrtle it was collecting and shopping at the park resale store, and for will it was attending to his voluminous postal mail and watching old movies on tv. will insisted, however, that his computing days were not necessarily over, and myrtle&rsquo;s computer remained plugged into the power strip. other participants, such as laslo unterweg, stopped their active computer use with vociferous denunciations about the failed promise of the technology. </p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">2. redoubling effort</span></p> <p> there were a sparse number of individuals like barbara howard, who decided, despite major setbacks and health crises, to keep trying to remain active computer users and explorers. getting back to her computer became barbara&rsquo;s primary motivation for enduring the many months of therapy following several major surgeries and at least three strokes in her late 80s and early 90s. for her, multiple roadblocks constituted additional but worthwhile challenges to be added onto that of computing. to augment her own mighty efforts barbara invited help from all and sundry, including her visiting children, park acquaintances and special friends like sturgis johnson or myself. al swenson, as the most experienced computer user he knew in the park, was more alone in solving his problems. his computer gave up the ghost in 2008 when al was 91 and in declining health. nevertheless, he expended considerable quantities of his waning stamina and mental acuity wading through a four-day morass of india-based help agents (whom he could not hear or understand) and restored it to a functional state. this took place six months before his death. </p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">3. employing former and adjacent technologies/skills.</span></p> <p> helmut rossler used his knowledge of videography to try to understand computer functions. he videotaped his niece using e-mail, focusing his camera on her hands on the keyboard and her narrated step-by-step account. he thereby achieved a modicum of success, though short-lived and ultimately frustrated. as former ham radio operators, al swenson and mervin cooper approached computers in part as a substitute technology for long distance communication and were able to embrace this promise via e-mail. but it was the advent of skype that really excited al and inspired his enthusiastic use; it had the component that he was missing in e-mail&mdash;the human voice of his ham days. for nelson jones, the computer was just one more gadget to play with. he was the first to mount a camera on top of his desktop machine and tinkered with every application he came across including voice recognition software in the late 1990s. as his vision failed, nelson augmented his eyesight with binoculars; to soften screen glare, he wore a visor. he figured out early on how to enlarge font within computer texts such as e-mail, and he continually searched for devices that would allow him to continue to use his computing equipment. </p> <p> whereas keyboarding proved a deterrent for some beginning computer users, those who were already accomplished typists could relate to that aspect of computing with ease. for the most part these were women such as barbara howard, marion probst, mary cooper and carmen nouvel. however, al swenson expressed gratitude for a high school teacher who had once made him take a typing class, declaring that this ability facilitated his computer use and that the lack of this skill hindered his male friends. don mcdonald was comfortable with computing devices; his dos-based pc served his data entry needs adequately. although he eschewed the internet and its suspicious contents, he eventually warmed up to the idea of electronic mail and when he found a service for it that did not include a web browser, he signed on. had he not mastered the elemental function of a data processing machine, he would never (i suggest) have experimented with the next incarnation of computers&mdash;as a communication or information resource; indeed, it took him a decade from the time he started the computer club to take that step.</p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">4. building on existing interests and life practices</span></p> <p> the card game of solitaire&mdash;widely known by u.s. adults&mdash;was reportedly included in the applications of an omnipresent operating system for computers in order to &lsquo;train&rsquo; novice users on how to manipulate a mouse. this worked quite well for many computer club members such as nelson jones, neva evans, and laslo uunterweg, to name a few. alas, several of these members, including laslo, did not master other computing applications nearly so well. in fact, playing solitaire was the only computer function laslo liked. however, half a dozen men enjoyed the game of flight simulator which appealed to the life experiences of three former pilots and several engineers. </p> <p> a large number of women, some of whom had little interest in the internet, were enthusiastic about making greeting cards with cd-rom programs because the sending of greetings was an activity with which they were already familiar. similarly, the ability to type with fancy fonts and print onto decorated paper appealed to those who were used to sending holiday letters. mary cooper was excited about extending her penchant for scrap booking with the aid of her computer and created professional quality scrapbooks for each of her grandchildren. she surmounted&mdash;with the help of her children&mdash;what she considered to be a fairly steep learning curve in the mastery of scanning and page layout design with which she was experienced in paper form. many men laid aside the <span style="font-style:italic">wall st. journal</span> and used their computers to check on their stock portfolios; a portion of them never did anything else online.</p> <p> for some club members the appeal of the internet (mostly e-mail) was heightened when they learned that it enabled them to enter a global network of their special interests. for the coopers, it was connecting with missionary workers affiliated with their church denomination. for dr. querengasser it was communicating with fellow therapists from around the world and for neva evans it was reuniting with old classmates. al swenson and other park men were delighted to discover online bridge games and barbara howard finally decided to pay for a more reliable internet connection when she discovered an online scrabble partner. marvin cooper and al were amazed to find that a network of ham operators was organized via the internet, and al engaged in conversations with these amateur radio operators in other countries. and, after twelve years of reluctance, even don mcdonald became interested in the net when he realized that he could thereby participate in prayer groups; in 2008 he asked al to help him establish a faster connection to get online. thus, strong interest in selected subjects eventually spurred some club members to seek assistance to overcome their disdain for or ineptitude in the realm of computing technology [7]. </p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">5. sequestration and kind-hearted subterfuge</span></p> <p> the integration of new technologies into a household entails the many factors that these authors mention:</p> <blockquote>as the computer technology diffuses and becomes gradually domesticated . . . we need to supplement traditional evaluation metrics, such as productivity and efficiency, with those that take into consideration aesthetics, convenience, family dynamics, and the social and emotional needs of household members.... (vankatesh, chen and gonzalez 2006,109) </blockquote> <p>the majority of computer club attendees set up their computer equipment in a second bedroom or on their enclosed sun porches. this spared the non-user of the household the sight of what for many spouses (both male and female) was a less than welcome guest. as marvin cooper lost interest in using their computer, mary cooper had it moved from their sun porch/tv room to a second bedroom&mdash;a quieter setting for her and removal of a distraction for him. the most pronounced case of sequestration was that of neva evans&rsquo; peripatetic laptop. while her husband, peter, was still alive, neva kept the offending instrument in a desk drawer and used it when he was not at home or was in another room. after peter died, neva&rsquo;s laptop moved out into the open space of her bedroom and eventually was allowed to migrate to her living room. her small laptop burgeoned into an adjacent and larger monitor set up as she developed a relationship with tally, another widowed park resident who was enthusiastic about computing. </p> <p> although some park couples enjoyed doing everything together, others were able to pursue their interests separately. some of the spouses of computer club attendees went to other club meetings or activities during its weekly meetings or simply stayed home. when neva&rsquo;s husband refused to return to a computer class they had attended together at a local community college, she later enrolled in other computer classes by herself. thus, some park residents managed to find a way to fly solo in pursuit of their tech interests while others did not or could not leave an ailing or unhappy spouse behind.</p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">6. life repositioning: loss and acquisition</span></p> <p> while no one obviously wished for the death of her/his spouse, it was apparent that this event proved ultimately liberating for some individuals&mdash;mostly for the women whose husbands had for years been experiencing physical and cognitive decline. marion probst, barbara howard, mary cooper and neva evans all expanded their computer use after the deaths of their husbands. this occurred for at least two reasons&mdash;as a means of distracting themselves from their grief and/or because their spouses&rsquo; disapproval (subtle or overt) was absent. in two instances, widowed women acquired new companions and in neva&rsquo;s case, her gentleman-friend increased and improved her computing. another life change that affected computer use was the geographic relocation of some residents&rsquo; children. such moves were often prompted by the declining health of a parent. when sam dunlop&rsquo;s daughter moved across the country to her father&rsquo;s town (his son already lived nearby) his diminished computer use was resuscitated during his children&rsquo;s frequent visits. in addition to helping him with his computer tasks, they jointly searched the internet on topics of interest and with great merriment they also merged computer searches with tv game show watching. </p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">7. family and friends</span></p> <p> no one i knew of in the park used his/her computer without periodic or even continuous help. family support was vital for many beginners. residents&rsquo; children donated cast-off computers to them and then dispatched <span style="font-style:italic">their</span> children to help the grandparents figure it out. of course, such help could be a mixed blessing since the younger generations had interests in and approaches to computing that were not always in line with those of older users. some park couples explored computing together, attending classes and giving each other moral support. if, as was usually the case, one partner became the dominant user the other tried to encourage and support her/his efforts. but other couples, such as neva and peter evans, did not achieve a meeting of the minds on the new technology. and, as neva once observed, when it was the male partner who was less interested or capable, he did not acquiesce quite so willingly as wives did to being &ldquo;left behind.&rdquo; these technologically &ldquo;decoupled&rdquo; individuals&mdash;like other park residents who were divorced, never married, and/or childless&mdash;had to rely on &ldquo;outside&rdquo; sources of support, such as other residents or classes. however, many of the park residents who attended courses offered at nearby schools or elder hostels reported them as less than ideal because there was too little carryover to the configurations of their home pcs. </p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">8. computer club and park classes</span></p> <p> thus, for a core of park computer users, the computer club became the mainstay for unseasoned and experienced residents alike. at their weekly meetings, attendees commiserated, struggled to mesh divergent interests and skills and watched each other come and go over the years. the co-leaders who kept it running were very instrumental in influencing new members&rsquo; choices of hard/software, much to the dismay of marion probst, initially the sole mac user/member, who had no one to talk to about her computing issues. co-director al swenson heavily promoted aol as an internet provider, although there were other options. a few of the members who early on discovered juno, a free service provider for e-mail, eventually switched to aol before juno included an internet browser in its services. barbara howard, for reasons of economy, was one of the last to join aol even though juno was unreliable as an internet provider. </p> <p> another influential voice was that of cody peabody, a middle aged, male tech tutor who came into the park to give talks at the club, hold occasional group classes, and offer individual computer trouble shooting for a fee of about $80 per hour. he counseled club members to use aol, yahoo and, by 2002, google for their internet explorations; apparently, he was rather dogmatic in his suggestions. for example, when i once suggested the search engine alta vista as an alternative to the hierarchical, indexed nature of yahoo, club members expressed doubt, explaining that cody had said they should all use the same thing so that he could help them better by keeping everyone on the same page. but such is the nature of &ldquo;help;&rdquo; it is constrained by the skills, knowledge and biases of those who provide it. as a fellow mac owner i tried to help marion with her computing questions and we often speculated about whether neva evans and other tech explorers would have had more gentle learning curves if they had not been discouraged from trying the apple operating system as had been neva&rsquo;s original desire. </p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">9. proxies</span></p> <p> when several study participants found themselves unable to use their computers but not yet willing to give up their computing personas, they turned their keyboards over to others who became their proxies either temporarily or permanently. laslo uunterweg&rsquo;s visiting secretary performed all of his important computing tasks with increasing frequency. she conducted his business, checked his stock portfolio, wrote his e-mail, and searched matters of interest under his direction and/or dictation. she and laslo were able to do so based on their complementary knowledge of the potential uses of the computing apparatus, which, in turn, rested on his personal experience of previous use. a similar situation existed in sam dunlop&rsquo;s &lsquo;household&rsquo; when his children used his computer on his behalf for a variety of purposes like sending e-mail to family members, executing print commands and the like. legally blind, sam requested this help and instructed them on the tasks. these examples are of <span style="font-style:italic">on-site</span> proxy computer use. there is also a <span style="font-style:italic">remote</span> proxy use now in effect as sturgis johnson and outside computer tutor, cody peabody &lsquo;take over&rsquo; the desktops of willing park residents. we might wonder, then, if barbara howard were to reach the point of inability (due to the increasing weakening of her hands, for example) to use <span style="font-style:italic">her</span> computer and directed sturgis in its use from <span style="font-style:italic">his</span> computer, what would become of her status as computer/i-c technology user? </p> <p> there are more temporary proxy-ships that generally do not negate primacy of use. whenever a computer tutor, computer club helper, or visiting family member took over the use of a resident&rsquo;s keyboard to instruct, solve a problem, etc., that too was a kind of proxy use. this typically short-term experience, however, did not obviate continued use by the computer owner. interesting questions arise with regard to proxies and computer use. if laslo, for example, is no longer able to see well enough to use his computer, do we subtract him from the pool of active users? or, do we take into account his directed use of his computer three times a week by his secretary? clearly, he is still&mdash;however indirectly&mdash;using his computer. thus, when considering the issue of i-c technologies in households, the concept of use should include that of proxies. this is a noteworthy issue for pollsters. </p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">10. warm vs. cold experts and directional help</span></p> <p> in many cases, the park computer users cared less about the content of computer club meetings and more about the group support which was the attraction that kept people attending. and equally important were the individualized, one-on-one, face-to-face, or side-by-side interactions among club members and with the co-directors that encouraged computing efforts in the face of perpetual frustration. this nurturing support was offered by what one researcher calls &ldquo;warm experts:&rdquo; </p> <blockquote>they possess the knowledge needed to operate with a reasonable degree of success in the world of technology, but, at the same time, they are part of the user&rsquo;s life-world and share experiences, interests and knowledge with them. taking this position allows the warm expert to mediate between the . . . overwhelmingly diverse content of the medium, on the one hand, and the novice user&rsquo;s concrete local situation, needs and background. (bakardjieva 2006, 101)</blockquote> <p> club members, park neighbors [8], family members and i all served as warm experts (or, at least, semi-experts) for many of the computer users. paid tutors from the outside, such as cody peabody, on the other hand, were more lukewarm or cold experts who were somewhat knowledgeable about park life and people but not friends or close associates. without the presence of warm experts, many fewer park residents would have ventured down a high-tech pathway. within a warm network of support, instruction was offered in a multi directional fashion. some information traveled vertically: teacher/experienced computer user to student/novice user. this verticality could go north or south generationally speaking. that is, the teacher might be one&rsquo;s grandchild or, as in neva evan&rsquo;s family, the students might be one&rsquo;s grown children. instruction also had a horizontal directionality in which two individuals with similar knowledge levels instructed or advised each other. although this tended to be gender limited, sometimes equally knowledgeable male and female residents shared technological discoveries with each other. there were also instances of horizontal help dyads that were cross-generational. carmen nouvel, for example, learned to compute long before her son reached adulthood but once he matured and became computer accomplished, they engaged in mutual teaching and advising. what i never witnessed, however, was a teacher/student relationship between married couples; no one wanted to risk upsetting her or his mate by giving him or her driving lessons on the highway of technology. </p> <p> [these differing kinds of tutelage are illustrated in figures 2, 3 and 4 shown below: &ldquo;i-c technology instruction by generational age.&rdquo; for enlarged versions of these figures, see appendix 2.]</p> <p> <img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3060/version/2101/3966/15719/779-4613-1-le_html_7e0320be.jpg" name="graphics3" align=bottom width=190 height=145 border=0><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3060/version/2101/3966/15720/779-4613-1-le_html_7a4f79ee.jpg" name="graphics4" align=bottom width=188 height=147 border=0><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3060/version/2101/3966/15721/779-4613-1-le_html_m13ca5eb0.jpg" name="graphics5" align=bottom width=194 height=142 border=0></p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">11. communal climate</span></p> <p> a more subtle and diffused source of support for club members was the community itself. i witnessed countless instances of generosity and encouragement among the park residents. they supported one another in times of grief, as neva evans described when her husband died, and in coping with all manner of illness and travail. the most obvious channel for mutual help was the park volunteer program, which engaged about half of the community. many park events, services and leisure activities were sustained by a corps of volunteers. [9] the volunteer program helped residents become acquainted which fostered social interaction which in turn encouraged the volunteer impulse. </p> <h3>expanding social networks through computing</h3> <p> the park members&rsquo; spirit of <span style="font-style:italic">communitas,</span> generated in good measure by volunteer activity, provided a foundation for the computer club. the club and computing activities, in turn, extended the reach of the volunteer program and added to the sociability of park life. this occurred in several ways. whereas female residents had many opportunities to socialize and enter each other&rsquo;s private spaces&mdash;both through volunteering and by virtue of their status as &lsquo;natural&rsquo; care givers&mdash;male socializing was more limited. adhering to the social norms of this age cohort, married men and their wives interacted mainly with other couples&mdash;a small portion of the larger community. single men, unless they were very outgoing, had an even more circumscribed social network. [10] consider laslo unterweg. once he was moved to a different cottage and lost contact with a friendly neighbor in the old one, his only socializing took place around his computer. social agents for him were: 1) a paid computer tutor who came to his home, 2) a paid secretary who came to his home several times a week, 3) occasional visits from this researcher studying his computer use and 4) attendance (until his hearing failed) at computer club meetings. in the absence of his computer ownership, laslo would have been severely isolated and alone.</p> <p> barbara howard&rsquo;s circumstance illustrates a richer instance of this process. after her husband died, she initially had fewer male &lsquo;dining partners&rsquo; as her association with couples ebbed. eventually, however, her circle of acquaintances in the park was substantially widened as a result of her computer knowhow. notwithstanding the strong political views that might have otherwise prevented it, barbara interacted with all those in the park who needed her technological skills and who offered her similar help when she requested it. in the first category were those who asked her to type business letters, make greeting cards and design leaflets. she served as a semi-official reporter gathering information for the park flyer which she produced for several summers. when she was no longer able to live independently, she became an interviewer of her fellow residents in the assisted living (a.l.) complex. with the aid of her computer which she brought with her to her 10 by 14 foot room, she wrote their biographies for the a.l. newsletter. in turn, barbara received uncountable hours of help from many park residents who assisted with her hardware failures, software installation, instruction on the use of new applications, and so on. even those who were not interested in computers helped her by constructing aids (such as a dropped keyboard) for her use, moving hardware in and out and generally singing her praises as a tech devotee.</p> <p> early scholars of digital technology envisioned a palliative role for the internet through which the socially isolated could find a virtual community. although selected computer users in flamingo park experienced this benefit, it was not the cyber world that proved to be the most crucial conduit for expanding personal networks. it was the mere fact of ownership and the challenges of using this technology that generated increased socializing. it was their computing expertise that afforded park men expanded opportunities to serve as volunteers&mdash;as tech tutors&mdash;and to enter the homes of residents with whom they otherwise would not have interacted. it was their common interest in the technology that allowed women&mdash;married and single&mdash;to forge platonic relationships with park men. it was the act of computing that brought together individuals from diverse backgrounds and ideologies as their tech anguish overrode any previous reluctance to become acquainted.</p> <p> <h3>the long view</h3> <p> it was not my initial intention to sustain my research in flamingo park for over a decade. but as my life and inquiries became entwined with those of the park residents, i felt compelled to return again and again to chart their progress and to now and then right someone&rsquo;s course. we were, in reality, on the same sojourn through the foreign territory of technology, even though each of us may have been at a different place along the path. </p> <p> as the years went by i became increasingly appreciative of my prolonged interaction with the residents of flamingo park because the merits of a long-term study of the role of i-c technology in the lives of older adults are many. one can follow the arc of progress with technology, gauge the sustainability of human effort, observe how use waxes and wanes, chronicle how life-changes interfere with or improve abilities, identify life motifs, and discern immutable traits that impact learning. </p> <p> another advantage of a long-term view is that, with time, a consistent core of concerns emerges for each individual. it was only after many years&rsquo; of interviews with laslo unterweg that i fully appreciated the depth of his frustration over lost time and how much he valued that commodity. similarly, it was the constant repetitions of their personal mantras that finally allowed me to <span style="font-style:italic">hear</span> the despair that neva evans felt over her husband&rsquo;s anti-technology stance and the love of connecting with people experienced by al swenson. it was through long years of association with barbara howard that i could comprehend the all-encompassing quality of her determination to fully embrace her life in the present and to be ever ready for whatever came her way.</p> <p> most importantly, i experienced the folly of hasty conclusions and was often reminded that research is, in a sense, never done. when i visited with al swenson in 2005, i learned that he had become bored with his computer explorations and could find little new on the internet to excite him. thus, at the age of 88, he drastically reduced the number of hours he spent on his computer, and he emerged from his at-home office and rejoined his wife in their living room to watch their stored programs on tivo. one could have reasonably predicted a continuing decline in his interest. but approximately two years later, he was introduced to skype and it reinvigorated his computing persona. in 2008 he was still enthusiastically skyping and trying to interest other park residents in its use. one such resident was his friend will mahler, who had two sons living in new zealand&mdash;the perfect candidate for skyping. but will had not had his computer working for over a year and he resisted al&rsquo;s urging, saying he would rather communicate by telephone. notwithstanding will&rsquo;s apparent lack of interest, he assured <span style="font-style:italic">me</span> that he would have his computer running by the time of my next visit. with regard to this vow, i have learned to make no predictions. </p> <p> gerontological research of the last two to three decades has focused on the notion of a life-long development for human beings. the life span theory, for example, posits that development continues throughout the life cycle. &ldquo;that gain or growth as well as loss or decline can be observed throughout the life course has provided a general framework for researchers to explore some of the positive attributes of aging.&rdquo; some tenets of this theory are that &ldquo;aging is a life-long process; . . . no one age or period of life is any more important than any other age or period . . . [and that] there is plasticity and resiliency in function throughout the life span&rdquo; (hoyer and rybash 1996, 67). two particularly salient concepts are &ldquo;resiliency and reserve capacity:&rdquo; </p> <blockquote>resiliency . . . refers to a capacity for successful adaptation and recovery in response to stressful life events. reserve capacity refers to the individual&rsquo;s resources for responding effectively to challenging situations. [s]ome researchers have suggested that there is a diminished reserve capacity at the end of one&rsquo;s life span and that the individual is vulnerable to a variety of circumstances associated with mortality. however, studies of reserve capacity and resiliency do not address how development can be enhanced in situations where there is optimal support. (hoyer and rybash 1996, 68)</blockquote> <p> the idea of continuous development provides a compelling rationale for the longitudinal examination of the learning challenges we all face throughout our life cycle. individuals&rsquo; lives in old age are not static. their interests, pursuits and abilities fluctuate. appreciating these changes and the factors that influence them requires patience and re-viewing.</p> <h3>ambivalence, ambiguities and inedible truths</h3> <p> out there in the land of american citizenry, research findings seem, of late, to be regarded as an edible commodity. many approach the lunch counter of information and request their daily &ldquo;take away&rdquo; of factoids. here, then, are some wisdom morsels from my flamingo park research that i can serve up to interested diners.</p> <ul> <li><p> the content of computing was in many instances not as significant as the act of computing.</p> <li> <p> computing expanded the in-person (i.e., co-located) social networks of the users.</p> <li> <p> computing increased the self-esteem of users when they were adjudged &ldquo;cool&rdquo; and &ldquo;with it&rdquo; by their progeny, most particularly their grandchildren.</p> <li> <p> owning computers&mdash;a luxury item&mdash;enhanced the esteem and status of individuals as persons of means.</p> <li> <p> owning/displaying a computer served as a symbol of intelligence and accomplishment to others (even when use had ceased). </p> </ul> <p> if we take the time to consider the research findings more extensively we may find less digestible aspects but achieve a more nuanced understanding. in place of a tasty conclusion of desserts, there is the less palatable dish of ambivalence<span style="font-style:italic">.</span> as described in earlier sections, it is obvious that the resolutions and solutions for the computer-related roadblocks of park club members had as many drawbacks as benefits&mdash;help that was harmful, support that was equivocal, user outcomes that were ambiguous, value that was indeterminate. it became apparent, especially as residents aged, that computing was not an altogether salutary experience for the computer owners in flamingo park. at one end of the spectrum, barbara howard and al swenson thrived on computing and were indefatigable in their efforts to expand their knowledge and use of the technology. they both referred to computing as lifesaving. at the other end, laslo unterweg and helmut rossler were driven (further) into anger, despair and depression by their perceived inability to learn computer functions. laslo&rsquo;s anger was rooted in the proportion of effort, time and brainpower expended in relation to the paltry gains in technological understanding and use. for helmut the despair grew out of his conclusion that he was not mentally capable of using the technology. </p> <p> some residents tasted a bit of the promise of virtual community through electronic mail: sam dunlop with army buddies, neva evans with classmates, al with former ham operators, mary and marvin cooper with their fellow missionaries, and many with family members in distant towns. others, however, never found any viable e-pals. those individuals who never got beyond a rudimentary use of e-mail were living al swenson&rsquo;s worst-case scenario of owning a $3,000 mail machine. al was, in fact, the only member of the original computer club to experiment with social networking sites. he was &lsquo;put on facebook&rsquo; by his grandchildren during their visit in december, 2008. he sent me a &lsquo;friend request&rsquo; in january, 09, but he confessed that he didn&rsquo;t like using facebook, preferring e-mail for communication. had he had time to discover more than one former schoolmate before his death two months later, he might have eventually warmed up to it. but this is the point: he had run out of time.</p> <p> the number of flamingo park computer owners who expressed positive sentiments about the things they had learned to do with computer technology was equaled by those who had tales of regret as well&mdash;mostly for their perceived lack of success in their endeavors. <span style="font-style:italic">everyone</span>, at some time in the course of computing, encountered frustration and felt a sense of desperate helplessness&mdash;even savvy al swenson when his computer expired in 2008. they recounted a kaffkaesque nightmare of stagnation, of waiting: waiting for something to happen on their screens, waiting for a connection to the internet, waiting for a tutor to arrive, waiting on the telephone for a help desk explanation, waiting for understanding to descend. to many park computer users their machine seemed unforgiving, no matter how hard they tried to placate it. this was the implication in their complaints as they suffered through the unforeseen consequences of errant keystrokes and mouse clicks and finally just gave up on a task. </p> <p> in addition to mechanical issues, beginning and intermediate level users were undone by the amount of information confronting them on their computer screens. myrtle likert was the most extreme example of the inability to choose any one &lsquo;item&rsquo; (icons, words, menus etc.) to focus on while trying to execute a given task, but more experienced users had similar difficulties. barbara howard was losing track of where things were on her desktop as a result of her simultaneous cognitive slowing and the increasing complexity of her operating system. shneiderman&rsquo;s (2000) notion of &ldquo;evolutionary learning,&rdquo; which includes &ldquo;progressive disclosure&rdquo; of the contents of computers, is intriguing in this context. if, as he suggests, users could control the presentation of the content, they could better match their skill level with the machine capabilities. but the notion of evolutionary learning would have to include the design for a devolution of learning ability such that the user could also de-complexify the program as needed.</p> <p> life-long development is a worthy concept with which to approach the subject of aging. the question is how to enhance the quality of the ever-developing life course. my research inquiry included the assumption that the well being of our oldest citizens would benefit from their engagement in meaningful challenges, and i theorized that learning to use the latest i-c technology would be such a challenge. this challenge was in the category of keeping up with cultural change which i regarded as a worthy goal (as did many of my interviewees). however, as a result of witnessing first hand the toll of this endeavor, i have modified my view. to return to the metaphors of roads and journeys, i would now recommend that we downshift our expectations regarding the content of learning tasks. technological pace keeping can constitute too great a burden to mandate for our final years.</p> <h3>the non-adoption option</h3> <p> at present, young brains are being trained by electronic media to speed up, to fracture attentions spans, to multi-task as never before. many older brains cannot sync up with this pace, cannot reorganize their structures accordingly. and the rapid pace of technological change is apparently overwhelming middle-aged citizens as well, if the recent advertising campaign of a major retailer of electronic goods is a reliable indicator. with slogans like, &ldquo;technology changes faster than the weather,&rdquo; &ldquo;stay on top of the ever-changing technological world,&rdquo; and &ldquo;future-proof your technology,&rdquo; a large u.s. chain store promised, in early 2011, to buy back their customers laptops, cell phones and tvs as they become outdated. [11]</p> <p> for approximately two decades pundits have been declaring the new info-communication technologies&mdash;with the internet at their center&mdash;to be a major cultural shift. in fact, one discernible form of cultural movement has been a great deal of technological <span style="font-style:italic">pushing</span>. for the senior citizens with whom i was computing, it seemed more like <span style="font-style:italic">shoving</span> as they listened to television and radio announcers rattle off incomprehensible letters. more than one member of the research population in flamingo park commented that at every turn they heard, &ldquo;h-t-p or something&rdquo; and &ldquo;wwws everywhere.&rdquo; these individuals did not know, in the mid to late 1990, how to translate or make use of the letters. but they were increasingly aware that these arcane symbols were shunting them to the sidetrack of some larger cultural context. when they initially did try to work with &ldquo;all the letters&rdquo; they found that they could rarely get the &ldquo;addresses&rdquo; (i.e. the urls) typed or moved into the &ldquo;box&rdquo; correctly and thus could not even get onto the super highway they were hearing about. since that time, those widely-advertised letters have, of course, become so integrated into the national technological consciousness that the need to say them has nearly vanished. first the &lsquo;http&rsquo; was rendered unnecessary; then the &lsquo;www&rsquo; too was omitted. this was followed by the advice, &ldquo;for more information on this story, go to &ldquo;npr dot org&rdquo; and now it&rsquo;s &ldquo;see us on facebook&rdquo; and &ldquo;join our twitter feed.&rdquo; the desktop computer is en route to obsolescence even before large segments of the u.s. population have learned how to use it. taking its place is an increasing array of hand-held devices which require the nimbleness and acuity of youthful hands and eyes. </p> <p> during the long period of time in which i participated in the lives of older individuals who were exploring a new generation of i-c technology, i observed how they triumphed and despaired over their mini successes and failures with the machine, absorbing both kudos and blows to their self-esteem along the way. i noted the fact that they needed enormous amounts of help and assistance in this endeavor and that they spent considerable sums from dwindling resources of time, energy and money in the process. (in less felicitous circumstances than flamingo park, these major learning challenges would have presumably represented impossible costs.) who can be the final arbiter of the balance of loss and gain in these accounts? there is, in the scope of my research, no obvious way to concretely or &ldquo;objectively&rdquo; assess the benefits that individuals may have experienced as a result of exploring computing, e.g.: brains stimulated to grow more synaptic connections; an increase in flexibility of thought; an appropriate stretching of resiliency or a positive plumbing of reserve capacity. </p> <p> without such measurements, are we justified in assuming (as mass media and academic literature seem to do) that older adults <span style="font-style:italic">should</span> want and <span style="font-style:italic">should</span> be urged to undertake the arduous journey of learning new and complex tasks in their last years? are we ignoring the positive aspects of <span style="font-style:italic">non-adoption</span> of new technology? a significant majority of park residents did not own or use computers during the years of my research. based on my observations and the passing remarks made or conveyed to me by and about i-c technology non-adopters, my impression is that there were many contented computer-less people there. perhaps they basked in the knowledge that they had achieved contentment sufficient to see them through the rest of their lives. perhaps they were not tuned in so closely to the news media as to be bothered by or unduly curious about the ubiquitous pointers to websites, or they had effectively screened them out. in reality, given the present circumstances of old age, non-adoption of new technologies is understandable. the rationale is well described below. </p> <blockquote>the constraints of old age are not only material but may derive from ill health, loss of social networks, and unfamiliarity with the new. . . . the &ldquo;problem,&rdquo; if it is a problem, comes from the lack of resources to move along the learning curve inherent in the need to adapt to any new technology. this insufficiency might be material, but it also derives from reduced energy and, in the sense of perceived life span, even of available time. . . [o]lder people are exposed to new ways of doing things that belong to an era in which they will only marginally participate. virtually all people who are young today will, when they are older, be able to operate a computer without difficulty. yet they will face new processes when older which they will find difficult and that will not warrant their time or effort to learn to use. a learning curve is like a playground slide: although once to the top it is possible to enjoy the ride, getting up the stairs to the slide&rsquo;s starting point becomes increasingly difficult with age. (raban and brynin 2006, 43-44)</blockquote> <p> in truth, an inescapable dilemma awaits us all. it is the tension between keeping-up with that which is imposed by societal change versus coming to terms with our inevitable limitations. weighing the costs and benefits of keeping pace with cultural innovation, each of us will have to find her own measure of peace and reconciliation as technology brokers try to translate across generations. </p> <h3>research recommendations</h3> <p> in my ideal vision of research, the seeker of information or &ldquo;researcher&rdquo; has a set of overlapping life experiences with the holder of information or the &ldquo;study participant.&rdquo; this body of shared experiences fosters empathy, engagement and nuanced understanding. my own late arrival&mdash;in my 5<sup>th</sup> decade&mdash; to the attempted mastery of &lsquo;new technologies&rsquo; provided me with profound appreciation of this challenge for those twenty and thirty years older than i. furthermore, during the course of this research project i experienced a family tragedy that opened up doors of understanding through which i could not have otherwise walked. it also bonded me more tightly to the participants in the study many of whom had grappled with increasing loss and sorrow as they aged.</p> <p> conducting research studies among the elderly requires time and patience. elderly participants generally respond with deliberation. they enjoy situating their ideas in their life experiences, which often take the form of stories and anecdotes from earlier historical eras. the wisdom they have to offer cannot be adequately &lsquo;captured&rsquo; through surveys, questionnaires, brief interviews, laboratory trials or other traditional quantitative methodologies. the vagaries of their health and physical conditions may alter their outlook and responses from one day to the next. in addition, sudden changes in the conditions of their family members and immediate surroundings add to the lability of their outlook and interests. it is only through repeated contacts and prolonged interaction that researchers can attain deep truths from those whose lives span many years. </p> <h3>footnotes</h3> <p> [1] the computer club active membership was two to three dozen people at any given time. in addition, i met several individuals who felt that their level of computing skill was sufficient for their purposes and did not attend club meetings but they often interacted with club members. a reasonable estimate of the population who used computers in the park in the mid-90s is 5 %. by 2008, the club co-director, george brinkley, estimated that about 300 people&mdash;a little less than 30% of park residents&mdash;were computer users. in 2011 brinkley estimated that 45% of park residents have computers in their residences. he also stated that the club averages 35 attendees per meeting in 2011.</p> <p> [2] in deference to members of my research population who complained about not being able to keep up with the acronymizing of language, i choose to use this compromise phrase, i-c technology/ies standing for &ldquo;information-communication technology/ies.&rdquo; thus <span style="font-style:italic">any</span> interested reader has more of a hint of the subject compared with the usual abbreviation, &ldquo;ict.&rdquo; keeping the word &lsquo;technology&rsquo; also affords varying grammatical iterations of it.</p> <p> [3] i am dedicated to the rightness of allowing the voices of research participants to be heard, and i devoted 194 pages to interview extracts in the dissertation (linton 2009) based on this research. for this article, in the interest of brevity, i summarize rather than quote participants&rsquo; stated feelings. </p> <p> [4] all names of people and places are pseudonyms. within <span style="font-style:italic">this</span> group of research participants, ten are now deceased. seven spouses of those listed in this essay died during the course of the research project.</p> <p> [5] we can acknowledge that marion&rsquo;s files and don&rsquo;s sales data constituted important information for them. in this context, however, i use &lsquo;information&rsquo; to mean that which was created by others in the virtual realm and available via internet browsers. </p> <p> [6] the cost of hardware dented quite a few budgets in the park. more than half of those with computers updated their computers and/or peripherals at least once. some, like nelson and sue jones replaced their equipment multiple times as computing capacities expanded. they spent money &ldquo;like drunken sailors&rdquo; squandering, they half jokingly remarked, their children&rsquo;s inheritance. </p> <p> [7] this could only take place once web browsers became more powerful and comprehensive; initially these early computer users had to move through the iterations of mosaic, netscape, and several versions of internet explorer before they were able to pursue their interests.</p> <p> [8] in addition to those individuals who attended computer club meetings there were a few others in the park whose computer use and knowledge were much more extensive. unlike al swenson, they were not motivated to teach computer use to a group of beginners such as the computer club attendees. however, they were willing to help some of their friends on an occasional basis as their time allowed, clearly serving as &ldquo;warm experts&rdquo; for them.</p> <p> [9] older americans are well trained in volunteerism and, in addition, the park administration was able to persuade many residents that their volunteered labor contributed, among other things, to maintaining park solvency.</p> <p> [10] given the predominance of females in flamingo park, it is surprising that single men would find themselves bereft of companionship, and certainly not all were. it is beyond the scope of this article to account for those who remained solitary, but some factors were their health, mental acuity, grief for a deceased spouse and being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of female residents in a community of 1000.</p> <p> [11] their 2011 u. s. super bowl ad featured a vignette of a 63-year old rock star being replaced by the current 16 year-old pop icon because the former could not keep up with the number of &ldquo;gs&rdquo; in his cell phone. other current ads by this retailer show various citizens evidencing frustration as they see newer iterations of what they thought was the latest version of their own laptops and phones. </p> <h3>appendix 1</h3> <p class="hanging-indent"> <span style="font-style:italic">descriptions of computer club members</span></p> <p> encapsulated in these brief descriptions are revealing aspects of the lives and levels of interest in i-c technologies of selected members of the computer club (c.c.) in flamingo park between 1996 and 2008. their ages, (in parentheses) indicate their life span during our interaction. </p> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">earliest computer club members and mid-1990s interviewees.</span></p> <ul> <li><p> barbara howard (age 82 to 94): former teacher; fervently dedicated to maintaining her computer skills well into her mid-90s; finally turned use over to proxy-friend; her husband did not compute due to ill health but while still alive supported her interest with patience and humor. </p> <li> <p> samuel dunlop (76 to 89): former pastor; received frequent tech help from son; enjoyed searching the web; became a devotee of genealogy research; avid user of assistive devices for the visually impaired; his wife did not compute due to eye problems but remained supportive until her death. </p> <li> <p> albert swenson (83 to 91): former engineer and high school teacher; most exploratory user; eventual c.c. co-director; dedicated to teaching computing to fellow residents which he continued until a week before he died; wild for skype; wife (stroke victim) vicariously enjoyed family communication through al&rsquo;s use.</p> <li> <p> helmut rossler (88 to 93): former videographer who thought this experience would translate to computing and became depressed when it didn&rsquo;t; stated that computing was his first/only tech failure; wife commiserated with his efforts to learn about computers but did not attempt use due to failing health. </p> <li> <p> marion probst (82 to 91): former secretary; only (and therefore frustrated) mac user in the c.c.; wanted to do pragmatic things like organize files; despite modest efforts, did not become accomplished internet user; husband not interested in computing and ignored her interest due, possibly, to failing health.</p> <li> <p> don mcdonald (70 to 82) still working as salesman; founded the c.c. in order to share his enthusiasm for spreadsheets and to create a personal social outlet; believed that computing was a one-person endeavor; claimed that internet was evil influence; wife did not use due to ill health.</p> </ul> <p> <span style="font-style:italic">interviewees between 1999 and 2008.</span></p> <ul> <li><p> neva evans (75 to 85): former teacher/practitioner of holistic therapies; curiosity prompted computing exploration; her physician husband threatened by this technology, didn&rsquo;t want to hear about/see it; her computer use increased under influence of park companion, tally, whom she &lsquo;dated&rsquo; after her husband&rsquo;s death.</p> <li> <p> laslo unterweg (79 to 88): former high-powered scientist who became increasingly enraged by his unanticipated failure to master computing (except for solitaire which proved therapeutic); finally turned tech duties over to visiting secretarial assistant/proxy; lived alone.</p> <li> <p> will mahler (77 to 86): former research laboratory technician; initially comfortable with his computer with which he authored articles for park flyer; eventually seemed to lose interest but despite a year of non-use declared he wasn&rsquo;t done; his wife&mdash;an avid reader&mdash; was dedicated to not using a computer.</p> <li> <p> myrtle likert (90 to 97): former utility company employee; was inspired to try (in her late 80s) to learn computing because she saw little children doing it; she grew quickly frustrated by her inability to screen out irrelevant stimuli; eventually closed the door to her computer room but did not unplug the machine.</p> <li> <p> nelson and sue jones (89 to 96; 81 to 82): former pilot, former stewardess; he loved all gadgets; enjoyed playing games like flight simulator; kept trying to find ways to compute despite losing vision and hearing; sue used the computer to communicate with family members and make greeting cards.</p> <li> <p> richard querengasser (&ldquo;dr. q;&rdquo; 80 to 89): former psychiatrist; first internet use in 1999 was to order his wife a book on amazon; even after he could no longer use his computer due to failing health, refused to give up his computing equipment which occupied a large space in his nursing care room.</p> <li> <p> mary and marvin cooper (79 to 86; 81 to 83): former homemaker (&amp; current volunteer secretary at local church), former field engineer for utility co.; equal interest at start of use; his interest faded while hers grew; after his death, she became accomplished in page layout; occasional help from children.</p> <li> <p> carmen nouvel (78): former government employee who learned computing on the job; started exploring the internet in late 1990s; was disheartened by the computing systems she encountered in libraries and was unable to use; stopped attending c.c. due to a disfiguring cancer in last years of life.</p> <li> <p> sturgis johnson (85): former business executive; newer park resident; experienced computer user; became tech tutor and remote-system proxy user for some park residents, most especially barbara howard when her ability to compute faded; his teaching maxim: &ldquo;the sturgis way is the only way.&rdquo;</p> <li> <p> george brinkley (69 to 72): former computer scientist; newer resident and second-generation co-director of c.c.; introduced more contemporary topics into club meetings; readily acknowledged contributions of original club founders; he and partner fond of cruises, creating lacunae in c.c. schedules. </p> </ul> <h3>appendix 2</h3> <p> enlargements of figures 2-4: &ldquo;i-c technology instruction by generational age.&rdquo;</p> <img class="figure" src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3060/version/2101/3966/15716/779-4613-1-le_html_269a39b2.jpg" name="graphics6" align=bottom width=576 height=438 border=0> <img class="figure" src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3060/version/2101/3966/15717/779-4613-1-le_html_m54b697d1.jpg" name="picture 2" align=bottom width=576 height=448 border=0> <img class="figure" src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3060/version/2101/3966/15718/779-4613-1-le_html_m17a0d246.jpg" name="picture 3" align=bottom width=576 height=421 border=0> <h3>acknowledgements</h3> <p> i wish to thank professor emerita elizabeth hearne for her well-considered advice for improving successive drafts of this article. i also acknowledge karen huffman, professor joanne kaczmarek, professor emeritus bertram bruce, and jennifer and anna kaczmarek for their reading and constructive feedback. thanks, too, to theresa herman and jennifer kaczmarek for their instruction/help with the graphics and to stephen bruce for his french and russian translations of the abstract.</p> <p> baris aktemur saved me many hours of work by scanning my research photographs, one of which is included on page 1.</p> <p> * the contents of this article are subject to the following creative commons public license &ldquo;attribution-noncommerical-share alike 2.5&rdquo; and thus may be freely copied, distributed or displayed under these conditions: that the author be notified of this use and that the paper is not to be modified without the express permission of the author.</p> <h3>references</h3> <p class="hanging-indent"> bakardjieva, m. 2006. <u>the consumption junction revisited. networks and contexts</u>. in r. kraut, m. brynin and s. kiesler (ed.s), computers, phones, and the internet: domesticating information technology (pp. 97-108). oxford series in human-technology interaction. oxford: oxford university press.</p> <p class="hanging-indent"> bruce, b. c. 1995. twenty-first century literacy technical report no. 624. center for the study of reading, university of illinois at urbana-champaign. </p> <p class="hanging-indent"> hockfield, s. and p. lombroso. 1998. development of the cerebral cortex: ix. cortical development and experience: i. <u>journal of american academy of child and adolescent psychiatry</u>, 37(9), 992-993.</p> <p class="hanging-indent"> hoyer, w. and j. rybash. 1996. <u>life span theory</u>. in j. birren (ed.), encyclopedia of gerontology <span style="font-style:italic">(</span>pp<span style="font-style:italic">. </span>65-71). new york: academic press. </p> <p class="hanging-indent"> markus, l. 1987. toward a &ldquo;critical mass&rdquo; theory of interactive media.<u> communication research</u>,14(5), 491 -511. </p> <p class="hanging-indent"> linton, n.j. 2009. connecting: the use of information and communication technologies by older adults in a retirement community. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of illinois, urbana-champaign. </p> <p class="hanging-indent"> raban, y. and m. brynin. 2006. <u>older people and new technologies</u>. in r. kraut, m. brynin and s. kiesler (ed.s), computers, phones, and the internet: domesticating information technology (pp. 43-50). oxford series in human-technology interaction. oxford: oxford university press.</p> <p class="hanging-indent"> shneiderman, b. 2000. universal usability. <u>communications of the acm</u>, 43(5), 85-91.</p> <p class="hanging-indent"> stine-morrow, e. and m. shake. 2009. language in aged persons. <u>encyclopedia of neuroscience</u> 5, 337-342.</p> <p class="hanging-indent"> twidale, m. 2006. over the shoulder learning: supporting brief informal learning.<u> computer supported cooperative work</u>, 14(6 dec.), 505-547.</p> <p class="hanging-indent"> twidale, m. and m. c. jones. 2005. let them use emacs: the interaction of simplicity and appropriation. <u>international reports on socio-informatics</u> 2(2), 66-71. (available online february 11, 2009). retrieved july, 6, 2009 from<a href="http://www.isrl.illinois.edu/~twidale/pubs/ecscw_twidale_jones.pdf"><u> http://www.isrl.illinois.edu/~twidale/pubs/ecscw_twidale_jones.pdf</u></a></p> <p class="hanging-indent"> venkatesh, a., s. chen, and v. gonzalez. 2006. <u>designing the family portal for home networking.</u> in r. kraut, m. brynin and s. kiesler (ed.s), computers, phones, and the internet: domesticating information technology (pp. 109-127). oxford series in human-technology interaction. oxford: oxford university press.</p> <p> [for a morecomprehensive overview of the literature that informed my research, link to &ldquo;<u>citations for a qualitative research project</u>&rdquo; at:] <u> <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/2142/26527">http://hdl.handle.net/2142/26527</a> </u></p> perceived benefits of remote data capturing in community home-based care: the caregivers' perspective nobubele angel shozi, dalenca pottas, nicky mostert-phipps 1. introduction the community home-based care (chbc) environment has been encouraged in developing countries as an alternative to formal health care services. this is mainly due to the fact that health care systems in developing countries are weak and not able to provide adequate services to its people. chbc is used to provide care to patients in their homes without additional costs to the patient. care is provided by caregivers from within the community, many of them on a volunteer basis. data are typically collected in paper-based format, with an emphasis on the need to aggregate data, for example 'total number of patients visited'. m-health, the use of mobile phones and other mobile communication technologies within the health sector (mechael &amp; sloninsky, 2008), is viewed as a channel that can be used to support health workers to provide health services to communities. its application in the areas of education and awareness, remote data capturing, remote monitoring, communication and training for healthcare workers, disease and epidemic outbreak tracking and diagnostic and treatment support (vital wave consulting, 2009) offers much promise of its utility especially in resource-poor settings. however, the adoption of icts within healthcare organizations, especially those afflicted by elements of social disempowerment affecting the introduction, integration and ultimate recognition of any technological endeavour, is not simple (van zyl, 2011). this paper aims to understand the chbc environment, the daily work activities of caregivers, factors impacting data collection work and problems community health care workers (chcws) face with paper-based systems. therefore the paper provides a rich descriptive view of the caregivers' daily lives. based on this understanding, the paper explores the caregivers' notions of the perceived benefits (and disadvantages) of using mobile phones for data collection at the point of care (remote data capturing). the paper follows from a collaborative research project (de la harpe, pottas, lotriet, &amp; korpela, 2010) between south african universities, including cape peninsula university of technology (cput) department of informatics and design (coordinator), the university of pretoria (up) department of informatics, the nelson mandela metropolitan university (nmmu) school of ict, and the university of eastern finland (uef) healthcare information systems research and development (his r&amp;d) unit, funded by safipa (south africa finland knowledge partnership on ict). one of the objectives of this project was to apply previously existing socio-technical methods to design and develop innovative ict solutions to address problems and/or opportunities in practice, using chbc as an application area. within the context of the safipa project, this paper provides a descriptive account of work practices and social relations in a chbc environment, explores the caregivers' utilization of mobile phones and how they view the possible use of mobile phones for data collection at the point of care. an important reason for the failure of ict solutions is that their design does not reflect the work practices, social relations amongst the users and socio-economic factors typical of the user community. further research aimed at addressing this problem is reported in the paper entitled socio-technical approach to community health: designing and developing a mobile care data application for home-based healthcare in south africa, in this issue of joci (de la harpe, lotriet, pottas, &amp; korpela, 2011). 2. methodology a non-governmental organization (ngo) in south africa, port elizabeth in the township of motherwell was used as a case study. the matron, community members and community health care workers who are part of this ngo were participants in this study. the research adopted a qualitative approach. qualitative research aims to get more insight into human behaviour and the reasons that govern that behaviour. this type of research is concerned with the meanings that people attach to their experiences of the social world and how they make sense of the world (pope &amp; mays, 2006). a single case study of an ngo is investigated in this research. a case study is an entity that is studied as a single unit and has clear boundaries, including those of time and location (holloway, 2008). six chcws were interviewed and two were observed during the execution of their daily work. 3. case study 3.1 background emmanuel haven was started in 2004 by dr mamisa chabula-nxiweni with the sole aim of dealing with the growing number of adults and children that are affected with hiv/aids (emmanuel haven, n.d). it is located in the eastern cape province of south africa, 20km's from port elizabeth in the motherwell township. motherwell township is home to approximately 187,680 people and is an area that is afflicted by crime, high illiteracy levels, poverty and a lack of adequate health provision services (dplg, n.d). emmanuel haven has various initiatives that it runs such as: farming, brick making, cr&egrave;che, a community radio station and other initiatives to sustain its work in the community. the home-based care programme has 300 volunteer community health care workers who on average have six patients each (with a maximum of eight patients) to visit per week. 3.2 daily activities of community health care workers a community health care worker visits up to four patients on any one workday. at emmanuel haven, community health care workers are not rushed to visit all their patients in one day. instead, they are encouraged to take their time during patient visits to ensure that all the patients' needs are fulfilled. a chcw's working day lasts from 8am until 2pm with each patient visit lasting between 30 60 minutes depending on the patient's condition and the duties that the community health care worker has to perform. the chcw not only provides care for their patients but also links the family with clinics, hospitals or other organizations that can provide them with support, education and training. this is in line with the integrated model of chbc as discussed by uys and cameron (2003), which extends the concept of chbc to provide a continuum of care through building a network of support and collaboration. apart from performing duties pertaining to caring for the patients' health, community health care workers have to ensure that the environment the patients live in is clean. scenario 1 demonstrates the various duties other than health care duties that chcws sometimes perform as related by one of the interviewees. scenario: chcw enters patient house and detects an odour chcw: gogo, mani ingathi ilanga lishushu?! (gogo, it looks quite hot outside doesn't it?!) proceeds to open windows chcw: gogo, amathambo, iarthritis ivukile neh? (gogo, how is the arthritis?) patient: oh mntanam, kange ndilale. (my child, i did not sleep) chcw: gogo mandiqale nje ngotshayela.. uphi umtshayelo?! (gogo, let me start by sweeping the house, where is the broom?) proceeds to sweep the house. if there is any disinfectant uses that to scrub the floors and bathroom, airs the beds, wash dishes. chcw: gogo, uke watya? (gogo, have you had anything to eat) patient: oh mntanam, kange nditye. nalombani umncinci. (my child, i have not eaten. this electricity is also about to run out). proceeds to look in the cupboards for food. finds mealie meal and cooks that. dishes up for patient and feeds her. also dishes up for herself to show that she is not disgusted by the patient. after eating, washes dishes, soaks the dish cloths. chcw: gogo, wethu ndizobeka amanzi nje ukuthi uvase nawe. ndizakunceda, ungabi nangxaki wena gogo. (gogo, let me heat up some water so that you can take a bath. i will help so you don't have to worry yourself about it gogo). proceed to wash the patient and dresses the patient. scenario 1. daily activities of the community health care worker this account from the caregiver, showing that the tasks of the caregiver extend beyond basic nursing provides insight into the multi-dimensional role they fulfil. this is supported by friedman (2005) who explains that the role of the caregiver includes acting as advocates to improve health, providing basic counselling services, providing specialised health care services to community members, linking communities to other community service agents such as youth workers or educators and carrying out health promotional activities in order to educate the community. 3.3 factors impacting the daily activities of caregivers as much as there are benefits to having an effective hcbc programme, some challenges are unavoidable no matter how well planned a hcbc programme is. the main challenges and limitations facing hcbc programmes according to browning (2009) and shaibu (2006) are: poverty, financial constraints, fear of being associated with a hcbc programme, hcbc programmes have no support structures for caregivers, shortage of staff in hcbc programmes and no transport for community health care workers. in this section, the factors impacting the daily lives of caregivers at the emmanuel haven are summarized and supported by excerpts from the interviews. 3.3.1 poverty working in poverty stricken areas affects the community health care worker as they feel that they have to be the ones that provide food and clothing to their patients. "you do become worried when you arrive at a patient's home and they tell you they did not take their medication because they do not have any food." 3.3.2 lack of basic facilities (water, electricity, proper sanitation) most areas in the motherwell community have been adequately equipped with running water, electricity and proper sanitation. water is needed to wash the patient and flush toilets, electricity to cook. the chcws reported that they are affected by lack of basic facilities if any of these services run out. one interviewee stated that if any of these facilities in a patient's home were to be disconnected, perhaps due to non-payment, they reported this to a social worker who would help the patient get the services reconnected. "it affects me a lot. some people are struggling; the only electricity they ever had was the free one you get when you first get a rdp (referring to reconstruction and development programme) house. there is nothing you can do without electricity." 3.3.3 lack of transport motherwell community is one of the largest townships in south africa and it is divided into units. even though the patient and the community health care worker might live in the same unit, these are geographically large and the community health care workers have to walk long distances to visit patients. finances for public transport is scarce and not provided for by the haven. "i came here knowing that i'm a volunteer and i won't have enough money to use for transport so i had to choose a place to work that was close." 3.3.4 poor road conditions damaged roads are a consequence of the socio-economic conditions in a setting such as motherwell. considering the fact that the chcw's mode of transport is walking, this does undermine the working conditions of the caregiver. the interviewees complained that their shoes get torn and old quickly as the roads are not tarred. "the poor road conditions do affect me especially when it rains because the roads become muddy." 3.3.5 weather conditions when it rains, the road conditions deteriorate even further and they become slippery. some community health care workers reported that they do not work on rainy days due to the poor road and weather conditions, while others maintained that they have to persevere even in adverse conditions. "even if it is raining we have to go visit our patients because at the end of the month we will not have any report to submit." 3.3.6 crime-ridden areas crime had not been experienced by the community health care workers who were interviewed. however, they confirmed the existence of crime threats, indicating that even if they were directly affected, they would still carry on working. "there are gangsters but i haven't received any problems with them." "it is not safe because we walk around in our uniform and people think that we have money. it's very difficult especially in nu11. even your cell phone you have to make sure it's in a safe place." 3.3.7 remuneration the community health care workers have to survive on a r600 per month stipend. this is sometimes not enough to feed their families. additionally, the stipend may sometimes not be paid due to lack of funding from sponsors. "we still carry on working regardless (referring to pay) because we cannot say to our patients we will not come and look after you just because we have not been paid. that is not the patients fault." 3.3.8 emotional stress the chcws reported that seeing patients being sick and living in poor conditions affects them emotionally. "sometimes i find it hard to sleep at night" (referring to the emotional stress experienced) 3.3.9 lack of material the interviewees stated that sometimes there are not enough supplies to replenish their kits and this made it difficult to carry out their daily duties. "what we struggle with most is our kits. our kits do not have all the necessary materials that we require." 3.3.10 discrimination and stigma some patients have to deal with the stigma associated with their affliction from both their families and the broader community. one interviewee stated that when some family members find out about a patient's hiv/aids status they go as far as putting them out of the house. she stated that this was mostly due to the fact that family members lacked education about this disease. "what people in the area do is that they gossip a lot and say there is that health worker going into that house it must means there is someone who is not well in that house." due to lack of resources, caregivers at emmanuel haven primarily provide rudimentary nursing and supportive care. friedman (2002) notes that often 'lip service is paid to the importance of community based programmes without a willingness to provide the type of support lent to hospital and clinic based services'. friedman further asserts that based on the burden that voluntarism tends to place on the poor; many view the intentional use of this strategy by health services as a form of exploitation. nevertheless, the practice of chbc is firmly ingrained in the south african structure of decentralised health services. it is therefore important to listen to the caregivers' voices and formulate strategies to assist them to improve service delivery, one of which is an improved system of record-keeping and information sharing. 3.4 use of paper-based records van zyl (2011) emphasizes that patient files and information flows are at the core of chbc and that their proper handling is vital. in this section, the paper-based record-keeping system used at emmanuel haven is explained with a view to understanding their data capturing requirements and practices. when a community health care worker visits a patient for the first time, they have to fill in a household registration form. this forms contains details such as: particulars of the head of the household, particulars of the other household members, evaluates the home environment with regard to whether it is a formal or informal house, whether there is running water, electricity and proper sanitation. the second form that they need to fill in is the patient categorization assessment form. this form is used to assess the patient to see how often they would need to receive a home visit. these two forms are only used once when the patient is visited for the first time. on a patient's daily visit the patient record form is used. the patient record form is the one that is used the most as this is the one that the care worker uses to detail the kind of care that was provided to a particular patient. it is required that this form be signed by a family member when the care worker leaves to show that they were actually present at the patient's home. at the end of the month there are various tally sheets that must be filled in by the community health care worker and the matron of the emmanuel haven. the community health care worker fills in the npo home based care patient register form which is used to store the patient's particulars, diagnosis, category, treatment compliance and how they were referred to the community health care worker. the matron has to fill in the comprehensive community based health care tally sheet and the health promotion tally sheet. the comprehensive community based health care tally sheet is used by the matron to tally up the number of patients visited by each community health care worker and what diseases the patients had. the health promotion tally sheet is used to tally the number of health promotions each community health care worker has done. four of the six chcws interviewed stated that when they visit patients' homes they do not carry the forms; instead they carry a notebook in which they record everything that they do in a patient's home. when they get to their homes, they then fill in the forms based on what they have written in their notebooks. the other two interviewees preferred capturing the patient data during the visit. all the respondents indicated that out of a 30-45 minute visit they could spend between 10-15 minutes capturing data either at the patient's home or at their homes. the captured information must be handed over to the matron at the end of the month to aggregate the data. 4. problems with paper-based systems the interviewees reported a number of problems which they have experienced or that can affect them through the use of paper-based systems. 4.1 weather conditions when it rains, the forms that the chcw are carrying get wet or if there is too much wind papers are blown away; either way weather conditions affect the chcw's data collection work. "if it's raining papers can get wet and the ink can easily be washed off the paper. just like today it's raining and i have my file with me and i don't know how i will protect it." 4.2 patient record forms the patient record forms that have to be completed after each patient visit, are stored at the caregivers' homes and carried to patients' homes to complete. alternatively the forms are left at the caregivers' homes and completed at home, based on notes the caregivers make during a patient visit in a diary provided by emmanuel haven. the forms are handed in to emmanuel haven to complete the month end tally sheets, where after they are filed in patient files kept at the haven. various challenges are experienced as related below. "papers are easily lost and they are numbered and they can sometimes be mixed up." "sometimes it rains and the paper might get wet and you lose all the information." "maybe for example i'm drinking tea and i accidently spill on them." "let's say you have the forms and i'm coming from work and i haven't put them where i usually keep them and one of my kids writes on the paper or even tears it up." 4.3 data redundancy in order to avoid problems associated with forms having to be carried to the patients' homes, some caregivers make notes in a diary during the patient visit and transfer the data to the patient record forms when they return home. "so when you carry a diary you can keep it dry by hiding it in your jacket, all the information is in the diary and you just simply re-write it in the forms." 4.4 lack of privacy. paper-based forms can be viewed easily by other people as they have no security around them; this can be dangerous as information such as someone's hiv\aids status is considered private. "if the forms are taken home the family might read patients' information and they do not have the right to do this. even when you are walking in the community you need to keep your things safe and hidden so people can't see as they can start talking." 4.5 lack of forms it sometimes happens that the forms that the chcw requires run out due to a lack of ink or machine breakage. if this happens, the care worker has to use their own money to photocopy the forms that are required and this can be costly for the chcw. 4.6 too much paperwork the chcws reported that having to record all patient information by hand and having to do the tallying up at the end of day and month was time consuming. they also have to ensure that their english grammar and language use are correct as it would cause problems if the coordinator could not understand what they meant to say. "you write until your arm becomes sore. there's a lot of paper-work." 4.7 inaccurate information the accuracy of the aggregate data depends on the accuracy of the records that are kept by the caregivers. these are sometimes incomplete, handed in late or not completed at all. "i usually ask the volunteers to write the patient's disease because we have to count these and they sometimes don't do that and it becomes troublesome for us. some of them bring the reports in late after we have submitted. some also say they did not have papers to photocopy." to summarize, the paper-based record-keeping system used by emmanuel haven is prone to errors, time-consuming and hampers rather than supports the chbc service. this system cannot support the integrated chcb model followed by emmanuel haven appropriately because this would require sharing of information between the partners in the care continuum, which is not possible using a paper-based system. this leads to an assumption that data flow can be improved through the introduction of appropriate ict solutions. for the purpose of this paper, the possibility of using mobile phones for remote data capturing was discussed with caregivers to determine their perceived notions about this. 5. caregivers' views of using mobile phones for remote data capturing 3.8 out of 5.3 billion mobile phone users in the world belong to developing countries (itu, 2011). this indicates that mobile phone usage in developing countries is popular and this could be advantageous for its use as an ict enabler. all of the community health care workers interviewed owned a mobile phone. three out of six of these mobile phones were basic, low-cost phones with limited capabilities. nevertheless, they were familiar with the use of a mobile phone. in order to gauge their utilization of mobile phones, interviewees were asked to rate their mobile phone usage as an expression of average use of functions in any one week. the results are shown in table 1. * x p/w = times per week table 1: mobile phone usage rating it was interesting to note that despite numerous references to limited airtime during the interviews, three of the interviewees indicated that they make calls on their phones multiple times per day, while only one had an equal usage rating for the more economical service of sms. the only services that were used by all caregivers were making calls, sending smses and the organiser function (with specific reference to the calculator). despite the fact that none of the caregivers had used a mobile phone for remote data capturing, it was felt that probing their perceived notions of using mobile phones for this purpose, would assist in establishing a baseline in terms of their expectations. this will be important to manage when introducing mobile phones as a technological solution for data capturing in this environment. all the interviewees responded positive to the suggestion of replacing the paper-based system with a system to capture data through the use of mobile phones. one interviewee exclaimed "please!!!" when presented with this option. the benefits perceived by the caregivers far outweigh the disadvantages. in fact, there was clear overstatement in some cases, for example: "i don't see anything that would make using the phone difficult. would there be? it would be a phone for work not for private use? therefore i wouldn't say i don't have airtime. i won't say i didn't visit a certain patient because i didn't know how to do something on it. the phone would be made in such a way that it would always be working all the time." loss and exposure of data were well-recognized as disadvantages. one interviewee explained a situation where her bag with the information could be stolen and the papers that she uses are stolen but then she realized that the same could happen with a phone. others stated: "maybe if it had to be lost or for example if someone didn't know it was for work ... they could steal it from me. that is where the suffering would begin because all the information would be lost." "i have a child that loves technology and phones. what if they go through my phone and find information that so and so has this disease." "even in the house your phone must not be a plaything because it contains very private and important patient information. it's between you and the centre only. so nobody not even your husband must touch your phone." it is important to highlight that while caregivers felt comfortable to use mobile phones for remote data capturing, they acknowledged the fact that training would be required. "i can't use my phone properly, i only use it to say "hello". "hopefully i would be taught how to use the phone because i do not know these modern phones." the perceived benefits of using mobile phones for data capturing as stated by the caregivers, are: all the interviewees believed that using the mobile phone would be quicker and easier than using paper-based systems. the interviewees believed that if information is stored on a mobile phone it is safer and it is kept more private because there is some security involved in a mobile phone. when using mobile phones they pointed out that they won't have to carry a lot of forms and wouldn't have to waste their money to photocopy the forms if they had ran out at the haven or if the machine broke. they argued that if a phone gets wet, it might get damaged but the information in the phone will not get damaged therefore they perceived that the phone was able to overcome the weather conditions that affected the paper-based forms. they preferred mobile phones because they wouldn't have to use paper-based forms and they would be able to take the phone home with them which would have the patient's entire record. one interviewee stated that by using a mobile phone, it would be able to organize the patient files and there wouldn't be any mix-ups like in paper-based systems. they perceived that information that is on a mobile phone is always available when needed and that they wouldn't have to search through a lot of files to get to the information needed. their feeling was that using a mobile phone would ensure that information is more legible unlike when writing with ink on paper. an interviewee stated that most mobile phones have sms capabilities which could be utilised to send information via sms. she felt that it could be backed up in that way and that maybe at the end of each day the information collected could be sent to their superiors and this would also serve as a form of backing up information. community health care workers believed that by using a mobile phone to store captured data they would be able to access old patient records and see what diseases a patient has suffered previously to ensure that what a patient says to them does not contradict with what is actually in the patient's record. the benefits as perceived by the caregivers may not be realizable in all cases. for example, it will indeed be easier to travel with and protect a mobile phone from inclement weather; however, a mobile phone is still susceptible to damage which can lead to data loss. mobile phones are further limited in the amount of data that can be stored locally, especially the more basic models. using more expensive phones with advanced capabilities (in order to support local access to patient records) will have cost implications. implementing a model to remotely access patient records will similarly have cost implications, both of which can affect the viability of using mobile phones in this environment. access to information seems to be a key perceived benefit as evidenced in the following statements: "i think using a phone would be easier. when you visit a patient's home you just carry a phone and it already has all the information." "searching for information. you can also go back to a certain date to find information." "through the use of phones i will at least be able to have access to the patient information even during weekends and i can view this while at home. i won't have to wait to go to work before viewing my patient's information." "by using a phone you can be able to search for information on the phone." one interviewee explained how she mostly sees it for the benefit of being able to keep information, so that she can verify what was said before, in case patients and family change the story later. therefore, it emerges that access to patient data on a 24/7 basis is seen as a core benefit. this is an interesting finding, as the caregivers did not highlight lack of access to patient records as a limitation of using a paper-based system. at the very least this expectation (or perceived benefit) implies that simply using the mobile phones to capture data and sending it to a remote data store with the intention of aggregating the data to complete reports (as is the case with the paper-based system), will not meet this expectation of the caregivers. this suggests the need for a more comprehensive solution which enables continuous access to patient records. 6. conclusion community caregivers are collectively responsible for the bulk of the hands-on care provided to people with hiv/aids by home care programmes in south africa (hpca, 2009). this paper provided a rich descriptive view of the daily lives of caregivers volunteering at the emmanuel haven ngo in motherwell, south africa, the problems they experience with paper-based record-keeping systems in the execution of their daily work and how they feel about using mobile phones for data capturing. it is concluded that (1) the paper-based record-keeping system does not support the integrated chbc model appropriately in terms of data flow; (2) the caregivers experience the paper-based system as a burden; (3) the paper-based system does not support a core need of the caregivers to have 24/7 access to patient records; (4) a mobile solution could improve data capturing and information sharing in chbc; and (5) the caregivers are willing to use mobile phones as an alternative data capturing tool and they perceive this mechanism to hold many benefits (not all of which may be realizable). it is recommended that the expectations of the caregivers be managed appropriately in further endeavours to introduce mobile phones as a data capturing mechanism in this environment. the understanding gained of the social relations and work practices in chbc, including the use of the paper-based record-keeping, provides discerning insights into the challenges caregivers face in their daily lives. as custodians of the wellbeing of their communities, their perseverance and dedication despite a lack of resources and proper support are astounding. the caregivers are ideally placed in their communities to serve as catalysts for improved wellbeing. however, their work must be supported and integrated to realize the potential of an expanded and improved healthcare service. it is hoped that this research will assist to inform the design of appropriate mobile solutions to both ease the burden of caregivers (i.e. it should be faster and easier to use than paper) and improve the healthcare service provided through enabling access to patient records to all partners in the care continuum. 7. acknowledgements the financial assistance of the south african government (department of science and technology) and the government of finland (ministry for foreign affairs) through safipa (the south africa finland knowledge partnership on ict) is hereby acknowledged. the authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of the safipa socio-tech sa project partners, viz. dr retha de la harpe (cput), prof hugo lotriet (up) and prof mikko korpela (uef). references browning, e. (2009). "bringing hiv/aids care home: investigating the value and impact of community home-based care in botswana", macalester abroad: research and writing from study away, 2(1), article 4. creswell, j.w. (2007). qualitative inquiry & research design: choosing among five approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. de la harpe, r., lotriet, h., pottas, d., & korpela, m. (2011). "socio-technical approach to community health: designing and developing a mobile care data application for home-based healthcare." journal of community informatics. under review. de la harpe, r., pottas, d., lotriet, h., & korpela, m. (2010). "towards a socio-technical approach in ict-supported socio-economic development. " ist africa 2010: proceedings of the information society technologies in africa conference (cd), 19-21 may 2010. department of local and provincial government (dplg). 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(2011). mobile cellular subscriptions. retrieved june 30, 2011 from http://www.itu.int/itu-d/ict/statistics/ mechael, p. and d. sloninsky (2008). towards the development of an mhealth strategy: a literature review. working paper. new york: earth institute at columbia university. pope, c., & mays, n. (2006). qualitative research in health care (3rd ed.). wiley-blackwell. shaibu, s. (2006). "community home-based care in a rural village: challenges and strategies. " journal of transcultural nursing, 17(1), 89-94. retrieved april, 10, 2010 from http://tcn.sagepub.com/content/17/1/89.full.pdf+html uys, l.r. & cameron, s. (2003). home-based hiv/aids care. south africa: oxford university press. van zyl i. (2011). mutual isolation and the fight for care: an ethnography of south african home-based healthcare contexts. journal of health informatics in developing countries, 5(1). vital wave consulting. (2009). mhealth for development: the opportunity of mobile technology for healthcare in the developing world. washington, d.c. and berkshire, uk: un foundation-vodafone foundation partnership. 123-14-1302 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 special issue on data literacy: notes from the field data literacy projects in canada: field notes from the open data institute, toronto node open data is flourishing in canada, but there are few formalized data literacy initiatives. civic technology organizations such as the toronto node of the open data institute (odi toronto), in partnership with public institutions and advocacy groups, are helping to fill the gap in data literacy through workshops and accessible hackathons. these organizations are collaboratively pursuing the goal of ensuring that open data benefits more than just a minority of technologically privileged canadians. introduction open data has firmly taken root in canada. evidence of its flourishing is apparent in the open data portals at all levels of government that have made hundreds of thousands of data sets available for public use, and in hackathons focusing on solving challenges as diverse as dementia (dementiahack, n.d.), healthcare (hacking health, n.d.), traffic congestion in toronto (trafficjam, n.d.), and international development (hackathons — devs without borders, n.d.). similarly, grassroots civic technology initiatives such as civic tech toronto (civic tech toronto, n.d.) and data for good chapters, akin to the uk’s data kind project, are gaining traction in the provinces of ontario and alberta (data for good data scientists & devs doing good, n.d.). canada’s open data community is a hybrid of citizen innovation and government direction at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels. open government data portals exist in nearly every province and territory, and in many instances municipalities have led the way in !223 argast, a., zvyagintseva, l. (2016). data literacy projects in canada: field notes from the open data institute, toronto node. the journal of community informatics, 12(3), 223—231. date submitted: 2016-01-26. date accepted: 2016-06-13. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1302. andi argast open data institute, toronto, canada corresponding author. andi.argast@gmail.com lydia zvyagintseva university of toronto, scarborough, canada lydia.zvyagintseva@utoronto.ca mailto:andi.argast@gmail.com mailto:lydia.zvyagintseva@utoronto.ca http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1302 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1302 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 opening data; notable early adopters are the cities of vancouver, british columbia and edmonton, alberta (mcdonald and wylie, 2014). through the international development research centre, canada also sponsors the open data research network, which looks at open data uses in the developing world (research project: exploring the impacts emerging of open data in developing countries, n.d.). many, if not most, of these open data initiatives aim to be inclusive and equitable, inviting citizens with varying skillsets and interests to participate in the open data, and by extension, open government landscape through use, repurposing, and building on existing data. however, given the scarcity of formal data literacy curricula and initiatives for average citizens, the extent of that inclusivity is arguably minimal. canadian information policy before examining the importance of data literacy in the canadian context, it is helpful to understand how historical information policy precedents have shaped canada’s open data landscape; in particular, canada’s 1983 access to information act (government of canada, 1983). along with the access to information legislation, the 1980s gave rise to the marketization of information (nilsen,1997), a trend that was mirrored in the us and uk during the same time period (bates, 2012). in the 1990s, the development of internet access also reflected public/market tensions; the private sector created for-profit digital infrastructure while simultaneously federal government funds linked schools, libraries, and remote communities to the internet through the connecting canadians programmes (longford and shade, 2012). the ‘under-recognized’ tension between the market orientation of information and information as a public good continues to be a defining characteristic of information policy today (orna, 2008) and has helped shape open data in canada, creating an environment for hackathons as potential sites of economic development that function in an ostensibly civic framework. emblematic of this attitude, former president of the treasury board, tony clement stated, “data is canada’s new natural resource. the sky's the limit in terms of what we can do with this material (t. b. of c. government of canada, n.d.).” this commodification of data released for public use can then be understood as an input for economic growth in the neoliberal post-industrial society. in fact, despite well-intentioned claims that access to publicly funded data on topics such as community housing, transit and recreation statistics will enable citizens to engage more actively with their cities and governments, research suggests that the general public is not positioned to benefit from access to open data (prado and marzal, 2013). according to the open knowledge foundation, opening up government data fosters transparency, releasing social and commercial value and participatory governance (what is open?, n.d.). while there is room for commercial application of open data in this framework, its benefits should not be limited to business alone, and values such as government transparency and participation by citizens in the democratic process should be equally emphasized in government policy and process. open data and socioeconomic considerations at various levels of government, open data policies are often implemented using a combination of “education and training, voluntary approaches, economic instruments, and legislation and control” (huijboom and van den broek, 2011) and while canada has made use of voluntary and economic approaches, from our perspective, open data training and education are lacking. the former approaches may reinforce existing socioeconomic !224 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 inequities in which more affluent, technologically sophisticated citizens have access to and can effectively use open data tools and technologies. although demographic information about canadian open data users remains anecdotal, jo bates’ findings in the uk indicate a worrying bias toward a technocracy, where “the social background of core ogd [open government data] advocates tends to be elite: highly, often elitely, educated white men from the higher social classes (bates, 2012).” although bates notes that grassroots ogd organizations were inclined to be more diverse, “it would still be accurate to describe it as a community with significant social privileges (bates, 2012).” in the context of canada’s multicultural society, it is possible that a demographic study of the open data community here would reveal a less homogenous construction than in the uk. yet, given that the structural inequities of the digital divide persist, a pattern of “empowering the empowered” (gurstein, 2011) is certainly likely in canada if care is not taken to include a diverse range of open data users in the processes of data access, use, and sharing. approaches to data literacy data literacy and the ability to effectively use data (gurstein, 2003) are critical measures to ensure an inclusive and equitable engagement with open data in canada. data literacy, and the related concepts of statistical literacy and basic numeracy, defines who will actively participate in the shaping of open data projects and who will be the passive recipient of these initiatives (twidale, 2013). without a data literate public, the benefits of open data tend to accrue to government itself and businesses (prado and marzal, 2013). competencies such as understanding, finding, manipulating, and interpreting data are a useful starting point in discussing the objectives of data literacy, but it is important to consider the needs of a particular community before prescribing a data literacy curriculum on a broader scale. arguably, strategically connecting citizens facing specific issues with the data sets that can help alleviate those problems is more valuable than a generalized, universal data literacy plan (mcdonald and wylie, 2014) and in fact, this is the approach that the toronto node of the open data institute has been taking in our data literacy efforts over the past two years. whether it is through more effective use of data (gurstein, 2003) or data literacy programs, there is no doubt that making open data more accessible and useable to a broader crosssection of the public will ensure that the ideals of openness—accountability and transparency in particular—will remain relevant. the toronto node of the open data institute the toronto node of the uk-based open data institute (odi) launched in 2013, as the canadian open data institute (codi), is a volunteer-run initiative with a mission “to support the advancement of open data access and use in canada (canadian open data institute, n.d.).” the organization initially championed education, improving data literacy, and skills development, with early projects focusing on municipal data standards, a data request framework, and an academic open data research repository (canadian open data institute, n.d.). in 2014, the open data institute revised its structure, eliminating any national nodes or franchises, and codi became known as the open data institute’s toronto node. toronto is one of only two north american nodes; the other is based in chicago (odi nodes, 2015). !225 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 as a volunteer-run organization, odi toronto must be strategic in selecting its priority projects. in autumn 2015, we chose to support two key initiatives: a “data jam” at the annual ontario nonprofit network conference, and a public workshop and hackathon hosted by the toronto public library. data literacy was a key element in each of these projects, and in both instances, we focused on a basic introduction to open data concepts, rather than an advanced curriculum exploring numeracy or analysis. the following sections outline each project in detail. the ontario nonprofit network conference open data jam the ontario nonprofit network (onn) is an advocacy body for the province of ontario’s not-for-profit sector, and the annual conference is a hallmark event for its members. for the 2015 conference, odi toronto partnered with data for good calgary to deliver a two-part “data jam” or workshop to an audience of ontario-based nonprofit and charitable organizations. before describing the sessions, it is helpful to understand the complexity of the relationship between open data and the canadian nonprofit sector. data about registered canadian charities—excluding organizations that are incorporated as nonprofit entities—is publicly available from the canadian revenue agency (cra) through the federal government’s open data portal (2013 charities listings, n. d.). this data has been used by organizations such as the charity advocacy group imagine canada to create dashboards and charity look-up tools for nonprofit organizations (charity focus – home, n. d.). although the cra’s regulatory requirements have created a wealth of data about charitable organizations, there is little evidence to suggest that most nonprofit organizations are able to leverage this data for business intelligence or other purposes. studies of charitable and nonprofit organizations in canada and the us indicate that many lack the ability to effectively use basic digital tools (the 9th annual nonprofit technology staffing & investments report, 2015), let alone possess the requisite data literacy to use resources such as the cra data set. given our audience’s frame of reference, the goal of the onn data jam sessions was to introduce the approximately 30 participants to the basic features of the open data landscape and then embolden them to seek out additional resources for future open data projects. the sessions also discussed the necessity of having basic digital infrastructure in place—e.g. a database or similar repository—in order for organizations to collect and analyse both their own data and other relevant open data sources. the first session of the data jam, entitled “getting to know your data + civic tech 101” provided a solid understanding of open data definitions and where to find relevant open data sets in federal, provincial, and municipal portals. the second session, “managing the data lifecycle keeping information assets alive” expanded on the theme presented in the first as well as exploring how organizations should be managing their own data. the approach for both workshops was to demystify open data for an audience that was familiar with the term, but had little practical experience with opening, cleaning, and manipulating data sets. to help participants understand how open data was relevant to their own organizations, the workshop explored the types of small data— typically programmatic and budgeting related—that all organizations generate but typically do not use effectively. !226 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 for organizations that are challenged by a lack of data literacy, partnerships with the public and private sector are often critical to data-informed projects. during our data jam, geoff zakaib from the calgary chapter of data for good presented a case study of one such partnership from a successful datathon held in may 2015 with calgary’s distress centre. over the course of a weekend, volunteers from data for good calgary correlated data from the centre’s crisis line and 211 with data sets including weather patterns and suicide statistics. results were analysed and visualised, and the insights generated from the datathon justified the creation of a new data analyst role at the organization (argast et al., 2015). this case study of a successful cross-sector partnership offers a promising avenue for nonprofit organizations lacking the internal resources to analyse their own data; however, establishing such a partnership is not without its challenges. therefore, a core component of the onn data jam was to familiarize the audience with the nascent canadian ‘civic tech’ movement— grassroots groups of engaged and data literate citizens—and to position nonprofit workers to participate more fully in civic tech projects as subject matter experts. through our involvement with groups such as civic tech toronto, we have found that these initiatives try to promote user centred design, a position that theoretically privileges nonprofit workers’ experiences in a hypothetical project’s data analysis and design process. yet, we have also observed that it can be difficult for less data-literate individuals to assert themselves and their priorities in these highly technical environments. to help ease this tension, each data jam participant was tasked with completing a civic tech product brief worksheet, which aimed to assist participants in thinking through all aspect of a data-related problem, and ultimately to better equip nonprofit workers to partner with civic tech groups and other datafocused organizations. the worksheet loosely followed a design-thinking process structured to draw out a more fulsome understanding of both the data-related problem and possible solutions. once completed, the creative commons licensed and freely available worksheet can be used to frame discussions with potential partners. post-workshop, odi toronto plans to connect interested nonprofit organizations with civic tech groups to bring some data-related projects to fruition, and is currently developing a workflow to make this possible. a further goal is to facilitate additional data literacy workshops for a similar audience, with a focus on using open source tools such as open refine to clean and analyse data. toronto public library workshop and hackathon libraries have played an important role in connecting canadians to technology since the days of the government-funded internet access programs in the 1990s (longford et al, 2012). recent initiatives such as the toronto public library’s digital innovation hubs, which offer services ranging from 3d printing to arduino and raspberry pi loans to drop-in maker clubs, have continued to strengthen the relationship between libraries and citizens through the use of technology. building on this affinity, odi toronto partnered with the toronto public library (tpl) and the city of toronto’s open data team for tpl’s first open data-focused initiatives in autumn 2015. the first project with tpl was a free, publicly available evening workshop delivered by odi toronto that aimed to provide a foundation in the principles of open data, examine how open data functioned in the context of the city of toronto, and explore relevant examples of open data usage on a municipal level. similar to the onn data jam, the goal of the tpl workshop was to promote data literacy by providing participants with a fundamental understanding of !227 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 open data, as well as to assess how open data could be used by citizens and by the library system itself. in order to ensure the workshop was accessible, we developed a curriculum that did not require participants to have or to use a computer, certainly a challenge when exploring the topic of open data. instead, activities relied on non-digital resources such as chart paper and markers; for instance, part of the workshop explored the data spectrum, a concept developed by the odi to help represent the differences between closed, shared, and open data (the data spectrum, n.d.). workshop participants were encouraged to draw a simplified version of the spectrum on chart paper, and then use sticky notes to represent where they thought different types of data might lie on the spectrum. this activity enabled participants to discuss issues of data security and privacy, and to better understand the role of shared and open data in the everyday life. the demographics of the tpl workshop participants were extremely varied and the workshop discussion reflected their diverse interests. although many individuals indicated that this was their first exposure to open data concepts, throughout the workshop they continually requested information on free and open source tools for mapping projects and actively discussed how open data could facilitate more informed interactions with the city of toronto’s urban planning department. the participants also expressed interest in having additional workshops to focus on these issues. no formal success metrics for the workshop were in place, although the animated discussion and detailed questions we fielded at the conclusion of the event indicated that participants connected with the material. clearly, open data is a highly engaging topic because it touches on many areas of civic life, resonating with many people in very intimate ways. as a forum for raising general awareness about open data and its role in city-building and library services, the inclusive and low-tech public workshop worked well. however, presenting information in a lecture style format without the aid of computers restricted how hands-on and technical the material could be, and odi toronto hopes to use the library’s computers for future workshops. our second project, the toronto public library’s first-ever hackathon, was held over a weekend following the workshop. for this event, staff at the toronto public library cleaned and released 36 data sets; this data was made available only for the duration of the event, as the tpl was still working to create sustainable and long-term open data policies and processes. data sets included catalogue and circulation data, library branch information, and data about library programs, classes and services. participants were introduced to and encouraged to draw on the city of toronto’s municipal open data portal, as well as wellbeing toronto (wellbeing toronto, n. d.), a mapping application that allows users to combine various socioeconomic indicators in a single visual interface. subject specialists from the city of toronto were on hand to assist participants with the municipal data sets. additionally, help with open refine was available for anyone interested in cleaning datasets. at the tpl hackathon, participants were tasked with creating project or idea prototypes that improved library services and aligned with the library’s new strategic plan. in this manner, data literacy was encouraged at the hackathon through engagement with data sets and problem-solving through design. specifically, the hackathon aimed to foster projects that answered the question of “how can the library make our communities more resilient, more knowledgeable, more connected and more successful?” (velasco, 2015). the tpl hackathon aspired to be a highly accessible initiative and subsequently drew a wide demographic of participants: the youngest individual was 12 years old, and the oldest was a 75-year-old !228 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 retired programmer (velasco, 2015). as mentors and facilitators at the hackathon, we found the diversity of the participants to be reflected in an inspiring array of answers, presented in the form of prototypes, to the framing question of the hackathon. in the style of many other hackathons, prizes were awarded to several groups for their final prototypes, which were presented on the second day of the event. the winning participant’s project mapped catalogue search results by branch, for instance allowing someone to quickly see which libraries had books in a particular language. this information could then be crossreferenced with municipal data to show how many speakers of that language lived near the library branch, thus creating a more knowledgeable, connected library service (chua, 2015). although several teams developed more traditional mobile applications that allowed users to better interact with the library’s services and resources, other teams focused on issues of accessibility and data quality. one team developed a speech interface to help improve accessibility when interacting with the library's catalogue for visually impaired users, while three other teams focused on the library’s data collection processes, as well as the quality and usability of the data that was made available for the event (velasco, 2015). all ideas were well received by the tpl staff at the event who felt that these projects would be beneficial for advancing the development of a comprehensive open data policy for the library. clearly, structured and systematic engagement with open data fosters creative problem-solving, advocacy, and critical reflection on government, civic, and nonprofit services, processes and policies. the case studies presented here are but two specific approaches to focused open data engagement that nevertheless center on literacy, capacity building, and civic participation. conclusion canada currently lacks any kind of consistent and official data literacy curriculum or a set of national initiatives. it thus falls to civic organization such as odi toronto, in partnership with libraries and other public institutions, advocacy groups, and forward-thinking educators to ensure that open data benefits more than just a minority of technically sophisticated canadians from a particular socioeconomic background. a comprehensive look at data literacy in canada is needed to better understand what, if any, democratizing effects open data is having across the country. in the absence of a literacy strategy at the national level, it is crucial for canada’s disparate civic tech groups to build communities of practice that are inclusive and accessible by design. cross-sector partnerships are also critical; our projects with established organizations such as the onn and the tpl fostered accessibility to open data by allowing us to connect with individuals who may be excluded from ‘traditional’ civic tech initiatives. for our part, we plan to continue our data literacy efforts, developing these partnerships and our skill-building workshops to present more advanced open data concepts and to introduce canadians to free and open source tools for working with open data at a municipal, and eventually, national level. our hope is that these data literacy initiatives will spark similar projects from coast to coast, and eventually lead to a more democratized and inclusive open 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(n.d.). retrieved from https://okfn.org/opendata/ !231 open government data and the right to information: opportunities and obstacles open government data and the right to information: opportunities and obstacles katleen janssen, interdisciplinary centre for law and ict, ku leuven – iminds 1. introduction open government data (ogd) is fashionable. developers and hackers are making smartphone apps based on datasets held by the public sector, and activists are discovering the value of ogd for defending their causes. governments and public bodies in europe and elsewhere are making increasing numbers of datasets available to the public by means of national, regional, local or thematic portals, supported by political commitments towards open government and open data (e.g. hm government 2012, finnish government 2011, flemish government 2011). on the global level, ogd is an important part of the open government partnership, an international initiative launched in september 2011 by 8 founding governments1 and currently including 55 countries.2 the participating governments commit to increasing the availability of information about governmental activities, supporting civic participation, implementing the highest standards of professional integrity throughout their administrations, and increasing access to new technologies for openness and accountability.3 from the media coverage and government propaganda about both the demands for ogd and the public sector’s answer to these demands, one might get the impression that the ogd movement has arisen out of nowhere, for the first time demanding government to “give us our data” (see also halonen 2012). while this may be too bold a statement, it can be argued that any links of the ogd movement with other, pre-existing movements demanding for government information, openness or participation, have been underexposed. at least two related developments come to mind: the right-to-information (rti) movement, and the policy on the re-use of public sector information. first, the ogd movement has close ties to the rti movement, which promotes access to government information as a fundamental right (access info 2010). both movements aim for greater availability of data held by government bodies, even though some differences in approach and focus can be noted. second, the information industry has been advocating, particularly in the european union, for the availability of public sector information (psi) for re-use in added-value information products and services since the late 1980s (janssen 2010). psi re-users demand access to full datasets for any use they want to make of it, as does the ogd movement. however, the call for ogd is based on wider arguments than just the promotion of economic growth and the development of the information market (halonen 2012).   the links between ogd and the discourse on the re-use of psi have been set out very eloquently by jo bates in this issue (bates 2012, see also erkkilä 2010, halonen 2012). therefore, this aspect will not be addressed in detail, but will only be referred to when relevant for the main topic of this paper, i.e. the connections between the ogd and the rti movements. these movements show important similarities: they both strive for the greater availability of government information, based on arguments for accountability and transparency. however, there are also differences. while the rti movement is mostly rights-based, ogd is mostly technology-driven. also, their respective proponents and defenders generally differ in background and the kinds of information or data they target. these differences bring along both risks and opportunities. on the one hand, the recent focus of national governments and public authorities on ogd may ‘distract’ their attention from providing accessible information to the general public in favour of making data portals for developers, entailing a possible new information power for the latter. in addition, the emphasis on proactive dissemination of ogd may actually have a negative influence on the demand-side of rti. on the other hand, ogd may also bring extensive benefits to the rti movement, including a momentum and enthusiasm that has been lacking in the rti sphere.   in the following sections, i will give a short overview of the drivers and background of the ogd and rti movements. then i will address the commonalities and differences between both movements and try to assess the risks and opportunities that the ogd movement can hold for the older, more established rti. 2. a quick reminder: background and drivers for ogd and rti this section first sketches a brief picture of the background and main drivers for ogd, and then moves on to do the same for rti. while both movements share drivers relating to transparency and democracy, the ogd movement also includes economic drivers and the possibility of (even considerable) economic returns. 2.1. the open government data movement history and background the call for ogd has particularly gained momentum in the last two or three years. two important milestones were the launch of data.gov in the united states (usa) in may 2009 and its equivalent in the united kingdom (uk), data.gov.uk, in january 2010. these were among the results of a process towards opening up government information that started in the second half of the last decade. for several years, civil society had been putting pressure on government to make its data available in machine-readable formats, with frontrunner grassroots initiatives such as theyworkforyou4 in the uk and govtrackus5 in the us (hogge 2010). while ogd started as a mainly uk and us driven initiative, it has increasingly gathered attention in many other countries and international organisations, including the world bank and the organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd).ogd activists strive for the availability of data held by government bodies in an open, non-proprietary, machine-readable format – free of charge or against marginal cost – for any use, whether commercial or non-commercial.6 these activists are generally technically proficient and come from different backgrounds, including open knowledge activists, transparency advocates, psi re-use business representatives, civic hackers and linked data and semantic web enthusiasts (bates 2012). drivers for open government data generally, four main types of drivers can be found for the demands for governments to open up their data. first, ogd is considered vital for transparency and accountability (gigler et al. 2011): in order to hold its government accountable for its acts, the public needs to know what this government is doing on a continuous basis, and not only once in each election period. in order to reach true transparency, the public should be able not only to obtain the data, but also to further use, combine, and disseminate these without any restrictions (access info 2010). a second driver is participatory governance: ogd enables citizens to participate in decision-making processes in an informed and structured manner, and the creation of new platforms for discussion can lower the threshold for engaging in public discussion (halonen 2012). thirdly, ogd is a catalyst for innovation and economic growth. new applications and services can be made, based on ogd; new business models created and existing business models improved. in addition, the citizen can interact more effectively and efficiently with his or her environment and make informed decisions by using e.g. information on hospital safety, school comparisons, or transport apps (yu and robinson 2012, gigler et al. 2011). finally, ogd also has an important internal value for the public sector itself. public bodies can get access to data held by other public authorities, or can make new use of their own structured data, improved by feedback from the public (access info 2010). this enables them to improve the efficiency of their public services, and enhance their internal understanding of their tasks and objectives (halonen 2012). while generally all drivers mentioned in the previous paragraph are more or less present in each open government initiative, it is interesting to note that within government, the national, regional and local institutions’ discourse and arguments for opening up their data show different priorities. for instance, huijboom and van den broek found that, while the us open data policy is mainly focused on transparency and democratic control, the danish agenda focuses on innovation and growth (huijboom and van den broek 2011). in the uk, efficiency of the public sector and the provision of better public services also play an important role (hm government 2012). a topic of interest for future research could be how these different motives affect the availability of particular datasets or the adoption of open data practices within government.   particularly the ogd movement’s arguments relating to transparency, accountability and public participation are closely related to the drivers for the right to access government information. while this is recognised in many reports and studies, the relationship between these is generally only addressed on a basic level. this paper tries to kick-start some more in-depth debate about the interaction of the ogd and rti movements and on the influence ogd may have on the further evolution of the right to information. before addressing the relationship between ogd and the right to information, i will first give a short overview of the main drivers and legal basis of the rti movement. 2.2. the rti movement history and background the rti movement advocates for the right of the public to access government information, often also referred to as freedom of information in national legislation.7 briefly stated, this right has two main aspects: first, the public has the right to access information held by government and public bodies on request; second, governments have an obligation to actively disseminate information to the public on matters of public interest. the right to information was first recognised in national legislation in sweden in 1766.8 the freedom of the press act created a right of the citizen to access official documents in order to encourage the free exchange of opinion and the availability of comprehensive information (open society justice initiative et al. 2008). after over 200 years of very little activity relating to access9, from the 1990s onwards many countries adopted legislation on the right to information. currently, around 90 countries have adopted freedom of information legislation and 50 more have legislation pending (hazell and worthy 2010, vleugels 2009). in addition, freedom of information has been recognised as a constitutional right in more than 30 countries (peled and rabin 2011, access info 2010), and it is increasingly considered as a human right (mason 2000, paradissis 2009, voorhoof 2010; see however also bishop 2009 and darch and underwood 2009 for a critical note). on an international level, the right to information is increasingly recognised by several international organisations, including the united nations (united nations economic commission for europe 1998, un special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression 2000), the council of europe (council of europe 2008), the organisation of american states  (oas general assembly 2007, permanent council of the organization of american states committee on juridical and political affairs 2008, oas department of international law 2010), and the african commission on human and peoples’ rights (african commission on human and peoples’ rights 2012). civil society has played a major role in this international recognition of access to information. activist organisations such as article 19, access info, transparency international, the carter center, open society initiative, freedominfo.org, or the freedom of information advocates network, continue to raise awareness on the importance of the right to information and call upon governments to take their responsibility towards the citizens, for instance by filing applications and complaints or by creating media campaigns. in some cases, they are also invited to take part in the preparatory process for access legislation, e.g. the council of europe convention on access to official documents. research on the right to information has mainly focused on comparative analyses of existing foi laws and practices (e.g. banisar 2006, mendel 2008, darch and underwood 2010, access info and centre for law and democracy 2012, vleugels 2009), and the impact of freedom of information in different countries or levels of government (e.g. calland 2010,  hazell et al. 2010; roberts 2010). recent work from peled and rabin also looks at the right to information as a constitutional right (peled and rabin 2011) and, among others, blanton and mendel have examined the status of the right to information as a human right (blanton 2006, mendel 2003). research into the theoretical basis and origin of the right to information links it to freedom of expression, citizenship and political participation rights (ackerman and sandoval-ballesteros 2006, bovens 2002). related to this, in the next section i will give a short overview of the drivers for the right to information.         drivers the main drivers for the right to information are comparable to the arguments for ogd and can be grouped under the encompassing claim that access to information is indispensable in a democracy (peled and rabin 2011, mendel 2003, bishop 2009). while birkinshaw’s statement that the right to information is fundamental to one’s status as “a full member of the human race” (birkinshaw 2006) is relatively unique in its boldness, the importance for democracy has been recognised by many scholars on several levels. first, access to government information is a key component of any transparency and accountability process for government activities and processes. in order for the citizen to ensure that the public bodies are staying within the limits of the law and within the limits of their remit – i.e. to exercise a posteriori political control over the government activities – he or she needs to know about those limits and about the actions of the public bodies (janssen 2010, schram 2002, mason 2000). access acts as a safeguard against arbitrariness, inefficiency and corruption (kranenborg and voermans 2005, mackaay 1992) and is important for building a relationship of trust between the government and the citizens. second, the right to information is considered an important tool for increasing public participation (bovens 2002). an informed citizen can better contribute to governmental processes and express meaningful views that can help shape government policy (birkinshaw 2006, perritt jr. and lhulier 1997). this is a continuous process: the citizens do not only need to have sufficient information when they are choosing the person to represent them at the moment of elections, but also throughout the legislatures of elected representatives, e.g. in moments of direct participation such as referenda, on-line consultations, public meetings, etc. (janssen, 2010). third, citizens need information to fully participate in society. this involves knowing their rights and obligations and being able to exercise them, not only towards the state and the government, but also towards other citizens (wiese schartum 1998, peled and rabin 2011). from this perspective, the right to information is an instrumental right – it enables the assertion of other rights (darch and underwood 2009, beers 1996). however, beyond the rights-based need for information, citizens also need information to participate in economic and social life, to develop their relationships with other people, with the community and on the market, and to enjoy a good standard of living (janssen 2010). finally, peled and rabin also provide a ‘proprietary justification’: information held by public authorities is the property of the state’s citizens and residents. as owners of the information, they should clearly have access to it (peled and rabin 2011). at first sight, the ogd and rti movement show considerable similarity in their objectives and drivers, even leading some to question whether ogd can replace foi legislation and by itself guarantee the right to information.10 however, more insight is needed in the links and differences between both movements and into the possible impact, both on a theoretical and on a practical level, of ogd developments on the right to information. in the following section, i try to highlight some elements of the relationship between rti and ogd and expose some of the issues that need to be tackled in the future debate on ogd and rti. 3. the relationship between ogd and rti 3.1 a first impression of the similarities and differences as a starting point, it is clear that ogd and rti are closely related. for the most part, they are based on the same drivers and they strive for the same thing: the broader availability to the public of information held by the public sector. however, looking a bit more in depth at the drivers of ogd and rti, one can see that next to the common arguments for transparency and accountability, the ogd movement also relies on two drivers that are of less importance to rti activists: innovation and economic growth on the one hand, and efficiency of the public sector on the other (yu and robinson 2012). as bates mentions, these arguments are often hidden behind or at least minimised in comparison to the transparency driver, which is assumed to appeal to a larger audience (bates 2012). she argues that many members of the ogd community are not aware of the underlying driver of the marketisation of services, even though this may have a significant impact on the priorities set out by the movement, and also by government, e.g. relating to the delivery channels, types of data or their format. however, rti and ogd are also growing closer: with the growing emphasis of the rti movement on proactive disclosure as a means for all members of society to enjoy the right to information and not just the individuals filing a request, more attention is being given to the efficiency argument. by proactively making information available, public bodies can reduce the burden of requests for information and improve their information management and information flows (darbishire 2010).   in general, while the rti movement uses rights-based arguments, ogd activists rely more on the technical possibilities of data and on the proprietary argument that government data belongs to the public taxpayers. this also relates to the kind of activists behind these arguments. rti activists are generally ‘bred’ in human rights and democratisation spheres. darbishire identifies at least four different groups of civil society activism on the right to information, particularly on proactive disclosure (darbishire 2010): sectoral campaigns on the national level (e.g. on agricultural subsidies or rural land rights); sectoral campaigns on a regional or international level (e.g. farmsubsidy.org11); national and international campaigns on access to information in general; and supranational initiatives supported by intergovernmental bodies and public institutions (e.g. the global transparency initiative coalition, or the open government partnership, although the latter has also been subject to considerable criticism with regard to the right to information, see e.g. mendel 2012). while ogd activism is also rooted in civil society, activists are more often technology-savvy civic hackers or entrepreneurs than civil rights advocates (access info 2010). ogd also differs in the interest it receives from the political level: while politicians and high-level administrators are generally not interested in initiating freedom of information legislation and increasing transparency (except maybe to hold their political opponents under scrutiny, as was the case with the united states foia, see ackerman and sandoval-ballesteros 2006), they seem to have taken a liking to open data. moreover, many ogd activists come from within government administrations (davies 2010): civil servants interested in new media and technologies, information management, and interaction with their citizen-customers. another difference lies in the respective objectives of ogd and rti. ogd is focused on opening up raw, machine-readable data and datasets, while proponents of the right to information address any type of qualitative or quantitative information, laid down in documents (gigler et al. 2011). this also reflects in the type of datasets that are considered of interest: for innovation and economic growth this generally includes geographic data, postcodes, transport data, corporate data and other business information. accountability advocates will rather be interested in budget and spending data, legal information, and procedural items such as meeting minutes and reports. both movements have, throughout the course of their development, encountered comparable obstacles within government, with public bodies holding on to their old culture of secrecy and using arguments of privacy, national security, commercial secrecy, etc. to limit access to data and information. however, an extra layer of concerns seems to be raised by ogd on top of the accountability or reputation concerns associated with freedom of information. while the public bodies’ reluctance to allow access to information under freedom of information legislation mostly relates to their concern for being judged for their actions and decisions, their worries about ogd also involve the lack of quality of the data itself on the basis of which these actions and decisions are taken (fioretti 2010, deloitte 2012). on the other hand, ogd also targets public bodies that do hold high quality data (which are often not subject to the national freedom of information legislation, but to their own specific dissemination regime), and that see these data as a commodity to be exploited against high charges. these frictions are less related to freedom of information than to the debate on the commercial exploitation of public sector information (janssen 2010). in summary, while the odg and rti movements show many similar and/or compatible characteristics, different nuances and priorities seem to have grown throughout their development. in the next section, i look at some of the possible consequences of these nuances and priorities on the relationship between ogd and rti and on the impact ogd can have on the more established, pre-existing right to information. 3.2. the impact of ogd on the right to information: a blessing or a curse? looking at the large amounts of government data that the ogd movement has opened up for public use, it is clear that it has had a large positive impact on the availability of public information, in this way broadly supporting the objectives of the rti movement. ogd activists have created a significant momentum and raised worldwide attention concerning the wealth of data and information held by the public sector. this has opened many doors to datasets that would otherwise remain hidden and has made these datasets available to be used by anyone for any purpose. rti activists have been able to join forces with ogd activists and take a big leap forward in transparency and open government. ogd has created an enthusiasm within many governments and public authorities that access to government information has never been able to achieve, helped by tangible results in the form of sometimes stunning visualisations and "cool" apps. however, even though the ogd movement promotes the broader availability of public sector data, it does not necessarily improve access to information as envisaged by the rti movement and freedom of information in general. as it is strongly oriented towards the physical, technical and financial availability of data, ogd does not offer much support for another important aspect of accessibility of information: i.e. the intellectual accessibility. without the skills and knowledge to interpret the vast amount of datasets thrown at them, or any context surrounding the data, many citizens will not be able to make sense of these data. they will not benefit from ogd (see davies 2010, gurstein 2011, halonen 2012) and, hence, they will not have full access to the information that can be extracted from these data. hence, it will be highly unlikely that the benefits of ogd for transparency, accountability and public participation will actually materialise in this setting. on the contrary, ogd may actually reinforce or enlarge existing inequalities in access to information – the distinction between the information-haves and the information-have-nots or the so-called ‘data divide’ gurstein refers to in analogy with the much-discussed digital divide – and create an elite that can make use of the available datasets and that will hold an important power over other citizens (gurstein 2011, 2011a). the growing attention for making available machine-readable data via portals may increase these inequalities even further. the danger arises that the focus of the public bodies, who have to make choices in assigning their limited time and resources, will move from making information available for a large audience to disseminating data to a small group of developers and activists, just because their cry for data is louder and the immediate rewards for government in terms of reputation and goodwill from the public will be better (janssen, 2011). this might entail that the vast majority of the public would actually have less access to information, because they do not have the technical knowledge and skills to use the data that is offered to them. in developing countries, this effect may be magnified by the lack of available infrastructure or hardware (gigler et al. 2011). obviously, this should not deter public authorities from opening up their data, but it should rather make them aware of the shift in information power (darch and underwood 2009) and of their existing responsibilities to provide information to the public, and encourage them to balance their obligations relating to rti and ogd. in all fairness, the same criticism could also apply to the rti movement: many citizens will also not be aware of their right to request information from their public authorities, and it could be claimed that access legislation also only benefits the small part of the public that is already equipped with sufficient knowledge about governmental processes and ways to participate in them (hazell et al. 2010).   in many cases, the ogd community will play an intermediary role and create applications, visualisations or other tools that translate the data into the information needed by the broader public. governments might be cautioned against over-reliance on these intermediaries, as their primary goal may not always be to give the public objective information, but rather trying to prove their point with data (activists) or create commercial opportunities (entrepreneurs and companies). interpretations and representations of information hold value judgments (davies 2010) and if these activists and companies are relied upon to transfer information to the public, they hold an important power and responsibility. if this power were to be misused, open data risks the creation of an illusion of transparency and accountability, while in reality causing information inequality and a disempowerment of the citizens. while the main danger of activists’ misuse of data lies in a possible lack of objectivity or the provision of one-dimensional information, commercial companies may be tempted to create an information dependency for citizens by charging high prices for access to the provided information. in the era of ‘big data’, the easy availability of processing power, server space, software and tools will also give a limited number of big companies a significant advantage, in this way creating information oligopolies or even monopolies. slee refers to this phenomenon as the open government data doppelgänger (slee 2012). while a discussion about the responsibility of these data intermediaries certainly needs to be held (mayer-schonberger and zappia 2011), it remains the responsibility of government to prevent this phenomenon from happening and to make sure that access to information and access to data are truly empowering, e.g. by providing more education on the role of data and information in our society (halonen 2012).12 the previous paragraphs assume that government is sincerely interested in increasing transparency by providing access to ogd, but that this goodwill may have some negative effects. if we take another line of reasoning and do not assume goodwill on the part of government, the focus on the active dissemination of datasets may be seen as being possibly used as a tool rather to distract attention from providing information to the public or creating transparency. open data portals are, for instance, an easy tool for a government to use to promote the perception of transparency, while it may only be a collection of data that was already available; but that is now brought together in one place, and that is not in any way an answer to the governance or transparency challenges that are being posed (yu and robinson 2012). active dissemination allows the public body to choose which data it makes available first, in this way controlling what it shows the public or allowing it to possibly limit what useful datasets it wishes to make available (halonen 2012). this also assumes that the government knows what the public wants. if active dissemination is increasingly replacing access on request, public authorities will no longer have a clear idea as to what the public is interested in and they will have to look for other channels to get feedback on the usefulness of the data they are publishing. many public authorities have no contact with their users or any clear idea of who their users might be. a number of public authorities have already been involving hackers and developers in choosing priority datasets, but the problem remains that these hackers and developers generally do not form a representative image of the entire possible user community. moreover, there is no guarantee that the public authorities are even interested in what the public wants: they may feel that their job is done with just formally fulfilling the requirements imposed on them by central government and ‘ticking the open data box’ by making some datasets available, regardless of their value for the public. this relates to the lack of a rights-based approach to ogd: it has been argued that this allows governments to hide behind promises to release more data (freedominfo.org 2011). 4. conclusions this paper has attempted to give an overview of the main aspects of the ogd movement on the one hand and the rti movement on the other hand. while it is clear that both movements are closely related, they each have their own focus and priorities. these differences hold the risk that ogd may actually have a negative impact on the right to information. therefore, it is essential that the ogd movement and rti movement create an open debate about their objectives and possible mutual benefits, and join forces in ensuring that both rti and ogd actually meet their aims of increasing transparency. this would also provide an important signal to the policymakers, whose ogd and rti agenda is often still developed separately, and sometimes even with contradictory outcomes. for instance, both the united kingdom and the netherlands are frontrunners in the process of opening up government data. however, their attitude towards the right to information is not nearly as enthusiastic. both countries have indicated that they will not sign the council of europe convention on access to official documents (even though the provisions of this convention are directed towards fairly low-level common denominator obligations for the council of europe member states), and their national freedom of information act are under discussion. in the netherlands, a proposal for amending the freedom of information legislation was submitted by the minister for internal affairs, making it easier for government officials to refuse ‘unreasonable’ requests for information in relation to the efforts they would have to spend in answering these requests. at the same time, it promotes ogd by enabling the use of government information for apps.13 in the uk, the government has published its open data white paper, strongly committing itself to supporting ogd (cabinet office 2012), and at the same time it is questioning the functioning of the freedom of information act.14 this freedom of information act was changed in may 2012 by the protection of freedoms act, influenced by thoughts concerning open data: it now contains a ‘right to data’, clarifying that, in so far as possible, data sets requested under the act should be provided in a format which is capable of re-use (read: in a machine-readable format).15 another example is the european union. at the end of 2011, the european commission announced its open data strategy, promoting open data as indispensable for a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy, and for increasing transparency and accountability (european commission 2011). the words of the commission had hardly gone cold when it became clear that the negotiations on the amendment of the regulation on access to documents from the european institutions would be stopped because the commission, the council of ministers and the european parliament could not find agreement on the changes.16 in the negotiations, it was actually the commission that tried to limit the field of application of the regulation. a reason for these conflicting attitudes might be that governments and public bodies feel that they have more control over their ogd activities, because these are based on their own initiatives, while the access legislation obliges them to comply with requests for information, based on formal legislation. however, this also raises the question of how far ogd efforts of governments are indeed just window-dressing to divert attention from their obligations to guarantee the public’s right to information. in this perspective, the words of uk cabinet minister francis maude’s that he’d “like to make foi redundant” may be a source of concern.17 if he is assuming that publishing datasets online is a sufficient alternative for access to information, he is disregarding the aspect of intellectual accessibility and relying on some of the assumptions mentioned above, i.e. that intermediaries will ensure the contextualizing and visualising of the data into information (see also davies 2010). rather than assuming that ogd can replace rti, both movements should be seen as complementary: cooperation between ogd and rti would bring together the extensive experience of the rti movement with its rights-based discourse and the technical skills and media awareness of the ogd movement. in order to ensure that ogd and rti actually increase transparency and accountability, but also innovation and economic growth, they should be part of an integrated policy that pays attention to what the citizens – i.e. the end-users – need in terms of data and information. 5. acknowledgement i would like to thank helen darbishire for her input during multiple discussions on the topic. my thanks also go to the reviewers of this paper, for their helpful and insightful comments. 6. references access info (2010). beyond access: open government data and the right to reuse. retrieved july 3, 2012 from 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(1998). access to government-held information: challenges and possibilities’. journal of information, law and technology, retrieved july 13, 2012 from http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/1998_1/schartum/. yu, h. and robinson, d. (2012). the new ambiguity of “open government”. princeton citp/yale isp working paper, retrieved july 3, 2012 from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2012489.     7. footnotes 1 brazil, indonesia, mexico, norway, philippines, south africa, united kingdom, and united states. see http://www.opengovpartnership.org/about.   2 see http://www.opengovpartnership.org/countries.   3 see http://www.opengovpartnership.org/open-government-declaration.   4 see http://www.theyworkforyou.com.   5 see http://www.govtrack.us/.   6 the definition of ‘open’ that is most used in this respect is the open knowledge foundation’s definition: “a piece of content or data is open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it — subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and/or share-alike”. (see http://opendefinition.org).   7 these terms are often used interchangeably in literature and policy. however, i will try to only refer to ‘the right to information’ or ‘access to government information’, as ‘freedom of information’ also has a different, broader meaning as part of the human right of freedom of expression (cf. infra). however, the term may be used when referring to national legislation or specific documents using the term ‘freedom of information’ as an equivalent for access to government information.   8 even though in the 4th century b.c. it was already recognised that written records were important for holding government accountable (martin and lanosga 2010, mason 2000).   9 except for the finnish and united states legislation on access to information, respectively in 1951 and 1966.   10 cf. infra.   11 http://farmsubsidy.org/.   12 even though the impression may be given that ogd in practice does not increase transparency and is a danger to the right to information, it should also be immediately admitted that the impact of access legislation and the right to information itself on transparency or democracy has also been very difficult to measure. see for instance research from hazel and worthy (2011), and darch and underwood (2009).     13 see http://www.internetconsultatie.nl/wetaanpassingwob   14 see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17030616; http://mapgubbins.tumblr.com/post/17670474390/foia-and-the-protection-of-freedoms-bill-an-enhanced; http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmjust/writev/foi/foi.pdf.     15 see http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/9/contents/enacted.   16 see http://www.access-info.org/. the regulation has been picked up again by the cypriot presidency of the council.   17 see http://www.information-age.com/channels/information-management/news/2111138/francis-maude-id-like-to-make-foi-redundant.thtml.   journal of community informatics southern africa special issue: editorial shaun pather1 & jackie phahlamohlaka2 cape peninsula university of technology, capetown, south africa. email: pathers@cput.ac.za council for scientific and industrial research, south africa. email: jphahlamohlaka@csir.co.za it is with great pleasure that we present the first southern african special issue of the journal of community informatics. this is the culmination of a long journey, which started with an initial discussion with the editor-in-chief, dr michael gurstein, almost three years ago. after the initial call, in latter 2012, all submissions were subjected to an initial filtering in terms of alignment to the scope of the call. thereafter all papers have been subjected to a double-blind peer review process, with some papers going through three iterations of review. as the editors of this special issue, we would like to thank all of the authors who responded to the call, and to the reviewers who have diligently cooperated with the editors throughout the process of review. our heartfelt gratitude is extended also to the joci editor in chief for the unstinting support in ensuring the special edition has come together. one of the objectives of the call for the special issue was to begin a process of building a consolidated community informatics (ci) body of knowledge which was rooted in the african continent. africa represents a substantive portion of the developing world and over the past decade there has been heightened attention on the role of icts, especially that of broadband internet, across the developing nations in terms of enabling much needed socio-economic growth. current statistics regarding internet penetration are not encouraging. the international telecommunications union (itu) reported that in africa, only 16% of people are using the internet only half the penetration rate of asia and the pacific (itu, 2013). however governments, non-governmental organizations and telecommunication operators are hard at work in africa to promote universal access to the internet. between 2009 and 2013, internet penetration in households has grown fastest in africa, with an annual growth of 27%, followed by 15% annual growth in asia and the pacific, the arab states and the cis (itu, 2013). as the continued effort at increasing access across africa continues, it is incumbent on ourselves as academic stakeholders to play a continued role in ensuring a suitable knowledge base to support the objective that the accelerated deployment of physical infrastructure should result in positive developmental outcomes for especially the marginalized and rural populations. the role of icts as a catalyst for development is well documented in several studies. however, we still have some ways to go in terms of building a more robust and cohesive trans-disciplinary body of knowledge to support policy-makers, practitioners and grassroots communities to better understand the role of icts in fostering a wide range of expectations. not least of this, is the community informatics perspective (gurstein 2007) which concerns how bottom-up community-based ict processes lead to real and sustainable social and economical change. the special issue is thus a first step by the joci to consolidate work done in africa, with an initial southern african focus. the building of a coherent body of knowledge in any field does require continuing debate, theory development, and frameworks for organizing an emerging and constantly growing body of research. given that we did not limit the call to a specific thematic area of research, the papers in this special issue focus on a broad range of issues. the role of mobile telephony continues to receive attention. johnston and bacishoga examine the impact of mobile phones in enhancing the integration of refugees in the south african context. this is a unique look at this group of users, whose plight as refugees across africa is often not a priority and whose needs are usually relegated to the bottom of the pile of local priorities. using an action research approach, van biljoen et al investigate mobile phone acceptance by the elderly in south africa, with an initial focus on accessibility barriers. after investigating accessibility from the perspective of the older mobile phone user, they report on the usage of the phone, and observations made by student interviewers during the training of the elderly to do a new task on their mobile phone. their goal in the study was to break down accessibility barriers and to encourage mutually beneficial inter-generational knowledge transfer. van belle et al argue for the use of mobile platforms in the provision of government services. they present survey data which also covers a wide range of services which again shows the span of potential services that government could provide to its citizens from a mobile platform. their paper followed a very structured approach by firstly explaining the hypothesis using the literature, followed by a statistical approach to present the findings in an argumentative manner. attwood et al present their results from a participatory action research (par) project on the role of telecentres in improving the lives of a local community. these findings are especially relevant, given that many countries continue to factor in public access centres within their universal access strategies. unfortunately the debate on the success of such centres continues, and this study provides an argument as to how telecentre should be re-invented as active citizen development centres. turpin et al also contribute to the discourse on telecentres by providing a systems thinking perspective for the evaluation of ict for development (ict4d) projects' contributions to the socio-economic development of the broader community. their use of a social systems framework to understand development within the wider community provides a basis for further research into evaluation models and methodologies in this context. the education theme also features in the special issue. musiyandaka et al present the result of their study conducted in the mashonaland west province of zimbabwe. the study offers unique insight and solutions to low levels of adoption within the schooling system. using a framework based on activity theory, mlitwa and koranteng present the results of an empirical investigation into the status of ict deployment; ict integration, and ict skills amongst educators in four underdeveloped schools in the western cape province of south africa. they do this in order to assess progress on the implementation of the e-education policy in south africa which has been in place since 2003. their findings indicate that the status of ict deployment and its integration into school curricula is far from favourable in underdeveloped schools in the western cape. they recommend an increased investment in ict skills training for educators. their study shows the value of theory use in the analysis of community informatics studies. mooketsi shows how a locally relevant problem in botswana could benefit from an existing information system, the live stock identification and track-back system (lits) that is used by cattle farmers in botswana for cattle tracking. the system has originally been developed in response to european union requirements, but is currently also used for botswana regulatory and governance requirements. the study exposes how lack of communication and coordination to meet stakeholders' needs is leading to an inefficient use of the system. it then contributes to community informatics by making recommendations of how the system could better be deployed to help local cattle owners. steyn et al report on a project in which they also used the par approach to undertake what they call a participatory entrepreneurship development (ped) project. they pursued a relatively radical participatory approach to ict services development within a marginalized community. the project aimed to develop ict-based solutions to community problems by stimulating entrepreneurship amongst community members. the community nominated participants who, after receiving some training, created their own list of possible ict services that could be deployed for the benefit of their community. participants were exposed to participatory methods as well as to possible ict solutions. they discovered in their study, a lack of understanding of and disconnection from the broader ict techno-business ecosystem. to bridge this gap, they propose a longer-term exposure to the broader ict and business ecosystem environment before appropriate, workable ideas can be generated. this is consistent with our experience from longitudinal studies on the siyabuswa educational improvement and development trust (seidet) spanning more than two decades in the environment of siyabuswa, a former township area in mpumalanga state, south africa. the paper by bagui and bytheway uses actor network theory (ant) to explore the use of mobile, web and social media technologies in achieving eparticipation in the city of cape town. they point out that the use of mobile, web and social media technologies is widely expected to be an important feature of improving public participation in government in the city of cape town, but what they found was that the necessary transformation that would enable it is far from complete. the application of ant using data gathered from literature and document review, in-depth interviews and focus group in cape town, reveals dynamics both favouring and impeding the achievement of eparticipation in the city. their conclusion drawn from an ant perspective is that the hopes and expectations of individual actors are dashed by the limited extent and quality of the network that presently supports them. perhaps one of the most well documented cases of a sustained enquiry on how ict could be used to support socio-economic development in south africa, worthy of mention in this special issue, is the work done by researchers from the department of informatics at the university of pretoria in partnership with the siyabuswa community (roode, 2008) (reviewed by m. gurstein in this special issue). in his editorial commentaries on the academic research at the seidet including lessons learned and attempts to generalise from ict related work, all undertaken over more than a decade, leading south african it professor dewald roode had this to say: "most of research on the use of ict to further socio-economic development in developing countries has come up against a formidable barrier of complexity, and successes have been few and far between. perhaps it is fair to conclude that the issue is not so much that of complexity, be that as important as it may, but rather the approach taken by the researchers. what is reported here shows that while intentions were always good, approaches taken were often misguided in that they attempted to introduce the "saviour" ict from the developed world to a developing community. the humble researcher, striving to gain an understanding of the real needs of such a community, works with the community to discover how development could be promoted and attempts to support this process. his or her research agenda is, therefore, determined not by what would be "nice" to research, but by what the situation requires" (roode, 2008, p. x, in phahlamohlaka et al, 2008). here roode was sharing his insights and those of several other researchers drawn from their involvement at and with seidet. the point he was making was that even after more than a decade of sustained community informatics work, progress remained slow and that the slowness was echoing experiences from around the world. referring to the same work at seidet and the experiences learned from it, phahlamohlaka also shares some words of caution and advice to researchers from developing countries: "ict4d researchers from developing countries do not need to rush their research projects and programmes with the hope that they will catch up with the pace of the developed world. instead, they must leverage the unique characteristics of the developing world, which has needs that if properly understood through well designed longitudinal research studies, could provide fertile grounds for scholarly work on how ict could support socio-economic development goals" (phahlamohlaka, 2012). finally, but not least, we dedicate this special issue to nelson rolihlahla mandela. on 5th december 2013, south africa, the southern african community and indeed the rest of the world lost one of our most remarkable leaders, nelson rolihlahla mandela. the late president mandela, a nobel peace laureate, was a champion of the marginalized people. when he stood in the dock at the famous rivonia trial he said "i have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities." in many ways the community informatics movement represents the struggle to ensure equality and justice for all. that the digital divide continues to perpetuate a system of class separatism is not acceptable. thus in memory of our beloved madiba, we call upon the entire ci fraternity to continue with the hard work with more gusto and speed, within the ambit of our fields of study, and even beyond, as we strive towards the achievement of the ideals that our great icon stood for. ~hambe kahle madiba~ references gurstein, m. (2007). what is community informatics? (and why does it matter?). milan: polimetrica. itu (2013). ict facts and figures. geneva: international telecommunication union. phahlamohlaka, j. (2012). community academia r&d collaboration in ict4d: rivers crossed through the seidet bridge and some roads to be made as they are walked. ict4d seminar, february 8, university of south africa. http://www.unisa.ac.za/default.asp?cmd=viewcontent&contentid=27712 roode, d. (2008). academic research at seidet: lessons learned and attempts to generalize. in phahlamohlaka, j. (ed.)., community driven projects: reflections on a success story, a case study of science education and information technology in south africa. pretoria: van schaik publishers. <div id="article"> <h2 id="article_title"> appropriation of icts by informal communities in metropolitan cities. the case of the "la salada" market in the latin american context. </h2> <div id="article_author"> ester schiavo<sup>1</sup>, sergio rodr&iacute;guez<sup>2</sup>, paula vera<sup>3</sup> </div> <ol> <li>graduate, architecture, universidad de buenos aires (uba). phd, universit&eacute; de la sorbonne nouvelle paris iii. professor, universidad nacional de quilmes (unq). </li> <li>graduate, administration, uba. fellow of the consejo nacional de investigaciones cient&iacute;ficas y t&eacute;cnicas (conicet, national council of scientific and technical research). completing phd at the unq with mention in human and social sciences. </li> <li>graduate, social communication, universidad nacional de rosario (unr). conicet fellow. completing phd in social communication. </li> </ol> <h3 class="article_subhead"> icts and innovation in metropolitan cities </h3> <p> political, economic, social, cultural, scientific and technological transformations in recent decades have left their mark on cities, bringing about multiple changes. although some literature in the 1980s predicted the end of cities as a consequence of the processes of globalization, at present the opposite has proven to be the case. indeed, what has been strengthened is the political prominence of the local and even regional level, to the detriment of the previously near-exclusive role of nation states (castells &amp; borja, 1997). </p> <p> in this respect, studies by various authors (castells, 2001; sassen, 1991; schiavo, 2004) have shown that the vertiginous spread of information and communication technologies (icts), far from bringing about the dispersion of populations and their activities over the territory, has contributed to a progressive urban concentration and has had the same functional effect on global economic and political power, strengthening major metropolitan areas, also known as global cities. <sup>1</sup> the explanation for this process can be found in at least two factors. one is the global economy's need for a first-level technological infrastructure, given that its whole organization depends on icts. this need in turn determines that latest-generation infrastructure of the best quality tends to spread preferentially, connecting the decision-making centres of this economy. the second factor is this new economy's requirement for highly specialized administrative systems and high-end knowledge, both of which are centralized in cities. </p> <p> from a historical perspective it can be observed that cities, far from being mere stages, are the key actors in the development of their societies. the study of cities has therefore taken on greater significance with time, on equal terms with the growing importance of the urban population.<sup>2</sup> in the current context, and focusing on the issue from a city planning perspective, icts give rise to the emergence of a new dimension of time and space, that of the space of flows (castells, 2001) or space time of the icts (schiavo, 2004). thus, the geographic space continues as the territory of states, with physical limits and political administrative borders, whereas the space that comes with icts is a self-regulated territory with other limits and borders. </p> <p> in short, it is clear today that both spaces overlap each other, and the sum of human and social activity takes place as much in one as in the other, both in the geographic space and the virtual territory, both in the space of places and in the space of flows. this overlap, in relation to the unequal distribution of ict material infrastructure, contributes to the formation of a new urban duality. the urban fragments favoured by the market in different cities of the planet are connected through latest-generation networks, while isolating in the geographic space those other fragments that cannot transcend close relationships, because they lack material access to these technologies or because they access technological states from earlier generations (castells, 2001; schiavo, 1998, 2004). thus, a network of cities is gradually generated at global level, although this network in fact connects the privileged fragments, and in turn modifies the known scales to consolidate ways of being in the multi-scale city. indeed, in the new spatial, economic, cultural and political modalities resulting from globalization processes, there is a convergence of different global and local scales through different trans-border networks or bodies, making up what is known as a multi-scale system (sassen, 2007). </p> <p> in this context, it is fitting to inquire about innovation in relation to cities. some authors, such as finquelievich (2005), maintain that the capacity of cities to convert themselves into innovative environments is precisely what will make them central or peripheral cities in the information society. in fact, in recent years the issue of innovation, technology and society has been the object of renewed interest by different sciences and disciplines. thus, from diverse knowledge fields, different analysis perspectives have emerged, generating new tools and perspectives. this study looks to highlight two of these that are considered complementary. </p> <p> one theoretical perspective is based on the notion of co-creation of technology, as posited by the social sciences. in this regard, finquelievich (2007) focuses on the work of tuomi (1999), who considers that there is only innovation in relation to icts when there is a change in social practices which, as such, are collective. he then proposes an approach in which technologies are interpreted and appropriated by existent actors, in the context of specific practices. from this, finquelievich analyzes the processes of technological innovation, emphasizing co-creation such as social practices. these practices structure and organize social life, thus providing the bases for processing collective meaning, which in turn is produced and reproduced in each community, based on each community's singularity. </p> <p> another interesting perspective is that of centering innovation in citizens, as seen from a transdisciplinary approach. from this perspective, serra (2010) maintains that, particularly since the latest generation of icts, it is citizens who drive innovation, not enterprises, universities and governments as was previously the case. although the latter three are relevant actors, their roles are changing. for serra what is important is the new ways in which citizens position themselves in the use and development of icts. citizens now position themselves as leading actors in co-creation processes. from this perspective, serra characterizes living laboratories or citizens as new actors in the development of innovative bottom-up social practices, modifying the classic top-down innovation model. in addition, these communities of social innovation develop not just technologies to fit their needs, but also new organizational technologies. </p> <p> in line with the theoretical perspective indicated, in this study it is understood that innovation in the field of icts is not only seen in the traditional circuits of cities-that is, in the innovative relationships and dynamics that connect the productive, scientific, university and governmental sectors. this "triple helix" <sup>3</sup> has traditionally been favoured in national innovation systems. the idea of this study is to focus on the emergent "quadruple helix" model, in which the final users (recipients of knowledge transfer, who may also be citizens) become the new actors involved, even in different urban spheres, such as informal ones, which are scarcely considered in technological innovation studies, and further investigate the social and technological practices that form them. </p> <p> it is clear, as indicated below, that where reference is made to informal urban spaces, it is understood that these do not operate in isolation. on the contrary, they complement and juxtapose with cities' formal circuits. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> informality in the latin american context </h3> <p> sassen (2007) analyzes informalization as one of the aspects of the localization of globalization in cities. sassen highlights how this modality not only constitutes a way of producing and distributing goods and services with greater flexibility and lower costs, which in turn further devalues this type of activity, but also preferentially captures a labour force made up of the less-fortunate social actors of these cities, such as immigrants and women. </p> <p> informality is a growing feature in latin america. by way of example, taking informal employment as a principal indicator of the informal economy, the international labour organization (ilo, 2009) estimated that informal urban labour accounted for 53.6% of all labour in the region in 2009. but the issue of informality is both broad and complex. the inability of the formal sector to absorb unemployed labour, as well as the reductions in costs, time and labour to be had from not registering formally, and the search for more flexible production systems in the context of globalization, reveal distinct ways of understanding the issue of informality. initially associated with marginality and the subsistence economy in less-developed countries, informal activities persist and are manifested in new activities which, as is known, function with the formal sector. however, whatever the informal activity may be, it is characterized by occurring outside of the laws, norms and policies that regulate society. this criterion of legality is useful in differentiating conceptually between what is formal and what is informal, but its empirical verification is not always simple (barrientos &amp; garay, 2004). </p> <p> this leads us to analyze informality in forms of ict appropriation and development in the latin american context. to this end, the case was selected of la salada market, located just outside the city of buenos aires and considered the largest market of illegal sales in the region, both by volume of business and its precariousness in terms of the fiscal and legal norms in force (european commission, 2006; united states trade representative, 2007). </p> <p> it is fitting to ask about social practices and use of icts by the many actors of this informal community formed around la salada market. do they use and develop functional technologies for their own ends? are they involved in processes of co-creation of technologies or technological innovation? do they use social networks for specific ends? what dynamics characterize these processes? in addition, from a counterpoint perspective, it is interesting to research the effects of ict use in informal communities such as la salada. do they contribute to strengthening their identity? do they integrate new social actors? do they contribute to broadening activities and radii of action or areas of influence? do they help to provide transparency or at least a certain degree of formality to activities? how do they do so? </p> <p> studies began on this case in 2007 (schiavo &amp; rodr&iacute;guez). at this time the emphasis was placed on productive and commercial activity. the study then continued with its focus on the issues of urban informality and community identity (schiavo, rodr&iacute;guez &amp; vera 2011; schiavo, dos santos nogueira, rodr&iacute;guez &amp; vera 2011). throughout this process special attention was always given to analyzing the different ways in which icts were integrated, in order to answer the research questions. </p> <p> the methodology used was predominantly qualitative. from the start of the research bibliographical, documental and journalistic information was analyzed continuously. in parallel, primary information was produced through participative observations, repeated visits to the place, and in-depth interviews with key actors. in addition, primary information was produced for the present study, analyzing the websites related to la salada. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> the case of la salada market </h3> <p> la salada market <sup>4</sup> is located in the administrative area of lomas de zamora, just outside the city of buenos aires, occupying a surface of twenty hectares on the banks of the river matanza. the market is actually a complex of three internal markets:<sup>5</sup> punta mogote, ocean and urkupi&ntilde;a; organized into different companies <sup>6</sup> which administer each market. in addition there are itinerant vendors and outside markets, which are not formally organized and whose stalls illegally occupy the banks of the river, over a distance of 1500 metres. la salada dates from the early 1990s and was originally dominated by the bolivian community, which was later joined by argentines and peruvians. the first market was urkupi&ntilde;a (the name of a bolivian virgin), followed in 1999 by punto mogote, currently the largest market in terms of size and sales. <sup>7</sup> </p> <p> the growth of the group of markets began with the sale of imported and contraband products, which were augmented with counterfeit products, mostly of major textile brands. informality is also found to the precarious labour conditions, both in the workshops and illegal factories <sup>8</sup> that feed the markets and in the itinerant vendors and self-employed workers at the markets. all of these factors account for merchandise prices being far lower than market prices. furthermore, with an estimated 50,000 daily customers, the market has a turnover of approximately 10 million dollars per week, via 15,000 points of sale <sup>9</sup> (abba, 2009). </p> <p> however, la salada today is not limited to the physical market, which is held twice a week. the market has gradually gained ground, both in the space of flows and in the geographical space. thus, a production, distribution and marketing chain has been created, to which two arguably official web portals were added between late 2009 and early 2010, mercado la salada and feria la salada, promoted by the more formal or corporate commercial sector. in recent years the market has also started to be copied increasingly in the geographic space through small ventures known as "saladitas" (little saladas). <sup>10</sup> in addition, at present the possibility is being evaluated of exporting the business model to other countries. <sup>11</sup> in short, as campos (2008) highlights, all these factors reveal not only the flexibility of this community to market products from different origins, but also its high degree of adaptability to the fluctuations and cycles of the socio-economic environment and global context. </p> <p> in spite of the size of the business and its degree of informality, the market is also notable for the particularities of its community. in effect, the community <sup>12</sup> of la salada exceeds strictly commercial questions, orienting a good number of its actions towards satisfying social needs. in this respect, in addition to the specific services relating to commercial activity, such as training courses, the market's own credit card, a chamber of commerce and a financial entity to facilitate the economic growth of start-ups, there is a prepaid health service, a first-aid room, a chapel, a cr&egrave;che, various community soup kitchens and a refuse recycling initiative for homeless children. the market also has its own media: a radio station, a newspaper in paper format and an internet news channel. in short, the weak and permissive presence of the state in the area, the economic success of the market and multiple social and cultural ventures, have even led to a project to create a new local government in the neighbourhood where the market is located. <sup>13</sup> </p> <p> however, if this apparently homogeneous community is analyzed it can be seen to be made up of quite heterogeneous actors, differentiated according to different logics and forms of internal organization. thus, it is possible to identify that the most influential actors and those most visible in the media are the indoor markets. these actors can be characterized as the corporate commercial sector of the whole market, as they are constituted formally as enterprises. their most representative figure is jorge castillo, who has led the majority of commercial, political and social projects developed by la salada. there are also other actors operating under the commercial logic represented by the stall-holders and traders, as well as suppliers from textile workshops. nonetheless, at the opposite extreme another group of actors can be observed, made up of stall and workshop workers, and workers from other market activities, who due to their precarious labour situation generally follow a subsistence logic. </p> <p> in short, la salada can be defined as a space full of places constructed and under construction, in collusion with the dominant political and economic power. but at the same time it is a community, with some homogeneous features, but certainly heterogeneous when considering the particularities of its actors. it is also a place that aspires to and is gradually attaining political, social and economic legitimacy, both in the geographic terrain and the space of flows. all the projects developed by the market show that this is not just an informal market, but also a political and social project in which diverse technologies converge and place la salada beyond its twenty hectares. what role have icts played in this process? </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> appropiation of icts from the practices and dynamics of involved actors </h3> <p> it is fitting to ask how icts have been appropriated in la salada. if these technologies are reduced to merely their technological functions and innovation as the traditional process of invention and diffusion or transfer of knowledges, one could hardly claim that the market is highly technical or innovative. however, if technology and innovation are understood as going beyond physical devices, it is possible to recognize that bottom-up social practices, practices generated in the place that in a classic model would be occupied by the users, give new meanings through different forms of appropriation. seen this way, the integration of icts in the community that concerns us can be analyzed in a broader and more complex way, as multiple processes of co-creation and socio-technical innovation. </p> <p> from the same perspective, the evolution of the market has meant the resignification and co-production of different types of technologies. particularly, as is analyzed below, the portals that offer complementary support to the organization of activities at la salada are among the most developed and important technologies, formed from the intervention and inter-relation of numerous actors, each with a different mission, make-up and operation. </p> <p> it is evident that one of the most significant features of this organization is informality, shown in the location of the market, which is hard to reach, its nocturnal operating hours, and its disparate ordering of market stalls. these features represent informal practices that differ from traditional commercial logics in the city. furthermore, at present the diverse practices that make up the market have become more complex as it progressively integrates with formal circuits of the economy and with the everyday social life of the metropolitan region, and even of the country and neighbouring countries. </p> <p> in this scenario, icts have been integrated and at the same time have been appropriated by different involved actors. although it is difficult to establish a precise start date, it can be claimed that the process of appropriation of these technologies is relatively recent. a 2007 study (schiavo &amp; rodriguez) observed how ict use gradually grew. at the time, operations at the markets were more underground, so on various forums and advertising websites it was common to find queries about how to get to the market and opening days and hours. in time, advertising began to be found for different "shopping tours", organized to respond to difficulties in reaching the place, both from different points in the country and from neighbouring countries. later, these technologies began to be used to advertise the types of products on sale and the market's activities in general. </p> <p> thus, the appropriation of icts gradually increased, from those apparently disarticulated initiatives to the two official web portals created in 2009 and 2010. <sup>14</sup> these portals have been notably popular with the public and have led to the creation of a network of ventures, such as related websites or social networks, related to different uses and dynamics of market actors. <sup>15</sup> for these reasons the presence and actions of la salada have become well-known in the space of flows. </p> <p> unsurprisingly, most identified websites and their numerous observed uses are mainly related to commercial activity and the development of e-commerce, <sup>16</sup> although other uses were recognized, related to market organization and promotion. consequently, forms of ict appropriation in la salada can be divided into three major groups, according to the social practices and actors involved, which obey different logics according to their roles in the market, resignifying these technologies in diverse ways. these are: </p> <ol> <li>websites and uses intended for e-commerce which vary according to their level of development and degree of informality of involved actors; </li> <li>websites intended to promote the market and its multiple activities; </li> <li>websites and uses that complement or reinforce the organization of the market, incorporating new tools, such as social networks. </li> </ol> <h3 class="article_subhead"> the arrival of e-commerce and the creation of mercado la salada s.a. </h3> <p> the growth and consolidation of e-commerce constitutes a dynamic that is spreading in latin american cities, in the context of the processes of globalization with ict support. according to a study published by am&eacute;rica econom&iacute;a intelligence (2010), <sup>17</sup> in the countries in the region, e-commerce for consumers has maintained a growing trend in recent years. in 2009 it increased 39.2% in comparison to 2008 and a total of us$21.775 billion was invoiced in web-based operations. in addition, the study highlights the potential consequences of e-commerce, particularly that it encourages companies that operate illegally to formalize their operations. </p> <p> specifically, the study makes reference to the la salada e-commerce portal, <sup>18</sup> which since its creation in late 2009 has become the reference point for the market on the internet. this site is one of a few related to the market, in which it is possible to identify the physical or legal person responsible. its creation implied the setting-up of a new enterprise, mercado la salada s.a., which is responsible for its operation. this means that within the first group of salada enterprises related to icts, namely those concerned with e-commerce, this latter venture has the highest degree of formality. </p> <p> it should be mentioned that there is one leading e-commerce website in latin america, mercadolibre.com, <sup>19</sup> which started operations as an online auction website in various countries in the region <sup>20</sup> in 1999. in 2001 it strengthened its business model through a merger with ebay,<sup>21</sup> the world leader in online auctions, which enables it to operate exclusively in latin america. over time, user preference led to fixed-price operations predominating over auctions. </p> <p> mercado libre today offers a prestigious and reliable service, mainly due to two features. the first is a system for measuring the reputation of agents operating on the website, through ratings made by users, both sellers and buyers, after each operation, which contributes to the construction of conditions of trust and safety. the second feature is the freedom the service gives users, because although the enterprise offers various own services for performing the different transaction stages, users may opt to use them or not. </p> <p> to a certain extent mercado la salada sets out to compete with mercado libre, but unlike mercado libre is offers a portal that is centrally managed by the owner company, and therefore users can only advertise their products and cannot intervene in any stage of the transaction. consequently, as the actor involved as seller is the sole agent, this does not contribute to any kind of system that might generate conditions of trust. </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3149/version/2131/4106/16635/figure1.png" class="article_image" width= "500" height="435" alt="homepage of mercado la salada"> <div class="image_caption"> figure 1 homepage of mercado la salada </div> <p> the mercado la salada portal was the responsibility of a company specializing in e-commerce websites. basically, it consists of a catalogue of products divided by categories, through which users can place an order and, if they wish, pay via bank transfer, cash or credit card. products purchased in this way are priced at 10% above the purchase price available at the market proper. <sup>22</sup> delivery is provided by a well-known logistics company or, according to instructions on the site, purchases can be picked up from the offices of the company. what is striking about this is that the offices are not located on the market premises but, on the contrary, in one of the most expensive areas of the city of buenos aires, puerto madero. </p> <p> the site also includes a form of media called "la salada tv". this space presents short videos published via a youtube channel, <sup>23</sup> simulating news reports to show diverse market activities and, in many cases, promote workshops and supply companies. la salada tv is complemented by another section which reproduces different articles published in different media about favourable aspects of the market. </p> <p> in short, mercado la salada constitutes the counter example of the co-production and resignification of bottom-up icts. in fact, this is an initiative by the more powerful actors, the corporate commercial sector, aiming to reach other target audiences and place la salada into a broader socioeconomic context. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> la salada's e-commerce network and the benefit of belonging </h3> <p> with regards to the other websites related to e-commerce and members of la salada's network, in very few cases is it possible to identify who operates them. generally, it is clothes factories or workshops or market wholesalers, selling the products they manufacture. <sup>24</sup> in the other websites identified it is not possible to recognize those responsible. unlike the other websites, although these are wholesalers who indicate some type of relationship with the market, some of the products they publish are forgeries or copies of leading brands. taking this modality to one extreme, one of the websites identifies itself as " <em>supplier of clothes similar to la salada market"</em> , meaning that they offer copies of the counterfeit clothing made at la salada. </p> <p> furthermore, numerous advertisements were found that sold products from the market in various portals for classified ads, both in argentina and in bordering countries. <sup>25</sup> although to a certain degree these advertisements belong to wholesalers who operate the websites mentioned above, the majority of them are individual initiatives and a high proportion of them sell falsified products. these are therefore re-sellers from the market who have broadened their sales channels via the internet. </p> <p> in this respect, it should be noted that la salada market is the only e-commerce website related to the market that has guidelines with terms and conditions for buying and selling, explicitly prohibiting the sale of products that violate trademark and forgery legislation, and which also mentions a program created by the company to prevent this kind of crime. <sup>26</sup> however, from visits to the site it was possible to identify some products on offer that could well infringe these terms and conditions. </p> <p> all of this leads us to ponder the question of trust, as security and therefore trust are necessary conditions for making any kind of commercial transaction. thus, formal commerce takes place in the framework of different forms of trust. <sup>27</sup> in e-commerce the objective of security is to generate trust in the platform and its agents, in order to guarantee the reliability of information, the quality of merchandise and delivery conditions. in this respect, the system developed by mercado libre is an excellent example. </p> <p> in contrast, in the websites that make up the la salada network, there are very few explicit actions to guarantee trust in transactions, and most of those that do are related to payment methods. <sup>28</sup> only one site tries to emulate the mercado libre system, but does so with a significantly more precarious set-up that allows users to post their opinions without having to register or identify themselves, which detracts from the site's credibility. consequently, it is understood that trust in the market's online commercial operations is principally symbolic and is guaranteed by belonging to the network. in other words, identifying oneself as a manufacturer or wholesaler of la salada carries a certain social recognition, to some extent similar to that of a recognized brand. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> la salada market site: commerce and multiple activities promoted on the internet </h3> <p> although it is true that la salada is in a process of expansion in the geographic space, both in the form of "saladitas" on a national scale and new offices in the city of buenos aires, and in the space of flows through e-commerce which transcends the borders of the country, the original physical site has not lost importance. on the contrary, commerce remains steady and it is a place where social and cultural initiatives have multiplied. </p> <p> for this reason, this section analyzes the second group of ventures of the market related to icts, which aim to promote the market and its various activities. </p> <p> indeed, another of the forms in which this community has appropriated icts is closely related to the promotion of different activities at the original market site. as mentioned above, this type of use regarding the diffusion of information through different web-based tools was the first and remains important in numerous forums and social networks, particularly regarding opening times, directions to the market and safety conditions. other websites that can be included in this group are those that belong to "saladitas", which provide similar information in their respective territorial scales. <sup>29</sup> </p> <p> although there are different websites for promoting the market and providing information, one that stands out is the paseo de compras punta mogote, <sup>30</sup> created by the corporate sector and related to the above-mentioned local figure, jorge castillo. unlike other websites, this one is better developed in terms of functionality, graphic design and presentation of information, such as the inclusion of an interactive map of the place. it also publishes other promotional tools for the shopping area that are not necessarily virtual, such as the radio station rivera sur and the magazine revista punta mogotes, in paper format. </p> <p> the promotion of the market on the internet goes beyond the commercial interest to establish it as a tourist attraction in the metropolitan region. in addition to the numerous advertisements for "shopping tours" there are various blogs, forums and social networks dedicated to the promotion of traditional tourist spots in argentina that have incorporated la salada as a new potential destination. <sup>31</sup> as a result, different tour operators now promote tours of buenos aires in which a visit to the market is included as another activity on the itinerary, as if it were a theatre outing or a visit to one of the more traditional markets in the city, such as san telmo fair. <sup>32</sup> however, some operators alert users to the particularities of the market and promote these visits as "alternative tourism" <sup>33</sup> or "tourism on the verge of illegality". <sup>34</sup> </p> <p> therefore, in this second group of initiatives icts not only contribute to promoting and to some extent consolidating the diversity of activities in la salada market, but also contribute to the progressive integration of atypical customers, such as the middle classes, those from other regions of argentina or from abroad, particularly tourists. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> the web as material support and organizational means for the expansion of la salada </h3> <p> this section analyzes the third group of ventures of the market related to icts, those that complement or reinforce the different organizational forms of the market through the co-production or resignification of diverse technologies. </p> <p> above we highlighted the organizational capacity of the market as an innovative feature in the sphere of commerce in the city. this same organization was transferred to the space of flows via the creation of two portals in which different forms of connections and dynamics are raised that complement the practices of the market. one is feria la salada and the other is mayoristas la salada. </p> <p> feria la salada was developed by corporate sector initiative and is presented as <em>"... the website of la salada market. created by the people who buy and sell at this market. this website is dedicated to all traders, whether wholesalers, retailers, suppliers, distributors, stall-holders, etc, who perform this activity. as you know, this market is the largest in latin america". <sup>35</sup></em> </p> <p> the site has various sections common to the majority of websites, including a search engine, a section with the history of the market, a section for new items featuring the latest articles and a contact form. but aside from the basic categories, it is interesting to highlight some sections that differentiate this site and allow us to characterize it more as a "social network" than as a space for commerce or information. indeed, there are forums and community sections that allow interaction between numerous users. in the forums, according to the information available on the website, <sup>36</sup> there are over 25,000 registered users and there have been over 3,500 messages. these forums are divided into three categories, two of them related to diverse market activities and the other for buying and selling products. the latter is used mainly to advertise products, order catalogues and request prices, and agree on transactions between vendors and potential buyers, whether retail or wholesale. </p> <p> however, the community section is where the use of this site as a social network is most encouraged, motivating different types of interactions among registered users. in the presentation users are invited to form friend groups and networks, do business and share information. the site also links to groups on the social network facebook. there are also various messages querying opening hours from potential customers, and both traders and supply companies interact through messages on the walls, advertising and offering their products or websites and making queries about merchandise. </p> <p> one more portal that contributes to the organization of the market, although of lesser importance than the other portals considering the number of users and advertisements, is mayoristas la salada.<sup>37</sup> this website was not created by the corporate sector and promotes interaction within the commercial production system. its implicit objective is to generate horizontal communication between manufacturers and traders. the categorization of advertisements through which users interact refers to specific activities that make up the productive and commercial chain on which the market is organized. for example, the advertisements related to the textile sector are categorized according to different types of workshops related to textile activity, such as dressmaking, printed fabrics, buttons and buttonholes, etc. </p> <p> therefore, some websites contribute to strengthening the forms of organization of la salada from the space of flows, allowing interaction among different involved actors. in the first case, priority is given to community participation, particularly that of consumers, while in the second case it is oriented towards the productive commercial system. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> final reflections </h3> <p> la salada market began its activities approximately fifteen years ago, practically at the same time as the start of the mass diffusion of internet in the region. however, this community would take over a decade to start using icts. since then, there has been a process of slow and disarticulated appropriation, which became exponential in 2009. this process, from the conceptualization of innovation proposed by tuomi, led to the co-creation of technologies, particularly the development of organizational innovative technologies, which introduce changes into existent social practices and, therefore, give new meaning to collective actions. in other words, the creation of new technologies seen here cannot be sustained, but the uses and consequences of different processes of ict appropriation have produced processes of innovation in social practices and processes of resignification of appropriate technologies. hence in this case some experiences of socio-technical co-production or innovation can be found, particularly those which are user-driven, according to the perspective proposed by serra. </p> <p> however, the decade in which la salada was limited to the geographic space can be explained by three equally relevant factors. first concerns the place, which is located in an urban fragment on the outskirts of buenos aires, where material access to these technologies was almost impossible at the time. another factor is related to the social actors involved initially-mostly illegal immigrants-who were joined by local actors from socially and economically excluded sectors. most of them lacked the necessary knowledge to access the space of flows, given that the keys to access were not only material but also, mainly, related to knowledge. the final factor is the degree of informality in the market's activities. although the market has gradually formalized some of its activities, in its beginnings it was principally known for clandestine activity. consequently, icts were an unknown terrain with promises of transparency, and therefore represented a threat. </p> <p> so what changed? what allowed this informal community to appropriate these technologies creatively and intensely in recent years? the study attempts some reflections. </p> <p> in reference to the three factors that account for la salada's late access to the space of flows, it is evident that icts themselves changed and brought progressive innovations. along with these changes came a greater opening up of material and cognitive access. in latin america, the state's involvement contributed to a large extent to this process, as it started to implement public policies to install public access centres, at which the state also provided what was then called computer literacy. this effort was also gradually incorporated into formal education. argentina participated in this process and at present all the urban fragments of its metropolitan cities have been penetrated by the ict material infrastructure. consequently, the location of la salada market has ceased to be an impediment to accessing these technologies. </p> <p> to a lesser degree, knowledge has also ceased to be an obstacle, due not only to the factors described above but also to the growth and expansion of the market community. this community today includes social actors who are clearly differentiated by internal logics and organizational dynamics. thus, at one end there persist those actors who, like the initial market actors, remain in a logic of near subsistence and are occupied basically with the provision of services. at the other end there has been a consolidation of actors who act from a corporate commercial logic and represent the productive and commercial sector of the market. evidently they have been joined by individuals and groups with other cognitive capacities, including those related to the ict universe. </p> <p> in this context it is interesting to observe how the multiplication of involved social actors goes hand in hand with the expansion of la salada in the space of places and does so with the new forms of urban duality. in this way, the actors with the highest degree of informality and least qualified workers remain in the original market premises or around them; that is, in one of the urban fragments with a high degree of social exclusion in the metropolitan periphery. this is also the case of the "saladitas," which sprout up in fragments not privileged by the market. by contrast, the corporate sector and more qualified workers are located in one of the most expensive neighbourhoods of the city of buenos aires, puerto madero, where they share the geographic space with the offices of major national and multinational enterprises. </p> <p> furthermore, although informality is the result of collective practices of the group of actors, it must be recognized that the corporate sector deploys a strategy in the geographic space that goes in the opposite direction, which can be summarized as follows. in the market premises it operates to a certain extent in the framework of legal regulations and provisions, in terms of the administrative structure that the indoor markets have taken on, and in terms of the group of social initiatives and cultures that it promotes. in parallel, in puerto madero, it has a greater degree of formality, being a limited liability company that operates very strongly through the mass media with the purpose of incorporating new targets, both for retail and wholesale commerce and for its business model, in argentina and abroad. </p> <p> it is fitting to reflect now on the role that icts have played in the organization process of the la salada community, in tune with new forms of urban duality and taking into account that not all actors involved have been incorporated or have benefited in the same way. in this respect, and as mentioned earlier, the turning point came in 2009, with the creation of the two portals that we deemed official for this study, mercado la salada and feria la salada, both of which were developed under corporate sector initiatives. </p> <p> most of the portals and initiatives analyzed, whether regarding e-commerce, market advertising or those with an organizational bent, maintain and to a certain degree strengthen the most basic and distinctive aspect of the group, which is informality. this informality occurs not only on their own websites but also in the network of associated websites and forums, since not all encourage the formal registration of users and activities. informality also occurs in the mercado la salada e-commerce portal, the most formal face of the market in the space of flows. consequently, the promise of transparency that icts supposedly entail is not to be found, at least in these cases. </p> <p> at the same time, certain initiatives led by corporate logic contribute to reproducing in the state of flows the new forms of urban duality. the mercado la salada portal, for example, forms part of the business expansion strategy of this sector, which is located in puerto madero, away from the geographic site of the market, although in truth the portal uses activities at the market to open up another market in the space of flows and present a different appearance. </p> <p> despite this, the mercado la salada portal is to a certain degree an exception, in the context of the group of ventures relating to the market in the space of flows. the feria la salada portal in particular functions with a totally different logic. it is the most innovative and inclusive organizational technology, given that it includes all the actors involved and their activities. it is the portal with the most registered users and is not limited to a website for commerce and information, but functions principally as a social network, promoting different types of initiatives in themed forums and diverse sections for the community. </p> <p> in this respect, it is interesting to observe the network of new websites that have appeared under the initiative of various actors and which have different degrees of informality. most of these operate with the same logic as the feria la salada portal; that is, with the same aims and similar consequences in terms of the socio-technical innovation processes that they promote. the most outstanding of these websites is the mayoristas la salada portal. </p> <p> all of which, returning to the perspective proposed by tuomi, brings us to the processes of co-creation of technologies and innovation in relation to icts. there is a change in collective social practices. hence technologies are re-interpreted and appropriated by existing actors, in the context of existing practices; namely, strengthening in consequence community identity and incorporating new actors, as well as broadening activities and the spheres of action of these activities. </p> <p> in other words, one of the greatest innovations of the feria la salada portal and the websites that have been created with the same logic, is that they function as organizational means for groups, through processes of resignification of different technologies, promoted by the users themselves, in the sense that serra proposes. but in addition, by including all the sectors of the market, through experiences of socio-technical innovation or co-production, it is possible to bring together in the space of flows what is fragmented in the geographic space. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> footnotes </h3> <p> <sup>1</sup> sassen (2007) considers that at present there are around forty global cities. in this author's opinion, the most important on a planetary scale are tokyo, new york, london and paris. in the region that concerns us, latin america, the key cities are mexico city, rio de janeiro and buenos aires. </p> <p> <sup>2</sup> in latin america, 79.4% of the population lives in cities (eclac). http://websie.eclac.cl/anuario_estadistico/anuario_2009/pdf/anuario_2009.pdf </p> <p> <sup>3</sup> finquelievich &amp; prince (2010) analyze this model of interaction between universities, enterprises and governments as the "triple helix" (etzkowitz &amp; leydesdorff, 1996, cited by terra &amp; etzkowitz, 1999). in this configuration, the nation-state covers academia and industry, and coordinates the relationships between them, offering an appropriate regulatory framework. the universities act as producers of knowledge and the enterprises generate new business opportunities and promote technological innovations. in argentina, the triple helix model is particularly applied at regional level, where in the last decade projects have been created to empower clusters or generate technological poles. </p> <p> <sup>4</sup> the market is known as such because in the location where the market operates there used to be a group of thermal water pools known as "complejo la salada". </p> <p> <sup>5</sup> indoor markets, such as those in large warehouses, are known as "internadas", to differentiate them from "externas", open air markets. </p> <p> <sup>6</sup> one is a public limited company, another a cooperative and the other a limited partnership. in the latter, the unlimited partners are liable for the collective partnership's debts, while limited partners' liability is limited to the amount underwritten in their shares. in addition, each partner owns stalls in the market according to the number of shares owned. </p> <p> <sup>7</sup> this market grew under the figure of jorge castillo, who interviewees indicate as the real owner. born locally, castillo ties together the dynamics of the markets with the political sector and textile production that provides the raw material, as well as promoting activities in the social field. </p> <p> <sup>8</sup> from time to time, the mass media reports on police operations in these clandestine workshops. http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1271463 </p> <p> <sup>9</sup> of 15,000 points of sale, 10,000 are located in the indoor market and considered "formal" and 5,000 in the open air and categorised as "informal". </p> <p> <sup>10</sup> at present, it is calculated that there are around 250 "saladitas" in all argentina. http://www.diarioperfil.com.ar/edimp/0467/articulo.php?art=21561&amp;ed=0467#sigue </p> <p> <sup>11</sup> in one interview, jorge castillo claimed to have received offers to replicate the business model in india and the usa. http://www.iprofesional.com/notas/92842-la-salada-for-export-ya-evaluan-replicar-el-modelo-de-negocios-en-india-y-eeuu.html </p> <p> <sup>12</sup> according to the <em>diccionario de ciencias sociales y pol&iacute;ticas</em> (2004, p.102), community is understood, in the broader sense, as the formation of a given group characterised by strong cohesion (e.g. religious) or common features and interests. in the case of the la salada community, the stall-holders or traders and customers and suppliers form part of this group. as a human grouping it responds to the same interests (commercial, economic) and they share the same symbolic universe. </p> <p> <sup>13</sup> jorge castillo is seeking to gain municipal autonomy for la salada. http://www.iprofesional.com/notas/94350-insolito-la-salada-ahora-busca-transformarse-en-un-municipio-autonomo.html </p> <p> <sup>14</sup> http://www.mercadalasalda.com, http://www.ferialasalada.com.ar </p> <p> <sup>15</sup> author's own work: generation of primary information from the identification and surveying of different activities that take place in the network of relations articulated with the two portals of la salada. </p> <p> <sup>16</sup> e-commerce is understood as uses of icts to cover any or all phases of a commercial transaction. consequently, e-commerce operates in some cases as partial support and to initiate traditional commercial transactions, and in some cases to generate new commercial modalities undertaken entirely with ict support (schiavo &amp; rodriguez, 2007). </p> <p> <sup>17</sup> http://especiales.americaeconomia.com/2010/comercio_electronico </p> <p> <sup>18</sup> http://www.mercadolasalada.com </p> <p> <sup>19</sup> http://www.mercadolibre.com.ar </p> <p> <sup>20</sup> argentina, brazil, colombia, chile, ecuador, mexico, peru, uruguay and venezuela </p> <p> <sup>21</sup> http://www.ebay.com/ </p> <p> <sup>22</sup> according to statements made by jorge castillo in the newspaper cr&iacute;tica de la argentina http://www.criticadigital.com/impresa/index.php?secc=nota&amp;nid=33004 </p> <p> <sup>23</sup> a channel is a user's page which can be accessed by other users and which, in turn, contains information about their profile, their videos or their favourites, among other topics. http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=es&amp;answer=174555 </p> <p> <sup>24</sup> this is the case of these websites: http://www.karcris.com.ar; http://www.lasalada-feria.com.ar </p> <p> <sup>25</sup>these include the following websites: http://www.buenosaires.avisos.com.ar/ http://www.anunico.com.ar/ http://www.quebarato.com.ar </p> <p> <sup>26</sup> http://mwww.mercadolasalada.com/terminos </p> <p> <sup>27</sup> "one is hierarchical trust, which refers to a principle of higher authority which acts as a guarantee against any eventualities that may arise. another is ethical trust, which refers to the more general principles relating to the integrity of the human and implies for example that in a capitalist, democratic society, marked by individualism as a fundamental value, respect for liberties and private property are ethical principles that are imposed over any hierarchical authority that finds the limit of its intervention there. there also exists methodical trust, although this in reality is a form of distrust looking for a palliative to ensure the regularity of transactions; it characterises, for example, the functioning of financial markets that incorporate an endless number of routines and procedures based on the repetition of gestures to ensure the continuity of the system" (cited in schiavo &amp; rodriguez, 2007). </p> <p> <sup>28</sup> in particular, there is the cash on delivery option, where the buyer pays for the merchandise on receiving it. another possibility is to outsource the online payment through leading companies in this market. </p> <p> <sup>29</sup> these include the following websites: http://www.outletquilmes.com/paseorivadavia.htm/ http://www.outletquilmes.com/, http://www.outletquilmes.com/paseoturdera/ http://www.paseojosecpaz.com.ar/index_paseo.php </p> <p> <sup>30</sup> http://www.puntamogote.com.ar </p> <p> <sup>31</sup> these include the following websites: http://www.absolut-argentina.com/la-feria-la-salada-de-buenos-aires, http://www.visitingargentina.info/profiles/blogs/feria-la-salada-2010-buenos, http://www.buenos-aires.ws/blog/feria-la-salada.htm/ http://sobreargentina.com/20 10/02/09/tour-de-compras-en-la-feria-la-salada/ </p> <p> <sup>32</sup> http://www.contactoturismo.com/19-4-10/bs%20as%20oto%f1al%2019-4-10.htm </p> <p> <sup>33</sup> http://cantinhodascasadas.com/gozando-a-vida/turismo-alternativo-em-buenos-aires </p> <p> <sup>34</sup> http://hostelbuenosaires.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html </p> <p> <sup>35</sup> http://www.ferialasalada.com.ar </p> <p> <sup>36</sup> 30/07/2010 </p> <p> <sup>37</sup> http://www.mayoristalasalada.com </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> references </h3> <div class="reference"> abba, a. p. 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(1999) <cite>organization for strategic knowledge creation,</cite> in corporate knowledge: theory and practice of intelligent organizations. consulted 15/6/2010 available at: http://www.meaningprocessing.com/personalpages/tuomi/articles/corpk start.html </div> <div class="reference"> united states trade representative (2007) <cite>special 301 recommendations</cite>. in: http://www.ustr.gov/assets/document_library/reports_publications/2007/2007_special_301_review/asset_upload_file230_11122.pdf </div> <p> <em>news sources</em> </p> <div class="reference"> la naci&oacute;n (2010, 3 june) incidentes en villa celina tras una serie de allanamientos en talleres clandestinos <cite>la naci&oacute;n.</cite> consulted 11/7/2010, at http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1271463-incidentes-en-villa-celina-tras-una-serie-de-allanamientos-en-talleres-clandestinos </div> <div class="reference"> patricia barral (2010, 9 may) la salada vende m&aacute;s que los shoppings. <cite>diario perfil.</cite> consulted 11/7/2010, at http://www.diarioperfil.com.ar/edimp/0467/articulo.php?art=21561&ed=0467#sigue </div> <div class="reference"> iprofesional (2010, 16 february) ins&oacute;lito: "la salada" ahora busca transformarse en un municipio aut&oacute;nomo. <cite>iprofesional.</cite> consulted 10/7/2010, at http://www.iprofesional.com/notas/94350-insolito-la-salada-ahora-busca-transformarse-en-un-municipio-autonomo.html </div> <div class="reference"> iprofesional (2010, 15 january) la salada for export ya evaluan replicar el modelo de negocios en india y eeuu. consulted 10/7/2010, at http://www.iprofesional.com/notas/92842-la-salada-for-export-ya-evaluan-replicar-el-modelo-de-negocios-en-india-y-eeuu.html </div> </div> 123-08-1273 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 special issue on data literacy: articles perceptions of ict use in rural brazil: factors that impact appropriation among marginalized communities this study of digital inclusion among the rural poor examines how residents of remote mountain communities in brazil perceive the use of information and communication technologies (icts). it analyzes social factors that impact ict appropriation and the behaviors and attitudes that advance digital literacy among marginalized rural populations. the authors conducted factor analysis and logistic regressions to survey data collected. results confirm the presence of a gender divide in ict adoption. women were more likely to perceive that ict use brings social benefits to the community, and considered that icts provide better opportunities for the young. introduction despite the hopes expressed at the 2003 and 2005 world summits on the information society (wsis) that digital inclusion policies would broaden information access in remote regions of the globe, help strengthen democracy, and foster human development among the poor, a digital divide persists amid the rapid diffusion of information and communication technology (ict) adoption in the developing world. starting in the mid-1990s, community !122 paola prado roger williams university, united states pprado@rwu.edu j. alejandro tirado-alcaraz roger williams university, united states corresponding author. jtirado-alcaraz@rwu.edu mauro araujo câmara federal university of minas gerais, brazil mauro.camara@gmail.com prado, p., tirado-alcaraz, j.a., araujo câmara, m. (2016). perceptions of ict use in rural brazil: factors that impact appropriation among marginalized communities. the journal of community informatics, 12(3), 122—137. date submitted: 2015-09-20. date accepted: 2016-06-06. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1273 mailto:pprado@rwu.edu mailto:jtirado-alcaraz@rwu.edu mailto:mauro.camara@gmail.com http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1273 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1273 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 telecenters and public access points proliferated throughout latin america to provide internet connectivity for marginalized populations. over the past decade, many of these initiatives have collapsed under the burden of structural, political, economic, social, or other obstacles. furthermore, and as predicted by norris (2001), digital inclusion policies at times aggravated existing patterns of social stratification and failed to generate equal opportunities for development. as more and more public access initiatives are shuttered or abandoned, and growing numbers of users connect to the internet from home or via mobile technologies, there is growing evidence that the model of public access telecenters as nodes for digital inclusion may be in crisis. in brazil as elsewhere in latin america, ict appropriation and internet access have risen apace since the adoption of e-government initiatives and universal access policies in the mid to late 1990s, yet substantial challenges to digital inclusion persist, due to overarching patterns of social, economic, and structural inequalities (olinto & fragoso, 2011). political interests, societal structures, and corporate profiteering have conspired to delay the rollout of universal access initiatives and exacerbate the digital divide (prado, 2012). still, there is evidence that digital inclusion initiatives can impact remote and isolated communities by creating opportunities for entertainment, civic participation, and professional capacitybuilding that may foster human development, build social capital, and connect communities to global society (gomez & baron-porras, 2011; prado, 2011; prado, camara, & figueiredo, 2011; baron-porras & gomez, 2012). in this context, and informed by wilson’s (2004) strategic re-structuring (srs) model, the present study seeks to further our understanding of how individual perceptions impact ict adoption in remote rural mountain regions, where digital exclusion remains most pronounced. the issue is of significance because as researchers examine how marginalized populations perceive the practice of digital literacy, they can better understand the factors that impact the sustainability of initiatives that promote universal access and digital inclusion. literature review scholars in the field of community informatics and ict for development who seek to theorize ict adoption increasingly examine not only the attitudes and behaviors of ict users, but also those of the communities and networks in which they reside. there is growing consensus that studies that expand on diffusion of innovations and development communication models with theories of social capital provide a more comprehensive framework for understanding community informatics, as proposed by simpson (2005). in a similar vein, gurstein (2011) called for new theoretical and conceptual models in community informatics to incorporate the community-level processes familiar to development communication frameworks in order to better examine all the factors that lead to successful ict adoption. in addition, his call for a freirean approach to community informatics, invites us to consider, in this study how recent rapid ict adoption coexists apace with longstanding patterns of inequality. internet access in brazil almost one-half of the 277 million internet users in south america are in brazil, where in mid-2016 67.5% of the population was online (internet world stats, 2016). the nation’s adoption of universal access provisions into law in 2011 (codigo civil lei 12.527), which !123 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 codified information access as a civil right, encouraged investment in the sector. as telecommunications companies sought to expand the consumer market for home computing and mobile devices among the working poor and lower income populations, internet connectivity rolled out to remote and marginalized communities in response to pent-up demand in settings where fixed telephone lines were few, unaffordable, or unavailable. yet, while metrics for time spent online, social media subscriptions, and the use of communication and search functions confirm the rapid rise in internet adoption in brazil, internet access remains strongly correlated to educational attainment and income (olinto & fragoso, 2011). this trend lends cause for concern; all the more so in light of research that shows growing emphasis worldwide on ict functionality and services that privilege consumerism further accentuates the digital exclusion among low-income populations (gandy, 2002). perceptions on the use of the internet and data literacy scholars have identified that persistent challenges in the quest for sustainability of community informatics initiatives in the developing world can be borne out of structural limitations (availability and accessibility of hardware and software, maintenance, upgrades, replacement, etc.), financial encumbrances (affordable capital and human resources, electrical power, physical facilities), socio-cultural constraints (training, motivation, societal acceptance) and more (gurstein, 2011; mossberger, tolbert, & stansbury, 2003; norris, 2001; servaes, 2012; servon, 2002; van dijk, 2005; angello, 2015). whereas structural and economic concerns pose steep barriers to ict adoption in many rural communities, socio-cultural dynamics have been also shown to hinder the sustainable diffusion of icts. as early as 1999, van dijk (1999) categorized four major challenges to ict use, and included among them individual criteria such as unfamiliarity with the logic of ict interfaces, and the lack of relevant and engaging content as reasons for discouragement among new learners’ lack of opportunity to engage with icts. ample evidence has since surfaced to indicate that low levels of standard literacy and educational attainment, language barriers, and expectations of conformity regarding traditional age and gender roles, can deter individuals from the practice of digital literacy (proenza et al., 2001; roman & colle, 2002; warschauer, 2003). it has been established that this skills gap is particularly wide among populations hindered by structural inequalities, and intensifies the persistence of a digital divide among the poor (van dijk & hacker, 2003; gudmunsdottir, 2010; newman et al., 2010). furthermore, as tygel and kirsch (2015) remind us, data are the product of a social construction that require the audience be able to read critically and contextually. in settings where social position predetermines one’s participation in economic networks, access to knowledge is inevitably stratified. provided limited access to icts and absent social and cultural capital that support ict use, marginalized populations may lack the skills or motivation to engage in data literacy. equally relevant to the topic is the work of bhargava, et al. (2015), who highlight the importance of data literacy as a tool to promote empowerment and government accountability, as well as way to fight social exclusion and more. among the challenges of promoting data literacy via public policy, the authors noted that the concept can be misconstrued or can be difficult to properly assess. their definiton of data literacy as a willingness and ability to use data for civic engagement implies that, beyond the technical skills to know how to access data, individuals must also know what to do with data in order to bring positive changes to society. as digital technologies become prevalent they also increasingly play gatekeeper to !124 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 economic opportunities and social inclusion. absent data literacy, and its ensuing affordances, inequality endures among disadvantaged groups (newman et al., 2010). thus, the proposition that data literacy serves as a catalyst for social change requires further analysis, particularly in those marginalized communities where the limited access to icts has contributed to an increasing digital divide. wherever internet access is available in remote and impoverished areas, the extent to which an individual will use data for the benefit of her community will be mediated by her perception about internet use and by the social dynamics of the community where she lives. in order to further understand the socio cultural dynamics that impact ict adoption among the rural poor, this study set out to examine how individuals in remote rural communities perceive internet use, and to analyze the factors that impact those perceptions. methods the following is a description of the methods used in the analysis of the factors that motivate individuals to appropriate icts and the behaviors and attitudes that advance both data literacy and digital literacy in remote rural communities. between may 17 and 22, 2012, trained facilitators collected data from residents in the mostly agricultural communities of tombadouro and são gonçalo do rio das pedras, in minas gerais, brazil, using an interviewer-assisted survey. each of these villages averages an estimated population of 1,000 residents, the majority of whom subsist from agricultural, extractivist, or tourism related economic activities. respondents were required to provide written consent, and parental consent was obtained for those under the age of 18. the survey was administered with a systematic point sampling technique and it provides a statistically valid representation of the sampled population. since one of the primary interests of this research was to categorize individual perception about the use of the internet across a few general categories, factor analysis was applied to survey data that measured perception of the internet with a likert scale for each of the following 10 items: (1) it helped solve problems in the community (q11a) (2) it caused quarrels in the community (q11b) (3) it helped prepare young people for today’s world (q11c) (4) it brought the community together to share news and information (q11d) (5) it opened new markets for local products (q11e) (6) it encouraged young people to look for jobs outside the community (q11f) (7) it helped girls learn how to avoid pregnancy (q11g) (8) it helped some people, not everybody (q11h) (9) it made the government more responsive to us (q11i) !125 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 (10) it brought much good to the community (q11j) principal components factoring was applied to extract the initial factors. as observed in table 1 and 1bis, the first four components have eigenvalues greater than 1 and they explain about 70% of the combined variance of all 10 variables. the decision of the number of factors to be extracted is depicted graphically in figure 1. table 1: factor analysis under principal components factor analysis/correlation number of obs = 145 method: principal-component factors retained factors = 4 rotation: (unrotated) number of params = 34 lr test: independent vs. saturated: chi2(45) = 380.08 prob>chi2 = 0.0000 table 1bis : factor analysis under principal components: factor loadings (pattern matrix) and unique variances factor eigenvalue difference proportion cumulative factor 1 3,08 1,34 0,31 0,31 factor 2 1,73 0,54 0,17 0,48 factor 3 1,19 0,16 0,12 0,60 factor 4 1,03 0,26 0,10 0,70 factor 5 0,77 0,11 0,08 0,78 factor 6 0,66 0,20 0,07 0,85 factor 7 0,46 0,05 0,05 0,89 factor 8 0,41 0,07 0,04 0,94 factor 9 0,35 0,05 0,03 0,97 factor 10 0,30 0,03 1,00 variable factor 1 factor 2 factor 3 factor 4 uniqueness q11a 0,66 0,41 -0,01 0,05 0,39 q11b -0,06 0,20 0,58 0,69 0,14 q11c 0,66 -0,51 0,01 -0,14 0,28 q11d 0,76 0,06 0,05 -0,33 0,30 q11e -0,17 0,41 0,60 -0,37 0,31 q11f 0,55 -0,60 0,20 -0,04 0,30 q11g 0,35 -0,48 0,55 0,08 0,35 q11h 0,33 0,57 0,26 -0,36 0,38 variable !126 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 1: rotation of the factor structure. the next step was the rotation of the factor structure using the varimax method. as shown in figure 1, variables q11a, q11d, q11i and q11j load higher on factor 1 (marked by the red horizontal line). all these variables refer to benefits for the community. as for factor 2, variables q11c, q11f, and q11g load most heavily on it. it is interesting to note that all of these variables are related to benefits for the youth. in the case of factor 3, all variables associated with it refer to economic benefits: q11e and q11h. finally, the last factor is basically made of variable q11b, which can be associated with a negative perception on the use of internet. results tables 2, 2bis and 2plus shows the results for the extraction of the four factors and the variables associated with it. the imagery of this procedure is provided in figure 2. based on the results from factor analysis, we observe that individual perception of internet use in these communities can be classified in four broad categories: social benefits for the community, opportunities for the youth, economic benefits for the community, and negative impact for the community. the questions that emerge from these results are: which of these factors did respondents consider most relevant for the community, and whether people in general share the same perception, or whether perception of internet use varies within the community according to social markers such as gender. the answers to these questions could shed light not only on how people in marginalized communities think about the use of internet, but also on the likelihood and patterns for internet appropriation, and the potential for data literacy. these are questions this study explored through the use of regression models. q11i 0,77 0,18 -0,13 0,29 0,27 q11j 0,68 0,40 -0,26 0,26 0,24 factor 1 factor 2 factor 3 factor 4 uniquenessvariable !127 0 1 2 3 e ig e nv a lu es 0 2 4 6 8 10 number scree plot of eigenvalues after factor the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 2: extraction of factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 factor analysis/correlation number of obs = 145 method: principal-component factors retained factors = 4 rotation: orthogonal varimax (kaiser on) number of params = 34 lr test: independent vs. saturated: chi2(45) = 380.08 prob>chi2 = 0.0000 table 2bis: factor loadings (pattern matrix) and unique variances 
 table 2plus: factor rotation matrix factor eigenvalue difference proportion cumulative factor 1 2,54 0,48 0,25 0,25 factor 2 2,06 0,77 0,21 0,46 factor 3 1,29 0,15 0,13 0,59 factor 4 1,14 0,11 0,70 variable factor 1 factor 2 factor 3 factor 4 uniqueness q11a 0,74 0,08 0,22 0,01 0,39 q11b 0,07 -0,01 0,07 0,92 0,14 q11c 0,26 0,75 -0,14 -0,26 0,28 q11d 0,55 0,45 0,30 -0,32 0,30 q11e -0,18 -0,08 0,79 0,15 0,31 q11f 0,11 0,82 -0,13 -0,06 0,30 q11g -0,06 0,75 0,07 0,28 0,35 q11h 0,38 -0,06 0,68 -0,08 0,38 q11i 0,81 0,22 -0,11 0,07 0,27 q11j 0,87 -0,03 -0,06 0,01 0,24 factor 1 factor 2 factor 3 factor 4 factor 1 0,81 0,57 0,06 -0,13 factor 2 0,47 -0,70 0,52 0,14 factor 3 -0,25 0,42 0,63 0,61 factor 4 0,24 -0,11 -0,58 0,77 !128 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 2: factor analysis on people’s perception about the use of the internet in the manner proposed by kyung and wang-bae (2004), we performed a multinomial logit model of the determinants of individual perception of internet use including demographic factors only. the results show that gender, age, and educational attainment impact the perception of internet use. furthermore, the findings indicate that this perception can conform to one of the four categories uncovered previously with factor analysis techniques: social and economic benefits for the community in general, better opportunities for the youth only, or negative perception. figure 3 depicts this model. !129 helped to solve problems in the community encouraged the youth to seek for jobs outside the community community gathered around the news was cause of quarrel in the community helped to prepared the youth for today's world opened new markets for our products internet's perception social benefits for the community negative perception opportunities for the youth economic benefits for the community helped the girls to learn how to avoid pregnancy only helped some people, not everybody the government took more care of us brought many good things for the community the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 3: perception of internet use model previous studies have shown how the use of mobile telephony and internet separately may increase the productivity of microbusinesses in ways that bring positive economic effects to small communities. this, in turn, can contribute to deliver better sources of information and communication to the population (huaroto, 2012; barrantes cáceres, agüero, & cavero, 2012). however, the underlying assumption in each case is that people with access to icts will automatically experience positive social change, without regard of ex-ante perceptions that might condition ict adoption. one of the interests of this study is to further explore how people’s perception impacts the use of the internet via mobile telephony. a separate regression model was used to estimate this, where the dependent variable is a latent variable that refers to individual use of internet on a mobile phone. this was operationalized through a proxy variable in question 3, which refers to the use of the internet via mobile phone as one of the reasons for not visiting the telecenter. future studies may consider a more adequate proxy. as for the explanatory variables, besides people’s perception of the use of internet, demographic variables were also included (age, gender, and level of education). since the dependent variable is related with the reasons for not going to the telecenter it is important to control for other factors, such as having a computer at home. discussion the results of the multinomial logit are shown in table 3. the last four columns refer to each of the broad categories related to individual perception of internet use. for instance, the second column, base outcome, refers to individuals who perceive that use of the internet brings social benefits for the community. the regression in the third column refers to individuals who think that use of the internet brings opportunities for the youth. column four shows a similar regression for those who perceive that use of the internet can bring economic benefits for the community, and column five shows those who have a negative perception about internet use. !130 gender age level of education internet's perception social benefits for the community negative perception opportunities for the youth economic benefits for the community the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 3: multinomial logit of people’s perception of the use of the internet on different demographic factors. base category for education: unfinished lower school 
 the estimates indicate that women were more inclined than men to perceive that internet use provides social benefits for the community over and above all else. in the category related to education, results show that, in general, individuals with higher levels of education are more likely to perceive that use of internet provides more opportunities for the youth or more economic benefits for the community. the regression model of internet use with mobile phones is also a probabilistic model. given the characteristics of the dependent variable, we estimated a simple logit model (see regression output in table 4). not surprisingly, there was a lower probability that individuals with a negative perception of the internet would check the internet on their mobile phones. results also show that women were less likely than men to surf the internet on their mobiles. as for the level of education, people with a college degree were more likely to check the internet on their mobile phones than those who did not finish lower school. other factors were not found to be statistically significant at the 0.05 level. dependent variable: people's internet perception social benefits for the community opportunities for the youth economic benefits for the community negative perception of the internet variable / coefficient (base outcome) b b b b gender female = 1, male = 0 -1.17** (0.50) -0.95* (0.50) -1.57*** (0.60) age (years) -0.01 (0.03) -0.06 (0.04) 0.02 (0.02) level of education 0.02 (0.02) finished lower school 0.79 (0.70) 0.25 (0.60) 1.00 (0.91) finished high school 1.62** (0.72) 1.20* (0.69) 1.35 (0.92) finished college 3.28*** (1.09) 2.66** (1.22) 2.61** (1.28) constant -0.46 (0.77) 0.87 (0.78) -1.40 (0.95) log likelihood -179,53 *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.001, (one-tail test) n 145 (standard errors are in parentheses) !131 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 4: logit model of the use of internet through cellular phone. dependent variable: use of the internet through mobile z statistics in parentheses * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001 finally, table 5 provides a list of different measures of fit. when comparing the loglikelihood of the model with the intercept only (-69.698) with that of the full model (-59.710), it is observed that that the full model provides a better fit. also, table 5 provides the likelihood ratio chi-squared (19.976), which tests whether the model with10 covariates makes better predictions than the model with the intercept only. the degrees of freedom are given the covariates social benefits for the community -0.02 (-0.04) opportunities for the youth 0.11 (0.38) economic benefits for the community -0.19 (-0.53) negative perception of the internet -2.16* (-2.14) gender -1.61* (-2.11) age -0.10 (-1.46) level of education finished lower school 1.42 (1.18) finished high school 1.56 (1.15) finished college 4.01* (2.10) computer at home -1.19 (-1.74) constant -0.88 (-0.59) observations 145 !132 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 number of covariates in the full model (10). the p-value for this chi-squared is 0.029. based on this, it is possible to reject the null hypothesis that the model with the intercept predicts better than the full model. in other words, the full model is a better fit. it is worth noting that the estimated variance for our latent dependent variable is 4.488. this is the proportion of change due to the variation of the covariates. table 5: measures of fit of the logit model of the use of the internet through mobile the existence of a gender divide in ict use has been widely documented; over the past decade, researchers have pinpointed the various challenges to adoption and identified contradictory factors that contribute to the persistence of this gap (best & maier, 2007; broos, 2005; hilbert, 2011; lennie, 2002). the present study corroborates that evidence, having found that gender and education impact one’s perceptions of ict use. the results show that women are likely to perceive the benefits of ict differently from men. the findings also indicate that women are less likely to rely on mobile connectivity to access the internet. overall, the findings lend support that, ict adoption is not gender neutral and that successful digital inclusion requires minimal educational standards be met (ghosh, 2009). for women to participate effectively in an increasingly digital society, structural access to icts is a first step, but instruction in data literacy must follow. the effect of education is of particular interest since around 67 percent of the respondents showed low levels of educational attainment. this confirms previous findings by olinto and fragoso (2011) and introduces two possible outcomes: internet use and data literacy can either drive positive social change or it can contribute to a dystopia. the first outcome is expected when individuals are engaged with their communities and become actors of social change through data use. the second outcome is likely to happen when data literacy exacerbates existing structural problems like inequality and social exclusion (bhargava, et al., 2015). whereas previous research by gandy (2002) examines the latter case scenario, prado, camara, and figueiredo (2011) previously found that ict use promoted entertainment as well as civic engagement and professional development in these very communities. if education !133 log-lik intercept only: -69,7 log-lik full model: -59,71 d(134): 119,42 lr(10): 19,98 prob > lr: 0,03 mcfadden's r2: 0,14 mcfadden's adj r2: -0,01 ml (cox-snell) r2: 0,13 cragg-uhler (nagelkerke) r2: 0,21 mckelvey & zavonia's r2: 0,27 efron's r2: 0,15 variance of y*: 4,49 variance of error: 3,30 count r2: 0,82 adj count r2: 0,04 aic: 0,98 aic*n: 141,42 bic: -547,46 bic': 29,79 bic used by stata: 174,16 aic used by stata: 141,42 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 contributes to a more positive perception and increased internet use, then greater investments in digital inclusion might reduce inequality. this study found that women were more likely than men to perceive internet use as a source of information sharing and collaboration that was beneficial to the social and economic life of their community. on the other hand, women were less likely to perceive the internet as valuable source of opportunity for the young. these results hint at a limited grasp of the potential of the internet. they may reflect the consequences borne out of lower rates of ict adoption and data literacy among the women. absent the knowledge, exposure, and skill sets, women would be less likely to value a content they do not thoroughly understand or know. whereas women are able to see the internet as a new educational and informational tool, their limited data literacy undermines their grasp of its capabilities as a tool for economic or professional development. this would seem to be the case, given that better educated individuals were found to perceive the economic benefits of the internet for the community and for its youth. those same individuals were, however, less likely to see internet use as otherwise beneficial to the social life of the community. the above findings are of concern because social capital has been shown to play an important role in facilitating ict adoption by rural women in the developing world (huyer & sikuska, 2003). furthermore, individual motivation and self-interest have been found to be key markers among community leaders who champion ict use wilson (2004). absent these qualities, ict adoption is less likely to take hold. the gender gap in perceptions of ict use suggests an existing disparity in access to skills and knowledge among women and men. it also identifies how a gap in educational attainment manifests in a poor understanding of the capabilities and potential that can result from digital inclusion and data literacy. conclusions in 2015, when more than three billion people in the world could connect to the internet, mobile-cellular subscriptions worldwide reached more than seven billion (itu, 2015). as mobile connectivity becomes increasingly available in rural areas and the next generation of internet-enabled devices looms, more attention must be paid to the gender gap in mobile ict adoption. insofar as the persistence of a gender divide in rural communities impacts digital inclusion and data literacy, it presents an obstacle to the promotion of human development in these areas of the developing world. the findings in this study expand our understanding of the nature and scope of ict adoption among the rural poor. they are nonetheless limited by the small sample sizes and limited geographic scope of this study. more research is needed to understand the extent to which the gender gap impacts ict adoption in remote rural communities. references angello, consolata (2015). “exploring the use of icts in learning and disseminating livestock husbandry knowledge to urban 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(2009). “progress on the global digital divide: an ethical perspective based on amartya sen’s capabilities model.” ethics of information technology, 11, 255–263 !137 1316 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 book reviews vincent mosco: to the cloud big data in a turbulent world. boulder, colorado, usa: paradigm publishers, 2014. vincent mosco begins and ends to the cloud: big data in a turbulent world by exploring metaphors about clouds and applying them to cloud computing. these metaphors offer a way into understanding the history of cloud computing: where it came from, why it began, how its evolved, and the ways it works in our everyday lives. he draws on literature, including a book entitled the cloud of unknowing by a medieval english monk (pg. 13). as i write this, i switch over to my streaming music service momentarily and discover it playing a song of the same name, this time by a contemporary artist, james blackshaw. given that i’d heard of neither the song nor artist until this very moment, this makes me a bit suspicious about how closely i’m being watched by my music player. was it reading my email? did it discover my notes, uploaded to the cloud on evernote? does it know this book was shipped to me? it’s almost difficult to believe it is complete coincidence. and yet this is one of the promises of the cloud and big data a world where what we want (even when we didn’t know we wanted it) is at our finger tips exactly when we want it. however, mosco is not willing to accept this world as it is presented to us by the cloud computing industry (and the industry’s major players: amazon, google, microsoft, apple, and facebook). he manages to be both intensely critical and deeply engaging, never getting lost in abstract political arguments and keeping all but the most ideological cloud supporters engaged, while simultaneously keeping the economic, social, and power implications of the cloud always close at hand. evgeny morozov’s recent essay the taming of tech criticism argues that mosco is one of the few tech critics to surface and explore seriously the political economy of technology and i couldn’t agree more. mosco is never afraid to call out things as they are, using clear language that makes no attempt to obscure his political orientations. as he writes, “the cloud and big data are engines that power informational capitalism even as they enable an increasingly dominant way of knowing” (pg. 2); “the cloud” as it stands is effectively synonymous with the small number of corporations that !226 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1316 reviewed by alexander fink research fellow, school of social work, university of minnesota, usa. http://www.thebaffler.com/salvos/taming-tech-criticism http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1316 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1316 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 control it, and by proxy, increasingly dominate our ways of making sense of our individual and social lives. to the cloud is diagnostic. in the chapter from the computer utility to cloud computing, mosco takes up arguments about whether the cloud should be regulated as a utility. he makes a fairly convincing argument that, in fact, it could be except that cloud companies are actively resisting such a move via every means available to them. he worries that, though some early images of cloud computing, especially the cybersyn project of allende’s chile, were focused on promoting political and economic democracy, the vast majority of resources in cloud computing are building wealth and power for a small number of people while further disenfranchising the rest. the book never strays far from material realities, as mosco makes a great effort to re-contextualize the “cloud” by revealing its physicality, even as the cloud’s worldwide marketing team attempts to reinforce an image of the cloud as immaterial. in a chapter entitled dark clouds, mosco takes up environmental sustainability, labor issues, and security / privacy, discussing the economic, social, political, and environmental effects of massive data centers being built to support cloud computing. he worries about the massive labor shifts that follow in the wake of cloud computing adoption by corporations and governments. while the cloud's promoters have done everything possible to make the cloud the "right choice" environmentally, financially, and so on, mosco points out the frightening fissures between this propaganda and the groundtruth reality. in the chapter big data and cloud culture, mosco discusses the ways that big data, and the rhetoric of its promoters, is attempting to replace traditional models of social science. why operate based on theories when massive data sets can simply tell us what happens, when, and in which contexts? mosco is rightfully concerned that one very narrow epistemology is seeking to replace many possibilities available. he also worries that this kind of data, rather than being used to make people’s lives better, is often being used against them sharing and analyzing data to promote the wealth of a few, while further controlling and repressing the rest. despite this lineup of concerns, the reader should never understand mosco as a pessimist. indeed, when he returns to the metaphors with which he began the book, he does so in search of alternative framings that would situate the cloud in service of everyday people. the cloud of unknowing, to return to this example, poses a fundamental challenge to the rhetoric of cloud computing’s promoters: will vast quantities of information ever lead us to wisdom? throughout the book, mosco surfaces questions like these, as well as serious concerns about the direction of cloud computing. however, he also highlights the powerful resistances to these “dark clouds" taking place around the world. from community mesh networks to data center protestors to global digital labor organizing, people around the world are fighting battles—and even sometimes winning—against the corporate cloud and the “data-intelligence complex” (p. 184). mosco’s detailed and nuanced analysis of the political, financial, promotional, and cultural elements of cloud computing provide those interested in community-based models of ict with both a model with which to critique dominant paradigms and a series of questions we might ask ourselves about our work. for example, • what do participatory, community-based models of the cloud look like, and how do we continue to make them increasingly accessible to people and communities? • how do we surface and highlight the material—and often disturbing—nature of seemingly ephemeral bodies like the cloud? have other similar campaigns been successful, and what can we learn from them? !227 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 • how do we prop up and support alternative and community-based research and ways of knowing in a world where algorithms, big data, and research sans theory seem increasingly dominant? • what alliances can we build, across which boundaries, to build alternatives to the corporate cloud that serve everyday people rather than the powers that be? i’ve been working on the last question for several years with social workers, exploring the implications of the cloud and big data on their everyday practice. building these bridging conversations is challenging, as helping professionals and technologists share little professional language in common. however, its in these alliances like the alliances of the global workers movements against cloud computing on which mosco reports that resistance against these powerful and increasingly hegemonic forces can be mounted and sustained. books like mosco’s offer an important “way in” for those outside the field to understand the languages in use, as well as the issues at hand, in cloud computing. for critics of ict, this book offers a model from which to begin working. for activists, it is a clarion call. for readers who pick up the book without much background, it may be a well-needed awakening. for community informaticists, the book is all of these things, and a must-read at that. references morozov, e. (2015). the taming of tech criticism. the baffler, 27. retrieved from http:// www.thebaffler.com/salvos/taming-tech-criticism !228 http://www.thebaffler.com/salvos/taming-tech-criticism power, communities, and community informatics: a meta-study michael v. arnold and larry stillman community informatics and views of power and empowerment community informatics is an emerging field of research and practice located at the intersection of communities and ict. in a typical description gurstein suggests that community informatics involves… “… a commitment to universality of technology-enabled opportunity including to the disadvantaged; a recognition that the “lived physical community” is at the very center of individual and family well-being – economic, political, and cultural; a belief that this can be enhanced through the judicious use of ict; a sophisticated user-focused understanding of information technology; and applied social leadership, entrepreneurship and creativity” . (gurstein 2007: 12) all of this is very positive – strengthening communities, connecting people, sharing social solidarity, addressing disadvantage – yet it implies social change, and social change means dealing directly with distributions and executions of power. understanding power, dealing with power and wielding power is thus implicit in the unfolding community informatics project, but arguably, power is conceptually and theoretically under-developed in the community informatics field. community informatics is in part multidisciplinary (in that a typical ci project will involve anthropologists, computer scientists and so on, working in parallel), and/or interdisciplinary (in that the anthropology will shape the computer science, and vice versa, to create a hybrid disciplinarity), and in this spirit of multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity, ci has much to learn about power from the social science disciplines that have made power their area of special concern – in particular, political philosophy, sociology and social theory. a better understanding of the nature and dynamics of social power can potentially provide ci research and practice with improvements in ict engineering for community-oriented systems design, in improved practices in community informatics implementation, in improved analysis of possibilities and constraints facing communities, in improved theorisation of community informatics and for improved generalisability of experience in all of the above. accordingly, in this paper we ask how power is theorised in the social sciences, and against this background, ask how the field of community informatics theorises power. what is power? to answer this question one might begin with arguably the most influential 20thc work on power – discipline and punish: the birth of the prison (foucault 1977) – “an analysis of power that has had “an enormous impact in and across a whole range of intellectual specialisms” (garland 1986, p.865). here foucault contrasts a premodern construction of power (where power is concentrated in the figure of the sovereign) with the modernist reconfiguration of power as something that is distributed and decentralised through regimes of discipline. so in this premodern construction the power of the sovereign is a measure of the capacity of agent (a) to effect change in entity (c) through the exercise of force (b). power resides somewhere (a), power is exercised from that point of origin (a), moves through time and space from its point of origin (via agent b), and its effects are observed at the point of destination (c). figure 1 : sovereign power it will be shown that that this simple and common understanding of power does not serve us well in the humanities and social sciences in general, or in community informatics in particular. before coming back to discuss power as it understood in the humanities and social sciences, we will take a short diversion to describe the related notion of empowerment, an allied concept which is frequently invoked in community informatics. what is empowerment? simply put, empowerment is an act of power (however power might be understood) that enables others to exercise power (however it might be understood). there is clearly a paradox here, perhaps derived from the misapplication of a newtonian physics metaphor, in so much as ‘empowerment’ implies that power may be gifted by the more powerful (a) to the less powerful (c). if empowerment is within the gift of the more powerful, and it is gifted, then empowerment is an act of power exercised by (a) to which (c) are subject. if it can be gifted it may also be withheld, which again expresses the power of the powerful and the relative powerlessness of the powerless, at least prior to and at the time of the transaction. in this sense empowerment is patronage. but the transaction having been made, are not the powerless more powerful, and therefore have they not been empowered, by either the powerful or by the transaction, or by both? if so, we have an aggregated outcome – a “win-win” game rather than a “zero-sum” game – wherein the power of the powerful is affirmed by their ability to empower, and the power of the empowered is increased by the transaction. for this to be so depends upon what we understand by power, and upon the transactions by which power is said to be mobile and the relatively powerless are said to be empowered. now to return to the question of power. again, what is power? in the broadest terms power is present where an actor effects the way of being of another actor (latour, 1992) . the actor may be a person, a computer, a community centre, a policy document, or any manner of other thing, and a ‘way of being’ encompasses behaviour, demeanour, constitution, life-experience, and all other properties of an actor in their lifeworld. but this having been said, the manner and means by which ‘an actor effects the way of being of another’ is very much contested territory, and so it is in community informatics. the following model is an attempt to bring together on one page some well known claims developed and contested in a huge body of literature in the social sciences, by figures such as marx (marx 2001), machiavelli (machiavelli 1985), nietzsche (nietzsche 1968), habermas (kelly 1994), foucault (foucault 1977, kelly 1994), gramsci (gramsci 1988), giddens (giddens 1984), deleuze and guattari (deleuze and guattari 1988), latour (latour 1992, 1993) and by many others who will be very familiar to the reader. each of these claims about power, drawn from the wider social sciences, was evident in at least some of the papers presented at the 2009 prato conference, although as will be seen, some propositions about power drawn from the social sciences are clearly more influential in ci than others. the point here is not to assert that one proposition is correct or is more important than any other in a general sense, or to provide a comprehensive exegesis and critique of each proposition, or to create a model which reconciles the differences and contradictions between these propositions. rather, the point is simply to remind the reader of the various propositions that have influenced our general understanding of the manner and means by which social power is exercised, and then to show how each has been brought to bear in the context of community informatics. figure 2 gathers up and brings together significant and well known propositions that have been made about the nature of power in the social domain. these propositions are explained in principle below, before moving on to a more focused discussion of how the propositions have been utilised in community informatics. figure 2: gathering up propositions about power in the social domain propositions about power each of the propositions about power brought together in the above diagramme is now explained in abstract terms, before moving to concrete examples drawn from ci. resources: power derives from the ability to command resources. (see especially the marxist schools) comment: these resources may provide legitimacy and authority, through knowledge say, or may allow the application of coercive power (through say, violence or brute force). resources may derive from social structure or contribute to social structure, and simultaneously, may derive from and contribute to agency. resources may be material (e.g. ict) or immaterial (e.g. social capital). potential applicability to community empowerment: community informatics projects often begin with the provision of new resources in a community context. these resources are often ict. some resources are at the command of a community, as distinct from those at the command of individuals, families, agencies, corporations and other entities. community resources may include the ability to socialise and to act collectively (social capital), which has implications for the authority and legitimacy of community action as well as implications for the exercise of coercive power – over its members, or over other communities. resources may also include vernacular, situated knowledge, particularly of their own position. in this sense the community is a resource unto itself, in the network of connections among the community resourcing community action. most resources in most communities are at the command of individuals rather than communities. in the community informatics context, communities are typically regarded as lacking in resources such as access to employment, health care, internal coherence and identity, expert ‘certified’ knowledge, and so on. resources aggregate and compound. those who may be well resourced in some areas (e.g. education) leverage that to obtain resources in another (e.g. health care or employment). ict is typically seen to be one resource that can be leveraged to access other resources. 2.a structure: power may be structural, or structured (as well as agentic). (see especially the works of foucault, giddens, gramsci) comment: to coerce, adopt a position of authority and legitimacy, and exercise coercion, is to act within and to refresh certain ongoing relatively stable frameworks, variously understood as class, gender, patriarchy, race, privilege, caste, status, and so on. actors derive power differentially from the structure, not from characteristics of the actor as such, and not from agency as such. the ability to shape the structure has far reaching implications for power because it effects all who operate within that structure. potential applicability to community empowerment: communities operate within structures. whilst structure is emergent in the exercise of agency, some aspects of a community’s position in relation to others may be best understood by foregrounding the community’s structural position in wider society. (other aspects of a community’s power may be best understood by foregrounding agency). communities also execute power structurally in their own conduct. class, gender, disability, status, language, access to resources and so on, are reflected in differential power within communities as well as between communities. altering structures in order to alter power arrangements in respect of a community is a high stakes game with extensive and far reaching outcomes, but of course is hard to achieve. 2.b agency: power may be agentic (as well as or rather than structural). agency refers to the freedom of a social agent to determine their own actions. (see especially the works of nietzsche, latour, giddens, deleuze and guattari) comment: the relation between agency and structure has been the backbone of social theory for at least 150 years. they are almost universally held to be in relation – agency refreshing structure and thus providing opportunity to reshape it, and structure both enabling and constraining agency. whilst agency is emergent in the context of structure, some aspects of a community’s position in relation to others may be best understood by foregrounding the community’s agency. (other aspects of a community’s power may be best understood by foregrounding a structural position). potential applicability to community empowerment: communities can be said to be agentic in so much as they exist as a social entity. agency has been extensively explored at the level of the individual or the subject, but less so in terms of communities. the uncertain boundaries and ontologies of communities make them a difficult subject of study in an already difficult field. perhaps what we know of agency in the subject can be applied to communities, perhaps not. the individual subject is said to be agentic in so far as the subject is self governing and has choices about how they act in the world. more powerful people have more agency than less powerful people. 3.a. coercion: power is an exercise of coercion, and is not to be identified as characterising every interaction. coercion implies that an imbalance in the ability to influence is exercised in the interaction. (see especially the marxist schools, nietzsche, foucault.) comment: though power may well be exercised in every interaction, in cases where power is roughly in balance, the interaction does not turn on the exercise of power. to identify all interactions, including non-coercive interactions as turning on the exercise of power, is to make a universally applicable claim, and therefore no claim at all. potential applicability to community empowerment: communities may be empowered to coerce. they may be empowered to coerce their own members – say, alcoholics, or criminals, or teenagers. alternatively they may be empowered to coerce non-members – say, employers, or government agencies. communities may be empowered to a point which falls short of the capacity to coerce, but reaches a point where they can interact, if they are working from a very low power base. power is also associated with violence and with brute force, a special case of coercion. comment: violence and brute force are understood to unilaterally alter people and things and their circumstances in a material way. violence damages people or things and is employed as a negative force, for its ‘stopping-power’ as it were, and brute force can be understood as a positive force, not in a moral sense, but for its ‘doing-power’ as it were. violence and brute force are often overlooked in the social sciences in favour of more nuanced understandings of power, but violence and brute force are still exercised and held in reserve as a threat or promise, legitimately exercised exclusively by the state and its agencies, but also exercised by others. potential applicability to community empowerment: some communities do exercise violence from time to time – perhaps in the absence of other forms of power, or perhaps because they choose to. violence and brute force may be brought to bear by the community on members of the community, or may be brought to bear on outsiders. some communities are subject to violence and brute force exercised by other social agents – other communities, agents of the state, organized crime and so on. legitimacy: power is associated with positions of legitimacy and authority, and knowledge is associated with positions of power, derived from legitimacy and authority. (see especially the works of foucault, habermas) comment: since the age of reason and the enlightenment, power, legitimacy, authority and knowledge have been thought to be inextricably interrelated. potential applicability to community empowerment: communities may be empowered as their members are able to exercise externally legitimized knowledge that has been certified and authoritative in places external to the community. (e.g. knowledge of science, knowledge of plumbing) communities may be empowered by internally legitimized knowledge in so much as it is associated with communal identity, and with authority and legitimacy within the community. (e.g. situated knowledge, cultural knowledge) communities may be empowered by exercising legitimate and authoritative claims under the auspices of representative democracy. that is, community representatives may be empowered to speak in the interests and desires of the community, with the authority of the community. community members may be empowered to speak of their own interests and desires with the authority of knowledge of those interests and desires. the state and its agencies also derive legitimacy from knowledge. the state is empowered by its knowledge of its citizens, and its power is legitimized by that knowledge. 5.a. translation: power is exercised through a translation of interests. (see especially the works of latour). comment: the translation of interests refers to an alignment of participants such that their resources, agencies, authority, brute force and so on, are articulated rather than in opposition or tangential to one another. these interests may be material, structural, transient, subjective, ideological, interpolated, hegemonic, discursive, and so on. potential applicability to community empowerment: communities may be empowered to translate the interests of their membership and bring these interests into alignment, such that the alignment becomes articulated as the interests of the community as a whole. communities may be empowered to translate the interests of other parties to form alliances with the community. 5.b. circulation: power is distributed through a network. it constantly circulates and is not centralised in any place. (see especially foucault, latour) comment: in an empirical sense, whilst power is not evenly distributed through a network, it is distributed and circulates through the network. so powerful entity a is only powerful in so much as b acts at the behest of a. it is b who acts, and in a real sense exercises power, not a. in an analytic sense it also circulates through the various propositions by which we understand and represent power. so for example, in fig. 2 power is represented as a circulation between structure and agency, between coercion and legitimacy, utilising resources on the way. potential applicability to community empowerment: communities are frequently required to express the power of government in the community’s traditional role of standing between the subject and the state, translating and delivering the state to the subject and the subject to the state (tönnies 1935). the cooption of the community as a conduit places the community in a position of power. the power of a community is distributed through it members. communities exist in a circulation of relations. in this sense communities are dynamic and relational. important among these circulating relations is the circulation of power – within the community and between the community and other social entities. this circulation of power may be informed by reference to the relationship between structure and agency, legitimacy and coercion, and the role of resources. each of these aspects of power is not discrete, but exists as circulating relationships between the parts, translated into the particular interests of affected parties. at the centre lies domain of resources. a capacity to access non-material or material resources (for example, authority, computers or armies) is central to circulations and translations of structure and agency, and coercion and legitimacy. having described the theory in abstract terms we can turn to the question of how informatics has been found to empower communities. method the abstracts of papers submitted to the 2009 prato community informatics conference were examined and those that were selected for analysis were case studies (i.e. reported empirical work), were in english, and included a discussion of power or empowerment in the text, resulting in a data-set of 49 papers. the prato community informatics conference was chosen as being representative of the ongoing conversation occurring in the community informatics field as a whole at this point in time. this annual conference is the premier conference in its field. it is organised by the centre for community networking research, monash, in conjunction with the international community informatics research network, and since 2003 has held successful conferences, workshops and other events in prato, australia, the uk, france, and portugal. although the conference language is english, there is significant representation from francophone and spanish-speaking countries. the 2009 ci conference was chosen over other years because that year’s conference theme – “empowering communities” – invited participants to directly address power. using this sample as our data source, we examine coercion, legitimacy, authority, knowledge, violence, brute force, structural change, agency, resources, translation of interests, and circulations of power as they are represented in the context of communities and informatics. the meta-analysis of the prato papers was first conducted on the abstracts, which were available prior to the conference itself, and prior to the published proceedings. a few abstracts were withdrawn and the final papers were not published in the proceedings, but for the purposes of this paper they have been retained on the basis of an analysis of the abstract. the meta-analysis was then presented at the conference, and the authors were invited to discuss the findings and pick up any errors in our interpretation of their work. since that time the full papers have been published (stillman, l., t. denision and g. johanson 2009) and we are confident that the meta-analysis accurately reflects their approach to power. the analysis was entirely manual (rather than using text-analysis software) and necessarily entailed a degree of interpretation. in some cases propositions about power and empowerment were not expressly or literally stated, but were thought to be clearly inferred, and were regarded as existent. in other cases propositions about empowerment that were clearly stated in the abstract may not in fact have figured significantly in the case study and were not included. in yet other cases, propositions about power may not have been stated, and may not have been inferred in my reading, but may nonetheless figure in the case study. that having been said, we can move on to a discussion of what this snapshot of community informatics makes of power and empowerment. findings a. resources it is entirely unsurprising that work in community informatics should focus on the empowerment of communities through the provision of ict resources of one kind or another, and indeed, this is the case in 40 of the 49 studies. after all, as we see illustrated in the opening gurstein quote, we work in ‘community informatics’, not narrower fields like ‘community housing’ or ‘community health’, nor broader fields like ‘community studies’ or ‘community development’. community informatics is in this sense a field that is unabashedly techno-centric, whilst at the same time, keen to push through the limitations of techno-determinism (stillman and linger 2009). thus, the 40 studies that do place the provision of ict resources front and centre of the empowerment equation, would seem for the most part sensitive to the critiques of techno-determinism, are aware that ict are often unsuccessful, are aware that experiences and outcomes are situated and contingent, and are keen to see that deployment is shaped and controlled by the community in question. technology is clearly placed in the social context. but for an outsider in particular, looking from say, mainstream anthropology, development studies or sociology, the community informatics “progress through technology” project may well seem not so much focused and pro-active, as narrow and theoretically naive. continued efforts to collaborate with the work of mainstream anthropology, development studies, sociology and social theory will no doubt be productive for all. the provision of ict resources is intended not to be an end in itself, but a means to an end. this further end may be the procurement of resources of another kind – such as education or employment, or the enhancement of agency or legitimacy. these will be discussed in due course, but before moving on, one may consider the possibility of providing ict with no further motive or end in mind. if ict deployment is to be shaped and controlled by the relatively powerless for their own ends, why must that end be negotiated with the powerful? the powerless can surely determine a worthy use of ict by themselves – such as engaging in open university courses, or selling the ict to buy recreational drugs. nine abstracts do not pursue the proposition that communities be empowered through the provision of ict resources (bieniecka; chigoan; farinosi; gies; martin, walsh & wilson; nabeel & pinnock; petric & petrovcic; raffl; roode; toland; wei) and at least one (gies) raised a counter-argument to the “progress through technology” project. those that do not focus on the deployment of ict focus instead on relations between agency, legitimacy and structure (wei), circulations and translations (martin; toland; walsh & wilson), agency and translations (raffl), coercion and agency (farinosi), translations (chigoan; nabeel & pinnock; roode), agency, legitimacy and translations (petric & petrovcic; gies,) and agency and structure (bieniecka). b. resources, agency and legitimacy by far the largest grouping of propositions were those concerned with the resources-agency-legitimacy relation (flipsen & van der weide; dasgupta; joshi; gomez & gould; selaimen; gamage; wolske; freistadt; jeff & pal; adams, & wolske; lee, o'mara, trere; carreon; garrido, rissola & rastrelli; elliot, gammage; williamson, wilson & martin, nielsen) figure 3: an emphasis on resources, agency and legitimacy among this group, resources and legitimacy were linked in a variety of ways. in many cases the project intended to use ict to provide knowledge resources of a kind that were certified and validated by powerful entities outside of the community – such as employers and educational authorities (e.g. elliot; flipsen & van der weide; freistadt; garrido, rissola & rastrelli; jeff & pal; joshi, gomez & gould; lee). community informatics projects that address empowerment through the resources-agency-legitimacy relation appear to bracket the structure of power relations, though it is possible to explicitly address structure (e.g. freistadt; wei). c. agency among the resources-agency-legitimacy group, agency was addressed in different ways. for the most part, community informatics projects seek to empower communities through enhancing the agency of the individuals that constitute that community (e.g. adams & wolske; carreon; craig; elliot flipsen & van der weide; freistadt; gamage; garrido; gomez & gould; jeff & pal; joshi; lee; o'mara; rissola & rastrelli; selaimen), and this point of view is reflected in the literature (e.g. it is not the community as a collective that is the agent of empowerment through access to resources-legitimacy, but the empowerment of the individual subject, not contingent upon the empowerment of the community. it might be argued that the empowerment of community members is tantamount to the empowerment of the community, but though this may be so in some cases, in others it will not be so, as the empowered subject exercises their new agency to leave the community. even in cases where this is not so, we think the distinction between individual agency and collective agency is still worth making and worth being sensitive to. projects that took another tack and used the community as its ontological focal point, rather than or as well as individuals within the community, were also numerous (e.g. adams & wolske; carreon; dasgupta; elliot; gammage; nielsen; selaimen; trere; williamson; wilson & martin; wolske). a way of considering the difference is to imagine that that these projects focused on the properties of the interstitial space shared by the community, not the properties of the occupants of that space, and upon the properties of the space shared by the community and other agents (for example government, or corporations). to use another metaphor, these projects focused on links between the nodes rather than the nodes, and were reliant on network effects to empower the agency of the collective, not the agency of the individual as such (see also arnold 2007). still other projects used institutions as the ontological focal point, and thus sought to intervene in the resources-legitimacy-agency relation to empower the institution rather than the community or the subject (e.g. gamage; gomez & gould; pscheidt). d. legitimacy in addition to the distinction between the agency of subjects, communities and institutions, another useful distinction may be made between certified legitimacy and collective legitimacy. that is, knowledge-authority-legitimacy may be certified by power external to the community (e.g. the knowledge-authority-legitimacy associated with an educational qualification), or knowledge-authority-legitimacy may be warranted as an exercise of community agency (e.g. the knowledge-authority-legitimacy associated with a community’s knowledge of its culture, interests and sense of self). examples of empowerment through certified resources-legitimacy-agency relations have been given earlier (elliot flipsen & van der weide; freistadt; gomez & gould; jeff & pal; joshi; lee, garrido; rissola & rastrelli;). examples of communally warranted knowledge-authority-legitimacy are to be found in projects that seek to give voice to the community’s knowledge of itself (e.g. adams & wolske; carreon; dasgupta; elliot; gammage; joshi; nielsen o'mara; selaimen; trere; williamson; wilson & martin; wolske). this internal, situated knowledge-authority-legitimacy may pertain to the community’s socio-economic or political interests (e.g. facilitating political participation or planning participation), or may entail cultural interests (e.g. intergenerational cultural transmission). it may also be noted in this context that government, state agencies, commercial entities and other powerful agents are also empowered by the knowledge-authority-legitimacy equation. in conditions of unequal power arrangements, and in the absence of good faith, an invitation to give voice to collectively legitimized knowledge of a community may be an invitation to participate in legitimizing action that is not in the community’s interests. several case studies address questions related to resources and agency without expressly addressing legitimacy (e.g. birowo de carvalho; dolnicar; lambert; matielo, rodriguez & planella; pscheidt;), and this work may benefit from being sensitized to claims made in this space. e. coercion few case studies directly address issues related to the coercive qualities of power and empowerment, the exceptions being clark & beaton, farinosi, and gies, a puzzling absence given that information systems are clearly instruments that have a dangerous potential for coercion. databases for example, establish regimes which legitimize certain responses and forbid others, so the subject is male or the subject is female, and no other choice is permitted. in controlling the discourse the ict is controlling what can and can’t be said, what is relevant and what isn’t, what is important and what isn’t. by using the material brute-force of materiality – the software, the interface, the input and output devices – the ict is coercive in respect to knowledge-authority-legitimacy, and thus agency, structure, resources, power and empowerment. at another level, coercion may escape the attention of community informatics because of its emphasis on empowerment through enabling the provision of missing resources, chiefly informational resources and communicative resources. indeed, 40 of 49 papers hinged on the provision of resources to community. that is, community informatics would seem to operate from a “deficit model”, whereby community’s are to be empowered by being provided with something that they lack once this provision is made, communities, or subjects within the community, are empowered to ‘bootstrap’ their own way out of their disempowered state, and are expected to bootstrap their own way out of their predicament. coercive and structural aspects of the power equation need not be addressed, which perhaps accounts for the affinity between neo-liberalism and social theory positioned around social-capital. f. translation translations of interest occur as power circulates. some studies address these translations and circulations in a more or less direct way (e.g. toland, chigoan, roode, nabeel &pinnock, martin, walsh & wilson) but in the main, translations are implicit in the analysis. most commonly, translations of interest are expressly coupled with resources (e.g. copeland; fawcett; gasiea, emsley, & mikhailov; miller; sabiescu). these resources may be material (such as ict) or immaterial (such as knowledge of culture). here, empowerment is contingent on ensuring that material resources (such as ict) are aligned to the material and immaterial interests of the community or its subjects (e.g. gasiea, emsley, & mikhailov , malina & thompson). the translation of ict to align it with its users is a design problem we are all familiar with, but also required is a translation of the user, in our case the diverse resources of the community and its subjects, such that they are not radically divergent. translating the differentiated immaterial resources of different generations (e.g. sabiescu), different sub-groups (e.g. copeland), or differently imagined futures (e.g. miller) is a more fraught and sensitive undertaking, requiring a sensitivity to the danger that the translation is not coercive and honours the integrity of the interests of the groups and subjects in question. in other case studies the focus is on translation in relation to agency as well as resources (e.g. craig; malina & thompson; mcloughlin, brown & adria; raffl; saad-sulonen & horelli). these cases typically involve the facilitation of public participation, a process whereby the diverse interests of the community and its subjects are translated through funnelling, filtering, aggregation, or other forms of re-presentation, thus enhancing the agency of otherwise unfocused interests. in effect this form of translation constructs a new ontology – “community opinion”, or “community interests”, the product of the translation of multi-vocal community interests into a univocal voice of the community. this too is a delicate undertaking. conclusion if one assumes that the papers submitted to the 2009 prato community informatics conference on ‘empowering communities’ provided a snapshot of the way power and empowerment was understood in the field at that time, one may draw the following conclusions. ci places the provision of ict resources front and centre in the empowerment equation (40 papers), and to this extent, ci operates from a deficit model of community empowerment. however, a substantial minority of papers (9) address ci issues through approaches other than the provision of ict. this focus on ict would appear to be technocentric, but not technodeterminist. the largest grouping of ci projects (20) is concerned with the empowerment of communities through interventions in, or analysis of, the relationship between the resources available to a community, the agency community members are able to exercise, and the legitimacy of those resources and that agency. legitimacy, resources and agency would therefore appear to be the key theoretical concepts relevant to the empowerment of communities. of the above, 8 papers were concerned with knowledge resources that are externally legitimated and certified, and through accessing those resources sought to enhance agency. in contrast 13 papers were concerned with knowledge resources that are internally legitimated and give voice to the community’s knowledge of itself. agency is interpreted by ci as a property of individuals in 14 cases, as a property of the collective in 11 cases, and as a property of institutions in 3 cases. whether knowledge resources are externally or internally legitimated, and whether agency is individuated or collective, has implications for structure. externally legitimated knowledge that enhances the agency of individuals would appear to leave structure intact. internally legitimated knowledge that enhances the agency of the collective may have the potential to restructure ongoing power arrangements. with a couple of exceptions, ci would appear to be unconcerned with coercion. with relatively few exceptions, ci would appear to be unconcerned with translations of interest as power circulates between actors. where translations of interest are addressed explicitly or can be clearly inferred, the concern is to align ict resources with user interests (5 cases), and to translate the diverse interests of community members to construct “community opinion” (6 cases). each of the conclusions is of course ripe for contestation, exploration and elaboration at an empirical level and at a theoretical level, through a closer association of community informatics and the various traditions in the philosophical and social sciences that have addressed power and empowerment. community informatics and these other traditions will both benefit. acknowledgements the research reported here was supported under the australian research council’s discovery scheme, grant number dp0557781. the authors would like to thank the delegates to the 2009 prato community informatics conference for their helpful suggestions and comments. appendix: notes on abstracts and papers. abstracts drawn from stillman, l., t. denision and g. johanson (2009). prato community cirn conference 2009: empowering communities: learning from community informatics practice. conference cd. monash centre, prato, italy, centre for community informatics research. adams & wolske, “prairienet community network: 16 years of empowering communities through engaged informatics” empowerment is associated with the deployment of prairienet (resources) prairienet is associated with services to individuals (individual agency) prairienet is associated with network-effect services (collective agency) (technical resources – legitimacy agency relation) bieniecka, “community empowerment and community development as a way of empowering women”. the relation between community empowerment and women’s empowerment is considered (agency + structure) (agency – structure relation) birowo, “the use of community radio in managing natural disaster in indonesia” empowerment is associated with the use of community radio in times of natural disaster (resources) the way community radio is deployed is examined (agency) (resources – agency relation) brown & adria, “ambiguity and uncertainty in the last mile: broadband adoption in rural alberta” empowerment through broadband provision over the last mile is considered (resources) despite its provision, the adoption of rural broadband in alberta has been low (agency) ambiguity and uncertainty by industry decision-makers and broadband stakeholders has contributed to this situation (translations of interest) (resources – agency – translations of interest relation) carreon, “participatory budgets going online: trying to empower comunities using it” empowerment is associated with the provision of ict for public participation in framing local budget priorities. (resources) community empowerment is associated with political participation (collective agency + translation of interests) collective agency is dependent on political participation (individual agency) not mentioned governmental legitimacy is associated with political participation (legitimacy) (resources – agency – translation of interest – [legitimacy] relation) de carvalho, matielo, rodriguez & planella, “web 2 to empower communities: reviewing digital literacy in telecentre projects” empowerment is associated with an improvement in social capital. (immaterial resources) social capital is associated with the provision of telecentres (material resources) and the particularized use of web 2.0 systems (agency) (resources – agency relation) chigoan, roode, nabeel &pinnock, “using stakeholder theory to analyse the smart cape e-government initiative” communal participation in identifying and planning a public access initiative is problematized (translations of interest) clark & beaton, “reciprocity of ownership and control of community and neighbourhood information and data” the provision of sensitive data related to first world and indigenous peoples is sometimes required (coercion) community empowerment is associated with community control of community data. (community agency) community data should be constructed to include community interests (translations of interest) community data may thus serve community purposes (resource) (coercion – agency – translation of interest – resource relation) copeland, “digital storytelling: a cross-boundary method to address issues of conflict between intergenerational groups in rural communities” empowerment is associated with the provision of digital story telling facilities (resources) digital story telling is associated with bridging boundaries between diverse rural groupings. (translations of interest) (resources – translation of interest relation) craig, “breaking down institutional walls with icts” empowerment is associated with the provision of educational ict (resources) educational ict are associated with personalized learning (individual agency) implementation is problematized through reference to the diverse interests of potential participants (translation of interests) (resources – agency – translation of interests relation) dasgupta, “empowering communities with e-governance initiatives: a comparative study of two political cultures in india” the provision and use of e-governance facilities is considered (resources) community empowerment is associated with political participation (collective agency) governmental legitimacy is associated with political participation (legitimacy) (resources – agency – legitimacy relation) dension & johanson, “e-research infrastructure and community research” power is associated with control of the process of research, and the products of research, in conditions where research is conducted jointly by disparate parties with diverse interests. (translation of interest + legitimacy + agency) systems that mediate this process are discussed (resources) (translation of interest legitimacy – agency – resources relation) dhakal, “a social capital framework to assess icts mediated empowerment of environmental community organizations in western australia” the empowerment of community organizations is associated with the provision of ict (resources) the empowerment of community organizations is associated with social capital (resources) (circulation through social capital resources and ict resources relation) dolnicar, “the potential of icts for minimizing and deepening the social inequalities” empowerment is associated with the differential provision of ict to those who are already powerful, as opposed to those who are less powerful. (resources) the further empowerment of the powerful (and disempowerment of the powerless) is manifest across 4 dimensions consumption, production, political engagement, and social interaction (agency) (resources – agency relation) elliot, “empowering indigenous learners in remote australian communities” empowerment of remote indigenous communities is associated with the provision of social and ict educational interventions (resources) these interventions intend to enable a two way transaction between western knowledge (externally legitimated) and indigenous knowledge (internally legitimated) (resources – legitimation – individual and collective agency relation) farinosi, “towards a postpanopticon perspective: privacy, control and new icts” surveillance is associated with cctv (coercion) surveillance is associated with sns (agency) power is associated with surveillance as it is exercised differentially in the private sphere and the public sphere (individual agency) (coercion – individual agency relation) fawcett, “a tale of two homes: a preliminary assessment of the community information and technology needs of the rural poor in ensenada mexico” community empowerment is associated with the provision of ict (resources) a model is proposed (inam) to facilitate the selection of appropriate ict (translation of interests) not mentioned agency (resources – translation of interests relation) flipsen & van der weide, “the middle out approach” empowerment is associated with e-education (externally legitimized knowledge resources). an educational strategy is suggested (to enhance agency of communities/subjects). education is linked to economic participation (individual agency) (legitimacy agency–resources relation) freistadt, “a parallel education: ict centers and the access gap to formal higher education for the poor in brazil” empowerment is associated with the provision of educational and employment agency services through community centres (resources) community centres are positioned in relation to higher education (structure and agency) (resources – legitimacy agency relation) gamage, “reflective practice in digital story-telling (dst): two case studies from sri lanka” empowerment is associated with the provision of digital story telling facilities (resources) digital story telling is associated with personal and cultural expression (collective agency) (resources – agency legitimation relation) gamage, “a critical assessment of the ‘1000 telecentre programme’ of the e-sri lanka initiative and its effectiveness in decreasing ‘digital inequality’” empowerment is associated with the provision of knowledge and culture through telecentres (resources) a strategy is suggested to enhance agency of communities/subjects in relation to telecentres (agency of telecentres) (individual agency – resources relation) + (telecentre agency – legitimacy relation) garrido, rissola & rastrelli, “can basic ict skills help advance better employment opportunities for immigrant women in the european union? a critical perspective” empowerment is associated with the provision of ict skills (resource) ict skills are associated with economic participation (individual agency) ict skills are externally legitimized knowledge resources (legitimation) ict skills are also associated with internally legitimized knowledge resources (legitimation) (resource – individual agency – legitimation relation) gasiea, emsley, & mikhailov, “selection of rural telecommunications infrastructure: an analytic network process approach” empowerment is associated with the deployment of appropriate telecommunications technologies (resources) a model is proposed to facilitate decision-making. (technical resources – translation of interests relation) gies, “social justice at the touch of a button? some reflections on the use of ict in government communication of human rights” disempowerment is associated with the challenges faced by citizens in accessing social services through ict. (agency) disempowerment is associated with system requirements for standardized, simplified inputs from citizens (legitimacy) empowerment is associated with the use of ict to cost-shift the provision of services to users of ict through the employment of citizen’s labour. (agency) (agency – legitimacy – translation of interest relation) gomez & gould, new challenges for libraries in the information age empowerment is associated with access to knowledge through public libraries (externally legitimized knowledge resources) an educational strategy is suggested (to enhance the agency of libraries) (individual agency – legitimacy resources relation) grunfeld, “how ireach has contributed to local communities” empowerment is associated with the deployment of ireach (resources) ireach has contributed to improved well-being in education, health, farming and general information provision. (agency + legitimacy) women have been found to have particularly benefited (structure) (resources –agency (knowledge) – structure relation) jeff & pal, “technology training & empowerment: aspiration & employability for the disabled in latin america” empowerment is associated with technology training centres for people with disabilities (resources) technology training centres are charged with providing coping skills (i.e. employment), and with providing transformation to aspirations. (agency) (resources – legitimacy individual agency) joshi, “challenging remoteness through accessibility: community informatics of rural wings” empowerment is associated with the provision of ict for social services such as education, health, agricultural information (externally legitimized knowledge resources) video-links are briefly mentioned? (internally legitimized knowledge resources?) (individual agency – legitimacy resources relation) lambert, “can communities be empowered still with a ‘top-down’ approach to ict conceptualization, design, and implementation? the case of mycommunityinfo.ca.” empowerment is associated with the provision of a portal providing access to the information resources of local non-profit community organizations and arms of government (informational resources) the portal would appear to be financially sustainable (financial/material resources) the portal was a top-down construction (agency) (agency – resources relation) lee, “an integrated approach to community technology practice: learning from asset-based community development” empowerment is associated with the deployment of community technology centres (resources) a strategy is suggested to ensure the sustainability of ctcs (resources) ctcs are associated with educational and ict services to community members (individual agency) (resources – legitimacy agency relation) maccalla & caesar, “smart community building with integrated community informatics” empowerment is associated with the deployment of i-cimsware (technical resources) i-cimsware is concerned with the provision of reflexive knowledge by the community of the community (legitimacy + collective agency) (resources – agency – legitimacy relation) mcloughlin, “‘never failing to fail’ reflections on co-construction as a means of socio-technical intervention” the empowerment of users of ict through user-centred design strategies is considered (agency) the user-centred development of sociotechnical systems designed to be deployed across multi-agency environments in ways that are more integrated and citizen-centric are considered, and are not assessed as uniformly successful (resources + translations of interest) (agency – translations of interest – resources relation) malina & thompson, “engaging eden: new media for youth involvement in local government decision-making” empowerment is associated with the provision of ict for public participation in framing local budget priorities. (resources) community empowerment is associated with political participation (collective agency) collective agency is dependent on individual participation (individual agency) not mentioned – translation of interests (resources – agency – [translation of interests] relation) martin, walsh & wilson, “a social informatics intervention: theory, method and practice” the analysis is concerned with the dynamics of partnership formation in conditions where the co-construction of socio-technical systems requires the unification of internalized desire and externalized architectural frameworks. (circulation – translation of interest relation) masizana-katongo & morakanyane, “representing information for semi-literate users: digital inclusion using mobile phone technology” empowerment is associated with the deployment of mobile technologies to provide healthcare information on hiv aids to disadvantaged rural populations. (resources) miller, “pedagogy, telecentres & ctcs, and community informatics” empowerment is associated with public participation in the urban planning process (communal agency) a model is proposed to facilitate participation (translation of interests) (agency–translation of interests relation) nielsen, “how to make friends? characteristics of existing communities that influence the role of social network sites in intra-community cohesion”. community empowerment is associated with the formation of a relation between offline and online modes of communication among community members (resources) cohesion within offline communities with a loose organisational structure, a sufficient number of weak ties and key members that actively promote the use of the sns was found to occur (legitimacy + agency) (resources – legitimacy – agency relation) o’mara, “empowering multicultural australian communities through the use of information technology to communicate messages of health and community wellbeing” the empowerment of new and emerging communities is associated with the provision of ict (resources) ict are associated with the provision of information related to health and well-being (individual agency) the origins and relevance of the information resources provided is problematized (legitimacy) (resources – agency – legitimacy relation) petric &petrovcic, “the structural and administrative factors of social cohesion, trust and participation in online communities” the relation between social aggregates and online communities is discussed. (legitimacy) social cohesion, trust and participation are found to be key variables (translations of interest) group dynamics are found to be influential in determining key variables (agency) (legitimacy – translations of interest – agency relation) pscheidt, “community aspects in the case of the aris in mozambique” empowerment of public educational institutions is associated with the deployment of an academic registry information system (resources) empowerment of institutions and institutional users is envisaged (institutional agency, user-community agency) (technical resources – agency relation) raffl, “stakeholder integration in open source development” empowerment is associated with communal participation in open-source software development (communal agency) communal participation is problematized (translation of interests) (agency – translation of interests relation) saad-sulonen & horelli, “ci-assisted participatory planning as a perspective to ict-mediated participation: a case-study in helsinki” empowerment is associated with public participation in the urban planning process (communal agency) a model is proposed to facilitate participation among diverse interests (translation of interests) (resources agency–translation of interests relation) sabiescu, “collaborative digital storytelling as an intergenerational hub in the process of cultural self-representation in traditional communities” empowerment is associated with the provision of digital story telling facilities (resources) digital story telling is associated with bridging boundaries between generations (translations of interest) (resources – translation of interest relation) selaimen, “the são paulo community telecenters project lessons for leveraging digital inclusion in brazil”. empowerment is associated with the provision of information and culture through telecentres (resources) informal education is associated with the provision of information and culture (agency + legitimacy) political participation is associated with the provision of telecentres (collective agency) (individual agency – resources relation) + (collective agency – legitimacy relation) toland, “exploring the relationship between regional culture and information and communication technologies: an historical reflection" empowerment is approached through examining the relationship between soft (social) networks and hard (ict) networks, with particular reference to the recursion of agency, structure and power. (circulations through all dimensions – translations of interest relation) trere, “the relations between the italian onda student movement and icts” the empowerment of a community organization through the deployment of ict is to be investigated. (resources – communal agency relation) wei, “labour cultural and art festival as an alternative media: organizing by migrant workers for communication rights in pi village, china” empowerment is associated with enabling chinese migrant workers to express particular community culture independent from mainstream culture (collective agency) (collective agency – legitimacy – structure relation) williamson, “the disintermediation of politics through social media” empowerment is associated with the use of sns for public participation in uk politics. (collective agency) governmental legitimacy is associated with political participation (legitimacy) (agency –legitimacy relation) wilson & martin, “co-producing telecare with the community: lessons from an italian case study (the oldes project)” empowerment is associated with the provision of an ict system for the use of older people (resources) empowerment is associated with the participation of older people in the design process (collective agency) (resources – agency – legitimacy relation) wolske, “citizen professional toolkits: empowering communities through mass amateurization” empowerment is associated with community centre social interaction (collective agency) a strategy is suggested to resource this interaction through mass amateurization (resources [technical infrastructure] – collective agency – legitimacy relation) references arnold, m. (2007). 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"community informatics and information systems: how can they be better connected?" the information society 25(4): 1-10. stillman, l., t. denision and g. johanson (2009). prato community cirn conference 2009: empowering communities: learning from community informatics practice. conference cd. monash centre, prato, italy, centre for community informatics research. tönnies, ferdinand (1935) gemeinschaft und gesellschaft, leipzig: fues’s verlag, 2nd ed. 1912, 8th edition, leipzig: buske, 1935 (reprint 2005, darmstadt: wissenschaftliche buchgesellschaft) translated in 1957 as “community and society.”. introduction 132.pages the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 editorial introduction: cirn prato conference 2016 special issue introduction this special issue features a selection of papers from the 13th prato community informatics research network (cirn) conference, 2-4 november 2016 at the monash centre in prato, italy. the conference was organized by the center for community networking research of monash university, australia. the conference theme was “engaging with participation, activism, and technologies.” the papers in this issue highlight the conference’s overarching theme, which focused on advancing theory and practice in the development of participatory action research (par) with a particular focus on helping to ensure that marginalized groups have a strong voice in their communities in the face of structural and cultural challenges. in doing so, the conference sought to help promote “a stronger focus on more meaningful !4 colin rhinesmith school of library and information science, simmons college, united states crhinesmith@simmons.edu david nemer university of kentucky, united states david.nemer@uky.edu christiana urbano independent christiana.urbano@simmons.edu rhinesmith, c., nemer, d., urbano, c. (2017). introduction: cirn prato conference 2016 special issue.. the journal of community informatics, 13(2), 4—7. date submitted: 2017-08-20. date accepted: 2017-08-25. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1413 . http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1413 mailto:crhinesmith@simmons.edu mailto:david.nemer@uky.edu mailto:christiana.urbano@simmons.edu http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1413 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 and equal partnerships with community, civil society, and ngo organisations around the world.” 1 the papers chosen for this issue are representative of more traditional community informatics (ci) and development informatics (di) approaches, whereas the other papers presented at the conference featured perspectives from community archiving (ca). the intersection of these three areas at the conference together, however, made for a rich set of panels and discussions. three peer-reviewed articles and one “notes from the field” paper, which was not peer-reviewed but received extensive feedback from the editors, were selected out of several articles that were considered for the special issue. the final four articles chosen for this issue feature what we believe to be representative of the breadth and depth of ci and di perspectives featured at cirn conferences over the years. our special issue begins with one of the conference keynote speeches, which was delivered by meghna guhathakurta of research initiatives, bangladesh, who is an internationally recognised expert in par. bangladesh has a long history of par, as part of its struggle for liberation and equality, going back to the earliest days of this methodology. in her keynote, guhathakurta provides key insights into the history of participatory movements in bangladesh, including the role of par in promoting selfconfidence to help ensure that “political processes remain people-centric” and to make sure that “our technologies allow for the creative criticality of thinking that movements like these may need” (guhathakurta, this special issue). research papers in the first peer-reviewed article, titled “critical incidents analysis: mismatching expectations and reconciling visions in intercultural encounters,” authors sara vannini, david nemer, ammar halabi, amalia sabiescu, and salomao david celebrate the inspiring work developed by paolo brunello, a colleague and a friend, and apply the critical incidents analysis (cia) framework in their own different fieldworks. the cia framework "is primarily designed as a tool for detecting critical incidentsmismatches of expectations among projects’ stakeholders, while they are happening – so as to approach them in a reflexive way and resist the first reaction that leads the researcher to frustration, blaming, subjectifying, resistance, submission, or to attributing the causes of incident to others" (vannini et al., this special issue). in this article, the authors expand the cia approach by applying it a posterioriafter fieldwork is over, after an incident has happened, which enabled them to reflect on mismatched expectations to better understand incidents and critical moments, and report their work more richly, potentially enabling deeper reflection and transfer of experiences to future projects. halabi reflects on his work with voci (an acronym for voluntary community), a local learning community of (mostly) student volunteers in damascus, syria, and nemer brings his research in the favelas, urban slums in brazil, where he looks at the appropriation of information communication technologies (icts) by favela residents. https://cirn.wikispaces.com/conference+2016 1 !5 https://cirn.wikispaces.com/conference+2016 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 in the next article, titled “communitysensor: towards a participatory community network mapping methodology,” aldo de moor elaborates on his work developing “communitysensor,” which he describes as a “participatory community network mapping methodology.” the approach involves two mapping cycles, which include a community network development cycle and the community network sensemaking cycle. these two cycles together highlight the participatory approach embodied in the conference theme, as well as elaborate on the usefulness of the methodology in using mapping and visualization to make sense within and across communities. the article presents four observations on the ways in which the methodology allows for further exploration of communal sense making activities, including “linking maps across communities; meta-communication matters; tweaking the typologies; and sharing community network patterns.” the author describes the benefits and future potential of this approach for ci by stating the methodology’s contribution to building a larger commons is “essential in overcoming fragmentation and increasing collective impact” (de moor, this special issue). in the last of the three peer-reviewed articles, titled “a sustainability framework for mobile technology integration in schools: the case of resource-constrained environments in south africa,” the authors present a participatory framework indicating how feedback from teachers and district officials was used to inform the development of a sustainability framework for mobile technology integration in schools. after reviewing the literature, the authors developed the following research question, “how does the feedback from teachers and district officials inform the development of a literature-based sustainability framework for mobile technology integration in schools in resource-constrained areas of south africa?” using design science research methodology, the authors found that teachers and district officials confirmed findings from previous studies, as well as showed that institutional challenges presented significant barriers from the policies, procedures, and practices on macro, meso, and micro levels. in addition, the authors highlighted, “financial and technical support mechanisms required for the sustainable deployment of icts” (mabila, van biljon, herselman, this special issue). notes from the field in this special issue's notes from the field, francesco botto and maurizio teli present the pie (poverty, lack of income, and unemployment) news project, which "foresees the adoption of information technologies as a way to help people facing their economic problems" (botto & teli, this special issue). the project's goal is to promote the commonfare, a new collaborative form of welfare provision based on equitable governance and grassroots democracy, as a collaborative economic model, connecting the new poor and relevant stakeholders like public administrations, advocacy organizations, and ethical financing organizations. the authors describe the technologies and methodologies adopted in order to involve the new poor in participatory methods and establish the commonfare, as well as, early results of three on going pilots in three different countries: italy, croatia, and the netherlands. !6 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 summary the keynote, journal articles, and notes from the field in this special issue provide a rich snapshot of the depth and breadth of ci and di perspectives featured during the cirn prato conferences. together with the community archiving (ca) presentations at the conference, these contributions represent a unique intersection of some of the key interests and areas of concerns helping to shape and expand the boundaries of the field. the work in this issue provides an opportunity to consider both the richness of the cirn prato conference presentations as well as the progression and further development of the field of community informatics. !7 <div id="article"> <h2 id="article_title"> narrating aboriginality on-line: digital storytelling, identity and healing </h2> <div id="article_author"> naomi adelson &amp; michelle olding </div> <h3 class="article_subhead"> introduction </h3> <p> in <em>taking back our spirits</em> , jo-ann episkenew (2009) writes of the significance of indigenous literature as a "medicine" in healing the wounds of "colonial contagion." this healing process, according to episkenew, is articulated through the spoken and written words of aboriginal writers. these counter-narratives challenge what she terms the master narrative of the settler: the national myth of canada which "valorizes settlers but which sometimes misrepresents, and more often excludes indigenous peoples" (episkenew, 2009: 2). here we examine the value of digital story-telling as a similar kind of "medicine" that, as counter-narrative, communicates both suffering and healing as much in their telling as in their production, distribution and consumption. health information and communication technologies are without doubt transforming the healthcare and social landscapes of many aboriginal communities today (beaton, o'donnell, fiser, walmark, 2009). yet as much as e-health technologies are valuable and empowering (gideon, 2006) there is an interventionist model ascribed to them and with it a presumption that the technology is predominantly for data transmission rather than as a resource unto itself. further, the experience of aboriginal communities, and especially those that are marginalized, is that there is the potential for health innovation to be viewed less as an advancement in health care provision than as another form of encroachment of settler technologies and surveillance. </p> <p> here we offer an alternative perspective on digital technologies as creatively engaged tools of healing and empowerment in ways that effectively challenge issues of encroachment while at the same time going beyond standard configurations of medical innovation. with examples drawn from on-line sites including <em>my word: storytelling and digital media labs</em> , <em>the toronto centre for digital storytelling</em> (tcds), <em>reel youth</em> and <em>youth have the power</em> we explore the internet, in particular, as simultaneously social space and therapeutic tool <sup>i</sup>. indigenous youth are participating in health-related initiatives including the creative representation of aboriginality through online stories, amateur video production and various forms of file-sharing and communication. these digital projects are not just acts of storytelling or social interaction; they are part of a larger complex of contemporary healing initiatives that must be viewed within expanded conceptualizations of health and health innovation (adelson, 2000). health innovation, in this sense, must extend to include the use of information communication technologies as tools to strengthen communities of support and facilitate social engagement with health issues. we include in that engagement studies such as this which seek to offer additional space to broaden the dialogue on the relationship between digital technologies and health. </p><em>note on terminology</em> : <em>aboriginality</em> and <em>digital storytelling</em> <p> while we will use <em>aboriginality</em> to describe online constructions of "being aboriginal," we recognize the limitations of the category in that not all first nations, inuit or m&eacute;tis people in canada use the term or feel that it addresses the diversity within or between indigenous nations. what is shared in the term aboriginal are the histories and experiences of colonialism and the inextricable link to histories of colonization and de-colonization in relation to the nation-state. aboriginality attempts to capture the plurality of local and global identities that, while fluid, occur in relation to social, economic and political structures of the nation-state. aboriginality is, in other words, "for indigenous populations everywhere. . . a claim to distinctiveness based on the assertion of original occupancy, of land rights and the concomitant spurring of colonial influences . . . [it] is the negotiation of political, cultural and social space of aboriginal peoples" (adelson, 2001: 80). aboriginality is thus less a category as it is a political and cultural process (see also niezen 2003)<sup>ii</sup>. <em>digital stories</em> refers to a specific form of workshop-based storytelling practice that emerged first in california (through the centre for digital storytelling) in the mid-1990s, but which only attained significant global presence in the early 2000s (hartley &amp; mcwilliam, 2009). digital storytelling projects exist worldwide, although the movement is particularly popular in north america, europe and australasia (mcwilliam, 2009). digital shorts are often produced in schools as a pedagogical tool although community centres are another popular site for digital storytelling projects. digital storytelling focuses on everyday stories told by ordinary people; the accounts are short and autobiographical, combining oral storytelling with images and music to create an aesthetic product and meaningful, often sentimental, narrative. in a review of 300 digital storytelling projects across the world, mcwilliam (2009) identifies three common themes which frame community digital storytelling: historical, aspirational and recuperative. at least in the indigenous digital storytelling context, it is nearly impossible to divide digital shorts by these criteria; they are simultaneously historical (authorizing histories of colonization historically silenced by the state), aspirational (providing powerful tools for self-assertion to often marginalized communities) and recuperative (engaged in a process of decolonization and strategies for well-being). </p><em>therapeutic possibilities of narrative sharing</em> <p> narrative sharing through digital storytelling is for many of its indigenous producers and users a powerful and explicit means of engaging in a process of decolonization. the digital stories examined here, for example, present counter-narratives to the canadian settler state in order to make visible and audible otherwise segmented and silenced experiences of the protracted effects of colonization. furthermore these digital stories actively highlight and build upon cultural identities and cultural practices as tools in fostering mental and sexual health. our argument for the therapeutic possibilities of digital storytelling goes beyond what maggie brady refers to as the "culture as cure" explanation (brady, 1995: 1488). while the content within these digital stories themselves provide compelling cases for the importance of traditional practices, dress and language for many aboriginal people, it would be simplistic to limit the healing potential of these narrative strategies only to a matter of cultural assertion. by overemphasizing a decontextualized notion of culture, one risks romanticizing and essentializing indigenous identities while at the same time potentially undervaluing the therapeutic benefits of digital story-telling. digital storytelling in itself can be a positive exercise, especially for youth in remote communities facing social and economic marginalization and for those who may not normally have the space, audience or tools to exercise creative agency. digital technologies are also in and of themselves social and cultural entities that allow youth to participate meaningfully in local and global dialogues. </p> <p> as valuable as digital storytelling may be there are, to be sure, significant structural limits to its development or expansion. many individuals and communities, for example, simply do not have the resources to participate in this form of digital dialogue either because of financial constraints or limited infrastructure or capacity. furthermore, the internet may represent yet another space of colonialism. as empowering as producing a digital short may be, uploading it to youtube may have a profoundly negative effect, especially if one's project is viewed by internet users with racist or intolerant attitudes towards aboriginal peoples. </p><em>transformative power of digital technologies</em> <p> the terms "digital storytelling" and "digital narrative" could encompass a seemingly limitless number of genres and forms in the online world. an ethnography of narrative sharing online could include the blogosphere, simulated online worlds, news websites, online magazines, twitter, or facebook, to name a few. such a survey of narrative sharing is well beyond the scope of this article and is steadily becoming a field of research in itself amongst literary theorists, communications theorists, sociologists, and anthropologists. an ethnography of digital storytelling would further require the researcher to be what walstram (2004) describes as a "participant-experiencer" in the production of these digital stories, involved in the group work, creative planning, filming, editing and local screenings. this project is limited to a textual and visual analysis of select digital stories as a way to identify key themes in the videos and provide a foundation for future research into digital storytelling production by aboriginal youth. the digital stories examined here were found through internet searches on google and youtube with search words such as "digital storytelling," "aboriginal," "first nations," "inuit," and "youth." here we focus on a specific form of digital stories that has proliferated in the past few years. these digital stories are small in scale and short, typically lasting only a few minutes and are often created by amateur users with relatively affordable equipment. the short videos are playful in form, sometimes jumping from testimony-style segments to street interviews to scripted performances. the stories tend to be autobiographical in form, focusing on the life experiences of a particular person or community (cf. lundy, 2008) and they are multi-modal in that they layer various levels of audio and visual signifiers to create a particular aesthetic and symbolic meaning: elders may drum to the background of an oral story, while black and white pictures of residential schools may flash across the screen. </p> <p> digital short stories are a new method of narrative sharing which holds significant transformative power. as erstad and wertsch write: "when a new tool, a new medium, is introduced into the flow of action, it does not simply facilitate or make an existing form of action more efficient. the emphasis is on how it transforms the form of action, on the qualitative transformative, as opposed to facilitative, role of cultural tools" (2008: 27). digital technologies are themselves reshaping the social institutions and practices surrounding storytelling, including the power relations that govern who can speak, what they can say, and how they can say it. even using the word "say" to describe storytelling is in a sense misleading considering the communicative transformations presented by digital storytelling. digital storytelling, with its multimodal structure, demands a narrative analysis that moves beyond texts and language, and considers the semiotic function of images, sound, and performance. as such, we attempt to grasp the effect of digital technologies on the social act of narrative at the local level (i.e. within particular aboriginal communities), and at the larger global level (i.e. how communities and individuals interact trans-regionally and trans-nationally in constructing narratives). further, we explore how digital storytelling crafts new modes of communicating authenticity and truths, methods that increasingly rely on image-based testimony. however, this division between local and global is problematic considering how the internet brings with it transformations of cultural conceptions of space, time, and belonging and in that process, transforming too how people make sense of the global and the local, home and away, the public and the private. </p> <p> in many cases, the internet is not the sole or even primary means through which participants shared their narrative. it is important to note, for example, that while the digital stories examined for this paper were retrieved anonymously through internet search engines, the stories were produced and often distributed within tangible local spaces such as community centres and schools. <em>reel youth</em> , for example, organizes local screenings for digital stories produced in their workshops. these reel youth film festival screenings also promote youth made films from across the country and from partner projects internationally (http://www.reelyouth.ca/ryff.html). similarly, the tcds organizes local screenings for certain projects but also hosts a blog where viewers may watch a select number of videos. many other young filmmakers still decide against distributing their stories through websites and film screenings and prefer to selectively share among friends and family; the stories, after all, may contain deeply personal content that the filmmakers do not want to widely broadcast. that is, while digital stories represent a new form of computer-mediated communication, they exist within the same social world as other non-digital spaces of communication (panel discussions, circle sharing, local film screenings). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> i. digital decolonization: social suffering and narrative strategies for well-being </h3> <p> anthropology, sociology, literary theory and communications studies are all fields in which the concept of narrative has been extensively discussed, though each field differs in its understanding of the concept (not to mention differences within the fields). for our purposes we will keep the definition of narrative as succinct as possible, drawing mostly from existing anthropological literature. theorists have articulated narrative as a key tool in constructing coherent notion of self, culture, and community, in meaningfully situating experience within one's life story, and in decoding or reframing past experiences in a manner that provides direction for future action (garro, 2000; garro &amp; mattingly, 2000; linde, 1993). narrative differs from story in that "narrative" denotes a particular structure or form by which one may communicate the meaning of certain events while story refers to the actual content communicated within that particular narrative form. in other words, narrative is a general structural type, a particular discursive rendering considered meaningful and appropriate within a particular context and through which various stories may be told (frank, 1995). as garro and mattingly (2000: 7) explain, "[n]arrative provides the arena for coming to terms with a problematic experience and making sense, at least provisionally, of what is happening". narrative is a cultural construct in that the structure and appropriate practice of stories is culturally determined. "successful" narrative sharing reflects and reproduces broader cultural norms and power relations that dictate when and what stories are appropriate, who can tell them, and how (ochs &amp; capps, 1996). </p> <p> we all regularly tell stories that we feel best communicate ourselves and similarly experience our lives with reference to socially and personally meaningful stories. narrative is necessarily a relational act that, if performed successfully, implicates its audience in some form of moral action (garro &amp; mattingly, 2000). one performs a story not out of random impulse but with a particular intention such that it is not enough for one to simply recount an event; in telling a story one implicitly suggests that there is a reason <em>why</em> this event is significant. narrative provides the link by tying experiences and events into a coherent notion of who we are within a particular social world. </p> <p> episkenew's (2009) concept of indigenous literature as "medicine" to heal the wounds of "colonial contagion" is relevant here. episkenew refers in particular to narrative as part of a healing process for indigenous individuals and communities. part of the social production of marginality in colonization is the systematic denial of a morally valued identity to a group of people. in canadian residential schools, for example, children were forbidden to speak their own languages, to wear their hair long or to participate in their own spiritual practices. denial of identity was evident too in the way in which the nation-making process not only colonized a territory but re-assigned its meanings through remapping and renaming, effectively erasing other ways of knowing the land. it follows that "healing" from these forms of cultural erasure and silencing demands a social response, including a reaffirmation of aboriginality through narrative means. </p> <p> the suffering that endures long past the original colonizing practices goes beyond those that can be addressed by a narrow biomedical approach of curing individual pathologies. while the biomedical approach of "curing" takes disease as the object, in cases of suffering the more holistic approach of "healing" links individual cases of suffering to larger structures of inequality and asymmetrical power relations. medical anthropologists employ the concept "social suffering" to characterize that which "&hellip;results from what political, economic and institutional power does to people, and reciprocally, from how these forms of power themselves influence responses to social problems" (das, kleinman, and lock, 1997: ix). it is not that a group of people are "sick," but that the social and political systems which to a great extent determine one's ability to "be healthy" are themselves "pathological." indigenous literature, argues episkenew, can heal the pain of colonization by asserting the competency and experiences of indigenous peoples as well as by awakening the larger settler populations to the sometimes explicit, sometimes subtle, structural forms of violence committed against indigenous peoples. </p> <p> digital stories are one way in which aboriginal people and communities are engaging in this process of narrative decolonization and representation (perley 2009). we use the word decolonization in a dynamic sense to convey a process of transforming communities and individuals impacted by the enduring legacy of colonial policies, institutions and practices. decolonization implies a fundamental social and political transformation in indigenous approaches towards still-present policies and attitudes but does not presume canada to yet be a "post-colonial" state. digital stories are both aesthetic expressions and a form of resistance through a new narrative genre. one may consider digital stories as what nancy fraser (1992) terms a "subaltern counter-public," an alternative discursive space in which marginalized groups may reinterpret and re-imagine identity and community against exclusion from other powerful legal, political or scientific discourses. subaltern counter-publics are a "parallel public arena where oppressed minority groups invent and circulate counter-discourses to formulate oppositional interpretations of their identities, interests, and needs" (fraser, 1992: 123). many of the emerging digital stories explicitly state their intention to rewrite and bear witness to memories that fit uncomfortably with or are explicitly rejected from the master narrative of settler nation states. one example is a digital short produced through the not-for-profit media group <em>reel youth</em> . titled "residential truth: unified future," (http://reelyouth.ca/residentialtruth.html) the digital short was created with funding from the british columbia art council (canada) and was a collaboration between reel youth mentors and five youth from a canadian cree nation. the digital short concerns the legacy of abuse in canadian residential schools, focussing in particular on the intergenerational effect of psychological, physical, sexual and spiritual abuses. the short narrative combines black and white photos from residential schools, statistics, oral history and testimony from lulu, a woman who actually attended the marieval, saskatchewan roman catholic residential school with the narratives of cree young adults. one youth, courtenay, reflects on her education in high school to illustrate the erasure of residential violence in the construction of canadian history: </p> <blockquote> that's, you know, one of the things that people don't know is about residential schools and how we're still trying to heal from that [. . .]when i was in high school, the only thing we learnt about residential schools, that was taught, was one page in the social studies history textbook. there was no mention of any of the sexual abuse that went on, or the physical abuse, or even the psychological abuse. and, and, the teachers didn't mention it either, and there's no talk about just the cultural and spiritual murder that went on in those schools (courtenay, in "residential truth: unified future", http://reelyouth.ca/residentialtruth.html). </blockquote> <p> in this inter-generational narrative of residential school, silence is a common thread, a uniting metaphor that connects the younger participants' feelings of "low confidence" and "constant oppression" with violence committed within residential schools. against the metaphor of silence, the power of being able to "speak" takes on particular and profound importance. lulu's daughter, bacilia, tearfully expresses her frustration that she must communicate in a language forced upon her mother in residential school: "i want an apology from the catholic church, you know, they get to speak english, and i have to say that's my first language, and it's not cree is my first language." "speaking out," and "telling my story" holds central importance in the account-an act that is specifically identified by lulu as an essential part of the healing process. although she directs the majority of her storytelling to an unknown audience-she seems to be speaking directly to the viewer yet is clearly responding to the prompts of an interviewer-lulu breaks from this style of narration at one point to directly address the interviewer: "i'm thankful that i'm still here to tell you this story, because it has to be known. it has to be known out there. people don't know. and it's time." in acknowledging her intentions, lulu shifts the viewer from someone hearing the story to someone who must actively engage themselves in the learning/listening/telling process. this may have been an editorial choice to make viewers aware that they are participating in an important story that must be re-told as part of lulu's healing process. these digital shorts are self-consciously spaces of truth-telling that invite their audience to continue in the social process of narrative healing. in this way, digital stories are a new "counter-public" where suffering can be communicated and where individuals and communities can, through narrative, heal. </p> <p> narrative approaches to healing are not unique to online digital shorts. it is important to note that the digital short emerges in canada during a period in which truth-telling and testimony are key aboriginal healing strategies. one significant project is the truth and reconciliation commission (trc) which was established by the 2006 indian residential school settlement as a means for residential school survivors to share and witness residential school experiences in a public forum (irsrc 2006). the trc is not judicial; its purpose is not to find fault or retribution. rather the focus of the trc is on reconciliation, specifically focusing on building new relationships through a process of narrative sharing. similar to the digital stories, the trc holds that communication of experience within a public venue is an essential part of healing. the trc seeks to provide safe and culturally appropriate settings for this healing and proceeds from the understanding that "the truth of our common experiences will help set our spirits free and pave the way to reconciliation" (truth and reconciliation commission of canada, 2006: 1). as bacilia's sentiments suggest, reel youth participants differ from those testifying at the trc with regard to finding fault and retribution. they nevertheless share a common understanding that narrative sharing about suffering is in itself a healing act. </p><em>identity and the framing of sexual and mental health &amp; well-being</em> <p> another therapeutic possibility of digital storytelling stems from the ways in which youth creatively use these technologies to address mental and sexual health in their communities. digital shorts are projects that may open dialogue within communities on strategies for well-being, while also allowing youth to communicate their concerns and strategies to a broader audience. digital stories are not merely creative products with benefits for those who consume them; the process of creating digital stories is in itself an innovative approach to tackling often tabooed social problems such as sexually transmitted infections (stis), depression, or drug addiction. furthermore, digital storytelling provides participants the opportunity to frame sexual and mental health in a manner that promotes aboriginal community and identity as a source of strength in addressing social issues. a powerful example of this kind of strategy comes from <em>chee mamuk</em> , a provincial aboriginal-focused program at the british columbia centre for disease control, which has developed a webpage dedicated to sexual health promotion amongst bc first nations youth. the <em>youth have the power</em> webpage includes a "star in your own series" campaign which promotes the active use of digital technologies to enhance and enliven positive health messages. here we have selected one of those videos, entitled "by my name", which was created in partnership with the nak'azdli first nation, a member of the carrier sekani tribal council (http://campaigns.hellocoolworld.com/index.cfm?campaign_id=2). "by my name" is a performance-driven digital short filmed by nak'azdli youth which explicitly links cultural identity and community strength to sexual health strategies. in "by my name," the young adults play on the term carrier to describe how they see culturally strong communities as healthy communities. alicia, one of the participants, explains what the word carrier means to her: </p> <blockquote> when we didn't know any culture but our own, we would cremate our dead and carry them with us for an entire year or longer before we laid them to rest. we were given the name carrier when other people witnessed this, and we've held it ever since. we carry the knowledge ( <em>youth have the power</em> ). </blockquote> <p> "we are carrier people." "proud of who we are." "we carry the knowledge." as we hear the voiceover that immediately follows alicia's words, the screen image is of one of the nak'azdli youth passing a basket of condoms from one to another and another. the image conveys the message that carrier people are not only "carriers" of their dead ancestors; they are also carriers of other kinds of knowledge, including new knowledge about preventing hiv and supporting those infected with the virus. linking identity, empowerment and sexual health, carrier identity is framed as a tool in maintaining and supporting the well-being of communities and individuals. </p> <p> hiv prevention is framed not only within the language of empowerment but also as part of the larger project of decolonization. as one participant says, "to decolonize, we can do small things like help a neighbour, help a friend, do positive things. we support our people with hiv." while the message in "by my name", as in other digital shorts, stresses the importance of tradition enlivened through specific cultural practices such as drumming, they are employing innovative technologies to build upon these conceptualized communities of strength and support. this kind of access to powerful tools of communication and the ability to speak and strategize about social problems in a safe and respectful environment is a goal that can benefit indigenous and non-indigenous communities alike. digital stories, in other words, are projects that open up possibilities for new communities of engagement and support. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> ii. authenticity and subjectivity: mediatized processes of truth-telling </h3> <p> while the importance of "truth-telling" through narrative is by no means a new concept, the processes governing how to determine authentic stories and subjectivities change with changing technologies, institutions, and paradigms. in this section we examine shifts in how one effectively communicates authenticity and truth given the proliferation of digital technologies and their electronic distribution. in exploring authenticity, we do not mean to use the term in a way that denotes an essential or inherent quality typifying a person or community. rather, we approach authenticity as a fluid process by which people and communities construct and articulate subjectivities. as noted earlier, truth-telling and authentic stories are valued highly in digital stories as key to how one communicates experience, suffering and healing. however, in a digitized social world, where images and sound can be manipulated to communicate even the most fabricated events, what processes and tools effectively express a "true" experience? </p> <p> in order to address ways in which digital technologies are used in the process of communicating experience as true and significant, we draw upon two collections of digital narratives. the first collection comes from <em>reel youth</em> who this time collaborated with beatboard<sup>iii</sup> and the inuvik youth centre to produce a series of digital shorts featuring youth from inuvik (http://reelyouth.ca/inuvik2.html). the majority of these digital shorts focus on individual youth as they discuss everyday activities, ambitions, and participation in community events and practices. although all the videos emerge from a collaborative process with program leaders and groups of participants, they generally feature one person at a time as both the subject and object of storytelling. </p> <p> the second collection of digital narratives were produced as part of a community-based research project titled <em>changing climate, changing health, changing stories</em> that sought to understand the impact of climate change on local health and well-being. the project was led by the rigolet inuit community government in nunatsiavut in partnership with university of guelph co-directors ashlee cunsol willox and sherilee harper<sup>iv</sup>. the series is titled "rigolettimiugvunga" ( <em>trans.</em> "i am from rigolet") and features stories connected through concerns about climate change and its potential impacts on cultural practices and autonomy. online text from the tcds website introduces the stories as place-based narratives that document changing identity, land, health, and well-being: </p> <blockquote> this digital story collection was created in 2009-2010 as a part of a community-driven storytelling project led by the rigolet inuit community government in nunatsiavut. in the project, community members used digital media to create place-based narratives, documenting the impacts of climate change on human health and well-being, and sharing adaptation strategies. individually, these stories represent poignant personal narratives and observations; collectively, they weave together a rich tapestry of experiences and wisdom that attempt to redefine the borders between science and stories, humans and landscapes. through our many voices, we invite the viewer on a personal journey through the terrain of northern labrador, guided by the stories of inuit residents from rigolet. welcome to our world. (http://storycentre.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/rigolettimiugvunga/, accessed 21 november, 2011) </blockquote> <p> the videos created through this project are not specifically youth-focused but draw on the oral histories and wisdom of many community members, including elders. however, the project shares with other youth-focused projects the use of digital storytelling as a tool for identifying, understanding and adapting to changing community needs and was for this reason included here. the project has since flourished and has transformed into the community-run <em>my word: storytelling and digital media lab</em> which continues to offer workshops in computer programs, photography and audio-recording. in addition to archiving community knowledge and oral histories, the lab plays an innovative role in communicating information about ongoing health research projects. further, while the digital stories from these collections were made by elders, we find that they nonetheless exemplify techniques in digital storytelling which appear as well in youth-focused projects. </p> <p> in digital stories, establishing authenticity relies on presenting visual evidence of one's experiences. whether through text or video imagery created by digital storytellers themselves, digital shorts draw upon specific themes and creative imagery to communicate distinctive subjectivities and experiences. this visual evidence need not always be literal to accomplish its task. rather, digital storytellers frequently use images metaphorically to demonstrate the veracity of an event or emotion. the multimodality of these digital shorts-their ability to combine various audio, image, video and textual components in the narrative process-calls for a rethinking of practices of authorship with regard to narration and subjectivity. </p><em>images and establishing a "voice"</em> <p> in their introduction to <em>remaking a world</em> , a collection of essays on responses to social suffering, das and kleinman (2000:5) ask: "how does the availability of a genre mold the articulation of sufferings-assign a subject position as a place from which suffering may be voiced?". their question is useful in considering how digital technologies and their distribution via the internet create new genre types and how these new genre types produce new methods of presenting subjectivities, voice, and experience. genre necessarily shapes the meaning and the possibilities of speech. these speech genres provide the framework to a social network of people on how to interpret and make meaning out of a given text (morris, 1997). in the case of digital storytelling, the communicative success between teller and audience depends on shared values as the personal story is communicating a particular truth about larger experiences. the mantra of "everyone has a story" that underlies the production of these kinds of videos more generally implies that an individual's witnessing or testimony holds social and cultural significance in communicating larger realities. further, digital storytelling reflects the increasing importance of video imaging more generally in establishing authenticity in suffering. </p> <p> digital storytelling as a narrative form relies heavily on combinations of various media in communicating subjectivity. oral accounts alone are rarely sufficient. even when the narrator is not visibly present, digital stories such as those from the rigolettimiugvunga collection display a map to geographically situate the narrator and to locate their subjectivity in time as well as in space. the events and people described in a narrator's testimony establish credibility through streams of images: a black and white photo, for example, authorizes a narrator's relationship to the past, to family members, to a residential school, to a community. </p> <p> paradoxically, while digital stories are concerned with capturing the voice of its narrator, they rely heavily on images to substantiate that authentic voice. in one of the rigolettimiugvunga digital stories, titled "letting go of my homeland," (http://vimeo.com/9719700) a woman named bertha recounts her community's removal in 1959 from the inuit village of hebron, labrador and the traumatic forced splitting of families through this imposed relocation. she begins by introducing herself as a seven-year old girl at the time of the announcement of the displacement as we see a washed-out early colour image of eight children appearing to play in front of what is either a school or church building. while it is not explicitly stated, the picture serves to authorize bertha's claims to a childhood in hebron; the cheerful faces of the children referencing a happy and healthy community (see fig. 1). as she describes the meetings preceding the community's relocation, images of a church and then members of the community participating in church services flash on the screen establishing the church as a central part of life in hebron (see fig. 2). to indicate a passage in time, the digital short employs a black screen separating preand postrelocation. images (as well as their strategic removal), however figuratively they align with the oral account in digital stories, offer cues on how to interpret the text. certain images, such as that of children playing to indicate innocence, have strong communicative power in establishing the mood of a narrative. while these images have no fixed meaning (certainly an image of a church congregation will invoke a diverse number of feelings in different viewers depending on their experiences with organized religion), certain interpretations gain influential semiotic meaning within specific contexts. a successful storyteller in the context of digital storytelling must draw on not only the right words to invoke sentiments but also the right images. </p> <p> <img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3167/version/2149/4136/16808/figure1.jpg" class="article_image" width="580" height="382" alt="children in hebron"> </p> <div class="image_caption"> figure 1: photograph of children in hebron from "letting go of my homeland" (<a href= "http://vimeo.com/9719700">http://vimeo.com/9719700</a>) </div><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3167/version/2149/4136/16809/figure2.jpg" class="article_image" width= "580" height="385" alt="church in hebron"> <div class="image_caption"> figure 2. photograph of church in hebron from "letting go of my homeland" (<a href= "http://vimeo.com/9719700">http://vimeo.com/9719700</a>) </div><br> <em>multimodal narratives and authenticity</em> <p> digital stories are spaces where users/creators contest and contradict, where one can witness and evoke the tensions of identity. the multimodality of these digital shorts structures them as self-conscious spaces for experimentation in communicating subjectivity and authenticity. authenticity is necessarily dynamic as multiple voices and images enter the narrative and alter its landscape. the playfulness and often autobiographical form keeps the viewer aware that these narratives are a dynamic process of identity construction, not a fixed authentic moment. in reel youth's "living off the land," for example, burton discusses what for him constitutes inuit culture and why it is important (see fig. 3; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiifd6x1dmc). </p> <blockquote> my name is burton k-----, i live in inuvik, and i really like my culture because it's how my mom grew up and what she went through to get where she is now . . . something like this is what my mom lived on [pans out to show river and tundra]. she lived on the land. so this is kind of how my mom lived. it's the big river. so that's one of the reasons why i love my culture [runs to pick up stick]. because you learn how to hunt, and you learn how to live on your own, like. like, back then in those days there was no grocery store that you could just go to buy what you need. you needed to hunt for what you need to survive. and i just think that if life was still like that, it would be much easier. </blockquote><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3167/version/2149/4136/16810/figure3.jpg" class="article_image" width="580" height="495" alt="still of burton"> <div class="image_caption"> figure 3. still of burton from "living on the land." (<a href= "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiifd6x1dmc&amp;amp;feature=player_embedded">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiifd6x1dmc&amp;amp;feature=player_embedded</a>) </div> <p> for burton, inuit cultural identity is attached to notions of the land and hunting for sustenance. he articulates these practices as a source of strength in well-being, citing his mother as an example. his reflections gesture at this conception of inuit culture as a way of being that no longer exists in such a form. furthermore, he privileges this way of life as a more ideal form of existence compared to today. yet, in the second half of the digital short, burton seems to alter his opinion about living off the land: </p> <blockquote> when i think about it, like how my mom grew up, i just think: how can so many people just live on the land? like, survive on their own. it's like, living in igloos and all those sort of stuff. i just can't imagine doing that. no grocery store, no place to shop for clothes, you have to make your own clothes. you have to watch over yourself. living out on the land, i think, would be the most hardest thing to do in life. </blockquote> <p> while he feels connected to the conception of "being inuit" represented by his mother (defined through living off the land and hunting), burton's account demands a rethinking of this subjectivity. he has never lived and experienced a social environment in which food wasn't accessible at a grocery store or in which he had to hunt for his own food to survive or live only an igloo. the point is all the more evident when considering the medium through which he communicates these sentiments. that he can record and transmit this message from a remote northern community to the rest of the world is new and seemingly incompatible with a notion of inuit life that stresses living off the land. yet consistency is not crucial for the digital story as a genre or for transmitting authenticity; the focus is on capturing a voice within a certain moment, not in finding a definitive description of inuit or aboriginal identity. in many ways this focus is a refreshing change from the genres of documentary and older forms of ethnography which aimed to capture an ostensibly objective reality of a culture or community. digital stories resist such totalizing claims as their focus on capturing voice(s), as fleeting and inconsistent as they may be in any moment. digital storytelling is fluid, reminding its audience that there are multiple and sometimes competing ways to represent one's truth and one's reality. </p><em>authorship reworked</em> <p> digital storytelling, as a new genre and medium, necessarily brings with it a rethinking of authorship. in the digital short titled "residential truth: unified future," (http://www.reelyouth.ca/residentialtruth.html), for example, amber tells an anishinaabe story originally crafted by earth elder, and originally retold by earth elder's grandson, alexander wolfe. the narrative predicts the confusion and identity loss that would come with the arrival of a foreign culture. what makes the narrative remarkable is that its retelling through digital stories represents a reworking and re-conceptualization of the ways one constructs narrative and with that, authorship. the digital medium serves as not only a conduit for what is an oral story belonging to the wolf clan. rather, it effectively reshapes the social practice of storytelling itself: the story gains a new meaning and form when worked into a digital story and in relation to canada's history of residential schooling. conventional norms of authorship and ownership of stories is reconsidered in a digital context; the speaker is a youth, not an elder, with the original storyteller referenced through text rather than spoken word. as well, the audience and the narrator are separated across time and space. as such, the anonymous audience may have no other context for the story's significance other than that provided within the digital story, which in this case is a prelude to explaining the pain and suffering caused by the residential schooling system. this digital context may be the only connection between the narrator and viewer. whereas in oral traditions a shared social event may prompt the retelling of a story and the retelling may confirm or further establish a relationship between narrator and listener, the story's retelling within digital space is removed from any such direct social interaction. the transmission of the story takes on a new form however through, for example, links to websites or social networking sites. authorship of the story becomes more diffused and plastic in the digital context. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> conclusion </h3> <p> if icts are, as o'donnell and henriksen(2002: 92) write, "what they are in relation to our use of them, their relation to one another and in relation to the particular situation or context in which they are used", then we begin to understand both the power and limitations of technologies in use. e-health and health information and communications technologies more generally are without doubt transforming modalities and effective management of health care to remote and underserviced indigenous communities where these services are available and sustainable. if e-health technologies are too quickly defined however solely through the delivery of health services, this limits the transformative potential to which o'donnell and henriksen are alluding. we suggest that there is as yet untapped potential for health innovation emerging from technologies increasingly (although not yet universally) available in indigenous communities across canada. in the same way that e-health technologies can be inventively transformed into forums for increased community engagement (mignone and henley 2009), icts can be reconfigured as modalities of healing as communities creatively engage these technologies. in this paper we have examined digital storytelling as a narrative form of healing, drawing from episkenew's (2009) concept of indigenous literature as a healing or recuperative process in the larger project of decolonization. </p> <p> many communities have found digital storytelling useful in engaging youth in particular in collectively imagining and creating what a healthy and strong community looks like and in discussions, for example, about mental and sexual health strategies. indigenous youth who participate in these programs are not just reflecting on their personal experiences but actively creating environments in which creativity and communication are increasingly more central to healthy minds, bodies and communities. while the idea of indigenous culture as a source of strength appears frequently in these digital shorts, these creative productions are more than an affirmation of silenced and marginalized voices and practices. being able to participate meaningfully in a far-reaching initiative has inherent value. within the colonial context, and during a historical moment in which "speaking out" about social suffering under colonization is gaining momentum through strategies such as the truth and reconciliation commission, digital storytelling is an innovative approach to challenging the master narrative of settler canada. digital stories, as such, may be considered an emerging counter-public in which aboriginality is being renegotiated and through which strategies for well-being, healing and decolonization are co-constructed through the production and dissemination of narratives online. </p> <p> digital storytelling is an important new genre of narrative sharing in that it is transforming the social practice of storytelling. as we found in our review of digital stories, subjectivity, voice and authenticity are all concepts being reworked on the internet as new narrative possibilities not only reshape the social act of narrative sharing but also the genres by which suffering and experience are communicated and through which healing initiatives are enacted. digital storytelling focuses on capturing voices and on combining multiple modes of signification (such as image, sound, and video) to authorize those voices as authentic even as subjectivities are constructed as purposefully inconsistent and dynamic. further, conventions of authorship are broken down in the process of creating and distributing digital stories via the internet: authorship is diffused among multiple participants in the creative process as the social act of sharing stories takes on new forms through online social networking. </p> <p> we have focused primarily on youth-led digital stories mostly because the bulk of digital storytelling projects in indigenous canada are geared toward a teenaged, high school demographic (cf. perley 2009). this may have to do with the fact that digital storytelling remains a primarily pedagogical tool in north america but also because digital storytelling is most accessible to a generation that has grown up with the technologies that make it possible. that in mind, digital storytelling is not universally a therapeutic or meaning-making practice in narrative sharing. it is important to remember the limits of digital storytelling: while the infrastructure and tools for digital storytelling is widely accessible to affluent urban populations, many remote and economically marginalized communities do not have access either to the internet or to adequate transmission bandwidth, let alone video recording or editing equipment. moreover, even if the equipment and infrastructure exists, little existing research examines the benefit of digital storytelling to older and/or more isolated populations. that said, digital storytelling remains a new and innovative approach to narrative sharing as healing in many community centres and schools and will undoubtedly undergo considerable changes in form and expression as new participants experiment with its creative and 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"philosophical foundations for a critical evaluation of the social impact of ict." j. information technology 17(2): 89-99. </div> <div class="reference"> perley, s. (2009). representation and participation of first nations women in online videos. j. community informatics 5(2). retrieved november 2011 from <a href= "http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/559/453."> http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/559/453.</a> </div> <div class="reference"> toronto centre for digital storytelling &amp; bertha. letting go of my homeland. retrieved june 2010 from <a href= "http://vimeo.com/9719700">http://vimeo.com/9719700</a>. </div> <div class="reference"> truth and reconciliation commission of canada.our mandate. retrieved june 2010 from <a href= "http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=7"> http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=7</a>. </div> <div class="reference"> urban native youth association &amp; reel youth. residential truth: unified future. retrieved june 2010 from <a href= "http://www.reelyouth.ca/residentialtruth.html">http://www.reelyouth.ca/residentialtruth.html</a>. </div> <div class="reference"> walstram, m.k. (2004) "ethics and engagement in community scholarship: analyzing public, online support groups as researcher/participant-experiencer." in e. a buchanan (ed.), <cite>virtual research ethics: issues and controversies</cite> (pp. 174-202). hershey, pa: information science publishing. </div> <div class="reference"> youth have the power. by my name. retrieved june 2010 from <a href= "http://campaigns.hellocoolworld.com/index.cfm?campaign_id=2"> http://campaigns.hellocoolworld.com/index.cfm?campaign_id=2</a>. </div> <h3 class="article_subhead"> endnotes </h3> <p> <sup>i</sup> prior to publication the authors shared a full draft of this paper with the lead members of each of the teams that produced the videos referenced here. they, along with youth participants cia, lulu, bacilia and courtney and the director of the nak'azdli health centrewere asked to specifically address the appropriateness of the use of content, images, citations or any other aspect of the videos cited. all have given permission for the use of the content presented here. we note burton's tragic passing not long after he created the video referenced here. we thank both mark vonesch and erica kohn for assisting us in our attempt to contact the inuvik youth centre which has, in the interim closed. we also thank ashlee cunsolo willox, melanie rivers, erica kohn and mark vonesch for sharing information and updates with us. </p> <p> <sup>ii</sup> representations of indigenous status and, more importantly, indigenous cyber-activism are already established online strategies as indigenous groups world-wide use digital communications to expand their reach to other indigenous nations and communities and to the wider public (dyson, et al. 2007; landzelius 2006; miller and slater 2001; niezen 2005). </p> <p> <sup>iii</sup> beatboard (www.beatboard.org) is a privately run interactive youth education and facilitation program that is, according to its website, "committed to affecting positive change in communities through delivering leading-edge experiential education programs that value diversity, inclusion and solutions for healthy living." </p> <p> <sup>iv</sup> the digital stories and further information about the project are available on the community's website (<a href= "http://www.townofrigolet.com/home/stories.htm">http://www.townofrigolet.com/home/stories.htm</a>). as noted, the community of rigolet has since created a digital media and research lab in the community where they conduct their own digital story workshops with community members trained as facilitators and have to date produced 34 digital stories (<em>my word: storytelling and digital media lab</em>, <a href= "www.rigolet.ca">www.rigolet.ca</a>) (ashlee cunsolo willox, personal communication 2012). </p> </div> overview of icts and health lareen newman ba(hons) phd 1 and ali a. alsanousi md, mba, phd 2 1. senior research fellow, flinders university southgate institute for health society & equity and sa community health research unit, australia 2. fellow, harvard university division of clinical informatics, harvard medical school, boston, usa community informatics links economic and social development efforts at the community level with emerging opportunities in information and communication technologies (icts). in recent years in public health there has been an increased focus on the broader social determinants of health and on social inclusion, as evidenced in the 2008 final report of the commission on social determinants of health1. broader determinants include education, income, social connection, and other opportunities that support improved health and wellbeing. in particular, addressing the broader social determinants of health is now seen as a key way forward to reduce health inequities unfair and remediable differences in health status and health outcomes within and between populations. this leads us to ask what role icts can play in further advancing improvements in health and social inclusion, and in reducing health inequities, not only across whole populations but also for those who are less socially and economically advantaged. this is relevant in both developing and developed countries. it is also an essential area to debate, considering that the well-known social gradient in health is mirrored in a digital gradient (newman et al 2010, joci 6,2) i.e. that those groups with poorer health are generally also those with less technical and socioeconomic resources to access and use icts. the papers in this joci special issue on health illustrate the spectrum of application of icts in the health domain and to support health in the community. they cover developments in a variety of locations around the globe and a diversity of research approaches, in africa (sierra leone, kenya and south africa), australasia (australia, new zealand, india, papua new guinea), canada and the us, and the uk and ireland. in particular authors were asked to highlight community involvement and tangible benefits to communities. the papers show how icts may support health improvements in the way they are used to enhance medical or clinical care or improve health surveillance, in the way they increase citizens' access to and engagement with health services, or in broader areas which support health such as community development and digital storytelling. the articles in this health special issue can be categorized into four groups: applications of health it systems; impact of community level projects; management of clinical conditions; and incident reports. we have three papers which address system level applications for health: the paper by loring et al entitled improving community health equity: the potential role for mhealth in papua new guinea explores the implications of mhealth interventions in papua new guinea's healthcare system as well as the importance of continuous evaluation to reduce community health inequity and to ensure improved health outcomes. a paper from africa by kossi et al focuses on developing decentralised health information systems in developing countries cases from sierra leone and kenya. this reflects on means and methods to improve community health by using decentralized health information systems in both sierra leone and kenya. it also touches on some strategic ict designs which were implemented to encourage participation in communities. buckingham's paper on visualizing qualitative spatial data to understand social epidemiology in public health explores the use of qualitative place-based information collected from residents of an area about their lived experiences in a community. his paper argues that this can provide useful additional information to quantitative indices of health determinants, so as to better inform public health decision-making. we have five papers about community level programs, looking at the role of icts in improving health in a broader sense for communities and children. adelson and olding's paper narrating aboriginality online: digital storytelling, identity and healing identifies a process in canada which holds the potential to help heal aboriginal identity after a history of colonisation this is an important influence on health for many aboriginal communities around the globe. another three papers discuss specific programs aimed at improving health and wellbeing. davis, bean and mcbride's article on decreasing health disparities through technology: building a community health website identifies a range of issues that needed to be addressed for disadvantaged and ethnic minority communities in the usa to successfully use a health information website; these include the need for text at appropriate reading levels (lower than is the norm on the internet), visual simplicity, cultural competence and cultural representation, non-english language text, and provision of community-based and supported internet access. in bridging the digital divide: a bilingual interactive health kiosk for communities affected by health disparities bean, davis and valdez report on the benefits of community engagement and collaborative strategies to develop a bilingual interactive community-based kiosk to support underserved groups to access the website-based health information that is discussed in the previous article. nansen et al in mybus': young people's mobile health, wellbeing and digital inclusion write about the australian experience of a community mobile youth centre which aims to provide increased access to health information but which at the same time also stands to increase health in the broader sense through increased the social inclusion brought by improved digital access and skills. hicks et al write of similar experiences with children in ireland in with a little help from my friends: experiences of building a virtual community for children with cancer, whereby children's wellbeing was improved by providing an ict-mediated means to increase their social participation and social connection (both important for health). the special issue has two papers addressing the clinical application of icts: ahmed and pulman's paper, concussion information on the move: the role of mobile technology in concussion management, explores concussion-related mobile applications and the future role of mobile technology in concussion management as part of smartphone technology continuous evolution. banerjee and basu's paper, impact of internet on delivery of critical cardiac health care, is a case study conducted in india to quantitatively assess the impact of internet effectiveness on the delivery of efficient critical healthcare in order to recommend new telemedicine centres in underdeveloped areas. we have three reports: wright et al's coverage of health impact assessment of a uk digital health service reminds us that despite techno-optimism, systematic assessment of digitally-mediated services is essential to identify whether expected benefits in terms of improved health or reduced health inequities will indeed eventuate in reality. it also reminds us that those groups with worse health are also those with less technical and socioeconomic access to icts. shozi et al's paper on perceived benefits of remote data capturing in community home-based care: the caregiver's perspective looks at caregivers' views about the pros and cons of replacing paper-based record systems with mobile-based records within the mostly volunteer-supported community home-based care in south africa. this is expanding in developing countries as an alternative to the overburdened formal public health system. de la harpe et al's paper, socio-technical approach to community health: designing and developing a mobile care data application for home-based healthcare in south africa addresses the use of innovative socio-technical methods to design and develop a mobile data application for home-based healthcare in western cape. chigona et al have written a very useful paper entitled a review on mhealth research in developing countries, which is an analysis of papers presented at the 3rd international mobile communication for development conference held in new delhi, 28-29 february 2012. this review explores challenges and barriers in adopting and implementing mhealth in developing countries. it highlights potential benefits of mhealth in developing countries such as increased efficiency, service cost reduction and timely dissemination of health information, but points out that much of the research on mhealth is currrently limited to description and needs to move to evaluating whether mhealth potential is achieved in reality. finally, we have a point of view article by ian pringle, w(h)ither community: locating participatory approaches to ict-enabled health and development. this discusses the challenges faced in achieving genuine community-based approaches with 'real participation' to promote better health and development using icts. we would like to take this opportunity to thank all the authors for submitting their work to this special issue which highlights the potential of icts to improve health in a range of ways, and the ways that icts can be used to address health inequities and disadvantage in communities. equally important we are most grateful to all the reviewers for their valuable time and efforts in helping to ensure the highest quality of the submitted articles. it really has been an international community effort to produce a special issue about communities around the globe! we extend our warm thanks to dr mike gurstein who has been an exceptional editor-in-chief, providing most generous guidance and timely support. we are also grateful to rean van der merwe and michel castagne for providing expert technical support with the journal online system, to nafiza azad at the university of british columbia for her editorial assistance, and to chris newman for laying-out the articles in html format. we trust that this issue will further expand your understanding of how icts can support improved community health, will perhaps spark your interest in new areas, but most of all inspire you as it did us to initiate or (continue) working to make a difference in this exciting area of community informatics. 1 http://www.who.int/social_determinants/ thecommission/finalreport/en/index.html 1191 ready the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles mobile phones and reading for enjoyment: evidence of use and behaviour change a south african non-profit organisation, fundza, launched a programme that delivers reading material via mobile phones. computer log files of user activity over an eight-month period were analysed (n = 9,212,716), which showed that relatively large numbers of readers made use of the material (n = 65,533), and read a substantial amount of the material. we found evidence of positive shifts in reading behaviour. further analysis showed that greater levels of participation in the programme were associated with greater enjoyment of reading. furthermore, the longer participants read, the more confident they felt about their self-rated reading proficiency introduction schoolchildren in south africa show worryingly low levels of literacy. the national department of basic education conducts regular annual national assessments to determine the literacy competency of learners in grades 1 to 6 and grade 9 in schools in south africa, and in 2013, the national average performance of grade 3 learners in literacy stood at 51% for home language. for grade 9, the national average performance stood at 43% for home language, and at 33% for first additional language (department of basic education, 2013). achievement between 50 and 59% on the assessment is regarded as “adequate”, between 40 !90 tredoux, c., louw, j., louw-potgieter, j. (2016). mobile phones and reading for enjoyment: evidence of use and behaviour change. the journal of community informatics, 12 (1), 90–103. date submitted: 2015-01-21. date accepted: 2015-12-03. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1191 colin tredoux department of psychology, university of cape town, south africa colin.tredoux@uct.ac.za johann louw department of psychology, university of cape town, south africa. corresponding author. johann.louw@uct.ac.za joha louw-potgieter school of management studies, university of cape town, south africa. joha.louw-potgieter@uct.ac.za http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1191 mailto:colin.tredoux@uct.ac.za mailto:johann.louw@uct.ac.za mailto:joha.louw-potgieter@uct.ac.za http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1191 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 and 49% as “moderate”, and between 30 and 39% as “elementary”. the first additional language is typically english, the language of learning and teaching, and the poor performance of grade 9 learners is of particular concern. not surprisingly, schools in economically disadvantaged areas did worse than schools in more affluent areas. the average mark achieved in the poorest schools in the assessment of home language in grade 9 was 32%, while for the most affluent schools it was 55%. for first additional language, the respective percentages were 30% and 48%. data from the progress in international reading literacy study (pirls) from 2011 confirm these findings. howie, van staden, tshele, dowse and zimmerman (2012) reported that grade 5 learners in south africa were performing below the international centre point (500 on a scale from 0 to 1000), and that 43% were unable to reach the low international benchmark, meaning that they had not mastered basic reading skills. the sacmeq iii country report (moloi & chetty, 2010) focused on the schooling and home environments of south african learners, where the literacy skills of both grade 6 learners and teachers were tested. fifteen sub-saharan countries participated in the overall project (spaull, 2012). twenty-seven percent of grade 6 learners in south africa were deemed functionally illiterate (that is, unable to read a short simple text and extract its meaning). this compared poorly to the average of 18% for all participating countries. south africa ranked tenth out of the 15 participating countries in mean reading score (spaull, 2011). the results of these surveys indicate the extent of the literacy problem in south africa. mobile technology is considered a promising platform to deliver various educational services to young people. roberts and vänskä (2011), for example, reported on the use of a mobile mathematics learning service in south africa. in terms of literacy, unesco (2013), at its second mobile learning week, addressed the question “how can mobile technology support literacy development for young people and adults?” in many developing countries, the absence of books makes it difficult for young learners to reach acceptable levels of literacy, and under such conditions, mobile phones are increasingly considered an option to compensate for the absence of books. as unesco (2014) states on its website, “[a]lthough many parts of the world are book-poor, these same places are increasingly mobile-phone rich”. overview of the project in an attempt to make use of mobile technology to address the challenge of literacy achievement in south africa, a local not-for-profit organisation, the fundza literacy trust (2014), launched the growing communities of readers programme (gcrp). in this programme, professional writers are commissioned to produce content specifically aimed at the target group, namely teenage and young adult readers who have limited access to books, and who read infrequently. the reading material is accessible through both feature phones and smartphones, using the mobile instant messaging service mxit, and through computers with an internet connection (fundza literacy trust, 2016). a new story is published each week – it starts on a friday, and is released in serialised format over the course of the week – a new chapter each day. discussion questions at the end of each chapter encourage interaction and prompt readers to think about the story and how it relates to their lives and experiences. all stories are then archived in fundza’s growing “mobi library” (fundza literacy trust, !91 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 2016). (mobi, or mobipocket, is an e-book format, based on the open ebook standard). the organisation also publishes articles on inspirational young south africans, full-length books —both fiction and non-fiction, some of which are released as “premium”, or paid-for, content —; information booklets, on issues such as pregnancy, refugees, work opportunities, among others; and other relevant materials. in a recent review of 44 mobile-for-reading projects, the united states agency for international development (usaid, 2014) found that less than half of the projects focused on providing content. in other words, a lack of reading materials in general is believed to be strongly implicated in low levels of literacy. south africa’s department of basic education’s reading interventions follow the same logic, where the department has asserted that “learners who are exposed to quality reading resources, have access to libraries and good quality reading programmes and instruction, perform above the national target for the grade” (department of basic education, 2013, p. 10). by increasing access, the gcrp hopes to achieve a secondary objective, namely that learners will engage in self-initiated reading as a leisure activity. fundza reasons that this is likely to increase learners’ interest in reading, their enjoyment of it, and the confidence that learners have in their own reading ability. this will, in turn, reinforce and strengthen learners’ reading: they will read more (for longer, and with greater frequency), and will read different content. clark and de zoysa (2011) have acknowledged that the relationship between enjoyment of reading, attitudes toward reading (positive or negative), reading behaviour (frequency and amount of time), and reading attainment is a complex one. nevertheless, they indicate that reading for pleasure has a positive effect on both personal and educational development. the organisation for economic co-operation and development’s (oecd) programme for international student assessment (pisa) (2010) showed that in all countries, with one exception, students who enjoyed reading the most performed significantly better than students who enjoyed reading the least. as krashen (2004, p. 7) has asserted, “the relationship between reported free voluntary reading and literacy development is not always large, but it is remarkably consistent”. thus the strategy adopted by fundza is supported in the research literature. as the use of mobile learning is growing across the world, we need evidence about how such reading is used, and how effective the claims are of reading, learning, and the capacity to address specific social problems. indeed, in the usaid (2014) literature review the researchers identified the lack of evidence and the need for monitoring and evaluation as major challenges in the area of mobiles for reading. we saw an opportunity in fundza’s gcrp to collect evidence on the effectiveness of one of these mobiles-for-reading programmes. we were able to address two questions specific to the programme, but with wider implications for evidence regarding mobile learning. these questions are “do programmes of this kind attract significant levels of participation?” and “does participating in such programmes change reading behaviour?” we designed two studies to address these questions. !92 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 study 1: level of participation method a major advantage of delivery of reading material and interventions through mobile technology is that it is possible to measure engagement with the texts behaviourally, as well as through self-report. as readers access the mobi site and mxit portal, details of usage are generated and stored on data servers as ‘log files’. we were given access to 245 log files, containing 9,212,716 records of usage on the site in the period 3 february 2013 to 6 october 2013. the log files were provided to us by fundza, and anonymised, so that it was not possible to identify individual users. the files, however, did include uniform resource locators (urls) to the material that users accessed, so we were able to use the url information to obtain individual stories referenced by the url addresses, thus allowing us to estimate the amount of reading material accessed, in characters, per visit. from this we were able to find records of 65,533 unique users that had visited the site and clicked on content with more than 65 characters (the length of the shortest poem). in addition, entries of below 100 characters that were not poems were excluded, like promotional material, site announcements, and other peripheral material. we then computed number of visits and total amount of text (characters) contained in fundza pages that users clicked on, for each unique mxit identity, thus cumulating amount of reading material per user accessed through the service, over the period of time in question. results available data allowed us to examine two questions to gauge participation in the gcrp: “how many people visited the fundza site?” and “how much did they read when they were there?” both variables, namely number of visits to the site, and length of reading material, were highly skewed. in the case of number of visits, 50% of users visited fundza seven times or less. in the case of length of reading material accessed, 50% of users viewed or read material of length equal to 18,541 characters, which is about the equivalent of five a4 manuscript pages , or less. 1 given the skewness of the variables, it is informative to consider them at different points of their distribution. if we consider the top quartile (25%) of the variable recording number of visits, we find that users in this quartile each visited fundza 39 times or more. similarly, users in the top 1% (n = 655) each visited fundza at least 717 times. in terms of amount viewed or read, if we consider readers that visited more than seven times (the top 50% of the distribution), then the median number of characters read was 139,860, or the equivalent of about 77 a4 pages. this means, in more practical terms, that about 33,000 readers were reached, who clicked on the equivalent of over 77 pages of reading material. readers in the top quartile in this set (16,375 of them) viewed or read a median of 243 pages of text in the eight-month period in question, and readers in the top 1% read at least 1,660 pages of text. assuming that there are approximately five characters in a word, and 360 words in a double-1 spaced printed page, with font size being 12 points. !93 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 reflections to be regarded as successful, a programme such as fundza’s gcrp must at the least attract readers, by getting them to read the material provided. the question of how many readers should be attracted, and how much these readers should read, is, of course, difficult to establish, and fundza has no specific goals in mind. the abovementioned results show that a large number of readers (more than 65,000) used the site between 3 february 2013 and 6 october 2013, and read at least 65 characters per visit. fifty percent of these readers visited the site seven times or more, and the top 25% of these readers visited the site 39 times or more. more than half of the visitors to the site (i.e. more than 33,000 people) read a significant amount of material – the equivalent of over 75 a4 pages of reading material. furthermore, the 1% of readers that visited the site most frequently – over 650 of them – read what seems to us to be an undeniably large amount of material, namely a minimum of 1,660 pages. of course, we do not know whether these readers were motivated by the gcrp to read more than they usually do. in study 2, we attempt to establish possible changes in reading behaviour. study 2: changes in reading behaviour method we wanted to test more rigorously the notion that visiting the fundza site increases reading enjoyment and gets its target audience to read more. a major objective of the gcrp is to get young people to read more “for enjoyment” (i.e. outside of the school context), meaning that they would read for longer periods of time, and would read more often. to assess possible changes in reading behaviour, a single-group quasi-experimental pretestposttest design was used to compare reading behaviour before joining fundza with reading after joining. for this purpose, an eight-item questionnaire (see table 1) was designed to gather information about key variables. the most convenient – and perhaps only – way we could access this population in sufficiently large numbers was for the respondents to receive the questionnaire on their mobile phones. also, since the respondents accessed the fundza readings via their mobile phones, it made sense to insert the questionnaire into this channel. however, delivering the questionnaire via mobile phones posed severe limitations on the number of questions that could be asked, and on the possible length of the questions (small screen size, limited display graphics on low-end mobile models, and the cost to the respondent in terms of airtime were some of the considerations in this respect). we required information about reading behaviour (questions 2, 3, and 4 in table 1), reading enjoyment (question 7), access to books at home (question 1), self-assessed reading proficiency (question 6), reading preferences (question 5), and preferred leisure activities (question 8). almost all these questions were drawn from examples used in the national surveys of the british national literacy trust (clark, 2011; clark & de zoysa, 2011), as the variables they assessed came closest to our interests in the present study. some of the questions have been slightly re-phrased to fit local circumstances better, or to make them more suitable for delivery via mobile phone. we added one question about the number of books at home, as research by, for example, evans, kelley, sikora, and treiman (2010), !94 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 indicated that the size of a home library contributes substantially to a child’s educational achievement. table 1: questionnaire items assessing reading behaviour new gcrp readers could access the pretest questionnaire between 5 november 2013 and 30 january 2014, and 6,466 completed it. the posttest questionnaire was sent to all these users 2 between 10 february and 28 february 2014. a total of 542 users completed both the pretest and the posttest questionnaires. since both the pretest and the posttest questionnaires were required in order to assess the effect of the intervention, only these 542 users were considered for the analysis. in addition, we included only respondents who were younger than 25 years of age (n=476); this was in order to fit fundza’s stated goal of improving reading in adolescents and younger adults. the majority of the respondents were women (63.2%), with an average age of 18.53 years (sd = 2.82, min. = 13), with an underrepresentation perhaps of respondents in the younger age groups (below age 15: 8.6%). 1. how many books do you have at home? 1 = none; 2 = 1-10 books; 3 = 11-50 books; 4 = more than 50 books. 2. how many books did you read last month outside of school? 1 = none; 2 = 1 to 2 books; 3 = 3 to 5 books; 4 = more than 5 books. 3. when you read, how long do you normally read for? 1 = i do not read; 2 = up to 10 minutes; 3 = about 30 minutes; 4 = about 1 hour. 4. how often do you read outside of school? 1 = never; 2 = about once a week; 3 = 2-3 times a week; 4 = every day. 5. which of these do you read most frequently outside of school, and at least once a month? 1 = magazines; 2 = websites; 3 = books (storybooks, novels); 4 = newspapers; 5 = comics; 6 = i don’t read any of these at least once a month. 6. how good a reader do you think you are? 1 = not a good reader; 2 = an average reader; 3 = a very good reader. 7. how much do you enjoy reading? 1 = don’t enjoy; 2 = enjoy a little; 3 = enjoy a lot. 8. if you have free time after school, what do you prefer to do? 1. watch tv; 2. just chill, don’t do much; and 3. read something. an incentive was offered to respondents – they could earn a small amount of ‘moolah’, or airtime, 2 by completing the survey. this may explain the large number of respondents, and the difference between the pretest and the posttest response rates. !95 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 results descriptive results (mean, and standard deviation) are shown in table 2 for six of the eight questions used in the questionnaire, along with results of paired sample t-tests. for the remaining two questions,‑ which did not lend themselves to mean comparisons, we report 3 tests of difference between dependent proportions for the modal category. table 2: means (standard deviations) across the pretest and the posttest for six questionnaire items * not computed (see narrative) ** p < .001 † p < .05 d = cohen’s mean standardised difference. all df = 435. how many books do you have at home? a majority of respondents in both the pretest and the posttest questionnaires reported having fewer than 11 books at home (64% vs 57%; less than value 2 on the scale we used). however, at the second time of measurement, a modest (but statistically significant) increase in the number of books was reported (paired sample t-test: t = 4.13, df = 435, p < .001, d = .19). a survey conducted by the south african book development council (2007) estimated that on average there are eight books in a typical south african household. in the evaluation of the iread project in ghana, similar results emerged: all the primary school children had fewer than 11 books at home (worldreader et al., 2012). the fact that the majority of respondents in the present study reported having so few books at home indicates that the gcrp attracts what it regards as the appropriate target population, that is, young people who are “book-poor”. question pre-measure post-measure t d z how many books do you have at home? 2.35 (.93) 2.51 (.83) 4.13† .19 how many books did you read last month outside of school? 2.63 (.90) 2.86 (.88) 4.48** .26 when you read, how long do you normally read for? 3.44 (.74) 3.51 (.71) 2.14† .12 how often do you read outside of school? 3.20 (.81) 3.37 (.69) 3.89** .21 how good a reader do you think you are? 2.55 (.57) 2.60 (.56) 2.03† how much do you enjoy reading? 2.89 (.34) 2.86 (.40) * * note that incorporation of some of the measures of reading derived from the user log files – as 3 discussed later in the report – resulted in a reduction of about 40 cases in the pretest sample size, due to missing data. !96 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 how many books did you read last month outside of school? a majority of respondents in both the pretest and the posttest questionnaires reported reading more than two books outside of school in the most recent month (53% vs 65%). this is not so different from what 16to 17-year olds in the usa reported in a recent pew center survey (2012), namely 18 books on average per year. our respondents reported reading more books at the later measurement. there was a statistically significant increase between the pretest and the posttest (paired sample t-test: t = 4.48, df = 435, p < .001, d = .26), which was moderate in size. when you read, for how long do you normally read? a majority of respondents in both the pretest and the posttest questionnaires reported their normal reading time to be more than 1 hour (58% and 62%). clark (2012) showed that about 28% of british school children between the ages of 8 and 16 reported that they read for about an hour or longer at a time. there was a statistically significant increase between the pretest and the posttest (paired sample t-test: t = 2.14, df = 435, p < .033, d = .12), which, although small in size, indicated that the respondents read for longer at the posttest. how often do you read outside of school? a large majority of respondents in both the pretest and the posttest questionnaires reported that they read two to three times a week, or every day (82% vs 88%). this is comparable to clarke’s (2012) findings, where nearly 60% of her respondents read at least a few times a week. again, in the present study there was a statistically significant increase between the pretest and the posttest (paired sample t-test: t = 3.89, df = 435, p < .001, d = .21), which shows that the respondents read more frequently at the posttest. how good a reader do you think you are? a majority of respondents in both the pretest and the posttest questionnaires reported that they consider themselves very good or average readers. nearly 90% of clarke’s (2012) british respondents answered in the same way. the distributions in the pretest and the posttest were highly skewed, so we did not test the mean difference. however, we did compare the proportions answering that they were “very good” readers, and there was a statistically significant increase in this proportion, from the pretest to the posttest (from 59% to 64%). this was tested with an exact mcnemar test: n = 435, p < .021. in other words, at the second measurement, more respondents regarded themselves as very good readers. how much do you enjoy reading? a near complete majority of respondents in both the pretest and the posttest questionnaires reported that they enjoy reading very much (89%, and 88% respectively). clarke (2012) showed lower numbers: 50% of the british sample enjoyed reading “very much” or “a lot”. the distributions in the pretest and the posttest were highly skewed, so we did not test the mean difference. there was also strong evidence of a ‘ceiling effect’, meaning either that the scale was not sensitive enough, or that the population in question has very few members who do not enjoy reading. !97 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 which of these do you read most frequently outside of school, and at least once a month: books, magazines, newspapers, or websites? a majority of respondents in both the pretest and the posttest questionnaires reported that they read books more frequently than other material (magazines, newspapers, and websites). there was a statistically significant increase in the reading of books between the pretest and the posttest (from 49% to 58%), which was moderate in size. this was tested with an exact ncnemar test: n = 435, p < .002. the oecd’s (2010) assessment showed that “students who reported reading fiction and non-fiction books regularly, i.e. several times a month or several times a week, are particularly likely to perform well in the pisa reading assessment” (p. 35). if you have free time after school, what would you prefer to do? a large majority of respondents in both the pretest and the posttest questionnaires reported that they prefer to read in their free time, rather than watch television, or “just chill out”. this proportion was already high in the pretest (76%), but increased significantly in the posttest (81%). this was tested with an exact probability mcnemar test: n = 435, p < .03. we are somewhat sceptical about such high percentages, and respondents answering in a socially desirable way, especially as 54% of clarke’s (2012) british sample preferred watching television over reading. reflections in summary, it can be concluded that all the comparisons made between the “before” and the “after” measures show moderate but significant changes in the desired direction, as respondents reported that they have more books at home, read more books outside of school, read more frequently and for longer, prefer reading books over doing other activities, and consider themselves better readers. since reading for enjoyment is an important activity that fundza wants to encourage, the finding justifies a brief comment. enjoyment of reading was high before participation in the programme, and remained high at posttest. one way to interpret this finding is that the programme attracts young people who already enjoy reading, but do not have access to physical books that they may want, i.e. they are “book-poor”. after all, reading books or stories on the small screen of a mobile phone could be regarded as a poor second choice to reading physical books. thus one could say that the programme gives people who want to read access to reading material that they don’t have, and thus whether the programme attracts new readers and changes them into enthusiastic ones cannot be inferred from the current data. this interpretation is supported by the responses to the question how they spend their free time. the majority of respondents indicated that they prefer to read rather than watch television, or just relax, at the “before” as well as the “after” stage. these results are based on self-report data, but our analysis below of actual reading activity shows similar evidence of positive change. for a start, a large number of readers were attracted to the reading programme, and a significant proportion kept on reading. the majority read a substantial amount of material. in fact, one could argue that the respondents read a surprisingly high amount of material, given that they were reading it on a mobile phone, which typically has a very small, low-resolution screen. it is also not likely, given the !98 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 time delay, that the respondents’ responses in the pretest positively biased their responses in the posttest. we conducted one further analysis to establish whether the programme had brought about changes in reading behaviour, as we had data regarding the extent to which the respondents had participated in the programme, and we could relate the data to the changes that the respondents reported. analysis of change between pretest and posttest, controlling for ‘dosage’ for this analysis, we relied on log file records of participants’ activity in the fundza service, in order to factor in the amount of reading that they were doing of material provided through the service. if changes we observed between the pretest and the posttest are a function of the amount of reading (i.e. programme “dosage”), then we could be more confident of the efficacy of the programme itself. over 3.5 million individual records were processed, and from these we were able to extract several aspects with regard to usage of the service by the survey respondents. we opted for a measure of how many internet pages participants had read, rather than visits to the fundza site, or any of the other possible measures. on average, participants read over 1,000 story pages from the fundza site, the equivalent of approximately 100 a4 pages a more detailed breakdown shows that the bottom 25% of the sample read fewer than 78 story pages, while the top 25% read 13,800 or more story pages. the most active 5% of the sample read 27,000 or more story pages. the findings of this smaller sample thus partially replicate the findings of study 1, in that they show that these new readers also read a substantial amount of material. the number of pages that participants read was considered a dosage measure, that is, a measure of how much of the programme a participant received. if the programme is achieving its desired outcomes, one expects a positive relationship between participation in the programme (i.e. how much participants read) and the responses given to key questions. to explore this, we calculated pearson correlations between the total number of pages read and the questions we had asked in the pretest and posttest surveys. these correlations are shown below. these correlations in general show that there is a positive relationship between the number of pages read and agreement with items on the questionnaires. that is, the more participants read, the more likely they are to indicate that they enjoy reading outside of school, that they consider themselves good readers, that they read for longer, and that they read more outside of school in the most recent month. most of the correlations are not very strong, but some questionnaire items had restricted range, and/or showed ceiling effects, or near-ceiling effects, which is likely to have attenuated the coefficients. !99 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 3: correlations between questionnaire items and amount of material read more importantly, the measure of amount of reading correlates with items from both the pretest and the posttest. this is to be expected, since participants are in the programme voluntarily, and their pre-existing enjoyment of reading, or frequency of reading (among other things), is likely to be one of the reasons they enrolled in the programme. it is, however, important, from our point of view, to show that the amount of reading predicts improvement in the posttest scores, in particular. this comes much closer to the overall issue of interest that we alluded to above: does the programme bring about changes in the outcomes of interest? we assessed this by conducting hierarchical linear multiple regression analyses, factoring out any pre-existing relation between pretest items and posttest items, before entering the reading measure. these analyses are shown in the first six lines of table 4, for items with which we could do such an analysis (i.e. interval measurement scales). in the final two lines of the table we show results for items we rescaled to dichotomies, and used logistic regression on. 4 questionnaire item total pages read pre how many books do you have at home? .106* post how many books do you have at home? .057 pre how many books (such as storybooks and novels) did you read last month outside of school? .132** post how many books (such as storybooks and novels) did you read last month outside of school? .125** pre when you read, how long do you normally read for? .215** post when you read, how long do you normally read for? .159** pre how often do you read outside of school? .004 post how often do you read outside of school? .083 pre how good a reader do you think you are? .052 post how good a reader do you think you are? .119* pre how much do you enjoy reading? .128** post how much do you enjoy reading? .165** * p < 0.05 level (2-tailed) ** p < 0.01 level (2-tailed). listwise n=435. some signs have been reversed for readability. two of the items in the questionnaire were of a categorical nature (e.g. the item that asked 4 participants what kind of material they like to read). we recoded these items to a binary form, since in each case one of the options could be considered a positive outcome intended by the programme, and the other options could be considered less important, or undesirable. !100 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 4: hierarchical regression “dosage” analysis note: for hierarchical linear regression, all df = 1,433; for logistic regression, df = 1. some signs have been reversed for readability. ° these items were analysed using hierarchical logistic regression on recoded dichotomies. * p < .05 ✝ p < .01 the analyses show that the amount of reading, measured in number of fundza story pages, is a statistically significant predictor of changes in four of the eight relevant items, and is nearly significant as a predictor for two of the remaining items, once pre-existing scores on the items have been controlled for. for instance, the amount of reading (indicated by the log files) is a positive and significant predictor of self-rated enjoyment of reading, even after controlling for the enjoyment reported before the fundza intervention. this, along with the reported change between the pretest and the posttest, is evidence of the effectiveness of the intervention for increasing enjoyment of reading, self-rated proficiency in reading, self-rated amount of reading, and self-rated book reading. conclusion the usaid (2014) review of the mobiles-for-reading landscape identified six purposes of these interventions, and the gcrp of fundza falls into the “providing content” category. projects with this purpose in mind typically provide reading content via mobile devices, because the assumption is that young people lack access to textbooks and reading materials. the long-term objective of fundza is to improve literacy levels of “book-poor” young people in south africa, by making reading material available to them via mobile phones. the current study, of course, is unable to answer questions about improved literacy. nevertheless, it is important to know whether the gcrp could appeal in the short term to sufficiently large numbers of young people, who actually read the material provided to them. in the first study, we provided data that strongly suggests that this is the case. having this kind of data, and analysing it in some detail, gives a more positive indication of engagement with the material than merely documents “access” to books and stories (see, for example, worldreader et al., 2012). authors like wigfield, guthrie, perencevich, klauda, mcrae and barbosa (2008) posttest item b (s.e.) r2 f/wald p how many books do you have at home? -.002 (.023) .000 0.01 .940 how many books did you read last month outside of school? .050 (.027) .005 2.80 .100 when you read, how long do you normally read for? .044 (.022) .008 3.99 .046* how often do you read outside of school? .040 (.021) .007 3.37 .067 how good a reader do you think you are? .038 (.017) .010 5.09 .025* how much do you enjoy reading? .040 (.013) .016 7.69 .006✝ reads books more frequently than other materials° .170 (.073) 5.4 .020* reads in free time rather than other activities° .029 (.317) 0.97 .330 !101 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 indeed have shown that reading engagement increases reading comprehension, which in turn is expected to lead to higher reading achievement. study 2 suggests, firstly, that the programme attracts young people who already enjoy reading, but do not have access to physical books that they may want to read. although this is a positive finding, it does not tell us whether the programme draws in non-readers and makes readers out of them. a quite different study would be required to answer such a question. secondly, measured over a relatively short period of time, respondents reported that they had more books at home (although still a limited number), that they read more books outside of school, that they read more frequently and for longer, that they preferred reading books over other activities, and that they considered themselves better readers. finally, when taking a dosage variable into account, we established positive relationships between the number of pages read and enjoyment of reading outside of school, reading confidence, how long respondents read at a time, and how much they read after school. this is entirely in line with the studies we have quoted here, such as wigfield et al. (2008), oecd (2010), and worldreader et al. (2012). we have acknowledged a few limitations to the study, but overall the results point in the same positive direction, and they interlink with and support each other. the one obvious strength of this study is its direct measurement of reading behaviour via log files, instead of just relying on self-report data. this kind of information is not often available in such a format. references clark, c. (2011). setting the baseline. the national literacy trust’s first annual survey into young people’s reading – 2010. london: national literacy trust. clark, c. (2012). children’s and young people’s reading today. findings from the 2011 national literacy trust’s annual survey. london: national literacy trust. clark, c., & de zoysa, s. (2011). mapping the interrelationships of reading enjoyment, attitudes, behaviour and attainment. an exploratory investigation. london: national literacy trust. department of basic education. (2013). report on the annual national assessment of 2013. pretoria: department of basic education. http://www.education.gov.za/curriculum/ annualnationalassessment/tabid/424/default.aspx . evans, m.d.r., kelley, j., sikora, j., & treiman d.j. (2010). family scholarly culture and educational success: books and schooling in 27 nations. research in social stratification and mobility, 28, 171-197. fundza literacy trust. (2014). the fundza literacy trust. http://www.fundza.co.za/. fundza literacy trust. (2016). our mobi library. http://www.fundza.co.za/our-programmes/ growing-communities-of-readers-programme/our-mobi-library/ howie, s., van staden, s., tshele, m., dowse, c., & zimmerman, l. (2012). pirls 2011: south african children’s reading literacy achievement report. pretoria: centre for evaluation and assessment, university of pretoria. h t t p : / / w w w. u p . a c . z a / m e d i a / shared/legacy/sitefiles/file/publications/2013/pirls_2011_report_12_dec.pdf !102 http://www.education.gov.za/curriculum/annualnationalassessment/tabid/424/default.aspx http://www.fundza.co.za/ http://www.fundza.co.za/our-programmes/growing-communities-of-readers-programme/our-mobi-library/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 krashen, s.d. (2004). the power of reading. westport, ct: libraries unlimited. moloi, m.q., & chetty, m. (2010). the sameq iii project in south africa: a study of the conditions of schooling and the quality of education. pretoria: department of basic education. oecd. (2010). pisa 2009 results: learning to learn – student engagement, strategies and practices (volume iii). http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264083943-en pew research center. (2012). the rise of e-reading. washington dc: pew research center. http://libraries.pewinternet.org/files/legacy-pdf/the%20rise%20of%20e-reading %204.5.12.pdf roberts, n., & vänskä, r. (2011). challenging assumptions: mobile learning for mathematics project in south africa. distance education, 32, 243-259. spaull, n. (2011). a preliminary analysis of sacmeq iii south africa. stellenbosch university economic working papers: 11/11. www.ekon.sun.ac.za/wpapers/2011/ wp112011/wp-11-2011.pdf. spaull, n. (2012). south africa at a glance. sacmeq at a glance series. stellenbosch university research on socio-economic policy (resep). http:resp.sun.ac.za/ index.php/projects/. south african book development council. (2007). national survey into the reading and book reading behaviour of adult south africans: quantitative research into the reading, book reading & book buying habits of south africans from age 16. pretoria: print industries cluster council; department of arts and culture. http:// www.sabookcouncil.co.za/sabookcouncil/pdf/nrsdocopt.pdf unesco. (2013). unesco mobile learning week. retrieved july 10, 2014. http:// www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/ed/pdf/mlw_2013_programwithlinks.pdf. unesco. (2014). mobile reading. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/m4ed/ mobile-reading/. usaid. (2014). mobiles for reading: a landscape research review. washington, dc: u s a i d . h t t p : / / l i t e r a c y. o r g / s i t e s / l i t e r a c y. o r g / fi l e s / p u b l i c a t i o n s / wagner_mobiles4reading_usaid_june_14.pdf . wigfield, a., guthrie, j. t., perencevich, a. t., klauda, s. l., mcrae, a., & barbosa, p. (2008). role of reading engagement in mediating effects of reading comprehension instruction on reading outcomes. psychology in the schools, 45, 432–445. worldreader, ilc africa & usaid. (2012). iread ghana study, final valuation report. washington: usaid. http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pnadz402.pdf !103 http://www.ekon.sun.ac.za/wpapers/2011/wp112011/wp-11-2011.pdf http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/ed/pdf/mlw_2013_program-withlinks.pdf http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/m4ed/mobile-reading/ http://literacy.org/sites/literacy.org/files/publications/wagner_mobiles4reading_usaid_june_14.pdf perception of farmers and extension and research personnel regarding use and effectiveness of sources of agricultural information in sindh province of pakistan zaheeruddin mirani, zaheeruddin mirani abstract the study describes the use and effectiveness of various sources of information as employed by agriculture extension in sindh (pakistan) to disseminate the agricultural technology and innovation. farmers perceived that neighboring farmers and agricultural suppliers were very much effective sources of agricultural information and they used these sources for obtaining information about the latest agricultural products. in addition, farmers perceived that training/seminars, farmer field schools, and demonstration, radio, and face to face were effective approaches for technology transfer. extension and research personnel perceived that they used radio on an “almost always” basis. in addition, they perceived that radio, television and agricultural suppliers are “very effective” sources of information. both extension and research personnel on average perceived mass media (publications, radio, tv and audio-visual aids), farmer field school, demonstration and face to face as “effective” approaches to technology transfer. introduction internationally, pakistan is recognized as an agricultural country. more than 70% of its population is affiliated with the profession of agriculture. being the dominant sector of the economy, presently agriculture contributes 21.8 percent to gdp (gross domestic product), employs 44.7 percent of the country’s labor force and contributes substantially to export earnings. it also contributes to growth providing raw material for industry. therefore, agriculture is bound to have a substantial impact on the growth of overall gdp (gop, 2009). in developing countries such as pakistan, farmers do not have the opportunity to try new technology because of the high risk and cost. an efficient extension system aiming at transferring appropriate practices/technology to the small-scale/subsistence farmers can play a crucial role in the solution/alleviation of this problem. various models of extension ranging from traditional extension to farmer field schools were established to strengthen the extension activities designed to increase among other things agricultural production and related economic activities through the adoption of need-based technologies. farmers do not often make visits to research stations; however, farmers obtained knowledge from different sources such as mass media, and fertilizer and pesticide/insecticide agencies. farmers in pakistan are often contacted by private agencies such as fertilizer companies in support of the adoption of innovation (ali, 1980; chaudhary, 1980; mirani, et al. 1999). innovation is often undertaken initially by the big landlords who positively response to new technologies. innovation reaches small scale farmers much more slowly. (tahseen, 1987; rashid, 1987; mahmood, 1987; rogers, 1995). jalvi (1990) has emphasized the need to carry out research on agricultural extension techniques throughout pakistan for the purpose of updating and modifying the extension system on a regular basis. it has been observed that most of the farmers in the sindh are not fully aware of recommended agricultural technologies resulting in low yield per acre. for the communication of new ideas and skills to the farmers, various methods (individual, group, and mass) are being utilized by public and private extension in sindh. knowledge acquisition occurs with awareness, exposure and at least a rudimentary understanding of how an innovation functions (rogers, 1995). in addition, technology transfer and adoption are interrelated processes and are instrumental for production enhancement. through technology transfer and adoption, agricultural extension is performing to tackle the emerging problems as faced by farmers. while assumptions have been made about effectiveness of technology transfer methods, very few studies have concentrated on assessing agricultural information sources, their use and effectiveness in the sindh province of pakistan. purpose and objectives the main purpose of this study is to assess the technology transfer methods/sources as perceived by farmers and extension and research personnel in sindh. the specific objectives of the study were to: 1. record the perception of farmers regarding the use and effectiveness of sources and approaches to technology transfer as used by agricultural extension/research; 2. assess the impact of various sources of information employed in technology transfer as perceived by the extension and research personnel; and 3. record the opinions of farmers and extension and research personnel regarding the technology transfer process. material and methods the present research features a descriptive survey design. descriptive research is a method that involves making a careful description of educational phenomena (gall, gall, borg, 2006). leedy (2005) describes a descriptive survey as a normative survey. a detailed questionnaire was developed and reviewed by scientists and extension and research officials in the field. the questionnaire was than translated into sindhi (the local) language. the information was collected through personal interviews during the year 2009 in various purposively selected districts of sindh province. a random sample of 450 farmers and 75 extension and 25 research personnel was selected using a simple random sampling technique. however, due to the inaccessibility of farmers, 400 farmers were interviewed which represents a total response rate of 88% which is adequate if the sample size is more then 200 hundred (wunsch, 1986). the collected data were analyzed using the spss program. results a. farmers the data presented in table-1 indicates various sources of information and their effectiveness as perceived by farmers. farmers perceived that on average they are using neighboring farmers and agricultural suppliers “always”, radio and tv, and extension personnel “almost always”, and magazines “often” as sources of information. in addition, farmers perceived that agricultural suppliers, neighboring farmers, tv, and radio are “very much” effective sources of information as employed by extension/research, whereas, newspapers and magazines were perceived only “much” effective sources of information. table-1: perception of farmers regarding use* and effectiveness** of possible sources of information as employed by extension / research personnel possible methods use effectiveness m sd m sd a. television b. radio c. agriculture suppliers d. university extension e. news papers f. magazines g. extension personnel h. neighboring farmers 3.27 3.40 4.53 2.27 2.27 3.00 3.97 4.97 0.98 0.93 1.17 0.98 0.98 0.26 0.18 0.41 4.17 4.37 4.50 2.80 2.80 2.20 3.17 4.17 1.17 1.45 1.07 0.55 0.95 0.95 0.65 0.71 * a 1 to 5 likert type scale was used where 1 stands for never, 2 for seldom, 3 for often, 4 for almost always, and 5 for always ** a 1 to 6 likert type scale was used where 1 stands for little , 2 for some, 3 for much, 4 for very much, 5 for an exceptional amount and 6 for not applicable the present research inquired about the effectiveness of various approaches to technology transfer (table-2). results show that from the mass method approach to technology transfer, on average, radio was perceived as an “effective” approach and other mass method approaches to technology transfer were perceived to be only "somewhat effective”. from group methods, training/seminar, farmer field schools and demonstrations were perceived as “effective” approaches to technology transfer. from individual methods, face to face and farm/personal visit approaches to technology transfer were perceived as “effective” approaches. table-2: effectiveness of technology transfer approaches as perceived by farmers technology transfer approaches m sd a) mass media 1. publications 2. radio 3. tv 4. audio-visual aids 2.61 3.31 2.93 2.83 1.10 1.04 0.89 0.86 b) group 1. contact farmers 2. training/seminar 3. demonstration 4. farmer field schools 5. field days/tours 6. farmers organizations 2.95 4.17 3.75 4.12 2.95 2.95 1.25 1.18 1.25 1.10 1.06 1.21 c) individual 1. face to face 2. telephone 3. farm /personal visits 4. office calls 3.02 2.52 3.14 2.58 1.05 0.97 1.20 1.18 a 1 to 5 likert type scale was used where 1= not effective, 2 = to somewhat not effective, 3 = somewhat effective, 4, effective, 5 = very effective, and 6 = not applicable opinion survey opinion surveys provide in depth analysis of respondents’ opinions. the present research provided the opportunity to farmers to describe their opinions regarding adoption of new technology and allowed them to describe the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the present technology transfer process as used by extension/research. a vast majority of farmers indicated lack of money, high price of inputs referring to the price of dap fertilizer, seed and pesticide, and adulterated/outdated/expired inputs and non-availability of inputs as major problems faced by them while adopting new technology. the majority of farmers preferred farmer field schools, demonstrations and farm visits for better diffusion-adoption of new agricultural practices. farmers also perceived radio as an effective source of information. it is also a fact that farmers are receiving fewer visits by extension personnel. agricultural supplier/dealers were perceived as influential figures in the area as most of the decisions regarding use of inputs at farmers’ field are made by them. farmers suggested that more regular visits of extension personnel should be the priority of extension and realistic technologies should be diffused. the farmers indicated a weak information delivery system with less support for demonstration/visualization as weaknesses in the present technology transfer system. b. extension and research personnel the data shown in table-3 presents the perceptions of extension and research personnel regarding various sources of information as used by them and their effectiveness. both extension and research personnel perceived that on average they are using radio “almost always”, and magazines/brochures and agricultural suppliers “often”. in addition, they also perceived that radio, television, and magazines/brochures are “very much” effective sources of information as employed by extension/research, whereas, agricultural suppliers and neighboring farmers are “much” effective sources of information. the effectiveness of various approaches to technology transfer as used by extension and research personnel was recorded. results presented in (table-4) show that on average mass media (publications, radio, tv, audio-visual aids) are perceived as “effective” approaches to technology transfer. training/seminars, farmer field schools and demonstrations were perceived as “effective” group approaches to technology transfer. face to face and farm/personal visits of were perceived as “effective” individual approaches to technology transfer. table-3: perception of extension and research personnel regarding use* and effectiveness** of possible sources of information possible methods extension research use effectiveness use effectiveness a. television b. radio c. agriculture suppliers d. university extension e. news papers f. magazines g. extension personnel h. neighboring farmers 2.66 3.58 2.60 1.64 2.93 3.30 3.43 3.0 0.71 0.58 1.10 0.89 0.98 0.46 1.08 0.83 3.28 3.31 2.37 2.88 2.97 2.38 2.38 2.65 0.79 0.85 0.97 0.65 0.90 0.85 1.10 1.15 3.95 3.95 2.85 1.65 3.08 3.90 1.50 2.90 1.17 1.05 0.71 1.17 1.15 1.15 1.20 0.47 3.93 3.60 4.20 1.27 3.15 2.10 2.93 3.23 1.00 0.25 0.41 0.98 0.95 0.40 1.17 0.43 * a 1 to 5 likert type scale was used where 1 stands for never, 2 for seldom, 3 for often, 4 for almost always, and 5 for always ** a 1 to 6 likert type scale was used where 1 stands for little , 2 for some, 3 for much, 4 for very much, 5 for an exceptional amount and 6 for not applicable table-4: effectiveness of technology transfer approaches as perceived by extension and research personnel technology transfer approaches extension research m sd m sd a) mass media 1. publications 2. radio 3. tv 4. audio-visual aids 2.93 3.23 2.93 2.79 1.29 1.22 1.32 1.28 3.20 3.08 3.62 3.71 0.55 0.55 0.89 0.55 b) group 1. contact farmers 2. training/seminar 3. demonstration 4. farmer field schools 5. field days/tours 6. farmers organizations 2.85 2.69 3.66 4.45 2.97 2.89 1.15 1.17 0.97 0.35 1.53 1.30 3.21 3.35 4.10 3.93 2.97 3.13 0.77 0.61 0.73 0.64 0.48 1.10 c) individual 1. face to face 2. telephone 3. farm /personal visits 4. office calls 2.71 1.76 3.15 2.00 1.20 1.62 1.30 1.30 3.75 1.68 3.91 3.31 0.73 0.90 0.44 0.55 a 1 to 5 likert type scale was used where 1= not effective, 2 = to somewhat not effective, 3 = somewhat effective, 4, effective, 5 = very effective, and 6 = not applicable opinion survey agricultural extension/research personnel were of the opinion that mass media (tv, radio, publications) must be effectively used to transfer new agricultural practices to the farming community, since there are few opportunities provided to them to conduct demonstration plots and face to face meetings. however, both emphasized the need to conduct training/seminars as they proved to be effective ways of transferring technology. agricultural extension/research personnel admitted the strong role of private extension services (pesticide/fertilizer agencies) and agricultural suppliers in farmers’ decision-making. conclusions farmers perceived that on average they were using radio “always”, neighboring farmers and agricultural suppliers “almost always”, and magazine “often”. in addition, farmers perceived these sources of information as “very much” effective in diffusion of new agricultural practices. as well, farmers perceived that training/seminars, farmer field schools, and demonstrations were “effective” group approaches to technology transfer. radio from mass media was perceived as an “effective” approach in technology transfer. face to face and farm/personal visits were perceived as “effective” approaches to technology transfer in the individual category. farmers identified farmers field schools, demonstrations, and farm visits as better diffusion-adoption approaches for new agricultural practices. farmers also emphasized the need for regular farm visits in addition to the proper supply of pure inputs. extension and research personnel perceived that they used radio “almost always”, and magazines, brochures and agricultural suppliers were used “often”. in addition extension and research personnel perceived that the radio, television and agricultural suppliers are “very effective” sources of information. both extension and research personnel on average perceived mass media (publications, radio, tv and audio-visual aids) as “effective” approaches to technology transfer, whereas farmers field schools and demonstrations were perceived as “effective” group approaches to technology transfer. face to face and farm/personnel visits from individual approaches were perceived as “effective” approaches as well. both extension and research personnel were of the opinion that mass media must be used effectively in order to get maximum output with minimum efforts. however both emphasized the need to conduct seminars/training. both also emphasized the strong role of private extension services (pesticide/fertilizer agencies) and agricultural suppliers in farmers" decision making. references ali, t. (1980). an appraisal of zari university magazine broadcast by radio pakistan. university of agriculture, faisalabad. chaudhary, m. a. (1980). a study into the role of zarat nama in the dissemination of information on improved agricultural technology among farmers in district sheikhupura. university of agriculture, faisalabad. gall, m. d., gall, j. p. and borg, w. r. (2006). educational research: an introduction. (8th ed.). longman publishers, usa. government of pakistan. 2009. economic survey. finance division, economic advisor’s wing, islamabad. jalvi, g. a. (1990). critique on t and v system of agricultural extension. a paper presented in international seminar on productivity through agricultural extension. islamabad, pakistan. pp. 29-49. leedy, p. d. (2005). practical research. prentice-hall career & technology, usa. mahmood, k. a. (1987). a study into the extent of adoption of improved poultry production practices by poultry farm owners in sahiwal. university of agriculture, faisalabad. mirani, z.; leske, g. w. and a. a. khooharo. (1999). an assessment of the use of contact farmers in the training and visit extension. a paper presented at the annual conference of aiaee, trinidad and tobago. rashid, k. (1987). to study the impact of agricultural credit on the adoption of improved farm practices by small farmers in district sheikhupura. university of agriculture, faisalabad. rogers, e. m. (1995). diffusion of innovation. the free press, new york, usa. tahseen, m. 1987. an investigation into the adoption of recommended practices of growing late wheat in tahsil chichawatni. university of agriculture, faisalabad. wunsch, d. r. (1986). forum feature: action research in business education. business education forum. february 1986. vol. 5. pp. 31-34. 1146 ready the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles, special issue: odscsd. open data intermediaries in developing countries this paper explores the concept of open data intermediaries using the theoretical framework of bourdieu’s social model, particularly his species of capital. secondary data on intermediaries from emerging impacts of open data in developing countries research was analysed according to a working definition of an open data intermediary presented in this paper, and with a focus on how intermediaries are able to link agents in an open data supply chain, including to grassroots communities. the study found that open data supply chains may comprise multiple intermediaries and that multiple forms of capital may be required to connect the supply and use of open data. the effectiveness of intermediaries can be attributed to their proximity to data suppliers or users, and proximity can be expressed as a function of the type of capital that an intermediary possesses. however, because no single intermediary necessarily has all the capital available to link effectively to all sources of power in a field, multiple intermediaries with complementary configurations of capital are more likely to connect between power nexuses. this study concludes that consideration needs to be given to the presence of multiple intermediaries in an open data ecosystem, each of whom may possess different forms of capital, to enable the use of open data. !9 van schalkwyk, f., cañares, m., chattanpadhyay, s., andrason, a. (2016). open data intermediaries in developing countries. the journal of community informatics, 12(2) (special issue on open data for social change and sustainable development), 9-25. date submitted: 2015-08-08. date accepted: 2016-05-09. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1146 françois van schalkwyk stellenbosch university, south africa corresponding author. francois@compressedsl.com michael cañares step up consulting, phillipines mikocanares@steupconsultants.com sumandro chattapadhyay the center for internet and society, india sumandro@cis-india.org alexander andrason stellenbosch university, south africa andrason@sun.ac.za http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1146 mailto:francois@compressdsl.com?subject= mailto:mikocanares@steupconsultants.com mailto:sumandro@cis-india.org mailto:andrason@sun.ac.za http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1146 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction as public institutions open up vast and complex datasets, the expectation is the lives of all citizens will improve as a consequence of data being made publicly available. however, there are several stumbling blocks in the path of extracting the benefits from open data. on the side of the provider these barriers may include the effort and cost required to convert closed to open data; the cost of providing a user-focused context to ensure the uptake of complex datasets; poor data quality; absence of legal and policy frameworks; a lack of capacity to implement and sustain open data practices; and resistance by data custodians to opening data (janssen, 2011; magalhaes et al., 2013). on the side of the data user, barriers include lack of access, low levels of data literacy, lack of human, social and financial capital to effectively use open data, and also to open up and combine several datasets that together can create value for all citizens (gurstein, 2011; magalhaes et al., 2013; canares, 2014). to remove some of these barriers and, in so doing, to unlock the potential of open data for all, open data intermediaries are seen as playing a crucial role in linking complex open datasets with user needs, particularly in cases when those users come from grassroots communities. however, the different roles that intermediaries may assume in an open data ecosystem and how they are able to intermediate, has received limited attention in research. this synthesis research attempts to develop a more nuanced understanding of open data intermediaries at work in developing countries with a particular focus on how intermediaries connect actors and facilitate the flow of data. the concept of intermediaries in the context of ict research was first mentioned in the 1980s, but more as a process of intermediating, than as a collective description of persons and organizations performing the role of intermediation (tuula, 2008). the function of intermediaries was at the time considered critical to produce, launch, scale and popularise innovations by transmitting information from one supplier to another. thus, intermediaries are viewed as bridging organizations (sapsed et al., 2007), brokers (hargadon & sutton, 1997), agents (howells 2006) or support organizations (brown & kalegaonkar, 2002). among these definitions and descriptions, there is one binding narrative – that an intermediary is located between two or more parties. in terms of providing explanations for the existence of intermediaries and the functions they perform, sein and furoholt (2012) capture a widely held view on intermediaries: intermediaries ‘help users access information that is publicly available by locating these resources’, ‘integrating various sources on a specific topic, structuring these findings into a form understandable by interested users and disseminating it to them’. janssen and zuiderwijk (2014) in their study on what they describe as ‘infomediary business models’ also regard intermediaries as creators of value positioned between data providers and data users. they also point to the fact that intermediaries are vital in systems that become ever more complex resulting in greater levels interdependency between multiple agents as specialization intensifies. sein and furoholt (2010, p. 334) argue that, in the case of e-government and governance, intermediaries are critical in the ‘diffusion of services […], reducing corruption !10 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 […], moderating discussion on democracy […] and providing e-government, services of various types […].’ focusing on what drives ict ecosystems, fransman (2010) draws on the work of joseph schumpeter to describe ict as a sectorial ecosystem within the larger socio-economic ecosystem. he identifies the dynamically interacting organisms in the ict ecosystem including firms, non-firms, consumers and intermediaries bound by exchange as well as by the institutions (the repositories of rules, values and norms) in which they are embedded. key to fransman’s exposition of the ict ecosystem is that the ict ecosystem is driven by innovation (i.e. the injection of new knowledge into the ecosystem). firms compete and cooperate symbiotically, and the interaction between firms and consumers (that is, between knowledge creators and knowledge consumers) generates new knowledge which leads to innovation in the ecosystem. it is the pursuit of innovation that keeps the ict ecosystem in motion. of relevance here is research by intarakummerd and chaoroenporn (2013) on intermediaries and the contribution of intermediaries to innovation in developing-country contexts. they suggest that intermediaries in developing countries are able to compensate for a lack of social capital in innovation systems. by using their social capital to link actors in the ecosystem, intermediaries are able to trigger the innovation that propels the ecosystem. intarakummerd and chaoroenporn (2013) also differentiate between public and private intermediaries. their research therefore not only identifies the critical contribution that intermediaries with a particular type of capital play in driving innovation, but also that different types of intermediaries working in concert are required . 1 a study of the data practices of research and advocacy organisations working with government data has revealed the crucial potential of such organisations to enrich the supply of open data in the data ecosystem (chattapadhyay, 2014). through the regular use of government data, these organizations are able to demand disclosure of additional data where they encounter gaps in the supply of data, validate the quality of government data and reinforce the value of data sharing, not only between government and other stakeholders, but also between data users within government. van schalkwyk et al. (2014) in a study on the use of open data in the governance of south african public universities hint at intermediaries in this data ecosystem relying on personal connections (or social capital) to enable the flow of data to potential data users from a closed government data source. open data intermediaries are found to play several important roles in the ecosystem: (i) they increase the accessibility and utility of data; (ii) they may assume the role of a ‘keystone species’ in a data ecosystem; and (iii) they have the potential to democratise the impacts and use of open data. the article concludes that despite poor data provision by government, the public university governance open data ecosystem has evolved because intermediaries in the ecosystem have reduced the viscosity of government data. in a developing-country context, several authors have made mention of the importance of trust in enabling intermediaries to connect actors – in open data in particular (davies 2014) and, more broadly, in icts (srinavas 2007, diaz andrade & urquhart 2010, sambasivan 2010, all in bailur & masiero 2012) and development (fukuyama, 2001; lyon, 2000). see research by maghalhaes (2013) and jansen & zuiderwijk (2014) on different types of open data intermediaries, and 1 sein (2011) and sein & furuholt (2012) on intermediaries in e-government (which can be assumed to include open data intermediaries). !11 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 interpersonal trust can be interpreted as a proxy for social capital – trust is the bonding agent in social networks. intermediaries that are trusted by actors in different networks are able to bridge discreet networks thereby creating new linkages. it is apparent from this brief overview of the literature that few studies focus on open data intermediaries specifically, and that there is a lacuna in terms of empirically-based research that attempts to explain the behaviour of open data intermediaries as key actors in data ecosystems. there is, however, a suggestion in the literature of the importance of the ability of intermediary actors to link other actors in and between networks. the research question of this synthesis study is therefore as follows: how are open data intermediaries able to facilitate the flow of open data in developing country contexts in order to increase the probability of open data use and impact? conceptual framework given the limited amount of research on open data intermediaries and the requirement for a stable and robust understanding of what an open data intermediary is in order to operationalise the research question, we present a working definition of an open data intermediary . the definition of an open data intermediary used in this paper is as follows: an 2 open data intermediary is an agent (i) positioned at some point in a data supply chain that incorporates an open dataset, (ii) positioned between two agents in the supply chain, and (iii) facilitates the use of open data that may otherwise not have been the case. a narrower definition of open data exists in the form of the open definition . broadening the 3 definition creates space for contestation founded on contextual variances. for example, an unequivocal position on open data being machine-readable or an insistence that a lack of explicit licencing limits the uptake of open data are contested. it is therefore important that the definition presented here is not conditional on a particular understanding of what open data is (davies, 2014). the definition is deliberately agnostic; in other words, the definition of an open data intermediary is not dependent on the definition of open data. it is implicit in the definition that there is a difference between an open data intermediary and a data intermediary. for an agent in the data ecosystem to be considered an open data intermediary, it is a requirement that open data be located at some point in a supply chain in the ecosystem (see figure 1). the implication of this is that the end product in the chain may not necessarily be open. the defining condition is not the final data output’s openness but that open data located at some point in the supply chain enabled the reuse of data. an open data intermediary may neither access nor supply open data but may nevertheless facilitate the flow of data in a supply chain by unblocking a process in the chain. for example, such an intermediary may broker an agreement between two agents in the supply chain without actually working with data in any way. this definition has been formulated based on the insights gained from examining the oddc cases. in addition, the 2 definition benefited from the input of a broad range of stakeholders at three separate workshops, one in berlin in july 2014, a second in guimaeraes in october of the same year, and a third in jakarta in february 2015. http://opendefinition.org3 !12 http://opendefinition.org the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the distinction between actual and perceived use of open data is an important one to make as it is a determining factor in whether an agent in a data chain can in fact be described as an open data intermediary. based on the definition of an open data intermediary presented in this paper, an intermediary must be positioned between two agents in an open data supply chain. if an intermediary is located between an agent and a purported end user in the chain, but there is no evidence of use, then the intermediary is not in fact an intermediary. in such a case, the ostensible intermediary is in fact the end user, and represents the last instance of agency in the open data supply chain. figure 1: conditions for a data supply chain to be considered open theoretical framework intermediaries in open data systems have been likened to biological ecosystems, in which intermediaries are viewed as ‘keystone species’ (harrison et al., 2012; nardi & o’day, 1999; iansiti & levin 2004; van schalkwyk et al. 2015). however, the biological ecosystems approach is, we believe, predisposed to under-representing the inherent power dynamics in ecosystems, in particular the power imbalances and the capital flows that exist in a social ecosystem. in this paper we adapt bourdieu’s model of field, habitus and capital as an alternative and, in our view, more promising explanatory framework of interactions that characterize actors, including intermediaries, in social systems. 4 according to bourdieu, the social world constitutes a multidimensional structure in which individuals are positioned depending on three relational, almost symbiotic, parameters: field (and its local variation, situation), habitus and capital. a field is a structured and dynamic portion of the space that is defined by its own rules and principles of action governing relations in which the actors can engage. it is a network of all direct and indirect, close and remote connections between actors. the notion of field also includes the actor’s properties and their power structure, such as hierarchy and domination patterns, and all the types of capitals possibly employed. it is a multidimensional grid of we do not discard the possibility that some versions of an ecosystem model may be employed for studying 4 intermediaries. however, given that bourdieu’s theory of field, habitus and capital directly incorporates the concepts of power and assets flow (or disproportion), and seems to transpose effortlessly to the situation of intermediation in a social context, we have chosen to explore bourdieu’s social theory in this study. we also note that authors such as helbig et al. (2012) opt for an alternative heuristic – the ‘information polity’ – because it allows ‘for understanding how the creation or modification of data sources, flows, or governance relationships affects interests of various stakeholders’ (helbig et al. 2012: 11, emphasis added). !13 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 possible stances and moves that an individual can adopt (bourdieu & wacquant, 1992; fox, 2014). habitus is a complex of durable, observable and/or publicly expressed dispositions an 5 individual develops given the field in which they exist. habitus is a structure, embedded in an individual that emerges from all the actions an individual has performed or all the engagements he or she has been involved in during their lifetime (bourdieu 1990:53). fields are not bounded by impenetrable borders. sometimes, a mediating notion between field and the actors with their habitus is posited, namely a situation. this stems from the fact that a field can in fact involve a great number of possible practices that constraint actors differently leading to formation of different habitus. in other words, actors never perform in fields as such but exclusively in the field’s sub-section (a specific situation), which sometimes may be located in the border zone of two or more fields (santoro, 2011). a situation is therefore a more granular approach to the field-position of an actor which, contrary to autonomous fields, allows for fuzzy areas and mixing of generally independent spaces. individuals (or a groups of them) are positioned in the social space not only in respect to the structure of the field to which they belong and their own habitus, but also by the volume and type of the capital they hold (bourdieu, 1990; wacquant, 2006). capitals correspond to the accumulation and/or convertability of advantages, and are capable of discriminating agents because of their distinct positions in the field (bourdieu, 1984; halford & savage, 2010. bourdieu (1984, 1986) proposes the notion of capital to explain the interaction of actors in social systems. traditionally, there are three main species of capital: economic, cultural and social. economic capital usually involves economic assets (e.g. monetary value), cultural capital makes reference to knowledge and experience (e.g. competencies and qualifications), and social capital is understood as institutionalised connections or social networks with which an individual is bestowed (e.g. friends, acquaintances and memberships). there is also another, fourth type, referred to as symbolic capital which corresponds to any form of capital that is not regarded as such (e.g. respect, reputation and fame) (bourdieu, 1986; bourdieu, 1996; wacquant, 2006). capital does not have intrinsic value in terms of being advantageous but only makes sense in relation to a field in which it is employed. in one field a given form of capital is highly advantageous, while in other fields its advantage is less or even worthless. capitals can be converted so that the assets that are not advantageous in one field or in one of its sectors (e.g. among certain individuals) be advantageous in others. capital, thus, corresponds to assets that not only are but that also may produce advantages (halford & savage, 2010). it is evident that fields are not stable but inherently dynamic. this non-equilibrium stems from the inherently relational structure of the social world whose three main coordinates (field, habitus and capital) are interconnected, constantly influencing each other and shaping the overall system. a field not only determines the individuals’ actions (habitus) and the types the field can be understood as an environment that constrains and, to a degree, determines the existence and motion 5 paths of actors (either those who are already present or those who entering it), as well as the types of capital which they can employ to position themselves in this space. the habitus can be imagined as a collection of paths that reflect the actions of an individual in the field (bourdieu, 1993). it is analyzed in terms of internal (cognitive) predispositions that characterize an individual in response to external structures found in the field. !14 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 of benefits’ accumulation and conversion (capitals), but is also conditioned by these individuals’ habitus and the capital that penetrates and nourishes the field that jointly work towards preservation or disruption of this field. inversely, habitus and capital are not only conditioned by the field, but can in a feed-loop manner contribute to it, thus structuring the field in which they have been embedded: the change in the capital or habitus will modify the field (fox, 2014). using bourdieu’s ideas as a narrative model for intermediaries, the following can be postulated. the general environment in which data systems and their transmission take place in developing countries (with the structures found in a state, power relationships, existing individuals, physical and social arrangements, etc.) can be viewed as a relatively autonomous field. each particular case of transaction constitutes a situation s in this general frame, in which two (or more) agents are involved: an agent α (possibly dominant due to possession of an asset in the form of data) with a particular habitus and capital (represented by a dynamic function f(α)) and another agent β (possibly dominated due to a lack of material or symbolic resources expressed in general terms as a deficit) also with a determined habitus and capital (function f(β)). both functions solve for the two agents, possibly predicting their most likely paths in the field and responses to its structure and possible situations in which they can actually engage. however, the relation between the two agents is possible in the situation s only (or principally) because an intermediary actor γ (with his or her own habitus and capital, and path f(γ)) emerges and affords for this situation in which the habitus of the agents α and β can meet and a transfer or conversion of capitals can take place. the more the path f(γ) intersects with the path f(α) and f(β) – i.e. the more proximate it is to the both sides of a transaction – the more likely it is that such a transaction will be successful. research method the study is based on the analysis of a sample of cases extracted from 17 oddc case studies. the sources of the data were the final reports published on the oddc website (http:// www.opendataresearch.org/reports). intermediaries were selected for inclusion in this study based (i) on the definition of an open data intermediary provided in this paper; and (ii) on the availability of sufficient data on the intermediary in question. ‘sufficient data’ constituted published information on the value that intermediaries provide in order to link agents in a given open data ecosystem, in so doing promoting the use of data in the ecosystem. from the oddc case studies, 32 intermediaries were identified: 27 from asia and 5 from africa. the preponderance of asia-based intermediaries was due to the fact that oddc case 6 studies focusing on asian countries focused more narrowly on intermediaries whereas the african studies tended to focus on other aspects of open data. data were extracted by means of textual analysis of the oddc case study reports. where possible, the websites of intermediaries included in the study were consulted in order to supplement the data extracted from the case study reports. analysis comprised of establishing the two agents between which an intermediary is located, followed by an estimation of how the intermediary is able to connect between the two agents – in other words, deducing what types of capital the intermediary possesses to allow for a connection to be made. in order to for a full list of cases included in the study, see http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.45181 6 !15 http://www.opendataresearch.org/reports http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.45181 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 make this estimation, the deficit of the recipient agent was inferred from the case study text, and a determination was made as to the value that the intermediary provided in order to connect asset-holding and deficit-exhibiting agents in the open data supply chain. data were captured in template tables to allow for richer, more narrative data to be recorded as this was seen to be necessary in being able to determine what types of transaction-enabling capital intermediaries possess. tables were classified by field and the table template was structured to capture the following data on each intermediary: agentasset (name, type, asset); intermediary (name, url, organisational type, value provided, type of capital provided to enable the transaction, revenue model, incentive); agentdeficit (name, type, deficit). 7 limitations the study relied heavily on secondary data for its analysis. this secondary data took the form of case study reports produced for the emerging impacts of open data in developing countries project. the case studies were not conceived or written with intermediaries in mind, although most case studies relied on a conceptual framework developed by the project and this conceptual framework acknowledges the role of intermediaries in open data ecosystems. intermediaries may rely predominantly on one data source or they may draw on several data sources, both open and proprietary. in this paper, because of a reliance on existing case studies, the data source used by an intermediary included in the case is often related to and confined by the focus of the case study. for example, if the case focused on budget data, then the case of a particular intermediary may only include in its description the use of a single government budget data source by the intermediary. however, this does not necessarily imply that such an intermediary does not extract and re-use data from other sources. in this sense, this paper is limited to a slice or cross-section of particular data supply chain in a specific data ecosystem as presented in the oddc cases. our analysis may at times create the impression that open data supply chains are linear and/or static. this is clearly not the case. descriptions are inevitably of a particular arrangement at a particular point in time; however this does not imply that the open data supply chains are not complex and dynamic. findings and discussion the findings of the examination of 32 open data intermediaries to determine types of capital 8 possessed in order to facilitate a situation where the intermediary actor γ (with his or her own habitus and capital, and path f(γ)) emerges and affords for this situation in which the habitus of the agents α and β can meet and facilitate a transfer or conversion of capitals, are summarised in table 1 below. see http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.45181 to access the data tables.7 for a list of all 32 intermediaries and the raw data, refer to http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.45181 .8 !16 http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.45181 http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.45181 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 1: types of capital possessed by open data intermediaries in order to facilitate data flow in specific fields the value of capital in understanding open data intermediaries from a theoretical perspective the findings support the use of bourdieu’s theories of social interactions (and his concepts of situations, habitus and, in particular, capital) as a narrative model for open data intermediaries. in most of the cases analysed (97%), intermediaries deployed their technical capital to collect, digitise, clean, reorganise and translate data (most often from governments) into information. there was less evidence of other forms of capital being deployed. however, there is some evidence of technical capital being used in conjunction with economic (6%), cultural (6%), symbolic (3%) and social (31%) capital. in kenya, both government and donors supported the code4kenya initiative to develop applications to increase the effective use of data. however, ihub’s research shows that usage levels are paltry (mutuku & mahihu, 2014). this could point to a preponderance and overemphasis on the value of technical capital in one field, and low levels of social capital among application developers in another field (where potential users are located). if developers/intermediaries possessed higher levels of social capital, this could make intermediaries more likely to be able to connect with citizens and increase the likelihood of end-use. in other words, technical capital may enable a transaction, but the value of the transaction is limited by the fact that the transaction results in low levels of return for citizens. the case of arghyam, an indian ngo that manages the india water portal, is an example of an open data intermediary acknowledging the limits of its reach ostensibly because it is cognizant that it lacks the capital to connect effectively to users. it ‘works primarily through partnerships with non-profit organisations, csr divisions of multinational corporations and the media; [… and] with volunteers from a wide range of backgrounds, disciplines and locations, who contribute their valuable time and energy to the cause of spreading awareness on and sharing solutions for india’s water problems’ (http://schools.indiawaterportal.org/ aboutus). prs in india relies only on technology to engage with citizens but holds workshops to engage with journalists. ‘engagement with citizens is facilitated through the prs blog, twitter and facebook pages. workshops are held for journalists on tracking the activities of mps and mlas. in addition, prs provides inputs to the press and electronic media on the legislative agenda in parliament, as well as data on legislative performance. members of the prs team are often approached to contribute columns to provide a perspective on various key !17 type of capital (n=32) economic cultural social symbolic technical 9% 6% 31% 3% 97% http://schools.indiawaterportal.org/aboutus the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 bills’ (http://www.prsindia.org/aboutus/what-we-do/). this could be indicative of prs’s social capital enabling links with the media but not necessarily with citizens. in the case of the accountability initiative in india, there is evidence of an intermediary using its cultural capital to make successful use of right-to-information legislation in order to extract data from government: ‘the data has been collected through surveys and government owned data bases ... in addition, right to information applications were filed to secure access to information under the control of public authorities’ (http://www.accountabilityindia.in/ paisa_states). our findings and the examples provided above point to the value of different types of capital in connecting data supply and use. they also point to the limits of an overreliance on technical capital in connecting users with open data. stated differently, the importance of other forms of capital, such as social capital, plays a critical role in connecting data to prospective users. this finding supports the findings of intarakummerd and chaoroenporn (2013). multiple intermediaries in the case study from south africa, open data on public higher education performance is made possible by the presence of two intermediaries (van schalkwyk et al., 2015) (see figure 2). the first intermediary in the supply chain (cs) has a long-standing relationship with key personnel in the south african government department responsible for collecting higher education data. this intermediary possesses the social capital to access closed government data; data that the second intermediary (chet) would not be able to access without recourse to legal proceedings. the first intermediary also possesses the technical capital that enables him to extract data from the complex data tables in the government database, and to reorganise, validate and repackage the data into formats usable by the second intermediary in the chain. the first intermediary combines his social and technical capital to connect government data to the second intermediary. the second intermediary has a reputation for producing high-quality research on south africa higher education, and therefore possesses the symbolic capital to confer on the published open data a high degree of reliability and confidence amongst end-users in the field. it has also secured funding from an international philanthropic organisation providing it with the economic capital required to retain the services of the first intermediary. !18 http://www.prsindia.org/aboutus/what-we-do/ http://www.accountabilityindia.in/paisa_states the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 2: multiple open data intermediaries in the south african higher education data supply chain 9 in the case of the karnataka learning partnership in india, there is an explicit acknowledgement of the limits of technology in connecting with users: ‘the programme data and the share-your-story component ... in its current form, excludes the majority of our intended target audience – the parents of children who go to government preschools and primary schools who are mostly illiterate and do not have online access due to lack of electricity, computers, computer educators, internet connections, local-language content etc.’ (https://klp.org.in/about/). in other words, while karnataka has used its technical capital to consolidate and translate raw data into usable open data, it concedes that this is only part of the task at hand. given its target audience, it needs to deploy its social capital in other ways in order to connect the parents of school-going children to the information provided by the portal. or it may lack the social capital in this field and will have to resort to soliciting a new intermediary with sufficient in the users’ field in order to connect share-your-story to parents. these cases point to what we believe is an often overlooked dimension in open data intermediation: intermediation does not only consist of a single agent facilitating the flow of figure 2 has been simplified to illustrate the points made in the text. a more detailed version of this supply chain is 9 available at https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.2067318 . for a diagrammatic representation of how this supply chain fits into the larger ecosystem, see https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1040414 . !19 https://klp.org.in/about/ https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.2067318 https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1040414 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 data in an open data supply chain; multiple intermediaries may operate in an open data supply chain, and the presence of multiple intermediaries may increase the probability of use (and impact) because no single intermediary is likely to possess all the types of capital required to unlock the full value of the transaction between the provider and the user in each of the fields in play. based on our findings, and in line with the theory that influence is increased the closer an intermediary is to the source of power (lorenzen, 2006; barnett & duvall, 2005), we would suggest that proximity is an indicator of the extent to which open data intermediaries are able to intermediate effectively. and proximity can be expressed as a function of the type of capital that an intermediary possesses. however, because no single intermediary necessarily possesses all the types of capital available to link effectively to all sources of power in or across fields, multiple intermediaries with complementary configurations of capital are more likely to connect between power nexuses. for example, an advocacy group may possess the symbolic or cultural capital required to apply effective pressure on government to release open data. however, the advocacy group will most likely lack the technical capital required to facilitate the publication of the data in useful formats. the tech community may lack the cultural or symbolic capital to negotiate effectively the publication of government data, but it is likely to have the technical capital required to develop applications or to interpret large datasets, i.e. to make the data usable. neither the advocacy group nor the tech community may be well connected to the potential users of open data because both lack the requisite social capital in that field. community-based organisation or professional bodies may possess the social capital required to access possible user groups and, as such, may function as effective user aggregators in linking open data to users. the model in figure 3 presents the multiple layers of intermediation between a data source and end-use, with each intermediary deploying its own relatively strengths as expressed by the type of capital it possesses in order to connect actors and to facilitate the effective reuse of open data. figure 3: a model of layers of intermediaries connecting a data source with users in bourdieu’s terms, given the complexity of the field, it is unlikely that the function f(x) of the intermediary intersects ideally both with the function f(α) of the initial data supplier and the function f(β) of the final data receptor(s) as these two latter may be topologically distant. rather, it will intersect with the functions f(γ1) and f(γ2) of individuals that are proximate to it, in this field or situation. the more topologically adjacent the functions of the interacting individuals are, the more likely the transaction between them – in this case, the flow of data – will be. therefore, in order to ensure the transaction between the individuals α and β, a chain !20 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 of topologically proximate functions f(γn) should be established, where each transactional link involves functions that typologically intersect. in short, the presence of multiple open data intermediaries may improve use and impact of open data. we may further postulate that since different parts of the field (or different situations) are inhabited by distinct individuals with dissimilar habitus, they (these situations) may require different types of capital for transactions to be successful. the more remote the regions of the field are, the more probable it is that they will be governed by distinct forms of capital. what constitute assets at the initial portion of the data-flow chain (connection between the government and an intermediary), may not be so at its final fragment (connection between an intermediary and the receptor(s)). inversely, the more proximate the individuals are, the more likely it is that their capitals will be similar or at least convertible. thus, the fact of possessing a similar form of capital can be a tangible measure of proximity between the actors involved in the data flow. accordingly, ensuring that two parts of each transactional link employ or are interested in an analogical type of capital (and hence ensuring their topological proximity) can importantly improve the data flow from the source to the final receptor, as the model directly relates the success of a transaction to the proximity of the actors involved in it. in order to enhance the transaction between these technically specialised agencies (intermediaries) with the data suppliers (e.g. governments) and data users (e.g. individuals), who are less responsive to technicalities, but who are more concerned with symbolic and/or social forms of capital as they directly interact with humans, at least two further links (apart from the intermediary with its technical capital) seem to be necessary. one will connect the technical intermediary with the data suppliers, while the other will relate this technical intermediary to the data receptors. such two additional intermediaries must have a type of capital that is attractive both to the supplier/receptor and the technical intermediary. however, the fact that the field can be extremely complex and consists of a great number of situations, in which distinct capitals play a crucial role, may necessitate a number of proximate intermediaries with similar capital types so that the transaction between the distant supplier and receptor can take place and be successful. technical capital as a distinct form of capital given that the technical capital is especially pertinent to data treatment and processing, it is a crucial competence for individuals who deal directly with the data in a professional way, by opening it, retrieving, reproducing, etc. what is less clear from this study is the value of introducing technical capital as a new type of capital into a field or situation. perhaps technical capital is no more than a proxy for other established forms of capital. if, for example, one were to determine the qualifications, memberships and social status of the founders and/or directors of the intermediary organisations included in this study – that is, those of the 97% instances where technical capital was used to link actors in open data supply chains – it is conceivable that these intermediaries entered into a field not because of their technical capital but rather because of their cultural or social capital. in the same way, intermediaries may be using their economic, social, cultural or symbolic capital to connect with and attract actors with the requisite technical competences to enter a field or situation. in effect, the transaction between those who own data assets and those who exhibit a deficit with regard to data is made possible, in the first instance, by an intermediary’s cultural, social and/ !21 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 or symbolic capital, and only in the second instance by acquiring the technical skills required to connect the data asset with communities who do not possess the skills or resources (economic or symbolic) to do so themselves. in other words, after the means or social mechanism for transacting had been secured, the acquisition of technical skills follows. further research that explores the qualifications, memberships and social status of the founders and/or directors of open data intermediary organisations, and which attempts to determine whether these attributes, rather than their technical capacities, enabled them to enter the field and to play and intermediating role, could go some way to provide greater clarity on the extent to which technical capital is a distinctive and useful type of capital in explaining why intermediaries enter specific data ecosystems. conclusion the adaptation of bourdieu’s ideas to the problem of intermediaries is not a panacea likely to model all the situations in which intermediaries are involved. nevertheless, the theory of field, habitus and capital can provide a uniform framework for explaining certain robust characteristics of intermediaries and their agency. furthermore, it may unveil traits previously imperceptible, and may predict the behaviours of intermediaries and their most likely impact in a data ecosystem. . notwithstanding the limits of any framework seeking to reflect social reality combined with a reliance in this study on secondary data that did not always reveal the richness of data required to conduct more an in-depth analyses of open data intermediaries, the field, habitus and capital framework has revealed two valuable insights on open data intermediaries. first is the value of different types of capital in connecting data supply and use, and the concomitant acknowledgment of the limits of an overreliance on technical capital in connecting users, particularly those located in grassroots communities, with open data. second is that intermediation does not only consist of a single agent facilitating the flow of data in an open data supply chain; multiple intermediaries may operate in an open data supply chain, and the presence of multiple intermediaries may increase the probability of use (and impact) because no single intermediary is likely to possess all the types of capital required to unlock the full value of the transaction between the provider and the user. it is hoped that these two insights alone not only provide fertile ground for further research but that they will make funders, policy-makers and advocates who work in the area of open data more attuned to how open data intermediation needs to be arranged for the actualization of the oft-lauded benefits of open data for all communities. acknowledgments the funding for this work has been provided through the world wide web foundation 'exploring the emerging impacts of open data in developing countries' research project, supported by grant 107075 from canada’s international development research centre (web.idrc.ca). find out more at www.opendataresearch.org/emergingimpacts !22 http://www.opendataresearch.org/emergingimpacts the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 references bailur, s., & masiero, s. 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(2015). the local data revolution: the impact of human centred design (report from the 2015 mobile world congress, barcelona, spain, 4 march 2015). !25 http://www.opendataresearch.org/content/2014/710/case-study-open-data-governance-south-african-higher-education cscc tele-physical examination and tele-care systems for elderly people maiga chang1, jia-sheng heh2, and hwei-nung lin2   1school of computing and information systems athabasca university maiga@ms2.hinet.net *corresponding author   2dept. of information and computer engineering chung-yuan christian university jsheh@ice.cycu.edu.tw, farmer@mcsl.ice.cycu.edu.tw   abstract   healthcare is important to people, especially to elderly people who lives independently. since internet services are getting reliable and stable, the tele-healthcare systems built on the internet can be good supports to the traditional home healthcare centres and hospitals. the internet-based tele-healthcare systems use internet and specific modules can decrease the healthcare costs for patients and organization; can relieve the health professional shortage (at all levels) and the limit of institutional beds situations; and, can reduce unnecessary medical facility visits as well as examinations. furthermore, such systems can reduce time costs, for instance, elderly people don't need to travel to the hospitals just for figuring out their health conditions. this research uses state-and-transition graph to analyze and build tele-healthcare system. the state-and-transition graph makes the healthcare process such as the care-giving tasks and status become crystal clear, and the token-based flow can help the care service providers (e.g. healthcare organizations and caregivers) ensure that the correct care services/actions have given at right time as well as avoid the possible mistakes which may be made by caregivers accidentally. with the proposed tele-healthcare system, elderly people can do physical examinations alone at home. the examination data is sent to the tele-healthcare server via internet for analyzing and the health condition is categorized into different alarm levels. the system then arranges correspondent care services/actions for the elderly people automatically. a pilot has been done in a care centre of elderly people in taiwan. keywords   healthcare, non-intrusive physical examination, westgard multi-rule quality management, telemedicine, x-chart, levey-jennings control chart   motivation and contributions   recently, life conditions and medical technologies are getting better and people's average ages are older than before. most of developed countries have accepted the age of 65 or older as being "elderly" (who, 2008). according to the report by director-general of budget, accounting and statistic (dgbas) in taiwan, the percentage of the elderly people (age 65+) in taiwan in 1989 was 5.96% and the percentage has now reached 10.75% (january, 2011) of the total population (director-general of budget, accounting and statistic, 2011). this situation also happens in canada. the percentage of the elderly people has increased from 1920's 6.68% to 2010's 14.13% of the total population in canada (statistics canada, 2011a). statistics canada estimates that the population will increase to 37,057,100 by 2016 with a staggering 6,000,100 men and women aged 65 or older (statistics canada, 2011b). this translates into 16.19% of the country’s population at or above retirement age.   hence, more and more researchers focus on solving the problems that an aging society may have, e.g. the elderly people might not obtain suitable care services/actions at the right time from their family members, the shortage of health professionals such like doctors and caregivers, and the cost of medical resources. in order to solve these problems, the care organizations are investigating a more efficient way to deal with the care requests. the care requests, for instances, elderly people may need to ask doctors or caregivers to examine their health conditions and/or to explain their health conditions for them in either hospitals or at their homes.   internet services are getting reliable and stable in this decade. there are many medical organizations using computers and internet technologies to deal with the care requests, this kind of systems are treated as tele-healthcare systems. using the tele-healthcare system is easier for the care organizations to reduce the costs caused by the shortage of health professionals and caregivers, because of the caregivers and doctors can monitor the health conditions of the elderly people remotely (collen, 2000; kun, 2001; kart, moser, & melliar-smith, 2008; karl, finkelstein, & robiner, 2006; lee, hsiao, chen, & liu, 2006; zhu, ahuja, wu, dauterman, chen, sukalac et al., 2008). such a system allows the caregivers to retrieve the elderly people's health conditions remotely and to take appropriate care actions at right time (kahn & sheshadri, 2008; maglaveras, chouvarda, koutkias, gogou, lekka, goulis, et al., 2005; stantchev, schulz, hoang, ratchinski, 2008). in summary, such a system benefits to doctors, caregivers, and elderly people, e.g. doctors can get clear picture of the health conditions of the elderly people who have chronic diseases; caregivers can avoid taking unnecessary care actions and spending a lot of time in travel between the care facilities and the elderly people's homes; and also, the elderly people do not need to go to the hospitals often.   in order to develop an ideal tele-healthcare system, there are at least three issues needed to take into our considerations. the first issue is how to reduce time costs and manpower (collen, 2000). the second issue is how to get the elderly people's health conditions. there are two kinds of medical examination instruments: non-intrusive and intrusive instrument. this research uses non-intrusive instrument to get the elderly people's physical examination data. the non-intrusive instruments are usually used to detect and measure physiology signals, e.g. blood pressure, electrocardiogram, and breathing frequency. the third issue is how to ensure the elderly people received appropriate care services which are supposed to be given by the caregivers.   this research uses two methodologies to build such an ideal tele-healthcare system. first of all, we use state-and-transition graph to analyze and design a tele-healthcare system. the system shows the elder's health conditions to the caregiver and helps the caregiver take appropriate actions of the elder. second, we use x-chart and westgard multi-rule quality management to analyze the elderly people's physical examination data and to categorize their health conditions into different alarm levels for reminding medical professionals to take actions and reducing the chance of false alarm generation at meanwhile.   the rest of this paper is organized as follow. section 2 introduces the state-and-transition graph and quality management. section 3 defines the four alarm levels and describes the detailed processes of how the state-and-transition graph based tele-healthcare system works. the system architecture will be introduced in section 4. at the end, section 5 first uses a complete example to show the workflow of the tele-healthcare system, and then reveals how the system really works in a sanatorium in yunlin, taiwan. section 6 does a simple conclusion.   backgrounds for designing and developing tele-healthcare system   some researchers find that people who have chronic diseases in the hospital need to spend a lot of time for traveling between their homes and hospitals and require medical resources for monitoring and healthcare (emanuel, fairclough, slutsman, alpert, baldwin, & emanuel, 1999; karl, finkelstein, & robiner, 2006). many researchers build healthcare information management systems for people like that. such application indeed improves people's life and healthcare conditions, also provides people a better medical environment (collen, 2000).   emanuel and colleagues (1999) propose four care services: nursing care, transportation, homemaking, and personal care services. in order to deliver the requested care services to the people and save the manpower and medical costs, this research gives the caregivers the ability of taking appropriate care actions by defining the care actions and using a state-and-transaction graph. this research also uses the quality control and management to define four alarm levels for representing people's health conditions.   petri net is a mathematical representation of discrete distributed systems. it was invented by carl adam petri in 1962. petri net has been used in many different domains such like performance evaluation, communication protocols, fault-tolerant systems, programmable logic, vlsi arrays, discrete event systems, decision models, and office-information systems.   there are three elements in petri net: state nodes si, transition nodes tj, and directed arcs connecting states and transitions (peterson, 1981). states may contain any number of tokens. when the transition condition is satisfied, the token will move from one state to another.   figure 1 shows a petri-net example in which there are four states: s1, s2, s3, s4, and three transitions: t5, t6, t7. the token starts at the state s1 and should move to other states through the transition t5. when t5 is triggering, the token would be transfer to either states s2 or s4. the further details of how petri-net works will be explained later by figure 4. figure 1 petri net example this research alters petri nets to build the state-and-transition graph to represent how the elderly people's health condition changes trigger specific care actions and how the caregivers' behaviors trigger specific system reactions. the detailed descriptions and explanations will be introduced later in section 3.3.   there are four standard quality control charts: (1) mean control chart (x-chart), (2) range control chart (r-chart), (3) twin plots method (twin plot), and (4) cusum control chart (cusum chart). x-chart calculates the mean value (ẋ) and the standard deviation (sd) of collected data, produces a chart of relations between ẋ and sd. levey and jennings (1950) are the first researchers using x-charts for the clinical examination. after that, using x-chart in the clinical examining has become an important method.   there are four problems may happen when we use quality control charts: (1) immaturity of working techniques, (2) a bad of measurement instruments, (3) a change of reaction condition, (4) an error of computation. because of x-chart is a single value model which can possibly cause immaturity of working techniques and bad measurement instruments. westgard and colleagues propose a multi-rule way to improve x-chart applications and can be also used in unusual data measurements (westgard, barry, hunt, & groth, 1981; westgard & barry, 1986). westgard rules are summarized as:   (1) when a single examination value goes beyond the range between ẋ + 2sd and ẋ 2sd, we must check it again or apply the following rules. (2) when a single examination value goes beyond the range between ẋ + 3sd and ẋ 3sd, this examination result would be abandoned and re-examination is needed. (3) when two continuous examination values go beyond the range between ẋ + 2sd and ẋ 2sd, it might be a system error and the result would be abandoned. (4) when the difference between two examination values is 4sd, it possibly a random error and this result would be abandoned. (5) when four continuous examination values go beyond the range between ẋ + sd and ẋ sd, it might be a system error and the result would be abandoned. (6) when ten continuous examination values are all higher than the mean value or lower than the mean value, it might be a system error and the result would be abandoned. this research uses both of x-chart and westgard multi-rule quality management to define the alarm levels of the elderly people's health conditions and the rules of care giving. tele-healthcare system analysis   maglaveras and colleagues (2005) conclude that tele-healthcare systems should have four functions:   (1) measurement: patients can upload their health conditions by using tele-healthcare instrument at home. medical personnel can take appropriate care actions after analyzed the patients' health conditions. (2) communicative: patients can communicate with medical personnel and/or professionals (e.g. doctors) with tele-healthcare systems via emails, short messages, instant messengers, and voip (voice over ip) phone calls.. (3) interactive: patients can use tele-healthcare systems to see their medical data (e.g. electrocardiogram) and realize their health conditions, also, the systems can deliver the care requests to appropriate care givers for the patients and send emergency care action requests to appropriate care givers according to the patients' health conditions, so the patients can get right medical care service at right time. (4) educational: patients can use tele-healthcare systems to get information and/or education materials such like blood sugar control plan to improve their health conditions on their own. two roles, patients and caregivers, are taken into consideration in the proposed tele-healthcare system. the patients could be mentally ill, physically disabled, health condition is impaired by sickness and aging, however, this research and corresponding pilot mainly focus on elderly people. the caregivers are taking care of the patients and may be the patients' family members or volunteers.   in this research, the tele-healthcare system has two subsystems: tele-physical examination subsystem and tele-care subsystem. the main function of the tele-physical examination subsystem is to allow elderly people to do physical examinations by themselves at home and to upload the examination data to the healthcare organizations via the internet. the tele-physical examination subsystem is mainly designed to reflect the measurement function that a tele-healthcare system should have. moreover, the subsystem will provide the patients additional information and materials based on its examination results, the subsystem also has the above mentioned educational function.   the main function of the tele-care subsystem is to notify the caregivers taking appropriate care actions at right time according to the elderly people's health conditions. the tele-care subsystem therefore is mainly designed to reflect the interactive function that a tele-healthcare system should have. in many situations, the subsystem generates and delivers required care action requests to the caregivers for the patients, which makes the communications in-between the patients and the caregivers happen. in some cases, the caregivers will be asked by the subsystem to help the patients book an appointment with the doctors, which allow the patients to communicate and discuss their health conditions with the doctors. the subsystem therefore has the above mentioned communicative function. the proposed tele-healthcare system hence has all the four functions that maglaveras and colleagues concluded in 2005. due to the communicative function can be reached by any kind of information communication technologies and the educational function is relatively easier to implement if compared with the other three functions, we put more efforts on the other two functions in this research. so the rest of this paper mainly focuses on the two functions that a tele-healthcare system should have, i.e., measurement and interactive function.   it is important for a tele-healthcare system to know which health condition a patient has according to his/her examination data. the state-and-transition graph is a good methodology to analyze and represent the health conditions of the patients. we design three modules in these two subsystems: measurement module (in tele-physical examination subsystem), care action arrangement module and action module (in tele-care subsystem), for reaching this goal.   tele-physical examination subsystem   this research uses two quality control methods, x-chart and westgard multi-rule, to decide the alarm level of a patient's health condition and the alarm timing. an alarm has four levels: normal (a), subnormal (b), cautious (c), and alert (d). alarming levels are decided by x-chart based on the mean values (ẋ) and standard deviations (sd) of the patient examination data (tseng, lin, cheng, heh, & lo, 2007). after getting the mean value and standard deviation of the examination data, the top limit is set as ẋ + 3sd and that bottom limit is set as ẋ 3sd. in other words, the data in the range between ẋ + 3sd and ẋ 3sd is called action limit as figure 2 shows. if the patient's examination data go beyond the limit, then westgard multi-rule may recheck the patient's examination data for triggering the care actions. the data falls into the range between ẋ + 2sd and ẋ 2sd will be seen as an "alert". figure 2 action limit the range between ẋ + 2sd and ẋ 2sd is warning limit as figure 3 shows. if the patient's examination data go beyond the limit, then the caregiver should take appropriate care action for the patient. if the patient's examination data falls into the warning limit, then the system will send the message to the patient and ask him/her to pay attention on his/her related health condition.   figure 3 warning limit the warning limit includes three alarms levels: normal, subnormal, and cautious. the range between ẋ + 1.5sd and ẋ + 2sd or between ẋ 1.5sd and ẋ 2sd are "cautious". the range between ẋ + sd and ẋ + 1.5sd or between ẋ sd and ẋ 1.5sd are "subnormal". the range between ẋ + sd and ẋ sd is "normal" and the caregivers do not need to take any care actions for the patients.   this research revises westgard multi-rule quality control to generate appropriate care rules for the physical-examination subsystem and adopts x-chart norms at the same time. electronic instrument may have random errors: (1) the single examination record is greater than ẋ ± 3sd and (2) the difference between two continuous examination records are larger than 4sd. these errors in the physical-examination subsystem are considered as the incorrect examination data and will be dropped.   tele-care subsystem   figure 4 measurement module in the tele-care subsystem   figure 4 shows the process of the patients use the measurement module to do physical examination and get reminders from the system if they forgot doing the examinations. initially, the system is halt at state s1. the transition t1 will be triggered and the system asks the patient registering and filling out his/her personal information. at state s2­, the patient shall do the physical examination by himself/herself at home. two situations might happen at state s2. first, the patient does the physical examination and the transition t2 will be triggered. in this case, after the patient finished his/her physical examination, the transition t6 will be triggered and the system analyzes the examination data and decides the alarm level. on the contrary, if the patient does not do the physical examination in specific time period, the transition t3 will be triggered and the system goes to state s4 to remind the patient doing physical examination. if the patient does not do physical examination over a week, the transition t4 will be triggered and the system will send message to the patient to remind him/her again. at the end, the system goes back to state s1 and repeats the physical examination process. we intended to not using t5 to name the transition here due to we have two identical transitions "sending the reminder to patient" in figure 4.   table 1 pre-conditions and actions of transitions in figure 4   pre-condition actions t1 the patient filled out the personal information begin examination t2 the patient starts doing the physical examination. decide result t3 the patient didn't do the physical examination in a time period. no examining t4 the patient still didn't do the physical examination over a week. send a message to remind the patient t6 the patient finished the examination. decide the alarm state table 1 shows the conditions of all transitions in the measurement module (figure 4). after the system decides the alarm level for the patient's health condition, the caregiver will take appropriate care action accordingly. figure 5 shows the care action arrangement module. once the system receives the examination data, the system analyzes the data and decides the alarm levels for the patient. according to the alarm levels, the caregiver realizes what health conditions the patient has. there are four alarm levels: a, b, c, and d. the level 'a' indicate that the patient's health condition is normal and doesn't need any care service. figure 5 care action arrangement module in the tele-care subsystem as figure 5 shows, there are two tokens, m2 and m3, in this module. the token m2 represents the alarm level of the patient. the token m3 represents whether the caregiver has taken the care action for the patient or not. in figure 5, after the transition t6 triggered, the system goes to state s6 to wait for the care action arrangement. the caregiver may (1) take appropriate care action for the patient according to the alarm level or (2) do nothing for the patient.   in the first situation, when the patient's alarm level is 'a', the caregiver may ask the patient to do another physical examination item, for instance, the patient has done the heart function examination and everything seems good, however, the caregiver could ask the patient doing another kidney function examination. the transition t1 will be triggered and the system returns to state s2 again. also, the caregiver may provide related healthcare information according to the patient's health condition. the transition t7 then will be triggered and the system goes to state s1.   if the patient's alarm level is 'b', the transition t8 will be triggered and the system goes to state s8. the caregiver may take appropriate care actions, for example, arranging home healthcare service for the patient. the transition t9 would be triggered and the system goes to state s9. if the patient's alarm level is 'c', the caregiver needs to arrange the patient to do online diagnosis with the doctor. the transition t9 is then triggered and system goes to state s10. if the patient's alarm level is 'd', the caregiver needs to help the patient make appointment with the doctor at hospital. in this case, the transition t9 will be triggered and the system goes to state s11.   if the caregiver does not take any care action for the patient, the transition t10 will be triggered and the system goes to state s12. if the caregiver does not take any care action for patient more than two days, the transition t11 will be triggered and the system goes to state s13 and asks the caregiver taking a care action immediately for the patient. table 2 lists the pre-conditions and actions of transitions in the care action arrangement module (figure 5).   table 2 pre-conditions and actions of transitions in figure 5   pre-condition actions t1 ask the patient to do another physical examination examination t6 finish the examination. decide alarm level t7 finish the examination and get the alarm level. provide healthcare information t8 the alarm level has been found. arrange care actions t9 the caregiver has taken the care action. finish arrangement t10 the caregiver didn't take the care action. no care action arrangement t11 the caregiver didn't take care action more than two days remind to arrange care actions t12 system sends an urgent request to the caregiver and asks s/he taking the care action. send a message about care action arrangement figure 6 shows the action module. two tokens, m4 and m5, in this module. the token m4 represents the alarm level of the patient's health condition and the token m5 represents whether the caregiver have completed the care action(s) or not.   figure 6 action module in the tele-care subsystem a caregiver may (1) has taken the care action or (2) doesn't complete the care action. if the caregiver completes the care action for the patient, the transition t13 will be triggered and the system goes to state s14. the caregiver is then asked to upload the care report to the system and the transition t15 will be triggered to make the system go back to state s1. if the caregiver does not complete the care action for the patient, the transition t14 will be triggered and the system goes to state s15 to remind the caregiver doing the care action. if the caregiver does not complete the care action in three days, the transition t16 will be triggered and the system sends the message to the caregiver and asks him/her to complete the care action immediately. table 3 lists the pre-conditions and actions of transitions in action module (figure 6).   table 3 conditions of transition nodes in action module   condition actions t13 the caregiver has done the care action. finish care actions t14 the caregiver doesn't do the care action. finish no care actions t15 tele-care subsystem received an action report. care report t16 the caregiver doesn't do the care action in three days. remind to finish care actions t17 tele-care subsystem sends a reminder to the caregiver. send a message about executing at the end of this section, figure 7 below shows a complete state-and-transition graph of the proposed tele-healthcare system.   figure 7 modelling the tele-healthcare system with the state-and-transition graph.   tele-healthcare system architecture the tele-healthcare system architecture designed by this research can be divided into four parts according to the workflow. the four parts are case, execute, server, and monitor, as figure 8 shows. the patients can make care service requests and the caregivers can take appropriate care actions. we describe the details from different viewpoints.   figure 8 tele-healthcare system architecture   figure 9 shows how the tele-healthcare system works for the patients. the patients can use the tele-physical examination subsystem to do physical examination by themselves. the examination data is then uploaded to the database via internet directly and transparently. the alarm system receives the examination data from the tele-physical examination subsystem and stores it into the case database. the rule-based care system analyzes the examination data and automatically categorizes the patient health condition into one of four alarm levels: normal, subnormal, cautious, and alert.   figure 9 how the patients use the tele-healthcare system? the patients can have clear idea of their health conditions and relevant information within the system. for example, the patient who has a liver disease can get information such as "eating high-salinity food less and having sleep at right time" from the system.   on the other hand, caregivers can receive the patients' health conditions from the case database within the tele-care subsystem as figure 10 shows. the caregivers also take care actions for the patients and upload the action reports to the tele-care subsystem. figure 10 how the caregivers use the tele-healthcare system? figure 11 shows how care organizations and medial professionals such like doctors, caregivers, and administrative personnel use the tele-healthcare system.   figure 11 how care organizations use the tele-health system? a doctor can access the patient's examination data (as figure 12 shows) to get in-depth view of his/her health conditions such as cholesterol, blood sugar, and liver function. figure 12 time-series of some diseases   the examination data is considered important to the medical professionals if: two continuous examination records are alert; three continuous examination records are cautious; four continuous examination records are subnormal; the average of four examination values is alert; the average of six examination values is cautious; and, the average of eight examination values is subnormal. by using westgard multi-rule quality control method, the caregiver can take different care action according to the patient's alarm level. table 4 lists the relations among westgard multi-rules, alarm levels, and care actions which used in the proposed tele-healthcare system.   table 4 relations among westgard multi-rules, alarm levels and care actions statistics method/number alarm level alarm value care action 4 continuous examination records alert d make an appointment at a hospital 6 continuous examination records cautious c arrange online diagnosis with doctors average value of 8 examination records alert d make an appointment at a hospital average value of 8 examination records cautious c arrange online diagnosis with doctors   the caregiver needs to take appropriate care actions according to the alarm level of the patient's health condition. for examples, the caregiver can choose to arrange online diagnosis with doctors for the patient when his/her alarm level is 'c' or to make an appointment with the doctor at a hospital for the patient when his/her alarm level is 'd'. after the caregiver completes the care action, the caregiver needs to upload the action report to the system immediately. from the care organization's viewpoint, the proposed tele-healthcare system benefits them in two ways. first, if some caregivers didn't take care actions in specific time period, the monitor will send a message to ask them doing the actions immediately. second, caregivers have to upload the care action reports after they complete the actions, these action reports are not only considered as proofs of hard working, but also give the organizations an idea of when and what care actions have been taken.   complete example and the pilot   complete example   in this example, there are patient, caregiver, and doctor. stis is the patient, alex is the caregiver, and maiga is the doctor. some parameters involved in the state-and-transition graph are defined, for example, the token m1 in figure 13 represents whether stis takes a physical examination in a week. after stis takes the physical examination and uploads the examination data to the database via the internet, stis gets information about his health conditions. if stis doesn't take any physical examination for a while, the system will send message to stis and ask him to do examination at home by himself. the message looks like: "hello, [stis]: it's a reminder. the records show that you haven't used the tele-physical examination system for a while. [alex] hopes that you could do the physical examination as soon as possible. this reminder is sent on [2011/03/12] ".   figure 13 measurement module for stis case after stis takes the examination, the data is sent to the system. alex will get idea of stis' health condition. if stis' health condition is classified at the alarm level 'c', then alex should take appropriate care action for him. based on table 4, alex should arrange stis doing an online diagnosis with maiga (the doctor). if alex does not arrange the care action for stis, the system will send a message to alex. the message looks like: "hello, [alex]: it's an alarm message about your patient, [stis], whose liver function is at the alarm state [c]. please take the appropriate care action for him/her. this message is sent on [2011/03/12]." figure 14 shows the process of care action arrangement in alex-stis case.   figure14 care action arrangement module for alex-stis case after stis does an online diagnosis with maiga, alex needs to work with maiga to conduct a diagnosis report. if alex does not upload the action report in expected time, the system will send a message to ask alex to upload the care action as soon as possible. the message looks like: "hello, [alex]: it's a message about your patient, [stis], whose liver function is at alarm state [c]. the care action was arranged on [2011/03/12]. if you haven't taken any care action for him/her yet, you must take appropriate care action immediately. if you have completed the care action already, please upload the action report immediately. this message is sent on [2011/03/14]." figure 15 shows the process of action module for alex-stis case. figure15 action module for alex-stis case the system for pilot as we mentioned in section 3, the tele-healthcare system has two subsystems: the tele-physical examination subsystem and the tele-care subsystem. figure 16 shows the tele-physical examination subsystem and its sign-on window. the patients need to sign in the system and do physical examination by themselves at home with the non-intrusive physical examination pen as figure 17 shows. the non-intrusive physical examination pen basically gathers the electronic data from particular points on the human body. those points are called acupuncture points and are used in treatment based on the traditional chinese medicine theory. the patients can do many physical examination items, e.g. kidney stone and liver function.   figure 16 the patient needs to sign in the tele-physical examination subsystem before taking non-intrusive physical examination figure 17 non-intrusive physical examination figure 18 examination results and suggestions after the patient does the physical examination, the system shows the alarm level for him/her (as figure 18 shows). also, at the bottom of the screen, the patient can find suggestions for his/her health condition.   the pilot in yunlin, taiwan   in order to prove the state-and-transition graph is helpful to the tele-healthcare system, this research did a pilot in a sanatorium in yunlin, taiwan. the pilot asked the patients doing non-intrusive physical examination at least once a week at home. in addition, the sanatorium also designated five caregivers for the twenty senior citizens. figure 19 shows partial results of the examination data analysis of the twenty senior citizens. there are five examination items they can do: liver function (i.e., the 3rd column), asthma (i.e., the 5th column), heart function (i.e., the 7th column), blood glucose value (bglu) (i.e., the 9th column), and cholesterol (i.e., the 11th column).   figure 19 partial results of the examination data analysis of twenty senior citizens take the patient #5 as an example. the patient has the alarm level 'b' in his/her liver function, blood glucose value, and cholesterol. after the caregiver receives the alarm levels of his/her health conditions, the caregiver does care actions for the patient. we use his/her blood glucose data to show how the proposed tele-healthcare system runs (please refer to fig 7). (1) august 7: s1 (didn't take examination) s2 (didn't take examination) s3 (took examination, alarm state is a) s6 (don't need caregiver, alarm state is a) ->action report at 09:56 am (2) august 9: s1 (didn't take examination) s2 (didn't take examination) s3 (took examination, bglu's alarm level is b) s6 (no action arrangement, alarm level is b) s8 (no action arrangement, alarm level is b) s9 (has action arrangement, alarm level is b, the caregiver doesn't do the care action) s12 (has action arrangement, alarm level is b, the caregiver did the care action) -> action report at 09:45 am (3) august 15: s1 (didn't take examination) s2 (didn't take examination) s3 (took examination, alarm level is a) s6 (don't need caregiver, alarm level is a)->action report at 09:56 am conclusions   it is important to develop a tele-healthcare systemfor healthcare organizations, professionals, and patients. people can monitor and realize their health conditions with the system easily. utilizing the state-and-transition graph to analyze the tele-healthcare system which we proposed in this research can clearly and simply show the relations between the patient's health conditions and the caregivers' care actions. in addition, the system can also remind the caregivers do appropriate care actions and monitor the care action activities. three differences between this research and previous tele-healthcare solutions: (1) the proposed system uses state-and-transition graph (altered petri-net) to structure its flow and actions, the state-and-transition graph is not only easy to understand for everyone but also provides flexibility to organizations such as hospitals and healthcare centre to make the system fit into the regulations and the workflow that the organizations currently have; (2) the proposed model takes four different user groups organizations, professionals (e.g., doctors), caregivers, and patients into consideration, which provides a much more complete tele-healthcare solution; and, (3) the internet based non-intrusive health condition examination method allows elders to do physical examination easily and no danger, in addition, the x-chart and westgard multi-rule based diagnosis method reduces the possibility that the system raises false alarms for elders' health condition the proposed tele-healthcare system not only can save the costs of medical manpower and resources, but also can discover the patients' unusual health conditions with the two quality control methods, x-chart and westgard multi-rule. at the next step, we are considering to integrate the mobile devices (e.g. smartphones and mobile phones) into the tele-healthcare system. for example, the mobile devices can access the medical examination instrument's records via bluetooth or usb interface and send the examination data to the tele-healthcare server at anytime and anywhere. in this case, the system can be a good support for preventative healthcare, moreover, the whole system will be non-stop health service as long as the patients have the wearable medical examination instrument and their mobile phones have turned on. furthermore, the perceptions that elderly people and professional toward technology acceptance and satisfaction degree are needed to be investigated further.   references   collen, m. f. 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(2008). improving startup performance for a medical image viewing application. ieee it professional, 10(2), 38-45. 1021 ready the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 points of view mediated communication and mediated communities in the information age this article argues that electronically mediated communication contributes to the construction of new, mediated forms of communities which are based on the synthesis of virtual and physical communities. the appearance of these new forms of communities leads to a new conceptualization of the relation between self and community. the aim of this article is to show the basis and effects of this process by examining the proposition that the expansion of electronic communication and the linguistic convergences induced by new communication technologies contribute to the construction of new forms of communities based on the interaction, or operational synthesis, of virtual and physical communities. introduction the communications revolution of the 20th century has had significant impact on the conceptualization of globalization. in other words, the recent conceptualization of globalization is rooted in a process of change which has brought an expansion of electronic communication-based culture, abolishing the dominance of printed literacy. it seems that by using electronic technologies (radio, television, the internet, mobile telephony) and the specific pictorial language of multimedia communication, we can increasingly eliminate the spatial and temporal bonds of the global exchange of information. by deploying new technological dimensions of communication, an opportunity presents itself to simultaneously follow various global processes and events. this new, simultaneous information world is referred to as ‘global village’ by marshall mcluhan in his works (mcluhan 1962; 1964; !157 gábor szécsi institute for philosophical research of the hungarian academy of sciences; university of pécs, faculty of adult education and human resources, hungary. szecsi.gabor@feek.pte.hu szécsi, g. (2016). mediated communication and mediated communities in the information age. the journal of community informatics, 12(1), 157—167. date submitted: 2013-01-25. date accepted: 2016-04–04. copyright (c), 2016 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1021 mailto:szecsi.gabor@feek.pte.hu the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 mcluhan and fiore 1967) as he points out, electronic technologies “abolish the spatial dimension, rather enlarge it” (mcluhan 1964: 255), and his perception that the world has ‘imploded’ gives rise to the famous statement that: “ ‘time’ has ceased, ‘space’ has vanished. we now live in a global village…a simultaneous happening” (mcluhan and fiore 1967:63).recognition of the importance of mcluhan’s conception leads many theorists, who are concerned to study communication via the internet, to insist on the continued relevance of mcluhan’s work for understanding media in the digital age (levinson 1999; kerckhove 1995). it has become both for mcluhan and his followers that .the new global-communityconsciousness, growing out of the use of electronic media supported by the effects of the information economy, will accelerate the technologically and economically based process of globalization. gradually, we will become citizens of the mcluhanesque global village, and as such we can witness the birth of a new universal civilization. global communication is the most important manifestation of this new civilization based on western patterns. in this new communication galaxy, the flow of information becomes quicker and continuous; the universally understandable iconic world, icon-based information and multimedia-based know-how transfer play ever-going roles. the rules of this special iconic language which supersedes cultural boundaries will transform our different societies and cultures into a ‘global village’. accordingly, the notion of a new kind of worldwide flow of information determines the meaning of the term ‘globalization’. there are a large number of semantic layers, however, which have settled on this conceptual base. although nowadays we use the word ‘globalization’ to refer to phenomena to which the social sciences have created their own categories (e.g. the division of labour, integration, international cooperation), the notion of globalization is inseparably attached to our expectations regarding the effects of electronic media on the creation of the conditions for worldwide communication. though the real-time occurrence and proximity created by electronic media have not been followed by the reconciliation of certain cultures, and especially not by the economic balancing of different regions of the world, the meaning of the word ‘globalization’ still suggest our faith in the positive developments of global communication and in a knowledgebased social world model. this meaning is rooted in our belief that the worldwide flow of information creates a specific atmosphere of acceptance in which the characteristic approaches that are dividing nations and cultures do not prevail, but rather those common problems move into focus which are of concern to all of us. in the spirit of this, users of the new technologies feel themselves to be members of a global community, the borders of which supersede the common human relationships defined and articulated by new, mediated forms of communities. in this article, i try to support the above assumption by discerning the effects that are occur to our conceptualization of community by the use of electronic media. to clarify the nature of this new conceptualization, i propose as a starting point that the expansion of electronic communication has transformed our notion of the relation between place and community. with a greater proportion of our communicative acts taking place via electronic media, physical co-presence, the co-located interpersonal relations are diminishing as determinants of the nature of human interactions. !158 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 it would seem that in the space of electronic media, community should be understood as a mediated network of interactions between individuals who uniformly accept and apply some rules for the communicative actions aiming at the effective exchange of information. in other words, there is an inner relation between the criteria of community and the global and local conditions for an effective method of information exchange. and these global and local conditions transform our notions surrounding a community’s structure and life. the electronically mediated communication, as an inherent part of real life in today’s world, contributes to the construction of new, mediated forms of communities which are based on the interaction or operational synthesis of virtual and physical communities. the appearance of these new forms of communities leads to the new conceptualization of the relation between self and community. in the age of electronically mediated communication, the essence of community is a kind of networked individualism in which the networked individuals can chose their own communities, rather than are fitted into them with others involuntarily. therefore the new, mediated form of community implies an individual-centered existence and weaker social ties, as new technologies foster communication links outside the individuals’ immediate social surrounds. accordingly, electronic communication creates a new context in which our notions of culture, community, society, human interactions become more complex. these more complex notions can be regarded as the bases of the idea of the global and local information communities in which the communication attitudes of a person are determined by their impression of their self as permanently available individual whose communicative acts are embedded in a special information net. the aim of this paper is to show the basis and effects of this process by examining the proposition that the expansion of electronic communication and the linguistic convergences induced by new communication technologies contribute to the construction of new forms of communities based on the interaction, or operational synthesis, of virtual and physical communities. towards an operational synthesis of virtual and physical communities by the using electronic communication technologies, an individual’s conceptualization of community is embedded strongly in the associative system of conceptual relations that represent the various situations of information exchange. with such a conceptualization of mediated community is conceived as a network of communicative interactions. i want to argue here that the ways of understanding of the interactions between virtual and physical communities move beyond the traditional sociological conceptualization of community-asinterpersonal towards a conceptualization of mediated communities that are based on the interaction or the operational synthesis of virtual and physical communities. in the information age, the electronically mediated communication contributes to the construction of new, hybrid virtual and physical forms of communities which have some level of social capital, and the functions of which are to foster communities of interest, to spread information, and to promote equality of status, all of which work to enhance social capital, that is, the ability of individuals to associate and work together for common communal purposes despite the lack of direct physical orientation. the appearance of these new forms of communities leads to the new conceptualization of the relationship between individual and community. in the age of electronically mediated communication, the essence !159 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 of community is a kind of networked individualism in which individuals can choose their own communities, rather than being involuntarily fitted into them with others. therefore the new mediated form of community implies an individual-centered existence and weaker social ties. new technologies foster communication links outside individuals’ immediate social surroundings. just as traditional theories of community regard community and society as distinct forms (tönnies 2001), it is also easy to consider physical and virtual communities as mutually exclusive forms of social organization. in this view, physical community can exist only by virtue of physical co-location in space, and is based on people’s natural association through sameness and residential solidarity. virtual communities created by electronically mediated communication, however, attempt to break some of the boundaries of geographic location, gender, and ethnicity established in physical communities. in other words, physical communities are based on shared social and physical boundaries, whereas virtual communities are based on shared social practices and interest. considering the influence of mediated communication on our community-concept, however, many theorists believe that we need a synthesis of physical and virtual communities in order to truly inhabit our experiences. manuel castells, for example, holds that we need a ‘bridge’ between physical and virtual places in order to unify our experience, because virtual communities only deal in fragmented individuals when they are opposed to real life (castells 2000). others, like amitai etzioni (2001), james e. katz. (katz et al. 2004), barry wellman, and milena gulia (1999), caroline haythornthwaite and lori kendall (2010) emphasize that the best communities are indeed the hybrids of physical and virtual communities. they see the ideal communities as virtual communities enhancing physical communities. according to katz et al., since the electronically mediated communication becomes inherently part of real life in today’s world, “we need an operational synthesis of virtual and physical communities in order to have fulfilling, embodied experiences all of the time” (katz et al. 2004: 362). in this view, in the age of electronically mediated communication, the dividing line between virtual and physical communities becomes increasingly indistinct. therefore, as mark poster shows it, the mediated individuals imagine their virtual communities as real (poster 2001). that is, the role of communication as meaningful and value-based in virtual communities also works to construct physical communities as well. it is obvious that through this new synthesis of virtual and physical communities, electronically mediated communication contributes to a new construction of the self. the mediatization of communities leads to fractured and fragmented selves, because it opens up many other possible communities in which to participate. the new communication technologies enable individuals to participate in alterior alternative? systems of values, belief, and desires. as kenneth j. gergen notes: “new affective bonds are created outside one’s social surrounds. the result is that the centered sense of a bounded self slowly gives way to a ‘multiphrenia’ of partial and conflicted senses of self. identity becomes fluid, shifting in a chameleon-like way from one social context to another” (gergen 2003: 111). thanks to these changes, the networked individual is attached less and less to the place and position appointed by his own social ties. through his multi-channel communicative acts he can become acquainted with more and more communal forms, ways of life, traditions and values in the light of which he can choose more deliberately from among the competing local !160 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 communities. and this more deliberate choice becomes a part of the more and more complex and multi-layered identity of the networked individual. as joshua meyrowitz writes on the multiple, multi-layered, fluid, and endlessly adjustable senses of the media-networked individuals’ identity: “rather than needing to choose between local, place-defined identities and more distant ones, we can have them all, not just in rapid sequence but in overlapping experiences. we can attend a local zoning board meeting, embodying the role of local concerned citizen, as we cruise the internet on a wireless-enabled laptop enacting other, non-local identities. and we can merge the two as we draw on distant information to inform the local board of how other communities handle similar issues and regulations. all the while, we can remain accessible to friends, family, and colleagues from anywhere via a textmessage enabled mobile phone.” (meyrowitz 2005: 28) new localities are in the making which are particular in many ways, and also are influenced by global processes and global consciousness. thus the new local communities organized in the space of electronic communication, on the one hand, strengthen the local attachments, the local identity and, on the other hand, can be regarded as integrated elements of the virtual communities created by global information exchange. consequently, the global virtual community serves as a kind of comparison background for the local communities organized in the age of electronic media. with globalized communication space, electronic media give the networked individual external perspectives from which to judge and define his own local community. in other words, the twentieth-century expansion of electronic communication technologies, as meyrowitz writes, ‘have placed an interconnected global matrix over local experience’ (meyrowitz 2005: 23). the networked individual determines the characteristics of his own local community in the light of information acquired in the global communication space. the global perspective created by electronic communication has transformed not only the community-definitions but the individual’s relation to social rules. in the space of electronic communication, there is a new possibility to change the rules of social perception and the national institutions of political and cultural domination as a consequence of new global perspectives. this last sentence is a bit repetitive one of the most characteristic features of the virtual space of electronic communication is that it lacks the compulsory categorization system and the classificatory forms and norms of a print society. in the media-networked global and local communities, it is difficult to maintain several traditional categorial distinctions that characterized the print societies. that is, as electronic communication technologies expand, the dividing line between several political and social categories becomes increasingly indistinct. the age of electronic communication is the age of opening up categorical and classification boundaries. in this new space of communication, the traditional distinctions between private and public, between children and adult experiences, and between male and female spheres collapse and disappear. in the age of electronic media, as meyrowitz suggests, we are experiencing “both macro-level homogenization of identities and micro-level fragmentation of them” (meyrowitz 2005: 29). a new virtual social space is in the making, strengthening cohesion of competing local communities, and in which, therefore, the influence of traditional social and political !161 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 institutes declines. the new communication situations created by the use of electronic technologies foster greater emotional attachments, to the local community which we choose from among the competing communities deliberately without social and political restriction. thus in this new social space there is a fundamentally new possibilities to change the rules of social perception and the conceptualization of the relation between the local communities and traditional political institutes of state. thanks to these changes, the networked individual is attached to the place and position appointed by his own social class less and less. through his multi-channel communicative acts he can become acquainted with more and more communal forms, ways of life, traditions and values, in the light of which he can choose more deliberately from among the competing local communities. and this more deliberate choice becomes a part of the more and more complex and multi-layered identity of the networked individual. by using electronic communication technologies, a networked individual becomes a part of a network of interactions between humans who uniformly accept and apply some rules for the communicative acts aiming at the effective exchange of information. in other words, the media-networked individuals become members of a virtual community that is determined both by the global and the local conditions for an effective method of information exchange. regarding the conceptualization of this new virtual community, nicola green, for example, argues for a new view of community, in which the significance of locality and interpersonality recedes to the benefit of symbolic processes (green 2003). as green points out: “as is the case with internet and ‘virtual’ communities then, understandings of mobile ‘communities’ should move beyond the conceptualisation of ‘communities-as-interest-groups’ (secured via the authentication of the embodied liberal individual and their ‘right to privacy’), and indeed beyond a traditional sociological conceptualisation of ‘communitiesas-interpersonal-and-co-located’ (secured via relations based on face-to-face interaction in kinship or social commonality). rather, we should move towards a conceptualisation of ‘communities-as-trust-processes’ (secured via the mutual, reciprocal and multiple negotiation of mediated, interpersonal, and organization uncertainty and risk).” (green 2003: 55) this new conceptualization moves beyond the traditional definition of community, according to which, as green writes, community as “an ideal type of relation corresponding to ‘natural will’, is distinguished by an appeal to a totality of cultural history in the collective memory of tradition, is defined through common property, family, custom and fellowship, and is bound by consensus, language and ritual” (green 2003: 53). the basis of this conceptualization is a complex system of associative conceptual relations that includes our concept of community, and integrates the conceptual representations of human interactions which determine the life of community both in a direct and indirect way. the medium of the new conceptualization is a specific pictorial language, the semantic structure of which offers new opportunities to grasp and understand the complex concept of community. !162 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 linguistic convergences in mediated communities one of the most important criteria of the new, more deliberate attachment to the local is the deliberate application of the ways of usage that create new local communities in the age of electronic communication. the appearance of these new ways of usage can be regarded as a consequence of networked individuals’ deliberate choice to want to join in the global information exchange, and to express conceptual relations and emotions as a member of a local community by using new linguistic forms. these new ways of usage are rooted in the communication language of electronic media that can be regarded as a result of the convergence of two special forms of electronic communication, secondary orality induced by radio, television and ‘netspeak’ induced by the internet and mobile telephony.thus we consider the new linguistic culture of electronic communication as one of the most important conditions of the conceptual and social convergences experienced in the space of electronic media. it seemed that this new linguistic culture is both the basic both of the global perspective created by electronic communication and the cohesion of the new, mediated communities that are strengthened by deliberate choices of the networked individuals. in this new linguistic culture, the original social function of language, namely, the building and maintaining of the cohesion of human community, becomes important development. this is because in print societies, language has moved away from its original function as a consequence of the appearance of the oral-literal bilingualism and the linguistic asymmetry rooted in the social dominance of the standard dialect of literacy. that is, instead of strengthening community's cohesion, bilingualism disintegrates primary human communities as the use of their own dialects is overtly stigmatized in light of the socially preferred standard dialect of literacy. this communication culture that forces the whole society and all communities to use one preferred language variety goes against the individual’s biologically encoded need to belong to a primary community. the original social function of language, however, has survived the linguistic asymmetry as developed in print societies. people hold to their everyday use of language, even if they judge their own dialectical varieties incorrect under the pressure of the overt prestige of the standard. since the members of small local communities generally communicate with one another orally, the linguistic conventions characterizing these communities have survived in the age of standard linguistic varieties too. in these small local communities the importance of cohesion-strengthening, local values outstrips the external social values that are symbolized by the standard forms of written communication. this phenomenon is experienced especially in small, isolated rural and suburban communities where the prestige of the non-standard variety of usage can be regarded, at the same time, as a symbol of communal identity (trudgill 1980; milroy and milroy 1991) . in the space of electronic communication, literacy that generated the asymmetry of linguistic norms of oral and written communication seems to be losing its power, as the prestige of the identity-strengthening ways of usage that characterizes small communities and group grows. the expansion of the non-standard varieties of language preferred by the networked individuals is accelerated by the use of electronic media (internet, mobile telephone). this process leading to decline of the prestige of literacy is accelerated by the convergence of the oral and the written communication technologies that affects usage since the new kind of orality created by the use of radio and television or, especially, use of multimedia messaging, !163 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the synchronous-complementary transmission of speech, text and pictures in the space of mobile and internet communication. there are well-perceptible, concrete signs of this convergence of the features of the oral and the written usage. let us consider the texts that are mediated by the internet or mobile telephone. the texts of many e-mail and sms message actually belong to the domain of speech and not to the domain of written texts. the grammatical and stylistic characteristics of these messages can be regarded as the marks of a special kind of oral communication. these grammatical and stylistic elements, however, are integrated into the texts mediated by new communication technologies in a more deliberate waythan into any oral utterances. by using these elements, the utterer intends to show that he wishes to accept and apply the norms and the rules of a linguistic community organized by e-mail and sms communication. that is to say, he uses these grammatical and stylistic elements of linguistic communication to make it unambiguous that he is attached to a community accepting some forms of usage and that this attachment is a consequence of a deliberate choice. the linguistic forms accepted in this way strongly affect everyday usage. the use of the aforementioned linguistic forms leaves its mark on written communication, ç leadings to convergence between orality and literacy. what can be regarded as an outcome of this process is the increasingly indistinct dividing line between the linguistic characteristics of oral and written communication. a new communication culture is in the making which integrates the forms of language used in oral utterances and in written texts. one of the most characteristic features of this communication culture is that the advent of multimedia communication has resulted in a strong interaction between picture and language in the process of oral and written messaging. thanks to the appearance of this specific, pictorial language, the process of the convergence and synthesis of the linguistic features of oral and written forms of communication is accelerated. an important oral medium of this new communication culture is referred as ‘secondary orality’ by walter j. ong in his classic work, orality and literacy (ong 1982). the new kind of orality, accordingly, is not succeeded by, but completes, the cultures of literacy. as ong writes: “[…] with telephone, radio, television and various kinds of sound tape, electronic technology has brought us into the age of ‘secondary orality’. this new orality has striking resemblances to the old in its participatory mystique, its fostering of a communal sense, its concentration on the present moment and even is use of formulas. but it is essentially a more deliberate and self-conscious orality, based permanently on the use of writing and print, which are essential for the manufacture and operation of the equipment and for its use as well.” (ong 1982: 135-136) the other significant medium of the new communication culture , which is called ‘netspeak’ by david crystal (2004) in his language and the internet, however, is better seen as a novel language combining written, spoken, and electronic properties. as crystal notes, the term “netspeak” , which is an alternative to “internet language”, “cyberspeak”, “electronic language”, “computer-mediated communication”, and “other cumbersome locutions” (p. 17), refers to a new species of communication that is “better seen as written language which has been pulled some way in the direction of speech than as spoken language, which has been written down” (p. 47). electronic texts, however, are not the same as other kinds of texts, because, as marilyn deegan (2000) points out, they display simultaneity, fluidity, and non !164 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 degradability in copying, and they have permeable boundaries. these properties, as crystal (2004) writes, “have consequences for language, and these combine with those associated with speech and writing to make netspeak a genuine ‘third medium’” (p. 48) that is more than aggregate of spoken and written features. in my view, the new linguistic culture of electronic communication can be regarded as a fruit of the convergence of spoken language of secondary orality and written language of ‘netspeak’. it seems that there are well-perceptible, concrete signs of this convergence of the features of oral and written usage. let us consider texts that are mediated by the internet or mobile telephony. the text used in many e-mail and sms messages actually belongs to the domain of speech and not to the domain of written language. the grammatical and stylistic characteristics of these messages can be regarded as the marks of a special kind of a new communication culture (e.g., the various types of abbreviations, distinctive graphology, the new lexicon and means of word-creation that belongs exclusively to the use of new communication technologies simple, addictive grammar etc.). these grammatical and stylistic elements, however, are integrated into texts that are mediated by new communication technologies more deliberately than into oral utterances. by using these elements, the utterer intends to show that he wishes to accept and apply the norms and rules of a linguistic community organised by e-mail and sms communication. that is to say, he uses these grammatical and stylistic elements to make it unambiguous that he is attached to a community accepting some forms of usage, and that this attachment is a consequence of a deliberate choice. this kind of usage leads, on the one hand, to the appearance of new terms in language and, on the other hand, to the novel use of available lexical elements of language. in the latter process, the meanings of some words multiply with more and more conceptual relations. this is why the usage of the word ‘community’ entails the intention of understanding of the overall or global criteria of community in the age of electronic media. these criteria can be attributed to the specific features of communicational space which is globalized by the use of television, the internet, and mobile telephones. in other words, there is an inner relation between these criteria and the global conditions for an effective method of information exchange. these global conditions (a common information basis, collective trust relations, etc.) transform our notions surrounding the structure and life of community. focusing on the inner relation between the new conceptualization of the criteria of community and our notions regarding the global conditions for an effective method of information exchange, we can suggest, for example, the following definition: community is a network of interactions among individuals who uniformly accept and apply some rules for the communicative acts aiming at the effective exchange of information. of course, the complex experience of community everyone has urges us to propose many other definitions. and it is obvious that these definitions approach the community-organizing role of information in different way. they have, however, one thing in common: they all must be founded on the analysis of the conceptual and linguistic changes that transform the structure of our minds in the mediated communities of the electronic era. because these linguistic changes can be regarded as bases of the mediatization of communities and the adopting of the idea of a global, community building language in the new media space. but what kind of language would best serve as a global language in the network of mediated !165 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 communities? amitai etzioni, for example, argues for adopting english as a shared, secondary global language in the information age (etzioni 2008). as etzioni points out: “a key element of building a global community atop local communities requires that the various nations involved choose the same second language” (etzioni 2008: 124). this second language, of course, does not replace the particularistic, identity constituting primary languages of local and national communities, rather it is best considered as an additional language. nevertheless an opposition can be experienced to adopting such an additional language in many nations. according to etzioni, ‘this opposition often conflates preventing english penetration into the primary language with resisting it as second language’ (etzioni 2008: 124). whereas this opposition, as etzioni writes, “delays overcoming the ‘babel’ effects at great cost to the transparency of global laws, the promotion of shared understandings, and the efficiency of economic transactions” (etzioni 2008: 124). in my view, as a global process, the appearance of the pictorial characteristic of primary communal languages can contribute to the adoption of an additional global language, because this process, as we have seen, creates the foundations of the convergences of different usages and languages. the global expansion of the pictorial language of electronic communication can be regarded as the basis of the idea of a global information community in which the communication attitudes of a person are determined by his impression of his self as a permanently available person whose communicative acts are embedded in a global information net. in other words, it is by accelerating and mediating linguistic changes leading to a complex notion of global community that electronically mediated communication becomes a source of, as meyrowitz writes, the “fusion of local and global identities”(meyrowitz 2005: 30) and, thus, the adoption of the idea of a secondary global language in new, mediated communities. conclusion this essay holds that a new world of communication is in the making. the global linguistic changes traceable to the use of electronic communications technologies lead to a linguistic galaxy which can contribute to the development of higher level of human cohesion. through the appearance of this linguistic galaxy, a new, mediated kind of community comes into existence which can offer a solution to the balance of power between the dual system of globalization and localization, and also to the fragmentation and segmentation of the globalizing world. in other words, with the worldwide expansion of the new communication culture, a global-community-consciousness can be born that could arrange the values of the global and local worlds into a harmonic unified whole. references castells, m. (2000). the information age vol. i: rise of the network society. malden, ma: blackwell. crystal, d. (2004). language and the internet. cambridge: cambridge university press. deegan, m. (2000). introduction. in f. condron – m. fraser – s. sutherland (ed.), cti /= computer in teaching initiative/ textual studies: guide to digital resources for the humanities (pp.1-12). oxford: university of oxford press. !166 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 etzioni, a. (2001). the monochrome society. princeton, nj: university press. etzioni, a. (2008). a global, community building language?, international studies perspectives, 2, 113-127. gergen, k.j. (2003). self and community in the new floating worlds. in k. nyíri (ed.), mobile democracy: essays on society, self and politics (pp. 103-114). vienna: passagen verlag. green, n. (2003). community redefined: privacy and accountability. in k. nyíri (ed.), mobile communication: essays on cognition and community (pp. 43-56). vienna: passagen verlag. haythornthwaite, c. and kendall, l. (2010). internet and community. american behavioral scientist 53(8), 1083-1094. katz, j. e., rice, r.e., acord, s., dasgupta, k. and david, k. (2004). personal mediated communication and the concept of community in theory and practice. in r. kalbfleisch (ed.), communication and community: communication yearbook 28 (pp. 315-371). mahwah, nj: erlbaum. kerckhove, de d. (1995). the skin of culture: investigating the new electronic reality. toronto: somerville house. levinson, p. (1999). digital mcluhan: a guide to the information. london: routledge. mcluhan, m. (1962). the gutenberg galaxy. london: routledge & kegan paul. mcluhan, m. (1964). understanding media. new york: mentor. mcluhan, m. fiore q. (1967). the medium is the massage. london: penguin books. meyrowitz, j. (2005). the rise of glocality: new senses of place and identity in the global village. in k. nyíri (ed.), sense of place: the global and the local in mobile communication (pp. 21-30) vienna: passagen verlag. milroy, j. and milroy, l. (1991). authority in language. london new york: routledge. ong, w.j. (1982). orality and literacy: the technologizing of the word. london: methuen. poster, m. (2001). what’s the matter with the internet? minneapolis mn: university of minnesota press. tönnies, f. (2001). community and civil society. cambridge: cambridge university press. trudgill, p. (1975). accent, dialect and the school. london: edward arnold. wellman, b. and gulia, m. (1999). net surfers don’t ride alone: virtual community as community. b. in wellman (ed.), networks in the global village (pp. 331-367) boulder, co: westview press. !167 attn: john tarawe, conference chair and roger harris, deputy conference chair doing high-tech collaborative research in the middle of borneo: a case study of e-bario as a base for the transfer of gis technology in the kelabit highlands of sarawak, malaysia sarah hitchner abstract this case study describes the experiences of an anthropologist conducting gis-based ethnographic research in the kelabit highlands of sarawak, malaysia, using the e-bario telecentre as a local collaborating institution, a base for the input and storage of hard and soft copies of data and reports, and as a nexus for training community members to use gis technology. grounded in discussion of current collaborative research trends in the fields of anthropology and geography, this paper elaborates on the challenges and benefits of using the technology, facilities, and personnel currently available at the e-bario telecentre. it also describes how this current project is laying the foundation for a larger project that will be owned, managed, and used by the local community. this article elaborates on the social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental context in which this project is developing, demonstrating how this research project, and the transfer of technological knowledge that is a key component of it, can be both beneficial and challenging to the kelabit community. finally, it offers suggestions for the improvement of e-bario by suggesting both what e-bario can do to better serve the needs of researchers in the kelabit highlands and what researchers can in turn do to assist e-bario in meeting its goals to serve the community, visitors, and other researchers. introduction guided by the principles outlined in wawasan 2020, it is malaysia’s goal to become a “fully-developed country,” competitive in all respects with the world superpowers by the year 2020. these goals include: higher education for more malaysians; broader availability of health care, higher income, and improved standard of living for all citizens; more direct revenue from the export of manufactured goods; and infrastructure and communications development for even the remotest areas. connecting the most remote and isolated communities with communications capabilities is a distinct challenge for a country like malaysia, and especially for a state as large as sarawak, located on the island of borneo. concurrent with the national drive to link rural malaysian villages to the rest of the world via telephone and internet connections is an international movement promoting ict1 projects in small communities all over the world. because of its remote location and a population that was mostly unaware of the internet but eager to embrace new technologies to enhance communication2, bario (the administrative center of the kelabit highlands of sarawak) was chosen as the site to implement the first rural ict network in malaysia, using a multi-disciplinary team of researchers and a participatory approach to the implementation and management of the project3. the e-bario project was initially funded by the international development research centre (idrc) of the canadian government and the malaysian government4 and was first administered as a joint venture between the kelabit community in bario and universiti malaysia sarawak (unimas), with the technological support of telekom malaysia, the major telecommunications company in malaysia. it has proven to be highly successful. since its inception in 1999 and the opening of the internet telecentre in 2002, e-bario has won numerous national and international awards5. e-bario is a computer network system that provides public internet access using wireless vsat (very small aperture terminal) satellites that run on solar power and transmit signals to telekom malaysia6. the main facility, gatuman@bario (the e-bario telecentre), houses ten computers for public use, all of which are linked to the internet and to a printer, as well as a management office and a meeting room. e-bario allows residents and visitors to access the internet, print photographs and documents, and burn cds. with this ability, they are able to conduct business (as lodge owners, guides, and shopkeepers), do remote work for companies outside the kelabit highlands, maintain personal contacts with friends and family (this is especially important since only about 1200 of the approximately 6000 kelabit people currently live in the kelabit highlands), and produce websites and blogs7 related to issues of kelabit interest. internet communication and the other office facilities of e-bario also make it possible for researchers like myself to maintain contact with their home institutions and other collaborators and researchers around the world and to produce interim reports in the kelabit highlands that can be immediately distributed to people living here and elsewhere. finally, the telecentre serves both as a nexus for training community members to use various kinds of technology, which is a large part of my dissertation research project, and as a friendly place to conduct formal and informal meetings with community members regarding issues that have inevitably surfaced though the course of my own project. in this article i will describe my dissertation research project, which is focused on documenting kelabit land use history using ethnographic and geospatial research methods. i will examine the social, cultural, historical, political, economic, and political context of the kelabit highlands and the role of the e-bario telecentre as a local collaborating institution. i locate my research within the emergent fields of participatory anthropological research and community mapping, and relate how i have used e-bario as a forum to attempt to overcome some of the challenges inherent in this type of research. i describe the complementary role that researchers can play in supporting e-bario’s mission in the community, and how e-bario can in turn provide crucial support for researchers working in the kelabit highlands. as an institution linking community priorities with the research enterprise, e-bario ensures a congruence of goals. i end by making suggestions about how e-bario can grow to incorporate other types of research, be more supportive of local and foreign researchers, and prepare members of the kelabit community to both continue research and to store, manage, and use data produced by such projects on a long-term basis. documenting the land use history of the kelabit highlands using gis building on recent advances in the historical ecology of anthropogenic landscapes8 and the political ecology of conservation9, my dissertation research focuses on documenting the land use history of the kelabit highlands of sarawak, malaysia. my two main objectives in creating this land use history are 1) to advance a multidisciplinary methodology of analyzing spatial and temporal data from different sources and 2) to promote a multi-level collaborative approach to participatory anthropological research methods in the context of a state-led conservation initiative10 that affects the kelabit community. applying an array of complementary ethnographic methods, including archival research, participant observation, interviews that include oral history collection and sketch mapping, and guided visits to cultural monuments and past settlement sites, i will incorporate these codified ethnographic and ecological data into a gis database that will also include gps locations of features and layers of regional geospatial data from existing maps, satellite images, and aerial photographs. this project will result in the creation of a digital land use history that acknowledges the role of cultural institutions and historical and political events in shaping the current landscape. a digital map and gis database will make this landscape history visible. in addition to the hallmark method of anthropological fieldwork, participant observation11, i plan to conduct gis overlay analysis12 of the various data layers, spatial13 and temporal analysis of geospatial and ethnographic data, and ethnographic analysis of data using a grounded-theory approach14 that includes frequency analysis of “code words” collected in interviews15 and examination of historical events that have shaped the land use history of the kelabit highlands. incorporating gis technology into ethnographic fieldwork will allow for the cross-checking of attributed tabular data collected from interviews, document archives, ecological observations, and geospatial images16. creating a gis database flexible enough to include qualitative and multi-media ethnographic data will be a distinct challenge, but the result will be a more complete land use history than could be obtained by any of these methods in isolation. the gis database and digital map can be used by local people not only as a cultural archive, but also as a tool in negotiations with agencies involved in conservation or development. my research project includes training for local people in technological and ethnographic methods. this transfer of knowledge and building of local capacity will allow the kelabit to experiment with other ways of promoting their interests with regard to lands they have historically occupied and to use gis technology to document and preserve their cultural monuments and other sites of social, cultural, environmental, or economic importance. the fact that this map and database will be produced in a collaborative manner and then managed and owned by the kelabit community allows residents to use this resource in ways that are beneficial to them now and in the future. this research project is ongoing; i am still in the process of working with the kelabit community to collect data for entry into the database, which is also still under construction. all analyses of the data layers will be done later. during the past eighteen months, i have been living and working in the kelabit highlands, conducting interviews, and collecting ethnographic and gps data on the cultural monuments and old longhouse sites. i have written an interim research report on my findings to date17 and am now distributing it to the kelabit community living both within and outside of the kelabit highlands for comments, additions, and suggestions for more completeness and greater accuracy. e-bario, as i will explain, has been an important element determining the pace and outcome of my research here. community mapping and participatory gis (pgis) two challenges for anthropologists working with local peoples in biologically diverse and politically dynamic areas have been (1) moving beyond purely extractive research toward inquiry that is more relevant to the community being studied and (2) addressing critiques by local peoples that anthropological ethnographies do not adequately represent them18. participatory data collection and mapping methods address these challenges19. other anthropologists have linked ethnography with geospatial data in participatory ways,20 and there is now a substantial literature on community mapping, participatory mapping, participatory gis (pgis), and public participation gis (ppgis)21. here i will outline some of the major issues involved in introducing mapping technology to local communities and in carrying out participatory mapping projects in rural areas. simply put, maps are representations of places, but the “truth” of maps22 is a hotly debated topic, and now people are starting to look at maps more critically. maps themselves are never objective representations of reality, as mapmakers are always in control of what people or places are or are not on a map,23 and maps have always been powerful tools for the control of people, places, and resources. official (colonial and postcolonial) maps have often misrepresented or under-represented local communities, often subjugating various forms of indigenous knowledge by trying to fit them into a western framework. as a result, many local communities have begun to “counter-map,”24 creating their own maps in ways that render their needs, desires, and ideas about space, land rights, and resource use visible to outside agencies25. counter-mapping projects, or locally-driven community mapping initiatives, have proliferated in recent decades. much of the literature on community and participatory mapping has focused on the process of mapping, often critiquing conventional processes as exclusionary and offering a range of alternative ways of mapping that respect local interests and priorities and that also reflect local perceptions of landscape. these insights about how maps are made (and by whom) have led to further experiments in community mapping, with varying goals, mixed results, and both intended and unintended consequences. community mapping entails placing the mental maps of a community on paper. communities can make many types of thematic maps, including ones focused on territorial boundaries, cultural sites, forest uses, land tenure systems, farming and other land uses, or traditional ecological knowledge. indigenous or rural communities often want to create maps of their territories in order to assert legal recognition of their land rights, document local knowledge, manage community lands, or increase their capacity to communicate and negotiate with external agencies who are sometimes actively deciding the future of community lands. other purposes for community maps include solving or preventing boundary disputes with other communities, initiating discussion with government agencies or logging or mining companies about land uses within or near the community territory, planning a land use or resource management system, documenting baseline demographic and geographic data, and educating children in the community about their culture and traditional land26. community mapping can potentially revitalize and connect communities, strengthen local institutions, support local challenges to external forms of authority, and serve as a nexus between formal and informal governance systems27. full community participation is important in making such maps; otherwise the interests and knowledge of some people are left off the map28. maps can be made in a participatory manner in conjunction with outside researchers, ngos, or governmental agencies, but if the local people do not retain control of the maps, they are much less useful to them, and could be used against them. gis29 has been continually changing the way that space and spatial relationships can be analyzed. gis and other geospatial technologies (remote sensing, gps30) greatly influence the ways in which natural resources are perceived, managed, and exploited31. in studies of land use and land cover change, gis can be particularly useful in presenting geographical information at different spatial and temporal scales. there are many publications now that describe the technical aspects of integrating qualitative ethnographic and historical data into gis databases and digital maps32. gps points can be collected at the same time that qualitative data from informants is recorded. such qualitative data can be incorporated into attribute data tables, which can include information about land quality, usufruct rights and restrictions, types of land and resource ownership, density of resources, and intensity of land and resource use, as well as information about the informants, including age, gender, and social status. these “classification matrices” can be quantified into data tables or added to attribute tables in qualitative format. geomatics can be used to “build on local knowledge to articulate traditional concepts and present them in a format that facilitates transactions with external agencies,”33 thus making local knowledge perceptible to outsiders. participatory gis (pgis) or public participation gis (ppgis)34 is a process by which local groups are given the ability to utilize gis technologies in ways that fit their own needs and capabilities35. it has spread into many remote locations to allow more equal access to gis technologies for marginalized peoples, often with support from indigenous advocates, computer software developers, researchers, and public and private funders36. it allows local groups to collect and analyze spatial data and to use this knowledge in decision-making processes that affect their lands and rights. as with community mapping in general, pgis should be seen as a process guided by a set of inclusive principles, not merely as a tool or a result. the outcome of a pgis project should not be merely extractive, and local people should be involved in the analysis of gis data, not just providers of information for a gis database that outside “experts” will analyze away from the social context in which it was collected. pgis should have the capability to store qualitative information that is not easily represented spatially. it must be accepted that not all parts of the reality of a community can be stored in a gis database, but the database should be flexible enough, perhaps through the use of multimedia components, to store and show as much qualitative information as possible. the focus should always be on incorporating local knowledge and local decision-making capability into the pgis project. pgis has begun to play an important role in empowering marginalized groups37, but its success is also dependent on its use within a broader context of involvement with government agencies, ngos, and the private sector that allows for community participation. there are critics of the use of gis technology in ethnographic studies and of gis use by local peoples. some scholars have claimed that gis technology requires and imposes a certain logic and way of spatially representing reality that favors western paradigms and therefore symbolizes a scientific, masculine, data-driven, and hegemonic worldview that cannot adequately include the worldviews of under-represented peoples38. feminists, for example, question the data layers analyzed in conventional gis; they question whose input is left out (often that of women)39. similarly, it is troubling for anthropologists and indigenous advocates who claim that local groups should be judged on their own merits and not on their ability to fit into a certain technocratic schemata. since the primary function of gis has been to organize data for decision-making processes, some researchers and local communities have argued that the technology exists more to benefit policy makers than marginalized groups40. science-based maps of land features, such as soil, vegetation, slope, watershed, and species have often increased centralized control over locally managed lands by claiming scientific authority and positive environmental intentions41. further, gis-based scientific mapping into homogenous zones does not adequately represent complicated property rights structures in many local communities42 and often ignores the human presence altogether. as a result of these concerns, pgis has not been used much in development planning, in part because social scientists who promote community participation in development projects do not fully trust gis technologists and often feel that the gis framework is too simplistic to accurately reflect the complexity of local land management regimes43, and local communities feel that the future developments they envision cannot (or will not) be incorporated into the gis systems used by developers. scholars, advocates, and communities also claim that gis cannot properly visualize the landscapes of the past, thus disregarding the roles that local communities have played in creating the present landscapes. development agencies, on the other hand, often feel that local communities are incapable of contributing reliable technological data to a gis database or that their contributions would complicate or delay development plans. gis has often been used with the intention of settling land conflicts, but gis does not in itself produce or represent the values inherent in these conflicts. some scholars argue that gis intensifies conflicts,44 while others claim that gis can be used in myriad ways that produce a number of possible solutions that can help resolve conflicts45. kyem (2004) argues that gis can be used to resolve land conflicts, so long as people realize that conflicts operate within specific socio-cultural contexts, and that there are different types of conflict (within or between socio-political systems, for example). the introduction of gis to local communities can also lead to power imbalances, created by unequal access to technology46. but the critiques of the way that gis is used emphasize the need to allow indigenous groups access to the same technology in order to level the playing field in public policy debates over lands they have historically occupied47. the fact is that indigenous communities can take the tools formerly used against them and use them to their own advantage. some of these critiques of gis have been applied to pgis and participatory mapping in general; when outsiders seek to implement community mapping programs for marginalized or under-represented communities, it is essential to assess the ways that mapping and the introduction of new technologies will affect the communities48. mohamed and ventura (2000:234) say that: “technology must be considered a double-edged sword with the potential to cause harm as well as bring benefits.” it is therefore necessary to inform them of potential risks and problems associated with mapping. it has been suggested that to prevent conflicts and other dilemmas associated with community mapping, it is necessary for the community to write by-laws at the outset of the project that detail the effects the maps will or will not have on traditional resource use systems; they should also include codified structures for resource sharing and for sanctioning corrupt leaders for illegal land sales, to prevent dilemmas such as the ones that have occurred in the past49. for community mapping to be successful, mechanisms should also be in place for dispute resolution, conflict mediation, attention to gender, status, and ethnic considerations, and a system of checks and balances50. communities should also create ways to protect knowledge that they do not want to be openly available. culturally-appropriate gis methods are needed to ensure sensitivity, confidentiality, and respect for intellectual property rights. in short, the technology must be adapted to the needs of local people. context: kelabit highlands and sarawak in this section i will give a brief description of the social, cultural, environmental, economic, and political context in which i am conducting this participatory gis project. understanding the context is crucial in any mapping project, and i address some of the issues and challenges that have presented themselves so far during the course of this project. though little archeological research has been conducted in the kelabit highlands, and though it is difficult to link many existing archaeological sites to current communities, kelabit oral histories attest to a long history of occupation of the area51. the kelabit highlands are unique in sarawak because of the existence of a large number of megaliths and other cultural monuments: carved stones (batuh narit), raised stone slabs or dolmens (batuh nangan), standing stones or menhirs (batuh sinuped), large circular rock piles (perupun), burial grounds with ancient chinese pottery (lungun belanai) or hollowed stone urns (batuh nawi), kawang (notches in treelines), and nabang (large trenches cut through stone or soil)52. also common is evidence of past landscape engineering, including dams, bunds, irrigation ditches, and stream diversions53. nowhere else in sarawak can one find such a dense assemblage of monuments. numerous stories surround these cultural monuments, and link them to particular luminary ancestors and mythological figures. kelabit value these monuments as evidence of the antiquity of their occupation of the region. old longhouse sites (rumah ma’un) dot the landscape, and these sites are surrounded by extensive stands of old secondary forest, fruit trees, and other evidence of human modification. prior to the 20th century, the kelabit subsistence system was based on shifting cultivation of rice54. according to kelabit oral histories, their ancestors were very mobile, moving longhouses every few years. as is evident by the sheer number and diversity of cultural sites in the kelabit highlands, it is obvious that this is a highly anthropogenic landscape which has been altered by many generations of kelabit. the 20th century was a period of dramatic transformation for the kelabit highlands. as one of the most remote regions of sarawak, the kelabit highlands was largely isolated from colonial influence before 1900. this began to change in the early 20th century and continued at an accelerating pace after world war ii. in recent generations, there have been several political and historical events that have affected patterns of migrations and land use in the kelabit highlands. these include: 1) the introduction of wet rice agriculture to the kelabit, which supplemented or replaced shifting cultivation of dry rice55; 2) the arrival of christian missionaries, who began preaching among kelabit in the 1920s, and succeeded in encouraging large-scale conversion after world war ii56; 3) the demarcation of the political boundary between malaysia and indonesia, which influenced the travel and marriage patterns between kelabit in malaysia and related ethnic groups in indonesia57; 4) the subsequent war (konfrontasi) between these countries in the 1960s, during which time many kelabit moved from remote villages to bario58; and 5) the construction of the first school in the kelabit highlands in 1946 and subsequent enthusiasm for higher education, which has led to many kelabit receiving advanced degrees and high levels of achievement in all sectors of the economy and government59, as well as high levels of out-migration from the kelabit highlands. in creating a digital land use history of the kelabit highlands, it is necessary to incorporate ethnographic information about these more recent events, in addition to events and cultural land use practices that occurred before widespread contact with the western world. these recent events have had profound effects on the landscape of the kelabit highlands today, and it is these events which will be the most visible in geospatial data that is currently available for the kelabit highlands. regardless, there are many older land use patterns that are still visible in the landscape today. more recent uses of the land have not completely obliterated or obscured these older uses. many layers of history coexist in the current landscape of the kelabit highlands. for example, pre-christian burials and christian burials may occupy the same graveyard, and current wet rice fields may contain megaliths that are old enough to have passed out of living memory. the digital map and database will reflect the complexity of the highly anthropogenic nature of this landscape. this land use history will give support to the case that over many generations, the kelabit have contributed to the socio-historical creation of this landscape and are largely responsible for the density and distribution of the biological diversity in the kelabit highlands today, which has important implications for conservation plans for the area. the value of the kelabit highlands as a rich reservoir of cultural significance and ecological diversity has been noted by the state of sarawak, and it is now included as a potential site for the expansion of pulong tau national park (ptnp). planning for the establishment of ptnp began in the early 1980s when researchers from sarawak’s national parks and wildlife division discovered a remnant population of rhinoceros in the area. when the original proposal was developed in 1984, ptnp encompassed 164,500 hectares. two subsequent boundary revisions reduced ptnp to 59,917 hectares by the time it was officially gazetted in 2005. ptnp runs along the western side of the kelabit highlands, extending along the tamabuh range from near long lellang in the south to gunung murud (2423 meters, sarawak’s highest peak) in the north. from the outset, there has been a high level of community support for the establishment of ptnp because kelabit leaders played a key role in putting forth the original proposal for the park. this high level of local support derives both from the fact that the kelabit have a strong interest in protecting the watersheds that supply water to rice fields, and from their interest in preserving the natural features that attract eco-tourists and historical monuments that are an integral part of their cultural identity . when i first began working in the kelabit highlands, the sarawak state government had recently signed an agreement with the international tropical timber organization (itto) for research and planning support to expand ptnp eastward across the kelabit highlands to the indonesian border. this would have linked ptnp to indonesia’s 1,000,000 hectare kayan mentarang national park, and all seven communities in the kelabit highlands would have been incorporated into ptnp60. the state agreement with itto mandated a research program designed to support the expansion of ptnp and the development of a management plan, formulated in coordination with the kelabit community, that addressed both biodiversity conservation values and community development priorities. the itto conservation planning framework incorporated a number of innovative participatory elements, including community mapping. it was this agreement between the sarawak state government and itto that made it possible for me to conduct my own dissertation research. especially significant, rather than mandating strict protection in a way that excluded human communities, the itto agreement acknowledged the human role in creating and maintaining this landscape. most kelabit strongly support this extension of ptnp, although extenuating circumstances may prevent this from happening. while the sarawak state government has undertaken concrete steps to conserve biodiversity in the kelabit highlands, in 2004 members of the kelabit community received confirmation from the sarawak forest department that much of the highlands had been given out as a timber concession; logging operations are currently moving through the kelabit highlands from the south. though many kelabit favor the building of a road to bario, they are deeply concerned that siltation will destroy rice fields and that logging activities will render the highlands an unattractive destination for eco-tourists. they are also concerned that logging activities will reduce populations of wild game, and that they will lead to the destruction of cultural sites61, due both to the direct impacts of mechanized logging and because of the possibility of looting by itinerant workers. today it appears that continued logging in the kelabit highlands is inevitable, and community members are now actively negotiating with the timber company to ensure that the damage done is minimal and that the villages receive fair compensation for the trees harvested. it is possible that certain areas of the kelabit highlands will be included in ptnp after logging is completed. it is also possible that much of the kelabit highlands could be converted to large-scale agricultural plantations, producing larger quantities of the famous “bario rice,” cinnamon, or other crops. once the road reaches bario, a new type of tourism might be developed here, possibly including resorts, golf courses, or other attractions to lure wealthy visitors. in sum, the future of the kelabit highlands after logging has occurred is uncertain, which makes it difficult for residents to make long-term plans. this uncertainty about the future of the kelabit highlands has spurred many kelabit, both those living within the area and those who have migrated out, to become intensely aware of the importance of mapping their village boundaries, water catchment areas, requested communal forest reserve areas, and cultural sites. although they are keen to do this mapping, they have been constrained from doing so by lack of funds, lack of technology, and legal challenges. first, though the state government has encouraged local communities to map their territories, community-made maps are not legally valid, due to the passage of the 2002 land surveyors’ bill, which states that only professional surveyors licensed by the state can make legally valid maps of lands claimed by local communities62. the cost for hiring licensed surveyors to map native customary land (ncl) is prohibitively high, and villages in the kelabit highlands lack the funds to do this. so they have been actively seeking other methods of producing maps, even if these maps are not recognized legally by the government. some communities have received limited technical assistance from sarawak forest department and itto representatives during the course of their preliminary baseline socio-economic studies and cultural site surveys in the kelabit highlands, or from local non-governmental organizations. other kelabit have acquired their own gps units and have used them to mark cultural sites, village boundaries, and personal family land. within this political context, i have obviously had to approach the matter of introducing gis and gps technology to the kelabit community as part of my dissertation research carefully, to avoid inviting trouble for myself and community members. in requesting research permission from the state planning unit of sarawak, i have complied with all regulations that apply to foreign researchers and am conducting my research strictly within the stipulations of my research visa. it is also helpful to note that the itto proposal to extend ptnp across the kelabit highlands opened a window of opportunity for the type of technology transfer that is integral to my research, as it calls explicitly for community mapping. continued cooperation and data-sharing among the various stakeholders – me (who can collect, collate, and analyze data), the sarawak forest department (who can negotiate with timber companies and supervise timber extraction), the sarawak museum (who can demarcate and protect cultural sites under the cultural heritage ordinance of 1993), univeristi malaysia sarawak (who can provide technology and technological assistance to e-bario), and the kelabit community (who can decide what data and which areas are in need of mapping and protecting and can manage the data collected) – can benefit all parties. the transfer of not just technology but also skills and contacts can help the kelabit community to manage the data (all of which are being immediately repatriated to the community) and database once my particular research project is finished. the kelabit are well aware of the benefits of acquiring technology and technological skills, and they are keen to expand and strengthen their networks with individuals in all relevant governmental and educational institutions. community mapping in the kelabit highlands in addition to navigating the complex political landscape of sarawak in such a way that compels them to seek cooperation with the government, members of the kelabit community must also make other decisions on how to effectively proceed with a community mapping project (both the one outlined in my research proposal and other related mapping projects they have initiated on their own). one key decision is logistical: which people within the kelabit community have the necessary skills in technology, human resource management, and financial accounting, as well as the necessary motivation and time, to implement such a project on the ground? there is no lack of qualified individuals within the kelabit community; as noted, many kelabit are highly educated, and other members of the community are highly knowledgeable about kelabit history, culture, and landscape. by combining the knowledge and talents of such a diverse community, the kelabit are positioned to successfully implement an effective mapping project, perhaps more so than other remote communities in sarawak. however, this diversification in educational levels and expertise also leads to special challenges that must be overcome in order to ensure cooperation, transparency, and accurate transmission of information among all kelabit people involved in the project. the diasporic nature of the kelabit community is a particular obstacle, though efforts are being made to coordinate efforts of kelabit living within and outside the kelabit highlands. this issue needs to be sorted out among kelabit themselves; no outside researcher can or should interfere with internal matters such as which individuals should serve on project committees. another specific consideration for mapping projects in the kelabit highlands that has been raised in conjunction with my own research is the question of which cultural sites to include or not include on open-access maps and databases. there has been concern about placing some sites on maps that will be seen by outsiders, particularly burial sites that contain valuable jars or other artifacts such as beads that could be looted. although the kelabit agree that these sites should be mapped, and particularly that maps containing these sites be given to timber extractors to avoid damage to the sites and artifacts, there is less agreement on how public the complete maps should be, or on which versions of the maps should be available to whom. this is another issue that must ultimately be decided by community members, and i, as a researcher, need the guidance of a representative committee when the time comes for decisions to be made about which data and maps derived from my own research project to publish. other maps and data sets produced or collected by the community will also be subject to these same concerns. the kelabit community realizes this, and they have recently created a community research steering committee. this committee will oversee all research done in the kelabit highlands, monitor outside researchers, and ensure repatriation of data and reports produced by them. it will also guide research and mapping projects undertaken by community members themselves. the role of e-bario as a collaborating institution the e-bario telecentre serves as an institutional nexus for research undertaken in the kelabit highlands, and thus serves as the local collaborating institution for my own research (in addition to rurum kelabit sarawak, the kelabit association of sarawak). as noted, it serves many purposes for community members, and in addition to the technological facilities it houses, it also provides logistical and personnel support for all types of community functions (everything from setting up microphones and lcd players for speeches and presentations by visiting politicians, researchers, etc. to creating banners, logos, and laminated nametags for community meetings). for researchers such as myself, e-bario provides critical technologies such as telephones, printers, photocopiers, and computers with internet access that allow me to maintain contact with my home institution and with all the other institutions and individuals that are assisting in my research. it also serves as a repository for hard and soft copies of reports, raw data, and photographs; i have stored many files on the computers there and have informed people of where these documents are located so that they can be read or viewed by community members at their convenience. i have also left paper copies of reports and data lists near the computer sign-in sheet that community members can “check out” or read (and edit) while sitting in the telecentre or at the adjacent coffee shops. the e-bario telecentre also serves as a locus for training community members to use gps technology. its location near the main kedai (row of shophouses and cafes) make it a convenient meeting spot and location to circulate information. within the telecentre is a meeting room which provides the community with a place to discuss issues of local interest. this meeting room has been the setting for many meetings in which i have discussed my research project and issues regarding the link between cultural heritage and community mapping. meetings at e-bario have also provided a forum for discussions about what community members hope to gain by learning to use the gps units. at various meetings i have given an overview of how the units work and passed out sheets with instructions on how to take waypoints. as the area around the e-bario telecentre is open, it is a good place to practice using the gps unit. in small training sessions, i usually have three or four gps units and split the group into pairs or small groups. each person or small group practices taking waypoints and recording the data systematically on paper. then, after arranging a follow-up meeting, i suggest that they go practice in the forest, where it is much more difficult to collect waypoints under the tree canopy. this is a vital step in the training process because once people practice using the units on their own, they often encounter problems; sometimes they accidentally change the settings, or they change the batteries without re-calibrating the compass and altimeter, or they forget to actually record the waypoint in the unit or mislabel the waypoint in their notebooks. at the follow-up session, i can meet with each person individually and help him or her straighten out issues such as these. at this point they are more confident about using the gps to record waypoints while hunting, guiding tourists, or marking sites or boundaries. in later stages of this project, as it moves from data collection to integration of the data into the database, e-bario will again serve as a place to train community members to enter the data into the database and eventually onto the maps which will be housed in electronic form on the computers at the telecentre. people also know that when i am in bario, i am often working in the e-bario telecentre, so they can find me there if they need further assistance or want to give me written copies of data they have collected. they can also leave notes or written data with the personnel at e-bario, and these people will pass on such things to me when they next see me in bario. they have also passed notes, letters, emails, and other documents to me when i am staying in the village of pa’ lungan. logistically, the staff members of e-bario have also helped me to set up community meetings to discuss certain aspects of the research; these topics have ranged from the sensitivity of placing certain sites on an open-access map to discrepancies associated with alternate spellings of words, places, and people in the non-standardized kelabit language. as noted, the e-bario personnel and other community members have also recently formed a community research steering committee (in cooperation with rurum kelabit), which oversees all research undertaken in the kelabit highlands, with the goal of promoting community awareness of and participation in research initiated by outsiders (as well as locals). this committee is now in the process of creating guidelines and protocols for researchers and producing written agreements between researchers and the research committee. this is a proactive step taken by the kelabit community to gain more access to and control over data collected in the kelabit highlands, ensuring community benefit from research projects. improving capabilities for e-bario the personnel of e-bario intend to expand the capabilities and facilities of the telecentre to make it more useful for community members, visitors, and researchers. they are well aware of the current technological limitations of e-bario: a lack of up-to-date software programs, which often require expensive site licenses; limited bandwidth for internet usage; and limited ram on the computers for storing large data files or running large programs. with limited bandwidth, if more than a few people are online at once, the connection is so slow that it is virtually impossible to use the internet. further it is virtually impossible to store digital maps or to run ram-intensive software programs such as arcgis. there is also a lack of office equipment such as photocopiers and printers capable of quickly producing large numbers of documents, and scanners large enough to scan oversized documents such as maps. even limited basic office supplies such as toner and paper for printers are in short supply. e-bario staff members know that acquiring these types of things would both improve support for researchers and benefit community members who have become dependent on the telecentre for business transactions and marketing their skills, handicrafts, lodges, etc. via internet. thus, they have been actively seeking grants as well as donations (corporate or private) of cash or equipment such as computers. as e-bario is now licensed as a community-owned business, rather than a pilot project funded through universiti malaysia sarawak, its aim is to be self-sufficient through both grants and income generated by services provided to the community63, tourists, and researchers. in addition to improving the technological capabilities of the telecentre itself, the staff of e-bario also hopes to expand its sphere of technological reach to all of bario and other villages in the kelabit highlands. one key goal is to extend the wireless service beyond 50 meters from the telecentre, so that locals can access the internet from their own homes and so that tourists and researchers can access it from the lodges or from the cafes and coffee shops. further, because of limited bandwidth, currently only one laptop can access the network at a time. since several community members own laptops, and since researchers almost always bring their own laptops (and occasionally tourists do as well), it can be difficult or impossible for a researcher to access the wireless service. with improved bandwidth and routers to expand the wireless capabilities of e-bario, it will be possible for numerous community members, researchers, and tourists to access the internet simultaneously. it has been difficult for the personnel of e-bario to acquire more bandwidth, and “wiring” the whole of the kelabit highlands is at present a very ambitious undertaking. but another more manageable goal in the meantime that could help both community members and researchers is e-bario’s goal of providing computers to each village. even if the computers cannot access the internet now, people could create documents in the villages and then download them to flash drives or cds to be emailed at the telecentre in bario. this could also greatly improve computer literacy in the villages, since the children learn to use computers in schools and could teach their parents to use them in the villages. for researchers like myself who focus their studies in villages other than bario, computers in the villages would be very helpful. since an integral part of my project is training community members to enter data into a database, having a computer in the village would make this aspect of the project much easier. community members could create documents and input data into the database in the village computer and then transfer the data to the main computers at the telecentre in bario. the staff members of e-bario are actively seeking means to make this possible. there are several other ways that e-bario could support research in the kelabit highlands, and that researchers could in turn work to improve e-bario. a larger meeting room is crucial. currently the meeting room can hold around ten people comfortably; for larger gatherings, the use of a lodge, large house, or the balai raya (community meeting hall) is necessary. an expansion of the meeting room at the telecentre (which may need to be relocated to a larger building), and the purchase (or donation) of furniture, an lcd projector, screen, and a dedicated in-house computer could make community meetings and research briefings more productive and inclusive. at the telecentre itself, designated spaces for researchers which include computers, printers, large desks and bookcases, and private lockable offices that would allow researchers to work without disrupting community members or being interrupted would be helpful as well. it has also been suggested that small houses could be constructed near e-bario, which could be rented by researchers. in addition, the establishment of a library at e-bario would benefit both researchers and community members; researchers themselves are best positioned to contribute to this goal. it might include reports of all research undertaken in the area, as well as books, articles, and other documents about the kelabit highlands, as well as literature on topics of interest to community members: issues such as community mapping, community museums, cultural heritage preservation, etc. paper and electronic lists of contact information for other researchers who have visited or worked in the kelabit highlands could also strengthen ties between researchers themselves and serve as a nexus for linking the work done here and for bringing new researchers into the area. links on the e-bario website could also steer new researchers through the appropriate channels for gaining governmental and community support for research projects, and researchers could contribute comments to an online forum that could ease the transition into research in the kelabit highlands by providing information on topics such as prices for transportation and lodging in different areas as well as names of community members that are especially knowledgeable about certain aspects of kelabit culture, history, or forest use. by first defining both the ways that e-bario can support researchers and that researchers can support e-bario, e-bario personnel can incorporate these and other ideas into a long-term management plan that will benefit all users of the telecentre and e-bario communications network. conclusion designing and implementing a truly participatory gis-based research project in any remote community is a difficult undertaking, and there are particular challenges in the kelabit highlands of sarawak. however, the kelabit community is eager to embrace new technologies, including gis, that will enhance communication and that will enable them to disseminate information amongst themselves and with external agencies more effectively. they also realize the benefits that can come from more systematic study of the history, ecology, and culture of the kelabit highlands and so are receptive to research projects initiated by outside researchers with the understanding that reports and data will be repatriated to the community. staff members of the e-bario telecentre are actively trying to encourage more researchers to study in the kelabit highlands and to improve the existing facilities of the telecentre to make it more conducive the effective conduct of research. these proactive efforts of one rather remarkable remote community in the middle of borneo dovetail nicely with malaysia’s vision of wawasan 2020 and have proven to be a beacon for other rural communities 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award, malaysian administration modernisation and management planning unit (mampu), prime minister of malaysia (2003), easia “bridging the digital divide” award, asian pacific council for trade facilitation and electronic business (afact) (2004), and mondialgo engineering recognition for outstanding achievement award (unimas and the university of cambridge engineering department, 2005). 6 gnaniah et al. 2004; harris 2001; liew et al. 2004; songan et al. 2004; zen et al. 2004 7 including but not limited to www.ebario.com, www.kelabit.net, several personal websites and blogs on multiply and other networks. 8 cronon 1995; crumley 1994; gadgil and guha 1992; nygeres 1996; roseman 1996 9 adams and mcshane 1992; blaikie and brookfield 1987; brown 1998; colfer 1980; colfer and soedjito 1996; de jong et. al. 2003; greenberg and park 1994; guyer and richards 1996; logan and moseley 2002; moore 1993; zimmerer and bassett 2003 10 “transboundary biodiversity conservation: pulong tau national park, sarawak state, malaysia” (2004). 11munck 1998; frankenberg 1982; gans 1982; hume and mulcock 2004; dewalt and dewalt 2002 12 overlay analysis shows congruencies and discrepancies between data layers when they are laid over one another. 13 alderderfer and maschner 1996; fotheringham and o’kelly 1989, mcgwire et. al. 1996 14 bernard 2002; krippendorf 1980; roberts 1997; ryan and weisner 1998; weber 1990 15 lofland and lofland 1995 16 anselin 1992; behrens 1996; goodchild 1996 17 this interim report is entitled: “the living kelabit landscape: cultural sites and landscape modifications in the kelabit highlands of sarawak, malaysia” (august 2007). 18 escobar 1998; o’neill 2001; orlove 1991; peters 1996 19 colchester 2005; cooke 2003; eghenter 2000; peluso 1995; warren 2005 20 calamia 1999; fox 2002; mcconchie and mckinnon 2002; mohamed and ventura 2000; robiglio et. al. 2003 21 a copy of my literature review on these topics (“mapping by, with, and for local communities: an analysis of the theories and methods of community and participatory mapping,” 2005) is available on request. 22 maps make places “real.” king (1996:3, 16) says: “the map has become the only reality, not representing a territory but establishing the sole form of its existence…. the power to draw or redraw the map is a considerable one, involving as it does the power to define and what is or is not real.” 23 king 1996 24 peluso 1995 25 chambers 1994; kabutha et. al. 1990; peluso 1995; poole 1995; rocheleau 1995, 1997; hodgson and schroeder 2002 26 flavelle 2002; hodgson and schroeder 2002, poole 1995 27 warren 2005 28russell and harshbarger 2003 29 gis: geographic information system 30 gps: global positioning system 31 mccusker and weiner 2003 32 english 2003; gregory 2003; knowles 2002 33 mohamed and ventura 2000:226 34 in this paper, i will just use the acronym pgis to refer to both terms. 35 abbott et. al. 1998 36 kyem 2004 37 craig and elwood 1998; craig, harris, and weiner 2002; ghose 2001; kyem 2004 38 goss 1995; gregory 1994; kyem 2004; roberts and schein 1995 39 rundstrom 1995 40 curry 1994: kyem 2004; pickles 1995 41 vandergeerst 1996:171 42 fox 2002; hodgson and schroeder 2002; rundstrom 1995 43 harmsworth 2002 44 berry 1994; obermeyer and pinto 1994 45 armstrong et. al. 1996; carver 1991; densham 1991; diamond and wright 1988; eastman et. al. 1993; kyem 2000 46 aitken and michel 1995; curry 1994; kyem 2004; obermeyer 1991 47 kyem 2004 48 mohamed and ventura 2000 49 hodgson and schroeder 2002 50 warren 2005 51 talla 1978; saging 1989 52 banks 1937; harrisson 1984[1959]; schneeberger 1945; bala 2002; bulan 2002; saging & bulan 1989 53 bulan 2002; saging & bulan 1989 54 janowski 1988; amster 2003 55 bulan and labang 1979; janowski 1988 56 amster 2003; bala 2002; harrisson 1984 [1959]; southwell 1999, bulan ??; lees 1979 57 amster 2005; bala 2002 58 bala 2002; saging and bulan 1989 59 amster 2003; bala 2002 60 this excludes areas surrounding the villages themselves which would be set aside for communal forest reserves, allowing community members to hunt and harvest food resources and timber for their own needs. 61 several cultural sites have already been damaged or destroyed, including graveyards (containing ceramic jars or stone urns used for secondary burials), megaliths, old longhouse sites, and sites of landscape modification. 62 the land code of 1958 states that communities can claim lands that they have continually occupied and farmed since before 1958, under the native customary rights (ncr) statue of this bill. though this creates problems for several of the current villages in the kelabit highlands, which moved to their present place of residence after this date, most villages in the kelabit highlands were settled in the general vicinity of their current location well before this date. 63 residents use the telecentre’s computers at a discounted rate. <div id="article"> <h2 id="article_title"> the ecology of linking technologies: toward a non-instrumental look at new technological repertoires </h2> <div id="article_author"> roc&iacute;o g&oacute;mez </div> <p>professor, universidad del valle, cali, colombia. </p><br /> <h3 class="article_subhead"> presentation </h3> <p> when i began to write this paper, the first question i asked myself was, in what sense could an examination of trajectories and modes of use of the mobile telephone, chat, the social webs in internet and electronic mail among urban young people, be considered features of innovation and resourcefulness? it is clear that the form of this innovation comes neither from the engineering, scientific and technical communities who <em>create</em> the new technological device, nor from the groupings and social communities which unfold and devise unexpected and ingenious modes of inserting the machines in the course of their lives. when i reviewed my notes i understood that the innovation that i wanted to emphasize was more like the anonymous, non-premeditated, emergent and penetrating transformations which unexpectedly change people's course in a silent way. let's imagine for a moment how the invention of planting rice in terraces occurred; or respiration techniques and their effect on people's emotional, corporal and cognitive states; or the invention of popular flavors and tricks of the kitchen; or ways of placing and distributing food on the table. these are examples, perhaps a little bizarre, of a penetrating, emergent and silent invention, without a defined moment of genesis, without visibly responsible innovator and without the possibility of assigning an individualized authorship. an example which is closer to the topic that we are dealing with is illustrated by rheingold (2004) when he refers to the introduction of emoticons into the technologies of exchange and the sending of textual messages. </p> <p> it was precisely rheingold (2004) who has emphasized the coordinated, intelligent and massive character which seems to emerge from wireless webs and mobile communication settings, by allowing "original activities to be carried out and in situations where collective action had not been possible until now" (rheingold, 2004:23) the purpose of the doctoral thesis from which this paper is derived, consists precisely in tracing this collective intelligence (l&eacute;vy, 2004) in relationship to the genesis of links mediated by people's new technological repertoires. this paper suggests that people are generating at least eight patterns or configurations of the new technological repertoires in order to deepen, evolve, transform and renew their social links. the innovation refers precisely to the invention of these patterns which cannot be attributed to or explained as a pure derivation of the technical structures of the machines. </p> <p> the research was carried out in cali (colombia); it was based on the follow-up to the techno-linking dynamics of a group of young people in cali over eight months: lina, sara, yulia, mafito, miguel, juan diego and nino. their ages ranged between 17 and 22 years, they are university students or in their last years of high school, and they all maintain a very complex and interesting relationship with the technological tools previously mentioned. in methodological terms, the study used qualitative research strategies (in-depth interviews, ethnographic observations, conversations) and the use of a computer tool, the state space grids (laney et al, 2004) which offers interesting alternatives for processing, analysis and data graphics<sup>1</sup> . </p> <p> the article examines the framework of technological relationships between human and non-human agents. it proposes eight techno-mediation linking systems which can be used for analyzing variations in the techno-linking settings of urban young people and questions some of the frequently simplifying conceptions regarding "the young users of new technologies". </p> <p> this paper has two critical assumptions. in the first place, this article understands that mobile phone, chat, and email are different and that, a mobile phone integrates increasingly varied functions and applications (chat, email, phone calls, location, social networks). the technological function is what is important, not the artifact. second, this paper proposes a classification system of relations between young people and new technological repertoire that is not based on previous literature. this classification emerges from the empirical work, categories are "rooted" in the experience, as discussed for example in grounded theory (glaser &amp; strauss, 1967). the paper we should note, suggests hypotheses for discussion and presents no definitive conclusions. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> technological techno-mediation linking systems </h3> <p> the study allowed us to advance our understanding of the new technological repertoires (ntr)<sup>2</sup> not as isolated instruments which are added to the social life of the subjects, but rather as technological mediations for the construction of social links, that is, as <em>linking machines.</em> technology users do not connect with discrete and individualized technologies (mobile telephone, chat, internet) but rather with authentic <em>technological settings</em> in which both convergent and divergent relationships are generated. we call this conjunction of technologies <em>the ecology of technologies.</em> </p> <p> the way in which each subject is situated in this techno-linking setting varies in time and changes according to the linking tasks to be carried out. this relationship is altered according to a significant volume of junctures and processes which include the value and cost of use of the machines, their availability, and the manipulation skills, even customs, particular interests, generalization of behavior patterns and models associated with their use. these variations in the behavior of the set of technological mediations result from the way in which the relationships between human and non-human agents (latour, 1998) start to unfold over time. the density of these relationships is irreplaceably, vigorously and extraordinarily complex. in the study it was possible to observe how the young participants have come to weave very particular stories and relationships with each technological repertoire. for example, miguel, with his mobile telephone<sup>3</sup> , nino and yulia with their personal computers <sup>4</sup> , mafito with his social webs page. the presence of these non-human agents along with those which are constructing a network of human and non-human tasks, links and co-ordinations, configures an authentic, cognitive and affective system of relationships whose scope and complexities are beginning to be recognized (piscitelli, 2008; rueda, 2007; rheingold, 2004; latour, 1998; callon, 1998; levy, 1995; martin barbero, 1987; among others). </p> <p> we found the weight of one technological mediation as compared to the others in the study's individual participants to be overwhelming. it is as if, at times, one linking machine was absorbing the others, sweeping them out of the technological scenario. at other times, there is, to put it metaphorically, a wholesome coexistence among non-human agents, and the subject would appear to concede an important place to all the technological presences in the operation of its links and affective webs. </p> <p> within this ecology of technologies, we analyze how many technologies which tend to be central are in each trajectory, what place they occupy in the trajectory and how they relate among each other. there might be one, two, three or four technologies in each trajectory which turn out to be central to the social link transactions. we will address the mono-technological, bi-technological and multi-technological systems. </p> <p> the following is an analogy which can be useful for us. let us imagine we have land in which we cultivate different species of plants. that land is the link space. in order to take care of and grow plants, we use different technologies (those technologies are the ntrs). it might occur that we turn to the use of predominantly one technology (in this case we are speaking of a mono-technological system). but then our crop might require two technologies (a bi-technological system). or perhaps it needs three or more technologies (a multi-technological system). in our study we were interested in determining which is the dominant behavior pattern in relation to the number of technologies (one, two or more technologies) that the subject uses for the construction of their social links. when speaking of a mono-technological system, it does not necessarily indicate that the dominant technology at that moment will be the same that will predominate at another mono-technological moment in the trajectory. the important detail is that the subject tends to repeatedly appeal to only one technology in order to cultivate the entire link space. in this sense, we are referring to a: </p> <ul> <li> <em>mono-technological system</em>. within the technology ecology, the subject tends to establish a permanent and stable relationship with a given technology in order to transact his link space. </li> <li> <em>bi-technological system</em>. within the technology ecology, it is possible to detect the existence of two technologies which repeatedly serve the subject to outline and deal with a great part of the technologically mediated link spaces. </li> <li> <em>multi-technological system</em>. within the technology ecology and independently of the narrowing or amplification of the link spaces, the subject does not maintain a stable relationship with any technology in particular. on the contrary, he/she relates in a variable way with the spectrum of available technologies in the mediation of links. it is exactly the reverse of the mono-technological system. </li> </ul> <p> by making a detailed follow-up of the participants' trajectories, we were able to see the warp which emerges from the relationship between the subjects and the new technological repertoires and recognize the diverse place that these repertoires are playing in the construction of the participants' social links. the studies concerning the relationship between young people and the ntr, other than analyses of access to the technologies, should deal with the follow-up on the complex relationships which are established between people's lives, their vital experiences and the technologies. </p> <p> when considering the unfolding of the trajectories in time, the analysis allows a demonstration of how the technologies are articulated within the universe of links which each subject establishes. one might expect that this would entail slightly more stable trajectories, but what we find is constant fluctuations and variations: there are jumps between particular moments and diverse uses of the technologies within the same trajectory. beginning with what we might call an <em>ecology of linking technologies,</em> has allowed us to define eight technological systems of linking techno-mediation. these systems correspond to types of techno-linking relationships in the social world and challenge the frequently simplified conceptions and classifications of the relationship between young people and technology. </p> <p> table 1 presents a summary of eight techno-mediation linking systems concerning the relationships between young people and the new technological repertoires. </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3153/version/2135/4110/16674/table1.png" class="article_image" width="580" height="268" alt="table 1"> <div class="image_caption"> table 1. gradual distribution of the technological systems of the techno-mediation of links. </div> <p> before explaining each of the eight techno-mediation linking systems it is necessary to clarify some concepts: </p> <ul> <li> <em>intensive:</em> the relationship with the technology becomes <em>intensive</em> when, in one period with a high or medium ldi <sup>5</sup> , the subject uses that technology to monopolize almost all of the link space, at the expense of the other technologies. </li> <li> <em>refuge</em>: the relationship with the technology becomes a <em>refuge</em> when, in a period with a low ldi, the subject uses it to monopolize almost all of the link space, at the expense of the other technologies. </li> <li> <em>floating</em>: the relationship with the technology becomes <em>floating</em> when, in a period with high or medium ldi, the subject uses it together with two or three other technologies in order to monopolize the link space.</em> </li> <li> <em>residual</em>: the relationship with the technology becomes <em>residual</em> when, in a period with a low ldi, the subject uses it together with two or three technologies in order to monopolize the link space. </li> <li> <em>subsidiary</em>: the relationship with the technology becomes <em>subsidiary</em> when, in a period with a high or medium ldi, the subject uses it together with an intensive technology. that is, the subsidiary is a technology which <em>accompanies</em> the intensive technology. </li> <li> <em>coordinated</em>: the relationship with the technology becomes <em>coordinated</em> when, in a period of increase or decrease in the links, it coincides with the increase or decrease of the tci of the technology. </li> <li> <em>attenuated</em>: the relationship with the technology becomes <em>attenuated</em> when it deals with a technology with a very weak presence in the treatment of the ldi of the period. </li> </ul> <p> to explain each of the eight systems synthesized in table 1: </p> <p> <em>1. mono-technological system of fixed technology.</em> this refers to subjects who present a technological system in which only one technology tends to be central throughout the trajectory, while the others tend to remain in marginal or less central positions. we did not find representative subjects of this kind of system in the study. </p> <p> <em>2. mono-technological system of variable technologies</em>. this refers to a technological system with a central technology in which a kind of rotation of this technology appears throughout the trajectory; the dominant technology changes in time, while the others tend to remain relegated. nino <sup>6</sup> is the only one of the participants in the study who adjusts to this system. the following figure shows a synthesis of his case: </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3153/version/2135/4110/16669/image1.png" class="article_image" width="580" height="437" alt="image1"> <div class="image_caption"> image 1. the image offers a look at the set of trajectories of all of nino's technologies. the mobile telephone is in olive green, chat in light green, email is orange. social webs are in red. in the vertical axis we find the level of link dispersion which can be low, medium or high. the nine levels of technological concentration appear in the horizontal axis. images 1, 2, 3, and 4 show us how the unfolding is produced in the linking trajectory of some of the participants. </div> <p> for nino, (image 1) one of the most particular technological distributions can be appreciated. there is a nucleus of extreme relegation at the left of the grid, in which the social webs (red) are concentrated, and a region of extreme dispersion to the right, completely dominated by the mobile telephone (olive green), and with presence of the link space in the three levels. there are three periods in which email (orange) occupies a significant centrality, in a broad link space which makes this dynamic very important. we are facing a vigorously mono-technological system in which there is a dominant technology (the mobile telephone) and yet, chat, in first place and email, in second place, eventually come to dominate the techno-mediation scenario. let's look at this in more detail in the following excel graphic: </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3153/version/2135/4110/16664/graphic1.png" class="article_image" width= "580" height="257" alt="graphic1"> <div class="image_caption"> graphic 1. the excel graphic allows us to appreciate, as a whole, the technological concentration index (tci) of nino's four technological repertoires: olive green for the mobile telephone, light green for chat, orange for email and red for the social web. the changes in the linking dispersion index (ldi) are represented by the bold black line. the ranges of measurement for both the ldi and the tci appear in the vertical axis. for the ldi (black line), 1 represents the low level; 2, medium level; and 3, high level. for the tci of each technology, 1 represents the low-low level; 2, low-medium level; 3, low-high level; 4, medium-low level; 5, medium-medium level; 6, medium-high level; 7, high-low level; 8, high-medium level; 9, high-high level. the 16 study periods are recorded in the horizontal axis. </div> <p> as pointed out earlier, the web is a completely marginal technology for nino. except for period 3, the remaining periods record a low technological concentration index for the web. thus, for nino, the web is an <em>attenuated</em> technology. in the first period, with a medium ldi, the mobile telephone and chat are <em>intensive</em> technologies, while email and the web are <em>attenuated</em> technologies. in period 2, the mobile telephone reaches a high-medium level and continues as an <em>intensive</em> technology; chat remains relegated as an <em>attenuated</em> technology, together with email and the web. in period 3, the mobile telephone and chat continue as <em>intensive</em> technologies and share the space of technically mediated links; the web continues to be marginal together with email which remains at a low-low level. in period 4, chat operates as an <em>intensive</em> technology and the mobile telephone behaves for the first time in the trajectory as an <em>attenuated</em> technology, the same as email and the web. in period 5, with a narrow ldi, chat becomes a <em>refuge</em> technology, while the mobile telephone appears as a <em>subsidiary</em> technology. the condition of the web and of email continues to be the same as in the previous period. period 6 for nino corresponds to the end of the mid-year vacation and generates a significant increase in link space, together with an increase in the tci of email, which behaves as an <em>intensive</em> technology, together with chat. the mobile telephone becomes an <em>attenuated</em> technology, together with the web. </p> <p> in periods 7 and 8, the mobile telephone is an <em>intensive</em> technology, while the others remain as <em>attenuated</em> technologies. in period 9, nino's link space narrows and the mobile telephone maintains its centrality; we then speak of the mobile as a <em>refuge</em> technology (a technology monopolizing a narrow link space), with three <em>attenuated</em> technologies (chat, email and web). in period 10, nino's link space broadens and even when email gains a little centrality, it continues to be an <em>attenuated</em> technology (the same as chat and the web). the mobile continues as an <em>intensive</em> technology. period 11 offers us the only example in nino's trajectory of <em>floating</em> technologies: the mobile telephone, email and chat. in the trajectory which ranges from period 12 to 14, nino's link space (ldi) narrows significantly and the mobile monopolizes the treatment of this monopolized link space (<em>refuge</em> technology); only in period 14, does chat reach a low-high level, and yet it continues to be an <em>attenuated</em> technology together with email and the web. in period 15, the centrality of the mobile continues, but now with a medium ldi, it operates as an <em>intensive</em> technology. the other three technologies continue as <em>attenuated</em> technologies. in the last period, email reaches its highest level in the entire trajectory (medium-medium level) and turns into <em>intensive</em> technology together with the mobile telephone. this, as with the previous abrupt increases in the tci of email (periods 6, 10 11) is due to the intensification of nino's academic commitments in the university. </p> <p> nino tends to use one technology (the mobile phone) to monopolize his link space and to sustain a marginal relationship with the technologies for communication and linking machines. however, his dexterity and skills with the ntr are broad, and are related to the computer software manipulation and the creation of databases in order (and to always have available) his personal and academic files and those for his hobbies (mainly music and cooking). this data turns out to be significant to understand the relationship between young people and the new technological repertoires: the complexity in this handling and manipulation of the technologies does not necessarily imply intensive use as linking machines or vice versa. </p> <p> <em>3. bi-technological system of fixed technology(ies</em>) this concerns a technology system with two central technologies and two relegated technologies. in our study this is the case for miguel <sup>7</sup> . </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3153/version/2135/4110/16670/image2.png" class="article_image" width="580" height="437" alt="image2"> <div class="image_caption"> image 2. this image offers a look at the combined trajectories of all of miguel's technologies. in olive green, the mobile telephone. in light green, chat. in orange, email. in red, the social webs. the levels of link space diversion appear in the vertical axis and the levels of technological concentration index in the horizontal axis. </div> <p> in miguel's case, image 2 shows a landslide in the presence of the mobile telephone at the right of the grid (medium and high ranges). we find another important grouping on the left side (low ranges) with a significant presence of the social web pages (red) and slightly less of email (orange). chat tends to occupy low and medium zones in the grid. this image points out the centrality of the mobile telephone for miguel, at the expense of other technologies, with the eventual importance of chat and email to a lesser extent. let's analyze this in detail: </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3153/version/2135/4110/16665/graphic2.png" class="article_image" width= "580" height="295" alt="graphic2"> <div class="image_caption"> graphic 2. the excel graphic allows us to appreciate, as a whole, the technological concentration index (tci) of miguel's four technologies: olive green for the mobile telephone, light green for chat, orange for email and red for the social webs. the changes in the link dispersion index (ldi) are represented by a bold black line. (the measurement parameters are the same as those indicated in graph 1.) </div> <p> in miguel&acute;s case, in period 1, with a high ldi, we see that chat and the mobile operate as <em>intensive</em> technologies (they both occupy a medium-low level), while the web and email are <em>attenuated</em> technologies (they are at low levels of the tci). in period 2, the link space (ldi) narrows and the mobile telephone and chat become <em>refuge</em> technologies (one or two technologies to cover a small link space), while the web and email continue to be <em>attenuated</em> technologies. in period 3, miguel's link space broadens and although the tci of the web and email increase, they continue to be <em>attenuated</em> technologies. the mobile telephone is an <em>intensive</em> technology which has chat as its complement as a <em>subsidiary</em> technology in the process of link space coverage. a transformation occurs in period 4, which is similar to that of period 2: the link space narrows and email and mobile telephone become <em>refuge</em> technologies. this significant increase of the email tci is due to the fact that in certain periods it becomes a key resource for undertaking schoolwork.. in period 5, the link space grows slightly, the tci for email falls, the mobile telephone is maintained relatively high and chat increases and the web slightly less. the mobile telephone is the <em>intensive</em> technology and chat, its <em>subsidiary</em> with the web and email in the condition of <em>attenuated</em> technologies. in period 6, the link space broadens significantly (high ldi), chat and email continue to be <em>attenuated</em> technologies, the mobile telephone is the <em>intensive</em> technology and the web becomes a <em>subsidiary</em> technology in the operation of link spaces. it is the only time in which the web reaches relatively high importance in the coverage of link spaces. in period 7 miguel's intense love crisis causes a significant narrowing in his link space (low ldi) and all of the technologies become <em>attenuated,</em> except for the mobile telephone, which is converted into a <em>refuge</em> technology. as with a rebound effect, in the following period the link space broadened and the mobile telephone becomes an <em>intensive</em> technology with a subsidiary role less than that of chat or the web. </p> <p> in the span which corresponds to l9 and l10 (school vacations), miguel's ldi is at a medium level, while chat gains centrality and becomes an <em>intensive</em> technology, together with the mobile telephone which continues to maintain its privileged space within the set of technologies; email and the web remain in marginal places and in this way they continue to be presented as <em>attenuated</em> technologies. in the l11 period, with a low ldi, the situation of email and the web continue to be <em>attenuated</em> technologies while mobile and chat turn into <em>refuge</em> technologies. in l12, school vacations continue and with a medium ldi, the centrality of the mobile is again emphasized in miguel's trajectory: observe the dramatic fall of the chat ldi in this period and the centrality which the mobile tci gains (high-high); in this period the mobile continues to be an <em>intensive</em> technology while the other three become <em>attenuated</em> technologies. </p> <p> in periods 13 and 14, chat again becomes an <em>intensive</em> technology, together with the mobile which does not lose its centrality. the web and email continue as <em>attenuated</em> technologies. in period 15, an important event happens to miguel: he loses his mobile telephone which extraordinarily triggers off the centrality of the web (it reaches a high-low level) as a technology for the transaction of social links. for the first time in the entire trajectory, the mobile becomes an <em>attenuated</em> technology, together with chat and email, while the web turns into a <em>refuge</em> technology. in period 16, the ldi rises, but the mobile telephone continues to be an <em>attenuated</em> technology while the other three technologies become <em>floating</em> technologies (two or three technologies to transact a broad link space). this fall in the tci of the mobile in the last periods of miguel's trajectory and the consequent rise of the tci in the other technologies (mainly the web), exactly in the same periods, are a new confirmation of the type of centrality relationship which miguel establishes with the mobile as an important technology for the transaction of his technologically mediated links. </p> <p> <em>4. bi-technological system of variable technologies with anchorage.</em> this concerns a technologgy system in which there is the presence of two central technologies which rotate their centrality with each other, while the other two technologies always appear relegated. in the study, none of the participants' trajectories fall within a system of this kind. </p> <p> <em>5. bi-technological system of variable technologies with moderate and/or opportunist anchorages.</em> this refers to a technology system with the presence of two central technologies (which can be rotating or fixed) with patterns of moderated and/or opportunist anchorage behaviors. in the study, this is the case for yulia, sara, valentina and lina. to illustrate, we present the graphics which demonstrate sara's usage <sup>8</sup>. </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3153/version/2135/4110/16671/image3.png" class="article_image" width="580" height="441" alt="image3"> <div class="image_caption"> image 3. this image offers a look at the combined trajectories of all of the technologies for sara. in olive green, the mobile telephone. in light green, chat. in orange, email. in red, the social web. the levels of link space dispersion appear in the vertical axis and the levels of the technological concentration index appear in the horizontal axis. </div> <p> two large groupings in sara's distribution of events can be appreciated in image 3. in the medium-low to the medium-medium spectrum of the tci (in the center and right of the grid), chat and mobile telephone predominate. the second grouping at the low ranges, is devoted to the social web pages and to email, with a lesser presence of chat and the mobile telephone. this is an indication that, although there is a relative tendency toward the dominant techno-linking complex (chat/mobile telephone), this is not guaranteed. moreover, no technology in the high ranges of the tci is identified with the broad and medium link spaces, which indicates a moderation in the use of the technological repertoire available for the mediation of links. this is in significant contrast to the mono-technological system as we saw with miguel (image 2) or with another multi-technological, as we will see later. </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3153/version/2135/4110/16666/graphic3.png" class="article_image" width= "580" height="441" alt="graphic3"> <div class="image_caption"> graphic 3. the excel graphic allows us to appreciate, as a whole, the technological concentration index (tci) of sara's four technologies. olive green for the mobile telephone, light green for chat, orange for email, and red for the social web. the changes in the link dispersion index (ldi) are represented by a bold black line. (the measurement parameters are the same as those indicated in graphic 1.). </div> <p> in this graphic we see that in period 1, with a high link space, chat is an <em>intensive</em> technology with two subsidiary technologies: the web and the mobile telephone. email is an <em>attenuated</em> technology. in period 2, we find a narrow link space, with three <em>residual</em> technologies (chat, mobile telephone and the web) and one <em>attenuated</em> technology, email. in period 3, the link space broadens and we encounter three <em>floating</em> technologies: chat, the web and the mobile telephone. email, although it rises slightly, continues to be an <em>attenuated</em> technology. in period 4, the ldi remains high. the mobile telephone and chat are <em>intensive</em> technologies, and email and the web, <em>attenuated</em> technologies. in period 5, the ldi remains high and email, which had been marginal, becomes an <em>intensive technology</em> together with the mobile telephone. this sudden <em>intensification</em> of email, is explained by the fact that, in spite of the prolonged break (easter week), sara used her email to transact her responsibilities and university homework. chat and the web become <em>attenuated</em> technologies. in period 6, the link space (medium ldi) narrows slightly: chat and the mobile telephone become <em>intensive</em> technologies, and attenuate email and the web. in period 7, the ldi continues at a medium level, and chat and the mobile telephone operate as <em>refuge</em> technologies; the network and email become <em>attenuated</em> technologies. in period 8, the ldi increases slightly, but again, both email and the web remain <em>attenuated,</em> and chat and the mobile telephone constitute <em>intensive</em> technologies. </p> <p> in period 9, school vacations begin and sara's ldi begins to lower slightly; the mobile continues as an <em>intensive</em> technology, while the other three operate as <em>floating</em> technologies. in the two following periods, sara's ldi is at its lowest level (they will be the only ones throughout the trajectory that reach this low-low level) and the central place the mobile telephone occupies as a <em>refuge</em> technology (one technology monopolizing a narrow link space) is significant in these two periods; while the other three operate as <em>attenuated</em> technologies. in period 12, the school vacation continues and a very particular situation occurs: the ldi is low and there is no weight of the technologies in link mediation. sara was at a farm, in a state of complete removal from the four technological repertoires considered in this study. in period 13, the mobile again gains centrality and operates once more as an <em>intensive</em> technology, while the other three are <em>attenuated</em> technologies. in period 14 we find three <em>floating</em> technologies: chat, the mobile telephone and the web. email continues as an <em>attenuated</em> technology. in period 15, this relationship of three <em>floating</em> technologies and one <em>attenuated</em> continues: email gains centrality (this is the period of midterm exams) and becomes a <em>floating</em> technology together with chat and the mobile telephone, which in spite of everything does not lose its centrality; while the web passes on to operate as an <em>attenuated</em> technology. in the last period, email and chat become <em>intensive</em> technologies; and for the first time in the entire trajectory, the mobile telephone turns into an <em>attenuated</em> technology together with the web. </p> <p> as can be appreciated, the structure of two groupings which image 3 offers us is the result derived from this dynamic of the organization of link space centered around two technologies (mobile and chat) which lead a major part of the events toward the medium zone, while the other two (web and email) have the tendency to stay in low zones. for this reason we speak of a <em>bi-technological</em> system with a behavior pattern of <em>moderated anchorage</em> with two technologies which serve to outline and deal with a major part of the technically mediated link space (chat and mobile telephone) but with some presence of the other two technologies. </p> <p> <em>6. multi-technological system of fixed technology and complementary technologies.</em> </p> <p> a multi-technological technological system of fixed technology which exists in the trajectory of an anchorage or moderate anchorage technology is always accompanied by two or three technologies which serve as a complement <sup>9</sup> is the case for mafito <sup>10</sup> . </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3153/version/2135/4110/16672/image4.png" class="article_image" width="580" height="403" alt="image4"> <div class="image_caption"> image 4. the image offers a look at the combined trajectories of all of mafio's technologies. in olive green, the mobile telephone. in light green, chat. in orange, email. in red, the social web. the link space dispersion levels appear in the vertical axis and the technological concentration index levels in the horizontal axis. </div> <p> in the case of mafito it can be appreciated that in the cells situated in the medium and high tcis (center and right of the grid) chat appears with a great deal of reiteration and, in a lesser degree, email and the mobile telephone. in these ranges, we also see an eventual presence of the social web pages (image 4). mafito offers us a structure of relationship in which the four technologies become dominant at some time in the trajectory, although chat occupies the predominant place. this is the case of a multi-technological system in which the centrality of one technology (chat) is always accompanied by other technologies which also turn out to be relevant within the technological framework. </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3153/version/2135/4110/16667/graphic4.png" class="article_image" width= "580" height="257" alt="graphic4"> <div class="image_caption"> graphic 4. the excel graphic allows us to appreciate, as a whole, the technological concentration index (tci) of mafito's four technologies: olive green for the mobile telephone, light green for chat, orange for email and red for the social web. the changes in the link dispersion index (ldi) are represented by the bold black line. (the measurement parameters are the same as those followed in graphic 1.) </div> <p> we will not do a detailed analysis for mafito as in the previous cases, however, it is worthwhile to emphasize how, in graph 4, we perceive the centrality of chat (light green line), always accompanied by other technologies, which also reach significant technological concentration levels. for mafito, none of the technologies appear clearly in a situation of relegation, as occurs with nino (mono-technological system of variable technologies) in which the social web pages are always situated in the low levels of the graphic. </p> <p> <em>7. multi-technological system of three or more technologies with moderate anchorage.</em> this deals with a technological system in which two or three technologies are central in the subject's trajectory. in our study, we find this to be the case of juan diego <sup>11</sup> . </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3153/version/2135/4110/16673/image5.png" class="article_image" width="580" height="257" alt="image5"> <div class="image_caption"> image 5. the image offers a look at the combined trajectories of all of juan diego's technologies. in olive green, the mobile telephone. in light green, chat. in orange, email. in red, the social webs. the link space dispersion levels appear in the vertical axis and in the horizontal axis, the technological concentration index levels. </div> <p> for juan diego, there is a tendency toward distribution of events throughout the whole grid (image 5). although these dispersion results are more pronounced in the case of the mobile telephone and chat, it can also be recognized in those technologies with less centrality such as the social web pages and email. this dispersion speaks of a tendency toward a non-loyal or non-habitual use of one or two technologies; a difference that can be appreciated for miguel (image 2). nevertheless, this tendency toward technological diversity should not make us forget that chat as well as the mobile telephone are the only technologies which occupy the high ranges of the tci, although, email has a significant presence in periods in which the link space is broad. in general, we find a strong grouping of events in the region to the left of the grid (low ranges, with the presence of all the technologies) and on the right, a diversity of events of three technologies (mobile telephone, chat and email), with the predominance of the mobile telephone. for juan diego there is a pole of concentration of events (to the left of the grid) and a wide constellation of events in the center and right regions. the contrast between this structure and that of sara (image 3) can be appreciated, with two clear groupings toward the center zone and toward the left. in this sense, we have with miguel and juan diego, extreme versions of a bi-technological system of fixed technology, with centrality of two or three technologies; while with sara, we find moderate formations in the distribution of events in the grid which end in a bi-technological system of variable technologies. </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3153/version/2135/4110/16668/graphic5.png" class="article_image" width= "580" height="257" alt="graphic5"> <div class="image_caption"> graphic 5. this excel graphic allows us to appreciate, as a whole, the technological concentration index (tci) of juan diego's four technologies: olive green for the mobile telephone, light green for chat, orange for email and red for the social web. the changes in the link dispersion index (ldi) are represented by a bold black line. (the measurement parameters are the same as those followed in graphic 1). </div> <p> without entering and pointing out details about the kind of technological relationship which juan diego establishes with each technology period by period, note that graphic 5 shows the centrality of chat and the significant presence of the mobile telephone in juan diego's trajectory, accompanied at certain times by the centrality of email and social web pages. that is, juan diego presents a multi-technological system, with behavior patterns of moderate anchorage with chat and the mobile telephone and opportunism with social web pages and email. </p> <p> <em>8. multi-technological system of three or more complementary technologies.</em> in this type of system, three or four technologies become complementary throughout the entire trajectory, without any one occupying an outstanding centrality; one technology at the most occupies a place of relegation. in our research, we did not find a subject who reported this system to us. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> synthesis </h3> <p> we have found in our study a predominance of the bi-technological systems of techno-mediation of link spaces, within which it is possible to read types of relationships and singular behavior patterns in each case. within these cases, the bi-technological systems demonstrate, without exception, anchorage (moderate or strong) patterns of one or two technologies, and variations which range from opportunism in one and moderate anchorage in the other. probably the bi-technological form may be the most frequent techno-mediation configuration in the social world among the users of the ntr used for linking purposes. only through more far-reaching studies can the distribution of these patterns be established and differentiated. </p> <p> in addition to the bi-technological systems, subjects appear within the study with multi-technological systems, also with significant particularities, but who have in common the tendency of non-loyalty as to one or two technologies and the possibility of transacting link space (broad or narrow) and as well, almost permanently resorting to three or more technological mediations. at the opposite extreme, there is the extraordinary configuration of nino, with a mono-technological system, supported in anchorage relationships with the mobile telephone, with relegation of social web pages and moderate relegation in the case of chat and email. what is characteristic of this mono-technological orientation, as we point out, is the tendency to erase other techno-mediation from the scene, monopolizing all of the link space with only one technology. </p> <p> this analysis allows us to suggest a gradation in the possible kinds of technological systems of link mediation, distributing them from left to right according to the number of technologies that dominate the system and the stable/unstable behavior of the incorporated technologies (table 1). </p> <p> the eight technological systems considered allow us to identify the quantity and complexity of relationships and dynamics which come into play in the connections between urban young people and the new technological repertoires. as we have seen, these relationships consider the number of technologies involved, the level of narrowness or broadness of link space to be transacted and the kind of centrality which each technology has at a given moment. in this way, it cannot be easily affirmed that young people are blindly tied to technologies. the eight proposed technological systems point to ways to think about the enormous weight that social setting plays in the construction of relationships of integrated urban young people and the ntr. the social temporality, with its restrictions and possibilities (weekdays, weekends, three-day weekends), school dynamics with its demands (academic periods, vacations, final exam period, etc.) and the vital circumstances of each subject, point out particular and differentiable courses and trajectories, as we have attempted to demonstrate in this paper. </p> <p> if a metaphor could be chosen to best illustrate the techno-linking phenomena, it could better be selected from biology rather than from physics or engineering. the phenomena do not deal with interactive networks between people and machines, but rather with authentic ecosystems which tend to reproduce and remain in time, adapting and being adapted to the variations of the environment. these systems remind us that the supposed natural technophile disposition of urban young people, that is their inclination toward technological voracity and their dual tendency now toward a fate of orgiastic and tribal collectivism, or toward a repulsion which is almost socio-pathological, individualist, absorbing and regressive, is nothing more than a reductive representation of the diverse and complex gait of these citizens who plan their destiny and path among varied human and non-human agents. </p> <p> studies of a more far-reaching nature with broader, more precise and specific populations and with more data collected through more sophisticated procedures; with data capture through, for example, palm type devices and individual training in order to carry out permanent and continuous records in real time, could offer us a map much more rich in nuance than this presentation, still schematic and limited. t doctoral thesis from which this analysis is derived proposes that these techno-linking systems (with their nuances and variations) offers clues for thinking about the emergence of another kind of political culture, about which it is worthwhile to investigate. </p> <p> what we have been shown by carrying out this sustained follow-up in the trajectories of use of chat, mobile telephone, electronic mail and internet social webs among urban young people, can be summarized in the following terms: if technological innovation, among other things, is attempting to deepen and refine modes of exo-convergence (machine-machine communication) or endo-convergence (multi-machines integrated into one), no less certain and powerful are the innovations which, in use, reveal to us another kind of convergence: socio-convergences; that is, the putting into relationship and genesis of an authentic ecology of machines for the service of purposes which come from the social world and not from the machines' architecture itself. in this study, these purposes refer to the generation and invigoration of social links. the inventiveness and imagination oriented toward strengthening, developing, diversifying and transforming links result in the emergence of a kind of convergence among machines whose explanation and development does not come from the nature and technical ingenuity of engineering in itself, but from the guidelines and social behaviors which differentiate and situate these. however, this reconfiguration as well does not come from the machine itself, but is explained by the genesis of an authentic ecological system, in which some machines occupy a specific niche of use, while others turn to other niches or are partially or completely inhibited and discarded (see table 1). beginning with local actions and personal and situated decisions, patterns emerge (ecological configurations) in which each machine occupies a differentiated place in the link dynamics. this is what makes up the kind of social innovation referred to by this paper. discussion is now open. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> footnotes </h3> <p> <sup>1</sup> the space state grids (ssg) allows the spaces of a state of a phenomenon to be charted through grids and cells. each one of the cells of the grid represents one of the possible states that a determined system can achieve through time. what is interesting is that these states are not defined by the software but rather the researchers, dealing with their own research questions, are the ones who define these variables. </p> <p> <sup>2</sup> in the study we speak of the new technological repertoires as a way of disassociating ourselves from the conceptions which understand technologies only as concrete devices. the technologies (from the alphabet, printing press, up to the present digital machines) are cognitive moulds which mobilize new forms of relationships of human beings with their interior and exterior worlds (piscitelli, 1995). they are not simple instruments; they constitute <em>know-how</em> which transforms the lives of individuals (mumford, 1987). </p> <p> <sup>3</sup> toward the end of the study (september, 2009) miguel, one of the participating young people, lost his mobile telephone and experienced a decided break in his own life experience. the loss of his mobile telephone which he hadn't anticipated implied the loss of telephone numbers, tips and secrets filed in the memory, recorded photographs and videos, dates of events, birthday records and agendas. during this span in his trajectory, he went on to establish a peripheral and marginal relationship with the social web pages to a much more vigorous and central relationship: facebook allowed him to recover part of the capacity of coordinating actions and events, in real time, that he had received with the ubiquitous mobile telephone. it was not a question of simply buying a new device. the potential and real linking framework which had brought about through the mediating of his mobile telephone had to be laboriously reconstructed, and he knew that a significant part of such a framework was irrecoverable. but, as well, the relationship with <em>that</em> mobile telephone, the skill with the keyboard, the ringtones previously pulled down from the internet, the personal configurations and adjustments whose use had evolved into a comfortable and naturalized operation of <em>his</em> telephone, a comfortable relationship over the months, all disappeared when it was lost. </p> <p> <sup>4</sup> in the case of yulia, another of the participating young people, when we interviewed her for the first time, affirmed that one of her most intense phantoms and terrors was to lose her personal computer through damage or robbery. and not surprisingly, when the refrigeration system of her notebook collapsed in june of 2009, yulia simply became depressed. her major work was in danger, the task that she had been forming throughout long and careful work on the computer: a database with books, class notes, bibliographical summaries and duly classified and coordinated university work, electronic addresses, files of family and personal photographs, an enormous framework of labor and academic relationships condensed in her computer. fortunately, after extensive technical intervention, she was able to recover her work and make use of a new computer. </p> <p> <sup>5</sup>the link dispersion index (ldi) indicates the variations in the participants' link space. it points the means by which the set of links that the subject transacts broadens or narrows, while resorting to the use of some of the considered technological mediations. </p> <p> <sup>6</sup> nino is 18 years old. he is studying foods engineering and has enjoyed cooking since he was a child. technology fascinates him. he devotes a lot of time to deciphering secret internet codes; he violates codes to get free access to the programs and files he is interested in; however, he is mistrustful of social web pages because he considers that they stimulate false forms of communication. he only chats with people he is interested in and for very concrete topics; except for those with his girlfriend, his chat conversations are always short and to the point. he is fascinated by music and has a systematized file of digital music of more than 1,500 titles. </p> <p> <sup>7</sup> miguel is a 20-year-old university student. he plays sports and studies technologies. he was a hacker as a young boy. now he prefers videogames and online games. he has joined several forums through the internet and belongs to online video-player communities. for miguel the secret to happiness is to have good friends and to learn to enjoy the present; he doesn't like to be alone or to feel lonely, that's why it is so important for him to build a web of strong and lasting friendships. </p> <p> <sup>8</sup> sara is 19 years old and loves parties and celebrations; nevertheless she looks sad. she is not satisfied with her present life. she is studying economics and finance but her dream is to become a graphic designer. until a few months ago she spent almost all day connected to the internet and was in permanent communication with her friends through chat or facebook. but since she has fallen in love, sara has begun to use this kind of technology less and less. now, she says, her world revolves around her boyfriend. </p> <p> <sup>9</sup> when the technology moderately not centrally accompanies the other technologies in the treatment of link space in spite of not being central we are talking about a complentary pattern with the technology. this relationship presents itself mainly when, in the majority of the periods, the technology behaves as a subsidiary technology. </p> <p> <sup>10</sup> mafito is a shy 21 year-old girl who has few friends and doesn't go out very much. mafito spends many hours at the computer. she updates her facebook at least once a week and she visits and comments in the social web pages of her friends every day. she is also an enthusiastic player of "farm town", a facebook game in which she becomes a "virtual farmer". she devotes one or two hours every day to taking care of the farm: she has to feed the animals, harvest the fruit, fertilize the crops, sell farm products, buy supplies for the plants, etc. </p> <p> <sup>11</sup> juan diego is an 18-year-old university student. he has been playing videogames since he was six. he is a disk jockey and soccer player. he hopes to graduate in three years as a recreation professional. in order to be a good disk jockey, he devotes time to listening to music and recognizing musical structure. the internet has been a key tool for learning, experiencing and creating his musical mixes. his greatest satisfaction is to be able to connect with the public and get them to enjoy the parties that he coordinates. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> references </h3> <div class="reference"> callon, michel (1998). 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(2016). data literacy: what is it and how can we make it happen? editorial. the journal of community informatics, 12(3), 4-8. date submitted: 2015-09-16. date accepted: 2015-11-19. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1347 mark frank university of southampton, united kingdom corresponding author. mark.t.frank@gmail.com johanna walker university of southampton, united kingdom j.c.walker@soton.ac.uk julie attard university of bonn, germany attard@iai.uni-bonn.de alan tygel federal university of rio de janeiro, brazil alantygel@ppgi.ufrj.br http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1347 mailto:mark.t.frank@gmail.com mailto:j.c.walker@soton.ac.uk mailto:attard@iai.uni-bonn.de mailto:alantygel@ppgi.ufrj.br http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1347 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 data to monitor its activities and hold it to account, has not materialised. most people still rely on a small number of intermediaries such as specialist applications, data journalists, pressure groups and political parties to select and interpret data on their behalf. as a result, there is a growing focus on the user and what they require to be able to take advantage of data. this ability is increasingly identified as data literacy. as such this issue can be seen as a natural partner to its predecessor. data literacy is a recent addition to a growing band of literacies such as numerical literacy, statistical literacy and it literacy. all of them refer to the ability to make use of a widely available medium or technology that is considered to be of fundamental importance. and they all, of course, draw an analogy with literacy as the ability to read, i.e. understand and use text. data literacy refers to the ability to understand and use data, particularly in the context of the internet. as a research topic it has, until recently, been largely confined to the skills that students and researchers need to use data. this is changing, largely because of the rapidly increasing profile of open data. however, the significance of data literacy is not confined to open data or indeed the web. data has played an expanding role in the lives of more and more people since the industrial revolution, and as a basis for many products and services data becomes increasingly a commodity in our information society. businesses and governments have adopted scientific approaches to decision making based on data (porter 1996) and democratic governments have accepted that citizens have a right to be informed about matters that affect them – including central and local government but also other public and private institutions. census results, company accounts and trade statistics are all examples of data which are intended for public use and which existed for many decades before the internet. other examples of this ‘datafication’ (cukier and mayer-schoenberger 2013) include government data portals, reviews, feedback, and product suggestion on e-commerce websites, weather emergencies forecast, patient monitoring, citizen participation and decision-making, etc. the ability to understand and use such data is important for personal decisions such as choosing schools and investing in companies, and is also a plank of effective democracy – widely regarded as providing the transparency which is a prerequisite for accountability (heald 2006). but by itself data is not information. for data to be useful people must be able to extract information from it. the ability to do this is rapidly becoming a requirement to participate in modern life – as fundamental as the ability to use a telephone or money. those who do not have this ability are in an important sense disadvantaged. this used to be the subject of introductions to statistics but the internet has changed this. it has transformed both the opportunities and the challenges. prior to the internet there were limited sources of data available – usually from credible sources, but hard to access and understand. most people lacked the resources to use such sources directly and relied on intermediaries such as the press to access and interpret data for them. the biggest challenges for most people were to understand and critically assess the ways that intermediaries presented data such as tables, graphs and charts. this was commonly understood as statistical literacy (see woolff et al.’s comparison of data literacy and statistical literacy in this issue) and it is still a core concern of data literacy (see zubiaga et al in this issue). the internet has fundamentally changed the game by potentially allowing anyone with internet access to access a vast range of data sources. to take advantage of this, in addition to statistical literacy, people have to find data, select it from a mass of alternative sources, evaluate its quality and trustworthiness and manipulate it to extract the information they need. !5 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 these challenges raises fundamental questions about the definition of data literacy. while authors have frequently offered their own definitions, typically this has not been based on any kind of systematic analysis. three of the papers in this special issue address this. woolf et al. , in their paper on urban data in the primary classroom, examine different ways of teaching data literacy in schools and discuss what this implies for a definition of data literacy, compare data literacy with the “more coherently defined statistical literacy”, and produce a comprehensive and rigorous definition of their own. david crusoe takes a different approach, starting with the population of data users and what data literacy means for them. his definition is intentionally broad and less detailed than woolf et al’s with its emphasis on teaching. both woolf and crusoe define data literacy in terms of cognitive skills such as collecting, selecting, cleaning, analysing, interpreting, critiquing, visualising and sharing. it is possible to take an even broader approach. paul matthews teases out four different concepts of data literacy found in the literature and argues for a capabilities approach to all four concepts including social capabilities. competence includes affective as well as cognitive considerations (bloom et al. 1956). to be able to take advantage of data a user needs attributes such as confidence and belief in the value of data as a source of information, possibly tempered with an appropriate level of scepticism. in this issue kayser-bril describes the importance of the right incentives for data literacy amongst journalists. the scope of data literacy need not be limited to the personal attributes of the user. it may also include the way data is made available and the support provided to him or her. to pursue the analogy with textual literacy we are all illiterate when the text is in a language we don’t know and we have no dictionary. data in a familiar format such as csv may be more accessible and usable than a potentially more powerful but less familiar format such as rdf (frank and walker 2016). metadata that clearly describes the provenance of the data allows a user to put it in context and know to what extent they can trust it. extending the concept even further, it may be useful to think of data literacy as a property of a community as opposed to an individual, with members of the community making different contributions. so that the presence of some people who can find data, some people who can manipulate it, and some who can present the result might constitute data literacy for that community. in this issue prado et al, bhargava et al, and tygel and kirsch all explore the importance of learning to use data as a community and in a social context. although defining data literacy increases rigor and helps to clarify its scope it also important to be flexible and not let discussion of definitions inhibit or constrain research. any attempt to define a term in its formative stage is as much prescriptive as descriptive – it is an implicit recommendation to include certain things and exclude others. woolf et al.’s paper on creating an understanding of data literacy critiques the lack of comprehensiveness of each approach they study but a comprehensive approach may not be possible or desirable and it may be more productive to accept different definitions according to the context. instead of assuming that data literacy is a coherent whole we may need to consider several different kinds of data literacy for different situations e.g. data producers, data specialists and non-specialist users. crusoe and woolf et al. also consider the ethical implications of data literacy; that we should all be aware of the responsibilities that come with the rights to use data. it is not enough to know how to combine data sets, there is also a requirement to be aware of the effects of combining or using them; no one wants to inadvertently breach the privacy of others. however it is defined, there has been increasing activity aimed at raising data literacy in recent years. a key part of this activity is education and training. some element of basic !6 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 statistics has been part of school curricula in many countries for decades. the challenge is to bridge the gap from statistical literacy to data literacy and to help children relate the skills to the wider context. this is a topic of continuing research at the open university in the uk. woolf et al. describe the success of narrative and inquiry based learning in the uk to help primary school age children become comfortable with using data. but education is not limited to children (crusoe questions whether curricular constraints mean that schools are the right place for data literacy training at all). for example, the school of data is an international network of individuals and organisations round the world specialising in increasing data literacy through education and support. it interprets data literacy quite broadly in the sense of including skills for specialist roles such as journalists as well as citizens. the open data institute (odi) has also included raising data literacy as part of its international programme of activities. in their notes from the field argast et al. describe the data literacy activities of the canadian branch of the odi including open data jams, hackathons and workshops in public libraries. however, there is a limit to what can be achieved in the classroom or workshop. one way out of this is through the use of technology. d’ignazio et al. describe three webbased tools for assisting data literacy. these approaches are technology based. others are attempting to increase data literacy using broader, more contextual approaches. tygel et al. propose an approach to data literacy that is theoretically underpinned by paulo freire’s work on textual literacy. this stresses the importance of embedding learning in a social context that means something to the learners, and learning by doing. bhargava et al. describe the use of data murals in communities in brazil to help people understand and “buy-in” to the use of data. their work suggests that the arts and more visual communication methods can be a vital entry point to developing data literacy. prado et al. place data literacy in the context of digital inclusion. they examine how marginalized populations in brazil perceive the practice of digital literacy that will allow us to better understand the factors that affect the sustainability of initiatives that promote universal access and digital inclusion. these three papers all come from brazil, raising the exciting possibility that data literacy will be the first ‘literacy’ whose dominant model comes from the global south. for centuries textual literacy has been a requirement for an individual to take a full part in society. the opportunities in life are far greater for the literate than they are for the illiterate. a high level of literacy is a necessity for any society to develop. with the advent of the internet data literacy promises to take on a similar significance. although the concept is at a very early stage our experience is that whenever it is discussed there a strong interest and a wide acceptance of its importance. when it appears as a topic in events such as open data camps or academic conferences it has always been among the best attended (see frank and walker in this issue). the papers in this issue demonstrate there are major challenges in both defining what it should be and raising the level of data literacy round the world. but it also presents an opportunity for enabling the internet to fulfill its potential as an instrument of constructive social change. references baack, s. 2015. “datafication and empowerment: how the open data movement re-articulates notions of democracy, participation, and journalism.” big data & society 2(2). bloom, b.s. et al. 1956. taxonomy of educational objectives: the classification of educational goals. new york, new york, usa: david mckay. !7 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 cukier, neil, and viktor mayer-schoenberger. 2013. “the rise of big data.” foreign affairs. davies, tim g., and zainab ashraf bawa. 2012. “the promises and perils of open government data (ogd).” the journal of community informatics 8(2). frank, mark, and johanna walker. 2016. “user centred methods for measuring the value of open data.” the journal of community informatics 12(2). geiger, christian p, and jörn von lucke. 2012. “open government and (linked)(open)(government) (data).” ejournal of edemocracy & open government 4(2). gurstein, m. 2011. “open data: empowering the empowered or effective data use for everyone?” first monday 16(2): 7. heald, david. 2006. “transparency as an instrumental value.” in transparency : the key to better governance, eds. christopher hood and david heald. oxford: oup/british academy. incollection. iemma, raimondo. 2012. open government data: a focus on key economic and organizational drivers. rochester, ny. http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2262943 (november 9, 2014). janssen, katleen. 2011. “the influence of the psi directive on open government data: an overview of recent developments.” government information quarterly 28(4): 446–56. ———. 2012. open government data: right to information 2.0 or its rollback version? rochester, ny. http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2152566 (november 9, 2014). meijer, a j., d. curtin, and m. hillebrandt. 2012. “open government: connecting vision and voice.” international review of administrative sciences 78(1): 10–29. meng, amanda. 2014. “investigating the roots of open data’s social impact.” jedem ejournal of edemocracy and open government 6(1): 1–13. noveck, beth simone. 2009. wiki government: how technology can make government better, democracy stronger, and citizens more powerful. washington, d.c.: brookings institution press. peled, alon, and karine nahon. 2015. “data ships : an empirical examination of open ( closed ) government data.” in proceedings of the 48th annual hawaii international conference on system sciences, waikoloa, hi. porter, theodore m. 1996. trust in numbers : the pursuit of objectivity in science and public life. princeton, n.j.: princeton university press. sharif, raed m, and francois van schalkwyk. 2016. “special issue on open data for social change and sustainable development.” the journal of community informatics 12(2). stott, andrew. 2014. open data for economic growth. washington dc. http://www.worldbank.org/ content/dam/worldbank/document/open-data-for-economic-growth.pdf. vickery, graham. 2011. review of recent studies on psi reuse and related market developments. paris. https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/news/review-recent-studies-psi-reuse-andrelated-market-developments. world wide web foundation. 2015. open data barometer 3rd edition. http://opendatabarometer.org/. worthy, ben. 2015. “the impact of open data in the uk: complex, unpredictable, and political.” public administration 93(3): 788–805. !8 <div id="article"> <h2 id="article_title"> the emergence of converging communities via twitter </h2> <div id="article_author"> cecilia loureiro-koechlin, tim butcher </div> <h3 class="article_subhead"> introduction </h3> <p> twitter, the online social networking site (sns), is at the core of the web 2.0 phenomenon. this internet-based software application enables users to sign up for free and communicate with others by posting text, hyperlinks and/or images from both desktop and mobile devices. its simple functionality and usability encourages widespread adoption. as with other online software, the twitter application itself is an enabler of its adoption, but the key to twitter's success, we propose, is its sociability. the combination of functionality, usability and sociability produces successful online communities (desouza &amp; preece, 2004). twitter ought therefore to enable online communities. </p> <p> the aims of this research are to evaluate the emergence of online communities in twitter, and how users converge within those communities. with twitter offering users the potential to 'follow' many other users, communities are potentially dynamic, evolving and constantly changing (after desouza &amp; preece, 2004). we critically evaluate the constructs of this theoretical framework to inform our empirical research. we go on to discuss our research methods and findings, presenting a conceptual representation of emerging groups' convergence via twitter. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> web 2.0, social networking sites and twitter </h3> <p> twitter and other sns utilise web 2.0 technologies. by locating on the internet rather than on hard drives (after o'reilly, 2005), these new technologies represent a change in the way software is developed, distributed and used. web 2.0 is essentially people-centric (murugesan, 2007) with an 'architecture of participation' (o'reilly, 2005). it supports real-time interactions, user-generated content, remixing and mashups, apis and open-source software (boyd, 2008). bauckhage et al. (2007) argue that through participation, web 2.0 enables internet users to contribute content, which consequently facilitates the exchange and retrieval of knowledge. participation, exchange and synthesis enable users to engage in activities based on common goals (after castells, 2009). we will revisit this fundamental point later. </p> <p> in sns, users set up online profiles or personal homepages, develop online social networks and interact with these networks in various ways. users of sns sign up to the tool but not necessarily to interest-based groups, as is the case in online chatrooms and fora. in choosing who they will connect to, users make conscious network-building decisions; for example, which people to search for, which friend requests to accept, and which people's profiles and posts to read. this process is what we call social networking. sns are based on social relationships and connections with people rather than on shared interests (ofcom, 2008). </p> <p> sns users have typically formed networks with people they already know offline, as is the case with facebook (boyd &amp; ellison, 2008). on twitter, however, users can easily seek and 'follow' other users who interest them by searching the public timeline. these social networks are not online communities. exchanges happen only between a small set within these declared set of connections (huberman, romero &amp; wu, 2009). we later clarify this distinction. </p> <p> while sns providers set the rules of the online environments they provide (e.g., terms of service and privacy policies), they do not dictate how users communicate. it is at the user level that modes of communication have developed and evolved. generally online participants develop conventions of communication (jacobson, 1996) or chat codes (greenfield &amp; subrahmanyam, 2003) to facilitate understanding. some conventions such as emoticons are well spread across the internet, whereas others are particular to individual communities. </p> <p> early adopters without the intervention of the site providers created twitter language conventions. the best known and useful are hashtags (e.g. #followfriday) used as labels, to classify posts (known as 'tweets') and make topic threads easier to follow. the @ symbol is used to address an individual (honeycutt &amp; herring, 2009) and retweet (rt) is used to repeat and resend a tweet posted by another user. these are methods now widely adopted in twitter conversations (boyd, golder &amp; lotan, 2010). </p> <p> twitter is in essence a simple tool. it asks the question 'what's happening?' (previously, 'what are you doing?'), and lets users respond in 140 characters or less. the content of tweets ranges from links to news articles and blogposts, to sharing photographs, to proposals of marriage. this variety has spawned an array of users exploring its potential: making new friends, sharing news, searching for experts, marketing products and services. </p> <p> although still scarce, the literature on twitter has identified types of users. these classifications are based on users' behaviour and intentions in relation to the tool's uses, but not in the context of online communities. java et al. (2007) recognised information sources, information seekers, and friends as types of users. similarly, krishnamurthy et al. (2008) identified acquaintances or friends, miscreants or evangelists, and information seekers. java et al. (2007) also created a typology of user intentions: daily chatter, sharing information, reporting news, and conversations. these intentions are reflected in the kinds and content of users' interactions. nielsen (2010) notes that in march 2010, twitter's unique audience (i.e., individual user accounts) was 20.1 million, compared with 13.9 million in march 2009, and 0.5 million in march 2008. with so many users adopting it for various purposes, complex networks of social groupings are emerging. the question of whether or not these groupings are online communities must be explored. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> online communities </h3> <p> so far we have alluded to the possibility of online communities being formed via networks of twitter users. a bounded collection of 'ego-based' social networks can be represented as a community network (arnold, 2007). a bounded community network builds its own infrastructure, limits ramified access, and provides a group space as an ongoing default for its members. it is a hybrid between a hierarchy and a heterarchy (arnold, 2007). community is a focal point where members' daily needs are satisfied (logan &amp; molotch, 1987 cited by stoecker, 2005). it provides informal support networks, a sense of physical and psychic security, agglomeration and a shared ethnicity. </p> <p> social capital plays an important role in community engagement, offering a collective identity (pigg &amp; duffy crank, 2004) and making life easier in a community (putnam, 1995). pigg &amp; duffy crank (2004) find five dimensions of social capital that combine to create collective identity: networks, resources for action, reciprocity transactions, bounded solidarity, and enforceable trust. these dimensions in turn facilitate coordination and communication to amplify reputation and allow dilemmas of collective action to be resolved (putnam, 1995). thus where there is a lack of hierarchy, social capital offers a community its social template. individuals gain a sense of civic duty for the greater good of the community rather than for their own individual benefit. when social capital breaks down, so does the community (after putnam, 1995). whether the conditions of community and social capital exist in online spaces is at question here. </p> <p> several authors find that online and/or virtual communities exist, using these terms interchangeably. yet virtual spaces need not necessarily be online. hence we view 'virtual' as an overarching concept, of which online is a part. we adopt the latter term because we are researching internet-based groups, but we review literature here that uses both terms. </p> <p> castells (2009) defines virtual communities as self-elected networks of interactive communications organised around a shared interest or purpose, with communication sometimes becoming the goal itself. this definition derives from that of online communities as "social aggregations that emerge from the net when enough people carry on public discussions long enough with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace" (rheingold, 1994, p5). online communities have specific purposes and their members share common interests that define the content of their interactions (porter, 2004). they are dynamic and evolving (desouza and preece, 2004). they are fluid (proulx and latzko-toth, 2005), with 'fuzzy' online community boundaries (preece and maloney-krichmar, 2005) defined by community membership and the comparison of new members with existing ones. porter (2004) shows that participants join web 2.0-based online communities to seek or provide information, affirming its value. desouza and preece (2004) report a sense of community or membership amongst users, who are able to engage in meaningful participation and can commit to relationships with other members. these relationships can be nurtured and strengthened in those online spaces, leading to real friendships (see for example parks, 1996). </p> <p> there are several typologies of online community members. these typologies describe members via their participation relative to fellow members. in a study of an online community of journalists millen and dray (2000) identified types of contributors by their degree of participation: frequent, sporadic, infrequent, and lurker. similarly mcdaniel et al. (1996) identified primary, secondary, and marginal contributors to online conversations. </p> <p> online communities are guided by policies that include norms and rules (in the case of sns, set by the site providers), supported by software (preece and maloney-krichmar, 2005). norms and values are aligned to the purposes and the nature of their participants (millen &amp; dray, 2000). in general, individual members are able to enforce such rules through their own participation. indeed, elliott and scacchi's (2003) study of a virtual organization of free software developers showed how online participants can successfully collaborate to resolve online conflicts. however, interestingly, pigg &amp; duffy crank (2004) find a lack of empirical evidence for such online communities displaying their five dimensions of social capital discussed above. yet without social capital or hierarchy, online communities would not display such self-regulation but would dissolve into anarchy. </p> <p> castells (2009) discusses this issue at length. virtual communities can be relatively formalised, but it remains to be seen how sociable they are and what the cultural implications will be. castells cites mitchell (1995; 1999) and turkle (1995), stating that new forms of sociability and urban life adapted to new technology spaces such as the web are emerging, where users play roles and build identities (e.g., online gaming). yet role-play does not imply a feeling of community, but rather brings solace to people in need of communication and self-expression. </p> <p> returning to the theories of community and social capital, castells (2009) draws on the various works of wellman and of putnam to observe that virtual communities don't follow the same conventions of communication and interaction as physical communities do. this observation does not, however, imply that virtual communities are unreal-merely that they operate on a different level. virtual communities are made up of social networks based on highly diversified and specialised but weak ties. they are, nevertheless, able to provide reciprocity and support sustained interaction (castells, 2009). diversification and specialisation come from individuals creating their own personal communities or portfolios (wellman &amp; gulia, 1999). users join the online shared interest networks identified by porter (2004), creating many weak ties with others (in an egalitarian pattern) to open up opportunities for themselves (wellman &amp; gulia, 1999). in so doing, these users link themselves to others with different social characteristics to expand their sociability beyond the socially defined boundaries of self-recognition (castells, 2009). examples include facebook users with hundreds of 'friends' and twitter users with thousands of 'followers'. strong ties with each 'friend' or 'follower' cannot be maintained. in anthropology, the maximum number of strong ties any individual can maintain is approximately 150. this is known as dunbar's number, a pattern observed throughout the natural world (dunbar, 2003). whilst few strong ties exist within virtual communities, there is reciprocal supportiveness between those connected by weak ties, evidenced by uninhibited discussion that enables sincerity (castells, 2009). yet with such weak constructs, there is a high mortality of online 'friendships'. </p> <p> castells (2009) goes on to conclude that these many weak ties in virtual communities transcend distance. they are asynchronous, combining rapid dissemination of mass media with pervasive personal communications at a low cost. twitter is a prime example. sns such as twitter therefore enable, and we would add encourage, individual users to join multiple 'partial communities'. these partial communities, castells (2009) argues, reinforce a trend towards the 'privatisation of sociability', where social networks are being rebuilt around individuals developing personal communities in both the online and physical worlds. </p> <p> if it is the case that online communities are redefining what it is to be sociable, we ask how these personal communities emerge and converge in twitter. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> research methods </h3> <p> in our research we identified a group of 80 users who joined twitter separately and with different intentions but who met online and have formed ties. this group was located by firstly meeting a twitter user and, with his consent, identifying his personal community (after castells, 2009) by tracking his online discussions, followers, and twitter lists (lists users can create to identify and classify subgroups of their following lists). the user maintains a list called 'the crowd' to identify other twitter users he has formed ties with. at the time of our data collection his list identified 80 people as being members of the crowd. many of those users on his list were found to identify themselves as being a part of the crowd, by compiling similar lists with common members, and meeting face-to-face regularly at 'tweet up' events. not all members of the crowd know each other, or indeed follow one another, but they are connected through association with others in this personal community. we aimed to capture rich and meaningful insights of these twitter users' accounts from their everyday use of the social networking site. by combining the ideas about ethnography from harvey and myers (1995), virtual ethnography from hine (2000) and cyber-ethnography from ward (1999) we developed a mixed ethnographic approach consisting of online participant observation via the twitter public timeline and face-to-face interviews with a sample of members. </p> <p> the public tweets of the crowd members between december 2009 and march 2010 were observed via the twitter public timeline. to provide a rich picture of the crowd, participant observation consisted of analysing their twitter profiles to identify who they follow and who is following them using the free friend or follow application (http://friendorfollow.com/). this was combined with brief interactions with members of the crowd and observation of their following, follower and twitter lists, allowing the researchers to "see and begin to experience" (marshall and rossman, 1989, p106) twitter as the crowd do. all of this information is publicly available via twitter. however we have anonymised our findings as much as possible. </p> <p> our participant observation data are triangulated with interview data to verify our preliminary findings with users. members of the crowd were approached via twitter direct messages to request interviews. six volunteered. ethnographic interviews (flick, 2006, p166) were employed in the form of face-to-face semi-structured interviews within a friendly and conversational atmosphere. the interviewees range from early adopters to relatively new users, and from social users to business users. we further classified these users by asking them a series of questions designed to elicit how they perceived their use of twitter and other sns. those questions were informed by existent typologies of twitter and community users as explained above. </p> <p> a total of approximately six hours of interview audio was captured. these interviews were transcribed and analysed to identify users' individual use patterns, convergences as their participation evolved, and their engagement over time. the interviews captured data that verified the outcomes of participant observation regarding the crowd's general use of the tool, the online communities in which they interact and their roles within those communities (after java et al, 2007; after krishnamurthy et al, 2008 and mcdaniel et al., 1996; millen and dray, 2000). in addition, interviews provided perceptions of the transition of online communities from interest-driven social networks to friendship-driven personal communities. furthermore, we sought to understand how twitter users integrate that particular tool with other sns sites and their real (i.e., physical) worlds. </p> <p> from our findings discussed below we present a conceptual framework of how communities evolve and converge via twitter. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> findings </h3> <p> data from the online ethnography uncovered the existence of the crowd as an identifiable personal community. members have a variety of interests and goals, but share at least one interest and/or goal with the creator of the crowd list. through an analysis of crowd participant observation we identified members' patterns of use since december 2009. data from interviews provided deeper insights into their broader participation in twitter social networking. the following section will describe the crowd and its characteristics. from these analyses we later develop our conceptual framework. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> the crowd </h3> <p> the crowd is a personal community of users who are connected to each other via friendship links, although not everyone follows each other in this community. whilst all share at least commonality with the crowd list creator, they do not necessarily have shared interests or goals with each other. our data suggest that the crowd emerged around may 2009. members of the crowd live, have connections to or are interested in melbourne, australia and are active twitter users. </p> <p> the crowd are extremely active online. they integrate twitter with other online tools including sns such as facebook and linkedin. they are heavy users, most of them tweeting far more than the reported norm of 5 to 30 times per week (zhao and rosson, 2009, p245). for example, one member of the crowd had posted in excess of 11,590 tweets, as at may 14th 2010, since joining twitter on january 30th 2009-an average of 161 tweets per week. members of the crowd joined twitter for different reasons such as to do business (e.g., sales and marketing), to build a professional image, to follow groups of interest (e.g., sports) or to meet new people. some members did not have clear objectives when they joined twitter. however they did develop 'following' approaches once they interacted with other users and learned the conventions of twitter. we found it is quite common for new users to open an account but not actively use it until they have gained a significant following. depending on a user's approach this period may be days or months. a common approach is to search for other twitter users using hashtagged terms such as #melbourne or #rugby. once other users discussing those topics (and thus having shared interests) have been found and followed, users may then merely observe the others' tweets (i.e., lurk), or attempt to interact with them by actively participating in those conversations. </p> <p> when growing a twitter following, another key enabler is known as the 'tweet up'. adapted from 'meet up', some twitter users typically arrange tweet ups and advertise them via the public timeline. this approach is also popular amongst the crowd for meeting other users with shared interests or goals who had not previously encountered this personal community. in melbourne there are at present at least five regular tweet ups, each attracting different types of users. the crowd span each of these tweet ups, with different members having different interests (e.g., to discuss social media developments over breakfast, or to have drinks with likeminded people at a bar). these events can indeed be the focal point of a personal community, with the event itself being a community's shared goal. the melbourne twitter urban brigade (mtub) is one such example; its users, from a variety of backgrounds, meet approximately once a month in person, discussing the event before and after, but not otherwise maintaining those weak ties. yet meeting other twitter users in the real world does enable the strengthening of ties with a select few others by communicating at greater length and realising that users share more than one interest or goal. thus the crowd converged and emerged. </p> <p> the crowd are conscientious users. they look after their twitter accounts, choosing carefully whom they follow and checking regularly who follows them. this action is not normally collective, but might be perceived as a form of community boundary self-regulation if enough of the crowd follow or unfollow the same user at around the same time. as individuals, they carefully construct the image they portray online and are aware that people are following their activities on a daily basis. although some of the members show their real names, many retain some privacy, tweeting with a certain level of anonymity or locking their accounts to restrict access to their feed. </p> <p> whilst the personal community boundaries of those users with twitter lists similar to the crowd could be identified, those who do not maintain lists were not easily identified. the identification therefore had to be made through participation and examination of people's @ reply tweets to each other. this examination showed that twitter lists do not define communities but are one of their possible manifestations. respondents displayed a sense of membership and confidence when describing their communities and their ties with other members. all six interviewees reported their participation in one or more interest-based communities on twitter. some of them agreed the term 'communities' represented the groupings they had formed, as they followed and were followed by people with similar interests. however, respondents explained that their community boundaries were not clear to them, as each of them has different following and followers lists. yet they did not believe unclear boundaries were an issue as twitter allows them to establish direct ties with (i.e., follow) anyone with shared interests and/or goals. thus twitter communities have different configurations as created by their members, thereby reflecting personal communities as described by castells (2009). </p> <p> participant observation of the crowd members' own twitter lists showed that a common core within the crowd exists. most core members maintained twitter lists. interviews confirmed that weak ties became strong ties through extended participation and interaction both onand offline, causing friendships to emerge. this group of friends grew in number as they met more people online and via tweet ups. although the crowd is numerous 80 people or more and its core much smaller, none of the respondents described the crowd as a community. instead, they referred to it as a group of friends who do not necessarily all share the same interests. in fact, many members of the crowd sit on the periphery, interacting with a select few of the core members. it seems that 'community' is not necessarily an accepted term. whilst 'personal community' may describe the crowd, its members would rather think more in terms of friendships, whether or not they are theoretical. </p> <p> the crowd have developed conventions of communication to represent events among them and as ways to identify themselves via a collective identity. particular hashtags identify themselves to others and engender 'mateship'-an australian cultural idiom used to encapsulate equality, loyalty and friendship. this practice acts as both a reinforcer of existing ties and as an attractor to new followers. furthermore, some members of the crowd use hashtags to organise tweet ups and other smaller gatherings separately, taking their friendships out of the twitter domain. </p> <p> within the overlapping personal communities observed, we identified two distinct member roles. as identified above, there is a core group who participate more often than others, lead off-line meetings, and are present in most of the twitter lists we have observed. there is also a marginal group whose participation is less frequent. the configuration of this second group is unclear because of its scarce participation as well as the irregular presence of its individuals in the lists of the core group. its defining characteristic, inferred from the content of the interchanged tweets that we observed, is shared interests with members of the core group. </p> <p> when asked about the suitability of twitter to maintain their community ties and friendships, respondents stated that twitter was a great place to meet new people and to keep in contact with others. twitter's functionality works at a community level, helping them to find people in their area of business or identify potential future friends. they also stated that it helps to keep them updated with news and events in their local area and globally. some respondents stated that they integrate twitter with facebook, linkedin, and blogs, amongst other sns, to build an image of active participation. on the other hand, respondents stated that twitter was good for initiating friendships but not sufficient on its own to strengthen them. members of the crowd have therefore resorted to other means to build and maintain strong ties, the most important of which is face-to-face meetings such as the tweet ups discussed previously. thus physical proximity is important to strengthening ties, and is one of the reasons why the crowd is a melbourne-centric group. however, its members are not necessarily interested in melbourne as a topic for discussion, but are interested in people and events based in that location. in fact, most observed tweets referred to shared interests, work, leisure and social activities including tweet-ups. members who have not met the core group in person have not been able to strengthen their ties to the same extent. </p> <p> as ties have strengthened and friendships developed in the core group, its members have taken some of their relationships offline, communicating via more conventional means such as the telephone. other sns tools are also used to help them communicate at different levels and nurture their ties via software such as facebook, where they can chat privately and limit the circulation of certain event invitations. some interviewees stated that they also communicated with the crowd through twitter direct messages for privacy. not all conversations need necessarily be on the public timeline, although many are. this timeline acts as a message board to enable others, including ourselves, to join in conversations. many of the crowd stay in touch on multiple platforms, from texting to msn messenger. and geo-location-based applications such as foursquare (commonly integrated with twitter) are also used to let the others know where they are. blending sns and conventional communication tools facilitate approaches that help the crowd maintain their friendships, whilst at the same time keeping the metaphorical doors open to others to join them. our findings reveal that twitter is one of many onand offline tools that are used by the crowd, but that it is at the core of their interactions. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> conceptual framework on community formation and convergence on twitter </h3> <p> from our ethnographic account, we have developed a conceptual framework that explains how personal communities emerge and converge on twitter. see figure 1. </p> <p> using data collected from participant observation and ethnographic interviews we have identified three layers of participation and relationships. according to our framework, twitter users participate at each layer in different ways and with different intentions. users can actively participate in more than one layer or just the first. this means that participation on twitter can be multi-dimensional, as different layers can co-exist. </p> <p> we find that users join twitter at layer 1, following others with similar interests but not necessarily interacting (e.g., addressing other users by using @ or rt). they may then develop their participation towards layer 2 by becoming actively involved in interest-driven communities. some users may then consciously or not seek friendships with members of more than one interest-driven community (combining twitter interactions with other sns communication and real world events), which leads to layer 3, as represented in our framework. </p> <p> users may choose to stay in layer 1, limiting their participation to broadcasting with no particular intentions, neither engaging in interactions with other users nor becoming part of a group. layers 2 and 3 imply the development of commitment and (interest-driven, friendship-driven) purposes by users. </p> <p> in the case of the crowd, its members had begun their 'lives' on twitter at layer 1 at different times before becoming familiar with interest-driven communities (layer 2). some then met and strengthened their initially weak ties to form the core friendship-driven group (layer 3). participant observation showed that all three layers co-exist for individuals in the crowd core group in their daily twitter participation. in other words, whilst they maintain their friendships at layer 3 via chatter on the twitter public timeline and other media (e.g., facebook status updates), they also foster their layer 2 interest-driven communities through frequent participation, and seek out information (layer 1) as and when it suits them. for example, it was observed that members of the crowd intercalated tweets at different layers of the framework, either by dedicating times of the day to a layer (e.g., broadcasting information early in the morning) or by participating on layers depending on participation of other people. </p> <p> the business users interviewed discussed this hierarchy of use in terms of building business relationships. for example, two interviewees, both small business owners, use layer 1 to 'lurk' (after millen &amp; dray, 2000) for other twitter users who may be interested in their services. they then aim to participate in those other users' interest-driven (layer 2) communities, or draw them into one of their own layer 2 communities to pitch their services. to 'close the deal' they then meet face-to-face and invite them into other sns fora such as linkedin and facebook. twitter is for them a 'shop window' in which to sell their wares. </p> <p> ties and communities in layers 1 and 2 are constantly reconfiguring as people follow or unfollow each other. those are weak ties. as discussed above, the crowd's membership is reconfigured at the discretion of its owner. the crowd is therefore a personal community (after castells, 2009) located within layer 2 of our framework. other crowd members have their own layer 2 personal communities. we observed the presence of social capital at layer 2 via a collective identity, of which the crowd is a prime example. layer 2 communities are bound by networks (e.g., following, follower and twitter lists, @ and rt interactions), resources (e.g., tweet-ups), reciprocity (e.g., exchanging knowledge), solidarity (e.g., expressing shared world views on current affairs), and to some extent trust (e.g., exchanging personal information such as an email address) (after pigg &amp; duffy crank, 2004). </p> <p> reconfiguration is far less frequent at layer 3 where the core group is bound by strong ties. to join a layer 3 friendship group, one must be invited by an existing member, and accepted by the others. to leave a layer 3 group, friendships must be broken. layer 3 is not a personal community but a more closely bonded group with a much stronger sense of reciprocity, solidarity and trust (after pigg &amp; duffy crank, 2004). </p> <p> returning to the fluidity of layers 1 and 2 (after proulx &amp; latzko-toth, 2005), interest-driven communities intersect as personal communities are overlaid, with individuals belonging to more than one of the former. this convergence is significant, and facilitates the discovery of information, users, and other communities. all tweets posted by a particular user are public to everyone who follows that user, enabling followers to view and act on the uploaded data (i.e., tweet). public interchanges between people, @ replies and retweets are evidence of these convergences. such usable twitter functionality increase the chance of users finding other layer 2 communities they may like to join and thus advance from layer 1 through participation to gain reciprocity. to gain similar access to layer 3, we observed 'gatekeeping' behaviour by the core group members. shared interests may not be enough to join such a group. </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3158/version/2140/4116/16714/figure1.jpg" class="article_image" width= "580" height="494" alt="figure1"> <div class="image_caption"> <em>figure 1.</em> layers of emergence and convergence. </div> <p> to clarify our framework: </p> <p> layer 1 individual interest-driven following: at this level users choose to follow other users on an individual basis, either because they find the tweets interesting or because they know of them (as in following a celebrity). seen from the point of view of a layer 1 user, the ties formed by his or her following and followers are heterogeneous and not necessarily connected. for the user there is a lack of a coherent network, awareness of resources, reciprocity, solidarity, or trust from other users (after pigg &amp; duffy crank, 2004). layer 1 ties are thus extremely weak with little or no social capital. </p> <p> layer 2 interest-driven and personal communities: members of these communities are interested in similar topics and participate in interactions relating to those topics. community members demonstrate a sense of belonging and commitment through frequent participation. there exists an identifiable network (via @ replies and retweets), based on resources such as facebook groups and tweet-ups; and a high reciprocity based on mutuality, solidarity, and a level of trust (after pigg &amp; duffy crank, 2004). layer 2 ties remain relatively weak but social capital is in play. where, for an individual user, these communities converge, a personal community is formed (e.g., the crowd). </p> <p> layer 3 friendship-driven groups: this layer emerges when a self-selecting (smaller) group of twitter users strengthen selected mutual ties by increasing their social capital. this strengthening is achieved by creating a bounded network, utilising personalised resources such as invitations to private events, a high reciprocity and solidarity evidenced by supportive and tweets, and an increased level of trust from sharing personal details (after pigg &amp; duffy crank, 2004). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> conclusions </h3> <p> our framework illustrates that interest-driven and personal communities emerge and converge within twitter via individual user participation. our research clearly identifies that people with common interests are using this sns tool to seek out information and each other, participate in meaningful discussions and socialise. some users build friendships that extend beyond the realms of twitter to meet their own personal aims, whether they be for business or friendship. the three layers of twitter participation we identify show a hierarchy of twitter use that, as discussed by arnold (2007) also maintain a heterarchy of social networks. different types of user develop and maintain a degree of participation that suits them. in this regard, the framework offers a complementary perspective to typologies of users by java et al. (2007) and krishnamurthy et al. (2008). some twitter users merely use the software to seek information from other users who share similar interests. other users partake in interest-driven online communities. and a third type of user engages in extended participation with a subset of fellow users they call friends. meanwhile, we find that many users maintain personal communities alongside their interest-driven ones that span different interests to maintain an equilibrium between this hierarchy of use and heterarchy of networks. </p> <p> we use different levels of social capital to distinguish between the layers of our framework. as twitter users become more involved in their online communities, their social capital increases. users are part of several interest-driven communities develop personal communities to create ego-based collective identities around themselves. in such communities, communication can become the goal itself (after castells, 2009). creating a personal community to gain social capital can lead to online role-play (or a perception of elevated social status), which brings solace to those in need of communication and self-expression (after castells, 2009). yet such communities are based on weak ties. they are, nevertheless, able to provide reciprocity and to support sustained participation. the flipside is a high mortality of what are perceived to be online friendships (after castells, 2009) within these personal communities. our research suggests that a sub-set of such ties can be strengthened into meaningful friendships or business relationships by frequently engaging with a small number of others in both onand offline spaces. in other words, as in real world communities, it takes effort and time to truly know others. hence our framework is useful in terms of illustrating the need to strengthen personal community ties before claiming online friendships. we do not quantify that transition point here, but that may be the subject of further research. </p> <p> more fundamentally, our research empirically verifies what castells (2009) observes as a trend towards the 'privatisation of sociability', where social networks are being rebuilt around individuals' personal communities. such online communities are said to be redefining sociability (castells, 2009). creating and publishing extensive personal communities in the form of twitter lists could be perceived by others as being exceptionally sociable. twitter users who may be viewed as 'online socialites' may merely maintain a series of weak ties, and therefore have relatively low social capital (as is the case of celebrities). we thus believe that whilst perceptions of sociability are changing, actions of sociability are not. twitter users who make efforts to interact in other spaces to strengthen ties initially formed online do exist and are indeed sociable. </p> <p> we recognise that this research is bound by context, both in terms of location and the sns tool selected for our study. yet, we show that the twitter phenomenon combines functionality, usability and sociability (after desouza &amp; preece, 2004) to cause online communities to emerge, converge and, in some instances enable strong ties to develop. as discussed, business users are exploiting twitter's sociability to use it as a 'shop window' in which to sell their wares before 'closing the deal' in other spaces. this analogy might also be used for those who use twitter to initiate the strengthening of ties. </p> <p> we believe the full potential of online sociability has yet to be explored. further research is necessary to gain a greater understanding of the extent to which phenomena like twitter, other sns and web 2.0 will blend into our daily lives and what that will mean for the future of socialisation. community informatics research clearly has a role to play in this exploration. as the pervasiveness of web 2.0 and sns software increases, its use will become ubiquitous in contemporary communities. these tools are not just another fad, but media that have the potential to improve community participation and sociability. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> references </h3> <div class="reference">ackoff, r. l. 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(2009). how and why people twitter: the role that micro-blogging plays in informal communication at work. <cite>proceedings of the acm 2009 international conference on supporting group work,</cite> 243-252. </div> </div> tomorrow’s seniors: technology and leisure programming tomorrow’s seniors: technology and leisure programming   lynda j. sperazza, ph.d., cprp assistant professor the college at brockport, state university of new york recreation & leisure studies department lsperazza@brockport.edu   jason dauenhauer, ph.d., msw assistant professor the college at brockport, state university of new york department of social work jdauenha@brockport.edu   priya banerjee, ph.d. associate professor the college at brockport, state university of new york health sciences department pbanerje@brockport.edu   abstract   as the population of the united states ages, there are two cohorts of older adults with potentially different perspectives and expectations toward recreation and leisure – those classified as baby boomers and seniors. today, as more communication and leisure activities are mediated by technology, recreation providers are challenged to fulfill the needs of two different cohorts that share the age of retirement. this exploratory study describes how boomers and seniors utilize technology within a master-planned senior living community setting. differences are indicated particularly through female usage of technology by boomers and seniors. recommendations for recreation professionals are provided.   keywords: leisure, recreation, programming, technology, aging   tomorrow’s seniors: technology and leisure programming   introduction   the most recent data from the u.s. census bureau (2011a) indicates that adults aged 65 years and older comprise 13% of the u.s. population, nearly 40 million people.  projections indicate that by 2030, the number of older adults will nearly double to 72 million, or 19% of the total population (u.s. census, 2011b). within these demographics are two cohorts of elders with unique characteristics. baby boomers, those who were born between 1946 and 1964, and seniors, individuals born between 1925 and 1945.    boomers, also referred to as ‘tomorrow’s seniors’ were the result of life returning to normal after world war ii. they are defined by their pop culture, values, and are healthier, wealthier, and more educated than any other generation. characteristic traits for this group are fairness, teamwork, personal growth, driven, involvement in things they are passionate about, and view leisure as a necessity (gillon, 2004). the first boomer turned 65 years of age on january 1, 2011 and has thus begun the trickle-down of 76 million americans into retirement bringing with them their varied experiences, values, and expectations of life.   seniors, described in this article as ‘today’s seniors’, are the parents of baby boomers.  they comprise nearly 50 million americans who grew up during the great depression and then went on to fight in world war ii. they believe in tradition and patriotism, are generally conservative, and are loyal to brands. they believe in working hard, having close-knit families, and are strong in planning and saving their money (brokaw, 1998). today’s seniors did everything they could to create a world in which their children, boomers, would have opportunities they had only dreamed of and to encourage their offspring to pursue those dreams.   the problem: technology utilization and retirement communities   as baby boomers turn 65, there will be two cohorts of older adults with potentially different perspectives and expectations toward recreation and leisure – the baby boomers and seniors. research described by sperazza (2008) shows that leisure values and preferences between these two groups will likely have a significant impact on recreation programming. one aspect that is drawing much attention is the use of technology by aging populations in the context of master-planned senior retirement communities. by technology, the researchers are referring primarily to the use of computers to communicate with one another and engage in leisure activities.   there has been much research on how older adults respond to new technology, their attitudes towards computers and their ability to learn how to use them (beckenhauer & armstrong, 2009; dinev, 2002; worthington & zhao, 2004). with boomers now of retirement age, many are beginning to reside in master-planned senior living communities where they will be sharing recreation facilities with today’s seniors. as shown by the distinct value structure of each cohort, recreation professionals, in said environments, are faced with the challenge of meeting the recreation demands of both groups in the same facility. with technology today as an integral part of how we live recreation professionals cannot afford to make assumptions that today’s seniors and baby boomers will approach recreation and technology in the same way (cochran, stoll, beller, & goc karp, 2009).   for the recreation professional, one who designs and implements a variety of leisure opportunities in community centers, resorts, and like locations, insight into how boomers and seniors utilize technology is critical to the development of relevant and timely programming. thus, the purpose of this study is to 1) describe how boomers and seniors utilize technology within a master-planned senior living community setting, 2) compare technology utilization between males and females between the two cohorts and 3) discuss how recreation professionals may utilize this information in developing programs for older adults.   technology usage: boomers and seniors   today’s seniors, more so than boomers, have been the focus of many studies regarding computer and internet usage over the past decade. seniors are the fastest growing users of the internet (stark-wroblewski, edelbaum, & ryan, 2007; wagoner, hassanein, & head, 2010).  of those elders who use the internet, a majority use it to communicate with friends and relatives and for social support (fallows, 2005; thayer & ray, 2006). in a recent study, beckenhauer and armstrong (2009) found that internet access benefits older adults by increasing one’s social network and frequency of communication. when looking at gender, studies have found e-mail is used more often by older adult females than older adult males (fallows, 2005). these differences are noted in more general studies that find women tend to use the internet for more interpersonal communication than men (weiser, 2001).   boomers were first introduced to technology through television when they were children. the impact on what could be brought live into one’s living room was far reaching. they grew up watching elvis, the ed sullivan show, the mickey mouse club, and they followed the civil rights movement and peace marches through local news stations (tapscott, 2009). when most boomers were in their twenties, computers were in their infancy. computers were the size of whole rooms, cost many thousands of dollars and were scarce. today, computers are everywhere: at home, in the workplace, and in social settings. as pointed out by dinev (2002):     internet usage and access has important economic, educational and social implications. it brings a multitude of benefits to the user-job productivity, education, information access, technology updates, social and professional affiliations, [and] customer benefits. more and more internet users are becoming conscious of the power of the internet technologies in improving business, e-commerce, [and] customer relationships. (introduction section, para. 1).   today’s society lives and breathes technology, thus creating opportunities for increased communication worldwide at the touch of a button, maintaining fitness at home through gaming systems, or reduction of social isolation through social media outlets. while boomers may understand technology and use it regularly, their preferred method of communication is face-to-face rather than through technological means (broady, chan, & caputi, 2010).   today’s seniors are most familiar with computers and gaming systems through their local senior center and library. they offer intergenerational programs, computer training courses or often free access to the internet for a specified amount of time. this generation can often go days without checking email and they are okay with that philosophy. technology may not be this group’s preference, though many are willing to try. their preferred method of communication, similar to boomers, remains face-to-face rather than through technological means (broady, chan, & caputi, 2010). however, in terms of exposure, boomers deal with technology on a daily basis--in the workplace, socially by means of cell phones or pda’s, and feel it is vital to their business (jones, 2007).     retirement communities   when one reaches the age of retirement, it is common to consider a community that is age restricted (commonly 55+ years of age) and for many, master planned. the state of florida is one of the most popular destinations for retirees. census data indicates florida has the highest percentage of adults aged 65+ in the united states, 17.4% (3.2 million) (administration on aging, 2009). retirement migration researchers have consistently reported florida counties as experiencing consistent and dramatic in-migration of elders from various other states since the 1950s (serow, 2001).  older adults who migrate from northern states are reported by longino, bradley, stoller, and hass (2008) to be “younger, more often married, and residentially independent with lower levels of disability.” (p. s7).   theoretical models describing motivations for relocating one’s residence at, near, or during retirement has received significant attention over the past few decades (haas & serow, 1993, stoller and longino, 2001; wiseman, 1980).using a longitudinal dataset, longino et al. (2008)  found that those who tended to make non-local moves in retirement had higher education levels, adult children who had moved out of the area, experienced regular vacation travel to a second home, were formerly married or widowed less than 6 months, and had weaker person and community ties than those who did not move. higher income levels, dissatisfaction with home size, and decreased importance of family proximity have also been identified as factors that contribute to an older adult’s decision to make a non-local move in retirement (schiamberg & mckinney, 2003).   boomers, having high levels of education, socialization, and a love for active lifestyles, have recently found high desire to relocate to such communities. living in a master planned age-restricted community allows this cohort to live with no boundariesunlimited fitness classes, golf courses, activity clubs, opportunities for continued education, and it fits into their financial plans. further, marketing efforts for these communities describe an ageless and active lifestyle surrounded with a group of supportive peers (luken & vaughan, 2003).   giants in creation of such communities are del webb, located in arizona, and harold schwartz, a michigan businessman, creator of the villages, florida. at both communities, there are no traffic jams; golf carts are legal to drive on the streets of the city and that is often what people use to ride around town. additionally, there are numerous high quality medical facilities, volunteer and education programs, recreation centers, and unlimited new found friends. the role of the recreation department at the villages is to connect residents to their passions in a number of programs, clubs, facilities, and services.     what is the villages?   the villages, coined as “america’s friendliest retirement hometown” is a census-designated place (cdp) in sumter county, florida, united states. the development of this residential area began in the 1960s and today covers three counties.  the villages is the largest residential development in central florida and home to those age 55 years and older (www.the villages.com).  in 2007 they surpassed the 75,000 mark in population. though many reside year round, the majority of the population is seasonal (residing october – april). until the past two years, the average age of the residents was over age 75 years, today, the new home buyer is age 62 for men and age 60 for women (the boomer retiree, 2010).   the villages has 25 neighborhoods, 17 village and 8 regional recreation centers. they have 60 pools, 142 pickle ball and tennis courts amongst their 37 golf courses, 9 softball fields, a professional polo team and stadium with two fields. additionally, both of their town squares offer live music seven days a week! their website attracts future residents because they want to play, be active and have fun; something both boomers and seniors have earned.    having such a homogenous population presents questions to the recreation professional about program design that need addressing. in regards to technology and leisure programming, challenges in usage reside due to today’s seniors not having integrated usage into their work, home, or school lives before retirement (ntia, 2000). this results in older adults having different needs and concerns with usage of technology than others, for example, due to physical and cognitive aging (beckenhauer & armstrong, 2009). for this study, the villages was chosen based upon the need of their recreation staff to understand the recreation needs of boomers and seniors which now both reside in their community.   methods   this exploratory, descriptive study was approved by the researchers’ institutional review board and by the villages recreation director. the survey instrument was distributed to boomers and seniors who reside in the villages, fl during their annual outdoor expo event in march, 2010. annual attendance for this event is estimated at 7,000 adults aged 55+. researchers were provided a table within the expo where they handed out surveys to interested participants who completed them on-site. a non-probability sample of convenience resulted in two hundred and eighty-five participants.     survey   the survey was modified from the existing cochran baby boomer quiz© to measure participants’ leisure values. the leisure value portion of the survey consisted of a 23 question likert scale response to participation in leisure activities. this instrument was created by the first author with input from professionals in the field of recreation and leisure. see cochran (2005) and cochran, rothschadl & rudick (2009) for more information about this instrument’s development including reliability and validity. several questions related to technology, the focus of this article, were added to the survey.  six questions related to technology were added to identify how often participants used the following technology-related items: e-mail, facebook, twitter, wii/xbox 360/playstation, internet, and computer games. the final section of the survey was designed to capture the demographic elements of the sample which included age, gender, level of education, gross annual income, race, and length of residency in the villages, fl.     data analysis   the statistical package for social sciences (spss©), version 16.0, was used for data analysis. descriptive statistics were calculated for demographic items as well as all subscales. frequency statistics and chi-square analyses were conducted on the data to answer research questions. data were operationalized as ordinal scales, allowing for chi-square analyses. the exploratory and descriptive nature of the study and the non-random selection of the sample, made the chi-square test of independence the appropriate choice for data analysis.  according to willard (2010), the chi-square test of independence is used to analyze data that may or may not meet assumptions of normality, homogeneity of variance and interval-to-ratio level data.   psychometrics   six technology related questions (e.g. which of the following would you use – e-mail, facebook, twitter, wii/xbox 360/playstation, internet, and computer games) were added to the cochran baby boomer quiz© which is designed to measure participants’ leisure values. the responses to the technology subscale invited responses that ranged from, “never heard of it,” to “use it quite a lot, several hours a day.”  a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .904 was calculated for all items on the survey and .684 for the technology subscale, indicating a high internal consistency reliability.       results   participants’ self-reported use of technology was categorized according to age (boomer or senior) and gender (male or female).  a chi-square test of independence determined the difference between observed and expected frequencies.   for surveys which included missing data, responses were excluded from analysis when appropriate. table 1 provides a comparison of male and female boomers’ and seniors’ reported use of technology for several hours a day, while table 2 highlights boomers’ and seniors’ self reported use of technology for several hours per day. a description of the sample followed by self-reported technology use are described below.   table 1: comparison of male and female boomers’ and seniors’ reported use of technology for several hours a day. variables   percentages χ2     boomers seniors   internet           males 52.5 26.3 9.077   females 48.8 22.0 16.594** e-mail           males 40.0 22.8 4.937   females 43.7 19.4 10.217* facebook           males 5.0 1.8 6.575   females 9.5 0.0 10.215* twitter           males 5.0 3.8 .759   females 1.2 0.0 2.418 wii           males 2.5 1.8 1.449   females 9.5 0.0 8.804 computer games           males 7.5 5.4 1.506   females 11.8 3.4 3.426 **difference between male and female boomers and seniors was statistically significant at the .01 level *difference between male and female boomers and seniors was statistically significant at the .05 level   table 2: comparison between boomers’ and seniors’ self reported use of technology for several hours per day. variable percentage χ2   boomers seniors   internet 50.0 24.1 21.081**         e-mail 42.5 21.0 13.078**         computer games 12.0 10.5 4.830         wii 5.6 3.6 8.095         facebook 4.0 1.8 8.680         twitter 0.8 0.0 1.344 ** difference between boomers and seniors was statistically significant at the .01 level *difference between boomers and seniors was statistically significant at the .05 level   demographics   since this study captured a sample consisting of participants over the age of 55, boomers were classified in this study as those between the ages of 55 and 64. as such, of the total sample, boomers represented 50.8% (n=128) of the sample, while seniors comprised 49.2% (n=124). the average age of the participants was measured at 64.75 years (sd+ 7.3), 71.3% reported that they were married, 79.6% reported being retired and 97.1% were caucasian. of all the participants, 50.8% were classified as boomers and the rest (49.2%) were seniors.  among the females, more were classified as boomers (57.1%) and among the males, more were classified as seniors (59.2%).   median income prior to retirement for the sample was measured at $75,000, and 27% reported a bachelor’s degree as their highest educational degree.  more boomer males (40%) reported having received a bachelor’s degree compared to boomer females (20.7%), and more senior males (29.3%) compared to senior females (16.9%) reported completed a master’s degree, indicating that the males in the sample generally were  more educated than the females. overall, there were slightly more females (58.8%) than males (41.2%) in the sample. these results are illustrated in figure 1.   figure 1: educational levels, boomers and seniors (percentages)     baby boomers are known for valuing education and are more likely to pursue it formally or informally, even through retirement. while the g.i. bill created opportunity for wwii veterans to attend college, boomers were the first generation which sought higher education as a means to get out of the blue collar, industrial workforce or as a means to avoid the draft; often they were the first in their families to get a college education.   boomers seek education opportunities in their retirement communities and are drawn to stimulation of their mind on a continued basis, hence reasoning behind their higher level of college degrees than today’s senior.   internet   internet use was conceptualized as “the use of the world wide web using a web-browser, not including e-mail use.”  nearly 97% of boomers and over 90% of seniors report using the internet at least weekly.  the group of participants classified as boomers (50.0%) reported using the internet several hours each day compared to those classified as seniors (24.1%).  this difference between boomers and seniors regarding internet use was statistically significant, χ2 = 21.081, p= .000. while slightly more males (39.1%) reported using the internet than females (38.0%), the difference between genders for internet use was not statistically significant. figure 2 illustrates these results.   figure 2: comparison of self-reported use of the internet by boomers and seniors (percentages)     e-mail   all participants who responded to this question regarding email reported that they had at least heard of e-mail; the “never heard of e-mail” option received a response of “0.” e-mail usage of at least a few hours per week was reported by 32.5% (n =74) of the participants and those classified as boomers (42.5%, n= 54) reporting significantly more usage in the ‘several hours each day’ category compared to seniors (21%, n=25), the difference between the two groups was statistically significant χ2 =13.078, p=.004. overall, females reported higher usage of e-mail compared to males, though this difference was not statistically significant. further analysis revealed that female boomers reported higher rates of usage compared to senior females, which was a statistically significant difference  χ2 =10.217, p=.017.  figure 3 represents an illustration of these results.     figure 3: comparison of self-reported use of e-mail by boomers and seniors (percentages)     social media   social media use was conceptualized as, “connecting with people using networking websites on the internet.” a significant proportion of the participants (64.8%, n = 153) reported having heard of facebook (the popular social networking website) but not using it. utilization of facebook a few hours a week was reported by 23.3% (n=55) of the participants. boomers reported higher usage rates compared to seniors, but this difference was not statistically significant. slightly more females in general (24%) reported using facebook at least a few hours a week more often than males (23%), but this difference was also not statistically significant.   only 12.5% of the boomer males reported using facebook, compared to 29.8% boomer females, and interestingly, more senior males (27.3%) than senior females (17.5%) reported using facebook at least a few hours a week. when comparing males and females within the two age categories, female boomers (44%) reported statistically significantly higher rates of facebook utilization compared to female seniors (21%); χ2 =10.215, p=.037. refer to figure 4 for an illustration of these results.      figure 4: comparison of self-reported use of facebook by boomers and seniors (percentages)       twitter, an information-sharing network, was the lowest in terms of usage by this group, 88.8% reported being aware of this network, though never utilizing it. of all the participants, 12.5% of the male boomers and only 7.5% of the male seniors reported having  never heard of twitter. proportionately more males (4.3%) than females (1.4%) reported using twitter at least a few hours a week. figure 5 expresses these comparisons.   figure 5: comparison of self-reported use of twitter by boomers and seniors (percentages)       video and computer gaming   the modes of wii, xbox 360, and playstation were conceptualized as a “home video game console of motion-controlled computer gaming for people of all ages.” when asked about usage, 65% (n=154) of the sample reported they ‘heard of it, but never used it’. of those who did report using any of these gaming means (35%), proportionately, more boomer females (7.1%) than boomer males (2.5%) reported that they used them “a few hours per day.” in contrast, more male seniors (5.5%) than female sseniors (1.8%) reported using them at least a few hours per day. however there were no statistically significant differences when comparing gender and age categories for use of wii, xbox 360, or playstation. these results are represented in figure 6.   figure 6: comparison of self-reported use of wii, xbox 360, or playstation by boomers and seniors (percentages)       of all the participants, 57.3% of the males and 48.3% of the females indicated that they had heard of computer games but never used them and in comparison, more females (13.3%) than males (8.3%)  reported that they used computer games “a few hours per day.” boomers utilized this technology more often than seniors.  specifically, female boomers reported using computer games more than males or females in the other age groups.  however, this difference was not statistically significant. refer to figure 7 for visual comparison.   figure 7: comparison of self-reported use of computer games by boomers and seniors (percentages)       discussion   the results of this study reflect the growing use of technology among boomers and seniors who reside in a master-planned retirement community. the fact that a majority of the older adults in this sample use the internet on a regular basis coincides with existing literature on internet usage and older adults (stark-wroblewski, edelbaum, & ryan, 2007; wagoner, hassanein, & head, 2010). the sample comprised of well-educated, middleincome, white/caucasian males and females, also represents factors which correlate to having greater access to computers and the internet (lenhart, 2003). because boomers tend to be more computer literate than seniors, the fact that they reported using the internet more often than seniors was expected.   e-mail use is one of the most popular forms of technology mediated communication and, as described previously, has received much attention by aging researchers. it is an important part of social contact and engagement. e-mail allows distant friends and relatives to keep in touch by sending letters, photos, or videos instantaneously. boomers and seniors share the commonality of valuing friends and families. while many potentially value the use of telephone and regular mail to share life stories, the use of e-mail is an important means for them to stay in touch while living in a retirement community. our finding that females report using email at a higher rate than males is reflected in reported in other studies (fallows, 2005; weiser, 2001). we attribute the highest rates of email communication with female boomers to their increased levels of computer literacy and familiarity with this method of social engagement.   the growth of social media interfaces such as facebook and twitter seem to be entering slowly but steadily into the lives of the residents at the villages. the fact that a majority of boomers and seniors have heard of these media, especially facebook, indicates the potential for future adoption of this social networking method. the trend of female boomer facebook usage is consistent with the findings on e-mail utilization. since facebook not only incorporates e-mail, but also instant messaging, and wall postings, it is no surprise that this medium would appeal to this females’ desire to stay connected with friends and family. as the use of smart phones continues to grow, interfaces such as facebook and twitter will grow in popularity as one no longer needs to sit at a computer to stay connected.   the finding which shows a higher percentage of senior males versus senior females was unexpected.  though we didn’t inquire how individuals utilized their time on facebook, it is possible these users have larger social networks with other friends, family, and grandchildren when compared to other seniors.   video and computer game utilization was reported by a little more than one third of the sample. it is interesting to note that usage of computer games was very similar however, on a per day basis; more boomers reported using computer games than seniors. this can be attributed to the fact that boomers are obsessed with maintaining their youth. according to the entertainment software association (2006), computer gamers under age 18 actually make up fewer than one-third of all players, and people over age 50 make up 25 percent! further, the average age of the most frequent game purchaser is 40 years. video and computer games have become the biggest pastime of adults. while other research has shown that boomers and seniors are embracing gaming as a way to connect to their children or grandchildren, this was not reflected in the present study. the continued growth in online gaming will make it possible for older adults to ‘play together’ with friends and family who may live far apart.     limitations   while this research provides insight into the utilization of older adults and technology, the results should be considered within the context and methods of the data collection. our sample was limited when considering the sheer numbers of older adults who reside at the villages (10,000+). further, data was collected during a club fair attended by those residents who are active in many social and activity groups within this community. thus, this sample of convenience may not be representative of the population at the villages. the sample was also relatively homogenous as it consisted of well-educated, caucasian men and women with sufficient resources needed to reside in this retirement community.  internet access and computer equipment are readily available in this setting. therefore, findings should not be applied to more diverse, community-dwelling populations of older adults with limited access and knowledge of computer technology.      implications for recreation programmers   while there are limitations to this study, the results provide a snapshot of information that has implications for recreation programmers within master-planned retirement communities. overall, boomers tend to be more engaged with technology for leisure activities and to remain socially connected with friends and family, especially female boomers. seniors are also utilizing technology, but less frequently, especially senior females. recreation professionals should consider offering a range of opportunities that cater to the needs and interests of these two cohorts. for instance, offering a range of social networking courses that cater to the beginning and advanced levels (i.e. setting up a facebook page, using a club facebook site to share information with members within a community, etc.). this requires recreational staff to stay abreast with changing technology and finding ways to introduce or expand it within the community. given the active lifestyle, culture, and increasing number of boomers at communities similar to the villages, it is likely that many of the ideas for incorporating technology will come from those who reside there. in contrast, seniors may benefit from these various technologies, but be reluctant to utilize them.   increasing utilization of computer gaming systems to improve physical activity levels is another area recreation programmers can be expanded upon. programs such as wii fit and others have been found to help improve balance among older adults (pigford & andrews, 2010; williams, soiza, mce jenkinson, & stewart, 2010).  due to the health risks associated with falling as people age, promoting fitness though technology can be advantageous for boomers and seniors alike. as boomers strive to remain engaged with life and physically active, fitness programming through game consoles is likely to grow in popularity. at locations such as the villages, where many older adults are active, one can envision group fitness classes using the wii, or even ‘competitions’ using sports and dance-related games.     conclusion   over the next decade it is projected that the everlasting marks left on society by boomers, in terms of extensive influences in the education system, growth and marketing within the economy, emergence in alternative lifestyles, dramatic shifts in the nature and structure of families, and the important role recreation and leisure plays in their lives will continue into their retirement. their impact will be profound. by sheer numbers alone, the boomers have impacted our society in everything that they do. their footprint on retirement will no doubt be the same. recreation professionals need to embrace the diversity of these two cohorts in how they design and deliver leisure programs.   as a well-established, master planned, age-restricted community, the villages, fl recreation department is already faced with a huge influx of the boomer generation. this community lives an active lifestyle in which there are many recreational activities offered, several housing choices, and it is easy to get around. this “homogenous” community has a story to be told. not only based on the design of the community, but on their approach to recreation.   the data gleaned from this study serves as the foundation for further research in progress which includes, but not limited to, the design and implementation of programs, examination of their recreation club model that is solely run by residents, and examination of 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(2004). existential computer anxiety and changes in computer technology: what past research on computer anxiety has missed. retrieved from http://www.msu.edu/~worthi14/anxiety.html         123-15-1349 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 special issue on data literacy: points of view some key challenges for data literacy we discuss the motivation for holding the data literacy workshop at acm web science 2015 and the key challenges for advancing the praxis and research of data literacy that emerged: defining data literacy; establishing its importance; identifying beneficial projects and building a community. our first encounter with data literacy was while researching how to measure the value of open data to users. as part of this we convened groups of people working in third sector organisations addressing homelessness in both the uk and india. in these workshops we asked participants to identify problems they currently faced in dealing with homelessness and then we presented them with open data that could theoretically assist with those problems. we noted that “our users [in the study] were as competent as anyone could reasonably expect; technically and in their knowledge of subject matter and also in their understanding the significance of the data.” (frank and walker, 2016). they came armed with queries that have become institutionalised as ‘known unknowns’ when working with data, such as “why was this data collected? who collected it? when?”. “yet” we wrote, “they struggled to interpret aspects of every dataset that was presented to them.” in the highly distributed, nonstandardised world of open data, people who were highly literate, had domain expertise and were conventionally familiar with it still experienced problems with open data severe enough to prevent them from attempting to use it. our experience of the workshops on both continents suggested we needed to investigate research into what constitutes data literacy the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and social structures required for different populations to use data on the web. it had become apparent to us that without data literacy, the impact of open data would be substantially reduced. !232 frank, m., walker, j. (2016). some key challenges for data literacy. the journal of community informatics, 12(3), 232—235. date submitted: 2016-09-22. date accepted: 2016-09-23. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1349 . mark frank university of southampton, united kingdom corresponding author. mark.t.frank@gmail.com johanna walker university of southampton, united kingdom j.c.walker@soton.ac.uk http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1349 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1349 mailto:mark.t.frank@gmail.com mailto:j.c.walker@soton.ac.uk the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 our first step was to identify who was producing work on this area. given the emerging nature of this domain, there were no discipline-specific journals, departments or even academics that we were aware of, so we set about discovering the community in a more hands-on way. at the open data camp unconference in winchester, uk we met with around 30 people interested in this area from practical, research and educational points of view. the conversation was stimulating but challenging. although it was relatively easy to identify why a lack of data literacy would be a problem, determining exactly what it was and who it was for was far more challenging. “the concept of data literacy is touted as the be-all-and-end-all solution to all information issues, but it’s pretty loosely defined, and may not be entirely viable for the wider public.” (from the live blog http://odcamp.org.uk/data-literacy-what-is-it-and-how-to-promote-it/ ). there was a substantial divide that was characterised as the ‘english/plumbing’ issue: those who felt data literacy was like, “learning the english language – an absolutely necessity” and those who felt it was more akin to “learning the trade of plumbing – useful but something you’re likely to outsource”. our next step was to build on this experience by issuing a call for papers for a workshop for acm web science 2015 (http://www.dataliteracy.eita.org.br/1st-dl-workshop/ ). somewhat unusually for an academic workshop we not only sought academics to present peer-reviewed work (which is published in this special edition) but also invited practitioners and supporters of data literacy from the uk government, the open data institute, the open knowledge foundation and the school of data to offer context. the presentations of speakers and academics together provoked these key questions amongst attendees. (1) what is data literacy? (2) why does data literacy matter? (3) what data literacy projects should we work on? (4) how do we build a data literacy community of practice? the following were the key thoughts in response to these questions. 1. what is data literacy? as discussed in winchester, it is more than simply a prescribed set of skills. to meet the challenges data literacy needs to encompass enablers, attitudes and awareness. these are perhaps relevant to increasing numbers of people, where a few need concrete skills but everyone has a need for awareness. it is an attribute of a community. in specifying that ‘data literacy is...enabling a community to take advantage of data’ we were guided particularly by the contribution from the school of data (rogers 2015), whose research suggests that data literacy is inseparable from its function within a community whether defined in the traditional sense or in the more transitive sense of a group of colleagues or activists approaching an issue. that function is to enable a !233 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 community to take advantage of data sets, but it can clearly be imagined that people can play different roles in different groups, according to the relevant skills, enablers, attitudes and awareness within each group. it is contextualised. rogers also suggested that data is “over-analysed and undercontextualised”, which concurred with our conclusion that, “there is more work to be done on the best way to provide context to any given dataset , which would go some way to removing this onerous requirement from the user.” (frank and walker 2016). 2. why does data literacy matter? in exploring this question workshop participants reframed it as, “why does data illiteracy matter?”. it was approached by breaking down assumptions about the challenges of data illiteracy. various aspects emerged that were grouped under two spheres: power, and the ability to participate. as data, open, big, personal or in any other guise, becomes increasingly important, power will flow to those who are able to create, control and understand data. those who cannot, will become powerless. further, their ability to participate in society will be severely challenged as they lack the tools to engage with an important raw material of society. 3. what data literacy projects should we work on? there was agreement that the scope of data literacy lends itself to collaborative projects. specific areas of investigation that arose were: • methods for measuring the impact of data literacy in the long • defining the essential data literacy concepts, rather than focusing on skills that may be redundant within a couple of decades; • based on question 1, focusing on data literacy as an attribute of community, investigating how this might play out in terms of individual versus group competencies • in terms of benchmarking; both what needs to be achieved and also whether there is progress, investigating how organisations might assess data literacy levels amongst their staff; • based on question 2, clearly establishing the affordances of data literacy. an interesting issue was raised regarding the possibility of improving data inputs via the process of those in charge of inputs actually working with the outputs and transferring the knowledge gained back into how the data is presented. this would take some of the onus of literacy from the data user to the data owner. if this was possible in one context, would it be transferable from one community to another? 4. how do we build a data literacy community of practice? while our work on this workshop and subsequent work on this journal has identified many people doing vital data literacy work both in academia and as practitioners the community of practice is still vague. both the building blocks of community (meetings, virtual and in person, social media groups, publications and more) and the stakeholders (in all sectors) are still to be identified. doing this also requires that we define why we need a community of !234 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 practice in order that the right steps are taken and we can answer questions such as what is role of professional associations and events like this for convening groups. a key question was whether the right approach was to build community and attract the right people to it or to identify the right people and form the community around them? the european data science academy have experience in this, and created their community by approaching relevant linkedin groups, rather than building from the ground up. building on these questions constitutes both a roadmap and challenge for practitioners and researchers in the forum of data literacy. meanwhile, a subsequent iteration of the open data camp in bristol in may, 2016, built on the first conversations we had held in winchester. more people appeared to be identifying or experiencing data literacy challenges in their work. this led to questions arising around whether data literacy is primarily an issue for publishers or users. given the representation from local government, it was inevitable that there would be some thought about whether policy makers need to be data literate. in many ways the conversation had moved on but we also found we still lacked consensus on the same questions: what are the aspects of data literacy? do they need categorising? is there a basic standard everyone should meet? however, we also saw the emergence of two new directions of investigation. the first was the use of models of information literacy and traditional literacy that could be used to usefully conceptualise data literacy, and we see exploration of that in this special issue. the second was the emergence of data literacy tools. data campfire, currently in beta, combines stories of how data is used with a ‘how we did it’ approach. the end result is a stepby-step guide to the creation of data projects. this is an exciting approach to improving capabilities with huge opportunities for development and many corollaries in other spheres. much as many of us turn to youtube if we need to learn how to replace a wheel on a bike or clean a washing machine filter without needing to be mechanics or engineers, this approach might allow us to turn to multiple formats of guides online to achieve data literate projects without ongoing expertise in this area. in the meantime, please do contribute any data stories you have to www. datacampfire.com. please join in the data literacy conversation. we invite you to feed back any thoughts you may have on this by tweeting using the tags #dataliteracy #jci. references frank, mark tyrrell, and walker, j. (2016). user centred methods for measuring the value of open data” the journal of community informatics: special issue on open data for social change and sustainable development, 12(2), 47—68. rogers, k. (2015). data literacy lessons from a data trainer. workshop on data literacy (web sci 15), oxford, uk. !235 1213 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles trajectories to community engagement: understanding older people’s experiences of engagement with online and local communities the communal benefits of online communities and sns are enjoyed by many internet users but remain of limited appeal to many older people. in this study we consider how a small group of older people in the south of england engage with these technologies showing their motivations and the role of existing relationships in the local community with regards to this engagement. four catalysts are identified which determine trajectories towards and away from online engagement and these are: family, roles, loss, and ‘spaces and places’. the resulting trajectories are discussed along with their implications for policy making and technology design. introduction the experience of ageing in developed societies the experience of ageing is often accompanied by a shrinking social scene with retirement, the death of friends and family, and increasingly poor health and mobility (bowling, 1994). changes to family structures and the nature of local communities in industrialised societies !104 harley, d.a., howland, k., harris, e.c. (2016). trajectories to community engagement: understanding older people’s experiences of engagement with online and local communities. the journal of community informatics, 12 (1), 104—127. date submitted: 2015-04-23. date accepted: 2016-02-21. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1213 david andrew harley senior lecturer in psychology, school of applied social science, university of brighton, united kingdom corresponding author. d.a.harley@brighton.ac.uk kate howland informatics, lecturer in interaction design, university of sussex, united kingdom k.l.howland@sussex.ac.uk eric charles harris senior researcher, rica, united kingdom ericharris@rica.org.uk mailto:d.a.harley@brighton.ac.uk mailto:k.l.howland@sussex.ac.uk mailto:ericharris@rica.org.uk http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1213 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1213 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 often means that sources of companionship and social support do not emerge to compensate for increasing social isolation as expected in later life. the idea of ‘family’ as a stable source of support is no longer a given for those growing older in modern industrialised societies: families rarely remain in a particular locality from generation to generation and mass migration has become common for economic reasons. generations tend not to live together or in the same neighbourhood (un, 2007). alongside these developments there is a shifting emphasis in developed societies towards individual choice rather than family responsibility and a growing ethos of ‘independent living’ amongst older people themselves (ec 2007). here autonomy, self-reliance and self-determination are high on the agenda even into advanced age. such changes have resulted in a trend towards solitary living amongst the older generation (un, 2007) which further removes opportunities for social interaction, community participation and social support within older people’s daily lives. those living alone are more likely to report feeling lonely (bowling, 2005) and this can increase susceptibility to depression (choi and mcdougall, 2009), alcoholism (stanley et al, 2010) and dementia (fratiglioni 2000). older people’s use of the internet for social contact blah older people commonly make use of communication technologies to maintain their social connections when long distances separate them. historically this has been through ‘old media’ like the telephone, but computers and the internet have opened up new avenues for social contact. increasingly older people are turning to the internet to maintain their social lives as they age, leading many governments to promote digital communication as a solution to the problems of social exclusion now being experienced by the elderly (e.g. cabinet office, 2014, ec, 2013). however the inevitability of such a shift is far from certain with the nuances of older people’s internet use and non-use still poorly understood. when it comes to older people’s social uses of the internet, studies have so far shown how popular email is amongst this age group (dickinson et al., 2005; jones and fox, 2009) particularly for keeping in contact with family and friends (sayago and blat, 2010). whilst there has been some reluctance to adopt more recent online initiatives such as social networking sites (sns), studies do highlight similar family-oriented use on these sites (karimi and neustaedter, 2010; gonzalez et al, 2012). it has been argued that older people’s use of computer mediated communication (cmc) is primarily motivated by a need to ensure ongoing intimacy with existing friends and family (lindley et al., 2008; melenhorst, 2002) rather than as a source of new social contact. as such it is seen as being heavily influenced by socioemotional selectivity (carstensen et al., 1999) which describes a tendency amongst older adults to gravitate towards pre-existing social contacts as a way of dealing with the ageing process. this tendency differs from the behaviour of younger internet users who are more likely to prioritise opportunities for new social contact online (e.g. brandtzæg and heim, 2009; lenhart and madden, 2007). socioemotional selectivity suggests that longstanding and emotionally intimate social ties become prioritised because older people perceive their time as limited in the face of approaching death. this present-oriented perspective prioritises social contacts that can maintain emotional stability around daily activities, a sense of purpose in life and the integrity of the self (carstensen et al 1999). !105 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 older people, online community and making new friends the internet can be used as a source of broad social connection for older people beyond the bounds of familiarity, providing opportunities to start new friendships and engage with community online. some older people use elder-specific online communities as a means of sharing interests, discussion and activities with their online peer group. a number of these communities have been studied to see just what it is that older users value on such sites (wright, 2000; burmeister, 2012; xie, 2008). one of the earliest studies of seniornet (wright, 2000a) suggested that companionship provided the most common background to new relationships emerging there. wright (2000a) highlights the importance of companionship which is based on shared enjoyment and equality over social support relationships (i.e. those described by socio-emotional selectivity) which often carry obligation. forms of social support were still evident within seniornet through the exchange of information (informational support) and to a much lesser degree — at 22% of those studied— through the sharing of problems and difficult emotions (emotional support). this latter group felt that their seniornet friends were like a ‘surrogate family’ (wright, 2000b). an ethnographic study conducted by xie (2008) within the chinese community oldkids also found companionship to be a major feature of relationships there and highlighted the importance of fun in enabling such relationships to flourish. wright (2000b) also found fun 1 and humour to be significant in this regard. interestingly oldkids’ use of different media channels supported development of relationships in nuanced ways: synchronous voice chat was most likely to be used for companionship, text-based forums were used for informational support and synchronous instant messaging was used for the most intimate forms of emotional support. there was also some evidence of instrumental support arising between users beyond the online context. older people’s engagement with ‘open’ social networking sites the development of web 2.0 has expanded opportunities for social contact and online community by enabling users to interact and collaborate with one another as part of an ongoing social dialogue. it has also provided the means for users to create content as an implicit part of their web participation. such developments could offer greater opportunities for older people to maintain their social connections and develop new ones but so far their enthusiasm for sns has remained fairly limited. in the usa 27% of those over 65 have an sns profile (pew, 2014) whilst in the uk this figure is even lower at 9% (ofcom, 2013). the reasons for older people’s limited engagement with sns remain poorly understood. studies so far have mostly examined older people’s attitudes prior to adoption. objections cited at this stage include a lack of knowledge and difficulty in using sns functionality (ryu et al, 2009) but also difficulty in seeing such computer activities as relevant or beneficial to older people, particularly in terms of enjoyment (ryu et al., 2009), fun or communicative potential (lehtinen et al., 2009). there is a clear dislike for the default ‘open, sharing culture’ implicit in such websites which places high expectations on personal disclosure and creates public nimrod’s (2010) extensive content analysis of fourteen of the world’s most popular elder-specific 1 communities also identified ‘‘fun online’’ as the most popular framing for older users’ online interactions. in descending order of popularity the other topics were: ‘‘retirement,’’ ‘‘family,’’ ‘‘health,’’ ‘‘work and study,’’ ‘‘recreation,’’ ‘‘finance,’’ ‘‘religion and spirituality,’’ ‘‘technology,’’ ‘‘aging,’’ ‘‘civic and social,’’ ‘‘shopping,’’ and ‘‘travels’’. !106 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 interactions which appear trivial or even dangerous to older users. overall the lack of privacy and problems with social selectivity appear to be the greatest causes for concern (lehtinen et al., 2009; gibson et al, 2010; righi et al 2012). research engaging older users of sns post adoption suggests that they appreciate sns most when they use them to maintain connections with younger members of their family (karimi and neustaedter, 2011; gonzalez et al, 2012; 2 nef et al, 2013). this suggests that they are similarly engaging in socioemotional selectivity (carstensen et al., 1999) when weighing up the benefits of adopting such technologies. however it appears that sns are not appreciated by the majority of older people and this is partly because they do not represent meaningful sources of social contact for them (lehtinen, 2009).in this study we assess the significance of socioemotional selectivity in understanding older people’s engagement with sns and online communities by exploring the underlying motivations behind their engagement with these online resources. in addition we consider the relationship between local and online community for older people. research with younger users of facebook has explored the relationship between use and social capital (ellison et al, 2007), a measure of the cooperative potential available through facebook as a social resource. this research has shown an emerging trend for university students to use this sns as a way of reinforcing pre-existing emotional bonds (bonding social capital) as well as connect loosely with other new acquaintances (bridging social capital). such uses may be particularly relevant to older users if they need to bolster local support because of declining mobility or reduced social opportunities. at present little is known about this offline to online dynamic for older users of sns or online communities. whilst similar effects have been shown for a broader facebook demographic (burke et al, 2010) such studies have not addressed older people specifically nor have they provided information about corresponding local (offline) contexts. in this study we consider how older users are involved in mapping their social relationships onto online communities and sns from the baseline of local community involvement and show how these result in different trajectories towards and away from the online world. aims and objectives this qualitative study sought to capture the experiences, motivations and preferences of older people on the south coast of england. research was conducted with older people of postretirement age with a view to understanding their experiences of local and online forms of community within the context of their everyday lives. our research questions were: (1) what motivations exist at a local community level for older people to engage with sns and other forms of online community? (2) how does socioemotional selectivity play a part in participants’ interest in online communities? in this intergenerational context there is a concern that the transition to sns may leave older 2 people the wrong side of a new digital divide (karahasanović et al, 2009); one where they are passive consumers of other (younger) people’s contributions rather than being active contributors themselves. !107 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 (3) how do older people’s experiences and expectations of local community influence their attitude towards online communities? (4) what are the different routes taken to engagement with local and online communities, and are there identifiable trajectories which are commonly taken? methods a participatory approach was employed throughout, involving and consulting participants and community groups as part of the research process. participants of retirement age were recruited through three different elder-specific community portals with a view to accessing participants with a diverse range of online and local community experiences. additionally, a retired community leader took on an advisory role and attended project meetings to give feedback on methods and make recommendations on recruitment and sampling. a deliberate attempt was made to recruit older participants with varying degrees of engagement with online community/sns as well as those who had no online involvement at all. the community portals chosen included a local community organisation, a local computer club and an elder-specific online community based in the uk called dropby (www.dropby.co.uk). an initial survey with 43 respondents was used to identify a suitably diverse sample which included an equal number of participants from the following: a) elderspecific online communities b) ‘open’ online communities through sns, i.e. facebook c) local computer club and d) those not online but connected to a local community organisation. this led on to fifteen individual interviews and a focus group . 3 4 the final interviewees all lived independently in their own homes and were aged between 65 to 87 years with a mean age of 73.4 years. there were nine women and six men. the interviews were semi-structured and used an interview guide which explored five broad areas: 1) ‘a walkthrough of yesterday’ 2) different kinds of community 3) social relationships 4) technology and communication and 5) ‘a walkthrough of yesterday online’. the interview was piloted with our community advisor to eliminate potentially confusing questions. interviews took place in participants’ homes and lasted approximately forty five minutes. analysis of the interviews was conducted using an inductive process of thematic analysis. the three authors each independently coded a sample of the transcribed interviews using nvivo software. eleven codes were identified at this stage including: 1) family/friends; 2) trust; 3) risks/benefits; 4) barriers to engagement; 5) motivation; 6) shared values; 7) shared place/ space/history; 8) fun/work; 9) sense of belonging; 10) being alone: feelings of isolation/loneliness versus happy to be alone and 11) change. these codes were then compared across researchers and analysis was reframed around four recurrent themes or ‘catalysts’. researchers conducted a second coding of the interviews to explore these catalysts further. finally individual trajectories were identified for each participant, taking into account their attitudes towards past, present and future use of community resources both online and locally. these individual trajectories were then grouped into five broad categories to show commons routes to engagement across the cohort. one participant from the facebook group later dropped out of the study.3 analysis of the focus group is not part of this paper.4 !108 http://www.dropby.co.uk the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 findings our study was designed to investigate four key questions focusing on motivations for community involvement, the significance of socioemotional selectivity, experiences and expectations of community life and participants’ differential routes to engagement with online and local forms of community. here we address these questions directly using our four catalysts and five trajectories, to inform our responses and use direct quotes from our participants to illustrate particular points. in order to protect participant confidentiality no real names are used. what motivations exist at a local community level for older people to engage with sns and other forms of online community? our analysis identified four ‘catalysts’ which motivated initial moves to connect with community resources, establishing points of contact with the community at large, and dictating preferences for local versus online forms of engagement. these catalysts were family, roles, loss and ‘spaces and places’. here we outline the distinct features of these catalysts. family family provided an important conduit to the local community, giving a sense of purpose and aiding the process of making friends. those who were particularly active in their local communities were often physically and emotionally close to their immediate family, seeing them regularly and being involved in their day to day lives. this on-going contact offered opportunities for informal meetings with other local people who were friends and acquaintances of younger family members. establishing connections beyond the family was not always an easy task as janet explains in relation to her relocation to newhaven to help with her daughter’s childcare, “i didn’t like newhaven, i didn’t feel i belonged to it at all, it was only the children, and as a result of that all my acquaintances, friends like those two there, are my daughter’s friends, not mine” janet regular contact with younger family also provided more formal opportunities for community involvement through school and sports club activities. in janet’s case this meant being asked to play the piano for all the children at her local school. family relationships were also at the core of engagement with sns , again supplying a sense of purpose in these online spaces. the preferences of family members with regards to particular communication technologies (e.g. mobile phones, texting, email, skype, facebook, etc.) were a strong motivating influence, determining the ongoing social practices of the family as a whole. “ i do email people. i thought, when i first got my laptop, this will be good to keep in touch with my family, but they don’t really email. the younger ones do facebook, even the older ones, one of my sons don’t do facebook, they don’t do email, he doesn’t phone either. i do think about skype, maybe i could do that, but then again, if they’re not doing it. if they’re not going to be doing it, what’s the point in me doing it?” betty !109 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 those with a close emotional connection to their family (irrespective of physical distance) were likely to use family-preferred routes for maintaining such connections, often taking the lead from younger members of the family. to this end many of our interviewees (twelve out of the fifteen) had joined facebook, primarily in order to keep abreast of events in the lives of their younger family. for some interviewees, using facebook meant predominantly passively viewing posts of family members without comment, constituting a benevolent observation of their online lives as described by one interviewee, “i’ve got a facebook account but i only use it to go online and see what the rest of the family’s doing” carl engagement with facebook was often accompanied by a sense of distaste at the triviality of exchanges, and an awkwardness at ‘overhearing’ their family’s private conversations in this public arena. a number of interviewees described specific cases where they felt uncomfortable, which often highlighted differing intergenerational ideas about privacy and audience. “i’m on the facebook, but i mean, sometimes, i shudder when i see my grandsons talking to each other, and their language, and i think, oh, dear, but…any rate, they probably forget that i can see it.” margaret viewing facebook rarely translated into active engagement with family or others in this online space; family posts of significance were more likely to prompt direct personal contact with that family member through an alternative (more private) means, usually the telephone. “i don’t do a lot on facebook, but i see something going on in my family that would probably make me think, oh, i’ll phone them up and find out more about it. i just found out my sons just got an allotment. that was on facebook!” betty five of our participants had started to use facebook in a more ‘active’ way, by posting their own content to the site. three of these individuals had close relationships with family living nearby and used facebook to augment their family and local community involvement. facebook allowed them to maintain their family connections with a degree of independence, providing ways of expressing their family involvement without having to always be physically present. it also offered ways of extending their social network by getting to know the friends of their family before meeting them in person. roles social roles can be important in terms of maintaining an ongoing sense of identity and purpose for older people after retirement. by definition roles acquire their meaning in relation to particular communities or social groups. all of our participants had taken on roles within local community groups like residents’ associations, community centres, churches and faith 5 this may also represent a bias in our sample which was accessed via various community group 5 memberships. !110 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 groups, children’s after school clubs, local charities, exercise classes, bowling clubs, art, knitting, tailoring, computing, lunch and travel groups. many had assumed quite active roles in these groups such as trustee, treasurer, organiser, administrator, teacher or general helper, as well as engaging as users or beneficiaries of other groups. some of these roles also informed and motivated engagement with online communities. many of our participants assumed roles that made use of skills they had gained during their working lives, such as peggy’s accounting skills for her role as treasurer or ben’s skills in computing and teaching for running the computer club. in other cases the volunteering roles made use of more general skills such as peggy’s driving for ‘meals on wheels’ or marie’s selling refreshments and making tea at her grandchildren’s football club. what can be seen as common to all these roles, and the way our participants talked about them, is the importance of being able to make a useful contribution and to ‘give something back’ to their local communities, whilst also recognising the benefit to themselves. “i can get something back from doing something for somebody else. do you know what i mean?”margaret whilst our participants might assume responsible roles in relation to certain community groups, they were also quite happy to be users of other clubs, services or community centres. this ability to move in and out of responsible roles appeared to be another feature of these older people’s voluntary engagement where the ability to maintain such roles might change over the years, from a more active role at the beginning through to later on being a passive user. in comparison to the multitude of explicit local community roles, online communities and sns did not offer our interviewees such well-defined roles. the only ‘official’ roles assumed online were those which extended local community responsibilities through the creation and administration of online groups through email lists, facebook and dropby groups. ben for instance was the administrator of an online group in dropby for members of the computer club, and one on facebook for a film society which he ran at the local community centre. administration of such groups was approached in such a way as to ensure privacy and safety for group members. on dropby, new members were actively engaged in conversation from the beginning in order to assess their authenticity as prospective members and to make them feel welcome. unfortunately this kind of hierarchical surveillance or gatekeeping was not perceived by all the members as necessary or helpful for group dynamics. generally speaking, online roles were more implicit than this, emerging as a result of stances taken during online interactions rather than explicit role choices. the predominant family context within facebook meant that the most common social role for our participants was that of the passive observer as described here, “three of the grandchildren are on facebook but we very rarely exchange messages. simply because i don’t want to embarrass them because i’m out of their generation and i don’t want to spy on them.” iris beyond this passive online stance six of our interviewees had established internet roles based on fun and light-hearted engagement, posting jokes and humorous videos to online communities and playing word games with friends through facebook. !111 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “i post stuff that i like you know…my basic aim in going online is, going anywhere, is to either be amused or to learn something so the other website that i probably spend more time on than dropby is reddit ” carl the online roles of sharer, humorist and game player were emergent and implicit, arising as a personal interpretation of online communities and sns. loss loss is an inherent aspect of the ageing experience, present in the lives of all of our participants. it was perhaps most poignantly experienced through bereavement with the death of a spouse or close friend but other forms of loss were also apparent. the loss of significant roles in life and failing health and mobility were also common experiences in retirement, which challenged individual autonomy and forced a reassessment of social relationships. the challenge of loss was often countered by greater involvement with community groups and activities particular those involving one’s peers. this affected the women in our study more than the men, with five of our nine female participants having lost their husbands and none of the men having suffered similar bereavements. this caused these women to reflect upon having previously adopted a somewhat insular life with their spouse, and a sense of not needing anyone else while they had each other. this had led to feelings of isolation after the loss of their spouse, and an eventual need to reach out and build new relationships with peers. loss was often accompanied by a heightened sense of loneliness and a feeling that the home was no longer a place of comfort in the same way it had been before. some of those interviewed said that there was a point when they found being at home alone unbearable and had to get out and find somewhere else to be as joanne explains, “my husband died three years ago and i’d looked after him for a couple of years so i was more or less isolated at that time and i realised that i didn’t want to stay at home and there are quite a number of ladies who have that; they don’t like staying at home alone” joanne involvement with community groups and activities helped assuage these feelings of loneliness and provided a new sense of purpose in life. communal groups and activities, particularly those involving peers, provided a degree of companionship and understanding which was not always possible elsewhere (even from family members). it was felt that sharing the experience of loss was sometimes easier with another older person who was more likely to have experienced similar losses as larry explains, “it is such a benefit, when your partner dies, and you can, if you want to, you can go down the bowls club, and see your friends, and they’ll all help you over this, because most of them have been through it” larry online community had a role to play here in connecting those with similar experiences of loss and allowing them to share the difficult emotions involved. this need for companionship and mutual understanding was met through engagement with elder-specific online communities as well as those designed specifically for the bereaved. two of our interviewees !112 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 made connections in this way. here daphne explains how she made a new friend through this kind of an online connection, “i met her about four years ago on a widows’ forum. we both recently lost our husband and we just seemed to click somehow and we speak practically every day which is nice. it’s just a shame that she’s so far away” daphne daphne had never met this friend in person, but did express a wish to do so one day. for others experiencing bereavement, the physical presence of local community was more important in terms of providing opportunities for shared meaningful activity outside the home. facebook, online communities and the internet more broadly were used in times of grief as sources of local contact with opportunities to meet people face to face. spaces and places the characteristics of both the available physical places and virtual spaces have a clear role to play in encouraging or discouraging community engagement. sharing a geographical location and physical space were often precursors to community involvement for this group of older people. our interviewees discussed many local places that acted as meeting points and catalysts for community engagement on an informal level. almost all interviewees spoke about the importance of places such as pavements outside homes, parks, bus stops, local shops and doctors’ surgeries in making connections with local people. in these places there was no guarantee of shared interests, but a likelihood of a shared experience of the physical neighbourhood and the routines associated with daily living in a certain place. as iris explained in relation to her shopping excursions to the local shops, “i may bump into one or two people i know. sometimes i go in the morning and sometimes i go in the afternoon but i do bump into some of the people i know and we stop and have a chat” iris these everyday places allowed people to come together for the implicit sharing of life experience without an expectation of an enduring emotional connection and often formed the basis of ‘being known’ in a modern local community, developing over time. in some cases these local spaces were the source of lasting reciprocal friendships as bryan described in relation to his neighbours, “a lady and her husband opposite who i pick blackberries for and go and visit. i don’t do just that for them. they do things for me and i do things for them, it’s a reciprocal thing ” bryan local community centres were seen by many of our participants as the natural place to go if they wanted to make an explicit effort to meet people and get involved with ‘community’. in this context participation focused on formal activities such as art classes or computer clubs with informal conversations taking place over coffee or lunch. both forms of interaction were seen as important for communal feelings to take root. many of our interviewees highlighted the importance of shared interests and activities for establishing friendships and community ties. specific locations and contexts were seen as indicators of the likelihood of finding people who shared these things. again the shared activity (such as classes) legitimised their !113 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 copresence and acted as a safe way of allowing friendships to develop without there being pressure if this did not happen. some participants had also experienced community engagement through virtual spaces, including online forums and sns. here the nature of shared space was defined differently, in terms of ideas and computer-mediated activities rather than the physicality of a setting and accompanying activities. for some a shared focus of discussion was a sufficient motivation for engaging with an online community. three of the men in our study engaged with twitter for news, politics and current affairs. one of these men carl was also a regular contributor and reader of the social news site reddit, which he visited every day with the view that, “there’s a lot more like minded people online, especially on reddit” colin for other interviewees, playful spaces created for game play sparked an engagement with online community. three of our female interviewees played social games through facebook including online versions of bingo and scrabble. these games encourage social interaction alongside gameplay using a separate text-based chat window. this allowed informal connections to develop alongside the game. usually these games were played with people they already knew locally but not always. marie played bingo in a ‘public room’ and had developed a lasting friendship with someone that she had met whilst playing there. this developed into regular conversations via email with them meeting in person some months later. in other cases gregariousness and enjoyable social interaction were all that was needed to frame the online space. this was particularly true of those involved with elder-specific online communities (including dropby). daphne had developed a strong sense of belonging to a particular group of users that she had met whilst using the forums within such an online community. this group was made up of around 16 people and had persisted as a group despite having to migrate to different sites a number of times. interestingly daphne described them as her ‘local’ forum even though its members were from all over the uk and abroad. when asked about her use of this term, she explained, “yeah, local online. yeah, i shouldn’t really use the word local should i really…they’re scattered all over the country, because one of them’s in spain, he lives in spain, but i don’t, when i’m talking to it, i don’t look at it that they’re all over the country, we’re just, sort of in a room together if you like… i think that i can honestly say that i’m closer to them than what i am my family” daphne what was interesting here was the way that the emotional closeness of the group members had been translated by daphne into a physical closeness to justify the feelings of closeness that she had to the group. this was unusual amongst our participants who were usually keen to transcend the online to local divide and meet people in person as much as possible, as a way of transforming these online connections into ‘real’ ones. daphne was also keen to meet these people in person but a chronic illness made travelling very difficult. all of our interviewees who had joined dropby did so in the hope of making or sustaining local connections. they expressed disappointment that other members of the online community were so far away and indicated that they had hoped to make contact with more !114 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 local people. similarly much of our participants’ activity through facebook extended local connections by engaging in interactions relating to real world spaces and places. sometimes this was also set up as an online bridge to connect with local people online such as the facebook group set up by ben for the film club that he ran at the local community centre. how does socioemotional selectivity play a part in participants’ interest in online communities? as the catalysts show the presence of family online was a significant motivation for our participants to go online themselves and get involved with certain forms of online community. strong family ties and a prevailing use of facebook amongst family members were likely to steer them towards facebook as well. socioemotional selectivity (carstensen, 1999) suggests that older people are likely to gravitate towards people that they already know and have some emotional connection with (i.e. close family and friends) as they get older. our participants’ use of facebook was largely family-centric or concerned with maintaining existing friendships . “[a]ll my friends on facebook are people who have been friends, physical friends. college friends, they may be people that... i suppose the good thing is that you can have a online friendship, but you may not see them for ten years.” ben this suggests that socioemotional selectivity may be at play with regards to facebook use in particular. however this was not the whole story. family ties were not always central to these older people’s daily lives. some of our interviewees had quite weak connections to their family and did not rely on them for a sense of ongoing involvement in life whether locally or online. even those with strong family ties still maintained activities and friendships beyond the purview of family. communal activities and group membership with peers were important for all of our participants as they provided independence away from family: opportunities for meaningful activity, a source of companionship and opportunities to make new friends. those of our participants who were online also joined communities there. often their involvement with these communities was an incidental part of their internet use, occurring through interactions in anonymous online spaces; places like twitter, reddit and ebay where common interests were shared with other internet users but with no expectation of any enduring relationship. these same participants had also joined online communities with the explicit intention of meeting and interacting with new people. four of our participants had developed significant new relationships with the people they had met online, through quite diverse routes including dating sites, bereavement forums, elder-specific online communities and through facebook games, “[y]ou can make friends on facebook and in fact..i made a friend, well various friends… and you chat to them and play a game or invite them to play a game with you, and that sort of thing… but one particular friend that i seem to get on with quite well… i think we were playing some game or other on facebook and she put a comment to me and we started chatting.” marie !115 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 these emerging online relationships show our participants seeking contact with previously unknown others not on the basis of emotional safety as socioemotional selectivity might suggest but out of gregariousness and a sense of fun. in addition, the online presence of family members did not always steer an older relative towards greater use of the internet, with some family members being particularly unhelpful or obstructive. the willingness of younger family members to help older family with such technologies was variable. janet for instance who did not use the internet at all decided that genealogy websites might be interesting to her. “all i wanted to do really was to do my ancestry . but i haven’t done that 6 yet. i’d quite like to do that but they are always so busy when i see them, my daughters, trying to cook meals and get children off to bed and so forth. my son-in-law says he’ll do it but i don’t know when” janet bakardjieva (2005) highlights the importance of ‘warm experts’ when teaching older people to use the internet, i.e. people who the older novice knows that have superior knowledge of computers and the internet but also have a personal connection with and degree of trust that allows them to support their learning in their own home. in this study there were a number of examples of what might be called ‘lukewarm experts’ within our interviewee’s families, i.e. younger family members who acknowledged the significance of the online world to their older relatives but were unable or unwilling to spend time with them in order to teach them how to use it. how do older people’s experiences and expectations of local community influence their attitude towards online communities? for most of those interviewed, the blueprint for community had its roots in the family, with a suggestion that ‘real’ community could only occur through extended family connections in a particular geographical location. this understanding was mostly historical and came through in childhood memories like joanne’s, “being brought up in a small village, the sense of community there is tremendous actually and it can’t be compared, i haven’t been able to compare that with anything else, not really. living there i had a huge family, i had cousins, six, seven cousins, you know, that sort of thing. but beside that one knew – and i was only a child and i felt i belonged there and i still feel that is where i really belong” joanne a significant part of this community feeling had been the experience of ‘being known’. in childhood this had meant whole families knowing one another in a particular street or village. now this was less common with family members often living some distance from one another in different areas of the country or abroad. nonetheless, the possibility of ‘being known’ remained an important aspect of community feeling in the present. two particular ingredients were seen as key to this: the opportunity to physically meet up with other people and there being a suitable number of people present. physically meeting up and talking to a reference to using the genealogy site ancestry.com 6 !116 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 people face to face was seen as an intrinsic part of generating a community feeling as daphne explained in simple terms, “community is where people meet up and socialise” daphne despite the geographical dispersion of families all our participants were keen to emphasise the importance of this for maintaining family bonds. the same was true for involvement with local community groups. community feeling was also seen as dependent upon a critical number of people being present in a particular place, as carl explained, “to me community it’s gotta be small, it’s containable” carl the specific number was difficult to pin down but it was felt that having too many people could easily destroy feelings of belonging to a group. overall our participants believed that their experience of community had changed irrevocably during their lifetimes (particularly with regards to family relocations), and would never return to the way it had been in the past. perhaps understandably their views on community generally left them unconvinced about the possibilities for online community. the reasons given for this were that the internet was too impersonal a medium for social contact to be emotionally satisfying. given their emphasis on face to face meeting this was unsurprising. some went as far as to say that online-only relationships were slightly unreal. “they are nearer to being characters in a book… in the way that you relate to characters in a book, you relate to characters you know only via the internet” iris what are the different routes taken to engagement with local and online communities, and are there identifiable trajectories which are commonly taken? the four catalysts were influential in defining our participants’ individual trajectories encouraging them towards, away and between local and online forms of community in various ways depending on their individual circumstances. whilst these trajectories were idiosyncratic, commonalities did emerge in relation to the catalysts previously defined, showing five distinct trajectories. here we outline these different trajectories: trajectories moving towards greater online community engagement here we consider those participants who were keen to become more involved in online forms of social contact. trajectory 1: family-focussed internet user five of our participants had trajectories which were largely based on family contact. they were all spurred on to greater engagement with the internet through a desire to develop better connections with family at a distance. sometimes this distance was not great, with family living in the same town but all at distances sufficient enough to interrupt ongoing family life. online spaces that were used to connect with family included email, facebook and skype. these were initially seen as spaces for engaging with family and existing friends (near and far) but online relationships had later emerged either through friends of family online or !117 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 independently via other online spaces. this group had all started to use computers and the internet for the first time during retirement. they had made use of local spaces and places to learn the literacies associated with online communication, and had enlisted the help of family and community groups (principally the computer club) to acquire the necessary skills. their online activities did not detract from local involvement with them all being engaged in local community organisations although they tended to assume member roles with positions of limited responsibility. loss was a factor for some on this trajectory, with two participants having lost their husbands. in both cases this had encouraged greater involvement with family, local community and online community. participants on this trajectory covered the whole spectrum of ages from their mid-sixties to mid-eighties. trajectory 2: ‘internet as local community tool’ user these four participants also had close relationships with their family, but had acquired a proficiency with computers and the internet before retirement. this meant that they were adept advocates of the technology and had a broad focus for their computer-mediated activities which stretched beyond family. people on this trajectory had retired in the last 5-10 years and had taken on roles of responsibility within local community groups post-retirement, including treasurer, trainer and chair. these roles often drew on skills developed through past professions which included digital skills. they were just as likely to use computers and the internet to coordinate local community activities as they were to make contact with family and friends. they were all heavily involved in their local community and used online spaces including email groups, dropby and facebook groups to support this offline local community involvement rather than it representing a purely virtual activity. whilst these participants had strong digital skills, they still expressed a preference for face-to-face interaction with individuals in real world places. some had made new contacts and potential friends online, but felt that an in-person meeting was necessary to cement the relationship. all the people on this trajectory were married and lived with their partners. loss was not a major factor in their lives: participants were in their mid to late-sixties, and none had lost their partner. trajectory 3: independent online friend seeker the two participants within this group were at risk of becoming socially isolated, having experienced difficulties with family relationships and connections in their local communities. they had become more reliant on virtual relationships as a source of ongoing social connection. these participants were at the younger end of the spectrum from mid-sixties to early-seventies and had well-honed internet skills developed through past job roles, or through early adopting family members. both had suffered from loss in their lives, one through bereavement and the other through divorce. these events had resulted in an emotional distancing with certain relatives that had disrupted family life. both lived alone and had some members of their family living local. however they did not have particularly close relationships with family and did not have regular contact. in addition their links to local community were poor, one due to mobility issues and the other due to relocation after his divorce. they had struggled to find real-world places where they could engage with a community, but had been very active in seeking community in online spaces such as forums and social networking sites. neither had active roles in their local communities but both had taken on informal but distinctive roles online. these roles were self-selected and included !118 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 humourist and active content poster as well as contributor to a bereavement forum, providing support for others. trajectories moving towards lesser online community engagement here we consider those participants who were making a deliberate choice to avoid online forms of social contact. trajectory 4: isolated internet rejecter only one of our participants fitted this trajectory , which is characterised by social isolation 7 and frailty, compounded by not having any digital skills to rely on. a lack of motivation to learn about or use the social aspects of the internet also follows from this, and a dismissive take on such usage when encountered through younger family and the media. this was one of our older participants, in her mid-eighties, having experienced loss in the form of bereavement when her husband had died some years earlier. she now lived alone and had become increasingly isolated. she did not have children and had no close family living nearby, but had some family living at a distance who she spoke to on the phone regularly but saw rarely. she had a few friends in the local area but did not see them regularly because her mobility was limited. she did not talk about work in her past, and her main role had been as a housewife. she had no previous experience of online activity or digital skills and was not interested in developing these. what she had heard about facebook from younger family she found quite distasteful. she thought that there was no substitute for face to face communication. her access to local community spaces was limited given her mobility but she was a member of a local community transport scheme. she did not have active roles within community groups. her immediate local neighbourhood provided a space where she was known to a degree but no regular interactions took place there. she occasionally had interactions with neighbours when there was a crisis. trajectory 5: post-retirement internet rejecter the three participants in this trajectory were in their seventies, lived alone and relied on local relationships to sustain them socially. only one participant in this trajectory had close family nearby. whilst this group were familiar with computers and the internet, having used them as part of their prior working roles, they were not keen to make use of them as routes to social contact. they did have some skill in computing, but typically saw computers as being work machines and not tools for communication or entertainment. there was little interest in online virtual spaces such as social networking sites, which were seen as slightly trivial and not relevant to their lives. participants on this trajectory had experienced loss of some sort. two were divorced and all were experiencing some degree of loss with regards to physical or cognitive faculties. all had access to local community spaces where they had taken on active volunteering roles, but were now finding that they had to give up some of their responsibilities and take on less active roles because of increasing frailty. undoubtedly there are other people who would fit with this trajectory but they were perhaps 7 unlikely to volunteer for this kind of a study in the first place. !119 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 discussion social isolation is a central issue being addressed by this study, with our interviews highlighting the ways that the social resources of local and online communities were enlisted differently by our participants to maintain social cohesion in their everyday lives. older people in developed societies are now more likely to live their later years physically separated from family and friends and are at risk of being more socially isolated than ever before in their local communities (mccarthy and thomas, 2004; lee, 2006). when social isolation is experienced as loneliness it is often detrimental to the wellbeing of older people (tomaka et al, 2006) and encouraging greater community engagement is one way of addressing this. our research suggests that a better understanding of the four catalysts identified (family, roles, loss, spaces and places) and older people’s digital trajectories will be important if we are to provide greater opportunities for community engagement by older people through online communities and sns. our trajectory analysis indicated that those who are most socially isolated in their local communities are less likely to engage with online community, except where they have existing technical skills. given the lack of ‘warm experts’, even for many of those with family member living nearby, there is a need for additional support and interventions if online communities are to be of any benefit to the socially isolated. here we reflect upon how the potential of these catalysts and trajectories might best be tapped by future interventions considering both social and design aspects social interventions shifting the emphasis beyond the family context family was significant in determining a general awareness of the internet and engagement with sns through facebook despite misgivings about the trivial and public nature of interactions there. this was in line with socio-emotional selectivity (carstensen et al, 1999). however alternative social motives were apparent in relation to other forms of online community. there was a general willingness amongst our participants who had some digital skills to engage with strangers, make new friends and take social ‘risks’ online through fun and light-hearted interactions. this challenges the use of socioemotional selectivity as a singular model for understanding older people’s use of online social resources. research into identity in later life suggests that a number of different identities are important for maintaining wellbeing (moen et al, 2000). whilst one’s family identity is often the most significant one (e.g. as a spouse, parent or grandparent) there are other relationships and identities that are equally important. it seems that socioemotional selectivity may be an aspect of family identity but that is not the whole story. there is more to an older person than that which their family sees. in addressing older people’s social isolation and loneliness it seems pertinent to provide opportunities for developing new identities online as sources of self expression and relatedness. employing socio-emotional selectivity (carstensen et al, 1999) as a guiding principle is likely to limit such social opportunities. some elder-specific online communities like dropby and the now defunct sagazone (www.sagazone.co.uk) have taken a similar risk!120 http://www.sagazone.co.uk the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 averse approach to online community, striving to create safe environments for potentially vulnerable older users. they have done this by encouraging transparent self-disclosure and top-down moderation of interactions in order to reduce online abuse and deception. whilst this may be appropriate for some older users, many of our participants were interested in a more ‘open’ approach to online interactions where the benefits of anonymity were acknowledged for sharing difficult emotions and making new friends. clearly there is a balance to be struck between safety and openness in online communities that are still establishing themselves. increasing opportunities for peer learning family support was significant in promoting the idea of facebook use amongst our participants, with younger family often being instrumental in creating an initial profile on the site. however family support for learning how to use this sns was variable. bakardjieva (2005) discusses the need for ‘warm experts’ with appropriate knowledge and patience when teaching older people to use the internet. in this study we uncovered a number of examples of ‘lukewarm experts’ within our interviewee’s families. these were typically younger family members who recognised the potential benefits of the online world for their older relatives, but were unable or unwilling to spend much time teaching them how to use the internet. for a number of our interviewees, a peer-led computer club afforded the best opportunities for developing their online skills, and receiving guidance from ‘warm experts’. we would suggest that providing opportunities for greater peer learning would allow older people to learn about sns and online community in a way that is more aligned with their particular learning difficulties and age-appropriate motivations. design initiatives sns within and beyond the family family connections were often the starting point for broader community participation both in the past and present. however there are aspects of the design, administration and culture of sns that do not encourage older people to actively engage with them and exclude them from family interactions that take place there. in particular the general lack of privacy and the triviality of public exchanges within facebook were problematic for most of our participants. the general blurring of public/private boundaries and the expectations of personal disclosure within facebook (and sns) culture acted to negate family exchanges for many of our participants. online spaces which supported a clear transition from public to private interactions were more conducive to growing intimacy (e.g. chat windows in facebook games) and should be provided and made more accessible in sns. the addition of ‘family rooms’ to facebook functionality would be of great benefit to older users who are primarily motivated by family contact. in this way privacy could be ensured amongst family member along with more intimate exchanges. conversely public anonymity was seen as a beneficial aspect of the internet that was missing from more closed environments like dropby. the disinhibition associated with anonymous online interaction (burke et al, 2010; suler, 2004) can allow emotions to be expressed in ways that may not happen with existing family and friends. the establishment of an !121 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 anonymous ‘sharing space’ would be particularly important for those wishing to share the difficult emotions of loss that accompany ageing particularly bereavement. these relationships enabled a degree of independence from family allowing them to maintain their own sense of identity in the face of life changes. all of our interviewees were involved in group activities with their peers in one way or another and the nature of these groups was diverse. overall there was an emphasis on shared endeavour but also fun and light-hearted companionship. there was an openness to meeting new people and starting new friendships. online roles the importance of social roles in retirement has long been acknowledged as a significant part of healthy ageing (havighurst and albrecht, 1953) and community cohesion, with it underpinning a great deal of government policy aimed at older people’s wellbeing (who, 2002). in this study social roles were shown to motivate local community involvement, providing structured activity and a renewed sense of identity and purpose post retirement. unfortunately most sns and online communities do not encourage people to identify themselves through specific roles and this is likely to discourage older people’s prolonged engagement with them. in this study the lack of meaningful involvement was evident in our participants’ perceptions of facebook interactions as trivial. establishing online roles may be an important way of easing older people’s integration into sns and other forms of online community. such roles would have to support their active contribution to the community and make use of existing skills and experience. roles tend to emerge more implicitly online like the ‘answer person’ in a discussion forum (gleave et al, 2009). in this study implicit roles emerged in the form of family observer as well as sharer, humourist and game player to the broader internet audience. some of these could form the basis of more formal roles within sns and online communities as curators of family memories/genealogists, moderators of online discussions or online tournament organisers. the more explicit development of such roles could lead to greater engagement by some older users. ‘being known’ online it was clear from our participants’ accounts that group size was very important with regards to establishing a feeling of community. a number of our participants noted that when a community group got over a certain size something fundamentally changed for the worse. this emphasises the importance of ‘being known’ within a community where everybody is aware of everybody else’s presence and knows their own particular qualities and skills. there are clearly limits to how many people can be known in this way and the feeling of ‘togetherness’ is therefore limited by the number of community members. this same principle seemed to reassert itself online with daphne maintaining her ‘local’ online group feeling with sixteen others whilst many others expressed a lack of community feeling in relation to large communities like reddit or facebook. sns by definition encourages a porous notion of community where the boundaries of friendship and family are blurred. friends of friends and tangential group affiliations are all incorporated into representations of the group consciousness (e.g. facebook timelines and twitter feeds). this makes it impossible to have a feeling of knowing and ‘being known’ by all present. if sns and online communities are to encourage older users’ engagement they must first provide ways of !122 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 restricting group membership appropriately and offer transparency with regards to who is privy to their online interactions. hyperlocal: the internet as local resource access to local, face to face social interaction was still the litmus test for online community for our group of older people, mostly reinforcing local bonds and resulting in actual meetings. we found our participants using facebook and dropby as tools for maintaining and exploring local connections, with disappointment being expressed by some interviewees that dropby did not have as many local members as they had expected. we would suggest that this emphasis on ‘hyperlocal’ (hu et al, 2013) uses of social media is something that could be explored further with the older generation through the design of community initiatives which make use of the internet to support local community interactions. indeed dropby itself is an online community that has started to pursue this approach by organising local lunch events for community members who live in a particular geographical location. such local/online initiatives should be explored in further research. recognising older people’s different trajectories to community engagement there is a growing ‘digital imperative’ in developed nations which suggests that increasing digital literacy is an obvious and desirable aim for older people if they want to feel included and empowered in modern societies (e.g. cabinet office, 2014; european commission, 2013).the different trajectories identified in this study show that there is nothing inevitable about a shift towards the online world for older people. multiple trajectories were identified which moved away from online contact as much as towards it. those with family online were the most likely to move towards greater online involvement. a lack of this family-based social motivation was significant in determining our participants’ avoidance of the internet altogether even when they had some of the necessary digital skills (our post-retirement internet rejecters). social exclusion was ameliorated to some extent by digital skills but also by an awareness of the internet as a social medium which requires a certain online gregariousness – a willingness to engage with strangers online if one is to make new friends. despite these different attitudes towards the internet, all of our participants expressed a clear preference for face to face meetings as a basis for community. there was clear resistance towards the online-only or “digital by default” trends that exist in public discourse and emerging social norms. conclusions sns and other forms of online community have potential for ameliorating social isolation and loneliness amongst older people. in this study they were shown to provide many of our older users with opportunities for maintaining their connections with family and friends. in addition they offered new ways of interacting with strangers and developing new friendships. the four catalysts identified (family, roles, loss and ‘spaces and places’) highlight some of the dynamics that need to be addressed in order to create online communities that are more appropriate and interesting to older users. they invite a revised approach to online !123 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 community which accommodates older people as a heterogeneous user group with diverse motivations. we argue for an approach that acknowledges their ‘whole selves’ rather than solely defining them by family-centric or risk-averse models of vulnerability. the trajectories identified show the significance of family in addressing digital and social inclusion as well as an ‘online gregariousness’ in relation to making new friends. they also show the continuing significance of face to face interactions as a basis for community. in this paper we have proposed a number of social and design interventions based upon our four catalysts and five trajectories which are intended to promote greater engagement within online community by older users. the generalisability of this study’s findings are limited however due to the 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(2008). multimodal computer-mediated communication and social support among older chinese internet users. journal of computer mediated communication, 13(3), 728-750. !127 http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2002/who_nmh_nph_02.8.pdf impact of internet on delivery of critical cardiac health care: a case study from india dr. sudeepa banerjee, associate professor (sg), iiswbm, kolkata prof (dr) tapati basu, hod-dept of journalism and mass communication, calcutta university, kolkata corresponding author: sudeepa banerjee iiswbm, management house, college square west kolkata -700073, india email : sudeepab@iiswbm.edu telephone : 09830088873 introduction ischmeic stroke and its relevance in india ischemic or heart strokes have grown to epidemic proportions in developing countries and two-thirds of global strokes occur in low and middle-income countries (feigin, 2005). cardio vascular diseases that are life threatening in most cases are spreading very fast too, both for genetic as well as lifestyle reasons in india. unfortunately public healthcare facilities are woefully inadequate both in numbers and quality and there is a huge gap amongst the people who have access to healthcare and those who do not. india can be divided into two on this. there is one india that provides high-quality medical care to middle-class indians and medical tourists, and the other india in which the majority of the population lives-a country whose residents have limited or no access to quality health care. the sophisticated and good facilities both in terms of infrastructure and specialists are all concentrated in the urban areas .for the majority of indians, who live in rural areas, there is hardly even the basic healthcare centre and the ones that do exist perennially lack qualified doctors and nurses; therefore most people are treated by quacks and under qualified people. according to the medical council of india, the doctor-patient ratio is 1 per 1634 (press information bureau, government of india, press release, august 20,2007). the nurse-patient ratio in india is 1 per 2250 (press information bureau, government of india, press release, may 12,2007). moreover, according to the 1981 census of india, 73% of the doctors are located in cities, and that mainly in metropolitan cities. strokes and stroke treatment when the flow of blood is severely reduced or stopped due to a blockage in an artery a coronary attack or heart attack is likely to occur. once a heart attack occurs there is damage or death of part of the heart muscle as a result of the ischemia. this is also known as myocardial infarction. emergency treatment requires dissolving this clot to restore blood supply to the heart and can be treated by three methods according to the open-artery model: these include using clot-busting drugs (thrombolytics) that can dissolve clots immediately; angioplasty, a surgical procedure that can open the artery with a balloon and then, if indicated, install a stent that helps keep the vessel open; or bypass surgery that provides an alternate route around the blockage using a blood vessel from the calf or elsewhere. the american college of cardiology's guidelines now recommend that if transferring patients to an angioplasty facility delays treatment by one hour, doctors should consider first offering thrombolytics to open the arteries immediately, at least partially. then, those patients who need further intervention can receive angioplasty or other procedures. that way, patients will benefit from both t-pa's (tissue plasminogen activator) rapid rescue of blood flow and from pci's complete reopening of the artery. further thrombolytic therapy is the only therapy approved by the us food and drug administration for acute ischemic stroke. the number of stroke patients receiving r-tpa (recombinant tissue plasminogen activator) in third world countries is very low. however thrombolytic therapy is used in india (pandian et. al., 2007) but only 14.7% of stroke patients in india reach hospital within the three-hour window period (nandigam, 2003). research based on the concept of 'door-to-needle time' that indicates the time between the onset of symptoms in a patient until he or she receives the first dose of the thrombolytic, has shown that patients who receive thrombolytics that successfully opened their arteries within one hour have only a 1% mortality rate during the next 30 days. waiting another half hour increases the mortality rate to 6.4%. when used after 3 hours, 80% of the benefits were found to have been lost and after 4 hours thrombolytics have virtually no effect in reducing mortality (bergman et. al., 1982). however, the guidelines developed and updated in developed countries for treating these symptoms are unrealistic and impractical to adopt in developing countries (hill and lalor , 2008). when the treatment demands such prompt response, it means the community must have an emergency network that can transport patients to a stroke center quickly. in addition, a hospital must have 24-hour physicians on call who are trained and licensed to provide thrombolytics, as well as a 24-hour facility to detect whether a patient is having a hemorrhagic or an ischemic stroke. telemedicine telemedicine is the use of modern telecommunication and electronic information technologies (perednia and allen, 1995) to provide clinical healthcare to individuals at a distance from the healthcare provider or specialists (bashshur et. al., 1997; brown, 1995; grigsby et. al. ,1993; pushkin et. al, 1995). the feasibility of using telemedicine has been demonstrated by several studies. these include various specialties and subspecialties, including cardiology (bird 1972 ;finley et.al, 1989), critical care medicine (grundy, jones and lovitt, 1982), neurology (chaves-carballo, 1992; hubble 1992), pediatrics (cunningham, marshall & glazer, 1978). telemedicine projects have also tested the use of various technologies from fax, telephone, radio, real-time interactive tv to internet based exchanges (bertera & bertera 1981; bertrand et.al ,1994; padeken et al ,1995; rinde , nordrum & nymo, 1993; turner, brick & brick 1995). telemedicine has been trialed in a wide range of situations and locations (lovett & bashshur, 1979) that include the army (cawthon et. al, 1991; spiller, heelstein & basquill 1990) as well as civil settings like hospitals, healthcare clinics and long term care facilities (finkelstein et. al, 1993; sparks et. al, 1993 ). telemedicine and strokes telemedicine has been found to be successful in congestive heart failure patients from rural regions in terms of three dimensions: clinical, financial and humanistic (koch, smith and stanford, 1999). telemedicine has also been found to offer long-term benefits for acute stroke patients in community hospitals (audebert et. al, 2009) and has also been found to be beneficial to head and neck cancer patients (van den brink, 2007). however, there is an urgent need for more evidence about the clinical impact of telemedicine applications (brear, 2006). in most cases it has been reported that telemedicine-facilitated thrombolytic therapy for acute stroke patients was intended not to replace care provided by local providers but rather to address a timeand spatially related emergency need (choi et.al, 2006). an internet based system like the above, thus facilitates the safe administration of thrombolytic therapy to patients within rural communities suffering an acute ischemic stroke. telemedicine can be used as a rapid consultation tool too that results in more accurate decision-making and may be used as a tool to provide the same quality of stroke care to patients in rural hospitals as is given in tertiary stroke centers (switzer et. al, 2009). the success of using it as a rapid consultation tool has also been reported (wang et. al, 2004). it was also reported that stroke telemedicine consultations result in more accurate decision-making compared with telephone consultations and can serve as a model for the effectiveness of telemedicine in other medical specialties (meyer et. al, 2008). since thrombolytic therapy is the only proven therapy for acute ischemic stroke (henninger et. al, 2009), use of internet technology will thus enable greater use of thrombolytic therapy in strokes in a safe manner. relevance of telemedicine in india in this situation some of the obvious advantages of telemedicine from the patients' perspective could include improved access to quality and specialized health care; better access from underserved rural, semi-urban and remote regions; access to medical experts' services; reduced clinical travel and unnecessary patient transfers; cost effective care (ohinmaa, hailey & roine, 2001); prevention of costly health complications resulting from delayed treatment(schwamm et.al, 2004); and timely intervention. potential benefits for practitioners could include linkages with doctors and centers of excellence-education benefits; appropriate referrals and reduced professional isolation; ability to retain their local patients; access to comprehensive patient data offline and online; quick and timely follow up of patients after treatment; training; retraining; educational facilities (olver & selva-nayagam, 2000); and ability to cater to patients from a wide and varied geographical region or territory. other benefits to government and institutions from employment of telemedicine applications would be enhancement of timeliness, effectiveness and efficiency of health care delivery, which could produce cost savings to both the health system and individual patients. telemedicine applications can bridge the gap in health service facilities between rural or remote and urban areas (ellis, 2004) and commercially create a wider care base -therefore increasing viability of investments. other benefits include low capital investment to create a facility, increased utilization of hospital resources, maintaining continuous relationships with old patients, and introducing a new model in health care -nurseand technician-led clinics. objective of the study there are several pressing health services issues in telemedicine that require specific studies (bashshur 1980, 1995; grigsby et. al, 1994c) and it is necessary to evaluate whether telemedicine applications are medically effective means of delivering healthcare and to measure effectiveness of telemedicine vis a vis conventional care. the studies mentioned have not tried to assess either the effect of telemedicinebased thrombolytic therapy or the effect of location on reducing the rate of expiry amongst cardiac patients. this study makes a modest attempt through outcome-based research to measure the impact of telemedicine in the delivery of critical cardiac healthcare through the following research questions: r1: what is the impact of internet based thrombolytic therapy on the probability of reducing the expiry rate of patients? r2: are there any location specific factors that have an impact on the expiry rate ? study design the organization of this paper is as follows: the context of the study has been discussed first and then the model and hypotheses have been presented. this is followed by the methods of analysis, the results and the discussion. finally, the conclusion and future directions are presented. a case study method has been applied to carry out a qualitative and quantitative analysis by observation and data collection with an intention to study the impact of the internet on critical cardiac health problems amongst the population located in areas without proper medical facilities in india. the project evaluated the integrated telemedicine tele-health project is a first-of-its-kind initiative jointly sponsored by the indian space research organization (isro), hewlett packard (hp), the asia heart foundation at the rabindranath tagore international institute of cardiac sciences (rtiics) kolkata (a metropolitan city and the capital of west bengal, a state in the eastern part of india). it was initiated in 2001 along with the state governments of seven north-eastern states of india (assam, meghalaya, tripura, arunachal pradesh, manipur, mizoram and nagaland). the rabindranath institute at kolkata is the main telemedicine linking hub for the seven states. the project tried to identify a 100-bedded hospital in each of these participating states and the hospitals were to be selected based on distance from the state capital and the lack of a coronary care unit. the first three centers along with the adjoining coronary care units (ccu's) were set up in siliguri and bankura in west bengal and udaipur in tripura, with the first coronary care unit inaugurated in siliguri district hospital, siliguri, west bengal on 24th june, 2001 followed by bankura sammilani medical college and hospital, bankura, west bengal on 21st july, 2001 and at tripura sundari district hospital, udaipur in tripura on 22nd august, 2001. rtiics was the referral hospital for all these centers. geography of west bengal west bengal is the gateway to the east in india, stretching from the himalayas in the north to the bay of bengal in the south. it is bounded on the north by sikkim and bhutan, on the east by assam and bangladesh, on the south by the bay of bengal and on the west by orissa, bihar and nepal. it has therefore three international frontiers one each to the north, east and west. the state lies between 27°13'15" and 21°25'24" north latitudes and 85°48'20" and 89°53'04" east longitudes. demography the state of west bengal has an area of 88,752 sq. km. and a population of 80.18 million. there are 19 districts, 341 blocks and 40,782 villages. the state has a population density of 903 per sq. km. (as against the national average of 312). the decadal growth rate of the state is 17.77% (against 21.54% for the country) and the population of the state is growing at a slower rate than the national rate. table 1: health infrastructure of west bengal (source: rhs bulletin, march 2008, m/o health & f.w., goi) particulars required in position shortfall sub-centre 12101 10356 1745 primary health centre 1993 924 1069 community health centre(chc) 498 349 149 multipurpose worker(mpw) (female)/anm at sub centres &amp; phcs 11280 6051  5229 health worker (male) mpw(m) at sub centres 10356 4215 6141 health assistant (female)/lhv at phcs 924 300 624 health assistant (male) at phcs 924 225 699 doctor at phcs 924 810 114 obstetricians &amp; gynaecologists at chcs 349 38 311 physicians at chcs 349 107 242 paediatricians at chcs 349 25 324 total specialists at chcs 1396 186 1210 radiographers 349 127 222 pharmacist 1273 830 443 laboratory technicians 1273 441 832 nurse/midwife 3367 5215 table 2: other health institutions in the state of west bengal (source :http://mohfw.nic.in/nrhm/state%20files/wb.htm) *alternative medicine. health institution number medical college 9 district hospitals 16 referral hospitals   city family welfare centre   rural dispensaries   ayurvedic hospitals* 4 ayurvedic dispensaries* 295 unani hospitals* 1 unani dispensaries* 3 homeopathic hospitals* 12 homeopathic dispensary* 1220 geography of tripura tripura is located in the north eastern part of india, between 22 ° and 56 minutes and 24 ° and 32 minutes north latitude and between 90 ° and 09 minutes and 92 ° and 20 minutes east latitude. it is bounded on the north, west, south and south-east by bangladesh whereas in the east it has a common boundary with the indian states of assam and mizoram. demography the population of tripura is 3.20 million according to 2001 census, scattered over 4 districts, 40 blocks and 870 villages. the state has a density of 305 persons per sq. km. as against decadal growth rate of 21.54% at the national level, the population of the state has grown by 16.03% over the period 1991-2001. the sex ratio of tripura at 948 females to 1000 males is higher than the national average of 933. female literacy of the state rose to 65.41% from 49.65% in 1991. table 3: health infrastructure of tripura (source: rhs bulletin, march 2008, m/o health & f.w., goi)              item required in position shortfall sub-centre 659 579 80 primary health centre 104 76 28 community health centre 26 11 15 multipurpose worker (female)/anm 655 638 17 health worker (male)/ mpw(m) 579 436 143 health assistants (female)/ lhv 76 62 14 health assistants(male) 76 93 doctor at phcs 76 255 surgeons 11 obstetricians &amp; gynaecologists 11 physicians 11 paediatricians 11 total specialists at community health centres 44 radiographers 11 1 10 pharmacist 87 76 11 laboratory technicians 87 67 20 nurse midwife 153 235 table 4: other health institutions in the state of tripura (source :http://mohfw.nic.in/nrhm/state%20files/tripura.htm) *alternative medicine medical college 2 district hospitals 2 referral hospitals   city family welfare centre   rural dispensaries   ayurvedic hospitals* 1 ayurvedic dispensaries* 55 unani hospitals* unani dispensaries* homeopathic hospitals* 1 homeopathic dispensary* 93 from the data presented above, the situation is very clear about the shortfall of medical infrastructure in the two states under study. further, in both states only the medical colleges have departments of cardiology and treat cardiac patients. therefore the pressure on these colleges is considerable and in most cases patients have to travel a long distance and then wait to receive medical attention. it should also be noted that most of these patients are very poor and are not covered by any medical insurance. the project considered is modeled on fisher's (2005) hub-and-spoke model of telemedicine-delivered cardiac care designed to enhance the administration of acute stroke therapies. this project was unique since all previous telemedicine projects in india were based on an outpatient basis, where patients came for consultation through internet technology and then left, as in other outpatient departments. here patients were admitted to the cardiac care units on the basis of the internet-based ecg report and condition of patient for further treatment. it was intended to provide patients with acute stroke a timely, adequate assessment and emergency stroke treatments. the respective state governments in their local hospitals provided these spaces for the critical coronary care units and the manpower was initially provided by the rtiics. this manpower comprised trained staff doctors, nurses and ccu technicians who could take the special electro cardiogram (ecg), perform catheter-lab procedures, use defibrillators and administer life saving drugs in the critical hour of a heart attack. the doctors trained had the basic 5 years mbbs degree (bachelor of medicine and surgery) in medicine and the nurses also had the basic qualification (3 years-bachelors degree in nursing). they were further trained in it technology to manage and run the services independently. after the initial handholding, in the siliguri center, the nurses were provided by the government hospitals. in udaipur, the doctors and the nurses were provided by the hospital and the technicians were provided by rtiics. in bankura all three types of staff were provided by rtiics. the life -saving drug streptokinase was also provided free of cost to the patients from that center by rtiics. in the other two centers the respective state governments provided the same drug free of cost to its patients. the project implementers have devised new ways and means to reduce the cost of installation of telemedicine equipment without compromising on the quality of care. they have used isdn and telephone line connectivity that are easily available from bsnl (state run low cost isp) even in very remote areas today. this technology supports easy data transfers and video calls over very long distances. further, video-conferencing cameras available in the market at affordable prices, a computer (piv or higher), an eecg device unit, which costs around 265 usd and a tv screen for video-conferencing are the basic equipments being used expensive telemedicine software or high-end gadgets like digital cameras, online microscopes, medical scanners that transfer and store medical data like x-rays, ct scans & mris have not been used in the local centers so far, as there is no trained manpower available to use these gadgets and provide high-tech examinations to patients at those remote locations. each of these centers provide round-the-clock services every day of the year. the services provided are as follows: tele-consultation in outpatient department transtelephonic ecg (electrocardiograph) consultation on medical reports emergency admissions and in-patients department virtual rounds tele-consultation in outpatient department by using video-conferencing facilities for emergency, non-emergency and follow-up cases. patients who do not require immediate hospitalization can avail themselves of tele-consultation. in these cases all vital reports related to the patient are sent in advance (store and forward) to the referral hospital in a digital format (x-ray reports, scan report, tele-ecg and others) either as an email or through net-meeting. at the appointed time the specialist sits in the studio of the referral hospital while the patient along with a local doctor sits in the studio of the local hospital and the consultation takes place. there are certain doctors interested in tele-medicine who provide maximum consultations. however, the patient may also choose a doctor, who then gives an appointment. in case of follow up of patients, the same process as the opd consultation is repeated. the other advantage of such a system is the reduction in waiting time of a patient. in most cases there is no waiting time unless there is another videoconference going on, because each center has only one videoconference unit at the moment. the local doctor provides the necessary clarification to both the specialist and the patient at the time of video-consultation. rtiics provides both the tele-consultation and ecg services free of cost. transtelephonic ecg (electrocardiograph) a general physician cannot confirm a heart attack without performing an ecg and in most remote locations ecg clinics are not available. to counter this problem, each of these telemedicine units has a special six-lead ecg machine to conduct a transtelephonic electrocardiograph using special software. the ecg can be taken for 10 -20 seconds or as desired. once an ecg is taken, the local center connects to the referral hospital through special software and a telephone line using internet technology to transfer the data. at the referral hospital's monitor there is an alert every time a fresh ecg arrives, almost like an email alert. a specialist looks at the ecg and fills in an online form with his opinion and observation. once completed, it is sent back to the local hospital through the internet connection in the same way. this report is printed locally on arrival and the residing local doctor gets the opinion, observation and advice of his senior colleague from the referral centre along with the report and is able to treat the patient accordingly. this entire process takes a maximum of 15-20 minutes whereas otherwise the complete activityrequires at least 6 hours. further, no clinic works round the clock for these kinds of tests and consultations in the regions where these facilities have been made available. consultation on medical reports other medical reports like radiology reports, ct scans and ultrasound reports are scanned locally and sent to the referral hospital. however, new machines will soon be installed where the reports will be created digitally and sent automatically to the referral hospital. emergency admissions and in-patients department when a patient arrives with a serious cardiac condition, the doctor on call can admit the patient and consult the specialist at the referral centre using the videoconference facility with the referral hospital in addition to performing the transtelephonic ecg and sending other basic test reports. the specialist then assesses the condition of the patient and decides on the line of treatment which is then administered locally, such as the use of defibrillators or performing catheter-lab procedures like thrombolysis. this facility is of tremendous help to patients and increases their chances of survival if they receive this medical attention within an hour of the heart attack. it also provides the patient with a specialist who is far more experienced in handling such cases than the local doctor, without having to go through either the trauma or the delay in travel to a specialty hospital. virtual rounds a specialist from the referral center goes on virtual rounds through video-conferencing to check the condition and progress of admitted patients on a regular basis. he/she can in one session monitor the condition of patients in all the centers, while sitting at his own desk, since every bed has its own monitor and camera unit. this specialist consultant from the referral center takes virtual charge of the disease management of these patients and instructs doctors, technicians and staff to administer the treatment locally through a two-way internet based videoconference. this continues until the patient is discharged from the ccu. diagram 1: flow chart showing the patient movement methodology to understand how the growing use of internet technology is impacting the cardiac health treatment of critical patients, the performance of the icus at these local telemedicine centres will be measured in terms of the percentage of expiry of patients, which is a categorical variable. every patient admitted has unique set of medical problems (such as high blood pressure or diabetes with varying degrees of duration and levels, progression of disease etc). however, all patients that have been admitted are at a critical state caused by a stroke. under these circumstances, the study attempts to analyse the effectiveness of treatment and disease management from a distance using internet technology. logistic regression analysis (lra) extends the technique of multiple regression analysis to research situations in which the outcome variable is categorical. this formula has been taken into consideration since our dependent variable 'patient expiry' is categorical as the response can be 'yes' or 'no'. however, in the case of categorical dependent variable, the discriminant analysis can also be applied instead of logistic regression model (hair et. al 2005). perhaps, the former claims stricter assumptions than demanded by the latter with respect to predictor variables (hosmer & lemeshow,2000). moreover, the interpretations of the results with respect to logistic regression analysis are much easier than discriminant one on the basis of these reasons, the logistic regression with maximum likelihood estimators (mle) algorithm has been preferred to discriminant analysis in this study. further, the ordinary least square method cannot be used since probability can be more than than 1, whereas probability should lie between 0 and 1. to represent this probability in terms of thrombolysed patients and the location of these local telemedicine centers, logistic regression seems adequate. the mathematical representation of the model is equation 1.1 as shown below: model for research question: the simplified form of the logistic regression model (equation: 1.1) has been derived and presented as: equation: (1.1): in p ∕ (1-p)= α + βx1+γx2+δx3+ε where, p = 1 , when percentage of expiry is less than mean expiry in period t p = 0 , when percentage of expiry is greater than or equal to mean expiry in period t x1 = number of patients treated by this method in period t x2= icu at the bankura telemedicine centre x3= icu at the udaipur telemedicine centre ε = standard error mean expiry = total number of expiry /total number of admissions across the data research hypothesis the admitted patients are normally in a very critical and damaged state and the disease may be complex. hence it may not always be possible to save their life despite intervention by local doctors and specialists from the referral centre using internet technologies. as expiry in the cardiac care unit is a negative outcome of treatment it should therefore affect the discharge rate negatively. improvement in management of patients is associated with reduction in death rates (fox et.al 2007). the thrombolytic procedure that is used to dissolve the clots that cause strokes is often a life saving measure. the process involves insertion of a thrombolytic agent into the blood stream through a catheter-based procedure to dissolve the clot causing the stroke. at the local cardiac care units, this critical procedure is conducted on patients based on the assessment of the doctor from the referral hospital. the process is relayed through videoconference and monitored by the referral doctor while it is performed locally. the present researcher assessed whether telemedicine (real-time, two-way audio and video, and digital imaging and communications in medicine) was effective for decision making in acute telemedicine consultations. to test whether thrombolytic therapy using internet is effective in reducing the expiry of patients in cardiac care units of telemedicine centers the first hypothesis is: h1: internet based thrombolytic therapy will have a negative effect on expiry rate the three centers studied varied in the type of nurses staffing these telemedicine icus. the government hospital in siliguri provided these nurses, who have been working a long time in the government hospital, whereas the nurses in udaipur were also provided by the hospital but were younger and more rigorously trained by rtiics, and finally the nurses in the bankura centre were provided by rtiics themselves. further, the other difference between the three centers is that the life-saving drug streptokinase is provided by rtiics in bankura but is provided by the state governments in the other two centers. the role of nursing in providing the necessary health care in icus is well known. the project led by the johns hopkins safety and quality research in reducing catheter-related bloodstream infections in icus across the entire state of michigan and many other parts of usa achieved extraordinary and sustained successes (pronovost et. al 2006;sawyer et.al. 2010). itclearly established that these successes were the product of more consistent performance of evidence-based care processes, that was supported by a well-designed system for care and by a shared commitment to safety and quality improvement by all members of the icu team (pronovost and vohr ,2010; pronovost , berenholtz & needham,2008) and not the result of new research or more effective antiseptic strategies or the use of sophisticated technology or other expensive resources. simple measures that can identify barriers to performance, such as lack of proximity of essential antiseptic supplies, or correct stock maintenance of all necessary equipment for sterile catheter insertion and authority to suspend a procedure until the physicians performed all necessary steps, such as strict hand washing and full barrier precautions, can produce extraordinary results. in view of the above it is expected that these parameters will influence the performance of a telemedicine centre. to test the same the following hypothesis has been posited:h2: performance of a telemedicine centre may be location specific. study design the data were collected by the present author from rabindranath tagore international institute of cardiac sciences (rtiics), kolkata, india and the three active telemedicine units connected to it namely, siliguri and bankura in west bengal and udaipur in tripura between 30/11/2008 and 10/02/2009. the data were collected month-wise (period t). the total number of patients admitted to the siliguri centre was 3731, bankura centre was 3402, and 1321 patients were admitted to the udaipur centre in this period. detailed interviews were conducted with the heads of these units and the head of the unit at rtiics. an interview was also conducted with a telemedicine consultant specialized in cardiology at rtiics and deeply involved in this project. live sessions of teleconsultation through videoconferencing were observed and four trans-telephonic ecg reports were studied and the process observed. the grand mean expiry indicates the total percentage of patients who expired in spite of intervention by local doctors and specialists from the referral centre through telemedicine while being lodged in the cardiac care unit. thrombolysed (x1) indicates the number of critical patients who have undergone thrombolytic therapy at the telemedicine centre. x2 indicates the bankura centre and x3 indicates the udaipur centre. the siliguri center has been chosen as the base centre. the dependent variable proportion of expiry has been divided into two groups. if the mean expiry in period t is less than the grand mean expiry, then the group is coded by 1, otherwise 0 (if mean ≥ grand mean). methods of analysis the logistic regression method has been used to test the three hypotheses. the basic tenet of choosing the logistic regression equation is that the researcher wants to classify the patients discharged into two groups (yes or no) on the basis of expiry. logistic regression models the probability of an outcome bounded by 0 and 1. the assumption is that each one unit increase in patient's thrombolysed will multiply the odd of expiry rate by a certain factor. similar assumption is made in the case of location. results the results of the analysis are presented in the tables 1 and 2. table 1: validation statistics of logistic regression -2 ll hl df p hit ratio 346.814 9.651 8 0.290 61.7 note: ll: log likelihood , hl: hosmer-lemeshow goodness of fit table 2 : variables in the equation   b s.e wald df sig exp (b) thromb(x1) -.100 0.62 2.586 1 0.108 0.905 bankura(x2) 1.853 0.461 16.164 1 0.000 6.376 udaipur(x3) 2.211 0.542 16.619 1 0.000 9.121 constant -2.183 0.699 9.741 1 0.002 0.113 note: *p it is observed from the results presented in table 1, that the log likelihood value and the hosmer-lemeshow goodness-of-fit test results are insignificant (γ2=9.651, df =8, p=0.290). hence the null hypothesis of the logistic regression, that, there is no difference between the observed and predicted values of the dependent; is not rejected in this case. it is observed from table 2 that the wald statistic(1 tailed ) directional is significant and hence the parameter thrombolysed -is significant in the model. the wald statistic for the other two parameters x2 and x3 have also found to be significant and hence they are significant in the model. here the exp(b) or the odds ratio for the parameter x1 is less than 1 (0.905) indicating that there is a decreasing or negative impact on the dependent variable. based on the above, the hypothesis h1 is confirmed in this study. it is also concluded from the study that if delivery of thrombolysis treatment can be increased, then the expiry in the icu will decrease. our control variables capture effects due to location. both bankura (x2,0.00) and udaipur (x3,0.00) have a high performance vis-a-vis the base location (siliguri) in decreasing the probability of expiry. thus the findings confirm that location specific factors should be taken into consideration and as such hypothesis h2 is also confirmed in this study. however these beta coefficients do not indicate the relative importance of locations in terms of performance. to calculate the relative importance (rank) the estimated coefficients have been multiplied by the standard deviations. accordingly it appears that bankura (0.153) has performed better than udaipur (0.188). discussion the above study shows that the disease management by specialists from the referral center in rtiics, during the period of hospitalization in the local centers, using internet as the medium, at all the three centers, are yielding satisfactory results by increasing the chances of survival amongst critically ill cardiac patients from remote locations and providing sophisticated treatment at low cost and with less specialized manpower. the findings confirm the benefit of using internet technology-based interventions on critical patients admitted in the local cardiac care units. the decrease in their rate of expiry is positively related to the use of video-conference based thrombolytic therapy. it is confirmed that its use has been effective in decreasing the number of patients expiring. this technology enables remote stroke physicians to direct the local staff by telementoring to administer tpa in rural settings where thrombolytics were not previously used. this project is also providing telementoring, which is an educational technique that involves real-time guidance of a less experienced physician through a procedure in which he or she has limited experience. this supports an endeavor to bring stroke expertise to rural community hospitals. the results also indicate that success of this model is location specific. in this study the similarities and differences found between these centers indicate that human factors do play an important role in reducing icu deaths. in bankura where the staff were fully provided by rtiics the centre has produced the best results. the quality of training and the accountability associated with a private organization may have contributed to the quality of service. therefore, telemedicine needs to be implemented with care and supervision and has to be administered well (weaver and spence, 2000). these three local centers, along with the referral centre in kolkata, have handled 7405 admissions, 822 thrombolytic therapies and 12056 teleconsultations in this period. thus it can be said that telemedicine is an effective method of providing quality health care to remotely located patients who have had no previous access to such quality treatment. conclusion these centers are able to provide best quality treatment to their patients using lower level manpower in backward, underdeveloped and far-flung areas because of internet technology through a virtual experience very close to the real practice. in the process, they are also being able to bridge the distance gap and reduce the traveling agony of their critical patients by bringing the service closer to home. it may also be noted that the cost of bridging the distance through this technology is quite minimal at times only the cost of a local phone call.. thus 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'mybus': young people's mobile health, wellbeing and digital inclusion bjorn nansen, kabita chakraborty, lisa gibbs, colin macdougall, frank vetere introduction this case study draws on debates around digital inclusion and how digital technologies support access to health services for those who are socially or economically disadvantaged. digital inclusion (or e-inclusion, fuchs, 2010) recognises that access to, and effective use of, digital technologies today is necessary for communication, information access, economic and cultural participation, and social connection; yet research shows such access, in the global north, is differentially distributed according to gender, class, race, education, geography and age (see for example livingstone and helsper, 2007; maher, 2008; selwyn, 2004; warschauer, 2003). researchers and policy makers now argue that digital access is important for the development of social connectedness and capital to provide a means to connect and interact, and thus establish and maintain social, economic and civic relationships (see wyn et al., 2005; quan-haase & wellman, 2004; pew foundation, 2006). digital inclusion is, thus, situated as a new item on the inclusion agenda, operating alongside other recognised factors important for supporting social inclusion access to economic, health, education, housing, recreation, culture and civic resources. yet, digital access is not simply an additional determinant of inclusion or wellbeing, but critically implicated in all others, as information and communication technologies increasingly operate as mediators to accessing and utilising services, especially as online resources have become more integrated into social life. consequently, limited access or skills with digital technologies can contribute to existing forms of social inequity, such as socioeconomically disadvantaged or geographically isolated groups unable to afford, or to easily and regularly access equipment and services (mclaren & zappela 2002; curtin 2001; holloway & valentine, 2003). this exacerbates inequities in areas such as health provision and literacy, which increasingly rely upon online resources for their operation. this broader role in mediating inclusion, connectedness and wellbeing is increasingly acknowledged in relation to other social determinants of health (e.g., golder et al., 2010; meredyth et al., 2006), as well as in influencing health and wellbeing outcomes for young people (e.g., wyn et al., 2005; blanchard et al., 2007). within these literatures, it is also acknowledged that digital inclusion requires more than just internet access, but that access is complicated by the social politics of use. research in australia and elsewhere shows, for example, that in developed countries the vast majority of people, and especially young people, have some kind of access to the internet including connected computers at home, school or in a public space, as well as mobile devices (abs, 2009; acma, 2007, 2009a; livingstone, 2009). yet there is no simple equation where access equals inclusion. instead, there is widespread agreement in the research literature that technology access must be accompanied by a range of social and educational resources in support of its use (e.g., seiter, 2005; valentine et al., 2002; warschauer, 2003). warschauer (2003) notes, for example, that access and inclusion require a range of interconnected resources: physical (hardware device); digital (connection); human (literacy); and social (social networks). this recognition has shifted the terms of the debate about a digital divide and the presence or absence of an internet connection, to one of digital participation which focuses on a gradient relating to the contexts and quality of access, as well as the integration of technologies into communities and institutions. in this paper we report on a case study of mybus, a community mobile youth centre operating in cardinia shire, an outer urban growth area of melbourne. the case study is drawn from a larger ethnographic study of young people's use of information and communication technology in mediating social inclusion. the mybus is a converted passenger coach which is designed to provide youth aged 12-25 with mobile access to health and wellbeing information and services. the aim of mybus is to provide young people with a range of up-to-date youth-specific information and resources, and it has been fitted with laptop computers, internet access, wii games, d.j. console and other gaming devices to support this engagement. we argue that the context, aggregation and use of digital media on mybus are an example of digital inclusion that benefits the community and young people in particular. our paper identifies the potential for the mybus project to contribute to young people's health literacy. writing in her report to the south australian government, ilona kikbusch tied the health literacy debate to control over life circumstances, disadvantage and equity. her definition of health literacy recognises that it "enables people to increase their control over their health, their ability to seek out health information, to navigate complex systems, take responsibility and participate effectively in all aspects of life" (kickbusch 2008, p.46). she went on to argue for special support to the most disadvantaged to manage their health and navigate the health system and that children have a right to learn about health and gain health literacy skills in order to counteract major health inequalities. yet, not only does mybus have direct healthcare benefits, such as providing health information, it also enables a broader approach to young people's wellbeing, providing resources for digital access and participation. in particular, we argue that the making mobile of these resources and technologies operates to challenge a range of economic and social disadvantages facing young people living on the urban fringe. we first discuss the importance of the mybus mobile youth service in relation to the shire location, demographics and characteristics, in order to highlight how it operates to challenge geographic and socioeconomic inequities for young people living in cardinia. we then move into an analysis of the importance it plays for young people's digital inclusion through research findings relating to digital access, digital mediation, and digital mobility. finally, this empirical work is situated theoretically by connecting mobile digital inclusion with literature on young people's social capital, to develop a concept of children's e-mobility capital. research methods the case study is drawn from the screen stories research project, which looked at the role of technology for supporting young people's social inclusion, and worked with five families (10 parents; 9 children) over a period of three months with multiple visits per household during 2010 (see: gibbs et al., 2010; nansen et al., 2012). the research took place in the cardinia shire, an outer-urban growth area of melbourne, and used multiple participatory methods to explore local and typical uses of media and communications technologies. methods included a number of tours and exercises within the home, such as mapping and discussing hardware placement, online activities, and time-space relationships of technology use. it also explored the role of technology use beyond the home by using mobile methods (ross et al., 2009) in which participants guided us around the different places where they used information and communication technologies in the community, such as the school, workplace and library. it was during this research that we heard about the significance of mybus for young people's technology access. whilst the children in our study were too young to use the mybus, we followed up on this finding by talking with community and youth workers at the council about the history and use of the mybus, and by arranging to spend some time on the bus whilst it was visiting youth in the community to observe young people's use of the onboard technologies. in combination with the fieldwork research, this case study also draws on literature from and about local cardinia shire (e.g. council youth forum surveys; community indicators victoria; abs), building on the evidence from previous research and relevant data. study location figure 1: geographic location of cardinia shire relative to melbourne area municipalities (source: cardinia shire council, 2009) cardinia shire, where the mybus service operates, is located on the south-east fringe of metropolitan melbourne (see figure 1). pakenham, its main urban centre, is 55 kilometres from melbourne cbd. cardinia is one of five designated growth areas under the state government's melbourne 2030 plan and has a large rural population in addition to the townships designated for rapid urban growth along the highway. the shire is divided into three distinct geographic subregions the northern hills area, the southern rural area and the urban growth area which results in varied service provision needs across the shire (cardinia shire council, 2009). cardinia shire had a population of 64,310 in 2009 including an estimated 14,886 young people aged 10 to 25 years old (informed decisions, 2009). the shire's population is forecast to grow to 143,312 by 2031, and is forecast to include 30,172 young people aged 10 to 25 (informed decisions, 2009). this area faces changes resulting from rapid development, particularly in relation to demands on transportation and services (birrell et al., 2004). this rapid growth, robson and wiseman (2009) argue, has the potential to create social exclusion. urban-fringe areas, or so-called 'interface municipalities' (nlt, 2006), such as cardinia, face particular challenges in delivering community and health services due to geographic and demographic characteristics including a mix of rural and suburban, dispersed populations, and high rates of growth (marsten et al., 2003; nlt, 2006). service delivery does not cope well with these challenges, as reflected in the cardinia council's municipal public health and wellbeing plan 2009-13 (mphwp). the plan acknowledges social determinants of health and wellbeing, and recognises that a range of activities and services can affect health within the community, including employment conditions, housing options, lifestyle practices, transport availability, access to open spaces, community services and facilities (cardinia shire council, 2009; who europe, 2003). a principal social determinant of health affecting local residents that is often identified is the geography and associated isolation and transportation issues. a recent analysis of the area, for example, noted that, "within cardinia shire there exist geographically isolated townships whose households have limited economic resources and limited access to basic services" (wilks, 2010, p.iii). this disadvantage is reflected in the socio economic indices for areas (seifa), which shows that whilst the overall municipality of cardinia shire has below average levels of disadvantage (abs, 2008), there remain areas of disadvantage across the municipality with a number of townships scoring below 1000 on the seifa scale indicating they are areas of relative high disadvantage (wilks, 2010). thus the service response challenge is "to balance the needs of disadvantaged townships in the southern rural region (e.g. lang lang, koo wee rup) with the demands of townships along the highway line and in the northern hills region" (wilks, 2010, p.iii), (e.g. cockatoo, emerald) see figure 2. figure 2: townships in cardinia shire (source: cardinia shire council, 2009) the geographic size and topography, dispersed population and changing demographics of the area pose particular problems for transport infrastructure and provision (nlt, 2006; cardinia shire council community services unit, 2010); currently "the shire spans 1,280sq km (one-eighth the size of metropolitan melbourne)… [but] only has one train line and 10 bus routes passing through or in the municipality" (cardinia shire council, 2009). cardinia shire council community surveys, forums and feedback show that residents view the lack of public transport and public transport connectivity as a significant barrier to accessing services (cardinia shire council, 2009). this is particularly true for young people, with the youth forum surveys consistently showing that young people identify the cost of transport and the lack of public transport options to access work, education and social activities as a major issue (cardinia shire council community services unit, 2010). the lack of public transport and public transport connectivity can also have a 'knock-on' effect, with one problem contributing to or compounding another (nlt, 2006). the 2009 cardinia shire council youth forum survey reports, for example, that young people felt there was a lack of accessible and affordable activities available to them, and that the difficulty of accessing services is directly linked to the lack of reliable and regular transport. the municipal public health and wellbeing plan 2009-13 (mphwp), the cardinia shire council youth forum surveys, and reports such as the 2007 report 'staying connected: solutions for addressing the service gaps for young people living at the interface' commissioned by a group of local government authorities, recognise many social, environmental and geographical circumstances that can generate and maintain inequalities in health. they make recommendations for strategies to respond to these inequalities. nevertheless, the focus on social health determinants in these reports has meant they have not yet not adequately acknowledged or addressed the direct role played by information and communication technologies in relation to broader socio-economic health determinants (golder et al., 2010). mybus and digital inclusion the strategic objectives of the cardinia municipal public health and wellbeing plan 2009-13 (mphwp) include efforts to improve access for young people to health and community services, and to public transport and access to activities and opportunities for education, work and community involvement. council's mybus mobile youth bus was launched in june 2009 as part of this wellbeing strategy, and in response to issues identified in youth forum surveys. whilst mybus does nott address lack of transportation for young people (to work, school or services), it does provide information about locally based activities (cardinia shire council community services unit, 2010). the mybus service is an example of a so-called 'generalist' youth support service, which provides local, free and universal access, and which directs its energies at prevention and early intervention strategies. similarly, the youth workers state that they focus on prevention and early intervention by providing a range of health promotion information and support to young people, building relationships and trust with the youth population, and offering referral to other services where appropriate. mybus, shown in figure 3, is operated by the cardinia council youth services team, and it is driven to different locations and events in the shire throughout the year. the bus regularly visits different secondary schools in the shire, including schools in disadvantaged townships in the southern rural and northern hills areas. it is used by students during lunch time and after school during semester, with permission from those schools. it also attends youth focused events and festivals within the shire on weekends and holidays, and provides a range of free school holiday activities for young people. the mybus service is designed to provide youth with mobile access to healthcare information and services, as well as information regarding local services, programs and events available to young people in the shire; it "provides relevant and up to date information about drugs and alcohol, sexual health, health and wellbeing and other youth-related topics" (cardinia shire council, 2011). onboard, the council's youth outreach officers are available to discuss any issues or concerns young people may be experiencing. these officers can also link young people to other services and programs if needed. figure 4 shows how, in order to engage and support young people, the bus is fitted with digital technologies for communication and entertainment and a kitchenette to prepare food and drinks for events. the appeal of laptops and game consoles means that young people of many ages visit and use the mybus when it is in their area, not only for seeking information but also to play and socialise. we observed that the placement of services on the bus, with the game consoles at the back, laptops in the middle, and brochures at the front, spatially distributed different age groups according to interests and needs, and enabled officers privacy to deliver health and wellbeing information. figure 3: mybus figure 4: laptops onboard mybus figure 5: pamphlet information display onboard mybus the mybus service recently celebrated two years of service (cardinia shire council, 2011), and receives funding support from government departments and private businesses. while it is a relatively new service it has provided outreach to young people in the shire: between june 2009 and june 2010 the mybus had "travelled 41,510 km, visited 18 different townships across the shire, run school holiday activities at 15 different townships, and attended 13 local events and festivals. council's youth outreach officers have delivered 13 workshops or personal development programs at local secondary schools. mybus had about 9,500 contacts with young people from june 2009 to june 2010" (cardinia shire council community services unit, 2010). figure 5 shows how mybus provides health care information, services, support, and referral in particular relevant information about drugs and alcohol, sexual health, and other youth-related health and wellbeing topics for young people. in addition to the print material onboard and the presence of youth outreach officers, we argue in this paper that the digital technologies and resources on board also allow young people to access online information, participate in social media communication, and interact with games devices in ways that not only provide health benefits, but also support a broader agenda of digital inclusion. in particular, we suggest it is the mobility the mobile operation of these services and technologies, which has underpinned the success and benefits of mybus. researchers are arguing that digital inclusion and participation is part of a broader socio-economic and socio-technical determinant of health and this is reflected by community indicators victoria (civ), for example, including home internet access as a wellbeing indicator for local communities (http://www.communityindicators.net.au/). derived from the 2006 census question, whether the internet can be accessed at this dwelling, and if so, what type of connection (broadband; dial-up; other) is available, this indicator recognises that the internet is increasingly required for accessing essential information and services, for conducting social exchanges, and for participating in the digital economy (acma, 2009b). moreover, this indicator recognises that the quality type and speed of connection is also important for social and economic participation. thus households without internet access, or with only dial-up service, are increasingly digitally excluded and potentially at a social disadvantage as a result. in addition to home access, public internet access has its place in facilitating digital inclusion, yet in a study of digital technology access amongst disadvantaged groups in south australia, newman et al (2010) found mixed experiences of public access. they argue that public access cannot be seen as the solution to flattening the digital gradient because it does not support the same quality, frequency, extent or timeliness of use as compared with private home access. one barrier they found was that those with transport or mobility difficulties can not easily travel to public locations. they recommended a canadian idea of extending ict community access programs with a mobile-service which takes digital technologies to people's homes in the same way as a traditional mobile book library, as a way to help overcome mobility problems for some population groups. this study resonates with ours because it is australian, supports geographical and transport barriers to digital access and use, and highlights the need for research into mobile solutions. further, newman et al (2010) called for "the identification of practical pathways to increase people's levels of resources and capabilities to use digitally-mediated communication." our study of mybus builds on these conclusions and suggested agenda for research and practice. findings and discussion digital access young people access the laptops mostly to access facebook, youtube, play games and to research information for school assignments as they may not have internet access at home (anonymous shire employee) the most recent data from community indicators victoria about internet access reveals that overall cardinia shire has a larger proportion of households with either no internet connection or a dial up connection (55.3%), and a smaller proportion of households with broadband connectivity (38.6%), compared to the melbourne (statistical division) average (49.2% and 42.8% respectively). moreover, this access varies within the shire, with households in the southern rural area (see figure 2) having an even larger proportion of households either without an internet connection or with only a dial up connection (65.4%), and an even smaller proportion of broadband connectivity (28.1%). digital access, inclusion and advantage vary across the shire; including differences in service options, varied commercial provision of ict infrastructure and especially the lack of broadband access in more rural areas. in addition, there are a range of social barriers to the uptake and use of broadband, including income and educational qualifications (abs, 2006; ewing & thomas, 2010; newman et al., 2010), as well as perceived cost, literacy, and a lack of understanding about broadband benefits (dcita, 2007; wilken at al., 2011). adults in cardinia may possess the agency to manoeuvre around poor communication infrastructures, and to mitigate poor home connections by accessing multiple sites of communication, including work-based internet for some of their needs (e.g. gibbs et al., 2010). young people, in contrast, are less mobile, and less able to travel to access the internet (cardinia shire, 2010). further, young people's internet access in cardinia and more generally is dominated by home provision and use (acma, 2007 ;gibbs et al., 2010; nansen et al, 2012). young people in the cardinia shire have limited access to the internet in the community. computers and the internet are occasionally used at school, but only in a limited and supervised manner directed at specific learning activities (gibbs et al., 2010), and at the public library, but again this is limited to certain times of opening and durations of permitted use. thus home use emerges as the most significant place for young people's digital access and use. the youth forum survey shows that for young people in cardinia, 'surfing the internet' is their second favourite activity undertaken in leisure time (cardinia shire council community services unit, 2010). yet, as the evidence noted above shows, online access and use is not evenly available or used. the cardinia mybus service is, however, one place where young people are able to use computers and gain digital skills, literacy, and inclusion outside of the home or school. in response to inadequate broadband connections in some homes, the bus provides avenues for young people to negotiate paths to internet use; especially as it provides this access at convenient times and locations for young people outside schools and outside school hours. we argue that mybus implicitly addresses digital inequity and exclusion. whilst the technologies on board are predominantly there to attract young people as part of youth engagement and outreach, the quote from the shire employee (above) shows that it also enables access to online information and services, social connectivity, and play. in some ways, then, it challenges social divisions for young people, particularly socio-economic and geographic divisions, providing for digital inclusion. digital mediation young people use the laptops on the bus for a variety of reasons. the common use is for homework (use google to search for things), to socialise (facebook), to play games and to look at videos such as youtube dance videos are really popular (anonymous shire employee) younger children aged 10-12 are not up to the level as young people who are at high school. often we need to show the younger aged how to use google for free games. young people aged 10-12 generally don't have a facebook account due to parents not wanting them to have it (anonymous shire employee) the barriers to young people's computer and internet use, engagement with digital technology, and the role played by digital technologies in accessing health information and services, in the cardinia area are not only influenced by cost and location of access, but also by the governance of technology use. evidence shows that young people's access to communication technologies at home and at school is subject to restrictions, or what is described in internet studies as mediation. the mediation literature has studied the range of measures used to manage or regulate young people's use of and safety on the internet (e.g., acma, 2007; livingstone and helsper, 2008; netratings australia, 2005, nikken and jansz, 2006; roberts et al., 2005; wang et al., 2005). parents, for example, implement a number of rules or measures to direct, limit and supervise young people's use, and thus protect them from perceived or potential risks; regardless of socioeconomic circumstance, the aim is to provide a safe online environment for children and protect their welfare while enabling them to develop a range of skills (e.g. nansen et al., 2012). these mediation strategies include things like the conscious physical placement of computers in shared and visible spaces such as the living room rather than in the privacy of bedrooms, installing or running filtering technologies such as parental control software, checking the suitability of and approving which sites their young people can visit, supervising while their young people were using the computer, placing time limits on use, and discussing perceived dangers. the literature categorises styles of mediation in terms of restrictive mediation, active mediation, and co-viewing or co-playing (e.g. nikken and jansz, 2006); that is, restricting media use, talking about media use, and viewing or sharing use respectively. green, holloway and quin (2004) place these along a spectrum from a more authoritarian to a more empowering autonomous approach. it has been shown that these styles of mediation correlate to young people's age, with parents adopting more restrictive approaches for younger children (netratings australia, 2005). while parents emphasise and encourage young people's internet use for learning, and implement measures to support this, we found in the screen stories study (see: gibbs et al., 2010; nansen et al., 2012) that children often pursue playful uses or personal objectives, such as selective use of sites, including educational applications (e.g. mathletics). these playful sensibilities and tactics demonstrated negotiation with adult mediation, management and agendas. similar findings are supported in youth media literature, with young people using tactics of multitasking and minimising windows when parents look on (shepherd et al., 2006), or by claiming educational value for a game (livingstone 2009, p. 44). here, young people's ict use is often less about developing critical capacities, than about negotiating commercial, parental or educational restrictions in order to satisfy or achieve personal goals of use largely for leisure or play. from our observation of young people's use of ict whilst on the bus, we noticed that they took advantage of what is ostensibly a less supervised and mediated space to, for example, view content that may be restricted at home, such as youtube clips, or access social media sites that may not be allowed in other places (such as school). these activities, of which parents or teachers may or may not be aware, suggest that while the principal and general focus for adults in relation to child digital inclusion is supporting possibilities for education and protecting children from risk, for young people themselves inclusion is primarily about pursuing possibilities for play, entertainment and social interaction.the mybus service demonstrates an awareness of the role and importance of social media in young people's lives, using facebook to promote their services and build relationships with youth in the community: "in 2010, a facebook page for the mybus was set up. this allows youth outreach officers to update young people on the whereabouts of the mybus and activities that are being planned. more than 100 young people from the cardinia shire are signed up as a mybus 'friend'" (cardinia shire council community services unit, 2010). the mybus service provides a space for young people to use technologies outside of well monitored or poorly connected spaces. thus in addition to responding to inadequate broadband connections in the home, the mybus service serves to provide young people a form of digital inclusion at different times and locations, a way to navigate their internet governance at home and school, to assist in developing a range of competencies or expertise, and digital literacy, which will be required to negotiate online environments as they develop. digital mobility young people who live in areas that could be considered low socioeconomic areas don't have access to the internet as parents can not afford it therefore love it when the bus visits their town as they can access it. also families in these areas don't have the ability to afford a wii or playstation so young people love using these games on the bus (anonymous shire employee) this quotation aptly summarises the role of mybus in not only providing access to digital media and communications technologies, but also making the technologies mobile in order to redress the geographic, socioeconomic and technological inequities for young people living in urban fringe areas such as cardinia. many urban fringe areas are not well served by public transport and there is often a paucity of so called "third spaces" where young people can get together easily and safely. many young people in cardinia have reduced access to digital technology in their homes and by virtue of lower access to resources, in public spaces, whilst access at school is primarily focussed on educational purposes. as a result, these young people face reduced opportunities to use digital technologies for social purposes and to access general information including information underpinning health literacy. as a mobile service, mybus travels to many parts of the shire reaching young people in areas that are geographically dispersed or disadvantaged, and thus not only supports access to health services for those who are less socially and economically advantaged, but also provides access to the internet and other digital technologies, thereby countering inequities in digital participation and inclusion. the contribution of mybus illuminates two theoretical constructs that are increasingly recognised as social determinants of health: mobility and social capital. spatial mobility has in recent sociological literature been identified as an increasingly critical characteristic of modern societies (urry, 2007). this literature has revealed how mobilities operate both on a global scale through the movements of bodies, objects, capital, information and images and on a local scale through things like daily transportation or the movements of material things within everyday life (sheller & urry, 2006, p.1). here, the capacity to move and the systems supporting individual movement have been increasingly recognised as an important aspect of social equity and participation. this capacity to move has been described through the concept of mobility capital, or motility, which is likened to other forms of capital..."another form of capital like its financial, cultural, and social counterparts that shape people's life courses" (kaufmann and widmer, 2006, p.124; see also: kaufman et al., 2004). the idea of mobility capital has been proposed and situated in relation to social, adult, and family life (kaufmann et al., 2004; kaufmann and widmer, 2006), yet our contribution is to commence developing a particular type of mobility capital for children and young people, especially as it emerges in geographically and digitally disadvantaged areas. in this case, what has been described as mobility capital assumes a key role in more contemporary theorising about social capital in adults. social capital in general refers to the extent, nature and quality of social ties that individuals or communities can mobilise in conducting their affairs (e.g. zinnbauer, 2007), in ways that enhance social connections, supports inclusion and challenge exclusion. there are, however, two strands of theorising about social capital in relation to children and young people: the adultist and the sociology of childhood. critiquing the adultist strand, madeleine leonard argues that the theorists putnam and coleman account for the relationship between childhood and social capital by concentrating on adults' stock of social capital and how effectively these adults transfer their social capital assets to their children, which they can "cash in" when they grow up. in keeping with much of sociology, coleman and putnam have little to say about children's existing usage of social capital. moreover, they give little acknowledgement to how children's own agency and networks might facilitate the development of social capital among children (leonard, 2005). the implication of the argument, that for children social capital is a by-product of their parents' relationships with others, is that their own social capital networks are rendered invisible (ferguson, 2006). by contrast, virginia morrow, an advocate of the new sociology of childhood based upon the work of the british social anthropologists allison james and alan prout, argues that we need to move beyond psychologically-based models of childhood as a period of socialisation, and emphasise that children are active social agents who shape the structures and processes around them (at least at the micro-level), and whose social relationships are worthy of study in their own right (morrow, 1999). in relation to the social capital debate, morrow (1999, p.746) proposed that although pierre bourdieu did not explicitly discuss children's social capital, he left space for such a discussion by describing social capital "as rooted in the processes and practices of everyday life". when combined with the recognition from the new sociology of childhood that children possess agency, bourdieu's formulation could explain how the micro-social worlds of children interact to produce social capital. for example, madeleine leonard drew on a combination of bourdieu and the sociology of childhood to interpret findings from her study in belfast to show how young people demonstrated agency and social capital independent of their families by initiating their own social networks and finding part-time work to benefit both them and their families (leonard, 2005). morrow (2000) argues that a distinctive feature of young people's communities is that they often constitute a "virtual'"community of friends based around school, town centre and street. morrow's concept of a virtual community provides a neat bridge between the social capital, mobility and digital inclusion literatures and our findings about the mobile mybus in the fringes of melbourne, australia. these findings acknowledge that social capital is a factor operating in children's lives and relationships (leonard, 2005; morrow, 2000; weller & bruegel, 2009) and they add to the growing literature on children's spatial movement and independence that addresses the importance of mobility for the wellbeing of young people (for literature reviews, see: garrard 2009; thomson, 2009; zubrick et al., 2010). yet, these findings also amend understandings of social determinants of health to recognise the important mediating role of digital technologies. in relation to social capital, communication technologies are shown to be a resource to enable people to thicken existing ties as well as generate new ones (e.g. licoppe, 2004; davis et al., 2012; zinnbauer, 2007). mobile phones or email, for example, are used to stay better in touch and coordinate activities with friends and family members (licoppe, 2004; davis et al., 2012), making it possible to maintain relationships. thus, wyn et al., (2005) note that the internet mediates, supplements and transforms social capital: it provides another means of communication to make existing social relationships and patterns of civic engagement and socialisation easier, but in this provision it also remediates it, amends how, where, when social interaction takes place. further, digital technologies have been shown to support mobility for families and children (see: pain et al., 2005; davis et al., 2012). pain et al note, for example, that the contactability provided by mobile phones may help to alleviate parental fears, free children and parents from set deadlines, expand children's spatial ranges, empower young people to reclaim public spaces, and ultimately provide opportunities for children to move. in this case, digital technologies emerge in relation to spatial mobility as a resource for challenging young people's lack of mobility. yet, in mediating both mobility and social capital, technologies do not simply operate as a means for enabling connectedness and inclusion, as without access to or skills with such digital resources, they can also operate to unevenly distribute advantage and disadvantage, and thus contribute to social immobility, inequality, or exclusion. the view that social capital is distributed unevenly and can act as a source of exclusion rather than cohesion emerges with bourdieu (see weller and bruegel, 2009), and has been taken up in relation to mobility capital, where access to a range of factors that enable spatial movement to proceed has been to shown to vary (kaufman et al., 2004). here, mobility and social capital is not simply possessed by individuals, but formed through a range of physical contexts and social relations. our study of mybus in cardinia too suggests that young people on the fringes of urban areas face geographical and economic barriers to using digital technology for other than educational purposes. mybus, as a mobile resource, provides access to digital technology and information to promote health literacy. as a result, children and young people are able to connect both in person and electronically in a child friendly environment. this mobile environment provides the opportunity for them to initiate links, gain access to information, and eventually develop mobility and social capital. the bus mobilises in multiple senses of the word technologies for young people whose location or mobility is disadvantaged. we argue that what we have identified through observing mybus a version of social capital that can be labelled children's mobility capital because it relies on recognising spatial movement as a mode for supporting social connection. this particular capital is, however, not only mobile, but also digital. it can therefore accurately be labelled as children's e-mobility capital. this mode of capital is made visible by its lack in the lives of young people who are geographically isolated or who do not have adequate access to digital resources that facilitate movement and inclusion; but it can also be made visible by mobile interventions such as in the case of mybus. conclusion this paper has reported on a mobile youth service, mybus, and analysed how the aggregation of digital media onboard mybus not only assists in the provision of healthcare and health literacy, but also enables a broader approach to young people's wellbeing by providing mobile resources for digital access and participation. in particular, the paper has shown that the mobilisation of these technologies is significant for young people living on the urban fringe. we have developed the concept of children's e-mobility capital in relation to young people in order to theorise this technology mobilisation, and we have situated the mediating role of technologies for supporting mobility capital in relation to digital inclusion as a determinant of health and wellbeing. we have argued that an important factor in young people's digital inclusion, in addition to access and mediation, is mobility. this is evidenced by the kilometres travelled by mybus, which not only enables youth engagement in health care, improving access to health information and support for less advantaged communities, but blends heath provision with new technologies and then mobilises these services and technologies to support opportunities for digital participation and inclusion for young people in less geographically and socioeconomically advantaged areas of the shire. it may not address other mobility issues facing young people, such as public transportation, but it does nevertheless act to include those in more disconnected locations and their associated experiences of reduced mobility capital. our study cannot draw direct empirical conclusions about mybus and health and wellbeing outcomes. it can, however, draw on more general findings from the social capital and urban planning literature that establish social capital as a determinant of health (ziersch et al., 2005). moreover, we know that social capital and social connections can be enhanced by approaches to urban and social planning that explicitly aim to thicken social connections, which in turn affects social capital and other determinants of health (baum et al., 2011). on the basis of our analysis of mybus and synthesis with theory, we therefore propose the need for further exploration of how social interventions can improve mobility, digital access and social capital for children and young people in order to reduce health inequities associated with geographical and digital disadvantage. future research should also move beyond the more traditional way of describing the unequal distribution of digital technology access and use between different groups in society as a "digital divide" implying a dichotomy of technology "haves and have nots" (newman et al., 2010). instead, the distribution of digital access clearly follows the socioeconomic gradient, which has been shown to be highly relevant by the world health organisation's commission on the social determinants of health (csdh, 2008). we agree with the call by newman et al (2010) to draw on contemporary public health literature to describe the socioeconomic differences in digital access and use as a digital gradient across the whole population, rather than simply a divide between those connected digitally and those not connected. 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(2007). what can social capital and ict do for inclusion? institute for prospective technological studies. 1209-7727-2-ce the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 case studies community design: a collaborative approach for social integration this paper describes a successful case of collaboration among a south-north project team, a community multimedia centre (cmc), and community beneficiaries, for the design and implementation of a small-scale project to improve cmc services for the local community of quelimane, in mozambique. the project is part of re-act, a broader scale research and development project which aimed to investigate the social meanings and understandings attributed by different stakeholders to mozambican cmcs, and use these insights to co-design and implement cmc services with inherent relevance for the local communities. the case reported is considered the most successful of nine action research and co-design projects implemented through re-act. the services designed for the quelimane cmc can be considered a success not because of perfect alignment with initial goals but rather due to responsiveness and flexibility in the implementation approach: activities and goals were constantly revised by teams to cope with emerging challenges, while at the same time keeping a clear orientation towards set targets. the paper discusses !177 salomao david cumbula università della svizzera italiana, switzerland corresponding author. cumbulas@usi.ch amalia sabiescu università della svizzera italiana, switzerland asabiescu@usi.ch lorenzo cantoni università della svizzera italiana, switzerland cantoni@usi.ch david, s., sabiescu, a., cantoni, l. (2017). community design: a collaborative approach for social integration. the journal of community informatics, 13(1), 177—192. date submitted: 2015-04-15. date accepted: 2017-03-06. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1209 . http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1209 mailto:cumbulas@usi.ch mailto:asabiescu@usi.ch mailto:cantoni@usi.ch http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1209 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 five underlying factors thought to heighten the chances of success of action research and co-design projects involving local communities, ranging from local proactivity and initiative, to commitment to project success, and high perceived self-efficacy of local stakeholders. introduction the african continent is home of 33 of the 50 poorest countries in the world; the continent has 60% of the population living with less than 2 usd per day (benatar, 2002). the world’s developing nations live on the frontline of social instability, diseases, conflicts, corruption and climate change (collins et al., 2009; desjarlais, 1996). in the quest to find solutions to the problems faced by developing nations, approximately 800bn usd are invested yearly in information and communication technologies for development (ict4d) by governments and donors (heeks, 2010). since the early years of ict4d, when public access venues (pavs) were the reference of the discipline, investment in ict4d has been contested for two main reasons: • investment and expenditure in ict4d takes pathways to developing nations from developed countries (heeks, 2008), where digital tools are produced; • there is a lack of empirical evidence of ict4d having a strong or even any record in creating substantial economic outcomes to solve the world’s poor frontline problems (patra et al., 2009). pavs were embraced as general ict4d euphoria in the early 1990s, with more than one hundred donors funding pav projects (bailur, 2006). telecentres were the first type of pavs deployed in the developing context. however they failed to rise to their developmental potential, due to lack of relevant services for developing communities, insufficient staff training, and lack of programs by which people in the community could effectively expand their knowledge. one common problem was that the design of associated products and services did not take enough into account local practices. in fact, developing nations can be active members of today’s knowledge societies; this, however, implies recognizing the importance of developing regions cultural heritage as a fundamental background of a community identity and patrimony (morley et al., 2002; vecco, 2010). in this view, ict can provide added value to cultural heritage pedagogy, education and learning (ott & pozzi, 2011; unesco chair usi, 2016). this paper seeks to present how shared perceptions on ict4d can strengthen the relationship between different society spheres, empowering a social minority group to participate actively in community ict4d design. the paper reports on the research and development project re-act (social representations of community multimedia centres in mozambique and actions for improvement). re-act worked with community multimedia centres (cmcs), the type of pav most common in mozambique, which combines a telecentre with a community radio. the project had a twofold aim: (i) to investigate the social meanings, perceptions, awareness, and understandings that different stakeholders attribute to cmcs in nine localities; and (ii) !178 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 to design and implement services with inherent relevance for the concerned communities, aiming to improve the performance of the nine cmcs involved in the project. this paper focuses on the second part of the project, the “improvement actions” designed for cmcs and surrounding communities, and in particular on the action implemented in the city of quelimane. the improvement action conceived for the quelimane cmc and surrounding community aimed at providing training in ict for the underprivileged youth living in two nearby orphanages, and thus contributing to enhance their confidence, social recognition, and employability. this case is analysed looking at collaboration, social learning and sustainability as the most important factors underpinning its successful implementation. community multimedia centres and re-act improvement actions mozambique is one of the world’s least developed countries, with approximately 15 million inhabitants living in rural areas, out of 23 million people. the nation has a gross domestic product (gdp) of about 33 billion usd in 2015 (cia, 2016). mozambique has also embarked on pilot projects to deploy pavs for rural development (undp, 1990) aiming to increase access to information and reduce the digital divide. the most common forms of pavs deployed in mozambique are telecentres, cmcs, cybercafés, millennium villages, and libraries (gaster, 2001; macueve et al., 2009; rega et al., 2011). the cmc is a pav that combines telecentre facilities such as internet, fax and phone services (reilly & gomez, 2001) with a radio broadcasting in local languages managed mostly by locals (david et al., 2013). re-act “improvement actions” projects were small budget projects designed by cmcs’ staff and local communities with the support of the re-act team. their purpose was to improve the social and (possibly) financial sustainability of cmcs. they were designed in an action research framework, and thus intended to support the design of cmc improved services, while enabling the local stakeholders to take full agency over their implementation. project activities aimed also to create bridges that linked the cmc and the communities they served, lowering barriers for adoption of ict services provided by the cmcs. improvement actions were conceived during a workshop held in maputo at the university eduardo mondlane (february, 2014 ). the nine cmc directors, together with initiating agencies representatives, were invited to analyse the information gathered during the first phase of the re-act project and to co-design possible improvement actions to be implemented with their cmc. the improvement actions selected by each cmc (table 1) show a foremost concern with education, followed by the promotion of local economic welfare through revenue-making activities such as tourism. !179 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 1. improvement actions for the nine cmcs involved in the re-act project communities and cooperative design over the last few decades, action research has been growing as both a research culture (schuler, 2009) and a family of methodologies counter-acting notions of knowledge and power, to the extent of engaging communities in shaping the design of the research (acker et al., 1991). action-oriented research is usually associated with interpretative (uttal, 2005) and critical theory inquiry paradigms (guba & lincoln, 2005), requiring flexible study designs and a concern with producing practical, actionable knowledge that can inform practice and positive social change (creswell, 2007). while action research has been labelled with different names, ranging from participatory action research, to co-design, up to action-oriented research (argyris, 1996), the central tenet and driving factor underpinning this diversity is the concern with placing research in the service of the people (reason & bradbury, 2005). a common approach to differentiate action research from participatory research is to stress either the action taking or the participatory aspects in the research undertaken. action research is mainly devoted to produce something and to sustain social change to the benefit of the stakeholders involved. the final aim is to come up with practical solutions to issues that concern people from different social groups or communities (fine et al., 2000; gaventa, 1993). at the same time, action research is equally a learning endeavour: it seeks to equip participants with skills in reflective thinking, decision-making, and action-taking (adelman, 1993). users’ involvement in the design process allows ownership and contextualization of the technological solution, and decreases the risk of falling into design-reality gaps (nhampossa, 2005; david et al., 2013). cmc improvement action beneficiaries type cuamba basic maintenance training community maintenance chitima the internet for teachers and students students education chiure basic support training community maintenance dondo creating a cinema community entertainment ilha de moçambique tourism platform for the island community tourism morrumbene local web platform community tourism quelimane train underprivileged children orphans education sussudenga training in informatics students education xinavane training in informatics students education !180 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 there is increasing evidence in the literature on the benefits of involving local stakeholders in design. the approach to co-design in ict4d is shaped by the concerns of practitioners, researchers and international development organisations with raising public awareness and spreading ict knowledge and skills to promote sustainable community development (freeman, 1984; kang, 2010). co-design in this context implies at once that a project draws on a shared vision, fosters social learning, and promotes mutual understanding between the primary stakeholders, taking into account that those involved in the design process have somehow different perspectives and expectations, which should be adequately considered (fien et al., 2007). co-design is thought to result in higher quality of system requirements, higher system quality, and a better fit between the system and all intervenors (steen at al., 2011). case in focus: ict training for the quelimane underprivileged youth this section provides an in-depth view into one of the case studies in the re-act project, involving the cmc in the city of quelimane. the quelimane cmc quelimane is the fourth largest city of mozambique, located in the zambézia province. it has a population of approximately 225,000 inhabitants, 40% of whom are less than 15 years old (ine, 2012). in the past two decades, several initiatives have been implemented for improving access to information and technology in mozambique. one such initiative is nova radio paz, a community radio founded by the catholic church in 1998. a community radio is a radio station that broadcasts in local languages, in this case in portuguese and chuabo, managed by local people and broadcasting to a limited area (usually not further than 100 km). the radio is operated by the local catholic cathedral and covers the entire municipality of quelimane. unlike commercial ones, this radio station does not run for profit. its main competitor is radio moçambique (rm), the national radio broadcaster. in 2006, unesco, the centre of informatics of the university eduardo mondlane (ciuem), and the swiss agency for development and cooperation (sdc), implemented an expansion project that consisted of adding to the existing nova radio paz a telecentre overseen by the national institute of information and communication technologies (intic) (david et al., 2013). the community multimedia centre (cmc) of quelimane was born, as the aggregation of a telecentre and a community radio. the quelimane cmc is located on the 1st floor of the são carlos luanga primary school. three classrooms are used as community radio, telecentre, and library. this cmc offers basic computer training (ms word, excel, and powerpoint) in the telecentre, and courses of radio journalism and interview techniques within the community radio. the computer training course lasts for two months, two hours per day, monday to friday. the cmc also provides access to the internet, fax, photocopies, typing services, printouts, and radio announcements (rega et al., 2011). the cmc had five computers, four of which were allocated for computer training and one to the community radio. the cmc management is entrusted to a catholic nun, who is !181 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 supported by four local volunteers. these volunteers are young people who graduated from high school and are waiting for placement in the local university. frequent users of the cmc are office workers, students, teachers and business entrepreneurs. the cmc is not the only institution providing radio and ict services in the city. the public and private sectors offer similar services, yet prices are much higher. these institutions have made larger investments and, due to their financial capacity, can provide competitive salaries. this often attracts the trained staff from the cmc, who leave the community centre to work for these private institutions. the telecentre part of the cmc has difficulty to attract volunteers and staff. by contrast, the radio is successful in its attempt to attract radio staff, as its reputation is solid and widespread in the centre and north of quelimane. nonetheless, volunteers of the radio do also leave for better positions: during the past two years, the radio has attracted volunteers from other provinces, who in few years come to be hired by public sector enterprises like radio moçambique (rm) and the television of moçambique (tvm). technical support for the telecentre part of the cmc is provided by the centro de apoio à informação e comunicação comunitaria (caicc) (rega et al., 2011). caicc is a unit within the ciuem that provides ideas for sharing information and resources between cmcs; it has a green line and postal line to either receive calls related to technical problems or fix damaged components of technological devices. as for the community radio part, support is provided by the forúm nacional das radios comunitárias (forcom), an organisation that acts as a lobbyist unit to promote and defend the interests of community radios (forcom community radio stations, n.d.). key beneficiaries: the quelimane underprivileged youth like many others in the sub-saharan region, the city of quelimane faces social phenomena that range from having a very young population (ine, 2012), high fertility rates along with low child survival, aids epidemics (world bank, 2007) and social exclusion phenomena. orphans is a group most susceptible to social exclusion. with the support of the diocese of quelimane, the institute of social security (inas), and the association namuali, the city has been maintaining three orphanages: casa esperança, aldeia da paz, and casa familia. the lack of orphanages forced the creation of seven houses that provide care to children in need. there are also houses that do not permanently host children. these new houses created a difference in the denomination, such that the people living in the orphanages are called “internals” and people living in the houses are called “externals”. internal orphans live in the orphanage and do not have a family, either because they have lost their parents, run away due to family abuses, or were abandoned. the external orphans have a house of their own but no elder person or relatives to care for them. table 2 presents the number of residents in each orphanage, by age and gender. !182 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 2. orphanages in quelimane the orphanages are dependent on welfare organizations, grants from government, donors, and fundraising activities. the orphanage management has also adopted innovative ways to provide care and expand relations between in-house residents and the outside world with a project known as ataca, where anybody can be an educational tutor or a friend of a person leaving in the orphanage. attention to the inclusion of underprivileged youth has been on the agenda of governmental and non-governmental bodies in mozambique. the mozambican government has introduced reforms to primary education, notably the introduction of interdisciplinary, bilingual curricula, learner-centeredness and new teaching pedagogies (guro & weber, 2010). the government is paying increasing attention to the impact of investment in education for development and poverty reduction by increasing earnings from employment and boosting the employability of the young labour force (ez et al., 2012). the relationship between public education and economic development is far from well-defined, and global tendencies such as reduction of public spending on education and health programs can negatively impact on schooling for traditionally marginalized communities (carnoy, 2000). despite the fact that these marginalized social groups are the labour force for tomorrow, they face high social discrimination. social discrimination originates from how society perceives them. prior studies provided evidence that 10 to 17-year-old boys or girls felt discriminated when their social situation became a reason for public debate that does not result in protection of their rights, when questioned about their living conditions, and when the lack of a paternal or maternal authority becomes a topic for derogatory conversations (corcoran, 2002; cornish & ghosh, 2007; liepins, 2000; sokoloff & dupont, 2005). within this pattern, the special case of those underprivileged and young orphans stigmatized as hiv carriers stands out (robson et al., 2006). children from hiv positive mothers are often left under the care of their grandmother, cousins or aunts, who later stop caring for them under the excuse that they do not have the means to support them. this stigma has corrosive effects on the quelimane underprivileged youth, and generates an illness in the rest of society, leading to social differentials and lack of respect and compassion towards the underprivileged youth. for the underprivileged, stigmatization generates a viral load of hatred, a struggle that finds expression through minor vices taken from a tender age, known in many social contexts as “bad habits”: drinking, smoking, and sexual misbehaviour. if not properly dealt with, these can nr orphanage internal external age gende r 1 casa esperança 85 100 7-1 7 mixed 2 aldeia da paz 35 30 7-19 femal e 3 casa familia 60 100 6-18 male !183 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 escalate to self-inflicting, anti-social or deviating behaviours such as taking drugs, gambling, prostitution, and theft. these bad habits and vices are tightly connected to neglect and abuse, and to the desire for social recognition and acceptance (burnham, 1993; jones, 1993; sacramone, 2006). cooperative design of services for the quelimane cmc the aim of the improvement action devised by the quelimane cmc was to boost on a micro level socio-economic opportunities for the quelimane orphans, through the provision of training in icts and radio services. ict training sought to improve skills in computer usage (ms word, excel and powerpoint, the internet and social networks), while the radio course aimed at training people in radio journalism and production of radio programs. the actions were addressed primarily at the quelimane orphans, for whom ict training was intended as a tool for facilitating their social recognition and integration. the core concept for the actions took shape in two moments: during the abovementioned workshop in maputo with all involved cmcs’ coordinators, and through a focus group in quelimane with cmc staff, representatives of the social groups that would have benefitted from the actions, and representatives of the whole community. two researchers in communication sciences specialized in ict4d comprised the react team and were also present in both phases. the cmc staff included the cmc director, the telecentre responsible, two radio volunteers and the secretary. the three oldest boys and girls from casa esperança and aldeia da paz represented the underprivileged community beneficiating from the improvement action. housewives, teachers, business entrepreneurs, and government employees, randomly selected among regular cmc users by cmc staff, represented the quelimane community. the quelimane focus group session was held in the cmc where the improvement actions were to take place. to ensure that the underprivileged communities participated actively, the re-act team had to understand the orphans’ reality, get immersed in their daily activities, and understand their constraints when dealing with stigmatization. to ensure that the workshop would produce useful results, the re-act team provided to participants an overview of icts and the cmc’s capabilities to deliver information through the use of technologies. members of the quelimane community understood the main role that icts play on their activities, with a special focus on mobile phones and computers. from the various interactions, it emerged that the community members see these devices as essential elements in their daily activities. the devices were used to alleviate stress by turning on the music, get informed by turning on the radio, and communicate with relatives through social networks and communication services like facebook, whatsapp, and twitter. the underprivileged youth merely related to the use of radio and showed curiosity about using mobile phones and computers to talk and make new friends using social networks like facebook and twitter. they also inquired about how the radio works on mobile devices and computers, as these features were not part of their reality. the knowledge !184 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 about these technologies was everyday knowledge for most of the participants but not for the orphans. members of the community and the cmc staff perceived that they had taken for granted that those technologies were part of general, background knowledge, shared by everybody. therefore, the decision was made that the most relevant service to be provided to these youth was ict training, inclusive of teaching on the potentialities of internet and social networks. the community representatives and the cmc staff had already entered the co-design process with an ideal perspective on what the improvement actions would be. the cmc staff had a predefined idea of the improvement actions: providing courses for ict training (ms word, excel, powerpoint). during the focus group, this initial idea was shaped and advanced with consideration of the needs of underprivileged youth, in order to increase their employability chances. in particular, the discussion focused on their need for social recognition and improved social status. one practical result of this discussion was an expansion in the training content to include teaching content on the use of internet and social networking as well as three radio courses: radio journalism, production of radio programs, and multimedia techniques for radio. these courses would be offered to both groups of participants, the orphans and the rest of the young people, with the latter paying a course fee. part of the technological infrastructure, course materials and the training expenses for the orphans were financed by re-act. the workshop discussions also tackled the issue of different learning capabilities, as people rarely learn in the same way but rather fashion learning around their pre-existing attitudes and abilities. one practical outcome of the discussion was the decision to provide a computer to each orphanage, to enable the orphans to practice during and after attending the courses. community members probed the idea of allowing the underprivileged youth to express the knowledge acquired during training in a radio program to lower the risk of forgetting what they learned during the courses. they also insisted that the cmc had to be a venue where knowledge is applied to benefit both the privileged and the underprivileged. co-design participants welcomed these ideas; the first idea implementation had to be accepted by the national institute of social security (inas), the entity that monitors that the activities do not interfere with the youths’ ability to attend regular school, their mental and physical health, and that socially or morally the activities are not dangerous for the welfare of underprivileged youth. for the project implementation, the re-act team was assigned the task to prepare relevant educational material for the courses and to acquire the technological infrastructure – computers, recorders, wi-fi routers, internet providers, etc. although quelimane has experienced a significant increase in quality of life and income, the costs for computers, printers, and other icts related materials were much higher compared to maputo, the capital city of mozambique. therefore, the re-act team, based in maputo, was in charge of sending the technical material to the cmc. a collaboration with caicc was fundamental in this phase, as the centre provided access to their postal channel to exchange documents and technical materials with the cmcs. young people participating in the improvement actions were selected among boys and girls who had completed the 8th grade (year) of formal education. the 8th grade in the !185 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 mozambican education system corresponds to the first year of secondary education in the european system. an exception was made for the orphans, whose reading and writing skills could be equal to or higher than an 8th-grade student, even if they did not complete it. these skills were acknowledged with a school declaration. as shown in table 3, it was decided that the total number of orphans participating in the improvement action was to be 33 for the entire duration of the project. 15 had to be girls and 18 boys, from aldeia da paz and casa familia respectively. table 3 beneficiaries of the improvement action according to the initial plan. implementation and results the ict training was planned to spread over 18 months, from may 2012 to december 2013. the application was handled autonomously by the cmc, while the re-act team provided remote assistance. during this time, the cmc staff drafted trimestral progress reports, sent through electronic email to the re-act team. the first report was about the financial situation of the project, while the second related to the implementation of the project and its associated constraints. the implementation of the action had to deviate in several ways from the initial plan, yet the challenges found were met by the local implementation team with on-the-spot solutions so that the project came to surpass the objectives it had set. initially, the cmc had concerns about the capacity to train the required number of underprivileged people requested by the re-act team. due to that concern, the cmc consulted the community and the re-act team, and consequently decided to involve in the first batch only the youth from the two orphanages. the first group of people trained by the cmc were 14 youth from both the orphanages (six girls and eight boys). their courses were held from june to october. the second group of the course did not include girls as the person responsible for the girls orphanage considered that it was not an acceptable behaviour and example for the younger girls in the orphanage that older girls left the orphanage in the morning only to return at the end of the day. this was a major setback but a promise was made that during the summer holidays (november to january) girls would be allowed to attend the courses again. later on, the orphanage administration decided that the girls would not be attending the course, due to an event that occurred in one orphanage. one of the girls who was to participate in the improvement actions became pregnant, an event which required the orphanage administration to enforce restrictive measures upon all the girls overseen by them. for the subsequent months, it was necessary to bring boys from external orphanages to “fill” the spaces left by the girls. nr orphanage nr. orphans age group gende r 1 aldeia da paz 15 12-17 girls 2 casa familia 18 13-17 boys !186 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the content of the courses also evolved in relation to the ideas brought in by the trainees. the first people trained by the improvement actions in the cmc presented an idea of a novel radio program to the cmc management and the re-act team. this radio program was related to communication of childhood matters and later evolved to a more informative program about youth trends, famous personalities, music, and exchange of information about youth visions and challenges of coping with independent living as a young adult. the program was aired by the community radio every day from 9:00 to 10:00 am at the beginning. once it became popular, the program started to be aired twice a week. the program started its first stage during november 2012. its second phase started in december 2012 and stopped airing in february 2013. most young people from the quelimane city, students of the 8th to 10th grade, welcomed this program. the radio program was evaluated as highly successful by its listeners, based on an assessment obtained through the phone interactions held during the radio program. this radio program proved to be a venue for obtaining a better job for its leading star, one of the underprivileged boys, who was invited by the radio moçambique of quelimane to be part of their radio station, obtaining a fixed-term contract. this fact stimulated the rest of the group to work towards reaching the same or higher professional levels. overall, 79 students from both the orphans and the rest of the community were trained in the first year of the project, a number much higher than the initially planned number of trainees. table 4 presents the distribution of people trained in icts and radio courses. table 4. number of people trained in the quelimane case discussion and conclusion this paper described a successful case of collaboration among an re-act team, a cmc, and community beneficiaries, for the design and implementation of a small budget project to improve cmc’s services. the improvement action performed in the quelimane cmc can be considered a success not because of its alignment with initial goals, but because of the manner in which activities and goals were constantly revised item non-orphans orphans female male female male ict training & radio course 8 13 6 20 only radio course 6 10 0 16 total 79 !187 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 by the teams to cope with emerging challenges, while at the same time keeping a clear orientation towards set targets. the project succeeded in delivering training on icts and radio for both underprivileged and non-underprivileged youth in quelimane. yet, in many ways, the training deviated from the initial plan. for instance, the girls in the orphanages could not attend the courses due to restrictive measures set by the orphanage administration. some significant and unexpected results were achieved, that in many ways exceeded the initially expected outcomes. overall, the project trained more youth than initially planned. also, one of the notable results was that the icts and radio training provided a foundation for the creation of a successful radio program that targets the youth community of quelimane. the case of the quelimane cmc proved to be more successful than the other ones included in the project re-act. the analysis of the underlying factors for the success of the co-designed improvement actions indicated that the most important ones revert around five aspects:  • commitment of the local implementation team; • proactivity and local initiative;  • alignment between stakeholders’ competences and tasks in the project; • high perceived self-efficacy of local stakeholders;  • equalitarian relationship among stakeholders.  in this project, enabling the participation of all stakeholders from the design stage of the improvement action, and entrusting the local team with full power over implementation, helped to achieve intended goals. the accent fell, therefore, on the collaborative design of the actions, towards opening local agency for the implementation phase. this flexible approach to action research design is not novel. there have been similar approaches in which action research was customized for the needs of the context and the project goals, complemented with other methodologies or boosting the levels of local participation either towards the design or the implementation stages of the project development (e.g.: ospina et al., 2004; spinuzzi, 2005; bowen, 2009). first, the improvement action in this cmc was successful because the people managing the cmc were committed to the project and held high the cause of improving the life of the underprivileged youth. this commitment was especially evident for the cmc managing nun, who was in charge with overseeing the adequate implementation of the courses. the resource management was impeccable and attention was paid to keeping the staff working on the project motivated with resources acquired from the community course fees on a pro rata basis. second, the local stakeholders – both the cmc staff and the communities’ representatives involved – were proactive in the implementation of the project, devising new approaches and steps to meet the encountered challenges. the project activities were always adapted to conditions, making the best of what was available or feasible. actions not planned in the initial phase were also conceived. for instance, a computer !188 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 was installed in the orphanages to allow youth to practice their newly acquired skills. this and other examples of local initiative reflect the demonstrated commitment of the local implementation team. proactivity in the project implementation can be related to the fact that the local implementation team felt they owned the project; it was as much their project as it was one set up through a joint venture. third, such high level of proactivity was possible due to an adequate match between the stakeholders’ expertise and assigned roles, tasks, and responsibilities in the project. the re-act team gave advice on the best technological deals and oversaw the design of the courses. the project implementation was entirely managed by the local cmc staff, with inputs in relevant points from the beneficiaries and the re-act team. the inclusion of individuals from the community skilled in project planning and management proved to be a line of support for the cmc management. this distributed expertise ensured an optimal investment of available resources. ict4d projects created in the early stages of ict4d did not have a business plan that oversees the generation of sufficient resources like information, exchange of ideas and partnership to ensure continuous access to icts at an affordable cost. this aspect was not given sufficient attention in many community-based initiatives (roman and colle, 2002, 2003; harris, 1999; harris et al., 2003) and the quelimane cmcs are not an exception. in the case of the quelimane cmc action, having a skilled implementation team was also instrumental to efficient and wise management of the resources. the effectiveness of this distributed expertise and the high level of local initiative can be related to a fourth aspect, the level of trust held by the local stakeholders in their capacity to carry over the project tasks to a satisfactory completion. this self-trust is well captured by albert bandura’s (1998) concept of ‘self-efficacy’, referring to “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given levels of attainment” (bandura, 1998:52). bandura also argues that people are more driven to action when they perceive that their action is likely to bring along the desired effects (bandura, 1998). in this case, given that the stakeholders covered action areas aligned with their expertise, they were equally confident they could carry out the tasks well and motivated to invest the needed effort to bring them to completion. fifth, we draw attention to the relationship between stakeholders, which was characterized by equalitarian inputs in decision-making, inclusiveness and mutual trust. during the co-design phase, no member had the upper hand, rather inputs from all stakeholders were weighed and considered equally. local stakeholders demonstrated critical thinking in their discussions and negotiations with the re-act team. the local members of the staff would not act as to please the re-act team members. for instance, while the re-act team proposed a large number of trainees initially as a target, the cmc staff negotiated the number taking into account local human resources and infrastructural capacity. also, the cmc management and the community representatives have understood the potential of international collaborations, and a trusting relationship was built during the entire process between the cmc and the react team. this proved to be vital for effective communication and joint work and for putting on the table problems and concerns as they were. this high level of trust did not !189 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 lower the agency of the local implementation team by assigning a higher workload for the re-act team. rather, in many instances, the re-act team acted as advisor for actions managed by the local team autonomously. references adelman, c. 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(2013). managing like a man: women and men in corporate management. john wiley & sons. !192 new page 1 can the nintendo wiitm sports game system be effectively utilized in the nursing home environment?   keogh, j.w.l.1,2, power, n.3, wooller, l.2,4, lucas, p.4 & whatman, c.4 1 faculty of health sciences and medicine, bond university, australia 2 centre for physical activity and nutrition research, aut university, auckland, new zealand 3school of interprofessional health studies, aut university, auckland, new zealand 4 school of sport and recreation, aut university, auckland, new zealand   introduction   the population is aging in many developed countries, with this predicted to involve a disproportionately large increase in those aged over 80 years (shalala, satcher, koplan, & sondik, 1999). as the age-related decline in independence and functional ability become greater after 80 years (frontera et al., 2000), many more older adults may require aged care services and ultimately move into nursing (rest) homes. although nursing home staff strive to provide a nurturing, caring and stimulating environment for their residents, many nursing home residents may not perform sufficient physical and social activities to maintain their health and wellness (brown, allen, dwozan, mercer, & warren, 2004; nelson et al., 2007).   many studies have sought to examine the benefits of a variety of physical and social activities for older nursing home residents (brown et al., 2004; fiatarone et al., 1994; n. l. hill, kolanowski, & kurum, 2010; macrae et al., 1996). while a variety of physical (e.g. muscular strength and endurance, mobility and walking speed) and psychosocial (e.g. quality of life, loneliness and social integration) benefits were reported, there can be many barriers preventing the performance of these activities in nursing homes. such barriers may reflect the lack of time the nursing home staff have to lead such activities, management’s reluctance to pay additional money to external qualified instructors for exercise or art classes, environmental constraints relating to the space and equipment required or perceived (or real) concerns regarding resident safety (chen, 2010; mckenzie, naccarella, & thompson, 2007).   therefore, cost, space and time-effective strategies allowing more opportunities for nursing home residents to engage in physical and social activities are warranted. several information and communication technologies (ict) may help address this problem (hedström, 2007). although ict developments and marketing have traditionally focused on younger e.g. adolescent and young adult segments of the population, advances in the accessibility and the reduced price of ict mean that various sub-groups of older adults may now access these ict (burmeister, 2009, 2010; hedström, 2007; shankar, 2010). one type of ict-like device that has been suggested to offer physical and psychosocial benefits akin to more traditional forms of physical activity for a variety of inactive or disabled groups are active video games like the nintendo wii sportstm (nws). these games can be played standing or sitting and involve a hand-mounted controller to perform simulated sporting movements. evidence exists that indicate these active video games require significantly more energy expenditure and levels of physical activity than regular video-games or watching television (epstein, beecher, graf, & roemmich, 2007; graves, stratton, ridgers, & cable, 2007; maddison et al., 2007; unnithan, houser, & fernhall, 2006). these games would also appear to require the integration of sensory and motor systems, require both fine and gross-motor control and (in some games) the ability to quickly respond to what is observed on the television screen.   there are now many anecdotal reports of the nws being promoted as a form of physical activity for older adults in countries like australia, the usa and the united kingdom, with a small number of studies investigating their benefits. the paucity of peer-reviewed literature indicates the nws can significantly reduce depressive symptoms and improve health-related quality of life and cognitive performance in community-dwelling older adults. trends for improved physical function as assessed by muscular strength, sit to stand and 10 m gait speed tests were also observed (rosenberg et al., 2010; vestergaard, kronborg, & puggaard, 2008; wollersheim et al., 2010). two case reports involving nursing home residents; an 89 year old female with an unspecified balance disorder and a history of multiple falls (clark & kraemer, 2009), and an 89 year male stroke survivor (drexler, 2009) have also reported positive effects. these case studies reported that therapist-supervised nws play over the course of several weeks resulted in substantial improvements in balance (clark & kraemer, 2009) and fine-motor control of the stroke-affected upper limb (drexler, 2009). a qualitative study by higgins and colleagues (2010) also highlights some of the benefits of the nws. higgins et al. (2010) interviewed one staff member from each of the 53 high and low-dependency care centers (including nursing homes, personal care, respite care and therapy centers) using the nws for 3-6 months. the views of the staff in these centers were generally positive, with purported benefits of the nws including physical activity and mobility, social interaction, self-esteem and connection with former self.   of particular interest to this pilot study are older adults living in nursing homes. these individuals may have poorer health and functional ability as well as less opportunities for socialization and ict access than many other demographic groups (newman, biedrzycki, & baum, 2010; peri et al., 2008; van leuven, 2009). further, the possible benefits of the nws for nursing home residents are poorly understood with only two quantitative case studies and one qualitative study conducted in this area to date. the purpose of this pilot study was to examine three separate, but complementary questions regarding the potential use of the nws in nursing homes. these three questions focused on: 1) documenting self-selected patterns of nws use by nursing home residents; 2) determining the effect of the nws on the residents’ dynamic balance, health-related quality of life (qol) and fear of falling; and 3) using informal conversations to obtain staff and participants’ views on the feasibility and benefits of using the nws system in the nursing home context.   activities were done in a community setting, with nursing home staff and residents in a group or community. the benefits of technology use in a group or community setting are used for added benefit'   methods   design   a quasi-experimental mixed-methods design involving an experimental and no control group was used in this study. quantitative data was obtained using log books to assess the residents’ self-selected patterns of nws play; and through preand post-intervention testing, the effect of this nws game play on the residents’ dynamic stability, health-related qol and fear of falling. qualitative data was also obtained from field notes made by members of the research team throughout the course of this pilot study.   participants   a sample of 11 older adults (5 males and 6 females) with a mean age of 81 ± 6 years living in one nursing home in auckland, new zealand gave written informed consent to participate in this study. these residents were approached to participate in this study based on nursing home staff’s recommendations, as the staff believed that all of these individuals had sufficient physical and cognitive ability to successfully use the nws. all residents had to be > 70 years of age, have sufficient dexterity to manipulate the controller and cognitive ability to understand instructions, verbally communicate and complete the questionnaires. the majority of these participants had moderate mobility limitations, with one being a wheel-chair user. two nursing home staff also participated in this project, with their involvement limited to providing their opinions of the feasibility, benefits and limitations of the nws in the nursing home context. ethical approval was granted by the auckland university of technology ethics committee.   intervention   the nws game system remained at the nursing home for the duration of the five week intervention so that the participants were able to play any of the five games (baseball, bowling, boxing, golf and tennis) at any time. this allowed us to gain some insight into the preferred usage of this technology for this population, a question yet to be investigated in the literature. while the participants were encouraged to play these games standing upright, about half of the group did so seated. participants were also encouraged to perform flowing upper limb movements involving rotations about the shoulder and to a lesser extent the elbow and wrist joints while playing these games. however, as it was still possible to play these games via predominantly wrist joint motion only (pasch, berthouze, dijk, & nijholt, 2008), many of the participants chose this option. all participants kept a personal log book so to allow quantification of the frequency and duration of each game played per week. a research assistant visited the nursing home for an average of 2-3 hours each day in the first week so to assist the participants and staff to learn how to operate and play the nws games. she also taught the residents how to complete the nws usage log book. the length of these visits by the research assistant was reduced over the following weeks, so to facilitate greater independence of the residents and staff in using the nws.   procedures   dynamic stability: the four square step test (fsst) was selected as the test of dynamic stability (functional ability) for this study as it has been shown to better predict falls than other common tests including the timed up and go, step test and functional reach test (dite & temple, 2002) and have excellent test-retest reliability (icc = 0.93-0.99) (dite & temple, 2002; whitney, marchetti, morris, & sparto, 2007). the fsst required the participants to step over four pieces of foam (each ~ 1m long) that are laid on the ground at 90° angles to each other (like a “plus” sign) (dite & temple, 2002). participants started in a standing position in one square facing forward, and are asked to keep facing the same direction for all eight steps. they were then required to move clockwise around the “plus sign” by moving forward, to the right, backward and then to the left (i.e. returning to the starting square). at this point, the participants reversed their path and moved in an anti-clockwise direction back to their starting position. a schematic of this test is provided in figure 1. three trials were performed with the mean of the best two used for statistical analysis.     figure 1: schematic representation of the fsst (adapted from whitney, 2007).   the position of the feet relative to the two large bold lines that represent the canes indicates where the participant begins and finishes the fsst. as the dashed lines indicate, the participant begins the fsst by stepping forward, laterally to the right, backwards and laterally to the left, which positions them back at the starting position. from there, they go in the opposite direction back to the start / finish position.    health-related qol: health-related qol was assessed by the sf-36. the sf-36 is a validated and very commonly used questionnaire to assess the physical and mental health-related qol of older adults (mchorney, ware, & raczek, 1993). the 36 questions of the sf-36 allow the calculation of eight scales scores that ultimately produce two summary scores (physical and mental) health-related quality of life, respectively. only these two summary scores will be used in this study. the sf-36 exhibits high reliability (icc = 0.65-0.92) across all scale and summary scores. its validity is demonstrated by its ability to distinguish between frail and non-frail older adults (masel, graham, reistetter, markides, & ottenbacher, 2009) and to be sensitive to change in older adults living in residential care as a result of physical activity interventions (peri et al., 2008).   fear of falling: fear of falling was assessed by the modified fall efficacy scale (mfes) (k. d. hill, schwarz, kalogeropoulos, & gibson, 1996). the mfes has been shown to exhibit very high internal consistency (cronbach's alpha = 0.95) and to have very high retest reliability (icc = 0.93) (k. d. hill et al., 1996). the validity of the mfes has been demonstrated by the significant differences between healthy and frail frequent older fallers (k. d. hill et al., 1996). all of mfes questions asked the participant “how confident/sure are you that you do each of the activities without falling” for a different activity. each of these questions was scored out of 10, with a 1 being “not confident at all of not falling over” and a 10 being “confident of not falling over” (k. d. hill et al., 1996; tinetti, richman, & powell, 1990). the mean score of all questions was then used as the outcome score, so that a score of 1 indicated a very high fear of falling and a score of 10 no fear of falling.   nursing home staff and residents comments   the views of key staff who worked closely with the residents and participants were obtained in the final weeks of the study. this was done to gain some feedback on their observations of the possible benefits, safety issues, barriers and motivations to use the nws in the nursing home context. staff were also asked for their thoughts and experiences of managing the nws within their working environment. this included recruitment of suitable participants and the practicalities of housing the equipment. feedback was elicited in a conversational manner with the aim of putting the participants and staff at ease. participants discussed their experiences with a member of the research team (np), whilst the two primary staff members involved in the management of the nws spoke to the research assistant (lw).   statistical analysis   an intention to treat analysis was conducted for all quantitative data, whereby all participants who enrolled in the project were included in the preand post-test analyses. group means and standard deviations were calculated for all quantitative variables relating to nws usage by the residents as well as the effect of the nws play on the measures of dynamic balance, health-related qol and fear of falling. the effect of the nws intervention on the quantitative outcome measures was assessed with paired t-tests (with unequal variance) and cohen effect sizes (d). statistical significance was achieved when p < 0.05. the feedback from the participants and staff was recorded in field notes. these field notes provided the basis from which themes were derived.   results and findings   on average, each of the 11 participants played the nws for ~28 minutes each week across the duration of the study. this mean duration was relatively consistent across the five weeks, with four of the five weeks recording weekly means of 25-33 minutes per participant. the only exception was week 3 where ~18 minutes per participant were performed (see figure 2).   figure 2: mean (±sd) weekly nintendo wii sporttm play time per participant for each of the five weeks.   while there was relatively little within-group variability in nws game time, there was considerable inter-participant variation in the amount and type of nws game played every week. five individuals (participants 7-11) averaged between 44-69 minutes of nws game time per week, while the remaining six participants (participants 7-11) averaged 1-21 minutes per week (see figure 3).     figure 3: mean (±sd) overall weekly nintendo wii sporttm games playing time for all 11 participants.     the average participant weekly time spent playing each of the five games is presented in figure 4. it can be observed that of the five games, golf (~17 minutes per participant week) was played more than the other four games, each of which were played on average 2-5 minutes per participant per week.   figure 4: mean (±sd) participant weekly time playing the five different nintendo wii sporttm games.   changes in the fsst, sf-36 and mfes scores are given in table 1. while no significant changes were observed for any of these variables (p = 0.185-0.841), a moderate effect was observed for the sf-36 physical component, suggesting an improvement in physical health-related qol.   table 1: changes in outcome measures after five weeks of nintendo wii sportstm games availability (n = 11).   outcome measure pre-training post-training pre-post change p value effect size fsst(s) * 21.98 ± 3.24 21.55 ± 6.99 -2.0% 0.841 -0.085 sf-36: physical 54.5 ± 11.9 61.8 ± 13.9 +13.3% 0.185 0.563 sf-36:mental 49.5 ± 6.0 50.6 ± 7.1 +2.2% 0.608 0.176 mfes 2.2 ± 1.4 2.7 ± 1.9 +19.9% 0.273 0.430   all results are mean ± sd. improved function is represented by a decrease in the fsst and an increase in the mfes and sf-36 scores. * only 8 of the 11 participants were able to complete the fsst.   participant and staff themes   although there was overlapping and interconnection of some commentary, several themes became evident. all the participants spoke of similar experiences which gave rise to the themes of ‘fear’, ‘fun’ and ‘confidence’.   initially there were tangible feelings of fear expressed by the participants due to their inexperience with ‘technology’ and concern that they may look foolish when unable to use the nintendo wii unit. however, it was the themes of ‘fun’ and ‘confidence’ that were expressed with more conviction.   most of the participants’ stated that using the nws on a regular basis provided a focal point to their day. they enjoyed not only the fact that their ‘activities’ evoked laughter both from other participants and those that were observing, but also the new and strengthening friendships that this facilitated. for some male members of the group the competitions that evolved between each other provided another element of ‘fun’.   both male and female participants reported the confidence they had gained from having the experience of using the nws. this confidence was primarily about being capable of using modern technology and feeling pride that they had overcome their initial fear.   at the start of the project, some nursing home staff, while excited about the possibility of the nws enriching the lives of their residents, had some reservations about the feasibility of the nws in the nursing home context. however, by the end of the five week intervention they felt that the nws was an activity that could be relatively easy to incorporate into the nursing home environment, provided there was sufficient space to accommodate the nws and television, and that there was someone who was able to operate the system and teach the others. furthermore, the staff stated that most participants appeared relatively confident in operating the nws at the conclusion of the five week study.   many notable positive changes in the behavior of the residents were observed by the staff. prior to commencement of the study several residents were causing concern for staff regarding their reticence to interact and engage in nursing home activities. nursing home staff indicated that after a short time of interaction with the nws these residents increased their desire to socialize with their peer group and take part in other nursing home activities. improved self-confidence, specifically between the study participants was also noticeable. one male participant who had no prior experience or inclination to use any mode of modern technology became confident in the use of the nws, eventually challenging his grandchildren to participate as well. after several challenging weeks of adjusting to life in the nursing home, another participant found using the nws a reason to leave his room and interact with other residents. prior to this he had become depressed and reclusive, spending many hours without interaction with people in the nursing home. following some encouragement from staff to engage in the nws he became more positive about his new environment and developed friendships from within the participant group. this enthusiasm was evident when he began greeting the research assistant on her arrival each day.   it is also worthwhile noting that the nursing home management team was significantly impressed with the psychosocial changes in their residents that they purchased a nws unit after the completion of the study.   discussion   the present study was conducted to address three separate, but complementary questions relating to the benefits and effects of having the nws available in nursing homes as previously mentioned.   limitations affecting the generalisability of these findings included the small sample of 11 participants, no control group, a relatively short intervention phase of five weeks and the use of an informal interview process, with field notes taken rather than direct quotes from a transcribed version of the recorded interview. the use of a self-selected amount and type of nws playing by the residents instead of a set amount and type of nws play per week would also be a limitation in determining what amount of interaction with the nws is required for a given effect. however, by selecting a quasi-experimental design in which each participant was allowed to play any amount and combination of the five nws games they wished rather than a set amount of play per week, we felt we were able to gain some insight into how this technology might actually be used by nursing home residents in the real-world. further, we felt that by allowing the residents to play the nws seated, we demonstrated that nursing home residents who may be unwilling or unable (at least initially) to perform these exercises standing, may still be able to play and gain psychosocial benefits from the nws.   nintendo wii usage   inspection of the nws usage log books revealed some interesting findings. for example, there was a relatively consistent number of mean minutes of nws played for the entire group of 11 residents across the five weeks of this study. such a finding suggested that the residents could fit playing the nws games into their regular weekly schedule and that they did not become bored with this activity over the 5 weeks. although some studies have involved nws interventions of 12-22 weeks with community-dwelling older adults (rosenberg et al., 2010; vestergaard et al., 2008), the current study is the first to examine patterns of self-selected nws usage in nursing home residents. thus, it remains unknown that if given the choice to play the nws games, would older adults in nursing homes continue this activity in the mediumto long-term and if so, what benefits might be obtained.   log book data also indicated that there was considerable variation in the amount of nws played by the 11 participants and the most commonly played nws game. the inter-participant variation in weekly nws was quite large, with five participants averaging 44-69 minutes per week and the remaining six participants averaging 1-21 minutes per week. it was also very clear that golf was the most commonly played of the five games. the relative popularity of golf may reflect several factors. the first is a connection to former self (higgins et al., 2010; wollersheim et al., 2010), whereby more participants played golf than the other four sports in their younger years. limitation in the participants’ visual acuity and dexterity could also have been a factor, as games such as tennis and boxing that require faster reactions may prove more difficult for those individuals with reduced visual acuity and dexterity (wollersheim et al., 2010). future research should further examine these and other factors so to determine what aspects of the different nws games most appeal to these older adults. such data may enable the manufacturers of these games to develop active video games that better meet the wants, needs and abilities of older adults, as well as assist nursing home staff to encourage their residents to play these games on a more consistent basis.   physical response   consistent with the relatively modest amount of self-selected nws usage by the nursing home residents, no significant quantitative improvements in their dynamic balance or fear of falling were observed. the lack of significant change in the dynamic balance and fear of falling measures were somewhat in contrast to previous nws studies involving community-dwelling older adults (vestergaard et al., 2008) and a nursing home resident (clark & kraemer, 2009). our lack of statistical significance may have reflected a variety of differences in our study’s design compared to this literature. specifically, the studies that reported significant improvements in balance or falling risk measures had therapist supervision, a greater nws playing duration (6-26 hours) and were played in a standing position rather than seated posture (clark & kraemer, 2009; vestergaard et al., 2008). therefore, our results are still important as they suggest that if a nursing home purchases a nws, it will not automatically lead to physical improvements for the residents. comparison of our results to the literature would suggest that these games need to performed standing and for a minimum weekly frequency, duration and intensity if such results are to occur. what these minimum thresholds are is not currently known. nevertheless, even self-selected usage of the nws by nursing home residents could act as a “primer” thus helping to develop their self-confidence. perhaps some mild-moderate physiological and functional ability improvements are indicated that better enable them to engage in other , efficacious forms of physical activity (von bonsdorff & rantanen, 2011).   psychosocial response   although no significant change in the sf-36 qol scores were observed in the present study, effect size analyses indicated that the 13.3% increase in physical health-related qol was of a moderate magnitude. further, this physical health-related qol response was greater than the 7% significantly greater between-group difference reported in a randomized controlled trial involving the performance of functionally-based activities by nursing home residents (peri et al., 2008). while no other nws studies have yet quantitatively examined changes in the qol of nursing home residents, our results exhibit similar trends to the significant increases in overall (vestergaard et al., 2008) and mental (rosenberg et al., 2010) health-related qol reported for community dwelling elders, and to two qualitative studies (higgins et al., 2010; wollersheim et al., 2010) involving predominantly nursing home and community-dwelling older adults, respectively.   the views of the nursing home residents and staff at the conclusion of the intervention were most encouraging as they both expressed some concerns at the start of the project. specifically, some residents spoke about a fear of technology or of looking foolish in front of their peers when playing the nws, whereas the staff had some concerns regarding the amount of time and effort they may need to assist the residents in using the nws. by the conclusion of the study, both the residents and staff felt that the nws game system could be relatively easily utilized in the nursing home context without too much staff involvement and that its usage led to a number of psychosocial benefits for the residents. such findings have important implications for both nursing home residents and staff.   the development of competency by the nursing home residents’ in a novel task like the nws has the potential to increase self-confidence in other aspects of their life (o'sullivan, 2005). increases in the residents’ self-confidence and pride in their achievements were some of the themes that emerged from the informal interviews, with their use of the nws becoming a fun rather than fearful activity. some of the residents also felt that by playing the nws they improved their friendships with the other residents and developed an interest to share with their grand-children. the perceptions of the nursing home staff in the present study were also consistent with this view of o’sullivan (2005), with it felt that a number of residents became more social and self-confident after using the nws. somewhat similar findings of improved socialization and/or self-confidence after using the nws have also been reported by higgins et al. (2010) for residents and patients in highand low-dependency care centers (including nursing homes) and by community-dwelling older women (wollersheim et al., 2010).   the positive reactions of the nursing home staff to not only the psychosocial benefits but also the feasibility of the nws in the nursing home context was also encouraging. this is important if activities like the nws are to become a part of usual care practice in nursing homes, as the nursing home staff have a great deal of say in what practices and services the nursing home will provide to, and support for their residents (chen, 2010; mckenzie et al., 2007). for example, activities that may be considered risky or time-consuming by the staff or that have environmental restrictions regarding space, equipment, costs etc are unlikely to be supported. as the staffs’ views in the current study and that of higgins et al. (2010) suggest that such concerns regarding using the nws in nursing homes are relatively modest, the nws could become a more common aspect of usual care practice in this context in the near future. this may also pave the way for additional ict to become more commonly available and used in nursing homes.   conclusions   overall, the results of this study add to the emerging literature on the possible benefits of physical video games like the nws for a variety of groups of older adults. although exploratory in nature, the results of our study suggest that the use of the nws is feasible in the nursing home context and that the residents may experience some psychosocial benefits after only five weeks of a self-selected amount of nws game play. this suggests that even short-term unstructured use of this technology may be of some benefit to some nursing home residents. future research in this area should use randomized controlled trials and examine a larger range of quantitative and qualitative outcomes to gain a greater insight into the benefits, risks, barriers and motives of use for this form of technology with various sub-groups of older adults including those in nursing homes. such studies would also benefit from following the participants for several months post-intervention to determine if the frequency and duration of nws changes over time and if this is associated with any alterations in unsupervised and supervised physical activity and other physical and psychosocial outcomes.   acknowledgements   we wish to thank the health technology interface summer studentship, aut university for funding leslie wooller to complete this study.   justin keogh is an associate professor in the faculty of health sciences and medicine, bond university , australia, email: jkeogh@bond.edu.au   nicola power is the associate head, learning and teaching in the school of interprofessional health studies, auckland university of technology, auckland, new zealand, nicola.power@aut.ac.nz   leslie wooller is a phd student in the school of sport & recreation, for auckland university of technology auckland, new zealand, email: leslie.wooller@aut.ac.nz   patricia lucas is a senior lecturer in the school of sport & recreation, auckland university of technology, auckland, new zealand, email: patricia.lucas@aut.ac.nz   chris whatman is a senior lecturer in the school of sport & recreation, auckland university of technology, auckland, new zealand, email: chris.whatman@aut.ac.nz   references   brown, v. m., allen, a. c., dwozan, m., mercer, i., & warren, k. 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(2010). physical and psychosocial effects of wii video game use among older women. international journal of emerging technologies and society, 8(2), 85-98.   reducing community health inequity: the potential role for mhealth in papua new guinea dr belinda loring, prof sharon friel, prof don matheson, mr russell kitau, dr isaac ake, dr alexander rosewell, ms heather randall, mr enoch posanai dr belinda loring, senior policy officer for the global action for health equity network (healthgaen) and visiting fellow at the australian national university. email: belinda.loring@anu.edu.au prof sharon friel, professor of health equity and an australian research council future fellow at the australian national university, australia and chair of healthgaen email: sharon.friel@anu.edu.au prof don matheson, professor of public health at massey university, new zealand. email: d.p.matheson@massey.ac.nz mr russell kitau, acting head division of public health, school of medicine & health sciences, university of papua new guinea. email: rkitau@hotmail.com dr isaac ake, health systems consultant, png. worked for ausaid, png health department, sustainable development program, who and the asian development bank in strengthening health systems. email: iake@pngenclaves.org.pg dr urarang kitur, manager for performance monitoring and research national department of health, papua new guinea. email: urarang_kitur@health.gov.pg dr alexander rosewell, epidemiologist, emerging diseases surveillance and response team with the world health organization in papua new guinea. email: rosewella@wpro.who.int ms heather randall, regional director, austraining international pty ltd, port moresby. email: heather.randall@austraining.com.au. previously disease outbreak surveillance officer, who png office world health organization, png. mr enoch posanai, executive manager for public health, national department of health, papua new guinea. email: enoch_posanai@health.gov.pg introduction papua new guinea (png) faces formidable health challenges. health spending per capita, which has fallen about 33% since the 1980s, has contributed to widespread decline in the system (batten, 2009). key health system indicators are either static or declining (national department of health, 2010). in 2010, png was ranked 137 out of 169 countries in the human development index (united nations development programme, 2010). png is not on track to meet any of the millennium development goals, and progress towards some is deteriorating. the maternal mortality rate doubled between 1996 and 2008 to 733 per 100,000 live births (papua new guinea national statistics office (png nso), 2009). this is likely due to a combination of inadequate health and social systems and improved data collection. stratified health data are limited but the available data reveal marked inequities in poverty rates, life expectancy and child malnutrition between provinces (bauze, morgan, & kitau, 2009). marked inequities also exist within provinces, with major differences in service activity between different districts, and inequities in access between different facilities (bauze et al., 2009). however, further understanding of health inequities is limited by a lack of reliable information about health needs and limited use of information on system performance. these are critical challenges that mhealth may be able to address in png. health systems are both determinants of, and solutions to health inequities (friel et al., 2011; who commission on social determinants of health, 2008). when appropriately designed and managed, health systems can promote health equity. they do this when they specifically address the needs of socially disadvantaged and marginalized populations, including women, and the poor (gilson, doherty, loewenson, & francis, 2007). often, despite the best intentions, many health systems generate health inequity and exacerbate social stratification. inadequate resources for health and declining infrastructure create barriers to access or result in differential experiences and outcomes for certain groups. information systems are a critical building block of health systems, and underpin the ability of health systems not just to detect, measure and act upon inequalities, but also to evaluate the impact of efforts to intervene and inform necessary adjustments. in png, the health system has deteriorated markedly over the last two decades especially in rural areas where approximately 87% of the population live. in theory, png has a good national health policy. however, the full implementation of the policy has failed due to a combination of obstacles including management issues, relationships, financing arrangements, the skills of health practitioners, institutional rules, uncertain funding, deteriorating infrastructure and political instability (bolger, mandie-filer, & hauck, 2005). hundreds of rural health facilities have either closed or are not fully functioning. access to technology and information is undeniably a key part of an effective health system and a potential determinant of community empowerment and health equity in png. new mhealth technologies are rapidly being introduced in png with at least four different initiatives in the last year (bj loring, matheson, & friel, 2011). the world health organization and government of png are testing the use of mhealth in disease surveillance, the papua new guinea sustainable development program (pngsdp) is using mhealth for community surveys in the remote western province, the asian development bank and national department of health are testing the use of mhealth for rural health facility audits and the clinton foundation are using mhealth for rapid transfer of laboratory results from hiv testing. at the time of writing, no evaluations were available on any of these new initiatives. these innovations offer an opportunity to facilitate rapid and large scale improvements in the flow of data in the png health system. however, technology and data in isolation are unlikely to lead automatically to positive change (gurstein, 2003; loader & keeble, 2004). an effective information system needs the following steps: 1) data collection, 2) analysis, 3) information generation, 4) use of information in decision making. like many health information systems, the png system mainly focuses on only the first step. successful and effective implementation of mhealth depends on a wide range of factors (sub-systems) in the broader health system. a way is needed to determine how mhealth combined with all other factors can lead to the overarching objectives of improved community health and health equity. the aim of this paper is to describe the current situation of rapid expansion of mhealth technology in png and consider its role as a possible tool to improve community health equity. based on a review of the international peer-reviewed and grey literature, and informed by discussions from a key stakeholder workshop held in port moresby earlier in 2011, we first provide an overview of the current uses of mhealth in health systems in png. the paper then describes the role of mhealth within the broader health system, and discusses issues relating to evaluation of mhealth effectiveness in improving health and health equity and its impact within the broader complex health system. the paper concludes with key issues that should be considered if this technology is to be used, and evaluated, for health equity purposes in png. communities in papua new guinea papua new guinea is currently home to over 6.9 million people with the population set to double within 30 years (national statistical office of papua new guinea, 2009). png is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse countries in the world, with over 800 distinct languages spoken (bauze et al., 2009). the vast majority (approximately 87%) of the population live in rural areas (bauze et al., 2009), some of which are very remote. the mainland is dominated by a rugged spinal mountain range, where most of the population live, rising to 5,000 meters above sea level. the remainder of the population is scattered unevenly, over an archipelago of over 600 islands. approximately 13% of the population live in 73 urban areas, 40 of which have populations of more than 1000 people (bourke & harwood, 2009). a further 311 924 (6%) people live in 'rural non-village' settlements including boarding schools, mission stations, sawmills and logging camps (bourke & harwood, 2009). the remaining 81% of the population live in rural villages of less than 1000 people. much of the population is without access to safe drinking water or adequate sanitation; 60% of the population rely on surface water (river/stream or spring water) and 70% of households use traditional pit latrines (national statistical office of papua new guinea, 2009). in png, 40% of the entire population are less than 16 years of age (national statistical office of papua new guinea, 2009) and almost 40% of the population aged 5 years or older have either not received any education or not completed grade 1 (national statistical office of papua new guinea, 2009). the capital, port moresby, is not linked by road to any of the other major towns and many highland villages can only be reached by light aircraft or on foot. geography and physical access to services are significant barriers to improved health status. in 2000, more than half of the rural population were estimated to live over four hours' travel by foot, vehicle or boat from any type of government service centre (hanson, allen, bourke, & mccarthy, 2001). in the highlands, rural residents have to walk more than 4 hours, on average, to reach the nearest road (gibson & rozelle, 2003). rates of poverty vary within regions and within provinces (bauze et al., 2009). an analysis in 2000 classified rural areas according to disadvantage based on five parameters: land potential; agricultural pressure; access to services; income from agriculture; and child malnutrition (hanson et al., 2001). of the 4 million people living in rural areas in 2000, approximately 61% were found to be disadvantaged by either one, two or three constraints. with 20 provinces, 89 districts, 313 local-level governments and 6131 wards, the challenges for policy makers and health service delivery agencies are substantial (the national research institute, 2010). information to inform policy-makers about population needs is poor. in 2005, birth registration coverage was reported to be approximately 3% nationally (bauze et al., 2009). to meet the needs of these geographically dispersed communities, png's health system is based on a network of 2672 aid posts (approximately 30% of which have closed due to lack of staff and supplies), 702 health centres, 18 provincial hospitals, and one national hospital (national department of health, 2009). mhealth what is it? mhealth is defined as the use of mobile communications devices, such as mobile phones, for health services and information (vital wave consulting, 2009). a subset of ehealth , mhealth includes the use of a mobile phone's voice and short messaging service (sms) as well as more complex applications including general packet radio service (gprs), third and fourth generation mobile telecommunications (3g and 4g systems), global positioning system (gps), and bluetooth technology (world health organization, 2011). mhealth interventions are being developed for a vast range of uses, at different levels in the health system. mhealth has been used effectively in developed countries to produce behaviour change for treatment adherence, and for prevention of non-communicable diseases through encouraging weight loss, increased physical activity and smoking cessation (cole-lewis & kershaw, 2010; free et al., 2011). the use of mhealth is rapidly expanding in low income settings in 2009, 51 mhealth programmes were underway in 26 developing countries (vital wave consulting, 2009). mhealth interventions have been documented in the following broad categories (akter & ray, 2010; krishna, boren, & balas, 2009; vital wave consulting, 2009): 1. remote data collection (e.g. drug stocks/supplies and health surveys). 2. disease and epidemic surveillance (e.g. weekly numbers of influenza cases). 3. diagnostic and treatment support (for both health-workers and lay public). 4. patient monitoring/recall (e.g. drug adherence, appointment reminders. can be two-way 5. education and awareness (e.g. hiv education, smoking cessation support). 6. provider training and communication. mhealth in a png context a rapid increase in cell phone towers has occurred in png over recent years, meaning that although much of the country is still inaccessible by road, about 3 million people (or half the population) in png now have mobile phone reception. until now, the use of ehealth technology has been extremely limited in png due to almost non-existent communication infrastructure. according to world bank data, in 2009 there were only 0.9 fixed telephone lines per 100 people in png, and in 2007 there were 1.9 internet users per 100 people (world bank, 2011). the advent of mobile phone technology thus offers exciting potential to utilise mhealth technology to benefit communities in png. licensing requirements for cellphone providers have been used as an instrument to improve equity in access, by insisting that new providers provide coverage to not just densely populated areas. a pilot initiative to improve the reporting of outbreak prone disease in 10 sub-national centres was recently conducted by the national department of health and the world health organization. the existing system relies on weekly telephone calls to provincial hospitals, with limited compliance. the trial sites were issued mobile phones installed with a simple reporting template for either immediate or weekly reporting. in addition, this new technology was accompanied with a "package" with 3 components: 1) training on disease surveillance, 2) sample collection materials and 3) a resource folder with tally sheets and guidance on reporting using mobile phones. health authorities aimed to provide sites with feedback reports so they could see how their data were analysed and fitted into the national picture. however, the development and distribution of surveillance bulletins was sporadic. timeliness and completeness of reporting improved, and district data was available in "real-time" for the first time in papua new guinea. shifting the responsibility for reporting outbreak prone diseases from the provincial health office to hospital clinicians was seen as a useful step in improving reporting timeliness, completeness and accuracy. the role of "supportive supervision" and feedback in improving data collection should not be underestimated, especially for district level staff who commonly collect and report data with no feedback at all. at the time of writing, a formative evaluation of this initiative planned, with a focus on the timeliness and completeness of reporting. health outcomes were not included in the evaluation scope. a number of other mhealth pilots are currently underway in png, delivered by a range of agencies. these include the papua new guinea sustainable development program (pngsdp) who are conducting village surveys in the remote western province, and the clinton global initiative, who have developed a printing device than can be activated by a cell phone signal so that essential laboratory results (especially in relation to hiv/aids) can be instantly transmitted from the central laboratory to a more peripheral clinic. the asian development bank is testing the use of cell phones to undertake a survey of health facilities in remote areas, and to support the collection of data on maternal deaths. no evaluations of these interventions were available at the time of writing. some of these initiatives are yet to be developed to the point where they can be linked to the national health data collection system. this linkage is important as not doing so risks developing parallel data collection systems and undermining the already weak national health information system (nhis). if the efforts going into these stand-alone data collection initiatives are not also going into building the capacity of the nhis, then this is a missed opportunity for health system strengthening in png. national co-ordination of these multiple initiatives is also important to avoid duplication and to ensure that a common platform is developed that can support all of these purposes. for example, the critical device is the handheld cell phone which needs to have sufficient capacity and access to run a variety of applications to avoid, for example, the unfortunate situation of health workers needing to carry two mobile phones for two separate programmes. it is clear that a number of current initiatives have the potential to support priority health outcomes such as reducing maternal mortality; however, planned evaluation is limited to timeliness and accuracy of data flows. although not exclusively mhealth interventions, other developments in mobile phone technology offer the potential to improve health system performance, and quality of life for communities in png. upcoming initiatives, such as "mobile money", will allow funds to be transferred electronically via mobile phones, reducing the transaction costs and risks involved with relying on cash. currently health workers in remote areas are spending many days travelling to the nearest bank to collect pay with the technology changes, the need for such trips, and time away from work, could be reduced. this technology will also facilitate the sending of remittances from urban centres to family members in rural areas. however, new mobile phone technologies cannot work by themselves they require supportive changes in a broader ecosystem. for example, a technology may exist to send funds via mobile phone to family members in remote villages, but if the village store does not also support the new technology, then "electronic funds" on a mobile phone will be of no practical use to villagers. the technological innovation is only one part of the intervention. national co-ordination could help ensure that these exciting new technologies are used for the most pressing needs identified in the national health plan and in the millennium development goals (mdgs). evaluations of mhealth impacts in complex health systems international mhealth evaluations to date international mhealth evaluations have been small and not focused on health outcomes, the impacts on equity or the effects on the broader health system. a recent systematic review of evaluations of ehealth interventions in developing countries (j. a. blaya, fraser, & holt, 2010) concluded that mhealth devices can be very effective in improving data collection time and quality (j. a. blaya et al., 2010). data collection systems are the most evaluated of all mhealth interventions (j. a. blaya et al., 2010), but evaluations so far have focused on process indicators (e.g. number of text messages received) or user attitudes to the technology, rather than patient health outcomes (h. s. f. fraser et al., 2004; rotich et al., 2003). no mhealth evaluations have considered impacts on the broader health system other than cost-effectiveness studies of the mhealth system compared to the original system (j. blaya, holt, & fraser, 2008; mahmud, rodriguez, & nesbit, 2010). a 2005 who report noted that innovations in information and communication technology (ict) come mainly from the private sector and do not necessarily reflect health sector priorities (dzenowagis & kernen, 2005). adoption of mhealth technologies in the health system often occurs without comprehensive evaluation of the health impact or a true understanding of the added value of ict to health system functioning (dzenowagis & kernen, 2005). evaluations have not considered whether mhealth interventions lead to any unintended negative consequences, including widening health and social inequities. rigorous evaluations are urgently required to ensure these interventions are safe, improve health outcomes, are equitable and not a waste of scant resources (j. a. blaya et al., 2010; rigby, 2002). evaluation of mhealth in complex systems in png health equity is especially important to consider when evaluating mhealth, as new technologies can widen health inequities by failing to benefit those in the greatest need. however, currently there are no mhealth evaluations in png that consider the impact on community health. the successful implementation of mhealth depends on a wide range of factors in the broader health system. mhealth could also have unforeseen effects on other aspects of health system functioning, and it is crucial that such implications are considered and detected. for these reasons, evaluation of the discrete mhealth interventions is important. however, mhealth interventions do not operate in isolation; as described above, they are part of a complex system. there also needs to be a way of considering whether and how the combination of all components/sub-systems leads to the overarching system objectives of improved community health and health equity. questions, such as how factors in the rest of the system limit or support the success of the mhealth intervention, or whether mhealth intervention has unforseen implications for other aspects of the health system which affect its ability to improve population health, need to be answered. the model in figure 1 begins to explore some of the connections and processes in the system that could influence whether or not mhealth produces a positive impact on health and health equity. many more connections and processes will no doubt exist. there will be effects occurring in multiple directions, with feedback loops. any evaluation needs to be able to identify which step in the system needs to be addressed or improved in order to ensure the whole process works as desired. any evaluation of mhealth in png must consider these factors as they are critically relevant to the success of the mhealth intervention, and in achieving the health and health equity goals for png. what is needed to ensure mhealth meets the health needs of all communities in png? reflections from a key stakeholder workshop in port moresby in 2011 a workshop was held in march, 2011 in port moresby to consider the implications of mhealth interventions for the broader png health system, and to discuss the importance of evaluating and co-ordinating these new initiatives to ensure that these new technologies contribute to improved community health outcomes and health equity. the workshop highlighted the need to understand the complexities of the system, evaluation challenges and ways forward and an urgent need for better coordination of the multiple mhealth initiatives emerging in png so that these developments are used to enhance rather than undermine local ndoh data collection capacity, share learnings, resources and prevent duplication, and work towards the development of common platforms. the various issues raised at the workshop, are discussed in detail below. the workshop was convened by the national department of health (ndoh) in association with the australian national university. it was funded by a grant from the trust company as trustee of the fred p archer trust, and was attended by 14 representatives from the ndoh, university of papua new guinea, the world health organization, the telecommunications industry, and the asian development bank. source: (bj loring et al., 2011). understanding the complexities of the system mhealth is being introduced to png because it is anticipated that there will be positive benefits to the health of people in png. the new technology has the potential to rapidly and cheaply improve the amount, quality and speed of health data that are sent from health facilities to provincial and central government agencies/donors. this in turn should enable health decision-making to be based on more accurate and up-to-date-information, and, in theory, reduce the time that scarce front-line health workers spend on administrative reporting. increased health worker availability should improve access to quality health care, thereby improving health outcomes and reducing health inequalities in png. in addition, it may enable timely data to flow in the context of extreme human resource challenges. these effects assume there is a simple chain of action. in reality, the success of mhealth in png, as elsewhere does not come down to one simple, linear relationship. discussions at the workshop recognized that mhealth is a component or "sub-system" of the broader health system. for mhealth to have a positive effect on health, it first needs to be a quality technology that works, and it needs to be implemented properly. then, even if the technology works perfectly, and is rolled out in png according to plan, whether or not it leads to any improvements to png health status will depend on a chain of other factors in the remainder of the health system. if the data collected are not accurate or representative, or not analysed, or the information is not actually used in decision making, then having more data flow faster will not necessarily improve health. having better data is not sufficient if the capacity does not exist to analyse and interpret all this extra data into meaningful information in time for decision makers to use in their decisions. having better information will not be sufficient if evidence does not feature strongly in decisions about health spending. the logic of how mhealth interventions could lead to improved health outcomes in png is outlined in figure 1. figure 1: sample logic model for mhealth in png evaluation what questions should mhealth evaluations ask? defining clear goals, both the broader health and health equity goals, and the intermediate objectives that the mhealth technology is going to assist with on the way to realizing the broader health goals, is a critical first step. evaluation questions need to consider the equity of impacts at all levels of the evaluation. health inequities result from the combined effect of smaller inequities in acceptability, access and effectiveness at every level in the health system. each question throughout the evaluation should consider whether mhealth is working and whether it is working fairly. the types of questions that evaluation needs to be designed to answer include: 1. what is the intervention? (what else is in the intervention "package" in addition to the technology, e.g. training, encouragement?) 2. is the technology working as planned? (are there any unforseen technical problems, such as lack of power supply etc.?) 3. is the intervention being rolled out as planned? (are there delays, or gaps in access, and why?) 4. are the immediate goals of the technology being met? (for example, more timely data collection, more accurate data, more efficient use of front-line health-worker time, reduced cost of data collection etc.) 5. is it supporting (or detracting from) better integration and functioning of the national health system? does the system have a clear objective and will the ict solution help it achieve this? was there consultation with all programs regarding the data collection burden on health staff? can this system be integrated with existing systems (at each level collection, collation, analysis, interpretation, feedback)? does the system actually need an ict solution (are data solely for monitoring purposes where timeliness is not crucial)? 6. are the intermediate health system goals being met? (for example, decreased isolation and empowerment of front-line health workers, better use of information in health sector decision-making etc.) 7. what are the impacts on broader health system goals? (for example, reduced maternal mortality, reduced health inequalities, reduced fragmentation of health system etc.) 8. what are the impacts of the technology on the community as a whole, and what is the capacity in the community to effectively use these technologies? evaluation questions need to be of interest to providers and the evaluators, and questions must be measurable, with baseline quantitative data (mahmud et al., 2010). evaluations should include measures of user satisfaction, and data quality including comparing electronic data to original documents at clinical sites (h. s. fraser & blaya, 2010). however, as mentioned above, evaluations need to go beyond this if they are to determine whether mhealth interventions are having beneficial and equitable impacts on the health of the population. methodological considerations with mhealth evaluations evaluation is not something that should happen at the last stage to be most useful it needs to occur right from the beginning of the programme. a formative evaluation provides feedback as the technology is being introduced; this enables changes and improvements to be made along the way. a summative evaluation examines whether the technology has achieved its objectives, and what the broader impacts (positive and negative) have been. as with any new technology, there are risks that mhealth may in fact make some problems worse, e.g. by taking up more time and resources, or by exacerbating health inequalities through benefitting the population unevenly. an evaluation will help detect any unintended consequences early, so something can be done. past mhealth evaluations have included both qualitative approaches (using questionnaires, focus groups and interviews to seek users' opinions) and quantitative approaches (investigating data quality, administrative changes, patient care and economic aspects) (j. a. blaya et al., 2010). most mhealth evaluations have taken a descriptive qualitative approach, although more quantitative analyses are being performed as interventions become larger and more established (j. blaya et al., 2008). to be able to determine whether improvements in data quality or patient care are actually due to the mhealth intervention, and not other factors, evaluations must carefully control for sources of potential bias (j. blaya et al., 2008). for example, staff behaviour changes when they know they are being studied. controlling for sources of bias is difficult, but if an evaluation is not conducted to produce credible results, then it is a waste of resources. given these challenges, evaluations of mhealth technologies require significant resources to be successful. most evaluations in low income settings have been conducted by academic institutions. it is beyond the capacity of academic institutions in resource-poor settings to undertake mhealth evaluations that are large or robust. there is therefore a pressing need for mhealth evaluations to be included in the implementation budget and covered by donors/funders (j. a. blaya et al., 2010; j. blaya et al., 2008). evaluations are more likely to be effective if they involve collaborative knowledge production between researchers, practitioners, and funders from the development stage through to implementation and evaluation. in a practical sense, there are three main options for evaluation study designs for mhealth interventions (j. blaya et al., 2008): historical controls ("before and after" studies) healthcare systems change quickly, and improvements could be due to other factors. baseline data needs to be collected if none exists. randomised clinic controls involving some clinics using the new system and some which are not. it can be difficult to find equivalent clinics/communities to compare. multiple clinics to necessary achieve large enough sample size. pragmatic "hybrid" approach carry out before and after comparisons in the interventions sites, and also use areas where new system has not yet been introduced as controls. key lessons from ehealth implementation in low-income settings the following lessons from implementing ehealth interventions in low income settings (h. s. fraser & blaya, 2010), are relevant not just to the introduction of mhealth interventions, but are also important to consider in designing an effective and workable evaluation: 1. avoid "systems that just suck" where data are pulled centrally, with no feedback or direct benefit to those inputting the data. for staff to invest precious time in collecting quality data, data collection needs to be useful and relevant to their local work. 2. individual patient records need to be kept for quality aggregated data aggregated data are of interest to decision-makers, but unless basic individual records are kept (either on paper lists or electronically), it can be difficult for staff to keep track of the large number of people seen each day. 3. local leadership is critical for success new systems cannot be expected to work unless local staff has a real stake in the entire process. local champions can help foster acceptance, as can introducing interventions at the same time as other system improvements. 4. use existing data where possiblewhere possible, mhealth evaluations should use routinely collected data from logs or other sources, rather than requiring new collection (puskin, cohen, ferguson, krupinski, & spaulding, 2010). conclusion in introducing any new health technology, the overarching objective should be to improve community health outcomes and health equity. mhealth offers tremendous opportunity to facilitate rapid and large scale improvements in the png health system, with the ultimate objective to improve health and health equity for the people of png. mhealth interventions do not operate in isolation, but occur in the context of complex health systems. the successful implementation of mhealth depends on a wide range of factors in the broader health system. mhealth could also have unforeseen effects on other aspects of health system functioning, and it is crucial that such implications are considered and detected. for these reasons, any implementation of mhealth needs to be evaluated. evaluation needs to start from the beginning of the programme, involve multiple stakeholders including users, and be sufficiently resourced to look beyond the immediate, one-dimensional measures of success. health equity is especially important to consider in the evaluation of mhealth, as new technologies can widen health inequities by failing to benefit those in the greatest need. acknowledgement financial support for this paper was received from the trust company as trustee of the fred p archer trust, australia. references akter, s., & ray, p. 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" global observatory for ehealth series volume 3. geneva: world health organization. retrieved from http://www.who.int/goe/publications/goe_mhealth_web.pdf <div id="article"> <h2 id="article_title"> are the users driving, and how open is open? experiences from living lab and user driven innovation projects </h2> <div id="article_author"> kari-hans kommonen, <sup>1</sup> andrea botero <sup>2</sup> </div> <p> <sup>1</sup> media lab, department of media,aalto university, finland (kari-hans.kommonen@aalto.fi) </p> <p> <sup>2</sup> school of arts, design and architecture, aalto university, finland (andrea.botero@aalto.fi) </p> <p> as the number of living labs has grown to the hundreds, <sup>1</sup> there are almost as many definitions for what the concept living lab means (almirall, 2008; f&oslash;lstad, 2008; orava, 2009). central to the "ideal" concept of living lab is the opportunity to develop a more proactive role for users and user communities in driving developments and to do it in open ways <sup>2</sup> we consider this definition by feurstein et al. as fairly representative of many current initiatives: </p> <blockquote> "[living lab] is a systemic innovation approach in which all stakeholders in a product, service or application participate directly in the development process. it refers to a research and development (r&amp;d) methodology in which innovations are created and validated collaboratively in multi-contextual, empirical real-world environments." (feurstein, hesmer, hribernik, thoben, &amp; schumacher, 2008) </blockquote> <p> however, based on our experience, both the "ideal" of living lab as well as the theoretical descriptions represent exactly that: an ideal that has not yet been realized in practice. </p> <p> to proceed towards the ideal, we believe it would be beneficial for those involved in living lab activities to make a clearer distinction between <em>user involvement</em> and <em>user driven innovation</em>. this would make it possible to develop approaches to further both of these activities better. in addition, there seems to be a conflict between <em>two meanings of open innovation</em> that we believe living labs need to address consistently. </p> <p> to elaborate this argument, our article reflects on the experiences of three projects in helsinki, finland, that we have participated in and that have aimed to develop organic connections between technology development and local communities of people. we will discuss these projects to evaluate and summarize some of the experiences, in the light of the role that communities play and could play in innovation processes and technology co-creation. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> setting the stage </h3> <p> over the past decade, our research group<sup>3</sup> has initiated several projects to find ways to facilitate how people could influence the development of tools, systems and services for their own digital practices. because of this interest, we have also been part of several initiatives that aimed to develop the living lab approach in helsinki. while both our own research agenda and the living lab approach share many aims and characteristics, the approaches have also some differences. it is also worth noting that while the three projects presented here had different aims, they all shared a basic premise: the vision that new technology could and should be developed in close collaboration with people. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> helsinki living lab (hll) </h3> <p> the helsinki living lab (hll) project (2007-2008) had the objective to develop user-driven innovation know-how in the arabianranta region, the district where our university is located. the strategy followed was of involving close to 20 different actors (from universities to small companies and resident communities) in concrete cases that experiment with living lab approaches to innovation and design. the ultimate aim was to develop a service concept based on the experiences. the project was initiated by the local development agency (art and design city oy) with funding from the finnish funding agency for technology and innovation (tekes). <sup>4</sup> our role in the project was to contribute to the development of the living lab concept in this context and to its working methods. within some of the cases, we developed and experimented with different tools and means to approach arabianranta residents and stakeholders as co-designers. </p> <p> one case that we worked with illuminates some of the contradictions we want to bring forth particularly well. in this case, we developed a set of activities for collaboratively mapping everyday practices (botero, naukkarinen, &amp; saad-sulonen, 2008). the work helped to understand how a specific product, at beta stage in that moment, related to the current everyday practices of the users, and specifically aimed to envision new features and development directions for the product; something both we and the users involved, believed would be highly valuable for the enterprise we worked with, according to the presumed mission of the living lab. </p> <p> however, during the course of the project it became evident that the company involved was first and foremost interested in "user testing" specific product features. while they thought the results of our work with users were interesting, they were not planning to or even prepared to consider more far-reaching propositions. there was no way for the resulting insights to be incorporated in further product iterations and no particular provision in the company's development process for responding in an agile way to even the minor development ideas that resulted. furthermore, as the work was done under strict non-disclosure agreements, the results we have been able to publish and share represent only a small part of what could have been more generally useful. as the originating company did not have a compatible interest, and as the results could not be shared with any other actor that might have an interest to realize them, most of the ideas and insights that the users created for new products or features, and more importantly the related practices that were identified (the "user innovations"), did not result in any new products or business opportunities for the company, nor in any practical benefits for the participating "user innovators". </p> <p> as a result of the whole project, a concept for the helsinki living lab was presented<sup>5</sup> and elaborated. in general terms, it can be said that this has strengthened the potential of the area as a "living lab". in fact, arabianranta continues to be marketed as such, but just what really that means in practice is far from clear, not only from the point of view of the participating institutions, but also as is evident in the mixed feelings that have arisen in the local community. <sup>6</sup> </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> user driven open innovation booster (udoi) </h3> <p> after the experiences with the hll project, we were part of a larger consortium project called user driven open innovation booster (udoi) (2008-2010), aimed at bringing together (around 15) businesses and research institutions to develop, pilot and deploy service innovations in collaboration with user communities. this time, user collaborations were not limited to arabianranta. </p> <p> initially the project had an ambitious goal of developing a networked living lab system and developing the core competences for user driven innovation for supporting r&amp;d activities in finland; as this was a core part of a new scheme for developing r&amp;d activities with private and public funding called tivit. <sup>7</sup> after a long design and planning process in which we actively participated that created a plan that the participating actors considered feasible, the project direction was changed. this was mostly due to a lack of sufficient industrial interest to participate in the funding, which resulted in a drastic budget cut (around 75% from the original 4.3 meur, but still with 13 partners). the project's goals were scaled down and focused away from living lab development. instead, funders insisted that the activities should support targeted user involvement, to produce direct input for selected cases provided by participant companies in the larger flexible services research consortium. </p> <p> from the point of view of our research interests, the refocusing changed the nature of the project completely, and effectively stripped the project of realistic opportunities to research and develop user driven innovation activities in practice. there was no space for investing in building more long-term partnerships with user communities, nor for exploring ideas that would come from sources different from those already pre-established. we continued facilitating user involvement in three cases (e.g. naukkarinen, sutela, botero, &amp; kommonen, 2009; naukkarinen, sutela, botero, &amp; hyypp&auml;, 2010) and reflected on user involvement in innovation in general (e.g.: botero, vihavainen, &amp; karhu, 2009; botero, karhu, vihavainen 2012). however, the user "driven" dimensions of the whole endeavour became very thin. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> emerging digital practices of communities (adik) </h3> <p> in contrast to the previous two projects, the emerging digital practices of communities (adik)<sup>8</sup> project (2004-2007) was initiated by our research group, with mostly public funding, but also with support from two large companies.<sup>9</sup> it studied different ways in which new digital tools give room to the emergence of new practices and, conversely, how people through their practices transform and complement these new tools. our approach was to engage in collaborative work with communities of people that could have practices that in our judgement could, if facilitated with new technology, evolve to include new features that would take advantage of some digital capabilities. <sup>10</sup> </p> <p> from the point of view of user driven innovation, one of the communities we worked with, an association of active seniors, is especially interesting. they are a community that has been formed specifically for the purpose of creating a social innovation: a collective housing arrangement and an alternative way of growing old together that the seniors called loppukiri<sup>11</sup> (botero &amp; kommonen, 2009a, 2009b; botero &amp; hyysalo, forthcoming, dahlstr&ouml;m &amp; minkkinen, 2009). this background meant that they were positively predisposed to a design collaboration, as they had already embarked on a long term design mission regarding the organization of their own future lives, and were well prepared and interested to consider also the design of the technological circumstances within that new future lifestyle. </p> <p> during several years of the collaboration (which in fact started already before the adik project, in 2002), we explored their current and possible future practices through many types of activities and prototypes, and finally as one of the results, developed a prototype information system that the seniors called the "everyday life management system" of their house. this system was in effect co-designed with the seniors and mostly implemented by our team. it has been put into use in the community as a way to facilitate some of their novel practices, e.g. the organization of the process of preparing their common daily meals and dealing with the shared spaces (botero &amp; kommonen, 2009b; botero &amp; hyysalo, forthcoming) since they have now moved into their common housing arrangement. </p> <p> we believe that this latter case sheds light on the dynamics of new forms of social collectivity, which challenge our established modes of politics and tradition (maffesoli, 1996) and the possibilities of organizing collaborative production activities that might more accurately represent real sites of collective innovation. through their activities, this community is experimenting and creating models that can be appropriated and further developed by other communities and finnish society in general. <sup>12</sup> </p> <p> as this project was already completed when we participated in the living lab projects presented earlier, we attempted to bring these communities and the community and practice driven approaches utilized in this project also into the other two projects. unfortunately, we were not successful in that, for a variety of reasons, mostly because of the strong focus on producing results specifically for the participating companies. </p> <p> in spite of this, the initiative of the seniors, loppukiri, is often presented by the living lab proponents as a prime example of living labs a position we agree with but, ironically, it has been developed completely outside of any "living lab" projects and without any living lab funding. equally sadly, despite its strong appeal as an example of successful living lab activity, it appears that none of the various current living lab funding opportunities would offer any instruments to support them. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> users involved or driving? </h3> <p> a key idea in living labs, which we characterize as <em>user involvement</em>, seems to be to connect technology developers to communities in order to introduce, in some way or another, the realism of everyday life into the development process. this can happen in various ways for example through user testing, ideation, user centered design depending on the ability of the living lab customer, the company, to incorporate such contributions into their product development process. our experiences from hll and udoi are examples of how these types of "living lab" initiatives were geared towards organizing and streamlining user involvement activities for a narrow product development process, which also resonated well with the expectations of most of the participating enterprises. </p> <p> these involvements are thus <em>producer driven</em>; a company defines the interest and the aims, users are involved as informants and recruited for the purpose, and the process and its results are closed from external participants. this development is congruent with what in marketing and management is usually referred to as co-creation and customer centric approaches (e.g.: prahalad &amp; ramaswamy, 2004). a focus on user involvement takes advantage of and links living labs to the extensive body of knowledge developed around users as important sources of innovation (von hippel 1988, 2005). furthermore, living labs have been able to tap into the experiences of the user-centered design movement (as developed in fields like human computer interaction) and the associated breadth of methods for user studies. in this kind of <em>producer driven user involvement</em> the challenge for a living lab seems to be more about their ability to develop and market these types of services to companies and to increase the participant companies' capacities to take advantage of user involvement. this is an important goal and a beneficial activity in the sense that it may increase the quality and fit of industrial products. however, such harvesting of product related input from people does not necessarily further user community-based innovation. </p> <p> in contrast, the more ambitious ideal of living labs, as environments for <em>systemic user driven innovation and co-creation</em> appears to require a different set of starting conditions. unfortunately, a living lab where communities are also empowered and not simply used as a resource does not seem to be an easy extension of user involvement activities. this might be because having new actors "driving" the agenda does not necessarily fit comfortably into the same circumstances. communities, or users and their interests, are not initiating or driving developments in any living labs that we have experience of, and while interesting experiments are taking place in cornell&agrave; (colobrans, 2010), malm&ouml; (bj&ouml;rgvinsson, ehn, &amp; hillgren, 2010, 2012) and milano (cantou, corubolo, simeone, 2012), we are not aware of any systematic user driven approach of creating innovations that is currently in use in living labs with effective results or useful outputs. </p> <p> there are many factors influencing this; we believe four reasons are particularly salient: </p> <ul> <li>the main interests driving the development of living labs are not focused on seeking and facilitating innovations that interest people as much as innovations that interest companies; </li> <li>within their practices and processes, enterprises typically have no suitable place for the entry of external innovations (e.g. a radical proposal initiated by a user community) into the product and business development cycle; enterprises are not looking for such input and have generally no mechanism to make use of something that does not fit as an improvement into an already existing product line; </li> <li>living lab projects invest most of their funds into organizing services for companies and extremely little if any into research and development of ways to discover and facilitate innovation by users and communities (actors that are not organized as a firm); and finally: </li> <li>most participating actors simply do not perceive or worry about a distinction between user involvement and user driven activities for many, any means of including the user in the innovation process justifies calling it "user driven". </li> </ul> <p> in reality, this lack of support and interest for the more radical aspects of a living lab approach does not stop true user driven innovation from taking place, as for example von hippel describes (2005) and loppukiri attests to. these in fact are spontaneously initiated by people who have strong interests to further developments that are important to them. </p> <p> unfortunately for communities andsociety, as this activity does not fit into the framings, agendas and mechanisms of the current institutional support systems, such as living labs, these communities and this latter type of innovation cannot benefit from the significant resourcing <sup>13</sup> that is designated specifically for this purpose by society. hence, it could be a worthwhile proposition for a new generation of living labs to consider opening new initiatives to find means to support developments that have true user driven origins. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> open but how open? </h3> <p> one obstacle to building a more collaborative infrastructure in living lab settings, in the contexts we are aware of, is the confusion related to the degree of openness of the activities. this we attribute to a problem of terminology. while most living labs are described as <em>open innovation</em> environments, this term is very ambiguous and has a specific meaning for the business management community that might differ from an intuitive reading of it by those not of that community. for example, to henry chesbrough, whose writings have been central in defining and popularizing the concept, open innovation is: </p> <blockquote> "&hellip; the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation, and expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively. [this paradigm] assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as they look to advance their technology." (chesbrough, 2006a) </blockquote> <p> according to this view of open innovation (oi) the inflows and outflows of innovation are expected to happen through the trading of intellectual property (ip) between organizations. because of this, an oi approach actually increases the incentive for companies to gather ip and protect it by methods such as patenting, in order to make it as valuable as possible for sale or trade when it is not used being internally (chesbrough, 2006b). the word "open" is thus used to contrast this approach with a "closed" one where a company creates all the knowledge it requires for innovation by itself without relying on outsiders, and respectively holds on to its own inventions and does not try to sell them to others (botero, karhu, vihavainen 2012). openness here does not mean that the protected innovations are available to anyone for free; instead, they are available to be purchased or licensed by selected, agreeable parties, at a cost. the open innovation approach encourages firms to build networks where firms support each other with intellectual property that they can license and mobilize in their products. this, we suggest, could be called <em>commercial open innovation.</em> </p> <p> another, perhaps for most people more intuitive, understanding of the concept of open innovation leads one to link it to the type of openness that is promoted by other "open" initiatives, such as <em>open source</em>, <em>open access</em>, <em>open culture</em>, <em>open data</em> or <em>open content</em>, where the emphasis is on free revealing and free sharing (c.f. von hippel, 2005; baldwin &amp; von hippel, 2009). this understanding of openness means that the essential information concerning the innovation is available to anyone interested in it, freely without discrimination and at no cost, and they are able to use it as they see fit. this has been called <em>open collaborative innovation</em> by baldwin and von hippel (2009). we propose that to highlight the contrast between commercial "open innovation" and innovation where everything is publicly and freely available, a useful term could be <em>public open innovation</em>. </p> <p> this confusion of terms makes it difficult for various actors to have a shared understanding of and expectations for living lab activities. in many cases people and other actors who are engaged or recruited to collaborate with living labs may believe that they are contributing to a greater common good with their efforts (cf. the dilemma we described in the helsinki living lab case). however, eventually they may find that they are working within a context where a company will own the innovations they helped to create; and in the worst case, they may not even get access to the innovations if the company fails to create usable, affordable and sustainable products from the work. even in the case where a company will produce an solution, an ensuing design improvement cycle by several actors would be more beneficial for the further rapid evolution of the solution (cf. hyysalo, 2007; von hippel, 1988, 2005). hence, the current modes of operation that severely restrict access to the innovations are not in the best interest of the user innovators. </p> <p> user involvement as described above is not easy or cheap. although this aspect is not often described in the publications that document such cases, researchers that aim to involve people in "user studies" know that it is not at all trivial to find, recruit and motivate people to participate in research and development, as doing so typically requires them to devote time, and usually without any meaningful compensation. in addition, the benefits of involvement might not be clear at the onset; as well the initial expectations may not be met during longer term involvements further making future recruitments more difficult. </p> <p> equally, this kind of work takes a lot of time and effort from the organizations that get involved in the.. if the substantial effort of a first experimental activity does not produce meaningful results, the involved actors, whether they are so called "users" or organizations, are not easily persuaded to participate again. hence, unproductive experiments deplete the resource base and budding interest quickly. this is a difficult problem for current living labs to solve. how to ensure the creation of sufficient benefits for all participants, so that the processes can become sustainable and actually grow? </p> <p> we suggest that especially when the role of users' efforts and contributions is significant, they should be guaranteed upfront and in explicit terms that the process will be governed by open and shared innovation models that allow them or anyone else to proceed with developing the innovations based on their own work. this will become a significant issue if living labs are to become successful in developing true user driven innovation activities. people will invest a lot of time and effort in r&amp;d only if they know they have the opportunity to work with those kinds of partners that can help them to reach concrete results. </p> <p> at the same time, as we have noted earlier, innovation by user communities exists and thrives, but most enterprises are not generally able to join with and make use of it. thus, for the ideal of the living labs to become reality, enterprises will need to evolve and specifically develop their sensitivity and capabilities to embrace such external innovation. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> conclusions </h3> <p> in one of our interviews with the active seniors, an individual expressed their position and motivation for being involved in development activities in a nutshell by saying that instead of being an object of research, they wanted to be an "actor", shaping their own life. as contemporary society is moving forward from the industrial era of mass production towards mass customization and individually tailorable products and systems, this potential for people to be empowered actors of their own lives is growing. the emerging technology and the global information environment are all compatible with the development of vibrant user driven innovation phenomena. even the large funding agencies, such as the european commission, have recognized the potential of the ideal, and have jumped onto the living lab bandwagon as the way to transform innovation processes towards user driven directions. </p> <p> however, as the current living lab activities are typically designed to satisfy the perceived needs of industry as opposed to the needs of people, they are, by design, constrained to remain mechanisms simply for "user involvement". also, their generally closed participation and their intellectual propety regime (ipr) strategies are not fair or productive from the users' perspective--giving their innovations into the living lab may mean contributing these to the ipr of a participating company that is not able or willing to turn these into useful solutions for the innovators, and which in turn may exclude the competition and evolution in the design space essential to satisfying user needs. </p> <p> we propose that in order to realize the ideal of a "user driven open innovation ecosystem", next generation living lab activities should shift their focus and priorities from how to realize the interest of companies to how to realize the interest of the users. instead of being only mechanisms for involving users in <em>producer driven product development</em>, "living lab v2.0" could also become <em>innovation accelerators for users and their communities</em> institutions that have mechanisms in place that support and facilitate motivated and innovative people to develop their innovations rapidly with peer designers, user communities and interested enterprises. </p> <p> this requires that next generation living lab activities should: </p> <ul> <li>develop instruments that fund activities that are initiated and driven by strong user interests, without requiring them to be tied to specific corporate interest or sponsorship </li> <li>develop methods, practices and tools as well as shareable resources (such as open source software infrastructure and modules, organized cumulative research data, and open data resources) to support these types of activities, e.g. based on already existing models provided by many online and offline communities </li> <li>be guaranteed to operate based on principles of public open innovation and free revealing of the results of user-developer collaborations both knowledge and software and be open for the participation of any actors that may be able to move the innovations forward into concrete solutions. </li> </ul> <p> the type of work we have done in the projects with communities (e.g. adik with the active seniors), taking their own practices and their future potential as starting points, seems to offer a fruitful direction for innovative technology development, and could also be a basis for systemic user driven initiatives. we believe that such an approach, if operated according to principles of public open innovation, would create attractive knowledge and collaboration initiatives and would also create commercial opportunities that are more compatible with growing trends of openness for companies. the support from living labs should be directed to those companies that are ready to embrace external innovation and join open collaborative innovation processes. </p> <p> organizations funding living lab developments have typically been from various levels of government, pursuing a strong interest in quickly developing practical support for businesses. thus, the funding has been directed to implementation of activities as opposed to research and development. however, as there are no working examples of how to accomplish the goals in a systemic fashion, we believe that in addition to launching new implementation projects that proclaim the realization of the ideal, there is also a need to engage in critical and focused research into the phenomena of user innovation and unrealized user interests, as well as in the development of the methods, tools and practices that genuine "user driven open innovation processes" would require. in this way ideals could be turned into reality. a real user driven innovation ecosystem could have many significant societal benefits making for a very worthwhile investment. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> acknowledgements </h3> <p> we want to thank all the user communities involved for their collaboration and our partners and colleagues at aalto university. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> footnotes </h3> <p> <sup>1</sup> the european network of living labs alone list around 250 living labs on their site http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/. there are also similar developments in china and other parts of asia. </p> <p> <sup>2</sup> for example the current definition in wikipedia mentions both "user empowerment" and "open environment" as qualities of the living lab approach (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/living_lab). similar rhetoric is found in the european commission report "advancing and applying living lab methodologies. an update on living labs for user-driven open innovation in the ict domain." (2010) (http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/livinglabs/docs/pdf/newwebpdf/living-lab-brochure2010_en.pdf) </p> <p> <sup>3</sup> the arki research group in the media lab of the aalto university school of arts, design and architecture studies the digitalization of everyday life; tries to make sense of the positive and negative potential that is created;, and attempts to develop design approaches to further the realization of the positive opportunities in society. see http://arki.mlog.taik.fi </p> <p> <sup>4</sup> tekes is the main public funding organisation for research, development and innovation in finland, financed by the ministry of employment and the economy. see http://www.tekes.fi/en </p> <p> <sup>5</sup> in particular through the initiative of helsinki living lab promoted by forum virium, adc oy and the regional development office of helsinki. further information on this development can be followed in the website. http://www.helsinkilivinglab.fi </p> <p> <sup>6</sup> for an overview of how the area is presented as a living lab see: http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/helsinki.html to review some earlier mixed feelings of the local community related to their neighborhood as a "test bed" see e.g. kangasoja (2007). </p> <p> <sup>7</sup> tivit oy is a company set up by finnish industry and research institutions to develop industry driven r&amp;d with specifically allocated public funding from tekes; see: http://www.tivit.fi/en/ . udoi booster project: http://www.flexibleservices.fi/en/node/24 </p> <p> <sup>8</sup> the acronym derives from the finnish name of the project. further information about it can be accessed at https://reseda.taik.fi/taik/jsp/taik/research.jsp?id=28237 </p> <p> <sup>9</sup> like the two other projects, adik was funded by tekes, the finnish funding agency for technology and innovation, with support from nokia and elisa. </p> <p> <sup>10</sup> the approach is largely inspired by the scandinavian participatory design experience (see e.g greenbaum &amp; kyng, 1991) </p> <p> <sup>11</sup> loppukiri means "last spurt" in english.. in practice it means a co-housing arrangement with 58 small flats and large shared facilities where inhabitants aim at growing together old. a video describing our collaboration with loppukiri can be found at http://vimeo.com/15256102 </p> <p> <sup>12</sup> as a matter of fact there are already more than 6 other groups in the country engaged in planning, developing and replicating some of the ideas developed by the seniors. for more information about their project visit: http://www.loppukiri.fi/yhteystiedot.htm </p> <p> <sup>13</sup> according to our rough estimate, the yearly funding available for living lab activities in the world runs in the tens of millions of euros (in august 2012). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> references </h3> <div class="reference"> almirall, e. 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(2005). <cite>democratizing innovation</cite>. boston, ma: the mit press. </div> </div> evm editorial 12-1-mg the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 editorial a legacy to cherish this, the first issue of the twelfth volume of the journal of community informatics, signals a change. michael gurstein, founder and editor-in-chief for all these years, has left the (metaphorical) building. he shall keep contributing to the journal, as an emeritus editor; and his stewardship of this most collective enterprise has certainly left a mark to be appreciated and thanked. i have been asked to assume the role of editor in chief, a job made easier by michael’s continuous presence in his new emeritus position; and the coming co-editorship of susan o’donnell, who will take that role starting january 1st, 2017. a minimal introduction is in order. i am currently an associate professor in the department of communications of the pontificia universidad católica del perú. my participation in this particular community of researchers, scholars, professionals, practitioners, activists and promoters has been mostly as an observer and academic commentator, trying to connect the concerns and interests of the larger field with those of latin american scholars and practitioners, mostly from the communication studies area, but also from the social sciences and engineering / computing perspectives. among other positions, i am currently coordinator of the working group on communication, technology and development of the latin american association of communication researchers (alaic). i have had the chance to meet the larger community involved in this journal in conferences, private exchanges and through the work of the journal, in which i was involved back in the late noughties. having been invited by michael to take over the editorship, i am both quite enthused and motivated with the challenge. the journal has a legacy to cherish. i will not get into figures, but it is evident that with all the limitations an independent, open access journal has in the current environment, a lot has been achieved; this is thanks to the help of all those involved in the whole process of running, collaborating and finally, publishing the journal. eduardo villanueva-mansilla co-editor in chief, the journal of community informatics. evillan@pucp.pe the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 as any change of stewardship should be an opportunity for renewal, while keeping the good things already there, this new volume offers two differences to the current, one perhaps cosmetic, the other what i think could be the beginning of a new dialogue. 1. as you can see, the journal has changed the publishing style. it will now be available as pdf files, with page numbering, section indications and some other of the trappings that many of us in academia are familiar with. some other additions, like a digital object identifier for each article, will demand further work, but these are on the agenda. in a settled environment, as the academic journals are in for the most part, these additions only provide for a more contemporary look and facilitation of referencing and archiving, something of use to many of our authors, from academia and otherwise. 2. a new section has been added. called essays: on communities, it looks toward a dialogue on what a community is, should be or may become, throughout the world, including emerging definitions of community. a call for anyone interested to collaborate in this debate, from any perspective, is now open. submissions will not be peer-reviewed, but just reviewed by the editor, and published as fast as possible, to contribute to a necessary dialogue. in the coming months, while new special editions are to be published, there will be an opportunity to think about the journal, its future both immediate and long-term, and the way the community around it should participate, on both the ciresearchers and joci mail lists. we need to start thinking about the future right away: not just in terms of issues to call and papers to submit, but foremost as emerging subjects to be covered, running debates to be promoted, new audiences to be reached and people that should participate. the journal, global in its nature, has a wide variety of countries and professional backgrounds represented; this should increase, and as far as possible increase geographical representation as much as thematic coverage. i will strive to promote as much as possible such intentions, but i request the community’s help to achieve these goals. while english will remain the language of publication, any suggestions on how to widen linguistic representation is most welcome. i will hold the position of editor in chief for four years, from 2016 to the end of 2019, at which time a new editor should be appointed if the journal is still relevant and cherished by all the members of this worldwide community on communities. i am fully confident that it will still be, hopefully as much as michael is leaving it right now. perhaps we can achieve not just a regularly-published, better looking journal: while keeping its openness, widening its international presence both in contributions and readership, and keeping with the variety and diversity of subjects that constitute its areas of interest, we, all together, may find ourselves still providing at least part of the collective solutions that communities, through ict / informatics / computers / digital media, all around our common home called the earth, require and demand for their lives. in the end, that is what all this is about. supporting end user development in community computing: requirements, opportunities, and challenges lu xiao, umer farooq abstract end user development (eud) tools in community computing are not well-developed and typically do not take into consideration the unique characteristics of community groups such as the lack of human, financial, and technological resources. using a case study, we explore eud in the domain of community computing. situated in a community computing context, we identify design requirements of eud tools, demonstrate the use of conceptual scaffolds to support eud, and illustrate the need of new evaluation methods of eud tools. we discuss the tension between pushing eud tools to community computing for local autonomy on technology issues and the long time practice of seeking and relying on external technical expertise. we call for research studies that address the tension and explore ways of creating and stimulating the “pull” force from the community groups. keywords: end user development, technology adoption and use, effective use, sustainability introduction end user development (eud) is about exercising greater control by non-developers and non-programmers over technology, such as enabling the design of computer-based applications without getting entangled in the nitty-gritty details of programming (sutcliffe & mehandjiev, 2004). eud tools are critical in technology projects in community computing because non-profit community organizations often face financial issues in getting long-term technical support; therefore have to heavily rely on temporary volunteers. the use of eud tools in community computing helps the organizations to empower themselves and take control of information technology in the projects. on the other hand, research in community computing enriches eud. in the eud community, researchers and developers often need to work in specific domain contexts because end users by themselves do not exist without such contexts. non-profit community organizations provide a test bed for adopting, using, and evaluating eud tools because people involved in these organizations provide a natural context, driven by civic and societal goals, for technology-based activities for which researchers in end user development aspire to build tools. moreover, end users in non-profit community organizations as opposed to other contexts (e.g., individuals as end users) present contrasting requirements due to the nature of communitarian work. for example, non-profit community groups operate with little money and few resources; they rely on help from volunteers; there is usually a strong tendency to look to experts to help in the use of technology (benston, 1990). these differences are viewed as grist for expanding the knowledge base of eud. however, there has been only limited work in eud for community computing. early work in end user development had the goal of empowering computer users to pursue personal exploration and learning goals (e.g., fischer & lemke, 1988; papert, 1993). other work is more pragmatic, aiming to provide more accessible support for tasks that could benefit from programming techniques (e.g., spreadsheet manipulations (nardi, 1993) and web-enabled technologies (e.g., burnett et al., 2001). towards a systematic understanding of end user experiences in a community context, kase et al. (2008) developed a pattern schema that helps identify organizational and individual processes contributing to successful (and failed) informal technology learning outcomes in non-profit organizations. yet, there is much research to do to fully understand the benefits of community computing to eud and to develop eud tools that leverage the rich context of non-profit community organizations and which support these organizations’ activities in their technology projects. in this paper, we present a case study concerning the usage and perception of eud tools in a non-profit community organization. driven by the case study, we discuss the eud requirements in community computing, illustrate how conceptual tools can enhance eud, and identify the challenges of adopting eud tools in community computing. this is a perspective paper which focuses on the broad implications of research in community computing contexts. specifically, we understand our work in community computing as an “incubator” (carroll, 2001, pp. 310-311) for eud tools. integrating community computing with eud can expand the frontiers of the latter conceptually, theoretically, and methodologically. this paper is organized as follows. we first discuss our methodology. we then present the design requirements of eud tools and the conceptual scaffold of eud tools, and describe the need for an alternative concept of usability to understand technology evaluation and adoption in community computing. we next identify the challenges that need to be addressed in appropriating eud tools for local autonomy leveraging the “effective use” concept (gurstein, 2003). research methodology the case study we report in this paper is part of a project called civic nexus (merkel et al., 2004). in the civic nexus project, we worked with twelve community groups in state college, pa (usa) to increase their ability to enrich the lives of people and their activities in the local community by leveraging and enhancing their capacity to use information technology. our goal has been to empower community groups, moving them toward greater control over their adoption, ongoing use, and management of technology. the context our case study reports on the spring creek watershed communityspring creek ). spring creek (http://www.springcreekwatershed.org) is organized around a commitment to showing how regional environmental and economic planning by watershed is more effective than planning by municipality. the mission of the organization is to explain basic terminology and information about watersheds, and to demonstrate the impacts of watersheds on people’s quality of life and the local economy. spring creek resembles most non-profits: they have few staff members; they often rely on volunteers to meet their organizational goals; they tend to make technology decisions based on limited human and financial resources; they often rely on small grants that give way to limited technology budgets for new technology initiatives such as developing a web site. spring creek hired a commercial vendor to develop and maintain their web site. spring creek was dissatisfied with the web site because it did not reflect their mission, overall goals, or the fact that they were a local group concerned with environmental and economic planning. for example, whereas the goal of spring creek was local economic planning, influencing decision makers, and encouraging quality of life through watersheds, the web site depicted them as a generic tree-hugger group. this incident was formative for the group. kathy, the lead coordinator of spring creek, decided to avoid using commercial vendors and instead resolved that the spring creek group itself should direct the redesign process. the key players in this web redesign project are listed in table 1. table 1. key players in spring creek name role background kathy lead coordinator limited technical background emily staff member for clearwater conservancy working on spring creek’s web site limited technical background, trained as biologist tim technical volunteer for web design technically proficient in web design and web technologies dan technical volunteer for web design consultant for web design ned technical, unpaid intern for developing spring creek ’s online newsletter undergraduate student in a computer science related program, owns a consulting company our involvement the assumption underlying our participatory design approach was that our community partners were not only shapers and decision makers in their organization, but also active technology users, developers of information content, and learners. for example, kathy was the lead coordinator of the project from the organization, but also played an important role in the web design process as a user and in this role proposed suggestions about the web site from a user perspective. in our meetings with kathy, she asked how to go on about the design of the web site. together, we came up with a list of the expected features of the home page as follows: the home page should represent a local web site images should reflect the local context, but places that are close to state college need to be included as well such as boalsburg, bellefonte, etc. acknowledgements (to the photographers) for the pictures will be implicitly provided, e.g., they will show up as someone mouse's over the pictures the first page should not be cluttered, and the page should have as little text as possible. this list shows that kathy was really involved in the design process as a user of the web site and she cared about the website from a user perspective. in the first meeting we had with kathy, we were informed that the major technology issue that spring creek faced was to redesign their web site. the web site was expected to serve as a portal for local residents to get to know the organization and an information system that would support spring creek members’ daily work (e.g., upload and share data for the purpose of water resources monitoring). spring creek needed an external consultancy to help them become more actively involved in making technology-related decisions within their organization. we were involved in the web redesign process for about a year and a half, and played the role of bard (carroll, 2006) in our mutual collaboration with spring creek with the primary goal of revamping their current web site. our involvement is indicated by the timeline in figure 1 that captures the major events in our collaboration with spring creek. figure 1. our involvement with spring creek in a timeline view, highlighting major events. in our work with spring creek, the primary concern for kathy was the capability of manipulating web content by herself along with the non-technical volunteers in the organization. based on our previous work in collaborative architectures (ganoe et al., 2003) and following an evolutionary design approach (rosson & carroll, 2002), we provided a wiki-like interface (guzdial et al., 2000) for spring creek’s web site (figure 2). we initiated the process of adding content on this web site and thereafter, spring creek had been enthusiastically updating and maintaining it. when we introduced the environment, kathy remarked, “this (wiki-like environment) is just motivating me… you’re putting something in front of me that i can use.” our wiki-like environment acted as an initial design artifact embodying hypotheses (woods, 1998) about what is useful, what is not useful, and how it can be enhanced. this environment provoked spring creek to become conscious of their experience with it and help us understand the type of content management system desired by them and similar community groups. a critical incident at the later stage of this collaboration, spring creek faced challenges of deciding between two eud tools. the first end user tool is the wiki-like environment that we provided, which spring creek has been actively using during the summer (may-august), 2004 (see figure 1). the other end user tool was provided by ned, an intern with spring creek who owns an information technology consulting company. ned was originally responsible for providing newsletter functionality to spring creek’s web site, where kathy and other volunteers could automatically generate online newsletters by using templates and changing content without learning how to do programming. we had also been working with ned to define specifications for this automatic newsletter generator as we did not want an artifact developed that would be unusable by spring creek after figure 2. screenshot of spring creek web site created by us ned’s internship. in early august (2004), ned requested kathy's approval of the current web site interface so that the newsletter interface would be in compliance with it. after viewing the wiki-like environment, ned “surprised” kathy after approximately a week, by sending her an email with a link not only to the newsletter generator but to a completely new web site. ned, inspired by the wiki-like environment, reused its content and developed the new web site as a content management system based on open-source software (mambo, http://www.mamboserver.com). his email to kathy contained the following excerpt: “with time running out i decided to make the whole effort worthwhile. i've configured and modified an open source content management system to suit your needs. not just for the newsletter but for the entire website (emphasis added).” kathy at that time was in a quandary as she needed to decide whether to go with our wiki-like environment to which we were planning to add functionality based on the requirements from spring creek or ned’s new content management system. in mid-august (2004), kathy specifically asked us several times: “what do you think we should do?” her inquiry was an interesting case from a research perspective for two reasons. first, being familiar with our wiki-like environment, kathy could have evaluated both systems from a usability standpoint—she did not. second, she chose to ask us and no one else (she could have asked other volunteers or even ned). in a phone conversation with kathy (first week of september, 2004), she specifically expressed her concern that if she goes with nick’s system, would we “have any bad feelings” in working with spring creek. all these showed that kathy was welcoming of our advice, building on prior trust and rapport with us (because we were acting in the capacity of university researchers involved in technology projects). she once openly acknowledged our influence on both the conceptual and technical levels of end user development: “the assistance we’re getting is just incredible…i mean it’s really extremely impressive…that we’re an environmental organization, you’re a technology group and so, it’s not like our missions are necessarily coming together.” we indicated to kathy that we would continue to work with spring creek irrespective of her decision, to which she responded, “i appreciate this”. kathy chose the content management system over our wiki-like environment in the end. data generation our methods in working with spring creek built on previous work that takes a long-term participatory design approach in building information systems to address local needs (carroll & rosson, 2007). the field research with spring creek was carried out during a period of approximately 14 months. data collection the primary method of data collection was observation recorded through field notes. we attended meetings held by spring creek’s web site committee, and other technology-related meetings, each lasting about an hour. however, observations were not just passive. we assumed a variety of roles within the case study context and participated in the events being studied in a variety roles (yin, 2003, pp. 93-94). for example, we played active roles as both facilitators and technology consultants. we also adopted slightly more passive roles in that we were observing activities and their dynamics but not taking part in them. secondary sources of data collection included documentation (e.g. meeting agendas, meeting minutes, and newsletters), archival records (e.g. emails and web sites), and physical artifacts (e.g. design mock-ups and scenarios). we conducted two semi-structured interviews with kathy and one with emily that lasted approximately an hour each. we focused on these individuals because they were the primary stakeholders of the organization and were non-volunteer members of the organization (paid staff members or in charge of the decision-making process). the interviews were tailored to each person and focused on their perception of what happened and why in relation to spring creek’s web site; on how decisions and actions were influenced and made; what conflicts arose and how they were resolved; and on our particular role in the design process. the interviews were tape-recorded and subsequently transcribed. additionally, data was collected through both face-to-face interactions and phone conversations with kathy and emily. data analysis the analysis of the data collected was done using the general analytic strategy of developing a case description (yin, 2003). we took the long term participatory design approach in working with our community groups in the civic nexus project (merkel et al., 2004). guided by our perspective on participatory design as a learning process, we took a descriptive approach to help identify the complex stages of designing a web site and how we as researchers facilitated this process. for example, in our analysis, the email dated march 22nd 2004 that was sent to kathy by one of the civic nexus researchers (see below) showed how we introduced the concept of designing with scenarios into the organizational practice to help spring creek move towards being autonomous entity on technology matters: i have attached an example of a scenario for a new user who happened to arrive at the spring creek web site by searching on google. please read it and perhaps refine it further. as we discussed last time, scenarios such as the one i have attached are evocative tools to design a web site. as you will read through it, you will soon begin to realize what kind of things you need to put up on the front page of spring creek’s web site. we will discuss this further on saturday. if you get a chance, take a shot at making some initial scenarios for decision makers and stakeholders… data evaluation we had at least two civic nexus researchers attend the meetings with spring creek to provide independent assessments of the interpretations that were being made about spring creek’s web site design process. additionally, all civic nexus researchers met bi-weekly to reflect on the collected data to generate collaborative interpretations. this collaborative process of data analysis helped to remove the individual researcher’s subjective bias, thus increasing the reliability of the data analysis. accounting for our bias in interpretation of the community context and the process of web site design, we undertook a process of member checking with spring creek. we presented spring creek with our analysis and asked for the organization’s feedback. a research issue we encountered was anonymity. we have used the actual name of our case study organization, because we feel that knowing information about their web site, specifically the url and back end system, is critical to understanding the issues that arise in the course of designing a web site. however, we have anonymized the names of spring creek’s key players to protect their real identities. based on our case study with spring creek, we now turn to the focus of our paper, highlighting how community computing can enrich end user development (eud). eud requirements in community computing using our wiki-like environment as a prototype and based on our interactions with spring creek, we have assimilated three design requirements of the eud tools for supporting activities in community groups such as spring creek – support continued use of technology by different roles over time, provide compatibility or access to tools that are affordable, and accommodate daily tasks with support for an evocative learning situation. eliciting and refining such requirements is part of our long-term strategy for building a palette of eud tools that can be reused by other community groups. these requirements are not unique by themselves, but we express them in unique ways because of their context in community computing and their implications for eud tools. support continued use of technology by different roles a requirement in community computing is the ability of eud tools to support continued use of technology by different people over time. in the case of spring creek, kathy elicited requirements related to the content management of the web site. this included editing text, uploading images, automatically publishing newsletters, maintaining an online calendar, and so on. the key concern for community groups is to sustain the process of using technology. because community groups often cannot financially secure a full-time position for a technician or technical consultants, their technology maintenance and development must rely heavily on technology volunteers. it is understood that community volunteers come and go in a dynamic fashion. different volunteers have different roles and connections with the community although they alll come all are offering their time and help. eud tools have to be designed to provide the flexibility of supporting different roles in the community. kathy indicated an agreement with this point in one of the interviews we conducted: “what i would like to do eventually is once we get the site in a manageable point, i would like to have a volunteer or two volunteers who are willing to update the site regularly.” this poses the huge challenge of creating development tools suitable for end users who possess no programming background or interest in learning how to program (repenning & ioannidou, 2004). furthermore, since there is a quick volunteering turnaround in organizations like spring creek, the content management system should be configurable for allocating different privileges to people contributing to the web site. this was directly referred to by kathy: “like there’s this one volunteer who i would like to be able to have him do certain things on the site, but i don’t trust him…if he only had control over that one thing so he’s not promoting his own agenda, that would be good…you don’t want somebody to be able to go in and screw up your site (emphasis added).” provide compatibility to affordable tools that are accessible to the organization another requirement is to make eud tools accessible or compatible with technology tools that are affordable (kathy once said: “i feel an immense obligation to make it (web site redesign process) worth the dollar value”). spring creek had previously relied on proprietary software from a non-profit technology assistance agency known as techsoup (http://www.techsoup.com). along with another volunteer (tim), we have discussed the idea of using open-source tools such as wiki (guzdial et al., 2000). the tradeoff here is of course technical assistance, as open-source software tends to be less well-supported. in several meetings, spring creek expressed their concern to not end up in the same dilemma as with the previous vendor when he refused to furnish further technical support for the web site (see merkel et al., 2004 for details). this resonates with an argument made by gurstein (2003) in his “effective use” approach. “effective use” is defined as “the capacity and opportunity to successfully integrate icts into the accomplishment of self or collaboratively identified goals” (gurstein, 2003). the similar argument as ours is that the application needs to be made using the particular technical infrastructure accessible in the area where the application is to be implemented. accommodate daily tasks with support for an evocative learning situation one of the most critical requirements in community computing, which tends to be overlooked in end user development, is to have end user tools be as much everyday technology as possible (not to be confused with ubiquitous computing). this implies that eud tools for community groups should require little learning effort to get started. for instance, eud tools should be used on common operating system platforms (e.g., microsoft windows), should be integrated with existing tools, or should have their information/interaction design features consistent with the existing tools in the community group. thus, for example, an environment such as the envisionment and discovery collaboratory (edc) (arias et al., 2000), which uses electronic whiteboards, will not suit most community groups because it is an uncommon environment which demands a very steep learning curve. on the other hand, if community groups are familiar with using mambo in managing their web site, then it makes sense to use a eud tool that shares similar design features as mambo. another aspect of everyday technology is the creation of tools that end users are motivated to learn and use in daily work practices (fischer et al., 2004). in a community computing context, community groups are already engaged in interesting and meaningful activities; hence, there is less of a requirement to use eud tools as a vehicle for engaging people in evocative learning situations (e.g., eden et al., 1996). instead, the tool learning overhead for end users should be as little as possible, since these userss are already overwhelmed by various community activities and they are very often unpaid. we have observed with spring creek on multiple occasions that the learning of the tool is typically to be accomplished in a matter of a few minutes. for instance, in asking kathy about the amount of time she could devote to learning eud tools (such as our wiki-like environment), she responded: “we (characterizing people like herself) don’t have time to learn this (emphasis added)”. here, kathy referred to the ease of learning wiki in a matter of minutes rather than taking out hours of her volunteering time to learn to use a tool (e.g., through formal instruction). however here, lies the problem with such a requirement: end user developers (spring creek ) are trying to complete development tasks in which, by definition, they are not experts with limited learning time for development tools as opposed to users who are experts in their tasks in traditional hci terms (beringer, 2004). thus, the central requirement for end user development tools is to compensate for the discrepancy between the limitations of the user’s expertise and the complexities of the development task to be performed (beringer, 2004). in summary, for community groups like spring creek, sustainability of technology use is the key issue for technology adoption. that is, the process of using technology should be sustainable over different resources (human, financial, technical, and temporal). based on this observation, we elicited the above requirements from community computing that may help us to have more of an impact in support of end user development in society. the importance of sustainability in technology adoption and use is also discussed in an “effective use” approach (gurstein, 2003). that approach was used to show that the larger issue in the digital divide is in supporting the contextual usage of technology rather than merely providing access to technology. as gurstein maintained, use is a situated behavior going beyond interaction between an individual and the software (gurstein, 2003). the “effective use” approach called for policy makers and technology designers to give attention to the context in which technology is embedded. similarly, the three design requirements we propose here are the design guidelines addressing the specific contextual aspects of the daily practices in community groups. eud tools should be considered as open systems that evolve in the hands of the users (arias, et al., 2000) and that empower end users to tailor their applications (wolfe & jarke, 2004)). outsiders (to the community groups) that provide eud tools should emphasize not only the tool as a product but also the process of using the tool. enhancing eud with conceptual scaffolds community computing can re-conceptualize what we mean by eud tools. eud tools are predominantly perceived as tools that allow end users to write software programs. wikipedia defines the eud process: “people who are not professional developers can use eud tools to create or modify software artifacts (descriptions of automated behavior) and complex data objects without significant knowledge of a programming language”. in community computing, this is not always the case. in other words, end user development is not only about “programming” or using technical tools, but also utilizing conceptual scaffolds that facilitate the realization of their organizational goals in terms of technology. by conceptual scaffolds, we mean the use of techniques to help community groups to make technology-related decisions. we illustrate the use of conceptual scaffolds as consultation with human resources, index cards, and design scenarios. these are only examples, which are obviously not exhaustive, that epitomize our view of adding conceptual scaffolds to eud tools. using a wiki-like environment was merely one of the scaffolds (technical) that we provided to spring creek. in fact, more conceptual scaffolds were provided and used that eventually empowered spring creek to establish a strong foothold over their web site redesign process. for instance, we helped spring creek clarify various nomenclature related to the redesign process. one of the more complex issues that groups face when trying to implement a technology project is making sense of the design process. as collins, brown, and newman note (collins et al., 1989), part of the work that novices (end users) are doing is developing conceptual models that are needed to take on a task. in our face-to-face meetings, spring creek members had different perspectives on “design” that created a tension between technical requirements and the need to organize information on the web site effectively. one of the volunteers, dan, was technically proficient in web site design and wanted to move directly into the interface design of the site. at this point, we intervened, suggesting that design is an iterative process. further, we emphasized that the content of the web site needs to be designed before the layout. kathy agreed but did not know how to go about it. she once remarked, “do we mean the same thing by the term ‘design’”, reiterating her struggle with the difference between designing content and designing layout. we helped clarify these notions by using the old, vendor-developed spring creek web site as an example of “good” layout and “bad” content design. our interventions with conceptual scaffolds are indicated in figure 1. once the new content for the web site was relatively stable, tim suggested talking about “arranging the web site directory structure”. he advised kathy to use index cards (see figure 1) to create a hierarchy of the navigation scheme for the web site. even mundane conceptual scaffolds, such as index cards, can act as cognitive artifacts (norman, 1991) that eventually concretize the use of technology for realizing concepts tangibly in the real-world. in the current web site prototype, most of the navigation scheme resulting from kathy’s use of index cards has been incorporated. in our effort to weave design into spring creek’s organizational practice, we introduced the concept of designing with scenarios (see figure 1) (carroll, 2000) to elucidate how the web site front page should be laid out. kathy specifically used scenarios not only to illustrate different personae that would interact with the web site but also to convince other key players in the meeting on how the web site layout should be designed (xy, 2005). there was also an instance where kathy used pen and paper to explain how the main content links on the navigation bar should be preserved but that clicking on one of those links should change content in the content area (separate from the navigation bar). to us, even this simple and tangible illustration represented kathy’s inclination toward an interface exhibiting overview + detailed interface properties (e.g., plaisant et al., 1995). schön (1983) drew an important contrast between merely creating or identifying elements of the problem context and making them reasonable. he characterized design as inquiry—a property of the various conceptual scaffolds we have described in our work with spring creek. in community computing, technical tools only comprise one facet of what end users can employ in their daily activities. we have illustrated that design is manifested even in ordinary artifacts that entail technology affordances. end users in community computing are active technology users and designers. designers are not just making things; they are making sense (carroll, 2000, p. 66). to this end, the community computing context can enrich what we, as researchers and developers, believe eud tools to be as not simply technical gadgets but rather as conceptual aids that entail the use of technology. adopting and evaluating tools in community computing from their unsatisfactory experience with the previous vendor, spring creek has realized that technology is not an unmixed blessing (postman, 1993). during the process of appropriating technology (dourish, 2003) and revamping their web site, we have observed that spring creek adopts and evaluates eud tools in ways that go beyond current notions of usability (e.g., carroll, 2004), usefulness and understanding (e.g., woods, 1998), and even group dynamics related to group performance and productivity (e.g., grudin, 2004). the critical incident described in the research methodology section gave a good example in this context showing that the concept of usability alone is insufficient in understanding how people evaluate and adopt eud tools in the community computing domain. in this incident, both eud tools were similar in what they provided technically from the usability point of view. but kathy chose ned’s web design over the wiki web she co-designed with us and her web design team. kathy did not seem to be concerned about repeating the history with the previous vendor because she perceived that ned was providing relatively “better” support than the original vendor (who provided limited assistance). prior to ned’s unveiling of the content management system, kathy had compared him to the previous vendor (may, 2004): “ned has been extremely professional from a student standpoint…the difference between him and that company (vendor)…there’s no comparison (emphasis added)”. through our work with spring creek, we have learnt that evaluating eud tools in community computing goes beyond the tools themselves—they may transcend into the evaluation of providers of the tools as we have observed in the case of spring creek. social influence around community groups plays an important role in their evaluative criteria of eud tools. we have also learned that adopting and evaluating eud tools is not merely a matter of use and non-use, but the use of technology viewed as a continuum (malhotra & galletta, 1999). this continuum defines the range from avoidance of use (abandoning the vendor-supported technology) to enthusiastic and consistent use (using our wiki-like environment). adopting and evaluating eud tools in the community computing context, perhaps, eventually converges to the perceived fit of technology use to the users’ values (malhotra & galletta, 1999). discussion nonprofit community groups often lack resources such as money and technology infrastructure, as well as the organizational structures necessary for coping with rapid technology change in information systems (benston, 1990; mcphail et al., 1998; trigg, 2000). considering the context the community groups are embedded in, we had expected spring creek would quickly embrace and adopt eud tools such as wiki technology because these support end users to develop the needed technology results and to become autonomous relative to technology need. however, as discussed in the critical incident, spring creek decided to go with a volunteer’s web design giving up their control on web design and content management. this crucial incident posited an interesting yet challenging point: end users in community groups could voluntarily come to rely on external technology experts even while acknowledging the potential problem of having the experts’ help only intermittently and even when they have the option of adopting eud tools to empower themselves and be more independent in their technology projects. this indicates a tension between appropriation of ict for local autonomy (e.g., through careful and considerate design of eud tools) and the ways external expertise could work against such appropriation in the community computing context. on the one hand, our paper has been arguing for pushing technology development to consider the community computing context for sustainable technology adoption and use by considering ways of empowering community users to become autonomous in their technology projects and decisions. and as well, eud researchers have increasingly paid attention to how eud tools can facilitate end-user’s learning processes in how to use eud tools (e.g., dorn & guzdial, 2009). but on the other hand, non-profit community groups have been living in the volunteer culture for a long time, and have developed their practices so as to carry out their daily operations while relying on external help. nonprofit community groups make strategic plans for employment of technology resources, including building and maintaining collaborative relationships with external it experts (hackler and saxton, 2007). situated in this cultural context, external resources may be introduced to and leveraged by the community groups through various channels, which create temptations that attract the community groups towards giving up on the plan to invest time and effort in equiping and train themselves with eud tools and to be more independent. in other words, pushing the technology for sustainable use and learning is not enough to support end user development in community computing. this is essentially what gurstein alluded to in his paper. that is, community groups need to actively participate in the process of technology acquisition and implementation, and it is sometimes important to create or stimulate the “pull” from local communities (gurstein, 2003). our case study indicates that there are different levels of “pull” force from local communities. in the spring creek case, the bad experience with the prior vendor triggered the community to become more active in identifying the right web site product thus creating a “pull” action in the community. at this level, the group was committed to actively looking for a technology solution. the next level of “pull” action was the community group’s commitment to learn the technologies to support its autonomy in technology projects and decisions. this level of “pull” action requires the community groups to realize that technology literacy is important for community development. in the spring creek case, the choice between a wiki web site and a regular web site was essentially about whether to take full control of the technology or to continue relying on external expertise for significant managerial and administrative tasks. we did not see a “pull” from spring creek indicating its commitment to technology learning and kathy did not eventually choose the wiki web design. we don’t know what made kathy decide to choose ned’s web design. but considering the sustainable use as a key decision factor, we think the different roles that ned and ourselves took in relation to the organization may have had an impact. after all, we were researchers in the project with our own research agenda and we would fade away and not be able to provide continuous help on web site issues. ned, on the other hand, was a technology intern with spring creek, and had a local consulting company in the area of web design. for ned’s design, it would therefore be more likely possible to obtain continuous support in the future. interestingly, when we checked out spring creek’s web site as of feb. 2011, the organization had totally changed its web design again with a different content management system joomla! in today’s world, it is vital to all aspects of nonprofit groups’ functions from member recruiting and management; to communication and visibility to the community; to realizing their organizational mission. we believe that it is more beneficial for the organization to become more autonomous and technology savvy itself in the long term. it is important for community computing researchers to acknowledge this tension and seek ways to push community groups towards learning and adopting technologies through their own capacity. it is also important for eud researchers and developers to realize and address this tension in supporting end user development in community computing. conclusion the end users in community computing develop tools and applications within the world of their organizational goals. in this paper, we have alluded to how community computing can engage end user development to have more of a socio-technical impact on society. end users in community computing are not natural luddites (snow, 1998). they are active end users with different characteristics and requirements that dictate the use of technology. the paradox of the active user (carroll & rosson, 1987) perhaps applies more to community computing than others due to their lack of time and other resources. therefore, we can learn lessons from community computing to apply to design for end users and thus better understand how they actually react to and learn technology. in this paper, we have only begun to traverse toward this goal. we believe community computing presents a promising and cultivating context for scientifically enriching end user development, as we have partly demonstrated in this paper, and we hope to inspire more efforts in this direction within the research community. our paper contributes the following notions that have not been previously addressed in depth by the researchers in the domain of communities and technology: 1.community computing provides a foundation for eliciting design requirements for developing eud tools. 2.community 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(p. 221) the underlying theme to which gurstein refers is the global digital divide, describing the broad social phenomenon in which a particular individual, group, or community does not have the same socio-economic opportunities available as those with access to broadband-enabled information and communication technologies (icts). gurstein (2004) looks toward the “effective use” argument, i.e., that low participation and poor content are at the root of the digital divide, when he states that “a consequence and sad result of the preoccupation with ‘access’ and the digital divide has been a crowding out of any serious attention being given to how the widespread availability of internet access might be effectively used for self-development by individuals and communities with histories of social and economic inequality” (p. 223). effective use as a heuristic is intended to draw out and expand the links between the globalizing effects of broadband and the day-to-day capacities that individuals and groups are able to demonstrate. nation-states are responding to the global effects of icts by developing policies to increase national economic competitiveness and to safeguard and extend capacities for maintaining cultural autonomy. as a potential response to the concerns raised by gurstein and others, the national broadband task force (nbtf) was assembled in january 2000 by the canadian minister of industry to investigate the opportunities presented by broadband technology. broadband, within the context of this study, is defined in terms similar to the definition used by the nbtf, which is a high-capacity, two-way connection medium between an end-user and network services capable of supporting full-motion video applications. in more technical terms, the nbtf stated that a minimum transmission rate of 1.5 mbps in a symmetrical (i.e., two-way) connection qualifies as broadband (p. 2). even though the necessary advances in broadband technology have been significant, the undertones and foreshadowing of the nbtf’s comments give some indication of the ability to develop a sustainable rural broadband strategy: “for the foreseeable future, in spite of continuing technological progress, the basic facts of canadian geography and demography continue to mean that it will not be profitable for the private sector to provide broadband service in scarcely populated areas of the country” (p. 3). according to the nbtf, “[b]roadband technology and new content development are inextricably interdependent. without broadband, the new content will not emerge; but broadband without enticing new content will not attract users’ interest and allegiance” (p. 32). the implications of this statement are that both content (i.e., uses) and broadband technology (i.e., access) must evolve together and that a co-generative relationship exists. regardless of from which side of this argument people view themselves, the reality is that little progress can be made unless a broadband network is as a first step made available to those who do not have access. in other words, “effective use” can only be considered once use is at least made possible. the infrastructure of the network as defined by policymakers at both the federal and provincial levels in canada is the hardware of the physical network, in addition to the information technology required to manage the network. the nbtf acknowledged this fact when referring to remote communities. referring to the situation at the time, the document stated: today, there is a connectivity gap between canadians living in these communities and those living in urban settings. in the future, as the performance of both economic structures and public institutions becomes increasingly dependent on access to advanced icts, there is every danger that these communities will be left behind and that the qol (quality of life) gap will widen. (p. 36) figure 1 reveals the global digital divide between the developing and developed worlds and represents the quality of life gap referred to by the nbtf, as updated through statistics gathered since the nbtf’s publication. although the graph is global in nature, it represents the magnitude of the overall gap between those with access and those without. figure 1: graph of global internet users per 100 inhabitants between 1997 and 2007 source: international telecommunication union (itu). (2007). [graph illustration of global internet users per 100 inhabitants between 1997 and 2007]. retrieved from http://www.itu.int/itu-d/ict/statistics/ict/graphs/internet.jpg the importance of bridging this digital divide was considered to be a high priority by the nbtf, which ultimately made an aggressive recommendation to connect every community throughout canada with broadband capabilities by the year 2004. alberta is 1 of the 10 provinces of canada. alberta has a population of some 3.7 million people, with a land base approximately the size of france or texas, with an economy based on the export of natural resources, particularly petroleum commodities such as oil and natural gas. each canadian province is constituted by an order of government that shares spending and taxation powers with the federal government of canada in areas specified in the canadian constitution. broadband networks are developed within the legal and regulatory framework of the nation-state, and in canada the nbtf was the most prominent and clear policy document produced to that time. alberta was the first province in canada to follow up on the general thrust of the nbtf through the construction of the alberta supernet, which was completed in 2005. broadband networks and the supernet: what are they? the supernet became part of the infrastructure for delivering the alberta government’s rural development strategy as well as addressing the digital divide between rural and urban areas within the province. the advantages of having access to this type of broadband communication technology were viewed by the alberta government in a fashion similar to the nbtf. although the alberta government did not refer explicitly to the nbtf in its policy statement, the policy goals, which seek universal access to broadband for social and economic development, were almost identical (see, for example, http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/1557.cfm). the nbtf’s goals included: encouraging rural youth to remain and sustain the rural communities. providing an incentive for young professionals to move to rural communities. providing access to information which increases market opportunities. improving quality of life and dispersing infrastructure in a more equitable manner. improving safety and addressing environmental concerns via e-commuting. increasing available pool of talented workers by enabling rural e-commuting. improving access to healthcare services and continuing education. enabling ecommerce and banking services. facilitating cultural, community capacity, and other development. enabling access to government services and information. providing access to sources of entertainment (nbtf, 2001, pp. 19-35). the framework or model for the supernet was one of reduced barriers to entry and open market competition. in brief, the government of alberta achieved these objectives by funding part of the capital necessary to construct the network with the participation of the private sector through bell west, which funded the extended portions of the network. the government then transferred the operation of the network to a third-party private corporation, whose role is to provide contractually fair and open access to the network by cultivating a community of local internet service providers (isps) that provide connectivity to the supernet from households and businesses, coined “the “last mile”. the term is conceptual and refers to the logistical, economic, and especially in terms of this study, ideological problems associated with financing the wide access to broadband envisioned in national and regional policy for internet access (stull, 2009, p. 28). supernet bandwidth is offered at a fixed price of $50 per mbps per month, regardless of location in the province. in this way, the government leveled the playing field for competition. in areas in which local isps can build a profitable business model for provisioning these services, this model has been extremely successful. in fact, as of december 31, 2007, 242 communities had a local service provider(s) enabling broadband access to their residents. these numbers translate into over 80 percent of albertans having access to broadband services. in contrast, however, these numbers represent more than 150 communities in alberta that do not have access to broadband services. many of these communities have fewer than 3000 residents and given the small numbers of residents, many local isps are unable to develop a profitable business case for providing broadband access. additional roadblocks include the estimated high cost of capital required and, as the author surmises, that a great deal of uncertainty exists about the future of any investment made by local isps in “last mile” infrastructure (i.e., towers, fiber, wireless). in spite of its efforts to link the benefits and effects of globalization of icts and the local rural population’s economic competitiveness and cultural autonomy, alberta is now paradoxically among the lowest in canada among the 10 provinces and the two northern territories for rural broadband availability, as shown in figure 2. this paradox is significant to this research and will be explored in greater detail as it relates to the effect of ambiguity and uncertainty on rural broadband adoption rates. figure 2: diagram of broadband availability in canada – urban vs. rural (percentage of households) source: canadian radio and telecommunication commission. (2010). retrieved from http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/publications/reports/policymonitoring/2010/images/96.jpg sense-making and rural broadband networks we offer in this study in part an examination of policy development and in part the application of a method of qualitative data-gathering and analysis. our qualitative method involves attention to the sense-making process of key actors. sense-making is characteristic of what individuals experience when organizing or “making sense” of equivocal or uncertain information, arising from the appearance of new phenomena in the social environment. the sense-making perspective uniquely focuses the research lens in this study by asking the question “what don’t we know?” about the state of rural broadband adoption. more traditional approaches, especially statistical analysis of current and past usage of the network, involve asking, “what do we know?” about rural broadband adoption. sense-making constitutes a theoretical paradigm of communication that is an alternative to the paradigm of transmission. rather than conceive of sending and receiving of messages, sense-making considers messages as “constructions that are tied to the specific times, places, and perspectives of their creators” (foreman-wernet, p. 5). the seemingly similar terms, ambiguity and uncertainty, are somewhat different in relation to sense-making. ambiguity follows from the perception that more than one course of action is available, whereas uncertainty refers to the belief that following any course of action may be undesirable. our research question was to identify the means by which individuals and groups, including state actors, contributed to a situation of ambiguity and uncertainty involving the social meaning of broadband access. we hypothesized that the adoption and uptake of the rural broadband by communities is influenced by not only physical barriers, but also barriers resulting from exposure to the ambiguity and uncertainty surrounding the social meaning and context of broadband. the following list provides examples of potential contributors to ambiguity and uncertainty, i.e., what we don’t know, about the question of rural broadband adoption. they are: the introduction of new broadband technologies. it is unclear, for example, as to whether the nbtf (2001) realized the potential for advances in broadband technology to influence ambiguity when they recommended maintaining technological neutrality (i.e., not showing preference for any one form of broadband technology) if the government were to take an active role in developing rural broadband (p. 5). the high capital cost associated with the necessary broadband infrastructure adds to the uncertainty and risk around return on investment. the high capital cost is part of the engineering challenge of building the physical network, but it brings with it the question of why government should allocate funding for a capital cost in relation to its ideological approach to the potential public good of broadband identifying the actual demand and perceived benefits of broadband technologies within rural communities produces ambiguity. although, it is difficult to find evidence of comprehensive market surveys, a washington post article by kang (2009) is a case in point. kang looks at two communities similar in size and broadband access. one community attracted two large companies with several hundred new jobs associated with them, while the other community attracted only a few home-based businesses. kang observes that technical and business skills were the relevant variable for the two cases. however, one of the questions for policymakers is whether the potential benefits perceived are attainable? also, do the number of perspectives and disagreements over benefits within rural communities (in other words, the high level of ambiguity and uncertainty expressed by multiple individuals and groups) have an “immobilizing” effect on the development of rural broadband? the isp subscriber model is the primary business motivation for providing services to citizens, although alberta government services are managed as part of the network without the involvement of isps. it is unclear as to whether isps can obtain an adequate number of subscribers to be profitable. in addition, competitive threats, changing technology and the high cost of entry are contributing factors. regulatory processes and public sector participation. what role will the alberta government play, if any? given the uncertainty around the government’s intervention plans (i.e., grants, loans, infrastructure arrangements) it is conceivable that private enterprises would delay investing in rural broadband due to the financial risks associated with competition or interference from the public sector. the point of access to the study was a gathering of stakeholders involving alberta government officials, executives from the telecommunications companies bell west and telus, academics from alberta universities, and entrepreneurs seeking to establish or expand their isp or other services. this meeting, held in 2008 while supernet construction was continuing, provided the researchers with a means of examining and reflecting on the sense-making processes associated with the supernet. ambiguity can serve a useful purpose through its ability to stimulate creative sense-making and provide a mechanism for individuals within a society to “internalize” meaning about a new technology or phenomenon. for example, mitchell (2009) points out that “the primary stage of information gathering is important because historical studies of technological innovation [have] taught us that regularly the use the designers imagine for their innovations to accomplish have little or no relationship to how they are eventually taken up in social use” (p. 9). the relevance of this statement in the context of sense-making is that the social and communicative processes employed to make “sense” of a given technology typically result in enacting an environment (i.e., uses) different from what was originally conceived. the alberta government wanted economic development in rural areas, while isps wanted to gain economic rents with minimal capital investment. as henfridsson (2000) explains, “the co-existence of meanings makes it difficult for organizational actors to relate the phenomenon to his or her daily (working) life” (p. 89). the central meaning of the supernet involved the tension between the on-the-ground practices and priorities of local communities and the language, rhetoric, and strategies of economic and social development espoused by government policymakers. the construction of the supernet and the subsequent efforts to encourage uptake and use by citizens reveals something of the interaction between what schuler and day (2008) call “local skirmishes and global forces.” as de moor and de cindio (2007) note, the community network must emerge out of design principles, and these principles must reflect the notion that “communities matter” in design: systems design for communities goes beyond just creating some technologies and offering them to user communities, assuming that they know what to do with them. rather, it entails making explicit the usage context of the technologies: what are the goals, the workflows, the roles community members play? what are the principles, such as legitimacy and transparency, driving their interactions and the articulation of their information and communication requirements? we will suggest that a self-fulfilling prophecy emerges from the interpretation and meaning established by those with a significant stake in the creation of the supernet. a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when individuals mentally create a situation in which the results are what they expected, i.e., they find what they set out to discover. the results they arrive at are, at least partially, a result of their expectations. the existence of the self-fulfilling prophecy problem means that social actors are more inclined to validate and strengthen the existing situation rather than contribute to and support such change. they may be less likely to observe or recognize constructive change when it does occur. in the case of the supernet, delays and seemingly intractable engineering design and construction problems became part of the day-to-day expectations for respondents, with the result that expectations for “effective use” of the network, i.e., the adoption by communities to address areas of concern and opportunity, as they identified them, remained low. the capital cost of the supernet was justified in terms of economic development in rural areas, with the local use as it might be understood and enacted taking a secondary role. we argue that as a consequence, the anticipated use has not to date taken hold in the ways that policymakers expected or wanted. purpose of study and research questions the purpose of the study was to analyse the current environment relating to the adoption of broadband communications technology (i.e., high speed internet) in rural areas of alberta. specifically, we wanted to identify the forces of ambiguity and uncertainty that underlie the digital divide. we approached the research question from the perspective of both the theoretical implications of the supernet as an example with potential relevance for understanding other broadband networks being built in canada and beyond. but we also were concerned with understanding the perspective of actors seeking to maximize the use of the supernet for economic and social purposes. one of the researchers is an academic at an alberta university, and the other was a part-time graduate student in communications and technology (now graduated), whose full-time occupation was and is as an information-technology executive in the province. we explored how exposure to ambiguity and uncertainty has contributed to the state of broadband adoption in rural alberta. we therefore regarded ambiguity in the way that weick conceives of equivocality, that is, as the quality or nature of having multiple interpretations or meanings. we explored how industry decision-makers describe their strategies for reducing ambiguity and uncertainty in the social and economic context of completing the “last mile” in rural alberta. specifically, we asked: what strategies are employed by industry decision-makers for reducing ambiguity and uncertainty in the social and economic context of broadband development in rural alberta? how has ambiguity and uncertainty experienced by industry decision-makers and broadband stakeholders influenced the speed of rural broadband adoption? on march 28, 2008, the rural broadband access roundtable was held. the event was hosted by the van horne institute, university of calgary, and other members of the alberta supernet alliance research project, the group of researchers originally formed to study the significance of the impact of the supernet on alberta society. a large number of representatives from industry, government, academia and community were present to discuss the current state of broadband in rural alberta. by selecting and conducting interviews with specific attendees of the roundtable, a further exploration was possible into the influence of ambiguity and uncertainty on the current state of broadband. method the study employed the use of weick’s (1995) sense-making framework to identify themes of ambiguity and uncertainty surrounding the topic of rural broadband. sense-making is the process through which individuals make sense of and create their environments. as such, weick (1979) provides the entry point for which to begin a review of literature through his definition of organizing, which is “a consensually validated grammar for reducing equivocality by means of sensible interlocked behaviors” (weick, 1979, p. 3). using this definition, weick argues that information from the environment is persistently equivocal to some degree and hands us the theoretical lens with which to view the environment encompassing rural broadband. expanding on this concept, weick explains that “organizing is like a grammar in the sense that it is a systematic account of some rules and conventions by which sets of interlocked behaviors are assembled to form social processes that are intelligible to actors” (1979, p. 3). sets of interlocked behaviors and social processes are developed through inter-subjective communication processes as individuals form recognizable structure through discursive, social interaction. in other words, the social processes are individuals’ sense-making experiences that result in the creation of structured environments. individuals collectively make sense of their worlds through social interaction. as they interact, individuals influence each other’s sense-making processes and new shared meanings develop: “[t]here is a shared sense of appropriate procedures and appropriate interpretations, an assemblage of behaviors distributed among two or more people, and a puzzle to be worked on” (1979, p. 4). the connection between sense-making and organizing is critical for our argument, because we argue that the interpretations about the supernet emerging from the sense-making process will have an influence on how individuals and groups organize, i.e., use the supernet. in the context of this study, the puzzle being worked on is the rural broadband environment. taylor and van every (2000) expand weick’s organizing as ongoing and mediating in the way it frames the material world and provides the necessary inputs for its reconstruction (p. 163). because of this relationship, it is ultimately through reconstruction that individuals come to understand and make sense of changes in their environment. figure 3 illustrates the relationship between individual sense-making processes and organizing activities as reconstruction occurs. organizing activities (i.e., enactment, selection, retention) embody sense-making processes (i.e., noticing, bracketing, identity construction, focusing on extracted cues and plausibility) which occur retrospectively in an ongoing, reciprocal interaction with the environment (weick, sutcliffe, & obstfeld, 2005). figure 3: the relationship between individual sense-making and organizing activities source: from jenning and greenwood (2003), adapted from weick 1979, p. 132, in weick, karl. e. & sutcliffe, kathleen, m. & obstfeld, david. (2005). organizing and the process of sense-making. organization science 16(4), 414. rip, misa and schot (1995) discuss the importance of constructive technology assessments for developing a balance between the perceived benefits of a technology and the true implications for society. overtones of weick’s (1995) collective sense-making can be observed as rip, misa and schot (1995) remark, “therefore, even if clear values are present and shared, it is often impossible to identify an optimum strategy beforehand. this implies that experimentation and societal learning must be an integral part of management of technology in society” (p. 4). finally, rogers (1995) explains that technological innovations diffuse via multiple communication channels, over time and through a social system. the social systems he describes resemble diffusion networks which are comprised of interpersonal relationships through which new innovations are discussed and sense-making occurs (p. 331). data collection and analysis the primary data collection method used in this study was four semi-structured interviews which involved five respondents selected from industry and representing various professional backgrounds. some interviews were carried out with more than one participant in attendance. the method was used with an emphasis on the validity of respondent reports, accomplished through in-depth interviews and qualitative analysis. the hermeneutic circle, which gives attention to the relationship of interdependent parts to the whole that they form, is a key principle in interpretive studies (klein & myers, 1999). the hermeneutic process has been described in relation to miles and huberman’s (1994) principle of alternating between cultivating theoretical concepts and returning repeatedly to what research subjects have said. in this way, the abstract concept of the supernet, which involves the social construction of technology as a fundamental theory of human action, was considered in a way that allowed for potential generalization. the hermeneutic circle was developed through attention to the relationship of the theoretical perspectives to the transcripts through successive stages of analysis. data analysis therefore proceeded in a tandem relationship with the activity of data collection, allowing each to inform the other. it was carried out iteratively, tacking between examinations of data and development of a conceptual framework. in this hermeneutic process, analysis of respondents’ statements corresponded to the parts of the emerging conceptual framework, while theoretical interpretations corresponded to the whole. the conceptual framework was structured according to the dimensions of the worldview associated with communities of practice: knowledge, values, meanings, assumptions, beliefs, and practices (pawlowski & robey, 2004; wenger, 1998). transcripts were coded according to rubrics corresponding to these dimensions, which are the etic level of the analytical coding system, corresponding to the “outsider’s” point of view, that is, that of the analyst. other than respondents being considered stakeholders of rural broadband in alberta, no other demographic considerations were made or deemed necessary. the main requirement for consideration to participate in this research study were a level of involvement with or participation in, the rural broadband environment in alberta. each selected participant was considered to have a significant stake, either personally or professionally, in the topic of rural broadband access and availability in rural alberta. the selection method with which the respondents were identified as stakeholders of rural broadband was through the occasion of the rural broadband access roundtable. the characteristics of the sample respondents were required on the basis of the research question and the theory of sense-making (i.e., reducing levels of ambiguity and uncertainty in the rural broadband environment) and that of organizing. that is, we analyzed the network of stakeholders or “collectives” collaborating over the question of rural broadband through weick’s (1979) organizing lens. the sample was small. small-n samples can be used in studies concerned with sense-making, in an attempt to emphasize validity and the in-depth exploration of meaning and interpretation used by social actors within their social contexts. the sample was selected so as to ensure that respondents were concerned with and could address aspects of the study’s problematic. for example, within the population from which the sample was drawn, a high degree of awareness of the alberta supernet exists. although direct knowledge of the alberta supernet was not a requirement for involvement in the study, the atmosphere surrounding the supernet’s development was well known to respondents, in that respondents were familiar with the controversy over whether the alberta government should increase its investment and involvement in developing the supernet. since the supernet was completed in 2005, 150 of the 429 communities that have a supernet pop site are still, in 2011, without broadband access. in other words, the initial expectations of the supernet to bridge the digital divide between rural alberta and urban areas have not been fulfilled. given these factors, it is anticipated the term “supernet” could be used synonymously with rural broadband technology and influence the opinions of the sample respondents. this is not the focus of the research, but a necessary factor to consider in the context of studying ambiguity and uncertainty in the “last mile”, especially given the pervasiveness of the subject. the respondents included the following: an owner of a private isp with a history of operations throughout rural alberta (i.e., alberta incumbent local exchange carrier) that did not participate in the roundtable but had a large stake in rural broadband initiatives because it remained the owner of a significant portion of the existing local and regional network; two respondents from a toronto-based wireless communications company that did not attend the roundtable, but which is working on a demonstration project showing how broadband can be constructed in rural alberta jointly with an alberta start-up isp organization that did participate at the roundtable; an individual representing the alberta start-up isp organization conducting the demonstration project just mentioned and who had representatives at the roundtable; and an individual representing the van horne institute and other private research interests in a consultative capacity on the subject of rural broadband access in alberta. table 1 shows respondents by profession and by participation in the van horne institute’s roundtable. table 1: research participants profession attended roundtable did not attend roundtable totals alberta incumbent isp 1 1 wireless communications (ontario) 1 1 wireless communications (ontario) 1 1 private research/rural broadband consultant 1 1 alberta isp start up 1 1 totals 2 3 5 the series of open-ended questions (see appendix 1) used to conduct the interviews sought to obtain each respondent’s perspective in four topic areas: the role of broadband in rural alberta; factors affecting the rate or speed of adoption of rural broadband; perspectives around their participation/non-participation in the van horne institute roundtable; and options for extending the “last mile”. these four areas provided a range of discursive possibilities for respondents to address the research questions. during the preliminary stage of analysis, a coding framework was developed to serve as an instrument through which to identify occurrences of sense-making. the coding framework was derived from weick (1995) and based upon his seven properties of sense-making: centrality of identity and identification, importance of retrospective views, tendency to enact meaning, social nature of communication, ongoing character, emphasis on extracting cues, and favouring plausibility over accuracy (see weick, 1995). in addition, the interview design and data analysis took into account the two stages in which sense-making unfolds, the situation-defining stage and the communicational tactics stage (foreman-wernet, p. 13). table 2: excerpt from the coding framework name and code description grounded in identity construction who a person is as indicated by discovering how and what they think individualized – “i” idt-indiv references made by the interviewee in the first person – i.e. “i” did such and such, or “my” company, etc. cues to look for are self-enhancement, self-efficacy and self-consistency. applying this framework to the transcripts provided a method with which to categorize and reduce the volume of data and create meaningful groupings. as discussed below, sense-making is the “outcropping” or observable process individuals employ when attempting to reduce levels of ambiguity or uncertainty. in other words, through identifying various sense-making patterns, the researcher is identifying structures of ambiguity and uncertainty below the surface. encapsulating these patterns are the words and assumptions used by the respondents as sense-making occurs. observing these words and assumptions, the researcher identified an emerging hierarchical structure. the preliminary findings after the initial stage of interviews identified a number of occurrences of sense-making and suggested that ambiguity and uncertainty are present in the “last mile”: within the context of a sustainable and economic business case supporting rural broadband initiatives; within the context of a complex and often bureaucratic system of regulations and oversight; within the context of the perceived benefits of broadband to rural alberta and remote communities; within the context of the government’s role in funding/supporting rural broadband strategies; within the context of the current and future broadband technology development and solutions; and within the context of the marketplace (competition, subscription rates, etc). after the preliminary stage of analysis, the interview transcripts were analyzed in an iterative fashion alternating between the analysis and refinement of theory/codes to apply in subsequent iterations. making sense of the “last mile” the five themes that emerged as a result of applying the coding framework are presented in figure 4. within the context of this study, the themes identified are considered to be the primary sources of ambiguity and uncertainty relating to the topic of rural broadband and help to answer the question “what don’t we know?” about rural broadband adoption. the first theme relates to the sustainability and economics of the business case for rural broadband and includes two additional themes related to the business model for delivering broadband access in rural alberta. the second theme refers to the role of government and regulatory processes and includes three additional themes including the process followed by regulatory bodies. the third theme considers trends relating to technology and internet service providers and includes four themes encompassing the role of technology, availability of expertise and infrastructure, and wireless spectrum spectrum (the rights sold by the federal government to use part of the radio spectrum). the fourth theme relates to the role of broadband within rural communities and includes three additional themes relating to community involvement and awareness of the benefits of broadband. the fifth and final theme relates to the expectations of broadband in rural alberta and includes two themes dealing with community and socio-economic development and the delivery of expected services as well as the anticipation of the timing of rollouts and broadband availability. figure 4: emergent themes in the data emergent themes currently, a sustainable business case for rural broadband does not exist. market awareness subscribership and profitability the role of government is unclear to stakeholders. regulatory approvals, access to towers spectrum availability funding programs the pace of technological change influences broadband participation. availability, types and evolution of technology wireless spectrum dependency infrastructure availability of technical expertise broadband currently plays a limited role in rural alberta. community activism and involvement the role of broadband and awareness of its benefits education and knowledge the expectations for rural broadband have changed very little over time. community development rollouts and penetration collectively, these themes represent what individual respondents were thinking in relation to broadband development in rural alberta. the following section will discuss the relationship of these themes to the original research questions as well as directions for future research. findings: research question 1 what strategies are employed by industry decision-makers for reducing ambiguity and uncertainty in the social and economic context of broadband development in rural alberta? sense-making processes were employed by respondents to reduce levels of ambiguity and uncertainty as they discussed topics relating to rural broadband development. respondents were observed making sense of the “last mile” business case by exploring potential opportunities to enhance an isp’s ability to succeed. one respondent, recalling from memory, discussed the results of a study that had been undertaken to measure the interest in rural, high speed internet. the respondent indicated: we did a market survey .... i believe it was the close of 2006, beginning of 2007, it indicated from the people that 85% wanted high-speed internet, 15% weren’t interested. if anything it’s increased and, you know, sometimes you’re always worried about market shrinkage because you take the time. we’re really concerned about providing albertans with a good product, a really solid product and sometimes you think, “am i compromising my timing to my delivery? just get it to market.” but . . . you can move quickly and effectively but you have to do your homework and you have to build a sound, sound base. a direct government subsidy paid to isps was a common theme among respondents. however, clearly an unintended consequence to this approach is that reduced barriers to entry (i.e., subsidies) would potentially increase the number of isps competing to provide service. if this were to occur, it would have the opposite effect of diluting the subscriber base for all isps and exacerbate the problem. clearly, this was a concern for respondents and heightened their uncertainty. at the same time, respondents suggested that communities should lead their own efforts such as building tower infrastructure in order to entice an isp into the community. sense-making was present during respondents’ discussions about needing clearer indications on the actual demand for rural broadband services. in particular, respondents indicated a desire to understand the felt need or the actual demand for rural broadband which was interpreted as a related sense-making effort used to reduce uncertainty (i.e., not enough information). the role of government and regulatory processes were observed to be themes where intense sense-making transpired. in particular, respondents shared their thoughts about the government’s intervention plans and where they best saw the role of government. subsidies to isps and infrastructure sharing arrangements were the two main roles of government suggested by respondents. with respect to regulatory processes, respondents were observed to be making sense of the application processes to “sign up” and use the supernet’s backhaul services. participants suggested that a high degree of bureaucracy exists with respect to application processes indicating a belief about the low ease of access to the supernet. contrasting these comments, respondents offered that a general sentiment of frustration exists with respect to the uptake of the supernet as a backhaul. specifically, one respondent suggested that the supernet is operating a mere fraction of its capacity when stating: i think, by and large, the overwhelming feeling is one of frustration and certainly the uptake on the supernet has not been anything like the province expected, so i don’t know if you’ve had any success in getting usage because of the supernet or whether you’ve tried to. a couple of people weren’t speaking particularly for the record, but they weren’t speaking in confidence either; one was the representative of bell, who said that the traffic was 5% of capacity. the government’s role in providing access to licensed spectrum was discussed by respondents as they spoke about the need for licensed spectrum being the largest roadblock to providing wireless broadband services. at the same time, wireless broadband was discussed as respondents made sense of the cost benefits of wireless infrastructure being the best choice over technologies such as fiber optics and satellite. respondents tacked back and forth between technology selection and infrastructure as they were observed making sense of other factors affecting technological deployment. complicating this process was the consideration of the limited availability of technical expertise to support rural broadband installations. several respondents made sense of the role of the community by suggesting that the community must play an active part in the development of rural broadband. awareness of benefits and knowledge (i.e., culture) of use were used to describe the forces of attraction that would lead rural communities to participate in the rural broadband question. rural communities and municipalities were identified as having “woken up” to the benefits of broadband, which indicates a significant factor in market awareness. some respondents in particular provided the opinion that rural communities were making broadband a political issue by choosing who to vote for based on their broadband promise: so, we can’t overlook the key role the municipalities play and parkland county plays into that picture as well but probably parkland county is a good example of the municipality reflecting the local populations of frustrations and desires and electing a mayor on the promise of rural broadband. so the municipality is playing a key role but it isn’t the leader of the processes when citizens actually get the municipality to the point of acting. respondents made sense of the role of broadband being tied to the values of work and family. keeping the family unit whole and enabling remote workers to communicate with family while “in the field” working, were indicators of a strong values connection to broadband access. developing the themes identified under the role of government, respondents viewed “spectrum” as a resource to be controlled in order to be successful. specifically, respondents commented that: spectrum was the key one that i was thinking of. the spectrum right now is locked up by certain, you know, spectrum holders and they’re not . . . it can be quite challenging for new operators to try and get spectrum because it’s all locked up right now. in reality, electromagnetic spectrum consists of invisible, ubiquitous particles that are vital for telecommunications. as an ideal, respondents viewed spectrum as being more widely available in order to level the playing field for smaller competitors. in this sense, respondents were seen as considering spectrum as essential for beating the competition and not as a public good. findings: research question 2 how has ambiguity and uncertainty experienced by industry decision-makers and broadband stakeholders influenced the speed of rural broadband adoption? as stated earlier, sense-making can lead to creative solutions which emerge while attempting to reduce ambiguity and uncertainty. in order for the outcome of the sense-making process to have an immobilizing effect, that is, reducing the tendency for individuals to act, it is reasonable to consider that as the situation which develops becomes more unmanageable, or more precisely, the attempts to reduce ambiguity and uncertainty are unsuccessful, and the ability to take necessary action becomes increasingly difficult. just what steps could, or should, industry decision makers and rural broadband stakeholders alike take in the context of developing rural broadband? weick (2001) states that “much ambiguity occurs because there are events floating around that seem to bear no relation to one another. because it is not clear what is going on, it is even less clear what ought to be done about it” (p. 49). the question becomes, what is it about the persistence of ambiguity that could lead to an immobilizing result? a partial answer lies in what weick (2001) refers to as a self-fulfilling prophecy. in other words, as individuals experience their world, their experience shapes their perception, which in turn influences how they experience their world. a self-fulfilling prophecy is what occurs when individuals mentally create a situation in which the results are what they expected (i.e., they find what they set out to discover).the relevance to the sense-making process is that outcomes are determined by confirmations of beliefs and expectations. weick states: when perceivers act on their expectations, they may enact what they predict will be there. and when they see what they have enacted, using their predictions as a lens, they often confirm their prediction. the joint product of this directive action and selective attention is a set of inputs that match expectations and make sense. (1995, p. 152) over the long term (i.e., the longer the duration that self-fulfilling prophecies reinforce themselves), the more entrenched self-fulfilling prophecies become. in discussing a classroom experiment weick (1995) explains that self-fulfilling prophecies were reinforced through social interaction that lasted for eight months. weick (1995) comments, “this is crucial because it is clear that the general social interaction sequence in which that initial expectancy was embedded repeats itself over and over” (p. 150). weick goes on to reference henshel’s (1982) concept of serial self-fulfilling prophesies. serial self-fulfilling prophesies help explain how, as confidence and credibility increases (i.e., as what is expected to be found is discovered), a validation cycle develops and unfolds over time with increasing speed and comes “to dominate as the prevailing definition of the situation, because it is clearer, more meaningful, and more stable than the surrounding events that are more loosely coupled” (p. 151). stating that rural broadband adoption rates can be explained by people having their perceptions validated is an over-simplification of the concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy. expectations are the driving force. weick and sutcliffe (2001) provide the insight that “expectations are like an invisible hand that guides you toward soothing perceptions that confirm your hunches, and away from more troublesome ones that don’t” (p. 41). a self-fulfilling prophecy brought on by ambiguity and uncertainty, developing strength over time, has an enormous impact on decision-making processes. “if people consider many alternatives, or both positive and negative alternatives, or argue over objectives, these all raise uncertainty that can lower motivation, commitment and impact” (weick, 2001, p. 50). on the one hand, sense-making processes are stages on the path to action or, as taylor and van every (2000) put it, “sense-making is a way station on the road to a consensually constructed, coordinated system of action” (p. 275). when a self-fulfilling prophecy develops as in the case of the “last mile”, these processes become debilitating. henfridsson (2000) identifies deeply embedded attention structures as those responsible for guiding sense-making: “when restricting, these attention structures can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies and vicious circles” (p. 101). we argue that self-fulfilling prophecies create an environment of inertia in the context of the adoption by rural communities of effective practices related to rural broadband. interview respondents shared their specific beliefs about the rural broadband environment which uncovered their self-fulfilling prophesies regarding the government’s intervention strategy. several different expectations for the role of government were discussed (i.e., ambiguity) by respondents (i.e., direct subsidy, building infrastructure, freeing up spectrum) which indicates the belief that a role for government should exist or needs to exist for rural broadband. additionally, respondents provided their perspectives about the ability to share and access common infrastructure to aide in developing rural broadband and the “last mile”: well there’s been a few initiatives that have taken place, particularly under the federal government side, with access to towers, with co-location on towers, trying to force, maybe force is too strong a word, but trying to coerce people into talking more about sharing tower infrastructure. respondents stated that the role of government had yet to materialize in any concrete form, which validated respondents’ perceptions and created a self-fulfilling prophecy. in other words, respondents’ expectations about the role of government were varied and speculative, referring to what the government’s role “should” or “could” be, as opposed to what the actual role of the government was. without clarity, stakeholders can be observed to have potentially been deterred from taking independent action. equally as strong were respondents’ expectations about the rural broadband business case. respondents discussed the uncertainty surrounding the ability to subscribe ample customers in order to be profitable. they also described the challenges surrounding supporting operations with limited availability of technical expertise in rural communities. a self-fulfilling prophecy therefore developed that a sustainable isp business model for rural broadband did not exist. in this sense, respondents’ expectations or beliefs were an indicator of a self-fulfilling prophecy and that such prophecies have the potential to stymie creative solutions for developing a sustainable business case. they further delay necessary risk-taking and action. if continuous input from the environment is validating the belief that a business case does not exist, isps and other stakeholders are unlikely to act. finally, respondents expressed strong opinions regarding the particular choices of technology used to deploy rural broadband. a self-fulfilling prophecy was observed to exist to the effect that wireless technology would be the best technology for deploying broadband. low capital cost and flexibility with difficult terrain were some of the reasons respondents gave as their rationale for preferring wireless technology to satellite delivery, for example. at the same time, respondents expressed uncertainty surrounding the availability of licensed spectrum (the rights sold by the federal government to use part of the radio spectrum), availability of subsidies and grants for building infrastructure such as broadcast towers, longevity of wireless technology decisions (when would the technology become obsolete, for example?), and the requirement by government that towers would be shared. a directly related and subsequent self-fulfilling prophecy was evident toward the dependence on licensed wireless spectrum. respondents indicated that licensed spectrum was essential for providing wireless rural broadband. at the same time, respondents acknowledged that the alberta incumbent (telus) and the government’s auction processes were potentially standing in the way of new, small internet providers entering the business. the nature of this self-fulfilling prophecy with respect to technology came from the respondents’ perspectives that wireless broadband is the best technology to use. having developed this perspective, respondents provided responses that were directed toward the associated challenges with wireless deployments. in other words, when it came to discussing challenges with rural broadband deployments, respondents discussed themes that reinforced their beliefs regarding wireless as the best choice. the significance of this finding for the study is that as a preference for wireless technology builds, respondents are more apt to search for and have their hunches confirmed about the issues impeding wireless rural broadband deployments, which has the effect of delaying action. in this case, delaying action has meant that the impetus for further investment was reduced, with the implication that the network would not expand to serve many of the rural residents who had expected it to arrive. conclusion: encouraging rural communities to act broadband systems such as the supernet are an important means by which rural communities around the world can gain access to global networks of knowledge and communication. as we noted in the introduction, they are also a means by which nation-states and regions seek to increase their economic and cultural sovereignty. rural broadband can therefore be seen as a critical nexus between global and local flows of both capital and ideas. respondents in this study stated that a “grass-roots” community movement is a necessary ingredient for successfully developing rural broadband. they gave a range of suggestions on how to accomplish this, from working alongside isps, to municipalities building their own transmission towers, to allowing service providers to share space. a clear role for government in the rural broadband domain could be the development of community capacity to build local broadband strategies. direct funding to communities to establish strategic-planning workgroups could be considered. in addition, providing resources and expertise outside the community to contribute to the development of the strategy would be useful. as a first step, a “grass roots” or inside-out approach to delivering rural broadband would create the necessary momentum and critical mass upon which a successful program could be established. once a clear vision and plan for each individual community is created, including the particular type of technology (such as wireless or fiber optic) chosen for that community, the next step would be engaging with isps and telecommunications providers. without a more complete picture and plan for “how” each community will use broadband technology, the current fixation on “what” each community needs may well continue to result in flagging progress as levels of ambiguity and uncertainty grow and self-fulfilling prophecies are magnified. a concrete recommendation would be the appointment of what have been called community intermediaries. the sense-making carried out by industry representatives and others is influenced by the individuals and social groups who help to contextualize rural broadband in communities. governments could take a greater leadership role in broadband development by providing assistance to rural communities for community intermediaries who could carry out the identification and development programs mentioned above (rideout et al., 2007). community intermediaries can not only provide communities with expert knowledge and advice but also create one of the means by which communities can envision the relationship between the global effects of broadband technology and their potential application for local benefits. they can begin to establish the necessary connections and relationships within the community and create what flora (2007) considers essential networks for building social capital: “networking creates the bonding social capital to make an effective team and access to the external resources helpful to their efforts” (p. 69). fostering a strong sense of community and the importance of trust were discussed by respondents as critical for interacting with community stakeholders. in fact, respondents suggested that rural albertans tend to overtly trust members of their own community, while they remain skeptical of individuals or organizations from outside the community. community intermediaries can therefore be part of the effort to generate trust. instead of having an outside group or organization discussing solutions and bringing promises to rural albertans, or in other words, take the negative sentiments discussed regarding the failed promises of the alberta supernet back to government, government could designate community intermediaries who possess a high degree of trust and respect within their community to provide leadership around rural broadband development initiatives. this strategy may help to establish the momentum required to stimulate action. in order to install the required community champions, an advocacy group could work with communities to identify and develop these individuals. serving as a resource centre, this group could provide a network of relationships to other communities, isps, government departments to aid each community in developing a local solution. although governments have been directly involved in appointing community intermediaries to date, communities should take action to appoint them, preferably with government assistance but possibly without, if necessary. hollifield et al. (2007) also advocate for the community-intermediary approach. they also encourage developing strong public-private partnerships to help increase awareness and success of a telecommunications project (p. 60). public-private partnerships can result in a strong collaboration, at least in their potential to generate a broad political consensus of the legitimacy of the allocation of public funds, and a combination of addressing the community’s interests alongside the interests of the private sector (i.e., a profitable business model) which in turn can accelerate broadband development. they further support the notion that a decentralized model is more likely to succeed when it comes to rural telecommunications development projects (p. 61). this study is part of the research showing that the “stymie factor” to rural broadband development is that limited action has resulted due in part to self-fulfilling prophecies created by the presence of ambiguity and uncertainty. this being the case, one possible answer is to start taking action. what action? hollifield et al. (2007) argue that taking any action is appropriate, because failures can lead to success and “a previous community-based effort contributes to a context that encourages future development attempts” (p. 65). such actions can begin to reduce the levels of ambiguity and uncertainty surrounding rural broadband and directly challenge the self-fulfilling prophecies that exist. weick (1995) elaborates: each person and organization chooses who it will be by first choosing what actions, if any, it needs to explain, and second, by choosing which explanations for these actions it will defend. an inability or unwillingness to choose, act, and justify leaves people with too many possibilities and too few certainties. binding decisions affect the tasks we are attracted to, the reasons that move us, the values we try to realize, the plans we admire, and the people we seek out. avoidance of such decisions slows the development of attractions, reasons, values, plans and associates. (p. 160) in conclusion, this study has developed a framework for observing and identifying acts of sense-making within the rural broadband organization by using the theory and methods of sense-making. through the use of individual, semi-structured interviews as well as reviewing historical town hall transcripts, the research was able to identify what individuals were thinking and saying about rural broadband development in alberta. it would be useful to include a number of focus groups in addition to the interviews in a subsequent study. sense-making is an individual process (i.e., a person makes sense of his or her environment) conducted in a social setting (i.e., in a society surrounded by other sense-making individuals). individuals influence each other’s sense-making processes synchronously, i.e., in real time. conducting focus groups to observe how individuals influence each other’s sense-making processes would expand upon this research. future research may also consider looking at developing a quantitative measure for levels of ambiguity. admittedly, developing a measure for a phenomenon that is subject to varying and conflicting interpretations will be no easy task. references de moor, a. & de cindio, f. (2007). beyond users to communities – designing systems as though communities matter. introduction to the special issue. journal of community informatics 3(1). foreman-wernet, lois. (2003). rethinking communication: introducing the sense-making methodology. in dervin, b., foreman-wernet, l., and lauterbach, l., eds., sense-making methodology reader, cresskill, nj: hampton press, 3-16. gurstein, m. (2004). effective use and the community informatics sector: some thoughts on canada's approach to community technology/community access. retrieved may 11, 2009 from http://www3.fis.utoronto.ca/iprp/cracin/people/profiles/gurstein.htm henfridsson, o. (2000). ambiguity in it adaptation: making sense of first class in a social work setting. information systems journal 10 (2), 87-104. henshel, r. (1982). the boundary of the self-fulfilling prophecy and the dilemma of social prediction. the british journal of sociology, 33(4), 511-528 hollifield, c., donnermeyer, j., & wolford, g. (2007). leading community innovation: organizing successful rural telecommunications self-development projects. journal of the community development society, 38(2), 52–67. kang, c. (2009). rural riddle: do jobs follow broadband access? two hamlets that got high-speed lines show wildly different results” washington post, april 23. retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/04/22/ar2009042203637.html klein, h., & m. myers. 1999. a set of principles for conducting and evaluating interpretive field studies in information systems. mis quarterly 23, 67-93. miles, m., & a. huberman. 1994. qualitative data analysis. thousand oaks, ca: sage.mitchell, d. (2008). broadband at the margins: challenges to supernet deployment in rural and remote albertan communities." retrieved may 7, 2009 from david mitchell [mitchell@ucalgary.ca] national broadband task force. (2001). the new national dream: networking the nation for broadband access. (isbn 0-662-30655-4). ottawa: information distribution centre communications branch, industry canada. pawlowski, s., & d. robey. 2004. bridging user organizations: knowledge brokering and the work of information professionals. mis quarterly 28, 645-72. rideout, v., reddick, a.; o’donnell, s.; mciver, jr., w.; kitchen, s.; & milliken, m. (2007). community organizations in the information age: a study of community intermediaries in canada. journal of community informatics 3 (1), special issue: community informatics and system design. rip, a., misa, t., j. & schot, j. (1995). constructive technology assessment: a new paradigm for managing technology in society. in rip, a., misa, t., & schot, j. managing technology in society: the approach of constructive technology assessment, 1 -12. london: wellington house. schuler, d., & day, p., eds. (2008). shaping the network society: opportunities and challenges. in shaping the network society. the new role of civil society in cyberspace, 1-16. boston: mit press. stull, r. (2009). launching fttp in joliet. natoa journal, spring, 25-29. taylor, j. & van every, e. (2000). the emergent organization: communication as its site and surface. mahwah, new jersey: lawrence erlbaum. weick, k. (2001). making sense of the organization. malden, ma: blackwell publishing. weick, k. (1995). sense-making in organizations. thousand oaks, california: sage publications, inc. weick, k. (1979). the social psychology of organizing. philippines: addison-wesley publishing company, inc. weick, k. & sutcliffe, k. (2001). managing the unexpected: assuring high performance in an age of complexity. san francisco, california: john wiley & sons, inc. weick, k., sutcliffe, k., & obstfeld, d. (2005). organizing and the process of sense-making. organization science, 16(4), 409-421.wenger, etienne. 1998. communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. cambridge, u.k.: cambridge university press. appendix 1 interview questions 1. how would you describe the role that broadband plays in rural alberta? a. probes: i. enabling technology? in what ways? ii. thinking about how broadband can provide expected services; what are some examples of those services? 2. thinking about what you have discussed and/or heard about the state of rural broadband adoption in alberta, what, in your opinion, are the major factors influencing the speed of adoption? a. probes: i. can you provide specific examples of this? ii. in your view, what factors would influence someone’s (an organization’s) decision to participate in providing “last mile” broadband connectivity in rural alberta? iii. how has this changed in the last 12 months? 24 months? iv. where do you see the adoption of broadband in rural alberta heading in the next 12 months? 24 months? 3. on march 29th, 2008 the van horne institute and the university of calgary hosted a rural broadband access roundtable at the mcdougall centre in calgary. this session was a leading edge method of consultation in that it brought together many diverse groups into a neutral forum to stimulate creative discussion around the state of broadband adoption in rural alberta. a. you did attend the session. reflecting on what was discussed during the roundtable (i.e. the mayor of parkland county’s opening remarks regarding broadband access in his community, the change drivers (new “last mile” technologies, business models, availability of infrastructure, telecommunications (bell, telus), competitive, regulatory and industry (capp) perspectives), in your view what was the overall outcome of this session? what clarifications were made for you during this session about rural broadband adoption in alberta? how did the information that was shared help you to frame the state of rural broadband adoption? what information specifically do you recall from this session? why do you think you recall this specific information? b. you did not attend this session. however, given what i have just explained about the purpose of the session, what information would have been of interest for you to have shared/for you to have obtained with/from this group about the state of rural broadband adoption in alberta? for example, what do you believe is the single biggest challenge facing rural broadband adoption in alberta? probes – infrastructure? regulatory? competition? economics? cultural and social implications? 4. can you think some options that exist for extending the “last mile” and delivering broadband access to all of rural alberta? a. probes: i. if these options exist, what do you believe are the major barriers preventing over 150 rural alberta communities from acquiring broadband access? ii. what suggestions could you make to these communities? iii. are you aware of examples where groups of individuals have organized to provide specific solutions to the perceived challenges of “last mile” broadband connectivity? in your opinion, have these groups reduced or contributed to the complexity surrounding rural broadband connectivity? why? 123-11-1278 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles digital cultural heritage and social sustainability this research investigated factors that were perceived to contribute to the social sustainability of cultural heritage information services. semistructured interviews were conducted with sixteen users, guided by three broad questions: 1. what factors they consider are important for dch services to be socially sustainable or to achieve social sustainability? 2. what indicators they perceive from current dch services that suggest social sustainability? 3. what they believe are the main challenges for dch services to achieve or maintain social sustainability? social sustainability of dch information services was associated with: strategy and policy, advocacy and community engagement, equity, cultural sensitivity and literacy, assessment and evaluation. introduction cultural heritage contents come in different forms. they may be tangible, movable objects such as paintings, sculptures, textiles and musical instruments, or immovable objects such as buildings and monuments. they could also be intangibles or immaterial items such as folk tales and songs, poetries and dance (unesco, 2008; cane and conagham, 2009). research and development activities in digital information over the past two decades have given rise to a number of digital libraries and digital archives providing access to cultural heritage information services such as the from the us library of congress american memory and the europeana digital library, an initiative involving a large number of memory institutions and !173 liew, c.l., chowdury, g. (2016). digital cultural heritage and social sustainability. the journal of community informatics, 12(3), 173—196. date submitted: 2015-10-21. date accepted: 2016-09-18. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1278. chern li liew victoria university of wellington, new zealand corresponding author. chernli.liew@vuw.ac.nz gobinda chowdhury northumbria university, united kingdom gobinda.chowdhury@northumbria.ac.uk http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1278 mailto:chernli.liew@vuw.ac.nz mailto:gobinda.chowdhury@northumbria.ac.uk http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1278 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 industries across europe (nicholas, clark, rowlands and jamali, 2013). the european commission has a long commitment to safeguarding and enhancing europe's cultural heritage as an important resource for promoting economic growth, employment and social cohesion (european commission, 2014). tait et al (2013) observe that digital cultural heritage (dch) information services vary according to the actors which manage them, their spatial reach, their content and the software technologies which underpin them. liew (2010) discusses the importance of addressing issues around cultural divide and social exclusion. innocenti (2015) recommends that a framework is needed to support and monitor cultural heritage information services which includes defining agreed performance indicators and success parameters. many of the issues and recommendations put forward and documented in recent literature point towards the need to address issues around the sustainability of cultural heritage information services. the main purpose of the research reported in this paper was to identify factors that were perceived to contribute to the social sustainability of cultural heritage information services from the perspectives of users. the overall aim was to identify social sustainability issues that could be addressed through policy, design, management and delivery of cultural heritage information services. in the next section, we discuss the importance of social sustainability in the context of dch information services. the research design of this study is then outlined before we present the interview findings. the paper concludes with a highlight of the main findings and an indication of the way forward. social sustainability and digital cultural heritage information services the term sustainability has become a major focus of government, businesses and industries. there are three pillars of sustainability, viz. economic sustainability, social sustainability and environmental sustainability. in the context of a digital information service, chowdhury (2014) states that: • economic sustainability can be achieved by building a sustainable business model, ‘for profit’ or ‘not-for-profit’ depending on the service provider and their characteristics — as well as taking measures for reduction of cost in the creation, distribution and access to information; and taking measures for reduction in the user time and efforts for discovery, access and use of information • the target for social sustainability is to ensure easy and equitable access to information; (a) by increasing the accessibility and usability relevant to the user context, culture, etc. • the target for environmental sustainability is to ensure reductions in the environmental impact by taking measures to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint of the information system. social sustainability may be defined as the maintenance and improvement of well-being of the current and future generations of people (mak and peacock, 2011). many research projects have identified indicators for different aspects of sustainable development (adelle and pallemaerts, 2009). reviews of different initiatives that attempted to define indicators of sustainability show that there have been as many as 255 indicators for sustainable development (hutchins and sutherland, 2008; hutchins, gierke and sutherland, 2009). !174 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 information services are designed to provide access to information as a shared resource. the proliferation of the web, social networking services, and mobile technologies has significantly facilitated access to knowledge in a number of ways. these new technologies could be used to promote the social sustainability of information services. however, it may be argued that these technologies could also create several inequalities. many researchers have discussed different socio-political implications of the modern ict, the web and mobile technologies in the context of information systems and services (feather, 2013; chowdhury, 2014). in recent years, many cultural heritage information services have been exploring the use of web 2.0 and social media to develop and to promote user-centred content creation and access. some view these as opportunities to engage with their users and hence, to improve their social sustainability. deodato (2014) comments that web 2.0 has been instrumental in promoting a participatory culture – one that focuses on facilitating interaction and the creation of content by users rather than the consumption of content created or compiled by experts, thereby offering a model of socially responsible librarianship based on relinquishing some power to users and providing them with the tools to participate more fully in the construction of knowledge. other researchers have cautioned however that not all cultural heritage institutions that have implemented web 2.0 have fully embraced a participatory culture (liew, 2014). ideally, a socially sustainable digital information service should be ubiquitous, i.e. it should be embedded in the work and culture of people in such a way that they get access to the information that is relevant to their work and activities even without having to actively ask for it (chowdhury, 2013; 2014). thus the design of a socially sustainable digital information service should be based primarily on the user’s context, and the aim should be to provide information to the users that are not only context-specific but are also value-added and therefore appropriate for accomplishing a specific task or activity. much of the literature on social sustainability appears to be examination of the topic from a project or an institution’s point of view. social sustainability is associated with a number of factors, such as the design, accessibility and usability of information systems and services; and information behaviour and literacy of users. other social sustainability issues are related to copyright and digital rights management; international, national and local or institutional policies and practices with regard to information products and services; and some specific cultural issues, for example those that are associated with indigenous cultural heritage information (chowdhury 2015; liew, 2012; francis and liew, 2009). research design semi-structured interviews (face-to-face; skype; email) with sixteen users of three dch projects were conducted. the three dch information services were: • new zealand electronic text collection (nzetc) (http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz) this freely accessible collection comprises both digitized and born digital content of historical works of significant new zealand and pacific island texts and other materials. the collection supports the teaching, learning and research at victoria university wellington, although access to this collection is not limited to the university users only. !175 http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 • kete horowhenua (kh) (http://horowhenua.kete.net.nz) this is a community-built digital library of arts, cultural and heritage resources for and about horowhenua, new zealand. • new zealand history online (nzho) (http://www.nzhistory.net.nz) the collection features information and resources from within the history group of the new zealand ministry for culture and heritage, covering three main theme: culture and society, politics and government and war and society. the three projects were chosen as they were amongst the most commonly known dch information services in new zealand,. a ‘questionnaire’ was emailed to each participant in preparation for the interviews two weeks in advance (please see appendix 1). three readings on social sustainability were suggested to participants in order to help them prepare for the interviews. we acknowledge that these readings might have oriented or influenced participants’ responses to the questions; nevertheless, we thought this was necessary because social sustainability is not a very commonly understood concept, and often definition and scope of the concept vary. three broad questions that guided the semi-structured interviews were: • what factors they consider are important for dch services to be socially sustainable or to achieve social sustainability? • what indicators they perceive from current dch services that suggest social sustainability? • what they believe are the main challenges for dch services to achieve or maintain social sustainability? the face-to-face and skype interviews which lasted between approximately 45 and 90 minutes in length were conducted on a conversational basis as much as possible, with interviewees encouraged to expand upon the main questions and to explain relevant issues as they experienced and perceived them. all participation was voluntary. the first three interviewees were students in a course in an information studies programme who volunteered to take part in the study. each of these students also held employment at a local memory institution. a snowball sampling was then used —each of the interviewees suggested potential participants based on their knowledge of other users of the dch service they had used. the criteria for participation were that the interviewee must have used at least one of the dch services for personal or work-related goals, and/or for education purposes, and that they were familiar with most of the features and functionality of the dch sites. persons who worked for or had been employed for any of the three dch services were excluded from the study. table 1 provides the brief profile of the participants. to protect the identity of the participants, age is reported as range. !176 http://horowhenua.kete.net.nz http://www.nzhistory.net.nz the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table i: brief profile of the study participants we acknowledge that most of the participants have been involved to different extent, in cultural heritage projects or institutions. hence, the study sample may not be a complete representation of the population of dch users in general. nevertheless, the richness and the depth of the data collected should provide worthwhile insights that could be useful in the broader context. interviewe e gender/age background dch(s) used; purpose(s) of use p1 f e m a l e / 56-60 work part-time at a small museum nzho; research (work) and personal interests p2 f e m a l e / 31-35 part-time community archivist kh; personal interests nzetc; education p3 f e m a l e / 41-45 work full-time at a university library; deal with archival materials nzetc; research (work) and personal interests nzho; research (work) p4 f e m a l e / 26-30 part-time library assistant kh; personal interests p5 male/ 41-45 team leader at a district library nzho and nzetc; research (work) and personal interests p6 male/ 51-55 unemployed nzho and nzetc; personal interests p7 f e m a l e / 41-45 research scientist at a state institution nzho and nzetc; research (work) and personal interests p8 male/ 31-35 volunteer at a community library kh; personal interests p9 male/ 26-30 work full-time at a university library kh; personal interests p10 f e m a l e / 41-45 resource discovery manager at a university library nzetc and nzho; education, research (work) and personal interests p11 f e m a l e / 31-35 part-time library assistant kh; personal interests p12 male/ 36-40 volunteer at a community archive nzetc; education kh; personal interests p13 f e m a l e / 41-45 institutional repository administrator nzetc and kh; personal interests p14 f e m a l e / 26-30 volunteer at community archive kh; personal interests p15 male/ 46-50 work full-time at a university library; genealogist kh; personal interests p16 f e m a l e / 31-35 volunteer at a community library nzho and nzetc; research (work) and personal interests !177 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 findings what factors they consider are important for dch services to be socially sustainable or to achieve social sustainability the interviewees were asked about factors they considered were important for a dch service to be socially sustainable or to achieve social sustainability. their responses were manually analysed and four main themes emerged through the data: the importance of (i) strategy and policy, (ii) advocacy and community engagement, (iii) equity, cultural sensitivity and literacy and (iv) assessment and evaluation. important concepts and themes appearing through the respondent’s comments were highlighted (in bold) in order to facilitate data analysis and discussions. strategy and policy the perceived benefits of having relevant strategies and policies in place were linked to sending a clear message about an institution’s stance on social sustainability and to meeting current and future needs of users and communities: “project plans that are informed by institutional social sustainability policies and allocate sufficient resources for related activities play an important role in aligning digital heritage projects with the current and future needs of primary users and the wider community.” (p2) “an important question that needs to be answered is does the organisation's policy address social sustainability as an issue? if there is no documented evidence of either the organisation or the digital collection unit taking social sustainability issues seriously, it is doubtful that the collection or service will be socially sustainable.” (p3) “institutions must work to promote their digital arms as core components of a wider mandate fundamental to the overall sustainable and relevance of the parent institution itself. this should be reflected in the strategic plan.” (p4) two participants also emphasized the importance of addressing this not only at an institutional level, but in a wider context: “in my opinion, addressing social sustainability at a sector-wide and institutionwide level, through advocacy, strategy and policy provides a foundation for creating value for end users … a strategic plan should be grounded in an understanding of the benefits of participatory practice, user engagement and iterative approaches.” (p1) one of the participants, a team leader at a district library discussed strategy and planning as related to risk management, as well as to the importance of maintaining and demonstrating continuing relevance of a dch service: “for cultural heritage institutions with a vision of sustainability, sustainability indicators could be considered in the context of their internal and external environments in order to inform strategic and operational planning related to their !178 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 digital collections. an outcome of such formal planning processes would ideally be the articulation of goals and objectives which would help to focus the activities of the organisation at a fundamental level on the creation and on-going management of socially sustainable digital collections. cultivating organisational competencies in this manner would allow institutions to fully exploit opportunities in the cultural heritage sector, to manage risk effectively and to be of continuing relevance and benefit to society.” (p5) the importance of taking into account the appropriate legal framework, including rights and use management, was also raised by an interviewee who worked at a university library: “important legal aspects include copyright compliance and explicit copyright procedures and it is very important to get this right, as digital content that ignores this cannot be sustained as it cannot be used, reused and shared legally by users. ” (p9) one interviewee, who was an institutional repository administrator, highlighted the particular attention needed for dealing with resources of cultural significance and political sensitivity: “memory institutions should create policies specific to their culturally significant digitised resources, laying out clear conditions of use and what actions by both the institution and its users will revoke the consent of the resources owners. …the institution must do everything in its power to discourage its users from using its collection unethically.” (p13) advocacy and community engagement advocacy, building and maintaining relationships with users and the wider community is perceived by a number of interviewees to be an important step towards social sustainability. empowering users and providing them a sense of ownership was also perceived to be an important aspect: “post-launch community education and resource management play key roles in the social sustainability of digital collections and services. effective community management include sustaining relationships with existing users and encouraging a sense of ownership among stakeholders.” (p2) “keeping the relationship between users and the digital information services relies on each party viewing the link as reciprocal and supportive of a long-term relationship. a digital information service must be seen to be both accommodating and responsive to the needs of its audience ... the relationship between the institution and the users can result in the institution correctly identifying the needs of its users ... this responsibility makes the user community aware of the institution’s appreciation and the overall commitment to the dissemination of relevant cultural heritage information.” (p4) two interviewees raised the issue of cultural diversities. both of them, who worked at a university library, believed a socially sustainable dch information service should ensure equality of representation of the different cultures of the communities it served: !179 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “social sustainability relates to the ability of the project to build and empower the community it serves, to be relevant within that community and to negotiate cultural diversities.” (p9) “a sustainable collection that socially fulfills a community’s needs is one that promotes and encourages equitable, collaborative and open participation with social awareness, social inclusiveness embedded in its work practices and organisational issues. the way a collection is designed should incorporate each of these aspects. communities require a collection that is freely available and is appealing. it means engaging the community and has a sense of identity to help bring positive change to the community. a collection must have cultural aspects associated with it for a community to effectively engage with the content. a socially acceptable collection is one that allows people to work together for a stronger community and creates a sense of achievement together.” (p10) “for cultural heritage, communities must share a clear understanding that mutual trust and support is gained through making relationships which enhance content through digitisation. this means a sustainable system needs to have clear relevance, accessibility and visibility to understand the organisation and the community’s needs. for a digital collection to be accepted and used in a community it must have significant input by different groups. a community that is engaged with the social and cultural aspects of a collection will positively change and create an empowerment with the material used. the design should be built around the community, identity, social structures and work practices to help drive and preserve the content long term.” (p10) consultation and engagement with the communities concerned were also mentioned by two interviewees who worked at community archives, as key steps towards achieving social sustainability: “the memory institution should proactively facilitate integration of digital resources into teaching, learning, research and community activities, with a view to supporting community engagement and empowerment. communities should be encouraged to share their knowledge and personal collections in collaborative effort to enhance memory collections.” (p2) “community consultation and engagement is an important indicator of social sustainability. community consultation can be used to identify needs and to provide better services by addressing the issues which have the most value and impact on the users.” (p14) also noteworthy were the points made about the importance of developing trust, a sense of identity and ownership and encouraging collaboration and participation. the use of social media and web 2.0 to facilitate these was mentioned by other interviewees: “i’ve seen how the integration of social networks and web 2.0 technologies gives users the means to communicate with a service. the number of web 2.0 technologies !180 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 integrated into a digital collection is a potential indicator for how sustainable the collection might be, since this integration will allow users to interact with the collection in ways that will keep it updated and active and for users to let the institution know how the collection can stay valuable.” (p7) “digital collections aligned to organisational aims and strong user communities are essential for social sustainability. social media can use used to encourage user engagement and actively foster social inclusiveness.” (p8) equity, cultural sensitivity and literacy the importance of equity was raised by most of the interviewees. most of them commented on the need to represent the diversity of cultures, languages and literacy skills present in their projects / sites / services. accessibility and usability were also perceived to be important concerns. as there were quite a few comments with regard to these, the relevant data extracts are presented in appendix 2. one interviewee also made the point about embedding socially sustainable practice in organisational culture: “issues related to equity of access to such as internet infrastructure, internet access costs and digital literacy are generally addressed at a national and sector level. it is also important to acknowledge the importance of educating and supporting staff in a way that embeds socially sustainable practices in their organisational culture. this provides a foundation for institutional policy that requires all digital projects to identify potential users, involve users and other stakeholders as well as potential users in the planning and development of digital collections and resources.” (p1) another interviewee commented how the costs of investing in dch service could be high and hence, the importance of thinking about sustainability at the start: “in any consideration of digital collections, time must be given to consider how the collection may be sustained over the long term. if a collection cannot be sustainable there is often very little point in investing what can be a significant amount of time and money and most importantly, the resources themselves and the effort in curating them.” (p9) a number of them also linked equity of access to technology compatibility: “it is important to assess how easy it is for a broad cross-section of users to access a digital collection. economic considerations should be taken into account because of the major effect they have on social equity. similarly, the number of open source formats available for content downloads is another indicator that could be used. the infrastructure of the digital collection might also present barriers to use, so assessing the proportion of the collection’s interface that is compatible with different technologies will determine what percentage of users will be shut out from accessing the collection. the number of accessibility measures and technologies provided for browsing the collection for those with impairment should also be considered.” (p7) !181 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “to promote equity of access in these contexts, a socially sustainable digital heritage provider will implement solutions that are accessible to mobile devices. making content available to mobile devices presents a tremendous opportunity for collections to be made available to a large section of the community.” (p12) “also included in the cost of accessing a digital development is the means by which the user connects to the collection. users should not have to purchase expensive software to engage with the collection, nor should the system requirements for the electronic devices they use for access be unreasonable. as long as a user’s digital device has web browsing capability, it should be able to access the collection and access must be available via multiple platforms and web browsers.” (p13) not surprisingly, the need for ethical practices around treatment and handling of culturally sensitive indigenous resources was raised by a number of interviewees. among them, there were a research scientist, an institutional repository administrator, a genealogist who works at a university library, and a volunteer at the community library. their respective comments include the following: “also important is the treatment of cultural material within the collection. heritage institutions have placed great importance on adding cultural material to their collections. therefore, an indicator of social sustainability is the ratio of cultural material that is present in the collection. however, a commitment to inclusion of cultural material should also take into consideration ethical issues so that the communities to which this material belongs are not exploited. the presence of a comprehensive policy regarding the display and use of cultural materials is one indicator of how well a digital information service is treating this issue. this should be posted clearly. this indicator will ensure that content is displayed in a culturally sensitive way, that display of materials should be free of negative bias and that materials are not used without permission. a digital information service should also acknowledge the authorship and acquisition process of the materials in the collection so users are aware that specific permission has been granted for their display. services that adhere to these indicators will aid social progress by promoting understanding of other cultures and culturally sensitive practices. the social sustainability of a collection must therefore be dependent on how well digital information services perform against these indicators.” (p7) “inclusion of multilingual materials in the digital collection is critical for social sustainability. with the increase of minority groups in the population it is important to include content from relevant groups to increase accessibility. additionally, the institution must take a multicultural approach to warning its users about sensitive or offensive digital documents.” (p13) “digital collections holding indigenous knowledge traditions should recognise the importance in continuing indigenous knowledge transmission to subsequent generations, as well as providing the same knowledge to non-indigenous people — respectfully.” (p15) “there is also the importance of cultural languages in their own national depositories and lack of technology to share parts of their history due to this language !182 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 barrier. this will be a hardship for indigenous communities and minority groups – that is, their language not available in these information systems for them to understand and to be used as well as share their histories on. in new zealand, obvious example is the way māori are very sensitive with their cultural materials, with rules and regulations in regards to who can access these materials and who cannot. some materials have to be managed in a certain way so that no offence is taken by the māori people and the use of their taonga or treasures.” (p16) the research scientist also commented on the importance of establishing trust, reliability and authenticity as part of any social sustainability effort. she believed this could be achieved through an honest assessment of inclusion/ exclusion of materials and being transparent about the decisions: “the issue of reliability must also be addressed in order to build a socially sustainable collection. the authentication of materials in a digital collection creates reliability over time, so that material available for future users does not end up distorting narratives or recollections about past or current societies. similarly, cultural heritage institutions should assess whether there are types of materials being excluded or rejected from their collections and the reasons why this exclusion is occurring. they should strive to create a collection without hidden censorship, so that freedom of information is protected and an accurate portrayal of society reaches users. that leads to trust in the collections and services too.” (p7) assessment and evaluation several interviewees talked about the importance of assessing and evaluating if and how a dch information service is meeting its goals as an important aspect of achieving social sustainability. equity, accessibility and usability issues were mentioned in relation to this: “periodic evaluations that produce actionable metrics should be conducted in order to determine how efficiently and effectively a digital collection is meeting user needs and project objectives. institutions should be identifying how a collection or service allows people to do what they could not do before –-this is a way to quantify demand, which can be used to argue for future funding. this can be extended to measure and demonstrate how that ability is contributing to social equity and social progress.” (p2) “the availability of assistive technologies is a key indicator of social sustainability. the collection needs to follow the guidelines created by the web accessibility initiative to ensure those with disabilities are able to access content and should promote this. for me, flexibility of access contributes toward the social sustainability of digital collections.” (p3) an interesting point was made by one interviewee who worked part-time at a small museum, about how assessment could include examining the involvement of dch services in efforts to improving accessibility, and the relationships and partnerships they formed with relevant organisations with regard to this: !183 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “at some point, it is also crucial i suppose to adhere to internally recognised accessibility guidelines and conduct user testing and evaluation. assessment indicators could include involvement with relevant associations and institutions advocating for improvements in these areas, as well as relationships and partnerships with businesses and other organisations working in these areas.” (p1) one interviewee, a library assistant, raised an important point about relevance of a dch information service and about involving users in assessment and evaluation: “however, cultural heritage institutions must prepare for changing demographics and must accept that developing policies around the presumed needs of users is complex. the users themselves will be the eventual best judges of the relevance of digitised content. responding to the information needs of users is an inexact exercise, so results from evaluation should be used by the institution to update and remodel what contents and how information is presented and supplied. creating equitable use of digital collections and information services should start with a need assessment of the targeted user audience obtained through community consultation and other assessments.” (p4) what indicators they perceive from current dch services that suggest social sustainability in this section, we present the participants’ responses to the question about the indicators that suggest social sustainability, based upon their experience of using current dch services. please see appendix 1 with regard to this question. participants’ responses were once again manually analysed using a grounded theory approach and organized according to emerging themes. these were then collated under each of the dch services included in this study. the responses were again categorised into three major themes and again, important themes were highlighted in bold: 1. strategy and policy 2. advocacy and community engagement 3. equity, cultural sensitivity and literacy new zealand electronic text collection (http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz) strategy and policy embedding sustainability in strategic planning, having a clear value proposition, good organisational support and strategic promotion of the collection were perceived as positive indicators. the following are some typical comments made by the interviewees: “the strategic plan which states that sustainability and a user-centred approach is to inform decision-making, planning and development, provides a solid foundation for the digital projects” !184 http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “the resource is grounded in a clear value proposition “various strategies are employed to market the collection, including cross-referencing content using relevant university webpages, content and system updates through the nzetc blog and twitter, and a wikipedia entry” “the sustainability of nzetc lies in its significance as a collection of materials that are unique to new zealand and the pacific. nzetc appears to have strong organizational support and staff resources.” advocacy and community engagement as evidenced by the following excerpts, the interviewees also perceived efforts made to collaborate widely, to engage and involve users and the wider community as positive indicators: “copyright is acknowledged and for out of copyright text a creative commons sharealike license is used, allowing re-use of materials as long as they are linked back to nzetc. this increases social sustainability by encouraging the use and sharing of material in competitions, blogs and museum displays.” “nzetc uses apache cocoon and tomcat to publish its content. apache cocoon is open source software that claims to be used by many sites and companies with a strong community and large number of active developers.” “the nzetc maintains professional relationships with a number of internal and external groups. nzetc’s collaborative partners include major sources of heritage and maori resources including matapihi, digital nz and the kiwi research information service.” equity, cultural sensitivity and literacy a number of interviewees discussed features they perceived to demonstrate nzetc’s attempt to address equity, including accessibility of the contents, diversity in contents and support for multilingual search: nzetc partners with federated search services including matapihi, digital nz and the kiwi research information service, and texts can be downloaded in four different formats.” “the nzetc comprises a lot of new zealand and pacific island texts and materials and this diversity is supported by the availability of multilingual search options.” “nzetc allows the majority of its collection to be downloaded in accessible formats. the collection provides daisy audiobooks which can be used by the hearing impaired and xml files which can be rendered on screen readers and braille output devices.” !185 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “the nzetc website uses a simple design with search and browsing functions. the level of information literacy required of users to access the material is not substantial.” kete horowhenua (http://horowhenua.kete.net.nz) strategy and policy only one interviewee commented on the role of kh’s strategic plan in facilitating social sustainability: “kh reflects a firm commitment to social sustainability in the areas of advocacy, strategy and policy, planning, development, management and evaluation. the project development reflects the objectives of the national digital strategy. the project is grounded in te horowhenua trust strategic objectives including strategic partnerships, free access to information, digital literacy, community participation and community decision-making. the project facilitates open discussion about future enhancements to the resource through the website, blog and kete community meetings.” advocacy and community engagement for kh, it was obvious that most interviewees perceived its greatest strength to lie in the project’s engagement of its users and communities: “the entire structure of kh is dependent on supporting and attracting user communities for its social sustainability. there are active discussion forums within kh, as users can create items to add to the collection which can be commented on and developed by the online community. it is clear that the users of kh have affection for their physical community. there are detailed exploration and corrections of minute facts and figures of the region, shared stories of their experiences and photographs to support the development of the cultural history of the region. kh clearly values user contributions to the site and from the impression made by the topics and themes of the discussion boards, it is clear kh users support the managed online space to record their memories.” “kete horowhenua is a user-friendly, community-driven and community-built digital library of arts, cultural and heritage resources. content is licensed through creative commons licensing. the provision of this information and knowledge has depended on collaborative relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders. participants in the community have become empowered through their contributions, use of the site, and sharing sense of ownership of the digital library.” “kete is setting itself up as a culturally diverse space and also encourages maori participation and inclusion of our maori history and heritage. kete’s main strength in terms of social sustainability is in its capacity for community involvement. it actively attempts to create user “communities” by allowing the creation of community ‘baskets.’ ” !186 http://horowhenua.kete.net.nz the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 one interviewee also highlighted the partnership kh has formed towards promoting access: “kh connects to digital nz, other digital libraries that have been created using the kete open source software (kete christchurch, kete hurunui and kete waimakariri) and the horowhenua public library resources. it also has provision for advertising by local businesses on the site. this is possibly a way of increasing revenue for the community that could be used to sustain itself as part of the horowhenua district council’s library resources. this is compatible with its partnership with the council and with seniornet. the provision of computers and the internet within the local library should ensure that kete continues to be visible to the community.” equity cultural sensitivity and literacy one interviewee pointed to the features available to make kh more accessible, while asserting the need to do more around this to ensure long-term sustainability: “kete does have simple measures in place in regards to accessibility, including instructions for access keys and for resizing text. greater inclusion of assistive technologies could be put in place as the site grows to ensure sustainability into the future.” new zealand history online (http://www.nzhistory.net.nz) strategy and policy a number of interviewees believed nzho’s contents of national and cultural values and significance were its strongest social sustainability indicators: “the site is a rich source of authoritative historical information and an excellent platform from which to base any historical research. as the collection has been developed by professional historians, the material selected for the site is expected to have been gathered systematically, and are of high value to the intended audience, with respect to cultural value and significance.” “the nzho website is particularly well positioned as a project from the ministry for culture and heritage for economic sustainability with a strong political drive behind it, but also social sustainability with accessible content and the inherent affinity it has with national, regional and cultural identity.” advocacy and community engagement again, interviewees perceived efforts made to involve and engage users and the broader community as positive indicator: “there is an opportunity for users to comment or post on the site, using the “community contributions” function. the process is straightforward, only an email address is needed and the content is mediated.” !187 http://www.nzhistory.net.nz the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “for text and specified images, nzho uses the creative commons attributionnoncommercial 3.0 new zealand licence, allowing copying, adaptation and distribution as long as it’s attributed. i believe this promotes social sustainability by encouraging users to make active use of materials.” “perhaps the strongest sustainable feature is that the project draws on the collections of other cultural heritage institutions for its digital content rather than simply maintaining a collection of its own.” there were a few comments on the use of social media to facilitate engagement: “the use of social media technologies by nzho facilitates a socially connected collection that is beneficial to users, therefore increasing its social sustainability.” “nzho also features frequently updated social media profiles, on twitter and facebook which allows it to offer users something ‘extra’, and encourage greater use of the digital collection and information service to support its long term social sustainability.” “there is engagement with local community via social media but the site is maintained by professional historians thus may not be accepted as ‘grass-roots’ in its community involvement.” interestingly, in responding to this question, there was the following response which highlighted the issue around whose ‘voice’ (point-of-view) was represented and presented: “although the collection focuses on war themes there are broader topics related to understanding new zealand identity including some which feature a maori perspective. however it is often unclear whose point-of-view is being provided other than an assumed ‘official’ one. other cultures and communities are included within sub-themes. as a government site, it would probably take considerable effort by any group to get a ‘theme’ included on the site. if they did, a high level of community engagement in the process would be likely due to the high profile of the institution and its desire to protect its reputation for representing history accurately.” equity cultural sensitivity and literacy attempts for achieving equity were noted in several statements made by the interviewees: “the site claims to adhere to the w3c standards for web accessibility.” “there is a focus on the new zealand school curriculum and different areas are tailored to teachers and students, giving them good, accessible content at an appropriate level which is a good sign of social sustainability. there is a significant amount of te reo māori content, for example biographies of māori are presented in both māori and english. there is also a significant amount of multi-media content, including video, audio, images as well as ‘interactives’. this is a good sign for social sustainability as it will attract users with different needs.” !188 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “there is a wide variety of both indigenous and minority materials available. however this could be improved by including a te reo (māori language) search option.” “the nzho content and display is targeted to a general public level resulting in good equity of access. most people will have sufficient digital literacy to use the site.” “the site’s text content is licensed under creative commons licensing. the site claims to be accessible using most browsing technologies and markets itself through promotional posters and social media channels (facebook and twitter). there is also an option to subscribe to an email newsletter.” what they believe to be the main challenges for dch services to main social sustainability in analysing the interviewees’ responses to the question about challenges to social sustainability, again using a grounded theory approach, we found the responses to fall under three themes: (i) lack of long-term strategic planning, (ii) lack of addressing the equity issues and (iii) lack of collaboration, community involvement and engagement. lack of long-term strategic planning the following responses highlight a couple of potential risks and issues – failure to plan for social sustainability at the start of a project and lack of a sustainable funding model: “cultural heritage institutions that create digital collections and information services based on a ‘build it, they will come’ approach, and consider long-term social sustainability only at the end of a project risk misalignment with user needs and objectives, and undermining the resources invested.” (p2) “kete horowhenua solicits and depends on donations from the public to put plans into action as well as to maintain the current phase of the site. this may not be sustainable unless there is a more formal structure to it.” (p4) “kh received project funding from digital nz and is supported by the local district council. there is an element of risk to kh funding which may adversely impact on its sustainability. however if the project can show high value collections and if they have sufficient community value, they may be supported by larger economically sustainable institutions.” (p8) equity issues lack of equity around accessibility, usability, diversity of language representation and relevant contents, and lack of cultural sensitivity were highlighted: “the nzetc display interface is quite basic and easy to follow, but feels staid and is likely too academic for some. the site is unlikely to appeal to a younger audience. “(p3) !189 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 while the ministry for culture and heritage’s website is available in te reo maori, nzho is only viewable in english. unlike nzetc, searching is only possible in english. this is a potential issue, given its ministerial ties. there is no help section on nzho, representing a problem as users that encounter trouble have no hope of assistance. (p6) nzho only includes a brief accessibility section that explains how alt shortcuts can be used by those with mobility issues to browse the collection. if other accessibility features are present on the site, they are not immediately obvious. (p7) despite its focus on new zealand and pacific island materials, the nztec is only available in english. additionally, it does not warn for potentially offensive content. similarly, nzho does not provide information as to whether documents of cultural or political sensitivity are included in the collection. (p16) lack of collaboration, community involvement and engagement the lack of evidence of community engagement and involvement were perceived by some as barriers to achieving social sustainability. so was the lack of collaboration and operating on a small scale: “nzetc doesn’t support the integration of users’ knowledge with the collection, and adding more interactive and participatory functionality could potentially further support research.” (p2) “there needs to be (for nzetc) a better visibility with digital content through community engagement. otherwise, it may lose the connection with communities that can benefit from it.” (p10) “with nzetc, it should link the collection to a larger collaborative initiative and catering to users who do not use one collection exclusively. “(p13) “kh aims to construct a vibrant community of users who add value to the site on a voluntary or reciprocal basis. this can be seen as a strength. however, operating on too small a scale, on its own can be a threat to the social sustainability.” (p15) discussion of the main findings analysis of interview results leads to four main themes, under which the issues raised and identified by study participants as important for the social sustainability of dch services could be organised. strategy and policy the perceived benefits of having relevant strategies and policies in place were linked to sending a clear message about an institution’s stance on social sustainability, as well as to meeting current and future needs of users and communities. this was also perceived to be important to guide resource allocation and risk management, which can be particularly important in dealing with resources of cultural significance and political sensitivity. two !190 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 participants also emphasised the importance of addressing this not only at an institutional level, but in a wider context, taking into consideration for instance, of sector-wide concerns and the appropriate legal framework. advocacy and community engagement advocacy, and the building and maintaining of relationships with users and the wider community, are perceived by a number of interviewees to be important steps towards social sustainability. empowering users and providing them a sense of ownership was perceived to be an important aspect of managing digital cultural heritage project engagement. the issue of cultural diversities was raised, emphasising the importance of ensuring equity of representation of the different cultures of the communities the dch serves. it was suggested that any dch should be built around the community, taking into account the identity, social structures and work practices of the communities concerned. consultation and engagement with the communities concerned were also mentioned as key steps towards achieving social sustainability, as was the importance of developing trust, a sense of identity and ownership and encouraging collaboration and participation among users and the wider communities. inclusivity, cultural sensitivity and literacy the importance of equity was raised by most of the interviewees. most of them commented on the need to represent the diversity of cultures, languages and literacy skills. accessibility and usability were also perceived to be important concerns. a number of participants linked equity of access to technology compatibility. not surprisingly, the need for ethical practices around treatment and handling of culturally sensitive indigenous resources were raised by a number of interviewees. one interviewee also made the point about embedding socially sustainable practice in organisational culture and how this should provide a foundation for policy formulation. the importance of establishing trust, reliability and authenticity as part of any social sustainability effort was mentioned, and an example was provided on how this could be achieved through an honest assessment of inclusion / exclusion of materials and being transparent about these decisions. assessment and evaluation the importance of assessing and evaluating if and how a dch information service is meeting its goals, as an important aspect of achieving social sustainability, was raised by a number of interviewees. equity, accessibility and usability issues were mentioned in relation to this. interesting points were made about involvement of users in assessment and evaluation, and about how assessment could include examining the efforts made by dch to improve and manage the relationships and partnerships they formed with relevant organisations. conclusions overall, it was noted that all the three chosen dch information services meet a number of the social sustainability criteria identified in the previous section. however, there are some differences among the three dch information services because of their nature and content, as well as the organization that owns each one, and provides the service. for example, nztec is a university dch information service as opposed to nzho which is a service from the !191 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 government ministry, and kh which is a community-built service. it is good to note that each service clearly states their overall strategy and policy and they are available to members of general public through easy open access tools. however, there are certain differences, as well. for example, kh is built by members of the community who want to share their information with others, while the nzho collection is built by professional historians. all the services use the appropriate web 2.0 and social media technologies in order to engage with the communities. some however, make more use of crowdsourcing technologies to build and annotate the collections. kh is a prominent example of this type of community engagement for building and sharing its collection. it also makes provisions for advertisement of local businesses, thereby drawing on more local community resources. other services use a different kind of community engagement, for example, nzho draws on the collections of other cultural heritage institutions for its digital content rather than simply maintaining a collection of its own. although the social sustainability attributes identified in this study have been categorised under four themes, they are often inter-related. the next phase of the study would aim to validate and extend if necessary, the list of social sustainability attributes in a larger sample of dch information services. this will help us move towards a validated model for the social sustainability attributes for dch information services. it will also be interesting to study if and in what ways each social sustainability attribute have impact on one another and thus how attributes can be optimised in order to build socially sustainable dch information services. references adelle, c. and pallemaerts, m. 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(2009). decision making for social sustainability: a lifecycle assessment approach. ieee international symposium on technology and society, 2009. istas ‘09, 1 – 5. hutchins, m. and sutherland, j.w. (2008). an exploration of measures of social sustainability and their application to supply chain decisions. journal of cleaner production, 16(15), 1688-1698. innocenti, p. (2015). cultural networks in migrating heritage: intersecting theories and practices across europe. ashgate. liew, c. l. (2014). participatory cultural heritage: a tale of two institutions’ use of social media. dlib magazine, 20(3/4). retrieved from: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march14/liew/03liew.html liew, c. l. (2012). towards socially inclusive digital libraries. in digital libraries and information access: research perspectives, edited by chowdhury, g. g. and foo, s. facet publishing: 97-111. liew, c. l. (2010). digital libraries for cultural heritage. in business planning for digital libraries: international approaches, edited by collier, m. leuven university press: 195-205. mak, m. y and peacock, c. j. (2011). social sustainability: a comparison of case studies in uk, usa and australia. 17th pacific rim real estate society conference, gold coast, 16-19 jan 2011. retrieved from: www.prres.net/papers/mak_peacock_social_sustainability.pdf nakata, m., nakata, v., gardiner, g., mckeough , j. byrne, a. and gibson, j. (2008). indigenous digital collections: an early look at the organisation and culture interface, australian academic & research libraries, 39(4), 223-236. nicholas, d., clark, d., rowlands, i. and jamali, h.r. (2013). information on the go: a case study of europeana mobile users. journal of the american society for information science and technology, 64(7), 1311-1322. tait, e., macleod, m. , beel, d., wallace, c., mellish, c. and taylor, s. (2013). linking to the past: an analysis of community digital heritage initiatives, aslib proceedings: new information perspectives, 65(6), 564 – 580. unesco. (2008). unesco world heritage information kit. retrieved from http://whc.unesco.org/ uploads/activities/documents/activity-567-1.pdf 
 !193 https://www.asis.org/conferences/am09/open-proceedings/papers/5.html http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march14/liew/03liew.html http://www.prres.net/papers/mak_peacock_social_sustainability.pdf http://whc.unesco.org/uploads/activities/documents/activity-567-1.pdf http://whc.unesco.org/uploads/activities/documents/activity-567-1.pdf the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 appendix 1 pre-interview questionnaire the following ‘questionnaire’ was emailed to each participant in preparation for the interviews two weeks prior. survey regarding social sustainability of digital cultural heritage (dch) projects thank you for your consent to participate in this study. in preparation for the upcoming interview, it would be helpful if you could take a look at the two broad questions that would be used to guide the semi-structured interview: • what factors do you consider are important for dch projects to be socially sustainable or to achieve social sustainability? • what do you believe are the main challenges for dch projects to achieve or maintain social sustainability? you may find the following references on social sustainability useful for your preparation: o baehler, k. (2007). social sustainability: new zealand’s solution to tocqueville’s problem. social policy journal of aotearoa/new zealand, 31, pp. 22-40. https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/aboutmsd-and-our-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj31/31pages22-40.pdf o magee, l., scerri, a. and james, p. (2012). measuring social sustainability: a community-centred approach. applied research quality life, 7, pp. 239–261. https://www.academia.edu/5178539/ _measuring_social_sustainability_a_community-centred_approach_ o omann, i. and spangenberg, j.h. (2002). assessing social sustainability: the social dimension of sustainability in a socio-economic scenario. paper presented at 7th biennial conference of the international society for ecological economics. http://seri.at/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/ assessing_social_sustainability.pdf also, we would appreciate your responses to the following questions. please either (i) email your responses to chernli.liew@vuw.ac.nz prior to the interview or (ii) bring along your responses to the face-to-face interview. your background gender: _________________ age: _____________________ current employment: _______________________________________________________________ have you used the following dch(s)? • new zealand electronic text collection (http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz) if yes, please state the purpose(s) of use: ___________________________________________________ • kete horowhenua (http://horowhenua.kete.net.nz) if yes, please state the purpose(s) of use: ___________________________________________________ • new zealand history online (http://www.nzhistory.net.nz) if yes, please state the purpose(s) of use: ___________________________________________________ for each of the dch(s) you’ve used, we would appreciate your answers to the following question. • what indicators do you perceive from the current dch project(s) that suggest social sustainability? the more specific the information you provide us with, the more useful this study will be. thank you for your time and effort in advance. please note that your identity and responses will be kept confidential. there will be no attribution of data that will identify you in the reporting of the study findings. 
 !194 https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj31/31-pages22-40.pdf https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj31/31-pages22-40.pdf https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj31/31-pages22-40.pdf https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj31/31-pages22-40.pdf https://www.academia.edu/5178539/_measuring_social_sustainability_a_community-centred_approach_ https://www.academia.edu/5178539/_measuring_social_sustainability_a_community-centred_approach_ https://www.academia.edu/5178539/_measuring_social_sustainability_a_community-centred_approach_ http://seri.at/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/assessing_social_sustainability.pdf http://seri.at/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/assessing_social_sustainability.pdf http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz http://horowhenua.kete.net.nz http://www.nzhistory.net.nz the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 appendix 2 interview data extracts on the ‘equity, cultural sensitivity and literacy’ theme cultures, languages and literacy skills accessibility and usability “complexity and sensitivity are critical in developing culturally sensitive digital collections for multicultural users. post-colonial tension and political correctness need to be considered carefully. in the new zealand context, treaty of waitangi obligations must be implemented regarding content and language. does the digital collection reflect the cultural diversity of the topic, the society and the archive itself? a measure of the number of in and out links to diverse, authoritative resources that user groups know and trust can indicate effort to build cultural bridges. a vital way to avoid problems is to have a programme of community consultation, community engagement and empowerment. this should be in regard to the collection design as well as content”. (p3) “having measures in place to ensure the widest range of people possible have access to content is one way to ensure the digital collection stays relevant into the future. the digital cultural site must also have measures in place to make it accessible to all groups, i n c l u d i n g t h o s e w i t h v i s i o n a n d h e a r i n g impairments and learning disabilities. especially relevant in new zealand is offer support for bilingual or multilingual interfaces. one final consideration is that of information literacy. not everyone that uses the digital library may be proficient in the use of information technology, therefore options for using and contributing must be simple and straightforward. it must also be accessible to people with nonbroadband internet access.” (p9) “technology literacy needs to be regarded carefully. is the collection designed in a manner that is easy to access for those not highly computer-literate? are their options for more advanced users and for users to personalise as they progress in use experience? support for bilingual or multilingual interfaces is also a crucial aspect. as a minimum, the interface should be available in all official languages of the host country. if significant content or end-users use a particular language, this language should be catered for.” (p3) “social sustainability relates to human needs, needs of society and has a focus on the future. improved social equity and social progress should be the goals of a socially sustainable digital information services. support for multilingual interfaces is important to new zealand. it should be expected that contents in ‘non-principal’ languages be translated, with the option for subtitled videos and transcripts of audio materials. these are keys to supporting a diverse user base. engaging and reacting to user needs are indicators of social sustainability and this outreach should occur before and after launch.” (p6) “there are many roles that cultural heritage institutions can play in managing socially sustainable digital collections and information services. these roles relate to the issue of fair access to content, the issue of user literacy and language, the issue of fair treatment of cultures and cultural material and the issue of reliability of information.” (p7) “it is important to ensure technologies are implemented in a way to suit targeted users. consideration needs to be on including all elements to ensure cultural heritage collections can be accessible by all communities that results in effective trust.” (p10) “cultural institutions must also address the issue of user literacy and language. basically, if a digital collection cannot be understood by its users, it will not be used. therefore, the proportion of user friendly features available for browsing the collection should always be considered and assessed. the collection must cater for multilingual communities if it wishes to be socially sustainable. the percentage of site features offered in non-english and the percentage of items in the collection that are in non-english and minority languages are both indicators that can be used to determine how fair the collection is to all members of society.” (p7) “the collection interface should not be unnecessarily complex, nor should the collection require a high degree of information or digital literacy to negotiate. navigation should be intuitive and easy to master. there should be a help function to allow users to learn how to search the collection and make the most of its resources. if funds permit it, a guided tour function will also assist user learning. the collection’s interface should be able to be used by the elderly and the visually impaired.” (p13) !195 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “when a collection is selected for digitalisation, often a community or user group is privileged and whose values are embedded in institutional aims and selection policies. to achieve social sustainability, minority histories and knowledge must be represented. widening access to digital collections creates new ways of building social cohesion and identity. greater collaboration may result in improved knowledge sharing and building identity. however, minority groups may mistrust institutions and be reluctant to collaborate because of the lack of involvement and consultation which i understand is not uncommon.” (p8) “the importance of recognising different users' behaviours and needs extends beyond conventional information sources and into memory institutions' digital collections which must be tailored just as much, if not more than conventional print collections to ensure community engagement is achieved. suitable methods of communication are also key to developing a sense of shared identity with users. this is particularly important in parts of the population who have limited or impaired information and technology literacy.” (p13) “digital collections that contain socially and culturally diverse content may be able to keep up social change that is driven by desire for equality. an indication of this may be a goal or mission statement on the website. cultural institutions must accept that complexity exists within society and be aware of and sensitive to all relevant cultural issues, taboo and cultural imperatives in the design, creation and maintenance of the site. evidence of this may be design and content that embraces a culture or many cultures and features that elicit and encourage contribution and feedback. they may also empower users by including them as contributors of contents. that should also cultivate commitment and a sense of ownership.” (p9) “an important issue for social sustainability is whether a collection can play a role in widening access to information related to national identity, especially information about socially diverse groups, minority cultures and their knowledge practices. not all users have the same computer skills, educational background, have english as their first language, or can use advanced searches, fields and filtering. creating an easy or familiar formatted user interface such as a google-like search tool to search a digital collection is an example assessment factor in whether a digital library’s collection is too complicated for the basic user.” (p15) “a digital collection needs to meet the compatibility of users and create social awareness. some users are excluded from technology access because of their it literacy, previous experience, age, gender or disability and cultural heritage material can be overwhelming for users who do not know how to find and interpret information. it means sufficient support towards creating a collection that meets community needs should be considered for diverse information needs empowering communities to create effective mechanisms will help assist in sustaining a collection that is targeted for them and their technological backgrounds.” (p10) “access is vital in this process of sustainability. sustaining cultural heritage collections through digital means requires education on how to access them. other issues include technology obsolescence. forms of technology sometimes become extinct and not in use with the new or current technologies out there resulting in information held on them not able to be shown. also important for heritage organisations is to include what the users want not only the present but for the future as well to ensure the use of their collections and ensure the importance of what the organisation exists for.” (p16) “language is the primary form of access to a culture and this has been demonstrably true of te reo māori. social sustainability in this context would mean that digital heritage project would factor in a multilingual approach with particular attention to te reo māori, one of the three official languages of new zealand.” (p11) “firstly, access to digital developments should not be expensive. while these projects are often costly to implement and maintain, care must be taken to ensure that information is not being denied to those who cannot afford any fees associated with the collection. this is especially important when the intellectual and/ or cultural owners of digital resources in the collection wish to access these items.” (p13) “there must be no bias as to which cultures are represented in the collection. digitisation projects often put more emphasis on digitizing the content rather than providing for the needs of the community.” (p14) “the interface for the collection needs to be set up to cater for a diverse range of individuals. indicators for a sustainable system interface include ease of learning, ease of usage and adaptability. the system interface needs to be available for use in a variety of devices such as laptops, mobile phones and tablets.” (p14) !196 mapping the tso kar basin in ladakh: gathering spatial information from a nomadic community shashank srinivasan high-altitude wetlands [1] are critical ecosystems at risk from global climatic changes and local human activities. in the indian subcontinent, they are reservoirs of biodiversity, providing rest sites for birds migrating across the himalayas, and support many types of endemic wildlife. human communities also inhabit the regions surrounding the high-altitude wetlands; they rely upon the ecosystem services [2] provided by these wetlands for their survival. the terrain is remote and inhospitable. landslides and snowfall can block passes for days on end and temperatures can be extreme. infrastructure development activities in the region such as road construction and the deployment of utility networks can benefit the local communities, but need to be environmentally sustainable. mitigating the impacts of climate change is also required to ensure the continued existence of these wetlands. developing best-practice management plans for the conservation of these biodiversity hotspots require accurate spatial information. the overarching purpose of my research in the high-altitude wetlands of the tso kar basin in ladakh is to collect spatial data from the local human community and assimilate it with data from other sources. together, these datasets can be used to create a consolidated and dynamic atlas of the tso kar basin wetlands. the purpose of this atlas is to help stakeholders, such as the changpa, make informed and accurate decisions regarding development activities in the tso kar basin. stakeholders and the tso kar basin the tso kar basin is located at an altitude of 4500m in the cold deserts of the changthang plateau in ladakh, and contains two lakes. the smaller freshwater statsaphuk tso is connected to the larger eponymous brackish tso kar by a small channel, and both are surrounded by wetlands. the basin itself lies just off the leh-manali highway south of the taklang la pass, and can be accessed by road through one saddle [3] in the northwest and another in the southeast. the wetlands surrounding the lakes in the tso kar basin host various species of wildlife, and are an important breeding site for the endangered black-necked crane (grus nigricollis) in india. stakeholders in the basin region consist of wildlife and wetland managers, administrative officials and the local human community known as the changpa. the pastoral nomadic changpa who live in and around the tso kar basin are completely nomadic. they move across the landscape with their livestock, stopping at pre-determined settlements for a few weeks at a time before moving on when they feel that their herds require higher grass densities. in summer, they live on the grasslands outside the tso kar basin, while they depend on the wetlands within the basin in the cold winters. two army engineering divisions, the border roads organisation (bro) and the general reserve engineering force (gref), are implementing infrastructure development activities, such as road construction, within the basin. other regional stakeholders include wildlife and wetland managers (such as the world wildlife fund), who act as representatives for the wildlife in the region; administrative officials (such as the ladakh autonomous hill development council), who are decision-makers regarding development activities in the region, and law enforcers (i.e. the state forest and wildlife departments) who are responsible for the enforcement of environmental law. tourist agencies are also stakeholders in the future of the tso kar basin as the area is becoming a prominent destination for bird-watchers, outdoor enthusiasts and off-road vehicle drivers. mitigating conflict between these groups while preserving the ecosystems in the tso kar basin requires informed management. spatial information is a primary requirement for such informed management plans. my project involved collecting and consolidating this information from various sources. while remote sensing data was obtained from dedicated online repositories [4], the changpa community provided information regarding their resource use and movement patterns. spatial community information i chose cartographic representation as my mode of information collection from the changpa since it bypasses issues of translation. signs, symbols, points and lines do not require a language for explanation. the community's information was obtained through interactions with the individual members. instrumentation such as global positioning system (gps) devices and satellite imagery were used for data verification. the changpa claim traditional rights over the basin and the surrounding areas, by charging tourists a nominal fee for overnight camping and restricting grazing permissions to non-locals. however, no official land records validate their claims. further, since the indian forest rights act (2006) is not applicable in jammu and kashmir, which includes this region, it does not provide the changpa with any land rights. the changpa also do not have access to spatial information via survey maps (restricted for reasons of national security [5]). they also do not have access to facilities such as the usgs landsat imagery viewer or google earth because of the technological inaccessibility of these resources. i believe that making this information about land-use and movement patterns of the changpa available to all stakeholders, and opening up the data, serves a set of valuable functions. it will help law-enforcers, administrative officials and environmental managers make better decisions regarding conservation and development in the tso kar basin. incorporating community land-use patterns and in a broader sense involving the communities most impacted by decisions in the decision-making process itself could lead to better and more representative governance. in lieu of land records, this information will allow the changpa to defend their territorial claims over the region in the possible case of future conflicts with other stakeholders regarding land rights. gleaning spatial information from the changpa the challenge was to translate the changpa community's view of their landscape into a structure that could be fed into a geographic information system (gis), where it could be cross-referenced with remote sensing data [6] to add to its value. remote sensing data can provide information on temporal land-use/land-cover change, vegetation and water availability, and the topography of the land. mashing up remote sensing information with local community knowledge can help identify patterns and theories regarding future trends in resource use and possible stakeholder conflict. to obtain spatial information from the changpa community, i went into the field with a set of satellite images of the terrain, transparencies and marker pens, and met with groups of three to five community members at a time. i would identify certain points, such as our present location, other settlements or passes whose locations both the participants and i were familiar with. i then asked them to mark out important features, such as settlements or passes on the maps, as a brief training exercise in understanding the satellite image. one observation i made was that my informants had difficulties with estimating distances between points on the satellite images. they were better able to locate them using other known reference points. in other words, they were better at triangulation than at distance estimation. most of my informants had never seen satellite imagery of any sort before. however, they were familiar with maps and were able to make the spatial-cognitive leap to comprehending that the satellite images depicted an overhead view of their land. once this idea had been grasped, they could begin to add additional layers of information to my satellite imagery, such as settlement locations, areas of resource use, time spent in each area, and the seasonal areal movement pattern. all conversation was in hindi, although at times my informants would argue with each other in their native rupshu dialect of ladakhi. arguments were either about the location of a particular settlement, or about the time of the year at which they moved to a settlement. participants would disagree about exactly where on the map a point was located, and would try and dominate the argument by referring to physical features on the map and using their information about the land to validate their claims. i resolved these arguments through field visits and the use of instrumentation to verify the ground truth.  however, participants would disagree about the exact time at which they moved to a location, with their estimates varying by 10-20 days at a time. these discrepancies can be understood in light of the fact that the nomadic movement schedule changes annually depending on the availability of fodder. so a two-three week change in movement time from one year to the next is not unusual. the final mashup this process resulted in the creation of a series of distinct datasets. one was a text-only dataset that consisted of a table where the name of the region and the season it was used in was recorded. this information was collected through repeated interviews. another was a text-spatial dataset where the name of the region was connected to its delineated borders as identified by the participatory mapping process. finally, there was a spatial dataset consisting of settlement locations and road networks, obtained through field visits. by cross-referencing all these datasets, i had obtained information on the spatial movement and seasonal resource use of the changpa in the tso kar basin. this information could be input into a gis system, and overlaid on the remote sensing imagery to create an agglomeration of data, more poetically known as a data mash-up. conclusion by collating information from various sources, i have described and delineated a nomadic community's resource use and movement patterns. this information product isin ii accessible to a far wider audience than the changpa. academicians, decision-makers and conservation scientists can access this information in the form of physical maps or web-based systems. most importantly, this spatial information can be mashed up with other data to help regional stakeholders, including the changpa, make informed decisions that affect the future of these high-altitude wetlands. the question now remains as to what use the changpa themselves will make of this information. i believe that in the case of disputes about territorial rights, this will help them verify their claims over the land they control. they may also be able to use this information to design and implement community-based tourism activities, and to refine and articulate their position on development and conservation activities conducted in and around the tso kar basin. over the next few years, i hope to help this nomadic community use and leverage the information they possess regarding this harsh and beautiful landscape to protect their natural heritage. acknowledgements i would like to thank the wwf-india's high altitude wetlands program for funding this study. i am also deeply grateful to tharchen and his family in the tso kar basin for being such gracious and tolerant hosts. bibliography chambers, r. (2006). participatory mapping and geographic information systems: whose map? who is empowered and who disempowered? who gains and who loses? the electronic journal on information systems in developing countries, 25(2):1-11. elwood, s. (2006) critical issues in participatory gis: deconstructions, reconstructions, and new research directions. transactions in gis, 10(5): 693 708. international fund for agricultural development (2009). good practices in participatory mapping. review. neefjes, k. (1993). examples of participatory rural appraisal in wetland development in guinea bissau. rra notes 17, pp.49-56, iied london rambaldi et al. (2006) practical ethics for pgis practitioners, facilitators, technology intermediaries and researchers. participatory learning and action. april 2006. 106-113 wetland action (2004). participatory methods in sustainable wetland management. report. image 1: a changpa community member in the tso kar basin in ladakh map 1: area of interest (green) in ladakh, northern india map 2: seasonal resource use by the changpa in the tso kar basin endnotes [1] high-altitude wetlands are defined as those wetlands found at or above 3000m in altitude. in india, high-altitude wetlands are found only in the himalayas and the trans-himalayan tibetan plateau, in the state of ladakh. [2] examples of wetland ecosystem services would be their capability to mitigate floods, increase the height of the groundwater table and provide breeding habitat to migratory waterfowl. [3] a saddle is the low part of a ridge between two higher points or peaks. [4] the online repositories used for this study are maintained by the university of marylands global land cover facility (glcf) and the consultative group on international agricultural research consortium for spatial information (cgiar csi). while the glcf hosts the landsat archives, the cgiar-csi hosts the srtm data, and allow both datasets to be freely used, with attribution for non-commercial purposes. [5] ladakh is a part of the state of jammu and kashmir. while the entire territory is claimed by india, pakistan controls an area to the west and china holds a portion in the east. the indian administration is very circumspect regarding spatial information about this region. since most of this spatial information is available from sources based outside the country, the restrictions justified on grounds of national security handicap the local people who could make best use of it. [6] remote sensing data, in the broadest sense of the word, refers to data that has been collected from afar; telescopic imagery, aerial photography and satellite data could all be classified under this term. the information obtained through remote sensing techniques can be organised, arranged and analysed within a geographic information system (gis). a gis can be capable of handling many layers of information. in this project, the information obtained from the changpa is merely another set of layers that can be compared with the layers of remote sensing information. 1334 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 book reviews kentaro toyama: geek heresy rescuing social change from the cult of technology. new york, usa: public affairs, 2015. kentaro toyama’s new book geek heresy should be considered required reading by anyone interested or involved in community informatics, ict4d or digital development. it will be especially appreciated by those cynical about the kind of technocratic solutionism epitomized by projects like one laptop per child and by those who favour a human-centred rather than technocentric approach to human development. toyama has addressed his message primarily at an audience of computer savvy geeks in the global north, and commits the heresy of suggesting that their cunning technology projects are no silver bullet for development. the heretical author insists on the need to keep our techno-utopianism and saviour-complexes firmly under wraps. the book’s central argument builds on his previous work (2010) to argue that technology cannot – in and of itself be an effective substitute for human talent and organisation. appropriating philip agre’s (1998) amplification thesis the author argues persuasively that technology can only amplify existing human capacity and intent, and never be an effective substitute for the lack of it. no amount of computers – he argues can compensate for a lack of well-trained and well-motivated teachers, health professionals or agricultural workers. in organisations blessed with strong staff teams progressing towards valuable goals then technology can usefully amplify their efforts in that direction. however in organizations with weak staff teams, which are heading in negative directions then technology, will also amplify that trajectory. 
 
 toyama draws heavily on his wealth of personal experience as head of microsoft research india to illustrate his argument with compelling examples that debunk the idea that technology alone can !229 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1334 reviewed by tony roberts institute for development studies, university of sussex, united kingdom http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1334 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1334 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 solve problems of social development. instead the author advocates investing first and foremost in identifying and nurturing such human talent that is directed at addressing development goals. the early chapters in part one of the book are the strongest and most compelling. they provide rich case studies from the author’s personal experience of over fifty research projects in india. in each case he graphically illustrates how the talents and endeavor of key individuals determined the success or otherwise of development initiatives. technology is never able to be a substitute for the absence of these capacities but was able to amplify them where they did exist, or as toyama puts it “technology amplifies people’s capacities in the direct of their intent” (p29). 
 
 for me part two of the book is less strong. toyama elaborates his amplification thesis from its focus on ‘capacity and intent’ to the more philosophical realms of ‘heart, mind and will’. however the case is less clearly and less compellingly made and so, i feel, ultimately detracts from the clarity and force of his primary argument that development efforts should focus in the first instance on building human capacity and intent – because technology can only amplify existing human capacity and intent. in making his argument toyama distances himself both from technological determinists (heilbroner 1967) and technology utopians (sachs 2005) as well as from the technology skeptics (ellul 1965; morozov 2011). toyama locates himself within the social construction of technology camp – albeit with a heavy emphasis of the human (rather than social) factors. this emphasis on and optimism about human agency is both a strength and weakness of toyama’s approach. his human-centric approach is derived from the logic that “it is people who act and make decisions technologies do not”. this logic will resonate with scholars and practitioners of community informatics. however toyama’s emphasis on human agency is at the expense of any sustained consideration of the structural power inequalities that constrain much community informatics work. geek heresy would have been stronger had it included a fuller account of how inequality is structured by intersections of power including race, gender and class and how communities have (un)successfully applied technology to combat it. without addressing these issues any book which sets out to diagnose and to prescribe how people might effect social change using technology remains incomplete. that having been said, the lessons of geek heresy are valuable and widely applicable in community informatics, in ict4d and digital development. toyama has distilled his extensive experience of applying icts to development into three clear theses: packaged technology solutions are insufficient to achieve human development; technology can only magnify existing human capacity and intent; the task of development is therefore primarily one of building existing human capacity which is intent on achieving development goals. anyone wishing to understand how communities can make effective use (gurstein 2003) of icts for development will benefit from the rich case studies and thoughtful analysis provided in geek heresy. references agre, philip (1998) yesterdays tomorrow. times literary supplement. july 3rd, pp. 3-4. agre, philip (2002) real-time politics: the internet and the political process. the information society, 18: 311-331. ellul, jacques (1965) the technological society, london, vintage. !230 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 gurstein, michael (2003) effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. first monday 8 (12). heilbroner, robert (1967) do machines make history? technology and culture, 8: 33-345 morozov, e. (2015). the taming of tech criticism. the baffler, 27. retrieved from http:// www.thebaffler.com/salvos/taming-tech-criticism sachs, jeffrey (2005) the end of poverty, london, penguin. toyama, kentaro (2010) can technology end poverty? boston review, nov 2010. !231 http://www.thebaffler.com/salvos/taming-tech-criticism guhathakurta keynote 2016 memories the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 points of view contested histories, participatory movements and the making of memories in bangladesh the following is the text of the 2016 prato conference keynote presentation. the seventies witnessed the birth of a new nation called bangladesh amidst much bloodshed and violence. the belief that accompanied the culture of a newly independent state in 1971 was commonly perceived as sonar bangla (golden bengal). it was believed that once the hardships of the struggle for an independent bangladesh were over, the country would undergo economic emancipation. this was also reflected in the constitution which was built on the four pillars of nationalism (i.e. bengali nationalism based on language), socialism defined in terms of welfare for all, democracy and secularism ( meant more as equal emphasis and tolerance of all religion. but the reality turned to be very different. the aftermath of independence, gave birth to a ruling class that had absolute majority but was not hegemonic their power base resting predominantly on the petit bourgeois and the rural rich. this class did not have influence over the military-bureaucratic oligarchy which had traditionally controlled the ‘over developed’ pakistan state. in this way the class which received state patronage procured jobs in the nationalized industries, grew rich by appropriating privileges bestowed upon them by the state. as a consequence the military coup d'etat which !8 meghna guhathakurta e x e c u t i v e d i r e c t o r, r e s e a r c h i n i t i a t i v e s , bangladesh meghna.guhathakurta@gmail.com guhathakurta, m. (2017). contested histories, participatory movements and the making of memories in bangladesh (keynote paper for the prato conference, 2016). the journal of community informatics, 13(2), 8—12. date submitted: 2017-08-20. date accepted: 2017-08-25. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1416 . http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1416 mailto:meghna.guhathakurta@gmail.com http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1416 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 toppled the government in 1975 represented to a large extent a section of the militarybureaucratic oligarchy that had enjoyed political privileges and patronage of the state in the past and felt deprived in the newly independent bangladesh. the military coup by general ershad in march 1982 led to the creation of an authoritarian military bureaucratic state. parties were created from the cantonment to legitimize military rule. lacking an overarching ideology with which to attract popular support and legitimacy attempt was made to use religion, thus making islam the state religion. we thus see the bangladesh nation state veering away from its original constitutional foundations of secularism, democracy and socialism. but the people of bangladesh did not lose heart. after much soul searching throughout the eighties they coalesced together into the anti-autocracy movement from 1987 culminating in 1990 resulting in the collapse of the military regime and the ensuing elections of 1991, which brought back parliamentary democracy to the political arena, demonstrated the strength of the civil society in bangladesh. but the aftermath of the movement and the consequent nature of bangladesh politics proved that unresolved issues remained in the political scenario even after a freely elected government came into power with promises for a democratic future. these were the rise of islamic fundamentalist forces, in more recent years terrorist trends. the fight against the fundamentalists have had its ups and down as both the establishment and the opposition parties decided to use it as a third force in their fight against each other. furthermore successive governments have failed to address the questions of economic emancipation for the common citizen. it was not likely that the principles of secularism and socialism, which got struck off the constitution was likely to make its way back again very easily, particularly not in a world where integration to the world economy counted more as survival strategy than as an economic option, nor in a region where the prospect of religious fundamentalism coupled with its potency for capturing state power, overpowered and made inadequate liberalist visions and options of statecraft. participatory movements but peoples’ politics or indeed economics or democracy were not only to be engaged at the level of principles or for that matter structure and institutions such as electoral systems and restricting of election commissions or political parties. what one tends to forget are the day to day struggles of people who are trying to take control of their lives. these are the people who mattered, the people who are inscribed into the words “gonoprojatronti” (peoples’ republic) before the name of bangladesh. do the leaders of democracy ever recognize them? are electoral rolls enough to make them captains of their own fate? the answer is an obvious no. rather, in the political discourse of parties they become the ‘masses’, in the development discourse, they become the illiterate, in the economic discourse, the recipients or beneficiaries. never are they perceived as the thinking and creative beings that they are, the true ‘demos’ of democracy. !9 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 if we take a broader picture of what politics is we may begin to think differently. according to adrian leftwich, politics have been defined as that which…. “comprises all activities of cooperation and conflict within and between societies, whereby the human species goes about organizing the use, production and distribution of human, natural and other resources in the course of production and reproduction of its biological and social life.” in other words politics is not only about elections and votebanks, power-play and dominance. it is about how people individually, collectively and organizationally use, produce and distribute resources, material and non-material for the betterment of their being. it is about how and why a farmer’s cooperative allocates resources in the way it does just as much as it is about how and why governments determine the annual budget of a country. it is about how women and men each contribute to the raising of their children, just as much as a government’s decision to follow secular or religious ideals. hence democratizing politics is simply not about reforming electoral rolls and party hierarchies, it is about revisiting and reinventing the ‘demos’ in ones political agenda. this is true not only for political parties, but also for development organizations, civil society and professional organizations, the media, in short any entity that exists for or seeks to represent the public good. acceptance of the perspectives of the people themselves is crucial to this understanding. agronomists have years of schooling behind them true, but farmers have years of experience too. they have direct knowledge of the soil, the water, the lay of the land. it is interesting that once political parties and development organizations all used to go to the people and based their political or development programs on the problems of the locality. such days are gone. the perspectives of the people have been taken over by party prerogatives on the one hand and institutional (ngo, and media) prerogatives on the other. yet if we take a look at the national scene, we see that it is not these parties or institutions which have played a role in the welfare of bangladesh, it is the countless, nameless people; women and men who have been responsible for it. farmers have tilled their land, regardless of what benefit they may have got from the state, women have sent their children to school and tried to give them a full meal each day. children too have done their bit, whether it be combing the beach for shells to sell, or gathering firewood in the forests. they know tomorrow’s meal would depend on such activities and they know that the nation, the world would probably forget them or at best pay lip service, but that tomorrow would come anyway and they, their children would like to live to see that day. gonogobeshona or people’s research is only one way which helps us to rediscover the existential dignity of people. research initiatives, bangladesh used this method mainly in working with the marginalized communities. gonogobeshona, a term for participatory action research that was coined in the rural villages of bangladesh, works through stimulating peoples’ own collective praxis. it brings out the creativity of people in multiple directions and in a holistic way. spontaneous participation of people lies at the centre of such methodology. indigenous and local knowledge and self-analysis are given as much importance as knowledge developed by experts and brought to assist people’s action only when considered relevant by the concerned community. this results in a rise in self-confidence so that development processes as indeed political processes remain people-centric. !10 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 animators play a pivotal role in the process. they are the change agents who stimulate the people into creative action. it is the animators who initiate and demonstrate organizational skills in a combined effort to tackle difficult challenges and bring out the innate and latent creativity of people with regard to problem-solving.. animators often act as the link between the common people and technical knowledge, skilled or resource persons for example an agricultural expert, an it technician or a university teacher. an animator can emerge from the group itself or externally. in bangladesh the process is usually activated through group discussions in village or neighborhood courtyards (currently in urban slums).it works in a way to reach out and generate confidence amongst community members and enables them to engage in individual and collective self-development in an environment of trust. in the practice of gonogobeshona both the individual and collective are important to reach a decision. they follow the path of selfdevelopment by collectively utilizing their knowledge in an unfavourable environment. indigenous women prevent their cemeteries from being grabbed by the forestry department, mundas who live off forests fight to keep their identities even when displaced by storm surges and tornadoes, refugees argue not only for basic services, but the right to develop their own language. gonogobeshona therefore first transforms the self and then affects the larger collective and as such plays a crucial role in the making of sustainable memories for a new generation. what are these memories? the making of memories the intensity in which the centenary of the world war i seems to be remembered in england does not seem to be as profoundly celebrated in other countries, although by its very definition it was a world war! on the other hand in bangladesh, a young generation who had not witnessed the liberation war of 1971 was demanding the punishment for war criminals! many western diplomats were left wondering, why it was being articulated by the younger generation, those potential yuppies, who should be thinking about furthering their careers in the global rat race, falling in love and getting married or simply chilling out in the newest coffee joint in town; not thinking of what happened 40 years ago! the simple answer was of course the young generation was doing all that and more and yet what happened 40 years ago mattered, because the search for an identity or dignity is a continuous one and one that needs to be worked and reworked by each generation. it does not stop at the making of a constitution, neither does it get resolved even at the amendment of one. the reworking takes place at a depth of the consciousness that is both individual and collective and hence involves complex processes of both collective memories and individual propensities, not unlike the gonogobeshona process that i just described. let’s begin with the collective memories. all too often, collective memories get conflated with national memories or national consciousness. the reasons are obvious. the emergence of the nation-state came with all the power of the state which was deemed to control a unifying process of bringing a nation together ideally under the aegis of one single, broader identity. those in control of state power use the same marker of consciousness albeit with their own legends and polemics. but as history stands witness such nation-building process are not always inclusive. the long and short !11 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 of it is that collective memory i.e. memories of those not central to the nation-building processes may be very different from the state-sponsored national discourses and debates. they in fact may be broader, more complex and run parallel to or in opposition to national discourses and hence failed to get integrated into it. but that is not to say they do not exist. that is why we see movements, uprisings in different period of time surface, often demanding recognitions of such memories and their consequent realties. individual memories through an intricate process of story-telling and legend building which often fit in organically with collective memories help to strengthen respective strands of thought. we witness such individual reminiscences of victims and freedom fighters periodically during national day celebrations, on other days stories of successful women or brave indigenous warriors inform their respective histories. but in the play of power (e.g. those who control the media, education, or broadly speaking production of culture) some stories get valorized over others hence influencing the direction of history. however, individual memories also have a potential for playing the subversive role of deconstructing some of the collective legends through creative translation inevitably reflected in works of art. artists in general facilitate the translation of memory or recall of events even decades after that event is over. masterpieces of films on the world wars even 100 years on still hold us spell bound not so much as documentation of the events or an informed retelling of history, but as an emotional re connection with events based on principles that transcend time and space; principles such as humanity or a rediscovery of truths which the conscious mind had so far denied or not previously acknowledged. this is a challenge for us all. it leads us to ask the following questions: are we helping to make memories that touch such principles of humanity or awaken the consciousness of a people that time had long forgotten? do our technologies allow for the creative criticality of thinking that movements like these may need or are they just confirming existing cultures and establishments? i do believe that these questions will be answered in a multitude of ways by the presentations and deliberations to take place in this conference in the coming days. the themes already speak of a richness of experience as they do of innovative critical approaches. i look forward to participating in such an inspiring dialogue. !12 keeping promises:municipal communities struggle to fulfill promises to narrow the digital divide with municipal-community wireless networks julio angel ortiz college of information sciences & technology, the pennsylvania state university  jortiz@ist.psu.edu andrea h. tapia college of information sciences & technology, the pennsylvania state university atapia@ist.psu.edu   abstract some public elites assert that the digital divide is a serious social problem and that governments must intervene by affording wireless solutions to improve this social ill.  few studies, however, examine the relationship between the claims-making activities around such interventions, specifically in reference to closing the digital divide, and the perceptions of the actual impact of those initiatives on this divide.  we bring together two data sets.  the first dataset is from a previous study examining the public rhetoric surrounding these initiatives vis-à-vis the digital divide.  the latter is part of a much larger study on the network’s impact on the divide.  we conclude that these networks are necessary but insufficient in bridging the gap. introduction in the past several years a rift has opened between researchers who study the social context of wireless networks. the dividing issue seems to be the origin of the network. on the one side exist community wireless networks that originate in the hands of interested, concerned and technologically able citizen and community groups. on the opposing side exist municipal-sponsored or owned wireless networks, in which the city acts a convener, leader, provider and designer of the network. the first case is typically characterized as bottom-up or grassroots while the second is often presented as top-down. in several of the earliest case-studies, several of these networks were often framed as in conflict or opposed to the other form. we believe this dichotomy to be useful in describing the origins and establishment efforts of networks, but less useful as networks age and mature. with the exponential growth of these networks in both quantity and size, we have seen a marked hybridization in which partnerships between local governments, industry and community groups define the ownership, management, maintenance and use of these networks (see tapia and ortiz 2006; 2007). they are not purely municipal, community nor private. clement and bryne-potter call this hybrid public broadband, or broadband in the public interest, and define it as  broadband networks that serve the public interest, regardless of the ideology upon which they were founded and the means by which they are provided (bryne-potter and clement, 2007) additionally supporting this hybridization is meinrath’s (2005) assertion that community wireless networks are small and locally based, often comprised of non-profits, unincorporated, municipally supported, hybrid partnerships, usually constructed from off the shelf hardware, action and results oriented and possessing a mission to support both social and economic development (meinrath, 2005) for the purposes of this paper we position the wireless networks in question as hybrids or complex partnerships, falling between the municipal and the community, with the expressed goal of engaging social issues within the community in question. the term we use throughout the paper is municipal-community network, to demonstrate this hybridization. the goal of this paper is to examine wireless broadband in the form of municipal-community wireless networks, and their professed role in alleviating the digital divide. regardless of the ownership of the network, communities have clearly stated the problem that broadband access to the internet is commonly believed to be essential for all and yet is not available to all. the skills necessary to use information and communications technologies are not universally prevalent, yet are seen as becoming more centrally necessary to navigate everyday tasks. to address this digital divide, municipal communities are stepping in to offer wireless broadband internet access (ortiz and tapia 2006; tapia 2006; tapia, maldonado and ortiz 2006; tapia, maitland and stone 2005; tapia, maitland and stone 2006; tapia and ortiz 2006) in this paper we examine the most recent of these efforts, municipal-community wireless broadband networks. as of april 2007, nearly 400 cities in the united states have initiated, developed or deployed some form of wireless network with the intent of providing some form of internet access to their populace. these initiatives have taken diverse forms, adopted many different business plans, and are at various stages of development. despite these differences, they are similar in their commitment to four stated justifications for developing these networks: (1) provide low-cost alternatives for public safety and other institutional demands for wireless internet, (2) promote economic development, (3) promote tourism, and (4) narrow the digital divide and promote social inclusion (see ortiz and tapia 2006 and tapia and ortiz 2006 for a full analysis of these policy justifications). the way in which public officials discuss and document the goals of these municipal-community projects is our core interest. the public discussion and documentation of municipal-community wireless networks provide particular insights in understanding the public discourse on the digital divide, its complexities, its importance, its severity, and its solutions. the purpose of this study is to understand the intersection between the claims-making activities for two municipal-community wireless broadband initiatives (portland, oregon and tempe, arizona), specifically in reference to closing the digital divide, and the perceptions of the actual impact of those initiatives on this divide. in order to answer this question, we bring together two datasets. the first dataset encompasses textual documents from twenty-four cities in the united states, which have used the claim that one of the central purposes of deploying a municipal-community wireless broadband network is to bridge the digital divide. the documents in question are websites, press releases, requests for proposals, letters of intent, and other official policy documents from each city collected and catalogued during 2005 and 2006. using discourse analysis, these documents were then analyzed using a coding scheme which produced four themes in how these cities rhetorically viewed the concepts of the digital divide in the municipal-community wireless public discussions (for a complete analysis of this dataset see tapia and ortiz, forthcoming in 2007; in addition see ortiz and tapia 2006; tapia, maitland and stone 2006; tapia, maldonado and ortiz 2006; stone, maitland and tapia, 2005; tapia and ortiz 2006 a and 2006b). the second dataset is a set of in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews with key informants from two us municipal-communities.  these two american cities were chosen because they fit the criteria of having deployed a citywide wireless broadband network by 31 december 2006: they must have been in operation for public access; be government-led in some form; and have employed some form of public rhetoric linking project design, development, deployment and/or use to the digital divide and/or digital inclusion.  these qualitative interviews are part of a much larger, multi-year study using both qualitative interviews and quantitative indicators of quality of life and universal service in these two cities assessing and measuring the impact of these municipal-community networks on the digital divide, both pre and post deployment. the blending of these two datasets allows us to understand the relationship between the claims made by city officials as to the purposes of building these networks and the perceptions of local stakeholders as to whether there has been a measurable change that can be attributed to the deployment of the network. the motivation for this study rests on the belief that the internet is becoming a cornerstone of american life, since much of the public, private, educational, and economic lives of americans has both online and offline components. as full participation in civic, commercial and social life is tied to internet and computer literacy and access, high-speed access is becoming a necessity rather than a luxury. however, from the literature analyzing solutions to the digital divide, it is known that providing internet access is not enough to solve the problem. it must be coupled in an ensemble of social and technical solutions. through the capturing of qualitative, perception data from each of these two cities, we anticipate documenting that municipal-community networks may be necessary but not sufficient, requiring cities to take more holistic approaches to closing the gap. several organizations have attempted to define community wireless network or networking. most notable is the wireless commons which in their manifesto have listed several fundamental elements including; non-discriminatory routing, organic growth, mesh networking, distributed ownership, best effort, end-to-end connectivity, fully routable addresses, fault isolation, anonymous access, building use and generating content, and responsibility[1]. another notable source is the community wireless infrastructure research project which has identified the following items as necessary to community wireless projects; ubiquitous and universal, widely useful, usable, accessible, affordable, reliable, high quality, healthy, cost-effective, accountable & responsive, secure, privacy enabling, open, neutral & non-discriminatory[2]. the municipal-community digital divide information technology has become central to our knowledge economy and thus wedded to wealth, power, and prestige. there is a strong common belief that people who have access to and the skills to use the internet are (1) more successful economically, with respect to education, jobs, earnings, (2) socially participate more in terms of political and civic engagement, (3) and receive more government services and other public goods than those who do not. (katz and rice 2002; kennard 2001; oden 2004; oden and strover 2002; tufekcioglu 2003) “immediate and asynchronous connectivity together with the diversity of information accessible via the computer can, furthermore, increase social inclusion and social position. (oden 2004:5) increased access to the internet also provides greater access to education, income and other resources (benton foundation 1998; bucy 2000; hoffman and thomas 1998, 1999; strover 1999). the digital divide reflects ongoing social inequalities in the u.s., explained by both the lack of vision as well as entrenched social, economic and political systems (bagasao, macias, jones and pachon 1999).  these systems of social inequality not only shape diffusion rates, but they also shape the use of it in ways that reinforce existing inequalities rather than mitigate them (kvasny and trauth, 2002; kvasny and truex, 2001; kvasny 2002; kvasny, l. and payton, 2005; kvasny 2006; kvasny and keil 2006; dimaggio 2001; kling and lamb 2000).  thus broad patterns of social inequality in education, work, consumption opportunities, and democratic participation are at the heart of the digital divide and continue to broaden the gap. moreover, while more individuals are gaining access to the internet daily, the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening in terms of use, technical competence and information literacy. it is unclear whether this digital divide is caused by economic issues (e.g., cost of basic services), education, or social issues (e.g., perception of the use of the internet).   if mere access to information services does not affect the digital divide (or even exacerbates the divide), then new understanding is required to assist policy development and cyber infrastructure implementation and dissemination.  without such an understanding, tax dollars can be wasted and well-intentioned investments in the national cyber infrastructure could actually exacerbate the digital divide. in addition to persisting gaps in access to information and communication technologies, gaps in skills and usage may be a larger social problem. (dimaggio and hargittai 2002; gordo 2000; lazarus and mora 2000; oden and strover 2002; servon 2002; van dijk 2001; warschauer 2003). these scholars have stressed the cultural, educational, political and socio-economic aspects of the digital divide and believe that while access is being addressed, many other gaps widen. from this point of view government and industry has focused too narrowly on addressing the access issue by providing devices to schools and communities. since these policy makers have not defined the digital divide in terms of skills and competence, they have not invested in training, teaching and technical assistance that would better address the issues. in response, community informatics (ci) was developed.  ci is a rapidly growing and emerging multidisciplinary field that examines how information and communication technologies (icts) can effectively support a community's socio-economic, socio-political or socio-cultural objectives (gurstein, 2000; clement, 1981; eglash, 2001b; loader & keeble, 2002).  according to stoecker, “[community informatics is] a sustainable approach to community enrichment that integrates participatory design of information technology resources, popular education, and asset-based development to enhance citizen empowerment and quality of life” (stoecker, 2005). community informatics is the term that has become especially widely known in recent years to describe the action-oriented approach for not only describing, but redressing the digital divide.  fundamental to ci is the notion of access to the technology; proponents argue that without it little can be achieved (clement & shade, 2000; strath, 2001; graham, 2005).  unlike much of the early digital divide literature, the overarching goal of ci is to provide more than just access to technology, but also develop key strategies for engaging local constituents in using the technologies for social, economic and political purposes (gurstein, 2003; o’neil, 2002; warschauer, 2003, 2003b). moreover, this praxis-based approach attempts to link economic and social development efforts at the grassroots level with emerging opportunities in such areas as e-commerce, neighborhood computer portals, community and civic networks.  it investigates an often complex and dynamic linkage between technological innovation and ever-changing social relationships.  this often requires structural and cultural changes in the organizations of local stakeholders in order to accomplish successful ict community efforts.  in the age of the digital information economy, a focused ci agenda appears to be important for stimulating, maintaining, coordinating and interpreting interand intraorganizational relationships (eglash, 2001b; castells, 1996).  from a municipal wireless broadband context, ci is the application and diffusion of broadband internet services to the public through an ieee 802.11x wireless platform for the achievement of community objectives.  ci views the municipal broadband urban revival effort through a lens of opportunity to develop social capital rather than through a lens of crisis (fernback, 2005).  according to graham (2005), a ci approach might include the development of multifarious radical strategies and techniques for socio-community analysis and reform, technology appropriation and planning, and outcomes assessment programs.  using this theoretical approach, ci recognizes the realities of community life by attempting to integrate them into the design, implementation and development of municipal broadband systems.  this framework reveals tensions that exist between different social actors, namely public elites, incumbents, technologists, public strongholds, and community activists (orlikowski & barley, 2001; stoecker, 2005; gurstein, 2000, 2003). the literature suggests that municipal-community wireless networks have the potential of offering inexpensive, high-speed, wireless broadband connections to neighborhood, local businesses and public institutions (barranca, 2004; garvey, 2002; gillett, s. & lehr, 1999; gillett, s. e. a., 2003; rao, 2003).  municipal-community wireless broadband networks can be defined as a government-community effort to design, develop, implement and employ wireless broadband services for a specific coverage area, for specific users and for a particular moment in time.  as a public entity charged with providing high quality services for citizens, some governments feel compelled to act; providing readily available low-cost mesh networks is one way to act (tapia et al., 2005). essentially, governments and grassroots organizations are deploying wireless broadband for three reasons: to bridge the digital divide, enhance interand intra-governmental applications and promote local economic development.    wireless networks operate with low-cost, easy-installation rooftop antennae and fast speeds. the argument is that as more users join the network, it becomes less expensive and more robust. proponents urge policymakers to allow this technology to expand so that municipal-community networks can create next-generation media systems that serve all citizens.  specifically, they envision that these networks will achieve three objectives: municipal-community applications, economic development and digital equality (i.e. bridge the digital divide). they will provide disadvantaged schools with high-tech resources, as well as opportunities for adult education and distance learning (meinrath, 2006; rao, 2003); local grassroots groups, like churches, with the means to web-cast religious services and spiritual resources (meinrath, 2006); local libraries with the ability to become community hubs for free, open access to information; and parks, swimming pools, beaches, sports facilities, airports, train stations, and other public access areas with the opportunity to benefit from communications and information services (meinrath, 2006). it is known that providing internet access is not enough to solve the problem of digital inequality. it must become part of an ensemble of social and technical solutions. according to ben scott, policy director for the free press, "for meaningful digital inclusion to occur, the goal of the network should be universal, affordable access for all members of a community. to reach this goal means more than just building a network infrastructure; it means attaining goals of equipment distribution, technology training, and social services." (as quoted in meinrath, 2006) methodologies data set: municipal-community wireless network and the digital divide in aggregate since june 2005, we have created a dynamic and evolving database of all municipal-community wireless initiatives in the united states (see ortiz and tapia 2006; tapia 2006; tapia, maldonado and ortiz 2006; tapia, maitland and stone 2005; tapia, maitland and stone 2006; tapia and ortiz 2006).  as of june 2007, we have a total of 357 entries. the data that we have collected spans multiple categories including information on the shape, form, uses, and technologies of the municipal-community network itself; the business plan and/or service delivery plan; the status of the development/deployment of the network; the social impacts of the network; and the marketing language used by the owners and users of the network. this database has been populated through a variety of methodologies. in most cases, information was obtained through the use of the internet, using crawling techniques via municipal-community sponsored websites, press releases, public documents and online news and web logs. in addition, when information proved scarce or dubious, municipal-community communities were called, and information was supplemented and verified through direct interview by telephone. according to our database, as of june 2007, 166 municipal communities (approximately 46%) textually addressed either universal service, social inclusion or the digital divide in some way in their literature. all 357 municipal communities gave some form of economic development as their primary reason for deploying a mwn. drawing from one subsection of fields from the database, we have compiled all texts from these cities. while the documents analyzed do not form a complete picture of the intent of the city or its representatives, as they are specific in time and space in the experiences of that city, they were read literally in terms of a discursive event. (for a complete presentation and analysis of this data see tapia and ortiz, forthcoming, 2007) data set two: municipal-community wireless networks two case studies two us cities were selected for in-depth case studies, portland, oregon and tempe, arizona. a case study approach allows for a detailed exploration of a highly complex and multi-dimensional socio-political phenomenon.  these two cities were chosen because they are attempting to address the digital divide by way of a citywide wireless broadband network. the cities selected for this study represent those with a deployed wireless broadband system and have been in operation for public access since 31 december 2006. these cities must have employed some form of public rhetoric linking project design, development, deployment or use to the digital divide.  in other words, a city must have showed a municipal-community strategy that incorporates a variety of municipal-community resources, capacities, and powers to address at least one of the following: poverty reduction, increased social or political involvement, or improved quality of life for low-income residents. each case study is based on interviews with approximately 10 community leaders. interviews lasted between 30 and 60 minutes. the semi-structured interviews were conducted with council members, the city’s economic development director, city manager (where appropriate), other key city staff, and non-municipal-community city partners. city partners differed in each city, but across all cities this group included chamber of commerce representatives, librarians, executive directors of nonprofit agencies, and neighborhood organization representatives.  together, these two data sets help explain the complex and dynamic nature of both the digital divide and municipal-community wireless networks.  to further probe this idea, this study considers one central research question, “to what extent are the digital divide claims-making activities around municipal-community wireless systems mirroring the perceptions of the actual impact of those initiatives on the divide?  it appears that the data does not allow for a more direct question, i.e. looking at the 'actual impact' rather than 'perceptions of the actual impact'. nevertheless, it is important to highlight that the indirect nature of this research will shed light on some of the daunting challenges faced by researchers who want to better understand the actual impact of the initiatives on the digital divide.  another larger, multi-year study will employ a variety of methodologies and examine the actual impact preand post-implementation.  this study provides insights into making better use of wireless networks to bring connectivity and access to citizens and develops a framework to help municipalities and citizens within them better understand the complexities of the digital divide. findings: aggregate we have developed a typology based on our analysis of the texts addressing the digital divide associated with the 166 cities in our study. we have developed this four-fold typology to better discuss our results, and to demonstrate the relative frequencies of these themes occurring in the data. below we list the four themes that emerged from the data. for each of the themes we provide one illustrative quote. theme one (connectivity divide): ubiquitous connectivity creates an identity and revitalizes the community. this theme is the least direct of all four themes. this theme is based on a tenuous connection between city branding, economic development and a trickle-down effect of narrowing the digital divide by way of access. these municipal communities addressed the digital divide by seeing it as principally an economic problem to be solved through the support of mostly business and education/training. by providing stable, reliable, low cost and ubiquitous broadband access to local public and private institutions, economies would be stimulated and the causes of poverty would be lessened. approximately 32 cities fell into this category. cabin john, md “the cabin john citizens association is an organization of concerned citizens dedicated to addressing the concerns of the cabin john community. the cjca's fundamental goal is to preserve and promote the identity of cabin john as a community.” [3] theme two (content/utility divide): internet access is seen as a utility and thus the city’s responsibility towards citizens. this theme draws on two central concepts, the internet as a utility and as a responsibility. these cities addressed the digital divide indirectly, stating that it was the government’s responsibility to provide for education, training, as well as civic and economic opportunities for its citizens. addressing these, would in turn narrow the digital divide. the proposed network would support the city’s services. this theme was noted in approximately 14 cities. chicago, il  “chicago’s civicnet is an initiative of the city of chicago and the mayor's council of technology advisors to create the new infrastructure chicago needs to compete for jobs, to improve education, to train the internet work force, and to eliminate digital divide. chicago is taking steps that are appropriate for a government such as building roads and highways and water and sewer systems. to compete in the internet age, a whole new infrastructure is needed one that can carry high speed communications.” [4] theme three (capability/usage divide): ubiquitous wireless broadband will increase accessibility and usage. this theme is based on two fundamental beliefs, (1) citizens who do not use the internet do not do so because they do not have access, and (2) providing access to these citizens will increase internet usage. approximately 43 municipal communities made a textual connection between increased access and increased usage. sandoval county, nm   “one of the main reasons for building the county system is to bring rural residents high speed internet access, mann said. many people in the state’s rural areas do not have access to high-speed internet service, which is particularly helpful for students and business owners.” [5] theme four (context/socio-economic divide): providing low-cost access to low-income areas translates into increased social benefits. these cities claim that by providing internet access they will create economic, educational and social opportunities for those traditionally excluded from such opportunities. this theme was the most prevalent. approximately 94 municipal-community communities had some language referring to the social benefits of wider internet access. san francisco, ca  "as the united states lags behind other nations in equipping our citizens for the global economy.  san francisco understands that universal, affordable, wireless broadband access is essential to boost our economic, social and educational opportunities. providing universal, affordable, wireless broadband access is just the first phase of our new techconnect strategy that will bring the promise of technology to low income and disadvantaged citizens."[6] these four themes comprise, in part, the digital divide public rhetoric surrounding municipal-community wireless deployment. findings: case studies we used the four themes developed from our aggregate database as a launch point for the analysis of our case study data. for each of the two cities listed below we provide some illustrative quotes to give a sense of the rich data collected via interviews. in addition, we categorize the data in terms of our four themes listed above.  the intention is to demonstrate the echoes of the four themes drawn from public rhetoric in the voices of city representatives and local stakeholders.  by doing so, we are able to show limited evidence of the connection between the public rhetoric and the actual impact of the broadband initiative in relation to the digital divide. portland, oregon portland is a city at the confluence of the willamette and columbia rivers in the u.s. state of oregon.[7]  with a 2005 population of 514,000 it is oregon's largest city, and the third largest in the pacific northwest, after seattle, washington and vancouver, british columbia. approximately 2 million live in the surrounding metropolitan area, the 24th-largest in the u.s.[8] the municipal-community wireless project in portland (‘unwire portland’) is a public-private partnership to bring citywide broadband internet access to the city.  the project manager works with their selected vendor (‘metrofi’) who provides them with information and guidance about various city policies and liaises with residents, media representatives, businesses and other organizations. metrofi provides wireless access to portland residents. metrofi offers consumer users two models: for $19.95, users can get speeds of 1mbps with a 256kbps upload channel without advertising; or they can get a free version of the service by accepting advertising.  since its december 2006 launch, the provider announced that its network had registered 19,900 users.[9] portland was chosen as a case study for this research because they have stated explicitly that they are attempting to address the digital divide by way of a citywide wireless broadband network.[10]  below are examples of the public rhetoric drawn from our aggregate database. “metrofi has demonstrated its commitment to bridging the digital divide by offering both free and low-cost alternatives for broadband access on an open provider network.”[11] “backers of a proposed citywide wireless internet system claim that its lower-priced service will help close the ‘digital divide‘ -the gap in internet access between white and non-white households. but if a portland-based company has its way, the digital divide could close even faster.”[12] despite aiming to bridge the digital divide in the community, the unwire portland project fails to connect all groups (including marginalized communities) to the wireless cloud. compared to the general population, only a small fraction of citizens have connected to the city-wide wi-fi grid[13], and those who connected were mainly students, knowledge workers and downtown residents who were already experienced in the use of internet access and computer usage. disadvantaged communities, the elderly, the unemployed and the computer-illiterate were largely excluded from the wireless network. the government-led initiative failed to expand overall utilization and to extend their definition of the digital divide to go beyond simple access. the result being that, in this instance, those who took up the offer of wi-fi access were much more likely to be among the more privileged members of portland rather than those who remained on the negative side of the divide. the unwire portland program has been unable to craft a sound digital inclusion policy vis-à-vis the wireless broadband project. it appears that portland sought to address the digital divide indirectly, to provide low-cost internet access to users who already have access to the internet which in turn would not address at least one of the following: poverty reduction, increased social or political involvement by marginalized communities, or improved quality of life for residents of low-income profiles. there is certainly an interesting point here, that despite recognizing the value of a municipal-community network for closing the digital divide, portland opted not to go in this direction.  a city informant stated: “one of the things here in the city is that we recognize there are several aspects of the digital divide.  we understand this project is not designed to solve all of those aspects.  this project can solve issues related to the availability of high-speed internet access, and the monthly cost.  it cannot solve the relevance of internet access.  we did not lump all those issues in the unwire portland project.”  (interview subject # 013080) according to another subject, the city had previously considered a digital inclusion proposal in conjunction with one word oregon (a progressive news-reporting agency with over 10,000 members across the state).  the policy document was supported by local commissioners but the city chose not to approve it in spite of having the largest positive response in that budget cycle.  in this proposal, the digital divide was framed as a social problem that was caused, in part, by inequities in the ability to access and to use ict.  using this as a starting point, the proposal focused on providing appropriate parenting support from public elites (e.g. emphasizing the educational importance of having home access).  to this participant (see quote above), the metrofi-unwireportland partnership was used as an excuse and allowed the city to say to the media, their citizens, policy makers, and ilecs that they were addressing digital inclusion issues by using a public-private partnership model.  it is important to highlight that their model, in fact, has only been successful in providing low-cost access to their downtown core users.  the result is to afford them the opportunity of “checking it off” their list and moving on to other areas of interest, without actually having addressed the more fundamental issue of how the ict was used in the home as per the one word oregon proposal. several city informants felt that the city had placed less of an emphasis on solving the digital divide issue and more emphasis on the hype surrounding the network. one senior executive from a local economic development agency said, “it’s a fad in government because it’s something to check off their list.  i think people are fundamentally opportunists.    the reality and the problem that i see from rural to inner city communities is that those kids who qualify for free or reduced lunch are those kids who are least likely to have a computer or internet access at home.  our economy is hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs.  8 out 10 jobs require technology skills.  i don’t think the city has failed, i don’t think it has tried.” (subject # 013085) several participants outside of city hall suggested that they ultimately did not understand the city’s purpose in building the network and had significant doubts as to how it would narrow the digital divide. one community advocate described reluctance on the part of the city to fund digital divide or digital inclusion efforts. “we haven’t found the portland’s metrofi solution to be very workable.  despite efforts that i would applaud that i would place the receiver near low-income buildings, there is very little penetration into the building.  the way it’s setup is very hard to repeat that signal from metrofi to inside buildings.  i have a concern, does the free model create a perception that it’s there?  we’re actually worst off than when we started.” (subject # 013086) a city official from the office of management and finance stated, “we are beginning to realize it’s more than access.  in 2003-2004, we conducted a study where we gave people computers and a low cost internet connection and they didn’t use those computers to interact with government.  it was really interesting to us.  sometimes what people use technology for sometimes it has nothing to do with what governments do. there is a difference with providing people the tools and with providing content that’s relevant to them.” (subject # 013079) a digital inclusion expert stated,  “from a digital inclusion side, the city has got to a) put up some money of its own to help people get computers.  more than 10,000 kids in portland schools don’t have a computer at home.  something has got to be done to get computers into their hands.  b) there needs to be a real focus on the training and the city needs to show how people will use the web to access government services.  when you are dealing with people that are poor, you have to think about literacy issues with low or no literacy, if you look at the city of portland’s website right now, not only does it not provide any real information to people with little or no literacy, you need a masters degree to navigate the site…categorically-speaking, i don’t see the city pursuing any partnerships to ensure the success of the network.  it actually refuses to engage in any kind of collaborative process.  it’s just not a priority.” (subject # 013085) this speaker is critiquing the city of portland’s efforts as not more directly addressing the digital divide, despite the city’s clear statements that it is not intending to address them, in part. from this data we see portland overall reflecting theme four, stating they are aware of the potential socio-economic benefits model, but choose not to follow it. this recognition may provide insight as to why training, technology transfer programs, and forums stimulated by the unwire portland project were scarce in the city. in terms of the digital divide, portland seems to have created some cognitive dissonance[14] for itself in that it states that the problem of the digital divide is important, that providing access alone is not enough to solve it, yet they clearly act as if access alone is sufficient and state openly that the goals of the municipal network are not to bridge the digital divide directly, despite earlier claims to do so.  clearly, the city appears to be suffering from an uncomfortable tension between two conflicting desires: should they only provide access or should they be providing more than simple access?  overall, this observation offers us insight as to how cities like portland are beginning to respond to community needs. tempe, arizona tempe, a city in maricopa county, az is a major suburb located immediately southeast of phoenix.  it is the most densely-populated city in az and, according to 2005 census bureau, is estimated to have a population of 161,143.[15] the city officially launched the network at the end of march 2006 from border to border within tempe.[16]   tempe’s story highlights the economic attraction of municipal-community wireless projects.  another analogous theme that appears to resonate throughout the tempe case study is their essentialist goal of providing universal wireless broadband access to residents.  as a case in point, tempe became the first major us metropolitan area to deploy citywide wifi access thereby affording users a border-to-border network coverage grid. for both government officials and local stakeholders interviewed the high-speed project is a powerful weapon in fighting digital exclusion and a developer of community identity and participation. tempe was chosen as a case study for this research because they have stated openly that they are attempting to provide low-cost internet access leading to continued economic development, which in turn may address at least one of the following: poverty reduction, increased social or political involvement, or improved quality of life for low residents. while much of the literature does not use the term “digital divide” the city makes the case for their network by stating that its deployment will bring economic benefits to all sectors and all strata of tempe’s population.  it is important to note that the lack of explicit ‘digital divide’ rhetoric in tempe’s texts makes it difficult to decipher the city’s digital inclusion goals.  nonetheless, below are examples of the public rhetoric drawn from our aggregate database: “tempe is truly blazing the trail with border-to-border wireless internet access.  those who live, work and play in tempe are the beneficiaries of this technology.”[17] “{the city of tempe plans]…to expand the wireless infrastructure to the entire city through an open rfp process. this project will make affordable, high-quality, uninterrupted broadband wireless service available to all residents and businesses in tempe. “ “the introduction of wireless broadband in tempe brings needed competition to cable, dsl, and satellite internet services. it provides free access to educational (asu.edu) and city services (tempe.gov) to residents of tempe that may not be able to afford or wish to pay monthly access fees.”[18] most of these views were echoed by city representatives.  a city official from the development services department stated, “i can tell you without a doubt that we have buildings and companies here because we have a lake in the north end of our town.  there is a direct correlation because i have contracts, documents, private-public partnerships agreements where we have investors paying money to keep the lake there.  but i don’t have a contract that says [the provider] will move here and spend x amount of money to keep the network running.  i couldn’t tell you that.  the wireless network is more ephemeral and so few people use it.  the network helps but by no means closes the digital divide.” (subject # 012982) similarly, the link between the financial and digital divides was also made explicit by one respondent, for example: “the key to financial status is access to and comfort with education, and information that helps you lift yourself out of your current condition.  the digital divide is creating, fostering and supporting the financial divide and is the most problematic in the future, especially for the younger generation. the city thinks they know about it but don’t feel it as deeply.  they feel it is about being cutting-edge and it’s about the “smart place to be” – that’s our tagline.  it used to be “the best place to live, work and play”. smart communities are forward thinking by having this kind of amenity in their community.”  (subject # 012979) a key theme relating to the implementation of the network and digital divide issues is the role of marketing and communications.  this seems to be a good example of theme four (context/socio-economic divide: providing low-cost access to low-income areas translates into increased social benefits). socio-economic development closes the gap. one respondent responsible for information dissemination for the public school district emphasized that the network might not be necessarily enhancing quality of life factors, but certainly made people think the city is progressing and ahead of other cities by becoming pioneers.  she attributed the city’s somewhat exaggerated approach to their communications team.  she articulated her view as follows: “hard to say it has an impact on the community at large. i know it’s definitely being marketed as another great feature of this town.  i deal with a lot of the city’s marketing and communications people and they’ve had very interesting and successful campaigns both publicity in local media and marketing that have made the system look positive.  they’ve done a good job by letting people know it’s available…” (subject # 012985) in the same way, there remains a strong public sector ethos, which, as one respondent stated, can cause problems in that government elites inevitably lack the right training to tackle the complex nature of the digital divide: “what we found is not so much the tool that you give the children, but how you’re using the tool.  if every child has wireless internet, are they using it to access games or comprehension skills based programs?  do i think it has potential to help with literacy? absolutely.  but it has to be used in a highly complex, really smart way.  it doesn’t just happen because you give them the tool.” (subject # 012986) here we see some elements of both theme three: (capability/usage divide) ubiquitous wireless broadband will increase accessibility and usage, and theme four: (context/socio-economic divide). however, the strong sentiment coming from the interviews from tempe suggested the nearly universal support for a socio-economic development view of closing the digital divide (theme four). the implications of this observation prompt a reconsideration of official digital divide policy in this area.   it suggests a shift away from a digital model that is characterized by connectivity alone and towards a model that involves capability/usage, socio-cultural, socio-political, and socio-economic complexities and processes.  to achieve the goal of universal access to broadband services for all tempeans, the city needs a more holistic approach that includes an understanding of both the capability/usage divide as well as the context/socio-economic divide.. analysis and discussion affordable access to broadband is increasingly important and becoming a prerequisite for participating in the new digital global economy. yet broadband diffusion and adoption in the us lags many other industrialized nations.  over 450 us cities have responded to this problem by offering residents free or low cost wireless broadband access.  drawing from our aggregate database, we have learned that roughly one third of these cities have used the cause of narrowing the digital divide, or improving the quality of life for all citizens, as a reason for their action. from this group, which has made this direct link between municipal internet programs and improved living conditions for all citizens, we have distilled these claims to four themes. what all four themes have in common is that the language used by all these municipalities to promote and describe the potential future impacts of their municipal-community network is strongly deterministic in nature. technological change is viewed as both a necessary and a sufficient condition determining all other social change. it is in this light that each of the four themes states that by adding a municipal-community sponsored wireless network and granting internet access to their citizens, several things will happen including greater usage of the internet, increased economic development and more job opportunities for the disenfranchised, more education and training opportunities, and improved social conditions for users. all point to a direct connection between wireless internet access and the closing of the digital divide. it most be noted that while technological determinism can be applicable and useful in situations that are characterized by high degrees of control and short time frames, it has limited value in dynamic and complex situations that unfold over longer periods of time.  technological determinism cannot adequately account for the interactions between technologies; the people who design, implement and use them; and the social and organizational contexts in which the technologies and people are embedded. the language used by these municipal communities implies a simplistic, direct-effect view of solving the problem of the digital divide, which will undoubtedly fail. in the case of portland, the city has clearly stated that the municipal-sponsored network will help bridge the digital divide. in the case of tempe, the city has clearly stated that the municipal-sponsored network will raise the quality of life for all tempe citizens. what is perhaps most interesting here is the comparison between what is found in this direct-effects rhetoric used by the cities in question, and the experience of the network by both city employees and municipal-community key informants in these cities. in both cases there was a clear disconnect between the stated intentions of the network and the perceived effects of the network. as perceived by the key informants in portland, despite earlier claims that the link between a successful and universal internet network and a narrower digital divide would be strong and causal, they have found the city’s actions actually distancing itself from the digital divide phenomenon. city employee informants claimed that bridging the digital divide was not even a goal for the network any longer. community informants also supported this claim and struggled to understand why the city had not engaged in a more comprehensive, direct and holistic effort to narrow the divide. it was generally perceived that the city had backed away from its earlier claims of what the network might accomplish, leaving segments of their community well-connected but bewildered.  in essence, portland recognized the complexity of attempting to engage the digital divide post-implementation and shortly thereafter quickly asserted their project was not designed to solve all issues of the digital divide, just those related to the availability and cost of high-speed internet access.  citizens, in turn, felt frustrated and abandoned by the city. this said, portland takes an interesting path toward addressing the digital divide in that they state its importance, recognize the role community can play, and do nothing publicly to foster it. this is a strange example of theme four: (context/socio-economic divide). in the case of portland, the city candidly admitted (post-implementation) that the goal of the unwire portland project is not to tackle the digital divide. however, portland recognized that the network did resolve matters related to access and cost. paradoxically of course, connectivity and pricing are key components in tackling the digital divide. theme four was confirmed via a number of remarks by public officials about the way the business model might transform the nature of access/cost to something more.  the most salient access/cost transformation was the idea that a free, ad-supported model might increase access and improve the social fabric of the community.  the verdict is still out on whether any of these business models are economically sustainable. drawing from the rhetoric as stated by the city of tempe, the digital divide will be eliminated by economic means, in other words by using low cost ubiquitous wireless internet access as a marketing tool to draw in more business and jobs, leading to a higher standard of living for all citizens. however, key informants in tempe believed that while the city is providing low cost internet access throughout the city, most city officials and community representatives did not see any causal link between the broadband project and improving the quality of life for all citizens, especially the most impoverished. in terms of access alone, while the network does indeed cover the entire city, because of its nature of the technology, it does not penetrate buildings, thus making the network a purely outdoor service. this implies mobility, which in turn implies laptop access rather than desktop access. for tempe citizens of the lower socio-economic ranks this adds an additional financial burden in that laptops are typically more expensive than desktops and if they should want the service indoors it would only be possible with the additional purchase of a signal booster. in addition, the city of tempe makes its wireless access free in the downtown areas near the university, but charges in all other areas of the city. while this may benefit the university, faculty and students, those citizens of tempe who are not affiliated with the university and do not live downtown including the most socio-economically disadvantaged, are not receiving free service. in this light, the municipal network may actually be widening the gap between the digital haves and have-nots. tempe has made the digital divide issue a purely economic issue in which the intentions of the network are to help brand the city, attract new business, and eventually provide more jobs. this, along with access, will eventually bridge the digital divide. this is best seen through our theme one: (connectivity divide). as with other elements of the discussion, the participants did not agree whether the network would help or hurt the social fabric of their community.  several participants noted that the lack of policy that addresses the digital divide directly would eventually produce stagnation in the evolution of the network and other government-led technological initiatives. this issue of “playing down” the policy implications and oversimplifying a complex reality might result in wasted resources and false expectations. in both cases, the intention of these cities was to provide low cost, ubiquitous internet access. both believed that internet access played a role in improving the quality of life for all citizens, including those socially, economically, and digitally disadvantaged.  for portland, their broadband network was rhetorically framed in terms of access alone,  for most academicians and researchers, internet access is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for closing the digital divide.  for tempe, providing internet access was rhetorically framed as what was needed to prime the economic pump to start the economic engine, leading to a higher quality of life for all citizens. while this rhetoric and access may indeed bring new businesses and jobs to tempe, the current form of access it offers does little for current disadvantaged citizens. conclusions we find that delivering broadband internet access to disenfranchised neighborhoods or institutions does not, in fact, narrow the gap. in other words, merely adding low-cost broadband internet access to impoverished neighborhoods, without additional educational programs and low-cost devices, will exacerbate the divide. recent research (see kvasny and payton, 2005; kvasny 2006; kvasny and keil 2006; dimaggio 2001; kling and lamb 2000) suggest that the success of digital divide projects depends on a variety of factors such as training, education, user perceptions of it, and the organization’s past experience with using it. in impoverished neighborhoods in cities in which municipalities offer wireless broadband, access may be interpreted as just another “out of reach” commodity. without low-cost devices, appropriate cultural content and significant training and support, access may be simultaneously interpreted as useless (ie. bicycles for fish) and yet another thing made for the rich, the white, and the elite. the rhetoric surrounding these projects is that of hope, equity, and a better quality of life for all.  however, the closer examination in this study of what city officials, local groups, citizens and the providers are actually experiencing suggests a flaw in this rhetoric. by and large, what emerges from these discussions is an optimistic view of the benefits to be harnessed from these networks for ameliorating the digital divide. this study posits that governments have been “blinded”’ by the novelty of broadband technology; and the qualitative evidence suggests the projects examined do not live up to the proclaimed ideal of progress. to conceptualize technological change outside of any socio-political, socio-historical, or socio-economic context causes the technology, in this case access to wireless broadband, to appear to be an autonomous agent operating and having a direct effect on the digital divide outside of its relationship to other and societal processes. rhetoric that promises solutions to communities and does not deliver can actually cause additional problems.  most directly, cities waste money, time and effort on failed initiatives. more importantly, the gap between the digital haves and have-nots continues and grows. additionally, community groups, partners and the public grow disillusioned with an associated increase in the the distrust of public officials and government. lastly, the belief that technology directly solves social problems continues uncontested, even though it is so evidently failing again and again. for some municipalities in which the promises of bridging the digital divide were especially clear and strong, and in which taxpayer dollars were used to fund the project, disconnects such as these can lead to a further mistrust of authority and technology, worsening the socio-cultural problems at the root of the digital divide.  it other words, it will entrench existing exclusion, and educational and social inequality may increase. from our data we do not conclude that these municipal community projects are a failure and should not be attempted. we conclude rather that they have great potential but that the plans and actions taken by the government should match the rhetoric used by the public leaders. plans should include the community and provide the auxiliary training and support necessary to build users instead of networks. mismatched plans and rhetorical promises may do more harm than good. in many ways this is a new frontier for research in this social-political-technological realm. although there is research that suggests municipal-community networks in fact enhance economic development activity (lehr, et al 2005), there is no academic research supporting the claim that they also address the digital divide.  little research has been conducted which examines the role of rhetoric, such as digital divide context, in planning and implementing these initiatives in the u.s. if the digital divide is socio-historical, socio-political, and socio-cultural in nature, and can only be dismantled through movements that address it on those levels, it is virtually impossible for cities to expect these networks will single-handedly address these problems.  in terms of the perceptions of the impact of city-sponsored municipal wireless network in portland and tempe, there is a perceived disconnect between the rhetoric used by the two cities involved in this study and the experience and expectations of those living and working within the city.  these cities have made public claims that their networks will improve the quality of the lives of its citizens, either through the act of directly providing access in portland, or through using that access to attract business and jobs to the community. in both cases the experience of those concerned with each project, including city employees, technical managers, community representatives, among others, found that while access was provided, it did little to improve the lives of the most disenfranchised citizens. in both of the case studies presented here, the municipal wireless network was created as a top down, municipal-driven project, rather than a more community driven grassroots driven project. it is in this light that community informatics may play its greatest role. in this light since the latter part of 2006 the concept of digital inclusion has become a common term associated with large cities in the us and their wireless programs. greg richardson, managing partner at civitium, a leading municipal consulting company, states that digital inclusion programs will bring technology products, services, training and content to lower-income or disadvantaged areas of the community. these digital inclusion programs may help bridge the gap between hopeful rhetoric and actual impact on the digital divide, principally by broadening the scope of digital divide to include the social and to include multiple community players within the design and deployment space. according to ben scott, policy director for the free press, "for meaningful digital inclusion to occur, the goal of the network should be universal, affordable access for all members of a community. to reach this goal means more than just building a network infrastructure; it means attaining goals of equipment distribution, technology training, and social services"(as quoted in meinrath, 2006). in 2006, several cities have moved from discussing municipal wireless projects and their impact on the digital divide to creating digital inclusion programs that include more than access alone. whether or not these wi-fi portals will serve as a medium that will push us further into the new digital global economy discussed by countless authors remains a murky issue.  in some ways, these mu-fi systems fit well in that they do provide basic access to the experienced.  conversely, it does not serve as a medium that allows universal service for all, especially at-risk communities.  just as with other telecommunication services, internet access cannot be made available only to certain geographical areas of a city if its decision-makers truly intend to address the digital divide.  it requires that the wireless cloud be made available everywhere and it requires that end-users (experienced or novice) have adequate training, resources, tools, services, and so on, to access and navigate the network. however, it is possible that municipal-community internet efforts to bridge the digital divide reflect a rhetorical strategy needed to sway taxpayers toward a more favorable stance. social inclusion rhetoric may be increasingly important, especially in the light of continued state and federal legislation that threatens continued involvement in this area by municipal governments. we concede that the growing use of such language has brought the social inclusion issue to the forefront of many large municipalities, demanding much needed socio-political attention. 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(2003b) technology and social inclusion: rethinking the digital divide, the mit press cambridge, massachusetts.   [1] http://www.wirelesscommons.org/definition [2] http://www.cwirp.ca/ [3] http://www.muniwireless.com/reports/docs/cabinjohnrfi.pdf   [4] http://www.cityofchicago.org/civicnet/rfqinformation.html [5] http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/34454.html [6] http://www.govtech.net/digitalcommunities/story.php?id=96864 [7] see http://www.wikipedia.org [8] ibid [9] see http://www.metrofi.com [10] portland also met the criteria in that its network had been in operation for public access since 31 december 2006. [11] pr newswire us april 12, 2006, http://www.prnewswire.com [12] portland skanner october 26, 2005, http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1p1-117239572.html [13] most of these users are located in the downtown core (about 16,000 users by mid-2007 out of approximately 500,000 residents) and it’s still a mystery whether these 16,000 users are those who were previously unconnected. [14] cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when there is a discrepancy (i.e. dissonance) between what someone believes, knows and values, and persuasive information that calls these ideas into question. [15] see http://www.wikipedia.org [16] tempe also met our criteria in that its network had been in operation for public access since 31 december 2006.  [17] mayor hugh hallman, the arizona republic – april 29, 2005 http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/mesa/articles/0429t-wifiz11.html [18] http://tempe.gov 1300-7761-3-ce the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles “happy, just talking, talking, talking”: community strengthening through mobile phone based peer support among refugee women resettled refugees face lack of information and support, due to disrupted community and cultural mismatch. in this context, we provided 111 refugee women peer support training and a restricteddial unlimited-call mobile phone in melbourne, australia. we gathered demographic, phone call, pre and post intervention questionnaires, and interview data. the provided resources synergised with existing resources such as social capital and information demand, resulting in changes to resource allocation and social processes, such as economic resource reallocation, information sharing, personal agency, and social support. these changes impacted areas such as employment, education, transportation and domestic violence, leading to improved individual lives and community functioning. !50 dennis wollersheim la trobe university, australia corresponding author. d.wollersheim@latrobe.edu.au lee koh la trobe university, australia l.koh@latrobe.edu.au rae walker la trobe university, australia r.walker@latrobe.edu.au pranee liamputtong western sydney university, australia p.liamputtong@westernsydney.edu.au wollersheim, d., koh, l., walker, r., liamputtong, p. (2017). ‘happy, just talking, talking, talking: community strengthening through mobile phone based peer support among refugee women. the journal of community informatics, 13(1), 50—71. date submitted: 2016-04-07. date accepted: 2017-01-08. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1300 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1300 mailto:d.wollersheim@latrobe.edu.au mailto:l.koh@latrobe.edu.au mailto:r.walker@latrobe.edu.au mailto:p.liamputtong@westernsydney.edu.au http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1300 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction prilleltensky (2008:359) characterises migrant wellbeing as a “multilevel, dynamic, and value dependent phenomenon”. this is particularly true for refugee migrants, whose problems are complex, systemic and have structural components outside their control (stewart et al, 2014; tempany, 2009). in this context, we introduced a free-call mobile phone based peer support program for 111 refugee women in melbourne australia to facilitate their resettlement process. in this paper, we describe how the program functioned at the systems setting level. refugees are at higher risk of poor health, poor economic prospects, unemployment, and low education. refugees experience trauma from stressors such as grief and loss, loss of cultural identity, economic and social disadvantage and experiences of violence (cislo et al, 2010; correa-valez et al, 2010; dow, 2011; ngum chi watts et al, 2014; beadle, 2014). refugee problems are also structural. refugee women are multiply marginalised and subject to racism, sexism, and classism (goodkind and deacon, 2004), which leads to the women internalising the oppressive messages and then perpetuating them to self and peers (david, 2013). for example, women’s internalised oppression generally dictates that refugee women have lower personal resource consumption (including education and money), and reduced access to the public sphere (leading to lower exposure to and practice of the dominant language). typically, pre-migration, refugees to australia lived communally. refugee migration damages community, which is integral to their lives. refugees arrive geographically isolated from family and potential local peers. their ability to grow community is impeded by linguistic isolation from neighbours and geographic isolation from linguistic peers, leading to social isolation and lack of support (schweitzer et al, 2006; tempany, 2009). programs designed to counter such disadvantage tend to be optimised for mainstream individualist culture, while many refugee traditional cultures are collectivist or family-centred (triandis, 1996). this situation argues for an empowerment based solution, where refugees can use their personal agency to fulfil their particular needs (rappaport, 1987). in australia, information is increasingly available and important (abs, 1999), making education essential. refugees often have low initial education, more so for women (goodkind and deacon, 2004), and this, combined with ongoing oppression, leads to limited capacity to obtain and use information, leading to less ability to use australian resources. internet information is inaccessible to many refugees due to internet information largely being in written english. we theorised that mobile phones, combined with peer support, can be used by refugee communities to obtain and share valuable quotidian information, leading to mutual empowerment and relationship strengthening. from our experience, a best case information resource for refugees would have the following characteristics: a) be in an understandable language (both in level and vocabulary), b) contain knowledge !51 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 appropriate for questions asked, c) be physically accessible, d) be at the correct level of detail, and e) have an accessible emotional tone. a community of refugee peers connected using mobile phones can more likely provide such a resource, and refugees themselves would use this resource, due to their information and support deficit. flow on effects would include emotional support and social capital (fisher, 2004), and the increased practical support and access to information, given to women often in the centre of their families, would lead to increased familial and community wellbeing. theoretical framework the intervention used in this study was based on a technology, mobile phones, and social skills training in peer support, for refugee women. the intervention was designed to shift the interaction patterns of the participating women into a more constructive state (foster-fishman, nowell & yang, 2007), leading to increased settlement success and overall community health. tseng and seidman’s (2007) framework, outlined in figure 1, is particularly appropriate for analysing socio-technical interventions such as that used in this project. figure 1 – a systems framework for understanding social settings, adapted from tseng and seidman (2007) social system components are often considered in two aspects: system structure, and social processes. the latter consists of ‘actions and operations’ which express social !52 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 system qualities (kelly et al, 2000:139). in tseng and seidman’s (2007) framework, a system’s structural features, including resources and their organisation, strongly influence the social processes within the setting and the experiences and actions of participants. the elements in the model have bi-directional influences but are represented here as unidirectional to emphasise the intervention design logic (tseng & seidman, 2007). resources resource availability and quality, within a system or setting, are important, but alone they are insufficient to create meaningful outcomes (tseng & seidman, 2007). their relationships to outcomes are mediated by resource organisation and social processes. resource categories include human, physical, economic and temporal. of particular importance are human resources, which are the personal qualities, skills and information that individuals could offer other system participants. these can also be described as ‘personal resource potentials’ (kelly et al, 2000:136), which emphasises that individuals may be able to express personal qualities in a context that enacts supportive norms and values. this emphasis separates personal resource potential from simply networking. social system resources are ‘groups, procedures or events that influence the development of social systems’ (kelly et al, 2000:137). according to kelly et al. (2000:137), ‘social system resources include not only information, money and influence but also traditions, customs and observances that facilitate feelings of integration and being part of a social system’. resource organisation resource organisation influences people’s resource engagement. social system resource organisation can promote the development of individuals as well as the relationships with other social systems, as long as there are norms and values that encourage such activities. this intervention, through a mobile phone technological resource organisation, facilitated group member relationships. peer support training, and its application in daily life, created a social system resource that could be used in diverse contexts. physical resource organisation and social resource organisation are often related. in australian communities, many physical resources such as cars, housing and household related equipment are held privately. for refugee women on low incomes, accessing such resources depends on them being able to access publicly provided resources, or building relationships with resource owners. economic resource organisation refers to the distribution of funds within a system. distribution of economic resources can occur through welfare, paid work or private industry such as tailoring or cleaning services. the mobile phones and peer support relationships have the potential to influence the women’s access to economic resources in much the same way as they do with physical resources. !53 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 social processes social processes are ‘ongoing transactions between two or more people or groups ... in a setting’ (tseng & seidman, 2007:219), and are influenced by people’s roles. they involve a ‘constant stream of action, wherein transactions are repeated, behaviours are recalibrated based on feedback, and patterns are reinforced over time’ (tseng & seidman, 2007:219). tseng and seidman (2007) suggest that the social processes associated with positive system level outcomes are norms, relationships and activity participation. social norms (including attitudes, values and beliefs) regulate and foster behaviours within a system. when values, beliefs and attitudes are shared, ‘they create a dominant normative context that determines the practices and functions of a system or subsystem’ (foster-fishman, nowell, yang, 2007:205). shared experience helps people to learn the norms, the ‘appropriate and acceptable’ behaviours in a setting (kelly et al, 2000:144) relationships are influenced by both social roles, such as that of parent or child, as well as the actual interactions people have with other individuals and networks (tseng & seidman, 2007). kelly et al. (2000) argue that there are four key relationship processes: reciprocity, networking, boundary spanning and adaptation. reciprocity refers to the conscious give and take within relationships and a commitment to being mutually helpful. personal and social system resources come into existence when reciprocity becomes a system norm. networking is more superficial, referring to efforts to establish communication with other participants in a system, or other systems. boundary spanning refers to establishing relationships with members of other systems in order to access or exchange resources (kelly et al, 2000). finally, adaptation refers to the processes people create to respond to the demands within their own or external systems, to ‘develop competencies in individuals and resources of the social system’ (kelly et al, 2000:142). methods the study used mixed methods to examine the community and individual level effects of a mobile phone based peer support program for women refugees in south-eastern melbourne, australia, 2010–2012. intervention design we designed the intervention to maximise community-wide effects, choosing the communities based on our ability to recruit effective community leaders, and on the number of recently arrived refugee membership in the target geographic area. from the nuer (south sudanese), dari (afghan), burmese buddhist (hereafter b1), and burmese moslem (hereafter b2) communities, we recruited leaders who were widely respected, had good community-wide relationships, and who could think well about their community. !54 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 recruitment participants were initially invited by their respective community leaders to an information session, based on the leader’s assessment of the participant’s ability to both make use of the resource offered and possession of sufficient resource so that they were able to listen and offer help. we recruited participants who were already leading in the community, both so that they could become more effective in increasing overall community power and information, and to provide the system setting with sufficient resource to support and sustain itself. at the information session we explained the study and distributed participant information sheets, in both english and heritage languages. potential participants were given opportunities to seek clarification before signing the informed consent for participation. a snowball sampling technique was also used, where the initial participant groups invited people with whom they had relationships (liamputtong, 2013). this action further dispersed the resource allocation function onto participants, fostering empowerment. one hundred and eleven women were recruited over six months, including 44 nuer, 31 dari, and 25 and 11 into the b1 and b2 groups respectively. table 1 presents the participant demographics. table 1 participant demographics at the commencement of the program. note, standard deviations are in brackets. participants were offered two resources: peer support training and free mobile communication. the purpose of the peer support training sessions were to build relationships between members of the participating communities, and to foster and group n mean # of adults in house % of mothers with husband present in australia mean # children per mother mean age in years mean years in australia had mobile phone at program start % emplo yed at program start % burmese 1 (b1) 25 3.83 (1.5) 75% 3.1 (1.65) 35.7 (13.5) 2.88 (1.85) 62% 4% burmese 2 (b2) 11 4.33 (1.94) 100% 4.2 (2.05) 39.0 (12.9) 4.00 (1.00) 30% 0% dari (afghan) 31 4.14 (1.41) 72% 3.5 (1.89) 33.2 (13.1) 4.19 (2.09) 74% 0% nuer 
 (south sudanese) 44 3.08 (1.51) 50% 4.5 (1.99) 36.7 (11.0) 6.81 (2.65) 93% 9% !55 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 make evident personal resource potentials. the sessions were structured to be single heritage groups with 9-15 members, meeting weekly for the first six weeks and then bimonthly for five meetings. the group format was designed to deepen community relationships by increasing communication skills and increasing trust. the training sessions aimed be highly structured, allowing for a safe space to practice intimate communication and trust. each group started with reporting of new and good events. then the women “swapped time”, taking turns to talk and listen for durations of three to five minutes each. this was followed by group wide communication, where each member would address the chosen topic, in turns, without interruption. topics were selected using a strength-based, assets model designed to focus the women’s attention on their own strengths, and the positives in their lives (smith, 2006), and included “goals and aspirations”; “educational successes”; “personal pride”; and “successes in life in australia”. additional topics were chosen opportunistically, based on current events (eg south sudanese independence). detailed group functioning is more fully outlined in liamputtong et al (2015). additionally, in the first and second training sessions, the women filled in the pre and post-intervention questionnaires, detailed below. in the third training session, each woman was given a mobile phone with the following unlimited free-call numbers on speed-dial: • intragroup numbers: peer support group members from the same community (all heritage culture links); • landline numbers: five participant-chosen australian landline including home phone numbers, or overseas numbers from selected countries (largely heritage culture links); and • service numbers: translating and interpreting service (tis), four participantchosen service provider numbers, and researchers (lk & dw) who facilitated the peer support groups (all host culture links). this initial group structure allowed adjustments in response to community leader advice and/or participant preference, resulting in alterations to scheduling, format, and group composition. the responsiveness further empowered participants. for example, one nuer group was cancelled after the community leader informed us that the mother of a group member had died, and all the group members would be at the grieving person’s house at the time of the group. the leader advised the group facilitators to pay our respects at the home of the bereaved. we did as advised, rescheduled the group and visited the bereaved household. this action fostered the idea that all the relationships, even those with researchers, were relationships between peers. overall, the dari group was exceptional, in that the participants did not have wide preexisting relationships. due to member demand, in place of the bi-monthly meetings, we combined the three dari groups into one, giving more opportunities for relationships to develop. this larger group met monthly, with 10-18 participants attending. for this group, we arranged childcare, transport, and a post-group meal. !56 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 peer support group activities ran for 12 months. groups had staggered start times, but the whole programme ran from 2010 to 2012. some women did not attend all the training sessions, and/or stopped using their phones, but no one formally withdrew from the program. in our qualitative component (see below), we also interviewed women who made relatively fewer calls. mobile phone plan setup a corporate contract with a mobile phone service provider enabled the program to make relatively inexpensive flat-rate calls to both intragroup and 10 fixed landline phone numbers. the fixed landlines were redirected via voice over internet protocol (voip), on a per-participant basis, to nine participant chosen numbers, and the tis. the cost of the phone calling resource was $au 29,974, which included both the mobile phone and voip infrastructure cost for the six-month recruitment and 12-month intervention period. the actual cost would have been $au 488,210 if calls were made using standard prepaid rates. at the end of the program, calls on the network stopped, but the phones continued to be operational. data collection outgoing phone calls made by the women were recorded automatically in a call log that captured the time, duration and destination of calls. only intragroup incoming calls could be recorded. participants filled in pre and post-intervention questionnaires, at program start and end, which measured quality of life (whoqol), self-esteem (rosenberg’s self-esteem scale), self-efficacy (efficacy scale) and friendship (friendship scale). at the first session, participants also filled a demographic questionnaire. all the questionnaires had gone through a vigorous process of forward and backward translation from english into nuer, burmese and dari. the recruiting community leader and several respected members of each community were consulted to ensure that the questionnaires were culturally appropriate for the community. the questionnaires were administered with the assistance of the bilingual community leaders and/or interpreters. only the demographic and call data are reported here. the results of the pre and post-intervention questionnaires are complex and appropriately discussed in detail elsewhere. interviews participants indicated yes/no, on the consent form, to a request for an audio-taped interview, and interviewees were selected among participants who had provided an affirmative answer. the researchers verbally reconfirmed consent with the participants at the time of the interview. unless language was a barrier and participants had to be invited through the relevant interpreters, interview requests were made directly by the researchers. !57 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the 29 interview participants included women from each community, who were selected based on their diversity of phone calling patterns, e.g. people with short, long, few, or many calls. the 60-90-min interviews took place in the participants’ homes, and were conducted through an interpreter except for two participants who were proficient in english. during the interview, the women were asked about their experiences with the program, the differences in their lives and relationships as a result of the program as well as their call usage patterns. the transcripts of these audio-recorded interviews provided the qualitative data for the project. data analysis demographic data was analysed using descriptive statistics. call log data was analysed according to the three categories of free call numbers programmed into each phone. • landline / intragroup / service call duration: the average length of calls • landline / intragroup / service call frequency: the number of calls a person made • intragroup call breadth: the number of participants (from the same community) who each participant called qualitative data was analysed using thematic methods (liamputtong, 2013), where potential categories were identified from an initial reading of the interview transcripts. the categories were then aggregated, in an iterative and collaborative process, into a set of defined core and related themes, facilitated by the nvivo software. the process was error checked by two researchers (lk and rw) who discussed and resolved differences from the coding of three initial transcripts. ethics ethics approval for the project was granted by the faculty human ethics committee, la trobe university. we used fictitious names in presenting the narratives of the women to preserve their confidentiality. verbatim quotes are also minimally edited for ease of reading. findings in this section, we show the program’s health promotion effects on the refugee communities through four interlinked aspects: resources, resource organisation, social processes, and social outcomes. we found that the program resources acted as catalysts, facilitating the mobilisation and reorganisation of other nascent pre-existing resources. this enhanced social processes, and led to settings level social outcomes, as summarised in figure 2. !58 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 2 – community level program effect summary resources the intervention supplied peer support training which potentiated the mobile phones resource. without the meetings, the mobile wouldn’t be helpful. because if we didn’t see each other, we didn’t meet each other, so we wouldn’t get relationship and get together. (farhana, dari) while the peer support groups had a common structure to practice interpersonal intimacy and build trust, the dynamics of each community’s groups differed due to preexisting community dynamics and relationships. for example, when the women lacked pre-existing relationships, the structured practice was more effective, because existing habitual communication patterns did not interfere. when participants had pre-existing relationships, the group practice allowed the relationships to operate at a different level. prior to the program, the women generally had low mobile phone resource, either having no phone, or more often, having a phone that could not make outgoing calls due to having zero call credits. the latter situation disempowered the women, allowing communication solely at another’s behest. this original resource deficit enhanced the intervention, because we converted participant’s mobile phone functionality from “intermittently useful” to “reliable”, which is qualitatively more useful than merely a lower phone bill. farhana describes the difference: !59 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 before having the telephone, i might call my friends once a day or two, even two days … but after having this phone we made lots of phone calls. … it is totally different before having the phone and after (farhana, dari) the phone resource was used widely to sustain communication channels, and often shared with others. for example, it was used by the children to call other families; left with the babysitter while the mother went out; and given to a son who had soccer training. table 2 shows actual phone use. each group had distinctive calling patterns, seemingly related to two factors: pre-existing relationships and familiarity with mobiles. the nuer and b1 groups had wide pre-existing relationships and much mobile familiarity. here, we see large (many intragroup calls) and broad (to many different community members) phone usage, with group members reporting both long relationship-sustaining social chats and more purposive short calls. in contrast, b2 group members also had strong pre-existing relationships, but lacked mobile phone familiarity. this led to broad phone usage, with calls of limited duration. b2 group members reported using the phone to coordinate, but then meeting face-toface socially. the dari group had an opposite pattern, arising from low levels of pre-existing relationships, but high mobile phone familiarity. as a result, their phone communication was narrow, albeit with long duration calls among people with pre-existing relationships, such as their chosen extra-group phone numbers. table 2 mobile phone call statistics (sd = standard deviation) group name (number of members) burmese 1 (25) burmese 2 (11) dari (31) nuer (44) intragroup calls mean individual call length minutes (sd) 4.45 (11.15) 3.17 (8.57) 2.24 (5.7) 5.72 (12.24) mean total call volume minutes / person / week (sd) 83.48 (97.21) 18.8 (25.51) 15.14 (17.63 ) 104.48 (101.16) overseas calls mean individual call length in minutes (sd 10.21 (19.94) 6.28 (13.09) 4.43 (8.77) 8.05 (16.93) mean total call volume minutes / person / week (sd) 42.63 (88.13) 15.42 (25.68) 2.53 (2.59) 22.67 (35.5) within australia extra group community calls mean individual call length in minutes (sd 3.64 (9.1) 0.93 (0.9) 2.83 (7) 4.75 (11.82) !60 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 pre-existing community resources the intervention resources leveraged and strengthened pre-existing community resources, the most important being social capital. three of the four communities had high existing social capital, as evidenced by the strong and wide pre-existing intragroup relationships, shown through the call volumes in table 2. another resource was the women’s familiarity with and propensity to use mobile phones. prior to program commencement, the nuer, b1 and dari groups had wide mobile phone ownership, and this translated into high phone usage, as seen in table 2. this demand was driven by a need for support and information. when i first arrived i couldn’t write, i couldn’t speak and i was not familiar with all the places. and i was desperately waiting for someone to help me. (mariam, dari) participants reported how previous information deficit had caused problems such as credit card misuse, missed appointments, inappropriate purchases (including mobile phone services), inability to use public transport, and feelings of being unsafe when leaving home. this lack of and need for information enhanced the intervention by driving phone use, with resultant social connection benefits. mean total call volume minutes / person / week (sd) 10.78 (15.57) 1.29 (1.5) 10.47 (13.78 ) 15.02 (27.28) within australia institutional calls mean individual call length in minutes (sd 0.99 (1.72) 0.96 (0.93) 4.61 (9.37) 2.82 (7.02) mean total call volume minutes / person / week (sd) 0.27 (0.27) 0.28 (0.59) 0.88 (1.92) 1.31 (2.43) strong intragroup connections (numbers a person called more than 12 times / year) mean number of strong connections / person (sd) 5.64 (3.92) 4.29 (2.64) 2.74 (1.28) 10.73 (5.42) mean % of group to which member strongly connected 23% 39% 9% 24% estimated value to participantsmean total call value / person / year $aud (sd) 3396 (3089) 680 (682) 961 (1079) 4859 (4770) !61 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 resource organisation the above resources led to a cascade of resource reorganisation. for example, myint thin reported that, because of the intragroup contact, there was social contagion of the value of education, (a driver’s license), which led to reorganisation of family automobile resources, giving an outcome of geographic freedom and increased knowledge of local geography. easy to contact, that’s why our life is very improved. … if we compare last year and this year … we got this phone, and then we contact each other… and then we know so many places and we can go everywhere now. … can go more places. … last year we not know many places, just we stay home. (myint thin, b2) mariam (dari) summarised the effect of increased information that arose from attending the peer support groups: we have got … lots of information … you get more information when you are in contact with other people. … yeah, we know from each other, we learn from each other … for example, we learn from other people, they share they experiences what is expected in australia, what is not. some things we were not aware. there were several general effects of this increase in information and support. firstly, information led to more peer interaction; for example, information about community events led to increased participation. secondly, increased communication, combined with increased trust, led to more sharing of emotional state, and this in turn increased the amount of support given and received. finally, there was a widely reported increase in confidence that came from knowing that information was always available, due to mobile phone’s ‘anywhere, anytime’ functionality. one previous problem the women reported was a shortage of time (compounded by other resource deficits). for example: [before the program] i did lots of shopping and i couldn’t carry it. … i didn’t have any phone. … it took me … three hours to wait for someone to come and help me. [now] … when i go shopping, i am not able to carry all these things. so i call my family and someone comes and help me with the shopping. (fazel, dari) this temporal resource deficit caused stress. they worry about it. it was very stress because sometimes my phone doesn’t work or doesn’t have any money. when you have an appointment and you stuck in the traffic you worry about you miss the appointment or you coming late, you know. (nagat, dari) in this setting, an always-available mobile phone, backed by a supportive community, was useful because it helped to organise the women’s physical and social systems. many women reported how the phone allowed them to make better use of their own and !62 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 other’s time, because it enabled them to request help. they could take on more tasks in a day, because the communication made them more efficient and lessened the effects of running late, for example, by enabling request of emergency childcare. they could also synchronize with others, for example, by calling when shopping is done, instead of making drivers wait. i know that i have appointment, or i need something, whether its doctor or centrelink, so i will organise myself. more than last year, because of this phone. so i’m more organised than last year. (lina, nuer) on an economic level, the program directly changed economic resource allocation, because the women did not allocate family funds for their own mobile phone resource. almost every interviewee remarked on this. when we need [help from other participants] just call them. we don’t need to worry that my phone doesn’t have any money … i’m really happy with that. because when i need them, or they need me they call me. (nagat, dari) the program also had indirect economic effects, as women reported taking greater control of family resource organisation. the mobile phone gave the women control of their time and wider access to information, which made them more powerful and efficacious. for example, as news of sales at local shops spread through communities, the women organised group shopping trips that invited savings and gave them increased control of their financial allocations. social processes changes in social processes were clearly seen. the move to australia itself caused great change in the women’s social processes. in burma all the neighbours, we know each other, talk to each other, … you must know everybody but here nobody knows each other. (lah win, b1) australia was often an isolating, disempowering environment for participants, and the women expressed demand for improved social processes. the phone-facilitated communication allowed the women to express their human resource potential, by facilitating participation in social processes. this was summarised by an elderly woman, who bemoaned her previous inability to contribute: in my culture being an elder, you have alot of duties... and according to my age i would intervene and try to counsel [couples in difficulty]... now because i have this telephone if i come across a relationship issue... so my advice would be like this … because of this telephone ... these are the kind of things that i talk about. (nyibol, nuer) the help provided to each other was not only practical. the refugee experience was often traumatic, and the program provided a space where the women could share their personal refugee experience, socially validate what they were feeling, and provide an !63 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 audience for their peers. an oft reported sentiment was the ability to get social support and advice, especially by the single mothers. nyibol reports: we the single parents who are looking after many children … it is very very very challenging and a lot of difficulties that we are facing … if we live here with our husbands, you know, we wouldn’t have all these responsibilities that we talk about, you know. we will share the responsibilities, bringing up the children, you know, with them. … so what you do? you call your friend. … if you talk to them … , it will shift your thinking about all these flaws and anxieties ... it give you love and warmth when you are talking to that person. (nyibol, nuer) this dynamic decreased isolation, as the following quotes demonstrate: before, i was sick, i don’t have much contact with outsiders, but now with phone, i got to know more people, share more friendship, i will go out more. (lah win, b1) when you are worried and there is no person that you can talk about what worries you, it is very hard. but since i have this [phone], even though my accommodation situation haven’t change, i’m always with my friends talking about different things and we laugh. and so its changed my life because i think: why should i feel stuck in this small house with the children? so i don’t think about this every time. (rita, nuer) settings outcomes at a settings level, one reported outcome was increased efficiency of a traditional female task, shopping. this change was effected through a variety of methods, such as increased knowledge of current bargains, reminders of necessary seasonal purchases (e.g. school supplies), and by making shopping social, using the phone to coordinate group trips. in the following quote, myint thin discusses the shopping related effect of increased information on a group member who formerly did not go out much. [it was ] very bad [for her before] and very improved for her now. before, when she doesn’t have the phone, how can she know [how to go to different places]? … she just stay at home, now she know it, and then sometimes her husband doesn’t send to the shop, she has to walk. ... she go out often. sometimes we rang her, where are you? she is at the shopping centre, she’s not at home. … now she [does house chores] very fast. go out. go out. (myint thin, b2) of wider ramification was the increase in mobility. first, the women felt better about leaving home, because they felt safer when out, and they felt better about leaving their children at home because they could call home anytime for free. too, it became physically easier to leave home, due to an increased ability to coordinate lifts and to use !64 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 public transport, the latter due to their new facility to get information from a heritage language peer. i feel more confident after having this phone. now i go to the shops, and i go to my friend’s house. anywhere i go i feel safe, that’s why i can contact them. and i contact my family and ask them how they are going. it makes me more confident. (fazel, b2) education, from micro-education related information transfer about daily living in australia to formal education like driver training, sewing classes and family day care training, was a common outcome. course information spread across communities, leading to powerful peer effects. they are also now, most of our friends they also driving. they watch out each other, our community are watch out each other. is someone doing something that improving, and driving, you would like to drive also? and they trying hard. so many people can drive now. (myint thin, b2) one year after program completion, the nuer leader reported that 95% of the nuer women in the program were employed, compared to 9% at program start. the majority had completed the family day care training course, which demonstrates the peer effects. health outcomes resulted from both the increased coordination, and the doctor-onspeed-dial phone functionality. this facilitated making and attending appointments for the women and their families. more importantly, the program had psychological and physical health benefits. i feel much relieved and relax ... because of the phone. even when i went for a walk ... to avoid getting bored, i used to call my friend and walk and talk. (farhana, dari) the experiences engendered by the program led to the women having greatly increased personal power, and this empowerment took hold in other parts of their lives. myint thin (b2) talked about how the phones were useful in interrupting domestic violence in their community. if [husbands] angry sometimes they would like to beat the wife. now we have the phone can you beat? we have the phone we can calling [the police]. she explained further, detailing how increased information both helped lives, and flowed through the community: before, [husbands] take all of the money. and then what we need we have to ask from him. anything else we would like to buy we have to ask from him. he keep it all, the money … so later on we have the phone, we know it. and also our case co-ordinator explain it. and then our chance. women also have to be a chance,... we know its our chance, and then we tell them. … and when we tell them, they angry. and then they kick [us]. we call the police. we call the police they afraid and later on the kicking stopped. !65 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the changes to social processes and outcomes were strengthened and integrated into the community structure through positive feedback loops. many women mentioned that phone usage led to stronger relationships and increased trust: [the phone] is strengthening my relationship with the people that are my close relatives because especially, you know, each day in the morning or whenever i have time i call them, “how are you?” and “how are the kids this morning?” (wilma, nuer) rozilah (b2) gave us a simple example, describing how the phone made it easier to go out, which led to better english, which in turn would make it easier to go out: … before i do not go anywhere, i just stay at home. i don’t want to be housebound but i want to go out … since i’ve got the phone, i can contact [my friends] to come and pick me up anytime …compared to last year, there is some improvement in my english. because i’ve been going around so i get to know the english language a bit more. followup although we did not formally follow up participants, dw and lk had extensive contact with nuer and b1 group leaders. the nuer group leader stated that one year after the program termination, most participants had undergone training, and all but one were employed. similar changes were reported by the b1 leader. participants were reported to be both much busier and richer. both leaders reported greatly increased mobile phone communication and community knowledge of mobile phone resources. this allows them to take advantage of the fluid mobile phone market, where there is now similar commercial plans available (eg unlimited free intragroup calling). many participants had increased digital literacy, and have organised unlimited intragroup and low cost overseas calling, often through the use of multiple mobile phone handsets to access various service providers. we had less contact with the b2 and dari communities post intervention, but some indication of outcome can be derived from the post intervention interviews. b2 group was likely to continue accumulating social capital, due the majority of group members moving to the same street by program end. the dari group was less likely to remain well connected. discussion viewed through tseng and seidman’s framework (2007), the intervention consisted of two interlinked communication resources: peer support training and mobile phone calling. the former was designed to actively affect social processes by developing and strengthening relationships, hence providing a more fertile ground for the phones. the phone resource was a more passive intervention on social processes, because of social processes demand ‘actions and operations’ (kelly et al, 2000:139). to affect social processes, phones need to be used, and phone use is facilitated by trust, relationships, !66 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 interdependence, desire to communicate, and mobile phone familiarity. the call volumes and breadth, seen from the program start, indicate that these features existed in the community, in various forms, prior to program commencement. once used, the phones provided more than just networking. they provided “a social amenity” (goodman, 2005), unlocking both personal resource potential (kelly 2000), as seen in the women’s ability to give and receive information and physical, economic, social and emotional support, and community resource potential, through modifying norms around individual development, such as the value of both education and relationships with other social systems. information transfer is often mentioned as a feature of mobile phones (kyem & lemaire, 2006), and in these communities, this was particularly the case. although each woman lacked specific information, the community as a whole often did not. each refugee had learned a set of practical skills around living in australia, and as a group, were themselves an underutilised settlement information resource. the program exploited the imbalance between the wealth of community information and the individual lack of information, providing community access to each woman’s accrued information. free mobile calling allowed good ideas to flow through the community. furthermore, this free flow of communication and information allowed the women to better organise their own and other’s resources, leading to more efficient resource utilisation in areas such as time, knowledge, money, and transport. prior to the intervention, this was less prevalent, due to structural factors. as david (2013) contends, internalised sexism and racism had led the women into a selfperpetuating situation of not allocating resources to themselves since they did not perceive themselves as a resource. the b2 group demonstrated this most clearly; at program commencement, when asked about pre-existing mobiles, they were mostly incredulous, saying “why would i need a mobile?”. this is tragic, but also for the intervention, an opportunity. because of this devaluing, the women had other underutilised personal resources, such as their time and their social capital. prior to the program, economic factors did impede participants from using their communication resources. there are competing demands, especially due to their place at the center of families. that said, mobile phone cost varies with usage and consumer economic literacy, ranging from $0.83/month, a not insurmountable sum. this intervention gave knowledge and experience, which allowed the women to better judge the value of mobile cost in their ongoing budgets, by providing them with some indication of potential value. it also jumpstarted the community conversation around mobiles, greatly increasing community knowledge and power vis-a-vis mobile consumption. the phones allowed the women to participate in community life, and through participation they learned societally fruitful roles, norms and practices, developing their shared social system resources (kelly, 2000). as the program progressed, social norms !67 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 changed, for example, norms around going out of the home, control of family money, and ability to work outside the home. this norm change was supported by various communication pathways such as phone calls between individuals, and shared group stories. phone use increased social capital accumulation, and the ease of communication made existing social capital more usable. at the relationship level, stronger relationships made it easier to use the phone as well as ask more of one’s relationships. the interlinked nature of our theoretical framework was demonstrated, in that social processes not only directly affected the women’s ability to make resource organisation decisions but also indirectly affected resource availability itself (tseng and seidman, 2007). the latter is because these social processes improved information availability which ameliorated the women’s key deficits, such as information, mobility, and australian societal engagement. this increase in social capital value and stature also increased the community’s perception of women’s value, as social capital is often seen as a component of a “women’s way of knowing” (belenky, 1997). limitations and future work the uniqueness of the dari group call pattern points to an obvious truth, that it takes social capital to make social capital. where the relationships did not exist prior to the program, the intragroup calling functionality was not as useful. the peer support training, despite being praised by dari interviewees as a valuable social experience, did not substitute for pre-existing relationships with respect to intragroup calling volumes. future programs or interventions of this nature should focus on either recruitment of groups with existing strong relationships (e.g. snowball recruitment), or prioritise relationship-building. similarly, the program works best in communities accustomed to doing things communally, relying on each other, and possess a willingness to help, and to be helped by others. phone calls, as used by this cohort, is synchronous communication, yet there is advantage in being able to communicate asynchronously, e.g. through text messages. asynchronous text-based communication was problematic due to the women’s lack of literacy and/or the inability of mass market phones to represent heritage language characters. access to such communication pathways would enhance and also allow oneto-many communication. future work should consider asynchronous communication methods, such as text-based communication, discussion groups, or even voice messaging applications. conclusion non-dominant cultures (e.g. women and traditional) place much value on relationships, and strong relationships can make good use of communication technologies. this project shows the value of these cultural traits, because it allows participants to demonstrate the strengths of such knowledge in a technologically enhanced setting, leading to distributed, empowerment-based information sharing. !68 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 as evidenced by the phone call logs, refugee women have huge unmet need for communication resources, related to a need for information and support apropos life in australian society. the program targeted this expressed community need. it took advantage of these local conditions, subsidised resources appropriate to satisfy the need, and allowed the resources themselves to exert powerful direct and indirect effects on social processes. while we do not believe that this intervention is a panacea for underprivileged groups, it does work very well for communities with specific characteristics, such as an ability to make use of social capital and underutilised social resources. our research demonstrates the value of information for marginalised peoples, and the usefulness of technology to help provide that information. it shows how, given appropriate circumstances, there can be abundant resource in the refugee community, due to appropriate relationships and ability to use. while these circumstances are supported by some government policies such as family resettlement, reunification and sponsorship, other policies, such as housing policies that promote geographic isolation, do not. there should be more policy cognizance of the potential value of helpful relationships in refugee resettlement. we recommend that communities with these characteristics be provided with communication resources to enable them to make the best use of their own resources. !69 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 acknowledgments we acknowledge the support of vichealth for funding for this project. references australian bureau of statistics (abs). 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(2007). a systems framework for understanding social settings. american journal of community psychology, 39(3-4), 217–228. http://doi.org/10.1007/ s10464-007-9101-8 !71 http://www.ejisdc.org/ojs2./index.php/ejisdc/article/view/343 http://www.ejisdc.org/ojs2./index.php/ejisdc/article/view/343 http://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12335 http://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12335 http://doi.org/10.1177/0011000005277018 http://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-014-0062-3 http://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-014-0062-3 http://doi.org/10.1177/1363461509105820 http://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.51.4.407 http://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-007-9101-8 http://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-007-9101-8 community technology project in malaysia: kedai.kom zulkefli ibrahim, sulaiman ainin introduction community technology has been referred to as a process designed to serve the territorial community in responding to the needs of that community and building solutions to its problems. beamish (1995) and prell (2003) define community technology as using the technology to support, to meet the goals, and to strengthen the community. the technology (i.e. telecentre) is seen as local community initiatives where owners and developers are community members, and the content reflects community needs and interests. on the other hand, pigg (2003) and davies et al. (2003) define community technology as telecentres or organisations which promote centralised coordination of icts that provide territorial communities with tools to complete a variety of tasks; to satisfy basic information needs; to promote economic opportunities; to encourage access; and to share collective experiences for community members. the introduction of a telecentre into a typical rural community in a developing country represents a substantial innovation for that community (harris, 2001). a community telecentre will be the rural population’s first encounter with ict. moreover, telecentres that seek to bridge the digital divide in rural areas in developing countries are mostly experimental. telecentres strive to deliver the simple interface between icts and the internet, and offer basic communication services including telephone, fax, typing, photocopying, printing, and training in the use of various icts, email, and electronic networking (whyte, 2000; russel, 2000; graham, 2002). it is an accessible facility that provides computer access for people who are unable to meet the expense of a computer and associated technical instruction (beamish, 1999). telecentres become centres for the delivery of rural development support services within its community catchment area (gurstein, 2000), where some are moving into e-commerce and telemedicine services (graham, 2002), and some provide access to social and economic development (cisler, 1998 cited in owen and darkwa, 1999). although the malaysian government has been implementing and establishing telecentres throughout the country, a review of the literature indicates that there are only a few studies on telecentres in malaysia. thus the main aim of this study is to analyse the implementation of telecentres in malaysia. there are three major comprehensive multipurpose community telecentre (mct) programmes in malaysia that provide services to all groups within the community and that have projects that are implemented nationwide. they are: kedai.kom (implemented by the malaysian communications and multimedia commission), rural internet centre (implemented by ministry of energy, water and communication), and “medan infodesa” (implemented by ministry of rural rehabilitation development). these mct projects provide access to the internet, email, and related services, telephone booths, sales for working materials and stationery, internet cafés, and training courses. this study will focus on the kedai.kom project implemented by malaysian communications and multimedia commission (mcmc) under the community communications development programme (ccdp). the main purpose of kedai.kom is to develop and implement a collaborative programme between malaysian communications and multimedia commissions, internet service providers and state economic planning units. the objectives of kedai.kom are to build capacity; to introduce and to encourage the usage of ict; and to create community communication equipped with a range of ict services to facilitate internet access, e-commerce, and e-learning. the focus is on areas with an active community base that have limited or no ict access but have existing economic activities that can benefit from this access. implementation of kedai.kom involves three basic factors. first, it is a locally driven project where, whenever possible, local communities will be involved at every stage of planning and implementation. second, it creates a strong partnership among government and state agencies, ngos, and local communities, which is a critical factor towards the success of the programme. third, the ultimate objective of the project implementation is for the local community to own the project. thus, the involvement of local communities in the planning, implementation, stake holding, and ownership will ensure that the project will sustain itself and empower local communities. kedai.kom enables local communities to help bridge the digital divide as well as allowing local economic activities to be marketed online. mcmc coordinates with other public agencies to identify suitable communities and this coordination involves liaison with various agencies to solicit support and commitment to ensure the project’s success. the main criteria in selecting suitable communities includes a location within five kilometres of the nearest town; active underserved communities; strong and active local leadership; and availability of public frequented premises. the preferred operator is required to provide safe and comfortable premises; a reliable electrical supply; and the creation of a website for the community that includes the community profile, operator profile, and local information. the role of kedai.kom is to deliver ict services to underserved communities. the hardware is provided by the mcmc as a one-off allocation with a minimum of five computers, a printer, and relevant peripherals. the facilities include satellite access solutions that provide two payphone services and broadband internet access with a dedicated 128 kbps for downloading and 64 kbps for uploading. internet connection will be supplied by an isp and the monthly access fee of rm400 per site is paid by mcmc. hours of operation are between 8.00 — 6.00 pm weekdays and are extended to 10.00 pm on weekends and public holidays. the operators will manage kedai.kom as commercial enterprises, charging users reasonable rates to encourage the adoption of technology by the local communities. thus, this programme will also support the creation of local entrepreneurs by encouraging the operators to manage kedai.kom as their own business opportunity. the management team consists of a minimum of two personnel; a manager and an assistant. in an effort to ensure targeted communities benefit from kedai.kom services, training and courses are provided in usage of the internet as a medium of communication for the target groups including kedai.kom operators, local leaders, teachers, students, youth and women. among the courses offered are basic competency in personal computer maintenance, word processing, internet exploration and email usage. (http://pdt-manjong.perak.gov.my/bm/dotcom.html) based on the aim of this study, the following questions were formulated: who are kedai.kom users? what is the level of community readiness to adopt ict (digital inclusion)? what is their usage pattern? why do they use kedai.kom? what is the level of kedai.kom’s users’ satisfaction? literature review generally, community technology access refers to the physical availability of suitable computers equipped with appropriate software for a given activity (kling et al., 2000), network connections (van dijk, 1999, cited in van dijk and hacker, 2003); and digital content made available online (warchauer, 2003). van dijk and hacker (2003) point out that the extent and nature of the digital divide depends on the kind of access defined. considering technical access by the effects of saturation; income, employment, education, gender, age, and ethnicity, gaps will more or less close. however, the differential access of skills and usage is likely to widen with the access problem of digital technology gradually shifting from technical access to that of social access. many people think that the problem of the digital divide is solved the moment everyone has the ability to access the computer and the internet. thus, social access is a neglected phenomenon touching only certain marginalised groups, rather than all groups. the problem of inadequate digital skills is reduced to the skills of operation, managing hardware and software rather than how to search, use and share information. differential usage is normally assumed to be the user’s choice rather than considered in the community development policies. according to romm and taylor (2001), community informatics (ci) focuses on four themes; communities learning how to use ict, ict supporting community development, effective ci, and diffusion of ict within communities. social access is crucial in sustaining ict projects to enhance community general well-being. kling et al. (2000) refers ‘to social access to expertise’, a mix of professional knowledge of economic resources and technical skills to use technologies in ways that promote social life. van dijk (1999, cited in van dijk and hacker, 2003) describes three kinds of social access based on barriers to access and the types of access they restrict; mental access, skills access, and usage access. mental access is the lack of elementary digital experience caused by lack of interest, computer anxiety, and unattractiveness of the new technology. skills access portrays the lack of digital skills caused by insufficient user-friendliness and inadequate education or social support. usage access describes the lack of significant usage opportunities. the digital divide issue requires explicit action concentrated on three fundamental themes; access to ict, use and share of ict, and social support (warchauer, 2002). most ict projects run into unexpected difficulties because they constantly focus on providing technical access rather than access to the social networks and social resources that are essential to achieve the expected results. the framework of technology for social inclusion should encompass social and community development enhanced through effective integration of ict into communities and institutions. thus, social access can be divided into two elements; skills and usage access, and support access. digital skills include the ability to search, process, and apply information from online sources. in these ways, van dijk (1999, cited in van dijk and hacker, 2003) anticipates the appearance of a usage gap between those parts of the community that systematically use and benefit from advanced digital technology, together with the more difficult applications for work and education, and that part of the community that uses basic digital technology for simple applications primarily relating to entertainment. moreover, warschauer (2002); breiter (2003); and southern (2002), discuss that by promoting social inclusion and meaningful use of digital media technologies, icts can play the role of enabler; however, it depends largely on additional skills including literacy. furthermore, warchauer (2002) argues that literacy acquisition obviously requires the development of a variety of skills, knowledge, and the attitude necessary to make meaningful use of icts. to some extent, jackson et al. (2003) suggest reconceptualising the digital divide as a ‘use’ divide, as their research findings reveal both qualitative and quantitative evidence indicating a high need for technical support by all kinds of users. similarly, pinkett (2002) and besser (2003) mention that public attention should also focus on the ability of the user to be an active consumer, and the availability of local affordable content. information literacy is essential to enable individuals to recognise when information is needed and possess the ability to locate, evaluate and effectively use and share the needed information. thus, the main barriers in content-related issues include lack of local content, literacy barriers, language barriers and lack of cultural diversity. hacker (2000) argues that access alone does not guarantee either usage or benefits from usage; the adoption of ict needs sustained usage over time. mason and hacker (2003) explain that the empirical evidence from studies indicated that those who utilise icts possess more accurate information than their peers. van dijk (1999, cited in mason and hacker, 2003) argues that the advancement of technology creates circumstances in which those who are limited to very basic skills will now be outpaced by those who are ahead in the ability to select and process information. this argument was supported by van dijk (1999) and de haan (2003), who indicated that the internet skill levels and social inequality between groups affect diversity and level of usage. differences in use and skills, however, are gradual, rather than absolute and are part of a diffusion process. the exploration of opportunities for using ict applications also contributes to increasing skills, which may lead to more frequent and more diverse use. it is widely accepted that skills and usage of icts as well as active and effective communities create economic dislocation and the allocation of benefits to the underserved communities. in this sense, gurstein and civille, (2003) argue that the availability of community technology does not apply to the effective use of icts to achieve local needs. selwyn (2003) has mentioned that the usage access to icts is a hierarchical rather than a dichotomous concept. in considering the relationship between access to icts and use of icts, silverstone (1996, as cited in selwyn, 2003) points out that access to icts does not denote use of icts. the use of icts however, leads to a meaning, significance, and utility for the individual and community concerned. in this sense, selwyn (2003) argues that the consequences of the meaningful use of icts can be seen in terms of the effects on the individuals’ and communities’ social quality including socio-economic security, social inclusion, social cohesion, and empowerment. hence, the impact of icts reflects the extent to which technology use (or engagement), where users exert a degree of control and choice over the technology and its content, enables individuals and communities to participate and be part of society (social inclusion). since little attention has been given to research on how internet access and use fit into everyday life, chen and wellman (2003) produced a framework of the internet to examine four perspectives; technological access (different levels and combination of technologies to access computers and the internet); technological literacy (having access to the internet and having the ability to use the internet effectively); social access (economic, organisational, and cultural factors that affect equal access to the internet, for example income, awareness and interest, language, content, location, training and social support); and social use (who uses the internet, for what purpose, under what circumstances, and how this use affects community social capital and community general well-being). thus, chen and wellman (2003) propose that scholars should adopt a more realistic stance in examining the impact of icts on individuals and communities to answer the main policy questions: how does the internet help individuals enhance social capital? how does the internet facilitate community building? under what circumstances could disadvantaged individuals and communities reap digital dividends from the internet? in what precise ways do people benefit from internet use, and conversely, are disadvantaged by not being able to use the internet? moreover, taylor and marshall (2002) propose that it would be useful to examine the relationship between social engagement and the adoption of a ci approach for local community benefit. from this perspective, taylor and marshall (2001) did not find a large demand from the community to use ict for community practice. chen and wellman (2003) mention that in addition to the equipment, use, skills and purpose of using the internet, the other dimension used to measure social impact is social support including awareness. the support access as defined by warschauer (2002) is lack of social resources where it is important to make something (i.e. ict projects) belong to a community (ownership). warschauer (2003) believes that the provision of physical resources is just one component of a broader set of resources which include digital resources, human resources, and social resources that allow people to make use of technology for local development. thus, social support means the individual and community awareness, which can create and sustain social capital capable of supporting the implementation of ict development in the local community. gordo (2003) contends that in addition to emphasis on community-level interventions (social support), the expansion of affordable connection to ict for the underserved community could be realised through technology discounts and community telecentres. lenhart and horrigan (2003) see access as a continuum rather than a dichotomous division and one key finding of their research is that there is a portion of the population that does not appear to want the internet because they believe ict is not for them. this suggests that the public provision of access at community telecentres can address the varying access needs of non-users, across the access spectrum, by increasing awareness among the members of the local community. methodology this research focuses on the kedai.kom located in underserved communities in rural areas. however, the scope of this study will cover kedai.kom in the state of perak, which has 55 locations/communities representing (94.8%) of the grand total of 58 nationwide. all the kedai.kom in the states of perak, kedah and perlis, are located on the west coast of peninsular malaysia. there are several reasons for the choice of location. to begin with, the west coast is at the epicentre of the malaysian internet boom, and this is where political leaders and industry experts have been most vocally championing the cause of ict development. the west coast is a particularly unique region to consider because, in contrast to some other regions, there is a focus on the urban and industrial areas as well as being intent on spreading technology to rural areas. also, the west coast, particularly the state government of perak has increased its effort to wire communities in the state. in addition to the mcmc; the mewc, mrrd; the state government has established community telecentres, equipped with up-to-date peripherals, connected to the internet through broadband. the sample element is a kedai.kom user aged above 15 years old. the cut off point of the user’s age was decided on because social capital is new and foreign to the respondents. from the pre-test, it was found that users below 15 years old found it difficult to answer questions relating to social capital. with the exact population composition of kedai.kom users unknown and based on the pre-test, the daily registered number of users are around 10 to 20. however, most of the active users were using telecentre services more than once per day. thus, to use the registration records as the basis to estimate the population of telecentre users was not an appropriate solution. for this reason, this study does not depend on a population frame. with an average of 10 to 20 respondents for each kedai.kom, 600 questionnaires were distributed to users at the 55 locations. the locations of the kedai.kom were distinguished into three zones with the classification of districts according to region; (1) zone one, the north region; (2) zone two, the south region; and (3) zone three, the central region. for the reasons above, as well as time and cost constraints, this study used non-probability sampling. the design used was convenience sampling; the collection of information from the kedai.kom users of the underserved community who are conveniently available to answer the questionnaire (sekaran, 2003; zikmund, 2003; malhotra 2004). data for the study was collected using a questionnaire. the questionnaire was divided into four parts. the respondent’s demographic profile was captured in part 1. the demographic items were taken from ferlander (2003). part 2 of the questionnaire consists of variables relating to support access. the items were based on the work carried out by vivid education corporation (2001). the respondents were required to provide their skills and usage access. in part 3: skills and usage access, the variable items were based on ferlander (2003) and proenza et al. (2001). the final part of the questionnaire requires the respondents to state their level of satisfaction towards kedai.kom. finally, the respondents were asked to indicate their level of agreement to the various items on a scale of 1-7. findings who are kedai.kom users? respondents demographic profile a total of 326 questionnaires were returned and found to be usable for analysis. the gender proportion seemed to be balanced, where female beneficiaries or users outnumbered the male by only 2.5%, and accounted for 52.5% of the total users. single users comprised 88.7% of total users, outnumbering the married and divorced users, which consisted of 10.4% and 0.9% respectively. the marital status proportion dominance by the single seemed to match the percentage of an age group of less than 25 years (83.1%). the results suggest that most of the users are single and students, either in secondary schools, colleges or universities. the pattern was revealed by the users’ education level where 67.8% of the users have secondary school education compared to 25.1% with tertiary education (polytechnics, colleges and universities). the socio-economic pattern of the users illustrate that most of them belong to poor and low-income groups, were either unemployed or self employed, and a majority of the users were malays. the study results disclose that 91.4% of the users have a family monthly income of less than rm 2,000, where 66% of them have a family monthly income of less than rm 1,000; lived in their family home (78.5%); and 99.1% were of malay ethnicity (as measured by the mother tongue). in terms of occupation, the majority were students (56.1%), while the others were self employed (12.9%), unemployed (12.3%), government employees (4.3%) and private sector employees (9.8%). hence, the "dependent" group that includes students and unemployed comprised 68.4% of the total kedai.kom users. the respondents were also asked to state how long they have used computers, with 37.1% having more than 3 years computer experience compared to 29.1% with less than one year experience. another 33.7% are users who have between one and three years experience using computers. level of community readiness to adopt ict the community's readiness to adopt the ict facilities and services via kedai.kom can be clearly observed as the larger number of respondents or users mentioned that the main place for them to use a computer or the internet is at kedai.kom (79.1%) compared to cyber cafés (65.6%), workplaces (60.7%) and at home (46.6%). in addition, the community's readiness to adopt ict is also measured by questions related to user awareness about ict as well as their knowledge about the integration of technology in local development. the finding suggests that users are certainly ready and capable to adapt to ict. based on the actual responses, more than 70% of users agreed that ict is important as a tool to develop the local community (table 1). more than 80% of respondents agreed that community learning is enhanced by the incorporation of ict in everyday life; that the rural community adequately supports the implementation of ict initiatives; and local community leadership is willing to lead ict development. table 1: level of agreement: ict awareness no. variable percentage level of agreement agree* neutral disagree** 1 community member learning is enhanced by incorporation of ict in everyday life 89.2 7.4 3.4 2 rural community adequately supports the implementation of ict initiatives/programmes 82.2 13.2 4.6 3 local community leadership is willing to lead ict development 80.7 11.0 8.3 4 rural community is willing to participate in ict initiatives/programmes 79.4 16.0 4.6 5 rural community places an appropriate emphasis on the integration of ict into community development 78.8 14.1 7.1 6 community evaluation should include ict component 76.7 13.5 9.8 7 people who have ict knowledge are respected by community at large 73.3 18.1 8.6 n = 326 (based on actual responses) * agree includes scales of agree, strongly agree and extremely agree ** disagree includes scales of disagree, strongly disagree, and extremely disagree through the deployment of efa, the variables measuring ict awareness were split into two factors: “ict support awareness” which consisted of four variables with loadings ranging from 0.50 to 0.74; and “ict knowledge awareness” which comprised of three variables with loadings ranging from 0.50 to 0.74 (see table 2). the other five variables are omitted because of low loadings. table 2: factor loading: ict awareness variables using paf no. factor/variable communality loading factor ict support awareness 1. 2. 3. 4. rural community adequately supports the implementation of ict initiatives/programmes rural community is willing to participate in ict initiatives/programmes rural community places an appropriate emphasis on the integration of ict into community development local community leadership is willing to lead ict development 0.69 0.71 0.60 0.43 0.74 0.73 0.68 0.50 factor ict knowledge awareness 1. 2. 3. community evaluation should include ict component people who have ict knowledge are respected by community at large community member learning is enhanced by incorporation of ict in everyday life 0.68 0.54 0.53 0.74 0.64 0.50 omitted variables 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. computer literacy or competency should be required of all rural community; ict is important in today’s rural community rural community comfortable with the rapid changes in ict development government places an appropriate emphasis on the implementation of ict development in rural area; users willingness to share information with other community members based on actual responses to the questions concerning barriers to integration of technology in the local area's development, more than 60% of users agreed that rural communities lacked a technology plan, basic telecommunication infrastructure, training, skilled staff, community support, funding, and sharing of information (table 3). indeed, more than 80% of users agreed that the important things that need to take place in integrating technology in the local area development is overcoming the main barriers. in particular, to improve the basic telecommunication infrastructure, promoting the sharing of relevant information, increasing community support, and increasing local leadership support and involvement were identified as being of importance. the findings indicate that a majority of the users are aware of what is needed in their local area in support of integrating technology into local development. table 3: comparison of level of agreement: the integration of technology in local development no. variable lacking needs to take place agree* neutral disagree** agree* neutral disagree** 1. skilled staff 73.0 12.9 14.1 88.6 7.4 4.0 2. sharing of information awareness 71.4 12.3 16.3 91.4 5.5 3.1 3. funding 69.6 13.5 16.9 88.6 8.3 3.1 4. training 68.1 17.5 14.4 88.7 6.1 5.2 5. basic telecommunications infrastructure 67.2 18.4 14.4 96.3 3.1 0.6 6. technology plan and direction 64.7 18.1 17.2 86.5 8.3 5.2 7. community support 62.2 16.6 21.2 90.2 6.4 3.4 8. leadership support 60.6 15.3 24.1 90.1 7.1 2.8 n = 326 (based on actual responses) * agree includes scales of agree, strongly agree and extremely agree ** disagree includes scales of disagree, strongly disagree, and extremely disagree for the question – what is the level of community readiness to adopt ict (digital inclusion)? – results suggest that for the factor “ict support awareness”, rural communities adequately support and are willing to participate in the implementation of ict initiatives. in addition, rural communities place appropriate emphasis on the integration of ict and the local leadership is willing to lead the implementation of ict development in their local area. for the factor “ict knowledge awareness”, the findings indicate that community evaluation should consider the ict component as one of the main evaluation criteria. accordingly, people who have ict knowledge will be respected by other community members. users also believe that community learning is enhanced by the incorporation of ict in everyday life. in addition, the “barriers to integrate technology in local development” implies that to expand the use of ict, particularly to successfully bridge the digital divide initiatives in the community; the combination of community technology and social support is definitely crucial to overcome these barriers. the results indicate that the users, as community members, are undoubtedly ready to and capable of adopting the use of technology into their everyday lives. usage pattern the high level of user agreement in using kedai.kom was confirmed by the higher percentage of users who agreed that the implementation of kedai.kom in the local community was good (89.9%) as compared to 2.7%, who disagreed. in terms of actual usage, about 45.0% of the users spend at least two hours per typical visit (table 4). upon exploring and examining the frequency distribution of the number of times the users visit kedai.kom in a month, the study divided the users into two groups – active and passive users. the division is based on the following: active users were those who visited kedai.kom at least once a week or four times in an average month, and passive users were those who visited kedai.kom less than four times in an average month. based on this categorisation, the study found that 230 or 70.5% of the respondents were active users and the other 96 or 29.5% were passive users. active users of kedai.kom using chi-square analysis, a significant difference (at p<0.05) was found between active and passive users for only two different demographic factors; gender and occupation (see table 5). in terms of gender, this study found that, in general, male respondents tended to be more active than female, and in terms of occupation, students tended to be more active than working users and others. table 4: time spent per typical visit time spent users no. percentage less than 1 hours 31 9.5 1 to 2 hours 148 45.4 2 to 3 hours 92 28.2 3 to 4 hours 34 10.4 4 to 6 hours 9 2.8 6 to 8 hours 5 1.5 more than 8 hours 7 2.1 total 326 100 table 5: active and passive users: a demographic factor comparison demographic factor significance active users passive users total χ2 p n = 230 % n = 96 % n = 326 gender: (a) female (b) male 6.707 0.010 110 120 47.8 52.2 61 35 63.5 36.5 171 155 total 230 100.0 96 100.0 326 age: (a) <25 years (b) 25 to 34 years (c) above 35 years 4.045 0.132 185 23 22 56.7 7.1 6.7 86 5 5 26.4 1.5 1.5 271 28 27 total 230 100.0 96 100.0 326 marital status: (a) single (b) married/divorced 2.227 0.136 200 30 61.3 9.2 89 7 27.3 2.1 289 37 total 230 100.0 96 100.0 326 level of education: (a) secondary school/skilled institution (b) polytechnics/college/university (c) others 2.357 0.970 166 57 7 50.9 17.5 2.1 68 25 3 20.9 7.7 0.9 234 82 10 total 230 100.0 96 100.0 326 occupation: (a) government/private/self employee (b) students (c) others (house wife, unemployed, retiree) 7.394 0.025 72 122 36 22.1 37.4 11.0 16 61 19 4.9 18.7 5.8 88 183 55 total 230 100.0 96 100.0 326 family monthly income: (a) less than rm1,000 (b) rm1,001 to rm2,000 (c) more than rm2,000 1.632 0.443 156 54 20 47.9 16.6 6.1 59 29 8 18.1 8.9 2.5 215 83 28 total 230 100.0 96 100.0 326 in responding to the question – who are kedai.kom’s active users? – no significant differences were found between the two user groups with respect to age, marital status, education level, and family monthly income. kedai.kom usage objectives sixteen items were subjected to efa application and the results show that “skills and knowledge usage objectives” is a solid and clean factor with all eight variables having a loading of more than 0.5. however, for the factor “social networks usage objective”, only four of the eight variables extracted have a loading of more than 0.5. hence, this suggests that users use kedai.kom more to enhance their skills and knowledge rather than for social purposes. table 6: factor loading: usage objectives variables using paf no. factor/variable communality loading factor skills and knowledge usage objective 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. connecting to employer’s office connecting to colleges / universities saving time in personal transactions making personal purchases online finding employment increasing earnings from farms and businesses improving skills to get better job improving work related skills 0.65 0.60 0.62 0.64 0.62 0.50 0.57 0.57 0.74 0.69 0.68 0.66 0.64 0.63 0.59 0.54 factor social networks usage objective 1. 2. 3. 4. finding mate, making new or keeping existing friendships involved in entertainment encouraging information sharing keeping better informed 0.66 0.61 0.52 0.61 0.71 0.68 0.40 0.40 omitted variables 1. 2. 3. 4. improving academic studies having more self confidence improving ability to use computer increasing interaction amongst community members in addition, based on actual responses, the results showed that more than 70% of users agreed that improving work related skills; improving skills to attain better jobs; and finding employment are important to them (table 7). furthermore, about 70% of users agreed that keeping them better informed with relevant information; finding mates or friends, making new or keeping existing friendships; encouraging information sharing among users; involvement in entertainment; and increasing interaction among community members are relevant for them. table 7: level of agreement: the kedai.kom usage objective no. variable % level of agreement of the objective agree* neutral disagree** factor skills and knowledge usage objective 1. to improved work related skills 88.3 15.0 8.9 2. to improve skills to get better job 78.3 11.3 10.4 3. to find employment 72.7 12.9 14.4 4. to connect to colleges/universities 65.9 15.6 18.4 5. to increase earnings from farms or businesses 59.5 21.2 19.3 6. to connect with employer’s office 55.9 21.8 22.4 7. to save time in personal transaction 55.2 19.0 25.8 8. to make personal purchases online 48.2 19.3 32.5 factor social network usage objective 9. to keep better informed 84.7 10.4 4.9 10. to find a mate, make new or keep existing friendship 83.5 10.1 6.4 11. to encourage information sharing 83.5 11.0 5.5 12. to be involved in entertainment 82.5 7.4 10.1 n = 326 (based on actual responses) * agree includes scales of agree, strongly agree and extremely agree ** disagree includes scales of disagree, strongly disagree, and extremely disagree in responding to the question – why do they use kedai.kom? – the related findings revealed that most of the effective and positive usage objectives are related to improving skills and knowledge including improvement of working skills, increase in earnings; involvement in teleworks, e-commerce and e-learning; and to save personal transaction time. in addition, other effective and positive usage objectives related to improving social networks including finding new friends or keeping existing friendships; involvement in entertainment; encouraging information sharing; and to be better informed with local information. thus, the usage of kedai.kom will further include the community members in the adaptation of ict in their everyday life. users satisfaction based on actual responses, it was found that more than 70% of users were satisfied with the services and facilities offered by kedai.kom (table 8). table 8: user satisfaction levels no. variable percentage level of satisfaction satisfied* neutral dissatisfied** 1. community telecentre staffs’ disposition 82.8 10.4 6.7 2 community telecentre internet connection 76.7 12.0 11.3 3. community telecentre hours services open to public 76.4 12.9 10.7 4. community telecentre charges rate 75.8 15.0 9.2 5. community telecentre software 74.8 13.8 11.3 6. community telecentre staffs’ technical ability 73.9 16.9 9.2 7. community telecentre equipments 73.9 16.0 10.1 n = 326 (based on actual responses) * satisfied includes scales of somewhat satisfied, very satisfied, and extremely satisfied ** dissatisfied includes scales of somewhat dissatisfied, very dissatisfied, and extremely dissatisfied it has to be noted here that initially there were nine variables pertaining to users satisfaction in the questionnaire. when efa was used, two variables were omitted due to low factor loadings (table 9). table 9: factor loading: user satisfaction variables using paf no. variable communality loading 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. community telecentre software community telecentre staff’s technical ability community telecentre staff’s disposition community telecentre internet connection community telecentre rates community telecentre hours open to public community telecentre equipment 0.65 0.62 0.71 0.62 0.54 0.57 0.48 0.75 0.71 0.69 0.68 0.68 0.65 0.58 omitted variables 1. 2. community telecentre ambience community telecentre courses and training the above findings imply that most users are satisfied with the facilities and services offered by kedai.kom. the results reveal that the conditions and the physical outlook of the kedai.kom as well as the availability of courses and training are not significant in attracting users. instead, staff disposition, internet speed, operating time, and rates are more important for users considering their likely visit to kedai.kom. kedai.kom users were also asked to provide suggestions on how to enhance kedai.kom. many of them (43.5%) suggested increasing the number of kedai.kom's computers, 10.0% suggested improving the ambience of kedai.kom, and 8.8% suggested increasing the choice of software. although kedai.kom is provided only with five computers, supplemented with basic software and basic facilities, the demand is very encouraging. suggestions for improvements include increasing skilled staff and increasing local content. noteworthy to mention is that 6.5% of the users suggested promoting kedai.kom as a public space where the community can use it as a place for interaction (figure 1). figure 1: kedai.kom users suggestions for enhancing kedai.kom discussion and conclusion the main objectives of kedai.kom are to build capacity; to introduce and encourage growth in the usage of ict; and to create community communications equipped with a range of ict services to facilitate internet access, e-commerce, and e-learning with reference to an active but largely underserved community base. the present research findings suggest that the implementation of kedai.kom in the malaysian community is good and beneficial despite various shortcomings. the results explain that the users of the kedai.kom have indicated that local and relevant content and skilled staff are of less importance in maximising their usage of kedai.kom than for example availability of computers, selection of software and the "ambience" of the telecentre. in addition, the findings showed that community members are likely to believe that the usage of kedai.kom’s can be extended beyond being merely a place for using computers and connecting to the internet, and that it could serve as a public space for community interactions as well. this finding is in line with the arguments of glover (2004); pigg (1999); kean (2000 cited in mason and hacker, 2003); alkalimat and williams (2001); poletta (1999); and davies et al. (2003) which maintained that telecentres are generally established to create public spaces in which the ideas and actions of the community members can be shaped by providing technical assistance and resources essential to meet the community needs as well as offering a common ground for community members to socialise comfortably. the findings suggest that the underserved community is looking forward by considering kedai.kom as serving as a good new public space that can engage diverse groups of people and contribute to building the local community for creating and sustaining development outcomes. the kedai.kom equipped with adequate facilities and specifications’, including broadband internet access is the main public place for this underserved community to use computers and access the internet. this, indicates that the implementation of kedai.kom in the underserved community is providing local benefits. in terms of demographic characteristics; the majority of beneficiaries or users are single; students; have at least a secondary school education; are aged below 25 years; and have a monthly family income of less than rm1, 000. the findings suggest that most of the users are youth and in a productive cohort which has a relative high education attainment. normally, this group of users use kedai.kom in a productive and effective manner. although the family monthly income is relatively low, the awareness level in the family is relatively high, thus influencing the frequency of this group of users in using kedai.kom. furthermore, the majority of the beneficiaries have computer experience of more than three years; visit kedai.kom at least once a week in an average month; and spend at least four hours per typical visit. the findings suggest that most of the users are core users rather than peripheral users, and excluded users as pointed out by murdock (2002 cited in selwyn, 2003). the relatively high average time spent per typical visit shows that the usage of kedai.kom is principally productive and effective as discussed earlier and includes information seeking, communication and origination of digital materials. in answering the question – who are the active users of kedai.kom? – it was found that there were no significant differences between active and passive groups of users regarding age; marital status; education level; and family monthly income. however, significant differences were found in two demographic factors, gender and occupation. in general, male beneficiaries tended to be more active than females and students tended to be more active than the others. the findings suggest that active users are not differentiated by demographic factors including age, marital status, education attainment, and income. however, the necessity and the need to use kedai.kom are significant. job hunting, information seeking and sharing, acquiring work and education related knowledge and skills, keeping and prolonging friendships as well as seeking and involvement in entertainment are the main forces encouraging the users to use kedai.kom. thus, users, who are mostly youth, and in a productive cohort with family and community support, will frequently visit and use kedai.kom. students in secondary schools and in community colleges especially need internet access to acquire information for their folios and assignments. their families need to bear the costs of this even with limited income, in order to support the students’ to obtain a better education with the assistance of icts. the finding is in agreement with chen and wellman (2003) and warchauer’s (2003) argument that social support increases individual and community awareness, which in turn can create and sustain social capital capable of supporting the implementation of telecentres in a local community. moreover, the finding is in agreement with gordo’s (2003) contention that the expansion in the number of affordable telecentres can be realised through technology discounts and through fostering active community level intervention in supporting and encouraging the use of telecentres. most of the users with the exception of students, including working users, school leavers, job seekers or unemployed were males. most of the users seeking and involved in entertainment were male as well as being the most frequent users spending more time per typical visit. females were generally restricted to using kedai.kom during the day, most likely because the norms and values of the rural community do not encourage females visiting public places during certain times, especially at night. the answer to the question on the level of community readiness to adopt ict (digital inclusion) suggests that generally, the malaysian community is certainly ready and capable of adopting ict. most members of the community are adequately supportive and they are willing to participate in ict initiatives. the local community places an appropriate emphasis on the integration of ict, and the local leadership is willing to lead local ict initiatives. moreover, community members are aware that for the expansion of ict and for bridging the digital divide initiatives in the local community to be successful, the combination of community technology and social support is crucial to overcome the barriers to technology integration into local development. the barriers that need to be overcome include the limitations in the availability of skilled staff, community support, information sharing, training, planning, infrastructure, funding, and local leadership. the finding is in accordance with romm and taylor’s (2001) argument that the success prospects of a telecentre project are likely to be affected by the combination and supportiveness of the interrelationship between the exogenous and endogenous elements. the exogenous elements include the function of the government and local authorities to continually expose and promote icts to the local community. the endogenous elements include the strong support of ict projects by the local community in addition to strong local leadership. both exogenous and endogenous elements are likely to be affected by the outcome of the kedai.kom project. the results of the study show effective and positive usage by kedai.kom users, particularly to improve the user’s skills and knowledge and extending and upholding the user’s social networks, all of which influence their ability to achieve digital inclusion. the most important usage objectives are related to the improvement of the user’s skills and knowledge, which include improved working skills; increased earnings; involvement in teleworks, e-commerce, and e-learning; and saving time in personal transactions. the most important effective and positive usage related to the expansion and upholding of the user’s social networks include finding new friends, making new or keeping existing friendships; seeking and involvement in entertainment, sharing information; and being better informed. thus, the high, effective, and positive usage of kedai.kom will eventually encourage the community members in the adoption of ict in their everyday lives. the results suggest that the users of kedai.kom are mostly and actively involved in the positive usage of the kedai.kom, particularly for improving working and education related skills and knowledge as well as for improving and prolonging social networks. this particular positive usage normally involves students, working users, job seekers and parents who have family outside the community, and tourists in homestays organised by the community. however, certain users who are unemployed and school dropouts, mainly male, are heavily involved in entertainment, that is in the category of unproductive usage, explicit games, chatting, movies, and music etc. the involvement in unproductive usage occurs mostly at unsuccessful kedai.kom’s where the operators rarely provide strict supervision on usage. the positive and effective kedai.kom usage is significantly influencing the community building of the underserved community. the finding is in agreement with van dijk and hacker (2003); warchauer (2002); and romm and taylor’s (2001) arguments that positive and effective usage of the internet, particularly in telecentres, will limit users in their acquiring digital skills related to operations, managing hardware and software, but will encourage them to acquire digital skills on how to search, use and share information. the gap in usage of the telecentre will further divide users systematically using and benefiting from telecentres for work and education and those that use telecentres for simple applications that are primarily entertainment related. in addition, the finding is in agreement with van dijk (1999, cited in mason and hacker, 2003); and de haan’s (2003) arguments that users with limited skills and knowledge will be outpaced. thus, there is a need for those in this category to increase their usage of ict applications that contribute to increased skills and knowledge which in turn may subsequently lead to more frequent and more diverse uses of telecentres. the finding also suggests that most of the kedai.kom users are core users that use telecentres positively and effectively with continuous and comprehensive usage, especially for information seeking, communication and origination or production of digital content which is in accordance with murdock’s (2002, cited in selwyn, 2003) argument. furthermore, the finding is in agreement with warchauer (2002); pinkett (2002); and besser’s (2003) contention that most telecentre projects have run into unanticipated complications because they persistently neglected positive and effective usage and have users who are passive and non-producers of local content, which is the stumbling block for realising the expected results. most kedai.kom users are satisfied with the facilities and services provided. moreover, the environmental and physical conditions and the availability of courses and training are not significant for satisfying and attracting users. instead, the staff disposition, internet speed, operating time, and rates are more important for users to consider their likely and prolonged visits to kedai.kom. the high level of satisfaction among kedai.kom users will likely result in the inclusion of community members in the ict adoption process and eventually in the integration of technology into local development. the present research findings suggest that for the rural community, the implementation of kedai.kom in their community is more important than anything else including the physical condition of the kedai.kom itself or the supporting materials such as local content and availability of related courses and training. the availability of internet access and the opportunity to use computers is more than sufficient for rural folk. moreover, internet speed is provided via broadband access which is fast and reliable and offered at a reasonable rate. kedai.kom is the main source for the underserved community to use computers and access the internet rather than at home or at the workplace. this finding is in accordance with harris (2001) where he argued that the introduction of community telecentres into a typical rural community represents a significant innovation for the community. in this context, harris (2001); 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(2003). the digital divide as a complex and dynamic phenomenon. the information society, volume 19, pp 315-326. vivid education corporation (2001). community technology survey. retrieved august 10, 2003 from www.vived.com. warchauer, m. (2002). reconceptualizing the digital divide. first monday, peer-reviewed journal on the internet. retrieved october, 16 2003 from www.firstmonday.dk/issues/ issue7_7/warchauer. warchauer, m. (2003). dissecting the “digital divide”: a case study in eqypt. the information society. volume 19, pp 297-304. whyte, a. (2000). assessing community telecentres: guidelines for researchers. for the acasia initiatives of the international development research centre. retrieved november 14, 2003 from http://web.irdc.ca/ev.php?id=28303_201&id2=do_topic. zikmund, w. g. (2003). business research methods (7th ed.). cincinnati, oh: thomson. 141 edi the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 editorial on travails and perspectives: the future of joci after many months, the journal of community informatics starts publishing its 14th volume. a number of situations forced us to take a longer-than expected break, but now it is time to catch up and bring the journal into action, again. anyone who has tried to publish academic works is well aware of the issues that such endeavor implies. in joci’s case, there are a number of extras to contend with: an independent publication, not affiliated to —though supported by— academic institutions, with the mission of promoting engagement with a specific issue from both international academia and community practitioners and activists. in a world where it is increasingly difficult to find university researchers not being pressured to publish in the rather constrictive parameters of the academic publication business; and where activistas and practitioners are under various stresses and demand that make even harder to have the time to reflect and write; it is not surprising that supporting a journal like this is not the easiest task. from the perspective of the editorial team, this also means trying to find readers and writers, supporting them and trying, though failing in some instances, to keep an orderly and predictable publication schedule. a combination of factors made impossible to publish issues of the 14th volume till we are far into the corresponding chronological year. having managed to fix those factors, the coming months still present the challenge of keeping collaborators engaged: reviewers are, as usual, in sore demand; production of the issues require dedication from a small group of people. !1 villanueva-mansilla, e. (2018). on travails and perspectives: the future of joci. the journal of community informatics, 13(4), 1–-3. date submitted: 2018-10-28. date accepted: 2018-11-11. 
 copyright (c), 2018 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1375 . eduardo villanuevamansilla editor in chief, the journal of community informatics corresponding author. evillan@gmail.com mailto:evillan@gmail.com http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1375 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1375 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 we intend to keep the journal going. but there are a number of questions that need to be addressed, such as: 1. the appropriation and domestication of ictd / digital media at the individual level, turning any discussion of "development" almost moot, as the big thrust is basically state policy rather than community (however you define it). the locus of innovation and the locus of policy are basically the same: corporate innovation for individual gratification. is there anything left for a middle ground? i would think that schools, community organizations (including trade unions and work based associations) and perhaps communities of practice. not much more. 2. policy angle: data driven innovation demands a data justice discussion on how to deal with the issues of surveillance, monetization, and generally speaking work transformation. fragmentation of the work market destroys solidarities and empowers conglomerates, and the "gig economy" is terrible, again, for organic solidarities. how the data justice paradigm may help. 3. the technical side: how to deal with the larger issues of user and community control of the technology as such, when everything appears to be in the hands of the user but really is just an extension of corporate power? how the interstices and/or the fringe allow for technological innovation or at least resistance at the technological side? piracy versus submission, so to speak: the kid that download from the pirate bay now pays 5 usd a month for spotify. of course, my main interest is how the nation state deals with this, but that a whole different ball game. 4. the academic / professional side: ci/di has always been a loose affiliation of different profesional traditions, infosys, compsci, polsci, mediastudies, sociology/anthropology/geography, and of course lis/archives. the ci journal and the prato conferences were sort of a connective tissue, at a simpler level than the more pretentious ictd conference or the formal journals (itid, for instance). how to guarantee, if at all possible, their survival? does it make sense to maintain them, or it is just a legacy to archive? we need to look beyond our immediate concerns and think about long term viability. is it possible to turn joci into a journal for these emerging themes, in these confusing times? is there a long term for our approach? quite difficult to know, indeed; but the fact is, this assortment of academics, professionals, activists and practitioners that have gathered around joci for almost 15 years require a venue; the incoming groups do need that, as well. with the participation of all interested parties, and the specific support of the university of kentucky’s school of information science for technical and hosting matters, our journal, and specifically the editorial team, intend to continue to strive towards that goal, since amid these transformations, the duty of a journal like joci is to keep up with the new issues and subjects, and to promote new approaches to the main concerns that originally sustained the field. as with some of our previous publications, subjects like !2 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 archival practices, re-conceptualizations of community, emerging practices, and the intersection of computing science / systems analysis and communities are to be of interest. our current issue is a great example of our search for new approaches. thanks to the interest and hard work by luke hespanhol, guest editor of this special issue, the intersection between the old (systems and hci design) and the new (the digital fringe, understood as those that are not catered to by the mainstream services predominant on the internet) is addressed in a collection of papers that present a very different set of themes, but in the spirit that convened the journal back in the past decade. it may be the case that the future lies in new perspectives; if so, issues like this one should serve as a gateway to it. let me finish by thanking again the great work by our editorial team, and the commitment to supporting the journal from the university of kentucky. i would like also to thanks vancouver community network, our original and longtime host, for their help. and again, let me thank you, the committed reader of joci, for your past and future support: that makes the travails worthwhile. !3 1256 ready the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles, special issue: odscsd enhancing citizen engagement with open government data: the case of local governments in the philippines the research deals primarily with the research question ‘how can engagement of civil society organisations with open government data be instigated or enhanced?’ to answer the question, action research was conducted in two provinces in the philippines: civil society organisations in negros oriental province were trained, and in the bohol province were mentored on accessing and using open government data. the research showed that for capacity-building programmes to be effective, they should be relevant to the circumstances of the csos and to the individual needs of learners; conducted with a long-term view of ensuring use and actual impact not only on the organisation but also on the constituencies that they serve; focused on higher-order results like changes in practices and behaviour of organisations and their staff members or the actual production of outputs that benefits citizens and communities; and targeted to achieve whole-of-organisation awareness, appreciation and motivation to use data. this paper asserts that short-term, sporadic, one-time buzz trainings, or offthe-shelf training programmes, currently the prevailing modes of capacitybuilding delivery, will not yield to actual data use that will show the economic, political and social power of open data. !69 canares, m.p, marcial, d., narca, m. (2016). enhancing citizen engagement with open government data: the case of local governments in the philippines. the journal of community informatics, 12 (2), (special issue on open data for social change and sustainable development), 69-98. date submitted: 2015-08-09. date accepted: 2016-05-09. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1256 michael p. cañares step up consulting services, philippines corresponding author. mikocanares@steupconsultants.com dave marcial step up consulting services, philippines dave.marcial@stepupconsultants.com marijoe narca step up consulting services, philippines marjo.narca@stepupconsultants.com mailto:mikocanares@steupconsultants.com mailto:dave.marcial@stepupconsultants.com?subject= mailto:marjo.narca@stepupconsultants.com http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1256 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1256 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction open government and open government data the 2013 ewb policy forum on global development defines open government as one that ‘works with its citizens, civil society, and other actors to collaboratively solve important problems faced by society’ (engineers without borders, 2013). to articulate further what this entails, the open government partnership (ogp) identifies three important factors, namely, ‘increasing the availability of information about governmental activities; supporting civic participation; and implementing the highest standards of professional integrity through increasing access to new technologies for openness and accountability, information sharing, public participation, and collaboration’ (open government partnership, 2011). in this case, providing citizens access to government data is at the core of open governance. at the close of the 20th century, different stakeholders realise that access to and use of government data can improve governance (oecd, 2003) as new actors and stakeholders with different interests and influence can provide insight and perspective into government policy making and practice (helbig et al., 2012). providing government data and proactively disclosing it in open formats became a rallying call when the eight core principles of open government data were defined by the open data working group in 2008 – that governments should release government data that is complete, primary, timely, accessible, machinereadable, non-discriminatory, non-proprietary, and license free. the normative argument for open government data is that its provision is the right thing to do because it ensures evidence-based decision-making (osimo et al., 2012), advances better service delivery (shaw, 2015) and promotes transparency and accountability in government (hm government, 2012). supplying government data in machinereadable and re-usable formats has been argued to result to innovation not only within government, but also in the private sector (goldstein &dyson, 2013), making possible the creation of new products and services that would increase economic productivity, illicit citizen participation and improve overall efficiency. open government data in the philippines the philippines is one of the pioneering members of the open government partnership having joined in 2011. the partnership calls for greater availability of government information to the public, implement standards of transparency and accountability in governments, as well as the use of technology for openness and accountability. as part of that national action plan developed by the philippines, it committed to greater and wider availability of open government data by launching a national open data portal and by 1 implementing agency-specific initiatives that would require more stakeholders in government to proactively make available open data to the public. in 2011, the department of interior and local government (dilg), one of the agencies of the government of philippines, implemented the full disclosure policy which directs local government units (lgus) to post public finance documents including receipt and utilisation of funds on lgu websites. the objective is to make local governments more accountable. http://www.data.gov.ph 1 !70 http://www.data.gov.ph the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 this is based on the assumption that citizens or their representatives understand and are able to use these data. in 2013, dilg required the publication of reports in open format (at the current stage, in spreadsheets) on the full disclosure policy portal . 2 however, research has shown that while provincial governments in bohol, bulacan and south cotaba post financial information in their websites, these are hardly used by csos for their own decision-making processes, for engaging with provincial government in budgeting processes, or for ensuring transparency and accountability in the procurement of projects and the disbursement of public funds. in the most extreme cases, the csos are not even aware that the information exists and how they will be able to use it (step up consulting, 2014). this research project takes the view that for a more transparent and accountable local governance, civil society groups, media and the business sector, need to engage actively with local government units through open government data in order to achieve transparency and accountability, or better service delivery to citizens. in this case, it is important to note that while significant efforts have been made by the government to open data to the public, this should be matched with a capacity-building programme that would enable citizens to engage with government data. however, little is known about how this would be done in the local context in the philippines. this research is considered critical and important in moving the discussion of openness towards better citizen engagement in local governance. research questions this research project poses the following primary research question: how can engagement of csos with open government data be instigated or enhanced, particularly at the sub-national level of government? to answer this question, the following secondary research questions are explored: a) what do csos know about open government data? what do they know about government data that their local governments are publishing in the web? b) what do csos have in terms of skills that would enable them to engage meaningfully with open government data? c) how best can capacity-building be delivered to csos to ensure that they learn to access and use open government data to improve governance? literature review the international open data charter launched in october 2015 rallied the cause for accessible, useful and timely open data to support, among other things, key social, economic, and political outcomes. this call came at a critical time when country governments had endorsed the sustainable development goals which recognise that monitoring progress in 17 development goals will require timely, high-quality, reliable and accessible disaggregated data (united nations, 2015). there is a persistent realisation that data quality, especially in the developing world, is a problem. the un document on the sdgs, for example, highlights the need to invest in http://fdpp.blgs.gov.ph2 !71 http://fdpp.blgs.gov.ph the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 initiatives that will strengthen national data systems (united nations, 2015). the international open data conference 2015 report recognises that substantial reforms are needed to guarantee data quality, calling for strategic interventions in ensuring the continuous supply of high quality data sets that stakeholders can use to achieve impact (international open data conference, 2015). capacity to supply and use data is at the heart of these processes. it is acknowledged that open data is only a foundation for impact from which different uses and results can emerge. the results of the open data in developing countries research project uses the metaphor of a 3 domino effect to explain how open data can lead to change: it makes the point that many different pieces need to be lined up before open data can result in desirable outcomes and impact (davies, 2014). good data quality and metadata, the functioning of intermediaries (such as csos, researchers, businesses and media), and the receptiveness of decision-makers to data-driven policy-making or programme development are some of the necessary pieces that need to be in place before open data can lead to change. there is a need to build the capacity of suppliers, intermediaries and users of data. capacity versus capability capacity and capability are terms that have been used interchangeably in development practice as though they refer to the same thing. but there is value in looking at how different these words are, especially in their etymological origins where capacity is about the ability to contain, while capability is about ability to perform. baser and morgan (2008, pp. 8, 25) differentiate capacity from capability: capacity is ‘the combination of individual competencies, collective capabilities, assets and relationships that enables a human system to create value’ while capability is the ‘collective skill or aptitude of an organisation or a system to carry out a particular function or process inside or outside the system. the organisation must have the collective embedded capabilities it needs to create the development value. and it must be able to pull these aspects together with some sort of integration, synthesis and coherence’. in recent years, and especially in the context of development studies, sen’s capability approach dominated the literature and defines capabilities as the various combinations of functioning (beings and doings) that the person can achieve (sen, 1992). he posits that development necessitates the freedom to do things, given and individual’s capabilities, to choose between alternative livings. applied in the context of information, kleine (2009) argues that information and technology are useful tools to achieve this state of development. in simplistic terms, information can be a valuable resource that enables citizens to participate better in governance, eventually leading to better quality of life. although ‘capability’ is the richer concept, and ultimately the goal of development should be to increase the capability of individuals and communities, when it comes to specific areas of activity, such as the use of open government data, our focus is necessarily narrower – looking at methods to increase particular capacities. importantly, however, both the definitions of capacity and capability above recognise these as having both individual and collective elements: capacity to use open government data is social, and cannot be fostered in terms of individual skills alone. http://www.opendataresearch.org/sites/default/files/publications/phase%25201%2520-%2520synthesis%2520-3 %2520full%2520report-print.pdf !72 http://www.opendataresearch.org/sites/default/files/publications/phase%2525201%252520-%252520synthesis%252520-%252520full%252520report-print.pdf http://www.opendataresearch.org/sites/default/files/publications/phase%25201%2520-%2520synthesis%2520-%2520full%2520report-print.pdf the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 capacity-building versus capacity development while capacity-building and capacity development are both encountered in the literature, the latter is seen to be more comprehensive. the united nations development programme (undp) views capacity-building as a ‘process that supports only the initial stages of building or creating capacities and alludes to an assumption that there are no existing capacities to start from’ (undp, 2008, p. 4). the organisation for economic cooperation and development (oecd) defines capacity development as ‘the process whereby people, organisations and society as a whole unleash, strengthen, create, adapt, and maintain capacity over time’ (oecd, 2006, p. 12). in the context of this paper, we use the more limited term of capacity-building, rather than the more encompassing term of capacity development. this choice is an explicit recognition of the fact that in the context of open government data, we are still at the initial stages of building open-data related capacity and more work is still to be done in creating an enabling environment that would ensure sustained and impactful use of data to help drive development within organisations and societies. nevertheless, the underlying concept of capacity-building aims to produce sustained change at both individual and collective levels (crisp et al., 2000); increase the capabilities of organisations to fulfil their missions (wing, 2004); improve conditions in attitude, vision and strategy, structure, skills and material resources (kaplan, 2000); and achieve transformation (blagescu & young, 2006). there are several methods to undertake capacity-building – training, mentoring, field trips, online learning, scholarships and fellowships, among others. some authors make two distinctions in terms of approach: process-focused and skill-focused (cairns & harris, 2005) – the former best exemplified by mentoring approach, and the latter with training. the following sections of this paper will look at these two approaches, with particular focus on acquiring skills and relevant processes related to open data. training versus mentoring training is a popular method in any capability building, especially in acquiring computer skills among a group of learners. on the other hand, mentoring is also known to be the most effective in terms of an expert–learner relationship. training and mentoring have a common purpose which is to provide skills and competencies among the learners. they have similarities and differences in terms of their meaning and impact on the learner, activities and conduct, and models and approaches, among others. training can provide the basics of the tasks and procedures, but it doesn’t provide the personal attention and close rapport that mentoring can offer (pmchampion.com, 2013). the merriam-webster dictionary defines training as ‘the process by which someone is taught the skills that are needed for an art, a profession, or job’. training is the most widespread approach in improving one’s knowledge and skills that relate to specific useful competencies (abdul razzaq et al., 2012). training usually involves a trainer who is an expert and a trainee or group of trainees who acts as the learners. it is recognised by many organisations because of its importance in local and international development (ryan et al., 2012). training, in general, helps learners to (a) obtain new and relevant information, techniques, and skills; (b) increase knowledge; (c) elucidate attitudes, beliefs, and/or behaviours; (d) drill skills; (e) expand current abilities; and (f) apply any learning achieved (wild et al., 1999). !73 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 on the other hand, mentoring is ‘help by one person to another in making significant transitions in knowledge, work or thinking’ (megginson & clutterbuck, 1995, cited in megginson et al., 2006). unlike training, mentoring usually involves two individuals, the mentee who acts as the learner and the mentor who serves as the supervisor. research shows that successful mentoring programmes enhance productivity and may ultimately lead to mentees professional advancement (rowland, 2011). many organisations believe that mentoring provides a significant impact on the individual and the organisation (wild et al., 1999). likewise, a study cited in megginson et al. (2006) revealed that 40% benefits accrue to the mentee, 33% to the organisation, and 27% to the mentor. moreover, megginson et al. (2012) cite four broad categories of mentoring benefits: performance of the organisation and policy implementation; motivational benefits; knowledge and skills development; and managing change and succession. training involves the transfer of knowledge and the application of skill at a later date (wild et al., 2012). wild et al. (2012) assert that training is effective at a participant to trainer ratio of 25 to 1 or less. this ratio entails multiple and diverse types of learners. the trainer must be flexible enough to deal with the diversity of his/her learners during training. thus, the trainer has a variety of tasks during capability building. berteig (2009) explains that training is formal, and should have well-defined learning objectives. the most popular model in the field of training is addie – analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation (chan, 2010). according to chan, addie offers reliable structure and it allows flexibility during the process. berteig (2009) states that ‘[d]iscussion, simulations, case studies, and other forms of interaction are critical for an effective training experience’. mentoring involves casual or semi-structured communication between the mentor and mentee during a sustained period of time (bozeman & feeney, 2007). also, it establishes a relationship that is complex, interpersonal and meaningful (pitney & ehlers, 2004) and builds self-confidence (wild et al., 1999). the techniques in mentoring are broad and complicated and requires wisdom because of its objective that is to develop the whole person (daloz, 1990; megginson, et al. 2006). evanciew and rojewski (1999) found that instruction, demonstration, coaching and explanation are the major ways during the mentoring process. their findings recommend that mentors select instructional strategies that are convenient and comfortable for them. on the other hand, hart (2010) suggested that mentees must be ‘flexible, honest, open and receptive to feedback and insight’. further, megginson et al. (2006) articulate that there are four main components to the mentoring process: mentoring structure, the relationship agreement, the learning conversation, and what what mentor and mentee do as a result of the learning conversation. moreover, megginson et al. (2006) present seven steps of mentoring: (1) identify the need, (2) gather evidence, (3) motivate, set targets, (4) plan how to achieve, (5) create practice opportunities, (6) observe, give feedback, (7) support through setbacks. training and mentoring involves a lot of innovation. the integration of information and communication technologies makes training and mentoring more engaging, collaborative and increase connectivity among the learners and mentees. rowland (2011) asserts that ementoring offers knowledge creation and creativity among the mentor and mentees. both can be delivered synchronous or asynchronous through the internet. digital simulations, virtual !74 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 learning spaces, learning analytics, and intelligent tutor, are among the common innovations in online training and mentoring. the landscape of capacity-building in open data capacity-building in open data is a term used both at the supply and the demand side by 4 supply side we mean the owners and providers of data, and on the other hand, demand side means the consumers of that data. with open government data, the interventions on the supply side are mostly with governments, aimed at ensuring the open data is proactively disclosed to the public. on the other hand, interventions on the demand side are mostly with csos, media or journalists, researchers or academics, who are expected to use and benefit from the use of open government data. the following does not attempt to provide a comprehensive inventory of open data capacitybuilding interventions available but provide the reader an overview of what is currently 5 available. supply-side interventions several organisations are at the forefront in supply-side capacity-building interventions for open government data. the world bank for example, has a suite of technical assistance interventions for governments . among these are readiness assessments, provision of advice 6 to country governments, and engagement, outreach and training. other institutions such as the open knowledge foundation run different training programmes on open data: an introduction for those who plan to implement open data for the first time, administrative open data management for those who are responsible in managing open data programmes, and open data portal technology for those who manage open data portals. the open data institute also offers similar supply-side interventions, and focuses on key topics as law and licensing, open data technologies, among others. these courses range from half-day training to five-day training with experts doing lectures and supervising exercises. demand-side interventions those organisations that provide open data training to increase open data demand and uptake, target organisations from both the private and the non-profit sector as their primary audiences. the training range from basic open data introductory courses to accessing, using, visualising and creating narratives based on open data. the school of data (run by open knowledge), for example, runs trainings on open data fundamentals, data cleaning, data extraction, data exploration, geo coding, working with budgets and spending data, and data journalism. it also runs open data bootcamps to increase open data literacy in countries with on-going open government initiatives. the open data institute also offers similar training on creating narratives from open data, using open data to win public sector business, and finding the value in open data. these courses also range from half a day to five days, depending on the the words supply and demand are used here as a way to simply differentiate capacity-building done to providers of open 4 government data (in this case, governments) and users (in most cases, citizens). it is acknowledged though that governments can be both suppliers and users of open government data, as are citizens. for a more comprehensive review, please refer to boyera & iglesias (2014). 5 http://toolkit.dev.zognet.net/en/technical-assistance.html 6 !75 http://toolkit.dev.zognet.net/en/technical-assistance.html the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 level of skills that trainees have and the level of skills they would like to acquire. the open data lab jakarta of the world wide web foundation, does not have specific open data training modules; training programmes are customised to suit the needs of the audience participating in the capacity-building intervention. these models, in theory, focus on action learning with presentation inputs and hands-on learning activities. of late, hackathons and data expeditions are used by different organisations to encourage open data uptake. hackathons are one-off events that encourage collaborative programming from among developers usually based on a particular open dataset. a ‘data expedition’ (a model developed by school of data), on the other hand, is gathering of people, mostly data users, who solve real-world problems or challenges using available open data: either as a learning activity, or as a mixed action-learning process, where both substantive outcomes (for example, designing new advocacy work with data) and learning outcomes are important. web-based resources to build capacity in open data there is a wealth of web-based resources that both suppliers and users of data can use to increase capacity in open data. the world bank, for example, has the open government data toolkit that discusses open data essentials, supply and quality of data, as well as the conduct of readiness assessments. the open knowledge foundation makes available the open data handbook which focuses largely on supplying open data than using it. other organisations as socrata, open data commons, smart cities council and the united nations also have their own web-based open data guidebooks that suppliers or users of data can use to build their understanding and skills in open data. open data capacity-building in the philippines the philippines is one of the eight pioneering countries that founded the open government partnership (ogp) in september 2011. the partnership calls for greater availability of government information to the public, implement standards of transparency and accountability in governments, as well as use technology for openness and accountability. while the country does not yet have a freedom of information law, it has made significant steps in proactively disclosing data to the public through a full disclosure policy and the establishment of its open data portal, part of its commitment to the ogp. in january 2014, it launched the philippine open data portal, which ‘aims to make national government data searchable, accessible, and useful, with the help of the different agencies of government, and with the participation of the public’. most of the capacity-building training on open data started only very recently, more particularly in 2012 to 2013. these included trainings for government civil servants involved in the operation of the open data portal, trainings for government agencies involved in the collection and aggregation of data, and trainings for journalists and csos. again, the following subsections intend to describe the capacity-building events on open data in the country and do not attempt to offer and exhaustive list of open data training. !76 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 capacity-building on the supply side data.gov.ph is managed by the open data task force of the philippine government. the task force is spearheaded by three agencies, namely, the department of budget and management, the office of the presidential spokesperson, and the presidential communications development and strategic planning office. the task force, composed mostly of young people with a very good understanding of data and its value and implications to society, was largely trained by the world bank. the contracting of a design and development firm to build the first version of the open data portal was also supported by the world bank. with the capacity it gained, the open data task force conducted a series of master-classes and bootcamps in open data for government agencies, with the end view of creating open data champions in agencies in order to ensure that agencies disclose data. initially, the goal was to engage 200 agencies. out of the 200 agencies targeted, approximately 50 agencies participated in the master classes, and 26 agencies were able to share data in open format that the task force eventually published on the open data portal. to date, the task force continues to conduct mentoring activities with the agencies to increase the number of datasets currently housed on the portal. the most significant outcome of these trainings was the launch of the philippines open data portal and the full disclosure policy portal for local governments , 7 and the continuous publication of data by relevant government agencies. coverage is still low because only a quarter of government agencies are proactively disclosing data on the national portal, and only around 50% of local government units are uploading data in the required formats to the full disclosure policy portal . the school of data has a fellow in the philippines. she is actively engaged in conducting open data trainings and has conducted one for the civil service commission, a commission of the philippine government. capacity-building on the demand side capacity-building on the part of users of data is undertaken in two ways – training and hackathons. the first large-scale and targeted open data training was conducted in the philippines by the open knowledge foundation, with funding support from the world bank and in partnership with the open data task force and the partnership for open data. the training took place from 13 to 14 may 2015 in the philippines, with media and csos as the main participants. the training consisted mainly of open data introduction and open data skills that the participants can use in engaging with government data (which may not be necessarily in open format). bantay.ph, a civil society organisation that uses technology to encourage citizens to demand better governance, also conducts training for csos and the media. in february 2015, they conducted a data jam, with journalists and csos. open knowledge (ok), through the local 8 ok ambassador, conducts open data socialisation sessions with students and teachers at a university in manila. http://www.fdpp.blgs.gov.ph 7 http://schoolofdata.org/2015/03/23/jamming-for-data-open-data-day-in-the-philippines/ 8 !77 http://schoolofdata.org/2015/03/23/jamming-for-data-open-data-day-in-the-philippines/ http://www.fdpp.blgs.gov.ph the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 besides training, a series of hackathons were sponsored by different organisations to increase data uptake using data.gov.ph data. to date, several hackathons have been conducted using different datasets from the government, namely, transportation data, disaster resilience data, 9 10 budget and spending data, and procurement data . these events were sponsored by private 11 12 companies (such as globe telecom, brother, microsoft), aid agencies (such as usaid, world food programme, seatti), and the open data task force. the outcomes of the training are still limited. journalists run data stories based on the analysis of government data (for example, online news firm rappler) while research institutes scrape and publish key governance information online (for example, money politics of the center for investigative journalism). evidence of open data use is growing, including data-based analysis by bloggers (see for example http://jumbodumbothoughts.com), sub-national use of 13 open data (for example by csos analysing use of disaster and risk reduction funds) and issuebased advocacy by teachers in basic education. methodology it is apparent that training is the primary method used by different organisations to build the capacity of csos in open data, while hackathons are intended to engage application developers. as can be seen above, most of the training is conducted in the country’s capital, manila, and, in several instances, use national data as the focus, the hackathons included. however, the country has many islands, many local government units, and also has available local government data on the full disclosure policy portal. how should training be conducted to increase open data uptake and improve conditions at the sub-national level? this question defines the scope of the research presented in this paper. the research project was implemented in two provinces in the central visayas – bohol and negros oriental. the central visayas region is located approximately 850 kilometers from manila. the choice of the provinces was purposive. both provinces were part of the first open data project that step up implemented in 2013 as part of the open data in developing countries project. in that project, bohol was a research site and negros oriental was a test site. csos in both provinces expressed strong interest to be included in open data training. the research team used an action research approach that compares training (the usual mode of open data capacity-building delivery) and mentoring (one that has not been tried in the country). a training needs analysis (tna) was conducted among representatives from csos, the media and business groups from each research site to serve as basis for a capacity-building programme on ‘enhancing citizen engagement with open government data’. this tna was conducted at two levels. a survey questionnaire was developed, pilot-tested and administered online to respondent organisations. this survey also served as a profiling tool for the http://www.globe.com.ph/press-room/1st-philippine-techcamp-hackathon 9 http://www.globe.com.ph/press-room/1st-philippine-techcamp-hackathon10 http://smart.com.ph/about/newsroom/press-releases/2013/11/27/-kabantayngbayan-hackathon-produces-apps-for-gov-t-11 transparency http://data.gov.ph/events/procurementhack/ 12 see for example, http://jumbodumbothoughts.com 13 !78 http://www.globe.com.ph/press-room/1st-philippine-techcamp-hackathon http://jumbodumbothoughts.com http://data.gov.ph/events/procurementhack/ http://www.globe.com.ph/press-room/1st-philippine-techcamp-hackathon http://jumbodumbothoughts.com http://smart.com.ph/about/newsroom/press-releases/2013/11/27/-kabantayngbayan-hackathon-produces-apps-for-gov-t-transparency the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 organisations covered. after the results were collated and analysed, a focus group discussion was conducted in each site to explore further the answers to the research questions. the survey was conducted among civil society organizations in both provinces. the population of the survey comprised of the accredited organisations in each province. the department of interior and local government requires the accreditation (republic of the philippines, 2013) of csos in each local government unit in accordance with the philippine constitution. the accreditation is necessary so that csos can actively participate in local special bodies. accreditation is a proof of capacity on the part of csos as the implementing rules require submission of different documents to show proof that the organization is indeed operating within the province and has relevant programmes, projects and services intended for their constituencies. not all csos who were respondents of the survey became participants in the training and mentoring processes. the research team used three criteria to select organisations to participate: capacity to undertake open data work, interest in attending and committing to a capabilitybuilding programme, and commitment to use the lessons learned in actual organisational work. in bohol, four csos were selected while in negros oriental, eight csos were selected to attend the capacity-building programmes. two training programmes were developed out of the results of the tna. one approach was classroom learning/teaching activity, while the other was based on targeted mentoring. for classroom learning, the training was conducted with respondent organisations with a re-entry action plan at the end where trainees were required to plan how they would use the skills learned in engaging with government data for two months. this action plan became the basis of monitoring. the second approach took the form of a mentoring lab. civil society groups were assisted to identify the open government data that they wanted to work with, and taught skills on how to access and use the data, and how to devise a plan for undertaking the open data engagement in two months’ time. mentoring support was provided throughout this phase. the first method was implemented in negros oriental while the second method was implemented in bohol. a learning workshop was conducted at the end of the two-month period to see what has been accomplished, what challenges were met, and what lessons could be learned from the process. the content of both training and mentoring were identical. there were three main topics that were introduced and made part of the capacity-building programme, namely, open data and open government, open government data in the context of the philippines (full disclosure policy and the philippine government data portal), and open data skills (downloading, scraping, cleaning, visualisation, and creating narratives from data). the first two topics were delivered through classroom training from the same set of resource persons while the open data skills module was delivered via skills training method in negros oriental and through mentoring in the case of bohol. to ensure that same topics are discussed by the trainer/mentor in both locations, an open data skills guide was developed by the research team in partnership with the open data task force. this guide, which was developed initially in bahasa by open data labs jakarta, was translated to english to serve a filipino audience and improved on by the open data task force. !79 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the intention of the research was not to compare the two approaches, but to look at strengths and weaknesses in each approach and to advise those who will be conducting capacitybuilding activities as to what to expect, what to guard against, what types of context work and for what purposes. an analytical framework was developed to inform the design of the learning workshop. in effect, this research project did not only in itself answer the research questions, but also capacitated csos to improve their knowledge, skills and abilities in engaging with open government data. the beneficiary province of the second approach also had the assurance of engagement with select csos on open data. the research was conducted by step up consulting services from december 2014 to march 2015. open data and civil society organisations: summary of the findings this section is divided into two parts. the first part discusses the findings regarding what csos know about open data, what they know about the open data that their local government units publish on the web, and what skills they have to be able to meaningfully engage with open government data. the second part discusses the process and outputs of capacitating the csos on open data using the two approaches identified. (appendix 1 provides brief contextual information on the geographic area, socio-demographic characteristics and political landscape in each of the two provinces included as sties of study.) awareness and knowledge of csos regarding open data the results of the survey for both provinces are discussed below along with the results of the focus group discussion that was conducted in order to get more insights from selected respondents regarding from the results of the survey. bohol csos profile of respondents. there were 21 respondent organisations to the survey, representing 71% of the total number of accredited organisations. of the 21 organisations, 13 are advocating for budget transparency and accountability though they are engaged in different political and socio-economic programmes as health, education, livelihood development, rights promotion and environment. in terms of size, 90% of these organisations have more than 30 people belonging to the organisation. data and computer use. in terms of computer literacy, almost all (90%) of the organisations have been using computers for more than five years but only 43% of the respondent organisations have staff assigned to work with data and computers. in some organisations, the function is shared among employees while data, software and hardware support are outsourced. an overwhelming majority (95%) of the respondent organisations collect data on their own, and most (12 of 20) do it through surveys. forty-three per cent (43%) of the respondents use the data they gather as input for the planning and preparation of programmes and projects. !80 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 knowledge on open data and open government. a minority (38%) of the respondents claimed to have knowledge about open data and more than half (62.5%) of this group said that open data is about making data available and accessible to everyone. no respondents mentioned machine-readability or re-use. on the other hand, the same percentage of respondents (38%) claimed to have knowledge about open government, half of whom said that open government is about transparency and accountability. it is noted that not all those who claimed to have knowledge about open data also claimed to have knowledge about open government. awareness regarding the full disclosure policy (fdp). close to half (48%) of the respondents have read or heard of the fdp; 40% said that the fdp is about posting government data or documents in public places. of the documents required by the fdp to be disclosed, the report of local disaster risk reduction and management fund utilisation (90%), trust fund utilisation (86%), and the annual budget report (81%) got the highest awareness level of the participants. nevertheless, only one respondent had seen the documents on the government website and this respondent had seen only one document from among the many that are required to be published. a few respondents had seen the documents in softcopy and fewer have seen hardcopies of the documents. the special education fund (sef) income and expenditure estimates, a report of sef utilisation, and abstracts of bids as calculated, were the top three documents that were not seen in any form by 86% of the respondents. however, the majority of the respondents had not used the documents that they had seen or accessed. csos’ information needs do not always match that documents published on the government portals fifty-two per cent (52%) of the respondents normally request data from the government, and the documents requested were very varied. ways of accessing government data. the top three ways in which the respondents request data from the government are: writing a formal letter, going directly to the office producing the data or information, and calling by phone. of those who get data from the government, 33% said they were 100% successful in getting the data. all the respondents said they were interested in attending training on open government data, and 52% of them said they were interested in acquiring additional knowledge on open government data. the majority of the respondents were not familiar with the data processing skills presented (for example, downloading, data scraping, data cleaning or data visualisation), but the majority were interested in learning such skills. all the staff handling it functions in the organisation were interested in attending training on open government data. among the data processing skills presented, those handling it functions in the organisation were most familiar with data downloading. negros oriental csos profile of respondents. a total of 16 recognised csos in negros oriental were included in the analysis, nine from dumaguete city, three from siaton and bayawan, and one from bacong. one response was considered invalid due to insufficient information. the different organisations differed in size – some were mid-sized (less than 6-15 staff) while others were large (30 or more). these organisations are engaged in different issues, including health, gender, education, rural development and agriculture. !81 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 data and computer use. two (13%) respondents revealed that they have not used computers in their organisation while 14 (88%) said that they had been using computers in their organisation for more than five years. eight (50%) respondents said that they had no employee assigned to work with data and computers in their organization, while 8 (50%) respondents said that they assigned an average of 2 employees. only 1 (6%) respondent said that they do not collect data on their own while the 15 (94%) gather data on their own in the form of pool, profiling, interview, evaluation and testing, and interviews, among others. these data, according to the respondents, are primarily used for decision-making, programme planning, monitoring and reporting purposes. knowledge on open data and open government. when asked about their knowledge of open data, 9 (56%) respondents revealed that they had an idea about open data while 7 (44%) of the respondents did not. of those who said they know open data, only half mentioned access and availability while none mentioned machine-readability and licensing. in terms of their knowledge about open government, 11 (69%) respondents indicated that they have knowledge about open government, while 5 (31%) did not have any knowledge of open government. those who said they know open government, equated the concept with transparency and data availability. awareness regarding the full disclosure policy (fdp). only 6 (38%) respondents had read or heard of the fdp, and 10 (63%) had not read or heard of the fdp. of the 13 (81%) respondents who were aware of the documents listed in the fdp, 3 (19%) had not seen the documents. the majority of the respondents were aware of government records such as the annual budget report (13, 81%), the executive legislative agenda (15, 94%), the report on salaries and allowances (10, 63%), the annual procurement plan or procurement list (9, 56%), the items to bid (14, 88%), the bid results on civil works, goods and services, and consulting services (10, 63%), the supplemental procurement plan (9, 56%), the annual gad accomplishment report (9, 56%), the trust fund pdaf utilisation (9, 56%), the 20% component of the ira utilisation (11, 69%), and the report of local disaster risk reduction and management fund utilisation (12, 75%). on the other hand, less than half of the respondents were not aware of government documents such as the statement of receipts and expenditures (7, 44%), abstract of bids as calculated (6, 38%), irrigation use and expenses (7, 44%), sef income expenditure estimates (6, 38%), and the report of sef utilisation (4, 25%). half of the respondents are aware of government documents such as the statement of debt service and the quarterly statement of cash flow. ways of accessing government data. eleven (69%) respondents said that they normally ask for data from the local government, and 5 (31%) said that they don’t ask for data from the government. the types of information they requested depends on their socio-economic profile, demographic profile, and utilisation report, among others. in terms of the ways in which information is requested, only 7 respondents said that they request the data by formal letter, and 7 said they approached a person they know; 5 said that they go directly to the office producing the data or information, 4 call by phone and 3 said they request information by visiting the government website. only 1 respondent said that they were 100% successful in obtaining the information. seven of the respondents said that they are successful most of the time when they requested data from the government, 2 said they were successful in half of !82 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 their efforts in getting the information, and 1 said that they were successful in less than half of their efforts in getting the information. challenges that the respondents experienced in accessing government information included: approval protocol, duration in requesting the information, data are outdated, lack of personnel in data retrieval, accessibility, and reliability issues. process and outputs in capacitating csos on open data cso mentoring in bohol the introductory workshop on open data, intended to cover topics (1) and (2) for bohol csos, was conducted on 31 january 2015. the workshop was held for one full day and ended with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between step up consulting and the mentee organisations. an action plan for each cso was formulated during this workshop to ensure that there is agreement on mentoring arrangements and schedules. four organisations participated: participatory research, organisation of communities and education towards struggle for self-reliance (process)-bohol; (process-bohol); the bohol integrated development foundation (bidef); the bohol united sectors working for the advancement of community concerns (buswacc); and world vision development foundation (wv). the different organisations decided to use one dataset to work on for their open data project. bidef, world vision and buswacc decided to focus on local disaster risk reduction management fund utilisation data while process decided to focus on the special education fund and statement of receipts and expenditures data. the choice of dataset reflects the state of concern among csos in the province. bohol was a victim to three natural calamities in 2013 and 2014 – a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that shook the province in 2013 and two strong typhoons that crippled local economy in 2013 and 2014. process chose to work on the special education fund data because of their strong advocacy in children’s rights. mentoring sessions were conducted for each organisation. these sessions were held in the offices of the organisations and the mentor visited each organisation based on the schedule. the goal of these mentoring sessions was for the mentees to be able to work on a particular dataset, clean it, analyse it, and create a story from it. they were asked to present during a learning workshop a month later. the primary challenge during the mentoring session was internet connection, more particularly for process, whose office is located outside the city centre of tagbilaran. all organisations were able to attend the mentoring sessions and committed participants have significantly gained data skills as evidenced by the amount of data they were able to analyse and the outputs that they were able to produce thereafter. the mentoring session was conducted on 9 march 2015. among the four organisations present, process and world vision were not able to produce a data narrative because of resource constraints. process does not have stable internet connection and was in the middle of the preparation of its organisational anniversary during the mentoring session. world vision, on the other hand, lacked the human resources to focus on the task. but buswacc and bidef were able to develop a very meaningful and !83 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 persuasive presentation that looked into the utilisation of disaster risk reduction funds of three local government units. buswacc focused on the city of tagbilaran, while bidef focused on the municipalities of jagna and duero. both were able to focus resources on the open data project because disaster risk reduction and management is at the core of its programmes and advocacy work. using data that the city of tagbilaran published in the full disclosure portal, buswacc was able to establish that only 11.83% of the city government of tagbilaran’s 7.3 million annual budget on disaster risk reduction and management in 2014 was spent. further, they also found that the 41 million budget on mitigation was unspent for the same year. buswacc argued that the unspent funds could have been used for training on disaster preparedness, assistance for those affected by the recent earthquake and typhoons, or for local planning on disaster risk reduction and management. the fund could even have been used for vulnerability assessment, given that the vulnerability of the city to natural disasters is high. the department of interior and local government requires that 70% of the funds be spent on early warning systems and preparedness equipment. the fund can also be used for training, information campaigns and even post-disaster livelihood assistance. the mentoring process made possible these realisations on the part of buswacc, and helped them initiate a plan to undertake data-based advocacy on better use of local government funds. this concrete plan, agreed upon by the organisation during the learning workshop, was intended to dig deeper into the planning and utilisation of disaster risk reduction and management funds data, and to increase the scope of analysis in terms of number of local governments covered. they agreed to meet every month to discuss the disaster risk reduction fund utilisation data and for each cso to analyze at least ten municipalities over the course of six months. the end-goal was to create a position paper and a data narrative that would convince local government units to proactively use disaster risk reduction funds and focus programmes on disaster risk reduction via education and preparedness. cso training in negros oriental a training workshop was conducted from 12 to 14 february 2015 at the uytengsu computer studies hall, silliman university, and was attended by csos located in negros oriental. the participants were from the following csos: kristohanong katilingban credit cooperative (kkcc); albiga agrarian beneficiaries multipurpose cooperative (aabemuco); gender watch against violence and exploitation (gwave); katilingbanong pagtagad alang sa kauswagan (kapaski); youth advocates through theater arts (yatta); rtn daglo city habitat (habitat); dcco multipurpose cooperative (dcco); young men’s christian association (ymca); and the bacong small coconut farmers multipurpose cooperative (bascofaco). the three-day activity consisted of three lectures from credible individuals regarding open government and open government data, the full disclosure policy, and the philippine open data portal. open fora were conducted after each lecture. there were also three workshops conducted and over three days. the topics were (1) offline data visualisation, (2) data skills and online visualization, and (3) online data narratives. participants created their outputs for presentation and shared their reflections on the particular activity. !84 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 for the workshops related to offline and online visualisation as well as on open data narratives, the organisations decided to group themselves according to their area of interest. habitat worked on its own and looked at housing data for the province. both gwave and kapaski worked on gender and development fund utilisation data while dcco worked on population data and its implication to the membership growth of the organisation. ymca, yatta and bascofaco worked as one group and tackled gender and development fund utilisation data. at the end of the training, the participants were told that they had to practice their learned skills on one dataset that they were interested in and to create a data narrative. almost month after the three-day training, a learning workshop was conducted among participants. the workshop was held in dumaguete city on 7 march 2015 and was attended by fewer organisations than the previous workshop. among the eight csos that attended the open data training, only two were able to produce an output and only one organisation was able to create a data narrative. like buswacc and bidef, rtn habitat and gwave were able to focus resources on the open data project because the data they were working on are at the core of their advocacy and development agendas. this in addition to the fact that these csos have the resources and the learned skills to undertake open data work. table 1 shows the results of the mentoring sessions for bohol, and the training sessions for negros oriental. table 1: results of the monitoring / training sessions what have we learned? the experiences of csos in the provinces of bohol and negros oriental point to important lessons in the design, implementation and evaluation of capacity-building programmes on open data, more particularly for csos in the global south. these lessons are not new or novel – they are successful practices that have been tested in other capacity-building interventions other than open data that may have been forgotten or ignored in the desire to fast-track interventions or probably because of inappropriate baseline assumptions. these lessons are presented below. the baseline condition should inform the capacity-building approach to start a capacity-building intervention, whether it is training or mentoring, it is important to assess the baseline conditions of the trainees. the baseline condition does not only refer to the trainees themselves, as captured through training needs assessment tools, but also to the bohol negros oriental number of csos mentored/ trained 4 8 number of csos actively participating in the mentoring sessions/trainings 4 6 number of csos able to produce committed outputs 3 2 number of csos able to produce analysis of government data 2 1 !85 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 condition of the organisations that will participate in the training. this is particularly true for open data skills training, where not only are people’s skills important but also the hardware (such as computers) and internet connectivity available to them. when conducting open data training for people from csos who may be interested to learn skills, it is important to note that some may still be without the appropriate infrastructure to be able to make use of the training. the selection of csos with which the research project established partnerships during this project was based not only on the interest of the organisations, but also the presence of people with basic computer skills and the necessary infrastructure. despite these selection criteria, there were challenges for the organisations in both provinces in accessing the data mainly due to weak internet connections. if the process of selection of participants had not applied these criteria, it is likely that the results would have been less productive than what was experienced in this research project. it is a basic process in capacity-building that an assessment of trainee conditions is done at the beginning to ensure that the capacity-building interventions are suited to the needs and conditions of beneficiary organisations (chan, 2010; pearson, 2011). the undp capacity development approach, for example, identifies the assessment of capacity assets and needs as a corner-stone in its five-step capacitydevelopment model. in this model, the assessment does not only include functional capacities, but also institutional arrangements, the quality of leadership and the dimension of accountability (undp, 2008). thus, the baseline condition must not be assumed by sponsors or providers of open data training. open data training should start from a good understanding of what csos have and what they would like to learn. the appropriate approach for open data capacity-building may not be classroom training for all; it may be mentoring training for some, and coaching for others. this research shows that csos with resources and good management skills may be able to produce open data outputs after training better than other csos that may have people with the required data skills but a lower degree of management commitment. a case in point is rtn habitat in negros oriental that sent a sole delegate to the open data training, a senior executive director. he was one of those who finished the open data skills practice exercises last but ended up as the most productive cso three weeks after the training. he convinced his board and team that using data for their work is critical, utilised the interns and volunteers in his organisation to gather and analyse data, and managed the whole process to create a persuasive narrative regarding the housing and shelter condition of dumaguete city. for csos that need to create strong buy-in for open data, mentoring may be more effective. this was exemplified by buswacc, the cso that was most productive in bohol, where a board member, an executive director and project staff attended all the mentoring sessions and worked together to produce a compelling data story on the weaknesses in planning and utilisation of funds allotted for disaster risk reduction and management. the mentoring sessions built commitment across stakeholders in the organisation that made possible the achievement of a meaningful output. several of the examples that are held up as good examples of open data use come from people who are self-motivated, and self-managing, and who thrive outside formal management !86 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 structures. however, if a cso does not have such people with technical skills, then it is going to need to work out how to manage a process of producing tangible outputs from open data, rather than relying on the intrinsic motivation of the staff member. in the buswacc example, mentoring representatives from each organisational level (board of directors, executive director, the implementation team, and field personnel) proved effective. top management provided the analytical skills and the strategic framework in the analysis of data. the executive director and implementation team did the ‘dirty work’ in scraping, cleaning and analysing the data while field personnel provided a grounded understanding of what citizens need in terms of information and how this can be best presented to make it useful. admittedly, this research project only did convenience sampling in assigning csos to a particular approach, and not based on the results of the training needs analysis conducted. but this was intentional in order to generate the lessons we highlight in this sub-section. classroom and skills training work will not work in all contexts in the same way that mentoring may not be suitable for all organisations. capacity-building has costs, so it is critical that the approach chosen will yield cost-effective results. data use is dependent on data supply this finding is expected and unsurprising. csos prefer to work on data related to their advocacy work and/or own organisational development. as such, training or mentoring should be based on the types of data that csos are most interested in and that they have the capacity to understand. using examples that are far from the priority areas of work of csos will be counterproductive. it is helpful when csos will, for theory discussion and practical work, use actual data of interest in the training or mentoring sessions. however, this approach will be severely constrained when the data they are interested in are not available or, when available, incomplete. this happened to several organisations in both bohol (process, world vision) and negros oriental (kapaski, kkcc) where the csos became frustrated when the local government units they wanted to analyse failed to publish the relevant datasets. this despite the fact that the data they were interested in were required by policy to be disclosed proactively. in a context such as the philippines, available datasets are not numerous, and csos have limited options on what data to work on. having the data available on the web is helpful for them as it saves them both time and resources. but if data is not available or of poor quality, this limits the csos’ use of data, and eventually hampers the usefulness of open data initiatives. another significant finding of this research is the mismatch of information contained on government portals and those that are demanded by citizens. this is also one of the reasons why csos working in rural development in negros oriental like aabemuco and bascofaco, whose members are small rural farmers, became less interested in producing outputs because rural development data are rarely disclosed on the portals, except in budget allocation reports. this also confirms the results of another study conducted in three other provinces in the country where data use is affected by the unavailability of the data that csos want (canares, 2014). !87 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 open data requires accessible and stable internet connection one of the primary challenges of several csos in both negros oriental and bohol was the inability to download data from government portals and use online open data tools. this is not true for csos based in city centers where internet infrastructure is relatively stable. an interesting case, however, is process, a cso in bohol based in tagbilaran city. their office is located in one of the barangays about 10 kilometres away from the city center and in a less populous area. their internet connection is so slow at times that opening web pages is not possible. for this research, and in order to produce output, they had to go to a coffee shop to view and download data, as well as use online visualisation tools. the philippines, according to recent broadband study has household internet penetration of 23% in 2013 (broadband commission, 2014) with internet speeds among the lowest in the world (akamai, 2014). this condition has certain implications. first, not all people, areas or csos have access to internet services. if they do, like in the case of process, they may not have stable internet access. in this context, open data will be less useful, or may not be useful at all. csos will then go back to the customary mode of accessing government information and government disclosure of the information through the web may only benefit those who have access. in the case of south cotabato, a province in southern philippines, it was the business community who were able to access and benefit from the availability of online information by anticipating the procurement activities of the province in the ensuing year (canares, 2014). second, open data interventions may need to engage in offline formats to ensure that information generated from open data will reach people without access to internet. in this case, open data intermediaries are crucial for different reasons. bidef, for example, see their role in accessing governance information for and in behalf of the farmers that they serve. like bidef, csos are important to access, analyse, and visualise open data and create narratives from data that are understandable to citizens. they are also important to create knowledge products that may be accessed by people without internet connection. gwave, for example, has women constituents in the rural areas that they need to educate regarding utilisation of gender and development budget. for them, online dissemination will not reach their audience. open data skills are important but insufficient most of demand-side capacity-building interventions on open data, at least in the philippines, concentrate on open data and open data skills (such as downloading, scraping, cleaning and visualisation). however, these are just the ‘what’ and ‘hows’ of open data. less often, training includes the ‘why’ of open data. participants, however, need more information than this. they need to know the context of open data in the country and in their respective local areas. they want to see specific examples of the benefits of engaging with governments through open data that are not available to them using their customary means of public participation. they need to know what they can do with the data that they were able to visualize, and how they can use it to improve their collaboration with governments. these are issue-based and locationsensitive information that provide the overall context of open data as well as its overarching purpose. as such, while open data skills experts are wanting, subject matter experts are also necessary. !88 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 one interesting finding of the research is the lack of data analysis skills on the part of csos. in the design of the capacity-building interventions, both for training and mentoring approaches, the presence of data analysis skills was assumed on the part of participants because all of them were collectors, users and reporters of data. while this was roughly included as part of the course outline on offline and online data visualisation, it was not treated as a separate topic nor allotted time for a more extensive discussion. but the kinds of data that are published by governments require rather advanced levels of analytical skills. budgets, procurement documents, financial reports and customs data, among others, may require more skills than just the ability to convert data to percentages in a pie graph or a histogram. yatta, for example, is a group of artists and may not have good understanding of budgeting and procurement processes. even gwave, and advocacy group, believes that they need to have analytical skills specific to their areas of interest. one may argue, however, that capacity-building topics will largely be dependent on the objective of the training or mentoring, in such a way that if the only purpose is to build open data skills then a focus on scraping, cleaning and visualisation are sufficient. however, this begs the question regarding the purpose of teaching those skills. if teaching data skills to csos is to improve their engagement with governments, then focusing only on such a limited set of skills is less useful. outcomes, and not only outputs, prove capacity improvements often, capacity-building initiatives measure outputs to prove success. in results measurement language, outputs are immediate results of an activity (wb, 2009). for example, if open data training is completed, then an immediate result will be number of individuals trained in open data. if we use this as a basis for measurement, then any open data training conducted will be assessed as successful. but outputs are insufficient to gauge capacity improvements. outcomes, those we consider as higher order results, are more indicative of a capacitated learner, and in this case, a capacitated cso. table 2 shows the hierarchy of results and the kinds of questions that open data capacity builders should focus on when conducting capacity-building activities on open data. (these are the same questions that this paper used to assess the results of both mentoring and training sessions.) if, for example, we measure the results of the capacity-building interventions using lowerorder results (inputs, activities, participants, reactions), we can say that both approaches in bohol and negros oriental were successful approaches in building the capacity of csos in open data. however, if we use higher-order results, more particularly the outcome result layer referred to above as ‘practice change’, then the bohol mentoring process was more successful because of the number and quality of outputs produced compared to the number of organisations trained (50%). bohol csos were able to produce not only meaningful data visualisations, but were also able to arrive at a plan of action, largely brought about by a collective realisation of the power of open data. these points are clearly illustrated in table 3. table 2: hierarchy of capacity-building results !89 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 needless to say, the ultimate test of improved capacity will be the impact of open data training to people for whose benefit these processes are intended. for example, an open data training that yielded to an advocacy programme for better utilisation of disaster risk reduction funds may result in more informed citizens because of the implementation of an education programme for disaster preparedness. but if lives are saved as a consequence of this process, then this would be the most ideal result of what open data can do to people and communities. it is important to mention that the degree of influence open data training can have on these impact-level results may be slim. however, it may be realistic to look at open data training to generate results far beyond changes in participant reactions to actual outputs that participants are able to produce as a consequence of improved capacity. thus, the design of open data capacity-building interventions should be geared towards the production of actual outputs by participants. capacity-building service providers should not be content that an event is conducted and that people from cso, media or research institutions have attended. !90 result layer critical questions examples of result indicators input how are resources used to deliver sets of capacity-building activities? amount of funds used number of resource persons engaged activities were capacity-building activities conducted effectively to bring about desired learning outcomes? activities conducted participants how many participants were able to participate in the capacity-building activities? participants trained (m, f) reactions how did participants perceive the capacitybuilding activities? participants satisfied, dissatisfied with the capacity-building programme kas what changes in knowledge, attitudes, and skills are evident? participants with improved knowledge, attitudes, or skills p r a c t i c e change what changes in organizational practices are trigged by the capacity-building activities? outputs produced organizational services enhanced impact what results in target communities are achieved as a consequence of the capacitybuilding activities? benefits received by citizens and communities the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 3: analysis of results in bohol and negros oriental training or mentoring is just scratching the surface there were several reasons why csos in bohol and negros oriental succeeded or failed in producing concrete products out of an open data capacity-building programme, but several of these are organisational in nature. for example, several organisations were not able to produce the agreed post-training/mentoring outputs because there were competing priorities within the organisation affecting work deadlines. others were not able to do anything because it took them a while to present their plans to their respective top managers (for example, boards or chief executives). there were also those who were not able to do so because of resource constraints (for example, people, equipment and connectivity). on the other hand, those who were able to produce meaningful outputs were those whose leaders were committed to the process, where the open data work provided an enabling mechanism to their core work or business, and where resources (including staff) were dedicated to the task. !91 result layer results in bohol results in negros oriental input a mentor was contracted to provide the mentoring services to csos at their place of work. csos shoulder their own mentoring costs as well as equipment. a total of usd 3 200 was spent in bohol. three experts were engaged to provide training at the initial stage. trainers were contracted to provide classroom training to csos. computers were rented during these trainings. the provincial coordinator conducts regular monitoring. a total of usd 5 800 was spent for training expenses. activities one introductory workshop (1 day) and at least 3 mentoring sessions per cso was conducted, based on need and level of expertise. a learning workshop at the end was conducted. one classroom training of longer duration (3 days) was conducted with participants. monitoring was done at least twice per cso. a learning workshop at the end was conducted. participants a total of 18 participants (6 male, 12 female) were mentored. a total of 20 participants (7 male, 13 female) were trained. reactions participants were satisfied with the mentoring activities and felt that they learned more in the process, especially because the mentor visited them regularly with clear output requirements. participants appreciated very well the training provided but because data analysis is not a regular part of their activities, several of them felt that the three-day training was insufficient to translate lessons learned into actual action. kas regular mentoring activities made possible the increase in knowledge and skills in data access, manipulation and analysis, as well as the creation of narratives out of data. this was true for all participants. there is a significant increase in appreciation of data and how it can be used in advocacy and development work. increase in knowledge and skills in data access, manipulation, and analysis was evident during the training session. but actual use of them at work was limited for most organisations. a strong interest in using data to improve development work or advocacy was only evident in 1 out of the 8 organisations, and 1 out of the 20 participants trained. p r a c t i c e change use of data for development work or advocacy has significantly changed in at least 2 of the 4 organisations mentored. these organisations now use data to strongly advocate for better utilisation of disaster risk reduction and management funds. the csos were also able to craft a plan of action in how to advocate for these changes, increasing the coverage and analysis to more towns. use of data for development work or advocacy has significantly changed in at least 1 of the 8 organisations. they now use open data to influence investment decisions of the organization and in advocating for bigger investments in housing and shelter for the homeless. impact it was too early to assess impact of these initiatives. it was too early to assess impact of this initiative. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 kaplan (2000) argues that for capacity-building interventions to generate results, there is a need to move interventions from the tangible to the intangible. by this he means that while capacity-building necessitates development of skills and the acquisition of material resources (the tangible ones), the production of outputs or the changes in organisational practices necessitates changes in organisational attitude, vision and strategy (the intangible ones). training or mentoring on open data only changes the tangible. without a corresponding shift in leadership priorities or without having open data add value to csos’ core business, then actual cso-led outputs will not be produced. this is echoed in change management literature, where change readiness is characterised by attitude, conditions and resources (pearson, 2011). attitude refers to organisational and individual motivation while condition refers to mandates, structures and systems. resources are about people’s knowledge and skills, as well as organisational financial and technical assets. without strong motivation and a clear mandate and structure, skills learned may not lead to how csos view and use data even with the existence of required resources. the advantage of mentoring processes over training is the closer relationship between mentor and mentee. while providing mentoring support at the workplace of the csos, the mentor is able to influence organisational leadership and motivation and people’s attitude. continuous working with mentee organisations may lead to changes in structure and reallocation of resources. but these results will depend on the quality of the mentor and the amount of time he or she is able to devote to the organization. training does not provide this kind of support. however, it is important to mention that while capacity may have improved as a result of the mentoring, this will not automatically result in improved capability (baser & morgan, 2008). conclusion this research has shown that for csos in the philippines, more particularly in the provinces of bohol and negros oriental, awareness and knowledge on open data is significantly low. open data and open government are new concepts for these csos, and only very of them know that government publishes information on data portals. for most of the csos in both provinces, accessing government information is done by formally requesting information from offices and agencies or informally requesting friends or contacts working in these agencies to provide the information. this is the case despite the fact that the open data portal of the national government was launched in january 2014 and the full disclosure policy portal was also launched almost the same time. the capacity-building activities conducted through this research project was the first time that most of the csos had heard about these data portals and learned about open government data. however, at least half of the accredited csos in both provinces have personnel with basic computer skills that are useful to access, download and use open government data. several of these csos also have adequate hardware and internet connection, albeit sometimes weak, to facilitate using open government data for their work. but not one of these csos have people with open data skills, more particularly in scraping, cleaning, and visualizing open government data, though they have for many years been engaged in data collection, processing, analysis and reporting. for all of these csos, open data skills are new and they were pleased to be learning these skills. !92 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the intention of this research is not to compare mentoring and training approaches in delivering capacity-building for open data for csos, but to arrive at lessons as to how effective capacity-building interventions can be delivered. while training is currently the most commonly used mode of delivery, this research shows that it may not be the best approach for all contexts. this research tells us that for an open data capacity-building programme to result to actual data use in the development and advocacy work of csos it has to have the following characteristics: a) context-relevant: the capacity-building programme needs to be relevant to the circumstances of the csos and to the individual needs of learners. it should take into account the needs and assets of organisations and their team, including, among others, the mandate of the organisation, the availability and accessibility of technology, the availability of data they are interested in, and their experience in utilising data in their advocacy and development work. in this case, a good understanding of csos and the environment where they operate is critical. b) strategic: training should be conducted with a long-term view – ensuring use and actual impact not only on the organisation but also on the constituencies that they serve. short-term, sporadic, one-time buzz trainings, or off-the-shelf training programmes will not yield to actual use that will show the economic, political, and social power of open data. c) outcome-focused: open data capacity-building providers should focus on higher-order results like changes in practices and behavior of organisations and their staff members or the actual production of outputs that benefits citizens and communities. providers should not be satisfied with outreach, or the number of people trained, but with outcome, or how the capacity-building programme change the way organisations do things or how they participate in governance. d) comprehensive: open data capacity-building programmes should not only focus on concepts or skills; they should focus also on a whole-of-organization awareness, appreciation, and motivation to use data. thus, training should change attitudes, systems, and not only resources, and must facilitate the organisation’s collective recognition of the value that open data can bring to the achievement of its vision, fulfillment of its strategies, and the effectiveness efficiency, and sustainability of its operations. acknowledgments this research is produced by step up consulting. for more information about this research please visit at http://www.encite-ogd.ph. the funding for this work has been provided through the world wide web foundation ‘open data for development fund’ to support the ‘open government partnership open data working group’ work, through grant 107722 from canada’s international development research 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(2015). transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable d e v e l o p m e n t . n e w yo r k : u n i t e d n a t i o n s . r e t r i e v e d f r o m : h t t p s : / / sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld/publication wild, j. l., shambaugh, r. l., isberg, j., & kaul, p. (1999). facilitation, coaching, mentoring, and training: understanding the differences. 1999 annual meeting international association of facilitators. williamsburg, virginia, usa: international association of facilitators. retrieved from http://www.amauta-international.com/iaf99/thread3/ wild.html wing, k. (2004). assessing the effectiveness of capacity-building initiatives: seven lessons from the field. non-profit and voluntary sector quarterly 33(1), 153-161. !96 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc535527/ http://www.pmchampion.com/blog/pmp-benefits/training-vs-mentoring/ http://www.dilg.gov.ph/pdf_file/issuances/memo_circulars/dilg-memo_circular-2013730-5e6d7f10d2.pdf http://datasmart.ash.harvard.edu/assets/content/improvingserviceandcommunication.pdf http://www.lguopendata.ph/reports/ https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld/publication http://www.amauta-international.com/iaf99/thread3/wild.html the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 appendix 1: profile of the provinces included in this study bohol province bohol is located at the central part of the philippines and 556 nautical miles away from manila. the province is the 10th largest island in the philippines covering a total land area of 4 117 km2. bohol is administratively divided into 47 municipalities, 1 city and 1 109 barangays. it is composed of a mainland and 81 islands and islets with an estimated coastline of 654 kilometres. in 2000, poverty incidence was very high in the province – 50.2% in terms of population (nscb, 2000), affecting mostly farmers and fisher folk (ppdo, 2001). in the same year, the province was one of the poorest twenty in the country (18th out of the 82 provinces) using monetary measures as criteria (nscb, 2000). with strong social programmes from the provincial government, bohol leaped out of the list of top 20 poorest provinces in 2003 (nscb, 2005) with monetary poverty incidence reduced to 29.2% (nscb, 2005) and was considered second-best performer in the country in terms of poverty reduction. also, in the same year, bohol leaped out of the 20 poorest provinces using the human development index as a criteria (hdn, 2005). bohol is currently headed by governor chatto whose brand of governance is perceived by the ngo community and the private sector as transparent and participatory. the incumbent provincial government’s executive-legislative agenda is embodied in the phrase heat bohol: health and sanitation, education and technology, agriculture and food security, and tourism and livelihood. in 2011, the department of the interior and local government (dilg) recognised bohol for its performance in governance, accountability, transparency and frontline services. in 2012, the dilg’s silver level seal of good housekeeping awarded the provincial government as the best governed province. this recognised bohol’s outstanding performance on administrative, social, economic and environmental governance, and its adherence to the fundamental principles of good governance including transparency, participation and financial accountability. csos in bohol are very active in provincial governance. there are several networks of nongovernment organisations that engage proactively with government on several thematic issues. for example, the bohol alliance of non-government organisations is engaged in the area of rural development and civil society strengthening, the bohol transparency network for transformation that focuses on government transparency, accountability, and anticorruption, and bohol united sectors working for the advancement of community concerns working in the area of social entrepreneurship. the negros oriental province the province of negros oriental occupies the south-eastern part of the negros island. its capital, dumaguete city, is home to one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the country, established in 1901 by the american protestant missionaries. negros oriental is primarily an agricultural province, with majority of its population relying on farming and fishing as primary sources of livelihood. the province is home to 19 municipalities and 6 cities, with a total land area of 5 402 km2. !97 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 poverty incidence in the province is high based on 2009 data, the latest data available for the province. almost half (42%) of its 1.2 million people are below the poverty line (nscb 2009). according to 2014 statistics, the province remains one of the 10 poorest provinces in the country and the only province from central visayas region that remained in this list of poorest provinces. the provincial government of negros oriental is headed by governor noel degamo, once the vice-governor of the province who became the governor in 2011 when the elected governor died due to illness. he was elected officially in 2013 on a platform that focuses on health, education, and livelihood programmes and projects (help). interestingly, transparency advocates have criticised his government’s programme and branded it as ‘magdegamo ta’ because it carries the name of the politician, something that is thought to be in violation of the policies of the department of interior and local government. civil society participation in governance in the province of negros oriental is relatively strong but is significantly fragmented and issue-based. a network of csos working on crosscutting themes in the province is relatively weak, and while the negros oriental network of ngos existed in previous years, it has been limited to a few organisations that work largely on issue advocacy. among the top issues engaged individually by csos are child rights, disability, micro-entrepreneurship and education. !98 <h2>efez: local good governance outcomes in a developing world context</h2> <h3>driss kettani<br /> alakhawayn university in ifrane<br /> <a href="mailto:d.kettani@aui.ma">d.kettani@aui.ma</a></h3> <h3>michael gurstein<br /> <a href="http://www.communityinformatics.net/">http://www.communityinformatics.net</a><br /> <a href="mailto:gurstein@gmail.com">gurstein@gmail.com</a></h3> <h3>asmae elmahdi<br /> alakhawayn university in ifrane<br /> <a href="mailto:a.elmahdi@aui.ma">a.elmahdi@aui.ma</a></h3> <h3><span style="font-weight:bold;">abstract</span></h3> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-bottom: 0cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><i><span lang="en-gb">this paper presents the conceptual framework and research approach underlying the pilot e-government implementation for the ancient city of fez, morocco. specifically, t</span><span lang="en-us">his article presents a range of understandings concerning the concepts of governance, good governance, and e-government as they are understood to apply in the systematic assessment of outcomes and results of the project implementation. indicators are identified for enabling a project outcome assessment as a means to understand the project&rsquo;s possible contribution to the enhancement of good governance at the municipal level. </span></i></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-bottom: 0cm"> <br> </p> <ol> <ul> <ul> <ul> <ol> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us"><b>keywords</b></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"><b>: </b></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">governance, good governance, ict, e-government, state transformation, public administration, service delivery, outcomes, indicators, automation, systematic assessment method, </span></font></font></font></font> </p> </ol> </ul> </ul> </ul> </ol> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.42cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <b>introduction</b></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the efez project has been concerned to automate one of the most actively used citizen-oriented services in morocco: the provision of birth certificates (bc) delivered through municipal government offices known as &ldquo;bureaux d&rsquo;etat civil (bec)&rdquo;. </span></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">the </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">bec are government offices that maintain the records concerning the variety of life events of local citizens including birth, marriage, divorce, the changing of one&rsquo;s name, and death. the maintaining of such records makes the bec the only institution authorized to (and capable of) providing citizens with certificates authenticating their respective life events. such an authentication is, under the moroccan administrative system (following the conventional practice within the french and french colonial systems), required for the undertaking of a variety of personal, formal and administrative procedures such as for example obtaining employment in the formal business sector, registering for social services, applying for a passport and so on. </span></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">the efez research team has in other contexts referred to the existing administrative systems in the bec (a</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">s with many public administrations in developing countries) as being in an </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"><i>archaic</i></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"> mode</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote1anc" href="#sdfootnote1sym"><sup>1</sup></a></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"> as evidenced for example by a complete reliance on manual systems and most importantly on procedures and practices which take no account of the opportunities provided by digital storage, electronic communication, automated work flow and s on. (kettani et al, 2005, 2008). the bec is </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"><i>archaic</i></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"> in the sense that its current service delivery is completely manual and paper-based with its supporting practices and procedures similarly being based on face to face, pen and ink and hard copy documentation and administrative officer to citizen transactions. </span></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">the efez project addressed all aspects of the bec system for service management. this included data storage, information input and retrieval, documentation and workflow simplification and so on. the project succeeded in automating both the back and front offices of the project (bec) site, in this way changing the service delivery from archaic-manual service delivery to automated. this development has been widely recognized as a highly innovative and significant achievement both within the moroccan and overall developing country contexts.</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote2anc" href="#sdfootnote2sym"><sup>2</sup></a></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"> </span></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the rationale for undertaking a project of automation such as this in this context however, was not simply to make a contribution to overall digitization of government operations, rather it was based on the strong belief that the introduction of the technologies and modes of operation provided by an e-government implementation such as this can make a useful and identifiable contribution to overall aspirations within morocco towards the realization of recognized standards of <i>good governance</i> and particularly at the local or municipal level.</font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> this paper presents the theoretical foundation underlying the efez project seen not simply as a technical contribution or as a technical innovation. the intention with this paper is to demonstrate the underlying conceptual framework for making the link between the project as a technical system design and implementation and the project as an attempted intervention into the on-going <i>archaic</i> local administrative systems in morocco in support of a revision of these towards contemporary and widely recognized definitions, standards and attribute of good governance. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.42cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <b>the efez theoretical framework </b></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the efez project seen from a <i>governance</i> perspective rests on a set of assumptions and theory-based linkages connecting <i>governance</i> with <i>good governance, </i>and g<i>ood governance </i>in turn with <i>e-government. </i>in this context <i>e-government</i> is linked with the creation of conditions fostering <i>good governance</i>, understood within a local public administration in a developing country environment. </font> </p> <p lang="en-gb" class="western" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2"> <i>the role of public administration in governance</i></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> public sector administration is a key element in modern life. denthardt and grubbs (2003) refer to &ldquo;public administration as the management of public programs&rdquo; (2, 28). doherty and horne (2002) date public programs, and by extension, public services to the nineteenth century industrial revolution: the resulting wealth facilitated the creation and spread of urban areas; and governments undertaking a responsibility to provide services for the &ldquo;well being&rdquo; of citizens (4). public programs in this context are designated by the state&rsquo;s regulatory body (i.e. law), to pursue goals charged with political dimensions, and receive supporting funding from tax payments (5). since public administration operates in a political environment it needs to comply with democratic values and principles (denthardt and grubbs, 2003: 3-4) (in democratic societies). </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">public administration is defined as an element among the &ldquo;state&rsquo;s&rdquo; &ldquo;public organizations which in total constitute the system of governmental institutions&rdquo;; specifically, the public administration is &ldquo;the key output linkage of the state towards civil society&rdquo;; put differently,</span></font></font></font><span lang="en-us"> </span><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">&ldquo;public administration is the administrative interface between the state and civil society&rdquo; (peters, 1995: 9, 205). </span></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">p</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">ublic administration in developed countries has undergone major changes as it has responded to transformations in the fundamental nature, purpose, role, and practices within society. toffler (cited in denthardt and grubbs, 2003: 18) advances a certain chronological order/ typology in the evolution of &ldquo;human organizations&rdquo; (including public administrations): &ldquo;first-wave pre-industrial organizations&rdquo; were built to serve pre-industrial agricultural societies in their harvesting activities; &ldquo;second-wave industrial organizations&rdquo; developed (centralized, hierarchical, bureaucratic, and uniform mechanisms) to serve growing urban populations, emerging as a result of the industrial revolution; and &ldquo;third-wave decentralized</span></font></font></font><span lang="en-us"> </span><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">organizations&rdquo;, evolved (into more flexible structures) to address the needs of post-industrial societies. peters (2003), explains that over the last decades, public administrations (in developed countries) underwent rapid transformative changes, shifting away from the &ldquo;traditional administration&rdquo; model to &ldquo;new public management&rdquo; and &ldquo;governance&rdquo; models.</span></font></font></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the &ldquo;traditional&rdquo; model of public administration, also known also as the &ldquo;classical&rdquo; or &ldquo;conventional&rdquo; model, rested on a set of assumptions, principles, and practices. the &ldquo;traditional administration&rdquo; came to replace and transform the pre-industrial organizations. the &ldquo;traditional administration&rdquo; aimed to address the needs of the capitalist (and by implication of the colonial) system, emerging following the industrial revolution (felts and jos, 2000: 520-1). </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the classical administration worked on establishing practices built on key principles, such as uniformity, routinization, and predictability. it sought to establish structures functioning with bureaucratic internal management. literally meaning, &ldquo;rule by office or by official&rdquo;, bureaucracy is defined as &ldquo;a form of organization that is well suited to many activities, especially activities such as education and criminal justice, which rely on the keeping of accurate records&rdquo; (doherty and horne, 2002: 16). the emerging capitalist system pursued efficiency in its mass production endeavor. felts and jos (2000) explain that &ldquo;the challenge of mass-production capitalism was to communicate uniformly and act quickly across greater and greater spaces&rdquo; (521). accordingly, the conventional administration organized itself via building hierarchical structures with centralized control complying to clear rules, standards, and procedures. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> yet, by 1970s and 1980s (in developed country contexts), the &ldquo;classical&rdquo; model of public administration had received many critiques calling for &ldquo;a more humane and especially a more efficient government&rdquo; (peters, 2003). a bureaucracy that served industrial societies well was becoming incompatible with changing realities (fueled by the opportunities and challenges of technology, mass media and globalization). &ldquo;the shift has been from seeing public administration as a vehicle for social change towards perceiving it as a major obstacle to such change&rdquo; (pierre, 1995: 2). </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">bureaucracy, or &ldquo;big government&rdquo;, became increasingly at odd with </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">a growing renewed ideology of free market oriented neo-liberalism that started at the aftermath of the second world war as an extension, &ldquo;resurgence&rdquo; and continuity of &ldquo;liberalism&rdquo; (heeks, 1999: 11). bureaucratic inefficiencies were found at different levels of the public sector: &ldquo;inputs&rdquo; because of the mounting costs needed to run and fund public programs and services, &ldquo;processes&rdquo; due to problems arising from the way public affairs were handled, including &ldquo;waste, delay, mismanagement and corruption within the public sector, all of which contributed to inefficiency in the conversion of public expenditure into public services&rdquo;, and &ldquo;outputs&rdquo; as dissatisfaction was fueled with the growing conviction that &ldquo;the public sector was not delivering what it should &hellip;. [which] undermined the wider social outcomes of public sector activity&rdquo;(heeks, 1999: 10). this led to a growing phenomenon known as: &ldquo;structural reform of the public sector&rdquo;, &ldquo;reassessment of the public sector&rdquo; (peters, 1995: 2), and &ldquo;reinventing government&rdquo; (osborne, and gaebler, 1992) and ultimately (with a considerable in-put from neo-liberal critics of government intervention in general) the adoption of principles and practices associated with &ldquo;new public management&rdquo; (npm). </span></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> in its quest for efficiency, the npm calls for a well defined reform agenda, making &ldquo;the reinvented&rdquo; administration almost the antithesis of the &ldquo;classical administration&rdquo;. the rationale for such reforms is to reduce the costs of centralized decision making and to create more flexible and responsive decision making&rdquo; (heeks, 1999: 13). it is also a way to &ldquo;empower&rdquo; citizens by providing them access for being involved in decision making. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">de</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">-bureaucratization reform aimed at &ldquo;re-engineering&rdquo; the work of public administration, to make it more responsive to citizens, who in turn became perceived as &ldquo;consumers&rdquo; and &ldquo;clients&rdquo; with all of their diverse needs. however, npm faced many critics due mainly to its emphasis on the primacy of market principles and values and the absence of &ldquo;democratic values in administration&rdquo; (peters, 2003). npm focuses its attention mainly on technical and managerial aspects of public administration in pursuing cost-effective performance, while overlooking the need to consider &ldquo;social outcomes&rdquo; and &ldquo;public value&rdquo; in fulfilling public</span></font></font></font><span lang="en-us"> </span><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">interventions. these limitations are of particular significance in the developing country context which may lack the specific skills and organizational/managerial alternatives required by the npm and where the particular local/national context (as for example in the case of morocco) may introduce an institutional complexity which doesn&rsquo;t lend itself to the sometimes simplistic (and culturally insensitive) solutions offered by the npm approach.</span></font></font></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> revisions and reflections on these circumstances led to what became known as the &ldquo;post washington consensus&rdquo;; which brought <i>governance </i>to the spotlight. it was then argued that reforms and their intended development could only occur within a context of conditions of what became known as <i>good governance</i>. jaya soriya and rosser (2001). the world bank&rsquo;s kaufmann demonstrated empirically how &ldquo;good governance matters&rdquo; by bringing about economic growth (kaufmann et al, 2003). </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">the undp further promoted &ldquo;good governance&rdquo; as a condition for not only economic growth but for a broader process of &ldquo;sustainable human development&rdquo;. following this, </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">&ldquo;good governance&rdquo; </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">became a key element in development studies and became seen as a main driver for &ldquo;building institutional capacity&rdquo; (jaya soriya &amp; rosser, 2001; world bank, 1991. international donors, mainly the world bank and the imf, started to realize that &ldquo;structural reform without the concomitant set of institutions to support such reform is likely to fail&rdquo; (389).</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote3anc" href="#sdfootnote3sym"><sup>3</sup></a></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"> the public sector reform agenda in developing countries became more concerned</span></font></font></font><span lang="en-us"> </span><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">with &ldquo;institution building&rdquo; known also as &ldquo;capacity reinforcement. capacity building pursues a two-fold approach: reforming and improving the structures associated with public administration; and developing personnel capable of effectively operating and running the organizational structures of public administration. </span></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> in the contemporary context (including in developing countries) public sector reform and its related capacity building must necessarily integrate new technologies as enabling tools. heeks (1999) explains this by noting that &ldquo;reinventing government is a continuation of existing new public management reforms, but reinventing government in the information age should mean two things that are different: </font> </p> <ul> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <i>first, a much greater (i.e. more overt) role for information and information systems in the processes of change;</i></font></p> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <i>second, a much greater (i.e. more widely employed) role for information technology in the processes of change&rdquo; (16)</i></font></p> </ul> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; widows: 2; orphans: 2; page-break-before: auto"> this paper and the larger (efez) research project (and agenda) of which it is a part should be seen as a contribution and an extension of this discussion. </font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the intention with the overall research is to delineate and concretize the link between the overall conceptual approach to <i>good governance</i> as defined within the development conceptualizations and strategies of agencies such as the world bank and the undp and the realities of a specific information technology systems implementation on the ground in support of the service delivery by a local administration. thus the specific contribution intended by this overall work and this particular paper is to forge a <i>conceptual</i> and ultimately a <i>practical </i>link between the broad and general concepts identified with <i>good governance</i> and how these might be realized in the specific and pragmatic circumstance of the digitization of the birth certificate delivery service in one small area of the city of fez in morocco. our fundamental notion is that it is possible to demonstrate how and in what degree our particular technology implementation can (and cannot) have outcomes which contribute to the creation of conditions of good governance at the municipal level in fez and if here, then through extension and scaling up, to the creation of such conditions throughout morocco and even potentially elsewhere in the developing world.</font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> our claim, it should be noted is not that efez is creating <i>good governance,</i> but rather that efez, through paying a close attention to its activities and outcomes can be shown to be a potentially significant contributor to the overall creation of the <i>good governance </i>condition. it should further be noted that the specific contribution of this paper is, through a close examination of the conceptual underpinnings of the notion of <i>good governance </i>to provide a means by which the activities and outcomes of efez can be both conceptually and pragmatically linked into this overall formulation. in this way it may offer a pragmatic and theoretical means to integrate certain of the practical implications of a technology driven managerial approach to public sector reform in an ldc context with the more recent concerns for <i>good governance</i> and particularly <i>good governance</i> as a pre-condition to broader concerns with <i>development</i>. </font> </p> <p lang="en-us" class="western" style="margin-left: 0.1cm"><i>defining &ldquo;good governance&rdquo;</font> </i> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the notion of <i>governance</i> has been defined in varying ways. the world bank group (wbg) defines <i>governance</i> in terms of how &ldquo;&hellip;power is exercised through a country&rsquo;s economic, political, and social institutions&rdquo; (the world bank, 2006a). this definition presents <i>governance</i> as the sum of activities and processes shaping power use within institutional units of a national state. in this respect, <i>governance </i>for the world bank is mainly concerned with governments and how they control their internal processes. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the undp defines <i>governance</i> as: </font> </p> <p lang="en-us" style="margin-left: 1.25cm">&ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><i>the exercise of economic, political, and administrative authority to manage a <b>country</b>&rsquo;s affairs at all levels. it comprises mechanisms, processes, and institutions through which <b>citizens</b> and groups articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations, and mediate their differences&rdquo; (undp, 1997). </i></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> another notion related to governance is <i>good governance</i>. for the world bank, good governance is governance (or power use) that is: </font> </p> <p lang="en-us" style="margin-left: 1.25cm">&hellip;<font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><i>epitomized by predictable, open and enlightened policy making; a bureaucracy imbued with a professional ethos; an executive arm of government accountable for its actions; and a strong civil society participating in public affairs, and all behaving under the rule of law&rdquo; (world bank, 2006a)</i></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> for the undp (1997), <i>good governance</i> is described as being:</font></p> <p lang="en-us" style="margin-left: 1.25cm">&hellip;<font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><i>among other things participatory, transparent and accountable. it is also effective and equitable. and it promotes the rule of law fairly. good governance ensures that the voices of the poorest and the most vulnerable are heard in decision-making over the allocation of development resources, and that political, social and economic priorities are based on broad consensus among the three stakeholders the state, private sector and civil society&rdquo; (undp, 1997).</i></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> it appears from the above definitions that good governance refers mainly to an improved quality of governance; that is, how governance should take place. accordingly, the two international institutions share a common perception of what good governance is since they emphasize governance issues such as openness, accountability, participation, and the rule of law (haldenwang, 2004: 419) with, according to the idrc (2005: 8), the most inclusive and comprehensive definition of good governance being that provided by the undp. </font> </p> <p lang="en-us" style="margin-left: 1.25cm"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><i>there is not much disagreement on components that make &ldquo;good governance&rdquo;. mainly because they are normative judgements on how governance &ldquo;should&rdquo; be or aspire to be in real settings. idrc (2005: 8),</i></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> more precisely, good governance can be defined in terms of its components and elements. the undp lists 9 specific characteristics as can be seen in table 1 below.</font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 1.01cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2><u>table.1: the undp&rsquo;s nine underlying characteristics of good governance</u></font></font></p> <table width=586 border=1 bordercolor="#000000" cellpadding=7 cellspacing=0> <col width=139> <col width=417> <tr valign=top> <td width=139> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>1) participation</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=417> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">all men and women should have a voice in decision-making, either directly or through legitimate intermediate institutions that represent their interests. such broad participation is built on freedom of association and speech, as well as capacities to participate constructively&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=139> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>2) rule of law</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=417> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">legal frameworks should be fair and enforced impartially, particularly the laws on human rights&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=139> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>3) transparency</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=417> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">transparency is built on the free flow of information. processes, institutions and information are directly accessible to those concerned with them, and enough information is provided to understand and monitor them&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=139> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>4) responsiveness</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=417> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">institutions and processes try to serve all stakeholders&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=139> <p lang="en-gb" align=left style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>5) consensus orientation</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=417> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">good governance mediates differing interests to reach a broad consensus on what is in the best interest of the group and, where possible, on policies and procedures&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=139> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>6) equity</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=417> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">all men and women have opportunities to improve or maintain their well-being&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=139> <p lang="en-gb" align=left style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>7) effectiveness and efficiency</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=417> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">processes and institutions produce results that meet needs while making the best use of resources&rdquo; </font></font> </p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=139> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>8) accountability</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=417> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">decision makers in government, the private sector and civil society organisations are accountable to the public, as well as to institutional stakeholders. this accountability differs depending on the organisation and whether the decision is internal or external to an organization&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=139> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>9) strategic vision</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=417> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">leaders and the public have a broad and long-term perspective on good governance and human development, along with a sense of what is needed for such development. there is also an understanding of the historical, cultural and social complexities in which that perspective is grounded&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> </tr> </table> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 1.01cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2><font size=2><span lang="en-us">(source: table created by author using undp definitions as direct quotes from </span></font></font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://www.gdrc.org/u-gov/g-attributes.html"></a><a href="http://www.gdrc.org/u-gov/g-attributes.html"></a><a href="http://www.gdrc.org/u-gov/g-attributes.html"><font color="#000000"><font size=2><span lang="en-us">undp</span></font></font></font></a><a href="http://www.gdrc.org/u-gov/g-attributes.html"></a><a href="http://www.gdrc.org/u-gov/g-attributes.html"></a></u></font><font size=2><span lang="en-us"> (1997))</span></font></font></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> from the above table, <i>good governance</i> can be seen as requiring transparent/open, accountable, efficient/effective, and responsive governance structures which operate in a manner so as to not violate principles of equity and the rule of law as well as enabling the involvement and empowerment of citizens to actively participate in the achievement of consensus and the building and sharing of a strategic vision for development. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">but it is one thing to agree more or less on &ldquo;good governance&rdquo; values; and another to put these into practice and have them integrated and internalized in governance systems. that is why in the efez project the intention was to &ldquo;get the institutions right first&rdquo;; the underlying premise being, following derick &amp; goldsmith (2005) and others that &ldquo;better run public institutions (are) the most important instrument for fostering economic growth and reducing poverty&rdquo; (jaya soriya &amp; rosser, 2001; world bank, 1991, undp, 1997).</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote4anc" href="#sdfootnote4sym"><sup>4</sup></a></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"> </span></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><i>e-government and good governance</i></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">e-government</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"> is another related notion. the united nations defines e-government as &ldquo;utilizing the internet and the world-wide-web for delivering government information and services to citizens&rdquo; (un, 2001: 1). in this regards, e-government is when a government institution uses information and communication technologies (ict) in serving citizens and</span></font></font></font><span lang="en-us"> </span><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">meeting their informational and transactional needs. in fact, the expansion of ict worldwide, that is behind the accelerating globalization, has also led to its diffusion within public administrations. such diffusion has in turn led to varying degrees of electronically enabling the three functions of governments (finger, 2005: 4). accordingly, ict applications use has revolutionized the service delivery function. finger indicates that this function is &ldquo;where ict(s) have, so far, made the most spectacular inroads&rdquo; (2004: 6). </span></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the world bank 2006b defines e-government as </font> </p> <p lang="en-us" style="margin-left: 1.25cm">&ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><i>the use of information and communications technologies (ict) to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of government. e-government can be seen simply as moving citizen services online, but in its broadest sense it refers to the technology-enabled transformation of government governments&rsquo; best hope to reduce costs, whilst promoting economic development, increasing transparency in government, improving service delivery and public administration, and facilitating the advancement of an information society&rdquo; (world bank, 2006b)</i></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> from this definition, it is clear that the world bank highlights the numerous benefits achieved by implementing e-government. these benefits, including accountability, transparency, and efficiency, are similar to the goals and characteristics of <i>good governance</i>. in this sense, e-government can be seen as a mechanism to operationalize the notion of good governance. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> haldenwang (2004: 419) confirms this relation by identifying conceptual/theoretical linkages between the two concepts. he indicates that &ldquo;both concepts share the same objectives&rdquo; in that &ldquo;administrative efficiency, the quality of public services, and democratic participation are core principles of both&rdquo; (2004: 419). he explains the underlying reason behind such a relation to be e-government&rsquo;s &ldquo;dualistic approach to state modernization: it combines an internal focus on administrative reform with an external focus on state-citizen (or state-customer) relations&rdquo; (2004: 419). in other words, e-government is a means for achieving good governance because it changes both the government back office (government internal operations and relations) and front office (government external relations with citizens) operations in a way that makes the different components of <i>good governance</i> a reality. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.42cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <b>the efez influence on service delivery</b></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> to appreciate and recognize the efez contribution and influence, it is necessary to understand the manual service delivery existing before the project and the automated service delivery introduced and established by efez. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the efez project modernized the bec internal operations related to birth certificate (bc) service delivery, specifically in one local administrative office. the project digitized and stored citizens&rsquo; recorded life events&rsquo; information in a database and developed a system enabling instant retrieval of that information as needed. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> efez produced an electronically enabled (bec) &ldquo;back office&rdquo; (data storage system) as well as an electronically enabled front office including three different &ldquo;channels&rdquo; for delivering bc&rsquo;s to citizens: an electronically enabled employee desk, a touch screen kiosk, and an online efez portal.</font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> unlike with the manual service delivery, approaching the employee is no longer mandatory with the automated service delivery. the automated delivery allows for multi-channel requests for service. under the new system: </font> </p> <ol> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> a citizen approaches the employee in charge to submit his/her request, or </font> </p> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> a citizen uses a touch screen kiosk in order to submit, process, and print his/her needed birth certificate (bc) by himself/ by herself, or</font></p> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> a citizen consults the efez portal to submit, process, and print his/her needed bc by himself/herself online </font> </p> </ol> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the three channels enable the citizen to instantly print as many copies as needed of the retrieved information related to the bc.</font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><i>the efez method for assessing good governance</i></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> in its research component efez paid special attention to the changes that resulted from the implementation of the system. it focused its research on assessing the results achieved and generated with the deployment of its outputs. we elaborated and refined what we termed: the <i>outcome analysis method</i> in order to investigate the relationship between the efez project implementation (i.e. automating service delivery) and <i>good governance</i>. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> in this method, we used the &ldquo;inclusive and comprehensive&rdquo; attributes of good governance as defined by the undp (table 1) as the basic template for our on-going assessment of the outcomes of the project. based on these attributes we developed &ldquo;working definitions&rdquo; of contextualized within the operating framework of the efez project and implementation. that is, we took each of the attributes and through a process of discussion and reflection within the efez team, we determined how each attribute might be defined in a manner could be or was practically being operationalized through the efez implementation. in this way, we generated a set of working definitions tailored to the requirements of the project.</font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> we then developed a set of measurable indicators associated with each of the working definitions i.e. ways of translating the working definitions into observable measures related to the activities and processes of the efez project and implementation. (table 2)</font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 1.01cm; background: transparent; font-weight: medium; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2><span lang="en-us"><u>table 2: efez </u></span><span lang="en-us"><u>good governance definitions, project working definitions and associated indicators</u></span></font></font></p> <table width=591 border=1 bordercolor="#000000" cellpadding=7 cellspacing=0> <col width=104> <col width=167> <col width=134> <col width=127> <tr valign=top> <td width=104> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>undp attributes of good governance</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=167> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>undp definition</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=134> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">project w</span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">orking definition</span></font></b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=127> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>indicator</b></font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=104> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>transparency</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=167> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">transparency is built on the free flow of information. processes, institutions and information are directly accessible to those concerned with them, and enough information is provided to understand and monitor them&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=134> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">b</span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">ringing visibility of workflow for citizens via automated service delivery</span></font></font></font></p> </td> <td width=127> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">visibility of workflows for citizens via automated service delivery </font></font> </p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=104> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>effectiveness and efficiency</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=167> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">processes and institutions produce results that meet needs while making the best use of resources&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=134> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">enabling </span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">optimal use of resources for citizens and tax payers in service delivery</span></font></font></font></p> </td> <td width=127> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">efficiency: optimal use of resources for citizens to request &amp; obtain bc.</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">efficiency and effectiveness of using public scarce resources</font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=104> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>participation</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=167> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">all men and women should have a voice in decision-making, either directly or through legitimate intermediate institutions that represent their interests. such broad participation is built on freedom of association and speech, as well as capacities to participate constructively&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=134> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">p</span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">rocess of empowering </span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">citizens to legally control the service delivery to their advantage</span></font></font></font></p> </td> <td width=127> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">citizens&rsquo; active participation in bec services </font></font> </p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><span lang="en-us">dependency on bureaucracy: </span><span lang="en-us">dependence of citizens on the employees good will</span><span lang="en-us"> </span></font></font> </p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br> </p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=104> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>equity</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=167> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">all men and women have opportunities to improve or maintain their well-being&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=134> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">s</span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">erving </span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">citizens on an equal basis</span></font></font></font></p> </td> <td width=127> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><span lang="en-us">c</span><span lang="en-us">itizens served with equity</span></font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=104> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>rule of law</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=167> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">legal frameworks should be fair and enforced impartially&quot;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=134> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">reinforcing </span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">laws and regulations to be applied in an impartial way </span></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br> </p> </td> <td width=127> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">laws are applied impartially</font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=104> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>accountability</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=167> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">decision makers in government, the private sector and civil society organizations are accountable to the public, as well as to institutional stakeholders. this accountability differs depending on the organization and whether the decision is internal or external to an organization&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=134> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">c</span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">reating standards against which the individuals can be held accountable </span></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br> </p> </td> <td width=127> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><span lang="en-us">e</span><span lang="en-us">xistence of standards to hold individuals accountable</span></font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=104> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>responsiveness</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=167> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">institutions and processes try to serve all stakeholders&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=134> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">s</span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">erving all citizens in a consistent and predictable way </span></font></font></font> </p> </td> <td width=127> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">consistency in the relationship between input and output</font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=104> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>consensus orientation</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=167> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">good governance mediates differing interests to reach a broad consensus on what is in the best interest of the group and, where possible, on policies and procedures&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=134> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">n</span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">ot applicable to the project dealing mainly with service delivery</span></font></font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br> </p> </td> <td width=127> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">na</font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=104> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>strategic vision</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=167> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">leaders and the public have a broad and long-term perspective on good governance and human development, along with a sense of what is needed for such development. there is also an understanding of the historical, cultural and social complexities in which that perspective is grounded&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=134> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">n</span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">ot applicable to the project dealing mainly with service delivery</span></font></font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br> </p> </td> <td width=127> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br> </p> </td> </tr> </table> <p lang="en-us"><br><br> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> having developed the indicators associated with the attributes of good governance we were then able to observe and &ldquo;measure&rdquo; the influence of the efez implementation on this specific service area within the municipality of fez. specifically, we were able to conduct &ldquo;before and after&rdquo; observations and undertake measurements associated with the project implementation, observing the existing system of service delivery in order to gather appropriate &ldquo;baseline data&rdquo;. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the result of the operationalising of the system has been an automation of service delivery (for the production of birth certificates). the resulting service delivery system, process and outcomes were observed and analyzed to identify changes from the existing system. at this stage, fieldwork was conducted to answer the questions concerning the outcomes of the changed system. in other words, our fieldwork tracked the identified indicators before the system deployment and after the system deployment. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the results of these observations and measurements can be seen in table 3: column 3 (before the system) and column 4 (after the system&rsquo;s implementation).</font></p> <p lang="en-us" class="western"><br><br> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 1.01cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2><u>table 3: good governance related results (before and after) the efez automated service delivery (of birth certificates)</u></font></font></p> <table width=588 border=1 bordercolor="#000000" cellpadding=7 cellspacing=0> <col width=117> <col width=100> <col width=145> <col width=168> <tr valign=top> <td width=117 bgcolor="#d9d9d9"> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">governance attributes</font></font></p> </td> <td width=100 bgcolor="#d9d9d9"> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">measured indicator</font></font></p> </td> <td width=145 bgcolor="#d9d9d9"> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">value before automated system deployment</font></font></p> </td> <td width=168 bgcolor="#d9d9d9"> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">value after automated system deployment</font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=117> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">transparency</font></font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">visibility of workflows for citizens via automated service delivery </font></font> </p> </td> <td width=145> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">no</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">since the bec back-office is completely manual, sub processes of making bc request, processing the request, and filling out the needed copies of bc are carried out in separated way (and sometimes with different employees). the citizen cannot monitor/ see the processing progress of his bc</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">(e.g. the possibility of length/possible reasons for a delay in a processing are neither accessible nor visible)</font></font></p> </td> <td width=168> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">yes</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">since the bec back-office is electronically enabled, sub processes of making bc request, processing the request, and printing the processed bc are merged in one process carried out on a real time basis. this secures the principle of: first-come-first-served </font></font> </p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=117 height=236> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">effectiveness and efficiency</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">(as a citizen user)</font></font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">efficiency: optimal use of resources for citizens to request &amp; obtain bc</font></font></p> </td> <td width=145> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">no</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">requesting and obtaining bc is costly for citizens: </font></font> </p> <ul> <li><p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">extended waiting time</font></font></p> <li><p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">several trips to bec </font></font> </p> <li><p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">need to tip (or use social connections)</font></font></p> </ul> </td> <td width=168> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">yes</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">citizens making time/money/effort savings in requesting and obtaining bc: </font></font> </p> <ul> <li value=1><p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">no waiting time</font></font></p> <li><p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">one trip to bec</font></font></p> <li><p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">no trip</font></font></p> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=117> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">effectiveness and efficiency</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">(as tax payer)</font></font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">efficiency and effectiveness of using public scarce resources </font></font> </p> </td> <td width=145> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">no</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">3 full time employees</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><span lang="en-us">t</span><span lang="en-us">o deliver bc, bec needed 3 full time employees (when demand on bc is low and moderate )</span></font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br><br> </p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><span lang="en-us">10</span><span lang="en-us"> full time employees</span></font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><span lang="en-us">w</span><span lang="en-us">hen demand on bc is high (during summer and early fall period: from june to sept. ): </span></font></font> </p> <ul> <li><p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">all bec employees (10) stop processing their respective tasks in order to process bc requests</font></font></p> </ul> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">furthermore, they take bc requests home to be processed (which is illegal )</font></font></p> </td> <td width=168> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><span lang="en-us">no</span><span lang="en-us"> full time employees: (casual calls on employee time with the elimination of full time dedicated employee)</span></font></font></p> <ul> <li value=1><p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">no bc full time employee (any of the employee can instantly process bc requests while doing her other bec related manual tasks)</font></font></p> <li><p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">with the kiosk: no employee is needed to process the requests</font></font></p> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=117> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">equity</font></font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><span lang="en-us">c</span><span lang="en-us">itizens served equitably </span></font></font> </p> </td> <td width=145> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">no</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">usually queuing/waiting creates motifs and conditions for bribery incidents. citizens find themselves obliged to tip the employee in charge in order to be served, especially when they are in a hurry to meet tight deadlines of submitting paper work</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br> </p> </td> <td width=168> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">yes</font></font></p> <ul> <li value=1><p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">ict eliminated the need for citizen to tip in order to be served</font></font></p> </ul> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br><br> </p> <ul> <li value=1><p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">all citizens are served on a timely and in a similarly professional manners (regardless of social class)</font></font></p> </ul> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br> </p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=117> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">rule of law</font></font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">laws are applied impartially</font></font></p> </td> <td width=145> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">no</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">equity is violated; and violations are perceived as normal:</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">many violations of law as people paid for special privileges (queue jumping)</font></font></p> </td> <td width=168> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">yes</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">unnecessary need to tip reinforces the law of equity:</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">elimination of the need (opportunity) for violations of the law through tipping </font></font> </p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td rowspan=2 width=117> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">participation/empowerment </font></font> </p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">(i.e. citizens are empowered to legally control the service delivery to their advantage)</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><span lang="en-us">process of </span><span lang="en-us">dis-intermediation</span><span lang="en-us">: elimination of middle person in service delivery </span></font></font> </p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br><br> </p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br><br> </p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br><br> </p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br><br> </p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br><br> </p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br> </p> </td> <td width=100> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">citizens&rsquo; active participation in bec services </font></font> </p> </td> <td width=145> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">no</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">citizens were not participating actively in the service delivery (with possible negative consequences on the service delivery arising from issues occurring in the workflow ) </font></font> </p> </td> <td width=168> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">yes</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">citizens through the kiosk/online service delivery: </font></font> </p> <ul> <li><p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">actively participate in the service delivery, which eliminates possibilities of negative consequences arising from difficulties in the workflow </font></font> </p> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=100> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><span lang="en-us">dependency on bureaucracy: </span><span lang="en-us">dependence of citizens on the employees good will</span></font></font></p> </td> <td width=145> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">yes</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">citizens were at the mercy of employees to get served</font></font></p> </td> <td width=168> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">no</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">citizens through the kiosk/online service delivery: </font></font> </p> <ul> <li value=1><p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">are not at the mercy of employees </font></font> </p> </ul> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br> </p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=117> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">accountability</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">(the process of routinization of the bec process is a process of creating standards against which the individuals can be held accountable; when the system is opaque, it is not possible to held individuals accountable )</font></font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">existence of standards to hold individuals accountable</font></font></p> </td> <td width=145> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">no</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">no standards: because of the opaque and inconsistent system</font></font></p> </td> <td width=168> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">yes</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">visible/ transparent/ consistent system: implicit standards are available against which to hold bec accountable </font></font> </p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=117> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">responsiveness</font></font></p> </td> <td width=100> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">consistency in the relationship between input and output</font></font></p> </td> <td width=145> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">no</font></font></p> <ul> <li><p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">the service delivery is not predictable</font></font></p> </ul> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">the citizen cannot legally influence the system to be predictable/responsive </font></font> </p> </td> <td width=168> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">yes</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">the system (i.e. automated service delivery) is by definition/design responsive/predictable </font></font> </p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=117> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">consensus orientation</font></font></p> </td> <td colspan=3 width=441 bgcolor="#d9d9d9"> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">not applicable</font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=117> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">strategic vision</font></font></p> </td> <td colspan=3 width=441 bgcolor="#d9d9d9"> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">not applicable</font></font></p> </td> </tr> </table> <p lang="en-us" class="western"><br><br> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">from the above table, the efez experience shows that focused intervention in/ and modification of citizen oriented service delivery via ict use was a driver in generating far-reaching changes and a significant improvement in the identified attributes of good governance. in other words, it can be said that the efez introduction of ict use in service delivery enabled a &ldquo;leapfrogging&rdquo; in the quality of local governance</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote5anc" href="#sdfootnote5sym"><sup>5</sup></a></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"> with respect to this particular service area. </span></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.42cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <b>efez and the attributes of good governance</b></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><i>transparency</i></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">the indicator for </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"><i>transparency</i></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">: &ldquo;visibility of workflows for citizens&rdquo; was investigated before and after the system deployment. since the bec back-office was completely manual, sub processes of making bc requests, processing requests, and filling out the requested copies of the bc were carried out as separate and invisible tasks (and sometimes by different employees). the result was that the citizen could not monitor or track the progress of his/her bc request. thus the time required to process, or possible reasons for a delay in processing are not generally visible (transparent) to the applicant. this lack of visibility in the delivery sub-processes gave tremendous power to the employee who could process the request whenever it was &ldquo;convenient&rdquo; for him/her. now, with automated service delivery, the sub processes&mdash;making the bc request, processing the request, and printing the processed bc are merged in one process carried out on a real time basis. the major and most noticeable consequence of this is to enable citizens to monitor and &ldquo;track&rdquo; the progress of their requested service. this ensures a principle of: first-come-first-served, which was regularly violated in the previous opaque manual system. </span></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><i>efficiency and effectiveness</i></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> automating the service delivery also influenced the attribute of <i>efficiency</i> <i>and</i> <i>effectiveness</i> for service beneficiaries both as citizens and as tax payers. to measure the influence, the indicators: &ldquo;possibility of citizens making optimal use of their resources to request and obtain services&rdquo; and &ldquo;the possibility of making optimal use of scarce public resources&rdquo; were investigated before and after the deployment of the automated system. with the previous manual workflow, requesting and obtaining a service was costly for citizens in terms of time, effort, and even money necessarily expended in obtaining the service. citizen-oriented services like birth certificates were not delivered immediately upon a citizen&rsquo;s request. rather, the elapsed time between the bc request and the bc delivery (i.e. delivery waiting time) depended on two main factors: the number of not yet processed citizens&rsquo; requests for bcs, and the number of bc associated copies requested by each citizen. consequently, waiting time for citizens requesting at least 10 birth certificates ranged from one working day to six working days. the slow service delivery was costly also in terms of effort. citizens needed to queue up within the bec for hours and also needed to make several physical trips to the bec first to submit their request and then to check if the processing was accomplished and often further visits in order to pick up their certificates. these physical trips exponentially increased citizens&rsquo; time expenditures and traveling costs to the bec. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> with automated service delivery, requesting and receiving bc copies has become simplified with the possibility of delivering bcs immediately upon citizens&rsquo; requests, regardless of the number of requested copies, or the number of citizens making their requests in the meantime. the automated delivery makes it possible for citizens to obtain their printed copies of the bc signed and stamped in less than five minutes, as opposed to the hours and sometimes days required with the manual system. thus bc requests are now delivered on a timely basis which eliminates queuing and standing in line. in addition, the instant delivery ensures that there is no need for more than one physical trip to the bec; and hence, enables reduction in traveling costs to the bec. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the previous manual service delivery also was an efficient use of public resources. when the demand for bcs was low or moderate, the bec needed 3 full time employees to process citizens&rsquo; requests. when demand on the bc became high (during summer and fall periods), all bec employees (10) stopped their other tasks in order to process bc requests. during the active season for bcs, other services, such as registering births, processing death certificate requests and the like stopped being processed. furthermore, employees often took bc requests home to be processed, which is illegal. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">with t</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">he automated service, there are no full time employees assigned to process bc requests.</span></font></font></font><span lang="en-us"> </span></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><i>equity</i></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">the manual delivery system was plagued with problems of long waiting times and queuing. these problems created the conditions for queue jumping. citizens would give &ldquo;tips&rdquo; (small bribes) or use social connections to make the employee in charge serve them more promptly than others. thus with manual delivery citizens were not being served in an equitable fashion (those with resources or connections could jump the queue) and disadvantaged citizens (who were not able to pay bribes or without connections) received lower quality of service as evidenced in longer waiting time, more physical trips, and thus higher traveling costs.</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote6anc" href="#sdfootnote6sym"><sup>6</sup></a></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"> </span></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> with automated service delivery, citizens are served equitably. the use of ict eliminated the need for citizens to tip in order to be promptly served because automation enables and ensures instant service delivery for everybody. in this respect, the automated service delivery enables all citizens to be served on a timely and in a similarly professional manner (regardless of their social class). </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><i>rule of law</i></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> as with the attribute of <i>equiy</i>&rdquo; in the context of the previous manual service delivery, laws were not being applied impartially. getting preferred service as a result of a &ldquo;tip&rdquo; or other means is against the law in morocco and yet this practice was routinely tolerated as an element in the operation of the bec. as aboudrar (2005: 154) points out the incidence of corruption in morocco is so common that it has come to be seen as no longer abnormal and illegitimate. the automated service delivery has eliminated the need and the opportunity to violate the rule of law in this instance through providing opportunities for providing special privileges.</font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><i>participation</i></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the efez automation has also had implications on the good governance attribute of <i>participation</i> as seen in terms of citizen empowerment. specifically, efez used the working definition of participation as being the process of empowering citizens to legally control the service delivery to their advantage (i.e. disintermediation that involves reducing/eliminating the roles of middle people in service delivery). with the manual service delivery, citizens&rsquo; were limited in their possible intervention into the service delivery, being able only to approach the employee in charge and orally submit bc requests and then paying for the &ldquo;stamps&rdquo; on the document when they picked up their processed bc copies. in this way, citizens were excluded from access to the range of sub-processes in the service delivery. citizens were thus helpless with respect to any issues which might arise in the course of the manual workflow or in being able to monitor the progress of their requests through the system. in addition, they could do nothing (except tip/bribe) if problems arose as a result of employees processing requests only when it was &ldquo;convenient&rdquo; for them or to respond to the issue of employees allowing and benefiting from queue jumpers. citizens had no legal means to intervene in the service delivery process. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> with automated service delivery and especially its electronically enabled front office, citizens are freed from a dependency on the bureaucracy. with the touch screen kiosk and online delivery platform, citizens are &ldquo;empowered&rdquo; to submit their bc requests and process/print as many copies as they need remotely and by themselves in real time. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> efez has empowered citizens by providing them with legal ways for controlling the delivery of the service to their advantage and at their convenience. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><i>accountability</i></font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" class="western" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; widows: 2; orphans: 2"> with manual service delivery, it was not possible to hold employees accountable for their work because the delivery system was so opaque and inconsistent that no standards were available. system opacity is a common problem to morocco&rsquo;s administration according to aboudrar (2005: 167). the automated service delivery simplified and routinized the delivery system. the direct result of such a routinization was a visible, transparent, and consistent system. system consistency has made possible the development of standards against which employees can be hold accountable. </font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><i><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">responsiveness</span></font></font></font> </i></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">since the manual service delivery lacked consistency, delivery was not predictable. citizens could not legally influence the system to make it predictable and responsive to their needs. this made access to services very challenging, which is a common problem in morocco&rsquo;s administrations according to ourzik (2005: 123). automated service delivery is by design predictable and instantly responsive to citizens&rsquo; needs</span></font></font></font>.</font></p> <p lang="en-us" class="western" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.3cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <b>efez automated service delivery implications for good governance:</font> </b> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">i</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">t is evident that automating citizen-oriented service delivery can generate results that positively affect certain of the attributes of good governance. investigating the service delivery before and after the system deployment in terms of specified indicators (elaborated and refined to measure the outcomes) showed clear, concrete and noticeable changes in favor of attributes leading to good governance. the table below (table 4) summarizes the good governance related outcomes of the efez automated service delivery: </span></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 1.01cm; background: transparent; font-weight: medium; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2><u><span lang="en-gb">t</span><span lang="en-us">able 4: efez project outcomes related to good governance</span></u></font></font></p> <table width=588 border=1 bordercolor="#000000" cellpadding=7 cellspacing=0> <col width=162> <col width=191> <col width=190> <tr valign=top> <td width=162> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>undp attributes of good governance</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=191> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>undp definition</b></font></font></p> </td> <td width=190> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><b>project outcome</b></font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=162> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">transparency</font></font></p> </td> <td width=191> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">transparency is built on the free flow of information. processes, institutions and information are directly accessible to those concerned with them, and enough information is provided to understand and monitor them&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=190> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">workflow </span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">becomes visible, transparent, and accessible for citizens via automated service delivery</span></font></font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=162> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">effectiveness and efficiency</font></font></p> </td> <td width=191> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">processes and institutions produce results that meet needs while making the best use of resources&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=190> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">c</span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">itizens and tax payers are enabled to have an optimal use of resources in receiving services</span></font></font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=162> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">participation</font></font></p> </td> <td width=191> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">all men and women should have a voice in decision-making, either directly or through legitimate intermediate institutions that represent their interests. such broad participation is built on freedom of association and speech, as well as capacities to participate constructively&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=190> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">c</span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">itizens become empowered to legally control the service delivery to their advantage (thanks to the process of dis-intermediation that involves reducing/eliminating roles of middle people in service delivery)</span></font></font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=162> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">equity</font></font></p> </td> <td width=191> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">all men and women have opportunities to improve or maintain their well-being&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=190> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">a</span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">ll </span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">citizens are served on an equal basis</span></font></font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=162> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">rule of law</font></font></p> </td> <td width=191> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">legal frameworks should be fair and enforced impartially&quot;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=190> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">l</span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">aws and regulations are applied in an impartial way</span></font></font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=162> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">accountability</font></font></p> </td> <td width=191> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">decision makers in government, the private sector and civil society organizations are accountable to the public, as well as to institutional stakeholders. this accountability differs depending on the organization and whether the decision is internal or external to an organization&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=190> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">s</span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-us">tandards are available against which the individuals can be held accountable (thanks to the process of routinizing the service delivery; when the system is opaque, it is not possible to held individuals accountable )</span></font></font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=162> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">responsiveness</font></font></p> </td> <td width=191> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">institutions and processes try to serve all stakeholders&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=190> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">all citizens are served in a consistent and predictable way</font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=162> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">consensus orientation</font></font></p> </td> <td width=191> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">good governance mediates differing interests to reach a broad consensus on what is in the best interest of the group and, where possible, on policies and procedures&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=190> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">not applicable to the project dealing mainly with service delivery</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br> </p> </td> </tr> <tr valign=top> <td width=162> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">strategic vision</font></font></p> </td> <td width=191> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> &ldquo;<font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">leaders and the public have a broad and long-term perspective on good governance and human development, along with a sense of what is needed for such development. there is also an understanding of the historical, cultural and social complexities in which that perspective is grounded&rdquo;</font></font></p> </td> <td width=190> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 10pt">not applicable to the project dealing mainly with service delivery</font></font></p> <p lang="en-gb" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.05cm; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"> <br> </p> </td> </tr> </table> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 1.01cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2><font color="#000000"><span lang="fr-ca">(source: </span></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="fr-ca">kettani et al, publication pending)</span></font></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> this process of linking the project&rsquo;s outcomes in its automating of service delivery to the specific attributes of good governance reveals a clear pattern: that the project is making a contribution to <i>good governance</i> by enabling, facilitating and eventuating into a citizen-friendly service delivery function where there is a fostering of increased transparency, effectiveness and efficiency, participation, equity, rule of law, accountability and responsiveness.</font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> it is notable that most citizens receiving their services by means of the new electronic delivery system have been requesting (based on information obtained both informally and formally via questionnaire) an extension of the use of ict to the automation of the delivery of other services in other government offices. as well, citizens not currently receiving the bc service electronically have been requesting from their elected representatives that the service be extended. also, an increasing number of civil servants at different levels of responsibilities (from employees to executives) are requesting the extension of the project to include their respective government offices within the automation program. it is notable as well that most of these civil servants were either indifferent to the efez project or actively resisted it at its inception. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><i>additional observations</i></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">while noting the overall success of the efez project it is also worth observing that it i</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">s still facing certain weaknesses and challenges particularly as there is an active programme to &ldquo;scale up&rdquo; the initiative to cover the entire city of fez and even potentially other departments in morocco and potentially as a the basis for a national program of automation of the bec. among these challenges are a lack of civil servants skilled in ict implementation, management and related maintenance. serious efforts are required for the development of in in-house capacity at the municipal (and national levels) within a context where local civil servants have low levels of public prestige, meager salaries and related low levels of education and technical skills. this in turn has led to a degree of conservatism on the part of</span></font></font></font><span lang="en-us"> </span><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">the employees and a significant measure of resistance to change and unwillingness to pursue opportunities for upgrading.</span></font></font></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> furthermore, while back office automation produces beneficial gains, its implementation remains a frequently painful passage. the ongoing scaling up of the efes system to the remaining 30 bec offices involves bec back office automation including the digitization of the paper-based citizens&rsquo; records. these digitization operations have proved to be tedious, labor intensive and expensive and alternative strategies are being explored in this area. the efes experience has been that although bec employees quickly and smoothly adopt the automated way of delivering services to citizens, they are frequently resisting the tedious automation operations that are a prerequisite for enabling automated delivery. in response to such resistance, the fez municipality has begun to outsource the data entry operations and has recruited employees specifically dedicated to these activities, with the bec employees and officers remaining responsible for verifying and validating the accuracy of the digitized records. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">of course, a project of this kind has a range of other outcomes and impacts in addition to those which we have highlighted here</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote7anc" href="#sdfootnote7sym"><sup>7</sup></a></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">. our intention with this paper was not to provide an overall &ldquo;impact assessment&rdquo; but rather to focus quite narrowly on establishing a link between this automation project and identified outcomes which would indicate that these activities were having and could be seen to be having direct results related to </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb"><i>good governance</i></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-gb">. </span></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> as noted above, the rationale most generally given for investments in egovernment are to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of governmental processes. such a rationale is of course, very significant both in developed and developing country contexts. however, as we have also noted above, there is an increasing perception among donors and others that good governance is a pre-condition for economic and social development. for the most part, good governance has been identified with administrative reform, capacity building and institutional development. while there is no question that each of these is of great significance it is an argument of this paper that e-government can and should be seen as an equal partner with all of these in helping to realize good governance in developing countries and thus equally as a contributor in this way to broad national aspirations and strategies for &ldquo;development&rdquo;. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.42cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <b>conclusion</b></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the efez implementation succeeded in automating the delivery of one of most actively used citizen oriented services in the developing country of morocco. the automation generated far-reaching results and outcomes. systematic assessment of the project results and outcomes was enabled via a method that elaborated and refined a set of indicators linked back to a widely recognized definition of &ldquo;good governance&rdquo;. tracking and measuring project outcomes revealed that the project made a noticeable contribution in relation to certain attributes of <i>good governance</i> by enabling a citizen friendly service delivery characterized by transparent, empowering, efficient and effective access to services on an equal basis, which in turn reinforces accountability and the impartial application of laws. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the use of ict in local governance institutions can thus be seen as a way to respond to the widely recognized need to enhance the institutions and processes of governance (and achieve a state of what is being defined as &ldquo;good governance&rdquo;). we thus would suggest that generalizing and promoting ict use in morocco&rsquo;s public administrations (which overall suffers from the non-penetration of ict), would enable the kind of concrete gains which we have demonstrated in our small scale efez project to be felt on an exponentially larger scale, including impacting on the everyday lives of citizens and the capacity of governance institutions to respond to the growing needs of their constituents. </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.42cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <b>references</b></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">aboudrar, abdeslam (2005) &lsquo;la lutte contre la corruption&nbsp;: le cas du maroc&rsquo; [online] available: </font></font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://www.rdh50.ma/fr/pdf/contributions/gt10-5.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.rdh50.ma/fr/pdf/contributions/gt10-5.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.rdh50.ma/fr/pdf/contributions/gt10-5.pdf"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">http://www.rdh50.ma/fr/pdf/contributions/gt10-5.pdf</font></font></font></a><a href="http://www.rdh50.ma/fr/pdf/contributions/gt10-5.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.rdh50.ma/fr/pdf/contributions/gt10-5.pdf"></a></u></font><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"> </font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">basu, subhajit (2004) &lsquo;</span></font></font></font><em><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><span style="font-style: normal">e-government</span></span></font></font></font></em><font size=2><span style="font-style: normal"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><i><span style="font-weight: medium"> </span></i></span></font></font></font></span></font></font><font size=2><span style="font-style: normal"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><i><span style="font-weight: medium">and</span></i></span></font></font></font></span></font></font><font size=2><span style="font-style: normal"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><i><span style="font-weight: medium"> </span></i></span></font></font></font></span></font></font><em><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><span style="font-style: normal">developing</span></span></font></font></font></em><font size=2><span style="font-style: normal"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><i><span style="font-weight: medium"> </span></i></span></font></font></font></span></font></font><em><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><span style="font-style: normal">countries</span></span></font></font></font></em><font size=2><span style="font-style: normal"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><span style="font-weight: medium">: </span></span></font></font></font></span></font></font><font size=2><span style="font-style: normal"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><span style="font-weight: medium">an overview</span></span></font></font></font></span></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">&rsquo;</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"> </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><i>international review of law computers &amp;technology, </i></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">[online]</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><i> </i></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 109&ndash;132, available: academic search premier </span></font></font></font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=aph&amp;an=13524233"></a><a href="http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=aph&amp;an=13524233"></a><a href="http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=aph&amp;an=13524233"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=aph&amp;an=13524233</span></font></font></font></a><a href="http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=aph&amp;an=13524233"></a><a href="http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=aph&amp;an=13524233"></a></u></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"> </span></font></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">backus, michiel; e-governance and developing countries: </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><i>introduction and example; </i></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">research report; no. 3, april 2001; </span></font></font></font><a href="http://www.ftpiicd.org/files/research/reports/report3.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.ftpiicd.org/files/research/reports/report3.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.ftpiicd.org/files/research/reports/report3.pdf"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">http://www.ftpiicd.org/files/research/reports/report3.pdf</font></font></a><a href="http://www.ftpiicd.org/files/research/reports/report3.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.ftpiicd.org/files/research/reports/report3.pdf"></a><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"> </span></font></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">bertucci, g. &amp; alberti, a. (2003). globalization and the role of the state: challenges and perspectives. in rondinelli &amp; d. cheema, g. s. (eds.), <i>reinventing government for the twenty-first century: state capacity in a globalizing society </i>(17-32). bloofeild: kumarian press</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">bhatnagar, subhash e-government : from vision to implementation : a practical guide with case studies. new delhi ; thousand oaks, calif. : sage publications, 2004.</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">brinkerhoff, d. w. &amp; goldsmith, a. a. (2005). institutional dualism and international development: a revisionist interpretation of good governance. <i>administration &amp; society</i>, 37, 199-224, available at: http://aas.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/37/2/199</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><span style="font-weight: medium">centre de recherches pour le d&eacute;veloppement international (crdi)</span></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><span style="font-weight: medium"> (2005) &lsquo;</span></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><span style="font-weight: medium">strat&eacute;gie de programme pour le</span></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><span style="font-weight: medium"> </span></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><span style="font-weight: medium">fonds pour la bonne gouvernance au moyen-orient&rsquo; [online], available&nbsp;: </span></span></font></font></font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-s/11303462921strategie_de_programme_fr_(final).doc"></a><a href="http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-s/11303462921strategie_de_programme_fr_(final).doc"></a><a href="http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-s/11303462921strategie_de_programme_fr_(final).doc"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><span style="font-weight: medium">http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-s/11303462921strategie_de_programme_fr_(final).doc</span></span></font></font></font></a><a href="http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-s/11303462921strategie_de_programme_fr_(final).doc"></a><a href="http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-s/11303462921strategie_de_programme_fr_(final).doc"></a></u></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><span style="font-weight: medium"> </span></span></font></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">cheema, g. s. (2003). strengthening the integrity of government: combating corruption through accountability and transparency. in rondinelli &amp; d. cheema, g. s. (eds.), <i>reinventing government for the twenty-first century: state capacity in a globalizing society </i>(99-120). bloofeild: kumarian press</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">denhardt, r. &amp; grubbs, j. w. (2003). <i>public administration: an action orientation. </i>australia: thomson wadsworth</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">desai, v. &amp; imrie, r. (1998). the new managerialism in local governance: north&plusmn;south dimensions. <i>third world quarterly</i>, 19, no 4, 635&plusmn; 650</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">development: the african peer review mechanism. <i>governance: an international journal of policy, administration, and institutions, </i> 18, no. 2, 283&ndash;311). &copy; 2005 blackwell publishing, 350 main st., malden, ma 02148, usa, and 9600 garsington road, oxford, ox4 2dq, uk. issn 0952-1895</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">doherty, t. l. &amp; horne, t. <i>managing public services-implementing changes: a thoughtful approach to the practice of management. </i>london: routledge </font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">felts, a. a. &amp; jos, p. h. (2000). time and space: the origins and implications of the new public management. administrative theory &amp; praxis, 22, no. 3, 519&ndash;33</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">finger, matthias (2005) &lsquo;conceptualizing e-governance&rsquo; </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><i>european review of political technologies, </i></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">[online] available: </span></font></font></font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://www.politech-institute.org/review/articles/finger_matthias_volume_1.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.politech-institute.org/review/articles/finger_matthias_volume_1.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.politech-institute.org/review/articles/finger_matthias_volume_1.pdf"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">http://www.politech-institute.org/review/articles/finger_matthias_volume_1.pdf</span></font></font></font></a><a href="http://www.politech-institute.org/review/articles/finger_matthias_volume_1.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.politech-institute.org/review/articles/finger_matthias_volume_1.pdf"></a></u></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"> </span></font></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">haldenwang, christian von (2004) &lsquo;electronic government (e-government) and development&rsquo; </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><i>the european journal of development research</i></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">, [online] vol.16, no.2, pp.417&ndash;432, issn 0957-8811 print/issn 1743-9728 doi: 10.1080/0957881042000220886, available: academic search premier </span></font></font></font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=aph&amp;an=15740588"></a><a href="http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=aph&amp;an=15740588"></a><a href="http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=aph&amp;an=15740588"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=aph&amp;an=15740588</span></font></font></font></a><a href="http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=aph&amp;an=15740588"></a><a href="http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=aph&amp;an=15740588"></a></u></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"> </span></font></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">heeks, richard; 2006; </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><i>i</i></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">government:</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"> benchmarking e-government: </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><i>improving the national and international measurement, evaluation and comparison of e-government; </i></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">working paper series: paper no. 18; </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><i>development informatics group </i></span></font></font></font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/45/19/38404076.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/45/19/38404076.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/45/19/38404076.pdf"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><i>http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/45/19/38404076.pdf</i></span></font></font></font></a><a href="http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/45/19/38404076.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/45/19/38404076.pdf"></a></u></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><i> </i></span></font></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">heeks, richard; 2001; </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><i>i</i></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">government:</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"> </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">understanding e-governance for development; </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">working paper series: paper no. 11; </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">institute for development policy and management; </span></font></font></font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://www.guidestarinternational.org/file_download/84"></a><a href="http://www.guidestarinternational.org/file_download/84"></a><a href="http://www.guidestarinternational.org/file_download/84"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">www.guidestarinternational.org/file_download/84</span></font></font></font></a><a href="http://www.guidestarinternational.org/file_download/84"></a><a href="http://www.guidestarinternational.org/file_download/84"></a></u></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"> </span></font></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">heeks, r. (1999). reinventing government in the information age. in heeks, r. (ed.) <i>reinventing government in the information age: international practice in it-enabled public sector reform </i>(<i>9-21</i>). london: routledge</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">hyden, g. (1995). public administration in developing countries: kenya and tanzania in comparative perspective. in pierre, j. (ed.) <i>bureaucracy in the modern state: an introduction to comparative public administration </i>(1-17). cheltenham: edward elgar</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">hope, k. r. (2005). practitioner perspective: toward good governance and sustainable</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">jaya soriya, k. &amp; rosser, a. (2001). economic orthodoxy and the east asian crisis. third world quarterly, 22, no 3, 381&ndash;396</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">kaufmann, d., kraay, a. &amp; mastruzzi, m. (2003). &quot;</span></font></font></font><font color="#0000ff"><a href="http://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpdc/0308001.html"></a><a href="http://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpdc/0308001.html"></a><a href="http://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpdc/0308001.html"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><span style="text-decoration: none">governance matters iii: governance indicators for 1996-2002</span></span></font></font></font></a><a href="http://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpdc/0308001.html"></a><a href="http://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpdc/0308001.html"></a></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">,&quot; </span></font></font></font><font color="#0000ff"><a href="http://ideas.repec.org/s/wpa/wuwpdc.html"></a><a href="http://ideas.repec.org/s/wpa/wuwpdc.html"></a><a href="http://ideas.repec.org/s/wpa/wuwpdc.html"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"><span style="text-decoration: none">development and comp systems</span></span></font></font></font></a><a href="http://ideas.repec.org/s/wpa/wuwpdc.html"></a><a href="http://ideas.repec.org/s/wpa/wuwpdc.html"></a></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"> 0308001</span></font></font></font></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">econwpakettani, d., gurstein, m., elmahdi, a. (2005) &lsquo;etat civil division&rsquo; <i>conference proceedings, the community informatics research network</i> (cirn 2005), cape town. </font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">kettani, d., gurstein, m., elmahdi, a. &lsquo;governance, good governance &amp; e-government in a developing world context&rsquo; [being peer reviewed]</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">olsen, j. p. &amp; peters, b. g. (1996). learning from experience? in olsen, j. p. &amp; peters, b. g (eds.). <i>lessons from experience: experiential learning in administrative reforms in eight democracies </i>(1-35). oslo: scandinavian university press</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">osborne, d., &amp; t. gaebler. 1992. <i>reinventing government: how the entrepreneurial spirit is transforming the public sector</i>. reading, ma: addison-wesley. </font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">ourzik, abdelouahad (2005) &lsquo;gouvernance et modernisation de l&rsquo;administration&rsquo; [online] available: </span></font></font></font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://www.rdh50.ma/fr/pdf/contributions/gt10-4.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.rdh50.ma/fr/pdf/contributions/gt10-4.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.rdh50.ma/fr/pdf/contributions/gt10-4.pdf"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">http://www.rdh50.ma/fr/pdf/contributions/gt10-4.pdf</span></font></font></font></a><a href="http://www.rdh50.ma/fr/pdf/contributions/gt10-4.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.rdh50.ma/fr/pdf/contributions/gt10-4.pdf"></a></u></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"> </span></font></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">peters, b. g. (2003). the changing nature of public adminitartion: from easy answers to hard questions. <i>viesoji politika ir administravimas, </i>5, 7-20</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">pierre, j. (1995). comparative public administration: the state of the art. in pierre, j. (ed.) <i>bureaucracy in the modern state: an introduction to comparative public administration </i>(161-184). cheltenham: edward elgar</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">sisk, j. (2003). creating and applying knowledge, innovation, and technology. in rondinelli &amp; d. cheema, g. s. (eds.), <i>reinventing government for the twenty-first century: state capacity in a globalizing society </i>(17-32). bloofeild: kumarian press</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">timney, m. m. &amp; kelly, t. p. (2000). new public management and the demise of popular sovereignty. <i>administrative theory &amp; praxis, </i>22, no. 3, 555&ndash;69</font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">united nations/ american society for public administration (un/ aspa) (2001) &lsquo;benchmarking e-government: a global perspective, assessing the progress of the un member states&rsquo;, [electronic], </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">available: </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"> </span></font></font></font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://www.unpan.org/e-government/benchmarking%20e-gov%202001.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.unpan.org/e-government/benchmarking%20e-gov%202001.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.unpan.org/e-government/benchmarking%20e-gov%202001.pdf"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">http://www.unpan.org/e-government/benchmarking%20e-gov%202001.pdf</span></font></font></font></a><a href="http://www.unpan.org/e-government/benchmarking%20e-gov%202001.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.unpan.org/e-government/benchmarking%20e-gov%202001.pdf"></a></u></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"> [20 aug 2005].</span></font></font></font></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">united nations development programme (undp) (1997) &lsquo;governance for sustainable human development: a undp policy document&rsquo;, [online], available: </span></font></font></font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://magnet.undp.org/policy/"></a><a href="http://magnet.undp.org/policy/"></a><a href="http://magnet.undp.org/policy/"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">http://magnet.undp.org/policy/</span></font></font></font></a><a href="http://magnet.undp.org/policy/"></a><a href="http://magnet.undp.org/policy/"></a></u></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"> </span></font></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">united nations development programme (undp) (2002) &lsquo;handbook on monitoring and evaluating for results&rsquo; [online] available: </span></font></font></font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://stone.undp.org/undpweb/eo/evalnet/docstore3/yellowbook/documents/full_draft.pdf"></a><a href="http://stone.undp.org/undpweb/eo/evalnet/docstore3/yellowbook/documents/full_draft.pdf"></a><a href="http://stone.undp.org/undpweb/eo/evalnet/docstore3/yellowbook/documents/full_draft.pdf"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">http://stone.undp.org/undpweb/eo/evalnet/docstore3/yellowbook/documents/full_draft.pdf</span></font></font></font></a><a href="http://stone.undp.org/undpweb/eo/evalnet/docstore3/yellowbook/documents/full_draft.pdf"></a><a href="http://stone.undp.org/undpweb/eo/evalnet/docstore3/yellowbook/documents/full_draft.pdf"></a></u></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"> </span></font></font></font></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">united nations (department of economic and social affairs), (2001). <i>world public sector report: globalization and the state 2001. new york: st/esa/pad/ser.26</i></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt">ventriss, c. (2000). new public management: an examination of its influence on contemporary public affairs and its impact on shaping the intellectual agenda of the field. administrative theory &amp; praxis, 22, no. 3, 500&ndash;18<b> </b></font></font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">world bank (2006a) &lsquo;what is governance? arriving at a common understanding of &lsquo;governance&rsquo;, [online], </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">available:</span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"> </span></font></font></font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://www1.worldbank.org/mena/governance/issues-keyquestion.htm"></a><a href="http://www1.worldbank.org/mena/governance/issues-keyquestion.htm"></a><a href="http://www1.worldbank.org/mena/governance/issues-keyquestion.htm"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">http://www1.worldbank.org/mena/governance/issues-keyquestion.htm</span></font></font></font></a><a href="http://www1.worldbank.org/mena/governance/issues-keyquestion.htm"></a><a href="http://www1.worldbank.org/mena/governance/issues-keyquestion.htm"></a></u></font><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr"> [20 april 2006].</span></font></font></font></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.17cm; margin-top: 0.21cm; margin-bottom: 0.2cm; page-break-before: auto"> <font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">world bank (2006b) &lsquo;introduction to e-government: what is e-government?&rsquo; [online], </span></font></font></font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://web.worldbank.org/wbsite/external/topics/extinformationandcommunicationandtechnologies/extegovernment/0,,contentmdk:20694335~pagepk:210058~pipk:210062~thesitepk:702586,00.html"></a><a href="http://web.worldbank.org/wbsite/external/topics/extinformationandcommunicationandtechnologies/extegovernment/0,,contentmdk:20694335~pagepk:210058~pipk:210062~thesitepk:702586,00.html"></a><a href="http://web.worldbank.org/wbsite/external/topics/extinformationandcommunicationandtechnologies/extegovernment/0,,contentmdk:20694335~pagepk:210058~pipk:210062~thesitepk:702586,00.html"><font color="#000000"><font size=2 style="font-size: 11pt"><span lang="fr-fr">http://web.worldbank.org/wbsite/external/topics/extinformationandcommunicationandtechnologies/exte-government/0,,contentmdk:20694335~pagepk:210058~pipk:210062~thesitepk:702586,00.html</span></font></font></font></a><a href="http://web.worldbank.org/wbsite/external/topics/extinformationandcommunicationandtechnologies/extegovernment/0,,contentmdk:20694335~pagepk:210058~pipk:210062~thesitepk:702586,00.html"></a><a href="http://web.worldbank.org/wbsite/external/topics/extinformationandcommunicationandtechnologies/extegovernment/0,,contentmdk:20694335~pagepk:210058~pipk:210062~thesitepk:702586,00.html"></a></u></font></font></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-top: 0.42cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm"> <b>appendix</b></font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <span lang="en-us">the manual service delivery of services like birth certificates consists of many sub-processes. the manual delivery process moves through the following </span><span lang="en-gb">task related stages:</span></font></p> <ul> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the citizen should first approach a bec employee at the reception desk in order to submit his/her request for a birth certificate and the needed number of copies. to submit this request, the citizen should show the employee an old birth certificate or his/her family record book since they specify the references of the requested birth certificate. </font> </p> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <span lang="en-gb">this employee writes down the certificate references on an empty certificate form. </span>these references consist of:</font></p> <ul> <ul> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the registration year of the certificate, and </font> </p> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the certificate serial (identification) number </font> </p> </ul> </ul> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> this employee gives these certificate references to a second employee who is in charge of looking for the bec record book matching the certificate references provided by the citizen. </font> </p> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> then, the second employee needs to place the empty certificate form on the bec record book page listing the citizens&rsquo; life events information. </font> </p> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the second employee needs finally to pass the record book to a third employee who is in charge of filling out the birth certificate forms.</font></p> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> once the form is completed, the third employee passes the certificate to the bec officer for signature </font> </p> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the signed birth certificate form goes back to the first employee at the reception desk to be attached with a 2 dirham stamp (for each copy) paid by the citizen. </font> </p> </ul> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> from the above task related stages of the manual service delivery, it is clear that a citizen needed to submit a birth certificate request; then, pay for the stamps in order to pick up the requested copies of the needed birth certificate processed and signed</font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the bec employee needed to receive the citizen&rsquo;s request and process it by looking for the correspondent bec record book, then, exactly copy the appropriate information to complete as many copies of birth certificate as requested by the citizen; and finally receive the citizen&rsquo;s stamp payments</font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the bec officer signed the processed copies of the birth certificate in order to provide formal authorization and validity</font></p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> employee desk request mode: </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the service delivery runs as the following: </font> </p> <ul> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <span lang="en-us">a citizen&nbsp;: </span><span lang="en-gb">approaches a bec employee (in charge of birth certificates (bc)) and provides his/her needed bc references (year of registration and serial number of bc)</span></font></p> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <span lang="en-us">the employee&nbsp;: </span><span lang="en-gb">enters the bc references into the bec application database to make a query; once the information is retrieved and displayed, he/she prints out the number of needed copies in a couple of seconds; then, she receives the citizen&rsquo;s stamp payment for the printed copies of the bc</span></font></p> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <span lang="en-us">the citizen then t</span><span lang="en-gb">akes the bc to the bec officer for signature</span></font></p> </ul> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <span lang="en-gb"><i><u>what has</u></i></span><span lang="en-gb"><i><u> been changed in the actors&rsquo; tasks?</u></i></span></font></p> <ul> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> citizens&rsquo; tasks are the same: approaching the employee and providing bc references</font></p> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> bec employee&rsquo;s tasks are reduced from 5 tedious and time consuming tasks to only 3 minimal tasks: a couple of mouse clicks to enter the bc references to the bec application database, print out the number of needed copies, and receive the stamp payments. the employee&rsquo;s most tedious task (copying the needed information as many times as requested by each citizen) is eliminated and substituted by querying the bec citizens&rsquo; database to retrieve and print out requested information with 3 mouse clicks. </font> </p> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <span lang="en-gb">the</span><span lang="en-gb"> bec officer&rsquo;s tasks do not change, except for the unprecedented possibility of checking the accuracy of information with a couple of mouse clicks, as opposed to consulting the bec record book.</span></font></p> </ul> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> touch screen kiosk and online request modes: </font> </p> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> the automated delivery flows as follows: </font> </p> <ul> <li value=1><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <span lang="en-gb">a citizen approaches the bec kiosk or efez related portal (instead of an employee), follows the step by step kiosk/online request with a couple of clicks to insert his/her needed bc references (year of registration and serial number of bc), and print out the number of needed copies in a couple of seconds, p</span><span lang="en-us">ay the employee stamps, and t</span><span lang="en-gb">ake the bc copies to the bec officer for signature</span></font></p> </ul> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <span lang="en-gb"><i><u>what has</u></i></span><span lang="en-gb"><i><u> been changed in the actors&rsquo; tasks?</u></i></span></font></p> <ul> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <span lang="en-gb">citizen&rsquo;s tasks have changed: he/she uses the touch screen kiosk or the related portal to </span><span lang="en-gb">undertake the bc request: a couple of clicks to enter the bc references into the bec application database and print out the number of needed copies. the innovation is that citizens are able to request and process their requests by themselves remotely. </span></font> </p> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> bec employee&rsquo;s tasks are reduced from 5 tedious tasks to only 1 task: receiving stamp payments.</font></p> <li><p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> bec officer&rsquo;s task does not change: signing copies of bc for formal authorization, except for the unprecedented possibility of checking the accuracy of information via the computer (as opposed to consulting the bec record book)</font></p> </ul> <p lang="fr-fr" align=justify style="margin-left: 0.1cm; margin-right: 0.1cm; background: transparent; page-break-before: auto"> <br><br> </p> <div id="sdfootnote1"> <p lang="en-us" class="sdfootnote-western"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote1sym" href="#sdfootnote1anc">1</a> kettani et al, 2005.</p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote2"> <p lang="en-us" class="sdfootnote-western"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote2sym" href="#sdfootnote2anc">2</a> efez has won prizes at the national, africa-wide and un/global levels. </p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote3"> <p lang="fr-fr" class="sdfootnote-western"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote3sym" href="#sdfootnote3anc">3</a><font size=2> </font><font size=2><span lang="en-us">in this sense, the npm reforms&rsquo; varying degree of success/ failure was mainly due to the attempt to implement them in &ldquo;two different worlds&hellip; one had in place adequate institutions and conditions for specific reforms whereas the other lacked the basic infrastructures and pre-requisites&rdquo; (un, 2001: 41). such realization led to changing donors&rsquo; orientation of public sector reforms in developing countries: &ldquo;the focus has now shifted from retrenchment and downsizing to capacity-building for effective resource management and quality service delivery, financial accountability and efficient government&rdquo; (48). </span></font> </p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote4"> <p lang="fr-fr" class="sdfootnote-western"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote4sym" href="#sdfootnote4anc">4</a> <font size=2><span lang="en-us">another, and convergent approach to defining &ldquo;good governance&rdquo; can be seen in the table presented in </span></font><font size=2><span lang="en-ca">derick &amp; goldsmith (2005).</span></font></p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote5"> <p lang="fr-fr" class="sdfootnote-western"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote5sym" href="#sdfootnote5anc">5</a> <font size=2><span lang="en-us">this achievement can be seen in the context of other e-government initiatives in other developing countries, including brazil and india, where a similar &lsquo;leapfrogging&rsquo; effect from technology has been observed (basu, 2004: 119).</span></font></p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote6"> <p lang="fr-fr" class="sdfootnote-western"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote6sym" href="#sdfootnote6anc">6</a> <span lang="en-us">this is a government concern; however, government efforts to eliminate these types of practices in the public administration have been simply campaigns of awareness raising which have proven to be ineffective as studies still register morocco&rsquo;s high scores in corruption (ourzik, 2005: 122; aboudrar, 2005: 160).</span></p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote7"> <p lang="fr-fr" class="sdfootnote-western"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote7sym" href="#sdfootnote7anc">7</a> <span lang="en-us">this will be covered in subsequent reports on this research.</span></p> </div> </body> </html> 123-03-1290 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 special issue on data literacy: articles data literacy defined pro populo: to read this article, please provide a little information data literacy is of fundamental importance in societies that emphasize extensive use of data for information and decision-making. yet, prior definitions for data literacy fall short of addressing the myriad ways individuals are shepherds of, and subjects to, data. this article proposes a definition to accurately reflect the individual in society, including knowledge of what data are, how they are collected, analyzed, visualized and shared, and the understanding of how data are applied for benefit or detriment, within the cultural context of security and privacy. the article concludes by proposing opportunities, strengths, limitations and directions for future research. introduction the thermostat knows when its owner is at home; the lights adjust accordingly, as do the air vents. baby socks talk to smartphones, and the smartwatch to an insurance company which sells its data onward to a marketing firm incorporated abroad. the proliferation of data-based and data-driven systems is undeniable, largely unregulated and, significantly, applied by a myriad of stakeholders to make significant and impactful determinations (pasquale, 2015). indeed, increasingly, individuals are continuously stewards of, and servants to, their data. in the personal context, individuals use data, or the outputs of analyzed data, broadly, daily. for example, one might measure health and wellbeing, understand workplace trends and track expenses. commercially, individuals are targets for advertising displays and campaigns, but also subjects of algorithms, “a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations …” (oxford dictionaries, n.d.), that use data to determine diverse opportunities, such as credit, career, health and insurance. governments, in their turn, examine data about the individual and group, including social connections, to identify past or future potential undesirable behavior (lyon, 2014). the individual’s connection to data is !27 crusoe, d. (2016). data literacy defined pro populo: to read this article, please provide a little information. the journal of community informatics, 12(3), 27-46. date submitted: 2015-12-17. date accepted: 2016-06-13. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1290 david crusoe independent researcher, united states dave.crusoe@post.harvard.edu mailto:dave.crusoe@post.harvard.edu http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1290 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1290 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 clearly sophisticated; and it is important, even critical, for the appropriate population to have at least a basic, broad understanding of their involvement in the “great data revolution” (u.s. chamber of commerce foundation, 2014). data literacy is the instructional domain that addresses skills and competencies one might apply to thrive in a complex data world. yet, as this study will illuminate, the definitions for data literacy are myriad and narrow. over time, the definition may be expanding, and it may be time to unfurl it fully. to accomplish this feat, this study presents a new definition for data literacy that accurately represents how an individual, within society, comprehensively and continuously interacts with, and is engaged by, data. this study begins by defining the relevant population (populus) and describing how the member of the populus are simultaneously stewards and subjects of data in their individual, commercial and governmental interactions. next, this study presents the methodology and analysis for a review of current data literacy definitions that identifies shortcomings with current approaches. such limitations are not unrecognized. perrotta (2013: 118) proposed that data literacy “... should be encouraged across schools and local communities … [to] involve 1 elements of digital literacy, citizenship and varying degrees of methodological knowledge ...” and twidale et al. (2013) recognize the importance for “lay people” to increase their understanding. thereafter, this study addresses the population-level need by presenting a revised definition for data literacy. this definition is theoretical, and based upon observations, trends and applications of information and communication technology (ict). it encompasses those skills, understandings and comprehensions a population at large may require and indicates what, specifically, might be addressed through education. finally, this study concludes by presenting strengths and weaknesses related to this approach, and indicates where further research will be important. the webs of our data world: stewards and subjects geertz (1973: 5) described culture as “... webs of significance that he himself has spun …” the populus for whom data literacy is relevant are those individuals who experience dataculture, or “webs of significance spun” from an individual’s data by the individual him or herself, or by external social, commercial or governmental systems that act upon his or her data. population membership is therefore dictated as much by external forces as by internal motivation, but isn’t binary. the total size of the populus is significant. figure 1 indicates the penetration of communication technologies worldwide, including mobile, internet, fixed-phone and broadband access utilization. while mobile phone penetration is high (80% ownership in the developing countries vs. 98% ownership in developed countries), internet access is mixed (31% in developing countries vs. “80% in high-income countries”) across populations (world bank, 2016: 6). note that data literacy, as characterized by this work, differs significantly from the current economic, 1 political, media and educational focus on pushing us and international primary and secondary schools to provide core computer science education. !28 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 1: global ict developments, 2006-2015 those individuals with higher levels of connectivity are most likely to comprise the populus though the extent to which an individual experiences dataculture may vary greatly. consider the following: • an adult who is not internet-connected, but who utilizes a spreadsheet to quantify agricultural data; • an adult who is internet-connected, and shares agricultural data with other adults; • a youth who accesses the internet from school alone, does not use social networks, but who lives within a governmental and commercial system in which his health, citizenship and a myriad of other personal information is stored in digital and networked formats; • an adult who does not use or access the web, but whose health information is stored by her doctors in a networked, digital format; and whose information is tapped by insurance companies to make decisions about medical care; • an individual who pays for items with a credit or debit card, or who has, and utilizes, a personal library borrower’s card; • an urban adult who is digitally-engaged and constantly communicating through video, text and audio through her mobile device; who posts to social networks and has installed an internet-connected heating/cooling device that she manipulates from her mobile device. these personas illustrate possible variance for the members of the populus engaged in dataculture, and for whom data literacy may be important. individual participants can be characterized by some modicum of personal choice; but the vast majority of their participation is through their experience in the interconnected personal, social, commercial or governmental systems that collect, value and apply data or the abstraction of data for an end. !29 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the volume of data produced by, about and for the populus is astonishing. in 2014, it was estimated that daily, humans captured 2.5 quintillion bytes of data about “... our words, 2 system states, physical locations and personal interactions” (hayashi, 2013). in the resultant dataculture, humans are both stewards–responsible parties–and subjects–topics of, and controlled by, data systems. as stewards personal stewardship of data is a commonplace artifact of dataculture, and includes routine creation, management and mundane consumption. workplace tasks, for example, include creating, managing or consuming data and data-based information through reports, spreadsheets or data-centric records. in home life, one might purchase clothing to monitor an infant's vital signs (chernova, 2014). such a device creates data about one’s child, and provides a reporting interface and the means through which a user might recognize patterns or problems. the use of a pedometer is similar: movements result in the creation of data, which can be managed and consumed through a predetermined interface. especially expert users can, at option, export and further manipulate their datasets . 3 in these and similar cases–of which there are too many to enumerate–human skill, knowledge and understanding is applied to create, manage and analyze data, and to consume resultant information. most applications are relatively non-expert. that is, the responsible person must know how to power-up a device; utilize the device as needed to track what’s desired; access the location for the stored data; make sense of the data, as provided by an interface; act responsibly to ensure the security and privacy of the data as desired; and understand, if possible, how else those data may be utilized, shared or applied. as subjects as subjects, we are enmeshed firmly, perhaps beyond accurate perception, within webs of dataculture. commercial entities utilize data as a means to increase efficiency, productivity and sales; governments utilize data for the same, and additionally, to govern. let us turn first to commercial enterprises, within which are sectors as diverse as health care, children’s toys and farming. in writing about data and analytics, spencer (2015) outlines four commercial applications for data and analytics as they relate to the external consumer: targeted advertising, price discrimination (see also: danna et al., 2002), customer segmentation and eligibility determination. targeted advertising is advertising that matches specific audience variables with content so as to maximize reach and effectiveness. while delivered heavily through the web, the web is by no means the only way that advertising is generated to target an individual. increasingly, for example, marketers utilize consumers’ active wifi, bluetooth and other technologies to in relative terms, this equates to 2.5 billion gigabytes: a very large number of stored instances about, for 2 example, who sent whom which cat meme, when or, perhaps, how many times one’s pedometer measured noticeable site-stand motion during a normal workday. there are interesting individual cases of “expert” data literacy; for example, of an individual who exported 3 gps data to successfully contest a traffic ticket: see https://skatter.com/2011/02/how-my-smart-phone-gotme-out-of-a-speeding-ticket-in-traffic-court/ !30 https://skatter.com/2011/02/how-my-smart-phone-got-me-out-of-a-speeding-ticket-in-traffic-court/ https://skatter.com/2011/02/how-my-smart-phone-got-me-out-of-a-speeding-ticket-in-traffic-court/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 identify and track movements, including to measure a consumer’s location within a store, the time a consumer might spend in front of a particular display, whether a consumer removes an item from a display and whether or not the removal results in a closed sale (turow et al., 2015; rouhollahzadeh, 2001; decker et al., 2003). price discrimination is the practice of “the sale of two or more similar goods at prices which are in different ratios to marginal cost” (stigler, 1966 as cited in danna, 2002: 380). amazon’s inverse pricing of products based upon customer loyalty, through which loyal customers received higher prices (chen, 2005), is an example of price discrimination. more recently, orbitz was found to use customers’ operating system data to generate hotel options and prices; the algorithmic assumption was that apple users might spend more per room (mattioli, 2012). and, amazon currently faces a class-action lawsuit that alleges the retailer raised the price of amazon prime members’ goods to cover members’ “free expedited shipping.” (duryee, 2014). price revision is a variation of price discrimination, in which the initial price for a good or service sold to a consumer is revised based upon the consumer’s later reported activity. insurance giant john hancock provides some members with tools to track and report their fitness levels as a means to gain “vitality points.” in turn, the insurer utilizes “vitality points” to determine potential insurance discounts (john hancock insurance, 2015); thus john hancock offers data-driven price revision. allstate insurance, a car insurance provider, offers its customers a “telematics program” that that records “... information about your driving habits …” (allstate, 2014) to offer discounts. customer segmentation is the practice of creating specific groups of customers based upon demographic profiles. like targeted advertising, it stems from the construction of demographic-based stereotypes, including, but not limited to, gender, ethnicity, social media use or weight. these constructs are segments for which products or product lines can be customized and marketed. finally, eligibility determination is the practice of utilizing data to understand whether an individual or customer segment may quality for an opportunity. these opportunities may range from the benign, such as a coupon, to the impactful, e.g. a job opening. in the construct of commercial use of data to determine consumer outcomes, as i will later describe, eligibility determination is potentially one of the more nefarious tools in play. these four constructs illustrate methods by which the populus, as non-experts, are subjects of commercial dataculture. these webs are ubiquitous, myriad, visible and invisible, and indicate the very significant nature of what one might need to know so as to navigate a digitallymediated life. as a consumer, for instance, one must be conscious of what is shared, with whom, under what ownership agreement, how, and of what might result. by sharing demographic information, one might unconsciously place oneself at disadvantage when commercial algorithms dictate that certain opportunities are not valuable or appropriate to share. or, one might take best advantage of price revision through personal tracking to access lower health insurance rates. there is little commonality across commercial constructs; a demographic that might be of benefit through one application could, potentially, become a liability elsewhere. !31 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 within the corporate context, there is one additional element to add as it relates to the external consumer: that of data sharing. data are not utilized by the originating agencies alone; they are packaged and sold, or can be stolen and sold. data brokers, or entities that purchase, package and resell data, constitute a “multi-billion dollar industry” (u. s. senate committee on commerce, science and transportation, 2013: 3) that is essentially unregulated . brokers 4 craft segments as telling as “american royalty,” “rural and barely making it” and “mid-life strugglers: families” (u. s. senate committee on commerce, science and transportation, 2013: 24). these data are sold to firms that utilize the sets consistent with spencer’s (2015) construct and, as this study will later describe, to potentially detrimental ends. commercial data can also be stolen and shared. in 2015, 781 reported u.s. data breaches compromised an estimated 164.4 million social security records and 800,000 debit or credit records (identity theft resource center, 2016). these corporate records are packaged and sold through online black markets; purchasers include “... individuals, criminal organizations, [and] commercial vendors” (ablon et al., 2014: 5). therefore, the corporate data sharing can be enacted purposefully, consistent with terms and conditions a member of the populus may have agreed to so as to access a service or good, or enacted accidentally, through a data breach and subsequent black market distribution. there are, of course, also uses for data within a corporation by a person; that is, that within a corporate context, a member of the populus might be required to read or write data as part of workplace expectations. certainly, this is commonplace. survey monkey reported over “... 14 million free users, 360,000 paying customers and 65 million monthly visitors to its website …” in 2013 (savitz, 2013) to include both survey creators and survey takers, and microsoft reports 1.2 billion office users (microsoft, 2014); this provides only a snapshot for how pervasive the non-expert utilization of data creation, management, understanding and display might be. members of the populus, however, are not only subjects to corporate data use; they are subject, also, to the use of data by governments. government priority is to govern, and to do so, elements of government capture data as diverse as income, travel, driving, or criminal activity, not to mention demographic or health information. these datasets are not going untapped. governmental requests for data from providers including twitter, facebook and tumblr are rising year-over-year , and many providers do not 5 yet provide any window into government use and/or access of their members’ data. one of the largest data brokers, acxiom, contributed to the more than 200 million records sought by u.s. government agencies. acxion, however, does not provide details analogous to those provided by twitter and others. freedom of information requests indicate the close tie between consumer data may be subject to agreements, including terms and conditions and privacy policies, agreed to 4 when accessing a good or service. whether or how such policies prevent, limit or shape information sharing, and an evaluation of whether such policies are followed by corporate actors, is beyond the scope of this study. the u. s. senate committee on commerce, science and transportation (2013) and pasquale (2015) are indicative of the probable state of affairs. twitter reports data requests at https://transparency.twitter.com/; facebook requests are available at https://5 govtrequests.facebook.com/; tumblr’s transparency report is available at https://www.tumblr.com/ transparency . !32 https://transparency.twitter.com/ https://govtrequests.facebook.com/ https://govtrequests.facebook.com/ https://www.tumblr.com/transparency https://www.tumblr.com/transparency the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 commercial aggregators and government . the bonds between commerce and government is 6 tight; as pasquale (2015: 46) writes, commerce enables “...the government, in the name of ‘information sharing,’ to supplement its constitutionally constrained data-gathering activities with the unregulated collections of private industry.” furthermore, government utilizes predictive algorithms to identify those who may commit crimes (citron et al., 2014: 4) and, within education, personalized academic predictions based upon past performance are growing in scope and scale. as perrotta (2013: 117) writes, data “... appear to offer the promise of accurate predictions, personalized recommendations and dramatic increases in the efficiency and effectiveness of [an educational] provision.” thus, a population needs to understand not only that their data are captured by governments, but that their data, including their personal and commercial data, might be utilized for purposes of governing. the webs of our data world: imperfections as stewards and as subjects, one’s datacultural experience is further complicated by biases and imperfections. as citron et al. (2014: 3) write, “... private and public entities rely on predictive algorithmic assessments to make important decisions about individuals.” databased decisions are only as perfect as their underlying elements. centrally, data systems are only able to make decisions they have been algorithmically programmed to make, based upon instructions that humans have created by developing theories about what will be, based on what was (citron et al., 2014). saurwein, just and latzer (2015: 37) identify nine risks related to the application of data to make decisions, including “manipulation, diminishing variety, limitations on freedom, surveillance and threats to data protection, discrimination, validation of intellectual property (ip), abuse of market power, effects on cognition and loss of human sovereignty” . van wel et al. (2004) hypothesize similar deleterious impacts of profiling and data mining, including de-individualization, deleterious impacts to data privacy, locus of control over data, the creation of harmful data about a person through the synthesis of multiple datasets, and questions about data fidelity and accuracy. in the following section, i will touch upon these classifications as groups and briefly illustrate why each is not merely a perceived risk, but in fact, a concern of import to the population today. research and popular media indicate these risks as well-founded and applicable to lived experience. algorithms, at their outset, are logical bits or mathematical models prone to human error in construction or, worse, direct manipulation. even well-conceived predictive models applied to directing marketing or other resources are accurate only in a small percentage of all cases (boire, 2013) and most are entirely inaccessible to independent audit (sandvig, 2014). techno-optimism is founded not on the certainty of what algorithms indicate, but instead upon incrementally more accurate models than earlier methods provided. see, for example, freedom of information request to darpa as modified by february 5, 2003 letter to 6 directorate [letter written january 23, 2004 to mr. david l. sobel]. (n.d.). retrieved march 23, 2016, from https://epic.org/privacy/profiling/tia/darpaacxiom.pdf as cited in the surveillance-industrial complex: how the american government is conscripting businesses and individuals in the construction of a surveillance society (rep.). (2004, august). retrieved march 23, 2016, from the american civil liberties union website: https://www.aclu.org/files/filespdfs/surveillance_report.pdf. !33 https://epic.org/privacy/profiling/tia/darpaacxiom.pdf the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 this understanding is critical for a population to know, if merely factually, as non-experts, and essential to the application of data in making decisions for, and about, people, as described earlier. specifically, fears about de-individualization and digital discrimination are not unfounded. “... people are not being treated as individuals capable of making a rational choice in their own interest” (danna et al., 2002). in fact, predictive analytics treat people based upon patterns of their group; this practice violates the premise of individual agency within a society (van wel et al., 2004). citron et al. (2014: 15; well-described by knutson, 2002) cite a case in which allstate insurance was found to be relying on a credit scoring algorithm that automatically placed non-whites in higher-premium categories. the plaintiff succeeded, and allstate must now provide some transparency into how it develops its calculation. nonetheless, this is an exception. furthermore, algorithmic approaches dictate far more than access to credit or the price of goods. in their work on data and civil rights, rosenblat et al. (2014) describe how police departments utilize algorithmically-assessed data to target neighborhoods for aggressive policing, explore judges’ use of data reporting to develop sentences for criminal behavior, and that tools used by police to identify offenders is prone to error. as u. s. attorney general eric holder described, ... basing a sentence on something other than the conduct of the person involved and the person’s record ... factors like the person’s education level, what neighborhood the person comes from … [judges are] using this as a predictor of how likely this person as an individual is going to be a recidivist. i’m not at all certain that i’m comfortable with that … i think the result is fundamental unfairness. (holder, august 1 2014). nonetheless, systems are built upon opaque decisions; these decisions impact people across society. yet having too much data is not the only problem, having too little can hurt access too. being “thin-filed,” or not having significant past data required by a vendor that utilizes data to make a decision, can also lead to detriments (wessels, 2015). for example, access to credit requires a credit history, which is established by obtaining and managing credit. in california in 2007, amendments to public utility legislation allowed ⅔ of ineligible “thin-file” consumers to access credit by allowing the use of their utility payment history for credit assessment (california, 2007). the downsides to consumers are not limited, however, to what’s done with data; detriments also originate from where data are stored, and how they are shared. data protection and privacy fears are well-founded. data protection refers to the security and encryption applied to stored data; privacy relates to the availability of data to other parties, including individuals, corporations or others. a brief glance at the headlines makes clear how profoundly insecure data systems are, both in terms of protection (open security foundation, n.d.) and privacy (u.s. senate committee on commerce, science and transportation, 2013). both are relevant, for the deleterious impacts of data “in the wrong hands” is evident. for example, medical data can be used to create faulty medical bills to defraud insurance or other companies (krebs, 2014), and tax information has been used extensively to defraud the u.s. internal revenue service through false returns (internal revenue service, 2014). in sum, the !34 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 security and privacy of one’s data is paramount and one must live with the expectation that, at some point, data will be compromised. thus, knowing which additional steps to take is simply a part of current life experience. as this study has illustrated, data use by individuals, commercial interests, researchers and governments is pervasive and can bring about significant deleterious impacts that require knowledge to understand, if not overcome. others (e.g. pasquale, 2015) have proposed legal or regulatory approaches to alleviate related challenges. next, we explore the existing definitions for data literacy that will make very clear the need for a revised, population-level educational approach to the same. definitions for data literacy methodology this study is based upon the analysis of publications gathered through an extensive survey of related literature. specifically, materials were accessed through academic search complete, google scholar, jstor and other indexes june through december 2015. resources were identified by using “data literacy,” “data base [sic] literacy,” “statistical literacy,” “data instruction,” “big data,” “data privacy,” “open data,” “big data literacy” and “data security” as keywords. irrelevant but related terminology, including “information literacy” and “digital literacy” were checked, but did not lead to immediately relevant resources. searches uncovered a range of subject foci (education, ethics, business, medicine) and topical foci (data practices, security, primary and secondary education, university education). news items and other supplemental materials were surfaced through searches using google’s search engine. the initial search yielded a significant breadth of articles, though those exploring “data literacy” specifically, rather than related practices (like security or privacy) were more limited in number. of them, sixteen sources were selected for their detailed analysis of data literacy, and for their status as a reference to other sources. many articles’ authors adopted a similar definition approach (see “current definitions” below) and only one article, mandinach et al. (2012) presented an exhaustive analysis and review of related discourse. to limit scope, those articles deemed most relevant to the discourse were ultimately incorporated into this discussion. limitations this methodology precluded a full, qualitative literature review for all existing definitions and their derivation. thorough, generalized reviews are limited in number. the latest review, the result of a sponsored research group, was conducted in 2012 and focused primarily on defining “... what it means to be data literate in education” (mandinach et al., 2012: 1). specifically, its intent was to define the term and related skills for school administrators and educators. this group did not report consensus for the definition of data literacy, nor did it conduct a domain-general review of the use of the term. such a review may be needed. furthermore, the contents of this article are limited by time. the origins for digital terminology, including “data literacy,” can be obscured by the slow move to digitize and !35 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 index articles and other periodicals originally published in print alone. historical indices may be expanding, but do not yet appear comprehensive . 7 finally, research is published frequently. therefore, some limitation in this review is due to the nature of when searches were conducted, and the possibility for technical advance or publication since. analysis definitions are important, even if tedious, because they are used to build and evaluate underlying theories and assumptions; they may define approach or practice; or they may lead to intended, or result in unintentional, outcomes (pellegrini, 1992). educators and others turn to definitions to form the basis of approach for teaching and learning (mandinach et al., 2012). as a term, data literacy originated in literature that discussed the application of “data bases” [sic] to inform educational decision-making (burstein, 1983) and “... how a company acquires data, and the contents and meanings of the data, as well as its translation into information … ” (hartnett jr., 1989: 21). as technologies advanced, it was applied to describe the educational need related to government use of graphical information systems (national research council, 1997). modern literature reflects the historical underpinnings for the application-centric focus, and there is strong commonality amongst definitions. the strong commonality may be due to a small number of original working definitions that have evolved in citation; for example, erwin (2015) utilized gunter (2007), who in turn utilized schield (2004). table 1 illustrates “central” definitions that serve as source material for others’ work. these central definitions share characteristics of “finding,” “manipulating,” “managing,” “interpreting” and “applying” data so as to take action. while relatively consistent in definition, target audience does differ. for example, several authors have a primary and secondary student body in mind; others write for those seeking specialized degrees. table 1: comparison of definitions for data literacy source definition audience schield, m. (2004: 8) “... accessing, converting and manipulating data…” college students 7 for example, the resource karten, naomi. "upload, download," information strategy: the executive's journal, 4: 36-32 (spring 1988) may contain an early reference to data literacy, but the resource was unavailable digitally or through interlibrary loan. !36 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 over time, it appears that breadth has increased to encompass aspects of dataculture. for example, carlson et al. (2011: 5) include a dimension of truth recognition; “... recognize when data are being used in misleading or inappropriate ways...”. perrotta (2013) and d’ignazio et vahey, p., yarnall, l., patton, c., zalles, d., swan, k. (2006: 1) “... formulate and answer questions using data as part of evidence-based thinking; use appropriate data, tools, and representations to support this thinking; interpret information from data; develop and evaluate data-based inferences and explanations; and use data to solve real problems and communicate their solutions… .” primary and secondary students carlson, j., fosmire, m., miller, c. c., nelson, m. s. (2011: 5) “... what data mean, including how to read graphs and charts appropriately, draw correct conclusions from data, and recognize when data are being used in misleading or inappropriate ways… .” college students harris, j. (2012: 1) “... competence in finding, manipulating, managing, and interpreting data, including not just numbers, but also text and images.” business mcauley, d., rahemtulla, h., goulding, j., souch, c. (2012: 53) “... ability to identify, retrieve, evaluate and use information to both ask and answer meaningful questions… .” higher education van‘t hooft, m., vahey, p., swan, k., kratcoski, a., cook, d., rafanan, k., stanford, t., yarnall, l. (2012: 20) “... the ability to formulate and answer data-based questions; use appropriate data, tools, and representations; interpret information from data; develop and evaluate data-based inferences and expectations; and use data to solve real problems and communicate their solutions.” primary and secondary students perrotta, c. (2013: 3) “… digital literacy, citizenship and varying degrees of methodological knowledge, which together arguably represent a crucial ‘21st century skill’ for a more active and informed participation not only in education, but in many other domains increasingly characterised by pervasive data collection and manipulation… .” general deahl, e. s. (2014: 41) “... the ability to understand, find, collect, interpret, visualize, and support arguments using quantitative and qualitative data.” primary and secondary students d’ignazio, c., bhargava, r. (2015: 2-3) “reading data,” “working with data,” “analyzing data,” “arguing with data” and incorporate three “big data” dimensions, including “identifying data collection,” “understanding algorithmic manipulation” and “weighing ethical impacts.” nonprofits in the social sector koltay, t. (2015: 403) “... access, interpret, critically assess, manage, handle and ethically use data… .“ researchers and specialists !37 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 al. (2015) begin to capture the experience of dataculture. specifically, their elaborations for data literacy make specific mention of the personal, commercial and governmental application of big data collection, algorithmic sophistication and related ethical quandaries. of all approaches, these three begin to capture the elements needed to suit the population need. specifically, a foundation for data literacy should be comprised of the essential human understanding made necessary by the growth of data systems that translate the messiness of existence and experience into exacting, if voluminous, data that reside within a digital system, and in turn, that various human-programmed digital systems reinterpret and reapply to inform or impact the lived human experience. these needs include the interaction of an individual with data as a steward, that is, a creator, manager and consumer, and as a subject; an individual whose experiences within society are, in part, dictated by the data and by data cultural systems with the strengths and limitations extensively described earlier in this work. therefore, i will redefine data literacy pro populo. a needed definition for data literacy data literacy is the knowledge of what data are, how they are collected, analyzed, visualized and shared, and is the understanding of how data are applied for benefit or detriment, within the cultural context of security and privacy. as one may observe, this model promotes a less expert outcome than preceding definitions strive to attain. the term “understanding” is used intentionally to reflect the broad, daily and constant “lay” (twidale et al., 2013) or “populus” application of skills, knowledge and competence. this is to say that while population individuals will most certainly be stewards of, and subjects about, data, the common call, as i have outlined earlier, is for a relatively unsophisticated level of application. thus, the proposed definition weaves a wider net around core components of expert data literacy, including the skill to find, manipulate, manage, interpret and act upon data. these six points will not be described in detail. firstly, the definition begins by highlighting the importance for knowledge of what data are. knowledge of what data are is intended to highlight the exceptionally broad data-sourcing as it relates to all of the things one might know and capture. key concepts include: • data can be captured about many aspects of life, and are not always explicitly numeric in origin, but may be converted into numeric representations for purposes of later analysis. location tracking mechanisms convert geographic position into numeric representations, to be sure; but location itself is the data. similarly, a series of images are data in the form of facial features; these facial features may later be analyzed algorithmically to determine if they represent the same person. • data are small, but interrelated in that when single-point data (such as a baby’s current temperature, when captured with a digital sock; or a patient’s temperature in a hospital, when captured with a plastic-covered thermometer; or the political climate by way of an online survey) is stored, it is stored with other information, such as name, birth date or an identification number, to ease later use. !38 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the second component of this definition emphasizes a knowledge of how data are collected. how data are collected presents the opportunity to explore more traditional data collection forms, including through surveys or, say, a mailing list. yet it also opens the opportunity to explore the pervasive data-collecting technologies that, knowingly or not, individuals come into contact with daily. these include mobile phones (“smart” or not), traffic light cameras, credit or atm card systems used to make purchases, smartwatches, fitness trackers, web technologies, including advertising tracking mechanisms, the internet provider or even government tracking systems. core elements of knowledge about how data are collected include: • individuals can act as stewards, to explicitly identify a data source to use for collection purposes. • individuals are also subjects; systems that we can and can’t perceive collect a vast quantity of data. • broadly, members of the populus may interact with data through data intermediaries, or actors that unlock value to “effective use” (gurstein, 2011; van schalkwyk et al., 2015) by a less-resourced population. • ownership over data has not been fully established in case law (pomerantz et al., 2015), but there are a variety of legal approaches that differ by culture. thirdly, this definition incorporates a need for knowledge about how data are analyzed and visualized. these components invite the individual to understand that data are acted upon statistically, to glean trends, patterns or other results of import. further, it implies that results of statistical analysis may be represented visually, so as to tell a story for the purposes of demonstrating what statistical analysis has revealed. in turn, core elements of knowledge about the analysis of data include: • one might possess some knowledge for how simple datasets can be acted upon, as through a spreadsheet, to glean basic insights about mathematical operations learned in primary and secondary school. this may include integration with basic statistical and computer literacy competency. • it is also essential to know, conceptually, that sophisticated descriptive and predictive analyses can be brought to bear on data. • that infomediaries may be available to assist in learning about, or analyzing, data, including through government initiatives, libraries or independent “hackathons, to facilitate understanding (magalhaes et al., 2013). and, for visualizing data, one might know: • the process for converting data into simple visual representations, including charts and graphs. • the means to evaluate reliability and veracity of information presented through data so as to understand if, and how, the display might be story-telling. • the conceptual understanding that data displays are not merely limited to charts and graphs, but include a wide variety of visualization mechanisms. !39 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 fourthly, the definition indicates the importance for understanding how data are shared. the implication is that some data are, indeed, stagnant; created and used by a single source. however, the necessary further understanding is that data are, indeed, bought, sold, shared and interrelated so as to derive additional value from them. key conceptual elements include: • an understanding that data have value to a variety of audiences, not only the originating data agent. • an understanding that privacy policies govern data collection, and that subjects of data do have some–though varied–authority over how data are used • an understanding that additional value can be derived from data through its relationship to other matched data. fifthly, the definition explores the benefits and detriments associated with data in society. it is clear that dataculture prides itself on the ability to find efficiencies through data use; to better, more rapidly understand a more complete picture than was possible without that data. nonetheless, the reality is nuanced: • there are a variety of challenges related to utilizing large-scale datasets to produce information (busch, l. 2014). • algorithms, including descriptive and predictive, are utilized by the individual, and for commercial, research and governmental purposes. • algorithms are opaque to independent verification, and predictive algorithms only correctly describe a small percentage of cases overall. • algorithms utilize stereotypical user models (konstan et al., 2012) or user matching models (lops et al., 2011) to identify an individual by group characteristics; thus the individual is de-individualized from her or his own volition. • algorithms act upon primary and secondary data. secondary data are those expected to correlate one behavior with another. for example, “... people who buy small felt pads that adhere to the bottom of chair legs (to protect the floor) are more likely than others to be good credit risks …” (siegel, 2013 as cited in hayashi, 2014, p. 36). • the results of algorithms are utilized to direct opportunities and information to individuals, and the individual may gain or lose based upon what the algorithm determines; the individual should be aware of, and watch for, data-originating discrimination. • our data tell a story about us that we may not agree with, or which may paint an inaccurate picture of our self. this proposed definition also implicates “the cultural context of security and privacy.” security, for our purposes, describes the nature of how the data are stored to repel unwanted access; privacy describes the control over who can see what about the data. and, as perrotta (2013) rightly implies, data literacy must, by its population-impact nature, involve components necessary to evaluating how one’s data are shared, stored and utilized. context is important. the european union and its citizens have pursued a far more stringent regulation regime for data use and privacy than their seemingly-lackadaisical counterparts, the united states government and its citizens (boehm et al., 2015). therefore, while specific !40 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 understanding may need to be adjusted to context, this definition embeds several core assumptions about privacy and security: • data stewardship requires responsible security and privacy measures, adjusted to suit the data. • data subjects are afforded opportunities to make decisions about both security and privacy in relation to their data; for example, whether to share a specific bit of information with a service, or whether to use the service at all. • subjects of data have little control over what happens with their data once relinquished to a third-party. in fact, a reasonable expectation is that data, once shared, will be reshared. finally, there is an ethical component implied by the synthesis of cultural contexts of security and privacy, with an exploration of how data can be applied to benefit or detriment. this leaves room for discussion about the combination of the five elements, and the ethical components at the center, without adding ethics as a specific sixth element. conclusions as wolff et al. (2007: 186) write, “without [an] ... action plan … societies are destined to continue to reinforce patterns of entrenched privilege and disadvantage, widening gaps between rich and poor, and the perpetuation of disadvantage.”. this, at a time when analytics predict that 90% of people will have some form of health tracking (not to mention even more powerful smartphones) by 2023 (miner et al., 2014). the knowledge foundation for how to navigate in this future world must be established through data literacy education, the 21st century equivalent of learning how to balance a checkbook in a modern home economics course. yet education will only be realized if we begin with the correct basis for a definition for data literacy, which this essay has proposed. the basis for a definition should be drawn not from domain-specific needs or literature, but from the lived experience of our dataculture; it should draw its inspiration from the dataenabled webs of all that we engage, and all that engages us. this essay has set forth the rationale for determining a definition for data literacy as the knowledge and understanding that forms the basis for how people experience dataculture as stewards and subjects. nonetheless, this is the beginning, rather than the end, of exploration. fundamentally, a thorough literature review of definitions should characterize audience, content, application and applicability. more specifically, research should be conducted to explore whether this particular definition–itself a hypothesis–bears the weight of data. just which elements of data literacy are members of the public at large—the populus—called upon to perform routinely, daily? what does the citizenry understand of these requirements, and how shallow or deep is their understanding? does it differ by nation? few studies exist, and those that do report discouraging results (see: turow et al., 2015). studies may also more formally characterize the size, scope and scale of the populus in terms of its current breadth and depth. for example, which constituents of a nation comprise those for whom data literacy is important? how do these constituencies vary by moreand lessdeveloped nations? how is data literacy prioritized in the educational context? finally, to !41 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 engage educators, a mapping could be made between the knowledge stated herein and the classroom. how do components of data literacy map into the rigid topic-focused curricular regimen of schools? given current constraints in educational markets, data literacy education may need to take place not in the classroom, but in formal out-of-school or home contexts. these and many other questions remain to be explored. nonetheless, the interaction of data and human experience will continue to evolve. these evolutions raise the need for widespread data literacy to the fore for a growing population, the populo, and this essay outlines a direction for data literacy to adopt so as to address current and potential future educational needs. references ablon, l., libicki, m. c., golay, a. a. 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 dc: world bank. doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-0671-1. !46 https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/sites/default/files/the%2520future%2520of%2520data-driven%2520innovation.pdf https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/sites/default/files/the%2520future%2520of%2520data-driven%2520innovation.pdf https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/sites/default/files/the%2520future%2520of%2520data-driven%2520innovation.pdf http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/reports?id=57c428ec-8f20-44ee-bfb8-a570e9be0ccc http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/reports?id=57c428ec-8f20-44ee-bfb8-a570e9be0ccc http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/reports?id=57c428ec-8f20-44ee-bfb8-a570e9be0ccc https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1449222.v1 decreasing health disparities through technology: building a community health website olga idriss davis, kristen bean, dominica mcbride introduction the existence of health disparities is one of the greatest problems facing equality of united states citizens. while the nation is built on the ideal that "all men are created equal", there are inequities in the healthcare treatment of individuals. unjust differences exist in both the experience and treatment of diverse populations including race, ethnic, and class differentials. one such injustice is the stark difference in health status and outcomes for certain ethnic and/or socioeconomic groups, often resulting from treatment by greater society 1 and/or the health care system 2 . health disparities are defined as the inequitable differences in the quality of health care treatment and overall health status 3. myriad variables exist in the path that leads to these health differences, including differences in availability, accessibility, and/or quality of health care 4 , disparities in health literacy and/or health education 5-6 , and lack of cultural competence in health systems 7-8 . knowledge on health and behaviors that impact health have been shown to change people's ideas and behaviors 9-10 , thus enhancing their health status. in this new age where technology is used to build communication and relationships, heal the sick, and teach worldwide, the internet is being utilized as a means of overcoming health inequalities 11 . there are a variety of websites that disseminate health information; however, oftentimes the material is written in a language (be it scholarly or foreign) that many of the intended users do not understand 12-13 or a significant proportion of the target population does not have access to the internet 14-15 . thus, those who are in most need of health education are the ones just out of reach of this knowledge. the purpose of this paper is to describe a process of health literacy and education through community engagement and outreach to address health disparities in the areas of hiv/aids, substance abuse, and mental health. building a community health information website as a health intervention is designed to alleviate the limitations of access and understandability. educating community on health disparities health disparities health disparities are most often discussed in regards to race and ethnicity and covers both physical and mental disorders ranging from diabetes to substance abuse. one of the most striking health disparities in the us is the case of hiv/aids. although african americans make up 13% of the us population, they make up 49% of hiv/aids cases 16 . in contrast, caucasians constitute approximately 74% of the us population, but only 30% of hiv/aids cases 17 . while making up 14% of the total population in the us, hispanics represent 18% of hiv/aids cases nationwide 18 . in 2005, the prevalence rate of hispanics was three times that of whites 19 . similar examples exist among native americans and asian americans/pacific islanders with other disorders including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, various types of cancers, and substance abuse and dependence 20 . researchers who study health disparities also find that many of these differences by race are accounted for by income and education as it relates to the prevalence of illnesses 21-22 . however, discrimination in the quality of treatment persists in research where factors of income and education are controlled for 23 . the agency for healthcare and research quality 24 describes several areas where african americans, hispanics, native americans, and asian americans/pacific islanders do not receive the quality of care of their white counterparts. african americans report more postoperative care complications than caucasians. appropriate and timely post-surgery antibiotics were given at a lesser rate to african americans, hispanics, and native americans when compared to anglos. deaths following complications of care were significantly higher among asians than other ethnic groups. hospitalized african americans taking insulin or oral hypoglycemics were significantly more likely to experience negative side effects from the drugs than their white peers. in regards to obtaining the proper care in a desired period of time, african americans and hispanics were less likely to be seen by a health care professional in a timely manner compared with caucasians. the relationship between healthcare professionals and each ethnic minority group falters in adequacy 24 . the patient-provider relationship is vital in patients' understanding and implementation of the health education they receive. this relationship between african americans, hispanics, asian americans/pacific islanders, and native americans and their healthcare professionals was weaker than that of their white counterparts. more often, african americans, asian american/pacific islanders and hispanics reported they were not listened to carefully, were given improper explanations, or perceived a lack of disrespect more often than whites. when compared to their white peers in income and education, disparity endured on all levels for hispanics, on middle and high income levels for asians, and on the poor and near poor income levels and all levels of education for african americans. underrepresented populations reported sometimes or never having good communication with health care professionals more often than their white counterparts. effective communication, or the lack thereof, is vital in the relationship between provider and patient and can impact the patient health status and outcomes, often exacerbating health disparities 25 . access and the internet unequal access to information, prevention and health care is a significant determinant of health differences. a disproportionate number of african americans, hispanics, and native americans live at or below the poverty line. both variables of socioeconomic status and ethnicity have been shown to correlate with access to healthcare 26 . for instance, bach, pham, schrag, tate, & hargraves 27 found that, when examining differences in physician characteristics and access to high quality healthcare, there were significant discrepancies. african americans had less access to high quality healthcare, specialty medical services, and other clinical resources than whites. zuckerman, haley, roubideaux, & lillie-blanton 28 found that the rate of uninsured native americans was three times that of whites, which has a direct impact on their access to healthcare. more native americans reported a low level of confidence in healthcare than whites. they also found that native americans were less likely to use healthcare services including prevention. the propensity for ethnic and racial minorities, especially in lower income levels, to have less access to healthcare in general is also underscored by the notion that they have less access to health information 29-30 . gaining health information has been shown to help people change health-related behaviors 31 and has sparked informed questions and dialogue between health providers and patients 32 . without health information, many go on living their lives in a way that is potentially harmful to their bodies (e.g. consuming unhealthy foods, engaging in unprotected sex). attaining and understanding this knowledge is integral in the process of making informed and healthier decisions 33-34 . a broader and equal distribution of health information will help in the elimination of today's stark health disparities. with the advent of the internet, millions who may not have had access to this information now have it at the press of a button. the internet has been a critical space used to disseminate this education to the masses 35 . health information on the internet offers health seekers myriad opportunities, including changing health-related behaviors 36 , caring for themselves, caring for their families, and strengthening the doctor-patient relationship 37 . health information received through media has served as an ancillary tool in helping the public to make better, informed health-related decisions 38-39 . the internet has the potential to play a pivotal role in decreasing health disparities 40 , if done in a way that is culturally responsive, respectful, and competent 41 . cotton and gupta 42 reinforce this sentiment: using the internet for health information seeking can help to disseminate health information to marginalized groups and to empower health care consumers more generally. determining ways to increase internet usage among less educated and lower income groups may be one way to decrease inequalities associated with health care provision and decision-making (p. 10). extant in cyber space, the myriad health websites serve to inform the public. oftentimes, however, these sites are written at a reading level that is above many who need this information, in a different language, in a disorganized way 43 , is visually overwhelming (e.g. too many active graphics 44 ), and/or they do not adequately reflect cultural competence/sensitivity 45 or present the pressing issues facing specific ethnic groups 46 . these aspects, along with low income levels and/or limited access to computers, leave many of those in need of health education outside this information loop. bilingual health websites that have targeted participants with low-literacy levels have experienced varying effectiveness. while one study reported success in utilizing a website to inform bilingual people about health 46 , another reported that spanish-speaking participants were more likely to prefer talking with a person than using a computer 47 . access to and use of the internet in searching for health information is yet another example of unjust disparities. cotton and gupta 48 contend that "...indeed, larger societal inequalities discriminate between whether or not individuals utilize online or offline venues for health information." they found that lower income african americans are especially affected by the digital divide, which is the inequality of internet access. the pew internet and american life project 49 found that 14% more whites than blacks have internet access due to income inequalities. there are indications that the digital divide between african americans, hispanics, and whites is increasing, which calls for stronger proactive amelioration to this problem 50 . gilmore 51 suggests improving internet accessibility and use by all populations by improving the readability and cultural acceptability of health websites and providing free internet services at strategically placed sites. culture-centered approach to building a community health website in ascertaining the multitude of disparities and barriers in both areas of health and the internet, we have taken steps in using a combined effort to address health disparities in health sites and internet access. the southwest interdisciplinary research center (sirc) community health website launched from phoenix, arizona, is designed to promote health literacy and increase understanding of needs in underserved populations of the southwest. the vision for a community health website is to be proactive, taking one step towards eliminating inequalities in health for ethnic minority communities. the purpose of our website is fourfold: 1. to educate the local ethnic minority communities (including hispanics, african americans, native americans, and asian americans/pacific islanders), both community members and health professionals, on health-related facts about hiv/aids, mental health, and substance usage and related health disparities. 2. to disseminate information on local and national resources for each specified area (i.e. hiv/aids, mental health, and substance usage). 3. to highlight cultural strengths to be used in overcoming health disparities. 4. to provide a way for community members to ask questions and provide comments in regards to each topic area and connected resources. in creating the sirc community health website, we considered major problems conveyed in previous research: a) readability, b) visual simplicity, c) cultural competence and representation, d) language and e) internet accessibility, using various methods to address each problem. the following is a description of the process of developing the community health website. readability the reading level of those who are suffering most from health disparities is quite often below the average reading level due to a lesser degree of education. gilmore 52 advises those constructing health websites to write content at an 8 th grade reading level. zarcadoolas, blanco, and boyer 53 conducted a study with low literacy adults and their navigation of the internet. they found that the average website is written at a 10 th grade level whereas the average reading level for their sample was between 5 th and 7 th grades. due to our target population, which consisted of marginalized and underserved groups, our target reading level was between the 3 rd and 4 th grades. the content was originally written in narrative form, including information on health disparities for each community, both locally and nationally, descriptions of local resources (e.g. hiv testing services, behavioral health counseling, substance abuse treatment) contact information, and definitions, including health disparities, cultural resilience, hiv/aids, mental health, and substance abuse. when the initial writing was completed, a reading specialist edited the content to a third-to-fourth grade level, changing long sentences to short statements, changing erudite wording or bombastic language to simple words and phrases, and bulleting key information points. visual simplicity the complexity and over-activity of graphics and visual stimuli can serve as a distracting and aversive agent 54 . those who have little contact or familiarity with the internet can be overwhelmed by an abundance of visuals and active graphics. this can also cause disorganization in websites and lead to unfamiliar users leaving the site or avoiding use of the internet altogether 55 . we have considered this in our site construction and minimized the amount of active graphics, used still pictures and symbols, including large buttons and pictures (e.g. hiv/aids, latino/as), and included both buttons and pictures that coincide and lead to the same destination for those who may be illiterate. along with these organizational strategies, we coordinated the colors of the central topic area boxes (i.e. hiv/aids, mental health, and substance usage) and the connecting site pages. the aim of these procedures was to create visual simplicity, organization, and uniformity. during testing of the website design, community members and professionals advocated for the simplistic design; however, also requested was the use of pictures to describe facts instead of text. the website was adapted slightly to a larger quantity of pictures to explain information without overcrowding each page with too many visuals. cultural competence and representation a lack of cultural competence, sensitivity, and representation can serve as a hindrance in internet engagement for ethnic minorities. relatively little attention has been paid to ethnic-specific or minority-relevant health information in the media 56 . brodie, flourney, hoff et al. conducted a study on african americans', latino/as' and whites' perceptions of health and the media. they found that african americans and latinos reported that the media failed to give proper coverage of their health-related concerns and they were not receiving the health related information they needed. to address this problem, we purposefully targeted african americans, latino/as, native americans, and asian americans/pacific islanders. each ethnic group is not only represented in pictorial form but also in information on relevant health disparities, cultural assets, and cultural history. from the very first encounter with this website, the onlookers should be made aware of this focus. on the home page, we present pictures of each group, directly state our specified focus on health disparities as it relates to each group, and display links to internal pages that are specific for each ethnic group. in these group-specific pages, we list external links to sites that delve into cultural history, strengths, resources, and media. further, we provide the definition of cultural resilience, highlighting our belief in the potential of the incorporation of cultural assets contributing to the decline of health disparities. language language is a major obstacle in disseminating health information via the internet to non-english speaking groups in the united states 57-58 . non-english speaking individuals are one of the groups most affected by the digital divide 59 . in order to address this problem, content was translated into spanish and will include both native american and asian american/pacific islander languages later in the site development. there are various strategies in translation. the ease of translation programs makes them attractive; however, there are many inaccuracies in the translations. due to this predicament, we decided to have two spanish-speaking professionals translate the completed content. one translated from english to spanish and the other performed a back translation to ensure accuracy. key stakeholders from the community who represented organizations that serve communities affected by health disparities were consulted on the language translation. small changes were made to the translations to adapt the language for simpler and greater readability of the website for users who have low literacy levels. internet accessibility the accessibility of the internet is the greatest barrier in confronting health disparities from a culture-centered approach. many of those who are negatively affected by the digital divide do not have access to the internet 60 . providing access is the first step in overcoming the digital divide. with community partnerships as a potential intervention to alleviate the barrier, we have begun to collaborate with community agencies and local health service centers. community agencies who service disadvantaged communities (i.e. ethnic and socioeconomic minorities) are hosting electronic kiosks in their lobbies. the space of the community site provides those who would not normally access the internet, and especially a health website, with an opportunity to interact with this information. personnel at each community site were trained on the design of the website and its content, and in how to guide clients in their navigation of the site. further, our community partners who have computers at their agency also host the website as their internet homepage, providing additional opportunities for access. by editing the readability level, offering translated material, and providing computer access, we have been able to comprehensively address the problem of information access. however, there are many problems that are still outside of the bounds of these solutions. the usability of the website will continue to be assessed in the community agencies. the community partners will be consulted continually for improvements on the website. further outreach, health education, marketing, and motivation are needed to truly overcome the digital divide in health disparities. discussion a culture-centered approach to health disparities research frames the theoretical perspective of this project. shared systems of belief, values, rituals, language, and various other aspects reflect the dynamics of the shifting cultural landscape and create the climate for multicultural health education and communication efforts 61, 62 . airhihenbuwa 63 posits that health is a cultural construct and health theory and practice must be rooted in cultural codes and meanings, inherently tied to values. situating culture and context at the core of public health communication practices underscores the intersections of culture, community, and health: it has become common practice in the field of public health and in the social and behavioral sciences to pay lip service to the importance of culture in the study and understanding of health behaviors, but culture has yet to be inscribed at the root of health promotion and disease prevention programs, at least in the manner that legitimates its centrality in public health praxis64. (airhihenbuwa) building a community health website includes consciousness of health literacy, health communication and language effectiveness. it is not simply message repetition, but includes recognition and respect for culture and cultural difference, community engagement and empowerment of communities, and the development of an environment for community involvement to espouse common values of humankind. the use of community health websites is a potential way to decrease health disparities. the use of social networking and other web 2.0 technologies among minority populations has created additional technological opportunities to engage minority groups in health-related issues 65 . with effective communication and health education in underserved communities, worldwide health knowledge and access to health care can become a reality in the 21st century, embodying health as a central tenet of human life. references 1 mays, v. m., cochran, s. d., and barnes w. n. 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(2011). exploring the potential of web 2.0 to address health disparities. journal of health communication, 16, 77-89. doi 10.1080/10810730.2011.596916 increasing public participation in local government by means of mobile phones: the view of south african youth jean-paul van belle1 & kevin cupido2 centre for it and national development in africa, department of information systems, university of cape town, south africa professor, department of information systems, university of cape town, south africa. email: jean-paul.vanbelle@uct.ac.za honours student, department of information systems, university of cape town, south africa. email: kevin.cupido@gmail.com 1. introduction there is a general apathy towards political participation worldwide, even in developed countries such as switzerland and the united kingdom (uk), which show a decline in voter turnout over the last few decades (brücher & baumberger, 2003). governments around the world have introduced initiatives to include citizens in the decision-making process. although most citizens, only interact with government during elections, there are many ways in which citizens can participate on an on-going basis (pahad, 2005). public participation is necessary to ensure that citizens are able to influence the decision-makers in government, especially in situations where the decisions taken affect their lives directly (creighton, 2005). it is at the local level where citizens experience the direct effect of political decisions. decentralising and encouraging more citizen participation requires adequate mechanisms for engagement. the constitution of south africa has been hailed by many as the most progressive in the world, and makes specific provision for public participation. section 152 of the constitution speaks of democracy, accountability, and the encouragement of involvement in matters of local government. section 16(1) of the local government municipal systems act 32 of 2000, echoes this need for, and encouragement of participation in local matters, and adds that local government should do whatever it can to facilitate this process (constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996, 2009). mobile phones are usually used as communication tools, but they have also been used by ordinary people to mobilise others, who were previously passive, into political action. this indicates that there are drivers or motivators that bring about political participation, other than just the use of technology. what has eluded governments is how to fully utilise the capabilities of mobile phones to reach almost every citizen, and in so doing possibly reverse the increasing political apathy amongst their citizens (hermanns, 2008). while the potential of mobile to transform government interaction with citizens is widely acknowledged, the use of existing mobile government services is not widespread (bagui, sigwejo, & bytheway, 2011; chigona, beukes, vally, & tanner, 2009). the objective of this research, therefore, is to investigate what youth think about interacting with government via their mobile phone. more specifically, this research aims to answer the following questions: what are the key factors influencing the intention to use mobile phones as a medium for public participation? what types and levels of participation are most desired by those surveyed: informational (g2c), polls/voting, feedback/commentary (c2g) or citizen contact (c2c)? what areas of concern do youth have in respect of using mobiles in the participation process, as for example security or cost? the focus of this research is on local government participation, since the local arena is seen as of more immediate concern to respondents, although a few questions related to engagement with national government. this research thus hopes to add to the understanding of youth perceptions towards political participation using mobile phones, and reveals some of the inhibitors to participation while exploring interest in specific mobile government services. 2. literature review 2.1 democracy and participation participatory democracy models are based on the belief "that the very act of involvement is beneficial in that it permits all citizens, and not merely elites, to acquire a democratic political culture" (deegan, 2002, p. 45). participation is an important part of any modern democracy, even though many citizens perceive that their only influence over government lies in their ability to occasionally cast their vote (creighton, 2005). not allowing for participation limits a government's sources of options and ideas, and also exposes the process to corruption, which (it is argued) would be addressed through public scrutiny if citizens were more involved (creighton, 2005). the reasons for low participation vary from the simplistic--people would rather spend their time doing something else, to issues of practicality, and principle (brücher & baumberger, 2003). in some cases politics can be difficult to understand and therefore can be a barrier to participation. many people do not know how to communicate their wishes correctly, or how to use the available mechanisms for participation appropriately. public participation should not just be viewed as events, such as elections, protests or demonstrations, but rather as an on-going, and evolving process that requires as much a change in public perception and mind set, as a government commitment to explore new systems of participation. according to (mattes, 2002), south africans are passive when it comes to community involvement. in a study including over 2,200 respondents, only 4 indicated that they had made any attempts to, "attend any hearing or meeting organised by parliament or by an mp" (mattes, 2002, p. 33). there is therefore a need for other approaches to not only monitor participatory processes, such as the status of requests made to local councillors, but also new ways in which to disseminate information (nyalunga, 2006). the ability to track what ccouncillors are doing between elections, is important for both citizens and government, and could not only improve accountability, which is stipulated in section 152 of the constitution, but also provide citizens with valuable information which could help them evaluate their local ccouncillor in the run-up to local elections. 2.2 e-government and m-government governments around the world have embraced the internet and the world-wide-web to deliver e-government services to citizens (yildiz, 2007). e-government, in its broad sense, is the use of information technology to enable or enhance government processes, of which the use of the internet is only one part (grant, hackney, & edgar, 2010). in south africa, as in many developing countries, traditional e-government can be said to widen the gap between "haves" and "have-nots", since the poor and disenfranchised typically have no access to fixed internet. however, m-government entails the distribution of government services utilising mobile technologies (carroll, 2005). the potential of m-government, enabled by ubiquitous mobile phones, is to provide services, especially to previously disadvantaged groups, as well as to provide a new mechanism for public participation in politics (poblet, 2011). however, this requires the creation of applications that leverage the appropriate mobile technology to create useful government services (patel & white, 2005; poblet, 2011). the innovation here is taking advantage of "the most basic capacities of already existing technologies to reach broader population segments which otherwise would not have had access to more costly and sophisticated mobile technologies" (poblet, 2011, p. 503). the widespread availability of mobile phones (trimi & sheng, 2008) has seen them being used in applications ranging from reality television voting, to crime fighting, banking, commerce applications, enabling easy donations to charity, the supply of various kinds of information, among other areas (patel & white, 2005). traditionally, citizens who want to engage in dialogue with government such as for gaining information, discussions, public hearings, o voting, are required to be physically present (brücher & baumberger, 2003). this in itself poses practical problems for many, such as inconvenient times or locality. this is highlighted by patel and white (2005) who in their review of government call centres cite as reasons for their failure, such call cost, limitations on 'open' hours, and insufficient resources. they also cite the problems of queues, which could translate into loss of income for citizens, compared with direct government enquiries or information centres, as points of contact. this highlights the need for governments to explore different ways to interface with citizens, not only in the provision of information, but also to engage in dialogue. many services are procedural or bureaucratic in nature, such as notifications of status changes in identity document requests, or the confirmation of actions. vincent and harris (2008) cite examples in lewisham, and hillingdon, in the united kingdom (uk) where mobile text services relay information such as employment opportunities, events, and "food safety warnings". citizens are allowed to upload photographs of problems such as potholes, request garbage removal, or to report broken lights. mobile phone users already engage in a wide range of participatory activities such as reporting traffic congestion, entering competitions, taking and distributing photographs, or spreading news of different events (vincent & harris, 2008). mobile phones have contributed to greater awareness and interest in politics, and have proven to be an effective tool in facilitating information sharing between "a large number of similarly minded people within a short period of time and at short notice (hermanns, 2008, p. 79). mobile phones have definitely created new ways in which citizens can participate, and can deliver applications that address the need for "innovative ways of popular participation" (nyalunga, 2006, p. 5). the current position of mobile phones as a platform to encourage participation is without question, but there are concerns around personal privacy and security if this platform were to be used to report on corruption, or criticise government (poblet, 2011). however, south africa has some experience in this regard with its award-winning 32211 sms tip-off crimeline (sainfo , 2010). in this case anonymity is guaranteed, not by government or the police, but by private enterprises. the initiative was spearheaded and is supported by private enterprise, and possibly this 'buffer' to government gives citizens the necessary 'comfort' to freely express their opinion. the promise that personal information will not be passed on to the authorities has been enough for citizens, and since its launch in 2007, the crimeline has resulted in over 1000 arrests, as well as the seizure of over r36 millon in stolen property (sainfo , 2010). e-participation and m-participation can thus be conceptualized as extensions of e-government and m-government respectively. however, it is important to define these concepts more accurately in order to operationalize them for empirical research purposes. 2.3 e-participation and m-participation an extensive literature of more than one hundred relevant academic articles (rose & sanford, 2007) revealed that no consensus had been reached on a precise definition of e-participation (also referred to as eparticipation) but found it described operationally as "technology-facilitated citizen participation in (democratic) deliberation and decision-making". a slightly more detailed definition explicitly includes the aspects of citizen to government (c2g), government to citizen (g2c) and citizen to citizen (c2c): "eparticipation refers to efforts to broaden and deepen political participation by enabling citizens to connect with one another, with civil servants, and with elected representatives using icts" (o'donnell et al, 2007). a more process-oriented definition of e-participation is "ict-supported participation in processes involved in government and governance. processes may concern administration, service delivery, decision-making and policy making." (macintosh & whyte, 2006, 2008). this is a refinement of their earlier definition which focussed on only the participation in the early decision-making and e-voting processes (macintosh, 2004). however, it is important not to take a purely technicist approach to e-participation i.e. focus solely on the technology or process aspects. the underlying motivations and wider socio-political dimensions are very important in understanding the diffusion and adoption of e-participation, motivating academic studies requiring ethnographic and other interpretive research approaches focussing on one or a very few actual projects (ekelin, 2007). in all of the above definitions, m-participation can be equivalently defined by the use of mobile information and communication technologies. although these would typically include mobile notebook computers, personal digital assistants and tablet computers in the context of m-government, especially in a g2g context, where citizens are involved, m-participation will often focus on the use of mobile phones. the european union has strongly supported a number of e-participation initiatives and, by 2008, already more than 35 such eu-sponsored initiatives were underway, both at the national and local levels (tambouris, kalampokis and tarabanis, 2008). however, assessing the success and impact of e-participation initiatives is not straightforward (tambouris, liotas & tarabanis, 2007). a later and more comprehensive survey on e-participation initiatives identified 255 e-participation initiatives across the european union (panopoulou, tambouris & tarabanis, 2009). interestingly, the type of participation appeared to be mainly about information provision (in 111 out of 255 projects); deliberation (77), consultation (72) and discourse (40). only a small number was concerned with campaigning and petitioning (28), community building (28), polling (26), voting (10) or mediation (panopoulou et al, 2009). given the above definitions, m-participation has been operationalised in this research to include the following specific and concrete c2g/g2c interactions: communicating with community members and local councillors; influencing politicians; polling and voting on community issues, local and national elections; reporting community problems; getting information from government; complaining about service delivery; reporting corruption; interacting with (national) departments such as labour, housing and home affairs). although quite a bit of research has been done on m-government in africa, not many studies have been conducted in africa (or south africa) on m-participation. a notable exception is a recent comparative assessment of m-participation in tanzania and south africa (bagui, sigwejo & bytheway, 2011). this exploratory study interviewed key actors involved with a case study in cape town and compared the context with the situation in tanzania. 2.4 participating at local versus national level m-participation can happen at the local, provincial (or regional) and national government levels. it is sometimes assumed that it is easier to raise awareness and rally support around local issues than for national issues (ekelin, 2007). however, many of the early m-participation projects were aimed at participation at the regional or national level. for instance, in the survey of 255 european m-participation projects,less than one third, namely 80 (31%) were at the local level; 43 (17%) of the projects were at the regional level; 72 (28%) at the national level; and the remainder at the supra-national level (panopoulou, tambouris & tarabanis, 2009). also interesting is that the type or nature of projects did not differ significantly between local, regional or national initiatives. however, it must be borne in mind that many of these initiatives were in countries that are substantially smaller than south africa. the south african historical context and current situation seems to favour a route whereby participation in local government decision-making may be a first step along the route to full m-participation. prior to 1996, local government had little autonomy, and decisions were subject to judicial review by provincial and national governments. a new view of an autonomous local government was further enshrined in the constitution and local government could govern as they saw fit, with national and provincial government playing more of an 'overseeing' role. at the local level, the challenges for previously disadvantaged areas remain deeply rooted in the racially divided past with the lack of adequate infrastructure limiting the delivery of services and supply of resources. local government was not only enabled with both fiscal and legislative powers in order to improve service delivery at the local level, but as they were also at the 'coal face', they were seen as best suited to deliver these services in consultation with, and through active participation by citizens (salga, 2013) local government participation mechanisms such as ward committees have unfortunately been plagued with problems due to scarce resources, power struggles between ward councillors and ward committee members, as well as a lack of clearly defined roles. effective channels for citizen participation at a local government level are not prevalent, in part due to a lack of trust between the different stakeholders, and/or the lack of representation of various stakeholders within community structures. this lack of representation can be seen in the exclusion of civil society organisations who could play a crucial role as 'observers' and 'monitors' at the local level. party politicization of community participation and ward committees also present barriers to those who are non-partisan, and the outcome of ineffective participation processes is also witnessed in outbreaks of countrywide protests (nyalunga, 2006). the observation that public participation at the local level has largely proven to be unsuccessful is supported by others such as williams (2006, p. 197) who states that citizens have unfortunately merely become "endorsees of predefined planning programmes". in this research, therefore, the focus was mainly on intentions to participate in local government, although a few questions also related to participation at the national government level (as noted in the abbreviated survey instrument in the appendix). 2.5 theoretical framework in order to determine the key factors that influence m-participation intentions, a theoretical framework is required. although admittedly m-participation cannot be seen as a purely technological issue, this research does take an information systems approach and thus looked at technology adoption models. technology adoption models are typically used to determine the levels of intention to use and acceptance of new technology (venkatesh, morris, davis, & davis, 2003), including m-commerce, m-government and unified communications. venkatesh et al. (2003) consolidated different acceptance models into the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut). this model incorporates elements of the theory of reasoned action, the theory of planned behaviour, the technology acceptance model, the motivational model, the model of pc utilisation, the innovation of diffusion theory, and the social cognitive theory, which all previously had been used to determine it acceptance. the utaut model is chosen for this study because it has been shown to be more accurate as a predictor of acceptance and adoption than any of the other adoption models used in isolation (venkatesh et al., 2003). in our original research, an effort was made to include variables from a 'non-technicist' model, namely social capital theory, but none of the theory's variables were found to exert a significant effect. thus this model has been not been incorporated into this paper. since this research investigates the perceptions of, and behavioural intention (bi) to use mobile phones to interact with government, some parts of the utaut model were not considered. figure 1 shows the modified model which was used in this research. both "use behaviour" and "experience" are excluded as there is no widespread availability of government mobile services, and therefore use of or experience with mobile phone government services in south africa. in the context of this research, the use of mobile phones to interact with government would be voluntary, so the voluntariness of use as a moderator is also excluded. facilitating conditions was also removed as it affects ub which was removed, but not bi. the social influence (si) construct has been shown to have a notable effect on bi. however, the moderating constructs of si, are only significant in environments where use is not voluntary (venkatesh et al., 2003). figure 1: modified utaut model 3. research methodology this section details the research methodology used for achieving the research objectives. 3.1 research objectives and hypotheses the objective of this research is to investigate what youth think about interacting with government via their mobile phone. more specifically: to determine the factors influencing the intention to use mobile phones as a medium to engage in public participation. to establish what level of participation would be desired : informational (g2c), polls/voting, feedback/commentary (c2g) and/or citizen contact (c2c) to identify areas of concern in the use of mobiles in the participation process, such as security and cost. the following hypotheses, related to the first research objective, are directly adapted from the utaut model: h1: performance expectancy (pe) will have a positive influence on the behavioural intention to use mobile phones as a medium for political participation. this influence is moderated by gender and age (stronger influence for men and younger users). h2: effort expectancy (ee) will have a positive influence on behavioural intention to use mobile phones as a medium for political participation. this influence is stronger for women than men. h3: social influence (si) will have a positive influence on behavioural intention to use mobile phones as a medium for political participation. this influence is moderated by gender and age. these hypotheses will be tested quantiatively in section 4 using inferential statistical methods. the second and third research objectives are explored both quantatively and qualitatively in section 5 using a combination of descriptive statistics and relevant quotes from interviews. 3.2 research philosophy, sampling approach and instrument the underlying philosophy for this research is positivist as it attempts to determine what drives the use of mobile phones in political participation partly by validating the hypotheses of the utaut model. the research strategy employed a survey to capture data for quantitative analysis, and semi-structured interviews to collect qualitative data. the analysis of the qualitative data offers improved clarity on some of the relationships found during the quantitative data analysis. the research is also cross-sectional as data was collected over a period of four weeks beginning in the first week of july 2011. the target population consisted of individuals between the ages of 18 and 35, who did not have access to fixed-line internet either from home or work. those who had infrequent access to fixed-line internet via facilities such as public libraries were allowed to participate in the survey. a convenience sampling approach was adopted, because of the ease of access to potential participants. the survey instrument included demographic questions, test items from the utaut model to measure intention to use technology, individual perceptions of politics, as well as some elements of social capital theory. most questions adopted a 5-point likert answer scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. to be as inclusive as possible, the english instrument was translated into afrikaans and xhosa and xhosa-speaking facilitators were used in the interviews. the complete questionnaires are available from the authors on request but salient questions are included in the appendix. the data was collected in factories, churches, taxi ranks, a fast food outlet, and office buildings. survey respondents were not asked where they lived, and data was collected from a variety of areas, including the cape town city centre, khayelitsha, westlake, claremont, hanover park, belhar, charlesville and retreat. a total of 131 usable questionnaires were available for data analysis. respondents had mobile phones, all but two being java enabled, and all but one internet-enabled, confirming the trend towards smart phones. although home language was captured and is referred to, it is in no way implied that it is a proxy for race. figure 2 shows the demographics of the respondents by age and language. figure 2: respondent demographics by gender, age and language. four people (two of each gender) were also interviewed in order to gather additional qualitative insights. the semi-structured interview protocol contained open-ended questions to encourage subjective opinions, and prompting by the researcher also allowed for a more conversational process (see appendix). when mentioned in the analysis, participant citing for the interview respondents is as per table 1. table 1: interview participant profile and reference as shown below, most of the comments made during the interviews confirmed the findings from the survey and supported the majority views. thus the quotes given below are generally added to give 'colour' to the survey data. 4. factors influencing the use of mobile phones for political participation the modified utuat model was used to determine the behavioural intention to use a mobile phone to interact with government. performance expectancy (ee) was broken down into two constructs: (general) convenience and convenience specifically for m-government of mobile technologies. effort expectancy consisted of 4 constructs: clear & easy to use, costs, device form factors and user proficiency. like pe, social influence (si) was broken down into a more generic construct relating to "some people i know" and one referring specifically to people important to the respondent. all cronbach alpha reliability coefficients for the multiple test items were in the range 0.66-0.83. the reliability coefficients for the model constructs as well as other variables used elsewhere in the research are shown in table 2. table 2: constructs used and their reliability multiple regression analysis was used to determine the degree of influence the new variables have over bi. some of the pe and ee variables are significantly related to bi, as explained in the analysis below. the variables used in the multiple regression account for 46.5% (r2 = 0.465) of the variance in the intention to use mobile phones to interact with government. h1: performance expectancy will have a positive influence on the behavioural intention to use mobile phones as a medium for political participation. the multiple regression analysis shows a highly significant and positive (p = 0.007, beta = 0.260) relationship between the variables pegovernmentmobileconvenience and behavioural intention. there is therefore strong evidence against the null hypothesis and it is therefore rejected. however, neither age category nor gender, were found to have a moderating influence. h2: effort expectancy will have a positive influence on behavioural intention to use mobile phones as a medium for political participation. the multiple regression analysis supports an extremely significant and positive (p < .000, beta = 0.375) relationship between the variable eeproficient and behavioural intention. this is strong evidence against the null hypothesis, and the result supports the hypothesis that effort expectancy is a predictor for behavioural intention. over 67% of respondents indicated that they expected that they would become very good at using their mobile phone to interact with government. tests reveal no statistical significance in the relationship between effort expectancy and behavioural intention when gender is used as a moderator. h3: social influence will have a positive influence on behavioural intention to use mobile phones as a medium for political participation. the multiple regression analysis finds no statistically significant relationship between any of the si variables and behavioural intention. because of this, it was not necessary to test the moderating impacts of gender or age. the drivers of behavioural intention in the modified utaut model include pe and ee factors, both exhibiting positive and significant relationships with bi. that social influence has no effect on behavioural intention was expected, as social influence has only been shown to have an effect within non-voluntary environments. from this it can be concluded that the respondents perceive government mobile services to be useful and would add value to their lives. they also have the perception that not only would these services be easy to use but that they would also easily become proficient in using them. it can be concluded that the expectation is that the user interface of government mobile application or services would be very user friendly. failure to meet this expectation would affect the behavioural intention and ultimately the use of the services or applications. 5. types and levels of m-participation 5.1 general interest in politics and participation although there was some interest in politics, it appears that citizens did not believe they could change what government does. only 35.7% (strongly agree = 23.0%, agree = 12.7%) indicated that besides voting, they could influence what government does. another 31% were not sure, while 33% (disagree = 20.6%, strongly disagree= 12.7%) did not believe they could make a difference (figure 3). figure 3: general interest in politics and participation some citizens felt that they could have marginally more influence at the local level. when asked whether they felt they could influence what politicians do in their community, 25.6% were not sure. however, with 44.2% who were in agreement (strongly agree = 21.7%, agree = 22.5 %), 25.6% not sure, and 33.3% who responded negatively, it appears that there was no consensus on having an influence over community politics. this feeling of 'disempowerment' was reflected by the interviewees: "i'm a youth i don't have time for this. what can i do... nothing" (f1). "i don't watch a lot of news. i don't know a lot about uhm, politics" (m2). "i take a slight interest in…what gets done in the country, in the level of crime, uhm visible police how often you see them and how many of them you do. but i don't take an interest in the sense where i will complain about certain things they don't do, or the things i don't see. i'm very, a complacent person, i'm very happy with the way i am and how things are. i'll just live with it instead of complaining" (m2). moreover, interest does not always translate into action. the literature mentions that there may be many different reasons why people do not interact with government, some practical, others personal. that people do not feel that they can make a difference is one of them. those who were not sure whether government looks out for them amounted to 38.5%., with 31.6% who did think that government looks out for them. one interviewee cited politician self-interest as taking priority over serving the people: "they talk too much about themselves and not about the real issues. when they showed a debate on special assignment or third degree it shows what really goes on." (f1) despite this, interest in voting on community issues was positive (strongly agree = 34.4%, agree = 31.3%, mean = 2.2). in the context of sct the results indicated low linking capital, or connection between citizens and government. this disconnect is further supported by looking at citizen trust in government. in summary, there appears to be a measure of interest in politics with a greater tendency towards community politics. however the citizen perception of a 'divide' between themselves and government would have to be bridged to build a trusting relationship. as mentioned in the literature, mobile phones can help build social capital by enabling citizens to 'link' to government more easily, as well as providing mechanisms to monitor service delivery. 5.2 mobile phones as a convenient means of interaction convenience could be a major factor affecting the adoption of mobile internet (chigona etal., 2009). some test items indicated the degree to which mobile phones were seen as a convenient means of interaction, both in general and more specifically for government interaction (figure 4). figure 4: general convenience of the mobile phone. a positive (strongly agree = 70.2%, agree = 21.4%) response was received to the perception that mobiles were convenient because they could be used anywhere. there was also agreement (strongly agree = 62.6%, agree = 28.2%) that the anytime nature of mobiles contributed to this convenience. 74% of respondents agreed (43.5% strongly) that using mobile phones to interact with government would save time, and 71% agreed (46% strongly) that using a mobile phone to get information would be quicker than visiting government offices (figure 5). all interviewees agreed that it would be more convenient, saving both time and money: "it would be convenient for me, and save me time and trouble" (f1); "less time consuming, saving you a lot of effort, maybe to drive to home affairs" (m2). 60% also indicated that they believed it would be useful to communicate with government using a mobile phone. figure 5: convenience of mobile phones for participation with the government. however, interestingly, there was slightly higher support when asked about the intention to use the mobile phone to interact with the government. the response was favourable with 65.6% (strongly agree = 36.6%, agree = 29%) indicating that they would be one of the first to try mobile services to interact with government (figure 6). figure 6: intention to use government mobile phone services some explanation for this positive intention to use government mobile services could be as a reaction to issues experienced when dealing with government departments by the means that are currently available: "it's a hassle..in all of them" (f2); "lines are long and it takes a bit of time" (m2); "if you have a problem, a need to go to home affairs, you need to find out something, you have to take off work" (m1); "at sars [south african revenue services] there are these moerse [i.e. very] long lines. this one person had the same id as my mom and she had to pay extra tax. it took 3 days. there were very long lines" (f1). time and cost were recurring areas of concern for the demographic who were included in this research. for many, a day off work to visit government offices means no pay, as well as travel and other costs. the interest in, and the appeal of mobile services, is that they could potentially save them time and money. so the eagerness expressed to use the services when they become available is understandable. in summary, it is evident that mobile phones have become a part of many people's everyday lives and its convenience is reflected in the highly positive responses to questions around its use anywhere and anytime. overall there was also a very positive perception that mobile government services would not only save time and be quicker, but would also be useful, which bodes well for the introduction of government mobile services. 5.3 levels of participation 5.3.1 receiving information via a mobile phone as mentioned towards the end of the last section, the methods of interacting with government services has both time and financial implications for citizens. in the literature, patel and white (2005), cite problems in government call centres, and enquiry or information centres and services. the time and money saved through the use of mobile internet was also reported by chigona et al. (2009). figure 7 details the respondents' level of interest in the different types of mobile services and participation types. figure 7: preferences for receiving government information via mobile phone participants responded positively (strongly agree = 39.8%, agree = 35.9%) to the general statement about using their mobile phone to get information from government departments. for most south africans, there is a great dependence on public transport, and this is linked to their livelihood. there was an overwhelming 80%, both receiving public transport information, and finding government offices and clinics, who showed interest in using mobile phones as a medium of interaction. in other cases, information could be 'pushed' to citizens, such as in the example cited in the literature on the broadcast of 'food safety warnings' in the uk. there are also notification services where citizens are informed of the status of their requests, which are triggered by an event such as an application for a new identity document. citizens could request information on an ad-hoc basis depending on their needs, such as the location of the closest labour department office. the responses about the need to have interaction with the labour department were very positive at 76.8% (strongly agree = 45%, agree = 31.8%) and the need for these services was supported by the suggestion of such a service by one of the interview participants: "if there's a department of labour in wynberg and stuff like that. if i need to know where to find which offices…nearest to my community" (f2) there were also positive responses to the other questions on receiving messages in other situations, for example if a person was on the housing list, for medical information, as well as concerning job vacancies. 5.2.2 voting when asked about voting, respondents indicated that they would be interested. quick polls on community issues featured strongly with 58.9% (strongly agree = 31.8%, agree = 27.1%, mean = 2.24), and were very closely followed by voting in national and municipal elections (figure 8). figure 8: m-voting preferences although platforms for voting exist, hermanns (2008) warns against equating voting in a political election, to voting on a reality television show. this warning finds traction in the following statement: "you can vote for your idol on mxit [a hugely popular south african mobile instant messaging platform]….there's so many other things on mxit, so why not vote things in your community on mxit" (m2). literature also suggests that making electronic voting available may in fact, not increase voter turnout, and vincent and harris (2008) stated that it is more likely to be used by existing voters. 5.2.3 reporting service delivery, corruption and community problems writing letters, sending smss or attending public meetings are some of the ways in which citizens can express their views. the few that do have access to the internet, could post comments onto websites, or write blogs. figure 9 details some of the ways respondents would like to use their mobile phones to respond to service delivery issues or report corruption. figure 9: reporting on service delivery and corruption service delivery issues could be approached from a more positive and proactive perspective, where posts would serve to inform rather than to apportion blame: "[it] would be a good idea to use a cell phone, so that they can be informed and also know on their services where they can maybe, they can pick up...improve on their services" (m1) respondents, when asked if they would like to report community problems such as the lack of trash removal, using their mobile phone, responded positively (78%) which was an indication that a service with features such as those in seeclickfix would be a good starting point. reporting also raises the issue of anonymity. interviewees gave mixed responses when asked whether they would rather be anonymous when reporting: "i don't mind really...to give my name. ja, its, i don't mind giving my name" (m1) as opposed to "rather remain anonymous, …but at some times ..i don't think it would be a big thing…for them to know who it is" (m2). probing a bit deeper, m2 was asked whether he would feel differently if what he was reporting was a bit closer to home, such as reporting his local councillor for a lack of service delivery, or corruption: "it could be a bit...intimidating just knowing that...they know it's me, should i, or shouldn't i. it will leave a big question, but if it's a big enough thing and like you have an actual reason for doing then i guess it all depends on the type of person you are and how confident you are" (m2) with nearly 80% in agreement, a service that would allow for reporting corruption, service delivery and community problems would be well received. it is only natural for people to protect themselves and those close to them and especially if they perceive that a very real personal danger exists if they speak out: "people are scared to talk, people are scared to be seen talking to police and telling them what happened, and stuff like that. so it would be like great, if you can just say whatever you want to say, report something anonymously" (f2) the option to be anonymous is therefore crucial, especially when reporting on service delivery and corruption, as the fear of being identified would reduce the incidence of reporting. the results showed strong agreement to all three questions, indicating a desire to inform and report. 5.2.4 community interaction there are many different reasons why people don't interact, but mobile phone technology could be used to allow for more interaction (figure 10). figure 10: community interaction the response to the statement, "i want messages sent to my mobile phone about community meetings", is positive. one of the interview participants related a situation where information or event notifications sent via a mobile phone would be helpful when making public announcements about upcoming public meetings. "it would be like very helpful, because sometimes you…don't know what is going on. you have no idea what people are saying, or if there's a meeting and stuff. or you missed the time when the guys are shouting like there's a meeting at 7 o'clock." (f2). however, a similar study by bagui et al. (2011) indicated that ward councillors shared a different perspective on community meetings, as it appears that notification of meetings only go out to ward councillors and forum members.besides receiving information directly from government, or related to government services, there was also interest in other information generated by citizens. interaction and sharing of information in the community would not only benefit those in the community, but 'crowdsourcing' could enable local government to gain insight, and make better decisions based on input from constituents. the increased communication between community members would also strengthen social capital, which would help to increase political participation. 5.2.5 communication with the local councillor local councillors play an important role as political representatives elected by communities. the expectation is that that they will deliver to their constituency what was promised before the election. it is therefore important that constituents can easily communicate with their local councillor to ensure that they are fulfilling their mandate. figure 11: communication with the local councillor respondents show a definite interest in communicating with a local councillor as well as dialogue between the councillor and other constituents (figure 11). feedback offered to councillors can be used to better serve their constituency as well as to gain insights into some issues or concerns that may not yet have surfaced. the ability to report empowers citizens and allows them to influence government where it matters most for them, on the local level. however this may meet with resistance from some politicians, who may not agree with the level of transparency that this would bring. constituents would not only be able to monitor their local councillor but also review their past performance. this would help them decide whether to vote for the same councillor in the next election. from a provincial or national government point of view, it could also be a monitoring tool allowing them to intervene where necessary. 5.3 areas of concern respondents were also probed around a number of possible barriers or areas of concerns namely the issue of trust, security, and privacy, as well as cost. the majority of respondents indicated that they did not trust the government (32% did not trust the government and a further 30% were unsure). furthermore, only 41% of survey respondents expected the government to protect their privacy during their mobile interactions. this spread of views is supported by the different comments of the interview participants: "i don't trust them" (f1) versus "i do trust the government" (m1). the study by bagui et al (2011) confirms this lack of trust and further reports a "bad image of politics". respondents were still concerned with security, as only 41.4% perceived no risk. security and respect for privacy in electronic systems is crucial to user acceptance (brücher & baumberger, 2003; buellingen & wortner, 2004; carroll, 2005; haque, 2004; grant et al., 2010; poblet, 2011). not only must the system prevent data manipulation during transmission, but also, the identity of the sender should be unmistakably verified (brücher & baumberger, 2003). with the anticipated uptake of smartphones, security is more important as there is an increase in attacks on these devices (becher, freiling, hoffmann, holz, uellenbeck, & wolf, 2011). in addition, "computer viruses are now airborne" (hypponen, 2006, p. 70), and some of the challenges faced include vulnerability to hacking, as well as the interception of signals broadcast via wireless networks. added to this is the high risk of theft or loss of mobile phones which could potentially carry personal information (trimi & sheng, 2008). the use of mobile internet potentially also exposes users to web browser vulnerabilities and exploits (becher et al., 2011). despite warnings of a security risk, many users blindly accept unknown files and follow links sent to them (hypponen, 2006). the digital divide is the gap between those with access to icts and those who do not (chigona et al., 2009). lack of access to icts have been equated with limiting opportunities for citizens, and the south african government has responded by putting the necessary regulatory framework in place to address this. agencies and bodies such as the government information technology council (gitoc), and the state information technology agency (sita) were created to ensure that e-government services were made available to all citizens (sita, 2011). even so, delivery has been ineffective, due among other reasons, to tension over management structures and internal power struggles (cloete, 2012). the long held monopoly by telkom (national telecom operator) also did not help with the supply and delivery of the required infrastructure for the provision of internet services. and, despite the introduction of a second network operator, fixed-line internet costs are still too high for many (mutula & mostert, 2010), especially for those living in rural areas. nearly forty five percent of the south african population lives in rural areas (mutula & mostert, 2010), and in some cases the closest access to government facilities could be as much as a two day walk (twinomurinzi & phahlamohlaka, 2005 ; as in twinomurinzi, phahlamohlaka, & byrne, 2012). low penetration of personal computers, necessary for access to the internet, led to the provision of access via public access terminals at 'multi-purpose community centres', libraries and the post office (mutula & mostert, 2010), but these have proven to be unsustainable (singh, 2010). sita recognised the importance of mobile government because of the ubiquity of mobile phones along with the greater coverage of wireless networks in rural areas. although mobile phone and wireless networks may appear to have addressed the digital divide, it does pose some obstacles of its own. as a developing nation, cost (or affordability) remains an important concern for all mobile interactions, especially in south africa with historically high costs of mobile telecommunications (chigona et al., 2009; bagui et al., 2011). and, despite the introduction of lower mobile internet tariffs, it still remains too high for the majority of south africans. widespread implementation of mobile government services is lacking, with most being rudimentary and informational, such as sms notification services from the department of home affairs (cloete, 2012). while there are a few mobile government implementations the potential of mobile services has not been properly explored by the south african government (mutula & mostert, 2010). both brücher and baumberger (2003), as well as haque (2004) indicate that government should form a relationship with mobile operators to ensure low cost or even free access to government mobile services. buellingen and wortner (2004) raise issues of reliability of service, which is echoed by chigona et al. (2009) who cite concerns over mobile connectivity in south africa. interestingly in this study the number of respondents prepared to communicate with government remained the same (79%) regardless of whether the service was free or low cost. in the interviews, it became clear that respondents were fully conscious of the potential cost saving. at first f1 was adamant that she was not going to incur any costs: "i don't want to. i would use my airtime" (f1) but, after some further discussion, she came to the realisation that that "i would save taxi money" (f1). the indirect cost savings of using mobile internet, such as the time saved on travelling or standing in queues, was confirmed in a study conducted by chigona et al. (2009). indications are that there would be demand for appropriate services where it is clear that any additional costs could be offset against the benefits derived. arguably, more efficient revenue collection was the driver behind the deployment of the sars services. the implementation however is an indication of the capability for government to deploy transactional, two-way mobile services, however "constraints include a lack of political will and support; a lack of strong and consistent leadership; a weak and contradictory it governance framework; and continuous political and bureaucratic infighting." (cloete, 2012, p. 138). 6. implications the survey presented a list of some government mobile services. the introduction of services would be a very good starting point upon which others could build. high on the list was a public transport information service where citizens could access bus and train timetables, as well as receive warnings of delays or cancellations. there was also keen interest in being able to locate government clinics or offices, communication with the department of labour, as well as receiving job ads. the list of services could be extensive, and interview participants mentioned some other g2c and c2g services that they would like to see: "criminal, crime reports" (f2); "i would report over full taxis." (f1) "i would like to inform the police about crime" (m1) m-government services would not only be easier to create but would also be met with the least amount of resistance when compared to m-democracy applications. as mentioned before, voting may raise concerns around secrecy, privacy, and security. far easier to implement and less likely to raise the same concerns, are 'quick polls'. initially it could be used as an effective way for a local councillor or for citizens to quickly gauge community opinion on a variety of issues. the bigger plan for the quick polls system should be that it evolves it into a fully-fledged voting system. over time it could be used as a testing environment, while addressing secrecy, privacy and security concerns. when finally implemented as an election voting system, the transition would be familiar, and seamless to users. however, this degree of openness may be idealistic. the proposed protection of information bill is an example of the lengths to which the south african government will go to keep some things 'under wraps' and ultimately go against section 16 and 32 of the south african constitution which states that, anyone should be allowed access to information, and everyone has the right to freedom of expression. a comment or chat network would allow for the communication and the sharing of ideas between individuals and communities, helping to build bridging capital, and the much touted 'rainbow nation'. the high interest in wanting to report service delivery problems and corruption, and the lack of trust in government was evident in this research, which indicates that the level of social capital between government and ordinary citizens is extremely low. however, reporting and monitoring services could potentially be problematic from a political rather than a technical point of view. increased transparency, as well as exposure to public scrutiny of some processes could possibly lowerl the incidence of tender irregularities, endless service delivery complaints and corruption. the tables would be turned, and ironically, citizens could become 'big brother'. however, certain politicians may not be comfortable with being continually questioned, and having their every move subject to public scrutiny. 7. conclusion although the constitution of south africa supports political participation, the mechanisms provided still prohibit many from interacting. mobile phones are an integral part of everyday life for many people: "my whole life is on there" (f1). the widespread acceptance and adoption of mobile phones in south africa makes it the perfect vehicle for citizen interaction with both their community, and with government. one interview participant summed it up as follow: "if the youth access it through their mobile phones it will be so much easier, so much quicker, cause it'll be convenient" (m2) of all the utaut variables tested, the only two statistically significant drivers for the intention to participate in m-government were found to be the performance expectancy construct relating to the convenience of using the mobile device and the effort expectancy construct of the user's proficiency with the device. this finding is reminiscent of the parsimony of the original technology acceptance model. there is great interest in the specific g2c and c2g mobile services mentioned in the survey, and this is possibly a reflection of the respondents' perception that these services would offer personal value. brücher and baumberger (2003) noted that services have to offer value to ensure widespread use. although there does appear to be some interest in voting using mobile phones, voting via mobile phone is likely to be controversial, with concerns over secrecy, privacy, and trust. trust in the system is best built over time as citizens become familiar with the systems as they use other g2c and c2g services. issues around mobile security can also negatively affect trust. providing public transport information or job advertisements could be considered as 'safe'. however, an application that either held, or transmitted medical information over wireless networks could be compromised by mobile malware or other security exploits. even though these security breaches may not originate from the service provided, and rather be as a result of user bad practices, potential security breaches need to be taken into consideration before deploying mobile government services. respondents also expressed interest in being able to report on service delivery and corruption, as well as communicate with their community and local councillor. mobile phones serve to empower citizens and can give them the ability to access information, report and communicate more easily than before. some considerations for future research are to expand the sample, not only to increase the representativeness and size of the sample, but also to include other age groups. additionally, the research could focus on services people want or need: as well as the typical government information services offerings, focus groups could be conducted to develop a list of services that citizens really want. 8. acknowledgments this research was supported by the national research foundation (south africa). it would not have been possible without the enthusiastic participation of our survey and interview respondents. an early, short version of some of the main findings in this article was presented at the 12th european conference on e-government and the authors are grateful for the constructive feedback of the conference reviewers and participants. references bagui, l., sigwejo, a., & bytheway, a. 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(2006). community participation: lessons from post-apartheid south africa. policy studies, 27(3), 197-217 yildiz, m. (2007). e-government research: reviewing the literature, limitations, and ways forward. government information quarterly, 24, 646-665. 10. appendix: selected portions of research instruments the research instruments were compiled in english, then translated into both xhosa and afrikaans given the demographics of the sample in the western cape. the survey questionnaire consisted of three parts. part 1 asked for the following demographic information: gender, age group, home language, highest level of education and capabilities of the respondent's mobile phone (sms, email, internet, camera, java apps, games, radio, music player). part 2 included 28 statements corresponding to the various constructs related to the influencing factors i.e. the unified theory of adoption and use of technology (utaut) and social capital theory (sct) constructs. these were answered using a 5-point likert scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree). part 3 contained statements relating to the other research objectives. the following are the statements included in the instrument: i am interested in politics government looks out for me besides voting, i can change what government does i communicate with my local councillor i can influence what politicians do in my community i trust government to protect my privacy i would use my phone to vote on community issues it would be nice and easy to report community problems like trash removal using my mobile phone i would use my phone to get information from government i would complain about service delivery using my phone i would use my phone to report on corruption there are no security risks in using my mobile phone i would like to get suitable job adverts sent to my phone i would like interact with the department of home affairs using my mobile phone i would vote in national elections with my mobile phone i would vote in municipal elections with my mobile phone i would vote in a quick poll on community issues with my phone my privacy won't be violated if i use my mobile phone to interact with government i trust government i want messages sent to my mobile phone about community meetings i want to see the results of a community vote on my mobile phone i want to communicate with my community using my mobile phone i will send my local councillor messages using my mobile phone i want to be able to see what my local councillor is doing for the community using my mobile phone i want to comment on what my councillor is doing using my mobile phone i want to see comments from my community on what my councillor is doing i would use a government medical information service on my phone i would like to be able to use my phone to find government facilities such as clinics and offices. i want to be able to interact with the labour department to ask questions about my pay, leave, or working conditions. i would use my phone to get public transport information (train and bus time tables, and messages about delays) if i was on the government housing list, i would like to receive messages via mobile phone i would get the best mobile phone i could afford the protocol for the interview included the following questions (with additional prompts indicated): if you could use your phone to communicate with government, what services would you like to see? information, notifications, vote (why / why not), simple polls, comment on issues, reporting(govt. officials, corruption, service delivery issues) is there any reason/s that you would not want to communicate with government using your mobile phone? security, privacy, cost do you find it easy to communicate with government, and if not, why not? sars , home affairs, queues, filing in forms, local councillor why would you want to use your mobile phone to communicate with government? save time, money (travel, queues, etc.), convenient, easy to do, can do it as something happens! is there anything about using your mobile phone that you find difficult? language, navigation, small screen, buttons, predictive text, menus loading applications, etc. how involved are you in your community how much, if not why not? trust? generally too busy, or don't feel its worth it? if you do belong to a club/group, which groups do you belong to, why? 1337 ready the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles, special issue: odscsd introduction guest editors, special issue on open data for social change and sustainable development as the second phase of the emerging impacts of open data in developing countries (oddc) drew to a close, discussions started on a possible venue for publishing some of the papers that emerged from the research conducted by the project partners. in 2012 the journal of community informatics published a special issue titled ‘community informatics and open government data’. given the journal’s previous interest in the field of open data, its established reputation and the fact that it is a peer-reviewed open access journal, the journal of community informatics was approached and agreed to a second special issue with a focus on open data. a closed call for papers was sent out to the project research partners. shortly afterwards, the first open data research symposium was held ahead of the international open data conference 2015 in ottawa, canada. for the first time, a forum was provided to academics and researchers to present papers specifically on open data. again there were discussions about an appropriate venue to publish selected papers from the symposium. the decision was taken by the symposium programme committee to invite the twenty plus presenters to submit full papers for consideration in the special issue. the seven papers published in this special issue are those that were selected through a double-blind peer review process. researchers are often given a rough ride by open data advocates – the research community is accused of taking too long, not being relevant enough and of speaking in tongues unintelligi !4 sharif, r.m., van schalkwyk, f. (2016). introduction. the journal of community informatics, 12(2), (special issue on open data for social change and sustainable development), 4-8. date submitted: 2016-07-15. date accepted: 2016-07-15. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1146/1186 raed m sharif international development research center, canada corresponding author. rsharif@idrc.ca françois van schalkwyk stellenbosch university, south africa francois@compressedsl.com http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1146/1186 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1146/1186 http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/issue/view/41 mailto:rsharif@idrc.ca?subject= mailto:francois@compressdsl.com?subject= the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ble to social movements and policy-makers. and yet nine years after the ground-breaking meeting in sebastopol at which the eight principles of open government data were penned, seven after president obama injected political legitimacy into a movement, and five after eleven nation states formed the global open government partnership (ogp), which has grown six-fold in membership; an email crosses our path in which the authors of a high-level report commit to developing a comprehensive understanding of a continental open data ecosystem through an examination of open data supply. needless to say, a single example is not necessarily representative of global trends in thinking about open data. yet, the focus on government and on the supply of open data by open data advocates – with little consideration of open data use, the differentiation of users, intermediaries, power structures or the incentives that propel the evolution of ecosystems – is still all too common. empirical research has already revealed the limitations of ‘supply it and they will use it’ open data practices, and has started to fill critical knowledge gaps to develop a more holistic understanding of the determinants of effective open data policy and practice. as open data policies and practices evolve, the need to capture the dynamics of this evolution and to trace unfolding outcomes becomes critical to advance a more efficient and progressive field of research and practice. the trajectory of the existing body of literature on open data and the role of public authorities, both local and national, in the provision of open data is logical and needed in light of the central role of government in producing a wide range of types and volumes of data. at the same time, the complexity of open data ecosystem and the plethora of actors (local, regional and global suppliers, intermediaries and users) makes a compelling case for opening avenues for more diverse discussion and research beyond the supply of open data. the research presented in this special issue of the journal of community informatics touches on many of these issues, sets the pace and contributes to the much-needed knowledge base required to promote the likelihood of open data living up to its promise. this special issue aims to discuss and critically reflect on these topics, while at the same time relating them to the overarching themes and global debates. through empirical research based on primary data, in-depth case studies, and cross-country/sector research, the papers presented here delve deeper into the topic of open data ecosystems and enabling contexts to understand the interplay of open data attributes with context specific characteristics and actors, as well as the effects on open data outcomes. the relevance of this issue is that it goes beyond current scholarly focus to map and analyse open government data policies, practices and ecosystems, towards a prescriptive analysis of how to essentially advance the open data movement by improving practices and deepening impact. far from being behind the curve, the insights and discussions offer a forward-looking perspective on how to improve the application of open data and enhance its development outcomes. a large attribute of the complexity of open data ecosystems lies in the diversity of actors, their interconnectedness and networked interactions. a richer depiction of open data supply chain emerges when such relations and interactions are mapped out and carefully analysed. in this context, we find that the role of data intermediaries in connecting agents in the data !5 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 supply chain and the associated innovations in this intermediary role to be important in unlocking the potential of open data. van schalkwyk , canares, chattapadhyay and andrason in their paper ‘open data intermediaries in developing countries’ provide a fresh perspective of how intermediaries are able to link agents in open data supply chains by using the theoretical framework of bourdieu’s social model. the underlying premise of this model is that there are various forms of capital needed for open data systems to function effectively. among their main findings is that the presence of multiple intermediaries will likely enhance the use and impact of open data due to the different combinations of capital that these intermediaries are able to deploy in specific settings. equally important is the role of citizens and civil society in engaging with open data initiatives. engagement is not limited to utilisation of data. it starts from the beginning of the supply chain and expands to include a whole range of interventions and actions that work to advance the open data movement and enhance its impact. collective and networked action is a prominent feature in this discussion. mcleod and mcnaughton’s paper ‘mapping an emergent open data ecosystem’ uses an actor network theory and a social network analysis lens to understand the application of open data in the tourism sector across five caribbean countries. the focus of the paper is on the interrelationships between data supply and user elements. the insights provided are useful in understanding the dynamics of user engagement in any nascent open data system and how open data can progressively advance. frank and walker in their paper ‘user centred methods for measuring the quality of open data’ offer a constructive evidence-based view of the relevance and applicability of a usercentered approach to measuring the quality of open data. the novelty herein is that it is a bottom-up approach to measuring the quality of data built on the user needs, more specifically the ‘non-specialist user.’ their research, while offering lessons learned, triggers further questions on the role of data literacy and skills needed to enhance the impact of open data. another new avenue for research and theory-building is the emerging impact of open data practices in a developing country context. while there is evidence on the benefits of open data to social change and inclusion, innovation and economic benefit, and accountability and transparency, this growing body of research needs to be substantiated with evidence from different policy areas, sectors and contexts in developing countries. responding to the scarcity of evidence on outcomes and impact of emerging open data practices is timely and needed to fill an important gap in the literature. within this line of thought comes the acknowledgement of the need to promote greater conceptual clarity on the benefits and risks of open data. one idea shaping this discussion is shifting from the linear path of research dominated by a supply and demand model towards a cyclical and interactive model. a fundamental characteristic of the latter model is the multiple entry points and interactions between actors and data infrastructures with decisionmaking processes and governance settings. this issue critically reflects on existing frameworks that capture impact and effects of open data, and looks at policy and open data linkages. in this case, perini and davies in their paper ‘researching the emerging impacts of open data’ revisit the 2012 open data in developing countries (oddc) conceptual framework to connect it with open data outcomes (inclusion, innovation and accountability). through an embedded approach and case study research, the paper answers some key !6 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 questions pertaining to the dynamics of particular uses of data in influencing decision-making processes, and identifies pronounced contextual factors that can impact the realization of outcomes from open data. in their paper ‘open government data and evidence-based socio-economic policy research in india’, buteau, larquemin and mukhopadhyay discuss the current status of the open government data initiative in india and critically examine the link between this data and research in india. in doing so, they survey researchers and academics and assess their awareness and use of government data. they pinpoint the challenges and provide recommendations of how to better influence policy-making through open government data in the indian context. another critical dimension to the discussion on the evolution of open data is the specificity of local context. this is an additional benefit from conducting case studies and in-depth analysis. these offer an informed identification of the agents of change at the local level, and a nuanced understanding of their relations with other levels of government and stakeholders, the drivers and barriers to local open data systems and the role of institutional and historical settings. in their paper ‘open data and sub-national governments’, canares and shekkar undertake an analysis of sub-national open data environments in nine country cases. they find that despite the substantial efforts made by sub-national governments to disclose data, there are vast differences between local and national contexts in terms of the role of stakeholders in creating an enabling environment and how the data is used. in their paper ‘enhancing citizen engagement with open government data’, canares, marcial and nasa dig deeper into the role of stakeholders through a case study approach that focuses on local civil society organizations (csos) engagement with open government data in the philippines. they provide a constructive view of how engagement of csos can be enhanced. based on the analysis of the skills and capacity deficiencies obstructing the meaningful uptake of data by csos, the authors articulate a set of recommendations for an open data capacitybuilding programme that can unlock the actual data use by csos in the philippines. a common thread in most of the papers presented in this issue is the need to enhance capacities of citizens, csos and other stakeholders in the access and uptake of open data. another underlying message is that technological capability is not a primary driver of effective open data practices, but other human, institutional and infrastructural requirements are just as important. reflecting on the diversity of open data-related topics covered by the papers collected in this special issue and notwithstanding the threads that have been identified post-selection, there are those who are likely to question the absence of a tidy framework or a palatable theory of change that may have ensured greater cohesion between the questions, approaches and findings in all seven papers. this is perhaps a reasonable request in an increasingly complex and bureaucratic world, and one not unfamiliar to the many researchers who depend on funding to ply their trade. but to straightjacket the activities of science —observation and experimentation— in bureaucracy is to risk diminishing its value and veracity for the sake of presumptive relevance, efficiency and tidiness. devoid of an overarching theory of change but brimming with curiosity and committed to empiricism, each paper in this collection makes its own valuable contribution to the expanding knowledge base on open data. and this !7 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 commitment to advancing knowledge through experimentation and theory-testing should be encouraged. as charles leadbeater writes on what he describes as ‘the experimental life’: one of the big divides across societies will be between experimentalists and traditionalists: between people who see the uncertainty of the modern world as a reason to innovate, try out new things, speculate and in the process create new identities for themselves; and those who see uncertainty as a reason to seek refuge in authority, order and faith in an effort to stay as they are. research as the fundamental process of scientific discovery may at times be messy and unpredictable, but with so many unanswered questions on the value of open data, any new truth-claims that move us forward -incrementally and iteratively -are invaluable in making the uncertain certain. the papers presented in this special issue represent a step forward. our hope is that among the sponsors of research on open data there will be more experimentalists who will create the opportunities to sustain the forward momentum. references leadbeater, c. (2014, 27 november). hooked on labs. the long + short. nesta. retrieved from http://thelongandshort.org/spaces/experimental-innovation-labs !8 http://thelongandshort.org/spaces/experimental-innovation-labs http://thelongandshort.org/spaces/experimental-innovation-labs 1362-7844-2-ce the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles collective digital storytelling in communitybased co-design projects: an emergent approach this paper contributes a critical examination of the role that digital storytelling (dst) can play in co-design initiatives involving local underserved communities. we argue that dst brings value as a method for bridging initial, exploratory phases and co-design processes. the paper draws on three case studies of collective dst in two townships of cape town, south africa. the research adopted a participatory ethnographic approach to involve groups socially active in their respective communities. dst was employed initially as a means to enable groups to present themselves and their communities and to deepen the ongoing process of data generation. during the creative processes, the activities evolved and crystallized into something more than a short video production: self-contained and community-driven projects, generation of new ideas and the development of new collaboration pathways and new digital networking capabilities. through the analysis of these case studies the article advances considerations that can be used by researchers and practitioners looking to spur grassroots initiatives and encourage local participation and engagement in community-based co-design. in !109 maria rosa lorini university of cape town, south africa corresponding author. mariarosalorini@gmail.com amalia sabiescu loughborough university, united kingdom a.g.sabiescu@lboro.ac.uk nemanja memarovic ringier ag, switzerland nemanja.memarovic@ringier.ch lorini, m.r., sabiescu, a., memarovic, n. (2017). collective digital storytelling in communitybased co-design projects: an emergent approach.the journal of community informatics, 13(1), 109—136. date submitted: 2016-11-26. date accepted: 2017-02-27. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1362 . http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1362 mailto:mariarosalorini@gmail.com mailto:a.g.sabiescu@lboro.ac.uk mailto:nemanja.memarovic@ringier.ch http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1362 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 particular, we offer a series of design principles, proposed as sensitising concepts that can inspire and guide researchers and designers, or local communities, to engage in dst activities within community co-design projects. introduction the participatory design and co-design literatures acknowledge the issues posed by community engagement in design, in particularly in the case of rural, disadvantaged, or socially and informationally isolated and marginalised communities (sabiescu et al., 2014; david et al. 2013). issues include wide knowledge gaps between external teams of researchers and designers and local communities; tensions between different epistemologies and meaning-making systems (sabiescu and memarovic, 2013); members’ low perceived self-efficacy in their own capacity to make meaningful contributions; difficulty of reaching communal consensus on the role and features of artefacts to be developed; the lack of effectiveness of established co-design methodologies (winschiers, 2006); and the time required to work through new, community-grounded design methods that can spur participation and meaningful contribution. in this article, we argue that some of these challenges can be met by involving local communities in activities that provide opportunities to engage analytically, critically, reflectively and creatively with their environments, livelihoods and knowledges. in particular, we examine the possibilities offered by digital storytelling (dst) as an activity that can bridge initial, exploratory phases, and possible future design activities in community-based co-creative projects. dst presents the potential to engage participants in an exploration of their environment (sabiescu, 2013; sabiescu et al., 2013) and their personal stories – often disclosed thanks to the sense of protection offered by the distancing mechanism of the digital device (clarke et al. 2013). it enables participants to elicit meaning from experience and enhance their capacity for interpretation of their life and socio-cultural context (klaebe and foth, 2006; copeland, 2012). for its capacity to be used as a tool for inclusiveness and to accommodate a variety of local voices (copeland, 2012), dst is particularly rewarding when employed in underserved, disadvantaged and informationally isolated communities. for these types of communities, the benefits of dst are recognised, potentially allowing their members to voice their views and take effect in achieving social change or wider social and political participation (tacchi, 2009). in this paper, we propose that these qualities of dst can be exploited to employ it as a tool for facilitating the involvement of local communities in the co-design of digital artefacts and technologies. in particular, we draw attention to the importance of the dst method used for community involvement. the methods used can affect the dynamics generated during story creation activities, the types of stories that are told, and eventually the impacts on participants. several methods, such as the one developed by the centre for digital storytelling (lambert, 2013) achieved recognition and were used and adapted in numerous other contexts. in this paper, we take a different approach, characterised by emergence, referring to the process by which the design of the creative activities is shaped in interaction between the field researchers, designers and local !110 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 participants, guided by events, decisions and participants’ constant inputs. in this perspective, the dst method is not pre-defined but grows organically during the creative process, leading to context-specific ways of engagement, processes and activities. we argue that this emergent approach contributes to opening up local interest, involvement and creative input in the framing of technology design interventions, and thus has the capacity to lead to more engaged collective participation in subsequent codesign activities. the paper draws on a more extensive research project run by the university of cape town in south africa that examined the role of digital technologies for supporting collective agency and empowerment in underserved communities. the project included an initial exploratory phase that looked at local mechanisms for empowerment and collective action and patterns in technology use at individual and group level. in the second phase, local stakeholders were involved in the co-design of digital artefacts that could capitalise upon and reinforce already existing mechanisms for collective empowerment and action identified during the initial phase. collective dst was used as a bridge between the two phases: the initial phase focused on exploration through qualitative and ethnographic methods, and the subsequent co-design activities that unfolded thanks to the intermediate dst creative activities. three dst initiatives were run, involving several groups located in two townships of cape town, south africa. in this article, we examine the collective dst processes in the three cases and their role in the design continuum, to answer the question: to what extent and how can dst contribute to stimulating and building capacity for purposeful community participation in co-design initiatives? our main interest in investigating the cases to answer this question is methodological: we intend to shed light on how the approach and method used in dst with communities is conducive to enhanced community participation. thus, this paper’s main contribution to scholarship is outlining an approach to using dst in community-based design, characterised by emergence: an amethodical approach (truex et al., 2000) guided by participants’ inputs, where events and decisions unfold and drive the process. despite its unplanned nature, some characteristics of this approach emerge from the cases showing a way of collaborating supportive of an engaged participation. the analysis of three cases in which dst has been used as a co-creative activity highlights how dst can strengthen collective sensemaking, support the generation of new ideas, foster group networking, and stimulate empowered participation and contribution in the design process. our analysis identified a series of flexible, broad-based elements that can guide researchers, designers and communities seeking to put in practice dst activities. we propose these as design principles, positioned at a higher level of abstraction than design guidelines, which are meant to orient rather than guide design processes, and draw the attention of the designer to the possibilities opened and the constraints posed by adopting a certain frame or approach (hornecker et al., 2007; sharp et al., 2007). these principles can help researchers working with technology in place-based community settings to facilitate bottom-up “grassroots” ideas and design that foster trust and engagement within the collaborating team. !111 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 related work enhancing participation in underserved communities: from design methods and workflows to emergence and co-creation community participation in design has received a great deal of scholarship attention, especially when framed by community development agendas. local participation is seen as an essential condition for successful community-based interventions (wyche, 2015; sabiescu et al., 2014; winschiers-theophilus et al., 2010; rodil et al., 2012) and positively associated with a range of other impacts such as greater sense of local ownership (rey-moreno et al., 2015a) and acceptability of externally initiated programmes (rey-moreno et al., 2015b). the idea of participation, however, hides a multitude of forms, scales and degrees of involvement (see for instance the scales developed by arnstein, 1969; kanji and greenwood, 2001). more recent approaches hold that rather than striving to improve engagement methods, it is important to create the space and conditions for participation forms and modalities to emerge and be cocreated in the field with communities, emulating local ways of thinking and traditional patterns of decision-making and communication (sabiescu et al., 2014; winschierstheophilus et al., 2010). this drives attention to the early stages of the design continuum, when community priorities and design problems are identified and potential technology uses are examined or configured. challenges at this stage include the difficulty of establishing dialogue and rapport with design teams due to knowledge gaps and different vocabularies (sabiescu and memarovic, 2013), identifying collective matters and priorities, and reaching collective agreement and community consensus of decisions taken (sabiescu, 2013). the body of research focused on identifying and overcoming barriers to local participation in design draws on different traditions. baskerville and myers (2015) suggest the design ethnography approach: the ethnographer, while working to understand the local context, acts as well as a designer who gets engaged with the reality and introduces concepts and sometimes artefacts to stimulate interest and foster knowledge exchanges with participants. reflective design is another critical tradition, which argues that some of the barriers to effective design are to be found in researchers’ deeply held assumptions and predetermined ideas and conceptions. by supporting researchers to reflect on their assumptions, observe their actions, and make meaning out of their experiences, some of these assumptions can be revealed and articulated, leading to more transparent and egalitarian processes (sengers et al., 2005). an examination of the literature reveals that these approaches are usually applied in creative ways, seeking to maximize relevance for a local context (e.g. crabtree et al., 2003; graham et al., 2007). moreover, as argued earlier in this section, the critical point may lie not in the configuration of the right design tools and methods but rather in devising ways of engaging communities in the formulation of their own methods for informed participation in design (sabiescu et al., 2014; winschiers-theophilus et al., 2010). this approach moves the focus in participatory design from methods and tools to catering for the enabling conditions. this suggests an open, emergent process, which !112 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 privileges community agency in a way that cannot be afforded by predefined methods of engagement. these frameworks and approaches resonate with the amethodical approach described by truex et al. (2000) for information systems design. an amethodical design approach resides on “an open set of attributes” which, though potentially rejecting structure, “does not imply anarchy or chaos” (truex et al., 2000, p.54). when applied to information systems design, amethodical approaches refer to “management and orchestration of systems development without a predefined sequence, control, rationality, or claims to universality. an amethodical development activity is so unique and unpredictable for each information systems requirement that even the criteria of contingent development methods are irrelevant” (ibid.). in this paper, we further this line of thought, examining how the principles of emergence and amethodical approaches to design resonate with dst initiatives that do not employ predefined methods but are configured locally, through the agency of community members. the situated case studies will show how this approach allows creative processes to unfold in directions that are not pre-determined and opens space for different perspectives and understandings to be clarified (truex et al., 2000). openness, appropriateness, flexibility and situatedness will be shown to be central to the stimulation of local participation, without being in contrast with the important attributes of legitimacy, rationality and efficacy (ciborra, 1996). digital storytelling as creative practice and data generation methodology dst is a form of creative practice that makes use of digital media for telling or authoring stories. recent studies experimented with the use of dst as a research method, leveraging its potential to engage participants in an in-depth exploration of their experiences that can eventually lead to the elicitation of rich data sets (sabiescu et al., 2013). in this paper, we argue that the potential of dst for community engagement in design draws on its dual status as both a form of creative practice and a method for data generation. dst as creative practice has been studied in a variety of contexts, ranging from education (yuksel et al. 2011), gender (simsek, 2012), health (gubrium et al., 2014), and co-creative media (spurgeon et al., 2009), to social history (klaebe et al., 2007) and therapy group work (clarke et al., 2013). studies examining the benefits of dst as creative practice indicate that it contributes to generating knowledge framed by local perspectives (gubrium, 2009), enhances participants’ capacity for interpretation of their life and socio-cultural context (klaebe and foth, 2006; copeland, 2012), can serve to develop new perspectives for looking at participants’ own environment (miskelly et al., 2005), and can allow the articulation and representation of local identity and culture especially in the context of marginalised or minority groups (williams et al., 2003) or by groups with limited or no media literacy (nutt and schwartz, 2008). as different from dst as creative practice, dst as research methodology is designed as a primary source of data relevant for research purposes. the core area investigated !113 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 becomes therefore the key subject around which participants will craft their stories. data can be retrieved from (1) analysing the digital stories produced by participants in a study, (2) analysing the process of producing the stories and the input provided by participants at each stage (gubrium, 2009), and (3) using the digital stories as a stimulation for further discussion and reflection when visualised in a group. in addition, dst-based data collection can be complemented by other data collection instruments, such as ethnographic observation, in-depth interviews and focus groups. recent studies indicate that dst can be used as an effective tool to elicit a holistic understanding of participants’ perception of everyday life. topics such as health (gubrium, 2009), allow the articulation of collective concerns and issues by communities (gubrium and scott, 2010), and afford an in-depth investigation of participants’ lives in sensitive contexts such as those of immigrant groups (rose and granger, 2010) or groups living in underserved communities where the legacy of the historical background is still at the base of social inequalities, like in the cases presented. in this article, we draw upon a joint perspective that sees dst as both creative practice and data generation method. we focus on collective dst, involving the authoring of one creative story by a group of people who work together to decide what to do, how to collaborate, to establish the main message to deliver, and to revise their work. collective (also termed collaborative, or cooperative) dst has been used in the past particularly in educational settings, where whole classes of children created digital narratives (e.g. di blas et al., 2012). however, collective dst is currently underexplored in the literature, in particular in underrepresented and underserved communities (mcwilliam, 2009). our approach to instantiating collective dst privileges emergence and community agency, in the spirit of the amethodical systems development approach described by truex and colleagues (2000). it also draws on this double-edged approach, which sees dst as a creative activity and a means of generating research data. in the cases presented, dst was used as a data generation method in addition to interviews and focus groups. during the phases of dst creations, the research focus was on the process rather than the product, therefore directing the attention to the structure and flow of activities, ways of engagement and collaboration, use of different tools and techniques, and participants’ response to these. the field researcher, a participant observant throughout dst activities, took detailed field notes, which were later analysed. context this paper draws on a larger study conducted by the university of cape town, ‘the impact of mobile technology and public access on collective empowerment among the urban poor’. the project aimed to examine the technological encounters and experiences of people living in underserved urban settlements and involve them in the co-design of novel technologies that could leverage and strengthen collective capabilities and empowerment. !114 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ! figure 1 overall research context and setting. the first phase of the project was an exploratory phase in which interviews and focus groups were conducted in several communities around cape town, mainly in two of the biggest townships of south africa: philippi and khayelitsha (figure 1). both are part of the former black local authority areas and more than 90% of the population is still black africans. the townships are designated areas of the city where a number of informal settlements exist and are growing, and where communities face a shortage of basic amenities and services: sewage, electricity, roads, and clean water (jaglin, 2008). half the population, more than half a million people between philippi and khayelitsha, lives under the poverty line (city of cape town census, 2016). the participants in this research are groups of women, the majority in the range age of 25 to 60, mainly xhosa mothers mamas, as everybody refers to them colloquially, and groups of youth, between 18 and 25 years old. the study and fieldwork were conducted by a researcher with an extensive experience as project manager coordinating a series of activities for mobilization around hiv-aids (prevention, treatments and stigma), the protection of women victims of violence, and counselling on alcohol and drugs. her personal knowledge and connections allowed her to participate in some of the daily activities of the groups and to verify the possibilities to develop some projects without providing any incentive or remuneration for the participants. six groups of mamas and five groups of youth took part in the exploratory phase through interviews and focus groups. during this phase, the majority of the groups showed a limited knowledge and scarce skills and interest in information and communication technologies icts (lorini et al., 2014a). some of the groups, however, expressed a specific interest and capabilities in the use of technologies required to reach a specific aim. two youth groups emphasized the possibilities that technologies could offer them to showcase their artistic products while another group hypothesised if the use of modern communication media could find funds to support their ongoing activities. each of those groups decided to engage in a dst experience and discuss further possibilities to develop community projects. following these leads, the researcher proposed the creation of dst also to a group of mamas, to support a more thorough presentation of their group’s activities and as a trial for the use of creative icts. !115 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 case studies in this section, we introduce three dst case studies, involving overall six of the groups previously interviewed in the project exploration phase. the first dst had been created by a community radio station group, the second one by a hip-hop group jointly with a group of poets and a marimba group, and the third by two groups of mamas active against gender-based violence. in each case, the dst process was documented by the field researcher through participant observation, informal talking and taking detailed field notes. for each case study we describe the group or groups involved, the overall dst process, and its outcome. a summary of findings is presented at the end of this section. ! figure 2 community radio station setting. the community radio station – a documentary one of the youth groups active in samora machel, a neglected and overcrowded area of the township of philippi, over the years became stronger and more organised and created a community radio station. their main concern was to address the local need to have community radio stations, knowing their limited presence in cape town (olorunnisola, 2002). the station is based in the area’s community centre (figure 2). the youth group works on a voluntary base to offer what they consider a needed service in their community: to inform, to educate and to motivate people. the name of the radio station is “iqhayiya,” meaning “pride and joy” in xhosa: the radio station has been created to highlight the importance of the local culture and to add an element of positivity in the community. most of the youth involved are unemployed and only active in the community radio station. the journalists use their personal phones for information search: simple smartphones where they can access the news in english and translate them in xhosa, the language spoken by 90% of the population of philippi and the surrounding townships. at the beginning of 2014 the field researcher met the representatives of this youth group and conducted a focus group. the interaction revealed their desire to create a community radio station for samora machel operating from the community centre. in a !116 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 second step, after the installation of a rudimental radio station in july 2014, one of the founders contacted the field researcher in order to discuss opportunities for collaboration, in particular on how to introduce themselves and their project to any possible funder. having already written some letters and a brief history of their venture, they evaluated the possibility to utilise pictures and an engaging media format to show their early achievements, and plans for expansion, to potential funders and supporters. this marked the beginning of the dst process, elaborated in the course of october 2014. the dst process once the group decided to create a fundraising video for the radio station project, the researcher acted as a facilitator during a series of meetings and workshops at the community centre, to facilitate the emergence of the concepts they wanted to express and start the design of a coherent and meaningful story. initially, only the aim of the video was clear and shared between the participants. as a first step to draw the story line, members were requested to express and write their main desires and ideas about the radio station, independently from the role played at the radio station as director, technician, journalist or funder. the second step was to evaluate and prioritise the features and messages to be conveyed, aiming to reach group consensus on a series of key messages to put forth in the digital story. the key features that met consensus included a presentation of the radio station listeners, the community, their area of residency and base of the radio station, and the main reason of existence of the project itself (i.e., the clear perception of the necessity of the service they are offering). to show the importance of the listeners not as buyers of a product but more as inspiration and motivation, the group decided to interview some elderly and younger members of the community, both representative of their supporters and target audiences for specific programs. the group members asked the researcher to be present during the interviews to show the transparency of the process and to prove the impact of their project after only few months of being on-air: the community as a whole was supporting the radio station. later in the process of gathering content for the video, the youth decided to include a snapshot of the community. the researcher was also asked to participate in a community tour to take pictures and videos. the following steps of the video composition took place with the main founders of the radio station. one member was collecting the interviews to try to elaborate them on her personal laptop while another member was collecting images on a tablet. while selecting, they asked to compare their videos with the ones taken by the researcher at the same time, and expressed a preference for using the material shot by the researcher. to define the flow of the story, the whole group was involved in evaluating the interviews taken. agreement was reached that rather than narrating their community radio station story and aims in their own words, they would instead feature the interviewees who expressed the role of the community radio station from their own points of view. !117 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 while watching the videos of the interviews to select the sections to use for the dst, the group felt rewarded by the results and became even more conscious about the impact of the radio station programmes, as they were summarised by their listeners. the members decided to use the shoots recorded inside the radio station to showcase their daily activities and introduce the people who work there as opening and closure of the video. the researcher gave to the designated person, a young woman working as technician at the radio who was studying computer science, all the videos that needed to be edited on the basis of the collective decisions taken regarding the flow of the story. because the group chose to use only videos with audio incorporated and not photos, the technician admitted that the resulting editing process was quite fast. dst outcome the result of the dst activities is a documentary that introduces the community where the radio station is located, the founders and creators of the project, the different categories of listeners, the different meanings the project has for the community and their vision for the future. the group would have liked to utilise the video as a presentation tool for possible partners and funders of the radio station. the creation of the dst generated further interest in the possibility of developing another co-design project that could increase the visibility of the radio station and its outreach. the follow up activities, creating a website for the radio station with the possibility to broadcast live or on streaming and to use a mobile application for outside broadcasting, took place during the course of 2015. the dst final product became of secondary importance; the dst process on the other hand fostered the generation of new ideas and allowed the sourcing of useful data on the radio station organizers. the dst process pushed the radio station team to successfully work collectively and to interact directly with the listeners and the community, using also images and videos; this created a keen interest in incorporating different communication media with the work of the analogue radio station. hip hop, marimba and poetry more than a music video another youth group that showed a specific interest in the creation of digital stories is street revolution. all members live in philippi and have known each other for years. in 2014, they were between 16 and 25 years old. the founders of the group are the stable members, but wider, even temporary participation is encouraged. as with many youth groups, they gather in order to develop their passions, in their case, hip hop music. over the years, this group, together with others in the area, collaborated with some nongovernmental organizations (ngos) to receive support for their artistic activities and also to create cohesion and prevention activities on social issues (hiv-aids, violence, drugs) spreading inspiring messages through art. the activities centred on peer-to-peer education with an edutainment (education through entertainment) approach. at the beginning of 2014, group members participated in the exploratory phase of the research project via interviews and focus groups. through this process emerged potential uses of icts reflecting the groups’ passion for music and concern for their communities. the researchers kept in contact with them, developing a discussion about !118 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the possibilities for the local artists to develop their potential and eventually find opportunities in their field of interest. the initial idea was to produce a cd and raise funds through it. considering the costs of recording and the limited availability of recording studios in the community, the hip hop group and the main researcher decided to create a video of their performance to showcase their art to some producers as well as to places where they could perform live. the day the researcher went to the community to develop the idea, towards the end of 2014, other youth were present: a group of marimba performers (marimba is one of the traditional south african instruments) that had already participated in the exploratory phase of the research, and a representative of a group of poets of the neighbouring community, nyanga. the dst process the hip hop group explained that they invited the other groups to perform together and showcase a representation of the collaboration between different groups, in particular a traditional group of musicians and a modern group of hip hop artists supported by a poet who could add more value to the message they wanted to deliver. none of the participants, included the leading group, had a clear idea about the story flow. they wanted to perform, possibly improvising together, and to see how the video of the collaboration would look like as a presentation of their potential. the marimba group prepared their instruments on the backyard of the shacks where they live and practice. as soon as the musicians started playing, the poet began performing followed by one of the hip hop artists. another member was recording (figure 3). after listening to the recorded performance, the team decided to record the different parts (sounds and words) separately, to obtain a better quality of the audio. the marimba music would become the base for the future video. the researcher, who until that moment was a participant observer, asked for an explanation of the message that the groups were trying to convey through the video; the artists were performing in their traditional language that the researcher could not understand. the request evolved into a suggestion to elaborate further on the message considering that the production was improvised. every group, separately, was given block notes and pens in order to write what they wanted to see in the final story. figure 3 the hip-hop and marimbas jam session. !119 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the marimba players and the hip hop artists prepared a presentation about their respective groups. the poet, once she heard that the talks were in english and not in the traditional language as per their previous performance, decided to compose a new poem for the video. she chose not to introduce herself personally but only to let the poem express her feelings. in the following days, after hearing the new poem, the musicians decided to change their presentations completely to relate to it: a poem about the fight of the youth for their rights, their activism, and the dangers of empty promises. once ready with the presentations, they recorded their voices when they were all together, so that everyone could hear the message of the others. the exercise was repeated several times because each group tried to maintain the structure similar to the other group, to talk for the same time and to use words and expressions that could generate an easy connection between them. once the two groups were satisfied with their respective introduction, they recorded on a digital device a short explanation of the collaboration. the title of the video was created during a brainstorming activity on themes that emerged in the poem and in the artists presentations focused on ‘change’. everybody wrote recurring words and terms that could summarize emerging concepts as well as their main initial goal in collaborating between different groups (‘chain’). they then asked the support of people in the community to draw the concept and to find a picture representative of their message to use at the beginning of the video. every group decided to select pictures from their past exhibitions to be uploaded to the video and they collectively added pictures of events occasionally performed together. after the storyline was finalized and written on a notebook, the collected images were sent to one of the members of street revolution who used the computer of a local ngo to compose the video. a specific software was installed on that computer and the artist participated in a video creation training to learn how to merge videos with audio or images, to separate audio, and to add different lines of sound for words and music. this knowledge was needed to well present the ngo programs. while the poet and the marimba band players had very limited skills and showed little interest in the technical aspects of the project, on the other hand, while viewing the final product, a number of the hip hop artists expressed their enthusiasm and their wish to learn this new medium. the dst outcome the title of the story “chain for change” emerged in group discussions and was accepted through collective consensus. this was an interesting moment of brainstorming, sharing and collaboration reflected as well in the final product: a video promoting the collaboration between different groups of youth with a common passion for music and for their reality. the intention was to share the video on social media to increase interest in this kind of mixed production and sensible messages. conscious of the still-limited use of social media by most of their fellows (due to the costs of smartphones and connection) and looking for platforms for artists, at the beginning of 2015 the groups started developing new ideas for the use of icts to share information and opportunities. they developed the idea of creating an interactive website with a map to locate the groups, their area of activities and their collaborations. even groups dedicated to more traditional types of art got involved, inspired by the artistic collaboration that took place with the dst creation and conscious of the support they !120 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 would receive by the icts experts of the network, as happened for the editing of the video. given that the website maintenance was quite demanding in terms of capabilities, in the course of the year they started using facebook groups pages. the youth network facebook group page reached 404 members while one of the groups of poets facebook pages reached 1.390 likes. social media appears to be easier and of immediate use and comprehension, especially for regular content updates and uploads. the mamas’ video – a digital exchange meeting the groups of mamas met by the main researcher during the previous years of work in the townships associate themselves to a community network with social aims: the mamas work as facilitators and mobilise other women and groups around their own resources and capabilities to support the most vulnerable people of the area (figure 4). the groups attend exchange meetings to share information, experiences and skills. they discuss everyday activities as a means to improving visibility and networking with lobby groups and activists that can help advance community goals. gatherings and exchange meetings stimulate creative innovation and transformation. they fulfil at first a social need: to break isolation in the urban area and to foster community trust. an evaluation was conducted in april and may 2014 with 49 women concerning their icts skills and the presence of some infomediaries. a limited interest was shown by the mamas to deepen the discourse around modern technologies (lorini, van zyl et al, 2014). the researcher suggested setting up a dst experiment with one of the groups to try to elicit more data about their activities and above all their approach to icts. knowing their scarce use of technologies in general, she wanted to test and evaluate the use of some basic tools. in october 2014, she asked one of the facilitator and social worker of the community to select a group active in the mobilisation and sensibilization of the community of philippi around social issues. the dst process two groups attended the first meeting, both part of the same network of active women called ovc orphan and vulnerable children. the researcher introduced the idea of creating a digital story explaining how it can be done, what it can represent and what they are supposed to do to realize it. after the general agreement, the researcher divided the present members into the two original groups in order to verify the capabilities, desire and motivation of each of them before trying to collaborate in a new network activity. each group had a room allocated and started developing some ideas about what they would like to say about their own group. the researcher acted as a workshop facilitator in each of the groups, helping participants to give form to their ideas. the aim was to represent each group in less than two minutes to have the possibility to create a five-minute video descriptive of the collaboration. this activity resulted to be quite complex because the mamas were not aware of the time passing while talking: all of them could talk for a long time but when requested to write and summarize, the presentation became really short: less than 30 !121 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 seconds of audio recording. at the end of this exercise done by each group, the researcher gathered all the participants together to record the final version in front of everybody. ! figure 4 the mamas research setting. at the beginning, none of the mamas was comfortable talking in a microphone but eventually it became a fun activity. after recording, the researcher stimulated a short discussion about the link between the groups and what they would like to say about the network they both belonged to. one person spoke on behalf of both groups and on behalf of the network to present the commonalities and the main aim of their existence. every present person agreed on what was expressed and needed to be part of the second and last part of the video. once the recording of the audio for the video was completed, the field researcher edited it on her laptop. ! figure 5 during the video making process the mamas used their photo-books to showcase community members and their work. !122 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 concerning the images and videos to be added, the researcher verified the possibility to attend some of the everyday activities of the mamas such as distributing soup to vulnerable children, or support groups for women as well as weekly meetings. meanwhile group members searched for old pictures of their activities (figure 5). sometimes they found printed pictures and in a couple of cases pictures that had been printed in local magazines reporting on specific manifestations. these are the kind of memories collected and safe-kept to demonstrate their work (some printed pictures were attached to the notebook where they collected data concerning their activities) and as motivational support while sensitizing new possible members. by the beginning of december 2014, the researcher collected all the material and organised a meeting to show the selection to the participants for approval. every mama was feeling overwhelmed in seeing herself, her neighbourhood and her daily activities on a computer screen. so far, they were used to having an extremely limited number of photos and in a small printed format. while visualizing the images, they listened to the audio recorded to discuss about the positioning of every image along the story flow. even if at the beginning the dst process was driven by the researcher, the activities continued mainly because participants felt engaged and were having a good time. voice recording done as a collective activity, the search for old pictures done at the individual group level, and the presentation done by the researcher of some pictures of their activities which could match their discourse, all showed their growing interest and possible further commitment to develop new ideas. the discussion that emerged at the end of the final presentation of the edited video (audio and photos put together by the researcher) about the way forward and the questioning of the utility of this kind of activity, represented the moment of awareness of the potentiality of some icts. dst outcome by agreement of all the participants in the workshop activity, the researcher composed the presentation of the two groups with their respective pictures of their everyday activities of support to the community and the summary done by one member to describe their collaboration. the images chosen for this last section were taken during the network meetings and mobilization events. if at the beginning of the dst activity the intention was only to disclose the group and encourage its interaction with technology, the activity evolved into a collaboration of two groups. moreover, a possibility emerged to utilise the video for the network itself, to present their work to other groups, an activity usually done during their exchange meetings that were always rare due to the transportation costs involved. to reach this objective and become capable to record their activities and give them visibility, such as in the video they edited, at the beginning of 2015 the mamas asked the researcher to support their quest to learn to use the technologies she was using and develop further the possibilities they perceived as useful. a series of training and follow-up engaged the groups during the course of the entire year, starting with an intense one-week training attended by the representatives of five different groups. in 2016, the youngest and more skilled mamas engaged in the process to become facilitators for new trainees. !123 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the role of collective dst in stimulating community participation the research project utilised collective dst as a method to generate data for the research and engage participation and creative expression for the groups involved. the approach taken was characterised by emergence, referring to an open, creative and engaging process, unfolding guided by cues, actions and aims configured collaboratively through the intervention and exchanges with participants. whilst dst sessions were organised in the frame of a research and design project, the creative activities were not designed top-down to answer a specific research question or to explore a particular design problem. rather, dst was framed as a set of creative activities driven bottom-up by participants’ interests and aims, as they were discovering creative possibilities along the way. these evolving processes opened up new opportunities for dialogue to maximise people’s participation, support the groups’ reflection, and allow them to be part of a process of collective engagement that could strengthen their collaboration. the ongoing brainstorming and discussions, the meetings to decide the way forward, the gatherings to select the pictures, the walks in the communities to record images, the interviews done by the researcher and by the participants with the larger community members, all contributed to strengthening participants’ capabilities to use icts, to intensified processes of deliberation and collective sense-making, and to forging new ways of engaging with the local context. community radio station documentary the participants in the radio station project had a clear aim in mind connected with the needs of the station. during the focus group they expressed their desire and passion for their work, yet their ambition and their commitment were not the central theme of the video. the key and creative element of the video was the representation of their community and their listeners and included a call to support their project. this change of focus was discussed and agreed collectively during the creation of the video. this was afforded by the dst activity, firstly because it gave the possibility to come together as a group to exchange opinions and create an artifact that could represent their work and achievements for the public. it provided an occasion to reflect on their reason to exist as a group and to collaborate. furthermore, the process of collective creation of a digital story allowed participants to work with new tools, in particular visual ones, used like critical artefacts: “tools for exploring problems context and generating needsfocussed products ideas” (bowen, 2007, p.14). they are alternative probes used to stimulate creativity, sometimes only to provoke the participants to reflect critically about their practices, other times as a strategy to deepen the exploration of possibilities through the exposure to unfamiliar experiences. for the participants, this was a generative process for new ideas on how to reach out more and to different people, how to involve the listeners and how to reciprocate their demonstrated esteem and support. it showed the potential for a better understanding of the community at large, operating as a catalyst of sense-making that went beyond the group itself. it became for all the participants a source of inspiration of an extended project that will reach out to a larger audience beyond community borders. the request of the radio station funders to the researcher to accompany them during the interviews and walks in the community !124 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 represented a possibility to verify the information received and to acknowledge and testify to the spirit not only of the dst but also of the entire radio station project. the researcher was able to deepen the talks with the participants as well as with the external community members while attending the encounters as an observant. youth motivational video the hip hop group that had suggested the creation of a video and invited other groups to collaborate, had a specific idea in mind: to create a music video to show the potential of a new type of art collaboration. the first day of work on the collective dst ended with an agreement on the music track to use, and the expressed intention for the three subgroups participating in the activity to elaborate a presentation to be added by each of them. everybody was actively engaged and participating, however at that point in the process the aim was still ‘personal’: connected to the presentation of the individual groups and their capabilities as artists. the moment of realization of the different message and outcome that the video creation could bring, not only for the involved participants but also for the community of youth at large, happened when all the participants gathered to present their contributions. once everybody heard the new poem written for the video, they decided to elaborate around it, expand its message, update it, and make it concrete and visible in the digital story. further, after a second round of individual work as single groups, they exchanged views to agree on the creation of a title and of an image that can synthesize it. the researcher acted as a facilitator while suggesting how to approach the new challenges, leaving any decision-making to participants. the need for the participants to translate into another language some of the ideas that were emerging, acted as a moment of reflection and crystallization of the intentions. the explanation of the creative ideas to the external person, the only non-artist, the researcher, supported as well the data collection and analysis of the process. in this project, the process started as an artistic collaboration and evolved into the creation of a motivational video for youth. at the same time, it served to configure new possibilities to engage and collaborate. coming together, expressing individual and group visions, brainstorming and playing with words and images inspired them to think of starting a concrete project for the youth of their own community and beyond. mamas’ digital exchange video in the case of the collective dst of the groups of mamas, the researcher is the one who suggested the activity as a possibility to know better the groups and to expand expressive possibilities, considering that during the focus groups conducted with them, icts emerged as a topic of limited interest. the researcher started with a meeting to evaluate the possibility to create a digital story with one group. the idea was to use some technology probes typically employed to examine participants’ interaction with novel technology in real-life contexts (hutchinson et al., 2003; sabiescu, 2013). user observation is unguided, and the purpose is to understand how people use a technology in their everyday life and interactions (idem). during the first meeting, when two groups rather than one group attended, the facilitator suggested to work with them !125 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 separately to evaluate the internal participation and knowledge of icts in each group and how they express their group-based goals. every group was keen to present their collaborative work and everyday activities in the community. the occasion for a larger collective participation was afforded during their joint presentation. the possibility to share stories and to remember the activities carried on together helped them to reflect on the context they live in and try to ameliorate. the presence of a social worker requested by the researcher for the translation supported the ongoing discussions and created a constant dialogue between the mamas and the researcher herself. furthermore, her participation in the daily activities and her request to take pictures for the video kept open the conversation and reflection about the process. the subsequent visualization of the images selected confirmed the common aspects in the work of the groups, strengthened the perspective of common goals, facilitated acknowledging each other’s similar concerns for the most vulnerable, and garnered interest in possibilities to reach out to more people in modern new ways. if the use of icts was at first seen as a simple possibility for some members to learn how to use some devices, maybe for the benefit of their group, the engagement into the story creation as a collectivity opened the final outcome of the process to the benefit of the network. the work as a collectivity neutralized the shame and fear to express themselves to a wider audience, starting from the presence of the social worker and the researcher. the visualization of the outcome, the video, by other members in the network was a moment of evaluation and an endorsement of its value, which further informed debates on how to operate as a group. in particular, due to the presence of the researcher during the collective visualization, the participants requested to deepen their knowledge of icts to be able to utilise it for their network. table 1 summary of the case studies and their outcomes. radio station group artists’ groups mamas’ groups people 1 group (8 people) 3 groups (8 people) 2 groups (9 people) reason to do it fundraising for the radio station promotion of the collaboration icts exposure goals fundraising. presenting their work creating a music video. collaboration. sharing on social media learn about community members. express themselves. interact with icts icts available 1 tablet (for photo and video shooting) and 1 laptop (for video creation –using an open source software) 1 tablet (for photo shooting) and 1 recorder (for music and interviews recording). 1 ngo desktop to edit the video using a non-open source software few basic smartphones (for photo shooting) plus the smartphone and laptop of the researcher infomediaries 1 volunteer of the radio station studied cs while 2 others operate as technicians. the rest of the team used basic phones. 1 artist knew how to edit videos. support by friends not part of the groups was requested to take pictures. none of the mamas had icts skills or equipment. !126 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 design principles for an emergent approach to collective dst the three case studies highlight the potential of collective dst as a catalyst for participation, allowing the participants to be more in control of the process and creating more opportunities to engage a larger audience: the process started in all the cases analysed from a specific group and evolved to open up to the community. dst in this context is a form of cooperative and community design activity. in media studies it has been utilized similarly for collective creative activities (klaebe & foth, 2006), as well as in participatory design studies (mumtaz, 2015). the process illustrated herein is more than an adaptation of classic dst methodologies. despite knowing the importance of having a clear concept to create a digital story, or the consideration of a future audience to showcase the outcome, the researcher never pressed the groups to focus on these aspects. the activities evolved following the ideas generated on the spot, all connected to activities that the groups cherished: from taking pictures in the community to making interviews or writing a new poem. at the same time, groups acted as collective units where decisions were taken through discussion, and where no single member tried to take the lead and decide for the group. even if the members of the group worked at times partially separated, the flow of the story and the main concepts to highlight always emerged when everybody was present. the value of the emergent approach we propose resides in its flexibility and its capacity to emulate a local context and be shaped in interaction with participants. every project evolved and matured in different timeframes with different methodologies. the radio station dst was the quickest to be produced due to strong motivation and awareness of its future use (less than one month), owing as well to the technical skills of some members. the youth video required more time due to the unfolding creativity and ideas generation of the artists and their emerging motivations (more than one month). the outcomes working on new tools (visual ones in particular). collective activities involving the journalists, the founders and the managers of the radio station. new ideas generated to have an online version with images and videos. a different message become central to the video. the video is no more a music video but more a motivational talk to the youth. development of new ideas based on the needs (having an interactive digital platform). networking activities while doing the dst and while visualising the result. explicit collective sense-making. use of new tools to fulfil their aim. growing desire to learn more. role of the researcher supervisor and external monitor coordinator (for inter-groups collaboration) meetings facilitator and video editor final product documentary music and motivational video digital exchange meeting follow up plans website and online radio digital platform for artists icts trainings. !127 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 mamas video requested the presence and contribution of the researcher in more occasions along a two-month collaboration. these qualities of flexibility and adaptation to the local context make it difficult to elicit rigid guidelines for designing this type of activity. however the analysis of the case studies shows a series of elements that were common and important in determining the flow of the activities and their successful outcomes. these elements are synthesised below in seven design principles, proposed as concepts or drivers to sensitise the designers to different possibilities (hornecker et al., 2007; sharp et al., 2007). the principles were identified through attention to the relatedness among the participants in the dst (designers and/or researchers and the local community), the local environment and the unfolding of the creative processes on a timeline. 1. inspire within the context. storytelling in community settings is about recovering memory (of the past) as well as renewed awareness and understandings (of the surrounding environment). its capacity to engage, motivate and inspire owes much to the fact that participants are provided with the frame, tools, and creative purpose that can drive them to actively seek, examine, interact with and model understandings of their own past and present realities in a creative way. with this principle, we point to the importance of using dst as a framework and as a driver to encourage local participants to engage with their world in ways that were not afforded by their everyday lives. this can take many forms in practice, and digital technology can be used for activities of exploration, capture, representation, collective visualisation etc. for its capacity to involve participants in the exploration of their environment, this creative activity is close to the use of cultural probes. initially studied by gaver and colleagues (1999), cultural probes are used as a means for involving people in the active examination of their own environments, and thus elicit their unique viewpoints and integrate their visions in design projects. cultural probes have been shown to contribute to participants’ engagement and encourage them to get involved in cooperative forms of design (crabtree et al., 2003). 
 2. local anchoring of expressive means. this principle is about privileging local means of creation and representation. in communities like those involved in the dst case studies presented, listening and speaking are the main vehicles for communication. for this reason, they were privileged in the collective dst processes: giving space for participants to speak and listen to each other and express themselves through natural ways of communication and interaction before starting to write. writing, above all as a collectivity, might be perceived as ‘demanding’ and intimidating. on the other hand, listening to each other can become a creative moment of sharing. these observations draw attention to a quintessential quality of storytelling, which is about human expression taking shape, externalised in a particular representational form. representational forms are not neutral; they have a bearing on the process of expression and can alter as well the meanings that are finally externalised or communicated. expressing through writing is not quite the same as expressing through painting, singing or performing. expressive means are also culturally embedded, and linked to the !128 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 intangible heritage of communities. in our approach, we propose increased sensitivity to local ways of representation and creation as a means for encouraging participants to be at ease and avoid ruptures with deeply embedded forms, structures and flows. this approach encourages creative participation, and furthermore it can then provide bridges for introducing new means of expression, new tools and new methodologies. by building on participants’ capacity to become creative in ways that they are familiar with and that they master, the space is opened for new ways and means of creativity to be appropriated, as well as the desire for learning and interest in adopting novelty. 
 3. local agency. participants’ sense of control and agency over the dst process can contribute to initiative, enthusiasm, faster consensus, and a sense of owning the process, rather than receiving it from an outsider. the degree of agency afforded depends on the participants’ familiarity with the process and tools and their self-confidence to act autonomously. for the radio station and the youth project, the researcher acted as a simple facilitator, while for the mamas, she was more involved and acted also as editor for the technical phases. participants’ agency can increase during a process where new skills are acquired, new elements emerge or new capabilities are available. the sense of agency and ownership can be heightened by a collective approach to creative activities. in the cases described, the decisions and choices were always taken when the groups were gathered. this helped participants to take charge of and drive the process; united they felt stronger and less intimidated when expressing their needs and desires. this also reduced the interference of the facilitator. 
 4. shared purpose. the purpose of an emergent dst initiative is not pre-defined, but created or at times discovered by recognizing how pre-existing community needs and goals can be met through dst. we point to the importance of acknowledging the aims of the creative processes, not only in terms of the story or stories to be created but also and quite significantly about the kind of benefit brought, or community target reached through the process and outcomes of storytelling. the shared purpose thus can emerge and be externalized in terms of one or several stories to be created in groups, as well as an aim filled through the creative process that benefits the groups or the entire community. it is important while working collectively to be aware of the barriers to story evolution that group work implies. in the cases presented, moving further with ideas, dropping concepts that no longer worked, was challenging due to the more demanding process of collective decision-making and action. it was essential to remind each other that the story can evolve and the process can bring novelty, for instance connected to the reactions of the listeners, to the agreement between members and in response to new ideas that emerged. ensuring awareness of a shared purpose within a group facilitates channeling efforts and activities towards collectively agreed ends; it acts as an element of convergence. 
 5. elements of convergence. by elements of convergence, we mean tools, processes, infrastructures or flows that can enable groups of people to work, !129 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 decide or create in groups as well as ensure coherence and consistency in the final product. this principle is about affording dst as a collective rather than an individual activity. to involve groups rather than individuals, it is important to find ways for ensuring harmonic collaboration, communication, and means for reaching consensus at key points during the creative process. this encourages participants to pay attention to the others, leads to more moments of sharing and listening, and increases sensitivity to how the actions of a person complement and build upon the actions of fellow creators. convergence can be afforded as well by encouraging alternation of collective and individual activities during story creation. in the cases described, the process was kept flexible with the possibility to work alternatively with the entire group, with some members of it or with individuals. a cycle of opening and closing the circle of participants was adopted and iterated until the artefact was ready. for instance, the initial phase in which the aims of the activity were discussed was done with the entire group present, to facilitate understanding and collective agreement over the envisaged end-product and the process of reaching it. subsequent activities were conducted in smaller groups or at individual level, to allow everyone to express themselves and to report back to the entire group or groups. the re-opening of the process to the entire group was done at key stages, to communicate messages, support meaning sharing, and gather consensus. this cycle can be modified and repeated as required in order to give everybody the possibility to be both creative and collaborative. 
 6. horizontal exchanges. as a counter-point and complement to local anchoring and local agency, we posit that the part played by researchers or designers is no less important. the knowledge, tools, ideas, affordances for expression brought or co-created are fundamental for the evolution of the creative process. it is through horizontal exchanges – building on the principles introduced beforehand, of local anchoring, and local agency – that ideas but also knowledge and skills expand, cross-fertilise and evolve. whereas it can be thought that skills are needed to participate in creative technology activities, cases such as the ones presented in here point out that creative drives can be used to overcome skills barriers and bridge skills gaps. this is due to the potential of horizontal exchanges within local participants and among them and researchers or designers. group members may already possess skills that can be transferred to other members. also, with support from the group and working together, participants feel less intimidated by the novelty of ict tools and processes and may engage in learning driven by a creative impetus rather than a goal to acquire new skills. for example, in the case of the mamas where less technical skills were present, they followed the creative flow and worked as “art directors” to edit their work: the facilitator-researcher showed the selected pictures to match their stories, while the group discussed and decided about the composition. 
 7. mindful evolution. this is about expecting but also encouraging evolution of the dst process, its methods, engagement and participation means, its content and message, as well as the capacities and skills of participants. evolution !130 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 reflects the emergent nature of the process described, within a framework that encourages collective participation and flexible, emergent models of activity. participation and sense making unfold as a process of active questioning, inquiry and exploration, motioning participants to move in cycles of knowledge production, sharing and exchange that enable them to perceive themselves, their peers, and their surroundings or work in a new light. the outcomes of the evolving processes usable in the dst sessions – ideas, concepts, flow of the story are only some, and the most tangible results of the participation and codesign process. at the same time, other, intangible outcomes can be attained and can keep unfolding. the exchange processes can enable participants to understand, perceive, and express things that had been beforehand either acknowledged but not shared; known tacitly, but not expressed; or simply unknown. the time can also allow the outcomes to reach out for the communities of belonging, and not only for the group. for the community radio station, collective participation helped members understand the vision of each of them and clarify their common ideals and goals while highlighting the sense of their activities for the larger community. for the hip-hop and marimba artists the process brought about agreement of a strong, core message they wanted to convey through the video but also helped them push further the boundaries of artistic expression and collaboration in ways that could not have been afforded by each artist working alone. similarly the mamas, who used the workshop as a fun way to understand the capabilities of new icts, came to realise that the technologies they were exposed to can be appropriated by themselves and used as a way to exchange information within the group and promote it outside of it. conclusions this paper engaged with issues around uplifting community participation in design and examined the role of collective dst as a creative activity that can spur engagement and encourage the articulation of local needs and goals in the early stages of design. we presented three case studies in which dst was used as part of a larger project, as a bridge between the initial exploratory phase and an engaged and action-oriented design stage. our findings show that dst can stimulate collective participation, support the unfolding of data and spur the creativity also for new projects. we underline the value of an emergent, non-linear, community-driven approach for collaborations with collectivities of people. we illustrated this approach by providing detailed descriptions of activities and outcomes in the three case studies. furthermore, we elicited seven design principles that can be used as sensitising concepts for affording the set up of community-based dst initiatives framed by an emergent approach. in the case studies analysed, the emergent and free flow nature of the dst process was a catalyst for engaged participation and sense-making and resulted in meeting contextspecific goals for all three groups: from realizing the importance of a sub-community within a larger community ecology, understanding the importance of the message a video can convey, to building awareness of the powers of representational technology to share ideas and values between the inner and outer community members. furthermore, !131 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the dst processes spurred ideas for future work driven by local initiatives and appeared to motivate participants to get involved in pursuing them. !132 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 references bates, j. 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(2011, march). educational uses of digital storytelling around the world. in proceedings of society for information technology & teacher education international conference (pp. 1264-1271). !136 an analysis of factors influencing success of ict4d projects: a case study of the schools computerisation programme in mashonaland west province, zimbabwe donna musiyandaka 1, gideon ranga 2, jacqueline fungai kiwa 3 lecturer and chairperson, ict and electronics department: school of engineering sciences and technology, chinhoyi university of technology, chinhoyi, zimbabwe. e-mail: dmusiyandaka@cut.ac.zw lecturer, ict and electronics department: school of engineering sciences and technology, chinhoyi university of technology. e-mail: rangags@gmail.com. recent graduate, ict and electronics department: school of engineering sciences and technology, chinhoyi university of technology. e-mail: jacquelinekiwa@gmail.com 1. introduction the digital divide has taken centre stage in research and development over the last several years. this is because of a marked difference between developing and developed nations. another motivational factor is the differences between urban and rural populace regarding access and use of information resources availed through icts (information and communication technologies). this has seen developing countries, through efforts of ngos and governments, implementing computerisation and ict-led developmental programs to narrow this divide. one such effort is the schools computerisation programme in zimbabwe. this was a first phase project, aimed at equipping schools with computers and related technology, launched in 2009. the second phase project launched in collaboration with the ministry of ict in 2011 focuses on developing e-learning programmes for secondary schools. the presidential schools computerisation programme launched in 2002, has seen computers being handed out to at least 100 secondary schools across the country with the aim of enhancing learning, although internet access remains limited. the target has mainly been electrified rural secondary schools. on average each school received 10 computers. the number of schools benefiting per province varies, with no specific criteria except that the rural schools already be electrified and that a room exists to house the computer lab. in mashonaland west province 44.6% of (75 of 168 mixed rural and urban) schools received a minimum of 10 computers each in addition to other peripheral equipment such as printers. an unpublished preliminary survey of the schools by the researchers in mashonaland west in mid 2011 showed that most of the donated computers had still not been used for basic computer classes, and were still boxed and locked up in storerooms. only a very small percentage of schools (less than 5%) were fully utilising their computers. one way of establishing the reasons for this overall failure is to determine the reasons for low use of the donated computers. the anticipated reasons for low use could range from lack of expertise to lack of interest. similar projects, such as the follow up e-learning programme, may suffer similar problems. to implement appropriate remedying solutions, it is thus imperative to understand the reasons for adoption and use of computers. the objectives of the study are as follows: (1) to investigate the reasons for low use of donated computers in rural mashonaland west government secondary schools, (2) to determine the critical success factors for ict4d projects similar to the schools computerisation programme and (3) to recommend ways in which such programmes could best be implemented in order to realise their originally intended outcomes. the discussion is as follows: section 2 presents a review of related work, section 3 the study area, section 4 the methodology, section 5 is a presentation of the findings, section 6 is the discussion of the findings. section 7 concludes our paper with a recommended model that we believe would ensure success of ict4d projects in contexts similar to zimbabwe. 2. related work the introduction of icts in rural communities, schools or community centres is often done to fulfil a developmental agenda. ict for development projects often focus on achieving the following goals; (a) increased literacy and education; (b) increased socio-political awareness; and (c) self-development, all of which are information based objectives that can easily be achieved using icts. however communities find it hard to turn the information into usable knowledge for their immediate and long-term benefit due to shortages of finance, supporting services and infrastructure (heeks, 2002a). other ict4d projects have also focused on using icts for poverty reduction, i.e. achieving both social and economic development. such projects entail providing information to farmers on pricing; harnessing icts to improve community health in marginalised areas through communication between healthcare providers or via the internet; provision of tele-centres; use of local languages to facilitate digital inclusion and full participation of communities; and e-government in the form of electronic procurement, campaign websites, and provision of governance documents. governments in particular use e-governance to facilitate development. the major challenge for developing countries is insufficient resources to invest in the three significant areas, i.e. in online services, telecommunications infrastructure and education to close the digital gap (united nations, 2010; iicd, 1998). the presence of icts has, according to many researchers, carved out an alternative path to development, although with many unforeseen problems, causing their full potential not to be realised (iicd, 1998; langmia, 2005). developing countries have often overlooked that the successful contribution of icts in developed countries has been due to the parallel development of their use and that of other development indicators such as health, infrastructure and education. instead of first trying to address the most basic development aspects, icts are now being introduced to fast-track this development, hence fulfilling a dual objective of reducing the digital divide and achieving developmental goals such as those in the mdg 2015 list. we posit that this dual strategy is largely responsible for the failures (whether partial or total) of such ict projects since more often than not, the lack of basic infrastructure and basic needs impacts on the motivation on the part of the communities and also affects the long-term sustainability of the project when donors reduce funding (togola and marcilly, 2011; thirumavalavan and garforth, 2009; kumar, 2007). ict4d projects have failed for various reasons, the most common being lack of access, misunderstanding of the community's contextual needs and the wrong implementation approach (bingimlas, 2009). we discuss some of these issues in the following sections. 2.1 failure of ict4d projects failure has been mainly attributed to limited network infrastructure, design-reality gaps and inadequate information resources. 2.1.1 limited network infrastructure the limited network infrastructure and level of internet literacy and accessibility affect the use of such technology. across developing countries in general, ict4d projects are launched in areas where the majority are poor (kiraka and manning, 2002; duncombe and heeks, 2002) with the success of such projects limited to the few who can afford access (chapman and slaymaker, 2002). developing countries such as zimbabwe are making efforts to increase the network coverage to national levels. however, zimbabwe has to contend with lack of funding, poor ict infrastructure, low ict literacy rate, high human resource turnover, high impact of hiv/aids pandemic, limited public-private partnerships (ppp), and limited data management capabilities (i.e. inadequate bandwidth nationally and power problems) (ruhode, owei and maumbe, 2008). 2.1.2 design-reality gaps ict4d projects failures have been attributed to design-reality gaps (thirumavalavan and garforth, 2009; heeks 2002a; heeks, 2002b). examples include the lack of awareness of the socio-cultural context, lack of motivation and lack of understanding of the role of ict in solving urgent pertinent, relevant community problems which often causes projects to fail in the initial phases (togola and marcilly, 2011; kumar, 2007). other reasons for failure include general gender attitudes (ashraf, swatman and hanisch, 2008), exclusion of important project stakeholders (chapman and slaymaker, 2002), sustainability problems, and a community's reluctance to adopt, use and/or invest in icts (apendibadek and koopman, 2011). 2.1.3 inadequate information resources icts facilitate the transmission of information that can be turned into knowledge for the betterment of communities, especially rural communities which are generally the most disadvantaged in terms of economic, political and social development. however, in most cases, communities do not know how to effectively use the information they get. in such instances access to the internet gives a false sense of measure of having achieved a certain level of development when all other fundamentals (e.g. water access, roads, and infrastructure) are still being addressed. in addition, the costs of the internet, computers and maintaining telecommunication cannot be afforded by the general populace, hence it would be inappropriate to generalise and claim that icts, when introduced, always facilitate development (langmia, 2005). icts are also seen as bringing new opportunities for economic growth but it is often large conglomerates in developing countries that can harness these opportunities more effectively. most developing country governments have meagre resources and hence fail to achieve their social and developmental goals. with sufficient resources, governments could engage in ict for development projects such as the systems for the distribution of medical knowledge, systems for disaster assistance, coordination of environmental protection and supply of carefully designed resources for education (iicd, 1998). 2.1.4 retrogressive attitude retrogressive attitude is a behaviour that opposes progress and is not inclined towards development (howard, 2008). the developing world has produced such behaviour as is seen in civil wars and corruption. in ict4d, this attitude can cause people to have technical phobia and negativism against computers. some individuals believe computers are agents of western civilisation and are meant to redirect africans away from their cultural, ethnical, social and moral beliefs (noorman, 2012). hence in implementation of the schools' programme, many individuals may not be in support of the development. 2.2 success of ict4d projects success has been mainly attributed to sound ict policies, information exchange and partnerships. 2.2.1 sound ict policies comprehensive ict policies are essential to ensure success of ict4d projects (harindranath and sein, 2007). we posit that lack of policies that support effective use of icts for development, coupled with a haphazardly, piecemeal non-systematic approach in pushing the ict4d agenda, have contributed to programs that are off-target. they only benefit the populace in well-developed areas. skeletons of projects dotted all over the rural areas exist more as test cases than fully-fledged implementations. absence of sound policy means that, projects will be focussed only on areas with infrastructure. iicd (1998) posits that policies that support ict4d must focus on the development of hr capabilities to use and maintain icts and regulation of network operators. they must encourage network inter-operability so that networks progress towards meeting universal service goals. they should also ensure that none of the populace is excluded from icts. ict must be seen as a means to an end and hence be an integral part of the developmental agenda (heeks, 2002b). 2.2.2 information exchange the unequivocal sharing of free information as a public good and the importance of partnerships in developing locally relevant technology and content and the integration of ict into the already existing local knowledge and information systems is a positive contribution to the success of ict4d projects (chapman and slaymaker, 2002; heeks, 2002b). 2.2.3 partnerships partnerships (whether ppp or multi-stakeholder partnerships (msp)) offer an attractive alternative for governments which often have limited resources. they often grapple with the complexities of ict4d initiatives in order to avoid failures of projects implemented in the 2000s which were attributed to lack of buy-in, appropriateness and sustainability (geldof et. al., 2011; kumar, 2007). the success rate increases for ict4d projects which use partnerships because five major principles are adopted: attention to local context and involvement of local community; clear and agreed intended development outcomes; building sustainability and scalability into the project; upholding principles of trust, honesty, openness, mutual understanding and respect; and a supportive ict environment i.e. policy and infrastructure (geldof et. al. (2011). issues of sustainable access and addressing other critical developmental needs must be addressed by any ict4d project in order for it to be successful (heeks, 2002b) it is important to note that whilst rural communities in developing countries may have similar challenges, the irrelative importance on certain developmental issues differs. therefore, no single model with one line of progression from conception to final rollout of a project fits all. with these different socio-economic contexts, it is imperative to design a flexible multi-directional model that can be used to guide successful implementation of ict4d projects. 2.2.4 progressive attitude progressive behaviour is that which favours learning and development. individuals with this characteristic tend to appreciate innovation and can adapt to new methods of doing things. an example is the community from dwesa which embraced the fact that they could sell art and craft via the internet, using e-commerce (gumbo et al, 2012). progressive people also tend to use computers and embrace new technologies. 2.3 a successful ict4d project there are several projects which have succeeded in rural areas. an example is the siyakula lab, implemented in dwesa, earsten cape, south africa. this was an initiative by the university of fort hare and rhodes university, grintek saab (for wimax and networking equipment), telkom centres of excellence (for broadband, computer equipments), and reed house systems (for software) (dugmore, 2012). this rural community which sells art and craft had an e-commerce site developed where they could market and sell their products. the siyakhula living lab was successful due to partnerships with academia, industry, networking companies, telecommunications companies and software development houses. the project was heavily funded and had participation from community and a school. it aimed at selling art and craft via the internet, which was a developmental strategy. the schools computerisation programme was different because the government of zimbabwe is the only active participant. there was no involvement from the industry players or the private sector. unlike the living lab which was deployed at one school, the programme deployed computers to several schools. however, perhaps the strategy utilised by siyakhula at a micro level can help policy makers in decision making, when embarking on nationwide programmes. 3. the study area mashonaland west province is to the north-western part of zimbabwe containing 7 districts, namely kariba, hurungwe, makonde, zvimba, sanyati, chegutu and mhondoro-ngezi. the capital of the province chinhoyi, in makonde district, houses the chinhoyi university of technology. mashonaland west province is characterised by commercial farming and mining. hurungwe, makonde, zvimba and chegutu, are mainly farming areas and they have high rainfall (receiving 15% of zimbabwe's total annual rainfall, which is approximately 700-1050mm per year confined to the summer). these areas have denser road networks, more urban areas and towns, the highest percentage of electrification, and higher populations compared to the other districts in the province. kariba specialises in tourism and wildlife conservation. sanyati and mhondoro-ngezi are predominantly mining areas. the study primarily focused on rural government secondary schools from the following districts: mhondoro-ngezi, kariba and makonde. the schools visited had received donated computers. these areas were chosen because they are the least developed, receive the lowest rainfalls, have relatively poor road networks and have very low populations. the other districts were not selected because the majority of schools in these areas are in a good serviced road network and closer to chinhoyi. sanyati which offers similar dynamics to mhondoro-ngezi was not chosen because of the distance and unavailability of adequate funding. a tour of the study districts revealed rural communities with low population densities, poor road networks, sparsely located amenities, geographical or topological features that militate against the establishment of a telecommunication network at an affordable cost, poor access to information and limited infrastructural development. some of the schools visited, especially in mhondoro-ngezi, were difficult to reach because of gullies and broken bridges. some areas had absent or broken telephone lines, showing low telecommunications services. in these regions, mobile services work as an alternative. newspapers are the major form of information dissemination. subsistence farming is undertaken at the expense of commercial farming. this is because of the unavailability of information regarding agricultural best practises. random interviews with residents confirmed a lack of current information on government policies, health and other information, useful for individual development. there is also limited economic activity centred primarily on agriculture, fishing and cottage industries. this implies low per capita incomes. the sparse population means that most community residents need to travel long distances to access public, health and education services. there is also a shortage of qualified technical staff within schools and community centres, resulting in some public services no longer being offered. 4. methodology the profile of the study districts as related to donated computers under the schools computerisation programme is shown in table 1. table 1: statistics of computers donated to kariba, makonde and mhondoro-ngezi districts the researchers adopted an exploratory study design in order to establish the factors influencing low usage of computers in rural schools. the extent of the contribution of each factor was not the focus of this study. however, the results of this study will be used to develop valid quantifiable instruments for a nationwide study. it is expected that those schools closest to the provincial capital, would benefit most from urban proximity or access to services provided by institutions in chinhoyi, which houses a university of technology. because of its dynamics, makonde offered reasons different from the mainly rural districts of kariba and mhondoro-ngezi, on the non-usage of computers by its rural schools. a generally purposive sampling was therefore used in selecting districts and schools for the study. amongst the rural schools, 3 in makonde, 2 in kariba and 3 in mhondoro-ngezi, which represents 60% of our sample frame, were used. semi-structured interviews were conducted with heads of schools, teachers, schoolchildren and community residents. the headmasters are the custodian of the donated computers. at each school, 3 teachers available at the time of data collection were randomly interviewed. there was no deliberate attempt to balance the male/female respondents because their representation at school level was already skewed with more male teachers. 10 schoolchildren per school were also randomly picked from the grade 3 to grade 7 groups. members of the community were haphazardly drawn from those who live close to the schools as they are most likely to be aware of any developments. the interviews were administered using semi-structured questionnaires which focussed on the following issues: access, expertise and knowledge of information technology (it), understanding of the benefits of it to school/community/development, perceptions of schools as centres of development in rural environments, attitudes and perceptions towards technology and attitudes towards learning/training in it. the questionnaires were translated into the local language shona with responses translated back into english. whilst english is used as the language of communication in teaching and regarded as the official language of communication in zimbabwe, the relative competencies in english are generally quite low. also the use of shona gives contextual phrases that yield more information and provides better insights than english. 5. findings from interviews findings from the case studies were examined in relation to the literature (section 2: related work). this includes availability of the internet, motivation, progressive versus retrogressive attitudes, network infrastructure, information exchange, partnerships and ict policies. the categories were divided into the following, state of schools, headmasters and teachers, schoolchildren, and community members. the close-to-urban dynamics of makonde may offer reasons different from the mainly rural districts of kariba and mhondoro-ngezi for the non-usage of computers by its rural schools. hence the presentation of our findings will combine the findings of kariba and mhondoro-ngezi. 5.1 findings from kariba and mhondoro-ngezi the following section presents findings from kariba and mhondoro-ngezi districts. 5.1.1 state of the schools in all the schools interviewed there was no internet access. computers were still boxed and not being used. there was no building with proper security and burglar bars that could house these computers. there were no computer desks and laboratory furniture in any of the potential buildings. 5.1.2 headmasters and school teachers teachers had no access to computers for their day-to-day activities. headmasters and teachers had adopted a progressive attitude by engaging some of themselves and some schoolchildren in it training. they see the internet as an important resource and computers as a great development in the school. however despite their progressive attitude, a large number of the teachers are still computer illiterate. teachers do not educate schoolchildren about the internet possibly because of ignorance and fear of the unknown. 5.1.3 schoolchildren the schoolchildren's views were divided between the motivated and the unmotivated. the motivated expressed an interest in knowing more about computers even though they did not adequately understand the english language used by application programs and operating systems. the majority of these knew about the existence of the donated computers. they also expressed that they enjoyed playing computer games. the non-motivated schoolchildren expressed a lack of interest in computers. the majority of these had never had any exposure to computers. they also did not appreciate the importance of having computers. enthusiasm was mainly in playing games on mobile phones. failure to clearly understand english was a significant barrier towards the use of computers. 5.1.4 community members regardless of the fact that they are aware of lagging behind, community residents do not see how the internet can enhance development and boost economic activities. the internet was perceived as a cause of immorality and social decay amongst young people. the community however stressed the need for solutions to the following problems: increase in illness, households without children, living in deprived areas, disabled people with no access to public services, and limited social life/activities. 5.2 findings from makonde district the following section presents findings from makonde district. the findings from this district reflect two different perceptions of the teachers and heads of schools: progressive and retrogressive. 5.2.1 state of the schools although the internet was absent from the schools, it was still considered as a very important instrument by teachers, children and the heads of the schools. despite computers being present in the school, they are reserved for teaching it and the head of the school's office, but were not used by the teachers in their day-to-day administration activities. 5.2.2 headmasters and school teachers the progressive headmasters indicated desire to increase their computer literacy. they also encouraged both teachers and students to become computer literate by enrolling them in training classes. access to the computers in these schools was provided to both the students and teachers alike. paperwork is still a large part of the teacher's activities. a large number of the teachers are computer literate while a few are now able to teach computer studies. under the retrogressive category, teachers reflected ignorance and a lack of inquisitiveness of computer technology at their schools. only a few teachers knew about the presence of the donated computers. similarly to the progressive category, teachers did not have access, for their day-to-day administration duties. the headmasters however had access to computers in their office but did not appreciate the importance of having the internet. 5.2.3 schoolchildren schoolchildren are very much aware of the donated computer and have the opportunity to use them on several occasions. they are motivated to learn more about computers and the internet. they also enjoy playing computer games. however, under the retrogressive category, the majority of schoolchildren indicated ignorance about the existence of computers in their schools. they however, expressed great interest in expanding their limited knowledge of the technology. the children were keen on using the researchers' mobile phones to play games and record audio sounds. 5.2.4 community members the community residents are mostly poor and hence cannot even afford a mobile phone receiver, let alone a computer. however, they viewed the introduction of computers to the community as a great developmental stride. under the retrogressive category, community residents were not aware of the presence of the donated computers. they also had never had any exposure to the internet. however, they were enthusiastic about learning. they had rough ideas on how the technology could be used to achieve community development. after a brief lecture on the internet, the people saw the potential benefits. residents suggested that beer halls could be turned into tele-centres because of their centrality and availability to men. the women proposed a venue where they would meet to discuss ways of grooming themselves using the internet resources. a few individuals in the communities felt that computers were reserved for the united kingdom (uk) and the rest of the developed world. others felt the existence of computers was contrary to their ethical, religious, cultural and traditional belief systems. to them "internet" was a bizarre word. 5.3 summary of findings from all areas investigated very prevalent amongst all schools is the high volume of paperwork as opposed to digital work. consolidated school findings indicated the following reasons for the low usage of computers: very low computer literacy rate (of concern, notably amongst teachers) limited access by teachers, and schoolchildren internet/cultural conflicts absence of spill-over effects of icts to the surrounding communities high levels of technophobia 6. discussion it is expected that if teachers cannot use computers for simple administration, they will not be able to facilitate computers for learning either. the continued use of paperwork and yet the progressive training of students is rather contradictory; meaning, teachers train students to use computers, yet do not use them for their administrative tasks. this suggests a very limited understanding of the benefits of having computers. our findings suggest that there are progressive users who encourage the use of computers amongst their students. despite being poor, they value the importance of technology. they also appreciate discussion forums and engaging in productive activities. this well-motivated community could be viewed as a positive factor in the implementation of ict4d programmes (togola & marcilly, 2011; iicd, 1998; kumar, 2007). however the perception that computers and the internet are reserved for the "u.k" and contrary to local belief systems echoes the results of chapman and slaymaker (2002) and kiraka and manning (2002). the communities need to be sensitized on the universal application of computers. belief systems often create technology-culture conflicts that usually complicate ict use in developing countries (kiraka and manning, 2002). although the general attitude in schools is progressive, computer literacy among teachers is still relatively low. this scenario is suggestive of a serious problem of techno-phobia that is being passed over to the schoolchildren. this requires swift action by the ministry of education, sports and culture on the compulsory training of teachers in basic it. another way to eliminate the phobia is to make computer training compulsory for schoolchildren. technophobia could have been caused by lack of motivation and exposure (iicd, 1998; togola and marcilly, 2011), socio-cultural perception (ashraf, swatman and hanisch, 2008) or simply poor policy implementation. the fact that there are computers in schools but headmasters are not encouraging use, suggests poor policy implementation. there is still a high technological illiteracy rate and unawareness amongst community members. meagre information dissemination strategies could have also led to low buy-in and adoption by stakeholders. a related reason for project failure is that of the discordant piecemeal non-systematic policy implementation strategies. a hypothetical example is that of the ministry of ict that may soon be embarking on a rural school e-learning programme. some of the schools may be remote and inaccessible and hence would require the ministry of transport to develop road and telecoms infrastructure. however, rural road development may not be on the agenda of the ministry of transport in the short run. as such, the ministry of ict's project may have already failed before it has begun. developmental projects require cooperation at national and ministry levels if they are to succeed. these partnerships create the coordinated use of resources and greater outputs are achieved (geldof, 2011). the schools computerisation programmes may not rely heavily on financial sustainability, but communities need to continue deriving information and developmental benefits from them. addressing social-ills and infrastructural challenges still feature as an important aspect of the developmental agenda as expressed by community residents from kariba and mhondoro-ngezi. hence these factors must not be ignored in the ict4d agenda so as to close the design-reality gaps. new strategies to close the gap should best focus on using a process approach to implement ict4d projects so that changes observed during the project growth are gradual, easier managed and controlled (heeks, 2009). issues of affordability clearly affect access and motivation. whilst there is an increase in individual and household ownership in urban areas, the issue of low affordability in rural mashonaland west means community access will still remain as the best option. this echoes the sentiments of heeks (2009). schoolchildren who do not have access to computers within the home are generally less motivated to use computer technology. motivation can be increased by ensuring equitable access to computer technology through community computer centres. since universal access to icts in urban areas has still not been achieved, it remains an even greater challenge for rural communities where most of the technology is non-existent, inaccessible and uncommon due to financial constraints. other developmental objectives such as water, health and infrastructure are given higher priority. regardless that it is unrealistic at this point to achieve universal access, community computer centres would go a long way in affording public access. there are two significant differences offered by the close-to-urban dynamics of makonde district. there is a general acceptance of the internet and the community is able to envision its positive potential on development. in addition, whilst the english language is a barrier in remote areas of the provinces such as kariba and mhondoro-ngezi, it is not so much of a problem in makonde. this can be attributed to reasons of proximity to urban environments, information and new technologies. patridge and rickman (2007) show that rural communities receive fewer benefits from urban areas if they are more distant from urban areas. the increase in distance makes information resources and transport costs more expensive and therefore less affordable for those furthest from urban areas. the implications of onsite observations cannot be ignored since these observations also offer valuable insights to the multi-faceted nature of the problem and also serve to confirm some of the views cited by the interviewees. the shortage of public, health and education services makes health and education services critical issues that the community residents may want addressed before "superficial" issues such as computerisation. this is confirmed by results from interviewing community residents. inadequate road access and infrastructure, and a shortage of skilled technical staff mean that efforts must be made to ensure that once computing infrastructure is installed, local technical staff must be trained to service their areas. this has implications on sustainability issues: an entire computer laboratory may end up shutting down because of small servicing problems, left unattended due to absence of skilled individuals. the limited economic activity and low per capita incomes affects the affordability to buy computing equipment. the community thus could benefit from central tele-centres with shared resources. the low population noted in the district, implies a sparse distribution that makes it difficult to plan, locate and provide centralised services within the districts. invariably, most residents may have to walk long distances for such services. this factor must be taken into consideration in the location of tele-centres. clear efforts must be made to provide enough motivation to residents who have to walk long distances for a service. the issue of inadequate road facilities to schools, such as lack of bridges, makes it difficult to provide services to the schools and rural areas. this factor makes it even imperative for policy makers and implementers to realise that pushing icts into areas which are not physically reachable undermine projects from the very beginning. this results in little or no adoption. it is thus essential for ict promotion to ensure prior development of road access. when the geography or topology of an area imposes additional costs on the development and installation of infrastructure (whether telecommunications or roads), it becomes even more difficult and inhibiting for governments which are already financially burdened to undertake such projects. lack of current information leaves a community even adopting farming and mining practices that are highly inefficient and ineffective. newspapers are limited sources since they do not focus on issues that benefit the rural populace. there is need for other mediums of information such as the internet that, when used wisely, provide information for development. it is clear that singly implemented computerisation programmes will not achieve maximum gains if the community environment does not have adequate infrastructure, roads and telephone services. it is also clear that computerisation programmes can achieve the information objective for rural communities. individual development is also restricted when more pressing health and livelihood problems stifle motivation of individual to adopt and use computers for development. the following observations concerning the limited use of computers for a developmental agenda emerged: icts will not transform "bad" into "good" development, but can enhance the "good" development. effective applications of icts are comprised of both technological and information infrastructures. the application of icts in the absence of a development strategy that makes effective use of them will inevitably result in sub-optimal gains. results achieved thus imply a mismatch between policy, infrastructure and community needs. the study highlighted that central to the success of ict4d projects are the following issues: (1) ict literacy (education and skills), (2) community involvement, (3) community contextual awareness, (4) equitable/ public access to icts, and (5) adequate infrastructural development, all of which can be addressed through a coordinated policy implementation approach. 7. conclusion and recommendations for more targeted programs that understand the socio-cultural context of beneficiary communities, it is imperative that programs move towards targeted local development activity. there is also a need to establish synergies between the project and the beneficiaries by empowering members of the local community. finally, it is important to integrate projects with the provision of information on socio-health problems bedevilling that particular community. in light of the above, a coordinated multi-dimensional participatory approach to ict4d projects, that ensures buy-in, development of adequate infrastructure and provision of community-relevant solutions is recommended. a model of implementation from results that require a match between policy, infrastructure and community needs is drawn. a critical success factors model (see figure 1) for ict4d projects with contexts similar to that of mashonaland west province is therefore presented. figure 1: critical success factors model the critical success factors model (csfm), developed by the authors, starts with governmental policies that deal with developmental strategies. the csfm has two groups of actors: the community and the policy makers/implementers. the policy makers/implementers may be the initiators and/or the co-implementers of ict4d projects. these may include non-governmental organisations if any, and government departments concerned with physical infrastructure. these should inform the transport, telecommunication and electricity policies in order that there be proper road or rail networks, adequate telecommunications and electricity in various areas. once policy has been stipulated, there should be the development, implementation and maintenance of physical and information infrastructure. individuals in rural community should have adequate infrastructure. it is important for this to be available before the internet can be deployed. the government policies that favour development strategies should also inform ict policies. from these, ict4d programmes and projects are outlined. these will be addressed by government organisations concerned with icts, education and rural development, and other private organisations supplying ict equipment and services. on implementation of projects, the community should participate in outlining various needs. these will then inform the development of solutions. training and awareness should take place. the design-reality gap should continually be lessened and should inform the implementation process. finally, the appropriate ict4d products and accessories will help concerning social inclusion and lessening the digital divide. it is highly imperative that the policy makers/implementers engage the community on a participatory basis so as to elicit the needs of the community through training the community on how to use icts. training workshops can be used to achieve three major objectives: (1) improve ict literacy, (2) ensure acceptance of the program, and (3) solicit community needs. the first objective is fundamental to ensuring that users understand the use of icts as information catalysts. the second objective serves to justify a campaign for the increased use of icts in achieving rural development objectives. the third objective ensures that any ict products and services that are introduced are relevant to the community's activities. the training workshops enable the communities to clearly contextualise what they could use icts for. they also allow local communities to "generate their own demand" (chapman and slaymaker, 2002). the responses of the parents (i.e. community residents), point to the need for further community meetings where the role of ict in their lives is explained. parents also need to know what their children are involved in so that they can give permission to their children to attend computer classes during the day. they need to develop an appreciation of the skills that may be required of their children when they move to the commercial environment or even to get innovative ideas from the community itself of how icts can assist them. community derived solutions often get a full buy-in, commitment and have built-in sustainability. setting up computer infrastructure with inadequate telecommunications and road services affects the maximal use of computers for information access and limits accessibility. it is thus imperative that once the concrete needs are established and pre-tested on the local community, the various policy maker/implementers, including private ict organisations, collaborate in ensuring complete supply of physical and information infrastructure that also has the potential to service additional programs in the future. the issue of access is critical to the success of ict-led programs hence developed infrastructure must be situated such that it is reasonably accessible to any community resident. schools and community centres are often the preferred points for situating ict equipment. ict organisations are then in a position to develop ict products and services that the community understands products that are suited to the infrastructure setup. the critical factors of ict literacy (education and skills), community involvement and community contextual awareness are obtained through the participatory approach, whilst those of equitable/ public access to icts and adequate infrastructural development are obtained through the collaborative approach. csfm is relevant mostly to policy makers/implementers as these are well informed of the potential of icts in enhancing rural development. it is necessary to change the way ict4d projects are implemented starting from a well-informed viewpoint to the development of appropriate usable products. our model, although akin to the good practice for ict4d 2.0 implementation in heeks (2009) with respect to the importance of partnerships, the participation of local users, a match with users and technology and the issue of local ownership, recognises the policy tensions between various government departments with overlapping interests and domains and clearly articulates the need for these crucial departments to work together. the model also points out the critical success factors for projects peculiar within a zimbabwean context. while the model is complete in its own right, it can be further elaborated through the development of a 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(2012, july). computing and moral responsibility . stanford encyclopaedia of philosophy.retrieved june 17, 2013 from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/computing-responsibility/ patridge, m.d., & rickman, d.s (2007). d istance from urban agglomeration economies and rural poverty . department of agricultural, environmental, and developmental economics, ohio state university. retrieved december 18, 2012 from http://aede.osu.edu/sites/drupal-aede.web/files/poverty_distance.pdf ruhode, e., owei, v., & maumbe, b.m. (2008). arguing for the enhancement of public service efficiency and effectiveness through e-government: the case of zimbabwe. ist-africa 2008 conference proceedings , 1-13. thirumavalavan, r., & garforth, c. (2009). ict4d and farming communities: success and failure of telecentres in rural tamil nadu . retrieved may 24, 2012 from http://www.ifip.dsg.ae/docs/dc_05_thiru_final.pdf togola, s., & marcilly, b. (2011, january). ict, a genuine tool to reduce isolation and raise health awareness. iicd report. retrieved february 8, 2012 fromhttp://www.iicd.org/publications/ict-a-genuine-tool-to-reduce-isolation-and-raise-health-awareness-mali/ict, a genuine tool to reduce isolation and raise health awareness mali.pdf united nations (2010). united nations e-government survey 2010. 07-1375-7889-2-ce the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 case studies an empirical study on the effects of mobile telephony usage on livelihoods in brong ahafo region of ghana meaningful use of mobile telephony can enhance human development and capabilities thereby empowering people to lead lives they value. they are enabling technologies to deliver human-centred development. this article explores the effects of mobile phone use on livelihoods of users in eight districts in brong ahafo region of ghana. a mixed method approach was employed and qualitative research was used as a dominant paradigm. interview questionnaires, focus group discussions and observation were used. the study showed that mobile phone ownership was high and their uses were characterised by greater uniformity across socio-economic groups and gender. mobile phones enhanced traditional structures, facilitated business links, and face-to-face interactions as well as strengthening community ties. users acknowledged the impact of mobile phones in their ability to !130 stephen bekoe csir institute for scientific and technological information, ghana corresponding author. kofiware2000@gmail.com daniel azerikatoa ayoung bolgatanga polytechnic, ghana azerikatoa@gmail.com paul boadu csir science and technology policy research institute, ghana boadu@myself.com benjamin folitse csir institute for scientific and technological information, ghana folitse62@yahoo.com bekoe, s., ayoung, d. a., boadu, p., folitse, b. (2017).an empirical study on the effects of mobile telephony usage on livelihoods in brong ahafo region of ghana. the journal of community informatics, 13(3), 130—144. date submitted: 2017-02-28. date accepted: 2017-12-21. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1375 . mailto:kofiware2000@gmail.com mailto:azerikatoa@gmail.com mailto:boadu@myself.com mailto:folitse62@yahoo.com http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1375 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1375 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 deal with family emergencies. poor network connectivity and power outages were major obstacles to mobile phone usage. the study makes original contributions to the knowledge of practical relevance in the ict4d field as well as with respect to these under-researched ghanaian regions and provides evidence for policy formulation to improve quality of services in ghana and elsewhere. the participatory field research also provided space for in-depth engagement with local people to understand the technology in social and development contexts. introduction we are living in an era where information and communication technologies (icts) are increasingly part of everyday life. particularly, mobile telephony is widely acknowledged as an important resource for socio-economic development. its meaningful use can enhance human development and capabilities by making people lead lives they value (sen, 1999). this is particularly so against the backdrop of the global economy which is extremely driven by the ‘information age’. the un 2030 agenda for sustainable development also recognizes the great potential of icts and calls for significantly increased access to icts, which play a crucial role in supporting the implementation of all the sustainable development goals (itu, 2015). technology affects lives. for those who have gained access to mobile phones and the internet over the last decades, these technologies have played a key role in changing the way they live (kleine, 2013). based on the literature reviewed and informed intuition, the following research question guided this study: what are the effects of mobile phone use on social, financial and human capitals and livelihoods in eight political and administrative districts in brong ahafo region of ghana? the study aim is to inform policy. the study results provide deeper understanding of the subject area, based on empirical evidence. this research makes an original contribution to ict4d (mobile phone) debates on the effects of mobile phone use on socio-economic development to policymakers, researchers, academicians and practitioners in the field of ict for development particularly in ghana and also elsewhere. related literature in recent years, mobile telephony has emerged as the fastest-growing communication technology ever. however, the rate of adoption varies according to geographic region and country. the variations in adoption rates include socio-cultural, governmental, economic, industry, and policy-related factors (castells et al, 2007). for example, in africa, the first mobile phone call was made only in 1987, yet the world bank’s 2012– 13 africa development indicators report suggests that more than 80% of urban people in africa now have access to cell phones (porter, 2015). the rapid adoption of mobile telephony has generated a great deal of speculation and optimism regarding its effect on socio-economic development, in africa in particular. for example, policymakers, !131 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 newspapers, and mobile phone companies have all touted the poverty-eradicating potential of mobile phones (corbett, 2008, cited in aker & mbiti, 2010). at the connect africa summit in 2007, paul kagame, president of rwanda, posited: ‘in 10 short years, what was once an object of luxury and privilege, the mobile phone, has become a basic necessity in africa’ (connect africa summit, 2007). castells et al (2007) further postulate that mobile telephone has become more economically viable than landline services in many poorer countries, which contributes to its relatively rapid rate of adoption in some areas. in a short period of time, mobile telephony has become a dominant technology carving for itself a sphere of influence in technical, commercial, and social domains. duncombe (2012) identified a research gap that concerns how the mobile phone compares with other technologies as a means to deliver information-based services. he further postulates that evidence from project-based evaluations suggests that mobile phones can be used effectively as part of a mix of technologies, but there is lack of detailed research into areas of convergence. according to porter (2015), mobile phones present new forms of sociality and new possibilities of encounter for young people across the globe: nowhere is this more evident than in sub-saharan africa, where landline telephone lines are few and mostly restricted to privileged elders. the scale of mobile phone usage among young people in sub-saharan africa today is remarkable even within the very poor. obviously, this critical communication technology has changed the mind-sets of people about communication, co-ordination and safety and it has changed the way people behave in public spheres. the effects of mobile phones were investigated due to the fact that in recent years there has been a tremendous growth of mobile phone accessibility and, in most cases; mobile phones are considered important icts in rural areas (hancock, 2005). phone contact in africa is now commonly perceived not merely as a significant conduit for business interactions but, above all, as key to the everyday maintenance of social networks so essential for protecting and supporting individuals and families in times of stress (porter, 2016). in most parts of the world, landlines are losing their currency as a result of the exponential growth in the adoption of mobile telephony, due to its ease of use and its relative low acquisition cost (castells et al, 2007). in developing countries where landline expansion was restricted to capital cities, the mobile phone became an obvious choice for communication and thence the accompanying peripheral benefits. for example, the highest growth rates worldwide are on the continent of africa (gsma, 2014). but this growth is unevenly distributed, with greater access in more developed countries such as south africa and populated urban areas, a trend that is evident in other parts of the world as well. kalba (2007) reported that, from a base of 10,000 landline phones in 2000, the democratic republic of congo gained nearly three million mobile phone subscribers by 2005; nigeria started with about a million landline phones but picked up 19 million mobile ones; angola, ghana, kenya, mali, mauritania, morocco, tanzania and uganda have made impressive development. mobile phones have brought about a revolution in africa. !132 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 mobile phones are rapidly changing the face of africa. a growing literature shows how these technologies are reshaping the way business is done, the way social networks are built and maintained, and even the conduct of romantic courtship (porter, 2015). this is particularly so against the backdrop of the global economy which is driven by the ‘information age’. it is viewed as having the potential, if used properly, to leapfrog the development process from one stage to another (laguerre, 2013). in the view of gollakota et al (2012), there is considerable hope that ict has the potential, under certain conditions, to facilitate improvement in the livelihoods of people in marginalised communities in the global south. for instance, the technology has been applied in diverse new forms to benefit users and service providers. prominent amongst these users has been its capacity as a financial inclusion tool (mobile money) to the unbanked mostly in developing countries (itu, 2013). in developing countries where the reach of formal banking is limited, mobile money has become an alternative to financial services (donavan, 2012; scharwatt et al, 2015). the developing countries, nevertheless, face huge challenges in their ability to utilize these resources for their growth and development agenda even though there is a measure of progress (itu, 2012). there are also limitations, which range from infrastructural constraints to an individual’s ability to convert access to icts into tangible benefits in light of other environmental constraints both physical and socio-cultural. as castells puts it, lack of access to icts represents both cause and effect of social marginalization (castells, 1999). mobile telephony has been one of the fastest growing technologies in the world, with mobile networks roughly doubling in size every two years since 2002 (world bank, 2012:115). in fact, by 2011, around 90 economies across the world had mobile penetration rates of up to 100% (world bank). however, despite the apparent ubiquity of mobile phones, there is a still significant gender gap in access to these technologies. the global study on the mobile phone gender gap in low-and middle-income countries, led by gmsa (2010) clearly indicates a significant difference in mobile phone ownership between men and women: a woman is 21% less likely to own a mobile phone than a man. this figure increases to 23% if she lives in africa, 24% if she lives in the middle east, and 37% if she lives in south asia (gsma, 2010). in the developing world, there are 300 million fewer female mobile phone subscribers than male (gsma). the study also indicated that household income, geographic location, age, occupation and level of education play a key role in determining whether a woman is able to own a mobile phone in low and middle-income countries (gsma, 2010:8). at the same time, mobile phones are still the most accessible modern communications technology and therefore offer a crucial opportunity to bridge the digital divide (world bank, 2012) and by extension, the gender digital divide. research methods and techniques this research used primary and secondary data sources of information. primary data were collected using interview questionnaires, focus group discussions and observation. secondary data were gathered by the review of related literature. the review consisted of journal articles, books, policy documents and reports from organisations dealing with mobile phones. we also administered interview questionnaires to users of mobile !133 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 phones in the study locations. we carried out focus group discussions with users of mobile phones from the districts and communities shown in table 1 below. table 1: size and number of focus groups in brong ahafo region source: fieldwork, 2014 cameron (2005) cited in courtney and antoinette (2016) posits that focus group discussions are useful for identifying disagreements or controversy about a particular issue. they are also a way of triangulating or confirming data collected using other methods. critical observation of the issues relevant to the study were made in the surrounding communities. qualitative data derived from the interviews and focus group discussions were analysed using nvivo, whereas quantitative data were analysed using spss. data presentation involved using graphs, tables and narrations. purposive sampling procedures were used to select users for inclusion. sampling entailed selection of the respondents from a large population of users in the communities. the research locations were of particular interest in the study. eight districts in the region constituted the sample, as shown in table 2. respondents comprised users of mobile phones in the study locations. table 2: the study locations source: field research, may 2014 region focus group brong ahafo district communities size age range brong ahafo asutifi south acherensua 13 19-60 brong ahafo sunyani west chiraa 11 21-38 brong ahafo tano north bechem 7 18-45 brong ahafo techiman techiman 9 19-40 brong ahafo wenchi wenchi 11 21-55 region district location brong ahafo nkoranza south nkoranza brong ahafo sunyani west nsoatre brong ahafo tano north duayaw nkwanta brong ahafo tano south bechem brong ahafo techiman municipal techiman brong ahafo wenchi municipal wenchi brong ahafo sunyani municipal chiraa brong ahafo asunafo south acherensua !134 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 methods of data collection and analysis to explore the effects of mobile phone use, a three-month study was conducted from march to may in 2014 in eight political and administrative districts in brong ahafo region (see table 2 above). the study locations were chosen purposively by the researchers. data for this study were collected using interviews questionnaires, focus group discussions and observation techniques. the application of more than one instrument in data collection is vital to provide checks and balances with regard to shortfalls inherent in each of the data collection instruments (creswell, 2014). using mixed methods maximises the quality and diversity of information to be obtained from sampled informants (creswell, 2014). the study consisted of six categories of units of analysis such as self-employed (informal sector), employed part-time, employed full time (formal sector), and unemployed not looking for job, retired people and students. the questions for respondents ranged from access, affordability and use of mobile phones, ownership and number of mobile phones possessed and how their investments in the use of mobile phones had been helpful for economic, social and human activities. barriers to the use of mobile phones and the importantance of mobile phones in emergency situations were also explored. data analysis involved a number of closely related operations, performed with the objective of summarising the collected data and organising them in ways that they answer the research questions. the operations include editing, coding, classifying and tabulating. it also entailed categorising, ordering, manipulating and summarising data, to find answers to the research questions (peil, 1982). the statistical package for social science (spss) was used to code and analyse quantitative data from the interview questionnaires with users of mobile phones that came from the set of closed-ended questions. before the actual analysis, data were cleaned, edited, checked for consistency and coded. these processes were essential to ensure that data collected were systematically organised in a way that facilitated analysis (kothari, 2004; mugenda & mugenda, 2003:115). data editing and cleaning were strongly followed by data coding. data coding transforms raw data into symbols that can be tabulated and counted. the data was converted to numerical codes representing attributes or measurements of variables (mugenda & mugenda, 2003:116). the data from the focus group discussions were analysed using nvivo software. they were conducted on premises suitable for discussions and moderated by the lead researcher. research assistants took notes during the discussions. the nvivo software was used for coding, analysing and interpreting the focus group data. all discussions were recorded digitally, and group photographs were taken with permissions from group members. an nvivo project was created in the nvivo software where all the transcribed data, observations and ideas were stored and later linked together. the transcribed data documents on the nvivo project, as well as the original recordings, were reviewed several times and comments made by the respondents were compared until themes materialized. !135 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the themes and all the information pertinent to answering the research questions were used to create nvivo nodes. creation of nodes is an important step in the analysis of qualitative data using the nvivo software. nodes are created to summarise, reduce and simplify the data. in nvivo, a node is defined as a container for categories and coding of the data. nvivo nodes can represent themes, concepts, processes, people, abstract ideas, places or any other categories in the project. nodes are, therefore, the route by which coding is undertaken. our ‘positionality’ as ghanaians in terms of race, gender, economic status, employment, ethnic orientation/background and sexuality were extremely adhered to and as a result it minimized influence on the data collected. according to apentiik & parpart (2006: 37), the lifestyle, attitude and behaviour that the researcher adopts in the field can influence the researched community’s reactions to him or her. we constantly considered the ethics of the research process and how to deal with our participants. our reflection on the research ethics were on a continual basis to ensure an appropriate balance in our relations with the research participants to minimize influence on the data collected. results and discussion the mobile phone ownership was quite high in all the districts visited (see figure 1). this could be explained by the characteristics of the respondents; most were young and economically active and more likely to own and use mobile phones due to their prominence and significance to their diverse needs. this situation sturdily affirms a study by porter (2015) that competition between network providers has often been instrumental in bringing down call costs, encouraging regular phone communication among even the very poor. figure 1: number of phones owned by respondents source: fieldwork, 2014 ! source: fieldwork, 2014 however, some have access to mobile phones through borrowing from friends and other sharing means among friends, colleagues and family members. figure 1 show that in all the districts researched, 67% respondents own one mobile phone while 0.3% of respondents owned three. it was also observed that low network coverage remained the most serious challenges to the users. the quality of mobile phone service in these districts was compromised as some network operators had not extended telecommunications masks to some remote locations to boost quality of service. !136 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 3 shows the distribution of respondents by districts and gender at the research sites in the brong ahafo region. since a non-probability sampling technique was used to select respondents, efforts were made to include both sexes. the number of women who used mobile phones was lower than males in all eight districts. table 3: distribution of respondents by district and gender in mobile phone use source: fieldwork, 2014 some reasons attributed to women’s exclusion were cultural influences, lack of skills, illiteracy, poverty, lack of time and male-dominated corporate control. roman & colle (2002) posited that hundreds of thousands of women all over the world might be shut out of the information society because of their literacy level and gender-related issues. this sturdily affirms our study as observed and narrated in relation to gender in some rural communities. in using her mobile phone to run her petty trading business (snail business), a petty trader in one of the researched communities had in mind not to break any norms about female economic independence. due to this, she was divorced and not re-married: some women traders in researched communities attested that they had to choose between their marriage and their economic advancement, since their husbands could not cope with their increasing economic empowerment and social independence. respondents were asked what they do for living. various economic activities were mentioned. these activities were grouped into six categories, based on how related the activities were, with the sole aim of coding and streamlining the data. the categories were: self-employed, employed part-time, employed full-time, unemployed not looking for job, retired people and students. figure 2 shows that 48% of respondents were employed full-time while 15% were self-employed, working in the informal sector. seven percent of respondents in the districts under study were employed part-time. this confirms an assertion by an officer at undp ghana office on august 13, 2014: region district gender male (n=) (%) female (n=) (%) total (n=) (%) brong ahafo asutifi south 15 57 11 42 26 14 brong ahafo nkoranza south 19 70 8 29 27 14 brong ahafo sunyani west 14 66 7 33 21 11 brong ahafo sunyani-west 22 84 4 15 26 14 brong ahafo tano north 13 92 1 7 14 7 brong ahafo tano south 24 80 6 20 30 16 brong ahafo techiman municipal 18 24 1 5 19 10 brong ahafo wenchi 16 76 5 23 21 11 total 141 76 43 23 184 30 !137 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “the use of icts is an enabler for socio-economic development; more especially mobile phones have facilitated the penetration of icts in most communities, to the extent that in the very remotest village, cell phones can be used. icts (mobile phones now facilitate businesses) with a single call information can be shared across.” figure 2: occupation of respondents ! source: fieldwork, 2014 the above assertion supports a study by mandoga, matswetu and misheck (2013) in zimbabwe highlighting the millennium development goals set by the un in 2000, which stressed the importance of icts in the global development agenda. the un 2030 agenda for sustainable development also recognizes the great potential of icts and calls for significantly increased access to icts, which will play a crucial role in supporting the implementation of all the sustainable development goals (itu, 2015). our research findings further showed that there was not much gender difference in access and use of mobile phones in the researched communities. a police woman and mobile phone user in wenchi interviewed in july 2014 posited: ‘people at all levels of socioeconomic ladder of this community irrespective of gender were able to access mobile services’. our results concur with coyle (2005) and sinha (2005), who posited that people at all income levels are able to access mobile services, either through owning or sharing. this also validates a study by porter (2016) that found sharing phones among family, friends, and neighbours reduces capital expenditure in very poor households, but for many, especially youth, the phone and its associated running costs are a priority, sometimes even above food. gender, age and education do not seem to create obstacles to access. !138 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 with regards to mobile phones and financial capital, business people in the research locations used the mobile phones to communicate with suppliers and customers. the phones helped them to check the availability of supplies before travelling; without the phones they would have to travel more frequently, the cost of doing business would increase and they might lose customers. a study by porter et al (2012) firmly endorses how mobile phones facilitate travel. her findings show that mobile phones are extremely valuable, especially where key contacts are located at a distance and travel costs and hazards (such as high traffic accident rates and check points where bribes have to be paid) inhibit frequent visits. for farmers and traders in agro-business fields, the phones were used to enquire about the prices of their products in different markets, e.g. farmers of perishable agricultural products posited that they usually communicated with customers when their produce were ready and they could not stay in business without a phone. respondents acknowledged the beneficial impact of the mobile phone in the ability to deal with family emergencies. this was mainly associated with health issues, injury and death of close relatives. they indicated that in cases of emergencies, they were able to call other relatives who were living far away for help and financial assistance. mobile phones enhanced traditional structures, facilitated business links and face-to-face interactions and strengthened community ties. the cultural influence was evident in the use of mobile phones. people tended to make calls instead of texting. although other factors, like literacy, accounted for that, it was critically observed that even the youths and well-educated people who could read and write often felt more comfortable talking to people than texting. texting was viewed as an impersonal way to communicate. some indicated that they knew how to text and they had sufficient credits to do so but they preferred to call people and hear their voice, instead of using text. one person opined: ‘a relative who was a military officer had died and as soon as the picture of the deceased was discovered on the internet, i used my mobile phone to inform other family members and friends from far and near and i think that mobile phone is helping us in times of emergencies’. similar results were reported by souter et al (2005), where a mobile phone was reported as the most important channel for emergency information and communication between family members. the mobile phone helped respondents to overcome remoteness and access social capital, even from relatives living far away. they also pointed out that much of the vulnerability that people face came from lack of knowledge or information. however, information provided by mobile phones might not mitigate all the vulnerabilities that communities face. a female drinking bar operator postulated: ‘i cannot count the number of years i have used mobile phone … the benefits derived from using mobile phone is enormous. i use it to organise social events !139 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 in my bar, interact with my customers and to place business orders from my suppliers’. this revealed that mobile phone access is highly valued by all. this is especially the case for its potential role in business and social communications and in dealing with emergency situations (frost & sullivan, 2006). bjärhov and weidman (2007) cited by angoitia (2009) shows that, for low-income sectors, the ability to communicate is of prime importance, and that in many cases, mobile phones have turned out to be the only or the best option; it is considered a necessary and an inelastic good. mobile phones are even more valuable because of new services such as mobile banking and money transfer services. in terms of human capital, respondents were asked to indicate how their investments in mobile phones had been helpful in knowledge acquisition and how lack of access to mobile phones would affect their knowledge acquisition. about 64% were excited about knowing how to use the different functions in the mobile phones. they disclosed that they saw mobile phones as micro-computers, and it was easy for them to learn later how to use computers because the principles were almost the same. in terms of social capital, respondents were asked to indicate how their investments in the use of the mobile phones had been helpful in social communication. they were asked to indicate how lack of access to mobile phones would affect them socially if they were unable to access mobile phones. most respondents (81%) said that mobile phones had helped them to stay in touch with their friends and families in ghana and abroad to have fast and easy communication. focus group discussion (fgd) participants also pointed out that, without the mobile phones, they would have to travel to different places to see relatives, even about very small things which could otherwise be communicated over the phone. consequently, without the phone it would cost them heavily in terms of travelling. besides, much time and energy would be wasted during travelling. the fgd participants were asked to specify the effects that the use of mobile phones had on social capital. in all the five fgds regardless of age, gender and location, participants underscored the fact that access to mobile phones had indeed enhanced their social networks and had boosted their social capital. at acherensua, access to a mobile phone had helped one respondent to travel from acherensua in brong ahafo region to accra in the greater accra region. he did not know the place but he conversed with a relative who gave him directions. he said: ‘without a mobile phone, i would not have been able to travel to accra’ (x, male, 30, artisan). in techiman, a participant opined that the use of mobile phones has increased the integration between people living in distant places and has improved the social capital between the two groups (y, female, 26, university student). at chiraa, a participant also said ‘through the use of whatsapp application on my mobile phone, i have been in touch with my old school friends and receives updates about my school (z, male, 28, teacher). !140 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 five focus groups were conducted because of financial and time constraints. table 3 shows the size and number of focus groups in the brong ahafo region. both males and females were combined to solicit divergent opinions. the ages ranged between 19 and 60. participants were drawn from various backgrounds ranging from students, professionals and civil servants to artisans, farmers as well as traders. group size ranged from seven to 13 people. table 4: size and number of focus groups in brong ahafo region source: fieldwork 2014 regarding mobile phones and vulnerability, respondents acknowledged the beneficial impact of mobile phones on the ability to deal with family emergencies such as health issues, injury and death of close relatives. mobile phones were found to be beneficial in calling for help in cases of emergency. mobile phones were used to call for a taxi in the event that someone became sick and needed to be taken to the hospital. this is something that, in some years back, people living in rural area could not do. the phones helped people to be less vulnerable to family emergencies and shocks. mobile phones provided them with an opportunity to get help from places beyond their immediate community. friends and relatives in distant places could respond and offer help where needed. conclusion the conclusion attempts to link the research findings with the larger issues of the use of mobile phones and their effects on livelihoods. the use of mobile phones was characterised by greater uniformity across socio-economic groups and gender in the research communities in brong ahafo region and gender was not an obstruction to access to mobile phones. the result indicates that the mobile phone is the kind of ict more driven by pull from the demand side than push from the supply side. this is the reason why the adoption of this technology has been so successful within a small span of time, even in the rural areas. the success of mobile phones is mainly due to the demand side pulling rather than the supply side pushing. on the issue of a mobile phone service, the study concludes that, in spite of the significant improvements that have been made in terms of providing access to mobile phone services, this service is not evenly available in rural areas. results also show that district communities size age range asutifi south acherensua 13 19-60 sunyani west chiraa 11 21-38 tano north bechem 7 18-45 techiman techiman 9 19-40 wenchi wenchi 11 21-55 !141 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 physical access to mobile phones was high through individual ownership. however, sufficient conditions for mobile use were lacking in terms of service quality of mobile phone networks. the findings also indicate that mobile phones contribute to: improving livelihoods by expanding and strengthening social networks; increasing people’s ability to deal with emergencies; cutting down travel costs and strengthening the efficiency of business and social activities. walsham (2001) cited in zheng (2005) poses the following question: are we making a better world with it? (in his book making a world of difference: it in a global context). by “better”, according to zheng (2005), walsham does not mean purely in economic terms, but related to a “broader global agenda of social or spiritual welfare”. for walsham, there is no simple answer, and we have to make our judgments on a case by case basis, in our own terms, with the broad agenda of trying to improve the world. whatever the answers are, there is no doubt for an increasing need for reflection and action on the part of individuals, groups and societies in the new “information age” (walsham: 237). this study might not offer the last word on my research question; nevertheless, it makes one step in the direction of achieving a better understanding, or the ability to make a better decision, about mobile phones, sustainable livelihoods and development in ghanaian context. though our research concentrated on eight districts in one region, the implications of the study are of great value to other contexts as well. references apentiik c. r. a. & parpart, j. l. 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(2005). information culture and development: ict for healthcare in south africa and china (doctoral dissertation, university of cambridge). !144 http://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wpcontent/uploads/2015/03/sotir_2014.pdf http://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wpcontent/uploads/2015/03/sotir_2014.pdf http://www.irfd.org/events/wf2005/papers/sinha_chaitali.pdf http://siteresources.worldbank.org/extinformationandcommunicationandtechnologies/resources/ic4d-2012-report.pdf http://siteresources.worldbank.org/extinformationandcommunicationandtechnologies/resources/ic4d-2012-report.pdf http://siteresources.worldbank.org/extinformationandcommunicationandtechnologies/resources/ic4d-2012-report.pdf too old for technology too old for technology? how the elderly of lisbon use and perceive ict   bárbara barbosa neves, fausto amaro centre for public administration and policies (capp)  institute of social and political sciences of technical (iscsp-utl) university of lisbon   abstract   the elderly have traditionally been an excluded group in the deployment of information and communication technologies (ict). even though their use of ict is increasing, there is still a significant age-based digital divide. to empower elderly people’s usage of ict we need to look at their patterns of usage and perceptions. to understand how lisbon’s elderly people (65 and above) use and perceive mobile phones, computers, and the internet, we surveyed a random stratified sample of 500 individuals over 64 years of age, living in lisbon. of those surveyed, 72% owned a mobile phone, 13% used computers, and 10% used the internet. the quantitative data was followed-up by ten qualitative (semi-structured) interviews. the implications of the results are discussed herein.   aging, ict, and ageism   grey societies: defining the new “olds”   an aging population has become a demographic trend of the majority of developed societies, such as japan, the usa, and europe (cf. moody, 2006). but it is becoming progressively a trend in developing countries as well: the elderly populations are now growing more quickly in developing countries than those in developed countries (shrestha, 2000). the aging phenomenon is generally attributed to the improvement of health conditions, living standards, and the decline of mortality and fertility rates (cf. moody, 2006). generally, society uses age to define roles and positions in the social structure: societies distribute resources based on socially constructed ideas of what “aging” is (morgan & kunkel, 2006). most developed countries legislatively set the age of 65 as a cutoff to define an elderly, or “senior”, person associating the chronological age (years lived or years after birth) with the statutory retirement age at which one may legally begin to receive pension benefits (who). with the increase of life expectancy rates, those who were once considered “old” are now considered “young” (or at least “not so old”): between 1800 and 2000, life expectancy at birth grew from approximately 30 years to a global average of 67 years (riley, 2001).   there are, of course, different life expectancy rates across the globe. for instance, data for 2010 shows that afghanistan is the lowest ranked country with a life expectancy rate of 45, while japan is top ranked with a life expectancy rate of 83.5 (un, 2010). it is difficult to define a common limit for the age when a person becomes old, and so there is still no global standard criterion. the majority of european countries use 65 and over as a cutoff, while the world health organization (cf. who) and the united nations use 60 and above (cf. un, 2008). but both organizations use the elderly dependency-ratio: a statistical measure that refers to the elderly as someone of 65 years of age or above.   the process of aging is also subjective: individuals with the same age can have different physical and mental abilities, which may or may not be related to the length of time they have been alive (cf. sharkey, 1987). to tackle the heterogeneity of chronological aging, other indicators emerged. from the literature, the commonly used non-chronological indicators of age are: functional age perceived age social age cognitive age   functional age, referred also to as biological age, relates to physical and cognitive capabilities of an individual, and it’s based on the concept of frailty (graham, mitnitski, mogilner, & rockwo, 1999). this concept is still subjective, but as evidence shows the scientific validity of the functional age depends largely on the variables/biomarkers used to define it (anstey, lord, & smith, 1996). recently, a new frailty index considers a set of twenty deficits (symptoms, impairments, and disabilities) that include loss of functional activities, global health condition, and behavioral problems – from hearing loss to difficulty of going out or bathing. the index allows an estimation of frailty and fitness, by comparing the number of deficits present in an individual with the mean number of deficits present in other individuals with the same chronological age (mitnitski, graham, mogilner, & rockwood, 2002).   perceived age, also referred to as subjective age, refers to either an individual’s self-perceived age (i.e. what age an individual feels rather than what age he/she is) or the age others perceive that one has (others-perceived age). some physicians use this measure as a general indicator of a patient's health. it is still a subjective measure, but research has shown that the elderly with younger age perceptions had better psychological functioning (linn & hunter, 1979), coped better with health recovery, and reported lower levels of perceived disability (boehmer, 2007). an “older perceived age” may even be an initial indicator of aggravation of health in older people – a longitudinal finnish study concluded that describing oneself as older than one’s chronological age carries an augmented risk of mortality, indicating that the perceived age can reveal a person’s general well-being (uotineni, rantanen, & suutama, 2005).   social age is a way of defining people’s age according to social and cultural experiences.  in the case of the elderly, these experiences include, but are not limited to, retirement, widowhood, and becoming a grandparent (science encyclopedia). social age is normally used as a functional classification to characterize life cycles  (gerbner, gross, signorielli, & morgan, 1980).   cognitive age is a type of self-perceived age that is framed by four indicators: feel-age, look-age, do-age, and interest-age. these indicators correspond to the four dimensions of personal age suggested by kastenbaum et al. (1972). to ascertain each, a person will be asked a question such as: “which age group do you feel you really belong to: twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, or eighties?” and so on for look, do, and interest (barak & schiffman, 1981). each answer (20’s, 30’s, etc.) corresponds to a specific numerical value, which can be then compared to chronological age. both barak & schiffman (1981) and eastman & iyer (2005) found that there is a positive association between chronological age and cognitive age. this scale has been mainly applied in consumer research, but it may be reflecting a societal preoccupation with youthfulness (eastman & iyer, 2005).   the above definitions of non-chronological indicators of age are not yet entirely reliable or fully used in the field. in our research, while recognizing that the chronological indicator is also limited, we define a senior citizen as someone with a chronological age of 65 and above. another influencing factor in using this definition was that the portuguese statistics office also defines a senior as a person of 65 and above (ine, 2010a).   “don’t leave a laptop around an old woman”   information and communication technologies (ict) can contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of the elderly: “the internet seems well suited to the needs of the elderly, as a fairly sedentary population with considerable leisure time, especially for social networking, hobbies, and services as the home delivery of groceries” (norris, 2001:84). in addition, ict can help to reduce their dependence and promote active aging. and even though the elderly’s use of ict is increasing, there is still a significant age-based digital divide (czaja & lee, 2007).   according to the eurostat’s data on internet usage (2011), in 2010, 37% of individuals between 55 and 74 years of age used the internet on average at least once a week, in the 27 countries of the european union. comparing to 90% of the individuals between 16 and 24 years of age, and to 73% of individuals between 25 and 54 years of age. but eurostat includes in the same age group people between 55 and 65 years of age – a population that is an active part of the labor force – with people above that threshold. we argue that this group (people in the 55-74 age range) is too heterogeneous. considering that the life expectancy rate at birth in the european union (27) is around 80 (82.2 for women and 76.1 for men – data from 2007)[1] (eurostat, 2010), we also argue that this type of surveys might be neglecting a significant age cohort.   the elderly are commonly depicted as technophobic. the oxford dictionary (2010) defines a technophobe as “a person who fears, dislikes or avoids new technology”. this characterization of the elderly might be related to the fact that the elderly are the age group with the lowest ratio of computer and internet usage, but might also be related to a preconception or a stereotype. we can find evidence of this stereotype in popular culture, from a plethora of cartoons to commercials and videos where the elderly and their use of computers are ridiculed. “old people use a computer: the game show” or “don’t leave alaptop (sic) around an old woman” available on youtube are some among many.[2]   technology is not the only possible source of prejudice for the elderly: there is a set of more general negative and positive stereotypes. this set is a mixed labeling of stereotypes that involves socially desirable and undesirable traits (fiske, et al. 2002). the elderly are labeled as “incompetent” and “warm” (cuddy, norton, & fiske, 2005; fiske, et al. 2002). this mixed perception – high perceived “warmth” and low perceive “competence” – is related to what is defined as paternalistic stereotypes (in opposition to envious stereotypes). the paternalistic stereotypes describe out-groups that are not able to harm members of the in-group (fiske, et al. 2002). the social relationships within groups affect the perceived stereotypes. groups that are seen as more competitive are also seen as less warm (cuddy, norton, & fiske, 2005; fiske, et al. 2002).   the current evidence indicates that these stereotypes are not only symptomatic of a western world; they are pervasive and cross-cultural. an international stereotypes content model (scm) study concluded that students in belgium, costa rica, hong kong, japan, israel, and south korea rated the elderly considerably as more warm than competent (cuddy, fiske, & glick, 2008). the elderly were also associated with low status and non-competitiveness. and this was reflected even in asian cultures that are perceived as more collective and focused on the confucius’ filial piety, such as hong kong, japan, and south korea.   moreover, the idea that the old ruled tribal societies seems to be idealized. as the british anthropologist mary douglas states, “often when we read of decisions being taken by the village elders we find that “elder” is a misleading rendering of a world meaning “fully responsible adult male”…the elders are vigorous men in their late 40s. even where the people are ruled by a council of elders it is thus possible for the really elderly men to carry no weight” (douglas, 1963:13, as quoted by fennel, phillipson, & evers, 1988).   the stereotypes that are used to characterize the elderly seem to persist in the social structure (cf. cuddy, et al., 2005), being deeply rooted in the mainstream discourse. for example, the portuguese have a well-known idiom “burro velho não aprende línguas” (an old donkey can’t learn new languages), which is functionally equivalent to the english “you can't teach an old dog new tricks”. although age affects health, sensory functioning, and cognition, these seem to be generally overrated, especially in older adults/young elderly (pasupathi & löchenhoff, 2004).   literature in the field of work and productivity shows that age affects working skills: job performance seems to decrease around the age of 50 (skirbekk, 2003). the loss of productivity in aging populations is more visible in tasks involving problem solving, learning, and speed. in tasks where experience and verbal abilities are essential, older individuals maintain a high productivity level (skirbekk, 2003). but there is also a body of research that challenges the perceptions of the older workers as unhealthy, prone to physical decline, absence, and ineptitude (cf. mccann & giles, 2004). employers rate better older workers in attendance, punctuality, and even performance. and they are less hurt in the job than younger workers (even in risky professions as the police or firefighting) (mccann & giles, 2004). it is worth remembering that john glenn, former astronaut and us senator, went out into space for the second time when he was 77 years of age[3]; or that the 76-year-old gloria steinem continues to give lectures and speak about feminism and gender equality. in her book doing sixty and seventy, steinem talks about aging, prejudice, and the social condition of older women (steinem, 2006). these might be outliers, or not, so we need further research in this area.   this prejudice against older people, or ageism as defined by butler (1969), has social, cultural, and economic consequences, as it stigmatizes and discriminates the elderly. it creates a “welfarization” and a pathological vision of the elderly that suggests inferiorization, disabilities, and patronage (fennel, phillipson, & evers, 1988). it is not, therefore, strange to notice that ageism is also affecting the digital world.   an aging population undoubtedly brings social and economic challenges, starting with an age-based dependency, but the focus on the costs of an aging population ignores the social and economic contributions of older citizens. a study conducted by vaus et al. (2003) concluded that australians over 64 years of age make a valuable economic contribution to their society through out the time they spend in voluntary work and in unpaid care for their families and communities. the authors estimate that this work done by the elderly corresponds to approximatly au$39 billion per year (vaus, gray, & stanton, 2003).   silver surfers?   so, how accurate are the claims that the elderly are technophobic or incompetent with ict? research indicates that age is one of the main factors of the digital divide. computer and internet usage are negatively correlated with age (norris, 2001; rice & katz, 2003), creating a “grey digital divide” (millward, 2003). but, does this mean that the elderly are afraid or cannot engage with ict?   several studies have been showing that the elderly are willing to use ict and can use it with proficiency (cf. czaja & lee, 2007; malta, 2008). for instance, malta’s research (2008) on the elderly and late-life romantic relationships, online and offline, has been debunking the idea that the elderly are asexual or technologically inept. however, in general, the elderly face several obstacles: physical problems that limit their ict usage; lack of a computer with internet access; and even lack of general interest in ict (czaja & lee, 2007).   research has also shown that when teaching the elderly to use computer programs, the type of training and the system design make a significant difference (naumanen & tukiainen, 2007; czaja & lee, 2007). involving the elderly in the design of the products and an adequate training may be critical to improve the engagement of elderly users. researchers and teachers need to acknowledge that the elderly are a very heterogeneous group, but that age increase is correlated with some losses in cognition, namely a decline in the so-called fluid intelligence (czaja & lee, 2007).   general fluid intelligence (gf) is defined as “the ability to reason and to solve new problems independently of previously acquired knowledge” (jaeggi et al., 2008). gf is crucial for a great number of cognitive tasks and it is one of the most critical factors in learning. gf includes working memory, prospective memory, concentration, and spatial cognition, which decline with age (jaeggi et al., 2008; czaja & lee, 2007). gf has, therefore, a significant impact on technology adoption and usage (czaja & lee, 2007). this means that the elderly will be slower when learning new skills or performing some tasks.   but there is new evidence that the gf performance can be improved by training, even though there is no data or evidence specifically for the elderly (jaeggi et al., 2008). the cristalized intelligence (gc), which is related to life experience and acquired knowledge, tends to increase or remain stable with age (czaja & lee, 2007). and gc can be a valued “asset’ in ict learning and usage.    in terms of mobile phone usage, studies show that people over 60 make limited usage of mobile phones, having them mainly for emergencies – mobile phones provide the elderly with some assurance, as they can call someone when needed (kurniawan, nugroho, & mahmud, 2006). the elderly seem to avoid some functions of mobile phones, like sms and other advanced features, because the devices are not user-friendly: the displays and buttons are small and difficult to see (kurniawan, nugroho, & mahmud, 2006).   comparing internet and mobile phone usage, internet non-users are older and with lower income, while mobile phones non-users are less likely to work full-time, have lower income, and are less likely to be married (rice & katz, 2003). it’s interesting to note that the veteran internet users were younger, more educated, and with higher income, while the veteran mobile phone users were older, more likely to work full time, and more likely to be married (rice & katz, 2003).   too old for technology? the project   aging and ict in portugal   as of 31st of december of 2009, the resident population in portugal consisted of 15.2% young people (less than 15 years of age), 66.9% people of working age (15-64 years of age), and 17.9% elderly people (65 or more years of age). the portuguese aging ratio has increased significantly in the last decades: in 1990, it was 68.1; in 2000, 102.2; and in 2009, it reached 117.6 (ine, 2009). this latest aging ratio differs by gender: 95.7 for men and 140.6 for women (ine, 2009; 2010a). in 2009, the life expectancy rate at birth was 78.88, and the life expectancy rate at 65 years of age was 18.19 (ine, 2010a). in a downward trend, in the same period, the crude birth rate was 9.4 (live births per 1000 inhabitants), which was the lowest ever in portugal (9.8 in 2008); and the general fertility rate was of 38.7 (ine, 2009). these indicators show that portugal is facing an aging population, as a result of the increase of longevity and the decline of fertility.   in what concerns ict usage, and starting with mobile phones, in 2009, 88.7% of portuguese individuals used a mobile phone (ine, 2009). the profile of the computer and internet portuguese user is presented in table 1.   table 1: profile of computer and internet users in portugal, 2009 (%)     computer internet total 55.4 51.1 gender     female 50.1 46.2 male 61.0 56.2 age     16-24 94.0 89.3 25-34 82.1 79.2 35-44 66.9 62.4 45-54 46.7 40.6 55-64 32.0 27.7 65-74 12.7 10.4 education     less than secondary education 39.7 34.3 secondary education 94.3 92.2 higher education 97.0 95.7 occupation     students 99.5 95.3 employed 66.4 61.3 unemployed 52.6 48.0 retired and other inactive 19.7 16.9 source: ine (statistics portugal), 2010b   in terms of internet and computer usage, in 2005, 3.5% of portuguese people between 65 and 74 years of age used a computer and 2.3% used the internet. in 2009, 12.7% of portuguese people in this age group used a computer, while 10.4% of the same group used the internet. this shows that the elderly people’s usage of ict is increasing, despite still being the most info-excluded group (ine, 2010b). the same trend occurs with mobile phone usage. the elderly have the lowest usage rate and are the only age group where the possession of landline phone is higher than that of a mobile phone (obercom, 2009).   the project   aiming to understand how the elderly use mobile phones, computers, and the internet, we conducted a study with individuals over 64 years of age living in lisbon, portugal. our main research question was “how are the elderly using ict?” and our sub-questions:   are the elderly using mobile phones, computers and internet? ·        what is the type of usage? ·        what are their motivations to use it? ·        what are their attitudes towards ict?   we didn’t define any a priori hypothesis, as our aim was to limit our preconceptions of how the elderly use and perceive technology.   this study was based in a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative techniques. through a two-phase sequential study, first, we surveyed a representative sample of the elderly of lisbon, and second, we conducted ten qualitative interviews.   locale   the city of lisbon is the capital of portugal, counting with 479,884 inhabitants, 116,022 with 65 and more years of age (36.2% are male and 63.8% are female). the next table (see table 2) compares some general national and regional demographic data.   table 2: selected demographic indicators: lisbon vs. portugal (2009)     city of lisbon portugal age (%)     0-14 14.6 15.2 25-64 61.2 66.9 +65 24.2 17.9 gender (%)     female 54.6 51.6 male 45.4 48.4 aging ratio 165.9 117.6 life expectancy rate at birth 79.03 78.88 life expectancy rate at 65 years old 18.51 18.19 old-age depency ratio 39.5 26.7   source: ine (statistics portugal), 2010   the indicators presented above show that the city of lisbon has an older population than the portuguese average. more visible is the aging ratio (165.9 vs. 117.6) and the old-age dependency ratio (39.5 vs. 26.7). the latter gives us the ratio of the number of people aged 65 and above to the number of people in the working age (15-64 years of age).   lisbon is also the portuguese city with the highest computer and internet usage: in 2009, 57.9% of the households had a computer, and 54.1% of the households had internet access (ine, 2010b).   data collection   survey   using a random stratified sample, we collected 500 questionnaires of portuguese people over 64 years of age, living in lisbon, portugal. the survey was conducted between may and december of 2008. the questionnaires were administered face-to-face in the interviewees’ household. to select the households we used the random route technique and a table of random numbers that gives us the house and floor (when applicable). only one person per household was interviewed. nine trained interviewers from the institute of social and political sciences, technical university of lisbon administered the questionnaires. the survey provides information about how people are currently using mobile phones, computers, and the internet, their perception about ict, their social networks, and leisure.   the stratified random sample was drawn out of the 53 local councils that form the city of lisbon, and four strata were defined according to the number of inhabitants. sociologically, the strata are homogenous, because the smaller local councils correspond to the old part of the city, with fewer inhabitants, while the more peripheral ones correspond to the new areas of the city, with a higher population. inside each stratum, the local councils were randomly select to compose the sampling points. we only selected local councils that afforded at least ten interviews. in the final phase of the sample design, we used quota sampling by gender and age, following the demographic structure of the city of lisbon. the survey data was analyzed using ibm spss statistics 18.   considering the demographics of our survey sample (n=500), 60% were female, 40% were male. mean age is 74.34 (sd = 6.453), and participants range from 65 to 95 years of age. roughly half of the survey participants were married (51.8%). the remaining respondents were widowed (36%), single (7%), or divorced (5.2%); 80.8% are parents and 61% have grandchildren. more than two-thirds (43.4%) lived with a partner, while more than one third lived alone (36.8%). in terms of education, 6% had no formal education, 79.4% had less than secondary-level education, 2.6% had secondary-level education, and 10.4% had higher education. in terms of occupation, 83.2% of the participants were retired, 2.4% were still working, and 11.4% were retired, but still working.   qualitative interviews   using a mixed methods approach, we also conducted ten qualitative (semi-structured) in-home interviews in 2009. the interviews were done after the survey, as we wanted to explore qualitatively the results of the questionnaires. interviewees were chosen at random in the city of lisbon, using a convenience sample method. the interviews yielded information about personal networks, ict use, and attitudes towards ict. the interviews were coded and analyzed with nvivo 9.   considering the demographic of the interviewees (n=10), the age ranged between 68 and 88. the level of education ranged from no education to university level education. five of the interviewees lived alone, four lived with family members, and one lived at an elder care institution.   results   of the survey respondents, 72.4% had a mobile phone and used it regularly (at least once a week), 13.2% used a computer, and 9.8% used the internet (also regularly). of the ten interviewees of the following-up qualitative phase, eight used a mobile phone, and four used a computer and the internet (or had used it before). types of usage, reasons to use and not to use, and general perceptions of these ict are explored in the next sections.   mobile phones   considering mobile phones, 72.4% of the survey respondents have a mobile phone. of these 72.4%, 58.8% are women and 41.2% are men. assessing it proportionally within the gender group, 71% of the female sample and 74.5% of the male sample have a mobile phone. the pearson chi-square shows that there is no significant gender difference in ownership of a mobile phone, c2 (1, n = 500) = 0.74, p = 0.391.   in terms of education, 81.2% of the mobile phone owners have less than secondary education, while 5.3% have secondary education, and 13.6% have higher education. education is significantly related to the ownership of a mobile phone (c2 (2, n = 497) = 16.70, p = 0.000), although it is a moderate relationship (v = .183).   the two main reasons to acquire a mobile phone were personal decision (32.8%) and family request (30.4%). the main reasons to use a mobile phone were to talk to family (40.2%), to talk to friends (24.9%), and for emergencies (21.6%). the main reasons for not using a mobile phone were: “don’t need it” (34.2%), “don’t know how to use it” (21.7%), and “it’s expensive” (17.4%). it is worth stating that 4.6% think they are too old to use it.   of the ten interviewees, eight had a mobile phone. half of the mobile phone users only use it to receive calls from family members. the other functions seemed more complicated:   “i only know how to receive calls, i just have to press the green button. as simple as that.” ana[i] (70 years old, no education, retired servant, lives alone).   “i only answer calls, the rest is complicated.” carlos (74 years old, retired physician, lives alone).   despite preferring the telephone, one of interviewees (ana) says that she doesn’t forget the mobile phone for two reasons: first, it allows her to be always in contact with her family; second, the mobile phone has pictures of her and her grandchildren, which also makes her feel closer to her family. the mobile phone represents what can be defined as a family “memory box”, allowing for the intergenerational sharing of memories in the digital age.   of the other half, only one participant didn’t know how to make calls: joana (84 years old, 4th grade, retired domestic) says that she has the numbers memorized in her mobile phone (speed dial), set up by her son, who offered her the device. however, she rarely calls anyone, receiving calls frequently. her granddaughter taught her how to send sms, but she doesn’t have patience for it, because it is hard to see and type in the mobile phone keyboard. joana’s perception of the mobile phone experience is interesting as she reports that the mobile phone makes her feel safer as she lives alone and it is great for emergencies, but adds:   “i only use the mobile phone at home. imagine me using it in the street. speaking alone to my hand… people would think i’m crazy!”   only one of the interviewees makes a full use of the mobile phone: rui (68 years old, retired engineer) says he can’t live without his mobile phone, using all its functions, from sms to internet access. he also pays his bills through the mobile phone.   the two non-mobile phone users report not needing a mobile phone, as they already have a landline telephone and they feel it is enough for them. but they had a positive image of mobile phones, praising its convenience and usefulness. the only downside was the price – they thought mobile phones were too expensive.   computer usage   in terms of computer usage, 13.2% of the survey respondents use regularly (at least once a week) a computer: 51.5% are women and 48.5% are men. proportionally within the gender group, 11.3% of women use a computer, whereas 16% of men use a computer. the percentage of respondents that use a computer does not differ by gender, c2 (1, n = 500) = 2.28 (p = 0.131).    in table 1, we can see that the education level seems to be of particular importance in the characterization of these ict users. in the case of our survey sample, 47% of computer users have less than secondary education, while 9.1% have secondary education, and 43.4% have higher education. it is worth recalling that our sample has, in general, 3% of respondents with secondary-level education and 10% with higher education. evidently, education is significantly associated with computer usage, (c2 (2, n = 497) = 98.27, p = 0.000). education has a strong effect on computer usage (v = .445), stronger than in the case of mobile phone ownership.   considering types of usage, 44.8% use it to go online, 24.1% to write texts, and 8.4% to play. the majority of the respondents have a personal computer (83%), while the rest uses a computer in their family houses (3%) or in public places with computers and internet access (7.6%). the main reasons for not using a computer are: not knowing how to use it (38.8%), no need to use one (23.5%), and cost (11.1%) and age (11.1%).   of the ten interviewees, four use a computer, and two own one:   one of the interviewees (carlos, 74 years old, retired physician, lives alone) bought a computer when his wife died, because he felt lonely and needed a distraction. he mainly uses it to manage photographs, as he recently bought a digital camera. he says it’s a good tool, because he doesn’t have to develop all the pictures, so he believes it to be cheaper in the end. other interviewee (rui, 68 years old, retired engineer) learned to use a computer at work, before retiring. because of his occupation as an engineer, rui used a significant amount of technology. ict were, therefore, already embedded in his life. this interviewee can be considered an “early adopter’, reporting having a pager even before it became popular in portugal. concerning his computer usage, rui says that he loves to explore it and has learned a lot on his own. he has a scanner that he uses to scan old family pictures as well as photos from angola, where he served during the portuguese colonial war. he also adds to his collection of army pictures by contacting friends who he served with in the army. he says this is a good excuse to organize gatherings with them. rui seems to be an outlier, although education is associated with computer usage. taking advantage of some institutional portuguese programs for digital literacy, rita (88 years old, 4th grade, retired store clerk) is learning to use the computer at a municipal parish centre. she seems really happy about it, as it is, in her own words, an opportunity to finally learn. she immigrated to africa, where she lived for 22 years, and to brazil, where she lived for 18 years. according to rita, these experiences made her more open-minded about life and learning. similarly, joana (84 years old, 4th grade, retired domestic) does not have a computer, but she attended an it course at the it municipal centre, encouraged by her neighbour. she liked it and she goes back to the centre, once in a while, to go online. but lately she hasn’t been there frequently, as “sometimes even the internet is boring”.   the six non-computer users report not having or not using a computer because they don’t need one and lack the knowledge to use it.  they think, nevertheless, that computers are positive, five of them mentioning that their grandchildren use it for learning and for school.   internet usage   looking at internet usage, 9.8% regularly use the internet – of these 9.8%, 55.5% are women and 44.9% are men. proportionally within the gender group, 9% of the female respondents and 11% of the male respondents go online. there is no significant statistical association between internet usage and gender, as the pearson chi-square indicates: c2  (1, n = 500) = 0.980 p = 0.322.   in terms of education, 37% of internet users have less than secondary education, whereas 63% have secondary education or higher (10.2% have secondary education, 53.1% have higher education). just like with computer usage, education and internet usage are significantly related, (c2 (2, n = 66) = 8.11, p = 0.017). education has a large effect on internet usage (v = .350).     the internet is mostly used to search (25.4%), to send emails (21.2%), and for leisure (13.2%). the majority of users are not new to the internet: 44.9% have used it for more than three years, while 12.2% have used it for less than six months. there are some issues with the way we designed this survey question, because the choice of response was restricted to five options (from less than six months to more than three years). in the end, almost half of the respondents selected “more than three years”, so we were not able to accurately gauge how long these people had actually been using the internet for beyond three years.   these internet users think that the key dangers of the internet are exposing children to harmful content (29.5%), fraud (16.3%), and robberies (15.5%).   the main reasons to not use computers are: not knowing how to use it (44.7%), no need (43.5%), and lack of access to a computer (11.8%).   of the ten interviewees from the qualitative phase, the four that use a computer, also use the internet:   one of the interviewees, which is the most avid internet user, rui (68 years old, retired engineer), is in the process of turning his digital file of the angola pictures into a website. he is a daily email user, using it mainly to share photos and messages with his family, friends, and colleagues. in his own words: “the internet is an amazing new world and i’m happy to be part of it”.     the remaining three internet users are still in a learning process or feel that they still have a lot to learn. for instance, rita (88 years old, 4th grade, retired store clerk) is learning how to use a computer and the internet. she goes online every time she can, to check the news and pictures from brazil, where she lived for 18 years. she doesn’t have a computer with internet access, so she uses it at her relatives’ house, at the library or at the municipal parish, where she is attending the it course. the other interviewee, carlos (74 years old, retired physician, lives alone), attended it classes at a senior university and knows how to check the news and videos on the internet, but still feels he’s a beginner and he’s still overwhelmed by this “new world”. likewise, joana (84 years old, 4th grade, retired domestic) finished her it course, but she goes to the it municipal center once in a while to check information about her village, to search in the archive, and to check the news.   of the non-users, it is worth noting that although they don’t own or use a computer, two of them use the internet indirectly. we refer to these as faux users: a person that considers himself or herself a non-user but intermittently uses a technology with assistance of others.   the first of these faux users was ana. ana has a daughter and a baby grandchild living in paris. she has never met her grandchild in person. ana sees pictures of them on a family member’s computer (sent by her daughter via email) and communicates with her daughter in paris through skype, a peer-to-peer video conferencing program. ana’s family members in portugal setup the computer and the internet for her so she can communicate with her family in paris:   “in these moments, there is always someone with me at the computer, because i’m afraid of touching something and ruin it. i can’t read, so i don’t know what the words mean. but i can see them and talk to them. and they can see me and talk back to me…it’s amazing.”   the second of these faux users was clara (74 years old, 4th grade, retired domestic, lives with husband and three grandchildren). one of her grandchildren, matilde is studying abroad, in milan. clara speaks regularly with her grandchild through skype, which is setup by her other grandchildren. they use a laptop to show her pictures of milan and pictures of matilde on facebook. but like ana, clara never touches the computer and depends on her grandchildren to set the computer up for her.   so, these faux users are making indirect use of these technologies and benefiting from them.   the remaining four interviewees do not have any type of contact with the internet. one was not really sure what the internet is – “is it like a television?” asks jorge (83 years old, 4th grade, retired construction worker, lives with wife). the other three recognized the value of the internet, especially through what they hear their grandchildren say, but they also talk about “dangers”. the non-users spoke about what they hear on tv: a great number of stories about fraud and pedophilia. the majority thinks that parents should be more careful about their kids’ usage of this technology.   ict usage and perception   comparing the usage of the three ict (see table 3), we can conclude that mobile phones are mainly used to talk to family and friends, and for emergencies. computer is mainly used to go online and the internet is mainly used to search, but also for social interaction purposes, such as sending emails. the main reason for not using mobile phones is “don’t need it”, while the main reason for not using computers and the internet is: lack of knowledge of how to use it. age and cost are also reported as a reason to not use a computer, and not having a computer is reported as a reason to not use the internet.   table 3: reasons to use and not to use mobile phone, computer, and internet (survey results)     mobile phone n= 362 (users) n= 138 (non-users) computer n= 66 (users) n= 434 (non-users) internet n= 49 (users) n= 451 (non-users) reasons to use -to talk to family (40.2%) -to talk to friends (24.9%) -for emergencies (21.6%) -to go online (44.8%) -to write texts (24.1%) -to play (8.4%) -to search (25.4%) -to send emails (21.2%) -for leisure (13.2%) reasons not to use -don’t need to use it (34.2%) -don’t know how to use it (21.7%) -cost (17.4%) -don’t know how to use it (38.8%) -don’t need to use it (23.5%) -cost (11.1%)/ age (11.1%) -don’t know how to use it (44.7%) -don’t need to use it (43.5%) -don’t have a computer (11.8%).   aiming to assess the perception of these ict by the elderly, in the survey, we asked participants if they agreed or disagreed (3-point likert scale) with the three following statements:   1.      elderly people should learn how to use computers and internet. 2.      computers are essential for the development of the country. 3.      the internet is essential for the development of the country.   in the first case, 61.8% of the respondents agreed that seniors should learn how to use computers and the internet, while 21.6% disagreed, and 16.4% neither agreed, nor disagreed. in the second case, 76.8% of the respondents agreed that computers are essential for the development of the country, 7% disagreed, and 16% neither agreed, nor disagreed. finally, considering if the internet is essential for the development of the country, 67.4% agreed, 10.2% disagreed, and 22.2% neither agreed, nor disagreed. it is important to emphasise that the “neither agree, nor disagree” response gets higher percentage than the “disagree” one in the two last statements. this might mean that the respondents are not fully aware or don’t fully grasp the impact of these technologies.   in general, from the quantitative findings, the elderly mostly have a positive view of these ict, not appearing to be technophobic.   from the ten interviews, we were also able to explore some perceptions of these ict. the interviewees (users and non-users) had a positive view of the mobile phones, associating it with family proximity, convenience, and considering it a tool to prevent loneliness and social isolation. computers were associated with knowledge and leisure. the internet was associated with services, social interaction, family proximity, and dangers (frauds and paedophilia). in general, even the non-users, acknowledged the importance of computers and the internet for learning and social interaction. at the same time, all the interviewees addressed the perceived dangers of internet usage. as rui (68 years old, retired engineer) puts it:   “it’s like everything else. it has really good, and really bad things. depends on how you use it and who is using it.”   conclusion   this study allowed us to understand the type of usage and perception of ict by the elderly of lisbon. while most of the respondents had and used a mobile phone, the majority did not use computers or the internet. the lack of functional literacy in ict was the main reason to not use a computer or the internet. education was significantly related to mobile phone, computer, and internet usage. education levels might be, therefore, an important factor to explain the low adoption of these technologies by the elderly. the lack of necessity was also a reason, even if relatively less reported than the functional literacy. interesting enough, age was also pointed as a reason for not using a computer (even though comparatively a minor reason, 11%).   despite the low usage of computers and the internet, the perception of these technologies by the respondents was mostly positive. for 62% of the survey respondents, seniors should learn how to use a computer and the internet. in addition, the majority also agrees that computers and the internet are essential for the development of the country (77% and 67%, respectively). in the interviews, we could find a positive image of these ict, even for the non-users. the dangers of the internet were recognized by all the interviewees, but never conceptualized as an obstacle or a motive to prevent its usage.   the majority of the elderly of our study didn’t think they were too old for technology and didn’t perceive or present themselves as technophobic. however, they faced a significant amount of difficulties: lack of digital literacy, lack of access to a computer, and problems of accessibility and usability. lack of confidence related to age was also noticeable in some of the interviewees:   “i know i am old but i think i could learn how to use the computer…i don’t know, maybe not because i’m so old. but sometimes i think, if my little grandchildren can learn it, why can’t i?” clara (74 years old, 4th grade, retired domestic, lives with husband and three grandchildren)   so, ageism might even be contributing to elderly people’s lack of motivation and confidence in using these technologies. moreover, 78% of our survey respondents think the elderly suffer from active discrimination.     finally, two ideas worthy of further research came out of our study. first, we witnessed in some of the cases the value of inter-generational relationships: it was the grandchildren that encouraged grandparents to adopt new technologies. the grandchildren would show and explain their grandparents how to use different devices. second, the idea of faux users: two of our interviewees reported that they didn’t use a computer and the internet, yet their family would setup it up for them, and so they could talk to family members and friends through the internet. 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(n.d.). ageing. retrieved april 9, 2010 from world health organization: http://www.who.int/topics/ageing/en/   endnotes   [1] in 2030, life expectancy at birth in the eu27 is expected to be 85.3 years for women and 80.0 years for men (eurostat, 2010).   [2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khhc5ukind4; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odxnce8mgw0   [3] http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/bios/glennbio.html     [i] all names used in the text are pseudonyms.   outcome of applying evidence-based design to public computing centers: a preliminary study martin wolske1, deven gibbs1, adam kehoe1, vera jones2, and sharon irish1 (1) graduate school of library and information science, university of illinois, and (2) lessie bates davis neighborhood house, east st. louis, il, usa keywords: public computing centers, community technology centers, evidence-based design abstract public computing centers (pccs) have often been established within the digital divide framework, viewed only as stepping stones toward presumably preferable private access. however, research indicates the importance of pccs in meeting both private and public computing needs. we used an evidence-based design approach to guide the implementation of a redesign of an active pcc located in an economically depressed metropolitan region of illinois, usa. results indicate that physical design is critical and inseparable from the overall success of the lab, leading toward positive changes in the use and perception of the lab. introduction public computing centers (pccs) in various forms, including community technology centers and telecentres, have commonly been established to address gaps between those who have access to technology and those who do not (ctcnet, 1998; international telecommunications union, 2003; viseu et al., 2006). much of the scholarly focus on pccs has been framed by the digital divide metaphor, defined as a marked inequality in the ability of underserved and/or marginalized populations to access and use information and communication technologies (ict) to further their social, economic, and educational objectives (ntia, 1999). within this framework, the primary problem is identified as a lack of access (gurstein, 2003). public computing centers are thus seen as a way to efficiently provide access to ict for underserved neighborhoods and populations. an often-unstated premise is that such public access is provided only as a stepping stone (viseu et al., 2006) and that real computer use will not happen until low-income users have access in their homes (bishop et al., 1999). for instance, loader and keeble (2004) note that the uk has historically viewed public access points only as a valuable safety net for those without access. as bishop et al. (1999) note, it is certainly the case that pccs typically limit access to certain hours and applications, and in many settings, privacy is impossible and the spaces are uncomfortable for extended use. many pccs are set up to serve a maximum number of simultaneous users, in keeping with the digital divide framework. further, efforts are often made to find ways to discourage unimportant (as defined by host organizations) computer use either directly through filters or indirectly through time limits. for instance, gurstein (2003) finds important uses are often limited to passive access as opposed to active production of content. the research thus suggests that the result of emphasizing the distributive function of pccs in order to bridge the digital divide can produce a more restrictive environment for users. alternative functions for pccs while distribution of technology is often the initial impetus for creating pccs, ultimately pccs must transform to meet other needs if they are to continue providing a valuable service to communities (fuchs, 1998). indeed, in contrast to the view that pccs are primarily a stepping stone for those without alternative access, recent research sponsored by the u.s. institute of museum and library services (becker et al., 2010) found that forty-five percent of library visitors use the internet during visits, even though three-quarters of those making use of the pccs found in libraries have internet access at home. uses include: education (getting homework help, attending a class, applying for school); ecommerce (buying and selling, online banking, paying bills); ebusiness (writing a business plan, finding funding sources, applying for permits, finding and communicating with customers); health and wellness (finding a health care provider, researching a disease, finding information about diet and exercise, purchasing prescription or over-the-counter drugs); social inclusion and entertainment (starting local clubs, planning family outings); egovernment (getting government or legal information, accessing government services); and civic engagement (learning about a political or social cause, participating in community life). beyond access, participation within pccs provides important spaces for pro-social mixing that promotes learning about both technology and content (sandvig, 2003). this is especially valuable in adoption when design facilitates “observability” of the benefits of ict adoption and incremental “trialability” of new technologies (rogers, 2003). ceballos et al. (2006) suggest that “the best telecentres are local gathering places; places where people come together to talk, tell stories and share knowledge.” we want to stress the “coming together” in recognizing ways in which pccs provide access to the knowledge resources of others co-located within the community setting. in research helping to distinguish the social aspects of public computing from private uses of pccs, viseu et al. (2006) noted that a combination of private and public pcc use becomes apparent in the practice of users. their research distinguishes private and public types of access to computers as well as private and public online spaces. in this paper we focus especially on the importance of design for both private ict uses (individual work done alone) and public ict uses (collaboration and communication occurring in place and online) that occur within public computing centers. in their interviews, viseu et al. (2006) found that as facilities for private ict access, pccs provide an anonymity that facilitates private work such as online banking or content creation precisely because they offer a retreat from the social obligations that arise when surrounded by others whom you know. as communal spaces, pccs bridge place-based and online communities. these findings suggest that pccs serve an important role beyond simple access to computers and the internet. gurstein’s effective use framework acknowledges many reasons beyond access that determine whether ict will serve as tools to achieve social, economic, and educational objectives (gurstein, 2003). these include appropriate physical and service support as well as social facilitation, including community infrastructure, training, and animation. rogers (2003) points towards the social aspects of the diffusion of ict, and especially notes the importance of opinion leaders who demonstrate the value of adoption and observability of those benefits. warschauer (2002; 2003) goes further to outline a range of social factors that determines whether ict leads towards full social inclusion. the findings of becker et al. (2010), sandvig (2003), and viseu et al. (2006) help define an important role for pccs: they provide the environmental conditions to incorporate ict to facilitate effective use and social inclusion. pccs as spaces for community collaboration laura baker (2008) describes the range of skills needed for effective research and learning, such as where and how to look for information, computer skills, writing skills, presentation skills, and teamwork. to support this integrated set of skills, she describes her success in implementing a learning commons within the library at abilene christian university that integrates information, technology, and support services “to create a learning environment that is more complete, more holistic, and much more exciting.” we suggest it is crucial that pccs be designed as a learning commons in order to optimally support community research, learning, and collaboration. for instance, the horizon report authors (johnson, 2009) state that “the notions of collective intelligence and mass amateurization are redefining scholarship as we grapple with issues of top-down control and grassroots scholarship,” giving rise to citizen professionals and the need to equip them adequately. by providing physical spaces in which community members can come together, each with different backgrounds, insights, and skills, pccs have the potential to serve as places where knowledge acquired by one can be shared with others. in this way pccs offer support to what wenger has called “communities of practice,” that is, groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn individually; as a group, then, they learn how to do it better as they interact regularly (wenger and snyder, 2000). berry et al. (1993) note that participation in the political process is best fostered through regular face-to-face interactions. according to this research, a mix of online and personal contacts makes the most sense to spur participation in civic processes. virtual tools and approaches can help bridge the gap between civil society and decision makers (vaughan, 2007), but cannot replace actual encounters.  similarly, based on the early-twentieth-century theories and practices of charles peirce, john dewey, and jane addams, a number of researchers have proposed that the inquiry cycle, especially as applied to communities of inquiry, provides a rich environment for achieving educational and community development goals (bishop and bruce, 2008; bruce and bishop, 2008; shields, 1999; short et al., 1996). these “communities”—of practice and of inquiry—as examined in the publications mentioned, are grounded in human relationships. thus we focus on creating centers that first and foremost emphasize community research, learning, and collaboration in a physical space while providing the necessary ict to support such activities. the importance of pcc design beginning with research by roger barker dating back to the late 1940s, the interdisciplinary field of environmental psychology has explored ways that the built environment and social settings influence behavior (barker, 1968; canter and craik, 2008; gifford, 2007). evidence-based design is a field of study that applies findings from environmental psychology and other disciplines, including neuroscience, to achieve design that positively impacts human behavior and psychological wellness (hamilton and watkins, 2009; nussbaumer, 2009, vischer and ziesel, 2008). if public computing facilities are to make the transition from facilities prioritizing distribution of technology to community centers fostering effective use of tools to achieve social, economic, and educational objectives, design of these physical spaces must become a central concern (wolske et al., 2010). when space is properly designed, individuals and groups gain a sense of ownership and place within such spaces, with the term “place” indicating an optimal psychological fit between people and their surrounding physical location, or space (sime, 1986).   while design research has been applied in a number of different contexts from health care to senior living to office workspaces, the design of community centers and especially spaces that incorporate public computing facilities is understudied. from our review of research in environmental psychology, we propose the following: hypothesis: evidence-based design that considers cultural context and individual and community attitudes, aspirations, and other psychological criteria in the design of pcc spaces will lead towards qualitatively and quantitatively different uses of ict. more specifically this paper poses two broad research questions, and offers some preliminary answers. informed by our review of the literature on evidence-based design, the first question is: research question 1: how might we integrate ict into spaces if we were to design for effective use of private-public and public-public workspaces, as opposed to prioritizing a density of computers for generic access? second, drawing on community informatics literature: research question 2: how might we integrate ict into spaces in order to strengthen social connections among users and promote grassroots scholarship? the paper will first review key findings from environmental psychology and evidence-based design that provided lenses through which to understand observations made during visits to community centers and pccs as part of a 2010 community informatics studio course. next, the paper will describe the outcome assessment of a case study in which these key design principles informed a makeover of a pcc in a marginalized community in west central illinois. finally, the paper will explore future directions for research based on these initial findings. design principles environmental psychology considers the relationship between humans and their environment. scholars in this field assess human desires, preferences, attitudes, perceptions, and motivations with evidence gathered using methods in the social sciences. place-behavior relationships help address why people react as they do to their physical environment (brant, chong, and martin, 2010). the way in which we occupy a space--the seat we choose, the lighting that we prefer while completing a given task, and the view we select--are all defined by our interaction with the built environment. john zeisel argues that “having a broad understanding of the brain’s environment system is important for environmental designers to understand how the external environment plays a role in an individual’s memory, orientation, and learning” (zeisel, 2006). the neurosciences explain that the built environment (in our case) is a context for stimulating human emotions and responses to basic cognitive functions such as learning, memory, orientation, and perception (gifford, 2007). as a starting point, for this paper we consider primarily aesthetics and flexibility as two elements that preliminary reviews of literature indicate are important in design and that can be implemented relatively easily to create more effective pcc spaces that foster a greater sense of place. we also provide an overview of our findings from field observations examining the ways in which various design elements found to affect behavior were integrated, or not integrated, in various pccs throughout the state of illinois, usa aesthetics one means by which we express our individuality and cultural identity is through aesthetic choices. for instance, décor has been demonstrated to have an effect on interpersonal communications. robert gifford (1988) found that a home-like décor, compared to an office-like décor, evoked both increased general and intimate communications. likewise, colors are environmental stimuli that have a positive or negative effect on performance, behavior, and mood. color and design used in study environments can impact mood, satisfaction, motivation, and performance levels (gifford, 2007). generally, colors with longer frequencies, such as red, are experienced as warm, whereas colors with shorter frequencies, such as blue, are experienced as cold/cool (whitfield and wiltshire, 1990). results from a study comparing youth iq scores measured in bright rooms (blue, orange, yellow) versus drab rooms (white, brown, black) suggest that scores in bright rooms were 26 points higher than those in the drab rooms. the same study found a 53 percent increase in friendly behavior in orange rooms, and also found that variation in wall coloring, in contrast to uniform coloring, fostered more cooperative behavior ("behavior: blue is," 1973, 66). in our field observations, we saw a number of creative uses of artwork and décor both to promote a home-like atmosphere and also convey specific messages. for instance, a local private academy for children that emphasized teamwork as well as personal responsibility in its many different learning activities, featured three pictures at the entry with captions that conveyed the messages: “i can,” “you can,” and “we can.” use of culturally relevant artwork and decorations also conveyed a sense of home: a recessed portion of the church used curtains, couches, and knick-knacks to echo a home-like environment. we found one especially interesting use of color in an after-school teen center located within a large metropolitan library. color in this space was used to delineate smaller spaces within a large multi-purpose room. changes in the tile flooring signaled walkways along with providing visual cues between different types of programming. the area near the brick red wall housed more quiet activities such as reading. the green wall was a background to open as well as secluded workspace arrangements, while the aqua paint colored the backdrop to youth playing rock band. overall, it is clear that color is an important design element that can impact behavior. choices of brighter colors such as blue, orange, and yellow can be especially valuable in elevating performance and friendliness. ­­flexibility flexible spaces allow users to shape their own environment. flexibility can be accommodated by providing furniture that can be manipulated by the user as well as by providing a diversity of furniture arrangements to afford user choice of different configurations. not only do different individuals prefer differently designed spaces, but also people may benefit from different spaces depending on the type of work being accomplished at any given time. for instance, low ceilings (as perceived by the individual) have been demonstrated to support tasks in which attention to details is important, while high ceilings support tasks in which finding relationships between objects is of importance (meyers-levey and zhu, 2007). further, spaces should facilitate both private in public and public in public tasks (viseu et al., 2006). flexible design should accommodate but balance design for large and small group arrangements as well as the individual tasks (curtis et al., 2007). when fostering collaboration, clustered seating breaks up visual barriers such as walls or partitions and thereby produces more on-task learning activity than tables or desks positioned in rows (gifford, r., 2007). conversely, movable partitions can help to delineate spaces between activities and also provide a sound barrier between groups and individuals providing greater control over interactions (altman, 1975,1976; leino-kilpi et al., 2001; westin, 1970). we found that the most flexible spaces best support simultaneous and varied activities. for example, the after-school teen program located in a large metropolitan library featured computing tables on wheels, with tabletop outlets for easily accessible laptop hook ups. these tables could be reoriented, combined, and positioned to accommodate a range of group and/or individual usage. a student wearing headphones positioned himself at a table next to a white board which he used for taking notes as he worked on math homework. meanwhile, across from him was a table with an instructor facilitating a small graphics class. at the same time, a group across the room was playing rock band while seated on couches. these activities could function simultaneously because of the existence of visual and audio filters that could be moved into place providing user-control in a multi-purpose space. in short, flexible design accommodates today’s users’ needs while remaining adaptable to the demands of future society (mathews, 2006). applying design principles: the makeover of the mary brown center public computing lab the mary brown center is a community center located in the south end of east st. louis, il. erected in early 1960s to serve as a safe community space for area youth through the provision of sport and academic activities, the center is located within walking distance of three public housing projects and a large assisted living center for seniors. figure 1 provides a logic model diagramming the resources, activities and outputs, and outcome objectives for the mary brown center. figure 1: mary brown center logic model the center’s urban context is the city of east st. louis, illinois which was created across the mississippi river, and state lines, from st. louis, missouri, as an industrial suburb and entertainment hub with lax zoning and tax policies that ensured maximum profits for industry. once known as an “all-american city” (look magazine, 1960; theising, 2003; wikipedia, 2010), east st. louis has since become "the most distressed small city in america" (kozol, 1991; reardon, 2003). population has declined from 83,000 in the 1950s (~50% black) to 30,000 in 2008 (98% black; u.s. census bureau, 2010) and businesses have declined from 1,527 (mainly large industrial) in 1967 (reardon, 2003) to 202 (mainly small) in 2008 (u.s. census bureau, 2007). slightly over thirty-seven percent of the population lives in poverty (compared to 10.7% for illinois), including over half of all children. thirty percent of the population over 25 does not have a high school diploma or equivalent (u.s. census bureau, 2010). methodology for redesign researchers used an evidence-based design methodology during the summer and fall of 2010 to create two redesign proposals and subsequently implement a remodel of the pcc at the mary brown center. steps included: a literature review of potentially related community informatics, environmental psychology, and evidence-based design research – summer, 2010. field observations at a range of public spaces in which ict is incorporated either formally (e.g., a computer lab at a public library) or informally (e.g., computers at a café) – summer, 2010. interviews with the mary brown center director and lab staff for youth programming – summer, 2010. focus groups with mary brown center staff and youth – summer, 2010. display of design proposal posters at the center, soliciting feedback through post-it notes – fall, 2010. collaborative implementation in which researchers, mary brown center staff, and mary brown center youth used the design proposals and feedback as a guide to create the final remodel – fall, 2010. informal observations of outcomes – fall, 2010 to spring, 2011. a set of open-ended interviews to assess outcomes – spring, 2011. a key objective of interviews with the mary brown center director and staff was to ensure that the redesign proposals would create a public computing space that would support the outcome objectives of center, and especially related to youth programming. at the same time, attempts were made to find a design that would not disrupt the other outcome objectives of the center. a key objective of the focus groups with mary brown center staff and youth and the display of design proposal posters was to situate design features within the community’s cultural context and preferences. this was further accomplished through a collaborative implementation process. for instance, as certain components were implemented, thus helping everyone to visualize the end-goal, staff would identify additional artwork and furniture arrangements that enhanced the home-like feeling of the final product. at the same time, the americorps program in east st. louis secured state funding through a state of illinois department of commerce and economic opportunity “digital divide” grant to replace the original 13 computers with 25 new computers. while this was not part of the original redesign planning, the participatory nature of the process readily allowed for this component to be integrated into the overall remodel. original mary brown center pcc new mary brown center pcc outcome assessment methodology for assessment evidence-based design seeks to collect feedback systematically on specific design decisions to achieve improved future results (vischer and ziesel, 2008). we applied this technique to assess the outcomes of the redesign through informal observations from october 2010 to may 2011, formal interviews with the director of the mary brown center and lab staff for youth programming. the director also recruited two young adults who routinely use the computer lab to be interviewed by researchers to provide preliminary insights into the outcomes from the youth user perspective. an open-ended interview structure facilitated an inductive research process. this flexibility permitted exploration of emergent themes in the experiences of the participants. attention to emergent themes is especially critical in the early phases of an evidence-based design effort so that researchers may ascertain the most salient aspects of the space in the perspectives of the occupants (ziesel, 2006). specific interview questions are included in the appendix of this paper. the most important general outcome of the interview assessment was that physical design is critical and inseparable from the overall success of the lab. participants in the study indicated that the redesign resulted in radical positive changes in the use and perception of the lab. the exact nature of these changes varied depending on the perspective and role of the participant. the following sections describe specific themes of interest that emerged through the interview process. key themes from assessment perception of the lab as a social space: two of the interview participants described the original pcc as being structurally unsuited for social and collaborative work. they noted that the rectilinear arrangement of computers and desks, facing the outside walls of the room, resulted in an overly formal and individualized environment. one respondent described young people using the lab as “like little robot drones, just clicking away...they wouldn't be interacting with each other.” the previous arrangement of the room led to a lab culture where young people became less social than in other parts of the center, and more fixated on their private uses of the computer. the same respondent observed the following: the kids talk all the time, but it seems like when people get on the computer, it's me and the computer. me, the computer and my headphones. that's it. that's a hard thing to fix because when they are on it they are so focused on the screen...that's it. these observations were echoed by the director who was also familiar with the adult population's use of the computers. the director noted that adult users of the lab were typically engaged in job searches, and entered the lab in a “somber” mood. in the administrator's judgment, the previous arrangement of the lab exacerbated this tendency and created an inadvertently “unfriendly” environment. the change from the rectilinear arrangement to a flexible design utilizing clusters of desks in a diversity of arrangements dramatically altered these perceptions. one staff member commented, “it has to be social because of how it's arranged. they [young people] are more willing to talk to you about what they are doing.” she also noted “the kids are more willing to talk to each other...they can work as a group better, because it's more set up as a group environment... you're not just facing the wall by yourself. you're consciously recognizing everyone around you.” interestingly, the lab staff also reported a perception that disruptive behavior during after-school hours decreased overall since the redesign. adult users of the lab benefited similarly; the director of programming noted that the vibrancy of the colors and the social layout resulted in a friendly and dynamic environment. in her experience, these changes translated directly into a better mood of users of the lab, including job seekers, in spite of a continued economic downturn in the region. the director and staff believed these changes would result in better outcomes for users of the lab, although they acknowledged it would be difficult to show causality. perception of personal space: one young person noted that crowding was the most serious problem in the old lab configuration. this observation was particularly interesting because the previous lab actually contained twelve fewer computers. as a result of having a perception of more personal space in the new designed configuration, the participant noted feeling simultaneously more comfortable in private activities, and more ready to participate socially. physical space as a socio-technical system: the redesign had implications for the maintenance and reliability of the computers in the lab. a staff member directly involved in responding to computer problems explained that the previous design of the lab permitted her to stand in one central place and observe the lab users. although she was able to observe all of the lab users at once, she was only superficially aware of what each person was doing. after the redesign, she was forced to adopt a “patrol” pattern, walking through the lab and briefly interacting with each person. this change led to a greater sense of connection, availability, and intimacy in encounters with lab users. consequently, users were more comfortable reporting problems and engaging in collaborative problem-solving. the patrolling staff person made the following observation: now, we're more accessible for any problems that are going on. we know when a problem is happening, because before if a kid had a problem, they just left the computer lab. well, their problem would be on the computer, it could be a virus, it could be something actually broke [sic] and we wouldn't know about that. we would have no idea until days later when some kid would be like 'this computer is not working.' but now if we see a computer not turning on or if something is flashing up, we can address the problem right away. i find that very helpful, actually. this statement demonstrates two important consequences of the design change. the first is a probably-measurable decrease in response time to technical problems. the other is a change in the subjective experience of young people encountering problems; in the new arrangement, young people feel less frustrated and more wiling to ask for help. redesign as an institutional process: the theme of unrealized potential was common throughout participants’ reflections on the overall importance of the redesign project. the director commented: it's almost like it was an unpolished gem that was kind of in the back cabinet. you knew it was there...it was like a reawakening, almost... once it was complete, we realized how much more we can be doing. even though it was being used for all these different things before, there could be so many more uses of it. that's what we realized. we were not using the lab to its fullest potential. the “reawakening,” described above impacted more than just programming in the lab. the director also reflected that: once the computer lab was formed, and we saw how everything was working...it made us change our approach to what we provide to the community. we changed our support system. we looked at it and said, you know what, we could be doing just a little bit more. intriguingly, the widespread changes motivated by the redesign in the computer lab were largely independent of the inclusion of more and better computers. indeed, increased use of the purely technical resources included in the redesign have only happened slowly, and some of the more advanced hardware such as midi keyboards, camcorders, video editing software and green screen remain unused to date. the lab staff noted that since the redesign, other staff members have been making greater use of the lab. one person commented: we use the computer lab more, as in the staff using it for the kids rather than just the kids being on the computer... the computer has so much more to offer to the kids now than before, because we use it. as a staff we're more comfortable in there. the director of programming has also noted a change in the way staff interact within the lab space during staff training sessions. they are now more likely to provide over the shoulder support to each other as they learn new skills. a recurring theme throughout the interviews suggested that the redesign played a clear role in challenging and changing expectations about the use of the computer lab. the language of the respondents consistently indicated that redesign shifted basic perspectives about the role of the center in the community. the redesign project served as a joint institutional-community laboratory, where experimenting with the computer lab space appears to have triggered broader change. the role of redesign in an institution’s experimentation with space is perhaps subtle, but it has been central to the administration's view of the future of the community center. physical transformation through design of the computer lab allowed the center to reflect (and enhance) the inherently social goals of the entire organization. discussion the lab redesign process resulted in remarkable qualitative changes at the mary brown center. summarizing the key themes reported above, physical design reshaped social expectations from the space, revitalized administrators and staff members in pursuing more sophisticated programming, improved the mood of the users, and resulted in better maintenance of computers through more immediate reporting of problems and collaborative problem-solving. as stated above, perhaps the most important finding from this work is the affirmation that the design of physical space is a critical component of community informatics and of socio-technical systems more generally. the wide-ranging effects of the lab redesign provide evidence of the significance of space in community information centers. methods and perspectives from other fields, notably environmental psychology and evidence-based design, are needed to identify and contextualize the specific mechanisms of the influence of space on public computing labs. this work also demonstrated the potential role of physical redesign as an institutional or joint community-institutional process. the findings described above suggest that public computing labs can be a powerful addition to multipurpose programs that are not necessarily explicitly focused on computing. a great deal of work remains to be done in exploring the role of space in community informatics research using both qualitative and quantitative measures. the inductive approach utilized in this case study has provided a rich set of insights that now need to be refined with more formal studies. we suggest several future studies to investigate themes raised by the interview participants: study 1: socio-technical implications of space. the role of space appears to have had an effect on computer maintenance and reliability as indicated by staff. a more formal study should be conducted to compare variables like response time, computer uptime and user confidence, before and after similar redesign projects. a quasi-experimental framework using a pre/post design structure across several sites could help capture statistical data to determine if similar redesign processes have a strong effect on systems reliability. it may also be desirable to produce further longitudinal studies to indicate if the effect is limited in duration; namely if the “freshness” of the redesign fades and response rates return to a baseline level. study 2: social expectations in pccs. one of the most important outcomes from the redesign in the view of users, staff, and the administration was the effect on perceptions of the lab as a social space. a survey instrument should be applied to measure these perceptions. again, a pre/post quasi-experimental framework could capture useful data on this question. study 3: outcome of desk geometry on crowding perception. the most counter-intuitive finding of this study was that the redesign led to reduced perceptions of crowding, despite featuring a higher computer density. the strongest current hypothesis is that the unusual geometry of the desk surfaces and the shape of the clusters influence the perception of crowding. an experimental study is necessary to test this hypothesis more rigorously. future work is also needed to determine if there are relatively stable computer density crowding thresholds in public computing labs. such a threshold would be useful for lab designers and architects in creating labs that maximize the number of people served while preserving the potential for socialization and collaborative work. study 4: influence of redesign process on perceptions of ownership. the redesign process appears to have had a strong motivational effect on users, staff and administration. users demonstrate a greater desire to make use of the space while staff and administrators have increased their integration of the space into center programming. a survey instrument could be applied to test for the presence of a general effect, as well as characterize its potency across several groups. further, as a number of changes were made at once, surveys, iterative remodels that change fewer features, or comparisons across a number of pccs could be used to begin to isolate which design elements impact the motivational aspects of the change. study 5: influence of redesign on information seeking. the administration and staff suggested in interviews that the redesign may have changed or at least partly diversified the use of the computers. a transactional analysis of the lab computer records could help detect if there are statistically significant effects on the actual use of computers from the redesign. capturing anonymized data at the lab router level may be useful in assessing these effects at a gross level, without collecting any individualized data. this work could be extremely useful in determining the relationship of space to the information seeking behaviors of community users. conclusions while the digital divide was an early framework for directing academic work in the application of ict within underserved communities, it has led to development of policies and praxis that might prove counterproductive (gurstein, 2003). frameworks such as effective use (gurstein, 2003) and social inclusion (warschauer, 2002) recognize that technology itself is not the objective; rather, achieving individual and community defined goals is. a study by viseu et al. (2006) indicates that use of public computing spaces is more diverse than often assumed and should not be considered a transitory stepping stone toward “better,” private computer access. indeed, there are key activities that cannot be reproduced outside of a place-based computing space (sandvig, 2003). overall, these and similar research findings indicate the vital importance for public computing centers not only to address digital inequalities but also to support ongoing effective use of ict for private and public tasks. our findings in this preliminary study indicate the importance of harnessing research from evidence-based design to intentional design for effective use of private-public and public-public workspaces. this design process uses past results as a starting point that then includes an iterative cycle of stakeholder input, design, and stakeholder feedback that concludes with an implementation that is then integrated into future assessment and design considerations. when combined with research from community informatics, we believe that this approach will help integrate ict into spaces in strategic ways, strengthen social connections among users and promote grassroots scholarship. while it has been argued that consideration of flexibility and comfort is counter to the goals of density of computer access, our findings suggest that both can be accommodated when evidence-based design strategies are appropriately applied in design. in the past we have encountered resistance to designs that provide user control of flexible space. the current findings suggest such control actually decreases disruptive behavior, promotes care of the facilities, and increases positive attitudes in the redesigned space, tendencies aligned with some past research (harrison, 1996). overall, we found that careful design changes can improve perceptions among users and foster greater social interactions (gifford, 2007, 527; harrison, 1996). the redesign of the space brought about a new awareness of the computer lab as a means for increasing programming at the community center, rather than simply as a passive necessity for visitors to accomplish specific individual functional tasks. this paper set out to address two broad research questions: 1) how might we integrate ict into spaces if we were to design for effective use of private-public and public-public workspaces, as opposed to prioritizing a density of computers for generic access? and 2) how might we integrate ict into spaces in order to strengthen social connections among users and promote grassroots scholarship? while we note that considerable subsequent research will be needed to confidently answer these questions, we find these preliminary findings provide useful initial insights. moreover, we find this line of research promising as a highly useful strategy for fostering greater effective use of ict for social inclusion. acknowledgments we would like to recognize vera jones, janine villard, terri scott, and the rest of the staff at the mary brown center. their creative participation in the redesign of the computer lab at the center was key to achieving such positive results. this research was supported in part by the u.s. institute of museum and library services youth community informatics grant (chip bruce, pi, and ann bishop co-pi; re 03-07-0007-07); by nsf icubed: informatics and computation throughout undergraduate baccalaureate education; the illinois informatics institute; and by the state of illinois department of commerce and economic opportunity (christopher coleman, project coordinator). appendix formal interview questions before/after questions (ask all questions first as before, then repeat as after) *. please tell us about a favorite memory of the computer lab before (since) the redesign. *. please tell us a bit about what you would do on a typical day in the computer lab before (since) the redesign from the time you would walk into the computer lab to the time you would leave. *. when you ran into problems doing something in the computer lab before (since) the redesign, how would you go about dealing with the problem? *. what were your favorite things about the lab as it was setup before (since) the redesign? least favorite? *. what was it like trying to do homework in the lab before (since) the redesign? *. what types of interactions did you have with youth in the lab before (since) the redesign? *. what types of interactions did you have with support staff in the lab before (since) the redesign? concluding questions *. was the redesign a major part of any changes or would any of the differences experienced have happened anyway without spending any money? *. what were the top three changes that made the most difference? references baker, l. 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(2006). inquiry by design. new york: w. w. norton & company, inc. 1382 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles communitysensor: towards a participatory community network mapping methodology participatory community network mapping can support collaborative sensemaking within and across communities and their surrounding stakeholder networks. we introduce the communitysensor methodology under construction. after summarizing earlier work, we show how the methodology uses a cyclical approach by adopting a community network development cycle that embeds a community network sensemaking cycle. we list some observations from practice about using community network mapping for making inter-communal sense. we discuss how extending the methodology with a patterndriven approach benefits the building of bridges across networked communities, as well as the sharing of generalized lessons learnt. to this purpose, a community collaboration pattern language is essential. we show initial work in developing and using such a language by examining the cross-case evolution of core community network interaction patterns. introduction society faces many wicked problems, such as climate change, financial and economic crises, terrorism, and wars. wicked problems cannot be solved by organizations or communities on their own, but instead require a "movement of movements" in order to find solutions that scale and are sustainable (klein, 2015). achieving the required collective impact means getting the commitment of relevant actors from across different !35 aldo de moor communitysense, the netherlands corresponding author. ademoor@communitysense.nl de moor, a. (2017). communitysensor: towards a participatory community network mapping methodology. the journal of community informatics, 13(2), 35—58. date submitted: 2017-03-28. date accepted: 2017-08-21. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1382 . http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1382 mailto:ademoor@communitysense.nl http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1382 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 sectors to realize a common agenda, while working towards shared measurement, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and backbone support (kania et al, 2014). one way to achieve the required coordination is to develop official "backbone organizations" that align efforts of various initiatives (irby & boyle, 2014). however, such a resource-heavy approach is often not feasible. moreover, finding solutions to wicked problems is complicated by their inherent social complexity. addressing the fragmenting force of wicked problems therefore calls for a process of collaborative sensemaking using new understandings, processes, and tools in which stakeholders across the board collaborate in complex thinking and decision-making processes (conklin, 2006). communities are the building blocks of collaboration in today’s networked world. they consist of people from often different organizations and backgrounds working together for mutual benefit, in the process developing strong relations, and weaving a web of vibrant interactions (de moor, 2015). communities of practice, communities of interest, innovation communities, and so on, help to bridge knowledge gaps and cross collaboration barriers within and between organizations. however, achieving collective impact at scale goes beyond the individual community, and involves aligning resources, practices, and initiatives of multiple communities in a subtle process of inter-communal sensemaking, which we called knowledge weaving (de moor, 2015). participatory community mapping visualizing and jointly with community members making sense of the collaboration ecosystem of communities is key to making communities work (together) better. earlier, we presented initial work on a participatory community mapping methodology and showed how it was instrumental in helping the tilburg urban farming community make sense of itself (de moor, 2015b). in the current paper, we deepen our exploration of the emerging methodology. communities can be defined as sets of relationships where people interact socially for mutual benefit (andrews, 2002). it is important to realize that communities and (social) networks are not two completely different organizational forms. instead, they are part of a continuum. the network aspects refer to the relationships, personal interactions, and connections among participants, providing affordances for learning and collaboration; the community aspect refers to the development of a shared identity around a topic or set of challenges (wenger et al., 2011). we might therefore say that communities are "densifications" in a rich social network substrate. to be more precise about the scope of our mapping efforts, we therefore redefine our methodology as a participatory community network mapping methodology. this does not mean we try to change the whole outside world context of the collaborative community being supported. rather, we acknowledge that the boundaries of such a community are fuzzier than they may seem at first sight. for successful community development, at least a basic representation and understanding of this larger network context is a necessary condition. !36 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 in this article, we first introduce what we mean by participatory community network mapping for collaborative sensemaking and summarize the current state of our methodology, which we call communitysensor. introducing communitysensor we start by examining the need for a methodology for participatory community network mapping. we then summarize earlier methodology development work that focused on supporting intra-communal sensemaking. we outline how this initial approach has evolved into a cyclical approach for community network development and sensemaking. we illustrate that approach through a case we did on performing a participatory “force field analysis” of a collaboration ecosystem around a specific theme of investigation. the need for a participatory community network mapping methodology to improve their collaboration, community members and network stakeholders need to continually make sense of it (de moor, 2015). this collaborative sensemaking process involves developing a common process of reaching a shared understanding about the collaboration, including the various interests and perspectives of the community members and surrounding stakeholder networks. collaborative sensemaking helps community members jointly find out what their collaboration is about, what relationships and interactions their community and its context consist of, what collaboration resources are available, and what concrete opportunities exist for better working communities. sensemaking is the process by which people give meaning to experience. sensemaking is much more, however, than just a random process of reflection. weick defined the following essential properties: sensemaking is grounded in identity construction, is retrospective, is about actively acting upon and creating the environment, is a social and ongoing process, revolves around extracting cues to help make sense, and is not so much about accuracy but plausibility (weick, 1995). participatory community network mapping is a core communal sensemaking activity. we define it as the participatory process of capturing, visualizing, and analyzing community network relationships and interactions and applying the resulting insights for community sensemaking, building, and evaluation purposes. there are many variations of (more or less participatory) community mapping, including geographical community-mapping, e.g. tribal communities mapping their local rainforest resources ( http://www.mappingforrights.org); concept mapping to visualize the context of common concepts from the lens of a focus question (novak & cañas, 2008), dialogue mapping to capture the issues, positions and arguments in meeting discussions (conklin, 2006), and social network mapping, in which the structural properties of social networks are analyzed, for example to detect emerging community roles (smith, 2014). although the community mapping approaches mentioned all have their merits, they are insufficient from the point of view of (1) supporting sustained and scalable participatory community network cultivation along the lines of (wenger et al, 2011). moreover, our !37 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 methodology aims to (2) integrate insights from the emerging field of knowledge cartography: how to improve our capacity to create and use high-level meaningful (digital) knowledge visualizations (selvin & shum, 2014), thus leveraging the sensemaking capacity needed for collective intelligence and impact. a methodology includes a description of the process to be performed and of the roles involved in the process, assigns responsibilities to activities and people and gives recommendations in form of best practices and guidelines (ieee computer society, 1990 in simperl & luczak-rösch, 2014). we first summarize earlier work on our methodology, then outline the current state of what has grown into the communitysensor methodology. earlier work on the methodology: intra-communal sensemaking we developed an initial version of our methodology as part of a project to stimulate urban farming in the dutch province of noord-brabant, focusing on an emerging community of urban farmers around the city of tilburg. to this purpose, we developed an online map using the online network visualization tool kumu (http://bit.ly/1l0just). by its very nature, such community mapping is participatory, meaning that relevant stakeholders need to be (inter)actively involved in providing and interpreting map data. in (de moor, 2015b), we showed how participatory community mapping requires an appropriate language (what types of elements and connections, what perspectives and layout?), tools (how particular functionalities of online tools can help in the storytelling and visualization, analysis, and sharing of maps, how physical tools like meetings and plenary meetups can help to develop ownership), and processes (e.g. how best to capture, analyze, use, and evolve maps in community practice). lessons learnt about map data capturing in practice include that it helps to distinguish between a – possibly external master map maker (the architect designing the mapping language, tools, and processes, configuring and creating the initial map, and providing general support) and domain map makers from the community (who can keep adding new elements and connections to the initial map as the collaboration grows). it is also important to balance completeness and feasibility: trade-offs are needed in frequency & granularity as only limited map making resources are generally available (e.g. making only quarterly official updates, modeling just organizational participants instead of individuals, as accurately adding the latter would make the map unmaintainable when possibly many hundreds of quickly changing persons are involved). we also observed a constructive "friendly peer pressure" arising, which led community members to contribute data since they saw others represented on the map and they wanted to be seen as well. however, it is important to avoid having participants game the system by, for example, providing data about the same activity in different formats, while suggesting they are different activities. in this way, participants might artificially inflate their perceived involvement in the community, so that they get more recognition than justified. one way to deal with this is by making the criteria for the inclusion of elements and connections explicit and grounded in the social norms of the community. !38 http://bit.ly/1l0just the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 as to interpreting and using the maps, we learnt that community members are particularly interested in map views that focus on the direct context of their own organization or activity, whereas community managers are generally more interested in getting the broader, bird’s eye views of the total map for community management purposes (e.g. informing them which activities/participants act as hubs to which new activities can be linked, or becoming aware of the need to intervene when crucial activities or participants are "dangling" on the periphery of the map whereas they should play a central role). participatory community network mapping: a cyclical aproach the overall purpose of the communitysensor methodology under construction is to help communities make better sense of and strengthen their collaboration through participatory community network mapping. this evolutionary process consists of two interconnected cycles, both driven by the mapping process, and named after the main purpose of that cycle : a community network development cycle and a community network sensemaking cycle. the community network development cycle at the macro-level, there is the ongoing community network development cycle, consisting of four subsequent stages: community network mapping, community network sensemaking, community network building, and community network evaluation. the development process starts by (1) mapping the community network through visualizing the most relevant pieces of the community network into map elements, connections, and views; (2) using these mapping artifacts to make sense of the collaborative common ground of the community network in terms of issues, priorities, and next actions; (3) designing and implementing community network interventions needed to carry out these actions, and so building the community and making its collaboration grow in the context of its wider network; (4) evaluating the effects of these interventions in terms of collecting stories, data and indicators to provide the inputs for the next round of mapping. this process is to be repeated continuously, resulting in ever richer and more situated maps, a deeper joint sense of awareness and ownership of the collaboration ecosystem the community network consists of, and more effective community building interventions, the results of which are measured in terms of stories, data, and indicators that ihelp nspire the next round of development (see figure 1). by continuing to repeat this cycle, sustainability and scalability can be achieved from the bottom-up, grounded in the increasingly clear needs and capabilities of the community network. such a bottom-up process approach is essential for social innovations to ultimately have a chance of having systemic impact (murray and mulgan, 2010). this is literally a spiraling development process, to which the building interventions of possibly many communities and other, external success factors and constraints may contribute. many of these external aspects will not be under the control of the community trying to make sense of its own niche in the larger collaboration ecosystem. hence, the crucial role of the network mapping process as a continuous attempt to better understand this rich and evolving collaborative community context. !39 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 1: the community network development cycle the community network sensemaking cycle the linear nature of the community network development cycle is only an approximation. in reality, backtracking often occurs. for example, when designing community network building interventions, it is sometimes necessary to revisit the sensemaking stages, as there are unclarities about, for example, the commonly understood meanings of specific concepts. however, there is one specific subcycle that is so prevalent that we model it explicitly: the community network sensemaking cycle. this cycle consists of the interplay between the community network mapping and community network sensemaking-stages of the community network development cycle. within this sensemaking cycle, map makers first map the essence of the core community and its surrounding collaborative network of related stakeholders and resources. this initial map – which we call the “seed map” – is composed out of data from source documents, such as project reports and spreadsheets, as well as interviews with core community members. besides being a necessary condition for kickstarting the sensemaking process, creating this initial artifact also helps to check whether the mapping language selected is sufficiently tailored to the needs of the community. we found that investing in getting this seed map “right” in terms of using the proper mapping language and having a sufficient number of community-recognizable example elements and connections is very important for sparking engaged sensemaking conversations. !40 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 2: the community network sensemaking cycle the seed map and subsequent map versions set the agenda for the conversations in the sensemaking process. this agenda consists of those views on the map that are likely most relevant for the subset of participants in a specific sensemaking conversation. outcomes of these sensemaking conversations are issues, priorities and next actions to be taken in the subsequent community network building stage. the sensemaking cycle may need to be iterated several times before enough common sense has been made and captured in the map. in each iteration, new insights from the conversations about the emerging collaboration are represented in terms of (1) elements and connections to be added or modified and (2) which of these elements and connections are to be focused on next to further the collaboration. these sensemaking conversations can take many forms and we are still actively experimenting with what conversation agenda and what type of conversation best fit the needs of the community. applying the community network sensemaking cycle: performing a participatory “force field analysis” of a thematic collaboration ecosystem to illustrate how the sensemaking cycle works, we share how using it played out in a practical situation. the case concerns an organization in the public domain interested in using our participatory community network mapping methodology for doing a “force field analysis” of the collaboration ecosystem around a specific theme of investigation (combating care fraud)‑ , the force field analysis was to act as a precursor to an in-1 depth data analysis that was to investigate the occurrence of that issue in practice. the effort was also to help construct bridges between two organizational departments working on that issue, but which were still too unfamiliar with each other’s ways of as this concerned a sensitive internal matter, no identifying details are shared here.1 !41 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 working. besides providing the focus for that investigation, as well as fostering interdepartmental collaboration, the community network map produced also provides an “action context” from which the results of that data analysis (ongoing as of the publication of this article) can be interpreted and lead to follow-up steps. in a series of seven “working sessions”, a map consisting of 285 elements and 442 connections was created. which according to the community members sufficiently reflected the essence of their local force field, including the main issues, priorities, and ideas for the next actions to be taken. in the first session, representatives from both departments met with the master map maker and agreed upon the language (element and connection types as well as key perspectives and layouts) to be used by going through a number of typical examples. the main element types to be put on the map included themes, workflows, organizations, stakeholders, data sources, cases, and questions/issues. in the second session, representatives from both departments jointly sketched the contours of the map. the next four sessions consisted of meetings with representatives from the two departments separately, allowing for their ideas and concerns to be collected and interpreted without running the risk of their premature interactions leading to “forced consensus”. at the final sensemaking session, representatives from both departments participated jointly again. the goal of that session was not to add more elements and connections, but to weigh the already represented map items in terms of which elements‑ should be 2 focused on in the next action: the data analysis. to this purpose, the representatives from both departments had been asked in their respective last individual sessions to do a “quick and dirty” prioritizing of the map elements from the point of view of their own department. in the plenary session, each of these tentative departmental priorities was briefly discussed, after which a consensus decision was made on the final joint priorities. in total, 72 of the 285 elements were agreed to be a common focus for the data analysis. figure 3 shows an excerpt of the much larger resulting map. interdepartmental priorities are visually indicated by a green border. through the process, a joint sense of ownership (and thus action potential) between the two departments was achieved. it also provided the organizational context and focus for the data analysts to make their subsequent analysis as relevant as possible. however, this is not just an internal organizational community of practice in the making. both departments are linking pins in a large community network of collaborating organizations and stakeholders, all of which have been put on the map as well (in total in this initial investigation already 39 organizations/departments and 26 types of stakeholders involved in the local care fraud ecosystem were identified). in future sessions, representatives from these actors could the focus was on the elements, not the connections, as we represented all observations and 2 insights in the elements, with the connections only providing the context of each element. this because we found that participants more naturally select elements over connections in sensemaking. !42 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 be invited to make sense of “their” part of the map, further scaling up community network development efforts. figure 3: final force field map (blurred excerpt) produced after seven working sessions our emerging methodology has so far focused on supporting the collaborative sensemaking of individual community networks. of course, it is important that collaborative communities start making sense of themselves through co-creating their own maps and using them in practice, thus developing an active sense of ownership and identity. still, throughout the process of mapping our case communities, we observed that there are always connections being made to larger stakeholder networks and other communities, such as demonstrated in the above case. to scale for collective impact, sensemaking should therefore extend beyond the individual community network maps. if, as etzioni (1993) says, society consists of a supra-community, a "community of communities" (or more precisely: a network of social networks and community networks), then the maps embodying their essence should also be linked. how to do this, is still very much an open question. to extend our methodology so that it explicitly supports inter-communal sensemaking, we start with some observations from practice making sense across communities: some observations from practice operationally through their networks, but also conceptually through the mapping languages used, there are many interconnections between communities. to explore the nature of such inter-communal sensemaking, we first present four observations that we !43 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 made while involved in actual participatory community network mapping projects: linking maps across communities; meta-communication matters; tweaking the typologies; and sharing community network patterns. we see these observations only as beginnings of better understanding the intricate ways in which separate mapping activities should be embedded in inter-communal network sensemaking and development processes. linking maps across communities an interesting anecdote from practice shows there may be significant potential to link maps across communities. a local dairy farmer not involved in the tilburg urban farming community is interested in developing new business models for traditional farms that want to start working more sustainably. instead of developing yet another "mega-barn", his aim is to reinvent and share farm practices in a process of social innovation, in what he calls an "open source farm lab”. inspired by the tilburg urban farming community map, the farmer started to develop a stakeholder network map of the community network forming around his own initiative (http://bit.ly/2ocmfks). the next step is aligning the two maps, examining how they could be used by professional farmers moving towards sustainability to build alliances with urban farmers rooted in the city, thereby strengthening both communities. one supporting role there could be played by public librarians, acting as social innovation catalysts (de moor, 2015). meta-communication matters often, producing the map is seen as the ultimate goal of the community mapping process. however, this initial sensemaking artefact is only a reference point for a community and its surrounding stakeholder network, showing the current or desired state of affairs. by itself, a map does not do much. by presenting the right combinations of elements, connections and perspectives, however, the map may trigger meaningful conversations between community network members and related stakeholders. especially when trying to build bridges across communities, members from other communities often need to be made aware of the existence of the map through other communication channels than those used by the producing community itself. generic bridging media such as twitter are useful for this purpose (savage, 2011). for example, the master map maker of the tilburg urban farming community map announced the release of the final version on twitter. it was not only retweeted by the manager of the overall provincial urban farming communities-project, but also by an unknown urban farmer from a different geographical location, and by the local dairy farmer mentioned above. what (social) media channels (including mailings and newsletters) to use increase cross-community awareness, how to use them effectively, and who should play the linking pin roles is still ill-understood. tweaking the typologies the basic element and connection typologies developed for the tilburg urban farming community case were applied in several other early community and network mapping projects, amongst others a university science hub, a regional social innovation network association, a provincial public library association, and two centers of expertise. we observed that the element and connections types were generally reusable, but needed to !44 http://bit.ly/2ocmfks the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 be subtly adapted in different ways in the various cases. for example, core element types in the tilburg urban farming community case were participants, activities, results, and tools. another initial community network mapping project we were involved in is the science hub brabant. in the netherlands, there exists a national network of so-called “science hubs”, each associated with one or more universities. the mission of these hubs is to find innovative ways to get primary school-aged children interested in science. the core activities of one of these hubs, the science hub brabant include, for instance, “kids’ lectures”, in which professors give tailor-made lectures about their topics of specialization to groups of children in a university lecture hall; a “junior science café”, in which researchers discuss their work with children and perform small experiments with the children being co-researchers; and the “kids’ knowledge base”, in which digital resources are developed for home and classroom use in order to introduce children to academic fields and themes (de moor, 2014). however, the science hub having limited resources, it leverages its core activities by linking them to activities organized by other organizations. in its community network map, therefore, there is the need to distinguish between core activities and (secondary) activities (figure 4, see for the full current map http://bit.ly/2nqn1zl). figure 4: science hub brabant map (excerpt) showing networked primary (large) and secondary (smaller) activities when communities start collaborating, it is important to make sense of what element and connection types can act as boundary spanners, so that a well-understood collaborative mesh can emerge across the communities. well-selected, situated types can be important boundary objects. such objects help broker translation, coordination and alignment among the perspectives of different communities coming together !45 http://bit.ly/2nqn1zl the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 (fischer & shipman, 2011). work on defining and aligning intra and inter-community element and connection typologies is still in its infancy, however. sharing community network patterns maps can serve different sensemaking purposes. community maps at first sight are only descriptive of their own community network case: charting who is relating to and interacting with whom about what. however, we also discovered that (generalized) map fragments can be reused within and across cases. for example, map fragments describing the generic types of roles and content involved in activities in the tilburg urban farming community case were with some tweaking reusable in the map of the science hub brabant. another example of how multiple communities of practice can be linked through common project and domain-elements is presented in the next section. such generalized fragments are in fact community collaboration patterns, outlining potential community relationships and interactions relevant to making the community more collaborative. these patterns are not rigid procedures to be followed literally. instead, they are to be taken as sensemaking starters, to be interpreted and further detailed in an active process of conversation and reflection by community members. such patterns are therefore not prescriptive, but generative, weakening barriers to and creating opportunities for thinking or acting that promote collective/civic intelligence (schuler et al., 2011). when taking a closer look at our inter-communal sensemaking observations, we see they are of two different types: first of all, inter-communal sensemaking allows multiple communities to build bridges and work together more effectively by aligning their practices at the operational level, together forming a higher order networked communitysystem. society itself being made of many interconnected communities makes this need clear. in (de moor, 2015), we showed an example of a collective sensemaking process bridging the interests of a theater community and an environmental cafe community. patterns are a useful instrument to inform the building of such bridges, as they, for instance, help identify potential social objects to which different communities can jointly relate. second, (meta-level) sense needs to be made across communities sometimes even in different domains by sharing their generalized lessons learnt. often, communities find practical solutions for their collaboration problems that could be appropriated and reused in other, unrelated communities. as communities are situated, these solutions cannot be blueprints, but need to be in a form that can fit the specific "collaboration ecosystem" of the receiving community. in other words, lessons learnt need to be abstracted to the right extent, sufficiently specific so that they are still useful, but generic enough to remain usable across often widely different cases. !46 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 towards pattern-driven participatory community network mapping many community network mapping projects start from conceptual scratch. we believe, however, that distilling, sharing, combining and re-configuring good practice-patterns may be an important step in increasing the efficacy and impact of participatory community network mapping, especially in the context of goal-oriented collaborative communities. to this purpose, we propose the development of a community collaboration pattern language. towards a community collaboration pattern language collaboration patterns capture socio-technical lessons learnt in optimizing the effectiveness and efficiency of collaboration processes (de moor, 2009). in a community setting, these patterns help discover and build the collaborative context in which the community interactions take place (e.g. the goals, roles, content, and tools associated with the interactions). pattern languages are networks of patterns that call upon one another. pattern languages can help promote creativity, collaborative and critical thinking, while acting as a metalanguage that enables people with different roles to communicate and share experiences with each other (pan & stolterman, 2013). in particular for building bridges across communities, pattern languages are useful, as there are often not many existing intercommunal links yet, with community builders from across the communal divide unsure about what could be potential common ground. a particularly good example of an initiative addressing this problem is the liberating voices pattern language (schuler, 2008), with its strong focus on fostering societal empowerment and civic intelligence. common sense can be made by representatives from various communities following a suggested path between multiple patterns, in the meantime interpreting their joint context through the lens of these patterns. for example, a group of stakeholders could start with interpreting the collective decision making-pattern (http:// publicsphereproject.org/node/209), then together selecting and discussing the most effective implementation of one of the suggested pathways from that pattern, such as t h e m u l t i p a r t y n e g o t i a t i o n f o r c o n f l i c t r e s o l u t i o n p a t t e r n ( h t t p : / / www.publicsphereproject.org/node/278). good pattern languages take time to develop, as they need to transcend particular situations or problems (pan & stolterman, 2013). developing a pattern language is a form of ongoing, cross-case grounded theory development. classic grounded theory develops conceptualized theory from the ground up by coding observations, organizing codes, comparing them, selectively coding for identified core variables, and examining the emerging relationships between categories identified (chametzky, 2016), thus inductively building a conceptual model. it is along similar lines – but absorbing insights from many cases rather than a single in-depth analysis that community collaboration patterns can be constructed, and further evolve across cases. we next illustrate how we are constructing such a community collaboration pattern language. we outline the actual emergence of an important class of community collaboration patterns in our community network mapping practice: core community !47 http://publicsphereproject.org/node/209 http://publicsphereproject.org/node/209 http://www.publicsphereproject.org/node/278 http://www.publicsphereproject.org/node/278 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 interaction patterns which form the conceptual backbone of the pattern language. note that for lack of space we leave out many of the details. important here is to get an overall sense of the evolutionary process. the cross-case evolution of core community interaction patterns at the heart of collaboration patterns are community interactions. in this section, we show how a core community interaction pattern evolved across several cases. the initial core community interaction pattern our quest for identifying collaboration patterns started by framing an initial core interaction pattern grounded in earlier work on socio-technical community collaboration patterns (de moor, 2009) and carrol and rosson's conceptual model of community (in carroll, 2012, p.15). in this paper, we will use a simplified version, outlining only the core conceptual elements and connections of this pattern (figure 5). figure 5: the initial core community interaction pattern what this community network building block says, is that each interaction may contribute to goals, may be part of, trigger, or be involved in other interactions, use or produce various types of content, involve various types of participants, and be supported by —sometimes a whole ecosystem of — physical and online tools. !48 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 furthermore, all of these elements can be part of other elements of the same type (e.g. . an organization department can be part of an organization)‑ . 3 figures 6 and 7 shows two adaptations of this basic pattern in subsequent cases. they were decided upon after in-depth discussions about map language, tools, and processes and presentations of the draft maps to community managers and selected core community members, going through various iterations. we take their thinking these patterns to be understandable and useful to be a promising measure for the validity of these patterns, tentative as they are. the tilburg urban farming community case figure 6 (see next page) shows an initial adaptation of the core community interaction pattern driving the mapping process in the tilburg urban farming community case. we see that key interactions in this community were called activities. three different types of participants were distinguished: individuals, organizations, and communities. the type of content of special interest to this community were results produced in the activities (used content was not visualized as it was not essential for the current sensemaking effort to understand how the activities were organized). as the results were official project deliverables, they also acted as goals. in addition to being involved, participants could be related to activities by just being kept informed about them. note that, according to the initial core community interaction pattern, results can be part of other results. however, modeling details these was not of interest to this community, at least in this stage of its development, as the main focus was on first outlining the overall network of activities. note that the element and connection types of the generic core community interaction pattern that were created for this case are indicated in red and those not used in this case are represented in italics. for example, contributes to and produces were not used in the mapping discussions, as their relation subtype in common has result was more relevant to the (initial) sensemaking purpose of this community. the rdm center of expertise case figure 7 (see following page) is another variation of the initial core community interaction pattern. it was at the heart of a mapping exercise to support community network building in the rdm centre of expertise (coe) in rotterdam, coordinated by the rotterdam university of applied sciences. the coe has as its mission to develop better technical education, as well as new knowledge and sustainable innovations required by the port and city of rotterdam. it does so by supporting collaboration between educational institutes, research centers and corporations in a range of projects, also involving university lecturers and students. this collaboration takes place in a network of currently seven communities of practice (cops). a good example of meaning evolution across patterns is that part of in later cases turned out to 3 also often be naturally used to connect elements that are in some broad sense part of elements of different types, for example a specific tool or data source being maintained (“part of”) an organization. how exactly to deal with this difference between actual informal use and intended formal interpretation is a topic of ongoing investigation. !49 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 6: the core tilburg urban farming community interaction pattern community network mapping was considered to have potential to visualize the collaboration ecosystem not only within but especially across the various communities. to explore this potential, a pilot was conducted with two of the communities of practice (cops): the cop logistics and the cop future mobility. these communities were selected as the community managers were already exploring cross-overs between the projects associated with their communities. in several iterations, a pilot map was produced (https://kumu.io/rdm-coe/rdm-coe). this map is now being extended by the community managers and researchers of the coe to make it cover increasingly more common ground. the basic unit of interaction in the coe are projects. an auxiliary interaction concerns educational activity, which itself is associated with a special type of participant: educational program (as an organizational structure). this relationship is considered essential for successful operations of the coe, as much of the research capacity comes from university lecturers and students. having this relationship modeled in the map will make discovery of relevant projects by, say a student enrolled in a particular educational activity much easier. a key goal context of those projects are one of four domains the coe is working on. key participants to be modeled are next to the communities of practice the organizations involved as participants, sponsors or owners of the projects. representing selected individual persons can be relevant, for example, as project contacts, but are modeled as attributes of project elements instead of as separate map elements. this to keep the maps maintainable and focused on the (project) essence of the collaboration structure of the coe. two special types of relation between !50 https://kumu.io/rdm-coe/rdm-coe the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 projects and participants are sponsors and owners, as this is key resource information for further network building. no tools and content were modeled, as so far the map is especially used for communicating the overall collaboration network structure, not to zoom in on the project level. figure 7: the core rdm centre of expertise community interaction pattern figure 8 (see next page) shows an implementation of this pattern in the rdm coe pilot map. it is a submap that zooms in on one of the projects, intralog. the meaning of the various symbols is indicated next to the map. the red lines on the map indicate involvement-relations, the blue ones membership-relations, the dashed orange and brown lines ownership and sponsorship relations, respectively. !51 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 8: implementation of the core rdm centre of expertise community interaction pattern in the intralog project sub map discussion in this article, we explained how we are developing communitysensor, a participatory community network mapping methodology. we started by summing up the current state of the methodology. it essentially consists of two interlocking mapping-driven cycles: the community network development cycle, comprised of a community network mapping, sensemaking, building, and evaluation stage. we then zoomed in on the heart of the methodology the community network sensemaking cycle in which typically the network mapping and sensemaking stages are repeated a number of times in order to arrive at the issues, priorities, and next actions that inform the next set of interventions in developing the community network. most of our methodology development attention has so far been paid to the mapping and sensemaking activities. however, we also plan to more systematically work on the subsequent community building interventions that actually make the community network grow, and the evaluation activities that provide the inputs for the next round of community mapping efforts. for expanding these subsequent community network building and evaluation stages, we build on existing practices from (wenger et al, 2002; wenger et al., 2011). combining such participatory mapping-powered communitybuilding and evaluation processes with scalable collaboration platform development !52 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 processes (white et al., 2014), could further increase the collective impact of community network development activities. the participatory nature of the community network mapping process plays out in several ways. first of all, community representatives are strongly involved in defining the language to be used, in particular what types of elements and connections are most relevant to their community. they also define what perspectives on the map matter to them, so that attention of their members is best directed to what matters most in – literally – their view. in terms of process participation, data for the maps is largely provided by the community members themselves, for example in the form of surveys, spreadsheets, and interviews. especially the level of participation in the maintenance and use of the maps can still be improved. right now, the consultant, as “master map maker” is designing the architecture and making the seed map. community members have been trained in several instances to do basic maintenance (adding new elements and connections of the same type), but more complex map maintenance tasks such as changing the structure and layout of the map and adding new features is still too complex for most. furthermore, how to put maps to sustained community use, for example by weaving them into regular community sensemaking activities, such as community meetings, and integrating them into primary processes (such as research and education in the rdm case) needs more thought. stimulating engaging physical stakeholder conversations about the maps and their generating patterns seems essential to engender community ownership and adoption. we have conducted experiments with different sensemaking cycle formats, of which the force field analysis case is a typical example. however, we have also tried very different formats, such as having participants talk to each other one-on-one, then letting them tag each other with concepts they think best describe their conversation partner professionally, immediately adding those concepts and their connections to the map, followed by plenary group discussion of what the group has in common as the basis for further action (http://bit.ly/2tunihc). we are still making sense of the many conceptual links between mapping and sensemaking, as this is such a rich field of inquiry. to further our understanding, we aim to build on existing related sensemaking work, such as group facilitation, e.g. (justice & jamieson, 2006), network weaving (holley, 2013), dialogue mapping (conklin, 2006), and participatory representation practice, which focuses on the interplay between facilitators and participants, specifically how practitioners make participatory visual representations coherent, engaging, and useful (selvin, 2011). so far, we have focused on charting the existing “ecosystems” of participants and stakeholders. still, visualizing what “is” is not enough. equally important is to model the intentions and aspirations, the goals, of the evolving community network. one important r&d focus is how to bring goals more explicitly into the equation. we dub this “visualizing the gap”, the many kinds of instantiations of and relationships between goals-activities-participants. we already found that modeling “themes” is a very useful bridge to move from the existing (“is”) to the aspirational (“ought”). themes are open-ended and inspire generative conversation, often more so than existing official project objectives, for example, with their frequently constraining connotations !53 http://bit.ly/2tunihc the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 like office politics and budgets. there is a wide range of models we can draw from to develop this intentional dimension, such as the social innovation process and network models provided by the literature (murray & mulgan, 2010; de moor, 2013). besides extending the intentional/aspirational in our mapping methodology, we also need to address the issue of how to use mapping to evaluate the impact of the community networks. for collective impact, the relational is as important as the rational, and structure is as important as strategy (kania et al., 2014). one direction to explore is how social capital evaluation frameworks such as by marais (2012) can inform the analysis of what connections in maps matter. social network analysis provides us with basic measures to capture essential structural properties of social networks, such as degree centrality, closeness and betweenness. such measures are visualized by the kumu network visualization tool (http://kumu.io) we use in our community mapping projects. in participatory mapping sessions, this social network analysis feature allows the facilitator to, for example, on the fly identify potential hubs and "movers and shakers" in the community, the interpretation of which is then to be discussed with the community representatives present. other kumu tool features include visually indicating impact, for example, using layout to show weighted metrics (e.g. larger elements depending on the size of one of its attributes or the number/weight of connections it has). we intend to experiment with these features in upcoming mapping projects. developing sensible visualizations and mapping processes in which to create and interpret them can help prevent an overly quantitative approach to measuring community value, which runs the risk of not capturing the essence of what the community is really about (wenger et al., 2011). still, a foundation of our methodology construction project is not just about looking inward – at the particular community network at hand – but also to see how it can draw from – and contribute to a larger commons. we believe this to be essential in overcoming fragmentation and increasing collective impact. we have therefore examined the role that participatory community network mapping can play in making sense not only within, but also across communities. we identified first order intercommunal sensemaking, where actual connections are made between different communities in a particular case, and second-order inter-communal sensemaking, in which generalized lessons learnt are drawn and shared across cases. patterns help improve both types of inter-communal sensemaking. we described how we are bootstrapping a pattern-driven methodology, with the ultimate aim of developing a community collaboration pattern language that can seed and catalyze this process. we illustrated the role patterns play by examining the evolution of core community interaction patterns across several cases. the patterns are only tentative and need further specification to meet formal knowledge representation standards. still, they show proof of concept of how such patterns can adapt and become re-usable, forming the "collaboration genome" of a larger society as it were. although both mapping methodology and collaboration pattern language are still in an early stage, they continue to develop rapidly. !54 http://kumu.io the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ontologies are explicit (often formal) specifications of conceptualizations (gruber, 1994), necessary if patterns are to defined consistently and in a reusable and scalable way. there are many ways to represent ontologies. in (de moor, 2009; de moor, 2013), for instance, we show how the ontologies underlying our collaboration patterns can be represented using the conceptual graphs formalism. however, formal knowledge representations are not enough, there needs to be a process to apply, interpret, and evolve the pattern representations. one stream of relevant work we draw from is collaborative ontology engineering. this approach sees ontology engineering as a consensus-building process in which stakeholders/communities of practice agree upon a common view of a domain of interests, their shared knowledge being structured in terms of concepts, attributes, relationships and constraints (simperl & luczak-rösch, 2014). this stream of research has developed many formal approaches to conceptual model distillation, alignment, and conflict resolution which could help us validate and organize the proto-patterns emerging from cases as discussed in the previous section. vice versa, our work could inform this field in terms of the interplay between real-world community sensemaking and the often very abstract knowledge representations that make up formal ontologies. another input for pattern language development are social network analysis approaches, for which the kumu tool already provides some basic features, as mentioned earlier. for example, by analyzing social media conversation networks, community clusters can be discovered (smith et al., 2014). structural social network analysis and ontology engineering approaches merge in new research streams like semantic mining of social networks (tang & li, 2015), which could further help to expand pattern language construction. a weakness of many pattern languages is that most of their efforts seem to go into creating the pattern language, rather than using it, leading to insufficient analysis and evaluation of pattern languages in action (pan and stolterman, 2013). to develop an effective pattern-driven participatory mapping methodology, creating, analyzing, and comparing pattern use cases is paramount. through our approach of reflecting upon multiple hands-on mapping projects, examining what patterns are being used and can be distilled in each case, while simultaneously developing a reusable collection of community collaboration patterns, we hope to contribute to this still emerging body of knowledge. to further enrich these inter-active aspects of our methodology, we are inspired by related community-focused pattern language work, and the meta-design of socio-technical systems. for example, the liberating voices pattern language has developed a range of pattern-driven workshops and games (schuler, 2011). work on the meta-design of socio-technical systems provides us with more general process-oriented principles on which to build our methodology, such as cultures of participation, empowerment for adaptation and evolution, and seeding and evolutionary growth (fischer & herrmann, 2011). conclusion to achieve global collective impact, we need to considerably grow and put to much better use civic intelligence and social innovation capacity. top-down approaches led by !55 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 governments and large corporations are insufficient. networked communities are a core part of the societal fabric required. we need more systematic approaches for community networks to examine and improve their intraand inter-communal collaboration, to which participatory community network mapping is instrumental. we outlined our emerging methodology for supporting this process: communitysensor. however, supporting individual community mapping projects from scratch and in isolation is not enough. we argue that collaboration patterns are key in scaling up sensemaking and community network development processes towards collective impact: they form an evolving ecosystem of units of collaborative meaning and lessons learnt that can help seed, link, and strengthen community network development and collaboration. pattern-driven participatory community network mapping should be a constitutive process for making, growing, and applying the inter-communal sensemaking capacity essential to achieve sustainable global change. we hope that the emerging methodology outlined in this paper provides some of 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(2014). learning 3.0: collaborating for impact in large development organizations. knowledge management for development journal, 10(3): 21-37 !58 123-16-1325 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 points of view critical questions for community informatics in practice from an ethical perspective preamble community informatics (ci) in practice informs and equips individuals and groups in geographic communities to advance the agency of constituents . information and 1 communication technologies (ict) are selected, designed, and implemented in ways that are consistent with constituents’ own values and goals. this approach includes recognition that ict nonuse may also be appropriate, particularly when the use of icts would contradict constituents’ values and goals. community informatics practice seeks to make “effective use” of technology (gurstein, 2003) to support community development projects in ways that advance a sustainable approach to community enrichment and power (stoecker, 2005). ci practice integrates participatory design of information technology resources, popular education, and asset-based development to enhance quality of life (campbell & eubanks, 2004). however, without its own set of ethical guidelines and practice standards, ci remains underdeveloped as a field of practice (stoecker, 2005). throughout this document, we use stoecker’s (2014) distinction between constituency (that is, 1 “people who have important life experience in common”) and community (that is, “a collectivity in a local setting whose members interact in many different ways that results in the mutual enhancement and sustainability of the collectivity and its constituents”). !236 wolske, m., rhinesmith, c. (2016) critical questions for community informatics in practice from an ethical perspective. the journal of community informatics, 12 (3), 236—242. date submitted: 2015-09-16. date accepted: 2015-11-19. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1325. martin wolske senior research scientist and lecturer, center for digital inclusion, graduate school of library and information science, university of illinois at urbana-champaign, usa. mwolske@illinois.edu colin rhinesmith assistant professor, school of library and information science, simmons college, usa. crhinesmith@simmons.edu corresponding author. http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1325 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1325 mailto:mwolske@illinois.edu mailto:crhinesmith@simmons.edu the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 collaboratively developed through three years of conference workshops, this set of guiding critical questions seeks to further promote ethical practice in ci. this document serves as a complement to the researcher-focused “code of ethics for community informatics researchers” (averweg & o’donnell, 2007) and expands upon the “ethics of community informatics research and practice” pattern card (stoecker, n.d.). while there often is overlap between research and practice, community informatics is increasingly informing projects undertaken by those who do not primarily identify as academic or career researchers but who do important work at the intersection of information, technology, and society at the community level. therefore, this document also serves as a complement to the codes of ethics and standards of practice for community-centered professions such as social work, urban planning, public health, and library, archival, and information science. these guiding critical questions affirm the need to state social justice principles more explicitly in community informatics. unequal power relations will always be a factor and ci practice can benefit from guidelines to ensure these relationships are more equitable. the groups that comprise communities are not homogeneous, nor singular (young, 1997), and include nonhuman residents (leopold, 1949; kimmerer, 2013). on the other hand, individuals belong to multiple, intersecting communities (young, 1997; lugones, 2003); this includes those with leadership roles in ci projects. power relations exist within and between communities, and they are ever changing. further, knowledge of the world is socially constructed within specific historical and social contexts that are fundamentally mediated by power relations. facts are always determined by some degree of ideological inscription (kincheloe & mclaren, 2005). power inequalities and other injustices in practices, relationships, and social systems can only be confronted by leveraging group difference as a resource for dialogue comprised of both shared action and reflection (young, 1997). while ci projects focus on effective use of technologies, we acknowledge technologies do not solve, revolutionize, transform, or otherwise serve as independent agents acting upon humans as objects. rather, as sociotechnical artifacts, technologies are shaped by a diverse set of social, cultural, economic, political, and historical factors that become embedded within the artifacts themselves. these technological developments consequently influence the appropriation, use, and limitations of artifacts as well as their impact and eventual disposition or sustainability. in this way, technologies amplify the human forces involved in design, production, distribution, and consumption—forces for justice and oppression, forces for mutual benefit and greed. ci practitioners must challenge themselves in ongoing and systematic ways to identify how they invite participation while withholding the truth —potentially from themselves, as well from their partners— with regard to how ci projects can sometimes be forced to fit within established governmental, educational, cultural, economic, and other social systems in ways that reify unjust aspects of such systems. indeed, it is only through dialogue and the building of equitable relationships across group differences (young, 1997) that our partnerships can expose the truth and create change to those portions of our engagement that are oppressive to others and ourselves. these efforts to decolonize ci practice are not an end themselves, but a continuous process embedded within praxis. we stand with freire (2000: 88), who states “to exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it. once named, the world in its turn reappears to the namers as a !237 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 problem and requires of them a new naming”. as such, this reflective document serves as a waypoint to guide further dialogue toward a continuously evolving set of practices. the evolution of ci as praxis is intended to advance ci practitioners’ abilities to work, whenever relevant, as allies in support of a community’s own liberatory efforts. this evolution must be guided by deep and mutually respectful dialogue between the diverse constituencies involved in ci projects. such dialogue should contribute to a popular education initiative in which all participants jointly and continually construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct understandings of core concepts, such as community, self-determination, engagement, social justice, power, and social change to increase awareness of the interlocking social systems within which ci practice happens. in sum, then, this document seeks to outline a set of critical questions that not only guide ethical ci practice, but also guide the personal transformation of practitioners to embrace all as experts in their own right. method workshops held at the community informatics research network (cirn) conferences in 2013, 2014, and 2015 were used to guide development of this framework. during the 2013 conference, the need for such a framework was affirmed and the work of a cohort from the pluralizing the archival curriculum group (2011) was identified as a model for establishing this statement. at the 2014 workshop, a range of model principles were reviewed individually and discussed in small groups. during the first part of the workshop, participants reviewed posters and printouts of various model principles. participants were provided with sticky notes and large blank sheets of paper on which to provide comments. recommendations for alternative sets of principles were also solicited from participants. the second half of the workshop consisted of open smalland large-group discussion to further refine ideas. after the 2014 conference, a page was created on the community cirn wiki (towards a cirn framework, 2014) listing the results of the 2014 process, with the goal of encouraging community informatics practitioners to discuss this framework with community partners and reflect on their practices in light of these guidelines. at the 2015 cirn conference, the preliminary version of this document was prominently posted throughout the conference, with sticky notes provided to enable ongoing feedback. a world café approach (world café method, n.d.) was then used within a workshop to gather participant feedback on the proposed statement, while considering how the statement might be applicable to community informatics research, teaching, and practice. the authors gathered the feedback and created a new draft for publication as a means to widen the audience reviewing and commenting on this document. it should be noted that as two white, cisgender, heterosexual male scholars working at higher education institutions in the united states, we recognize the ethical dilemmas involved in publishing this document. these dilemmas include privileging lineal written language as well as calling attention to imperialist, patriarchal, and racist ideologies embedded within western academic culture and practices. we welcome further consideration of how to address this grand challenge to promote an active community practice in, and not just discussions about, !238 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 pluralism. we also recognize the following pressing questions are yet unaddressed in this document: • can these ethical guidelines even be carried out within a university research environment? when funding, tenure, and advancement dictate relatively narrow research, teaching, and service activities, other epistemologies, ontologies, and methods that embrace justice and mutual benefit are often set aside. • is ci a practice that requires an advanced degree within a western academic culture or is it open to epistemological pluralism and alternative educational traditions? • what other barriers prevent ci practitioners from embracing guidelines that promote ethics, diversity, and inclusion in ci practice? how can these obstacles be overcome? critical questions in order to guide the evolution of ethical community informatics in practice, as well as the personal transformation of ci practitioners who seek to embrace all as equals and experts, we put forward this initial set of critical questions to inform ci praxis. in addressing each question in ongoing and systematic ways, it is important to determine whether the right people are at the table to inform dialogue and negotiate decisions guiding action. further, for each question, we should ask “how do we know?” so as to challenge our personal histories, cultures, and ways of knowing and what we value as truth. maximizing benefit, minimizing harm • what individual and social benefits will result through this ci project, and for whom? what individual and social harms will result through this project, and to whom? what will be the benefits and harm to nonhuman residents through this ci project? is any one segment unfairly burdened with the costs of, or any harm resulting from, this ci project? • in what ways do my racial and cultural heritage and historical background influence how i understand the potential benefits and harms that may result from this ci project? in what ways do the racial and cultural heritage and historical background of others engaged in the project influence how they understand benefits and harms? • what are the objectives of the constituents, and how do they align with, or come in conflict with, the objectives of those initiating and/or informing the community informatics project? • what methods and rules of conduct are appropriate (and inappropriate) in the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of the ci project? who has ownership of, and credit for, the created works and data, and who determines the means by which products may be disseminated and under what conditions? • how can we use the ci project to move beyond addressing an immediate opportunity or need in order to foster agency and knowledge power on the part of the constituencies with which we ally? in what ways are we reducing the agency of others by doing that which others have the expertise and opportunity to do? !239 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 • have checkpoints been built into project timelines to assess and compare anticipated versus actual benefits and harms and to allow for renegotiation of decisions guiding action? • are we bringing false assumptions and overgeneralizations into a project based on our experiences in past ci projects? • are we making promises that we cannot keep in ci projects by using language that translates differently within different contexts? participation and pluralism • what does it mean to be inclusive in this context? what does it mean to have selfdetermination? • which individuals and communities are engaged in the ci project, and why? which individuals and communities are not engaged in the project, and why not? • are we taking all necessary steps to ensure that constituents are free to participate in ci projects and are informed about their roles in such projects? are we allowing participants to freely choose the nature and length of the partnership as their right? • are we privileging the input, values, belief systems, and cultural expressions of those directly impacted by ci projects, especially those historically excluded from full participation in society? • are we seeking to understand the distinct situations, perspectives, lived experiences, and knowledge of those involved in ci projects, especially attending to group differences? • are we entering into engagement as allies in a spirit of mutual trust, respect, genuineness, and commitment? are we appropriately ceding control as a symbol of trust and a component of trust building? • are we allotting sufficient time for relationship building at the start and throughout the ci project? what happens when funding and institutional timelines come into conflict with the time needed for effective dialogue and relationship building? philosophy of technology • what everyday technologies might be unseen and displaced because of an overly narrow definition of what should be considered an appropriate technology? who are the local innovators whose technologies might be championed as part of a ci project? • are people with the needed skill sets engaged in the design and implementation of the ci project to maximize the likelihood that it is a community building project and not solely a technology-focused initiative? • how can we seek to understand and leverage constituencies’ everyday experiences with technology as an essential gateway for understanding (a) how oppressive systems in society reinforce existing inequalities and (b) the role that different technologies, as applied in context, play in amplifying these social processes? • have the impacts on all stakeholders—including future generations, nonhuman residents, those who intersect with the participants and beneficiaries of ci projects, and !240 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 those involved in the mining of minerals, in the production of technologies, and in end-of-life recycling—been considered in the selection and implementation of specific technologies? • how might the voices of technology skeptics and traditionalists inform adoption, or non-adoption, of a ci project? what important insights regarding culture, values, and history are these perspectives bringing to the engagement? • how do we balance considerations of ease of implementation, purchase costs, operational costs, human costs, sustainability, and end-of-life effects when choosing between different technologies? • how should we proceed when there isn’t alignment amongst various stakeholders regarding important aspects of technology implementation? is this an opportunity to embrace difference as a resource for community building and the construction of new knowledge in ci projects? • how do we proceed when ethical and legal aspects come into conflict, especially in the global context when the ethics and laws of one culture come into conflict with those of another? do complex situations like these present opportunities to embrace group differences as resources for community building and the construction of new knowledge in ci projects? • how do we balance our relationships with members of the community with the requirements of our places of employment and project funders when a constituency determines adoption or acquisition would be counter to their interests, values, belief systems, and/or cultural ways of being and doing? • how can we develop new definitions of success in ci projects that do not require adoption of digital technologies or acquisition of data and artifacts? • how do we introduce technology opportunities without encouraging technological utopianism? acknowledgments we gratefully acknowledge anne gilliland and kelvin white, who co-led the 2014 and 2015 workshops with the two authors. we also extend a sincere thank you to all the participants of each of the three workshops. references averweg, u., & o'donnell, s. (2007). code of ethics for community informatics researchers. the journal of community informatics, 3 (1). retrieved from http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/ article/view/441/307 campbell, n. d., & eubanks, v. (2004). community informatics as a pathway to social change. retrieved from http://www.brillomag.net/copc/ci/ freire, p. (2000). pedagogy of the oppressed. new york, ny: continuum international publishing group. gurstein, m. (2003). effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. first monday, 8 (12). retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/article/view/1107/1027 kimmerer, r. w. (2013). learning the grammer of animacy. in: braiding sweetgrass. canada, milkweed editions. !241 http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/441/307 http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/441/307 http://www.brillomag.net/copc/ci/ http://firstmonday.org/article/view/1107/1027 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 kincheloe, j. l., & mclaren, p. (2005). rethinking critical theory and qualitative research. in n. k. denzin & y. s. lincoln (eds.), the sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 303–342). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. leopold, a. (1949). the land ethic. in: a sand county almanac. ballantine books. lugones, m. (2003). introduction. in: peregrinajes/pilgrimages: theorizing coalition against multiple oppressions. new york: rowman & littlefield press. pluralizing the archival curriculum group. (2011). educating for the archival multiverse. the american archivist, 74, 69–101. stoecker, r. (n.d.). ethics of community informatics research and practice. retrieved from http:// www.publicsphereproject.org/node/266 stoecker, r. (2005). is community informatics good for communities? questions confronting an emerging field. the journal of community informatics, 1 (3). retrieved from http://cijournal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/183/129 stoecker, r. (2014). what if? all ireland journal of teaching and learning in higher education (aishe-j), 6(1). retrieved from http://ojs.aishe.org/index.php/aishe-j/article/view/166 towards a cirn framework for ethics, diversity, and inclusion (2014). retrieved from http:// cirn.wikispaces.com/towards+a+cirn+framework+for+ethics,+diversity,+and+inclusion world café method (n.d.). retrieved from http://www.theworldcafe.com/key-concepts-resources/ world-cafe-method/ young, i. m. (1997). difference as a resource for democratic communication. in j. bohman & w. rehg (eds.), deliberative democracy: essays in reason and politics (pp. 383–406). cambridge, ma: mit press. !242 http://www.publicsphereproject.org/node/266 http://www.publicsphereproject.org/node/266 http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/183/129 http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/183/129 http://ojs.aishe.org/index.php/aishe-j/article/view/166 http://cirn.wikispaces.com/towards+a+cirn+framework+for+ethics,+diversity,+and+inclusion http://cirn.wikispaces.com/towards+a+cirn+framework+for+ethics,+diversity,+and+inclusion http://cirn.wikispaces.com/towards+a+cirn+framework+for+ethics,+diversity,+and+inclusion http://www.theworldcafe.com/key-concepts-resources/world-cafe-method/ http://www.theworldcafe.com/key-concepts-resources/world-cafe-method/ 1262-7802-4-ce the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles expert yet vulnerable: understanding the needs of transit dependent riders to inform policy and design transportation is a crucial resource that links people to jobs, social networks, community and services. the transit dependent -those who do not own private vehicles -occupy a unique position. they are expert in their knowledge of public transportation while vulnerable to the failures and limitations of transit. this paper presents the results of a study that is aimed at understanding the lived experience of transit dependent riders. using a framework of structuration theory as an analytic lens, we provide a thematic analysis of qualitative data including interviews with socially connected groups of people and video diaries. the results demonstrate the expertise that transit dependent riders have about transit and its policies and how they deploy that expertise in !3 emma j. rose university of washington tacoma, usa corresponding author. ejrose@uw.edu robert racadio university of washington, usa racadio@uw.edu travis martin emc, usa travis.martin@emc.com deidre girard usa deidregirard@gmail.com beth kolko university of washington, usa bkolko@uw.edu rose, e., racadio, r., martin, t., girard, d., kolko, b. (2017). expert yet vulnerable: understanding the needs of transit dependent riders to inform policy and design. the journal of community informatics, 13(1), 3—24. date submitted: 2015-08-21. date accepted: 2017-03-18. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1262 . mailto:ejrose@uw.edu mailto:racadio@uw.edu mailto:travis.martin@emc.com mailto:deidregirard@gmail.com mailto:bkolko@uw.edu http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1262 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1262 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 productive and cunning ways to make the system work for them. the analysis of this data resulted in three categories of agency to consider when designing for vulnerable populations: resourcefulness, reciprocity and powerlessness. the paper concludes by advocating for a human-centered approach to designing systems in community informatics and offers a set of guiding questions for designers of information and communication technologies (icts) to consider, especially with regards to vulnerable populations. introduction transportation is a crucial resource that links people to jobs, social networks, community and services. the research described in this paper investigates the experience of people who are transit dependent, that is, people who do not have access to private vehicles and therefore use public transportation as their primary mode of transit. the study aim was to identify the ways in which information and communication technologies (icts) are designed – and could be designed differently – to take into account the needs of transit dependent riders. the field of community informatics has focused primarily on how to improve equity and work for social justice through icts, specifically how they are accessed, designed and encourage participation. we are inspired by recent work on expanded urban planning, a concept that positions people and their local knowledge as valuable and necessary (staffans & horelli 2014). we situate this study to engage in issues of participation and inclusion in the design of icts; we are specifically interested in how vulnerable populations are engaged or excluded. we add to the voices that hope to problematize the notion of the digital divide and agree that the digital divide is often too narrowly focused on issues of technology access (gurstein 2015). in this work, we go beyond issues of access to consider and examine how the design of information and communication technologies affect vulnerable groups like transit dependent riders and how paying attention to these vulnerable groups privileges different needs, concerns and issues related to public transportation and urban infrastructure. as a field, community informatics has always been interested in ways that icts are made available, designed and used to explore and support people’s needs. according to gurstein, community informatics examines “how and under what conditions ict access can be made usable and useful, that is, how “effective use” can be achieved by, among others, marginal or excluded populations and communities” (2003, p 44). in our work, we agree that ict access is important but we go further to review the design of the icts and how the design enables and constrains use. as icts become more embedded and invisible, community informatics scholars and activists should question how design decisions are made, by whom, and for whom, and as a result, whose needs are overlooked or obscured. therefore it is valuable to examine the manner in which icts have been designed and to look at the resulting impact of that design. in addition, looking for ways to include more people in the design process provides an opportunity to !4 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 consider the methods and techniques in our field that invite and stimulate collaboration and participation. our focus on the transit dependent rider is motivated by a commitment to social justice, but also because these riders fill a unique space in the transit ecosystem. they are experts of the system and have a sophisticated understanding of its nuances, while still occupying a vulnerable position where changes to the system can disproportionately and negatively affect their lives. the vulnerability of transit dependent riders reflects inequities present in american society. people who are transit dependent are more likely to be a member of a minority group (garrett & taylor, 1999). this further amplification of inequities makes discussions about transportation policies and planning political ones: the search for transit equity is related to civil rights and social justice (bullard, 2003). while transit dependent groups tend to be the largest users of transportation, their needs are often overlooked or are secondary to what is commonly referred to as “choice riders,” meaning riders who can choose between using public transportation vs. a private vehicle (garrett & taylor, 1999). looking at transportation and its supporting icts from the experience and perspective of transit dependent riders can uncover ways in which design choices have unintended consequences for the transit dependent. the purpose of this article is to examine the lived experience of people interacting with public icts in order to examine how design reinforces existing inequities and how individuals attempt to exercise their expertise to overcome structural constraints. specifically, we look at the space of transit dependent riders and the icts supporting public transportation. first, in this paper, we explore the intersections between design and community informatics, then we review the concept of transit dependence in more detail and the theory of structuration. second, we explain in detail the study methods used to investigate the transit dependent experience. third, we provide three categories of agency developed from the study data with examples from the data. fourth, we discuss and apply the theoretical framework of structuration to the findings in order to critique transportation icts and identify future design opportunities. finally, we conclude with a call for a participatory human-centered design approach to the design of icts in the public sector. investigating transportation through structuration in this section, we provide additional background for transportation icts and the groups of people who are affected by their design. first, we start with a discussion of the concept of transit dependence. then we explore the principles of giddens’s structuration theory, how it applies to the study of transit systems and acts as a lens for the design of our empirical study. transit dependence the people who use public transportation are commonly divided into two groups: transit dependent and choice riders (polzin, chu & rey, 2000; beimborn, greenwald & jin, 2003; krizek & el-geneidy, 2007). transit dependent riders are people who rely on public transportation and do not own private vehicles. this group is also often referred to as “captive” !5 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 riders. the second group -choice riders -are people who own or have access to a vehicle but choose to use public transportation. distinguishing transit dependence from choice ridership helps to clarify how creators of transit systems and services conceptualize their audiences, and also helps shed light on the values that are embedded, explicitly or implicitly, by this categorization. the transit dependent group is captive to their limited transit options, whereas choice riders have more freedom to choose between public and private transit. more attention is usually given to choice riders to entice them to take public transit. as a result, the transit dependent audience’s needs may be of secondary importance, even though this group tends to be more vulnerable and has less power. lacking access to transportation intensifies some of the challenges that the poor confront. studies have shown that reliable access to transportation is a key to alleviating poverty (booth, hanmer, & lovell, 2000; sanchez, 2008). several studies identified that car ownership is predictive of people transitioning from public assistance to employment, a phenomenon also referred to as “driving out of poverty” (brabo, kilde & pesek-heeriges, 2003; taylor, 2009). in addition, limited transportation options reduce access to healthcare and negatively affect health (rittner & kirk, 1995). transportation also plays a crucial role in maintaining and improving social networks, and a lack of access to social networks leads to a lack of social capital (bradbury, 2006). a variety of researchers have called for improvements to transportation policies, services and schedules that would benefit people who are transit dependent in order to improve equity. ferguson and others propose a new way to design transit routes that provide transit dependent riders access to basic amenities such as employment, supermarkets, medical service (ferguson et al. 2012). in addition to providing access to amenities, research by giuliano proposes changes to transit routes, including expanding service to underserved markets and increasing service during off-peak and off-direction commutes, to improve access and mobility for low income transit riders (giuliano, 2005). when looking at the crucial role that transit plays in the lives of economically vulnerable individuals and families, it is valuable to look for creative solutions that are feasible within current service offerings. it may not be possible to increase service and routes or provide private vehicles to help individuals move out of poverty. instead, we propose thinking about ways to improve the design and development of icts within the existing transit system architecture to lessen the challenges and constraints of the transit dependent. for example, more transit agencies are providing real-time transit information that can be accessed on mobile devices by integrating it into their online services or making the data available to third parties who build interfaces to access this information such as google maps (https://www.google.com/maps/) and one bus away (ferris, watkins and borning, 2010a). real time data can improve the rider experience by increasing rider satisfaction, minimizing wait times, and improving perceptions of safety (ferris, watkins and borning, 2010b). typically, icts are designed to accommodate the entire rider population and they can potentially improve the transit experience for all riders. !6 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 structuration theory and transit to examine the relationship between riders and the transit system, we employ structuration, a macro-sociological theory that explains how societies change over time (giddens 1984). central to this theory is the concept of duality between structure and agency. according to giddens, social action creates and recreates society and structure. actors make choices based on rules and resources, and their actions both create and reinforce the structure of society. the relationship is recursive: structure enables and constrains actions, and actions reinforce and shift structure. while structuration theory operates at a macro level to describe how societies change over time, looking at a specific time and context can explain the ways in which the duality of structures and agents are in play. structuration has been applied in a variety of disciplines and fields to understand the relationships between structure and actors. in urban studies, structuration has been used to examine neighborhood decline (aalbers, 2006), the coordination of trips in cities (pratt, 1996), and to evaluate the role of organizations within communities (mcquarrie and marwell, 2009). using structuration to look at transportation provides a way to examine the relationships between structures, including institutions, rules, and resources, and the actors who are negotiating the system to bring about the desired end result in our research, we examine how agency is enabled and constrained by the transit system. by looking at the agentive acts of individuals, we can evaluate how a structure is designed and implemented and in turn imagine alternatives. giddens refers to actors as “knowledgeable agents,” meaning that they can reflect and act purposefully within the ongoing flow of social life. agents’ knowledgeability allows them to navigate and make choices in the social world, and is exhibited in two ways. first, through discursive consciousness, which is an individual’s ability to talk about his or her actions, intentions and reasons. second, through practical consciousness, or the knowledge and practices that individuals might not be able to express discursively. giddens refers to practical consciousness as “what is simply done.” what is essential to this framing of knowledgeability is that humans are purposeful, reflective actors in the world. however, while humans know and explain what they are doing, they may “know little of the ramified consequences of the activities in which they engage" (giddens, 1986, p.14). the notions of agency and structure in structuration theory provide a framework for taking the experiences of transit dependent riders seriously. it provides a basis for understanding the structures of transit as well as how agency and power are wielded within the system. structures of transit – transit authorities or organizations that make decisions on fares, routes, policies, schedules and services – enable and constrain the actions that people take while riding transit such as the embedded expectations of behavior and activities while riding transit. the knowledgeable agents – the transit dependent riders – in our study demonstrate how they are both constrained and empowered by these structures through their stories and practices. by conscious attention to these tensions in the duality between structures and actors, we can observe the ways that the systems can be designed differently and improved. our goal is to position the design of icts as an intervention that can support the needs of both transit agencies and transit dependent riders. !7 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 research design and methods in this section, we describe the research environment and the study participants. we then describe our methods for data collection and analysis. the study design, informed consent processes, and methods were reviewed and approved by the university of washington’s institutional review board. context of the research site we conducted our study at white center, an urban neighborhood south of seattle, washington, which we chose for its diverse community and location. 27% of the population in white center is foreign-born, and 36% of the residents live 200% below the poverty line. as a transit hub, white center is an appropriate location to investigate the needs of transit dependent riders. the data for this study was collected in 2010. at that time significant changes were happening within the local transportation system. the changes included substantial service reductions due to budget constraints brought on by economic recession. the cut in funding for services translated to fewer buses and bus routes, at the same time that more people were becoming transit dependent because of the economic decline. the local transit agency was promoting a new smart card system and allowing electronic payments with the aim of phasing out paper bus transfers. we return to this data now to apply and use structuration as a lens through which to view policy and societal shifts. by focusing on change events such as policy and ict interventions, we can see how structures enable and constrain the actions of agents. this viewpoint provides a productive way to examine the impact of policy and ict changes. as transportation options and the freedom to move around become constrained, the design of icts can be updated and improved to help people make more efficient use of an increasingly scarce resource. data collection in this study, the research team collected data using a variety of qualitative research methods including ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews, and video diaries. we deployed design ethnography, a holistic research strategy that supports the examination of the situated actions that people perform and the tools they use. the richness of ethnographic data, which reflects the practices of people in the greatest possible context, helps designers create products for appropriate audiences (salvador, bell & anderson, 1999). to capture the experience of the transit dependent, we gathered a variety of ethnographic data including observing, documenting, and photographing the daily rhythms of bus riders in white center (rose 2011) and conducting autoethnographies (anderson, 2006) of our own transit experiences as an act of defamiliarization (bell, blythe, & sengers, 2005). we spoke informally with community members in libraries, cafes and community centers about the challenges they face related to transit. later in the study, we took part in participant observation (atkinson and hammersley, 1994), including riding along with interview participants, to gain a deeper !8 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 understanding of daily lives of transit dependent riders. to record this data, the team took field notes and photographs and wrote reflections. to understand the challenges and lived experience of transit dependence, we conducted interviews with socially connected groups of transit dependent riders. we recruited participants through flyers posted around the neighborhood, including transit centers, libraries, community centers and bulletin boards. we screened and selected participants based on factors including car ownership and frequency of transit use. out of the group of people who volunteered for the study, we selected participants to achieve diverse representation across gender, age and ethnicity. participants were invited to bring friends or family members to take part in the interviews. talking to groups of socially connected people allowed us to understand the social context of transportation choices and usage. participants described their transit patterns of use, reflected on challenges and current practices, and identified opportunities or areas for improvement. each participant received a $20 honorarium for taking part in the interviews. in total, we spoke to six groups of people, with groups ranging in size from two to five people, for a total of 15 participants overall. depending on whether they also participated in our video diary activity, we spoke with each group between one and four times. we met participants at locations of their choosing, including coffee shops, community centers and private homes. at each group interviews, we asked for volunteers to participate in a follow up activity. we gave video cameras to this subset of participants and asked them to create video diaries of their transportation experiences. this video data collection is a variation of photovoice (chavez, 2004; wang & burris, 1997). giving participants cameras is a participatory research method that encourages them to guide the research collection and focus on what they think is significant. after the participants created their videos, we met with them to watch the videos together and conducted a follow-up interview. the participants in this activity were given the camera as an honorarium. details about the participants and their pseudonyms are listed in table 1. !9 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 1. overview of research participants in white center/seattle data analysis data collection occurred over three months. the ethnographic data provided a background for the research site and framed the resulting interviews and video transcripts. the research team followed standard qualitative research coding techniques to identify codes and categories (coffey & atkinson 1996) using the collaborative web-based tool saturate (http://www.saturateapp.com). we coded speech at the phrasal level. the transcripts were coded by five team members. for inter-coder reliability, each transcript was coded by at least two researchers. categories were named and negotiated by the five-person team during weekly analysis meetings. codes were also assigned and adjusted by individuals analyzing the data and during team meetings where codes were adjusted based on group consensus. based on the theoretical framework of structuration, the research team coded for agentive acts and structural constraints to look for ways the transportation systems and supporting icts were enabling and constraining action. group number, description, participants from group interviews 
 (all names are pseudonyms) * = also participated in video diaries housemates: 
 1. two middle-aged men living in a recovery facility • eddy* • shawn 2. younger couple with school-aged children • ann* • brian 3. married middle-aged couple • adam* • rachel 4. older woman and her niece who lived together • helen* • monica* 5. group of friends. middle-aged and older adults; all were homeless • louis • ryan • cynthia • stephen • timothy 6. roommates in their early 20s • joey • gabe !10 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 study findings: categories of agency for transit dependent riders observing and interviewing public transit riders gave us insight into the lived experience of the transit dependent. using a structuration framework, we focused our analytical attention on acts of agency and how these actions were enabled or constrained by a variety of structures. since our primary attention was on the actors, we categorized their agentive acts into three themes: resourcefulness, resilience and powerlessness. table 2 shows a summary of the three categories, their definition and a selection of findings from the study. in the following section, we define each theme and present evidence in the form of quotes from participants in the study. table 2. summary of findings resourcefulness resourcefulness, as we define it here, means making choices to make the best of the transitdependent experience. a key distinction of resourceful acts is that they are sanctioned and within the norms of acceptable transit use. within these norms, actors deploy their extensive expertise of the transit system to find creative solutions to problems and to make trips easier and more enjoyable. as regular users of public transit, the study participants deployed their expertise to choose an optimal route that was based on personal criteria beyond transit time and walking distance. riders knew the fine points of the system, the routes, when to ride, and where to transfer. they knew which routes were fast or slow, pleasant or unpleasant, or safe or dangerous. when category definition example resourcefulness deploying expertise to resolve structural constraints in ways that are sanctioned and productive • grouping errands together to maximize a free transfer • supplementing official transit information with prior knowledge • taking mini-vacations via transit resiliency m a n i p u l a t i n g s t r u c t u r e s o r resources to overcome barriers, in unsanctioned or unanticipated ways • taking extreme measures like biking or walking far distances to accommodate limitations of the transit system • fare evasion powerlessness t h e i n a b i l i t y t o o v e r c o m e structural constraints • losing a job because the bus was late • safety concerns • limited housing options !11 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 planning their day, riders often included a considerable amount of extra time for their commute, taking earlier buses to ensure that they arrived at locations on time, especially when the trip was for work or doctor appointments. some riders optimized their trips by grouping errands that coincided with particular bus routes, and then used any extra time on a transfer ticket for unplanned errands or leisurely activities. riders frequently supplemented the available transit resources, such as online trip planners, with knowledge gained through their own experiences. for example, one rider mentioned a trip from a place in southwest seattle to a place in southeast seattle. the trip planner recommended a route that went north to downtown, only to return southward, instead of suggesting a 10-minute walk eastward to catch a different bus with a more direct route. as one participant said, “i am aware of the limitations of the trip planner, so i tweak the system.” some riders take the bus as a form of recreation, relaxation, and refuge. riding the bus without a concrete destination in mind, these riders explore new neighborhoods, learn the layout of the city, or pass the time. this leisurely riding is seen as a form of cheap entertainment. several riders mentioned the practice of taking a trip to “find out what was at the end of the line”. others riders choose routes that were based on the scenery, occasionally taking longer trips to enjoy a more relaxing ride. the idea that a bus could be a refuge or sanctuary came up with the group of homeless participants. one rider said, “there is a lot of chaos downtown. there’s chaos on buses too, but on buses i don’t have people coming up to me asking to buy dope or drinking. i can listen to my cd player and just ride the bus.” the bus can be an important private place in a public space. another way riders demonstrated resourcefulness was by strengthening social connections while in transit. many participants used their mobile phones to request transit information, or to coordinate meeting places or routes with friends and family. some used the unique identifier code on each bus to precisely coordinate meeting with friends along the route by letting them know which bus to board. several riders mentioned the familiar faces that they see on a bus, and how these people help you. “when you take the bus often enough, you eventually make bus buddies—your new best friends. it’s the bus buddies that will make the driver wait for you when you’re crossing the street.” when making choices about transit options, the riders in our study had a variety of priorities, cost being the most important. many riders mentioned recent fare increases and were concerned about being able to afford taking the bus. as a way to save money, riders chose to take routes that had lower fares, even if the cheaper routes were less direct and took longer. other riders timed their commutes around off-peak times during the day and could save $0.25 per ride. second after cost, reliability was an important priority. transit dependent riders expressed frustration about buses that arrived late or not at all, and about buses that did not stop because they were too crowded. the distances that riders had to walk to bus stops also influenced their decision to take certain buses. some riders, especially the sick and elderly, feared that long walks could harm their health; other riders preferred to walk a longer distance if they could catch a quicker bus or save money. information services that suggest bus routes, like google transit, do !12 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 not account for the terrain. a bus stop might be within walking distance and only .5 miles away, but at the top of a steep uphill. some riders mentioned that when picking a route, saving time is a lower priority than saving money. figure 1 shows a photo from a video diary. the study participant talked about how few bus stops there are and how long he has to walk to the bus stop. he also talked about how, although there are good jobs in this neighborhood, those opportunities are out of reach for many people because of how difficult it is to get to there. ! figure 1: a video still from eddy’s video where he was talking about waiting for buses in federal way. the image shows a four lane road, a sidewalk and a bus stop. resilience the second category of agency is what we call resilience. resilience differs from resourcefulness in its relationship to structure. resourceful acts utilize expertise of resources in a way that is sanctioned or approved within the existing structure. by contrast, acts of resilience fall outside of what the existing structures support and in some cases are acts that are unsanctioned or illegal. oftentimes, riders choose to manipulate resources in order to overcome barriers and challenges. when the transit system does not accommodate riders’ needs, they often make concessions or improvise solutions. participants mentioned instances where they took extreme measures to get where they needed to go. these situations occurred when the transit system did not run -for example, during the late-night and early-morning hours -and when bad weather (snow, for example) closed roads or interfered with service. one rider rode his bike 30 miles to work !13 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 because no bus accommodated his early-morning shift at a fisheries plant. he mentioned that his long commute contributed to the challenges of being on time, which was one of the reasons his employment at the plant ended. other riders in our study used illegal or unsafe means—from avoiding fare payments, to stealing cars, to hitch-hiking—to overcome their transportation challenges. fare avoidance was both varied and prevalent. some riders paid an insufficient fare, while others jumped off the bus without paying. and some innovative riders saved their expired paper bus transfer tickets to reuse in the future. bus transfers are marked with a letter and color combination, plus the expiration time (see figure 2). “i save transfers. every color, every letter. i learned how to do it in middle school. then i text or call someone to find out about the transfer [color of the day]. i have between 20 and 30 of them in my collection. i have a friend who has a sandwich bag full of them.” participants mentioned that although they occasionally absconded without paying the full fare, they usually were honest with the drivers, and appealed to their compassion. “i’m not asking to ride free all the time. be considerate of a person’s situation,” said one participant. participants said that many drivers are sympathetic and asked them to pay what they could afford. ! figure 2: paper transfer ticket. !14 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 powerlessness the final category of agency is powerlessness, which is when a person is incapable of exerting agency on the structure at hand. in our study, powerlessness includes moments when riders lack choices because of constraints in the transit system, or because of how they are treated by others. in moments of powerlessness, riders express their feelings of fear, frustration, and defeat. riders worried about their safety when waiting for the bus at night or when they were alone in an unsafe area. on the bus, some riders worried about the aggressive behavior of other passengers. “some routes are just not safe [and it’s] frustrating because you just want to get home.” riders in our study were often late to work or for appointments because of bus delays or a lack of bus routes that went where they were going. the delays and lack of service contributed to tardiness, which cost several riders their jobs. “i lost a client because of metro. after the bus was considerably late, i had to call and cancel my appointment. they weren’t interested in having someone cancel appointments. i wound up losing that account.” another participant turned down jobs because of transit limitations. “being dependent upon the transit system, you kind of have to turn down jobs because the transit system doesn’t get there, or by a certain time, or i could get there, but not get back.” according to one participant, transit availability determined where he could live. while housing might be cheaper further out from the city, the transit options to and from the suburbs are more limited. “i wanted to go look at an apartment in kent (an outlying suburb) but no buses went out there. the closest bus was four miles away.” participants in the study talked about the cost of riding the bus and how it was a significant expense to get where they needed to go. figure 3 shows a still of helen, who was reflecting on the cost of the trip across town for her and her niece. ! figure 3: video still from helen and monica’s video diary talking about fares where helen is talking about their long day using transit. !15 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the topic of respect came up for some riders. this was a particularly personal topic for the poorer or homeless participants that we spoke to. riders in our study told stories about bus drivers and transit authorities treating them badly. participants talked about buses that did not stop, sometimes because they were full, and other times for no obvious reason. the homeless riders believed that drivers did not respect them, and that was why they did not stop. “the way they treat me sometimes … drivers should treat [passengers] with respect. if you can’t handle people in the public, get another job. they can be rude.” others riders talked about when there were few transportation options, they might need to hitchhike and how dangerous that was. “i used to [hitchhike]. luckily, i’m still around. there are some crazy people out there. i used to hitchhike from town to town. what i’d do is, i’d call a friend, and see if they can find me a ride where i need to go. if not, then i’d just take the bus and then have to walk.” taken together, powerlessness combined with transit dependence reveals how limiting it can be not to have reliable access to transportation. a lack of reliable and accessible transit options constrains access to housing and jobs, and has a further negative effect on personal feelings of safety and belonging. discussion in this section, we use the findings from our study and the theoretical framework of structuration to examine the designs of icts and policies that support riders. the first is the fare collection system called orca. we look at the design that was implemented and how this design intentionally and unintentionally reduced transit dependent riders’ agency. the second series of recommendations is related to transit policies and how icts are designed. fare collection system: the orca card at the time of our study, transit authorities in the puget sound region had started to transition from cash payments and paper transfers to the use of a regional fare pass called orca (one regional card for all). the purpose of this new system was to streamline fares across seven transit agencies in the puget sound region. while the transit agencies still accepted cash, they encouraged riders to use an orca card instead. the orca card as a fare pass is a growing trend and many urban transit systems are adopting similar smart card systems. the adoption of smart card systems provides a number of benefits for transit agencies and riders (pelletier, trépanier, & morency, 2011), (iseki, et al., 2008). for transit agencies, smart cards streamline fare collection, and they provide a wealth of rider information like travel patterns and the impact to ridership because of schedule and route changes (pelletier et al., 2011). for riders, the benefits include a more convenient way to purchase and pay for transit (iseki, et al., 2008). based on our findings, we see how the orca smart card benefits the transit service by restricting and constraining agentive acts that were present before the implementation of this system. the orca card costs $5 to purchase, which can be a barrier for low-income riders. !16 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 because riders fund the orca card instead of paying with their loose change, the exact fare is deducted when the rider taps the card on the card reader. some riders cannot afford to pay the full fare all the time, so they pay what they can and then appeal to the driver’s compassion to settle the difference. the orca card hampers this kind of negotiation, disempowering both the rider and the driver. whereas with loose change riders could pay for some of their fare, with the orca card they must pay the entire fare or none of it. the largest implication for the adoption of the orca card system is the movement away from paper transfers to an electronic transfer system. currently, when riders pay cash they receive a paper transfer that specifies how long they can ride other buses before they must pay for a new fare (see figure 2). the results of this study showed the important role that paper transfers play for transit dependent riders. for example, riders use transfers to structure their time, meaning that if they have a generous transfer with time to spare, they might explore the area or run extra errands. with the orca card, transfers are recorded electronically; riders no longer receive printed receipts that say when a transfer expires. transfer information is available online, but it is not always accessible or accurate. the orca system does not always record transfer information in real time. to view their orca accounts, riders must have access to the internet during their ride, which excludes most transit dependent riders. the way the system is designed, the inability to access transfer information puts the rider at a disadvantage. in a design where the information needs of the riders were considered, transfer information would be up-to-date and easier to access. perhaps instead of requiring internet access, riders could sign up to receive sms text alerts that inform them about when the transfer was given and how much time they have remaining before the transfer expires. the orca website (http://www.orcacard.com) is not optimized for a mobile experience, resulting in a variety of usability problems. without a paper transfer or access to the orca system, riders do not have a reminder of how long they have left to transfer without paying for another ride. when using the orca card, riders tap a card reader each time they enter the bus. they only know that a transfer has expired when they are charged a new fare. unable to know how much time is left on a transfer, riders lose some of their agency: they cannot make informed decisions about their travel plans and are not given a chance to either choose not to ride or appeal to the driver’s compassion if they cannot pay the full fare. we heard from riders that paying an additional $2.25 fare is not always possible. given the option to pay a new fare or walk, some riders would rather walk to save money. looking at the implementation of this technology through the lens of structuration, it is clear that the transit policy makers, agencies, and drivers may be invested in reducing fare evasion in order to maintain services and staffing as local governments face unprecedented deficits in the current economy. for example, king county metro estimates that they lose up to $3.4 million per year, or 2.4% of total revenue, because of fare evasion. looking at fare evasion in the light of structuration, we see that when riders evade fares this can lead to revenue loss for the transit agency. we strive to look for solutions that can continue to promote rider agency without exacerbating fare evasion. !17 http://www.orcacard.com the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the orca card addresses fare evasion, but at the expense of a riders’ agency: requiring an exact fare and obscuring transfer information limits the choices that riders and drivers can make. to give riders the information that they require, the orca card could support sms messaging. most of the riders had mobile phones, though not all of them had internet-enabled smartphones. instead of requiring an internet connection to look up transfer information, a rider could receive a text message 15 minutes or 30 minutes before a transfer expires. mentioned previously, transit dependent riders rely heavily on mobile phones and text messaging. also mentioned, small amounts of money are important to low-income riders. instead of paying a full fare to travel only a few miles, riders could send a text message to the orca system, purchasing an extra 30 minutes for $0.25. creating an sms system to access orca information would be helpful not just for transfers, but for other transactions including checking balances and adding money to an account when linked to mobile banking capabilities. relationship of agency and expertise in the findings from this study, we have provided a variety of examples that support a layered understanding of agency in the categories of resourcefulness, resilience and powerlessness. individuals can take action to bring about results based on access to resources and adhering to, or ignoring, structures, social norms and sanctions. in addition, as knowledgeable agents in the world, the people in our study had developed these strategies and tactics in order to overcome transportation constraints. they use their expertise, which is developed through personal experience, trial and error, and being situated within larger communities of practice (lave & wenger, 1991). the expert behaviors that are exhibited by the people who participated in this study reflect their own practices and those of others in the community and are passed on to others explicitly or implicitly by enculturation. for example, the practice of saving transfer tickets was a practice that a person in our study claimed that she learned in middle school. thinking of these acts as being expert in nature, rather than as base or unwanted acts or as examples of people merely getting on in the world, allows us to see opportunities for design in a different light. for example, small amounts of money are important to transit dependent riders. how does that information help designers think differently about fare systems, fare policies, and the icts that enforce them? by thinking of these practices as expertise rather than as scamming the system, we see people’s needs in a different light. when vulnerable populations, such as the homeless bus riders in the study, come up with ways to meet their needs and preserve the human value of dignity, we can see the need to ride the bus in a different way. privileging agentive acts as acts of expertise, helps to illuminate the ways in which systems can be designed and designed differently. taking a human centered design approach based on the evidence from the study, including contextual factors that are identified through qualitative methods like ethnography, interviews and video diaries, it is clear that current icts that support transit do not account for the needs or practices of transit dependent riders. to do so, we recommend a shift in design strategy that keeps the needs of the transit agencies in balance !18 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 with the needs of the communities and individuals they serve. human centered design (which also overlaps with user-centered design) is a philosophy and process that is used to design icts. human centered design contains three components: an early focus on users and their needs, empirical data and iterative design (gould and lewis, 1985). philosophically, the human centered approach believes that a system cannot succeed unless the needs of the people who use the system are the key drivers for design (norman and draper, 1986). while human centered design is an accepted approach in many disciplines, most notably in the development of icts, it is also used in developing solutions for educators, non-profits, and community groups. using human-centered design in transportation and urban planning is less common. the findings of this study suggest that the needs of transit dependent users have been overlooked. human centered design, with its early focus on users and their goals, empirical measurement, scalability and iterative design process, can help create icts that maximize choice, balance the needs of users and transit agencies, and reduce unintended consequences. human centered design, according to buchanan, is “not a rejection of function, but a recognition that unless designers grasp the significant content of the product they create, their work will come to little consequence or may even lead to harm in our complex world” (2001, p. 35). therefore, how is it that designers can see or account for the ways in which design can be done differently? how can researchers, activities and community members that are interested in community informatics more fully engage with the design of information and communication technologies, and from the start of the design process investigate and account for community members needs, especially with regard to marginalized or vulnerable groups? participatory design is a conceptually and historically related approach, and well known in the informatics community (see carroll and rosson 2007). however, we see very little participatory design that is practiced at the community level in our experience working with community partners in north america. from our experience engaging in community planning, much work in the community is done to include communities in the decision making process including holding open meetings to discuss policy changes and including diverse community group and their representatives. however, we would continue to advocate for and investigate ways that design can also be a process and practice to include and engage communities. as buchanan states, “human-centered design is fundamentally an affirmation of human dignity. it is an ongoing search for what can be done to support and strengthen the dignity of human beings as they act out their lives in varied social, economic, political and cultural circumstances” (2001, p.37). implications and conclusion the portraits of the transit dependent are diverse and complex. we spoke with riders who were homeless, unemployed, disabled, or in recovery. the majority of participants were low-income. because of their marginal status in society and the fewer options they have in accessing social networks, goods, and services, the transit dependent are at risk of mobility-related social exclusion, or the inability to participate in the political, economic, and social life of their !19 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 communities. but while they are marginalized, transit dependent audiences demonstrate sophisticated expertise of the transit system. learning about their resilient use of transfers pointed out design flaws in the orca card system. hearing about the importance of social life on the bus allows us to consider how to combine social software with location. thinking about the priorities of transit dependent riders allows us to think about values that go beyond the efficiency of bus routes, like taking a bus ride for sanctuary or for the joy of discovering new parts of the city. these are expert behaviors exhibited by the transit dependent. paying attention to their strategies in a systematic way, through the human centered design process, can help public service providers, technologists and community planners think differently about the ways systems are designed. design improvements based on the expertise of transit dependent riders can also benefit all riders at the same time. as a result of this research, we developed a set of heuristics or guiding questions that can inform the research and design of information and communication technologies in community informatics. table 3 shows each agentive category paired with questions to guide research and design of icts. table 3. heuristics for considering agency when designing icts questions for research questions for design resourcefulness 1. how do expert users overcome a system’s limitations? 2. how do expert users exploit their knowledge to bring about desired results? 1. how can the design support expertise? 2. how can the expertise of others be designed into the systems or revealed to all users? resilience 1. what strategies and tactics do users employ when a system does not meet their needs? 2. how do users overcome system constraints in unsanctioned or unsupported ways? 3. how do users conceptualize unsanctioned acts? what are the values that support or suppress these acts? 4. how would users be impacted if their resilient acts were prevented by a change to the system? 1. how can systems be designed to help people overcome constraints in a way that supports their goals? 2. how will design changes or decisions unearth or foreclose unsanctioned behavior? what are the consequences of doing so? 3. in what ways can systems be designed to enable opportunities for users to make decisions that support key goals or values? powerlessness 1. how do systems reduce a person’s ability to act? 2. what are the consequences when systems do not work in ways that match users’ needs? 3. how do changes in systems impact users’ abilities to achieve their goals? 1. how can systems be designed to provide a variety of options for users? 2. in what ways can the system be designed to empower users? 3. how can changes to design provide more (or less) autonomy or freedom? !20 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 community informatics has continued to focus on the needs of diverse communities and how these needs translate into policies and technologies that are equitable and inclusive. continuing to look at the design of the mundane systems and services that impact people’s daily lives is a way to attend to the lived experiences of individuals and communities with the goal of creating more equitable solutions. in addition, using the guiding heuristics can help designers and developers of systems consider how they may enable or constrain the agency of individuals and groups in their communities. in le dantec and edward's study examining technology use and homeless populations, they reflect on the role and responsibility of system designers (2008). they reflect that designers must take into account the social impact new technologies have on users and non users so as not to create "an even larger rift between ourselves" (p. 633) and those we are designing for, especially in case of marginalized populations (le dantec & edwards, 2008). addressing the challenges of the transit dependent requires a variety of approaches. while we believe our research can inform technological solutions that contribute to transit solutions, we acknowledge that for our solutions to have the greatest impact, they must accompany or support shifts in policy 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(1997). photovoice: concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. health education & behavior, 24(3), 369-387. !24 concussion information on the move: the role of mobile technology in concussion management by osman hassan ahmed and andy j pulman introduction mobile applications ("apps") harness the power of the internet with the simplicity of multi-touch technology on a small screen, and have seen significant growth in the last five years. health apps offer tremendous potential as they can be specifically geared towards particular conditions, in addition to focusing on providing support for specific users (such as practitioner, patient and carer communities). research into the use, design and potential of health apps for specific conditions is sparse at present, including concussion-related apps. the aim of this paper is to examine the potential of mobile technology to be used in concussion management, both for the dissemination of best-practice concussion information and in online concussion communities. it provides an overview of currently available concussion-related apps and evaluates the potential benefits and risks of using mobile technology in this manner. background the emergence of the internet has led to a fundamental shift in the way people communicate, with online information now capable of being disseminated irrespective of location or time. in recent years health and medical services have gradually shifted away from the traditional doctor-client relationship. individuals now use the internet to seek health information and medical support before, after or in lieu of personal consultation. the example of the united kingdom shows that the continuity of the traditional doctor-patient relationship, whereby patients saw the same physician over a period of years, has gradually eroded. an increasing reliance is now placed on healthcare "buffer systems" such as frontline administration at doctors' surgeries and nhs (national health service) direct, a telephone and internet based service which facilitates access to healthcare information. these buffers are being used as a first point of contact for patients's health queries and for making decisions on whether a physical appointment at that time is necessary. as a consequence some patients are being forced, whilst others are deciding proactively, to take the initiative in seeking healthcare information online. online support groups as the development of telemedicine where health assessment and intervention services are provided through communication technologies (forducey et al. 2003) has increased, so has peer-to-peer interaction via online support groups. these groups have been suggested as being beneficial for patients with a wide range of conditions including arthritis (hadert & rodham 2008), breast cancer (bender et al (2011), psoriasis (idriss et al 2009), and fibromyalgia (van uden kraan et al. 2009). online support groups have also been shown to help address the emotional and social needs of patients with traumatic brain injury (hibbard et al. 2002). although such groups have many benefits to those using them, it should be recognised that supportive communal technology may not always be advantageous for health users. a notable example is the online pro-anorexia movement (fox et al. 2005) which uses the internet to disseminate an anti-recovery perspective. the movement encourages a non-healthy diet to sustain an anorexic way-of-life, and recommends the use of weight-loss pharmaceuticals to pursue and maintain low body weight. munchausen by internet (mbi) was originally identified by feldman (2000) and describes an individual seeking attention by playing out a series of dramatic near-fatal illnesses and recoveries that increasingly strain credulity. although this disorder does not yet appear as a heading in a diagnostic manual, it is a situation that is appearing with increasing frequency as the reach of the internet increases. mbi can have devastating effects on online discussion groups, destroying trust in the group when the hoax is exposed (pulman & taylor 2012). the rise of mobile internet and mobile apps and their potential use in healthcare mobile phones are now a ubiquitous part of global life with two-thirds of the world's population over 4 billion people now having access to a mobile phone (pulman et al. 2012). mobile services have a coverage rate of nearly 100% in europe, with 400 million europeans (80% of the population) having access (gsma europe 2008) and mobile services are used across all age groups and socio-economic population segments. in recent years mobile devices have become more flexible and capable of handling an increased range of functionality, and the ability to record audio and video has enabled them to become portable multimedia repositories. locative gps technology, web browsing, and email have brought enhanced functionality to mobile devices rivalling that of laptop and desktop computers. apps harness the power of the internet with the simplicity of multi-touch technology on a small screen and can run on computers, smartphones or tablets (e.g. the ipad). in 2007, steve jobs launched apple's app store with 500 applications (ricker 2008). by 2011, over 200 million worldwide users had downloaded 15 billion apps from the app store and it now offered more than 425,000 apps including a variety of health based apps (enhanced online news 2011). owned and operated by google, the growth of android has been just as fast with more than 100 million android devices activated worldwide and over 200,000 apps (including health related apps) available via android market, google's online app store (barra 2011). in the uk survey on internet use (office for national statistics 2010), the mobile phone was found to be the most popular device used to access the internet wirelessly, away from the home or workplace. mobile phones also play an increasingly important role in social networking, as 23% of uk mobile web users now visit a social network through their handset (4% more than the us) (nielsen online 2009). pearcy (2011) notes in the infographic "a day in the digital life" that 35% of smartphone users turn on apps before getting up from bed, and 83% of young people slept within reach of their device. recent surveys predict that mobile internet usage will soon exceed desktop usage; the latest predictions suggesting this will occur sometime between 2014 and 2020 (anderson & rainie 2008; richmond 2011). for people seeking health information and support, the portable and accessible mobile phone is therefore increasingly likely to become preferable to the use of a static computer. for example, schwimmer (2007) suggested that apple's iphone could be seen as a valuable aid for medical education and proposed utilising its integrated youtube player with client specific medical education videos which could be identified, bookmarked and played back at an appropriate time. health apps offer tremendous potential as they can be targeted towards particular conditions and focus on providing support for specific user groups (e.g. practitioner, patient and carer communities). however health apps require careful design to ensure that they suit the mobile platform they are created for, and that they are clinically accurate and fully consider the individual needs of its target audience. concussion concussion is the term used to describe an injury to the brain caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head (centre for disease control and prevention 2011). it is common amongst contact sports such as football, rugby and ice hockey, and figures suggest that 3.8 million adults and children per year sustain a concussion in the usa alone (gioia et al. 2009). despite its frequency, concussion is largely under-reported; in new zealand 62% of rugby players were shown to have not reported a concussion to a medical practitioner (sye et al. 2006). best-practice management strategies for concussion are outlined in the consensus statement on concussion in sport (mccrory et al. 2009), which emphasises the need for medical evaluation following a concussive injury. the importance of cognitive rest following concussion is particularly significant, as activities involving concentration and attention may exacerbate symptoms (mccrory et al. 2009). current concussion-related technologies since the emergence of the internet there has been a steady increase in the number of concussion-related websites. many major national health organisations provide information relating to concussion on their websites, including the center for disease control and prevention in the usa (centres for disease control and prevention 2010), the national health service in the uk (nhs choices 2010) and the accident compensation corporation in new zealand (accident compensation corporation 2011). established private organisations including the mayoclinic (mayoclinic 2011) and webmd (webmd 2011) who also provide concussion information, with a smaller number of international sporting federations offering concussion education on their websites (international rugby board 2011). as social networking sites become integrated into people's lives, they are increasingly being used for health-related purposes (pulman 2009) and recent work has highlighted the role of twitter and facebook in the field of concussion. one thousand concussion-related tweets over a 7-day period were analysed by sullivan and colleagues (2012). the majority of these tweets were sharing news relevant to concussion (33%) and sharing personal information on a situation (27%), while a smaller proportion of tweets were providing inferred management (13%). these findings were similar to those in a study by ahmed and colleagues (2010) who examined postings in concussion-related groups on facebook. the role and purpose of seventeen facebook groups which met specific inclusion criteria were evaluated. the majority of postings in the facebook groups were relating personal experiences regarding concussion (65%), while other posts sought to seek (8%) or offer advice (2%). unlike twitter, facebook provides individuals with the ability to join concussion-specific groups where they can interact with each other and form virtual concussion communities. one of the key findings from the work of ahmed and colleagues (2010) was that the majority of people were using these communities in a supportive manner, by sharing experiences relating to their concussion using the interactive medium of facebook. this interactive support, or "isupport", is a modern-day version of a peer support group, and is one of the major benefits of online concussion groups. in addition to sharing concussion-related experiences, individuals in these communities were also found to be seeking advice regarding concussion management, which would help them manage concussion symptoms. the majority of individuals who sustain a concussion recover rapidly, with symptoms generally resolving in a few weeks (iverson et al 2006). this would imply that for most people with a concussion the communities formed through facebook concussion groups are transient, and that they are not long-term communities. concussion communities may still be beneficial to individuals for their period of injury however; non-participation in sport due to concussion may lead to feelings of isolation, and these feelings are likely to be reduced by being part of such communities and interacting with others with the same condition (bender et al 2011). in addition, obtaining information from peers regarding self-management may assist the resolution and management of their concussion symptoms. members of the community who have made a full recovery following concussion might also elect to remain in the community even after their symptoms have resolved, in order to assist new members of the community. potential of mobile technology in the field of concussion the possibilities for the use of mobile technology to assist in concussion management are numerous. at a fundamental level, mobile technology permits easier access to concussion-related websites. although studies have shown online concussion information to vary in standard (ahmed et al. 2011), many websites contain best-practice information that can be a valuable post-concussion resource. the ability to obtain accurate concussion-related information from a smartphone or tablet may result in an individual being empowered with concussion management information that they may not otherwise have accessed, and lead to better management of their condition as a result. regardless of an individual's usual source of access to the internet, the ability to view concussion websites from any location significantly facilitates the knowledge transfer process following concussion. two factors cited as positive methods for enhancing knowledge transfer in concussion are communal peer support and the utilisation of online technologies (provvidenza & johnston 2009). online peer support ("isupport") has been reported by individuals using facebook for concussion groups (ahmed et al. 2010) and mobile technology has the capacity to significantly enhance the process of isupport. by accessing facebook through a smartphone or tablet device, it would permit an individual with concussion to participate in the peer support process from wherever they are, unencumbered by time or location. there have been many concussion-specific apps released recently, and at time of writing there are eleven apps related to concussion available for smartphones and tablets in the uk. many of these apps include the sports concussion assessment tool 2 (scat2, 2009). the scat2 is a standardised method of concussion assessment developed as part of the consensus statement on concussion in sport (mccrory et al 2009), and contains a series of tests to help evaluate injured athletes for concussion. concussion apps have been designed to educate individuals about concussion and to help diagnose a concussion and have a focus towards different user groups: apps targeted towards medical professionals "scat2sport concussion assessment tool" (itunes 2012a) and "scat2" (itunes 2011a) are both app versions of scat2 (scat2, 2009). they permit medical professionals using the app to conduct the scat2 and enter the test results into the app. these findings can then be emailed to other medical professionals to assist with follow up care. "scat2" allows users to save up to fifty tests on the app, while "scat2 sport concussion assessment tool" links to a central scat2 database. "concussion assessment & response: sport version" (itunes 2012b) contains similar functionality to these apps, and also contains a return-to-play guide to assist recovering athletes to return to sport safely. apps targeted towards parents and coaches "imcat" (itunes 2011b) is an educational app which provides a checklist of common signs and symptoms of concussion, and contains a quiz designed to teach non-medical individuals about concussion. "pocket scat2" (itunes 2011c) is intended to be used by coaches and parents to aid the diagnosis of a concussion and is a shortened version of the scat2. whilst neither "imcat" nor "pocket scat2" allow test results to be saved or emailed, they both prompt users to take any athlete with a suspected concussion for medical assessment. "concussion assessment & response: coach & parent version" (itunes 2012c) does not directly reference the scat2 test, but contains a checklist of signs and symptoms which can be completed by a parent or coach to determine if a child needs medical assessment. this app allows parents to record a child's symptoms in the hours, days and weeks post-injury and this information can be emailed to a medical professional to provide an update on the child's recovery. an additional feature of "concussion assessment & response: coach & parent version" is the ability to customise the app with sport-related themes, to make it more aesthetically pleasing. apps targeted towards medical professionals and parents and coaches the "concussion" (itunes 2011d), "concussion test" (itunes 2011e), and "cognit" (itunes 2009) apps all contain components of the scat2. "concussion" is an educational tool, and has an optional module which can be purchased for the app to help the diagnosis of a concussion. both "concussion" and "concussion test" allow the user to find nearby hospitals to seek further medical care if needed. "king-devick concussion screening test" (itunes 2012d) is an app designed for medical and non-medical persons to screen athletes for concussion, and uses the king-devick test (galetta et al. 2011) instead of the scat2. the king-devick test requires injured individuals to accurately read a series of single-digit numbers, which are compared to baseline test results to detect a concussion. the companion app is "kd test score" (itunes 2011f), which helps the test administrator keep time and score whilst an athlete is taking the king-devick test. at present, there is little research dedicated to the design process and development of health-related apps and apps focusing on concussion by individuals or groups, although this is likely to change as they become more widely distributed and used. curadeau et al (2011) documented the steps taken in the development of an iphone app for concussion testing. the authors based their app on the consensus statement on concussion in sport (mccrory et al. 2009), and also aimed to make the app easy to use, adaptable, secure, and able to transmit data recorded. in contrast to administering traditional "pencil and paper" sideline concussion testing, curadeau et al (2011) suggest that concussion apps permit easier data collection, analysis, distribution, and storage, as well as having the additional benefit of portability. although no research has yet proven the validity, reliability or usability of concussion-related apps, they all have the potential to facilitate the process of concussion management through the use of mobile technology. with this in mind, the authors are keen to suggest that further research is undertaken to investigate how these apps are being used, what medical standards are being followed in their creation, whether patients are being involved at any point in the creative process, whether the apps are being used appropriately, and whether users are benefiting from the use of apps. concerns with the use of mobile technology for concussion improved access to concussion related information via mobile technology may accelerate the accurate diagnosis and subsequent management of a concussion, however it also creates the possibility of self-diagnosis and therefore misdiagnosis. several studies have highlighted the potential for self-diagnosis online and the challenges associated with this (giles & newbold 2011; white & horvitz 2009). a key issue regarding self-diagnosis is the lack of moderation from trained medical practitioners to contextualise a diagnosis and accurately explain the findings (ryan and wilson 2008). this lack of moderation from healthcare professionals may lead to people who have incorrectly self-diagnosed themselves becoming falsely reassured, and dangerously abstaining from seeking further medical investigations (ryan and wilson 2008). a further concern with self-diagnosis is the exacerbation of cyberchondria, defined as the unfounded escalation of concerns about common symptoms based on the review of online search results and literature (white and horvtiz 2009a). although cyberchondria and its associated challenges are no different for individuals whether they use mobile or desktop technology to access the internet, the immediacy of information retrieval via mobile technology means that the problem may be accelerated. in addition, a study by pinnock and colleagues (2007) which assessed the role of mobile phones in assisting asthma self-management inferred that the technology might create a state of dependence on the technology by the user. although online communities may provide a source of support and information for individuals with concussion, there are potential dangers related to their use. the concussion-related facebook groups identified by ahmed and colleagues (2010) were unmoderated, meaning that there was no quality control or vetting of the information posted. this has inherent risks; well-meaning individuals may attempt to provide helpful advice to others based on their own experiences, however without a medical professional to check these postings there is the potential for harm. incorrect information in the early stages following a concussion may lead to an individual returning to sporting activity before their symptoms have resolved, and placing themself at risk of a more serious injury. an additional concern is that individuals participating in these communities may view the support and advice in these groups as a substitute for face-to-face medical contact with a doctor. best-practice concussion management guidelines emphasise the need for medical evaluation following a concussion (mccrory et al. 2009) and it is crucial that individuals seek medical review. cognitive rest is crucial following a concussion and therefore engaging with mobile technology for sustained periods could aggravate concussion-related symptoms. the use of text messaging was specifically mentioned in the consensus statement on concussion in sport as having the potential to exacerbate symptoms (mccrory et al. 2009), and thus mobile technology needs to be used with caution during the immediate stages post-injury. this does not completely negate the use of mobile technology during this period; the vast array of recreational media in modern society (television, internet, video games, and mobile phones) means that total cognitive rest is almost impossible to attain. mcgrath (2010) outlines a model for management of the student athlete with concussion and suggests that "the goal is to support the recovering student...in a way that does not overstress the cognitive functions and result in worsening symptoms." it could therefore be argued that short periods of time spent accessing best-practice concussion information via mobile technology (in a manner which does not overstress cognitive function) might improve management of an individual's concussion. the size of mobile devices has been proposed as a potential barrier to usability (pulman 2010). the small screen size and lack of keyboard may therefore be seen as additional obstacles for individuals seeking mobile concussion information or support via a social network (haddon 2008). although these findings point to compromised usability, the touchscreen interface offered by many smartphones appears to be on the rise (mobile choices 2010). the appeal of touchscreen phones may be the aesthetic of the smooth interface, or the bigger screen (as a result of the lack of keyboard). the emerging popularity of tablet computers (e.g. the ipad) which incorporate a touchscreen interface also suggests that this could be a medium that users may employ to retrieve concussion information. conclusions the increasing capability of mobile technology, allied with the global population's desire to access health information and communal support groups online, suggests that mobile technology has a growing significance in disseminating best-practice information for concussion. care must be taken to ensure that any information provided through such devices is accurate, and that adapted forms of delivery (particularly apps) take into consideration the specific needs of individuals. for example, concussion-related apps need to highlight how much time individuals should be spending on the apps following their concussion (maybe via an in-built timer), in addition to providing the appropriate clinically approved medical advice and support. by incorporating these issues into their design, mobile technology has the potential to be a valuable community-based tool for concussion management. as with other health-related apps and information/support pathways being developed for patients, practitioners and carers, further research should be undertaken. this should focus on the end-to-end development process of creating clinically accurate and user-centric concussion apps, with appropriate consideration given to how effectively these apps are being used by individuals suffering from a concussion. references accident compensation corporation. 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(2006) "high school rugby players' understanding of concussion and return to play guidelines." british journal of sports medicine, 40, 1003-5. van uden-kraan cf, drossaert ch, taal e, seydel er, van de laar ma.(2009) "participation in online patient support groups endorses patients' empowerment." patient education and counselling, 74, 61-69. webmd (2011). concussion (traumatic brain injury). retrieved 15 june, 2011 from: http://www.webmd.com/brain/concussion-traumatic-brain-injury-symptoms-causes-treatments white rw, horvitz e (2009) "cyberchondria: studies of the escalation of medical concerns in web search." acm transactions on information systems, 27(4), 23-37. 1228 final the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles government public access centres (pacs): a beacon of hope for marginalised communities notwithstanding massive injections into broadband infrastructure, large sectors of the world’s population remain without access to the internet. one of the strategies employed by government and the private sector to address the digital divide has been to provide basic computing services and internet access to communities in the form of public access centres (pacs), otherwise known as telecentres. over the years, pac related interventions have been subjected to much introspection and critique given a number of examples of failures. this paper examines a pac program in south africa which has been running successfully since 2003. the paper reports on a study which includes data collected from more than 2400 users of pacs. the findings provide critical insights into the value proposition of pacs for communities in impoverished areas and whether this approach is still relevant from a policy perspective to tackle the digital divide. the findings also provide insights into the profile of users; the factors which impact on their choice of a pac as an internet access point; and the extent to which there is a reliance on pacs. the most revealing finding from the study indicates that pacs provided the average user with something more than just an internet access point. the study has determined that pacs have a significant effect on the hopefulness a citizen has for his or her self, community and country. introduction and background since the two-phased (geneva in 2003 and tunis in 2005) world summit on information society (wsis), we have witnessed a proliferation of activity across the african continent in which governments have been hard pressed to create enabling policies to realize the goals of the information society. telecommunications operators, including the incumbents, continue to invest in infrastructure in a bid to expand services, and gain market share. much of this effort is driven by the need to expand access to the internet via broadband networks to as !21 uys, c., pather, s. (2016). government public access centres (pacs): a beacon of hope for marginalised communities. the journal of community informatics, 12(1), 21-52. date submitted: 2015-09-16. date accepted: 2015-11-19. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1228. corrie uys cape peninsula university of technology, cape town, south africa corresponding author. uysc@cput.ac.za shaun pather cape peninsula university of technology, cape town, south africa pathers@cput.ac.za http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1228 mailto:uysc@cput.ac.za mailto:pathers@cput.ac.za http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1228 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 many citizens as possible, and, in the main, to serve for-profit motives. a key concern related to this expansion is the alignment of infrastructure expansion with the notion of development on the african continent for the people for whom this infrastructure is targeted. despite the massive strides made in rolling out telecommunications infrastructure and electronic networking, the international telecommunication union (itu) reports that in 2014, 44 percent of the world will be online and 4 billion people remain unconnected. of those who remain unconnected 90 percent of them are from the developing world (itu, 2014b). given the foregoing, government and the private sector have been engaged in a number of programmes for more than a decade to provide basic computing services to communities in the form of public access centres (pacs), otherwise known as telecentres, in terms of earlier definitions in the literature (e.g., parkinson & ramírez, 2006; islam & hasan, 2009). recent studies have affirmed the benefit of pacs. clark, sey and sullivan (2012), in a comprehensive five-year study of pacs in five developing countries, found that: public access venues are a critical gateway for developing skills among the public; users of pacs also develop digital literacies in public venues; private access is not necessarily a substitute for public access, with unique benefits reported by users at pacs, thus many users continue to use public access venues despite having access elsewhere; and public access impacts lives in terms of income, social connections, education, amongst others. in light of this, governments, especially in developing countries, will need to assess how to bring the 3.6 billion unconnected people on board the information society. will, for example, models of community-based access to the internet, as opposed to individual access, continue to be a solution? what are the typical profiles of pac users? does communitybased access via public access centres (pacs) provide the intended benefits? the objective of this paper is to provide some insights to these vexing questions given the fact that the pac model continues to dominate, especially in developing countries agendas. this paper pursues these broad questions by examining the south african situation, and its associated government-driven pac related programmes. south african digital divide context in the south african context, only 21.4 percent of households (figure 1) have access to a computer (statistics sa, 2012) , and 10.8 percent of households (figure 2) have access to 1 internet at home (statistics sa, 2015). indeed, there is much excitement with regards to the high penetration levels of mobile phones in south africa with 88.9 percent of households having access (statistics sa, 2012). notwithstanding, it is sobering when one considers that only a small minority of mobile phone users are able to afford access to internet and related world wide web (www) services via their mobile devices. a huge barrier to broadband and communications services in south africa relates to affordability. south africa ranks 104th out of 144 countries in terms of affordability of communications services (wef, 2013). the most recent census in south africa was conducted in 2011, and published in 2012. the 1 general household survey of 2014 showed no increase in the number of households owning a computer. !22 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 1: household goods in working condition (source: statistics sa, 2012) figure 2: percentage distribution of south african households with access to the internet in 2014 (source: statistics sa, 2015, p. 53) south african government policy and related initiatives like many other countries, south africa has also pursued a pac model as one of its strategies to address the digital divide, since the late 1990s, with varying degrees of success. the programmes to ensure the provision of pacs, from a national government perspective, have been the mandate of the universal service and access agency of south africa. the latter is a !23 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 statutory body created through the promulgation of the electronic communications act of 2005 , and based upon government’s vision of creating a south african information society, 2 as framed in the cabinet endorsed information society and development plan (isad) plan (doc, 2007). at lower levels of government there are also examples of pac programmes, such as the city of cape town’s smart cape program (http://www.smartcape.org.za/ about.html), the city of johannesburg’s public access to internet in libraries (pail) programme (http://www.gautengonline.gov.za/news/pages/cityofjoburglauncheseworld.aspx), and the western cape government’s cape access programme (https:// www.westerncape.gov.za/capeaccess/e-centres). currently, there is a sense of urgency around which the government is focused on the rollout of telecommunications infrastructure in a bid to ensure access to broadband internet. with the landing of two more undersea cables on the shores of south africa in the past three years, there is ample international bandwidth currently to serve the population. other noteworthy actions which are unfolding include: the formation of a government and industry partnership and the signing of a job competitiveness compact in 2011 which targets a 100 percent broadband penetration and the creation of 1 million jobs in the ict sector by 2020; the adoption of an integrated national broadband plan, sa connect, in december 2013 (sa connect) which targets the building of an information society, lowering the prices of broadband access, increasing uptake and usage, and the liberalization of the south african ict sector to promote competition; the establishment of the ikamva national e-skills institute to attend to the dearth of e-skills; a clear intention by the regulator to attend to the efficiency of spectrum planning; and lastly the escalation of broadband infrastructure rollout as a key presidential infrastructure project (dtps, 2013). in addition to this, the government recently released a set of ict policy recommendations as a pre-cursor to the development of a national integrated ict white paper. given that the policy recommendations are forward looking, the role of pacs is further entrenched in these recommendations. this includes recommendations that “within a period of five years at least one technology hub should be developed in each of the country’s major cities, where these do not currently exist, focusing on inner cities and townships” and that “these hubs should be able to operate as a hub and spoke model with community ict access centres” which should support “grassroots and community-based innovation” (dtps, 2015: 134-135). research problem whilst all of the foregoing initiatives are well intended, the issues of dealing with ict infrastructure without considering how to ensure uptake, adoption and the nature of benefits, are well documented in the literature. it is therefore incumbent upon the research community to support government in its quest to realize the goals of an information society. in this regard, it is noted that pacs remain firmly on the south african agenda as a means to address the digital divide. one of the questions, thus, in respect of the various pac programs at both national and local levels in south africa concerns the sustainability of such centres and an understanding of the benefits of such public facilities and their contribution to the development of communities. without an innate understanding of this, we may perpetuate the the agency initially existed as the universal services agency, which was promulgated through 2 the telecommunications act of 1996. !24 http://www.smartcape.org.za/about.html http://www.gautengonline.gov.za/news/pages/cityofjoburglaunchese-world.aspx https://www.westerncape.gov.za/capeaccess/e-centres the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 folly of treating the pacs programs as infrastructure issues, without any alignment to developmental goals. this paper therefore contributes to the discourse in respect of the pacs, and its role in ensuring development amongst needy communities. there are only a few studies which have provided a deeper insight into the development notions of pacs in the south african context (e.g. rhodes, 2009; attwood & braathen, 2010; gomez, pather & dosono, 2012; pather, 2012). this paper reports on an investigation into one of the successful south african pac programs based in the western cape viz. smart cape. the specific objectives of the research reported herein are: • to assess the value proposition of pacs for communities in impoverished areas of south africa and whether this is still relevant as a policy position to tackle the south african digital divide; • to understand the profile of users, and the factors which impact on their choice of a pac as an internet access point; • to assess the extent to which there is a reliance on pacs; • to obtain insight into the benefits of a typical pac, and in particular whether pacs provided the average user with something more than just an internet access point. the remainder of the paper is organised as follows: the next section provides a review of literature associated with pacs, followed by an overview of the smart cape program. following on this the details of the research design and mode of analysis are described, after which the key findings are presented. literature review the extant literature encompasses a fairly large number of issues. however, before delving into some of the pertinent background and critique of pacs, it is relevant to first examine the notion of icts and development, given that this is the fundamental goal of government policies in respect of pacs. icts and development one of the primary aims of pacs is to promote development especially at grassroots community level. global experts assert that socio-economic development today is determined by the ability to establish a “synergistic interaction between technological innovation and human values” (castells, 1999). in other words, it can be said that there is an interrelationship between cultural and educational development which in turn conditions technological development, which then conditions economic development. this, in turn, conditions social development, and that development stimulates cultural and educational development once more (castells 1999). there is also an emerging consensus indicating that the use of ict can effectively assist socio-economic development, and indications that ict skills are increasingly fundamental to all. similar to developed and industrialised countries, developing countries are continuously subject to the transformation of the technological organisation of society. this is largely due !25 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 to the development and diffusion of modern technologies, which are supported and furthered by national and regional policies including the setting up of a large number of technologyadvancement programs (hofkirchner, fuchs, raffl, schafranek, sandoval & bichler, 2007). the usefulness of contemporary ict can be seen in its ability to access, adapt, and create new knowledge for social, political, and economic development purposes (warschauer, 2003). in other words, icts are seen as tools for accelerating socio-economic development as technology per se does not solve socio-economic problems. the availability of ict can be seen as a pre-requisite for economic and social development. early econometric studies reported a statistical relationship between diffusion of information technology, productivity and competitiveness for countries, regions, industries and firms (dosi, freeman, nelson, silverberg & soete, 1988). other later studies also confirm the capability of ict to support socio-economic development (munyua, 2000; mciver, 2003; taylor, 2004; mitrovic, & bytheway, 2006; gurstein, 2007) the conviction that ict can support socio-economic development was also a central theme of the world summit on the information society (wsis) held in geneva in 2003 and tunis in 2005 (http://www.itu.int/wsis/index.html). the millennium declaration has acknowledged that ict are important in achieving the overall millennium development goals by, for example, improving the delivery of education and healthcare, or making government services more accessible (wtd, 2003). in the past twenty years, massive strides have been made in harnessing the benefits of the internet for commerce and industry. however, at a societal level, the digital divide remains a harsh reality facing the modern world. worldwide trends indicate a positive growth rate in individual use of the internet. data from the international telecommunications union, for example, show a 600 percent increase in individual use of the internet over a six year period since 2005 in africa. a similar trend is observed in south africa (see figure 3). however, large sectors of society are still unaware of the benefits of modern information and communication technology (ict). this is also true in south africa where the government has prioritised economic development policies (south africa., 2002) since the country still has a very inequitable society characterised by a range of developmental levels (langa, conradie & roberts, 2006). the south african government viewed opportunities presented by the use of ict as one of the means by which economic growth can be sustained. although south africa performs far above the african average, we unfortunately have about half the average penetration rate as compared to the average worldwide. given this scenario, and the current high costs of access to broadband internet, the role of pacs remains quite important to address the digital divide. !26 http://www.itu.int/wsis/index.html the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 3: south africa: percentage of individuals using the internet in from 2000 to 2014 (source: itu (2014)) public access centres the importance of access to ict as a means for development was recognized as long ago as 1980 with the commissioning of a report by unesco that identified the need for a more equitable allocation of resources in the field of communication (unesco, 1980). a number of stakeholders worldwide had committed large resources to provide access to ict to underserved communities. they developed “places” or “spaces” where community members could have access to computers, and specifically to networked computers. the places are called “multi-purpose centres” or telecentres or “public access centres”. because of the ability to give the necessary access to information, these public access centres, such as telecentres, have been “hailed as the solution to development problems around the world”. close to the end of the previous century, benjamin and dahms (1999: 57) pleaded for the need for entities such as telecentres to be vehicles for access and information dissemination and not to be seen as technology for technology’s sake only. public access centres afford underserved communities access to the internet to reach the following objectives (clement, 2004: p. 8): • to decrease the digital divides, • to enhance the economic, social, political cultural capabilities of the community • to enhance the creation of local content • to provide specific online services to the communities • to enhance effective use of icts in 2004, underserved communities accounted for 80 percent of the world’s population who were not able to access icts while internet access at one’s home had almost become the !27 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 norm in the developed communities (rothenberg-aalami &, 2005: 2). the itu found that only 40 percent of the world’s households had internet access at their homes by 2013 (itu, 2014: 11) and further estimated that only 31 percent of households in developing countries will have internet access at their homes by end 2014 (ibid.). given this low level of internet access to households in developing communities, access to the internet via public access centres is of critical importance since it is the only way for millions of people to have access to computers and the internet for various services to be part of the information society (huerta & sandoval almazán, 2007: 218; chigona, lekwane, westcott & chigona, 2011; sey, coward, bar, sciadas, rothschild & koepke, 2013). thus telecentres, multipurpose centres, ict centres or areas with computers in libraries, often supported by governments, ngos or other development agencies, have been implemented in many countries to enable access to ict and internet, where individual access is impossible freely or at least very cheaply (colle, 2000; harris, 2001). although there are many definitions and explanations of telecentres, the overarching role is given as giving public access to icts (gómez, hunt & lamoureux, 1999). reilly and gomez (2001: 1) defined telecentres as “…physical spaces that provide public access to information and communication technologies, notably the internet, for educational, personal, social and economic development.” james (2006: 342) defined telecentres as “donor-funded community access points”, which offer internet access and other technologies to communities; some in rural areas and some in underserved peri-urban and urban areas. because of the ability to give necessary access to information, telecentres have been “hailed as the solution to development problems around the world” (ibid.). many countries have launched projects within the public access centre sphere to address various needs of the specific communities that they serve. a report of a study done in the asia and the pacific region demonstrates the emphasis of projects run by public access centres. these are: • develop small businesses • promote e-governance • promote self-employment • promote telecentre operations • provide fishery information • create employment for youth • empower women entrepreneurs • facilitate access to government services • implement e-health programmes • promote rural marketing !28 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 • provide access to online learning material • provide training for teachers/students • promote e-literacy • ensure universal access to ict • provide agricultural information (ariyabandu, 2009, p. 7) this demonstrates the emerging role of public access centres as “knowledge hubs”. ariyabandu (2009: 4) defines knowledge hubs as “…a vibrant centre regularly accessed by the community for their development and livelihood needs.” ariyabandu further advocates for transformation of public access centres to knowledge hubs, in order to unleash the potential to bridge the digital divide as well as the economic, social and gender divides which are polarizing society. telecentres also serve as community centres where community members can access the internet, meet to talk, share experiences, as well as being utilised as computer literacy training facilities (rothschild, 2008: 7). however, public access centres have a primary role to give underserved communities access to icts (gómez, hunt & lamoureux, 1999: 3) and are defined to be: “physical spaces that provide public access to information and communication technologies, notably the internet, for educational, personal, social and economic development (gomez & reilly, 2001: 1).” because of the ability to give necessary access to information, telecentres have been “hailed as the solution to development problems around the world” james (2006: 342). public access centres offer information and computer-related services such as learning systems and support systems for socio-economic growth and sustainability (chigona et al., 2011: 2). computerrelated services include access to the internet, government information, e-mails, e-learning and often faxing and copying as well (james, 2006: 342). the benefits expected from public access to icts thus include “the potential to enhanced quality of life” (chigona et al., 2011: 2). internet access has been shown to empower people in their feelings of security, personal freedom, and general happiness and personal well-being (castells, gelernter, vázquez & morozov, 2014: 14); specifically people in the lower income groups, the less qualified, women, and people in developing countries. castells’ study also found that the internet contributed to feelings of autonomy. key findings, (see figure 4), emerging from the global impact study (clark, sey & sullivan, 2012), provide compelling evidence in respect of the on-going need for public access centres. !29 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 4: benefits of public access centres (raw data obtained from clark, sey & sullivan, (2012) criticism of public access centres a number of constraints hampered the functioning of telecentres in some areas. these include financial viability, isolated locations, infrastructure and connectivity costs, and proper servicing of equipment (samii, 2009: 44). doubts have also been cast on the validation of real benefits from public access centres, pointing out that benefits are vague, and complex to determine (chigona et al., 2011: 2). chigona et al. listed some of the challenges as: • provision of technology alone does not translate into usage by the poor (roman & colle, 2002) • computer literacy • anxiety towards computers • distance form homes (oestmann & dymond, 2001) • language barriers of non-english speakers • telecentre’s fit to the community (roman & colle, 2002) a way to address these problems emerged with the growth of mobile phones into smart phones that can connect to the internet. by 2009, itu estimated that 3.3 billion people were phone subscribers worldwide. samii (2009: 44) stated that mobile phones are more viable !30 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 than “previous initiatives like telecentres”. full use of the internet on a mobile handset, however, is hampered by a number of challenges: • connectivity settings • security settings • menu confusions • unfamiliarity with certain terms – such as “password” • no mobile version of some websites (gitau, marsden &donner, 2010) • difficulty in signing up for email accounts from a mobile handset. chigona et al. (2011: 11) concluded that even in the face of challenges of public access centres there is evidence of benefits to users of these centres and great demand for such facilities. even mobile internet users were also still accessing the internet at the public access centres. this is supported by walton and donner (2012: 57) in their conclusion that free use at public access centres supports resource-intensive functions, while mobile supports timesensitive functions. smart cape: a case of a south africa pac program in south africa the uptake of the internet is still at unacceptably low levels with 35.2 percent of households having access to the internet in 2011 (south africa., 2012c) increasing to 40.9 percent in 2013 (south africa, 2014). in the western cape (which is the geographical domain of this study), 43.7 percent of households had access to internet in 2011, increasing to 54.4 percent in 2013 (south africa, 2014). there is only one detailed report on the south african internet user. important findings from this report, referred to as the new wave report (de lanerolle, 2012) are that: “for most of those without access at home or work (about four out of five new users) our data shows that internet cafés, and (to a lesser extent) schools and colleges, are often important point of access that may address some of these limitations of the mobile internet and enable users to widen the range of online services that they use online.” according to a local report conducted by world wide worx, internet usage in south africa grew 25 percent between 2010 and 2012 (world wide worx, 2012). the report indicates that the 6.8 million south africans using the internet at the end of 2010 increased to 8.5 million by the end of 2011. whilst on the surface this appears to be very positive, the reality is that for the average south african who cannot afford current prices of broadband, or the devices to use them, interventions are required to maintain the positive growth trend. in light of this evidence, the free public access to internet afforded to underserved communities by the city of cape town initiative via the smart cape project is of utmost importance. this initiative was launched in july 2002, and offers free internet access at all public libraries, for 45 minutes at a time (chigona, roode, nazeer & pinnock, 2009: 1). the smart cape project listed their three primary goals as: !31 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 • to provide free public access to computers and the internet; • to prove that open source software is affordable, appropriate technology for a public service digital divide initiative; • to increase opportunities for members of disadvantaged communities (infonomics, 2003, p. 5). figure 5: households access to internet in 2013 (data obtained from south africa (2014, pp. 51-52)) in 2003 the bill and melinda gates foundation’s “access to learning” project awarded smart cape $1 million to extend the project (south africa, 2005). by october 2005, the project boasted that the almost five hundred access stations, launched from 2002, have provided computing facilities to more than 26,000 users (ibid.). currently the city of cape town has 103 libraries where community members can access the internet freely, for up to 45 minutes per day. although statistics regarding the number of users, sessions and sessions per user are available from smart cape themselves, there is scant evidence at hand to assess current preferences and uses of the public access to icts by citizens in the western cape. research design the overarching objectives of this study were: • to assess the value proposition of pacs for communities in impoverished areas of south africa and whether this is still relevant as a policy position to tackle the south african digital divide; • to understand the profile of users, and the factors which impact on their choice of a pac as an internet access point; • the extent to which there is a reliance on pacs; !32 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 • to obtain an insight into the benefits of a typical pac, and in particular and whether pacs provided the average user with something more than just an internet access point. given that the smart cape is one of the oldest pac programs in south africa, and that it continues to function with a degree of sustainability, it provided an ideal case study to attain the aforementioned research objectives. during 2013, after selecting the case, a two-pronged approach was designed. this entailed both focus groups and a survey. the survey was designed to • determine the profile of users, and usage of smart cape; • determine usage trends of community members accessing the internet; • determine the users’ preference in terms of internet access venue; • understand the reliance of users on pacs; and • assess the understanding that communities have of the internet and its benefits (or disadvantages). however, after the initial survey design, it was decided that rich qualitative data, would complement the survey data. this prompted a mixed research design, where the collection of broad survey data could be used to explain the profile of users and usage patterns and richer qualitative data could be used to acquire a deeper understanding of communities’ views and perceptions. focus groups the research study included ten focus groups of purposefully selected community members (15 per group), who lived in close proximity to a public library where smart cape computers were installed. during these focus group discussions participants also completed a more detailed survey questionnaire to gather demographic data and ascertain usage patterns. online survey a larger online survey was launched, subsequent to the focus group survey, on the smart cape website targeting all smart cape users of the wider cape metropole areas. smart cape users, who went online, were requested to complete the survey at the start of their online sessions. if they declined they were redirected to their own user accounts; but if they assented they were first directed to the online website to complete this survey before being redirected to their own user accounts. the online questionnaire was similar to the previous questionnaire; however, due to time constraints on users (each have only 45 minutes once a day to use the computers) the questionnaire contained fewer questions. sampling the sample size of users who completed this survey was 2274. the resulting sampling strategy from such a sample is a self-selecting sample and although this is not a random sample, the sample size was large enough to have a precision of 0.021. the population being !33 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 investigated were users of the smart cape initiative in the cape town metropolitan jurisdiction. the results of a statistical analysis based on these two samples cannot be generalised to the research population when utilising purposive or self-selecting sampling techniques. however, the sample includes a broad mix of respondents from all the smart cape libraries in the cape metro. very often, as in the case of this study, generalisation of results is not the objective of the research, but rather a description of the current situation. data analysis the data from both surveys were combined before analysis and the responses from the questionnaires were captured and analysed using the statistical software spss© version 22. given that one objective was to identify the factors that influence respondents to use or to prefer to use a public access centre to access the internet, a multivariate technique called a generalized linear model was implemented to obtain a profile of respondents using and preferring public access centres. since all the variables are categorical, it was not possible to implement a classic linear regression model. the dependent variables and most of the independent variables were transformed to dichotomous variables i.e. the first dependent variable had the two options: using a pac or using other means; and the second dependent variable had the two options: prefer to access internet at a public access centre versus prefer to access internet elsewhere. the generalized linear model is of the family of linear models that includes analysis of variance as well as regression models. it is a generalised form of the classic linear model. classic linear models assume that all observations are independent of each other and are normally distributed. when working with a construct which was aggregated from likertscale type questions in a survey, one cannot safely assume that the construct will be normally distributed. this is the case with the current constructs, with the result that they cannot be modelled by using the classic linear model. therefore a generalized linear model for non-normal, categorical or binary data was utilised (simonoff, 2003; agresti, 2007). the generalized linear model consists of three components, a random component, a systematic component and a link function (mccullagh & nelder, 1989). in the case of the generalized linear model, the first assumption is relaxed such that the dependent values may be from one of the exponential family of distributions , the variance 3 does not have to be common, and the link function, mentioned in the third assumption, is monotonic and differentiable. link functions are chosen according to the data type, and the context of the data. in the case of this study, the dependent variable is a binary variable, thus a logit link function is selected, where p, for example, is the probability (p) of a specific profile preferring a public access centre (simonoff, 2003: 366-367). the exponential family is the class of distributions that includes the normal, poisson, gamma, 3 inverse gaussian, binomial, exponential and other distributions. !34 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the logistic regression model relating the predictors (independent variables, i.e. x1, x2 …, xk) to a specific p are written as: (1) from (1) the probability (p) of a specific user profile, for example, preferring to access internet at a public access centre can be calculated as (2) the results of the analysis are presented in the following section. findings overview of usage across smart cape the data presented in this section was based on secondary data provided by the smart cape program management. smart cape records the number of sessions of computer access, as well as the number of distinct registered users for evaluation purposes. table 1 shows the clear increase of smart cape usage from 2008 to 2012. currently the project has more than 360,000 registered users across the city (city of cape town, 2015). the number of sessions per individual user increased by 26.5 percent from 2012 to 2013, which is an increase of 78.5 percent from 2009 to 2013. the chart in figure 6 depicts this increase in usage. table 1: number of smart cape registered users per financial year !35 financial years registered users total sessions sessions per user 2008/2009 37547 718744 19.14 2009/2010 33214 843607 25.40 2010/2011 30821 832975 27.03 2011/2012 32864 887577 27.01 2012/2013 11797 402952 34.16 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 6: number of smart cape sessions per user in cape town libraries user profiles, pac access preferences, and uses of the internet surveys were completed by 2,400 respondents of which 93.8 percent were from the online survey, and the balance from questionnaires completed during the focus group interview. table 2: distribution of respondents in the two surveys the locations of the libraries where the users completed the survey were from all areas of the cape metro, and thus represent a fair spectrum of users. general profile of users the users were between 15 and 70 years of age, with an average age of 33.1. the male / female gender split was 56.5 percent to 43.5 percent. almost 39 percent of the respondents indicated that they were unemployed, with the rest equally divided between studying (school/ college or university) and being employed. two-thirds (67.7 percent) of the respondents indicated their maximum qualification to be grade 12. distance to travel to a pac as to the distance they have to travel to access internet at the public access centre; 50.7 percent of the respondents reported that they needed to travel between 1 and 2 km to the closest centre and 15.6 percent had to travel between 2 and 5 km. the rest had to travel longer distances. !36 n (%) focus group survey 150 (6.2% ) smart cape online survey 2274 (93.8% ) total 2424 (100% ) the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 reliance on the pac as a means to access the internet the distribution of public access versus other ways of accessing internet is shown in table 3. sixty-six percent of the users indicated that they used a public access centre to access the internet and 80.7 percent mainly use public access centres, with 45.6 percent only using public access centres. forty-three percent of all users indicated that they visited the public access centre daily to access the internet and a further 33 percent visited it up to three times a week. thus, the number of respondents accessing the internet at the public access centre is significantly larger than the number accessing the internet elsewhere (χ2 = 290.6, p-value = < 0.001). eighty-eight percent of the respondents indicated that they own a mobile phone and 70.3 percent indicated that their mobile phone can access the internet. table 3: places of access to internet preferred point of access to the internet to answer the research question regarding the respondents’ preferred point of access of internet, the question “where would you prefer to access the internet from?” was included in the questionnaires. the result, represented in figure 7, shows that a significant number of respondents (53.3 percent) preferred to use the public access centre rather than an internet or home use (χ2 = 13.32, p-value = < 0.001). the reasons for their preference are given in figure 8. between 70 percent and 90 percent of the users found searching for information pertaining to various topics or issues fairly easy (see figure 9). figure 7: point of internet access preference by respondents !37 i access the internet… n (%) from work 253 (10.4%) from home 379 (15.6%) from a pac 1955 (80.7%) from school/college/university 425 (17.5%) from mobile/tablet 870 (35.9%) the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 8: reasons for choosing a pac as first choice figure 9: percentage of users finding topic searches easy the results above shows that public access centres are still the most preferred point of access to the internet by these users. the three main reasons given for this were: • free to use; • can receive assistance from others (as well as give); • can receive free training in computer and internet skills. ease of searching for information almost sixty percent of all users indicated that they found working on a computer and using the internet easy and 19.6 percent need some help with both. users often assist one another !38 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 when they are accessing internet at smart cape libraries, which is one of the benefits of public access centres listed by the global impact study (clark, sey & sullivan, 2012). in this smart cape study 65.9 percent of the users indicated that they have assisted other users and 38 percent indicated that they have received assistance from other users. only 1551 users responded to the question “how easy is it to use the internet to study?” of these 51.2 percent indicated that they found it very easy and a further 37.1 percent indicated that they sometimes needed assistance. internet access location and device preference a recent itu study found that only 40 percent of households worldwide had internet access in their homes (itu, 2014). in the smart cape study, users indicated that 24.5 percent had a computer at home and could access internet from it, whereas 70.3 percent of the users owned mobile phones from which they could access the internet. the focus group survey asked the respondents about their preferred device from which to access the internet. almost 55 percent indicated that they would prefer to use a desktop while 41.3 percent indicated that they would prefer to use a mobile phone (figure 10). figure 10: device preference of focus group respondents most important uses of the internet the respondents in the focus group survey responded to an open question asking them which usage of the internet and computers at the centre are the most important for them. finding information about education, employment and using social media were listed in the top three most important usages (see figure 11). !39 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 11: most important usage of computers/internet at a public access centre reliance on pacs the results given in section user profiles, pac access preferences, and uses of the internet show a high level of use of the smart cape program even though mobile phone usage has penetrated the south african market to a large extent. this begs the question of which particular factors influence people to use the public access centres, and why they prefer to keep on using the public access centres. in other words, what is the actual user profile of the person using the public access centre, or preferring a public access centre to connect to internet? to answer these questions a generalized linear model was applied to determine which variables affected the choice to use a public access centre and the preference for using a public access centre. in this model the factors suspected of influencing the choices to use or to prefer to use are the predictor variables (independent variables), which were chosen from all the other questions in the study. results pertaining to access use and access preference the analysis was applied repeatedly until a significant model (having a good fit) emerged. the goodness-of-fit statistics (see appendix), which indicate that the models have a good fit, are given by the likelihood ratio chi-square values of 116.064 and 217.167 respectively, (p–value for both < 0.001; n = 2279). according to the results (see appendix) the variables having a significant effect on the choice of venue for internet access are represented by the following factors with a significant effect on pac as a choice of venue to access the internet: !40 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 • employment group(three categories) • grade group (highest school education; 4 categories) • distance to pac (1 – 2 km vs 0, or further). the variables having a significant effect on the preference or use of a public access centre are represented by the following factors with a significant effect on preference to use a pac: • grade group (highest school education; 4 categories) • finding information (easy or not) • computer at home with internet (yes/no) • language (4 categories) • distance to pac (1 – 2 km vs 0, or further) • ease of reading/writing in english (3 categories) profile of a user most inclined to use a pac using the parameter estimates of the relevant factors from the generalized linear model (see appendix) and equation 2, the probability that a specific profile of a user will access the internet at a pac can be calculated. the higher the probability, the more likely it is that this is the profile of a typical user. an unemployed person, having completed grade 7, and having to travel at least 2km to the pac has a probability of 0.95 of using a public access centre to access the internet. the probability of accessing the internet at a public access centre decreases to 0.83 in the case of another person having all the same characteristics except for being employed. the probability of unemployed people accessing the internet at a pac ranges from 0.60 to 0.95, depending on their education level, and how far they need to travel to access the pac. the probability of a person preferring to access the internet at a pac can be calculated in a similar manner, using the parameter estimates of the generalized linear model, having pac preference as the dependent variable. thus a xhosa-speaking person having completed grade 7, being proficient in searching on 4 the internet, not having to travel too far (1 – 2 km) to the pac, having a computer at home and being somewhat proficient in reading and writing english has a probability of 0.989 of preferring to access the internet at a pac. a person that has all the same characteristics but has completed grade 12 has a 0.78 probability of preferring a pac for internet access. a person’s employment status thus plays a significant role in the choice to access the internet at a pac. however it does not influence the preference for using a pac. the factor that has the greatest influence on the preference of access is the proficiency in reading or writing the english language. these findings are significant in the light of the fact that the rate of unemployment in the western cape is at 21.4 percent in 2011 (south africa., 2012a, p. 17; 2012c, p. 46) and 30.3 percent of the population of the western cape indicated grade 12 as xhosa is one of eleven official south african languages.4 !41 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 their highest level of education (south africa., 2012a: 15). in this study 39 percent of the respondents indicated that they are unemployed and only 67 percent of the respondents older than 20 have completed grade 12. the foregoing findings suggest that the profile of users most likely to visit a pac to access the internet comprises a combination of factors (figure 11). 5 figure 11: typical profile of users who are most likely to visit a pac to access the internet hope for the future: the importance of pacs in marginalised communities accessing the internet freely at pacs offers new ways of finding information. however, a question which was investigated was whether there is any intrinsic impact on citizens’ outlook to life in general. the questionnaire thus included a question on the hopefulness of the respondents for their future. a positive correlation has been shown by castells et al. (2014: 138-139) between the frequency and intensity of the use of the internet and the indicators of personal happiness. feelings of empowerment and influence increased with increased use of the internet. in keeping with this, the question for this research was whether a relationship between aspirations of hope and the use of the internet at a pac exists. in this research four questions relating to the respondents hopefulness towards their own future, and then that of their family, their community, and their country were included in both questionnaires. the results (table 4) show that more than 70 percent of the respondents have the combined facts are based on our analysis of both “use” and “preference to use” a pac.5 !42 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 a very definite attitude of hope for themselves and their families. slightly fewer (but still more than 50 percent) have hope for the communities and the country. table 4: hopefulness in sample combining the outcomes of all four questions, 1776 (73.5 percent of the 2417 that responded) of the respondents were hopeful in all instances, whereas 26.5 percent were not hopeful in at least one of the four situations. to determine whether the frequency and intensity of use of the internet has a significant influence on the hopefulness of the respondents the same multivariate technique, the generalized linear model, was applied. the following predictor variables had a significant effect on the dependent variable, hopefulness, in all instances. • age group (five categories) • employment group (three categories) • keyboard proficiency (three categories) • finding information easily (two categories) • preferring to use a pac (three categories) • language (four categories) the overall model is significant (χ2 = 87.951, p-value < 0.001) (see appendix for the tests for model effects and parameters). thus, using equation 2 and the parameters estimates, the probability of a person in this research study being hopeful in all instances (self, family, community and country) is 0.92 if it is an unemployed xhosa-speaking person between the ages of 25 and 34, being proficient in using a keyboard and finding information easily on the internet, preferring using a public access centre. if this person has some difficulty in using a computer keyboard and in finding information this probability of being hopeful drops to 0.79. this shows that preferring to use a pac, using the pac to access the internet often enough to hone keyboard skills, and finding information easily from the internet has a significant influence on hopefulness for respondents in this study. the foregoing thus provides a very compelling argument for the role of pacs in respect of a critical intangible benefit. in the first instance it is noted that pacs provide the enabling infrastructure for citizens to find information, to be able to use a computer keyboard, and as a venue which is preferred over other options such as at home or via a mobile device. the !43 responses  % cases i am very hopeful for the future for myself 1826 75.3% i am very hopeful for the future of my family 1798 74.2% i am very hopeful for the future of my community 1296 53.5% i am very hopeful for the future of south africa 1307 53.9% the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 results of the analysis indicate that all of the latter have a significant effect on the hopefulness a citizen has for his or her self, community and country. conclusion this study has showed that pacs in impoverished areas continue to play a relevant and significant role in bringing icts to the communities. eighty-one percent of respondents in this study mainly use public access centres, with 45.6 percent only using public access centres and 53.3 percent preferring to access the internet at a pac. forty-three percent of all users indicated that they visited the public access centre daily to access the internet and a further 33 percent visited it up to three times a week. thus the number of respondents accessing the internet at the public access centre is significantly larger than the number accessing the internet elsewhere, even though 70.3 percent of the respondents have mobile phones that can access the internet. this confirms the findings of a study of low and medium income countries by sey, bar, coward, koepke, rothschild & sciadas (2015). a respondent’s choice to access the internet at a pac is significantly influenced by his/her employment status. the typical profile of a pac user is an unemployed person having completed at least grade 7, living within a 5km radius of the pac. on the other hand a person’s preference for accessing the internet at a pac is significantly influenced by his/her level of school education. the study also provides evidence that a significant number of community members use the smart cape venues to access the internet and a significant number still prefer to access the internet at a public access venue. the role for public access to the internet at community level is therefore a critical one. for certain income groups public access will be a stepping stone until affordable access to the internet at home is a reality. moreover the results of the survey substantiate that there still is a demand for free internet services. we can conclude therefore that public access centres remain an essential part of ensuring that all communities are able to benefit from increased broadband penetration. there will always be citizens whose circumstances make it difficult to own a device that gives them access to government, social media, and the wealth of information and services that exist on the web. finally, the importance of pacs in marginalised communities really comes to light when more than just the tangible is investigated. our study found that more users of pacs have a very definite hope for themselves and their families. slightly fewer, but still a majority, have hope for their communities and the country. the probability of a user being hopeful in all circumstances is dependent on his/her ability to find information and to use a computer keyboard with ease. as is posited by gomez and pather (2010, p. 11) a shift in focus from the measurable to the non-measurable is more relevant in determining the value pacs bring to the economically marginalised communities. hope is an intangible benefit, but this is probably a far more important benefit to pac users than the tangible benefits which are commonly identified in the literature. we suggest that that the instilling of hope is important to individuals who are stuck in a poverty rut. further it is an important precursor to social and economic development. if pacs are able to provide individual citizens hope for the future, then certainly government policy which supports a pac program must be entrenched. further studies in this regard are to be encouraged. the notion of hope which is derived from having !44 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 access to the internet is an interesting notion which deserves a more detailed inquiry. such an inquiry will shed more insights into the questions asked in studies (e.g., gomez & pather, 2010) as to whether we are evaluating the right benefits when examining ict programmatic interventions. references agresti, a. 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(2012). executive summary: internet access in south africa 2012. http:// www.worldwideworx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/execsummary-internetaccess-in-sa-2012.pdf !49 http://www.worldwideworx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/execsummary-internet-access-in-sa-2012.pdf the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 appendix table 1: hypothesis results table 2: tests of model effects table 3: parameter estimates (b) of the significant predictor variables omnibus test access use access preference χ2-value p-value 73.441 < 0.001 217.167 < 0.001 h0: model no different from intercept only model reject h0 reject h0 access use access preference source type iii type iii wald chi-square df pvalue wald chisquare df p-value (intercept) 145.055 1 .000 employment group 22.089 2 .000 grade category 11.563 4 .021 19.128 4 0.001 finding information 5.665 1 0.017 having a computer at home 27.378 1 0.001 language 14.634 3 0.002 distance to pac 31.020 3 .000 14.580 3 0.002 proficiency in reading, writing english 12.227 0.002 parameter x-value access use access preference intercept 2.255 employment = at school/college 1 -0.503 employment = employed 2 -0.678 school grade passed = grade 1 – grade 4 1 -1.126 -0.041 school grade passed = grade 5 – grade 7 2 .0.147 0.415 school grade passed = grade 8 – grade 9 3 -0.322 0.145 school grade passed = grade 10 – grade 11 4 -0.120 -0.156 school grade passed = grade 12 5 0.0 -0.405 finding information easily = no 2 -0.215 !50 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the probability of a respondent using the public access centre when this person is unemployed, having passed grade 7 and living within 5 km from the centre is: ! the probability of a xhosa-speaking person preferring to access the internet at a pac 6 having completed grade 7, being proficient in searching on the internet, not having to travel too far (1 – 2 km) to the pac, having a computer at home and being somewhat proficient in reading and writing english is: ! table 4: test for model effects of the combined "hope" dependent variable the probability of a person in this research study being hopeful in all instances (self, family, community and country) is 0.92 if it is an unemployed xhosa-speaking person between the having a computer at home = no 2 0.470 language = afrikaans 1 0.074 language = english 2 0.260 language = xhosa 3 0.616 distance from pac = 0km (at home) 1 -0.742 -0.091 distance from pac = 1 – 2km 2 -0.027 0.341 distance from pac = 2 – 5km 3 0.141 0.063 read/write english =difficult 3 -1.184 read/write english = somewhat easy 2 0.392 source type iii wald chisquare df sig. (intercept) 7.700 1 .006 age group 13.745 5 .017 employment group 16.779 2 .000 keyboard proficiency 14.417 3 .002 finding information easily 9.429 1 .002 preferring to use pac 8.811 2 .012 language 37.925 3 .000 xhosa is one of eleven official south african languages6 !51 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ages of 25 and 34, being proficient in using a keyboard and finding information easily on the internet, preferring using a public access centre. table 5: parameter estimates (b) of the significant predictor variables for dependent variable “hope” parameter b (intercept) -1.117 under 18 .155 18-24 .110 25-34 .339 35-44 .079 45 to 64 -.170 employment = at school/college .031 employment = employed .419 keyboard proficiency =easy .408 keyboard proficiency =some difficulty -.029 keyboard proficiency =difficult -.127 finding information easily = yes 0.277 poa preference = pac .177 poa preference = internet cafe -.537 language = afrikaans -.142 language = english -.059 language = xhosa .541 !52 health impact assessment of a uk digital health service sue heather wright, irfan ghani, john kemm, jayne parry 1. introduction recent developments in digital technology have revolutionised the modes and patterns in which we interact, communicate, collaborate and share information. these technologies have a significant impact on information management, process improvement (logistical systems helps organisations deliver better and more efficient results), service improvement, communications, gaming and entertainment, and provision of health care information (department for communities and local government, 2008). there is great interest to use digital technology for health provision (to provide information on health promotion and health care services, and support staff training). digitally provided health services encompass a number of services ranging from health related websites to telecare and telehealth and are regarded as cost-effective interventions. the most commonly used digitally provided health services include web based health information, interactive tools (applications) and support groups, online or computer based learning and training and in-home counselling, assessment and monitoring (neuhauser & kreps, 2003). there are new opportunities for health communication provided by web 2.0 sociable technologies and social software such as health wikis, blogs, podcasts and other applications (kamel & wheeler, 2007). digital services provide opportunities as well as challenges. there is clear evidence that not all population groups are able to benefit from these technologies because of the digital divide (access to digital technology, literacy and motivation to use technology). the gap between those who have access to digital technology and those who don't is often referred to as the digital divide and implies a dichotomy between the "haves and have nots". those unable to access the internet are excluded from gaining information, knowledge and skills, and excluded from opportunities to participate in a wide range of activities such as searching for leisure opportunities, travel, educational opportunities, learning and skills training and online shopping (hughes, bellis & tocque, 2002). the digital divide may have an impact on health inequalities by excluding those groups who already experience poor health. 2. west midlands digital health service a local digitally provided health service (this will be referred to as the digital health service (dhs)) was commissioned by the regional office (west midlands) of the national health service (nhs) to run over a five year period and is being delivered by a consortium comprising of media and it companies and a local university. this dhs is intended to provide "…a range of digital services which through a combination of commissioned and aggregated content, applications and services builds knowledge, disseminates best practice, delivers more cost effective professional development and improves health outcomes for the citizens and staff…" (turpie, chitty, blissett, flavelle, branson, hall & quinney, 2010). the service went live in august 2010. this followed a soft launch after an evaluation of the prototype of the service (ipsos media ct, 2009) which showed a positive response from the public suggesting they would use the services to look after their own health and well-being, and from staff who would use it in their own professional practice. the dhs aims to: improve health outcomes and health care delivery for patients and the public in the west midlands; empower patients and the public to make informed choices about their health; and support health professionals and other staff in: delivering safe, high quality, innovative healthcare services, and developing their careers. the service delivers a variety of health related information (including news, information on health conditions, lifestyle behaviours, health care services and staff training material) through a range of media including short videos, written content, mapping and interactive tools. the service doesn't provide any one-to-one delivery of health care. the editorial agenda is based on local needs and national best practice and the editorial style of the service is open and engaging with videos and stories used to convey information and messages. the content is quality assured by a team including health care professionals and editorial staff. the service avoids duplication of content and provides links to external websites. in october 2010, a health impact assessment (hia) was requested to assess the potential impacts of the service on the health of the west midlands population with a specific focus on the impact on health inequalities. there were two specific questions this hia was asked to address: how will the dhs impact on the health and well-being of people in the west midlands? how will the service impact on health inequalities in the west midlands? as the service provides a wide range of information, it was agreed that the hia would focus on diabetes as a case study to address the health impacts in the region. the west midlands has a higher rate of diabetes diagnosed than any other english region and this has persistently risen over the last few years. part of the reason for the high rate of diabetes is the number of adults and children in the west midlands who are obese which is higher than the national average. in addition the region has fewer physically active adults than in other regions (association of public health observatories, 2010). 3. health impact assessment hia is a "…combination of procedures, methods and tools by which a policy, program or project may be judged as to its potential effects on the health of a population, and the distribution of those effects within the population." (european centre for health policy, 1999). the intended outcome of the hia is a series of recommendations to minimise or eradicate any potential negative impacts and to maximise any potential positive impacts. hia considers which key determinants of health will be affected e.g. living and working conditions, social networks, lifestyles, and how these in turn will potentially impact on the health and wellbeing of the population and on health inequalities. hia has five sequential steps: screening, scoping (planning stage), appraisal of impacts, recommendations, and evaluation (i.e. review of the hia process, assessment of how the recommendations were used by the decision makers and monitoring the impacts on health) (figure 1). figure 1: stages of hia: the hia stages are on the right and shows how these relate to the proposal shown on the left this paper reports on two stages of the hia, appraisal of impacts and recommendations. 4. appraisal of impacts a range of evidence drawn from the literature, stakeholder interviews, and questionnaire feedback from potential users was appraised and synthesised to consider the likely impacts of the dhs on health and health inequalities of the population in the west midlands. figure 2 shows how evidence from these different sources is used in hia to describe the health impacts. figure 2: steps of the appraisal stage 4.1 policy context a number of government policies have highlighted the importance of using digital technology in delivering health care. the government aims to provide "…a range of online health services which will mean services being provided much more efficiently at a time and place that is convenient for patients and carers." (department of health, 2010). the european commission (european commission information, society and media, 2006) also advocates for a new model of health care where information technology has a major role to play. 4.2 literature review 4.2.1 methodology the literature review was based on the search of 10 bibliographic databases (intute, ethos, medline, ovid, web of knowledge, web of science, cochrane, assia, ibss, and nhs evidence), searched between september and november 2010. the following search terms were used: "ehealth", "ehealth and health promotion", "ehealth and health education", "ehealth and health inequalities", "internet and health", "internet health and health inequalities", "health and digital services", "social networking", "ehealth and diabetes", and "internet and diabetes". the literature review focussed on access to the internet, access issues in general (including the digital divide), benefits of ehealth, navigation and design issues for ehealth websites, and impacts on health inequalities. the following inclusion criteria were used: publication years 2000 to 2010, english language papers, all countries, and quantitative and qualitative studies. discussion papers were excluded. experts also contributed relevant papers and reports. this was not intended to be a systematic review. 4.2.2 results information, knowledge and empowerment ehealth holds the promise to supplement traditional forms of health promotion through user centred design and interactivity, expansion of access to health information, greater discourse and customisation of information to users. a number of perceived benefits of ehealth have been identified in the literature (hughes, bellis & tocque, 2002; read & blackburn, 2005; korp, 2006): availability of a range of health information independent of time and place enhanced knowledge on diseases, lifestyle choices and health care services. this supports decision making thus empowering patients to look after their health opportunity to share experiences and seek advice through social networks provision of training for health care staff there is sufficient evidence to indicate that provision of health information alone has little impact on people's health behaviour. providing health information can have an impact on individual's attitudes and beliefs, and when provided with other activities on promoting healthier choices can have an impact on behaviour change (tones, tilford & robinson, 1990). health information is most effective when: the intended audience is engaged in the programme; the information is targeted at a particular audience; the message source is from the same audience; the message is consistently presented; the message is tailored to individuals and is personalised; and by provision of support to increase motivation of the audience (boyce, robertson & dixon, 2008). digitally available health information and resources are shown to increase not just knowledge and understanding of health and conditions but also to reduce anxiety, increase confidence and levels of empowerment. figure 3 shows how factors derived from the literature impact on empowerment. figure 3: empowering patients through ehealth in a review of 12 studies (akesson, saveman & nilsson, 2007), ehealth applications increased knowledge, empowerment, confidence and health. similarly, online health information had a major impact on the understanding of patients' health issues (millard & fintak, 2002). in a new zealand study (scott, gilmour & fielden, 2008) patients were reported to gain many benefits from accessing health information online such as becoming more knowledgeable about their health (37%), gaining helpful advice from patient support sites and consumer groups (24%), accessing second opinions (13%), and support with health needs (13%). access to online health information can also impact on the use of health services and seeking support. a significant decrease in the use of gp services as a result of accessing a digital health service was reported in the evaluation of a uk website (nhs choices) (this was considered to be an appropriate decrease through increased self-care) (nhs choices, 2010, p22). this contrasts with the findings from another study on young people (ybarra & suman, 2008). in this study of 12-17 year olds 55% of all information seekers contacted a health professional because of the information they found on the internet. the online information impacted on other outcomes: respondents felt more comfortable with health care provider information when they tried to diagnose a problem, to treat a problem, and sought support from others. similarly a qualitative study of older men seeking health information online reported that their fear in managing their disease was reduced, their social support was strengthened, their confidence built and behaviour changes made easier (less than half of the participants had used the internet before) (lindsay, smith, bell & bellaby, 2007). in another study with older people, retrieval of online information helped them understand health problems, helped change their eating habits, change their exercise patterns and influenced their treatment (campbell, 2008). users with long term conditions showed improved knowledge and improved management of their conditions with use of a digital health service (jones, goldsmith, cassola, duman & smith, 2009). in a study of marginalised internet users, increased proficiency in internet use resulted in an increase in understanding of their condition, enabled them to seek support from others, facilitated behaviour change, and increased empowerment to ask questions with health professionals (mehra, merkel & bishop, 2004). there is evidence that ehealth is used in conjunction with other sources of health information (kivits, 2006; sillence, briggs, harris & fishwick, 2007; kivits, 2009) and the knowledge gained complements medical knowledge and expertise. the internet did not change people's reliance on the medical profession but it opened up new avenues for obtaining information to help make decisions relating to their own health (nelson, murray & kahn, 2010). a study of parents and children with chronic illness (eczema, diabetes and asthma) showed that information was used to clarify and check information received from their doctor, and information was perceived as additional support for managing their conditions (although some parents thought their information needs were adequately met by their health professional), and children felt more knowledgeable after seeking health information online (nettleton, o'malley & watt, 2003). digitally provided health services can provide opportunities to establish online support groups which enable people to exchange social support, discuss specific health concerns/conditions, and share information and offer emotional support to each other (nahm, resnik, degrezia & brotemarkle, 2009; wright, rains & banas, 2010). a uk pilot study (armstrong & powell, 2009) reported that many people living with long-term conditions would like to be in contact with their peers, and internet discussion boards represent a cost-effective and interactive way of achieving this. participation in online communities have been shown to increase levels of emotional wellbeing, perceived control over disease, overall personal empowerment, and increase medical knowledge (wicks, 2010). in some studies participation has resulted in improvements in medical decision making and positive behavioural change (barak, boniel-nissim & suler, 2008). healthier lifestyles there is some evidence on the role of the internet in promoting healthier lifestyles such as increasing physical activity, weight loss and healthy eating. evidence shows that at least in the short term people improved their diet, reduced tobacco and alcohol consumption and increased safer sexual behaviour (jones, goldsmith, cassola, duman & smith, 2009). for individual studies, where access to educational/information websites was compared with the other computer-delivered interventions (cdis), the cdis showed a greater improvement than the educational/information websites (jones, goldsmith, cassola, duman & smith, 2009). in a meta-analysis of 75 studies on the efficacy of computer-delivered interventions (cdis) the authors concluded that cdis can lead to "...immediate post-intervention improvements in health-related knowledge, attitudes, and intentions as well as modifying health behaviours such as dietary intake, tobacco use, substance use, safer sexual behaviour, binge/purging behaviours, and general health maintenance" (portnoy, scott-sheldon, johnson & carey, 2008). another study on internet-based interventions to promote behaviour change (85 randomised controlled trial (rct) studies between 2000-2008) (webb, joseph, yardley & michie, 2010) reported that the intervention effect was larger for those studies that included more behavioural change techniques and more modes of delivery. the results showed statistically small but significant effects on health related behaviours. cushing and steele's (cushing & steele, 2010) meta-analysis of 33 studies on paediatric health promoting and maintaining behaviours using the internet found that ehealth interventions that included behavioural methods (goal setting, self-monitoring, feedback) produced larger effect sizes than those using educational interventions only (small but significant results). a review by jones et al. (jones, goldsmith, cassola, duman & smith, 2009) on weight management reported a great deal of variability among studies which resulted in difficulty in making synthesis and drawing a conclusion. management of conditions: specific reference to diabetes patients have reported improvement in self-management of their conditions by use of online health interventions. a small study (n=16) showed an improvement in the self-management of diabetes (as shown by hba1c levels) and knowledge of care with a web-based program compared to group lectures for diabetes self-management education (misoon, myoung-ae, keum soon, myung sun, insook, jeongeun, et al., 2009) . norris et al. (norris, engelgau & venkat narayan, 2001) found in their meta-analysis of 31 rcts of self-care education for adults with type 2 diabetes that glycosylated levels (an indicator of good diabetic control) decreased immediately after the intervention, but that this benefit declined over time. wanberg (wangberg, 2007) also showed improvements in self-care by internet based interventions and self-care also increased for other heath areas that the intervention did not target. patients with poor metabolic control and those with greater use of health care services, higher motivation, and/or less experience with diabetes treatment seemed to benefit more than others from the use of electronic communication. the benefits have also been shown in young people for chronic conditions by improved knowledge and quality of life and decrease in health care utilisation (stinson, wilson, gill, yamada & holt, 2009). health professionals the dhs also provides access to online learning programmes for health care staff. a meta-analysis of studies on internet-based learning for health professionals found that internet-based learning shows large positive effects compared with no intervention and effectiveness is similar to that of traditional learning methods (cook, levinson, garside, dupras, erwin & montori, 2008). a study of public health nurses (phns) (yu, chen, yang, wang & yen, 2007) in taiwan (only 9.87% with previous e-learning experience) reported that the majority of phns showed a positive attitude towards e-learning. the authors highlighted a number of reasons which encourages adoption of e-learning including availability of a wide range of information, access at own convenience and time and costeffectiveness. bond (bond, 2007) highlighted that computer-assisted education programmes can be an effective tool for nurses to expand their health promotion role. the study of phns reported a number of reasons for not using online learning material including low computer literacy, no access to internet, heavy workload and lack of motivation (yu, chen, yang, wang & yen, 2007). in a different study lack of perceived usefulness and lack of perceived pertinence for managing healthcare were also given (rogers & mead, 2004), 4.3 stakeholder interviews 4.3.1 methodology as part of the hia those involved in the development or delivery of the proposal (the dhs), or who have specific knowledge of the proposal (the dhs) or who are likely to be affected by the proposal are interviewed as stakeholders. the purpose of these in this hia was to give stakeholders the opportunity to consider what they thought the potential impacts of the dhs and digitally provided health services in general on population health and health inequalities would be, and how any positive impacts could be enhanced, how any potential negative impacts could be reduced and what mitigation measures could implemented. nineteen people were asked to participate as stakeholders and were interviewed individually between november 2010 and march 2011 (figure 4). stakeholders were sent a short paper prior to the interview outlining the purpose of the interview, a brief introduction to the dhs with the url address, an outline of hia with the main aims of this hia, and the questions that would be asked at the interview. stakeholders were asked these questions but themes emerged in the course of the interviews that were subsequently followed up. detailed notes of responses were made and were reviewed by both researchers. the main themes and categories were drawn out and any deviant cases noted. this interview and review process was continued for each interview until the hia practitioners considered that saturation of themes had occurred and no new themes were emerging. figure 4: disciplines of stakeholders 4.3.2 results though there was a lack of clarity around the objectives of the dhs among stakeholders, all stakeholders stated that digitally provided health services have the potential to provide information and resources on health and health care that would impact positively on health and provide health benefits to users. digitally provided health services could deliver a wide range of information on health; provide information on health services; where to access services locally; provide opportunities for professionals to signpost patients to services and information; contribute to behaviour change; support management of conditions; provide treatment options and choice; provide a "one stop shop" on health information; be a repository for information; provide links to other information; reflect current health concerns; and provide relevant news. stakeholders perceived digitally provided health services to be potentially empowering and engaging for people. tools, appliances and interactivity could encourage people to make changes and increase their engagement. emergent technology could deliver an interactive intelligent service for users, which could be user-centred and potentially impact on empowerment. peer support and sharing information were considered important for patient empowerment. stakeholders perceived digitally provided health services as having the potential to promote healthy lifestyles and facilitate behaviour change by empowering, engaging, educating and motivating people. social support groups were considered to potentially appeal more to the younger age group. stakeholders also thought online communities and social networking sites were important for staff as well as the public to share ideas, share best practice as well as accessing online training. the advantages of online training and other online support/information for staff included: saving money, being a "one stop shop" for training, providing information and good practice, providing communities of practice and discussion forums, and enabling access to patient stories and concerns. online training was an opportunity for blended learning (a combination of traditional face-to-face classroom methods with computer-mediated activities). disadvantages were: difficulties with evaluating outcomes of training, identifying who completes the training, ensuring all relevant staff complete mandatory courses, lack of staff time, and loss of formality of traditional training delivery. other health benefits were identified by stakeholders: reduction in co2 emissions, (due to fewer car journeys), improved practice by health professionals as a result of accessing patients' experiences and sharing best practice, opportunities to focus on "at risk groups", and potential to improve service quality. (provision of stories and interactive discussions on digitally provided health services would encourage people to reflect on their own service experiences and by comparison and feedback could potentially drive up service quality). 4.4 user survey 4.4.1 methodology a user survey was conducted with two groups of diabetic patients who were potential users of the dhs. this user survey focussed on sources of diabetic information, benefits of the internet, use of health related resources (i.e. for diabetes), and barriers to accessing the internet. members from 2 groups of the diabetes uk voluntary group based in the west midlands were surveyed in february 2011 using a short paper questionnaire added to the diabetes uk feedback survey. these groups were identified by the regional diabetes uk office. the questionnaires were provided to all participants at these meetings and collected at the end of the sessions. 4.4.2 results seventy one questionnaires were returned: more than half of the participants were over 64 years of age (37/71), only 7 participants were under the age of 45 years, and almost all (64/71) belonged to the white ethnic group. almost a third of the user survey participants had accessed online health information and these many had benefited from this information by improving their understanding of their condition (17/25), knowledge of treatment options (14/25) and management of diabetes (11/25). users could access a wide range of national and international information that supported existing knowledge. the most common reason for searching online resources was to obtain information on diabetes (23/25). 4.5 health inequalities health inequalities can be defined as differences in health status or in the distribution of health determinants between different population groups (world health organisation). the government is committed to addressing health inequalities at local and national levels. marmot's review "'fair society, healthy lives" (allen, boyce, geddes, goldblatt, grady, marmot & mcneish, 2010) reported that 1.3 and 2.5 million extra years of life could be enjoyed in england if the whole population enjoyed the health of the best group. the review emphasised that in order to reduce variations in health, the scale and intensity of mitigating actions should be proportional to the level of deprivation. the west midlands is the 5th largest of ten regions in england and wales and has a population of 5,431,100 (office for national statistics, 2009a) (office for national statistics, 2009a). a higher percentage of the population are in the 40-49 year old age band but the 65+ population is projected to increase from 2011 to 2031 (office for national statistics, 2011). the west midlands has a higher asian population (8.5% of total population) than the national average (6.1%) and a lower white population (85.6% versus 87.5%) (office for national statistics, 2009a). the west midlands ranks second after the north east on the proportion of the total population (16 to retirement age) having a work limiting disability and classed as unemployed (office for national statistics, 2009b). deprivation, children in poverty and statutory homelessness are all worse than the england average (muir, 2008; association of public health observatories, 2010). the health profile for the west midlands shows that the region has worse health than the england average and there are wide differences in health status across the population and the region (association of public health observatories, 2010). the 2010 health profile indicated that the life expectancy and infant death rate were significantly worse in the west midlands region than national averages. all-cause mortality continued to fall over the years but the gap between the regional and national rates remained and the gap between mortality rates from cancer, heart disease and stroke was widening. the poorest health is found in the metropolitan areas and this is largely accounted for by the higher levels of deprivation in these areas; 1 in 4 people in urban areas in england live in low income homes compared to only 1 in 6 in rural areas (the poverty site). 4.5.1 digital divide barriers to accessing the internet and to ehealth are reported in the literature, from stakeholders and from the user survey. these include not having access to a computer and the internet but also (not in order): no perceived need, lack of interest or motivation, lack of skills to find information or sites, low literacy, high equipment and access costs, access available elsewhere, privacy and security concerns, having a physical disability that precludes access, information not personalised, and having questions that cannot be answered (chang, bakken, brown, houston, kreps, kukafka, et al., 2004; ginossar & nelson, 2010). access and usage to the internet is closely linked to a number of socio-economic and demographic indicators. there are variations in access to the internet by geographical area, age, gender, income, education, occupation and housing tenure. those groups who either lack access to the internet or are more unlikely to access the internet include women, people over 65 years, households with incomes in the lower quintile, those with no formal education or qualifications, those in semi routine or routine occupations and some ethnic groups (although evidence is equivocal) and carers. seventy three percent of households in the west midlands have access to the internet (a rise of 6% from 2009) compared with 74% of the uk population (internet access by household is higher in london (83%)) (office for national statistics, 2010). using the 2010 uk office for national statistics (ons) data those who had accessed the internet in the previous 3 months of the 2010 survey, 39% had searched for health information (women 44% compared to men 34%) and higher access was reported in the age band 55 64 years (44%) and lower access for the16-24 year old group. the ons survey showed that the common reasons for not having an internet connection at home were: not needed (39%), lack of skills (21%), don't want it (20%), high equipment and access costs (18% and 15%), access available elsewhere (8%), privacy and security concerns (4%), and physical disability (2%) (office for national statistics, 2010). during the interviews, it was found that the dhs was not accessible at all hospital sites as the features of the website were not compatible with the it system at the hospitals. there was evidence that having internet access did not equate with all members of the household having equal access (wyatt, 2005). access to ehealth is dependent on awareness of ehealth websites or ehealth services, motivation to access ehealth, the ability to search and navigate sites, levels of literacy (general literacy, as well as computer and health literacy), being able to use the information and resources in a way which benefits health outcomes, and in most cases being able to read and understand english. attitudes to computers and the internet affect use and gain from the internet. simply giving people access to the internet is not enough (wagner, bundorf, singer & baker, 2005; dutta-bergman, 2004). use is bound up with people's confidence, motivation that they will gain useful information from the internet and that this will be beneficial (self-efficacy), their skills in accessing the information, perceptions of themselves as self-managers of their own illness, experiences of service provision, self-management strategies, and faith in using information to affect health outcomes (rogers & mead, 2004). researchers have indicated that general literacy, computer literacy and health literacy skills are required when using digitally provided health services (institute of medicine, 2009). individuals with low literacy had difficulty with internet sites and barriers included: spelling, identifying links to other pages, scrolling to find more information, entering internet addresses and using the back arrow (zarcadoolas, blanco, boyer & pleasant, 2002). stakeholders commented on the populations they served and emphasised high deprivation, the need for language translations and ethnic differences as having an impact on access to digitally provided health services. most stakeholders discussed problems over language and the reliance of patients on interpreters in their clinical practice. an english only site would exclude some groups although translation would also be a problem. non-medical language was also needed. the digital divide was seen to include older people, the poor, black minority and ethnic groups, homeless and "hard to reach" groups. older patients were thought to be more comfortable with traditional media. mitigation measures listed by stakeholders to improve access and usage were: language translations of the site, interventions to reach "hard to reach" groups, greater promotion of the service by staff, expand partners and technological outlets, improve promotion, and increase outlet sites. lack of computer skills has been cited by the ons survey (office for national statistics, 2010) and by the user survey members as a reason for not using the internet. mehra et al. (mehra, merkel & bishop, 2004) conducted a study on the outcomes of improving computer literacy among marginalised users. at first patients were passive users but as they became proficient and more informed they became instrumental in their use of computers and gained a better understanding of their condition and later sought support from others online. this suggests a timeline in effective usage and in gaining benefits. there was no available information on access to the internet and use of health related sites specific to the west midlands but it can be assumed that the above socio-economic and demographic variables and factors affecting access equally apply to the population of the west midlands. it is expected that internet access will continue to increase but there will always be some groups and individuals who do not have, do not wish or are not able to access digitally provided health services. 4.6 design of digital services to address barriers and increase access the following factors were found to be important for use of health information sites: uk based, non-commercial sites, longstanding trusted business sites (such as boots), professional sites and sites that replicate what is said in other sources of information: lack of advertising, layout and appearance, navigation, readability, quality seal, and third party endorsement were also important (eysenbach & kohler, 2002; zarcadoolas, blanco, boyer & pleasant, 2002; nettleton, burrows & o'malley, 2005; bodie & dutta, 2008). computer tailored information was found to engage users more than information provided in a standard format (lewis, williams, dunsiger, sciamanna, whiteley, napolitano, et al., 2008). ehealth must also cater for specific groups of users with specific needs and involve them in designing the website. evidence suggests that specific population groups have specific requirements to enable access to online information and resources such as: translations into community and different languages, culturally sensitive information, varying font size and colour, provision of simple and non-medical language, and easy navigation (hughes, bellis & tocque, 2002). many people with disabilities can use information technology in the standard way but for some adaptive technologies are needed to access these (hughes, bellis & tocque, 2002). barriers for accessing ehealth among specific groups were reported to be related to poor site design due to lack of understanding by web designers of the needs of specific user groups, limited use of evidence on usability and effectiveness of sites, and lack of financial incentives to web designers to make these changes (chang, bakken, brown, houston, kreps, kukafka et al., 2004; ginossar & nelson, 2010). in a study that used a user testability methodology with visually impaired users, 40% of users were able to find information before the site was changed but following the design changes based on users' comments 92% stated they were successfully able to retrieve information (theofanos & mulligan, 2004). organisations have produced guidelines for websites with detailed information on accessibility and usability to ensure sites are accessible to all and communicate to all (national health service, 2011) (see www.w3.org/wai). the evidence suggests that ehealth communication outcomes are likely to be more successful when the recipients of the technology/message are involved in the design and dissemination of the ehealth communication (kreps & neuhauser, 2010). effective health communication must be an active collaboration between sender and user. effective ehealth design needs to include: interactive communication, work across different communication platforms and with diverse populations, engagement of interests and emotions of users, and reach across diverse populations while adapting to interests and communication orientations of different users (de vries, kremers, smeets, brug & eijmael, 2008). there was a lack of awareness about the dhs among the stakeholders and user survey group. the stakeholders who were already familiar with the dhs thought that the site could be improved as follows: simplified headings (e.g. using "staff" not "inside the nhs"), provision of clinically available information on appropriate pages, improved structure for navigating the site, improved links between material, an improved search facility with clearer metadata to accompany this, descriptions given to links, supporting information (e.g. clinical information) alongside stories, and improved content layout. a section on "what do i do next?" would have been useful. the local focus of the dhs i.e. a service for the west midlands population was thought to be lacking. 5. recommendations specific recommendations were formulated for decision-makers based on the best available evidence reported above. the aim was to provide recommendations that were evidence-informed and achievable. the key recommendations were as follows: a clear, timely and funded marketing and promotion strategy to be put in place and targeted at "hard to reach" groups promote and raise awareness among health professionals, third sector and community leaders to promote the service to their users/clients work with partners to provide a variety of access points for the service across a wide range of venues (e.g. gp surgeries, kiosks, places of religious gathering and worship, and schools) link with the national and local initiatives on improving internet access and expand access to the dhs at nhs sites explore translation of key areas of the service into different languages and community languages link with the national and local initiatives on improving computer literacy provide it training for health professionals (if required) and provide training on how the service can be integrated into care delivery, and how can patients use it engage the recipients of the service in the design of the service including health professionals undertake user testability methodology with users and staff and incorporate findings in the development of the service apply published web design guidelines for specific groups to the development and design of the service ensure that patient and clinical experts are consulted when new content is developed. 6. discussion the evidence from the different sources used in this hia (literature review, stakeholders and user survey) shows that digitally provided health services have the potential to positively impact on health. these potential positive impacts were as follows: increased and improved information and knowledge on health and health care promotion of health and healthy lifestyles support for self-treatment and self-management of conditions and illnesses increased patient engagement with their own health increased use of digital health information in consultation (by both patients and professionals and with each other) and improved interaction provision of a platform for social networking and sharing of information increased support and empowerment for both staff and patients improved quality of care contribution to and facilitation of behaviour change improved access to local services provision of positive learning opportunities for professionals provision of opportunities for staff to learn from patients' experiences of care reduced costs and carbon footprints training of health care staff. the evidence from all sources found that digitally provided health services will complement more traditional sources of health information and would not wholly substitute face-to-face contact with health professionals. the evidence for the impact of digitally provided health services on health inequalities is inconclusive. 6.1 west midlands digital health service the dhs in the west midlands has been developed within the context of national and regional policies where there has been a continuing emphasis on empowering patients for self-care, on the adoption of healthier lifestyles and on the management of long-term conditions. the specific questions this hia was asked to address were: how will the local dhs impact on the health and wellbeing of people in the west midlands? how will the local dhs impact on health inequalities in the west midlands? there was no evidence from the hia to indicate that the dhs in its current form would have any potential impact either on the health and wellbeing of people in the west midlands on health inequalities. the reasons for this centred on: differential access (those groups with the poorest health are the very groups which are least likely to access the dhs), difficulties over access to computers, the internet, and the dhs, lack of awareness of the service by both public and staff, the need for improvements in the design, navigation and content of the service, and the need to design and deliver the service to "hard to reach" groups. a series of recommendations to improve the impacts of the dhs were developed based on the different sources of evidence. the hia report and recommendations have been submitted to the commissioners and there are current discussions on the recommendations from the report. during the hia a review of the service was undertaken by a consulting firm (vickers, 2011). the review recommended modifying original aims and objectives of the dhs to focus on behavioural change and the provision of a personalised service as opposed to providing general information and content. as a result, the service has moved in to a transition period (between april 2011 and october 2011) with the aims of costing and planning this change in delivery. 6.2 limitations of this study the literature reviews included a range of internet based intervention studies that included information/education on the internet and/or email communications, personalised plans and face-to-face interventions. the systematic reviews showed a great deal of variability in results and there are concerns regarding the short term of the follow ups and generalisability of the results. most studies were from usa and there is a lack of uk based studies. only a few studies compared the provision of health information provided digitally with more traditional forms such as print format. there will always be a time lag between publication of the literature and current use of digital technologies. access to the internet and use of digital technologies are increasing and with this comes a cultural change in acceptance, use and perceived benefits. data on access to the internet and health related sites was limited to national sources and there was no specific information relating to the west midlands region in the uk. further evidence was drawn from a small and select group of service users. this latter group were diabetic patients, in the older age group (only 7 were under 45 years) and were predominantly white. ethical approval none sought. funding there was no direct funding or grant for this hia. competing interests the 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(2002). unweaving the web: an exploratory study of low literate adults' navigation skills on the world wide web. journal of health communication , 7: 309-324. an analysis of public internet access points (piaps) ali arifoglu, gülgün afacan, erkan er introduction public internet access points (piap) can be defined as public places where people are able to access ict technologies as well as other ict oriented services. in the literature, it is observed that various terms such as telecentre, telecottage, community technology center, digital community center, community multipurpose center and digital center have been used to refer to piaps. whatever the term used, the general aim of these centers is to reduce the digital divide. this aim is achieved by (1) providing the whole country with equal access opportunities and (2) raising the level of citizens’ ict usage and adoption. piaps are established by a government, private organization or ngo initiative. with the increasing number of piaps, operational and management issues have been gaining significance in the context of piap sustainability. considering the important nature of those issues, a comprehensive analysis of successful piaps would help to identify operational and management trends, and ultimately to structure piaps based on those trends. the purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of piap cases. to accomplish this general aim, the following specific objectives are set: to determine locations where piaps are established, to identify technical infrastructure components installed in piaps, to perform an analysis of organization types responsible for piap management and operation, to identify services widely offered in piaps, to determine opportunities for financing piaps, to identify existing challenges related to piap sustainability. to achieve these objectives, a systematic review of 17 piaps established in 16 different countries was performed. metholodgy in this study a comprehensive analysis has been performed to identify common piap trends to be used as a roadmap for better implementation of piap projects. this analysis is performed on 17 piap cases from 16 different countries. cases and corresponding country names are given in table 1 below (see references section for the references of piaps cases). table 1 – piap cases case country 1. american community technology centers (ctc) america 2. australia telecentre network australia 3. kitimat community skills centre canada 4. remote community service telecentres canada 5. uk online centers england 6. hungary telecottages hungary 7. unesco community multimedia centers (cmc) latin america, africa and south asia 8. distance learning support centre in maseru lesotho 9. mexico digital community centers (dtc) mexico 10. mozambique telecenters mozambique 11. paraguay amic@s paraguay 12. senegal telecenters senegal 13. e-sri lanka telecenters sri lanka 14. people first network (pfnet) solomon islands 15. gaseleka telecenters south africa 16. taiwan telecentres taiwan 17. uganda telecenters uganda findings setup location piap locations are categorized into two groups: urban areas and rural areas. while urban areas imply cities, rural areas refer to towns and villages. analysis of 17 cases reveals that all piaps are established in rural areas. at the same time, there are some cases which cover both rural and urban areas. the percentage of area distribution is given in table-2. table-2 setup locations of piaps category frequency percentage urban area 5 29.0 rural area 17 100.0 in order to establish piaps, various open public places are chosen. although there are some piaps established in independent buildings, most of them are operated within a school, library, post office, hospital, terminal, governmental body or non-profit organization structure. technical infrastructure analysis suggests that technical infrastructure of piaps is composed of three major components: hardware, software and network technologies. all technical units we found are listed in table-3. table-3 technical components of piaps hardware server pc printer scanner peripheral devices power supply photocopy machine telephone fax machine camera projector multimedia units software operating system office programs utilities security software communication software games educational and cultural software work support software software developing programs special piap network software network internet local network the technological infrastructure has a vital role in providing piap services efficiently. while pcs, office equipment, peripheral devices, multimedia units and communication hardware form the backbone of piaps, software and network infrastructure support the provision of piap services. piap hardware is grouped into two categories: basic and optional hardware. basic hardware is used for all services of piaps; optional hardware is used for providing scanning and multimedia services. the operating system is the core software of the piap computers. however, piaps may also include office programs, games, educational and cultural software and programming software to support instructional and training services. additionally, to support management and operations, piaps may cover utilities, security software and special network software. as connection type, local network and internet are supplied in piap cases. management structure possible organizations taking a role in the management of piaps are public (i.e. government), ngos, private sector companies and international organizations. in 17 piaps cases, generally one organization holds the whole project management responsibility, yet there are cases where organizations corporate to manage and implement the piaps project. figure-1 illustrates the percentage of organization types managing piap cases. figure 1 piap project managers (in organizational level) in terms of percentage of organizations who manage piaps, the majority of piaps are managed by public organization (13, 76.0 percent), which is followed by non-governmental organization (7, 41.0 percent), and then private sector and international organizations both with 24.0 percent (n=4) each. operational structure three types of organizations responsible for running piaps are public (i.e. government), ngos, and private sector companies. no international organizations are currently taking a role in piap management in any of the piap cases investigated. figure-2 demonstrates the percentage of organization types managing piap cases. figure 2 piap project operators (in organizational level) government is the chief organization that has the responsibility for operating piaps, with 65.0 percent (n=11). ngos and private organizations have an identical share of operational roles with 53 percent (n=9). services offered piaps provide people with a variety of services: in total 14 types of service were observed in the piap cases. figure 3 presents the types of piap services with their proportion of availability. figure 3 piap services as is seen in figure 3, the services offered by individual piaps include training and education, and telecommunication services with 17 percent (n=3) for each. through training and educational services, users are given courses in some fields. the most frequent training course offered is a fundamental ict course, which aims to teach citizens basic ict concepts telecommunication services internet access, telephone, e-mail, fax, and chat services are the most popular services provided in piaps. typing service, which is used to convert hard copy of a document into electronic format, is the least preferred identified service in piaps. financing opportunities financial sustainability of piaps is identified through 6 types of financial resources:incomes from fee-paying services, government support, international funding, private companies, donations and local administrative support. the distribution of these resources over 17 piap cases are demonstrated in figure 4. figure 4 piap financial resources based on the percentage of financial resources, the piaps are financed by incomes obtained from services (5, 30.0 percent), which is followed by governmental support, international funds, donations, shareholders’ support both with 16.0 percent (n=3), and then municipality support with 4.0 percent (n=1). challenges related to piap sustainability during our analysis of the piap cases, various problems preventing piap sustainability were identified. those problems are categorized into five groups: problems related to use; management; operation; infrastructure; and financing. problems related to use of piaps in some piap cases, there are low levels of use, we believe that this is due to a lack of awareness of citizens resulting from inefficiency in the presentation of piaps. as well, in some piap local people with very low incomes could not afford the fees charged for services. consequently, the use of the piaps is not high enough to justify the expenditures. problems related to the use of piaps and percent of each problem are illustrated in figure 5. figure 5 problems related to use of piaps figure shows that most problematic issues regarding use of piaps are lack of awareness with 29.0 percent (n=5). not being used with full capacity and unaffordable services are the other usage problems with 12.0 percent (n=2) each. the least occurring problem is related to promotional issues (1, 6.0 percent). problems related to management of piaps most critical management problem originate from inadequate support by authorities towards piaps. this problem influenced the availability of financial resources and sustainability of piaps in negative way. piap cases without effective management structure or lack of communication within management have faced difficulties in managerial and operational effectiveness. problems related to managerial issues and percentages of each problem are illustrated in figure 6. figure 6 problems related to management of piaps it can be observed from figure 6 that inadequate support by the authorities is the most critical problem with 41.0 percent (n=7). in addition, 12.0 percent (n=2) of piaps have problems in tracking the project progress. finally, one piap case (6.0 percent) faces management problems because of its poor management structure. problems related to the operation of piaps some piap cases have faced difficulties in the employment processes of piap personnel. the main reason is that employing qualified technical staff was not possible in those cases. furthermore, there are some operational challenges which originate from insufficient support from local administrations. additionally, poor communication among project partners causes operational problems. figure 7 illustrates the percent of those mentioned operational problems. figure 7 problems related to operation of piaps figure 7 shows that problem concerning employment issues are the most common operational problem with 29.0 percent (n=5). lack of qualified technical staff and poor communication among project partners are other problems with 12.0 (n=2) each. problems related to the infrastructure of piaps there are various problems concerning the infrastructure of piaps. insufficient size of rooms within piaps and wrong location choices decrease their level of accessibility. internet, phone and electricity cuts -especially in rural areasdistracted the expectation of citizens from piaps, hence the decreased number of piap users. other problems related to malfunctioning software/hardware, old-fashioned technical infrastructure, insufficient technical support, limited range of services, and non-secure internet connections. percentages of all problems are illustrated in figure 8. figure 8 problems related to infrastructure of piaps as it is observed in figure 8, electricity/internet/telephone cuts and inadequate technical infrastructure are the most common problems with 24.0 percent (n=4) each. 18.0 percent (n=3) of piaps cases have challenges in providing technical support. the rest of each problem has been observed in one piap case with 6.0 percent. problems related to financing piaps the typical problem is that piaps are not able to obtain enough financial support. the main reason for this is that decision-makers or authorities do not appreciate the value of piaps. another reason is that technical maintenance of piaps located in remote regions is costly, and this burdens project budgets. the percentages of all problems related to infrastructure are illustrated in figure 9. figure 9 problems related to financing piaps in terms of percentage of financial problems, the majority are caused by insufficient authority support (7, 41.0 percent), followed by high costs of technical support and unavailability of financial resources both with 18.0 percent (n=3) each. conclusions and future work this paper aimed to show the current trends of piaps established by 17 different initiatives in 16 different countries. applying literature review and comparison methodologies, the paper provided the results of an investigation along a set of features including piaps’ setup locations, technical infrastructure, management structure, operational structure, services, financial opportunities and challenges affecting their sustainability. from the analysis in this study, the following major conclusions can be obtained: rural areas are considered as the most significant places to establish piaps, all the piaps install hardware, software, and network components, a large number of piaps (11 cases) are operated by public organizations, most offered piap services are training and education, and telecommunication services, income obtained from services is the most significant financial support for piaps, most piaps have challenges affecting their sustainability. among the problems; lack of citizen awareness, insufficient support from authorities, employment problems, cuts of internet, electricity or phones, and insufficient technical infrastructure are the most common. it is expected that, this paper will be a useful source of guide for initiatives who wish to establish piaps. currently, we are working on a study aiming to perform social impact analysis of piaps. the results of such a study would depict the influence of piaps on society. references chand, a. et al. 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(2003). “ctc startup manual.” accessed october 11, 2008 from: http://ctcnet.org/what/resources/startup_manual.htm a review on mhealth research in developing countries wallace chigona university of cape town wallace.chigona@uct.ac.za mphatso nyemba-mudenda university of cape town mphatso.nyemba-mudenda@uct.ac.za andile simphiwe metfula university of cape town andilesimphiwe.metfula@uct.ac.za introduction mobile technology affords users ubiquitous access to information and applications, hence providing flexibility with communication, collaboration and information sharing (kaplan, 2006; sheng, nah, & siau, 2005). since mobile phones are readily available, even in remote rural areas, governments and development agencies view them as a potential information and communication technology (ict) tool for developing and improving livelihoods in developing countries. mobile technology offers innovative opportunities to overcome a wide range of access and resource barriers in healthcare, specific to developing countries. the pervasive social connectivity of mobile phones has imperative implications for healthcare and public health in promoting health, disease prevention and management. the rapid growth of mobile telephony has encouraged developing countries to apply mobile telephony in solving wide-ranging challenges in the health sector. it is generally agreed that communication and communication technologies are essential for improving the access and quality of health services, and overall health outcomes, by providing informational support and regular care (klasnja & pratt, 2012; noordam, kuepper, stekelenburg, & milen, 2011; tezcan, von rege, henkson, & oteng-ntim, 2011; kreps & neuhauser, 2010; krishna, boren, & balas, 2009). hence, the use of mobile technology for mass communication and disseminating information to the communities, together with other health interventions, seem to have the potential for a wide scale impact in developing countries. however, despite the widespread belief in the usefulness of mobile technology in health, there is still a paucity of study-based evidence. mhealth, the use of mobile communication devices for health services and information, is a rapidly growing area of practice and research. mhealth interventions are mainly deployed in public health and primary healthcare. public health is concerned with improving the health of the population, rather than treating the diseases of individual patients; it is an organised response by society to protect and promote health and to prevent illness, injury and disability. on the other hand, primary healthcare refers to a basic level of healthcare that includes programs directed at the promotion of health, early diagnosis of disease or disability, and prevention of disease; these are provided in an ambulatory facility to a community. health systems in developing countries, which are often already constrained by resources, have benefited from mhealth through increased access to healthcare and health-related information, especially for the hard-to-reach population (tezcan et al., 2011; krishna et al., 2009; blake, 2008). mhealth is also attributed to have contributed to increased efficiency, cost reduction in service delivery, timely dissemination of health information and more actionable public health information, which have improved the ability to diagnose, treat and track diseases ( de tolly, skinner, nembaware, & benjamin, 2012; lim, xue, yen, chang, chan &tai, 2011; chib, lwin, ang, lin, & santoso, 2008). in addition, it has enhanced the provision and expansion of training and medical education for health workers (mechael, batavia, kaonga, searle, kwan, & goldberger, 2010). the potential impact of mhealth in health delivery in developing countries is largely untapped, due to technical as well as socio-economic, cultural and regulatory barriers (kaplan, 2006). the design, implementation and adoption of mhealth in developing countries are beset with wide-ranging challenges. for instance, most of the technology applications used in most electronic health (ehealth) interventions are not designed in the developing countries; rather they are imported from developed countries (chan & kaufman, 2010). consequently, most of these applications are not aligned with the realities of rural settings in developing countries. mhealth design and implementation need to take cognisance of local realities of settings which encompass political, social, cultural, technical and economic factors, under which the intervention would work best (abimbola, 2011; chan & kaufman, 2010). in some countries, there is evidence of limited user acceptance of data collection using sms and mobile forms (garai, 2011). further, low levels of literacy pose a challenge in mhealth utilisation in developing countries; inputting, displaying, transferring and processing of data is challenging for people with low levels of literacy. moreover, despite increasing network coverage, the mobile network connectivity in most rural areas of developing countries is not reliable; the signal is often weak, which makes it hard to use the phone. despite the strides that have been made in mhealth in recent years, there is still a lack of clarity on the status and the direction of research in the field. this paper reviews the progress in both the mhealth field and mhealth research in developing countries. data for the study is drawn from papers on mhealth in the proceedings of the third mobile for development (m4d) conference, which took place in india between 28th and 29th february 2012. the nature and the focus of the m4d conference made it ideal for our analysis. the proceedings provide insight and understanding of the role of mobile technology on the development landscape, especially in reaching disadvantaged people in rural and poor resource settings. being a conference, hence having a short turn-around period for publication, it presented us with the current state of affairs in mhealth, allowing us to be up-to-date. the review analysed the different characteristics of mhealth projects deployed in developing countries i.e. the application of mhealth, the aims of intervention and the implementation strategy. methodology our intention was to analyse papers which focused on mhealth, not those which simply mentioned the subject in passing (e.g. as an example of mobile application). we searched the electronic version of the 2012 m4d conference proceedings, using key words 'mhealth' and 'health'. we manually read the papers to confirm that they fitted the criteria. studies or papers were included if they were about mobile phone technology usage for health services, health information at primary care level and public health. out of the total of 62 papers in the proceedings, we identified 13 papers as meeting our criteria. the analysis was informed by the work of thomas (2006) in the general inductive approach. we read the papers several times to make sure we understood the meanings in them. the analysis is based on the following criteria: research methods; type of project (pilot or full deployment); setting target population, whether rural or urban; nature of study implementation, adoption or impact; application of mhealth: primary healthcare, public health; implementation strategy top-down, bottom-up; and funding. the criteria gave us an understanding of the advancement in mhealth, as indicators that could reveal implementation approaches, evidence of outcomes and broader societal impact. results of the 13 papers in the corpus, ten were about interventions in asia (nine from india and one from bangladesh); the rest were from africa (see table 1). the domination of papers from india was most likely due to the location of the conference; this was the pattern with all the papers at the conference (the majority of papers at the conference, 33 out of 62, were from india). the first and second m4d conferences (2008 and 2010) had four and seven mhealth papers respectively. the 13 papers at the 2012 conference could mean that mhealth practice and research is burgeoning. a full list of references for these 13 mhealth papers is provided in the appendix. authors technology focus application area country batra et al. sms and biometric treatment adherence patient monitoring india chaudhury et al. designed mobile phone application provision of health information drug interactions education/ awareness india garai n/a mhealth application n/a india haque et al. sms and medical sensors   remote patient monitoring automatic assessment of patients' emotional and physical state patient monitoring bangladesh hoefman et al. sms   health promotion medical male circumcision campaign education/ awareness tanzania jha et al. sms health promotion family planning education/ awareness india khanna et al. mobile phone games health promotion hiv/aids and tb awareness education/ awareness india khurana et al. sms   remote diagnosis and treatment remote patient monitoring connecting health workers and patient monitoring india littman-quinn et al. n/a   mobile oral telemedicine mobile teleradiology mobile cervical cancer screening mobile teledermatology mobile telementoring connecting health workers and patient monitoring botswana pundir et al.     overview of mhealth n/a india pundir et al. sms   proposal for mhealth use in medical schemes proposal for public health india tegegne &amp; vander weide n/a   feasibility study n/a   ethiopia treatman &amp; lesh multimedia ict4chw health promotion (counseling) by community health workers in maternal health connecting health workers and education/ awareness india to gain an overview of the terms used in the papers, we used a word frequency map constructed by using nvivo 8. the word frequency map is presented in figure 1. as would be expected, the word frequency map in shows that the terms 'mobile' and 'health' are prominent. figure 1: word frequency map for mhealth papers at the 2012 m4d conference a cross-section view of mhealth research we evaluated the degree of rigour in the studies in the corpus. a sound conceptual foundation and use of rigorous methods are prerequisites for good research; they ensure that the research is coherent and consistent with what is accepted within a research discipline, and potentially make a longer-term contribution (duncombe, 2011). the majority of the studies in the corpus employed an interpretive paradigm using qualitative methods; the other studies employed quantitative and mixed methods, using survey techniques and based on small samples. the methodologies employed were detailed, clear and easy to follow. following duncombe's (2011, p. 279) categories of conceptual approaches, it was found that none of the studies used a conceptual framework to guide the research and, similarly, no particular conceptual framework seems to guide the planning and implementation of mhealth interventions. this is similar to what roman (2003) observed in the early years of telecentre research. in addition, there is no evidence that the research questions of the studies were inspired by a specific theory. this could be due to the overarching challenges burdening health systems of the developing world, such that mhealth interventions are conceived and implemented in an atmosphere of enthusiastic urgency to use icts to help solve health problems. another reason could be the lack of maturity of the mhealth domain; research is still in its infancy and mhealth interventions are in their early years, so that researchers are still trying to gain insight into the field to reach some common understanding. mhealth research, like m4d research in general, still lacks good quality research to inform policy and practice; this poses a major obstacle to effective decision making and implementation of mhealth initiatives on the ground (webb, 2009 as cited in duncombe, 2010). application areas to assess the technological advances made in the domain, we assessed the technologies used in the interventions. most of the interventions were for health promotion, encouraging health behaviour through awareness and counselling, while a few others were for remote monitoring and treatment adherence of patients. these functions are carried out using text messages, multimedia, games and a tailor-made internet-based application. the results show that text messaging still dominates mhealth in the developing context. this is expected, since sms is supported even on the basic phones, which may be common in the developing country context. the results also show that other technologies are now being exploited as options for provision of mhealth services. the majority of papers (i.e. six papers) dealt with interventions for improving the health of the population i.e. education/awareness and patient monitoring. only three interventions used mhealth for connecting health workers, diagnosis and treatment, and treatment adherence (batra et al., 2012; khurana et al., 2012). of interest in the word frequency map (figure 1) is that the word 'patient' has a higher frequency than 'doctors', 'workers' and 'healthcare'. this could demonstrate that: (i) the majority of interventions are concerned with improving the health of the population rather than treating the diseases of individual patients. (ii) there is a shift towards citizen-centred healthcare and well-being. (iii) research in mhealth for development is focusing on interventions in the hard-to-reach group of remote and rural areas of the developing world. these benefits are vital, since they offer a potential that mhealth could work towards, thus reducing the strain on health systems, as more people become empowered to make informed decisions about their health and well-being, leading to reduction in hospital visits. connecting health workers some of the interventions in the papers enhanced efficiency and reduced costs of service delivery, by improving communication amongst health workers i.e. remote diagnosis and treatment. for instance, the jiah project in india (khurana et al., 2012) uses a mobile phone application to assist and connect health workers and trained medical professionals, through a back-end medical record system in rural areas, where there are no trained medical professionals such as doctors. the health workers upload the patient's information, including images (scan or x-ray results) via a mobile phone to a database, from which specialists in urban referral centres download and analyse the patient's information and give advice or treatment, based on the diagnosis. patient monitoring ecompliance, a treatment adherence intervention piloted in a low literacy urban area of delhi in india for patient monitoring, uses a novel combination of biometric and mobile technology to manage drug resistant tuberculosis (tb) (batra et al., 2012). the system identifies patients through a fingerprint reader to verify that they are physically present for treatment. another example of remote patient-monitoring and self-management is autocare (haque et al., 2012), which was piloted in rural bangladesh to facilitate palliative care in breast cancer patients, using a mobile and sensor-based solution. the system is used to, amongst others, remotely monitor patients for symptoms and danger, in order to reduce the necessity for the patient to visit the medical facilities. the system also benefits doctors by providing up-to-date regular patient data. autocare uses wearable sensors and a cell phone for a remote symptom monitoring system. the system is novel "because it does automatic assessment of a patient's emotional states, along with physical states, that have not yet been covered by any cellular phones and sensors based healthcare system" (haque et al., 2012, p.27). in cancer patients, treatments and interventions concentrating on reducing the suffering and improving the quality of life are essential, and are usually provided through an adaptive feedback-oriented treatment mechanism. autocare allowed for patients be assessed regularly. education/awareness some interventions were aimed at well-timed dissemination of health information, which has improved the ability to diagnose, treat and track diseases, while providing more actionable public health information. in an intervention for tb and to promote hiv/aids awareness in youth in india (khanna et al., 2012), mobile phone gaming was used to present "serious information by using the challenge and excitement offered by games and the advantages offered by mobile learning technology. … the games were … effective in creating awareness and increasing the knowledge of youth about hiv-aids and tuberculosis" (2012, p.80). other mhealth initiatives are targeted at reducing medical errors, by providing correct information online by mobile phone. for instance, the 'drug-drug interactions' application deploys drug interactions information through mobile phone so that doctors can update themselves at any time anywhere, be aware of new drugs and the drug-drug interactions, and promote patient safety (chaudhury et al., 2012). to provide authenticity to the database, it was refined regularly by the authentication committee, consisting of eminent pharmacologists. both health workers and patients can access the database using mobile phones or the internet. the state of mhealth projects all the mhealth interventions in the papers we reviewed were pilot projects with limited reach, which focused on different specific problems. interventions for health information dissemination, especially where smss were used, were able to reach many people. the campaign for medical male circumcision in tanzania received requests for information from about 15 000 individuals of the country's northern region. the opasha project in india reached 1,400 people with 26 kiosks placed in clinics in urban areas (batra et al., 2012). however, the other interventions were designed to reach a small number of people. the scarcity of studies on large-scale interventions is a reason for concern. the lack of large scale projects makes it difficult to tell what works and why, to understand the settings under which the interventions work best, and to come up with best practices in the field (mechael et al., 2010). large-scale projects would be useful in informing public policy related to mhealth. the papers express mixed opinions on the success, cost-benefit and practicality of mhealth interventions. there is no study-based evidence yet, from long term or fully deployed projects, on whether mhealth effectively improves health services and health outcomes in developing countries. only two studies (batra et al., 2012; hoefman et al., 2012) presented evaluation results of the pilot studies based on outcomes; however, these studies did not report on the impact of the interventions. the rest of the projects were either at implementation stage or at proof-of-concept testing. to establish the real values and consequences of mhealth interventions, there is a need to heed the calls for further exploration and analysis of the impact of mhealth intervention on the healthcare system or among consumers at institutional and individual level (lim et al., 2011; noordam et al., 2011; chan & kaufman, 2010). the targets for most mhealth interventions in the reviewed papers were disadvantaged communities, usually in rural areas, with a few in urban places of high density and low literacy. the underlying principle in the aims and objectives of all these mhealth interventions was to mitigate the delay in communication and other communication barriers to accessing health information and services. women, due to their place in society in developing countries, were the target population of many mhealth interventions, especially in the field of cancer, family planning and maternal and child health. however, interventions for behaviour change communication targeted men, women and the youth. mhealth implementation the interventions in the reviewed papers utilised both bottom-up and top-down implementation methods. donors or implementers of the system started with a feasibility study to gain an understanding of the local settings, such as socio-political norms, cultural practices and environmental factors that can affect adoption and usage of the technology. the implementers usually worked with a health facility or with non-governmental organisations already working in a particular field of health. the community or participants were involved in the proof-of-concept testing when evaluating whether or not a technology was viable and capable of solving intended problems, and if it had potential for empowerment. while a number of projects involved local communities, there is still a notable lack of bottom-up projects. almost all the interventions in the reviewed papers were funded by donor agencies or industry research bodies. the exception was the medical scheme project in india which was funded by the government (pundir et al., 2012). as such, the msolution systems were hosted by the facilitating agencies and not integrated into main health systems. this funding arrangement predisposes the systems to sustainability challenges; the likelihood of such systems to survive is low once the funds allocated to the intervention are used up and the donors have shifted their attention to other projects. related to being funded by donor agencies, the systems operated in silos, lacking common standards of collecting and reporting patients' data. integrating the mhealth systems into the national health system would expedite efficient delivery of healthcare services and health information to different stakeholders, for informed decision making and planning purposes. for sustainability and to increase the level of impact, there is a need for future research to consider how the mhealth systems could be integrated into the main health systems of the respective countries. discussion and conclusion this review provides an overview of the progress of the mhealth domain and research progress in developing countries. our results confirm that contemporary mhealth interventions have enhanced services. the services range from simply focusing on delivering mass health information using text messages, to remote data collection, remote patient monitoring and self-management, appointment booking systems, as well as monitoring systems for diagnosis and treatment. mhealth initiatives seem to have tremendous potential to improve access to and quality of health information and services. however, the body of mhealth literature is still lacking in studies on the effectiveness and impact of these interventions on the healthcare system and among clients. most of the mhealth studies only focus on the feasibility, implementation, adoption, usage and acceptability of the technology. despite the claims of potential benefits that can be realised from mhealth, evidence is yet to be conclusively established on the acceptance and feasibility of this technology for large-scale deployment. literature on mhealth implementations is still dominated by studies of pilot projects and those implemented to run for a short period, dealing with specific problems. this could possibly be an indication of what is happening on the ground i.e. most mhealth projects are pilots with no clear strategy on how they can be upscaled. from a research perspective, it is imperative to have studies on larger-scale implementations of mhealth. there is a need to analyse implementation strategies, best practices and the effectiveness of mhealth on large-scale implementations. findings from such studies could be informative for policy makers and implementers of interventions. since it was noted that studies were not guided by any conceptual framework, neither were the research questions instigated by existing theories, it is recommended that future research should seek ways to improve on the rigour for studies in the domain. further, research in the domain has not focused on the impact of the interventions on the various stakeholders. the majority of attempts to evaluate the interventions have focused on health indicators. we argue that the social impact of mhealth interventions may go beyond the health indicators into other social areas. improved rigour would have a positive effect on the quality of research and hence the impact of research on policy and practice. for improved effectiveness of mhealth, there is a need for changes in both the practice and the research of mhealth. practically, the bottom-up innovations of health workers should be encouraged in mhealth implementation, so that all stakeholders, including disadvantaged communities, can contribute to the process of realising desired health outcomes and well-being. such a process may also empower individuals and communities, leading to social change and improved quality of life. that would substantiate the claim that mhealth could be a tool for human development. the small sample size is one of the limitations of this study; this review is based on 13 mhealth papers presented at the m4d conference. moreover, due to the locality of the conference, the majority of the papers reviewed were from india. this may not necessarily represent the overall picture in the field. again, being an academic-oriented conference, the papers could have been skewed against practitioner-based papers. we recommend that future studies should draw from a wide range of academic research outlets as well as practitioner reports. references abimbola, s. (2011). "health systems in an interconnected world: a view from nigeria." medic review, 13(3), 43-45. blake, h. (2008). "mobile phone technology in chronic disease management." nursing standard, 23(12), 43-46. chan, c. v., & kaufman, d. r. (2010). "a technology selection framework for supporting delivery of patient-oriented health interventions in developing countries." journal of biomedical informatics, 43(2), 300-306. chib, a., lwin, m. o., ang, j., lin, h., & santoso, f. (2008). "midwives and mobiles: using icts to improve healthcare in aceh besar, indonesia." asian journal of communication, 18(4), 348-364. de tolly, k., skinner, d., nembaware, v., & benjamin, p. (2012). "investigation into the use of short message services to expand uptake of human immunodeficiency virus testing, and whether content and dosage have impact." telemedicine and e-health, 18(1), 18-23. duncombe, r. (2010). "mobiles for development research: quality and impact". proceedings of the 2nd international conference on m4d mobile communication technology for development m4d 2010: 10-11 november 2010 kampala, uganda, pp. 49-59. duncombe, r. (2011). "researching impact of mobile phones for development: concepts, methods and lessons for practice." information technology for development, 17(4), 268-288. garai, a. (2011). role of mhealth in rural health in india and opportunities for collaboration. india: indira gandhi national open university. kaplan, w. a. (2006). "can the ubiquitous power of mobile phones be used to improve health outcomes in developing countries?" globalization and health, biomed central, 2(9). klasnja, p., & pratt, w. (2012). "healthcare in the pocket: mapping the space of mobile-phone health interventions". journal of biomedical informatics, 45(1), 184-198. kreps, g. l., & neuhauser, l. (2010). "new directions in ehealth communication: opportunities and challenges." patient education and counseling, 78(3), 329-336. krishna, s., boren, s. a., & balas, e. a. (2009). "healthcare via cell phones: a systematic review." telemedicine and e-health, 15(3), 231-240. lim , s., xue, l., yen, c., chang, l., chan, h., & tai, b. (2011). "a study on singaporean women's acceptance of using mobile phones to seek health information." international journal of medical informatics, 80(12), 189-202. mechael, p., batavia, h., kaonga, n., searle, s., kwan, a., & goldberger, a. (2010). barriers and gaps affecting mhealth in low and middle income countries: policy white paper. columbia university: earth institute & mhealth alliance. noordam, a. c., kuepper, b. m., stekelenburg, j., & milen, a. (2011). "improvement of maternal health services through the use of mobile phones." tropical medicine & international health, 16(5), 622-626. roman, r. (2003). "diffusion of innovations as a theoretical framework for telecenters." information technologies & international development, 1(2), 53-66. sheng, h., nah, f. f., & siau, k. (2005). "strategic implications of mobile technology: a case study using value-focused thinking." the journal of strategic information systems, 14(3), 269-290. tezcan, b., von rege, i., henkson, h., & oteng-ntim, e. (2011). "unified communication to reach vulnerable mothers." journal of obstetrics & gynaecology, 31(2), 122-124. thomas, d. r. (2006). "a general inductive approach for analyzing qualitative evaluation data." american journal of evaluation, 27(2), 237-246. appendix 1 references for mhealth papers at the 2012 m4d conference references for mhealth papers at the 2012 m4d conference batra, s., ahuja, s., sinha, a., & gordon, n. (2012). "ecompliance: enhancing tuberculosis treatment with biometric and mobile technology", pp. 36-40. chaudhury, r. r., sharma, s., & goel, a. (2012). "information on drug interactions on mobile phone a pilot study to deploy information through mobile phone and promote patient safety", pp. 60-66. garai, a. (2012). "health sector reform: the case for mhealth", pp. 107-112. haque, m. m., kawsar, f., adibuzzaman., ahamed, s. i., love, r., dowla, r., et al. (2012). "mobile based health care solution for breast cancer patients", pp. 23-35. hoefman, b., namirembe, e., mahler, h., bon tempo, j., loggers, j., & kayiwa, j. (2012). "using mobile phones to improve delivery and uptake of medical male circumcision: experiences from north tanzania", pp. 41-46. jha, p., kalra, e., puleio, m., ghosh, a., beckman, m., & jennings, v. (2012). "cycletel™: expanding access to family planning through mobile phones", pp. 51-59. khanna, a., singh, a., soni, j., quraishi, h., & quraishi, s. (2012). " edutainment based mobile phone games for health communication in india", pp. 67-81. khurana, r., sharma, s., mehra, a., yadav, d., naik, v., & singh, a. (2012). "jiah: healthcare goes mobile", pp. 102-106. littman-quinn, r., chandra, a., chang, a., ghose, s., & kovarik, c. (2012). "mhealth in botswana: driven by partnerships, customization and local empowerment lessons learned on implementation, stakeholders, and sustainability in resource-limited settings", pp. 113-114. pundir, a. k., sharma, p., shukla, r., & khurana, r. (2012). "mobile health in india", pp. 47-50. pundir, a., singh, g., & kumar, v. (2012). "ict based health services for bpl communities in india: a case study of haryana state", pp. 96-101. tegegne, t., & van der weide, t. (2012). "is mhealth viable to ethiopia? an empirical study", pp. 82-95. treatman, d., & lesh, n. (2012). "strengthening community health systems with localized multimedia", pp. 7-22. 1454-article text-8265-1-11-20181022 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 sidpdf: articles social fringe dwellers: can chat-bots combat bullies to improve participation for children with autism? autism spectrum disorder (asd) can cause a gulf in communication that casts children with autism to the fringes of social and family life, despite the best efforts of their carers. these children often struggle with social interaction, lack of interest and empathy, and require intensive therapy to improve their ability to communicate with others. improvements in social interaction are often hampered by experiences in which children with autism are more susceptible to being bullied. social and communication technologies (e.g. smartphones and tablets), which children with autism tend to gravitate toward, and to which many families have access, may play a significant future role in building resilience and improving social interaction. based on technology reviews and stakeholder interviews, we are developing modules for a machine learning artificial intelligence platform (a chat-bot) that assists children attending an australian mainstream school to recognise and respond to social bullying and sarcasm, allowing bullied autistic children to develop the social prowess to withstand their aggressors. keywords: autism spectrum disorder, bullying, digital technologies david ireland australian e-health research centre d.ireland@csiro.au corresponding author geremy farr-wharton australian e-health research centre geremy.farr-wharton@csiro.au danakai bradford australian e-health research centre dana.bradford@csiro.au !105 ireland, d., farr-wharton. g., bradford, d.k. (2018). social fringe dwellers: can chat-bots combat bullies to improve participation for children with autism? the journal of community informatics, 14(1), 105–-119. date submitted: 2018-10-01. date accepted: 2018-10-15. 
 copyright (c), 2018 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1454 mailto:d.ireland@csiro.au mailto:geremy.farr-wharton@csiro.au mailto:dana.bradford@csiro.au http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1454 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1454 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction the digital fringe refers to people who are generally excluded in the design of digital solutions due to lack of access, lack of resources or social exclusion (davis et al., 2017). yet there are some instances where social exclusion fosters digital inclusion. in these cases, practical, innovative and sensitive design solutions are required to draw these people in from the social fringes. this article is based on the premises that the nature of autism spectrum disorder (asd) can lead to social exclusion for children even within mainstream communities and that these children tend to gravitate toward technologies to facilitate learning. children with autism are more susceptible to being bullied, further compounding social isolation. we therefore propose that utilising this tendency for digital participation, in this marginalised population, may provide a solution for children with autism to recognise and respond to social bullying. 1 people who experience bullying report low self-esteem, mental illness, propensity to self-harm and suicide ideation, which may persist well after the bullying has ceased (hebron & humphrey, 2014). risk factors that increase the probability of being bullied include ethnicity, poor social interaction, and low academic success (lodge, 2014). conversely, social networks have been found to offer a significant protective factor in minimising the extent of bullying (hebron & humphrey, 2014), and consequently, the ongoing effects. special needs children, particularly those with autism, have been identified as being more likely to be bullied (hebron & humphrey, 2014; anderson, 2014), potentially partly due to the inherent difficulties they face in forming positive relationships in social networks. sadly, anderson (2014) found that autistic children who have a desire to interact with other children were bullied more frequently than children who preferred to play alone. the longevity of the effects of bullying and the impact of those effects on an already vulnerable population indicate the need for sensitive long-term solutions that are easily integrated into everyday lifestyles. living on the fringe asd is a complex lifelong condition that becomes apparent from early childhood. the spectrum denotes an array of neurodevelopmental disorders with associated impacts on functioning (ranging from mild to severe). while each individual is different, many struggle with communication, social interaction, and sensory processing, and may exhibit deficient or repetitive behaviour and a lack of interest and empathy (patel, preedy & martin, 2014). in australia, 1 in every 100 individuals (approximately 230,000) have asd and together they comprise the second largest representative group (29%) of those who receive funding from the national disability insurance scheme (ndis) (ndis 2018, p. 33). there is strong evidence to suggest that early diagnosis of asd can lead to better outcomes for the individual later in life (christensen et al., 2016). however, while asd !106 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 assessments include a complex array of behavioural, psychosocial, and movement kinematics monitoring, the age that diagnosis occurs can vary significantly, with most between the ages of 2 and 8 years old. early diagnosis tends to occur more often for males than females, because symptom manifestation can be more prominent and perceptible in males (kreiser & white, 2014). for females, the subtlety of symptom manifestation can result in no diagnosis, misdiagnosis, or a significantly delayed diagnosis. the earlier accurate diagnosis occurs, the greater the impact of interventions and therapy in promoting higher function in later years. interventions are generally implemented at various stages of childhood development, and are tailored towards the severity of the neurological condition. individuals with autism are more likely to have other neurological conditions, such as an intellectual disability, which can impact upon the treatment options available. as a result, professionals and practitioners will generally select appropriate interventions that are evidence-based and have demonstrated positive impact for individuals with asd (wong et al., 2015). reviews of the evidence-based practices commonly used to assist individuals with asd at various ages and stages of development are readily available (wong et al., 2015; ospina et al., 2008). most interventions are aimed at impacting and improving communication and social interaction, behaviour and play, academic prowess, cognitive function and ability, employability, movement and motor skills, and mental health and emotional wellbeing. learning deficiencies are common among individuals with asd, although severity can vary significantly. such deficiencies can make it difficult for children with asd to develop new and diverse strategies for working through and dealing with interactions with others in complex situations. learning deficits hamper the ability of the individual to engage in social and cultural understanding, potentially exacerbating other deficiencies associated with their autism condition (jordan, 2013), such as learning subtle social practices and emotions through interactions with others. individuals can become overwhelmed, disconnecting and withdrawing from life-events, scenarios or interactions for which they may have low tolerances and that negatively impact them (e.g. low tolerance to sensory stimuli). a subgroup of children with autism are ‘visual learners’, requiring information to be presented in a way that can be seen. these children often have difficulty analysing the meaning of oral instruction (tissot & evans, 2010). early intervention, therefore, aims to facilitate learning incorporating the unique complexities associated with autism in a given individual (jordan, 2013). early difficulties with social interaction lead to challenges in maintaining both personal and professional relationships. as a result, individuals with autism often struggle with employment throughout their adult life, reflected in an unemployment rate of more than 50% in both australia (scott et al., 2017, p. 2) and america (wehman et al., 2014, p. 1). in the uk, only 15% of people with autism have full time paying jobs, and approximately one-third of those who have joined the workforce in any capacity have experienced bullying in the workplace (bancroft, batten, lambert & madders, 2012, p. 15). !107 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the bully’s advantage identifying bullying in children with asd is hampered by the fact that children with asd may have limited speech and struggle to communicate their experiences. in these cases, being bullied can compound social interaction difficulties and impede communication development. moreover, some individuals struggle with understanding social interactions and may not know themselves whether they are being bullied. this is particularly common with indirect bullying such as social exclusion (hebron & humphrey, 2014) and makes it all the more difficult to support students being bullied. an australian-wide study found that 80% of adults with autism reflected that they had not received sufficient support for bullying experienced during their education (aspect, 2012, p. 27). many did not complete their education because of bullying, and thus have difficulty supporting themselves financially, as evidenced by the high unemployment rates cited above. the prevalence of bullying beyond the schoolyard, and into social media and the workforce, together with its strength as a predictor for reduced quality of life in able adults with autism (hong, bishop-fitzpatrick, smith, greenberg & mailick, 2016), strongly supports early implementation of programs to build lifelong resilience against bullying behaviour. once a child has been identified as either likely to be or being bullied, it is important that they are taught strategies and skills on how to recognise and respond to the social situation. guidelines for developing anti-bully plans are becoming commonplace in most schools; however, innovative methods are required for teaching children with autism as they may have difficulty perceiving the concept of bullying and social betrayal. methods of teaching involving technology are becoming more appealing for children with autism as these individuals tend to gravitate towards technology (boser et al., 2014). it is believed that the visual focus and having the locus of control account for some of the appeal (ennis-cole, 2015). social skills programs, such as the secret agent society, that incorporate technology including role play and computer games, have been shown to be effective in improving the ability of people with autism to recognise emotions and manage bullies (beaumont, rotolone & sofronoff, 2015). at this point in time, it is not known which form of technology is best able to help an autistic individual understand and respond to bullying behaviour. we conducted app reviews and stakeholder interviews to help determine how technology could benefit children with autism in general. this article contributes to the development of a strategy for designing digital technologies for children on the autism spectrum. in particular, we explore a technology in the form of an artificial intelligence (ai) conversation agent (commonly referred to as a chat-bot). this technology could play a unique role as a digital intervention in the management and building of resilience to bullying behaviour. we summarise our recent study, which examined how families and children on the autism spectrum are accessing and using mobile technology. we then present our ai chat-bot, harlie, which we are developing for individuals with neuro-developmental impediments, including autistic children, and the lessons from previous work on which we are basing harlie’s future design. finally, we discuss the implications of our findings, and the future role of !108 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 technology in improving outcomes for individuals on the spectrum and conclude with a summary of the next steps associated with our work. designing participatory technologies insight into the development of technologies for people with autism can be gleaned from successes and failures of previous technologies. to determine what apps were already available and what aspects of those apps were beneficial for children with autism, we used a web crawler to examine 56 million reviews from more than two million apps. the full mobile app review is detailed elsewhere (ireland, bradford & silvera-tawil, 2017). mobile app review summary in summary, of the 56 million app reviews downloaded from the apple app and google play stores, about 1 in 7,500 reviews from apple and 1 in 50,000 android reviews contained useful information. only 57 apps were found that were specifically designed for people with autism and claimed to be evidence-based. more than 85% of the reviews were for an app that was neither designed nor advertised for people with autism. this was confirmed by manually reading the description of each app for mention of its intended users. despite the small number of asd specific apps, children with autism were reported to have experienced benefits, particularly in language, education and attention. reviews with poor ratings usually reported cost, followed by functional issues and advertisements. for our purposes in designing participatory technologies, the functional issues are of most import. the consequences of a malfunctioning mobile app were clearly illustrated by a parent: bought this app for my 5 yr old with autism. he loves disney. app always crashes so now all he does is scream in frustration when it repeatedly doesn’t work. after technical issues, the greatest source of frustration and distress came from developers making changes to the app appearance by adding or removing features, changing interfaces or upgrading colour schemes. a specific example of this occurring was detailed by one parent with a child on the autism spectrum whose favourite game was changed by the developers: this was my son’s favourite game. my son is autistic. a seemingly small change like this is life-altering drama for him. please change the icon, at least, so he thinks it’s a different game. had these apps been developed with, for and by people in the autism community, using a participatory/co-design approach, developers could have taken the necessary steps to avoid causing distress (ireland, bradford & silvera-tawil, 2017). for our bullying module, this means that beta versions are unadvisable, and that all developed and tested scenarios need to remain accessible. !109 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 expert interviews in the wider autism community as part of our initial research design, we implemented expert interviews (as described by flick, 2014) with seven individuals in the wider autism community, targeting their understanding of the crucial considerations when developing technologies to support children with asd (farr-wharton, ireland, good, chang & bradford, 2017). expert interviews were uniquely beneficial to this task, in comparison with other interview techniques, because of the complexities and sensitivity associated with autism. for ethical reasons, this limited the scope of interviews to key stakeholders involved with children on the spectrum. the stakeholders we engaged for interview included a parent of children with autism (male, referred to as p1 when quoted), two teachers who work with children with autism (males, quoted as t1, t2), two speech therapists who have worked extensively with children with autism (females, quoted as st1, st2), and two occupational therapists with significant experience working with children with autism (females, quoted as ot1, ot2). the questions asked of participants centred on three specific topics: (a) challenges most commonly experienced with the children, (b) key barriers perceived to make monitoring progress of a child challenging for parents, therapists and teachers, and (c) solutions already explored to overcome some of the challenges faced in their role. expert interview insights the responses from the expert interviews provided emergent themes regarding the challenges participants have faced in their roles when interacting with children with asd and the potential opportunities for overcoming the perceived barriers. there were two underlying themes that emerged strongly from their responses: (a) there are distinct challenges in monitoring the development and progression of children with autism and communicating this effectively with the ‘care team’ (i.e. family, carers, clinicians and teachers), (b) parents and carers are continuously seeking innovative tools that enable improved social inclusion and encourage quality family-time with their child(ren). challenges for monitoring development and progression our clinician and teacher participants (i.e. st1, st2, ot1, ot2, t1, and t2) explained that monitoring development is challenging, particularly outside of a clinical or classroom setting, where children may become disengaged with the content in focus. clinicians may miss key opportunities to examine new skills and progress, particularly when these skills may have been learned and implemented in the home, away from observation. in these instances, clinicians often rely on parents to record (through video), the occurrences of when behavioural or interaction development is being demonstrated or exhibited by the child. this is because clinicians need to physically observe changes within skills to adequately assess development progression and tailor the therapy they provide. for example, st1 and ot1 both suggested that parents can be enthusiastic about their child’s developmental progression and may be prone to embellish instances when they noticed a child improving their skills, which have previously been identified as deficient. p1 also stated that he can sometimes find it !110 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 difficult to explain progress to a clinician, as they will often ask for the behaviour (or skill) to be repeated in the clinical setting. in some instances, the child can become disengaged from the clinical setting and will not necessarily repeat the behaviour. in these instances, the parent is encouraged to record the behaviour when it is enacted at a later time for demonstration at their next consultation with the occupational therapist. as there are challenges and complexities associated with this process, occupational therapists and speech therapists are seeking new tools that enable better capture of behavioural and skill development in children. teachers experience similar challenges with monitoring the progress of children with asd. t1 and t2 both spoke to the challenges faced by teachers to provide a tailored learning experience to a child, particularly when non-asd children also require learning assistance in the same classroom. this problem is exacerbated as the classroom size increases. t1 also stated that there were challenges in facilitating parents’ expectations of providing tailored learning to suit their child’s needs, as there are limits for how to achieve this cohesively. t1 suggested that to achieve this cohesion, there needs to be a common message, instruction, and strategy that is implemented regardless of location (e.g. home or in the classroom). this requires the ability for parents and teachers to communicate more effectively and often to ensure synergy is achieved in messaging. t2 also provided the perspective that a monitoring and communication platform would break down barriers for children with asd and improve the learning they ultimately receive. ‘tools’ for improving social inclusion and quality family-time many of our participants (e.g. ot1, st1, ot2), and in particular p1, mentioned the need for targeted tools for parents and carers, which are tailored to their child’s context, and encourage quality family-time and inclusion. p1 suggested that enabling quality family-time and inclusion would help their child to continuously improve the development of their skills within the home setting. p1 also suggested that they continually seek new apps that positively engage and stimulate their child in developmental opportunities, rather than those that promote repetitive, addictive or negative engagement (e.g. ‘watching the same youtube video over and over’ (p1)). specifically, p1 mentioned that the technology they seek needs to be dynamic in how it responds to the child, and ‘common scripts’ (p1) or features must be implemented so that the child is able to utilise ‘standard’ interactions if they are unsure of what do to next. ot(1, 2) and st(1, 2) also spoke to the opportunities for technology to engage asd children at home, where that technology would assist in leading to positive outcomes for the child, such as cultivating social interactions skills. p1 spoke to the challenges associated with purchasing expensive therapeutic technology for their child. often, parents will try to support the development of their asd child, as best as they can, through improving their access to therapeutic goods and services, particularly those that are easy and accessible (e.g. apps for their phone or tablet). however, p1 mentioned that he, and others in a similar situation, have limited resources to rely on within the home, as their government-funded assistance is finite and is usually allocated to recommended services (e.g. occupational/speech therapists and !111 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 intervention programs). this leaves parents with little resources to spend on other tools and supports, often requiring personal investment in such interventions, which may not have any scientific evidence to support their claims, reducing the incentive to invest in ‘higher risk’ opportunities (e.g. services that have little-to-no evaluation of their effectiveness). in some instances, children with asd may also require extended time with their parents and carers, which can be demanding. p1, ot1 and st1 spoke to the need for tools that can support parents and carers in providing interaction time with their children. in these instances, p1 suggested that if a tool can supplement a part of the extended time their child required for interaction, while still providing the positive outcomes for the child, this would help them as a parent immensely. they would be able to reallocate this time to recuperation and for other necessary activities. however, producing opportunities for co-interaction between parents/carers and children with asd, which is facilitated or aided by a stimulus, may encourage opportunities for quality family time to develop. on the basis of our analysis of app reviews and stakeholder interviews, we determined that a chat-bot would be an ideal technology to deliver information and resources around bullying behaviour to children with autism. the chat-bot meets the need identified by teachers, parents and clinicians for monitoring development of children with asd while providing the benefits of language development identified through our app review analysis. the rise of chat-bot technologies with the advent of social and communication technologies, conversation agents, or chat-bots, provide a means for users to become engaged in conversation, continuing and progressing the dialogue in the same way human-to-human interaction occurs. they have more recently been used within the health paradigm for their ability, amongst other benefits, to autonomously gather key data about the user for analysis by clinicians. ultimately, this data can be used to tailor and improve the care clinicians provide. some examples where chat-bots have been implemented previously, include: (a) encouraging physical activity in overweight adults (watson, bickmore, cange, kulshreshtha & kvedar, 2012), (b) encouraging behaviour change (bickmore, gruber & picard, 2005), and (c) providing information relating to sex, drugs and alcohol (crutzen, peters, portugal, fisser & grolleman, 2011). chat-bots present a useful tool to support the development of language and communications skills in users. chat-bots also provide stress-free interaction without social anxiety, which allows users to practice and refine their communication skills unencumbered. tailoring the level of difficulty to suit the user’s growth can further nurture their skills. with these capabilities, users can practice and develop their social interaction skills with the chat-bot, prior to engaging with others face-to-face. this process will empower them to feel more confident during social interaction with others. families with children who have been diagnosed with asd receive government-funded support, providing subsidised access to clinicians, therapists and service providers. !112 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 these services are often provided outside of the home, and for some children, this can add to anxiety, stress and disengagement, reducing their effectiveness. access to funding decreases after the age of seven and families rely more heavily on their own resources to continue supporting their child’s development. families may often seek out new support tools and mechanisms that will help their child continue their developmental journey throughout childhood and adolescence. children with asd can find social interaction challenging and frustrating, which can lead to social disengagement and result in social isolation. improving their social interaction skills is essential. to do this, parents, speech pathologists and occupational therapists are heavily relied on to identify strategies that will support the child’s progression. parents can also gain assistance through service providers and charities. however, aside from the time parents can spend with their child, there is little assistance children can receive to improve their social interaction skills outside of the clinical setting. chat-bots present a potential solution to this problem. they can be used to engage with a child outside and within the home, becoming a comfortable personal assistant that can nurture the social interaction skills of a child. introducing harlie harlie (human and robot language interaction experiment) is a chat-bot we are developing that is akin to apple’s siri (ireland et al., 2016; ireland, bradford & farrwharton, 2017). various modules allow conversations on a variety of topics such as interests and hobbies, weather, identifying sarcasm, as well as condition specific modules such as speech pathology, neurodegeneration and clinical care. harlie is very extensive and leverages state-of-the art technology in speech detection and natural language processing. none-the-less, expertise in computer science is not needed to develop content for harlie’s ‘brain’. in fact, a majority of the existing content was developed by speech and occupational therapists. harlie allows for multi-modal interaction in the form of voice, text and images. for non-verbal children, an interface using the picture exchange communication system (national autism resources, 2017) is also being developed. for individuals with developing speech, harlie can analyse the user’s voice and communication. this includes measuring speech and syllable rate; how vowels are articulated; vocabulary range and duration of mid-sentence pauses (figure 1). these metrics could be helpful for parents and clinicians to measure speech improvement in children with autism as well as for researchers who are trying to understand the challenges and benefits for the individual. log data analysis in longitudinal studies could determine the impact of social interaction on communication development. building a bullying module harlie’s bullying module is under development pending co-design by the autism community. a number of key stakeholders have expressed interest in being involved in the evolution of this module for children, young adults in tertiary education and young !113 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 employed adults with autism. early content includes an example interaction of the beginning of a conversation involving identifying whether the user is being bullied (figure 2). images are embedded into the responses to help guide the meaning of the conversation. content for the bullying module is being collected from the wider autism community through several mechanisms including interviews, focus groups, workshops and most excitingly, via a portal through which people with autism can log into and upload content directly to the ‘brain’ of the bullying module. all content will be moderated before being made available through the chat-bot. various scenarios are being designed for the chat-bot that allow the user to work through different responses and reactions. these are currently being developed in conjunction with children and adults with autism, parents, educators and clinicians. ! figure 1: a sample dialogue between harlie and a person with autism. green rectangles designate dialog generated from harlie, blue rectangles designate responses from the user, grey rectangles indicate pauses in the timeline (ireland et al., 2016). !114 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ! figure 2: an example of a conversation to identify if a child perceives they are being bullied. discussion harlie, a chat-bot ai app, was originally designed for a clinical speech pathology population. over the course of its development, and commensurate with an autism focused review of existing apps together with stakeholder interviews, it became clear that harlie was the ideal technology to deliver a bullying module to help build resilience in children with autism. our stakeholder interviews revealed that parents, clinicians and teachers are interested in technology to support children with autism. specifically, they are interested in technology that reflects development, dynamically responds to the child, allows for cointeraction with family to facilitate quality time, and is affordable. clear guidelines for software development emerged from our analysis of existing app reviews. based on this preliminary research, we are currently conducting further developments to the bullying ‘brain’ with, by, and for the wider autism community. in the first instance, the bullying module is being developed to complement school bullying programs. the technologies targeting bullying in school within schools, a variety of technologies have been identified for their efficient delivery of bullying-related information and for the interest they inspire within the younger generations. for this reason, integrating interventions with technologies may be one of the most effective means of engaging younger generations and improving the effectiveness of interventions. for example, virtual learning has emerged as a key tool used in schools to build resilience in victimised children and is having a positive impact in reducing victimisation in general (sapouna et al., 2010). the roles of technology-leveraged interventions targeting bullying in schools have differed significantly depending on their focus of intervention (e.g. a focus on bullying or victimisation, age groups, and gender). however, many interventions have not been formally evaluated for their efficacy in minimising bullying or victimisation (sapouna !115 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 et al., 2010). this is of growing importance as new forms of bullying emerge with the new technologies becoming available to the consumer market (e.g. cyberbullying). with the emergence of cyberbullying, the ‘boundaries’ of when and where bullying can take place have swelled, no longer centred to the home or school environment. even the predators are increasingly anonymous to the victim (li, 2007). the prevalence and impact of bullying has also increased, which will continue to have implications for the roles that interventions will need to play in preventing or mitigating opportunities for bullying, or reducing victimisation and its impacts through building resilience in victims, enabling them to navigate complex and challenging social situations. ttofi and farrington (2011) stress the importance of the role of schools in providing bullying and victimisation information, as well as interventions to reduce both. their study identified that common interventions implemented within school are reducing bullying and victimisation by between 20-25%, which also suggests there is room for improvement. to reduce marginalisation, it is important that bullying programs designed for and by people with autism complement those implemented in mainstream schools. a final note on designing participatory technologies designing a device so that it has the desired impact, requires considerable expertise from technology developers and members of the wider autism community. this work sought insight from this latter group by summarising the results of a web-crawler that scanned reviews of mobile apps that were related to autism spectrum and captured the essential data on how the apps were of benefit and in some cases, how harm was caused by app developers modifying the app. unbeknownst to the developer, autistic users often find change confronting and distressing. despite the large amount of research being done on technology uses in autism, only a relatively small number of apps were found to be designed specifically for this cohort. we found no indication that any of the apps had been developed by this cohort. to gain greater insights into this group, members of the wider autism community were interviewed regarding remote monitoring and technology that is customisable to the user, with several themes emerging. future work on incorporating the bullying module in the harlie chat-bot and its eventual efficacy test will endeavour to consider these issues. while chat-bots are arguably seen as the sexy new solution to autism intervention, continuous improvements must be made to existing interventions and all emerging interventions need to be validated for their efficacy to drive real-world outcomes for individuals on the spectrum. conclusion children with autism are more susceptible to bullies due to their neurodiversity, difficulties in initiating and understanding social interaction, repetitive behaviours and heightened sensitivity to environmental stimuli, all of which make them vulnerable to aggravation. they can be innocent of the strategies underlying the power differential !116 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 that is characteristic of the bully-victim relationship, and may not perceive that they are being manipulated or ridiculed. to develop technologies to support children with autism to identify and appropriately respond to bullying, we first needed to understand the benefits of technology, and the features that were not beneficial, in the eyes of children with autism and their families. our analysis of reviews of existing apps found that apps had the potential to improve social interaction by enhancing language, education and attention skills. normal software development trajectories, which tend to involve producing a beta version and making improvements in response to user feedback, were inappropriate for this user population. our stakeholder interviews suggested a need for an affordable monitoring technology, built to dynamically respond to the child. on the basis of these preliminary studies, we propose the concept of using a conversational agent (chat-bot) to provide a pseudo conversation partner for practicing various oral and visual scenarios to build resilience against bullying. the life-long difficulties a person living on the autism spectrum faces are well known and have, to a relevant extent, been described in this article. a major element of these difficulties is in handling complex social interactions and forming positive and fruitful relationships with other people. social isolation, vulnerability to bullying behaviour and poor mental health are some of the consequences associated with asd. digital participation may provide the answer for social marginalisation experienced by children with asd, especially when it comes to bullying. a chat-bot designed to help autistic children recognise and react appropriately to aggressive behaviour in their peers may assist in developing the social prowess required to develop resilience against bullies. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank anabelle cooper, norm good and emily chang for their contribution to this work. !117 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 references anderson, c. 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(2015). evidence-based practices for children, youth, and young adults with autism spectrum disorder: a comprehensive review. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 45(7), 1951-1966. !119 smart cities vs. smart communities: empowering citizens not market economics michael gurstein1 1editor in chief: the journal of community informatics, vancouver, canada. email: gurstein@gmail.com "smart cities" has become a flavour of the day for governments, the private sector, even academics all of whom see this meme as being a way to translate the "hype", err "glitz", err "glory" of new tech-digital technology to the grimy old practices and policies of urban agglomerations and urban management. the fact that according to the un, sometime over the last year or so the balance between those living in urban areas and those living in rural areas tipped irrevocably over to the urban side. now those who had always hankered to focus on the rather richer and more desirable (at least when it comes to actually doing field implementations, studies, property developments etc.) environs of big cities could, with all due conscience, begin to ignore the much poorer, less accessible and generally less "sexy", rural dwellers. precisely what might be meant by a "smart city" has become a bit of play thing but is now exercising the imagination of the pr folks in major tech corporations and the offices of senior politicians in jurisdictions great and small. wikipedia gives us this definition: a smart city is an emerging conceptual view of a city that promotes the use of information and communication technologies (icts) to engage with citizens to develop social capital and intellectual capital, to make better use of hard infrastructure (physical capital), reduce usage of environmental capital and support smart growth (sustainable economic development). i'm not sure that helps a lot, but perhaps a definition from the whole earth catalogue of corporate america-forbes magazine would provide a bit of focus and clarity to what is meant by wikipedia's fuzzy generalities. in an article entitled "smart cities a $1.5 trillion market opportunity" the author from the consulting firm frost and sullivan identifies eight key aspects that define a smart city: "smart governance, smart energy, smart building, smart mobility, smart infrastructure, smart technology, smart healthcare and smart citizen as follows". in an associated presentation the firm goes into somewhat more detail on each of these "smartnesses". smart energy uses digital technology through advanced meter infrastructure (ami), distribution grid management, high voltage transmission systems and for demand response for the intelligent and integrated transmission and distribution of power. smart buildings are green, energy efficient, and intelligent with advanced automated infrastructure that controls and manages aspects such as lighting and temperature, security, and energy consumption independently or with minimal human intervention. smart mobility enables intelligent mobility through the use of innovative and integrated technologies and solutions such as low emission cars and multimodal transport systems. smart technology will connect the home, office, mobile phone and car on a single wireless it platform. smart technology includes adoption of smart grid system, smart home solutions, high speed broadband connection, and roll out of 4g technology smart healthcare is the use of ehealth and mhealth systems and intelligent and connected medical devices. it also involves implementation of policies that encourage health, wellness and well-being for its citizens and health monitoring and diagnostics as opposed to treatment. smart infrastructure includes intelligent and automated systems that manage, communicate and integrate different types of intelligent infrastructure such as energy grids, transport network, water and waste management systems and telecommunications. smart governance includes rolling out of policies and digital services from the government that help and support adoption of green and intelligent solutions through incentives, subsidies, or other forms of promotional schemes. smart citizens possess interest to embrace smart and green solutions in the day to day work schedule. more proactiveness of citizens in adopting smart concepts and smart products which includes making "smart" lifestyle choices so what does this tell us about the nature of "city smartness" as it is currently being defined: it is centralized and top down-the folks implementing smart cities seem to think they know best what cities need and what citizens want and they are prepared to make sure that big bucks are spent in achieving these they require a very sophisticated and developed urban infrastructure-one that will be expensive to implement (lots of money for consultants and suppliers) and don't seem to offer a lot of opportunity for citizens to be engaged in the planning or design it means that all those who want to take advantage of the smartness of the city need themselves to be "smart" i.e. plugged in, with high end sensing devices and smart phones and (expensive) broadband connections lots of activity to enable individuals to do things for their energy management and transportation but not much (basically no) attention to the way in which many (perhaps most) people actually live in urban environments (and particularly low income people and slum dwellers in less developed countries) i.e. communally-with shared access to scarce resources, very limited if any individual connectivity beyond basic communications, little access to individualized health care, environmental management, security and so on. it is also a city where there would appear to be no "public" services, presumably because all of these are provided by private contractors-garbage service, security/police service, and so on and finally it is a city without politics where "policies and digital services from the government" are rolled out apparently without consultation and input from citizens let alone any form of democratic input or decision making hmmm... so "smart cities" particularly in less developed countries are ways of turning urban environments into gold mines for consultants, hardware and software companies and redoing the city in the image and for the benefit of its most prosperous and well-serviced inhabitants and in the meantime transferring additional resources and benefits from the poor to the rich. but another type of "smart" program is possible-one that is focused on social inclusion, enabling citizens, supporting communities-a community informatics model. this would be a smart program where the emphasis is on "smart communities" rather than "smart cities" and enabling and empowering citizens and supporting their individual and communal quests for well-being rather than turning cities into a series of cascading neo-liberalized markets-for services, for infrastructure, for shelter. thus the basic model of the "smartness" could be one that included: smart community planning-supporting citizen involvement in the delivery of "smart services" thus for example citizens in urban slums in less developed countries helping with the collective mapping of existing public toilets and then working with planners to identify the most appropriate locations for additional or alternative public toilets (or public water supplies) smart community governanceproviding a means for public scrutiny of municipal budgets including providing the funding for the training and support required for those with little education to review budgets and ensure that they are being spent appropriately and equitably among citizens smart community health-supporting decentralized health support workers and facilities including public health facilities in low income areas-including information and training, a tiered system of diagnostics to ensure and efficient use of scarce public health resources smart community citizenship-ensuring support ro location based electronic interaction among citizens around issues of local interest with information (government data) being structured (geo-tagged) in such a way that the information could be directly accessed and locally aggregated to support participation/intervention in municipal planning and programme design processes smart community infrastructure-incident reporting facilities structured so that citizens can report on issues concerning public infrastructure in an aggregated way based on location and where these electronic facilities are transparent to the user allowing for inter-individual and collective collaboration as required to ensure an active response smart community resources-digital support for administrative decentralization so that administration is structured in such a way as to be responsive to local circumstances and requirements and including structured processes for citizen participation in localized decision making including resource prioritization and allocation. a "smart" electrical grid for example should be able to ensure that some degree of control over how scarce electricity or water might be allocated in a municipal region-giving priority to hospitals and schools and less priority to individual users particularly high volume individual users smart community dwellings-digitally enabling public land use and dwelling records including rentals, renter complaints, work orders, etc. made accessible (and usable) in local communities including through providing training and support in how to use these to protect individual and communal land rights and to use compiled information to support the rights of renters and those with informal dwellings there are tremendous opportunities for politicians and government officials who can see past the buzz and the hype of "smart cities" to apply icts to support citizens as they use this technology to enable themselves and their communities and in this transform their cities from the bottom up. 123-09-1275 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 special issue on data literacy: articles graphical perception of value distributions: an evaluation of non-expert viewers’ data literacy an ability to understand the outputs of data analysis is a key characteristic of data literacy and the inclusion of data visualisations is ubiquitous in the output of modern data analysis. several aspects still remain unresolved, however, on the question of choosing data visualisations that lead viewers to an optimal interpretation of data. this is especially true when audiences have differing degrees of data literacy, and when the aim is to make sure that members of a community, who may differ on background and expertise, will make similar interpretations from data visualisations. in this paper we describe two user studies on perception from data visualisations, in which we measured the ability of participants to validate statements about the distributions of data samples visualised using different chart types. in the first user study, we find that histograms are the most suitable chart type for illustrating the distribution of values for a variable. we contrast our findings with previous research in the field, and posit three main issues identified from the study. most notably, however, we show that viewers struggle to identify scenarios in which a chart simply does not contain enough information to validate a statement about the data that it represents. in the follow-up study, we ask viewers questions about quantification of frequencies, and identification of most frequent values from different types of histograms and density traces showing one or two distributions of values. arkaitz zubiaga university of warwick, united kingdom corresponding author. arkaitz@zubiaga.org brian mac namee university college dublin, ireland brian.macnamee@ucd.ie !138 zubiaga, a., mac namee, b. (2016). graphical perception of value distribution: an evaluation of nonexpert viewers’ data literacy. the journal of community informatics, 12(3), 138—159. date submitted: 2015-09-30. date accepted: 2016-06-06. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1275. http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1275 mailto:arkaitz@zubiaga.org mailto:brian.macnamee@ucd.ie http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1275 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 this study reveals that viewers do better with histograms when they need to quantify the values displayed in a chart. among the different types of histograms, interspersing the bars of two distributions in a histogram leads to the most accurate perception. even though interspersing bars makes them thinner, the advantage of having both distributions clearly visible pays off. the findings of these user studies provide insight to assist designers in creating optimal charts that enable comparison of distributions, and emphasise the importance of using an understanding of the limits of viewers’ data literacy to design charts effectively. introduction although the definition of data literacy remains somewhat fluid (koltay, 2015), (calzada prado and marzal, 2013), most definitions include an ability to interpret the outputs from data analysis. for example, harris (harris, 2012) defines data literacy as “competence in finding, manipulating, managing, and interpreting data, including not just numbers but also text and images”; beauchamp (beauchamp, 2015) defines it as “the ability to interpret, evaluate, and communicate statistical information”; and schield (schield, 2004) as the ability “to access, assess, manipulate, summarize, and present data”. many of the outputs from data analysis referred to in these definitions take the form of data visualisations. in fact the importance of data visualisation is included in a number of discussions on the characteristics of data literacy (koltay, 2015), (wright et al., 2012), (womack, 2014). the level of literacy that members of the general public (who are not generally trained in statistics or data analytics) bring to different types of data visualisation is not always clear. data visualisations, however, are now ubiquitous in everyday publications such as newspapers, magazines, television programmes, and online content (heer et al., 2010). the presence of charts on information and communication technologies (icts) is becoming more and more important as the web is increasingly dominated by multimedia. on social media, in particular, content is often accompanied by charts and infographics to reinforce the intended message. the choice of an appropriate chart type for a particular dataset is extremely important as it can condition subsequent interpretation by viewers. carefully selecting the chart type that most effectively allows readers to make accurate interpretations of the data is especially important when readers have differing levels of data literacy. in this work, we conduct two user studies to assess the effectiveness of different chart types for visualising one or more distributions of values. we conduct these two user studies using a crowdsourcing platform, which enables us to survey a large and diverse set of users who are not necessarily skilful in data analytics. in the first study, we ask viewers to validate the veracity of statements about the distributions of variables shown alongside different visualisations of these distributions. among the five types of chart compared in this first user study, we find that histograms are not only the most complete in terms of details given, but also the chart type that leads viewers to the most accurate understanding of the underlying data. we also find, however, that viewers are not good at determining the limits of what can be understood about data from different chart types, i.e. they don’t know what they don’t know. !139 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 in the second, follow-up study, we move on to compare two related types of charts, histograms and density traces, to assess the capacity of viewers to accurately interpret charts. this user study is in turn split into two smaller studies. in the first study, we compare viewers’ ability to interpret histograms with their ability to interpret density traces when each chart shows the distribution of a single variable. in the second user study, we examine the effectiveness of different ways of visualising the distributions of two variables together in a single histogram or in a single density trace when the aim is to compare the distributions of the two variables. we compare seven different types of charts that enable comparison of distributions: histograms with overlapped, mirrored, interspersed, stacked, or cumulative bars, and density traces that are overlapped, or mirrored. this study finds that histograms lead to more accurate interpretations in both cases (i.e. showing the distributions of one or two variables), particularly when the purpose is to quantify specific frequency values. density traces are especially helpful, on the other hand, when we want the viewer to identify the overall tendency of values within a distribution. the findings obtained from these user studies give us deeper understanding that enables us to define guidelines that graphical designers can use to create charts that most effectively display the distributions of variables. these guidelines are intended to satisfy the graphical perception abilities of diverse communities of users, encompassing viewers of different skill sets, and making sure that the chart selected for a visualisation is correctly interpreted by as many viewers as possible. related work research in best conveying messages extracted from charts has focused on several aspects, including automatic generation of text summaries from charts (demir et al., 2010), (moraes et al., 2013), identifying the core messages of charts (corio and lapalme, 1999), (demir et al., 2012), adding context to charts (heer et al., 2009), (hullman et al., 2013), and studying perception of information from charts (shah and hoeffner, 2002), (glazer, 2011). we focus on graphical perception, as the field that studies the visual decoding of information from graphical displays. one of the best known studies on chart perception is by cleveland and mcgill (cleveland and mcgill, 1984), who define a theory to examine the elementary perceptual tasks that viewers perform when looking at charts, as well as the extent to which they lead viewers to accurate understanding. more recently both shah and hoeffner (shah and hoeffner, 2002) and glazer (glazer, 2011) summarise three major factors that influence viewers’ interpretations of data visualisations: (i) the visual characteristics of a chart, (ii) a viewer’s knowledge about charts, and (iii) a viewer’s background and expectations of the content in the chart. the authors highlight, however, that no single chart type is necessarily better overall than any other, and new tasks might require careful studies to choose a suitable chart. in general, researchers have pointed out that creating appropriate charts so that viewers perceive the intended message is harder than it might at first seem, and that detailed study of the effectiveness of different chart types for different tasks is required (friel et al., 2001), (shah and hoeffner, 2002). furthermore, the literature does not contain extensive studies of how well viewers can interpret charts showing the distribution of a variable. here we focus on the visual characteristics of a chart, and its influence on graphical perception when comparing distributions of variables. !140 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 when it comes to displaying distributions of variables with the aim of enabling comparison between distributions, numerous types of charts have been suggested in the literature. while histograms are a well-established chart type for this task (scott, 1979), the recent tendency has moved towards boxplots and derivatives of boxplots (mcgill et al., 1978). one of the best known alternatives to the standard boxplot is the violin plot (hintze and nelson, 1998), which is an improved version of the boxplot that incorporates a density shape, i.e., a combination of a box plot and the density trace. the boxplot is considered to be a suitable simple chart that could be easily drawn manually (hintze and nelson, 1998), (muthers and matzarakis, 2010), but that lacks detailed information on the density of a distribution. as computational tools that facilitate chart creation emerged, however, displaying density shapes in charts has gained importance because of the additional detail provided. this has led to an increase in the use of density traces, given that they are computationally easy to create and they provide the details of a distribution that cannot be seen in boxplots. in recent years, there has been substantial discussion among researchers as to whether histograms or density traces are more suitable for displaying distributions of variables for exploratory data analysis, much of which has inclined towards the use of density traces, as histograms lack detail. for instance, silverman (silverman, 1986) and izenman (izenman, 1991) argue that histograms are a traditional way to provide a visual clue of the general shape of a distribution, but that they leave much to be desired when one needs to quantify the density of an observation in a distribution of values. scott (scott, 2009) adds that density traces provide the essence of conveying visual information of both the frequency and relative frequencies of observations, and thus they seem more intuitively suitable for data presentation purposes. finally, tukey (tukey, 1977) resorts to histograms when he intends to display a single distribution of values, but makes use of density traces when comparing two distributions of values. in this work, we look at how these two types of charts, namely histograms and density traces, affect the graphical perception of the viewer, when the goal is to acquire basic understanding of variable distributions. despite the high volume of research on graphical perception, we found no work studying graphical perception of multiple variable distributions in a single chart. our work addresses this issue by comparing the ability of viewers to compare the distributions of two variables when looking at histograms and density traces, and explore different settings for an optimal visualisation. our work also complements a recent study by javed et al. (javed et al., 2010) in a similar direction, who studied alternative visualisations of multiple time series, and found that separate charts are suitable for comparison across time series with a large visual span, and shared-space charts are more efficient for smaller visual spans. our work focuses specifically on creating single charts that put together distributions. user study 1: visualising a single distribution in this section we describe a user study to determine the effectiveness of different chart types for illustrating the distribution of a single variable. experimental method in the basic unit in our experimental method a chart is shown to a participant along with an associated textual statement about the distribution of the variable represented in that chart. participants rate how well they think the statement corresponds to the data represented in the !141 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 chart. this is repeated for different combinations of three different factors: (i) the underlying distribution of the variable, (ii) the type of chart used to show the data, and (iii) the type of statement made about the data. overall, we include four different variables, five distinct chart types, and four different types of statements. the four artificially created variables used in the study were: (i) ages of customers of an online movie service, (ii) ages of members of a youth sports centre, (iii) salaries of a city’s residents, and (iv) scores of students in an exam. each variable exhibited a different distribution. figure 1 shows histograms illustrating the distributions of these variables. five commonly used chart types were selected for this study: (i) bar charts showing the average value of the distribution, (ii) bee swarms, (iii) boxplots, (iv) stacked bar charts, and (v) histograms. figure 2 shows an example of each. all of the charts shown during the user studies were created using the r programming language , for which we provide details to 1 reproduce each of the charts under study. figure 1: histograms depicting the shapes of the data distributions under study. r: http://www.r-project.org/1 !142 http://www.r-project.org/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the textual statements were of the following four types: (i) “the data ranges from x to y”, (ii) “most data points fall around x”, (iii) “most data points fall under/over x”, and (iv) “data points are clustered to either side of x”. for each chart type and variable combination, two versions of each statement type were presented to participants: one that was true and one that was false. for example, for the data shown in the first histogram in figure 1 the true statement “the data ranges from 30 to 42”, and the false statement “the data ranges from 25 to 45” were used. figure 2: examples of each chart type used for the user study. the combinations of variables (4), chart types (5), and statements (8) amounted to a total of 160 different tasks. participants in our experiments were shown one task at a time and had to rate the accuracy of the statement shown on a five point likert scale: strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree. additionally, participants could opt for an alternative choice impossible to tell from this chart. tasks were presented in random order to control for !143 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 learning effects. with 50 ratings collected for each of the 160 tasks, we gathered a total of 8,000 ratings. we conducted our experiments using crowdsourcing through mechanical turk. the use of a crowdsourcing platform such as mechanical turk for this study is motivated by heer and bostock (heer and bostock, 2010), who showed that it is an effective and reliable way in which to perform graphical perception studies. to take part in the study participants did not need to have any prior expertise in data analytics as we were interested in measuring the ability of average, non-expert viewers to interpret different chart types. we did, however, restrict participation to us-based participants to control for english language capability. we also restricted participation to participants with at least a 95% hit acceptance rate, which is mechanical turk’s internal measure of how well participants perform tasks on the platform. a high hit acceptance rate guarantees that participants have been deemed reliable in other experiments and filters automated bots. table 1: distribution of correct answers as defined in the ground truth (t: true, f: false, i: impossible to tell). the ground truth for each task was manually annotated by the experiment designers, with the following distribution of responses: 42 cases were true, 54 were false, and 64 were impossible to tell. table 1 shows the distribution of the ground truth responses, broken down by variable, chart type and statement type. the most important differences in these distributions relates to the chart types. all of the tasks showing a simple average bar chart fall into the “impossible to tell” category as the average bar chart does not provide enough evidence to assess the associated statements. with bee swarm charts and histograms it is possible, in all cases, to assess each statement. with boxplots and stacked bar charts it is possible to assess only some statements. !144 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 results we examine the data collected in these experiments in three ways: (1) inter-rater agreement to assess the level of agreement in the responses given by different participants; (2) accuracy to assess how well participant responses match the ground truth and (3) a confusion matrix to understand the types of errors made by participants. inter-rater agreement. we measure inter-rater agreement using krippendorff’s alpha coefficient (krippendorff, 2012). overall, the 8,000 ratings show a fair level of inter-rater agreement of 0.39‑ . table 2 shows inter-rater agreement values for each chart, statement, and 2 variable. we see two major differences here. firstly, with regard to statement type, participants tend to agree when assessing the ranges of variables and whether variable values are above or below a given threshold; and tend to disagree when asked about values being clustered around a certain value. secondly, with regard to chart type, participants showed a larger degree of agreement for bee swarms and histograms; and a much lower degree of agreement for the other three chart types. this is likely due to the high number of answers that are impossible to tell. table 2: inter-rater agreement values by item, and overall. accuracy. to compute the accuracy values, we rely on majority voting, i.e., the rating that has been chosen by most participants. this allows us to choose a single rating from the 50 provided for each task. for the purposes of computing accuracy, we collapse ratings of agree and strongly agree to true, and ratings of disagree and strongly disagree to false . the final 3 accuracy values reported here refer to the number of cases in which the majority vote of ! we report the strength of agreement using the benchmarks suggested by landis and koch (landis and koch, 2 1977) for interpreting kappa. ! in fact, participants seemed reluctant to choose strong judgements, choosing agree and disagree much more 3 than strongly agree and strongly disagree. !145 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 participants coincides with the ground truth. an overall accuracy value, and values broken down by variable, chart type and statement, are shown in table 3. table 3: accuracy values by item, and overall. on statements of the types “data ranges from x to y” and “points fall under/over x”, participants were substantially more accurate (90% and 75%, respectively) than for the other two types of statements (55% and 52.5%). more specifically we found that participants struggled with bar and stack charts when assessing “points fall around x” statements, and with stack charts when assessing “points clustered to either side of x” statements. regarding the chart type, the most accurate answers were those for bee swarms and histograms (both above 90%). this is slightly surprising as these are relatively complex chart types for non-expert viewers. even though both bee swarm charts and histograms potentially allow viewers to determine the veracity of all of the statements, and provide similar information, viewers seem to find it slightly easier to comprehend values from a histogram. finally, participants struggled slightly to answer questions about the student scores data. this data has a bimodal distribution that could be more difficult for viewers to parse. confusion matrix. table 4 shows a confusion matrix for all tasks (note that imp. refers to responses of impossible to tell, that neutral did not occur in the ground truth, and that cells marking correct responses are highlighted in bold). the precision for each category is also included. most notably here, we observe that when the correct response was impossible to tell, participants mostly deemed statements false (45.9% of the time), or even true (24.9% of the time), and only identified 23.8% of the cases correctly. when the correct response was either true or false, participants again rarely chose impossible to tell as the answer. taken altogether we believe that these results indicate that, although participants do well when !146 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 assessing true cases (accuracy 75.8%) and false cases (72.1%), they have trouble when facing charts that do not enable them to determine the veracity of a statement and do not recognise this shortcoming. we were surprised that participants did not use the neutral choice in these cases (the neutral response was only used in 6% of cases). table 4: confusion matrix for all the tasks combined (in %). overall, the main finding from this study was that viewers found histograms were the easiest to interpret of the five chart types studied. using this finding, we designed a follow up study to determine the ability of viewers to compare the distributions of two variables when visualised using either histograms or density traces. user study 2: expanding charts to visualise multiple distributions we set out to conduct user studies to measure the ability of viewers to interpret differences between two variable distributions for the purpose of exploratory data analysis (tukey, 1977). we split this exploration into two user studies. the first study investigates whether viewers find histograms or density traces easier to interpret when viewing the distribution of a single variable. once this is established, the second study investigates which chart type is most effective for comparing the distributions of two different variables. we also conducted these user studies through the amazon mechanical turk crowdsourcing platform. given that we wanted to conduct the user study with viewers that were not necessarily skilful in data analytics, and that we were looking at relatively simple perception tasks involving the quantification of values from charts, the use of a crowdsourcing platform presented a suitable environment for our purposes. during both of these user studies, we set up the tasks on mechanical turk without restrictions on the expertise of participants in terms of their ability to decode charts. in order to make sure that participants were reliable, we again restricted participation to participants with a hit acceptance rate of at least 95%, and also a number of completed tasks of at least 100. these settings have been found to be suitable to prevent participants who cheat (heer and bostock, 2010). our basic experimental unit consisted of showing a chart to a participant and asking them a series of questions about the chart in order to assess the accuracy with which they could interpret it. for each experimental unit we first showed the participant an entry page that displayed the chart in question, along with instructions explaining that they would be asked a series of questions about the distribution of the variable displayed in the chart. figure 3 shows an example of this entry page. once a participant clicked on the start button, they were shown a question displayed next to the chart. participants had to provide an answer to the question !147 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 and then click ‘next’ to proceed to the next question. this process repeated until the participant has answered all of the questions associated with the chart. each experimental unit was completed by 50 different participants. for each participant, we collected the answer they provided to each question, as well as the response time measured from the moment they first saw the question to the moment they clicked ‘next’ having answered the question. figure 3: entry page of the user study shown to participants. in this paper, we report three values in the results section: (1) response time in seconds, (2) accuracy of respondents (calculated as the percentage of participants that provided an answer within a 10% error rate of the ground truth , and (3) the error rate for participants that were 4 accurate according to point 2. note that the error rate is computed as the relative difference between the correct answer and participant’s answer, i.e., the deviation from the correct answer, so we can measure how close the responses were for those that were exactly or nearly accurate. we differentiate between accuracy and error rate given that our purpose is to measure both the ability of viewers to find the answer in the chart –for example, instead of mixing up axes and giving an answer for the wrong axis–, and the ability to provide a precise answer for those who found it. the charts shown during both user studies display data from the vietnamese living standard study (vlss), which is available online , and has been used for instance by tukey (tukey, 5 1977) for exploratory data analysis. the data from the vlss contains household per capita we used 10% as a reasonable percentage to consider that participants were able to identify where to 4 get the answer from in the chart, and their response was close enough to the correct answer. likewise, this enables us to compare responses for histograms and density traces, which display different scales of values. vlss data: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~zief0002/comparing-groups/data/vlsspercapita.csv 5 !148 http://www.tc.umn.edu/~zief0002/comparing-groups/data/vlsspercapita.csv the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 expenditures for 5,999 vietnamese households, divided into rural and urban areas. this enabled us to separate expenditure values into these populations, and thus to show two distributions of values that viewers had to compare. all of the charts shown during the user studies were created using the r programming language, for which we provide details to reproduce each of the charts under study. user study 2.1: comparing histograms and density traces for visualising a single distribution in the first of our user studies, we compare the ability of participants to interpret visualisations of the distribution of a single variable using histograms and density traces. this section describes the experimental method used for this study and the results of the study. experimental method this study used the experimental method described at the beginning of section 4. viewers were asked to answer questions about two different types of charts: histograms histograms (cf. (scott, 1979), (guha et al., 2001)) are a very commonly used way to graphically represent the distribution or a variable. a histogram shows tabulated frequency values that give the gist of how data is distributed. given that they present tabulated frequency values, the width of each of the bins in the plot must be predefined. among the numerous methods to define the bin width (wand, 1997), we relied on sturges’ rule (sturges, 1926) to create the histograms for our study. as a result, expenditure values ranging from 0 to 1800 for the urban population, and from 0 to 3100 for the rural population, were split into bin widths of 100. we used r’s hist() function to plot histograms. previously, it has been found that the orientation of the bars in a histogram has an effect on the viewers’ perception. fischer et al. (fischer et al., 2005) concluded that vertical bars allow viewers to react quicker and make decisions faster than horizontal bars. therefore, in this work we focus on histograms displaying vertical bars. figures 4(b) and 4(d) show histograms displaying the distributions for expenditure values obtained from the vlss data, one for the rural population and one for the urban population. one advantage of histograms is that bins facilitate quantification of the frequency for each range of values. as has been pointed in the literature, however, the lack of a detailed visualisation of more points of the distribution can make accurate perception by viewers difficult. density traces: different from histograms, density traces do not use tabulated data, and instead the distribution is visualised as a continuous, single line that depicts how frequencies change across the range of possible values. to draw a density trace a kernel function is required to extract frequency values and draw the line. in this case, we rely on the commonly used kernel method introduced by epanechnikov (epanechnikov, 1969). we used r’s density() function to plot density traces. figures 4(a) and 4(c) show density traces displaying distributions for !149 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 expenditure values obtained from the vlss data, one for the rural population and one for the urban population. density traces present the advantage over histograms that a more detailed representation of the whole distribution is shown which, it has been suggested, makes them a more suitable chart for visualising both the frequency and relative frequencies of observations. one could also expect, however, that quantification of frequencies for specific points might be difficult for viewers from a curved density trace. with a focus on identifying the overall tendency of each distribution of values, and quantifying frequencies depicted in the charts, we asked participants to provide the following values based on interpreting the displayed charts: • minimum expenditure value in the distribution. • maximum expenditure value in the distribution. • most frequent value (mfv) in the distribution. • frequency value for an expenditure of $200. • frequency value for an expenditure of $500. • frequency value for an expenditure of $1,000. results tables 5, 6, and 7 show the average results for accuracy, error rate, and response time for histograms and density traces from this study. to compute the average response times, we remove response times above the 95th percentile, and those below the 5th percentile, to control for outliers. finally, we also show the average accuracy values, error rates, and response times for a chart combining all the questions, which helps us assess the overall performance with each type of chart. note that the averages for error rates are not necessarily the arithmetic mean of the error rates for all the questions with that chart, since different number of participants might be accurate and thus be considered for computing the error rates; therefore, it represents a weighted mean for all accurate responses to each question associated with a chart. the accuracies achieved depended on the type of question being asked. viewers were able to more accurately use density traces when responding to questions about minimum and maximum values, as well as most frequent values. however, when responding to the other questions about frequency values viewers were more accurate when interpreting histograms. the only exception is the frequency for x = $200, where viewers were slightly more accurate, but still relatively similar, when looking at density traces. this exception in x = $200 happens to be a point with no tick mark in the x-axis, which might have made it more difficult for viewers to identify. as we hypothesised above, it appears that the fact that density traces are curved lines complicates quantification of frequency values for specific points, but facilitates identification of trends and therefore finding points such as the most frequent value. !150 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 5: accuracy values for user study #1 table 6: error rates for user study #1 table 7: response times (in seconds) for user study #1 overall, putting together the results for all types of questions, viewers were on average more accurate when making interpretations from histograms than from density traces. this accuracy gain with histograms is also reflected in error rates. the error rates for histograms are also slightly lower (with the only exception of the frequency for $200), which suggests histograms as a more suitable chart than density traces for viewers to make accurate interpretations. overall, there does not seem to be a clear difference in terms of response times between histograms and density traces. on average, viewers spent only 3.4% more time in answering to questions associated with histograms, which is reflected in a 6.4% improvement in terms of accuracy. !151 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 user study 2.2: comparison of two distributions having seen that histograms convey more accurate interpretations than density traces when it comes to a single distribution, in a follow-up user study we looked at performance of viewers when comparing two distributions. viewers do better in quantifying interpretations from a single histogram, but how should two histograms or two density traces be put together in a single chart to optimise perception? since two plots can be arranged in different ways in a single chart, we study the effect of these arrangements on the perception of viewers. experimental methods this study also used the experimental method described at the beginning of section 4. in this study viewers were asked to answer questions about six different types of charts: figure 5: histograms with different settings shown to participants of the user study #2. overlapped histograms: in an overlapped histogram, one of the histograms is superimposed on top of the other, with both lying in the x-axis (as in the first user study, based on the literature (fischer et al., 2005), we assume that vertical bars are more suitable for viewers than horizontal bars). in order for both histograms to be seen, they are made slightly transparent. we do this by using r’s hist() function including an alpha = 14 parameter in the set of colours being used. again, we established the bin width for histograms by following sturges’ rule (sturges, 1926) (this approach was used for all histograms in this user study). figure 5 (a) shows the resulting overlapped histogram for the vlss data. !152 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 we expect that overlapped histograms will enable comparison of frequencies for both distributions, but the fact that one of the distributions slightly complicates visualising the other distribution might complicate their differentiation. overlapped density traces: density traces can also be superimposed on top of each other, as shown in figure 5 (f). we used r’s plot() and lines() functions combined with the density() function, using epanechnikov’s kernel (epanechnikov, 1969), to plot these charts (this approach was used for all density traces in this user study). having two density traces sharing the same space could aid comparison and, different from overlapping histograms, overlapping density traces do not hinder the visualisation of the lines typically occlude one another. mirrored histograms: in order to avoid overlapping histograms, in a mirrored histogram one of the histograms is mirrored downwards from the x-axis. in spite of pointing downwards, the length of the bars in the bottom histogram also represent positive values. to draw mirrored histograms we used r’s hist() function after inverting the values for one of the histograms. figure 5 (b) shows the mirrored histogram for the vlss data. we expect that mirrored histograms will facilitate clear visualisation of both distributions without any overlap, but that the quantification of bars pointing downwards from the x-axis could be more challenging for viewers. mirrored density traces: similarly, density traces can be mirrored so that one of them is drawn downwards from the xaxis. figure 5 (g) shows mirrored density traces for the vlss data. to draw this we used r’s plot() and lines() functions after inverting the values for one of the density traces. similar to the advantage offered by mirrored histograms, we expect that mirrored density traces might facilitate visualisation of both lines separately avoiding possible confusion, but may make it more difficult for participants to perform comparisons between both distributions, as they do not share the same space. interspersed histograms: bars for two variables are interspersed in a single histogram, so that for each range of values two bars are shown next to each other, one for the frequency of each variable in that range. figure 5 (c) shows the resulting interspersed histogram of the vlss data that we showed to the participants in the study. we created this chart using the multhist() function from the ‘plotrix’ package in r. we expect that interspersed histograms will facilitate visualisation of both distributions, as they do not occlude each other. this, however, is at the cost of halving the horizontal space physically available for the width of the bars, which might have a negative effect in on visual perception of viewers. !153 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 stacked histograms: in a stacked histogram the bars for one distribution lie on top of the bars of the other distribution. this means that the frequency values for one of the distributions do not count from the x-axis, but from an upper point on top of the bar for the other distribution. we created stacked histograms using r’s histstack() function. figure 5(d) shows the resulting stacked histogram for the vlss data that we showed to the participants of the study. we expect that when using stacked histograms it will be easier for viewers to differentiate histograms from each other than when overlapped histograms are used. it may however be more challenging for viewers to quantify the height of bars, as significant cognitive effort is required (viewers need to subtract the height of one bar from the other). cumulative histograms: each bar in a cumulative histogram represents the cumulative frequency for all smaller values, instead of representing just the value for that specific range. for instance, the third bar from the left for a distribution represents the aggregation of the frequencies for the first, second, and third bars. consequently, the increase of a bar with respect to the previous bar actually represents the frequency of that specific range. figure 5 (e) shows the cumulative histogram for the vlss data that we showed to the participants of the study. we created this chart using r’s hist() function, which received the outcome of applying the cumsum() function to the histogram’s data values. we expect that cumulative histograms will facilitate differentiation between the two distributions, but the fact that frequencies are summed will complicate quantification of specific frequencies. each time a visualisation was shown to participants we requested the following values as the input from participants in the user study: • most frequent value (mfv) for each distribution. the most frequent value is different for the rural and urban populations, and thus viewers need to precisely identify each population’s most frequent value. • frequency values for specific data points in both distributions. we asked for the frequency for expenditure values of $200 and $500, for both populations. the main difference between these two cases is that $500 has a tick mark in the x-axis, while $200 does not. this might make a difference in the interpretation from viewers, making it potentially more difficult to position a value when there is no tick mark. results tables 8, 9, and 10 show the average results for accuracy, error rates, and response times for the charts under study. 
 !154 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 8: accuracy values for user study #2 table 9: error rates for user study #2 table 10: response times (in seconds) for user study #2 as expected, viewers were not able to accurately interpret cumulative histograms. the fact that the frequency for each range of values has to be calculated by subtracting the frequency for the previous range confused viewers, misleading their perception. accuracy values of around 20% were achieved in most cases, either when looking for most frequent values, or when quantifying frequency values. viewers were clearly more accurate with the rest of the charts, achieving average accuracies higher than 70%. overall viewers managed clearly better interpretations from interspersed histograms, achieving an accuracy of 85%. displaying thinner bars gives the advantage of making both bars clearly visible without any overlap, and easily quantifiable without the need to stack bars. still, viewers did quite well with overlapped and stacked histograms, achieving 77% and 78% accuracy rates, respectively. these two types of histograms led to better perceptions from viewers than mirrored histograms, where both distributions are visible with no overlaps. the fact that one of the distributions is mirrored downwards seems to have damaged quantification of frequency values for viewers. if we look at the accuracy of responses by type of question, there is a noticeable lower performance when providing values for frequencies of $200 than for frequencies of $500. again, the fact that $200 does not have a tick mark in the x-axis appears to be misleading viewers. adding more tick marks in the x-axis as long as space allows should help boost !155 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 performance when quantifying values that are on or close to those tick marks. it is certainly key to think of the specific points in which tick marks have to be added in order to guarantee that the intended message is correctly conveyed. with the density traces we see a similar trend as when viewers looked at a single distribution, i.e., viewers were highly accurate when identifying most frequent values (slightly more accurate even than the best of the histograms), but the performance when quantifying specific frequency values is poorer, which also drops the overall performance. density traces are therefore a suitable visualisation when the intention is to emphasise the central tendency of a distribution. however, histograms are more suitable when we want viewers to interpret more specific values shown in the distribution. looking at the response times, it can be seen that viewers needed more time to respond to questions about most frequent values, than for questions about specific frequency values. this reinforces our conclusions from the first user study that viewers seem to feel more comfortable with histograms when quantifying frequency values, but are not as comfortable when looking at the tendency of values to identify the most frequent value. discussion in this work, we have conducted two user studies to assess viewers’ data literacy when interpreting a distribution of values displayed in different types of charts. in the first study, we have studied the suitability of five different types of charts to visualise a single distribution of values. in a follow-up study, we have delved into different types of histograms and density traces to assess viewers’ literacy not only with a single distribution of values, but also when putting two together with the aim of comparing them with each other. we have used a crowdsourcing platform to conduct these studies, without restricting users by their level of expertise, and therefore allowing participation from users with differing levels of data literacy. in the first user study, we have seen that histograms allow the most accurate interpretations— viewers achieved 97% accuracy from histograms, compared to 91% with bee swarms, and lower than 60% for the other charts— and are an appropriate choice of chart type when visualising the distribution of a variable for an average, non-expert audience. this reinforces previous findings from meyer et al. (meyer et al., 1997) and zacks and tversky (zacks and tversky, 1999) concluding that bar charts are a suitable visualisation medium to support reading exact values, identification of maxima, and describing contrasts in data. more interestingly, this study highlighted a shortcoming in the ability of average, non-expert viewers to recognise the limitations of different chart types—viewers don’t know what they don’t know. this is a significant issue as it means that there is a strong possibility that viewers are likely to make incorrect inferences from charts, or that they can be very easily misled using charts. this finding reinforces the need to carefully design charts for different tasks (shah and hoeffner, 2002), (glazer, 2011) and highlights a shortcoming in the data literacy of non-experts. another interesting point arising from the apparent effectiveness of histograms compared to bee swarms is that it reinforces the finding by fischer et al. (fischer et al., 2005) that viewers !156 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 find it easier to interpret vertical bars (present in histograms) than horizontal bars (present in bee swarms). we also believe that there might be a difference between centring the data points in a bee swarm around a virtual vertical axis in the middle of the chart, and placing the data points upwards starting from the x-axis in a histogram. the gap between two bars lying on the same axis can be easily quantified visually, while the gap between two bars centred on an axis is halved on both sides of the bar making it more difficult to quantify. the alignment of the bars with respect to the axis might affect perception—this warrants further study. in the second user study, our results suggest that histograms are overall more suitable than density traces to display distributions of values to viewers with different levels of expertise and not necessarily trained in data analytics, especially when the main purpose is quantification of specific frequency values. density traces have shown instead to be more suitable to emphasise the tendency of values underlying a distribution. in a follow-up user study, we have identified that interspersing bars of the two distributions plotted in a histogram leads to optimal perception when comparing distributions. other alternatives such as overlapping, stacking, and mirroring bars in histograms led to much less accurate perceptions, while cumulative histograms showed to be by far the worst option. the findings of these user studies provide insight towards defining guidelines to assist graphical designers in optimal creation of charts that enable comparison of distributions. the fact that our user studies have been conducted with non-expert users whose level of expertise has not been restricted makes our guidelines suitable to be applied to communities of users with different degrees of data literacy. future work includes deepening the comparison of value distributions, by looking into more challenging cases where three or more distributions need to be compared, given that histograms with increasing numbers of distributions might require different approaches. another aspect that has not been dealt with in this work, and would be a sensible objective to pursue would be to break down the user study into different demographic groups to better understand how perception would affect people of different ages, cultures, etc. acknowledgments this work was supported by the enterprise ireland and ida ireland technology centres programme at ceadar, the centre for applied data analytics research. 
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(1999). bars and lines: a study of graphic communication. memory & cognition, 27(6):1073–1079. !159 telecenter web portals in latin american and arab nations: a comparative analysis paola prado, dana m. janbek developing nations face myriad challenges in their attempts to overcome digital poverty. over the past ten years, a growing movement has promoted telecenters as a tool for fostering economic opportunity through the provision of digital literacy, education, and connectivity to impoverished communities. while some of these programs were born out of civil society and non-governmental organizations (ngo) projects, as is the case of the gemas da terra network in brazil, others are government-led, such as the knowledge stations in jordan, and yet others are the product of the involvement of multiple stakeholders, as is the case of infocentros in el salvador. most of these initiatives are based on the premise that digital literacy can foster prosperity, promote social well-being, and generate economic opportunities for under-privileged communities. the 2003 world summit on the information society (wsis) (2003) pinpointed local content and communications as two of the five main objectives of the information communication technology (icts) for development platform. placing relevant content, information, and knowledge at the forefront of the agenda, the wsis emphasized digital literacy as a key component in the fight against poverty. the world bank (2006)similarly recognized the potential of icts as a tool that can help reduce poverty and inequality through economic growth, trade promotion, and job creation. in this context, the question ofdigital literacy becomes paramount, a pre-condition for developing communities to access global information flows. this exploratory study examines nine portals developed by telecenters that serve impoverished communities in ten developing nations in the arab world and in latin america. these sites are examined for evidence that the portals support active learning techniques by providing interactive applications that allow users to practice digital literacy and participate in virtual community-building. literature review telecenters and the digital divide it is now clear that the digital divide transcends the facts of whether or not an individual can physically access telephones, computers, or electronic media. an array of complex social and economic factors perpetuate inequality in developing nations and underlie the reality of digital poverty (mossberger, tolbert, & stansbury, 2003; norris, 2001; servon, 2002; van dijk, 2005). education, gender, and language ability are only some of the many obstacles that can prevent underprivileged individuals from participating fully in the information society (roman & colle, 2002; warschauer, 2003b). in many developing nations, telecenters have been established with the mission of attenuating digital poverty by providing hubs where the poor can access icts. telecenter ownership and management structures occur in a variety of forms. some operate as commercial ventures or franchises, others as initiatives administered by government or academic entities, yet others are sponsored by ngos or function under a hybrid partnership that combines two or more of the aforementioned stakeholders. for a telecenter to be defined as accessible, it must place technology and connectivity within practical physical reach of community members; it must be conveniently located within the community or in close proximity to it, and provide affordable computer and internet access at low or no cost. the effectiveness of these telecenters has often been evaluated through empirical measurement of the number of computers in use, number of people trained and jobs created (anta & valenti, 2004; eastin & larose, 2000; figueiredo, camara, & sabin, 2006; gumucio-dagron, 2003; gurstein, 2003; rodríguez garcia, 2002; whyte, 1999; whyte, 2000). a few scholars have attempted to widen the criteria of evaluation to include measures of the socio-economic impact of telecenters on the well-being, human development, and self-sustaining infrastructures that benefit the community as a whole (menou, 2001a; rothenberg-aalami & pal, 2005). the latter studies link individual skills training to the overall social development of the community, expanding the definition of effectiveness beyond mere competency in the use of technology. telecenters located in rural areas face a particular set of challenges to sustainability. structural obstacles to physical access, endemic poverty and low levels of education are among the factors commonly found in poor rural areas that significantly impact telecenter sustainability and make it hard for societies to bridge digital inequality between urban and rural populations (proenza, bastidas-buch, & montero, 2001). self-supporting telecenters located in poor rural communities may struggle to cover operating costs given the population’s lower earnings, or face steeper adoption curves due to lower education levels and the foreignness of computers to a traditional, agricultural-based lifestyle (proenza et al., 2001). great distances, limited access to transportation, poorly maintained or nonexistent roads, and limited or unstable electrical power are some of the other factors that can limit access to telecenters in remote locations. creating community whether they are located in rural or urban areas, sustainable telecenters share a common set of denominators: they are built and operated with the consensus and participation of community members, they promote a collaborative atmosphere that equitably includes all stakeholders, they set concrete goals and measurable deliverables, and they operate in a transparent manner (hosman & fife, 2008). telecenters flourish in communities that shape the use ofict to their needs and cultural identity. still, the ultimate measure of telecenter participation may be the extent to which individuals integrate and practice digital literacy in virtual communities that complement activities happening in their real life. among the critics of the value ascribed to participation in virtual communities, putnam (2000) took front stage in questioning whether online communication produces the bonding or bridging types of social capital formed in face to face communication. those who challenged his views suggested that virtual communities can function in ways similar to real-life neighborhoods: providing a meeting ground where individuals socialize, exchange information that is relevant to their needs, and interact in ways that promote social bonding and support (burnett, 2000; burnett & buerkle, 2004; rheingold, 1993). they found that individuals who participate in virtual communication integrate technology, not as an end in itself, but rather as a tool. there are also indications that virtual communities that share the support of existing social networks, and those where users participate by creating content, are particularly effective (warschauer, 2003b). scholars have theorized that active participation in virtual communities complements more traditional forms of community formation, promotes bridging and bonding social capital, and drives political activism and civic engagement (norris, 2006; rheingold, 1993; warschauer, 2003a). two telecenter initiatives in latin america, brazil’s sampa.org and chile’s elencuentro.cl, have been cited as models of successful virtual community creation, where users actively contributed content to the online portal (bossio, 2006; warschauer, 2003a). in both instances, the sites featured basic information about the community, local news, schedule of events and activities, and information about small businesses in the area, showcasing the telecenter and the community to the rest of the world. these portals rendered the local communities visible to the outside world staking their place in the global flow of information. technology adoption competency in the use of technology is a pre-condition to participation in online communities. technology adoption requires a learning process, one which faces numerous barriers in poor areas. van dijk (1999) categorized the challenges to ict access as difficult physical access, lack of education or the absence of a supportive social network, anxiety or disinterest, and the lack of content that is relevant to one’s interests while it is reasonable to expect that the physical barriers to adoption may subside in the near future as companies roll-out affordable internet-enabled mobile devices, it is likely that barriers of age and gender, along with personal skills (or the lack thereof) will continue to provide challenges to ict use (van dijk & hacker, 2003). one of the particular features of online communication that helps users overcome the challenges to technology adoption is interactivity. interactivity provides a mediating driver for sociability and engagement in online group communication, one that allows groups to form helpful social bonds (rafaeli & sudweeks, 1997). users who experience a responsive, easy to use online environment experience a greater sense of engagement, enjoyment, openness, and learning (massey & levy, 1999; morris & ogan, 1996; rafaeli, 1988). searching and finding information and communicating with others helps convince people of the value of technology to their everyday lives (roman & colle, 2002). these are some of the reasons why a sense of accomplishment has been used as a key metric in the evaluation of human interaction with icts (eastin & larose, 2000). community portals that fail to deliver on the above are less likely to be sustainable (musgrave, 2005). the above studies have paved the way to a more holistic understanding that technology alone does not provide sufficient motivation to engage an individual. there is evidence that, unlike information-gathering, knowledge building requires interaction among people (young, 1997). as it relates to telecenters, there is evidence that communities that mobilize members around activities of learning and practice achieve greater success in integrating ict into their lives in a sustainable way (warschauer, 2003a). these findings lend support to those who frame the question of technology adoption from the standpoint of the social and cultural systems in which an individual exists, not the technology itself. theoretical framework there is reason to believe that insofar as telecenters are concerned, “the more communities get involved themselves in producing and compiling the information, the more useful such centres or meeting places become” (schilderman, 2002, p. 43). this seems to be the case in learning communities where individuals contribute and interact with each other, working together to collect information and to develop solutions to the community’s issues and problems, learning how, rather than simply learning (brown& duguid, 2000; wilmore, 2001). papert’sconstructionism theory posits as much, suggesting that learning is most effective when an individual builds a product that has personal meaning and relevance, in a process of “learning-by-making” (papert & harel, 1991, ¶1). this explanation of the learning process prioritizes the role of active participation in knowledge construction. this theory of active versus passive learning was applied here to enhance our understanding of how learning technology might occur through engagement in telecenter portals and participation in virtual community. this concept provides the framework for this study’s focus on telecenter portals as a measure of user engagement in the construction of knowledge through active learning and use of interactive tools. given that the publication of telecenter portals in developing nations is still a fairly recent development, this study was primarily exploratory and descriptive. it sought to answer the following research questions: rq#1 what is the content and characteristic ofthesetelecenter portals? rq#2 what are the functions and uses of thesetelecenter portals? rq#3 to what extent do telecenter portals create virtual community? methods this descriptive study documented different ways in which communities at the digital margins of global society embrace icts. the sample for this study included telecenters in ten developing nations in the arab world and latin america. these countries were selected based on three criteria: 1) their regional location; 2) their adoption of telecenters; and 3) the availability of portals published by the telecenters.the 10 countries chosen were brazil, chile, colombia, dominican republic, egypt, el salvador, jordan, sudan, syria, and tunisia. thesehave comparable rankings on the gini index for inequality in income or expenditure published by the united nations development programme. operational definitions icts this study definedicts in the manner of willson (2006) who refers to them as mediation or communication tools and processes that allow individuals to communicate in settings other than face-to-face, through media and linked telecommunications systems, i.e.: television, radio, telephones, facsimile, and computers. telecenter for the purposes of this study, telecenters are defined as public spaces where individuals may access communication and information technologies (proenza et al., 2001). telecenter access differs from ict accessibility in that the latter refers to a more complex set of skills, demographic, socio-economic, educational, cultural, psychological, and structural factors that influence individual technology adoption (hosman & fife, 2008). although the word telecenter is often used in the literature, telecenters may be called bydifferent namesin different countries. web site home page the unit of analysis for this study was the home pages of telecenter web portals. massey and levy (1999) defined a home page as the opening page of a web site containing links to the site's contents. home pages as the unit of analysis for research was used by paul (2001), who suggested their use lent consistency to the study since web sites differ widely in the number of pages they may contain. the home pageallows users to gauge how interesting or useful a site may be, an appreciation that impacts the duration and depth of a user's visit. virtual community in 1993, rheingold described virtual communities as computer-linked ecosystem of subcultures where individuals interacted with each other and formed personal relationships, participating in essentially the same type of social activities that form community in the physical world. sample an equal number of cases were selected in developing nations in the arab world and in latin america. aweb sample was built based on redundant searches conducted on google, yahoo, and telecenter portals and listservs in the two regions, following the model adopted by dominick (1999). the criteria for inclusion in the final sample were that the web sites were clearly linked to a telecenter project which served rural areas in each of the 10 countries. inter-coder reliability the two authors coded a 10% portion of the sample comprised of portals containing english-language content. coding decisions that required a simple judgment about content presence or absence generated inter-coder reliability above 95%. coding decisions that required categorizing content into one of the mass communication or ict use functions was lower at 79%. prior to coding, the authors trained by coding one of the portals in the sample in its entirety. coding scheme all portals were accessed from the united states using internet explorer and mozilla firefox browsers on personal computers connected to a t-1 line. items were coded to identify the extent to which the portal’s home page contained clearly identifiable content and visual references, and functioning navigability. paul (2001) suggested that the ease of navigation of a web site contributes to user interactivity, specifically speed, accessibility and functionality of pages and links, the clarity of structure and design for navigation bars, search functions, and site maps. other measures of user interactivity were the presence or absence ofaccessible links to forum, chat, newsletter, audio and video elements. the visual references (photos or images appearing on the home page) were coded for the presence or absence of national symbols, adults using computers, children using computers, locality identifiers, and gender diversity. home pages were also coded for the number of languages used and the mass communication functions contained in the content. the concept of mass communication functions followed the model proposed by jeffres and lin (2006), which classify online content according to its function as providing surveillance, coordination, socialization, or entertainment. in addition, the content was also coded to indicate whether it emphasized the building of community, knowledge, and skillsand whether the purpose was the promotion of economic, civic, and cultural goals, based on a modified version of the study conducted by raphael, bachen, baldwin-philippi, and mckee (2006) on ict uses of web sites. results the arab world and latin americaa regional overview widespread digital poverty continues to reinforce long-standing patterns of socio-economic inequality in arab and latin american nations. in 2007, the majority of the population of arab and latin american nations remained disconnected. internet penetration remains low in both regions, at an identical 15.7%, with extremely low levels of broadband connectivity available in either case. in contrast, 64% of arabs and 59% of latin americans had access to mobile phones. the recent development of mobile telephony widely exceeds the adoption rate of any other information and communication technology, including radio sets. two-thirds of the planet and half of the world’s population can already access mobile signals (levy, 2007). it is safe to presume that the arrival of g-3 mobile phones in the developing world will make the mobile web widely accessible in the near future. table 1. itu indicators for the arab world. table 2. itu indicators for latin america. while physical barriers to ict access may soon diminish, other challenges are proving more difficult to overcome. education remains a major impediment to digital inclusion. in egypt and sudan, illiteracy remains high at levels of 28% and 39% respectively (undp, 2008).latin america has fared comparatively better in universal access to education. literacy averages89% for the countries in this study. another measure of ict adoption is the networked readiness index. this index analyzes 48 indicators to assess how well prepared individual, business, and government entities in 127 nations are to benefit from information and communication technologies (goswami, 2006). the 2007-2008 rankings placed chile at 34th and tunisia in 35th, far ahead of all other countries in this sample (world economic forum, 2008). syria, at 110th, ranked last in the sample, though not among all the arab countries. chile led the latin american countries studied here, and the dominican republic came last in the sample at 75th, ahead of regional economic powerhouse argentina. among the countries in this study, chile and tunisia were ahead of jordan, and substantially ahead of brazil, egypt, el salvador, colombia, and the dominican republic all of which clustered in the index. syria was an outlier in the sample. case studies in the arab world egypt the first telecenter launched in the middle east and north africa (mena) region was in egypt in the late 1990s (telecentre.org, 2007). while the average internet penetration in the arab world is 15.7%, in egypt internet has reached merely 11.4% of the population. the networked readiness index for 2007-2008 ranked the country 63rd (world economic forum, 2008). among the countries included in this study, egypt ranked second lowest on the human development index (undp, 2008). egypt also ranked second lowest on literacy rate (71.4%) and urban population (42.8%). the egyptian government has publicly committed to developing the ict sector as highlighted in its national plan for communications and information technology (hashem, 2002). the ministry of communications and information technology has taken the lead in bridging the digital divide in egypt. along with the nongovernmental sector, the ministry established what became known as mega clubs (mc) around the country. in 2008, 269 mcs operated in 28 regions. two-hundred and seven of those were connected to the internet. these constitute a total of 3,486 computers. additionally, the ministry invested in mobile mega clubs, traveling digital caravans that have computers. the portal for the network of mega clubs, located at www.ict-megaclub.com.eg, was examined in this study. jordan since the internet reached jordan in 1995, the government has adopted measures to expand access beyond governmental use (privacy international, 2003).internet penetration in jordan, at 19%, exceeds that of other arab countries, yet there are only 6 computers for each 100 people (itu, 2008). the nation ranked 47th in the networked readiness index (world economic forum, 2008). like many countries in the region,jordan launched an e-government initiative primarily as a means to increase efficiencies of scale in government operations and as a way to reduce administrative overhead. consequently,the government adopted a parallel initiative to promote ict access to impoverished areas by setting up networks of telecenters. although literacy in jordan is the second highest in the entire arab world, the country is relatively poor and would stand to benefit greatly from inclusion in the larger global information society (undp, 2008). among the countries studied, jordan ranked highest on the human development index and has the lowest rural population ratio at less than 18%. as part of its e-government efforts, jordan, like egypt, has embraced bridging the digital divide, especially in reaching children, women, and the elderly in impoverished communities. the kingdom’s 2020 reach development vision incorporated the development of the ict sector as one of its goals. among the initiatives undertaken, the knowledge stations (ks) program launched in 2001 directly targets communities nationwide, through 132 telecenters established in different regions of the country. the project was pioneered by the government and supported by grassroots and civil society organizations (television trust for the environment, 2003). the network of kss operates a portal located at www.ks.jo, the portal analyzed in this study. sudan in sudan, internet penetration remains low at 9.9% (itu, 2008). radio remains the most widely adopted ict medium, followed by television and mobile devices. compared to other arab states, sudan ranked among the lowest five on the human development index (undp, 2008). the illiteracy rate of 39% is the highest among the countries studied and one of the highest in the region.sudan’s rural population is at 59%. in late 2004, an initiative of the government of the dutch city of eindhoven established a unique digital city sister city program with the city of gedaref in sudan. eindhoven donated computers to support existing and new government programs in sudan aimed at bridging the digital divide and fostering human development. the web portal www.gedarefcity.org is included in this study. syria syria’s internet penetration, at 10.7%, is also below average for the region (itu, 2008). the nation ranked 110th on the networked readiness index, and last among the countries included in this study (world economic forum, 2008). as was the case in other arab countries in this study, the ministry of communications and technology of syria adopted policies to bridge the digital divide, with special focus on the digital inequality occurring between urban and rural areas of the country. syria’s rural population is high at 49% and its illiteracy rate is 19% (undp, 2008). the government established community centers in cooperation with local authorities to provide buildings, water, and electricity at each location. the portal for what became known as reefnet is located at www.reefnet.gov.sy and is included in this study. tunisia with internet connectivity of 16.7%, tunisia ranked second on the nri among the arab states. tunisia ranked in the middle of the human development index as compared to the other arab states and is second after jordan in the countries included in the study (undp, 2008). the literacy rate of 74.3% is below the average for the region. in an effort to bridge the digital divide between the urban (65.3%) and rural areas (34.7%), and to reduce unemployment, the government launched in 1998, the publinet telecenter project found at http://www.tunisiaonline.com/internet/publinet.html. tunisia, however, could not be included in the study as the portal identified is not solely dedicated to telecenters, rather it encompasses information on other efforts aimed at wiring the country. case studies in latin america brazil internet penetration in brazil is at 26.07%, placing ii fourth in the region after costa rica, chile, and colombia (itu, 2008). according to the comitê para democratização da informática or cdi (committee to democratize informatics) (2008), 54% of brazilians have never used a computer and 67% have never been online. the poorest remain the most excluded, as do those living in the more remote areas of the country, the center and western regions. the networked readiness index for 2007-2008 ranked the country 59th, immediately ahead of costa ricaand behind mexico (world economic forum, 2008). the push to bridge the digital divide in this country originated primarily within the ranks of civil society. there are currently multiple projects aimed at decreasing digital poverty, many of which link government agencies, ngos, the private sector, and civil society in multi-faceted partnerships. the widespread support for the open source movement in the country may have played a role in creating awareness about the need for digital inclusion. numerous government programs have been launched to promote digital literacy. in 2005, the computador para todos (computers for all) initiative made low cost computers tax exempt (ministério da fazenda, 2008). the measure was one of 17 different government-sanctioned programs to promote digital inclusion (onid, 2008). the cdi has been active since 1995, when it paired with community initiatives to open escolas de informática e cidadania (informatics and citizenship schools) and telecenters in poor urban and rural areas. in 2001, the cdi celebrated the first started día da inclusão digital (digital inclusion day), an event later expanded to take place during an entire week each year. their slogan for the year 2007, “mais que computadores, conhecimento que transforma” (more than computers, knowledge that transforms) stressed the project’s emphasis on a knowledge learning approach that privileges technology as a tool, not as an end in itself. the observatório nacional de inclusão digital onid (national observatory for digital inclusion) (2008), which tracks telecenters nationwide, accounted for 4,835 telecenters in operation throughout the country. this study focused on the rede gemas da terra de telecentros rurais (gemas da terra rural community telecenter network) portal, which is comprised of five telecenters located in the state of minas gerais. the network, operating as a ngo, was established based on academic study of other telecenter experiences in the world and according to a model developed by an external agent with ties to the local communities (figueiredo et al., 2006). the network operates a portal located at www.gemasdaterra.org.br, the web site analyzed in this case study. chile the networked readiness index for 2007-2008 ranked chile in 34th place, first among latin american nations and far ahead of the rest of the region (world economic forum, 2008). the country ranks second in the region in internet penetration (33.5%), slightly ahead of costa rica, which also has a policy promoting universal access to icts (itu 2008). broadband access remained low in 2007 at 7%, yet it is likely to increase rapidly in the near future given a new policy of government subsidies and the highest ict spending per capita of all latin american nations (itu, 2008). chile ranked second to argentina among latin nations in the united nations human development index and in gdp per capita, yet it ranks high in terms of inequality (undp, 2008). the vast majority of chileans know how to read and write (96%) and only a small portion of the population lives in rural areas (12%) (undp, 2008). a wave of privatization in the telecommunications sector combined with reduced tariffs and increased subsidies for icts to boost investments in network expansion in the 1990s, with universal access funds set up to subsidize rural ictinfra-structure since 1995 (odi, 2008; silva & figueroa, 2002). the administration of michelle bachelet embraced a universal access policy for education, which promotes digital literacy in schools. in 2002, the government launched infocentro, a national network of telecenters located in public buildings and public libraries to provide free internet access and other office services; as many as 729 were in operation nationwide in 2008 (subtel, 2008). civil society groups partnered with the facultad latinoamericana de ciencias sociales (flacso) university in 2003 to launch the programa redes telecentros comunitários (community telecenter network program) which established non-profit community telecenters in 17 localities, 94% of which are located in poverty-stricken remote rural areas (programa redes, 2008). each telecenter has on average seven computers with internet connection and two printers; some also have laptops, digital cameras and photocopiers. flexible hours of operation include evenings and weekends to facilitate community access and attendance at skills training sessions (delgadillo, gómez, & stoll, 2002). the network publishes a portal, located at www.telecentroscomunitarios.cl, the web site analyzed in this case study. colombia in 2007, internet penetration in colombia was the fifth highest in latin america, at 26%, yet broadband access remained minimal at 2.6% (itu 2008). the literacy rate in colombia (92.8%) is among the highest in the region, and 23% of the total population of45 million live in rural areas (cia, 2008; undp, 2008). the networked readiness index for 2007-2008 ranked the country 69th, behind el salvador in 66th and ahead of the dominican republic in 75th (world economic forum, 2008). the colombian government has been at the forefront of initiatives to bridge the digital divide in the country. since 2000, the agenda de conectividad (connectivity agenda) program has promoted an e-government initiative that promotes communication among government agencies and with the citizenry (agenda de conectividad, 2008). other government-led programs include computadores para educar (computers for education), which provides schools with ict access under a partnership with the private sector, and compartel, an agency of the ministry of telecommunications responsible for promoting social policy. colombia was one of the first nations in the region to launch a concerted, government-led ict for development strategy, which evolved through trial and error and however, without input or active participation from civil society (bissio, curry, & esterhuysen, 2007). compartel established 1,490 telecenters which service five million people in rural areas of the country, 53% of whom earn less than theminimum wage (ministério de comunicaciones, 2007). each telecenter has between two and twelve computers with internet access, and as many as three telephone lines (ministério de comunicaciones, 2008). the goal of these telecenters has been to provide infrastructure and communication to remote areas, yet they also provide skills training and create relevant local content (portal nacional, 2008). the telecenters share a network portal, located at www.telecentros.org.co, which was analyzed for this case study. dominican republic internet penetration in the dominican republic at year end 2007 was 17.2%, yet only 1.6% of users had broadband access (itu, 2008). access is on the rise, having increased 56% over previous year figures (indotel, 2008). in 2005, 36.2% of the total population of the dominican republic, an estimated three and one-quarter million people, lived in rural areas and more than 92% of those had access to telecommunication (rey, 2006). the networked readiness index for 2007-2008 ranked the country 75th, ahead of southern cone economic powerhouse argentina’s rank at 77th and behind colombia’s at 69th (world economic forum, 2008). at the time of this writing, the dominican republic had inaugurated 43 community technology centers, or ctcs (centros tecnológicos comunitários) in remote rural areas throughout the country, under the auspices of the federal government. the ctcs form the basis of an initiative to foster prosperity by promoting literacy, providing skills training, and connecting isolated communities through the use of information communication technologies and community media. in 2001, the dominican republic was the second country in latin america to establish a lincos (little intelligent communities) prototype, following costa rica (ferreira, 2008). the pilot, launched under the first leonel fernández administration, was the genesis of the ctc program, which is now poised to expand during the president’s third term in office (encarnación castillo, 2008). each telecenter consists of a new building containing a computer room, a library, a child care nursery, and facilities that include telephone service, copying and faxing capabilities. use of the premises is free and open to the public. the project is scheduled to publish a community portal, to be located at http://www.ctc.org.do, yet the launch has been delayed due to lengthy governmental approval processes (i. madera, personal communication, april 18, 2008). due to this delay, this study analyzed the web site published by the el limón telecenter, located at www.el-limon.org. el limón, a mountainous farming community located in the southwestern part of the island, was the first isolated rural area in the country with public internet access, organized as a non-profit in partnership with the ecopartners centre for religion, ethics, and social policy at cornell university (undp, 2003). el salvador only one out of ten salvadorans had internet access in 2006 and broadband access was minimal (1.3%) as was computer penetration (5%) (itu 2008). forty percent of the seven million people in the country live in rural areas, and 30% of all salvadorans lived below the poverty line (cia, 2008; undp, 2008). the networked readiness index for 2007-2008 ranked the country 66th, immediately following uruguay and ahead of colombia’s ranking at 69th (world economic forum, 2008). in1999, the salvadoran government partnered with the world bank and the private sector to launch the infocentros association, a non-profit based on a telecenter franchising model deployed by the red científica peruana ngo in peru. the initiative focused as much on the development of content and applications of relevance to users, as it did on providing affordable computers, internet access, and skills training. (khelladi, 2001). in 2008, 33 telecenters nationwide were listed as part of the association. the association runs a network portal located at www.infocentros.org.sv, analyzed in this case study. content analysis regarding rq#1, which examined the content and characteristic of the portals, the analysis indicated that all had good or superior navigability functions and active hyperlinks with the exception of those in egypt, el salvador, and syria. the portalsin brazil and colombia were the only ones to provide the user with search engines. the portals in jordan and the dominican republic were the only ones to offer content in the english language. all portals were available in the local language of the community they served. the analysis of visual references showed that all the portalspublished their own logo on the homepage. most of thetelecenters also displayedgovernment, ngo, or commercial logos. portals in jordan and sudan were the only ones to display photos ofnational symbols. except for thebrazilian portal, all latin american portals showed photos of adults at computer stations. in the arab world, this was the case for jordan alone. four of all the portals, two in each region,pictured children at computer stations and half portrayed gender diversity.all latin american portals prominently featured their surroundings with photos of nature or local architecture. among the arab portals, only syria’s displayed photos of their locality, albeit inthumbnail sizes. table 3. coding resultsphotos. as for rq#2, regarding the functions and uses of the portals, results show that all fulfilledsurveillance functionswith the provision of news stories, program and event information. most also met coordination, socialization, and entertainment functions, primarily through links to contact information and email feedback options. socializing functions were evident in the display of statistics and lists of activities. as for the portals that metentertainment functions, most did so through photos and links to other sites. table 4. coding resultsmass communication functions. regarding rq#3,in terms of the extent to which telecenter portals create virtual community, results show that most of the portalsstressed eitherknowledge or skill-building. only two portals facilitated and emphasized community-building of any kind. in regards to the focus of the use of icts, results showed that the content stressed thecivic or economic benefits of ict use; onlytwo of the portals focused on cultural benefits. finally, although half of the portals had interactive features such as discussion forums, the one in brazil alone offered the interactivity of a chat application and video streaming. table 5. coding resultsinteractivity. discussion the studyof telecenter portals indicates thatcommunities in different countries areembracing and participating indigital literacy in different ways. overall, all portals met acceptable levels of navigability indicating technological aptitude and competency. although most of the content on the world wide web is published in english, portals built for local communities in the arab world and in latin america publish content in the respective local languages. this indicates that the primary target for these portals is local audiences, and that they are not focused on projecting an image of their community to a wider international audience. the presence of telecenter or community logos in the portals signals ownership of a virtual space. the presence of national symbols in the jordanian and sudanese portals asserts the government's central role in the telecenter programs in these countries. on the other hand, the prominent presence of photos of local community settings in the latin american portalsindicates that in those programs, community takes precedence overgovernmentor outside agents. in a similar way, photos of adults atcomputer stationsin the latin american portals highlight the importance of adult digital literacy for these communities. analysis of the indicators of interactivity showed minimal use of interactive applications such as chat, bulletin boards, and newsletters, showing that the portals have not yet widely adopted the participatory toolsthatallow for spontaneous engagement by users in the community. multimedia functions such as audio and video streaming were seldom present. judging from the mass communication functions evident in the content, news stories and program information are commonly published as edited copy, rather than in the form of news releases. surprisingly few portals posted maps and directions, hours of operation, or class schedules to guide users to the telecenters. only few solicited volunteers online. overall, the content of the majority of the portalsactively promoted digital literacy as skill-building, rather than community-building. although much can be learned from the examinationof telecenter portals, the small sample size severely limits the generalizability of these findings. still, this initial exploratory study is the first comparative study conducted on the content created by telecenter communities in these developing nations. as such, it provides data on which to build future research. conclusions as the arab world and latin america engage in efforts to bridge the digital divide in the 21st century, telecenter projects have emerged as a potent tool in the dissemination of digital literacy. if,asmaintained by papert's constructionism theory, learning is best achieved through active participation in the construction of meaning that is relevant to the student, it follows that hands-on contributionand interactive participationinthe creation of localportals can be key to cementing digital literacy. this study found evidence that the portals developed by telecenters in the arab world and in latin america have yet to adopt interactive applications that would allow users to freely participate and contribute to the creation of virtual community. without these applications, local users may be less motivated to practice digital literacy skills and build personal meaning online. insofar as the content of the telecenter portals reflects local community, local issues, and local concerns, it becomes more relevant and therefore more engaging to users. finally,it is important to note that most of the telecenters analyzed in this study prioritized skills training and technological competency over knowledge acquisition aimed at human development.the focus on potential individual economic gain and the emphasis on digital literacy as a job creation tool disconnect ict adoption from its potential as a tool for community-building that can foster prosperity and reduce poverty, as proposed by the wsis. references agenda de conectividad. 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(1997) icts and development: testing a framework for evaluation. performance review division. canadian international development agency. retrieved may 15, 2008 from http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca <div id="article"> <h2 id="article_title"> the emergence and development of a regional living lab: the case of san luis, argentina </h2> <div id="article_author"> susana finquelievich </div> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 1. introduction </h3> <p> the province of san luis, located in the center-west region of cuyo in argentina, has a relatively small population of 447,138 inhabitants.<sup>1</sup> this relatively small number has revealed itself as an advantage in the province&acute;s vigorous campaign to integrate its population into the knowledge society, and in a further step, to the innovation society. this paper describes and analyzes the implementation and development of a digital province, a regional living lab, which is building a path to social and technological innovation. </p> <p> this paper describes the results of two field research projects, on the characteristics and span of the digital san luis program (san luis digital, sld) sponsored by the provincial government and in which local governments have been actively involved. the paper focuses on the use of information and communication technology (ict) in the social innovation processes sponsored by the provincial government through agreements with other social actors. through the analysis of the sld model, the paper develops the hypothesis that the whole province is an actual living lab. the research methodology was mainly meta research, i.e. the integration of models, theories, data and information from various local and international sources. this information was validated with input from field surveys made ad-hoc in san luis province by the provincial directorate of statistics and censuses. the scope and impacts were studied in 10 towns through 108 interviews with leaders, participants and beneficiaries of san luis digital: those responsible for programs, employers, providers, mayors, directors of schools, teachers, members of community organizations, teachers college, students, users of cyber aui, centers of digital inclusion, etc., and institutions or partners or recipients of san luis digital programs. after analyzing the characteristics of the san luis digital model, the paper describes its achievements, and analyzes its limitations. </p> <p> the austrian-american economist joseph schumpeter (1935) states that the entrepreneur is not the inventor of a given discovery, but the instrument who orients this finding or invention to the enterprise, the industry, or in a larger sense, to the economy, to be constructed, produced, and distributed. schumpeter refers to the entrepreneur-innovator as an individual. however, in this paper we consider that this social agent may also be an innovative organization, such as a governmental agency or a university. in the case of the san luis province, this agent is the university of la punta (ulp). this public university was created by the province&acute;s government with the purpose of training professionals in strategic areas linked to the progress of the province. according to this criterion, the university identifies careers in cinema in accordance with the law for the promotion of the film industry and software development, according to the province&acute;s agreement to the national law of promotion of software industries. the ulp also trains professionals in the areas of tourism, agro-enterprise management, and environment. </p> <p> this paper is based on quantitative and qualitative research carried on between the years 2008 and 2011. the original purpose of this work was to provide the ulp with up-to-date data on the impacts and scope of the digital san luis programs, and with information regarding the perception of actors and beneficiaries of these programs, their openness, ability to receive innovations, and needs. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 2. a brief history of the digital san luis program (sld) </h3> <p> on june 21st, 2007, the san luis province launched digital san luis (sld in its spanish acronym), a 20-year long plan conceived to make the province&acute;s inhabitants proactively integrate into the information and knowledge society and to position the province as a producer and exporter of information technologies (it) goods and services. sld was deployed by the universidad de la punta (ulp), an autonomous and self-governing organization that decided to fully use the potentials of the information highway implemented in the province in 2004. the plan&acute;s main goal is the digital inclusion of all the province&acute;s inhabitants, collaborating with the regional development activities at the economic, educational, social, and technological levels. </p> <p> the initial initiative included three phases. the first was to strengthen the la punta information park (pilp), created by provincial law n&deg; viii 0502-2006, and located at the ulp campus. the objective was to generate a cluster of enterprises dedicated to the it market and invigorate the relationship between the academia and the companies in the sector. to achieve this, san luis offered physical space, a fund to finance working capital, a financial incentive for the recruitment of local labour, and access to fiscal benefits. the pilp intends to position san luis as a world competitor in software and information services&acute; products. the second phase of the project is proposed as a medium-term goal, focused on training teachers and young people in information technology. for the long-term, the sld project means to extend and deepen ict education for all children in primary level education. the challenge, which initially consisted of achieving 70%-75% of digital inclusion in the population of the province, has been extended to 100% (in december 2011, the internet&acute;s penetration among the province&acute;s population has reached 95%). </p> <p> this plan has valuable precedents: the strategic plan of the san luis government began in 1998. in 2001 it implemented its master plan. in the following years various stages were executed, until the present policy of technological services was finally implemented. in 1998, the province&acute;s government signed an agreement with the canadian ministry of industry for the development of a strategic plan to implement the information highway. two years later, on the basis of this master plan, a national and international bid to hire the enterprise that would undertake this project was launched. in year 2001, the san luis province selected the enterprise, nec argentina s.a., for the implementation of the information highway, and in year 2006, san luis telecomunicaciones (san luis telecommunications) was created. </p> <p> ultimately, the ulp, at the request of the government of the province of san luis, took over the management, operation and maintenance of the information highway (autopista de la informaci&oacute;n, or aui), which is used as the basis of the technological infrastructure, for the programs that integrate sld. currently, sld has more than 235 initiatives running. the province&acute;s platform of technological services deploys its communication network though the information highway. it interconnects over 1200 points, distributed all over the province, connecting all settlements of more than 20 people and providing services to the community. this is the largest communication system coverage in latin america. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 3. the digital san luis model </h3> <p> a triple helix-based approach to regional development originated in boston during the great depression of the 1930s (etzkowitz, 2002), and has since spread across the us and further afield to other continents, supplying a dynamic framework for the interaction of a variety of institutions and stakeholders, broadly encompassed by 'university', 'industry' and 'government' (etkowitz and ranga, 2009). academia, government, and industry constitute the three helices that engage in triple helix innovation. educational institutions of higher learning (colleges and universities) mostly represent academia in this model; nevertheless, educational institutions at other levels are not precluded from contributing to, and participating in, triple helix innovation processes. government may be represented by any of the three levels of government and their owned corporations: federal (national), state (provincial), and local (municipal). there are no restrictions on the types of industry (firm) involvement in triple helix innovation processes: i.e., industry may be represented by private corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships. in argentina, the triple helix model has been particularly used at the regional level in the last decade; collaboration among academia, enterprises, and governments has been implemented to strengthen clusters or to generate technopoles. </p> <p> the digital san luis model (which we call the quadruple helix) intends to go further. it articulates the multi-directional interaction among the following social actors: the province&acute;s government, as the policy&acute;s designer and executor; academia, as producer of knowledge and provider of technology and trained human resources; it enterprises, as identifiers of technology requirements but also as technology producers; the community, not only as users of technological goods and services, but also as co-producer of these. </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3150/version/2132/4107/16643/figure1.png" class="article_image" width= "580" height="359" alt="figure1"> <div class="image_caption"> figure 1. digital san luis model </div> <p> note the community&acute;s participation, as users, co-creators, and as future engineers and technicians. human resources to work in this model, requires permanent training in the capacities developed and required by the diverse sld plans and programs. sld&acute;s strategies are based on a set of conceptual models. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 4. the conceptual basis. why can san luis be considered as a living lab? </h3> <p> san luis digital is based on the following concepts: it assumes that technologies are social; that there is no way to distinguish between a world built only by technologies and a world built only by social practices; and that society and technologies are constantly and mutually co-determining. furthermore, dsl assumes that the strategies employed and their impacts on the community should be considered as emergent processes, and subject to constant monitoring and evaluation. </p> <p> the sld model is based on the existence of the provincial&acute;s government strong support, expressed by its vision, engagement with the program, and political leadership), which provides to the project a strong institutional, political and strategic continuity. moreover, the university of la punta (ulp), as the independent and autonomous executer of the sld, enjoys a great deal of freedom in implementing the plan. </p> <p> sld is based on a solid infrastructure (the information highway aui, data center, wimax and wifi networks, etc.), as well as on public access to icts and connectivity, implemented through public libraries, digital inclusion centres, the distribution of computers in public schools, and in the possibility offered to adults to complete their secondary education using the entre clases program, among others. sld&acute;s sectoral programs are implemented though a periphery-to-center, socially inclusive, and integrated process. it is periphery-to-center because it has been implemented from the province&acute;s geographic and economic periphery towards its center, from the most remote and poorest communities to the province&acute;s capital, san luis city. it is socially inclusive because it addressed first children, senior citizens, and vulnerable groups, and only in a second phase, the higher income population. it is integrated because, besides providing a connectivity infrastructure and access devices, sld constantly launches complementary applications, programs, and contents which converge towards the social and long-term appropriation of technology. </p> <p> sld implies long-term (20 year) strategic programs. their implementation exceeds a single governmental term, and engages several generations of san luis&acute; inhabitants, providing thus the opportunity for the population to genuinely appropriate these technologies, and generating quantitatively relevant and quali-qualitative increasing medium and long-term results. in the first phases of the process, the organizations that promote and support sld have a high degree of control over the most relevant initiatives, decisions, and actions (design and budget, the selection of partners, the best locations and time to develop these actions, etc.). local partners and beneficiaries have little influence on the program in these phases. however, as the initiatives are implemented and disseminated, as concrete activities are developed, and as the participants/beneficiaries become more active, local actors acquire a larger opportunity for an active engagement and role. </p> <p> education is considered the key element of the sld model; it is integrated into diverse policies, strategies, and programs. education is conceived of not only as tje formal educational system, comprising pre-school to university, but also life-long training and learning, as well as informal education. sld&acute;s vision of educating the population for the information society is not limited to traditional institutions (schools and universities), but also extends to an "educational society", using the digital inclusion centers, the astronmic observatory (solar de las miradas, the only open-air observatory in the world, operating 2006 at the la punta university astronomic park), student internships at the pilp, educational and communication networks such as "networking senior citizens", among others. </p> <p> in 2011 the digital public schools (escuelas p&uacute;blicas digitales, epd) were created. they consist of an innovative pedagogical design, in which grades are replaced by educational modules: mathematics, science and technology, art, and others. each student may progress in the various modules at his or her own pace, which avoids the potential for the feared grade repetition, and boredom. three epds have already been created, and 42 more are planned in the whole territory. </p> <p> this vision focuses also on multisectoral relationships (between the state, the university, enterprises, and ngos) to establish a common knowledge base for all the sectors concerned with education and training. the model also bestows a high importance on international links, in order that the educational system can profit from international best practices, research, and exchanges. the province acts in both the role of ict promoter and consumer, while also acting as an intermediary and facilitator between it enterprises and users. briefly, sld is a user-centered model, through programs which comprise a diversity of targets: different educational levels, ages, genders, geographical location, income, etc. </p> <p> this paper proposes the idea that san luis province can be considered a living lab because its conceptual frame is based on the following goals: </p> <p> <em>a) placing the province of san luis as a reliable producer of ict goods and services in the national and international levels</em> </p> <p> the first phase consisted in the generation of an it enterprise&acute;cluster, as well as strengthening the links between the scientific sector and the enterprises. the instrument to achieve this goal was as already noted the establishment and consolidation of the la punta it park. this strategy is based on a characteristic of ict: the expansion of these technologies is not anchored by geography or to the existence of natural resources. as stated by herv&eacute; fischer,<sup>2</sup> a governmental decision may implement technological poles in any urban or periurban area, attracting to it financial, human and technological resources, through the provision of fiscal initiatives and appropriate infrastructure. </p> <p> <em>b) reinforcing the user-technology relationship</em> </p> <p> the sld plan not only focuses on the dissemination and social appropriation of ict, but also on how the inhabitants use these technologies in their everyday life. users and technologies are perceived as the two faces of the same issue: the co-construction of socio-technical innovations, which reach beyond the determinist visions of technology.<sup>3</sup> since the use and appropriation of technological goods and services depend on the users&acute; cultural capital, the sld model focuses particularly on the reformulation of the whole educational system for individual and socially meaningful appropriation of ict. </p> <p> <em>c) re-formulating the province&acute;s educational system</em> </p> <p> information society economies are increasingly complex. the speed of technological innovations in the world is so rapid that policy planners have to make projects for yet unknown realities. when change is the only sure factor, the only certainty is that education should lead these changes. one of the higher challenges for sld policy planners was to leave aside the tendency to compartamentalize policies and strategies, and aim for an integrated model, linking together all the strategies that have impacts on students of all ages and levels. </p> <p> the sld model considers that it is not only important for the province&acute;s inhabitants to have ict access and to master computers and the internet. it is equally relevant to develop the generic capacities for logical reasoning (spanish, chess, mathematics, and special reasoning: geography, history, and astronomy). in order to use the internet for development, it is necessary to build social capital, cultural initiatives, and general capacities beyond the use of icts. on the other hand, it is important to consider life-long learning, .this is becoming increasingly necessary: as within a decade, no one will be able to work or even interact with others using the knowledge that is being currently taught. online education and the possibility of undertaking this education at any age, with the occasional presence on a university campus or at school, is becoming increasingly important. </p> <p> <em>d) mediating between technology production and consumption</em> </p> <p>the sld program introduces a relevant element for users' co-construction of technology: the process of ulp&acute;s mediation between technology production, its dissemination, and its final use by the province's inhabitants. in this process, users venture through increasingly distant frontiers in their use of technologies, and in the process they formulate their own needs and learning demands from the program. the la punta university&acute;s mediation is not just limited to extending physical access to ict, through increasing the inhabitants' private access (distribution of fee netbooks, credits for the acquisition of computers, etc.) and public use facilities (digital inclusion centers, entre clases program, etc.), but they are also providing social and cultural opportunities for the community to have access to new tools and to increase their cultural landscape. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 5. the most relevant programs and their outcomes </h3> <p> the large number of sld programs makes it difficult to fully describe them in this paper. thus, only a few can be mentioned. the programs&acute;description is organized according to sld&acute;s main axes: infrastructure, government, production, educational, and legal framework. the technological and legal framework axis are transversal to all of these. </p> <p> <em>1. infrastructure for social inclusion</em> </p> <p> 1.1. the information highway (autopista de la informaci&oacute;n, aui) </p> <p> the information highway (aui), developed on a network of san luis' own optical fiber and radio links, <sup>4</sup> is mainly a platform for public-access telecommunications and services infrastructure. with it the san luis province has implemented the necessary digital infrastructure to build the information and knowledge society adapted to its own specific context, and to become integrated into global networks and projects. for the province, the aui is a valuable organizational resource, both between population centres and administrative levels, and between the state and the citizens. the technological services&acute; platform, through the aui, interconnects all the public administration&acute;s departments. each ministry, school, hospital, police station, has access to connectivity. every inter-governmental communication circulates through the province&acute;s own networks. the aui is equipped with a modern network covering 76.784 km2, and using more than 250 km of optical fiber. </p> <p> the aui connects every town and village in the province. in october 2009 the international enterprises motorola and convergencia research assessed the digital levels of 150 cities in 15 latin american countries. the city of san luis was placed in the fourth place, and in first place when using the engagement/ digital gap indicator, reflecing the overall success of the implementation of the sld digital agenda. the aui comprises a main ring, connected through optical fiber and last generation radiolinks. its ring-shaped topology allows for very high performance. smaller villages are connected to this ring through dedicated radiolinks. additionally, an access point has been implemented in each town and village. this telecommunications infrastructure (more than 1,200 connected points) makes it possible for the sld to provide internet, telephony and added value services to all communities: e-mail, e-government services, etc. </p> <p> la punta university manages aui&acute;s call center, providing answers and solutions to users' questions about the network and services, and providing orientation and information about any issue related to the free internet service and wifi. the call center is the central intelligent axis point that concentrates and distributes information, centralizes the network&acute;s control, and hosts the room of informatics equipment, the data repository, and the network&acute;s management and monitoring. </p> <p> in 2011 the aui has enlarged the bandwidth in the provincial network from 1.500 mbps to 2.000 mbps. moreover, the cities of san luis and villa mercedes, which have the highest user density, will receive 50 wi-fi antennae. </p> <p> 1.2 wifi localities, wireless connectivity, and wimax </p> <p> the program--wifi locality, wireless connectivity has been conceived to provide access to the internet to every inhabitant of the province. a wireless fidelity (wi-fi) enabled device such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone or digital audio player can connect to the internet when within range of a wireless network connected to the internet. the coverage of one or more (interconnected) access points (hotspots) generally comprises an area the size of a few rooms but may be expanded to cover many square miles, depending on the number of access points with overlapping coverage. ulp&acute;s website <sup>5</sup> provides users with information about the technology, the number of connections per locality, guides and tutorials, answers to questions, and news updating. </p> <p> in november 2009, the province reinforced the wifi service implementing the first wimax node, which optimizes the aui&acute;s availability and the wifi network bandwidth. in the first stage of its implementation, this network provided coverage to san luis city, later to cover the cities of villa mercedes, juana koslay, and villa de merlo. the antenna expansion has allowed expanding aui&acute;s reach, which in february 2010 provided connectivity to 84 urban and semiurban areas. </p> <p> <em>2. government:</em> </p> <p> digital identity document: the decree to call for bidding for this document was signed on december 31, 2009. this plastic card gathers together diverse documents into a single form, allowing for the physical and digital identification of the province&acute;s inhabitants, using a digital signature. its back face displays the owner&acute;s driver license, replacing the previous license granted by the municipalities. the new document provides the user with a fiscal identity, ensuring his or her data privacy. the card also allows access to the holder&acute;s medical history and to his or her judicial status and history. this is the first stage, the use of this card facilitates administrative, judicial and banking procedures. later, it will be used for procedures tax and other provincial revenues procedures. the presentation of the document grants free entrance to provincial events. </p> <p> <em>3. production</em> </p> <p> the government of the san luis province created the parque inform&aacute;tico de la punta within the framework of developing a knowledge-based, non-pollution economy. la punta university is a key factor in the pilp&acute;s generation and development. the whole process has been guided by the following instruments: grants to enterprises that locate their premises in the pilp facilities to pay for the premises rent, funds to finance the labour force, financial incentives to hire local employees, and access to fiscal benefits. by december 2011 there were 20 it enterprises located at the pilp. ulp&acute;s management team manages the installation of it enterprises at the pilp. the park also manages the san luis population extracurricular training in it linked to the pilp, which includes teaching programming, robotics, and instruments to attract young people to the technological world, and educating university students and training graduates to become it projects leaders. ulp students are also trained at the pilp&acute;s enterprises, in software such as java, dva, and php and in teamwork methodologies. </p> <p> the pilp&acute;s first building was inaugurated on april 14, 2008. on june 19, 2009 a second building was inaugurated, hosting new enterprises, and expanding the premises for the existing ones. the original (and still ongoing) strong challenge is to train qualified human resources, in order to contribute to the province&acute;s development. the pilp&acute;s web page (http://www.pilp.edu.ar) features a system that eliminates intermediation between job-seekers and it enterprises, and facilitates contacts with young it professionals by providing the possibility of uploading their r&eacute;sum&eacute;s for free. in turn, the enterprises may also upload their searches for human resources, so that a matchmaking may be facilitated. both the pilp and ulp evaluate the profiles sought by the enterprises to identify the human resources existing in the province, and in nearby provinces, as well as on what abilities the training should focus. </p> <p> these programs make it possible for the enterprises to evaluate the local labour market before their physical location in the province. not only does the ulp train qualified professionals, but it also ensures their practical experience through internships in it enterprises. ulp participated as a partner, funding part of the intern&acute;s wages for 3 months. in fact, since the pilp has been opened, the salaries paid in the software and informatics services sector has increased. this income tends to stay in the province. new job positions have been generated in the it sector. the argentine chamber of software and informatics services enterprises has awarded the pilp with the sadosky prize for investment projects in 2008. </p> <p> <em>4. education</em> </p> <p> one of the most significant sld projects is literacy for the future (alfabetizaci&oacute;n para el futuro apf). this plan represents the engagement undertaken by ulp in training the teachers of the province&acute;s educational system for the information society. it includes training in the teaching of astronomy, ict, mathematics, natural sciences, and geotechnology. in the case of ict training, it allows teachers and students to use digital tools, building interactive electronic communication networks, which cross geographical boundaries. these networks have improved the students&acute; learning levels remarkably, while generating a collaborative public space which allows for the exchange of ideas, information, and experiences. in turn, the insertion of ict into the pedagogic work as part of overall inclusion policies tends to decrease the existing educational, social, and technological gap between diverse social groups and geographic locations, and motivates teachers to work in a new didactic approach, and helps to overcome their initial resistance to icts. </p> <p> another important plan is "every kid in the web. one to one model" (todos los chicos en red: modelo 1 a 1 <sup>6</sup>). on agust 22 , 2008 the ulp started to deliver computers equipped with school support to primary schools in a number of towns and villages. as well, a laptop was given to each primary school teacher in all the schools that participated in the ""every kid in the web" plan. the plan&acute;s goals were to improve the learning level of primary education students, using the contents specified by the province&acute;s ministry of education; to disseminate the use of ict; include the technologies in useful knowledge for the student&acute;s everyday life; provide digital school support; and analyze and assess the use and educational impacts of these technologies. the plan was also oriented to include pupils in the appropriation of ict in their daily schoolwork, facilitate digital inclusion, and promote networking. </p> <p> children from first to sixth grade (the argentine primary school system comprises six degrees) attend school every day equipped with the classmates delivered by sld. it is a special computer model, protected against falls, wear and tear. the computers each cost around 500 us dollars; they can navigate the internet through the schools and villages&acute; wireless connections. an agreement was signed with each child&acute;s parents or tutors, by which they were contracted to use the computers for educational purposes. the computers belong to the students, and they can use them freely at school, at home, or in public spaces. in december 2011, the ulp completed the distribution of computers to a total of 59,430 students. the last 7,600 netbooks were supplied to 24 schools in the city of san luis. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 6. achievements and challenges </h3> <p> after analyzing the main world indexes for measuring ict development, and based on these, we analysed the case of san luis province. three main aspects were considered: internet penetration; the acquisition of computers by the inhabitants; and their e-readiness level, taking into account the economist intelligence unit&acute;s e-readiness index. in this work we made an unexpected finding: we detected in which way the study of the sld case throws into question the validity of many frequently used indicators. as an example, while current ict development tends to focus on individual ict uses, and even the customization/personalization of technologies and devices&acute;, the conventional indexes continue to be based on homes, not individuals, as the unit of analysis. this finding was relevant to the analysis of sld, because of the large and widespread dissemination of wireless connectivity and electronic devices that have enhanced individual use. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> internet penetration </h3> <p> according to the internet world statistics, the average internet penetration per 100 inhabitants was, in latin america and the caribbean (lac) by 2011, 30.7 users per 100 inhabitants. this means that this province, with 94.9 users per 100 inhabitants, (according to the provincial institute of statistics and census), is more than 30% greater than the national average, and is three times the regional (lac) average. it is important to consider that the average world internet penetration for the same date is 30.2 internet users per 100 inhabitants (table 1): </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3150/version/2132/4107/16642/table1.png" class="article_image" width="580" height="151" alt="table1"> <div class="image_caption"> table 1. percentage of total internet users </div> <p> approximately ninety-five per cent of the province's 431,000 inhabitants are internet users, which is the highest proportion, not only in argentina, but also in latin america. </p> <p> it is necessary to recognize that socio-economic contexts should be taken into account when comparing ict use between diverse provinces, since the gross domestic product exerts a significant influence on ict use. for example, when comparing the san luis province with buenos aires city -the two provinces with the highest numbers of internet users in argentinait should be remembered that the gross domestic product per inhabitant is completely different for both regions. if we only consider that internet penetration levels are similar, we would be forgetting the policies that made this similarity possible. while in san luis the provincial state has been responsible for the very large number of internet users, in the buenos aires federal district on the other hand with 66% users also according to internet stats (march 2011) the evolution of the connectivity level is directly linked to the higher gdp per capita in the capital.. </p> <p> considering that by 2010 the san luis province has invested a total of $51,685,681 usd over 10 years, and that the province has 431,455 inhabitants, according to the 2010 national census, it can be estimated that it has spent approximately one dollar per month and per inhabitant during that period. according to official statistics, san luis&acute; gdp is approximatlely $3.600 million usd. nearly $52 million usd has been invested in ict equipment and infrastructures, which means that the grand total spent in 10 years represents 1.4% of one year&acute;s gdp. </p> <p> the second research project, "observatory of the social uses of ict in san luis", developed in 2011-2012, revealed some challenges yet to be resolved. our research team made two field trips, in april and june 2011, to the towns of papagayos, villa del carmen, el trapiche, and nueva galia, to analyse how the inhabitants were using the provided ict. in general terms, the results of the interviews revealed an underutilization of the internet, expressed though poor knowledge about the internet&acute;s potential to improve business, employment opportunities, study, and communication. most local businesses, including hotels and restaurants (even in touristic towns such as el trapiche and papagayos), lacked web sites, users do not use blogs, and the use of social networks, mainly facebook, is limited to the social environment including already known friends and family (most of the interviewed internet users declared that they don&acute;t initiate nor maintain virtual contacts with persons that they have not met physically). </p> <p> children and teenagers use the internet mainly to play, as well as to search for information and to do school homework. since the computers were distributed to children, the adults have started to use the internet as well; some of them use them to search for information (newspapers, social networks), and many are using it "to control what the children do". concerning the "technological contagion", 30.3% of the sample answered that they had influenced classmates, teachers, and/or professors with respect to the internet and ict; 19.7% had "infected" parents and/or siblings; 15.2%, other relatives; and another 15.2% had not had any technological influence on any person nor organization. </p> <p> concerning the place where they use computers, 31.8% of the sample answered "at home"; 22.7% use their computers at primary or secondary schools, or at the university; and 3.,8% use their computers at work. only 6% use computers at cybercaf&eacute;s, cdis or public libraries. </p> <p> most adults have never made any transaction through the internet, they have never sold nor bought any product virtually, and have never designed nor published any blog, wiki, nor website. 90.9% of the sample has never used a personal banking service, and 87.9% has never paid for a service though the internet. this is explained by the fact that only a low percentage of the population uses bank services at all, added to the limited number of available online services. 67.7% of the interviewed individuals expressed that they had never made an online transaction because they did not need it. however, the landscape changes when it is related to administrative transactions or information search concerning public services: 50% of the simple has done online transactions with provincial, local, or regional administrations; 78% has dealt with the tax administration; and 24.2% communicated concerning pensions or retirement; and 21.2% to obtain their identity documents. </p> <p> learning informatics was the chief drive to use computers for 24.6% of the sample, while 4.,5% was motivated by the need to increase their productivity at work, 36.9% had study as their main motivation, 23.1% were motivated by opportunity of communication (chat, e-mails, social networks), 21.5% by entertainment (games, music, videos, etc.) and 18.5% searched for general information. </p> <p> the communities&acute; social endogamy in face-to-face life (individuals and families "have known each other forever" and they have strong families and friends social and solidarity networks with a robust local anchorage) is also shown in the virtual world. many internet users indicate that they keep virtual ties just with family members and friends whom they already know in the physical world. </p> <p> in all the studied towns it was extremely difficult to find adults older than 55 years who used the internet. interviewed, elderly people said that "the internet is fine, but it&acute;s just for the kids", or "my grandchildren do all i need for me in the internet". elderly citizens that do use the internet have learned to do so very recently (no more than two years previously), and they only use it to read the newspapers or do transactions connected with their retirement pensions. </p> <p> nevertheless, the general perception of the internet is positive, mainly because it has allowed the communities to break their geographic isolation. some adults participate in online courses, and many are completing their secondary studies using the "entre clases" programs at their local center of digital integration. </p> <p> the perspective for the future is hopeful: most inhabitants are interested in learning more about ict, they have plans for buying a second computer, and no one has expressed an anti-technology position. given that in this province most of the population had their first access to the internet though the san luis digital program, it is probable that more advanced technological training and the full use of the possibilities presented through this may yet take some years. the internet's impacts on everyday life are considered positive by 71.2% of the respondents, very positive by 16.7%, and neutral by 12.1%. none has indicated negative or very negative impacts. </p> <p> it would be advisable for la punta university to send training teams to the various towns, to make the population more aware of the full potential of the internet, though training campaigns, workshops, exhibitions, and other means. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 7. conclusions </h3> <p> as for any large scale public policy, san luis digital is characterized by the multiplicity of participating actors, each featuring diverse roles, functions, and visions on the knowledge society as a complex process. this is the reason why the clear definition of the program&acute;s objectives, as well as its proactive leadership, and the strong engagement of the participating actors have been key to achieving the results described above. </p> <p> the program&acute;s achievements can be perceived from different viewpoints. concerning digital inclusion, sld has reached the highest internet penetration levels, not only in argentina, but also in latin america and the caribbean. the policies of netbook distribution, free wifi connectivity, and facilities for buying computers, are expressed in a highly positive perception of the internet by more than 80% of the population. </p> <p> although sld&acute;s main impacts are felt in the areas of social and digital inclusion, and education, the programs have generated also a massive interest and a high value being given to ict among san luis&acute; inhabitants. ict differ from other technologies, because users need to be educated and trained in order to fully appropriate them. an infant can learn to turn on the tv, but an ict user has to learn new skills practically every day; therefore, a positive evaluation of these technologies is a necessary condition for their adoption and integration into everyday life. this is why every public policy for e-inclusion and innovation should first consider and give priority to the beneficiaries &acute;education and training. </p> <p> sld has also succeeded in creating an ict production center in the la punta it park (pilp), where 20 software and it services enterprises are located, and where human resources are being trained. however, the challenge still to be overcome is the generation of local it enterprises, however small they may be. since a new generation of local engineers and technicians is being trained, it may be anticipated that, if the provincial government implements appropriate policies to encourage local entrepreneurs, new it enterprises will be created. </p> <p> another challenge is the development of e-government policies. a larger number of e-government applications and transactions in the provincial and local administrations may contribute to an evolution in san luis society in terms of digital inclusion. however, ict and their multiple applications have already penetrated deeply into san luis&acute; political, economic, social, and cultural context. the provincial government at the provincial, and local levels, have learnt about new ict-based administrative procedures; and have trained civil servants in these methods. it would be desirable that these governments start initiatives to further train their civil servants, even in small communities; and restructure their administrative functions, as well as the interactions between governments, other governmental institutions, citizens, and enterprises. </p> <p> moreover, according to feldman and fischnaller (2011) a cultural barrier has yet to be surmounted: the strong local attachment of small communities to their own environments, and their lack of curiosity towards the external world, may be an obstacle to innovation. the capacity to integrate extended online social networks could and should enable the innovation process and overcome geographical barriers to facilitate the starting of new businesses, new studies, and a larger social life., all of which is more relevant than ever in an information society. local cultural developments, festivities, art and literature, could also be disseminated to other communities. </p> <p> the generation of larger social networks is not an automatic consequence of access to the internet. this is overall responds to deeper and slower social and cultural change. the encouragement of the full social appropriation of ict, through training and information campaigns, would accelerate this necessary social transformation. </p> <p> last but not least, it is important to signal that in this work we made an unanticipated finding: we discovered in which way the study of the sld case puts in question the validity of many frequently used ict indicators. while current ict development tends to support ict uses by individuals, the conventional indexes continue to consider homes, not individuals, as the unit of analysis unit. this outcome was relevant to our analysis of sld, due to the high dissemination of wireless connectivity and electronic devices that have enhanced individual use. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> footnotes </h3> <p> <sup>1</sup> instituto nacional de estad&iacute;stica y censos, indec, 2009. </p> <p> <sup>2</sup> see herv&eacute; fisher: "el choque digital", editorial de la universidad nacional de tres de febrero, 2003. </p> <p> <sup>3</sup> see nelly oudshoorn and trevor pinch: "how users matter. the co-construction of users and technology", mit press, cambridge, massachussets, 2003. </p> <p> <sup>4</sup> se denomina radio enlace a cualquier interconexi&oacute;n entre los terminales de telecomunicaciones efectuados por ondas electromagn&eacute;ticas. si los terminales son fijos, el servicio se lo denomina como tal y si alg&uacute;n terminal es m&oacute;vil, se lo denomina dentro de los servicios de esas caracter&iacute;sticas. </p> <p> <sup>5</sup> ver http://www.wifi.ulp.edu.ar/wifiasp/paginas/pagina.asp?paginawifiid=74 </p> <p> <sup>6</sup> ver http://www.chicos.edu.ar/ </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> references </h3> <div class="reference"> bridges organization (2001). comparison of e-readiness models. http://www.brigdes.org. </div> <div class="reference"> eclac (economic commission for latin america and the caribbean) (2004a), "co-ordination meeting on information society statistics", report of the new york meeting, march 2004. </div> <div class="reference"> fernandez-aballi, i. (ed.) 2007. "building national information policies: experiences in latin america," information society division, communication and information sector, kingston: unesco. available at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001528/152806m.pdf (29/03/09) </div> <div class="reference"> feldman, patricio, and celina fischnaller (2011): "pol&iacute;ticas p&uacute;blicas para la apropiaci&oacute;n social de las tic: el caso de san luis", vi jornadas de j&oacute;venes investigadores, instituto de investigaciones gino germani, facultad de ciencias sociales, universidad de buenos aires. november 11. </div> <div class="reference"> finquelievich, susana (2007): la innovaci&oacute;n ya no es lo que era: impactos meta-tecnol&oacute;gicos en las &aacute;reas metropolitanas, susana finquelievich (coordinadora), ed.dunken, buenos aires. </div> <div class="reference"> finquelievich, s. 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"proposed strategies for the information society in the south," in <cite>information society in the south: vision or hallucination?</cite> montevideo: instituto del tercer mundo (item). available at: http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/3592.html (29/03/09) </div> <div class="reference"> finquelievich, susana, adri&aacute;n rozengardt, alejandra davidziuk y daniel finquelievich: "national information society policies: a template", unesco, 2010, accesible en: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/29360/12602731983ifap_template_en.pdf/ifap_template_en.pdf </div> <div class="reference"> goss, e. (2001), "the internet&acute;s contribution to u.s. productivity growth", <cite>business economics,</cite> vol. 36, 4, pp. 32-42. </div> <div class="reference"> hilbert m.; bustos, s.; and ferraz j. c. 2005. 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(1992). innovation et march&eacute;s internes du travail dans le secteur bancaire; vers un mod&egrave;le multidimensionnel de l'innovation. in <cite>technologies de l'information et soci&eacute;t&eacute;</cite>. vol. 4, no. 3, oct. 1992. paris: dunod. 351-380. </div> <div class="reference"> tremblay, d.-g. (1995). la multidimensionnalit&eacute; du ph&eacute;nom&egrave;ne de l'innovation: une r&eacute;alit&eacute; abord&eacute;e par les &eacute;conomistes institutionnalistes. la recherche sur l'innovation; une bo&icirc;te de pandore ? cahiers de l'acfas no. 83. pp. 79-113. </div> <div class="reference"> unesco 2005. "towards knowledge societies," <cite>unesco world report</cite>, unesco, paris. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001418/141843e.pdf (29/03/09) </div> <div class="reference"> wolfe, d. (2002) social capital and clusters development in learning regions. in holbrook, and d. wolfe (ed.). <cite>knowledge, clusters and regional innovation.</cite> toronto-montreal: mcgill-queens university press; pp: 11-38. </div> </div> 1255-8092-1-ed the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles women in iran: the effect of marital status and the presence of family dependents at home on their use of the internet few studies have analyzed how women in iranian communities use the internet. our study investigates the effect of marital status and the presence of family dependents at home on their extent of internet use. our analysis found that while higher incomes, having internet at home, being a student, and having higher qualifications can all increase iranian women’s chances of using the internet more regularly, looking after a husband or having family dependants at home can have a significant and negative effect on their ability to use the internet on a regular basis. the findings from our small study suggest that less time to access the internet may mean less opportunities for iranian women to contribute to their communities such as by voicing their opinions and concerns about societal issues that matter to them and by petitioning for change. it may mean less opportunities for participating in political events such as elections. !20 yeslam al-saggaf school of computing and mathematics, charles sturt university, australia corresponding author. yalsaggaf@csu.edu.au saeed shariati school of engineering & information technology, murdoch university, australia s.shariati@murdoch.edu.au mark morrison school of management and marketing, charles sturt university, australia mmorrison@csu.edu.au al-saggaf, y., shariati, s., morrison, m. (2017). women in iran: the effect of marital status and the presence of family dependents at home on their use of the internet. the journal of community informatics, 13(3), 20—35. date submitted: 2015-08-07. date accepted: 2017-12-13. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1255 mailto:yalsaggaf@csu.edu.au mailto:s.shariati@murdoch.edu.au http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1255 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1255 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 keywords: frequency of internet use, iran, role of women, societal factors, inequality, regression analysis. introduction while the literature is rich with accounts that focus on households’ use of, and access to, the internet, there is a dearth of studies focusing on households’ frequency of internet use (lera-lópez, billon, & gil, 2011). the limited literature on this topic indicates that higher income, having internet at home, being a student, and having higher qualifications significantly influences the frequency of internet use (lera-lópez et al., 2011). this scarce literature, however, is predominantly western (zia et al., 2009) and does not account for the differences between families in western communities and nonwestern communities. in non-western communities, families are larger, often include the parents of the husband, and men and women are not as equal as men and women in western communities (antonio & tuffley, 2014). in addition, women in non-western communities, such as in iran, have traditional roles distinct from men. for example, even if they work full time, women are also expected to take care of the household chores, look after the children, and attend to the needs of the elderly persons in the house (antonio & tuffley, 2014). this situation is different from the usual situation in western communities where households commonly consist of only parents and children, and men and women contribute more equally to the household. to what extent can marital status and the presence of family dependents at home in the case of non-western communities such as in iran also affect the frequency of women’s internet use? with the exception of the study by lera-lópez et al. (2011) that touched on family structure, no studies have looked specifically at the effect of family structure and the traditional role of women on the frequency of internet use especially in the context of developing countries. lera-lópez et al. (2011) found that factors such as gender and family structure (specifically how many children are in the household) do influence the frequency of internet use, but not its use, and that frequency of use is negatively related to the presence of children in the household. this study from spain did not focus on the traditional role of women. there is therefore a need to understand the impact of family structure and the traditional role of women on the extent of using the internet in developing countries. the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of marital status and the presence of family dependents at home on the extent of using the internet, examining the case of women in iran. using a web-based survey (n = 311), we investigated the factors affecting the frequency of using the internet by women in iran with a focus on understanding the influence of family structure and the traditional role of women in iranian communities. other variables relevant to access to internet in the literature i.e. qualifications and internet skills, infrastructure, location, sociodemographics and internet affordability were also considered. !21 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 background family structure in iran most iranian urban households are made up of large families (bastani, 2007), where a closely related elderly person, such as an uncle or aunt or more commonly one or both of the grandparents, would be living with a nuclear family. in general, iranians only leave the family home after getting married. in addition, depending on the family's financial circumstances, after marriage, the groom might bring the new bride to live with the rest of his family as an additional member or alternatively he might move into his in-laws' home. men and women in iranian communities have distinct traditional roles (javadian & singh, 2012). men are expected to be the breadwinners while women are expected to be responsible for all home duties (riahinia & azimi, 2008). for example, iranian women do the cooking, cleaning and other household chores as well as raising the children, taking care of them, helping them with their homework and looking after other dependants at home (javadian & singh, 2012). these traditional distinctions occur despite the fact that iranian women are well represented at universities (shirazi, 2012) and that the gender ratio in iran is almost equally balanced (for every 1.01 males there is a female; un, 2017). family relations and personal contacts are important in iranian communities and society (bastani, 2007). socialising with friends and family, keeping in touch with relatives, and organizing parties and extended family gatherings are core to maintaining the social fabric of the society. however, it appears maintaining family relations and personal contacts is more of a job for females than for males (koutlaki, 2010). iranian society appears to favour males over females (yousefy & baratali, 2011), which is not uncommon in developing countries (antonio & tuffley, 2014). an example of this favouritism is the law that requires women to obtain their husbands’ permission prior to participating in employment of any kind (javadian & singh, 2012). this is probably one of the reasons why iran is at the bottom end (ranked 83 out of 147) of the ‘gender development factor’ (gdf) scale (javadian & singh, 2012).the above findings suggest the following predictions: 1. married women are likely to use the internet less frequently 2. women who have family dependants are likely to use the internet less frequently the study will test these two predictions while taking into account other potential influencing factors such as qualifications, internet skills, infrastructure, location, sociodemographics and internet affordability. women in iranian communities and society women in iran are highly restricted in how they live their daily lives. for example, they are not allowed to get married without their male guardian's approval regardless of their age (hrw, 2015, 2017), cannot pass on their nationality to their foreign-born spouse or !22 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 their children (bajoghli, 2015), and cannot obtain a passport or go outside the country without the written permission of their husbands (hrw, 2015; usdos, 2016). additionally, they cannot attend certain sporting events, go out in public without wearing the hijab, or even ride a bike in public (hrw, 2015, svirsky, 2016). restrictions for women also exist in education and in the workplace. education female participation in education in iran is high. there are no restrictions on female participation in primary and secondary education, and at university level, women now comprise the majority of students (jacobs, 2016). however, some universities impose restrictions on what female students can study, and this appears to be a trend that is strengthening over time. for example, in 2012, 77 different fields of study at 36 universities did not accept female students (isna, 2013). work women are severely underrepresented in the iranian workforce; currently only 15% of iranian women work compared to 64% of men (hrw, 2017a). this is lower than the average for all women in the middle east and north africa at around 20%. low workforce participation for women appears to be due to societal expectations of women as well as discriminatory laws and practices that are in place. for example, the iranian civil code states that an iranian man can ban his wife from working if he believes that it would be "incompatible with the family interests or the dignity of himself or his wife" (article 1117, p. 110). additionally, it is not unlawful to discriminate in the hiring process, with advertisements often stating that a position is only open to men (hrw, 2017b). women's movement with the number of restrictions that are in place for women, it should be of no surprise that the women's movement is strong in iran. the iranian women's movement first emerged in the early 20th century and has been fluctuating in strength ever since (with peaks occurring in times of more conservative governments; ettehadieh, 2004; sanasarian, 1982). the women's movement has resulted in a number of victories for iranian women, such as the right to vote, run for parliament, and petition for divorce (afkhami, 2004; esfendiari, 2015; vaezian, 2017). since the internet was introduced in iran in 1993, it has been used as a place for women to voice their concerns about discriminatory laws and behaviours and to petition for change (shirazi, 2012). this is particularly true since 2005, when mahmoud ahmadinejad's government rose to power and imposed a number of restrictions that drove women's rights groups online (abbasgholizadeh, 2014). internet in iran iran, with a population of 79.1 million, has an internet penetration rate of 44 and a mobile phone penetration rate of 91.0%. internet speeds in iran are among the slowest worldwide and the internet in iran is also very expensive relative to speed, quality, and download capacities (freedom house, 2016). one reason for this is that fluctuations in foreign exchange rates often result in increases in the cost of international data traffic. !23 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the socio-demographic profiles of internet users in iran are likely to affect the extent of their internet use. a survey by bastani and fazel-zarandi (2008) found that most internet users were from higher socio-economic families (52%), had a higher level of education such as a bachelor degree or higher (50%), were young with a mean age of 24, were single (69%) and were born in cities. this is consistent with a 2008 survey of 80 iranian women that found 50% of internet users were students and the younger the users were, the more frequently they used the internet (riahinia & azimi, 2008). riahinia and azimi’s (2008) study also found that while 40% of the women used the internet between one to five hours a week, only 9% spent between 15 to 20 hours a week on the internet. on average, the women’s internet use was two hours a week, lower than the median weekly duration of internet usage by users surveyed worldwide which is 18 hours per week (kaspersky lab, 2015). the iranian government employs strict filtering of internet content. major social networking sites like facebook, youtube and twitter are not freely available in the country. when citizens began using virtual private networks (vpns), proxies and other circumvention tools in 2009, the government authorities blocked them (freedom house, 2016). in the past, the government relied on chinese and western companies to implement filtering and blocking of websites that were un-islamic and immoral; recently, however, iran has developed its own domestic software products so it can rely less on other countries’ products. iran has established a centralized filtering system at the internet service provider (isp) level (opennet initiative, 2009). women and the internet in iran according to shirazi (2012), since the introduction of the internet in 1993, women in iran have used it "not only as a means of accessing and disseminating information but also as the means of voicing their concerns about discriminatory laws and to participate in public discourse. in iran, the internet has provided a voice to repressed and maginalized groups, particularly young people and educated women" (p. 45). according to abbasgholizadeh (2014), this is particularly true since 2005 when mahmoud ahmadinejad's government came into power. the election of this government saw the suppression of civil society organizations (e.g., ngo's, community-based organizations) and the imposition of restrictions on the public sphere, independent media, and any space that allowed different social groups to connect, which resulted in the gradual shift of the iranian women's movement from the public space to online. websites (e,g, change for equality, feminist school, and fair family law), blogs, and social media seem to be particularly popular ways for iranian women to express their views (abbasgholizadeh, 2014; shirazi, 2012; techrasa & nazarbazaar, 2017). campaigning online is also popular (e.g., one million signatures, the campaign by women in iran to collect one million signatures in support of changing discriminatory laws against women in their country, and stealthy freedoms of women in iran, the campaign by iranian women to give women the right to choose whether to wear the hijab; change for equality, 2017; sbs news, 2014). it is unknown how much time women in iran spend on the internet. as mentioned previously, a 2008 survey of 80 iranian women found that, on average, women used the !24 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 internet for two hours per week; however, this was a small survey consisting of only women from an iranian university. no other statistics known to the authors exist. the barriers people in developing countries face when accessing the internet, including women in iran, are discussed below. factors affecting extent of use of the internet in the context of a developing country lack of digital skills can be a major barrier to using the internet (harambam, aupers & houtman, 2013; van dijk & hacker, 2003). to van dijk (1999, as cited in van dijk and hacker, 2003) the definition of digital skills is not limited to the abilities of operating computers and network connections but also includes the abilities to search, select, process and apply information from a ‘superabundance’ of sources. anaraki and heidari (2010) agree, adding that digital literacy not only helps us search and find information but also evaluate and use this information effectively. some individuals find it hard to use the internet so they may avoid using it because they have difficulties navigating their way through the complex online world or they lack skills in using technological tools to connect and browse the internet. language difficulties are another reason why some people avoid using the internet (antonio & tuffley, 2014). individuals of non-english speaking backgrounds may find accessing the knowledge within the contents of the web quite difficult, with the content of the web being predominantly in english (fragoso, cogo, & brignol, 2011). indeed, a study by riahinia and azimi (2008) found that some iranian women find language to be a barrier to internet use. the economic situation in a country also affects citizens’ access to the internet (antonio & tuffley, 2014; rabayah, 2010; van dijk, 2006). billon, lera-lopez, and marco’s (2010) empirical study shows that the greater the gdp of a country, the greater the amount of internet usage in the country because gdp has a significant role in digital development. hargittai (1999) also found that the gdp of a country plays a large role in internet connectivity. hanafizadeh, hanafizadeh, and saghaei (2009) found that telecommunications policy and the density of fixed phone lines are major players in the cause and solutions to the unequal access problem; they also found a significant relationship between telephone lines and digitalization. in a similar vein, poor telecommunications infrastructure is a serious obstacle to citizens’ ability to use the internet extensively. a correlation exists between internet uptake and telecommunications infrastructure: the better a nation’s ict infrastructure is, the better the spread of the internet (billon et al., 2010). anaraki and heidari (2010) explain that facilitating internet use is not as simple as installing a few phone lines, because telecommunications companies need to implement major infrastructure across the country; providing access to the internet, even via a dial-up connection, could be a costly exercise in less developed regions. filtering the internet in the name of national security or to prevent citizens from accessing 'inappropriate' or 'harmful’ material is another barrier to access (al-saggaf, 2007). many non-democratic governments discourage the use of the internet by !25 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 employing strict filtering of internet content, blocking legitimate content and denying citizens political participation by limiting the use of internet services (shirazi, ngwenyama, & morawczynski, 2010). indeed, a large number of countries restrict access to the internet by implementing a filtering system at country level gateways to effectively stop users from accessing the outside internet (anaraki & heidari, 2010). shirazi, ngwenyama, and morawczynski (2010) found that people who live in democratic regions have a higher level of access to the internet and a greater usage of it, in comparison to regions and countries that filter and censor. they add that filtering of websites also creates a problem even for those who have access to the internet, as it affects some people more than others. for example, women in some middle eastern countries cannot access websites that advocate feminism or views regarding women’s rights. the above discussion focuses more on internet access and internet use and less on frequency of internet use. internet access refers to the availability of internet connection at a house, an organisation or an institution and internet use is concerned with the use of the internet by individuals whether at home, in their organisations or at their institutions (lera-lópez, billon, & gil, 2011). these two areas are different from having the time to use the internet on a regular basis (antonio & tuffley, 2014; lera-lópez et al., 2011). this position is similar to van dijk’s (2006) identification of four types of access: motivational access, material and physical access, skills access and usage access (because of lack of time). the current study focuses on the frequency of the use of the internet by individuals within their households, an area lera-lópez et al. (2011) noted is seldom explored. the limited literature indicates that higher income, having internet at home and education affect individuals’ frequency of the use of the internet (billon, marco, & lera-lopez, 2009; hargittai, 1999). another factor is having the time to use the internet (antonio & tuffley, 2014). van dijk (2006) noted that unequal use of the internet is not only related to lower income, lack of computer and internet equipment, lack of technical knowledge, lack of qualifications, and lack of motivation to use the internet but also having the time to use the internet. the current study also found that higher income, having internet at home, being a student, and having higher qualifications significantly influence iranian women’s frequency of internet use. however, with the exception of the lera-lópez et al. (2011) study nothing has been found in the literature relating to the relationship between family structure and the traditional role of women in communities and the time available to use the internet in the context of a developing country. while van dijk (2006) identified lack of time, i.e., usage access, as an obstacle to accessing the internet, his focus was on internet access not the extent of use and he did not explore what causes this lack of time. antonio and tuffley (2014) commented on the relationship between women’s lack of free time and the opportunity to access the internet, but their work was based on a review of the literature, not an empirical study. while al-saggaf (2007) blamed the arabic culture, particularly the aspect of women’s shyness and modesty, for discouraging arab women in particular from accessing information that could be beneficial, educational, or even informing to them, al-saggaf’s research did not explore the relationship between family !26 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 structure and the traditional role of women and using the internet on a regular basis. the current study is significant because it seeks to address this gap in the literature. in the next sections, the study method and results are detailed. method survey data was collected for this study using a web-based survey. the survey method was chosen given the ease of gathering data, lower cost, quicker survey completion and convenience for the participants. li et al. (2004) noted that internet surveys have been demonstrated to be a cost-effective method of obtaining data for population surveys. the questionnaire focused on four main areas: access, skills, infrastructure and affordability. access variables included the presence of dependants at home, the ownership of mobile phones and computers, the presence of internet at home and more importantly internet usage per week. skills variables included qualifications and computer and internet skills (e.g., basic, intermediate or advanced). in addition to asking participants about their geographic location (e.g., rural or urban), the infrastructure questions focussed on the connection method (i.e., dial up or broadband) and the connection speed (e.g., 56 kbs or over 128 kbs). finally, the affordability questions focussed on participants’ employment status, household income, and internet costs. the questionnaire was administered using surveymonkey (www.surveymonkey.com) and was prefaced by the informed consent sheet and information about the ethics approval to conduct the study. the questionnaire was offered in farsi, the national language of iranians, because the majority of iranians do not speak english fluently. at the end of the survey period, all responses received were translated from farsi into english. to invite respondents, the researchers placed invitations explaining the nature of the study and providing a link to it on social networking sites (sns). to complete the survey, participants needed to be iranian adults living in iran who have some access to the internet and some basic computer and internet skills. it should be noted that while it is true that some sns, such as facebook and twitter, are blocked in iran, a large majority of iranians are active on these sites because they are able to bypass the filtering mechanisms. three hundred and eleven female participants (n = 311) completed the survey. in terms of age, 35.36% (n = 110) of the participants were aged between 18 and 29 years old, 43.7% (n = 136) were between 30 and 50 years old and 20.9% (n = 65) were above 50 years old. in terms of their marital status, 63% (n = 197) were married, 20.5% (n = 64) were single, 4.8% (n = 15) were widows/widowers, 10.6% (n = 33) were divorced and two female participants did not indicate their marital status. statistical analysis !27 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 to understand the influence of the different variables on internet usage, we used regression analysis. since the questionnaire responses of interest were mostly ordered outcomes, ordinal regression techniques were used to model the data. in this study, the use of regression analysis allowed the modelling of the relationship between ‘weekly internet usage’ and the socio-demographic covariates. the ordered logit model is commonly specified as follows: ! figure 1: the ordered logit model the free parameters µ represent the cut-off between ranks. further details about this model can be found in train (2003). a single ordered logit model has been estimated to demonstrate the influence of dependants at home, marital status, income, internet at home, employment status and qualifications on weekly internet usage. a general to specific approach was used to identify this set of significant regressors, with insignificant regressors excluded from the model. results before presenting the regression results, we will first examine how the mean values for the explanatory variables in the regression equation change across different levels of weekly internet usage. it is apparent that for all of the variables in table 1 there is either a monotonically increasing or decreasing relationship with the number of days per week that the internet is used. the average values for the two variables of most interest in this study –the percentage of respondents having dependents and being married – both decrease with internet usage, though the largest change is between the two lowest levels of internet usage. the remaining variables (income, internet at home, student and degree) all increase with increasing internet usage, and substantively increase across all levels of weekly internet usage. table 1: average socio-demographic values across weekly internet usage groups variable weekly internet usage 1 day 2-3 days 4-7 days anyone dependent on you .90 .69 .65 married .81 .51 .50 !28 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 note. all values are percentages. the regression results are presented in table 2. the regression has a mcfadden rhosquare value of 0.235, which is equivalent to an r2 value of over 50% in standard regression analysis (mcfadden, 1973). thus, this result indicates that the model has a good fit with respect to the ability of the independent variables to explain changes in the dependent variable. seven of the explanatory variables considered were significant. with respect to the primary aim of the study, which sought to investigate whether family structure is related to the time available to access the internet, the coefficient for the ‘anyone dependent on you’ variable (-0.790) was negatively signed and significant (p = 0.013). the negative sign of the coefficient indicates that respondents who have family dependants at home are likely to access the internet less. similarly, for the second variable that is related to the role of women in society – married – the coefficient (-.689) is negative and significant (p = 0.017). similar to having someone dependent on you, the negative coefficient indicates that respondents who have a husband at home are likely to access the internet less. in contrast, the coefficients for the other explanatory variables considered, i.e., high income (1.784), mid income (1.186), internet at home (0.986), being a student (1.686) and having a degree (1.478), were found to be positively related to the amount of time available to women in iran to access the internet during the week. all coefficients are also highly significant (p<0.01). these results indicate that having high or mid income, having the internet at home, being a student or having a degree increases the likelihood that women will use the internet on more days during the week. further insight can also be gained by comparing the magnitude of the negatively signed variables ('anyone dependent on you' and 'married') with the five positively signed variables. the magnitudes of the coefficients for the five positively signed variables (high and mid income, internet at home, student, and degree) are all larger than the negative coefficients for having adult dependents or being married. this implies that the positive effects on internet usage of higher sociodemographic status, education or improved internet access more than offset the negative effects due to family structure. table 2: ordered logit regression showing the effect of various explanatory variables on weekly internet usage mid income .14 .37 .50 high income .01 .07 .16 internet at home .67 .79 .93 student .03 .07 .25 degree .04 .38 .56 variable coefficient standard error p-value µ1 .314 .381 .409 µ2 2.242 .409 .000 !29 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 discussion and conclusion as predicted, women respondents who have family dependants or who look after a husband at home have less time to use the internet more frequently, making family structure and the traditional role of women a major obstacle to accessing the internet on a regular basis. however, family dependants and spouses are not the only factors that explain less frequent internet usage. the results of this study indicate that women who have higher incomes, internet at home, are studying, or who have higher qualifications tend to enjoy higher levels of weekly internet usage. however, having family dependants or a husband to look after at home can diminish women’s opportunities to use the internet regularly. in light of this study’s findings, the model in figure 2 is proposed. we recommend that the proposed model is further tested in future studies using samples from other developing countries particularly those in the middle east: ! figure 2: the proposed model our study investigated the factors affecting the amount of time available to women in iran to access the internet with a focus on family structure and the traditional role of women in iranian communities. the key finding from this study is that while higher income, having internet at home, being a student, and having higher qualifications can all increase the chances of accessing the internet more regularly, having family dependants or looking after a husband at home can be a major obstacle to accessing the anyone dependent on you -.790 .317 .013 married -.689 .290 .017 mid income 1.186 .292 .000 high income 1.784 .615 .004 internet at home .986 .327 .003 student 1.686 .448 .000 degree 1.478 .319 .000 !30 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 internet on a regular basis. as predicted, family structure and the traditional role of women were found to have a significant and negative effect on women’s sustained access to the internet. this study has empirically demonstrated that the traditional role of women and family structure can play a major role in minimising the time available to women to use the internet frequently. given the lack of prior empirical studies on this topic, this current study makes a contribution to this literature. public opinion and policy are mainly concerned with having connectivity to the internet due to the perception that the information inequality problem can be solved when people are connected to the internet (van dijk & hacker, 2003). frequency of access is often neglected because it is assumed that it is the choice the user makes (van dijk & hacker, 2003). the results of this study indicate that women in iran who have family dependants at home to look after or whose husbands expect them to do the cooking, cleaning and other household chores in addition to raising children and caring for adult dependents, are likely to have less time to use the internet. van dijk (2006) argues that reduced internet usage has the potential of isolating women in society. if this happens, they may lack the means necessary for full participation in society (van dijk, 2006). for this reason, policies designed to help women in iran to express themselves online (antonio & tuffley, 2014) should take into account the role culture plays in reducing the time available to them to use the internet. tavani (2011) noted that when important policies are made about the internet, women are excluded. new policies should include women in the discussion about the use of the internet and should aim to boost their participation (tavani 2011). this is particularly important as the results of this study indicate that policies aimed at addressing sociodemographic disadvantage (e.g., via study or providing internet access at home) have the potential to more than offset the disadvantage due to marital status and family structure. there are a number of implications for iranian women from lack of regular access to the internet. less time to access the internet may mean less opportunities for iranian women to contribute to their communities such as by voicing their opinions and concerns about societal issues that matter to them and by petitioning for change. it may mean less opportunities for participating in political events such as elections. at the individual level, women who do not have regular access to the internet may miss out on accessing a number of opportunities on a regular basis, such as shopping online and banking online; services that exist in iran. applying for jobs is another area that may be impacted by less frequent access to the internet. as jobs in iran are increasingly advertised on the internet and candidates are expected to submit their applications online or send them by email rather than by post, lack of regular access to the internet may affect employment opportunities. e-health services are abundant online. one can purchase private health insurance, find information about hospital services, seek advice, update private health records, pay bills and make appointments with general practitioners. even in developing countries such as iran, lack of regular access to the internet would result in less access to several health services such as the ability to search for medical centres and pharmacies nearest to !31 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 patients, and the ability to find information about medications and medical assistance and general advice. given women in iran are in charge of raising the children and taking care of them, frequent access to information relating to medical services is of particular importance. the internet has revolutionised education and online education has made it possible for many, including women, to study from home. most universities offer their courses online with students having the option of studying either face-to-face or online or both. courses can be fully online where students can search for a course they would like to do in their local area, enrol in it, attend lectures, download course materials, participate in class discussions, do the research for their assignments, submit their assignments to their lecturers, and complete exams. lack of regular access to the internet may make it difficult for some students to learn online. three limitations to the present study and suggestions for future research are outlined. firstly, the analysis of data focused only on women. a future study could examine the effect of marital status and the presence of family dependents at home on men’s extent of using the internet. secondly, this study collected data from a small sample of 311 women. this affects the generalisability of the findings. a future study could recruit a larger sample to address the issue of the generalisability of the findings. thirdly, while the study explored the effect of marital status and the presence of family dependents at home on women, the study’s survey did not ask the study’s participants directly about this issue. a future study could consider asking potential participants this question directly in the survey to facilitate comparison of the findings from both approaches. acknowledgments the authors wishes to thank susan o'donnell (university of new brunswick) and rachel macculloch (charles sturt university) for their valuable contributions to this article. references abbasgholizadeh, m. 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(2016). user centred methods for measuring the quality of open data. the journal of community informatics, 12 (2),(special issue on open data for social change and sustainable development), 47-68. date submitted: 2015-07-20. date accepted: 2016-05-09. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1249 mark frank university of southampton, united kingdom corresponding author. mark.frank@soton.ac.uk johanna walker university of southampton, united kingdom j.c.walker@soton.ac.uk http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1249 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1249 mailto:mark.frank@soton.ac.uk mailto:j.c.walker@soton.ac.uk the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 practice harbours the potential for citizen users to become disengaged from the process of shaping and constructing relevant quality characteristics. this prompted our research question: what is the nature of open data metrics derived from user requirements and are they viable? this project explores ‘bottom–up’ methods for measuring the quality of open data that are grounded in what users need from data to perform core functions; thus producing metrics that are more directly related to the impact of the data. it has two aims – developing a methodology for identifying metrics that are relevant to a specific user context, and identifying and evaluating some metrics for one such group. our focus is on practical metrics that are either already in use or could reasonably be used in the near term. as such, they need to strike the right balance between being easy to implement and relevant: easy to implement in the sense that they can be used without excessive effort; relevant in that they are closely correlated with key desirable characteristics of the datasets in a given context. we believe that in exploring the perspective of the non-specialist user in some detail we are starting to address a significant gap in open data research which has, to date, focused on the implementation and strategic implications of open data. we have done this by using a combination of new methods such as structured workshops and role-plays which have their roots in traditional it methods for investigating user requirements but have been adapted for open data. the literature on data metrics and open data metrics often refers to metadata. however, the scope of the word ‘metadata’ has not yet been clearly defined. it can be limited to structured data about a dataset (for example a data portal may have fields for author and such-like) or expanded to include any document which describes the dataset. we have used metadata in the first sense and used supporting documentation to refer to any documents which give information about the dataset. the paper is structured as follows: first we review data quality, metrics and methodologies literature, and examine the criteria for a good metric before outlining our methods. then we present the results of the workshops, and derive and pilot our metrics. we conclude with a discussion and implications for the field and further work. literature review data quality characteristics the literature reviewed fell into three areas concerned with data quality and the assessment thereof. information systems and database management literature provides general data quality research that is applicable to open data (batini et al., 2009; scannapieco & catarci, 2002). linked open data (lod) research examines machine-readable assessments of data (behkamal et al., 2014; erickson et al., 2013). finally, the socio-technical open data field has looked at data quality and measurement through the frame of barriers to usage of data (martin et al., 2013; zuiderwijk et al., 2012). there is no common standard of definitions for data quality (scannapieco, missier & batini, 2005). wang (1998) memorably defines it as ‘fitness for use’ but this lacks measurability and !48 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 requires more detail in order to be operationalised. there is not even consensus on the meaning of the terms used to outline the dimensions, for instance, timeliness may be used to refer to the average age of a source or the extent to which the data is appropriately up-to-date (batini et al., 2009). scannepieco and cartarci (2002) survey six sets of dimensions of data quality, representing a variety of contexts and define data quality as a set of dimensions including accuracy, completeness, consistency (at format level and at instance level), timeliness, interpretability and accessibility as the most important factors from a list of 23. of these, accuracy and completeness were the only factors that were cited in all six sets of dimensions. even then, few of these are absolute measures and they are often relative to a specific dataset or application. for instance, current data may in fact be too late for a specific application, and therefore not timely (scannapieco & catarci, 2002; scannapieco, missier & batini, 2005). data quality is also subject to tradeoffs, often between timeliness and another dimension such as accuracy or completeness (scannapieco, missier & batini, 2005). these will vary with the domain, as may the attributes themselves. reviewing the lod literature, zaveri et al. (2012) identified 26 dimensions of data quality. compared to the dimensions cited above there was a far greater emphasis on provenance and other trust-based metrics, reflecting the distributed nature of open data. they also focus on amount-of-data, noting, an appropriate volume of data, in terms of quantity and coverage, should be a main aim of a dataset provider. licensing and interlinking are also key attributes of lod. accurate metadata is also vital for findability and cataloguing; reflecting the fact that open data is no longer defined within an organisation and thus needs to be discoverable by anyone (maali, cyganiak & peristeras, 2010; reiche, hofig & schieferdecker, 2014). reiche et al. (2014) propose metadata quality as a characteristic, being the fitness of the metadata to make use of the data it is describing. this speaks to the unpredictable use of open data. socio-technical research such as barry and bannister (2014) and zuiderwijk et al. (2012) primarily derive their quality characteristics from interviews and workshops with civil service (publishers) and academia. discovery is a frequent issue in the literature (conradie & choenni 2014; keen et al., 2013). it identifies interpretability – the users’ ability to comprehend the data in a set, and a number of aspects of interoperability, including formats, endurance, varying quality and licensing, reflecting the envisaged use of combining datasets from various sources. although data quality assessment is well-established, the added complexities of open data – the autonomy and openness – mean that a new set of data quality areas have started being added to the literature. however, this is becoming divided into two areas – the machinereadablility issues addressed by the lod field and the more people-oriented issues identified by the socio-technical studies. a more unifying approach may be called for. additionally, these studies are approached from a publisher or machine-intermediary point of view, and the field of user-derived metrics is in its infancy. !49 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 metrics to operationalize data quality there must be a way to assess it. it is clear from the preceding section that open data quality characteristics include some that are novel to the general corpus of data quality work. consequently, new metrics such as tau, ‘the percentage of datasets up to date in a data catalogue’ (atz, 2014) are being developed to engage with these attributes alongside those previously identified. many metrics are based on the technological structure of lod such as examining consistency through the ratio of triples using similar properties (behkamal et al., 2014) or by applying an automated test such as the flesch-kincaid reading ease. these metrics have the value of automation but cannot be performed ad hoc on all open datasets. bizer and cyganiak (2009) suggest three classifications of metrics for information quality filtering. the first, structured content, could be assessed statistically by analysing the structure. context-based metrics usually rely on a third-party check, for example, against a list of trusted providers, or metadata analysis. ratings-based metrics (such as the five stars of linked open data) are about the information or information provider, and depend on some subjectivity or skill of the assessor creating the rating, which may often be produced algorithmically. the above suggests that the creation of metrics must address a number of different dimensions. they pertain not only to the data but its creator, and not solely to its presentation or structure but to its meaning. they may change over time and are only useful in so far as they serve the purpose of the user of the metric. there are few existing metrics that can be applied without tools to any kind of dataset. data quality assessment methodologies batini et al. (2009) define a data quality methodology as an operational description of a logical process to assess and improve the quality of data. this makes explicit the idea that the attempt to understand data quality is made not in and of itself, but in the service of utilisation. pipino et al. (2002) state that there is a lack of ‘fundamental principles for […] developing useable metrics in practice and note that it is not practicable to create ‘one size fits all’, but rather these fundamental principles should be sought. su and jin (2004) suggest these might be derived in three ways: intuitively, systemically and user-based. batini et al. (2009) review 13 methodologies for the assessment of data quality. these indicate a variety of approaches are employed, from questionnaires through subjective and objective metrics to statistical analyses. most methodologies are appropriate for distributed systems, however; they generally apply to co-operative situations, where most of the parties can be considered to be aware of each other, which cannot be true for open data. this suggests there is a potential need to create a method for deriving and addressing fundamental principles amongst a variety of open data users that is appropriate for autonomous use in an extremely distributed system. it would of necessity be an audit model – one where only use decisions, and not the data itself, can be improved by users, and not the data itself. su and jin (2004) suggest user-based methodologies are problematic as being !50 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 most subjective, but they are also robust in that for a specific group of users they identify their exact concerns. what makes a good metric? the preceding section suggests that open data requires a definition of data quality that is broad and loosely defined. we want to take into account more than the content of the datasets, e.g. discoverability, and we want to apply our metrics in environments where the aims are not clearly defined. we therefore propose a correspondingly broad and loose definition of a metric as ‘an observable characteristic of one or more datasets that acts as a proxy for some other characteristic of interest which is less easy to observe’. in this paper we will refer to the characteristic of interest as an attribute of the data. choosing a metric for an attribute is similar to choosing an operational definition for a concept. like an operational definition a good metric should be valid (closely correlated with the attribute of interest) and reliable (gives consistent results over time and between observers). it should measure attributes that matter and should be sufficiently closely tied to the attribute that it is difficult to ‘game’ the metric. in addition, during the course of the project we identified these desirable characteristics of a metric: discriminatory. the metric should be sensitive enough to discriminate between common values of the attribute. efficient. the less time and resource required to use it the better. in some contexts poor efficiency can lead to poor validity and reliability. if the aim is to measure a large number of datasets for a large variety of users (e.g. the open data barometer) then poor efficiency may force the assessors to use a small convenience sample which potentially introduces both bias and sampling error. transferable. the same metric can be used in a variety of different contexts – in our case a range of different user groups – and across cultural and economic variation. comparable. this is an extension of transferability. if a metric is comparable not only is the metric transferable to a wide variety of contexts but the results can be meaningfully compared. ideally this would result in a universal standard that transcends cultures and applications. we propose that the ideal metric would rate highly on all of these criteria: an efficient assessment (e.g. automated) that could be quickly run against a large group of datasets with high validity and reliability giving results that are comparable for a wide range of contexts. in practice there is often a trade-off between these criteria. for example, we may accept limited transferability as a cost of increased validity. metrics lie on a spectrum between the most subjective, which involve a high degree of judgement, and the most objective, which involve little judgement. greater objectivity is associated with greater reliability. more objective metrics may also allow for automation (for example, automatically inspecting metadata for the recent updates) which can lead to greater efficiency – although this is not always true. however, it is often hard to find an objective metric that is valid, and a subjective metric with suitable guidance and support for the assessor can have more utility. in this project we !51 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 focused on metrics that are towards the objective end of the scale, while noting the importance of subjective metrics as an alternative. while these are all relevant criteria for a good metric, the quality of a metric depends ultimately on whether it fulfils its purpose. in the context of open data this purpose can be as varied as comparing progress of data providers, estimating the impact of open data, or evaluating the usability of a data portal. in this paper we assume the purpose is to determine the value of a group of open datasets to a defined community of users. the group of datasets is deliberately left loosely defined. it might be as large as all data published by a national government or as small as a portal from a specialist provider.’ there are also cultural considerations in choosing a metric. a metric that is hard to understand or which has an obscure relationship with the attribute it is intended to measure is unlikely to be accepted in practice – even if it is efficient, valid and reliable. we therefore focused on straightforward metrics which have a direct and logical relationship with the attribute they were intended to measure. methodology our interest was in identifying metrics that reflect the core concerns of users who are not open data specialist or enthusiasts. we needed to uncover the relationships between users’ problems, the information that would help them solve those problems, and the data that might supply that information. this depth and subtlety of insight would be very difficult to uncover through large-scale quantitative approachs. therefore, we used qualitative methods to work closely with two small selected groups of potential users to explore in depth if/how open data could contribute to their work. our approach differed from many open data events for users (e.g. hackathons) which are aimed at promoting open data and developing a community. such events are vital to the open data movement, but they have two characteristics which made them unsuitable for our purposes: the participants come because they have some kind of special interest in open data and typically they are presented with some data and then work to find good uses for it. this means the participants are not at all representative of the populations and is a serious skewing of the sample from the point of view of our research. the data to problems approach can be very successful, but the danger is that it produces interesting solutions to relatively minor problems – problems selected because they are amenable to open data solutions – not because they are core concerns of the users. to ensure that we were addressing significant problems we reversed the order – starting with identifying problems that most concerned our users and then trying to discover how open data might help them with those problems. we were determined not to have preconceptions as to what matters about the data and let the users tell us what mattered to them. only then did we go on to consider suitable metrics. selection of user groups we had prior contact with voluntary sector organisations supporting the homeless in winchester, uk. these organisations were a suitable group of users for this study because: !52 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 we wanted to start with a well-established open data culture such as the uk, which should minimise confounding variables relating to the early stages of the availability of open data; these particular organisations are not ‘open data aware’. there is no special requirement for it or data skills and in this respect they are typical of thousands of voluntary sector organisations; and preliminary discussion with a voluntary sector coordinator established that the uk voluntary housing sector has several real business issues that might be addressed by open data. we used unstructured interviews and e-mail to identify three such organisations and confirm that they were suitable to participate. while we wished to restrict the study to a well-defined and limited set of user problems, we were keen to develop metrics that transcended cultural and developmental barriers and were relevant to emerging economies. we identified four organisations in gujerat, india, who met similar criteria in terms of being relatively small, focused on a specific urban geographical area (ahmedabad) and working with the homeless. the difference in stage of developmental growth and governmental policies meant we could not expect to exactly mirror the activities of the uk organisations, but they all delivered programmes to support the homeless or poorly housed in ahmedabad, which we felt was sufficiently similar so as not to affect our methodology. identifying key attributes each group of users attended two structured workshops (see table 1) to jointly develop and document the user’s story including: the problems they have to solve; the information they need to solve them; how open data can contribute to this information; how this data can be found; and what attributes of the data are required for using the data in this context and what attributes (if any) are preventing them from using it. these attributes were interpreted very broadly ranging from technical format and licensing arrangements through to details of the content, availability of support, currency and provenance. the key consideration was to discover, without preconceptions, which attributes are truly significant for the users. the first workshop was used to identify the most important problems facing the group and what additional information would most help them address those problems. in the period between the workshops the researchers tried to identify open datasets that could potentially supply at least some of the missing information. to do this: !53 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 1 workshops and participants we discarded problems where we knew the required information would not be available as open data (e.g. information about named individuals); we searched the relevant government open data portal (data.gov.uk and data.gov.in) using keywords derived from the information the users needed; in the uk we searched specialist data portals such as the shelter databank, and in india we used exemplar projects such as transparent chennai and the karnataka learning partnership as a guide to what might be available in gujerat and in what form; we took advice from specialists such as the department for communities and local government (dclg) in the uk and datameet in india; and we used google as this sometimes proved more efficient at finding data than the government portal search mechanisms. as a result we selected a small number of datasets (see appendix) that came close to providing part of the information that the users had identified in the first workshop. at the second workshop each group was presented with the selected datasets, asked to review them and decide, through a group discussion, whether and how they could they could be used in practice. this allowed us to identify important dataset attributes at high level. we then asked the participants to select one or two datasets out of those discussed that had the most potential (one dataset in the uk and two in india). they were asked to annotate these datasets with comments on what would make them useful and their annotations were encoded. we then asked the participants to tell the story of a typical situation in which they might use these !54 workshop location workshop type number of attendees number and type of organisations winchester uk problem and information need specification (2 hrs) 4 3
 2 x temporary shelter 
 1 x social housing winchester uk data selection and assessment (2 hrs) 4 3
 2 x temporary shelter 
 1 x social housing ahmedabad, india problem and information need specification (3 hrs) 6 4
 1 x state budget analysis 
 1 x slum rehousing 
 1 x migrant workers 
 1 x basic services for slum dwellers 
 ahmedabad, india data selection and assessment (3hrs) 4 3
 1 x education intervention 
 1 x basic services for slum dwellers 
 1 x slum rehousing the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 datasets. the objective of this ‘role-play’ was to recreate, to a limited extent, the environment in which our participants would be using the datasets and thus uncover any important requirements derived from their working environment which may not be obvious when focusing on the datasets themselves in a workshop environment. this allowed us to confirm and add details to the key dataset attributes. the output of the two workshops was a list of attributes that the users agreed were important if open data was to be useful. details of the structure of both workshops are the appendices. following the workshops we investigated possible metrics that both help to identify whether the selected attributes are present and are practical to implement. for any given attribute there are potentially an indefinitely large number of ways of measuring it. however, due the approach adopted, in practice there were few candidates for any given attribute. we wanted to evaluate each metric against our outlined criteria. we did this by piloting the metrics against a sample of datasets relevant to our community. this comprised ten datasets from the uk and five from india. the uk datasets were selected from a list generated for the open data institute housing open data challenge . we chose these because they had been 1 selected as being relevant to housing by experts independent from our project. from that list we selected the first dataset from each provider to give a cross-section of providers. there was no equivalent list for india so we included the datasets that were used in the second workshop as we knew they were relevant to our users. we piloted the metrics against all the datasets and noted: the metric score for each dataset; how confident we felt in the score (a measure of objectivity and therefore reliability); and how easy it was to make the assessment (a measure of efficiency). we then assessed the validity and transferability/comparability of the metric on theoretical grounds. results problems and information needs the organisations attending the uk and indian workshops had much in common in terms of their biggest problems and the information that would help them. for example, organisations in both countries struggled with identifying which welfare benefits individuals were entitled to. a full list of problems and information requirements is provided in the appendices. attributes the most important result for this project was that five attributes of datasets were identified as being significant by this group of users. there is no accepted terminology for these http://www.nesta.org.uk/closed-housing-open-data-challenge 1 !55 http://www.nesta.org.uk/closed-housing-open-data-challenge the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 attributes (w3c 2015) so we have used terms that we believe are unlikely to cause confusion based on current usage. discoverability. datasets can be discovered via many different routes including general purpose search engines such as google; government data portals such as data.gov.uk or data.gov.in; specialist intermediaries such the uk shelter databank; and word of mouth. as described in the methodology section, the researchers searched for relevant datasets based on the information needs of the participants using a combination of these routes. this proved to be very demanding even with the support of subject matter experts. for example, we were advised by the ahmedabad centre for environmental planning and technology university that slum data in excel format existed but we were unable to locate it using either google or data.gov.in. the participants commented that it would be a very significant issue had they undertaken the search themselves. it’s a full time job [tracking down the appropriate data] isn’t it? (uk) it is an issue with people who have not looked at this data, they would not put in those titles (india) granularity. to address some of their most pressing problems the attendees needed information about individual people and potential homes, such as knowing the benefit status of a homeless person or the addresses of landlords that will accept lodgers receiving state benefit. it isn’t sufficient to know rates of acceptance in winchester. it has to be number 2 something street. (uk) for privacy reasons open data is most unlikely to provide this information which severely limits the utility of open data in this context. for other problems it was useful to have data aggregated at higher levels such as city or district within city. the most useful level varied according to the dataset and specific problem being addressed. for example, generic data on the cost of crime and health services is sufficient for a funding application for additional resources. but data on the cost of specific crimes and treatments is required when making the case for providing permanent housing to an individual client with a particular profile. [it’s] good for research on aggregate level but in terms of providing service [we] need more detail (india) if it is not linked to a specific ward, how useful can it be? it can give you good overview of what is happening in the area but not for an intervention. (india) immediate intelligibility. while the attendees were very competent in their field, they often found datasets hard to interpret. an apparently straightforward field such as the number of homeless people in a city, immediately raised questions of interpretation. at one extreme someone might be considered homeless if they are forced to leave their home for temporary reasons such as a flood, at the other extreme they might be someone sleeping the streets who is not known to the local authority. without further explanation and information about how the data is collected it is impossible to know what the figure means. similar issues of interpretation arose for almost all the datasets examined. over half (26 out of 51) of the annotations on the datasets expressed a need for more information. on the other hand, the role-play revealed that participants did not typically have much time to understand datasets and therefore the time to !56 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 understand the data is a critical aspect of this attribute. for example, in the uk workshop, the attendees explored using a dataset on costs of health treatments which, while initially hard to understand, was explained by a 58-page supporting document. despite the presence of the supporting document, this dataset was not useful to the community as it would take too long to use the document. one doesn’t have too much time to read through it (uk) is the question that was asked ‘where are you getting the water you drink’ or ‘where is your nearest drinking water’? (india) what is difference between ‘no exclusive room’ and ‘one room’? (india) you need the documentary information that supports this. (india) trusted/authoritative. this was a particular concern in india where participants were extremely sceptical about the veracity of government data. for example, they assumed data on slums was incomplete because, by law, local government has to support inhabitants of slums and thus there is an incentive not to include slums in the data. in the uk, participants felt it was important that data came from an authoritative source and that they understood how it was collected, particularly if they used that data as part of a funding application. 
 for slum surveys, who is collecting the data and who is implementing it? if the same agency collects data about what are the gaps in provisions it may not [unintelligible] to collect, if a third party is doing the survey and paid directly by central government then it can conduct fair, impartial surveys. (india) linkable to other data. both countries identified a need to discover relationships between data items that were not available in the datasets in the published format but must have existed in the raw data. for example, the uk participants needed to compare the cost of their interventions with the cost of crime and health interventions for the homeless. this can be seen as a requirement to have data in the appropriate format. data presented in pdf or excel format had been curated by the publishers and selected, in most cases, from a larger set of data. this meant certain choices about what would be displayed in that particular dataset had been made by the publishers, and it was not possible to ‘re-attach’ other data that had been excluded. technologies such as lod or hateoas could potentially address this requirement but current tools are beyond the scope of these users. to use this we need some other variables as well, like this many people are having own house, but not infrastructure, and we need geographical area. (india) if you can cross-check, [with certain income data] whether someone has a tv and a fridge, this can verify whether their income is correct. (india) metrics following the workshops we proposed and assessed metrics for each attribute. discoverability metrics for discoverability presented significant difficulties. it is not practical to develop a metric that takes into account all possible routes that may be used to discover a dataset. therefore any proposed metric must be relative not only to the data being sought but also the !57 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 route being used. even within this constrained context, we struggled to identify a useful metric. we considered the following metric which assumes that the route to discovering the dataset is via a keyword search (which is frequently the case): ‘given a set of keywords to search for a dataset how many alternative datasets are generated and what proportion of the alternatives include the required data’. this might act as a proxy for how quickly the route leads to the target data. it clearly raises difficulties in choosing appropriate keywords but this need not matter if the result is not sensitive to the precise choice of keywords. to test this we searched for datasets on housing stock using different combinations of keywords on data.gov.uk. however, in practice the results appear to be extremely sensitive to the choice of keywords. for example, using dwelling as a synonym for housing and supply as a synonym for stock we obtained the results in table 2: table 2 sensitivity of different keywords when searching for data on ‘housing stock’ on data.gov.uk subjective metrics also present a problem as they require the assessor to put themselves in the shoes of a typical user who may have very different skills and attitudes to the assessor. we therefore focused on an approach based closely on our own problems in discovering appropriate data. all of these tasks proved challenging: identifying the organisation likely to supply appropriate data; finding a data portal or other data search service used by that organization; using the data portal/search service to produce a list of possible candidate datasets that was not too long and which we were confident had included any datasets of interest. a key concern here was that data might be referred to by a synonym (e.g. ‘dwelling’ instead of ‘house’ and as a result we might not find it); and examining the list of candidate datasets to see if they contained the data of interest quickly. in addition: we had no way of knowing whether appropriate datasets existed other than finding them and wasted a lot of time looking for data that we never found and may not have existed; and !58 keywords number of datasets returned dwelling stock 102 housing stock 154 dwelling supply 17 housing supply 78 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 when we found datasets in one format (e.g. pdf) it was often challenging to determine if they were available in a more useful format such as excel. we constructed a metric based on the availability of solutions to these challenges (with the exception of identifying the organisation for owning the data, for which we were not able to identify any solution). for any given dataset we awarded one point for each of the following: the publisher/owner of the data has an open data portal (or similar search mechanism); the publisher/owner of that portal publishes an updated, searchable list of datasets; the publisher/owner of that portal publishes an updated, searchable list of datasets with synonyms; the publisher/owner of that portal publishes a list of datasets which are known to exist but are not currently available. this would limit the time wasted on abortive searches; and the dataset is accompanied by a list of alternative formats. publishing in multiple formats is recommended by the world wide web consortium (w3c, 2015). we piloted this metric against the sample datasets. many of these features are features of the data portal to which the dataset belongs. all but one of the uk datasets were served by data.gov.uk and none of them included a list of alternative formats. therefore, the majority of datasets had the same score and discrimination was low. the indian datasets, and the one uk dataset not served by data.gov.uk, had different scores and we therefore believe the low discrimination was a function of the limited datasets on which we piloted the metric. discovering the features of the portal was time consuming, but once they were established it took only a few minutes to rate a dataset according to this metric and there was little judgement involved. we therefore found the metric to be reliable and rated its efficiency as medium. it also appears to be transferable and comparable. there is a major issue over validity because it does not measure the difficulty of the initial challenge of identifying an owner. nevertheless, it is directly related to other challenges in discovering data and therefore has some validity in that sphere. granularity although the required level of granularity varies according to the problem being addressed, it is always possible to combine data with greater granularity into higher levels with less granularity, while the reverse is generally not possible. this suggests that a metric could be based on the principle that the more granular the data the better. although there is some potential for doing this automatically, the technology is not currently at the level where we could pilot it. for the foreseeable future, most datasets will require human intervention and subject matter knowledge to recognise different levels of granularity. for a well-defined context it can be straightforward to specify the levels of granularity that are most meaningful for a type of data. an assessor can then assess datasets according to whether they include these levels. while the effective granularity of a dataset is in theory a function of the relationship between the different fields in the dataset, for the purposes of this metric we only considered fields !59 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 independently. we piloted this approach using five levels of geographical granularity on the sample datasets. for the uk datasets we used national (i.e. uk), country, county, city, address (i.e. the identified building); for the indian datasets we used national, state, district, city (or village), address. the results were promising. for the uk datasets, in every case it was possible to identify the level almost immediately on opening the sample dataset with very little requirement for personal judgement (in some cases data was presented by local authority and a small level of background knowledge and judgement was required to decide whether this should be classified as county or city level). this was a little harder for the indian datasets as in several cases a dataset comprised several tables in a pdf document some of which were at state level (which was assumed from the context of the document) and some at district level. nevertheless, the level of granularity was apparent for individual tables. thus, the metric had high efficiency and reliability. the metric had such a direct relationship to the attribute of granularity it was hard to doubt its validity. all five levels were found among the datasets suggesting good discrimination. there seems to be little problem in theory applying the metric to other types of granularity and other data although the results would not be comparable. this approach is simple and direct but limited. it measures how granular a dataset is in a very specific context and requires prior specification of the context. we considered a more sophisticated approach, which is to measure the scope of a dataset to support different levels of granularity in a broader context including being combined with other data. this relies on the fact that some data facilitates aggregation while other data does not. for example, in the uk post codes allow for aggregating data geographically but house names do not. we refer to such linking data as class data as it indicates a class to which the individual can be allocated. some class data is more generic than other class data in that it is not specific to a domain. the post code can be used almost wherever there is a requirement for geographical aggregation. the residential status of a house (owner-occupied, private rented, public rented, vacant) can be used for aggregation but is context specific. we explored a scale from 1 to 4 where the levels are: 1) includes aggregated data only e.g. national statistics; 2) includes individual unit level data but with no generic class data; 3) includes generic class data; and 4) includes more than one form of generic class data. we piloted this scale against the sample datasets. the metric proved to be reliable and efficient; in every case it was possible to classify the dataset on inspection with minimal judgement required. all datasets scored either 1 or 3. this casts some doubt on its discrimination as it suggests it may effectively be a two-level metric. the fact that the key data is generic suggests that the metric would have good transferability and comparability. it is harder to assess the validity. the metric measures the ability of data to participate in aggregation but it is by no means certain that this translates into aggregations that are useful for our community of users. it is a concept which needs further research. !60 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 immediate intelligibility to assess immediate intelligibility we considered using an automated test of data readability – similar to the flesch-kincaid test for document readability (flesch, 1948) – as a metric. however, current tests of readability are designed for documents not data, and a test would need to be developed. even then, it is not clear that such a test would be valid. the intelligibility problems that the participants came across were a function of background knowledge rather than the specific words that were used and it is hard to see how an automated readability test would detect this type of problem. we therefore focused on measuring the availability of supporting information. a simple approach is to rate datasets on the accessibility of supporting information bearing in mind that speed of intelligibility is vital. a possible scale might be (with increasing value): 1) supporting documentation does not exist; 2) supporting documentation exists but as a document which has to be found separately from the data; 3) supporting documentation is found at the same time as the data (e.g. the link to the document is next to the link to the data in the search); 4) supporting documentation can be immediately accessed from within the dataset but it is not context sensitive. this might be a link to the documentation or text contained within the dataset; 5) supporting documentation can be accessed immediately from within the dataset and it is context sensitive so that users can directly access information about a specific item of concern. this might be a link to a specific point in the documentation or the text contained within the dataset; thus eliminating the need to search the documentation and speeding up access to the relevant material. we piloted this against the sample datasets with limited success. evaluating the level of support involved some subjectivity in many cases e.g. does a footnote in a spreadsheet count as level 5 support? does supporting documentation fall into level 2 or 3? can we be sure there is no supporting documentation because we have failed to find it? the process was efficient in that it was possible to determine the level of support almost immediately upon opening the dataset and there was good discrimination with results including levels 1, 3, 4 and 5. there is no problem in principle in transferring the metric to other domains and the results would be comparable if they are simply interpreted as measuring the speed of availability of supporting documentation. the biggest issue is validity. the metric raises some issues where datasets are available in multiple formats. some formats such as lod and excel facilitate linking to supporting documentation better than others such as csv. we intend the metric to refer to the available format of the dataset that has the best links to supporting documentation. however, as discussed under the section on discoverability it may not be easy to determine all the available formats for a given dataset. also the metric takes no account of the quality of the supporting documentation. a point identified by reiche et al. (2014) when discussing metadata quality is that it is one thing to quickly locate supporting documentation, but another to understand it and get the required support. !61 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 trustworthiness our users trusted (or mistrusted) data for a variety of reasons: they know (or don’t know) how it was collected and processed; it comes from a trusted source; it is internally consistent and plausible; and/or it is consistent with other external sources. the first two reasons suggest metrics based on provenance. the second two suggest metrics based on consistency tests. there has been theoretical work on metrics of consistency and plausibility, see for example prat and madnick (2008), but this has not resulted in any usable tools or methods. we therefore primarily considered metrics based on provenance. there is extensive literature about systems for tracking provenance (suen et al., 2013) and standards for exchanging information about provenance (buneman, khanna & tan, 2000; moreau et al., 2011; pignotti, corsar & edwards, 2011). but this does not suggest metrics that could be implemented in the short term. we explored a relatively simple approach – evaluating whether the data or supporting documentation answers key questions that are relevant to provenance. corsar and edwards (2012) make the case that open data metadata, in addition to common requirements such as date and authors, should: if possible, expand on this with a description of the dataset's provenance. this includes describing the processes involved (e.g. screen scraping, data transformation) the entities used or generated (e.g. the downloaded timetable webpage and the generated timetable spreadsheet), and the agents (e.g. users, agencies, organisations) involved in the creation of the dataset. this record should also include the relationships between them. ram and liu (2009) propose seven questions (the seven ws) which can provide the basis for this approach: 1) what is the data? 2) who author/ organisation which created it? 3) why was the dataset created? 4) (w)how was it collected what events lead up to its collection? 5) when was it collected? 6) where was it collected? 7) which instruments were used to collect it? !62 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the same approach can be used objectively – simply recording whether the question has been answered – or more subjectively, but potentially with greater validity, by instructing an assessor to judge the quality of the answer. we piloted the objective approach on the sample datasets, awarding from 0 to 7 points to each dataset – one point for each of the 7 ws for which there was an answer in the dataset or supporting documentation. despite adopting the objective approach, it proved difficult to judge whether some of the questions had been answered or not. for example, if data refers to occupancy levels in 2012 is that sufficient information to answer the question: when was it collected? and it was time-consuming to inspect the documentation to see if the questions were answered. so we assessed reliability as medium to low and efficiency as medium. discrimination was good with datasets being scored as low as 1 and as high as 7 (3 was the only level not represented). the metric is not context specific so it can be transferred and there seems no reason why the results should not be compared. the key concern is over the validity of the metric. in many cases the data scored quite low on the metric but was from a highly trustworthy source such as the uk office of national statistics. the metric takes no account of reputation-based trust (artz & gil, 2007), where trustworthiness of the data is derived from the trustworthiness of the source. a more sophisticated approach might take this into account. linkable to other data the five stars of linked open data is an accepted and easily applicable measure of open data format standards which reflects the user need to be able to discover unanticipated relationships among data. it can be interpreted not just as a technical standard but as a ‘soft’ standard, for example, making data findable and putting it in context. as this metric has already been studied and used extensively we did not do any further evaluation and accepted that it has high reliability, discrimination, transferability and comparability. we assessed the validity as medium because, while the metric can be a valid measure of the technical scope for exploring new relationships in the right hands, there are several reasons it might fail in practice. the ability to link data, especially using automated methods, depends not only on the technical format but the structure and choice of data in the dataset. users need to have the skills, time and resources to use the data and make the linkages. even developers found it challenging when lod was first introduced by the uk government (sheridan & tennison 2010). a more valid metric might reflect the value of presenting data in multiple formats which would allow for users in different contexts to manipulate it in different ways. however, this entails a basis for weighting the value of different formats for different communities of users which would require further research. summary table 3 summarises our assessment of the proposed metrics. we rate each metric as high, medium or low against the criteria (except that comparability and transferability are combined for conciseness). it is important to bear in mind that these assessments were based on using the metrics on a small sample of datasets relevant to the users we worked with. nevertheless the results indicate that there is potential for viable metrics for the key attributes for this community based round simple and direct proxies. !63 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 3 summary of assessment of metrics discussion the data attributes some of the data attributes that emerged from the workshops reflected known concerns with open data. granularity is a key element of the primary principle of the 8 principles of open government data (malmud, 2007) and the need to link data is one of the fundamental tenets of the open data movement. on the other hand, the emphasis on being able to comprehend the data quickly was less predictable. timeliness, which is often at the centre of such metrics, was only mentioned once in the workshops, and this was in the context of how often data was collected, rather than when it was published. as part of our methodology the study was deliberately limited to a specific set of users. this was an advantage in that the participants agreed about problems, information and attributes; but it also places limits on how widely the conclusions might be applied. for example, large campaigning charities have staff whose sole task is to analyse evidence and who have the time to understand data. they are likely to be less concerned with immediate intelligibility and more concerned with ensuring data is up-to-date so that it can be used in campaigns. other communities may have different key attributes which would require different metrics. attribute metric valid reliable discriminatory transferable/ comparable efficient discoverabili ty 5-point scale indicating presence of features which enable discoverability. medium high low (for the sample datasets but this may be an exception) high medium large effort to assess portal – shared over many datasets. granularity observe whether dataset includes preselected (context-specific) levels high high high transferable but not comparable high levels based on presence of generic class data medium high medium high high intelligibility scale for quality of link to supporting information medium low high transferable but not comparable high trustworthin ess number of answers to the 7 ws low medium high high medium linkable to other data 5 stars of open data medium high high high high !64 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 nevertheless, there is no reason why the same approach to identifying appropriate metrics for a particular group of users cannot be used in other contexts. all of the five attributes that emerged were important in both countries. there was a difference in emphasis, possibly because of the relative maturity of open data in the two countries. although it was still a challenge, discoverability was much easier in the uk where there are several useful portals at both central and local government levels, and there is relatively good coordination between local and central government in the collection and distribution of statistics. in india there is still a lack of effective portals at the local level and there is less coordination between central and local government. for example, while collecting data is often a function of central government, it frequently fails to provide sufficient granularity for local government who have to regulate and administer programmes based on the data. trustworthiness was a concern in the uk but the participants felt that the reputation of the provider might be sufficient to make the data trustworthy. the indian participants required a stronger understanding of provenance and possible unreliability before they trusted the data. metrics the aim of the project was to investigate a different approach to open data metrics. the resulting metrics should be considered simply as ideas for discussion, refinement and further research. however, the attributes they measure have been recognised in other literature and therefore there is good reason to suppose they are applicable to a wider user community. validity is fundamental to any metric. the temptation to measure something just because it is reliable and efficient is very strong – but should be resisted. measuring the wrong thing well is worse than measuring the right thing badly. we assessed only one of our metrics as high validity. this was the first of the two measures of granularity – simply inspecting datasets to see if they contained data which met predetermined levels of granularity. this limited the metric to a very specific context and meant the metric had no comparability. another possible way to increase validity is to take a more subjective approach but at a cost in reliability; for example, by asking an assessor to judge whether a dataset is quickly intelligible rather than seeking an objective proxy for intelligibility. by definition subjective approaches require judgement which may differ from one assessor to another and thus affect reliability. however, subjective approaches do not necessarily increase validity. the assessors of open data are unlikely to be representative users and may struggle to adopt the role of a user with a different skill set, attitude and environment. to some extent this can be mitigated by supplying the assessor with strong guidance, but this requires the resources to develop and test the guidance which may well have to be repeated for different user groups. we hope that our approach has at least focused attention on what really needs to be measured (the attributes) and thus raises the profile of validity. there are developing technologies and standards which may provide better metrics in the future. bizer, heath and berners-lee (2009) suggest that a pagerank type algorithm – trustrank – could eventually emerge for measuring trustworthiness, but this would be dependent on a great many more datasets in any one domain being available. the w3c working group on data on the web best practices recently identified indicating the nonavailability of datasets as one of its draft best practices (w3c 2015, sec. best practice 21), !65 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 and the sunlight foundation’s fourth principle of open government data recommends a full inventory of available data and helpful context on what is unlikely to be released (the sunlight foundation, 2015) which would address some discoverability issues. further implications several lessons emerged beyond the aims of this project. it was apparent that a lot of the information that participants find critical to solving problems is information about processes, for example, how to recognise and respond to different kinds of ‘legal high’. this parallels heald’s distinction between process and event transparency (heald, 2011). this kind of information on how or why is not typically available through open data. the workshops suggest that more research is needed into what constitutes data literacy, and what skills it might comprise to increase the impact of open data. our users were as competent as anyone could reasonably expect: technically (they included experienced internet and excel users); in their knowledge of the subject matter; and also in their understanding the significance of data. yet, they struggled to interpret aspects of every dataset that was presented to them. furthermore, the knowledge they needed to interpret the data was specific and not necessarily applicable to other datasets. this suggests that there is scope for more work to be done on the best way to provide context to any given dataset, which would go some way to removing this onerous requirement from the user. the study was limited to one small set of users in two different environments and similar user-oriented research needs to be done for a wider variety of user groups. each group is likely to have its own key problems, information needs and attributes, and it is only by conducting a range of similar studies will it be possible to determine the scope of any conclusions. the methodology needs to refined and could be expanded. we learned several lessons which are noted in the appendices. it would be fruitful to ask users to find their data (as opposed to doing it for them as we did) and to get their feedback on the metrics. in addition we strongly believe that our approach of starting with the needs of users who are not open data enthusiasts needs to be used more widely – not just for developing metrics but for gaining a greater understanding of the limitations of open data and how it should move forward if it is go beyond the domain of specialists. acknowledgments the funding for this work has been provided through the world wide web foundation ‘open data for development fund’ to support the ‘open government partnership open data working group’ work, through grant 107722 from canada’s international development research centre (web.idrc.ca). find out more at http://www.opengovpartnership.org/groups/ opendata. references artz, d., & gil, y. 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(1998). a product perspective on total data quality management. communications of the acm, 41 (2), 58–65. zaveri, a. (2012). anisa rula, andrea maurino, ricardo pietrobon, jens lehmann, and sören auer. quality assessment methodologies for linked open data. semantic web journal. submitted on, 12, 14. zuiderwijk, a., janssen, m., choenni, s., meijer, r., & alibaks, r. s. (2012). socio-technical impediments of open data. electronic journal of e-government, 10 (2), 156–172. !68 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2010.07.005 http://doi.org/10.1109/hicss.2008.243 http://doi.org/10.1109/trustcom.2013.73 http://sunlightfoundation.com/opendataguidelines/ http://www.w3.org/tr/dwbp/ <div id="article"> <h2 id="article_title"> collaborative knowledge creation in development networks: lessons learnt from a transnational programme </h2> <div id="article_author"> fabio nascimbeni, universidad oberta de catalunya </div> <p>director of the menon network, a brussels-based research and innovation network; finalising a phd on ict for development in the knowledge society at the universidad oberta de catalunya, barcelona.</p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 1. knowledge networking in international development cooperation </h3> <p> among the buzz concepts of the international development cooperation (idc) sector, amidst technical assistance, capacity building, empowerment, ownership and partnership, a new idea is gaining ground in the last years, that is the one of knowledge networking. this is linked to the understanding by more and more idc agencies and by some national development agencies of the fact that a new model for idc is needed. using the words of fukuda-parr, lopes and malik, "the old-style linear forms of technical cooperation will to some extent be overtaken by events. globalization and the counter-reactions to it is creating multiple new links, networks and alliances that change the topography of knowledge. in this globalized environment, the idea of being propelled along a linear development path by knowledge emanating from a single distant country will increasingly be seen as antiquated and irrelevant. new institutional forms of global support to capacity development are becoming possible" (fukuda-parr et al, 2002 pag. 17). in line with this understanding, most of the major donors are including networking and knowledge sharing as key components of their development cooperation strategies. as suggested by henry, mohan and yanacopulos, "networking (...) has become central to the self-image of most development agencies" (henry et al, 2004, pg. 5). to make an example, the world bank claims to be a "knowledge bank" and has created a set of units and programs devoted to networking, ict and knowledge-sharing, practically in all sectors and regions. most of these initiatives are supporting what diane stone defines as global knowledge networks, that are global aggregations of professional associations, academic research groups and scientific communities that gather around specific issues, with the main aim of sharing and spreading knowledge, often with a strong advocacy and policy focus (stone, 2002). </p> <p> in parallel, development practitioners seem to have understood that working in networks, both at the level of international agencies and of development experts and consultants, can increase the efficiency of the system and counterbalance the decreasing of funds that governments devote to development aid. specifically, civil society seems to have being learning the lesson on the importance of working with networks as much as public donors have. as peter plastrik and madeleine taylor note, "for many decades, the overriding organizing principle of the social-change sector, as with business and government, has been the stand-alone organization. (...) but hierarchical, organization-centric is losing its sway. many people, even in the largest, most venerable organizations, recognize now that to gain greater impact they have to let go of organization-centric ideas about how the world works, and they are adopting network-centric thinking" (plastrik and taylor, 2006, pag. 5). </p> <p> in our opinion, the justification for the importance of networking activities in idc starts from the fact that in present societies the value in any productive chain, this being valid for business as well as for development cooperation, does no longer depend either on labour or on capital, but on the collaboration or exchange process among individuals that produce knowledge, goods and services (benkler, 2006). the concepts of reciprocity and exchange, which are at the very basis of the most ancient modality of social regulation that was there before the state and the market and that has been relegated to a marginal role in industrial society, seem to be acquiring again a fundamental value in present social innovation and dynamics. in other words, value creation is deeply embedded in extended social relations. moreover, due to the fact that knowledge is a non-exclusive good, knowledge networks are in principle capable of multiplying the knowledge of the individual agents by facilitating information sharing and dialogue: as noted by marvin minsky, collective intelligence is a complex function of many little parts, each mindless by itself, which, when they join, create a stronger intelligence (minsky, 1986). </p> <p> in more detail, the added value of knowledge networking in idc activities can be expanded in three directions. first, networking is a way to overcome mere knowledge-market logics, where market is intended in its broader sense. idc actions respond in fact to a logic quite similar to the one of commercial markets, since they derive from open or tacit negotiations and do work in a limited resources scheme. networks facilitate exchanges (market model of social reproduction), redistribution (non-monetary model of social reproduction) and reciprocity (non-monetary collaboration-based exchange). in this last mechanism the focus is on the actors rather than on the relations, since they are the ones who drive the process, not the market or an external authority. second, networking is a way to better predict peers' moves based on open sharing of knowledge. this is particularly important in idc settings in view of avoiding project failures due to cultural differences and to different understandings of a specific idc action logic, objectives and expected impact. in this line, a normally neglected value of networking stands in what is called the "long tail of networking": apart from doing better what could be done alone, by working in networks an actor can get access to new ideas and activities. third, networking is a way to facilitate both cooperation among the involved actors, therefore increasing the efficiency of the system, and transparent competition among different stakeholders. both donors and aid recipients in fact share the same objectives and risk to run overlapping actions and to compete for the same resources when complete information is lacking. </p> <p> in line with these considerations, nath suggests that knowledge networks not only provide an added-value in terms of better flows of information, but can become an alternative institutional model for the promotion of idc, overcoming the limitations of the model of 'counterpart expert' from north to south. whether formal (institutional) or informal, knowledge networks serve to share knowledge, experience and relevant information, good and bad practices, connecting people regardless of their place and promoting collaboration between individuals and institutions (nath, 2000). it must be noted that networks are not adding value through new activities, but rather they multiply the positive value of the activities that their members run through them. even if it can be demonstrated that networks of goodwill and motivated people working in development settings can generally increase the impact of idc (plastrik and taylor, 2006), this does not mean that the logic should be to "build network" in a blind way. in a number of cases and conditions, fostering networking in a problematic area can result in a worse situation. for example, it can happen that a development network set up by well-intended development agents increases the resources availability for local strong actors (the local "big men") and affects negatively the whole idc process. to avoid these potential problems, it is important that the networks that are fostered consider a number of conditions, such as the presence of multiple stakeholders' categories. </p> <p> a call on the importance of networking in idc comes also from the area of social capital studies, where many researchers claim that social capital should be considered as a main component of development projects: "where poor communities have direct input into the design, implementation, management, and evaluation of projects, returns on investments and the sustainability of the project are enhanced" (esman and uphoff, 1984, quoted by woolcock and narayan, 2000, pag. 19). woolcock and narayan suggest that, even if research-grounded examples are not many, a consensus is emerging on the importance of social relations and networking in development as a fundamental resource to mobilise other growth-enhancing resources and as a way to facilitate the interactions between development communities and donor institutions (woolcock and narayan, 2000). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 2. knowledge creation and management in networks </h3> <p> as noted by henry et al (2004), the main functions of knowledge networks include the collective production, accumulation and dissemination of knowledge and the subsequent enhancement of the participants' capacities. stone, in line with the main organisational studies mainstream thinking, claims that "a network amplifies and disseminates ideas ... to an extent that could not be achieved by individuals or institutions alone. moreover, a network mutually confers legitimacy and pools authority and legitimacy in a positive sum manner. in other words, a network can often be greater than its constituent parts" (stone, 2002, pag 3). </p> <p> the management of knowledge in networks must be seen as an evolutionary process, comprising the phases of knowledge generation/construction, knowledge dissemination, knowledge use, knowledge embodiment and knowledge storage (schultze, 2006). to achieve this, knowledge management practices must adapt to the specificities on networks, since most knowledge management approaches appear in fact to be primarily concerned with knowledge that can be quantified, codified and stored an approach more deserving of the label information management. even if recently there has been recognition that some knowledge cannot be quantified, the predominant approach to the management of this tacit or relational knowledge remains to try to convert it to a form that can be handled using the 'traditional' approach. one possible way forward is offered by the approach adopted by many communities of practice, which focus on providing an environment for people to develop knowledge through interaction with others in an environment where knowledge is created, nurtured and sustained. </p> <p> to achieve this, and more generally to foster knowledge exchange within networks, ict is fundamental. but, to be successful, the role of technology must avoid technology-driven approaches, since they tend to ignore the "soft side" of networking: experience shows that when ict is not supporting the development of tacit and relational knowledge, networks tend to grow and live with more difficulties. furthermore, another role of technology in knowledge management is to make the implicit visible, for example by applying social network analysis methodologies. the ability to bring to the surface implicit assumptions, and the role that this can play in developing a shared understanding around specific issues, is perhaps one of the best means of building an appreciation of what is tacit without going through the effort of making it explicit. this also means that, for knowledge exchange to be as effective as possible, the knowledge and capacities of all network members should be identified as precisely as possible in order to combine them into a desired result; missing parts have to be developed internally or generated from outside the network. this process is normally fostered by facilitating, through the network structure, opportunities to combine the existing specialized knowledge (the "distinctive competencies" of the network nodes), in order to create new knowledge that ultimately guarantees sustained success for knowledge-intensive networks. an important distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge is provided by nonaka (1991). according to the author, explicit knowledge is knowledge that is easily expressed, captured, stored and reused. it can be transmitted as data and is found in databases, books, manuals and messages. in contrast, tacit knowledge is: "highly personal, hard to formalize and therefore difficult to communicate to others, deeply rooted in action and in an individual's commitment to a specific context, it consists partly of technical skills [and partly] of mental models, beliefs and perspectives so ingrained that we take them for granted and cannot easily articulate them" (nonaka, 1991, pag. 98). for nonaka tacit and explicit knowledge are not separate but mutually complementary entities, which interact with each other in the creative activities of human beings, that is, finally, a knowledge conversion process. this conversion process consists of four stages: socialization, externalization, combination and internalisation. the first step, socialization, transfers tacit knowledge between individuals through observation, imitation and practice. in the next step, externalization is triggered by dialogue or collective reflection and relies on analogy or metaphor to translate tacit knowledge into documents and procedures. combination consequently reconfigures bodies of explicit knowledge through sorting, adding, combining and categorising processes and spreads it throughout an organisation. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 3. introducing the concept of networking for development </h3> <p> applying these reflections to the idc field means looking at the role that knowledge, considered as a valuable good, is playing in developing cooperation, and at how this role has been changing. when cooperation was concentrated on infrastructure and economic restructurations, the role of knowledge was mostly ancillary and mainly linked to some training actions that were conducted to improve the skills of aid beneficiaries. with the rise of the "human development" concept, issues like education or health became cornerstones of any development process, bringing knowledge and knowledge sharing to the centre of the process. furthermore, the impact that ict and the internet have had on the importance of knowledge in international development cooperation is paramount. many observers agree that ict has the potential to uncap the potential of knowledge for development, by making it storable, replicable, easily sharable: it is often claimed that ict can offer the developing world the opportunity to 'leapfrog' several stages of development by use of frontier technologies that are more practical, environmentally sound and less expensive than undergoing the traditional stages and cycles of progress to the information society. </p> <p> in a few words, knowledge sharing is becoming more and more important in international development cooperation policies and programmes, thanks to a new approach to networking, a more participatory and multistakeholder vision of international cooperation, and to the introduction of ict. nevertheless, when we move from policies and programmes to grassroots practices a question remains unanswered: has this rise of the importance of knowledge contributed to solving some very well known problems of international development cooperation or it has only provided the possibility of making the old mistakes in a new way? the urgency of giving an answer to this question stands in the fact that this is not an academic discussion, but rather a way to improve aid to developing countries and therefore to improve quality of life for people in need. </p> <p> the above question can be articulated along different dimensions, which refer to some very well known problems of international development cooperation: </p> <ul> <li> <em>sustainability</em>: how can a better sharing policy of existing knowledge facilitate sustainability of international development cooperation projects? how to make sure that successful programmes and results are brought to the attention of potential supporters and funding agencies? how to make possible that the knowledge itself that every international development cooperation project is creating is made available to the community in a sustainable way? </li> <li> <em>atomisation</em>: how can effective knowledge sharing help to move beyond the classical project-based logic into a logic made of integrated programmes and umbrella actions? how can this help to cure the well-known "reinventing the wheel" syndrome of many international development cooperation projects? </li> <li> <em>overlapping</em>: how can a distributed and shared knowledge-base make possible a real dialogue on existing priorities, action and results produced by different agencies and stakeholders, and therefore avoid the classic problem of having two or more actors working at the same problem in very similar contexts, and sometimes competing for funds? </li> <li> <em>transculturality</em>: how can knowledge sharing support the creation of real transcultural environments where projects can be run but also discussed and evaluated and where the ownership of project results can be smoothly transferred to end users? </li> </ul> <p> to try to accommodate the dimensions above, and at the same time to be able to advocate at the same time for a stronger role of networking and knowledge building in idc settings, we are proposing the concept of <strong>networking for development</strong> in broad terms, networking for development (nd) can be defined as the professional application of networking methods and tools in idc contexts, with the aim of valorising, documenting and exploiting the creation of new knowledge in the idc process. following the nd approach, projects and development activities should be built on and around development networks: open and multistakeholder aggregations that should include donors, receivers and intermediaries as well as other involved actors. they should be in charge of defining their own priorities and of monitoring and evaluating the impact of development actions they are concerned with. these networks should be the drivers, the monitors, and finally the owners of the whole development cooperation process, and should be based on concepts such as trust, ownership of results, and continuous involvement of users. the novelty with respect to the present situation, where development projects are sometimes run by networks of actors, stands in the fact that development networks must be built before the definition of the projects, and not as ancillary elements to development actions, making sure that the knowledge sharing element is present throughout the whole cooperation action and representing the sustainability and transferability guarantee of the whole process. the model is strongly based and relying on ict, and gives priority to knowledge management, canalisation of social capital in and through the internet and implementation of multilateral actions with the participation of policy actors, civil society, companies, universities and other agents. </p> <p> knowledge networking in idc settings refers to four broad categories: </p> <ol> <li> <em>knowledge networking among donors and idc agencies</em>. this refers to fostering contacts and dialogue among the actors that draw up the agendas of idc and that decide the priorities of specific idc programs. with respect to the existing dialogue schemes made of meetings and agreements, the model introduces a continuous flow of information and a number of validation and sense-making actions. </li> <li> <em>networking and knowledge sharing among idc professionals.</em> this refers to fostering knowledge sharing among the professionals of idc on a global scale, regardless of the institution to which they belong. some efforts in this sense exist, such as the development gateway network, the global knowledge partnership or the world bank's infodev program, and these should be strengthened and enlarged both horizontally, meaning fostering cross-fertilization among them, and vertically, meaning involving all stakeholders from the top (policy makers) to the bottom (professionals on the ground) of the idc value chain. </li> <li> <em>program-related knowledge networking.</em> this means including a strong networking component at the level of the many existing development programs, which can be of a global or local nature, and which normally suffer from the problems described above, typically the atomization and the lack of sustainability of their actions and results. adding a sound networking component able to involve all possible stakeholders from the very conception of these programs would contribute to solving these problems. </li> <li> <em>project-related knowledge networking.</em> normally of a local nature, this refers to the importance of including the creation, improvement, enlargement or strengthening of networks of local actors in virtually all idc projects. this is happening more and more but most of the time in an informal and unrecognized way, bearing the risk that at the end of the funding period of a project the network that had been created disappears. the aim should not be that these networks should survive forever, but rather that they should openly adapt and be ready to work on other idc projects as active aggregations of stakeholders. </li> </ol> <p> in the following table the main characteristics of the above four categories are presented. </p> <table class="msonormaltable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style= 'margin-left:5.4pt;border-collapse:collapse'> <tr> <td width="142" valign="top" style= 'width:106.35pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-right:none;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="center" style= 'margin-bottom:2.0pt;text-align: center;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <b><span lang="en-gb" style= 'font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>category</span></b> </p> </td> <td width="104" valign="top" style= 'width:77.95pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-right:none;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="center" style= 'margin-bottom:2.0pt;text-align: center;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span class="especialtexto"><b><span lang="en-gb" style= 'font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>reach</span></b></span> </p> </td> <td width="236" valign="top" style= 'width:177.2pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-right:none;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="center" style= 'margin-bottom:2.0pt;text-align: center;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span class="especialtexto"><b><span lang="en-gb" style= 'font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>benefits</span></b></span> </p> </td> <td width="161" valign="top" style= 'width:120.95pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="center" style= 'margin-bottom:2.0pt;text-align: center;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span class="especialtexto"><b><span lang="en-gb" style= 'font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>examples</span></b></span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="142" valign="top" style= 'width:106.35pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-bottom:2.0pt;text-align: left;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span class="especialtexto"><span lang="en-gb" style='font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>networking among donors and idc agencies</span></span> </p> </td> <td width="104" valign="top" style= 'width:77.95pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-bottom:2.0pt;text-align: left;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span class="especialtexto"><span lang="en-gb" style='font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>global</span></span> </p> </td> <td width="236" valign="top" style= 'width:177.2pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:2.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;text-align:left;text-indent:-18.0pt; line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span class="especialtexto">agenda simplification</span> </p> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:2.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;text-align:left;text-indent:-18.0pt; line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span class="especialtexto"><span lang="en-gb" style='font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>overlaps minimisation</span></span> </p> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:2.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;text-align:left;text-indent:-18.0pt; line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-gb" style= 'font-family: "times new roman","serif"'>higher efficiency in aid delivery</span> </p> </td> <td width="161" valign="top" style= 'width:120.95pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-bottom:2.0pt;text-align: left;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-gb" style= 'font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>gaid, oecd development assistance committee</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="142" valign="top" style= 'width:106.35pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-bottom:2.0pt;text-align: left;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span class="especialtexto"><span lang="en-gb" style='font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>networking among idc professionals</span></span> </p> </td> <td width="104" valign="top" style= 'width:77.95pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-bottom:2.0pt;text-align: left;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span class="especialtexto"><span lang="en-gb" style='font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>global</span></span> </p> </td> <td width="236" valign="top" style= 'width:177.2pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:2.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;text-align:left;text-indent:-18.0pt; line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-gb" style= 'font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>knowledge sharing</span> </p> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:2.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;text-align:left;text-indent:-18.0pt; line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-gb" style= 'font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>expertise consolidation</span> </p> </td> <td width="161" valign="top" style= 'width:120.95pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-bottom:2.0pt;text-align: left;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-gb" style= 'font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>development gateway, global development network, infodev</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="142" valign="top" style= 'width:106.35pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-bottom:2.0pt;text-align: left;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span class="especialtexto"><span lang="en-gb" style='font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>programme-related networking</span></span> </p> </td> <td width="104" valign="top" style= 'width:77.95pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-bottom:2.0pt;text-align: left;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span class="especialtexto"><span lang="en-gb" style='font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>global/local</span></span> </p> </td> <td width="236" valign="top" style= 'width:177.2pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:2.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;text-align:left;text-indent:-18.0pt; line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-gb" style= 'font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>stronger sustainability</span> </p> </td> <td width="161" valign="top" style= 'width:120.95pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-bottom:2.0pt;text-align: left;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-gb" style= 'font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>@ lis, alfa</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="142" valign="top" style= 'width:106.35pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-bottom:2.0pt;text-align: left;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span class="especialtexto"><span lang="en-gb" style='font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>project-related networking</span></span> </p> </td> <td width="104" valign="top" style= 'width:77.95pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-bottom:2.0pt;text-align: left;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span class="especialtexto"><span lang="en-gb" style='font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>local</span></span> </p> </td> <td width="236" valign="top" style= 'width:177.2pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:2.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;text-align:left;text-indent:-18.0pt; line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-gb" style= 'font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>local community strengthening</span> </p> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:2.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;text-align:left;text-indent:-18.0pt; line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-gb" style= 'font-family:"times new roman","serif"'>ownership of results</span> </p> </td> <td width="161" valign="top" style= 'width:120.95pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'> <p class="corpodeltesto2" align="left" style= 'margin-bottom:2.0pt;text-align: left;line-height:normal;layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-gb" style= 'font-family:"times new roman","serif"'></span> </p> </td> </tr> </table> <div class="image_caption"> table 1: different kinds of networking for development. </div> <p> in all these cases, networking for development is about recognizing the fundamental role of social capital in idc processes. the most important long-term added value of networking activities has to do with the capacity to increase the social capital of a group of stakeholders, intended as the sum of the relations that grants access to a set of resources (in our case both knowledge and idc resources). on the other hand, social relations have taken a long time before getting considered as important dimensions of idc; in their comprehensive review on the implications of social capital for development studies and practices, woolcock and narayan state that "for the major development theories social relations have been construed as singularly burdensome, exploitative, liberating, or irrelevant" and that modern societies call for "a more sophisticated appraisal of the virtues, vices, and vicissitudes of the social dimension as it pertains to the wealth and poverty of nations" (woolcock and narayan, 2000, pag 5). </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 4. knowledge networking at work: the @lis case </h3> <p> the @lis programme, its acronym meaning alliance for the information society, is one of the results of the political dialogue established between the heads of state and government of the european union, latin america and the caribbean (lac) at the summit held in rio de janeiro in june 1999, where the promotion of the information society was adopted as a priority of the eu's cooperation policy with the lac region. starting from the 1990s the ec launched a number of multilateral "regional" programmes in parallel with its bilateral and subregional cooperation operations to develop relations between actors from the eu and from latin america. examples of these programmes are al-invest (funding for meetings between smes), alfa (cooperation between higher education establishments), urb-al (exchanges between local authorities) and alban (programmes of high-level training bursaries), eurosocial (social cohesion). </p> <p> the @lis programme covered a wide spectrum of objectives, aiming to promote the benefits of using information and communication technologies at national and regional level in latin america, to fight against the digital divide and to create a long-term partnership between european and latin american countries in the field of the information society. @lis financed 19 demonstration projects run by consortia composed of european and latin american partners in the fields of ehealth, einclusion, egovernment and elearning <sup>1</sup> ; most of these projects started operations at the end of 2003 and finished at the end of 2008. </p> <p><sup>1</sup><sub>apart from the 19 demonstration projects, @lis also supported some transversal actions (called networks and dialogues), focusing on ict connectivity, on telecom standards, on telecom regulation, on information society policy, and on stakeholders networking. in the analysis of this paper, these actions will not be taken into account; due to their nature and to the whole programme structure, this will not damage the analysis.</sub></p> <p> many innovative aspects can be observed in the way the programme was constructed. first, in comparison with other cooperation programmes, @lis presented a multisectoral approach to development cooperation, therefore addressing the development of the information society as a whole. furthermore, @lis was a regional programme, rather than a bilateral one, as it covered both the european union and latin america regions with a spirit of reciprocity. finally, the programme gave great importance to three fundamental aspects of the information society: transfer and sharing of knowledge among practitioners and users, political and regulatory dialogue, and increased connectivity between the two continents. these few considerations make @lis an innovative and quite different cooperation programme and reflect the many, ambitious levels at which the programme deployed its objectives. considering the cooperation approach adopted, @lis was addressing in an integrated way the diverse contexts in latin america and the use of standard models and theories to interpret these situations. in this sense, the @lis model is different and more articulated than that of, for example, the world bank or other international financial institutions, that normally prioritise a case-by-case and country-focused approach. furthermore, the many actions and projects supported by the @lis programme and the very nature of their breadth and depth were able to give and guarantee adequate importance to the equilibrium of some important institutional factors, such as formal rules and regulations, organisations, knowledge sharing and social relations; which lately, with growing recognition of validity, are being acknowledged as being amongst the most important factors for successful development cooperation. </p> <p> however, the most important consideration in terms of policy innovation has to do with the knowledge-sharing component of @lis. from the very beginning of @lis, it was clear that in order to be successful and to respond to the logic of a multilateral programme, the initiative had to generate much more than what could be funded directly through the projects. in order to reach this, two objectives were set. first, that the highest possible number of stakeholders should have been made aware of the programme achievements and possibly take benefits from them either as users or partners or supporters for further developments. second, that the whole @lis community, meaning the sum of the actors officially participating in the @lis projects, should have been supported to facilitate knowledge exchange, synergy and collaboration. differently from many european commission programmes, where specific knowledge sharing actions are either absent, or present in an extremely limited way (normally in the form of stand-alone "support actions"), @lis decided to devote a part of its budget to a specific multistakeholder knowledge sharing network, called @lis international stakeholders network (isn), that represented one of the most crucial components of the whole operation. @lis isn aimed at supporting the programme development as far as sustainability, dissemination, concertation, results exchange and validation are concerned, and at the same time wanted to become the "public entrance" to the @lis programme for all the interested actors in europe and in latin america, therefore enlarging the @lis community to all interested actors, be they directly linked with the programme or not. in other words, the @lis international stakeholders network wanted to constitute the core of the "knowledge connecting web" that the @lis programme needed to establish between the organisations that directly participated in the @lis projects and the group of external actors that by definition have a stake in the project activities, from the policy maker that might want to adopt an @lis project outcomes to the community of users that might want to take advantage of a specific result. </p> <p> for this reason, the @lis programme represents a perfect example of a network of stakeholders working in an idc context, and can be used as a testbed to prove the validity of the concept of networking for development that was presented earlier. in our analysis, we will look for the relation between collaborative knowledge production and networking along a number of dimensions of interest such as sustainability, openness and impact; to try to sketch the impact that a proper and well-guided activity of collaborative knowledge development can have on an idc programme. </p> <p> we will analyse the @lis programme in terms of network development, meaning the way the @lis network has been created, has grown and has changed during its lifecycle, and the way knowledge has been collaboratively built, exchanged and documented along the way. following the latest development in social network analysis (see for example barabasi, 2002 or watts, 2003), each network has its own development history, but at the same time some general rules seem to exist that most social networks have in common. for the sake of our analysis, we can distinguish four phases in the @lis network development: a) network setup, b) network emergence, c) network consolidation, d) network replication and sustainability. </p> <p> <em>phase 1: network setup</em> </p> <p> this is a very critical phase in the life of every network, because it somehow determines the way the network will further develop (barabasi, 2002). in the case of @lis, the starting "picture" of the network was a highly clustered one, since the 19 demonstration projects were composed by actors connected around the 19 @lis projects; nevertheless these clusters, apart from some very sporadic cases, were not connected among themselves. a first knowledge building activity that was carried out was the facilitation of the emergence of a common knowledge base among the different nodes, through the production of some yellow pages and through the creation of a discussion mailing list where nodes could introduce themselves and their role in the different projects. the first weak connections were established, resulting in some parallel light clustering that followed rather logically two main patterns. first, a geographical pattern: a typical example is the organisation, under the initiative of a specific partner from a country, of a meeting with other partners from that country. second, a stakeholders' logic, meaning that actors with the same background (local governments, civil society, academia) clustered with actors of the same kind. this results in 19 strongly tied clusters, accompanied by some very weak national or stakeholder based clusters. </p> <p> <em>phase 2: network emergence</em> </p> <p> in network sciences jargon, the transformation that leads from a scattered number of connections to a healthy and vibrant community is called emergence, and is characterised by the increase of local connections, leading to the creation of a few global relational patterns. in the @lis case, this second phase started with the first programme coordination meeting, a gathering of all the european project coordinators and of a number of latin american partners. during this meeting all the projects were presented, and some thematic collaboration sessions were run. the themes of these sessions were open source, connectivity, sustainability, and had been chosen following a consultation among all the @lis projects. this was the first moment of collaborative knowledge building, since the whole network discussed to reach a consensus on the most important themes to work on. in large networks, the selection of themes of common interest is an important knowledge building exercise, that can if properly supported increase the feelings of trust and belonging among participants. in our case, most of the actors at least the ones that took part in the consultation started to feel part of the network, since they had shared their needs and concerns with peers from other projects. this helped in what is probably the most important condition to have a health emergence phase, that is the need to build trust among the network members, and facilitated the natural identification of networking leaders. some actors did in fact take the lead in the preliminary online discussions and gained more prestige and connections throughout the network. also in this second phase the patterns that had started to emerge in the setup moment appeared: actors belonging to the same country kept on communicating among themselves more than with actors from other countries, and actors with the same background worked to strengthen relations. at this point, it is important to note that @lis was composed of two broad kinds of projects: some were clearly limited to a single sector (such as school education, primary health care or electrification) while others had a more transversal nature (dealing with issues such as e-health in general or with use of e-learning for inclusion): projects from this second groups were the ones that at this stage facilitated networking across sectors and stakeholders groups. </p> <p> <em>phase 3: network consolidation</em> </p> <p> the third phase was supported by the organisation of two more general coordination meetings as well as by eight national workshops, targeted to the @lis actors of a specific country and open to other relevant stakeholders from that country and of a ministerial forum where the @lis projects were put in contact with european and latin american ministries in charge of information society. in this phase we can say that the network took its "mature" shape, through a number of important developments. </p> <p> first, the network developed a strong multistakeholder nature, meaning that the clusters that had developed among actors from the same background started to get more and more in touch, somehow considering the different approaches and visions on the issues at stake more as points of discussion than of points of differentiation. to give an example, a number of rather stable connections were created between local governments and ngos, or between civil society associations and private companies; this required both a lot of work by the network animators but was very important in terms of collaborative knowledge creation, since the different visions brought by the different stakeholders created a rather rich debate around a number of key topics. a clear example of multistakeholder knowledge building was the ministerial forum organised in november 2004 in rio de janeiro, where high level policy makers from all la countries were exposed to the results and applications of the @lis projects through presentations, videos, demonstrations, and then discussed how to increase the benefits coming from these applications to the whole la region. </p> <p> second, the multistakeholder nature of the @lis network facilitated the common understanding of the networking attitudes of the different stakeholders categories, and therefore a learning process at the network level. it clearly emerged that policy actors both at national and local level consider networking as a fundamental component of their work, while private sector actors look at networking as a means to increase efficiency of their activity and tend to devote to this activity the minimum effort needed to reach this objective, and civil society actors consider networking in a human dimension and tend to invest more time and energy in this activity without expecting direct and immediate benefit from this. </p> <p> third, in this phase some nodes emerged as thematic hubs due to their open attitude and recognised leadership in a specific field. the early identification of these hubs is very important to facilitate smooth communication across the network, since hubs can facilitate connections between actors that are quite "distant" in the network but at the same time can act as information gatekeepers. </p> <p> fourth, thanks to the knowledge networking developed, a number of practical collaborations aimed at the extension of some services to other areas took place, increasing the impact of the whole programme. for example, the telemed project was able to extend its services to the tabuleiro, an area where the pilot by the link all project was developed; this meant high savings in terms of money, time and bureaucracy. in the same direction, the projects integra, cibernarium and e-lane have been sharing tools, methodologies and outputs. as a third example, the radio programme developed by the atlas project was broadcast in the rural areas covered by the adital project, with great benefit for the two actions. </p> <p> fifth, the national clusters did consolidate. specifically, the @lis latin-american partners of 6 countries (argentina, brazil, costa rica, peru, guatemala, ecuador) were actively and enthusiastically involved in a number of workshops where they had the possibility to present their work, their successes and their needs to national institutions, creating collaborations and improving the visibility of the partners and the project in their national environment and at the same time the usability of the project results. just to mention a couple of success stories in this sense, thanks to the contacts made in the costa rica workshop, the technet project represented the basis for an unesco cathedra, while thanks to the workshop organised in brazil, the telemed project might be supported in the future by the brazilian ministry of development. </p> <p> <em>phase 4: network replication and sustainability</em> </p> <p> in the @lis case, this was most probably the most delicate part of the network development. the reason for this is that during the four years of the @lis programme the network participants were financially supported to be part of the network, and therefore had a sort of institutional motivation to participate. this is in line with the concept of resource dependency perspective, a neo-gramscian theory that emphasizes the vulnerability and the need for adaptation of organisations to their environment, particularly their dependence on resources that are controlled by others within the environment (in our case the european commission). in her analysis of this approach, hatch states that the "dependency the organisation has on its environment is not one single, undifferentiated dependency, it is a complex set of dependencies that exist between an organisation and the specific elements of its environment found in the inter-organisational network" (hatch, 1997). in the @lis case, most of the participating actors decided, at the end of the european commission support, to keep on working as a network, and created the vit@lis network, an association of european and latin american and caribbean institutions and individuals active in subjects related to the information society (e-learning, e-health, e-government, e-inclusion, etc.), committed to share information and results and to collaborate towards the creation of a more inclusive and open information society for all. vit@lis has kept on growing and counts today on more than 300 active members from europe and latin america, including all the categories of stakeholders of the information society: universities, actors of the civil society, governments and agencies, international networks, local companies, authorities. this fact shows that the participating actors were assigning a value to networking and to the knowledge sharing possibilities offered by being part of the network beyond the @lis programme lifecycle. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> 5. conclusions and points for reflections </h3> <p> the experience of @lis shows that networking and knowledge sharing can generate a real value in the context of international development cooperation, and at the same time that working on knowledge sharing and articulation, especially in the frame of large and multistakeholder networks, cannot be regarded as an ancillary activity but should rather be considered a central pillar of successful idc programmes, whose costs must be planned in advance. first, supporting knowledge sharing takes time and energy, and this time should be accounted exactly at the same level as the work of researchers and development operators; second, the role of "professional community dynamiser" should be properly included in any knowledge intensive cooperation programme. finally, attention should be paid during the whole process to the complexity of knowledge sharing and articulation activities: many of the most important, even if sometimes intangible, results of international cooperation, such as the appropriation of results for social change by the beneficiaries, the mind-set adaptation of all the actors, or the governance of the dynamic between funding and motivation and between excellence and inclusion are based on knowledge sharing, articulation and documentation processes. </p> <p> the issue remains on how to measure the value created by the process of knowledge sharing and articulation among the network members. a way to look at the issue can be adapted by creech (2004), who identifies four principal areas of investigation for network assessments: </p> <ol> <li>effectiveness of knowledge networking: is the network strategy of knowledge sharing clear in terms of objectives and expected results? is the network fully realizing the advantages of sharing knowledge and articulating communities? is the knowledge being produced relevant to the needs of decision-makers and to the other network stakeholders? </li> <li>structure and governance of knowledge networking: how is the network knowledge sharing organized? how is the network taking decisions on its knowledge related processes? are structural and governance issues impeding its effectiveness? </li> <li>efficiency and sustainability of knowledge networking: are the transactional costs of knowledge sharing a significant barrier to success? is capacity being built across the network to strengthen members' ability to collaborate on knowledge articulation issues? does the network have the required resources to guarantee continuous knowledge sharing among its members? </li> </ol> <p> looking at these three dimensions, and taking into account the continuous changes in the knowledge base of the network, allows us to monitor whether the network is achieving one of the advantages of working collaboratively: joint knowledge-based value creation. quoting creech: "knowledge networks create new knowledge and insights for use beyond the immediate membership, but knowledge can be created without working in a network. the network advantage is the collaboration of members on work, and the value gained from peer review and debate. joint value creation is the creation of new insights and knowledge through the collaboration of members on research, on field projects and other activities." (creech 2004, pag.4). in terms of <em>effectiveness</em>, the @lis experience shows that the strategy of knowledge sharing changes along with the network life and has to be continuously fine-tuned to the needs of the network in a specific moment. as far as tools are concerned, for example, in the first years of its life the @lis community has been relying on mailing lists and on small seminars, while in its last years it had to in order to properly involve policy actors organise high level policy events where discussion and knowledge sharing could take place. in terms of <em>structure and governance</em>, what could be observed was a clear decentralisation process: if at the beginning of the network life most of the inputs came from the central secretariat, already in early stages some peripheral nodes started to produce knowledge and to input it into the system. this process is not trivial and has to do with the decision making process of the network and its knowledge related processes; experience shows that only decentralised networks can support genuine knowledge sharing in the long run. in terms of <em>efficiency, use of resources and sustainability</em>, the @lis experience shows that in a development context like the one of latin america, the most significant barrier to success is not the transactional cost of knowledge sharing (in the specific case resources were available for this) but rather the need to strengthen the network members' ability to collaborate on knowledge articulation issues. if this is done continuously professionally, as suggested by the networking for development approach, networks can deploy a proper raison d'etre and can survive, as in the case of vit@lis, to the end of public funding. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> bibliography </h3> <div class="reference"> barabasi, a.l. (2002). <cite>linked: the new science of networks</cite>, cambridge, uk: perseus publishing. </div> <div class="reference"> benkler y. (2006). <cite>the wealth of networks: how social production transforms markets and freedom.</cite> new heaven, uk: tale university press. </div> <div class="reference"> creech, h and ramji, a. (2004). <cite>knowledge networks: guidelines for assessment.</cite> winnipeg, canada: international institute for sustainable development. </div> <div class="reference"> esman, m.j., and uphoff, n.t. (1984). <cite>local organizations: intermediaries in rural development.</cite> ithaca, new york, us: cornell university press. </div> <div class="reference"> fukuda-parr, s., lopes, c., malik, k. (editors) (2002). <cite>capacity for development: new solutions to old problems.</cite> new york, us: earthscan publications. </div> <div class="reference"> hatch, m.j. (1997). <cite>organization theory: modern, symbolic, and postmodern.</cite> oxford, uk: oxford university press. </div> <div class="reference"> heeks, r. (1999). <cite>the tyranny of participation in information systems: learning from development projects.</cite> manchester, uk: manchester institute for development policy and management. </div> <div class="reference"> henry, l., mohan, g. and yanacopulos, h. (2004). networks as transnational agents of development, <cite>third world quarterly</cite>, 25(5), pp. 839-855. </div> <div class="reference"> mcfarlane, c. (2006). transnational development networks: bringing development and postcolonial approaches into dialogue, <cite>the geographical journal,</cite> 172 (1). pp. 35-49. </div> <div class="reference"> minsky, m (1986). <cite>the society of mind.</cite> new york, us: simon &amp; schuster. </div> <div class="reference"> nath, v. (2000). <cite>knowledge networking for sustainable development.</cite> knownet initiative, www.knownet.org. </div> <div class="reference"> nonaka, t. (1995). <cite>creative knowledge.</cite> berkley, us: university of california press. </div> <div class="reference"> plastrik, p. and taylor, m. (2006). <cite>net gains: a handbook for network builders seeking social change.</cite> alexandria. us: wendling foundation. </div> <div class="reference"> stone, d. (2002). introduction: global knowledge and advocacy networks, in <cite>global networks</cite> 2(1): 1-11. issn 1470-2266. </div> <div class="reference"> watts, d. (2003). <cite>six degrees: the science of a connected age.</cite> new york. us: norton &amp; company. </div> <div class="reference"> woolcock, m., narayan, d. (2000). <cite>social capital: implications for development theory, research, and policy,</cite> washington, us: the world bank. </div> </div> 4720-article text-22296-2-6-20211130 the journal of community informatics 17 (2021), 1-2 issn: 1721-4441 1 editorial community informatics in pandemic times in my last editorial, i introduced myself to this community as the new editor-in-chief and honored the work that many had contributed to help steward this journal through challenging times. one year later, since the last issue was published, i am excited to announce a new addition to the leadership of the journal of community informatics (joci). dr. peter johnson, associate professor in the department of geography and environmental management at the university of waterloo will be joining me as coeditor-in-chief. peter has already proven to be a strong partner and champion for this journal. he played a critical role in helping to move joci to its new stable home in the university of waterloo libraries. he has also dedicated many hours of his time helping to make important decisions about how best to manage and lead this journal. i am grateful for his time and leadership and look forward to working with peter as co-editors-in-chief. this new co-leadership model has encouraged us to consider several new ideas, which i will use this space below to elaborate upon. 1. institutionalizing the co-editor-in-chief model for joci. there are several benefits to having a permanent co-editorship model, some of which i’ve already mentioned above. in addition, i believe this model will be helpful to ensure that whoever leads the journal into the future has plenty of support, particularly as joci remains an all-volunteer effort, at least for now. 2. growing and rotating the editorial team. while i continue to be grateful to our associate editors, tom denison and eduardo villanueva-mansilla, there is still room to grow the journal’s leadership team. we would like to invite others who are interested to join the joci associate editor team. peter and i have discussed establishing a leadership arrangement where associate editors and editors-inchief would rotate roles over a 2–3-year period. this could allow for new ideas and perspectives to enter joci leadership, and to respect the individual personal and professional constraints that inevitably arise. these are just some of the new ideas that we are considering. colin rhinesmith editor-in-chief, the journal of community informatics crhinesmith@simmons.edu the journal of community informatics 17 (2021), 1-2 issn: 1721-4441 2 3. publishing individual articles when they are ready as an online first model. peter and i have discussed this idea in the past and are now ready to move forward with this model for joci. in 2022, we will begin publishing individual articles on the website when they are ready to be published. future issues will be published when there are enough individual articles to be included in a full issue (typically 6-10 articles), or if there is a special issue on the same theme to be published at one time. we look forward to piloting this new publishing model in the coming year. as mentioned above, it has been one year since the last issue of the journal of community informatics was published. in this time, close to four million more people worldwide have died due to the covid-19 pandemic, bringing the total number of deaths up to 5,200,267 and a total number of 260,867,001 cases confirmed at the time this editorial was written.1 as new variants of the coronavirus disease continue to emerge, the race to vaccinate the world’s population against this deadly virus remains an enormous challenge, which in turn has deepened existing social inequalities. this reality of the global pandemic is critically important to mention within the context of community informatics. while we celebrate this new issue of joci and its ability to persevere during this time of crisis, we must also recognize the magnitude of loss and mourning experienced worldwide. it is within this context that we might consider the words published in this issue as part of a broader human effort to promote healing and care. 1 https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019 1433 final the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 pov: michael gurstein participatory collaboration mapping in malawi: making mike’s community informatics idea(l)s work introduction michael “mike” gurstein was the founding father of the now thriving field of community informatics. his contributions have been numerous: his vision and passion about the field; his deep insight that it is not the technologies per se, but how they are being put to effective use that truly empowers communities; his heartfelt conviction that community informatics researchers and practitioners strongly depend on one another to achieve that goal; his tireless efforts, from lobbying at the highest international political levels to guiding young researchers and practitioners asking for his advice; and, of course, establishing the journal of community informatics and the community informatics researchers mailing list as crucial fora for the field to develop.reflecting upon his ideas is a tall order, since his intellectual contributions, like the impacts of his work in practice, have been so many. in this personal tribute, i focus on three concepts promoted by mike in particular that continue to inspire me in my own work: the notions of community informatics, effective use, and community innovation. i will illustrate how these concepts come together by applying them to a case of participatory collaboration mapping in malawi. aldo de moor communitysense, the netherlands corresponding author. ademoor@communitysense.nl !109 demoor, a. (2018). participatory collaboration mapping in malawi: making mike’s community informatics idea(l)s work. the journal of community informatics, 14 (2), 109-115. date submitted: 2018-02-05. date accepted: 2018-11-23. 
 copyright (c), 2018 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1433 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1433 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1433 mailto:ademoor@communitysense.nl the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 inspiration: key concepts from the many concepts that mike has given such rich meaning, we look at three in particular: community informatics, effective use, and community innovation. community informatics to mike, community informatics from the beginning not only referred to the research area, but also to the practice of empowering communities with icts. the field occupies itself with the "deeper (community, developmental, community development, etc.) processes at work below the surface phenomena which required integration and interpretation in the context of the research but also [giving] the researchers access to a very rich set of concepts, theoretical constructs and theory overall in which to embed their analysis and understanding of what they were observing (gurstein, 2008)". ci research, in his view, is not an isolated activity taking place in faraway, distinguished ivory towers, but is to move as much as possible from research on communities, via research for and with communities, to research by communities, ideally working towards self-empowerment (gurstein, 2011). key in community informatics is that one "[critically examines] the broader context in which the community finds itself (and including such things as externally funded projects and programs) that the community can achieve the degree of self-understanding sufficient for it to undertake effective action both in the context of specific initiatives and in larger environments”. examining this context entails "[identifying] the range of forces and interests within which the community is enclosed, allowing for successful action/implementation at the community level (ibid.)". effective use one of the crucial concepts in empowering self/context-aware communities according to mike is effective use: "the capacity and opportunity to successfully integrate icts into the accomplishment of self or collaboratively identified goals (gurstein, 2003)". effective use in his view is also highly contextualized, with the focus "not simply on one of the possible 'tools' for development (access) but rather highlights the entire 'development process' including the infrastructure, hardware, software, and social organizational elements that all must be combined for development to occur" (ibid.). community innovation there are many examples of the idea of self/context-aware communities being able to effectively use icts to accomplish self or collaboratively identified goals. one example of particular interest in a globalizing world is community innovation. mike was puzzled by the process of innovation only rarely being studied from a community perspective. this even though “so much of this type of innovation takes place within the context of communities either of place or of interest where trusted peers are enabled to experiment with established routines and practice (gurstein, 2013)”. he also considered community innovation being the intermediate level between social innovation taking place at both the local level and through aggregation at the regional or national level. community innovation has "significant impacts and benefits not only for the usual effect of a 'trickle down' from elites and high performers but also a 'trickle up' from local adaptations and community-based novelty and change which, !110 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 because it is locally based and potentially very wide-spread, can have very significant, and broadly distributed, impacts and benefits" (ibid.). application: participatory collaboration mapping in malawi let me illustrate how strongly mike's ideas have resonated in my own work by sharing experiences in a recent concrete case. my key r&d focus is my work on the communitysensor methodology for participatory community network mapping: the participatory process of capturing, visualizing, and analyzing community network relationships and applying the resulting insights to community sensemaking, building and evaluation (de moor, 2017). in (de moor et al., 2017; de moor, 2018), we showed how this methodology was applied to support field building in the domain of integrating gender, nutrition, and agricultural extension (ingenaes). in that case, we used a combination of mapping and group facilitation processes to find common ground in the various projects represented by participants in the 2017 ingenaes global symposium and learning exchange on this theme (de moor et. al, 2017). this sensemaking process resulted in a range of meaningful "seed actions" to be built on after the conference. one of these seed actions concerned a project for kickstarting the use of participatory mapping for strengthening agricultural collaborations in malawi. the project was a joint initiative by the malawi-based sane (strengthening agricultural and nutrition extension) project and the ingenaes project, both being implemented by the university of illinois. malawi has an extensive but complicated system of agricultural governance, called daess (district agriculture extension services system), which aims to act as a decentralized extension framework for enabling agricultural stakeholders to enhance coordination and collaboration. it ranges from the ministerial level all the way down to the grassroots village level. the idea was to use participatory mapping of agricultural stakeholder collaborations to visualize and strengthen linkages. to this purpose, the author and local host had first created a draft mapping language that captured the main types of elements, connections and perspectives relevant to the daess situation. using this visual language, we then created a "seed map" roughly outlining the daess collaboration ecosystem. in country, we next trained ten malawi agricultural extension professionals in the communitysensor methodology and the online network visualization tool kumu (http://kumu.io) supporting the mapping, while simultaneously finetuning the mapping language and initial seed map with the team. next, we went on two site visits, working with local agricultural stakeholder representatives (farmers, business people, etc.) to have them create maps of their initiatives, projects, and programs. in particular, we were interested in having them map their own local initiatives, not primarily those driven by government or donor funding, but small-scale social innovations capturing local contexts and insights on which they themselves are the experts. first, the participants captured a number of local initiatives in various breakout groups, using an initiative mapping template. given that there was no power in those villages, we had them create posters to represent their initiatives. the participants then presented their initiatives in the concluding plenary discussion session, making even more common sense together. using pieces of thread, example connections between initiatives (e.g. stakeholders or resources in !111 http://kumu.io/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 common) were symbolically represented as they were being identified in the discussion (figure 1). ! figure 1: making sense of farming community maps, kalolo, malawi, september 2017 the posters remained in the villages, as this content is owned by the community, while also allowing local community members to continue the discussion amongst themselves in between sessions with the visiting extension professionals. afterwards, the extension professionals course trainees but also members of agriculture coordination platforms converted photos of the posters into online kumu maps, one per community. the online maps show otherwise hidden connections between the initiatives mapped, by automatically linking elements shared between the perspectives, such as common stakeholders (figure 2). this is a powerful feature not possible with just the paper posters. ! figure 2: identifying common ground between farming initiatives in kalolo !112 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 each local agricultural community remains owner of its own online mapping project. however, these communities also continue to be supported by the agricultural coordination platforms in converting subsequent versions of the posters into electronic form and helping them to make sense of what the maps may mean and next actions to be taken. moreover, both pilot communities reiterated their interest in the approach and willingness to continue to use it. several follow-up mapping sessions in the pilot farming communities have already taken place. furthermore, during a kickoff stakeholder meeting in the capital, several national organizations agreed to jointly work on expanding the participatory collaboration mapping approach, growing its applications and the stakeholders involved. several such scaling-up sessions, making sense of the aggregate maps at the next level in the daess system, the district level, have already occurred. reflection: making community informatics work when reflecting on this case through the lens of mike's concepts, community informatics is at its core: participatory collaboration mapping is all about designing an ongoing, participatory research & action process in which communities first make sense of themselves, then take effective actions towards empowerment, smartly scaling from the bottom-up. the agricultural communities creating and owning their own maps helps to promote a sense of ownership and participation. by using a common mapping language, and having the trained extension professionals convert the paper maps into an electronic version, map comparisons and linkages can be made between initiatives at the village level, but also at the higher levels. this enables stakeholders at, for instance, the district level to identify common themes or stakeholders to focus attention on in project and program development. the malawi participatory collaboration mapping case is also very much about effective use: helping to bridge the digital divide by combining low tech means (paper posters, pieces of thread) with high tech tools (online map visualization and aggregation via kumu). the tool usage, however, is also embedded in a much larger development process, in which social organization aiming to reach collective impact takes center stage. the tweaking of this development process, taking into account all kinds of social, economic, cultural, and political constraints is really the art and science of designing the socio-technical systems that make using the tools-in-context effective. through mapping the context of stakeholders, activities, resources, and issues involved in otherwise seemingly isolated agricultural community initiatives, their hidden linkages are made explicit, uncovering new collaboration potentials. community innovation is very much driven by the joint discussion and interpretation by the local agricultural community members themselves of what these connections or lack of them may mean. however, it goes beyond that. by aggregating the community maps and interpreting them at the higher daess governance levels, ideas for new programs, funding, and policies "trickle up". this could become an important driver for "scaling collaboration smartly", matching aggregate needs identified by the local communities with resources, governance, and policy making capacity available at the higher levels. !113 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 continuation: research ever more meets action according to mike, community informatics as a field of research overlapping with practice matters, "because there is a need not only to do but also to systematize and to understand what is being done. in the absence of this understanding then the processes of achieving success are at best random and at worst may result in a continuous wastage of resources, time and credibility as mistakes are never learned from and so repeated, and as successes are never captured and built upon to realize further horizons (gurstein, 2007)". what we have seen in the malawi case, which is only one of numerous similar such community informaticsinspired projects, is that finding this balance between research and practice is key to making community empowerment work. let me conclude with mike's call to arms, "helping communities to understand these contexts and to explore alternative technology (and otherwise) enabled strategies to respond would seem at this juncture in history to be the highest possible calling for researchers of all kinds and including those working within the framework of community informatics (gurstein, 2011)". may we all continue to heed his urgent and passionate call. acknowledgments the author wishes to thank the ingenaes (integrating gender, nutrition and agricultural extension), the agreach sane (strengthening agricultural and nutrition extension in malawi) programs, for making the malawi mapping case possible . without the tireless 1 efforts by stacia nordin and the malawian mapping team, our mapping project would have been far less empowering. may you continue to help make visible and “trickle up” the creative and important ideas of malawians about improving agriculture in their country. the malawi mapping project was partially supported by usaid. the contents are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of usaid or the united states government. references de moor, a., white, n., & bohn, a. (2017). using participatory community network mapping for field building: the ingenaes conference case. in proc. of the 14th prato cirn conference 25-27 october 2017 · monash centre, prato, italy. de moor, a. (2017). communitysensor: towards a participatory community network mapping methodology. the journal of community informatics, 13(2):35-58. a. de moor (2018). a community network ontology for participatory collaboration mapping: towards collective impact, information, 9(7): art.no.151. gurstein, m. (2003). effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. first monday, 8(12) gurstein, m. (2007). what is community informatics (and why does it matter)? (vol. 2). monza, italy: polimetrica. see (de moor, 2018) for a more detailed account of the malawi case and full acknowledgments.1 !114 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 gurstein, m. (2008). community informatics: what’s in a name? the journal of community informatics, 4(3) gurstein, m. (2011). evolving relationships: universities, researchers and communities. the journal of community informatics, 7(3). gurstein, m. (2013). community innovation and community informatics. the journal of community informatics, 9(3) !115 pov: michael gurstein participatory collaboration mapping in malawi: making mike’s community informatics idea(l)s work introduction demoor, a. (2018). participatory collaboration mapping in malawi: making mike’s community informatics idea(l)s work. the journal of community informatics, 14 (2), 109-115. date submitted: 2018-02-05. date accepted: 2018-11-23. copyright (c), 2018 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1433 inspiration: key concepts community informatics effective use community innovation application: participatory collaboration mapping in malawi reflection: making community informatics work continuation: research ever more meets action acknowledgments references 1295 for final check the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 essays: on communities cooperating community connections: an essay on a changing political reality community informatics has declared that the global is a federation of lo cals. james quilligan has written an essay to the effect that applying such a definition of global requires a world institution of democratic governan ce. some members of the community of community informatics researchers have come to a similar conclusion. this essay outlines an alternative inter pretation based on complex adaptive systems theory, and with consequent results for a different definition of the individual, the community and their interdependence. it asks the question – where does the predominance of opinion in community informatics about the changing nature of governance and community reside? introduction in an email to the community informatics list, michael gurstein pointed to an ‘interesting background paper’. (gurstein, 2014. july 30). he felt it provided ‘some very useful conceptual clarification/development’ for the community informatics declaration internet for the common good (cirn commons. 2014. april 3). that paper was: james b. quilligan, why distinguish common goods from public goods? (quilligan, 2013). i too found it interesting, but for different reasons. i support the community informatics declaration because it defines global as a federation of locals. my reason for that support is based on a specific understanding of how a shift in culture that resulted in creating technologies like the internet has also created a very different meaning for the word governance.in brief summary, the governance structuring complex adaptive systems, or self-organizing systems like the internet, is internalized or distributed among the elements that make it up. the parts of the whole system !128 graham, g., (2016). cooperating community connections: an essay on a changing political reality. the journal of community informatics, 12(1), 128—141. date submitted: 2015-12-30. date accepted: 2016-03-08. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1295 garth graham president of victoria freenet association, cofounder and member of the board of directors, telecommunities canada. garth.graham@telus.net http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1295 mailto:garth.graham@telus.net http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1295 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 all contain within themselves simple rules of relationship that govern the structure or patterns of behavior that the whole expresses in the world. it’s a question of where you think the rules need to be. we are in transition to a relational understanding of governance and away from the mechanistic and externally imposed understanding of governance inherent in existing political institutions. given the pervasiveness of the transition, why would we expect the practice of politics to remain unaffected? the theories underpinning almost every academic discipline are now influenced heavily by relational or evolutionary concepts. to take one example, the role of urbanization in development, luís bettencourt has called for the “reconceptualizations of cities as complex adaptive systems.” (bettencourt, 2013). he contrasts this with planning practices that viewed cities as a set of problems to be managed. “this tradition is intellectually inspired by engineering practices and more or less explicitly thinks of the city as a machine. its problem solving strategies are largely defined by ideas of control theory.” (bettencourt, 2013). quilligan’s paper interests me because i think he sees enough of that transition to react against it. he is defending an understanding of governance as control, and as essentially adversarial, that is fading from view. obviously, quilligan’s phraseology places him somewhere left of center on the continuum of partisan politics. on beginning to read the essay below you may be inclined to put me somewhere else on that scale. but be patient. the point of this essay is to show how the epistemology that frames a “culture of autonomy” (castells, 2013) has a form of governance that ignores altogether the classic linear continuum of left, right, and center. in that culture of autonomy, the internet is a symptom of a shift in epistemology, not a cause of it. so far, internet governance continues to be described as an ecology. the internet’s governance therefore mirrors exactly the internet’s technological significance as a cultural artifact. as a radical practice, it remains the role of community networking to exemplify the transition of governance to complex adaptive systems. who’s afraid of eleanor ostrom? quilligan advocates transcendence of the nation state by reference to the transformational alternative of local and democratic commons institutions. at first glance, because he sounded vaguely environmental, i too found his message attractive. it also seemed to parallel the community informatics declaration’s definition of the global as a federation of locals. but quilligan twice makes a point of contrasting his concept of common goods as different from eleanor ostrom’s concept of common-pool resources (ostrom 1990, 2005). and they are not. because i believe you can’t understand internet governance without understanding ostrom, i asked myself, why did he need to set up a false dichotomy? my curiosity caused me to take a deeper look at what he proposes and how it conflicts with my own sense of the changing nature of governance. in his first reference to ostrom, in footnote #1, quilligan says: “although it’s not the focus of this article, the differentiation of common goods from common-pool resources (cprs) is also important. cprs generally involve an open access regime where there is no system for managing resources; they are freely !129 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 available for anyone to appropriate because no rights or rules exist for governing them. in a commons, on the other hand, people negotiate their own agreements – both functional and cultural – to manage their shared resources. common goods thus tend to be managed by informal rules and norms that do not exist in open access regimes like cprs.” (quilligan, 2013). i have a problem with that footnote. that distinction might be important if it where true, but it’s not. the whole point of eleanor ostrom’s eight design principles of stable local common pool resource management is that cprs do manage themselves through self-organization. asserting that common goods and cprs are different doesn’t make it so. it looks to me as if his social charters and ostrom’s design principles are same thing. for example, i cannot see any difference between quilligan and eleanor ostroms’ design principles 7 and 8. quilligan says, “since every resource domain is unique and so many commons overlap, commons management would be deliberated through local, state, interstate, regional, and global stakeholder discussions.” (quilligan, 2013). ostroms’ design principles 7 and 8 say, “(7). self-determination of the community recognized by higher-level authorities; and (8). in the case of larger common-pool resources, organization in the form of multiple layers of nested enterprises, with small local cprs at the base level.” (ostrom 1990, 2005). in his second reference to ostrom, later in the essay, he says: “by the samuelson/buchanan/ostrom definition, non-rivalrous and non-excludable public goods are said to be provided by sovereign governments to the citizens within their jurisdictional borders. but this model is virtually meaningless at the multilateral level where there is no representative authority (either through individual states in association or a global institutional framework) to provide public goods to the citizens of the world.” (quilligan, 2013) i don’t agree that lumping of ostrom with samuelson and buchanan is correct. he raises an issue that ostrom doesn’t address. while it’s true that ostrom’s principle #7 calls for selfdetermination of the community to be recognized by higher-level authorities, the point of principle #7 is the self-determination. it merely and pragmatically acknowledges that external authoritative recognition of a cpr will suddenly make its presence felt and that it would be of help if it adopted a correct attitude. ostrom didn’t get a nobel prize in economics by genuflecting to the authority of the nation state. you don’t need a world government or global institutions to apply the cpr principles. they derive from thousands of cases where effective cooperative utilization of a common resource is in practice. there is no need to postulate some kind of world government or global institution to make them happen. why does quilligan feel it necessary to create a straw dog? why, conceptually, did he need to distance himself from ostrom? as complex adaptive systems, ostrom’s cprs don’t sum “up” to anything centralizing, globalizing or collectivizing. they merely distribute functions of self-management internally. !130 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 they simply resolve local problems of resource optimization locally, and nothing more. they do this by treating the resource management problem as if it were a complex adaptive system, thus bypassing external authority or “management” altogether. the external imposition of management practices on a complex adaptive system is inherently disruptive of the system’s equilibrium. so the system, like a packet-switched network, has to route around it to survive. ostrom’s cpr principles, just like the internet, are a symptom of a real shift in epistemology. quilligan finds his epistemological shift elsewhere. he states, “the political will to create a democratically restructured economic system cannot be generated until a more realistic epistemology is embraced across the planet.” (quilligan, 2013). so i asked myself, what’s the basis of his realistic epistemology of resource sovereignty? how is it different from ostrom’s, and who leads the charge for its embrace? on my second look at his essay, i found it to be a pastiche of leftist slogans, appropriating the language of ecology for political ends. he advocates: • globally representative constitutional governance that goes beyond the state level and acts as a genuine voice of global public opinion. • recognition of the sovereign rights of world citizens to their commons. • self-organized and participatory systems of common property, social charters and commons trusts. • involving resource users in the process of production so that civil society will develop a more dynamic basis for collective action, social solidarity and direct democracy than currently exists. • transcending the authority of state institutions and recognizing the legitimacy of people’s claims as trustees of the world’s resources at every level of common property. you might call that a disintermediation of the middle through collectivization of the ends. he advocates these goals to address a particular nemesis: the practice of governments in allowing elite interests to capture both the public good and the idea of the public. “in surrendering our deeply personal, subjective power of decision-making to government (which redeploys this power by granting corporations the right to produce and dispense private goods), the idea of an active citizenship with identity and purpose is gravely weakened….” (quilligan, 2013). to counterbalance the power of those elite interests, quilligan is in search of the active global citizen as a collective abstraction. in essence, his world institute for global governance masks a redefinition of globalization as a process of collectivization writ large. he calls on individuals to assert their sovereign rights to control and use shared local resources. “people’s sovereignty for a commons is legitimated through global citizenship, and this global citizenship is legitimated through the local sovereignty of their commons.” (quilligan, 2013). he then expresses ambivalence about the role of civil society as the “voice” to represent public opinion at the global level. first, he says: “in affirming and upholding the constitutional premises of neoliberalism (including the primacy of individual rights, private property and sovereign borders), most civil society organizations support the embedded division of labor between producers and !131 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 consumers and thus the enclosure of the commons. this leaves civil society co-dependent on business and government and vulnerable to exploitation. unable to stand as a true opposition party, civil society faces a huge obstacle in establishing itself as a transformational alternative.” (quilligan, 2013). i personally believe that civil society faces an obstacle in establishing itself as a transformational alternative that is insurmountable. this is because business, government and civil society are three parts of the same closed system and are all equally co-dependent. but later quilligan offers civil society redemption. it can only become the transformative alternative to private/public ownership if it can “learn from commons groups the importance of involving resource users in the process of production.” (quilligan, 2013). by this means, civil society will, “develop a more dynamic basis for collective action, social solidarity and direct democracy than currently exists.” (quilligan, 2013). he says, “national governments simply do not have the interdependent power or legitimacy – nor are they designed – to protect, manage and distribute resources for the world’s people as a whole.” (quilligan, 2013) then, as an answer to the problem of legitimacy, he conjures up global resource sovereignty as a means of local collectivization through trusteeships that govern commons resource areas and bioregions. “to create a new global social contract …. the world’s people must organize their local commons, declare their sovereignty as global citizens, and call upon governments to acknowledge the natural rights belonging to all human beings and life-forms across the planet.” (quilligan, 2013) it’s an economics of sharing that is based, not on political interests or ideology, “but on how the world and its subsystems actually work, [and that will lead to] globally representative governance.” (quilligan 2013). and the basis of globally representative governance will be “a genuine voice of global public opinion.” (quilligan, 2013). other than evoking the world’s people themselves, he’s never very clear whose voice it is, “beyond the state level,” that involves and recognizes and represents “the identity and purpose” of the active global citizen. some one unspecified is going to manage the commoners who are declaring their sovereign rights. some one unspecified is going to convene the processes of stakeholder empowerment at every level of governance. yes, it’s true, and ostrom would agree, that, “… the freedom and equality expressed through a commons does not result from privatization, centralized institutions or the top tiers of a social hierarchy.” (quilligan, 2013). and, yes, it’s true this then requires, “powerful and broadly recognized distinctions between public goods and commons/common goods – the shared resources which people manage by negotiating their own rules through social or customary traditions, norms and practices.” (quilligan, 2013). and, yes, it’s true this then requires, “self-governing systems of co-production.” (quilligan, 2013). but quilligan sees these as decentralized, by a centralized world institution of representative democracy. selfgoverning and complex adaptive systems are not decentralized because they have no center. they are distributed. you cannot claim to reinforce their solidarity because solidarity and their functionality have nothing to do with each other. exactly what does he propose to recognize the legitimacy of people’s declaration of sovereignty for their commons if not a more concentrated level of authority? to say that it’s human beings as a collective who are sovereign, not their governments, changes nothing. it just !132 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 shifts the balance of power in the assumption that the “cold monsters” (fawcett, 2014) of government, business and civil society are the only possible constituents of social organization and governance. perpetuating that assumption doesn’t get us to implementing the global as a federation of locals. perpetuating that assumption doesn’t get us to recognize the autonomy of cprs as the basis of a functional socio-economic structure for the effective allocation of scarce resources in the absence of competition. perpetuating that assumption doesn’t get us to recognizing that the internet governance ecology expresses a shift in our understanding both of governance and of the significance of community within it. in quilligan’s socialist worldview, the reason a person will acquiesce to being defined by a global social contract with the new global hyper state is because that state agrees to legitimize that person’s sovereignty over their local commons. but the old state, as he correctly points out, never did that. why would we trust the new one? every time the people as a collectivizing abstraction get their sovereignty i seem to lose mine. that’s a bargain that anyone practiced in the political arts of internetting won’t accept. in the world that created the internet to serve the needs of its political economy and, in parallel, created a self-organizing ecology to govern it, there is no default mode for the abstractions of the people or society. what complex adaptive systems need in order to function is individual autonomy, not collective sovereignty. quilligan wants to achieve something at the global level that centralizes representative authority. the ci declaration, eleanor ostrom’s principles of cpr management by what they leave out, and internet governance ecology don’t do that. the functions that organize them are distributed internally, not externally imposed. they avoid altogether the trap of solving problems of relational organization, or end-to-end connection, by reference to centralizing authority. that is to say they anticipate structures that scale fractally, not linearly. those structures exactly mirror the distributed structure of the internet although i guessing of course, someone like quilligan who advocates for global constitutional governance and claims to represent global public opinion might want to distance themselves from the absence of a focus for central authority that characterizes the ci declaration, cprs, and the ecology of internet governance. the politics of inclusion in a world of networked individuals i don’t think you can get to federating the locals unless you go all the way to saying it’s the individual human being who is sovereign. otherwise you don’t get from models with centers to models that are distributed. you are claiming a change in epistemology that isn’t really a change. shifting the process of defining citizenship from the national level to the global level does not reframe the process of external definition. something other than you still asserts authority to define what you are. whereas, in distributed systems, you define yourself. my own conclusion, my own epistemological reality, is that the processes informing normative values has already shifted away from emphasis on external social context and towards a context where the individual, moving from other-directed to inner-directed, controls the relational dimensions of identity. people embrace the internet because its usefulness is achieved by removing intermediaries, by leaving the “they” that purports to define each of us out of the relational equation. “in the world of networked individuals, it is the person who is the focus: not the family, not the work unit, not the neighbourhood, and not the social group.” (rainie !133 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 and wellman, 2012 ). or to put that another way, net neutrality is identity neutrality, and the choice to connect or not with any system of relationship is personal. the embrace of a changed epistemology, focused on direct choice of the individual on his or her relational interdependencies, has already occurred. manual castells has advanced a synthesis of current data based on “networking as a prevalent organizational form; individuation as the main orientation of social behavior; and the culture of autonomy as the culture of the network society.” (castells, 2013). because i think it fits with the shift to a relational epistemology, i agree with castells’ evocation of the rise of a new culture, the culture of autonomy. there is a potential inherent in the culture of autonomy that individuals recognize and governments don’t: “…each person has multiple identities, the salience of which is shaped by one’s motivations and circumstances. this idea – which is firmly rooted in neuroscience, psychology, anthropology and sociology – implies that an individual has significant latitude in shaping his or her identities…. instead of choosing identities that divide us, making it impossible to tackle multiplying global problems, we can shape identities that extend our sense of compassion and moral responsibility.” (snowner). for many years, i have been describing, not very successfully, how open systems for the distribution of governance are fundamentally different from closed systems of governance through control. i have pointing out how the majority of voices in the international debate on internet governance assume that closed systems of control are inevitable. whereas, everything about the nature of the internet as an open system, and every impact the internet has on changing patterns of social behaviors, should tell us they are not inevitable. they are merely social constructs and therefore subject to change. quilligan’s essay provides me with one more way of pleading my case. i believe that case extends to traditional political factions contesting power in elected democracies. just as i began puzzling over quilligan’s need to reject ostrom’s cpr principles i also began reading edmund fawcett’s book, liberalism: the life of an idea. (fawcett, 2014). it was fawcett’s summary of the differences in political values that separate socialism, conservatism, and liberalism that pointed me in the direction of a possible answer to my ostrom question. fawcett defines liberalism as a search for an acceptable order of human progress among civic equals without recourse to undue power. he finds that four broad ideas have governed liberal practice: “acknowledgement of inescapable ethical and material conflict within society, distrust of power, faith in human progress, and respect for people whatever they think and whoever they are.” (fawcett, 2014). that practice is expected to result in: • ethical order without appeal to divine authority, established tradition or parochial custom. • social order without legally fixed hierarchies or privileged classes. • economic order free of crown or state interference, monopoly privileges, and local obstacles to national markets. !134 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 • international order where trade prevailed over war and treaty prevailed over force. • political order without absolute authorities or undivided powers that all citizens might understand and accept under lawful arrangements honoring and fostering those hopes. • conflict, if tamed and turned to competition in a stable political order, can bear fruit as argument, experiment and exchange. he then contrasts liberalism with conservatism and socialism as follows: “in the name of stability, conservatism appealed to the fixity of the past, socialism to the fixity of the future. conservatives, to schematize, believed in the unchallengeable authority of rulers and custom. they thought of human character as largely set and of society's scope for wholesale improvement as small or nonexistent. they took liberal respect for people's chosen enterprises and opinions, especially if they took unfamiliar or disruptive form, as harmful to orthodoxy and social order. civic respect, to the conservative mind, overindulged human willfulness and private choice. it shortchanged duty, deference, and obedience. conservatives took society for a harmonious, orderly whole before critical modernity promoted self-seeking disaffection and liberal capitalism sowed discord between classes.” “socialists believed like liberals that society was divided by conflict. unlike liberals they thought that conflict would end once its sources in material inequity were overcome. … the socialist left, second, put its trust in the power of the people, as intuited by popular tribunes, elected, or self-appointed. like liberalism, socialism had faith in human progress, but unlike liberalism, progress by radical transformation of society rather than in progress by gradual reform within society as it largely was. some socialists would reach their goal gradually by the ballot, others in a revolutionary leap. all hoped for a post capitalist society of common ownership and material equality. in socialist eyes, last, civic respect for people singly threatened comradeship, class loyalty, and solidarity. as liberals respected in particular people’s property, liberalism stood in the way of true progress.” (fawcett, 12-13). as an oh so twentieth century kind of guy, i admit to being comfortable with those liberal values and the nature of the order they seek to achieve. you might think, as i did, that liberals embrace individualism and that liberalism therefore serves as a stage on the way to castells’ culture of autonomy. but fawcett spends a great deal of time describing many varieties of individualism to illustrate why liberals, while standing up for the whole and the part, are not individualists: “modern society may be pictured with the same dramatic force as crushing the individual and as sacralizing the individual. modern society we have been told with equal urgency is postindividualist and hyper-individualist. some social stereotypers have taken atomized modern society to rob people of independence and responsibility. others have taken disengaged, irresponsible people to rob modern society of cohesion. perhaps it is best to treat all such political invocation of social stereotypes ruefully as you might the typewriter: useful in its time—even attractive when well designed—but now a museum piece and a disposal problem.” (fawcett, 2014). !135 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the community informatics list, like many other lists, follows a power law. twenty percent of the participants supply eighty percent of the postings. some participants among the twenty percent rejected castell’s conclusion that “key research findings on the social effects of the internet” pointed to a culture of autonomy. michael gurstein, for example, found that the castells essay, “makes me think of marshall mcluhan and ‘we look at the present through a rear-view mirror. we march backwards into the future.’ he seems never to have heard of mr. snowden, platform monopolies, or even the various digitized ‘divides’.” (gurstein, 2014, september 17). at first, it appeared to me that their rejection was merely leftist ideological bias. but fawcett’s dismissive rejection of individualism shows that even liberals don’t get the transformation of political power that is occurring as the determinants of identity slide ever further towards self-determination. all of the existing isms are looking backward, in defense of the old mechanistic epistemologies that provide the basis of their structural existence. the left, the right and the center cannot hold and they need each other to survive. since i am now old enough to experience the painfulness of becoming irrelevant, i can appreciate how fear of change might provoke defensive rhetorical reactions across what used to be the entirety of the political spectrum. what i don’t expect are defensive reactions from the community of community informatics researchers. obviously quilligan, in appropriating the language of common ownership and solidarity, fits on the left end of the linear political spectrum. but political references to “the whole and the part” reveal that socialism, conservatism and liberalism are all framing their values in the context of a mechanistic epistemology. on fractal scales, which are self-similar, whole and parts are mirrors of each other. it’s early days to see what the relational epistemology of the culture of autonomy will do to frame political action, but it won’t be the forms of politics we have come to expect. i am happy with reframing one of the foundational principles of community development in the context of a fractal scale. people want to talk. let them. complex adaptive systems are a way for all of the world to exist in dialogue. let every voice speak, because we cannot know in advance which voice will be the difference that makes a difference. i am happy that john perry barlow’s restatement of the golden rule works in the context of the culture of autonomy, “only connect. never separate.” (barlow, 1995). for example, i don’t believe we’ll be able to fix representative democracy because we are on the road to replacing it with something else. other than noting the politics of identity has already changed, i don’t know what that something else will be. but i do know that the mind of the autonomous individual doesn’t live there anymore. the best evidence for a shift in politics shows up at the level of small-scale municipal (i.e. local) government where interaction is more face-to-face. the most trusted politicians, and therefore electable by those who still vote, are those who practice a politics of inclusion. as much as the system lets them, they ignore partisan competition. in the face of enormous pressures to be adversarial in the opening movement, they only connect. they never separate. !136 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 community: the in of being-in-common to define politics by reference to the left, the right, and the center is to apply an absolute linear scale in a relational world gone fractal. like quilligan, i have a faith that we are moving into a world beyond nation states. i just do not agree that, to achieve it, the practice of politics has to remain the same except for becoming global. because of the shift in the epistemology of governance, people can see that representative democracy is just as capable of totalizing as any other ism. it can no longer be assumed that advancing global representative democracy as an answer to global challenges will be automatically accepted at face value. surely a global centralized governance of any model will embody a greater threat of concentrated power than any nation state. the order that structures a post nation state world does not appear to the autonomous individual to automatically require the emergence of a supranational authority. they know it is dangerous to replace the nation state with the concentrated power of a global hyper state. i believe that a modern individual, experienced with the practices of end-to-end connective choice that the internet provides by design, will not put up with the centralization of authority implied by quilligan’s global constitution, no matter how democratically representative it pretends to be. both humanity’s embrace of the internet, and the panic of nation states in the face of it, are evidence to me that we are facing a different social construct of society, a real shift in epistemology that has already occurred, without really being conscious of it. society is being re-configured as a fractal composite of communities. but the relational epistemology driving that re-configuration has also altered our expectations of what a community actually does. the way a community does things has also changed. community emerges and evolves from the achievement of a dynamic or “rough” consensus among participating autonomous individuals. that way of doing things, of running the code of consensus, evolves through practice, thus altering the patterns of behavior of both autonomous individuals acting in concert and the communities they express in the world through their action. the dynamics of this relationship are dependent on the autonomy of choice in connection and continuing participation. without choice, there is no trust that the reciprocity that reinforces community will be present. if the individual’s individuality is absorbed into the collective then the iterative dynamics of community dissolve. calls for comradeship, solidarity and working class loyalty are now perceived for what they are – a threat to that essential social dynamics. internet users, in utilizing the material technologies of the culture of autonomy, have already thrown off the chains of management and leadership. communities, mirroring structural organization as fractal, are complex adaptive systems. in complex adaptive systems, initial conditions don’t predict outcomes, and anything that can happen, will. their inherent nature renders anticipation useless. complex adaptive systems adjust situational individual responses to emergent experiences such that the system stays in balance with the context that defines it. there is no way of standing outside the system to anticipate where it might go and attempting to control its direction through a priori rules. a community does have a collective memory but it’s not the sum of its parts. memory is distributed throughout all its members, and individuality is not submerged. that memory is ex !137 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 pressed by the way in which each member acts differently in the world as a result of being differently informed by his or her participation. the relationship of community collective action and individual autonomous action is dynamic, symbiotic and synergetic. individuals are autonomous in their behavior, but influenced by their experience, and their experience includes the many communities they inhabit. they are not and cannot be mobilized into a mass abstraction. they do not submerge their identity into a common good. in the culture of autonomy, the people no longer exists. the autonomous individual, acting consciously or unconsciously in social networks as the next fractal iteration of complex adaptive systems beyond the boundary of the self, is practicing a relational epistemology rather than a mechanistic one. they know that to search for cause and effect, for objectivity, for the absolute in the context of complex adaptive systems is to follow a false path. so that they can learn from practice and experience, they constantly seek to change the context, not to preserve it. the meaning of an act in the world is at the discretion of an actor, precisely because the actor, the self, the person, is not centered either. as a complex adaptive and self-organizing biophysical system, the functional capacities that emerge as the person are distributed, and therefore even the person is perpetually unfinished. the only time a person’s embodiment achieves a static state is in death. the forces of cultures, tribes, communities, states that do try to finish me and thou, to commoditize us, to objectify us, are correctly viewed as a threat to our autonomous existence. complex adaptive systems reward the autonomous and responsible application of critical intelligence. their efficacy and resilience isn’t a matter of submerging autonomy into interdependencies or into something larger than yourself. it’s the dynamic interaction of both. the pursuit of comradeship, solidarity and working class loyalty under the banner of a “true opposition party” is the enemy of that interaction. those values obviate the continuous critical analysis and open choice that responsible action requires. all of society’s existing political institutions are the product of a social construct that is being called into question. the threat to those institutions of changes in the relationship of identity and community is both deeply felt and incomprehensible. they are in full panic mode and crushing each other in their haste to exit a smoke-filled room. as it becomes clearer that the internet is a social construct of the culture of autonomy and a symptom of a change in the relation of the individual to society, the focus of their predator gaze will shift. trust in governments, including those governed through representative democracy, is gone. in the seas of uncertainty, the idea of government in the mind of the autonomous networked individual is no longer the rock that supports the status quo. it’s just one more wave in the sea. even trust in the rule of law is gone. political tactics that play to distrust and fear have short-term utility but, in the longer term, merely accelerate the growth of individual uncertainty. the left’s demands for solidarity and quilligan’s call for a true oppositional party are both appeals for separation. big data doesn’t write our lives. it merely records them. world government does not legitimize our responsibility to the communities we inhabit. we inform and are informed by the !138 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 communities we inhabit. in the governance of complex adaptive systems, the winning strategy remains grounded in the individual. connect (or cooperate), until the other defects, and then compete until the other connects. and, yes, all that does is restate the golden rule in systems terms. quilligan’s ambivalence towards civil society’s role in the emergence of a true oppositional party is consistent with his rejection of ostrom. when civil society corrects it’s thinking it can join the party. but ostrom’s principles of common pool resource management don’t require a party to make them operational. it’s ostrom who speaks to a shift in epistemology, not quilligan. yes, in the name of security of the state if not the individual, governments are desperately and successfully attempting to control their portion of the internet. and, yes, in the name of private interests and superseding national structures of governance, transnational corporations are creating “platforms” as proprietary walled gardens. and, yes, civil society is quite capable of assuming the mantle of social justice and democracy in a rush towards the same centralizing totalizing control that is being sought by nation states and corporations. we aren’t going to be saved by civil society either. in the context of a conventional framing of power and politics, yes, those forces are at play. anticipating those trends, jonathan zittrain forecast that, “the future is not one of generative pcs attached to a generative network. it is instead one of sterile appliances tethered to a network of control.” (zittrain, 2008). but, in the context of effective responses to systemic global problems like climate change, responses that play towards sustainability and resilience, if we don’t consciously practice complex adaptive systems thinking then, to paraphrase yeats, ecologies fall apart, the centres cannot hold. the fabric that internetworks the world’s interdependencies is one of complex adaptive systems, of which the internet is merely one. in summary people who view the world through the lenses of ecology, complex adaptive systems, and evolutionary theory understand that governance occurs through self-organization rather than control. they live in a culture of autonomy and their artifacts and practices, like the internet, reflect that culture’s epistemological nature. james b. quilligan’s paper, “why distinguish common goods from public goods?” is an example of a reactionary response to the emergence of that point of view. the degree of quilligan’s reaction is made visible by his need to distinguish eleanor ostrom’s common pool resources as different from his idea of common goods. quilligan’s common goods require the institutionalization of a centralizing global authority whereas ostrom’s management of common pool resources emerges through local self-organization. quilligan opposes the power of the nation state and seeks to reform civil society’s role within it. whereas ostrom ignores them both, while pointing to alternative and distributed means of social ecological organization. none of the traditional political factions contesting power in elected democracies, socialism, conservatism, or liberalism, are succeeding in adapting to the culture of autonomy or to its !139 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 focus on individual self-determination of identity. they are also ignoring how the changed behaviour of autonomous individuals alters the emergence and practices of communities as complex adaptive systems. for me, it’s not so much a question of reconciliation within existing frameworks as it is a question of reframing the question. i’d like to think that’s what community informatics did when it declared the global was a federation of locals because, of course, from a complex adaptive systems view, so is everything else. i am all too well aware that nation states and corporations don’t see it that way. but it remains an open question for me as to whether the ci declaration of the global as a federation of locals intends a complex adaptive systems point of view. references barlow, john perry. (1995). it’s poor workman who blames his tools. wired scenarios. http:// archive.wired.com/wired/scenarios/workman.html bettencourt, luís m. a. (2013). the kind of problem a city is: new perspectives on the nature of cities from complex systems theory. santa fe institute working paper. http:// www.santafe.edu/media/workingpapers/13-03-008.pdf castells, manuel. (2013). the impact of the internet on society: a global perspective. in: change: 19 key essays on how the internet is changing our lives, openmind. https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/bbva-openmind-internet-manuel-castells-the-impact-of-the-internet-on-society-a-global-perspective.pdf community informatics research network (cirn) commons. an internet for the common good engagement, empowerment, and justice for all. (2014, april 3). http:// cirn.wikispaces.com/an+internet+for+the+common+good+-+engagement%2c +empowerment%2c+and+justice+for+all fawcett, edmund. (2014). liberalism: the life of an idea. princeton university press. gurstein, michael. (2014, july 30). discussion group on community informatics, list archive. retrieved december 28, 2015. http://vancouvercommunity.net/lists/arc/ciresearchers/ 2014-07/msg00127.html gurstein, michael. (2014, september 17). subject: [ciresearchers] fw: new paper from manuel castells. discussion group on community informatics, list archive. http:// vancouvercommunity.net/lists/arc/ciresearchers/2014-09/msg00082.html ostrom, elinor. (1990). governing the commons: the evolution of institutions for collective action. cambridge university press, 90. ostrom, elinor. (2005). understanding institutional diversity. princeton university press, 259. quilligan, james b. (2013). why distinguish common goods from public goods? in: boiler and heilfrich (eds), the wealth of the commons: a world beyond market & state. the commons strategy group. http://wealthofthecommons.org/essay/why-distinguish-common-goods-public-goods !140 http://www.santafe.edu/media/workingpapers/13-03-008.pdf https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/bbva-openmind-internet-manuel-castells-the-impact-of-the-internet-on-society-a-global-perspective.pdf http://cirn.wikispaces.com/an+internet+for+the+common+good+-+engagement%25252c+empowerment%25252c+and+justice+for+all http://vancouvercommunity.net/lists/arc/ciresearchers/2014-07/msg00127.html http://vancouvercommunity.net/lists/arc/ciresearchers/2014-09/msg00082.html the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 rainie, lee and wellman, barry. (2012). networked: the new social operating system. mit press. snower, dennis j. (2014). how can we build a more compassionate society? world economic forum, september 22, 2014. http://forumblog.org/2014/09/homo-economicusr a t i o n a l i t y s o c i e t y t r a n s f o r m a t i o n / ? utm_content=buffer86e2c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer zittrain, jonathan l. (2008). the future of the internet -and how to stop it. yale university press & penguin uk. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.instrepos:4455262 !141 http://forumblog.org/2014/09/homo-economicus-rationality-society-transformation/?utm_content=buffer86e2c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer 1455-article text-8226-1-2-20181022 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 sidpdf: articles social and spatial precursors to innovation:
 the diversity advantage of the creative fringe innovation spaces and hubs are increasing in numbers internationally. entrepreneurs and start-up founders who use these spaces and hubs are often unaware of being inside an echo chamber, i.e. a filter bubble they share with only like-minded people who have similar ideas and approaches to innovation. digital technologies that use algorithms can aggravate these echo chambers by filtering towards improved personalised experience and preferences. yet, social inclusion fosters diverse ideas and creativity, hence, has a positive impact on innovation. we studied the social navigation patterns of entrepreneurs and start-up founders, and their awareness and opinion about homogeneity in innovation spaces. this data informed the design of a tool to escape their echo chambers. the tool gives its users the opportunity to discover networks and innovation spaces that are at the creative fringe, that is, marginalised from mainstream spaces and hubs for creativity and innovation. our findings show that users of innovation spaces often find themselves surrounded by like-minded ana bilandžić queensland university of technology, australia ana.bilandzic@qut.edu.au corresponding author dario casadevall ludwig maximilian university of munich, germany d.casadevall@campus.lmu.de marcus foth queensland university of technology, australia m.foth@qut.edu.au greg hearn queensland university of technology, australia g.hearn@qut.edu.au !160 bilandžić, a., casadevall, d., foth. m., hearn. g. (2018). social and spatial precursors to innovation: the diversity advantage of the creative fringe.. the journal of community informatics, 14(1), 160–-182. date submitted: 2018-10-01. date accepted: 2018-10-15. 
 copyright (c), 2018 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1455 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1455 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1455 mailto:m.foth@qut.edu.au mailto:g.hearn@qut.edu.au the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 people. further, our study participants welcomed the ability to identify fringe spaces in order to discover and access more diverse people and ideas. our approach seeks to unlock the diversity advantage of the creative fringe for the purpose of creativity and innovation. keywords: innovation precursors; innovation hubs; echo chambers, network theory, 
 homogeneity vs. diversity. introduction innovation spaces and hubs provide people with new environments for ideation and collaboration on their innovation endeavours. therefore, they are often linked to the start-up and entrepreneurship scene. although established corporate businesses may be associated with pursuing incremental innovations while start-ups are often seen as taking more risk for pursuing disruptive innovations (freeman & engel, 2007), we acknowledge that innovations have a much broader base. this also includes social innovation and social entrepreneurship as well as innovative pursuits and initiatives led by those less concerned with the financial profitability of an eventual business prospect. this manifold source of different kinds of innovation might be the reason why innovation spaces have seen increased attention, support, and funding from both public and private sectors (moriset, 2013). further, innovation spaces are increasing in numbers across australia and internationally (bouncken & reuschl, 2016; gandini, 2015; kojo & nenonen, 2014). if they aim to target a particular sector or outcome, then their ‘speciality [...] may attract certain more homogeneous individuals’ (bouncken & reuschl, 2016, n.p.), hence, others with different interests and backgrounds are excluded. for instance, topics around technology and digital design seem to prevail in established and government supported innovation spaces. such spaces often bring together mostly people with a stem background, whereas people from design, arts, humanities and social sciences risk being alienated in the ‘creative fringes’ (foth, 2015; foth, hughes, dezuanni & mallan, 2017). additionally, natural social mechanisms and algorithms for recommendations on the internet amplify the rise of echo chambers and filter bubbles (pariser, 2011). consequently, innovation spaces and hubs may reinforce homophily by hosting more and more like-minded people who share the same interests and even skill sets. this counteracts the initial benefits of the internet to actually have access to the long tail, i.e. diverse products and services in the niche rather than the mainstream (anderson, 2008). nevertheless, statements about homogeneity or diversity in innovation spaces contradict each other leading to confusion. for instance, some statements assert that the spaces attract people ‘with certain personalities or similar (creative) jobs’ (bouncken & reuschl, 2016, n.p.) or who are ‘largely working in the same sector’ (gandini, 2015, p. 195). yet, others state that ‘a diverse group of people who don’t necessarily work for the same company, or on the same project’ (deguzman & tang, 2011, p. 22) use these spaces. these contradictory quotes bring uncertainty about if, and to what extent, innovation spaces are characterised by diversity. while homogeneity might be useful to make groups gel and be productive, e.g. similar people and businesses collocate in ‘precincts’ or ‘hotspots’ (adkins, foth, summerville & higgs, 2007), diversity is !161 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 needed for ideation, problem solving and resilience (foth, forlano & bilandzic, 2016). foth (2015) calls for considering the ‘creative fringes’ and ‘skunkworks,’ i.e. places where the fringes meet, in the realm of innovation. social inclusion of diverse people and groups in innovation benefits the creative processes as well as economic outcomes (wood & landry, 2007). in this study, we aim to understand the social and spatial precursors that impact innovation in innovation spaces. precursors can be understood as help and encouragement for better learning, networking, action and novel ideation, that is, the first steps towards mobilising people to be innovative and entrepreneurial in their thinking and actions. we introduce and analyse three examples to clarify the notion of precursors. the ‘start-up india; stand-up india’ initiative under prime minister narendra modi provided incentives and help setting up a network for start-ups encouraging youth, women and those historically seen at the bottom of the caste hierarchy to access entrepreneurial training (pti, 2015). the foundation for young australians (fya) helps young people who are creative, ambitious and want to create a better future to find their passion; backs them to listen, learn, experience, and take action; and assists them in finding a community to build a network (fya, 2018). the state of queensland (2017) aims with its advancing regional innovation program to harness innovation in its regions by supporting innovative communities that represent ‘the diversity of queensland’s regions’ and that encourage grassroot entrepreneurial activities. given that diversity of people is a good starting point for ideation for innovation (callon, 1990; granovetter, 1973) and that there is a lack of comprehension on the degree of diversity in innovation spaces, this study looks at people’s awareness and opinion about their lived experience of homogeneity and diversity in these spaces. to do so, we designed and user-tested a skunkworks finder prototype, to provide our study participants with an experimental tool to escape their echo chambers. it gives our study participants the opportunity to discover networks and innovation spaces that are at the creative fringe and marginalised from mainstream spaces for innovation. users can map innovation spaces and hubs relative to their location and interests. finally, places unfamiliar to the users will be presented on the map. the remainder of the article is structured into four main sections. first, we review relevant literature on innovation spaces and hubs, the diversity advantage in innovation, and the relative lack of diversity in many innovation spaces. second, we introduce our study’s methodology. then we evaluate and discuss our findings. finally, the conclusion summarises our main findings, suggesting managerial implications and future work. !162 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 literature review innovation spaces the knowledge economy, which relies more on intellectual capabilities than on natural resources or physical inputs (powell & snellman, 2004), changed the way individuals work, companies operate their business, and innovation is achieved. the web (leadbeater, 2009) and digital technology (castells, 2010) was thought to give the idea of remote working the opportunity to become a ‘game changer’ (barthelemy, 2016, p. 246). coworking spaces may turn into ‘a harbor for entrepreneurs,’ because people can push their ideas in an environment that is based on knowledge transfer and mutual learning (bouncken & reuschl, 2016, n.p.). therefore, they provide alternative innovation environments to scientific laboratories, universities, or research and development (r&d) departments of companies. employees or freelancers become nomads who travel with their work across the urban environment (foth et al., 2016). now the office can be the home, libraries, coworking spaces, maker spaces, innovation spaces and hubs, or even remote travel destinations (known as ‘workations’ or coworking holidays). in the remainder of this article, we refer to these coworking and innovation environments as innovation spaces. liegl (2014) demonstrates that mobility becomes both a problem and a resource for urban nomads. he explains that the problem encompasses the restless search for the right space – a challenge also found by rossitto bogdan, and severinson-eklundh (2014), forlano (2011), and townsend, forlano and simenti (2011), whilst the restlessness has the potential to stimulate creativity. the new genre of innovation spaces seems to be more playful, open, and transparent than conventional innovation places such as laboratories or r&d departments (van meel & vos, 2001). because diversity drives innovation, an openness towards a hub for heterogeneity to welcome as diverse interests as possible could be understood. this gives reason to expect a diverse mix of people inhabiting these innovation spaces, e.g. with different levels of education, educational backgrounds, socio-cultural backgrounds and in terms of other diversity scales. if this is the case, situational influences of place affect innovation (sayiner, 2015) – meaning that the environments, composed of people, culture and physical space, function as a mediator of individual creativity, and hence, impact on the space’s capacity to foster innovation. sayiner (2015) argues that the design of physical space should aim to maximise spontaneous encounters between people especially between those from different departments in an organisation. for instance, spontaneous encounters could happen at the coffee machine, in the hallway, or community events such as at happy hours on fridays (sayiner, 2015). further, open office plans give more opportunities for socialising, but then smaller spaces are required for ‘zoning,’ for team work, or individual privacy (sayiner, 2015). many of these design recommendations have been implemented in innovation spaces. besides the spatial design, previous research showed how hybrid placemaking, i.e. combining spatial, social and digital space to facilitate social interaction, can improve connected learning amongst on-site people of a casual environment (bilandzic & johnson, 2013). users of innovation spaces share the physical assets, e.g. café, office, infrastructure, and intangible assets, e.g. information and knowledge (bouncken & reuschl, 2016). a !163 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 careful consideration of spatial, social and technological aspects for designing these spaces can nourish peer interactions, facilitate shared encounters, and connected learning (bilandzic & foth, 2017). the meaning of these design aspects gain weight when users know that people come and use innovation spaces, because they want to be part of a community, too, rather than accessing the workspace itself (garrett, spreitzer & bacevice, 2017). innovation spaces allow social interaction that can inspire people and increase idea exchange and development (bouncken & reuschl, 2016) as well as knowledge exchange to get new insights that support them in their entrepreneurial or innovative endeavours (foertsch, 2011). in a survey with 661 coworkers from 24 countries, foertsch (2011) found that people made new acquaintances in innovation spaces that had positive impacts on their work. for instance, he found that 43% of the respondents met one to three helpful coworkers, while another 43% met four or more such acquaintances. although people often pay a fee to access innovation spaces, the prevailing primary justification is the sense of belonging to a community (garrett et al., 2017). this finds support in a socio-spatial analysis of innovation spaces where people perceive the spaces ‘as social environments, rather than purely physical destinations’ (bilandzic & foth, 2017). the small communities in which they find themselves come with a warm feeling and sense of belonging (czarniawska, 2014). innovation spaces are becoming popular working spaces for co-creation, coworking, and collaboration, because more and more people believe that working alongside each other sparks great ideas that can lead to new entrepreneurial initiatives (deguzman & tang, 2011; hughes, morgan, ireland & hughes, 2014). not just private sector but also government staff reported key benefits such as cost savings on transport and child care, improved workplace flexibility, workforce participation and job satisfaction, and use of personally preferred technologies when working from an innovation space such as a coworking space (houghton, foth & hearn, 2018). further, the motivation to work in innovation spaces is partly driven by people’s desire to be part of a community (garrett et al., 2017), because remote, home, or teleworkers often feel isolated (golden, veiga & dino, 2008; whittle & mueller, 2009). although the home or coffee shop may be appropriated as a temporary office, people desire a sense of community that fills a social void and gives them a collective identity, a sense of ownership, and a feeling of genuine friendship (garrett et al., 2017). bilandzic and foth (2013) gained deeper understanding of the motivation of people coming to coworking spaces and their uses of these spaces, which we previously put under the umbrella word of innovation spaces. they classify: • utiliser who benefits from the free access to technological infrastructure that would otherwise be too expensive to buy; • socialiser who coworks with individuals and groups, and; • learner who acquires knowledge at workshops, exhibitions, presentations, and other events. this again provides insights about people’s motivation to visit innovation spaces. besides the free access to technology, they aim for informal learning and socialising (bilandzic & foth, 2013). although innovation spaces thrive in today’s knowledge!164 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 based economy that relies on creativity, communication, collaboration, problem solving, and critical thinking skills (bilandzic & foth, 2013; de laart & dawson, 2017; kojo & nenonen, 2014), they might represent only temporary clusters for the people using them, because less than 60% of them consider themselves as being loyal to one space (foertsch, 2011). this may explain why people in innovation spaces are sometimes described as (digital) nomads (czarniawska, 2014; liegl, 2014; rossitto et al., 2014). nomadism comes with a notion of temporary rest and moving along. multiple studies show issues that occur during people’s stay in innovation spaces (bilandzic & foth, 2013; czarniawska, 2014; forlano, 2011; gregg, 2011; houghton et al., 2018). yet, with a nomadic working lifestyle, some challenges might be present even before people enter innovation spaces. people need to find an innovation space first. forlano (2011), liegl (2014), and rossitto et al. (2014) found that the search for a suitable innovation space is a burden for many people. diversity advantage in innovation the role of people in innovation is clear as they are the creators of innovation (gladwell, 2000). developing new ideas for innovation is a process that builds connections between existing knowledge following a logic of discovery or innovation (polanyi, 1962). however, a ‘logical gap’ can lead to a lack in logical reasoning (polanyi, 1962). in this case a scientist’s ‘illumination,’ that is, a creative imagination driven by feasible clues and intuition leads to the creation of a new concept (polanyi, 1966). rust (2004, p. 78), who is inspired by polanyi’s argument, concludes that ‘the ability of designers to imagine new scenarios’ and create environments with experimental artefacts that allow people to experience these scenarios, can help scientists to ‘identify ideas that merit investigation.’ following these arguments, ideas for innovation come from logical reasoning or from a creative imagination that leads to ideas for discovery and innovation. the innovation process in a commercial context is often broken down into several steps. for instance, hauschildt and salomo (2011) suggest a seven-step model that starts with ideation, followed by discovery/observation, research, invention, development, and market launch, and ends with market penetration. even though this model does not suit all kinds of innovation, e.g. social, civic, or ecological innovations, we use it here to exemplify the different steps that require a set of different tasks for accomplishment. researchers have found that people have different personality characteristics (callon, 1990; o’connor, 2006; o’connor & mcdermott, 2004; roberts & fusfeld, 1982) and motivations (battistella & nonino, 2013) varying amongst these steps, hence, the required activities in the innovation process. as a consequence, some people may perform one step better than another. for instance, someone who is comfortable with abstract work and performs well in problem solving is good in seeking breakthroughs and generating new ideas (roberts & fusfeld, 1982). in contrast, a person with strong interest in applications, is entrepreneurial and adept at selling the idea to get funding (roberts & fusfeld, 1982). in summary, this means that the different steps along the innovation process are complementary and require different skills, tasks and activities !165 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 that are more or less suitable to particular personal characteristics and motivations. having this in mind and knowing that intrinsically motivated work leads to higher personal happiness (csikszentmihalyi, 2002) and positively influences the innovation process (koudelkova & milichovsky, 2015), it becomes apparent that a diversity of people enriches the innovation process as a whole. consequently, people with diverse skill sets and interests in innovation spaces might positively influence each other’s work, as well as contribute to the sense of community in the innovation space. we look at social interaction and network theory to better understand why diversity promises a positive influence on innovation. individuals who work by themselves and come up with a great idea are an exception (johnson, 2010). whereas individuals with contacts to different groups span structural holes between these groups, and detect and develop opportunities to generate valuable new ideas (burt, 2005). this corresponds to the idea of people at the fringes of one’s social network (granovetter, 1973). these people have ties to at least two social networks that allow them to gain insights from both. therefore they find themselves in a situation that allows them to connect the structural holes from both networks and potentially create new ideas. johnson (2010, p. 22) argues, ‘good ideas may not want to be free, but they do want to connect, fuse, recombine [...] by crossing conceptual borders.’ however, sometimes big breakthroughs happen when technology is ready, e.g. after inventors conducted research and experiments for a long time in laboratories, only then do designers come in and start understanding the needs of users (norman, 2010). this again shows the need for diversity in innovation as two professions are involved in making a technological breakthrough a success. even in scientific laboratories, innovative thinking occurs when researchers have their weekly meetings (dunbar, 1997). social networks can be inspiring, because mostly they deal with less serious issues and therefore give the mind the opportunity to spin freely as aroused by the ‘nothingness’ (traitler, coleman & hofmann, 2015, p. 199). these insights show the value of social interaction and the role of diversity with regards to innovation. as we know that diversity can be an advantage for creativity and innovation, we looked at examples from industry to understand how diversity can be built in organisations. broadly speaking, we can see a change in the innovation process since chesbrough introduced the open innovation paradigm in 2003 (chesbrough, 2003). since then companies exchange intellectual property throughout the innovation process with other companies from the same or a different industry. they also value and source ideas from their customers and employees (piller, 2011). for instance, google introduced a 20% policy that is inspired by 3m’s 15% policy (girard, 2009). it allows its employees to use 20% of their work time, i.e. one day per week, to follow individual interests. this policy led to new innovations such as google news. google’s senior vice president of people operations laszlo bock said that at google, ‘we try to have as many channels for expression as we can, recognizing that different people, and different ideas, will percolate up in different ways’ (he, 2013). this shows google’s openness, appreciation, and encouragement to diversity of people and approaches for innovation. the company king, which is in the digital game industry, which developed games such as candy crush, actively pursues building a diverse team. its manager for employer brand, diversity, and culture natalie mellin says that for recruitment king pursues diversity !166 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 considering ‘areas that are [...] discriminated against in the workplace’ (batchelor, 2017). to do so, king looks at its statistics such as how many employees belong to the lgbtiq+ community, have kids, or look after their elders, the gender split, and nationalities (amelie, 2017). efforts towards creating diverse teams are also undertaken in innovation spaces. rei inamoto, who was the chief creative officer at akqa, said at south by southwest that ‘a hipster, a hacker, and a hustler’ build an efficient entrepreneurial team (ellwood, 2012). in this context, the hipster is the designer, the hacker is the technology expert who codes, and the hustler is the business expert who sells the product. following this credo, the meetup group ‘hipsters, hackers & hustlers’ gathers for those interested in london’s startup scene. similarly, the google for entrepreneurs backed startup weekend series (startupweekend.org) comprises teams of hipsters, hackers and hustlers developing an idea into a business within 54 hours. although this constellation brings three backgrounds together and might appear diverse, those teams usually focus on technology in their entrepreneurial and innovative endeavours, maybe because they believe that problems can be solved with some sort of (temporarily lasting) technology. instead they could try to understand the problem at its roots from a humanities and social science perspective, and help people to develop skills to innovate with value and substance to remedy the cause rather than easing the pain. lack of diversity in innovation spaces studies on innovation spaces reveal the occupations of people who come to these spaces. most often they are freelancers, remote workers, self-employed, entrepreneurs, consultants, contractors, or own or are part of a small start-up (gandini, 2015; garrett et al., 2017, p. 826; spinuzzi, 2012). foertsch’s (2011) survey shows that 54% are freelancers, 20% are permanent employees, and almost 20% are entrepreneurs who employ others. foertsch (2011) outlines that the majority of people – without providing statistics – work in the creative industries and new media where one in nine are graphic or web designers and the same number are consultants. the reason may lie in the evolution of the creative industries ‘from a sector-specific mapping to economy-wide focus on creative inputs as generative of change and innovation’ (cunningham, 2011, p. 59). further, foertsch (2011) reports that others work in public relations and marketing, or as journalists, writers, architects, and artists. although the jobs within the creative industries can be different, innovation spaces might be homogeneous in a sense that only mobile workers from the creative industries who can use their laptop for work come together. therefore, we argue that many mainstream innovation spaces have a focus on technology and digital design, leaving out people from other design areas, arts, humanities and social sciences who are pushed to become the ‘creative fringe’ (foth, 2015; foth et al., 2017). australia’s department of industry, innovation and science (department of industry, innovation & science, n.d.-a) defines innovation as ‘the implementation of a new or significantly improved product or process, a new marketing method, or a new organisational method in business practices, workplace organisation or external relations.’ it shows that the equivalent of 3.11% of australia’s gross domestic product !167 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 was spent on r&d in 2015. the department measures innovation activities through r&d expenditure, trademark and patent application, and new business creation (department of industry, innovation & science, n.d.-b). the australian innovation system annual series reports on the impact innovation has on business, industry, and national performance (commonwealth of australia, 2018). additionally, the australian industry report focuses on economic factors affecting industries (commonwealth of australia, 2018). these insights might give a clue why government funded innovation spaces often only focus on technology-driven commercial outcomes, while the government should consider the rising creative economy, hence, the education and learning of non-technical skills (cunningham, 2018). algorithms in digital technologies might put the creative fringes in danger to fall off the innovation radar. innovation measurements used by the government might be exclusive of any social and ecological innovation outputs, as no data on these innovation types are provided. ignoring these innovation types and non-monetary oriented methods to measure innovation ignores social and ecological issues. further, they put society in danger of falling prey to neoliberal capitalist agendas, ignoring social problems such as hunger, homelessness, and climate change (monbiot, 2016). previously, we showed that diversity has a positive effect on innovation, hence, inclusion of everyone is a meaningful stance in regard to innovation and might bring benefits to innovation spaces. however, creating diversity might be difficult, because people tend to stay within the comfortable centre of gravity of their social network (granovetter, 1973). by using software-sorted geographies and algorithmic curation, people increasingly risk to fall into polarisation when using digital technology to search for new spaces (foth, mitchell & estrada-grajales, 2018). this is due to algorithmic filters that usually sort and prioritise search results according to homophily and sameness. these algorithms work counter to the argument that innovation thrives on diversity if they lead the same people to meet in the same spaces all the time (foth, 2015). bouncken and reuschl (2016) suggest future research on innovation spaces to focus on analysing precursors in regard of entrepreneurship and innovation and on investigating the influence of precursors such as availability of diverse skills on entrepreneurial success, time to market, or new product development that are the outcome of selfefficacy. with that in mind we aim to understand the spatial precursors that set the ground for innovation in innovation spaces that allow us to learn about people’s awareness and opinion about homogeneity or diversity in innovation spaces and provide them a tool to escape their echo chambers. methodology this study is part of a larger study that involved the development, verification and validation through user testing of the prototype skunkworks finder that aims to help people escape their filter bubble and discover new innovation spaces in their city. this study looks deeper into the findings regarding (a) participants’ methods of social navigation and searching for innovation spaces and their awareness of homogeneity or diversity in them, and; (b) participants’ willingness to use, and their perceived need for, !168 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 a tool that might help them to escape their echo chambers. for the matter of simplicity, we will provide an explanation of the developed prototype rather than detailed technical features and operations, which are reported elsewhere. this is followed by data collection and analysis methods. the skunkworks finder is a tool assisting users to expand personalised social navigation and discover new and different innovation spaces where serendipitous new acquaintances, idea exchange, and innovative thinking may occur. the larger study is following an iterative design strategy that complies with the design inclusive research paradigm (bruseberg & mcdonagh-philp, 2001; imre, 2007). it consists of (a) a prestudy phase of hypothesis and concept development through desktop research and the design phase of the prototype, and; (b) a post-study phase for prototype testing, examination and evaluation in one-on-one user tests and interviews. for the desktop research, we reviewed granovetter’s (1973) social network theory and followed his argument of the strength of weak social ties. weak ties span structural holes between networks and bring new information into close network groups (barabási, 2014; granovetter, 1973). we were inspired by the idea of the strength of weak social ties and sought to translate it into accessing new (online) information, because it suits the basic structure of the internet. the long tail which provides access to more distinct products and services is the main strength of the internet (anderson, 2008). therefore, diversity should be easily achievable, if algorithms would not counteract and work towards like-mindedness and personalisation. academic researchers have been successful in seeing the potential of social network analysis. for instance, they were able to gather user data from twitter to retrieve information about lesser known countries to increase interest and insights into political and cultural viewpoints (mejova, borge-holthoefer & weber, 2015). further, they showed that more than half of their study participants were interested in the new information. two other studies used an online tool to facilitate interdisciplinary research in their university (valdez, özdemir, yazdi, schaar & ziefle, 2015; valdez, schaar, ziefle & holzinger, 2014). the tool visualised researchers and their papers on a node graph and connected them to peers if they collaborated on publications. specific data for the tool was accessed from the integrated library system from the respective university. for our prototype, we followed the same idea of retrieving existing data and used the weak ties to access new types of information. our network-based recommendation tool follows the concept of linkedin search requests that can be sorted by degrees of separation, i.e. the number of ties that separate two distinct individuals. for instance, two users with one mutual contact are separated by one degree. we appropriated this concept from a people context to an innovation space context. this required a suitable dataset with available location-based data and specific themes with a network structure. we found that websites that map innovation spaces lack the connectivity approach to build a network around them and did not include thematic information to indicate diversity of disciplines. for our study, we chose meetup (www.meetup.com), because it aims to bring together people who are interested in creative processes and who want to work collaboratively. it !169 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 holds a vast pool of differently themed groups and provides data about location. if users join a specific group, they can attend the group’s meetings, meet new people, and pursue creative activities. group organisers hold meetings at places in open facilities, e.g. cafés, libraries, university campuses, innovation spaces, or public parks. they also choose tags to characterise their groups’ topics, interests, and disciplines. our choice of meetup as a platform to retrieve data of innovation spaces and base our prototype for a social network of these spaces on that data comes with limitations. first, meetup is a platform that allows its members to join groups that meet up at innovation spaces, co-working spaces, cafés or other places that accommodate people from a wide range of professions. as such it may miss co-working spaces specialised for entrepreneurs in one field, e.g. arts or technology-driven enthusiasts. second, we appropriated the social network theory to build a prototype for a network of innovation spaces that meetup members choose and visit. in this regard, we are missing spaces that are not frequented by any meetup group. for instance, studios and creative practices that are the creative workspaces for artists, designers, and craftspeople, but might also be their homes, too, thus not publicly listed on the meetup website. our prototype expands the curatorial repertoire of algorithmic filters by extending personalisation and building bridges to new network clusters. this is visualised on a map. the emphasis is on extending personalisation rather than displaying new information randomly chosen from the large pool of information that is provided on the internet. with the prototype we want to make people aware of their own echo chamber and give them an opportunity to discover new places for their creative and innovative work. conceptualisation of the prototype the prototype allows users to select one or more of six keyword groups that were previously retrieved as group tags: writing; art & culture; career & business; hobbies & crafts; photo, audio & video; and tech. markers illustrate related places on a map. additionally, connected places are displayed. the markers are colour coded to indicate the degree of separation to the places related to the initial keywords. figure 1 is a screenshot of the prototype that shows the markers illustrating places associated with the keyword ‘hobbies & crafts’ and three degrees of separation. !170 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ! figure 1: map-view of skunkworks finder with the regular filters visible users get additional information about place names, address, opening hours and general topic if they click on a marker. further, they can find out more about the connection to the other innovation spaces through two types of filters: regular and advanced. the regular filter allows the user to hide specific degrees of separation from the map. ! figure 2: map-view of skunkworks finder with the advanced filters visible figure 2 illustrates the three advanced filters for degree of separation, availability, or speciality of the innovation space. the degree filter illustrates only the innovation !171 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 spaces of a specific degree and fades out all the remaining spaces. the availability filter corresponds with the opening hours of the innovation spaces, and the speciality filter relates to the number of thematically different meetup events being held at any one space. a space that only caters for one theme is considered specialised (e.g., a hacker space optimised for physical computing activities such as soldering), whereas a space that can cater for many themes (such as a café) is considered generic (foth et al., 2016). data retrieval this section gives a brief overview of the logic that we followed to translate member participation in different groups to form a structure for the meetup network. after a user selects a keyword, an algorithm scans meetup groups in and around a set locale for the specific keyword via the meetup-api. our prototype is narrowed down to the city of brisbane and a 25 km radius from the cbd. we then collect the locations of past and scheduled meetings of the groups retrieved from this query. in order to avoid complexity in the experimental map visualisation, only groups that met in the last two years and more than three times at the same location within the last ten meetings are saved. then, group members and what other meetup groups they attend are analysed – we consider this the second degree of separation in this place-based context. these new groups are then analysed for validity, i.e. to fit at least one of the six keyword groups. if the validation is successful, the examination of the meetings and members starts again. user study besides the goals of this study, the larger study also comprised a user study to validate the usability and utility of our prototype. feedback received informed further incremental refinement of the user interface. for our data collection, we recruited 12 participants who attend or are affiliated with innovation spaces. their use of innovation spaces includes work or study purposes, networking events, participating in hackathons, and visits simply out of curiosity. while all our participants use google maps regularly, i.e. at least once a day, only half of them had heard of meetup before. data was collected through semi-structured interviews lasting about 45 minutes each. the interview was divided into three parts of about 15 minutes each. the first part gathered information about the usual participation purpose, use and experience in innovation spaces and the strategies they employ to discover spaces that are potentially new to them. we encouraged them to explain how and why they look for specific innovation spaces and share their personal views on a perceived benefit from (or lack of) socio-cultural or disciplinary diversity in innovation spaces and their ideas about ways to rectify this issue. the second and third parts focused on the prototype testing and explored utility and usability aspects of the prototype respectively. we recorded the interviews for follow-up transcription and thematic data analysis. !172 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 discussion this study aims to shed light onto the social and spatial precursors that impact innovation in innovation spaces. we followed the argument that diversity offers a nurturing foundation for creativity and innovation and that algorithms employed in digital tools risk homogeneity, which counteracts the diversity needed for creativity and innovation. while established and government funded innovation spaces are focusing on opportunities to commercialise digital technology, people from the creative fringe often fall off the innovation radar. for this study, we looked deeper into the findings for (a) participants’ methods of social navigation and searching for innovation spaces and their awareness of homogeneity or diversity in them, and; (b) participants’ willingness to use and need for a tool that might help them to escape their echo chambers. the challenge of homogeneity in searching for innovation spaces at the beginning of the interview, we asked study participants for a reason why they come to innovation spaces. most of them use innovation spaces, because it enables a change of scenery whilst keeping a work atmosphere in which they are surrounded by other people in the same situation. others appreciate the networking opportunities that open the door to connect to the start-up scene, or to learn about new ways of being creative. our findings affirm outcomes of the previous study that created user personas of coworking spaces, i.e. utiliser, socialiser, and learner (bilandzic & foth, 2013). methods the study participants use to find respective innovation spaces were not surprising. either they use google search or facebook recommendations, or more commonly, they rely on their friends’ recommendations following a word-of-mouth strategy. both are strategies for social navigation (dourish & chalmers, 1994) that give people reason to choose and visit a specific site in their environment. both unmediated navigation (bilandzic & foth, 2009) through friends as well as mediated navigation (bilandzic, foth & de luca, 2008) through devices using algorithms such as google, support our assumption that innovation spaces are at risk of homogeneity by attracting like-minded people. this is due to recommendations made by close social networks or through algorithmic filters that are optimised for personal preferences, hence, encapsulating people within an echo chamber. all of our participants confirmed having experienced homogeneity as a result – however, this is often initially perceived as comfortable, convenient, and human nature. one participant framed it as ‘google is sorting people.’ the algorithmic curation behind the scenes of social media can lead to drastic behaviour, such as that by one participant: ‘sometimes i am using another computer just to prevent ending up in a filter bubble.’ nevertheless, our participants had difficulties thinking of methods other than asking friends or following the recommendations by google and facebook to search for and find innovation spaces. several participants confirmed being in an echo chamber. one participant takes the opportunity to actively look for innovation spaces where she can find herself surrounded with people other than her peers in order to escape her perceived echo chamber. she is a doctoral student and in her opinion universities tend to be too closed off to industry. her goal is to build connections to ‘the outside world’ and meet industry !173 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 practitioners. although she is aware of being potentially caught in a filter bubble, it seems that it takes her a bit of effort to find new spaces. similarly, another participant has intentions to work from an environment that hosts people with diverse backgrounds. he told us, ‘i have a huge interest not getting tied into one specialised group. that is what i experience right now. you start hanging out with tech people, like-minded people, and you start narrowing your focus and mind.’ his enthusiasm and openness towards diversity is great, however, he confirms our assumption that the highly visible innovation spaces in the mainstream tend to be technocentric. another participant shared his experience at a hackathon with us: ‘the event was a bit like “too many chiefs, not enough indians.” we had lots of people of one particular skill but no one that could actually execute on the greater plan. tons of people were confident public speakers, but there was no one that could actually execute on the strategies that were suggested to us. it absolutely changed the whole process and outcome of the hackathon.’ this statement shows his frustration with the perceived homogeneity when he attended an innovation space to participate in a hackathon. the homogeneity was so dominant that it caused difficulties in executing a proper work process and developing a competitive outcome. on the contrary we wanted to assess statements that show participants’ appreciation of working in a homogeneous group. two participants mentioned effectiveness and efficiency of a well-attuned homogeneous group. nevertheless, this was the case only when it came to non-creative work. it confirms that diversity positively impacts creativity and ideation especially at the early stages of the innovation process (callon, 1990; granovetter, 1973). need for ways to discover diversity after we learnt about our participants’ social navigation strategies to find innovation spaces and their awareness of homogeneity in innovation spaces, we showed them, and let them familiarise themselves with, the skunkworks finder prototype. we received positive feedback about the idea to provide people with an opportunity to escape their filter bubble and find innovation spaces that are yet unknown to them. one participant praised our network approach to find new spaces for innovation: ‘this is a great idea, because this is an easy way to broaden your network. it presents a whole extra set of possibilities, which is vital sort of stuff in terms of creativity.’ participants felt that the tool can be useful to discover innovation spaces that are unknown to them and eventually support mixing up the innovation community. they agreed that a group of people with diverse skill sets favours the ideation and creativity process. three of our twelve participants particularly seek diverse innovation spaces. one of them stated: ‘different disciplines are very important to me. the way our group talks about what we want to do is very different and very unique to the discipline. within this group you need to be very precise talking about something, which makes ideas and the process clear for everybody.’ even though a homogeneous group helps our participant in his working endeavours, he shows interest and curiosity in disciplines that will challenge and broaden his horizon. !174 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 all our participants showed appreciation for the skunkworks finder as a tool for social navigation to escape their filter bubbles and discover new innovation spaces. however, we also found some constraints that our tool could not solve (yet). an innovation space manager pointed out the role of space and time to create a suitable base for interdisciplinary work. from her experience people in innovation spaces trust those who they see in the same place on a regular basis even if they do not engage in conversations. this refers to the notion of a familiar stranger (milgram, 1992; paulos & goodman, 2004). the participant’s argument is that an online tool might not be suitable to animate people to engage in different groups, as it takes courage and a certain consistency of an individual to do so: ‘you need to find a common language in diverse teams and get to know each other better. you need to invest time, in order for different people to connect and trust each other. trust is very important. people need to have the time and be open to do that. this is not always the case.’ this is confirmed by other participants who address a change in efficiency at the early stages of work or collaboration when the group is still forming. the following statement describes the work in the early stages of a new group: ‘our group is very broad with different disciplines. just hearing different ideas and their take to problems is very interesting and helpful for the process. however, it takes time to get used to each other and learn to work together.’ finding the right balance of working in more homogeneous or diverse groups is challenging. yet, following granovetter (1973) and callon (1990), groups of people with diverse skill sets or different backgrounds positively add to the creative process. therefore, if an innovator is looking for creative ideation, designing for a more inclusive, open, and permeable environment might be beneficial. in contrast, homogeneous groups might be more efficient when it comes to getting work done (polanyi, 1966; rust, 2004). although all participants gave us positive feedback on the skunkworks finder and its functionalities, some participants doubt to what extent it can help anyone to discover diversity. they believe that the target group is either too narrow or the prototype does not appeal to every type of person. for instance, two participants believe that the target group is narrow, because in their opinion only people who already are interested in innovation spaces would use this tool. these are often people with an affinity for technology, which in turn risks introducing a bias in the audience. another participant shared his concern about the tool’s appeal: ‘in my opinion the concept needs to be displayed differently. it is quite logical but that would not necessarily speak to an artist. there needs to be some kind of wonder that would appeal to other types of people. it needs to be radical, otherwise only logical people would use this program and that would go a bit against the original idea.’ some participants mentioned that they would be eager to use the functionalities of the skunkworks finder if they are implemented in an online tool that they use regularly, e.g. google maps. we appreciate the benefits of this suggestion. if the functionalities could be accessed through google maps, the number of potential users would increase significantly. many more people would get an almost effortless chance to serendipitously discover new innovation spaces. this suggestion also points towards the need for better transparency and control over algorithmic filters and recommendations, so users can influence search and filter !175 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 parameters to suit their needs rather than them being optimised for like-mindedness by default (dourish, 2016; foth et al., 2018). finally, we summarise our study’s key findings regarding the two themes of homogeneity and diversity in innovation spaces and compare them to the status quo and activity in table 1. table 1: key findings regarding homogeneity and diversity in innovation spaces conclusion this study is part of a larger study that involved the development, verification and validation of the skunkworks finder that aims to help people escape their filter bubble and discover a diversity of innovation spaces. in this article we looked more deeply into the findings regarding (a) our participants’ methods for social navigation to find innovation spaces and their awareness of homogeneity in them, and; (b) their willingness to use and their need for a skunkworks finder to help them escape their echo chambers. we collected data through semi-structured interviews for a user study of the skunkworks finder, and we used thematic data analysis for evaluation. our findings show that users of innovation spaces often find themselves surrounded by like-minded people. this may even happen when they actively try to escape their filter bubble. we found that our participants appreciate groups of people with diverse experiences and skill sets when the work task requires creativity and ideation. however, they acknowledged the efficiency of homogeneous groups when tasks are not related to creative thinking. further, our study participants welcomed the idea of a tool that assists them in discovering more diverse innovation spaces. nevertheless, they would prefer to use it as an embedded plug-in for a familiar online service rather than a stand-alone tool. our prototype found appreciation for making visible innovation spaces that are at the creative fringe. our qualitative study was informed by social network and social navigation theories in order to discover (and potentially design) for more diversity in innovation spaces, because diversity has positive impacts on ideation and creativity at the early stages of innovation (callon, 1990; granovetter, 1973). future studies may homogeneity diversity status quo users often find themselves surrounded by like-minded people. study participants welcome the idea of a tool that assists them in discovering more diverse innovation spaces. activi ty homogeneous groups are welcomed and efficient when tasks are not related to creative thinking. groups of people with diverse experiences and skill sets are appreciated when the work task requires creativity and ideation. !176 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 improve on the range of features we tested with our prototype tool, as well as explore the right timing and balance to unlock the diversity advantage as part of an innovation strategy (wood & landry, 2007). future studies could also expand the source of data retrieval. retrieving data for social networks of innovation spaces from another platform, e.g. facebook or eventbrite, may allow us to discover spaces that were not on the radar in this study due to the limitations discussed in the methodology section. additionally, it would be useful to examine different genres of innovation and innovative pursuit separately and more in-depth, e.g., social innovation and social entrepreneurship and their specific social and spatial precursors. our study gives rise to many possibilities to extend this work in new directions, such as an exploration of different urban planning approaches to fostering innovation in cities and precincts (zuckerman, 2011; yigitcanlar & bulu, 2018), and – similar to privacy settings – the need for and design of control settings to increase transparency and influence search parameters in algorithmic filters. !177 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 references adkins, b. a., foth, m., summerville, j. a., & higgs, p. l. 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(2011). desparately seeking serendipity. in proceedings of the sigchi conference on human factors in computing systems (chi ’11)., new york, usa: acm. doi: 10.1145/1978942.2167183 !182 information needs of rural communities information needs of rural communities nor iadah yusop, huda ibrahim, shafiz affendi mohd yusof, zahurin mat aji, zulkhairi md. dahalin, osman ghazali, mohd nizam saad, mohamad amir abu introduction in malaysia, interests among government agencies, non-governmental organizations and the private sector in introducing ict knowledge, skills and usage to rural communities is increasing over time. various efforts have been undertaken to bring communities closer to ict, including organizing ict awareness programs and ict-related workshops; establishing public internet access centers in villages; and even developing web-based and online applications such as agribazaar (see notes on agribazaar). in developing web-based applications for rural communities, information needs such as those associated with their socio-economic activities and daily lives are highly important. identification of information needs is essential to the design of information systems in general and to the provision of effective information services in particular (devadason & lingam 1996). in the state of kedah, eighty five per cent of the population resides in rural areas. the introduction of ict to these communities has shown that ict penetration and usage programmes have not been very successful. results have shown that most of the respondents are found to have (i) no computers, (ii) lack of basic ict knowledge and skills, (iii) lack of awareness about the existence of online applications, and (iv) lack of interest in using ict and online applications (zulkhairi et al. 2009). for rural communities, telecentres (tc) could be a major access point to search for varieties of information. as defined by the economics planning unit (2007) of malaysia, tc is a one-stop centre that provides ict resources for public internet access, dissemination of information and knowledge and e-government services, e-banking, e-health and others to improve the socio-economic status of targeted local communities. information is important in empowering the communities in rural area to improve their quality of life. according to bhatnagar (2000), there are several ways to approach improving the quality of life in rural communities; one of them being by empowering citizens to access information and knowledge.. for instance, in an area where agriculture dominates economic activity, information regarding agriculture could be beneficial including by supporting decisions regarding the input and production (singh 2004) and coordinating marketing of products not only to local the community but also to outsiders (eggleston et al. 2002). these communities could also benefit from having a community portal which features local news, discussion forums, links to local business and organization websites, etc. such a portal could collect and integrate relevant information on the community, so that its members can better discover, search, query, and track interesting community activities (rose et al. 2007). a community portal is a vital tool for communication and development in a community. it helps in disseminating information about community meetings, neighborhood gatherings, and even petitions to local authorities on policies and regulations. rural human development projects such as the famous grameen microfinance project (heuer et al. 2004) in bangladesh, ishakti (patel et al. 2006) and community information center (cic) (chaudhri & dash 2007) both in india have shown excellent results in helping rural communities to improve standards of living. it is emphasized by norman (2000) that the contents of a portal must be designed to meet the communities’ needs for local information on agriculture, socio-economic activities, health, and nearby markets. in relation to this, a good portal must identify and satisfy information needs of a community. the objective of this study is to identify the information needs of rural communities in malaysia. method a total of twelve villages located in the northern region of peninsular malaysia, covering the states of kedah and perlis participated in the study. the selection of the villages were made according to four economic sectors, namely fishery, paddy, palm oil and rubber. fieldwork was carried out involving surveys, interviews, observations and focus group discussions throughout a period of two months. the questions asked during the survey intended to acquire information related to economic activities, the level of information they currently have obtained, and the level of additional information that they need. focus group discussions were conducted to probe further the relevant information needs pertaining to communities' economic activities. statistical analysis on the responses was performed to determine the information needs relevant to the communities’ daily activities. findings and discussion the activities involved in all four sectors can be classified into three important stages: planning and preparation, execution, and postexecution. the people engaged in all four economic sectors depend on reliable, up-to-date and fast information to effectively complete each stage. for example, in the fishery sector, the planning and preparation stage includes activities such as applying for licenses, preparing a boat and other equipment and supplies, and checking on weather conditions. the execution stage refers to the time when fishermen go out to the sea, move from one location to another to catch fish, and process the catch before going back to shore. finally, the activities of the fishermen will include making contact with middlemen, selling the catch, and preparing for the next days activities. these activities show and explain the needs for a variety of fishery related information to be captured, processed, distributed, used and updated by the relevant agencies and communities. similar explanations go for the information needs of the other sectors. table i summarizes the information needs pertaining to the major activities or functions for the communities involved in the corresponding economic sectors. table 1: information needs according to economic activities sector major activities/functions information needs fishery planning, preparation before going to sea, fishing, selling, and secondary industry. types of boat, licenses, subsidies, type of catch, loans, weather, engine, equipment, location, middleman, products to sell, buyer, market. paddy planning, land preparation, growing, and harvesting. land, fertilizer, pesticide, paddy seeds, subsidies, irrigation schedules, harvester agents, supporting workers, and farmers’ association. palm-oil planning, planting young tree, and harvesting land, fertilizer, pesticide, middleman, oil palm planter, seedling, subsidy, agency and supplier rubber planning, planting young tree, rubber tapping, and harvesting plantation, rubber tapper, subsidy, agency, supplier, seedling variety, fertilizer, pesticide, and middleman pertaining to the communities daily life, the information needs can be categorized in a few groups namely; agriculture, medical and health, education, religion, business, lifestyle, entertainment, family matters, sport, politics, career opportunities and it/computer. fishery sector majority of the communities in the four villages in the fishery sector are fishermen while others are involved in fisheryor sea-related jobs such as in associated secondary industries (e.g. dried fish, dried shrimp, and shrimp paste). other than fishermen, members of these communities include the fisherman’s family, the fishermen's association, the owner of the boat, middlemen, and the workers in the secondary industry. the findings suggest that currently they obtain the following categories of information from a variety of sources (in descending order of importance ): (i) religion, (ii) family matters, (iii) education, and (iv) sport. in contrast, information they have obtained less are (i) it/computer, (ii) agriculture, (iii) business, and (iv) career opportunity. these are illustrated in fig. 1. the figure shows that there are remarkable differences between the currently obtained and required information for some of the categories. the gaps indicate that the communities are looking forward to learning more about what they have already known. for instance, even though they have obtained more than seventy per cent of information about family matters, they still expect to learn or have more knowledge about family matters in the future. greater gaps are found in it/computer, business, agriculture and career opportunity categories. these signify that the communities are yearning for information in those categories compared to other categories of information. fig. 1: level of information obtained and required in fishery sector paddy sector the categories of information obtained by the communities in the paddy sector are similar to those in the fishery sector. in sequence, the most information they acquire concern (i) religion, (ii) family matters, (iii), medical and health, and (iv) education. the least attained are (i) it/computer, (ii) business, and (iii) career opportunity. furthermore, there is also a higher difference between the information obtained and information needed in the it/computer category. fig. 2 shows the percentage of information in the it/computer category currently obtained by communities in the paddy sector as being about twenty per cent, and the required information for that category is almost sixty per cent. the difference between the currently obtained and the required information of it/computer category is about forty per cent. a big gap between information obtained and required is also evidenced in other categories including business, career opportunity, and education. fig. 2: level of information obtained and required in paddy sector palm oil sector fig. 3 illustrates the pattern of information obtained and required by the communities in the palm oil sector. the most information they currently acquire are concerning (i) religion, (ii) agriculture, (iii) medical and health, and (iv) family matters. the least acquired are (i) it/computer, and (ii) business. compared to other categories of information, there is a high gap between the information obtained and required in it/computer, business, education and career opportunity categories. fig. 3: level of information obtained and required in palm-oil sector rubber sector with regards to the category of information that the communities currently obtain, fig. 4 indicates that medical and health, education, religion and family matters lead the other categories. the least categories they require are it/computer, and business. a high gap of information obtained and information required exists in the it/computer, career opportunity and religion categories. this signifies that the communities are in dire need of information pertaining to it/computer. on the other hand, even though they have obtained a lot of information in the religion and career opportunity categories, the communities still want more in both. fig. 4: level of information obtained and required in rubber sector conclusion based on the findings, it can be concluded that the information needs for the rural communities can be classified into two categories (i) in association with economic activities, and (ii) in relation to daily life. in association with economic activities, the information needs of the communities from each sector differ according to the nature of their activities. however, information needs in relation to their daily life are mostly similar. it/computer, business, education, career opportunity, agriculture, and medical and health are found to be the most common information needed by the communities from all four sectors. information on politics and entertainment categories are the least needed by the communities. other categories are found to be moderately required. recommendation to improve their socio economic status and to give a better life to their next generation, the communities are looking ahead to have more access to information pertaining to it and computers, business and career opportunities. based on the findings, it is believed that more aggressive ict programmes need to be carried out for specific target groups to expose them to more information that can help to improve their socio-economic activities. appropriate local applications and content can be developed and delivered, through a community portal, to suit the needs of the community, thereby creating the interest among the rural community to use ict. since the rural communities are from the four economic sectors, information regarding these four sectors can be included as part of the content, as well as other information related to businesses, agriculture, career opportunities, and others. above all, to create early awareness and interests, the communities need to be introduced to knowledge and skills concerning it and computers. the information needs identified from the study can be used as a basis to design a template of a portal for community use. using the template, the community can develop their own village portal by inserting appropriate information needed by the communities in the corresponding economic sectors. on top of that, they may include information such as their activities, jobs, and pictures gallery. in addition, they can also sell and promote their own product. the portal can become a means to connect them to other communities and the whole world to improve their knowledge, and socio-economic activities. notes: agribazaar is a malay language internet-based application that allows producers and suppliers of agricultural-based products to promote and sell their products. it can be accessed at http://www.agribazaar.com.my). references bhatnagar s. c. (2000). social implications of information and communication technology in developing countries: lessons from asian success stories. the electronic journal on information system in developing countries, 1(4), 1-9. retrieved december 29, 2009 from http://www.ejisdc.org/ojs2/index.php/ejisdc/article/viewfile/4/4 chaudhri, n. & dash, s. s. (2007). community information centers: e-governance at subdistrict level: a case study. proceedings of the 1st international conference on theory and practice of electronic governance, macao, china: acm, 366-369. de rose, p., shen, w., chen, f., doan, a. & ramakrishnan, r. (2007). building structured web community portals: a top-down, compositional, and incremental approach. proceedings of the 33rd international conference on very large data bases, vienna, austria. devadason, f. j. & lingam, p. p. (1996). a methodology for identification of information needs of users. proceedings of 62nd ifla general conference, august, 25-31. economics planning unit (2007). rangka kerja strategik kebangsaan bagi merapatkan jurang digital (nsf-bdd), paper presented at pusat perkhidmatan dan ilmu komuniti peringkat negeri pulau pinang, june 13. (in malay) eggleston k., jensen, r., & zeckhauser, r. (2002). information and communication technologies, markets, and economic development, in the global information technology report 2001-2002, ed. g. s. kirkman, p. k. cornelius, j. d. sachs & k. schwab, new york: oxford university press, new york, pp. 62-72. heuer, s. r., kalra, r., mainsah, e., & zhang, q. (2004). grameen bank: taking capitalism to the poor. chazen web journal of international business, spring, 1-29. norman, r. j. (2000). community participationhow people power brings sustainable benefits to communities. rural development perspectives, 14(1). retrieved december 23, 2009 from http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/ezec/about/rdpmay99c.pdf. patel, s., bataveljic, o., lisboa, p. j., hawkins, c. & rajan, r. (2006). ishakti--crossing the digital divide in rural india. proceedings of the 2006 ieee/wic/acm international conference on web intelligence: ieee computer society, 1061-1065. singh, n. (2004). information technology and rural development in india. santa cruz center for international economics, working paper series 1028, center for international economics, uc santa cruz. zulkhairi, m. d., huda, i., wan-rozaini, s. o., syahida, h., mohd-khairudin, k., azman, y., osman, g., shafiz-affendi, m. y., nor iadah, y., rafidah, a. r., suwannit, c. c. & mohd-amir, a. s. (2009). kajian keperluan aplikasi dan kandungan ict termasuk penggunaan jalur lebar di kawasan luar bandar negeri kedah dan perlis, unpublished research report, universiti utara malaysia. (in malay) 1369 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles developing a framework for sustainable information and communication technology platforms for resource scarce rural communities the south african government, in an attempt to bridge the digital divide, deployed hundreds of platforms to rural areas of the country. the purpose of this study is to use the lessons learned during these deployment to develop a framework for sustainable platforms, normally referred to as telecentres. the ict platform project is the initiative of the south african government and implemented by the csir with the intention to provide icts to rural south african. for this study the technology acceptance model and its extended version are utilised to framework for sustainable platforms. the main research methodology was qualitative research with interpretivism as philosophy. the results provide the insights into what makes platforms to attract usage and be sustainable in the long run. the study proposes a new framework called sus-mat where sus relates to (i) stakeholders identification, (ii) utility of technology, and (iii) sustainability of technology. these are supported by cross cutting mat which entails (iv) marketing, (v) awareness creation and (vi) !64 thato foko south african council for scientific and industrial research, south africa corresponding author. tfoko@csir.co.za foko, t. (2018). developing a framework for sustainable information and communication technology platforms for resource scarce rural communities. . the journal of community informatics, 14 (2), 64–84. date submitted: 2017-01-23. date accepted: 2018-11-27. 
 copyright (c), 2018 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1369 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1369 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1369 mailto:tfoko@csir.co.za the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 technical support. the main discovery is the utility of technology which is critical to any long term sustainability of any platform. keywords: telecentres, ict platforms, information communication technologies, technology acceptance model, sustainability, framework, economic development, qualitative research, introduction and background the south african national development plan (ndp) (2011) vision asserts that information and communication technology (ict) “will underpin the development of a dynamic information society and knowledge economy that is more inclusive and prosperous”. the vision also talks to the seamless information infrastructure accessible to all and robust enough to enable access to services required for effective economic and social participation. this vision concretises many ict initiatives which many government departments had been embarking on since the dawn of the country’s democratic dispensation in 1994. from 2002 two government departments in collaboration with the south african council for scientific and industrial research (csir) had been involved in deploying ict platforms (platforms) in remote areas to provide ict access and the internet among others, to rural inhabitants who hitherto had little or no access to these technologies. the platform deployments were supported by one of the government departments (the department) and ran from 2013 to 2016 in 14 different locations country wide. the deployments were part of an initiative to develop and enhance computer skills with minimal external intervention and to provide internet and data access to communities in deep rural areas (stillman et al. 2012). the project was again intended to allow users access to innovative ideas, leading to entrepreneurship and wider socio-economic and community development. the overarching feature of the platform was to address the issue of data access to communities in deep rural areas where it is expensive, slow and unreliable (van der vyver and marais, 2013). prior to 2002 universal service and access agency of south africa (usaasa) through its predecessor universal service agency (attwood & braathen 2010) was involved in providing ict access to different communities through its network of telecentres. the success of these telecentres varied to differing degrees with some disappeared from the face of the earth while others prospered. it is, therefore the aim of this study to use all the experiences gained in deploying the platforms to develop a framework for sustainable platforms, sometimes referred to in this paper as telecentres. the purpose the csir was appointed in 2013 by one of the south african government department (the department) to become the implementing agency responsible for the deployment, coordination and monitoring and evaluation of all platforms across the country. the purpose of this paper is to use some of the lessons learned during this process to provide !65 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 some insights into what makes sustainable ict platforms (telecentres) and technology acceptance model (tam) will be used to appraise and develop this framework these are reported in the final m&e consolidation report of 2016 and were used to develop the framework for sustainable platforms. tam is utilised to understand how users accept and use these platforms. sustainable technologies in recent times the popularity of the word sustainability can be traced to the brundtland commission report, our common future, defined ‘sustainable development’ as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (world commission on environment and development, 1987). this definition has been widely circulated and is accepted as authoritative. if this is taken as the starting point then at the heart of sustainability there lies the notion of quality future access and use. this term was further expanded in 1992 at the rio de janeiro un’s conference on environment and development (or ‘earth summit’) where nations came together to chart “a blueprint on how to make development socially, economically and environmentally sustainable” (johnson, 1993). therefore, sustainability is at the core of this study. in their definition of sustainability glatfelter (2016) asserts, “it is the process of conducting business using practices that protect and enhance the environmental, social and financial resources needed by future generations to enjoy a life equal to or greater than our own”. in terms of sustainable technologies these “rely on resources that are either renewable or so abundant that we can treat them as such” (population matters, 2017). population matters further explains that technology can be considered sustainable if through its use there are no serious long term environmental impacts. therefore, container solar powered platform is considered among others to be a sustainable technology hub and this paper attempts to understand what makes these technologies sustainable besides being solar operated and environment friendly. this includes social, financial and economic sustainability. the paper will first review literature on telecentres including the different deployment models. secondly, the conversation will be on the deployment of platforms and what that entails. thirdly, the technology acceptance model will be discussed as the favoured conceptual framework. the forth section will highlight the problem statement which will be followed closely by a section on methods and tools used in gathering of data. these will be followed by sections covering the results, the analysis of such results and lastly the conclusion. review of telecentres at the beginning of the 21st century most rural areas generally had poor fixed network infrastructure and communities were poorly connected to the internet making its access a great challenge. private, government and civil society attempted to come up with different models of access to icts in order to transform these communities into intelligent and highly skilled environments capable of working as potential sources of !66 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 labour and innovation. there are many different telecentre definitions but the one that is utilised in this writing is the one proposed by zongo (1999) which states that a telecentre “is a place where public access to communication and information for economic, social and cultural development is provided”. this definition encapsulates the reason why the government of south africa pushed for establishment of telecentres particularly in the country’s rural settings. this paper attempts to develop a framework for sustainable tcs by looking at a number of them and to ascertain what makes some to work well while others are not. some contribute meaningfully to social and economic development of a given community. south africa adopted a telecommunications policy of universal service and universal access in 1996, by means of the telecommunications act no 103 of 1996 which brought into existence the universal services agency (usa). this was mandated to establish telecentres across the country (lesame, 2006). according to lesame between 1996 and 2005 south africa established 133 telecentres across the country. these tcs could be operated on commercial bases or non commercial run by community organizations as non-profit (attwood & braathen, 2010). although telecentres have been around for many years, they are still undervalued “tools of integrated local economic development, rural development, economic empowerment and socio-economic development in general” (breitenbach, 2013). in the mid-1990s the south african government through its agency universal service and access agency of south africa (usaasa) deployed telecentres across the country. when telecentres (tcs) were first introduced in south africa the idea was mainly to bridge the digital divide by providing access to icts to people living on the margins of information society and residing mainly in peri-urban and rural communities. “a universal service fund (usf) was established along with the universal service agency (usa)” (lesame, 2006). the usa was later renamed usaasa in 2005 (attwood & braathen, 2010). here the assumption is that once established people would embrace, adopt and use them for their own development. so much emphasis was placed on icts because they were considered the core of growth and development of any country and central to enhancing efficiency and people’s development (national planning commission, 2011). one of the reasons behind this government intervention was that technologies have the capacity to enhance lives of ordinary people once they have embraced it and learned the best ways to use it. “a typical telecentre refers to a place providing connectivity and access to information via a range of information and communication technologies including phone, fax, computers and the internet” (bailur, 2007). literature indicates that there are many different types and models of telecentres to learn from and to understand what makes one a sustainable telecentre. there are a number of examples where tcs have been successful because their sustainability was put at the centre from the planning stage. proenza et al. (2001) identifies two main types of telecentre projects with the first being just the micro-enterprise telecentres or small phone shops, which have flourished in many parts of africa, asia and latin america. the business models of these centres is to provide basic telephone services and fax and internet services to communities and are run by small entrepreneurs who are mostly successful in generating revenue. the second type of telecentres which is the topic for !67 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 this paper provides a broad scope to support socio-economic development by facilitating the provision of a wide variety of public and private information-based goods and services to rural communities. in the south african context these are called multi-purpose community telecentres. however, for the purposes of this paper telecentres are broadly divided into three distinct models with overlapping functions and these are: (i) private enterprise, (ii) government supported, and (iii) public-private partnership (fig. 1 below). (a) private enterprise model: telecentre as a private enterprise focuses on the creation of new job-opportunities among other core duties. it is not their primary objective to contribute on the regional development (falch & anyimadu, 2003). the business owners attempt to create a space where (i) entrepreneurs meet other entrepreneurs; (ii) they provide business support; and (iii) access to practice and critical thinking. (bailey & ngwenyama, 2013). (b) government support: the role of government is to provide (i) support for services; (ii) business development; and (iii) networks for business development. (c) public-private partnerships: in the realm of e-governance it is the responsibility of government to deliver services to the citizens. the private partner’s role among others is to invest in application software design, development, implementation and operation. these allow both partners to carry on with their core-mandate. the sustainability of these different types still varied. below are some of the examples of sustainable tcs. !68 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 1: three different models of telecentres and their functions some examples of sustainable tcs akshaya telecentre project in kerala two examples are the akshaya telecentre project in kerala, southern india and easyseva. the akshaya project is one example of a government attempting to develop a sustainable tc by bringing on board the public sector, private sector and civil society actors (madon, 2005). the kerala government was deliberate in depicting akshaya as a social development project targeted at citizens through the local village councils. according to madon, the akshaya project was launched with the overall aim of not just provision of access but also of creating economic growth and generating employment in the region where many people were not employed. ict access, skills development and provision of relevant content were identified drivers to economic growth and employment. for sustainability of tcs, relationships between a number of players including private entrepreneurs, government, international donors, business, telecommunications suppliers, civil society organisations and individual community members play a big role. models of tcs main functions ! te le ce n tr e s m od e ls private entrepreneurs connection between entrepreneurs business support – organizations access to practice government support support services and systems business development networks for business development public-private partnerships private partner invests in application software design, development, implementation & operation government maintains responsibility to deliver services to citizens !69 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 easyseva another tc project is the sri lankan project called an easyseva, an innovative franchise model involving both local and international partners (hosman, 2011). hosman states that easyseva project tried to use the public-private partnership (ppp) model to enhance people’s lives by providing unique services such as online banking, money transfer, loan applications, bill payment, appointment booking, technical skills courses, and small-group training. the success of easyseva depended on identification of partners and experience, motivation, commitment of staff, and differentiation of services. other important elements included provision of incentives for partner commitment, marketing and sharing of ideas. nenasala there are other examples in sri lanka such as the sri lankan telecentre network model nenasala started in 2004, a collaboration between intel and sri lankan information and communications technology association (icta). through the nenasalas women and youth were given empowerment opportunities. “a successful telecentre with access for everyone should be organised and designed by someone belonging to the telecentre movement” (hansson et al., 2010). ict platform project the first platform was established in 2002 and the idea was address the issue of data access to communities in deep rural areas where it was expensive, slow and unreliable (van der vyver and marais, 2013). these platforms were deployed in all the country’s nine provinces and sites were either located at municipal offices or tribal authority offices. the project envisaged a network of over a 1000 platforms with the footprint reaching even the remotest areas of south africa. “this self-sustaining community technology hub provides wireless connectivity for pcs, mobile phones, laptops and printers, as well as solar power and satellite connectivity, and mesh networking” (smith, 2012). smith states that this began as a one sitter computer terminal in 2002 and by the end of this phase more than 40 computers had been deployed. from 2007 three sitter (fig. 2 below) and four sitter machine were deployed and by 2012 “some 230 systems have already been deployed in south africa” more than 32 had been installed abroad. the current phase of the project is the container platform with solar power, satellite connectivity, and mesh networking. the deployments of the container solar-powered platforms began in 2014 and were installed on 14 sites across the country at the following sites: ebenhaezer, luwamba, vukuzakhe, marapyane, sokhulumi, devon, wupperthal, moretele, verdwaal, tswelopele, dannhauser, matlakeng, dondonald and sedibeng and their locations are indicated in the map below. it is reported in the consolidated report (2016) that the aim of the container platform project was to roll out platforms for the following purposes: (i) as information and communication resources; (ii) as learning centres; (iii) as access points to information and communication technologies (icts); (iv) as practical tools for development; and (v) as a tool for bridging the digital divide. the platform is underpinned by “the idea of people’s inherent cognitive ability to teach themselves computer skills with minimal external intervention”. for this to take place computers must be easily accessible to potential !70 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 learners, this include everyone in the community, in an environment conducive for experimentation (smith et al. 2006). the platform consisted of the solar-powered housing (fig. 3 below) which provided access for people to the robust computers and mobile tablets and these two are the actual platform (consolidated report, 2016). the accessories to the platform included among others printers, photocopier and fax machines. the platform included huge amounts of content which was accessible without connecting to the internet. the platform contained a cached version (stored locally) of the 2007 wikipedia and direct internet in public places with the purpose of offering free 24-hour access to the technology to underserved, poor populations (stillman et al. 2012). this is an encyclopaedia resource for obtaining information on a wide range of topics. users were able to watch video clips stored on the platform. the content provides useful information on a wide range of subjects from classroom resources such as past exam papers, to agricultural information and maths and science tutorials. this endeavour has benefited many south africans who by accessing information via these platforms became part of the information society. the platforms were at the heart of the increased numbers of people visiting among others multi-purpose centres where some were deployed. the installation of and free access to the platforms ensured that multi-purpose centre saw an upsurge in their utilisation by community members particularly in areas where users’ numbers had been dwindling for a while. fig. 2: three terminal standalone ict platform (2015) fig. 3: solar-powered container ict platform (2015) ! ! !71 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 conceptual framework: tam for this particular study we intend to use the technology acceptance model which attempts to focus on how people adopt and utilise a particular technology introduced to them. tam was developed by davis in 1986 and then extended by him in 1979, venkatesh in 2000 and many others. the goal of tam is to provide clarification on the factors regarding computer acceptance that is general, this should be able to also explain user behaviour (davis, 1989). tam is an information systems theory that looks into how users accept and use an information technology on the bases of its perceived usefulness and ease of use (davis, (1989). this model attempts to explain how and when the users will embrace the technology. it suggests that when users are introduced to a new technology system a number of factors would influence their behaviour or decision to adopt and use it. “the goal of tam is to provide an explanation of the determinants of computer acceptance that is general, capable of explaining user behaviour across a broad range of end-user computing technologies and user populations, while at the same time being parsimonious and theoretical” (davis, 1989). at the centre of tam is the need to provide guideline of or tracing the impact on the external factor, on attitudes and intentions. therefore, this model has become a widely applied model for users’ acceptance and usage of new technologies (bertrand & bouchard, 2008). extended tam many scholars within the field of ict have found tam as not all encompassing of many other technologies and their usage and therefore included other elements to extend it. those who extended tam include shih (2003) (fig. 5 below) who wrote about the behaviour of enterprise intranet users; choo (1998) proposed information behaviour model into tam “to explain how people reduce task uncertainty via the information needs-seeking-use cycle” (shih, 2003). for instance, sun, wang and cao integrated “trust related construct (‘perceived credibility’) and two resource-related constructs (‘perceived self-efficacy’ and ‘perceived cost’) into the tam to analysing adoption behaviour of mobile commerce (mc)”. the construct of subjective norm was included by venkatesh and davis (2000) to accommodate the social influences. the ! fig 4. the technology acceptance model (tam) !72 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/technology_acceptance_model#citerefdavis1989 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/technology_acceptance_model#citerefdavis1989 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 belief and attitude toward behaviour (in fig. 4 below) assume the rational decision making of an individual are the basic pillars of the extended tam. ! fig. 5: the extension to tam as adapted by wixom and todd (2005) from long li (2010) critic of tam tam assumes that there are only unidirectional causal relationships among the major variables within this model (li, 2010). with regard to the perceived usefulness, tam assumes that the intention to use the technology can be predicted once the individual thinks the technology is useful (davis, 1989). however, there is no empirical evidence found to support any correlation between perceived usefulness and behaviour intention (lucas & spitler, 1999). the same applies to the perceived ease of use and actual use of the technology whereby no empirical evidence is found to confirm any relationship (chau, 1996). chau and hu (2001) stated, “contrary to the assertion of tam … perceived ease of use was not found to have any significant effects on perceived usefulness or attitude”. in contrast, some researchers talk about social cognitive theory as a more applicable theory to use as it gives prominence to the concept of self-efficacy (compeau et al., 1999). bandura (1994) explains self-efficacy as people's beliefs in their abilities to perform any chosen duties which influence and affect their lives. bandura further explains, “self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and behave”. selfefficacy is defined as the judgment of one’s ability to use a technology to accomplish a particular job or task (compeau & higgins, 1995). methodology this paper attempts to develop a framework for sustainable platforms (telecentres) by looking at a number of them and to ascertain what makes some to work well while !73 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 others are not. the main research methodology will be qualitative multiple case study research with interpretivism as philosophy. “interpretive methods start from the position that our knowledge of reality, including the domain of human action, is a social construction of human actors” (walsham, 2006). these methods support our research paradigm because of their flexible use, particularly with technology, while allowing future developments. the research employed interpretive methodologies whereby interpretive is grounded in the social sciences and it accepts the notion that individuals create meaning within a specific knowledge domain (hanson, 2008). the qualitative methods were chosen in order to assist in our understanding of how people accepted and used new technologies based on tam and the methods included telephonic interviews, questionnaires and observations. for this study ainly qualitative data methods were used. qualitative data collection instruments, “analysis, interpretation, and report writing differ from the traditional, quantitative approaches” (creswell, 2014). creswell explains that qualitative data encompasses examining the study sample and the general actions necessary for data collection and recording. furthermore, it talks to the data analysis steps and methods used for presenting and interpreting data, how it’s validated and the possible study outcomes. creswell indicates that at the core of the qualitative approach is the space it creates for comments by the researcher about their role and strategies they used. creswell further elucidates that the methods section should also include comments about the nature of the final written product due to the varying structure of qualitative projects. again, for this study rich data were collected using desktop methodology. “the deskbased research comprised the examination of existing literature on review methodologies, to help situate this current study within the context of existing evidence” (rickinson & may, 2009). here the objective was to ascertain how telecentres were set up to contribute to the social and economic development, and what made them sustainable. rich data were also collected using the 2016 final consolidated monitoring and evaluation report which looked mainly at the container platform. the results are based on the findings from the 14 sites of ebenhaezer, luwamba, vukuzakhe, marapyane, sokhulumi, devon, wupperthal, moretele, verdwaal, tswelopele, dannhauser, matlakeng, dondonald and sedibeng. these results provide some insight on what makes a successful platform or telecentre. results and analysis there are two kinds of results reported here below. the first set of results was derived from the analysis of the platforms as reported in the “march 2016 final consolidated monitoring and evaluation report”. the second set of results is derived from the different telecentre case studies from a few countries. all of results were analysed in order to develop a framework for sustainable platforms or telecentres. what made the platforms successful is the question which the results addressed? ict platform – results !74 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 champions the platform champions were an important component of the success. the study shows that the level of use was enhanced where champions: (a) felt responsible for the maintenance of the platform; (b) felt motivated by the support from the community and the government departments involved and reported to work daily; (c) lived in the areas where the platform is installed and they did not rely on public transportation. the champions were able to carry out the following duties diligently: (i) reported technical failures on time and not ignored the problems; (ii) learned to fix some of these problems; (iii) ensured that the platform and its surroundings were clean; (iv) ensure that other supporting resources such as printers and faxes were properly used and where refills were needed they were sorted timeously. these indicate that the champions had the requisite resources and opportunities which affected their behavioural control leading to the drive to do their work properly. these champions were highly motivated to perform their duties. community support the success of the platform also relied heavily on the support derived from the community. this means that platforms was successful where there was: (a) strong evidence of community support; (b) strong feeling of community ownership of the platform; and (c) encouragement to use them from other community members; (d) strong evidence of creation of social ties among users. the platform became a place where likeminded people met and socialised. therefore, the success of platform relied heavily on the support derived from the community who in some cases provided their own resources to ensure that platforms were running smoothly. this involvement indicated the presence of requisite resources and opportunities necessary for users to perform as expected. community leaders the success was also realised in most communities where community leaders: (a) understood the importance of , accepting and supporting platforms; (b) were involved in awareness campaigns; and (c) promoted the use of these platforms. therefore, the success of platforms depended on the level of engagement by the community leadership in the actual promotion and awareness creation of platforms. marketing and awareness creation it was discovered that there was a strong need to market these platforms and to create awareness around their offerings. there was a need to: (a) develop and disperse printed materials (pamphlets, signage, posters, etc.) to communicate what the platforms were all about including the services they offered. (b) involve all stakeholders, including community leaders in the creating awareness and marketing of these platforms. user considerations besides all that is covered above, it was discovered that platforms were successful where users felt that the following were addressed: (a) time challenges: time !75 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 restrictions in cases where the opening and closing were not in sync with the community’s daily activities created major problems; (b) reliable connectivity: less usage of platforms happened in instances where platforms were supposed to have the internet but the connectivity was unreliable; and (c) location: there were instances where platforms were not easily accessible as they were housed locked up in premises such as municipal offices when most people had time. this points out to the challenge of site selection. the results show that platforms were successfully utilised where champions, community members and leaders, and users played a supportive role. this success was realised where platforms were marketed and awareness was created. other case study results the second set of findings is derived from the analysis of literature of some of the successful telecentres just to understand what made them successful and were classified into three groups mainly: (i) privately supported, (ii) government supported or (iii) public-private partnerships. privately supported tc: here we looked at the study carried out by bailey and ngwenyama (2013) titled “toward entrepreneurial behavior in underserved communities: an ethnographic decision tree model of telecentre usage”. the research attempted to discover how telecentres were used as areas where users could develop and enhance their entrepreneurial skills. through this case study authors investigated the decision-making process of community members when using telecentres for entrepreneurial endeavours and to determine the enablers to economic activity. twenty five telecentre users from 17 to 37 years of age were identified for this purpose and were given training in a number of areas of business development like radio broadcasting, computer repair, word processing, data entry and website development, video production. their artistic skills were also enhanced with creative writing and visual arts. from this study the following are the lessons learned: the lessons were similar to those already indicated above. these included: (a) motivation to earn income by users who used facilities to promote their newly established businesses; (b) where social ties were built by users and community members. these increased the recognition of opportunities for entrepreneurial activities among others; (c) convenient location-proximity of tcs to where users stayed; (d) tcs staff’s effective and efficient service provision; and (e) relevant and unique services offered by telecentre. these results show that telecentres’ success also depended on usage where private interests were the driver for their success. results on government supported in order to try to understand the reasons leading to the decline in numbers of telecentres operating in south africa and causes we reviewed the studies by attwood and braathen !76 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 (2010) on “telecentres and poor communities in south africa: what have we learnt”. they explained that the universal service and access agency of south africa (usaasa) established 65 telecentres in rsa between 1997 and 2000. an evaluation carried out in 2001 showed that 32% of these were not operating or were shut down. another evaluation revealed that less than a third (29%) of tcs was able to answer their phones in 2010. from their study the following are the lessons learned: (a) low usage. they discovered that a great deal of effort was placed on the physical rolling out of telecentres with focus being on access in the physical sense and not on people’s needs; (b) lack of consideration of local requirements; (c) lack of proper record keeping of users, of usage or even of little impact taking place; (d) lack of systematic needs analysis in establishing these tcs; (e) poor salaries or incentives for tc staff leading to high staff turnover; (f) lack of technical and administrative skills; and (g) poor access due to long distances people have to travel. results on public-private partnerships another case study looked at was that of hosman (2011) “making the transition from pilot to scale: examining sustainability and scalability issues in a public–private telecenter partnership in sri lanka” where the easyseva project was carefully studied. the easyseva tried to use the public-private partnership (ppp) model to enhance people’s lives by providing unique services such as online banking, money transfer, loan applications, bill payment, appointment booking, technical skills courses, and smallgroup training. the lessons learned in this public-private partnership included: (a) the ability to identify good partners with appropriate experience and motivation; committed staff who offer unique services to the community; (b) commitment of tc staff; (c) differentiation of services; (d) societal issues such as involvement of women in the project; (e) publicity and awareness-raising campaigns; and (f) provision of incentives for partner commitment, marketing and sharing of ideas, challenges. new recommended telecentre framework the above results led to the emergence of a new framework which is developed from analysed usage of ict platforms and tc case studies vis-à-vis tam. this framework is influenced by masiero (2011) who proposed a new paradigm for telecentres studies in which social and financial sustainability are interlined by mutual reinforcements. the new framework includes the utility of technology derived from tam. this utility of technology has been missing all along even though it acts as a magnet drawing people to tcs is added to the framework. the proposed framework is called sus-mat and has three standing pillars (sus) and three cross cutting themes (mat). sus relates to the three standing pillars, namely (i) stakeholders identification, (ii) utility of technology, (iii) sustainability of technology while mat, which cuts across all sus, entails (iv) marketing, (v) awareness creation and (vi) technical support (see fig. 6 below). for any ict platform or telecentre to be sustainable, the above mentioned sus-mat has to be satisfied. the sus-mat is described in detail (fig. 6) below and the different elements which need to be considered and satisfied in order to have a sustainable tc are !77 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 demonstrated. this framework does tries to incorporate some aspects of the extended tam but relies more on tam in its original form. ! fig. 6: describes the proposed sus-mat framework for sustainable platforms (tcs) pillar 1: stakeholder identification “a project is successful when it achieves its objectives and meets or exceeds the expectations of the stakeholders” (watt, 2014). any project to be socially and financially sustainable has to meet the needs of a specific community (masiero, 2011). this entails proper identification of stakeholders and the understating of their roles. once this is achieved this managers of tcs have to rely on them and a number of mechanisms namely trust-building, a context-based service provisions and civil society involvement to ensure that the deployment and the actual usage go smoothly. pillar 2: utility of technology the new element is the utility of technology as understood through the use of tam. tam is an information systems theory that looks into how users accept and use an information technology on the bases of its perceived usefulness and ease of use (davis, 1989). where people are not able to use the provided technology, leading to easy stakeholders identification political sustainable telecentre framework sustainability of technology utility of technology financial social • government • community leadership • schools • community members • learners • ease of use • attitude toward usage • intention to use • access • location • community leadership • district • provincial • national • civil society networks • user need for income • tc’s ability to generate funds • trust-building • location • context-based service marketing technical support awareness creation !78 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/technology_acceptance_model#citerefdavis1989 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/technology_acceptance_model#citerefdavis1989 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 access, it would not be easy to attract them to the telecentre. this utility of use is what brings people back to the technology. once the technology is perceived to be easy to use and accessible the attitude towards its usage softens even in instances where there are doubts and adoption follows. pillar 3: sustainability of technology the survival of telecentres over a long term depends crucially upon economic, social and political relations between many different actors (madon, 2005). growing the business responsibly and continuously attempting to improve financial performance can lead to great success. at the same time the concern for current and future growth of the platforms and other telecentres and the way they uplift the lives of the people who have access to them is a critical part of their sustainability. sustainability of technology has three components to it which are financial, socials and political crucial elements. telecentres vs financial sustainability again, telecentres have to be financially sustainable which is seen to occur when a project achieves revenue equal to or greater than the expenditure and economic return of the project. in other words, the financial sustainability of telecentres focuses on the extent to which a telecentre project is able to generate funds for recuperating capital outlay and for operating cost harris et al. (2003). therefore it is important to understand models of ownership which allow access and profit to reside together for the purposes of sustainability. telecentre vs social sustainability for telecentres to be effective they have to be socially sustainable. the positive impact of telecentres on the social and economic development of local communities is the basis to social sustainability. this can be achieved if the local community identifies access to icts as the priority equal to other priorities such as clean water, better roads or better quality seeds (grace et al. 2004). some of the social factors may relate to time, age, occupation, gender, etc. and mechanisms have to be found to increase numbers of women involved in ict usage. telecentres vs political sustainability linked to financial and social sustainability is the need to ensure that a telecentre is politically sustainable (madon, 2005). madon argues that telecentres struggle where there is a weak link between the centre and local political bodies. locally initiated and run tcs have better success. if telecentres have a buy-in from politicians and community leaders they tend to become resourced and become financially sustainable. therefore as seen in the results above there is a need for strong link between tcs and local political bodies in order to strengthen them. marketing of tcs marketing and awareness creation go hand in hand as they are both intended to attract people to the tc. marketing tcs and their different service offerings is critical to their sustainability. marketing does not need to be done by big corporations only but it should !79 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 be what everyone does when involved in any purposeful activity (list, 2003). he further states that interaction creates more interaction. in many situations the majority of tc users hear about telecentres from their friends. however, the support of the tc’s staff will enable increased recognition of opportunities by users leading to more attraction to tcs. awareness creation the raising of awareness about tcs and their offerings is crucial to the continued use of these tcs. this helps with effective utilisation by community members. this can be done thorough local workshops and training opportunities addressed to potential telecentre users. bearing this in mind, it is crucial to nurture good social relationships between staff, users and the general community of where tcs are sited. “creating relevant services and raising awareness about the existence and value of those services are necessary but probably not sufficient conditions for effective telecentre use and community participation in telecentre activities” (roman & colle, 2002). roman and colle stated that the biggest impediments to the use of telecentres are: (i) awareness of their existence, and (ii) awareness of specific benefits accruing from their use. technical support technical support: sustainability of tcs also hinge on the availability of technical support. this involves investing in staff training so that they can provide support: (i) to different applications and services; and (ii) troubleshooting. “investment in training is a measure of human-resource sustainability” (whyte, 2000). this is important due to the nature of ict technologies and the rapid nature of their changes leading to their obsoleteness. the age of the technology used is not as important as the understanding of a clear pathway ensuring its technological sustainability. therefore, the framework sustainable platforms envisages (i) identification of stakeholders, (ii) utility of technology, (iii) sustainability of technology, marketing, awareness creation and social and technical support. if any one of these elements is missing the highest quality of functionality of the tc will be compromised and leading in some cases to the demise of the tc. for example, where there is no social support or the services are not context based the community is bound to stay away from the tc as it does not address its needs. the results also have a bearing on tcs’ role in community building networks which are intended to bond households and communities together. the information needs and priorities of tc users are not static and require continuous monitoring. these networks have to work towards the community’s need for sharing of innovative ideas, challenges and solutions, with others in the same situation in a non-competitive manner but rather a collegial way. conclusion for any ict platform or telecentre to be sustainable, the above mentioned sus-mat has to be satisfied. the stakeholders have to be properly identified and understanding of !80 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 their roles clarified. the long term sustainability is dependent on the involvement of the communities at tcs’ inception and throughout their existence. the utility of technology which is the fundamental finding of the study is crucial. this means that it is easier to attract people to tcs if they find the technology to be accessible and user friendly. the survival of tcs over a long term depends crucially upon economic, social and political relations between many different actors. it is equally important that the tc is marketed properly and awareness creation campaigns are organised. the availability of technical support for both users and champions is another important element of sustainability. acknowledgment this work acknowledges the platform project, which is supported by the one south african government department and the csir platform team of meraka for allowing us to collect data from the participants in the different provinces, which has enabled us to put our experiences together in the form of this article. special recognition has to be given to all the role players the team interacted with in the various rural communities, including among others, the government officials, community leaders, local communities, learners and parents and all who have embraced this initiative and became co-creators of their own destiny. last but not least our gratitude also goes to the anonymous reviewers whose comments have enhanced the quality of this work. references attwood, h. & braathen, e. 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(2000). a theoretical extension of the technology acceptance model: four longitudinal field studies. management science (46:2), pp. 186-204. walsham, g. (2006). doing interpretive research, european journal of information systems, retrieved january 23, 2017 from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000589 watt, a. (2014). project management. retrieved june 12, 2017 from: https://opentextbc.ca/ projectmanagement/chapter/chapter-5-project-stakeholders-project-management/ whyte, v.t., (2000). assessing community telecentres: guidelines for resaerchers, idrc, ottawa, world commission on environment and development (1987). our common future. oxford: oxford university press zongo, g. (1999). what is a telecentre? a review of best practice and models, paper presented at the conference building the information community in africa, february. !84 http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000589 akshaya telecentre project in kerala easyseva nenasala champions community support community leaders marketing and awareness creation user considerations privately supported tc: results on government supported results on public-private partnerships 123-04-1348 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 special issue on data literacy: articles data literacy conceptions, community capabilities to delineate and describe the data literacy concept, a core set of data competencies are identified, and a further four varieties – each with a different focus of attention – are described. these are named research (an academic focus), classroom (a secondary educational focus), carpentry (a practical training focus) and inclusion (a community development focus). it is argued that the inclusion focus helps data literacy to be construed as a community capability. the capabilities approach enables us to see data literacy as conferring a holistic freedom to operate, where the technical gains only make sense within a framework of social functions and goals. introduction data literacy as a concept carries ambiguity (iodc, 2015). a broad definition is it is that which “enables individuals to access, interpret, critically assess, manage, handle and ethically use data” (prado & marzal, 2013). yet a range of alternative, partially overlapping conceptions exist. sources of variation include the sector of origin, the relative weight and treatment given to different data-related competencies and the extent to which the concept should extend to its framing context, including individual or organisational goal-setting. equally important for community informatics, however, is the extent to which data literacy can be a pathway to new capacities within locally-focused groups. here, it is useful to consider enhanced knowledge as providing new rights and freedoms over and above possible material benefits. for this reason, steering the concept of data literacy towards a capabilities conception is useful. this article looks at an overarching general competency framework, followed by four conceptions of data literacy – identified by text mining – which vary in their explicit !47 matthews, p. (2016). data literacy conceptions, community capabilities. the journal of community informatics, 12(3), 47-56. date submitted: 2016-09-19. date accepted: 2016-09-27. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1348 paul matthews senior lecturer, department of computer science and creative technologies, university of the west of england, bristol, united kingdom. corresponding author. paul2.matthews@uwe.ac.uk http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1348 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1348 mailto:paul2.matthews@uwe.ac.uk the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 emphasis. then, amartya sen’s capability approach from development economics is proposed as a way to help emphasise the necessary features of a widened, community-oriented conception of data literacy. a central skills framework figure 1, below, provides a generalised conceptual model of the core competencies of data literacy, most of which are cited in common across different sources on the topic. ! figure 1: generalised conceptual model of data literacy activities. starting point koltay (koltay, 2015): competencies connected to consumption are shown in red, creation shown in purple, common competencies shown in green. ethical considerations shown in yellow. there is a common consensus that data literacy skills need to encompass both the creation and use of data (carlson, fosmire, miller, & nelson, 2011) that said, many of the competencies following the acquisition of data from either route are common to both. to begin with, however, one needs to be able to frame a research question or problem that can be addressed with application of data (“problem formulation” in figure 1). this question itself will stem from a stated goal of some sort (anderson, gummer, mandinach, & parton, 2015). thus, the first principle of data literacy is seen by many to be smart goal-setting (“goals/theory of change”), followed by the informed analysis of data relevant to goal monitoring or validation (tygel, campos, & de alvear, 2015). !48 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 if data already exists, then skills are required to source and extract it, then to further assess quality and credibility (“discovery”, “accessing”, “assessing”). creation of new data clearly requires knowledge of the relevant method of production and any relevant technology or methodology (“creating”, “methods”). some of the most widely discussed or core competencies then centre around pre-analysis steps concerned with cleaning and transforming data, as well as combining data from multiple sources (“cleaning”, “converting”, “merging”). this data munging is repeatedly noted to be an underestimated skill, yet a considerably extensive part of any data work (coulton, goerge, putnam-hornstein, & de haan, 2015; kingsley, pettit, & hendey, 2013). analysis is usually seen to require the sub-literacy of statistics to test out hypotheses and explore relationships (carlson et al., 2011). this stage is often linked to the use of platforms and tools to help with the analysis (“methods” and “tools”). while such tools and platforms for data cleaning, analysis and publication are increasingly powerful and easy to use, they can only be considered as part of a solution and advanced knowledge in other aspects of data work will also be needed (davies, perini, & alonso, 2016). post-analytical data competencies include the sensible archiving of data for reuse, which should involve considerations about access and security (“preserving”, “archiving”), in addition to adequate description (federer, lu, & joubert, 2016). the final area – communication of outcomes – is one where a great deal of emphasis is placed, particularly in light of the wealth of visualisation and exploration tools now available (“communicating”). there is also a notable trend toward storytelling with data, where narrative is seen as the most effective way of getting across the whole lifecycle from goal to result and the new insights afforded by the analysis (iodc, 2015). four conceptual varieties aside from the commonalities noted above, it is important to also delineate the variety of approaches to data literacy taken by different authors. this serves to make clearer the different settings in which the concept is studied and also potential limitations in scope and vision between varieties. to investigate these varying emphases, 13 sources dealing directly with data literacy or seeking to define it were analysed following the document clustering technique described by rose (rose, 2016). sources were selected using snowball sampling from koltay (2015) and from the school of data bibliography and focused on material written in the last five years 1 which had the term “data literacy” in the title. text was extracted using pdftotext software and headers, footers and references were 2 removed. a reference set of tokens across all texts was constructed resulting in 69,153 items. a document x term matrix was constructed and tf/idf (a measure of the term’s importance within the document in proportion to the set of all documents) calculated for each term. then, http://schoolofdata.org/2016/02/11/research-results-part-6-data-literacy-research-references-and-1 resources/. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/pdftotext 2 !49 http://schoolofdata.org/2016/02/11/research-results-part-6-data-literacy-research-references-and-resources/ http://schoolofdata.org/2016/02/11/research-results-part-6-data-literacy-research-references-and-resources/ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/pdftotext the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 a k-means cluster analysis with a target of four clusters was executed on this matrix . four 3 clusters were suggested by a visual inspection of the documents and by iteration (a greater number of clusters led to the “research” cluster being split into very similar/significantly overlapping clusters). clustering results are given in table 1, below, with cluster names chosen by the author and further elaborated below. in table 2, the top distinctive terms for each cluster are listed in order of occurrence. table 1: sources used for document clustering source main focus cluster anderson, r., gummer, e. s., mandinach, e. b., & parton, b. m. (2015). ethical and appropriate data use requires data literacy. phi delta kappan, 96(5), 25–28. 2-classroom bradshaw, l. (2014). beyond data science: advancing data literacy – made by many – medium. retrieved september 2, 2016, from https://medium.com/the-many/moving-from-datascience-to-data-literacy-a2f181ba4167#.ayhkrcoop 4-inclusion carlson, j., fosmire, m., miller, c. c., & nelson, m. s. (2011). determining data information literacy needs: a study of students and research faculty. portal: libraries and the academy, 11(2), 629–657. 1-research data-pop alliance. (2015). beyond data literacy: reinventing community engagement and empowerment in the age of data. 4-inclusion erwin, r. (2015). data literacy: real-world learning through problem-solving with data sets. american secondary education, 43(2), 18–26. 1-research federer, l. m., lu, y.-l., & joubert, d. j. (2016). data literacy training needs of biomedical researchers. journal of the medical library association : jmla, 104(1), 52–7. 1-research fonticiaro, k., & oehrli, j. a. (2016). why data literacy matters. ala knowldege quest, 44(5), 20–28. 1-research koltay, t. (2015). data literacy: in search of a name and identity. journal of documentation, 71(2), 401–415. 1-research mandinach, e. b., & gummer, e. s. (2013). a systemic view of implementing data literacy in educator preparation. educational researcher, 42(1), 30–37. 2-classroom martin, e. (2014). what is data literacy? journal of escience librarianship, 3(1), 1–2. 1-research slater, d. (2016). research results part 1: defining data literacy. retrieved september 2, 2016, from http://schoolofdata.org/ 2016/01/08/research-results-part-1-defining-data-literacy/ 4-inclusion the repository for this analysis is available at https://github.com/paulusm/datalit-documents. 3 !50 https://medium.com/the-many/moving-from-data-science-to-data-literacy-a2f181ba4167#.ayhkrcoop http://schoolofdata.org/2016/01/08/research-results-part-1-defining-data-literacy/ https://github.com/paulusm/datalit-documents the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 2: most common terms in paper clusters corresponding to alternate data literacy conceptions (“data”, “literacy”, and stop words removed) 1. a research focus this cluster includes the most common approaches to data literacy, with an emphasis on a further education setting and on librarians as stewards of data and advocates of good data management practice (e.g. fonticiaro & oehrli, 2016). data skills are seen as one part of wider information literacy abilities, or even merged into a wider data information literacy: “data information literacy ... merges the concepts of researcher-as-producer and researcher-as-consumer of data products. as such it builds upon and reintegrates data, statistical, information and science data literacy into an emerging skill set. (carlson et al., 2011, p. 6). in the academic research community, data is seen as a key asset, being both a product of a research project or programme and a source for new investigative efforts. a distinctive research view of data literacy focuses also on the processes for storing and sharing data, alongside the application of metadata for discovery and potential reuse (e.g. federer et al., 2016). 2. a classroom focus within secondary education, data literacy is promoted as a means for students to become familiar with data manipulation in problem-based learning (erwin, 2015). the core learning objectives here are question-asking, evidence gathering and performing relatively simple analysis and visualisation. teal, t. k., cranston, k. a., lapp, h., white, e. p., wilson, g., ram, k., & pawlik, a. (2015). data carpentry: workshops to increase data literacy for researchers. international journal of digital curation, 10, 135–143. 3-carpentry research focus classroom focus carpentry focus inclusion focus librarians libraries information management faculty projects learned standards relevant service research teacher decisions course state parent prepared know students policy training privacy workshops training instructors software lessons materials participating surveys taught reproducibility allow social participating design inclusion stories narrative journals big contextualize able term 7 documents e.g.: (carlson et al., 2011) 2 documents, e.g. (mandinach & gummer, 2013) 1 document: (teal et al., 2015) 3 documents, e.g. (data-pop alliance, 2015) !51 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 …participating students demonstrated a satisfactory grasp of fundamental concepts of the scientific research process, the process or organizing and cleaning the data, the use of descriptive statistics to better understand the data, and the use of spread-sheet software to efficiently and accurately generate statistical analyses. (erwin, 2015, p. 20). the hope for data literacy within early education is that it will instil enthusiasm for evidencebased decision making and engagement with data connected to real-world problems. the outcomes, then, are seen to be as much to do with an appreciation of societal challenges as a set of data manipulation competencies. 3. a “carpentry” focus data carpentry focuses very much on the practical means toward developing data analysis capacity, with hands-on engagement with relevant datasets being the core activity. perhaps most importantly, the focus is on data relevant to workshop participants’ own domain of work, so learning is of immediate practical relevance. …we developed data carpentry as two-day workshops to meet these data training needs and focus on standard steps in the data workflow – organizing, managing and analyzing data in a more efficient and reproducible way. additionally, because people learn best when new skills are building on an existing framework, data carpentry workshops are designed to be domain-specific so researchers can learn more quickly and effectively, and see more immediately how to implement these skills and approaches in their own work. (teal et al., 2015, p. 138). in the data carpentry conception, we see less emphasis given to high level literacy goals, and more given to tools and techniques – to a steep learning curve being surmounted by deliberate practice. 4. an inclusion focus a broader conception, and arguably one more relevant to community informatics, is one i am calling an inclusion conception. here, a key goal of data literacy is to overcome skill and knowledge inequalities, to enable community members and organisations to access data and to put it to work on local and personal concerns. data literacy focused on building social inclusion offers a doorway to understanding, interpreting, and managing data-driven decisions and arguments for all people. the alternative future we must strive for is one where people are incentivized and empowered to control their own data and its use. this is data inclusion. (data-pop alliance, 2015, p. 23). while all of the core competencies remain relevant to the inclusion conception, a distinctive feature is this widening of the concept to better capture the end aspiration of building literacy skills within communities. a further goal is that marginalised people are directly involved, rather than simply being the intended beneficiaries of data projects (davies et al., 2016). !52 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 a capabilities conception the inclusion conception developed by data-pop pushes data literacy toward the form of a capability. the capabilities approach (ca) developed by amartya sen was a response to a prevailing view of human development as mere material gain (to be measured in gdp per capita) and the desire for intrinsic rather than instrumental measurements of the success of development programmes (robeyns, 2011). sen proposed instead the concept of development goals as the winning of new freedoms enabled by enhanced functionings (sen, 2005). these sen left deliberately unspecified, though they were seen to vary from the simple to the sophisticated. an important feature of the approach is that a capability is not necessarily practiced, but that the ability to practice it confers a freedom of opportunity on the individual. equally important is the idea that capabilities may vary between people even given the same set of personal means (access to resources/primary goods), due to other factors such as interpersonal differences, environmental factors and societal positions. while sen argued that capabilities did not need to be specified and were necessarily contextspecific, his peer nussbaum proposed that a defined core set of capabilities was necessary for advocacy purposes. within nussbaum’s proposed core capabilities, we can see where data literacy would fit, notably in her “practical reason” and “political and material control over one’s environment” capabilities (nussbaum, 2003) . nussbaum’s practical reason can be seen to be enhanced by evidence/data-based decision making in life decisions. similarly, political and material control can be conferred through participation, including the appreciation and active use of data relating to politics, land tenure and employment. the ca has been highly influential in the development world (robeyns, 2011). it has certainly been seen to be relevant to community informatics, though it has been persuasively argued that it is too individualistic in focus and that social and environmental capability dimensions also need to be considered (stillman & denison, 2014). in a similar vein, lanzi notes how capabilities may be divided, for better clarity, into s-caps, or concrete skills and knowledge; e-caps, relating to external norms and social roles; o-caps or option capabilities; and m-caps, relating to moral/ethical principles and life choices. while s-caps and e-caps afford basic skills and professional competencies, all of the above capability types are required in concert to afford complex functionalities (which include social change, selflearning, knowledge management, and problem solving) (lanzi, 2007). fostering and evaluating social capabilities given the range in competencies required in data work, it is no surprise that these are often seen as most efficiently distributed amongst a team or organisation’s staff, with no one individual likely to be sufficiently knowledgeable (bradshaw, 2014). several authors attest to the importance of such multidisciplinary teams to the success of data-intensive projects (atenas, havemann, & priego, 2015; slater, 2016). while data specialist roles may not be formalised, it may suffice to recognise individuals already using data effectively (bhargava, 2015). similarly, data intermediaries are considered an important part of the ecosystem of community development projects at the presentworking alongside community-based organisations or individuals (davies et al., 2016; iodc, 2015). intermediaries bring technical !53 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 expertise and analytic abilities to bear on domain-specific problems. importantly, for capacitybuilding to occur effectively, it works best for intermediaries to have a long-term commitment to a community and to earn trust (kingsley, coulton, & pettit, 2014) social capabilities within communities can be raised by activities associated with social capital, namely: developing interdependence; fostering frequent interactions and creating space for conversations and interactions (ansari, munir, & gregg, 2012) shinn notes the importance of variability in outcomes as a measure of the success of community programmes. that is, if capacity building is geared toward one particular development outcome, then it will severely limit the ability to be inspired in one’s choice of life goals. this capacity to be inspired is raised by “practice, repetition, exploration, conjecture and refutation” (shinn, 2015). shinn gives the example of employment programmes for those experiencing mental illness – where a broad set of capabilities is a preferred outcome, in contrast to a limited set of job roles that participants might be ready for on completion. conclusion data literacy then, is a set of practical competencies situated in a wider context of personal and social goals, as well as challenges such as subjectivity and bias. without an ability to contextualise, data analysis efforts are often rudderless or misapplied (bradshaw, 2014). for this reason, the core data literacy competencies cannot be considered in isolation and the intrinsic benefits of data-informed functioning need to be linked to the technical gains. properly directed, all four of the data literacy flavours detailed above can build toward capability. good research data practice in the academy will serve to improve the transparency and reproducibility of research and possibilities for public engagement. starting early in the classroom with simple data work will establish cognitive links between use of evidence and societal issues. carpentry builds an important bridge between domain expertise and personal data skills. and inclusion rightly seeks to make contextualised data skills a universal aspiration. a simple common thread between all approaches is the building of familiarity through practice. practice engenders experience and comfort around data (slater, 2016) and a deep knowledge of the context around particular datasets (kingsley et al., 2014). this in turn enables the flexible and inspired application of data to personal and community concerns. in this way, a new freedom is won through the development of a technical literacy. the challenge of truly inclusive data literacy should of course not be understated (data-pop alliance, 2015) though locally-based, locally-committed technical data intermediaries can provide a part of the infrastructure (kingsley et al., 2013). the local data ecosystem may include established institutions in new data roles such as public libraries, which are well placed to act as local data hubs (bertot, butler, & travis, 2014). importantly, community capabilities will likely be raised as much through socialisation as through technical training. !54 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 acknowledgements this article was inspired by a discussion session on data literacy at open data camp 3 in bristol in may 2016 convened by johanna walter and nat foo (http://odcamp.org.uk/ ) references anderson, r., gummer, e. s., mandinach, e. b., & parton, b. m. 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(2005). human rights and capabilities. journal of human development, 6(2), 151–166. http://doi.org/10.1080/14649880500120491 shinn, m. (2015). community psychology and the capabilities approach. american journal of community psychology, 55(3–4), 243–252. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-015-9713-3 slater, d. (2016). research results part 1: defining data literacy. retrieved from http:// schoolofdata.org/2016/01/08/research-results-part-1-defining-data-literacy/ stillman, l., & denison, t. (2014). the capability approach community informatics. the information society, 30(3), 200–211. http://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2014.896687 teal, t. k., cranston, k. a., lapp, h., white, e. p., wilson, g., ram, k., & pawlik, a. (2015). data carpentry: workshops to increase data literacy for researchers. international journal of digital curation, 10, 135–143. http://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v10i1.351 tygel, a. f., campos, m. l. m., & de alvear, c. a. s. (2015). teaching open data for social movements: a research strategy. the journal of community informatics, 11(3). !56 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2006.12.005 http://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x12459803 http://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x12459803 http://doi.org/10.1080/1354570022000077926 http://doi.org/10.1515/libri-2013-0010 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/capability-approach/ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/capability-approach/ http://brandonrose.org/clustering http://doi.org/10.1080/14649880500120491 http://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-015-9713-3 http://schoolofdata.org/2016/01/08/research-results-part-1-defining-data-literacy/ http://schoolofdata.org/2016/01/08/research-results-part-1-defining-data-literacy/ http://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2014.896687 http://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v10i1.351 1311-7918-2-ce the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 case studies developing social alongside technical infrastructure: a case study applying ictd tenets to marginalized communities in the united states this article provides a model by which to apply ictd tenets within the context of the u.s. it presents a case study of co-designing a technology application with community health workers, promotoras, working in a historically marginalized community within the u.s. it examines both the process of co-design as well as the use of the designed product as interventions intended to enhance the promotoras’ agency and ability to transform opportunities for themselves and their community. this article argues that designing equity-oriented design solutions involves ethnography and participatory design, as well as attention to both the social and technical infrastructure. introduction new information and communication technologies (icts) have been positioned as an integral part of development (e.g., friedman, 2006; greenberg, 2005; roy, 2005). although research in ict has extensively developed tenets for information communication technologies for development (ictd), there has been little research that has applied these principles within marginalized communities in developed countries. !193 leah anne teeters vanderbilt university medical center, usa corresponding author. leah.teeters@vanderbilt.edu teeters, l.a. (2017). developing social alongside technical infrastructure: a case study applying ictd tenets to marginalized communities in the united states. the journal of community informatics, 13(1), 193—209. date submitted: 2016-04-13. date accepted: 2016-12-04. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1311 . mailto:leah.teeters@vanderbilt.edu http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1311 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1311 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 this article uses a case study developed from a longitudinal design and ethnographic research study conducted with a marginalized community in an urban city in the united states to illustrate how ictd principles can help empower people to improve their own communities. our work has employed ethnographic research as a foundational method to generate innovative and empowering technology designs. our research has been oriented around the process of organizing opportunities for enhancing professional practices and promoting equity with a group of resident-activists seeking social justice for their historically marginalized community, south elm. south elm’s affordable rental market 1 and close proximity to the city’s downtown has historically attracted a significant immigrant population. 2014 census data reports that 80.7% of the population is originally from mexico. recently, public officials and local non-profits have been directing financial and intellectual resources into developing the community. however, historically south elm has been under-resourced, making it challenging to develop competitive schools, neighborhood parks, bike lanes, and community centers. the rates of formal education and stable employment are low while the rates of unemployment, drug abuse, and poverty are high. additionally, there are limited grocery stores, classifying the neighborhood as a food desert, meaning that there is limited access to fresh, affordable food. as part of the effort to provide improved infrastructure to south elm, a local non-profit, impact, is working to improve the residents’ access to healthy, affordable food. impact, established in 2007, has developed a community-based agriculture program, a community-supported agriculture-buying club, and a resident owned co-operative market. impact’s mission is to support community leaders, generate local food systems, and cultivate self-sufficient economies. a key component of impact’s approach is their promotora model. the model was developed to leverage the shared cultural traditions, linguistic practices, and value systems between community members and the promotoras (siraj, shabham, jalal, zongrone, & afsana, 2010). impact’s promotoras support community members in designing, installing, tending, and harvesting their own backyard vegetable gardens. in 2015, impact’s backyard gardens produced more than 54,400 pounds of fruits and vegetables. the neighborhood now has 400 gardens and a waitlist with over 100 residents who want an impact garden, which includes an irrigation system, seeds, seedlings, and the support of a promotora throughout the growing and harvesting season. in addition to this highly visible work in the neighborhood, the promotoras also serve, unofficially, as advocates for residents. through the process of working across hundreds of backyard gardens, the promotoras have learned about the challenges of the neighborhood’s residents: access to health care, education, legal services, and concerns with addressing and preventing violence against women. the promotoras heard these challenges as a call to action and began organizing as advocates, connecting community members to resources and writing grants to further support their work. all proper names are pseudonyms 1 !194 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the intensive work of maintaining thriving gardens and the extensive work of community advocacy had not been fully documented as part of impact’s data collection efforts prior to the initiation of the research described below. this made it difficult to specify programming needs, to report on the effectiveness of the model, and to understand areas for growth. the promotoras expressed desires to enhance their professional abilities as gardeners, as non-profit employees, and as community advocates. in order to secure funding for professional development resources and to know which skills to best target, there was a need to more fully document their practices, streamline data collection, and enhance technological capacity. the aim of our research team has been to support the non-profit in developing strategies to enhance learning and professional practices oriented at improving their work in the community. this article focuses on one of our co-designed interventions: a technology application that allowed the promotoras to collect systematic data. it examines both the process of co-design as well as the use of the designed product, exemplifying the process of (a) using ethnographic work to situate the design process within the ecosystem, (b) attending to the social and technical infrastructure, and (c) using ictd principles within a marginalized community within a developed nation. beyond access and toward equity in an era where technological access is seen as a fundamental freedom and an imperative to development (e.g. oppenneer, 2009; sachs, 2005), there is a need to push beyond questions of access to consider questions of equity. equitable technology development entails developing tools that reflect the values and knowledges of diverse people and open up new and valued opportunities for users. although technology has the potential to provide access to education, healthcare, financial tools, and improve existing practices, it can also serve to reinforce existing inequalities (kleine, 2012). as toyama (2010) argues, “technology no matter how well designed is only a magnifier of human intent and capacity. it is not a substitute” (italics in original, p. 15). focusing solely on access to technology risks deflecting attention from the underlying economic and social structures of inequity. there is therefore a need to further develop strategies of technology development that foreground equity and attend to the social infrastructure in addition to the technical infrastructure. situating technology development within the ecosystem where it is intended to be used can orient designs towards greater equity and sustainability. digital green, an organization that develops technologies to improve agriculture, health and nutrition, suggests some principles to develop technologies that can enhance the skills of local community members: (a) a participatory process for content production; (b) a locally generated video database of videos on agricultural practices; (c) human mediated instruction for dissemination and training; and, (d) structured sequencing to initiate new communities into digital green’s community of practice (gandhia, veeraraghavan, toyama, & ramprasad, 2007). similarly, groupe speciale mobile association’s (gsma) mobile for development’s agricultural program (magri), employs usercentered design to understand the ecosystem of the users. this program works with mobile operators and local communities to enhance the capacity of smallholder farmers !195 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 by improving access to information, financial services and supply chain solutions (magri, 2016). by situating their work within the local ecosystem, design solutions can attend to the needs, challenges, constraints, and desires of the users, resulting in transformative practices (palmer & pshenichnaya, 2015). digital green and magri are two examples of technologies that were developed alongside human abilities and have effectively served as tools that ‘magnify’ human capabilities (tomaya, 2010). the case analysis presented in this article looks at how ethnographic work can inform participatory design to improve the social and technical infrastructure, providing users with an enhanced capacity to shape their own professional practices. to measure the enhanced ability to shape professional practices, the analysis presented in this article examines how technology has supported the users in representing their own practices and how it has increased their ability to transform their own work in the community. research context and design background of collaboration and initial data collection the work of designing a technology application emerged from our long-term participatory research project organized around the design of participant structures, knowledge trajectories, and technical tools that could enhance impact’s approach to food justice and community advocacy (jurow, teeters, shea, & van steenis, 2016). our partnership with impact and the promotoras began in 2012 when we were invited into the organization to help impact better articulate the promotora model and enhance their practices so that it could be replicated elsewhere. our first year of partnership consisted of ethnographic work aimed at understanding the promotoras’ professional practices, including their strengths, desires, and challenges. we interviewed promotoras and the impact directors, reviewed historical and contemporary artifacts on the promotora model, and engaged in participant observations of the promotoras’ and impact’s work in the community. in collaboration with the promotoras and impact directors, we then organized for a series of professional development workshops aimed at articulating and enhancing the promotoras’ work with each other and community members. we documented the coplanning process, the workshop implementation, and post-workshop reflections with videotapes, fieldnotes, audio recordings, and artifact collection. our data collection and analysis proceeded simultaneously so that each could inform the other (strauss, 1987). the analysis of our ethnographic data and workshop data drew attention to key themes, indicating an interest in further professional development, a desire for greater awareness of the layers of the promotoras’ work, and a need for more streamlined data collection. to address these needs, 20 months after we began our collaboration with impact, we commenced the process of co-designing a technology solution that could support the promotoras in designing surveys that would allow them to collect, aggregate, and analyze data on what they believed was most essential in regards to their work in the community. !196 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 data collection on ict development and implementation our team documented our participatory design process of developing a software application (called the “promotora app”) using audio and video recordings as well as fieldnotes. we shadowed the promotoras in the field prior to observe their methods of data collection. we did this prior to developing the promotora app and throughout the multiple iterations to developing and implementing the promotora app. we conducted informal interviews focused on the promotoras’ experience using the promotora app and on impact’s staff’s and co-directors’ experience using its data. it is important to note that in addition to interviews, observations, artifact analysis, and documentation of our collaborative workshops and technology design sessions, much of the material that has contributed to our analysis emerged from confidential conversations. we learned about the promotoras’ challenges and successes while driving to gardens, sharing meals, attending community events, and shadowing the promotoras in the gardens. these informal meetings allowed us to understand what mattered to the participants and what new infrastructure would be valued. this cultivation of trust allowed for participants to share more contentious and politicized experiences and concerns and is integral to the design of equitable and sustainable interventions (delgado-gaitan 2005; foley & valenzuela 2005). we have protected the personally revealing stories shared with us by keeping all data collected confidential, receiving permission for the data pieces that we do use, and soliciting feedback on our research findings. analytic approach throughout our collaboration, data collection, technology design, and analysis have been iteratively employed, so that each process could be informed by a systematic review of data, as related to the literature (glaser & strauss, 1967). in addition to the iterative nature of data collection and analysis, triangulation was used to ensure rigor (denzin, 1989). the study triangulated methods, using diverse forms of data collection (e.g. interview, participant observation, video analysis), and triangulated sources, collecting data from different stakeholders (e.g. the promotoras, the technologists, the co-directors, office staff, community members). the case study presented in this article was developed from a review of data sources on the initial impetus for the design work and on the process of co-designing the promotora app. data were analyzed with specific attention given to participation and the execution of agency. the analysis aims to understand how the process of co-design and the use of the new tool affected the social organization of the promotoras’ work, its representation within impact, and its durability as a practice that could be reflected upon and revised over time. analysis was informed by the choice framework (kleine, 2013). the choice framework (a) values holistic measures—including measures of well-being, as defined by individuals—as opposed to econocentric measures, (b) is systemic as opposed to linear, (c) is user-centered as opposed to top-down, and (d) is choice-led as opposed to !197 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 supply-led. this framework encourages the assessment of social structures, agency, and dimensions of choice, or what alsop and heinsohn (2005) refer to as degrees of empowerment. case study findings understanding the social infrastructure developing a tablet based application was one of the interventions that we co-designed with impact to support the co-directors and the promotoras in enhancing their understanding of each other’s work and to support the promotoras in improving their professional repertoires. before articulating a focal problem or a design solution, we engaged in a year of ethnographic research that consisted of research within the organization, the community, and the city. we sought to locate impact’s work across multiple scales of participation and from multiple perspectives. this broad view provided us with a deep understanding of the promotoras’ expansive activity system (jurow & shea, 2015). identifying gaps between the social and technical infrastructure in an effort to generate reflective spaces where the promotoras could articulate their work and generate visions for their collective future, we organized a series of three workshops that took place over three months. through mediated dialogue, reflective writing, guided teatro , and the creation of representational artifacts, the promotoras 2 were able to generate shared desires, visions, and frustrations. during the course of the workshops, the promotoras had the opportunity to articulate the extensiveness of their practice, which included not only gardening tasks such as clearing plots, rototilling, planting seeds, troubleshooting infestations, and harvesting plants but also community networking efforts. the promotoras expressed that they took great pride in their work and desired more tools and resources to enhance their practices. as we documented the layers of the promotoras’ work, noting that it was not fully visible to the non-profit leadership, we also heard frustrations with current methods of data collection. in the years prior to the development of the app, the promotoras went from house to house, conducting surveys with pen and paper to gather feedback on the community’s attitudes towards the backyard garden initiative and to evaluate desires for other initiatives, such as community classes. these surveys were later entered into a computer-based database. not only was this method inefficient, but the information was difficult to gather due to language and literacy issues. as the lead promotora shared: yo pienso que un obstáculo es que la gente no tiene educación. la gente no sabe leer y escribir. así que, cuando hago una encuesta, es difícil. one obstacle that i think is that people do not know how to read and write. so, when i do a survey, it is hard. (meeting transcript, verónica, 12/14/12). a form of role play that allows for critical examinations (boal, 1997)2 !198 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the promotoras circulate the neighborhood, asking residents to provide feedback on the promotoras’ work, but at times, residents did not have the literacy skills to complete the language-dense survey, and thus the promotoras had to read the survey to the residents, asking them questions, such as, “how well did your promotora meet your needs?” having the promotoras collect data on their own practices resulted in potentially inaccurate results. furthermore, collecting the data with pen and paper, later to be transcribed into a computer database, was inefficient. moreover, the organization was collecting data on pounds of vegetables harvested, health of the gardens, and satisfaction of community participants, but was not capturing the day-to-day tasks that made these results possible. as a result, describing the specifics of their work had been difficult. as one promotora shared: lo que nos falta es saber que somos un equipo. estamos en el mismo lado. trabajamos juntos por la misma organización. what we are missing is to learn that we are a team. we are on the same side. we work together for the same organization. (meeting transcript, maria, 2/11/2013) the promotoras struggled to articulate their work not only among each other but also within the organization. the difficulty of describing and supporting the robustness of the promotoras’ work, at the start of our research with impact, was further compounded by the division of tasks within the organization: the promotoras conducted the work of growing and maintaining the gardens and establishing community relationships while the co-directors and a small team of office staff engaged in the work of securing grants, networking with city officials, and marketing the organization. this division of labor, in addition to incomplete documentation of the fullness of the promotoras’ work, resulted in different understandings between the office staff and the promotoras regarding existing practices and visions for how to improve the organization. in a whole group meeting, the lead promotora asked that the co-directors become more involved in the community: a mi me gustaría mucho que impact, o sea [names co-directors], hmmph, se involucran más con las necesidades de la comunidad. que ellos aprenderán a conocer las necesidades más. no, no más de la alimentación porque en la comunidad hay necesidades al respecto de la salud respeto a la educación… i would like very much that impact, namely [names co-directors], hmmph, become more involved in the needs of the community. that they will learn to know the needs more. not only about the nutrition because in the community there are needs with respect to health, with respect to education... (workshop transcript, verónica, 5/6/2013) this request that the co-directors better know the needs of the community demonstrates that the promotoras knew that improving their work would require the co-directors to understand the needs that they encountered when they went out in the community. more !199 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 fully documenting the promotoras’ practices and streamlining data collection would allow for the organization to secure funding for professional development resources and to know which skills to best target for training. moreover, greater visibility of the promotoras’ practices could result in more informed programming decisions and an enhanced ability for the organization to meet the needs of the community. analysis of multiple data sources, including video recorded workshops, audio recorded meetings, audio recorded interviews, and fieldnotes of participant observations indicated a need for an intervention that could support the promotoras to: 1) enhance the professionalism of their practice, 2) make the extensiveness of their work more visible, 3) share and expand their knowledge, and 4) provide them greater access to resources. through conversations with technology experts, the promotoras, and impact leadership, we decided upon building a software application using open source data collection tools (brunette et al., 2013). we aimed to generate a software application that could serve the function of a manual, but that would also allow for iteration, capturing the dynamic nature of the promotoras’ practice. this appealed to the non-profit leadership due to the potential to “track key metrics and progress” so as to better report on and improve its work in the south elm community (email exchange between research partners and impact director, august 9, 2013). the idea appealed to the promotoras as a tool to better represent their work, increase communication with each other and with the non-profit leadership, and allow for enhanced access to resources to improve their practices. a tablet-based application could address the organization’s needs by (a) supporting the promotoras to enhance their technological skills, (b) allowing for them to gain greater professional recognition, (c) connecting them to other professional networks, and (d) providing impact with targeted data. coordinating social and technical development in order to develop a software application, we collaborated with faculty and masters of science students in the college of engineering at our university. this partnership brought together professionals with diverse backgrounds and forms of expertise. the promotoras brought their expertise in gardening, community building, and spanish language communication. the three technologists with whom we partnered brought their expertise in technology design and implementation. they are male, native to the u.s. and native english speakers. the education researchers, which included the project p.i. and myself, brought expertise in ethnographic research and designing learning environments. we are both female, and native english speakers with spanish language abilities. the success of our partnership was reliant on the diverse expertise and diverse backgrounds of each group. developing a software application that would truly support the promotoras in enhancing their professional practices required explicit consideration of how to honor the diverse knowledges present amongst our team, intentionally planning opportunities for equitable engagement throughout the design process. as we quickly learned, equitable participation in the design process did not mean equal participation at every stage. in !200 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 one of our very early meetings, we recognized that we would have to design our collaborative meetings with specific attention to language, gender, and culture. this became apparent in a meeting with the english-speaking, male technologists, the bilingual male co-director, the spanish-speaking, female promotora (who is developing her english proficiency), and myself, a bilingual education specialist. i was positioned as the translator, yet, as the conversation became increasingly technical, the promotora, verónica, struggled to follow the conversation. i similarly struggled to find the highly technical language required to translate the technologists’ terminology. therefore, although verónica had significant expertise regarding the intended use of the technology, as the meeting moved along in quick, technical english, verónica leaned over and whispered to me “me da sueno” (this makes me sleepy), illustrating the extent to which she was disengaged with the design process when we met as a whole group (meeting transcript, verónica, 12/2/2013). in another meeting where we gathered as a full group, the technologists discussed how to create the forms for the application in an excel spreadsheet before uploading the information to the application. it was not until after the whole team meeting, when i met one-on-one with verónica, that she shared that she did not have experience with excel. these two examples illustrate how, when we privileged the technical demands over the social organization, the process resulted in the disengagement of the promotoras. analyzing these meetings allowed us to identify, and attend to, the inequitable structures of participation. moving forward, we re-organized the collaborative process so as to better mediate the collaboration. i led the effort to meet with the technology students so they could share their expert knowledge of technological platforms with us. this knowledge was then brokered in smaller meetings with the promotoras, where i could individually learn about their existing experiences with technology, support them to develop necessary skills, and broker knowledge specific to the emerging technology design. as we shared the features of the suggested platforms with the promotoras, the promotoras then shared their expertise of the content that would populate the application, enabling everyone to imagine how the application would best be implemented. in this way, our collaboration developed boundary practices, where we generated hybrid practices from both research and practice (akkerman & bakker, 2011). as we integrated these boundary practices into routine work, we opened up opportunities for new, and potentially transformational, learning and systems of organization. in these more intimate settings, the promotoras made suggestions, such as generating interactive forums that could support sharing gardening problems and solutions among promotoras, and they modified the content, such as better aligning the questions in the different forms to mirror the growing season. meeting in smaller groups was important to our participatory design work because it allowed us to share our mutual forms of expertise. as the work progressed, we eventually began meeting as an interdisciplinary team again, but with just one representative from each specialty area. in these smaller !201 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 meetings we organized for different people to lead various stages of the collaboration. for example, in developing a requirements document, the promotoras shared their vision for how it would be used and the technologists created a document describing what that would mean for technical requirements. they detailed: (1) ease of use: a) monolingual with an ability to change language; b) simple graphical user interface (gui); c) automatic wifi synchronization; d) standalone platform; and, (2) power of data a) pre-populated answers for common reporting variables; b) pictures c) secure; d) compatible with existing infrastructure; f) easily learned (viggio, dudley, & buckner, 2013). the co-director, the lead promotora, and the technologists collaboratively selected a platform from the options identified by the technologists. the team decided upon using a platform developed via open data kit (odk) called formhub. formhub was created by the columbia university sustainable engineering lab to aide in small-scale offline data collection. it uses odk applications to interact with the data collected, sending it to a formhub server, which aggregates the data into readable outputs (pokharel, et al., 2014). the technologists led the work of selecting a platform that would meet the promotoras’ needs. then, upon deciding on this software, the promotoras led the process of developing the content of the ‘promotora app.’ this collaborative, interdisciplinary design process positioned the promotoras as designers, apprenticing them into the practice using tablet-based applications to collect data on their work (lave & wenger, 1991). this model allowed for the promotoras to acquire the skills necessary to contribute to the design of technology, as opposed to simply being the recipients of a designed intervention. this deeply participatory approach aimed to mitigate the risk that our design solutions could further marginalize non-dominant participants (kleine, 2013). in this way, the process of co-design was as much a tool for empowerment as the actual technology. implementation and iteration of new infrastructure upon completing the design of the technology platform, we organized a series of handson trainings for all of the promotoras. the lead promotora, verónica, led these sessions. in preparation, the education team met with verónica and one technologist to make sure that she was comfortable guiding the promotoras through setting up the hardware and software. together we developed a presentation that would lead the group of promotoras through the process of taking the tablets from the box and setting them up, downloading the required software, accessing the forms that verónica had created, and moving through the process of how they would use the application to input information and take pictures while in the garden. verónica carefully tried to anticipate questions or confusions that the promotoras might have. for example, she included instructions on how to power on the tablet, noting that the android tablets’ basic features were different than the promotoras’ smartphones, which were mostly ios. this training took place in the winter, a few weeks before the promotoras planned to enroll families in the backyard garden program. a week after the promotoras began using the application to enroll residents and collect household demographic information, verónica sent me an email in which she wrote: !202 http://sel.columbia.edu/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 pues ya empezamos desde la semana pasada, parece que todo va funcionando bien, ( i hope ), yo no ando haciendo aplicaciones, andan algunas de las promotoras y promotor. well, we already started last week, and it appears that all is working well (i hope), i have not been going to do the applications, some of the promotoras and the promotore are going. (email, verónica, 1/22/2014). of note in this exchange is that shortly after being trained on using the new technology, the promotoras were successfully using it to make their work of filling out resident applications easier. they were able to input the information directly into the software, as opposed to gathering it and then later inputting it into their database. the enhanced efficiency allowed the lead promotora to stay in the office, analyzing data so as to immediately inform next practices. however, the initial report that “all is working well,” did not last through the gardening season. by mid-summer, the lead promotora shared this list of complications with me in an email: 1) muchas veces cuando quiere enviar una forma sale que es error y no se manda. 
 (often when we want to send a form it comes up as an error and it won’t send.) 
 2) a veces cuando se va a tomar la foto se apaga. (sometimes when we take a photo it turns off.) 3) en ocasiones se batalla para bajar las aplicaciones. (sometimes we struggle to download applications.) 4) eso es lo que pasa mas en las tabletas y nosotros en la oficina muy seguido tenemos problemas para tener acceso a form hub, y es muy frustran. (this is what occurs most frequently in the tablets and in in the office we also have problems accessing formhub and this is very frustrating.) (email, verónica, 7/10/14) as i began troubleshooting these glitches with the promotoras, the impact leadership was simultaneously expanding their vision for their technological needs. the platform that we were using for the promotora app was not compatible with the software that the organization was considering adopting to support their grant writing, financial management, and needs assessment of the neighborhood. in seeking both a solution to the promotoras’ frustrations and the organization’s expanding technical needs, the team found that formyoula © best met the non-profit’s low cost and offline requirements. we therefore started the process of moving the data system over to the new platform. !203 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 a few months into using the new platform, we learned that elements of the software that the technologists and i assumed to be intuitive were not so for the promotoras. the codirector sent one of the technologists, john, and me an email reading: so the promotoras are all filling out forms on the tablets, but they are not sending into formyoula there are only ten responses showing in total in formyoula and i can’t figure out how to get a view that shows responses per form, etc… can you help us? thanks! (email, matt, 1/28/2015) john used his tablet and phone to test the software, and when he tried it, the problem described in the email was not present. not being able to understand the promotoras’ difficulties via email, john and i set up a time to meet with a group of 5 of the promotoras. when observing, in person, the promotoras’ use the application, we were able to understand that we had made assumptions about how the promotoras would use the software. this fieldnote excerpt details the process of understanding why the backend database was not showing the completed forms: verónica logs into the website on her computer. she points to the 10 ‘recent’ forms on the dashboard, saying that is all that is showing up. anna (another promotora) and verónica are both saying, ‘where do they go?’ ‘where are they?’ john then goes to each form, and shows how the individual forms have a selection action button, where you can see all of the forms. verónica had not been using this. (problem #1, solved) nonetheless, the promotoras have done around 90 applications and only 9 new participants and 29 returning participants are showing up. we get into the tablets and, looking at anna’s, there are a lot of forms listed, but next to them there is a grey icon reading ‘draft.’ the forms had never been submitted, just saved. jocelyn (another promotora) has not yet done any applications. the other tablets though, also look the same, with the forms showing draft. the forms have not been submitted. john shows how to submit the forms. when he does so, they show up in the database. verónica then explains that she doesn’t press submit because then she can’t start a new application and when she is out in the neighborhood, she often has to fill out 10 applications before she can logon to internet to ‘send’ them. john is confused by this and so he tests it by turning off the wifi on the tablet and then trying. he is able to submit it (it saves, then showing the logo: ‘local,’ which means that it is submitted but offline, so when it syncs, it will be uploaded) and then open up a new form. verónica shares that she assumed that she shouldn’t submit, but didn’t try it. (fieldnote, 1/29/2015) !204 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 in designing technology with users, you can anticipate needs, but you can’t anticipate how that will be taken up. this example illustrates how we could not have foreseen that the promotoras would ‘save’ rather than ‘submit.’ when we were troubleshooting via email, we could not have imagined the root cause for the forms not being uploaded. understanding what was going on required that we observe how the promotoras were using the software. after this initial glitch, the promotoras took on greater responsibility for using both the application and the tablets. they since have reported using the tablets: “cada vez que van a un jardín, todos los días” (every time that they are in a garden, all of the days) (email, verónica, 511/2015). sustaining social and technical changes using the tablet-based application streamlined the promotoras’ data collection, facilitating their daily work. the lead promotora shared: les gusta mucho porque les facilita mucho el trabajo y no tienen que traer tantos papeles. they like [the app] a lot because it supports their work and they don’t have to carry so many papers. (email, verónica, 5/13/2015) not only has the promotora app enhanced the promotoras’ work and facilitated data collection, it has also encouraged the promotoras to explore new ways to use different features of the tablet. they use the tablets to communicate amongst each other, sending emails, sharing photos, and coordinating calendars. as the lead promotora wrote of the whole team: “estan mas comunicados entre si” “ (they are in more communication with each other) (email, verónica, 5/13/2015). they also use them to record their daily activity, logging garden tasks, recording details about the families, tracking how produce is used, delineating next steps in the garden, and detailing their work that extends beyond the task of gardening. the promotoras also integrated the use of the tablets into their daily lives. several promotoras shared that their comfort using the tablet has increased through routine use of it in their work in the gardens. as a result, they were now using the tablet to check their children’s school’s website and do online banking. verónica shared that the promotoras use the tablets: para jugar, jajaja, no aparte de eso para sus e-mail, para su calendario, creo que ya es parte de su vida diaria to play, hahah, no, aside from this, for their emails, for their calendars, and i believe that they are a part of their daily life. (email, verónica, 5/13/2015) additionally, the promotoras reported that they shared the tablet with their family members. one promotora reported that her son uses it to play games and took on the responsibility of updating the operating systems and applications. !205 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the promotoras’ work has become more fully visible as all of the promotoras use the promotora app to codify their practices. as a member of the office staff reported, the practice of systematically documenting their work via technology allowed for “amazing data collection” (email, caroline, 5/18/2015). the more systematic, streamlined data collection has enabled the organization to more fully report and solicit funding for the promotoras’ work, including elements of their advocacy and community building work. moreover, the increased visibility of their work has allowed for the promotoras and the non-profit co-founders to provide each other with more specific, and timely, feedback on their work and in turn allows them to improve their skills and supports the non-profit to more effectively achieve its goals of promoting food justice. the promotora app has increased communication between members of the organization and has brought the promotoras’ work into the office in a more visible way. the promotoras are now charged with the technical work of documenting and analyzing their own practices. the lead promotora took on the responsibility of generating the forms for the promotora app. with this technical responsibility also came the request for a laptop computer and a transition from being paid hourly to being on a salary. the co-directors responded to veronica’s shifting role, acknowledging the need for resources and appropriate compensation to accompany her shifting responsibilities. similarly, impact reorganized the structure of the roles within the organization to adopt a distributed model of leadership, where promotoras share roles and responsibilities, participating in diverse tasks such as grant writing and strategic planning. the process of engaging in co-design and of documenting practices via technology contributed to the promotoras’ expanded sense agency. the participatory design work in which we engaged was premised on the notion that all participants have diverse expertise and that sustainable design requires that the diversity of expertise be leveraged and expanded upon. as participants share equal responsibility for the design and implementation of new infrastructure, their view of their own work within the organization shifts as they take greater responsibility for generating and maintaining designed systems. enhancing participants’ agency through expanded participation is an integral component of social justice work. by shifting the responsibilities within the organization, impact is closer to meeting its goals of developing community leaders and generating self-sufficient economies. discussion the promotoras’ enhanced ability to generate and pursue professional opportunities was not the result of any one intervention; similarly, it was not the result of their comprehensive collaboration with us, the university researchers. rather, it is most appropriate to understand it as part of a larger system that was already in motion. designing a technological tool, alongside conducting ethnographic research and designing workshops, occurred within an existing activity system. our design was successful because of our ability to recognize, and work with, the momentum of the city, the neighborhood, the non-profit, and the promotoras. !206 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 as we found in our research, ethnographic research prior to design and throughout the design process allows for an understanding of the activity system in which the technology will be used, supporting both equitable and sustainable designs. it is through our ethnography that we were able to echo back what were hearing and support the organization in deciding on the tools that could help them improve their organization. in this sense, the ideas for design came from the community partners and our role as ethnographers and our critical eye towards equity helped shape the collaboration. our ethnographic work not only gave us an understanding of the organization’s and community’s activity system, it also provided us with a more national and global context by which to understand impact’s work for food justice. embedding our design within the existing activity system provided it with the relevance and momentum that supported it in being fully taken up and owned by the users. our initial ethnographic research guided our collaborative design work and facilitated our participatory process, allowing us to develop participatory approaches to design so as to attend to both the technical and social infrastructure. this collaborative approach allowed for the consideration of stakeholders’ everyday experiences, historical practices, and cultural values. moreover, the process of engaging the users in the design generated a sense of familiarity with new technology platforms and modeled and encouraged processes of design, analysis, and trouble-shooting, empowering the users to engage with technology in new ways, which has resulted in sustainability. this case study demonstrates not only the role of ethnography and participatory design in generating equity-oriented design solutions, it also provides a model by which to apply ictd tenets within the context of the u.s. notions of development should include marginalized and under-resourced communities within our own nation. moreover, working within our own nation may support the design and implementation of development projects. in our research, living in the city where we were working provided us with a deep understanding of the non-profit organization and its larger context. this relationship with the physical place where we were researching and designing facilitated the process of generating boundary practices, hybrid research/ practitioner practices (akkerman & bakker, 2011). generating these hybrid practices, where we leveraged the promotoras’ existing practices and extended them via resources and skills available to our research team, was integral to processes of transformation, sustainability, and equity. engaging in ictd in local contexts encourages the sharing of diverse resources, perspectives, and knowledges amongst different subgroups that co-reside within a larger community. it allows for different forms of knowledge to travel across institutions (e.g. from the university context to the non-profit; from the promotoras to the university). in our work, the learning was fluid between participants. each individual brought a different set of expertise and a different perspective that enriched both our design work and our theoretical understandings. developing better understandings and networks, sharing resources, and enhancing communication within our local contexts can generate stronger and more equitable societies. !207 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 conclusion as technological innovations are increasingly suggested as a promising solution to generate opportunities for marginalized communities, it is imperative that we look beyond questions of access to critically consider questions of equity. the findings of this article suggest that equitable and empowering technology solutions can be developed via ethnographic research aimed at deeply understanding the focal ecosystem and correspondingly developing responsive and participatory methods that attend to and develop the social infrastructure alongside the technical infrastructure. references akkerman, s. f., & bakker, a. 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(2013). field manual: odk collect + formhub for on-site data collection. ictd laboratory: atlas institute. boulder, co. !209 http://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/gsma_tigo_kilimo_ie.pdf http://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/gsma_tigo_kilimo_ie.pdf http://en.ahau.findplus.cn/?h=search_list&query=jn:%2522proceedings%2520of%2520the%25204th%2520ieee%2520global%2520humanitarian%2520technology%2520conference%252c%2520ghtc%25202014%2522 http://ghf.globalhealthforum.net/2012/11/12/shasthya-shebikas-role-in-improving-infant-and-young-child-feeding-practices-in-rural-bangladesh-bracs-experience/#.ujoewcash8e http://www.census.gov/data/ http://www.census.gov/data/ 1187 ready the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles ict and online social movements for good governance in nigeria in nigeria, the availability of different internet-enabled social media has led to the emergence of online social movements advocating the principle of good governance in the affairs of the state. in view of this, this paper examined the evolution of online social movements in nigeria, and the role of ict in their mobilization for good governance. resource mobilization theory was employed as the explanatory framework. the paper contends that though online social movements in nigeria are generally in their embryonic stage, they are, nonetheless, increasingly influencing the three organs of government and shaping public policies in the country. introduction since its emergence in the 20th century, information and communication technology (ict) continues to have a landmark impact on human relations and social structures worldwide (adeyemo, 2010; ojedokun, 2010). today, ict is fast becoming one of the major tools that social movements around the world are adopting to advance their cause(s) (cardoso and neto, 2004; oloo and kamungi, 2012). in nigeria, the availability of different internetenabled social media such as facebook, twitter, hi5, whatsapp, youtube, blackberry messenger, myspace, 2go among others has led to the emergence of online social movements advocating the principle of good governance in the affairs of the state. the term 'social media' refers to web-based tools and services that allow users to create, share, and search for content and information without having to log on to any specific portal site or portal destination (bohler and van der merwe, 2011). to kaplan and haelen (2010), !7 ojedokun, u. (2016). ict and online social movements for good governance in nigeria. the journal of community informatics, 12(1), 7-20. date submitted: 2014-12-24. date accepted: 2015-07-10. copyright (c), 2016 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1187 usman adekunle ojedokun department of sociology, university of ibadan, nigeria corresponding author. uaojedokun@gmail.com mailto:uaojedokun@gmail.com http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1187 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1187 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 they are a group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of web 2.0 that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content. social media essentially involve the adoption of web-based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues into social dialogues (titus-fannie et al., 2013). also, it can generally be said that social media integrate different forms of computer-mediated communication (cmc) (hogan and quan-haase, 2010). to ibrahim (2013), the exposure, feedback, engagement (connecting) and exchange (sharing) that social media platforms create, provide a major change in the understanding of traditional communication. information flow is no longer considered “one-way street” in which audiences receive messages through the ‘i communicate-you receive’ mantra. rather, social media integration is seen as an interactive process that enables same-level information exchange among the audience (gracia, 2011). social media’s social affordance, according to hogan and quan-haase (2010), means that people are employing these tools to interact, share information, communicate, and develop perceptions of their social environment. the principle of good governance occupies a strategic position in the development trajectory of any nation that cannot be overemphasised. the recognition of this fact is responsible for the continuous clamour for the adoption of good governance in the running of state affairs in different parts of the world. good governance has been defined in different ways by scholars and international organisations. the world bank (1989) defines it as a means of exercising power in the management of a nation’s economic and social resources for sustainable development. to odock (2006), good governance is a system of government based on good leadership, respect for the rule of law and due process, the accountability of the political leadership to the electorate, as well as transparency in the operations of government. ekpu (2009) views it as connoting respect for the rule of law, accountability, transparency, delivery on election promises, and creation of an atmosphere for the flowering of freedom and for the achievement of the greatest good for the greatest number of the people. according to the united nations development programme policy document developed in 1997, good governance is characterised by participation, the rule of law, effectiveness and efficiency, transparency (built on the free flow of information), responsiveness, consensus orientation, equity, accountability, and strategic vision. just like in some other countries, different online social movements are among the major forces for good governance in nigeria. social movements are any broad social alliances of people who are connected through their shared interest in blocking or effecting social change (cragun and cragun, 2006). according to diani (1992), social movements comprise networks of informal interaction between a plurality of individuals, groups and/or organisations, engaged in a political or cultural conflict on the basis of a shared collective identity. they are one of the principal social forms through which collectivities give voice to their grievances and concerns about the rights, welfare, and well-being of themselves and others by engaging in various types of collective action, such as protesting in the streets, dramatizing their grievances and concerns, and demanding that something be done about them (snow et al., 2004). some of the factors identified to have been responsible for the birth of social movements include: feelings of deprivation, social unrest, dissatisfaction, a sense of injustice, ideology or beliefs, social stresses (such as a crisis or cultural lag), resources, organization, and an orientation toward change (stolley, 2005). generally, every social movement involves collective action of people who work to enact some type of change they feel would be preferable in the social structure (stolley, 2005). !8 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 in view of this, the central focus of this paper is to discuss the evolution of online social movements in nigeria and the role of ict in their mobilization for good governance in the country. the remainder of the paper is divided into four major sections: • the relationship between ict and social movements globally, • the evolution of online social movement in nigeria, • the role of ict in the campaign of online social movements for good governance in nigeria, and, • the major challenges threatening the online activism of online social movements in nigeria. ict and social movements’ activities globally over the last decade, online activism has become increasingly prevalent for sharing information and organizing people to express resistance to dominant organizational elites (ghobadi and clegg, 2014). in many countries around the world, icts have been used by ordinary citizens and interest groups to demand governance reforms intended to realize the aspirations of the people (oolo and kamungi, 2012). cardoso and neto (2004) observe that contemporary social movements tend to have in common the assimilation of ict as an instrument of action and organization. according to them, the internet is becoming the central axis of action allowing social movements to act globally. ict and mass media are closely related to social movements and collective action (speir, 2011). norris (2001) identifies the major functions served by the internet in different social movements’ activities across the globe, including: e-mail lobbying of political representatives, officials, and elites; networking with related associations and organisations; mobilising organisers, activists and members; fundraising and recruitment; and disseminating messages to multiple audiences. also, geser (2001) views the internet as an ideal facilitative tool for founding, integrating and managing voluntary associations. for wasserman (2005), the internet and other ict tools (such as mobile phones) are valuable tools in the activities of social movements that represent a broad agenda, including social development. haase-reed et al. (2007) submit that the success of a social movement relies on public perceptions of the opportunity to refute criticism, counter negative coverage, and deliver their own messages uncontested. the significance of the internet, according to salmon et al. (2010), stems from the fact that it defies boundaries, challenges governmental media censorship, and provides an alternative voice to traditional media outlets, which often echo official, governmental policies and views. meanwhile, it is considered by many scholars as a potential means of extending the working of transnational social movements geographically, organising internationally, building global or regional coalitions with like-minded organisations, mobilising beyond their own constituencies, and spreading information on a global scale independently; thereby, supporting the development of global or transnational public spheres (kahn and kellner, 2004; scott and street, 2001). since the early 1990s, when the zapatista of chiapas movement in mexico first made use of the internet to protest against the north american free trade agreement (castells 1997), different global social movements have employed the internet, and more recently mobile phones, to share information, organize direct action and coordinate activities that confront economic and social injustices spawned by global capitalism (kahn and kellner 2004; wall, !9 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 2007). also, internet-based communication technologies provided an important additional resource for social movements in the anti-g8 protest staged in genoa in 2001 and the antieuropean social forum held in florence in 2002 (della porta and mosca, 2005). similarly, the internet and mobile phones were used to mobilize and organise public protests against repressive rule, corruption, economic failings and other grievances in tunisia, egypt, libya and several other arab states in the so-called arab spring revolution in 2011 (oloo and kamungi, 2012). additionally, cortright (2007) observes that during the iraqi antiwar movement, activists used the internet to communicate, coordinate, and create awareness among decentralized networks which resulted in global protests that brought together about 10 million activists who demonstrated in hundreds of cities worldwide on february 15, 2003. according to langman (2005), the internet has also enabled the creation of diverse democratic groups and movements, such as the world social forum, which mobilized global justice movements of more than 100,000 diverse activists in brazil in 2003 and in mumbai in 2004. the experience of afghanistan shows that the real benefit of ict lies not in the provision of technology per se, but in promoting the creation of powerful social and economic networks that improve communication and the exchange of information (oolo and kamungi, 2012). theoretical framework resource mobilization theory resource mobilization theory provides the theoretical anchorage for this paper. this theory gained prominence throughout the 1970s and 1980s. resource mobilization theory sees social movements as rational social institutions, created and populated by social actors with certain goals. it stresses the importance of human and material resources and rational planning as the sources of social movements and the basis for their success (gamson et al., 1982; oberschall, 1973). according to the theory, resources such as time, money, organizational skills and certain social or political opportunities are critical to the success of social movements. it puts resources at the centre of the analysis of social movement and stresses movement members’ ability to acquire resources and mobilize people towards accomplishing a particular goal(s). it makes clear that both the availability of resources and actors’ efficacy in using them effectively are central to social movements’ activities. in the context of nigeria, online social movements are essentially exploiting the availability of different internet-enabled social media platforms to advocate the principle of good governance in state affairs. evolution of online social movements in nigeria the evolution of online social movements in nigeria is not solely propelled by the availability of internet-enabled social networking media. rather, their trajectory is firmly rooted in the foundation laid by the conventional social movements and different civil society organisations fighting for justice and fairness in the actions of the government at various levels. indeed, from the period of british colonial rule, different groups in nigeria have come together to form social movements with the purpose of stimulating change in one area of social life or the other. for instance, in 1929, some igbo women in south eastern nigeria confronted the british colonial government in protest against rumoured plans for 'per capita taxation' of women. the protest is generally referred to as the aba women riot. similarly, !10 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 some farmers in south western nigeria formed the agbekoya movement in 1968 to revolt against the then military government’s decision to increase tax, and the subsequent arrests of defaulters by law enforcement agents (ibeanu and momoh, 2008). additionally, in the southsouth region of the country, different social movements have sprung up to protest about environmental degradation and the general state of underdevelopment of the area, in spite of the fact that it is the hub of crude oil exploration which is essentially the mainstay of nigeria’s economy. apart from this, civil society organisations like the campaign for democracy (cd), civil liberties organizations (clo), committee for the defense of human rights (cdhr), transition monitoring group (tmg), nigeria labour congress (nlc), national association of nigerian students (nans), academic staff union of universities (asuu) have been at the forefront of championing the cause for democratic governance and fairness in public affairs (akanle et al., 2014). the birth of online social movements in nigeria is closely linked to the large-scale adoption of internet-enabled social networking media among nigerians. although computer-mediated communication and the internet revolution generally began in the country in the late 1990s, online social movements have begun springing up unconsciously since 2007 when facebook started gaining popularity among nigerians. today, with the proliferation of varieties of internet-enabled social media platforms such as twitter, myspace, hi5, blackberry messenger, 2go, amongst others, different online social movements aimed at mobilizing for good governance in public affairs have consciously emerged. in nigeria, a number of online social movements have developed with the goal of drawing national and international attentions to social, economic and political injustices in the country. notable online social movements which have emerged in recent times include: occupy nigeria movement, change movement, bring back our girls movement, movement for democratic change and peoples’ rights (mdcpr), social movement for change (smc), transform nigeria movement, amongst others. online social movements and good governance in nigeria although the modus operandi of online social movements in nigeria in terms of online activism and types of social media platforms favoured for public mobilization is similar to what might be found elsewhere, nigeria’s situation is unique in its own right. unlike what obtained in some other countries, particularly in africa where ict-driven mass mobilisation led to violent demonstrations that ousted presidents zine el-abidine ben ali (tunisia) muammar gaddafi (libya), and hosni mubarak (egypt), online activism of social movements in nigeria has never resulted in any violent physical protest or demonstration against the nigerian government. rather, the series of virtual and peaceful protests embarked upon by nigerians online over time culminated in the defeat of the immediate past nigerian president, goodluck jonathan, who re-contested for the office of the nigerian president in the march 28, 2015 general election under the platform of the peoples’ democratic party (pdp), the dominant party that had been at the helm of the affairs since 1999 when the nigeria’s fourth republic began. it is important to point out that the former ruling party, pdp, had been persistently accused by nigerians of running an elitist government that has legitimised corruption and engendered poverty in nigeria (akinkuotu, 2015; gbadebo, 2014). indeed, it is a widely shared belief that the victory of muhammadu buhari (of the all progressive congress opposition party, ) in the recently held presidential election, might not have been possible without the online activities of different online social movements. social media platforms were actively utilised to keep nigerians and members of the international !11 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 community up-to-date on the result of the 2015 general elections in nigeria (nwabasha, 2015; oseni, 2015). also, unlike its counterparts in iran, syria, and egypt that attempted to clamp down on the utilisation of social media platforms by their citizens in the face of pressure and strong criticism by online social movements calling for change in public affairs (stepanova, 2011; stanko, 2013), the nigerian government has over time been tolerant and/or accommodating to online activism, and occasional physical protests, that are often embarked upon by online social movements questioning the action or inaction of government and some of its key officials in the administration of state affairs. although law enforcement agents (especially personnel of the nigeria police force) are often on guard to monitor the physical protests organised by online social movements to forestall a breakdown of law and order, they rarely engage in intimidation or physical confrontation with protesting online social movement activists. generally, the role of information and communication technology (ict) in online social movements’ activities for the entrenchment of the principle of good governance in nigeria cannot be overemphasized. though these movements are generally in their embryonic stage, the prevailing state of affairs in nigeria shows that they are not only increasingly influencing key decisions of the three organs of government, but they are also shaping public policies in the country. one major way through which ict is aiding online social movements in promoting the tenets of good governance is that it creates several avenues through which members of the general public can easily bring vital information to the attention of the government and other concerned stakeholders in the country. through the high level information dissemination capacity of ict, online social movements in nigeria are gradually aiding management’s effectiveness and efficiency in affairs of the state. for instance, different online social movements in the country played a critical role in inundating the federal government of nigeria with information on the ‘cash for slot scam’, the practice whereby unemployed graduates seeking employment in government agencies are asked to pay certain amount of money to some top officials and/or agents of their would-beemployers which is rife in government-owned agencies. the response of the nigerian government to this information was the scrapping of online sale of application forms to job seekers in government agencies (nzeshi et al., 2013). in a related development, online social movements actively adopted internet-enabled social media, particularly facebook and twitter, to protest the poor handling of recruitment exercise into the nigeria immigration service by a former minister of interior, abba moro, which led to the death of 16 applicants and injury of many others (ojeme, 2014; soriwei and adepegba, 2014). the virtual protests of several online social movements later culminated in physical demonstrations which eventually forced the government to compensate the bereaved and those that were injured. the government not only cancelled the recruitment exercise, but also promised to design an all inclusive and effective procedure in the near future. similarly, online social movements are utilizing ict devices to promote respect for the rule of law and human rights in nigeria. ict-enabled social platforms such as facebook, twitter, youtube (amongst others) constitute invaluable resources through which online social movements not only canvass respect for the rule of law, but also expose various social ills in society. in 2013, different online social movements and many human right activists/ !12 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 organizations in nigeria mounted pressure on the taraba state house of assembly to uphold constitutional provision, by approving the continuation in office of the deputy governor of the state, alhaji garba umar, as the acting governor; this was amid a crisis generated by the hasty return of governor danbaba suntai to nigeria after spending several months abroad where he went to receive treatment for the injury that he sustained from a plane crash which occurred in late 2012 ( owuamanam, 2013). though gov. suntai’s loyalists wanted him to return to office at all costs, in spite of the fact that he was medically unfit to do so, the state’s house of assembly followed the due process of the law (the nation, 2013; vanguard, 2013). the online social movements in nigeria played a crucial role in resolving this particular crisis. another example that readily comes to mind in this context is the video of the extra-judicial killing of four students of the university of port harcourt, known as ‘ the aluu 4’ which went viral on the internet in 2012 (akasike, 2012). also, the case of a purported abia state female student who was gang-raped in september, 2011 was first brought to the knowledge of the general public through the recorded video of the episode that was released onto the internet (ugwu, 2013). recently, in march 2014, the video of a policeman who brutally maltreated two women at gun-point in lagos state was uploaded onto the internet (ogala, 2014). in each of these highlighted cases, online social movements used different online social networking platforms to seek redress for the victims of the incidents. indeed, the ability to be spontaneous and mobilise under serious constraints has been observed to be one of the most important benefits that social media adds to the effectiveness of contemporary social movements (petras, 2011; wilson, 2012). furthermore, online social movements in nigeria are actively adopting different ict tools to contribute to, and deliberate on public policies formulated by different tiers of government in the country. as a result of online public debates facilitated by ict resources, government and other concerned stakeholders are continuously getting feedback on their policies and are increasingly taking citizens’ concerns into consideration before implementation. for example, online social movements were at the forefront of the protest against the federal government’s removal of fuel subsidy in january, 2012. notable among the online social movements in this instance was the occupy nigeria movement. adebayo (2014) and akanle et al. (2013) assert that of all the protests that were staged by different organisations in nigeria, none was as coordinated and massive as the protest of january 2012 in which the internet was effectively exploited to mobilise protesters against fuel subsidy in nigeria, and in london, brussels, washington and other places, in solidarity. the enormity of the protest orchestrated by online social movements forced the nigerian government to modify this particular policy. in addition, various online social movements in nigeria significantly influenced the decision of the federal government of nigeria to pass into law, the anti-gay bill, which proscribed the practice of same-sex relationships in the country (akhigbe, 2014). equally, the virtual and physical protests of online social movements were instrumental in the nigerian government reaching a mutual agreement with members of the academic staff union of universities (asuu) which eventually ended their six-months old nationwide strike between june and december, 2013. roberts (2011) has equally asserted that internet offers a better medium for the creation of a public sphere in which a truly democratic form of political debate can take place. the interactive features of digital ict opens up unprecedented opportunities for more inclusive public engagement in the deliberation of policy problems !13 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 (ibrahim, 2013). these open fora for debates and exchange of diverse views among all levels of society encourage an informed citizenry (shifter and caivano, 2009). online social movements are employing ict devices to demand transparency and accountability in the administration of government in nigeria. internet-enabled social media are aggressively being adopted by different online social movements to protest perceived sharp or corrupt practices of public officials in the discharge of their duties. in 2013, different online social movements in nigeria protested the mismanagement of public funds by a former minister of aviation, stella oduah in the purchase of two bullet-proof bmw cars at an inflated rate of n225 million (the punch, 2014). different protests engineered through internet-enabled social media forced the federal government to set up a presidential probe panel which later indicted her. in a related development, a series of protests by online social movements influenced the decision of the judiciary to call for the retrial of an assistant director in the police pension office, john yakubu who was sentenced to two years imprisonment or pay n750, 000 fine by a justice of the federal capital territory high court, justice mohammed talba, for conniving with some other officers to defraud the police pension office and pensioners of n27.2 billion (latinwo, 2013). ict tools provide checks and balances and foster a climate of accountability in the society which helps to expose grand and petty corruption in public spaces, inefficiency in public service delivery and structural challenges to good governance (oloo and kamungi, 2012). also, ict tools are continuously being utilised by online social movements in nigeria as means of facilitating mass mobilization of people at both national and international levels to demand social change in certain areas of life. a case in point here is the ‘bringbackourgirls’ movements that resulted in global online campaigns and mass protests calling for the release of over 234 female students of girls government secondary school, chibok in borno state, north east nigeria, kidnapped by the boko haram terrorist group since april 2014 (okoro, 2014; otuchikere et al., 2014). the ongoing demand for the release of the girls across different cities in nigeria and in some other parts of the world is made possible through a high level of interconnectivity facilitated by the ict resources such as facebook, twitter, youtube and hi5, amongst others. similarly, different online social movements across the country used ict resources to decry the poor handling of the rivers state house of assembly crisis in 2013 by the former commissioner of police for the state, mr. joseph mbu (adepegba, 2013; aturu, 2013). the accumulated effect of the criticisms levelled against the state police command later resulted in his transfer from rivers state to the federal capital territory (fct) by the then inspector general of police, muhammed abubarkar. in a similar vein, the heavy deployment of military personnel in the 2014 ekiti and osun states’ gubernatorial elections have been widely condemned by different social movements, who registered their displeasure with this new trend via ict tools. oloo and kamungi (2012) have equally articulated that ict has played a critical role in mobilising popular protest against perceived injustices or inequality and to demand better governance. challenges of online social movements in nigeria from the preceding discourse, it is crystal clear that online social movements are gradually and increasingly influencing state affairs in nigeria. in spite of this achievement, however, the extent of online activism in the country is not yet holistic in term of the level of !14 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 inclusiveness. the effectiveness of online social movements in nigeria may be threatened in the near future by three major factors: poverty: as a result of the acute poverty that is being experienced by the majority of nigerians, access to ict resources (such as computers, internet-enabled mobile phones, or tablets) that can facilitate online discourse about public affairs is still grossly low; such facilities are not generally owned by nigerians. this digital divide in nigeria between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots', fostered by poverty (akanbi and akanbi, 2012), sometimes indirectly impinges on the quality of engagement on online public domain. in some cases the people who are directly affected by certain conditions and are willing to share their experience in an online public domain may not be able to add their voice to online discourse that directly concern them, because of a lack of access to ict-enabled social media platforms. consequently, the true nature of their condition(s) may not be accurately presented or may be exaggerated in some cases. however, this problem is not peculiar to nigeria, other countries like iran and china are also experiencing physical access gaps due to factors such as lowspeed internet and limited access (ameripour, nicholson and newman, 2010; cross 2010). skills gap: the activity of online social movements in nigeria is presently skewed towards a particular group of people among the nigerian populace. there is a sharp division in terms of age and location of residence with regard to the utilisation of ict resources among nigerians (obayelu and ogunlade, 2006). while young people have enthusiastically embraced the use of social media platforms, the majority of older nigerians are still lagging behind in the adoption of these ict tools. similarly, the use of ict resources is more popular among urban dwellers compared with their rural counterparts (yau’, 2002). the implication of this is that members of online social movements in nigeria are generally dominated by young people residing in urban areas. hence, it is the opinion of this group of people that is typically heard or seen on the various social media platforms dealing with public issues. ict usage, according to ghobadi and ghobadi (2013), is largely linked to the demographic characteristics of users and technical connections vested interests: the vibrancy or effectiveness of online social movements in nigeria may also be threatened by vested interests in the near future. unless the ‘leaders’ of online social movements are continuously accountable and maintain their integrity, such forums could be hijacked by self-serving politicians for their own selfish political gains. needless to say, if this is not properly contained, it would certainly be counter-productive to online social movements' demands for good governance. a recent trend in the activities of online social movement is for politicians to commission some youths to create platforms on the social media, to counter the activities of online social movements considered to be working against their interests. indeed, different pressure groups and watchdogs in nigeria have occasionally been accused of compromising their cherished ideals after being pressurised and/or financially induced by some politicians in the country (ike, 2008). conclusion this paper has critically reviewed the pivotal role that the information and communication technology (ict) played in the emergence of online social movements in nigeria and how they are deploying different ict resources, particularly social media platforms and other networking sites, to mobilise for the principle of good governance in state affairs. today, the !15 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 actions of the government and public officials at both the federal and state levels are directly and indirectly being influenced by online social movements in the country. therefore, to the extent that online social movements are adopting ict resources to demand accountability and transparency in government, to bridge the gap between the citizenry and government, to debate public policies, to promote management’s effectiveness and efficiency, and to decry social ills, they are clearly veritable tools with significant potential and actual roles in the consolidation of good governance in nigeria; 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(2012). one to another: the occupy movement challenges the media. http:// www.opendemocracy.net/johnwilson/one-to-another occupy-movementchallengesmedia world bank (1989). sub-saharan africa: from crisis to sustainable growth. washington, dc: world bank. ya’u, y. z. (2002). confronting the digital divide: an interrogation of the african initiatives at bridging the gap. http://www.codesria.org/links/conferences/nepad/yau.pdf !20 http://www.codesria.org/links/conferences/nepad/yau.pdf 123-02-1286 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 special issue on data literacy: articles creating an understanding of data literacy for a data-driven society society has become increasingly reliant on data, making it necessary to ensure that all citizens are equipped with the skills needed to be data literate. we argue that the foundations for a data literate society begin by acquiring key data literacy competences in school. however, as yet there is no clear definition of what these should be. this paper explores the different perspectives currently offered on both data and statistical literacy and then critically examines to what extent these address the data literacy needs of citizens in today’s society. we survey existing approaches to teaching data literacy in schools, to identify how data literacy is interpreted in practice. based on these analyses, we propose a definition of data literacy that is focused on employing an inquiry-based approach to using data to understand real world phenomena. the contribution of this paper is the creation of a common foundation for teaching and learning data literacy skills. !9 wolff, a., gooch, d., cavero montaner, j.j, rashid, u., kortuem, g., (2016). creating an understanding of data literacy for a data-driven society. the journal of community informatics, 12(3), 9-26. date submitted: 2015-12-16. date accepted: 2016-06-13. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1286. annika wolff the open university, united kingdom corresponding author. annika.wolff@open.ac.uk daniel gooch the open university, united kingdom daniel.gooch@open.ac.uk jose j. cavero montaner the open university, united kingdom jose.cavero@open.ac.uk umar rashid the open university, united kingdom umar.mir@open.ac.uk gerd kortuem the open university, united kingdom gerd.kortuem@open.ac.uk http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1286 mailto:annika.wolff@open.ac.uk mailto:daniel.gooch@open.ac.uk mailto:jose.cavero@open.ac.uk mailto:umar.mir@open.ac.uk mailto:gerd.kortuem@open.ac.uk http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1286 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction whilst the fields of machine learning, data analysis and visualization are rich, there is surprisingly little research into the human component, particularly as it applies to more complex data. what are the competences that people must acquire in order to learn from and solve problems with data? what new skills must humans learn in order to both design, interpret and critique complex data analysis and visualisation? the term data literacy is used to broadly describe the set of abilities around the use of data as part of everyday thinking and reasoning for solving real-world problems. data literacy is increasingly considered to be a life skill, as daily interactions with data become evermore commonplace [12] and individuals more frequently make judgments from data and make decisions regarding the use of their own personal data [11]. there is also an identified shortage of data scientists in the u.k. [18]. as a result there is a recent push to increase the teaching of data literacy in schools, where previously it was mostly undergraduates who would find a need to acquire more sophisticated data handling skills upon entering higher education. current definitions of data literacy are not fit for purpose they don’t account for changes in the nature of data sets, which are becoming larger and more complex. nor do they account for the different roles in which people must apply data literacy skills. this has implications for increasing the data literacy of society through school education, since without a clear definition of what data literacy is, it is both hard to teach and to assess the outcome of teaching. this paper examines the research literature relating to data literacy in order to identify commonalities between definitions and to disambiguate it from the more coherently defined statistical literacy, which has been the topic of research for a longer time and is a more established part of the teaching curriculum in schools. the aim is to demonstrate that there is a need for a clearly defined field of study around data literacy that is distinct from and covers a different set of competencies than statistical literacy. through mapping both the space of user needs and the space of individual competences or skills that comprise the definitions of data (and statistical) literacy, we develop a single framework to support the multiple perspectives of data literacy and form a common foundation for the teaching and learning of data literacy skills. definitions of data literacy and statistical literacy all of the data literacy definitions we reviewed are based on a specific scenario, which delimits which data literacy skills will be applied. mandinach and gummer [14] propose a definition of data literacy in the context of supporting teachers to use student data to improve their practice, as a type of learning analytics. in their view, data literacy is: “the ability to understand and use data effectively to inform decisions. it is composed of a specific skill set and knowledge base that enables educators to transform data into information and ultimately into actionable knowledge. these skills include knowing how to identify, collect, organise, analyse, summarise and prioritise data. they also include how to develop !10 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 hypotheses, identify problems, interpret the data, and determine, plan, implement, and monitor courses of action.” deahl [7] and vahey et al. [29] both propose definitions of data literacy in the context of teaching data literacy in schools. in deahl’s view, data literacy is: the ability to understand, find, collect, interpret, visualize, and support arguments using quantitative and qualitative data. deahl further elaborates on this by defining a more specialized skillset for the data literate student, ranging from the more general ‘understanding data’ to checking data for ‘bias and inaccuracy’ and ‘taking measurements’. vahey et al. [29] propose that: data literacy includes the ability to formulate and answer questions using data as part of evidence-based thinking; use appropriate data, tools, and representations to support this thinking; interpret information from data; develop and evaluate data-based inferences and explanations; and use data to solve real problems and communicate their solutions. vahey et al. further stipulate that students must be anchored in the context of the data in order to be able to generate appropriate arguments and perform the analyses for solving problems. despite obvious overlap between these three definitions, it is clear that they each have a different focus – which tends to reflect the context in which it was derived. they also have a different level of granularity, not just between the definitions, but also within them. for example, the ability to ‘use data effectively’ is at a different level of granularity to the more specific skill of ‘collect data’ (both taken from [14]). there is considerably more agreement amongst the definitions of statistical literacy. for example, carlson et al. [4] defines statistical literacy as the ability to: read and interpret summary statistics in the everyday media, in graphs, tables, statements, surveys and studies. callingham, 2006 [3] proposes that statistical literacy is: the ability to understand and critically evaluate statistical results that permeate our daily lives” and to “appreciate the contributions of statistical thinking towards private, professional and personal decisions. taken as a whole, the definitions indicate a shared understanding of statistical literacy as being the ability to critically assess statistical evidence encountered within everyday life. this consistency makes the definition more useful when trying to teach statistical literacy, for example in school. however, it should be noted that these same competences appear, in some form, within many definitions of data literacy but do not constitute the entire definition. this suggests that statistical literacy may form part of a wider set of competences that constitute data literacy. resolving the overlap between the two literacies will lead to better provision for teaching both. !11 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 identifying commonalities amongst definitions a qualitative analysis of definitions of both data literacy and statistical literacy was undertaken, to identify commonalities between them. nine definitions of data literacy and four definitions of statistical literacy were selected for the analysis. these were definitions that were somehow unique, i.e. they were not simply referencing or restating previous definitions. the full definitions can be found in appendix a. the outcome of this analysis is summarized in table 1. card sorting to unify competences an open card sorting method [25] was chosen as a first step towards unifying competences. the aim was to first reach a consensus about which competences shared a similar meaning and could therefore be merged, then to understand how this reduced list of competences could be further categorized. a similar method was used by petrie et al. [20] in creating a unified definition of web accessibility. the sorting process was led by the first author, with other authors participating. to give an example of how competences were merged, in mandinach and gummer’s [14] definition of data literacy they refer to “identify problems” whereas deahl [7] includes “skills necessary to ask questions that can be researched using data”. this is merged into the competency “identify problems or questions that can be solved with data”. one term ‘prioritise data’ (from [14]) was omitted from the analysis due to lack of clarity of meaning. the process of grouping competences that could be merged was repeated a number of times for more accuracy and in the end a total of 23 unique competences were identified. these are shown in the column headed ‘competence’ in table 1. the references after each competence reflect the definition(s) from which it was derived, and whether they were data literacy definition, or statistical literacy definitions (shown in bold). next, the authors sorted the merged competencies into categories. in the first iteration of this sorting task, two strong categories emerged. in the first category were competences that described a process through which data literacy skills could be applied. these included to ‘undertake data inquiry process’ and ‘plan, implement and monitor courses of action’ (see ‘inquiry process’ under competence in table 1). in the second, larger, category were competences that described what we term foundational knowledge, such as ‘understand how data can be produced or found’ or ‘interpret information derived from datasets’. there was noticeably more agreement amongst definitions with regard to the set of competencies found in this category. out of 9 definitions of data literacy, there were 8 that referred in some way to the ability to create explanations from data. applying the ppdac inquiry process ppdac is an approach to teaching statistical thinking that is used in schools in new zealand, where statistics is emphasised as a subject in its own right [33]. ppdac stands for problem, plan, data, analysis and conclusion. like other types of inquiry (for an example, see white [32]), the stages represent part of an iterative cycle in which the conclusions might prompt further questions and analysis, often of increasing complexity as the problem is being solved. sometimes, in answering one question, a completely new question or problem is identified which triggers a completely new inquiry process. while ppdac follows a fairly typical inquiry process it places less emphasis on the planning and conducting of scientific !12 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 experimentation and more focus on real-world problems that can be solved through an analysis of data. the ppdac cycle is shown in figure 1. figure 1. a representation of the ppdac cycle using knowledge of ppdac and other inquiry processes, the authors identified that it was possible to further categorise foundational knowledge under different stages of a ppdac inquiry cycle. this is an important finding, since few data literacy definitions explicitly refer to undertaking an inquiry process, despite the stated competences reflecting one. the left hand column in table 1 reveals this mapping. table 1. categorization of data literacy skills across multiple definitions ppda c competence foundational competence inquiry process plan, implement and monitor courses of action [14] undertake data inquiry process [34] foundational knowledge understand the ethics of using data [34] ethics use data to solve (real) problems [29] [2] [34] [14] [7] real-world problem-solving contextunderstand the role and impact of data in society in different contexts [7] p identify problems or questions that can be solved with data [14] [7] ask questions from data p develop hypotheses [14] identify data [14] develop hypotheses and identify potential sources of data d collect or acquire data [6] [34] [21] [14] [7] critique data [21][7] collect or acquire data !13 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 placing specialist skills into the developing framework there was a third group of competences which related to what could be termed specialist data handling skills, such as ‘create representations of data’ (e.g. create a chart or visualization). there was very little overlap between definitions of these skills, they are quite ad-hoc and tend to reflect different levels of expertise with data, for example one definition includes ‘understand data types’ whilst another refers to the ability to ‘convert data’. the specialist skills are shown in italics beneath the foundational competency to which they relate, which in nearly all cases is data analysis. it should be noted that it would also be possible to fill the space of specialist skills, creating some sort of hierarchy, for example distinguishing between different types of analysis (visual, statistical, machine-learning) or even further to talk about specific methods and tools. however, it would not be possible to create an exhaustive list, since new techniques, methods and tools emerge regularly. placing higher-level skills into the developing framework three competences could not be placed within the ppdac framework. these concerned the ethical use of data, understanding the role and impact of data in different contexts and the use of data to solve problems which we have taken to mean ‘real-world’ problems based on the context provided through literature from which definitions were taken. in understanding what a real-world problem is, we draw on notions of experiential learning, as popularized by thinkers such as dewey [8] and freire [9], which puts forward the idea that learning should be situated within a real-world context and with reference to ones own experience rather than reliant on rote learning of a collection of facts. further, such learning experiences should be responsive to cultural differences that might affect individual learner’s view of the world. we propose that given their importance these three competences should in fact cut across the inquiry cycle: for example, that ethical considerations, including concerns towards security and privacy of peoples’ data, should be in place in the planning, execution, and analysis of any data-driven inquiry, and that to be effective, an inquiry should address real-world problems and be responsive to the differing needs of learners. identifying the foundational competences for data literacy in the final stage of analysis, the intermediate definitions of foundational knowledge, that were derived from existing definitions, were merged and re-described with the goal to reduce overlap of meaning and to create a set of foundational competences derived from the original definitions (right hand column of table 1). at this stage, one concept was added which was a transform data into information and ultimately actionable knowledge [29] [34] [14] [7] create explanations from data [29] [33] [14] [7] [2] [4] [6] [21] access data [22]; analyse data [2] [34] [21] [14] understand data types [7]; convert data [22]; prepare data for analysis [7]; combine quantitative and qualitative data [34] [7]; use appropriate tools [29]; work with large data sets [6]; summarise data [14] analyse and create explanations from data c interpret information derived from datasets [29] [4] [34] [4][22][3][30] evaluate the validity of explanations based on data and formulate new questions critique presented interpretations of data [29] [4] [3][30] !14 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 felt to be missing from definitions with regard to describing foundational knowledge. this was the ability to formulate new questions based on the outcome of an inquiry process (i.e. start a new cycle of inquiry). this step is standard across most models of inquiry, such as those proposed by white, 1999 [32] or scanlon et al, 2011 [23]. disambiguating statistical literacy from the analysis it is also apparent that the foundational competencies associated with statistical literacy appear within the conclusions stage of an inquiry process. this is the point at which an inquiry has already been undertaken by someone in order to present findings. thus statistical literacy – as previously identified through analyzing the definitions seems most often to be associated with the skills required for assessing the validity of statistical data presented to support arguments, or used as the basis for decision-making. however, we would argue that in order to be able to fully critique presented statistics, it is important to have at least a working understanding of the process through which such explanations and representations of data are created, in order to understand how the choice of analysis and visualisation can bias the interpretation, or how incorrect selection of data from a population can skew results. this suggests that data literacy is important to support the understanding and application of statistical literacy. in other words, knowledge of the overall inquiry process and the activities it entails is a pre-requisite to applying individual competences. therefore, we propose to make the inquiry process more explicit within definitions of data literacy as a way of framing a set of data literacy competencies. we propose that within the inquiry framework there is a hierarchy of knowledge and skills related to working with data within a real-world context, ranging from a foundational level of understanding of inquiry, through to very specialist technical skills for hands-on data handling. figure 2 shows a first step towards mapping the space of data literacy skills, within which the set of competencies can be formed. figure 2. the space of data literacy skills. the arrow within ppdac activities reflect more specialised data handling skills !15 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 interactions with data having begun to understand better the relationship between different definitions of data literacy and their place within a framework for inquiry, we now consider the situations in which data literacy skills are applied. this is necessary to ensure that our proposed definition of data literacy fulfills the needs of users. data as evidence in modern life, people are interacting with data on a daily basis. people contribute data through their actions, leaving digital traces of their lives and habits. data, by itself, has little value. the value is provided through interpretation of one or more data sets in a given context. collected data is processed and presented in a variety of different ways, to support news articles, advertising, consumer advice, political debate, or policy-making. the act of preparing and communicating this information can be undertaken by various groups such as journalists, advertisers and marketers and community advocacy groups, to name a few. in turn, people use data to help them to make decisions about what to buy, who to vote for, where to live, how to invest money or where to send their children to school [26]. in this scenario, the citizen acts as a reader of data, gaining knowledge from data and from other peoples presented interpretations of it for decision making, but not manipulating the data directly themselves. the data literate reader has the ability to properly evaluate the evidence that is presented in these scenarios, so that they can make critical judgments on the reliability of the information presented and can better understand how their own contributed data is being utilized and make more informed decisions when deciding what data to make available [29] [11]. without data literacy, there is a risk that the data reader accepts biased interpretations of data as fact, leading to incorrect knowledge, or worse, to bad choices. without data literacy, those communicating about data can inadvertently introduce bias. of course, conversely, data literacy can be used to present an ‘on the surface’ plausible, biased, account with the intent to deliberately mislead. data as a tool for innovation large amounts of data are being made available as part of the open data movement [15][19]. there is a growing interest in how this data can be used, particularly (although not exclusively) within smart city applications that use data for urban innovation and to find solutions to improve sustainability of expanding urban spaces. city officials might use this data to inform city planning and policy making. companies create marketable products and apps. these are top-down approaches to smart city development. however, the real intention of open data is that it is a resource for anyone. citizen use of urban data is of particular relevance for smart city innovation. in bottom-up smart cities, citizens are drivers for change, better placed for understanding their own local problems and proposing solutions that take citizens needs more fully into account [27][10]. moving from top-down to bottom-up smart city innovation shifts citizens from a role as passive users/consumers of technology and contributors of data, through to active participants in consciously contributing data to drive smart city applications and identifying problems that could be solved with data and finally to innovators who shape and implement solutions to !16 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 urban problems [35]. these active participants and innovators are analogous to makers, or hobbyists (e.g. see [27]), using data as part of a broader diy tool-kit to individually, or collaboratively, design solutions to urban problems through the process of bricolage. in addition to the data literacy skills of a consumer, the data literate maker needs a range of adhoc competencies depending on the focus of their innovation. these include (but are not limited to) knowing how to find and use the open data that is published about their environment, how to generate and use data, e.g. from sensors and how to integrate data with other technologies, for example building apps, dashboards or eco-visualisations. data literate makers have an awareness of how their own data contributions impacts on the reliability of smart city technologies [5]. they are sensitive to concerns of privacy and ethical use of data. they need to understand and possibly produce visualisations of complex urban data sets. we define urban data as data that informs about environmental, social and economic aspects of urban life. it is typically generated by the activities of people living in a city. the data relates to a variety of topics, such as air and water pollution, energy and water consumption, crime, public and private transport, or car parking to give some examples. some of the data is available in the form of live data streams that are real-time indicators of the state of the city system (such as traffic flow). such data streams can generate large data volumes that show variations across days, seasons and years, and – more often than not are affected by data quality issues. they can cover a large geographic area and/or time-span. urban data may be collected through sensors, smart meters, satellite imagery or mobile phones, or derived from surveys and questionnaires. therefore, the data literate maker is as comfortable with using external data as their own personally collected data. without data literacy, citizens run the risk of trying to solve problems that are not borne out by available data, that cannot be solved through data analysis at all, or where they miss the opportunity to back up their arguments. they might take and combine data sets that reveal sensitive information about other citizens, or share inappropriate information. data literacy for job opportunities in the u.k. there is an identified skills shortage for data scientists in the jobs market. twenty seven percent of the biggest employers (with over 250 employees) now use data analytics to support their work [28]. but businesses also report that they cannot hire the data scientists they need to analyse their growing datasets and ensure their competitiveness [1]. a similar deficit has been identified in other countries, particularly the u.s. unlike the consumer or maker, a scientist needs some formal qualifications to demonstrate the level and area of their expertise. they might specialise in a particular aspect of data, such as visualisation, or machine learning. a data scientist must combine data literacy skills with in-depth knowledge of the company in order to provide meaningful insights and reports. the data scientist is tasked to communicate findings to non-data experts and must also be adept at communicating with data and engaging the audience, for example through novel visualisations. the audience, who may not be data experts, are in the role of a consumer and therefore also need data literacy skills in order to critically assess the validity of the information being presented. without data literacy, a scientist might apply complex methods and analysis to large data sets, yet fail to address the needs of the company. !17 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 types of data literate citizen through the above analysis we have revealed four types of citizen according to the situations in which they would need to use data intelligently for solving real world problems. these are: (1) communicators – who make sense of and tell stories about data for others to digest. (2) readers – who need skills to interpret data that is increasingly presented as part of their every day life. (3) makers – who need the skills to integrate data into broader overall strategies for identifying and solving real-world problems and to be actively conscious of their own data contributions that drive smart city applications. (4) scientists – who need to combine strong technical data skills with communication skills and in-depth knowledge of the domain of the data. we accept that this list is almost certainly not exhaustive, but suggest that it is a good basis for considering whether the type of data literacy required is the same in every case. does a citizen using data literacy skills for understanding their environment have the same needs as a data literate citizen applying for a job as a data scientist? bridging the gap between definitions and citizen needs in order to bridge the gap between existing definitions of data literacy and the needs of citizens, we draw upon our merged definitions of foundational competencies in table 1 and our space of data literacy skills in figure 2. we propose that the foundational competences represent the essential skills of a data literate citizen in the role of reader, who can apply their knowledge of a data-driven inquiry process, in which the data is a reflection of real-world phenomena, and can use this knowledge to critically assess data-related arguments. as a general rule, the complexity of data skills required to act in the different roles increases from the role of reader through to the role of scientist. this is shown in figure 3. figure 3. complexity of skills for differing roles what is most important to note, however, is that within each role the citizen must build upon foundational knowledge to acquire the specialist skills they need to achieve their individual goals. thus, the skills acquired in each role are dependent on the needs of that role and to some extent on the goals of an individual. for example, the ‘maker’ citizen may require more specialist skills in some areas that are pertinent to a smart city project. let’s suggest a citizen who has no prior experience of !18 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 working with sensor data is interested in discovering how the traffic is affecting pollution in different parts of their neighbourhood. in this scenario, they would need to either develop expertise in setting up pollution sensors themselves, or use their working knowledge of sensors to communicate their needs to someone with the technical knowledge, or find this information from an open dataset. in order to identify their own knowledge gap in the first place, they must have an understanding of how to plan for data collection, know how data can be identified and obtained and conceive how this data might eventually provide an answer to their initial question. these skills can be identified and learned within the context of our proposed data literacy framework. in this case, we can reimagine the space of data literacy (figure 2) as we have in figure 4, surrounding a pool of data skills that can be increasingly specialized, and which can be drawn upon as needed to support a data driven inquiry process. the deeper the pool of knowledge of an individual citizen, the more capable they are to act in the role of maker or scientist. this reflects also that specialist skills cannot always be neatly identified with specific foundational competences or stages of inquiry. for example, some selection and analysis of data could form part of evaluating the validity of statistics presented to support an argument, or in an exploratory phase of planning an inquiry. figure 4. data literacy pool teaching data literacy how do citizens become data literate? the general view is that the foundation for creating a data-literate society starts in school. however, the importance of data literacy is yet to be reflected in current teaching practices in either schools or colleges [16]. whilst a typical mathematics curriculum does include provision for teaching data handling and statistical analysis, it is suggested that a more effective approach would be to teach data literacy as a cross curricular subject, incorporating it into subjects such as science and geography [29] [ 21]. in this way, the concepts and methods learnt would be better contextualized and this would lead to more transferable skills. in order for this to occur, there is a need for a common vocabulary [31], such as through our proposed data literacy framework and competencies. !19 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 similarly, datasets used in school are typically small and do not properly reflect the size and complexity of the types of data that are becoming available, some of which are generated and analysed in real-time [24]. watson [31] points to the need to choose at least some classroom examples from the real-world setting rather than from artificial settings in text books. whilst williams et al. [34] propose that students collect their own data to analyse on the basis that students better understand data when they are an active participant in collecting the data, this does not provide experience of handling data that is neither small nor personally collected. modern data collection methods, such as sensors, are not yet common in the classroom. however, sensors could act as a stepping stone between small personal data collection and large external data sets, since they allow the collection by a student of a large amount of data in a relatively short time [13]. at the same time, techniques for visualizing data are increasing rapidly. the line between visualization and art becomes blurred, as new visualisations are designed to firstly draw the reader in with aesthetic appeal and then to offer an interpretation of the data behind the visualization. it is not always the case that skills learnt with small datasets, based around fairly traditional graphs and charts, can be adapted and scaled up to working with these more complex types of data [17], or extended to producing and interpreting these new types of visualization. there is therefore an argument for using complex data sets and visualizations as part of classroom teaching materials for data literacy. existing approaches to support data literacy teaching a number of approaches and online platforms exist for teaching data literacy in schools. we have evaluated four of these systems against our proposed data literacy framework with a view to understanding how the teaching of data literacy is interpreted in practice and how they might inform or support a new definition of data literacy. maine data literacy toolkit (mdlk) the maine data literacy project (http://participatoryscience.org/project/maine-data-literacyproject) defines a data literacy framework for teachers and students to use data in schools to improve data literacy. the project provides real data sets, from online sources simplified for the classroom. the data literacy framework is built upon two foundational skills, firstly to be able to visualize variability in a data set using frequency plots and secondly to describe variability in data, e.g. in terms of range, measures of central tendency, etc. students are then expected to demonstrate what they have learned in the context of a stated question. finally, they should be able to explain how their choice of visualisation supports their interpretation of the data with respect to the question. students repeat the process with increasingly complex data, for example starting with small datasets that can be analysed by hand to more complex data that requires special software. the resources themselves are provided as multiple set of very detailed instructions for visualising or analysing specific datasets, with little guidance or support for students to guide their own explorations of the data. kids’ survey network (ksn) kids' survey network (www.kidsurvey.org) provides a set of games and videos designed to teach children about conducting survey research and aims to promote ‘the responsible and !20 http://participatoryscience.org/project/maine-data-literacy-project http://participatoryscience.org/project/maine-data-literacy-project http://www.kidsurvey.org the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 successful use of data by future citizens and workers’. students design and conduct questionnaires in order to answer their own questions or address issues of concern in their communities. students learn to analyse survey data, interpret their results and present their findings. in this context, students are encouraged to think about how to use data responsibly. tuva labs (tl) tuvalabs (https://tuvalabs.com/) provides access to numerous data sets linked to learning resources. each data set has a set of standard graph based visualisations. teachers and students first select a data set, then a visualization type and then choose the attributes to place on the chart. teachers and students can use suggested questions, or else make up (and optionally add to the system) their own question. datasets are available for download, which gives the opportunity for a student to use the data to create visualisations from external software. however, tuvla is limited to questions that can be answered through graph rather than map-based visualization. whilst the tuvla data browser provides immediate interactivity with each data set, allowing students to explore the data in a very hands-on way, it is unclear to what extent the approach emphasises the inquiry aspects. for example, supporting students in using data as part of a self-directed real-world inquiry, in which they use the data to formulate and answer their own questions. citydigits (cd) citydigits (http://www.citydigits.org/) was a project that encouraged students to answer questions about their local neighbourhood through geo-spatial data analysis. in local lotto, students combined interview data with data about lottery spending in different neighbourhoods to form an opinion about whether the lottery was good or bad. they prepared digital storyboards to communicate their findings, using the evidence from their analysis to reinforce their opinion. in cash city, students use maps to analyse the distribution of pawn shops and combine it with real data about the cost of pawning and also their own survey data, in order to understand the role of pawn shops in their community. similar to the local lotto, students communicate their overall opinions at the end of the analysis and also have the opportunity to comment on the opinions of other groups of students in the same task. in citydigits, students use real data within a structured inquiry task, but do not have the opportunity to formulate their own questions from the data. the urban data school (uds) the urban data school is an initiative that aims to use real, complex, urban data sets that are being collected as part of a smart city project (www.mksmart.org) as a resource for teaching data literacy in school [36]. the approach is designed to teach students to ask and answer questions from data through a data-driven inquiry process, with consideration to the ethical use of data, and to understand how data can be used to drive urban innovation. the additional specialist skills reflect the origin of the project in smart city technologies and focus on skills required to create data literate ‘makers’, comfortable with both small, personal data and large, complex externally sourced ones. in uds sessions, students have been asked to analyse and create explanations from real data sets, to collect and visualize their own data and to design phone apps that used data to solve a problem, such as helping them to be more !21 https://tuvalabs.com/ http://www.citydigits.org/ http://www.mksmart.org the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 considerate about home energy consumption (see figure 5 for one example). students present findings to the group describing what they have discovered through data analysis. figure 5. visualization of home energy data as a tree. bigger branches indicate bigger use of the appliance summary of existing approaches taken collectively these existing approaches offer a suite of methods, resources and tools for teaching important data literacy competences. each approach has individual strengths and weaknesses, for example tuvalabs offers access to a large quantity of open data, but lacks a structured inquiry approach. both city digits and the urban data school approach provide a strong context within which the task is conducted and combines multiple types of data. students are very active in data collection, analysis and in interpreting and presenting their findings with respect to the questions. however, both are very focused on the specific domain of the data and the neighbourhood in which the data is located. it is not clear to what extent the teaching materials would be useful in other neighbourhoods, cities, or countries. city digits does not provide opportunity for students to learn how to pose their own questions and plan for data collection, but this is an important part of the urban data school approach. ksn focuses too much on personally collected data, whereas mdlk provides a lot of external data but is difficult to navigate and does not appear to give students much leeway in learning how to plan their own research questions and data analysis. what these approaches have in common is that they demonstrate that it is possible to successfully engage students to interact with real world data sets across a broad spectrum of data literacy competences. !22 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 2. analysis of existing approaches to support data literacy a definition of data literacy based on the analysis of definitions of data literacy, the mapping to user needs and the survey of existing approaches to teaching data literacy in practice, we propose this following definition of data literacy: data literacy is the ability to ask and answer real-world questions from large and small data sets through an inquiry process, with consideration of ethical use of data. it is based on core practical and creative skills, with the ability to extend knowledge of specialist data handling skills according to goals. these include the abilities to select, clean, analyse, visualise, critique and interpret data, as well as to communicate stories from data and to use data as part of a design process. this definition both encompasses and extends previous definitions of data literacy. it highlights the importance of learning the process of a data inquiry, of obtaining experience with both small and larger, more complex, data sets and that data literacy skills should be acquired through real world data and tasks. this definition is applicable across the identified user scenarios and is reflected in the approaches that have been evaluated for teaching data literacy in schools. mdlk ksn tl cd uds data r e a l w o r l d (environmental) data p e r s o n a l l y c o l l e c t e d survey data multiple real w o r l d o p e n datasets r e a l w o r l d ( u r b a n ) data real world (urban) data r e a l w o r l d context yes yes yes yes yes ethics no yes no no yes i n q u i r y process? yes yes no partial yes a d d i t i o n a l data literacy skills large data sets, visual analysis, s t a t i s t i c a l analysis combining quantitative a n d qualitative data large data sets combinin g quantitati v e a n d qualitativ e data g e o s p a t i a l d a t a analysis n o v e l visualisatio n s , l a r g e data sets !23 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 future work the definition of data literacy as a space within which a number of competencies can be formed opens up several research areas for further investigation. of particular interest is the use of data as a resource for formal and informal learning of data literacy skills. topics of investigation might include how to make data more salient in order to help learning, for example through tangible data, visualizations, or better tools for interacting with data. the increasing use of complex data and visualisations raises many questions in terms of how people identify the important dimensions of data from these larger, more complex datasets or their non-standard visualisations. schools are an obvious starting point for teaching data literacy skills. also of interest is how to provide learning resources for ‘maker’ citizens for the ad-hoc acquisition of skills necessary to identify and solve local problems. how is it possible to raise awareness of data that is (or could be) available within an environment to support citizens in innovating solutions to local problems? conclusions the contribution of this work is a framework for defining data literacy that draws upon existing definitions and extends them to explicitly include the process of inquiry through which data literacy skills are applied. this framework allows for the identification of a set of foundational competences, against which data literacy expertise can be assessed and through which more specialist skills can be learned according to the needs and goals of the data literate citizen. four types of citizen are currently identified, these are communicators, readers, makers and scientists. we have suggested that it is important to include teaching of data literacy as part of the curriculum in schools to ensure that future citizens achieve the required level of data literacy. we demonstrate examples in which real data sets have been combined with learning resources to teach data literacy. references 1. bakhshi, h., mateos-garcia j., & whitby, a. (2014). model workers: how leading companies are recruiting and managing data talent. retrieved from: http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/modelworkers-how-leading-companies-are-recruiting-and-managing-data-talent 2. bhargava, r., & d’ignazio, c. (2015). designing tools and activities for data literacy learners. workshop on data literacy, webscience 2015. 3. callingham, r. (2006). assessing statistical literacy: a question of interpretation? international conference on teaching statistics (icots7) 4. carlson, j., fosmire, m., miller, c. c., & nelson, m. s. (2014). determining data information literacy needs. data information literacy: librarians, data, and the education of a new generation of researchers, 11. 5. celino, i., contessa, s., corubolo, m., dell’aglio, d., della valle, e., fumeo, s., & krüger, t. (2012). linking smart cities datasets with human computation–the case of urbanmatch. in the semantic web–iswc 2012(pp. 34-49). springer berlin heidelberg. 6. data journalism handbook (n.d.). retrieved from: http://datajournalismhandbook.org/1.0/en/ understanding_data_0.html 7. deahl, e. (2014). better the data you know: developing youth data literacy in schools and informal learning environments. m.s. thesis, massachusetts institute of technology. !24 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 8. dewey, j. (1933). how we think: a restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educational process. lexington, ma: heath 9. freire, p. (2000). pedagogy of the oppressed. bloomsbury publishing. 10. gooch, d., wolff, a., kortuem, g., & brown, r. (2015, september). reimagining the role of citizens in smart city projects. in proceedings of the 2015 acm international joint conference on pervasive and ubiquitous computing and proceedings of the 2015 acm international symposium on wearable computers (pp. 1587-1594). acm. 11. haddadi, h., howard, h., chaudhry, a., crowcroft, j., madhavapeddy, a., & mortier, r. (2015). personal data: thinking inside the box. arxiv preprint arxiv:1501.04737. 12. house of lords select committee on digital skills. 2015. make or break: the uk’s digital future. retrieved from: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201415/ldselect/lddigital/ 111/111.pdf 13. lee, v.r., & thomas, j.m. (2011) integrating physical activity data technologies into elementary school classrooms. educational technology research and development, 59(6), 865-884. 14. mandinach, e. b., & gummer, e. s. (2013). a systemic view of implementing data literacy in educator preparation. educational researcher, 42(1), 30-37. 15. mcauley, d., rahemtulla, h., goulding, j., & souch, c. (2014). how open data, data literacy and linked data will revolutionise higher education. retrieved from: http://pearsonblueskies.com/ 2011/how-open-data-data-literacy-and-linked-data-will-revolutionise-higher-education/ 16. nam, t., & pardo, t. a. (2011). conceptualizing smart city with dimensions of technology, people, and institutions. in proceedings of the 12th annual international digital government research conference: digital government innovation in challenging times (pp. 282-291). acm. 17. national research council. (2013). the mathematical sciences in 2025. washington, dc: the national academies press 18. nesta. (2015). analytic britain securing the right skills for the data–driven economy. retrieved from: http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/analytic-britain-securing-right-skills-datadriven-economy 19. ojo, a., curry, e., & zeleti, f. a. (2015). a tale of open data innovations in five smart cities. in system sciences (hicss), 2015 48th hawaii international conference on (pp. 2326-2335). ieee. 20. petrie, h., savva, a., & power, c. (2015). towards a unified definition of web accessibility. in proceedings of the 12th web for all conference (p. 35). acm. 21. calzada prado, j., & marzal, m. á. (2013). incorporating data literacy into information literacy programs: core competencies and contents. libri, 63(2), 123-134. 22. schield, m. (2004). information literacy, statistical literacy and data literacy.iassist quarterly, 28(2/3), 6-11. 23. scanlon, e., anastopoulou, s., kerawalla, l., & mulholland, p. (2011). how technology resources can be used to represent personal inquiry and support students' understanding of it across contexts. journal of computer assisted learning, 27(6), 516-529. 24. schutt, r. (2013). taking a chance in the classroom: embracing the ambiguity and potential of data science, chance, 26:4, 46-51 25. spencer, d. & warfel, t (2004) "card sorting: a definitive guide." boxes and arrows (2004). 26. steen, l. (1999). numeracy: the new literacy for a data-drenched society. educational leadership, 57(2), 8–13. 27. tanenbaum, j. g., williams, a. m., desjardins, a., & tanenbaum, k. (2013). democratizing technology: pleasure, utility and expressiveness in diy and maker practice. in proceedings of the sigchi conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 2603-2612). acm. 28. tech partnership. (2015). employer insights: skills survey. retrieved from: https:// www.thetechpartnership.com/globalassets/pdfs/tec_employer_skill_survey_web.pdf 29. vahey, p., yarnall, l., patton, c., zalles, d., & swan, k. (2006). mathematizing middle school: results from a cross-disciplinary study of data literacy. in annual meeting of the american educational research association, san francisco, ca. !25 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 30. wallman, k. k. (1993). enhancing statistical literacy: enriching our society.journal of the american statistical association, 88(421), 1-8. 31. watson, j.m. (2011). foundations for improving statistical literacy. statistical journal of the iaos 32. white, b. y., shimoda, t. a., & frederiksen, j. r. 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(2015). urban data in the primary classroom: bringing data literacy to the uk curriculum. in: data literacy workshop, oxford. !26 the right(s) to the hybrid city and the role of diy networking panayotis antoniadis1 & ileana apostol2 senior researcher, department of information technology and electrical engineering, eth zurich, zurich, switzerland. email: panayotis.antoniadis@tik.ee.ethz.ch senior researcher, department of architecture, eth zurich, zurich, switzerland. introduction more and more urban space becomes inherently hybrid since information and communication technology (ict) acts as a mediator for interactions between people residing in close physical proximity for varied time periods, from neighbours to passers-by and strangers in public spaces. this hybrid realm has the capability to support novel types of communication between citizens and local authorities. for example, authorities can share rich data sets with citizens and application providers, and citizens are empowered to generate useful information for authorities during their everyday activities such as in the crowdsourcing and citizen science paradigms. moreover, icts can also provide a virtual spatial framework for e-participation and online deliberations (e.g. horelli, 2013; houghton et al., 2013). urban and community informatics are some of the emerging interdisciplinary fields that bring together knowledge from computer and social sciences and study the role of technology and its design in various urban settings (see foth 2009; foth et al., 2012; gurstein, 2010). virtual space is increasingly becoming part of the physical material space in cities with a digital infrastructure. signage in public spaces that points at specific virtual locations, using text (internet url addresses), 2d barcodes and posters, or other physical artefacts may be permanent or mobile, as in the case of the yellowchair project1 , an art installation by arab jain in san jose, california, that encourages residents who are willing to share their private wifi to place a yellow chair on the public sidewalk to signal the presence of free access to the internet, but also to stimulate playful interactions between strangers, such as recipe sharing. in more advanced scenarios the physical space for public life can become the container of virtual interactions-through the use of public interactive displays and the flexible embodied interactions that smartphones and location-based mobile applications enable (e.g. farman, 2012). however, technology can both further and hinder local communication. on the one hand, it allows efficient asynchronous information sharing and organization (shirky, 2008); the creation and maintenance of multiple overlapping social networks (rainie & wellman, 2012); and a more flexible self-representation and engagement for individuals (turkle, 1995). on the other hand, the capabilities that make it easier to browse and filter our physical environment are also rendering invisible "the different others", even if they may be standing next to us (turkle, 2012; wilken, 2010; crawford, 2008). at the same time, the use of icts is subject to various types of digital divides and their design requires specialized knowledge, shifting the power balance in favour of the hosting companies-usually large corporations-and their programmers (mansell, 2012). but most importantly, these corporations freely acquire tremendous amounts of data that generate invaluable knowledge regarding human behaviour in ict-mediated communications, which is often used to achieve private, commercial objectives in ways that are not transparent to the rightful owners of this information (e.g. tufekci 2014). this means that the simple existence of icts is not sufficient to guarantee to citizens their rights to the hybrid city. it is the actual design of the evolving hybrid urban spaces, and the responsible use of generated digital information that will determine whether ict's promises for increased civic engagement, participation, and community building will be materialized. in the following research note we make an initial effort to formulate an updated version of the "right to the city" concept that takes into account the complex hybrid urban environments created through the contemporary uses of icts. we then propose a specific application concept that would facilitate information sharing between strangers in the city and analyze the unique characteristics of wireless technology that render the possibility of diy (do-it-yourself) networking a very attractive alternative for such local interactions. we posit that an appropriate combination of user-owned wireless networks and open source social software can make a difference in today's "globalized" internet by enabling citizens to develop their own local solutions, and claim their right to access, representation, participation and ownership in the hybrid city. the right(s) to the hybrid city the phrase "the right to the city", coined by henri lefebvre in 1968, is subject today to various definitions and interpretations, and according to christian schmid (2012), "often serves just as a kind of conceptional umbrella for all types of political and social demands that generally address the problems arising in urban areas today" (42). part of the confusion is due to the complexity of the "city" or urban concept itself, considering that in the last decades urban space has been the product of "planetary urbanization" processes (lefebvre, 2003; brenner & schmid, 2011); at the confluence between the "space of places" and the "space of flows" (castells, 2005); and manifesting in everyday life practices as an interplay between conceptual, material and lived space (lefebvre, 1991). within this complexity in the understandings of urban space we identify the following important individual rights that are part of the "right to the city" concept, and will help us draw useful analogies between physical and virtual spaces: the right to access the core resources of the city; the right to be represented, to be part of the collective identity; the right to participate in important decisions, such as urban policies and design; the right to ownership of the urban commons, which refers to commonly held property, and use, stewardship and management in common of the available and produced resources. this idea of a right to ownership of urban spaces, for instance, has been stressed by urban planning theorist john friedmann (1993, 139), who has stated that "a city can truly be called a city only when its streets belong to the people" (cited by schmid, 2012). how can this and our other fundamental rights be translated into more complex ones, such as the control of the urbanization process or the right to self-determination? to whom should these rights be granted, and under which political processes? these are challenging questions that are out of the scope of this paper (for a more in depth analysis about the "right to the city" concept, see lefebvre, 1996; friedmann, 1993; harvey, 2008; brenner et al., 2012). instead we choose to focus on analyzing our set of four specific rights applied to the hybrid-digital and physical-space in the city. a key objective at this early stage in our work is to highlight the fact that these different fundamental rights are also conveyed-explicitly or implicitly-to those participating at the overlaid virtual space of the hybrid city. today it is mostly large corporations like google, facebook and twitter that control the virtual social interactions at a global scale, but also at localities offering, among others, "geo-social" services2 that allow people to connect with friends and similar others while in physical proximity (see also farman, 2012). alas, to offer this service, these companies record over time the locations of all interested parties, and store them in servers located very far away from the actual place where these ict-mediated "contacts" occur. note that even if these online social networks have been positively connected with recent urban uprisings and political struggles for the "right to the city" (e.g. gezi park in istanbul), they are themselves highly privatized spaces. their owners have significant power over the design of important software details and the management of all collected data, ranging from multimedia content (e.g. photos and videos) to private information (e.g. location and profile) and patterns of activity (e.g. reactions to stimulation and time spent online). this complete lack of ownership and control of these platforms on the users' behalf poses significant threats related to privacy, surveillance, censorship, and manipulation, which should not be underestimated (e.g. tufekci, 2014; morozov, 2013). despite the increasing public awareness of the threats posed by the concentration of huge amounts of private information in the hands of a few corporations, the key questions remain open: what is a viable alternative in terms of hardware and software? and under which participatory processes and ownership structures can citizens appropriate the virtual space that overlays their physical environment? in other words, which are the "virtual" versions of participatory spatial design today and in the future? alternative technical solutions for the design of hybrid space do exist and can distribute differently the power between users, administrators, and owners of the platform; but they also have their own costs and limitations. for example, social engines, like ning which is a popular solution for building local online communities, offer many options for customization and allow internet users to build and manage their own online social networks either individually or in groups; but often subject to a yearly fee, especially for premium services, while all data generated are under the control of the hosting company. the options for participation in design are richer in the case of custom web sites either built from scratch or based on free and open source software like drupal. but this flexibility comes at a cost. the complexity of implementation, deployment, and maintenance increases, in addition to the different issues of trust that arise. for instance, global platforms are less prone to failures and thus are better at ensuring the reliability and security of shared information (within the system). moreover, there are still various intermediaries with significant power as gatekeepers, like the internet service and web hosting providers, the web designer, and the local administrator of the platform. finally, peer-to-peer (p2p) online social networks like diaspora aim to decrease the dependence on these intermediate actors, but they further increase the other associated costs, while their operation still depends on the public internet. so, although in terms of software these alternative solutions can provide support for citizens to claim their rights to the hybrid city, they suffer from an inherent difficulty in attracting the required critical mass of participants due to the aforementioned costs; especially when having to compete with global platforms that enjoy enormous financial support and can take advantage of the significant economies of scale. a key objective of this research note is to draw attention to the capabilities of wireless (wifi) technology to provide a complementary low-cost and local-only communication infrastructure, which can operate outside the public internet (see jungnickel, 2014; antoniadis et al., 2014). this diy networking option enables small organizations or even individuals to literally own the infrastructure that supports their hybrid space, and with it all generated digital information. in this circumstance the space for experimentation with different forms of common ownership and appropriation of the hybrid urban space opens significantly and allows the complete avoidance of the mediation of global corporations and other digital intermediaries. in this way the vision of supporting, and enhancing ownership as a "sense of belonging to a collective place, commitment to a collective issue, and willingness to share a private resource with the collective" (de lange and de waal, 2013) may be realized.3 moreover, in the case of local-only hybrid applications, participation in the virtual interactions requires actual physical presence, ensured without the disclosure of private information to third parties. we see this inherently limited accessibility to those in physical proximity as a desirable aspect of such technology that needs to be exploited by the corresponding software and urban interventions. the design goal is not to replace the existing global platforms, but rather to augment them when the envisioned communication is indeed local in nature. before elaborating more on the advantages of using wireless technology to communicate in local urban contexts outside the public internet, the section below will describe a local application that is practical and has both social and political implications, while illustrating a creative combination of wireless networks, open source social software and urban interaction design. the hybrid sidewalk the urban street and its sidewalks may be seen as an extension of the personal space of city residents, analogous to the role that the vast natural landscape plays for the countryman (sansot, 2004). in that sense, sidewalks are physical manifestations of a right to the city for its inhabitants, in terms of: a) providing access and possibilities for expression and representation, b) allowing to be present, to go about one's business freely in the midst of fellow citizens and to participate in social exchanges and activities, and nevertheless, c) granting ownership of the public space. the context we discuss here is the example of social exchanges at the sidewalk level. the mingling of passers-by is evanescent, and opened to new possibilities. as joseph (1984) notes, "in public spaces, the most important relationships are those that we don't have yet!" (130). the magical universe of the diverse and unexpected on the sidewalk creates through serendipity and spontaneous entertainment a temporary sense of community. hence, following a long tradition of scholars (e.g. simmel, 1903; lynch, 1960; jacobs 1961; goffman, 1967; sennett, 1977; de certeau, 1984; whyte, 1988; debord, 1996) celebrating the importance of informal interactions, and for that the special role of strolling and drifting in the city, one of the premises of our work is that the facilitation of information sharing between citizens in informal settings-without the intervention of mediating institutions-is of critical importance to fostering comprehensive understandings of the lived environment and toward the appropriation of urban space. therefore, the design and implementation of ict applications in the hybrid city ought to include the benefits of traditional sidewalks, which jane jacobs praised as places for essential informal interactions between strangers that can achieve a very delicate balance between privacy and public exposure. in her own words: "the sum of such casual, public contact at a local level most of it fortuitous, most of it associated with errands, all of it metered by the person concerned and not thrust upon him by anyone is a feeling for the public identity of people, a web of public respect and trust, and a resource in time of personal or neighborhood need. the absence of this trust is a disaster to a city street. its cultivation cannot be institutionalized. and above all, it implies no private commitments." (jacobs, 1961, 56, emphasis in original). if carefully designed, hybrid ict applications that enable spontaneous information sharing between strangers can offer new ways to support the role of the sidewalk in contemporary cities, for generating local knowledge and a sense of belonging. this knowledge can then inform the participation of individuals in more explicit processes, as in e-planning and online deliberation systems. currently in participatory processes, citizens are asked for either quantitative data, as in the crowd sourcing and citizen science paradigms, or for qualitative information, as in e-planning and online deliberation systems (see foth et al., 2012; horelli, 2013; decindio & schuler, 2012). but in addition to asking citizens explicitly to provide information from their personal perspective, it is of critical importance that citizens exchange information between them in informal settings, and in ways that can increase their environment awareness and help them build some sort of shared public identity (see apostol et al., 2013). as public locations and urban neighborhoods bring strangers together, they have the capability to stimulate various degrees of awareness of the other's presence, condition, behavior, and actions. in many cases those in physical proximity do not necessarily share the same interests and background, and so their interaction and information exchanges can expose them to diversity. yet exposure to diversity is controlled and limited by the broad range of privately owned spaces for public life, as well as by today's highly efficient and personalized online tools. the good news is that in the hybrid realm, the physical proximity offers opportunities for face-to-face encounters and common activities (that sometimes are stimulated, and extend the superficial or short-term online exchanges). but how do our four aforementioned rights to the hybrid city influence the successful deployment of a hybrid ict application to facilitate information sharing in the neighbourhood or in public spaces? and how can wireless technology play an important role in this direction? before answering these questions we explore the concrete examples of two real life applications, which can be seen as two extremes in terms of the rights they offer to their participants. they are the social street movement in italy and the redhook wifi initiative in brooklyn, ny. in september 2013, federico bastiani together with local journalists and residents of via fondazza, a street in the historic centre of bologna, started the social street movement. this movement's purpose is: "to promote socialization between neighbours in the same street in order to build relationships, to interchange needs, to share expertise and knowledge, to implement common interest projects, with common benefits from a closer social interaction. to reach this zero cost objective, without opening new sites or platforms, social street makes use of the creation of facebook closed groups." (citation from website4 ) arguably the perception of a "zero cost" by using the freely available and already popular facebook platform is somewhat an illusion, since there are important associated costs with this platform choice, many of them directly related to our four rights. first, participation through the social network requires access to the internet, agreement to its terms of service, and feeling comfortable to reveal to neighbours private information, available through one's facebook profile. therefore, the collective image produced in this localized bologna online environment would be at best incomplete, by excluding those that do not have a facebook account and/or internet access; and it would be influenced or even manipulated by the numerous small but important design details externally decided by facebook. notice also that these details are exactly the same for all the social streets in italy, and for all places in the world. they include, among many others, the presentation order of the various posts and the moderation rights of the administrator, the level of anonymity allowed, the permanence of the recorded information over time, and the user interface like wording, colours and menu items. finally, all the information generated-both textual and visual-is recorded and owned by facebook, and can be exploited for commercial or other purposes, raising serious threats related to privacy, surveillance, and censorship. it is easy to see, of course, the important benefits of relying on popular social networks, due to their high usability and already acquired critical mass of users. however, there is no reason why one should not make an effort to provide tools for citizens to build easily, and customize their local networks and applications when these are meant to support local interactions. for example, jonathan baldwin a few years ago, while being a master student at parsons the new school for design in new york city, led the creation of a small-scale community wireless network in the red hook neighbourhood in brooklyn, in collaboration with the open technology institute5 (baldwin, 2011). the network is still in operation. in addition to shared internet access, it facilitates local interactions for all residents and passers-by, requiring only access to a public or private computing device with a wifi card and a web browser. this can be achieved through the use of a captive portal or splash page hosted locally on the wireless network, a local web page visited by default by connected devices, when a web browser is launched. in airports, hotels, or coffee shops, such web pages welcome users before granting them access to the internet, sometimes requiring the creation of an account. but in this wireless scenario, the local captive portal will in addition host interactions between potentially anonymous users within physical proximity. in the brooklyn case, a participatory design process with local residents preceded the design of all supported applications such as chatting; inquiries regarding local bus schedules; a custom designed mapping application called tidepools-all of which are open source and thus subject to improvements. finally, the infrastructure and stored information remains under the control of the local red hook initiative (rhi), a brooklyn non-profit focused on creating social change through youth engagement (see: rhicenter.org). similarly to collective barn-raising projects or the more ubiquitous nowadays, community gardens, these common activities offer spaces for personal encounters and interactions in physical proximity. so, instead of relying on private ict platforms managed by commercial companies, there is the option to stimulate and empower citizens to use their creativity and become the "self-appointed public characters" (jacobs, 1961), who can set up a local freely accessible network and invite people in a local community to participate in an "information sharing game" (antoniadis & apostol, 2013). there are unlimited options for the design of such games that are more or less close to our sidewalk metaphor. the types of information to be shared and the exact framing would depend on the context, but could include simple demographics (spoken languages, occupation, or gender); general preferences or location-based ones (favourite places, commerce or artistic activities, books, films, and music); multimedia material (audio, pictures, videos); opinions and thoughts on interesting perhaps controversial questions, even sensitive personal information since the wireless medium allows for purely anonymous interactions. the main motivation for participation could be the outcome, the display of the shared information which could take the form of playful or even statistically interesting visualizations as in today's popular life-logging (or quantified self) applications-though extended to a group of strangers in physical proximity. at the very least, these visualizations will satisfy feelings of curiosity about one's surroundings and could also form a basis for more advanced interactions and the creation of a temporary community (see antoniadis et al, 2014). in addition to getting to know one's neighbours, we envision applications of the sort being particularly attractive in ephemeral situations where people co-exist with random strangers while passive or waiting, and/or when there is limited internet connectivity. examples of such situations are a long train or bus journey; a delayed or cancelled flight at the airport, time spent in ad-hoc gatherings on a beach, at a camping site or during public happenings like a cultural event at a public square; an intermission at a concert or a football match (see antoniadis, ott, & passarella, 2014, 135-139). although the creation and maintenance of this type of local network currently requires a high level of expertise, there are on-going efforts by various free and open source software (foss) communities to make the deployment of such networks easier for non-savvy users using off-the-shelf hardware such as a rasberry pi (piratebox.cc 6) or a portable wireless router like the tp-link tl-mr3020 (occupyhere.org), which can cover confined public spaces like a square, a small park, or a train wagon. for larger areas, like the red hook neighbourhood, there are also efforts such as commotion.net or libre-mesh.org, which promise to make it easier for communities to build their own wireless mesh networks without relying on the expertise of motivated pioneers and tech-savvy members (see jungnikel, 2014; gaved & mullholand, 2008). one of the objectives of our own nethood.org project is to extend these solutions to become more general and less politically charged, innovation platforms-a toolkit-, which will include a wide variety of hardware and software options to be customized according to the specific context (see antoniadis & apostol, 2013). as a first step, in this note we argue why such an objective is important. for this, we analyze below some special characteristics of wireless technology that can play a key role in designing hybrid sidewalks that grant to citizens their "right to the hybrid city" and compete with similar internet-based applications in terms of user experiences. do-it-yourself networking (thinking outside the internet) wireless technology allows for the creation of low-cost communication networks, often called wireless mesh networks or community wireless networks. depending on the number of their nodes they can cover geographic areas of various sizes, ranging from a small public square or a small urban neighbourhood (gaved & mullholand, 2008; baldwin, 2011); to a small town like leiden in the netherlands (van oost et al, 2009); or large city-regions such as barcelona (guifi.net), berlin (freifunk.net) and athens (awmn.net). most of the existing operational wireless community networks are built by groups of tech savvy users, and outsiders see them mainly as gateways to free internet access (powell, 2011; forlano, 2008; sandivig 2004). however, one of the most important qualities of these wifi networks is that they can offer options for communication outside the public internet as highlighted by antoniadis et al. (2008). there are community wireless networks today that prioritize the importance of local communications as the redhook wifi example (discussed above); or the air-stream wireless community in south australia. as stressed by the ethnographer kat jungnickel (2014), one of its "unique features is that it is not built for the purpose of sharing the internet. while many community wireless groups around the world use wifi to provide free or low-cost access to the internet, air-stream are essentially making their own version of the internet, hence the description, 'ournet, not the internet'". (26, emphasis in original). but even in such cases the core communities of highly motivated and tech savvy members hardly succeed to open up their local services beyond their close social circles (ibid, 51-2). indeed, to build communities of proximity over local wireless mesh networks, one needs to build applications of high quality that are both highly attractive and usable, but also easy to adjust to the specific local context (i.e. what facebook and twitter are not able to do given the nature of their construction). the redhook wifi initiative illustrates that this is an attainable objective, yet there is still a lot of room for improvement especially in the areas of usability and customization. part of our research work aims to address the various technical, social, and scientific challenges, which currently hinder the creation of attractive 'plug and play' solutions in localized contexts. to achieve these objectives one needs to understand in depth the unique characteristics offered by local wireless networks in contrast with the public internet. for example, the following are four such technical, and thus objective, characteristics of a local-only community wireless network that can be exploited by local social applications which give them a competitive advantage over internet-based solutions: de facto physical proximity. all potential members of a local wireless network are those that can see its network name, the service set identifier (ssid), in their list of accessible wifi networks and are in de facto physical proximity. there is no need to disclose their physical location to a remote server (e.g., through gps) or provide other proofs of proximity before using the system as in the case of rather privacy intrusive services like nextdoor, which "requires new members to prove that they actually live at their claimed residences, either by allowing a one-cent transaction to be processed on a credit card tied to the address, by having an existing neighborhood member vouch for their identity, or by other means." (stross, 2012). inclusiveness. local wireless networks are cheap to build, and they can be owned and maintained by local authorities, organizations, even individuals. they can provide free access to all, including visitors and tourists who might lack affordable access to the internet. moreover, local wifi nets do not require the installation of any application beforehand or typing a web address on one's browser, thanks to the captive portal approach described above, and the fact that the ssid of the local wireless network is included by default in the list of all available ssids shown in one's device. this makes it very easy to join. privacy and independence. all communications that take place in a local wireless network stay in principle local. the only way for an external entity to have direct access is either by placing on site physical devices connected to a surveillance infrastructure, which is very costly at large scale and difficult to remain unnoticed for long. information leakages through individual devices, either intentionally by malicious users or unintentionally through software and hardware backdoors, are nevertheless possible and can never be deterministically excluded. but depending on the level of perceived risk, local communities can take precautions by engaging only in anonymous interactions, deleting often the information stored, etc. in addition to the significant psychological benefits, such as feelings of independence and playfulness, this characteristic has become more and more important after the public awareness of the nsa surveillance programs, uncovered by edward snowden, and of the aggressive online profiling policies, more and more discussed in the popular press (e.g. clemons, 2013). unlike internet-based platforms, access to an "offline" wireless network entails privacy threats that can be limited by design, and which are by nature context-specific and localized, providing a space of intimacy and relative freedom for its members. hybrid design. being tangible infrastructure themselves, wireless networks can be naturally embedded in other artefacts and urban interventions, such as a public display, a coloured bench, a phone booth, or even a mobile kiosk, and they can create naturally hybrid spaces that encourage ephemeral participation and playful engagement (see antoniadis et al, 2014). this enables the inclusion of non-users, as in the case of the hybrid letterbox designed by the berlin design research lab (unteidig et al., 2014). moreover, public wifi nets can be subject to various failures, intentional or not, and thus promote by design the need for more face-to-face rather than virtual interactions (e.g., the administrator of a local wireless access point can easily unplug it during an organized face-to-face gathering). these technical characteristics of wireless networks influence directly the options available for granting citizens their rights to access and ownership of the virtual space that overlays their cities, but they also provide the appropriate environment for promoting the other two "qualitative" rights-those of representation and participation. for example, the quantity and quality of information exchanges, and the resulting representation of a collective identity, can significantly benefit from the feelings of intimacy and independence that local wireless networks offer, and from the possibility to communicate anonymously. moreover, since by construction local wireless networks are meant to be installed, customized, and maintained by local actors, they offer unlimited capabilities for participatory design processes, which are subject to the flexibility offered by the software, the technical competence of the programmers, and the motivation of the local administrators and/or local authorities (see also horelli, 2013; saad-sulonen & botero, 2010). the many challenges that this shift of power to local actors generates (e.g., trust issues, addressing network failures, etc.) can also be seen as opportunities for community building and social learning. in this sense, community-based wireless technology may be considered a first step in the democratization of the local "institutional" platform through specific forms of representation as well as through direct participation in collective actions. discussion virtual layers of interactions that are anchored at a specific location create a complex rhizome-like public space. in this space, moments of individual isolation and social exchanges overlap in a variety of ways, within a process of spatial appropriation. this makes it impossible to draw clear boundaries between the private and the public, if considered in terms of spatial use. within a paradigm of more flexible boundaries between the public and the private, in this research note we have introduced the following three ideas that capture the dynamic transformation of urban space: the "right to the city" concept needs to be extended for the case of hybrid urban space in the digital age, where the special characteristics of wireless technology adds an interesting dimension. the hybrid sidewalk serves as a metaphor, and a target scenario for developing and offering to the general public technologies that can help address urban isolation and alienation without sacrificing privacy and independence. wireless technology can play a critical role in building locally owned and participatory designed city networks that operate outside the public internet, which can fulfil some important requirements of a hybrid sidewalk application. stemming from these three concepts the most challenging question to address in the future is the extent to which one can imagine tangible possibilities, urban interaction design fictions (smyth & helgason, 2013), and structure the available design options at different levels so that the individual efforts by local authorities, organizations, and individuals can generate shared knowledge and improve the usability and customization options of the corresponding tools. for this, the question of interdisciplinarity in the design of the hybrid urban environment becomes urgent. social scientists need to become more aware of the capabilities of technology and they have to get involved in the design processes, while engineers need to get in touch with legitimate local social issues and their inherent complexity going beyond simple optimization techniques and data analysis (see antoniadis, ott, & passarella, 2014). moreover, the size and complexity of the design space calls for a bottom-up design process consistent with the ideas developed in social learning (friedmann, 1987); participatory design (schuler & namioka, 1993); and action research (hearn et al., 2008) methodologies. at the same time, the development of a "hybrid" pattern language, which could combine the original ideas of christopher alexander (1979) with more recent approaches, ranging from high-level meta concepts (schuler, 2008) to micro design details in software (crumlish & malone, 2009), might enhance the building of a new common language that will not only facilitate communications between researchers from different disciplines and practitioners, but also empower citizen-activists. what is missing in our vision is not new ideas for applications, interfaces and artefacts, but an innovation platform, a toolkit, that will enable citizens to unleash their creativity and local knowledge toward building novel hybrid spaces serving their own values and objectives. the research community can contribute significantly by drawing attention and providing credibility to the existing efforts of the foss communities around the world-and by sharing knowledge and expertise as well as investing more in usability and integration rather than in scientific novelty and differentiation. if successful, the widespread use of a common toolkit, as the one we aim to build in the context of the nethood.org project, will make conceivable the creation of an open data repository, a massive collection of optionally shared, privacy preserving, and localized, "small" instead of "big" data. this in turn can generate significant scientific knowledge on ict-mediated human behaviour that is currently privately retained by companies, such as facebook and google. we see this note as part of a wider effort to join forces in building a common language of interdisciplinary studies around the design of diy hybrid urban space, and to create a global network of researchers and practitioners who do not see technology as an end, but rather as a means to provide citizens with rights to the hybrid city. acknowledgements this work was partially supported by the eins network of excellence in internet science, fp7 grant 288021. endnotes 1 http://superflux.in/work/yellowchair-stories 2the latest survey by the pew research center's internet project provides interesting statistics on the use of location-based services, including the so-called "geosocial services", in the us in the period 2011-2013: http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/09/12/location-based-services/ 3 note that de waal & de lange's definition of the concept of ownership is inspired by henri lefebvre's distinction between the right to appropriation and the right to property (lefebvre, 1996). in our work, we would like to build on this interpretation of ownership, and understand the theoretical and practical implications of the fact that a local wireless network, and the digital information hosted on it, can be actually owned by small organizations, groups, even individuals. in other words, the "right to property" in the virtual space, can be less difficult to grant, if compared to the case of contested physical space. however, out of the practically unlimited parallel virtual spaces that could overlay a specific location, only a few will be really "inhabited" in practice: those that will manage to attract the most attention and a critical mass of local users. then big corporations will always have a competitive advantage in terms of available resources and expertise, at least in places where internet is easily accessible. but wireless technology provides the option for grassroots initiatives to peacefully propose their alternative, potentially more inclusive, (hybrid) designs drawing on local knowledge and their social, instead of commercial, objectives. 4 see: http://www.socialstreet.it/international/info-english/ 5 see: http://oti.newamerica.net/blogposts/2013/case_study_red_hook_initiative_wifi_tidepools-78575 6 see: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/01/piratebox-an-artistic-provocation-in-lunchbox-form/ references alexander, c. 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(2010). a community of strangers? mobile media, art, tactility and urban encounters with the other. mobilities, 5(4), 449-478. 1304-7869-2-ce the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles local economic impacts of investments in community technology centers: an empirical investigation although community technology centers (ctcs) provide a host of services that may have economic consequences, few studies have attempted to empirically assess the impact of ctcs on local communities. controlling for broadband availability and demographics, this study found that there is a small but positive and significant impact of ctc quality on median household income, at the county level. in addition to bridging the digital divide for disadvantaged populations, our research shows that there are also quantifiable economic benefits from ctc investments. introduction community technology centers (ctcs) have a long pedigree, both in the united states and abroad. historically, the motivation behind ctcs was to extend information and communication technology (ict) access and training services to communities and individuals deprived of them because of low socioeconomic status or lack of digital literacy. beginning in the 1990s, ctcs, also called public computing centers (pccs) and telecenters, have been established in practically all countries around the world, especially in rural areas, congested urban centers, and remote and far-flung territories (ariyabandu, 2009). a 25-country survey in 2009 found that more than 248,000 !137 krishna jayakar penn state university, usa kpj1@psu.edu jenna grzeslo penn state university, usa corresponding author. jmg614@psu.edu jayakar, k., grzeslo, j. (2017). local economic impacts of investments in community technology centers: an empirical investigation. the journal of community informatics, 13(1), 137—151. date submitted: 2016-02-09. date accepted: 2017-02-27. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1304 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1304 mailto:kpj1@psu.edu mailto:jmg614@psu.edu http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1304 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 libraries, telecenters, cybercafés and other establishments provided some form of internet access to the public (gomez, ambikar & coward, 2011). despite this two-decade-long experience with ctcs, efforts to assess the impacts of ctcs on local communities are relatively infrequent. o’neil (2002) identified five areas within which ctcs may be assessed: strengthening democracy, building social capital, empowering individuals, creating a sense of community, and economic development opportunities. however, few studies have attempted to empirically assess these impacts. a comprehensive literature review several years ago found that empirical assessments of public access centers focused primarily on “venue performance and sustainability, users, usage patterns and downstream impacts” (p. 1) with downstream impacts receiving the least attention (sey & fellows, 2009). a review of the more recent literature reveals little change in the situation. of the few articles examining downstream impacts, jayakar and park (2012) and park and jayakar (2013) examined the patterns of federal funding for pccs, to ascertain whether funds were allocated efficiently to the locations with greatest expected demand. gomez and camacho (2013) examined the demographic profile of ctc users and found that public access venues narrow the digital divides across age, education, gender and income barriers. jaeger and fleischmann (2013) found that internet access through ctcs contributed to better public awareness of government programs. but none of these recent studies have examined the broader economic impacts of ctcs. and yet, the literature on icts and development has shown quite convincingly that ctcs may be expected to have local economic impacts. the literature has shown that icts in general contribute to economic growth by substituting for other production inputs and reducing transaction costs. in addition to providing access to icts and broadband to the public, ctcs provide a host of services that might have economic consequences: digital literacy training, small business services, job training, etc. these services may cumulatively be expected to have effects on local economic growth, through encouraging small business entrepreneurship, lowering unemployment and enhancing local labor skills. identifying the magnitude of these economic consequences, if any, is critical to ensuring continuing public support to ctcs. in this context, this paper seeks to analyze the local economic impact of investments in ctcs. however, a challenge in research of this nature is the availability of data, since no centralized database of ctc investments exists—ctcs are run by a wide variety of entities including municipalities and city governments, charitable foundations, industry and trade groups, and public libraries. to solve this problem, we use data on a subset of ctcs, namely computing centers attached to public libraries, which is available from the institute of museum and library services (imls). this database is combined with broadband availability data from the national broadband map, and the latest available installment of the annual county business patterns survey from the u.s. bureau of the census. as described in the methodology section, we seek to examine whether public access to the internet through ctcs was significantly correlated to household incomes at the county level, after controlling for other explanatory factors. this line of investigation addresses whether investments in ctcs may be advocated only on !138 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 considerations of equity and social justice, or whether there is an economic rationale that can justify such investments. the paper is organized as follows. in the next section, we first define “community technology centers” to differentiate them from other initiatives that also seek to improve public access to technology. we also examine the types of funding available for ctcs, and the types of services offered by these centers. the next section examines the literature on ctcs and economic development. as pointed out previously, there have been relatively few empirical studies that have specifically examined ctcs and economic development. to guide our research, we therefore consult the broader literature on the economic impacts of icts. our methodology and data sources are discussed in the section that follows. we then present the results of our analysis, and then proceed to discussion and conclusions. defining ctcs very broadly, efforts to bridge the digital divide have taken two forms: promoting residential access, and creating publicly-accessible community resources. among the latter are efforts to create internet infrastructures such as municipal broadband and wi-fi systems. ctcs adopt a different approach to bridging the digital divide, by creating a public location where computers, icts and broadband connections are made available. however, many institutions may provide the same function. the first step therefore is to define ctcs in order to specifically differentiate ctcs from other centers that provide similar services and to identify the subject matter of the paper. the goal of ctcs is to bridge the digital divide by increasing not only access to icts but also the skills necessary to effectively use icts (kaiser, 2005). the united states department of education (2005) states, community technology centers provide computer access and educational services using information technology. in general, people who visit ctcs do not own computers, and many do not have access to computers at work or school. ctcs make computers, the internet, and various software packages available (online). the difference between ctcs and other types of technology centers is unclear. the national telecommunications and information administration (ntia) defines pccs as, “projects to establish new public computer facilities or upgrade existing ones that provide broadband access to the general public or to specific vulnerable populations, such as low-income individuals, the unemployed, seniors, children, minorities, and people with disabilities” (ntia, 2010, online). moreover, a public computing center is: a place, including but not limited to community colleges, libraries, schools, youth centers, employment service centers, native american chapter houses, community centers, senior centers, assistive technology centers for people with disabilities, community health centers, and neighborhood network centers in public housing developments, that provide broadband access to the general !139 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 public or a specific vulnerable population, such as low-income, unemployed, aged, children, minorities, and people with disabilities (department of commerce, 2009, p. 33109). though not explicitly stated in these definitions, a critical aspect of ctcs and pccs is that no fees or other charges are attached to accessing their facilities. however, not all technology centers have the same policy. haseloff (2005:54) defined cybercafés as “forprofit facilities, open to the general public to access the internet, other network facilities and/or a variety of information technology tools on a temporary contract basis (pay per use) without the necessity for the users to own hardware or software themselves.” in contrast to ctcs and pccs that are free to the public to use, cybercafés require a payment for services; they thus provide broadband and ict access to individuals who may not be able to afford residential access, but are nevertheless affluent enough to pay cybercafé fees. the choice of business model highlights another critical difference between ctcs/ pccs and cybercafés. whereas cybercafés are for-profit businesses, ctcs and pccs are typically not. funding for ctcs can come from a variety of sources including municipalities and city governments, charitable foundations, industry and trade groups, public libraries and grants. larose et al. (2014) reported that 5% of funding (around $190 million) from the federal broadband technology opportunities program was allocated for pccs. various conditions might be attached to these public subsidies: for example, grant-funded ctcs must provide services in disadvantaged areas (u.s. department of education, 2004). ctcs and pccs may also offer a broader array of services than cybercafés. the most basic service offered by ctcs is creating a physical space for individuals to access the internet (mandal, bishop, mcclure, bertot, & jaeger, 2010). the u.s. department of education (2004) lists five categories in which ctcs should offer services: adult education, afterschool activities, career development, small business activities, and activities that help individuals secure technology for their homes. digital literacy education is also a key service offered by ctcs but likely overlaps with other types of services. the goal of adult education is increasing literacy among adults. afterschool activities include, but are not limited to youth support programs (mandal et al., 2010, p. 282). in assessing five ctcs in the united states, london, pastor, servon, rosner and wallace (2010) suggest that ctcs can increase social capital through youth development. in summary, the elements common to the definitions for pccs and ctcs are the following: (1) they are commonly, but not always, affiliated with or operated by a community institution such as library, community center, or school; (2) they provide access to not only broadband or other telecommunications connectivity but also devices such as computers, tablets or laptops and the associated software (and in this sense, they may be differentiated from other digital divide initiatives such as municipal wi-fi networks, that only provide broadband access); (3) they provide a variety of programs, such as literacy, computer training, and other educational services based on icts and broadband; (4) they, quite usually, target a specific underserved population, such as low !140 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 income people, children, or persons with disabilities; and (5) they usually make their services available for free to their communities, and therefore require subsidies from the local or federal government, charitable foundations, or industry groups. in the rest of this paper, our references to ctcs should be understood in light of the above description: community institutions providing access to broadband, devices, software, and a variety of training programs, to a target population of underserved individuals, for free. our analysis and conclusions do not refer to other types of community informatics programs, such as for-profit businesses, community broadband initiatives or municipal wi-fi networks. ctcs and economic development as stated previously, ctcs provide a variety of services to their clients including adult education, afterschool activities, career development, small business activities, and digital literacy programs designed to encourage broadband access (u.s. department of education, 2004). in addition, ctcs enable individuals to avail of online job search and career building services, and small businesses to access information about government loan programs and taxes. a report of activities at 6 ctcs documented the following effects: they facilitated family and community involvement in public schools; increased the participants’ self-efficacy with computers; prepared people for the workforce; increased the time that school-age children spent reading, writing, and solving mathematics problems through after-school programs and provided activities for youth as alternatives to the traditional school learning environment (penuel, michalchik, kim, & shear, 2001). many of these programs and services may be undoubtedly expected to have economic effects, through the creation of a more qualified and skilled workforce, and the facilitation of small business start-ups and local entrepreneurship. the broader literature on the economic consequences of broadband and ict deployment make clear that such effects are reasonable to expect. the relationship between telecommunications and economic growth has been long recognized in the economics literature, ever since jipp’s (1963) pioneering work found a positive correlation between telephone density in a country and per capita gross domestic product (gdp). by substituting for other production inputs and reducing transaction costs, telecommunications contributes to economic growth. growth in turn makes more investment capital available for telecommunications development and also contributes to demand by increasing household income. the effect of broadband on economic growth has been explored in the more recent literature; to cite only a few, crandall, lehr and litan (2007), czernich, falck, kretschmer and woessman (2011), kolko (2010), and whitacre, gallardo, and strover (2014). this literature has found that the effect of broadband on economic growth is mediated by a number of factors, the first of which is productivity. improvements in productivity generally enable a firm to increase output from the same set of inputs, or produce the same output while reducing capital and labor inputs (fornefeld, delaunay, & elixmann, 2008). others have found that productivity in different industrial sectors responded !141 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 differently to broadband deployment, with contrasting impacts on labor needs and wages, and thus on household and personal incomes (crandall et al., 2007; shideler, badasyan & taylor, 2007). in addition to the factors identified above, digital divide scholars have recently identified users’ cognitive skills as a critical input into their utilization of broadband networks (bach, shaffer, wolfson, 2013; kent & mcclure, 2009; van dijk, 2012). specifically, users’ digital literacy, defined as “the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers” (gilster, 1997, p. 1), has been found to impact the types of services access by users, as well as the amount of their utilization. digital literacy is now recognized as a multi-dimensional concept involving several cognitive skills: interacting with computers and ict equipment confidently; retrieving and evaluating online information; using broadband networks for communication and collaboration; creating and disseminating online content, etc. (jayakar, 2012). similarly, van dijk (2012) identifies a number of medium related and content-related skills required to effectively utilize broadband: operational skills (how to operate devices); formal skills (browsing and navigating); information skills (retrieving and evaluating information); communication skills (connecting with other users and providing opinions); contentcreation skills (originating new content); and strategic skills (achieving professional and personal goals). user populations with these skills are more likely to be able to utilize broadband technologies more effectively, and therefore, will likely see greater economic impacts from broadband access and use. in other words, broadband access alone will be insufficient to account for its economic effects, unless we also account for users’ ability to utilize the network. but in the absence of sufficient data on digital literacy for our statistical analysis, the education level of the user population is taken as a reasonable proxy. prior research has found education levels, specifically the percentage of college and high school graduates in the workforce, as an influence on broadband impacts (atasoy, 2013). in summary, increased ict and broadband availability may have diverse effects on economic growth and incomes in different markets. also, these effects are mediated by the skill levels of the workforce, the demographics of the local population including the availability of labor. to assess the impact of services provided through ctcs on household income, we need to control for these factors including broadband availability. methodology the goal of this study is to determine if there are economic effects of the services provided by ctcs at the community level. as discussed above, the services provided by ctcs include broadband and other telecommunications connectivity; access to devices such as computers, tablets or laptops and the associated software; programs such as digital literacy training, small business services, and other educational services based on icts and broadband. the quality of these services is therefore of great importance in assessing the impact of ctcs on their local communities. however, no comprehensive data exists on the economically-relevant programs and services offered through ctcs. following jayakar and park (2012), we utilized data from the institute of museum and !142 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 library services’ (imls) database of public libraries to assess the quality of ctcs attached to them. specifically, we used the following as proxies for ctc quality: the number of internet accessible computers available to the public, the number of programs and service offerings; the number of databases available in the library’s electronic reserves, and the number of hours for which the library is open. the ctc data are aggregated to the county level, following jayakar and park (2012), cronin, parker, colleran, and gold (1993), shuai (2010) and others. as a study of u.s. commuting patterns has demonstrated, the county as unit of analysis is small enough to capture local variations but large enough to constitute a reasonable labor market (goetz, han, findeis, & brasier, 2010). accordingly, data for all ctcs located in a county and attached to a public library are aggregated to the county level, and are used in the analysis indexed to population (see variable definitions in table 1). table 1: predictor and criterion variables the dependent variable for the analysis was the county’s median household income for the latest available year, namely 2013, collected from the u.s. bureau of the census. as a control against which to measure the influence of our main variable of interest (ctc services), we also collected the county median household income in 2012. using prioryear household income as a control ensures that location-specific variables (regional and structural differences) that remain invariant year over year will be represented in the model, and only effects above and beyond these will be attributed to the other ivs included in the model. as another control, we used general broadband availability in the community since the literature has hypothesized that broadband and icts have an impact on economic growth (crandall et al,, 2007; czernich et al., 2011; kolko, 2010; whitacre et al., 2014). data on broadband is available from the federal variable name definition income2013 median household income (us bureau of the census, 2013) income2012 median household income (us bureau of the census, 2012) broadband percentage of county population with access to broadband (fcc, 2012) hschool percentage of county population with a high school education (us bureau of the census, 2012) minority percentage of county population minority (us bureau of the census, 2012) workingpop percentage of county population between the ages of 22-59 (us bureau of the census, 2012) gpterms number of internet accessible computers, indexed by county population (imls, 2012) database number of electronic databases available, indexed by county population (imls, 2012) hours total number of hours open, indexed by county population (imls, 2012) !143 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 communications commission’s national broadband map (nbm). the nbm provides the percentage of households in each county having access to a broadband connection with at least 3 mbps in download and 768 kbps upload speed. to avoid reverse causality with our dependent variable (since increasing household income can affect broadband availability in markets as well) we used nbm data for 2012, retrieved for a previous study by one of the authors. we also used the percentage of adults in the county with at least a high school education as a control, since atasoy (2013) and others have indicated the importance of education in economic growth. the percentage minority population and a measure of labor supply (the percentage of county population between the ages of 22-59) are used as other controls. the data definitions and sources for all our variables are provided in table 1. we specify the relationship between the variables as follows: ! analysis prior to regression analysis, descriptive statistics (table 2) and correlations (table 3) were calculated for all the variables in the study. the number of observations corresponds to all counties in the united states, in all 50 states. relatively high correlations were noted between the ctc quality variables, gpterms, database and hours. to avoid multicollinearity, these variables are not included in the same regression models. table 2: descriptive statistics logh h in c o m et =  α + β1logh h in c o m et−1 +   ∑ βj xj + e variables obs. mean std. dev. income2013 3063 46194.37 11621.90 income2012 3103 46664.66 12523.76 broadband 3141 .897 .170 hschool 3124 .773 .089 minority 3124 .161 .185 workingpop 3124 .507 .052 gpterms 2714 .002 .002 database 2719 .006 .009 hours 2720 .329 .333 !144 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 3: correlations **p < . 01. *p < .05. multiple specifications of the basic model were run with the natural logarithm of household income in 2013 as the dependent variable, including in each model all the demographic variables and one of the ctc quality variables as predictors. alternative models with and without broadband availability were run for each ctc quality variable. the results are reported in table 4. in general, the models displayed stable coefficients under various specifications, and in most cases the coefficients were significant in the expected direction. model statistics, including the r2 and the f-statistic, suggest that the models have considerable explanatory power. given the persistence of household incomes from year to year, the coefficient on logincome2012 was strongly positive and significant. broadband had a significant positive impact on household income in all three models in which it was included. this too is expected from theory, since the literature show that that broadband availability will enhance economic activity and contribute positively to employment, wages and income. the demographic variables too had significant coefficients in the expected directions. whereas better-educated communities, that is those with a higher percentage of adults with at least a high school education (hschool), had higher household incomes, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1.income2013 __ 2.income2012 .918** __ 3.broadband .228** .238** __ 4.hschool .606** .584** .180** __ 5.minority -. 146** -.048** -.015 -. 404** __ 6.workingpo p -.21** .136** .221** -.037* .214** __ 7.gpterms -. 057** -.101** -. 241** .037 -.076** -. 303** __ 8.database -. 057** -.146** -. 264** .069** -.149** -. 459** .452** __ 9.hours -. 081** -.161** -. 335** .085** -.189** -. 481** .726** .626** !145 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 communities with higher percentages of minorities (minority) had lower incomes, other factors being constant. finally, labor supply as predicted by economic theory, tended to depress median household incomes. communities with a higher percentage of people in the 22-59 working age brackets (workingpop), had lower household incomes. we now turn to our main research question, namely the impact of ctc services on economic growth, specifically household income. all three proxies used for the quality of ctc services had consistently positive and significant, though small coefficients. given the magnitude of the coefficients, the impact of ctcs on economic growth is small. we can quantify this impact as follows: from table 2, the average number of general purpose computer terminals (gpterms) available in public libraries is 0.002, or 2 per 1000 of county population. doubling this number to 4 per 1000 of population will increase the county median household income by 0.0015%. a rough calculation suggests that this translates into an economic value of approximately $26,000 on average annually in each county. though additional costs will be incurred in installing and maintaining ctc facilities and services, it is evident from this analysis that a substantial part of those investments may be recoverable in the form of fostering economic growth and higher incomes in the community. table 4: regression analyses model 1 model 2 model 3 model 4 model 5 model 6 constant 2.060 2.095 1.818 1.849 1.893 1.907 [.094]*** [.094]*** [.095]*** [.095]*** [.097]*** [.097]*** 22.024 22.288 19.120 19.452 19.423 19.626 logincome2012 .809 .805 .832 .827 .820 .816 [.010]*** [.010]*** [.010]*** [.010]*** [.010]*** [.010]*** 78.768 77.875 81.455 80.667 79.428 79.013 broadband .039 .052 .055 [.012]*** [.012]*** [.012]*** 3.223 4.297 4.514 hschool .173 .166 .160 .151 .163 .151 [.030]*** [.030]*** [.029]*** [.029]*** [.030]*** [.030]*** 5.794 5.549 5.468 5.194 5.514 5.118 minority -.091 -.092 -.071 -.070 -.079 -.078 [.012]*** [.012]*** [.012]*** [.011]*** [.012]*** [.012]*** -7.801 -7.868 -6.194 -6.128 -6.807 -6.699 workingpop -.188 -.204 -.085 -.103 -.123 -.135 [.038]*** [.039]*** [.039]* [.039]** [.040]** [.040]*** !146 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 *** p < .001 ** p < .01 * p < .05 conclusions though ctcs provide a host of services that might have economic consequences, such as digital literacy training, small business services, job training, etc., few attempts have been made to empirically assess the downstream economic impacts of investments in ctcs. this paper was an attempt to assess the impact of ctcs on one measure of local economic growth, namely median household incomes. using the county as the unit of analysis, we estimated the impact of several markers of ctc quality such as the number of general purpose computer terminals available in public libraries and the number of publicly accessible electronic databases, on median household incomes. we controlled for other factors such as broadband availability, demographics and education in assessing this impact. our results show that there is a small, but consistent, positive and significant impact of ctc quality on median household incomes. in addition to bridging the digital divide for disadvantaged populations, our research shows that there are also quantifiable economic benefits from ctc investments. this finding strengthens the case for continuing support for ctcs and pccs that provide vital community resources. however, there are several limitations and drawbacks to this study that may be remedied in future research. first, non-availability of data limited our analysis to only those ctcs attached to public libraries for which data were available from the imls. in addition, ctcs are often operated by a number of other entities such as municipal -4.908 -5.290 -2.184 -2.641 -3.117 -3.417 gpterms .007 .008 [.003]** [.003]** 2.576 3.130 database .015 .016 [.001]*** [.001]*** 10.274 10.924 hours .015 .018 [.003]*** [.003]*** 5.864 6.905 n 2629 2629 2597 2597 2637 2637 prob>f ***.000 ***.000 ***.000 ***.000 ***.000 ***.000 r2 .828 .829 .836 .837 .831 .832 adj. r2 .828 .829 .836 .837 .831 .832 !147 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 governments, charitable foundations, school districts etc. since a national database on these institutions is not available, we did not include these in our analysis. in effect, the impact of ctcs may be overestimated in this analysis since we are undercounting the ctc resources available to communities. second, we lacked data on the actual economically-relevant activities performed by ctcs, such as the number of digital literacy or small business classes conducted by them, and the number of persons who participated in these activities. in the absence of this data, we used proxies for ctc quality such as the number of general purpose computer terminals and database availability that only imperfectly capture the quantity and quality of economically-relevant activities conducted by ctcs. better data in the form of a survey of ctcs might help address this concern. third, median household income, while a proxy for economic growth, is not sufficient to capture all economic activity at the community level. for one, household income also includes non-wage incomes such as pensions and investment returns, rents and royalties, etc. changes in income sources may not be attributable to local economic conditions. future research may base its analysis on better measures of local economic performance. fourth, the present study has taken an econometric approach to studying the impact of ctcs on community economic development. while the data and subsequent analysis suggest a positive relationship between ctcs and household income, the present study does not fully account for the cognitive aspects of usage, and the consequent economic impacts of broadband. the digital literacy literature shows that differences in cognitive skills are critical elements of the digital divide, and therefore of the economic impacts of broadband. however, there is insufficient data to include digital literacy as a predictor variable in a large-sample statistical analysis. therefore, we propose that education levels might be a reasonable proxy for cognitive skills. while we believe that this is a reasonable proxy, it is not a perfect one, and future research may investigate the relationship between the capacity of user populations to utilize broadband and the impacts on economic growth. finally, there may be regional and structural differences between our units of analysis that are not fully represented in the models. we have attempted to account for these time-invariant, location-specific factors by including prior-year median household income as a control. but not all relevant variables are time-invariant, and future research may explore more fully the structural economic characteristics and regional differences between counties. despite these limitations, the results in this paper suggest that considerations of not just equity and social justice but also those of economics justify continuing support for ctcs and other community institutions. the literature has plenty of case examples of individuals and communities that have benefited from the small business services and employment training services offered by ctcs. our research complements this literature by empirically 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(2005). frequently asked questions. retrieved from http:// www2.ed.gov/programs/comtechcenters/faq.html van dijk, j. a. g. m. (2012). the evolution of the digital divide the digital divide turns to inequality of skills and usage. in j. bus, m. crompton, m. hildebrandt, & g. metakides (eds.), digital enlightenment yearbook (pp. 57-78). amsterdam, netherland: ios press. whitacre, b., gallardo, r., & strover, s. (2014). does rural broadband impact jobs and income? evidence from spatial and first-differenced regressions. the annals of regional science, 53(3), 649-670. !151 http://www2.ed.gov/programs/comtechcenters/faq.html http://www2.ed.gov/programs/comtechcenters/faq.html margolies ready pdf the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles “may they reminisce over you”: toward community-based archival storytelling memory workers, inside and outside of archives, increasingly seek to confront the ongoing legacies of oppression and colonialism within the institutions in which they work--to question and reframe whose stories are best told and from what perspective users are encouraged to approach them. this paper proposes community-based archival storytelling as a framework building on community-based research methods and emerging theory concerned with archival storytelling. community-based archival storytelling, through shifting approaches to description and access, seeks to transform the dominance of provenance and the boundaries of engagement with communities connected to archival holdings. the paper situates the intervention within critiques of library and information studies (lis) practices and argues for a conception of ritual/rupture.for a case study, this article explores the author’s design of a proposed community research project of a collection at la mama archives. it argues for transforming the process of digitizing cultural heritage into an opportunity to reshape the collection in accordance with principles of participatory archiving. it theorizes methods of engaging and partnering with jeannette bastian’s !22 robin margolies consultant, oral history projects at the academy foundation, usa corresponding author. robinmargolis@gmail.com margolies. r. (2019). “may they reminisce over you: toward community-based archival storytelling. the journal of community informatics, 15, 22-42. date submitted: 2018-03-31. date accepted: 2018-10-31. 
 copyright (c), 2019 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1412 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1412 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1412 mailto:robinmargolis@gmail.com the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “community of records” connected to different performances held by la mama, taking up the call by anne gilliland and sue mckemmish to “reposition the subjects of records and all others involved or affected by the events documented in them as participatory agents”(bastian, 2003; gilliland & mckemmish, 2015). by taking up the call for participatory archives, it advocates for the benefits of the practices of reminiscing and oral history to complement web-driven or more technologically oriented solutions often linked with participatory efforts. anticipating the needs of the artists and community elders implicated within and involved as cocreators of these records, it integrates aspects of emerging models of continuum informatics and participatory appraisal with the professional practices of oral history and reminiscing work. it examines possibilities for integrating leisa gibbons mediated recordkeeping model with jeffrey dean webster’s heuristic model of reminiscing. introduction “i am sitting here wanting memories to teach me/ to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes” (sweet honey in the rock, 1993, pt. “wanting memories”). in writing her theories regarding community-based research, maori scholar of indigenous education linda tuhiwai smith framed her work through a visit in 1996 from black activist, singer, and historian dr. bernice reagon johnson. both smith and johnson came to the 1 encounter after years of navigating what black feminist sociologist patricia hills collins calls “outsider within status,” (collins, 2008, p. 14) existing at the intersection of epistemological traditions of resistance and activism with academic training and research accomplished within institutions hostile or inaccessible to the communities in which they were raised. navigating smith’s home prompted johnson to define “her own community as one held together by song rather than by territory” (smith, 2012, p. 129). bridging the space between their different traditions as women, scholars, and activists came through sharing of stories and songs. what might lis practices look like if designed to support their needs as researchers and users; as people committed to liberation and celebration of communities defined through land and song? smith shares the encounter as preface to articulating her view of community-based research, a practice she credits with emancipatory potential for not only indigenous communities but also all communities confronting colonial legacies of domination and erasure. smith argues that throughout this article, as i name a new theorist i also name race, nationality, and indigenous community as 1 part of the context of the position from which they speak. this convention is meant to destabilize and provoke--in some cases it honors a community or group identity the theorist would claim themselves, in other cases it’s a more awkwardly applied fit. it is imperfect and contingent, as is all classification, and i welcome critical engagement. its theoretical intent is two-fold. first, it is an attempted counter to the naturalization and universality of whiteness [in the words of white jewish us american studies scholar george lipsitz (1995) “the unmarked category against which difference is constructed, whiteness never has to speak its name”) studied by scholars in critical race theory, black feminism, womanism, and most recently by the racial imaginary institute. (see: collins 2008, harris 1993, lipsitz 1995, honma 2005, dyer 1997, hooks 1997). second, national context is also an acknowledgment of the archival multiverse, which is perhaps an inadequate shorthand, but encourages reader to realize archival concepts and terms do not perfectly map onto each other across national borders (mckemmish 2016). for example, my cohort in library school often had no sense of the australian valence of the term recordkeeping. !23 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 allowing definitions within community research to emerge from within the community is fundamental. as a result, no single model contains all examples, with projects spanning research independent of formal training and academics partnering from within outside institutions. smith does outline a few priorities common to most community-based research projects—namely that “the process is far more important than the outcome” and that they “are expected to be respectful, to enable people, to heal and to educate…lead[ing] one small step further towards selfdetermination” (p. 130-131). in this article, i argue if lis practitioners reimagine our institutions and practices through community-based modes of archival storytelling, we open up spaces for healing institutional legacies of domination and erasure. community-based archival storytelling links smith’s reading of community-based research methods with emerging archival theories of storytelling such as work by white us museum anthropologist and practitioner diana marsh et al. (2015), white us archival educator and theorist david wallace et al. (2014), aboriginal and torres strait islander research focused on health and families lynore geia et al. (2014), wiradjuri research and educator of equity in health professions karen adams and white australian archives researcher focused on koorie knowledge shannon faulkhead (2012). this article connects in a complementary way with marsh et al. (2015), by taking up some of their questions of how stories transform internal and external perceptions of institutions and by looking not at their focus on how stories can serve as metrics of impact, but on how storytelling can act as part of description and access. their findings of how “singular stor[ies]” allowed museum professional to “re-envision the work of the museum” (p. 349) captures the type of transformative moments that this article seeks to center through storytelling practice. they also provide further context for the case study presented as to how digitization can open up new conceptions and modalities within an institution. i advocate community-based archival storytelling remains attuned to an interlinked practice of ritual/rupture, presenting a research design linked to an audiovisual collection held by la mama archives as one step toward this agenda. as a case study, la mama archives, located in new york city, presents rich grounds for exploring the potential of community-based archival storytelling. the archives exists within an institution more invested in sustaining community and less interested in nostalgia than most. since it was founded by black director ellen stewart in 1961, la mama etc (experimental theater club) has been heralded as birthplace of off-off broadway, playing a vital role in the history of avant garde performance, queer theater, and helping launch the careers of a diverse group of playwrights, directors, and performers. for years the la mama mission statement explicitly placed priority on artists as community members and on their development creatively, not simply on the outcome of producing works. in the words of a new york times profile, “la mama has been a home to, and a champion of, brash, venturesome artists” (schaefer, 2017). the archives remain only part of an organization continuing to embody its mission of supporting new artists and new works, rooted in a vision of theatre that mirrors the goals of community-based research. !24 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 lis, property, and the limits on the category of human “for one who legally cannot own her body, what does it mean to own records?”(drake, 2016). before addressing the potential of community-based archival storytelling within the field of lis, it is important to provide a brief introductory analysis of the ongoing legacies of colonialism and domination within lis institutions and professions. i will offer a brief sketch, gesturing toward a few writers who have undertaken the historical and theoretical project of outing white supremacy and colonialism within our field. pascua yaqui tribe member marisa elena duarte and tlingit nation member manuela belarde-lewis emphasize a working definition of colonialism, emanating from their perspective as indigenous lis scholars and foregrounding colonialism as both a set of historical legacies and an ongoing project. they name the process of colonization as both “socioeconomic policy” and “expansionist ideology,” defined for them as a “set of relationships in which one social group continually and habitually profits by exploiting the living environments, bodies, social organization, and spiritualities of another social group” (duarte & belarde-lewis, 2015, p. 681). important to them is the word “habitually,” rather than an episodic form of exploitation, and also that colonialism is a productive process, one that justifies the superiority of the dominant group by creating structures and systems designed to perpetuate and normalize the exploitation. they identify four overlapping mechanisms by which it operates: 1) lumping diverse first nations groups into a single class deemed sub-human and deserving of suppression and genocide; 2) settlers stealing and building on indigenous land; 3) building institutions that support the creation of a subhuman class and settler control of land; and 4) organizing hegemonic forms of knowledge that mark indigenous epistemologies, autonomy, spiritualities, and ways of life as inferior or marginal (duarte & belarde-lewis, 2015, p. 682). two points of the above set of definitions can work well as bridging concerns across theorists and critical traditions. the first is the question of who counts as fully human and the second is whose conceptions and forms of ownership are recognized, protected, and enforced. smith and self-described “archives nihilist” and black liberatory memory worker, jarrett drake, both craft their interventions around the limits of discourses of the “human.” smith notes that much of scientific and western academic research purports to be on behalf of the improvement of all “mankind,” seeing no need to justify its efforts with more specific and tangible results. she voices the cynicism of many indigenous communities that research will lead to improvement in their lives, as “science has long regarded, indeed has classified, [indigenous communities] as being ‘not human’” (smith, 2012, p. 122). drake links ownership and the status of human together in his critique of provenance as central to archives, arguing provenance “reflects the limitation of state regimes in the west to recognize fully the human rights of indigenous americans, black people, women, and gender non-conforming people” (drake, 2016). historicizing its emergence as a principle “in the west at a time when most people were structurally if not legally excluded from ownership; ownership of their own bodies, minds, labor, property, and records”(drake, 2016). he questions why the single principle of provenance remains central to archives, concerned with !25 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 organizing our records and collections in accordance with western notions of intellectual, legal, and cultural ownership. reading drake’s analysis of provenance in conjunction with duarte and belarde-lewis’s definition of colonialism, its centrality reveals aspects of how lis perpetuates imperialist structures. provenance acting as a foundational principle shows how two of the four mechanisms—building institutions and organizing hegemonic forms of knowledge—operate within archives. the “set of relationships” they name as oriented toward profit through economic and intellectual exploitation apply to enshrining a notion of provenance that links ownership to creation and limits efforts to recognize multiple creators, with different stakes in a record. the creation of systems that normalize the relationship of exploitation speaks to why dominant groups, such as the majority cishet white people of european descent who have filled generations of lis positions are resistant to questioning provenance. normalization for those receiving the material, intellectual, physical advantages of settler colonialism and white supremacy means that dismantling those systems will remove benefits that are both highly personal to dominant groups and yet also largely invisible to us. unexamined dominant group entitlements can feel like personal loss when they have been considered a natural part of our lives and our profession. dismantling colonial systems requires vulnerability on the part of established institutional practices and the most privileged lis professionals who may be illequipped to recognize our own habits and reliance on systems enshrining our cultural expectations and ways of being. white canadian archives theorist wendy duff and white south african archives theorist verne harris cover well another dimension of the ways archivists serve as agents of larger power structures and how our individual choices impact the extent to which colonial systems are perpetuated. for archivists, “[p]ersonal histories, institutional cultures, gender dynamics, class relations, and many other dimensions of meaning-construction are always already at play in processes of records description.”(duff & harris, n.d., p. 275) they frame the description process contained within archival description, as well as cataloging dimensions of other lis professions, as storytelling—arguing that“[a]ttempting to deny it, by insisting that they merely marshal facts rather than construct a narrative with a selection of facts, or by insisting that they are merely a conduit for a story which tells itself…makes them vulnerable to the dangers of story” (duff & harris, n.d., p. 277). the danger they warn against is that of the big story or hegemonic narratives supporting colonialism, that prevent the room for multiple perspectives or for non-dominant groups to speak from their own vantage point. duff and harris call for individual archivists to make transparent the ways storytelling occurs within systems, taking responsibility for our part in the systems of colonization that are cited from smith, duarte, belarde-lewis, and drake above. ritual and rupture within community-based archival storytelling “ritual is an action word” (david hammons, quoted in jones, 2017, p. 224). as lis professionals we work with collections and materials from across the world and hailing from different time periods. once materials and records are in the control of our institutions we set the terms of use, how they can be experienced and by whom. we can speak of the rituals of the reading room, the visiting researcher, and the processing archivist. in a !26 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 keynote at the first diversifying the digital historical record forum, drake (2016) outlined a few of these—the silence users must maintain in our libraries and reading rooms; the solitude of individual researchers making meaning on their own; the surveillance systems we replicate, requiring official government documentation be provided, credentials representing approval in university systems, tracking modes of use in ways that mirror the surveillance law enforcement inflicts on colonized communities and activists. in his essay most directly addressing the work of archives, black caribbean cultural studies scholar stuart hall (2001) contended “heterogeneity, the multiplicity of discourses, not only of practice but of criticism, history and theory, of personal story, anecdote and biography, are the 'texts' which make the archive live” (p. 92) and provide the means of communities understanding themselves. while he acknowledges the important continuities of story, tradition, and ritual these texts can provide, he advises “each archive must produce not only the continuities… but also chart the paradigm shifts, the moments when the pattern or 'period' breaks, when there is rupture” (hall, 2001, p. 92). white library scholar and queer theorist emily drabinski also stresses the importance of moments of rupture. in her essay queering the catalog, she employs a queer theoretical lens to argue that efforts to decolonize library records and the library of congress subject headings cannot rely on a permanently achieved correction of violent language or legacies. instead of envisioning a moment where the rituals of description and discovery escape permanently the legacies of oppression and colonialism, drabinksi (2013) argues: in defining the problem of classification and cataloging queerly, the solutions themselves must be queer: built to highlight and exploit the ruptures in our classification structures and subject vocabularies, inviting resistance to rather than extension of the coherent library systems that a critical cataloging movement for correctness upholds. (p 96-97) practices of rupture require a refusal to move only toward smoother and more orderly rituals and systems in lis institutions. movement toward community-based archival storytelling does not mean ever reaching a point where colonialism is fully corrected from the record, nor a profession free of conflict, disagreement or politics. nkisi, ritual/rupture & the making of homeplace “there is also a little old lady who has the greatest flower garden in the world, and if you could steal it away from her and take it to an art museum, it would be a hit” (jones, 2017, p. 104). if the space of archival storytelling is built through a balance between the practices of ritual and rupture, the more fitting expression is not either end on its own, but the integration of the two as a cycle of ritual/rupture. if processes of healing and self-determination can happen within the space of storytelling, perhaps another way of naming this space is home. as duarte and belarde-lewis put it, “[s]torytelling draws visitors into the deep domain knowledge they need to make sense of discrete documents and artifacts, even those they may see elsewhere” (duarte & belarde-lewis, 2015, p. 699). ritual/rupture as a paired phrase serves also as a reminder of their caution that the jagged edges of colonial trauma cut each of us !27 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 differently. the traumas of slavery, genocide, patriarchy, rape culture, and settler colonialism impact those directly affected and those shielded from the systems through privilege or fortunate circumstance differently, even in the same moment. in speaking on knowledge and memory work done in partnership between indigenous and non-indigenous researchers, they warn that it can re-inscribe colonial power relations with non-indigenous folks forcing indigenous people again to act in the role of “mute noble listeners, while metabolizing the pain of recognizing that much of [their] ways of knowing have been lost, subjugated, censored, and stolen from [their] communities” (duarte & belarde-lewis, 2015, p. 679). in writing on the use of ritual within the work black los angeles artists during the 1960s and 1970s, black art historian and curator kellie jones turned to black feminist scholar bell hooks and her understanding of homeplace as a site of resistance. hooks' pairing of homeplace with resistance parallels ritual/rupture and positions the tensions between opening trauma and healing from it as a connected practice. she defines homeplace as a domain where “politicization of memory” occurs, a place where one “distinguishes nostalgia, that longing for something to be as once it was, a kind of useless act, from that remembering that serves to illuminate and transform the present” (hooks, 1990). hooks named as a form of homeplace the aesthetics of yards and gardens within black homes in the south, a subject the black los angeles based artist john outterbridge touches upon in the quote above. jones also links outterbridge to the theories of white art historian specializing in african aesthetics throughout the diaspora, robert farris thompson. thompson reads in the work of southern black artists, people viewed by traditional art historians as folk/outsider artists, a translation of the kongo sculptural practice of nkisi—a practice of community warding involving wrapped “pouches of medicinal and ideographical avatars of healing” (jones, 2017, p. 223). outterbridge saw his work as director of watts tower arts center as a form of art practice, constructing a community homeplace through art and in order to train new artists and facilitate arts practice. thompson saw these yards built up through sculptures and mixed media work as creation of nkisi in physical and community space, enabling healing through the wrapping of it within story and art. in a lecture at ucla, duarte advised to the lis students in the room that we cannot expect the mere presentation of records, materials, objects to communities will grab their attention or create a meaningful moment of exchange. instead, duarte (2017) implored us to “wrap them in story.” i propose we are still very ill-informed and ignorant of the potential and pre-existing rituals of the objects and materials we preside over. the colonialist legacy insures most of our institutions have records from more communities and cultures than our staff and consultants understand. at the same time, we often know which cultures are experts in their use and choose not engage with those experts or to frame their own expertise. even with materials connected to the culture from which an institution originates, we still have much to learn. toward models of imagining and community-based research “how many of the catalogers at the library of congress have ridden horseback with jiccarilla apache ranchers to check their fences, herded their cattle, or even attended their go’jiaa ceremony in the fall” (chester, 2006, p. 20). !28 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 white canadian archives theorist wendy duff and white south african archives theorist verne harris argue that storytelling plays an inevitable role in our work as lis professionals. they also call for new modes of storytelling as a site for intervention into colonial projects and traditional abuses of power. i draw on duarte and belarde-lewis techniques of imagining and smith’s articulations of an indigenous research agenda as comparative models for community-based archival storytelling, acknowledging its origins as a solution specifically addressed toward working with indigenous communities and first nations governments. i begin by making a case for this translation and adaptation, rather than relying on the privilege of presumed universality as an lis practitioner benefitting from white privilege—seeking to avoid replicating the colonial project of delinking indigenous knowledge and ideas from the people, communities, contexts from which they emerge. i have written elsewhere on the value of tahltan nation member and communications scholar candis callison’s reading of derridean translation. in conducting ethnographies of various communities connected to the arctic, callison invoked the power of derridean translation between settler colonialist scientific approaches to researching climate change and the types of data generated by traditional knowledge practices within inuit communities in the region. callison sees the derridean conception of translation as one where each “translator must assure the survival, which is to say the growth, of the original, which insofar as it is living on, never ceases to be transformed and to grow” (callison, 2010, p. 107). translation is mutually transformative, a relationship established which entangles the two bodies of knowledge from that point forward and establishes a responsibility to the ongoing survival of each way of knowing. much of our current discussions within the realms of social justice center on the violence of cultural cooptation, leaving less room to understand the ways translation between different cultural understandings can also enable the exchange and evolution of ideas that allows traditions, like language, to remain mutable and alive. in this article, i undertake translation between the theories of smith, duarte, belarde-lewis, jarett drake, duff, harris, emily drabinski, stuart hall, bell hooks, kellie jones and david hammons—among others. it is no coincidence that these theorists and artists are largely queer women, african-american and british caribbean, and indigenous. all of these identities link the theorists to communities who are not excluded from archives, but have largely been included primarily as the objects of study for those researchers and users prioritized by archival principles and systems. just as the scientists who collaborated with inuit researchers found themselves to rely on subjective and intuitive methods in their practice, i propose that lis professionals trained in traditional archival methods will find not that we have kept archives formal, impersonal, and free of community-based storytelling, but rather that we have made archives that make certain types of communities at home and comfortable. i have more particular reasons for looking to indigenous models, beyond espousing a more general politic that those who have been deemed not human and colonized are the most aware of how the systems of the colonizer operate. i enter the study and practice of archives from a foundation as a community organizer and a teaching artist, which is to say, i am invested in how archives can serve and support communities and assist communities in developing themselves. more than adopting the rhetoric of empowering underrepresented communities as users, my professional aim is to build community sovereignty. in the united states, while there are immigrant and political groups who have sought to (re)build sovereignty within a country that has never fully recognized them as its own, indigenous communities exist as first nations people demanding their already existing sovereignty be recognized. i say this !29 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 not to valorize those first nations that have existed uninterrupted, nor to wade into debates on blood quantum or federal recognition. i also am not saying this to place first nations peoples in a place of superiority. rather, i argue the practices and traditions of sovereignty are longer standing and more clearly articulated within traditions of indigenous knowledge, in a way that many other communities have developed in parallel ways, but with less time and opportunity to have made their values and principles known. the precedent of negotiating with indigenous nations through memorandums of understanding from lis institutions is mixed and still emerging, but provides examples of lis institutions forced to acknowledge multiple sovereignties on us soil and destabilized from dominant aspects of the legacy of settler colonialist assumptions. for one that might doubt these types of exchanges can set the balance of power within many institutions and archives off kilter, i would urge they read through years of discussions within the society of american archivists debating whether archivists as a profession should adhere to the established protocols for native american archival materials (“protocols for native american archival materials,” n.d.). when smith (2012) distinguishes the indigenous research agenda as having goals voiced in terms “such as healing, decolonization, spiritual recovery…seem[ingly] at odds with the research terminology of western science” (p. 122) this holds true for community-based research agendas as well. as smith (2012) notes, “[r]espectful, reciprocal, genuine relationships lie at the heart of community life and community development.”(p. 125) ! figure 1: stages in techniques of imagining (duarte and lewis, 2015, p. 688) translating belarde-lewis and duarte’s techniques of imagining to other types of communities does not require drastic shift of the different stages. decolonization is not exclusively a concern for indigenous communities, so the initial stages of understanding colonization and identifying means of decolonization remain important to community-based !30 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 lis processes. for the following stages, spreading awareness of community epistemologies and developing deep domain knowledge may involve less formalized traditions than those practiced in indigenous communities, but the daily, lived experiences of local communities require similar investment from lis professionals to understand and incorporate into our work and systems. the fifth stage of designing experimental theories and systems already occurs within efforts to envision participatory approaches to archiving and appraisals, but often as part of efforts lacking the foundation of the other stages, leaving them shallow efforts lacking an understanding of what forms of engagement will hold community participation long term—exemplified by the rapid rise and fall of museum efforts to crowdsource cataloging through online tagging projects. rather than systems rooted in new digital technologies or interfaces, i advocate for experimenting with the integration of familiar and well-honed practices of storytelling and community engagement into the unfamiliar and previously unwelcome domain of lis institutions. the case study offered in the second part of this article builds on digital reminiscing approaches toward this very end. as a precondition for undertaking all of the stages, lis professionals will have to decide where we want our own work and the work of our institutions to align. healing and supporting community sovereignty is not the mission of all lis institutions and are objectives not meant to be politically neutral or amenable to all communities equally. the perception of objectivity and neutral institutions acting on behalf of universal principles exists as the result of settler colonialism and its obscuring of the ways our field already act on behalf of certain communities and epistemologies. outing the legacies of violence and oppression through which our institutions were built and from which we still operate requires a rupture or break from business as usual. professionalism and the habits of etiquette make these conversations difficult to initiate, as the illusion of neutrality allows our traditional routines and practices to be understood as nonpolitical, while critique of them as violent and colonialist reads as political and biased. as duff and harris note, while all archival description exists in the realm of storytelling, archivists risk being swept up in the big story of settler colonialism only when we think we are not telling stories in the first place. case study: la mama etc & the limits of archival description “[o]ur interest has been in the people who make art, and it is to them that we give our support…and whatever else we have that they can use to create their work” (“mission + history | la mama,” 2016). the case study focuses on a proposed research design connected to a collection of performances from critical years in the theater’s history. i outline the nature of the collection and the descriptive difficulties posed by it. i continue on to highlight how the digitization of the collection provides opportunities for transforming the records along participatory lines. i end by proposing the project incorporate community-based archival storytelling, drawing on practices from reminiscence and oral history. the 170 performances documented in the la mama collection of interest highlight major limitations in traditional approaches to archival description. while la mama archives has successfully secured a series of grants to inventory and begin digitizing the vulnerable magnetic media the performances are captured on, talking with white jewish us archivist and !31 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 historian rachel mattson, project manager, quickly reveals the lingering problems they hold for catalogers seeking to describe them. leaving aside the technical issues of deteriorated media and tapes illegible to even the discerning eye due to being originally filmed in low light conditions the portapak camera was ill suited to capture, the nature of the original performances poses two daunting challenges: material requiring deep domain knowledge to be understood and material unsuited or intentionally at odds with traditional classification schemes (mattson, 2016). the tapes document performances between the years of 1972 and 1980 and feature productions by the native american theater ensemble, pan asian repertory theater, the playhouse of the ridiculous, and includes early work by candy darling, adrienne kennedy, and cecil taylor (mattson, 2015). mattson (2016) explains that, despite her ever-deepening subject knowledge from processing other archival material from that period and her access to relevant research materials, after viewing many of the works she remains at a loss for generating even a basic through narrative for the performance. a significant number of the performances are the only of their kind or created to be different at every staging, lending them both historic importance and a lack of other works to use for a comparative framework. mattson expressed that osvaldo (ozzie) rodriguez, latinx playwright, performer, and founder/director of la mama archives, could contextualize the works with which she struggled because of his continuous history of involvement as a creator and supporter of the la mama community, but that he would have neither the inclination nor the time to devote to that effort (mattson, 2015). white archives theorist and former territorial librarian of u.s. virgin islands jeanette bastian’s double understanding of “community of records” speaks to the issue here. she notes that community is not just a “record-creating entity” but also “a memory frame that contextualizes the record that it creates” (bastian, 2003, p. 3). absent the contextual frame a community provides, an individual can find it close to impossible to reconstruct the absent context or interpolate themselves into it on their own. the challenge of fitting the works into existing classification schemes manifests at two levels of priority. the first level comes from a lack of existing thesauri and controlled vocabularies suited to the needs of the multiple alternative theatrical traditions documented on these tapes in mind, with little subject terms appropriate to these canons. more troubling than vocabularies lacking granularity and scope, many of the performances and performers are members of communities and cultures who have experienced and continue to experience oppression perpetuated by hegemonic systems of language and naming. as has been written about extensively by a range of critical classification theorists including white librarian sanford berman (1972), white lis scholar hope olson (2011), drabinski (2013), duarte and belarde-lewis (2015), widely used classification systems like the library of congress or the getty art & architecture thesaurus can perpetuate violent, hateful, and hegemonic language used by dominant groups to exclude oppressed and marginalized communities from social norms and societal protections. for example, mattson (2015) points to the problems implied in characterizing a performance as “queer theater,” raising the question of whether the presence of queer performers automatically designates it as “queer theater” and exposing queer theater as a form anachronistic to the performers conception of the work in its original time. indigenous and black arts theater pieces present similar problems. mattson has chosen to conform the record to loc to insure the collections will eventually be able to be integrated into national and international catalogs like worldcat, facilitating discovery and compliance with grant funding aimed toward the goal of increasing the number of users able to access the !32 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 collection records. these performances fall into what white canadian archives theorist rodney carter (2016) calls “archival silences” or “the distortions, omissions, erasures, and silences in archives” (p. 2). digitization as a vehicle for participatory archiving while the performances offer compelling description challenges as cultural heritage, they also present an opportunity to generate and develop models for community-based archival storytelling. as the tapes are transferred into digital collections, they enable interventions beyond simply providing an access copy available to a wider audience. as a condition of the specific funding streams received for their digitization efforts and as a by-product of the process itself, la mama archives digital collections provide different access points and opportunities for programming with the material contained within them. their grants received for this effort, beginning with involvement in the clir hidden collections program, ask la mama to model a replicable approach to digitization for similar institutions (mattson, 2016). once the 170 performances started to migrate from magnetic media into a series of digital files, they were brought into conversation with a different set of records models. for archivists invested in the concerns of community archives, the introduction of digital and electronic records into these models has resulted in greater inclusion of community knowledge and pluralisation. both the records continuum model (rcm) and the digital curation centre’s digital curation lifecycle model emphasize collective memory/community participation as a dimension. in her work on youtube, white australian archives theorist leisa gibbons augments rcm to create a mediated recordkeeping (mrk) model built around continuum informatics [see figure 2]. mrk maps well onto the digitization of cultural heritage, offering productive points of overlap with the concerns of participatory and community archives (gibbons, 2015). !33 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ! figure 2: mediated recordkeeping model (mrk) (gibbons, 2015, p. 3) mrk represents the moment of curation as potentially prompting a return to the earlier stage of (co)creation. this article interprets the return as a chance to enlist new collaborators in the creation of digital records and the opportunity to intervene upon the older conceptions of provenance in the original record. curation becomes a means of opening up more narrowly defined conceptions of creators. gibbons sees promise in the curate and pluralize dimensions of mrk to “highlight the facilitative and active role of cultural heritage” and for the model to offer glamr (galleries, libraries, archives, museums, and recordkeepers) a framework to “connect, collaborate” and encourage a “participative shared memory-making network that is diverse, yet inclusive of multiple and potentially contested narratives.” (p. 9) gibbons (2015) calls for further research into how mrk helps “fragmented” memories of “individuals and communities.” (p. 9) partnering with la mama original performers, artists, and audience members to engage in a collective memory-making practice offers a useful case study to test and calibrate the model against. influenced by white us lis scholar katie shilton and indian-american lis scholar ramesh srinivasan, mrk leaves openings for community input points throughout the model, but its conception of participatory appraisal provides greater articulation of principles of what that process should entail. shilton and srinivasan (2007) frame appraisal as a challenge to traditional notions of provenance, not as a rejection of the previous standard that required archivists to appraise from a deep knowledge of the institution or individual of origin, but instead as a reframing of expertise as emerging from “approaching appraisal in collaboration with community members…assess[ing] the value of community records as the community understands them” (p. 93). while they employ a vocabulary of narratives, their examples orient toward web implementations and incorporation of community engagement through !34 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 folksonomies and tagging rather than older forms of narratives and storytelling. while these theories provide underlying concepts to support engaging the artists and elders within the la mama tapes’ performances as “participatory agents,” they leave something to be desired in terms of methods for dealing with their holistic needs as agents within a participatory process. setting the stage for oral history and reminiscing as methods of enacting participatory processes at la mama, oral history and reminiscing provide productive traditions of practice. justifying the use of an oral history methodology for research on the arts-in-correction collection at ucla, japanese-american information professional kyoki aoki (2012) frames oral history as a “challenge [to] the notion that there is a singular—textual—method to describe and preserve the history and culture of an individual, family, community, or society” prioritizing “not just the articulation of events and facts but how they are remembered by the participants and not simply memories of an event but also community memories” (p. 41). as a tool for deriving context for la mama’s performances, oral history facilitates the goals of participatory appraisal to capture individual and community understandings. resonating with rcm’s contention that “an archival document exists differently in spacetime and can never be experienced in all its complexity by a witness at any one point,” oral history allows an aggregation of individual perspectives toward a picture of collective memory. oral history practices endeavour to simultaneously reconstruct the community conception of the original performance and capture the shifts in community context within the present moment. it also provides a practice rooted in collaboration and mutuality (upward, 2011, p. 203 ). reminiscing work, despite a history dating back to the 1960s and the field of psychology developing the concept of life review, remains more ambiguously defined by its different communities of practitioners (bornat, 1989; thiry, 2013). reminiscing suffers from its use by medical and social science fields, which seek to support it by claiming benefits for patients that remain yet unproven through clinical experiments, rather than the more straightforward ways oral history has been put to use by historians, archivists, activists, and writers. the practice of reminiscing or life review overlaps with oral history as a movement, as white british historian joanne bornat (1989) has traced over her career. reminscing also provides a greater range of forms, including more object and event-oriented modes of recall, as well as greater emphasis placed on theorizing the benefits and incentives for elders to participate in the process. reminiscing draws on different social science theories of identity formation and maintenance, but most applicable to la mama is its use of white canadian-american sociologist erving goffman’s conception of “the play of life.” goffman’s theory is marked by a series of performances of self and continuity theory, which more closely map onto mrk and rcm as they represent life as a series of successive stages continuously re-defined in terms of their relationship to each other. goffman (1959) calls researchers attention toward the audience, both intended and present, for an act of reminiscing, framing the performance as negotiated to meet the demands and expectations of perceived audiences of reception. reminiscing read through the lens of goffman adds an important dimension to understanding the impact of reception beyond the dynamics of the interviewer-interviewee relationship. in the following section, the practical implications for the project are raised. !35 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 community-based archival storytelling as a form of transmission ! figure 3: heuristic model of reminiscing (hmr) examining the particular qualities of the “communities of records” connected to documented performances at la mama, this article envisions a process guided by two operating assumptions. the first assumption is that participants will be driven by an interest in revisiting an old performance in the form of a video and a desire to transmit memories surrounding their own involvement or involvement of friends from that time. the second assumption is that given the skewing of participants with firsthand memory of the performances toward elders and performers, though not necessarily technology-phobic, they will be less inclined to share through complicated digital interfaces. both operating assumptions support a vision of the project rooted in community-based archival storytelling. oral history and reminiscing are fields that offer practices of collaborative storytelling addressed to the concerns embedded within both assumptions. a few developments already support the first assumption. in discussing some of the initial impact of undertaking the digitization, mattson shared that, as word slipped out about the project within the larger la mama community, she began to be approached by people who !36 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 were witnesses or performers of shows documented on the tapes. people begin to advocate for their tapes to jump forward in the queue for digitization. la mama also hosted an event screening highlights of the already-digitized pieces, with numbers of attendees rivaling, even outperforming presentation of some new works. mattson recounted institutional surprise that people would be interested in seeing documentation of old works (mattson, 2016). both developments could be characterized as nostalgic, as seemed the implication of the attitude of staff outside of the la mama archives, and could be viewed as selfish, or an unhealthy desire to relive glory days on the part of people wanting to see performances with which they are personally connected. the reaction within la mama etc mirrors the shifts in how psychology and social sciences viewed old age that bornat (1989) credits as part of the foundation that enabled reminiscence to grow as a field. she notes how western medical professionals and care providers tended to view elders’ desire to reflect on their past as an unhealthy or solipsistic desire to return to moments long gone. she quotes rose dobrof, a ny social worker, reflecting on her training that taught elder residents telling stories of ellis island and arriving as children was at best “an understandable but not entirely healthy preoccupation with happier times” brought about by the nearness of death and their own poor health. at worst “ ‘living in the past’ was viewed as pathology—regression to the dependency of the child, denial of the passage of time and the reality of the present, or evidence of organic impairment of the intellect.” bornat sets this up as an illustration of the fundamental change represented by robert butler’s development of the concept of “life review” as a valuable stage for phases of a person’s life. (p. 18) at this point in the field, reminiscing offers several taxonomies of the reasons people reminisce—chinese canadian clinical psychologist paul wong and american clinical psychologist lisa watt (1991) offer six: integrative, instrumental, transmissive, narrative, escapist, and obsessive; white canadian psychologist jeffrey dean webster (1993) provides eight: bitterness revival, boredom reduction, conversation, death preparation, identity, intimacy maintenance, problem solving, and teach/inform. a community-based archival storytelling project would appeal to several of these impulses: transmissive, narrative, conversation, and teach/inform. while those are the modes specifically engaged on behalf of the archives, the drive to participate and the likely benefits will emerge from all of the modes. a challenge of the project will be curbing trends toward bitterness revival, boredom reduction, and the obsessive as they can lead to unending or destructive cycles of engagement that can overly tax staff and volunteer energy while yielding diminishing returns for the archives. those are the areas where questions of accountability on the part of archives will arise, as they can constitute painful or traumatic outcomes for the participants. la mama would want to identify sources of psychological support to refer people to in that eventuality and the project should be shaped to steer participants toward the transmissive and teach/ inform modes. oral history practice also helps here, as it more evenly balances the interest of a project in the topic it is exploring with the responsibility to respectful collaboration with the interviewee. the second operating assumption, that participants will have a preference for processes foregrounding non-technological aspects, has also partially borne out in efforts already undertaken by the la mama archives. mattson co-hosted a wikipedia edit-a-thon, hoping to engage existing community knowledge and enthusiasm surrounding la mama in a web-based process akin to what shilton and srinivasan (2007) envision as “an ongoing, iterative, and emergent ontology-building process” (p. 99). mattson found a lack of excitement or !37 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 investment in the process, which can be attributable to many potential causes, but she attributed it, at least in part, to a generational and disciplinary divide leaving out older community members. an edit-a-thon also failed to offer modes of engagement compelling to theatre and performance worlds. wikipedia forces users to enter into a pre-existing information architecture, so it also lacked the participation of community members as epistemic partners in the design. in designing the project as a reminiscing process from the onset, webster’s (2010) heuristic model of reminiscing (hmr) offers a structuring device and conceptual framework for modes of engagement (see figure 3). hmr considers every reminiscing event as beginning with a trigger, which the literature outlines as connected to artifacts with affective dimensions like pictures, keepsakes, or linguistic triggers within a conversation. while not discussing the potential of the moving image, viewing of the digitized tapes seems an appropriate form of a hermeneutic trigger. hmr suggests the importance of creating a variety of entry points for participants, incorporating a variety of reminiscing styles and individual preferences. hmr holds potential for mapping well on the goals of community-based research to facilitate moments of reflection and self-determination. while a traditional oral history approach might involve allowing a participant to view a tape on their own to prime them for a follow up session or series of sessions, hmr encourages offering opportunity to record reminiscing event during the viewing as well as after. it also suggests the power of hermeneutic triggers experienced in different contexts such as hosting public viewings of the performances, allowing opportunities to share after the event, one-on-one, or with the audience already in attendance. factors such as the other people in the room and whether a community member prefers to perform for an audience can prime different forms of reminiscence. each form of entry point for participants can open up subsequent collaborations leading to other modes of sharing. elizabeth thiry, an american white computer scientist focusing on human machine interaction for elders (2013), found in her dissertation work, “participants reported that the stories they shared take different forms depending on the audience” and the relationship with the people present (p. 49). reminiscing has less of a bias toward individual interviews, so a mix of reminiscing and oral history can help test what modes of engagement are most successful. the attention to social networks and audience facilitates experimenting with enlisting friends or old collaborators as means of activating alternate modes of reminiscing. thiry presents a productive example of a scenario-based research design that can potentially be applied to this project. she also notes the need for systems that can re-calibrate for diminished or different audio sensory perceptions among elders, which digitization can facilitate much more easily than viewing the original magnetic media on an unforgiving analog video set-up (thiry, 2013). she also shares that people prefer different forms of communication, suggesting aside from recording interviews and events, some participants might prefer engagement mirroring more traditional modes of cataloging or providing new written records to be collected. the outputs of the storytelling will most immediately take the form of new records, mostly video, able to be part of description and curation efforts with the digital collection. digital oral history increasingly provides powerful and accessible software for segment-level indexing and linking between different archival holdings such as ohms—which also comes with a network of open source developers geared toward glamr uses (boyd, 2013). !38 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 conclusion “i reminisce for a spell, or shall i say think back… i reminisce so you never forget this/ the days of wayback, so many bear witness.” “they reminisce over you (t.r.o.y.)” by pete rock and c.l. smooth as transcribed in common, d, & jr, 2011, p. 773). beginning by linking smith’s reading of community-based research with developments in archival theory surrounding storytelling, particularly marsh et al. (2015) in their examination of storytelling surrounding digitization of cultural heritage, this article proposes practices of community-based archival storytelling. community-based archival storytelling, like community partnerships, cannot be defined as a single prescriptive approach, but seeks to open up a set of practices that remove provenance and colonialist legacies of description from the center of our institutions. as first steps toward imagining what this looks like, i propose the approach should be attuned to ritual/rupture and transform institutions starting with description and access. a case study of digitized cultural heritage at la mama archives highlights how oral history, reminiscence, and the newer records models of gibbons mediated recordkeeping model and webster’s heuristic model of reminiscence are rich sites for research into the practice of community-based archival storytelling. this article represents my own first steps as an early-career archivist and memory worker to employ techniques of imagining toward an ethic of community-based archives. i come to lis practice most fundamentally as someone drawn to the keeping of community and generational stories. i hope to join and be joined in grappling with the questions of transmission and ritual from the vantage point of those of us whose institutions, trainings, collections, and callings bring us into memory work. the research and theory presented here was motivated by a sense of responsibility to the people and communities whose living memories must be mediated through archives. going forward, i aim toward playing my part in broadening the conversation between knowledge traditions and practitioners. i end again with song. black and jewish historian of african-american foodways and the old south, michael twitty (2017) writes on his transformation as a historical interpreter and practitioner of ancestral cooking. i am motivated to take up the turn into experiential knowledge embedded around objects and the texts (recipes, songs) evoked in his words. you have to know a lot of songs to cook the way our ancestors cooked. the songs are like clocks with spells. some enslaved cooks timed the cooking by the stanzas of the hymns and spirituals, or little folk songs that began across the atlantic and melted into plantation creole, melting africa with europe until beginnings and endings were muddied…before i started cooking this way, i didn’t know that you had to sing, and that it wasn’t a pastime. every tool you touch becomes a scepter, and the way you start and finish the task opens and closes the doors of time… the songs are where the cooking begins—because it must. 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(2014) “stories for hope—rwanda: a psychologicalarchival collaboration to promote healing and cultural continuity through intergenerational dialogue.” archival science 14, no. 3-4: 275-306. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-014-9232-2 webster, jeffrey dean. (september 1993) “construction and validation of the reminiscence functions scale.” journal of gerontology 48, no. 5: 256. webster, jeffrey dean, ernst t. bohlmeijer, and gerben j. westerhof. (july 2010) “mapping the future of reminiscence: a conceptual guide for research and practice.” research on aging 32, no. 4: 527–64. doi:10.1177/0164027510364122. wong, paul t. p., and lisa m. watt. (1991) “what types of reminiscence are associated with successful aging?” psychology and agin 6, no. 2: 272–79. !42 http://journals.sfu.ca/archivar/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13364. http://journals.sfu.ca/archivar/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13364. articles “may they reminisce over you”: toward community-based archival storytelling introduction “i am sitting here wanting memories to teach me/ to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes” (sweet honey in the rock, 1993, pt. “wanting memories”). i advocate community-based archival storytelling remains attuned to an interlinked practice of ritual/rupture, presenting a research design linked to an audiovisual collection held by la mama archives as one step toward this agenda. as a case study, la mama archives, located in new york city, presents rich grounds for exploring the potential of community-based archival storytelling. the archives exists within an institution more invested in sustaining community and less interested in nostalgia than most. since it was founded by black director ellen stewart in 1961, la mama etc (experimental theater club) has been heralded as birthplace of off-off broadway, playing a vital role in the history of avant garde performance, queer theater, and helping launch the careers of a diverse group of playwrights, directors, and performers. for years the la mama mission statement explicitly placed priority on artists as community members and on their development creatively, not simply on the outcome of producing works. in the words of a new york times profile, “la mama has been a home to, and a champion of, brash, venturesome artists” (schaefer, 2017). the archives remain only part of an organization continuing to embody its mission of supporting new artists and new works, rooted in a vision of theatre that mirrors the goals of community-based research. grzeslo ready pdf the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles building communities, bridging divides: community technology centers and social capital this paper explores the use of community technology centers (ctcs) by u.s. adults. in this context, ctcs are broadly defined as public, not-for-profit facilities where individuals can access the internet and information communication technologies, the most common of which are public libraries. furthermore, ctcs are a junction where technology usage and community participation can occur concurrently. two rounds of data collection using amazon mechanical turk (n = 585) and a qualtrics survey panel (n = 330) were used to develop a unique measure of social capital generated at ctcs. through multiple regression analyses, this study identifies that the activities completed at ctcs but not the frequency of attendance are associated with higher levels of community technology center social capital (ctcsc), or rather the feelings of trust and reciprocity captured by our measure. grzeslo, j. (2019). building communities, bridging divides: community technology centers and social capital. the journal of community informatics. 78—97. date submitted: 2018-04-10. date accepted: 2019-05-15. copyright (c), 2018 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1438 jenna grzeslo assistant professor of digital media and journalism. suny new paltz, new paltz, ny, usa corresponding author. grzesloj@newpaltz.edu !78 mailto:grzesloj@newpaltz.edu http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1438 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction the latest statistics indicate that a majority of americans now have access to information and communication technologies (icts) and the internet: 73 percent of americans have home broadband access and 77 percent own smartphones (burger, 2017). on the other hand, napoli and obar (2014), through a comprehensive review of ict access, suggest that mobile internet access is actually inferior to pc-internet access, due to lower connectivity speeds as well as the inability to complete certain functions on mobile devices. therefore, in areas where mobile phone adoption is high but pc adoption is low, public access to icts and the internet serves an important function. in these areas, community technology centers (ctcs), usually attached to libraries, schools or other institutions, play an important role in promoting ict and broadband access. however, as the literature review section will detail, most of the studies on ctcs were published over a decade ago. since access to icts is evolving, updated research is needed to explore the role of ctcs, despite vast internet and ict diffusion. community technology centers (ctcs) seek to bridge the digital divide by providing access to the internet and icts. this paper sets up an exploration into ctcs as a critical component of community development. ctcs commonly provide ict access to forgotten groups in high-need areas, namely rural and urban communities. in addition to providing much needed technology access, ctcs are also a physical space where members of a community can gather, regardless of background or socioeconomic status. at the same time, ctcs provide access to icts, which allow individuals to keep in touch with their existing contacts via email and social networking sites. given these qualities, this analysis suggests that ctcs have the potential to aid in the generation of social capital, namely feelings of trust, reciprocity and social cohesion. the concept of social capital has been studied by bourdieu (1986), coleman (1988), putnam (2000), luloff and bridger (2003), woolcock and narayan (2006), and many others. the impact of technology on social capital has also been studied, but here the conclusions are mixed (malina & ball, 2005; neves, 2013). on the one hand, technologically mediated communication may isolate individuals and discourage faceto-face interaction, but it also connects people to sources of information and extended social networks, potentially promoting engagement and trust. the impact of ctcs on social capital is even more complicated: whereas they provide access to technology and its potentially isolating and distancing effects, they are also physical locations where people can interact face-to-face. however, as the literature review makes clear, research on ctcs and social capital has not kept pace with changes of technology and patterns of use. the objective of this paper, therefore, is to study how ctcs affect social capital in the present environment. the paper is structured as follows. in the next section, ctcs are defined, and their roles are clarified. the literature on social capital is then reviewed, with a focus on how !79 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 technology, including ctcs, affects social capital. the paper then discusses the methodology and data, followed by the analysis and findings. literature review defining ctcs the purpose of community technology centers (ctcs) is to provide access to icts and the internet to populations who may not have regular access to these resources. as robinson et al. (2015) point out, digital inequalities spill over into a multitude of other activities further deepening inequalities. various definitions for ctcs exist. the u.s. department of education (2005) explains that ctcs provide access to computers and services to those who would otherwise lack access to the technology and their affordances. for the purpose of this study, public computing centers (pccs), telecenters, and libraries that have computer centers will all be considered ctcs. therefore, any public access facility that provides free and open access to icts and the internet to a community will be classified as a ctc. ctcs exist in almost every country, generally in rural or deprived urban areas (ariyabandu, 2009). access to icts is becoming increasingly more important to economic activity, especially in information societies such as the united states (fuchs & horak, 2008). by offering courses in technology literacy, individuals might have the opportunity to increase their human capital, suggesting the potential for economic growth. for instance, jayakar and grzeslo (2017) found that ctcs have a small impact on median household income. the objective of this paper is, however, to investigate whether ctcs have an impact on social capital. social capital social capital is one of the most studied and debated theoretical constructs, with various scholars emphasizing the aggregate value of networks versus connections between individuals. for bourdieu (1986), there are various forms of capital, including cultural, economic, and social. social capital is based on the size of one’s network as well as one’s ability to utilize those connections. comparatively, coleman (1988) suggests that social capital rests on connections between persons and the value those connections create. most of the work that builds on social capital theory can be traced to either bourdieu (1986) or coleman (1988). gillies and edwards (2006) argue that while bourdieu (1986) was first in exploring social capital, his “… work has been largely sidelined for an emphasis on coleman’s rigid but easily operationalized formula” (p. 45). in addition, ignatow and robinson (2017) point out that bourdieu aimed to “move social science away-from variable-centered hypothesis-testing” (p. 951). while looking at the role of social capital in community development, woolcock and narayan (2006) add that social capital increases capacity by stating, “social capital refers to the norms and networks that enable people to act collectively” (p. 32-33). social capital is a theoretical construct that contains several core variables, often !80 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 making it difficult to measure using a survey methodology. luloff and bridger (2003) explain, “social capital develops as trust, reciprocity, and engagement reinforce one another” (p. 206). while individuals need to trust one another in order for social capital to exist, reciprocity is also at the core of this construct. some argue that everything we do, even generous acts, is due to social capital. we inherently expect a reciprocal favor or at the very least acknowledgement for our thoughtful actions. for poor communities, engagement and reciprocity represent neighbors helping neighbors. on the other hand, some scholars believe that social capital is negative, since it increases the divide in opportunity between those who have it and those who don’t. those who have contacts get ahead while those who do not fall behind. in his seminal work, putnam (2000), with reference to gittell and vidal (1998), differentiates between the structural dimensions of bridging and bonding social capital. bonding capital generally represents ties that bind individuals in close relationships, while bridging capital loosely connects people in more distant relationships and acquaintances. putnam (2000), however, states that “…bonding and bridging are not ‘either-or’ categories into which social networks can be neatly divided, but ‘more or less’ dimensions along which we can compare different forms of social capital” (p. 23). these two concepts are closely related to strong and weak ties. granovetter’s “strength of weak ties” argument suggests that weak ties can help individuals get ahead, especially those seeking jobs (granovetter, 1973). bridging capital is a parallel concept to weak ties, and bonding capital is similar to strong ties. this is significant for community development. while strong ties and bonding capital help us get by (e.g., watch children when we need an emergency babysitter), weak ties and bridging capital help us get ahead (e.g., inform of us job opportunities in a nearby community) (woolcock & narayan, 2006). there are competing views on the value of these types of social capital. some suggest that bonding social capital can actually be bad for communities, since people tend to maintain this form of social capital with those who are similar to themselves, thus increasing intolerance for those who are different or outsiders (durlauf, 1999; cavaye, 2004; gaved & anderson, 2004; arneil, 2006; jennings, 2007). although many scholars suggest that weak ties help individuals get ahead, lin (2001) holds that the poor rely on strong ties for survival. flora and flora (2003) explain that communities need both bridging and bonding social capital, but bridging social capital is especially necessary for marginalized or “excluded groups” (p. 227). social capital through ctcs purposeful internet use is important for everyday life and ctcs can provide access to this resource to individuals. not unlike public libraries, ctcs are a physical space where members of the community can gather (caidi, 2006). bourke (2005) explains that through partnerships with other community organizations, libraries can build social capital by connecting their most valuable resources and staff to the public. ferguson (2012), in a review of social capital generation at public libraries, concludes that these institutions can create social capital if they are impartial and trusted public places. !81 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 gaved and anderson (2006) state, “local ict initiatives are often driven by a belief that they will generate social capital amongst the recipient population, encourage participation and equity, and improve quality of life” (p. 14). these initiatives are successful when they are embedded in communities and exist over a long period of time (simpson, 2005). next, it is important to look at the relationship between social capital and technology. the development of trust and reciprocity lead to the outcomes of social capital for community members (sander & lee, 2014). loader and keeble (2004) explain that icts can be used for community development as well as democratic communication and for creating social connections (i.e. social capital). this is complicated by the fact that social capital is usually positively correlated with income. furthermore, aabø (2005) states, “social participation and social inclusion in the information society presuppose information literacy and access to information resources” (p. 208). merely having the opportunity to access broadband without the income to subscribe to the service, or the information literacy to seek out information, is insufficient. because of this, johnson and griffis (2014) found that library use did not lead to greater social capital among individuals in small towns. therefore, if only middleand higherincome individuals are using library services, the effects of the services offered may not be enough to increase social capital. there is a debate as to whether technology strengthens or weakens social capital in communities (malina & ball, 2005). specifically, skeptics argue that social media isolate individuals and discourage face-to-face interaction, which can promote social capital. neves (2013) explores whether there is a neutral, negative, or positive relationship between social capital and internet use and suggests that researchers should look at the mobilization of social capital. neves (2013) asks, “does the internet help people to mobilize their social capital? how and for which kind of actions or resources?” (p. 608). neves (2013) concludes with yes: access to the internet increases social capital through social connections as well as the additional access to information that the internet provides. not all communication that takes place at ctcs is face-to-face interaction with community members. some patrons of ctcs may also be part of online communities. wellman, haase, witte, and hampton (2011) explain that “greater use of the internet may lead to larger social networks with more weak ties and distasteful interaction with some of these ties, resulting in lower commitment to the online community” (p. 449). while excessive internet use may create weak ties, this analysis asks whether ctcs allow individuals to maintain close ties (i.e., family) while creating weak ties (i.e., community contacts) through interaction at ctcs? ctcs have the potential to create both bridging and bonding social capital. by giving individuals access to the internet, these individuals have the ability to connect with friends via email and social networking sites. social networks are more likely to support bonding over bridging social capital because social networks bring people with similar views and ideas together (gibson & mcallister, 2013; sajuria et al. 2015). in theory, !82 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ctcs can generate social capital, but what leads to these feelings of trust and reciprocity? in addition to theoretical concerns, researchers have also explored the means of measuring social capital. robalino (2000) suggests the most common way to measure social capital is by measuring one’s social connections. williams (2006) uses separate subscales for bonding and bridging capital, which are adapted from cohen and hoberman’s (1983) isel social support measure. appel, dadlani, dwyer, hampton, kitzie, matni, and teodoro (2014) provide evidence for a lack of construct and discriminant validity in williams’ (2006) bridging and bonding measures. new ways of measuring social capital may be necessary. based on the above literature review on social capital and community technology center usage, several research questions may be raised. first of all, it is important to ask factual questions about the demographic and economic characteristics of ctc users, and then identify the characteristics that are associated with ctc usage. therefore, the first research question is framed as follows: rq1: among u.s. adults, what characteristics are associated with ctc usage? a second question is aimed at understanding whether specific types of activities and the skills acquired at ctcs are associated with the generation of social capital. accordingly, the second research question asks about the types of activities at ctcs. rq2: among u.s. adults, what activities are completed and skills obtained at ctcs? finally, the third research question addresses the main objective of this paper, namely the investigation of the factors that contribute to social capital. a problem in addressing this objective is that there is no widely agreed means of measuring social capital in the literature, despite many proposals as discussed above (robalino, 2000; williams, 2006). but some of these metrics have also been faulted for lack of construct and discriminant validity (appel et al., 2014). accordingly, a new instrument to measure social capital generated by ctcs is defined in the methods section. using the community technology center social capital (ctcsc) metric, the third research question investigates the predictors of ctcsc. rq3: among u.s. adults, what are the significant predictors of community technology center social capital (ctcsc)? methodology in order to address the research questions posed above, a survey using qualtrics survey software was employed. participants consist of u.s. adults (n = 330) age 18 and older. !83 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 participants were obtained using a qualtrics survey panel ; beyond age and u.s. 1 residence, no inclusive or exclusive criteria were used to create the panel. although not a random sample of the u.s. population, this sampling method was chosen because it allows for the collection of data on u.s. adults, in general. over two-thirds of the participants are women (71.8%, n = 237). over half of participants live in a suburban community (51%, n = 167), while 20% live in a rural community, 15% live in a small town, and 14% live in an urban community. table 1 presents demographic information for those in the sample, including income, education, and race, as well as the number of individuals who have attended a ctc. of the individuals sampled, 128 participants indicated that they visited a ctc, as defined above, in order to access a computer and/or the internet at least once in the last three months. the primary purpose of the facility they visited was most commonly a public library (84%), but 12% visited a center that is solely dedicated to computer access, and 4% visited a center that is focused on economic and employment development. although only 73% of americans have broadband access at home (burger, 2017), a surprising 98.8% of participants in the sample have broadband access (horrigan & duggan, 2015). furthermore, 75% report that they have access to mobile internet. the qualtrics panel was purchased using a grant from the pi’s university. the cost of which was $5 1 per participant. !84 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 1: participant demographics measures social capital despite interest in social capital as an outcome, there is no consensus on an appropriate metric to measure social capital as discussed in the literature review (robalino, 2000; williams, 2006). some of these measures have been criticized for lack of construct and discriminant validity (appel et al., 2014). therefore, this paper aims to fill this gap by variable count overall percent overall count ctc income below $20,000 48 14.55 13 $20,000 $29,999 49 14.85 19 $30,000 $39,999 41 12.42 13 $40,000 $49,999 34 10.30 10 $50,000 $59,999 34 10.30 11 $60,000 $69,999 29 8.79 15 $70,000 $79,999 14 4.24 5 $80,000 $89,999 53 16.06 27 $90,000 or more 28 8.48 15 education less than high school 8 2.42 2 high school / ged 78 23.64 21 some college 83 25.15 34 2-year college degree 46 13.94 17 4-year college degree 78 23.64 40 masters degree 24 7.27 8 doctoral degree 7 2.12 3 professional degree (jd, md) 6 1.82 3 race white/caucasian 274 83.03 99 african american 22 6.67 11 hispanic 16 4.85 8 asian 10 3.03 6 native american 4 1.21 2 other 4 1.21 2 !85 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the creation of new measures for bridging and bonding social capital, specifically deriving from ctc use. to establish a new measure of social capital created through ctcs, (ctcsc scale), two rounds of data collection were conducted. the first round of data was used for an exploratory factor analysis (efa) on the items to identify which items hang together. 2 holbert and grill (2015) specify that the same data should not be used to conduct an efa and a confirmatory factor analysis (cfa). therefore, a second round of data, namely the data used in this study, was collected to conduct a cfa, establishing the fit of the data to the theoretically proposed model. the items used to measure the dimensions of bridging and bonding social capital created at ctcs are presented in table 1. unfortunately, the items created were not able to capture separate dimensions of bridging and bonding capital, as all items held neatly together in the efa. instead, the product of two rounds of data collection is one measure of community technology center social capital, which consists of 8 items on a 7-point likert-type scale from 1strongly disagree to 7-strongly agree, (m = 5.32, sd = 1.24, cronbach’s α = .93). table 2: items for measurement of bridging and bonding social capital internet use prior studies (rains, 2008) used an “experience using the web” measure developed by flanagin and metzger (2000) which asks participants how frequently they use the internet for various purposes, using a 7-point likert type scale from 1-never to 7several times per day. regarding health information seeking, dutta-bergman (2005) found that time spent online is positively correlated with autonomy. for that particular study, individuals were asked to self-report how much time they spend online, averaged b r i d g i n g s o c i a l capital my local technology center is a great place to meet new people. going to this tech center makes me feel connected to my community. i feel a strong connection to those who attend my local tech center. i believe that i can approach this technology center with internet questions this technology center is a dependable one. b o n d i n g s o c i a l capital i recommend this technology center to my friends. going to a technology center allows me to keep in touch with family through social media. i like going to this tech center because i can connect with friends through social media. prior to conducting this study with a qualtrics survey panel, an initial round of data collection using 2 amazon mechanical turk (n =585) took place. !86 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 per day (dutta-bergman, 2005). adaptations of both measures were used for this study. participants were asked how frequently they use the internet for various purposes (m = 6.17, sd = 1.47) as well as how many hours they spend online each day (m = 7.24, sd = 4.39), which is a more precise and less skewed measure of internet use. satisfaction with life the satisfaction with the life scale (swls) consists of five items on a 7-point likerttype scale from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7) (diener, emmons, larsen & griffin, 1985). the items include “in most ways my life is close to my ideal” and “the conditions of my life are excellent.” diener et al. (1985) report that the swls has significant reliability, (cronbach’s α = .87). swls, given its parsimonious measures and reliability, is a frequently used metric in the social sciences. it holds consistent stability across genders and age groups (pavot & diener, 1993). in this study, the swls is also reliable, (m = 4.79, sd = 1.34, cronbach’s α = .89). control variables since the sample could consist of any u.s. adults, age 18 and older, several demographic measures were collected and utilized to investigate the differences between ctc users and non-users (rq1), and to control for other effects in the models (rq3). the demographic characteristics include age, gender, income, race, level of education, state of residence and number of school-age children in the household. results rq1 research question 1 asks, “among u.s. adults, what characteristics are associated with ctc usage?” based on the participants in the study, no significant differences in ctc attendance exist on the basis of race or income. furthermore, the relationship between gender and ctc usage is approaching significance, with more women visiting the centers than men. a chi-square test revealed that among ctcs attendees, significantly more have children than not, 2 = 17.12, df = 1, p < .001. an independent sample t – test revealed that those who attend ctcs reported higher levels of empowerment (m = 5.44) than their counterparts that do not visit a ctc (m = 4.92), (t = 4.18, df = 269.32, p < .001). a chi-square test of independence compared ctc attendance by level of education. those with less than a college degree (57.8%) were more likely than those 3 with more than a 4-year college degree (42.2%) to visit a ctc, 2 = 4.96, df = 1, p < . 05. rq2 χ χ level of education was dummy coded, so this analysis could be conducted. those with less than a 4-3 year college degree were collapsed into one category, while those with a 4-year degree or more were collapsed into a second category. !87 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 research question 2 inquires, “among u.s. adults, what activities are completed and skills obtained at ctcs?” tables 3 and 4 illustrate the activities that individuals report completing at ctcs, with figures representing how many individuals report completing said activities. the most common activities are, not surprisingly, general searches for information, followed by email, and utilizing microsoft word. table 3: most common activities at ctcs these categories are not mutually exclusive, which highlights the vast array of tasks and experiences that individuals can have at ctcs. table 4: additional activities at ctcs table 5 outlines which skills are obtained at ctcs. this is a critical component of the mission of many ctcs, which seek to provide physical access to technology but also skills training and digital literacy. the top skill people obtain is the ability to search for relevant information. other skills include sending emails, using social media, using microsoft word, creating a resume, and creating an email account. these may all seem like basic skills, but to individuals with limited to no access to icts and the internet, acquiring these fundamental skills is the foundation for future internet usage. when asked how these skills were acquired, one participant states, “i helped other people, and in doing so, learned myself.” more commonly, participants stated that they obtained these skills from library and/or ctc staff or from taking technology courses. table 5: most common skills obtained at ctcs search send email micro. word s o c i a l media shopping receive help jobs resume 95 50 39 35 33 32 31 29 visual media music excel d a t a entry m e e t n e w people computer classes power point complete homework 27 26 25 21 21 20 19 14 search send email social media word resume email account 49 42 36 34 33 29 !88 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 rq3 research question 3 addresses the main goal of this study by asking, “among u.s. adults, what are the significant predictors of community technology center social capital (ctcsc)?” table 6 includes the descriptions of the variables used in the regression analysis. table 6: variable descriptions table 7 displays the descriptive statistics for the variables used in the model. since not all participants visit ctcs or have acquired skills through ctcs, the number of observations for each variable vary accordingly. among ctc attendees, 74 (57.8%) have less than a 4-year college degree. table 7: descriptive statistics table 8 displays a correlation matrix for the variables in the model. the pearson’s r values for most of the variables are acceptable for the regression model. the measures for metricskills and metricactivities are nearing the .60 threshold, which variable name definition attendance how frequently individuals visit a ctc metricskills count of number of skills obtained at ctc metricactivities count of number of activities completed at ctc swls satisfaction with life scale timeonline amount of time spent online (from 0 – 24 hours per day) education recoded variable representing less than or greater than a 4-year college degree ctcsc community technology center social capital variables obs. mean std. dev. attendance 128 2.48 1.36 metricskills 100 4.22 2.87 metricactivities 127 4.07 3.17 swls 330 4.79 1.34 timeonline 330 7.24 4.39 ctcsc 128 5.32 1.24 !89 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 could cause multicollinearity. therefore, both of those measures will not be used in the same regression model. table 8: correlation matrix finally, we turn to our main question of interest and the primary analysis of this study. to analyze the effects of the predictors on ctcsc, an ols regression model was run. the results of the regression analysis are presented in table 9, which shows that time spent online, satisfaction with life, and the ctc activity metric positively and significantly predict ctcsc. on the other hand, frequency of ctc attendance is not a significant predictor, p = .61. this is an interesting finding, as intuitively one would expect that people who attend a center more frequently would feel a greater connection to that center. on the other hand, our findings did not support this basic assumption, suggesting that the relationship between individual characteristics and feelings of trust and social embeddedness are actually more complex than previously expected. finally, education has a negative and significant coefficient in this model. table 9: predictors of ctcsc (r2 =.46, f(5, 121) = 20.35, p < .001) attendanc e metricskil ls metricactiviti es s w l s t i m e o n l i ne attendance 1 metricskills .10 1 metricactiviti es .32 .57 1 swls .16 .23 .12 1 timeonline .28 .19 .19 .06 1 predictor variable b se b t p overall model 2.37 .33 7.17 .000 attendance .04 .07 .66 .51 metricactivities .08 .03 2.68 .008 swls .49 .06 8.12 .000 timeonline .04 .02 2.22 .03 education -.50 .17 -2.90 .004 !90 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 discussion rq1 explores the demographic profile of ctc users compared to non-users, as the sample was not restricted to only ctc patrons. in line with past research, parents of school-age children are the foundation of communities, and they are more likely to visit ctcs compared to their childless counterparts. findings also suggest that those with lower levels of education are also more likely to visit a ctc. although the findings of this study cannot suggest causation, those who attend ctcs reported higher levels of empowerment than those who do not attend ctcs. this is interesting from two potential angles. first, it could mean that ctcs empower individuals, but it could also mean that individuals who are more empowered are more likely to visit a ctc. this relationship should be explored further in future research. regarding ctc attendance, what is perhaps most interesting is that most of the participants have home broadband access, even those living in rural areas. one of the primary purposes of ctcs is to provide internet access to those who lack home access. on the other hand, there were a significant number of people in the study who still visited a ctc to complete activities online, despite having access at home. this suggests that there are benefits beyond access that can be obtained through ctcs. among the 128 participants who have visited a ctc in the last three months, 78% (n = 100) indicate that they have acquired a technical or internet related skill from that ctc. this illustrates that not only are ctcs a means to bridge the digital divide for those who need access to the internet and icts, but they also go beyond access and provide individuals with skills training as well, suggesting that ctcs are actively working towards bridging the second-level digital divide. 4 rq2 asks which activities are completed at ctcs and what skills are obtained through these hubs. searching for relevant information represents both the most common activity completed at ctcs as well as the most common skill obtained at ctcs. the most common activities and skills also suggest that ctc patrons may require a basic level of ict training. more advanced skills were included as options on the questionnaire, but most participants cited learning how to complete basic internet related tasks such as creating an email account and sending an email. this is not to say that these individuals will not go on to learn more advanced skills later, since individuals base their confidence on their past experiences (schunk, 1989). for instance, studies suggest that the more time individuals spend online, the more confident they become with icts. as self-efficacy increases, skills also improve over time (eastin & larose, 2000; tsai & tsai, 2003). finally, rq3, the main research question of this study, seeks to identify the predictors of ctcsc. if ctcs are to be used not only as a means of bridging the digital divide but also as a mechanism for encouraging community development, then understanding what builds trust in and through these facilities is crucial. interestingly, more frequent visits to a ctc does not lead to higher levels of ctcsc. although the survey asked how the second-level digital divide represents a gap in internet-related skills as well as a gap in how and 4 why individuals use icts and the internet. !91 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 frequently individuals visited a ctc, participants were not asked to indicate how much time is spent at the ctc on each visit or even each week. perhaps, the actual amount of time spent at the ctc is a predictor of ctcsc but not the frequency of visits, especially if individuals attend the ctc frequently but only for short periods of time. using icts is associated with greater social capital. for instance, gaved and anderson (2006) state, “both bonding and bridging capital can be positively affected by the introduction of ict within the community, helping strengthen bonds within the locality and also maintain contact with distant friends and relatives, and negotiate with external bodies such as local authorities” (p. 14). communities and groups with high levels of bonding capital are associated with more frequent use of icts (williams, 2005). interestingly, the number of activities individuals complete at ctcs is positively and significantly associated with ctcsc. this suggests that the more tasks individuals complete at their local technology center, the closer they feel to that center. on the other hand, it may also indicate that the more tasks an individual completes at a ctc, the closer she feels to her close contacts who are not at a ctc. one’s satisfaction with life is also a significant predictor of ctcsc. swls is often used as a control in multiple regression models of this nature. it is expected that individuals who are unhappy, in general, are less likely to feel connected to community members and to community spaces. therefore, including this variable in the model is a means of controlling for individuals that are dissatisfied in general. not surprisingly, swls accounts for a significant amount of the variance explained by the model. when asked if there was anything else about the ctc that you would like to share, one participant notes, “mostly it is just a safe, clean, dependable place to hook up to the internet while getting away from the demands of day to day life. a relaxed convenience.” this quote may speak to the relationship described above. overall time spent online is also a significant predictor of ctcsc. the relationship between these two variables has not been fully unpacked. for instance, had our measure of community technology center social capital truly captured both individual elements of bridging and bonding capital, then we would expect a negative relationship between time spent online and bridging capital and a positive relationship between time spent online and bonding capital. this means there would be a correlation between time spent online at the ctc and maintaining close contacts, and a negative correlation between time spent online and gaining new contacts. unfortunately, bridging and bonding capital are difficult dimensions to measure with quantitative scales and were not captured by two rounds of data collection. rather, the ctcsc scale is composed of elements of both bridging and bonding social capital that can occur simultaneously at community technology centers. perhaps, individuals who spend more time online feel closer to their ctc because technology centers provide them with a physical space to complete online tasks, obtain technical assistance, and gain new skills. on the other hand, this relationship needs to be explored further in future studies, especially qualitative studies that can deeply delve into these complex relationships in a way that quantitative measures cannot. !92 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 finally, education has a negative and significant coefficient in this model. this should be interpreted, based on the analysis, that those with greater education (i.e. a 4year degree or more) are associated with less ctcsc, once other factors are controlled. this is an important finding, as most studies suggest that those with greater income, generally correlated with higher levels of education, are associated with more social capital. this relationship should also be parsed out further in future studies. conclusion this study, while yielding novel and significant results, has some limitations that can be mitigated through future research. namely, additional data analysis can better explain ctc attendance, possibly through using logistic regression. next, these findings suggest what tasks are completed and what is gained through attendance at ctcs, but this study lacks the rich qualitative data needed to explain the mechanisms by which individuals become motivated to attend ctcs as well as how they go about gaining new skills. finally, as discussed in the section on the demographics of the sample, most of the participants have broadband access at home. this does not reflect the figures reported by the fcc or pew internet research. this may suggest that while this study has a reliable sample, it deviates from the u.s. population on this dimension. this is something to consider, moving forward, as future studies explore this area. namely, past research suggests that not having home broadband access is a predictor of ctc usage, but despite this, over 30% of the participants still report visiting a ctc. funding statement: this project received support from the don davis program in ethical leadership, in the donald p. bellisario college of communications, at penn state university. ethics approval: penn state university institutional review board. !93 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 references aabø, s. 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(2006). social capital: implications for development theory, research, and policy revisited. in a. bebbington (ed.) the search for empowerment: social capital as idea and practice at the world bank (pp. 31-62) bloomfield, ct: kumarian press. !97 http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/39370 articles building communities, bridging divides: community technology centers and social capital introduction literature review defining ctcs social capital methodology results conclusion funding statement: this project received support from the don davis program in ethical leadership, in the donald p. bellisario college of communications, at penn state university. ethics approval: penn state university institutional review board. references 06-1423-8098-2-ce the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles exploring capability and accountability outcomes of open development for the poor and marginalized: an analysis of select literature open development concerns the application of digitally-enabled openness to radically change human capability and governance contexts (davies & edwards, 2012; smith & reilly, 2013; smith, elder, & emdon, 2011). however, what openness means, and how it contributes to development outcomes is contested (buskens, 2013; singh & gurumurthy, 2013). furthermore, the potential of open development to support positive social transformation has not yet materialized, particularly for marginalized populations (bentley & chib, 2016), partly because relatively little is known regarding how transformation is enacted in the field. likewise, two promising outcomes – the expansion of human capabilities and accountability – have not been explored in detail. this research interrogates the influence of digitally-enabled openness on transformation processes and outcomes. a purposeful sample of literature was taken to evaluate outcomes and transformation processes according to our theoretical framework, which defines seven cross-cutting dimensions essential to !98 caitlin m. bentley nanyang technological university, singapore corresponding author. caitlin.bentley@gmail.com arul chib nanyang technological university, singapore arulchib@ntu.edu.sg sammia c. poveda sheffield university, united kingdom s.c.poveda@sheffield.ac.uk bentley, c., chib, a., poveda, s. (2017). exploring capability and accountability outcomes of open development for the poor and marginalized: an analysis of select literature. the journal of community informatics, 13(3), 98—129. date submitted: 2017-10-26. date accepted: 2017-12-26. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1423 . http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1423 mailto:caitlin.bentley@gmail.com mailto:arulchib@ntu.edu.sg mailto:s.c.poveda@sheffield.ac.uk http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1423 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 incorporate. we argue that these dimensions explain links between structures, processes and outcomes of open development. these links are essential to understand in the area of community informatics as they enable researchers and practitioners to support effective use of openness by and for poor and marginalized communities to pursue their own objectives. introduction in the past ten years, many approaches to development have emerged utilizing networked information and communication technologies (ict) to expand opportunities for people to share and reuse information, or to participate in governance, collaboration or production activities within communities. digitally-enabled openness, shortened to openness in this article, focuses on specific processes and characteristics of public sharing and production of information and communications resources through the use of networked icts (such as crowdsourcing, peer production or public sharing of information) (smith & seward, 2017). open development is a new field of research and practice that refers to those instances when openness is used within a community development approach. for example, publicly sharing government information has the potential to expand human capabilities when this information is used to enhance public services or to help citizens to engage in community governance activities. it can also strengthen public accountability by increasing transparent and communicative relationships between community-members and government representatives. however, despite the potential for openness to expand human capabilities and to strengthen multiple accountabilities within development processes, research has thus far produced inconclusive results. evidence to connect openness to the processes and outcomes that transpire is lacking, particularly for poor and marginalized populations (bentley & chib, 2016). we define open development as the free, networked, public sharing of digital (information and communication) resources towards a process of positive social transformation. thus, we are concerned with whether, how and for whom openness actually makes a difference within poor and marginalized communities. given the relatively nascent nature of the field, certain dimensions of open development have not yet been well-defined. so far, new forms of digital communication and information sharing, such as peer production, crowdsourcing, and public distribution of data in machine-readable formats have been the main focus of enquiry. however, other dimensions such as the conception of technology, actors and power relations between them are also at play when determining who stands to gain from open development initiatives, with contrasting perspectives prevailing. for example, within kenyan slums, where state government has had limited capacity to meet the needs of its poor and marginalized communities, digitally-enabled openness is credited for providing an outlet for citizens and volunteers to crowdsource statistics and points of community interest (panek & sobotova, 2015; parfitt, parsons, gregory, chiteri, & omondi, 2013), and to self-organize community services and expand capabilities through participatory development processes (hagen, 2011). kovacic and lundine (2013, p. 128) argue that these open development outcomes “point to the transformative and influential power of !99 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 technology and the collective’s perception of ict as the connecting factor among the citizens and between the citizens and the state.” an alternate critical perspective questions this conclusion. berdou (2011) argued that citizens were afforded token roles on platforms of participation, and that new technology actors came into the picture. new actors, and elements of community participation, can be signs of transformation in development contexts, but it is not clear that benefits are distributed evenly across community actors. approaching the issue from the perspective of social justice, one may inquire whether open development is a remedy or a cause for increasing social inequality within communities. we outline seven cross-cutting open development dimensions that can potentially explain transformation, whilst prioritizing the perspectives of poor and marginalized people. this article critically reviews the literature in a systematic way to disentangle inherent complexities within open development research and practice. our literature review process included targeting open development research through keyword searches for common open development terms, identifying studies that took place in middleand low-income countries, and applying inclusion/exclusion criteria to target empirical studies engaging with capability and accountability outcomes of open development. we searched for articles primarily via the scopus database, and key ict4d journals including the journal of community informatics (joci). several articles from joci were included in this analysis, indicating the topic’s significant interest to the joci readership. the purpose of the article is two-fold: 1) to explain which dimensions are essential to ensure the protection and empowerment of poor and marginalized populations in open development research and practice; 2) to critically analyze whether these dimensions explain the distinctly new opportunities and limitations within transformation processes and outcomes of open development. we explore seven open development dimensions for their explanatory potential towards transformational processes and outcomes. furthermore, as a means to evade ambiguities about what transformation means and for whom, we focus on two key development outcomes, capabilities and accountability. these outcomes, along with others such as efficiency and innovation, have dominated open development discourses (gigler, custer, bailur, dodds, & asad, 2014; hodgkinson-williams et al., 2013; reilly & smith, 2013). however, in a review of 269 open development articles, pervasive empirical problems demonstrated severe lack of gendered and marginalized perspectives (bentley & chib, 2016). we focus on capability and accountability outcomes because they directly relate to structures of power and control that help and hinder poor and marginalized people significantly. this calls into question whether capability and accountability outcomes of open development merely reinforce the status quo. additionally, researchers frequently failed to articulate reasons why openness makes a difference to development outcomes. one can and should interrogate whether the influence of open development is restricted to individual change, rather than addressing systemic structural issues of existing social imbalances in power. this article investigates the links between open development dimensions, transformation processes and outcomes. the research question we explore is: in what !100 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ways do different dimensions of open development shed light on transformation processes and development outcomes? to respond to this question, the article is organized as follows: 1) we outline a theoretical framework for open development dimensions, transformation processes and outcomes (see table 1); 2) we purposefully selected a subset of open development literature emphasizing capability and accountability outcomes; 3) we analyze these studies according to our theoretical framework; and 4) we discuss the implications of our findings. theoretical framework towards open development dimensions this article builds on a prior literature review which found that the majority of open development literature focuses on specific domains of openness, without engaging with core concepts of what open development means or how it operates (bentley & chib, 2016). whilst there are many domain specific theories regarding openness, smith and reilly’s (2013) book is one of the only that has tackled open development theory. it remains a key resource that is widely cited within the literature. smith and reilly (2013) outlined seven cross-cutting themes of open development which were derived from analyzing the research within their book: 1) open development is about development outcomes first and foremost; 2) openness has many co-existing and intersecting layers; 3) openness can be disruptive, due to its unique processes and characteristics; 4) openness requires structure to function well; 5) the potential openness affords is never the reality due to the power and position of actors; 6) that openness requires a critical perspective; and 7) that open development is a complex process. however, given these themes were drawn out through a grounded analysis of largely theoretical research, they did not propose these themes as a way in which open development impact could be more thoroughly investigated. in this article, we focus specifically on development impact for poor and marginalized populations, thus we consider whether and how the seven cross-cutting themes might be re-organized for greater coherence and methodological rigor. first, we suggest that four of the themes help to conceptualize socio-technical and structural imbalances. these include: 1) power dynamics; 2) the actors: winners and losers; 3) the social-embedded context of technology; and 4) the processes and characteristics of openness. second, are the themes that inform the methodological approach to understanding socio-technical and structural imbalances. these are: 5) the multiple levels of analysis required; 6) critical reflexivity; and 7) the multi-dimensional nature of openness. we investigate whether or not these themes are critical dimensions of open development key to understanding impact on poor and marginalized populations. 1. power dynamics tensions within open development are inherently shaped by power relations between actors and contexts. optimistic arguments center on the potential of openness to disrupt disadvantageous power imbalances. thompson (2008) posited that open access networks imbue horizontal organizing structures, and distinct modes of self !101 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 organization and collaboration. such architectures of participation potentially change power relations because decision-making and collaboration processes are guided by decentralized and self-organizing structures rather than directed in a centralized and topdown manner. in contrast, singh and gurumurthy (2013, p. 176) argued that there is the tendency to “overlook the ever-present dimension of [how] power manifest[s] in new forms of networked relationships. the outward appearance of access, participation, and collaboration can mask less desirable social and political outcomes undermining equity and social justice.” the production of power, and its structural and relational forms are likely vital to examine. it is yet unclear how and whether open development fundamentally changes structures of unequal power relations, and if so, in which direction. 2. actors: winners and losers much of the controversy identified by open development research stems from who stands to gain from openness (buskens, 2011; gurstein, 2010a). open data discourses regularly assume that a trickle-down effect will occur once adequate infrastructure is in place (brito, costa, garcia, & meira, 2014; gonzález, garcia, cortés, & carpy, 2014). forte and lampe’s (2013) open collaboration model assumes a low barrier to entry. however, gurstein’s (2010a) critique that access does not equate to effective use of open resources continues to be a central challenge within open development. solutions to protect and empower marginalized perspectives in open development have not yet materialized. for instance, van der windt (2013) investigated a crowdseeing model to overcome participation barriers in sierra leone. the aim was to identify an intermediary that supported marginalized people in rural communities so as to enable all citizens to share their voice. the intermediary observed communities and shared back through the crowdseeing application on behalf of the citizens. some of these representatives pursued their own interests, whilst others became targets of harassment. in accordance with reilly and alperin (2016), intermediaries can both enable and aggravate practice contexts. it is necessary to gain a comprehensive understanding of actors, both winners and losers to shed light on these issues. 3. social-embedded concept of technology theoretical development in information studies has informed a conception of technology as constitutively entangled with its context (avgerou, 2001; avgerou, ciborra, & land, 2004). in order to understand links between transformation processes and outcomes, it is necessary to understand how technology substantially reconfigures contexts and practices and vice versa (orlikowski, 2007). this implies a need to understand how technology is intertwined within wider social and political systems beyond immediate practice contexts (leonardi & barley, 2008). open development research has reflected a similar pattern over time. a majority of open development research has focused on technology tools and adoption patterns (bentley & chib, 2016). however, open technologies mean different things and are enacted differently across contexts (gurstein, 2012). these findings support buskens’ (2013) view that positive transformation requires situating open technologies within their historical and political !102 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 contexts. there is a growing need for understanding sociocultural contexts as a precursor and determinant of open development initiation and related outcomes. in other words, what are the social systems within which open development initiatives are embedded? 4. processes and characteristics of digitally-enabled openness the contours of digitally-enabled openness have typically been loosely defined in open development. pomerantz and peek (2016) argued that openness was once well defined, and structures like open licenses and open source software had specific meaning but are now applied widely, inciting ambiguity and mis-interpretation. in open development, smith and elder (smith & elder, 2010, p. 66) first defined open development as: 1. universal over-restricted access to information, means of communication and ict tools; 2. universal over restricted participation in governance/ informal & formal groups/ institutions; 3. collaborative over centralized production of cultural, economic, or other content. 
 this definition is problematic for delimiting open processes because the boundaries and relationships between the three aspects are not clear. smith and seward (2017) have since refined this view to create a typology of open social praxis including: open production (e.g. peer production and crowdsourcing), open distribution (e.g. sharing with an open license or freely), and open consumption (e.g. making use of, reusing, or remixing content). these structures provide more detail regarding how and why openness is applied in context. alternatively, singh and gurumurthy (2013) take a critical stance on the cultural and political contexts of development, and argue that structures of openness should not be taken out of these contexts. they view that institutional structures needed to protect and empower marginalized people must be included in openness structures. they later proposed that open structures are defined by networked activities within a continuum of two types of spaces: 1) community spaces, and 2) organizing spaces (gurumurthy & singh, 2016). presumably, these denote differences in the form of participation that marginalized people enact, but have yet to clarify distinctions. 5. multiple levels of analysis open structures, such as crowdsourcing, or open data distribution, often share certain process characteristics that require multiple levels of analysis to discern the consequences of actions (and inactions). open structures typically enable resources to be freely accessed and used. they do not intentionally impose barriers or constraints to participate. however, certain stakeholders, particularly the marginalized, need extra support or confront additional barriers to participate, which contradicts the effectiveness of the way open processes are enacted. another characteristic of open processes is !103 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 emergence, which means outcomes can be either reducible or irreducible to their component parts and procedures (stephan, 1997). for instance, some aspects of policy reform in egypt due to harrassmap can be traced to individuals who shared their experiences that were aggregated to create a richer picture of violence against women, whilst other more substantial outcomes were due to their very broad set of mobilization activities which are harder to reduce to component parts (young, 2014). these characteristics and contradictions imply that both holistic and targeted analyses may be required to determine the contributions of openness to transformation. 6. critical reflexivity all of the above dimensions indicate sources of tensions within open development without straightforward solutions. there is therefore a need to examine our actions and assumptions as we attempt to resolve these tensions whilst uncovering new ones. such a need is consistent with the intent of critical information systems research because researchers are concerned with changing social realities for the better (orlikowski & baroudi, 1991; stahl, 2008; walsham, 2005). this may involve tackling topics related to empowerment and emancipation of individuals, addressing power relations or changing social, political and economic structures (stahl, 2008). it may also involve adopting particular theoretical frames, or research design approaches (walsham, 2005). in contrast, eyben (2014) argued that development researchers should internalize reflexive practice skills, such as a critical consciousness of marginality, dialogue, power and contradictions, into everyday practice as a means to influence the systems within which they are embedded. it is not clear, however, to what extent critically reflexive practice can influence transformative outcomes of open development. 7. multi-dimensionality open development can have impacts along a series of outcome dimensions that are not always mutually reinforcing or complementary. much development practice has been plagued by linear managerial approaches characterized by cause and effect thinking (easterly, 2006; eyben, 2010; ramalingam, 2013), open development similarly necessitates a shift to a multi-dimensional approach in order to harness its full potential. davies and perini (2016) chronicled how the open data for developing countries workgroup identified three major outcome avenues. they argued that traditional one dimensional approaches to open data provision were inadequate for sensing and evaluating outcomes to respond to emergent requirements in context across the various outcome avenues. a cyclical approach enabled the workgroup to tackle multiple dimensions iteratively. alternatively, typologies are another approach to multidimensionality drawn from systems theory, where “typologies can show how behavior of a multidimensional system differs significantly according to the emphasis on one or the other dimension” (gharajedaghi, 2006, p. 41). for instance, in an open educational resource (oer) sharing system, the production of resources by and for teachers is one dimension that can benefit professional development and pedagogy. whereas enabling student contributions may alter the system in significantly different ways. a typological !104 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 approach implies that actors can strategically integrate multiple dimensions into a qualitatively new whole. in sum, there is a need for greater granularity whilst investigating the impact of open development on poor and marginalized populations. much of the research has focused on individual or project-level gains, without taking into account the power and structural issues at play within societal transformation processes. the open development dimensions outlined above posit that power hierarchies in social contexts will lead to particular approaches and formations of openness. what is then needed is a better understanding of how and whether these conditions lead to transformation for poor and marginalized populations. transformation processes having identified dimensions to open development one can then consider how transformation happens. transformation is connotatively different than the concept of change because it implies the achievement of a noticeable threshold of dramatic change. however, it remains challenging to determine what the thresholds are and who determines them. we propose to distinguish between the form and structure of transformation as a means to clarify these inherent complexities. top-down transformation configurations have been proposed by hanna (2010) and brown, fishenden and thompson (2014). hanna (2010) argues that nations can take calculated steps to transform all levels of a society and suggests three fundamental roles for the use of icts: 1) accessing and sharing information and knowledge; 2) speeding up and reducing transactions costs; and 3) making connections amongst people, communities, enterprises and ngos. brown et al. (2014) proposed that digital transformation can be conceptualized as a four-layer business model that responds to the digital innovation landscape. they view digital transformation as a means to revolutionize the way that governments offer efficiency and meet citizens’ needs inclusively. a second form of transformation is bottom-up. poveda and roberts (2017) argued that transformation occurs when individuals and collectives develop critical-agency to tackle structural power and the root causes of inequality. open development must therefore enable “disadvantaged people themselves to excavate the root causes of the (dis)advantage that they experience, determine their own development interests and challenge structural inequalities.” transformation processes in this sense must target disadvantaged people and ensure it is they who determine and identify the transformation threshold. top-down and bottom-up forms are differentiated by views on decision-making and objectives of transformation. hanna (2010) centers on accelerating economic growth and reducing poverty. these objectives can be viewed as inherently problematic as a framework for transformation because economic growth is usually unsustainable (schmandt, ward, & hastings, 2000), while poverty reduction does not always challenge the root causes of poverty (unwin, 2007). poveda and roberts’ (2017) view !105 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 does not resolve this issue but implies that populations can develop capabilities to decide a beneficial future for themselves. however, participatory processes are also vulnerable to deficiencies in effectiveness if collectives do not adequately organize to reach consensus (cooke & kothari, 2001) or gain power to influence structural inequalities (korten, 1990). either form of transformation is amenable to both positive transformation or limited effect. busken’s (2014) structures of transformation are therefore needed to clarify three categories of transformation: 1) conformist: transformation reinforces the status quo; 2) reformist: transformation changes aspects of the situation dramatically but leaves societal structures in tact; and 3) transformative: transformation significantly changes unequal relations and societal structures that support these. structures of transformation differentiate dramatic change by the consequence it has on the context. roberts (2016) argued that conformist and reformist types can have value within transformation processes over the long-term because they often establish pre-requisite and essential pre-conditions for transformation to occur. however, given the distributive nature of development impact, in which there may be many positive and negative outcomes occurring simultaneously, we argue that there is a need to examine transformation processes and outcomes with greater differentiation. we draw on the above forms and structures of transformation processes to examine the impact of open development on different actors and contexts. this enables a more sensitive analytic approach to understand impact for poor and marginalized populations, as these populations are not uniform in nature. this is in contrast to a summative approach seeking to evaluate whether or not a particular initiative had a positive, transformative effect, or as a normative ideal to be attained. development outcomes capabilities and accountability are two key development objectives that have gained prominence due to the need for plural and multi-faceted human development approaches (united nations, 2015). the next two sections outline our approach. capability outcomes in contrast to development as an economic imperative, sen (2001) argued that expanding freedom defines development. human well-being is a function of multiple social, cultural, economic and political dimensions which are not determinant and should not be dictated (robeyns, 2003). therefore, development is “a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy” (sen, 1999, p.3), which “concentrates on the capabilities of people to do things and the freedom to lead lives that they have reason to value” (sen, 1999, p.85). the ability of the individual to pursue her values is known as agency, which enables the individual to act upon the realization of her goals. capabilities could be increased or constrained by lack of agency, but these are also impacted by social structures and the resources available to the individual (kleine, 2013; robeyns, 2005; sen, 2001). resources refer to any material, social, economic, or practical aspect that a person can instantiate to meet their objectives. capabilities as a !106 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 representation of a person’s freedom to achieve what she or he values and has reason to value, makes it difficult to pinpoint capability outcomes. analyzing development according to multiple dimensions has also weakened the operationalization of the capability approach (ca) (corbridge, 2002; devereux, 2001; robeyns, 2000; sen, 1999). sen (1999) chose to leave the ca open in order to enable contextual sensitivity. other authors have proposed more specific alternatives. for instance nussbaum (2000) proposed a set of 10 normative capabilities. other examples of operationalization of the ca in ict4d specifically come from kleine (2013), gigler (2015), johnstone (2007), zheng and walsham (2008), and oosterlaken (2011). due to the focus on transformation of the present study, kleine’s (2010) choice framework gives a clear description of how transformation happens from start to finish. in her framework, the concept of agency is represented by all resources available to the individual. these resources are affected by social structures, impacting on their opportunities as well. resources are instrumental to an individual’s choices. the increase or decrease of resources then impacts the individual’s agency, her choices and consequently her degree of empowerment and human development. it is important to clarify that the dictionary definition of capabilities refers to the power or ability of a person to accomplish a specific action. this everyday use, whilst accurate, fails to capture wider structural entanglements that affect a person’s power or ability implicit in their actions, assumed in the concept proposed by the capability approach. zheng and stahl (2011) argue that agency is shaped by the structures of society and should not be viewed independently. therefore an analysis that views capabilities as a power or ability independent of societal structures is likely too narrow within a discussion of capability outcomes. we define this everyday use as capacities to make clear the distinction. in sum, capability outcomes, as an expansion of freedoms, are complex and do not conclusively indicate tangible and easy to measure outcomes. approaches that analyze a variety of agency, resource and opportunity dimensions, along with interactions between agency and structure seem to be the most equipped to evaluate capability outcomes. these also seem the most pertinent to a discussion of transformation processes. accountability outcomes accountability is a term that has different meanings based on purpose and context. in politics, discussions of accountability often revolve around to whom accountability is owed (oliver, 1991). for organizational contexts, accountability is shaped by legal liability constraints (bovens, 1998) and sets of practices (j. roberts, 1991; j. roberts & scapens, 1985). within development, amidst burgeoning neo-liberal agendas in the 1980s, and solidified by the paris declaration in 2005, performance, efficiency, and effectiveness became the focus of accountability discourses (jordan & van tuijl, 2006). in order to clarify accountability outcomes, it is useful to distinguish between its form and purpose. to this end, this paper applies leat’s (1988) three forms of accountability: 1) accountability with sanctions, which denotes legal and fiscal obligations, 2) !107 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 explanatory, which outlines the duty actors have to explain their actions in both formal and informal ways, and 3) responsive, which refers specifically to the duty actors have to respond to, and include stakeholders in their activities when there are no sanctions or formal obligations to do so. other specific forms, such as democratic accountability (bendell, 2006; hanberger, 2009), or mutual accountability (l. d. brown, 2007; eu, 2010), have also been suggested. however, accountability theory has not yet been thoroughly contextualized to open development. for our purposes, leat’s (1988) three basic forms provide an adequate starting point that enables a general comparison of accountability outcomes within open development literature. furthermore it is vital to establish the purpose of accountability to contextualize accountability outcomes. relatively few studies have investigated accountability outcomes in open development specifically (bentley & chib, 2016; bentley, 2017). however it seems clear that actors can face multiple accountability demands simultaneously and will frequently have to choose between them. for example, governments need to balance the responsibility they have to fulfill their legislative duties whilst attempting to meet citizen needs when contemplating a process to share government data openly. similarly, when universities seek to support staff to contribute to oer initiatives, they must also balance the responsibility they have to offer reputable degree programmes with ensuring that resources developed through the initiative are of adequate quality, have the proper open licenses, and help staff respond to the educational needs of the students. koppell (2005) argued that failing to assert the purpose of accountability leads to multiple accountability disorder, in which actors attempt to pursue all accountability purposes simultaneously and end up doing none of them well, thus interfering with intended accountability outcomes. we investigate the applicability of koppell’s (2005) framework to identify the purpose of accountability in open development. these dimensions are: 1) controllability, which denotes whether the actor did what it was supposed to do (as within principal-agent relationships); 2) liability, which is concerned with facing legal consequences for performance outcomes; 3) transparency, which is about revealing facts about performance; 4) responsibility, which means following rules and fulfilling roles; and 5) responsiveness, which refers to fulfillment of the substantive expectations of stakeholders. to summarize, our theoretical framework suggests three main aspects key to understanding the impact of open development on poor and marginalized populations (table 1). first, we put forth seven dimensions of open development to investigate the links between openness, transformation processes and development outcomes. second, we outlined transformation processes in terms of their form and structure, stressing a need for granularity within existing models which neglect the differential distributed nature of development impact. third, we put forth two development outcomes, capabilities and accountability, which represent the systemic freedoms and protections of poor and marginalized populations. the following section explains how we operationalized our investigation which concentrates on how and whether different dimensions of open development shed light on transformation processes and development outcomes. !108 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 1: summary of the theoretical framework to explore links between dimensions of openness, transformation processes and development outcomes methods we applied a content analysis procedure to a purposeful sample of articles drawn from a database of 269 open development articles within lower, lower-middle and uppermiddle income countries, as defined by the world bank (n.d.). these articles were retrieved from the scopus database and four ict4d journals, covering the years 2010 to 2015. for further details regarding how these articles were selected and retrieved (bentley & chib, 2016; see appendix). identifying capability and accountability research we ran full text searches for “capabilit” to “accountabilit” to find articles. articles were included if they referenced accountability or capabilities more than once within the theoretical, empirical and/or discussion sections of the article. articles were excluded if they did not engage substantively with capability or accountability outcomes. we included articles that referenced human-related capabilities, and excluded articles that referred to technology capabilities only. we excluded private sector firm capability outcomes. additional data are needed to analyze links between social transformation processes and private sector capability outcomes. we suggest to pursue this line of research in a standalone study. a more tenuous decision was made to exclude studies that did not provide sufficient detail of empirical data and outcomes of initiatives. we therefore excluded tools, practice and design models that were not empirically confirmed. we accepted qualitative, quantitative and mixed studies. self-reported interview studies were included if they explained or engaged with existing initiatives. studies that sought to dimensions transformation outcomes 1. power dynamics 2. actors, winners and losers 3. conception of technology 4. processes of digitally enabled openness 5. multiple levels of analysis 6. critical reflexivity 7. multi-dimensionality form: top-down bottom-up structure: conformist reformist transformative capability: expansion of freedoms, agency, choice accountability: controllability liability transparency responsibility responsiveness research question: in what ways do different dimensions of open development shed light on transformation processes and development outcomes? !109 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 document motivations and barriers of stakeholders prior to implementation were excluded. analyzing transformation processes of open development a scheme was developed based on our theoretical framework for the content analysis (bryman, 2008). bernard (2013) suggested that hypothesis coding enables researchers to build explanatory models from existing texts by performing a content analysis that tests hypotheses. as opposed to an exploratory model concerned with uncovering hypotheses from texts, saldana (2009) argues that hypothesis coding is appropriate to use when looking for rules, causes and explanations in data. based on the theoretical framework, we developed a list of codes to represent hypotheses we had concerning each open development dimension. for example, regarding the structures of openness, detailed was used when we deemed the article to articulate digitally enabled openness extensively, but limited was used when little information regarding what openness meant was provided. codes were also applied to identify transformation and outcome categories. all articles were coded and analyzed using nvivo qualitative analysis software. memos were attached to articles to document reflections. these documented reasons for judgements and enabled a holistic and critical examination of literature (charmaz, 2006). findings we outline the outcome results first because they demonstrate the type and quality of outcomes. transformation forms are then presented. we then focus on the links between open development dimensions, transformation processes and outcomes. the open development dimensions of the articles are threaded throughout the results sections. the papers are selected as representative of the coded themes, and do not quantitatively signify patterns. outcomes the primary categories of capability and accountability outcomes are outlined in table 2. although most studies had multiple outcomes, we chose to display the primary category to give the reader a general sense of the article’s main focus. open development initiatives often have mixed, ambiguous, or none of the intended outcomes. for capability outcomes, this finding is reflected by increases in resources, without accounting for choice or agency. for instance, handlykken’s (2012) expert informants suggested that south african open source policy was meant to establish common good resources, but that these resources did not materialize advantageously for people that needed them the most. likewise, hatakka and lagsten’s (2012) study explored how developing country students at a swedish university benefitted from internet resources. they argued that some students will choose to use internet resources to lead to transformative capability outcomes, whilst others will not. their analysis identified conversion factors that outline a range of pathways to capability outcomes in !110 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 personal, educational and professional areas of their lives. this was the only study to apply a ca approach, most other studies did not engage actively with the capability approach and its unique way of conceptualizing capabilities. consequently, most studies focused incorrectly on resource provision as an indicator for capability expansion. while an improvement of resources is a benefit, according to the capability approach, it is not enough to expand capabilities. table 2: general overview of topics and outcomes identified within the literature review and categorized according to our theoretical framework accountability outcomes were not usually determined based on theory or a systematic procedure. however similar findings were apparent within transparency studies. transparency takes an explanatory form of accountability because actors share facts about their actions. authors debated the validity of this accountability purpose because shared information did not represent the facts. n.v. raman (2012b) and b. raman (2012a) both highlighted problems with india’s right to information (rti) policy, when marginalized groups attempted to retrieve land or public toilet records. officials withheld, provided inconsistent, or did not have, the correct information. moreover, chattapadhyay (2014) argued that intermediaries are needed to synthesize and capabilities topic accountability topic positive (3) resources: ansal & yildirim (2010), rangaswamy & nair, (2011), van der boor, oliveira, & veloso (2014). (1) structure-agency interplay: hoque & sorwar (2015). open source developer community tele-centres mobile phone innovation platforms technology service entrepreneurship (2) controllability: eros, mehndiratta, & zegras (2014), tom-aba et al. (2015). (1) responsibility: iyengar et al. (2015). ebola virus management transport data standard education planning and decisionmaking mixed, neutral, or none (1) resources: handlykken (2012), hatakka & lagsten (2012) (1) capacities: williams, marcello, & klopp (2013) (1) information: capabilities meesters & van de walle (2013) open source software policy use of internet resources in education gis information provision volunteer information production (3) responsiveness: ohemeng & ofosuadarkwa (2015), sadoway & shekhar, (2014), williams et al. (2013) (6) transparency: canares (2014), chattapadhyay (2014), murillo (2015), b. raman (2012a), n. v. raman (2012b) (1) responsibility: van schalkwyk, willmers, & mcnaughton (2015) (1) liability: vidolov (2014) urban planning open government data initiatives university governance volunteer information production !111 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 aggregate data to enable this information to be used by citizens. these findings were mirrored in other contexts by murillo (2015) and canares (2014) who both argued that public information distribution should support a responsive form of accountability rather than an explanatory form. moreover, michener (2015) examined international transparency composite indexes, concluding that these “seem to have become a monolithic measurement ‘strategy’ due to their ability to captivate public interest. they are fine public relations tools and serve well when what is being measured is substitutable.” equating transparency to a public relations tool indicates a significant level of skepticism that responsive forms of accountability will transpire through volition. three articles explored responsiveness outcomes specifically. ohemeng and ofosuadarkwa (2015) positioned their analysis of the ghanaian open government data initiative on demand-side deficiencies. however, it is not clear if responsive forms exist in ghanaian government, or just not in this initiative. two other articles identified government failure to accommodate citizen needs and developed civil society-led responsive processes. whilst these initiatives showed promising outcomes, civil society organizations often have reputations as responsive actors (notwithstanding critique (howell & pearce, 2001; van rooy, 2009)), so these outcomes do not necessarily indicate dramatic change. positive outcomes reported for healthcare and educational institutions were also demonstrative of this quality (table 2). controllability and responsibility gains are still accountability outcomes, but perhaps indicate limits to the structure of transformation that is sought. transformation processes current evidence portrays an abundance of top-down strategies (table 3), contrary to open development rhetoric that places a high-emphasis on self-organized and decentralized processes. open initiatives began through policy creation, planning, and strategic management led by traditional development institutions like governments, donors and civil society organizations. this fits within the role of governments to institute policy and planning to increase accountability to, and expand capabilities of, its citizens. however top down strategies were also used outside of government or as a result of government policy intervention. furthermore many these studies mentioned that originators of initiatives maintained significant oversight. table 3: studies grouped by transformation forms and development outcome capabilities accountability top-down (1) hoque & sorwar (2015) (5) canares (2014), iyengar et al. (2015) michener (2015), ohemeng & ofosu-adarkwa (2015), tom-aba et al. (2015) bottom-up (3) hatakka & lagsten (2012), rangaswamy & nair (2011), williams et al. (2013) (1) sadoway & shekhar (2014), williams et al. (2013) !112 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 top down forms were often apparent in government initiatives to open or enable access to information. authors identified serious problems with a purely top down approach, arguing that governments failed to conceptualize and enact appropriate strategies to enable citizen participation (canares, 2014; murillo, 2015). however bottom-up forms of transformation were also problematic. alternative initiatives, such as williams et al.’s (2013) initiative to create gis information in kenya, were created from the bottom-up because governments refused to open requested information up but later encountered maintenance issues. this means that a bottom-up form was enacted but likely have little impact on the structure of transformation because the initiative would not be sustained. we identified a third form of transformation within the research. a dialectic form is needed to describe interactions between the top-down and bottom-up forms. top-down policy instigated actors to respond in ways laid out by high-level actors at times. for instance, eros et al.’s (2014) explored a transport data standard that the mexican government instituted to encourage private sector actors to build apps and services for citizens. then, issues like vague stop locations or variable distances incurred workarounds to fit the standard to the context. both top-down and bottom-up forms melded together dialectically. in contrast, three indian case studies were contesting the government, rather than contributing, in response to top-down transformation. dialectic forms seem to address problems identified by authors critiquing purely top-down or bottom-up strategies, indicating that both are needed in open development. moreover, the findings indicate that structures of transformation within open development are likely shaped by wider societal conditions. in other words, it is often outside of the realm of the initiative – due to neglect of dimensions or actors, or a lack of power or position – to achieve transformative outcomes. nevertheless reform was easily apparent across many studies. the kinds of reform were diverse and affected institutional structures, decision-making, efficiency and effectiveness procedures, resource allocation, and citizen rights. however these findings are better understood in context and are thus discussed next. links between open development dimensions, transformation processes and outcomes this section groups the studies according to similarities in the ways that specific dimensions enable analysing for the positive, or mixed outcome effects. these groups theorize how transformation occurs in open development thus far. they outline that the dimensions and transformation processes primarily do not lead to transformative dialectic (3) ansal & yildirim (2010), meesters & van de walle (2013), van der boor et al. (2014) (7) chattapadhyay (2014), eros et al. (2014), murillo (2015), b. raman (2012a) n. v. raman (2012b), van schalkwyk et al. (2015), vidolov (2014) !113 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 outcomes as it stands. the groups are summarized in table 4 as follows: 1) embedded reform: studies reporting positive outcomes and significant institutional or process reform. these reforms were contained within a sub-system and did not significantly alter the status quo. 2) constructing reform: studies that identified specific reforms and argued for additional strategies or resources to achieve transformative outcomes. 3) contesting reform: these studies outlined similar responses to systemic failure as a means to work towards reform. 4) conforming: similar dimensions also explained lack of transformative outcomes. !114 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 4: groups of research according to transformation processes and outcomes group 1: embedded reform six studies reported positive outcomes and demonstrated reformist transformation. we label these as embedded reform because reform is contained within an existing suprastructure. these studies focused on open structures as a main causal factor. four of the studies did not engage with an analysis of power or examine poor and marginalized description of transformation process type of outcome dimensions of open development used strengths and weaknesses group 1: embedded reform (6) mix of top-down, bottomup and dialectic transformation forms that significantly change the context, but do not challenge existing societal structures, or seek to do so. positive outcomes. significant positive changes in knowledge sharing, efficiency, and institutional structures, leading to improvements in public services and protection (health). social-embedded conception of technology structures of openness multiple levels of analysis multi-dimensionality strength effective for granular analysis of specific structures of openness. weakness unable to explain structure of transformation. group 2: constructing reform (5) top-down strategies spur constructive responses from stakeholders. authors analyse additional factors and considerations to further improve initiatives, with some arguing that transformative outcomes are possible in the future. mixed or neutral outcomes. some actors and institutions demonstrate positive capability or accountability outcomes, but problems are identified. multi-dimensionality social-embedded conception of technology multiple levels of analysis power dynamics actors structures of openness strength effectively uses multi-dimensionality to highlight specific actions to take to remedy problems in contextually relevant ways. weakness transformation structure is not apparent when actors and power dimensions are missing. group 3: contesting reform (4) top-down strategies spur contesting responses, or bottom-up strategies arise to address unmet needs as a means to contest systemic failure. mixed or neutral outcomes. some actors might gain skills through participation to contest or collaborate, but they may also be negatively impacted if initiatives do not ultimately serve their interests. power dynamics actors social-embedded conception of technology structures of openness strength effective involvement of marginalized people and socialembedded approach weakness limited to a granular analysis group 4: conforming (4) top-down forms of transformation that do not incur significant responses. mixed outcomes. uncover similar outcomes as group 3, but have not supported related skill gains through citizen participation in initiatives. multi-dimensionality multiple levels of analysis actors social-embedded conception of technology structures of openness strength effective use of multidimensionality and multiple levels of analysis weakness critical reflexivity !115 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 populations, which was not viewed as necessary. technical approaches, or a singular level of analysis, explain three of these four. for example, tom-aba et al. (2015) showed that ebola treatment was managed significantly better after a technical intervention, because it enabled the institution to carefully monitor activity protocol, thus contributing positively to the controllability purpose of accountability. whereas ansal and yildirim’s (2010) study is emblematic of a complex case but that implemented a singular level of analysis. they argued that the linux open source developer community in turkey contributed positively to the creation of social and human resources that both developers and businesses benefit from, thus expanding capabilities. however there is no analysis of power or marginalisation within the developer community itself because the analytic focus relates to the contribution of the community to turkey’s competitiveness in the global software sector. in contrast, rangaswamy (2011) and van der boor’s (2014) studies focused on poor and marginalized populations specifically, arguing that openness enabled these populations to innovate on their own behalf, thus expanding capabilities. neither of these studies articulated structures of openness in much detail; for example, van der boor (2014) used the term “platform openness” but seemed to mean the constitutive entanglement of the technology infrastructure in practice. however a ca perspective would focus on a deeper analysis of agency and choice to reach conclusions. positive results should therefore be interpreted with caution, indicating that power dynamics, analytic levels and multi-dimensionality are vital to evaluate these outcomes. group 2: constructing reform five studies identified significant reform in certain aspects of an open initiative but that these reforms were inconsequential to the lives of marginalized people. open development dimensions were used to explain how to constructively contribute to transformation processes in this case. only some of these addressed marginalized perspectives directly. canares (2014) compared perspectives of the full range of actors within the philippines local governance sphere. he argued that a multi-dimensional approach to engage citizens online and offline, including listening to their needs and building awareness, was needed alongside high-level reform and adjustment to continually improve open data processes and sharing. alternatively, van schalwyk (2015) applied an ecosystems approach to outline how interactions between dimensions, actors, structures of openness and power dynamics created vicious cycles within the ecosystem. vicious cycles were an effective way to explain contradictions arising from competing interests of actors who control sources and provision of data. these significantly affected accountability outcomes and implied a need for multiple levels of analysis. vidolov (2014) and meesters and van de walle (2013) both explored volunteer peer production networks that contribute to disaster response. networks collaborated with reputable organisations, and the articles investigated collaboration processes. these initiatives did not target marginalized populations directly, rather serving marginalized populations if crises arose. as such, vidolov’s (2014) analysis of power and control lacks potential to explain transformation. whilst he identified significant reform in !116 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 practice models, and accountability outcomes related to the volunteer networks, additional dimensions are needed to establish whether transformative outcomes are achievable, such as the actors dimension. group 3: contesting reform four studies centred on contesting reform in public information sharing by powerful actors. all four studies signified the importance of social-embedded conceptions of technology, and that structures of openness are negotiated in context. n.v. raman (2012) and b. raman (2012) mainly applied the actors and power dynamics dimensions to show that transparency of information required contextualisation to the political circumstances, and that marginalized groups had limited power to hold government officials to account. sadoway and swain (2014) compared top-down and bottom-up approaches to enact ict-enabled urban planning in chennai, arguing that the latter led to more valuable reform because of combined face-to-face and participatory ict engagement. participatory processes were more appropriate to deal with local development needs responsively. williams et al. (2013) was the only study in this group that did not engage marginalized groups directly. the researchers’ contesting response was to build their own dataset to share publicly new resources, which solidified their local partnerships. however they acknowledged that they should have involved these partners actively from the start so as to encourage these groups to assume more responsibility, and to identify relevant uses of this information. this was one of the only studies that wrote from a critically reflexive standpoint. group 4: conforming open development dimensions provide explanatory value to why transformation failed to materialize. multi-dimensionality was both applied and emerged through analysis in all of the four studies of this group. handlykken’s (2012) interviews identified issues surrounding the capacity and allocated resources of the government, a flawed procurement process that did not enforce the policy, and complementary policies that led to contradictory effects. whereas ohemeng and ofosu-adarkwa (2015) took a 10dimensional splice of the ghanaian open data initiative, examining why the demandside was not responsive. their concluding view, however, still centred on lack of toplevel legislative reform and lack of resources that are needed to spur demand-side transformation. in other words, they used a multiple level analysis to draw attention to the need to pursue a dialectic form of transformation. furthermore murillo (2015) used principal-agent theory to argue latin american governments systematically used transparency practices to maintain an asymmetrical position that reinforces their own structures and policies and that exploits the laws to hide facts by leaving information unprocessed or by overloading citizens with irrelevant information. discussion: how do the dimensions shed light on transformation processes and outcomes of development? the above analysis demonstrates that there are many open development models which enable transformation processes and outcomes at different scales and levels of !117 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 complexity. each actor has their own philosophy regarding how digitally-enabled openness contributes to positive social transformation. the research we reviewed shares certain common denominators, and these are outlined in this section. open development is referred to singularly in this section to simplify matters for the reader. the central theme of the literature was that the types and processes of openness identified typically fell into smith and seward’s (2017) three praxis categories. this is helpful because, as they remarked, openness is notoriously vague, and its fluid boundaries and socially-embedded constructions can cause much confusion. judging by the wide variety of initiatives undertaken, “open development” encompasses everything from lifelong learning and urban infrastructure to disease outbreak management and national policy formation. this tremendous diversity causes some authors to question the relevance of theorising a generalized approach to open development (buskens, 2013; gurstein, 2010b). however it is vital to examine open development across multiple dimensions. taken on a singular case-by-case basis, most open development initiatives appear to start out unambiguously positive. who can oppose the principles of non-discriminatory, free, and low barriers to entry that underpin open processes? the difficulty with examining open development only in terms of processes, or by project, an approach characteristic of most of the studies examined, is that it tends to prevent a sober examination of the historical and political context of the initiatives. moreover a process or project approach precludes an understanding of the societal structures within which processes unfold, or of the multiplier effects inherent to interacting open processes. with such a narrow focus, most open development literature lacks purview to identify and explain transformative outcomes. two main findings shed light on how numerous dimensions of open development increased the potential to explain transformative outcomes significantly when: 1) authors focused on the power and actor dimensions of open initiatives; and 2) authors contextualized systemic aspects through multi-dimensionality or multiple levels of analysis. focusing on the power and actor dimensions of open development initiatives two essential dimensions of open development are the actors and power dynamics dimensions. decisions about whose perspectives to prioritize, how to allocate resources, or whose interests to serve determine the ensuing events that unfold within open processes. open social praxis become dominant not because it works in some abstract sense, but because it works for specific people and institutions. however the majority of studies did not engage marginalized people in their research directly. in this case, explanatory potential is limited to defining boundaries that outline transformation processes and outcomes rather than specific pathways to outcomes. for example, canares (2014) and handlykken (2012) both outlined how governmental practices influenced the opportunities citizens had to take advantage of open government data and open source software respectively instead of focusing on citizens in pursuit of their own interests. !118 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 moreover studies that did engage marginalized people directly still lacked purview of wider power structures or had difficulty contesting powerful actors. this indicates that the actor and power dimensions are at times supplemented by multi-dimensionality and multiple level analysis to increase explanatory potential. additionally, there is a need to improve implemented power analysis techniques to increase the effectiveness of this dimension. many of the potential benefits outlined by thompson (2008) have not been adequately explored in the context of open development. power analysis techniques should not focus only on relational inequalities. we recommend a greater emphasis on dynamics of power, which can also analyse production of power, or power across contexts, which are needed to investigate non-determinant and distributed open development environments. open processes enable different pathways to transformation, and this implies distinct distributions of outcome costs and benefits. contextualising systemic aspects through multi-dimensionality or multiple levels of analysis multi-dimensionality and multiple levels of analysis likewise added significant insight, particularly when examining the form and structure of transformation. however we argue that these dimensions are advisable but not essential to explain transformative outcomes. these dimensions were frequently used to argue in favour of marginalized perspectives. however without situating initiatives within wider social and political circumstances authors were unable to explain the structure of transformation. most researchers implemented either a high-level analysis or a granular analysis but not both. on the one hand, it might not be feasible to accomplish multiple levels of analysis within a single study. on the other hand, it may be necessary to revise methodological approaches based on our understanding that open development transformation forms are typically dialectical and require multiple avenues of investigation, perhaps crossreferencing each other. multi-dimensionality and multiple levels of analysis may also provide alternative ways to think about open development systemically. an inclusive theory that unites multidimensionality and multiple levels of analysis is complexity theory, which is increasingly evident in present day is (benbya & mckelvey, 2006; merali & mckelvey, 2006) and development theory (chambers, 2015; ramalingam, 2013; rihani, 2002). however theories of self-organisation originated in the late 1950s (foerster, 2003). there has been a recent impetus to apply evolutionary systems concepts like dynamics, inter-relationships, and self-organisation to development practice. this trend attempts to break dominant practices founded on overly mechanistic, linear, deterministic cause and effect thinking (ramalingam, 2013). in contrast, most studies examined acknowledge the complexity of open initiatives, and the potential for open processes to drastically expand possibilities of participation, access and collaboration. however modern philosophies of emergence do not mean that just about anything that can possibly happen, will happen (hofkirchner, 2010). it just means that researchers and practitioners need not attempt to describe and influence outcomes in a mechanistic way. it means thinking about transformation in flexible heterogenous causal patterns that fall within a distinct set of possibilities. a key takeaway from complexity thinking is that influencing transformation can be thought of as any event !119 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 which triggers an open process (hofkirchner, 2010). moreover since open social praxis is dependent on its context, outcomes can also be conceptualized as an event encapsulated by a set of circumstances. hatakka and lagsten’s (2012) study best illustrates this point, as it shows that student use (and non-use) of internet resources falls into a spectrum of capability outcomes that are flexibly aligned to a set of circumstances. the critical reflexivity dimension was not easily identified through our content analysis methodology, as this dimension was not apparent in the write-up of the majority of the studies. however, in accordance with eyben (2014), we argue that this dimension is essential to all development research and practice. our research shows that there is still a need to interrogate outcomes of open development, particularly capability outcomes, and how actors enact openness to achieve transformative outcomes. obviously it is not necessary that all researchers and practitioners from multi-disciplines pursue this line of research, but it is possible for all researchers and practitioners to question their contributions towards transformative aims. conclusion new opportunities to share, produce, and use information and communication resources have professed potential to incur transformative development outcomes. in this study, we reviewed articles that engaged with capability and accountability outcomes of open development to evaluate this claim. however open development, transformation and development outcomes are problematic to define, let alone predict with precise accuracy how open development leads to transformative outcomes. we adopted a theoretical framework that outlined seven cross-cutting dimensions of open development as a means to clarify the contours of open development. we then outlined our approach to transformation and two key development outcomes – capabilities and accountability. this enabled us to analyse a purposeful sample of open development literature effectively to shed light on the composition of transformation processes and outcomes. we also focused on establishing links between open development dimensions and these processes and outcomes. our findings indicated a range of positive and mixed outcomes and three forms of transformation processes – top-down, bottom-up and dialectical. at this point, out of the 267 articles originally reviewed, only 21 adequately engaged with capability and accountability outcomes to be included in this study. we did not find convincing evidence of radical transformation amongst the subset, even though our procedure was designed to target substantial outcome evidence. nevertheless our findings shed light on the characteristics of transformation processes within the field of open development. our typology of open development reform – embedded, constructing, and contesting – are a means to capture the power dynamics of open processes and outcomes. however there is still a need to contemplate how open development researchers can influence transformative outcomes under these circumstances. the present study concentrated on a deep analysis of literature to outline the dimensions of open development that shed light on transformative development outcomes. however !120 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 our findings may be of interest to community informatics (ci) researchers more widely. at the heart of ci is the assumption that diverse actors must come together to engage and empower communities at multiple levels of practice, policy and governance. usually, communities do not have homogeneous characteristics or objectives and ci researchers and practitioners must learn to support the use of ict for expanding human capabilities and to strengthen accountability within communities. our dimensions may apply to other ci contexts that do not apply openness specifically, but that may be helpful to sort through ambiguous and complex aspects of how icts supports positive social transformation within communities. it may also help researchers to conceptualize or target how local community initiatives may impact on structural aspects of society, and vice versa. we suggest that future research implements these dimensions to test and refine them. acknowledgements this research was conducted as part of the singapore internet research centre’s sirca iii programme and is funded by the international development research centre (idrc) of canada. references ansal, h., & yildirim, n. 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(2008). inequality of what? social exclusion in the e-society as capability deprivation. information technology & people, 21(3), 222–243. http://doi.org/ 10.1108/09593840810896000 !128 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 appendix – keywords and article search method search methods we came up with keywords to search for literature during a brainstorming session and we identified 24 terms associated with open development (see table 1). the keywords are divided into three sections, based on smith’s (2015) taxonomy of open development. search keywords source: adapted from smith’s (2015) taxonomy. using the keywords in table 1, we searched the scopus database for relevant articles. four ict4d journals (ejisdc, information technology in international development, information technology and development and journal of community informatics) were also searched and screened individually using the same keywords and inclusion and exclusion criteria. inclusion and exclusion criteria we included articles in this review when they met the following criteria: any study that related explicitly to open development, and those that studied themes and practices relating to open development. themes and practices were drawn from smith and elder (2010). this means that we included research that concerned digitally-enabled openness in the context of development, however development is defined. we included peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed literature. any article, conceptual or empirical, was included but only if it took place or referenced lowor middle-income countries as categorized by the world bank (2016). references to developing countries and/or developing regions were also included. articles in all languages were included; however there were only seven articles in spanish and two in portuguese. all other articles were written in english. we excluded research that did not reference openness through icts specifically. we excluded technical research if authors did not make links to lmic contexts in either a general or specific sense. thing process an assemblage of things and processes open educational resources open internet open source software open data open hardware open participation open collaboration open learning open sharing open content creation peer production crowdsourcing open knowledge sharing open governance open development open access open education open health open government open society open innovation digital commons peer 2 peer/peer-to-peer open science !129 123-12-1276 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 special issue on data literacy: case studies data murals: using the arts to build data literacy current efforts to build data literacy focus on technology-centered approaches, overlooking creative non-digital opportunities. this case study is an example of how to implement a popular education-inspired approach to building participatory and impactful data literacy using a set of visual arts activities with students at an alternative school in belo horizonte, brazil. as a result of the project data literacy among participants increased, and the project initiated a sustained interest within the school community in using data to tell stories and create social change. introduction data has become more and more central to public and private institutions' decision-making processes. in the public sector, advocates for open government data (ogd) at local, state and federal levels are creating open data policies and platforms (davies & bawa 2012). they are also leveraging data-informed and algorithm-managed decision making in topics ranging !197 bhargava, r., kadouaki, r., bhargava, e., castro, g., d’ignazio, c. (2016) data murals: using the arts to build data literacy. the journal of community informatics, 12(3), 197—216. date submitted: 2015-09-30. date accepted: 2016-06-13. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1276 rahul bhargava mit center for civic media, cambridge, united states corresponding author. rahulb@media.mit.edu ricardo kadouaki independent consultant, brazil ricardo.kadouaki@gmail.com emily bhargava connection lab, united states emily@connectionlab.org guilherme castro specialist in public policies and governmental management, minas gerais, brazil guilherme.castro@desenvolvimento.mg.gov catherine d'ignazio assistant professor of civic media and data visualization, emerson college, united states catherine_dignazio@emerson.edu mailto:rahulb@media.mit.edu mailto:ricardo.kadouaki@gmail.com mailto:emily@connectionlab.org mailto:guilherme.castro@desenvolvimento.mg.gov mailto:catherine_dignazio@emerson.edu http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1276 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1276 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 from paroling criminals, to pricing parking fees, to predicting child abuse (mcginnis & elandy 2012, raman 2012). in the private sector, corporations manage significant datasets, collecting and combining data about people's everyday lives in a variety of visible and invisible ways; for purchasing analytics, marketing insights, predictive intelligence, and more (duhigg 2012, rostron 2013, gangadharan 2012). in both public and corporate contexts there is a growing demand for greater transparency and more ways to build data literacy among stakeholders and clients. governments are making data-driven decisions more often, but most of the citizens they serve do not "speak" the language of data and thus cannot participate in those decisions (gurstein, 2011). the lack of visibility into, and participation in, this data ecosystem can be actively disempowering for the people that are affected by it. in response many are arguing for greater engagement and data literacy education for the public (dasgupta 2012, school of data 2013, patil 2012, maycotte 2014, harris 2012). but what does "data literacy" really entail? surveying existing definitions is beyond the scope of this discussion, but the wide variety suggests the definition is still being fleshed out (schield 2004, mandinach 2012, calzada 2013, deahl 2014, schutt 2013). for this case study, we build on our previous work (bhargava & d'ignazio 2015), which defines data literacy as the ability to read, work with, analyze and argue with data. reading data involves understanding what data is, and what aspects of the world it represents. working with data involves acquiring, cleaning, and managing it. analyzing data involves filtering, sorting, aggregating, comparing, and performing other such analytic operations on it. arguing with data involves using data to support a larger narrative intended to communicate a message to a particular audience. with this definition in hand, we see calls for increased data literacy coming from multiple sectors, but these calls and the responses to them have almost exclusively focused on technological interventions. nonprofits like the knight foundation have funded tool building and online courses for journalists to build their data skills . startups, hobbyists, and 1 established companies alike have created a massive number of websites offering tools to people working on cleaning, analyzing, and presenting data . international aid organizations, 2 nonprofits, and interested citizens have encouraged governments to adopt web-based open data platforms and standards across the globe (goldstein 2013). various efforts have been made to integrate data-literacy into public school curriculums, most centered on technology as the main mechanism for engagement (philip 2013, williams 2015). these technology-centric interventions to building data literacy have missed a crucial opportunity to look outside of the digital world for approaches and inspirations. this paper documents one of our efforts to promote data literacy in brazil with an arts-centric approach. building on a rich tradition of using the arts and the lived experiences of participants as an invitation for civic engagement, we developed a process that allows a community to come together to look at their own data, find a story within it that they want to tell, create a visual design that tells that data-driven story, and then paint it together as a public disclosure: the knight foundation funded, in part, rahul bhargava's time working on this project, and has 1 funded bhargava and d'ignazio's tool building in this space. see http://netstories.org for our attempt to catalog some of these tools.2 !198 http://netstories.org the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 mural. at an alternative private/public school focused on the creative arts in minas gerais, government administrators, public school staff and academic researchers came together to build data literacy by creating a mural like this with a group of students. we discuss the context that created this partnership, our theoretical grounding, the data mural process, and the short and longer term impacts from the project. we offer this case study as an example of how to build data literacy in novel and creative ways built on the needs, affordances, history, and context of the community one is working with. the context: bringing innovation to minas gerais minas gerais is a state in the southwest of brazil with 20 million inhabitants that live in 853 municipalities in a territory larger than france. it is one of the richest states in brazil, driven by an economy based on commodities exports. socially, it is known as a microcosm of brazil, as it faces a challenging social divide between the poorer dry areas in the north and wealthy areas in the south. in order to approach these challenges in an innovative way, in 2011 the government of minas gerais established an office of strategic priorities (hereafter referred to by its colloquial name, the "escritorio"). the escritorio acted as a public policy lab, responsible for bringing in and testing innovative projects to improve education, public safety, health and economic development. there was a strong focus on prototyping the use of new technologies to empower citizens and communities. for example, one project focused on developing and building a platform of social indicators ("mapa de resultados"), another offered visualization tools ("dataviva"), a third ("movimento minas") tried to stimulate participation and the cocreation of public policies, and a fourth focused on building an innovation ecosystem by creating a startup accelerator program ("seed"). within this context, in 2013, minas gerais became a member of the mit media lab in order to build connections between the lab’s researchers and the public and private sectors in the state. the state of minas gerais was offered as a social laboratory for the media lab researchers to conduct their projects. any innovative practices by researchers in minas could be models for adopting across the state. one key goal for the escritorio was to work with various groups to use data to empower citizens and communities. escritorio staff found mutual interest with bhargava and bhargava, who were leading a number of data literacy efforts in the us. they were invited to minas gerais to build data literacy through short-term programming and capacity building for various audiences. theoretical background one cannot engage the topic of "literacy" in the brazilian (or any) context without first discussing paulo freire, the brazilian educator and philosopher. his concept of popular education involves both the acquisition of technical skills and the emancipation achieved through the literacy process (freire 1968). the latter is achieved through learner guided explorations, facilitation over teaching, accessibility to a diverse set of learners and a focus on real problems in the community. this stands in contrast to the traditional western "banking" model of education in which an authority "deposits" knowledge into a student. freire's !199 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 literacy is about empowerment via relevance to one's context and lived experience. his approach connects to and builds upon piaget’s foundational work around the processes of “assimilation” and “accommodation” in learners (piaget 1952). piaget’s model describes how new information and experiences are either assimilated into a learner’s existing theories, or that new information causes the leaner to change her theories to accommodate the new information. another inspiration is found in vygotsky’s approach to how learners can engage-with and benefit-from interactions with more “capable” participants. his “zone of proximal development” theory offers a methodology that involves respecting both the independent skills of the learner, but also the process of being challenged and supported by more experienced co-learners or facilitators. a brazilian approach to data literacy recent work has tried to address the question of how to apply a freire-inspired approach to data literacy. bhargava and d'ignazio (2015) bring a popular education approach to building online data processing tools targeted at data literacy learners. tygel and kirsch (2015) theorize a "critical data literacy" based on freire's generative themes, thematization, problematization and systematization stages. our case study predates these works, but shares much with their theoretical and applied approaches. this project is an example of how to implement our concept of "dados populares" ("popular data" in english); a popular education-inspired approach to building participatory and relevant invitations for learners to build a stronger and impactful data literacy (bhargava, 2013). popular data activities must: • invite participation from all parties • be guided by learners' interests • focus more on facilitation than teaching • be accessible to a diverse set of learners • center around real problems in the community using arts activities to engage and empower returning to the theme of looking outside of technology for rich and relevant opportunities to build data literacy, we find a long history of using the arts as an invitation to engage with, and reframe, people's relationships to power structures in everyday life. we mention some examples here to give a sense of this rich history and current practice. one rich example can be found in mexican muralism, which emerged in the 1920s after the mexican revolution to advocate for art in public places that depicted stories relevant to the everyday lives of all mexicans (rochfort 1998). the artists made specific efforts to include marginal groups such as rural, indigenous and non-european people. this movement went on to inform the chicano mural movement in the 1960's, which accompanied grassroots mural creation with training workshops and explicit new left political agendas and political organizing (cockcroft & barnet-sánchez 1993). the history of public performance has even stronger examples to draw from. inspired directly by freire's ideas and influenced by his position as a political exile, brazilian theater director !200 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 augusto boal developed a methodology for participatory theater production in the 1970's. his "theater of the oppressed" is a set of techniques based around dialogue and dissolution of boundaries between audience and performer ("spect-actors") in the service of liberation. the theater of the oppressed approach continues to have worldwide influence, notably in india (boal 1993). contemporary creative approaches include those coming from the top-down and the bottom up. antanas mockus, mayor of bogotá in the 1990s, used mimes, games and the arts in order to develop a safer civil society, reduce crime and prevent traffic deaths (sommer 2014). throughout the same decade, artist suzanne lacy staged elaborately produced dialogues between youth and police in oakland, california, to address the profound lack of trust on both sides (schutzman 2006). in 2007, paul chan worked with the classical theater of harlem to stage the play "waiting for godot" in the ninth ward, new orleans, the neighborhood that was devastated by hurricane katrina. the production involved art seminars, educational programs, theater workshops, and conversations with the community (chan 2011). what is common across these approaches is the emphasis on the process of art creation as much as the product. using dialogue, education and participatory creative expression these projects invite people to reflect and take action in their everyday lives. these examples highlight the power of the arts for engaging and empowering people as active citizens in their communities, and offer many lessons for creative data literacy activities. the data mural process based on this critical history, the popular data framework, and the context in brazil, we were inspired to create a "data mural" in brazil. a data mural, first discussed in june of 2012, begins with data, facilitates a community group through the process of turning that data into a story they want to tell publicly, helps them collaboratively convert the story into a visual design, and allows them to then paint their image as a community mural. this process is intricately tied to the theoretical background we have just laid out. for instance, we begin the process with data about the community on a topic they care about, building on freire's concept of "generative themes." the act of finding a story in data to paint as a mural in public space is an example of freire's concept of "praxis" coming together to act upon the built environment in a critical way leading to further reflection. the collaborative design process builds shared ownership, and the final mural itself is a spectacle that invites viewers to be something akin to boal's "spect-actors" as they join in the painting. at a high level, the data mural process has 8 steps: 1. identify partners and topics 2. collaboratively identify the goals of the project 3. collect data related to the goals 4. hold a story-finding workshop 5. hold a design workshop 6. paint the mural 7. publicly unveil/present the mural 8. evaluate impact of the process and outcome !201 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 this rough outline was used as the basis for defining the project steps. the following sections link each of these steps to our theoretical background and describe the data mural process in minas gerais. identifying the partners and goals once we had narrowed in on producing a data mural with a local group, the escritorio helped us identify the plug minas school in belo horizonte as the ideal candidate. plug minas (hereafter referred to as "plug") is a state sponsored school that promotes education through innovative educational methodologies, guided by values like leadership and digital literacy. acting as a complement to the regular public school system, plug has approximately 1,300 students aged between 14 and 24 years old. as an alternative school plug focuses on giving students opportunities based on dialogue, experimentation and collaborative construction of knowledge. plug is a unique school in a variety of ways. first off, it is managed by multiple stakeholders the state, a nonprofit organization and private companies. secondly, it is made of seven separate mini-schools (called "nucleos"), each with one or more private companies providing financial and/or methodological resources for the activities. these nucleos range from circus arts to digital game programming. despite belonging to the same institution, the nucleos are relatively autonomous and students within them do not necessarily connect with each other. the central administration (composed of a nonprofit organization and the government) is responsible for the pedagogical guidelines across all the nucleos. there is a general lack of school identity among plug’s students, which affects the institution’s connection with the community where it is located (a poor neighborhood in the east side of belo horizonte). despite efforts made by the administration, the surrounding neighborhood is not very aware of the activities developed at the school and does not interact often with the students. with this context in mind, plug (represented by castro) had a number of goals for the data mural, all related to student experiences. they wanted to integrate the youth of all the nucleos in an activity that created a sense that plug was one school, not a collection of individual schools on separate topics. in addition, plug staff was excited to offer opportunities for government to collaborate with youth in novel ways. plug wanted to learn new educational methodologies that they might be able to utilize with students on an ongoing basis. plug also saw an opportunity to address the long-standing divide between the school itself and the neighborhood around it. the researchers (bhargava & bhargava), desired to test their hypothesis that this type of artsbased intervention could increase participant data literacy, build and reinforce connections among participants, and act as a catalyst for further conversation about the topic being explored. the escritorio (represented by kadouaki) wanted to facilitate novel research to stimulate innovation in minas gerais. more specifically, they wanted to reinforce their existing focus on empowering citizens to use data to create change. escritorio staff recognized that their open data portal was the beginning, not the end, of the process of building data literacy in their state. !202 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 our various goals were merged into a list of desired outcomes that were agreed to by everyone. we all wanted: • to paint a mural on the exterior wall of the school • to build the belief that playing with data to tell a story can be fun • to connect with a plug staff member to continue the data mural work locally • to make a creative local example of community engagement with data • to improve capacity to read, understand, and synthesize data into insights • to build new connections between plug students and outside professionals • to build new connections between students in the various nucleos the story-finding and design workshops involved almost 20 student participants, the two researchers, three plug staff, and three escritorio staff. the 2-day process were held on-site in a large auditorium. translation for the facilitating researchers, who understood a limited amount of portuguese, was provided by the staff. approximately 50 people participated in the mural painting. students ranged in age from 16 to 21. in line with their goal of creating more cross-nucleo connections, plug staff decided to recruit participants from an existing club that focused on that topic. students in this club were asking to fill in a short online survey asking just one question – “why would you like to be part of the data mural process?”. based on the responses, and their awareness of the particular students involved, plug staff then selected the participants. collecting data after meeting remotely a number of times in the months leading up to the on-site activities, the team (the authors of this case-study) decided to do a data mural with the youth that focused on the experience of going through the school. as described above, plug is a unique public/private partnership within the school system. students apply for entry to programs to do not exist anywhere else, and highly value the experiences they are exposed to within plug. this background led the authors to believe this theme would accommodate both the school’s and the students’ interests. plug staff collected and created data that could be used to look for stories, including past student surveys about demographics and student experiences. our intended goal was to allow opportunities for freire's concepts of "codification" and "conscientization" to develop. we interpret codification to be the gathering of information to understand one's current context. we interpret conscientization to be the development of a critical awareness of one's actual situation and needs. looking at information about the experience of attending the school, with the goal of telling their story to the audience in the surrounding community, would give students ample opportunity to practice these two. the researchers worked to trim the datasets in a way that focused in on plug's stated goals, yet at the same time left enough freedom for multiple interesting stories to emerge. this !203 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 subjective process was done collaboratively with the plug staff. students were not engaged in this process primarily due to logistic constraints, mostly attributed to poor internet connectivity, scheduling, and remote collaboration. this process yielded a six page handout (figure 1) with selected qualitative and quantitative data presented in quotes, tables, bar charts, and pie charts (translated into english and portuguese). the data included are described in table 1. among the qualitative datasets, the quotes to include were selected by the authors based on how much they were about changes in the person caused by experiences at plug minas. ! figure 1: the data handout given to participants on-site table 1: datasets included in the "plug minas data mural handout" used during workshops data type format student responses to "how did plug prepare you for the world?" qualitative selected quotes student population by gender quantitative table student responses to "were your expectations met by plug?" qualitative selected quotes student population by city of origin quantitative bar chart student population by family income quantitative table student population by previous level of educational attainment quantitative table student response to "have you previously participated in plug?" quantitative pie chart student responses to "how did you learn about plug?" quantitative table student responses to "what motivated you to participate in plug?" quantitative table student responses to "what connects nucleos to each other?" qualitative selected quotes !204 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the story-finding workshop the data handout informed the story-finding workshop, which we designed to allow student participants to build the capacity for finding stories in data. this part of the process also focused on our desired outcomes of linking together students from various nucleos, showing how working with data can be fun, and building their data literacy. after introductions and some context setting we began by discussing how to find stories in data. following the freirian concept of "generative themes", we introduced some local data, to link the lived experience of the participants to the literacy being developed. local partners had previously mentioned that minas gerais was a large, and proud, exporter of cheese. based on this input we gathered a tiny set of official government data on recent levels of cheese exports and used that as the subject of an exercise introducing how to find various types of stories in data. the participants expressed surprise and interest in the data; one student shared a story of his family farm and their cheese producing business. these personal connections opened the door for us to build a relevant definition of data analysis within their context, something missing from most generic web-based digital tools. next we introduced the data handout we had created and broke into teams to look for stories that the participants wanted to tell (see image 2). the groups were structured to include students from different nucleos at each table. after discussion and brainstorming time the students filled in worksheets that prompted them to write their story down and explain why they thought it was a story worth telling. this worksheet was an attempt to place critical reflective focus on why the story they found was meaningful and relevant, pulling the data off the page and into the real world context. after 40 minutes of small group discussions, each group taped up their two strongest stories on the wall for everyone to see. image 2: students and staff looking for stories in the data handout with many stories developed, we moved on to a facilitated discussion to reach agreement about the story to use for the mural design. this involved a group discussion about each story presented, collectively developing criteria for choosing a story to use, and writing the final students responses to "what is your relationship with the surroundings of the school?" qualitative selected quotes !205 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 story out to confirm agreement. the researchers took a strong facilitation role during this process, ensuring each group had a space to speak and advocate, while at the same time guiding the group towards consensus. this resulted in synthesis of a story they all wanted to tell about how students go through a process of transformation while at plug due to the creative focus, and come out as better people more aware of the world around them. this chosen story offered on an empowering frame that told the surrounding neighborhood that plug was a special place. image 3: staff and researchers facilitating a discussion to pick the one story to tell the visual design workshop with the story written, we began to turn the story into a visual design that we could paint as a mural on a large wall near the school's entrance. the focus was on creating a collaborative design that had shared ownership among all the participants, and introducing fun ways to play with data. this workshop began with an introduction to some of the ways to turn a datadriven story into a visual design. we introduced examples of charts, maps, comic strips, and evocative images; all connected to datasets of various types. this provided a shared language of ways to represent the story they had generated and the qualitative and quantitative data it was based on. the first activity offered the students a chance to to create "data sculptures" that showcased the data we were working with. in the days leading up to the workshop, we visited a number of local markets and bought wood blocks, rubber bands, glue, and other local craft materials. we introduced the materials and gave students a short amount of time to build something that told part of the data story they had developed (image 4). this activity was designed to show that working with data can be playful and fun, and was an attempt to invite students who didn't have experience or skill with drawing to be able to create symbols that told the story. in order to translate the abstract story into concrete ideas for visuals, we led a "word web" activity. the researchers learned this technique and the “pass around” activity from a community muralist , and applied it to the data mural process. a word web begins by 3 writing a large abstract word from the story in the middle of a big piece of paper. for instance, this story included the word "melhor" (better) to describe how students come out tova speter of cambridge, massachusetts, usa3 !206 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 after attending plug. we asked students to free-associate and write down other related words that on the same piece of paper (image 5). this activity leads to a large set of related concepts, many of which are nouns that can easily be represented visually in a design. this helped develop a visual language to tell the data-driven story they had created. image 4: students exploring with craft materials during the data sculpture activity image 5: a word web created for the word "transformar" (transform) to flesh out a visual design, we next led a collaborative sketching "pass around" activity. to build shared ownership of the visual design. we began by giving each participant a piece of paper and a pen and asking them to draw the data-driven story (using the previous activities as inspirations for imagery and narrative). after a minute we interrupted and surprised them by asking them to put their pens down and hand their page to the person on their right. they were not allowed to explain what they had drawn at all. the receiving person had to try to determine what the original author was trying to do and add to it. we repeated this passaround every minute, until the original author had their paper back (image 6). this activity creates a structured format that puts helpful constraints around how much drawing each person does. focusing on the "we" rather than the "me" not only builds group cohesion, but also leads to more engagement in the design process. this activity helps create a sense of freedom in developing visuals, overcoming the feelings that “i can’t draw”. it also builds the ability to translate concepts into images. !207 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 image 6: students working on their pass-around sketches to finally synthesize the draft design of a mural, we facilitated a group conversation about the sketches they had all created and how they told the data-driven story (image 7). we began by prompting students to identify common visual elements of the drawings, or unique elements they thought told the story particularly well. the students focused in on a few keys symbols to represent parts of the story: • the brain was a powerful symbol for their learning • a globe centered on brazil represented how they were from all over brazil • a turned on light bulb could represent the quotes about growing into better people • classic icons could represent the various nucleos (a game controller for video game, theater masks for the circus arts, etc) from these elements we created a draft of the mural design that everyone agreed reflected the story and the original data well. image 7: students discussing the mural design draft !208 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 painting the mural with a draft design in hand, we iterated on shape and color to finalize the design. the painting process was an opportunity to focus in on the goals of bringing the nucleos together, involving the community, and making data fun. school staff invited students across all the nucleos to join the painting process the next day. a car with an amplifier its roof was sent around the neighborhood to play a recorded announcement that everyone was invited to join the mural painting activity at plug. the day of painting itself provided many opportunities to revisit the data and story that led to the design (image 8). many of the students that came by to help paint had not been part of the story-finding or design sessions. students that had been part of those sessions explained their process and reasoning to their fellow students, using the mural design to introduce some of the qualitative and quantitative data they started with. image 8: students and staff working on the mural to accommodate the large number of people that came over the course of the day to help, we used a large secondary canvas to prompt people to write about the neighborhood (image 9). this was a deliberate attempt to bring in the residents and have the students think outside the school's walls. this canvas was put on display in the small art gallery in front of the school after the mural was completed. !209 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 image 9: residents and students painting symbols of the neighborhood on an auxiliary canvas image 10: the completed mural findings existing practice on assessing data literacy in students is underdeveloped, potentially due to the lack of agreement on the core definition (as discussed earlier). governmental standards on statistical literacy and numeracy haven’t been adapted to embrace data literacy as a new concept (calzada 2013, mandinach 2012), and research and documentation that does occur tends to focus on the teacher’s ability to use data to assess students (means, 2011). a complete survey of the emerging best practices is out of scope for this paper, but there are a variety of examples that informed the approach taken for this project. this is an area where the field of data literacy education needs to mature. the researchers found little existing practice to build on for evaluation within plug itself. existing staff there had attempted to establish a shared model for assessing student growth !210 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 within the creative arts-based educational frame. a third-party consultancy brought in attempted to create a quantitative methodology for the school to use, but the various nucleos did not engage in this process well. plug was left with a model for evaluation that they had little confidence in, due to perceived structural gaps created by the lack of participation across the school. of course, there is a long history of learning assessment outside of this specific context to draw from. student growth is often measured via quantitative means against a set of learning goals. preand post-surveys are standard qualitative and quantitative instruments for assessing this change over the course of an intervention in learning settings. however, the learning goals vary across data literacy projects, and there is not an agreed-upon set of instruments to draw from. in creative arts-based settings, formal testing-based assessment mechanisms are not generally relied upon to assess growth and learning. practitioners of project-based learning offer observational techniques for assessment in situations where learning is seen as a continuous process (krajcik, 2006). this type of approach lends itself more readily to the data mural project. as an example of some of these methodologies in practice, the citydigits project included preand post-surveys, but centered around analysis of student journals, language, and final presentations to assess learning (williams, 2015). with these inspirations and limitations in mind, this project separated assessment into the short term and long term timeframes. unfortunately, logistical constraints on-site prevented us from doing a thorough preand post-survey. instead, informal interviews were used with students and staff the day after the mural was painted to assess short-term outcomes. to look at longer term outcomes, researchers remained in contact with staff on-site and checked in during the months following the data mural process, and again a year after the project was complete. this is less than ideal, but provides significant qualitative data to inspect for findings. short term outcome: increased data literacy the experience of creating the data mural built students' data literacy in various ways. the interviews conducted revealed critical thinking about the data gathering process. when asked what they would change about the process, one student expressed a desire to collect primary data, saying that she wanted to “get data by myself...from the source...maybe [by] interviewing students". another student recognized and was frustrated with the incompleteness of the data that the school was collecting from and about students. he said "we don’t have data from people that left, how they got independent. we should find these students and validate this information." more importantly, when asked if they learned anything one student responded "it is good to learn how to use information to bring change." this is a critical link being built, from data, to story, to change in the world. another student interview confirmed this link, when they stated "there are a few information that causes a lot of impact, and these things could be used on the streets. it is a drawing, and it has lots of information." an important part of data literacy is feeling less intimidated by data. feeling that you have the power to understand and transform the information into what you want it to be. in terms of accomplishing this outcome, the process was successful. it was also fun! participants said !211 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 that they wished there had been more time for creating the drawings and for collaborative design because they enjoyed those parts of the process. one participant explained that learning how to transform data was unexpected and interesting. another appreciated being able to actively participate in the process, saying “usually professors say do this, do that. it was nice to have you do it with us, really be a part”. in addition to the students, the staff felt like the process gave them the tools to use data in new and interesting ways in the future. one staff member said that he’d think twice before preparing a powerpoint presentation in the future, and another said that he found the methodology easy to teach and to use, and hoped to use the data mural process with other groups. short term outcome: increased connection between nucleos the inclusive process reinforced the connections between nucleos, helping to build a stronger concept of plug as one unit. after the event one teacher let us know that "for the first time i feel that this drawing, with all these nucleos pointing to the plug, feels like one unit. not always do they feel like they belong to this plug." one student said that it was his first time having an opportunity to work with students from other nucleos. in addition, during the entire process students from a media-centered nucleo were filming. they created a 2 minute video documenting the entire project. they intrinsically became involved as the video itself became one of the main outputs of the project, documenting the collaboration that led to the mural design . 4 short term outcome: connections to the neighborhood participants were hopeful that the mural would connect plug in new and stronger ways to the surrounding neighborhood. one student suggested "people from outside don’t know what happens here. now that people see a mural, they will see what happens inside of here. people’s curiosity will want to know what happens here. people don’t go to the website." community members were invited to enter the plug minas campus to help with the painting and some families did come to help. they listened to the music that students had set up. some painted ground-level sections of the design and others who did not paint the wall contributed to the collaborative painting on a large canvas on the ground. however in the short term the process only actively connected a small slice of the community to the plug. the mural design did not include specific commentary about plug’s connections to the community immediately surrounding the school. a teacher suggested that "maybe there is an opportunity to re-use the process. maybe somewhere else outside of plug but inside the community.” there was also discussion of inviting community members in over time to look at the mural or using a photo of the mural to explain to people in accessible language what it is that plug is trying to do. in conversations following the painting, participants felt that the image was a good tool for starting conversations about what the school does. they felt that even if all parts of the image were not immediately understandable, they would raise good questions and initiate valuable see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if-2xwn_jiy and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_9z1c5zeiw.4 !212 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if-2xwn_jiy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_9z1c5zeiw the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 discussions that would not have started if the school had shared information in the form of numbers instead of images. short term outcome: interest in the data mural methodology the arts approach appealed to participants in a way that simply looking at a spreadsheet never does, to the point where they described it as "play." when asked if any of the process would be useful in other parts of their lives, one student replied "working with data with arts – is very interesting… to turn the data into art. " another responded to the question of if they learned anything by saying "i’ve never had this experience to play with data and art. and data can be translated into art." participants highlighted our use of relatable local data as particularly memorable. when asked if they learned anything, one student remembered that we had shared information about cheese production in each brazilian state and responded "the part with the cheese was really interesting". another let us know "at snack time they were talking, and they couldn’t imagine learning about geography with cheese… and trying to transform it into the mural." longer term outcome: reducing skipped classes this example comes from the "oi kabum!" nucleo, which focuses on technical courses in various types of media production. a teacher in that nucleo, andré mintz, had participated in our data mural workshops. the oi kabum! students had noticed that some of their colleagues were skipping classes, but didn’t leave school. many would often relax on sofas at the school entrance instead of going to class. they decided to gather some data to show the scope of this problem. using observation as their data gathering mechanism, the students counted 37 of their colleagues at the sofa area per hour. to share this information, they created a unique visual display of the information and attached it to the sofa itself for a week. these students realized that data could be a powerful tool to change their colleagues' behaviors when presented in a familiar and appropriate language. at it's core, this duplicated the methodology and goals of our data mural process. this example strongly demonstrates increased data literacy. they identified their goal (reducing skipped classes), targeted their audience (students on the couches), gathered information (via observation), analyzed it to find a strong story (the number of students on the couch per hour), and presented it in a creative way (on the couch itself) to try to accomplish their goal. the students used their newly acquired ability to "speak" data to create a compelling visual themselves, which was more likely to be acknowledged and respected by the target audience than a teacher wagging their finger at them. they understood data could be turned into a simple story to engage their colleagues in a discussion about changing their behavior. longer term outcome: telling a nucleo's story students in the youth entrepreneurship nucleo ("empreendedorismo juvenil") were inspired to replicate our process for an assignment that focused on having students make presentations about the identity of their nucleo. they had about three hours to discuss their own thoughts about the nucleo they were a part of. after a discussion they drew their thoughts on posters which were presented to the other groups. !213 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 these students critically reflected on their experience as students, just as we had done in our mural workshops, and thought about the different perceptions of other students. different posters they created expressed similar ideas in different ways. the activity was so successful that it has now become an annual event. as the entrepreneurship nucleo is the only without a specific artistic focus, the posters have become a strong symbol of their membership in the plug community. longer term outcome: aggregating musical tastes returning to the oi kabum! students, in another projects they collected data from their fellow students about their preferred style of music. with the data in hand, they created a musical experience (a "sonification") to share back the results with everyone. they picked a song to represent each style of music and then created a system to play all of those songs back at once, mapping popularity to volume. the more people liked a particular song, the louder it would play. this creative presentation of the data shows a strong internalization of the topics and approaches we introduced. students combined our playful approach to data with their nucleo's topic (media production). they created a fun experience that told an audio story about the variety of musical tastes to any listener. discussion we found that the data mural process increased students’ comfort with data, created a sustained interest from students in using data to tell stories in creative ways, and reinforced connections across the nucleos. the use of playful, relatable data resonated with the participants and created interest in a traditionally dry topic. the arts-based invitation created interest among students in using data in the future. the examples of data-driven arts at plug following the data mural occurred well after completion of the data mural, and included students who didn’t participate in the initial mural creation. this is a significant sign that a nascent data-informed culture is building in the school. the experiences of transforming the data into a story and then into a visual design have been transferred to other youth in the school (either through the teachers, the students, or the mural itself). seeing students transfer this knowledge into new contexts is a strong suggestion that they have internalized the processes and thinking. conclusions as tools and approaches for building data literacy grow we must remember to think outside the digital world for inspirations and approaches. in this case study we offer an example of how to use the arts to invite a non-data-literate population to build their literacy by doing engaging hands-on activities. our unique team of government, academia, and school staff worked together to accomplish the shared goals. we have described our process of constructing a series of arts activities informed by the pedagogies of freire, piaget and vygotsky, and documented how we used these activities in a relevant way for students in brazil. through observation and interview, we showed that participants in the data mural process demonstrated increased data literacy, while at the same time having fun! the students !214 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 used creative tools to turn data into meaningful stories about their identity. plug students and staff also walked away with new connections across the nucleos. while we don't have evidence of sustained new connections between the school and the neighborhood it is based in, the mural itself lives as a statement to the world of how students grow and learn while at plug. we saw longer-term interest within the school after the project was completed, supporting the idea that this type of data literacy initiative was appropriate and contextually relevant for this audience. we look forward to creating other arts-based data literacy initiatives inspired by our learnings from this project. to date, more than a dozen data murals have been created across the world, and the component activities are being used and iterated on by numerous collaborators . 5 references bhargava, r. 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(2015). city digits: local lotto: developing youth data literacy by investigating the lottery. journal of digital and media literacy. !216 http://schoolofdata.org/ 1330-7864-2-ce the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles non-standard typography use over time: signs of a lack of literacy or symbolic capital? new technologies have provoked a debate regarding the role of nonstandard typography (e.g. !!!, :-*). some contend that new technologies undermine literacy while others state that new technologies provide new spaces for expressive writing and signal a form of symbolic capital. while previous research has primarily focused on age and gender to account for non-standard typography, we analyze socio-economic variables – education and income level and the use of nst over time. this study entertains these two competing hypotheses by analyzing non-standard typography in text message exchanges over three and a half months in an underprivileged population: people living in an urban public housing. data reveal that, within this sample, use of nst increased over time and participants with higher education levels were more likely to use non-standard typography than less educated counterparts. experience with texting was found to mediate this effect. findings support a symbolic capital hypothesis of non-standard typography use, suggesting nst is not associated with stigmatizing lack of knowledge or literacy, but rather may signal the knowledge of discourse norms ascribed to texting in a community. !72 asta zelenkauskaite drexel university, usa. corresponding author. az358@drexel.edu amy l. gonzales indiana university, usa gonzaamy@indiana.edu zelenkauskaite, a., gonzales, a.l. (2017). non-standard typography use over time: signs of a lack of literacy or symbolic capital? the journal of community informatics, 13(1), 72—91. date submitted: 2016-06-14. date accepted: 2017-01-22. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1330 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1330 mailto:az358@drexel.edu mailto:gonzaamy@indiana.edu http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1330 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction mobile texting, following its accidental birth via the first text message (neil papworth’s “merry christmas”), was the start of what became a widely popular new form of interpersonal communication. this new form of interpersonal communication includes not only standard language expressions, but also non-standard typography (henceforth nst) (herring & zelenkauskaite, 2009; zelenkauskaite & herring, 2006) or ‘textisms,’ such as the use of texting slang and abbreviations (e.g. u for you; ppl for people) (wood et al., 2014). textisms are viewed as micro-structural linguistic features (bieswanger, 2013) that were first studied in early contexts when mobile phones were expensive and exclusive (e.g. ling et al., 2014). now that most of the population in the united states has a cell phone (pewresearch, 2014), there is potential for studying texts and nst in texts in low-income, underprivileged communities. what are the implications of nst in these communities– is it just a form of bad writing or does it represent an emergent online discourse? who uses nst and can it be predicted by individual level traits (e.g. age, education, etc.)? how do previous trends in texting compare to texting in this understudied context? given debates about the harms of texting (e.g. cingel & sundar, 2012; de jonge & kemp, 2012; plester et al., 2008; wood et al. 2014), our aim is to explore nst use considering education level and other sociodemographic variables of the texters in a naturalistic text sample from us public housing residents over a three-month period. the goal of this study is to better understand the role of demographic, social, and cultural factors that predict nst, and, as a result, begin to understand the functions and meanings associated with them in technology-mediated interpersonal communication in a previously unexplored sample. while previous studies demonstrate a link between nst and demographic variables such as gender (ceccucci et al., 2013; herring & zelenkauskaite, 2009; ling et al., 2014; lyddy et al., 2013), and age (e.g. ling, 2005) or both of the variables (ling et al., 2012), our goal is to assess demographic variables that have not previously been analyzed, including income, education, and experience by particularly focusing on underprivileged population. in doing so, we delve into debates about the role of socio-economic status and media competencies (hargittai, & shaw, 2013) as they are represented in nst use in this sample. we do this by examining nst use over a three and a half month period in a sample of us adults living in public housing communities. we treat the public housing neighborhood as a physical and online community of practice as defined by eckert (2006): “a community of practice is a collection of people who engage on an ongoing basis in some common endeavor.” the physical component of the community stems from the geographic confines of public housing. in the united states public housing represents a low income segment of the population that qualifies them for government subsidized housing, an understudied population in texting research. the online component of the community is reflected by the reliance on group-based texting feature that allowed all the participants to receive all messages as well as send messages sent by any member of a community. !73 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 public housing communities have a sociodemographic composition that is poorer, more often latino and black, and more varied in age and education, than the rest of the us population. given the range of educational backgrounds in particular, we are able to pose a novel test of competing hypotheses about the role of nst as an indicator of a lack of literacy, or, in contrast, as a signal of texting expertise. we refer to the former as the literacy hypothesis and the latter as the symbolic capital hypothesis. moreover, we were interested in the development of community norms as indicated by the adoption of nst use over time. that is, if nst use is a form of symbolic capital, used to signal ingroup status or familiarity within a given community’s social norms, then it is useful to assess nst over time as an indicator of changing community norms within text groups (as suggested by wellman & gulia, 1999; zelenkauskaite & massa, 2012). early approaches to understanding non-standard typography research investigating nst use has typically focused on individual traits to understand patterns and trends, such as age and gender. age particularly has been articulated in texting analysis, because of initial commercial targeting of texting towards youth (for example by offering reduced cost for texting compared to voice-talk in european cellphone providers especially) as an affordable and efficient way to keep in touch (grinter & eldridge, 2001). this new and growing ability to quickly type on a tiny phone keyboard eventually gave birth to the notion of the "thumb-generation" (grinter & eldridge, 2001). as a result, numerous studies have focused on younger adults’ texting practices (e.g. igarashi et al., 2005; ling & baron, 2007; thompson & cupples, 2008), finding that overall younger people text more often than older adults and that texting is central to youth culture (goggin & crawford, 2011; ling, 2010). gender has been another variable used to account for differences in text messaging, including nst (e.g. acision, 2012; bernicot et al., 2012; herring & zelenkauskaite, 2009; holtgraves, 2011; ling, 2005). studies have found that females write longer messages than males (acision, 2012; herring & zelenkauskaite, 2009), and that females and teenagers are the most prolific texters, where females use more nst in the form of abbreviations and non-standard punctuation (ling, 2005). despite this foundation of research on nst production, little work has explored socio-economic factors associated with nst production, such as income and education. at the same time, criticisms have been levied against texting as a tool for encouraging poor literacy (see grace et al., 2015; thurlow, 2006 for discussion). given that, it may be beneficial to examine texting within a group that has more variable education experiences and income (as income is often associated with education). our aim is to broaden this body of work by examining these socio-economic factors as they relate to nst use. a lack of literacy or symbolic capital? we consider a two-sided debate regarding nst as it applies to socio-economic variables. the first approach, which we refer to as the literacy perspective, is based on reactions to nst as indicative of impoverished literacy (e.g. crystal, 2008; de jonge & kamp, 2012; wood et al. 2014). from this perspective, nst is highlighted for its !74 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 violation of written grammatical rules (cingel & sundar, 2012), and is seen as contributing to the reduced ability to use proper grammar (powell & dixon, 2011). the second approach is the symbolic capital perspective, which considers nst to be a function of emerging social norms or symbolic currency within a community of users (herring & zelenkauskaite, 2009). we examine each in turn. literacy hypothesis. the literacy approach to nst use represents the drive to guard the rules of writing currently threatened by emerging new technology and mediated textbased writing norms. discourse on the escalation of these threats, exemplified by the prevalence of nst in formal academic settings (barker, 2007), has proliferated in popular media and thus affected public discourse surrounding it, including the ‘moral panic’ associated with new media use (grace et al., 2015; thurlow, 2006). in support of these claims, researchers have found that frequent text-messaging, as well as greater use of textisms and more varied textisms, are associated with poorer performance on spelling, reading, and nonword reading assessments (de jonge & kemp, 2012). similarly, naturalistic textism use has been found to correlate negatively with reading and spelling (drouin & driver, 2014), and negatively with spelling (but not reading) in canadian students and negatively with timed non-word reading (but not spelling) in australian students (grace et al., 2015). although some studies have also found null or even positive relationships between texting and literacy (e.g. ouellette & michaud, 2016), evidence that texting is sometimes associated with poor literacy reflects lingering concerns that nst undermines the ability to use proper grammar. this may be particularly important to assess within a low-income community where educational resources are often compromised. symbolic capital hypothesis. the initial accounts of nst believed that nst was part of a new universal linguistic tool that functioned across multiple platforms and languages (crystal, 2001). such a view proposed that online environments had triggered the birth of a new “netspeak” (crystal, 2008). this perspective was bolstered by the fact that nst is not unique to texting, and has been observed in previously trendy text-based online communities such as internet relay chat (cherny, 1999; paolillo, 2001; paolillo & zelenkauskaite, 2013; werry, 1996; zelenkauskaite & herring, 2006); instant messaging (ling & baron, 2007); and blogs (vaisman, 2011; 2014). however, the use of nst has not been found to be homogeneous across demographic groups (e.g. differences found by gender noted above; herring & zelenkauskaite, 2009; zelenkauskaite & herring, 2006), suggesting that netspeak, is not universal but rather is composed of a complicated array of communicative practices that vary by community. but what is the purpose of these various communicative practices? if nst is not indicative of poor literacy, perhaps it serves socio-emotional functions within groups. functional accounts of nst argue that it was centered around people (e.g. using abbreviations such as ‘u’ indicating ‘you’, ‘bf’ boyfriend, ‘gf’ girlfriend, and combinations of them). this finding was interpreted as representing relational activity between users. other abbreviation categories included amusement, such as expressing emotions through ‘lol’, ‘hahah’ or similar (beasley, 2009). in other words, beasley (2009) concludes that text messaging content often represents new modes of emotional expression. moreover, users of this community are often not concerned with !75 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 grammatical correctness and these preferences are often (micro)culture-specific (beasley, 2009). insertions, such as letter repetitions, may enrich computer-mediated communication when auditory cues are absent (herring, 2012) and can also convey unique socio-emotional context (darics, 2013; eija-liisa, 2003). that is, texts may reflect the nuances, trends, and priorities shared between people that content alone cannot convey. from this perspective, researchers have posited that nst is part of a creative writing process (eija-liisa, 2003; frehner, 2008; north, 2007). as carrington (2005) contends, “[nst] takes its place as one of a range of texts, literacies and social practices (p.171).” with this claim, carrington (2005) identifies the use of nst as intentional and purposeful rather than a reflection of the inability to write. moreover, nst is also efficient (bieswanger, 2007). given that technologically-mediated spaces require typing of each of the character via a cumbersome keyboard, “correct spelling and grammar are viewed as inefficient and impractical” (beasley, 2009, p. 89). in sum, instead of denoting poor literacy, nst may serve as an intentional and efficient social function by linking people within a shared cultural linguistic time and space. social norms and nst use another way to articulate this perspective is to recognize that nst may serve as a form of symbolic capital practiced by a specific group. the symbolic capital view of nst supposes that users utilize certain non-standard typography strategically or unintentionally to convey symbolic information. as conceptualized by bourdieu (1991), symbolic capital assumes that communicative practices, being based on intricate social interactions, are not value free. interlocutors' intentionality is not only to achieve mutual understanding, but also through language to engage in a pursuit of symbolic profit, be it cultural capital, or a transmission of specific values that could be interpreted by the interlocutor (bourdieu, 1991). another way of conceptualizing this is that discursive strategies reinforcing power are sometimes used to reinforce differences in status – e.g. the discourse of elitism (thurlow & jaworski, 2006). for example, by analyzing frequent flier programs, thurlow and jaworski (2006) deconstructed specific discourse structures that airline companies use to reinforce the distinction between different types of customers (e.g. first class vs. coach customers). such status gets constructed through the processes of “symbolic differentiation” (rampton, 2003). it is thus possible that non-standard typography serves the same function, as a signal of social status or symbolic capital within a group that is delimited by the limits of texting. according to the symbolic capital hypothesis of nst use, then, nst serves as a symbolic currency which signals status within a community, be it through playful writing or expression of intimacy (herring & zelenkauskaite, 2009). hypotheses prior work on nst use has explored its relationship to demographic markers such as gender and age, but has not explored its relationship to socio-economic demographic markers, such as education and income. we move this body of literature forward in two !76 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ways. first, by providing descriptives of nst within an understudied sample: individuals of low socio-economic status. second, we test two alternative theoretical frameworks – the literacy and symbolic capital frameworks—to account for the use of non-standard typography as it is associated with variability in socio-economic status within this sample. as a proxy for literacy, we assess the relationship between education and nst. first, in support of the literacy hypothesis that suggests that nst use is a signal of poor grammar skills or literacy training, we would expect to find that: h1a: participants with a lower education background are expected to use more nontypographic elements. in contrast, if nst is a tool for enhancing symbolic capital within a group rather than acting as an indicator of impoverished literacy, we would then expect to find that nst use is positively associated with education. we thus propose the following counter hypothesis: h1b: participants with a higher education background are expected to use more nontypographic elements. finally, we pose two hypotheses contingent on evidence of h1b to explore the mechanisms of that relationship. if nst use is associated with increased education, and is therefore indicative of social capital, we would expect that nst use would be more directly tied to experience with texting and should actually increase over time as community norms are established. we therefore posit: h2: user experience with texting will mediate the positive relationship between education and nst use. h3: nst will increase over time. method sample and participants there were n=35 active participants in the study who sent 1,531 messages within subgroups over three and a half months of message exchanges. when each participant would send messages, they would be available to every member of the sub-group by using a group-text function provided by the software. such interactions allowed for a multi-participant chat experience for each participant even if a participant’s cellphone did not aggregate group texts as a default function. that is, each message would be displayed on everyone’s cellphone number as any other text message with the name of the texter preceding the message (e.g. marco: [content]). the study consisted of four large texting groups of 8, 8, 9, and 10 active participants. one of these groups contained 3 sub-groups of 2, 4, and 4 active participants. all !77 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 members of each group lived in the same housing development – i.e. in new york city public housing developments. table 1: sample: demographic data all participants spoke english and 70% also spoke a second language (primarily spanish). all participants were paid $30 for their first contact and $30 at study completion for participation in the three and a half month group texting study. procedure participants were recruited from two public housing developments in new york city— one in northern manhattan and one in the bronx. over an initial two-month period, the second author and a research assistant spent 2-3 hours on five separate occasions posting flyers throughout each development (10-15 hours total). flyers advertising a study about “neighborhood social interactions” were posted within building entryways, in stairwells, and throughout each housing development property. this method has been chosen because of the goal of the study to focus on the underprivileged populations. public housing in the united states usually is based on government subsidies to the population that is in need. this method of recruitment was the best suited, given the focus of the study population, compared to other sampling methodologies used in social science research, e.g. methods online recruitment or focus on undergraduate students’ population did not suit the focus of this study. after participants were recruited, an initial information session was conducted at libraries across the street from each housing development. at that session participants were told that they were participating in a study on “how people might use grouptexting to communicate with neighbors.” the second author orally described the consent form in full and all participants were told briefly about the benefits of having strong social connections for neighborhood and individual well-being. participants were then told that they would be given a shared texting number that they could use to text all other members of the group as desired. demographic data age average: 44; range: 22-62 median income <$5,000 a year gender 40% male; 60% female racial composition 14 latinos; 11 black/african americans; 4 interracial individuals; 6 participants did not report race !78 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 each participant sent and received messages to and from each other group member. messages were sent and received through a given participant’s personal mobile phone. the dispatch of the messages took place through a groupme.com, a free web-based software system. each group member received a shared group phone number from groupme.com. yet, text messages were displayed through an individual phone and did not differ from any other text message. the advantage of groupme.com service was that it allowed for group message exchanges—the service that is otherwise unavailable for flip phones that some of our participants had. the study aimed at maintaining a naturalistic message exchange setting, therefore, participants could use their own phones which would not alter their texting experience because of a different device. all texts sent to that number were then re-sent to all group members via the groupme.com platform. this allowed people to participate in group-text exchanges even if they had a flip phone that did not have a built-in group-texting function. participants signed up for the texting group using personal cell phone numbers and a pseudonym of their choice. members of the group were not able to see individual private phone numbers and were not asked to use identifying information, though many participants eventually revealed first names by choice. these data were taken from a larger field experiment examining neighborhood cohesion and health in public housing that examined the effects of group text on neighborhood cohesion and individual health (gonzales, 2016); this is a subset of participants from that sample. measures demographic measures independent variables in the multi-level regression models included: age, gender, race, employment, education, language, and income. all variables were self-reported by participants. age was a continuous variable. gender was a dichotomous variable. race was a categorical variable with black/african americans (1), latinos (2), interracial participants (3), and participants of unknown race (4). annual income was treated as a continuous measure of income range from 0-9 where 0 = < $5,000 a year and 9=$50,000-$59,000 a year. education was also treated as a continuous measure where 0 = less than high school and 5 = four-year degree. non-standard typography non-standard typography in texts was measured along four different dimensions including: non-standard uses of words, use of emoticons, deleted spaces, and nonstandard punctuation marks. a composite measure of non-standard typography calculated for each person across all texts was measured by summing all four nonstandard typography dimensions (see table 2). due to the right skew of these variables, they were then transformed using a square root function. these transformations help to normalize the distribution of each variable, making them more suitable for use in multilevel regression modeling. !79 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 coding categories were adopted from previous coding schemes (e.g. hård af segerstad, 2005). these included content dimensions, such as changes in words, and structural categories such as changes in punctuation and spaces. finally, we used emoticons as a category to account for technologically-embedded constraints related to emotion expression. non-standard words include examples such as gm for good morning, gd for good day, ppls for please; ooops for oops; 2morrow for tomorrow; lil for little; thikin for thinking; nite for night, 4 meaning for, as in example 1: example 1: opps is manuela again..i meant to say same time 2morrow..:-) good night. more conventionally standardized abbreviations such as fri for friday, ok, & for and, thru for through, km/h such as kilometers per hour; min for minute were not included. emoticons were included as graphical emoticons, such as in example 1, :-). emoticons were included if they had ‘eyes’. omitted spaces as a category is used in texting because of the space limits of a given message as in example 1 where spaces are omitted after .. and .. extra punctuation marks included repeated punctuation marks as such as multiple dots or extra characters such as *. users largely engaged in interpersonal interactions dealing with mundane every-day content that include the following: example 2 (read in reverse order): 9:26pm fabian: yes???? 7:04pm james: it was fabian 3:19pm fabian: @ james ...hope it was worthy....lol.... 3:09pm james: lol shady 
 3:02pm flora: lmaoooo it gives you wings they say 
 3:01pm james: both. i need a redbull! lol 2:57pm flora: lol tired or taking a nap 2:57pm james: i went out last night & i'm still "recovering". a subsample (152 messages or 10%) was coded by two coders to calculate interrater reliability where each text was a unit of analysis. after the first set of training, each coding category achieved a satisfactory, more than 80% of interrater reliability agreement based on krippendorff alpha. specifically, non-standard words resulted in an acceptable (lombard et al., 2002) 81% of agreement; emoticons – 100% of agreement; no space – 91%; extra punctuation – 94%. once coding was completed, post-coding interrater reliability was calculated again. post-coding interrater reliability was calculated for an additional 10% of the data (152 messages). again, post-hoc coding resulted in a satisfactory above 80% interrater reliability level based on krippendorff’s alpha for the overall categories: non-standard words resulted in 82% of agreement; emoticons – 100% of agreement; no space – 96%; extra punctuation – 95%. !80 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 texting experience texting experience was assessed with a single item asking participants, “how often do you use your cellphone to send text messages?” (1 = never; 5 = very often; m = 3.97, sd = 1.36). texting over time texting over time analysis was conducted by comparing the first month of texting april (816 messages) with the rest of two months (715 messages). this sorting has provided insight on the initial practices and norms and their evolution during a more extended period of time – the rest of two months. moreover, this sorting has generated similar number of messages useful for comparison. analytic approach to test h1 and h2, multi-level modeling using stata 11 was used to account for interdependence within the four texting groups (rabe-hesketh & skrondal, 2008). it is possible that linguistic style matching would lead to group-level effects on non-standard typography, in that the use of linguistic categories by one person within a mobile phonemediated group may influence the use of that same category by others within the group. there are no theoretically meaningful distinctions between groups, thus we are not conceptually interested in these differences, but rather need to account for them when testing for individual level fixed-effects. to do this, we assess the intra-class correlation associated with the four primary texting group-level effects on nst production. analysis of the intra-class correlation (icc = .24) suggests some groups used more nst than others and supports the use of mixed models to account for group-level effects on nst use. the intra-class correlation was also assessed for the three subgroups, though there was no effect of these subgroups on nst use (icc = 0). for this reason, only the higher order texting groups were accounted for in the subsequent analyses. nst use over time to assess texting over time we have conducted a multilevel regression model on nst use. results descriptive statistics of the 35 participants in the study, over 79% of participants used at least one type of nst (table 2). seven users did not use non-standard typography at all, whereas 41% used only one type of them, and one user used all dimensions (nst in words, punctuation, spaces, and as emoticons) of non-standard typography. !81 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 2: number of types of non-standard typography used within a given message previous research has primarily examined nst use as a function of gender and age (see ling, 2010; ling et al., 2014). in keeping with this research we preformed similar descriptive analyses: males overall wrote more messages (781 messages, m = 61.77) compared to females (490 messages, m = 27.62) and the difference is statistically significant f(1, 394.845) =10109.538, p=.034, but females wrote longer messages than males f(1, 39=18.794) =1022.4, p=.000. males’ message length was equal to m= 7.3 words, while females’ message length was equal to m=9.14 words. however, we found no effect of age or gender on frequency of overall nst or nst by individual category. in a descriptive analysis, we split the sample by median age and compared differences between those groups. in our sample, the group below 44 years old wrote fewer messages (n=681, m=42.5), but used more words (n=5,982, m=373.8), compared to the above 44 years old counterparts (n=767, m=42.6) who used fewer words total (n=5,357, m=297.6), however, the results are not statistically significantly different either for number of messages f(1, 34=.000) =.020, p=.998) or for length of the messages f(1, 34=.222) =49266.472, p=.640). number of types of nst per message table 2 shows that majority of the messages did not include non-standard typography use (55.7%) and the most frequently used was one type of non-standard typography, with only one message using all four types of non-standard typography. nst and message length given that the length of the message is fixed (maximum of 160 characters including spaces), we tested for a correlation between message length and number of non-standard typography. results show positive correlation between the number of words in a given message and non-standard typography for nst words category (r(1280)=.067, p=.016); nst deleted spaces (r(1280)=.079, p=.005); nst extra punctuation (r(1280)=.073; p=. number of nst types messages percent participants percent none 855 55.7 7 20.6 one type 452 29.5 14 41.2 two types 172 11.2 5 14.7 three types 54 3.5 7 20.6 four types 1 0.1 1 2.9 total 1,534 100 34 100.0 !82 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 009). no such correlation was found to be statistically significant in the use of emoticons. hypothesis testing to test the competing hypotheses that nst production signaled either poor literacy skills (h1a) or symbolic capital (h1b) within the group, a multi-level model was conducted that examined differences in the overall use of non-standard typography by education level. in support of the symbolic capital hypothesis (h1b), findings reveal that education was positively associated with overall non-standard typography use, after accounting for other demographic covariates in the model (table 3, model 1). that is, participants with greater education were more likely to use non-standard typography than participants with less education. there were no other demographic effects on overall non-standard typography use. given this result, we also explored a measure of experience with texting as a possible mediator of demographic differences (h2). indeed, participants that were more experienced at sending text messages were also more likely to use non-standard typography (table 3, model 2). moreover, including this variable in the model mediates the effect of education on non-standard typography use. this finding further supports the notion that nst is a tool to convey symbolic capital by signaling familiarity and competence associated with texting. table 3: predictors of overall non-standard typography use in texts after accounting for group-level random effects model 1 demographics model 2 mediator gender (f) 0.27 (1.63) -2.57 (1.91) age -.11 (.09) -.10 (.10) education 1.57 (.65)* 1.20 (.77) second language speaker .70 (2.01) -.73 (2.40) employed .70 (2.54) -.59 (2.56) income .31 (.34) .21 (.44) race latino -1.74 (2.28) -2.59 (2.27) interracial -3.51 (2.53) -1.40 (2.61) non-reported 5.59 (3.20) 2.71 (3.11) experience texting 1.71(.78)* note: regression coefficients followed by standard error in parentheses. *p ≤ .05. !83 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 finally, to determine whether there is a statistically significant increase in nst over time as an indicator of evolving group norms and added support for nst as symbolic capital, we have conducted a multilevel regression model on nst use per message over time using a split-sample dichotomous variable for time and accounting for group effects. descriptive results show that the overall number of messages over time has decreased. yet, the amount of nst increased over time (see table 4). table 4: use of nst over time the test reveals a statistically significant result between april, and the rest of the months (may, june, and july) indicating an increase over time (b = .42, p < .001). discussion previous research has largely examined non-standard typography (nst) use as it varies by gender or age (ling et al., 2014). in this study, we focused on understanding differences as predicted by socio-economic variables in an american public housing community that provides us with access to the participants with lower socioeconomic status. this allowed us to extend previous research to new domains of descriptive analysis and, in doing so, explore two alternative theoretical premises explaining why people use non-standard typography in modern texting communication: the literacy hypothesis and the symbolic capital hypothesis. the findings underscore the idea that, first, nst production is not a function of impoverished education and, second, that nst reflects socially constructed trends associated with texting; that is, it is likely seen as trendy and even an expected norm that develops once a person acquires a more nuanced understanding of text-based communication (see frehner, 2008). just as face-to-face conversation often incorporates slang to indicate cultural capital within a region, community, or even small group, nst is adopted by those that use text message to signal competence with and exposure to a given texting community, in this case small text groups within new york city public housing. in this case, we suggest that nst is an in-group communicative norm rather than deviation from standard writing form. nst as symbolic capital further gets reinforced by the longitudinal analysis. the longer users interact, the more nst they use. the increased use of nst over time suggests that this community members’ do not regard nst as stigmatizing. instead, users may use nst features to capitalize on bourdieu’s (2011) notion of symbolic capital or what darics (2013) calls nonverbal signaling. previous research suggests that users shift their writing styles depending on types of interlocutors (e.g. baron & ling, 2011). future n messages nst n s t p e r message april 816 806 0.987745 may/june/july 715 1,015 1.41958 !84 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 studies could explore the use of nst by lower socio-economic status populations when interacting with various interlocutors – for example, their peers vs. out group members -to identify whether users adjust their writing style to the context (or addressee) to overcome potential stigmatization and stereotypes. descriptive findings we also included descriptive analyses, given a history of research on gender, age, and nst use. in support of previous findings, females did use longer messages, compared to males. this finding of females is consistent with a previous study of multi-participant texting in italian tv (herring & zelenkauskaite, 2009) or nst use by israeli girl bloggers (vaisman, 2011, 2014). this finding, similar to texting in italian tv was interpreted as females being better at packing more content within a limited text message space (zelenkauskaite & herring, 2008b). this type of non-standard use of ‘non-content’ by females indicates that the strategies indeed are less functional but more so based on visual marking in text-based interaction (vaisman, 2011, 2014), arguably a type of symbolic capital within this community. limitations and future research as in all cases, this study is subject to limitations. our corpus has been geared towards an underprivileged population with varying educational and texting experiences that is best suited to test our hypotheses. therefore, recruitment of these participants through the neighborhood project has yielded a rather small participant size. also, most previous research has not studied group-text, which has in the past been unconventional, but is increasingly common in digital communication. studying texting in a group-texting context highlights the community-building potential of texting and can be appropriately analyzed using multi-level modeling to account for the idiosyncratic effect of small group norms on texting. indeed, the inter-group correlation further underscores the fact that groups were acting like small communities. finally, the results show that majority of the messages did not contain non-standard features (around 50%). this finding is consistent with the previous research, suggesting that nst features in texting are not found in all texts not only in mobile texting (hård af segerstad, 2005; thurlow & brown, 2003) but also previously in instant messaging (baron, 2004; tagliamonte & denis, 2008). further studies should investigate the relationship of the intentionality and perceptions of nst in the messages from the perspective of users. some of the users did not use nst at all. are these the people who did not want to be part of this community? are they averse to adhere to this community’s norms? these questions remain unanswered by this study. future studies should address individual differences in nst, especially considering non-users of nst. !85 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 conclusion this study investigates the role of nst as a signal of greater or lesser education and texting experience and its use over time. we employ two competing theoretical perspectives. the first position—the literacy hypothesis—considers that the use of nst in new technologies undermines literacy and is based on a mixed body of previous literature (grace et al., 2015; herring & zelenkauskaite, 2009). the second perspective treats new technologies, and texting in particular, as context in which texting has symbolic meaning and serves as a signal of symbolic capital within a group or community. these two competing hypotheses were tested by analyzing mobile texting messages of people living in urban public housing in the united states. findings support a symbolic capital hypothesis of nst use, suggesting that participants use nst to signal status and expertise within their digital community rather than reflect a lack of knowledge or literacy, as suggested by some previous research (darics, 2013; frehner, 2008; shortis, 2007; bernicot et al., 2012). moreover, members of this community increased using nst over time, despite an overall drop in texts, further supporting a symbolic capital explanation of nst use. as the first study to examine texting between members of a public housing development, we are able to examine socio-economic factors, like income and education that vary more widely than they would in a typical student sample. these findings suggest that users shape technology based on community norms. while new technologies often provoke public uncertainties about changing communication practice (thurlow, 2006; shortis, 2007, grace et al., 2015), systematic analysis demonstrates that new technologies are not necessarily threatening previously-established modes of communication. instead, nst provide niches for user expression, especially in contexts where other social cues are absent, which is crucial to successful conversation. as crystal (2008) suggests, "a strong personal, creative spirit imbues netspeak, as an emerging variety. internet users are continually searching for vocabulary to describe their experiences, to capture the character of the electronic world, and to overcome the communicative limitations of its technology and contributes to various fabrics of linguistic expression pertinent to specific groups and their needs. 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(2006). gender encoding of typographical elements in lithuanian and croatian irc. in f. sudweeks and c. ess (eds.), proceedings of cultural attitudes towards technology and communication 2006 (catac'06) (pp. 474-489). murdoch, australia: murdoch university press. zelenkauskaite, a., & herring, s. c. (2008b). gender differences in personal advertisements in lithuanian itv sms. in f. sudweeks, h. hrachovec, and c. ess (eds.), proceedings of cultural attitudes towards technology and communication 2008 (catac'08). murdoch, australia: murdoch university press. !90 http://elsarticle.com/1ejocvv http://elsarticle.com/1ejocvv http://elsarticle.com/1ejocvv the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 zelenkauskaite, a., & massa, p. (2012). contributing to wikipedia: through content or social interaction? international journal of distributed systems and technologies (ijdst). 4(3), 1-13. !91 fostering cooperative community behavior with information technology tools: the influence of a designed deliberative space on efforts to address collective challenges qian hu assistant professor school of public administration university of central florida qian.hu@ucf.edu erik johnston director, center for policy informatics associate professor school of public affairs arizona state university erik.johnston@asu.edu libby hemphill assistant professor college of science and letters illinois institute of technology libby.hemphill@iit.edu abstract how to encourage cooperative community behavior to achieve collective goals remains an open question. the success of this inclusive approach depends on whether and to what extent all involved--individuals, interest groups, communities, and government agencies--can collectively deliberate and work together. we conducted experiments to explore the potential of an information technology (it)-facilitated communication environment for addressing collective challenges in communities. our unique experimental site is a designed deliberation space that can seat up to twenty-five participants surrounded by a 260-degree seven-screen communal display. we find that when people deliberate on a local community challenge in the environment with a communal display, they show more cooperative behavior in a social dilemma scenario than those who deliberate on the same challenge presented on individual displays. this study highlights the potential of technology for facilitating public deliberation and promoting collective behavior in addressing community challenges. this material is based upon work supported by the national science foundation under grant no. ses-0345945 decision center for a desert city (dcdc). any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendation expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the national science foundation (nsf). introduction local communities have been important platforms for citizens to engage in local and national public affairs. community-based efforts are abundant in a wide range of public domains, including community policing (trojanowicz, kappeler, gaines, bucqueroux, & sluder, 1998), environment protection (beierle & cayford, 2002; ostrom, 1990) and urban economic renewal (walsh, 1996). citizen engagement is particularly high in projects related to environmental protection such as efforts to preserve water, fishery, forests, and land through a variety of community-organized efforts (connick & innes, 2003; ostrom, 1990). how to encourage cooperative community behavior to achieve the collective goals remains an open question. though crucial, realizing the potential of collective action is challenging due to difficulties coordinating the interests and incentives for participation among individuals, groups, communities, and organizations. groups of individuals often encounter a common type of problem known as social dilemmas, in which there are potential conflicts between individual benefits and collective interests. if a group can work together and act toward shared interests, then the entire community benefits and so does the individual community member. however, collaboration requires a shared understanding of the problem, open and meaningful deliberation, and trust in others to act in good faith toward the collective outcome (johnston, hicks, nan, & auer, 2010). from an administrative perspective, the governance challenge normally aligns with the collective action challenge. communication takes center stage in facilitating the collaboration process (balliet, 2010). the thoughtful application of information technology (it) has spurred tremendous transformative changes in how we interact and communicate with each other. information and communication technologies (icts) have be used to develop social capital, create a sense of community, promote cooperation and encourage civic engagement, each of which are crucial to the success of the collective efforts of a community (blanchard & haran, 1998; pigg & crank, 2004; rheingold, 2000). compared with the research that examines the effective configurations and social impacts of online it tools, less attention has been paid to the potential of the it-facilitated communication environments for face-to-face public deliberation activities in community informatics research. this study examines the potential of an it-facilitated environment for promoting cooperative behavior and facilitating collaboration in addressing community challenges. to explore the application to community-based efforts in a broader sense, this research uses the deliberation activity of collective efforts to seek water sustainability as its research context. experiments were conducted to explore the following research question: do different it-facilitated communication environments influence cooperative behavior in a social goods dilemma, and if so, to what extent? ultimately this research identifies the potential of information technology tools to improve community-based efforts and public deliberation activities across a wide variety of problems important to communities. literature review the following section starts with reviewing the important role of community-based efforts in pursuing the sustainability of nature resources. then this section draws from the social dilemma framework and discusses the challenges in engaging citizens and communities in managing natural resources. next, it highlights the role of communication and building social connections in addressing social dilemmas. lastly, it reviews the community informatics approach to facilitating communication and collaboration. community-based efforts to pursue sustainability and challenges democracy is served with the inclusion of citizens and communities in most deliberation processes and especially in dealing with shared challenges (johnston, et al., 2010). community-based efforts in providing local public goods and services are improved with the participation of community members due to their local knowledge about “other members’ behaviors, capacities, and needs”(bowles & gintis, 2002, p. 243). this knowledge helps build and sustain behavioral norms in the community. compared with market and government regulations, community-based efforts are in an advantageous position to build support, trust, social capital, and social norms through the ongoing interactions and relationships between community members and community governance (bowles & gintis, 2002). furthermore, engaging citizens in the process of making and implementing local public policies allows citizens to express their needs and perspectives, understand others’ concerns and expectations, reconcile conflicting interests, and enhance public trust in democracy and government (chess, 2000; renn, 2006). additionally, inclusive deliberation in environmental management can help improve policy effectiveness by eliciting contextual information and localized knowledge about scenarios from multiple stakeholders, reducing public opposition and realizing public support (holmes & scoones, 2000). in water resource management, numerous cases of community-based efforts and public deliberation activities exist in which citizens actively get involved in preserving water, fishery, forests, and land (connick & innes, 2003; ostrom, 1990). various unpredictable factors, such as climate changes, economic development, population growth, and rainfall, etc. may influence the availability of water. in addition, water resources often spread across geographical and jurisdictional borders, which make cross-sectional and multi-party collaboration necessary. thus, public participation can serve as “the driving force for the vertical (state, local, and regional) as well as horizontal (across agency) negotiations vital to decisions, which rarely fit traditional jurisdictional boundaries” (priscoli, 2004, p. 225). in short, participation and collective efforts from community members is very crucial to seeking sustainability of natural resources. however, no easy solutions exist to ensure the success of collaboration between communities and government or among members within the community. researchers have intensively studied the diverse types of social dilemmas to understand the difficulty of collective actions and to explore possible solutions (ostrom, 1990; 2000). social dilemma refers to situations where the individual’s interests conflict with collective interests and the individuals’ rational behavior may lead to a worsening of collective welfare (dawes, 1980). the social dilemma framework helps us understand challenges in engaging communities in managing natural resources. social dilemmas can take on different forms, such as the “prisoner’s dilemma” (where two persons decide either to compete or cooperate), the “public goods dilemma” (where a group of individuals each invest individual resources toward the public good with the risk of other individuals free-riding without any contribution) and the “common pool dilemma”(where individuals run the risk of the overuse of resources by maximizing individual benefits) (kollock, 1998). the supply of a natural resource (such as water) is usually “sufficiently large as to make it costly (but not impossible) to exclude potential beneficiaries from obtaining benefits from its use,” and scholars often refer to this type of natural resource system as a “common pool resource” where appropriate conditions for each of the previously described dilemmas can be created (ostrom, 1990, p. 30). hence, it is worthwhile to explore possible solutions to address social dilemmas in pursuing the sustainability of natural resources, in this case, water sustainability. communication and collective action among the voluminous studies that explore various factors that can facilitate collective action, the role of communication and information use is vital. ostrom (1990) assumed that when communication is allowed and frequently occurs among all involved parties, parties can develop shared norms and trust, accumulate social capital, and establish institutional arrangements for solving social dilemmas. balliet (2010) conducted a meta-analysis of social dilemma research and found that “the most researched solution to social dilemmas is communication” and called for in-depth and systematic investigation into the impacts of different communication media on cooperation (p.39). in a review of 137 cases of collaborative governance, ansell and gash noted that the collaboration process in essence, is cyclical or an iterative cycle “between communication, trust, commitment, understanding, and outcomes”(ansell & gash, 2007, p. 16). echoing with their emphasis on social norms and communication, thomson and her colleagues, in their efforts to conceptualize and measure collaboration in public administration, also noted that the process of building “mutually beneficial relationships” and social norms of “reciprocity and trust” is the crucial dimension of collaboration as a concept and practice (thomson, perry, & miller, 2009, pp. 27-28). in short, key elements in a successful collaboration include building social connections and shared social norms, and developing trust through effective communication. community informatics approach to facilitating communication and collaboration compared with the numerous studies that focus on the distributed communication via icts and virtual communities, studies on co-present it-facilitated deliberations have received less attention. among the various types of it, computer simulations and information display technologies have demonstrated great potential of facilitating group interactions and public deliberation activities. while the large single shared display may not contribute to the efficiency of accomplishing task work, the shard display has advantages in increasing people’s awareness of other collaborators’ activity (koch, 2005; liu & kao, 2005; wallace, et al., 2009), enabling communication and collaboration among multiple users (stewart, et al., 1999), and facilitating the building of a shared understanding of the workspace and the common tasks (scott, et al., 2003; swaab, et al., 2002). research in the field of community informatics has introduced and studied the wide applications of icts in community development, the information needs of the community, and desired technological configurations to build and enhance community relationships (stoecker, 2005). existing research in community informatics revealed that informatics has the great potential to enhance community capacity and sustain the community development (simpson, 2005; stillman & linger, 2009). a communal display has been utilized in real-life scenarios, such as spatial planning negotiation, and community outreach (koch, 2005; swaab, et al., 2002). non-immersive public shared display technology has been used in community outreach and community development, though the understanding of its influence is still limited (koch, 2005). koch (2005) introduced how public shared displays, as a new format of electronic community support tools, can serve as a medium for communication for information exchange and distribution, and the platform to increase awareness of others in the community, foster the collective sprits within the community, and help cultivate possible cooperation in the future. swabb et al. (2002) investigated the effect of visualization system (which provides a shared visualization of different spatial planning scenarios) on the negotiation process. they found that compared with the distributed information presentation, a shared visualization of information can bring in positive socio-emotional consequences, facilitate the formation of shared mental models of the common tasks, plans, and consequences, and finally contribute to the building of consensus (swabb, et al., 2002, p.143). a designed deliberation space can include an immersive computer-simulated environment that incorporates real-time human-computer interface, interactive group support systems, networked laptops, and high-fidelity video-recording equipment. in the united states, this type of immersive environment has been used in training, education, entertainment, manufacture, information visualization, design for architecture and engineering, urban planning, etc. (bourdakis; burdea & coiffet, 2003; isdale, 2003). nevertheless, most of these applications focus on utilizing the immersive environment to visualize the abstract scientific data or concepts, enhance the vividness of multidimensional objects, or simulate the uncertain and complex scenarios. these applications have not explored the potential of such a space for public deliberation activities, let alone policy deliberation on collective community challenges. in recent years this type of designed deliberation space has been used as the platform for community leaders, policy makers, and citizens to get together to prepare the communities for the emergency scenarios, to discuss the school redistribution, to make land use plans and energy plans, and to deliberate on water sustainability (see http://dt.asu.edu/solutions/research). recent studies have examined the impacts of visualization on perceptions and decision making on complex policy issues, such as water problems and public health (edsall & larson, 2006; hahn, shangraw, keith, & coursey, 2007). while these studies highlight contextual and methodological influences of using the space, more research is needed to understand the dimensions, conditions, and magnitude of influence. our research looks at how informatics advances in a deliberation space might further influence the public deliberation process by comparing the interaction and communication when people deliberate on a local community challenge of water sustainability at a deliberation space with a communal display of the problem scenario and a single mouse control, and the other with regular individual displays multiple mouse control. the communal display can seat up to twenty-five participants surrounded by the 260-degree seven-screen integrated display (see the figure below). figure 1: decision theater at arizona state university (http://dt.asu.edu/) based on the above discussions, we propose that the designed deliberation space with a communal display and single mouse control can help encourage more cooperative behavior through facilitation of group communication, compared with the deliberation space with individual displays and multiple mice control. data collection and research methods to test our research proposition, we conducted a one-factor between-subject experiment at the decision theater at arizona state university, which provides the unique ict-facilitated deliberation space for the study. additionally, a regular conference room is employed for the comparison groups that interact with the individual desktop displays and have multiple mouse control. for the problem context of the deliberation, we use watersim, a dynamic computer simulation interface of water supply and demand for a southwest metropolitan region. this simulation interface, developed by the decision center for a desert city at arizona state university, is an interactive web-based model designed to facilitate interactions among citizens, scientists, policy makers, and other stakeholders and to help all involved parties deliberate and anticipate water needs and availability under conditions of uncertainty. this interactive simulation allows people to adjust parameters to explore different scenarios of climate changes, population increase, agricultural water use, and policy choices and see how different combinations of each impacts water availability and sustainability thru 2030. the simulation includes a policy interface that allows users to explore alternative policy choices on indoor and outdoor water use and receive instant feedback regarding their choices. in total, 71 undergraduate students participated in the study during april and may 2010. the experiment among the large number of studies investigating the relationships between group identity, social norms, social connections and collective actions, experiment is the most used research methodology (see bouas & komorita, 1996; brewer & kramer, 1986; chen, wasti, & triandis, 2007; de cremer & dijk, 2002). controlled experiments reduce the possible confounding effects of other variables (such as age, race, and education) when making a causal inference (babbie, 2007; shadish, cook, & campbell, 2002). through random assignment, the treatment and control groups “should be statistically identical on all dimensions, except exposure to the treatment; thus, any differences in outcomes can be ascribed to the treatment”(greenstone & gayer, 2009, p. 27). the random experiment can avoid selection bias and provides an unbiased estimate of the average causal effect of the treatments, in this study, the effects of different it-facilitated interaction environments. table 1 provides an overview of the experiment design and the number of participants in each condition. the treatment is the it-facilitated interaction environment. table1: experiment design and the number of participants information presentation environments number of participants condition 1: communal display with immersive environment and single mouse control 25 condition 2: individual laptops with multiple mice control 46[i] the experiment procedure each time, 4-6 students were invited for the study to ensure that the group can include at least 3 people and does not exceed 4 people[ii] as shown in figure 2, participants were randomly assigned to interact with one of the two versions of watersim. one version of watersim used the designed deliberation space, called “drum”, with a large, seven-screen communal display and one mouse control, and the other used multiple individual laptops with synchronized, identical displays (see figure 3). at the beginning of the experiment, the facilitator presented a three-minute introduction to watersim on either laptops or a communal seven-screen display, depending on the group’s condition. a group activity on water use in phoenix was followed by asking participants to use the computer simulations either on the synchronized individual laptops or on the communal seven screens to discuss water problems in phoenix. participants were asked to identify water problems and create plans for addressing them. figure 2. experiment procedure at the conclusion of the watersim simulation activity, groups were asked to participate in a social goods game, called “neighborhood water recycling project”. each participant in the group was given ten water tokens and was told that there is a new water-recycling project in their neighborhood where they live. participants were asked to decide whether to contribute their water tokens to the neighborhood water-recycling project which will benefit the entire group or keep the water tokens for themselves. the water tokens kept for themselves will keep the original value. the water tokens participates contribute to the recycling project will double in value, and will be distributed equally across the group, regardless of individual contributions. the final payoff for an individual will be the sum of the water tokens individual participant keep and the equal share from the water recycling project. the rationale behind designing this game is that this classic public goods game can capture the dynamics and challenges in community-based efforts to pursue environmental sustainability. there are potential conflicts between the individual benefits and collective interests. while one’s engagement in the community-driven programs, such as water recycling program, will benefit others in the community, it costs time, energy, and resources to engage in such community programs. this type of social goods game can also help us understand how the relationships and connections between participants influence their decisions in collective efforts. if their trust in others or commitment to the collective enterprise is strong, they tend to contribute more to the social goods game. otherwise, they tend to free ride other’s efforts. this social goods game has been widely used by experimental economics to study people’s collaborative behavior in collection actions (brewer & kramer, 1986; chen, et al., 2007). the best collective outcome is for everyone to contribute all of his or her money to the community project. the worst collective outcome occurs if no one contributes any tokens to the collective project. the best individual outcome is if the individual contributes none of their personal tokens while everyone else contributes all of their tokens. the worst scenario for an individual participant occurs when an individual contributes all of their tokens to the community project but no other participants contribute anything. figure 3 (a). condition 1: experiment group setting figure 3 (b). condition 2: control group setting figure 3(a) is the experiment setting with the communal display and single mouse control. figure 3(b) is the experiment setting with individual laptops and multiple mouse control. the figure in red is the facilitator for the experiment. measures of dependent variable: cooperative behavior the individuals’ collective behavior in the social goods dilemma activity is measured by the number of tokens the participants would like to contribute in a social dilemma game. the specific wording we used to set up this challenge states “suppose the neighborhood the four of you live in is starting a water recycling project. everyone in the group has 10 water tokens. you can contribute these tokens to the recycling project that will benefit the entire group or you can keep the tokens for yourself. all contributions made to the water-recycling project will be doubled and evenly distributed to all participants. your payoff for participating in this study will be directly related to how many tokens you have at the end of the activity”. to test whether there are significant variances in demographic variables in the experimental and control conditions, the post-experiment survey includes demographic variables such as gender, ethnicity, and race. research findings and discussions descriptive results this section describes the demographic information of the participants in the study. as table 2 illustrates, 56.3% of the participants were female, 73.2% were white, 14.1% were hispanic or latino, of spanish origin, and 90.1% were undergraduate students. there are more female participants in the study and the majority of the participants are white and asian. table 2: demographic information of the participants in the study demographic variables n percentage (%) gender male 31 43.70% female 40 56.30% race* white 52 73.20% american indian or alaska native 2 2.8 % asian 14 19.7% black or african american 3 4.2 % native hawaiian or other pacific islander 1 1.4% prefer not to answer 3 4.2 % ethnicity hispanic or latino, of spanish origin 10 14.1% not hispanic or latino 61 85.9 % student type number of undergraduate students 64 90.1 % number of graduate students 4 5.6 % number of students who already graduated 3 4.2 % * two participants identified with more than one category for the race variable. experimental results the number of tokens the participants were willing to contribute to the neighborhood water-recycling project measures the collective orientation of participants. on average, participants contributed 8.63 out of a possible 10 tokens (sd=2. 32). because the distribution of token contributions is skewed to the right and concentrates around the high numbers, we conducted nonparametric tests (mann-whitney test) to compare token contribution between the two experiment conditions. table 3: token contributions it-facilitated communication environment token contribution shared display, single mouse control 9.43 (sd=1.43, n=28) individual laptop display, multiple mice control 8.49 (sd=2.24, n=43) note: token contribution could range from 1-10. standard deviations and cell size care given in parentheses the wilcoxon-mann-whitney (wmw) tests show that people interacting with a communal display of watersim showed higher cooperative behavior in the social goods activity (m = 9.43, sd = 1.43) than people interacting with a laptop version (m = 8.49, sd = 2.24) (wmw u = 462.5, z = -2.01, p < .05), which is measured by the number of tokens the participant contributed to a social dilemma activity on water recycling. the man-whitney u test shows that the difference is statistically significant, wmw u = 462.5, z = -2.01, p < .05 (one-tailed). the effect size is medium, r = .24. thus, we found support for our proposition that the it-facilitated communication environment with a shared display and single mouse encouraged more cooperative behavior toward the collective outcome. discussion overall, our experimental results show that when people deliberated and interacted in an it-facilitated communication environment with a communal display and single mouse control, they demonstrated a higher contribution toward the social outcome, which suggests a more collective orientation in regards to the problem. this is consistent with the findings in earlier research which argues that a shared display might not contribute to the efficiency of accomplishing certain tasks but can encourage participation, facilitate discussions among participants, and cultivate possible cooperation (koch, 2005; liu & kao, 2005). this could be because that when people look at the shared display of the problem scenario at the same time, they are more likely to externalize the problem as a shared challenge, acknowledge other’s concerns, and recognize alternative perspectives and questions rather than focusing on his or her own viewpoints. in other words, the social presentation of the problem broke down perceptions of individual positions and created a shared challenge for the group to overcome. additionally, the single mouse control may not contribute to the efficiency of the solving the problems, but it may encourage more participation and interactions between stakeholders because they need to discuss what factors to be changed or what policies to be implemented before any changes in the display can be made. more analysis is needed to understand the mechanisms that the it-facilitated communication environment affects individuals’ social orientation and cooperative behavior. we videotaped the sessions and plan to do a further qualitative analysis on the content of the conversations and gestures that occurred during the experiments. the research presented here is part of a larger research agenda. our research study has some limitations that require more work in the future. first, the participants in the experiment were mainly undergraduate college students, which limits its external validity and generalizability. we are exploring ways to extend the study by running additional experiments with a combination of water professionals and masters of business administration (mba) and masters of public administration (mpa) students. second, we added the public goods games around a pre-existing version of watersim. in the near future, we will be exploring integrating experimental conditions directly into watersim to increase interactivity. third, we plan to expand our experimental design to include three it-facilitated interaction settings for the public deliberation activity on environmental issues to identify the desired features of it-facilitated deliberation platforms. these experiments are designed to not only examine how people communicate and interact with each other on public environmental issues, but also further explore the features of it-facilitated deliberation space that can encourage more interactions, more deliberation, and more discussions. conclusions given the increasing complexity of management challenges, seeking collaboration from diverse stakeholders, organizations, communities, and individual citizens will become necessary for public administration to function successfully. hence, it is worthwhile to explore how to break down the barriers of collaboration, facilitate authentic deliberation processes and support collective efforts to achieve common goals. this research studied an it-facilitated public deliberation activity to identify the potential of certain it tools for encouraging cooperative behavior in community-driven efforts to solve the common problems. our experiment results suggest that when participants deliberate on the local policy issues through interacting in a designed deliberation space with a communal display and a single mouse control, they show more cooperative behavior in a social dilemma scenario than those who deliberate through interacting with individual laptops and multiple mice control. hence, this type of it-facilitated communication environment can provide not only the context for peoples’ interactions, but also an important public deliberation space or platforms for fostering cooperative behavior for community problems. the deliberation space for a social presentation of community challenges may contribute to building shared understandings and a stronger sense of community, and facilitate coordinating collective action to pursue the collaborative goals. our study calls for more attention and future research to emerging information technologies that can enable or strengthen the community deliberation space for creating a social presentation of community challenges. the use of these emerging technologies may further contribute to the formation of shared understandings of the common challenges and coordination of collective actions to pursue the collaborative goals. more systematic studies are needed to further understand both contributing factors and hurdles to the successful collective action among diverse stakeholders. more studies are needed to reflect on effective institutional designs that can encourage use of it to enhance citizen engagement and community involvement in tackling collective challenges. future work will further extend this research. this research examined a particular type of it-facilitated deliberation environment, which used an 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(1998). community policing: a contemporary perspective (2 ed.). cincinnati, oh: anderson publishing company wallace, j., scott, s., stutz, t., enns, t., & inkpen, k. (2009). investigating teamwork and taskwork in single and multi-display groupware systems. personal and ubiquitous computing, 13(8), 569-581. walsh, j. (1996). stories of renewal: community building and the future of urban america. new york, ny.: rockefeller foundation. endnote [i] during the experiment study, due to the problem of equipment, we run extra groups of experiments for the purpose of future qualitative analysis. the groups in condition 2 will be the reference groups or comparison groups, which makes the uneven number of participants less of a problem. [ii] among the large number of experiments conducted that examine the impacts of group identity and social norms on people’s behavior facing social dilemmas, most scholars either include group size as a control variable or adopt a small group size, ranging from three to eight (such as brewer & kramer; chen, et al, 2007). with the focus on interactions among participants within small groups in this dissertation, the groups include three to four people. the mann-whitney test was conducted to examine whether people in different group size make different token contributions. the result shows that there is no statistically significant difference in token contributions between individuals who are in groups with four participants and those who are in groups with three participants (mann-whitney u = 1298.5, z = -.94, p = .35). augmented reality at the service of participatory urban planning and community informatics a case study from vienna florian reinwald1, martin berger2,christoph stoik3, mario platzer4, doris damyanovic5 researcher, institute of landscape planning, university of natural resources and life sciences, vienna, austria. e-mail: florian.reinwald@boku.ac.at researcher & director, verkehrplus gmbh, austria. researcher, department social work, university of applied science, vienna, austria. transport planner & sociologist, verkehrplus gmbh, austria. assistant professor, institute of landscape planning, university of natural resources and life sciences, vienna, austria. augmented reality is a new way of "seeing". one's own perception mostly visual is enhanced through computer-generated information. this can be achieved in a variety of ways see-through devices, head-mounted displays, mobile devices (cf. amongst others, (wietzl, 2007; höhl, 2007). the common features of all these systems is that virtual reality and reality are combined and overlaid, the systems operate interactively in real time and three-dimensional information is provided (azuma, 1997; azuma et al., 2001). this paper is based on the results of an applied research project: "ways2gether target group-specific use of ar and web 2.0 in participative traffic planning processes". it reports on the qualitative and quantitative results of a field study of augmented reality technology applied to two urban planning projects, in particular the development and field test evaluation of an augmented reality app. when investigating the impact of augmented reality applications in the participation process five main questions were addressed: (1) how important is participation in urban planning projects for people? (2) which groups can be targeted with ar instruments? (3) how do different groups assess the use of ar in participation processes? (4) how much can ar increase knowledge regarding a project? (5) what are the advantages and disadvantages of using mobile ar applications, compared with paper-based visualization? in addition to providing a brief explanation of augmented reality in urban planning and participation procedures, this paper makes a contribution to augmented reality applications as planning support systems that adopt experimental or quasi-experimental designs in order to investigate the usefulness of these new technologies and participation techniques outside the laboratory. from reality to augmented reality (ar) initial research on virtual reality and augmented reality dates back to the 1950s (carmignani et al., 2011). however, the first definition of augmented reality was provided in 1997 by azuma: an ar environment has the following three characteristics: "1) combines real and virtual environments, 2) is interactive in real-time 3) is registered in 3-d" (azuma, 1997, 356). while augmented reality has been in use since the 1990s, this has mainly been in research projects, and only a few specific projects have been developed. the first experiences with ar that are of interest for end users, were developed for marketing purposes (höhl, 2007; heldal, 2007). however, for these webcams were used which were connected to personal computers. there are two common ways to provide location-based information: using a gps module or, alternatively, using so-called marker-based technologies. the first approach uses a gps receiver to provide the actual position. the second approach is to use qr codes, so called lla markers (latitude/longitude/altitude detection). only in recent years have mobile ar applications enjoyed an increased presence due to the development and use of ar browsers (e.g. wikitude since 2008, layar and junaio since 2009). the applications are already widespread and are showing dynamic development. due to the current distribution of suitable mobile devices equipped with cameras, data connection and improved computing power, augmented reality applications have become of interest to the end user. at present, this new technology is mainly used for marketing, navigation, in the game sector, in medicine, as well as for service technicians and in tourism. to illustrate augmented reality on mobile devices, different components are required: reality, the built environment, a mobile device with a camera, a three-dimensional plan, and software that can overlay these elements (see figure 1). figure 1: from reality to augmented reality augmented reality and (urban) planning the planning sector is increasingly interested in ar technology. the assumption is that the use of ar can support quality assurance in planning processes (nash, 2010). in particular, architecture and urban and landscape planning could benefit from the use of ar applications. in all these disciplines we usually have to work within a given spatial framework and there are no options for "laboratory experiments" (vollweiler & jung, 2011, 86). reality itself is the framework for planning and design. the use of augmented reality can make a decisive contribution to examining intended and unintended effects in advance. augmented reality in planning is a contribution to the toolsets used to visualize plans and projects. al-kodmany (2002) developed a conceptual model to organize the manifold toolset for visualizations in planning. according to his model, non-computerized tools can be divided into (1) pen and paper, (2) paper maps, (3) photographs and (4) 3d physical models. the corresponding computerized tools are (1) electronic pen and paper, (2) gis, computer-aided mapping (cam), mapping information management systems (mims), (3) image editing programs, motion picture, video and (4) 3d digital models, virtual reality, and urban simulators (al-kodmany, 2002, 190). augmented reality tools fit best into the fourth category. they are more likely to be comparable and intersect with 3d digital models and virtual reality (vr). milgram et al. (1994) also agree that ar and vr are related. they describe a reality-virtuality continuum, calling it mixed reality (milgram et al., 1994). mixed reality combines elements of the real and virtual environments. ar is, according to their concept, closer to the real environment because virtual elements are presented taking the real world as a basis. within the ar sector, different methods are used to combine reality and vitality. höhl in 2008 differentiated between four different possibilities: projective augmented reality, video see-through, optical see-through and monitor-augmented reality (höhl in broschart, 2013). another distinction can be made between stationary and mobile systems. the ways2gether project focuses on mobile-monitor-based augmented reality. currently, the majority of ar applications are used to provide location-based information. the approaches which use mobile augmented reality in planning can be separated into three categories according to the hardware used, the way they determine actual position and which information is provided. the first classification is made based on the mobile devices used: examples such as the "archeoguide" (augmented-reality-based cultural heritage on-site guide), which shows multimedia information such as historical buildings, need special mobile devices (vlahakis et al., 2002). another approach is to use common mobile equipment such as smart phones or tablet computers. these approaches can also be distinguished in terms of the way the location position of the mobile device is determined. one option is to use gps, the other is to use lla markers. an example is "smart walk", in saarbrücke, a virtual tour through different stations to view the project "stadtmitte am fluss" (new city centre close to the river). different visualizations such as a new bridge, as well as information such as noise distribution or flooding simulations are provided by using qr codes to determine position (broschart et al, 2013). another example of these tools is produced by ovos, who developed their own app for the seestadt aspern (brownfield development project in the city of vienna), in order to view the master plan on mobile devices (www.ovos.at.). the future city can be viewed from five different viewpoints which are defined by lla markers. however, you are fixed to the point where the lla marker is set and are unable to move freely within the model. ar systems can also be differentiated according to the type of visual information provided. the most popular ar browsers such as layar, wikitude or junaio work on regular mobile devices but most of the time only location-based information such as restaurant signs, offices or other points of interest such as museums are displayed. the real-estate sector also uses these instruments for real-estate searches, information on the surrounding area as well as for interior design or marketing (lang & sittler, 2013). the last category includes ar systems which use common mobile devices such as smartphones or tablet computers and provide three-dimensional information. mostly they use tailored apps on regular mobile devices. the ways2gether project focuses on ar tools within this category, with the aim of using common mobile devices such as smartphones or tablet computers in order to reach a broader public. we also want to make it possible to move freely within the ar model, and so we have chosen to work with the gps signal. augmented reality in participation procedures augmented reality has the potential to expand the range of instruments which are offered to support (e)participation. it is expected that computerized tools like ar will change but also increase the quality of participation (al-komandy, 2002). the oecd distinguishes three levels of government-citizen relationships in participation and policymaking: the first level is "information" a one-way relationship. information is produced, provided and spread by the responsible authority. the second level is "consultation". a two-way relationship is offered, so that citizens can provide feedback. the third and highest level of participation is "active participation". another requirement is that government and citizens are actively (and equally) engaged in policymaking processes. the oecd therefore regards new information and communication technologies (icts) as a powerful tool which could bring administration and citizens "online" and increase the quality of participation (oecd, 2001). fung (2006) identifies six modes of communication and decision making. he differentiates between three modes of communication: providing information (participants are spectators who receive information), participants expressing their preferences (participants ask questions or express their opinion) or discussions where participants learn more about the project from each other and transform their view (fung, 2006). his distinctions, relating to the decision-making process, are: "aggregation and bargaining", which means that the participants discuss the different points of view based on their own preferences and "deliberation and negotiation" where participants are first informed about different perspectives and, based on this, identify and deliberate on the options. the third approach is to use the "technical expertise" of experts to solve decision-making problems without the participation of citizens (ibid.). ar tools first and foremost provide detailed information and thus lead to a better understanding of the requirements and necessities of a planned project. this enables them to increase knowledge of the project impact by means of spatial visualizations. senbel and church (2011) see visualizations in planning, especially the digital technologies developed over recent years, as a "mediator of empowerment" in participation, and compared these instruments with others such as physical models or films. the result is that each instrument has been found to have a particular strength in empowering people. a combination is needed and the visualization media "have to be embedded in a much larger process of mutual trust-building" (senbel & church, 2011, 11). ar on its own does not necessarily enhance the quality of participation. the whole process of participation has to be taken into account and a balanced set of tools is needed. additionally, instruments and other tools are necessary to give the people, for example, the possibility of putting forward their own ideas or discussing the proposed plan with one another. therefore, when developing the app and its use in participation processes, it is necessary to combine the use of the ar tool with other ict tools and "traditional" instruments. augmented reality (in combination with other ict tools) in urban planning and participation processes has the potential to improve these processes and make them more efficient (nash 2010). to increase the standards and quality of participation procedures, ar instruments should satisfy requirements such as "framework conditions and contents should be clearly and comprehensively communicated" or "equal chances for different groups to participate and influence the decision-making processes should be guaranteed" (bundeskanzleramt österreich, 2008). new presentation, mediation and visualization methods which can be understood by all the parties involved in the planning processes, and which can be applied independently and sustainably, will improve the standards of public participation (siegler & wietzl, 2009). one assumption underlying the development of the app is that the use of augmented reality not only makes it easier for laypersons to understand planned projects but also helps to reach new groups for participation. people not only need willingness but also time to take part in participation procedures. as we know from gender and diversity research in planning and participation, this strongly depends on the life phase and life situation of the citizens (damyanovic, 2013). aspects such as care obligations, physical disabilities, language barriers or the amount of spare time have to be taken into account. inequalities in decision-making processes often result from a lack of participation of certain groups. consequently all the different views on a planned project are not incorporated comprehensively. therefore the ar app was also evaluated in regards to its potential to promote inclusive planning processes. another aspect of the development of the app was the aim to use it in different planning and participation processes. therefore different processes were analysed in order to point out different options and possibilities for using ar (reinwald et al., 2012). in short, the analysis showed a broad spectrum of possible situations in which ar can be implemented. in detail, links and applications for ar instruments have been identified at almost all levels and stages of a planning and participation process; these can be used in different phases and in line with the objectives of a participation procedure. the following have been identified as central points of contact for the implementation of ar tools in participation processes in planning: (1) individual (online) information (and consultation) using additional online/offline tools), (2) on-site information, (3) analysis of the planning area, (4) inspections and on-site meetings, (5) participation in the development of the design, (6) visualization of drafts, and (7) visualization of the final result (reinwald et al., 2012). for the ways2gether project, we mainly focused on the augmented visualization of drafts and final designs. developing the ways2gether app the ways2gether app was developed as part of the "ways2gether target group-specific use of augmented reality and web 2.0 in participative traffic planning processes" project (duration 2011 2013). the basic idea of the project was that by using ar it is possible to make planned changes visible and reduce barriers caused by a lack of three-dimensional imaging. we also expect that new target groups, for example teenagers who are rarely interested in participation processes, or people with little time to take part in participation processes due to care obligations, can be reached with these instruments (jauschneg & stoik, 2012). in order to develop the app, in addition to the aforementioned analysis of possible implementations, an ex-ante analysis of the requirements regarding usability, immersion, accuracy of position, etc. was conducted by means of expert interviews and literature research (jauschneg & stoik, 2012). the main result of the expert interviews was that the effort required for implementation in participation processes, operation and maintenance must be low for the process facilitators, planners and the people who take part in the participation procedures. for the planners it is important to consider the workflow within a planning or participation process and ensure that it is possible to use common data interfaces and software for the development of the 3-dimensional model. to ensure the efficient use of ar in planning and participation processes, the extra expenditure and necessary technical skills for planners must be kept as low as possible. the ar framework of the ways2gether app is therefore based on the metaio mobile sdk by metaio gmbh (http://www.junaio.com), which includes a 3d rendering engine that can be integrated into apps. the ways2gether app (see figure 3) runs in an ios environment on iphones and ipads, and is available through the apple app store. when developing the 3-dimensional models we decided to use "google sketchup pro" because it is easy to handle even for those who do not have professional 3d modelling skills, and because it can export the 3d models in obj format for the metaio mobile sdk. the program can also import models using the dxf and dwg format, which is used by common cad software such as autocad. this makes it easier to integrate existing models in the ar framework and the software is freely available and easy to handle. the capabilities of the ar browser also have to be taken into account during the development of the app. only a restricted number of faces (surfaces) is possible, so the models have to be of reduced complexity to run smoothly on mobile devices (for the exact description of the workflow and the requirements see reinwald et al., 2013). a number of technical challenges are presented, especially in relation to gps accuracy, partially developed software products as well as limitations in the processing power and visualization possibilities (graphics performance) of the mobile devices. the current restrictions on the use of mobile ar instruments, such as processor speed, screen size and resolution, and low battery life, are increasingly not an issue. we have chosen powerful mobile devices (the ways2gether app was developed and tested with iphone4s and ipad2/3) that can handle the necessary visualization requirements and, especially the ipad, have a big screen which is important if the app is to be used for guided on-site inspections. the speed and accuracy of gps systems still presents key challenges, as deviations of up to 7-8 m are possible. when developing the app we also experimented with lla markers to increase the accuracy of the location determination. but on initial examination it became clear that by using lla markers it is not possible to move freely within the model, as the position is fixed. but this free movement is a central feature of the ar app so we decided to develop a workaround. the app regularly uses the gps signal but it is also possible to choose a mode in which the orientation of the model and the position in all spatial axes can be adjusted manually. this enables the model to fit better into the surrounding area. the disadvantage of this approach is that a strong three-dimensional imagination is required to manipulate the orientation. during the field test the models were calibrated by members of the project team and afterwards the ipad was handed over to the participants. components of the ways2gether app the real situation is recorded using the mobile device's own camera and the exact spatial position and direction of view is determined using a tracker system such as a gps, position sensor and compass on the mobile device. this information is processed in ways2gether app and a three-dimensional rendering of the model is generated. using an ar browser (junaio sdk), the 3d rendering is shown on the display, together with the camera image (see figure 2). figure 2: components of the ways2gether ar system the app itself contains two main sections: first, there is the "map mode", in which you can see on a map your actual position and the points of interest (poi) around which three-dimensional models are available (figure 3, left picture). by visiting these pois the users are able to view planned projects on site. the map also offers the possibility of dragging and dropping a specific poi to the current location, so it is also possible to look at planned projects without visiting the site. the second main feature of the app is the ar viewer (figure 3, right picture). this part of the app is used to view the 3d model. the position is continuously updated, so you can walk through the entire model to look at the planned project from any viewpoint. figure 3: screenshot of the ways2gether app the map overview on the left shows the maria-tusch-strasse field test, the ar viewer on the right shows the maria-tusch-strasse 3d model. field tests using the ways2gether app the core objective of the field tests was to test and evaluate the "ways2gether app" under real-world conditions. two field tests were conducted in different urban areas in the city of vienna (austria). two information and participation settings were therefore developed. the purpose of the analysis based on the theoretical findings described above was to examine (1) how important participation is in urban planning, (2) how many participants have experience with public space and street design plans and 3-d visualization, (3) how effectively the different visualization methods increase overall knowledge regarding the project and (4) what are the pros and cons of both visualization methods. setting of the field tests to better compare the results of the field test, two similar examples were chosen both dealing with public space and street design. one field test was situated in the wallensteinstrasse, a (local) shopping street in a densely built-up district dating from the period of rapid industrial expansion. the wallensteinstrasse is a major urban road in the 20th district of the city of vienna with a tram line and many stores, bars and restaurants on the street level. the second field test took place in the future maria-tusch-strasse situated in an urban development quarter. the maria-tusch-strasse is a road not yet built in a planned new city quarter seestadt aspern (aspern, vienna's urban lakeside). when completed in 2028, the future city quarter of "seestadt aspern" will accommodate 20,000 inhabitants and provide jobs for 20,000 people. the maria-tusch-strasse connects a residential quarter and what is known as an "innovation quarter" with commercial use, and should also serve as a (local) shopping street for the residents. in the wallensteinstrasse and the maria-tusch-strasse, field tests for the ways2gether app were associated with ongoing participation processes. in the wallensteinstrasse the "gebietsbetreuung" (local offices of the administration of the city of vienna responsible for city renewal) planned a project to improve the quality of the street in summer, especially for pedestrians. at the moment, the pavement is narrow, there are no trees and the provision of outdoor dining areas is prevented by the large number of parking spaces. it is planned that, as a temporary measure during the summer, the pavement would be broadened by wooden platforms in order to gain space for pedestrians. green areas and sitting space are also envisaged to increase the attractiveness of the street. the "gebietsbetreuung" keeps residents regularly informed via an information booth installed in a public space, which shows people the planned projects. in this context, the ways2gether app was used to inform the people about the planned changes (see figure 4). figure 4: field test in wallensteinstrasse in the maria-tusch-strasse in aspern, the field test was integrated into the information and participation process of the "wien 3420 aspern development ag" (development agency of the city of vienna and investors for the new city quarter). they regularly organize site visits and participation events to inform future residents and interested parties of the ongoing development process and planned projects. the ways2gether app was tested during a participation event on the development of a new residential area within seestadt aspern. building and street-design plans were presented in an "info box" and site inspections for future residents and interested parties were organized. the ways2gether app was used during the site inspection (see figure 5). figure 5: field test in maria-tusch-strasse the aim was to gain information regarding practical uses of the ways2gether app under various planning and participation conditions. the projects differ in complexity. different methods of visualization augmented reality on mobile devices compared to paper-based 3d renderings and/or 2d plans were also used (see table 1). table 1: comparison of the two field tests maria-tusch-strasse and wallensteinstrasse site inspections the people taking part in the field tests in the wallensteinstrasse were mainly passers-by, interested residents invited by the "gebietsbetreuung" and (first-year) students. in the field test in the maria-tusch-strasse, it was mainly future residents, interested parties and planning experts who took part, as well as (first-year) students. figure 6: quantitative data collection process the site inspections always followed the same pattern. fieldwork was roughly divided into the following phases: (1) the participants were separated into two groups, aiming at similar gender distribution in both groups. one group explored the site with the ar application (target group) and the other group with 3d renderings and/or conventional 2d plans (control group) (see figure 6). (2) the group was accompanied by two members of the research team one member informed the participants and the other observed communication and general behaviour among them (= qualitative results). the tour, with on average five participants, took place over a predetermined route and lasted about 15 minutes. to avoid any information asymmetry between the groups, and to ensure similar conditions for each tour, the member of the research team only described the aims of the project (e.g. content and purpose). the inspection paused in several places and the participants had the opportunity to ask questions on the project and the information presented, or to discuss with one another. to create a real participatory situation, no specific information on the two methods of visualization was given to the participants. it was observed whether and how behaviour differed between the two groups. it was also observed whether different age groups behaved differently. the third observed aspect focused on the form of interaction between those taking part and the aspect that most drew their attention (i.e. whether their attention was attracted more by the proposed planning, the form of presentation or the technology). (3) after the site inspection, the participants answered standardized questions regarding demographic details, the general importance of participation in the field of planning public space and street design, and their perception of the visualization method utilized (= quantitative results) (see figure 6). following the field tests, a focus group (flick, 2004, 165-183) was formed to organize reflexive discussion with the members of the research team accompanying the site inspections. all process facilitators took part, both those conducting inspections with the ar tool and those who used a paper-based form of presentation. the facilitators reflected on the course of the tours, the conduct of the participants, the conduct of various target groups, interactions during the visits and where the participants' attention was focused in each case. sample details of age, gender, level of education and the visualization method that was used are summarized in table 2. an evaluation of the data reveals that the total sample consists of 139 people. in some ways, the sample is not representative of overall austrian demographics. the differences are as follows: (1) women are over-represented in the sample, in both field tests. (2) younger people are over-represented, particularly in maria-tusch-strasse. (3) people with high levels of education are over-represented in both cases. table 2: specification of the sample empirical method the samples had to be weighted differently due to the different numbers of participants in maria-tusch-strasse and wallensteinstrasse. the participants in maria-tusch-strasse were given a higher weighting factor (1.74) than the participants in wallensteinstrasse (0.70) (see table 2, last row). to compare the differences in the way the two groups evaluated augmented reality compared to paper-based visualization and two-dimensional plans, an experimental design with two groups was applied. one group (identified as the target group) received information through the augmented reality application and the other group (the control group) through conventional plans and visualizations. to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the two visualization methods, the mean values of different quality criteria were compared. each criterion has a response range of 1 to 6 with 1 meaning very positive and 6 meaning very negative. to indicate statistically significant differences between the two groups a t-test with independent samples was used. quantitative results of the field tests the quantitative results of the statistical evaluation were used to analyse: a) importance of participation, b) prior experience with visualization methods, c) knowledge enhancement, d) comparison of both visualization methods, e) comparison of augmented reality for different planning contexts. 1. importance of participation in general, the respondents stated that participatory approaches in the design of public spaces were very important. being an active part of these participatory processes through two-way communication was also very important for the participants. the results show that active participation, which improves communication with planners and non-planners, is rated high. this is more important for women than for men and is most important amongst middle-aged people and lowest for citizens under the age of 18 and over the age of 65 (see figure 7). figure 7: general importance of participation and differentiation between gender and age 2. prior experience with visualization methods experience of 3d plans and 3d games was explored through the following questions: (a) how often are you exposed to the use of 3d? (b) do you play 3d games (e.g. 3d racing games, 3d adventure games, and urban simulations)? both questions provided insights into experience with particular visualization methods. the obvious assumption that people with more 3d gaming experience are more engaged with augmented reality could not be statistically confirmed. this probably indicates that games are only one place where people may experience 3d visualizations. figure 8: experience of plans and 3d games. the use of 3d games differs depending on gender and age. figure 8 illustrates that about half of the participants have experience with 3d plans and approximately a quarter have experience with 3d games. men tend to play 3d games more often than women. about half of the women and over one third of men (36%) have never tried 3d games. people over 66 years of age never play 3d games whereas people under 18 are highly over-represented gamers. 3. knowledge enhancement the analysis showed that both visualization methods are appropriate for increasing knowledge. figure 9: increase in knowledge following fieldwork with plans and augmented reality figure 9 illustrates that most of the participants assert that they have increased their knowledge about the project. only 17% of the control group (paper and 2d-based plans) and 12% of the target group (augmented reality) stated that their knowledge had not increased considerably. 65% of the target group (ar) and 46% of the members of the control group (paper and 2d-based plans) claimed that they achieved a significant increase in knowledge. 4. comparison of both visualization methods to compare how the two groups evaluate augmented reality and plans, the mean values of several criteria were compared. the evaluation criteria featured a response spectrum ranging from 1 to 6, where 1 signified a very positive assessment and 6 signified a very negative one. by using a t-test, statistically significant differences between the criteria of each visualization method were identified and marked with an asterisk in figure 10 (a significance level of 5% was used). figure 10: comparison of means for augmented reality (n=70) and plans (n=69) figure 10 illustrates that both augmented reality and 2d plans and renderings are suitable for participatory processes. the augmented reality application was evaluated more positively than 2d and paper-based plans, with the exception of a desire for supplementary visualization methods (e.g. maps, delineations or models). using augmented reality makes it easier to identify the position of planning objects (e.g. parking area, plants and buildings) and supports immersive perception. 5. comparison of augmented reality for different planning contexts figure 11 identifies the field tests in which augmented reality was most advantageous. it should be noted that in maria-tusch-strasse the quality of augmented reality (lod) was higher and the planning project more complex than in wallensteinstrasse (see table 1). augmented reality was evaluated differently in both field tests. for the participants in maria-tusch-strasse, it was easier to position planning objects (e.g. parking area, plants) due to the fact that the visualization was more immersive. participants in maria-tusch-strasse also had a desire for more details. this desire for more information probably related to the high complexity of this project. figure 11: comparison of means for augmented reality in wallensteinstrasse (n=46) and maria-tusch-strasse (n=24) discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the use of augmented reality based on the results of the field tests in the following sections the results gained during the field test are reflected on and discussed based on the questions posed at the beginning of the paper: (1) which groups can be targeted with ar instruments? (2) how do different groups assess the use of ar in participation processes? ar as an instrument that facilitates participation and reaches new groups a central task of policymakers is to ensure open and inclusive policymaking processes. citizens should be better informed, public awareness should be raised and participation should be facilitated. the results of the field test show that the participants are highly interested in changes to their spatial environment. in particular, they consider discussing, co-creating and participating in street design and public space to be essential. independent of the visualization method, the participants responded positively to the fact that they had been informed at all. the results show that the majority of test subjects are eager to participate. being an active part of the process, utilizing two-way communication, is especially important for test subjects (figure 7). the "oecd guidelines on open and inclusive policy making" (oecd, 2010) defines principles for policymaking and public participation. one aspect is "inclusion": "all citizens should have equal opportunities and multiple channels to access information, be consulted and participate. every reasonable effort should be made to engage with as wide a variety of people as possible" (oecd, 2010, 6). the use of ict tools is seen as an important contribution to increasing awareness and participation (oecd, 2013, 146). another international approach also focuses on the empowerment of individuals and communities and the enhancement of community development by using ict: "community informatics (ci) is the application of information and communications technology (ict) to enable and empower community processes" (gurstein, 2007, 11) broad and open definition which allows for the incorporation of the different methods and tools used. as planning and participation are processes mostly embedded in a concrete social structure or a community it is obvious that they are linked with the community informatics approach. an interesting aspect of this approach is the "holistic understanding of the relationships between planning and technology" (saad-sulonen & horelli, 2010). one aspect discussed within this approach is the "digital divide". people do not have equality of access to digital information and have different capabilities when it comes to using information technology and digital tools. a study by google shows that 48% of the austrian population older than 16 have a smartphone (compared to 21% in 2011) and 52% of them search at least once a week for local information (services.google.com/fh/files/misc/omp-2013-at-local.pdf). at first glance this represents a huge group which could be reached by mobile ar instruments but also a huge group which is excluded. this is not only those who do not have a smartphone but also those who are not able to use complicated apps. "access" is mostly discussed within the context of the "digital divide". but according to gurstein (2003) it is not only the access, it is the way ict is (practically) used (and developed). he introduced the concept of "effective use". access is just a "precondition" for receiving the benefits of an ict tool (gurstein, 2003). that means that when designing a new tool such as augmented reality, individual needs from the communities involved as well as those relating to the specific setting also have to be taken into account. merely providing the augmented reality app is not enough. for the development and testing of the app we decided to embed the use in an accompanied participation process. we designed and tested the app in the framework where it was to be used and in cooperation with experts and the target audience who stood to benefit from the app. we wanted to see how people used it and what ideas they had to make it more effective. one of our key ideas for the development of the app was that groups who are not included in regular participation procedures such as children and young people as well as, for example, people with little time due to care obligations could use this tool to become more informed. only the use of an age-appropriate language and tools would allow it to include certain target groups like young people in the processes. in both field tests younger people were most interested in ar. younger people play 3d games more frequently, thereby gaining initial opportunities to experience 3d simulation, especially with augmented reality visualizations (figure 8). the field test in the wallensteinstrasse a residential area with a high immigrant population also illustrated that augmented reality applications can help to overcome language barriers, mainly because the model is mostly self-explanatory. so it helps people to get informed and to give feedback, although the language skills of the process facilitators are still crucial. the observations have shown that a key advantage of ar visualizations is that the spatial setting and the planned changes are immediately visible. it is no longer necessary to explain the difference between the already existing environment and the impact of the planned project. people's comprehension is quicker because they are able to focus on the changes and the specific spatial setting as it exists in reality. ar makes it easier for laypersons to understand planning projects laypersons that do not have the knowledge to understand two-dimensional plans or renderings are able to assess future planning in a more effective way through the use of a combination of real-world and augmented reality (broschart et al., 2013). by overlaying these two information levels, it is easier to understand the environmental context of a planned project. quantitative results confirm that, in essence, both augmented reality and 2d or 3d plans are adequate visualization methods in participatory processes. they are suitable for informing people, especially at the beginning of the planning process where a lower level of detail (lod) is sufficient. the majority of participants who used ar argued that their knowledge increased considerably (see figure 9). quantitative and qualitative results show that ar is more immersive, does not overburden the participants and makes the plans easier to understand. the ar tool encouraged users to move freely within a space and observe it from different viewpoints. the comparison of the different field tests shows that ar is especially advantageous where planning projects are more complex. the observations showed that with the ar tool it is possible to discuss measures for change clearly and in more detail than with conventional 2d plans. also the possibility of manipulating the observers was more difficult within the framework of the application of the ar tool, because the planned project is shown in combination with the real world. the comparison of the observations also shows that the application of the ar tool encouraged the participants to look at the representation, i.e. whether the planned design element (such as flower troughs, trees) is shown in a way that corresponds to reality. this effect has two consequences. on the one hand, discussing the detailed representation deflects the participants from the content of the planning proposals. on the other hand, discussion with the facilitators enabled the participants' attention to be returned to the content. thus, for example, the materials for individual items of equipment were discussed. in the case of the paper-based form of presentation, the materials were supposedly easier to identify and therefore less of a subject for discussion during the inspections. however, the participants scarcely focused on the detailed representation. the analysis of the questionnaires also shows that participants evaluate visualization with the augmented reality application more highly than 2d or 3d plans. in the augmented reality group a higher increase in knowledge of the project was found. by comparing the different planning context of both field tests it could be shown that augmented reality is very suitable especially for complex planning projects, which require substantial imagination on the part of the participants. the application of the ar tool shows potential in terms of communication in the interface between planning and people. the results of the qualitative research demonstrate that the details of the planning proposals, with regard to content, can be observed and discussed in greater detail by using the ar tool. the planning proposals can be interpreted more realistically in terms of the spatial implementation. ar influences the communication process during participation one consequence of using the new technology was that the parties involved turned to one another less, as they dealt more with the technology or medium. this has advantages and disadvantages: as already illustrated above, the ar tool led to those taking part in the inspections discussing the planning content more than in the case of the paper-based form of presentation. on the other hand, the discussion related more to the representation, the tablet and the process facilitators. the discussion therefore had a greater bilateral or even hierarchical form. in the case of the paper-based form of presentation, the participants were encouraged to refer to one another and to discuss things with one another more. in terms of the target groups, the qualitative research cannot make any clear statements about whether certain age groups are more or less integrated into the processes, or excluded, by the different forms of visualization. it was simply shown that the ar tool appealed to younger people, which probably has more to do with the question of whether people have access to new technologies or not. the research shows that the ar tool appealed more strongly to technology-aware people and that they were able to integrate themselves better than people who were skeptical of new technologies. it was therefore possible to establish that the ar tool can appeal to different target groups than the paper-based form of presentation. by using different participation tools, it is therefore possible to increase the diversity of the parties involved in planning processes. however, it must also be assumed that this phenomenon will reduce once technology becomes established in all areas of life. conclusion ar in participation procedures there follows a final summary of the advantages and disadvantages of using mobile ar instruments in participation processes. the use of the augmented reality app in the field tests has proven that this new tool can be (easily) integrated in participation procedures and enhances the quality of the participation process. ar is (relatively) easy to implement in planning and participation procedures there are a number of necessary steps involved in moving from two-dimensional plans or three-dimensional models to the augmented reality model (reinwald et al., 2013). if augmented reality is introduced as an additional communication and participation tool early in the participation process, it can more easily be integrated into an ongoing project. when developing the app we made an effort to use commonly used interfaces and free software. using the free metaio mobile sdk for the development of the app satisfies most of the necessary functions (fast and stable visualization of 3d models, a stable implementation of the device localization, lla code recognition etc.). the augmented reality model can easily be constructed with the popular google sketchup pro tool, which enables dxf and dwg files to be imported from traditional cad programs, and also enables the data for the augmented reality framework to be exported in the required format. it has been shown that the basic elements of an augmented reality model can be developed with pre-existing and popular programs. once the app is developed, setting up augmented reality as a field test is quite easy. only a small amount of information in addition to the three-dimensional model is needed to set up a working augmented reality environment. you need a model including textures, location, orientation and a poi where the model should be placed. the necessary download volume is also very low because the files only need to be downloaded once and no further data connection is necessary. the use of open source or freely available software and the consideration of regularly used data interfaces assist in the use of augmented reality. the use of three-dimensional models is now considered standard, especially within complex and large planning projects. if the decision to use augmented reality is made early during a planning project, the additional effort required is low (e.g. model with reduced details for the augmented reality framework). ar reduces the possibility of using renderings to "manipulate" and helps to understand spatial impacts more easily using an augmented reality application which relies on gps for providing location-based information has an advantage over systems which employ lla markers. it is possible to move freely within the entire model. this illustrates the advantage that you can look at the planned projects from all directions and at eye level. this is an improvement over traditional renderings presented on paper. in traditional renderings the preferred point of view is usually aesthetically pleasing. through the use of an augmented reality app the possibilities for manipulating perspectives are reduced. in comparison to three-dimensional models, augmented reality gives you the opportunity to experience a proposed plan at eye level, rather than through overhead views. augmented reality also reduces the effort needed for the development of three-dimensional objects. only the planned changes have to be visualized. it is no longer necessary to create a model for the surrounding area. due to this, augmented reality can also provide a better indication of the height of buildings or different ground levels. even planners sometimes find it difficult to imagine the spatial impact of a planned project. the idea, here, was that augmented reality could also be used to experience an area from different perspectives. we developed a "child's perspective" (height of a seven to ten-year-old child). in the child's perspective mode the height of all objects in the three-dimensional model is doubled. the user of the app can adopt a child's perspective in order to better understand the visual barriers facing a young child. for example, we realized that the planned flower troughs in the wallensteinstrasse were placed in a problematic position for young children because it was not possible to see cars on the street, and the car drivers could not see the children. ar is still at an early stage and further research is necessary carmignani and furht stated that "ar is still in its infancy, and, as such, possible future applications are infinite" (carmignani & furht, 2011, 38). this quote aptly describes the development of ar over the last few years. many (commercial) ideas and possibilities have appeared on the market most too abstract for effective implementation. some aspects that influence ar development, such as the inaccuracy of the gps signal, deviations of up to 7-8 m being possible, are likely to persist for the foreseeable future. however, there are ways to overcome these obstacles: for example qr codes or edge detection within real-world pictures to improve the position of information labels or three-dimensional objects in an ar browser (grasset et al. 2012). ar is seen as a marketable new tool especially in the planning and architectural sector (lang & sittler, 2013). the fast development of ict including augmented reality is "providing a window of opportunity for citizens' participation in urban planning" (saad-sulonen, 2013, 111). a wide range of instruments that offer opportunities for informing people, consulting them or involving them in the planning and decision-making process are readily available. the establishment of new opportunities in urban planning and participation has changed our planning culture, and digital media and has become commonplace to many people (horelli & wallin, 2013, 154). the new augmented reality tool expands the repertoire of methods in participation procedures (broschart et al., 2013, 123). this study especially the two field tests has helped to gain applied and practical experience with augmented reality. this new planning tool assists in participation processes. it can be concluded that (1) participants are interested in becoming more involved in the processes that actively change their environments, (2) predominantly younger and male participants are the target group for ar, (3) both visualization methods are effective in informing people about a particular planning project, although ar is evaluated more favourably and (4) ar is especially advantageous if planning projects are more complex. but there is still a lot of work to be done before mobile augmented reality applications are commonly used in participation procedures. augmented reality apps have the potential to support many phases of a planning process, not only the presentation of a visualization of the results of a planning process, as tested in the field tests. to expand the possibilities for ar apps and for future development, the following aspects should be the focus of concentrated research: applications should be more simple, user-friendly and easy to operate for participants' own use, participants should be able to offer and exchange ideas and submit statements, additional information should be downloadable and it should be possible to modify the basic 3d models. no online without offline "with the rise of the internet, it was expected that eparticipation could overcome the limits of traditional forms of citizen participation in urban planning. but many case studies show that this did not happen. often the technical tools created new barriers to access." (kubicek h., 2010, 190). the interand transdisciplinary cooperation between traffic planners, landscape planners, researchers, social scientists and technicians has helped to overcome this challenge to an extent. the field tests have shown that the use of ar supports the "translation" of planning contents and also adds to the conventional toolset of instruments used in participation procedures. the tests also highlighted that "online does not work without offline!" (boschart et al., 2013, 125). that means that both are needed: traditional participation tools such as meetings and discussions with real people as well as new methods and instruments that serve to improve the provision of information. different strategies and tools are needed to meet the different requirements of the individuals and groups who depend on the particular environment and living space (gurstein, 2007, 36). the test cases have shown that augmented reality could engage individuals and communities to get involved in urban planning and participation procedures. it enables people to better understand planning projects and especially the impact on the built environment. for the future development of augmented reality apps the focus should be on the "effective use" approach (gurstein, 2003), to better meet the users' needs that became apparent in the field test. lessons learned from the field test in vienna such as the integration of web 2.0 instruments to enable exchange within communities or add interactive elements to co-create the design could be starting points. acknowledgements ways2gether project partners : digital institute for information and communication technologies, joanneum research forschungsgesellschaft mbh, (project leader); institute of landscape planning university of natural resources and life sciences, vienna; mj landschaftsplanung e.u.; kompetenzzentrum für soziale arbeit gmbh fh campus wien; verkehrplus prognose, planung und strategieberatung gmbh; forschungsgesellschaft mobilität austrian mobility research fgm-amor gemeinnützige gesellschaft m.b.h. financed by bmvit (federal ministry for transport, innovation and technology) within the program ways2go, 3rd call (2010) references al-kodmany, k. 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(2012). anknüpfungspunkte für web 2.0 und ar instrumente in verkehrsplanungsund beteiligungsprozessen und ihre umsetzung. in m. schrenk, v. v. popovich, p. zeile, & p. elisei (eds.), proceedings real corp 2012 (pp. 55-62). schwechat-rannersdorf: selbstverlag des vereins corp competence center of urban and regional planning. reinwald, f., schober, c. & damyanovic, d. (2013). from plan to augmented reality workflow for successful implementation of ar solutions in planning and participation processes. in m. schrenk, v. v. popovich, p. zeile, & p. elisei (eds.), proceedings real corp 2013 (pp. 339-348). schwechat-rannersdorf: selbstverlag des vereins corp competence center of urban and regional planning. rohs, m. (2007): marker-based embodied interaction for handheld augmented reality games. journal of virtual reality and broadcasting, 4 (5). retrieved from http://www.jvrb.org/past-issues/4.2007/793 saad-sulonen, j. & horelli, l. (2010). the value of community informatics to participatory urban planning and design: a case-study in helsinki. the journal of community informatics, 6 (2). retrieved from http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/579/603 saad-sulonen, j. (2013). multiple participations. in l. horelli (ed.), new approaches to urban planning, insights from participatory communities (pp. 11-130). helsinki: aalto university publication series. schall, g., mendez, e., kruijff, e., veas, e., junghanns, s., reitinger, b. & schmalstieg, d., (2008). handheld augmented reality for underground infrastructure visualization, personal and ubiquitous computing, special issue on mobile spatial interaction, 13 (4), 281-291. siegler, a. & wietzel, i. (2009). die verschmelzung von realer und virtueller umgebung in der city3.0. in m. schrenk, v. v. popovich, engelke d. & p. elisei (eds.), proceedings real corp 2009 (pp. 83-96). schwechat-rannersdorf: selbstverlag des vereins corp competence center of urban and regional planning. vlahakis, v., ioannidis, n., karigiannis, k., tsotros, m., gounaris, m., stricker, d., gleue, t., daehne, p. & almeida, l. (2002). archeoguide: an augmented reality guide for archaeological sites. ieee computer graphics and applications: computer graphics in art history and archaeology, 22 (5), 52 59. vollweiler, s. & jung, c. (2011). augmented reality als instrument der raumplanung. bacherloarbeit an der tu kaiserslautern. wietzl, i. (2007). methodische anforderungen zur qualifizierung der stadtplanung für innerstädtisches wohnen durch mixed reality-techniken und immersive szenarien. dissertation an der tu kaiserslautern. zeile, p. (2010). echtzeitplanung die fortentwicklung der simulationsund visualisierungsmethoden für die städtebauliche gestaltungsplanung. dissertation an der technischen universität kaiserslautern. villanueva ready the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 editorial a time to pause for fifteen years now, the journal of community informatics has strived to provide a solid venue for research, discussion and dissemination of all matters related to community informatics. working from a fully committed dedication to open access and free publishing, only academic standards have been used to select contributions. michael gurstein, our founding editor, defined the ethos of collaborative endeavor with the support of a variety of people from all around the world. however, as it happens, the realities of producing such a journal had been always challenging. after assuming the responsibilities of running the journal, i discovered that the interest the journal generates faces the complex demands of making it happening, from the technical side to the editorial processes that are necessary for maintaining both the openness and the quality of the journal. in the past two years, the conditions have deteriorated. academic demands on potential reviewers have combined with the limited time the editorial team has experienced, under the specific demands that we have faced. technical support has also created a number of challenges, including a too long period during which the journal was basically inoperative due to its server being bombarded by spammers. on the technical side, the journal is now on a stable position, with good hosting under the university of kentucky’s college of communication and information. the editorial side, however, has reached a point where the challenges have surpassed our ability to keep things going smoothly. too many people have been failed by us. it is unfortunate but real that we haven’t been able to make the journal work. also, my personal target to release the editorship was 2019, and my professional demands are not allowing for a different deadline. !1 eduardo villanuevamansilla editor in chief, the journal of community informatics corresponding author. evillan@gmail.com mailto:evillan@gmail.com the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 so, the time has come to accept the fact that the journal does not have a support system to make it possible to continue operate in a proper fashion. we cannot guarantee a fully open but editorially rigorous journal any longer. this means that we have to stop accepting submissions and that we have to ask for the understanding of those already committed to the journal, to whom i am addressing personally. the journal will continue to be available under its domain, under the same openness that it has been its norm from the beginning. a small number of submissions will be published under this volume, adding to those that are being released together with this editorial. i am completely open to any ideas to return to regular publication of the journal. however, any of these will require a new editorial team. to all our contributors, thanks for your interest and dedication. to all the readers, thanks for your support and interest. i wish you well. !2 1460-article text-8260-1-6-20181031 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 sidpdf: articles achieving digital inclusion of older adults through interest-driven curriculums one outcome of increased life expectancy is that older adults are leading active lives in their third age as they seize opportunities to learn new skills, pursue new interests and hobbies to challenge themselves. however, there are many misconceptions about older adults’ capabilities and aspirations, especially their attitudes towards technology. they are often misunderstood and seen to lack interest and motivation in the use of technology. thus, this article examines interest-driven curriculums in order to achieve digital inclusion for older adults. investigation methodology into this dilemma was best served with a mixed methods approach because, to date, there has been very little research about how technology could support older adults’ interests. the majority of the existing studies consulted were focused on school children in a classroom setting. older adults can differ greatly in their general background and level of technical experience and knowledge. consequently, it would be very difficult to conduct quantitative research with control groups to investigate single variables. in compensation, 131 older adults, five staff members and eight teachers participated in this study. qualitative methods such as observations and interviews (one-on-one and focus group) provided a deeper insight into teachers’ experiences and teaching. older adults were not always able to articulate their attitudes and problems with technology and consequently, observations were often a more effective jeanie beh swinburne university of technology, australia jebeh@swin.edu.au corresponding author. sonja pedell swinburne university of technology, australia spedell@swin.edu.au bruno mascitelli swinburne university of technology, australia bmascitelli@swin.edu.au !60 beh, j., pedell, s., mascitelli, b. (2018). achieving digital inclusion of older adults through interest-driven curriculums. the journal of community informatics, 14(1), 60–-81. date submitted: 2018-10-01. date accepted: 2018-10-15. 
 copyright (c), 2018 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1460 . http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1460 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1460 mailto:jebeh@swin.edu.au mailto:spedell@swin.edu.au the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 means of data gathering. finally, an action research approach was taken to trialling the concepts developed in the course of the investigation. this research comprised of four studies looked at expanding and extending on the four-phase model of interest development by hidi and renninger (2006). the results show that when older adults are taught according to requests based on their preexisting interests, it encourages long-term engagement of technology and ability to integrate technology into their everyday lives, thereby achieving digital inclusion amongst older adults. introduction in the three decades since sir timothy berners-lee invented the world wide web (www), the internet has changed our lives. there is an endless list of advantages that the internet is capable of providing for us. people across the globe are undertaking distance education, updating their social media profiles on facebook, uploading video clips on youtube, catching up on television programmes and keeping track of share and investment portfolios. there is an enormous supply of knowledge and information available through use of search engines like google. we have cloud computing and cloud storage, providing us with a seemingly endless supply of storage space for backing up our precious data, such as our holidays snaps. then, there is the internet of things (iot) making home devices smarter and allowing them to be connected and access the internet. however, if individuals lack the basic technological skills then they will be excluded from accessing many of these digital services and information sources. back in 1965, e. a. johnson invented the first finger-driven touch screen (caprani, o’connor & gurrin, 2012). since then, there has been an evolution of touch screen technology. by the 1990s, we saw the launch of apple’s messagepad 100 and palm pilot 1000. in 2006, microsoft launched its surface rt. subsequently, apple introduced its first generation ipad in 2010 and started selling them in large numbers. then followed a series of different models and the latest is the ipad pro. to date, it has sold more than 350 million units worldwide (statistia, 2018). the reason for the popularity of touch screen tablets could be related to advantages that included ease of use, portability, speed, and ergonomic and lightweight design (baker, waycott, pedell, hoang & ozanne, 2016). these days, touch screen technology is ubiquitous (danialsaad & chiari, 2017) and used from our homes, cars, offices, schools, restaurants, stores, museums, hotels, airports, aeroplanes, and any private and public spaces we can think of. they have become ubiquitous on devices such as our smartphones and tablets that we use every single day (akhtar, kemao & kakarala, 2017). another global trend happening in parallel to the rapid uptake of technologies in everyday daily life is the increased life expectancy of the population (desa, 2015). this being about societal and economical challenges (sander et al., 2015) but it also presents a new array of opportunities with more time available (sanchez-valle, abad & llorenta-barroso, 2017). as a matter of fact, people are living an average of 30 years longer now compared to the early nineteen century (abs, 2017, n.p.). this means that !61 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 we have a large segment of the populations whose needs need to be considered in regards to a more technology focussed life. the ageing population needs to be able to access services and stay in touch with their significant networks. consequently, senior it classes are widely offered and the necessity to teach technology use to older adults stressed in literature (beh, pedell & doubé, 2015). however, such approaches have shown to be problematic as older adults might not see the relevance in attending such classes, feel that topics that are relevant for them are not addressed (beh, pedell & doubé, 2016) or taught in a way that learnings can be applied and retained. this research suggests that in order to support successful uptake of technology, existing interests need to be built upon. there has been very little research about how technology could support older adults’ interests and vice versa how these interests could support the uptake of technology. this research is seeking to create awareness for older adults’ needs, to address issues such as ageing and adoption of new technology. results will inform future research in the use of mobile touch screen technologies by older adults, assisting organisations through curriculum development of life-long learning programs and investigation into future development of possible products and services. thus, the authors examined how to achieve digital inclusion for older adults proposing an interest-based approach. digital economy globally and in australia broadband internet brought about widespread changes in information technology (it) and also had socio-economic impacts on the world. it led to globalisation, interconnectedness, easier communication, accessibility of information, on-demand services and manufacturing, improved productivity and performance of businesses and outsourcing (oecd, 2015). high-speed broadband and drastic reduction of costs for information communication technologies (ict) equipment continued to facilitate the rapid pace of the evolving digital economy (unctad, 2017). along the way, innovations influenced other sectors, for instance health, transport and government (minges, 2016). the digital economy was providing opportunities for smaller businesses in developing countries to connect and grow (oecd, 2015). two billion people were connected to the internet by 2017 and almost usd 8 trillion were exchanged through e-commerce (manyika & roxburgh, 2011, p.1). an estimated 6.5% of global gdp comes from the production of ict goods and services (unctad, 2017). in the ict sector alone, almost 100 million people were employed (unctad, 2017). in some countries, there were setbacks experienced in the 2007-09 global economic crisis but on the whole, the ict sector was relatively resilient. e-commerce sales reached usd 25.3 trillion in 2015 (unctad, 2017). by the end of 2017, there were 4.05 billion internet users around the world (iws, 2018). between 2010 and 2015, while the number of internet users grew by 60%, nonetheless, more than half of the world’s population remained offline (unctad, 2017). in australia, internet subscriptions grew by 5.2% from 32 million in june 2013 to 40.08 million in june 2017 (acma, 2016). this was largely attributed to the strong growth of fibre internet connections as part of the national broadband network (nbn) (cota & jones, 2012). the internet is one of the tools that plays a very important role in !62 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 everyday life. the internet enables us to communicate with family and friends, provides access to online courses, keeps us up to date with news and current affairs and facilitates global transactions of goods and services. therefore, internet access is essential for older adults to take part in society. internet penetration for australia is 88% (statista, 2018 n.p.), however, according to abs (2017 n.p.), between 2016 and 2017, only 55% of australians above the age of 65 years old and over are internet users. this is the lowest proportion of internet users compared to other groups such as teenagers and younger adults. hence, there is a need to consider older adults and their access to internet. mobile touch screen devices the use of mobile touch screen devices is one of the options that could enable older adults to access the internet. recently there has been much interest in human-computer interaction (hci) in researching the use of mobile touch screen devices for older adults (e.g. pedell, beh, muzuno & duong, 2013; waycott et al., 2012). social inclusion would enable older adults to be connected with the world and to other people through the use of cutting edge technology. however, these studies focus more on tailoring solutions than the teaching of technology to older adults. this article argues that in order for older adults to avoid stigmatisation, they should learn the same technology as the rest of the population. one of the key aspects of successful ageing is for these adults to remain actively engaged in leisure activities (nimrod, 2010). it has proven to be vital through fostering of social communications (doyle, skrba, mcdonnell & arent, 2010). technologies are also able to create new opportunities and stretch potential towards development of new activities for older adults (oecd, 2015). in addition, the quality of life for older adults has been enhanced through the use of technologies (reeder, zaslavksy, wilamowska, demiris & thompson, 2011) and simultaneously, enable them to remain connected in an inexpensive and flexible way (satariano, scharlach & lindeman, 2014). moreover, mobile touch screen devices can be easier to use than some equivalent technologies as they accommodate some of the age-related physical and cognitive limitations faced by older adults (upton, upton, jones, jutlia & brookder, 2011; caprani et al., 2011). the close proximity of keyboard to information on the screen could increase spatial contiguity and reduce cognitive load (doubé & beh, 2012). in addition, mobile touch screen devices enable items such as buttons and texts to be enlarged, making them (a) easier to see, and (b) easier to select accurately (caprani et al., 2011). human lifespan and ageing although, the human lifespan is usually determined by chronological age (lindsay jackson, schofield & olivier, 2008) and usually associated with events such as graduation, marriage and retirement as a form of lifespan measurement, no two individuals will live exactly the same life. therefore, kendig and browning (2011) argue that ageing should be described as a transition and that the older members of the population should not be segregated (durick, robertson, brereton, vetere & nansen, 2013). this is because we are all going to age (agronin, 2011) and no one can escape !63 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the ageing process unless they die young (whitbourne, 2008). the stereotypical perspective of older adults as being in poor health, as living in isolation, as lacking sharpness of mind, as not capable to use and/or learn technology and as being unproductive has changed over time (edgar, 2013). people identified in the older adult age group rarely perceive themselves as being old, if they are still living independently, remaining autonomous and are leading active lives (durick et al, 2013). the majority of older adults remain alert, aware, healthy, active and involved with their local communities (betts, 2014). according to sperry and prosen (1996), the stereotype of ageing should not be justified on general decline in cognitive and physical functions. slowing down is not equivalent to being incompetent (saxon, etten & perkins, 2015). older adults are as capable of contributing their knowledge and experiences to their communities as their younger counterparts (harvey & thurnwald, 2009). therefore, it is imperative for older adults to remain active and engaged in their lives, as staying active mirrors interest in the aspiration and motivation to continue with learning (östlund, 2005), that includes technology (durick et al., 2013). technology and ageing generally, technologies were not built with older adults in mind. the main drivers in the advancement of technology usually occur as a result of economic or military influences. the shift in technology changes as society progresses. the impact of technological change has led to the creation of new processes and products, increased efficiency and lower costs, and facilitation of the evolution of economies (wheale & amin, 2010), for instance the stock market and e-commerce. the dot com bubble occurred between 1995 and 2000 (morris & alam, 2012). during this timeframe, there was an exponential growth in the adaptation and usage of the internet by businesses and consumers. despite the bursting of the bubble, one consequence was the advancement in technology enabling people to harness its potential to create social impact (berzin, singer & chan., 2015). societal change was at times slow as it would wait for technology to progress. as people are living longer and thus focusing on their quality of life, they also want to be able to continue to learn new skills and be engaged through their third age. the widespread availability of mobile touch screen devices has reduced the economic barriers for most people living in developed countries. as they continue to become more affordable, there is a shift in the way older adults are able to communicate with friends and families, thus reducing their level of social isolation. even though technology might be able to dissipate the digital divide amongst older adults, their limitation of knowledge and exposure to technology means that older adults are often being left behind. although, there are technology courses and classes accessible via local community centres and houses that are offered to older adults at affordable rates, they often follow a one-fits-all approach. the curricula are often put together by teachers and cover what they consider to be relevant not considering that older adults have different technology needs in terms of communication, do not need to apply technologies for work practices and are a very inhomogeneous group even though they might be of similar age. interests differ widely depending on previous experiences, cultural background and perceptions of purposeful use of technology. nonetheless, there is !64 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 limited education and resources available to facilitate older adults’ uptake of mobile touch screen devices approaching from the perspective of their pre-existing interests. theoretical framework the four-phase model of interest development the four-phase model of interest development developed by hidi and renninger (2006) was illustrated and adopted for this study (see figure 1). it extends and expands on their earlier three-phase model published in 2002 (krapp). the four-phase model of interest development consists of the following: (a) phase one – triggered situational interest, (b) phase two – maintained situational interest, (c) phase three – emerging individual interest, and (d) phase four – well-developed individual interest. ! figure 1: the four-phase model of interest development by hidi and renninger (2006). renninger & hidi (2011) have suggested that triggered situational interest could be sparked by either environmental or textural features, as a psychological state resulting from short-term changes in both affective and cognitive processing. maintained situational interest is described as subsequent to a triggered state. it typically occurs over an extended period of time, reoccurs persistently and involves focused attention (renninger & hidi, 2011). in maintained situational interest, learners are drawn to understand more about particular content, and are inclined to ask questions about it, thus marking a shift in phases of interest (renninger & su, 2011). emerging individual interest refers to the beginning phases of an enduring predisposition indicated by seeking repeated engagement with particular content over time. well-developed individual interest is defined as showing a relatively enduring predisposition toward engaging with the particular content over time (hidi & renninger, 2006). renninger and su report that “learners at all ages with varying experiences can develop new interest at any time but age also affected how and whether interest is likely to develop” (2011, p. 171). related to this research, the authors propose here that it is important to know about existing interests of older adults in order to leverage them in technology learning. as a first step it is important to better understand the relationship between individual interest and technology uptake by older adults. this is partly because the model of the four-phase model of interest development suggested by hidi and renninger (2006) neither focuses on older adults nor on technology learning. phase one triggered situational interest phase two maintained situational interest phase three emerging individual interest phase four welldeveloped individual interest !65 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 self-determination theory (sdt) numerous studies related to sdt were conducted for children, adolescents and younger adults. in high schools, studies included practical subjects such as physical education (standage, duda & ntoumanis, 2005) and within the higher education sector (e.g., universities), subjects such as organic chemistry (e.g. black & deci, 2000), second languages (noels, pelletier, clement & vallerand, 2000), law (sheldon and krieger, 2007) and medicine (williams and deci, 1996). sdt studies have also been conducted in different sectors, for instance corporate (e.g. deci, olafsen & ryan, 2017) and charity organisations (e.g. deckop & cirka, 2000). according to ryan and deci, although motivation is often treated as a singular construct, even superficial reflection suggests that people are moved to act by very different types of factors, with highly varied experiences and consequences. people can be motivated because they value an activity or because there is strong external coercion. (2000, p. 69) self-determination theory (sdt) distinguishes several types and levels of human motivation within a framework of goals (niemiec & ryan, 2009). deci and ryan (1985) define the three important elements that make up sdt to be: (a) autonomy, (b) competence, and (c) relatedness (see figure 2). ! figure 2: self-determination theory (sdt) by deci and ryan (1985). these three elements are the essential foundation of the development of personal wellbeing and social development (ryan and deci, 2000). both autonomy and competence are classified as basic psychological needs and necessary for sustained motivation (niemiec and ryan, 2009). sound learning outcomes are more likely if determined by individuals who feel that they have a certain amount of control over their learning (hagay et al., 2013). motivation can be classified along a continuum from intrinsic to extrinsic (reeve, 2005). deci and ryan (2008) report that the latter theory was indeed a stable idea due to the abundance of research. since the mid-1980s, deci and ryan (1985) have been leaders in motivational research in education. in this research it was sdt autonomy competence relatedness !66 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 intended that this theory would act as a framework in focusing on older adults’ learning and uptake of technology. socioemotional selectivity theory (sst) there has been little research conducted towards older adults with use of the selfdetermination theory (sdt). whereas, in contrast, socioemotional selectivity theory (sst) is of relevance to older adults. mainly because sst is also known as life-span theory of motivation, this theory maintains that as people start to age, they realised that their time horizons shrink (carstensen, 1992). sst was developed by carstensen, an american psychologist (1992). in sst, time remaining is viewed as a constraint. older adults become very aware that there is limited time. perception of time plays a vital role in the decision making towards the selection and pursuit of individual goals (carstensen, isaacowitz & charles, 1999). therefore, older adults tend to be more selective about making the right choices so as not to waste their precious time. carstensen et al. (1999) claim that sst plays an important role; it determines the motivational shift leading older adults’ to invest their time to select and pursue goals and activities that are emotionally meaningful (charles & carstensen, 2009; carstensen & charles, 1998). charles and carstensen (2009) state that ageing brings changes to social and emotional life. besides motivational shifts, ageing also influences personal goals. studies show that younger adults perceive their future as open-ended and therefore they prioritise their goals towards knowledge-related goals. they concentrate on acquisition of knowledge in order to plan for endeavours that would pay off in the future such as getting a job promotion. on the other hand, older adults shift their focus towards emotion-related goals directing their attention towards goal-relevant information to deepen existing relationships and fulfil personal satisfaction (carstensen, 2007) (see figure 3). ! figure 3: socioemotional selectivity theory (sst) by carstensen (1992). a number of studies (i.e. wilson, scherr, schneider, tang & bennett, 2007; barnes, mendes de leon, wilson, bienias & evans, 2004) show that older adults with strong social connections are less likely to experience decline in their cognitive functioning. social networks also contribute towards regaining higher cognitive functioning !67 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 (glymour, weuve, fay, glass & berkman, 2008). therefore, suggesting that older adults might be able to learn technology, in particular, touch screens, when they are attending classes with other like-minded individuals. the study: interest-based classes studies were conducted to create an interest framework combining these theoretical concepts specifically for older adults and their uptake of technology with associated teaching methods. the framework was trialled in practice with teaching methods. 131 older adults, five staff members and eight teachers were involved in total, across the four studies. methodology the methodological approach used in the fieldwork explored the theoretical framework on interest by hidi and renninger (2006), self-determination theory (deci & ryan, 1985) and socioemotional selectivity theory (carstensen, 1992). to date, there has been very little research about how technology could support older adults’ pre-existing interests (boulton-lewis, 2009) and it is a very complex topic with many variables influencing the learning and adoption of technologies. therefore, the authors made the assumption that investigation of the research questions of this study was best served with a range of qualitative and quantitative approaches (patton, 2015). the methodology comprised of in-depth and focus group interviews (qualitative). the latter consisted of background demographics and pre-, midand post-study questionnaires (quantitative). exploratory study there were 32 participants – 24 women and eight men. participants were all above 65 years old with most in their 70s and 80s. none of the participants had grown up with technology. other challenges included illiteracy and problems in speaking english (italian participants). only one participant owned an ipad, which was given to her by her daughter as a gift. the rest had heard of ipads, but had no experience in using them. the study of this activity group was carried out over a period of 12 weeks. the duration of each weekly visit was two hours. it led to video and audio recordings of group interactions (including focus group, observations and journaling). two interviews were conducted with staff members. based on findings from the exploratory study, the majority of older adults; approximately 97% in this activity group had not been exposed previously to technology in general. therefore, their interest in technology was not triggered till mobile touch screen technology was introduced by the researchers. the most frequently encountered pre-existing interests (table 1) included games such as crossword puzzles, scrabble, sudoku, bingo, solitaire, ludo, monopoly and jigsaw puzzles. other pre-existing interests also consisted of drawing, music (listening and playing instruments), cooking, gardening, football, knitting and crafts. these activities were matched to equivalent apps on the ipad by researchers (table 2). participants were also comparing the differences between reading a physical copy of newspapers and a !68 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 softcopy on the ipad. with the latter option, it enabled participants to enjoy multimedia content, such as video clips, and also the ipad provided them with flexibility to enlarge font sizes to suit individual reading preferences. based on observations of duration of involvement, degree of social interaction, facial expressions, questions, and tone of voice, the most engaging apps appeared to be google earth to initiate conversations about home countries and general knowledge, musical instruments, for instance tiny piano and competitive games such as fruit ninja and air hockey (figure 4). consequently, the researchers had put forward an initial phase of no interest to be extended onto hidi and renninger’s four-phase model of interest development to cater for older adults in similar situations. this extended model will be employed by the researchers in the next study. table 1: most common pre-existing interests of participants derived from focus group interviews. figure 4: participants interacting with ipads. pre-existing interests crossword puzzles ludo drawing playing musical instruments scrabble monopoly sudoku jigsaw puzzles listening to music family history bingo cooking solitaire gardening football (aussie rules) knitting crafts watching television ! ! !69 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 2: most common pre-existing interests and pairing of suggested equivalent apps were matched by researchers. comparative study four different approaches were compared, in terms of teaching focusing on differing levels of interest and engaging 35 older adults, both with and without technology, in order to explore their uptake of mobile touch screen technologies. the comparative study took place over a twelve-week period. with weekly visits of about eight hours across four activity classes. the study involved two hours weekly for each activity class. these visits led to recordings of group interactions that comprised of focus group interviews, observations, journaling and questionnaires with participants from their respective classes. in order to investigate the relationship between technology uptake and pre-existing interests more systematically several activity classes with varying level of interests and technology use were compared. these four activity classes were chosen based on the four conditions relevant to compare in regards to: (a) ipad classes – interest in technology, (b) computer classes – interest in technology, (c) water-colour painting with ipad classes – interest in technology and pre-existing interest, and (d) water-colour painting – pre-existing interest. in this instance, both technology classes (ipad and computer) had the same condition of interest in technology because the researchers were exploring and comparing the uptake of two different technologies and older adults’ pre-existing interests. in addition, it has been confirmed that mobile touch screen tablets appear to be a technology that is relatively easy to understand and use for older adults. the study has recognised the importance of structuring a curriculum that catered towards older adults’ pre-existing interests in order to facilitate their learning of technology. self-motivation was a pivotal factor that contributed to the success of the water-colour painting classes for older adults that participated. self-motivation was mentioned in interviews by teachers from the exploratory study and researchers’ pre-existing interests equivalent apps drawing sketchbook pro reading newspapers the age, herald sun watching television youtube, abc iview listening to music abc radio playing musical instruments tiny piano, drum kit, ukulele gardening abc gardening australia, flower garden word puzzles 4 pics 1 word football (aussie rules) afl footy live playing games fruit ninja, tic tac toe, ludo. air hockey, monopoly, bingo, solitaire, jigsaw puzzles family history google earth !70 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 observations of participants and these were further supported by results of participants’ attitude scales towards technology. after some scrutiny of existing approaches, the study found that “self-motivation” embodied in the second existing theory selfdetermination theory (sdt) by deci and ryan (1985) most corresponded to the conditions of this study. this theory comprises of three elements: (a) autonomy, (b) competence and (c) relatedness (figure 3). according to reeve (2005) (table 3), autonomy represents listening and allowing others to work in their own individual way, while nurturing their inner motivational resources and thus promoting valuing. competence is believed to increase over time, thus providing optimal challenges, skillbuilding, encouragement, and tips and hints for progress to take place. relatedness enables individuals to express affection, liking and appreciation. it then leads to sharing of personal resources such as time, attention, energy, interest and other emotional support. these three elements are summarised in (figure 5). table 3. elements and summary of sdt for older adults. source: reeve, 2005 and beh et al., 2015. ! figure 5. elements for self-determination theory for older adults. elements explanations autonomy listens and allows others to work in their own individual way nurtures inner motivational resources promotes valuing self-confidence feeling of being respected, valued as an individual and being part of the community life-satisfaction fulfil purposes, using and share of interest, existing knowledge, life experiences and providing peer-support sdt-oa autonomy lifesatisfaction selfconfidence !71 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 conceptual phase in order for the study to develop a better understanding as to whether the efforts to extend on the interest-bridge model would increase the uptake of technology amongst older adults, an environment was required to trial and translate the theory that was developed into practical guidelines and tools. in order to do so, a pilot class was organised to trial and assess the efficiency of the suggested teaching tools. the guidelines (see table 4) were supported by themes stemmed from interviews with seven teachers conducted as part of this research (not reported here – please refer to beh et al., 2016), and motivational theories from sdt and sst. these are crucial requirements to facilitate with the running of technology classes for older adults. table 4. guidelines developed for running of classes. in the conceptual phase, the concept trialled in this study comprised of the interestbridge model, background demographics, pre-, midand post-study questionnaires, card-sorting exercises and guidelines for running of classes for older adults (table 5). the concept and tools developed were refined after the conceptual phase and will be employed in the next study. table 5. tools developed in the conceptual phase. in-depth study the overview of the study (figure 6) began through seeking participants’ pre-existing interests via background demographics. this took place before the commencement of individual classes. these pre-existing interests provided by participants were not related to technology. additionally, participants were asked to provide the current technological barriers they faced and their technological experiences, with the intention of finding out the factors affecting their learning. the assumption was based on knowledge and confidence being the two main factors affecting older adults’ uptake of technology. the materials handed out during classes and the basic knowledge taught in classes were life-satisfaction autonomy self-confidence purposes own devices handing out materials goals decisions on curriculum repetitions pre-existing interests --self-directed use at home tools developed in the conceptual phase 1. interest-bridge model 2. background demographics 3. pre, mid and post-study questionnaires 4. card-sorting exercises 5. guidelines for running classes !72 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 influenced by the two factors mentioned above. correspondingly, ad-hoc teaching took place in classes and these activities were based on participants’ requests. these activities were completely new requests thus instead of resolving the current technological barriers faced by participants, new technological barriers were uncovered. subsequently, these barriers could be managed through the repetitions of activities during classes. therefore, these formed the basis of the conceptual model for the running of classes. ! figure 6: overview of the study. the tailoring of contents has led to very different contents taught between these groups (ten in total), while, some of the contents taught were more popular than others (table 6). the classes ran were, to a certain extent, ad-hoc based. participants suggested completely new requests. for example, from basic activities such as creating and deleting folders to more advanced activities, for instance transferring of photographs between devices and backing up data. table 6: activities requested by participants to be taught based on individual groups. for example, the majority of the participants from group one had children and relations living overseas, therefore their requests were to learn more about communication apps, such as skype and facetime, in order to stay in touch with their family and friends. due to the different time zones, most participants try to keep in touch with their children and relations through emails. participants from group two requested to learn about photography, which included the use of still camera and video camera and photo gallery. participants were also interested to acquire skills such as transferring of ask pre-existing interests, barriers and technological experiences match pre-existing interests to technology (equivalent apps) development of curriculum with preexisting interests and ad-hoc teaching group activities requested 1 skype, facetime, emails, sync with other devices (smartphones and laptops) 2 camera, video camera, camera roll, photo transfers, photo stream, delete photos 3 downloading photographs from emails attachments, contact lists, photo transfers 4 icloud, e-books, newspapers, email attachments, organise photos 5 e-books, newspapers, backing up of data, youtube, icloud, email 6 organise photos, online banking, share portfolio, online shopping, ad-blocks 7 icloud, backing up of data, calendar, online shopping, updating of operating system 8 bookmarks (web pages), icloud, online shopping, backing up of data, podcast 9 e-books, pay bills, online shopping, microsoft word, search history, icloud 10 camera, camera roll, photo transfers, photo stream, facebook, printing !73 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 photographs from their mobile touch screen tablets to desktop computers and/or laptops as backups. they also requested to learn about sorting of photographs such as creating folders, renaming folders and categorising. some of the participants were committee members of u3as. as their roles include organising meetings and allocating spaces for courses, therefore they requested to learn about microsoft word in order to keep track of meeting minutes and to create newsletters for other members. the researchers went through with the participants the basic functionalities such as font type, font size, font colour, alignment, inserting images and saving documents. feedback from participants about classes based on the feedback provided by participants, classes have been a success. there was a consensus from a large number of participants in written feedback. they confirmed that they had enjoyed the classes and had increased their knowledge of mobile touch screen technology use. success of these classes is illuminated from the feedback provided by the participants when teaching through participants’ requests based on their pre-existing interests: [tutor] was most obliging in covering everything that we expressed interest in. – participant 38. the benefits of the classes are due to the expertise of the tutor, offered new approaches to the ipad learning. – participant 19 thank you for your enthusiasm and willingness to impart your knowledge in answering our questions and following our interests. […] very useful for travel. but i was starting from base – i didn’t even own tablet when i started. […] it has stimulated me to purchase an ipad. – participant 5 reflecting on conceptual and theoretical framework this study has adopted hidi and renninger’s four-phase model of interest development for older adults and their learning of mobile touch screen technologies based on their pre-existing interests. however, findings from the exploratory study indicated the need to expand on the model because participants did not have prior technological skills and were introduced to a new form of technology: mobile touch screen devices. hence, they were not in the triggered situational interest phase and therefore, a no interest phase was added into the model. in the comparative study, findings suggested that the current interest model could facilitate older adults with their learning of mobile touch screen technologies via a bridge. upon examination of numerous motivational theories and results, the incorporation of the self-determination theory (sdt) consisting of autonomy, competence and relatedness would assist in the transition from situational interest to individual interest. this extended model was labelled as the interest-bridge model. however, two of the existing elements in sdt did not cater towards older adults’ requirements for learning of mobile touch screen technologies. this is, primarily because older adults have different needs and priorities when compared to children and younger adults. additionally, socioemotional selectivity theory (sst) was also incorporated into the extended model. consequently, autonomy remained but !74 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 competence was replaced by life-satisfaction and relatedness to self-confidence. in order to demonstrate and ascertain that the hypothesis on interest transiting from one phase to the next is achievable within a short timeframe, a conceptual phase was conducted to trial the teaching concepts, guidelines and tools developed. subsequently, for the in-depth study, a larger sample size assisted with the refinement of teaching concepts, guidelines (table 7) and tools developed in the conceptual phase. the concept of interest-based learning has helped with the reduction of barriers faced by older adults. these barriers included a lack of knowledge, lack of assistance and lack of confidence. across these four studies, results from each had answered the research subquestions posed within each individual study. the approach of harnessing older adults’ pre-existing interests has also facilitated their learning. thus, this research demonstrated that the interest-bridge model (figure 7) is able to represent older adults’ transition of mobile touch screen technology learning from situational interest to individual interest in a classroom setting. additionally, interest as the main driver has increased their uptake of mobile touch screen technologies. table 7. guidelines developed for running of classes. ! figure 7: the interest-bridge model adapted by beh et al. (2015) and informed by hidi and renninger (2006), deci and ryan (1985) and carstensen (1992). conclusion as life expectancy continues to increase, the quality of life is not necessarily equivalent. increased life expectancy could equate to people living in ill health for a longer period of time. however, as science and technology continue to advance, adding years to life could be achieved by the compression of morbidity, whereby ill health is concentrated on the last few years of the human lifespan. in simple terms, we are getting a longer life-satisfaction autonomy self-confidence purposes own devices handing out materials goals decisions on curriculum repetitions of activities pre-existing interests purchase advice self-directed use at home build on life experiences basic tablet interactions apply learnings to real-world context !75 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 timespan for our third age. so, the period of ageing is seen as an opportunity for older adults to pursue new interests to challenge themselves and learn new skills. however, the low uptake of technology amongst older adults is causing concerns with government and local organisations. reports have shown that older adults are slower in the adoption of technology when compared to their younger counterparts. the digital gap among this cohort is widening as they get older. even though technology claimed to support many of our daily activities and promised to make our lives easier, in fact it has not done so for everyone. many older adults are feeling frustrated, as they are constantly trying to keep up with the emergence of new technologies and might have problems integrating technologies in useful ways in their lives, hence feeling excluded from common use. this research has examined older adults’ pre-existing interests and approaches by which it could be harnessed to support their learning and uptake of mobile touch screen technologies. this cohort has provided insights into barriers they have encountered with adoption of technology. they volunteered and persevered through learning basic tablet interactions, applying the learning in real world contexts. their self-empowerment and engagement with their interests has widened, because of their willingness to embrace technology into their everyday lives. by applying their thirst for knowledge to learning about technology, through their pre-existing interests, they have obtained greater autonomy, self-confidence and life-satisfaction. this study set out to extend and expand on an existing interest framework of the four-phase model of interest development by hidi and renninger (2006) and has achieved its aims and goals with assistance from deci and ryan’s self-determination theory (1985) and carstensen’s socioemotional selectivity theory (1992). the outcome was the interest-bridge model, a set of guidelines and teaching concepts for running of classes with older adults. the end result presented the implementation of an interest-based curriculum as a novel learning technique for older adults to take up mobile touch screen technologies. simultaneously, assuring that the activities designed and developed in class sessions were associated with participants’ pre-existing interests that could be incorporated into their everyday lives. in closing, the existing interest model by hidi and renninger (2006) catered towards children and younger adults in the school environment. this research has contributed towards the extension and expansion of the existing interest model for older adults to support their learning and uptake of technology and in this case, mobile touch screen technologies. the skills that older adults obtained through attending these classes would assist with building up their technological knowledge and self-confidence, thus, leading them towards the full use and engagement with the range of products and services that should be available to everyone regardless of their age group. !76 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 references agronin, m. 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(2007). relation of cognitive activity to risk of developing alzheimer disease. american academy of neurology, 69(2), 1911-1920. !81 1110 final the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles community bridging through icts: seeking to overcome digital and community divides information and communication technologies are being utilized to support social and economic development in marginalized communities in developing countries. in this paper, we explore an evolving role for telecentres that of bridging community divides. our research is based on empirical observations through a field study, and a content analysis of local newspaper articles. we investigate ways in which these community mediation strategies through telecentres may support social inclusion and development of social capital. the continuing focus of telecentres in the area of community bridging suggests that the factors explored in this study will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in telecentre implementations. introduction amid ongoing efforts to expand socio-economic opportunities in developing countries, attention continues to be placed on the role of icts in enhancing social and economic development (heeks, 2014; musiyandaka, ranga & kiwa, 2013; walsham & sahay, 2006). at the community level, telecentres have been established as part of development initiatives to facilitate access to and use of icts to improve livelihoods. although denoted by many names such as community multimedia centres, community technology centres or cybercentres, a common definition of a telecentre is “a physical space that provides public access to icts for educational, personal, social and economic development” (gomez, hunt & lamoureaux, 1999: 17). while each !69 arlene bailey the university of the west indies, mona, jamaica corresponding author. arlene.bailey@uwimona.edu.jm ojelanki ngwenyama ryerson university, canada; university of cape town, south africa. ojelanki@ryerson.ca; o.ngwenyama@uct.ac.za bailey, a., ngwenyama, o. (2016). community bridging through icts: seeking to overcome digital and community divides. the journal of community informatics, 12(1), 69-89. date submitted: 2014-01-28. date accepted: 2015-07-10. copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1110 . http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1110 mailto:arlene.bailey@uwimona.edu.jm mailto:ojelanki@ryerson.ca mailto:o.ngwenyama@uct.ac.za http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1110 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 telecentre may focus on particular activities based on their community context, they may share a common focus on issues such as community development, social inclusion, and assisting with employment opportunities for community members. more specifically, there is evidence about the role of icts in community integration, crime prevention and peace-building (paul & rath, 2014; erete, 2013; pal, freistadt, frix & neff, 2009; warschauer, 2003). while this role may not have been an explicitly articulated goal in some telecentre implementations, this is an outcome which has been observed. this has led to telecentres being implemented with this specific mandate, as developing societies seek to decrease levels of crime and violence. research has articulated the need for policies to integrate the role of telecentres in violence prevention initiatives (lima & furtado, 2008). with a continuing focus on enhancing social and economic development, many telecentres in developing contexts are now being positioned to facilitate bridging activities across communities or among community members. as a result, given the importance of violence prevention in enhancing a community’s quality of life, it is useful to examine the benefits and challenges of the current approaches, and potential enhancements. we investigate the role of telecentres in violence prevention strategies and ways in which these telecentre implementations can be designed to improve community outcomes. given the debate on the level of contribution of icts to development (silva & westrup, 2009; diaz andrade & urquhart, 2007; heeks, 2002; avgerou & walsham, 2000) zheng (2009) suggests that there should be clearer articulation of how and to which aspects of development icts contribute. useful insights can be gained through studies of icts for development initiatives which consider the social processes in the implementation environment (kleine, 2013; rajao & hayes, 2009; avgerou & walsham, 2000). in the context of telecentre initiatives, it is noted that studies which explore outcomes, lessons learned and their relationship with telecentre sustainability and social change can be useful in guiding further development (avgerou, 2008). the deployment of telecentres, which seek to contribute to social and economic development, particularly in rural, low-income or marginalized communities, is a key component of ict for development initiatives. noir and walsham (2007) contend that assessments of ict for development initiatives should be able to measure achievements which result other than planned outcomes. further, kleine and unwin (2009) argue that it is important to take into account experiences from the implementation of ict for development initiatives. gomez and camacho (2009) highlight the need for further in-depth studies on the usage of telecentres and other public access initiatives. the issue of social exclusion arising from some of the current approaches to the deployment of icts for development has also been discussed in the literature. placing development and inclusion as the focus, rather than access to technologies, has been highlighted as an approach to overcoming one of the divides – the socio-techno divide (roode, speight, pollock & webber, 2004). the importance of digital inclusion as a focus of these initiatives has been highlighted (nemer, 2015). based on the objectives of telecentre implementations, they are well-positioned to assist with bridging the digital, community and social divides, in an effort to support digital and social inclusion. some researchers have suggested research focus on the dialogue and storytelling that may occur in communities around the community technology centres, and the sense of belonging and collective efficacy that can result (hayden & ball!70 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 rokeach, 2007). while there are studies on the importance of self-efficacy in the adoption of information technologies (qureshi, kamal & good, 2008; hsu & chiu, 2004), very little research has focused on understanding how self-efficacy and other concepts in social cognitive theory (sct) might help explain how telecentres mediate or are implicated in community bridging and integration. in this paper, we use concepts from social cognitive theory (bandura, 1988, 1991, 2002) to develop and understanding of the emerging role of telecentres in social interventions involving bridging community divides and violence prevention. we use a qualitative approach to investigate the perspectives of telecentre stakeholders and community members to determine the factors influencing this role and the perception of the value of this role in the community. the rest of the paper is organized as follows: in the next section, we discuss related literature on telecentres and social interventions towards socio-economic development. the research context and method are then discussed and the findings are presented in the following section. an analysis of the findings is followed by a discussion of the implications for future research in the concluding section. related literature as societies seek to mitigate crime levels, various crime prevention measures have been implemented. several of the current approaches focus on addressing the socio-economic causes of crime and violence (pain, 2000). research has found that the formation of social bonds and social capital through community participation are of particular importance in crime prevention strategies (saegert & winkel, 2004). further, the design of crime prevention strategies and related social spaces should take into account the need for social inclusion and its influence on community participation (timms & ferlander, 2010). icts and telecentres have been seen as potential facilitators of community building and well-being (ibrahim & ainin, 2012). the ongoing impact of unemployment on crime levels in inner-city communities has been highlighted by levy (1996). youth, particularly males in marginalized communities, are exposed or involved in community conflict and violence from an early age (chevannes, 1999; gayle, 2002). due to inadequate employment opportunities, young people are at risk of becoming involved in gangs, which can lead to increased inter-community conflict (anderson, 2007). further, illiterate youth are more likely to exhibit delinquent behavior such as participating in gangs, carrying a weapon or fighting (fox & gordon-strachan, 2007). harriott (2001) reports that most residents of inner-city communities are aware of the benefits of education and a good work ethic, and given the opportunity are willing to participate. the role which interactions on the street corner plays in the formation of the identity of males in marginalized communities has been highlighted by chevannes (2003). as the social and economic costs of violence continue to be reflected in the society, there have been calls for a greater focus on inter-community relations as a means to resolve community conflicts (bailey, branche & henry-lee, 2003). kuriyan, toyama and ray (2006) argue for increased empirical research to investigate the relationship between services provided by rural community access points and social development. accordingly, there have been increasing calls for further research on the !71 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 integration of telecentre services with the social realities of communities (harris, kumar & balaji, 2003; kuriyan et al., 2006; roman, 2003; roman & colle, 2002). warschauer (2003) calls for greater attention to be placed on investigating “social structures, social problems, social organisation, and social relations” (p. 211). kumar and best (2006) also note that there are a limited number of studies investigating the social impacts of telecentres in communities. in particular, communities facing challenges of issues related to violence, need to have supporting factors of community organization and communication to be able to facilitate change (gomez & barón-porras, 2010). theoretical perspective while some empirical studies have found that telecentres have played a role in community engagement (gould & gomez, 2010), how this happens is not well understood. three foundational concepts: social learning, self-efficacy and self-regulation, from social cognitive theory (sct), provide a useful lens for developing an understanding of the role that telecentres play in community engagement (roman, 2003). sct posits that individual behavior is based on and guided by learning from observing others within the social environment. bandura (1988) refers to this as social learning and notes that it occurs and is reinforced through mediated interaction with key role models. or put a different way, individuals in a social setting model their behaviors by observing and reproducing role types legitimized in the social environment. a key insight of sct is that the aspirations and beliefs upon which an individual acts are transmitted to him/her by the social environment and ‘role models’ that legitimize certain behaviors (bandura, 1991b, 2002; andersen and chen, 2002). social learning involves the processing of social experiences (observing the performance of referent others, interpreting meaning and consequences) and developing internal principles and standards for future actions. furthermore, sct posits that social learning is the generative basis of both individual and collective action and self-efficacy (bandura, 2000). self-efficacy encompasses not only competences for successful performance, but what the individual or collective believes it can do in different in different circumstances. according to bandura (1991a) and stajkovic and luthans (1998), individuals develop not only self-efficacy and self-regulation, but their beliefs and relational self-identity through social learning. social learning is viewed as the vehicle through which individuals come to self-identify with a community, conform to its norms and collaborate on its development and growth (shea & bidjerano, 2010; wenger, 2000; schusler, 2003). just as self-efficacy is viewed as the basic individual action, collective self-efficacy is seen as the basis for community engagement and actions that lead to development and growth in virtual and face-to-face communities (hsu, et. al., 2007; shea & bidjerano, 2010). from the perspective of sct, both individual and collective action can be viewed as self-reflexive processes in which the individual or collective use social knowledge to assess the social situation, weigh the consequences of potential actions in the light of goals/expectations and community sanctions (bandura, 2001; 1989). elsewhere, saegert and winkel (2004) argue that collective self-efficacy supports ‘social cohesion among neighbors’ and enable collaboration on shared goals ‘such as preventing crime and juvenile delinquency’. !72 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 further, sampson, raudenbusch & earls (1997) noted that less violent crime was found in communities which had greater collective efficacy. research context and method as community access initiatives continue to be developed in the caribbean region to facilitate the empowerment of disadvantaged communities, bridge the digital gap and enhance human development, further research is useful in this area (kleine, 2013; uneclac, 2006). in the caribbean and jamaican context, telecentres continue to be integrated in the design of initiatives aimed at contributing to social and economic development (bailey & ngwenyama, 2010; davis, 2005; durrant, 2006). telecentres in jamaica have been established through a number of initiatives and partnerships among international agencies such as the united nations development programme (undp), the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (unesco), inter-american development bank (idb), in collaboration with the government of jamaica (goj), non-profit non-governmental organizations (ngos), communitybased organizations (cbos) and private sector organizations. a non-governmental organization which has specifically established telecentres as part of community mediation and violence prevention initiatives is the violence prevention alliance (vpa). in conjunction with the ministry of health’s healthy lifestyles programme, in order to mitigate the impact of increased exposure to violence, and to try to reduce the levels of violence and community conflict, the violence prevention alliance has piloted literacy, computer literacy and homework programmes at centres in the community (samms-vaughan, 2008). other organizations, through corporate social responsibility or university-community engagement initiatives, have also been involved in ict initiatives with community mediation components. these partnerships provide scope for research with the communities (gurstein, 2011). this research paper builds on a component of a multi-method, multi-perspective study conducted by the authors (2010). seven telecentres were selected for this study based on a typology of key characteristics of telecentres articulated by colle (2000). sites were purposively chosen to represent different operational characteristics, funding and host institutions, thematic focus and geographic area. table 1 outlines the telecentres which are part of this study and provides information on the data collection methods employed at each telecentre. table 1: description of telecentres in study name of telecentre parish area interviews survey of users staff users association of clubs westmoreland rural 3 !73 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 direct observation and in-depth semi-structured interviews with telecentre staff and users were conducted at the telecentres. a survey of users was also conducted. some of these stakeholders were also active members of their community-based organizations. visits to the telecentres were conducted on varying days and times during the week, including weekends. given the absence of a database of users for each of the telecentres, users who visited the telecentre during the research period were invited to participate. all staff at each telecentre were invited to participate in the study. the interview guide included questions on the history of the telecentre, services and programmes offered by the telecentres, the level of usage of these services and programmes, demographics of the users, experiences and linkages with the community and other telecentre stakeholder organizations. the interviews and qualitative survey responses were analyzed using thematic content analysis, looking at the emergent theme of violence and crime prevention, community conflict resolution and peace-making. an analysis of newspaper articles can provide insight into the perception of an initiative that is being presented through the media in the public domain (qureshi & trumbly-lamsam, 2008). content analysis of such texts can enable the exploration of meanings and relationships of the phenomena under investigation (krippendorff, 1980). further, newspaper content provides a useful source for the investigation, particularly through a sociological lens, of aspects such as human behaviour, community life and community social organization (janes, 1958). newspaper coverage of community activities also facilitates community involvement and provides a source of data to examine related aspects such as collective efficacy and social capital (jeffres, 2012; jeffres, lee, neuendorf & atkin, 2007). an eight-year period of review (2006 – 2013) was selected and articles (news items, features and editorials) on telecentres from the two major national newspapers were identified and then analyzed. bluefields people’s cooperative association westmoreland rural 4 4 24 caribbean coastal area mgmt. foundation clarendon semiurban 2 4 14 container project clarendon semi-rural 1 eastern peace centre kingston urban 2 3 23 liguanea cybercentre st. andrew urban 2 2 27 the source – august town st. andrew urban 3 2 !74 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 research findings empirical observations the themes of safe space, bonding and mediation, and skills training were three categories that emerged from an analysis of the data collected at the telecentres. the empirical observations are presented using these themes. safe space the establishment of community telecentres was viewed by community members as beneficial to community development through the provision of a safe space, particularly for young people. parents noted that “it’s a supervised environment for the students” and a telecentre stakeholder highlighted that “parents know that the cap [community access point] site is safe”. the value and significance of being able to use community telecentres was observed in the case of some violence-prone communities. it was agreed with the “area leaders/dons” that children must be allowed to go to the telecentre regardless of any conflict or gang war being experienced in the area. one of the telecentre stakeholders indicated that “we have a centre that runs a homework programme for our community and the neighbouring community. during a war, the youth from the other community can’t access the centre, so we decided even if there is a war going on, students must get to go to the homework centre”. bonding and mediation the role of the telecentre in community bridging and violence prevention was reflected through the observation of the development of social ties among students, from rival communities or schools, who use the telecentres. one of the telecentre staff members observed that “before they came here, they never used to talk to each other even though they live close to each other. they go to different schools and sometimes they fight because the schools are rivals”. it was further noted that “some of them go to the same school but there is fighting in their communities, so they don’t get along. then they come to the centre and meet up and even when they are not going to use the computer, they stop by to see how their new friends are doing”. the process of community integration was outlined by a community organizer from one of the telecentres who highlighted the importance of the role of the telecentre “during the summer camps, even though they all live [within] walking distance, separate buses pick up the children from different roads, then they all come to the telecentre and it breaks the tribal barriers. it helps with community integration.” community activities extended to protection of the telecentre facilities themselves, and included drawing on some of the social capital that had been formed. for example, social networks were used to assist in identifying perpetrators of theft as seen in the case where some telecentre operators in a rural community indicated – “as soon as the laptop was stolen, we blocked all the exits from the community and drove round and round all night and talk to people until we got some information”. a similar incident occurred in an urban community where “the community !75 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 caught the culprit within 48 hours and handed him to the police and the computers were recovered”. skills training telecentre stakeholders, in recognizing the potential of social interventions through telecentres, have embarked on providing skills training for “unattached corner youth”, as part of violence prevention programmes. this was highlighted by one of the community organizers “most of the gun-related crimes were being attributed to this group – those ‘unattached youth’ who were unskilled, so to address the problem and enhance community life and their quality of life, we had to develop their skills”. the telecentre concept has also been extended to prison facilities, in the form of a community multimedia centre and radio station. this provides further resources in rehabilitating inmates and preventing a return to criminal activities after their release. an organizer of this initiative explained “given that the government and private sector won’t hire ex-cons, if they learn a skill where they can work on their own, things will be easier when they come out”. text analysis the content analysis of newspaper articles revealed key themes in relation to the use of telecentres for community interaction and violence prevention initiatives. the theme of bonding and mediation emerged, in the contexts of interactions in the wider community, and community policing activities. bonding and interaction community policing initially, telecentre activities focused primarily on computer literacy. an early reference to the potential for community bridging was described by one of the community telecentre coordinators in a local newspaper. the relationship being formed between community members and police due to the presence of the telecentre was observed – “it is providing a medium for interaction between residents especially the younger people and the police, and it's a place where the community members and the police have been getting to know each other better” (cyberspace to communities, 2006). at the launch of a community telecentre, the member of parliament emphasized that the ability to strengthen peace in the area was one of the main roles for the facility. it was further noted that other reasons included “its ability to bolster a positive relationship between residents and the police, and its ability to improve literacy in the area.” (robinson, 2010). following the launch of this telecentre at their police station, a member of the police force noted that “this centre will certainly complement our community policing strategies, as we seek to target at-risk young males, so we can help to channel their energies into more productive areas” (phoenix as cited in new hope for dropouts, 2010). !76 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 bonding and mediation communities in a recent telecentre implementation, the community integration aspect of bonding and sharing, was highlighted as one of the key purposes for the telecentre: “there has always been a little tension between the torrington park and jones town areas. torrington park wanted their own computer centre and all that but you can’t go around and give everybody their own thing, there must be a common meeting place”. (robinson, 2010). the potential impact was further articulated in a newspaper editorial which argued that the centre could “foster community peace by being a meeting ground for those with differences.” (hope, 2010). the editorial also articulated some of the concerns expressed by members of the society “the truth though is that the hardcore criminals, carrying guns and other weapons of terror, who are at the heart of gang violence in communities such as jones town and torrington park, are not likely to go to the police station to use computer facilities.” (hope, 2010). community members have also observed the changes in interactions among the youth from rival areas in other telecentre implementations. as one community member explained “…what i realize, and other people will tell you, is that this is the one place the youths can come and behave as one. this place doing a lot for the community. it bringing the community together, especially nowadays” (reid, 2008). following a review of a community development and crime prevention model which included a telecentre, a community member responded “it hasn’t failed. i use the cybercentre too, and if the kids had the opportunity to come for free, i know they would come out everyday…. i’ve been seeing children socializing more regardless of which lane they come from.” (ramsay as cited in grants pen model, 2008). initially, the vpa programmes specifically focused on young males “this is intended to improve the mental outlook of young inner city men, although other community members have been allowed to join.” (ward in sheil, 2007). the overall goal continues to focus on peace building in communities “it's about using technology to help to bring harmony to these communities” (ward as cited in new hope for dropouts, 2010). the bonding that has occurred surrounding the telecentres continues to facilitate collaboration despite challenges that communities have faced. one of the community learning centres was destroyed by fire during civil unrest, and community members have expressed the need for its reconstruction and their commitment to the project – “i feel very bad because usually you could go over there and do your schoolwork and get help with homework on the computer. anything that we don't understand we could just go over there and ask for help. but now we are struggling. if it had not been burnt down we would still have those things. but to see that the station gone and the computer them gone, it just floored me in a way. i want them to fix it up and build it much better than that." (robinson, 2011). a community coordinator highlighted the benefits of the centre and the current need – “the learning centre was there to assist children with their homework and people who are slow learners. it also assisted students doing their sbas (school based assessment) so people are still devastated because of it. so this is why we want to get it back up”. project coordinators working in the community highlighted the bonding !77 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 and the further unity that could emerge from willingness to work together in rebuilding the centre following the unrest – “you see if that learning centre comes out from the dust, it would be the strongest centre we have running. because it was destroyed; it is showing you that the community, their spirit, is so committed to the fact that they will be willing to rise out of the ashes. they are willing to come together as one.” (robinson, 2011). as community members share experiences within their communities, and hear of initiatives in other communities, there may be some resulting actions and movement toward collective efficacy. plans to rebuild a community resource centre are highlighted in a recent article – “concerned citizens from york town and other stakeholders from clarendon took a bold step to recapture the troubled york town clarendon community from the deadly embraces of rampant criminal gangs. … work crew at the resource centre described the project as an invaluable peace-building initiative, and insisted that once completed, the centre will be of tremendous benefit to the crime-ravished southern clarendon community.” “when it is all finished, this will be a centre to develop the human resources in york town from our homework department and internet café. this centre will enable persons here to check emails, send and receive fax, do school-based assessments and other information technology task” (fisher, 2013). skills training the founder of a pioneering initiative, the container project, notes that "the primary target group is what i refer to now as the hardest to reach. this is what we call the bad boys. … and that's probably because that's what i was characterised as” (jarman as cited in harris, 2008). in the western part of the island, another telecentre facility has been described as “a means of social reformation for youths. the atmosphere here basically gives a sense of belonging to almost every individual… it is a safe area where young people can hang out…” (ricketts as cited in gardner, 2009). most of the community-based programmes focus on crime and violence prevention, hoping to deter involvement in criminal activities at the outset. modelled from telecentre initiatives, a programme to assist prisoners has been established in some prisons, in an effort to rehabilitate and encourage youth to develop skills and prevent a return to criminal activities once they are released. there is great demand for the opportunity to enroll in the programme. one of the prisoners notes that many of the inmates are “clamouring to be in the programme, because of the change that they have seen in the others.” (prisoner finds joy, 2009). the community-based programmes have also been part of informal criminal rehabilitation programmes as noted by one of the trainers – “a couple of them are ‘shottas’, a couple of them live on the streets. but now some of them have gone through the programme … and some have received jobs.” (wilson, 2009). as one participant in the programme explained, he does not hang out on the street corner anymore “right yah now when them si me, them a ask me if mi did gone away, because them notice that i am not too in the area anymore, even though i live here.” (wilson, 2009). as another reformed gang member who participated in a telecentre initiative advised “don’t be afraid to do the right thing. the big factor for many of these men is !78 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 fear. fear of what people will say, fear to change their lives, or fear to learn to read.” (thompson, 2008). the newspaper article analysis highlighted the expanding skills training focus on areas related to the arts, which also provided opportunities for community members to express themselves through photography, animated graphics and film. the project manager for the rural regeneration project of the jamaica national foundation noted that “they (the residents) have been in the news lately, and we are trying to get those communities deemed challenged communities, in particular the youths to be agents of change” (turner, as cited in titus, 2011). the article describes the training for teenagers from the “troubled community” both in the techniques of photography, and in the use of it for advocacy where they were “tasked with using photography to examine social issues within their communities by highlighting the positives, identifying problems and seeking to effect affirmative change” (titus, 2011). the opportunity for self and community expression was highlighted – “this is a wonderful opportunity and we intend to maintain the club because this gives us the opportunity to express our views” (titus, 2011). universities have also become engaged in community collaborations in the area of community informatics initiatives. in a recent project, community members in a neighbouring community to a university have been trained in film making. “historic but violence-tainted august town will host its own film festival. ‘we decided to try to let them tape their stories, because they were very concerned about how they were perceived’." (kelly, 2012). another project is being planned involving animation. “the project will see 15 youngsters, drawn from inner-city communities, being exposed to training and job experience in the field of animation. targets of the new project are at-risk youths who fall within the 17 to 35 age group from kingston and st catherine.” (training in animation, 2013). as new opportunities are recognized, community groups continue to implement projects to try to benefit community members and the community as a whole. with the development of apps becoming popular around the world, an initiative was launched by a community association. the spanish town citizens against gun violence (stcagv) embarked on a group project “geared at providing opportunities for young people in and around the volatile spanish town area. this will bring in income for the students, and the country will earn some revenue while we are developing the community at the same time. the government has contributed towards the purchasing of computers and the refurbishing of the stcagv computer room.” (francis, 2013). discussion the findings can be analyzed through the lens of social cognitive theory, where community members may learn by observing others, and further develop based on the environment and representations in the media. we discuss the theoretical components of modeling, outcome expectancies, self-efficacy and identification in the context of influences of the environment, behavior, media and personal factors. !79 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the interaction with community members, who may be known and trusted, provides a model for unattached youth to emulate. similarly, observation of others who were on the street corner, and who have now followed a different path and been successful provides a positive learning experience. this was case with the founder of the container project, who returned to his community to find it in the midst of an ongoing conflict between rival gangs. there was an imaginary line dividing the main road into warring factions (levy, brown, jarman & ward, 2009). as a returning resident, he was not affiliated with any side, and proceeded to set up a community multimedia centre. youth began to come across to the facility and volunteered to help with its development. “over time, the divisions were erased from the minds of the community. people started talking to each other again” (levy et al., 2009, p. 140). this is an example of the interaction between behaviour and the environment, and the response to social influences. the co-creation and collective use of space contributes to the building of community (da rimini, 2011; trotz, 2011). the social interventions as portrayed by the media, also play a role in the community bridging and violence prevention. community members who may see the positive aspects of the telecentre intervention highlighted in the media, may be more willing to participate and support the intervention. further, the istreet lab concept draws on the need to build local positive images for the youth. the ability of the mobile bin to broadcast live from the street corner provides greater reach and opportunities for icts to be used to build self-esteem. this then reflects the potential of “empowering people and communities to determine their own futures through developing self-efficacy and collective efficacy” (bandura, 1998 as cited in rogers & shukla, 2001: 1). an analysis of the empirical observations and newspaper articles reveals some of the factors which are emerging to influence this particular type of social intervention through the telecentre. the location of a telecentre was an important aspect of its potential use for community bridging initiatives. in addition to aspects of location such as level of accessibility, ease of use, and environment, the perceived safety and neutrality of the telecentre location became a critical component. the concept of a safe space was an important outcome expectancy, creating an environment which engendered peace-building behavior. safety includes physical and social safety, where individuals feel socially accepted (gomez & gould, 2010). while some spaces may not have originally been seen as being located in neutral territory, they eventually represented a safe space to the youth, based on the internal environment and observed interactions. there was also a change over time, as initially in some cases, the telecentre was seen as the only place where the youth could remove the border line. as the interactions continued, this filtered out to the community, facilitating the community bridging process. these sometimes had to overcome challenges to their continued operations, by negotiating continued accessibility for the youth despite inter-community conflicts. other telecentres, housed in police stations, are safe spaces which provide an increased sense of security and make facilities available to community members who were at-risk or vulnerable. this type of implementation would not necessarily attract those who already may have been involved in criminal activities. !80 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 location is also a consideration in the decisions with regard to allocation of resources. telecentre stakeholders have to decide on how best to fund telecentre implementations. decisions may typically involve deliberations on whether a telecentre is needed in each rival community, and if adequate funds are not available to establish one in each community, implementation may be delayed, in order not to offend any of the communities. the research findings point to the growing potential for these resources to be shared by communities, and play a critical role in community integration and violence prevention. further, resource considerations include assessment of usage fees for members of the community. as articulated by one of the communities, there was evidence of the youth building social ties, however these interactions at the telecentre were sometimes limited by the lack of availability of funds among community members. while the initial motivation to use telecentre facilities despite any underlying conflict may be the need to use the computers for educational, business or entertainment purposes, it is noted that the formation of social ties is a result of the interactions, thereby leading to community building. unattached youth may be vulnerable to recruitment by gangs and other criminal elements due to a sense of alienation. if they observe that criminal behaviour can lead to the attainment of economic benefits, and see this as the quickest and most viable route, this environment influences their behaviour. the presence of the telecentre intervention can provide community members with the opportunity to build bonds, increase social inclusion and self-actualize, realizing many of their dreams and goals. the formation of social ties also increases social capital. these resources and networks provide a foundation for community development and the mediation process. as noted by some of the participants in the telecentre initiatives, the formation of new social ties with other community members may result, as participants break with former gang members who decide not to participate in the programme. in assessing the role of telecentre interventions in community mediation and violence prevention initiatives, it is important to examine intended and unintended outcomes. furthermore, the groups that are targeted may determine the location of the telecentre and the types of programmes offered. for example, it may be necessary to create an environment that does not intimidate persons who have been involved in minor offenses, in addition to providing a safe space for vulnerable, unattached or street corner youth. those who were on the ‘right side of the law’ were encouraging community members not to be afraid of visiting the police station, but to see it as a place which had their interests in mind. their view of this space may have been influenced by earlier observations, and this view would have to be changed through changes in the environment and perspective. it is important for community mentors to be active in the community and at the telecentre (diaz andrade & urquhart, 2009; gould & gomez, 2010; sein & furuholt, 2009). mentors who could relate to the challenges facing the youth were able to suggest positive ideas which could deter them from involvement in criminal activities. community champions were generally neutral, respected in the community and able to interact with all stakeholders. given the evolving role of the telecentres in community bridging and violence prevention, and the behaviour modifications !81 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 of community members which may result from social influences in the environment, it will be necessary for telecentre stakeholders to adapt their core competencies (bailey & ngwenyama, 2010). as reported by telecentre users, many of these initiatives provided a ‘sense of belonging’, and a different environment in which to learn new behaviours and overcome any feelings of alienation. in some cases, youth were able to find jobs following their participation in training activities. some were employed by the telecentre and others volunteered at the telecentres which had assisted in enhancing their life skills. for some, the process of applying for documents such as birth certificates and taxpayer registration numbers represented becoming part of society. conclusion community-based initiatives may provide model environments for behaviours leading to community integration outcomes. the community initiatives seek to enhance socio-economic conditions to provide individuals with better choices. community bridging mechanisms can be associated with the formation of social ties and mentoring, which can lead to self-actualization. telecentres offer a location and media for building social ties and learning skills that can lead to economic opportunity. as social ties and bonding increases within a community, this can enhance collective efficacy. strong community bonds and economic opportunity could be reflected by a reduction in violence in communities. we have explored some of the strategies that are being used to facilitate telecentre interventions in supporting community bridging and violence prevention activities, thereby bridging digital and community divides. some programmes have been able to expand the safe haven created in the telecentre environs to the wider community. other initiatives have been able to assist the youth, and reduce participation in violent activities through community interventions, but are still working within communities that have internal conflicts. as telecentres continue to work towards fulfilling their development mandate, continued research will be needed to explore the impact of these initiatives as outcomes emerge. the expanded focus of university-community initiatives, and corporate social responsibility partnerships in this area are of interest. this paper contributes to the discourse on icts for development and the expanded roles of telecentres in social interventions. the expanded role in this developing country context of providing a site for mediation and counseling on violence reduction is key and will be useful for further investigation by researchers and practitioners. acknowledgments we would like to thank the telecentre coordinators, staff, users, stakeholders and community members for their participation in this study. !82 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 references anderson, p. 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(2009). different spaces for e-development: what can we learn from the capability approach? information technology for development, 15(2), 66-82. !89 joci ed 13-2 2 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 editorial platform communities: a new frontier for community informatics? the platform economy has left the “novelty” phase to become a well-known phenomenon, affecting people all over the world. while a few years ago it was all about the very well connected, nowadays it is happening at many levels in many countries, effecting change not just at the digital dimension, but for workers, regulators, and employers, as well as collateral damage to many that are not supposedly involved in the day to day transformations that platform are spearheading. by transforming both supply and demand markets, platforms transform the core relationships that sustain economic exchanges, and create new opportunities to extract value from local and national markets, towards the transnational corporations that are designing and supporting these platforms. local taxi drivers, subject to regulations and jobmarket protections (or their absence), are being buffeted by platforms like uber or lyft, that oversupply the local personal transportation market while removing control and bargaining power from workers and employers alike; at the same time, these platformbased transnational bypass state actors at the local and national level, sometimes using big data approaches to elude control; sometimes by sheer market power, forcing governments to bind to their interests. the apparent beneficiary is the consumer: a cosmopolitan culture of consumerism is promoted through the usual discursive means, stating that “choice” is good and that quality and consistency of service is a larger goal than local control or the possibility to negotiate among the multiple actors of the economic process to achieve solutions that at least, consider all potential positive eduardo villanueva-mansilla editor in chief, the journal of community informatics evillan@pucp.pe !1 villanueva-mansilla, e. (2017). platforms and communities: a new frontier for community informatics? (editorial). the journal of community informatics, 13(2), 1—3. date submitted: 2017-09-13. date accepted: 2017-09-13. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1390 . http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1390 mailto:evillan@pucp.pe http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1390 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 and negative outcomes. the dominant discourse proposes that “disruption” is good and that the algorithm is king: big data and the power of technology will disentangle longstrained markets and shall provide a better life, a better world, for all. of course, we all have seen this before: promoting technology as a perfect solution has been the predominant discursive vector of the self-serving industries that provide the connectivity, the services, and the devices that require demand from us, consumers of the world. from the last mile through the bottom of the pyramid to internet.org, finding shareholder value in development projects is not precisely new; there is a change though, in that platforms are not using such a compassionate discourse, but rather presenting themselves as great equalizers for those already connected. use uber, it is implied, and your experience will be as good as that of a new yorker, a londoner or a tokio denizen. the world is yours, cosmopolitanism is, literally, on your hands. disruption of local communities is there, too. work defines the workers, and bind them together as forces made out of solidarity and shared experiences. trade unions have been at the base of many local communities all around the world, and even in these times, when trade unionism has been weakening by so many factors, there is a salient fact: communities born of a shared working experience are still significant political actors, even if negatively so. identity is born there, social bonds are born there, and lives are lived there. but platforms fragment work and remove the solidarity born out of the need to define a common interest and negotiate through collective demands that express that common interest. the kind of workers that half a century ago could have been organized in a trade union of clerical workers are now not only lacking unionization as a resource for better deals; they are becoming mandatory freelancers, journeymen that cannot and will not be part of a workplace, but rather just a faraway clog doing repetitive work for a task rabbit or mechanical turk overlord, never to be seen nor possible to negotiate with. your skills, your capabilities, and yes, your dignity as a human being, are left to the mercies of the algorithm. it would be churlish to deny the advantages for those in position to obtain the benefits of globalized disruption; but the shortcomings for those left to their own (local) devices when dealing with “sprightly giants of algorithms and data” (to paraphrase john perry barlow) are significant. however, there are other considerations to take into account. with shared experiences and perhaps shared demands, the basis for a community of platform workers may exist. it is not immediately evident that such a community is to emerge, but it may be the case that slowly, and with some soft prodding from activists, a recognition of the common issues and dilemmas faced by the platform workers of the world may emerge, and that in time, they may want to assume that the bonds they virtually have may bind them together into a community of workers, a new form of trade unionism based not on a traditional shared working experience, but on a novel understanding of social links. !2 https://www.taskrabbit.com https://www.taskrabbit.com https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 as it has been clearly demonstrated by the success of facebook and similar social media, social ties through digital exchanges can be as powerful as “presence-based” ties. communities have been identified in cyberspace a while back, and though they are clearly different to standard, territorially-based communities, they are not trivial or inexistent; they are emerging forms of social life. similarly, an emerging form of work may create an emerging form of workers’ association. a new form of community that may require new concepts and a fresh understanding of what a community may be. the platform-based working experience may be the future of communities. not of all communities; but at least of enough new forms of communal bindings, of new, specific forms of community ties, that might require research, from a community of dedicated people that have created, sustained and disseminated knowledge about the way that ict and digital media both affect and create communal experiences, ties and lives all around the world. what better terrain for such researchers as a set of community-like experiences that happen to exist through ict-based, deterritorialized, almost un-regulatable, work. *** this, the first of two special issues dedicated to the cirn conference of 2016, is part of a continuing collaboration with the committed organizers of the conference, which has been taking place since the first colloquium in 2003, and the actual first conference in 2006; the papers included here are a showcase of the combination of concerns, skills and academic approaches that both the community informatics research network, and this journal, try to promote and disseminate. we expect that this relationship will continue for years to come, and will also be expressed in special issues, like 6(3), on the 2010 conference. but the continuity of the community informatics network, or dare i say, community, of researchers, depends on the cooperation of all those participating on it. continuity is necessary, as well as renewal, not just of research concerns, but of people: new scholars and practitioners are welcome to participate at all levels, from all around the world, presenting new approaches and new areas that relate to the main concern of the community informatics paradigm: how ict / digital media is transforming not just communities already existing, but by creating, priming or providing salience to new communities, of practice, beyond traditional borders, and virtual ones as well. cooperation is also expressed in participation in the editorial process. we request all readers to provide help with reviewing, as well as authors; to those already registered as such, please make sure that our requests are arriving by whitelisting our address in your spam filters, which are known to be overzealous sometimes. looking forward to your input at any point in time, please continue to share and enjoy the collective endeavors of the community informatics community. !3 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/issue/view/34 1424-8071-2-ce the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles toward a sociocultural learning theory framework to designing online learning communities in citizen science how can sociocultural learning theory inform design principles for citizen science online learning communities to inspire local environmental action? the purpose of this article is to identify themes in sociocultural learning theory that could inform the use and development of highly collaborative online learning communities that utilize community informatics tools for citizen science to enable on-the-ground environmental actions. applying previously established sociocultural theories provides an opportunity to build on what’s already known about how people learn and collaborate. finally, this article explains how communities of practice theory, knowledge building theory, and place-based education theory can be woven together to create the basis for development of a conceptual framework. !4 ruth kermish-allen maine mathematics and science alliance, united states corresponding author. rkermishallen@gmail.com kate kastelein maine mathematics and science alliance, united states kkastelein@mmsa.org kermish-allen, r., kastelein, k. (2017). toward a sociocultural learning theory framework to designing online learning communities in citizen science. the journal of community informatics, 13(3), 4—19. date submitted: 2017-11-02. date accepted: 2017-12-15. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1424 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1424 mailto:rkermishallen@gmail.com mailto:kkastelein@mmsa.org http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1424 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction people want to learn with technology, with one another, in their own time, in their own place, and do things that matter (fadel & lemke, 2006). to meet this demand, new digital opportunities have quickly worked their way into educational contexts. people around the globe are using new tools within community informatics to understand their environments better and share those understandings as they exponentially amplify connections across the globe (dickinson, bonney, fitzpatrick & louv, 2012). for example, community activists in peru are connecting with scientists in pennsylvania via online communities to learn about new methods to determine the amount of lead and other chemicals in drinking water near resource gas extraction sites. indigenous students in alaska are connecting with climate scientists to document changes in the sea ice at villages where their families have lived for generations. citizen science is a fast-growing sector of informal science education that is working hard to leverage global connectivity and improve the health and sustainability of communities. citizen science originated as a way for the general public to assist scientists in collecting data for their research, as well as a vehicle to communicate aspects of science to the general public (bonney, ballard, jordan, & mccallie, 2009). but what do the citizens get in return? how can the citizen and his or her community be seen more as a partner and beneficiary in citizen science projects? a project has the potential to go beyond learning about the monarch butterfly, for example. instead it can bring people together to understand how their region relates to the butterfly’s migration routes and life cycle, as well as what they can do in their everyday lives to address the problems facing the monarch and the ecosystems upon which it depends. learning theory plays a very important role in the realization of the vision for citizen science described above. within the field of community informatics, applying existing theory to a new platform, such as an online citizen science community, plays a key role in providing greater understanding to what we already know about technology in online communities (willams & durrance, 2008). timothy kochmann (1996) coined the term computer-supported collaborative learning (cscl), to define a new educational paradigm which focuses on the use of technology as a tool within collaborative methods of instruction. as stated by dennen & hoadley (2013, p. 392): “the design of cscl is not to define a specific learning theory or content domain to be covered and the optimal way to cover it...instead cscl instructional theories often specify roles, norms, values, or other process oriented aspects of the learning environment. the cscl designer gives up control of many instructional choices that would be normal in the traditional design of non-collaborative environments in exchange the designer can tap into powerful (if unpredictable) social processes to help drive learning.” in this spirit of adventure, the purpose of this article is to identify themes in educational theory (cognitive and instructional) that could inform the use and development of highly !5 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 collaborative online learning communities for citizen science. this theoretical exploration will offer thoughtful research-based guidance to designing strategies that link the fields of community informatics with citizen science to inform the design of online communities with the goal of placing power into the hands of those who need it most, the citizen scientists and community members looking for answers to local questions. to accomplish this goal the article will first provide an exploration of the tenets of vygotsky’s sociocultural learning theory as well as more contemporary perspectives. next, the article delves into the applications of sociocultural theory in related instructional theories such as: wenger’s communities of practice (cop) (lave & wenger, 1991; wenger, 2000b), scardamalia and beretier’s knowledge building theory (scardamalia & bereiter, 2006), gonzalez and moll’s funds of knowledge (gonzalez, moll, & amanti, 2005; moll, amanti, neff, & gonzalez, 1992), and sobel’s place-based education (gruenewald & smith, 2008; sobel, 2005). !6 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 linking sociocultural education theory with citizen science collaborative and co-created variants (bonney, ballard, jordan, mccallie, phillips, shirk & wilderman, 2009) of citizen science align well with sociocultural learning theory due to the strong recognition and value of cultural and historical perspectives that individual participants can bring to the study. vygotskian sociocultural approaches are based on the concept that human activities take place in cultural contexts and are mediated by tools, language, and other symbols that can be best understood when investigated in their cultural and historical settings (kozulin, gindis, ageyev, & miller, 2003). sociocultural perspectives on learning have many common threads including: 1) the importance of tools, both socially and culturally constructed; 2) the need for a diverse social circle, including lesser and more experienced individuals; and 3) pedagogies and contexts that respect cultural and historical perspectives (john-steiner & mahn, 1996). sociocultural learning theory moves away from the norm of learning as an individual enterprise and instead places emphasis on the social processes of the co-construction of knowledge (tobin, 2014). from a sociocultural perspective, an individual is always closely related to the social spheres and groups within which he or she functions, thus the goals of an individual are closely related to the group’s motives and purpose (tobin, 2012). therefore, productive learning environments foster opportunities for individuals who not only act for themselves but also promote their own achievement to expand the learning of others (tobin, 2014). this approach to learning favors a co-production model characterized by a redistribution of the traditional roles of participation in the production of scientific knowledge (cook, 2015). co-created and collaborative forms of citizen science build upon sociocultural learning theory as projects ask participants to not only gather data but also revise data collection protocols (in partnership with scientists) to fit within cultural norms. in some instances, projects provide the opportunity for participants to ask their own questions related to the local contexts in which participants live. when projects take this approach they are gaining the benefit of local social and historical contexts to make the overall project goal relevant to the learner and his or her community. for example, a sociocultural perspective would challenge individuals involved in study with the goal of increasing the frequency of the identification of new or invasive species in a key fishery’s ecosystem to work closely with the communities that depend on that fishery – valuing and respecting their cultural norms, incorporating their values and traditional knowledge into data collection methods, and asking them for assistance in the interpretation of findings and recommendations for increasing populations. sociocultural theory also provides insight into the design and use of technologymediated learning environments, such as online contexts. using a socio-cultural approach to develop online learning communities provides a lens for investigating the interconnectedness between the individual and social spheres mediated by modern technology (bencze & alsop, 2014). applying these understandings provides a platform to build on what we already know about how people learn and collaborate to guide the !7 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 development of effective online citizen science communities. empowering communities and individuals to ask their own scientific questions, using new tools to understand their environments better, sharing those understandings with a broad audience, and amplifying connections across the globe (mueller, tippins & bryan, 2012) as those involved build healthier and more sustainable communities (jenkins, 2011). this article explores four variants of sociocultural learning theories that provide solid ground upon which to build a new framework for collaborative online learning in citizen science. communities of practice theory, knowledge building theory, place-based education theory, and funds of knowledge theory are all discussed in detail. this article will first introduce each theory and then describe theory-driven design principles for online communities, to provide design principles and integrate concepts from all four theories for the basis of a conceptual framework. communities of practice theory a community of practice (cop), as defined by lave and wenger (2000), is any group of individuals working in relation with each other and the world through a shared set of practices to accomplish a shared enterprise or goal (lave & wenger, 1991). the theory’s main assumption is that learning occurs through social participation (wenger, 2000a). participation in this sense refers not just to being engaged in local events with specific people, but to a more all-encompassing process of becoming active participants in the practices of social communities and construction of identities in relation to those communities (wenger, 2000b). kisiel (2010) expanded on these ideas with the introduction of intersecting cops that bring together various cops to develop new goals together utilizing a combination of each cop’s original shared practices. there are many questions in science that cannot be answered by one cop alone. citizen science projects have the potential to leverage both the cop and intersecting cop models to advance scientific and educational goals. as the problems our communities face become more complex, the assumption that individuals can solve a problem alone, or the “expert as savior” mentality, has melted away. it is becoming clearer that we need cops that are continually building knowledge together to learn from the past mistakes of others to share all possible resources to combat the problems at hand. utilizing an online based citizen science system can link members of communities that may not normally interact with each other. by building relationships between a diverse range of community members, a collective sense of community power may be established (stoecker, 2005). examples of this are often seen in understanding and mitigating the impacts of climate change on fishing communities, for instance. scientists have realized that they need the traditional knowledge, expertise, and access that generational fisherman have to the populations and fishing grounds. at the same time, fishermen acknowledge that the marine ecosystem they know and love is changing and they need the partnership of the scientific community to understand these changes and develop their industry around sustainable practices that will ensure their livelihoods. !8 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 some basic design principles emerge from this exploration and critique of cop that could be built upon to develop online learning communities – they are shared below: 1. online learning communities (olc) should connect individuals who have a shared repertoire – use the same resources (same tools, artifacts, experiences, definitions) to accomplish the shared goals of the community (hoadley & kilner, 2005). 2. the goals and/or requirements of the online learning community should be defined and negotiated informally by members of the olc – an example of joint enterprise (hoadley & kilner, 2005). 3. the overlapping purpose or joint enterprise of the citizen science olc should unite, motivate, and, in part, validate the activities of the olc as significant. (barab & duffy, 2000). 4. having a defined central purpose of the olc can provide a starting ground from where members can begin to develop relationships and take on roles within the olc (hoadley & kilner, 2005). 5. olcs should provide tools and associated practices that the community needs to solve an authentic, real-world problem (jonassen & land, 2012). 6. both novices and experts should be valued in the olc (barab & duffy, 2000). 7. olcs can provide opportunities for mutual engagement, referring to actions and especially interactions which members of the community share (wenger, 2000b). 8. olcs should provide a shared repository of information resources that are used by the community in its practices (roschelle, pea, hoadley, gordin, & means, 2000). cop as an instructional theory provides a magnificent basis upon which to build online learning communities for citizen science, but it does not go far enough. for example, cop theory refers to learning as a linear process that moves along a continuum from novice to expert, as in the apprenticeship model from which cop theory emerged. this is an important aspect of learning, but it does not value multi-directional learning in which the apprentice can also provide learning experiences for the mentor. a citizen science example of multi-directional learning could be when a local fisherman shares knowledge of where a specific species of interest can normally be found with a scientist known as an expert in the species. furthermore, cop theory only places emphasis on groups that already have a shared repertoire as they use the same resources (same tools, artifacts, experiences, definitions) to accomplish the shared goals of the community. cop theory does not discuss the rich learning experiences that occur when groups of people that do not have a shared repertoire come together and work toward a common goal. the recognition of this gap is an outstanding opportunity to advance cop theory. researchers such as kisiel (2010) are beginning to enter into this gap to offer alternatives such as intersecting cops which value bringing together multiple cops to solve a problem across a variety of shared repertoires. !9 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 lastly, in the cop model, theorists state that most cops have a shared repository of the knowledge for that community. this component, of course, is necessary to a successful cop as seen in indigenous or traditional cultures that use multiple methods to store and share traditional knowledge. this concept is not new and has been shared from generation to generation over millennia. shared repositories are not static but ever changing as evolving members of the cop critique, refine, and use the knowledge of the cop in new and more productive ways. through the technological capabilities we have available to us today we can modernize this concept and share these forms of knowledge with communities across the globe. these expansions of cop theory provide the groundwork for a new framework which builds off of the strengths and potential new applications of cops. knowledge building theory, which is a variant of cops, provides greater emphasis on the actual mechanics of how knowledge is created rather than how it is shared. knowledge building theory knowledge building the creation of knowledge as a social product is something that scientists, scholars, and employees of highly innovative companies do for a living (bereiter, 2005). knowledge building (kb) theory, defined by scardamalia and bereiter (1994), is a particular kind of community of practice that has the explicit goal of developing individual and collective understanding (hoadley & kilner, 2005). kb should not be confused with knowledge dissemination, which is defined as the transfer of knowledge across settings. there is an area of overlap between knowledge dissemination and kb, but that distinction is not central to the purpose of this article and kb’s role. in short, knowledge dissemination is the process of sharing knowledge from an individual entity to others. kb is built upon: 1) a shared commitment of the community to generate new knowledge; 2) the importance of discourse; 3) the ability to build upon past knowledge, ideas, and artifacts; 4) shared responsibilities across the community for collaboration and decision-making; and 5) the importance of new and emerging sub-goals (zhang, scardamalia, reeve, & messina, 2009). knowledge building represents an attempt to re-invent formal education to initiate students into a knowledge creating culture, involving learners not only developing knowledge building competencies but also coming to see themselves and their work as part of the civilization wide effort to advance knowledge (scardamalia & bereiter, 2006). scardamalia and her colleagues (hewitt & scardamalia, 1998; oshima, scardamalia, & bereiter, 1996; zhang et al., 2009) have further defined four essential design principles, or opportunities for engagement, that must be present for knowledge building communities to function: 1. collective cognitive responsibility requires taking responsibility for the state of public knowledge (zhang et al., 2009), anticipating and identifying challenges and solving problems, and collectively defining knowledge goals as they emerge throughout the process. !10 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 2. awareness of contributions implies that there is a collective responsibility to knowing the ‘from where’ and ‘from whom’ information, actions, and goals have emerged, as well as understanding the changing goals, situations, actions, and connections in a community (zhang et al., 2009). 3. complementary contributions (zhang, 2009) respond to and build upon one another’s ideas (palincsar, anderson, & david, 1993) and contribute nonredundant and important information that advances the pursuit of knowledge as a whole. 4. distributed engagement (zhang et al, 2009) provides a framework for highlevel operations such as community coordination, goal setting, and decision making to be completed across the entire community with minimal hierarchical control. knowledge building has strong core principles defining how knowledge is built in a cop and is rooted in the power and ability of learners (specifically students) to truly advance knowledge in society. but it does not explain the interactions between overlapping communities, such as exchanges among inter-generational or multiple stakeholder-based communities. this opens up the opportunity for a new form of knowledge building community, one that reaches outside the boundaries of the classroom to include members of the greater community in knowledge building. this essential theme of bringing groups together to build knowledge is paramount in the realm of citizen science. citizen science hopes to partner the goals and research questions of the scientific community with the large numbers and interests of the general public. additionally, citizen science aims to answer scientific questions that cannot be answered by one discipline alone, but depend upon the coming together of many areas of expertise and ways of knowing. therefore, the question becomes, how can design principles for online communities in citizen science foster and value multiple stakeholder perspectives? to address this question, an interwoven conceptual framework should build upon learning theories that place particular emphasis on the expertise of the learners themselves and how their life experiences can be extremely valuable assets to a learning community. funds of knowledge funds of knowledge (fok) theory places emphasis on historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for survival, success, and well-being (gonzalez et al., 2005; moll et al., 1992). in moll’s (1992) investigations into knowledge exchange in immigrant communities she found that each household held accumulated bodies of knowledge based on the family members’ life experiences, including agricultural, socio-political, and historical knowledge. the methods for knowledge transfer in the home and community setting was in stark contrast to the experiences of the community’s youth in the formal classroom. fok theory investigates how this accumulated knowledge from life experiences can provide value and meaning for formal and informal learning experiences (gonzalez et al., 2005). the findings of moll and her colleagues identified strategies for how families develop social networks !11 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 that interconnect them with their social environments and how those relationships share and build new knowledge, information and resources related to a households' ability to survive and thrive in sometimes very difficult situations (moll et al., 1992). these same strategies could prove very useful in the exchange of information and knowledge building between diverse stakeholder groups, such as those in citizen science. in these settings, sharing individuals’ funds of knowledge can accomplish the shared goal of the group. moll’s core concepts provide valuable insight for potential design elements in online learning communities for citizen science: 1. place value on each individual’s historically accumulated and culturally developed body of knowledge and skills – fund of knowledge (gonzalez et al., 2005). 2. provide opportunities for community member to interact in adaptive, flexible, multi-dimensional ways to encourage multiple forms of relationships between individuals (moll et al., 1992). 3. provide opportunities for connections between members to become reciprocal and build trust over time instead of becoming buried at the end of an activity feed (moll et al., 1992). citizen science projects ask participants to share components of their individual fund of knowledge based on where they live and what they see around them every day. an example is india’s people’s biodiversity register that asks residents to share historical and current information on dwindling numbers of the siberian crane or the vital signs project’s request for local gardeners to share their historical understanding and current knowledge of invasive plant species in their region. fok theory can provide insight into design elements that illicit local traditional knowledge from individuals who may not necessarily see that know-how as important or beneficial to the scientific community, when in fact that information can be more powerful than any expensive monitoring device. in addition, the questions posed by citizen science projects are usually inter-disciplinary in nature. therefore, citizen science communities will be comprised of individuals or stakeholder groups that may not naturally seek each other out. fok theory can contribute greatly to the development of both design and instructional elements for citizen science projects. the marriage of ideas between citizen science and fok could prove useful in accomplishing the goals of the citizen science field, especially locally driven initiatives. place-based education the application of funds of knowledge usually occur in a specific place, for example the knowledge built up over generations about how to respond to periods of drought in local farming regions. the construct of place is very important when contextualizing this type of knowledge. place-based education theory provides guidance for how to structure learning experiences grounded in questions of place. place-based education (pbe) promotes interdisciplinary learning rooted in the local community to accomplish both academicand civicengagement goals, while at the same time providing learners with !12 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the experiences and confidence to believe that they can influence positive change in their communities (gruenewald & smith, 2008; smith & sobel, 2010; sobel, 2005). designers of successful classroom interventions must make sure they are engaging enough to seduce learners into the world of learning (brown, 1992). pbe takes this advice to heart by engaging most actively in topics that are framed with a high level of personal relevance and authenticity (sobel, 2005). pbe begins locally and answers questions that are relevant to that community. learning environments present core concepts through a locally-framed lens, leading to high levels of ownership and engagement (chawla & cushing, 2007a). accomplishing the civic and academic goals of pbe requires a great deal of skill development, specifically around problem solving, communication and collaboration. it is not enough for learners to learn beliefs and values about what they should do, they need opportunities to learn what they can do (chawla & cushing, 2007b). the key to pbe is that participants are learning about how they can influence their own community and see the change that they are capable of bringing about through partnerships with other groups in the community. pbe fits squarely within a sociocultural paradigm as it provides guidance for how to apply learning concepts in a locally relevant way. duffin and colleagues (2008) reviewed educational literature and reported six core qualities essential to pbe that can serve as design principles for online learning communities in citizen science: 1. focus on topics that are relevant to learners; 2. involve experiential and hands-on activities; 3. promote understanding of concepts; 4. use the local environment as a context for learning; 5. learners work individually and in groups; and 6. incorporate project-based work; the focus on influencing locally relevant problems and questions fits perfectly with citizen science, since one of the goals of citizen science is to gain access to local data across a very large geographical span with the aid of locally trained volunteers. pbe by nature is small in scale and locally contained. an opportunity for growth within pbe lies in partnering the power of online environments with the power of local questions. many of today’s environmental challenges have the potential to unite learners from around the world, if they have access to each other. community informatics provides insights from online citizen science communities which may be utilized to improve a number of areas including sustainability, educational, and economic issues (eagle, hague, keeble, & loader, 2005) studies of invasive species, for example, or farming in drought conditions, provide the opportunity to connect with others trying to find solutions to similar problems. however this is only possible if the online communication tools we have available to us today are brought to the forefront. together individuals in online communities learn how to combat the issue in question through sharing experiences of their own place. in !13 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 many situations, such as climate change, solutions to the problems being faced by local communities cannot be understood or solved without the complex coordination of many different communities (and places) sharing what they are experiencing and what their strategies for solutions are. online communities for citizen science may provide a vehicle with which to meet this goal of starting with the local and reaching out across a much wider distributed population. in addition, incorporating pbe with online communities will provide new opportunities for learners to get out into their world and gain access to new places across the globe that they would not have experienced otherwise. developing a conceptual framework socio-cultural theory provides an established basis from which a conceptual framework can be built. communities of practice (cop) focuses on how a group of individuals work and learn together. integration of cop theory helps inform how an online community might function. place-based education (pbe) links the work of the community to the relevant interests and place of the participants. knowledge building (kb) guides the community with the intention to build new knowledge together related to the citizen science question mind. funds of knowledge (fok) provide the framework with guidance for how to value diverse lived experiences and not just the “usually suspected” forms of expertise. this conceptual framework incorporates diverse participant groups, real-world investigations rooted in place (local contexts), valuing lived experience as essential to building new knowledge, a recognition that knowledge generation is not a top-down process but instead a dynamic multi-directional process between participants, and finally leveraging the power of a digital culture to build a knowledge-building community that transcends geographic limitations of traditional place-based education to answer questions people care about. image 1 below summarizes the key ideas and design principles in each of the targeted sociocultural instructional theories explored. when looked at as a whole, we can begin to see core themes emerge. for example, the recognition of diverse participant groups is clearly present in both funds of knowledge (fok) and place-based education (pbe) instructional theories. have a shared a shared purpose of the learning community with user-defined goals or sub-goals is a strong theme across cop, knowledge building (kb), and pbe. when looked at as a patchwork or interwoven quilt working together we see a a conceptual framework emerge – the non-hierarchical online learning communities conceptual framework. “non-hierarchical,” in this sense, is defined as a collaborative learning forum in which traditional experts, such as scientists are no longer perceived as the sole owners and creators of knowledge. instead, all participants are generators of content and knowledge as well as active learners; the boundaries between scientist and citizen, young and old are blurred into one cohesive community of actively engaged learners. !14 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 image 1: summary of the nholc conceptual framework ! this interwoven framework places emphasis on: 1. bringing together diverse participant groups from widely differing areas of expertise to enable multi-directional learning opportunities in which everyone that joins the community has something they can offer and teach others within the community 2. enabling participant-driven real-world investigations that are personally relevant to participants’ lives 3. sharing project purpose and goals 4. enabling communication structures to build relationships and roles amongst a diversity of participants 5. sharing place-based data across geographic boundaries conclusion through this exploration of sociocultural learning and instructional theories the nholc framework has been developed in the hopes of providing learning theory-based guidance to the citizen science field in the design of online learning communities for citizen science. this framework, targeted at supporting collaboration is specifically !15 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 designed to support more of the collaborative and co-created variants of citizen science gaining momentum in the world. as more and more individuals and communities throughout the world gain access to the digitally connected world, we can now leverage that connectivity to support change and action initiatives that matter to people where they live. we can bring together groups of people that would otherwise never have had the opportunity to learn from each other. a common goal may now bring together adversaries in a less-contentious online space to work together. there are still many unanswered questions, such as: does the nholc framework match up to existing examples of successful collaborative online citizen science communities; does one aspect of the nholc carry more weight than the others when working toward achieving collaboration; does the nholc framework match with the experiences of online citizen science community members? it is the hope and purpose of this theoretical exploration to offer thoughtful research-based guidance to find innovative strategies to link the field of community informatics with citizen science to inform the design of online communities with the goal of placing power into the hands of those who need it most: the citizen scientists and community members looking for answers to local questions. references barab, s. a., & duffy, t. 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(2009). designs for collective cognitive responsibility in knowledge-building communities. journal of the learning sciences, 18(1), 7–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508400802581676 !19 1472-article text-8492-1-6-20200831_author the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 77 article bridging the digital divide in a remote elementary school: a teacher’s reflection on invisible work kenzen chen faculty member, institute of education, national chiao tung university, taiwan kenzenchen@nctu.edu.tw this case study presents my reflection as a teacher on the invisible work of initiating an instructional technology project designed to close children’s digital inequality. thirteen one laptop per child (olpc) xo laptops were funded by my dissertation fellowship and deployed to 2nd and 5th grade students in a remote elementary school in taiwan. i taught these children science classes from june 2011 to january 2012 and recruited them to be my participants. qualitative thematic analysis was employed and triangulation was used to analyze field notes, interview transcriptions, documents, and the children’s usage logs. my field reflections throughout this qualitative case study revealed that invisible work was necessary in order to sustain, protect, and expand students’ opportunity to use their xo laptops in the school. in response, i argue that public awareness about teachers’ invisible work is critical and should be studied, reported, and recognized by the field of educational research. kenzen, c. (2020). bridging the digital divide in a remote elementary school: a teacher’s reflection on invisible work. the journal of community informatics, 16, 77-99. copyright (c), 2020 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/index the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 78 background this article presents my journey as a teacher in a remote school in taiwan working to bridge the digital divide using xo laptops. i describe my participative presence as a teacher in the school to unmask the invisible work that made this project a reality. treating this remote highland school as a bounded, particular, and complex entity, i argue that a holistic case study was appropriate to address my reflections. in this article, a particularistic, descriptive, and heuristic (merriam, 1998) case is described, to assist in facilitating the understanding of the invisible work needed for a teacher to close the digital divide in a mountain school in taiwan. the digital divide in taiwan’s context technology access and training has been treated widely as a critical strategy to equip high quality, competent, and productive citizens. in taiwan, the ministry of education (moe) established the free taiwan academic network (tanet) for higher education and research institutions in 1990 (tseng, su, & chao, 1996). although the first plan for promoting k-12 technology education was issued in 1989, the tanet connection to k12 schools was not accomplished until 1999 by the national information infrastructure (nii) project. after infrastructure, curriculum, and teacher preparation were established, the general guidelines of grades 1-9 curriculum for elementary and junior high school education (2008) called for students “to acquire the ability to utilize technology and information” (p. 5). under its section titled “critical topics: information technology education,” the guidelines required 32 to 36 hours of computer classes each school year for 3rd to 7th grade students. for 8th and 9th grade, the guidelines required academic subjects such as science or aesthetic education to incorporate information technology into disciplinary instruction and provide advanced computer classes as electives. while i was conducting my fieldwork, the monthly bulletin of interior statistics of taiwan (http://sowf.moi.gov.tw/stat/month/m3-01.xls) reported there were 112,000 qualified low-income families as of december 2010, which represented 1.41% of the total households. the related white paper of information education in taiwan (moe, 2008) admitted that even though taiwan was ranked the seventh best country in a comparison of the digital opportunity index around the world (wsis, 2007, p. 36), less than 50% of rural students had an opportunity to finish their homework assignments via computers. this phenomenon echoed the observation of van dijk (2005), that even in the most developed high-tech societies, digital inequalities still exist and are deepening even though they may have stopped widening. to shorten resource shortages, the ministry of education conducted follow-up initiatives to help rural communities close digital divides, including “i-tutors” (encouraged college students to become weekly volunteer online tutors of rural elementary school students), “college e-volunteers” (moe organized college service-learning students to conduct rural digital literacy workshops), “laptop donations from it firms” (urged local it firms such as htc, asus, and acer to centralize their donations of laptop and tablet products the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 79 to moe for efficient reallocation), “citizen desktop” (moe provided 1,000 desktop computers annually to low-income households with elementary school children. free and open source software was pre-installed in these desktops, as well as “digital opportunity centre, doc” (moe established docs in rural libraries and village centers that provided internet access and computer classes). in addition to closing the digital divide for both children and adults, these projects have had positive influences on students who were digitally disadvantaged (e.g., see chanlin, lin, & lu, 2016 on improving students’ academic achievement via online tutors). however, some of the projects lack utilization of other policy instruments and subsequently diminished the effects. for example, the citizen desktop gifted computers and open source software to low-income families. however, the project did not fund the internet connection fee even though those families obviously cannot afford to do so. moreover, the funding of doc did not cover maintenance staff and caused the daily operation of centers difficult. the need for investigating invisible work in this study, one of my critical foci was the teachers’ “invisible work,” which brings the ideals of bridging digital inequalities into reality. encouraging the study of teachers’ invisible work benefits not only educational research, but also practice because teachers’ contributions to education and society should not be underestimated and their demands for support should not be ignored. much work is invisible (nardi & engestrom, 1999) and has yet to be mapped, measured, or even honored. the concept of “invisible work” (e.g., devault, 2014; forsythe, 1999; kosny & maceachen, 2010); “unseen work” (lahiri-dutt & sil, 2014); “hidden work” (goodyear & ellis, 2008; mayberry, 2016; swinglehurst, greenhalgh, myall, & russell, 2010); “informal work” (e.g., biles, 2008; ludermir & lewis, 2005; phillips & james, 2014; whitson, 2010); or “hidden labor” (gary, 2017; kümbetoğlu, user, & akpınar, 2010; marquand, 2013) originally was studied differently by labor economists and sociologists. labor economists distinguish formal/informal work based on taxable compensation or legal recognition, as well as classifying these activities as part of the formal/informal economy. some of the “invisible work” was neglected in the past but was later identified and tracked due to social changes, such as caregiving, migrant labor, and volunteer activity. throughout the process of legalization, undeclared work may become formalized and measurable. to better understand the character of invisible work, economists developed new measurement methods, such as the discrepancy method, monetary method, and unobserved variable method (koopmans, 1994). the general idea of these methods is obtained by subtracting all the known formal economic activities from the total size of the economy, thus revealing the quantity of the hidden economy and its work. however, the major disadvantage of these indirect approaches was that the quality of invisible work was unclear and did not provide detailed characteristics about the work. on the other hand, gender stereotyping of jobs has been well documented in north america for the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 80 decades (devault, 2014; kosny & maceachen, 2010; tuominen, 1994), where gender sociologists are not concerned about the market value of hidden work, but want to raise public awareness about these neglected, unpaid, unrecognized, and undervalued contributions of the labor that women engage in for households and families, such as caregiving to children and elders. for instance, scholars advocate adjusting social support systems so that caregivers not only do not experience unequal stress or overload (biles, 2008; ludermir & lewis, 2005), but also their affective labor practices are visible (sweeney & rhinesmith, 2017). in addition to viewing it as part of informal sectors of the economy, invisible work can be seen as the effort that an individual provides as extra work to his or her designated duty. more critically, informal work is essential to the successful functioning of formal work (tuominen, 1994). hence, ethnographically studying a specific context of work may shed light on the contributions of this approach. for example, mcwilliam and wong (1994) explored nurses’ daily life experiences and found they needed to compensate for the weaknesses related to hospital bureaucracy and deal with fragmented tasks under high pressure situations. unfortunately, such work is difficult to report by workload measurement experts. nilsen and mckechnie (2002) articulated the hidden work of librarianship—such as cataloguing and collection development—by interviewing patrons and librarians about the public images of librarians. moreover, even a qualitative researcher devotes his or her efforts to many hidden roles and works as a collaborator, learner, teacher, reality shaper, and mediator in addition to research responsibilities (stake, 1995; thomas & lambert, 2008). moreover, hockey (2004) depicted informal work that social science contract researchers engaged in to raise their possibilities of being employed by academic institutions. these studies not only helped readers rethink the images and stereotypes of a typical job, but also raised the awareness of these critical professions’ contributions behind the scenes. in educational contexts, the relationship between a particular intervention (input) and its consequence (outcome) is always depicted as a casual chain. however, researchers or policy makers may overlook the unseen work that teachers, students, parents, and others have to perform in the process, to make the intervention a reality (goodyear & ellis, 2008). in a technologically assisted science-learning project, researchers asked a critical question during research process: “how do we move from innovative research-led learning experiences to everyday teacher-led learning experiences in the classroom?” (smith, underwood, fitzpatrick, & luckin, 2009, p. 290). they realized invisible efforts may not fit into original research-led, task process and context, but were very important because they constituted the added efforts necessary to make the project work, especially when researchers transferred research outcomes to teachers. the researchers then identified the details of the hidden work that teachers participated in to make the escience happen in two schools. these activities included: (1) matching learning requirements; (2) creating or locating contextualizing materials; (3) building, coordinating, collaborating, and communicating relationships; (4) manipulating data; (5) managing equipment; and (6) testing, breaking down, and repairing (smith, underwood, the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 81 fitzpatrick, & luckin, 2009; underwood, smith, rosemary, & geraldine, 2008, pp. 540544). teachers perform many additional hidden/extra tasks, such as mentoring novice or internship teachers (hamel & jaasko-fisher, 2011), assisting administrative routines, or leading community centers. however, such efforts may not be listed formally as their typical responsibilities. one possible explanation that teachers do so much invisible work is because they are expected to cover great breadth and depth in the endeavor of influencing society. eventually, such role expectations result in being “considerably broader than its actual role” (ferge, 1971, p. 21). bhana, morrell, epstein, and moletsane (2006) in durban, south africa described an unnoticed story about overwhelmed teachers who were exposed to danger and provided care to hiv-positive students in the community without any support and training from health professionals, social workers, or psychologists. this research echoes ferge’s (1971) observation that teachers have limited capacities but are expected to overcome and succeed in tasks they were not prepared to do. myself: the teacher and researcher in the process of bridging the digital divide as a graduate student claiming his specialty in educational technology since 2001, i did not realize my calling as an educator until about 10 years later. i studied at the university of illinois at urbana-champaign and became acquainted with the olpc laptop in a service-learning class at the graduate school of library and information science in 2008. i was inspired by the enthusiastic and ambitious charity project. eventually, my calling to bridge the digital divide in the remote area of my hometown guided me to this smallscale deployment of xo laptops to the remote school children. i obtained permission from maggie, the principal of the school, in february 2011, to use her school as the research site from june 2011 to january 2012. unfortunately, the school experienced a severe teacher shortage at the beginning of the new school year. maggie tried her best but found no one to fill the vacancy. finally, she asked my assistance, and i agreed to be a visiting science teacher for the fall of 2011 and to teach 2nd and 5th grade students. this fulltime appointment changed my role from an outsider researcher to an insider teacher-researcher in the school. in my journey, i found myself caring more about being a responsible teacher and a companion to students, parents, and colleagues, rather than being a researcher. i had thought i would collaborate with a schoolteacher who was interested in the olpc project, and i would observe and document how a teacher bridges the digital divide in skyline elementary school. however, i became the change-agent (rogers, 2003) who initiated the project by designing learn-with-xos classroom activities. my previous self-training in linux allowed me to localize and customize the xo laptops for instructional purposes. i installed the ubuntu desktop environment and made the xo dual-bootable. this extended the applicability of the xo laptops to children. besides technology, i chatted with teachers to familiarize myself with the school routines and the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 82 student backgrounds (2011/07/20, journal). for example, 5th grade students were considered highly motivated children among all other grades, and one 2nd grade girl had a slight physical disability with her legs. this information was valuable when preparing my instructions. stake (1995) described the compound characters found within the role of an educational researcher. this person can interchangeably take the role as an interpreter, a biographer, an evaluator, an advocate, and a teacher during research. my technological competences, knowledge of the academic discussions of digital divides and learning with handhelds, and personal experiences with xo laptops provided me with both theoretical and practical ground to initiate my research. as a flexible case-study researcher and a teacher, inevitably i contributed part of my time participating in the daily routine of the school operations as a volunteer and used my professions to maintain the school website and server, optimize and troubleshoot outdated desktop computers, provide small training sessions about useful education software, and so on. moreover, my participative actions resulted in a better understanding of how things worked and what it meant in the research site. throughout the actual engagement, a qualitative researcher like me reflexively negotiated myself within the social context by “learning to listen” and “listening to learn” (mcintyre, 2008, p.8). by working with practitioners, the stereotypical beliefs have a chance to be eliminated. research questions being a teacher, a change-agent of the digital divide in a remote school, and a researcher whose focus was invisible work in mind, i had two major research questions: (1) what were students’ learning experience with xo laptops in terms of van dijk’s four accesses (motivational, material, skill, and usage)? moreover, towards achieving the richness of learning with technology, (2) what is the invisible work that teachers do to bridge the digital divide in schools? methods to me, qualitative inquiry is an engaging, situated journey for both researchers and participants. it is also an action of multiple interpretive practices (denzin & lincoln, 2005). qualitative work not only provides possibilities for participants’ perspectives and meanings to be articulated, but also enables us to understand ourselves in relation to the larger world. researchers are interested in understanding the meanings that have been constructed by others (merriam, 1998). study design to discover the experiences of teachers’ hidden work, regarding efforts towards closing digital inequalities, and the changes of remote elementary school students while learning with the xo laptops, this investigation was designed to be a qualitative case study (stake, the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 83 1995; merriam, 1998; yin, 2009), because it explored a bounded and particular system and was intended to generate a holistic explanation, rather than to confirm or criticize preexisting theoretical underpinnings. the following sections and figure 1 show my research design. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 84 figure 1. research design. study setting skyline elementary school (a pseudonym), was located in the northern mountains of taiwan at an altitude 3,937 feet (1,200 meters), near the south entrance of shei-pa national park. moe classified skyline as an “extremely remote” school. to support questions: 1. what were students’ learning experience with xo laptops? 2. what is the invisible work that teachers do to bridge the digital divide in schools? design: a case study in a remote elementary school method: phase 1: familiarization phase 2: data collection phase 3: mapping phase 4: analysis phase 5: synthesis conclusions im m ersion in the m ilieu by participating in the school field note video capture artifact background document interview t ranscribe, read, re–read texts, w atch videos, and annotate them repeatedly triangulat ion of sources, discuss with literature, etc. categoriza tion, crystallizat ion, making sense of data the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 85 remote schools in overcoming their disadvantages, the moe initiated an action plan titled “educational priority area” in 1998, which subsidized fewer-resourced schools such as skyline with additional budgets for equipment, books, and extra teaching hours. this school was completely destroyed by an earthquake, measuring a 7.6 magnitude in 1999 and was rebuilt by a church fund in 2001. in 2011, there were 38 students from 1st to 6th grades, and 9 full-time, 1 substitute, 1 contract, and 2 aboriginal part-time teachers. the school district of skyline contained two small tribal villages: tian and skyline. residents in these two villages were mainly atayal, one of the biggest ethnic taiwanese aboriginal groups. moreover, most of the children were raised by a single parent or by grandparents because adults needed to work out-of-town. therefore, the elementary school not only served as the major site for cultivating and educating those resource-deprived children, but also as a community center in these two villages. the context of skyline was similar to two one laptop per child (olpc) local projects in western australia (http://www.laptop.org.au/) and aboriginal canada (http://www.olpccanada.com/), where students in remote areas of western australia and aboriginal canada still utilized the modern educational system with a complete, sequential, and required national curriculum, learning materials, and activities. although learning opportunities in the remote area may not enjoy many resources like urban ones, students still had schools, teachers, curriculum, and local libraries. moreover, an ict infrastructure had been established at each school and there have been some, although not sustainable, government projects initiated to close inequalities. under such context, xo laptops could play a supplementary role in developed countries rather than being the only learning media as in developing countries. to date, the olpc project in australia has delivered over 70,000 laptops to remote primary school children and established itself as a registered charity. supported by the government stimulation fund for remote schools, skyline had a computer lab with 15 connected desktop computers and 3rd to 6th grade children had a 40minute computer lab session every week to obtain some essential computer skills like using a mouse and a keyboard, english and chinese typing, and word processing. however, only a few children had received and used desktop computers at home. without the context of digital learning as part of life, the benefit of the current computer class was limited. therefore, i decided to develop learning activities that focused on students’ information literacy and motivation to use the xos. research governance i obtained both the approval of the college of education human subject review committee (case number 4776, date march 30, 2011), and approval of the school principal in early february 2011 via e-mail communications. prior to the start of the study, each participant was provided informed consent. participants read, agreed, signed, and returned the consent forms to me. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 86 example instructional activities before fall semester began, i worked on developing 2nd and 5th grade course activities using the xo laptops (2011/08/21, journal). the 2nd grade students had no exposure to computers; therefore, the xo activities they experienced were mostly novel. for example, in an activity focused on developing the thinking process of categorization, i took students out of the school, paired then, and asked them to take photos of leaves with five different shapes using the xos (figure 2). after collecting enough photos, students described the differences of the found leaves and explained how they considered the similarities or differences among the leaves (2011/09/13, journal). educational games were another alternative that i used in the 2nd grade classes. some educational games in gcompris helped computational thinking and others facilitated spatial understanding (2011/09/21, journal). figure 2. students took photos of a leaf fifth grade students had some experience using computers. the advantage was that it was easier for me to jump to subject-area learning via the xos. moreover, they liked to use ubuntu more than sugar because that desktop interface was similar to microsoft windows in the weekly computer class. i was able to incorporate a few science learning activities using the xos. for example, i twisted my left ankle at the end of september and could not walk with my spirited students. in one lab session, i gave students a worksheet, asked them to finish the activity using the xo and the piano on the third floor, and then come back to my office on the ground floor to debrief their findings (2011/9/26, journal). using the measure activity, the xo presented the shape of sound waves, and, therefore, students could examine the differences and draw the shapes. the worksheet asked students to compare the differences of the sound waves when they hit the very left and right side of the piano keyboard (figure 3). the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 87 figure 2. the worksheet of sound wave activity (2011/9/26, 5th worksheet) since 5th grade students can read longer texts, using an english-chinese dictionary, searching community surroundings in google map, and finding pop songs on youtube were introduced. i installed an e-book reader on the xo with some popular fiction selections such as harry potter for students (2011/11/07, class video, figure 3). later, i provided a small tutorial about searching and downloading fiction from websites where they could find stories of interest. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 88 figure 3. steve reading fiction on his xo xos had collaborative functionality via the mesh network. i drove the 5th grade students uphill to the national park where no wireless signals were available to interrupt xos establishing mesh connections (2011/12/19, journal). the distance activity used the transmission time of a high-pitched sound to calculate the distance between two xo laptops. students were amazed because they found their laptops could “hear” and “respond” with each other. this lab experience prompted their curiosity for further discussions about the measurement of long distances (e.g., between moon and earth). figure 4. two students measuring distances using the xos the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 89 data sources and collection methods this research project used data obtained through qualitative participant-observation, interview, and document analysis. the empirical data were collected in the following ways: 1. classroom video/audio-tapes: there were observations during my class sessions. each observation lasted 40-50 minutes. one video camcorder and two audio recorders were used. there were 208 recordings of my teaching sessions in the 2nd and 5th grades, which consisted of 1,471 recorded minutes (21.8 gb). 2. photos: a digital camera was used by my students and me. the photos captured students’ lives and learning during school hours (2,070 digital photos). 3. interviews: there were student focus-group interviews, individual teacher interviews, and individual parent interviews. the students talked about their perceptions, experiences, questions, and feedback on the xo laptops and their learning experiences during or after class sessions. the teachers were interviewed about their experiences with xo laptops and perceptions of the changes made to the class at the end of the semester. parents were interviewed about their perceptions and opinions of this xo implementation. adult interviews lasted about 1-2 hours. there were 16 interviews, 689 minutes (7 students, 6 teachers, 2 parents, and 1 staff). 4. field notes: i could not conduct data collection when i was teaching or responsible for administrative duties. therefore, i took field notes and recorded my reflections daily each evening. there were 84 total daily journal entries. 5. artifacts, document, and logs: documents such as teachers’ curriculum preparation notes, students’ homework such as diaries and portfolios edited via xo laptops, students’ exam sheets, the teacher-parents communication book, as well as the school’s policy statement were read and examined. data mapping, analysis, and synthesis yin (2009) suggested three compositional structures in the reporting of a study: linearanalytic, chronological, and suspense that depend on the collected data and the choice of the case study authors. considering that case study is a product of storytelling, stake (1995, p. 127) suggested the development of the report should identify a biographical development of the case, how a researcher came to know the case, and a description of several major components in the case. four analytic strategies (yin, 2009, pp. 130-136) were used in my analysis: relying on theoretical propositions; developing a case description; using both qualitative and quantitative evidence; and examining rival explanations. a codebook (e.g., see crabtree & miller, 1992) was developed and gradually revised as a template to induce the collected texts. qsr nvivo®, a qualitative the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 90 data analysis software, was applied to help store, manage, code, categorize, and analyze my textual and pictorial-video data. pseudonyms are used in this paper to protect the privacy of individuals and the school. through detailed note taking, transcribing, and reflective journaling, i developed my awareness of the most salient meanings of teaching and learning with xo laptops. member checking with teachers and my contact also helped the correctness of data input, transcription, and my interpretations, thus illuminating potential biases. to verify the understandings of research, lincoln and guba (1985) suggested several criteria that improve the quality of qualitative research. using multiple sources of data that provided corroborating evidence in my discussions, i triangulated the findings via data redundancy until representativeness and exhaustiveness could be confirmed (holliday, 2007). in addition, evidence was addressed as coherent chains that contributed to the reached conclusions (barone, 2004). moreover, my prolonged engagement and persistent involvement as a teacher with faculty and students from 2011 summer to fall semesters, lent my fieldwork credibility. by appropriately citing these empirical data, the format “data generated date, data category-character or author” was used in the following chapters. for example, a quote from the interview of teacher qq in january 5, 2001, was cited as “(2001/01/05, interview_qq)” and my daily journal in september 05, 2012, was cited as “(2012/09/05, journal).” findings learning with the xo in their 2015 article, van deursen and van dijk suggested that access to technology is successive in four sequential sections: motivational, material, skills, and usage access. in van dijk’s (2005) categorization, motivational access means the degree of willingness to be attracted by the ict because some people are the “want-nots,” not “have-nots.” material access indicates a necessary condition that proper devices, infrastructure, and supporting resources are provided and affordable to users. skill access describes the user readiness of digital literacy like searching and evaluating information. usage access argues the actual use of time and content in ict. therefore, easy to approach, easy to use, lower cognitive challenge, and culturaland language-friendly content is critical to enabling technology access that bridges the divide. in this section, students’ learning experience with the xo laptops, and how their technical competencies were improved, are described by van deursen and van dijk’s four types of access. motivational access second and fifth grade students were highly motivated to use their own xo laptops. when i first distributed the xos to 2nd grade students, i told them that they were encouraged to bring the laptops home and share them with family members. although i did not have time to teach them on the first day of school, children figured out about 10 activities and the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 91 started to play with the computers at home. i observed that they tried the maze, recording, browser, calculator, and speaking activities after just one night (2011/09/01, journal). particularly, they expressed a sense of ownership with xos because of its child-centered design. students told me with excitement that the color and the shape of xos differed significantly from teachers’ for-office-use computers (2011/10/13, 1st exam sheets). for example, steve, a 5th grade boy, commented that he felt that adults’ computers were cold and designed for work purposes; however, his xo was more fun. to go further, i used two sessions in both grades and instructed students to decorate their xos using colored pens and stickers (2011/09/02, journal). this personalization not only helped them identify their own laptops more easily but also improved the children’s sense of ownership. additionally, xo laptops brought different impressions to parents. after teaching my children for about six weeks, 2nd grade students started to tell me that their parents were thinking about buying them a real computer when they go to the junior high school (2011/10/03, journal). during the last classes, i distributed a worksheet asking students how they would take care of their “little greens.” calantha wrote that: “i will feed my little green, clean it every day, and won’t let other classmates break it.” nancy described her xo with personification saying: “i will keep my little green clean, feed her, and put her in her home. moreover, i will bring her to take a walk, bring her to jogging, play with her, and sleep with her. oh! i want to bring my little green to the parks and see the flourishing flowers together!!” (2011/12/26, 3rd exam sheets). callia, a 2nd grade girl, said to me: “when i am a 6th grader, i will give my little green to my younger brother; therefore, he can use it, too!!” (2011/12/06, callia & calantha interview). although i knew some comments were not realistic, (e.g., getting a laptop as a gift to junior high school), students showed high motivation in owning, using, taking care of their laptops. material access child-ownership and saturation is one of the key aspects for which olpc foundation advocates. in my study, students owned their laptops from day one and continued to use them even after i left the field for couple of months. the proper software installation and localization enabled students to use the xos as learning tools. second grade students felt their xos were smaller than adult computers, were light-weight so that they could carry them home, had adorable ear-shaped wireless antenna, and colorfully designed covers (compared to adult black-or-white computers) (2011/10/13, 1st exam sheets). moreover, the children enjoyed playing games and listening to pop songs on their xos (2011/12/06, callia & calantha interview). nancy liked the keyboard because it just fit her fingers (2011/12/06, nancy & yen interview). students’ usability feedback showed that the xo laptop was designed to meet learning needs of elementary school children. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 92 skills access after optimizing and tweaking, i provided two computer-learning experiences for children: sugar, the designated graphical environment developed by olpc, was a place for children to explore surroundings (e.g., “measure activity”) and produce (“drawing activity”) in the real world; the ubuntu environment connected children to the current gui and desktop-based virtual world. the skills they learned such as searching for pictures via google and then changing desktop wallpapers can be transferred when they use windows or mac computers. evaluation of students’ technology skills were formatively conducted during class instructions. for example, 2nd grade students demonstrated their knowledge of how to search and listen to their favorite songs on youtube. fifth grade students gave me sophisticated answers about the reasons for learning to use computers. in terms of troubleshooting, lydia replied that she learned the correct steps of shutting down her xo and the command of “disk check” if her xo failed to boot. moreover, since steve had more opportunities to get involved with computers, he asked for individual instructions when seeing me disassembling the broken xos. yuri compared different browsers that i installed and concluded firefox was her favorite (2011/10/13, 1st exam sheets). alternatively, yuri expressed interests similar to steve in that she also wanted to learn how to repair the computers like me and expected this skill may help her earn much money when she grew up (2011/12/26, 3rd exam sheets). second grade students showed promise by using their own laptops and developing technical skills too. they took lively photos at home. patty used her xo to take photos of her family in their bedrooms, and yasmine played her xo with her sister jaimie and shared her introduction videos with family members. after i taught students how to search via google, the usage log revealed that yavonna, another 2nd grade girl, downloaded pop music in her xo and played it at home. usage access when students first received the laptops, they were extremely excited and wanted to find something to play even before i said a word (2011/08/31, journal). they took time after my class sessions to explore the educational applications and web content. lydia, the 5th grade girl, told me that she witnessed patty and other 2nd grade students playing their xos in the reading corner of the classroom during breaks (2011/12/01, lydia interview). when they were back home, young children played educational games, took photos, charged the batteries, played music, and drew pictures with brothers and sisters (2011/11/25, 2nd exam sheets; 2011/11/30, journal). from the usage log of the xos, i retrieved hattie’s recording a story telling about her sister, and callia danced with her brothers. according to the logs, callia continually brought her laptop home and shared it with her two younger brothers until the end of semester. they were eager to learn information on the internet, and the “little greens” were a bridge for them to the resources they needed (2011/11/24, 2nd exam sheet). lydia, a 5th grade girl, also mentioned that the most useful thing for her was using her xo to search for anything that felt foreign to her (2011/10/13, 1st exam sheets). steve pointed out that he liked to search images online and decorate his desktop the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 93 background (2011/10/13, 1st exam sheets). tammy liked using her xo to read children’s fiction (2011/12/26, 3rd exam sheets). the invisible work to make my students’ learning activities with their xos a reality, many tasks were carried out before, during, and after my regular teacher role in this study. creating and locating contextualized learning experience because not all online resources are educational and meet the needs of appropriate age groups, instructional transformation was a critical task for me when implementing xos in the rural school. it was all about translating information to teachable and learnable digital materials. in order to design course activities that meet students’ learning needs, i consulted with senior teachers to understand students’ entry behavior in each grade as well as the contexts of students’ family and community. using reflective journals, i took notes about my teaching and students’ progress to refine and adjust learning activities gradually. my teaching and learning with the xos can be classified into two parts: (1) learning to use xos, and (3) learning through the xos. the former was the introduction of functionality and embedded features in the laptop, and the latter leveraged xos as technological mediums that facilitated exploring the world. within the pre-defined curriculum, some of the content can be taught via the xo activities. i had intentioned to give more structured, discipline-based instructions to 5th grade students while giving freedom for 2nd grade students to explore their own laptops (2011/09/01, journal). building relationships with students, staff, and community the most important proportion of my hidden effort in this study was maintaining a good relationship and unobstructed communication among administrators, teachers, parents, and even students. i built an initial relationship with maggie by agreeing to help wherever she needed me. i conducted a number of additional tasks, such as: smoothing administrative routines (2011/06/27, journal); conducting family visits (2011/07/21, fieldnote); programming an e-document processing system (2011/06/29, fieldnote); acting as a commute driver (2011/07/25, journal), an it technician (2011/11/17, interview_chris), and a substitute teacher for those who had applied for sickor businessleaves (2011/09/15, fieldnote); and even being a maintenance staff who helped fix the tap-water system (2011/08/16, journal). because of these volunteering experiences, maggie and other colleagues gradually trusted my presence in the field. the school provided dormitory rooms for students and teachers during the weekdays. before their evening study session, i played chess with students or joined their recorder practices using my flute. students were excited because it was interesting that different instruments could be played together (2011/12/13, journal). aaron, one of the aboriginal teachers, shared his observation that teacher-student relationship was typically close in the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 94 boarding schools. however, in skyline it “looks like that the two groups of people are strangers!! only if, when you are the one who needs to be responsible for the evening study session from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. otherwise, they don’t want to even talk to students in the hallway” (2011/12/05, aaron interview). during my fieldwork, i usually stayed in the school for an hour after dinner. most of the time, only yanaba, the dormitory manager, and i ate with children in the dining room, and we had students talking about their school day or sharing their family stories. managing infrastructure, equipment, and resource one of the invisible routines that technology-assisted classroom instructors must do is resource and infrastructure management, such as scheduling equipment, troubleshooting technology infrastructure, and managing hardware and software resources. i installed a wireless router that covered the instructional building, allowing xo laptops to be connected. instead of storing laptops in the school like many school technology projects do, i permitted and encouraged students to bring and use their xos at home. students gradually learned how to take care of their belongings. to support my decision and prepare for possible hardware defects, i bid on two broken xo laptops from ebay and used them for replacement parts. to fulfil my needs to teach and research my students, i occupied an unused room as my science lab (2011/08/28, journal). i rearranged the space, cleaned the room, wired the extension cords, installed a wireless router, and moved my teaching materials and research equipment in this room. to sustain the project, i wrote a grant proposal to quanta charity foundation1 to seek a possible sponsoring opportunity on behalf of the principal (2011/03/02, personal communications-julian; 011/04/16, personal communications-julian). testing, maintaining, and troubleshooting before i entered into the field, i connected myself to the related olpc technicians and community forums to obtain necessary support such as localization and educational software. the installation and testing were completed before the semester started. moreover, i self-learned over the internet and was able to be the xo repairperson on the fly during residency. this ensured any technical problems could be resolved quickly so that children’s learning was not interrupted. although i tried to train one of the 5th grade boys with a few basic skills to resolve common system errors, it was unsuccessful. being flexible and positive in addition to all of the above identified types of invisible work addressed by underwood, smith, rosemary, and geraldine (2008), two important characteristics that a person needs in order to deploy technology remotely are flexibility and positivity. during my 1 an affiliated charity organization under quanta inc., the contract manufacturer of the xo laptops. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 95 residency, many events deprived students’ hours of learning (e.g., mayor’s visits, charity donation ceremonies, field trips, sport meets, and even immunizations and dental services). moreover, a few other teachers banned the use of the xos because they viewed laptops as gadgets rather than learning tools. i needed to work constructively to sustain my xo-embedded instructions. another unexpected situation i faced was the serious conflicts between administrators and young teachers. i needed to stay neutral between both sides and be helpful to everybody (2011/11/08, journal). unlike some researchers who might choose another “safe” research site, i decided to stay and overcome the challenges. i applied the “helpful good guy” strategy (van maanen, 1988) most of time during my residency. i noted “overwhelming” in one of my reflection journals due to the interplay as a teacher, technician, colleague, volunteer, and researcher (2011/09/02, journal). taking field notes and maintaining reflective journals were helpful to me in coping with loneliness and clarified my primary role as a teacher to my children. managing a vigorous but flexible attitude during implementation helped sustain the project. the “mental and emotional” invisible work that balances certainty and uncertainty is a necessary characteristic that every change-agent (rogers, 2003) needs to overcome. being positive and flexible was my tenet to move students’ learning forward. i also believed a field study should be mutually beneficial to both the researcher and the research site. therefore, i tried to maintain friendships with both sides to prevent my xo project from being dismantled due to the conflicts. concluding reflections many key factors drive success of community informatics projects, such as maintaining social harmony (o’neil, 2002), creating institutions of caring (sweeney & rhinesmith, 2017), and empowering community members (dolniˇcar & fortunati, 2014). this is a journey of confessions about how i appropriated myself as a researcher and teacher in the field. in his tales of the field, van maanen (1988) used “confessional tales” to describe research work that draws on the human quality of a fieldworker and her or his selfreflective genres. the role of a fieldworker is not one of a passive or unremarkable person who simply stands or walks around and waits for something to happen. instead, a confessional narrator is a visible actor in the field and tells of his or her involvements and interactions with the field. for me, being a teacher was a turning point that deepened my involvement in bridging digital divides in the school. i established my teaching spaces, negotiated my teaching assignments, communicated my teaching needs to colleagues, and talked with parents because the faculty role legitimized my presence in the school. the role not only enabled rich data collection, but also helped build close relationships with students and parents. this invisible work and coordination supported my actions to bridge the digital divide. many technological changes in the school, such as my actions that brought the xos to the children, are not impossible, but can be difficult. coping with existing conditions while arranging useful resources can be exhaustive to change-agents. future research the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 77-99 issn: 1721-4441 96 about teachers’ invisible efforts is vital because their actions compensate structural deficits (mcwillian & wong, 1994). their effort is a significant part of the teaching professions (nilsen & mckechnie, 2002), is key to the functioning of formal activities 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(2009). case study research: design and methods (4th ed.). london: sage. from associations to info-sociations : the co-evolution of civic associations & icts in two asian cities david sadoway[1] university of hong kong one1earth[at]hku.hk abstract non-profit civic associations are experimenting with information communications technologies (icts) in their work inside ‘global cities.’ the “info-sociational” concept is introduced in this paper as a heuristic and an approach for investigating ict-linked organizational, participatory and spatial transformations in civic associations. the info-sociational approach is applied to four cases of civic environmental associations in two ‘asian tiger’ cities-hong kong and taipei-to compare their experiments with: urban map mash-ups; digital storytelling; participatory e-platforms; green new media; and networked activism. an info-sociational approach-besides providing a frame for comparatively analyzing digital practices amongst civic groups-arguably advances theory on the co-evolution of civic associations and icts. 1. introduction: a shift from associations to info-sociations? the workers in civic associations may be thought of as the unsung heroes in today’s global city. according to this perhaps idealistic view they tirelessly fight for communities and against social or environmental injustices and corruption. associations are picking-up where governments are failing in their tasks; and where corporations have forgotten the value of people and planet in pursuit of profits or monopoly powers. the core problem tackled in this paper can be summarized in the question: what transformations are affecting the important work of civic associations as information communications technologies (icts) continues to profoundly alter the very nature of civil society? the response to this question leads to an introduction of the concept of info-sociations (information-associations) as an exploratory heuristic for studying not just organizational transformations linked to ict practices-but also related participatory and spatial transformations in civic associations. the oft-noted shift from ‘government to governance’ (rhodes, 1996) has been variously attributed to: globalization processes; increased multilateralism; the global spread of democracy; as well as hollowing-out and privatization of state functions (swyngedouw, 2000). governance has also been closely linked to the proliferation of icts (maclean, 2004; castells, 2008), as well as to the growth of civil society (lipshutz, 1996). and just as the shift from ‘government to governance’ continues to serve an explanatory metaphor for both global and local transformations of the state and politics in the face of globalization-studying the complex shift ‘from associations to info-sociations’ can provide insights into the co-evolution of civic associations and icts. information-associations, or ‘info-sociations’ are meant to be inclusive of civic-cyber organizations, movements and counterpublics that use icts and operate at polycentric scales: from the local to the global level. civic-cyber associations not only illustrate fluid, ‘permanently beta’ organizational dynamics (neff & stark, 2002; bach & stark, 2005, p.40), but also are intertwined in a networked politics that is profoundly altering questions about the nature of democracy-making them both a challenge to study and an area of needed research (dean et al., 2006, xxii-xxiii, xv; jensen et al., 2007, p.47). the info-sociational approach used in this paper treats civic associations as sites where the social ‘translates’ the technological via their specific practices (e.g. callon, 1986; bijker, 1995; latour, 2005).[2] an example of the intertwined nature of civil society and icts is evident in the practices of ‘wikileaks’-the internet-based non-profit association that gained notoriety for its high profile whistleblowing and transparency e-campaigns in 2010.[3] although undoubtedly unique, this example illustrates the global reach and power of relatively small non-profit associations when coupled with icts. as lovink and riemens (2010) suggest: “small player as it is, wikileaks, by virtue of its disclosures, appears to be on par with governments or big corporations (its next target)-at least in the domain of information gathering and publication.” but rather than ‘going global’ to examine internationally-oriented info-sociations like wikileaks, or studying national level ict-connected mobilizations-like the claimed effects of social media mobilizations in the 2011 mediterranean east / north africa (mena) ‘arab spring’-this paper instead examines the digital practices of locally-oriented civic associations inside global cities. the remainder of this paper consists of five parts. the first part briefly outlines the research methods and introduces a provisional theory of info-sociations. the second section provides basic context about civic environmentalism and associations in hong kong and taipei. third, the paper examines four individual cases of ict-linked civic-cyber environmental practices. fourth, the case studies are compared using an info-sociational approach. the concluding section, discusses the implications of using an info-sociational approach in studying civic-cyber associations. 2. towards a provisional theory of info-sociations a. case study research methods the paper draws-upon case studies of local civic associations: two in taipei and two in hong kong. these cases were selected because they demonstrated a requisite variety of civic activities and ict-linked experimentation[4]-providing an empirical base for exploratory theorizing about info-sociations in two locally focused civic associations in two ‘global’ cities.[5] this paper employs comparative case study methods (eisenhardt, 1989; yin, 1994; stake, 1995; czarniawska, 1998) and theory-building which draws-upon trans-disciplinary research literature on four fronts: sociology-communications; urban community informatics; science and technology studies (sts); and cyberactivism.[6] the four civic-cyber associations selected here-dhk, amoo, ours, teia-despite their differing missions and activities all in varying degrees share a civic environmentalist agenda (table 1). these four civic associations are also strategically situated in two of asia’s global or ‘tiger’ cities: hong kong and taipei.[7] of interest here is how locally focused civic associations are operating in the context of these two globally networked communications hubs which feature amongst the highest ict digital usage and penetration rates in asia (e.g. dutta & mia, 2010; itu, 2010). under such conditions, sassen (2004, p.654) posits the potential for the ‘local to be multiscalar’ in civic society practices-particularly for resource strapped associations. are icts enabling scale-shifting changes in practices or novel types of alliances in the civic associations profiled in this study? to better address this question an info-sociational approach for comparing ict-linked civil society practices is employed in this paper. this approach will be further articulated in the next section. case association mission / key focus ict-linked activities designing hong kong (dhk) [founded 2003] [non-profit limited company][eng/ch] urban affairs focused on urban planning, design and conservation website & key project links e-newsletter and online event videos digital letter activism for key issues a map of our own (amoo) hong kong [founded 2003] [collaborative project][ch/eng] neighbourhood oriented e-art activism through an emphasis on digital narratives and digital history bilingual multi-media gis map diy user driven digital storytelling e-history and community links taiwan environmental information association (teia) taipei [founded 2001][ngo & trust] [ch] serving as an environmental information and new media hub & environment trust initiatives daily e-newspaper and exchange for civic associations enviro-news ict support for small civic associations organization of urban res (ours) taipei [founded 1989] [ngo] [ch] community-based urban planning and spatial justice issues (including eco-city concepts) -website, blog, social media activism -experimental gis-map (burning map network) table 1: overview of the civic environmentalist cases in this paper(author). data derived from author-initiated interviews (2009-11) and civic association website analysis. key:*ch-use of chinese text on website; *eng-use of english text on website; diy-do-it-yourself; gis-geographic information system b. a provisional ‘theory of info-sociations’ this section outlines a provisional theory of info-sociations, first by focusing on the dimensions of the info-sociational concept itself; and secondly by sketching an approach that focuses on three key info-sociational transformations. this approach represents an ensemble of theoretical hypotheses of how icts are configuring, and are being reconfigured by civic associations. the practice of ascribing new or modified names-whether for ideas, artifacts or practices-occurs because traditional signifiers may no longer aptly represent a subject, object or phenomenon. indeed, scholars have noted that traditional terms and typologies for understanding civil society are increasingly inadequate for an analytics of ict uses in civic life (latham & sassen, 2005; dean et al., 2006). in this paper, info-sociations, provisionally at least, represent an open heuristic for debating, analyzing and comparing complex ict-linked practices in ‘traditional’ civic associations. in another sense the info-sociational concept draws inspiration from the open-source and collaborative software movements (e.g. creative commons), by treating this heuristic as an ‘open source’ signifier and a working theory in need of ongoing inputs and development. a comparison of ideal-types, shown in table 2, contrasts a set of properties of ‘info-sociations’ with those of ‘traditional associations.’ the uses of social media for socio-political discourse and activism; the construction of local, regional or global online activist alliances; developing geographic information system (gis) maps online for identifying local and regional spatial ‘hot spots’ or strategic activist issues; and employing blogs, email lists or ‘flashmobs’ for mobilizing grounded and virtual publics-all are illustrative of what this paper terms ‘info-sociational practices.’ comparative properties ‘traditional’ civic associational practices ‘info-sociational’ practices involvement in governance local-regional grounded alliances multiplexed & latent g/local alliances organizational trajectories consolidation / professionalization knowledge networks / communities of practice public participatory mode solidarity group / civic utopian collaborative / heterotopian counterpublics spatial characteristics grounded & physically proximate blended / multiplexed (grounded & virtual) politicization of ict praxis neutral / organizational tools contested / integral to civic activism management of ict uses passive / reactive / adaptive proactive / steering / potentially innovative network characteristics dense face-to-face networks mixed face-to-face & virtual nets / multimodal media & publicity external press / public events diy & crowd-sourced / on-offline events table 2: comparing ‘traditional associations’ to ‘info-sociations’ (sadoway, forthcoming). info-sociational practices suggest increasingly intertwined multimodal (employing an array of icts &/social media); multiplexed (blending virtual and physical practices) and multiscalar (varied geographical contexts and applications: from the local to the global)-even in seemingly ‘traditional’ highly localized settings. the compound term ‘info-sociations,’ introduced by the author in this paper-and elaborated in sadoway (forthcoming)-provides a distinct theoretical framing device for studying the complex transformations involved with civic associational ict practices (figure 1). info-sociations, defined in brief, consist of non-profit civic associations that employ icts to achieve socio-political ends and which (potentially) operate at polycentric or multilevel geographic scales. info-sociations are also fluid, politically contested interface zones formed via participation in both civil and cyber society (e.g. sassen, 2001, p.32). as social and technical assemblages,[8] info-sociations represent a transformative concept because they are evolving sites or (cyber)spaces where diverse heterotopian[9] ideals, ideas and counterplans are being put into practice. arguably this includes novel rights to free association in public cyberspaces.[10] info-sociations enable formations of free digital associations and ‘cyberspaces of hope,’[11] or counterspaces to exclusionary and domineering modes of governance.[12] info-sociations, in other words, are transforming civic associations organizationally-as well as potentially being engines of social transformation. like ‘traditional’ civic associations, info-sociational practices feature a diversity of ideals and ideas; missions figure 1: information-associations [info-sociations]-a conceptual intersection between information communications technologies (icts) and civic associations (sadoway, forthcoming). and members; as well as actions or projects. ict-linked practices, however, distinguishes info-sociations as a novel subset of civic associational life or civil society. in this paper civic environmentalist groups are the particular type of civic associations where an info-sociational approach will be applied. however, these cases could just as well have been info-sociational studies of community housing activist associations; disenabled peoples’ rights groups; or neighbourhood elders’ associations-suggesting the potential versatility of such an analytical approach. the info-sociational approach employed here features three hypothesized transformations for assessing and comparing how icts and civic associations are co-evolving in interrelated domains-in civic organizational internal and external matters; in civic participation and mobilized activism in the public (cyber)sphere; as well as in spatial practices, such as an awareness of on-the-ground environmental and land use issues inside city-regions, as well as for digital local, regional or global inter-connectivity and alliance-building. studies of ict uses in locally-focused non-profit associations (e.g. burt & taylor, 2003; denison & johanson, 2007; jensen et al., 2007) have typically not employed this type of integrated, cross-cutting analysis in examining how associational uses of icts effect organizational, participatory and spatial practices. an info-sociational approach focuses on how these three key transformations are manifest in civic-cyber associations (table 3). this troika of interlinked transformations is not exhaustive, but rather represents a provisional comparison of ict-linked effects in civic associations. studying changing info-sociational practices amongst civic environmentalists therefore not only provides helpful comparative insights amongst non-profit groups-it also supports integrated theory-building about the dynamics of civic-cyber associations inside global cities. it is also worth noting that some civic environmentalists remain deeply skeptical of the transformative promise of icts and express concerns about their commercial and consumptive impacts and the anti-democratic threat of state-corporate surveillance facilitated by icts. such critiques includes concerns about how the digital interpenetration of civic associational life is disconnecting people from their natural environs and their responsibilities as active citizens (e.g. shutkin 2000, p.241; galusky 2003; pickerill, 2003, pp. 36-57). these critiques prompt several questions in relation to the info-sociational approach proposed above. first, in balance do ict practices improve the internal and external goals of civic organizations, or do they undermine these? second, can icts deepen democratic civic participation, or do they pose threats to it? finally, are icts accelerating existing urban spatial problems-such as socio-economic divides and livability threats-or might they help in ameliorating these? indeed critiques of icts touch on an important breadth and depth of concerns including: how digital access and learning divides can sometimes mirror and potentially reinforce pre-existing societal inequities in global cities (graham & marvin 2001; graham 2004); that genuine community ‘social capital and solidarity’ functions may be undermined by ict uses (evans 2004); that social media can aggregate and appropriate information on publics through insidious market or state surveillance potentially muffling democratic dissent and activism (dean 2010); as well as crucially, that ict-dependent non-profit associations can become excessively conscious of their online public relations, marketing imagery to the detriment of their traditional practices and critical debate (tatarchevskiy 2011). such issues remind us of the importance of avoiding technological determinism (graham 2004) and ict ‘hype’ or boosterism including misplaced hope when studying these human crafted socio-technological tools (evans 2004; dean 2010). these critiques also suggest a need to continuously check that icts are being employed as tools for civic empowerment and environmental justice (galusky 2003; schulman et al.,(2005) for truly assisting communities rather than simply serving as modes of ‘greenwash’ or commercialization drives. dimensions of info-sociations properties / criteria of info-sociations key evaluative queries for tracing info-sociations and link to the research literature ict-linked organizational practices multimodal ict-linked internal and external organizational actor-network practices, processes or structures. includes identifying how icts are ‘translated’ in civic associational practices; ‘obligatory passage points’; ‘knowledge communities’ and ‘issue networks’ (a). internal organizational practices [iop] internal organizational changes due to ict-linked practices (e.g. member, staff, volunteer, director networking via email, etc.) (b). external organizational practices [eop] external organizational changes in community relations due to ict-linked practices (i.e. media multiplication & interlocking global-local alliances, etc.) how are icts being ‘translated’ in co-evolving civic associations and who are the key actors or ‘obligatory passage points’? and is their use supporting novel ‘knowledge community’ formations? (bach & stark 2005) -have icts ‘digitized’ the internal workings of the organization, including staff or office work arrangements and work culture? (laguerre 2005) -are associations using icts to politicize issues-such as building affinity networks and green ‘issue networks’ linked to grounded civic activist strategies? (marres 2006) -how and why have websites and e-mail news, reinforcement emails or other types of e-mail uses functioned in civic environmental groups? (horton 2004) ict-linked participatory practices multiplexed reconfigurations in the new/green public (cyber)sphere and ict-linked activism / mobilization. includes multiplexed or blended (virtual / or non-virtual) civic participation, deliberation, and civic associational activism (a). public sphere reconfigurations [psr] associational uses of (cyber) public sphere e-participatory approaches & ict tools (i.e. new media, online forums, blogs, etc.) (b). cyberactivism [ca] cyberactivist strategies & tactics (i.e. mobilization or online activism employing new/social media, sms or e-mail, etc.) -has civic-cyber society employed icts in enabling forms of the ‘new global’ or ‘green public’ sphere? (yang & calhoun 2007; castells 2008) -to what extent are civic-cyber groups employing icts to form counterpower mobilizations and/or employ a range of cyberactivist tactics? (pickerill 2003) ict-linked spatial practices multiscalar g/local spatial practices & alliances due to the geographic re-territorialization of ict-linked activities. includes altered perception, conception of associational scale / reach; and new “communities of practice” and community or “civic intelligence” (a). global-local spatial transformations [glst] ict-related shifts in local-regional-global geographic scale or territoriality of practices (b). associational alliance formations [aaf] ict-supported or induced local-regional-global alliances & coalition formations -do affordable icts enhance civic associational ‘geographic scalar reach’ or ‘scale shifting’; and have associations used scale conscious strategizing? (sassen 2001; 2004) -are associations forming ict-supported alliances and ‘communities of practice’ (gurstein 2001; sassen 2004; horton 2004), as well as shared forms of ‘civic intelligence’ (schuler 2001) that build-upon local or community collective knowledge? table 3: three key info-sociational practices in civic associations (sadoway, forthcoming). the info-sociational concept attempts to embed the critiques of icts listed above and their social, spatial and environmental ramifications, particularly as articulated in (urban) community informatics approaches (graham & marvin, 2001; keeble & loader, 2001; schuler and day, 2004; gurstein, 2007, 2010). such pro-civic approaches suggest the need for an ongoing ‘critical hope’, which is neither a dismissive techno-pessimism, nor ict hype. in sum, info-sociations as potential ‘cyberspaces of hope’ underscores the need for continuous critical (re)appraisals of civic-cyber practices and theory-including examining under what conditions the ict practices of civic associations might actually be advancing urban livability and strengthening civic life.[13] this suggests continuously asking if icts are being shaped and applied to meet civic environmental associational core missions of bettering their home environs. before applying this info-sociational approach to case studies, the section that follows will provide some context on civic environmentalism and civic-cyber practices in hong kong and taipei. 3. background to civic-cyber environmentalist case studies a. civic environmentalism in the case study settings access to and exchange of information has long been recognized as being of vital importance in civic environmentalism (john 1994, pp.282-296). environmentalists have been involved from the earliest days of public internet use in experimental mobilization, networked activism and forms of community-building with icts (castells, 1997, p.129; warkentin, 2001,p.77; pickerill 2003, pp.2-3). since these early practices the growth of social media (web 2.0); the increasing proliferation of digital commercialization; and the rise of an online state security and corporate market/monitoring apparatus-have all considerably altered the ict landscape for civic associations including in civic environmental groups. and like icts, environmentalism can also be characterized as a fluid phenomenon. for instance, mulvihill (2009, pp.504-505) posits that contemporary environmentalism has become increasingly diversified, decentralized, heterotopian (embedding mixed ideals and ideas), multi-scalar and global in nature-compared to a traditionally monolithic, western-influenced utopian movement. civic environmental associations are non-profit, voluntary member associations whose focus includes natural or built environmental and spatial issues primarily in the context of cities or urban-regions. civic activism-from the formal to informal-can also be understood as localized expressions of counterpower (castells, 2008). civic environmentalism advocates community collaborative and integrated approaches-in contrast to top-down, technocratic approaches-for addressing complex socio-ecological problems (tang, 2003; yang, 2010; karnoven, 2010). proponents of sustainable cities, eco-cities or livable cities suggest that civic empowerment and engagement are necessary, but not sufficient, conditions for realizing urban sustainability or livability. civic environmentalism-as it is defined here-represents citizen knowledge linked to actions that protects, restores or enhances natural and built environs. civic environmentalism includes democratic practices in action on several fronts, including: socio-ecological justice and public health; eco-education; home place-based respect and local stewardship; integrated, interdisciplinary governance and planning for sustainability; full life cycle urban design; and community livability initiatives (roseland, 1998; shutkin, 2000, p.14, p.240; shulman et al., 2005). but how are civic environmentalists employing icts in their local practices? this paper focuses on the civic-cyber practices of local environmental groups in hong kong and taipei, as the next section discusses. b. civic-cyber environmentalism in hong kong & taipei civic environmentalism provides a useful frame for examining three intersecting issues particular to hong kong and taipei, namely: ongoing urban environmental concerns; the rise of urban civil society; and relatively accessible and affordable icts for potential uses in civic activism. in east asian cities the implicit force of state governmentality has historically tempered associational life. as a result, civil society actors have at times been thought of as being in the shadows or even complacent compared to local state powers and, more recently, business and elite alliances.[14] studying info-sociational life in hong kong and taipei also raises challenges about understanding how east asian variants of civil society might be translated inter-culturally. this includes diverse concepts such as: minjian shehui (~popular/non-official/common peoples’ society), wenming shehui (~civilized/enlightened society), shimin shehui (~city/townspeople’s society) and gongmin shehui (~citizens’/public peoples’ society) (des forges, 1997, p.71 citing wang, 1992; weller, 1999, p.28; chen, 2010b, p.237; yang, 2010, p.126). interestingly, evidence from over the past decade suggests that civil society and associational life has been strong or growing in hong kong and taipei with civic groups in both cities demonstrating diverse activist tactics in politicizing issues related to the planning and sustainability of urban spaces (chan, 2007; poon, 2007; sadoway, 2009), including employing ict practices (lai, 2004a,b; chen, 2008). for instance, the so-called ‘generation y’-or ‘post-80s’ generational activists in hong kong-have employed online social networking, citizen e-journalism, online radio, and micro-blogging to fight for social and environmental justice, and urban heritage, or peri-urban community conservation issues (tsang, 2010; lai, 2009). this has also involved a growing subculture of new media and e-activism linked to longstanding grassroots concerns in hong kong (da rimini, 2010, pp. 46-110; lam & ip, 2011). meanwhile, in taiwan, sweeping governance reforms linked to the critical shift-away from authoritarian rule in 1987; the introduction of multi-party democracy and non-government organization legislation (i.e. revised civic organization law, 1987); and a rise in alternative media-have all invigorated and broadened civic associational life (hsiao & liu, 2002; ho, 2006). more recently in taipei, the so-called ‘wild strawberry’ student movement and its savvy use of in-situ protest blogging has highlighted important local socio-economic and political-ecological issues and highlights the evolving nature of ict-linked activism in taiwan (lin, 2010a,b; zheng, 2011, p.87).[15] although space is limited for further elaborations, the key point is that diverse forms of associational activism and dissent do exist inside urban east asia, with on-the-ground activities increasingly being supplemented by ict-linked strategies and tactics. the four cases introduced in the next section further demonstrate some of these multimodal, multiplexed and multiscalar info-sociational practices. 4. info-sociations amongst civic environmental associations evidence of info-sociations, as the author has argued thus far, may be found in civic-cyber associational practices-particularly in the ict-linked activities and experiments of civic environmental associations. this section discusses some of the digital practices of four civic environmentalist groups in two tiger city settings: designing hong kong (dhk); a map of our own (amoo), hong kong; organization of urban res (ours), taipei; and taiwan environmental information association (teia), taipei. each of these civic associations is respectively profiled in the four case studies that follow. a. designing hong kong (dhk)[16] concerns about the impacts of development and reclamation projects alongside hong kong’s world famous victoria harbour spurned a group of community-minded individuals to establish designing hong kong harbour district (dhkhd) in 2003. one of the many civic groups involved in this process evolved into a formal non-profit group-designing hong kong (dhk)[17]-with a widened focus beyond the harbour to include local land use, heritage, open space, and the contentious politics of spatial and infrastructure development in hong kong (interview with ceo, 12/23/09). dhks chief executive officer (ceo) suggests that its website has served as a multilingual public media portal for aggregating news, city images, maps, designs, studies and civil society links related to public space and planning issues (interview with ceo, 7/27/09). dhks efforts may be characterized as informational/educational, lobbying/organizing and watchdog efforts that complement the work of other civic groups in hong kong. one set of activities includes informing citizens via email newsletters, weekly face-to-face forums, press conferences, research papers and reactive/proactive submissions. another involves keeping tabs on statutory planning processes, strategic and site-specific development plans and proposals (interview, 7/27/09; interview, 12/23/2009). the ‘spider web’: grounded & virtual networking as a small and relatively recently founded civic group, dhk has drawn upon the existing professional and grassroots networks of its four founders in conjunction with the growth of the internet-using what its ceo metaphorically refers to as, ‘a spider web’ process or networking approach (interview, 12/23/09). this includes both on and offline networking approaches. since dhks founders hail from various environmental, professional, business and civil society backgrounds (dhk website, 2011), they provide a wide web of contacts in associations and beyond. situation-driven network building therefore occurs when triggered by local land use issues or key critical events.[18] the ceo further explained this ‘spider web’ process: “[…]there’s a rapid network on the internet in the background where all of us connect with each other. and you know, somebody leads a particular topic, not by choice, but just that person leads the topic and its ahead of the others; massive stuff starts flowing around and other people chime in, and sometimes there are points of reaction …” (interview, 12/23/09). he cited examples of where connectivity was prompted by responses to government consultations and where messages were subsequently disseminated on email networks and lists. dhk partially determines what it can or cannot do using the ‘spider web’ and to what extent it should play a supportive or leadership role-particularly in relation to other civic groups. the ceo suggested, “you can’t do everything; you have limited resources, so if an issue is being picked-up by somebody else then you are happy to leave it there…”(ibid.). he cited examples of allied local associations taking on specific issues-civic exchange on air quality; conservancy association on degradation of rural land; the friends of tsai kung and tung chung concern network-including many local district or community concern groups around hong kong. the concept of the ‘spider web’ of linkages was also related to the debate about open space issues in hong kong, particularly in 2008. this was precipitated by a ‘public access/space in private developments’ legal dispute at hong kong’s times square and highlighted by activist and arts groups such as local action and fm theatre power (scmp, march 5, 2008). according to the ceo as the issue of access to public space in locales other than times square arose in discussions-including in a dhk-sponsored forum in 2008-in-person and online publicity helped generate broader debates about public space issues in hong kong (interview, 12/23/09). as the hong kong government’s development bureau responded to the public space issue by calling for a study, dhk continued to encourage public deliberations. for example, dhk hosted a ‘cityspeak xiv’ public forum on the urban space issue and videos from this series have been posted online, serving as an important civic e-archive. also linked to the public space discourse has been a section of the dhk website: hong kong public space which features a photo gallery that encourages registered users to upload, share, comment and vote on digital images that reflect ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’ public spaces in hong kong (dhk website, 2011). launched in 2009, this online site was also linked to an in person cityspeak forum and a photo exhibition in a public gallery. alliances, organizational practices & e-tools dhks ceo also talked about the transitions between on/offline networking platforms and trust-building mechanisms: “the internet, email [is] used the most, because it is efficient, immediate and quick […] but, that’s not where you meet somebody.” he went on to note the importance of networking recommendations: “you meet through the internet because somebody put you into a cc. list and therefore you start communicating on that platform […] but you trust them because they’ve been put on the cc. list by somebody else” (interview, 12/23/ 09). thus the process of eventually connecting in face-to-face for sharing ideas (the author suggested memes) remains critical, as does networking at conferences and forums in an urban environment like hong kong: “because this is such a dense city that [sharing memes] is extremely powerful,” the ceo suggested (ibid.). while many associations and ngos have flexible loose tight, non-hierarchical group structures, it is notable that icts have allowed for dhk to project a strong network and public presence, despite their relatively recent genesis and small size. the association was intentionally founded as a small organization-according to dhks ceo-to retain flexibility; and because of the expertise, networks and resources that its four founding directors brought with them (interview, 7/27/09). dhks limited size also has meant that it has opted for joining or starting networking initiatives and launching spin-off projects with limited timeframes. from dhks inception the internet has remained its primary mode of media transmission since it was seen as allowing for rapid, cost-effective dissemination of news about projects and public events like cityspeak (a regular face-to-face urban affairs gathering), as well as including archive-like online postings of video, links and resources related to urban spatial issues of the day. dhk has also employed between 2009 and 2011 various pre-formatted e-letter appeal campaigns to target government agencies-along the lines what lai (2004b:100) describes as ‘one-person-one-letter’ digital campaign tactics. while not longer in use, the designing hong kong map-an experimental google maps mash-up-linked spatial data to text and web links about hong kong land use issues (interview, 11/19/2010). after experimenting with the map, however, dhk chose to take on the role of a supporting organization-along with four allied civic associational partners-in a similar gis land use map, watchdog initiative called citizen map. this effort is hosted by a hong kong commercial media group, and at the time of writing was prominently linked on dhks website (see: citizenmap.scmp.com. last accessed 3 december 2011). figure 2: screen shot of designing hong kong’s ‘central waterfront design competition.’ source: originally posted on the designing hong kong website, 27 july, 2009, http://centralwaterfront.designinghongkong.com/. last accessed 1 december 2011. the citizen map and website also supports map mark-ups; user image uploads; posting comments, as well as subscriber email alerts about particular sites of concern. the focus remains on environmental destruction and land use issues throughout hong kong’s urban and rural environs (interview, 11/19/2010). the examples cited above, illustrate how success in ict experiments remains heavily dependent on user interests and participation, as well as on the initiatives of local civic associational allies. dhks counterplans & scalar toggling the international central waterfront design competition-a half-year project launched in may 2007-provides an example of dhks involvement in scalar toggling. this limited timeframe initiative involved the participation of 311 design teams in a hk$1million juried publicly exhibited international competition. the aim was to create counterplans to what was seen as the hksar government’s pre-ordained or locked-in design agenda for the waterfront (interview, 7/27/09). in creating a civic space for public engagement on urban design-both in virtual and grounded spaces-alternative visions for hong kong’s waterfront emerged from around the globe including for energy efficient, people and environmentally friendly designs (figure 2). this event was also linked to an online campaign for detailed amendments to waterfront zoning. the ceo suggested they would like to further experiment with computer-generated urban design visualization-such as 3d scenarios-although time and financial resources remain limitations (ibid.). dhks ceo also claimed that the 2007 waterfront design competition might have helped spur the increased use of community-based design consultation within government processes. it was also suggested that despite weaknesses in hong kong government civic engagement, that such processes were to some extent enabling networking amongst civic environmentalists: “everybody has their own networks […] some of the green groups they don’t even want to talk to each other […] what is good actually is the increasing number of public consultations helps bring more of these people in the same room; you keep meeting people, certain people, all the time, because every time you go to one of those consultations they show up as well; so that helps the network” (interview, 12/23/09). the case of dhk highlights the importance of networked relations-dubbed the ‘spider web’ by their ceo and evident in three respects. first, networks involved toggling between online formats (email lists, websites, etc.) and face-to-face forums around the city. dhks networking typically involved local alliances with like-minded organizations that supported or publicized their events. second, networks were enhanced by online mediation and publicly accessibility websites, resource pages, visuals, and video or text records/digital archives. third, dhk still emphasized the power of traditional face-to-face contacts, alliances, discussions and debates all in the densely networked global city setting of hong kong. these points also highlights dhks initial strategic focus on networking and building alliances and retaining a small organization which in turn dovetailed with the deepening use of icts in hong kong. regarding land use issues, dhks work-appealing to civic-minded middle class professionals, academics and expatriates through in-person forums, newsletters and spin-off projects-arguably complements the street-level tactics and agendas of more ‘radical’ local grassroots activist groups. via their website, e-mail newsletters, blogs, digital letters, linked ‘spider web’ of virtual and physical connections-including a focus on public space-dhk fosters and contributes to public and political discourse about urban sustainability and livability in hong kong. b. a map of our own (amoo)[19] the dhk case (sec.4a above) briefly identified the role of artists in hong kong’s public space activism. a map of our own [amoo]: kwun tong culture and history-serves as an interesting digital example of an artistic commitment to tracking the impacts of hong kong’s largest housing redevelopment. conceived of by artists and activists, the kwun tong map project, (referred to here as, “amoo”), represents a unique urban ethnographic website which was developed in 2007-08. its purpose was to chronicle the effects of massive redevelopment plans that would dramatically alter a working-class east kowloon neighbourhood in hong kong, known as kwun tong. digital associations of artists & activists amoos founder was first involved with the vibrant community and heritage activist scene in hong kong during the mid-2000s. the activist focus at that time was on redevelopment and development threats to neighbourhoods including heritage issues (interview with amoo founder, 10/13/2010). these included physical flashpoints of threatened communities and civic heritage like at lee tung (wedding card street), star ferry (2004), and queen’s pier (2007). these fluid protest movements also dovetailed with online networking from an organizing and discursive perspective. amoos founder the linkages between physical and cyberactivism during this period of time: “anybody can join. because there is a place or site-specific movement anyway-so people, if they are interested, then you can go there and you can join. and then we basically communicated by emails; and we do also talk and have meetings…” (ibid.). some of these groups-like h15 concern group, local action, v-artivist and inmediahkincluded a circle of artists, cultural activists and scholars who interspersed art, activism, on/offline video work and online texts with networked community activities. their interlinking concerns were about development, urban renewal, conservation of built or natural spaces and the loss of community in hong kong (ibid.). amoos founder was passionate about “actions and movements” and suggested that these informal, situationist movements, were not just about heritage activism but, “the knowledge of history and the relations of people and place” (interview, 10/13/2010). tracking memories of place amidst hong kong’s largest (re)development the importance of place, space and linked stories in hong kong’s vibrant post-millennial civic movements inspired amoos founder to focus on the massive redevelopment in kwun tong. the founder’s personal interests stemmed from living in the neighbourhood: “i lived in kwun tong until i was a teenager; so i think i really want to do something there” (interview, 10/13/2010). returning to hong kong after studies abroad in 2006, amoos founder wanted to document the history of kwun tong and gather the memories of remaining residents. the urban site will involve hong kong largest planned redevelopment and ultimately result in a massive relocation of residents. the phased project takes place over a 22-year period from 2009-2021, and is spearheaded by hong kong’s statutory urban renewal authority (cchk, 2009; ura, 2011). the amoo project director introduces the map website as: “[a] participatory web-based interactive and locative archive on kwun tong culture. it supports multiple contributors and various types of media works (sound, still image and moving image). visitors can interact with this archive in various ways including search on map/time-line/categories; sharing of media works in other web 2.0 platforms; audio-visual mix and rendering of itineraries for kwun tong walk.” (http://www.kwuntongculture.hk/en/home.php. last accessed 3 december 2011). this bilingual (chinese/english) website is partially a living history and digital storytelling project; partially a time-series analysis of land use morphology; and an open-ended platform for residents, artists and visitors to share and express opinions (figure 3). figure 3: screen shot of a map of our own: kwun tong culture & history project source: a map of our own [amoo]: kwun tong culture and history, 2, may 2011, http://www.kwuntongculture.hk/en/home.php. last accessed 1 december 2011. user-generated content encourages discussion about the spatial changes in kwung tung resulting from the impacts of this large-scale redevelopment. amoos project director suggests that tracking the changing landscapes and map-marking might: “generate various critical point of views to the changes, and the ideas of urban renewal plans in hong kong” (amoo website, 2009). users are encouraged to add map-linked location mark-ups/tags of images, audio-video works, along with favorite walks in the neighbourhood, as well as to learn about land development in the district and hong kong in general. illustrative of alliance formations and scalar toggling, the amoo site provides useful historical and allied activist links, including to a sister blog site that acts as a venue for community digital story and image-sharing (digital oral histories) and in-situ discussion of public space and redevelopment issues.[20] a virtual archive of space & place the website-started by amoos founder in 2007 with the help of a small seed grant from the hk arts development council-was originally conceived as, “something very straightforward” (interview, 10/13/2010). the initial idea was to archive the stories and histories of residents in the kwung tung neighbourhood by having a map, “with a time and place element, because we have a timeline” (ibid.) the founder noted how the idea expanded to, “build up a web-based platform where other people can also join,” after hiring a part-time university researcher and software engineer in 2008 (ibid.). the website uses a modified open source blogging platform (available to the public) and the linkage or ‘mash-up’ to google maps was added in 2009 (ibid.). user contributions to the site can opt for one of six types of creative commons licenses (creative commons, 2011). the online map permits time-toggling between identified local (kwung tung) and hong kong historical developments tied to virtual timeline and a map mash-up of the neighborhood. this scalar-temporal toggling illustrates spatial re-territorialization because it allows non-neigbourhood hong kongers (and those beyond) to zoom into and learn about or even engage in local issues. in addition to revealing the rich stratigraphy of the community’s former cultural and civic life, amoo aims to track accrued urban land use changes for up to 12-years. organizers propose to do this by archiving a time series of map screen shots of the kwung tung neighbourhood on at least a half-yearly basis. personal mass mediation & collaboration via icts the kwun tong mapping project is arguably a multiplexed personal-public multi-mediated project-partially linked to the founder’s personal activism, experiences and visions for public engagement; and partially emergent from an ongoing collaborative online construction of living urban history, alongside civic monitoring of a neighbourhood’s redevelopment. rather than being a formal non-profit association, the amoo project seeks to attract digital and physical volunteers who visit the neighbourhood and act as contributors (although apparently fewer than hoped to date). a major difficulty remains contacting and tracking local residents and merchants to record their place-based knowledge and stories-especially before the relocations. building a virtual place-based history under such intensive transformation spatial developmental pressures therefore remains a difficult task. in sum, the amoo project represents the start of a digital testament to the life and history of a working class neighbourhood. amoos inception occurred during a time of the recognition of the importance of living history, heritage and place-based knowledge amongst civic activist movements and counter-publics in hong kong. this urban activism in the mid-2000s was focused on a novel set of interconnected issues related to hong kong’s urban environment and redevelopment-living heritage, community and social capital protection; and the desire for humane planning and participation. although these issues remain distinct from ‘traditional’ environmental issues, they are closely linked to urban sustainability, livability and democratic participation. amoo also scales horizontally and vertically by linking to allied neighbourhood bloggers, artist and cultural activism and broader, city-wide (re)development issues. arguably, these novel forms of e-activism fuse the traditional with the technological-illustrated in amoos focus on creating an open ict platform for inviting and remediating local stories, histories, sights and sounds as tangible memories of a place; and for witnessing changes to the urban fabric. nor is amoo simply a virtual museum-its activist roots and digital links speak to a desire for a just city more actively aware of the human and spatial impacts of (re)development. c. the organization of urban re’s (ours) [21] at the end of taiwan’s martial law period (1949-87) social movements mobilized against the legacy of an authoritarian system on a number of fronts including political, socio-economic and environmental.[22] in this formative era for civic associational life in taiwan and taipei, the non-profit organization, ours-the ‘organization of urban re-s: re-design, re-plan, re-build, re-view and re-volution’-emerged with a focus on urban planning reforms, participatory community design and grassroots empowerment.[23] founded in 1989 in taipei by design academics and professionals, ours has continued to connect residents with designers-often in participatory workshop formats-to address land use issues and threats facing local communities.[24] more recently this traditional community-based organization has employed icts in some of its activism, as the discussion below emphasizes. face-to-face vs. face-to facebook ours classic approach has been to organize multi-day participatory design workshops that connects local residents to research and generates counter-plans-often in response to government (re)development plans. civic environmental issues are also raised by ours in face-to-face community forums. two brief examples illustrate ours continued diversity of community organizing tactics. first, the recent taipei floral expo (2010-11) raised concerns by ours and other civic activists about threats to taipei open and green spaces. in response, ours organized an eco-forum in may 2010 and an online social media educational and satirical facebook site to raise awareness about these issues (interview with staffer, 10/27/2010). second, several ours members combined on-the-ground support with a ‘boomerang tactic’-an international heritage conservation campaign, including ict mediation-with some of its members joining taipei civic group alliances to assist the threatened residents of the losheng lepers’ sanatorium in greater taipei. a planned relocation and destruction of losheng because of mrt (taipei metro/rapid transit system) construction and the story of this longstanding self-managed community and heritage space received attention including via new media and online campaigning amongst allied activists (interview with staffer & director, 04/02/2009). although ours was not a direct organizer its support for a public forum and some its members involvement in this social and spatial justice alliance illustrates the increasingly network-oriented nature of activism in taipei and taiwan. while ours emphasis remains on face-to-face events, creative activism, and public meetings, it has continued to adopt and adapt icts for its varied needs. it reports having utilized email (and discussion lists) for over a decade; a news blogs and social media (facebook) for approximately 5 years; and youtube in the past 2-3 years to: “record some issues on the street in the community” (interview, 10/27/2010). ours also uses icts for internal organizing and logistical uses, such as cloud-based survey software for handling event email invitations, otherwise, a staffer suggested: “you have to check the email all day” (ibid.). figure 4: screen shot of ours ‘ burning map’ blog & map mash-up source: burning map of metropolitan taipei, 27 july 2009, http://www.burningmap.blogspot.com/. last accessed 1 december 2011. drawing-upon the activist traditions of satire and poking fun at authority as ‘interrupting’ tactics, ours created a mock official styled 2010 taipei international floral expo facebook fan club to flag its concerns about this 171 day ‘mega-event.’[25] “we use the face club to gather people, first. and we report much interesting news about what the ecocity is-how can we make the floral expo better. actually, we can have more and more alternative ways to do it […] you can see the floral expo is full of business, you can see the pop singers, you can see the big corporations, citizens disappeared; you just see people buying tickets and shopping…” suggested the staffer (interview, 10/27/2010). ‘eco-city’ represents ours alternative vision for watershed thinking and an ecological friendly form of urbanization (also see: taipei biennial, 2008). the staffer noted that ours: “set up this fan club earlier than the city government.” adding, “…and so when [the] city government finally [noticed] there was a fan club and called a very official name […] they are very angry, so they have a [press conference-transl.] to say we are fake.” (ibid.). the approach represents an interesting example of online social media satire, civic environmentalist education, and a pro-public space digital discourse tactic. ‘the burning map’-networked urban activism and ‘a hope map’ a network and multi-media ict e-tool that ours has been fostering since the spring, 2009 is referred to as burning map.[26] originating from an academic board member’s idea, the ours staffer suggested that this e-platform featured both virtual and grounded components. “we have information networking, so you can see the google map, there are many issues and ngos there. and we have real social networking-we also call that the burning map network in the real world” (interview, 10/27/2010). burning map network affiliates include approximately twenty taipei-area community development councils (quasi-non-governmental organizations); local community groups (such as losheng); and others, such as the green party of taiwan. the idea that a map-in this case a google map mash-up-could build-upon existing relationships amongst ngos in order to draw attention to crosscutting urban spatial issues was considered, “very experimental” (ibid.). a translated introduction from the original beta site, burning map site notes: “the map was sponsored by ours to show environmental issues in taipei and to have an internet map platform to indicate urban planning/governance crises in the area. the map also intends to support civil/public-oriented policy and planning discourse. the hope is that through this professionally integrated platform users can connect to taipei area civil society / public interest, voluntary and educational groups” (http://www.burningmap.blogspot.com/. last accessed 1 december 2011). the chinese-language site is open for all to register and to tag (or mark) the map and add comments or images on burning (i.e. important) spatial issues (figure 4). “we want people to see the bigger and deeper problems in the taipei basin. so its boundaries are natural boundaries, you can see the mountains, you can see the rivers. you have to face the fact taipei is a basin, the heat island effect is very, very serious, maybe the most serious in the world” (interview, 10/27/2010).[27] according to the ours staffer: “…we want to have a transition to teach people how to live; how to help our city to translate to an eco-city in your daily life” (ibid.). the staffer suggested, “…burning map can be the hope map, any kind of hope; if you want to see the butterflies everywhere in the city, you can create your butterfly map to replace the burning map; and maybe you can create the organic food or the green shop map-everyone can have your personal map.” the staffer added: “we think it’s an alternative way of urban planning and really from the community (ibid.).” [28] at the time of the interview one staffer reported spending under 10% of their time managing the map and that two staff assisted with ongoing editing and uploading (ibid.). the staffer suggested that future improvements to the approach could include: involving civic reporters in generating content; addressing map layout issues and tag crowding problems; adding gis layers (like electoral districts) linked to local issues; and promoting accomplishments and resource needs of local civic associations (ibid.). more recently an ours staffer suggested that burning map had received few visitors and had not been kept updated partially due to the sheer volume of spatial issues occurring in taipei (interview 8/24/2011). in keeping with their idealism however, ours was, the staffer reported, considering developing a burning map 2.0 that would touch on climate-change related impacts in the taipei basin (ibid.). evolving grassroots activism, or an (e-)headache? saving time and money, and increasing publicity were seen as key reasons why ours identified increasing their icts uses. “so we have to learn the ict skills, it’s not about interesting; it’s about survival,” the ours staffer added that until now they used ict skills for communicating with members and ngo partners. however for: “...common people we have a long way to go-to use ict skills to communicate with them and do it well” (interview, 10/27/2010). the staffer also noted how society and media in taiwan were very different than the 1980s, when ours started: “so if you think an issue is very important you want media to [report] it, but it’s very hard so we have to use the ict skills, the blog…”(ibid.). indeed, organizational digital practices had, the staffer suggested, clearly affected personal time-exemplified by a felt need to respond to social media public comments posted on the association’s facebook site, sometimes at unusual hours. in the past ours had hired based on interdisciplinary skills-that is, staff must have had an interest in their core activism-but recently they hired an exclusive ict specialist was not directly involved in ours policy themes (interview, 10/27/2010). despite such professionalization, the staffer interviewee did not see icts as disrupting their traditional organizational work. instead icts were viewed as extending the diversity of methods for communicating, recording and sharing with more people. on the other hand for staff: “icts skills means we have more work, actually, to do; because you have to send email, and you have to call to check again, and you have to send email” (ibid.). the ours staffer also talked about how mobility icts alters organizational culture-from the office as anchor, to permitting more in-person meetings outside. still, “face-to-face is the key value in ours,” noted the staffer. the ours case illustrates the situation of a longstanding non-profit association that has attempted to fit icts into their local design activist and community-building modes of communication and tactical repertoires. besides using icts for improving internal communications and organizing, ours has developed burning map and the burning map network as a type of hybrid, or mixed on/offline, experimental space. at ours the design and integration of icts appears to have been closely linked to a longstanding focus on urban spatial activism and catalyzing alternative visions for the city. d. taiwan environmental information association (teia)[29] an ngo that has-within a decade-come to play a prominent role in taiwan’s environmental community had its origins as a humble chinese-language electronic newsletter and website. teia was initiated to address serious gaps in governmental and media information about the environment (interview with teia founder and secretary-general [sg], 10/28/2010). these included too little, improper or last minute information on development projects, particularly via government agencies (ibid.). teia issued its first newsletter in april of 2000, and a little more than a year later became a registered ngo (ibid.). teias early e-newsletters gained popularity because they broke with the practice of disseminating information via paper publications or faxes common amongst the taiwan environmentalist community at that time. the crucial change-teias sg suggested-was that while environmental groups were once isolated: “maybe fifteen years ago they should face the problems [he noted waste and nuclear power] by themselves,” but now people could obtain information and allies by connecting locally and beyond. the sg added that knowledge-sharing, information exchange and cooperation were three key goals of teia (ibid.). figure 5: screen shot of teias e-news home page website and portal. source: taiwan environmental information association homepage -http://e-info.org.tw/. last accessed 29 november 2011. according to a teia staffer, the organization devoted its early focus on establishing a viable internet news service and making its website a collaborative space for wider public involvement (interview with teia staffer, 04/07/2009). teia has more recently created a partner, environmental trust fund and trust centre, for undertaking on the ground environmental projects, and it is a member of the international trust alliance.[30] working with allied civic associations in 2010, teia employed the trust concept as a platform to attempt the purchase of a threatened wetlands habitat near kuokuang, southern taiwan (interview, 10/28/2010; loa, 2010). from virtual beginnings, to grounded green portal teias core focus has remained on raising awareness through the dissemination of news and information about conservation, sustainability and eco-lifestyle issues. indeed, its founder suggested: “our association is like media, environmental media” (interview 10/28/2010). teias origins as a ‘green new media’ group dovetailed with the early days of internet popularity amongst taiwan’s civic associations, and the original staff team-an editor, internet engineer, translator, webmaster/financial person, land trust research-attempted to work entirely virtually, (separated and home-based) as a collaborative e-organization (interview, 10/28/2010). this initial experiment in 2001, according to the sg, only lasted for six months, however, due to home-based distractions and internal communications issues which meant that: “we do not really discuss [in] real time.” he argued that after this experience it was realized that: “we should work together and face-to-face with any problems we could discuss […] to allow the job to go smoothly” (ibid.). in 2001 teia began renting a house as an office, signaling the end to the individual home-based e-working experiment-and it has subsequently rented office spaces. teias web-based work is centred upon a freely accessible news platform-unique because it aggregates submissions from approximately fifty environmental ngos in taiwan-and from trained citizen-reporters and editors (interview, 04/07/2009). it is also unique because of detailed daily coverage of environmental and conservation issues in taiwan and beyond (figure 5). since 2010, teia has supported 30-40 smaller civic groups (in taipei and taiwan) by assisting with website creation and hosting (ibid.). teia has the ability to assign staff or volunteer reporters to cover issues that mainstream media would otherwise bypass. as an example of g/local scalar toggling, teia was the only media organization in taiwan to have a reporter stationed in bali during the united nations framework convention on climate change (unfcc-cop) conference in 2007 (ibid.). their e-reporter also networked with other ngos at the conference-an example of g/local associational alliance building. besides covering global environmental issues, teia has also broadened its e-news coverage to include justice issues and support for the woman’s, labour, public health, indigenous peoples, and social welfare-movements and associations.[31] teia has also reached out to international green groups, linking with the earth day network and groups in japan, the u.s., u.k., and ireland, for example (ibid.). a team of civic enviro e-reporters teias e-mail / online newspaper remains central to their daily organizational rhythm, especially since all staff double as writers-with two core staff focused on layout, editing, emails and software issues (interview, 10/25/2010). e-newspapers are sent to a 12,000-subscriber circulation list. teia also relies upon a volunteer network of community-based reporters and editors. since 2006, the association organized annual camps to mentor and train residents in news reporting and writing skills (interview, 04/07/2009). teia also acts as an eco-watchdog using its website to highlight issues such as climate change and campaigns of allied environmental groups. teia serves as a coordinating hub for news content submissions from ngos, community groups and voluntary reporters (ibid.). with around 10-15,000 daily visits, teia, is treated as a newswire content provider by yahoo taiwan; and it also produces a short weekly radio bulletins, organizes face-to-face forums and environmental-themed news talk shows (ibid.). a ‘permanently (beta)’ labour of love teia has chosen to supplement its limited donation revenue with digital contract work for government agencies-such as developing environmentally oriented websites and eco-electronic newsletters (interview, 04/07/2009). while one time or short-term contracts can shift energies away from their core activist projects, they can provide staff with additional ict and project management skills. not unlike other non-profit groups, teia reports that retaining staff remains a difficulty because of burnout and sporadic funding-to the point that the sg and directors sometimes have had to provide personal supplementary financial support (interviews, 04/07/2009 & 10/28/2010; also see: liu, 2010).[32] as with any organization, but perhaps more so with teia-because of its intensely virtual beginnings-icts practices appear to be translated from a pragmatic experimental perspective. for example, besides the early e-organization experiment, teia has been using 3g smart phones in their office since 2008; has shifted from their own longstanding server, to a cloud-based server and non-profit software suite from google; and utilizes organizational youtube, facebook and a flickr accounts (interviews, 10/25/2010; 10/28/2010). teia has also joined yahoo taiwan’s web service portal for fundraising-apparently one of the only environmental associations in taiwan with this status (interview, 10/28/2010). despite teias obvious comfort with icts, in many ways in-person voice and face-to-face have become increasingly important as information and activities have proliferated inside their organization. for example, a single staffer noted receiving 500-700 emails daily and suggested that unless a verbal confirmation was made, that requests could not be acted upon: “after many years [of] work, my thought is that even [if] we have better technology to exchange the document to collaborate with each other, we also rely on vocal expression–face-to-face communication-very much, because information is explosive” (interview, 10/25/2010). to summarize, as a decade old organization, teia has shifted away from a fully virtual organizational model to one that increasingly involves grounded practices. three factors have shaped this ongoing evolution. first, given its staff and volunteer dynamics-wedged between the pressures of a passion for environmental justice and tight financial pressures-teia uses icts pragmatically and experimentally. staff and volunteer turnover, however, remain key issues for maintaining solidarity, continuity and organizational memory. second, teias retains a solid commitment to providing vital online news to the environmental and allied movements. teia actively uses icts to cover, gather and mediate environmental information. third, teias experimentation with icts-starting as an entirely e-organization; to increasingly emphasizing on face-to-face communications styles yet continuing to experiment with social media and technical approaches to further its aims-appears to involve a unique trajectory. in some ways teia has increasingly followed a path back to ‘traditional’ (pre-ict) non-profit civic environmental associations-with an open physical office, and increasingly intense face-to-face collaboration between staff and volunteers. this apparent trajectory includes their environmental trust initiative and other outreach activities, including a growing emphasis on earth-based projects and grounded values like habitat protection and in-person environmental education. 5. research findings: an info-sociational approach applied this section discusses findings from the application of an info-sociational approach to the ‘tiger city’ civic environmental association cases. recall that the info-sociational approach claims that ict-linked transformations in civic associations hypothetically involve: (a) organizationally-related, multimodal ict-linked changes in internal and external practices; (b) participatory, multiplexed ict-linked reconfigurations of the public (cyber)sphere and cyberactivist mobilization; and (c) spatially-related multiscalar toggling and alliance formations. besides featuring ict practices as varied as green new media; urban environmental ‘hot spot’ gis map mash-ups; digital neighbourhood storytelling; participatory e-platforms; and networked activism-the four associational cases featured in this paper each demonstrated associations that varied considerably in their histories, activist tactics and resource endowments. some of these differences and similarities can be relationally mapped across the cases (and cities) as comparisons against the three key info-sociational transformations (table 4). while a common thread in these civic associations was a local environmentalist or urban livability focus, the case studies suggested that the info-sociational paths for achieving this end vary considerably. the overall (or general) findings and the specific findings (summarized in table 5) stem from the links between the info-sociational concepts (discussed earlier in the paper) and the empirical evidence from the case studies. perhaps unsurprisingly, info-sociational practices appear to vary in relation to the differences amongst each association’s core activity-repertoire and organizational duration or age. for example, the case of teia, the decade old green new media non-profit-where icts were central in their e-organizational start-up, and yet where face-to-face contact and grounded initiatives have become increasingly important as their activities diversified over the years-provides an interesting organizational comparison to the 22 year old ours.[33] in the case of ours-a group with longstanding grassroots activist and face-to-face approaches-their attempts to intertwine physical forums and actions with their online participatory mapping and social media experimentation suggested originally diverse core activities are spurning increasingly diverse ict practices despite an initially low level of usage compared with teias origins as a ‘virtual organization.’ designing hong kong [dhk] [hong kong] a map of our ownkwun tong project [amoo] [hong kong] organization of urban res [ours] [taipei] taiwan environmental information association [teia] [taipei] organizational transformations iop dhk engages in the ‘spider web’ of mutually reinforcing face-to-face & virtual networks amoo developed as a collaborative online ‘memory map’ project with an open source platform & creative commons licensing ours staff time has increasingly been spent on social media features & e-tools (prompting the hiring of an ict specialist) teia started as a virtual organization, but has increasingly emphasized in-person contacts & grounded eco-projects eop dhk employs e-newsletters with multimodal links (text / video clips) and ties to physical public events / activities amoo is a digital formation that invites diy / self-posted audio, video & text mark-ups for placement onto e-map ours public video and text inputs are linked into a gis map mash-up which invites social media public commentaries teia publicizes a daily e-newspaper & its website is a key portal for g/local environmental information of relevance to taiwan participatory transformations psr dhks website invites the public to upload images; to vote & to discuss hong kong public space issues amoos participatory digital map platform serves as a multi-lingual public memory forum & historical archive ours burning map network combines gis mapping & commentary with online & in-person networking & public events teias volunteer reporters & editors fill the gap in media ‘blind spots’, particularly on civic environmental issues in taiwan ca dhk encourages multiplexed debate & dialogue on urban politics; land use, infrastructure & sustainability issues amoos website includes links to hong kong-wide land & conservation issues along with links to sites articulating alternative visions for urban development ours has links community-based activism to burning map, as well as to social media satire / online activism about urban environmental issues teia trains civic reporters or editors; it also combines online education & awareness on issues such as local habitat protection; or links to its environmental trust spatial transformations glst dhk enabled global interest in its multiplexed (online / physical) harbourfront international design competition amoo encourages ‘scaling-up’ to broader city-wide conservation & development issues; & temporal scaling with a digital neighbourhood ‘timeline’ feature ours burning map links to broader urban (bio)regional issues in the taipei basin including climate change; a staffer was also active in g/local losheng campaign teias environmental trust has helped to build global alliances & its volunteer reporters provided digital coverage cop14 climate conference in bali, indonesia aaf dhk joined a multiplexed alliance to raise awareness of hk times square public space issues amoo cultivates partnerships with kwun tong bloggers; with artists & heritage activist groups ours-besides an ongoing grounded focus-has built alliances within the burning map network, (e.g. with local civic associations) teia remediates regional and global green ngo news; & it provides web/ict support to smaller environmental & other civic associations table 4: mapping info-sociational transformations across the case studies (author). key: iop / eop =internal / external organizational practices; psr = public sphere reconfigurations; ca = cyberactivism; glst = global-local spatial transformations; aaf = associational alliance formations. and in the case of dhk-whose start-up heavily relied upon icts-illustrated how a small organization multiplexes physical and virtual networks (‘spider web’) linking ict-(re)mediated information and frequent face-to-face forums on urban issues. building on hong kong’s high density physical face-to-face networks, dhk strategically ‘dove-into’ civic issues, digitally (net)working (horizontally) with hong kong publics and activists. such a diversity of tactics and practices were also evident in the artistic and culturally-inspired neighbouhood art-activism of amoos ‘kwun tong digital map project’-which has focused on the importance of place-based collective memories by serving as an ‘unofficial’ multi-modal, multi-mediated map and memory archive for a disappearing community. this hong kong case also illustrated how icts can serve as digital platforms and repositories for tracking and sharing local knowledge and stories; as well as virtual ‘cyberspaces of hope’ for provoking civic space discussions about alternatives to ‘business as usual’ forms of urbanism. the varied work of civic-cyber associations-as evident in the four case studies above-reminded us that an active citizenry concerned about the fate of their local environs builds civilized, livable cities. such a diversity of civic-cyber practices contrasts with narrow conceptions of global cities as being singularly driven by a short-term competitive, commercial logic. the findings here also resonate with claims by community informatics advocates of ‘civic intelligence’ (schuler, 2001) and ‘traditional knowledge’ systems (standley et al, 2009). these claims suggest that local knowledge and its collaborative civic application (including via ict praxis) provide important means and memes for socio-economic and environmental problem solving-challenges facing many of today’s global cities. the final section, which follows, aims to build on these ideals and ideas by discussing the theoretical and research implications of an info-sociation approach. synopsis of overall findings synopsis of specific findings organizational transformations interviews and website analyses indicated that external-oriented organizational practices (eop) using ict tools/platforms were considered more important by civic associations than in comparison to internal-oriented organizational (iop) practices resource constraints-such as funding, staffing or physical limits-were overcome in several cases through ict-linked networking, crowd-sourced information or e-reporting organizations drew-upon the relative ict affordability, accessibility & familiarity in hong kong & taipei for mobilization, networking & media multiplication practices street activism, face-to-face public forums & staff meetings remained important in organizational culture, however, ict uses complemented these associational strengths participatory transformations interviews and website analyses indicated that public sphere oriented practices and processes (psr) played a more significant role in comparison to cyberactivist practices (ca) across the cases ict-linked experimentation with civic engagement was common across the cases and reported regardless of an association’s age or lifespan cyberactivism across the cases featured mixed virtual-grounded or hybrid practices including-mediated activism using online messages; e-news, video, gis maps linked to street-based activism & to grounded civic projects associations are producing novel interactive cyber-civic (info-sociational) participatory spaces such as-social media & integrated multi-media sites; online public resources / links; & non-commercial environmental or green media platforms spatial transformations interviews and website analysis indicated that associations were prioritizing ict uses in associational alliance formations (aaf) (and primarily local) over their g/local scalar transformational activities (glst) ict-linked spatial tools such as gis maps were employed in 3 of the 4 cases and they incorporate unique ‘ways of seeing or knowing’ via-multi-mediation (audio, video, text) & digitized interactive map mash-ups tools with dialogue & eco threat alerts (e.g. online mapping practices) both fully virtual & mixed virtual-physical network alliances across the cases have extended local campaign involvement & helped to (re)frame problems & provide linkages to other local civic issues hybrid on-offline forums & projects have deepened local-regional discourses, & in some cases demonstrated potential to ‘go global’ or ‘boomerang;’ as well as the possibilities of ‘cyberspaces of hope’ table 5: synopsis of findings linked to the three info-sociational transformations (author). 6. conclusions: can info-sociations provide ‘cyberspaces of hope’? the concept of info-sociations-or information-associations-was introduced as an open heuristic for understanding how civic associations are co-evolving alongside an array of icts that they employ. in particular, the provisional info-sociational concept unpacked three ict-linked transformations-in civic organizations, in public participation and in spatial practices. the cases in this paper suggested that civic environmentalists were not only using icts for cost effectiveness or internal efficiencies-but because they provided novel experimental platforms for extending public discourse, deliberation, mobilization, knowledge-sharing, cyber-alliance building, self-mediated activism, and for transcending geographic scale, both locally and beyond. an info-sociational approach is therefore of interest to those concerned about the intersections of civic and global issues-like the environment and social justice-as well as analyzing the potentialities and pitfalls of ict-linked experimentation. advancing a theory of info-sociations, at this stage could take two distinct, yet complementary directions: the first, an applied, pragmatic path focusing on metrics of info-sociation; the second, a heterotopian or idealistic path, suggesting a need for articulating ‘cyberspaces of hope,’ in relation to info-sociation. the discussion that follows sketches both a pragmatist and idealist teleology, suggesting the complementarities in these two pathways. a. the pragmatics of measuring info-sociation info-sociation can serve as a multidimensional theoretical heuristic for understanding the dialectics between civic associations and ict practices. a cluster of case comparisons, however, cannot make theory anew. deepening the utility of an info-sociational approach would witness its application in other civic associational and geographic contexts. while this paper’s ‘beta’ or provisional approach may be useful for mapping and comparing civic-cyber practices, a pressing (though perhaps reductionist) analytical question still remains: “how might one measure info-sociations?” here we may look to the empirical cases in this paper for suggestions of how to develop an ensemble of metrics for info-sociations. three possible directions might include further exploring: the (potential) power of local info-sociational alliances. the cases suggest the need for further studying how info-sociations might be facilitating civic-cyber g/local alliances and networked counter-power linkages. this could involve investigating the nature of g/local civic associational alliances and ephemerality of multimodal ict networked activism through comparative case profiles, longitudinal case studies and digital-physical network analyses. the multiplexed role of info-sociations in local activisms. the cases also underline a need for further understanding multiplex, mixed or blended grounded-virtual practices; on/offline activist tactics and participation; diy digital reporting; and hybrid digital-physical mobilizations. further research into how and why ict multiplexing is taking place inside civic associations and the relationships (especially trade-offs) between physical and digital practices and strategies would therefore be worthwhile. an info-sociational equilibrium hypothesis. the cases identified that info-sociations may tend toward a nominal equilibrium state over time. this posits the need for further research into whether associations appear to be either attracted or dissuaded from using icts depending upon their baseline levels of digital readiness, their organizational values, and their internal resources (i.e. staff capacity, funding, organizational experience, etc.). further research into the challenges of ‘associational leapfrogging’ or ict-triggered civic organizational growth, along with an array of critical issues would deepen a theory of info-sociations. this could include examining the issues related to commercial path dependencies (e.g. power of hegemonic ict providers); state-corporate threats to the ‘civicness’ of the public (cyber)sphere (e.g. monitoring, tracking, censorship/defamation and so forth); and the implications of digital life in physical community, including civic conviviality, political discourse and connections to the natural world. b. info-sociations as ‘cyberspaces of hope’ for catalyzing ideals and ideas free civic info-sociations-not unlike traditional non-profit associations-can potentially serve as checks and balances against autocratic or corrupt governance and corporate misdeeds. the cases in this paper demonstrated to some degree how this was being done when info-sociations draw-upon (and draw-in) networked publics in watchdog and accountability functions; when they create a multiplex of cyberspaces for public dialogue; and when they articulate imaginative counter-plans. as the cases in this paper suggested-not unlike castells et als.’ (2007) and juris’s (2008) research on digitally networked mobilizations; or pickerill’s (2003), horton (2004) and lai’s (2004b) works on cyber-environmentalism-civic environmental digital practices appear to be complementing, rather than displacing longstanding localized and grounded approaches to addressing environmental problems. the cases also affirmed the suggestion that info-sociations are not merely neutral (cyber)spaces-but rather politically-charged spaces of contestation following sassen’s (2001) and dean et als., (2006) earlier work. in this respect the critical positions of civic associations in ongoing debates about the future (and limitations) of icts in civil society-including socio-economic and environmental injustices, digital rights and civic-cyber openness-needs to be heard. in relation to these issues, three possible directions for further research are proposed: the role of info-sociations as ‘knowledge-issues communities’. similar to the research which suggest that civic-cyber associations can be understood as digital ‘knowledge’ communities (bach & stark 2005) and politicized ‘issues networks’ (marres 2006)-the case studies suggest ict practices embeds the ever-shifting dynamics of knowledge, power and urban space. exploring how info-sociations might work as digital ‘knowledge and issue’ communities to project a diversity of community voices into the public (cyber)sphere-whilst avoiding threats of commercialization-remains worthy of further research. for example, can info-sociations support collaborative local ecological knowledge systems-such as learning from the wisdom of local community elders or environmental educators (e.g. standley et al., 2009)-whilst bridging intergenerational and intercultural knowledge gaps? info-sociations as urban counter-cultural formations. the cases also illustrated how info-sociations can inform us in new ways about emergent urban cyberactivist cultures and formations. further research into how icts may be shaping novel (cyber)spaces for citizen engagement and urban activism-such as artist activists, citizen science, diy reporting and citizen journalism-would enrich a theory of info-sociations and of ‘civic intelligence’ (schuler 2001). this might also include further understanding networked cities’ roles as key communication, cultural and media hubs, and how civic info-sociations are (re)shaping ways of seeing and knowing the city-both virtually and on the ground. info-sociations as ‘cyberspaces of hope.’ the case studies served as reminders that examining connections between ict practices and citizen’s earth and street-based environmental justice and livability campaigns can generate creative ideas about info-sociational spaces. in this respect further research could work with lefebvre’s (1991, p.349, pp.381-383) concept of ‘counter-spaces’-that is, autonomous, experimental zones for reclaiming or creating heterotopian visions of / for the city-or what have been called ‘cyberspaces of hope’ here (an adaption of harvey 2000). the purpose would be to identify how info-sociational counter-spaces can support: discourse, debate, dissent, activist projects, alternative visions or plans; as well as, community celebration, remembrance, social learning, storytelling, cultural, and artistic creation. this begs the question: what creative possibilities exist when employing icts in the fight for urban socio-economic and environmental justice? in some respects looking to the past, to the histories of the earliest cities, to associational life and to the long duration of technological praxis (e.g. mumford 1961, 1967) might also stimulate thinking about future civic spaces-both physical and virtual. in doing so we might recall that any technology can be viewed as metaphorical tools for human and ecological betterment. this includes recalling technological spaces and tools that community activists have long employed, such as: the pen, the poster, the pamphlet, the pub and the public square, the coffeehouse, and the cha chaan teng (teahouse), amongst many others. civic life will continue to draw inspiration from a mixed repertoire of collective human ingenuity. studying info-sociations therefore not only provides insights into civic associational life and ict practices, it also encourages an ongoing examination of the dialectics between civil and cyber society, including the criticality in face-to-face interchanges. besides being a mode of analysis, an info-sociational perspective represents a call for citizens working as members, volunteers or staffers in civic associations to forge common knowledge alliances and linked communities of practice. civic life is now deeply intertwined within informational webs and nets of our own human creation, for better or worse. despite some of the promising transformative potential identified in the cases inside this paper, the question remains: are civic associations ably shaping the uses and applications of information communications technologies towards the just and livable city for all? acknowledgements the author wishes to recognize the helpful feedback on this ‘open source’ theory of info-sociations, from dr. richard smith, liu kaizhi, dakota smith, and two anonymous joci reviewers. thanks also to beau chen, tommy xiao, and hugo chan-for translation and interpretation assistance. in addition, thanks for the encouragement of professors mee kam ng and liisa horelli. this paper would not have been possible without the kind assistance of the university of hong kong and academia sinica (taiwan). most of all thanks to the staff, directors and volunteers in the hong kong and taipei civic environmental associations who kindly contributed their time, energy and patience. references bach, j. & stark, d. 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[2] translation, in actor-network theory (ant)-and the broader umbrella of science and technology studies (sts)-specifically refers to: “the methods in which an actor enrols others” (callon et al., 1986: xvii.). an ant reading of ict uses in civic groups suggests a need to focus on how technological practices have been negotiated over time including how assemblages of people, technologies and nature (actor-networks) adopt (or reject), and stabilize their ict practices inside civic associations (callon, 1986; czarniawska & hernes, 2005). [3] the wikileaks website states that the organization is a “non-profit organization” (wikileaks, 2011). this association was apparently founded in 2006 (reuters, 13 december, 2010, www.reuters.com/article/2010/12/13/us-wikileaks-splinter-idustre6bc23e20101213. last accessed 1 december 2011). in july, 2010, wikileaks released over 76,000 war logs linked to u.s. efforts in the war in afghanistan (o’loughlin et al., 2010, p.472). in late november of that same year wikileaks.org, began re-publishing a series of leaked ‘embassy cables’ a portion of apparently 251,287 digital transmissions amongst 274 american diplomats around the world (pras et al., 2010, p.1; wikileaks, 2011). [4] besides their availability for interviews, and the need to find a balance between hong kong and taipei examples, the selection the four cases in this paper involved three criterion: concerns about local natural or built conservation and civic environmental / urban livability issues; variations amongst organizational typologies-from older to newer formations and from formal to informal organizational formats; varying uses of icts for advancing their missions or goals, including the fact that all groups featured aims related to information exchange and knowledge / education. [5] the cases in this paper were extracted from the empirical data in a larger multi-year, multi-city investigation being conducted by the author that involves civic associations in hong kong, singapore and taipei (sadoway, forthcoming). the data used in this paper draws upon in-person (and telephone), semi-structured, digitally recorded interviews with dhk, amoo, teia, ours staff or directors undertaken by the author between 2009 to 2011 (with the partial use of chinese mandarin to english translations in one case in this paper). [6] urban and community informatics in this paper is treated as an amalgam of crosscutting efforts in: community informatics, urban informatics and urban new media studies. see: keeble & loader (2001, p.3); graham (2004, p.17); gurstein (2007, p.11; 2010) and foth (2009, p. xxix). [7] the original reference was to ‘tiger’ economies or the ‘little dragons’, namely the high growth, ‘role model’ economies during the 1970s-1990s in asia (i.e. hong kong, taiwan, south korea and singapore) (rohlen, 2002; douglass, 2006). in this paper the author refers to ‘e-tigers’, given hong kong and taipei’s (and taiwan’s) consideration as ‘advanced’ global digital jurisdictions (dutta & mia, 2010; itu, 2010). [8] info-sociations are co-constituted in socio-technical assemblages-that is, they are ‘located in’ and ‘produced by’ icts or (cyber)spaces. the term ‘assemblage(s)’ is drawn from actor-network-theory (ant) (latour, 2005) and refers to, “complex and heterogeneous assemblies of both social and technological actors, strung out across time and space and linked through processes of human and technological agency” (graham & marvin, 2001, p.185). law (2004, p.41) emphasizes that an ‘assemblage’-as an abstract noun-is an active, uncertain and unfolding process which is, “ad hoc [and] not necessarily very coherent.” [9]soja (1996, p.15) references michel foucault’s description of heterotopias as: “the space in which we live, which draws us out of ourselves, in which the erosion of our lives, our time and our history occurs.” harvey (2000, p.184), though ultimately critical of the teleology of foucault’s heterotopias, suggests that the concept: “allows us to think of the multiple utopian schemas (spatial plays) that have come down to us in materialized forms as not mutually exclusive. it encourages the idea of a simultaneity of spatial plays that highlights choice, diversity, and difference.” [10] the rights of netizens, particularly communicative rights amongst citizens in cyberspace have been debated amongst community informatics scholars and ict activists (e.g. hamelink, 2004; kahn & kellner, 2004, p. 86; mciver, 2004). also see (u.n., 2011), the report of the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, frank la rue, to the united nations human rights council (a/hrc/17/27), 16 may 2011. [11] this concept-a cyber-adaptation of geographer david harvey’s book, spaces of hope (2000)-is treated as one of a possible outcome from info-sociations. harvey’s work (2000) argues for reinvigorated utopian thought in spatial and geographical practices as an approach for addressing class injustices. references to technology-linked utopian / heterotopian alternatives should also come with reminders about the dangers of ‘utopian’ social engineering schemes (historically evident in, for example: nazism in germany; stalinism in the former soviet union; and fascism in italy, japan and spain; or cambodia under the khmer rouge). harvey’s work interestingly focuses on a critique of (and the need for hopeful alternatives to) contemporary market-oriented and neoliberal utopian thought shaping global cities and their spatial governance since the end of the cold war. [12] such spaces are illustrated in lefebvre (1991) as: “either the space of a counter-culture, or a counter-space in the sense of an initially utopian alternative to actually existing ‘real’ space” (ibid., p.349; pp.381-383) . [13] such critiques can draw upon scholarship and debates about icts threats to the public sphere / interest including: the commercialized of civic discourse; insidious market monitoring of online publics; and tightly controlled techno-managerial practices; not to mention the threats to civic democracies from media convergence and commercial oligopolies (e.g. hamelink, 2004; dean, 2010; tatarchevskiy 2010, p.12; foster & mcchesney, 2011). [14] scholars identify myriad influences shaping the dynamics of asian civil society and associational life, including: family, school and workplace associations or networks; confucian-buddhist-taoist philosophical traditions, such as idealized consensual relations in society; a historical legacy of strong state authority along with a legacy of colonial and/or authoritarian state rule; developmental statist-corporatist regimes; and transitions to democratic, or quasi-democratic regimes (e.g. weller, 1999, 2006). [15] the ‘wild strawberry’ student movement refers to activists and activism amongst the so-called ‘strawberry generation’ (elsewhere referred to as ‘generation y’ or ‘post-90s’ generation) (see: lin 2010a,b). in popular parlance the ‘strawberry generation’ moniker was employed in a classical generational divide discourse as this group relatively ‘having it easy’ in post-development state taiwan compared to their predecessor generations (including the so-called ‘yam/sweet potato generation’ which faced subsistence issues). thus the moniker ‘strawberry’ was apparently meant to suggest an ‘over sensitivity’ to hardships, a ‘bruising easily’ in the face of adversity with a need for pampering or coddling. ‘wild’ strawberry activism suggests a subset of activists within the strawberry generation-a cohort that grew up with relative ict ubiquity in the case of taiwan. [16] based primarily on three interviews with designing hong kong co-founder (subsequently dhk, ceo) including: a telephone interview (07/27/2009); an in-person interview (12/23/2009); an in-person conversation (11/19/2010). dhk is officially incorporated as a hong kong limited company (by guarantee) with a non-profit mandate and has expressed the intention to seek charitable organization status. [17] crucial efforts involved city envisioning@harbour (ce@hk)-a broad-based alliance of civil society groups, eco-designers, neighborhood groups, professionals and academics that advocated the creation of a harbour ordinance to protect the waterfront from further infill / reclamations and ill-conceived developments (chan & chan, 2007, pp.87-88). [18] an example of a local cyber-alliance, is the case of the tung chung blog hosted by dhk-which focuses on issues related to the proposed hong kong-zhuhai-macao bridge-where 8 allied groups come together (12/23/09, interview with ceo). also see: the dhk-hosted blog, 15 march 2010, http://dhk-tungchung.blogspot.com/. last accessed 1 december 2011. [19] based primarily on an in-person interview and email correspondence with the amoo, kwung tong map project founder / director (10/13/2010). [20] an example of an amoo sister blog site can be found at: http://kwuntong.wordpress.com/about/. last accessed 1 december 2011. [21] based primarily upon an in-person interview with an ours staffer and director (04/02/2009) and a follow-up interview with an ours staffer (10/27/2010); conducted, on both occasions, with the assistance of a chinese-english translator. more recent information on the status of burning map was derived from an interview with an ours staffer (8/24/2011). [22] in 1989 one particularly large campaign in taipei city, “citizen solidarity against urban speculation,” focused on housing rights, poverty and displacement issues. this action, which resulted in the formal formation of ours involved a mass mobilization of over ten thousand protesters in support of homeless and displaced residents (ours, undated; ng, 2007, p.366). [23] see: ours (undated), and also: http://www.ours.org.tw/about. last accessed 1 december 2011. [24] ours was formally incorporated as a non-profit organization in taiwan in 1992. [25] refer to the ours facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/ourstw, or their ‘international floral show’ link, https://www.facebook.com/board.php?uid=164806477745&start=30. both sites accessed 31 october 2011. [26] burning map was apparently intended to have a double meaning when understood in chinese, according to the ours staffer. one meaning refers to urban heat island and climate change effects; and the other refers to burning people or people burning, suggesting the potential catastrophic outcomes of heating (interview, 10/27/2010). [27] the staffer went on to describe how they link the research of dr. shaw chen liu (academia sinica, research center for environmental changes) on urban heat island effects in taiwan’s cities to their activist mapping (see: chen, 2010a) [28] the staffer also noted: “burning map is an [entrance website-transl.] for environmental issues. but second, you can see it’s media and you can be the media by [using] burning map, yourself” (interview with staffer, 10/27/2010). ours intends to encourage local associations, citizen monitoring and reporting on the blog/website; and visitors are also directed to post comments or join linked ours-sponsored face-to-face public events. ours sees their map as a broader educational resource about urban environmental issues or what they refer to as “eco-city” issues. [29] based primarily on separate in-person interviews with a teia staffer by the author in taipei (04/07/2009) and (10/25/2010); along with the teia general-secretary (10/28/2010). [30] this is a british-based group with member organizations from 60 countries. teia also retains contacts with groups in england, japan and korea and shares cases on land trusts. in addition teia has been involved in a forest trust in taidong, penghu islands and a wetland trust in tainan-shihu (interview, 10/29/2010). [31] for example, teia helped organize outdoor hiking trips focusing on history and ecology issues and at the same time has invited “mentally and physically challenged” individuals to join (loa, 2007). teia has also organized volunteer eco-working holidays-reportedly involving over 1000 volunteers since 2004. these combine work and education on ecological projects-such as invasive species removal, coral reef protection, or community/cultural restoration projects (wu, 2009). [32] teia recently received targeted financial support for a coral reef survey and squid protection program announced in the summer of 2010 (taipei times, july 24, 2010). [33] for instance, intensive early e-organizational formations / ict dependent start-ups in relatively young associations-in the cases of teia (10 years in age) and amoo (4 years in age); and to a lesser extent in dhk (8 years in age)-could be compared to the experiences of the 22 year-old ours civic association. this hypothetical ‘info-sociational equilibrium’ or age vs. ict use polyvalence does not, however, account for the influences of other internal or external organizational factors (e.g. age or training of staff; ict uptake in the civic organization; and so forth). 1281 ready the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles, special issue: odscsd researching the emerging impacts of open data: revisiting the oddc conceptual framework this paper revisits the conceptual framework developed for the “exploring the emerging impacts of open data in developing countries” (oddc) research project. the framework was designed in 2012 to address persistent gaps in research and theory building around open data as an intervention that has been promoted for a broad range of reasons, from economic benefit, to bringing about greater transparency and accountability. the framework goes beyond a standard supply and demand model of open data, to look at how open data interacts with process of decision-making in a range of governance settings. we discuss how this framework can connect the critical study of open data with work on inclusion, innovation and accountability. the framework was applied between 2013 and 2015 in 17 in-depth case study projects on three continents. through reflection workshops focused on the framework with case study authors, we identified the need for the framework to adapt to the development challenges where open data is to be applied, whilst identifying the value of the framework overall to support cross-case learning and theory building. introduction between the 2012 international open data conference, hosted by the world bank and the white house in washington dc, and the 2015 edition of the conference, hosted in ottawa, a lot changed in the world of open data. whereas in 2012, conference panels were discussing !148 davies, t., perini. f. (2016). researching the emerging impacts of open data: revisiting the odcc conceptual framework. the journal of community informatics, 12(2), (special issue on open data for social change and sustainable development), 148-178. date submitted: 2015-12-13. date accepted: 2016-06-20. copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1281 tim davies university of southampton, united kingdom corresponding author. tim.davies@soton.ac.uk fernando perini international development research center, canada fperini@idrc.ca http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1281 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1281 mailto:tim.davies@soton.ac.uk mailto:fperini@idrc.ca?subject= the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the first few open data initiatives in developing countries (majeed, 2012; rahemtulla et al., 2011, 2012), by the 2015 conference, hundreds of participants, involved in open data initiatives on every continent, were participating. no longer a new or niche idea, the open data barometer has found that the majority of countries surveyed have some form of official open government data efforts (davies, 2013d; world wide web foundation, 2015), and open data is amongst the most popular commitments made by countries in their open government partnership national action plans (foti, 2015; global integrity, 2012; khan & foti, 2015). critical voices have been raised around the extent to which discussions of open data and a data revolution (melamed, 2014) have come to dominate the agenda, displacing more nuanced discussions of open government and icts for development (mcgee & edwards, 2016). however, claims that open data will bring about economic growth, improvements in democracy and better public services are still widely made, and carry weight (carrara, chan, fischer, & steenbergen, 2015; gurin & manley, 2015; gurin, 2014; hossain, dwivedi, & rana, 2015). few dispute that there are benefits to be gained from moving to an ‘open by default’ approach for government data (iodc stewards, 2015), although the priority it should receive, and the approaches that should be taken, remain open questions. since open data first broke through onto the global stage with the launch of the us data.gov portal in 2009 (lathrop & ruma, 2010), there has been an accumulation of research investigating the topic. hundreds of papers, reports and articles have been published, yet until recently, sustained empirical work on the uses and impacts of open data has been scarce. hossain et. al. (2015) review 96 papers from the peer-reviewed literature, finding a focus on organisational and inter-organisational research, with a particular emphasis on questions of policy design (zuiderwijk & janssen, 2013), and drivers or barriers to open data initiatives successfully releasing data (albano & reinhard, 2014; conradie & choenni, 2012; janssen, charalabidis, & zuiderwijk, 2012; martin, 2014; martin et al., 2013). the bibliography compiled by members of the open data research network through an open zotero group 1 (available at http://bibliography.opendataresearch.org/) contains over 120 papers, the majority focusing on implementation of initiatives, and adopting either case study or interview methodologies. early research on open data in developing countries, and for development, was primarily conducted by outside researchers, either writing about how learning from developed countries might be transferred to development contexts (hogge, 2010; van den broek, rijken, & van oort, 2012), or completing case studies of donor funded projects (majeed, 2012; rahemtulla et al., 2012). the framing of research was on new open data initiatives at the national level, rather than on how open data comes into contact with existing processes and challenges in countries. with increasing donor investment into open data interventions, and a paucity of research, there was a clear need for a deeper research programme. it was against this background that in april 2012, the international development research centre (idrc), the world wide web foundation and the harvard berkman center for internet and society invited 30 open data and ict for development experts from around the world to a workshop in brasilia to develop a research agenda that would critically examine the impact of open data in developing countries (perini, davies & alonso, 2012). the initial the open data research network is now part of the open data for development (od4d) network.1 !149 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 development of the conceptual framework in this paper took place through that workshop. it was subsequently shaped through use within an open call for developing country led research into open data impacts (the open data in developing countries [oddc] project), and its implementation by the researchers selected through that call. the framework responded to a number of important gaps identified in 2012. there was almost no evidence published at the time on whether open data initiatives were delivering on their promises, particularly in developing countries. reliable evidence on the outcomes and impact of open data initiatives was extremely scarce, and little was understood about how social and political context, open licenses, technical platforms and standards, and the dynamics of data use in different fields might affect potential outcomes and impacts. furthermore, questions were already being raised about whether well intentioned initiatives might be resulting in adverse effects by exacerbating inequalities or negatively impacting existing governance structures (gurstein, 2011; lessig, 2009). although much progress has been made, in 2016, the refined framework still addresses a key gap. many more reports, conference papers and journal papers looking at open data in developing countries are now available, but they frequently lack conceptual clarity (mcgee & edwards, 2016), and a common approach to describing the factors that may account for the success or failure of the open data interventions they describe. without being clear on the nature of open data, the technologies employed, or the intermediaries active, building coherent practical and theoretical understandings of benefits, risks and relevant approaches to open data remains extremely challenging. in the following section we introduce further background on the oddc research project. we then introduce the initial conceptual framework, and ground it within wider literatures. the following section reflects on how it was applied across the oddc case studies, before presenting the revised framework along with key learning from its application. method: a collaborative research network the exploring the emerging impacts of open data in developing countries project was funded by the canadian international development research centre (idrc) and coordinated by the world wide web foundation. the authors were involved as programme officer and research co-ordinator of the project respectively. following the april 2012 expert workshop in brasilia, inputs from a prior discussion paper (heusser, 2012) were combined with workshop outputs (perini, 2012) and a review of the literature to identify a set of core concepts for an open call for research proposals. the open call, issued in july 2012‑ , invited research teams led by developing country 2 researchers, to provide short abstracts, research objectives and proposed methods for a yearlong research project. the call suggested a number of themes for potential cases, including. over 90 proposals were received, although ultimately focussing on a narrower set of categories than the call had anticipated. proposals were reviewed and shortlisted at a workshop at harvard university in october 2012. shortlisted proposals were paired with a available at http://public.webfoundation.org/2012/07/odr-cfp.html2 !150 http://public.webfoundation.org/2012/07/odr-cfp.html the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 research mentor, drawn predominantly from the experts who participated in the original workshop, and were invited to use the draft conceptual framework to plan their research in more detail. final research plans were confirmed, and projects funded. seventeen cases were selected overall. selected researchers included participants from ngos, private consultancies and academic institutions, working in a wide range of settings. these were organised into four initial thematic clusters as shown in table 1, drawing on the conceptual framework’s identification of particular kinds of data, mechanisms of governance and forms of impact. table 1: case studies clusters !151 budget transparency & governance urban governance public expenditure data > public resources / budgets > transparency and accountability an investigation of the use of the online national budget of nigeria by relevant stakeholders (university of ilorin, nigeria) exploring the emerging impacts of open aid data and open budget data in nepal (freedom forum, nepal) measuring open data's impact of brazilian national and sub-national budget transparency websites and its impact on people's rights, especially people living in poverty (institute for socioeconomic studies, brazil) case study on open data initiative of ministry of finance on national budget transparency in indonesia (sinergantara, indonesia) public service data > urban governance > more efficient, innovative and inclusive service delivery opening the cities: open government data in local governments of argentina, brazil and uruguay (brazil) opening government data by mediation: exploring the roles, practices and strategies of data intermediary organizations in india (india) quality of civic data in india and the implications on the push for open data (transparent chennai, india) opening the gates: will open data initiatives make local governments in the philippines more transparent? (step up consulting services, the philippines) open government in the philippines: exploring the role of open government data (ogd) and the use new technologies in the delivery of public services (de la salle university, manila, philippines) poverty alleviation emerging issues various data > urban and rural poverty > inclusion and empowerment exploring the impacts of budgetary information web publishing in the subnational level of brazil (research group on public policies for information access, brazil) investigating the impact of kenya’s open data initiative on marginalised communities: case study of urban slums and rural settlements (jesuit hakimani trust, kenya) a monitoring and evaluation study on the deployment of code4kenya applications and services (ihub, kenya) how could open data contribute to poverty eradication in kenya and uganda through its impacts on resource allocation? (development, research and training, uganda) various data > various governance settings > various outcomes open data in the judicial systems: evaluating emerging impact on policy design in paraguay, chile and argentina (center of implementation of public policies for the equity and the growth, argentina) the use of open data in the governance of south african higher education (university of cape town, south africa) open government data for regulation of resource intensive energy industries in india (the energy and resources institute, india) taking stock of the effectiveness and efficiency initiatives in sierra leone (society for democratic initiatives, sierra leone) the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 research leads from each case were invited to a launch workshop in london in april 2013 where the conceptual framework was discussed, and participants explored different methodological tools that could be paired with particular components of the research framework (davies, 2013a). over 2013 and early 2014, researchers worked on their case studies, meeting together in a number of regional and thematic clusters to share early findings, taking part in regular web-meetings and working with research mentors. most mentors were working with more than one case, supporting cross-case learning. this intensive engagement between cases, and between the case researchers and the research coordinator contributed to on-going development of the conceptual framework and associated methodological tools. at the end of the case study research phase, participants convened for a final workshop in berlin, alongside the 2014 open knowledge festival. this workshop provided a change to present final findings (davies, 2014a), and to reflect together on the conceptual framework. during this discussion a number of amendments to the framework were proposed, which are discussed below. an independent evaluation of the first year of the programme further contributed to reflection on the conceptual framework and its translation into common methodological tools within a diverse mixed-methods network. differentiating open data: beyond supply and demand in this section we describe the core of the conceptual framework, and how it was developed in response to a number of limitations in prior approaches to the study of open data. figure 1: a framework for differentiating open data !152 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 one of the persistent challenges in open data research has been a tendency to conflate different kinds of data, different mechanisms of change, and different kinds of impact. a starting point for our conceptual framework comes in drawing distinctions in each of these areas, calling for clarity that can support comparison across cases. figure 1 was developed based on a synthesis of discussion at the initial project workshop (perini et al., 2012), identifying the importance of looking at interactions between the source of data, the ‘domain of governance’ it is used within and the mechanism through which outcomes may be secured. open data: sources and openness 
 the first distinction here, on the source of data, responds to the tendency of literature to focus solely on open government data (ogd), defining the object of study as ‘data from government’ that meets the open definition (open knowledge foundation, 2014). there is an embedded assumption here, generally more warranted in developed over developing countries, that the kinds of data that might be used to deliver on the promise of open data will be held by governments. whilst strong and well-resourced states may have historically played an important role as nodal powers, with a monopoly on comprehensive data collection (agar, 2003; hood & margetts, 2007), in developing countries a wide range of government, ngos, international agency and private actors may be involved creating and holding relevant data. drawing on fung and weil’s (2010) call for a focus not only on ‘open government’ but also ‘open society’, in which private sector actors may be encouraged to disclose data alongside the state, we identified three kinds of data: (1) data about governments; (2) data about companies and markets; and (3) data about citizens. the last category here also offered a chance to draw attention to emerging privacy concerns (davies, 2013b; floridi, 2014; kulk & van loenen, 2012; scassa, 2014). whilst data describing the actions of the state may be relatively uncontroversial to publish, data about citizens, even aggregated, may need more sensitive handling. wright et al. (2011) had drawn attention in particular to the issue of community rights in india as a concern that should give pause before individualist data protection regimes from european or us experiences were simply adopted as a general feature of open data policy. in 2012, although one the biggest developing country open data investments to date had been into the kenya open data portal (rahemtulla et al., 2011), few developing countries had substantial open data portals. the temptation to focus on the data published on government portals, and to restrict an assessment of open data to this particular supply, has been common in the literature (atz, heath, & fawcett, 2015; wolrd resources institute, 2012; reiche, höfig, & schieferdecker, 2014; veljković, bogdanović-dinić, & stoimenov, 2014). however, this misses out on identifying the wealth of datasets that institutions in developing countries are providing and accessing through other sources. whether or not portals effectively support impacts of open data should remain, in our view, an open question, and any conceptual framework should allow this to be addressed. !153 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 governance: using data for taking decisions in framing the focus of our research work, we looked not at ‘open government data’, but instead at open data used for decision-making in distributed governance settings. the focus on governance incorporates recognition that decision-making is a multi-layered process, increasingly taking place through networks (dunleavy, margetts, bastow, & tinkler, 2006) and taking new institutional forms. it is important that any investigation of the effects of open data is sensitive to the way in which opening up data reconfigures governance relationships which include many actors including government officials, national statistics offices (nsos), media, researchers and citizens (huber & maier-rabler, 2012), as well as affecting existing processes of formal decision-making and implementation. to further explore the question of how open data changes decision-making, we need to understand different ways to frame decisions. in other words, we need to understand whether we are exploring political, economic and social domains. the political domain is one of political power in given territories, elections, checks and balances, budget setting and expenditure monitoring. the economic domain involves market mechanisms, trade, exchange and innovation. and the social domain involves the diverse activities of civil society, formal and informal institutions and self-organising communities. this context influences the analysis and claims made for the potential impact of open data. in order to understand the decision-making process, it is key to be explicit in relation to the specific (and sometimes, distributed) governance setting where decisions are made. some of the specific governance settings that were identified and highlighted in the open call include: local and national budgeting processes, legislative processes and elections, judicial systems, smarter cities, delivery of public services, science and technology, regulation of markets (e.g. extractive industries), welfare and empowerment of marginalised groups and communities (e.g. smallholder farmers), and international development. table 2 shows how it is possible to identify different ‘theories of change’ in each of the three domains, as well as hypothesise about how open data might affect a specific governance setting. it is important to notice that the different domains involve decisions with substantially different configurations of actors, issues and disciplinary perspectives. it is also important to understand in detail the specific governance setting in order to theorise how an open data intervention will change decisions and have greater impact. table 2 governance settings and specific theories of change on the impact of open data domains examples of theory of change in different governance settings key disciplinary traditions/streams political open budget data will bring about greater transparency in government, which in turn brings about greater accountability of key actors to make decisions and apply rules in the public interest. political science, public administration, legal studies economic open transport data will enable non-state innovators to improve public services or build innovative products and services with social and economic value. economics, business models, regulation !154 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 in the following section we further explore some of these theories of change, and survey the existing literature on areas where emerging impacts of open data may be observed. emerging outcomes in our initial project workshop (perini et al., 2012) and from an analysis of the literature, we identified three broad categories that capture the mechanisms through which commentators have suggested open data creates impact. these were: (1) transparency and accountability: open data will bring about greater transparency, which in turn brings about greater accountability of key actors, leading to them making decisions and applying rules in the public interest; (2) innovation and economic development: open data will enable non-state innovators to improve public services or build new products and services with social and economic value; open data will shift certain decision making from the state into the market; and (3) inclusion and empowerment: open data will remove power imbalances that resulted from asymmetric information, and will bring new stakeholders into policy debates, giving marginalised groups a greater say in the creation and application of rules and policy. subsequently, our attention has been drawn to the omission of an explicit reference to internal government reforms from this framework. open data can be used to drive internal efficiencies, or support government-led innovation as well as innovation from outside the state (dos santos brito, da silva costa, garcia, & de lemos meira, 2014; gerunov, 2015; roy, 2014; srimarga et al., 2014). this could be incorporated into the framework through the addition of a new term for ‘government reform’. this is particularly important to programmes such as making all voices count, which focus on ‘active citizenship and government responsiveness’, and for which understanding the role of open data in maintaining a balance between government capacity and citizen power is important (mcgee, edwards, minkley, pegus, & brock, 2015). we prefer, however, to revise the second term to incorporate government reform – whilst maintaining the recognition that many accounts draw heavily on the idea of introducing ideas from the market into government to deliver this change (o’reilly, 2010; robinson, yu, zeller, & felten, 2009) updating it as: • innovation, economic development and efficiency: open data will enable innovators to improve public services or build new products and services with social and economic value; open data will shift the location of decision-making and decisionmaking power, including increasing use of market mechanisms. we also note that this component of our framework was initially labelled ‘emerging impacts’ but later changed to ‘emerging outcomes’ as we explored the important limitation of case study research in establishing robust proof of impact. in many ways, transparency and accountability, innovation, or empowerment, could all be regarded as only means to ends: as social open census data will remove power imbalances that resulted from asymmetric information, giving marginalised groups a greater say in key policy debates. social science, community informatics !155 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 methods to achieve some good outcome rather than the outcome themselves. however, in practice they play a dual role: both authors and activists to tend to desire transparency or inclusion as a good in itself, recognising it may only be a stepping-stone to securing justice more broadly, but understanding it as a vital stepping-stone none-the-less. as methods to achieve change, these emerging outcomes are not mutually exclusive. in any governance setting one might find different routes being explored by different actors –for example, one group might choose to use open data on public transport to hold existing service providers to account (transparency and accountability), whilst others may use the data to build commercial mobile applications that help travellers to find the fastest route, or check on the times of buses and trains (innovation and economic development). understanding that the same data could be used in multiple ways, through very different emerging outcome mechanisms, makes it possible to ask whether a particular configuration of how the data is supplied leads to one method of change being easier to pursue than another. beyond supply and demand open data research has commonly followed a linear path, starting from assessing the capability of countries to supply data (apc & cipesa, 2012; grewal, iglesias, alonso, boyera, & bratt, 2011; iglesias, 2011), and then turning, eventually, to questions of demand for, and use of, data. this leads to a focus on interventions that can either improve data quality, or stimulate data demand through events such as hackathons, app competitions and data bootcamps (boyera & iglesias, 2014; kuk & davies, 2011; shemie et al., 2012), or data journalism training (gray, chambers, & bounegru, 2012). however, by organising our conceptual framework as a cycle, we suggest that the research process can start at any point: not just from the supply of data. instead, it should be possible to identify particular governance challenges, and then look at the kinds of interventions actors are pursuing to address them, such as promoting transparency, before turning to identify datasets that are being used. this escape from a linear supply and demand research focus was captured in the oddc call for proposals that asked potential researchers to start from identified governance situations. it was reinforced by asking for the identification of specific datasets implicated in addressing governance challenges in this setting. understanding the impacts of open data requires attention to the features of specific contextualised data (gitelman, 2013), and cannot be realised by abstract study of ‘data in general’. furthermore, with specific change mechanisms identified, it becomes possible to link open data into wider debates about governance, and social and economic change. the following section presents a literature review developed to ground the investigation of emerging outcomes of open data in contemporary debates. emerging outcomes in focus mcgee and edwards (2016) have recently commented on the lack of conceptual clarity in the ‘open government’ space. the same can be said of the broader open data literature, where broad categories of ‘transparency and accountability’, ‘innovation, economic development !156 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 and efficiency’ and ‘inclusion and empowerment’ hide many more specific definitional issues. this section offers a non-exhaustive survey of some of the key issues to consider when operationalising these terms. transparency and accountability although transparency and accountability are frequently discussed together, they are distinct concepts. the pairing has become a mainstay of governance, where deficits of accountability can leave those in power able to practice corruptly, and to serve their own, rather than the public interest. transparency is an essential ingredient for accountability (joshi, 2012), but is rarely a sufficient condition for it (fox, 2007; kuriyan, bailur, gigler, & park, 2012). accountability involves the capacity to ‘elicit justification, render judgment and impose sanctions’ on those with power (joshi, 2012, p. 4). whilst accountability relationships may be established internally to government by key stakeholders in a governance system such as when an audit institution demands to see the financial records of a government department, or when a public commissioner of road building orders an inspection of build quality and calls in the contractor to explain discrepancies between the specification and delivery, in the context of open data the pairing of transparency and accountability suggests a focus on allowing external actors, citizens in particular, to play a role in holding power to account. in heald’s (2006) terminology this is the distinction between ‘horizontal’ and ‘upwards’ transparency, and ‘downward’ transparency ‘when the “ruled” can observe the conduct, behaviour, and/or “results” of their “rulers”’ (ibid.). 
 
 whilst states have long demanded upwards transparency from other parts of society in order to enforce regulations, fung et al. (2007) note that over recent decades governments have also adopted ‘targeted transparency’ policies, in which they require firms to open up information or data on their products or actions to consumers in order to change firm and consumer behavior. for example, the publication of food safety or pollution information. fung et al. (2007) go on to suggest that a third wave of transparency is emerging, in which citizens do not need to wait for government policies, but can instead remix openly available data to generate pressure on firms for change, more aligned with citizen interest. however, they also note the limitations on the effectiveness of targeted transparency, noting that such approaches work best when: ‘a bridgeable information gap contributes substantially to risks or public service failures […] the policy problem lends itself to consensus metrics […] communication is practical […] information users have the will, capacity, and cognitive tools to improve their choices […] information disclosers have the capacity to reduce risks or improve performance […and] variable results are acceptable’ (fung et al., 2007, p. 175). in both open government data, and new data-driven forms of targeted transparency, the focus is placed on proactive disclosures. a contrast can be drawn here reactive transparency practices as invoked in right to information (rti) laws where citizens are entitled to request information from government, usually in documentary rather than data forms (janssen, 2012; open knowledge foundation, 2011). some moves towards linking open data into reactive transparency have taken place in the united kingdom, where amendments to the national freedom of information act provided a ‘right to data’ allowing citizens to request structured datasets (hm government, 2012b), although there is little evidence of this having been widely used. !157 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the extent to which differences and tensions between activists working on open data and rti can be traced to substantial differences in their aims and methods, or instead is driven by particular historical circumstances of the movements, was a recurring question for members of the oddc network, a number of whom addressed this in their work to propose greater synthesis between the movements in sierra leone, nepal and worldwide (abdulai, 2014; fumega, 2015; sapkota, 2014). the important point to keep in mind, and often elided in open data literatures, is that open data is not directly identical to transparency. heald (2006), amongst others, argues ‘[o]penness might […] be thought of as a characteristic of the organization, whereas transparency also requires external receptors capable of processing the information made available’ (heald, 2006 quoting larsson, 1998). a related point has been made by gurstein (2011), noting that having data online under open licenses does not mean that everyone has effective access or can make ‘effective use’ of the data. citizens may face barriers of technology, literacy, education or social capital that prevent them effectively receiving and processing information that might have been made available (gurstein, 2011). the way in which data is published, the context it is put in, the support on offer to enable access and use, and the presence of intermediaries, all affect how far open data will lead to increased transparency. where open data has led to greater transparency, another set of intervening relationships may determine how far it leads to accountability. in a collection of essays on corruption and democracy in brazil (power & taylor, 2011), authors highlighted a range of accountability channels, from the ballot box, to audit institutions, media coverage, judicial action and police enforcement. transparency has the potential to enable new accountability channels, and to affect the operation of existing channels. for example, the use of open data in data journalism has the potential to strengthen the capacity of existing media to hold government to account, and to support the emergence of new media players (fink & anderson, 2014; howard, 2014; martinisi, 2013). similarly, government ministers in the uk heralded the potential for an ‘army of armchair auditors’ to emerge using public spending data to hold government to account (maguire, 2011; mcclean, 2011; worthy, 2013) (individual citizens taking on the role of reviewing government spending from the comfort of their own computers), whereas speck (2011) notes that in the brazilian case transparency can help actors outside government place issues on the agenda of the formal audit institutions, affecting how they operate, but neither bypassing nor replacing the need for formally instituted audit. in the april 2012 workshop participants particularly highlighted how public availability of data could empower ‘good’ civil servants to oppose corrupt practices within their institutions without having to turn directly to whistleblowing (perini et al., 2012): in this sense, transparency and accountability is also an enabler of internal government reform. it is possible also that transparency creates more ‘accountable’ behaviour without the need for actual accountability mechanisms to be exercised, as when knowing information on their actions will be made public, and that indiscretion could be discovered encourages officials to behave better (meijer, 2007). however, fox cautions that ‘if the power of transparency is based on the “power of shame”, then its influence over the really shameless could be quite limited’ (fox, 2007, p. 665). !158 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 against the widespread optimism about transparency, the literature also highlights the possibility of adverse effects from greater transparency, as more openness can create perverse incentives, limit space for free discussion in politics, lead to ‘gaming’ of the data, can contribute to surveillance of citizens by the state, or can shift power to distant institutions rather than to citizens (ballingall, 2011; heald, 2006, 2011; lessig, 2009; murray, 2011). these effects depend both upon the design of the transparency intervention, and the wider political context in which it takes place. in approaching transparency and accountability arguments for open data, it is important to pick apart each of the terms: open data, transparency and accountability, to understand each as separate stages of a process to be analysed, and each affected by a range of factors. since 2012, research in technology for transparency and accountability has developed apace. however, little analysis has yet achieved the conceptual clarity that mcgee and edwards (2016) call for, and there is a tendency for conclusions to either focus on the need for better technology, or better political analysis, but without offering an account that crosses between the two, showing how the politics and technology of transparency and accountability are, in practice, co-constituted in any particular case. innovation, economic development and efficiency open data has been described as ‘digital fuel of the 21st century’ (kundra, 2012), a raw material that can support new economic activity and lead to dramatic breakthrough innovations. arguments concerning the economic potential of government data were key drivers for open data initiatives, particularly in the eu, where many studies argued that billions of dollars in potential economic activity were being lost through the ways governments managed their data, either not providing any at all, or providing it for a fee (dekkers, poleman, te velde, & de vries, 2006; newbery, bently, & pollock, 2008; pollock, 2009; uhlir, 2009). whilst some of this economic value may come from large-scale public sector information (psi) re-user firms creating products with government data, such as maps or improved weather reports, many advocates of open data have focussed on the potential for open data to be used by small and medium enterprises (smes), predominantly in the technology sector, to create new products or find new niche markets (fioretti, 2010), tapping into the ‘long tail’ of government data and market needs (anderson, 2006), and opening up opportunities for more inclusive models of economic growth. the release of open government data to stimulate domestic technology industries, and the creation of new ‘start up’ firms was a strategy evident by 2012 in the uk (hm government, 2012a), kenya (world bank, 2012) and us (kundra, 2012) open data initiatives, and it remains a high policy priority (stott, 2014). however, one of the most widely cited estimates of the economic gains to be had from moves towards open data is notable in attributing most of the value to developed countries. manyika et al. (2013) estimate that ‘the potential value would be divided roughly between the united states (usd1.1 trillion), europe (usd900 billion) and the rest of the world (usd1.7 trillion)’. distribution of benefits from open data remains an important topic. one particular theme emerging in oddc case study research in nepal was how countries were concerned about the economic returns on national government data being secured by neighbouring countries with much more developed ict industries (sapkota, 2014). !159 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 governments may also release open data to stimulate innovation in the delivery of public services, both through external innovation and internal efficiency. open government data initiatives have often been linked to tim o’reilly’s notion of ‘government as a platform’ (o’reilly, 2010) in which government acts as a provider of data upon which dynamic entrepreneurial actors outside the state can innovate to provide better, more efficient or more customised public services. this taps into an argument about the greater innovative capacity of the private over the public sector, ideas of user and open innovation (von hippel & von krogh, 2009; von hippel, 2005), and the view that both commercial and not-for-profit enterprise can act as intermediaries delivering public service (mayo & steinberg, 2007). the widely cited 2008 ‘apps for democracy’ contest by the united states district of columbia has suggested that through awarding just usd50,000 in prizes in an apps contest, developers outside the government put together 47 applications that would have cost usd2.6m if developed internally (united nations, 2010) although some have raised questions about the sustainability and actual realisation of this value (nichols, 2010). in seeking to secure some of the innovation and co-production benefits of open data the kenya open data initiative had an early focus on steps to create an ‘ecosystem’, connecting data providers in government with entrepreneurs and ict trained young adults (world bank, 2012). this suggests the hypothesis that enabling open data to drive public and private sector innovation requires more than datasets alone. understanding the conditions that are conducive to data-enabled innovation, and the kinds of policies that can promote it, is an important area for research. this requires attention to both the micro-level of conditions around particular datasets (for example, whether or not a transport ministry or agency is ready to collaborate with developers from outside government to work on co-producing services), at the mid-level (for example, whether government procurement policies allow it to engage with and appropriate innovative public service ideas from smes), and at the macrolevel (for example, whether national policies and infrastructure support tech sector innovation). equally, critical research is needed to assess how far open data enabled innovation serves widespread social needs, or is only able to deal with certain kinds of problems. open data has a further potential role within the sphere of economic development – as a resource for the more effective and equitable functioning of markets. all markets require some form of oversight and regulation – yet markets are increasingly complex and hard to monitor. both citizens and regulators face severe challenges in exercising effective oversight in many sectors, and it has been suggested that open data can play a role here. for example, the extractive industries transparency initiative, designed to support monitoring of extractives markets, have developed a common data standard to assist monitoring of contracts (eiti international secretariat, 2012); and the opencorporates.com project that has collated open data on millions of companies around the world has been actively participating in the eu financial stability board (taggart, 2012) promoting the use of open data to enhance oversight of the markets implicated in the 2009 financial crash. new data infrastructures are being proposed to address issues of tax transparency, and to help combat illicit financial flows (gray & davies, 2015), recognising the importance of making connections between distinct market-governance related datasets in order to build up a more complete picture of economic activities, and to support oversight of complex corporate activities. !160 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 although economic potential has been a key driver for the progress of a global open data agenda, there remain many unanswered questions on both the macro-economic and microeconomic effects created by particular features of an open data initiative, from choices of standards to licenses adopted. from a development perspective, constant attention to the distribution of economic benefits remains vital. inclusion and empowerment canada’s international development research centre (idrc) has championed a number of research networks under the banner of ‘open development’. different projects covered topics from open access, and open educational resources, to open science, open innovation, and open data (smith & reilly, 2013a; smith, 2015). central to the open development concept is the idea of a relationship between the openness of content (such as datasets), openness to people (in terms of the diversity of participants who can actively collaborate), and openness of process (in terms of transparency, and contingency) (smith & reilly, 2013b). bentley and chib (2016) find three primary narratives within open development: 1) that digitally-enabled openness provides greater access and can potentially enable greater inclusion of poor and marginalized people and perspectives; 2) that the decentralized nature of open models can potentially redistribute power and result in more efficient and effective collaboration outcomes; and 3) that the emergence of open phenomena is constituting a new form of development all together (bentley & chib, 2016, p. 3). these narratives are central to the articulation of the inclusion and empowerment potential of open data: calling for an exploration of how shifts in the technical and legal openness of datasets might impact the diversity of individuals able to access the political, social and economic processes they relate to, and might reconfigure power relations. within the economic domain, ideas of inclusion and empowerment may relate to whether or not actors currently kept outside of the financial mainstream are able to benefit from open data. the distribution of economic benefits is covered in the next section. within the domain of political and social governance, this idea of inclusion and empowerment can be found within the idea that opening up access to data could help to address asymmetries of information between companies and officials and citizens, ngos and grassroots groups (davies, 2010). with open data, the argument runs, there is the possibility for local communities to build up their own understandings and interpretations of key issues, and for intermediaries to contextualise information in ways that make sense to diverse groups, including citizens at the grassroots. through print-outs, mobile phone-based services, offline access, community radio, and participatory workshops (de boer et al., 2012; lee, 2014) data can be taken to local settings – empowering previously marginalised groups, and can provide the basis for feedback loops that enable local communities to shape the knowledge base on which policies are based (custer, 2012; gigler, custer, & bailur, 2014; srinivasan, 2012). however, as gurstein (2011) has noted, open data alone does not necessarily equate to empowerment, and there is a risk that a ‘data divide’ is created, where data only empowers the already empowered (gurstein, 2011). !161 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 whilst evidence from the uk suggests that open data has engaged a number of new actors in thinking about public services and governance (davies, 2010), little work could be identified in 2012 that had mapped out the users of specific open data, and explored how far open data was supporting greater inclusion in policy making and governance processes. subsequent work exploring the profile of users of other forms of ict-enabled governance tools has pointed to a bias towards well-educated and middle class users being the main beneficiaries – although with some broadening of the pool beyond those who were already engaged prior to icts being introduced (e.g. rumbul, 2015). bentley and chib (2016) are particularly critical of the lack of inclusion focus in the open development research agenda, stating in a review of the literature that ‘[w]e found very little evidence that research within this area is concerned with the perspectives of poor and marginalized people – notably women’. in digging deeper into the limited evidence base for inclusion impacts of open data there is an important distinction to draw between inclusion which treats marginalised groups as objects of development, and that which directly engages marginalise groups. in a direct process, open data is used to empower individuals and groups as active participants in the development process (perini et al., 2012; powell, davies, & taylor, 2012), shaping it around their own needs, and making claims in their own right. in an indirect process, data might be used to better plan and co-ordinate services for marginalised groups as the beneficiaries, bringing some increase in welfare, but without promoting the voice and influence of those groups. the literature since 2012 has placed particular emphasis on the influence of open data intermediaries (chattapadhyay, 2014; dumpawar, 2015; magalhaes, roseira, & strover, 2013; rojas, 2012; van schalkwyk, willmers, & mcnaughton, 2015; van schalkwyk, canares, chattapadhyay, & andrason, 2015). frank and waddell (2014) discuss the range of roles they may play from simply facilitating access to data, through to actively ‘coordinating and moderating deliberation, and processing the results of the deliberation’, placing predominantly technically skilled actors in positions of considerable power. moss and coleman (2014) suggest that ‘important questions remain concerning […] how intermediaries (some of which may be pursuing particular interests and agendas) frame and analyse data on behalf of citizens’. tygel et al. (2015) have developed an account of ‘interpretation autonomy’, exploring the kinds of skills that citizens need in order to have the freedom to access and interpret data in the ways they choose, securing the kinds of ‘open process’ envisioned by open development theory. greater autonomy comes from use of richer data and more flexible software tools, but this requires a greater investment in capacity building, or existing stocks of technical skill and data literacy. whilst some elements of autonomy can be promoted through more intuitive tools, the need for either advanced capabilities or mediation to work with data cannot be escaped. there is also an important distinction to be drawn between individual and community empowerment effects of open data. for example, bates (2012) argues that the uk open data agenda has developed to support the marketisation of public services, in which citizens are cast as consumers, offered data to help them make individual choices, but in which the potential of collective action to secure social provision of appropriate public services may be side-lined (bates, 2012). this could be seen as a running counter to the shift cornwall and gaventa (2001) see in development ‘from a focus on clients or consumers of social policies !162 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 as users and choosers to a more active engagement of citizens as agents in the making and shaping of the social policies that affect their lives’ (cornwall & gaventa, 2001, p. 5). understanding the conditions under which open data can be used to enable not existing elites, but rather marginalised groups, to become makers and shapers is a vital part of a developmental open data research agenda. figure 2: research framework and case study components (2014 revised version) in the standard linear supply and demand model of open data, inclusion and empowerment impacts of open data are often seen as occurring far down the ‘value chain’, after a number of intermediate steps. the kinds of individual claim-making empowerment outcomes from open data that davies (2010) documents are also frequently invisible within the wider open data landscape, with those who happen to find the information they need to empower them in their interactions with the state not overly concerned with whether or not it originated as open data, and thus not able to articulate their case as open-data enabled. this underscores the importance of a wider conceptual framework which supports investigation of demand-driven open data projects: cases where communities have sought out data, as well as cases where !163 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 governance institutions have proactively published. such cases also allow the effectives of proactive publication to be disentangled from the effects of open technical and legal regimes around a dataset. research in practice: a case study toolkit in this section we introduce an additional component of the framework in the form of six case study components which were iteratively developed in order to operationalize research into key areas identified above, and to support cross-case comparisons. each component points to an important set of variables that the literature suggests may be relevant to a particular case of emerging open data impact. this operational framework initially started with ‘national context’ at the top, supported by a tool outlining a series of six dimensions of national setting that researchers were encouraged to focus upon (political, social, economic, organisational, legal and technical), and then five subsequent components read clockwise and broadly understood as elements that could be treated sequentially, building up a case study. however, when the case studies reported their initial findings in a workshop in mid-2014 in berlin participants identified the importance of placing the specific ‘locality, sector or issue’ at the top of the model, emphasising the importance of this to any understanding of open data impacts. this component was also retitled from its earlier label of ‘governance setting’, to better capture the range of ways on which cases approached this important issue of defining a particular information polity. the other components were re-ordered to their arrangement in the diagram above – where rather than supporting the linear construction of cases, they are understood as interconnected, and to be approached iteratively, looking back and forwards between specific issues and national context, technical standards and use of data, or intermediary actions and data users. the scope of each resulting framework element can be described as follows: • locality, sector or issue – including a description and history of the issues in focus, details of key stakeholders, and analysis of how data currently plays a potential role in this setting. • the wider (national) context for open data – including descriptions of the political, organisational, legal, technical, social and economic context. • the supply and openness of data – including an assessment of data availability, legal frameworks for data, data licenses, and the stakeholders involved in providing data. • technical platforms and standards – including data formats and data standards use, and any data catalogues, apis or analysis tools provided by an open data initiative. • data uses and impacts – documenting the experience of those seeking to use data, and providing evidence of intended or unintended consequences. • intermediaries and data flow – documenting the means by which data is made accessible in the governance setting: how, and by whom? these case components were not designed to be tightly prescriptive, or to suggest that all must be covered in the same level of depth in any research into open data. however, in the oddc project, all cases were encouraged to address each to some degree (davies, perini, & !164 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 alonso, 2013), and partners worked together to develop a range of common research tools to further strengthen the possibility of comparing between diverse cases. figure 3 summarises an output of the first project workshop in 2013, where participants identified a range of different shared methodological tools that could support cross-case sharing and learning. in particular, the use of a 10-point data checklist, based on the methodology of the open data barometer (davies, 2013c) allowed a careful distinction to be drawn between data that was accessible, but not openly licensed, and data which was accessible and legally free for re-use, but not in machine-readable forms. a number of partners also collaborated to develop contextualised ‘follow the data’ interviewing methodologies (sands, borgman, wynholds, & traweek, 2012; sapkota, 2014; srimarga et al., 2014), which sought to move beyond simply self-reports of data-use, and to prompt interviewees to more deeply consider and explain their data use practices. figure 3: mapping out methods (2013 workshop) by working on the development of shared research tools, available to be remixed and adapted to particular uses, but remaining some common elements, we were able to move beyond an abstract conceptual framework, to have a much more applied research framework. progress towards common tools was easier in some areas than others. for example, finding effective ways to assess the completeness of dataset, and to find a sampling frame for assessing questions around data demand, remain challenging. however, we believe that there is much value for the open data research field in refining a suite of research tools and common methods, at both the macro and case study level (see caplan et al., 2014 for more details of oddc project work on this topic). !165 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 reflection: looking back and looking ahead in this section, we reflect on the use of the framework, and look ahead to future research priorities. the framework was intended to support a socio-technical approach to research into emerging impacts of open data, engaging researchers from a range of disciplinary backgrounds. project evaluation (da silva & montano, 2014), and discussion with partners in the final workshop in berlin, has largely validated its role in doing this, although the framework has proven less effective in providing the conceptual resources for the synthesis of cross-case findings. here, researchers have turned to theoretical constructs, such as the concept of a data ecosystem, linking synthesis of oddc cases into a wider discourse in the open data field (heimstadt, saunderson, & heath, 2014; helbig, cresswell, burke, & luna-reyes, 2012; helbig, cresswell, burke, pardo, & luna-reyes, 2012; van schalkwyk, willmers, & mcnaughton, 2015) . this allowed complex relationships between elements to be alluded to, without being catalogued in detail. in some areas, the cross-case analysis has also required the deeper conceptualisation of particular terms. in particular, where our framework talks very generally of ‘intermediaries’, work arising from its application has pointed to the need for much clearer definition of different intermediaries and intermediary roles (van schalkwyk, canares, chattapadhyay, & andrason, 2015) in the original conceptual framework report (davies et al., 2013), we set out four priority policy and practice debates to be explored: (1) understanding the flow of data from open data initiatives, to potential users, through a range of technical and social intermediaries. (2) understanding how the wider context affects the potential of an open data initiative. (3) understand how global standards, platforms, infrastructure and ‘eco-systems’ of open data affect local contexts. (4) understanding the distribution of benefits from open data initiatives. however, the findings from the studies using the framework have demonstrated to us that in setting out these focal areas, we were also still narrowing our view to a linear theory of change, which assumed a flow from data initiative to impact. instead, researchers found that whilst the chain from data to impact is often broken by issues of poor data quality, lack of standardisation, or lack of ready intermediaries, the introduction of open data ideas through policy initiatives can create new space for two-way dialogue between civil society and government on transparency and accountability issues, and, in the right contexts, can lead to a reshaping of governments internal data practices (beghin & zigoni, 2014; davies, 2014a). whilst the nature of the oddc programme, with local cases, limited the extent to which global standards, platforms and infrastructures were brought into view, researchers were able to develop rich narratives about the local context of the open data initiatives they were studying, and to point, if not to distribution of benefits, to the range of actors involved in intermediary use of open data. by looking at existing governance settings, and then exploring how open data entered into these, the framework brought into view the fact that many of the organisations who are !166 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 potential users of open data already have well established data practices, often involving access to data through personal relationships and networks (chattapadhyay, 2014; sapkota, 2014; srivastava et al., 2014). in these contexts, introducing open data may create an ‘evolution’ of practice, rather than ‘data revolution’ (davies, 2014a), and this has consequences for how demand for open data will be clearly articulated (canares, 2014). the central place given in the revised framework to ‘locality, sector or issue’ reflects a recognition that whilst open data initiatives may have many common features, they are also increasingly become adopted, and adapted, as part of wider agendas (davies, 2014a, 2014b). this shift, from looking at open data in the abstract, to an embedded approach to research open data to tackle the development challenges of a specific setting is key to any future research agenda. the 2015 international open data conference featured 12 thematic tracks, looking at open data in broad sectors such as agriculture, justice or the environment (idrc, 2015), and increasingly sector-specific research programmes are emerging, such as that of the global open data for agriculture and nutrition (godan) network. as research goes deeper into particular localities, sectors and settings, keeping the wider components of a shared research framework in view will become increasingly important to ensure learning can be shared. whilst in 2012, the issue of open data standards and interoperability was on our agenda, it has been perhaps the hardest theme to explore. however, with the inclusion of a principle on data ‘interoperability’ in the 2015 international open data charter (iodc stewards, 2015), we believe this will be an area in need of much more intensive work in the coming years, to understand how the data infrastructures now being built, sector by sector, can be an effective platform for each of the emerging outcomes sought from open data. conclusions this paper has presented the oddc framework and discussed how it differs from a supply and demand model for open data. the framework has contributed to a research agenda with a broad view of open data. as further developed in other parts of this journal, the case studies involve different kinds of data, decision-making and emerging outcomes, and respond to local policy and practice questions as well as cross-cutting research issues. the focus on case study research allowed us to understand the dynamics of particular uses of open data in influencing processes of decision-making, and allowed the identification of key contextual factors impacting upon the realisation of outcomes from open data, as well as identification of strategies and interventions employed within an open data initiative that can impact upon the quality of openness. the post-implementation reflection on the framework reinforced the need to think about the role of openness across a wide range of data ecosystems, including data about governments and states, data about companies and markets, and aggregate data about citizens. it also reinforced the importance of starting with a specific issue, and exploring open data in specific governance setting (such as budget, procurement or transport). based on a clear identification of the setting, it becomes more meaningful to critically articulate (and evaluate) a range of emerging outcomes from data availability, including transparency and accountability, innovation and economic growth and inclusion and empowerment (as well as identify situations where this is not the case). for instance, groups such as the open contract partnership and godan are articulating their theories of change on the role of open data in !167 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 public procurement and agriculture. grounded frameworks around specific governance settings will be a key pathway for future research. at the same time, the general framework proved to be a valuable tool to help address the constant tension in open data research: the need to balance between the specific of an issue, and a broad and global movement, which aspires for global standards and scale. with a new generation of global data initiatives currently becoming established, such as the international open data charter (iodc stewards, 2015), and work on data infrastructures to support monitoring of the sustainable development goals (data revolution group, 2014), there will increasingly be pressure to move beyond local experiments with open data to instead work on shared global infrastructures that can deliver key impacts around the world. although the oddc project has drawn to a close, the new open data for development network (od4d) is now building on the different clusters explored in oddc. od4d will refine understanding of the specific theories of change for open data to address issues relating to anti-corruption, cities, health and education . this work will continue to build local 3 knowledge about what works in securing emerging impacts from open data, drawing on the framework and methods presented here to support critical reflection and practical exploration of the opportunities to create new open data enabled practices. author’s note the work for this paper was funded by idrc grant 107075 (idrc.ca), and co-ordinated by the world wide web foundation. this paper builds upon the following project reports: davies, t., perini, f., & alonso, j. m. 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(2011). como siempre, apa con todos sus manias y vainas. science (new york, n.y.), 331(6018), 703–5. doi:10.1126/science.1197962 !178 1380 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles critical incidents analysis: mismatching expectations and reconciling visions in intercultural encounters conflicts among stakeholders are common in community informatics (ci) research. they often derive from mismatches of expectations and are exacerbated by communication and intercultural issues. such mismatches are breaking points that might compromise the relationship of trust among stakeholders and, ultimately, project outcomes. in ci, reflecting on moments of conflict and mismatch might help researchers attend to assumptions and interpret aspects of communities’ cultural context, as well as their own. this reflection should contribute to a closer connection among stakeholders and sustainable project outcomes. in this paper, we present the critical incidents analysis (cia) framework (brunello, 2015), a tool that was conceived within the community and development informatics field with the aim to reflect upon incidents and misunderstandings among !13 sara vannini university of washington, united states. corresponding author. vanninis@uw.edu david nemer university of kentucky, united states david.nemer@uky.edu ammar halabi university of fribourg, switzerland ammar.halabi@gmail.com amalia georgiana sabiescu loughborough university, united kingdom. amalia.sabiescu@gmail.com salomao david cumbula universita' della svizzera italiana, lugano, switzerland salomao.david.cumbula@usi.ch vannini, s., nemer, d., halabi, a., sabiescu, a., david, s. (2017). critical incidents analysis: mismatching expectations and reconciling visions in intercultural encounters. the journal of community informatics, 13(2), 25—34. date submitted: 2017-03-27. date accepted: 2017-06-26. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1380 . mailto:vanninis@uw.edu mailto:david.nemer@uky.edu mailto:ammar.halabi@gmail.com mailto:amalia.sabiescu@gmail.com mailto:salomao.david.cumbula@usi.ch http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1380 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1380 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 stakeholders, their different cultural perspectives, and – eventually – deal with project breakdowns. we apply the framework to our own research, a posteriori, where we analyze conflicts and mismatches of expectations arisen during our fieldwork. we conclude that the cia framework, applied “a posteriori” to our cases, was a useful tool to better analyze and report on our research, and to recast incidents as opportunities to enable a deeper understanding and build trust among stakeholders. introduction conflicts among stakeholders are common in research dealing with technologies and people, and as we argue below, they often derive from mismatches of expectations, miscommunication, and misjudgments among project stakeholders and can be exacerbated by cultural differences. understanding mismatches of expectations and conflicts in ci projects through a reflexive approach can be vital, then, to dealing with sensitivities among stakeholders, fractured relationships, and project failures. in this paper, we present the critical incidents analysis (cia) framework (brunello, 2015), an original framework of analysis – and action – that is still unused in the field, and that we consider to have good potential to better inform work in ci and development informatics (di) scholarship. cia was conceived as a tool to reflect upon mismatches of expectations among projects’ stakeholders and to better understand – and even prevent – incidents that might otherwise lead to major project breakdowns. these mismatches are referred to as “critical incidents” within cia because they can compromise the relationship and trust among stakeholders and, subsequently, the project outcomes. cia was originally developed in a cooperation and development project setting entailing a technology program delivered in schools in burundi within the bilateral belgo-burundian cooperation program, where brunello (2015) started his reflection on stakeholders’ cultural differences and the diversity of contextual frames they were embedded in. the use of the framework enables understanding mismatches of expectations by considering the whole “ecosystem” wherein the research takes place, with a special focus on the relationship among stakeholders in and within the context. based on our experience in applying the framework to community-based work, cia is a valuable tool for self-reflection also when researchers face critical incidents in ci projects with smaller cultural and contextual differences. this reflection can be applied mainly in two moments. first, while critical incidents are happening (during fieldwork, the course of a project), prompting researchers to improve their communication with the other parties and steer the incident towards deeper mutual understanding and better project outcomes. second, a posteriori (after fieldwork is over, after an incident has happened), enabling researchers to reflect on mismatched expectations, better understand incidents and critical moments, and report their work more richly, potentially enabling deeper reflection and transfer of experience to future projects. !14 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 we use the cia framework a posteriori, as a way to “reverse-engineer” (brunello, 2015, p. 33) mismatches of expectations among the different stakeholders of two research studies conducted by two of the authors an ethnography of a voluntary community of syrian students interested in internet and collaboration, and an ethnography on the use of icts in brazilian favelas. while the considered critical incidents were already documented, we highlight how using the framework to run a new, ex post facto analysis on them allowed us to dig deeper into our data and get a better understanding of our research contexts. in addition, we show the value of using the framework to study technology encounters among interlocutors that are considered more homogenous: compared to the cases in which the framework was originally applied, our cases entail somewhat less dramatic cultural distances between researchers and local stakeholders. yet, they do have differing conventions, power imbalances and divergent interests. in the next sections, we present the grounds on which the cia framework was conceived and the need for such an approach in ci and di studies. then, we explain how the framework is structured and how it can be applied to ci research projects that deal with qualitative – mainly ethnographic – data. finally, we explain and discuss the analysis on our cases and implications and benefits of cia for ci and di research. the path to a critical incidents analysis framework the need for an “ecological approach” the cia framework was conceived in response to decades of techno-centric research in the information and communication technologies for development (ict4d) field, where icts was held as undeniably capable of helping the socio-economic development of marginalized communities. evidence and success stories supporting that icts can improve the conditions of underserved communities have been reiterated as models to draw upon (unwin, 2009; weigel & waldburger, 2004), fueling the hype and concealing the many failures the field has seen (dodson, sterling, & bennett, 2013; heeks, 2002). underlying this unquestioned faith in icts and technical solutions is a modernization stance and a sense of superiority on part of powerful economic and political actors , whose self-conferred purpose is to bring the – often non western “other” to a level the west has set and where, in a hierarchical way, the west is superior (simon, 2003, p. 17, cited in brunello, 2015). in this context, icts have been considered unquestionably appropriate tools to solve problems that are systemic in given contexts. this principle, which has recently started to be questioned (brunello, 2010; nemer, 2016), generated a paradox, where development has been de-humanized and has hindered projects “sustainability” defined in brunello’s work using the words of unwin “as the continuation of the flow of benefits after the exogenous input of resources has ceased” (unwin, 2009, p. 365). the paradox holds, on the one hand, technologicalidolatry the trust that technology is able and has agency to solve issues it has not caused (best, 2010; brunello, 2015; latour, 2010) – and, on the other, technological determinism (chandler, 1995) the effort “to handle development issues by means of technical solutions” (brunello, 2015, p. 60). likewise, growing evidence showing that imported and de-contextualized ict solutions do not serve the development purposes for which they were conceived has also started !15 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 to be reported (avgerou, 2000; avgerou & walsham, 2000). two kinds of criticism are particularly relevant for understanding the grounds of the cia framework: first, icts are criticized for reinforcing, rather than evening out, existing power hierarchies between stakeholders (feenberg, 2009; mcdermott, 1969; warschauer, 2004). second, the set of – western values inscribed in icts would engender the homogenization of minorities not their empowerment (dreher, gaston, & martens, 2008; lange & meier, 2009). the “ecological approach” (brunello, 2015) adopted by the framework suggests a way to address and include the local community context in the research “ecosystem”: in opposition to the technological imperative mindset, my research espouses a social embeddedness approach (avgerou, 2008, 2010; latour, 2005) which i define ecological in that it strives to embed all stakeholders in their environment, conceived as an ecosystem. (brunello, 2015, p. 65) the term “ecosystem” is here used to underline the systemic interrelationships between icts and social actors. the metaphor of the ecosystem refers to the primacy of the relationships among stakeholders and between them and their environment. the term implies an interconnectedness where each element (technology, stakeholders, the context, etc.) is affecting the whole system in which it is embedded, with their power relations, purposes and cultural differences. the term also stresses how brunello’s perspective is organic, rather than inanimate and technocentric, and considers stakeholders “as actors, political beings striving for power and prestige or even for survival, exploiting the affordances available in their context — physical, socioeconomic and cultural — thus leveraging or resisting icts as a way to preserve or gain status and agency” (brunello, 2015, p. 69). “ecosystem” relates also to the concepts of “sustainability”, as previously defined, and “resilience”, or “the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so as to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks.” (walker et al., 2004, no pagination). this ecological approach has had a series of applications in development and innovation frameworks, all converging in the understanding that societies are complex interrelated systems, and therefore require systemic approaches and appropriate tools for both designing and assessing interventions for innovation, development and social change (see for instance the framework for evaluating communication for development in lennie and tacchi, 2013; and systemic innovation frameworks and living labs methodologies, almirall et al., 2012; levinen et al., 2012). the need for an intercultural communication framework the cia framework also draws upon studies on intercultural communication. while brunello mainly adopts an interpretivist approach to observing and analysing culture, he pragmatically suggests moving the analytical lens between both fluid, constructionist notions of culture (geertz, 1973; van stam, 2012), as well as categorical, objectivist notions of culture (hofstede, 1984; triandis, 1994, 2000). this enables him to consider cultural phenomena with different degrees of granularity, thus accounting for “the specific organizational culture [in the particular project], as well as for the larger intercultural matrix embedding it” (brunello 2015, p. 77). based on this multi-context !16 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 view of intercultural interaction, brunello defines “culture as contexts that travel: we carry with us our distinct way of segmenting and structuring the flow of experience in contexts and meta-contexts so as to orient ourselves through them and interact appropriately, since it is the context that makes the content of an interaction meaningful (watzlawick et al., 1967)” (brunello 2015, p. 77). brunello then moves to consider mismatches between cultural contexts that orient the interactions of different actors. differences in socio-cultural backgrounds among stakeholders are frequent in ict4d and ci research and can undermine their relationships and project outcomes. intercultural communication can help understanding how people from different cultural backgrounds can perform and develop satisfying collaborations (samovar, porter, & mcdaniel, 2009). yet, intercultural communication issues are not frequently addressed in the training of researchers dealing with icts in community development projects (brunello, 2015). when unexpected or unclear circumstances arise, as in intercultural encounters, people experience anxiety: the less they know about a situation or interlocutor, such as when traveling to a country where a different language is spoken, or body language is different – e.g.: a foreigner trying to understand the different kinds of indian headshakes, the meaning of the many italian hand gestures, or a westerner dealing with private space in the middle east – the more they will be inclined to rely on heuristics they already know to be able to respond appropriately to unexpected circumstances, thus reducing their uncertainty (gilbert & malone, 1995; gudykunst, 1985, 2005; hewstone, 1989; navarro, arechavaleta, & olalde, 2010; zamperini, 1993). in psychology, such heuristics are considered cognitive shortcuts to compensate for the lack of knowledge about a situation and reduce interaction anxiety (sclavi, 2003). however, people usually remain unaware of them and do not question them. people, then, remain overconfident about their reliability in understanding or acting upon the uncertain situation (navarro et al., 2010). moreover, when intercultural issues cause too much anxiety in the interlocutor, interaction will most likely be avoided and communication minimized (duronto, nishida, & nakayama, 2005). over time, heuristics tend to crystallize into new “frames”, “becoming a bias” and finally hindering “honest self-expression and recognition of each other’s humanity for the sake of interactional predictability” (brunello, 2015, p. 79). miscommunication of this kind among stakeholders might be exacerbated in ci initiatives, which are usually marked by power imbalances and carry implicit assumptions that icts are significant for researchers and practitioners alike. misunderstandings, at this point, might become critical and compromise partnerships and relationships between stakeholders. critical incidents: a definition the cia framework deals with “critical incidents”, considering them as strategic to explore and reflect on mismatches of expectations. these moments can occur when we realize that something that we took for granted – and about which we did not discuss beforehand – does not correspond to our expectations. they include both dealing with technological artefacts and discussing with people about how we can use and work with them. brunello’s most quoted example refers to belgian funded computer labs in !17 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 burundian schools that were often found empty during school hours. belgian aid workers were bewildered: to them, burundian stakeholders had always expressed interest in computer labs and, yet, they were not using them. experiencing a critical incident implies a feeling of bewilderment and disorientation. in brunello’s work, a critical incident is defined as “a puzzling mismatch of expectations that has significant consequences on interpersonal relationships, and ultimately on the project outcomes”, a “subjective psychological experience of puzzlement that occurs when an interactional frame breaks – in other words, when ‘i’ realise that what ‘i’ was taking for granted (e.g. when a hard drive fails it must be replaced) is not shared by my interactant (e.g. when a hard drive fails we stop using that pc) and therefore cannot be taken for granted.” (brunello, 2015, p. 82) incidents are considered critical when they involve feelings and expectations. analysing them is relevant to deepen communication and reinforce trust, to interpret project data, to reduce the risk of project failures, and to improve aid effectiveness (easterly, 2007; riddell, 2008; sachs, 2006). the cia framework the cia framework breaks down critical incidents to various dimensions, which are contextual, value-related, material, and interest-related. the framework is primarily designed as a tool for detecting critical incidents while they are happening – so as to approach them in a reflexive way and resist the first reaction that leads the researcher to frustration, blaming, subjectifying, resistance, submission, or to attributing the causes of incident to others. however, it can be applied as a reflection tool also ex post facto, to better contextualize research data. based on insight from research in intercultural communication and social psychology (lalljee, 1987; manusov & spitzberg, 2008), a researcher is prone to take a dispositional route whenever they perceive that the critical incident’s locus of causality is ascribed to the partnering local actor, and not to the situation or to themselves. the local actor may then be labelled either as under-skilled for the situation or as intentionally evil, deliberately not complying with the expectations. the dispositional route ultimately influences how the researcher perceives local actors, their trust in them and their interactions. brunello suggests that an alternative to the dispositional route is the situational route. a situational route needs reflexive and ecological thinking, taking into account context, culture, history and stakeholders’ different interests. this is achieved by a mindful reflection on the situation while it is happening, abstaining from immediate reaction to the situation in order to be able to look outside the self and identify the contextual elements that might have brought the stakeholders to act that way. this approach would help realizing actions to conserve trust or rebuild it when lost (by apologizing, taking risks together, opening up). to apply the framework, critical incidents have to be individually analysed and traced back to the mismatching implicit premises from which they derived. this is done by answering to several introspective questions (see table 1) aimed to elicit expectations, !18 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 assumptions and emotions connected to the incidents, and by considering that "i", as a researcher, am involved in the incident, and need to adopt a reflexive and ecological approach. once researchers have reflected upon these questions, they can organize their thoughts about the incident premises into five analytical dimensions: emotions, attributions, communications, ranking (see grid in table 2). table 1: cia reflection questions, adapted from brunello, 2015, p. 161-162 1. w h o s e e x p e c t a t i o n s w e r e mismatched? a.context-related (e.g. in europe maximum class size is 40 versus in burundi maximum class size is 140) b.relationships-related (e.g. i have the right to give you orders versus we are on the same level) c.technology-related, specifying whether the assumption was related to the instrumental or to the symbolic value of technology (e.g. computer enable learning versus computers make us modern) 2. what would have been ‘normal’? what presumptions went unmet? 3. what was the emotional reaction t o t h e m i s m a t c h ( i . e . disappointment, wonder, fear, anger…)? 4. whose responsibility (fault/merit) was it? who should intervene to fix it, if anybody (accountability)? this reflection is aimed at pinpointing any disconnect between the rhetoric of responsibility, which is directly tied to ownership, and the actual handling of the issue in point. 5. w h a t k i n d o f a t t i t u d e w a s enacted? looking downwards (mm) or upwards (mm) or peerto-peer (=)? this relies on patfoort’s (2001) work on nonviolent communication for conflict resolution, which asserts that the relational component of a communication can be skewed in the sense of a superiority complex (“major-minor—mm”) or of an inferiority one (“minor-major—mm”) or levelled, on grounds of equality (“=”). 6. how did it affect the existing relationships (trust-mistrust)? 7. w h a t w e r e t h e p r a g m a t i c consequences of the incident at the four levels, especially at micro and meso levels? this was meant to distinguish between critical incidents that only affected trust, but did not have an immediate impact on the organizational roles within the project, from those who did, e.g. when a computer lab manager was officially sanctioned. levels: a. macro (e.g.: belgo-burundian bilateral cooperation) b. meso (e.g.: computer labs subproject) c. micro (e.g.: school management) d. nano (e.g.: within the computer lab) 8. was there any attempt of metacommunicating? !19 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 2: cia grid (adapted from brunello, 2015, p. 164) finally, researchers’ expectations elicited through this exercise are divided into three categories (brunello, 2015, p.162): a. context-related (e.g. in europe maximum class size is 40 versus in burundi maximum class size is 140) b. relationships-related (e.g. i have the right to give you orders versus we are on the same level) c. technology-related, specifying whether the assumption was related to the instrumental or to the symbolic value of technology (e.g. computer enable learning versus computers make us modern) when facing a critical incident, the researcher needs to deliberately stop and try to see the incident from a different perspective, that includes historical, social, cultural and organizational perspectives. the researcher will proceed to reflect on the incident by going through their ethnographic notes and analysing their own emotional response to the facts. the author suggests that “one has to learn to stay in the puzzlement and welcome embarrassment” (sclavi, 2003, pp. 185–215, as cited by brunello, 2015) instead of aiming to self-control. self-control would be obtained by emotional repression while emotions are here conceived as “precious signals informing us about how we are perceiving what we are perceiving” (brunello, 2015, p. 301). i named this framework sbizo (stop, breathe in, zoom out) to stress the need for a deliberate effort to pause instead of hurriedly to resort to dispositional heuristics, and to contain emotional discomfort. this is motivated by the axiomatic assumption that there is always a coherence in human behaviour. consequently, puzzlement and emotional discomfort are interpreted as signals that my cultural grid is not potent enough to recognise such coherence and i premises expectation perceived reality emotion gut reaction intensity (high-med-low) attribution w h o s e r e s p o n s i b i l i t y ? ( f a u l t a n d justification) locus of control (in/out) who’s to fix it? communication attitudes (mm, mm, =) effects on relationship effects on ‘reality’ meta-communication? ranking on a scale 1-5 !20 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 need to search further to find a bridge between my universe of coherence and the other’s. [...] this may require: 1. explicitly to renegotiate those relationships. 2. sincere apologies. 3. taking risks together, thus making ‘myself’ vulnerable first and staying open until the other does the same. (brunello, 2015, p. 296) by presenting cases from our research experience, we discuss how the cia framework can be used as a tool in community-based research to reflect on critical incidents and how they relate to relationships between the stakeholders, their interests and expectations, and consequently, research outcomes. applying the cia framework to our own research as brunello did with his own work, in this analysis we used the cia framework to reflect on previously happened critical incidents, ex post facto, thus we re-analyzed our data to learn from the incidents happened in the field. the two researchers directly involved in the cases here narrated were not aware of cia when conducting their research. both, however, had to work out some reflexive stance at the time of their fieldwork, and had to find a way to deal with the critical incidents they faced. also, they both managed to avoid to take a dispositional route, to circumvent the incident before it became a major breakdown for their research, and to preserve the trust of the communities they were working in. however, this came at some cost. the two researchers invested a considerable amount of time and energy trying to understand how to approach the incidents and attempting to meta-communicate, being in some cases taken aback by them and doubting of their own skills and of the possibility of finishing their fieldwork. believing that cia would help approach their cases more systematically, and that it would constitute a tool to understand their contexts and how to approach them more in depth, both researchers engaged in an a posteriori analysis of their data (including field notes, online notes and survey instruments). they worked closely with the other three authors in a double circular process of plenary open questions, followed by individual reflections on their data and, again, plenary meetings to share and deepen the cia-aided reflection on their cases. both researchers used, first, the questions provided in table 1 to reflect and dig into their own cases. some questions were found more relevant than others (the ones regarding trust, accountability and pragmatic consequences), but all questions were used. the resulting reflections were mapped according to the dimensions offered in table 2 grid. all dimensions but one (ranking) were relevant and helpful to identify what really happened during the incidents. finally, the reflections about researchers’ expectations were broken down according to the categories proposed by brunello. both researchers found out that their expectations mainly fit in the first two (context-related and relationships-related), while they could not identify any technology-related assumption to their cases. the following section present the results of this iterative process of reflection and (re)writing. !21 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 cia and community-based research experiences in syria and brazil to reflect the ethnographic approach suggested by brunello, the two cases will be narrated in first person by the two authors that were involved as principal researchers in the projects: ammar halabi for the case of a local community in syria, and david nemer for the case of the brazilian favelas. conflict in the voci online community we take this case from halabi’s work with voci (an acronym for voluntary community), a local learning community of (mostly) student volunteers in damascus, syria, between 2012 and 2015. the main body of the observations were made between 2012 and 2014 (see halabi 2016). voci was founded by a couple of active members in 2011, and grew in size and a number of activities in the following years, as members started to organize talks about open source projects, hold collaborative electronics workshops, and gather to write and publish online content in arabic. by participating with community members while compiling an ethnographic account of their interactions, halabi sought to learn about their use of icts to collaborate and communicate. the researchers in the voci project intentionally aimed to minimize cultural distance by working with a group of university students with a close sociocultural background to that of halabi. the case, then, is not starkly marked with the same cultural distance considered by brunello when he developed the cia framework. in the following, we summarize part of his fieldwork that involved conflict within voci. halabi narrates: in late 2012, conflict broke out between community members in voci. this started after two of the three community founders, along with the majority of the moderators, decided to exclude the third founder (whom i call “salem” here), and announced forming a new management team in as they started establishing a hackerspace for voci. simultaneously, the new management team changed the passwords to the domain-and web-hosting services, and retracted salem's admin privileges from all digital groups and spaces on third-party social services (including facebook, flickr, youtube, etc.). this was a surprise to many of us in voci, which until to that point seemed to be rather harmonious, and little signs of disagreement, if any, were at all publicly visible among the moderators. immediately after he got blocked from all online spaces, salem started campaigning online on his personal facebook wall and on a facebook group that he created specifically to call for what he considered his rights as a member and moderator. he also started blogging extensively to criticize and discredit the actions against him, and to argue that governance and control should not be concentrated in the hands of few people who were unjust, inexperienced and questionable (i am softening salem's language a lot here). the conflict generated intense controversy in the community. many members objected to blocking salem out of voci's digital spaces. some requested justification for his suspension, and some attempted to mediate among the involved parties, while others !22 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 called for better and clearer governance to avoid these kinds of problems. teasing out through the cia framework how different parties viewed their relationship to each other and to the community, the management team argued that they had to exclude salem from management because he was not consulting with others in making managerial decisions and that he was not duly contributing to the everyday chores of management. they also noted that he was blocking their vision to establish a local hackerspace as he preferred waiting for a couple of years after finishing his studies abroad. at the beginning, i was trying to understand the various interests that have played a role in leading to the clash of these two parties. but as i am writing these lines, thanks to a renewed discussion after i read brunello’s work in early 2016, i also came to attend to the role of changing context in shaping these interests of voci members, which eventually clashed. salem, as i just mentioned, since late 2011 moved abroad to follow his studies. after he moved out of syria, he held a couple of events under the name of voci without coordinating with the other moderators in damascus. this behaviour frustrated the moderators: they perceived it as destabilizing voci’s image that they associated with syria, and they felt they were not involved in such strategic decision despite investing considerable time and effort in building the community image, reputation and activities. furthermore, while the management team considered that salem did not contribute duly to the chores of management, salem insisted that he was putting in continuous effort. to my understanding, the kind of work that he was doing was less and less appreciated: since he was distant, he did not contribute to on-ground events, he did not amass new members in syria (he was charismatic and could convince many people to join when he was in damascus), and eventually it seems the work that he did abroad to create new voci groups was perceived more of a threat than an opportunity to the moderators in damascus. this case shows that such a local group, where members who can be seen to share fairly similar cultural context and understandings, can be destabilized as members grow apart in distance and get positioned in differing contexts, giving rise to differing circumstances and interests. what salem thought to be contributing value to voci, possibly seemed threatening, abusive of control and indolent to the rest of the management team. the conflict persisted for almost a year, and was quite hard and disturbing for everyone involved. thus, there were indeed various attempts to meta-communicate about the problem, and among other voci members, i tried to maintain contact with both parties to create a space for communication. like others who attempted to mediate, i found this very challenging. on the one hand, it was difficult to be positioned between two parties, which i both considered my friends, but still, i kept pushing insistently debating with each of them in order to justify the other party's point of view. in other words, i felt that my views were not satisfying for either party, and each felt at moments that i was defending the other instead of supporting them. as the conflict progressed, my sentiments changed over time. at certain moments, i appreciated the management team's frustration with issues of power and control and their aspiration to take more control over something they were putting lots of effort into. this was especially the case when salem seemed to me harsh in attacking the reputation of the management team, or in refusing to seize opportunities to reconnect and reconcile when it required compromising some of his conditions. on other occasions, i was compassionate with !23 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 salem, trying to imagine what it could be like to be abruptly suspended, while residing abroad, from a community back at home where he has invested years of his life and held lots of hope for its future, both personally and professionally. to this day, when i get back to the field data and re-read the discussions and interactions that i recorded, i still swing back and forth between these sentiments. this reflects the way brunello suggests dealing with critical incidents by stopping, breathing-in, and zooming out (sbizo) to understand the situation contextually and pragmatically. i believe my role as a researcher gave me enough space and resources to attempt it before i knew about sbizo: it was very time consuming to try talking with everyone and understand their grievances, however, given my position as a researcher, i was willing to invest in this, and i was in a safer position since i was less concerned about losing face (while still being concerned about preserving good terms with both parties). so, while opening any space for discussion and negotiation was difficult, i felt that at some moments this dynamic of sbizo (opening up and trying to reconcile the different stakeholders’ views) could contribute to bringing the parties in contact together. however, those moments in the case of voci were brief. we could not overcome the differing sets of conditions that each party wanted as a pretext to agree on discussing with each other. the management team, while admitting that blocking salem was a mistake, insisted on their decision to reduce salem's privileges as a moderator, and offered to return him as a regular member after discussing with him in private. salem, on the other hand, demanded to be returned to his full status as founder and moderator unconditionally, discredited the authority of the management team, and wanted any discussions to be public in order to guarantee their fairness and to debunk the false arguments against him. there is much more to say about the conflict (for a fuller account, see halabi, 2016), but i will close with one final idea inspired by cia’s attention to how two involved parties come to frame the reality of what happened and what should happen. as the conflict lingered on, the two parties mobilized different discourses to justify certain positions and to push towards certain outcomes. for example, while salem argued at length that the spirit of a collaborative community should not admit certain selected members as "managers", the management team argued that while salem’s rhetoric seems plausible, practical experience showed them that there are people more invested, interested, or qualified than others in the community to handle its management (that is, them, being the most invested and experienced). in my attempts and role in trying to mediate, i was also mobilizing a certain discourse – one that was seemingly pragmatic, interpretivist, and sought to zoom out to view people and interests in relativistic terms, perhaps at moments annoying to both parties as if attempting to be impartial and avoiding taking sides. in a sense, while all of us understood, adopted, and referred to various ethos and cultural frames at various times (e.g. open-source culture, pragmatic management, or an interpretive and relativist perspective), we were mobilizing certain discourses with different values attached to them at different times, and in a way that cannot be untangled from our positions and interests. !24 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 surveying in brazilian favelas the second case presents an incident that occurred during an ethnographic study on the use of icts by favela (urban slums) residents in state-sponsored telecentres (nemer, 2015). favelas are mostly inhabited by people from marginalized social classes and referred as "subnormal agglomerations" and zones of social abandonment. favela residents get poor services for their basic needs, such as health and education, as well as low access to technology and the internet (nemer et al., 2013). nemer narrates: i conducted this study in two phases. in the first phase, i did an ethnographic exploratory study of the field, in which i intended to understand the problematic regarding digital inequalities and inclusion in the neighbouring favelas of gurigica, bairro da penha, itarare, and sao benedito, in vitória, brazil. during this phase, i was able to gain access to the neighbouring favelas, despite drug cartels usually disapproving outsiders in their territory. in the second phase, i conducted a more specific ethnographic study of the favelas and telecentres. data for the study were generated through participant observation, in-depth and semi-structured interviews with telecentre users, and a survey deployed in fourteen telecentres. i decided to start off my ethnographic study in phase two by deploying a survey; i followed sieber’s (1973) suggestion that surveys are a good method to have an initial and general sense of the field. my goal was to gain a general idea of favela’s residents experiences and use of technology. however, i considered this attempt a complete failure due to my inability to communicate effectively with my participants. the survey pilot unravelled the difficulties in communicating effectively with the residents in the favelas. i standardized the pilot instrument to present a number of first person statements, with which the respondent would indicate a level of agreement or disagreement. the participants were confused by the survey questions because they were not certain if the questions were directed at me (since i was reading them) or at them. respondents were also puzzled when i asked questions related to technology. for example, when i asked them “i use the following social networking sites” or “i have a laptop or personal computer at home” they looked at me confused as if i was speaking a different language, which in a sense i was. i was aware of some of the differences of power and status that my background would bring into the favelas: male and upper class, but did not expect that the use of language and register was going to be a barrier. in this critical incident related to the implementation of the survey, my expectations were mismatched due to context-related issues: since i am from vitoria, and so were the participants, i believed that communication was not going to be an issue since we all speak the same language, which is portuguese. favelas have been marginalized from urban cities since their beginnings, therefore their residents developed their own ways of communicating, epistemology and cultural norms; i was supposed to know such differences but instead i took them for granted. my lack of knowledge of favela customs, slangs, terms and communication patterns, did not allow me to engage in quick chats or perform activities that did not involve deep !25 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 conversations, such as surveys. i first felt disappointed at myself while i based the corpus of my research on postcolonial theories and literature, i still behaved as if language between two different places wouldn’t matter just because they are in the same space (city). the people in these two places used different terms, slangs, pace and intonation in their daily language. the second emotional reaction was feari was really afraid that i was not going to be able to ever talk to favela participants, which would compromise my research and my plan to advocate for funding from the state for the telecentres. as mentioned above, in retrospect i consider it a fault not anticipating such language barrier, which enacted an attitude of estrangement among the participants. in the beginning, when i first deployed the survey, i was already perceived as an outsider by favela residents, and my choice of words made such perception worse since it broke my initial connections with the participants. pedro, 18 years old, once complained: “the way you talk is very weird and strange, i don’t understand. i’m sorry but i have to go. maybe we can talk later.” which we did not for another two months. pedro’s complaint is a good example of the overall feeling among other participants. since i could not communicate efficiently with favela residents, i felt that they did not trust me or want to engage in conversations with me. once i identified this communication issue, i stopped surveying favela residents and attempted to alleviate such barriers. i reflected on my phd training and decided to engage in conversations with them by following what rubin and rubin (2011) referred to as “conversational partners”: i attempted to listen to the participants with an open heart and mind, and kind reception to what they had expressed and told. my motivation was not to judge them, but rather to understand them and learn from them especially their language and register. such attitude subscribes to the art of listening sympathetically, in which the researcher is actively thinking about what is being expressed and deeply engaged in mind. this dynamic helped me avoid the rigid back and forth replay of question-answer-question that is conventionally conducted in surveys (madison, 2011). three months into the second phase and after getting acquainted with local communication patterns and terms, i designed a new survey and deployed with the assistance of telecentres’ inclusion agents who were from the favelas. the new survey was designed to better fit the context of the favelas in terms of avoiding misunderstandings with its questions and goals. i adapted the questions to fit the residents’ vocabulary and the use of the second person. for example, the newer version included questions such as “do you have a face [facebook]?” and “do you have a note [from notebook which means laptop]?” the primary rationale was to make complex statements more natural: i anticipated that including clear references to an informal “you” (você) in each statement would make the surveys clearer. then i observed that the confusion over the second-person reference !26 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 was very rare: on only one occasion did a respondent feel the need to clarify that the statement referred to them, and in no case did their interaction with me indicate that they had interpreted the question to be related to anyone else. once i was past the language barrier, another issue emerged: the survey was designed to have a seven-point likert scale, and as i observed, participants often felt lost and unable to choose their answers precisely they felt overwhelmed. then, i decided to reduce the number of responses to five. during the administration of the survey, i noted on multiple occasions that even the five-point version seemed to confuse respondents. about half the time respondents continued to give a simple answer such as “yes” or “no” throughout the survey administration, requiring me to clarify the degree of agreement or disagreement, which this time i was able to do. even though there was a mismatch of expectation on the likert scale and responses given by the participants, i did not consider it a critical incident because the momentary connection between the participants and i was not broken. i was able to use their communication patterns to explain the survey, engage in conversations, and build trust instead of having them quitting the conversation and leaving the research. in this case, surveying in the favelas, i acted in a way aligned to the premises underpinning the critical incident framework, since i sought to recognise the incident without attributing the causes to the favela residents. instead, i stopped surveying, and "stepped out" in order to reflect and understand the critical incident. once i recognized that i was the one responsible for causing the incident and the mismatches, i was also able to open up to learning communication patterns new to me, which allowed me to engage in conversations, re-establish trust and deploy the survey. (end of nemer’s narrative) discussion and conclusions in this article, we applied the cia framework (brunello, 2015) to two cases coming from our own research experience in ci projects. the difference between the original application of cia and its application to our own research cases, where cultural differences were not so striking, seemed a big leap initially. however, we realized that the cia framework is a valuable tool for self-reflection also for ci projects encompassing less pronounced cultural and contextual differences. the ecological approach used in the framework, where researchers and stakeholders are embedded in a complex, multi-layered context, and where they develop and evolve relationships, was useful to better understand ex post facto (or “reverse-engineer”) what the experienced mismatches of expectations meant for the researchers and within the projects, opening up insights and new questions. of course, such distinctions should be taken with a grain of salt: there is no strict measure stick to estimate cultural distance (nor would it make much sense for our purpose). even more, one could argue that a syrian researcher with a background in computer science might feel more at home working with burundians in a computer lab !27 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 than with workers in a phosphate mine in his own country, and the interpretation and representation of culture is always fuzzy, partial, evolving, and open to various views and positions. by making this move towards analysing any encounter through a lens sensitive to intercultural communication, we subscribe to a notion of culture and cultural difference that admits locality, hybridity and contingency. furthermore, any representation of culture (a dance, a statement by an informant, an ethnographic account) necessarily hinges on the author/performer of that representation. this, we read, is an underlying orientation in brunello’s work. invoked this way, the cia framework helped us externalize several aspects in our cases, including some of the differing positions and worldviews, power imbalances, and potentially diverging interests. in the first case presented, halabi shared a very similar socio-cultural background with the online community members, even if he was observing the facts from a different geographic setting (which added some distance). when using the cia framework, halabi was prompted to open up to reconcile the different stakeholders’ views and to understand people and interests in relativistic terms. this led him to understand that stakeholders mobilized certain cultural references with different values attached to them at different times, and in a way that strictly entangled with their own interests. considering the various interests at play and trying to put himself in the other parties’ shoes, halabi applied intuitively the sbizo recommendations: stopping, breathing in, and zooming out. this seemed to help, but only up to a certain point, especially because the researcher was dealing with many stakeholders, each one with their own interest. thus, even when stakeholders, including the researcher, are culturally not so far away from each other, when subject to different interests and pressures they are likely to rely on different cultural frames to argue and justify their choices. we would like to underline, here, that one of the benefits of cia is precisely identifying the diverging interests and frames of reference that underlie certain expressions. we reckon that, being equipped with knowledge about cia would have helped halabi investigate more in depth and take into account what the conflicting parties cared for. also in the case of the brazilian favelas, nemer came from a cultural background that is not so distant from the one of his project participants. yet, some underlying layers of cultural distance between nemer and the favela inhabitants played a role in their interaction and were the cause of mismatched modes of communication, language, register and interests: participants came from different socio-economic backgrounds, they were favelas inhabitants, whereas nemer had access to education and opportunities seldom afforded by favela dwellers. moreover, nemer is a researcher schooled in western schools of thought. despite his willingness to work within postcolonial frameworks and minimise cultural distance, nemer employed a very specific jargon when conducting the study. thereafter, dichotomies between favelas inhabitant vs. a non-inhabitant, and insiders vs. outsiders persisted. when their expectations were mismatched, nemer was at first taken aback and disappointed. a graduate student at the time, nemer was schooled mainly through readings of successful research. as graduate students, only very rarely we think that things go wrong during fieldwork, and we tend not to know how to deal with the situation when we finally face it. nemer was then able to recognize there was something wrong in the communication process with the favela !28 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 dwellers, and to understand that he had given for granted that a similar cultural background was shared between him and them. basically, nemer also intuitively stopped, breathed in and zoomed out, and took a situational route instead of a dispositional one. applying cia as an a posteriori reflection helped, first of all, to better understand fieldwork dynamics. also, it helped nemer understand that mismatches of expectations and mistakes or assumptions are a quite common experience during fieldwork and, as such, they can and should be addressed, as they are precious sources of information on our contexts and stakeholders. thus, not only cia helps bringing different elements relationship with research participants; accounting for phenomena as ecological on multiple levels, and looking at people, organizations, as well as structures and materials as actors much more vividly to the surface, it also helps in embracing heterogeneity and tension as intellectual and discursive resources to reach understanding and align actors, instead of concealing them. being equipped with knowledge about cia would help researchers also to better deal with the emotional dimension, which, during fieldwork, can be quite overwhelming, especially is experienced by a young researcher. instead, cia reckons the importance of emotions as integral parts of the research process, and suggests tools and structures– sbizo and the questions in table 1 and 2 – to make sense of it. juxtaposing the two cases by halabi and nemer provokes a question: how could nemer manage to find a way to rebuild trust among parties involved (himself and the survey participants), while halabi did not manage to convince his fellow moderators to come to terms by trying to expose presumptions and positions? can we consider that another, more skilled mediator than halabi would have been able to bridge between the conflicting parties by better explicating their worldviews? or should we consider that the core problem was not related to a lack of mutual understanding, but to inherently conflicting interests? while this certainly merits further analysis of the roles of various actors and the nature of the critical incidents involved, this brief comparison suggests that it is hardly clear-cut to determine when a mismatch is due to cultural conventions and interpretive frames versus inherently different interests – at many moments these aspects are closely connected. the comparison also questions how far mutual understanding and common frames of interpretation can hold interlocutors together. in other words, we suggest that seeking better means to communicate, which the cia framework addresses, is necessarily a part of a larger project that involves negotiation and aligning interests and stakes among stakeholders. we reckon that applying the cia framework was beneficial to our research for two main reasons: first, as a tool to report cases, the framework allowed us to reflect back when writing our cases, adding nuance and transparency to the account, and presenting it as a realistic endeavour characterized by friction, negotiation, disappointments, emotions, and (when lucky) reflection and harmonization. reporting in this way led us to work with richer data than when presenting as a linearly rational sequence from cause (observation) to effect (design or design implications). also, adopting a personal voice in the narrative reflected the subjectivity and locality of our accounts. we believe this is of paramount importance in ci and di endeavours, where questions of accounting for power relations and interests between the researcher/practitioner and the framed informant/beneficiary, while central, are still generally addressed with a rather !29 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 deterministic, all-knowing tone (see bardzell and bardzell’s drawing on feminist studies to counter the “view from nowhere” in studying people and designing technologies, 2011). second, the framework served as a tool to recast incidents as opportunities. by reflecting on critical incidents and understanding them from different angles, what started as a problem can become an opportunity that enables deeper understanding and building trust. this is supported by studies on conflict analysis – conflicts solved in ways that harmonize the interests of the involved parties are seen as possible ways to tighten group ties and trust; and on conflict resolution mediators often seek to reframe conflicts in a new light to explore mutual interests and possibilities for mutual gain, thus channelling the conflict towards a resolution that could turn into a lasting relationship. further research on our accounts will show how we, as cia researchers, will now deal with critical incidents in the field. the cia framework can be considered an addition to the critical and reflective traditions in socio-technical research and design, preoccupied with acknowledging and dealing with subjectivity and subjective experience (harrison et al., 2011), alongside approaches such as autoethnography (allen and piercy, 2005; ellis and bochner, 2000). it has long been argued that researchers bring to their work sets of values, assumptions, and pre-conceived ideas that can carry bias and affect findings or any actions or design based on those understandings. this is particularly important in ci and di contexts, marked by either or both cultural difference and interaction with groups and communities where specific cultural frames are shared and reinforced, and where critical incidents such as those we described can make or break relationships or entire projects. adopting self-reflexion and critical thinking can enable researchers to create a protective space against espousing thinking, attitudes, and behaviours that can be disruptive for the project and participants. the value of the cia framework stands, then, in embracing a perspective that conflates an ecological and an intercultural communication framework, which affords rich and nuanced understandings of ci and di contexts. at the same time, just like other approaches and frameworks that seek to systematise ways of minimising subjectivity bias focusing mainly or uniquely on the researcher, the cia framework remains a tool with limited use. since it focuses unilaterally on the researcher, any attempts to expand the benefits of self-analysis and self-reflection or critical assessment of situations to communities remain tied to the agency of the researcher. thus, power differences in ci contexts remain largely unchallenged. this is, unless we attempt to imagine the cia framework not (only) as a tool for researchers and designers schooled in western schools of thought and breaking grounds in new territories, but as sets of tools that can support different categories of stakeholders in ci projects to come to grasps with challenging moments and situations and using them as moments for reflection and improved understandings of self and others, rather than fissures leading, potentially, to ruptures, crisis, and conflict. acknowledgments with this paper, we would like to remember and thank our friend and colleague paolo brunello for his inspiring work and for all we learned from him. we found cia a !30 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 powerful a posteriori tool, which we wish we knew about when conducting our fieldwork. while this new knowledge is now with us, we hope we will be able to bring paolo's work to the attention of other researchers, so that they will be able to have this tool at their disposal while conducting fieldwork. references allen, k., & piercy, f. 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(1993). modelli di causalità: introduzione alla teoria dell’attribuzione con glossario dei concetti chiave. milano: giuffrè. !34 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 1 research article lessons learned: the multifaceted field of (digital) neighborhood development madeleine renyi, care & technology lab (imtt), furtwangen university, furtwangen, germany; institute for information management and information systems engineering (imu), department of accounting and information systems, university of osnabrück, osnabrück, germany, info@madeleinerenyi.de anna hegedüs, careum school of health, zürich, switzerland, anna.hegedues@bfh.ch paul schmitter, institute of facility management, life sciences and facility management, zhaw zurich university of applied sciences, wädenswil, switzerland, paul.schmitter@zhaw.ch fabian berger, careum school of health, zürich, switzerland, fabian.berger@careumhochschule.ch thomas m. ballmer, institute of occupational therapy, school of health professions, zhaw zurich university of applied sciences, winterthur, switzerland, thomasmichael.ballmer@zhaw.ch edith maier, fachhochschule ostschweiz, st. gallen, switzerland, edith.maier@ost.ch christophe kunze, care & technology lab (imtt), furtwangen university, furtwangen, germany, christophe.kunze@hs-furtwangen.de the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 2 lessons learned: the multifaceted field of (digital) neighborhood development abstract in a cross-national project, 14 neighborhoods from germany, austria and switzerland were accompanied on their way to digitally supported neighborhood work. this paper discusses general requirements, choosing a suitable digital tool, the implementation process as well as the challenges faced by the various stakeholders. the following factors have been found to play a major role in sustainable neighborhood work: good fit with overall development strategy, interplay between online neighborhood work and physical interactions, strong existing neighborhood management structures, strategic planning of digitalization activities, start-up funding for innovation activities, and above all, the presence of a committed person or team as well as interesting content to attract users. depending on the neighborhood, self-managed and individualistic solutions are preferred to generic and/or commercial solutions. there is no ‘fit-forall’ path to sustainable digitally supported neighborhoods. keywords: neighborhood development; technology implementation; lessons learned introduction neighborhood development and the value of information and communication technologies (ict) as people age in their social environment (e.g., neighborhood, district, or village), their radius of movement decreases. however, the everyday need to maintain social contacts and interact with other people remains (meyer, 2016). the social environment of the neighborhood thus becomes all the more important (steffen & otto, 2017). neighborhood development concepts have established themselves in recent years as a central element of coping with demographic challenges (see who, 2007; deutscher bundestag, 2016; bäuerle & scherzer, 2009; michell-auli & kremer-preiß, 2013). these concepts strengthen smallscale social-spatial structures and mutual aid (ibid.). they are based on specific local conditions and resources (ibid.). participatory development and civic mobilization towards a social neighborhood in housing, social services, assistance, and care are aimed for (ibid.). in germany, austria, and switzerland, there is currently a strong, but varying emphasis on neighborhood approaches that lacks a practical, cross-national transfer of experiences. while (in germany) there is a diverse and constantly changing range of neighborhood-related digital platforms and social media (schreiber & göppert, 2018), the connections between neighborhood development and the implementation and use of digital neighborhood platforms and other the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 3 digital tools for neighborhood social networking are still insufficiently researched (vogel et al., 2020). there is considerable potential for mutual benefit: ageing-appropriate information and communication systems can activate and promote neighborhood social interaction, support and stimulate civic engagement and neighborhood assistance, stabilize care at home, and simplify and encourage citizen participation processes. ict thus offers neighborhood projects considerable underutilized opportunities to achieve the goals of neighborhood development more efficiently. ultimately, this is a matter of public health and health promotion, since social interaction and loneliness are central factors in health outcomes (klie, 2016). guidelines to support neighborhood development vogel et al. (2020) developed a taxonomy of online neighborhood social networks (onsn) and conclude that these networks are “socio-technical artifacts” where successful implementation in a neighborhood does not only depend on their technical functionality, but also on how they are embedded into the sociocultural context: “while the design of an onsn may be technically sound, it is equally important to consider factors such as local facilitation, integration of organizations and institutions as well as the delimitation of neighborhoods…” in a related implementation study, vogel et al. (2019) report reluctance among older users to request support over the platform, marked differences in technology use proficiency among users that indicate a need for technical support, and privacy and security concerns (vogel et al., 2019). privacy concerns among potential users of digital neighborhood networks are also described by masden et al. in their 2014 study of the commercial platform nextdoor. schelisch and walter (2021) conducted interviews with 12 representatives of digital neighborhood projects in germany. they, too, conclude that users’ digital skills, concerns about data privacy, and existing neighborhood structures must be considered. like schreiber and göppert (2018), they state the need for a person to be in charge of managing and coordinating digital tools. therefore, many barriers to ict use could be overcome with corresponding offerings in neighborhoods. experience indicates, for example, that municipal advisory centers for assistive technology can reduce information deficits regarding available technology, improve the availability of onsite technologysupported assistance systems and services, and thus promote a needs-based supply of technical support (röll et al., 2016). these neighborhood offerings can therefore act as multipliers of technology use. renyi et al. (2020) developed a maturity model for information and communication technologysupported neighborhood development based on a delphi study. they identify 12 dimensions important for a successful implementation of these tools. the dimensions included, among others, the degree to which social networks already exist offline, the degree of citizen empowerment and participation in neighborhood work, the inclusivity towards disadvantaged groups, and the availability of sufficient funding. in summary, the implementation of neighborhood digital tools depends not only on the technical functionality of such tools, but also strongly on the characteristics of the neighborhood (e.g., social and technological infrastructure) and the potential users (e.g., differences in digital skills). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 4 general factors of technology acceptance processes, including “perceived usefulness” and “perceived ease of use” (venkatesh & bala, 2008; davis et al. 1989) are still crucial factors. study aim and research question this article presents a study that investigated how neighborhood development concepts and information systems can mutually benefit from an integrated approach. in a cross-national project, neighborhoods in the lake constance region were scientifically accompanied amidst their digitization projects. since sustainable neighborhood development can only emerge in longterm processes, the study focused on neighborhoods that already had some exhibited structures of citizen mobilization. this ensured the integration of technology within a limited project duration. actions and decisions within the neighborhoods were monitored and discussed by a cross-national scientific board. the measures initiated within the study enabled the participating neighborhoods to use technical solutions to support their work in the long term and to promote the demand-oriented use of ict. this article summarizes recommendations for action that will hopefully enable a broad, cross-national transfer of experience. it therefore answers the following research question: which stakeholders’ experiences with implementing digital neighborhood development tools are relevant across countries? materials and methods to answer the research question, the researchers conducted a qualitative content analysis (kuckartz; 2014) based on primary and secondary data (zeidler & braun, 2012) gathered during the support of the communities. the next section describes the study’s background, the data collection, and the content analysis. the researchers had dual roles, acting both as neutral observers and as enablers supporting the projects with their knowledge. study background and sampling this study was part of a project of the internationale bodensee hochschule (ibh; engl. international lake constance university), technik im quartier (engl. technology in the neighborhood; duration: 2018 to 2021), focusing on its region. the lake constance region is a diverse region with a mixture of rural and urban regions. the involved scientists were well connected and drew on contacts from previous projects for the study sampling. based on this network, between 2018 and 2019, rural and urban neighborhoods in germany, austria, and switzerland were contacted and invited to participate in this study. as an inclusion criterion, their neighborhood development structures had to be already established, since sustainable neighborhood development can only emerge in long-term processes. the governance of these development structures, however, could lie on informal ground as well as within a municipal department. a further criterion was that digital neighborhood technology was implemented or planned to be implemented in a timely manner. while the study sampling may be described as a convenience sample, the sampling was also drawn on theoretical considerations. previous experiences show that neighborhood projects differ between urban and the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 5 rural areas and are also strongly influenced by structural and cultural differences in the national welfare systems. the scientists made sure that this diversity was represented in the sample. data collection each participating neighborhood was assigned a scientific collaborator to act as a direct contact for the study and to support and advise the neighborhood if needed. each assigned researcher • identified and characterized existing technology-supported approaches for assisting neighborhood activities and measures for providing technical support systems in the assigned neighborhoods; • supported the assigned neighborhoods in selecting and prioritizing suitable approaches for the respective development concept through workshop discussions; • supported the assigned neighborhoods in initiating and implementing the use of appropriate technology-related services; • enabled mutual learning between neighborhood actors involved through cooperative exchange and learning settings to promote research-based iterative development processes; and • continuously evaluated the implementation and derived transferable recommendations for action in the assigned neighborhoods. while supporting the neighborhoods, the researchers collected meeting minutes and correspondence material (e-mails, recordings of telephone conversations) to document the development of the project – secondary data, and interviewed neighborhood actors regarding special topics – primary data. all data regarding information about the included neighborhoods and their digitization projects exchanged between march 2018 and june 2020 were eligible and included in the data pool. based on this, the researchers carried out a content analysis. in total, more than 134 documents were gathered. the numbers of documents per neighborhood varied between two and 35, while most scientific collaborators gathered around 5-15 documents per neighborhood community. the variance in the numbers can be attributed to the fact that not every neighborhood community needed the same amount of counseling. further details on the documents used are documented in the supplementary material. content analysis to reduce the risk of bias, since the researchers were personally involved in the neighborhood projects, an external research collaborator, listed as co-author of the paper, was consulted for the analysis process. the researchers followed the seven-step process of a content-structuring content analysis by kuckartz (2014). data analysis was carried out using the content analysis software maxqda. in the first phase, the researchers carefully read transcribed texts and passages for analysis marking important areas. special features and evaluation ideas were recorded in the form of memos. in the second phase, the researchers developed directly thematic main categories of the the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 6 material, and they carried out a test run through a part of the data. in the third step, the researchers ran through the entire text corpus line by line and assigned relevant sections to the categories. since text sections and even individual sentences can contain several topics, multiple coding of such sections or sentences was possible. the coding unit (i.e., the text segment assigned to a category) was chosen in such a way that the meaning is understandable even without context. therefore, the researchers also coded questions or larger sections contributing to understanding. in the fourth step, the researchers compiled all of the passages assigned to each of the main categories – neighborhoods, general condition, implementation, technology, stakeholders, participation, evaluation, covid-19 pandemic, and outcomes. in the fifth step, the researchers inductively created subcategories. this meant performing a differentiation of the categories, which were initially relatively general. similarities and differences in the text segments could then be easily identified. as the subcategories initially existed in an unordered list, the researchers subsequently ordered and systematized them, with emphasis on keeping it "as simple as possible, as differentiated as necessary" (kuckartz 2016). for each of the subcategories created in the work, the researchers formulated a brief definition to simplify the differentiation from other categories. each subcategory was provided with a meaningful citation, a so-called anchor example. the main category technology e.g., was divided into the sub-categories of user requirements, possible technologies, technology requirements, requirements for operators, and reasons for rejection. in the sixth phase, the researchers again ran through the material with the differentiated category system. ultimately, 2,354 text segments were found to be relevant. on this basis, the researchers carried out simple and complex analyses and visualizations in the seventh phase. results this section presents only the highlights of the content-structuring content analysis and is therefore not structured according to the main categories. it is divided into sample description, implementation phase, and stakeholders and their roles. as an outcome we identified several contradictory facets, which are presented at the end. sample description demographics the study accompanied 14 neighborhoods: four german, two austrian, and eight swiss neighborhoods. six were mostly rural in character, while eight were nearby or part of a larger city. the number of people living in the neighborhoods ranged from about 1,500 to 20,000. the majority of neighborhoods had less than 5,000 inhabitants. the neighborhoods varied in their age distribution, though older adults constituted a high proportion. most neighborhoods had shopping facilities of some kind. while urban neighborhoods had strong healthcare structures, in the rural neighborhoods, there was a lack of specialists, hospital connections, and inpatient care facilities. the reliability and regularity of public transportation the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 7 tended to be poorer in rural neighborhoods than in urban ones. the social milieu of the neighborhoods ranged from poor to well-off and was primarily described as well-mixed. although migration was rather low, some urban neighborhoods had a high proportion of foreigners. people lived in rented and owned properties alike, and a higher proportion tended to live alone in old age. only a few neighborhoods claimed to have a large number of neighborhood meeting points. the construction of community centers was planned in some of the neighborhoods. technology, digitization, and media usage in rural areas, comprehensive network coverage was lacking, which limited access to and use of internet services. in these cases, expanding broadband internet was an urgent municipal goal. information was available in the neighborhoods on various media channels. in most cases, classic websites were operated by neighborhood associations, the local authority, or businesses to communicate information to citizens. a municipal, active presence in social media channels such as facebook or twitter rarely existed. some of the citizens were very active on these media platforms in different groups. an overview of the various communication options and social media groups was hard to achieve. a municipal print medium, as a bundled information channel, was operated only in some of the neighborhoods. local and regional politics and support within society at the municipal level, there was a wealth of experience in neighborhood work. most local municipalities promoted a structured approach based on guidelines and procedural models, for example, for strategy development. however, in most cases, there was little standardization in the neighborhoods. networking between neighborhood actors and with supraregional actors was not very pronounced. however, where neighborhood associations existed, neighborhood work was usually carried out by citizens in a strong network, often beyond the boundaries of the neighborhood. implementation phase before a tool to support neighborhood development is implemented, various activities take place. these include the establishment of an infrastructure, strategy development and goalsetting, the allocation of resources both human and financial, the capture and definition of user requirements, and the selection of a tool that fulfils these requirements. in the following section, these activities are discussed in more detail. setting up a physical and virtual infrastructure the introduction of technology presupposes the existence of certain infrastructure, like meeting facilities with access to the internet and appropriate hardware. if not available onsite, these had to be created. in most cases, publicly operated meeting places were already available in the form of neighborhood centers with cafeterias, counseling and training facilities, green spaces, or parks. comparable facilities were sometimes offered and run by private businesses. in some neighborhoods, the creation of physical places that could be used for software training, for the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 8 instance, was assigned top priority. the challenge consisted in finding synergies between physical and virtual spaces. “the foundation for the digital neighborhood project was laid with a preliminary project in another neighborhood. this preparatory work was necessary for it to spread to other neighborhoods. a new group took the idea, and then technically improved it. then came a third neighborhood. they saw that people could be motivated for projects and also wanted to create something.” (interview protocol, municipal coordinator, neighborhood 4+5+6, switzerland, 2020) however, the need for technical support was not recognized by all the stakeholders interested in neighborhood development. whereas some regarded it as a means to solve individual problem situations (e.g., for organizing supporters in neighborhood assistance), others regarded it as a replacement for missing municipal print media. in some cases, the use of technology to promote the sustainable establishment of neighborhood services was only considered when real-world services were not available or could not be established sustainably. in general, it was found that if there was already a strong network operating at the neighborhood level, there was little need for change. as a result, the introduction of technology was not considered a priority. nevertheless, in some neighborhoods, citizens did see the need for action. frequently, it was neighborhood associations that took the initiative and acted as the driving force. even then, many felt that it was up to the municipality to take on the task of organizing and funding digital support for neighborhood development. developing strategies and setting goals although the individual reasons for adopting technology differed, some overarching goals could be identified. there was a desire for the neighborhood platform to be used by a large proportion of citizens. though the neighborhoods did not define any precise target numbers, success was measured by the extent to which user numbers increased. sustainability was sought both in terms of technology (i.e., available round the clock with regular updates) and in terms of those responsible for keeping the platform maintained. in some neighborhoods, technology was expected to compensate for staff shortages and promote volunteer work. the initiating phase tended to be characterized by a series of discussions with different stakeholders. in these, the stakeholders became familiar with each other, explored ideas, weighed advantages and disadvantages, and planned the launch and implementation of the tool or platform. decisions were made about responsibilities and roles, contractual issues, scheduling of project measures, and priorities. this process was closely linked with developing and refining a strategy for the future, which was especially critical in neighborhoods that adopted a top-down approach. in such cases, there was a need to reach a common understanding with the key figures in the communities to formulate clear directions and objectives. goal-setting was generally described as an important process that took time, especially given the diversity of the actors involved. if the changes were initiated bottom-up or triggered by grass-roots movements, shared the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 9 ideas tended to create cohesion and a team spirit early on. generally, a clear vision and strategy for digitally supported neighborhood work proved to be essential prerequisites for engaging further members from the communities. allocating resources and financing an important aspect in the pre-launch phase concerned the acquisition and provision of resources and finances. in some neighborhoods, dedicated personnel were made available by the municipalities for the projects. though the costs of the technology were covered by funding bodies like the ibh in some cases (internationale bodenseehochschule, 2020), funding was generally limited to periods of one to four years covering the start-up phase. to ensure the sustainability of the projects beyond the funding period, raising further funds was necessary. in most cases, the aim was to have the municipalities cover or at least co-finance the operating costs. as far as personnel resources were concerned, the responsible persons’ funding ceased in some cases after the start-up period, whereas in other communities, the responsible persons were firmly established as part of the municipal government (e.g., as neighborhood managers). sometimes, citizens independently organized such positions, a precarious solution, especially if there is a lack of funds and few volunteers involved in the project. volunteers also tend to drop out from time to time, leaving gaps difficult to fill. it proved therefore to be of utmost importance to build up a sustainable personnel structure. defining requirements for digital neighborhood platforms choosing an appropriate neighborhood platform proved to be challenging and time-consuming, much more so than choosing an application with a more limited functionality. for the selection process, it was not only important to define what functions were required, but also to examine who provided the solution and how and by whom it was operated and maintained. thus, neighborhood platforms, when conceived as digital village squares bringing together various social actors with different expectations and objectives, come with a great variety of requirements. table 1 provides an overview of both functional and nonfunctional requirements that were gathered through this study. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 10 table 1: requirements of digital neighborhood platforms functional requirements description information hub overview of important neighborhood content (only accessible via personal registered account) news posts of news, current events, and important issues regarding the neighborhood on notice board; townhall messages or “tweets” neighborhood directory integration / presentation of associations, businesses, and other locally important stakeholders group functionalities functions for establishing groups, carrying out tasks, and presenting developments on the platform messaging bilateral communication between community members; for certain cases, push messages calendar overview of events in the neighborhood and possibly beyond, if relevant digital marketplace pin board for private advertisements reservation facility booking system for communal spaces / rooms available in the neighborhood surveys determination system for suitable dates, query issues of all kind networking option for integrating additional neighborhoods or districts non-functional requirements description layout and design platform that is self-explanatory and easy to navigate with intuitive and well-structured user interfaces (gui) accessibility access via internet browser and mobile devices (ios, android, and windows app; i.e., a cross-platform solution) and with consideration of people with motor or (minor) cognitive impairments adaptability and extensibility design that can be customized to accommodate neighborhood-specific requirements automatic login and single-sign-on option for restricting access of certain areas to registered users; public content access for people outside the neighborhood such as relatives, students, commuters, etc. data protection and privacy access only via personal registered account; data regulation conformity selecting an appropriate platform there was a general consensus that the platform should act as an information and exchange hub that promotes social networking in the neighborhood and possibly beyond. the platform was also expected to provide the infrastructure for local groups to organize themselves in an easy and accessible manner, whilst at the same time guaranteeing data security and protection. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 11 regular user feedback was seen as essential for adapting the applications to potentially changing user needs. with these requirements in mind, the project team examined the platforms already in use in some neighborhoods and platforms that might be recommended to new neighborhood initiatives. four platforms were identified that fulfilled at least most of the requirements of the participating neighborhoods (see figure 1). figure 1: the four top platforms considered for neighborhood development in this study the challenge consisted in reconciling requirements put forward by various user groups. as is the case in other social media applications, a balance between ease of use and openness vs. data protection had to be found. most neighborhood platforms require users to register with their full name, age, and a real profile picture to prevent fake news and hateful content. some of the neighborhoods voiced the need to moderate content on the platform in addition to the measures taken by the providers. for this purpose, they decided to regularly check user content. however, the fear of inappropriate content slipping through was not corroborated by data analysis. although all providers claimed that their platforms were easy to use and had intuitive and selfexplanatory user interfaces, a certain affinity for and openness to technology use proved to be a prerequisite for using the digital solutions effectively and efficiently. additionally, hardware such as mobile devices with touch functions or keyboards require fine motor skills, which may restrict access for certain user groups. platform technology also sometimes was not compatible with older devices. in several neighborhoods, therefore, discussions were held about how the target group could be equipped with suitable devices because senior citizens were often reluctant to purchase new equipment. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 12 “my mother at 88 is exactly the target audience. she would love to knit or go for a walk with someone. but she won't be able to use this app: firstly for fine motor reasons. she would never be able to write anything. (...) my mother can't "swipe" either and even if it looks bigger, she won't be able to handle the keyboard.” (e-mail correspondence, citizen, neighborhood 10, switzerland, 2018) whilst the platforms in figure 1 fulfilled most requirements, there was room for improvement in user friendliness, ease of use, and accessibility for people with disabilities. some of the providers have taken end-user feedback into consideration and are incorporating it into their platforms. raising awareness and marketing different awareness-raising strategies and marketing measures were used to propagate the new neighborhood platforms. these included posters, presentations at events, flyers, articles in neighborhood newsletters, invitations to open houses of the facilities, online advertising, and private communications to residents. word-of-mouth and personal interaction proved to be the most effective measures. a key role was played by the person responsible for the platform. their ability to communicate the added value of digital support in a convincing and tangible way was one of the most important success factors for a neighborhood platform. “(…) is now “supporter” and actively goes to help others with questions and problems” (interview protocol, municipal project responsible, neighborhood 4+5+6, switzerland, 2020) municipalities or sponsors usually financed the expenses incurred by these activities, not the software providers. the providers’ primary responsibility was to guarantee operational safety and platform maintenance. people wanted to be assured that the platform was a long-term enterprise and continuously updated. thus, start-ups were generally met with skepticism. at the same time, people had reservations and privacy concerns with regard to large commercial providers. an important issue during the onboarding phase was the often-voiced desire for the provider to be willing to accompany the organizers in the process. contact details such as an email address or a telephone number where the platform provider could be reached were expected. generating content and traffic interesting content is essential to attracting citizens to the platform and motivating them to participate long-term. in cases where the projects were initiated by volunteers, this proved to be a major challenge, since the ongoing task of providing content was time-consuming and at times burdensome. in most neighborhoods, users demonstrated passive “consumer behavior” with very few people contributing their own posts. to counteract this problem, organizers often decided to generate content before officially introducing the neighborhood platform, thus making it more attractive and motivating users to add their own posts. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 13 in some communities, covid-19 lockdowns led to an increase in traffic. the number of registrations rose dramatically, and many participants volunteered to help. existing platforms often were considered an important source of information. authorities could use them to provide updates in real time and were able to respond very quickly to questions from the citizens who therefore felt better informed than through the newspaper or other social media. activities such as sewing masks were also organized via the neighborhood platform, and restaurants could publish their takeaway and delivery services. unfortunately, some communities reported that the traffic rate decreased considerably after the first lockdown in spring 2020. the covid-19 pandemic also caused delays, especially when the onboarding phase was still in progress. there was widespread uncertainly about how to deal with groups at risk, and offline activities had to be suspended until after the lockdown. training for both organizers and end-users proved to be a significant issue as well. in one neighborhood, two training sessions were offered in the town hall and one at a café for senior citizens. in the test phase, several training sessions were offered to crucial stakeholders to explain the technology and the ideas and rationale behind the platform. in one neighborhood, tandems were formed to match inexperienced with experienced technology users. stakeholders and their roles throughout the accompanied neighborhoods, different actors were involved and participated in the projects in different ways and to varying degrees. they assumed roles in the projects based on their involvement, their activities, and their existing responsibilities. involved actors eight main actors were involved in the various neighborhood projects: citizens, municipalities, associations, neighborhood assistance providers, local businesses, care service providers, technology providers, and scientific partners. citizens: citizens networked on an individual basis and in organized forms. they were involved in a wide variety of activities, bringing in their own ideas. in many neighborhoods, operational groups were formed to organize themselves and the project activities bottom-up. sometimes, subgroups were formed to optimize the technology implementation, such as technical groups, activity groups, sustainability groups, or facility groups. however, there was often a lack of committed citizens who were open to taking on responsibility. the citizens’ activities included analyzing needs, specifying requirements, testing technology, planning projects, onboarding, marketing, and supporting other citizens with their technology usage. municipalities: the municipalities’ activity varied between neighborhoods. structural development of organized neighborhood assistance was in many cases especially promoted by local municipalities. communities where the municipalities demonstrated willingness to council and support such projects seemed more successful, as there tended to be a clearer strategy, especially in terms of financial matters. municipalities were actively involved in providing organizational and subject matter support, offering facilities, and holding official negotiations with technology providers. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 14 associations: different kinds of associations participated in the technology implementations, including sport clubs, church congregations, and self-help clubs. as they were firmly anchored in the communities, associations could reach out directly to citizens. participating associations realized the benefits of digital technology for activities like expanding their current offers and reaching out to new target groups. for this, they happily provided resources such as association centers or cafés. associations also provided financial support for the neighborhood projects. neighborhood assistance providers: neighborhood assistance was organized through professional care service providers or in neighborhood help associations. often, neighborhood help associations supported and coordinated the digitization projects. neighborhoods where neighborhood assistance was professionally established benefited from the possibility of scaling up structures and services as needed, especially during the covid-19 pandemic. the use of a mixture of old (e.g., phone) and new (e.g., matching tool or neighborhood platform) communication technologies enabled participation across generations. local businesses: in some neighborhoods, local businesses actively participated in the development of the neighborhood projects and the establishment of the communities around them. the network allowed them to expand their offers on the platform, especially during the covid-19 pandemic. however, the involvement of businesses was not always part of the project scopes. care service providers: like local businesses, care service providers were optional players. if involved, they supported the project in their function as gatekeepers for reaching out to vulnerable groups, like seniors or disabled persons. “there is a need for gatekeepers to identify people who need support, even more so when it comes to vulnerable groups.” (meeting protocol, care service provider, neighborhood 14, switzerland, 2019) technology providers: technology providers played a central role in the projects. as they had an interest in disseminating their offerings, they enthusiastically presented their concepts onsite, provided free test platforms for interested neighborhood groups, cooperated with local operating groups to adapt the platforms to local needs, and supported the introduction with marketing material. some platform providers even made available a telephone contact or feedback functions. in addition, training events and workshops were held onsite with the neighborhood operational groups. scientific partners: as this article is a product of scientific evaluations, the researchers, to a certain degree, influenced all surveyed neighborhoods. the researchers used different quantitative and qualitative methods and tools to measure, evaluate, and support the neighborhood projects. in several neighborhoods, the research cooperation went beyond activity evaluation. their support in strategy development was highly valued by the neighborhoods. in three cases, the researchers originally had a dual role as consultants and technology providers. in the process of choosing a technology, however, the project groups decided on third-party technologies so that the researchers could leave the role of the provider. the researchers were the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 15 also involved in networking with various stakeholders. in the initiating phase especially, they were involved in the conceptual work and the recruitment of project partners. roles appendix table 1 presents a list of all identified roles, the associated stakeholders, and their tasks and competencies. contradictory facets the analysis revealed that the process of designing, selecting, and implementing digital interaction systems in neighborhood development is often characterized by conflicting goals and requirements, uncertainties, and complex interdependencies. these cannot be completely resolved and therefore require appropriate consideration during project management. interplay between online neighborhood work and physical interactions while digital platforms are usually meant to supplement interactions in person, they depend on encounters and social interactions in the physical world as prerequisites for initiation, onboarding, and training. service providers often act as gatekeepers to user groups. sometimes, digital services are seen as a substitute rather than a supplement of existing structures. even as analogous communication channels such as printed community news fade away, there is often still no strategy for social media presence and use. role of strong existing neighborhood management structures while strong existing neighborhood management structures are usually seen as facilitators for the introduction of digital neighborhood services, they can also act as barriers. when networking and cooperation structures and neighborhood services are strong, less need is perceived for the introduction of a digital platform. in rural areas especially, a strong identification with the neighborhood and a high need for digital interaction meets missing digital infrastructure. role of strategic planning in digitalization activities a clear vision and strategy are important to derive tangible objectives and to promote the commitment of institutional actors and multipliers. however, strategic planning takes time, and the dynamic nature of digital transformation requires agile management. in neighborhood development, top-down approaches can be perceived as control and discourage participation, while bottom-up discussions promote a team spirit and cohesion. “official strategies do not exist. developing them would require resources that we do not have.” (protocol maturity model, neighborhood manager, neighborhood 14, switzerland, 2019) the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 16 role of start-up funding for innovation activities while external funding is essential for planning, preparation, and implementation in most cases, long-term follow-up funding is crucial for a sustainable operation. the development of sustainable operation models is usually seen as a project goal that is not always accomplished. the availability of external resources in the initiation phase (e.g., researcher support or professional support from the municipality) can lead to dependencies. thus, exit strategies are needed to support a sustainable operation after the innovation project ends. innovation sometimes also seems to be its own goal, shaping an innovative image for the municipality but carrying the inherent risk of unsustainable developments. municipality funded “club of the 6 municipalities” to find sustainable structures for future neighborhood development (project protocol, neighborhood 8, mayor, germany, 2020) the value of individual vs. generic / self-managed vs. commercial solutions in some neighborhoods, there are reservations about large commercial operators due to privacy concerns. local neighborhood platforms are considered an alternative to “big social media.” however, there are sustainability concerns about start-up companies or platforms provided by research projects. in some communities, participatory approaches lead to the development of individual software solutions. their sustainability is questionable because their operation usually depends heavily on individual volunteers, but such local developments can lead to a tendency to avoid using other, outside solutions (not-invented-here syndrome). “we don't want to make a media group rich, but we also don't want to drive a startup to the wall. we want to meet somewhere in between. the thing should be so sustainable that you don't have to say after 3 years, now that it's up and running, it's broken.” (conversation protocol, gatekeeper, neighborhood 12+13, germany, 2020) the methods of community management and onboarding to prevent hate speech and misuse, digital neighborhood platforms usually implement stronger access restrictions compared to general social media platforms: for instance, access only for people with checked identities and/or people living in the neighborhood. this may be a barrier to onboarding and community self-management. the inclusion of vulnerable and marginalized groups is seen as an important goal. however, a strong emphasis on additional measures to support inclusion can be perceived as stigmatizing or as exclusive towards nonmarginalized groups. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 17 discussion lessons learned based on the findings presented above, we can draw three major lessons learned from this study: 1. digitization projects must fit into the overall strategy of the neighborhood development and be driven by a committed (group of) responsible(s) in most cases, digitization projects should enable all local stakeholders to participate in strategy development, even though they might not be the future target users. this is stressed by schelisch and walter (2021) and aligns with vogel et al.’s 2020 notion of digital networks as socio-technical artifacts that need to be embedded in local contexts. the introduction of digital tools is especially successful if it contributes to the achievement of general neighborhood development goals and is not an end in itself. in this case, it may lead to better intergenerational networking, livelier neighborhoods, improved life quality for residents, and a new sense of community. the initiation of a technology project is afflicted with a high demand of time, especially during the development of strategies and goals. like schneider and göppert (2018), we emphasize that the presence of a committed and responsible person or a neighborhood manager can significantly empower the entire project. 2. choosing a technology is not a linear process and takes time choosing a technology in some cases was an iterative process. in general, this process can be broken down into the following steps, as seen in figure 2: first, clarify needs and objectives; second, compare offers (examine the strengths and weaknesses of the technologies; weigh, compare, and evaluate modules and functionalities; and consider individual vs. existing, proven solutions); third, invite and become familiar with the provider; fourth, test the technology with a selected group over a few weeks; fifth, decide for or against the technology. in case of uncertainty, return to the first step. figure 2: steps of the technology selection phase the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 18 reasons for choosing or rejecting a technological solution included reliability, simplicity, adaptability, operational safety, and sustainability; the operator’s support, including their perceived competence and availability; the cost of maintenance; the commitment of as many decisionmakers as possible; sufficient financial resources; and a solution that is as uncomplicated and easy to finance as possible. as vogel et al. (2020) state, the combination of technological and societal factors cannot be evaluated with technological criteria alone. a catalog of criteria, an objective overview of technology solutions, and concrete examples to illustrate and demonstrate the added value of the technology can be helpful in selecting the best fit. this is in line with the determinants of perceived usefulness laid out by venkatesh and bala (2008) for the technology acceptance model, first developed by davis et al. (1989). sufficient attention should be paid to the needs of the users because uncertainties in this regard make the choice of technology difficult. along with privacy concerns, as seen in masden et al. (2014), user competence and technology availability (e.g., of internet and cell phones) should also be taken into account, as access to and proficiency in using technology can differ greatly among potential users (vogel et al., 2019). existing structures, critical analysis of the present situation, as well as clear visions and objectives for the future are usually prerequisites for technology use. on a small scale, a test phase should be performed. one of the goals of a test phase is to become familiar with the technology and its functions – between two weeks tested by ten users to ten weeks tested by 20 users seemed to be sufficient. when the operating group or responsible person is able to answer all open questions, the system can be scaled up to the whole neighborhood. not only did the neighborhoods benefit from the test phases, but also the technology providers, because users reported any difficulties, for example, in the registration process, and desires for improvements. for the technology selection, sufficient time must be allowed and decisions not made hastily. 3. the benefit comes through the use gatekeepers are essential for identifying potential users, especially if the target group consists of vulnerable persons in need of support (schelisch & walter, 2021). these gatekeepers must be close to the neighborhood and open to personally approach or being approached by potential users. gatekeepers can be motivated volunteers, professionals, and local institutions. convincing local businesses (e.g., a district store or bakery) to use a neighborhood platform is not always easy. the attractiveness of the platform rises with the number of platform users. in particular, with the common phenomenon of “consumerism” among civil platform users, a high number of local businesses posting their offerings increases attractivity for civil users, especially in the beginning. low traffic and a lack of exciting content can lead in the worst case to a decline in users. to prevent a vicious circle of non-activity and hence user decrease, active community members in charge of the project who regularly look after the community and encourage traffic are necessary. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 19 reluctance to seek assistance as described by vogel et al. (2019), existing mostly among senior users, was also observed in this study, especially in the neighborhood communication platforms. in neighborhoods that were actively managed by well-organized neighborhood assistance initiatives, this effect seemed to be mitigated, as the matching tool did not get visible for the senior (calling the neighborhood assistance) and the care seeker’s anonymity was preserved. limitations the contribution of this study should be viewed in light of the following limitations. first, the selection of the neighborhoods was an attempt to cover the diversity of the lake constance region. however, since not every neighborhood is open for scientific support or sees a need for change at all, it can be assumed that some individual aspects of (digital) neighborhood work could not find their way into this study. second, in this study, we focused on summarizing experiences and recommendations for action that should enable a broad, cross-national transfer and discussion. we constrained the scope of our analysis to the implementation of ict for neighborhood development, although other technologies may be useful or applicable in this context. third, since the researchers were partially personally involved in the neighborhood projects, also the call in of an external research collaborator, cannot fully eliminate the risk of subjectivity and bias. conclusion this article presents the lessons learned from a cross-national project accompanying 14 neighborhoods from germany, austria, and switzerland on their way to digitally supported neighborhood work. the general conditions, the implementation process, the technology itself, and the various stakeholders all played a significant role on the path to a digitally supported neighborhood. especially, neighborhood managers played a key role for the success of the projects by e.g. communicating the added value of digital support in a convincing and tangible way. moreover, the analysis has shown that given the diversity of the neighborhoods involved there is no ‘gold standard’ but that the key success factors may take on different meanings in different neighborhoods. among these are the interplay between online neighborhood work and physical interactions, the role of strong existing neighborhood management structures, the role of strategic planning in digitalization activities, the role of start-up funding for innovation activities, the value of individual vs. generic and self-managed vs. commercial solutions, and the methods of community management and onboarding. the projects provide valuable experiences related to technology usage and the multitude of challenges associated with digital neighborhood work. the covid-19 pandemic can be regarded as one of these challenges, but also as an enabler for change. given the great challenges that usually have to be faced in digitally supported neighborhood projects and the many pitfalls one may encounter on this path, guidelines or models, like the developed maturity model by renyi et al. (2020), might facilitate the exchange of best practice and experience between projects. the researchers hope this article will contribute to this exchange and will help the scientific community and practitioners alike to realize digitally supported neighborhood projects. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 20 references bäuerle, d., scherzer, u. (2009). zukunft quartier – lebensräume zum älterwerden – themenheft 1: hilfe-mix – ältere menschen in balance zwischen selbsthilfe und (professioneller) unterstützung. netzwerk: soziales neu gestalten (song). retrieved from http://www.netzwerk-song.de/fileadmin/user_upload/themenheft1.pdf davis, f. d., bagozzi, r. p., & warshaw, p. r. 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(2012) sekundärdatenanalysen. in schöffski, o. & graf v.d. schulenburg, j.m.: gesundheitsökonomische evaluationen. springer-verlag. berlin heidelberg. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21700-5_10 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041946 https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2019_rip/5/ http://www.who.int/ageing/age_friendly_cities_guide/en/ https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21700-5_10 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 22 appendix appendix table 1: list of roles and associated neighborhood stakeholders including their tasks and competencies. roles description tasks and competencies of the stakeholders operational group / volunteer group engaged local community (stakeholders); participated in all stages; early involvement required citizens: voluntary members from community who selforganized, formed working groups, and generated content and traffic on the platforms associations: established, coordinated, and/or provided content and services on platform neighborhood assistance providers: supported working group care service providers: supported working group initiator active or passive involvement; developed and promoted project / initiatives / concepts / services citizens: launched initiatives, developed concept, supported evaluation and implementation of project, and generated initial traffic and content on platform municipality: promoted and supported projects and operational groups or neighborhood associations and defined strategy associations: promoted project neighborhood assistance providers: launched initiatives and developed concept technology provider: disseminated technology (platform) scientific partners: recruited project partners sponsor / investor enabled neighborhood projects municipality: provided financial support, facilities, infrastructure, and personnel; determined requirements for the project associations: provided financial support, facilities, infrastructure, and personnel; determined requirements for the project management managed operations and finance municipality: managed during operation phase, financially assessed project, and negotiated with operators of digital neighborhood platforms neighborhood assistance providers: organized and coordinated operational groups scientific partners: networked with various stakeholders technology support supported in technical problems and questions; sometimes part of operational group citizens: supported introduction of technology technology provider: provided test bed and technical support and acted as point of contact for technical / system issues scientific partners: provided technical support during project the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 23 platform developer developed and provided technical infrastructure (platform) technology provider: provided technical infrastructure (platform) and exchanged information with stakeholders / groups scientific partners: sometimes also acted as technology provider gatekeeper identified (vulnerable) groups and integrated particular groups into community citizens: offered support for relatives and friends care service providers: identified particular (vulnerable) groups and provided assistance and information to target groups consultant externally supported project team and accompanied technology introduction and dissemination technology provider: supported on various levels and in various phases, provided best-practice examples, and organized and conducted workshops scientific partners: provided best-practice examples, informed project group on experiences from similar projects and research, executed user-requirement surveys, assisted in conception and implementation of project user used platform and created value of platform for target groups citizens: used platform, consumed content, generated content and traffic, and promoted platform within neighborhood associations: coordinated and/or provided content and services on platform local businesses: provided goods and services on platform neighborhood assistance providers: provided (and integrated) services on platform care service providers: provided (and integrated) services on platform 1211 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 notes from the field (practitioners) encite: a model to help voluntary organisations use ict effectively local voluntary organisations (lvos) play an important role in irish society. lvos can be based on community, political, sporting, recreational or civil needs. these organisations facilitate information dispersion, social interaction, employment creation and service provision in communities. however, many of these lvos are struggling to exist and maintain their role in irish society; one of the primary reasons for this problem is their reluctance to embrace and use information and communication technology (ict) effectively. voluntary organisations need help to identify a role for ict and to subsequently design and develop technical solutions. the encite model will facilitate irish lvos to plan and design applications that will support their operation and empower their members. introduction local voluntary organisations (lvos) are an important part of irish peoples’ lives and make a valuable contribution to society. however, many irish lvos are struggling to exist and maintain their relevance to their communities. in particular, these organisations recognise that they have been slow to adopt and use information and communication technology (ict) and this inaction has a negative impact on their operation and development, costing them time and money and resulting in numerous inefficiencies, all of which has diminished their contribution to their communities. a typical example of the slow adoption of technology offered by some organisations is the paucity of email usage among its members, both internally and externally. this paper proposes the encite model to help lvos adopt and use ict effectively. the encite model is based on data gathered from a qualitative study conducted with over 60 informants. the encite model will support lvos to plan, design !142 mcdonald, t.j. (2016). encite: a model to help voluntary organisations use ict effectively. the journal of community informatics, 12(1), 142—151. date submitted: 2015-09-16. date accepted: 2015-11-19. copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1211 tj mcdonald waterford institute of technology corresponding author. tmcdonald@wit.ie http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1211 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1211 mailto:tmcdonald@wit.ie the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 and develop technical solutions that solve their problems in an inclusive and iterative manner; it will facilitate voluntary organisations to develop a technical plan and help their members understand the potential of ict and perhaps more importantly define a role for it in their organisation. the encite model will help voluntary organisations to include their members’ views, needs and expectations in the design of technical applications and subsequently in the creation of a plan to create in-house or outsourced ict solutions. local voluntary organisations in ireland in ireland, the term lvo is predominantly used to describe locally organised voluntary effort. irish lvos include parish committees, gaelic athletic association (gaa) clubs, soccer and athletics organisations, parents’ associations, the irish farmers association (ifa), irish country women’s association (ica) and a plethora of other groups, some unique to a geographical area‑ . in general, irish lvos tend to have county, provincial and national levels 1 that support their operation and often dictate their function. for example, the local gaa club is affiliated to the county gaa board that in turn is a member of the national gaa executive. lvos consist of members who pay a membership subscription each year. some of these members may serve as officers on the management committee elected at an annual general meeting as decreed in the organisation’s constitution. voluntary organisations are an integral part of the social fabric in ireland and play an important role in integrating people into communities (o’donnell, 1999). however, for the vast majority of irish lvos a number of problems are stymieing their development and growth. these problems include: diminishing membership, declining relevance to community, decreasing levels of altruism among members, new government legislation (such as drink driving restrictions and smoking bans), social inclusion and cultural problems, accessing external resources and supports and increasing financial constraints. these problems are exacerbated by technical troubles such as a lack of ict infrastructure, accessing technical expertise, and confusion over emerging software trends (o’donnell, 2000; gilligan, 2005; dochas, 2006; mc donald, 2012). in addition there is a paucity of opportunities for lvo members to upskill, reskill or improve their education in an environment conducive to learning (irl, 2010). finally, there is a lack of co-operation and collaboration between lvos, resulting in each unnecessarily operating independently and often replicating the mistakes of others, to their own detriment (irl, 2010; mc donald, 2012). mcdonald (2012) argues that the deployment of appropriate forms of ict can help irish lvos address many of their problems. however, mcdonald suggests that before these organisational problems can be tackled with various forms of technology, their members need to become more technically competent. the potential of ict is not fully understood by many members of these voluntary organisations, which makes their adoption of technology difficult, if not impossible. consequently, irish voluntary organisations are slow to adopt technology or even worse select unsuitable forms of ict, a decision that negatively impacts their future use of it (gilligan, 2005; cuita, 2010). the wheel (2010) caution that the certain areas of ireland would have lvos that are unique to that community, e.g. irish language 1 groups in parts of cork, galway and kerry. !143 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 adoption and diffusion of technology into irish voluntary organisations needs to be carefully planned, with particular emphasis on recognising and embracing the impact that organisational culture has on the success of the initiative. the irish government also accepts the importance of addressing community needs through the development of voluntary organisations. former taoiseach (irish prime minister) mr. bertie ahern (2000) stated that ict will play an important role in helping irish lvos address their concerns and facilitate their strategic development. a number of national initiatives were developed at the beginning of the millennium to enable and support communities such as: ‘a framework for supporting voluntary activity’ (2000), which facilitated the creation of a number of support agencies; ‘the access, skills and content’ (asc) initiative (2001), which focused on the development of local communities. other initiatives like ‘e-inclusion’ (2005) were created by the european union (eu). this initiative placed the spotlight on internet provision and reduction of the digital divide, particularly in rural areas. these initiatives have concluded, with no credible replacements owing to the dire financial situation in ireland and across europe in recent times. data gathering and analysis to gather data to aid the development of the encite model, knowledgeable informants were selected in equal proportion from the three largest sectors of the irish voluntary landscape: community, sporting, and rural and agricultural. forty seven informants were interviewed for on average one hour in duration and a further fourteen participated in two focus groups, which took over two hours to complete respectively. all informants bar six (these were paid officers) volunteered at different ‘levels’‑ in the community and voluntary sector; some were 2 secretaries, several were treasurers, whilst others were committee members. this variety in informant ensured a broader understanding of how each ‘level’ viewed and used ict for exclusive and mutual benefits. some of the informants were members with an ict background, whilst others were those who recognised the important potential role that ict could play within their lvo and were motivated to embrace it. the initial cohort of informants was selected on the basis of the researcher knowing them from his previous work in the voluntary sector, a technique advocated by babbie and mouton (2001). subsequently, the selection of informants largely followed a snowballing approach, where informants were selected primarily on the suggestion of others, a purposive sampling technique proposed by polkinghorne (2005). the data gathered from the informants primarily focused on their views, uses, experiences and expectations of ict currently and moving into the future. this data was analysed using hermeneutics as the primary analysis technique. cognitive maps were used to graphically illustrate the findings. subsequently, nvivo was used to complement the analysis and to identify any findings that may have been previously missed. many findings emerged from the rich dataset. these findings provided an in-depth understanding of the concepts and activities that informants and participants felt facilitated the adoption and use of ict services by irish lvos and their members. the concepts and activities were used to create the encite model. the term ‘levels’ indicates the various areas of irish lvos, specifically local, county, regional and national.2 !144 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 potential concepts and activities for inclusion in the model this section identifies the concepts and activities specified by informants for inclusion in the proposed model. each concept and activity contributes in some way to the adoption and diffusion of ict in irish lvos. the contribution of each concept and activity needs to be understood, before combining them together to develop a coherent and useful model. a. strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (swot) analysis many informants subscribed to the validity of using a swot analysis, although it is a relatively dated technique primarily used for strategic planning, several community informatics (ci) practitioners suggest that the strengths of a lvo need to be mobilised in order to allow them to develop as an organisation and achieve their objectives (kretzmann & mc knight, 1993; anderson, 2000 & morse, 2004). a swot analysis identifies the strengths, which are the assets that the organisation may use to achieve its objectives; weaknesses, which identify the internal factors that obstruct organisations achieving their objectives; opportunities, which are the factors that may help the organisation achieve its objectives; and threats, which are the external conditions that are harmful to an organisation achieving its aims. b. application development plan informants comment that a plan is needed to guide the integration of ict into lvos. primarily, the plan needs to be based on the findings of the swot analysis, which should identify a prioritised set of technological objectives that will support and improve the operation of the lvo. several notable ci researchers espoused the importance of developing a plan for the diffusion of ict into lvos (o’donnell, 2001; carroll & rosson, 2007; toyama, 2009). in particular, carroll and rosson (1996; 2007) demonstrated through the blacksburg electronic village (bev) initiative and the civic nexus project the importance of developing an agreed plan with stakeholders. the plan should document how ict will be rolled out across the lvo and be integrated with the strategic plan of the organisation, if one exists. if no strategic plan exists, which the research found to be the case for the majority of lvos, one should be created. c. participatory action the focus of ict initiatives should be on enabling and empowering members to do something that they were previously unable to do, or providing them with efficiencies with their current workload. inclusion of members’ views is paramount for the success of technological initiatives; they need to be able to contribute their expectations and feelings about new technical developments. participatory action decrees that the needs of end-users should be considered at all stages of a ci initiative to ensure their adoption and use of ict services. many ci practitioners like kretzmann and mc knight (1993), gurstein (2008) and stillman and french (2009) believe that stakeholder participation is an important aspect of application development. !145 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 d. member education and training education and training about the potential uses of ict is vital for lvo members, if they are to participate in the development of technical solutions and subsequently adopt and use it successfully. education and training programmes has a pivotal role to play in facilitating lvos to identify ways to use technology, especially in organisations where members are apprehensive about using it. many informants believe that until the membership of their lvo is ict literate, technical applications will not be adopted in any significant manner. scholars like bourdieu (1996) and smith (2007) expressed concerns about how the lack of education and training opportunities was stymieing the development of social and cultural capital in lvos. indeed, o’donnell (2007) and the wheel (2010) called for the development of education and training programmes for members of lvos, as a mechanism to assist the diffusion of technology. e. ict development many informants expressed views that a phased and iterative approach to ict deployment was the most suitable for irish lvos as it allowed them to move forward slowly, yet with a definitive goal. this cautious, yet inclusive approach to ict development was supported in the ci literature by burt and taylor (2000), denison (2006) and gurstein (2007). these scholars suggested that in order to ensure that these newly technically-enabled organisations retained their culture and embedded values, it was imperative that an evolutionary approach was adopted to ensure the transformational effects of ict were embraced and made persistent at all levels of the organisation. f. basic ict applications this point advocates how information is captured by the organisation and disseminated to its members through basic technologies. the findings from the data analysis show that capturing appropriate information within lvos is difficult and becomes an even more challenging activity to sustain. information capture and storage is a basic technical requirement for lvos; however, the majority are reluctant to embrace this technological necessity. lvos need to begin using database technologies to ensure that important organisational data is captured, stored and available for use, especially as the organisation evolves and grows. lvos need to urgently capture important pieces of information that up to now have largely been in people’s minds, and safely store them in a database for access and dissemination at a later stage. this form of knowledge management would assist lvos to capture expertise and knowledge for diffusion between their members. g. sophisticated technologies once lvos have mastered the use of basic forms of ict, they may need to evolve towards a more sophisticated level of technology use. these more complex technological developments usually involve the deployment of web 2.0 and its associated technologies to provide services in areas like social capital development, economic opportunity creation and cultural retention, all of which have been identified by informants as important concerns for irish lvos. these sophisticated information systems usually involve the development of web enabled services that are accessible through the lvo’s website or a hand held device. !146 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the development of social capital can be achieved through the creation of chat rooms, message boards, facebook pages or twitter. all of these technologies promote member interaction, collaboration and co-operation. economic opportunities for raising finance are also available through mobilisation of appropriate forms of ict; examples are on-line payment of membership, merchandise sales and retail of local lottery tickets. some organisations have been using ict more creatively to raise money. for example a lvo ran an event where the lowest unique bid over one thousand euro got to purchase that house for that price, after they had purchased a twenty euro ticket online. the encite model figure 1.1 depicts the encite model. it illustrates encite’s four lenses: environment, capital, ict and end user, and shows the concepts and activities that are viewable through each one. these lenses were identified from grouping the acquired data into their respective areas and explicitly mentioned by informants as specific views of the respective lvos which they considered useful for management, growth and development. !147 environment capital ict end user concepts/activities lvo background, needs & expectations establish swot carry out analysis education & training identify ict champion/ sub committee select develop social interaction enhance cultural heritage create economic opportunities use other forms of capital use participatory action apply provide hci guidelines identify technology adoption & diffusion of innovation acknowledge characteristics appropriate software use give feedback figure 1.1 the encite model initial project plan analysis & design application development legend activity flow lens flow milestone lens the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 description of the encite model figure 1.1 illustrates the proposed encite model, which shows the interaction of the four lenses and their associated concepts and activities. each lens provides lvos with a unique way to look at their use of ict and contains concepts and activities that are visible during their technical journey and useful for its completion. the concepts and activities in each lens interact together to enable lvos to perform tasks that allow them to make progress on technical developments in an iterative and inclusive manner. environment lens the first lens of the encite model describes the lvo’s environment. the environment lens provides an operational view of the lvo, where stakeholders outline how their organisation operates, and conducts a swot analysis to establish an in-depth understanding of it. the outcome from the swot analysis is a starting point for the ci initiative. the environment lens also examines the training and education needs of members and recognises that the success of lvo initiatives is dependent on having a technically literate membership. often, this evaluation process leads to the identification of a ci champion, who is a technically capable member willing to lead ict initiatives with support from other members of the organisation. finally, this lens culminates in the development of an opportunities and project plan. the plan should specify the activities that the lvo needs to complete to address their technical requirements and provide a starting vision for the capital lens. capital lens the second lens identifies the capital requirements of the organisation. the capital lens focuses on specifying the social, cultural and economic requirements of the lvo. this lens encourages lvos to identify and evaluate opportunities that improve the social capital among its members, preserves and utilises their cultural heritage and ideals and facilitates the development of economic capital opportunities. these activities are the value added services that will improve and enhance the operation of the organisation and further empower their members. organisations may also evaluate the use of socio-cultural constructionism through this lens, if education and training of members had been identified previously as a need of the lvo. the capital lens usually builds on the work carried out during the operational lens, although it is not a prerequisite. the capital lens assumes that the lvo has already identified and attained their basic operational needs, understands the potential uses of ict and has started to identify tasks to be supported with technology, all of which have been specified in the opportunities and project plan. this lens culminates in the development of an analysis and design document. ict lens the third lens of the model specifies the ict focus of the model, which addresses how technology can facilitate the delivery of information and services to fulfil the needs and expectations of the lvo, as specified in the analysis and design document. the ict lens encourages lvos to evaluate appropriate technologies that may be used by them to support their function and empower their members. initially, the ict lens encourages applications to !148 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 be developed that are easily adopted by members and actively diffused by them. the services that offer a quick return on investment and are most useful should be developed first, before more sophisticated applications are introduced. the ict lens also ensures that consideration is given to appropriate principles of human-computer interaction; these should focus on ease of use and usability, especially where lvos contain a relatively technically unsophisticated membership. the provision of a checklist of required system functionality and the subsequent inclusion of the end user’s needs and expectations into the application will assist the development of a functionally complete and useful system. end user lens the fourth lens of the model outlines the end user or members’ view of the model. the end user lens advocates a participatory approach to ict development by lvos, which includes members in all stages of application development. the end user lens evaluates the characteristics and individual nuances of lvo members and uses these findings to develop appropriate ict initiatives, which they should find easy to adopt and use and, perhaps more importantly, sustain. to help lvo members adopt ict applications, the end user lens ensures a focus is placed on the adoption of appropriate hci principles to build on the work carried out in the ict lens and to ensure the development of better and easier to use systems. the end user lens supports the continued evaluation of ict developments by lvo members; it acknowledges that their contributions and feedback are important for the success of the initiative. conclusion the encite model provides researchers and academics with another way to think about the systematic use of ict across communities and voluntary organisations. as the encite model provides a holistic approach to technology adoption and diffusion, it will no doubt stimulate debate and provoke further interest in the development of supports that facilitate communities and lvos to take responsibility for their own technological future. the encite model will further the academic debate on the ways ict can support voluntary organisations operation, assist with the development of services and empowering its members. at a practical level, the encite model has been adopted and used as a technical template by a national voluntary organisation in ireland; the initial feedback has been very positive in particular the technical education of its members, the retention of its historical culture and dissemination of best practices. the encite model will facilitate voluntary organisations address what is clearly a complex socio-technical problem, identify opportunities for future technical developments and ensure these valuable organisations continue to make a meaningful contribution to irish society. references ahern, b. (2000) white paper on a framework for supporting voluntary activity. in taoiseach, a. (ed.), irish government. asc, i. (2007) access, skills & content initiative guidelines & criteria. in taoiseach, a. (ed.), irish government. !149 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 anderson, e. (2000) beyond homo economicus. new developments in theories of social norms: philosophy and public affairs. 29(2), 170200 bourdieu, p. (1983) forms of capital in j. c. richards (ed.) handbook of theory and paper for the sociology of education. greenwood press, new york. burt, e. and taylor, j. (2000) information and communication technologies: reshaping voluntary organizations? non-profit management & leadership. 11 (2), 131-143 carroll, j.m. and rosson, m.b. (1996) developing the blacksburg electronic village, communications of the acm, 39 (12), 69-74. carroll, j.m. and rosson, m.b. (2007) participatory design in community informatics”, the journal of community informatics special issue on participatory design, pp. 243-261.  cuita (2010) community on the uptake of information technology in agriculture and rural communities, department of agriculture, fisheries and food. dublin denison, t. (2006) the diffusion and sustainability of technology within community sector organisations. international journal of knowledge, culture and change management, 6 (3), 19-28. dochas, w. (2006) the case for better community and voluntary sector governance, white paper. the wheel. dublin. e-inclusion. (2005) e-inclusion revisited: the local dimension of the information society. in communities. brussels. gilligan, r. (2005) questioning the ‘rural’ adoption and use of icts, in l. haddon, b. sapio, e. mante-meijer, l. fortunati, and a. kant, (eds.) innovatory users and information and communication technologies. springer-verlag (london) ltd. gurstein, m. (2000) community informatics: enabling communities with information and communications technologies, idea group publishing, hershey pa. gurstein, m. (2007) what is community informatics (and why does it matter)?. polimetrica. irl, t. (2010) prebudget submission, irish rural link, http://www.socialjustice.ie/sites/ default/files/file/budget/budget%202011/pre-budget%20submissions/irish%20rural %20link%20pre%20budget%20submission%202011.pdf. kretzmann, j. p., mcknight, j. l. (1993) building communities from the inside out: a path towards finding and mobilizing a community's assets. chicago, il: acta publications. mc donald, t. j. (2012). the encite model: facilitating irish voluntary organisations use ict. conference proceedings cirn community informatics conference "to measure or not to measure: that is the question": 9-11 november 2011, monash centre prato, italy.   morse, s. (2004) smart communities: how citizens and local leaders can use strategic thinking to build a brighter future. jossey bass, wiley !150 http://www.socialjustice.ie/sites/default/files/file/budget/budget%25202011/pre-budget%2520submissions/irish%2520rural%2520link%2520pre%2520budget%2520submission%25202011.pdf the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 o’donnell, s. (2000) small media, big network: alternative media and social movements on the internet. unpublished phd thesis. dublin city university, dublin. o’donnell, s. (2001) towards an inclusive information society in europe: the role of voluntary organisations. dublin: itech paper. o’donnell, s. and trench, b. (1999) voluntary and community organisations in ireland’s information society. coleraine: university of ulster, association for voluntary action paper in ireland. stillman, l. and french, r. (2007) doing it better: how does the welfare sector act with technology? community informatics – prospects for communities and action, 4th cirn community informatics conference. monash prato centre, 5-7 november 2007, prato, italy. smith, m. k. (2007) social capital. the encyclopaedia of informal education. toyama, k. (2009) what constitutes good ictd paper? information technologies and international development, 5(3):82-94. http://itidjournal.org/itid/article/view/ 382/178. wheel, t. (2010) ictpoint it knowhow for the non-profit and charity sector. http:// www.wheel.ie/you-and-your-organisation/technology. !151 http://itidjournal.org/itid/article/view/382/178 (re)prioritizing citizens in smart cities governance: examples of smart citizenship from urban india david sadoway1 & satyarupa shekhar2 postdoctoral fellow, faculty of engineering and computer science, centre for engineering in society, concordia university, montréal, canada. email: bigbluearth@gmail.com director, government outreach & advisory services, transparent cities network, india. aren't cities and citizens already smart? "smart people has been identified as critical for smart cities"' extract from ieee-ccd white paper (de obeso-orendain et al., 2014) the corporate-led and commercially-driven process of urban planning and visioning for 'smart cities' prompts us to ask whether city-regions already possess latent intelligence 'in their dna' so to speak. that is: haven't cities as the historical nexus of socio-cultural, technical and economic gravitas long been endowed with adaptive capacities and don't residents already exhibit the necessary systemic smarts to operate and govern their cities? or, we inquire: what makes a city-region that heavily employs any given technology necessarily any smarter than a 'low tech' city, or even a strategically conceived 'slow city'?1 as the quote above from a recent white paper on smart cities suggests (obeso-orendain et al., 2014), despite the seeming best intentions of informatics scholars and professionals, the discussion about ict-linked urbanization often takes on technologically deterministic or even darwinian tones. this is evidenced by the suggestion above that 'smart people' represent seeming inputs 'critical[ly]' required for the smooth functioning of the 'smart city'. by contrast, our research situates the smart cities agenda in relation to socio-technological processes that have historically splintered, divided or deepened urban wealth, class, caste or information divisions and other forms of spatial segregation. this resonates with graham & marvin's (2001), 'splintering urbanism' thesis; and more recently, hollands' (2008) and others' critiques of smart cities (greenfield, 2013; agyeman & mclean, 2014). such critiques suggests that icts and supporting infrastructures can entrench existing urban asymmetries by fueling elitism, exclusion or enclaves (e.g. spatio-digital divides; premium network space formation; creation of private scanscapes; 24/7 e-machiadoras; and other forms of atomized citizenship). we are interested in this research note in tagging alternatives to the commercially shaped smart city. our argument for smart citizenship is specifically tied to the work of the civic-cyber non-profit action-research group, transparent chennai, operating in the rapidly changing south indian urban-region of chennai with its 8.7 million plus inhabitants.2 in the limited space herein, we seek to address two research questions: how can we better distinguish between commercially-shaped and community-driven approaches in urban ict praxis? and via what possible 'smart' processes might citizens reassert or reinsert their voices and visions in urban planning and governance? facial and spatial recognition vs. recognizing citizen intelligence in the post-wikileaks and post-snowden era it has become apparent that urban digital networks and icts ought not to be seen as neutral, banal, benign or external, hidden infrastructures but rather as power webs that play a vital role in the co-construction of our daily lives and urban polity. the rise of the networked society, networked cities and networked governance associated with icts (castells, 2008), including fixed and mobile technologies and the ever-expanding 'internet of things' has driven a persistent interest in 'smart cities' (townsend, 2013, 3). the combination of growing global urbanization and a rise in ubiquitous computing, according to pierce et al., (2013, 69), suggests that 'each time cities expand, advances in information technology have kept pace to manage their ever-expanding complexity.' as a result urban planning praxis has also had to keep pace. the interpenetration of the virtual and physical has spawned a range of literature which outlines the seeming merits of ict-linked urban planning and infrastructure initiatives under the rubric of 'smart' or 'intelligent' cities (e.g. santinha & castro, 2010; chourabi et al., 2012; frost & sullivan, 2013; townsend, 2013; tomer & puentes, 2014; de obeso-orendain et al., 2014). commercially-driven 'smart cities' priorities focused on providing solutions to customers and returns to shareholders have arguably ignored the historical lessons of 'wicked problems' (rittel & webber, 1973) that are tied to technological quick fixes or technologically deterministic plan-making as pathways to better city living (mandelbaum, 1996; graham & marvin, 2001). for example, issues about civic space, individual privacy and the right to control or manage public infrastructures and data have grown in tandem with the rise of ubiquitous urban informatics (crang & graham, 2007; nissenbaum & varnelis, 2012; datoo, 2014). crang and graham (2007) aptly describe this phenomenon as 'sentient cities', suggesting that: 'it is a world where we not only think of cities, but cities think of us, where the environment reflexively monitors our behaviour' (ibid., 789).the 'data and metadata' generated in this informational entanglement raises serious transparency, privacy, surveillance and public sphere contestations as 'ubiquitious informational overlays' interpenetrate urban spaces (nissenbaum & varnelis, 2012, 30). before discussing possible smart citizen alternatives to these conundrums we first examine the constructed concept of smart cities. smart cities definitions and contestations pierce et al. (2013, 70) attribute the use of the term 'smart cities' to the late architect william mitchell, founder of the smart cities research group at mit's media lab (also see: allwinkle & cruikshank 2011, 4) and later reinforced by ibm's 2008 'smarter cities' marketing campaign (pierce et al., ibid.). the term has also been related to different policy domains, such as 'smart growth' (which seeks to balance urban population and economic growth with land use and ecological / energy constraints); and 'smart grids' (which seeks to more efficiently distribute energy supplies to networker users' demands, such as amongst intermittent renewable energy sources). townsend (2013, 15) defines the smart city as: 'places where information technology is combined with infrastructure, architecture, everyday objects, and even our bodies to address social, economic, and environmental problems.' santinha and castro (2010) identify the challenges of labeling and defining smart or intelligent cities and suggests that at minimum that they need to have a 'coherent framework and a unified methodology for the design and implementation of its intelligence' (ibid., 79) (also see: chourabi et al., 2012). notably, hollands' (2008, 314) work has identified both the problematic open-ended definition of 'smart cities,' along with the fact that this ill-defined concept has been narrowly employed in the 'more limited political agenda of high-tech urban entrepreneurialism.' to date smart cities modes of urban governance have clearly been shaped and steered by large and influential commercial players in hardware, software and infrastructure sectors such as ibm, general electric, cisco systems, hitachi and siemens, amongst others (ibm global services, 2011; siemens ag, 2011; frost & sullivan, 2013; hitachi, 2013; townsend, 2013). the japanese ict firm hitachi, in a commissioned study, defines smart cities as: 'an evolved state of urbanization where [the] application of technology integrates diverse individual entities such as buildings, utilities, authorities, infrastructure and industries' (frost & sullivan, 2013, 2). the same study goes on to identify the potential market opportunities in smart cities, as follows: "to target cities as a customer and to tap the vast business opportunities it presents, companies need to internally revamp their in-house competencies and products/service portfolio. the global city infrastructure market is expected to provide $2.2 trillion market opportunities in 2025" (ibid.). the focus of 'smart cities' research for governments has typically been on how cities might improve urban economies, quality of life and myriad problems by employing an often techno-deterministic outlook on the uses of icts. these have involved the growing role of commercial activities and joint ventures, including: firms injecting themselves as 'stakeholders' in governmental tendering and public consultation processes; smart cities strategic networking (e.g. conference sponsorships or participation); public-private partnership projects in urban planning and digital infrastructure provisioning (i.e. ict-linked urban planning consulting inside city halls and government ministries); as well as in massive direct investments in smart cities and 'green' high tech city demonstration projects (e.g. new songdo, korea; or masdar, abu dhabi-uae). the excessive utopian and techo-deterministic claims about ict uptake and uses in cities; and the tendency of governments (or advisory 'champions' and 'thought leaders') to valorize commercial or market interests in the shaping of the smart cities discourse has clearly been identified by urban studies researchers (crang & graham, 2007; hollands, 2008; gibbs et al., 2013; greenfield, 2013; agyeman & mclean, 2014; staffans & horelli, 2014). for example, greenfield (2013) critiques the promotional language of ict manufacturers and marketers (in relation to smart cities) and their frequent perfectionist or utopian visions (vs. messy urban realities). he suggests that the municipal governments which are the typical target markets for 'smart citification' need to remain cautious towards the claims of smart city advocates. smart cities coming soon to india our case study of transparent chennai (tc) is situated in the context of the recent intensive policy push by the government of india to rapidly develop over 100 smart cities across the nation following the election of narendra modi and his bjp coalition cohorts in 2014 (government of india, 2014; the economic times, 2014). notably, the ceo of cisco systems was identified, as being keenly interested in these initiatives. according to a government official, 'the company [cisco] also wants to partner [with] india in setting up smart cities' (the economic times, 2014). the indian official also suggested that: 'according to them [cisco], the company is involved in smart cities that are successful in the world' (ibid.). besides working on information technology master plans in two pilot cities in gujarat and maharashtra, cisco systems also has partnered in india with the private sector delhi-mumbai industrial corridor development company (strickland, 2012), amongst other involvements.3 clearly global ict firms like cisco systems have a more than singular global region or city-region in mind in relation to their smart cities commercialization agenda. not all has been dazzling, however, when it comes to rolling out smart urbanity in india. an example from townsend's (2013) study identifies the unintended consequences of ict deployment. the example involves e-governance in the indian 'bhoomi' initiative a world bank supported project in karnataka which sought to digitally track land ownership and was also intended to eliminate local corruption. instead the digital approach apparently had the unintended effect of encouraging land speculation by enabling the efficient and speedy private monopolizing of land holdings in the fast growing bangalore (bengaluru) city-region (through rapid access to land records in a newly centralized digital clearinghouse) (ibid., 13). this cautionary example highlights the important need to scrutinize the unintended consequences of ict-linked approaches in shaping urban futures. the next section compares corporate-driven modes of smart cities governance and urban planning with those of smart citizenship. towards a 'smart citizenship' framework in our discussion above about the current definition of smart cities, we have identified several key concerns about commercial and corporate-driven modes of e-governance and urban e-planning. in this section we elaborate upon the contrasts between existing smart cities approaches and our 'smart citizenship' framework. later in the section we cite several examples from the work of the indian non-profit action-research group, transparent chennai, which are cited as potential exemplars for kick-starting local-oriented smart citizenship processes elsewhere. smart citizenship local uses of icts for addressing local needs a smart citizenship approach is not a call for a shift to neo-luddite cities, nor is it a vision of a khmer rouge-like demand for urban abandonment, but rather it is a call for engaged, active and critically reflective civic-cyber debates and deeper discourses among a diversity of citizens and not only the visions of digitally dominant 'thought' or 'business leaders.' civic-cyber dialogue and debate, we suggest, needs to address ict praxis in relation to local needs and it also needs to address questions about technological control, choices and trajectories particularly in relation to ict uptake, deployment and designs by residents. advocates of do-it-yourself (diy) approaches, hackathons and fabrication labs (fablabs) and so forth, have argued that without the building blocks of open ict infrastructures and platforms for 'smart citizens' (townsend, 2013; diez, 2014) including 'open access', 'open source software' and 'net neutrality' that the construction of the smart city and its social economy will be highly unlikely. this matches our suggestion that smart citizenship need to involve not only engineers, coders or systems scientists but also civic hacktivists, local associations and longstanding community groups that make up civic-cyber space (e.g. sadoway, 2012, 2013). missing from the typical analysis of smart cities, we suggest, has been an identification of the importance of urban community informatics insights as well as an explicit recognition of not novel, but longstanding institutional models (that are now hybridizing alongside the rise of icts) including: non-profits, social enterprises, various types of co-operatives, credit unions, foundations and stakeholder or community-owned or controlled enterprises, as well as traditional civic associations. we suggest that smart citizenship should not simply represent a form of 'crowd sourcing' or a digital 'sharing economy.' instead civic-cyber life needs to draw lessons from urban planning traditions that emphasize deep and meaningful civic engagement or community control in questions about local urban planning and design (e.g. sandercock, 2003; friedmann, 2010; coehlo, et al., 2013). smart citizenship is a call for respecting what has been termed 'local/traditional knowledge systems' (standley et al., 2009). and it is a call for focusing on 'citizen science' (paulos et al., 2009); as well as for considering community informatics approaches, exemplified by: schuler's (2001) work on 'civic intelligence'; gurstein's (2014) discussions on 'smart communities'; and agyman and mclean's (2014) notion of 'sharing cities'. the common thread in these concepts is that technologies need to serve and work for people and communities first in terms of their design and deployment, but also in relation to setting local civic and infrastructural priorities. the checks and balances against the rise of a dystopian invasive digital surveillance society or unaccountable forms of commercialized techno-utopianism, we suggest, underscores a need to recognize the importance of pre-existing civic organizations and civic intelligence amongst urban residents. civic intelligence, suggests schuler (ibid., 166), is not embedded (or even necessarily enhanced through the uses of icts), but instead is latent in collective, conscious civic action and reflection and it represents: 'the ability of humankind to use information and communication in order to engage in collective problem solving' (ibid.). notably, critics like hollands (2008, 315) emphasize that smart cities have to: 'start with people […] rather than blindly believing that ict itself can automatically transform and improve cities.' a basic binary model smart cities vs. smart citizenship the distinction we make between 'smart cities' and 'smart citizenship' can be crystallized in a basic contrasting binary model which distinguishes between a top-down, commercially driven, low degree of civic-cyber engagement agenda (i.e. a pro-commercial or corporate-state entangled digital agenda), versus a bottom-up, high degree of civic-cyber engagement in a community-driven ict agenda (i.e. a community-controlled or pro-civic digital agenda). these simplified 'ideal-type' contrasts essentially, poles on a continuum of ict praxis and choices in city-regions are shown in table 1. this matrix clearly associates current smart cities approaches with forms of tokenism or even manipulative civic e-engagement (particularly in modes of urban governance). we take this position so as to provoke and elicit the articulation of informatics alternatives that seek to envision more than profit or monetary motivations as forces in driving ict-linked urban innovations. table 1: a smart cities approach compared to a smart citizenship approach (authors) these distinctions serve to bring out comparisons between smart cities and smart citizenship across five distinct dimensions or modalities: governance, civic participation, infrastructure, civic space and urban livability. jessop (2002, 460) suggests that 'ideal types' such as our contrasting model serve less as normative ideals than they do as 'thought experiments' that can support comparative analysis. our very basic comparison here not only suggests distinctions between degrees of civic engagement as well as how and to what purposes icts are being employed, but it also provides a working framework for examining the case of transparent chennai (tc) later in this research note. townsend (2013, 15) also reminds us that we need to consider the key question: 'what do you want a smart city to be?' this highlights the importance of examining how and why cities are shaping technologies to suit their needs and the need for civic inclusiveness in this process. our framework for smart citizenship therefore focuses on the existing 'civic intelligence' (schuler, 2001) inside communities, neighborhoods and local institutions (whether digital or non-digital). such approaches first seek to understand and emphasize local civic priorities and needs rather than prioritizing the needs of commercial technology players, state pr campaigns or memes of the day (hollands, 2008, 315). for example, community informatics approaches applied to urban planning provides a rich strand of ideas for envisioning multiple modes and opportunities for participation, co-learning and challenging traditional approaches to civic engagement in urban governance and planning (e.g. hudson-smith et al., 2002; horelli, 2013; steffans & horelli, 2014). clearly then, a diverse array of civic-cyber arenas can serve as alternatives to traditional top-down public or public-private modes of civic engagement. a smart citizenship approach can provide a complementary check on inappropriate state or corporate smart cities interventions not only in ict-linked applications and emergent infrastructures but also in day-to-day urban planning and governance. the tc example exhibits some of these traits because it has been organized as a non-profit action-research entity and because it works both with community groups and neighbourhoods as well as with governments and state-agencies. the next section of our paper further explores the concept of 'smart citizenship' in relation to the case of transparent chennai. transparent chennai: an exemplar of smart citizenship? in the case of transparent chennai whose action-research is largely centred in india's fourth largest city-region of chennai (in the southern state of tamil nadu) we are interested in examining how its work relates to smart citizenship and how it may be invoking civic or community intelligence and local knowledge in relation to ict-linked urban governance and non-digitally mediated community planning praxis.4 transparent chennai is a chennai-based non-profit group affiliated as a project within the centre for development finance (an indian research centre in the institute of financial management and research) that was initiated in 2009-10 by nithya raman and a team of multi-disciplinary researchers with a focus on urban action research in areas as diverse as: solid waste management, water, slums and informal settlements, pedestrian infrastructures / road safety, public toilets and sanitation, multi-level infrastructure financing, heritage conservation, electoral accountability and city governance (www.transparentchennai.com).5 we are particularly interested in how tc's approach may or may not contrast with existing smart cities visions. we suggest that the distinct practices of tc arguably have little to do with the contrasting utopian visions of stand-alone smart cities, special economic zones, or ict science parks that some observers have identified in relation to novel claims on 'world class' urbanism in india (shaban, 2013; sadoway & gopakumar, forthcoming). we are also interested in understanding how tc's work might align with 'smart citizenship' approaches because of their role as researcher-activists working closely with local communities and neighbourhoods (and governments) and in shaping technologies for local public engagement in urban governance and planning actions. tc's interdisciplinary team of researchers (up to 15 researchers) have shaped its role as a public information intermediary and a digital clearinghouse by collecting, processing and mapping key data and research on what it perceives to be neglected or underrepresented issues in chennai. although in recent times its work has involved direct collaborations with the urban metropolitan government known in india as the urban local body (in this case, the corporation of chennai)6 tc primarily (and originally) focused its activities on direct ties to grassroots working class and middle class residents and does so through a variety of means such as community survey and mapping efforts. the importance of employing civic-cyber data and interactions is emphasized in its mission: "transparent chennai hopes that bringing data to light about important civic issues like road safety will help bring more attention to under-recognized city problems, and help to empower citizens to hold the government accountable for making improvements. transparent chennai creates maps, data, and research on civic issues to empower citizens and increase government accountability" (www.transparentchennai.com). illustrative of transparent chennai's interest in tapping into community energy to prioritize civic concerns, the organization actively solicits interested publics to co-create potentially transformative civic 'information.' for example its website (tc website, 2014) suggests that: 'residents of chennai who are interested in civic issues are encouraged to log onto www.transparentchennai.com and join the movement to create information for change.' not only has tc insisted on working with local residents to better define local problems (through face-to-face surveys and meetings or interviews in neighbourhoods); it has also sought to challenge local government agencies and officials to improve local infrastructure provisions in chennai. a tc staffer, highlights this approach as follows: "the poor quality of existing city level data, and the unwillingness of city agencies to use this data to allocate resources, means that even the limited existing public services fail to reach the needy. the lesson for indian cities from our research in chennai is that if city managers are serious about improving equity, efficiency and accountability in service provision, a prerequisite is that infrastructure decisions be based on rich public data that captures ground realities" (somya sethuraman, www.transparentchennai.com). in the sections below we elaborate on how transparent chennai attempts to develop digitally driven approaches for addressing critical urban problems about urban infrastructures and services. two priorities that tc has opted to focus upon in chennai, amongst many others, include ict-linked approaches to highlight the need for public toilets and sanitation; as well as to understand neighbourhood pedestrian infrastructure and road safety issues. the next two sections respectively examines these two areas where tc seeks to 'capture ground realities' by employing icts in the civic interest. tc's work on public toilets & urban sanitation one of the key issues that tc has taken on board in its ict-related urban advocacy work has been gathering and disseminating data about public toilets and sanitation provisions including through the use of its open source online mapping service. rather than serving as a digital app or map that provides location-based information about toilets in various parts of the city, the purpose of tc's work has been to instead focus the energies of government and public officials onto deficiencies in the access to public toilets and sanitation, particularly in poorer communities of chennai (transparent chennai, 2011, 2013a,c). in recent years tc has developed expertise in researching questions about urban toilets and sanitation as part of its broader focus on urban infrastructure provisions for grassroots citizens and local neighbourhoods. besides mapping, surveying and 'collecting data on the number and location of public toilets in the city,' tc has focused on the day-to-day operations of the public toilet as a public service, as described below: "we also attempt to understand the roles and responsibilities of the various government officials, departments and boards in constructing, maintaining and operating a toilet. this gives us data on how public toilets are planned and sanctioned; and on whom to hold accountable when they stop working. [...] we also look at the governance of underground sewerage networks, the means through which they are planned and built, and the means through which people access sanitation in the city" (www.transparentchennai.com) notably, there has apparently been a high level commitment by india's recently elected bjp-modi central government to build 'a toilet in every household' (shrinivasan, 2014; joshi, 2014). however, in rapidly urbanizing india, the politics of urban sanitation and human excreta, as in much of the southern world, has long been a seemingly very low priority of governments (e.g. rockefeller, 1998; deccan herald, 16 july 2013). expensive, energy intensive and centralized design-build networked pipe and sewage treatment plant solutions (often touted by foreign donors) have been advocated by governments and private infrastructure boosters including in the most recent wave of multi-level government financed design-build infrastructures in india (dasgupta, 2013, pers.comm., 18 april; rohilla, 2013, pers.comm., 29 march). however, according to these same experts, little work or interest has been directed to the provision of basic access to safe, clean and environmentally friendly community-based sanitation facilities. tcs work on community sanitation and toilet provisions has affirmed this point. for example, their surveys, interviews and right to information (rti) requests to government in 2011 identified only 714 public access toilets for serving the approximately 8-10 million persons who reside in chennai with a significant number of these facilities being poorly located, improperly functioning or ill-maintained (transparent chennai, 2011; sethuraman, 2012). indian sanitation activists working with transparent chennai have also attempted to prioritize the importance of women's safety affirmed in current international comparative research on the importance of safe access to sanitation for women. for example, a recent paper by swedish wateraid (gosling et al., 2014), 'nowhere to go: how a lack of safe toilets threatens to increase violence against women in slums' links the issue of inadequate access to sanitation in urban slums with the issue of women's safety. in the case of chennai, tc's research into sanitation and toilets was initially prompted via its engagements with informal sector women workers (providing inputs into chennai's 2009 city development plan) and who emphasized a 'need for public toilets at workplaces such as market areas, bus stops, and in under-serviced slum areas' (transparent chennai 2011, 1).7 tc's subsequent chennai studies, which included highly granular local level surveys and digital mapping work and mediated using tc's online geographic information system (gis) maps found that because toilets were not conveniently located they remained underutilized and therefore were identified by government as being unwanted and thus unnecessary (sethuraman, 2012).8 besides physical issues such as hygiene, lighting, safety, unclear opening times, absent caretakers, and discretionary user charges tc's research found that chennai governmental management of toilets had poorly defined lines of accountability with a mix of various agencies involved and low budgetary allocations. illustrative of tc's approach to civic advocacy their multi-scalar survey work on toilets in chennai was synthesized in a gis formatted map at the district level indicating 56 global positioning system (gps) identified toilets thus serving as a practical tool for visually identifying sanitary deficiencies in various neighborhoods in the city (transparent chennai, 2013a,c). tc's sanitation approach has helped highlight deficiencies in infrastructure provisions and has also been linked to the effectiveness of ward or local level officials and politicos thus injecting transparency and urban governance issues in their work. tc's digitally pooled toilet and sanitation data and maps are located in publicly accessible online reports (e.g. figure 1); and their research findings have also been mobilized in a user-friendly online clearinghouse that encourages residents to aggregate and visualize datasets by building their own gis-derived maps by including data layers like the 'toilet deficiencies,' noted above.9 these publicly accessible online maps are available to become another layer in a multi-layered and growing public data project and the many projects that tc has become involved with. the toilet projects fits into its broader vision of enabling access to meaningful data about urban infrastructure needs and priorities typically identified or advocated by and for chennai citizens. as with their work on advocating for public toilets, tc has built upon citizens' informal knowledge and stated priorities in order to create information and support improvements in a very different set of civic infrastructures and services, as the next section discusses. figure 1: an example of tc's work on surveying and digitally mapping basic toilet services in chennai neighbourhoods (image: transparent chennai, 2014) tc's pro-pedestrian work in an increasingly urban car culture in july 2013, the chennai-based newspaper, the hindu, launched a month-long pro-pedestrian rights campaign dubbed, 'right to walk' which set out to, 'focu[s] on the right of chennai's residents to a safe and healthy city' (varadarajan, 2013). seeking to catalyze solutions for chennai publics and policymakers and in indian cities overall the newspaper posited that: "the absence of usable footpaths was a significant contributor to the over 100 pedestrian deaths in chennai in 2012, as per ncrb data. few of us ever walk on pavements often because they have been encroached upon or are simply non-existent. the right to walk aims to reclaim our city's footpaths for pedestrians through a targeted print and online campaign that will empower residents and goad local officials to act" (varadarajan, 2013). part of the force generated in this right to walk (rtw) campaign was that it was linked to questions about 'the right to the city' tied to mobility, accessibility and motility (or the right to mobility). similarly, in its efforts to raise the awareness of pedestrian issues in chennai, tc played a role in the hindu's rtw campaign largely as an information clearinghouse and visualization medium (through its gis work) by linking to its local surveys, mapping and identified residents' concerns about local neighbourhood pedestrian and road traffic safety (figure 2). figure 2: an example of transparent chennai's transport safety gis mapping. public data for accident hot spots and types of accidents can be shown as layers along selected roads in chennai neighbourhoods (image: transparent chennai, 2014). tc also, for example, hosts on its online gis the option for layers mapping that encourages residents to flag and comment on or update the status of expensive infrastructure projects that contribute to urban automobility such as highway flyovers and their changing timelines or cost escalations. this approach relates to tc's clear interest in public transparency issues that have in recent years become paramount in scrutinizing expensive public works projects as for example those of the automobile oriented infrastructures in chennai. similarly, rtw campaigners also identified the issue of rising automobile oriented infrastructure subsidies 'given to motorists by carving up the right of way, and depriving other classes of users of their fair share'(ananthakrishnan, 2013d), to underscore the social and environmental justice ramifications and lock-in effects of public road infrastructure plans and projects.10 figure 3: an example of a transparent chennai interactive urban design workshop for identifying local issues using community-mapping and design feedback approaches (k.k. nagar neighbourhood, chennai) (photo: transparent chennai, 2014). the rtw and tc campaigns also underscore the ongoing public health threats facing most urban pedestrians through 'rising vehicular traffic, noise, pollution and gridlock' (ananthakrishnan, 2013c). both the rtw and tc's regular reports identified the harsh realities of being a pedestrian in chennai and common throughout most large indian cities including: a wide range of roadside traffic dangers; women's safety issues (shivam, 2013); unusable and broken sidewalks; sidewalk rights of way covered with construction debris; and encroachments on sidewalks by businesses and households (lopez, 2013).11 tc's work also has acknowledged the near impossibility of mobility for chennai residents with physical disabilities including their need for: universal design accessibility; barrier free walkways; and markers for the visually impaired. problems reported by differently-abled activists included: sidewalk, curb and other height variations: improper walkway or cuts (or transitions) and the myriad hurdles or obstructions facing residents (kannan, 2013). reports in the media have also identified the severe safety challenges facing cyclists in chennai (srivathshan, 2013b). along the same lines transparent chennai starting in 2013, has combined public participation with the use of icts in working with four chennai neighbourhoods to highlight the inadequacies in the city's pedestrian infrastructure and also to work with communities to articulate how these situations might be improved. for example, tc has served as an anchor organization working with a chennai ngo the traffic and transport forum (ttf) and the nanganallur neighbourhood (located near chennai's international airport) to address safety and pedestrian related infrastructure issues (tc forthcoming). working with ttf and local residents tc established relations with the nanganallur community and organized community meetings that involved the public, local councilors, students, merchants / vendors and the media, amongst others. tc's approach to addressing pedestrian issues as with its work on public toilets has involved detailed surveying and mapping to understand the local pedestrian context, including collecting information on: 'walkability, pedestrian-vehicular conflict, maintenance and cleanliness, roads, amenities, safety and security, disability infrastructure, land-use, obstructions, parking, motorist behaviour, bus stop locations and drainage' (tc, forthcoming). tc surveyors collected local pedestrian planning data were in turn geo-referenced (into gis formats) and basic maps were subsequently developed for community analyses, discussions and report writing. besides identifying crucial issues about pedestrian design and its impacts on local street vendors, key local issues such as street lighting, vegetation, parking, bus access and garbage dumping were identified in their community-based research efforts. employing the maps and survey data a participatory interactive design workshop was organized (first in july 2013 and involving ~50 residents) in order to prioritize key local pedestrian issues and solicit design suggestions. tc has employed similar community face-to-face workshop and community mapping approaches to solicit ideas and seek feedback on local priorities (figure 3; figure 4). in the case of the nanganallur neighbourhood design discussions, feedback was also provided by the community via a july 2013 workshop and a follow-up january 2014 meeting focused on a local road redesign that sought to nominally improve local pedestrian safety. employing a 3d physical street model to elicit further community feedback, tc subsequently took the pedestrian infrastructure (re)design plan to chennai's mayor and joint commissioner, the head of the public works department, who agreed to implement this and therefore address stated community needs (tc forthcoming). the pedestrian and public health issues noted in the tc and rtw work relates to walkability, livability and infrastructure futures that are issues in much of urban india, as others have suggested (e.g. sanyal et al., 2010).12 clearly local infrastructural choices whether investing in widening roadways for enhanced automobility; or choosing instead to improve local urban walkability and safety will not only impact current traffic patterns, but also will shape public health and livability for future urban residents. figure 4: an example of transparent chennai's neighbourhood-level mapping and survey analyses to identify local road, traffic and pedestrian safety issues (k.k. nagar neighbourhood, chennai) (image: transparent chennai, 2014). civic networked governance besides the politics of infrastructural choice as identified in tc's report and map-making on the pedestrian and public toilets two key issues can be identified. the first and a recurring issue in urban india has been the obvious gaps between state-sanctioned and funded infrastructure plans, programming and projects and actual citizen or resident needs on the ground (or the street). a second issue, stemming from the chennai experience, is the complex, multiple (or polycentric) agency overlaps and coordination challenges involving infrastructure issues, including the need for addressing tangible, street-level concerns. both the toilet and pedestrian examples from tc's projects and campaigns suggest that local infrastructural contestations need to be traced in relation not only to the critical grounded issues (i.e. the street), but also in relation to the linked programs, plans, human resources and funding, emanating from multiple 'centres of calculation' (i.e. the business or government 'suite'). tc employs icts as a bridge or platform for connecting residents and governments as a basis for advocating for infrastructure and service improvements. collectively tc's approaches link to fundamental issues of accountability, transparency, and civic engagement issues; and in turn to the ever-changing nature of urban governance. the examples noted demonstrate how tcs work has emphasized the importance of locally grounded issues in neighbourhoods. its ict-linked mapping work also illustrates an approach for linking highly localized (and sometimes polarized) issues, needs and concerns to broader city-region issues. this bottom-up approach, we suggest, contrasts significantly with smart cities approaches which posit that high-level technological expertise is most able to provide ready-made solutions to communities. the concluding section discusses these contrasts further. conclusion: smarter citizenship, wiser cities by exploring the concept of 'smart citizenship' our work sought to augment existing community informatics concepts such as work on 'civic intelligence' (schuler 2001); 'smart communities' or 'ict-enabled communities' (gurstein 2014); 'wiser cities' (staffans & horelli 2014); and 'sharing cities' (agymen & mclean 2014) since these support enabling or enhancing collective forms of local knowledge and the wisdom embedded in local communities, movements, associations, organizations and urban neighbourhoods. our research has also sought to emphasize the key contestations underlying the commercially dominated idea of smart cities. for example, in response to our first research question at the beginning of this discussion of distinguishing between commercial and community-based approaches to urban ict praxis we devised a binary model for framing and analyzing smart citizenship. notably, smart citizenship the place-based knowledge and wisdom inherent in communities and neighbourhoods was contrasted with smart cities as a distinct approach in relation to urban governance, civic participation, infrastructure, civic space and urban livability. in response to our second research question about how citizens might 'reassert or reinsert their voices and visions' in ict-linked urban planning and governance, we examined the work of transparent chennai (tc). our research found that the tc exemplar demonstrates a potential for 'smarter' more engaged and transparent governmentality and its approach to community mapping and public advocacy arguably represent one of many possible approaches for addressing threats from the commercialized smart cities agenda. the examples of tc's work also suggests that ict-linked solutions, as illustrated in the context of chennai, ought to tangibly address local social, environmental and economic needs and injustices. tc's approach involves focusing on community-defined infrastructure needs and priorities such as poor access to public toilets or the growing threat from automobility to pedestrian safety and the urban quality of life. figure 5: a generalized smart citizenship civic-cyber engagement process (authors) rather than re-engineering cities and citizens, reprioritize local needs a smart citizenship framework situates citizens, civic organizations and participatory processes as drivers or steering devices for ict-linked applications and praxis. our discussion on smart cities highlights the need for more complex civic-cyber intelligence systems. and this is not only in relation to the perpetual quest for 'better technological solutions' but also for seeking more basic democratic and equitable approaches that are capable of prioritizing local civic knowledge and needs along with addressing political accountability and civic decision-making processes which in turn respect community knowledge and needs. as discussed earlier, we need to reiterate that ict-linked approaches should not be understood as a singular 'silver bullet' solution to complex urban challenges, but rather they may be an element and potentially play a part in reframing urban challenges. as in the tc case this may involve community-mapping and gis projects; as well as using icts as vehicles for eliciting local input from neighbourhoods along with being a bridge for building credibility with local officials and politicos in local government. tc's distinct method of operations involves approaches that work in and with local communities while also addressing political power and governance issues and they involved both face-to-face and virtual modes. this suggests a nominal approach or process that sees the residents as 'smart' rather than simply as digital inputs, tools or platforms (or seeing the ict tools as 'smartest'). in such a smart citizenship process icts are used to augment, complement and support, rather than drive or propel civic engagement processes, potentially at various critical points of civic engagement, as figure 5 suggests. tc also is unique in that it works with both government and residents, something neither traditional civic advocates nor the commercially-driven technology industry does, at least in chennai. while the tc approach indirectly challenges the concept of a smart city, its choice of focusing on local and informal issues also gets to the heart of who is considered a citizen or resident by the state. it is this approach that situates tc as central in the debate about smart cities versus smarter citizenship. finally, we have argued that it remains important to question the headlong rush to implement 'smart' initiatives, plans and programming on the part of elected leaders, urban planners and city administrators. these debates will, in the long run, establish not only who gathers the benefits of public infrastructure policies and expenditures, but also they will shape the very nature of urban citizenship and city governance. if socio-economic stability and urban livability issues are purported to be central values underlying urban governance then steering technological advances to first address local neighbourhood needs rather than those of unelected corporate firms needs to remain central in a smart citizenship agenda. we also rhetorically asked the question earlier 'aren't cities and citizens already smart?' in the hopes of provoking an imaginary of what might constitute smarter citizenship and the appropriate technological (as well as non-technological) responses that might better support and enhance civic life. postscript governments around the world, certainly in india, are being pressured to improve transparency and accountability, and to use ict to improve public administration to be 'smart'. however, governments lack the high quality data that is necessary and citizens, too, lack the capacity to create data they need to advocate for their own needs. and to hold the government accountable for providing basic services. moreover, because laws and programs dealing with the urban poor often ignore the informal, these communities fall into a legal grey area, one in which residents are unaware of their rights and entitlements, and governments are able to simply ignore their existence, or worse, to exercise force over them with impunity. as a result, interactions between the local government (elected representatives or local bureaucrats) and residents have remained individualized and transactional, dependent on bribes and "influence" rather than on entitlements backed by clear procedures for access. this gap in information is particularly important to address now because there has been a push towards using ict to be data driven in their governance in many indian cities, one that is being influenced by the technology industry. without advances in data collection methods and participatory processes that enable both governments and residents to create credible information about informal populations, cities risk excluding these residents from their planning entirely. such risks are present not just in indian cities, but in cities with large informal populations all over the world. in response to this context, a core group of researchers from transparent chennai propose the establishment of the transparent cities network (tcn), an organization that will be able to respond to demands for data and research that can improve both advocacy and decision-making on issues facing the urban poor, particularly in situations of high informality. the group's vision for the transparent cities network is to create cities that are responsive to the needs of the poorest through the use of maps, data, and information technology. according to its founding members, "tcn will be an organization that will be able to respond to demands for data and research that can improve both advocacy and decision-making on issues facing the urban poor, particularly in situations of high informality. the tcn will: (1) be a laboratory for data collection tools and methodologies for citizen engagement that can address information gaps on issues facing the urban poor; (2) act as a support organization for civil society organizations and government entities that want to improve their ability to use data, mapping, and participation to increase access to basic services and tenure security for city residents; and (3) establish a network of practitioners and advocates who share practical, context-specific, and effective strategies to create more transparent and inclusive cities. the activities of the tcn are designed to allow us to foster a shared understanding of one important problem facing planners and advocates trying to improve conditions for the urban poor, namely the lack of information for planning and accountability. they also allow us to develop tools for planning, participation, and data collection to address these data gaps, and to build awareness among and advise government and civil society organizations about their use and effectiveness. essentially, our goal is to begin articulating a new form of planning practice for indian cities, one which responds to the local context of high levels of poverty and informality. these activities also include work in the city of chennai, but rather than looking at this intervention as the sole focus of our work, we have recast it as a laboratory for effective interventions, from which information and communication technology tools, methods, and strategies can be distilled for use in other contexts. as such, much of our resources will go towards not just towards the interventions themselves, but also towards refining methods (including producing teaching materials), evaluating the effectiveness of these methods, documenting processes, and sharing lessons. in the future, interventions could expand to other cities, either by setting up projects executed in partnership with local organizations or by setting up other offices of the tcn locally." acknowledgements the authors would like to thank professor madhav badami for organizing the shastri indo-canadian institute symposium at the madras institute of development studies (chennai, april 2014) that resulted in our research collaboration. we also would also like to thank our respective host organizations: the centre for engineering in society (concordia university, montréal) and transparent chennai (chennai, india). endnotes 1 for analyses of the urban design and spatio-political aspects of the 'cittàslow' (slow cities) movement, see: knox (2005) and miele (2008). 2 the population figure for chennai, the fourth largest metro in india, is drawn from the census organization of india (2011) (available at: http://www.census2011.co.in/city.php. last accessed 23 november 2014). 3 along with its investment the flagship role model smart city project at songdo, korea, cisco systems has also invested funds into four 'global innovation hubs' that are intended to serve as centres for 'thought leadership and experiment [that] will bring together start-ups, technology and service partners, academia and customers to rethink and transform the status-quo' (grant, 2014). 4 our methods employ presentations notes and slides from the april 2014 shastri-indo canadian institute symposium (held at the madras institute of development studies, chennai); a review of smart cities, civic engagement and community informatics literatures; and we draw upon one of the author's digital archives of chennai and smart cities-related media stories. we also cite (publicly accessible) reports on sanitation / toilets, pedestrian issues and urban governance available on the transparent chennai website (www.transparentchennai.com). 5 between 2010-2014, tc received funding and technical support from various groups, including: google foundation, ford foundation, the asia foundation, shakti foundation, rockefeller foundation (forum for the future), transparency and accountability initiative, international development research centre; and world wide web foundation. 6 in february 2014 tc signed a two-year memorandum of understanding with the corporation of chennai (coc) to create the first city-level data portal in india. the focus of this collaboration is to develop in-house capacities for comprehensive data management, including collection, storage, publishing, analysis and data use; and these approaches will employ a variety of ict and non-ict tools and methodologies 'to leverage the latent knowledge held by city engineers and officials.' 7transparent chennai's (2011) work in this instance involved collecting number and location data for public toilets in the city from municipal government and zonal / borough offices; and it also included separate right to information (rti) requests and distinct interviews each of the 10 zonal offices. tc focused on toilets in a single city zone and identified basic quality parameters including: 'presence of lights, water, electricity, structural integrity, cleanliness, [etc.]' and tc undertook 'interviews with users and the caretaker at each toilet' (ibid.). in addition, 'each toilet location was geo-referenced using gps units, and close-up photographs of the amenities inside each toilet were taken' (ibid.). 8for example, data accessed by tc from the tamil nadu slum clearance board revealed that access to toilet conditions was far worse in 'undeclared slums' in chennai where against the norm of 1 toilet seat per 60 persons in other areas of the city, the reality was 1 toilet seat per 1,056 persons in undeclared slums. 9tc's 'toilet' map layer function is available at: http://www.transparentchennai.com/buildamap/. 10in 2007, according to the rtw campaigners, 28% of the trips in major cities were made by walking and 45% of india's 246 million households owned bicycles (although the proportion of 'in city' bike trips reduced from 33% in 1994 to 11% in 2007) (srivathshan, 2013b). similar data were noted in a wwf report (sanyal et al., 2010, 8) which identified in a 2008 study cities of over 8 million that 22% employed walking trips, 8% bicycle trips; and 44% public transportation trips. the 74% non-auto users (walking, bike and transport trips), it was suggested, would also rely on walking as a 'last mile option' during at final part of their journeys (ibid). 11 for example, one of the rtw campaign reports noted that: 'the walkability index for indian cities, a parameter that measures the availability of pavements and facilities, is as low as 0.5 (an index value of 1 indicates a good network). in comparison, cities such as london have a high index value of 1.7' (ministry of urban development [2008] as reported in srivathshan (2013b). 12 for example a 2010 study commissioned by wwf india (sanyal et al., 2010) highlighted the importance of 'walkability' as a central urban design paradigm (along with density and public transport). the study found that transportation (and infrastructural) choices would shape future indian urban morphologies (forms and densities) in tandem with energy, carbon, water and waste footprints. notably the report's authors suggest that: 'walking is a form of transportation that is entirely neglected by urban planners in india even though a majority of indian city-dwellers walk all or part of their journeys' (ibid., 8). references ananthakrishnan, g.(2013a, july 1) right to walk. traffic is a tightrope for chennai pedestrians. the hindu. available at: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/traffic-is-a-tightrope-for-chennai-pedestrians/article4866413.ece?ref=relatednews. ananthakrishnan, g.(2013b, july 2) right to walk. on chennai roads be all eyes and ears. the hindu. available at: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/on-chennai-roads-be-all-eyes-and-ears/article4870414.ece?homepage=true. ananthakrishnan, g. 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(2013, july 1) my chennai, my right. the hindu. available at: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/my-chennai-my-right/article4866753.ece?ref=relatednews. 4720-article text-22296-2-6-20211130 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 46 articles planning to maintain the status quo? a comparative study of digital equity plans of four large us cities caroline stratton assistant professor, school of information, florida state university, usa cstratton2@fsu.edu the term digital equity is at the forefront of municipal government planning to mitigate digital inequality. digital equity signifies a desired future to be achieved, yet its meaning is not well-established. as such, planning for digital equity offers an opportunity for new discursive construction. this study examines how municipal governments have constructed the concept of digital equity through textual evidence, the digital equity plans of kansas city, mo, portland, or, san francisco, ca, and seattle, wa. adopting an approach from critical discourse studies, comparative analysis of the texts demonstrates how digital equity plans conceive of digital equity, characterize current problematic circumstances, and prescribe actions to make change. the plans have strikingly little to say about why digital inequality has emerged; however, they prescribe actions that indicate a more complex understanding of the problem than they articulate. the dynamics of policy diffusion suggest that the work of early adopters will influence other municipalities to create similar plans, so the current moment is ripe for scholars to influence municipal planning for digital equity and participate in its discursive construction in both academic research and policymaking circles. this study offers two recommendations for planners to consider interventions that directly address the barrier of cost of consistent access to devices and internet service and to incorporate digital equity as a cross-cutting theme in other areas of municipal planning. introduction the current covid-19 crisis has rejuvenated interest in public policy to expand access to and use of information and communication technologies (icts), yet the federal the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 47 government in the united states has taken little action to address digital inequality in the last half-decade. in the absence of higher level government action, municipal governments have made strides in assessing digital inequality locally and planning to mitigate it. municipal government plans have diverse origins: some efforts are longstanding and represent decades of coordination between community technology advocates and government, while others are newer and more closely tied to cities’ pursuit of private sector investment in next generation telecommunications infrastructure. at the forefront of municipal planning to mitigate digital inequality is the term digital equity. the national digital inclusion alliance (ndia), a group promoting policymaking and interventions for digital inclusion, defines digital equity as “a condition in which all individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in our society, democracy and economy” (ndia, n.d.). the emergence of the term digital equity in municipal planning is interesting for at least two reasons. first, it signifies a desired future to be achieved. it represents a discursive departure from the evolving problem of the digital divide or the process of digital inclusion. second, its meaning is not well-established. there is a paucity of scholarly or practitioner writing that conceptualizes or otherwise theorizes digital equity, with the exception of a stream of work in the field of education. definitions offered by advocates such as ndia are not necessarily conclusive, nor are they unambiguous. as such, planning for digital equity offers an opportunity for new discursive construction. this study examines how municipal governments have constructed the concept of digital equity through textual evidence, the digital equity plans of kansas city, mo, portland, or, san francisco, ca, and seattle, wa. adopting an approach from critical discourse studies, comparative analysis of the texts demonstrates how digital equity plans conceive of digital equity, characterize current problematic circumstances, and prescribe actions to make change. despite the opportunities that discursive construction of digital equity offers for newly interpreting the relationship between inequality and technology, the four plans examined herein demonstrate few departures from earlier approaches to addressing digital inequality. the plans have strikingly little to say about why digital inequality has emerged; however, they prescribe actions that indicate a more complex understanding of the problem than they articulate. even so, the concept of digital equity may be generative for scholarship about digital inequality. it offers a new site for theoretical and practical intervention. where scholars may be reluctant to continue engaging with the digital divide as a meaningful concept for discussion and intervention, digital equity offers new possibilities for empirical study, theorizing, and shaping action in the world. the current moment is ripe for scholars to influence municipal planning for digital equity and participate in its discursive construction in both academic research and policymaking circles. to situate the study, the following section reviews the evolution of municipal government planning to address digital inequality and details what the discursive construction of digital equity might offer. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 48 literature review the origins of municipal government planning to address digital inequality the earliest municipal government responses to digital inequality emerged in relation to the community technology movement. this movement has sought to create social benefits and serve community needs through access to and use of computers and digital networks for more than three decades (beamish, 1999; morino, 1994; servon 2002). servon and nelson (2002) characterize the movement’s original concern as extending access to information to all. concern about technology’s role to exacerbate or mitigate “further isolation and impoverishment” (servon & nelson, 2001, p. 420) of marginalized communities came later. the strategies for change favored by the movement included establishing and operating sites for public access to computers and the internet and training community members in skills to use these technologies, and to a lesser extent, facilitating community production of digital content. notably, the movement rarely pursued strategies to provide computers to individuals or extend internet service into private homes (beamish, 1999). scholars have characterized the community technology movement as grassroots, emerging from local needs and seeking local solutions, in the absence of large-scale public or private sector programs to correct disparities (servon & nelson, 2001; servon & pinkett, 2004). the nature of government’s engagement with the community technology movement has varied across municipalities. some governments established public access sites themselves, while others offered financial and institutional support for other organizations’ interventions (horrigan, 2001; horrigan & wilson, 2002; servon & nelson, 2001). municipal governments were among the recipients of federal funding for community technology interventions through the national telecommunication & information administration’s technology opportunities program (top) (borgstrom et al., 2005; horrigan, 2001). some also provided in-kind support for other organizations to receive top funding, which required a financial match for applicants (horrigan & wilson, 2002). demonstrating a strong role for municipal government, seattle, wa established a community technology program and hired a dedicated community technology planner to address digital inequality in the mid-1990s (servon & nelson, 2001). multiple rationales motivated municipal governments’ earliest efforts to address digital inequality. in addition to a social rationale to provide all residents with access to new technologies, governments also saw potential benefits for local economies (servon & nelson, 2001). cities seeking economic growth through stimulation of the tech industry would need a workforce skilled in the use of computers (tufekci, 2012). with appropriate training, the urban poor would be able to join the technology workforce and realize new economic opportunity (sanyal & schön, 1999). scholars in community planning touted these social and economic rationales (schön, 1999), recommending that local government create wide-ranging benefits for residents through planning. support and guidance for municipal planning actors from the private sector would also call on municipal governments to address digital inequality, strongly emphasizing the economic rationale for doing so (wiig, 2016; wynne & cooper, 2007). microsoft’s office of economic development and innovation the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 49 issued a 2007 white paper to encourage municipal governments to develop a digital inclusion strategy “as a powerful means to achieve meaningful success for those who, for whatever reason, have been left out” (wynne & cooper, 2007, p. 2) and to gain economic competitive advantage. the white paper offers recommendations for municipal government strategy, including identification of the actors that should be included in developing and implementing the strategy, technology and financial sector leaders among them. private sector guidance has proved influential. wiig (2016) demonstrated how ibm effectively transferred its policy recommendations for digital inclusion to the municipal government of philadelphia, pa. ibm representatives promoted philadelphia’s emergence as a so-called smart city in conjunction with a program to train 500,000 marginalized residents in the use of new technologies. attracting next-generation telecommunications infrastructure has also motivated municipal planning. for example, charlotte, nc developed a plan for digital inclusion coincident with google fiber’s announcement that it would build a fiber optic network in the city (schools, health and libraries broadband coalition, 2016). in addition, civil society and public sector organizations have provided guidance for planning. entities such as the federal reserve bank of kansas city, the u.s. institute of museum and library services (imls), and ndia have published similar and often overlapping frameworks for how government should plan, implement, and evaluate processes of digital inclusion (federal reserve bank of kansas city, 2019; imls, university of washington, international city/county management association, 2012; ndia, 2019). to achieve digital inclusion, municipal government and other collaborators need to gather stakeholders, develop a plan attuned to local circumstances, and implement the plan (imls, university of washington, international city/county management association, 2012). plans should prioritize the “three-legged stool” (federal reserve bank of kansas city, 2019, p. 4) of access to broadband internet service, access to computers, and digital skills. ndia adds technical support and “empowering content and applications” to the three priority items in its guidance (2019). the framework from imls proposes a set of principles for plans to expand access, inform and train the public to encourage adoption of computers and internet, and support specific applications of technology for economic development, education, healthcare, public safety, and civic and social life (imls, university of washington, international city/county management association, 2012). limitations of prevailing guidance the prevailing guidance about how municipal planning can address digital inequality obscures two key points. first, the prescriptions that advocates currently recommend have not changed substantially from the earliest strategies employed by the community technology movement, but the contours of digital inequality have changed. the diffusion of computers and internet service has not erased differences in users’ skills and outcomes of technology use (dimaggio & hargittai, 2001) and the barrier of affordability has persisted (strover, 2014). research about the specific hardware, software, and internet connections that users have access to (napoli & obar, 2014; van deursen & van dijk, 2019) and the consistency of users’ access, both public and private (gonzales, 2016), suggests that strategies to reduce digital inequality must consider access with far greater nuance than a binary have/have not conception. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 50 second, trenchant critiques have indicated the limitations and even the risks of recommended strategies. the notion that all users can and will engage in desirable, capital-enhancing uses of technology if provided access and equipped with adequate skills runs counter to research about digital inequality (van deursen et al., 2015; zillien & hargittai, 2009). kvasny’s (2006) study of a community technology initiative illustrated how prescribing expanded public access to icts and training may reproduce digital and other forms of inequality. she analyzed an initiative operating with the rationale that training underserved communities to use icts would improve their economic opportunities. she found that a mismatch in the skills that participants acquired and the structure of the labor market made their advancement unlikely. uncredentialed (or informally credentialed) training from a community technology center did little to facilitate participants’ entry into better paying jobs requiring ict skills. her study suggested that governments would need to coordinate with employers to effectively train and place participants for economic advancement but that advancement was unlikely to materialize without also attending to inequitable health, housing, education, and public safety systems that shaped participants’ lives and livelihoods. the work of eubanks (2007, 2012) has highlighted that distributing material and informational resources, like access and training, to the deprived is unlikely to bring about desired outcomes of individual and community thriving. she characterized a distributive paradigm that “fails to bring social structure and institutional contexts . . . under evaluation” (2007, p. 4). without examining the structure of the information economy and its relation to inequality, distributive interventions cannot transform the problem of digital inequality, nor can they create nonmaterial social goods such as empowerment and opportunity for marginalized people that are established relationally among social groups and institutions. the companies that design and provide technological products and services and the governments that regulate them figure into digital inequality (dimaggio & hargittai, 2001; dimaggio et al., 2004), but prevailing guidance largely ignores their roles in shaping the problem. recommended strategies may also present risks for people they aim to help. gangadharan (2012, 2017) has pointed to the potential harms that participants in digital inclusion trainings face related to privacy and surveillance. marginalized participants may be exposed to new and heightened forms of exploitation as they use the internet. gangadharan (2017) observed that participants received little support within digital inclusion trainings to evaluate and address privacy risks and that federal policy has done little to reduce the vulnerability that new internet users may experience. the discursive construction of digital equity through planning recently, digital equity has surfaced as a watchword for government efforts to address digital inequality. municipal governments have initiated plans for digital equity (rhinesmith, 2016) and the federal government’s use of the term also signals its growing political cachet. two bills introduced in the 116th united states congress foregrounded digital equity and defined it as “the condition in which individuals and communities have the information technology capacity that is needed for full participation in the society and economy of the united states” (digital equity act of 2019, 2019; accessible, affordable internet for all act, 2020). ndia employs a similar definition for the term, adding participation in democracy to the final clause (ndia, n.d.). such a definition is indeterminate. it rests on two ambiguous components, information technology capacity the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 51 and full participation in society, the economy, and democracy. what digital equity means, conceptually and practically, and how to achieve it is not well-established. additionally, scholarly inquiry has done little to conceptualize or otherwise theorize digital equity, with the exception of a stream of work in the field of education. scholars interested in government responses to digital inequality have employed the term digital equity (eubanks, 2007; stratton et al., 2020; strover, 2019), but their work has not pursued conceptualization. farther afield, education scholars have done more to theorize the term (gorski, 2003, 2009; resta, 2020; resta & lafierre, 2008), though their work is not a likely touchstone for municipal planning. it does, however, speak to its potential as a discursive construction. gorski (2003) made a case for a digital equity movement with a social justice orientation that seeks to dismantle institutionalized privileges of racism, sexism, classism, english-language bias, and ableism that feature in digital inequality. through planning, municipal governments and other stakeholders are actively constructing the concept of digital equity and notions about how to achieve it. planning is a way of knowing, a practice that allows leaders to determine what to do about a problematic situation (bryson et al., 2009; bryson, 2018). the process of planning produces official texts for governments to follow and for the public record (turner, 2001). the implementation and evaluation of plans as written certainly cannot be taken for granted (poister & streib, 2005), but even those plans not acted on as intended contribute to discourse and have material consequences through the language they use to describe problems and proposed solutions (laws, 1994). planning for digital equity offers an opportunity to understand and address digital inequality in new ways. it is an ideal condition to be envisioned and achieved. the conditions producing inequity may be described more expansively than individual deficits, just as the processes to facilitate digital equity may go beyond the distributive paradigm. noting this opportunity, this study poses two research questions to interrogate the discursive construction of digital equity in municipal planning. rq1: how do municipal plans conceive of digital equity? rq2: to what extent does planning for digital equity permit new understandings of digital inequality and new strategies to address it? methods selection of plans this study examines the texts of four municipal digital equity plans. the plans of kansas city, mo, portland, or, san francisco, ca, and seattle, wa were selected for study because they describe specific courses of action to bring about digital equity and use the term in their titles (e.g., digital equity action plan) and throughout their texts. as this study attends to the construction of a discourse about digital equity, municipal plans organized around and titled with other terms, such as digital inclusion, were excluded from selection. the publicly available plan documents were located on the websites of municipalities. the four selected plans were published within the last five years (portland and seattle in 2016, kansas city in 2017, and san francisco in 2019) and represent the stated intentions of municipal government to address digital inequality. annex 1 provides additional detail about the plan documents. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 52 characteristics of the four municipalities that convey the context for planning are summarized in table 1. the four municipalities vary in population size and the share of residents who may experience digital inequality (the presence of a household broadband internet subscription offers a coarse proxy measure for the phenomenon). they have in common strong technology sectors that saw the highest rates of change in their national shares of tech jobs between 2015 and 2017, during a period in which these jobs became more concentrated in specific geographical areas (muro & whiton, 2018). across municipalities, the financial resources, organization, and planning history available within government to address digital inequality differ substantially. the governments of portland and seattle feature dedicated organizational units and funding for community technology; san francisco and seattle have relatively longer histories of planning to address digital inequality. table 1: characteristics of municipalities kansas city portland san francisco seattle population (2019 estimate) 495,327 654,741 881,549 753,675 households with a broadband internet subscription (2015-2019 multi-year estimate) 81.3% 88.3% 87.6% 90.4% metropolitan area’s national share of digital services jobs (2017) (muro & whiton, 2018) 1.1% 0.9% 5.7% 4.3% annual municipal government operating budget (fy 2021) $1.77 b $5.60 b $13.7 b $6.64 b municipal government unit responsible for digital equity, (fy 20-21 approved budget allocation) city manager’s office (no direct budget allocation available) office for community technology ($1.23 m for broadband & digital inclusion) mayor’s office of housing and community development, committee on information technology, city administrator’s office (no direct budget allocation available) community technology program within department of information technology ($1.9 m for community technology & broadband) related government planning history plan adopted in 2017, activities began around plan adopted in 2016, digital equity focus first plan adopted in 2019, earlier digital inclusion plan adopted in 2016, study phase the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 53 2010 when city pursued google fiber service documented in 2010-2011 communications tech initiative and broadband initiative strategy published in 2007 conducted in 2015, government activity dates to 1996 sources: american community survey, municipal budget websites analytical approach and process this study adopts an approach from critical discourse studies that takes discourse to be socially shaped and socially constitutive (fairclough & wodak, 1997; wodak & meyer, 2015). discourse is constructed and circulated by social actors in relation to each other, structures, and institutions; the discourse they construct and circulate in turn shapes relationships, structures, and institutions. a critical discourse studies approach considers discourse to be “mostly intentional, controlled, purposeful human activity” (van dijk, 1997, p. 8). the talk and text comprising discourse are produced in social situations, so their interpretation should consider contextual features, such as who participated, and how production occurred. a critical discourse studies approach also entails a commitment to understanding and addressing inequality (van dijk, 1993). discursive acts may produce and reify relations of dominance and inequality, just as they may transform such relations. the texts under study here are ostensibly blueprints for transforming relations of inequality. accordingly, this analysis examines how the texts construe inequality and propose its mitigation. municipal digital equity plans are socially consequential in three respects. first, plans inscribe local interpretations of the concept of digital equity for further use. inscribed interpretations contribute to a discourse about digital equity, proposing how others ought to interpret the concept or providing a point of origin for alternative interpretations. second, plans prescribe courses of action to create social change. they present argumentation to support their prescriptions, to the exclusion of other possible prescriptions. the justification for a particular prescription rests on description of the desired goal state and the current problematic circumstances, as well as how the prescription will move from the current problematic circumstances towards the goal state (fairclough & fairclough, 2012; kennedy, 2016). argumentation calls for action in the social world, such as behavior change, resource allocation, or policy creation. third, plans allow for policy diffusion, the spread of common interpretations and prescriptions across governments through mechanisms such as imitation, learning, and competition (shipan & volden, 2008). plans may be replicated and modified by other actors in other communities. in sum, municipal digital equity plans are partially constitutive of a discourse about digital equity and they shape local action in the social world, with potential for broader effect beyond their original contexts. the analytical process entailed iterative close reading of the plans to consider their contributions to a discourse about digital equity, their argumentation, and the contexts of their production. the comparative analysis prioritized four items: (1) plans’ proposed conceptions of digital equity – the desired goal state, (2) plans’ descriptions of the inequitable status quo – the current problematic circumstances, (3) plans’ prescribed courses of action for pursuing digital equity – the claims about how to make change, and (4) evidence about their authorship. the first item corresponds closely to rq1, while the second and third items speak to rq2. the fourth item contributes to a contextuallythe journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 54 situated interpretation of the findings. the following section lays out the findings about these four items, comparing similarities and differences across plans. findings conceiving of digital equity across the four municipal plans, a proposed conception of digital equity appears most directly in two textual elements, statements defining digital equity and statements of a vision for digital equity. two plans (portland and seattle) include both elements. the other two plans offer one element, definition (kansas city) or vision (san francisco), as evidence of discursive construction. the difference between a definition of digital equity and a vision of digital equity in these texts lies in scope and specificity. a definition of digital equity is an ideal condition to be achieved. a vision of digital equity specifies how the condition should be achieved for a particular place and people. portland’s definition of digital equity comprises the ideal condition of uniform access to and availability of resources: internet, hardware, software, content, services, and skills training. its vision of digital equity finds this condition achieved locally so that all residents “will have barrier-free access to high-speed broadband internet at home and school, an affordable computing device and the training to use them effectively” (city of portland, 2016, p. 3). seattle’s plan takes a similar tack, defining digital equity as information technology capacity needed for particular activities: civic and cultural participation, work, education, and access to services. the vision depicts the condition achieved locally and particularly among disadvantaged residents, seeking that “technology’s opportunities equitably empower all residents and communities – especially those who are historically underserved or underrepresented” (city of seattle, 2016, p. 8). further reflecting the distinction between defining and envisioning digital equity, kansas city’s definition of digital equity is an ideal condition, a restatement of the ndia definition appended with the mention of “digital access to essential services, civic and cultural participation, lifelong learning, employment, entrepreneurship, and economic mobility” (city of kansas city, 2017, p. 5). it lacks explicit statement of how the ideal condition would be achieved at the local level. in contrast, san francisco’s vision of digital equity foregrounds achievement of “full and equitable access to digital technology and its benefits so all san francisco residents and communities can thrive” (city of san francisco, 2019, p. 5). the preceding definitions and visions of digital equity convey that equity is about the distribution of resources and capabilities to use those resources to particular groups. seattle’s vision of digital equity distinguishes equity from equality, stipulating that equity is about “fairness” for members of historically underrepresented communities, so that they may “achieve their personal goals and contribute to society” (city of seattle, 2016, p. 6). equality, alternatively, would entail the uniform distribution of identical resources and services to everyone. san francisco’s plan also attends to this difference to justify its approach. those “in need of the most support to be fully connected” (city of san francisco, 2019, p. 10) will be prioritized. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 55 describing the inequitable status quo pursuing the desired goal state of digital equity implies that it has not been achieved thus far. the status quo is inequitable in some way, thereby motivating and legitimating the plan to effect change. the four plans describe current problematic circumstances: they name a problem, identify who experiences it, and present evidence about it. all four plans use the term barriers to signify the conditions that individuals experiencing the problem cannot easily overcome without intervention. three plans include evidence about other features of the problem that are not individual barriers. table 2 summarizes the plans’ descriptions of the current problematic circumstances, organized to facilitate comparison across plans and generally replicate the language (including order of appearance) that they employ. table 2: plans’ descriptions of current problematic circumstances kansas city portland san francisco seattle name of the problem digital divide digital exclusion, digital divide digital divide digital gap, digital equity gap, digital divide who experiences it? lower income residents, residents living in particular neighborhoods in the city lower income residents, older adults, communities of color, people with disabilities, and residents with limited english proficiency lower income residents, residents with limited english proficiency, seniors, residents with disabilities immigrants and refugees, lower income residents, historically underserved and underrepresented communities barriers of individuals experiencing the problem cost, lack of devices, lack of awareness of public access points, lack of transportation to spatially dispersed public access points cost, lack of devices and training, scarcity of culturallyspecific training affordability of devices and connectivity: upfront and maintenance costs; barriers to training: unreliable access, challenge of learning, limited english proficiency, competing demands on time lack of devices, limitations of old devices, lack of transportation to public access points, lack of affordable internet service (at home and mobile), challenge of learning, challenge of finding appropriate training, youth have false sense of confidence in their digital skills other features of the problem low median income, high levels of poverty and unemployment, city has large -communitybased organizations lack digital equity services that are sustainable over organizational barriers: lack of adequate devices for community programs, lack of funding and volunteer support the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 56 kansas city portland san francisco seattle geographic footprint time and central to organizational mission for infrastructure, cost of internet, high staff turnover due to inadequate funding, lack of shared curriculum across organizations structural barriers: inadequate device recycling system, inadequate internet in lowincome housing and public spaces, limited information about low-cost internet service, lack of single source for information about training and advancement all four plans use the term digital divide to name the problem, though the plans of portland and seattle use additional terms throughout their texts when referring to the problem. portland’s plan points to the cost of digital exclusion, which endangers “full participation in nearly every aspect of american society – from economic success and educational achievement, to positive health outcomes and civic engagement” (city of portland, 2016, p. 4). seattle’s plan responds to a problem named variously as the digital gap, the digital equity gap, and the digital divide throughout its text. those residents experiencing the problem cannot “participate fully in our high-tech economy and community” (city of seattle, 2016, p. 1). the two plans that refer only to the digital divide as the name of the problem (kansas city and san francisco) point to differences between residents who have the resources of access to devices and internet and the skills to use them and those who do not. san francisco’s description of the digital divide attends to two components: disparities in home internet and computing device access and disparities in digital literacy skills among residents. kansas city’s plan echoes the same disparities and adds that the digital divide also emerges in “misunderstandings of privacy and the relevance of the internet” (city of kansas city, 2017, p. 5). in other words, the digitally divided may also be mistaken about how and why they should use computing devices and the internet. identification of who experiences the problem is similar across plans. lower income residents figure in all four documents. people with limited english proficiency are mentioned in the plans of portland and san francisco; this demographic may overlap with the immigrants and refugees invoked in seattle’s plan. other members of marginalized communities, such as people with disabilities and people of color, as well as those belonging to the catchall demographic of “historically underserved and underrepresented the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 57 groups” (city of seattle, 2016, p. 1) find themselves afflicted by the problem to a greater extent than residents who are not members of these communities. tautologically, all four plans note that a lack of access to devices and internet, accompanied by a lack of training to use them, are individual barriers to overcoming the problem. the unaffordable cost of devices and internet service figures explicitly in three plans (portland, kansas city, san francisco). afflicted individuals may also not know about options for public access in their communities (kansas city) or have adequate transportation to reach such places (kansas city, seattle). youth may not realize their technology skills are inadequate because of a false sense of confidence (seattle), while individuals who do manage to access training encounter challenges to learning, including the difficulty of mastering new skills (san francisco, seattle). evidence about other features of the problem is less consistent across plans than evidence about individuals. kansas city’s plan points to indicators of the local economy that do not favor individuals’ chances to overcome problematic circumstances. it also speaks to the problem’s geospatial nature. the city’s large geographical area, combined with residents’ lack of personal transportation to reach dispersed public access points limits access to and use of technologies in those places. san francisco’s plan notes financial and organizational challenges of community-based organizations that attempt to pursue digital equity. seattle’s plan identifies organizational and structural barriers to achieving digital equity. organizational barriers are similar to those noted in san francisco’s plan, related to the internal operations of community-based organizations. so-named structural barriers refer to the external-facing challenges of those organizations, where a lack of infrastructure, coordination, and central sources of information hampers success. prescribing a course of action towards digital equity a course of action towards digital equity should proceed from the current problematic circumstances towards the desired goal state. the four plans prescribe a variety of actions to this end, outlined and categorized in annex 2. three categories of actions, those to expand access to internet and computing devices and provide training, respond most directly to plans’ conceptions of digital equity and their characterizations of the current problematic circumstances. actions to expand access to internet include those that expand availability of free wi-fi access (in public places and through loaning out mobile hotspots) and wired broadband access (in affordable housing and through commercial isps). the plans of portland and san francisco make mention of incentives to encourage isps to expand low-cost options for residential service. san francisco’s plan specifically mentions “greater use of city assets like fiber optic facilities” and partnering with companies that utilize “emerging wireless technologies” (p. 23) so that isps will extend infrastructure and service at a lower cost to residents unable to afford service at present. three plans prescribe an action to expand access to computing devices through a recycling system. devices past their useful lives within government and other organizations can be provided to residents in need through a recycling system. seattle’s plan includes a unique action to pilot a subsidy for device purchase, a “scholarship, voucher, or financing option to obtain laptops or desktops for low-income residents who want to buy devices, or for those who complete a foundational skills training program the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 58 through a qualified partner (city of seattle, 2017, p. 19). this is the only action prescribed across the plans to directly increase personal ownership of new computing devices. actions to offer new and expanded training to residents are few, likely because community-based organizations take on these efforts to a greater extent than municipal governments do. thus, portland’s prescribed action to develop culturally-relevant training curricula may rely on other organizations to implement the curricula and offer the training to the public. seattle’s plan includes training for two specific groups, families with children in title i schools (institutions with at least 40% of students from lowincome households) and workers in small businesses owned by minorities and women. actions to compile information about and promote community use of options for access and training, such as creating inventories of internet service, training, and tech support options, imply an aspect of the problem mostly unarticulated in plans – a lack of awareness about existing resources. kansas city’s plan notes the lack of awareness of public access points in its characterization of the problem of the digital divide, but the other plans are silent about the underutilization of resources related to a lack of public awareness. alternatively, actions to compile information for use by government and community-based organizations, such as creating inventories of government programs related to digital equity and gathering data about connectivity in affordable housing, suggest another type of information gap: organizational understanding of the status quo is incomplete and/or it requires ongoing data gathering to capture change. two plans, those of portland and seattle, include actions to develop the pipeline of residents into high-tech jobs. actions in portland’s plan point to support of programs (presumably already existing in the community) that prepare and place underrepresented residents in jobs in the technology economy and that support learning in k-12 education. alternatively, seattle’s plan calls for stem and coding education for out-of-school youth and adults. these actions are notable for their divergence from other categories of action and for their loose linkage to the problems presented in the plans. although the plans of portland and seattle reference how the current problematic circumstances may impede economic participation, they do little otherwise to motivate this category of action. capacity-building of community-based organizations includes actions to improve communication, funding availability, and coordination across organizations that pursue digital equity in their programs. two plans (san francisco and seattle) include organizational challenges in characterizing the problem. nonetheless, all four plans prescribe actions, indicating that such challenges are pervasive. each plan prescribes at least one action to fund community-based organizations’ efforts. kansas city’s plan identifies a specific public source of funding through fees for builders of 5g telecommunications infrastructure. actions prescribing new formal policies or changes to formal policies are limited. seattle’s plan identifies the potential to revise building codes for multi-dwelling units to support broadband internet infrastructure. the prescription of additional government planning dominates kansas city’s listed recommendations for action, deeming the city manager responsible for developing six new thematic roadmaps related to digital equity. a final category of actions includes those that do not fit easily within other groupings. they include to-be-determined actions, such as pilot projects and community challenges. seattle’s plan includes two additional activities that are supportive of device use (tech the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 59 support, charging stations) but do not seek to directly effect change in access to computing devices. authorship and participation the texts of the plans offer official descriptions of who participated in plan construction and in what ways. three of four plans are authored by municipal government, as described in visual and textual elements. the plans of kansas city, san francisco, and seattle are inscribed with the seals of those municipalities and each begins with a letter from the mayor about the plan. the letters offer official legitimation of the text of the plan and express executive endorsement for the courses of action prescribed within. in contrast, portland’s plan is authored by the digital inclusion network, a group of organizations within and outside of the public sector. it bears the seals and logos of the city of portland, multnomah county, the city of portland’s office of community technology, and the multnomah county library. these entities are also credited with funding and leading the collaborative development of the plan. descriptions of the participation of organizations appear in varying levels of detail. portland’s plan identifies 48 organizations participating in workshops to develop the plan, convened by an outside consulting firm. the list of participants includes private sector telecoms (comcast and google fiber), educational institutions, government offices, and non-profits. seattle’s planning process included interviews with 17 representatives of community-based organizations (not identified in the plan) about their programs, practices, and barriers. san francisco’s plan reports that authors met with leaders of city agencies, community-based organizations, tech companies, and telecoms to gather perspectives. the plan acknowledges engagement with 53 community-based organizations, 13 private companies (comcast, at&t, google, microsoft, and twitter among them), 15 local government entities, and 12 non-local government entities. kansas city’s plan simply notes that it includes input from a local coalition for digital equity. consultation with the public, including individuals afflicted by the problem, is also documented in plan texts. portland utilized an outside consulting firm to convene five focus groups for vietnamese speakers, chinese speakers, spanish speakers, people who are deaf and/or hard of hearing, and african-americans. planners in seattle held four community discussions that drew 39 individuals from unnamed “community-based and business organizations” (city of seattle, 2017, p. 10). san francisco’s plan cites public engagement with more than 400 residents belonging to demographic groups of interest through focus groups and individual interviews. notably, the authors solicited feedback on a draft plan from residents. kansas city’s plan reports five community engagement meetings at community centers and libraries, as well as public comment solicited and submitted online. discussion discursive construction of digital equity the discursive construction of digital equity emerges in multiple textual elements of the plans. in general, the plans propose that when the goal state of digital equity is achieved, all residents will have access to computers and internet (public and/or private) and the skills to use them. this goal state, ideally, leads to particular beneficial uses of icts (e.g., the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 60 for economic activity and civic participation), that in turn lead to positive outcomes of individual and community thriving. digital equity fits neatly within the distributive paradigm (eubanks, 2017, 2012), as plans allege that the problem is primarily one of individual deficit, so it may be corrected through material and informational resource distribution. additionally, the plans claim, relational social goods such as empowerment should follow from resource distribution. the vision of digital equity in san francisco’s plan exemplifies the claim: digital equity entails full access to technology and its benefits, but the process by which benefits develop and accrue to users is left unexplored. the plans of san francisco and seattle employ the caveat that equity is about prioritizing groups with high need, such as those who have been historically underserved and underrepresented (presumably by and within municipal government itself). prescribed actions also indicate that equity signifies that the resources to be distributed to the deprived will not be identical to those that privileged residents possess. high need groups are to make do with recycled computing devices, existing low-cost internet programs offered by commercial isps, public wi-fi access, and the safety net of public access points. in some plans, the sufficiency of secondhand devices is implied alongside stated concerns about access to tech support and the limitations of older devices. thus, equity signifies both who will be served by plans and the quality of resources to be distributed. the conception of digital equity conveyed in the plans does not call for substantive reorganization of the social world, nor does it call for change to social, political, or economic structures. the critical discourse studies approach sensitizes this analysis to relations of dominance that shape inequality (van dijk, 1993) and the analysis finds such relations to be largely invisible in digital equity plans. if, as plans describe, affordability of computing devices and internet service is the most significant barrier to digital equity, there are few prescribed actions that reduce the cost of those items for afflicted individuals and fewer that would change the way the items are priced. alternatively, strategies to increase the financial resources that deprived individuals have available for computing devices and internet service are nonexistent. other intertwined systems within the purview of municipal government that shape economic opportunity, including healthcare, housing, education, and public safety (kvasny, 2006), play little role in the conception of digital equity, though they surface to varying degrees in prescriptions for change. while the plans are far from radical in their proposals to transform inequality, they do adhere to the guidance for both process and content offered by the array of civil society and public sector institutions introduced earlier. indeed, the four cities have been recognized as “digital inclusion trailblazers” for their digital equity plans and related efforts to fund and implement their strategies (ndia, 2020). with respect to guidance about process, planners documented that they had gathered stakeholders from government, community organizations, the private sector, and the public. in content, planners demonstrated little deviation from or innovation on guidance about expanding access and opportunities for the public to develop skills to use technology. partial characterization of the problem, revelatory prescriptions the second research question posed in this study seeks to understand the extent to which digital equity plans may offer novel understandings of digital inequality and strategies to address it. despite the opportunity to newly define the current problematic circumstances, the plans demonstrate that the notion of individual deficit dominates governments’ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 61 explicit conceptions of digital inequality. three of four plans add that organizations that could help afflicted individuals face resource deficits themselves. still, the construal of the problem at the individual and organizational levels is partial. it omits serious consideration of reasons why individuals lack resources or why social service organizations face challenges to financial sustainability. kansas city’s plan perhaps goes the farthest in acknowledging structures of inequality related to the problem by identifying unfavorable local economic conditions and the geospatial nature of deprivation, but it presents few proposals to change these conditions. even with the partial characterization of the current problematic circumstances, the plans incorporate actions hinting at a deeper understanding of how digital inequality has emerged, in relation to particular actors and institutions. prescriptions related to isps, housing, and the tech industry reveal their relations to digital inequality. isps’ role in digital inequality is entirely tacit in the characterization of the problem; however, prescribed actions allude to a relation with the inequitable status quo and how it might change in pursuit of the goal state. the plans of portland and san francisco propose that isps may be motivated to expand service if given access to governmentowned physical assets and special regulatory consideration. these incentives indicate the trade-offs that municipal governments face to attract investment in internet infrastructure and to regulate it in the interest of equity (alizadeh et al., 2017; stratton et al., 2020). kansas city’s plan calls for a standard agreement for government to use in negotiation with isps and other telecommunications providers that “includes some expectation of contribution to digital equity” (kansas city, 2017, p. 20) and for dedication of revenue from 5g infrastructure permits towards digital equity programs. isps’ profit-seeking motive may dictate why particular communities lack internet service entirely, or service that is high-quality and affordable, but they are spared scrutiny in plans. a relationship between housing and digital equity also surfaces in plans’ prescribed actions. residents living in affordable housing developments may lack financial resources to subscribe to internet service at home, so actions to connect affordable housing make sense intuitively as an effective mechanism for resource distribution. affordable housing is not just a convenient place to mitigate digital inequality, though. it may directly contribute to the problem through a lack of adequate connection to internet infrastructure. seattle’s plan targets sufficient connection to high-speed internet in all multifamily housing through possible revision of building codes, as well as training to sensitize planners and developers to best practices for building connectivity. the tech industry forms part of the backdrop of digital equity planning, even as the plans avoid foregrounding it. success in attracting and retaining tech jobs is common to the four cities and representatives from some of the world’s largest tech corporations participated in constructing at least two of the plans. prescriptions to develop a pipeline to high-tech employment, included in the plans of portland and seattle, suggest that plan authors value this form of economic participation. increased access to employment opportunities is among the supposed benefits of resource distribution for digital equity, but the plans do not highlight the distinct desirability of tech jobs. actions to support stem education and coding programs for children and adults and placement of underrepresented residents in technology jobs are not explicitly motivated in the plans, yet they reflect the importance and desirability of the tech industry to municipal leaders. phenomena co-occurring with the growth of the tech industry in cities, such as gentrification and displacement (chapple, 2017; stehlin, 2016) and the polarization of high and low wage jobs in the service sector (autor & dorn, 2009; dwyer & wright, the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 62 2019) that condition inequality are not surfaced. the structure of the information economy and its relation to digital inequality are sidestepped in favor of bringing more people into a pipeline to high-tech employment. planners certainly face pragmatic constraints in developing digital equity plans. the municipalities in this study have variable financial and organizational resources available within government and specifically dedicated to digital equity. kansas city, lacking a dedicated organizational unit or budget allocation specifically for digital equity, proposed most of its actions for further planning, along with new funding for digital equity programs. the plans of portland and seattle, backed by strong organizational and financial footing within city government and longer institutional trajectories, have relatively similar prescribed actions and reflect coordination with community-based organizations that serve their communities. despite a large difference in these cities’ national shares of tech jobs (0.9% for portland, 4.3% for seattle), their plans both include actions to develop the pipeline to high-tech employment. san francisco’s plan entailed authorship of multiple units in city government and engagement with several of the tech giants based in the bay area, as well as significant public consultation. prescribed actions for an innovation grant to fund community-based organizations, form a pool of sponsors in city government, and form a coalition of organizations working on digital equity, suggest an interest in integrating digital equity across units and boundaries of government. recommendations for planners for the authors of plans, the social, political, and financial consequences of characterizing digital inequality as anything but a problem of individual deficit may be daunting; however, devoting attention to factors producing individual deficits may permit a more efficient and effective use of limited resources. two recommendations follow from the analysis of argumentation within plans. first, the barrier of cost of devices and internet service recommends direct intervention to increase the financial resources and/or reduce the cost of those items for those people experiencing the problem. broad, radical interventions might offer residents a universal basic income or increase the local minimum wage. alternatively, more focused interventions might offer residents ongoing subsidy funds to purchase and maintain private access to devices and residential internet service. interventions to reduce the cost of internet service might generate alternatives to the limitations of commercial isps’ service, including its footprint, quality, and pricing. working in cooperation or independently of isps, planners might leverage existing fiberoptic networks (including dark fiber) or propose building new networks to offer affordable service to communities not well-served by existing options. second, digital inequality’s relation to economic development, housing, transportation, and other areas of municipal planning suggests that it might be effectively considered within these other planning processes. for example, some plans indicate that transportation to public access sites is a challenge for residents but reshaping public transportation systems is outside the scope of digital equity planning. incorporating digital equity as a cross-cutting theme in municipal planning (in addition or as an alternative to digital equity planning) may enable new strategies and coordination to transform structures that manifest as individual deficits. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 63 conclusion across plans, novel strategies to mitigate inequality are nascent. given the national recognition that the cities under study have received for their plans and their successes in building the high-tech economy that is the normative ideal in urban governance (alizadeh et al., 2017), other cities’ development of digital equity plans is likely. this presents an opportunity for the scholarly community to intervene. scholars of digital inequality can play a crucial role in digital equity planning by translating the lessons of empirical research to planners. in particular, sensitizing planners to digital inequality as a problem related to social, political, and economic structures might inspire novel strategies for its mitigation. ultimately, the plans’ conceptions of digital equity offer an origin to develop alternative interpretations and guidance. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 64 references accessible, affordable internet for all act, h.r. 7302, 116th cong. 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(2009). digital distinction: status‐specific types of internet usage. social science quarterly, 90(2), 274-291. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15406237.2009.00617.x the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 68 annex 1: plan documents’ structures and authorship kansas city portland san francisco seattle length 26 pages + 51 pages appendices 17 pages + 7 pages appendices 31 pages + 9 pages appendices 44 pages authors (as indicated in document) mayor’s policy director, assistant city manager, external consultant digital inclusion network committee on information technology, mayor’s office of housing & community development, office of the city administrator city of seattle digital equity initiative (mayor, department of information technology, office of civil rights) major sections of document letter from mayor x x x background on the problem (general) x background on the problem (local) x x x x definitions x x description of related past efforts x x description of planning process x x x named goals or priorities used to organize prescribed actions • access to broadband, devices, and training • internet use for educational purposes • internet use to promote civic responsibility • internet use to promote employment • internet use for business and job creation • collaboration to promote other digital equity opportunities • access • support and training • leadership and capacity building • connecting to the digital economy • policy • access • digital skills and usage • long-term impact • devices and technical support • connectivity • skills training the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 69 annex 2: categorization of actions prescribed in plans kansas city portland san francisco seattle expand internet access (reduce cost of residential service and/or expand public access) (1.1) extend free wi-fi into lowincome neighborhoods (1.2) encourage providers to expand low-cost internet service through incentives (goal 1) connect affordable housing to city network, new housing to have multiple provider options (goal 1) expand low-cost internet options among internet service providers (isps) through incentives (c2.1) expand hotspot lending to underserved individuals (c3.3) public wi-fi for disadvantaged and underserved areas (c3.4) wi-fi in building at community centers expand access to computing devices (reduce cost of devices for personal ownership and/or expand public access) (1.4) expand sources of recycled devices to provide to residents (goal 1) establish pipeline for device recycling (d1.1) plan to expand access to assistive tech for public access (d2.1) promote device recycling program for lowincome residents (d2.2) subsidize device purchase for low-income residents provide training (2.3) expand culturally-specific training curricula (s1.1) train families with students in three title i schools (s1.4) train small businesses owned by minorities and women compile information about and promote community use of options for access and training (1.3) create an inventory of broadband service options for public (2.1) create an inventory of training programs (goal 1) raise awareness of low-cost internet options (d3.1) promote local programs with low-cost devices, public access, training (d3.2) expand awareness of tech support options (s1.3) increase awareness of training for vulnerable workers, employers, service providers the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 70 kansas city portland san francisco seattle (s3.1) market training and tech support options compile information for operational use (i.e., within government and communitybased organizations) (14) identify existing local government programs that support digital equity (17) review google fibersponsored public access utilization annually (2.2) gather data about connectivity in affordable housing (goal 3) gather data about digital divide problem every 23 years, tabulate in scorecard and accountability report develop pipeline to high-tech employment (4.1) support programs to prepare and place underrepresented people in jobs in the “technology economy” (4.2) support steam programs for k-12 students (s1.2) support stem and coding training for out-of-school students and adults develop communitybased organizations’ capacity to serve community (19) dedicate funding from small cell permits to support organizations’ projects (20) provide annual funding to organizations with primary digital equity mission (3.1) strengthen network (3.2) create an annual summit (3.3) expand funding sources (goal 1) strengthen public access “safety net” with updated technology, new sites (goal 2) innovation funding grant to organizations (goal 3) form coalition of organizations working on digital equity (goal 3) train organizations (c3.1) develop sustainability strategy for public access points (s2.1) increase organizations’ training capacity (s3.2) form funding collaborative to coordinate resources develop plans and/or policies within government (1) roadmap to advance access (internet, devices, training) (3) roadmap for education (ppp with devices for k-12 students, training) (5) roadmap for civic responsibility (5.1) develop strategy for funding digital equity in affordable housing (5.2) engage leaders to take action (5.3), develop digital equity lens for policy (goal 2) form a pool of sponsors in city government (c1.1) design best practices to incorporate broadband in building plans (c1.2) evaluate apartment building codes for internet infrastructure, propose changes the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 71 kansas city portland san francisco seattle (7) roadmap for employment (9) roadmap for business and job creation (11) roadmap for collaboration (13) enact resolution to support local efforts against digital divide (15) add digital equity to rubric to project evaluation (16) add digital equity to housing and neighborhood plans (18, 21) develop funding plan and pursue funding other (2) access project (4) education project (6) civic responsibility project (8) employment project (10) business and job creation project (12) collaboration project (1.5, 1.6) digital equity pilot projects for affordable housing and people experiencing homelessness (goal 2) innovation challenges to help residents overcome known challenges (d3.2) expand access to tech support (c3.2) set up charging stations at public access points susan-evm ed 13-3 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 editorial michael gurstein and the future of community informatics michael gurstein, founder and main force behind this journal and the community informatics movement, passed away october 8th, 2017. the multiple tributes and eulogies around the world and on the internet bear witness of a life well lived and a career that touched many lives. as his “written” home, the journal will publish a collection of tributes in the coming months, in the form of an extraordinary issue of joci. his passing is also a moment to reflect on his intellectual journey and how it, to a point, reflects on the transformations of the internet and the movement he promoted for well over two decades. at the beginning, the community was the locus of his attention, and projects to promote access a source of critical appraisal. how to separate the good (access to information and community engagement and cohesion) from the simply commercial, to create new markets for telecommunications conglomerates through public financing? the digital divide debates of early 2000s have receded to the background, but the discussions have resurfaced in new forms and formats. how to promote access that doesn’t mean just consumption on one universal service, fitted and shaped around the priorities of global capital? from facebook to the unicorn of the day, in the end the concerns are quite similar, even if the terrain has been changed beyond (apparent) recognition: should the ideals of a democratic society be subordinated to the intent and interests of global capital? should the citizen be put on a secondary plane, favoring the consumer? by this last decade, michael’s concerns had moved to the global debate on internet governance. it was not a technical stance that interested him: again, his focus was the fight for a democratic, people-centered internet against the corporate !1 villanueva-mansilla, e. (2017). michael gurstein and the future of community informatics (editorial). the journal of community informatics, 13(3), 1—3. date submitted: 2017-12-30. date accepted: 2017-12-31. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: ci-journal.net. aquí debería ir el enlace completo. eduardo villanuevamansilla editor in chief, the journal of community informatics corresponding author. evillan@gmail.com http://ci-journal.net mailto:evillan@gmail.com http://ci-journal.net the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 takeover by a few giants. while some years ago that may have meant finding a way to bring connectivity to communities, what’s at stake now is how to use that connectivity, how to go beyond commercial services and to effective use. this concept is critical: as the “the capacity and opportunity to successfully integrate icts into the accomplishment of self or collaboratively identified goals” (gurstein, 2003), effective use best encapsulates the notion of going beyond access to achieve some level of embeddedness into community, societal or national policies and applications of ict / internet / digital media. the modal nature of ict, and by extension of digital media, provides a variety of potential uses to all those interested; the power of established actors to influence policy and consumption decisions can only be faced through the use of all the tools brought to bear by icts as resources for self-expression and self-determination. as the debate evolved, so the concerns of michael moved towards the larger issues: the digital divide stopped being relevant as a category or term for policy debates, though it was still being used as a banner by the different iterations of corporate position papers; the notion of multistakeholderism was debated as a cover for industrial influence on political discussions at all levels, and as a way for governments to abdicate their responsibilities to their citizens. in every one of these debates, michael provided clear and precise inputs. the discussions about internet governance, as a debate about democracy or multistakeholderism; the notion of a “digital citizenship” as correlated to a “global internet community”; the characterization of the internet as a global public good; social justice and the internet and its governance; and of course, that old chestnut, the “information society”, and its relationship with the actual developments that ict / telecommunications / digital media were bringing forward. in all these issues, michael debated from a clear position: whatever the construct, concept or position, do not forget that the only guarantee of democracy and fairness is to take communities into account. this principle is still relevant, both as an academic, intellectual starting point to study the societal impact of icts, as well as a counterpoint to the insistent approaches towards “democratization” of access that corporate actors are conducting globally in many forms. it is the basis of a critical understanding of the political dimensions of icts, in a clear and simple formulation, that we in academia sometimes neglect to posit when trying to explain the digital phenomena enveloping and shaping our current world. and there is where the strength and relevance of community informatics lies, and should remain, in the coming years. our colleagues, sharing their work in this journal, are a good example of the intersection between a critical approach and an academic elaboration of the issues involved in the digital world. citizen science, open development, women, health work: the subjects covered by the papers published in this issue, are pertinent responses to the overwhelming emphasis that digital media consumption appears to promote all around the world; that is to say, that the “digital revolution” is basically reduced to one aspect, consumption and personal satisfaction. instead, the potential to provide and promote the promise of a brave new alternative for a better world, where more and more people are able to find a way to take control and use ict !2 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 access to enhance their daily lives, is still the main thrust of the ci community and of the work showcased in this journal. while we all miss michael, his work is a beacon, leading to a simple, powerful but somehow far away idea: that people and by extension, communities, should be at the center of development, and specifically, of digital developments. i sincerely hope that this journal is helping to drive this point home; and i expect that it continues to do so as long as it is relevant and viable. as a fully open journal, it has as many challenges as it had when it began; it is the community itself, those involved in community informatics in all its shades and hues, that keep it viable. as a custodian of an idea and of a precise incarnation of such an idea, i thank michael for the chance to keep this project alive, and look forward for many years of continuing work allowing for a powerful community to expand and change along with the times. references gurstein, m. (2003). effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. first monday, 8(12), dec. 2003. retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/article/ view/1107/1027 !3 http://firstmonday.org/article/view/1107/1027 http://firstmonday.org/article/view/1107/1027 123-10-1161 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles granny gets smarter but junior hardly notices to ensure that university computing students are sensitized to the needs of diverse user groups, a course project was designed to allow students to get a realistic understanding of the needs and abilities of the older mobile phone user. over a three year period different student cohorts interviewed these users to assess their experience with mobile phones. it was found that students were generally dismissive of the cognitive abilities of the older mobile phone user. however the yearly snapshot revealed that the older user’s abilities improved year on year. being prepared to understand all user groups is an essential skill that should be acquired by future interface designers. introduction south africans in the over 65 age group are in the minority (5.5% of the population 2014) (statistics south africa, 2014). minorities are easily side-lined in any context, but particularly in an unequal country like south africa (gini index 63.14 in 2009) . moreover, many older 1 south africans, due to having grown up under apartheid and mostly having lived in rural areas with little access to services, are functionally illiterate (aliber, 2003). http://www.tradingeconomics.com/south-africa/gini-index-wb-data.html1 !159 blignaut, r., venter, i.m., renaud, k. (2016). granny get smarter but junior hardly notices. the journal of community informatics, 12(3), 159—172. date submitted: 2014-11-11. date accepted: 2016-05-08. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1161. renette blignaut university of western cape, south africa corresponding author. rblignaut@uwc.ac.za isabella margarethe venter university of western cape, south africa iventer@uwc.ac.za karen renaud university of glasgow, united kingdom karen.renaud@glasgow.ac.uk http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1161 http://www.tradingeconomics.com/south-africa/gini-index-wb-data.html mailto:rblignaut@uwc.ac.za mailto:iventer@uwc.ac.za mailto:karen.renaud@glasgow.ac.uk http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1161 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the mobile phone has dispersed rapidly in south africa due to the lack of landlines in rural areas and informal settlements (aker & mbiti, 2010). this has been liberating for older citizens, enabling them to stay in touch with relatives and friends across the globe. for the illiterate who used to have to wait for people to come and visit them to communicate, the mobile phone has quickly become an essential helpmate (cuddy & fiske, 2002) (nickerson, 1998) (caspi, 1984) (erber, etheart, & szuchman, 1992) (lim, 2010) (newell & gregor, 2000) (pewresearch, 2014). yet the mobile phone interface is seldom designed with the older user in mind (renaud, blignaut, & venter, 2013), (van biljon, renaud, & van dyk, 2013). so, on the one hand the mobile phone has the potential to make a huge difference to the older citizens of south africa but, on the other, a lack of age-sensitive design means that they are not able to benefit fully from the available functionality. mobile phone interfaces are designed by the younger generation, and the designers of the future are being trained at universities right now. it is essential for designers to be sensitive to the needs of user groups unlike themselves, especially older people, since “age is the only social category identifying subgroups that everyone may eventually join” (north & fiske, 2012, p. 982). improving intergenerational understanding and empathy is vital. it was therefore decided to investigate whether students have realistic expectations of the cognitive abilities of the older population. without a realistic understanding of the needs and skills of this demographic they are bound to design suboptimal interfaces for these kinds of out-groups. the research reported in this paper strove to improve inter-generational understanding, so as to improve aspiring designers’ understanding of special needs groups. a study carried out to explore student perceptions of the older mobile phone user found that the students were generally dismissive of the cognitive abilities of the older population. an intervention was carried out for three years in a row – constituting three snapshots with different student bodies interviewing different older mobile phone owners. the students accepted that older adults could and did learn and make steady progress, perhaps more slowly than they themselves do. many of the students were not prepared to acknowledge this reality, preferring to cling to their negative pre-conceptions, perhaps because they found the teaching experience frustrating. some of the older people were rather afraid of their device, something the students could not fathom. their exasperation is unlikely to result in a design that will be useful to the older person. on the other hand, in some cases this one isolated experience was enough to change perceptions about the needs and capabilities of the older members of the community. in the following section the related literature is discussed. this is followed by an explanation of how the research was carried out, and then we report on our results. the paper concludes by suggesting how a larger percentage of trainee designers might be sensitized to the needs of different users and age groups. !160 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 older adults learning many people consider that aging diminishes the ability to learn (page, olivas, driver, & driver, 1981) . this is an unwarranted and unfortunate perspective. young and old brains are 2 tailored for different activities and specialized for their function at a particular stage of life. young brains are designed primarily to cope with the new: they encounter new information and experiences on a daily basis and they have to be able to cope with this. their brains have to be able to make sense of things as they go along and to learn from them quickly. in time, the brain develops heuristics, “patterns”, based on repeated experiences of the same type over time (tversky & kahneman, 1974). older brains have accumulated vast numbers of these patterns and are able to match these to experiences they encounter. the use of heuristics is energy efficient and the effortful processing of new experiences without the heuristics is very expensive in terms of energy. the young process more speedily because they need to do this in order to build heuristics. the aging brain, having many accumulated heuristics to draw on, is more sophisticated, not less able. in summary, while the young learn more quickly, the older brain uses past experiences to find a matching pattern. elkonen goldberg calls this phenomenon the wisdom paradox (goldberg, 2007). the younger brain has the raw processing power it needs to build new heuristics quickly for use in later life: the young brain is agile; the older brain is wise. the problem with technology is that the older brain of the early 21st century does not have appropriate existing patterns to deal with new technologies (lim, 2010). their existing and well-established patterns do not match this unprecedented new situation. for example, consider william, a prototype 80-year-old living in south africa in 2014. william owned a watch in his youth that had to be wound with great care. watches of the 1940s were expensive and highly prized. hence, his frame of reference is that a watch is valuable, needs to be treated with care and is easily broken (lim, 2010). the modern watch does not have to be wound, costs very little and is thus easily replaced. william’s mental pattern is null and void with respect to watches but he may well retain it. moreover, william has no constructed pattern to match modern mobile phones – the phones of his youth, which form his frame of reference, were not mobile, had a large dial, and only made and received calls. the modern phone is essentially a small computer, with a hierarchical menu and multiple functions. william’s wisdom-filled brain simply cannot match his existing mental model of a phone to the modern mobile phone so he probably tries to match it to models of more sophisticated instruments from his youth, perhaps a gramophone, or an old-fashioned camera. such items were easily broken and expensive to repair, so if he uses this mental model he is going to be afraid of breaking his mobile phone by doing the wrong thing. this fear of breaking things has been observed in other studies with the elderly (van veldhoven, vasrenburg, & keyson, 2008) and might be a real concern. they might also apply other patterns, which are likely to be equally unsuitable. william is confronted with this new technology: perhaps his children gave him a mobile phone, or he perceives the need to summon assistance in an emergency. having acknowledged the need for the phone, he is faced with having to learn how to understand and use this new device, with the fear of breaking it always at the back of his mind deterring adoption. furthermore, since his brain is not specialized to do this, as the young brain is, he learns more slowly (glass, 1996). a google search for the term “stupid old people” on 2 september 2014 delivered 1 490 000 results.2 !161 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 yet heinz et al. noted that “… older adults were willing and eager to adopt new technologies when usefulness and usability outweighed feelings of inadequacy” (heinz, et al., 2013: 42) and indicated that future technology developers should be aware of the older users’ attitude towards the uptake of new technology. this ties in well with (young, 2013) who reports that this generation (older than 70) valued the use of new technology that allowed them to engage in social and leisure activities. mitzner et al. also reports that older adults were positive towards technology, which contrasts with the widely-held idea that older users are “technophobes” (mitzner, et al., 2010). in summary, older people want to learn about technology, can learn, and are not recalcitrant technophobes, contrary to what some people believe. however, they will resist learning if the process makes them feel stupid (hough & kobylanski, 2009). inter-generational understanding humans tend to classify people into categories and then attribute particular judgments to outgroup members (cuddy & fiske, 2002). they tend to cling to their preconceptions, despite evidence to the contrary (nickerson, 1998). senior technology users are often negatively stereotyped by the younger generation. stereotyping is particularly harmful when it influences interface designers. without intervention they might well design for themselves (lim, 2010), or design based on their uninformed perceptions of an out-group. the obvious intervention is to find a way to make designers more aware of the needs of out-groups (newell & gregor, 2000). stereotyping, especially with negative connotations, can be counteracted when there is meaningful interaction with individuals of the out-group (caspi, 1984) (erber, etheart, & szuchman, 1992) . page et al. argues that unfortunate perceptions about older people can indeed be exacerbated by limited contact between generations (page, olivas, driver, & driver, 1981). hence the proposed study, to explore these perceptions, is a meaningful endeavour to facilitate this very beneficial interaction between the generations and hopefully foster greater understanding. other studies that encouraged inter-generational interaction have been shown to improve attitudes towards the elderly (couper, sheehan, & thomas, 1991). study design the purpose of this study was to confront students with actual older end-users of a common technology, the mobile phone. a contrived lab or classroom-based facsimile exercise cannot come close to delivering the same learning experience. the outcome, it was hoped, would be more realism and sensitivity on the student’s side; a better understanding of user groups completely unlike themselves. two research questions were posed with respect to the snapshots taken each year: rq1: did the perceptions, feelings and mobile phone usage of the older participants change over the three-year period? !162 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 rq2: did the students’ perceptions about older people change over the three-year period because of this exercise? a fictitious company was supposedly keen to determine the mobile interface requirements of the over-65 age group in south africa in order to develop an innovative interface for older mobile phone users. students interviewed members of this population segment to explore their mobile phone usage and their feelings about the phone. they were asked to offer to teach their participant an application or function they were keen to learn about on their own phone. this study was conducted at the university of the western cape, south africa over a period of three years. self-selected student teams (of up to five members) were instructed to acquaint themselves with the literature that would provide them with background knowledge about mobile phone usage by older users. they had to refer to this research in their team reports and include a list of the references they had consulted. each team member interviewed two older mobile users in their local community with a predesigned questionnaire, essentially a convenience sampling. some could only find one to interview. this questionnaire collected the demographics of the participants and their experience and usage of mobile phones but preserved their anonymity by not including any personal information. to adhere to ethical research practice, students were instructed to obtain permission from their participants by asking them to complete a consent form prior to the interview, which made participants aware of their rights to withdraw at any time. student teams were required to write a team report for the fictitious company, making recommendations based on the open-ended questions and the data they collected using a predesigned questionnaire. finally, the teams were interviewed as a focus group to gain their impressions of their participants’ capabilities and their own reactions and perceptions of this demographic and their ability to learn a new function. ! figure 1: three years of data collection three years’ worth of data was collected as follows (see figure 1): !163 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 (1) how mobile phone usage by older mobile phone users changed over the three-year period (2011 – 2013) of the study. quantitative data was analyzed using the statistical package sas®. (2) a list of functions demonstrated to the older users was analyzed to determine if there was a change over this three-year period. (3) student reports and focus group discussions were evaluated to gauge students’ perceptions of the “abilities” of the older user. qualitative data (focus groups and student reports) was analyzed and compared to determine trends over this time period using a qualitative content analysis tool called qca (qualitative content analyser) (bytheway, 2013). results demographics a total of 239 participants (63 in 2011, 99 in 2012 and 77 in 2013) and 120 student researchers were involved in the interaction over the three year period. most students (94%) were aged between 20 and 29 years. the majority of the participants (62%) were aged between 65 and 69 years; 17% were aged between 70 and 74 years; and 21% were older than 75 years. slightly more females (56%) participated in the study over the three-year period. in the following section, the three years’ data were compared using chi-square (x2) tests. in 2013, more (49%) of the participants were skilled (had formal training) compared to 37% in 2012 and 33% in 2011. in both 2011 and 2012, about 40% of the participants were unskilled whereas only 35% were unskilled in the 2013 survey. in 2011, only 3% of the participants were unemployed compared to the 12% in 2012 and 11% in 2013. over the years of the study, the participants that were retired ranged from 11% to 14%. although these occupation percentages varied over the three years no significant differences were observed (χ2 = 7.3; p = 0.30). most participants lived in a city (63%) and the rest in small towns (26%) and 11% in rural areas. this was very similar in all years (χ2 = 3.2; p = 0.52). it is interesting to note that most of the participants over the three years were afrikaans speaking (36%), followed by xhosa (29%), english (20%) and 15% spoke sotho, tsonga, zulu, sepedi, venda, ndebele, tswana, french and siswati. there was a significant language distribution change over the years with significantly more english speakers in 2013 (x2 = 35.4, p = 0.04). over the years, 44% indicated that they were proficient in reading english and 40% could read english reasonably well, whereas 16% lacked english reading skills (x2 = 4.0, p = 0.41). forty percent of the participants indicated that they could write in english; 39% could write english reasonably well and 21% were not sure about their ability to write in english (x2 = 3.0, p = 0.56). !164 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 2: highest qualification of the participants the participant qualifications did not differ significantly over this period (x2 = 14.1; p = 0.08) (see figure 2). the majority of the participants (70%) owned their mobile phones for more than 3 years (x2 = 0.3, p = 0.99) in all the years of the study. these phones were acquired in a similar way in all three years by purchasing it (49%), receiving it as gift (44%) or being part of a contract (6%) (x2 = 7.9, p = 0.25). phone usage by participants approximately two-thirds of the participants used their phones more than once per day, about 25% used it once a day and 10% less than once weekly. most keep their phones near them (80%) and more than 80% charge their phones at home using electricity. only 13% used a battery to charge their phones. significant differences over the years from table 1 it is evident that some mobile phone features were used more frequently over the time period were used (significantly) more frequently over the time period: phone calls; typing of a short message service (sms),using abbreviations when typing a message sms; the alarm clock feature and the use of the phone’s camera. when comparing the three years there was no significant difference in the use of: multimedia messaging services (mms), the internet, facebook, banking, the watch feature, calendar or the setting of reminders, listening to music on the mobile phone or using the torch or calculator. table 1: participant feature usage over the years usage 2011 2012 2013 x2 value, significance phone calls increased over the years 68% 83% 83% x2 = 9.77, p = 0.0444* sms use increased 27% 39% 49% x2 = 23.23, p = 0.0001** !165 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 *p<0.05; ** p<0.01 table 2: participants feelings about their phones over the years *p<0.05; ** p<0.01 camera not used 75% 66% 51% x2 = 10.67, p = 0.0306* alarm clock 32% 46% 51% x2 = 9.66, p = 0.0467* abbreviations used for sms’s 13% 21% 32% x2 = 6.73, p = 0.0346* mms 3% 10% 3% x2 = 6.30, p = 0.178 calendar 17% 24% 20% x2 = 7.86, p = 0.0967 internet search 2% 3% 1% x2 = 4.94, p = 0.293 facebook 3% 8% 1% x2 = 5.88, p = 0.2087 banking 5% 12% 7% x2 = 3.38, p = 0.4962 watch 69% 59% 56% x2 = 4.28, p = 0.3697 reminders 11% 19% 17% x2 = 5.39, p = 0.2494 music 8% 9% 10% x2 = 3.3, p = 0.5085 torch 8% 12% 13% x2 = 4.05, p = 0.3995 calculator 3% 11% 14% x2 = 7.91, p = 0.0948 perceptions 2011 2012 2013 x2 value, significance confusing 40% 52% 61% x2 = 13.17, p = 0.0105* essential 74% 90% 87% x2 = 16.24, p = 0.0027** value for money 90% 71% 73% x2 = 9.66, p = 0.0465* easy to use 79% 71% 79% x2 = 10.57, p = 0.0319* liking 95% 96% 88% x2 = 13, p = 0.0113* enjoyable 68% 65% 64% x2 = 3.75, p = 0.4414 frustrating 25% 26% 27% x2 = 0.33, p = 0.9879 appealing 48% 58% 58% x2 = 2.28, p = 0.6852 overwhelming 29% 32% 29% x2 = 4.98, p = 0.2891 useful 87% 90% 96% x2 = 4.51, p = 0.341 time consuming 30% 34% 29% x2 = 5.83, p = 0.2119 friendly 71% 69% 77% x2 = 2.33, p = 0.6756 !166 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 from table 2 it can be seen that mobile phone perceptions varied from year to year, but not always in a linear trend. mobile phones seem to have been more confusing in 2013 (perhaps due to more features on more modern phones) than in 2011. a decrease in the mobile phone’s “value for money" was also seen from 2011 to 2012 and 2013. mobile phone frustration levels, although not too high, were very similar in all the study years. functions or applications taught differences in functions or applications that participants asked the students to teach them are shown in figure 3. for example, fewer people asked to be taught how to sms in 2013 as compared to 2011. this probably means that they already knew how to do it, especially since significantly more participants reported using the sms function (see table 1 above). on the hand, mms, phone book and google search seemed to have increased in popularity in terms of requests to be taught how to use it. in 2011, no one asked to be shown how to use the camera but this changed in 2012, perhaps indicating that many of participants now owned phones with this capability; however, these requests decreased in 2013, probably because they now generally knew how to do this. the same trend manifests for requests about the function “phone settings” and how to set the alarm. figure 3: features taught to participants student perceptions focus group interviews, as well as student reports, were used to: • determine what students learnt about the design limitations of mobile phones for the older users, and • to gauge student perceptions about the abilities of the older mobile phone users. !167 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 student team reports and summarized interviews were analyzed using the qca tool. the tool required the researchers to identify phrases that depicted perceptions as well as suggestions for design changes to the mobile phone. the tool then quantified these phrases. the results are shown in figure 4 and figure 5. in order to compare the qca results of the three years, the frequencies were weighted as the number of teams in each cohort differed. figure 4: students’ perceptions of the older mobile phone users’ abilities it seems as if many students believed the majority of their participants lack the ability to use their mobile phones effectively (see figure 4): “took several times to demonstrate new function …”, “… phone closer to their eyes so they could read properly …”; “some are less literate which made teaching difficult …”; “…older people are slower…”; “…struggle to understand concepts …”; and that they had a negative attitude towards mobile phones: “participants not interested in learning anything …”; “… did not feel the need to know how to use many of the applications …”. however, some students felt that their participants were positive about the mobile phone technology and its usage: “the elderly people were very cooporative and attentive when we tried to explain new things to them …”; “participant was excited about sending photos via mms …”; but felt insecure when using their mobile phones: “older people did not want to explore …”; “…scared it would break…”. the financial implications of using the phone were often incorrectly interpreted: “… participants scared that it would cost airtime to set something on the menu”. since, in future, the students will probably contribute to the design of mobile phones; their awareness of the importance of the aesthetics of the device emerged (see figure 5): !168 financial ability lack security positive attitude negative attitude lack ability weighted frequency 0 20 40 60 80 2013 2012 2011 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 5: perceived changes required to the mobile phone for easy usage by the older user “standardize the structure of the design of the phones targeted to the elderly so that it is easier to learn another phone …”; “a sos button that will automatically connect to an emergency telephone number …”; and how the software and hardware should support it: “… non-user-friendly menu and unclear arrangement…”; “… so the menus shouldn’t be complicated and many …”; ”decrease the number of applications to only include useful applications likely to use by the elderly …”; “important functions should be displayed in the menu …”; “do not use touch screens. want to feel the buttons …”; “ … functions should be “hardwired”…”; “ … button should be bigger and should click when pressed.”; “… phone size should be fairly large …”; “… design should be very minimalistic and sleek”. discussion fernández reported that mobile phones were peripheral to the older people’s lives in their study (fernandez, 2010). conci, pianesi and zancanaro confirmed that mobile phone usage amongst the older population that they surveyed was mostly functionality driven (conci, pianesi, & zancanaro, 2009). our research findings contradict this – it was found that the older participants kept their phones with them, that they considered them essential and useful, and that they liked them. this difference is probably due to the superior infrastructure available to participants in the studies carried out by conci et al. (italy) and fernandez (europe). south africa’s older citizens often cannot rely on the presence of a landline phone and their mobile phone thus becomes integral to their lives. it was interesting to see a definite trend in what the participants asked the students to teach them. if one considers this information together with the actual features they make use of, it becomes clear that they were mastering their phones, slowly but surely. they were becoming more proficient in the use of functions such as sms, alarm and camera. nevertheless, the students still considered the participants slow, unable to master their phones, and generally did not acknowledge any noticeable cognitive capacity on their part. they expressed frustration and exasperation when demonstrating a mobile function to the elderly. !169 software hardware design and aesthetics weighted frequency 0 18 35 53 70 2013 2012 2011 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the analysis of student reports and interviews indicated that students, after demonstrating specific mobile phone functions to the elderly, accurately perceived the challenges that senior mobile phone users experience. moreover, they could, and did, suggest interface improvements. conclusion this study set out to answer two questions: rq1: did the perceptions, feelings and mobile phone usage of the older participants change over the three-year period? rq2: did the students’ perceptions about older people change over the three-year period because of this exercise? the answer to the first is in the affirmative. each year’s older participants were more clued up, used their phones more, used a wider range of features and felt more comfortable with their phones. the answer to the second question is in the negative. the students had the same attitude towards older mobile phone users every year. it might be that the gap between young and old remains too wide. the young learn so fast and keep pace with technology so easily that the older person’s more sedate learning speed might well doom them always to be left far behind. it might be that this intergenerational gap, and the perceptions that color it, is merely a fact of 21st century life. yet there are glimmers of hope. some of the students were changed by the experience. they spoke with greater empathy and understanding after having worked with their older participants. this means that it is important to continue to encourage and foster intergenerational contact, striving to build empathy and understanding in students. without this, they will never be superb designers, and this is the real aim: to make them as good as they can be. understanding, and being prepared to understand, all demographics, is an essential skill that needs to be nourished and nurtured. in future work it will be considered whether there are any significant differences in the results for sub-populations—either in student perceptions or in the usage by elders. it will also be considered whether responses would differ depending on the age of the elders; their education; and whether they lived in cities or whether it is influenced by their occupation or social economic status. references aker, j. c., & mbiti, i. m. 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(2013). over seventies' perceptions of the usefulness and usability of popular technologies. information technology, education and society, 14(1), 61-80. !172 neighborhood planning of technology: physical meets digital city from the bottom-up with aging payphones benjamin stokes1, françois bar2, karl baumann3, ben caldwell4 postdoctoral researcher, uc berkeley school of information, usa. email: bgs@benjaminstokes.net associate professor of communication, annenberg school for communication and journalism, university of southern california phd candidate, school of cinematic arts, university of southern california director, kaos networks and art studio toward deep engagement the future of local communities may depend on their ability to plan their own technology, not just create content. as digital technologies permeate civic life and public space, the tension between top-down engineering and local participation is bringing planning and technology together. for local empowerment, participatory approaches continue to gain traction in both planning and technology design (gurstein, 2007; horelli, 2013; simonsen & robertson, 2012). community informatics is poised to go beyond providing tools and to begin guiding urban planning at the process level, especially for the planning of technologies that are a part of shared physical space. prior work with informatics has largely sought to improve planning that is relatively top-down (saad-sulonen, 2013). the 'participatory' focus tends to center on making planning more participatory, largely neglecting the contributions of community informatics to participatory design (bilandzic & venable, 2011; carroll & rosson, 2007; disalvo, clement, & pipek, 2013). in participatory planning, the technology is often fixed and research investigates more participatory use in planning, including online message boards, social media (evans-cowley, 2010; hanzl, 2007), and even immersive virtual worlds (gordon, schirra, & hollander, 2011). yet even in the case of e-planning, the technology dimension rarely emerges from the practices of participatory design (saad-sulonen, 2013). why not more mixing of planning and technology design? for reasons we will describe, the interaction can be like mixing oil and water even when each is trying to be 'participatory'. one immediate barrier is a lack of technology literacy in planning. few planning participants have the savvy to know what portions of a public technology can realistically be changed, let alone the skills to coordinate a technical process. however, we believe it is possible to combine the participatory practices of planning and design; in fact, an emulsion of the two fields could be empowering and deepen participation. the central challenge may be how to sustain the mix beyond special events (such as 'hackathons'). reframing success carefully reframing success is non-trivial, and one goal of this paper is to propose a useful frame for the field. not all technologies are suitable for planning, nor all planning modes. when the goal is to improve the design process and affect the category of outcomes, framing is especially important. we therefore propose to constrain how the two disciplines overlap, and force them into a specific kind of conversation. the overlap of digital and physical is a particularly fruitful area for applying community informatics toward bottom-up planning. our constraints are: goal of a joint outcome: to insist on the intersection, we constrain what kind of product is acceptable: part technology and part urban plan. the result is to create in urban space a "socially-embedded design." the form itself is flexible anything from a wired bus stop, to a localized payphone or an interactive storefront. in general, the designs are part physical what has been called "urban furniture" (rubegni et al., 2008). the design ties to the neighborhood beyond geo-coordinates, seeking to more deeply address the social dynamics of space and community. socially-embedding is often easiest in public space, where neighbors and strangers are pushed to interact. the goal is to push beyond basic compatibility with the built environment, and to begin actively shaping the collective experience to some degree. of course, any urban technological design must account for the "messy human situations" of that space (bilandzic & venable, 2011; pries-heje, baskerville, & venable, 2007). however, social-embedding is a deliberate stance toward the technology as part of the neighborhood fabric. when the neighborhood and technology are one socio-technical system, the technology's future is subject to urban planning. joint process: to maximize the intersection, we constrain the process to be one that strives for "deep engagement." specifically, this kind of engagement seeks to be simultaneously "doing planning" and "doing technology design." doing is emphasized in order to stay focused on real communities of practice and activities. doing aligns with a broad and useful notion of urban planning as a "social project whose task is to manage our coexistence in the shared spaces of cities and neighbourhoods..." (sandercock, 2004, p. 134). the 'deep' part goes beyond combining disciplines, recognizing that each field has its own depth. shallow overlap is the danger, and shallow combinations are all-too-common without extra effort. deep engagement is thus more of a disposition than a checklist it is the constant effort to alternate between each discipline's ways of legitimizing the process, and offering participants ways to contribute to a community plan and to a technology design. how can socio-technical systems be planned, not just engineered? current models have not sufficiently theorized "engagement" for technology planning, including civic hackathons (for an introduction, see baraniuk, 2013) and community meetings, especially to address the digital divide. alternatives are needed to build theory. our research questions include: "how can communities jointly plan and design technology? how can participatory approaches in planning be combined with participatory methods in technology design? can the user-centered approaches of design be combined with the group-centered negotiations of planning? can a community-embedded process be sustained beyond short-term hackathons and planning meetings?" case overview this article seeks to develop a method for participatory planning with socio-technical systems. the emphasis is on identifying the "social scaffolds" to sustain engagement and to structure participation, especially across the digital divide. focusing on payphones (including 14 purchased on ebay see figure 1), this article follows a six-month design process in the historic african-american neighborhood of leimert park in los angeles, california. data was collected using dozens of interviews and hundreds of hours of participant observation. rather than test a narrow hypothesis, this article aligns with grounded theory (glaser & strauss, 2012), and specifically seeks to build theory about the social conditions needed to combine urban planning with participatory design. fig. 1: transporting one of the 14 payphones that were purchased on ebay for repurposing and investigation. during the first several months of the project, participants launched a bottom-up collaborative for their designs called the leimert phone company. from this collaborative, three payphone plans emerged, each re-imagining the telephone for neighborhood social goals, specifically: the "transmedia storytelling" group focused on ways to distribute historical or personal stories around the neighborhood while directing participants to local businesses with discoverable coupons. the "dial-a-track" group envisioned new forms of distributing local music through the payphone portal. the "art buzz" group sought to publicize or help visitors navigate to local art galleries and exhibition spaces -see figure 2 for its totem pole visuals, extending a history of what has been called "art by telephone" (de souza e silva, 2004). beyond individual designs, the umbrella process was valuable for the community to reframe the payphone "problem," and then to build neighborhood support for localizing payphone design. fig. 2: this totem pole design embodies a culture-up approach for rethinking the payphone from group "art buzz", which sought to connect the local arts district and make digital ties to the traditionally offline. beginning with payphones, this study proposes a methodology for the "social scaffolding" to sustain socially-embedded design. early findings show potential on several fronts, including: (a) civic engagement where socio-technical systems meet; (b) shifts in power relations for the technology and neighborhood design process; and (c) addressing neighborhood economic development by deepening regional distinctions. taken together, the deeper opportunity may be how the methodology can unite constituents in defining the problem and building social capital for multiple technology solutions (following agonistic design per björgvinsson, ehn, & hillgren, 2012; disalvo, 2010), rather than to "solve" the problem for any one social need. without this special care, technology design tends to identify a single "best" prototype; by contrast, agonistic design can help sustain the pluralism that is necessary in planning and civic life. these findings will be discussed in detail at the end of the paper. what exactly is broken: payphone or civic engagement? increasingly, new technologies especially basic pervasive and ubiquitous technologies (satyanarayanan, 2001) are blurring the target of traditional planning with informatics, as physical space overlaps with digital flows (castells, fernandez-ardevol, qiu, & sey, 2006; ling & campbell, 2009). consider payphones: they are part of public space, can be part of the neighborhood culture, but they are also clearly a technology. in the united states, fewer than 500,000 are presumed to be in use today1 , although cities like new york city are still reported to have at least 10,000 (albanesius, 2012). from a single-use lens, current payphones can be reductively understood as kiosks, much like atms and gas station islands. yet their future might only incidentally concern telephony; instead, like smartphones they may end up serving many other functions, from video to maps for cultural navigation, from web browsers to being community storytelling tools. thus the word 'phone' is misleading (given its greek roots as "distant voice"). in an increasingly mobile world, there is distinct value in how phone booths create a bridge from online flows to reliable physical coordinates in public space. one barrier to planning for the future of payphones is a limited public understanding. failing to understand the consequences of a technology (like payphones) is akin to suppressing the public's right to form, discuss and mobilize. in the language of john dewey, publics form in response to everyday life and its problems (1927), so a failure to understand the problem prevents adequate public debate. fortunately, the very blight of aging payphones can be a hidden blessing, since problematic technologies in urban space can actually spur the community to respond (disalvo, 2009; marres, 2005) and collectively diagnose the problem. to investigate payphone redesign from a bottom-up engagement perspective, we begin with a single (problematic) payphone. a broken payphone: an opening in leimert park in historic leimert park, it was a broken payphone that started the design process from the bottom up (see figure 3 below). local business owner ben caldwell asked: "if i own the wires that run to that phone, what can be done with it? right now it attracts vandalism, and hurts the neighborhood." this framing was essential to opening the door; it named the problem, and advanced the problem-solving drive that is at the heart of both planning and technology design. more specifically, caldwell has raised the question of access in a way that pairs technical access (electrical wires) with issues of public space (sidewalk vandalism). his framing pushes beyond immediate users of the technology (payphone users) to consider the effect on the community, and to prioritize the consideration of unintended consequences like vandalism. issues like vandalism are what are called "neighborhood effects" that go beyond any one business, much like studies of social capital and its ties to crime and economic development (e.g., see sampson, 2012). in other words, caldwell's phrasing demands the mutual consideration of planning and technology that we call "deep engagement," and points to solutions that are socially embedded to address the neighborhood fabric. fig. 3: the simple payphone that started it all, in front of the leimert business of kaos networks, pictured with one of the community redesign participants. the history of this specific payphone is also telling: it rests on an ornate stand where it was installed in 1995 and initially drew more than $500 a month in quarters. but for the seven years prior to this case study it had been non-functional, ever since the private owner fell ill and his family rejected the declining business as not worth the trouble. unused, the booth took up space, gathered graffiti and a smell of urine. caldwell is a longtime artist whose storefront business kaos networks serves as a community space for multimedia arts in leimert park, just across from the main square. if planning is bottom-up, the point of departure must be a specific neighborhood. leimert park is a small los angeles neighborhood (1.19 square miles) with one of the largest concentrations of african-americans (79.6%) in the city.2 as a cultural hub, the neighborhood stands out as a beacon for african-american culture and arts -home at various points to ella fitzgerald, ray charles and former mayor tom bradley (exum & guiza-leimert, 2012, p. 9). filmmaker john singleton has called it "the black greenwich village" (hunt & ramon, 2010, p. 119). culturally, leimert park has an exceptional core that is simultaneously threatened in the next 5-15 years by projected growth and gentrification (kaplan, 2013). as a planned community developed in the 1920s, the unique layout of the central plaza provides a perfect venue for festivals, events, and protests (hunt & ramon, 2010). but the rich public space of the neighborhood is also ripe for redevelopment plans that come on the coattails of the proposed subway. throughout the project, caldwell invoked fears of a "proposed new subway line, which could drive a real estate rush. can abandoned phone booths somehow retain our cultural core?" as will turn out to be important, caldwell is also well networked to business and city leaders. yet caldwell was only half the story. the second half of the project came from a university group. matching the two groups was a central premise of the project, providing expertise and legitimacy from two poles. as depicted in figure 4, caldwell led the first group, aligned with bottom-up planning. the second group, based at the university of southern california, led the design of technology processes, broadly understood to include not simply the purely technical aspects but also their integration into user practices and interactive experiences. altogether, the project involved roughly 30 core participants and a dozen or so peripheral participants. this was a highly diverse group across many dimensions: it included more than 1/3 community participants and slightly less than 2/3 university participants; it was balanced in terms of gender and supported diverse racial and ethnic groups (56% white and 44% non-white, mostly african-american) a remarkably rare feature for technology-related endeavors. most were in their twenties (67%), although some participants were in their older teens and others over 50. the university participants were mostly graduate students and came predominantly from the schools of communication and cinematic arts, but included several students, alumni and faculty with training in computer science. the community participants claimed diverse occupations, including several high school students, a photographer/actress, a community organizer, an electrician, a musician/vegan cook, a filmmaker, a muralist, and hip-hop artists. peripheral participants were a similarly diverse group whose expertise was sought at specific points in the project. for example, a friend with welding expertise and equipment was roped in to offer a welding workshop when participants needed to fabricate solid bases for the payphones. (members of both groups share authorship of this paper in the tradition of participatory action research. a full list of participants can be found on the project site at http://leimertphonecompany.net/about-us/ ) fig. 4: the two groups behind the project, with matching expertise and interests that aligned to bottom-up planning, and participatory technology design. harder than it looks like oil and water why not a traditional technology process, especially a participatory one? at several points, leimert stakeholders pushed for the idea of a 'hackathon.'3 these marathon coding events are a recent form of open innovation (chesbrough, 2003; seltzer & mahmoudi, 2013), which pushes firms and governments alike to look outside their institutions to tap the ideas of ordinary customers and open discussion. however, in practice the focus of open innovation has been to recruit raw coding power, ideas or data not planning. if the goal is engagement and planning, the presumptions of technological literacy in hackathons can make them exclusionary. the most immediate limitation of tech-centric approaches is the equity of participation. technological expertise is not evenly distributed. the technological "participation gap" is one key indicator. as jenkins et al. (2007) have described, concerns over the digital divide are giving way to a gap in participation. if not traditional technology, what of planning? to tackle the phone booth, caldwell could have tapped into traditional city-led strategies. for example, he might have tapped into redevelopment projects, which in los angeles have largely focused on affordable housing (public counsel et al., 2012). yet partnership with grassroots organizations in "staged participation" is rarely as participatory as proponents claim (innes & booher, 2005). another barrier is that the issue focus of government-led planning often emphasizes basics like affordable housing; by comparison, technology innovation can seem a radical frame in low-income neighborhoods. the best alternative may be planning as "self-organization," which is more flexible but rarely has resources beyond the time provided by community members. caldwell was already a key force in organizing bottom-up events, including the regular "leimert park art walk" that included african masks and takes place monthly in leimert. yet technology was distant from all these modes of self-organization. caldwell had repeatedly struggled to sustain collaborations with technologists. too often, technology expertise was elusive and polarizing -something you "had or you didn't." in leimert, groups either seemed very tech savvy (like blacks in tech), or had no technology at all (like the art walk). as a result, integration of technology and culture seemed particularly challenging. prior attempts in leimert have separated like oil and water: either technology dominates the conversation (with large gaps in tech literacy, according to our interviews), or else the community resorts to cultural storytelling. in our years of experience, this seems to generalize; with a new bottom-up project, the separation often takes place in the very first meeting when one expertise is established as dominant. the conversation is either dominated by technologists describing "what is possible" in terms of code, or planners describing "what is possible" in terms of entrenched group politics. in other words, this is an epistemological problem that reveals differing practices and ways of problem-solving in the world. the challenge is thus how to sustain an open conversation in both domains. applying the "social scaffolding" can a deliberate methodology sustain deep engagement? engagement may be the central challenge for voluntary participation, but the term is broadly used and often under-theorized for bottom-up design and planning. for inspiration, we draw on the literature of neighborhood effects and civic engagement (kim & ball-rokeach, 2006a; sampson, 2012). in brief, residents who are locally engaged in neighborhood issues must have a sense of (1) what the neighborhood is its collective identity, (2) a feeling of being connected to the neighborhood known as collective belonging, and (3) that their participation will actually make a difference or what is called collective self-efficacy. for engagement the act of design is distinctive, since design gives participants something immediate to do. with this power comes some responsibility, since success can build self-efficacy, but failing can undermine it. low trust and resiliency is a recurrent problem in many historically marginalized neighborhoods, and net disengagement with a neighborhood is possible, if the design process is not structured carefully. the core problem we identify is that the process for design and planning often fails to deliberately build belonging and efficacy, and thus is limited for engagement especially for sustainable planning. this study defined a design methodology of "social scaffolding" in four parts. the 'scaffolding' refers to our goal of helping the group to perform beyond their immediate reach.4 in brief, the scaffolds are to: sustain a participatory culture. support a process that is playful and insistently open, feeding off the neighborhood's cultural practices. specifically, we echo the criteria outlined for participatory culture by jenkins et al. (2007), including low barriers to participation and ensuring that all contributions are appropriately valued. deepen a neighborhood story. the neighborhood identity has implications for economic development and civic engagement. rather than presume to invent the grand narrative or avoid it, find a way to retell it. begin by identifying the cultural assets that make the neighborhood distinct. especially for historically marginalized neighborhoods, telling the story of "who we are" gives power and roles for local voices that lack elite technology skills. mix technologies of old and new. frame the desired product as larger than any single technology, yet cheaper and more obvious than we might expect. for example, consider the role of "paper as mobile media." low-tech and low-cost shifts the conversation to planning the social side of socio-technical systems, and helps to build technology skills and confidence in design participants. rotate institutions. a central practice of planning is to look beyond the most immediate users to consider all stakeholder groups, including non-users. power relations between groups are at the heart of sustainability and equity concerns. to resist calcifying at one power hub, deliberately rotate the physical site of design, and recruit a rotating cast of institutional figures. the scaffolding in action in brief: after 14 payphones were purchased on ebay for a mere $309 usd in total, an intensive design process began. to balance the university and community, weekly meetings in early 2013 included one at a local university, alternating with one at a community hub for culture. groups formed to build coherence by creating specific design plans. most of the design took place in a single five-week window. throughout, facilitators structured the groups' activities to build a shared knowledge base, including some basics of welding, rapid prototyping, local music and arts culture, and python programming for raspberry pis. the three design plans that emerged were validated at a community "pitch-fest" to build stakeholder support, raise funds, and build a public constituency in support of the proposed technology. the productive drama and details of this process are described below, illustrating how the social scaffolding functioned in the leimert park case. sustaining a participatory culture in leimert the facilitators sought to sustain a process that would outlast a single technology, and thus cultivated a broader set of behaviors and social practices. we parallel jenkins' description of participatory culture (delwiche & henderson, 2012; jenkins et al., 2007), as a useful frame for the essential elements, including having low barriers to entry/expression, supports for sharing one's creations, mentorship, and some degree of social connection, where members believe that their contributions will be valued. importantly, these features were echoed in face-to-face outreach, not just open-source code repositories. an "open door" was literally propped at kaos networks for strangers to wander in off the street, with food circulating and music and often african drums being played in the design space. these practices also contrasted with traditional planning, with its end-driven process to achieve a narrow result. the role for "friends of the project" provides a good illustration of the participatory culture, in contrast to the more instrumental approaches typical in city planning and technology design. the "friends" had episodic involvement yet were still considered members, echoing the legitimate peripheral participation (lave & wenger, 1991) that underscores communities of practice. just as importantly, the contributions of peripheral members were diversely valued, as opposed to many technology projects where the 'openness' is restricted to open-source code. contributions from the "friends of the project" ranged from hiphop artists who contributed rhymes, to celebrity judges who agreed to comment on the three prototype designs, shop-owners who played a cameo role in prototype videos, local merchants who supplied food and drinks for design sessions, and even an artist who taught welding skills on the phone base. broad peripheral participation created a network of supporters who remain engaged with the project and could be mobilized to build support and neighborhood legitimacy, with on-going loose ties to the more regular participants. seeking to start a participatory culture from scratch is dangerously presumptive, especially given the power dynamics of historically marginalized communities like leimert. instead, we sought to tap existing cultural momentum in hopes of sustaining participatory practices. in leimert park culture momentum was particularly strong around music, going back to the historic figures mentioned above such as ella fitzgerald. the scene remains vibrant: within the last 20 years the hiphop community has involved notable artists such as jurassic 5 and abstract rude. collaborations emerged most prominently through a monthly workshop called "bananas/project blowed" that asserts it is the longest running open-mic hiphop event in the world. occupying the physical space of project blowed was valuable to set the design culture for the payphone project. whenever technology literacy seemed daunting, kaos leaders would remind everyone that the success of hiphop also depends on remix, repurposing, and appropriating technology. energy was kept high by fieldtrips late at night to hiphop freestyle sessions. artists were aggressively recruited. by legitimizing technology in terms of culture, we resisted the temptation to cede leadership to technologists. everyone was invited to participate, and to legitimize a range of complementary expertise. maintaining such cognitive diversity (page, 2008) is essential for addressing the wicked problems at the heart of most social issues and urban planning. one key innovation was to iteratively create media, especially videos, which told the story of production alongside the evolving group vision. almost every meeting concluded with a set of deliverables and design teams reporting back to the larger group. these deliverables took the form of design mockups, asset charts, performances, and videos. the design fiction or "scenario" videos sought to succinctly portray how each team's design would function in public space. early sessions would spur groups to actually perform as the payphone (figure 5), alongside traditional users and more passive bystanders. drama prototyping has previously been applied effectively for prototyping urban furniture, including augmented swingsets for children and large public screens (rubegni, memarovic, & langheinrich, 2012). in leimert, the performances helped to concretize weekly deliverables and work out an embodied sense of what the social relations around the payphones might look like. fig. 5: video-based prototypes aligned with the cultural practices in leimert: (at left) role-playing and drama prototyping that involved giving the phone a persona; and (at right) a portable version of a modified payphone for public theatrical performances. taking the performances further, teams also came up with more polished design fiction videos called "scenarios". scenarios provide a compressed means for presenting short stories about the use of technological designs, contextualized within their setting (iacucci & kuutti, 2002). much like the drama prototyping, scenarios were a way to concretize multiple design concepts into an elegant example of the total user experience. in video form, scenario prototypes allowed teams to create speculative evidence of how their design would function, similar to planning proposals. the videos help to sustain the participatory culture through distribution. key videos were published online, cross-posted to social media, and promoted in weekly email summaries. in other words, there was a deliberate social media strategy -beyond project management -to actively tell the story of production, and feed the participatory culture. deepening a neighborhood story "i think what we're missing... is a narrative. people can't find meaning out of leimert park anymore." c.z. wilson, local business owner for many technologists, the "neighborhood story" may be a surprising scaffold. yet the concept is powerful, first to shift the technology frame, and then to prioritize local assets in the design process. perhaps most surprising, the neighborhood story also has implications for local economic development and increased civic engagement. neighborhood stories are simple narratives of "who we are, and why we are distinct."5 but there is a deep shift for technology design that comes with prioritizing the neighborhood story. most importantly for process, the neighborhood story shifts attention beyond technologies that serve individuals, to consider technologies of the community. how? consider one design group, conveniently nicknamed "transmedia storytelling." this group wanted to redesign the payphone as a storytelling hub, where participants could record a personal narrative or hear a curated tale. cultivating a neighborhood-level story was initially a simple content filter, restricting the instructions to recruit stories about the community's origins, values and future. yet the team soon realized that deeper engagement mechanics were also possible; for example, the payphone could structure a scavenger hunt, sending visitors from payphone-based clues into local businesses, gathering interviews and trading stories. such experiential challenges were harder to design and fundamentally different in effect since they would build active social capital between residents (echoing the linking of gómez, 2013). their target is the social fabric of the community. seeking neighborhood stories helped to keep the focus on the immediate local community. to tell the neighborhood story, the physical geography, architecture and community history are all key actors in the tale. so are local events. half the design sessions took place across from the central park of the neighborhood with its drum circles and weekly african-american street fairs -but also a highly visible homeless population. looking for the neighborhood story regularly pulled designs to consider interfacing with the park and its inhabitants. for the design process, neighborhood stories were pursued by tapping into the 'cultural assets' of the location. for example, during one design meeting at the community location, teams traveled around a threeor four-block radius to identify the assets of the neighborhood. the approach draws on asset-based community development (kretzmann & mcknight, 1993), which aligns with bottom-up planning. both local community members and academic members explored the streets and took photos or short videos of things that stood out to them because of social, aesthetic, or cultural significance. when captured in group stories, the assets were connected to the concerns of the anticipated audience, all tied to the same geographic space. the approach thus maintained an emphasis on the situated knowledge (light, egglestone, wakeford, & rogers, 2011) of the community, in contrast to technologies that define neighborhood simply in terms of geo-coordinates. one of the designs particularly embodied the neighborhood story. the "dial-a-track" group envisioned a novel form of distributing local music through the payphone. a number of the group participants were musicians already tied to the "bananas" hip-hop events. their motivation for participating was often highly personal. for example, one participant emphasized that he needed to "sustain my finances through art...so i have to find new ways to be innovative." he feared his music was getting lost on the globally-flat internet. by participating in the design process, this young man hoped to better distribute his own music, and simultaneously deepen its ties to the physical neighborhood. slowly, the music team found ties to local assets. they ultimately conceptualized a way to create (1) a listening booth to preview local artists' music, and (2) sell tickets to local hip-hop events in the neighborhood. (see also their pitch video.) then they pushed to embody the neighborhood story, using the payphone to create relationships. they proposed to use the phone to play music through large speakers, creating spontaneous events to spark conversation or dancing. before the technical code was ready, the group tested the payphone as a public site for performance. at a "bananas" performance, the group set up a microphone and speaker in front of the broken kaos payphone. with great enthusiasm, rappers began joining in a circle and freestyling about the payphone and the associations that it conjured. people passing by were so intrigued that they decided to stick around and watch the show or contribute a few lines rapping about the payphone. the success of that night led the group to release a "rap the phone" video online shortly afterward. debate about the "rap the phone" video also revealed cultural fault lines that were an implicit sign of success. specifically, one older participant warned that blasting hip-hop would annoy the old-timers, and urged the group to restrict payphone-amplified music to the jazz of famous (deceased) residents. a debate ensued about editorial policies in public space, similar problems with the drum circle in the park, and whether technology could ease friction in the selection process. of course, collective identity is contested in any community, and neighborhoods themselves are fundamentally imagined just like nation states (anderson, 1983). strong neighborhoods have powerful identities, and in their name residents can take collective action. the implicit success of the debates in leimert is that the terms of the debate around the neighborhood identity aligned with community planning, with its contestations over "who we are" and where to go next. greater civic engagement is an implicit reason to deepen neighborhood storytelling. for bottom-up planning, voluntary engagement is a prerequisite to any action. research on neighborhood storytelling has shown that civic engagement is associated with strong networks that tell neighborhood stories including local media, residents in face-to-face conversation, and community-based organizations (kim & ball-rokeach, 2006a). several of these dimensions are included in designs like dial-a-track, including catalyzing interpersonal conversation in public space and connecting to neighborhood organizations. the third dimension, local media, appeared quickly during the design process, with coverage of the design appearing in the los angeles times as well as even more hyper-local outlets like intersections south la and kcet departures (see the project's summary of news coverage). economics a central driver of urban planning is a final reason to focus on the neighborhood story. as part of the creative economy (florida, 2007), art clusters like leimert park have a particular role in recruiting talent, despite the risks of gentrification. for leimert, the arts are known but the connection to technology appears to be missing. from our interviews, several business owners and technologists expressed concern that talented african-american youth had nowhere locally to take their technology skills and passions, and so they were leaving in droves, taking their talent with them. in search of strategies, funders like the national endowment for the arts are increasing support for "creative placemaking" grants (nicodemus, 2013). yet few such placemaking strategies address technology. to bridge innovation with placemaking, the neighborhood story provides a promising scaffold for broader use. mixing technologies of old and new the third scaffold redefines "good technology" as a literal mix of old and new. gaps in technology expertise are a major concern for planning any public technology. technological divides mean that planners cannot meaningfully involve community members or team partners in significant collaboration, and are thus often forced to relegate technology to experts. even in community-based solutions, some technological literacy is needed in order to maximize the potential of group members in the design process. combinations of old and new can help shift to the social side of socio-technical systems. without an explicit focus on the old, the new can easily take over.6 we find that an archeological approach proves useful, alongside low-cost technologies of the present. for example, hulking payphones can now fit an entire raspberry pi computer inside (as per figure 6). to embrace the old, we also draw on design strategies of appropriation, creolization, and even cannibalism (bar, pisani, & weber, 2007; schiavo, rodríguez, & vera, 2013). moving indirectly and iteratively can be an important approach for deepening technology literacy. fig 6: the raspberry pi and new circuitry can be easily installed in a plastic project box inside a payphone in leimert, the archeological approach was inspired by the physical presence of the 14 ancient payphones from ebay. participants wondered: what could be inside? the phones' cost was low, creating a buffer for mistakes and fostering openness to experimentation. one group of participants catalogued the contents of several phones (see figure 7), investigating old technology in order to gain fresh eyes. fig. 7: findings from the payphone deconstruction, which yielded more than a hundred dollars in quarters, as well as a sense of accessibility to less technical-savvy participants. on the left is a diagram of the phone's parts; the right is the inventory from a single payphone, including cash and lottery stubs found inside. focusing on low-cost and low-tech can also help to resist the high-tech lure. very simple pervasive technologies can be embedded in the neighborhood. for example, printed qr codes on store windows can reveal and structure participation in a business network beyond the street grid. in this way, paper can be a core technology to structure neighborhood activity. therefore, all groups were encouraged to attempt paper prototypes and to consider paper as a genuine component of their design. ironically, the very passiveness and non-interactivity of low-tech solutions like paper can help align with planning, where non-users are a more central concern. furthermore, most users of neighborhood technologies prefer to initially observe and consume, rather than directly use or contribute (saad-sulonen, 2005). as one group discovered with "rap the phone", the physical footprint of the phone booth in the neighborhood can support and legitimize peripheral participation, unlike peering over someone's shoulder at a mobile phone screen. our hacking process thus involved dismantling the phone to understand its constituent parts, then establishing an inventory of all the "triggers" we would be able to use in re-purposing its functions: twelve keypad buttons, one switch detecting whether the handset is onor off-hook, the coin-sorting mechanism detecting what coin has been inserted (and rejecting foreign coins or slugs). we then set out to detect these triggers and pass that information on to the raspberrypi. this turned out to be more complex than anticipated, as the phone triggers are analog and the pi expects digital inputs. we ended up designing a simple circuit to allow the raspberrypi to detect keypad entry and coin drops on the payphone, which we later could have manufactured as a printed circuit board. the software portion of the technical system was then comparatively straightforward. we wrote simple python scripts running on the raspberrypi, instructing the pi to perform certain actions when a particular trigger is detected: these are variants on simple logic such as "when the handset is picked up, play the welcome message sound file which instructs people to press buttons"; "when a press on keypad number three is detected, play this music file". the possibilities are quite wide ranging, since we can detect multiple trigger sequences (e.g. someone playing 'chords' on the keypad) and instruct the raspberry pi to perform a variety of actions (e.g. play videos, connect to the internet, send a social media message, etc.). at this point however, we have only scratched the surface of these possibilities. we hope soon to release the open-sourced specifications of our "piphone" kit and encourage others to experiment.7 mixing old with new technology helped to sustain a longer conversation about the right approach. going further to echo agonistic design, there may be particular value for marginalized groups in supporting a plurality of ideas throughout the process (björgvinsson et al., 2012), resisting the temptation to seek consensus. multiple solutions were encouraged by how the three payphone design groups were configured (each with a mix of university and community members). pockets of expertise were encouraged, echoing the 'lego approach' of heaton and colleagues (2013). resisting convergence on a single design helped to build trust between stakeholders, and develop a conversation about what the neighborhood could be. old technologies help to invoke the neighborhood's past, and build sensitivity to older residents. aging payphones also raise questions of evolving infrastructure. considering a payphone network (beyond any one phone) aligns with the urban planning emphasis on public infrastructure and public goods. in leimert, we found that some of the more innovative ideas emerged from alternating between the levels of single prototype and infrastructure. for example, talk of public infrastructure in leimert turned quickly to public libraries and homeless shelters and how a payphone could give directions, or extend information services onto the street. the approach aligns with a design strategy called 'infrastructuring' (björgvinsson et al., 2012), where the old and new are more continuously integrated.8 rotating institutions a central concern for planning is to secure cooperation from local stakeholder groups. such consideration is far beyond participatory design, which traditionally emphasizes binary power relations in a workplace. even community-based participatory design (disalvo et al., 2013) typically has an inward focus. by contrast, planning with neighborhoods like leimert park only makes sense from a broader view: in relation to other los angeles neighborhoods and key institutions. one scaffolding approach is to deliberately alternate design activities between a community organization and the university, and to recruit other stakeholders throughout the process. the most problematic stakeholder in the payphone design process was probably the university of southern california. in multiple interviews, community members expressed fear that the university would "steal" the payphone idea and profit from it. such concerns go beyond the privileging of academic knowledge identified by light, egglestone, wakeford and rogers (2011). to answer profit concerns in the short term, the group made most intellectual property open, and shared any copyright with the community partner (kaos networks). in addition, the university itself has a complicated relationship with the under-privileged neighborhood that surrounds it. while the university offers much support to nearby schools and communities organizations under its "good neighbor" program, it has also been building a fence around its campus and advises students during orientation against venturing in the surrounding neighborhood, depicted as dangerous. all in all, this creates challenging conditions for collaboration. however, to take seriously the longer-term concerns of urban planning, we recognized that trust is often best built in person (not just through legal agreements). rather than picking one site for design, the payphone team developed a strategy of alternating between the university of southern california (usc) and the community site (a 10 minute drive away). the goal was to build the network relations and social capital that could only be done at that site. so on wednesdays, when the full group gathered at usc, special effort was made to invite deans who might have a personal interest, such as in african-american culture. and on saturdays, when the full group was at kaos networks, special effort was made to invite key local residents such as business owners. recruiting input from stakeholders also made the process function more like planning, with unexpected benefits for design. for example, in leimert the group invited brenda shockley, a key member of the local business improvement district (bid). the bid is the focal point for business interests in the area. brenda challenged the group to see if payphones could create greater foot traffic to local businesses. one group investigated, taking their design to art galleries and calling themselves the "art buzz". the "art buzz" group tapped the bid network, focusing on the owner of one local art gallery in particular. the gallery became the grounding focus for their design scenario video (see figure 8). the video was shot on location in the gallery and helped to further concretize the direct effects of the phone on the local community and its economy. fig. 8: the "art buzz" group amid a scenario trial. their design sought to help visitors navigate local art galleries and exhibition spaces. when a user approached the phone, they could peer into an expanded coin slot to see a rotating photo gallery of local art works. based on their keypad entries, a map would show them how to navigate to the gallery, and when events were being held. see also the group's concept video at the end of the initial design period, the networks were joined in person at one site for a community "pitch-fest." each team took to the stage of kaos networks, with a prominently displayed phonebooth including a number of newly embedded technologies. yet the emphasis was on their design videos as a kind of community plan for the technology, seeking further input. veteran judges were recruited, but less on traditional academic expertise than on their role in relation to stakeholder groups: one was a leader in the nonprofit sector, another a local business person, and a third was a usc professor. naturally they had other personal identities as well, often intersecting with the neighborhood itself. yet their public statements felt curiously like testimony at a public hearing, demanding quality for the future of leimert. the recommendations of the judges ultimately returned to the neighborhood story, serving as a kind of validation for the design approach. two of the three emphasized in their remarks that the neighborhood especially needed a narrative to capture its evolving identity a way to connect its famous past to a sustainable future. certainly they liked the municipal wifi, but they also wanted to know how the payphone could deliver a story tied to economic returns an equivalent to the story of "silicon valley" and its tech clusters, or the "napa wine region" with its bottled brand. implications and reflections modern neighborhoods are hybrids, emerging from the planning of physical space and increasingly digital layers of mediated communication (gordon & de souza e silva, 2011). yet prior research on participatory planning has been relatively isolated from work on participatory design (e.g., in e-planning per saad-sulonen, 2013). current social models, including civic hackathons and community planning meetings, tend to privilege one kind of expertise at a time, at best designing a technology to address a community issue. the process rarely combines the user-centered methods of designing technology with planning's explicit processes of community-centered negotiation. this study proposes a novel approach to combining planning with participatory technology design. we argue that not all technologies are suitable, nor all kinds of planning. in particular, we bring specificity to the call of gurstein (2007) for community informatics to appropriate existing technology, as well as the 'infrastructuring' of björgvinsson et al. (2012). in particular, this study contributes to the literature on participatory planning by defining a legitimate area of overlap: designs that seek to be "socially embedded" in physical space, building community coherence (kim & ball-rokeach, 2006a) through a process of "deep engagement" in both planning and design. the central challenge is not technical but how to sustain the social scaffolding, especially for underserved neighborhoods with low levels of technology literacy. process and outcome summary the process in leimert was galvanized by making something half prototype, half community plan. at first glance, traditional technologists might be disappointed that there was no immediate software launch (although a very real product is under construction). likewise, planners might miss a written plan with established indicators. but for our framework, neither is the immediate goal. instead, our framework reveals the importance of a process that builds the neighborhood capacity to plan for local technology, and to foster the social capital, sense of belonging and efficacy that lead to civic engagement for the long term (kim & ball-rokeach, 2006b). several indicators stood out. for example, participants had a greatly increased capacity around what we have come to call 'payphone politics' like identifying the hidden power relations and functions of payphones, and involving diverse constituents in reflecting on the feasibility of change. our methodology brings technology design more deeply into the established phases of participatory planning. traditionally, information and communication technologies are invoked in the "expressive" phase of participatory planning (horelli, 2002; saad-sulonen & horelli, 2010). (the full process outlined by horelli begins with a diagnostic phase, then expressive, conceptual, organizational and finally political phases.) certainly much of the payphone work was solidly in the expressive phase. yet the leimert case is also profoundly diagnostic, helping to identify community priorities and planning opportunities. just as importantly, the leimert case also extends to the political, since the process was carefully structured to build community support and raise funds for investment in one or more of the prototypes. in brief, the phases for the proposed model can be summarized as: (1) diagnosing a public technology, especially one that is broken or not focused on the local community; (2) expressing possible solutions as plans and technologies by embodying them; (3) politically articulating the socio-technical designs to local stakeholders and organizations; (4) if political will and funding can be secured, then implementing the plan/technology through further participatory design. we should not of course underplay the importance of delivering something in the early phases it is indeed important for both community and academic participants to have something to show for their efforts (if only for the efficacy measures tied to community empowerment). what that product is, however, should not be overly constrained since the goal is to build a responsive capacity through a portfolio of products, not a consensus design. the importance of agonistic design (björgvinsson et al., 2012) becomes increasingly important as design shifts toward planning, since technologies in public space structure participation, and diverse communities have varied modes of participation. methodologically, the "social scaffolding" provides a deliberate recipe to sustain deep engagement. each of the four steps is a useful constraint, narrowing the kind of technology design to be compatible with bottom-up planning, and vice-versa. the first step is to invite participation in a participatory culture, including low barriers to entry and recognition for meaningful contributions whether as code or a video. more radical for technologists is the call to deepen a neighborhood story, using local culture to tell the story of "who we are," and to build the collective brand. thus one theoretical contribution of this paper is to introduce and demonstrate neighborhood storytelling (kim & ball-rokeach, 2006a) as a framework to bridge participatory planning with informatics and technology design. in terms of mixing technologies of old and new, this study finds that it is productive to focus on re-inventing existing urban objects. they are public, familiar, yet obsolete and neglected. bringing them back to a second life creates surprise and wonder, inviting people more broadly to re-examine other features of their neighborhood which they were taking for granted. in particular, we do not claim that the object itself is a profound innovation. but rather the process of its archeology and rebuilding, its placement in public space, and the conversation across generations all bring new and more honest eyes to recent technologies. thus the shift toward planning benefits from modes of participatory design that emphasize appropriation (e.g., bar et al., 2007). by rotating institutions, we shift the focus slightly away from the hot contentious issues, and offer a less confrontational, more whimsical opening for community conversation. through alternating between physical sites, each place can bring its own authentic networks. inviting stakeholders into physical space, and paying attention to their ideas, can build trust. this takes time, and in the case of university-community relations the horizon is often long indeed. but eventually the process should allow people to build common ground that will in turn prove useful when confronting the really contentious issues; this would be useful grounds for future research. theoretically, this finding contributes to the literature on community informatics by showing how the turn toward planning necessitates going beyond user-centered design to additionally adopt the organization-centered approaches used in planning. our process served as a platform for planning, with social scaffolding to sustain interest in a public technology and articulate the community stakes. prior to the process, there was little understanding of payphone politics. rather than deliver a design "solution," the process sustained a provocation that invited residents and passers-by to re-examine neighborhood characteristics and priorities. the design process was thus a new way to reflect on public space in terms of technology, sustaining planning conversations among people who would otherwise not engage with technology design. perhaps the best indicator for deep engagement across fields is shared language. building common language is an important component of participatory development and systems design (dearden & rizvi, 2008). media outlets like the la times also played a role in sustaining the conversation, internally and with stakeholders. specifically, media attention helped legitimize this community project in the eyes of neighborhood organizations, even as it provided respectability within the university for our unconventional work with unusual technologies. while the kick-off project was completed after just a few months, culminating in a public unveiling of three prototypes in late spring, a core subset of the group remains involved. six members of the group traveled to detroit several months after the pitch-fest to share the approach, and urge other cities to consider payphone localization. we have since completed a physical design, dubbed "sankofa red", launched in december 2013 (see figure 9). fig. 9: sankofa red prototype, launched december 2013 broader implications the future of local communities may depend on their ability to plan their own technology, including payphones. deep engagement may be necessary to sustain a conversation across the disciplines of participatory planning and technology design. our framework provides a methodology to help situate engagement in physical streets, living communities and local networks. for planning, the approach helps tackle a specific set of local planning issues, especially around localizing technology and understanding the planning of complex socio-technical systems. rather than simply consulting residents (i.e., those who live in leimert), the proposed process provides an entry point for a diaspora of stakeholders who are investing in the community. legitimizing the peripheral participation of 'friends of leimert' as loose ties and through sporadic participation was an important bridge from traditional technology design toward participatory planning. in a small way, the project helps to shift the basis for civic engagement around technology toward modes of community planning, adding the voices of stakeholders to those of explicit users, toward planning communities in story and code. endnotes 1a decline over the decade leading to 2009 showed payphones dropping from 2.1 to 0.5 million, including independent operators (trends in telephone service, 2010); this is the last year the report was issued by the us federal communications commission. 2 see la times neighborhood profile at http://maps.latimes.com/neighborhoods/neighborhood/leimert-park/ 3in fact, as part of the white house national day of "civic hacking," community partner kaos network hosted a discussion of hacking tactics for the project. see http://leimertphonecompany.net/day-of-civic-hacking/ 4scaffolding is a term borrowed from the learning sciences, including an explanation for how technology can "scaffold" tasks to empower learners beyond their independent ability. for an overview of the rich debates that give substance to scaffolding as a metaphor for collective work and informal learning, see pea (2004). 5neighborhood stories are essential to the collective identity. strong neighborhoods go beyond their geography; they are place-based communities products of human history and the cultural imagination, "imagined into being" much like nation states (anderson, 1983). 6for example, new york city held a payphone redesign competition in 2013, with a decidedly high-tech winner that included a 10-foot-tall double-sided touchscreen. 7team members andrew schrock and sabelo mhlambi led much of the development of the circuit board and piphone kit. for details, see http://leimertphonecompany.net/piphone/ 8infrastructuring contrasts with the more fixed nature of 'infrastructure' as a mechanical substrate for building upon; 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(2010). the value of community informatics to participatory urban planning and design: a case-study in helsinki. the journal of community informatics, 6(2). retrieved april 30, 2014, from http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/viewarticle/579 sampson, r. j. (2012). great american city: chicago and the enduring neighborhood effect. chicago, il: university of chicago press. sandercock, l. (2004). towards a planning imagination for the 21st century. journal of the american planning association, 70(2), 133-141. satyanarayanan, m. (2001). pervasive computing: vision and challenges. personal communications, ieee, 8(4), 10-17. schiavo, e., rodríguez, s., & vera, p. (2013). appropriation of icts by informal communities in metropolitan cities. the case of the "la salada" market in the latin american context. the journal of community informatics, 9(3). retrieved december 6, 2013, from http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/715 seltzer, e., & mahmoudi, d. (2013). citizen participation, open innovation, and crowdsourcing challenges and opportunities for planning. journal of planning literature, 28(1), 3-18. simonsen, j., & robertson, t. (2012). routledge international handbook of participatory design. new york, ny: routledge. trends in telephone service. (2010). industry analysis and technology division, wireline competition bureau. federal communications commission. retrieved from http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/doc-301823a1.pdf 1391 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles mobisam: reflections from a four year case study using technology to increase participation in local government in south africa this paper reflects on a four year evaluation on the use of a mobile platform, mobisam, to support increased participation in local government. it describes the lessons learnt in the design, development and evaluation of the initiative. mobisam uses a community based co-design methodology, emphasizing the importance of community’s voices throughout the design and evaluation of the project. attention is drawn to the education and awareness raising interventions undertaken in order to scaffold the deployment of the system. a discussion of the findings of the project is also provided in order for other actors in the field to learn from mobisam’s successes and failures. special attention is focused on the political stability and communication capacity required to successfully undertake initiatives such as this. introduction the south african constitution (republic of south africa, 1996) makes municipalities responsible for delivering (among other things) basic services such as electricity, water, sanitation, and refuse removal. because of their proximity to citizens, they are also constitutionally mandated “to provide democratic and accountable government for local communities” and “to encourage the involvement of communities and community organizations in the matters of local government”. south african municipalities are !25 hannah thinyane united nations university institute of computing and society, macao rhodes university, south africa corresponding author. hannah@unu.edu ingrid siebörger rhodes university, south africa i.sieborger@ru.ac.za thinyane, h., sieborger, i. (2017). mobisam: reflections from a four year case study using technology to increase participation in local government in south africa. the journal of community informatics, 13(1), 25—49. date submitted: 2015-12-06. date accepted: 2017-02-27. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1391 . http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1391 mailto:hannah@unu.edu mailto:i.sieborger@ru.ac.za http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1391 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 therefore responsible for ensuring service delivery, accountability and participation at the local government level in order to realize meaningful developmental democracy. local government in south africa (for the most part) falls far short of this mandate. prominent commentators have attributed this lack of delivery of basic services across the population to a lack of accountability at local government level, particularly with respect to a lack of public participation (heller, 2009). more recently pravin gordon, the then (2014) minister for co-operative governance & traditional affairs noted that the main problems faced by local government in south africa are “a communication breakdown between councils and citizens; no accountability; political interference in administrations; corruption; fraud; bad management; violent service delivery protests; factionalism; and depleted municipal capacity” (lund, 2014, p. 1). despite the numerous challenges, local government structures offer meaningful opportunities for increased citizen participation. the immediacy of people’s needs and the proximity of government to those who elected them provide increased motivation for participation. the key to success, however, is to ensure the meaningful, informed and effective participation of citizens in government processes, and to provide the mechanisms and skills to hold service providers to account for their performance in managing public resources and delivering services. this paper reflects on a four year, ford foundation funded research project, mobisam, investigating the use of mobile phones as such a mechanism for increasing communication between citizens and their government. mobisam consists of two separate, yet equally important, parts. firstly, it offers a sound methodology which enables civic actors to engage in evidence-based monitoring in order to participate meaningfully in local governance processes. one of the most rigorous and successful methodologies is social accountability monitoring (or sam), developed by the centre for social accountability and now used by civic actors in several sadc countries. secondly, it offers a set of popularly accessible tools and mechanisms to facilitate participation in local governance processes. mobile phones offer civic actors an opportunity to express their needs and engage with local governments in ways that have not yet been harnessed. the final section of this paper presents a discussion on the latter of these, by illustrating the process of designing, developing and evaluating the mobisam tools. the remainder of this section describes the sam methodology. the sam methodology offers civic actors a rights-based and evidence-based framework for understanding and participating in government service delivery processes. it is premised on the argument that social accountability is the: right to obtain justifications and explanations for the way in which public resources are managed (whether by public officials or private service providers) and to obtain justifications for the way in which these resources serve to progressively realise people’s human rights (in particular their socio-economic rights). this definition requires that officials take corrective action in response to instances of the ineffective use or abuse of resources in order to prevent their recurrence (centre for social accountability, 2011, p. 1). !26 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 according to sam, the way in which public resources can be effectively and accountably managed is through the implementation of a social accountability system consisting of five inter-dependent processes: • process 1: resource allocation and strategic planning • process 2: expenditure management • process 3: performance management • process 4: preventative and corrective action • process 5: accountability to oversight these five processes map onto the public resource management system. while municipalities need to effectively implement these five processes in order to deliver services, each process also represents an opportunity for civic actors to meaningfully participate in local government. the sam methodology describes tools and activities for citizens to engage in each process by interrogating the government documents the processes produce (including budgets, plans, financial reports, performance reports, audit findings and oversight committee minutes). equipped with both findings and an understanding of how government processes (should) operate, citizens are able to engage in evidence-based advocacy, demanding justifications and explanations for government performance and, where necessary, corrective action. furthermore, by engaging with each of the five processes over time, citizens can ensure systemic issues hampering service delivery are addressed. for example, should a municipality fail to deliver a service (despite available funds) due to a lack of suitably skilled staff, citizens can advocate that funds are allocated and plans developed to build capacity in the municipality (whether through training or recruitment) the following year to ensure that the service is delivered in subsequent years. by strengthening each of these five processes through active citizen participation, both service delivery and accountability are improved. mobisam represents an innovative opportunity to enhance sam work at the local level by complementing the desk-based analysis of official government documents (such as budgets, plans and reports) with real-time input and feedback from citizens. another important player in the mobisam project is local media. the aim of mobisam is to increase communication between citizens and local government. part of this project sought to identify the role that local media could play in this, by engaging with local government on behalf of citizens. related work mobisam focuses on increasing citizen participation in local government. although not e-government in itself, a number of lessons can be learned from e-government and m-government projects. this section first defines these terms, provides a discussion on existing projects, and relates them back to the context of developing countries. !27 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 in recent years there has been a great deal of interest in using technology to deliver government services to citizens, a process broadly seen as e-government. this consists of facilitating interaction between citizens and government (c2g), between government agencies (g2g), and between government and citizens (g2c) (fang, 2002). a number of different proponents argue: that the use of icts may help to overcome some of the problems of traditional participation methods, such as accessibility of information to citizens, facilitation of collecting, and analyzing and hence using the citizen views, as well as the cost-efficiency of the process (ertiö, 2013, p. 1). m-government initiatives consist of a subset of these e-government systems that involve the use of mobile phones to facilitate the interaction between the parties. although used around the world, m-government initiatives are particularly popular in developing countries, where access to fixed line infrastructure and desktop computing facilities is limited. as noted by poblet, these mobile systems can take advantage of “the most basic capacities of already existing technologies to reach broader population segments which otherwise would not have access to more costly and sophisticated technologies” (2011, p. 503). it is important to note that icts are being increasingly used to shift the paradigm of political communication. there have been numerous cases recently of mobile devices being used to help gather people for protests and the like, for example ushahidi in kenya (o’donnell, n.d.) and arab springs facilitated by the use of facebook and twitter. despite the potential of the devices, more is required than access to a new technology. as otieno notes, “the reality of widespread poverty, language barriers, and cost issues” are important to remember when considering the use of mobile phones (2009). wasserman also warns that access to mobile devices does not explicitly entail increased participation: [the] discourses around mobile phones make an interpretive leap from access figures to speculation about the impact of mobile phones on democracy and development without examining context (2011, p. 150). although researchers are unable to prove a causal link between participation and access to technology, there are a number of recent examples in africa where the use of mobile phones has resulted in increased citizen participation. ushahidi is one example. ushahidi, meaning “testimony” in swahili, was designed to “harness the benefits of crowdsourcing information (using a large group of people to report on a story) and facilitate the sharing of information in an environment where rumours and uncertainty were dominant” (okolloh, 2009). this webpage was developed after the post-election violence in kenya, when a wave of censorship of information in the media was felt. the ushahidi platform has since been successfully used in a number of different countries around the world. as stated by wasserman, technologies such as ushahidi are successful for “amplifying a brief political campaign or event but less successful in ensuring ‘ongoing and higher levels of accountability’”(2011, p. 152). however, as also noted by wasserman, “the surveillance of government also has to happen in between the !28 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ‘ritual of elections’… through ongoing social movement and civil society campaigns” (2011, p. 152). this gap is where mobisam is situated, particularly focusing on ongoing accountability and citizen monitoring outside of electoral cycles. providing a tool to support citizens in reporting service delivery issues is not a new concept. take for example find & fix by intervate , that allows citizens to report 1 problems with roads in johannesburg (traffic light issues, potholes, problems with signage, problems with drainage). in some ways, mobisam offers a similar functionality but includes a number of other considerations. as with intervate, mobisam allows citizens to report problems with service delivery issues directly to their local government. on top of this though, it includes a methodology for monitoring local government, specifically around the systemic issues that may result in poor levels of service delivery. from the citizens’ perspective, it also facilitates active citizenry, with multiple flows of information: upward, downward and lateral. upward refers to the flow of information mentioned above, where citizens report cases to local government. downward refers to communication from local government to citizens, with updates on reported cases and news of planned and unplanned outages. finally, mobisam supports lateral communication, where citizens can see outages reported by fellow citizens. as will be described in the discussion section, citizens found this to be a very useful feature of the system. research methodology a few definitions are required to understand how this research is situated within the broad field of citizen participation in local government. this section starts with a discussion of the viewpoint taken by this research in understanding the governance relationship between citizens and government. this is then followed by our definition of citizen participation. this research uses a rights-based perspective to understand the governance relationship between citizens and government. using this perspective, governance represents the balance between rights and responsibilities as citizens, and governments have the responsibility for providing, respecting and fulfilling citizens’ rights. an equally important component of this relationship is citizens having the responsibility to the state and to each other, in holding the government accountable for its responsibilities. these responsibilities include: monopoly over the legitimate use of force; revenue generation; safety, security and justice; basic service delivery; and economic governance (mcloughlin, 2009). citizens’ rights to basic service delivery (as well as other areas) can be secured through citizen participation and government responsiveness. arnstein (1969, p. 216) defines citizen participation as “the redistribution of power that enables the have-not citizens, presently excluded from the political and economic processes, to be deliberately included in the future.” she goes on to define a typology of eight levels of participation and non-participation (referred to as the ladder of citizen participation): manipulation, therapy, informing, consultation, placation, partnership, for more details see http://www.intervate.com/solutions/pages/jra.aspx 1 !29 http://www.intervate.com/solutions/pages/jra.aspx the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 delegated power, and citizen control. from lowest to highest rungs in the ladder, there is more inclusion of the citizen’s voice, as well as power to make sure their views will be considered. one of the first steps in facilitating citizen participation is to ensure two way communication can occur between local government and citizens, which is the foundation of this research. the mobisam project aims to improve communication between local government (municipalities) and its constituency (citizens), creating a two-way dialogue. the hypothesis, like the problem, is two-fold: • the mobisam application can improve the way citizens communicate with their municipality. citizens registered with mobisam are able to report service delivery-related concerns easily and efficiently. this hypothesis seeks to determine whether and under what conditions technology can facilitate better communication from citizens to their municipality. • the mobisam application can improve the way municipalities communicate with citizens. a municipality is able to provide quick, accurate feedback in response to citizens’ reports. they are also able to communicate scheduled outages and other important information to citizens. this hypothesis seeks to determine whether and under what conditions technology can facilitate better communication from municipalities to citizens. a by-product of the use of the mobisam system is accurate logs of service delivery issues. importantly, these logs are available to all participants. these logs can be used by: • local government, for short term (job scheduling, performance monitoring), and long term planning (identification of needs of the community, long-term planning procedures such as water services development plans) • citizens, civil society and local media, to support evidence based engagement with local government. it is assumed that improved communication will directly result in improved service delivery. for example, by reporting water outages or faults directly to those responsible for fixing them, the response time by the service providers will improve. in the case of burst pipes, water losses will be reduced with the improved response time and the water reticulation system is strengthened. it is also assumed that improved communication will improve the relationship between citizens and the municipality. by responding to reports by citizens, and reporting to citizens the work being done and the success of interventions made to address longstanding service delivery problems, citizens will see that ‘something is being done’ and their voices are heard. this may improve citizens’ perceptions of the municipality and increase their willingness to engage constructively with them to ensure the improvements continue. this may, in turn, foster a culture of citizen participation in the affairs of local government. !30 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 this project takes an interpretivist research approach, viewing the uptake and use of icts as “a process intertwined with social change – that is, a sociotechnical process as understood by social construction theory” (gigler, 2015, p. 65). stemming from this contextual view of the embeddedness of technology, this research uses a case study approach. a case study is defined as a “strategy for doing research which involves an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon in its real life context using multiple sources of evidence” (robson, 1993, p. 52). this approach allows researchers to focus on the primary strength of case study methodology, that it “enables the uncovering of events or processes that one might miss with more superficial methods” (erickson, 1986, p. 238). in doing so it allows researchers to investigate questions such as “how” icts can be used to increase citizen participation. critics of case study research often argue that it is too specific, and that findings of this type of research cannot be generalised to another population. yin argues that case studies, “like experiments, are generalizable to theoretical propositions and not to populations or universes… the investigator’s goal is to expand and generalize theories and not to enumerate frequencies” (1994, p. 10). this research used a community based co-design approach, which: is a way of exploring a design space in a way that alleviates the restrictions of the designer's own viewpoint and bias. in a cyclical fashion the designers develop according to their skills and learning and according to the users' expressed requirements and their learning. the researchers and the users are the design team. the combined approach, fusing action research, industrial design approaches, education and other societal measures was named “community based co-design” (blake, tucker, glaser, & freudenthal, 2011). in this research, the “community based” research focuses on makana municipality, a small municipality in the eastern cape province of south africa where stakeholders worked together to design and evaluate mobisam. the “co-design” component of the approach emphasises the importance of the stakeholders’ voice in the design process. the next section will provide contextual information on the municipality and the stakeholders who were involved in the research. there are a number of different interventions that are required to achieve the goal of improving communication between citizens and local government in the area of service delivery: an understanding of the current status quo; citizen education and awareness raising; and system development and evaluation. later on in the paper there is a description of each of these interventions separately, followed by a discussion. 
 !31 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 context makana municipality is situated in the eastern cape, one of south africa’s poorest provinces. the 4,375 km2 municipality is home to an estimated 80 389 people or 21 388 households (makana municipality, 2010). the area experiences a high unemployment rate (63.4%) and low levels of education (39.2% of makana citizens have received only primary level education or none at all) (makana municipality, 2010). the result is that 55.5% of makana citizens, in 2011, lived below the poverty line (makana municipality, 2010) (defined by statistics south africa as earning less than r801 per month, which equates to the earning bracket above the poverty line). the number of south africans in total at the same time living below the poverty line was 45.5% (statistics sa, 2012). efforts to alleviate poverty are hampered by a sluggish economy and there is an increasing dependency on social grants, with 45.5% of the total makana population receiving some form of government grant in 2011 (makana municipality, 2010) (compared with approximately 29% of the national population receiving some form of government grant in 2011 (statistics sa, 2012)). this places a significant burden on the municipality, particularly in delivering basic services. despite a r266 million budget in 2009/10 (south african treasury, 2010), only 21% of makana citizens have access to potable water and only 35% to sanitation (makana municipality, 2010). the municipality was ranked as the third worst performing municipality in the eastern cape province in 2011, with 2,507 instances of misspending (r19.8 million ), making up 9% of the total misspending in the province (mini, 2011a, 2011b). the supreme audit institution (in south africa called the auditor-general, or ag) has repeatedly found the municipality unable to adequately account for the use of public resources. in 2011/2012, the ag could not obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to support over r48 million of municipal expenditure (mngxitama-diko, 2013). this was the fourth successive disclaimer that makana had received (mngxitama-diko, 2014). consequently makana was named in the top five of worst-run municipalities in south africa in 2012, with massive misspending and poor leadership. in 2012 the ag found that the municipality was in over r20 million in debt, and there was irregular, unauthorized, and wasteful expenditure of over r60 million (mngxitamadiko, 2013). at the end of 2012, both the municipal manager and chief financial officer were removed from their posts and legally charged with misconduct (mjekula & mngxitama-diko, 2014). at the end of 2013, the new municipal manager and the strategic manager in the mayor’s office were suspended pending an investigation into the fraudulent acquisition of a r3 million payout. furthermore, in 2014 a report, referred to as the kabuso report was released which named a number of senior municipal officials in alleged financial and management irregularities (mjekula & mngxitama-diko, 2014). towards the end of 2013, the bulk water and reticulation system in grahamstown (the largest city in the makana municipality and where the bulk of this research has been conducted) got to such a point that the entire city was without water for almost two weeks. the matter was taken to the presidency, who intervened and later that year amatola water and mbb consulting were appointed to address bulk water !32 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 infrastructure and reticulation respectively within the city of grahamstown. to a large extent, the intervention by higher levels of government resulted in a temporary solution to the problem of water service delivery in grahamstown. over the next five years, amatola water and mbb consulting are addressing the long-standing issues which resulted in grahamstown’s water crisis. to the extent that they are successful, the main problem of makana’s poor performance in service delivery in grahamstown is (temporarily) being addressed. while the problem of water service delivery is being fixed, however, grahamstown citizens continue to experience water outages, poor water pressure and poor water quality. the problem of poor communication remains between citizens and the municipality, despite an eagerness on the part of service providers to communicate effectively. the situation in makana municipality is comparable to most local municipalities across south africa, where “local government capacities are in short supply and financial sustainability is frequently in doubt. this hampers total government ability to perform traditional functions such as service delivery and regulation, collecting rates, user charges and fees” (mogale, 2007). this is not a problem that is unique to south africa, but has been demonstrated on numerous occasions and across a number of different contexts. a recent cross-country, empirical evaluation found similar evidence across developing countries around the world (bardhan & mookherjee, 2000). stakeholders to this end, the stakeholders that were involved in the community based co-design of the mobisam application were: • rhodes university: computer science department and mobisam employees (sam mentor, mobisam coordinator, media liaison) • makana municipality: municipal manager, head of communications dept, communications dept, head of complaints, technical and infrastructure division, city engineer • service providers: amatola water, mbb consulting • community members from across grahamstown. existing techniques for communication to understand how to improve communication between two parties, it is important to understand the means by which they currently communicate and improvements that can be drawn from them. it is hoped that improving communication between the two parties (local government and their constituency) will result in increased, meaningful participation at the local government level from local citizens. this study used two main interventions to understand the existing techniques for communication: a baseline study; and municipal interviews. these two interventions incorporate both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection in order to improve the internal validity (trustworthiness), external validity (transferability), and dependability (reliability) of findings (rossman & wilson, 1985). !33 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 baseline study a representative baseline evaluation was undertaken in 2014 in the makana municipality, in the eastern cape of south africa. the survey aimed to understand citizens’ current use of technology and current participation with local government. stratified sampling with simple random sampling within each strata (race and gender demographics), was used in order to obtain as representative a sample as possible . in 2 order to achieve this, participation was solicited in public areas across grahamstown (the largest city within the municipality), with one hundred and five (n=105) grahamstown citizens taking part in the baseline study. the survey consisted of three sections: demographic information; mobile phone usage; and service delivery satisfaction and current participation. questions pertaining to citizens’ current ways of participating with local government were informed by the citizen scorecard developed by the african centre for citizenship and democracy (accede, 2013). a complete discussion of the findings of this survey can be found elsewhere (thinyane, siebörger, & reynell, 2015), but for ease of reference the key findings are summarised below. results from the baseline study indicated that the majority of citizens surveyed were dissatisfied with the level of service with regards to the provision of water, parks and recreational facilities and roads and sidewalks (see table 1). table 1: levels of satisfaction regarding municipal services amongst participants however, only 58.1% of dissatisfied respondents had formally laid a complaint with the municipality. almost 40% of dissatisfied respondents noted that they were both dissatisfied and had never made a complaint to someone in their municipality. of those that had laid a complaint: 45.9% made their complaint by going in person to the municipality; 24.6% signed a petition; 19.7% raised their concerns with their ward councillor; 6.6% tried to call the municipality; and 1.6% wrote a letter to the municipality. when asked informally why so few citizens chose to call the municipality, municipal service satisfied not satisfied unsure no response electricity 82.86% 17.14% water 16.19% 83.81% refuse removal 73.33% 26.67% sanitation 61.9% 35.24% 1.9% 0.96% parks and recreation facilities 20.95% 74.29% 4.76% roads and sidewalks 21.9% 78.1% race and gender demographics from the south african census 2011 were used to inform the 2 strata !34 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 most citizens stated that nobody answers the phone when you try to call them, so if you go in person at least you know someone has heard your complaint. the technology related section of the baseline study found that 90% of those surveyed owned their own phone, while a further 5% had access to a phone that they could make use of. the most popular brands of phones were nokia (36.8%), samsung (26.3%), and blackberry (11.6%). to gain an understanding of the capabilities of different handsets, the make and model of devices were recorded so that specific technical details could be investigated later. our later analysis found that 60% of mobile phones had access to data services (either 3g or wifi). it was also found that the most popular operating systems on handsets were (in order of popularity) android, java (midp 2.0 or higher), blackberry, ios and windows mobile. municipal interviews throughout the four years of the mobisam project, a number of rounds of brain storming sessions and semi-structured interviews were held with municipal officials and other service providers. it was found though that the richest information was discovered during informal discussions with staff whilst completing training sessions and information sessions. the findings are summarised below according to three themes: current ways of communicating with citizens; methods of lodging and tracking complaints; and methods of responding. the municipality currently communicates with citizens in a number of ways. firstly they use ward councillors and community development workers (cdws) to pass on their messages to citizens. they also hold community meetings and indabas to communicate with large groups of citizens at a time. the municipality uses a number of different forms of media: they pass written notices on to ward councillors to distribute to their ward; they include notices in monthly rates bills; they send information using the local radio station (radio grahamstown – primarily isixhosa radio station), and local newspaper (grocotts’ mail – primary english newspaper); and they distribute important messages on different email lists including grahamstown parents network, and rhodes university staff mailing lists. citizens can lodge service delivery problems by contacting the municipal offices during the day, or by phoning the fire station after hours. most citizens lodge complaints in person or via phone. when a report has been made, it is recorded either in a log book or on a separate piece of paper (depending on which office the report is made to). there is no way of tracking a report once it has been made. the municipality and citizens both recognised that a major problem and tension between the parties was a lack of accurate communication. the municipality was so aware of this problem that it was the reason they agreed to participate in the mobisam project, in order to improve their communication with citizens. once a service delivery problem has been reported, it is passed on to the respective department (service delivery problems are usually handled by the technical and infrastructure division (dti)). if a complaint was made at the head office, then it would be on a piece of paper that would be physically dropped off on the desk of the dti !35 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 secretary. if on the other hand it was made to the dti originally, it would be in the log book already. municipal employees cited a lack of communication between departments, and factionalism within the municipality as adding to delays in responding to reports. a lack of finances also contributes to delays in responding to reports. if for example the report is about problems with roads and the municipality has no money left in that budget for the year, then often what happens is they take the report and do not communicate why the problem cannot be dealt with immediately. discussion as well as the barriers mentioned above, there are a number of enablers on the part of the citizens and the municipality in the area of reporting service delivery problems. firstly and most importantly, both parties agree that there is a problem that needs to be fixed. from a technology perspective, the baseline study showed us that most citizens are already using mobile phone technology and rank data services as very important to them (see (thinyane et al., 2015) for more details on this). municipal officials are also already using mobile phone technology, particularly whatsapp to communicate between division heads and the service delivery contractors and so are familiar with these tools and technologies. it is important however to remember that not all citizens have access to data services, so sms facilities should also be available. on top of this it is important to note that often the citizens who would require sms facilities are also amongst the low income earners, so cost considerations should also be kept in mind. from a technology perspective, the following mobile operating systems / environments should be targeted to provide the most coverage of mobile handsets: android, ios, blackberry, windows and java (midp 2.0). both the municipality and citizens also agree on the importance of feedback. the system should therefore allow citizens and the municipality to communicate with each other. education and awareness raising the importance of education and awareness raising cannot be stressed highly enough in a project around participation. even if a system is developed that meets all the requirements that have been suggested, if people do not know how to use it or that they have the right to expect certain services, then it will not make a difference. this section describes the education and awareness raising campaigns involved in the mobisam project. municipality from the municipality perspective, the importance here is ensuring that people who are supposed to be monitoring for reports understand firstly how to use the technology, how to help others (citizens) use the technology, and how to include it as an additional stream of reports in their workflow. this final point is critical to the success of the system, as if reports are not responded to then citizens may blame mobisam for “not working” rather than seeing it as an underlying problem with communication in the municipality. !36 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 once makana municipality agreed to participate in a one year-pilot study using mobisam, a series of training sessions began. municipal staff from the communications department were provided with intensive training from 1 june – 31 august 2013 on how to use the mobisam application. the initial training phase focused on registration of users and how to access reports on service delivery outages. this then shifted to a focus of training-the-trainer, where the communications department staff were taught how they could teach people to use mobisam. when staff from the communications department seemed confident in the use of mobisam, we shifted the focus of our support to look at the integration of mobisam into their existing workflow. although we had trained seven communications officers, makana municipality delegated one of them to be the mobisam officer. one of her primary tasks became responding to reported outages on mobisam. she was provided with one on one mentoring support by the mobisam coordinator in the municipal offices. this support focused primarily on the day to day usage of mobisam and how it was incorporated into the information flow of the municipality. at the same time community development workers (cdws) were provided with basic training on the use of mobisam. cdws are hired by government and act as an interface between government and citizens. their role is to work within a particular community and be the face of the local government, helping citizens to access services that they are entitled to. further information of their role will be discussed later as their role was to provide information for citizens. later we worked closely with the complaints department, where we similarly began training two members of staff. media as mentioned in the introduction to this article, part of this project was to look at equipping local media houses in sam. the aim behind their inclusion was to provide a space where there could be more dialogue and a place to follow up on problems that were highlighted in mobisam. for example, if the logs show that every weekend there is no water in high lying areas of a city, then local media could (a) identify the problem by consulting logs (b) investigate and (c) present their evidence as well as a response from the municipality about why it occurred and what is being done to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. two short courses were developed and presented to grocott’s mail staff in order to build their capacity to monitor makana municipality using the sam methodology . 3 • course 1: sam, budgets and plans. the first course was presented in 10 training sessions, focused on introducing sam and the first social accountability process: resource allocation and strategic planning. the sessions explained how resource allocation and strategic planning should work at municipal level using key municipal legislation. the sessions also identified key municipal budgeting these short courses have since been developed into an online self-study module and are 3 available from http://mobisam.net/page.aspx?view=sam !37 http://mobisam.net/page.aspx?view=sam the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 and planning documents and explained how each of these documents could be evaluated using the sam approach. practical sessions used makana municipality’s 2012/13 annual budget, integrated development plan and service delivery budget implementation plan to help participants practice the relevant monitoring tools. the final two sessions focused on using sam findings in municipal reporting. • course 2: expenditure, performance, preventative and corrective action and oversight. the second course covered the remaining four processes of the social accountability system. the course explained how each process should work and how it fits into the social accountability system. key legislation governing each process at municipal level in south africa was also identified together with key events and key process documents. theory was followed by practical work, allowing grocott’s mail staff opportunities to ‘learn by doing’ in evaluating makana municipality’s expenditure, performance and oversight reports for the 2012/13 financial year. feedback from both courses suggests that they effectively transferred sam skills to participants. when questioned about the overall impact of the training, one participant said “i think the course was extremely valuable because it gave us confidence to interrogate municipal documents.” both the editor and municipal reporter who attended the training sessions found the courses to be “extremely valuable” and have subsequently conducted more rigorous monitoring of the municipality using the sam methodology, in particular requesting and interrogating official documents and attempting to obtain justifications and explanations from municipal decision-makers regarding the allocation and use of public resources. according to one participant: “… [since the] training we have been better informed about municipality’s legal obligations and we have been able to interrogate documents with more confidence … we will be able to contextualise [the upcoming idp community meetings] and understand their value”. after the completion of the training, a series of “water watch” articles was published in the newspaper. these articles had a specific focus on makana’s water service delivery to grahamstown citizens and some were published during the water crisis in early 2013. the articles showed an improvement in terms of the depth and clarity of information that they provided and it was clear that the reporter was acting as a “watchdog” in providing the public with important information and holding local government to account for their water-related actions. after attending the second course, one participant responded that now she was able to “ask the right questions at the right time” and she felt better prepared to monitor makana municipality “because i have more knowledge now than before i did the mobisam course.” since undertaking the training, grocott’s mail have published over 50 articles (in the print edition alone) about the poor delivery of basic services in grahamstown, particularly the supply and quality of water, as well as the poor maintenance of water and sanitation infrastructure. since the training with newspaper staff, there has been a marked improvement in the depth and quality of the municipal reporting, as well as the significant inclusion of the regular “civic updates” column. !38 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 beyond the transfer of sam skills, the training courses helped to solidify the relationship between mobisam and grocott’s mail, securing grocott’s buy-in to the idea that the sam methodology is an effective way to monitor the municipality and that the mobisam application offers exciting opportunities to enhance sam. citizens local government resources are public resources, collected mostly through taxation. therefore, citizens and civic actors have the right to obtain justification and explanations for the way they are allocated and used. in addition, both public officials and private service providers who manage public resources must account for their decision-making and performance, and where public resources have not been used effectively and efficiently, to realise people’s most pressing needs, they must take corrective action. this obligation to justify and explain decision-making and performance enables civic actors to participate in local government processes and to hold public service providers to account. often, citizens do not know that they are able to request local government to account for their usage of public resources. the first citizen awareness raising task that was undertaken as part of mobisam was running a series of articles in grocotts’ mail around this theme, informing citizens of their rights and responsibilities as active citizens. alongside this has been a campaign to encourage grahamstown citizens to register and make use of the mobisam application. in order to promote the application, the following activities were undertaken: • local media. the use of the mobisam application was promoted through several articles in grocott’s mail. mobisam was also promoted through interviews (conducted in isixhosa) on radio grahamstown. • mobisam facebook page. in july 2013, a mobisam facebook page was launched as a platform to reach a wide variety of citizens, to encourage mobisam registration, to create a space for community discussion, to easily and effectively share important information and to equip and encourage citizens to participate in their local government. to date the page has over 1,275 likes and a peak reach of more than 1,900 people, and citizens often use the page to report problems and ask questions about service delivery. • grahamstown parents network (gpn) and other email-based lists. the gpn reaches over 2,000 households each week and is an ideal way to reach citizens as they receive the newsletter directly in their inbox. • theatre. the mobisam play, “sam, pity our water”, was written and directed by the mobisam coordinator. it has been performed in a number of different venues including fingo festival (a national arts festival venue in the 4 http://fingofestival.co.za/4 !39 http://fingofestival.co.za/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 township of grahamstown); and a number of schools in grahamstown east, 5 thereby allowing us to reach a different group of citizens that may be unlikely to have access to forms of communication such as grocott’s mail and the gpn. the play was mostly presented in isixhosa. the aim of the play was to publicise mobisam in a way that children would understand, relate to and remember. at the end of the performance, was a workshop with a brief question and answer session, where the cast encouraged participants to tell their family and friends what they have learnt. they also received a clear and colourful flier outlining how to register to use mobisam in three easy steps, which were represented pictorially. • community development workers. cdws were provided with basic training on how to use mobisam, and how to help citizens to register on mobisam. they were provided with training over a two day period. on the first day they were trained on how to use the system, and the second day they were mentored as they trained others to use the system. after the training period they were asked to spread the word about mobisam and given fliers to distribute in their community. they were asked to simply tell people about mobisam and if citizens were interested, they would contact the mobisam coordinator who could present at a community meeting and provide hands on help with registration and answers to questions. this additional support was provided because some cdws did not seem familiar with technology. • leaflet. a leaflet was designed and developed with makana municipality to be included in rates bills and provided to cdws and ward councillors for distribution throughout the municipality. the leaflet provided an overview of the mobisam project and showed that it was supported (and would be monitored) by makana municipality. system design and development the mobisam system was developed using a cyclical approach, with each prototype co-designed with various stakeholders in the project. this section provides a high level discussion of the system development and evaluation. more details can be found in the following papers on the design and evaluation of cross platform applications (reynell, thinyane, & siebörger, 2014; thinyane, siebörger, & edward reynell, 2014), and visualisations for small screen devices that would be appropriate given the types of information involved (lebusa, thinyane, & siebörger, 2015). an overview of the system is presented in figure 1. as this figure shows, the backend of mobisam stores all information in a sql database. this database is accessible through a php framework, which in turn can be called directly or through a rest api. as was highlighted earlier, it was important to this paper uses the south african definition of “township” which refers to an under-developed 5 (and typically under-served) suburb, where “non-whites” were forced to live during apartheid. although segregation is no longer enforced, townships are still primarily inhabited by community members from low socio-economic strata. !40 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 support a number of different platforms in the design of the system. as shown on the left of figure 1, citizens can make use of mobisam using one of four different clients: website; mobi-site; cross platform application; or sms. the website provides full 6 access to mobisam, and is the portal that can be used by both citizens and the municipality to interact with the data. the mobi-site is the version of the website that can be accessed via a mobile phone. the site is customised for the small screen that is available on this end device. a problem with mobi-sites is that they depend on the capabilities of the internet browser installed on the mobile device, which often does not provide the same support as a desktop internet browser . this means that the 7 functionality that the user has access to is dependent on the capabilities of their mobile device. as such, a cross-platform application was developed that provides clients with a native application for their device. a study was undertaken of different cross-platform frameworks, and the codename one framework was selected (refer to (reynell et al., 2014) for full details). finally, an sms gateway was developed to provide support for low end devices that cannot install the cross platform application, or access the internet. ! figure 1: high level view of mobisam system the final technique included in figure 1 for reporting service delivery problems is through the use of facebook. although the page was originally made as a tool for citizen education, citizens soon began to report their service delivery problems using it. www.mobisam.net 6 as an example, see http://mobilehtml5.org/ for an overview of the different mobile browsers and 7 their support for html5 !41 http://www.mobisam.net http://mobilehtml5.org/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 reports on this page are manually forwarded to the municipal communications department, who then treat them as another channel of reports into their existing workflows. the basic functionality behind mobisam is that it allows municipal users to create questions that can be asked to registered citizens. these questions can be about anything at all, but in this project we limit them to being about basic services. once a question has been answered, the responses are collated and where possible, the responses are automatically analysed and presented using different types of graphs. the most popular type of a graph provides a heat map which allows all users to quickly identify “hot spots” where citizens are reporting a problem more than in other areas. graphs support a number of interactions, including: investigating different reporting patterns by date, filtering visualisations by suburb, and filtering by report. a key concern in mobisam was to increase communication between citizens and local government, and there are a number of ways that this is facilitated. from the citizens’ perspective, they are able to report service delivery problems by answering “questions” that the municipality has already formulated. examples of these questions could be “do you have water now?”, which could be answered to with a yes / no response. or “please provide the location of a sewerage leak, and if possible send us a picture” which could be answered by either typing in an address or using a gps on a higher end phone to record its current address. these questions were formulated with the help of makana municipality, and mbb consulting (who are responsible for reticulation of water in grahamstown). mobisam staff analysed the previous years’ service delivery reports with municipal staff in order to ensure that the most frequently reported problems were included in the list of questions. more open ended questions are also provided in case the citizens’ concerns are not included in the list. answers to open ended questions are not visualised in the same manner as the other questions. from the municipality’s side, a number of additional features are available. firstly, the visualisations available support richer interactions than those available to other users. in particular, as well as the interactions mentioned above, municipal users are able to select groups of registered users (by suburb, by city, or by report), and respond to them via sms. responding by suburb or city could be used to inform citizens in particular parts of a municipality of scheduled / unscheduled outages that are going to occur. responding by report filters the list of users in a particular suburb / city, to only send a message to those users have reported a problem. this could be used for example to tell citizens that their report has been received and that a municipal staff member is on their way to fix a problem. lessons learned this section provides a discussion of the lessons learned from this community based codesign research. from the beginning of this engagement, participants in this community based co-design research were cognisant of how mobisam would contend with inclusion (and therefore exclusion). a primary goal of mobisam was to increase participation with local !42 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 government but because it focuses on the use of technology, it could possibly further exclude communities from this dialogue that do not have access to such technology. a number of activities were performed to try to ensure that mobisam served to include citizens in communication with the municipality. firstly, the baseline study was undertaken to identify how citizens currently use technology. this informed the design of the system (in the types of clients to create), as well as the citizen education interventions that were undertaken. as described earlier, a number of citizen engagement programmes were carried out to ensure that people who had access to the technologies understood the mandated role of local government (in the provision of basic services), and how they could participate. these programmes were undertaken in a variety of different formats and languages, to attempt to reach as many citizens as possible. a number of user studies were undertaken throughout this project to evaluate stakeholders’ perceptions of different components of the client applications (for more details refer to reynell et al., 2014). the most common comment made by citizens across each of these evaluations was that they really appreciated being able to see where outages were occurring within the municipality. in particular citizens mentioned that they liked that they could see if they were the only ones experiencing an outage, or if it was their neighbourhood, or if it was more widespread than that. this information was used by participants to facilitate what we have referred to as lateral communication with other citizens, which is most evident on the facebook page. often when service delivery related updates are made on the facebook page, they are followed by replies from citizens who offer access to the service that is being disrupted for some citizens. for example if an update shows that there will be a water outage in one particular suburb in town, then often people who live in another suburb will tag friends and ask if they have heard of the outage, and if they would like to come to their house to use their water instead. some citizens commented that they appreciated the maps of outages to see the spread of a problem so they could get an understanding of which suburbs experience the most outages. under apartheid, south african infrastructure was developed more in the town (“white”) areas of a city than the township. although it has been more than two decades since the end of apartheid, townships still suffer from lower levels of service delivery than their counterparts. a number of citizens commented that the outage maps gave them a real understanding of the levels of service that different suburbs receive. one of the most significant lessons we learnt in this project was about the power of information. the remainder of this section will discuss this as it relates to the different levels of local government. in south africa, each municipality can be seen as two halves: the elected members who are appointed to represent their constituents’ views and to make decisions on their behalf, and the civil servants who implement the work of the municipality (education training unit for democracy & development, 2015). when initially engaging with the municipality, we met with the municipal manager and department heads. these civil servants were interested in using mobisam primarily for its support for communication !43 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 with citizens. from the beginning of our relationship, the municipal administration have been strongly advocating the use of mobisam from within makana municipality. they garnered support for the pilot study from the council, in the form of a council resolution to: use mobisam to increase communication with citizens; advertise the use of mobisam in local and provincial newspapers; and provide the resources (staff, computing facilities) to do so. after the council passed the resolution to participate, we began to interact with the councillors. we believed that their support for the project would be critical in reaching their constituents. we began to organise a one-day workshop to be held either at the university or in the municipal offices, and were told in no uncertain terms that councillors would not attend unless it took the form of a multi-day workshop at one of a select number of 5 star game lodges in the neighbouring areas. we politely refused, but the relationship with councillors became soured. at this point in time, our motivations for undertaking the pilot study were questioned by both department heads and councillors, with members asking if we were affiliated with particular political parties. one of the department heads also started to question how to delete reported outages from mobisam – a feature that we had not included by design. we explained to him that one of the fundamental ideas behind mobisam was to increase transparency and access to information, but from our interaction we could see that he was not happy with this feature. after having little success with councillors, and on the instruction of our municipal liaison, the strategic manager and municipal spokesperson, we ran training sessions for the cdws. as their role is to ensure that citizens know of government services that are available to them, they seemed to be an ideal vehicle as part of the citizen awareness raising component of the pilot. the cdws showed little interest in participating with mobisam, and we were told later they only attended the training because their boss told them it was mandatory. it was only later when informally discussing this with other civil servants that they mentioned in passing that cdws felt threatened by mobisam. we initially thought this was in reference to the technology itself, but the civil servant informed us that the cdws were threatened by the way that mobisam could divert the flow of information around them. the civil servant pointed out that typically cdws were seen as important in a community because they would pass on information to people in their area about planned and unplanned outages. the civil servants believed that the cdws were not interested in technology because it was seen as subverting their authority in their community. this same fear seemed to be mirrored later on from councillors who had now been directed by council to participate in the pilot study. they showed apprehension in using mobisam, and we were told this was because they would no longer be the channel of information for their community. this is interesting to note, in particular in light of the fact that there already were existing ways of reporting service delivery problems that did not involve them. it is important to note that throughout the period of the pilot study, there was significant political instability within the municipality. throughout the period of engagement with !44 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the municipality: there were four changes in key leadership positions of municipal manager / acting municipal manager; the strategic manager / municipal spokesperson and municipal manager were suspended and later fired for fraudulent activity; the mayor and speaker were implicated in a number of irregularities; and the municipality was later put under administration. this instability undoubtedly contributed to the lack of success in the pilot study. existing research in other developing countries mirrors this finding, with researchers finding a direct correlation between political stability and egovernment programme success (salem & jarrar, 2008). despite the political instability within the municipality, there were a number of successes in the pilot study. firstly, we believe that mobisam has demonstrated its potential to facilitate communication between local government and citizens. within makana municipality, the community itself was very enthusiastic about having a mobile phone based communication channel with the municipality. service providers and members of the complaints section and communications section of the municipality were also enthusiastic about being able to support citizens in reporting problems with service delivery. one particular member of the communications section was so supportive of mobisam that she took the pivotal role of directing reports from the mobisam facebook page to the heads of different divisions within the municipality using whatsapp. secondly, from a technical perspective, a suite of mobile clients and backend software have been developed and evaluated by a broad spectrum of users. these tools can be used to facilitate communication between local government and citizens, supporting a wide variety of mobile clients. finally, a guide has been developed and successfully used to train civil society and local media around how to use the social accountability monitoring methodology to monitor local government. let us return then to the initial hypotheses that this work sought to address. the first hypothesis was that mobisam can improve the way that citizens communicate with their municipality. this paper has demonstrated how mobisam was used to improve the way that citizens communicated with their municipality. this occurred despite the fact that the bulk of the communication was not using the technology that was collaboratively designed and then developed with stakeholders in the project. our key lessons that we have learned surrounding this hypothesis are: • citizens may not know what rights they have to services, and the responsibilities that these rights entail. citizen education therefore needs to be included in an mparticipation project. • be flexible and open to change. all stakeholders were involved in the design and subsequent re-design of the mobisam system. this process was seen to refine in participants’ mind what they actually needed and wanted. • citizens will use the technology that gets them the quickest solution to their problem, even if it is not using the bespoke software that they asked for. after three years of designing, developing and evaluating the mobisam system, more citizens chose to report cases using the facebook mobisam page as the municipality was more responsive using this technology. this fostered both !45 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 vertical communication (between citizens and local government), and horizontal communication (between citizens). • until there is enough momentum in municipal responsiveness, there is a role for an intermediary to ensure responses are provided to citizens. this process involves continual probing of municipal staff to check on progress of reported cases. the second hypothesis was that mobisam can improve the way that municipalities communicate with citizens. as demonstrated in this paper, although the improvement did not occur to the extent that it was hoped for, the municipality has demonstrated that it can improve the way it communicates with citizens using mobisam. our key lessons that we have learned surrounding this hypothesis are: • real change cannot occur where there is political instability within a local government. any efforts that are made will be interpreted through the lens of the internal politics of the municipality • external pressure from citizens will not force a municipality to listen. • when a municipality is in a dysfunctional state, it needs to work to strengthen its own internal communication before it can be expected to improve its communication with citizens. conclusion and future work this article has discussed the mobisam project, a four year investigation on the use of mobile phones to increase participation in local government. it describes the lessons learnt in designing, developing and evaluating a mobile tool to support increased communication between local government and citizens. a community based co-design methodology was utilised in the research, emphasising the importance of stakeholders’ perspectives in the design of the system. the importance of scaffolding citizen education and awareness of the role that local government should play was emphasised in this article, with a significant discussion of the municipal, media, and citizen based initiatives that were undertaken. the article also highlighted the important role that political stability and sound communication practices within a municipality play in an m-participation initiative. a second phase of this pilot evaluation is being undertaken in 2016-2017. like the initial pilot study of mobisam, the second pilot (referred to as mobisam v2.0) again aims to investigate how icts can be used to increase citizen participation in local government. instead of taking an adversarial approach as was undertaken in the initial pilot, assuming that external pressure would force municipalities to improve their service delivery, the mobisam v2.0 aims to capacitate municipalities to improve their internal communication first, and then provides tools to communicate externally with citizens. !46 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the generous funding received from the ford foundation and the national research foundation, without which this research would not be possible. references accede. 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(1994). case study research: design and methods (2nd revised edition edition). thousand oaks: sage publications, inc. !49 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 26 articles ‘it is unbelievable how many come to us’: a study on municipal librarians’ perspectives on digital inclusion practices in sweden mariana s. gustafsson assistant professor, department of management and engineering, political science, linköping university, sweden mariana.s.gustafsson@liu.se elin wihlborg professor, department of management and engineering, political science, linköping university, sweden elin.wihlborg@liu.se in advanced, digitalized democratic communities the demands for digital literacy are a prerequisite for engagement and inclusion, yet at the same time, different forms of divides are omnipresent. by providing access and qualified support to community inhabitants, public libraries play a central function in the building of democratic and inclusive societies and are being increasingly relied upon by governments to deliver access and support for digital services. based on a case study of municipal library services in sweden, this paper aims to study digital inclusion as reflected in daily practices through the perspective of librarians. in this paper we argue that while advancing digitalization involves opening new access and engagement opportunities through empowering digital tools and the internet, it also involves different challenges of exclusion for those who cannot use, choose not to use, or have other needs. introduction informed and knowledgeable community members make up a critical base for advanced digitalized democracies and markets. high information volumes stored and managed through increasingly advanced digital technical infrastructures, require advanced skills for information and technology management to enable problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, but also collaboration and communication. these skills that have been addressed by literature as ‘21st century skills’ (van laar, van deursen, van dijk, & de haan, 2017). never before has the demand for digital literacy been so stringent. mailto:mariana.s.gustafsson@liu.se mailto:elin.wihlborg@liu.se the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 27 library as institution is fundamental for a lively, engaged, inclusive, and rooted democracy (bertot, 2010; palfrey, 2013). public libraries play a central function in the building of democratic and inclusive local communities, being increasingly relied upon by governments to deliver access and support for e-services (jaeger, bertot, thompson, katz, & decoster, 2012). in particular, local public libraries have played a crucial role for deliberation, literacy, and democratic inclusion during the building of the scandinavian welfare states (hedemark, 2005). the annual web survey “the swedes and the internet” reports that in 2019 approximately 5% of the swedish population, most of which were over the age 66, were not at all on-line and 10% were non-daily users (internetstiftelsen, 2019)1. the nonor seldom users tended to be older, pensioners, or have lower education, lived alone or in households with low income, or had a functional impairment (internetstiftelsen, 2020a). the inclusion challenge therefore focused on the considerable differences between daily users of digital services and internet and those who were more seldom users. the survey was followed by complementary on-site interviews with the goal of reaching drop-outs from the annual survey (skill, wihlborg, & kaharevic, 2020). the interviews particularly focused on non-swedish speaking respondents and people with low socio-economic status. the results of the interviews showed that the numbers of non-users were higher among these groups, amounting to 13% non-users (skill, wihlborg, & kaharevic, 2020). in digitalized democratic societies, the demands for literacy are a prerequisite for engagement and inclusion, and at the same time different forms of divides are omnipresent. in this paper we argue that advancing digitalization involves opening new access and engagement opportunities through empowering digital tools and the internet. but this also involves different challenges of exclusion for those that for different reasons cannot use technologies or the internet, consciously choose not to use them, or have special needs pre-conditioning their information literacy through the use of technology. the increasing volumes of information, the complexity of information technologies, and advanced digitalization of public services, raise challenges of accessibility to information and services, transparency of decisions and quality of services for different user groups when interacting with governmental authorities ( bertot, 2016; bertot, gorham, jaeger, sarin, & choi, 2014; molnar, janssen, & weerakkody, 2015). this development in sweden happens in the context of a decades-long series of reforms of institutional efficiency and rationalization that involved a gradual decrease of physical service centers of national authorities such as the swedish tax agency, försäkringskassan (the national social insurance agency) and swedish public employment service (elowsson, 2009; norberg, 2017) in rural and sparsely populated municipalities. as the possibility to meet a case worker on site decreased and the communication and application for respective services was channeled online, increasingly people turned to public libraries asking for help. the library act in sweden stipulates that every municipality shall have a public library open for everyone and adapted to the users’ needs (sfs 2013:801). local libraries are financed and managed by the municipalities in sweden. based on their mission of working for inclusion based on visitor’s needs, the libraries developed their services to meet the new and increasing demands for digital information and e-services. already in 2016, eight out of ten libraries in sweden were offering services targeting users’ needs for digital information and services (norberg, 2017). as many as 19,208 different courses targeting general information technology (it) literacy for the public were run by the libraries in 2019, an increase of 25 percent from the previous year (kungliga biblioteket, 2020). in parallel, a nationwide initiative for it 1 response rate 29% and n= 5514 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 28 competence development for librarians was launched by the government in 2018-2020 (kungliga biblioteket, 2020). through the libraries, all community members are meant to have equal access to information, culture, and values – which are preconditions for informed, active, and engaged citizens in the civic realm. moreover, libraries have been shown to act as an important equalizing institution in a democracy (palfrey, 2013). by providing access and qualified support to all community members, the libraries promote equal access to information and knowledge resources for all individuals in society regardless of their economic and social resources. libraries are seen as a public space and work to include and enable persons with disabilities and functional difficulties to get access and use public services in the local communities (bertot, jaeger, gorham, taylor, & lincoln, 2013; mersand, gasco-hernandez, udoh, & gil-garcia, 2019). while the social role of public libraries to promote digital inclusion is increasingly acknowledged by authorities, research has found that in most countries governments have failed to involve librarians’ knowledge and experience of working with inclusion and literacy in identification of challenges, development of definitions, formulation of policies and decisionmaking that relate to inequalities and exclusions generated by digitalization (jaeger, bertot, thompson, et al., 2012). to the contrary of increasing community reliance on libraries, there is a tendency to reduce their funding which leads to a dilemma of limited resources against purpose and higher expectations, a challenge that limits if not halts the librarians’ action space and role (stevenson & domsy, 2016). in order to understand challenges of digital inclusion more insightfully, it is necessary to include the perspective of municipal libraries. this paper aims to study digital inclusion as reflected in daily practices through the perspective of librarians. the paper presents material collected from a municipal library and a regional library cooperation in östergötland, sweden. research method this paper introduces a case study of digital inclusion in sweden, as it is addressed in the daily interaction between library visitors and library staff. in exploring new practices for digital inclusion, we have started out with an open field study inspired by an inductivist approach (eisenhardt, 1989; yin, 2009). responding to a call from a municipality in östergötland, sweden, to evaluate their digital inclusion practices, the field study was designed as an actionresearch project on digital media buses to be able to bridge knowledge to practice (wihlborg & engstrom, 2017). that opened an opportunity to initiate observations and interviews with one municipal library and a regional library cooperative including 13 municipal libraries. the municipal library had been one of the first in the country to receive national funding to establish a “digidelcenter” to work with it literacy. the digidelcenter became a central node in our field studies. the regional library cooperative, called götabiblioteken, acts for competence development for library staff. the analysis of the empirical material focuses on themes and categories as they arise from observations in practice, keeping the representations close to their primary source, i.e. our informants, the library staff. the underlying idea is that their illustrations and the themes that emerge as salient, important and emphasized in practice will guide our subsequent selection of theoretical explanatory tools. at the same time, we are aware of the design implications of ‘dataism’ in the inductivist approach (alvesson & kärreman, 2011), by keeping theory and the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 29 empirical observation distinctly apart. we still consider this a necessary initial step prior to developing more complex designs in line with abductive processes. this analysis is both presenting a case study and used to elaborate on the need for further research in the field. selection of cases the libraries in focus are located in the region of östergötland, in south-eastern sweden. this region reflects a diversity of outcomes in digitalization in local public administration. among its 13 municipalities, one finds both those ranking highest and those ranking lowest in the country, in terms of e-services and mobile applications (gustafsson, 2017). the municipalities in the region differ widely in terms of social-demographic parameters, with norrköping and linköping being urban centers with up to 150,000 inhabitants each, and smaller municipalities such as ydre and kinda with approximately 5000 inhabitants. motala municipality, the focus of this study, has about 54,000 inhabitants, and is categorized as a commuting municipality (salar, 2017). the field study consisted of several visits to the libraries including on-site observations of daily practices, as well semi-structured interviews. in addition, we analyzed municipal and library documents on library management and activity reports. five semi-structured interviews were carried out on two occasions with library staff in motala and at the offices of götabiblioteken. amongst the interviewed personnel, we talked to the two library managers, one municipality librarian, and two regional project leaders working with digitalization projects. they were key informants for digital inclusion as they have been working specifically with digitalization questions, either in their management roles or on the library floor (or both) and were highly knowledgeable about our questions. observations were carried during the national arrangements of ecitizen week at the municipal library, and in connection to interview visits, with a special focus on how single visitors received support. when the primary empirical material collection took place in 2018, knowledge on digital inclusion was limited among the professionals and we thereby brought in new perspectives and knowledge into their practices (gunnarsson, 2016). digital divide and inclusion: current and previous research in this section we present a short research review focusing on how the digital divide is approached and conceptualized, as well as the work of municipal libraries with inclusionary policies. we start with some central conceptualizations of digital divides, which will be followed by the research on the municipal libraries’ roles in addressing challenges of digital divides. although digital inclusion is directly related to the digital divide, the former being the solution to the latter, we found that the digital divide as a challenge was more focused in the literature compared with practices of digital inclusion. also, our search in web of science showed that those studies focusing on digital inclusions tended to focus on cases in developing countries and in the context of other inequalities (aziz, 2020; beyene, mekonnen, & giannoumis, 2020; robinson et al., 2020). previous research has found that social exclusion is a critical challenge for e-government adoption (dutton, helsper, & gerber, 2009). those groups with greatest needs for housing, employment, health, and social care are frequently unable to use web-based technologies and e-services (blackburn, read, & hughes, 2005). in addition, digital inequalities continue to combine with race, class, gender, ethnicity, and other offline inequalities which affect life opportunities in multiple ways (robinson et al., 2015). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 30 digital divide challenges have not decreased with time and effort, but rather seem to have changed their nature and focus as information technologies and digitalization advance in society. studies by van dijk and hacker (2003) have previously projected that divides would differentiate with time and that the differential access of skills and usage would increase. ‘the usage gap’ was inherent to the evolution of information and network society (van dijk, 2006; van dijk & hacker, 2003). different and other groups seem to struggle, independently of age, gender, and socio-economic conditions (jaeger, bertot, shuler, & mcgilvray, 2012). livingstone and helsper's (2007) study of children and young adults’ online habits aimed to discuss ‘gradations in frequency’ of internet use rather than the binary digital divide and discuss more nuanced and targeted inclusion policies, such as skills-based interventions, incentives of frequent use of online resources, the balance of online and offline routes to inclusion. the digital divide was defined as a divide between those who do and those who do not have access to technology (jæger, 2012). the concept of digital divides has now developed from a focus on access to digital infrastructure to include digital literacy and competence in many different shapes comprising to classical social divides (van dijk, 2015). most broadly, digital inclusion has been defined as the ability of individuals to access, use and benefit from information and communication technology (ict) (bertot, 2016). based on existing policy frameworks in the european union (eu) and internationally, the following components of digital inclusion have been: access to icts, the internet, and broadband technologies, digital skills, ability to use these skills in learning, education, employment, health, and civic engagement (palfrey, 2013). by contrast, the lack of inclusion can be measured in terms of; lack of access to icts, lack of perceived value of digital content and digital services, lack of ability to use of icts, concerns over privacy and security. other literature analyzes the phenomenon of the digital divide in the frame of equal ‘access to opportunities’ a policy term principally used to enact sustainability goals (bertot, 2016). the argument is that equal access to knowledge, social, economic, and civic opportunities will ensure sustainable livelihoods and communities. however, evidence worldwide show large disparities in access to opportunities, posing social pressures for participation, inclusion, and equity (bertot, 2016). the phenomenon is present also in advanced democracies, with united states being no exception. in conclusion, there is no single definition of the concept of the digital divide in e-government research; instead, the term is used to cover several different aspects of exclusion from access to technology over competences to trust in technology. thus, our analysis has been open to the stories told by the staff at the library since they address most of these aspects described as digital divides. the legal policy context in sweden in 2011 and subsequently in 2017, the swedish government presented national digitalization agendas for sweden, updating the first one dating from 1995 (government offices, 2011, 2017). the purpose was to gather all ongoing initiatives into a coherent strategy to take advantage of the opportunities that digitalization offered people and businesses. it was built on the vison of making the country best in the world to employ the opportunities of digitalization. the agenda focused on digital inclusion and emphasized the increased usability of digital public services (government offices, 2011). to fulfil the strategic goals, the commission for digitalization was created, and the focus shifted from technical and digital infrastructures to the social change that digitalization implied (sou 2016:89). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 31 in may 2017 a new national strategy on digitalization in sweden was approved building on the vision of a sustainable digital transformation (government offices, 2017). the overall goal for this priority area is that everyone in sweden should be able to develop and use their digital skills to contribute and participate in the digital society. five focus areas are addressed in the strategy: digital skills, digital security, digital innovation, digital leadership, and digital infrastructure. this strategy emphasizes the libraries’ important role in the on-going work on increasing digital competences in the general public. aligning to the national digital agenda, several regional authorities have developed similar regional agendas aiming to address their specific challenges. the region of östergötland was one of the first to align its digitalization strategy with the national and european digital agendas. the regional agenda included five focus areas, where digital competence and participation were included as priority objectives. for the period of 2014-2016, the objective was to increase digital inclusion with particular focus of asylum seekers and refugees who came to the region during the refugee crisis (länsstyrelsen, regionförbundet östsam, & landstinget i östergötland, 2013). the priorities in the regional agenda were connected to the regional development plan which was a collective strategy for the region’s development for economic growth. in this plan, digital exclusion was described as a challenge since digitalization of services has created different affordances for active and participative citizenship, enabling those who master digital technologies and disabling those who lacked digital skills. also, in the plan, libraries were described as important information nodes to support digital literacy (regionförbundet östsam, 2012). in the municipality of motala,site of the studied digidelcenter, the municipal committees developed a yearly planning conditions document that guided the municipal administration. for 2018, one planning condition was digitalization of municipal services. the same year the municipal council adopted their digitalization policy ‘plan for digitalization in motala municipality for 2018-2023’. the policy emphasized that the municipality should work for inclusion of all its inhabitants in the digital society (motala municipality, 2018). based on the five national focus areas, the plan broke these into eleven focus areas adapted to the municipality’s conditions, needs, and democratic mission. the plan addressed values such as: equally secure and accessible digital services, individual integrity and autonomy, transparency of municipal case management, and co-production of services (motala municipality, 2018). the plan also took up the principle of digital first, meaning that the communication and service access by the inhabitants shall be initiated online. library inclusionary practices by facilitating access to learning, economic, health and civic engagement opportunities, libraries engage in a critical part of digital inclusion services, which is a vision for the role of libraries in a democratic society (ifla/faife, 2016, 2020). however, this is not always the case in practice, as it was shown by the work of pateman and williment (2017) based on library services in the uk and canada, that looked specifically at their inclusionary work with disadvantaged members of society. they found that libraries were most successfully serving middle class users, and that they remained frightful, alien, and intimidating institutions for most marginalized, socially excluded people (pateman & williment, 2017). as a result, they proposed a community-led model of library services that would be primarily driven by specific community needs and different professions addressing these needs (ex. social workers, psychologists, public servants), rather than solely the professional librarianship. stevenson and domsy (2016) have critically analyzed different models of library services, including the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 32 community-led services, and have problematized the managerial logics and downrationalization tendencies of front-line librarians, which are pivotal in guiding and supporting citizen access and navigation of the complex webs of services in increasingly digitalized societies. based on extensive national survey data, bertot (2016) found that in the united states public libraries delivered essential services such as free access to icts, training in digital literacy skills, and structures to provide access to opportunities. the most used services in some public libraries were assistance in applying for jobs (completing online job applications) and navigation of employment databases and other digital sources of job opportunities (bertot, 2016). public libraries also play a role in providing robust e-government, as some of the most used services bertot noted were services to assist individuals to access and use online government forms and e-services. bertot (2016) has also found that urban libraries offered 20% more programs and services compared to rural libraries. importantly, american libraries encountered challenges in their work with guidance and assistance on e-government services. among the key challenges bertot et al. (2013) have identified related to resources, staff and infrastructure are too few workstations to meet demand; time limit at the work station, not allowing enough time for certain groups to fulfil the tasks; connection speed; enough staffing and the necessary expertise among the staff. studying the libraries as an e-government intermediary, bertot et al. (2013) observed a paradox. on the one hand, libraries increasingly engage in innovative practices to meet users’ needs for access and assistance on e-government services, on the other hand, their role in the e-service delivery chain is commonly ignored, undervalued, and underfinanced. this paradox is interesting to have in focus and follow up when looking at the swedish context. we noted that despite different organizational and institutional contexts of the libraries, their practices oriented towards access to information and services as well as challenges connected to them are similar among different countries. in the swedish context, a mapping survey of municipal library activities found that in 2016, 8 out of 10 municipal libraries offered activities targeting digital inclusion and participation (norberg, 2017). norberg (2017) also found that most libraries offered activities falling within library’s own services (about 80%), such as teaching and tutoring on legimus/talking books, e-book applications and information literacy. the study also showed that most libraries (about 60%) provided teaching and tutoring on use of mobile phones and tablets, testing of digital technologies and scheduled hours for users’ questions on specific needs related to internet, apps, information or computer usage. importantly, in norberg's (2017) study the librarians raised questions of user-integrity and responsibility that emerged when they had access to user’s personal information during tutoring and support activities. such situations emerged for example when users asked for help on internet-banking, in insurance issues or in booking trips. while 30 % of the libraries did not take any action in situations involving integrity and responsibility risks, the approach of the majority was to teach and show the navigation sequence in an e-service, but not actively make the decisions for the user (norberg, 2017). the study found that the motivation behind the decision to support in those cases was the reason that there were no other actors in the local community to help on a daily basis. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 33 the legal context for libraries public libraries, as part of their democratic mission for citizen literacy, play a key function in making the internet more available and open for all inhabitants (bertot, 2016; jaeger, gorham, sarin, & bertot, 2013; mcshane, 2011). shortly after the internet launched, many libraries had free use of connected online-computers (bertot, mcclure, & jaeger, 2008; gurstein, 2013; higgs, langford, & fry, 2013). in sweden, the folk library as institution, upon which the municipality library is build, has traditionally had the role of cultural and democratic educator (fichtelius, enarson, hansson, klein, & persson, 2017; olsson dahlquist, 2019). in the context of advancing digitalization, the library’s role has expanded to include digital literacy by ensuring access to information, support learning, and facilitate access to public services through free digital infrastructure. the mission and the mandate of the swedish public library is based on existing legislation that stipulates the democratic right to be digitally included. since 2014, the new library act establishes the universal accessibility and the role of libraries in promoting transfer of knowledge, free opinion building and participation as key values of a democratic society (the library act, (sfs 2013:801). paragraphs 2 and 7 focus on digital literacy as a democratic value (swedish library association, 2015): “§2 the libraries in the public library system shall promote the development of a democratic society by contributing to the transfer of knowledge and the free formation of opinions. the libraries in the public library system shall promote the status of literature and an interest in learning, information, education, and research as well as other cultural activities. library activities shall be available to everyone.2” “§7 public libraries shall in particular promote reading and access to literature. public libraries shall act to increase knowledge about how information technology can be used for the attainment of knowledge, learning, and participation in cultural life.” in addition to the national legislation, there are regional and local policy documents steering the libraries. in these cases, there is a regional library plan focusing on activities and content in all libraries within the regions, even if they are managed by the municipalities. this plan also points out the importance of integration of new technology and digital development to increase digital inclusion, in line with the library’s democratic mission (region östergötland, 2016). to ensure that all libraries in the region of östergötland can and will work with questions about digital society, digital inclusion and media and information knowledge there is a public servant working on the regional library cooperation with these questions. policy implementation there have been several approaches and policies to enhance digital competence in sweden, mainly through the school context and for employees in the labor market (hatlevik, ottestad, & throndsen, 2015). in 2009, the regional library cooperatives received national funding for the project called ‘ikt-lyftet’ (competence development for information and communication technology). the project aimed to open a dialogue between libraries and other actors who work with questions about folk education. the dialogue’s purpose was to find a way to work with 2 translation of the swedish library association the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 34 increased digital inclusion. a central goal in the project was to initiate a national campaign on digital inclusion with activities in the swedish municipalities. in december 2010, a manifest advancing cooperation to increase the society’s digital inclusion was signed by 16 different national organizations and departments. this led to the start of the national campaign digidel2013. digidel2013 had the goal to make half a million swedes more digitally included. the campaign was driven by a large network of libraries and adult education associations. the campaign was one of the largest initiatives in questions of digital inclusion and competence. after the campaign, the work has been continued by a network called digidel. the network arranged two campaign weeks every year called emedborgarveckan (ecitizen week) and all digital week (digidel, 2016). ecitizen’s week is a national campaign to promote digital literacy and use of e-services in order to increase civic digital participation. in 2019 the national campaign week has reached about 8000 visitors through 370 activities, organized in 69 municipalities (digidel, 2019). all digital week is a european campaign for professionals working with increased digital participation and targets lifelong learning for information and technology literacy, critical thinking and media literacy, cyber and information security literacy, among others. library activities in the region: introducing the case study the region of östergötland is situated in southeastern sweden and is homefor about 480,000 inhabitants (rka, 2017b), making it the fifth largest region in sweden. most of its 13 municipalities have a widespread geographic position (figure 1), which has important implications on digital infrastructure and access to public services, especially in the municipalities lightly populated or those with so called ‘shrinking’ populations3 (erlingsson, syssner, & ödalen, 2015; syssner, 2014). compared to other regions, östergötland scores lower than the average in terms of economic and social sustainability (rka, 2017a). the region also scores higher than the average in terms of households receiving municipal financial assistance (ca 40% compared with 30% on average as per 2015, rka, 2017a), indicating that there are more households in need of support in different ways. in addition, the region has an aging population that is expected to affect organization of services, both public and private (erlingsson et al., 2015). during the immigration crisis of 2015, sweden received 162,877 asylum seekers (double as many as in 2014), including over 35,369 unaccompanied children and youth (five times as many as in 2015) (migrationsverket, 2014, 2015). this is important to have in mind when we address problems of digital inclusion, as formulated in this study. 3 especially challenging is the situation of the so-called ‘shrinking municipalities’: kinda, valdemarsvik, ydre, åtvidaberg, and ödeshög. https://digidel.se/emedborgarveckan/ https://digidel.se/all-digital-week/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 35 figure 1. geographic representation of the region and municipalities of östergötland. source: länsstyrelsen, google maps. regional library cooperative the regional library cooperative, also called götabiblioteken, is a part of the region of östergötland and has a mission to work for equal access to media, information and good library service to all the region’s inhabitants (region östergötland, 2016). the cooperative is responsible for municipal libraries, university libraries, hospital libraries and other special libraries in the region. it encourages and supports the public libraries work with knowledge development, cooperation, and quality (region östergötland, 2016). digital inclusion is emphasized and prioritized also in the action plan of the regional library cooperative (region östergötland, 2016). some examples of development projects are digital media buses, crossmedia and mediaand information knowledge (wihlborg & engstrom, 2017). these three projects aimed to both increase the inhabitant’s digital inclusion but also to increase the librarians own digital competence and develop different methods for how the library itself can work with digital inclusion in their own municipality. digidelcenter in motala the municipality of motala has a long history of difficulties in developing their broadband infrastructure, due to that some geographic areas were sparsely populated and included several distant rural areas, besides the urban area. statistics from 2015 showed that only 58% of the households in the municipality had access to broadband with fiber connection. the library service, in terms of digital competence and access to the internet, for the inhabitants got more important when the broadband access was very low (motala municipality, 2017). the action plan of motala library for 2015-2018 indicates that the library had the responsibility to develop the inhabitants’ digital competence and continuously work with an increased digital inclusion to support the society’s democracy and an active citizenship (motala municipality, 2015). in 2016 the library initiated “it-guide” a project aiming to integrate unaccompanied asylum-seeking youths. youth were arranging internet cafés the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 36 on saturdays where elderly people could come with their questions about digital and technical issues. in line with the action plan, the library has initiated the digidelcenter. the idea of a digital service center came from a project in a nearby municipality named mjölby, where the concept proved successful. digidelcenter in motala gained national funding and was a role model for digital inclusion in sweden, being used by the national government in their promotion digidelcenters (government offices, 2018). the librarians’ perspectives on the problem of digital inclusion the librarians working with these issues in the local libraries needed to include new work activities and learn to manage other challenges. in order to understand the perspective of the libraries in relation to problems of digital divide it is important to understand how the role and the nature of libraries’ work on digital literacy have changed while society advances its digitalization efforts. it was clear that the libraries’ practices have changed following the ict development and library’s mission to ensure access to different information channels and to provide information services for all inhabitants with a diversity of needs. the changes followed the developments in digitalization of government services, but these also involved challenges for the libraries’ inclusionary activities, as we will show in the examples presented below. organization challenges in practice according to the interview material, the increase in media channels and the diversity of information have involved more access to information for more groups, which has fundamentally affected the way libraries work, the content, and form of their services. different ict tools and applications were acquired to enable access to information and participation of persons with functional disabilities (for example users with dyslexia, cognitive disabilities or sight impairment) in totally new ways and required new work methods and competencies from the staff to address this new diversity of needs. for the libraries, it has meant more and diverse users of their services, different and more diversity in service needs, different ict solutions and different questions related to technology to attend to. the library manager in motala explained: the library’s modus operandi has changed fundamentally. we manage currently a much wider range of media formats both analog and digital. we have the complete range of users and issues. it has become more complex; you have to think much more. we are in essence working with much more information today. and we provide more help for self-help in accessing and navigating information through digital tools. (library manager, motala) one central challenge for the library is to keep pace with information technology development and its enabling affordances to the wider and more diverse groups of users and their needs. accessibility to information and knowledge acquires complexity as it is mediated by more technologies. libraries need to keep up with knowledge about the new digital media landscapes. the following interview quote illustrates this challenge: the modern public library must respond to completely different needs, in order to feel relevant and important to the people. the great challenge for today's library is to open the doors to the digital world, and help people navigate the digital information jungle. the library is a digital knowledge the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 37 disseminator, which helps bridge the knowledge gap in our society when it comes to using digital media. it is about democracy and education in our times.’ (librarian, motala) resources: personnel, knowledge and update, time through the interviews all informants made clear that most of the issues of digital inclusion have to be addressed outside the scheduled programs (i.e., workshops, courses, etc). visitors are asking for support on a drop-in basis, daily, at the information desks. their questions are diverse and most of them require solving specific problems on the spot, such as accessing an e-service through e-id log in, accessing bank account or filling in forms for income support services. for the staff this becomes a question of time and prioritization, since some issues take time to solve. time is also an issue when support is given in the form of teaching or instruction, so called ‘help-for-self-help’, intended to guide the user in solving their problem, rather than presenting a ready solution or choice. one of our interviewees explained: it is a problem of personnel. as for example yesterday afternoon, when i worked at the information desk, we had a lot to do. we had many issues coming and some of these took much longer time. we had to push ahead. these issues require know how, especially the teaching part. and it is difficult to manage in terms of time. most often they come with a problem that they need to solve on the spot. it is difficult to tell them to come later. (librarian, motala) another example of time-consuming, know-how requiring questions, but also a situation when the question needed to be solved on the spot: a woman with visual impairment approached me for assistance with legimus [a program for people with reading and writing difficulties]. she asked for help with transferring digital talking books from the library computer to her own daisy player. the process itself is difficult to manage if you have that kind of visual impairment. it did not work either when we would do it together. it needed troubleshooting and better understanding of the problem. i could not help her then because i had not enough time.’ (librarian, motala) this also shows that the users are increasingly coming with questions in connection with other authorities and banking e-services. helping with such questions requires more knowledge about how the respective authority services work and the technologies connected to them. helping the user in such cases (ex. logging in on the personal pages and following a service procedure) involves following a service procedure correctly and sending relevant information: the other day, a man in his forties approached me for help. i believe he was either starting new studies or he was returning to studies. he needed to apply for an additional csn [ the swedish board of student finance] loan. at csn they advised him to apply online, through their webpage. the man came to us. here we have a knowledge issue. i as a librarian have not enough knowledge about csn loan application system. it was a long time since i had to deal with them or their services. i’m not updated at all on this stuff. but at the same time who else could help this man? (librarian, motala) the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 38 in situations like this, when the user opens up their personal profile for others to make decisions pursuing a service or troubleshooting for a technical problem, issues of personal integrity and responsibility become central. this was emphasized by two of the librarians we interviewed. they both had experienced such ethical challenging situations when for example helping users with access to their private internet bank account and facebook messenger (observations during ecitizen week, 2017-10-12). it is becoming an issue now, where to draw a line, how long shall we go with helping them? (librarian, motala). such a development is currently generating a certain discontent internally at the libraries and the staff is divided about who should take responsibility for such questions. the others [i.e., public and private authorities] are sending their customers to the library: the insurance agency, the bank, the employment agency [i.e., to help them with their issues]. there are different meanings about this, there is a certain irritation [among the libraries] – shall we be a municipal office? some sees the possibilities that this situation opens for the library, but at the same time one realizes that it is a bit problematic when other public authorities are sending their users to us to solve their problems. the other authorities should also help. they are also responsible for this. (library manager, motala). to conclude, these perceptions point to a need for resources to enhance and support digital inclusion. the libraries lack such resources despite the general and often clearly set policy ambitions on digital inclusions. there is a need for resources in many aspects, not just time and staff, there is also a need for more competences, support to the librarians, technology and not at least guidelines on privacy and ethical issues. perceptions of digital inclusion problems librarians have the mission, as part of their profession, to support users in their access to information. but the growing numbers of questions of digital problems and practical issues the librarians receive on the daily basis makes new tensions in their daily work. they are witnessing that there exists a problem of digital literacy today. they emphasize that contrary to the common picture, these problems are present in all population groups. there is no single socio-economic factor defining who is asking for this help at the library today. but it is also clear, as shown already more than ten years ago in studies on digital inclusion (norris, fletcher, & holden, 2001; warschauer, 2003), that those already in socially vulnerable situations, such as those suffering from disabilities, with a long sick-leave or being long-term unemployed are affected even more as services are digitalized. according to our informants, current national measurements of internet usage and literacy do not reach all the groups and do not measure community members’ abilities to solve problems of digital character on the daily basis. it is obvious that we have digitally excluded today. these people can be found in all population groups. “svenskarna och internet” [ swedes and the internet] are calling the different groups, but they don’t reach to everybody. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 39 there are many who are outside and are difficult to reach. and some of these turn to us, at the library. also, there are those people who are excluded in other areas too. it is difficult for them to get on the labor market if one has a disability, is unemployed, is sitting at home, does not have access to computers and information, cannot choose among options, and cannot understand how to proceed with an application. we have so many who come to us. (manager regional library, linköping) according to the librarians, the common picture that digital literacy increases as community members get more accustomed to information technologies and the internet is not quite accurate. the problem persists in practice, although there is increasing interest and motivation with many of the users to learn: we see that people are much more unaccustomed with technologies than the pre-vailing picture likes to show. the impression is that we have used computers and internet for ages. but we see that many are not used (to the technologies). we see the whole scale: from those who are afraid and unaccustomed, those who are ashamed of their limited knowledge or abilities, to those who have given up, with ‘this is not for me’ attitude. but we see that people are curious. there are those who have got a tablet as a christmas present and they come to us to get started. people are not so used [to technology] as we think. it’s unbelievable how many come to us, and these are not necessarily elderly or immigrants. (library manager, motala) the user-groups have increased as technology opens new opportunities to access information. for example, digital software such as legimus and increasing digitalization of literature stocked in the national library database makes it possible for more groups to use talking books-services. this is welcomed by the libraries, as more groups gain access to books they have previously had difficulties with, or was impossible to read. but this has brought up a new array of specific needs and questions that the library received and was expected to address: before there were just those with visual impairment who borrowed talking books. today we have many more, including people with dyslexia, or related speech and writing difficulties. this means more and different types of questions that we get to address. but this is good because digitalization helps making these books available for more users in need. this means we can reach and provide access and literacy to more groups. (library manager, motala) the librarians also witnessed that the questions at the helpdesk have changed. many of the users bring their own devices and are asking for help with programs and services connected to the library’s own services: the questions are different, many bring with them their own tablets or smartphones and want to get help with various features, download apps, get started with different programs, transfer pictures, book tickets, manage files, using the internet bank, lend e-books, download talking books, etc. both drop in and the booked tutorial [i.e., library services] are very appreciated. (librarian, motala) the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 40 the questions at the helpdesk have changed. self-lending of books has freed up time. now we get so many more questions on civic engagement, on technology, on computer use. how are going to manage all this? what resources do we have to manage this? up to some point we have resources, but we need to use them smartly. the self-lending frees up time for more tutoring. (library manager, motala) taken together this shows that the libraries become a general meeting point for different types of digital problems that people in general are facing. there is a broad, open, and democratic approach to help and improve digital inclusion in general. thus, we concluded that librarians have a broad and open-minded perception of what they see as digital inclusion, and thereby they contribute to bridge digital divides and address a diversity of needs. conclusions and further research this case-based analysis has built on a field study focusing of librarians’ perceptions of how they addressed digital inclusion questions in their daily practices. the overall impression was that at the time of the study the librarians lacked sustained competence development and resources to manage the new and changing demands coming from evermore diverse group of users to guide and support digital inclusion activities. even if there were specific and successful projects, the bulk of tasks concerned supporting visitors with problem solving in their daily use of digital technologies in relation to private and public e-services. the users turned to the library for support on services far beyond the libraries’ responsibilities, like managing different internet accounts, banking services, and use of e-services for health services like digital prescriptions for medicines. users from vulnerable socio-economic situations and with functional disabilities struggled to access and manage digital services, a development that created new and challenging demands on librarians for support that oftentimes involved issues of integrity and security. the studied practices showed that there was a great need for support and personal coaching that was not fully acknowledged by municipal administrative and political leadership. new information literacy challenges emerged both enabling and disabling that required re-thinking the mission of the public libraries, their functions in an advanced digital democracy and rewiring the responsibilities and competence development of the library personnel. the findings in our case study support the thesis that advancing digitalization, in terms of increasing complexity of information systems and extent of digital public services, involves different varieties of digital exclusions that shift in focus and nature (van dijk & hacker, 2003) and go beyond traditional divides such as class, genders, ethnicity ( bertot, 2016; molnar et al., 2015). in line with robinson et al. (2015), we also find certain evidence based on municipal libraries practices that inequalities resulting from digital literacy challenges combine with functional disabilities or social-economic vulnerabilities. however, current it solutions can also provide enabling functions for these groups if appropriate literacy and it support is made accessible through municipal libraries or other community service centers. more attention to and research on the need for digital literacy for digital inclusion is paramount as the librarians experience the problem as being greater and more diverse in the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 41 nature than the measurements provided by surveys such as “the swedes and the internet”. more research with focus on practices addressing the diversity of needs for access to information and navigation of digital services is needed. there is also a need to discuss the policy implications of the demands of a general digital helpdesk and if the public libraries are the right place for this in a advanced welfare state where community members have many contacts with different public agencies. based on our understanding that technological development of society and welfare services will involve various challenges of divides and exclusions, we have identified three directions for further research. firstly, since municipalities have a high degree of autonomy and responsibility for providing conditions for active citizen participation in local communities, it is important to analyze their policies and measures addressing exclusionary tendencies of digitalization and automatization of public services. in particular, it is important find out how they address digital inclusion in a more diverse society and the role, as well as the organization of front-line actors such as librarians and other professionals meeting citizens on a daily basis? secondly, we have seen, in line with other studies (bertot, 2016; stevenson & domsy, 2016; thompson, jaeger, taylor, subramaniam, & bertot, 2014) that the librarians’ competences, both regarding digital tools and societal issues, are keys for enhancing digital inclusion and thus their competence development and working conditions are in turn a key area for further research. finally, we agree with van van dijk (2020) that there is a crucial need to uncover the more qualitative aspects of what makes people digitally excluded in advancing digital society and how they experience digital exclusion in relation to social and economic exclusion. acknowledgements this study was possible with the support from carl bennett foundation. we are thankful to the informants from the motala municipal library who have contributed with their time and knowledge about library practices of inclusion and challenges posed by digitalization. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 42 references alvesson, m., & kärreman, d. 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(2009). case study research: design and methods. london: sage. 1474-article text-8489-2-6-20201031 authors the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 26-44 issn: 1721-4441 26 articles refugees and social media in a digital society: how young refugees are using social media and the capabilities it offers in their lives in norway sasha anderson department of health promotion and development, university of bergen, norway sasha.anderson@yahoo.co.uk marguerite daniel professor, department of health promotion and development, university of bergen, norway marguerite.daniel@uib.no the proliferation of social media-based initiatives aimed at asylum seekers and refugees in recent years is evidence of growing interest in the potential of social media for delivering interventions and messages to refugee populations in host countries. however, surprisingly little is currently known about how refugees routinely use and incorporate social media into their everyday lives in host countries, and their motivations for doing so. the aim of the study reported in this paper was to explore how and why young refugees living in norway use social media in their everyday lives, to identify capabilities associated with this use, and to make connections with wellbeing. the researchers adopted a qualitative approach, undertaking in-depth interviews with eight young refugees and two key informants involved in running social media sites aimed at refugees. amartya sen’s capability approach (1987) was used to frame the study and guide the analysis of findings. findings indicated that participants’ main motivations for using social media were communication, access to information, and learning. analysis of their reported achievements suggested that social media offered five related capabilities which could have an important role in advancing well-being: effective communication; social connectedness; participation in learning opportunities; access to information; and expression of self. other findings, such as differences in approach to using social media (‘active’ and ‘passive’ use) are discussed. although all participants used social media and recognised its importance to their lives, variations in the way they approached and valued it suggest that providers need to consider these factors when using it as a tool to engage refugees. anderson, s., & daniel, m. (2020). refugees and social media in a digital society: how young refugees are using social media and the capabilities it offers in their lives in norway. the journal of community informatics, 16, 26-44. copyright (c), 2020 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/index the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 26-44 issn: 1721-4441 27 introduction refugees arriving in and settling in norway find themselves in one of the most ‘connected’ countries in the world, where 98% of the population has an internet connection (internet live stats, 2016). in norway, access to the internet is widely, and often freely, available. the internet and social media provide access to a range of resources, information, support services and opportunities, in areas including health, education and employment, which can sometimes be time-consuming and difficult to locate offline. many newly arrived refugees are already familiar with navigating the internet and social media, having used and relied on these tools for vital information and communication during their journeys and whilst waiting for assessment in asylum reception centres. a recent report conducted for the united nations high commission for refugees (unhcr) highlighted that migrating refugees regard internet access as being essential, often prioritising it over food, education, and healthcare (vernon, deriche, & eisenhauer, 2016). the proliferation of apps developed in the last few years to support refugee orientation and to provide health and psychosocial support is evidence that the importance of the internet to refugees and asylum seekers, and its potential for reaching them, is being acknowledged by humanitarian agencies, governments and voluntary organisations. governments are also increasingly using social media and the internet to deliver ‘migration information campaigns’, such as norway’s ‘stricter asylum regulations in norway’ campaign1, aimed at informing potential asylum seekers about the dangers and difficulties of ‘illegal’ immigration. within norway, issues of immigration and integration have recently become crucial themes in political and public discourse as the country tries to adjust to and accommodate unprecedented numbers of migrants and refugees. however, despite this, and the fact that access to the internet is widespread in the country, the norwegian context is largely missing in the academic literature on information and communication technologies (ict) and refugees. research focusing on migrants and refugee groups to date has largely explored the role of technologies in migration process and decisions, and its potential to influence and facilitate or hinder migration and integration (komito & bates, 2011; dekker & engberson, 2014; komito, 2011; brekke, 2008; alencar, 2017). research has also been concerned with how technologies can assist in the achievement of specific project-based and economic ends, such as employability, social inclusion, and political engagement (nicholson, nugroho & rangaswamy, 2016). however, such an approach regards technologies as a means of fulfilling assumed ‘needs’ rather than considering what users themselves want to achieve or how they themselves wish to incorporate technology into their lives. ‘non-instrumental’ use of technology (primarily for entertainment or for passing time), which might be dismissed as ‘time wasting’, has been shown to have important development and well-being outcomes for users, such as facilitating digital literacy, income generation, empowerment and relationship maintenance (nicholson et al., 2016; nemer, 2016). whilst there is growing interest and acknowledgement of the importance of ict, including social media, for refugees, little is known about how refugees themselves are 1 the ‘stricter asylum regulations in norway’ campaign began in 2015 and was extended in 2017. it uses facebook exclusively as its communication channel and is managed by norwegian ministry of justice and public security. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 26-44 issn: 1721-4441 28 actually using social media in their daily lives in host countries. for example, how they are routinely incorporating social media into their lives, how it is of value to them, and what outcomes they themselves want to achieve and are achieving by using it. the authors of one recent study examining how refugees use the internet reported that, “to date, we are unaware of any studies looking at how refugees are actually using the internet on their own and to what end” (mikal & woodfield, 2015, p. 1322). given that host countries and agencies, including those involved in health promotion, are increasingly considering the potential of social media for engaging with and providing information to refugees, greater understanding of this phenomenon is essential in order to develop effective interventions and resources for use with this population. what constitutes ‘usage’ of social media is also not well understood. research has distinguished between two forms, ‘active’ and ‘passive’: “active usage refers to activities that facilitate direct exchanges with others (e.g., posting status updates, commenting on posts); passive usage involves consuming information without direct exchanges (e.g., scrolling through news feeds, viewing posts)” (verduyn et al., 2015, p. 480). how users employ these different forms of usage in different contexts, and the impact that this has on users, is often not considered. furthermore, few empirical studies with refugees and asylum seeker populations have considered the links between use of icts, including social media, and well-being. yet several studies with refugees and marginalised groups including studies not directly concerned with well-being have found that use of ict and social media can lead to improvements in key factors of well-being, such as feelings of agency, reduced isolation and increased social connectedness, and can enable participants to make life-enhancing choices and attain development outcomes of their own choosing (udwan, leurs & alencar, 2020; marlowe, 2019; abujarour & krasnova, 2017; andrade & doolin, 2016; felton, 2014; nemer, 2016). on the other hand, social media use has also been found to undermine well-being, particularly in studies with young people, although these studies have mainly involved non-refugee groups. negative impacts of social media use have been linked to increased risk behaviours, including risky sexual behaviour (van oosten, peter & boot, 2015), cyber-bullying (nilan, burges, hobbs, threadgold, & alexander, 2015) and enhanced feelings of envy about the lives of others (tromholt, 2016; frison & eggermont, 2015; verduyn et al., 2015). recent research with syrian refugees in the netherlands also highlighted the paradox of social media providing connectivity with family and friends and social support, and the draining emotional digital labour that it involves (udwan, leurs & alencar, 2020; leurs, 2019). currently, the evidence about the role of social media in well-being is inconclusive and contradictory, and research with refugee populations specifically remains very limited. aim of the study the study aimed to explore how and why a group of young refugees in norway used social media in their everyday lives; to examine what they reported they were able to achieve by using it that was of value to them; and to identify capabilities associated with their use of social media. a sub-objective was to make connections between the capabilities identified and their well-being. the study aimed to build on the small but important body of existing work exploring the use of technologies by refugees and marginalised groups which places the perspective of participants themselves at the centre of the research (andrade & doolin, 2016; abujarour & krasnova 2017; nemer, 2016). the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 26-44 issn: 1721-4441 29 theoretical framework amartya sen’s capability approach was used to frame and guide the analysis of findings in the study. the capability approach shifts the focus from the resources that individuals have access to, such as technologies, towards the outcomes that they are able to achieve with them. it has proven a valuable approach in the context of refugee research (abujarour and krasnova, 2017, p. 1794) but has only recently been applied to technology (oosterlaken, 2012) and to exploring the use of technology by marginalised groups, including refugees. however, the potential of the capability approach as an approach within ict and development has been recognised by researchers and professionals working in this field: “given the enormous potential of icts to give individuals choices, and indeed a greater sense of choice, sen’s approach is of particular interest to those working on ict and development” (kleine, 2010, p. 687). in attempting to operationalise the capability approach, kleine (2010) developed the ‘choice framework’, inspired by alsop and heinsohn (2005). the choice framework developed the concept of dimensions of choice to include ‘sense of choice’, to reflect the importance of users’ awareness of the possibilities that new technologies afford them and the significance of this awareness in understanding whether and how people use new technology. using the key concepts of the capability approach in analysis of empirical research can encourage researchers to move beyond a focus on technologies as instrumental tools, beyond issues of access, to consider the opportunities that icts give to people to lead the lives that they value. while issues of resources and access to them are, of course, important, the capability approach shifts the focus from these towards the uses and outcomes that individuals can make from them, in order to satisfy their own desires and needs. in recent years, the framework, principles, and concepts of the capability approach have been used in several studies to illuminate issues related to ict use by refugees and marginalised groups. examples include studies exploring the ict use of resettled refugees in new zealand (andrade & doolin, 2016), the role of icts in supporting the integrations of syrian refugees in germany (abujarour & krasnova (2017), and social media use in community technology centres in the favelas of brazil (nemer, 2016). two key concepts of the capability approach are functionings (valuable achievements and activities that a person has already realised), and capabilities (real opportunities that individuals have to achieve outcomes of value to them). sen (1987, p.36) describes how “a functioning is an achievement, whereas a capability is the ability to achieve”; in other words, the former represents achievement and the latter freedom. sen’s own thesis was that freedom is both the primary objective and the principal means of development (1999). following sen’s view that the assessment of capabilities has to proceed primarily on the basis of observing a persons’ actual functionings (1999, p. 131), this study approached the identification of capabilities associated with refugees’ use of social media by exploring how social media was of value to participants in their lives and by analysing what they reported that they were actually able to achieve, and valued achieving, as a result of using it (actual functionings). this approach has also been applied in empirical research by andrade and doolin (2016) and others (abujarour & krasnova, 201; zheng & walsham, 2008). the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 26-44 issn: 1721-4441 30 definition: social media, information and communication technologies (ict) a commonly used definition of social media is that provided by kaplan and haenlein (2010, p.61): “a group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content”. social media encompasses a range of different platforms including social networking sites (e.g. facebook); media sharing (e.g. youtube); microblogging (e.g. twitter) and blogging; and virtual games and social worlds. information and communication technologies (ict) extend the term information technology (it) to include “a diverse set of technological tools and resources used to transmit, store, create, share or exchange information” (unesco institute for statistics, 2009, p. 120). these may include computers and the internet (websites, blogs and emails), radio, television, telephones. ict4d is a recent and evolving field of research and practice which refers to the use of ict for development. methods the study adopted a qualitative approach to research since it was seeking to explore experiences, interpretations, and meanings and to give a voice to participants. interviews were conducted with eight young refugees living in norway and with two key informants who were involved in running and moderating social media sites aimed at refugees in norway. participants inclusion criteria for participants in the study were that they should have come to norway as refugees, should be aged 18-30, and should be regular users of social media. of the eight participants recruited, six were male and two were female2. one was over the age of 30 (being aged 39). participants represented a number of different nationalities, including eritrean, syrian, iraqi and yemeni. the length of time that they had lived in norway ranged from ten months to five years, with the majority (five) having been in norway for between 2 and 3 years. although education level was not part of the inclusion criteria for participation in the study, it became apparent during the course of the interviews that almost all participants were engaged in some form of education or training or had received at least high-school education prior to coming to norway. interviews revealed that five of the eight were hoping to apply to university in norway, and at least four had received some university-level education, albeit often interrupted, before they arrived. participants were recruited by contacting several voluntary organisations working with young refugees and through a contact at a community project that had engaged with refugee youth. snowball sampling was also used. a recruitment flyer providing details of the study was distributed to contacts and was given to participants to pass on to others who met the inclusion criteria. one participant was recruited directly through his posts on a facebook group which aims to support refugees in norway. 2 the proportion of male and female participants in the study exactly represents the proportion of male/female asylum seekers in norway at the time of the study, which, for the years 2015 and 2016 combined, was 75% male, 25% female (norwegian directorate of immigration, n.d.-a; n.d.-b). the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 26-44 issn: 1721-4441 31 data generation and analysis individual semi-structured interviews were carried out with participants using an interview guide. at the start of each interview, participants were provided with a definition of social media and a ‘prompt sheet’ of popular social media icons, to remind them of the wide range of social media sites available. ‘thematic network analysis’ (attride-stirling, 2001) was used to analyse data generated from the interviews, and nvivo software was used to manage and help code the data. the coding process involved identifying and clustering transcript data into three themes: (i) basic (lowest order, coded statements or beliefs), (ii) organising (categories of basic themes grouped together to summarise more abstract principles) and (iii) global (superordinate themes that encapsulate the principal metaphor in the text as a whole) (attridestirling, 2001, pp.388-389). the first two of the global themes identified are discussed in this paper, presented in the findings section below. ‘collaborative coding’generating and comparing codes together with other researchers in a workshop setting was also undertaken, to increase the credibility of the analysis. a summary of the themes developed during analysis of interview data is presented below in table 1. table 1: summary of themes developed during analysis of interviews with refugees global themes organising themes basic themes examples of codes (n.b. more codes than this were generated) how and why young refugees use social media in their everyday lives in norway uses & gratifications of social media by young refugees in norway social media platforms used motivations for using social media behaviours on social media use facebook and youtube most use skype to talk with people each platform has its own function connect with home country through sm talking and keeping in contact with family and friends use sm to find and share information expressing opinions and political views do not respond to negative comments manners and use of language are important to me do not like to share private information access and limitations to social media use in norway access to social media limitations and barriers to social media use mostly access social media on the phone accessing internet and sm in norway is easy use of sm has increased since being in norway studying limits use of sm working limits time spent on sm social media fatigue achievements enabled by social media use reported achievements from social media use activities enabled by social media sm enables learning learned norwegian through social media sm allows communication with family and friends sm enables making and establishing friendships refugees’ experiences and perceptions of social media in norway experiences of social media negative experiences of social media positive experiences of social media reading offensive or hurtful comments about refugees seeing upsetting information about home country negative messages do not make me quit sm facebook helped integration in norway practical help offered through social media positive messages and ‘likes’ generate good feelings perceptions of and reactions to messages, groups, perceptions of messages and groups aimed at familiar with ‘refugee welcome’ groups find positive information on refugee welcome groups the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 26-44 issn: 1721-4441 32 and campaigns aimed at refugees on social media refugees and asylum seekers on social media perceptions and impact of migration information campaigns prefer not to be a member of facebook groups migration information campaigns have limited impact refugees have no choice in which country they end up in facebook was very important in refugee journey and decisions the importance of trust and the offline world the issue of trust & social media confidence in information and identities on social media don’t trust information on facebook don’t trust that people are who they say they are on sm regard websites as more trustworthy than sm importance of offline contact offline support and information life would be better without social media prefer physical interactions to online interactions prefer to get information from personal contacts perception of life being better before sm sm was not so important in home country ethics approval for this study was obtained from the norwegian centre for data research (nsd). interview participants were informed about the purpose of the study and informed consent was sought using an informed consent letter. all were told that their involvement in the research was voluntary and that they could withdraw from the process at any time. data used during the data analysis phase was anonymised and audio recordings were destroyed on completion of the study. findings the presentation of the findings broadly follows the structure of global themes in table 1, with the emphasis on the first two: how and why young refugees use social media in their everyday lives in norway and achievements enabled by social media use. how and why young refugees use social media in their everyday lives in norway social media platforms used all participants in the study reported using facebook and youtube, and almost all used skype. the majority reported using twitter, whatsapp, and instagram, although several found twitter hard to use and were considering deleting it. half of participants also reported using viber and/or snapchat for messaging. however, several had only used snapchat since being in norway, on the basis that many young norwegians use it, so they felt that they also needed to. given the range of social media options available to them, participants’ choices of social media platforms used in their daily lives in norway were remarkably similar. there was also some expression of ‘social media fatigue’ among participants in relation to the number of platforms available and having so many social media accounts, which could sometimes become overwhelming. as a result, participants carefully chose the particular platforms that they used, and used them for different purposes. they chose each according the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 26-44 issn: 1721-4441 33 to what they understood to be their unique functions, usefulness, or relevance to contacts and groups of interest to them. every app has some special thing. for example, as i said to you, whatsapp and viber for my family and my close friends. and facebook actually for reading about the world, what’s going on i join many pages so i can read about the world. and instagram to see friends and friends’ days; what they are doing. (hassan, age 23) all participants agreed that accessing the internet and social media in norway was easy, and usually used smartphones or personal laptops to access them. over half believed that their use of social media had increased since being in norway. reasons given for this increase in social media use included the need to communicate with friends and family in other countries, having better internet connection in norway, and having more time with less to do than in their previous lives. several participants also described feeling compelled to use social media to ‘fit in’, as they believed that social media was important to norwegians. ...here in norway they use actually all day the internet for everything. like, if they want to post for a job. so, it’s important here. but in my country, no, it wasn’t. and because...it’s important to their lives, so it’s important to my life. (hassan, age 23) all participants used their home language to communicate on social media and all also reported using english, saying that it was a common language for communicating with their friends from different parts of the world and with those who did not speak norwegian. in addition, the majority used norwegian. therefore the majority of participants were using at least three languages in their social media interactions; the choice of which one depended on who they were talking with or the audience that they were posting to, or what they needed to do. motivations for using social media the most common motivations reported by participants for using social media were for communication, accessing information, and learning. the type of communication spoken most about involved talking to family and friends, who were often overseas, and expressing and sharing opinions and views. when talking with friends and family, the fact that messaging platforms were mostly free and easy to use and available in most countries around the world, even in countries experiencing conflict, was very important: we have been separated all over the world in lots of different countries, so it’s the only and the best way to get in touch and get information about each other, this way. for example, facebook is very important to communicate with people and you can call for free or using the internet. and, like, everyone now in the world – not everyone in the world, but in many countries – there is access to internet and to facebook. (farah, age 24) the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 26-44 issn: 1721-4441 34 participants described the audience with which they shared their opinions and views on social media as mostly their friends, who could arguably have similar views. however, a couple of participants spoke of using social media as a means of influencing others: “it’s a platform for communication. it’s a platform to exchange ideas, different points of view – with friends and a few followers, the younger generation.” (ali, age 30). one participant used social media to express dissatisfaction with his treatment in a transit camp for asylum seekers in norway. he saw his situation improve as a result when his case was taken up by the moderator of a facebook group supportive of refugees in norway: “he started to make some calls and then things started to be better” (hamid, age 39). the kind of information that participants spoke of using social media to access included information on the asylum system, the situation in their home countries, local information important for new refugees, and national and international news. social media enabled them to locate information and opportunities that could help them find jobs and establish networks in the new city that they lived in. it also gave them the opportunity to provide information to other refugees, usually through facebook friends and private groups on facebook rather than public groups. we have a page on facebook in arabic. for sudanese people who live in norway. we post important information for new ones who come to norway. and if some of them have problems to find a job or something, we help each other. (kalila, age 23). the value to refugees of social media, and its importance for spreading messages and information (and disinformation), is beginning to be recognised by government departments and agencies working with refugees in norway. as one of the key informants commented: we know that migrants find a lot of information about migration, travel routes and national asylum regulations in social media...we have to communicate through social media if we want to make sure that migrants get the correct information about norwegian regulations. although participants did not necessarily describe their activity on social media as ‘learning’, it became apparent during the interviews that learning was actually a very important motivation for their use of social media. this was particularly evident in the case of language learning and with their use of youtube. several participants described how they turned to facebook to practise norwegian with others and used youtube to learn languages (most commonly english) from video tutorials. participants also described watching youtube videos to learn how to make or fix things often because they had no-one else to show them how: “[i use youtube] when i want to see how...if there is something wrong with my laptop or with my iphone. how to fix it.” (hamid, age 39). “i use youtube, to learn...for example, i learn how to make food...how to do exercise.” (jemal, age 22). other motivations reported for using social media included for entertainment – watching movies, funny videos and listening to music – although this was reported less than expected. one participant spoke powerfully about turning to facebook (which he had never previously used before coming to norway) to seek support and to improve his wellbeing after becoming lonely and depressed when he was placed in an isolated reception the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 26-44 issn: 1721-4441 35 centre for asylum seekers. he described the facebook friends that he made after setting up his account as becoming like “family”: so i just get depressed in the camp, in the asylum centre, so that’s why i started to use social media, to get to know norwegian. ...each time i get a problem, each time i feel depressed, each time i think that it’s really hopeless, i just use facebook. i just write “hi facebook, i think it’s really hopeless here, what should i do? (nasim, age 21). like the participants in this study, newly arrived refugees go through a process of becoming ‘settled’, and, as noted by kalia above, settled refugees pass on information and learnings from their experiences and what they find to be useful in that process to other new arrivals, including utilising social media. the findings relating to motivations for using social media are therefore likely to be relevant to both newly arrived and more settled refugees. achievements enabled by social media use participants were asked to talk about what they felt social media enabled them to do or achieve in their lives that was of value to them. the key achievements reported were; communication, social connection, learning and access to information. in addition, ‘selfrepresentation’ was important to one participant. here, there was some clear overlap with their motivations for using social media (communication, access to information and learning). the type of ‘communication’ achieved using social media mirrored that of participants’ motivations for using it – communication with family and friends – and this was of great value to participants. several talked about speaking with family members through social media every day. social media was perceived as an easier method of communication than more traditional forms of communication, such as telephone or email, and allowed ‘realtime’ communication. the kind of ‘information’ gained through social media use mainly related to that discussed previously under ‘motivations’: accessing news about home countries, finding information about norway and their host city, and accessing information relevant to newly arrived refugees (for example, on the asylum process and job opportunities). the ‘learning’ reported by participants largely related to language learning, with norwegian and english being the main languages of focus, and youtube being the primary source of learning through videos and tutorials. one participant, remarkably, taught himself norwegian in three months solely through facebook and skype interactions with strangers after finding that he was unable to access language courses or meet norwegians face-to-face due to his asylum status and remote location: i started to talk to them with skype, facebook. so i think that i wrote with a couple of hundred every day – two hundred or three hundred each day – just messaged them. and i had fifty who i could skype with. so i made a programme [laughs] – i started to say “ok, today i’m going to talk with camilla, constanza; tomorrow i’m going to talk with who, who, who... (nasim, age 21). the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 26-44 issn: 1721-4441 36 in other instances, participants did not necessarily recognise their social media activity as ‘learning’ in a formal sense, but nevertheless reported using social media to gain skills and knowledge. this, again, emerged particularly in discussions about youtube: i use it [youtube] for everything. like, if i want to know, like, a recipe and i don’t really know how to make it, i use youtube. if i want to learn anything. sometimes i just have free time and i want to learn something, like, anything, any tips, i use youtube.” (farah, age 24) the ‘social connection’ enabled by social media included making new friends, establishing and cementing friendships with people already known ‘in real life’, and gaining support online from others who had been through similar experiences. “you find so many people who have the same experiences like you. you find friends you can cry with. or be happy with.” (ali, age 30). one participant had made 4,000 facebook friends, since opening a facebook account after arriving in norway, some of whom he had gone on to meet in person, travelling all around norway to do so, and they transitioned into ‘real-life’ friendships. only one participant spoke of using social media for ‘self-representation’ but did so passionately and frequently. he talked of valuing social media for providing him with a platform to represent himself as an individual, a refugee and an ambassador for his home country. he felt that it allowed him to demonstrate to norwegians that he had something to offer them. having the opportunity to control the way that he and other refugees were portrayed, in contrast to the portrayals of mainstream media, was also of great importance to him: [social media] ...it’s a way of showing other norwegians that i am here, i exist, and i can do a lot. that i’m a resource to norway. it’s right that norway has a lot of things to give me, but i have a lot of things to give back to norway. (nasim, age 21). capabilities associated with social media use using the central concepts of amartya sen’s capability approach as a framework, the study focused attention on the ‘ends’, or outcomes, that social media offered participants, as well as the ‘means’ of use (issues of access, which social media platforms they used). as mentioned above, the achieved functionings that participants in this study identified were: communication, social connection, learning, access to information and selfrepresentation. based on these findings, five corresponding capabilities associated with social media usage by refugees are suggested: 1) effective communication; 2) social connectedness; 3) participation in learning opportunities; 4) access to information; and 5) expression of self. these are discussed further in the discussion section. ‘active’ versus ‘passive’ use of social media an unexpected aspect of the findings of this study was the different ways in which individual participants approached and interacted with social media in their everyday lives. this is illustrated most clearly in the cases of two participants, nasim and omar. nasim proactively used facebook to ask for help initially with learning norwegian but also to answer his questions about integration and norwegian culture, to seek emotional and practical support and advice, and eventually to crowdfund his school the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 26-44 issn: 1721-4441 37 fees. his life changed radically as a result of his facebook use: from being isolated in a remote transit camp with no opportunity to meet locals or learn norwegian, to speaking norwegian, making norwegian friends (some of whom he perceived as “family”), and being able to attend school as a result of donations generated through facebook. his approach to social media was that it was a tool to help solve his problems as a refugee in norway: for me, i just try to think of solutions. “ok, it’s a problem, how can i solve it? what can i do? how should i...” because it’s about making opportunities, it’s about making solutions. facebook, for me, it’s a way of showing people who i am and what i can do. (nasim, age 21). omar, on the other hand, viewed social media with suspicion. he valued it for communicating with his family and friends overseas but did not trust it as a source of information and was careful about sharing his personal information. “people put too much private information on social media. i don’t like that idea, actually, because my private life is mine.”. he talked of not trusting what was posted on social media, even by governments or official sources, saying that he believed that it was possible for anyone to create a page or post information and therefore it could not be considered trustworthy. “especially from facebook, i don’t trust the information from facebook. i can create a page and what information i’d like to put [on it]...”. he described how he trusted two youtube channels, but nevertheless still researched the references that they provided to confirm the authenticity of their videos: “there are two channels on youtube i trust, because they put sources in their videos, and i watch the sources actually – i open it to see if what they say is true”. other than communicating with family and friends and viewing youtube videos, he did not interact or actively engage with social media. of the two cases, nasim is a clear example of ‘active’, determined use of social media – using it as a tool to solve problems whereas omar is an example of more ‘passive’ use. nasim and omar represent examples of the two extremes, but exactly where most other participants fit on this scale was less easy to determine. most admitted to being passive users of facebook groups aimed at refugees in norway – ‘watching’ these groups, and gaining useful information from them, but not actively interacting with them. however, they seemed, at different times, to be active in other groups and platforms. discussion the capabilities identified in this study share strong similarities with capabilities identified in the limited number of other empirical studies which have examined the use of technologies (although not social media specifically or exclusively) by refugees, particularly those of abujarour and krasnova (2017) and andrade and doolin (2016). both studies also identified communication (defined respectively as “effective telecommunication” and “communicating effectively”), social connectedness and access to information (defined as “participating in an information society”) as capabilities that ict enabled refugees to realise. learning, in the sense of informal learning rather than “participation in education programmes” (abujarour & krasnova, 2017), emerged much more strongly in this study, however. it is interesting to note the overlap found in this study between participants’ motivations for using social media and the identified achievements and capabilities (opportunities to the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 26-44 issn: 1721-4441 38 achieve outcomes of value to them). whilst acknowledging that more attention is needed to examine the relationships between the concepts of motivations, achievements, and capabilities, it is worth highlighting the factors common to all three in this study (see table 2 below): table 2: motives, achievements and capabilities of social media use found in the study motives reported by participants for their use of social media achievements reported by participants from their use of social media capabilities suggested by their use of social media communication communication effective communication information access to information access to information learning learning participation in learning entertainment (mentioned by a few participants) social connection social connectedness meeting norwegians (mentioned by two participants) self-representation (mentioned by one participant) expression of self well-being (mentioned by one participant) interestingly, ‘social connection’ was not a reported motivation for participants’ use of social media, but it was a reported achievement of use. the mechanisms by which participants felt themselves become socially connected through their use of social media could be further explored. undoubtedly, being able to realise the capabilities identified could be positive for refugees in terms of offering them emotional support, social connections, a sense of community and belonging (in their home country and new society), as well opportunities to participate and integrate in a new society. in turn, realising these capabilities could enhance their sense of agency and well-being. agency, according to sen, is “the ability to pursue and realize goals that [one] values and has reason to value and may advance individual well-being” (alkire & deneulin, 2009, p.37). the participants in this study were similar in terms of their access to social media and their resource portfolio (kleine, 2010): all were well educated and all spoke english and at least some norwegian (educational resources); all had a mobile phone and/or laptop (material resources); the cost of accessing the internet was not an issue raised by any of them (financial resources); all apart from one lived in the same location (geographical resources). importantly, despite previously lacking control over their own lives, in norway they all had a certain social, environmental, and economic stability that allowed them to freely use social media. however, they made different choices regarding how to use it (some were more concerned with privacy and trust issues than others and restricted their interactions accordingly), and whether or not to realise the capabilities it offered them. this can be seen as exercising their agency. andrade and doolin (2016, p. 413) assert that “whether the individual chooses to realize the ict-enabled capabilities or not is itself a manifestation of agency.” figure 1 below illustrates the properties of social media as a resource which were of value to participants in this study, the capabilities suggested by its reported use, and the the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 26-44 issn: 1721-4441 39 potential well-being outcomes of its use. the roles of personal conversion factors3 and agency in participants’ decisions regarding how to use and whether to realise the capabilities enabled by social media are also represented. figure 1. summary: the role of social media in promoting well-being among young refugees in norway. adapted from abujarour & krasnova, 2017, p. 1797 however, it needs to be remembered that not all refugees arriving in norway have the same resources that the participants in this study had, certainly in terms of education and language. as other studies have noted, being well-educated and proficient in english means that the digital divide is likely to affect such participants less and that “it is vital to recognise that social media are not uniformly available or embraced” (marlowe, 2019, p. 289). interviews and discussion with key informants working with refugees in norway highlighted that most refugees do not speak norwegian or english on arrival, may not be literate, and find it difficult to navigate online information. they require the opportunity to acquire the skills needed to use social media and an understanding and awareness of what social media can offer ‘sense of choice’ (kleine, 2010) in addition to having access to it. ensuring that all refugees arriving in norway have the same opportunities to realise the capabilities offered by social media could provide them, in turn, with the ability to exercise their agency to use social media in ways they believe enhances their wellbeing (andrade & doolin, 2016). the issue of ‘active’ versus ‘passive’ use of social media by participants in this study generated more questions than answers. it was an intriguing aspect of participants’ social media use which could be further explored. whilst it is possible to point to some effects that differences in their usage of social media had for the participants in this study (it seemed that active posting was associated with tangible positive outcomes), what is unclear are the causes of this difference. what made nasim more active and omar more 3 a concept of the capability approach, ‘conversion factors’ are the personal, social and environmental factors that affect individual ability to access and convert resources available to individuals into capabilities. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 26-44 issn: 1721-4441 40 passive in their respective use of social media? the answers to this were not found in this study, but it is possible to speculate on reasons: for example, prior experiences may have informed their attitudes towards social media (nasim had never used social media before coming to norway; omar had been using it for eleven years), or personality traits. literature suggests that differences in social media use by migrants during adaptation to host countries can be a result of individual cultural and socioeconomic factors (such as language, level of education, age, communication styles, cultural background) (alampay, 2006; alencar, 2017) and individual attitudes toward integration; as well as the sociopolitical context of the host country (such as attitudes in the host country towards newcomers and integration policies) (alencar, 2017). limitations of the study a small number of participants were involved in the study, which allowed for in-depth interviews exploring their everyday lived experience. although the participant group may be regarded as too small to be useful or transferable to other settings, as creswell (2014) points out, the intent of a qualitative study is not to generalise findings beyond the individuals and sites studied, but the value lies in the particular description and themes developed in the context of a specific setting and in the depth of study. since little attention has been given to how refugees incorporate social media into their everyday lives in norway, this study contributes knowledge to this field. as noted, the participants in this study were, although not by design, a particular group of young refugees: educated and able to speak english. in this sense they were probably different to many refugees arriving in norway, and it can be supposed that being literate and having an education, and speaking english, enabled them to use and navigate social media in norway more easily. much ‘norwegian’ online content is available in english as well as norwegian, so being able to speak english can be very helpful in the transition period to learning norwegian. being educated and literate is also considered to correlate to higher usage of icts (alampay, 2006). further research exploring the role of education and socio-economic status as factors in the use of social media among refugees would therefore be of interest. whilst participants were assured that their interview responses and participation would be anonymous, there was potential for questions about their social media use to be sensitive and it is noted that therefore the accuracy and truthfulness of their answers might be called into question. finally, while a gender balance for participants in this study was intended, only two females were recruited. whilst this gender imbalance does reflect the fact that there is statistically a greater number of male than young female refugees in norway, the gender differences in social media use would also be relevant for more in-depth study. conclusion the main objectives of this study were to explore how and why young refugees in norway use social media in their everyday lives in norway, to identify capabilities associated with this use, and to make connections between these capabilities and their well-being. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 26-44 issn: 1721-4441 41 the three main motivations reported by young refugees in this study for their use of social media were: communication, accessing information, and learning. using social media for entertainment or passing time did not prove to be as important as expected or as indicated by previous studies. all participants reported that their use of social media had increased since being in norway due to their need to communicate with family and friends overseas, having better internet connection, having less to do in their lives since arriving in norway, and in order to fit into norwegian society. the key achievements that participants reported as a result of using social media were: communication, social connection, learning, and access to information. with the exception of ‘social connection’, this list closely reflects their motives for using it. in addition, ‘self-representation’ was very important to one participant, who purposefully used his facebook account as a tool to enable him to tell his own story to the world and to act as an ambassador for his home country. the fact that most participants used social media as a tool for learning (whether they described and recognised the activity as “learning” or not) was unexpected as it had not been a finding of similar studies. it suggests the potential for social media as a means of providing learning opportunities to refugees, as well as to asylum seekers awaiting decisions on their applications who are unable to access formal learning provision. analysis of the reported achievements resulted in identifying five corresponding capabilities that social media use offers to refugees: 1) effective communication; 2) social connectedness; 3) participation in learning opportunities; 4) access to information; and 5) expression of self. these capabilities can play an important role in well-being for refugees, providing, for example, emotional support, social connections, a sense of community and belonging (in their home country and new society), a sense of control, as well as opportunities to participate and integrate in a new society. the study demonstrated the importance of social media in the everyday lives of young refugees in norway. however, although all participants used it and recognised its importance in their lives, there was variation in the ways in which they used it (‘active’ or ‘passive’ use). furthermore, they were careful and purposeful in the limited range of social media platforms that they used and expressed ‘social media fatigue’ about the prospect of signing up to more accounts. this suggests that careful consideration needs to be given to the design of interventions or campaigns employing social media targeting refugees. using preferred social media platforms that refugees are actually already successfully using, and regard as trustworthy and credible, is likely to be more effective and furthermore recognises that refugees usually use the same platforms as host populations and do not need to be stigmatised by having their own separate ‘refugee’ platforms and apps. finally, as the case study of nasim and omar shows, just because refugees are using social media in certain areas of their lives, it should not be assumed that they all place the same trust and value in it and that social media is always the preferred option for receiving information. for some, a combination of online and offline methods may be more effective. references abujarour, s., & krasnova, h. 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(2008). inequality of what? social exclusion in the e-society as capability deprivation. information technology & people, 21(3), 222–243. doi:10.1108/09593840810896000 1459-article text-8249-1-6-20181024 vf the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 sidpdf: articles the online lab: piloting video-based digital participation for isolated young people with high functioning autism this article reports on a 2016 pilot of a video-based technology mentoring program undertaken with young australians with high functioning autism who are socially and geographically isolated. many young people with autism live with deep social isolation due to their difficulties in mixing easily with others; this is further exacerbated for those living in geographically remote areas. these young people are subject to acute forms of exclusion, yet have long tended to be highly adept at the use of technology. the online lab is based on the lab, a national network of face-to-face technology and social clubs for young people with high functioning autism. the pilot involved 25 remote or regional young people from three states. synchronous weekly online sessions were led by expert mentors, with up to six young people participating via the zoom video conferencing platform. the evaluation combined qualitative methods that could be administered remotely with local methods and de-identified usage statistics. it drew on the notion of ‘differentiated spaces’ as devised by lye ee ng in her doctoral work at the lab, which recognises that online, offline and personal spaces interact to facilitate different forms of social interaction. the evaluation concluded that the pilot was a stefan schutt director, whittlesea tech school, melbourne polytechnic, australia
 stefanschutt@melbournepolytechnic.edu.au
 corresponding author !120 schutt, s. (2018). the online-lab: piloting video-based digital participation for isolated young people with high functioning autism. the journal of community informatics, 14(1), 120–-138. date submitted: 2018-10-01. date accepted: 2018-10-15. 
 copyright (c), 2018 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1459 . http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1459 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1459 mailto:stefanschutt@melbournepolytechnic.edu.au the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ‘qualified success’; the online-only format working effectively for some types of participants with high functioning autism, but less so for others. a number of related findings and recommendations will be outlined in this article. this article will also outline how these findings have been incorporated into the rollout of the online lab by the lab organisation in 2017 and 2018, and how the program’s subsequent activities are, in turn, feeding back into the lab’s understanding of how to effectively use technology for mitigating social isolation. introduction understanding everyday social interaction is difficult for people diagnosed with autism ( b a r o n c o h e n , 2 0 0 0 ) b e c a u s e t h e y p r o c e s s t h e w o r l d d i ff e r e n t l y t o ‘neurotypicals’ (bracher, 2012). this can lead to significant social isolation, even for those on the so-called ‘high functioning’ end of the autism spectrum whose cognitive functions are unimpaired. attwood summarises the different cognitive style of those with high functioning autism: ‘the brain is wired differently, not defectively. the person prioritises the understanding of the physical world above feelings and interpersonal experiences’ (2005, p. 46). strategies to address the social issues encountered by young people with autism have included mentoring (grandin, 2010), the use of peer settings (mastergeorge rogers, corbett & solomon, 2003), the harnessing of special interests and talents (attwood, 1998) and social skills training (reichow, steiner & volkmar, 2012). for young people with autism living in remote areas, the potential for isolation is even more pronounced. however, the internet era has generated new possibilities for mediating this isolation, especially given that people with autism have long tended to be drawn to computers (putnam & chong, 2008) and technology-based social skills programs have shown to be effective with children with autism (walsh, holloway, mccoy & lydon, 2017; nojavanasghari, hughes & morency, 2017; grynszpan, weiss, perez-diaz & gal, 2013). indeed, as burke, kraut and williams (2010) found, adults with high functioning autism strongly desire social contact but find it difficult to initiate, and so gravitate towards interest-based online communities. some researchers have designed therapies that leverage online communication, such as hong et al.’s 2013 examination of a family-based social networking therapy. online therapies for autism, however, risk the problem identified by burke et al. in 2010 that social skills may not transfer to offline settings. this problem was observed in text-based interaction, whereas real-time online video conferencing may offer new ways to develop social skills as well as mitigate isolation. indeed, video modelling has long been used to teach social skills to children with autism (haydon et al., 2016; reed, hyman & hirst, 2011). this was the premise behind the online lab pilot program, which was in turn based on the lab, a face-to-face social and technology skills program for 10to 16-year-old young people with high functioning autism. !121 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the lab (www.thelab.org.au) was founded in 2011 to provide a weekly social space where young people with high functioning autism can meet, make friends and learn technology skills from expert it mentors (schutt, staubli & rizzo, 2015; wadley & schutt, 2013). beginning with one location in inner-western melbourne, the lab has since grown into a national network of 22 sites overseen by a not-for-profit company that runs approximately 300 two-hour sessions per school term. face-to-face labs are ideally predicated on two spaces: a flexible space where participants and mentors interact, and another where parents and guardians gather while their children are taking part in lab sessions. locations are generally sourced for no cost or low cost from community organisations, governments or businesses that have a desire to ‘give back’ to the community. when the lab started in 2011 it did not seek out spaces from local schools; the conclusion at the time, based on advice received from the lab’s advisors (young people with autism), was that the lab needed to be as ‘unlike school’ as possible. the typical school classroom with its rows of desks was said to both remind participants of their frequently problematic school lives, and limit opportunities for social interaction. however, since then, the movement towards more open and flexible learning spaces has meant that labs are now increasingly likely to be housed in amenable school-based spaces. regardless of the kind of physical space, however, issues related to accessibility and equity arise when physical spaces are at the core of program delivery. firstly, isolated young people living in remote or regional areas, or those living far from existing labs, are not able to access the opportunities afforded to others who are more centrally located. already parents and guardians of lab participants have been known to travel significant distances (2-3 hours’ drive each way) to attend sessions. secondly, labs are not always located at places of greatest demand. the lab is founded on low-cost access for participants and so spaces are sourced on the basis of availability and the willingness of local organisations to donate spaces or rent them at low cost. a further factor is the location of groups or parents who have the determination and wherewithal to set up a local lab. lastly, existing labs are not always able to cater even for local demand, with waiting lists common. the online lab as early as 2014, lab mentors raised the possibility of running an ‘online only’ version of the lab. as this article’s section on differentiated spaces outlines, lab participants’ patterns of social interaction involve complex and nuanced combinations of online and face-to-face activity. we wondered whether an online-only adaptation of the lab could replicate some or all of its previously evidenced positive impacts (donahoo & steele, 2013) – notwithstanding that the lab had previously been based on face-to-face contact – and in the process produce new opportunities for young people who might otherwise have no access to the kinds of social interaction and skills development offered at the lab. !122 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 in 2015, the online lab project team secured funding from the lord mayor’s charitable foundation, a philanthropic body based in melbourne, australia, to run a sixmonth online lab pilot in 2016 with up to 20 young people. the pilot took place from july to december 2016, with human ethics approval received from victoria university in july 2016. this pilot included a mixed-method evaluation with data collection taking place throughout the pilot and analysis undertaken in early 2017. this article reports on these evaluation findings, as well as the subsequent rollout of a weekly online lab program by the lab. planning the online lab the online lab rollout plan consisted of five stages: table 1: online lab rollout below we expand on what we believe are the most noteworthy aspects of these five stages in terms of this article. stage when? what? stage 1: scope october – december 2015 ● conduct a best practice technology review/report involving gathering ideas/solutions from a range of listed experts and organisations and producing recommendations ● source project staff (mentors and developers) stage 2: build j a n u a r y – f e b r u a r y 2016 ● develop the online lab web portal ● finalise research methods and tools ● source, create and upload project ideas to the online portal stage 3: test march – april 2016 ● trial the online lab web portal with coordinator, mentors and participants ● hire mentors ● write victoria university human research ethics application stage 4: release july – december 2016 ● release the online lab web portal ● f i n a l i s e p a r t i c i p a n t s e l e c t i o n , including liaising with parents and participants ● write and collect field notes, comments, feedback ● undertake iterative improvements to the online lab system stage 5: research d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 6 onwards • collect, analyse and report on data !123 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 practice review the online lab project began with a documented ‘practice review’ of other online technology projects working in aligned areas. this practice review examined the technologies deployed by other distributed online projects working with groups of young people, and was undertaken by the online lab’s coordinator who was also the lab’s part-time national coordinator. the review focused on identifying the kinds of ‘hands-on’ technology solutions and approaches that might work best to underpin the rollout of the online lab. the reviewer concluded that the closest match was the successful games net project run by 1 the australian centre for the moving image in melbourne. games net ran computer games workshops for 9to 15-year-old school students, both in person and online. as a project also based in melbourne, the team was fortunate to access the expertise of games net manager vincent trundle in person. as a result of these consultations and the review of other available options, the team opted for a similar combination of communication technologies to those deployed by games net: zoom video conferencing and slack text messaging. this choice was made for a number of reasons, a number of which had also been considered by games net. these included: • ease of use; • security: zoom was encrypted and recognised by usa insurers as a safe communications channel; • availability to young people under 13 years of age; • licensing models and cost; • features that allowed participants to retain control over how they communicate (e.g. turning off video or voice); • ability to record text conversations; • ability to record video sessions. the project team also decided to commission a selection of online video project tutorials from existing lab mentors on topics likely to be of interest to participants. the lab had previously developed a series of online technology tutorials – largely textbased and collated from other online resources – which had proved popular with participants and others, but were now out-of-date. in thinking through the implementation, the team tried to anticipate the needs of participants in online-only labs, as opposed to face-to-face labs, which introduced it learning resources gradually in a social environment. the online lab practice review suggested that some preexisting tutorials would be useful to include in sessions in order to help provide structure and focus. after discussion with the mentors recruited to create the video tutorials, these videos took the form of four series of short instructional videos covering games programming, the unity 3d program, advanced html and the creation of light-enhanced clothing and https://www.acmi.net.au/events/games-net/ 1 !124 https://www.acmi.net.au/events/games-net/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 accessories using conductible thread. mentors were paid to produce these videos. a total of 31 completed video tutorials were then uploaded to the online lab’s youtube channel, plus/or mentors’ own youtube video channels. these online videos, together with other relevant information, were also collated via ‘project pages’ within a customised online portal – see below for more details. the initial plan for the online lab was to run weekly after-school sessions run by one mentor with up to six participants and moderated by the online lab coordinator, who is also an experienced educational manager. these sessions would consist of: • one after-school 30-minute video conference tutorial session using the zoom video conferencing platform; • two after-school 60 minute ‘drop in’ sessions using the slack messaging service: these sessions would be optional for participants. however, after further discussion both with the mentors and families of potential participants, the team decided that the online lab would instead run three separate weekly sessions of 2-3 hours each, which would allow scope for participants from different states (and therefore time zones) to join in or leave the session when it suited them. each session would be based on specific areas of participant interest, matched by mentor expertise. participants could choose the session (or sessions) that most appealed to them. recruiting mentors and participants the online lab project was predicated on responding to the needs of young people with autism who could not access a face-to-face lab or similar, and who were geographically isolated. to that end, the project team secured in-kind support from the brisbane school of distance education, which circulated information about the online lab, including the link to an online application form with details of the project, through its networks. the project’s press release also generated a number of local media stories in newspapers and on radio in regional queensland, plus one media newspaper story in victoria. additionally, the project accessed the lab’s existing networks within regional victoria, particularly geelong and bendigo. as a result, interest was strong and the project was able to start with a full contingent of 20 young people in july 2016, with five more joining progressively as some dropped out. in terms of recruiting mentors, the project’s original plan was for the mentors who developed the video content to also undertake the weekly online mentoring. the project team’s preference was to retain the same mentors throughout the two school terms of the pilot, based on the importance of developing rapport and trust between mentors and participants – one of the identified factors for the success of the face-to-face lab (donahoo & steele, 2013). however, a six-month weekly mentoring commitment was only possible for one of the original content creators. the other two mentors were then sourced through digital media teaching networks and existing lab mentors. as shown in evaluation data from participants, parents and the coordinator, the recruitment of the right mentors was identified as one of the project’s most important success factors, !125 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 especially the mentors’ abilities to build rapport and navigate a complex mediated social environment during online sessions. developing the online lab web portal the online lab web portal was built from january to april 2016 using the wordpress platform by a victoria university web developer, then tested by mentors, administrators and lab participants. the completed portal allowed tutorial videos to be either uploaded to the portal or linked from the online lab’s public youtube channel, to be collated via ‘project pages’ within the portal. ! figure 1: example of online lab tutorial page participants were required to log onto this portal when attending sessions. ! figure 2: online lab portal login page the portal was also designed to allow mentors and administrators to upload notes on participants and sessions, and to record who had logged in and for how long. this recording of attendance information was important in terms of assessing participation levels. !126 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the evaluation the online lab evaluation reflected the context: a small-scale technology program pilot funded by a philanthropic small grants scheme. as such, the evaluation focused primarily on questions of impact, with a view to establishing whether the model of the online lab was sufficiently effective for the lab to consider extending the project beyond december 2016. the project’s three impact-focused objectives were defined in the project scoping document as: 1. to enhance the social connectedness of young people with autism via online sharing and development of technology interests and projects. 2. to develop a thriving national online platform for the exchange of technology project ideas and experiments. 3. to improve the life prospects and wellbeing of young people with autism through a mentored, personalised approach to it skills development, conducted via the internet. evaluation methodology the evaluation was undertaken using a cross-sectional qualitative design (pope & mays, 2003) involving participants, mentors and parents. it took place at the conclusion of the pilot in late 2016. these data were combined with quantitative data consisting of de-identified web statistics on user activity and numbers over time, gathered via the online lab platform. qualitative evaluation methods consisted of the following, with the aim of collecting data from as many kinds of project stakeholders as possible, including families living in remote and regional areas: • online posts and comments by participants, written throughout the pilot and collected at the conclusion of the pilot; • mentors’ and coordinator’s field notes, written throughout the pilot and collected at the conclusion of the pilot; • online questionnaires with online lab participants, undertaken at the conclusion of the pilot; • semi-structured telephone interviews with participants’ parents/guardians, undertaken at the conclusion of the pilot; • two online lab mentor focus groups, undertaken at the conclusion of the pilot. families were emailed in december 2016 with an invitation to take part in the project evaluation. these emails were followed up by telephone calls. it was emphasised at every stage that involvement in the evaluation research was voluntary. !127 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 a total of 23 families were invited to take part in the evaluation. these represented all 25 participants enrolled in the online lab pilot, since two families had two children involved in the pilot. this total also includes participants who continued until the end of the pilot (13) and those who dropped out throughout (12). nine parents/guardians responded to requests for involvement in the evaluation. of these, seven agreed to undertake telephone interviews, and two said they were on holidays and were not able to take part, but would pass on the online survey link to their children. of the participants, five completed the online survey as sent on by their parents/guardians. all three weekly mentors took part in the two focus group sessions. by february 2017 all research surveys, interviews and focus groups had been completed. evaluation findings with the caveat in mind that this was a limited project with a small number of evaluation respondents, the qualitative evidence suggests that the online lab pilot was a qualified or partial success, and also points to major areas for improvement and refinement. table 2 below outlines involvement of participants throughout the pilot. of the 25 young people who took part, 13 stayed for the entirety of the pilot and 12 dropped out before completion. the 13 who stayed tended to come back consistently on a weekly basis throughout the six-month pilot period. these young people seemed largely to be engaged and interested, as represented in the following comments by parents: he’s so far ahead already with school work, particularly with maths and science. he gets bored witless. he stays on track more when doing the online lab with school stuff. he doesn’t get distracted as easily, goes into steam or youtube. it keeps his attention a little longer. he can’t wait to get home to do online lab. we set him the task of logging into the online lab. he now does it from his own drive. we tell him. we’ve looked at his pixel art…it’s really good. it’s a way to generate conversation and interaction with him. of the 12 participants who dropped out, interviews with parents, survey results and field notes suggest a number of reasons: anxiety about interacting with others, frustration with other participants during online sessions (especially younger children who had differing or less advanced interests), technical difficulties such as logging on, internet lag or background noise, an inability to take part due to conflicting commitments, or, as reported by one parent, the online lab just didn’t suit them despite its perceived worthiness. in one or two cases the young person appears not to have wanted to take part, but was made to by a parent/guardian. a final factor was changing daylight saving differences between states. this affected some queensland participants’ ability to take !128 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 part in the latter stages of the pilot, and is worth noting for other projects seeking to run online projects over multiple time zones. overall, the data suggest that an online group mentoring program, at least in the form provided by this pilot, suits some young people with autism much better than others, with the division between the two being starker than in face-to-face labs. table 2: participant involvement summary the following section explores the evaluation findings in terms of the three main project objectives. were the project objectives met? objective #1: to enhance the social connectedness of young people with autism via online sharing and development of technology interests and projects in this regard, the pilot appeared to have worked well for some young people with autism, but not for others. although parents/guardians and participants responded positively overall to their involvement in the online lab, the data were mixed on whether the online lab specifically enhanced social connectedness. two out of seven parents/guardians interviewed stated that the project had increased their children’s connections with other young people, in this case, online given that participants did not victoria queensland nsw total expressions of interest: 11 13 2 26 enrolled at beginning of pilot 7 12 1 20 enrolled during project 3 1 1 5 total enrolled: 10 13 2 25 stayed to conclusion: 4 9 0 13 dropped out after 1-2 sessions 1 2 1 4 dropped out after 3 or more sessions 4 3 1 8 total dropped out: 5 5 2 12 !129 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 meet in person. of the five participants who completed the survey, two agreed and two disagreed that the online lab helped them make new friends. in terms of connectedness within families, some change was noted in terms of changes to family dynamics, with two respondents noting that the regular sessions had helped create a sense of structure in daily family life, and had provided a context for more family interaction. it should also be noted, however, that the 2013 evaluation of the lab, which reported significant family impacts, was undertaken after two years of weekly face-to-face lab activities. participants in the online lab had been involved for up to six months, with many involved for less time due to starting later and/or dropping out. as a next step, it would be useful to compare reported family impact after a more extended period of online lab operations. objective #2: to develop a thriving national online platform for the exchange of technology project ideas and experiments this was perhaps the most ambitious objective given the short timeframe of the pilot and the fact that the young people were geographically dispersed throughout three states (queensland, new south wales, and victoria). feedback from the mentors indicate that the ‘project area’ of the online portal was not used as much as hoped, and that ad-hoc solutions developed by the mentors, based on participants’ existing technology use (for example other youtube channels and session-based blogs), were more effective. this points to a central finding of the evaluation that is also backed by the overall experience at the lab: the role of the mentor as a facilitator of effective and responsive engagement and learning is crucial, and the recruitment of the right mentors/facilitators is one of the most important factors in determining the efficacy of online video conferencing-based projects. the data also tell us that social and project interaction could be enhanced by introducing all participants to one another, especially across sessions, and for mentors to have the technical ability and time to communicate one-on-one with both parents/guardians and participants. this was reflected in parent/guardian interview responses such as: i would like them to get a real network going. create a community. commit and communicate. develop friendships that are well monitored, where people are who they say they are. security and safety. these kids are semi isolated or totally isolated. spend regular one on one time with child on phone. a ten-minute talk. find out what they want to do. i would have liked to talk to the mentor a bit – a ten-minute chat – so i could find out how to support her. !130 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 parents/guardians also noted the importance of formal and informal encouragement, including the issuing of certificates of participation. again, the importance of the mentor was highlighted in these responses, as well as in the highly positive evaluation of the mentors by all five participants who filled in the survey. objective #3: to improve the life prospects and wellbeing of young people with autism through a mentored, personalised approach to it skills development, conducted via the internet the comments above also relate to this objective. they suggest that the online lab pilot’s mentoring approach was working to some degree, but that could have done more to develop individual engagement with participants. responses to questions about skill development and enjoyment/fun by both parents/guardians and participants were overwhelmingly positive, with few negative effects of involvement noted. however, the comments above suggest that the online lab could further develop individual participants’ engagement and sense of personal achievement by developing personalised strategies. this is where the issue of resourcing arises, in terms of the amount of paid time available to mentors to do additional work. overall, the biggest specific benefits noted by participants were that they saw themselves learning new skills which they clearly valued – this was evident in both the multiple-choice questions (see table 3 below) and free text responses. of the five respondents, four had continued to the end of the project, and one had dropped out. similar results were also reported by parents in interviews. given that online surveys were filled out by only five of 25 participants, it is worth mentioning the mentors’ session notes, which noted that a majority of participants were motivated and engaged throughout the pilot sessions. this view is backed by the online moderator. the results of the first five (ie non free text) participant survey questions are summarised in the following table: table 3: first five survey questions question: strongly disagree somewhat disagree neither agree nor disagree somewhat agree strongly agree q1: i liked being involved in the online lab 1 2 2 q2: the online lab helped me to develop new computer skills 1 4 q3: the online lab helped me make new friends 1 1 1 2 !131 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the central role of technology evaluation feedback from participants, mentors and the coordinator suggests that, in an online-only environment, the affordances of the chosen technologies play a central role in determining levels of engagement. later in this article we provide a list of factors worth considering when choosing technology platforms for video-based online mentoring. as stated previously, the notion that the online lab suits some young people with autism, but others less so, has also been the case for our face-to-face labs. however, with the online lab the divide appears to be more dramatic: a number of participants were enthusiastically involved throughout, whereas others ‘lurked’ and some dropped out. this, we propose, may be due largely to the centrality of the technology used in mediating the experience for both participants and mentors. in a face-to-face lab it is easy for participants to chat with each other, ask for help, show their work to others, or move/leave the room if they are feeling frustrated (and for mentors to guide them to do so). the online lab evaluation data showed that this is harder to do in an online-only environment where attention is focused on one central screen and voice at one time. some young people appeared to find this easier to cope with than others. in a video-conferencing environment, frustrations can arise, especially for some young people with autism for whom the technology is not working well, or who find it hard to engage in conversation. another issue, also identified in the mentor focus group data, is the range of ages present during sessions and their differing interests and levels of maturity, as per these comments: the other children were quite immature and most barely understood how a computer processed information this made the sessions go at a crawling pace as well as the teleconferencing programs. some of the people i don’t have the same interests as them, it’s not their fault. the classes sometimes tended to move off the actual subject into sometimes irrelevant things. its okay to talk about them, but you start ask yourself, why am i here, what am i doing as stated, conferencing technologies designed to focus attention on one speaker at a time may limit the number of parallel social interactions that might otherwise occur q4: the online lab was fun 1 1 3 q5: the online lab mentors were helpful 5 q6. i would like to continue with the online lab if it is offered in 2017 1 1 2 1 !132 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 within physical spaces during face-to-face lab sessions. the ability to share multiple screens would help here. to date, mentors have also highlighted that other improved features would help to facilitate online-only sessions. these include stereo rendering of voices and push-to-talk features that would reduce distracting background noise – a concern both for mentors and young people with autism, some of whom can be very sensitive to noise. mentors also observed that online lab participants tended to prefer operating within one technology platform rather than switching between them. participants generally opted to use zoom’s chat facility, even though the slack messaging tool initially chosen offered more advanced features. mentors then tended to follow suit in order to continue effectively communicating with participants. another factor noted by mentors was the need to stay alert to the tools already used by participants, and to be adaptable enough to change their delivery at short notice when needed. as stated previously, the project page area of the online portal was underutilised by participants. noticing this, mentors responded by opting for other forms of online project curation that more accurately reflected participants’ existing technology usage. one mentor made extensive use of a youtube channel and related comments facilities. another created a project blog site, and the third mentor, who specialised in advanced games coding, created an environment in google projects to pass on project details and tips. discussion in this section we discuss operational and theoretical considerations generated by this pilot project. we have chosen to include practical tips in the interests of helping to inform the design and operations other projects seeking to use video conferencing technologies for online group mentoring. we also discuss how the online lab pilot is contributing to our theoretical understanding of autism, technology, and space through the concept of ‘differentiated spaces’ as defined by lab-based phd scholar lye ee ng. this work recognises online, offline, and personal spaces as unique in their own right and capable of facilitating particular forms of communication. in an online-only environment, however, the affordances of technologies take on greater significance. operational considerations technology affordances and choices below is a summary of the advice suggested by the online lab evaluation data, particularly in the mentor focus groups. here, we note that the points below reflect our observations about technology affordances at a particular point in time (early 2017, revised mid-2018), and that technologies such as video conferencing platforms constantly change and develop. the dynamic nature of the technology industry may !133 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 render some of these points redundant in the near future. however, we believe they still deserve to be highlighted, because of their impact on the online lab’s operations. the points are as follows: • video chat functionality is a central component of engagement. however, the chat tool provided by the zoom platform had limitations that affected the smooth running of online lab sessions. ideal chat functionality would include: ○ ‘push to talk’ functionality rather than ‘push to mute’. this would eliminate background noise. mentors noted, however, that their ability to mute participants’ microphones was still crucial. ○ stereo rendering of voices to allow better differentiation ○ multiple screen sharing capability. this would allow participants to chat in pairs or small groups. currently, video conferencing platforms are largely based on one central screen being shared at a time. this proved frustrating for some participants, who wanted to talk about their interests with other participants. it also meant that one participant can easily disrupt sessions – this occurred with one participant in the early stages of the pilot. • projects should aim to operate within one online platform wherever possible; otherwise participants and mentors may become confused and distracted. the mentors’ advice also included working with only browser-based tools (as opposed to downloaded client software) when working with younger and less advanced participants, for the same reasons. • projects should create an initial set of minimum requirements for participants including: ○ good quality headset microphone ○ headphones ○ laptop/computer with minimum specifications ○ reasonable internet connection as determined by an online speed test ○ if possible, have a second screen plugged in ○ a reminder for participants not to interrupt other participants during sessions, and not to let relatives do so either (many families were not familiar with online video conferencing) session structure within the mentor focus groups, a number of suggestions related to how to better structure online video mentoring sessions with young people: !134 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 • run sessions as basic or advanced (not age-based) so participants are less likely to get frustrated by other participants; • incorporate fixed break times, especially with longer sessions. this applies more to advanced topics than graphics and basic web sessions that do not need software installs; • work with six participants at the most if using current video tools (ie zoom). however, multiple screen sharing capabilities would allow for more participants; • aim for activities that are short and manageable but still lead to outcomes in 10-15 minutes. tools such as codepen work well. theoretical considerations: differentiated spaces oldenburg’s pre-world wide web concept of the ‘third place’ (1989) captures much about the face-to-face lab. neither home nor work/school, the lab is not unlike the cafés and community centres described by oldenburg: a neutral and equalising space where people attend regularly to socialise and play, and where their individuality is recognised and valued. example of ‘third places’ that, like the lab, explicitly leverage technology to connect people, are physical spaces dedicated to the playing of computer games (wadley & schutt, 2013). such spaces can be permanent as in gaming lounges, or temporary as in lan parties. people gather in these locations to play games, motivated by factors including the desire to belong and meet others, to showcase their skills, to watch others (taylor & witkowski, 2010) and to learn more about games (jansz & martens, 2005). although online gaming takes place in these spaces, physical co-location and personal exchange are a major part of their appeal, much like the face-to-face lab. what happens, then, when physical co-location is replaced by virtual co-location mediated by a specific video conferencing technology? this question has driven the online lab experiment. the term ‘differentiated spaces’, devised by ng through her doctoral work at the lab (ng, schutt & corcoran, 2015), recognises online, offline, and personal spaces as unique in their own right and capable of facilitating particular forms of communication. however, these spaces do not exist in isolation. in an environment like a face-to-face lab, or indeed the online lab, they overlap and interconnect to form distinct cultures of socialisation that extend beyond mainstream narratives of sociality (ng et al., 2015). this notion draws on notions of space as multidimensional (gores, 2000), involving personal interaction and the effects of proxemics, as well as technology-facilitated forms of interaction. no two environments are likely to be the same. in an online-only environment, the affordances of chosen communication technologies take on far greater significance because they are not mediated by, or combined with, physical proxemics, choice of location and embodied interaction. in the case of the online lab, we found that a participant’s behaviour can be more disruptive to others in an online-only environment, especially when the technology allows them to dominate !135 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 through the use of tools such as the activation of screen-sharing – the virtual equivalent of invading others’ ‘personal space’. further, the likelihood of such behaviour may increase in online-only environments, due to frustration caused by technical aspects of the communication not working effectively. potential technical issues are many and include faulty or ineffective hardware (e.g. microphones, computer graphics cards), mentor management of the technology during sessions, software limitations or internet lag. additionally, conferencing technologies designed to focus attention on one speaker at a time may limit the number of parallel social interactions that might otherwise occur within physical spaces during face-to-face lab sessions. at the time of writing, there are moves by some software vendors to introduce multiple screen sharing capabilities: this would be likely to have a significant impact on social dynamics within online-only projects. conclusion the online lab pilot has generated reasonably encouraging results. indications are that it, and other similar online initiatives, could make a positive difference to the quality of the lives of isolated people, including those with autism. indeed, as a result of the pilot, the lab network decided to continue the online lab, albeit with adjustments in implementation such as session times and structure. at the time of writing (june 2018), the lab organisation now runs one weekly mentored video conferencing session with six remote/regional young people from queensland and victoria, with plans to expand the program further through publicity campaigns. the lab’s coordinator reports that the somewhat polarised response to the pilot program has continued, noticing that some participants drop out quickly, but that those who remain tend to remain in the program for the long term. the program still employs the zoom platform, and some of the issues identified in the pilot remain, which may explain the continued polarised reactions by participants. the zoom platform continues to be used for pragmatic reasons such as cost, the features identified in the practice review, and the perceived lack of viable alternatives. this, of course, may change at any moment. in a very real sense, video conferencing technologies like zoom control the experiences of the people who use them; they have personalities and agency, and are never neutral (latour, 1992). what may look like a small matter of functionality in a communications technology can have a major impact in determining or shaping the flow and coherence of human interactions. the importance of specific technological affordances can sometimes be downplayed by commentators, with the word ‘technology’ used as a catch-all that sometimes hides what is really a universe of differing tools, processes, approaches, assumptions and affordances. this is understandable given that we have been warned about the dangers of giving too much agency to the word ‘technology’ (marx, 2010), and that technological change occurs at breathtaking speed. however, in a distributed online project like the online lab that relies heavily on technology’s affordances, it is important to recognise their impact, learn from the experience, communicate that learning, and thereby help to influence the future development of online tools to help to better mitigate social isolation. !136 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 references attwood, 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(2017). technology-aided interventions for employment skills in adults with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review. review journal of autism and developmental disorders, (4)1, 12-25. !138 1124 ready the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles 'useful' civic hacking for environmental sustainability: knowledge transfer and the international space apps challenge civic hackathons have become a popular, experimental process through which to promote public access to open government data and enable innovative civic uses for the information. the international space apps challenge, led by nasa, is a high-profile event, promoting the use of space-derived data with the aim of contributing solutions to 'grand challenges' such as environmental sustainability. central to the civic hackathons are the concepts of 'stewardship,' and 'usefulness'. the study explores the promises and realities of civic hacking through analysis of the aims of the organisers, perspectives of participants and the event's outcomes, concluding that hackathon peer processes promote networks for knowledge transfer. introduction as jurisdictions around the world begin to release large quantities of data and information under open government plans, one way in which the reuse of open government data has been promoted is through civic hacking. in the parlance of those involved, the term civic hacking describes the reuse of open government data to create new products and services, generally for the benefit of the public or to contribute a solution to 'grand challenges' such as social, environmental and economic problems (tauberer, 2012). there is currently a growing movement of short-term, collaborative events at which civic hackers gather to develop content, and prototypes of hardware and software, utilising open government data. these events are described as civic hackathons (also codeathons, codefests, or hackfests). the paper will argue that at the heart of the civic hackathon endeavour is a desire to be 'useful': governments release datasets and support hackathons with the stated aim of !53 rai, s., griffiths, m. (2016). ‘useful’ civic hacking for environmental sustainability: knowledge transfer and the international space apps challenge. the journal of community informatics, 12(1), 53-68. date submitted: 2014-03-20. date accepted: 2015-07-10. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1124 sumen rai university of adelaide, australia sumen.rai@student.adelaide.edu.au mary griffiths university of adelaide, australia corresponding author mary.griffiths@adelaide.edu.au http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1124 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1124 mailto:sumen.rai@student.adelaide.edu.au mailto:mary.griffiths@adelaide.edu.au the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 encouraging the reuse of data in meaningful ways, and organisers and participants volunteer their time, skills, knowledge and labour. 'usefulness' is, however, a contested concept, in that what may be defined as a useful outcome or activity by given individuals or groups will not be the same as every other. contemporary debates about what constitutes ‘usefulness’ in civic hackathons can be seen as an extension of historical debates about knowledge, education and labour, such as those described by (watkinson, 1990) the concepts of useful knowledge and democratic education held by benjamin franklin and thomas jefferson in the eighteenth century differed considerably from those of worker-oriented early nineteenth-century reformers, such as timothy claxton and william maclure, and even more so from those of benjamin silliman and joseph henry in the mid-nineteenth century. these shifts reflected basic changes in ideology, culture, and in american society itself.” (p.351) the idea that ‘usefulness’ has been continually redefined by different communities is key to the arguments in this paper. the civic hackathon activity involves numerous stakeholders who are positioned within one or more overlapping spheres of activity, or what this paper will refer to as 'domains': democratic (government departments, citizens), collaborative (hackers, scientists, participants in crowdsourcing) and popular (general public, end-users such as nongovernmental organisations). using these domains to contextualise questions about whether hackathons are useful, to whom they are useful, and how they are useful, this study engages with those questions using the environmental sustainability-related activity and outcomes of one high-profile civic hacking event, the international space apps challenge. as a hackathon, it is attracting publicity and achieving longevity, having been held annually since 2012. the first event involved 2083 participants in 25 locations around the world, and the most recent event, in 2015, had 13,733 participants in 133 locations; 101 solutions (or projects) were created in the first event, and 949 solutions in the 2015 event. in its ambition, the scale of information exchanged, and international interest, space apps provides fertile ground for thinking about how the stewarding and usefulness of open data is conceptualised. background on usefulness usefulness in the democratic domain the concept of usefulness of information in the democratic domain involves knowledge transfer from stewards of information to other users. liberal democratic governments globally are adopting open government principles to find solutions to problems. releasing information to other agencies has begun to generate research on the meanings of usefulness. dawes (2010) proposes that government organisations releasing datasets under open government plans keep in mind the principle of ‘stewardship and usefulness’. stewardship refers to the care with which government information is handled and “demands that government information be acquired, used and managed as a resource that has organisational, jurisdictional, or societal value across purposes and over time” and usefulness, recognising that there is value in the information governments collect, “[enhancing] public access to government information, [encouraging] public-private information partnerships, and [making] possible the combination or reuse of information for new purposes” (p. 380-1). in !54 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 keeping with uhlir's (2010) assertion that “the value of data increases with their use” (p.1), usefulness in the democratic domain is therefore characterised by access to and the reuse of data by the general public, and by researchers and hackers to create something new which could assist government and their fellow citizens. as an example, the language on hackathon websites often foregrounds a desire to find solutions to civic problems and be useful to local communities: “a rapidly growing global initiative... making the world a better place by developing practical, open source technology solutions to respond to some of the most complex challenges facing humanity.” (random hacks of kindness, 2014). “collaboration on a massive scale is the key to addressing the most important challenges of our time – the ones that none of us can solve alone.” (national aeronautics and space administration, 2014). “govhack is an event to draw together people from government, industry, academia and of course, the general public to mashup, reuse, and remix government data. govhack is about finding new ways to do great things and encouraging open government and open data.” (govhack, 2014). this paper will consider usefulness of civic hackathons within the democratic domain by using the example of one of the grand challenges currently facing the international community: environmental sustainability. environmental sustainability is a problem which requires earth observation data to inform decision-making at all levels, from the individual (for example, monitoring household energy usage, or making decisions about transportation for daily commutes based on estimates of an individual's carbon footprint) to the intergovernmental (united nations negotiations and agreements such as the kyoto protocol). a range of government organisations collect earth observation data for a variety of purposes including meteorological monitoring and forecasting, geological surveying, environmental monitoring, and disaster management. ideally, these datasets, once released, would be available and readily accessible for reuse by researchers, hackers, and the general public. however, reichman, jones, & schildhauer (2011) identify three key challenges with current methods of collection and storage of earth observation data, which make the reuse of data difficult in practice, thus diminishing their usefulness for the democratic domain: data dispersion, with datasets located in numerous locations; heterogeneity of the data collected due to the varied methodologies and terminology used by the numerous disciplines involved; and tracking data provenance, which is crucial for ensuring integrity of scientific results. these issues result in duplication of cost and effort, where people are unaware that datasets exist, and make it difficult to create something new by hacking datasets which might have been collected by different organisations or researchers. usefulness in the collaborative domains what is considered useful in the collaborative domain will vary depending on the collaborative community in question. two groups of interest here, considering the twin focus on environmental sustainability and civic hackathons, are the international scientific community and the open source development community. scientists are increasingly viewing the open science approach (consisting of open data, open access and open research) as a desirable way to increase the sum of scientific knowledge !55 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 through collaboration and sharing, and to increase the value of data by allowing it to be freely reused by other researchers (david, 2003; uhlir, 2010). this has resulted in attempts at collating and standardising datasets to achieve greater interoperability and accessibility. the most significant of these initiatives are international efforts such as the data conservancy project, the open geospatial consortium, and the group on earth observations (geo), an international project which currently involves over 80 member states of the united nations. as an example of how these international initiatives promote open science, geo’s flagship project, the global earth observation system of systems (geoss), aims to be a comprehensive system-of-systems to link the data from existing earth observing systems through common standards which will allow greater interoperability between diverse datasets and a central point through which researchers can access data (group on earth observations, 2014; harris & miller, 2011; lautenbacher, 2006; percivall, 2010) the drive towards open science is underpinned by a reaction against those “scientific communities where by default data is not shared freely, papers are published in closed access journals and the scientific process operates behind closed doors” (open knowledge foundation, 2014). while collaboration to some extent has been a feature of scientific practice historically, open science is essentially redefining usefulness in the context of the international scientific community, as it becomes more useful for those involved to share their research with peers globally (especially for global grand challenges such as environmental sustainability) than to keep the status quo bureaucracy and systems in place. researchers involved in environmental sustainability issues are also broadening their definitions of what constitutes useful knowledge through the inclusion of multidisciplinary perspectives in their work (uiterkamp & vlek, 2007), thus potentially emerging as the ‘critical friends’ that haklay (2015) encourages those who work in adjunct fields to become. the international nature of contemporary scientific collaboration is facilitated by the ease of transcending geographical distance made possible by the internet. the internet is also the enabler for the open source development community, which, unlike the traditionally closed scientific community, has collaborative intent built into it, as source code developed by one person is available for others to develop further. benkler (2006) describes the open source community as being part of a ‘networked information economy’ (as distinct from traditional ‘industrial information economy’ embodied in media corporations and television networks) which is a “system of production, distribution, and consumption of information goods characterised by decentralised individual action carried out through widely distributed, non-market means that do not depend on market strategies” (p. 3). the overarching theme in benkler’s description of the networked information economy is that it is a democratisation of cultural and social production, an example of which is the collaboration between programmers from all over the world. this concept, along with another major concept benkler proposes, 'commons-based peer production’, emphasizes the community-building that occurs around open source projects. an attempt to define what is considered useful in the open source community must start with an examination of the aims of those involved in the community. although the open source community privileges the free and open exchange of labour and information, benkler concedes that open source production does not “mark a fundamental shift in human nature into selfless, community-conscious characters” (2006, p. 376). participants in the open source movement cite a range of reasons for their involvement, as described by ke & zhang (2010), !56 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 including: “… enjoyment in helping others improve software, enjoyment in tackling complex programming problems, improving programming skills, gaining financial benefits, signaling competence to potential employers, improving future job prospects, gaining recognition from peers, [and] enhancing reputation in the field…” (p.785). within the open source development community are developers who subscribe to what himanen (2001) describes as the 'hacker ethic'. these hackers embody “a general passionate relationship to work that is developing in our information age” which is at odds to the dominant 'protestant work ethic’. himanen proposes that hackers are driven by intrinsic passion about the projects they work on rather than the desire to increase material wealth, and underlying this passion is a conviction that information and technological resources should be shared and easily accessible. others are less convinced of the inevitability of the benefits of broader internet participation in say, achieving government efficiencies, pointing to a potential co-option to neoliberal agendas, and the possible exploitation of those who contribute labor, in a “semblance of agency”, and express themselves through the group formation of identities which make it “hard to disconnect” from wider governmental agendas (gilge, quoted in haklay 2015). although there are differences between the international scientific community and the open source development community in terms of their fundamental activities and aims (including differences between sub-groups, and even between individuals within these communities), a common theme is the ability to collaborate through freedom of access to information. usefulness in the collaborative domain seems to be characterised by the building of networks of people to achieve whatever the particular community, sub-group or individual defines as an end goal – whether it is the answer to a scientific problem or the production of the most ‘beautiful’ code. usefulness in the popular domain usefulness in the popular domain is linked to the ways in which the general public can engage with open government information, and to contributions made by citizens. a fundamental aim of open government is to make government information available to the general public, and usually, this primarily involves releasing information online. making government information available online is an effective strategy from the perspective of those who have the ability to access the internet, as it allows potential users of open government data to access and search for the information regardless of their physical location. as more people around the world are able to access reliable internet connections, making data available online seems to be the sensible approach to open government. however, for those on the other side of the ‘digital divide’ (without access, or with limited access, to computers or the internet) and the ‘data divide’ (those without the skills and knowledge to understand and reuse datasets), online data can also reinforce existing social stratification by creating another avenue for the privileged to increase their privilege though better access to information (dimaggio & hargittai, 2001). a reasonable critique of benkler’s networked information economy is that, since it is only accessible to those with the resources of technology, time, and knowledge, rather than being democratic, the networked economy establishes its own form of exclusivity which is often unchallenged because of the optimism that surrounds open government. !57 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the citizen science movement, to which civic hackers of scientific data could be said to belong as a sub-group, is gradually establishing that different forms of participation and collaboration in scientific knowledge production exist through the documentation of multiple international projects, and the proposal of definitions and principles. bonn, of germany’s citizen science portal buerger schaffen wissen (bsw), gives a contemporary overview of the movement at the 2015 science 2.0 conference, defining the three main goals of citizen science as “active participation in scientific processes from data acquisition and processing to co-design and co-production” ; “increasing scientific literacy and empowerment by understanding, acceptance, uptake and implementation of transparent and responsive research in society”; and “innovation in scientific research by engaging with a variety of knowledge domains and introducing new perspectives and information, as well as partnerships” (bonn, bsw, 2015.) civic hackathons often encourage participation from non-coders, such as educators, designers, subject matter experts, and potential end-users. those who choose to participate in these activities can be seen as intermediaries for those members of the general public who choose not to, or are unable to, participate. this latter group of non-coders are potential beneficiaries from the outcome of civic hackathons, and for these people, usefulness can be defined as increased access to government data, government processes, and new products developed from government data which will contribute to their lives in some way. from a wider perspective, non-coders may be fulfilling some aspects of citizen science goals outlined above, by becoming more literate scientifically and being involved in both bringing fresh perspectives to, and disseminating, responsive research across societies. methods recruitment of participants the pool of potential participants for this study was limited to those who participated in the 2013 space apps challenge (as that was the most recent event that had been held at the time of the study). all participants were to be aged 18 and over, with basic english language skills . 1 in that event a total of 770 projects were created. these can be broadly grouped into themes such as space exploration, science communication, and environmental sustainability. while it would be worthwhile to conduct a larger study exploring the outcomes of the hackathon for all these themes (and perhaps over several years), this study was limited in scope by the time and resources available, so was conducted with a particular interest in the usefulness of civic hacking for promoting environmental sustainability. two filters were placed over the full list of projects to create a list of participants who would be approached to participate in this study. the first filter excluded any participants who did not work on environmental sustainability-related projects. in order to make the list more manageable for the limited scope of this study, the second filter excluded participants who had not qualified for the global round of judging for the 2013 challenge. this resulted in a list of 26 projects from which the sample could be generated, as each project had already the research project on civic hackathons received human research ethics committee approval 1 (no. 2013-052) at the university of adelaide in may 2013. !58 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 been judged to be robust enough to proceed. the nominated contact person from each project team was contacted via email, with an invitation to participate in this study. the resulting sample of 9 participants (representing 7 projects) was internationally diverse, allowing for an understanding of the environmental sustainability-specific challenges from different perspectives. in addition to the challenge participants, the perspective of the event’s primary organiser and data provider was sought, through interviewing a nasa contractor (the only female interviewee) who had been closely involved in its inception and development. the sample size for this project was small due to resource constraints and because the nature of the question (how useful hackathons are for environmental sustainability) limited participation to only those participants who worked on projects which were related to the environment. despite a small sample size, recurring themes emerged from the data which create opportunities for further investigation. there is an opportunity to increase the validity and generalisability of this research through longer-term studies conducted over multiple events and with a larger number of participants. data collection and analysis data for this study was collected through 30 minute semi-structured interviews with 10 participants (nine hackathon participants and one organiser), conducted over skype. after a request for background information about professional orientation and their reasons for participating in the challenge, the interviews comprised the following guiding questions to capture a baseline set of data across all interviewees; additional data was gathered through follow-on questions, clarifications, and discussion which were generated by participants’ responses to the guiding questions. • why did you choose to develop an app that addressed environmental sustainability issues? • what challenges did you face during the event (for example, access to relevant datasets, having the requisite skills and knowledge to use datasets, etc)? • how has your challenge project developed since the end of the challenge? • have you continued building on the work you/your team did during the challenge weekend? • has your app been used by the general public, and if so, how? if not, why? interview transcripts were transcribed verbatim and subsequently analysed thematically, in keeping with the grounded theory approach to qualitative research with key informants by noting the perspectives and themes in the participants’ responses. in addition, in order to contextualise the comments of interviewees, discursive analysis of other artefacts from the challenge was also conducted, including participant videos, event websites and the 2013 international space apps challenge post-event report. !59 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 discussion participants were diverse in backgrounds, capabilities and histories of employment. they included experts or students in environmental research, software design or other information technology fields; others described themselves and members of their groups, for example, as start-up entrepreneurs, industry developers, or from the creative industry technology-enabled fields of music composition and graphic design. well-educated and industry trained in many cases, participants described how they routinely deployed different but related skill-sets in employment or study. all but two had been involved in hackathons or similar events before. several had travelled internationally for work or study, and had been invited to participate in the hackathon through a friendship or collegial connection in an existing network, or community of practice. the programming participants could be characterised as highfunctioning practitioners: cosmopolitan, networked, articulate, and drawn to and accustomed to collaborative technology work. project group sizes ranged from three to six. all groups were multi-disciplinary, including capacities among the members such as research capability, software engineering, data visualisation and remote sensing skills. the following foci emerged from analysis. organisational matters although participants noted that the fact that the hackathon was auspiced by the us national aeronautics and space administration (nasa) had been a significant attractor, with one noting its future use on his cv, some found the organisation’s information sharing about the event as off-putting and ‘glossy’. the lead organising agency for the international space apps challenge is nasa but, in practice, the event is decentralised, with self-contained local events in cities around the world organised by local leaders with the autonomy to decide on the scope of their event (including the option to have local problems for participants to work on, and to decide if and what local prizes are available to participants). in order to foster the ‘international’ aspect of the event, the international space apps challenge encourages participants to communicate with each other across cities and countries through skype, google hangouts and similar technologies during the event, and even to collaborate with people in different cities (including 'virtual' participants who are not able to physically attend a local event). the further networking opportunities were appreciated by participants. the international space apps challenge is aimed at exploration, mass collaboration, community building, and finding solutions to a list of problems or 'challenges' that participants work on. these challenges are collected from a range of sources including from within nasa itself, and are curated based on their appeal to a wide range of potential participants. the challenges are, ultimately, supposed to be statements of real issues that participants can assist with: “we did desire to have broader participation so that we weren’t solely appealing to coders… but i would actually say it was more of a function of the nasa stakeholders for that time. so when space apps comes around, we make the rounds around to all of the organisations and directorates and say, “you know, what’s your interest here?”… and so the problems we offer are solely based on who those people are and what kind of things they find interesting.” nasa contractor and organiser, usa !60 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 this framing suggests that for organisers, usefulness is not intrinsic, it is arbitrarily constructed by the expressions of interesting problems identified by a wider expert community than the coders, and yet achievable by coders during the hackathon event. challenges while the challenges cover a broad range of topics, the ones of interest for this paper were related to environmental sustainability. all participants had identified environmental sustainability as an issue which they already saw themselves as affiliated with, or one that they were happy to prioritise above other potential challenges. the challenges in which the interviewees in this study participated included: • 'smart cities, smart climate', which asked participants to develop ways in which to use low-cost sensor networks in cities to assist with planning for environmental management (particularly urban heat issues); • 'predicting water contamination', a challenge proposed by a not-for-profit organisation called mwater, which has previously developed an open source mobile app which promotes open access to water and sanitation data. this challenge invited participants to extend the capabilities of the mwater app. • 'we love data', which was an open-ended challenge for participants to develop novel ways in which to promote public engagement with space-derived data. harnessing the desire to be useful the 2013 international space apps post-event report (nasa, 2013) positions the event at the juncture of the democratic, collaborative and popular domains by highlighting the usefulness of engaging and connecting people who are eager to altruistically contribute their skills and knowledge in order to help solve grand challenges: the more government enables people who fundamentally care about it and want to contribute to the future of our world, the better chance we will have to help our governments live up to their true potential and develop solutions to the grand challenges of our time. (p.14) and that: the event demonstrated that thanks largely to the internet, the kind of creativity and innovation that used to take place primarily behind closed doors within large institutions is increasingly taking place by people simply connected online. (p.16) the 2013 international space apps challenge post-event report also highlights an underlying assumption with regard to civic hackathons: that at least some skilled and knowledgeable people want to be useful by helping others and contributing to ‘the greater good’ (tauberer, 2012). this assumption seems reasonable, as one of the recurring themes from interviewees for this paper was the desire to be useful by creating apps that would contribute to environmental sustainability in their local communities. one interviewee suggested the urge to be useful to !61 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 others by participating in non-market activities such as hackathons was enabled by the decreasing cost of technology, which allows people to consider exchanging their skills, knowledge and labour for something other than money (in keeping with benkler's conception of the 'networked information economy': what i see happening is there is this kind of post capitalist model that seems like we are transitioning into where… before, if you wanted to make something... it was fairly capital intensive. but now, because the cost of information technology is so cheap, and in some cases it’s approaching zero, it enables so many more people to build and create things without the need for money… and without the need of making money off of it. so, time becomes the new money, and people‚ some people are willing to, look at everything in terms of quality of life, more than just, quantity of money. industrial designer, sweden. when asked why they chose to work on an environmental sustainability related project, interviewees often expressed a desire to create something which was immediately relevant and meaningful for their communities (an urge to be useful within both the democratic and popular domains): because it had to do with the here and now. it had to do with local issues and making a difference where we were learning ... and it wasn't just sort of thinking about games or doing something playful, it was just... wanting to make a difference. composer, united kingdom. participants spoke about the detailed challenges they faced, in some instances seeing their efforts as dovetailing with nasa research aims. one app developer expressed the implied understanding of usefulness this way, nasa is really good at this kind of macro level of aggregating climate data, or the satellites. and they can get a view of the world at a high level…but they can’t really zoom in too far on that data.so what we want to do is complement the macro level with the micro view. industrial designer, sweden. underlying all these motivations is the fact that anything developed during the weekend of the space apps challenge must be released under an open-source license – which essentially means that participants are 'gifting' their weekend's work to anyone who wants to use it or develop it further (satisfying an urge to be useful within the collaborative domain). if, as the new hacker's dictionary suggests, “...it is an ethical duty of hackers to share their expertise by writing free software and facilitating access to information and to computing resources wherever possible” [online], then it becomes a civic hacker's duty to mediate between the masses of open government data and the general public, who would, on the whole, not have and skills and knowledge to make use of that data. this is an especially acute distinction in those countries where the divide between those with access to wealth and education and those without is most pronounced. for example, one participant from mexico describes how his team had to consider technological and knowledge constraints for the target users of their environmental monitoring app: we thought… why not make [the water monitoring app] available to other people who may not have that knowledge but may be able to contribute to it. and so, instead !62 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 of requiring a test to be performed at a water source, our app lets regular people like myself be able to look at a source of water that might be… potentially contaminated and will answer a couple of questions regarding its state, about how it looks, it smells... and that piece of information just from observing, we can deduce if it might be potentially contaminated and so it raises… a ticket so environmental organisations or health department in the government can have access to that report and go to the water source themselves and do a proper test and see if it really requires some kind of treatment… although people don’t have that much access to computers, unexpectedly, there are a lot of people with smart phones so i thought that was pretty unexpected and amazing so, well, why not make it a mobile as well so people can participate with it. university student, mexico. the final comment shows that mobile phone users are being thought about as potential contributors to citizen-sourced scientific data. notions of usefulness arise in the practices of making. stewardship: multiple owners exacerbating the issues of digital and data divides, and a major problem for the usefulness of government data (in the democratic domain), is that datasets which are relevant to a particular problem may be held by various branches of an agency, different agencies, or at different levels of security and confidentiality, making it difficult for international space apps challenge participants to access and reuse them. this is similar to the problems that scientists face in the collaborative domain: the problem is science at nasa is usually done in cooperation, usually with university investigators and so… usually the investigator has the data and usually is hosting the current location. and so, there’s a lot of issues with making those things work and reconnecting them back together. nasa contractor and organiser, usa. in addition to the problem of dispersion of datasets, there seems to be some difficulty in convincing owners and managers of datasets to ensure they are of sufficient quality to be released for reuse: we are encouraging nasa in the development process to evolve the data more and more… and the thing that’s been extremely helpful is that we’ve needed the examples (we knew this was going to be an issue that people say, “oh, they don’t need this kind of data, or they don’t need that kind of data) to be able to say “do you see that because the data only work this far, this project can only go this far” nasa contractor and organiser, usa. in order to mitigate problems with accessing datasets, the challenges on the international space apps challenge website have links to relevant datasets associated with them. the nasa website also has datasets categorised to make them more easily accessible. the struggle to make the data useable seems to have been fruitful, at least in some instances: because locally, first of all, we haven't... adequate enough data, and secondly, sometimes we cannot get access to this data, datasets. but using nasa options, it is very easy to get such data. climate researcher/ university lecturer, japan !63 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 being at the point where the three domains overlap means that determining how useful the international space apps challenge was in contributing to environmental sustainability is a complex exercise, and that the metrics by which the success of the event have to be judged must include the procedural (number of participants, number of locations, number of solutions developed) as well as hard achievements (for example, how many solutions have developed to the point where they are being used by the general public). perspectives on the outcomes of useful civic hacking the recent proliferation of civic hackathons has instigated much self-reflection amongst those involved about whether the model as it stands is useful, and ways in which it could be improved (detar, 2013; eaves, 2012; oram, 2011; sasaki, 2012). these discussions are generally critiques of the lack of hard achievements from hackathon events and do not consider the value of other types of outcomes such as community and network building, which is a form of usefulness in the collaborative domain, or increased awareness of and access to government data, which is useful in both the democratic and popular domains: “it can be argued that the impact of the applications and prototypes created in the hackathons is limited, and while some applications become new products and keep being used, many of them stay on a prototype stage.” (zapico, 2014) a lack of hard achievements from civic hackathons is also true in the specific case of the international space apps challenge. focusing on the environmental-sustainability related solutions (from the full list, not only the ones included in the interview sample for this paper), there is little evidence to show that a significant number of projects that were started during the 2013 event were developed further. international space apps challenge organisers were not expected to report against hard achievements in 2012 and 2013, which perhaps indicates that at least in the early years of the hackathon, this was not considered to be one of the most important outcomes. however, the list of suggested judging criteria for space apps challenge projects (nasa 2015) demonstrates that organisers valued the potential for hard achievements, particularly based on the description of the ‘impact’ and ‘sustainability’ criteria: • impact: how much impact (quality and quantity) can this project have? does it solve a big problem or a little problem? • creativity: how creative is the approach? is the project new and something that hasn’t been attempted before? is it something that isn't being addressed by the market? • product: how well does this project fit the needs of the challenge it addresses? how user friendly is the technology? is it a complete solution or does it have a long way to go? • sustainability: how good is the plan for next steps? how prepared is the project team to continue their work beyond the event? is the project organized in a way so others can take the project to the next level? • presentation: how well did the team communicate their project? are they effective in telling the story of the project and why it is important? the lack of hard achievements can perhaps be traced to the tensions that arise when the hacker ethic of not being bound by traditional notions of time and labour meets the time!64 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 bound, solution-oriented nature of civic hackathon events. the short timeframes of civic hackathons do not foster an environment for a community to be built. kelty (2008) writes about hacker communities being a 'recursive public' which he defines as giving “precedence to a generalised openness to change, rather that to the following of shared plans, goals, or ideals dictated or controlled by a hierarchy of individuals”. while not all participants in the space apps challenge are hackers, one participant picked up on a similar issue in the space apps challenge, as the event is essentially sponsored by a number of large organisations (such as nasa and other government agencies), and at the local event level, there is also a form of hierarchy with local lead organisations or individuals being at the 'top': i suppose it’s… this old issue of top down approaches, where, instead of things springing up on a grassroots level, there is… a huge organisation that’s trying to create a grassroots movement and that... that often doesn’t work. probably most times, it doesn’t work. composer, united kingdom. as civic hackathons become more diverse in terms of participants, however, more definitions of usefulness will have to be considered. the interviewees for this paper, the majority of whom would not define themselves as hackers, were enthusiastic about the creative and innovative potential of the event: if we are talking about such events as nasa event, i see very important thing in these events. it's kind [of a] brainstorm event. information science & technology professor, macedonia. it is good because you end up with these great ideas on a weekend, but they are all rough prototype. industrial designer, sweden. but these civic hackers were also thinking about how the ideas from the event could be developed further: this is something i deal with, actually, in my job… and my role is really to see how we can facilitate some of these really disruptive ideas and grow them. and it’s a similar challenge... one thing that could be considered is… some sort of program in place where, if it’s nasa or some other organisation, but they can take the outputs… and help nurture them. industrial designer, sweden. organisations such as code for america and random hacks of kindness currently combine civic hackathon events with structured, longer-term programs such as technology incubators and internships to facilitate the ability of civic hackers to further develop their ideas. it is unclear if the organisers of international space apps challenge have considered these types of programs, but implementation of something similar could meet the needs of some participants who are eager to continue work on their ideas but find that ‘real life’ took over once the weekend of the challenge was over: in the long run, i think, each of us has just been preoccupied with... with what we need to do on a day-to-day basis to keep our lives together. so, that, you know, we haven’t, actually, formed a business venture, in the long run. composer, united kingdom. !65 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 after that our team became busy… other team member are professional… or they have own job… and also my own job… climate researcher/university lecturer, japan. in a few cases, interviewees reported that their teams kept in contact to work on other projects or found new collaborators to further develop their work: i took this project and pitched it to a, not an investor, but like a grant place to get a grant… cause really, we needed some, seed money to, kind of, start scaling it. that didn’t come through… but then i reached out to another group… and they’re, kind of, doing the same thing, but they’re much further along. so they already have, when this was going on they had just put their project up on kickstarter to raise money, and they met their goal. so, now they are actually putting their kit together… so now it’s a question of exploring some opportunities to collaborate… and leverage the work that they’ve already put into doing their project. industrial designer, sweden. it can be argued that the dawes' (2010) principle of ‘stewardship and usefulness’ should be applied also to the concepts and work undertaken during civic hackathons. organisers of the international space apps challenge are grappling with how to begin ‘stewarding’ from the start of event organisation process. for example, nasa organisers found that: ...the non-government agencies are often more... agile and able to integrate and continue to work with project teams in an on-going way. another form of stewarding seems to occur when there is a traditional teacher-student relationship involved. a number of the participants interviewed were university professors who encouraged their students to be involved with the challenge. the involvement of university students and staff has the potential to create more sustainable projects, as these projects could be further developed as student projects. it is possible that this occurs because, when government agencies have achieved their definition of usefulness in the democratic domain (that their open data has been made openly available and reused), they are unwilling or unable to invest further resources to ensure that other forms of usefulness are achieved. non-government organisations and universities who could benefit from the work of civic hackers could be involved from an early stage in future events to ensure they contribute challenges which meet their own definitions of usefulness. conclusion although it would seem that gathering groups of passionate and technically expert people in one location and encouraging them to use their skills to create something useful for their communities would be a highly effective way in which to tackle grand challenges such as environmental sustainability, there are currently disconnects between the different framings of usefulness and the reality of hard achievements from civic hackathons. most projects from these events are not developed further. positioning the international space apps challenge within three overlapping domains of activity (democratic, collaborative and popular) has shown that some of the issues associated with civic hackathons, such as difficulty in accessing datasets, or the tendency for projects not to be developed further, arise from the sometimes conflicting definitions of usefulness in each !66 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 domain. the democratic and collaborative domains reveal that the less easily measurable goals of promoting environmental sustainability and establishing multidisciplinary communities for the re-use of scientific data, and the purposeful challenge-based local projects, seem achievable. in the popular domain, the hackathon appears also to be achieving a measure of success in the scaling up of event participation, the variety and number of project groups formed, and the participants’ engagement with and ownership of the framing of solutions to local concerns. if a narrow definition is adopted to measure usefulness of the civic hackathon activity (such as measuring how many apps developed at the international space apps challenge are currently being used by the general public to contribute to environmental sustainability), then the inevitable conclusion is that civic hacking for environmental sustainability is not a useful activity. however, usefulness is a concept which must be examined within the context of society and the individuals and groups within it. with this in mind, this paper has argued that measuring the usefulness of civic hackathons is a complex undertaking due to the wide range of stakeholders, all of whom have their own definitions of what is useful, and while the hard outcomes from the space apps challenge are few, civic hacking can be considered useful for environmental sustainability in a number of the other ways suggested. references benkler, y. 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(2010). information gulags, intellectual straightjackets, and memory holes  : three principles to guide the preservation of scientific data. data science journal, 9(october), 1–5. uiterkamp, a. j. m. s., & vlek, c. (2007). practice and outcomes of multidisciplinary research for environmental sustainability. journal of social issues, 63(1), 175–197. watkinson, j. d. (1990). useful knowledge ? concepts, values, and access in american education, 1776-1840. history of education quarterly, 30(3), 351–370. !68 http://twobits.net/pub/kelty-twobits.pdf http://spaceappschallenge.org/ http://science.okfn.org/ http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/07/app-outreach-and-sustainabilit.html http://davidsasaki.name/2012/12/on-hackathons-and-solutionism/ http://opengovdata.io/ 1385-8025-1-ed the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles a sustainability framework for mobile technology integration in schools: the case of resourceconstrained environments in south africa the application of mobile technology integration in schools has been widely researched. however, the sustainability of mobile technology integration in resource-constrained environments has received less attention. diverse contexts and devices complicate the construction of a consolidated view of how to sustain the pedagogical practice of learning with mobile devices in these environments. the purpose of this article is to indicate how feedback from teachers and district officials informed the development of a sustainability framework for mobile technology integration in schools (sfmtis) in resourceconstrained environments in south africa. employing design science research as methodology, an initial sustainability framework was synthesised from the existing literature. teachers’ views were obtained regarding the integration of mobile technology in their schools and were subsequently processed to inform the further development of the framework. teachers, who were trained, and had !59 jabulisiwe mabila university of south africa, south africa corresponding author. mabiljp@unisa.ac.za judy van biljon university of south africa, south africa vbiljja@unisa.ac.za marlien herselman council for science and industrial research, south africa mherselman@csir.co.za mabila, j., van biljon, j., herselman, m. (2017). a sustainability framework for mobile technology integration in schools: the case of resource-constrained environments in south africa. the journal of community informatics, 13(2), 59—86. date submitted: 2017-03-31. date accepted: 2017-08-21. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1385 . http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1385 mailto:mabiljp@unisa.ac.za mailto:vbiljja@unisa.ac.za mailto:mherselman@csir.co.za http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1385 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 previously participated in an initiative that introduced mobile tablet use, and where information and communication technology infrastructure was provided to their schools, were purposively selected for the study. the department of basic education officials based at district offices were also interviewed for their views on the sustainable integration of mobile technology. the findings were used to refine the initial sfmtis. besides the refined sustainability framework, the research contributes novel insights into the different perspectives of the teachers and the district officials, and how those can impact the sustainability of mobile technology integration in resource-constrained environments. introduction mobile learning projects are often funded through short-term sponsorships for technical support and training, consequently leaving sustainability beyond their funding period unclear (ng & nicholas, 2013). although initiatives are being undertaken to provide information and communication technology (ict) infrastructure and e-resources, and for the ict-related training of teachers in public schools in south africa, long-term sustainability remains a risk in many of these initiatives (meyer & marais, 2014). sustainability is not an attainable end state, but rather a fundamental characteristic of a dynamically evolving system, where long-term sustainability results from continuous adaptation to changing conditions (fullan, 2004). frameworks are therefore required as a guide for projects, so as to avoid sustainability pitfalls. the shortage of suitable frameworks to guide the long-term sustainability of information and communication technology for development (ict4d) projects is a major problem, particularly in developing countries (gichoya, hepworth & dawson, 2006; mamba & isabirye, 2015). the diversity of contexts and devices complicates a consolidated view of how to sustain the practices involved in teaching and learning with mobile devices (ng, 2013). the implementation of mobile learning in educational environments has been investigated in many studies, however, few have comprehensively interrogated the dimensions that sustain mobile learning, or have developed frameworks to sustain mobile learning in schools (ng & nicholas, 2013). the categorisation and synthesis of mobile learning models and frameworks by hsu and ching (2015) supports ng and nicholas’ argument on the lack of sustainability frameworks on the use of mobile learning in educational environments. the “framework for sustainable mobile learning in schools” that ng and nicholas (2013) developed, together with the “person-centred sustainable model for mobile learning”, was developed in the context of an australian school. the school’s efforts sought to introduce and sustain an mlearn programme using personal digital assistants (pdas), and the school allocated resources to internally fund the programme. sustainability of mobile technology integration in schools has thus been researched in other countries. however, a sustainability framework where teachers and district officials’ perspectives were applied to refine a sustainability framework in the context of resource-constrained environments is novel. the literature review conducted in this !60 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 study identified sustainability dimensions based on frameworks of ict4d projects in resource-constrained environments, but those frameworks are not specific to the education environment. the research question that this article seeks to answer is: how does the feedback from teachers and district officials inform the development of a literature-based sustainability framework for mobile technology integration in schools (sfmtis) in resource-constrained areas of south africa? design science research (dsr) offers a methodology for designing information-based artifacts in a strategic and holistic way, as is evident from the design of a mobile skills curriculum for teachers in resource-constrained environments (botha & verster, 2014; van biljon, traxler, van der merwe & van heerden, 2015). dsr was selected as research methodology for this study due to its phased processes, which ensures the relevance and rigor of the findings (hevner, 2007) and its focus on context (external and internal environments) (drechsler & hevner, 2016). the research is structured as a single case study with two units of analysis, namely, teachers at public schools in the cofimvaba school district in the eastern cape province of south africa and district officials. in the following section, the background to the study is outlined. the research is then presented according to the phases of the dsr methodology, as applied in developing the sfmtis. in the first phase, the extant literature, reviewed for the main themes of the study, is presented. in the second phase, the dsr methodology, as applied in the research, is discussed. the findings of the case study in which teachers and district officials from the cofimvaba school district participated, are provided, and those findings subsequently inform the development of the sfmtis. background south africa spends about five per cent of its gross domestic product (gdp) on basic education (dbe, 2016). the basic education system in this country caters for large numbers of learners: in 2014, the number of public schools was 24,060, and 12,117,015 learners were served by 390 608 teachers (dbe, 2016). the costs of purchasing large numbers of textbooks and transporting them from publishers to warehouses and eventually to schools – some of which are remote – are high. crises in schools have, in the past, resulted from delays in the delivery and availability of textbooks (dbe, 2012; dbe, 2015). the south african national planning commission states that shortcomings in the basic education system include challenges in respect of management and school support (including the role of district offices), a lack of cooperation between key stakeholders (particularly unions and government), and a lack of accountability. the metcalfe report identifies bureaucratic inefficiency, inadequate school leadership and management skills, ongoing changes to curricula, and the unavailability of learning and teaching materials, as some of the challenges facing the basic education system (dbe, 2012). using mobile technology to address certain of these challenges, for example by providing teachers and learners with pc tablets has been proposed and piloted (herselman, botha & ford, 2014), but little evidence-based research on the sustainability thereof – as informed by teachers and district officials – is available, and this provides the rationale for this study. !61 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the views of teachers from resource-constrained environments on technology integration have been investigated (van biljon et al., 2015), but the perspectives of district officials provide a novel angle. the four main roles of school districts are to plan and support, and provide oversight and accountability to schools under their care in line with provincial plans (sasa, 1996). districts are expected to provide an enabling teaching and learning environment, in line with the education policy, and interact with schools through school visits, classroom observations, consultations, cluster meetings, feedback reports, and related activities. districts are charged with holding principals accountable for the performance of their schools and account to the provincial department. districts’ roles include facilitating ict connectivity to schools, organising professional development for teachers, administrators and managers, and consulting and engaging with the public (dbe, 2013). however, unlike schools, education districts are not empowered to raise their own revenue (dbe, 2013). this study builds on previous research on the sustainability of ict projects in resourceconstrained environments in south africa and ict4d sustainability frameworks to develop a conceptual sustainability framework for mobile technology integration. a conceptual framework is a graphic or narrated artifact that explains important factors, concepts or variables, and the relationships among them (miles & huberman, 1994), in addition to representing ways of thinking about a problem, its complexities, processes, variables and outcomes, and their inter-relatedness (bordage, 2009). it allows researchers to build on each other’s work in order to arrive at a deeper understanding of a problem and to guide the development of possible solutions (bordage, 2009). the framework employed here was developed through the application of dsr methodology (drechsler & hevner, 2016), as discussed in the next section. research methodology the dsr methodology (drechsler & hevner, 2016), selected for this research, was applied as shown in figure 1. dsr begins with an important opportunity, a challenging problem, and an insightful vision or a conjecture regarding something innovative in the application environment (hevner et al., 2007), and iteratively builds the artifact by following the rigor, design, relevance, and change and impact cycles (drechsler & hevner, 2016). the relevance cycle defines the context, problem or opportunity, and input requirements from the contextual environment, and introduces the artifact into the environment. the rigor cycle provides grounding through extant foundation knowledge, theories, domain experience, and expertise into the research, and affords new knowledge generated by the research to the knowledge base. the design cycle that iterates between the rigor and relevance cycles, supports research activity for the actual iterative artifact design and redesign, and corresponding artifact evaluation (venable, pries-heje, baskerville, 2016). the change and impact (ci) cycle captures the dynamic nature of is artifact design and enables dsr to cope with dynamic application contexts and follow-up design efforts, which may result from introducing the artifact to the environment (drechsler & hevner, 2016). the ci cycle encompasses the artifact’s immediate application, that is, direct users of the artifact and the wider context – the socio-technical system within which the immediate application context is a subsystem !62 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 (drechsler & hevner, 2016). the immediate application context for the sfmtis (artifact developed in this research) includes the school systems and infrastructure, the teachers, learners and principal as well as the district office and the officials. the wider context is the education system and society within which the immediate application context is a subsystem. figure 1 shows how the dsr methodology was applied in this research. in the ci cycle, the need to examine the sustainability of mobile technology integration in schools in resource-constrained environments was identified, which resulted in the objective of developing an sfmtis. in the relevance cycle, the context of the problem was defined as the teachers in schools in cofimvaba, who were provided with tablets, ict infrastructure, and teacher training, through the ict for rural education and development (ict4red) initiative. the single case study employed in the design cycle was schools in the cofimvaba school district located in the eastern cape province in south africa. the two units of analysis in the case were the teachers and district officials. the literature review of sustainability frameworks and the department of basic education and government documents provided the initial knowledge base in the rigor cycle. figure 1: dsr methodology (adapted: drechsler & hevner, 2016) peffers, tuunanen, rothenberger, and chatterjee’s (2007) dsrm process provides a mental model and process of how to conduct dsr in information systems and consists ! !63 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 of six phases as depicted in figure 2, where “rce” means resource-constrained environments and “mti” means mobile technology integration. application of peffers et al.’s (2007) dsrm process in developing the artifact incorporates practices and procedures required to carry out such research, including iterative design and development. there were three phases in this research. in the first phase, literature was reviewed to identify sustainability dimensions that were used in developing the initial sfmtis. in the second phase, the views of teachers and district officials on mobile technology integration were investigated. their feedback helped to refine and further develop the initial sfmtis into the sfmtis presented in this paper. in the third phase, the sfmtis will be evaluated through expert reviews. given the requirement of peer review as a measure of relevance and rigor in dsr, it was considered advisable to submit the framework for review and publication before embarking on phase 3. ! figure 2: application of dsr process in the study (adapted: peffers et al., 2007) phase 1 extant literature was reviewed for the main themes of the study, focusing on sustainability frameworks in general, frameworks for ict4d implementation in resource-constrained environments specifically, and frameworks for sustainable mobile learning in schools. this research builds on these frameworks. the findings from these different types of sustainability frameworks will now be discussed. sustainability frameworks in general researchers have proposed theoretical frameworks to explain the long-term sustainability of ict4d projects. these include the critical success factors (csf) and !64 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 critical failure factors (cff) models by heeks and bhatnagar (1999), stakeholder theory (bailur, 2006), and the sustainability failure model (sfm) (best & kumar, 2008). best and kumar’s (2008) sfm provides an analytical framework comprising the five key factors that endanger the long-term sustainability of programmes namely: financial/economic, cultural/social, technological, political/institutional, and environmental sustainability failures, which should be addressed for a project to be sustainable (best & kumar, 2008). the national health system (nhs) sustainability model, which functions within the healthcare environment, identifies three main dimensions: organisation (infrastructure and fit with goals and culture), people (training involvement, behaviours and senior leaders), and process (monitoring progress, adaptability, the credibility of evidence and benefits) (maher, gustafson & evans, 2010). considering these frameworks, the common dimensions: financial/economic, cultural/social, technological, political, and environmental sustainability – are extracted as shown in table 1. table 1: sustainability dimensions identified in general sustainability frameworks sustainability dimension csf model (heeks & b h a t n a g a r , 1999) sfm (best & kumar, 2008) s u s t a i n a b i l i t y m o d e l ( m a h e r, g u s t a f s o n & evans, 2010) financial/economic management financial/economic social/cultural culture; people cultural/social organisation: infrastructure; fit with goals and culture political politics; structure; strategy political/institutional (power shift) organisation: infrastructure; fit with goals. staff: behaviours; senior leaders technological technical technological environmental environmental environmental institutional structure; strategy organisation: infrastructure; fit with goals monitoring and evaluation (m&e) process; management evaluation and monitoring process: monitoring progress, adaptability, credibility of evidence training people training p e o p l e : t r a i n i n g a n d involvement; behaviours; senior leaders sustained leadership management sustained leadership and institutionalisation institutionalisation institutionalisation identify benefits process: benefits process process p r o c e s s : a d a p t a b i l i t y ; credibility of evidence !65 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the csf and sfm both include the environmental dimension. however, sfm presents political and institutional sustainability as one dimension. in the political dimension, power relations within a government hierarchy can affect long-term sustainability, and individuals who are in positions of authority/influence/control in local bureaucracies, affect sustainability by their effectiveness in their positions (best & kumar, 2008). leadership, training, monitoring and evaluation, coordination, communication, control and management, identifying benefits, processes, and information and knowledge management, affect sustainability as shown in table 1. the sustainability dimensions discussed in the preceding section are based on general ict4d sustainability frameworks; the following section examines frameworks specific to resourceconstrained environments in south africa. specific sustainability frameworks for ict4d implementation in resourceconstrained environments resource-constrained environments (as used in this context) are characterised by limiting economic circumstances and inadequate infrastructure and basic amenities (anderson, anderson, borriello & kolko, 2012). consequently, teachers who operate within the limits of these constraints implement changes in less than favorable circumstances, they contend with challenges related to electrical power and network connectivity, and deal with economic conditions that are characteristic of low-income communities (anderson, et al., 2012; herselman & botha, 2014). public schools in south africa are classified into five groups: quantile 1 to quantile 5, from most to least poor. quantile 1 encompasses a group of schools in each province, which caters for the poorest 20 per cent of schools, followed by the next poorest 20 per cent (quantile 2), with the least poor schools in quantile 5 (doe, 2016). the schools in this study are in the lower quantiles, 1 and 2, and are considered to be located in resource-constrained environments. frameworks which have been developed based on the findings of ict4d projects conducted in resource-constrained environments in south africa which highlight sustainability dimensions include: the “critical success factors of rural ict project sustainability” (pade-khene, mallinson & sewry, 2011), and the “rural ict project development framework” (mamba & isabirye, 2015). the “critical success factors of rural ict project sustainability,” identifies 19 critical success factors for rural ict project sustainability, which have (for the purpose of this study) been grouped within economic, political, social, technological and institutional sustainability dimensions (see table 2). building on existing public facilities, a holistic approach to the project, institutional partnerships, and values such as trust, sound ethics, and transparency, are also included in the csfs. the “rural ict project development framework” found that information and knowledge management information p u b l i c i t y a c t i v i t i e s t o g e n e r a t e a w a r e n e s s o f services !66 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 sustainability of projects requires local participation, local technical support, and skills development. mamba and isabirye (2015, p. 11) highlight the need for infrastructure and skills development resources, stating: “it is critical to have financial support from the government and the private sector.” this point is important for resource-constrained environments. the aforementioned frameworks are, however, not specific to the education environment. in contrast, the detailed “evidence-based ict for rural education and development (ict4red) implementation framework” (herein referred to as ict4red framework) (herselman, botha & ford, 2014) is specific to the education environment and incorporates sustainability factors. the ict4red framework is an implementation framework and emphasises the importance of the teacher professional development (tpd) component. the tpd is “the center around which everything else happens and supports or influences or enables the tpd component” (herselman, botha & ford, 2014, p. 67). the ict4red framework underscores the need for the following: changes in classroom interaction in line with the introduction of appropriate icts; the selection of appropriate school ict hardware and software; and relevant decisions on infrastructure and connectivity – 3g/satellites, local area network (lan) and wi-fi selection (herselman, botha & ford, 2014). analysis of these frameworks shows the interconnectedness of the sustainability dimensions. finances are required in order to support aspects in the institutional dimension such as, monitoring and evaluation, training, and communication, and for technological sustainability, the maintenance of tablets and ict infrastructure, and the provision of technical support. the sustainability dimensions identified in these frameworks are summarised in table 2. table 2: sustainability dimensions identified in sustainability frameworks for ict4d implementation in resource-constrained environments sustainability dimension csfs of rural ict project sustainability (pade-khene et al., 2011) evidence-based ict4red implementation framework (herselman et al., 2014) framework to guide development through icts in rural areas of south africa (mamba & isabirye, 2015) financial/ economic economic self-sustainability; motivating and incentivising f o r c o m m u n i t y i c t j o b placement; using ict to enhance existing rural development activities p r o g r a m m e m a n a g e m e n t (budget allocation) cost-utility model (meyer & marais, 2014:217) financial support (private sector and government) political u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f l o c a l political context; cultivating a n i n f l u e n t i a l p r o j e c t champion p r o g r a m m e m a n a g e m e n t (managing stakeholders) change management !67 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the financial dimension is significant in the context of resource-constrained environments. the framework presented by mamba & isabirye (2015) explains the role of private sector involvement and government funding in financially supporting ict infrastructure and skills development. analysis of these frameworks further shows how a number of factors such as leadership, management, monitoring and evaluation, and communication can be considered to be within the institutional sustainability dimension. frameworks that address sustainable mobile learning in schools the “framework for sustainable mobile learning in schools,” the “person-centred sustainable model for mobile learning,” (ng & nicholas, 2013) and the “framework for sustainable mobile learning in schools in resource-constrained environments,” (mabila, herselman & van biljon, 2017) are discussed in this section. the context of ng and social / cultural c o m m u n i t y p a r t i c i p a t i o n ( t a r g e t g r o u p s ) ; l o c a l / d e m a n d d r i v e n n e e d s ; encouraging local ownership; building local partnerships; i n c o r p o r a t i n g s o c i a l l y excluded groups p r o g r a m m e m a n a g e m e n t ( m a n a g i n g s t a k e h o l d e r s , community); c o m m u n i t y ( p e o p l e , organisations internal to specific context) local participation; long-term private and public sector partnerships technological c h o o s i n g a p p r o p r i a t e technology school ict (hardware and s o f t w a r e s e l e c t i o n , infrastructure, connectivity – decisions and issues); school ict committee; communication p l a n f o r l o n g t e r m p r e s e n c e o f s k i l l e d personnel; te c h n i c a l s u p p o r t b y local, skilled personnel institutional m o n i t o r i n g and evaluation doing ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the project m o n ito r in g a n d e v alu a t i o n (measures success/failure and impact); overarching to include programme management training u n d e r g o i n g a p p r o p r i a t e training and capacity building t e a c h e r p r o f e s s i o n a l d e v e l o p m e n t p r o g r a m m e ; change management skills development; ict training leadership and management cultivating an influential project champion p r o g r a m m e m a n a g e m e n t ; o p e r a t i o n s m a n a g e m e n t : content, infrastructure, project, devices, support, maintenance; change management i d e n t i f y benefits stating simple, clear project objectives benefits identified goal determination; i d e n t i f y r o l e o f technology policy creating awareness of specific ict policy influencing the project p r o g r a m m e m a n a g e m e n t : evidence-based policy sound policies communicatio n, information and knowledge management building on local information and knowledge systems; facilitating local content development programme management: communication c o o r d i n a t i o n a n d communication are critical !68 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 nicholas’s (2013) framework and the “person-centred sustainable model for mobile learning” is secondary education in australia and is based on data collected at an australian school. the framework is based on the more general “framework for sustainability of ict in education,” (cisler, 2011) which comprises economic, political, social and technological sustainability. ng & nicholas add a fifth dimension, pedagogical sustainability (see table 3), while the environmental dimension is excluded. the school principal at the australian school was technologically “savvy,” enthusiastic, and actively participated in the mlearn programme. funding for the mlearn programme was provided internally by the school. the context of ng and nicholas’s framework differs from the context of the present study, where funding for the initiative to introduce tablets to the schools was external, and provided by government departments. in addition, the schools participating in the present study are in a resource-constrained environment. the “person-centred sustainable model for mobile learning” (ng & nicholas, 2013) recognises the complex relationships between technical aspects and people-related factors, the interpersonal relationships between leadership and management (principal and programme coordinator), teachers, students, technicians and the wider community (parents, suppliers, policy makers, software developers and researchers). mabila, herselman and van biljon (2017) argue that a framework for sustainable mobile learning in the context of schools in resource-constrained environments should take institutional structures into account, and proposed the addition of the dimension “institutional sustainability.” this is in line with earlier findings of an analysis of frameworks in resource-constrained environments. the financial dimension is highlighted since the availability of financial resources was identified as one of the sustainability risk factors when ict4red was implemented. the ict4red funding was allocated at a strategic, national level, with a short-term, three-year implementation focus, rather than a long-term sustainability focus (meyer & marais, 2014). additionally, the educational system is funded via predefined budgets, in which the flexibility of reallocation is limited, while schools in resource-constrained environments have limited financial resources. these frameworks confirm four of the five sustainability dimensions identified when analysing general frameworks, namely financial/economic, cultural/social, technological and political sustainability. the environmental dimension is added to the sfmtis since it pertains to making plans for the eventual disposal or reuse of the large number of servers and tablets in different schools when these reach the end of their effective life. best and kumar (2008), as well as heeks and bhatnagar (1999), include the environmental dimension in their frameworks. for the sfmtis, the institutional dimension is also considered in addition to the dimensions in ng and nicholas’s (2013) framework. the pedagogical dimension in the “framework for sustainable mobile learning in schools” (ng & nicholas, 2013) is an essential part of the sfmtis. the pedagogical dimension refers to “teaching or learning practices that support the longterm goals of the mobile learning programs” (ng & nicholas, 2013, p. 4). the sfmtis sustainability dimensions synthesised from an interrogation of the literature include !69 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 financial/economic, political, social/cultural, environmental, technological, pedagogical and institutional sustainability as shown in table 3. the sustainability dimensions across the different frameworks are summarised and presented as a basis for the sfmtis in table 4. 
 table 3: framework for sustainable mobile learning in the context of resource-constrained public schools in south africa (source: mabila et al., 2017 adapted from cisler (2011), ng and nicholas (2013)) c i s l e r (2011) 1. economic the financial capability of the educational institution to support the ict technology in the long term 2. political the role of leadership and the institutional policies required to adopt, maintain and monitor the success of mobile learning programmes; consultation and feedback between different levels of the institution 3. social community involvement (parents, political leaders and business partners such as computer companies) 4. technological informed technology selection based on institutional needs and midto-longer-term strategic goals; need to consider technology, access and maintenance costs, access to infrastructure and technical support; consultation and feedback between service providers regarding content, technical support and users (teachers) ng & nicholas (2013) 5. pedagogical teaching and learning practices to support the goals of mobile learning programmes; the roles of teachers (and learners) in facilitating learning with mobile devices; prepare and practice to facilitate learning with mobile devices; peer collegiality required to ensure best pedagogical practices; formal and informal learning facilitated by mobile learning mabila et al. (2017) 6. institutional alignment between processes, leadership support and policy implementation. in context, this is at school (micro), district (meso), and provincial and national (macro) levels 7. environmental making plans for the maintenance of tablets (replacing damaged mobile devices). making plans for the eventual disposal or reuse of the equipment (large numbers of servers and tablets) when they reach the end of their effective life (best & kumar, 2008; heeks & bhatnagar, 1999). impact of these decisions on teaching, such as how quickly tablets are repaired. !70 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 4: comparison of the sustainability dimensions across frameworks as a basis of the intermediate sfmtis dimensions sustainability frameworks frameworks: ict4d implementation – resourceconstrained environments mobile sustainabi lity dimension csf model (heeks & bhatna gar, 1999) sfm (best & kumar, 2008) sustainabi lity model (maher, gustafson & evans, 2010) critical success factors of rural ict project sustainability (pade-khene et al., 2011) evidence-based ict4red implementation framework (herselman, botha & ford, 2014) framework to guide development through icts in rural areas in south africa (mamba & isabirye, 2015) ng & nicholas (2013); mabila et al. (2017) adapted from cisler (2011) economic manage ment financial / economic use cost benefit analysis framework for ongoing resource needs (staff and equipment) economic selfsustainability; motivate/ incentivise community ict job placement; use icts to enhance existing rural development activities programme management (budget allocation); risk identification; monitoring and evaluation; change management; cost-utility model (meyer & marais, 2014:217) financial support (private sector and government) for infrastructure and skills development economic social /cultural culture; people cultural/ social organisatio n: fit with goals and culture; staff: training and involveme nt, behaviours, senior leaders community participation (target groups), local/ demanddriven needs; encourage local ownership; build local partnerships programme management (managing stakeholders, community); community (people, organisations internal to specific context) local participation; long-term private and public sector partnerships social political politics; structur e; strateg y political institution al organisatio n: fit with goals; staff: behaviours, senior leaders understanding local political context; cultivating an influential project champion programme management (managing stakeholders and partners); change management change management political technologi cal technic al technolog ical choose appropriate technology school ict (hardware and software selection, infrastructure, connectivity – decisions and issues); school ict committee; communication plan for long-term presence of skilled personnel; local, skilled personnel should provide technical support technolog ical environm ental environ ment environm ental pedagogic al teacher professional development; curriculum content; content management, change management pedagogic al (ng & nicholas, 2013) !71 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 phase 2 to add value to the sfmtis developed from the reviewed literature, phase 2 of the study utilised a case study to demonstrate and refine the sfmtis developed in phase 1. a case study approach can be applied to understand complex social phenomena (yin, 2013) and requires that the case be defined (creswell, 2014; yin, 2013). the case study for this research was selected schools in the cofimvaba district in the eastern cape province of south africa, which were part of the ict4red initiative. the philosophical position taken in this article is that of pragmatism. pragmatic thinking acknowledges “knowledge is consequential, generated after action and reflection on action, even if we can use what we know already to guide our actions” (hammond, 2013). pragmatism considers the choices about the goals to be pursued (“why to”), and the means to meet those goals (“how to”) (morgan, 2014). cultural, values, and personal perspectives can affect how the researcher observes, interprets and reports findings (berger, 2015; clancy, 2013). interpretivism was only applied in data collection in the case study as the results were interpreted within the dsrm process model, in phase 2 as shown in figure 2. sample the study is set in a real-life situation, involving public schools, teachers and district officials in the nciba school district of cofimvaba in the eastern cape province, south africa, who had participated in the ict4red initiative. the ict4red initiative was selected as a case and deemed appropriate due to the environment in which it was implemented and the need to sustain the initiative. this phase of the research was conducted about six months after the implementation of the ict4red programme. the study involved ten of the 26 schools participating in ict4red, the large-scale pilot south african government research, development and implementation initiative carried out by the meraka institute of the council for scientific and industrial research (csir) with the goal of improving the quality of teaching and learning, especially in mathematics and science subjects (herselman & botha, 2014). ict4red was implemented in phases between 2012 and 2015 in the nciba circuit in cofimvaba school district with 26 schools, 6,500 learners, 350 teachers, and 16 district officials involved in the initiative (ict4red, 2015). the project entailed deploying tablets to schools, supported by educator training, the provision of technology hardware and software to boost schools’ infrastructure, and network connectivity including, wi-fi equipment, safekeeping and charging facilities, and technical support. in total, 4,233 tablets were supplied to teachers and learners (ict4red, 2015). digital content such as workbooks, lesson plans and e-books were loaded onto the tablets and the content institution al (institutio nalisation) organisatio n: infrastructu re, fit with goals simple clear objectives; awareness of ict policies; holistic approach; monitoring and evaluation evidence-based policy; school ict policy; sustainability plan (district and provincial level); programme and change management goal determination; identify role of technology; sound policies; ict training institution al (mabila et al., 2017) !72 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 servers supplied to schools (ict4red, 2015). teachers and facilitators were trained through the tpd programme on how to teach with technology and integrate mobile tablets in their classrooms. the teachers who participated in this study were selected through purposive sampling. a questionnaire was distributed to 100 teachers in the ten purposively sampled schools, which constituted the case study. the questionnaire was used to obtain their views on mobile technology integration and the sustained use of tablets at their schools. both closed and open-ended questions were used. the questionnaire was printed and disseminated to teachers who manually completed it, after which, 58 responses were received from eight schools. (for a profile of the participants, see table 5.) most participants, 81%, were above 40 years of age, and 62% of those were females. the data of the teachers were supplemented by including the views of four district officials from cofimvaba school district. the officials’ perspectives about mobile technology integration in the schools participating in the ict4red initiative were investigated. semi-structured interviews were seen as important for capturing the views of the officials (all senior personnel based in the district and part of the district management team) on sustainability aspects and for informing the development of the sfmtis. findings and discussion the study found that teachers were mostly positive about the integration of tablets in their classrooms, citing positive impacts for both learners and teachers. teachers indicated that the use of tablets increased their knowledge and skills in 21st-century learner-centered teaching strategies, and reduced technophobia among them. it also made it easy to access, store, retrieve and manage information. some teachers were, however, concerned about the future use of tablets at their schools and indicated that they require maintenance of infrastructure (internet access and wi-fi connectivity), more tablets, technical support, electricity, and quality tablets, in addition to tablets being secured against theft. the teachers also stated that they need continuous ict professional training and that issues pertaining to access to digital content on servers should be addressed. the teachers also identified the need for district officials’ involvement in monitoring and support. table 5: classification of participating teachers by gender and age age (years) total 21–30 31–40 41–50 51–60 male 3% (n=2) 5% (n=3) 10% (n=6) 9% (n=5) 28% (n=16) female 5% (n=3) 5% (n=3) 40% (n=23) 22% (n=13) 72% (n=42) total 9% (n=5) 10% (n=6) 50% (n=29) 31% (n=18) 100% (n=58) !73 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 3 shows percentages of teachers’ top ten recommendations from the results of an atlas.ti computer-based qualitative data analysis. atlas.ti is a computer-based qualitative data analysis (caqdas) tool. teachers’ responses to the open-ended questions in the questionnaire regarding what was going well in terms of teachers using tablets for teaching at their school, and their concerns, were compiled into a primary document in the hermeneutic unit for the atlas.ti analysis. in figure 3, technical support, digital content, and security are flagged as the three main issues teachers highlighted during site visits. district officials concurred with the teachers’ concerns regarding security and the need for technical support. ! figure 3: teachers’ top ten recommendations for improving sustainability a detailed view of teachers and district officials’ perspectives is presented in table 6 (https://goo.gl/9wdxwr ) the following section discusses the views of teachers and district officials, using the seven sustainability dimensions identified in table 4. these dimensions are: economic, technological, political, cultural, pedagogical, institutional and environmental. • economic: teachers and district officials’ responses supported the need for schools’ financial budgets to cater for costs of tablets, maintenance, technicians and technical support, security for tablets and ict infrastructure against theft, and ict training for teachers. district officials indicated the need to apply economies of scale in the !74 https://goo.gl/9wdxwr the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 education system in order to reduce costs such as internet and wi-fi costs. district officials also pointed out that the schools are “section 21” schools and consequently could raise funds. • technological: teachers pointed out the need for more high-quality tablets in the schools, improvement of internet and wi-fi connectivity, technical support to teachers, and ict infrastructure maintenance. district officials noted that planning is required to facilitate future supply of tablets to schools. district officials also expressed the need for well-trained, qualified technicians, who can provide technical support to teachers, and perform network administration functions. as one of the district officials stated, “teachers are not technicians. a teacher’s job is to teach.” • political: teachers and district officials were not explicit in expressing views that can be considered to be political. these views were implicit in statements made. teachers contended that more school visits by district officials would be welcomed. teachers also expressed the need for increased district support to schools in solving internet and wi-fi connectivity, technical support, and security issues. district officials asserted that the dbe provincial should fund schools’ ict related requirements such as technicians, and ict maintenance. • cultural: district officers indicated that there is a need for parental support and involvement. • pedagogical: teachers maintained that more digital content available should cover the whole syllabus, cater for more subjects, and be align to the dbe requirements. teachers suggested that ict training be provided to enable teachers to have “knowledge of how and when to use tablets.” in contrast, other teachers suggested minimisation of usage of tablets citing that students’ writing skills, english language grammar, and mental calculations should be developed, and students’ overreliance on computers for performing basic calculations should be minimised. teachers argued that tablets may be misused for cyberbullying, accessing inappropriate content available online, social networks and games during classes. there were teachers who stated that “learners video record teachers and take photos while they are teaching.” district officers indicated that schools with tablets can make more use of e-books, and that the dbe should develop strategies for reducing textbook publishing and print textbooks costs, which currently involve several book publishers. • institutional: major aspects within institutional sustainability include leadership, communication and coordination, and security. teachers noted that leadership and support by the dbe at national, provincial, and district level is critical. one of the teachers remarked that “dbe has to organise permanent employees (at meso and macro levels), to focus specifically on ict-related programmes, who will always be there.” district officials explained that district officials facilitate communication and coordination between teachers and the district through regular subject committee and cluster meetings, which respectively occur monthly and quarterly. with regard to school security, teachers and district officials agreed that securing school premises is crucial. teachers remarked that schools need to tighten up security. district officials agreed that security at some schools is inadequate, and that thieves !75 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 target the tablets. schools reported the burglaries that have occurred to district management. • environmental: the complex and resource-constrained context that schools and districts in resource-constrained environments contend with, results in many challenges as evident in remarks such as: “there are many needs – water, sanitation…”; “there are other barriers to learning, for example issues related to nutrition, scholar transport, remedial lessons, basic conditions of schools, and teachers’ motivation.”; “there is also too much workload on teachers.”, and “more personnel are required at the district.” teachers and district officials deal with mobile technology integration amidst these challenges, which span different dimensions. the communication divide between teachers and district officers teachers expected more leadership from the district in relation to the use of tablets at the schools, expressing the need for “regular monitoring by the office of education in the district checking the usage and condition of the tablets.” however, district officials seem to consider leadership at school level, by principals, school management teams (smts) and school governing bodies (sgbs) to be essential for sustainable mobile technology integration, stating, “functional school leadership is essential (principal, school management team, school governing body), that is responsible for school management and leadership.” district officials also expressed the teachers’ responsibility of using the tablets for teaching and the school management’s responsibility for maintaining the tablets and providing security. some of the district officials indicated that since the schools are “section 21 schools,” they manage the schools’ financial resources and can raise funds. “section 20” and “section 21” school descriptors refer to sections in the south african schools act (sasa), which describe the various functions exercised by the school governing bodies (sgbs) on behalf of the public schools at which they have been elected. all public schools are effectively “section 20” schools, while additional financial responsibilities are allocated to “section 21” schools’ sgbs that are seen to have the capacity to perform them (roos, 2009). the perception given by some district officials was that the “section 21 schools” can raise funds. this perception is, however, not reflected in teachers’ responses as reflected in the statements: “we need more funding…”, and “a budget is required….” considering the fact that the teachers’ responses on those topics are within the purview of the district officials, this may indicate a disconnect between the perceptions and expectations of those two groups, namely, teachers and district officials. such a communication gap could impact the sustainability of the mobile technology integration, and is therefore an important contribution to this article. thus, there is a need for institutional structures and processes that will facilitate communication and coordination of ict specific issues between schools and the district. !76 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 recommendations to address the sustainability dimensions of the sfmtis the value that the case study adds is to demonstrate the applicability of sustainability dimensions identified in the reviewed literature. detailed teachers and district officials’ views are presented in table 6 (https://goo.gl/9wdxwr). in this section, the sfmtis sustainability dimensions, summarised in table 4, are discussed and recommendations are made in the context of the study on aspects that need to be addressed. financial the dbe is advised to promote application of economies of scale, and frugal innovation in schools. systems and processes for building on the ict infrastructure and digital content that have been established through the ict4red project need to be established to combat the high costs of textbooks. the education budget needs to cater for financial support required for new responsibilities such as, maintaining digital content in school servers, and maintaining ict infrastructure to support internet access and wi-fi connectivity. application of financial models such as the total cost of ownership (meyer & marais, 2014) can assist schools, district, and dbe management to plan for sustainable mobile technology integration. the dbe’s planning and budgeting for the ltsm needs to consider ict related costs in its structure. schools expressed a lack of funds as a major reason for schools not affording to maintain tablets, and for inadequate security at schools. schools need to cultivate a culture in which planning is prioritised, and become proactive in influencing the dbe’s approach regarding school ict requirements. for example, as one of the school ict champions indicated, schools’ annual planning and budgeting submitted to the department of education can include ict maintenance costs, technical support, and content management costs. school can also raise funds in line with their “section 21” school’s status, and the intention and implications of the “section 21” policy should be better communicated between schools and the department. increased focus needs to be given to providing appropriate training and capacity building of school managements’ (principals, school management teams (smts) and school governing bodies (sgbs)) planning, resource management, and entrepreneurial skills. political at macro level, the role and responsibilities of the provincial ict forum in the eastern cape department of education (ecdoe) needs to be clarified. at meso level, the district’s roles and responsibilities, particularly the district’s ict4red champion, the e-learning coordinator, and subject education specialists (or subject advisors) in mobile technology integration in schools, and safety and security official’s role, must be wellcommunicated between schools and the district offices. at micro level, the roles of principals, smts, sgbs, and school ict champions’ roles and responsibilities need to be well defined. clearly defined roles and responsibilities must be accompanied by appropriate planning, communication, coordination, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of ict activities. the effectiveness of current structures and processes needs !77 https://goo.gl/9wdxwr the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 to be assessed. questions such as who should maintain the digital content on servers, and how this will be carried out needs to be asked, and appropriate planning, communication and coordination between the dbe and schools effected. a culture in which individuals at all levels, macro, meso and micro levels are held accountable for assigned roles and responsibilities needs to be established. cultural strategies for increasing the involvement of parents, sgbs, and smts, and teachers in planning for, and actively participating in, activities to strengthen the integration of mobile technology into teaching, need to be established. involving parents in finding solutions to security issues, and finding innovative ways to raise funds, is influenced by the school culture. the school culture also influences the sgbs approach and the extent to which the sgb hold teachers and principals accountable in their roles. technological models such as the technology selection model (meyer & marais, 2014), which are relevant for this environment, can be applied when tablet selection choices need to be made. it is critical that schools identify and utilise existing facilities that the department of education, the government, private sector, and other agencies, developed to support teachers’ ict skills, and promote ict use in schools. examples of these facilities are the special e-rate for internet access for schools, online digital resources available for teachers, and digital resources already loaded on the school servers and tablets. districts can assist schools to leverage and maximise on the ict infrastructure that is in place through improved communication, coordination and support. pedagogical the role of subject education specialists (subject advisors), who are based at the district offices, in training teachers how and when to use mobile technology when teaching specific subjects, needs to be clearly defined and communicated. checks and mechanisms to identify inefficiencies in existing reporting and monitoring structures and processes, need to be put in place. as best and kumar (2008) suggest, institutional structures and effective leadership at macro (provincial/national) level and micro level, need to be in place. services should be “institutionalised” instead of allowing the services to be dependent on individual initiatives (best & kumar, 2008). in this case study, these would include: continuous updating of digital content on school servers, continuous technical monitoring and maintenance of ict infrastructure, maintenance of tablets, and the employment of qualified technicians to support schools. “institutionalising” these activities would require that planning and budgeting processes in the department of education systems and structures integrate and align to these new needs and requirements. !78 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 environmental besides the broader environmental issues already covered in other dimensions, the increase in the quantities of ict equipment, including tablets that are supplied to schools, requires that the long-term effects of these devices on the environment be closely examined. close attention needs to be given to how schools handle, maintain and dispose of ict equipment. institutional the school system is a component of the education system and interacts with socioeconomic factors in its environment. the school system functions as an institution, and in the context of mobile technology integration in this research the school is the interface that links the different stakeholders. teachers and district officials specified institutional processes, requirements, challenges, and governance issues that affect mobile technology integration. this explains why the institutional sustainability dimension is prominent in this research. leadership, communication, and the ability to identify and utilise existing facilities to enhance mobile technology use in teaching are four of the critical aspects in the institutional sustainability dimension. the dimensions listed in table 4 will now be applied to the security aspect of mobile technology integration to demonstrate the usefulness of the sfmtis framework. applying the sfmtis to the security aspect of mobile devices security of mobile devices, servers and other ict equipment in schools is a challenge, mainly because of burglaries, but also because the devices could be used by learners and teachers to access inappropriate digital content, and may become susceptible to cybercrimes through the internet. figure 4 shows the application of the dsr cycles to this specific issue and how the design cycles are used to identify the stakeholders and actions in each cycle. !79 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ! figure 4: dsr application in the study example of security of mobile devices the security issue was raised in the internal environment where teachers and district officials indicated that criminals target schools in order to steal tablets. schools and the department of education were advised to prioritise securing the tablets and ict infrastructure. based on teachers and district officials’ observations regarding inadequate security in schools, more efforts need to be made to provide rigorous school security. increased coordination and cooperation at different levels of the department of basic education, research institutions and the private sector, are proposed to investigate and implement cost-effective and stringent security measures in schools. districts need to develop policies and procedures to govern and monitor the securing of school ict equipment, communicate same, and hold school management accountable so they take appropriate action. communication includes means by which schools interact with the district, and interaction within the schools, and encompasses systems and reporting procedures that enable monitoring. analysis and communication of this information is essential for effective management. mobile technology introduces new activities in which teachers !80 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 and students utilise mobile devices, and access digital content. consequently, procedures for reporting day-to-day operations within the schools should cater for these activities, and should align to district reporting procedures. districts have overall responsibility for schools in their jurisdiction, and relevant communication and reporting mechanisms that provide credible evidence of effective mobile technology integration should be developed in line with new ways of teaching. teachers’ remarks regarding security were, “although the school tries to make tablets to be secured, criminals persist to take tablets at schools,” and this necessitates “tightening up security by installing good security systems like surveillance cameras,” and “beefing up other alternative measures for security spray security, mesh wire with spikes.” some teachers and principals, for example, were unaware that the district has an official that is specifically concerned with school safety and security. some of these schools experienced burglaries, sometimes multiple times, where mobile devices were stolen. district officials’ views regarding security were that the districts are aware of the situation and expressed, “security at some schools is inadequate and tablets are targeted by thieves.” however, “schools are expected to secure and insure school property, this includes ict equipment”. presentations to district officials and teachers of results from questionnaires, and interviews, revealed that communication, information and knowledge management between district and schools, and communities regarding these crimes, do not seem to be collated. if the impact and extent of the thefts could be highlighted, and the information collated and analysed, it could be used to motivate action by schools, district, communities, and safety and security officials. table 7 presents a summary of considerations for each dimension of the sfmtis in terms of security. the sfmtis dimensions can be examined to ascertain options and decide on the best plan of action. in this case, all the dimensions are relevant, with the exception of the environmental dimension, which is actually covered by overlapping with the technical, political, institutional and social dimensions. communication is essential and has implications in all dimensions. when mobile technologies are implemented to support teaching in schools, all the different sustainability dimensions of the sfmtis need to be considered. the dimensions are interrelated, and communication is essential since communication and information gaps have been found to exist between schools and districts. !81 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 financial resources are required for connectivity, for maintaining digital content, securing infrastructure, and the continuous training of teachers. this was confirmed in the reviewed literature and in the teachers and district officials’ views reported in the case study. in resource-constrained environments in south africa, the districts’ interaction with schools is critical, as it affects the deployment of resources, finances and technicians. however, financial resources do not guarantee sustainability (ng & nicholas, 2013), and a programme can fail if it is politically and institutionally unsustainable, and this could be caused by people, management, cultural and structural factors (best & kumar, 2008). table 7: applying the sfmtis to a specific issue – security of mobile devices co mm uni cati on dimensions aspects to consider institutional define roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders for school security. identify relevant departmental policies and school policies. the procedures and practices described in the policies may have financial implications. schools’ role in securing mobile devices. financial security installation: hardware and software cost. security personnel costs. devices and infrastructure – loss and damage, and the need to be replaced has cost implications. determine how security installations can be implemented in an effective and affordable way. culture values – levels of crime, and attitudes towards guarding mobile technology integration and mobile devices and ict infrastructure at the schools. this is influenced by the values, level of importance that is placed by the community, teachers, students on mobile technology integration in school, and crime levels in the specific environment. school’s level of ownership and responsibility for guarding devices and ict infrastructure, and department, school, teachers, and learners’ attitudes. political communicate roles and responsibilities of the safety and security officer at the district to schools. enhance the effectiveness of the safety and security officer at the district, and their relationship with the schools. technological ensuring secure use through installation of appropriate software such as antiviruses, and monitoring systems pedagogical creating awareness of ethical use of mobile technology among teachers and students. protecting digital content from being illegally accessed, damaged, or deleted. environmental not relevant in this example. !82 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 conclusion despite the acknowledged importance of sustainability, there is a lack of theoretical frameworks for guiding the sustainable implementation of developmental projects. therefore, this study set out to investigate a sustainability framework for mobile technology integration in schools in resource-constrained environments in south africa. the sfmtis sustainability dimensions abstracted from the literature include financial, political, social/cultural, technological, environmental, and pedagogical sustainability. the findings from the interviews with teachers and district officials provided evidence to confirm the value of the sustainability dimensions identified in literature. much less expected was the institutional challenges identified, which motivated the addition of the institutional dimension to represent the policies, procedures and practices on macro, meso and micro levels. the study highlighted financial and technical support mechanisms required for the sustainable deployment of icts. based on the responses of the teachers and district officials who participated in this study, financial resources are required to ensure that there is continuous educator training, monitoring, security of infrastructure, the provision of digital content and technical support. long-term partnerships with the private and public sectors were suggested to aid financial sustainability, as different stakeholders have varying competencies and capacities. institutional systems and processes have to be made explicit and communicated to ensure continuous cooperation and coordination. the nature of digital content and ict infrastructure is such that it requires continuous support and maintenance. institutional structures tasked with monitoring and support functions have to be strengthened and provided with resources in order to function effectively. the sfmtis provides a point of departure for improving sustainability, by identifying aspects that need to be addressed to support sustainable mobile technology integration. a recommendation that can be made on the basis of utilising 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(2013). case study research: design and methods. london: sage. !86 http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1162 http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1162 3498-article text-19154-1-11-20201215 the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 1-2 issn: 1721-4441 1 editorial a legacy to continue this editorial marks the second transition in editorship of the journal of community informatics since michael gurstein founded the journal in 2004 as part of a world-wide community of researchers and practitioners of the emerging field of community informatics. eduardo villanueva-mansilla took over as editor in 2016 and successfully stewarded the journal through challenging times, including michael’s passing in 2017. on behalf of our global community of researchers and practitioners, i want to say thank you to eduardo for his leadership and to the editorial team that played such a significant role in continuing michael’s legacy with the journal. as eduardo did when he first assumed his role of editor-in-chief, i too will use this space to briefly introduce myself. i am an associate professor and director of the community informatics lab in the simmons university school of library and information science located in boston, massachusetts and a former faculty associate with the berkman klein center for internet & society at harvard university. i have participated in this community as a researcher and practitioner at the intersection of community media and technology for over fifteen years. since learning about the journal of community informatics shortly after its launch, i have centered my scholarly commitments on producing actionable research to describe how community-based organizations, such as community media centers and public libraries, promote digital inclusion and broadband adoption in their communities. i am fortunate and grateful to say that this research has since benefited practitioners, researchers, and policymakers working to address digital inequalities and promote digital equity in the united states and around the world. while the editorship will move to the united states, i promise to preserve and maintain the journal’s international core. i am excited and honored to announce our impressive new editorial board, and i will look to the board’s deep expertise and knowledge to help maintain the journal’s unique international approach. this change in stewardship is also an opportunity to introduce some new ideas and approaches, both intellectual as well as operational, to continue the journal’s novelty and relevance today. toward this goal, i want to share some changes and updates that have been made to the journal. colin rhinesmith editor in chief, the journal of community informatics crhinesmith@simmons.edu the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 1-2 issn: 1721-4441 2 1. the journal has moved back home to canada. it is now hosted at the university of waterloo library. i am grateful to david nemer who assisted me with this transition from its previous home at the university of kentucky over the past several years, under eduardo villanueva-mansilla’s leadership. i am also grateful to peter johnson at the university of waterloo library who played a significant role in helping us to transition the journal to its new home. 2. the journal has three new associate editors as well as new review editor. i am excited to announce that tom denison of monash university and peter johnson of the university of waterloo have joined eduardo villanueva-mansilla as associate editors. vanessa rhinesmith, executive director of the center for critical internet inquiry at the university of california los angeles, will assume the role of review editor. 3. the editorial board is worth mentioning once again here. i am thankful to them for agreeing to help keep this journal vibrant, to maintain its high quality of peer-review, and to continue to build the journal’s vision into the future. the members, new and returning, can be found on our website.1 this change in stewardship at the journal comes during a time of global crisis in 2020. as of the time this editorial was written, the world health organization2 confirmed 75,110,651 cases of covid-19 in 222 countries and 1,680,395 deaths, as a result. in many countries, hospitals are overwhelmed in ways never seen before and many other workers around the world are risking their lives so others can stay at home. “social distancing,” or the term i prefer to use, “physical distancing,” is the phrase being promoted by our health care experts and political leaders. at the same time, the impacts of this health care crisis have created enormous strains on our global economy as well as on our global internet, particularly for those who have access and can afford its high costs, as seen in the united states. this latest health crisis has only heightened other global challenges, including impacts on our environment and our communities living in poverty. i strongly hesitate to say that community informatics, in general, and this journal, more concretely, have the answers to these tremendous global challenges facing us today. however, i will say that community informatics and this journal have helped to remind us over the years that our sense of community and our need as human beings to stay connected remains incredibly important regardless of technology. therefore, i remain hopeful that this journal and its thoughtful community of researchers and practitioners will continue to show the ongoing relevance of community informatics through our current crises and long into the future. this is our call today. 1 https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/about/editorialteam 2 https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019 123-07-1296 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 special issue on data literacy: articles contributions of paulo freire to a critical data literacy: a popular education approach paulo freire is the patron of education in brazil. his main work the popular education pedagogy influences many educators all over the world who believe in education as a way of liberating poor oppressed people. one of the outcomes of freire's work is a literacy method, developed in the 1960's. in this paper, we propose the adoption of elements of freire's literacy method for use in a pedagogical pathway towards data literacy. after tracing some parallels between literacy education and data literacy, we suggest some data literacy strategies inspired on freire's method. we also derive from it a definition for critical data literacy. introduction the introduction of new digital technologies to everyday life is an irrefutable reality. information and communication technologies (icts) affect both those who have the infrastructure and education to enjoy the comfort brought by the icts and those who do not a social phenomenon known as the digital divide. the digital divide has been the subject of a developing field of study since the beginning of public internet in the 1990's. this field includes the concept of digital inclusion as a way to overcome the inequalities of access to icts . 1 there is a vast literature about digital divide, which is out of the scope of this paper. for a very 1 recent debate on this topic, we recommend gurstein's paper why i’m giving up on the digital divide (gurstein, 2015). !108 tygel, a.f., kirsch, r. (2016). contributions of paulo freire to a critical data literacy: a popular education approach. the journal of community informatics, 12(3), 108—121. date submitted: 2016-01-04. date accepted: 2016-06-06. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1296 alan freihof tygel federal university of rio de janeiro, brazil corresponding author. alantygel@ppgi.ufrj.br rosana kirsch eita cooperative, brazil rosana@eita.org.br http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1296 mailto:alantygel@ppgi.ufrj.br mailto:rosana@eita.org.br http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1296 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 one fundamental step of digital inclusion is digital literacy, a term which draws a parallel between learning how to read and write – literacy – and learning how to use computers. with the growing presence of icts in society, specialized questions arise under digital literacy. from the mid-2000s onwards, governments globally started to publish online big quantities of data (chignard, 2013). it was the beginning of the worldwide movement towards open data, understood as the first step of a transparency process supporting democratic regimes. as a result of growing need, at the same time, the term data literacy started to be coined, although without a formal or widely accepted definition. the promises brought by open data initiatives relate to a more transparent society, a deeper participative democracy, and possibilities of generating value from data (huijboom & broek, 2011). meanwhile, the severe social inequalities faced all over the world, reflected directly in the education level of the population, creates a strong potential for generating a mass of data illiterates. in the 1960's, in the northeast region of brazil, the illiteracy rate – percentage of adult people who could not read or write – reached 72.6% (ferraro & kreidlow, 2004). and precisely in that context arose the work of the philosopher paulo freire. he characterized the process of literacy education both as technically learning how to read and to write, and as the emancipatory process of understanding and expressing oneself in the world: “to learn how to read is to learn how to say the own word. and the own human word imitates the divine word: it creates.” (freire, 1987:11) in this paper, we aim to trace parallels between the reflections of freire about literacy education and the critical understanding of the world through data, using elements of freire’s work to comprehend the new phenomenon of data literacy. we propose a definition for critical data literacy, as a pedagogical methodology oriented to understand reality so as to transform it. this is an introductory paper, with a number of limitations. the scarce literature about data literacy obliges us to bring inspiration from other sources, and is precisely in this sense that we seek the contributions of alphabet literacy methods to the field of data literacy. the ideas brought here are mostly in the theoretical field. nevertheless, they came from concrete experiences in teaching open data (tygel, campos, & alvear, 2015) and developing information systems for social movements . it should also be noted that freire's development 2 was driven in a specific context – teaching poor peasants how to read and write, with the intention of raising their consciousness – and thus, any adaptation of it for other contexts must take this into account. paulo freire, literacy and popular education in latin america, and especially in brazil, the history of education cannot be told without the name of paulo freire. born in pernambuco, in 1921, he became worldwide famous for his critical pedagogy, and mostly for the development of the philosophical principles of the popular education, the most well known product of which is a literacy method. the eita cooperative dedicates to developing icts for social movements. more on http://2 www.eita.org.br. !109 http://www.eita.org.br/ http://www.eita.org.br/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the first big experience of the application of the method happened in angicos, a city in rio grande do norte state in the northeast region of brazil. in 1963, 300 sugar cane cutters became literate in 45 days, with 40 hours of classes. subsequently, the then president of brazil, joão goulart, invited paulo freire to organize a national literacy plan, with the goal of teaching more than 2 million people to read and write. the plan began in january 1964, but was quickly aborted by the civil-military coup, on the 1st of april 1964. paulo freire's method was replaced by the brazilian literacy method (mobral, in portuguese), where all the critical view was removed. paulo freire was arrested and had to leave the country, returning only in 1980. in the 1960's, the traditional literacy method was spread through primers, i.e., booklets containing the content to be taught. this was the central working tool for education, and the focus was on repeating loose words, and in creating decontextualised phrases to reinforce syllables and words. some classic examples are shown in table 1. table 1: decontextualised phrases used in traditional literacy method, in brazil. freire said once that “it is not enough knowing that eva saw the grape. it is necessary to comprehend what is the position of eva in the social context, who worked to produce that grape, and who profited from this work” (gadotti, 1996). moreover, eva is an extremely uncommon name in the northeast region of brazil, and the grape is an uncommon fruit, grown typically in the south of the country. the statement is therefore completely decontextualised, and only encourages the students to memorize it, instead of understanding. according to freirean philosophy, the education must be contextualized, i.e., it should arise from the concrete experience of the educands , and from what is familiar to them. the 3 comprehension of reality does not occur through a mechanical relation between a sign – the written word – and a thing, but by the dialectical interaction subject-reality-subject, where signs and things relate themselves in a political, cultural and economic context. therefore, the concepts eva and grape should not be treated abstractly, but inside a context and a reality. in a very simplified way, we can say freire's literacy method has three stages (schugurensky, 2014): some words used in this paper are specific from freire's bibliography: educands (students), 3 educators (teachers), thematisation and problematisation. debating the origin of them is out of the scope of this work. !110 phrase in portuguese consonant highlighted translation in english eva viu a uva. v eva saw the grape. o boi baba. b the ox drool. a ave voa. v the bird flies. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 1. investigation stage in this first stage, the themes and words that compose the reality of the educands are defined. these themes must be part of the everyday life of the educands, and be very familiar to them. the prime idea behind the investigation stage is that the educational process must start from the educands' reality. thus, educators are committed to dialogue with educands about themes that have to do with concrete aspects of their lives (corazza, 2003). the generative themes are related to “the universe of speech, culture and place, which must be inquired, surveyed, researched, unveiled” (brandão, 1985). the research of the vocabulary universe and the identification of keywords of the group or community are the base for developing the generative themes, and thus, for literacy education. they express limit situations, which, for freire, are mostly oppressive situations (corazza, 2003). 2. thematisation stage this is the stage where the themes are coded and decoded, alongside the discussion about their social meaning in the world. the elaboration of thematic axes relates the generative theme with aspects of a particular or conjunctural reality, and at the same time, organizes the learning process in an articulated sequence. the thematic axes seek to interweave diagnostics and theoretical questions (nuñez, 1998), fostering the dialectic sequence action-reflectionaction from the group involved in the learning process. as stated by (freire, 2005), one way of dealing with thematic axes in the learning process is with the coding process, i.e., the representation of the world using symbols as language, drawing or images. thus, decoding is the process of interpreting these codes. the decoding process generates new information through the production of more abstract higher level coding, based on the knowledge of the world possessed by each educand (barato, 1984). 3. problematisation stage in this stage, the focus is on questioning the meanings previously discussed, with the perspective of transforming reality. reflection generates questions about myths surrounding one's own living reality (freire, 1979). the reality manifested in the investigation stage, further coded and decoded, is then understood as something liable to be overcome. when tackling paulo freire's literacy method, the popular education perspective must also be mentioned. as a whole educational philosophy, it is inspired by the stages of the literacy method, going deeper in its reflections. in the 1970's, many experiences of popular education in the south cone – chile, argentina, uruguay and brazil – generated the reflection of this pedagogy as a permanent process of theorization over the practice in the context of the organization of the popular classes, mainly against dictatorships that were ruling these countries at that time (jara, 1998). the process of collective construction of knowledge from generative themes and thematic axes, emerging from a lived reality, was named systematization of experiences. this should also be included as a fourth stage in the literacy method: 4. systematisation stage in this stage, the lived experience is organized, interpreted and presented, in a communicative sense. systematizing, more than gathering data and information about a context, is the !111 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 exercise of theorizing about an experience and deeply analysing it. systems of thought, information, management and action imposed by dominant powers promote a unique vision of the lived world, and this stage has the aim of elaborating an alternative view (ghiso, 2011). the act of systematizing implies an evaluation of advances and innovations generated inside a collective experience, which can inspire other groups in other realities. the systematization of experiences presents itself as a method of investigation and “knowledge production, either from local experiences or wider participatory democracy practices, or other forms of political incidence.” (adams & streck, 2010). parallels between literacy education and data literacy as data literacy is a new study domain, and thus under construction, there is no established definition for the term. according to the data journalism handbook, “data literacy is the ability to consume for knowledge, produce coherently and think critically about data” (grey, bounegru, & chambers, 2012). wikipedia states that “data literacy is the ability to read, create and communicate data as information.” another work highlights the importance of understanding how to produce data (carlson, fosmire, miller, & nelson, 2011). after discussing the parallels between both literacies, and the possible contributions of paulo freire to the topic, we derive our own definition of data literacy at the end of section 4. before discussing what contributions from freire can be brought to data literacy, it is necessary to trace some parallels between elements of popular education in general, freire's literacy method in particular, and data literacy. in the following, we present three such parallels. as stated above, literacy education is composed of two complementary and indivisible aspects: the technical ability of reading and writing, and the social emancipatory process of understanding and expressing oneself in the world. in data literacy, we can observe that there are technical capacities related to data manipulation, such as general computer abilities and statistical-mathematical methods, and capacities for critically analysing data, such as understanding the context in which they were generated, and the reality pictured by them. regarding the technical aspect, data literacy entails a higher technological complexity than alphabetization. indeed, data literacy can only happen among literate people. while the literacy education process only requires a book, a pencil and a paper, the data literacy education normally requires computers, mobile devices, and internet connection. mathematical reasoning skills are also fundamental to this process. so, we can affirm that data literacy is a technically more complex process than literacy education. we can also say that there are deep differences in social exclusions caused by each kind of illiteracies. according to the brazilian statistical agency, in 2013 8.5% of the population older than 15 years was illiterate. a closer look reveals a high correlation with poverty and regional inequality. in the northeast region, the poorest of the country, the index almost doubles: 16.6%. the rural slice reveals an even higher index: 18.6% of countryside residents are illiterate. therefore, a correlation between illiteracy, socio-economic standing, and geographical location can be observed. !112 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 lack of data literacy – “data illiteracy”, if we can already refer to this term – covers a much larger slice of the population and results in more subtle disadvantages, which however tend to get stronger as far as the open data policies advance. gurstein (2011) cites two examples where data illiterates were severely affected by the publication of land ownership records as open data, one in nova scotia, canada and another in bangalore, india. by not having access to data, in both cases, small farmers lost their land to other landowners who checked inconsistencies in the land records and judicially claimed their ownership. the small farmers were elderly and illiterate, and thus also data illiterate. this example supports the work of boaventura de sousa santos (2006), who demystifies the idea that the cyberspace and its informations lie in a decentralized and free access space. for the author, the cyberspace evinces the computer apartheid generated by social inequalities. a freirean inspired critical data literacy in the following, we present an exercise of adapting key-concepts of freire's literacy method to what we are going to call critical data literacy. at the end of this section, we derive our own definition for the term. table 2 shows, in a systematic form, the stages of the literacy method and its possible specializations for data literacy. table 2: relation between freire's literacy method and data literacy the emancipatory character of data literacy as in freire's method, our data literacy approach has an emancipatory perspective. the literacy concept, as stated above, can be analysed in two dimensions: the technical abilities and the emancipation achieved through the literacy process. given the high technical complexity of data manipulation, there seems to be a natural tendency for this dimension to suppress the emancipatory one. immersed in studies involving the use of computers, specialized software, various data sources and statistical methods, there might be a tendency of the educands to leave behind the critical reflection about the social meanings of data in the !113 stage literacy data literacy result investigation understanding of educand's context, and discovery of socially relevant themes in that reality survey of vocabulary universe: source for generative themes and thematic axes. thematisation coding and decoding of words and understanding of its social meaning coding of the themes into existing (or not) data, and decoding for understanding realities generative theme and thematic axis coded as images, film or data problematisation finding contradictions surrounding the decoded themes, and demystifying the realities discovering nonneutrality in data: which aspects are exposed by data, and which are hidden? critical view about the themes systematisation organization, interpreting, and presentation of the lived experience organizing and interpreting reality through data, and communicating discoveries communication products the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 world, and therefore the emancipatory perspective may be put in background. the emancipatory perspective resulting from data literacy can be manifested in certain abilities acquired by the educands, for example: context interpretation: critical analysis of a specific reality can be more consistently performed based on benchmarking and statistics. as an example, we can cite the topic of land concentration in brazil. anyone living rurally in brazil knows that a few landowners control huge amounts of land. this empirical perception can be better supported if we analyse the agricultural census, which shows that 45% of the arable land is controlled by 1% of landowners, making brazil one of the countries with the most concentrated land possession in the world. questioning of common sense concepts: many concepts understood as “truth” are built upon data. however, the comprehension about how this data was generated allows a critical eye on these concepts. one example is the concept of gross domestic product (gdp), generally used to distinguish the economic importance of different countries. although regarded as the most important measure of a country's economy, it does not consider the income distribution or the environmental consequences of economic development. development of new concepts: through consistent generation of data, it is possible to enlighten invisible realities and establish new concepts. for example, in 2007, a mapping revealed that almost 2 million people in brazil worked in self-managed cooperatives, within a solidarity economy context. this data sheds light on other forms of work organization, which normally are hidden or considered small experiments, and allows the establishment of the idea of other possible economic arrangements. data literacy process figure 1 shows our proposed critical data literacy process. at the first stage (i), the group observes some context, seeking for elements in common with their reality. through this view, it is possible to define what kind of data – existing or to be collected – can support and enhance this view. at this stage (ii), data from this context is gathered. the critical analysis of this data (iii) is necessary in order to understand which perspectives are illuminated by this data, and which are hidden. finally, after the critical analysis of data, it is possible to look again to the context (iv), see it from another perspective and act towards its transformation. it is important to notice that this is not a linear process, but an iterative one. the last step is always an enhanced realization of the first, and the process should be continued until the objectives are achieved. figure 1: data literacy process it is also worth noting that this process is very similar, in its conception, to participatory action-research (par) (morin, 2004). this methodological paradigm associates a transforming action with every research intervention, the planning and application of which should always be carried out with the researched subjects. one of the main references of par in brazil is the work of michel thiollent, who suggests that action research consists in coupling action and research in a process, in which the implied actors participate, together with the researchers, to interactively elucidate the reality in !114 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 which they are inserted, identifying collective problems, seeking and experimenting solutions in real situations. simultaneously, there is production and use of knowledge. (thiollent, 2009: 14) data literacy stages investigation as already stated, this stage must guarantee that the educational process effectively starts from the educand's reality. just like the grape is not a typical fruit from the northeast region of brazil, a database is also probably not something that is explicitly part of the everyday life of data educands. (their personal data, however, are almost definitely registered in one or more databases.) at the same time, it is important to seek in the reality of each educand elements where data can be useful to understand that reality. considering possible problems in dealing with computers, it is fundamental that the themes to be worked with are of great interest to educands, and have their foundations in daily life. it is also important to find contradictions in this reality that one desires to overcome. thus, an interesting way of starting this quest is through statistics. for example, as detailed in tygel et al. (2015), in a data literacy course, the educands were exposed to statistical information previously selected about their realities. from this point on, it was shown that, on the one hand, datasets were already part of their life, and on the other hand, that much information known by the educands was omitted by data. thereby, a data mediated world view is approached, facilitating the most adequate choice of thematic axis to work with. thematisation at this stage, the main goal is to motivate the understanding of the world through data. either for a local or global reality, about specific or generic themes, data allows an understanding of reality commonly seen as “neutral” or “objective”. at the thematisation stage, it is still possible to keep this aspect, which will be further deconstructed in the problematisation stage. !115 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 by elaborating thematic axes, in this stage the aim is to code certain contexts as data and aggregated information, such as statistics, graphics and tables. this coding may lead to more complex decoding about the same theme. a reality can be coded into data, which can be once more coded into aggregated information, and then can be further decoded, generating a modified view over the same reality. it is always important to notice that this process has an intrinsic bias, related to the design choices at data acquisition and processing. as a result of this stage, it is possible to obtain the generative themes, which in the case of data literacy, are specific context coded into data. this data can be already available as open databases, closed and subject to information access requests, or may also be uncollected data, which could provide some interesting perspectives. the final aim of this stage is to enchant educands with the world of data that represents realities. problematisation after the “enchantment” with the world of data, it is fundamental to problematise it, i.e., to unveil what is behind the scenes when talking about data. in order to use data with critical consciousness, it is necessary to know where they came from, how and to what purpose they were generated. thus, it is possible to politicise the use of data, and deal with them not only from the point of view of a passive user, but from the perspective of someone who is also able to produce data, and with them, “say his word”. the final aim of this stage is to promote a critical view about the chosen theme, understanding the role of data for enlightening certain aspects and hide others. we list here, without aspirating to completeness, two issues that can serve as a starting point for the problematisation stage: 1) non-neutrality of data data are not neutral. the seducing precision and objectivity of data grounded statements almost always hide ideologies and intentions about anything one wants to prove. thus, it is fundamental to problematise the origin of data. are data from the government or from civil society organizations? what was the political position of that organization at the time when data were generated? if it is about scientific data, who funded the research? more complex, but also of great importance, is the knowledge of the methodology used to gather data. lack of awareness of the methodological approach can lead to misunderstandings and flawed conclusions. with that information – origin and method – it is possible to infer what was the objective of data generation, where it is not explicit. producing data is a costly activity, which requires a considerable amount of resources, especially when dealing with big populations and/or wide areas. therefore, every research that generates data has a very well defined purpose, which must be unveiled and discussed. research is designed by specific actors, to reach strategic goals. similarly, methodologies are designed in order to highlight some aspects, and not others. this is why we can affirm that data resulting from these researches are not neutral, and therefore its non-neutrality must be problematised in a critical perspective of data literacy education. !116 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 2) transparency in many cases, the critical use of data will come across the lack of available data. these missing data may not exist, be hidden or poorly organized, which is the case for a lot of government data. in order to work critically with data, it is necessary to be aware of one's rights to access information, which is directly related to transparency policies. many countries are advancing in this field, publishing their data online and creating laws to guarantee access to information, transparency and open data, with the valuable argument of enhancing democracy and fighting corruption. however, as stated by the global open data index, only 11% of the assessed datasets in 97 countries are open. thus, discussing transparency and access to information is a possible way of problematising data literacy. 3) systematisation the systematisation process requires data and information about an experience. in the data literacy context, the ability to put together data retrieved from various external sources with subjective qualitative information empirically obtained should be encouraged. the systematizing stage should be the conclusion of the whole lived process – investigation, thematisation and problematisation. of crucial importance is the communication of the results. data can be exposed in several forms, such as graphics, tables, maps, infographics, music, film or even text. the ability to choose the right way of systematizing and communicating data is certainly a point that should be stressed in data literacy. definition considering the arguments developed in this section, we derive our definition of critical data literacy: critical data literacy is the set of abilities which allows one to use and produce data in a critical way. this set is composed by: data reading: the ability to read data starts with understanding how the data was generated, i.e., which methodologies were used to capture the data from a context, which facts, measures and dimensions were considered, and at which level of detail, or granularity, data was collected. it also includes understanding who produced it, in which context and why. data should not be read as objective fact, but as the output of a social process. data processing: the ability to technically process data is related to the use of computational and statistical tools in order to transform data into information. linking data with other sources is also an important skill. data should be processed based on explicit objectives. data communication: the ability to communicate data comprises finding better matches between data types, such as distributions, temporal series, networks or comparisons, and communications tools, such as text, tables, different types of charts, maps or infographics combining these elements. communicating data also encompasses a social evaluation of what message should be transmitted to which target audience. data communication should be done in an ethical, responsible and precise way, in order to avoid misunderstandings or invalid conclusions. !117 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 data production: the ability to produce data includes deepening all elements within data reading. additionally, knowledge about data formats and data publishing tools is required. generally, data should be published not only respecting the open definition, but also offering tools so that non-experts are able to use it. related works it can be said that data literacy has its roots on other related fields, such as information literacy and statistical literacy. the relation between these three literacies was emphasized by schield (2004), who reinforced the importance of teaching these three literacies for “students who need to critically evaluate information in arguments”. data literacy initiatives started to be driven a few years ago, and have been pushed mostly by civil society organizations, although there have also been governmental efforts. the initial state of this movement is reflected in the academic literature, especially when dealing with popular education. the popular education approach for dealing with data literacy is still limited in the available literature. one exception is a blog post by bhargava, in 2013, trying to relate the popular education of freire with data literacy. the author introduces the concept of popular data, presenting a synthesis of popular education and its' relationship with appropriation and use of data for decision taking. for him, governments are talking about data, but most of the people are not understanding the conversation. he cites an initiative by the of city of somerville, in massachusetts, and its resistat program, which regularly promotes meetings with the community and stimulates the civic participation via internet through discussions and databased decisions. he concludes from this initiative that people can only participate if they have an understanding of tables, graphics and terms related to data. the perspective of popular data, for bhargava, is oriented by participatory approaches for using data and decision taking that provokes engagement of the population. expanding from data to wider icts and the relation to popular education, a work by adams and streck (2010) affirms the focus of popular education on social transformations through the action-reflection-action of marginalized and oppressed classes. the authors develop their work by questioning the role of icts in the production of the current structural conditions, and whether these technologies have the potential for pedagogical mediation seeking the construction of new paradigms. they critically conclude that there are several studies related to education that do not recognize the digital technologies as pedagogical mediations, but as mere tools. according to them, this approach is reductionist, because the pedagogical mediation happens between people through their lived realities, reflecting about it and transforming it. the knowledge production through systematization of experiences and participatory research is emphasized, with a focus on reflection about lived experiences. icts, for the authors, “compose a structural reality which conform behaviours, ways of thinking and acting which tends to adapt, modify, recreate and assume emancipatory paradigms”. at the same time, technologies are not neutral and their limits have to be tested, with a constant critical vigilance, and thus popular education cannot but put in the background. according to ferreira & santos (2002), there is a potential for changes in education caused by the wide access to information and knowledge through cyberspace. one of the challenges is to !118 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 collectively build knowledge between educators and educands, overcoming “bureaucratic separations of authorships between who elaborates, who applies, who clarifies, and who manages the education process”. authors compare the unidirectional and the interactive approach in the education field. in the first case, the teacher delivers knowledge and the students have a passive reception role. in the second approach, the complex knowledge network emerged in an educative environment is recognized, and both educators and educands can be authors and co-authors. the concept of co-authorship is recommended to be applied as a praxis to be developed both in on-site and distance education. conclusions the fast spreading of icts in the society has, as one of its consequences, a recent publication of massive quantities of data over the web. these can be either related to governments, through public transparency initiatives, or generated by companies or civil society organizations, or even originated from scientific research. this huge mass of new information brings with it a series of potential benefits, but also major challenges, which are for the most part not as explicit as the benefits. there is an imminent risk of establishing an elite able to profit from these data, interpret it and act in the world through it, while most of the people remain excluded. in this paper, we sought in the work of paulo freire inspirations for the construction of a critical data literacy, which incorporates awareness of this challenge. future works on this topic includes deriving more tangible examples of the application of this methodology in practice, followed by developing a strategy to assess and evaluate the outcomes. from the theoretical point of view, a deep analysis of the digital, information and statistics literacy literature could also bring more elements for our field. regarding critical data literacy, a yet unexplored source of inspiration may come from epistemology of the south and decolonization theories. authors such as carlos walter portogonçalves, linda tuhiwai smith, vandana shiva or boaventura santos emphasize the autonomy of traditional communities in developing their own research methodologies and produce data in order to overcome their invisibility. this should certainly be regarded as a data literacy process. another important discussion is related to the chance of including critical data literacy as part of formal educational programmes at primary level, adapting the methodology described in tygel et. al. (2015). this would be a very important step in order to prepare new digital natives to deal critically with data. an ethical challenge would be posed for those in charge of preparing critical data literacy curriculum and driven related activities. * * * it was not by accident that paulo freire materialized his popular education pedagogy into a literacy method. for him, literacy is not only useful to read words, but to read the world. and imbued precisely by this spirit, we propose an analysis of data literacy based on freire's literacy method. by doing so, we hope to provide a small contribution to the democratization of access to information. data alone do not change the world, but we believe that people who critically understand the reality through data have better tools to do it. !119 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 acknowledgements a. tygel is supported by capes/pdse grant 99999.008268/2014-02. this paper is an extension of the paper “contributions of paulo freire for a critical data literacy”, written by the same authors, and published at the i data literacy workshop, oxford, 2015. we would also like to thank maria luiza machado campos, uschi silva, johanna walker, mark frank and the anonymous reviewers for the valuable contributions. references adams, t., & streck, d. r. 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(2015). teaching open data for social movements a research methodology. journal of community informatics, 11(3). retrieved from http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1220/1165 !121 03-1318-7863-3-ce the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles empowerment of women through an innovative e-mentoring community platform: implications and lessons learned this article presents an overview of an e-mentoring community platform that intends to promote women’s empowerment. women face the so-called glass ceiling effect, the barrier that keeps them from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements. we aim to eliminate the stereotypical profile of women as excluded from economic, political, and professional life and promote women’s empowerment, equality, and social coherence. to this aim, we aspire to develop womenpower, an innovative e-mentoring community platform that intends to link women mentors and mentees in the areas of academia, business, and healthcare. given the nature of this endeavor, there is a need to approach the development of the e-mentoring platform as a horizontal process and democratize the design, allowing for different perspectives of stakeholders to be heard and determine the design decisions. this article delineates the approach adopted for democratizing the design process and maximizing intended users’ involvement in the development process. finally, we conclude with implications for researchers and practitioners in community informatics and recommendations for promoting the participation of women in the fields of academia, business, and healthcare. !36 parmaxi, a., vasiliou, c., ioannou, a., kouta, c. (2017). empowerment of women through an innovative e-mentoring community platform: implications and lessons learned.the journal of community informatics, 13(3), 36—53. date submitted: 2016-05-09. date accepted: 2017-06-04. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1318 . antigoni parmaxi cyprus university of technology, cyprus corresponding author. antigoni.parmaxi@gmail.com christina vasiliou university of newcastle, united kingdom vasi.christina@gmail.com andri ioannou cyprus university of technology, cyprus andri@cyprusinteractionlab.com christiana kouta cyprus university of technology, cyprus christiana.kouta@cut.ac.cy http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1318 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1318 mailto:antigoni.parmaxi@gmail.com mailto:vasi.christina@gmail.com mailto:andri@cyprusinteractionlab.com mailto:christiana.kouta@cut.ac.cy the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction the wage gap between men and women is gradually shrinking, yet the underrepresentation of women in higher positions still exists. across the eu economy, women earn on average around 16.4% less than men, whereas female workers in the usa earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by male workers (bryant, winters, & matson, 2015; european union equality challenge unit, 2014; smith, 2014). women face the so-called glass ceiling effect “the unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements” (federal glass ceiling commission, 1995). several researchers stress that the path for social change passes through training, education and mentoring (see for example, amos-wilson, 1999; shor, 2012). to this aim, development programs and organizations such as the united nations development program (undp) and the association of computing and machinery women (acm-w) support mentoring and education initiatives for women, recognizing ict as a mindchanging tool when employed and appropriately harnessed. to take a leap towards fragmenting this glass ceiling and evade women’s marginalization, we initiated the development of an e-mentoring community platform that will share good practices, successful stories and practical advice on how young women, either at university or in the workplace, can deal with these barriers. starting from the early years of student life, we strive towards a medium for young women to direct their questions, discuss their concerns, and explore their academic and professional future through the eyes of their mentors. our aim is to eliminate the stereotypical profile of women excluded from economic, political, and professional life (fenton, 2000; unesco, 2003) and promote women’s empowerment, equality, and social coherence. given the nature of this endeavor, there is a need to approach the development of the ementoring platform as a horizontal process and democratize the design, allowing for different perspectives of women to be heard and determine the design decisions. bringing together women with diverse expertise in the design process encompasses both opportunities and challenges. women's participation in the design of any ict deployed in their community is vital to ensure its usefulness by meeting their needs, and to make sure that they enjoy the full potential of its use (gurstein, 2003; light et al., 2010). an essential premise of our approach is that collective communities with a diversity of expertise and different approaches to the problem will spark a powerful and dynamic interaction, promoting social creativity and building environments that move beyond traditional discipline-bound solutions. in this process, actors with different perspectives and experiences build on mutual learning to generate new understandings on how to shape a women’s mentoring platform. this study adheres to the principles of user-centered design (ucd) aspiring to contribute towards a user-friendly system that meets the needs of its intended users (norman & draper, 1986). following the participatory and cooperative design theories in human-computer interaction (muller & kuhn, 1993; schuler & namioka, 1993) that advocate the maximum involvement of principal players, we see the active participation !37 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 of women from the fields of academia, business and healthcare as an integral part of this project. to this aim, we found fischer’s (2001) ‘communities of interest’ to be directly relevant. communities of interest (cois) encourage stakeholders with different kinds of expertise to come together for a joint venture, share diverse experiences and knowledge to the design problem and spark a powerful and dynamic interaction, promoting social creativity and innovation. the application of cois adheres to the dual focus of community informatics (ci) as described by stillman and linger (2009). first, by researching the relationship between the design of a community platform and the local community, and second by implementing an ict project in the community. in the light of these theories and the practices that they sustain, the purpose of this study is to explore the actual development of a community platform that supports e-mentoring for women. the research question that guides this study is: • how can the design of an e-mentoring community platform for women be developed in close collaboration with its potential users and it developers? related work gender equality the under-representation of women in high-ranked positions, societal and political discussions is a pattern that occurs in several occupations across the globe. khreisat (2009) discusses the under-representation of women in information technology and computing in the middle east, demonstrating a steady increase in the percentage of women at all levels compared to the us. however, there is a concern related to the status of women in it and a need for considerable effort and a combination of changes at several levels to encourage women to pursue a career in the field of computing. academics and researchers engage in extensive discussions regarding the need for equal opportunities in all aspects of social and political development. the legislation and policies that have been put forward have economic benefits; still, these advantages are not the sole reason for developing strategies for equal opportunities (moreau, osgood, & halsall, 2008). at the same time, research on how to narrow the gender gap is abundant. one of the ways suggested in research is through the implementation of a set of strategies for educators to close the gender gap (scutt, gilmartin, sheppard, & brunhaver, 2013). hansman et al. (1999) provided further aspects to take into account when developing curriculums sensitive to gender and equality. the researchers notably suggest for girls to adopt an active expert role, including answering questions and teaching others to strengthen their identity. tyler-wood et al. (2012) further emphasized this argument, pointing out that exposing young students to female role models in their fields can encourage and improve their participation in related areas in the future. providing girls !38 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 with successful role models to look up to, can also increase their opportunities for becoming an active member of the community. beaman et al. (2012) investigated the role model effect in women in india, suggesting that women in leadership positions may shape both students’ and parents’ beliefs about what women can achieve. the work of chee, pino, and smith (2005) sharply describes how female students seek active participation in student clubs, pointing out that students’ active involvement in such communities is positively associated with their academic performance. similarly, mbarika, payton, kvasny and amadi (2007) explored if ict educational opportunities are being translated into women's empowerment and opportunities to participate in the it work sector. their findings demonstrated that women were optimistic and embraced ict as a mechanism for achieving entry into a male-dominated profession such as ict. yet, women also desired cultural change that would make possible equal educational opportunities and ict access and training as an imperative for their professional success. therefore, to raise the voice of women, communicating and mentoring in the context of professional advancement seems essential (amoswilson, 1999; rabayah, 2010; parcheta, kaifi, & khanfar, 2013; thomas, bystydzienski, & desai, 2014). communities of interest ‘communities of interest’ (coi), a notion brought forward by fischer (2001), encapsulates the concept of bringing together stakeholders with different kinds of expertise for a joint venture. in cois, heterogeneous design communities work on multifaceted design problems where users act both as designers and consumers. ultimately, cois contribute towards the democratization of design and innovation and foster diverse voices and active collaboration (fischer, 2001; 2011). one of the fundamental aspects of cois is the heterogeneity of participants that form the design communities. cois bring together representatives from different communities, with a different area of expertise in the context of a particular project, and then dissolve as the project comes to an end. these communities bring together unique experiences and perspectives about the design problem that can lead to new directions towards innovation and creativity. at the same time, this single attribute reveals a challenging path of building communication channels between the communities. participants in cois share different experiences and different perspectives; thus, they need to co-create a common ground of knowledge to build on. consequently, in the process of establishing a common ground of communication, cois allow for a novel understanding of the design problem and open the way for a unique perspective towards a solution. gender equality, communities, and digital technologies the evolution of new information and communication technologies (icts) in educational and industrial settings confronts with new challenges and opportunities in supporting community building. in islamic countries in the middle east, digital technologies and social media allow for discussion by and social mobilization of women for equal participation in society (shirazi, 2012). social campaigns such as “he !39 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 for-she” (u.n. women, 2014) may attract the attention of young female students but fail to sustain their interest and support them further in their professional development. however, there are natural limits generally on how much such campaigns can expand. in this context, the employment of digital technologies has the potential to support mentoring and build a community of senior and young women to exchange views and provide junior women with role behaviors. in an attempt to waive the local factor regarding practical guidance, we endeavor to develop a self-sustaining community platform to allow professional and working knowledge exchange between women mentors and mentees. methodology approach accessing ict resources by itself does not ensure attainment of empowerment. there is a need to develop the appropriate approach and content that will keep women engaged in providing and receiving mentoring and ultimately improving their professional conditions. having women actively involved in the design and implementation process of any ict tool is crucial in optimizing its usefulness by meeting the needs of its users (gurstein, 2003; smith, 2015). to ensure that women’s voices are heard throughout the design and development process, and the e-mentoring platform adequately addresses their needs, we formed groups of women (potential mentors and mentees) that would engage in informing the platform’s design and development. with this in mind we adopted a user-centered design (ucd) approach that includes the following steps (see figure 1): a) state-of-the-art review; b) low fidelity prototype development and evaluation; c) focus groups with young women from academia and in the workplace; d) a “get involved” campaign; e) high fidelity prototype development; and f) employment of communities of interest for evaluating the high fidelity prototype and maximizing the involvement of key stakeholders in the formulation of the platform. from a socio-cultural perspective, the ucd process is seen as a dialogic process, with product stakeholders and end-users working together to reflect the values of the endproduct from their own perspective in a collective intellectual endeavor. this process highlights the dynamics of social practices within an interdisciplinary group, as a joint construction of knowledge (mercer, 2004). !40 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 1: methodology adopted for involving critical stakeholders in the development of the womenpower platform ! setting this study took place in a tertiary education institution in the republic of cyprus. the development of the e-mentoring platform was related to an international programme funded by the un development programme, action for cooperation and trust in cyprus, aimed at enhancing “women and dialogue”. the research team consisted of three researchers working in ict with applications in industry and education and two researchers with backgrounds and experience in gender equality and women’s health. results in this section, we present the steps adopted in this project for developing an ementoring platform that intends to link women mentors and mentees in the areas of academia, business, and healthcare. state-of-the-art review the first stage of our project included reviewing state-of-the-art research in the field of gender equality in academia, business, and healthcare. this phase enabled researchers to collect essential research data on the current situation of gender equality. through this initial review, we formed the fundamental questions addressing the various aspects of gender equality in academia, business, and healthcare. data from research informed an interview protocol, to elucidate information from women in lower and higher ranks in the academic community, healthcare and business sectors throughout three focus groups. !41 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 low fidelity prototype in the early stages of the project, a primitive form of the platform was developed on paper. the prototype aimed to provide a first impression of the platform and inform how the platform will look and act (two snapshots are shown in figure 2). figure 2: low fidelity prototype snapshots of the womenpower platform evaluation of low fidelity prototype at the next stage, the prototype evaluation process ran on a tabletop. at first, the prototype was imported into the tabletop using the ideaspace application (ioannou, loizides, vasiliou, zaphiris, & parmaxi, 2015; loizides, vasiliou, ioannou, & zaphiris, 2012) and facilitated simultaneous projection, discussion and commenting of the prototype. the low fidelity prototype was evaluated both by potential mentors and mentees from various areas of expertise. the low fidelity evaluation group comprised four men and two women. all four men were ict and/or hci experts, and their participation was considered vital to inform the design of the low fidelity prototype. one woman worked in a technology-related profession and the other in a psychology and social sciences related profession. throughout this phase, the potential users and experts provided feedback about the design of the platform and indicated refinements regarding idea implementation and aesthetics. the group of experts focused on the aesthetics and design of the interface and voiced the need for establishing a solid identity for this platform that would promote itself to its audience. moreover, the group commented on the necessity for the aim and scope of the mentoring platform to be visible and understandable from the first glimpse and raise users’ engagement. strong arguments were made concerning the “sign-in” option as participants disagreed about privacy and anonymity issues. one of the significant feedback points concerning the interface was to provide to-thepoint practical and precise information with examples of success stories. women do not want to go through lengthy texts that take a long time to read but prefer short stories and advice that can be helpful. further, technical experts suggested that the graphical user !42 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 interface (gui) of the platform should include more visual material and be less overloaded with textual content, to become more immersive and organized and less messy. self-archiving of the stories and post could also be facilitated by the use of new and/or pre-defined hashtags (e.g. #business). users will be able to add these hashtags to their stories and posts to be able to group all posts under #business in the same category. also raised were privacy and anonymity issues. participants mentioned that the use of social networking connections (with facebook for example) would help to reach out more people (especially the young generation); however, they pointed out that privacy issues must be seriously taken into consideration. the suggestion for each one of the users to be able to handle visibility of information was given as a means for improving the users’ control in privacy settings. experts also suggested a legal advisor should join the team to provide assistance with protection of personal data. finally, the idea of including in the e-mentoring platform empowering quotes for women was discussed, and participants commented on their usefulness but doubted if these codes would fit in the overall mentoring platform. participants mentioned the importance of these quotes for empowering women, yet to be meaningful, they suggested that everyone should be able to upload a quote on the website and to share it with empowering avatars with friends on a social networking site. in this way, empowering quotes can become an integral part of the e-mentoring platform for exchanging ideas and advice with other women. focus groups the focus group protocol that emerged from the state-of-the-art review conducted at the start included five thematic areas and highlighted valuable data concerning: a) gender equality at workplace; b) experiences at workplace regarding gender; c) the gender wage gap; d) the use of technology for addressing issues of inequality; and e) suggestions for the development of an e-mentoring community platform. this stage allowed us to understand the current situation in the fields of academia, business, and healthcare, the difficulties junior and senior women encounter, and how technology could help them overcome these issues (kouta, parmaxi & smoleski, 2017). in all, three focus groups (fg) took place at a public university in the republic of cyprus: (a) two with junior participants (fg1, n=10; fg2, n=6) including university students and young female professionals; and (b) one with senior participants (fg3, n= 8). in the focus groups, we invited potential mentors and mentees from the fields of business, healthcare, academia, and technology. we required the mentor women to have held a managerial, decision-making position for more than five years, and the mentees to have entered the profession in the last five years and to have had neither a managerial nor an authority position. data collected indicated that women in the private sector encounter more problems at the workplace than women in the public sector in regards to gender equality. young students and professionals raised the need for role models that will allow young women to overcome the standard woman profile as excluded from economic, political, and professional life. !43 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 participants in the mentors’ focus group expressed similar views regarding gender equality, articulating equal opportunities in their workplace. on the other hand, junior students from the field of healthcare have a different view of gender equality at the workplace: "no, we think there is gender inequality, we try, but i do not believe we can manage it.” (senior-participant.4health) as a consequence, the treatment of employees most of the time is more questionable for women: "some companies have in their requirements that the woman needs to sign that [she] will not get pregnant in the next three years.” (junior-participant.11health) moreover, different experiences were revealed between women working in public vs. the private sector. for women in the industry, gender inequality and the wage gap was more visible in their workplace. concerning the use of technology for developing an e-mentoring community platform, all participants were positive. controversies arose over issues of anonymity and security. while mentors agreed that they would not like to share their names on the platform, female students stated that they would want to know who their mentors are. moreover, mentors suggested the need to promote the platform and adopt a broad outreach strategy to be successful. development of a high fidelity prototype in the next stage, the initial prototype was revised, providing a more realistic picture of the platform through the high fidelity prototype developed (see figure 3). this phase allowed us to test the functionalities of the prototype thoroughly and proceed to the development of the platform. !44 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 3: snapshot of the high fidelity prototype provided to the three cois ! communities of interest (cois) following the suggestions of mentors in the focus group to incorporate a broad outreach strategy, we employed an email list of professional organizations for women in the fields of computing and machinery, business and healthcare, inviting them to express their interest in registering on the platform as mentors, mentees, or platform testers. this campaign returned more than 100 responses of women across the world who expressed interest in using and/or testing the platform. following this campaign, we contacted women who expressed interest to act as platform testers and invited them to join our communities of interest. as stated earlier, communities of interest (cois) bring together stakeholders with different kinds of expertise, students and women in senior positions, to come together for a joint venture. we developed three cois: 1) a team made up of end users that expressed their interest through the campaign. more specifically, the end users consisted of one media and communications specialist, one graphic designer, one linguistic specialist, and one software designer (5 participants from cyprus). computational (mobile devices) and traditional means (paper and pencil) mediated the first coi, allowing for face-to-face interaction, thus maximizing communication between stakeholders; 2) a team made up of end-users and experts from the fields of academia, business, and technology. the second coi was mediated by an interactive tabletop allowing for simultaneous projection, discussion and commenting on the product. the second coi included four female participants from cyprus, including one graphic designer, one web designer/ developer expert, one media and communications specialist and one software developer; and 3) a team made up of end users, gender equality and media experts, graphic, web and software designers (16 members from various countries of the world including greece, turkey, malta, usa, bulgaria, georgia, portugal, italy, and united kingdom). !45 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the third coi operated within a social networking channel allowing for group members to test and discuss how to construct the community platform. in the three cois, a three-stage approach was followed. first, participants watched a short video demonstrating the scope of the platform, and then were invited to work together and brainstorm on the content of the platform – using paper and pencil in coi1; interactive tabletop in coi2; and google forms in coi3. then, participants were given the prototype on mobile devices (coi1), on tabletop (coi2) and within the online group (coi3) and were invited to navigate through the platform and execute a given scenario for requesting advice from a mentor on the platform (parmaxi & vasiliou, 2015). collective brainstorming results from the initial brainstorming was vivid in all three cois. coi1 and coi2 provided ideas face-to-face allowing for live discussion to grow and for ideas to be tested and negotiated. in coi1 and coi2 the initial brainstorming allowed group members to discuss ideas and build on the different expertise that each member held. when users were asked what they expect to see on an e-mentoring platform entitled womenpower, they indicated that they would expect an inspirational quote. another aspect that was considered essential in such an e-mentoring platform was the organization and structure of the content. users noted that the content of the platform should inspire the end-user from the beginning. in a similar mindset, end users suggested linking the platform with health organizations and consultancy agents, together with faqs, that could connect mentees to useful information. one of the issues voiced by the end users in coi1 was who was going to have access to this platform, how clear and simple the registration process would be and how to prevent malicious feedback or access to private data. end users raised the issue of working on the platform using nicknames, but the opinions were divergent. building on diverse views, users decided to make anonymity optional – members chose to have their name on the platform or to remain anonymous. mentors or mentees should be in place to decide whether to have a public profile or appear with a nickname. also, they noted the constant monitoring of the content in the platform and the need for members to report malicious posts and comments. in coi3, participants provided their experiences concerning equality and inequality in the workplace, demonstrating conflicting ideas as some suffered from inequality in their workplace and others who did not suffer from any inequality stereotypes: “in my current workplace, the team is made up by young and open-minded people and although the majority are males (7-4, because the initial formation of the startup company was made by a group of friends who were males), there is no hint of gender inequality in the office” (junior participant, business, cyprus, coi3). similarly, one other participant in coi3 raised the difference in the way men and women handle work: !46 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “for example, it is typical for men to work very long into the night and to leave family/friends only for hobby. women work goal-oriented and not time-oriented, organize better and have more time for hobbies/family/friends. still, this is often perceived as something negative, especially in early career. this is a large problem, which outs women under unnecessary pressure” (senior participant, academia, bremen, coi3). women expressed their concerns about meeting their needs as professionals and mothers: “i frequently feel that my concerns fall on deaf ears; whether this is because i am a p[project] m[manager] (and not perceived to be technical) or because i'm female, i'm not certain. i also seem to have become the de-facto "den mother" of the team. the men on the team don't seem to understand the concept of work-life balance, so i frequently find myself reminding them to do basic things like take time to sleep the next day after a late-night change. this seems ludicrous why should i be responsible for making sure grown men take care of themselves? i certainly don't expect them to keep tabs on my welfare” (senior participant, ohio, business, coi3). overall, women in coi3 were positive concerning the use of technology for addressing any inequality issues they address, yet they expressed concerns with regard to how technology will be used, together with concerns for their work. prototype evaluation concerning the platform prototype, members provided positive feedback pointing out that it covers the aim of the platform mainly with its two functionalities on the front page. users found the content inspiring but further indicated that the fully developed website should be in color to attract the attention of the user. one issue raised, related to the mentoring perspective of the platform, pertained to the information provided in the registration stage. the end-user should find on the page: criteria for becoming a mentor or mentee on the platform as well as a description listing the steps in the mentoring process, an inspirational message on the front page, and forum/chat functionality to facilitate communication amongst members. moreover, designers are advised to incorporate relevant associations that members can contact, training provisions for mentors and mentees, and a suggestion box functionality that will allow participants to provide their comments to platform administrators and emphasize the unique elements of the platform – safe and professional. overall, participants found the prototype wellconstructed, and easy to navigate and complete a given task (parmaxi & vasiliou, 2015). the continuous involvement of potential stakeholders during the design and development of the e-mentoring platform allowed for a deeper understanding of their mentoring and networking attitudes. this knowledge enabled us to construct the following two scenarios of young women using the platform for the own academic and professional development. according to carroll and rosson (1992), scenarios should be !47 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “grounded in current activities”, and may include actors in a given setting, tasks to achieve a specific goal, plans, evaluation, actions, and events. scenario a – heather (19, engineering student) heather, is a second-year engineering student at a private university and new member of the womenpower platform. heather is exploring the resources and members of the platform as she begins to search for a subject to do her major. heather created her profile on the online platform, providing her real name and background to allow mentors to help her in this pursuit. having set her profile, she is now browsing through the available mentors. she is seeking someone with a background in engineering that will know the available options for her current stage. she identifies two possible mentors, one from a local business and one from a university abroad, and decides to request help from both. in those emails, she shares her concerns about keeping her degree generic or following a particular direction. the local female mentor replies within a two-week period and arranges a face-to-face meeting to discuss heather’s concerns. scenario b – nefeli (22, social sciences student) raised in a traditional family, low profile. at the age of 18, she left for studies in another country and started having a different view of her role in society. she is currently in her 3rd year of social science studies, single and financially dependent on her family. she worked as an unpaid intern for many organizations and realized that a male with the same experience and doing the same job with her was getting paid. even though she is extrovert, she was not courageous enough to raise the issue and discuss her problem. she searched for legislation related to gender equality in europe, recognizing that gender equality is perceived differently in different cultures. a google search lead her to womenpower, a community platform linked to gender equality where she read the description and similar stories from other people all over the world. she was afraid to complain, not wanting to lose her job. her insecurity issues were resolved when she noticed that she could register on the platform using a pseudonym. however, this did not allow the creation of her profile as there is a process of background checks to become a member of the community. she then emailed the platform administrators about her details, stating that her aim is to get informed about gender issues safely and anonymously, allowing the creation of her profile on the platform. having set her profile, nefeli wrote a short story describing her story and received various messages of support from women dealing with the same issue. she felt a whole community being part of her problem and having such a broad response was already comforting for her. platform development informed by the wisdom of the cois, the design team made use of their comments and insights provided and incorporated them towards the development of the platform. the platform is currently active and is available here: http://womenpowerproject.eu/. !48 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the platform works in four simple steps as shown in figure 4. the platform addressed the demands of its users in being colorful and providing inspirational quotes and illustrations, informative mentor profiles, one-to-one and community conversations, optional anonymity, reporting abuse and content control, a precise application form, mentoring criteria and training, and a suggestion box for encouraging further ideas for development. figure 4: the four-step process, demonstrating how womenpower platform works ! implications the development of any technology that aims to have an impact on the life of people in the community needs to take into consideration the different views of its potential users. in our attempt to approach the development of the e-mentoring platform as a horizontal process and democratize the design, we brought together actors with diverse expertise enriching the aspects that the design team needed to take into consideration. bringing together collective communities with a diversity of expertise sparked a dynamic interaction, surfacing new ideas and building an environment that moved beyond traditional discipline-bound solutions. in this process, women with different perspectives and experience, who are initially uninformed, build on mutual teaching and !49 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 learning for generating new understandings on how to shape a women’s mentoring platform. the involvement of community stakeholders in the design and development process provided in-depth insights on how and why users may interact with the platform, identifying issues to take into consideration for its development. diverse expertise coming from stakeholders from various fields can bring to the forefront voices from different areas and determine and resolve outstanding design aspects. end users, involved in the process from the early stages, sustained their participation informing the development of the platform. for example, during the initial stage, the feature of nicknames instead of real profile names is solving the issue of anonymity, at the same time raising more concerns in later stages regarding the falsification of personal data. in this case, the platform increased the risk of including fake profiles and misguiding the rest of the community. platform administrators and designers should, therefore, take into consideration the differentiation between generalizing personal data (e.g. instead of the naming company, provide the topic and size of the business) and creating false personal data (e.g. entering the name of a different company). moreover, seeing the various perspectives from stakeholders with diverse background and expertise emerged as an essential element in the design process. in the case of the womenpower platform, women from the area of business voiced their need to engage in both private and public discussions, while women from the field of design provided possible solutions on how the “ideal” platform would look using concrete design terminology. hence, cois allowed for the abstract and robust view of the platform to come together, making space for new information and illustrations to embellish the design of the platform. conclusion and future work this article presented how stakeholders from various fields jointly collaborated with practitioners to develop a community platform for e-mentoring, namely womenpower. by approaching the development of such a platform as a parallel process, we allowed for the different perspectives of stakeholders to be heard in the design decision process. currently, the platform is active (see http://womenpowerproject.eu/), and future work will indicate how different views from stakeholders were incorporated into the platform as well as how its users perceive the platform. at the moment, feedback is being received by its registered users and the platform is being revised for releasing its beta version. cois can support and engage users as developers, thus bringing to the design process valuable expertise from different key stakeholders. the concept of cois can be incorporated in the human-computer interaction and community informatics agenda, especially in cases that deal with building systems that will serve a variety of users from different areas of expertise. this article has also demonstrated that ict interventions that aim to have an impact in the community need to articulate how users ascribe meaning to the issue under consideration and take stock of their views and experiences !50 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 when designing implementations. evaluations of such systems need to be performed embracing future users’ needs from diverse cultures, areas of expertise and skills. this work needs to be followed with an in-depth investigation of the interaction and relationships between different stakeholders within cois to consider how different types of technologies support different views to be heard for performing design tasks. finally, crucial issues are demanding further attention. key amongst these is the need to make women capable of harnessing ict implementations efficiently and in particular for empowerment, in personal, professional and community development. yet, it needs to be noted that being able to access ict resources does not assure attainment of empowerment (unwin, 2008). women’s empowerment needs to be seen using a holistic approach, framed by the appropriate political decisions that will allow promotion of women’s empowerment, equality, and social coherence. acknowledgement the work is funded by mahallae, united nations development programme (undp), action for cooperation and trust (agreement number: 87733-mahallae-01). references amos-wilson, p. 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(2009). information and communication in development practices. ict4d: information and communication technology for development, 39-75. !53 http://www.forbes.com/sites/kylesmith/2014/04/10/the-gender-pay-gap-is-just-the-beginning-of-americas-pay-inequity-problem/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/kylesmith/2014/04/10/the-gender-pay-gap-is-just-the-beginning-of-americas-pay-inequity-problem/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/kylesmith/2014/04/10/the-gender-pay-gap-is-just-the-beginning-of-americas-pay-inequity-problem/ http://www.heforshe.org/ 123-13-1297 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 special issue on data literacy: notes from the field don’t ask much from data literacy it can be argued that data literacy skills are all we need for data literacy to be used properly by journalists. this is wrong. before skills, journalists need a reason to learn and use data literacy. such incentives are not in place yet. “datajournalism is social science on a deadline”, once said steven doig, a pulitzer-prize winner (remington, 2012). indeed, doing journalism with structured data requires that journalists use the social scientist’s toolbox, from data collection to data analysis (kayserbril, 2015). data literacy is needed at every step of the process: to know what data to collect, understand biases in a data set, perform sensible analyses and visualize the results properly. statisticians, once pariah, are now in demand within newsrooms. many news operations have created dedicated teams to work with structured data. in the united states, the new-york times is famous for its embrace of datajournalism. examples abound throughout europe as well, from public service broadcasters such as bayerischer rundfunk (munich, germany) or schweizer radio und fernsehen (zurich, switzerland) to newspapers of record such as gazeta wyborcza (warsaw, poland) to local news outlets such as le télégramme (brest, france) or heilbronner stimme (heilbronn, germany). they published several stories that could never have been made without data literacy skills. just like muckrakers in the late 19th century forced public institutions to listen to the voiceless, datajournalists today force them to measure the unmeasured (gray, lämmerhirt, & bounegru, 2016). data literacy enabled the guardian to record every person killed by the police in the united states in 2015 with the counted, for instance. this prompted the fbi to rethink the way it measured the issue. in spain, civio systematically analyzed official pardons with the indultómetro. the number of pardons went from 500 per year to less than 100 a year after the project was published. journalism++, an agency for datajournalism i co-founded, had similar successes when we measured the gap in what women and men pay (the woman tax) or when !217 kayser-bril, n. (2016). don’t ask much from data literacy. the journal of community informatics, 12(3), 217—222. date submitted: 2016-01-11. date accepted: 2016-06-13. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1297 nicolas kayser-bril journalism ++, germany hi@nkb.fr http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1297 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1297 mailto:hi@nkb.fr the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 we measured the mortality rates of people trying to come or stay in europe, with the migrants’ files (coming to europe is slightly less dangerous than going into battle at verdun in 1916). both projects were instrumental in pushing authorities to measure the issue. journalists with data literacy skills are able to produce new (and, by virtue of being unique, exclusive) stories that have an impact and resonate with the audience. it can even be profitable. the upshot, the new-york times’ datajournalism operation, made up to 5% of the newsroom’s page views in 2014 (sebastian, 2015) with 1.5% of the total staff (wilson, 2015). prejudice against math and stats in the newsroom is waning and datajournalism operations are popping up across the world. from this perspective, one could think that data literacy will trickle down the newsroom and, from there, throughout society. but one would be mistaken to do so. misusing data the migrants’ files, our body counting project, provides a table where each line is a separate incident during which a person died in their attempts to reach or stay in europe. it aggregates information from a wide variety of sources: coast guards, news reports, social media etc. the table has several columns, such as country in which the event happened, cause of death and source. this table is freely accessible online as a google spreadsheet. anyone with basic data manipulation skills can map, filter and analyze the data in a few minutes. while the table was reused many times, a few journalists wrongly used the data we collected and came to false conclusions. it happened, for instance, that journalists grouped the data by country to compute a list of most dangerous countries for refugees, even though we made clear, in the data itself and through email contacts, that the data collection process did not allow for such a usage. our data set has more lines of events that happened in germany because more organizations there record them. by grouping by country, these journalists wrote that germany was the country were most refugees died. if anything, germany might be the safest country for refugees and migrants in europe. using data without data literacy skills is the source of many more errors. it is not rare to see journalists confuse units, for instance between watts, a unit of power, and watt-hours, a unit of energy (reuters, 2015). it is not rare to read analyses that distort the data to the point where journalists reach conclusions that are precisely opposite to what a data literate person would have said —for example beale (2015), where an increase in rape reporting is equated to an increase in rape cases.. it is not rare to see articles where billions are used instead of millions. how rarely such mistakes happen is impossible to say. to date, no systematic study of datadriven mistakes has been carried out by academia or professional organizations. it could be argued that this happens because some people in these newsrooms are still data illiterate. as data literacy increases in the workplace, such mistakes will occur less and less often, the argument goes. it would be true if publishers had an incentive to seek out the truth and root out data illiteracy. they do not. !218 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 wrong incentives no publisher makes money by publishing facts that are true. instead, they either sell their readers’ attention to advertisers or sell content to their readers, or both. when selling attention, publishers need to garner as much of it as possible. to do so, they do not need to publish true stories, they need to publish articles that will be read and shared while minimizing production costs. this explains why rumor mills abound on the web and why once respectable media outlets like the daily mail routinely publish articles that are factually wrong (king, 2015). the lack of data literacy of the staff does not help, but managers have no need for data literate writers. and writers with data literacy skills have no incentive to use them. selling content directly to readers does not fundamentally change a publisher’s incentives. instead of volume, a publisher needs to please the audience as much as possible, even when facts need to be distorted to fit the audience’s beliefs. fox news, a cable tv station in the united states, is famous for reporting and creating lies, often with help of wrong charts and statistics (shere & groch-begley, 2012). the news operation derives most of its income not from advertising, but from subscriptions (shere & groch-begley, 2012). it grew by accompanying the rise of reactionary republicans in the united states and feeds on their disregard for facts. still, in the absence of systematic measurement of mistakes done with data, one could argue that a general lack of data literacy skills are more responsible for bad reporting of numerical information than misplaced incentives. the argument does not hold when one looks at other fields where data literacy is widespread and incentives as misaligned. testimonies from financiers, many of whom have degrees in statistics from top-tier universities, show how wrong incentives can make one knowingly ignore their data literacy skills. an employee of standard & poors, a company that rates the risk of financial products, once said that they would rate any securities, even if they were “structured by cows”. the reason is given by an employee of moody’s, another ratings agency, when he explained that the errors committed in the run up to the financial crisis “made [them] look either incompetent at credit analysis or like [they] sold [their] soul to the devil for revenue”. that high-level staffers of the world’s top finance institutions be incompetent is unlikely. the explanation why data literate people put blinders on and pretended not to understand the data before their eyes is given by another standard & poor’s employee, who said before the financial crisis: “let’s hope we are all wealthy and retired by the time this house of cards falters”. all quotes from this paragraph come from the house of representatives hearing committee on oversight and government reform (2008). in finance as in journalism, greed trumps data literacy. in academia, too, stories abound where renowned professors manipulate data to increase their standing, gain public visibility (the séralini affair is a good example) or make money (goldenberg, 2015; proctor, 2012). a meta study of data falsification found that a significant chunk (about 10%) of academics had manipulated data at some point (fanelli, 2009). these examples show that, while data literacy skills are needed to correctly work with data, they can easily be turned off by other incentives to the point where part (academia) or most !219 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 (finance) actions purporting to be driven by data are actually driven by entirely different factors. it would be foolish to believe that journalists are different and that, confronted with conflicting incentives, they will resist and keep looking for the truth in data. the good data literacy can do current incentives do encourage journalists to put data literacy skills to use when their audience is interested in facts. newsrooms that set up datajournalism teams are mostly the newspaper of record of a given market. tabloids and other mass-market media outlets have yet to invest in data literacy. they do use data and visualizations to serve “truthiness”, to give a veneer of seriousness to lies, as fox news exemplifies. an experiment conducted by italian researchers on a large sample (close to 10,000 facebook users) showed that factually wrong news items were in great demand by groups exhibiting distrust of established institutions (bessi, et al., 2015). as distrust in institutions increases in many places (think of trump’s or le pen’s popularity), the market for factually inaccurate news grows. in an article announcing the end of a fact-checking column, the washington post’s caitlin dewey (2015) rightly asks “is it the point at which we start segmenting off into alternate realities?” only one of these realities, which might not be the largest, is interested in data literacy. data literacy does enable some journalists to make better, more efficient reporting. anyone interested in quality journalism should undoubtedly support this trend. but we should not fool ourselves and believe that this will result in better information overall. it will, at most, impact the minority of the public that is interested in developing a fact-based world view. teaching data literacy to the general population, by changing the primary school curriculum, for instance, would make little difference. the desire for a person to apprehend the world through facts and consume content from data literate journalists is probably not function of the curriculum. if it were, the development of curricula focused more on concrete skills throughout the 20th century (think basic science versus latin and ancient greek or versus an absence of education) would have created populations more willing to embrace a fact-based worldview. it did not. evidence for the disconnect between facts and majority opinion can be found most easily on immigration topics, where the disconnect between facts and public discourse is strongest. work by hein de haas (2014), among many others, exemplifies this – for example. to achieve the larger goal of engaging citizens with science and data, journalists need more than data literacy skills. they need a reason to acquire and use them. in code and other laws of cyberspace, lawrence lessig (1999) writes that socially desirable behaviors can be influenced by markets, law, code or norms. many consumers are uninterested in data literate journalists. the daily mail and fox news’ successes are proof of this. markets will not work. legislation would not either. prohibiting a wrongful usage of data would necessarily infringe on freedom of speech, making the cure worst than the illness. some tried to use code to address the issue. trooclick, a french startup, created a browser plug-in that automatically looked for mistakes in news items (it didn’t work) (wilner, 2015). beyond the enormous technical challenges, the lack of public interest in the issue will not entice computer scientists to automate data literacy. the last option, in lessig’s framework, are norms. journalists could be incentivized to become data literate through encouragement (by setting up more datajournalism prizes, for instance) and through deterrents, such as the condemnation of data !220 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 illiteracy by civil society groups. scientists could gather and create a media watchdog dedicated to data literacy, for instance. it would be a colossal and expensive endeavor, but, absent a change in the context that fosters data illiteracy (distrust in institutions), this is the only available option. references beale, c. 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(2015). the upshot: where the new york times is redesigning news. retrieved from fast company: https://www.fastcodesign.com/3040817/the-upshot-where-the-new-york-times-isredesigning-news !222 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 24 research article the impact of the pandemic on communication between local government and citizens in a small village in tuscany manuela farinosi, department of mathematics, computer science and physics, university of udine, manuela.farinosi@uniud.it adriano cirulli, department of mathematics, computer science and physics, university of udine, adriano.cirulli@uniud.it leopoldina fortunati, department of mathematics, computer science and physics, university of udine, leopoldina.fortunati@uniud.it the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 25 the impact of the pandemic on communication between local government and citizens in a small village in tuscany abstract the covid-19 pandemic has fostered the increasing use of digitally-mediated communication, which has substituted a large part of the face-to-face encounters, work, political, social, and leisure activities, made impossible during the long period of lockdown. what did this entail in small villages, in respect to both citizens and local government, where face-to-face communication has been more resistant to digital mediation? this study aimed to explore the changes seen in institutional communication, and more generally, in the everyday life of citizens and their relationship with local administrators during the first lockdown in italy. the context explored was the small-scale local community of peccioli (tuscany), a village where face-to face communication usually played a pivotal role in the interaction between local government and citizens. this small village represents a good point of observation to understand whether, in contexts such as this, there has been a change in the balance between different modes of communication similar to that seen in more urban environments. more specifically, the paper presents the main findings emerging from a study exploring on the one hand, the attitudes and opinions of local administrators regarding institutional communication, and, on the other, the evaluations by citizens of the initiatives and the communication by local government and an analysis of their information behaviors. in the first case, a qualitative approach was used, based on 10 semi-structured interviews with local administrators; in the second case, a quantitative approach was adopted based on a survey conducted with a representative sample of peccioli’s citizens. the main finding of the study revealed the crucial role of word of mouth, thus indicating that, contrary to what is generally believed, not all communication has become automatically digital during covid-19. keywords: covid-19; local government; institutional communication; media practices; peccioli. introduction over just a few months, the covid-19 pandemic has brought about years of change (not necessarily positive) in the way in which institutions at all levels interact with citizens. during the first lockdown, citizens moved dramatically toward online channels, and public employees have responded in turn, interacting with them from their home through digital media. numerous scholars (agostino et al., 2021) have stressed that the responses to covid-19 have accelerated the adoption of digital technologies by several years, and that many of these changes may stay even after the pandemic is over. according to gabryelczyk (2020), public administrations have sped up the digitalization process, putting in place at least temporary solutions, strategies, and practices to respond to the needs of the citizenry more quickly and efficiently. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 26 the speed with which institutions responded to the emergency translated into the widespread implementation of a series of changes at the organizational level, such as, the increasing migration of assets to the cloud, along with increases in remote working, and the use of advanced technologies in operations. but how have all these changes been experienced on the ground, especially in a small village? our main hypothesis is that in a small village context, although there is progressive digitalization of communication, both on the side of citizens and on the side of local administrations, face-to-face communication, and therefore more traditional communication tools and strategies, have maintained a crucial role in the pandemic period. this contribution focuses on peccioli, a tuscan municipality of 4649 inhabitants (istat, 2021) (figure 1), and aims to investigate the changes occurring in public communication and, more generally, in the relationship between citizens and local administrators during the first italian lockdown in spring 2020. figure 1: a map showing the location of the village of peccioli in tuscany, italy peccioli represents a context in which we could observe that, in ordinary times, face-toface communication plays a central role in citizen–administrator interaction. this small village is an avant-garde municipality, especially when compared to others of similar size in italy. it is a place with a strong agricultural and touristic vocation: besides having a valuable historical, the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 27 cultural, and environmental heritage, it has been able to enhance its territory in terms of environmental sustainability and quality tourist reception. the territory of the municipality of peccioli has an area of 92.60 km² and a population density of 50.20 inhabitants/km² (sparsely populated). the population is distributed in a heterogeneous way between the administrative center and the different hamlets that make up the municipality: cedri (11.72 km from peccioli), fabbrica (6.25 km), ghizzano (8.13 km), legoli (8.73 km), libbiano (6.33 km), montecchio (3.39 km) and montelopio (7.24 km; figure 2) figure 2: a map of the hamlets of the municipality of peccioli thanks to the policies implemented over the years by the local administration, the investments in infrastructure, the numerous services provided, and the artistic and cultural initiatives that have improved the quality of life of the inhabitants, peccioli has recently been quoted as an example of a resilient community in the italian pavilion of the 17th biennale of architecture 2021 in venice. the village has, since 1997, made a virtue of necessity applying a resilient logic. when in those years the dominant attitude to landfills and waste was that of nimby (“not in my back yard”), peccioli faced the environmental issue with a pimby (“please in my back yard”) approach and, by building a territorial and participatory management, gave life to a large waste treatment and disposal plant that over the past two decades has allowed the municipality to develop and invest in sustainability, culture, innovation, architecture, and art. the plant, which is one of the few cases of landfill in the world characterized by the almost total the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 28 absence of conflict at the social level (caspretti, 2013), is managed by belvedere, a joint-stock company with mixed public-private capital, where approximately 64% of the shares are held by the municipality and the remaining 36% by approximately 900 small shareholders, most of whom reside in peccioli (belvedere, 2021). this plant highlights in an emblematic way the existing relationship between citizens and local administrators and represents just one example of the many initiatives promoted by the municipality that involve the broader public in the decisions regarding its territory. over the last 30 years, numerous civic engagement initiatives and experiences of public consultations have been developed, making the village a sort of open-air laboratory for testing various innovation practices, not only at the social level, but also at the environmental, administrative, and technological levels (farinosi et al., 2019). returning to the purpose of this study, we were interested in exploring on the one hand the attitudes and opinions of local administrators regarding the institutional communication and, on the other, the evaluations of citizens toward the initiatives and the communication of the local government and the analysis of their information behaviors. in the first case, a qualitative approach was adopted based on 10 semi-structured interviews (silverman & patterson, 2021) with local administrators, aimed at investigating (a) the management of institutional communication and the communication strategies implemented toward the citizenry; and (b) the impact of the pandemic on the organizational and communicative dimension of local government. in the second case, a quantitative approach was adopted based on the administration of a questionnaire (corbetta, 2014) to citizens selected randomly on the basis of a representative sampling of the local population (n = 268), aimed at exploring the relationship between citizens and representatives of local institutions, as well as their respective use of the media, both institutional and non-institutional, and the way in which citizens were informed about what had been put in place by the local government. specifically, this paper addresses the following research questions: • rq1: how did the municipality organize its communication infrastructure and strategy effectively to face the citizens’ increasing need for information and the national guidelines established to combat the pandemic? • rq2: what was the citizens’ evaluation of the public communication during the emergency, and which channels had been mostly used to stay updated on municipal initiatives? the present article is structured as follows: in the next section, it sets out the theoretical background underpinning our research and provides a literature review regarding public communication during the covid-19 crisis; second, it presents the methodology adopted in the study. third, it describes the main findings, illustrating first what emerged from the interviews with local administrators and then from the survey conducted with citizens and finally discusses these findings and draws some conclusions. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 29 public communication, the digital revolution, and the challenge of the covid-19 the integration of digital platforms and social media by public administrations in their communication with citizens is a phenomenon that has been developing for several years, responding to the growing relevance of digital media in various realms of our societies (feeney & porumbescu, 2021). for public administrations, this technological innovation has had a broader impact that has also involved their organizational dimension, the definition of the relationship between institutions and citizens and therefore, more generally, the redefinition of democracy itself. in respect to other european countries, italy in the last 20 years has delayed the process of digitizing public administration and harmonizing its it infrastructure. many administrations, especially local ones, are still at an early stage both in the process of acquiring the skills necessary for effective communication through digital media and in the definition of a communication strategy capable of strengthening their social identity (mori et al., 2021). moreover, the increasing use of digital media by the public administration runs the well-known risk of excluding from the communication processes those sectors of citizens that do not use new technologies, as well as people with no or low digital competencies (zheng & walsham, 2021). these delays are also found in social media use. the italian public administration does not have a formal obligation to use social media to communicate with citizens. the law 150/2000 establishes that the information and communication activities of public administration can be carried out through any tool that can ensure the transmission of the message. grounding this important reform in the early 2000s, several italian public administrations at various levels have begun the increasing their use of digital technologies, in particular social media, as a tool for public communication with citizens, albeit with important critical issues being noted. these criticisms include: the need for more and better training of institutions’ press offices more effectively managing these new tools; the frequent overlap, especially in local administrations, between institutional communication – which should remain politically neutral – and political communication; and, finally, the difficulty in developing a proper two-way communication flow (ducci et al., 2020). despite these challenges, social media are important because they have produced a profound transformation of the media ecosystem. here, a growing process of disintermediation is taking place that on the one hand favors a more direct relationship between public administration and citizens, bypassing traditional media, and on the other hand exposes public administrations to more responsibility and control by citizens than in the past (delli carpini, 2020). moreover, in recent years they have played an increasing role in the management of emergencies and disasters by institutions at different territorial scales (coombs, 2016). within this framework, the covid-19 emergency represented an important accelerating factor in the ongoing process of digitalization of public administration and in the use of social media as a communication tool between administrators and citizens (gabryelczyk, 2020). social media have in fact represented a necessary resource to respond to the rapid growth in the demand for information by a fearful population in search of certainty and reassurance. political and health institutions have also had to be present on social media to counter the spread of fake news concerning the pandemic (lovari, 2020). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 30 in addition to all the reasons illustrated so far, there is another reason why it may be particularly relevant to explore how covid-19 has affected public administration in italy, since italy was the first western country to experience the spread of the virus in its territory. therefore, political and health institutions found themselves dealing with the emergency, and with communication with its citizens, without having the possibility of being inspired by practices already experimented with in other countries. thus, they had to improvise how to respond to the greater need for information manifested by the italian population because of the emergency (carelli & vittadini, 2020). to this end there was a significant growth in the presence on social media of health and political institutions, at national and local level (mazzoleni & bracciale, 2021), and, at the same time citizens have also turned their attention mainly to social media (lovari, 2020). this change in public and political communication due to the covid-19 emergency has had a strong impact on the transformation of political leadership in italy, as in other countries (ansell et al.,2020; lilleker et al., 2021). firstly, the increased use of social media and disintermediated communication by political leaders and holders of government responsibilities, at local as well as at national level, has sharpened the process of personalization of political leadership that in the last decades has characterized the political systems in all western democracies, including italy. during the different stages of the pandemic crisis, the italian pm giuseppe conte, as well as the presidents of the regions (which in italy have competencies for the management of the public health system), and the mayors of cities of different territorial scales, had been personally engaged in direct communication with citizens, particularly on social media platforms. political leaders, through an effective storytelling, appeared as “captains in the storm”, able to capture the support of public opinion, so strengthening their leaderships (ventura, 2020). secondly, due to the direct involvement of experts in public communication regarding the pandemic and the measures to follow its containment – such as epidemiologists, physicians, etc. – in italy also emerged a sort of depoliticization of leaders’ communication. political leaders were careful to ground their message on the opinion of experts, trying to avoid expressing a partisan and politically oriented view on the crisis. nonetheless, the different views on the emergency and its management that also characterized the debate between scientific experts, eventually increased the levels of confusion in the communication pursued by italian political institutions through their leaders (castellin & palano, 2020). several scholars consider the response of institutional and media actors to the increased information need of the citizens to be at least partially ineffective and inadequate. according to centorrino (2020), alongside the infodemic (yang et al., 2021; brennen et al., 2020; zarocostas, 2020) a comdemic also took place, that is, an overabundance of actors who wanted to be accredited in the field of public institutional communication. a scenario of uncertainty and confusion that “gave rise to a cacophony of voices, in which institutional communication was often misaligned with media coverage and with an indistinguishable mix of misinformation, unverified rumors and intentionally manipulated disinformation” (lovari, 2020, p. 459). with regards to local administration, the specific subject of this contribution, a recent study (mori et al., 2021) has shown that even at the level of municipalities, in the first months of the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 31 the covid-19 emergency there was a notable increase in the presence of local administrations on social media; an increased presence that received a positive response from the population, as evidenced by a general and dramatic growth of citizens’ interactions with the social media pages and profiles of municipal institutions. according to the authors of the study: the increased number of citizens interested in remaining connected and up-to-date with these institutions reveals that public administration is one of the actors of communication considered affordable by citizens. from the perspective of user/consumer behavior, it is interesting to observe that the rise in the number of fans is continuous in the period analyzed for all municipalities and this confirms the importance of the digital communication channels in bringing citizens closer to the public administration. the sharp and sudden rise seems to confirm that users were already digital consumer, not yet used to virtually interact with the public administration (before the pandemic, the number of fans of all the municipalities investigated was low), but immediately reactive, if necessary, as in a context of emergency. (mori et al., 2021, p. 11). however, this possible positive impact of the covid-19 emergency on the innovation of public communication by local administrations and on citizens’ involvement has been partially accompanied by the persistence of some of the challenges and limitations that had characterized the use of social media by italian public administrations since its early stages, before the covid19 crisis. among the main ones are that often, during an emergency, local institutions have used social platforms without having specific skills and without a complete knowledge of their potential, especially in terms of interactions between government and citizens. from this perspective, an emergency can certainly be interpreted as a period of experimentation, learning and transition from a traditionally one-way, informative communication, to a communication characterized by a greater degree of interaction. for a better understanding of the impact of the covid-19 emergency on public communication by local administrations, as well as of the relationship between their new and traditional communication strategies, it is necessary also to consider the scale dimension, since urban and rural contexts represent completely different situations. in this paper, we try to shed light on what happened in a small village environment. aims and methods our work intended to analyze the case of the municipality of peccioli. in order to answer our research questions, this study adopted the following tools: 1) semi-structured interviews with local administrators to explore their point of view on the management of public communication and information strategies and to investigate the impact of the pandemic on the organizational dimension of the local administration; and 2) a survey carried out with a representative sample of peccioli’s population to investigate citizens’ evaluation of the local government’s communication with the population during the covid-19 crisis and eventual changes in citizens’ use of media. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 32 as for the interviews with local administrators, a total of 10 semi-structured interviews (silverman & patterson, 2021) were conducted at the municipality headquarters in may 2021, concerning institutional communication strategies used by the municipality during the first italian lockdown. among the administrators we decided to include in the sample institutional figures covering different roles: mayor, deputy mayor, council members, communication managers, etc. the profile of those interviewed was rather heterogeneous, in terms of both age (ranging from 31 to 71 years) and gender (five women and five men). the qualitative approach allowed us to focus more on the depth of the discourse and capture in detail the experiences and opinions of the respondents through their own words (vettehen et al., 1996). in addition, given the exploratory nature of the research, the semi-structured interview seemed the most appropriate in terms of openness and flexibility, providing the freedom, where necessary, to expand the questions and ask for further clarification. the interviews lasted between 25 and 80 minutes and were conducted by meeting in person – by appointment – with local administrators. all interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed in full and subjected to a first reading to identify interviewees’ subjective perceptions and points of view, capture the overall meaning of their discourse, highlight salient passages, and find any inconsistencies, and, subsequently, to carry out a closer analysis in order to achieve a systematization of the material (braun & clarke, 2008; guest et al., 2012). specifically, the textual corpus resulting from the interviews was processed following an inductive procedure aimed at identifying the most relevant and significant thematic categories (boyatzis, 1998; ryan & bernard, 2003) and then at expanding and enriching the initial list by adding categories and subcategories that were maybe less frequent but still important. the interview excerpts were then reorganized according to these categories and analyzed crosswise. as for the survey conducted with citizens, a probabilistic stratified sampling approach was applied to draw a representative number of inhabitants of peccioli by randomly extracting participants from the municipal registry through proportional allocation based on three sociodemographic variables: age, consisting of five groups – adolescents (14–18 years), young people (19–24 years), young adults (25–44 years), adults (45–64 years) and elderly (over 64 years); gender (male/female); and place of residence (center/hamlets). in order to improve the survey response rates, representativeness, and to ensure sufficient data for decision-making, after determining the sample size (n = 356), we decided to double it and then include an additional 100 people. a total of 812 citizens were invited to participate in the research through an invitation letter signed by the mayor of the town and hand-delivered by a municipal messenger. in the end, 268 people were interviewed, resulting in a response rate of 72.5% compared to the original sample size. despite our efforts, the final sample suffered, not surprisingly, from some self-exclusion mechanisms, presenting representation bias attributable mainly to a low response by adolescents and youths and a higher participation of women than men. however, despite this limitation, the response rates reached some good levels. the sample was made up of 114 males (42.5%) and 154 females (57.5%). regarding the age of respondents, 11 (4.1%) were adolescents, 10 (3.7%) young people, 54 (20.1%) young adults, 106 (39.6%) adults, and 87 (32.5%) elderly. regarding the place of residence of respondents, 165 (61.6%) lived in peccioli and 103 (38.4%) in nearby hamlets (cedri, fabbrica, ghizzano, legoli, libbiano, and montecchio). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 33 given the confinement and social distancing measures imposed by the government to contain the covid-19 pandemic, data were collected using structured questionnaires administered through mobile phone interviews (boase & humphreys, 2018) during the period from 7 july to 20 october 2020, and through in-person interviews from september 2020, following the relaxation of virus restrictions. the questionnaire consisted mainly of closed questions covering four thematic blocks: 1) basic sociodemographic characteristics of the respondent (e.g., age, gender, education, marital status, employment, household, etc.); 2) evaluation of the initiatives undertaken by the local government to deal with the emergency, grouped into four areas (i.e., supply of personal protective equipment such as masks, services to citizens, support for recreational and cultural activities, and allocation of funds for the poorest and most distressed citizens); 3) information channels used to stay up-to-date on initiatives promoted by the municipality and evaluation of institutional communication during the lockdown; and 4) suggestions on how to improve covid-19 emergency management in the event of a possible second wave of the virus (this last block was the only one that consisted only of open-ended questions). in relation to the second thematic block, to overcome the problem of uninformed citizen input we considered it appropriate to first provide respondents with detailed information about the initiatives promoted by the municipal administration so that they could start from a common knowledge base before expressing their evaluation (bolles, 2013; farinosi et al., 2019). given the specific focus of this contribution and the richness of the data collected during the survey, our report here is confined exclusively to the analysis of the responses related to the questions concerning institutional communication and to those that made up the third thematic block of the questionnaire. this analysis was performed using spss software, version 23.0. findings the findings have been organized in the following way: in the first sub-section the most relevant results from the analysis of the interviews with the local administrators will be illustrated, accompanied by some significant excerpts taken directly from the words of the respondents; in the second sub-section the main data from the survey conducted with a representative sample of the population of peccioli will be presented. interviews with local administrators regarding the issue of the eventual changes emerging in the public communication and communication strategies developed by the peccioli municipal government during the pandemic, from the interviews it emerged that this municipality did not modify its communication infrastructure to inform citizens during the various phases of the emergency. the municipality continued to use its institutional channels, avoiding the use of social media: the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 34 the administration has informed and communicated every activity, perhaps preferring more traditional channels (institutional website and press releases to local media) and the smartphone app 'sistema peccioli' (anna dainelli, deputy mayor). a crucial choice regarding the communication strategy was to not provide, through social media platforms, a daily bulletin of cases of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, related to the territory of the municipality of peccioli. contrary to what happened in neighboring municipalities, the mayor of peccioli decided to not provide this type of information because, given the context and the small size of the community, he determined that a daily bulletin concerning cases could facilitate the spread of panic and a dangerous “witch hunt” scenario: compared to others who have communicated three times a day the data that 'there is one more infected, there are two more infected', creating a kind of continuous and constant tension, we preferred to leave the task to the asl [local public health institution] that communicated the provincial data every day. in a small reality like this one, informing that in via roma there was one positive case of covid, is nonsense. it would have meant creating dangerous situations. on the contrary, since the moment someone was identified as infected, the first to know about it were the health workers; at that point the necessary and sufficient countermeasures were taken to make everyone feel safe (renzo macelloni, mayor). at a general level, some studies carried out in recent months have shown how local administrators, and particularly mayors, have become the main storytellers of the crisis, the interpreters of the so-called “proximity policies”, which is the political subjectivity aimed at strengthening the value of solidarity in local communities (sampugnaro & santoro, 2021). in peccioli, the municipal administration, and the figure of mayor chose to play this role more through the implementation of initiatives and interventions than through a constant and daily presence on the various media platforms. however, some of the interviewees registered discontent among certain sectors of the population who, especially in the first periods of the emergency, would have preferred to receive detailed and daily information on the local covid-19-positive cases. due to this experience, the municipality decided to pay more attention to their presence and communication on social media platforms, while maintaining an institutional profile that tried to avoid the dynamics of polarization that are often found on social media platforms: i know that many citizens, in line with the general and growing habit of using social networks as a source of information, would like a greater presence of the administration on platforms such as facebook and instagram. i think we should work on this and structure ourselves better, still maintaining an institutional profile and style. we should use and monitor these channels that have now become an integral part, not just of our way of communicating, but also of our way of behaving (anna dainelli, deputy mayor). as recounted by various interviewees, the decision to start taking advantage more effectively of the communication through social media platforms had already been made before the beginning of the covid-19 emergency, with the creation of an official facebook profile of the the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 35 municipality and the hiring of a professional dedicated to this type of communication within the press office. however, the increase in remote interaction and the greater presence of citizens on social media platforms during the covid-19 emergency has already reshaped the municipality's communication infrastructure: recently, an official facebook page of the municipality was created. so, now we communicate also through this channel. [...] the facebook page wasn’t created for the emergency. we have been thinking about it for a while till recently, but it wasn’t created just for the covid emergency (isabella volpi, mayor's staff). we have noticed that some things have actually improved in terms of usability. i think, for example, about what we did in preparation for venice [the participation at the biennale exhibition]. we started, as belvedere, to reshape our webpage. then, we have dedicated ourselves to create a specific website on tourism which will be online soon. that is, we are a little more focused on improving certain tools that allow us to communicate better even outside. for example, the municipality of peccioli is employing a person who will oversee the press office, also taking care of the communication through social media. i think this aspect will be treated and managed more carefully, still maintaining an institutional profile (arianna merlini, belvedere spa). despite this recent attention to online communication channels, however, given the specificities of the context of peccioli (such as the presence of an important component of the elderly population that is difficult to “digitize”, and the small size of the community), direct faceto-face communication between citizens and civil servants and administrators remains crucial: the average citizen wants to see the real person; she/he doesn't trust these instruments. it is useless [to focus too much on digitalization], also because our population is quite old (maurizio salvini, municipal secretary). we're a small reality here. so we all catch up […] you either come to the city hall or you post a problem on social media, and i know immediately if there is a problem. i mean the reality, in a small municipality like this, is completely different compared to bigger cities (renzo macelloni, mayor). during the pandemic, the municipality has registered an increase in contacts with citizens even if, due to the measures taken for virus containment, it has not produced an increase in the physical presence of citizens in the municipal offices. rather, there was an increase in contacts via telephone and email and, especially in the case of the younger citizens, through the smartphone app “sistema peccioli”. citizen survey in this section, we present the results that emerged from the survey conducted with citizens, focusing on those relating to the section of the questionnaire concerning communication. before exploring their perception of the institutional communication, it is worth illustrating the channels normally used by the citizens of peccioli to stay informed during the pandemic and their media the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 36 usage compared to the pre-emergency covid-19 phase. the analysis of the results reveals that the most used device was the television (50.0%), followed by mobile phones (27.6%), computers (17.5%), newspapers (3.0%), and radio (1.5%); the remaining 0.4% of respondents stated that they had not used any medium. these data highlight how the interviewees' media usage was characterized by a high prevalence of traditional media over the new ones. moreover, the large majority of respondents (79.5%) declared to have used more interpersonal communication tools, especially to keep in touch with friends and relatives, and to have kept themselves more informed than in ordinary times (70.9%). a little more than half stated that they used more social media platforms (facebook, instagram, etc.), and watched more tv (in the two cases the percentage was the same: 55.2%), while a third watched more streaming content (32.5%) and a fifth shopped more online (22.0%). thus, it is worth noting how the advent of the pandemic and, above all, the imposition of confinement measures has led to an increase in all the communication activities considered by our questionnaire, including those online. this relevant increase in communication activities is also accompanied by other meaningful scientific evidence arising from the specific modality of the answers we proposed. among the possible answers to this question, in addition to the traditional options “the activity has increased”, “the activity has decreased” and “the activity has remained unchanged compared to before the pandemic”, we had also provided the option “i have never done this activity”. significantly, 34.0% of respondents said they had never used social media platforms, 49.3% had never seen streaming content and 43.7% had never done online shopping, neither before nor during the emergency. these data demonstrate a certain resistance on the part of the local community to using digital media and adopting the most innovative communication channels, which must be kept in mind for a more complete reading of the data concerning institutional communication in such a small village. overall, the answers provided by the interviewees to the questions focusing on this issue revealed that they adopted a mixed regime of analog and digital media, strongly characterized by a preponderance of the analog. the most used communication channel through which citizens of our sample became aware of the various initiatives and services activated by the municipal administration was word of mouth, followed by social media platforms and then the municipality's official app (figure 3). it should be emphasized that it is possible to detect a direct correlation between the most used means of communication and the type of initiative promoted by the municipal administration. in general, word of mouth was the most used across all the initiatives investigated, except for the festival “pensavo peccioli” (“i thought peccioli”). this cultural event, renamed “cosa sarà?” (“what will be?”), in which popular journalists well known at the national level publicly discuss current affairs, had been rethought in online mode to follow the measures to combat the spread of the virus. in this case, the citizens interviewed declared that they became aware of the initiative mainly through online platforms. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 37 figure 3: information channels most used by citizens to stay updated on the initiatives promoted by the municipality. source: farinosi and piccolo (2021). looking more closely at the four areas in which the initiatives undertaken by the local government have been grouped: 1) supply of personal protective equipment; 2) services to citizens; 3) support for recreational and cultural activities; and 4) allocation of funds for the poorest and most distressed citizens, we notice that, in regards to the actions in the first area, citizens have learned about it mainly through word of mouth (41.4%), followed by “other” (22.4%) and social media platforms (13.1%)1. in particular, the specific case of the distribution of protective masks to citizens, the item “other” reached a rather high percentage because people often reported having learned about the initiative directly by finding the masks in their mailbox. as regards initiatives related to the second area, the respondents stated that they were informed mainly by word of mouth (57.8%), followed by social media platforms (15.0%) and by local online newspapers (8.8%). in this case, it is possible to detect a difference related to the specific type of service considered: for example, the home delivery service for shopping and medicines was better known through word of mouth and online platforms, while the existence of the service of psychological support via telephone was learned of mostly through local online newspapers. considering the initiatives related to the third area, the respondents replied that they had become aware of them through word of mouth (35.6%), social media platforms (26.1%) and the 1 we report here only the three options that received the most responses, with the relative percentages. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 38 municipality app (19.3%). in this case, the answers were distributed in a more homogeneous way and, as anticipated, the reasons can be tracked down to the very nature of these initiatives; in fact the “pensavo peccioli” festival was only available online and two proposals required a reservation through the municipality app to access. finally, in regards to the initiatives covering the fourth area, respondents said they learned about them mainly through word of mouth (55.1%), followed by online newspapers (11.0%) and online platforms (9.0%). in this case, beyond the three most used channels, there was a higher variability in the answers according to the specific initiative being evaluated. paper letters, sent to homes by the municipality and delivered by municipal messengers, supported the dissemination of information regarding the advance payment of the belvedere social dividend to shareholders and the contribution to support youth training. this probably happened because the people directly affected by these measures were already involved in the initiatives. the municipality app, on the other hand, proved useful in promoting the initiative of providing shopping vouchers to support citizens with low incomes and, finally, the meetings with administrators served to spread greater knowledge of the modification of the budget implemented in the face of the emergency. in general, the interviewees rated the emergency management implemented by the municipal administration very positively, giving it a rating of 4.39 on a scale of 1 to 5 (sd = 0.807). the few negative evaluations could be traced back to two types of reason: lack of attention to specific segments of the population (i.e., children and elderly) and lack of support for some working sectors, such as tourism, which was hit hard by the covid-19 crisis. institutional communication during the lockdown was also assessed positively by the respondents, receiving a score of 3.72 (sd = 0.965). the kendall rank correlation coefficient (r = 0.431, p < 0.001) also demonstrates that there is a moderate, even if significant, correlation between these two items: as appreciation for the work of local government increases, appreciation for institutional communication also grows. in relation to sociodemographic variables, we note that men expressed a positive evaluation (equal to 4 or higher) of institutional communication more often than did women. respondents belonging to the category “young people” (19–24 years) expressed a rating of 4 or higher more often than the other age groups, while the category “adolescents” (14–18 years) expressed it less frequently. finally, the respondents residing in peccioli more often provided a positive evaluation than those residing in the hamlets. according to the respondents, the information channel considered most effective among those used by the municipality during the pandemic was letters sent to homes, followed by the official municipality app (figure 4). all the other response options, as can be seen from the graph in figure 4, received scores equal to or lower than 10%. however, it is interesting to underline that some respondents answered this question by indicating the local online press and the facebook group “sei di peccioli se...” to be the most effective institutional means of communication, two channels which, due to their characteristics, do not fall within the definition of “institutional means of communication” and are not directly managed by the local administration. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 39 figure 4: institutional channels considered most effective by citizens. source: farinosi and piccolo (2021). conclusion among the various effects of the covid-19 pandemic at the communication level, our study has identified, on the one hand, an increase in communication practices by citizens and an increase in the use of both analog and digital media and, on the other, a moderate increase in the process of digitalization of public communication and the initial use by public administrations of social media as a tool for communicating with citizens. the insights provided by the case of peccioli show us how, even in this small town, the pandemic has represented a factor of pressure toward the digitalization of public communication. the administration of the municipality, in fact, also in light of the experience of the first months of the pandemic, had decided to reshape and strengthen its communication strategy by integrating social media into its communication infrastructure; a choice that, as expressed by the administrators interviewed, had been postponed given the well-known risks of undesirable effects in local government (such as polarization, the spread of panic in emergency situations, widening the digital divide, etc.). at the same time, the citizens of peccioli, while acknowledging that they experienced a greater use of digital and social media during the period of the first lockdown, and while also requesting a greater presence on social media by the municipal administration, still consider traditional channels of communication to be the most relevant. according to the data collected through the survey, word of mouth emerged clearly as the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 40 the most used source to gain information about the initiatives of the municipality. therefore, in the context of peccioli, even in a phase of forced distancing and in addition to the growth in digital communication, the role of direct interpersonal communication, even with administrators, remained central, as did the roles of the family, neighborhood, peer group and acquaintances as direct sources of information considered reliable. these results contribute to an outline of the actual picture of public communication in italy, considering the social, administrative and geographical relevance of smaller municipalities in this country (de rossi, 2018). what emerged in peccioli is most likely to be similar to the situation experienced by many other small italian municipalities. the characteristics of smaller local administrations, such as the greater presence of an elderly population or one with poor digital competencies, and the relevance of face-to-face communication which, in these contexts, is not completely replaced by digital communication, indicate a different scenario of development of the digitalization of public administration compared to larger municipalities. a greater knowledge of these specificities in the dynamics of local communication in small towns and villages becomes essential, therefore, to identify, through comparative studies, which models and tools can be adopted in different contexts by local administrations to achieve effective public communication in rural and urban contexts. references agostino, d., arnaboldi, m., & diaz lema, m. 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(2021). inequality of what? an intersectional approach to digital inequality under covid-19, information and organization, 31(1), article 100341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2021.100341. expanded urban planning as a vehicle for understanding and shaping smart, liveable cities aija staffans1 & liisa horelli2 aalto university, finland. email: aija.staffans@aalto.fi aalto university, finland introduction the smart city movement and rhetoric have invaded discourses about the future of cities. however, there is on-going socio-political construction of what ´smart city` means and how it can be enhanced. the top-down technocratic approach is being adopted by multinational corporations, as well as by several governments and political decision-makers all over the world, which are increasingly being criticized by many academics. on the other hand, there is an increasing buzz emerging from citizens women and men, who are involved in the application of community informatics for self-organization in urban settings. community informatics means the application of icts for the empowerment of communities (gurstein, 2007), whereas urban informatics is a non-normative term referring to the study, design, and practice of urban contexts that are created by ubiquitous technology (foth et al., 2011). so, how to deal with the smart city as a phenomenon, since the contested concept is still in flux? the smart city seems to be both a strategic way of action and a normative, even a utopian goal, which often comprises a description of the city as a living environment enriched by ubiquitous technology. despite the severe criticism by academics of the smart city, urban and community informatics seem to afford many possibilities for future communities in their specific contexts. one of the complications in the top-down technological approach to the smart city is that it has displaced the long history of urban planning in the development of communities. thus, there is a need for new openings that can integrate the different approaches. we have chosen to define the smart city from a holistic and integrative perspective as a multi-scalar and multi-dimensional participatory endeavor that can be enhanced through expanded urban planning. in this paper we argue that smart cities can be better understood and implemented from an expanded urban planning approach that builds further on communicative and deliberative planning with a multidimensional vision for the smart city as a sustainable and liveable community (figure 1). the aim of the article is to present and discuss the expanded urban planning approach as an alternative story to smart cities. the relevance of this approach is assessed in the light of a case study of designing for the smart city, a course for future architects and planners, at the politecnico di milano, italy. the research questions are, how do these future professionals adopt and apply this approach to urban planning when shaping smart cities, what are their interpretations of this framework and, how do they see their future role as professionals in the smart city context. finally, we will examine the role of community informatics in the shaping of smart cities. the paper is structured as follows. first we present a review of the different views of smart cities and how they are contested. we then build the framework of expanded urban planning as an evolution of previous approaches to planning and show its utility for understanding and creating smart cities. we then present how we empirically assessed the appropriation and application of this framework as action researchers through a university class and current literature on the subject. contested views about the smart city we will first have a look at the corporate and institutional approach to smart cities after which we will give voice to its criticism and alternative stories. the corporate and institutional view of smart cities global ict companies have been active in shaping our images of smart cities, such as songdo in south korea, masdar city in the united arab emirates and the pedestrian only great city in china (mcfedris, 2014). india plans to build 100 smart cities that are urban fiber optic-connected clusters providing next-generation services to its residents (rai, 2014). in ten years, india will have 30 cities with 10 million or more residents. one of the biggest boosters of this $1.5 trillion market opportunity (vidyasekar, 2013; singh, 2014) has been ibm, whose concept ´smarter planet` is the result of long term strategic development and careful analyses of the operative environment of cities. ibm offers its smart city activities especially to city leaders by emphasizing comprehensive situation awareness and improved efficiency of city operations. for example, the so-called ´intelligent operations center for smarter cities` provides an executive dashboard to help city leaders gain insight into all aspects of the city (ibm, 2014). another global ict company, cisco, has chosen a different approach to the phenomenon. unlike the top-down approach by ibm, cisco offers its smart city services to citizens and their daily activities in the urban environment. cisco's solutions smart+connected communities focus on the "internet of everything", which connects people and services in a seamless way (cisco, 2014). these cities are based on complex infrastructure that is controlled by urban operating systems. according to alcatel (2012), another global company, the ict-based building blocks of smart cities are ubiquitous connectivity (access to high-bandwidth), collaborative platforms (office automation tools), geo-spatial layouts (internet of things enabling real-time data via possibilities of connecting a wide range of sensors to the internet and a control system), and social networking. the emerging economies of asia and latin america are not the only battle fields for smart cities. the european union has been active in promoting smart cities through research funding mechanisms (ec, 2014) and its europe 2020 strategy (ec, 2010). the motive for creating smart cities lies in the promise that it might solve a variety of urban problems brought forth by climate change, pollution and the financial crisis. the application of information and communication technologies (icts) also provides prospects for mobilizing resources, in addition to enhancing the coordination of sustainable solutions. the european parliament has recently commissioned a report that has mapped smart cities in the european union (almost 500 million residents). the report shows that over half (240) of the eu28 cities with over 100 000 residents have implemented or planned for smart cities (manville, 2014). as only a few european cities had passed the planning phase, 20 cities were chosen for closer scrutiny and the six most successful smart cities for in-depth analysis. these included amsterdam, barcelona, copenhagen, helsinki, manchester and vienna. the most successful cities had a clear comprehensive vision, strategies and objectives aligned with the europe 2020 targets. they also had a vision that was based on participation and inclusion. the initiatives had inspiring leaders (city champions) and the process was coordinated by a central office. the recommendations encouraged more support to smart cities, especially through replication, scaling and eco-system seeding so that a transformation would take place from smart cities to a smarter europe (manville, 2014, 103). the european interpretation of the smart city is not as technocratic and univocal as the one deployed in the asian megacity examples. european smart city initiatives address one or several of the six characteristics defined by a widely-cited study on the ranking of medium sized smart cities in europe (giffinger et al., 2007). the characteristics or dimensions are: smart people, smart living, smart mobility, smart economy and smart environment. we will also base our framework on these dimensions later on, although we will not adopt the following definition of smart cities that the report ends up with: "smart city uses icts to optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of useful and necessary city processes, activities and services by joining up diverse elements and actors into a seamlessly interactive intelligent system" (manville, 2014, 88). smart cities in critical light several academic writers have severely criticized the smart city phenomenon from different perspectives. the consumerist perspective suggests that the smart city does not provide more choices, as everything is planned beforehand. thus, for example "user-friendly in masdar means choosing menu options rather than creating the menu." (sennett, 2012). in the same vein, jenni viitanen and richard kingston (2014, 805) argue that the underlying paradigm for participation in the smart city is the expansion of consumerism and not the saving of energy or resources. therefore, the environmentalist perspective implies that the current smart city strategies outsource environmental and social resilience to the global technology sector and the elites who set the global agenda. consequently, the urban turns into a digital marketplace which reinforces the influence of global technology firms in urban economies. the control perspective frames the smart city as a political technology that functions as a discipline mechanism through social control and government at a distance, which alberto vanolo (2014, 889) calls ´smartmentalization`. this implies a moral obligation to behave in a certain way and adhere to the collective building of smart cities, for example by shaping a green and economically attractive city, while those who do not follow the model are considered smart-deviant. söderström, paasche and klauser (2014, 316) add that the ´corporate storytelling` of smart cities nurtures a model of a perfectly functioning urban society which is, in contrast to classical utopianism, governed by code rather than spatial form. this model does not suggest a revolution in urban morphology, like the garden city, but a "reformist optimization through data, monitoring, interconnectedness and automatic steering mechanisms" (ibid). alternative stories about smart cities the alternative smart city already exists, comprising myriads of initiatives where technology has been used to empower community networks. however, contrary to corporate storytelling, no straightforward narrative about the smart city emerges from these initiatives, because they are driven by diverse political motives and smartness only makes sense within a system of values and aims. alternative storytelling about smart cities is fruitful, as we will show later, but it requires one "to move beyond critique and beyond a mere contrast between corporate grand schemes and what easily might be perceived as anecdotal small-scale actions" (söderström et al., 2014, 318). nevertheless, storytelling can and is being used in planning, not only as an instrument of critique, but also as a means to express ideas about urban development (sandercock, 2003, 26). on the other hand, the enthusiastic bottom-up initiatives, described in the articles from all over the world, in this special issue on ci and urban planning, as well as in several projects and case studies on the application of community informatics in urban planning in finland (wallin et al., 2010; staffans et al., 2010; horelli, 2013), do tell alternative stories about the smart city in which residents have had a say in the shaping of their environs. also the humanistic manifesto in europe, co-written by a network of european smart cities, stress the human-centric approach to the development of smart cities (periferia, 2012).the objective of this network's initiative was to deploy convergent future internet (fi) platforms and services for the promotion of sustainable lifestyles in and across emergent networks of "smart" peripheral cities in europe. expanded urban planning as a framework for shaping smart cities we will build our framework for understanding and shaping smart cities on the evolution of previous approaches to planning, on the literature on smart cities as well as on our previous experience with researching and teaching the subject. we will first present a short summary of planning approaches that have led to the shaping of smart cities and then present the expanded urban planning framework (figure 2). increasing use of icts in urban planning although much of the criticism against the implementation of smart cities implies a lack of public participation, the history of urban planning from the late twentieth century shows a clear trend towards more participatory approaches with new concepts and tools affecting both planning theories and planning systems that vary from one culture to another (nadin & stead, 2008). at the turn of the twentieth century urban planning was presented as the remedy for healing the ills of industrialized cities in the western world. the modernist paradigm, based on science and technical reason, dominated until the 1970s. however, the underlying comprehensive-rationalistic planning theory that presumed controllability in societal development and believed in the efficacy of top-down procedures still continues to be applied in parallel with other approaches (bäcklund & mäntysalo, 2010). this is often the case with smart cities as well. although an alternative, "incrementalist" approach (lindblom, 1959), introduced the practice of involving new critical participants in the planning process already in the 1960s, it was not until the communicative turn from the 1980s on (healey, 1997; forester, 1999) that the dominant paradigm in urban planning was transformed so that it came to comprise a great variety of stakeholders. this planning drew largely on habermas´ (1984) theory of communicative action. currently,theories of urban planning are for the most part post-positivist and pragmatist, and tend to emphasize the importance of participation, collaboration and deliberation (silva, 2010). however, chantal mouffe (2000) has pointed out that the habermasian consensus seeking processes neglect power relations, which in turn has inspired a new approach, called agonistic planning (hillier & healey, 2008). the latter acknowledges the limits to achieving consensus and accepts the differences which remain unresolved, meaning that planning is openly political. e-planning as a forerunner to smart cities the participatory paradigm in urban planning, together with the rise of interactive icts, has pushed citizen participation up the planning agenda, and challenged planners and developers to adopt new methods and technologies (foth, 2009; silva, 2010). however, it was not until the beginning of the 2010s that the methods of participatory e-planning, with mash-ups and the social media, became available (saad-sulonen, 2012). the context of urban planning has dramatically changed due to globalisation and digitalization along with related social megatrends which have made everyday life quite complex. this is reflected in new concepts, such as the informational city or the smart city, and in the tool-oriented planning that anttiroiko (2012, 16) calls urban planning 2.0. this is a type of ictassisted communicative planning that has to face the dialectics between the local and the global, as well as between the real and the virtual. a collection of theoretical texts and case studies (wallin & al., 2010) on the purpose and implementation of participatory e-planning in the finnish context shows that participatory e-planning takes advantage of the wide palette of ubiquitous technology which can be accessed and distributed via many channels and e-devices, depending on the context. the tools include sensory networks, radio-frequency identification tags, interactive screens in public spaces, cellular telephones and the internet. these form together an ecology of tools that provides options for smart planning. however, it is not the technical devices, but their intentional choice and co-ordination that may transform the environment into a real-time digital space (mitchell, 2008). as the tools become cheaper they can be used for the empowerment of communities. at that moment, the new focus and medium of planning, community development and co-governance will become the augmented (physical and virtual) space. participation as self-organization finnish case-studies (wallin et al., 2010) show a shift from the application of traditional, single-channel mapping instruments and websites, such as internet forums and gis-based tools, to the appropriation of multi-channel toolkits, including ones where planning is embedded in social media. for example, in the co-planning project of the roihuvuori neighbourhood yard in helsinki, involving different stakeholders (citizens, politicians, administrators) and age groups (children and their parents, adolescents, elderly people), the application of community informatics meant that the appropriate tools, such as the local website, urban mediator, floobs etc., were chosen from a large ecology of tools and used as platforms and means for co-creating, sharing and distributing information (saad-sulonen & horelli, 2010). this approach also enabled the participants, especially the adolescents who took part in media production activities, to think and act as masters of technology instead of being passive users and mere consumers. the application of icts enables new actors and forms of participation, according to the preference and skills of the users. participation does not only take place in official workshops, but also in everyday life situations that enable the transmission of personal ideas and proposals through the pc and mobile phone. even a new category of involvement has emerged: participation as self-organizationi that is enhanced by the design-in-use of icts (saad-sulonen, 2014). in fact, there is a renaissance of self-organizing groups, events and happenings in many neighbourhoods of helsinki some of which deal with issues that have traditionally been part of urban planning (botero et al., 2012). events, such as the pop-up cleaning day, that turns the whole city into a flea market, and the pop-up restaurant day, indicate that community informatics can act as a catalyst that provides concrete sites for citizens to get mobilized and to 'get things done' in and around urban space. the consequences for urban planning can be seen in the new targets in the form of temporary uses of places or as branding new neighbourhoods through bottom-up cultures (horelli et al., forthcoming). in sum, public participation in urban planning can take place via different channels and digital tools: expert and official, but also unofficial and mundane. the planners and participants can choose the tool and arena that they find most suitable for them (saad-sulonen & horelli, 2010). as the application of icts even in the formal planning processes has increased, at least in finland, we have rejected the term e-planning and rather speak about "expanded urban planning". the expanded urban planning approach as previous urban planning has had difficulties in dealing with the challenges of complex everyday life, we have worked for a long time in the finnish context with what we now call expanded urban planning (staffans et al. 2010; horelli, 2013). these efforts have stressed planning as a participatory knowledge building and coordination process which strives to pull together scattered information from digital and non-digital sources. the methodology has been based on communicative and post-structural planning theories, as well as on the theory of complex co-evolving systems (horelli, 2013). it applies both traditional research and new enabling tools, including urban and community informatics, at different phases of the planning cycle. it also comprises methods to analyse, plan, implement, monitor and evaluate planning and community development processes in an iterative way. this approach assists in identifying and mobilizing a variety of participations, whether 'staged' or self-organized (saad-sulonen, 2014). these help to embed the planning process in the material and socio-cultural context and especially in the issues of glocalii everyday life. expanded urban planning is also intertwined with community development and local co-governance, especially with the forms of new public governance (pestoff, 2012). urban governance can be understood as a wide set of institutions and inter-relationships, which steer economic and social processes beyond the formal structure of local, regional or even cross-national government. the hybridity of the different complex forms of governance the networked modes, elected representations and the governmental institutions of local authorities is, according to parkinson and boddy (2004), simultaneously an opportunity and a threat. governance is highly context and time dependent. traditional government still steers through norms, economic incentives, information, policies and programmes, whereas the newer forms of governance rely more on monitoring, deliberation and self-organization. however, the steering devices of new governance forms have not yet been developed in the context of urban issues. neither have they so far been fully acknowledged by the government. the new forms of local co-governance can be regarded as an endeavour that takes place ranging from the formal (city councils), to the semi-formal (local forums) and informal (citizens), whether in terms of activities, networks, partnerships, structures or public spheresiii . the recursive movement between the informal and the formal is also a way to understand the role of administration and decision-making from a new perspective. karoliina jarenko (2013) suggests. on the basis of hendriks´ (2006) model that co-governance means linking the formal, semi-formal and informal networks and public spheres to form a deliberative system. the semi-formal mixed spheres, enhanced by community informatics, form a link between the formal and the informal ones, enabling a wider range of political activities to have an impact on decision-making. this will enhance communication between the informal arenas of grass-roots level participation and the formal decision-making arenas enabling new public (municipalities), private (business) and people-partnerships. figure 1 the expanded urban planning framework for understanding and shaping smart cities. summa summarum, expanded urban planning comprises the following characteristics (see figure 1): horizontal expansion; intertwining urban planning with community development and local co-governance systemic integration of institutional planning/silos with everyday practices as the planning process is interweaved with the content, for example the six dimensions of smart city (griffins et al., 2007) urban planning targeting both physical and virtual realmsiv vertical expansion ; urban planning as a learning process covering the whole trajectory beginning from the political agenda and strategy setting with ex-ante evaluation, statutory processes and implementation to the ex-post evaluation of outcomes, including applied theories of change and implementation (chen, 2005) urban planning as continuous scaling from global to local and vice versa recognition of different timescapes (long term, short term, real-time, rhythms) multiple participations urban planning enhanced by urban and community informatics balancing the formal, semiformal and informal activities, processes, partnerships, discourses, spaces and spheres through local co-governance and a knowledge management system the ci-assisted expanded urban planning in this framework is regarded as a vehicle that enhances processes leading towards the vision of a smart city as a sustainable and liveable communityv . thus, the smart city is a community that performs well in the six, conceptually distinct characteristics or dimensions, used in the european union report on smart cities (manville, 2014; griffinger et al., 2007), which we have revised from an integrative and holistic perspective (papa et al., 2013), with a special focus on the people and liveability aspects (see figure 2): figure 2 the six ict-enhanced dimensions of the smart city, revised from an integrative and holistic perspective with a special focus on people and liveability aspects (adapted from giffinger at al., 2007; cohen, 2012). smart governance : refers to political strategies and policies, including expanded urban planning, which enable the co-production of public services. ideally smart governance is a transparent deliberative system (jarenko, 2013). multi-scalar e-governance enables a variety of participations across different decision-making levels. it is characterized by an orchestration and balancing of formal, semi-formal and informal processes, partnerships, networks and spheres. smart economy : refers to holistic, responsible and transformative economic transactions leading to flexible but effective production of goods and services with an innovative spirit for new business models, enhanced by connectivity through icts. smart environment : refers to the care for natural resources and the planetary culture (raskin, 2014). it comprises sustainable resource management, environmental protection and reduction of pollution, for example green building, green energy production and consumption. smart mobility : refers to sustainable and innovative ict-aided transport, logistics and communication systems with local and (inter)national accessibility. real-time information enhances both public and personal mobility management increasing the use of appropriate mobility choices and chains (trams, trains, metros, cars, bicycle etc.). smart people : refers to social and human capital and the level of qualification of women and men with different backgrounds, who are motivated to learn and participate in the co-creation of public life. some of the values are equity, creativity, tolerance and cosmopolitanism. smart living : refers to the quality of life in liveable and safe settings. it comprises a supportive infrastructure of everyday life i.e. decent housing options, good health conditions, opportunities for work or meaningful activities, access to nature, educational and cultural facilities embedded in social cohesion, enhanced by co-governance. however, these general characteristics get materialized in a myriad of ways in different contexts. consequently, the outcomes of the application of the approach in figure 1 depend on the way it has been deployed in the specific case. thus, the framework can be applied from the systems perspective or, for example, as part of action research which was the case in the study below. case study: designing for the smart city course at the politecnico di milano, piacenza in addition to uk and spain, italy is among those european countries that have the most experiments with smart cities (manville, 2014, 9 & 39). the italian government has provided a special programme for smart city initiatives in 2012 and several big cities have founded smart city associations, such as milan, genoa, turin, venice, trento, bologna, naples, bari and palermo (see vanolo, 2014, 895). since 2012, bologna organizes a yearly smart city exhibition that involves politicians, urban administrators, companies and researchers. it even includes themes, such as smart cities, gender and inclusion. however, according to vanolo (2014, 894), the rhetoric of smartness in italy runs the risk of building an apriori non-critical consensus, due to a lack of critical opponents. politecnico di milano has had several smart city initiatives on its milan campus, but for the piacenza campus ´designing for the smart city` was the first of its kind in the spring of 2014. piacenza (circa 100 000 residents, 70 km south-east from milan) is an ancient city where the traces of its past as a roman colony and later as a religious power center merge with modern political and commercial urban structures. piacenza is a member of an italian smart city network and it has several projects on smart energy, mobility and safety. on the other hand, wi-fi is only available at a few spots in the city center and broadband does not work at all which reflects the political economy of the country. we will describe next the course, the research methodology and the outcomes of the endeavor. description of the course and the research methodology the two-week long intensive course designing for the smart city (4 credits) was part of the msc. degree in architecture (master's level). its aim was to provide critical understanding of the multi-dimensional concept of the smart city, what it means in different contexts and how it can be applied and assessed from a variety of perspectives in practice. the course was taken by 39 students (24 of whom were women) from 18 different countries and five continents. the course comprised lectures, methodological exercises, student presentations, practical assignments, evaluations, deliberations and readings. all co-produced course material was put on the web-site with the possibility of using google docs and chat. the pedagogy was based on a collaborative and problem oriented approach, as well as learning by doing, seeking to achieve both double and triple loop learningvi . thus the students were required to actively participate in lecturing, research, deliberation and planning. the students had been encouraged to get acquainted with a selection of smart city literature before entering the course, including the recent critique of the smart city, described at the beginning of this article. a dynamic and distributed concept of knowledge (siemens, 2006) was applied that was supported by methods, such as quick prototyping, "walks around the block" with citizen interviews, learning cafes, charrettes and participatory fora among others. the variety of methods that were embedded in the expanded urban planning approach (figure 1) was meant to enhance the capacity building for innovation and collaboration skills that can be deployed in real life situations. to pass the course each student had to present in teams a smart city (sc)--topic from a specific perspective, an international sc case, to carry out a design task "a smart network of public spaces in piacenza" (including presentation and deliberation), and to participate in the co-creation of the sc-concept. the course was also part of participatory action research by the teachers in which we both mobilized processes around the smart city and assessed the outcomes. action research is value-based and we sought to empower the students to understand different perspectives on smart cities, but also to be open and to try out alternative approaches to the dominant ones. during the course, the components of the expanded urban planning approach and the vision (figure 2) were presented and discussed but not the entire framework (figure 1), which was constructed after the course. thus, we could not carry out a real before-after comparison, although the students did participate in ex-ante and ex-post evaluations. consequently, our assessment of the relevance of the expanded urban planning approach itself is based on the students´ interpretations of the phenomenon and its implementation in the smart city -proposals. the pedagogical methods, described above, were used as enabling tools, but also several data gathering techniques (surveys, focus groups, observation, interviews) were applied. a content analysis of all the material was carried out after the course, based on grounded theory and the constant comparative method (strauss & corbin, 1990). the conclusions emerged from analytic induction, aided by the quasi-juridical method of bromley (1986, 194-196). the emerging argument in the interpretation was built on a network of empirical facts, relations and relevant concepts. outcomes smart city proposals the students were divided for the design task into six groups according to the smart city dimensions, but one group chose the people dimension instead of the economic one. however, all groups were instructed to deal with other dimensions as well. the proposals are presented in table 1 (annex 1). all six proposals comprised a mixture of different dimensions and represented, unlike the eu mapping report of smart cities, a variety of project types (manville, 2014, 53). these did not only deal with resource management systems, participatory platforms, neighborhood units, intelligent traffic systems or test-bed micro infrastructures, but also with social and cultural management, health, public spaces and tourism. although the proposals were not directly focusing on economic issues, they emphasized the need for investments which will eventually bring forth societal benefits in the long run (for example ipc in table 1). also the integrated service systems and appropriate technology will reduce waste, energy, time, money and land. even the proposed investment in people's education as active citizens in local development will pay off in the future. the smart city, according to the students, opens up new possibilities to increase people's social, cultural and environmental awareness of a sustainable future (for example ambientiamoci in figure 3). the students expressed this belief directly or indirectly by proposing several tools for local capacity and knowledge building. they also recognized their own role and responsibility in this development by emphasizing the potential of the university campus and the large student community in piacenza (for example in partecipenza in table 1). figure 3 environmental smart trail system ambientiamoci and the university-based web platform uninet. the network of public spaces has a central role in the smart city. the physical and virtual gets blurred and they go hand in hand (figure 3). technology is integrated in the public space by smart lighting, energy tiles, traffic hubs, interactive playgrounds, smart boards etc. these spaces are arenas for active urban life, temporary events and multi-cultural encounters. another salient feature is the systematic integration of a variety of services, for example in the video-proposal for the hub-city which is locally focused but with tight global connections (see figure 4 and table 1). this proposal by seven female students seeks to improve the everyday life of different genders, ages (young and old), backgrounds (tourists and new comers to the city), and interests (cultural performers) in the city. figure 4 the hub card and the integrated service system. unlike the smart city initiatives presented in the critical academic articles (see hollands, 2008; söderström et al., 2014; vanolo, 2013), the students' proposals were not framed from the corporate perspective. instead, they were citizen-driven, bottom-up enterprises which, however, stressed the importance of public, private, people-partnerships. in fact, the smart city is something that can only be materialized or maintained through participatory (e-) governance and planning. thus, the proposals emphasized transparency, socialization, collaboration and engagement, but also access to and use of technology, such as free wi-fi, online platforms, interactive applications, and open data. however, the proposals did not comprise a critique of the technological waste associated with smart cities (viitanen & kingston, 2014), nor reflections about the nature or frugality of technology. in addition, the political economy of italy or piacenza was not discussed. interpretations of the smart city the students' interpretations of the smart city covered most of the dimensions described in figure 2. they also comprised a large range of connotations, such as flexible, holistic, integrative, responsive, relatedness, connectivity, local effective, people-centered, co-governance, livable, love and care for the city, a system of systems, although also "we is me and me is us" was expressed. on the one hand, the students did recognize the vast possibilities that icts in general and ci in particular can provide. on the other hand, they saw that there are ethical principles that have to be recognized. thus, the smart city emerges as a responsible and responsive community with active citizens: "the smart city is a city that has a high quality of life, given by many features such as: good liveable spaces, energy efficency, high knowledge aspects, social infrastructures, a good governance and a good mobility. most important of all is that it cares for it citizens that live in the city." "my current interpretation of smart city is completely related with the concepts of sustainability, environmental landscape, governance, urban planning and socio-cultural aspects of the life in the cities. it is a wide topic that has to be managed and analyzed in a holistic and integral way. taking in account the different aspects of the life on the cities and its users. but specially seeking better conditions and life for its citizens." the smart city recognises the need to manage change: "a smart city must be a flexible city that can adopt the changes during the period of time." "a smart city to me is a city that manages to meet all the contemporary sustainability requirements in terms of environment, mobility, economy, living, people, and governance by taking a full advantage of the innovative ict solutions. it is a dynamic and evolving system that never ceases to develop and in order to do so both in a context aware way as well as in compliance with the needs and requirements of its inhabitants, humans have to play an active and positive role." global connections are at the core: "smart cities are a network of systems and processes including mobility, environment, people, living, governance and the economy. these systems are a set of processes that are carried out on the local and global scale. the intensification of connections through icts has led to the creation of the smart city in which there is pervasive computing, sensor networks and embedded systems that create a growing digital infrastructure allowing us better analyze, respond and adapt to constant flux." a livable city is smart: "smart city is a liveable city, where everyone can have an access to necessary information, have assistance from the community he lives in, is integrated with different infrastructures of the city, it is a big system in which each aspect is in a close relationship with each other." "as a citizen, people need to participate in different activities and try to improve the quality of life. they need to understand that having a smart city needs their attention and effort. "brilliant and intelligent at the same time. the combining of all the solutions will bring us to a place where the quality of "now" goes hand in hand with ecology." "in a nutshell the smart city should provide a good quality of life to its citizens in terms of social, physical, economical, educational needs." participation and democracy brings forth the smart city: "a smart city is a city built by the people, for the people. it is a democratic city. it is a reflection of the peoples' needs, ideas, interests and aspirations." "strongly connected to establishing the high quality of life for living environment (meaning both people and nature) that inhabit the area. therefore one of the main aspects of the smart city becomes co-governance and co-creation." smart city as utopia: "a smart city is a city that includes a good educational system, a good health system, a good business management. it is a city that uses technology to improve its citizens' lives without depending on it. a smart city is a dream that we are trying to catch but before we can do so, we need to fix current issues such as equality, racism, social differences and wars. a smart city is a prize that we will only get when we solve our current issues and live in an almost perfect world." "in my opinion, smart city is a modern, sustainable, and flexible (according to changes of conditions and citizens' need during the time) city that applies the latest technologies and communication systems to all the urban fabric and it has a chain of smart facilities strongly connected and acting in a way to reduce environmental damages, save our planet and also to serve its citizens." role of the planner/architect it turned out during the course that the smart city is a way of thinking and imaging about the quality of life of the next years and the next generations. the implementations cannot be done only by the city administration, neither by corporations nor grass root hackers. therefore, the co-creation and co-governance with private, public, people-partnerships are inherent in the smart city. a lively discussion about the role of the designers, architects and planners in the creation of smart cities took place. the students agreed that working in teams is a necessity for the creation of the smart city. partnerships will take place with citizens and a variety of specialists, such as environmental psychologists, sociologists, ecologists, business men and women, technicians, politicians and administrators at different levels and scales. here are some of the thoughts: "the role of the architects/designer/planner is to materialize ideas and concepts, and to contribute with a more holistic approach in the collaborative effort to create a smart city." "the designer is the vehicle of communication between the ideal of the smart city and its implementation by working out the concept in a human scale." reception of the proposals the students presented their proposals both orally and digitally in front of a panel consisting of two piacenza politicians, councilors, administrators and professors. they also produced a collectively written report (horelli & staffans, 2014) that was offered to the panel and the press. the panelists had a lively dialogue with the students who were delighted that their ideas raised so many questions. the need for a civic laboratory around low and high situational technologies for smart cities (cf. townsend, 2013) was an idea that received a great deal of support, also in the press with two articles about the course (see picture 1). picture 1 article in libertà on the 15th of february 2014. a couple of months later, the emilia romagna region granted piacenza and its consortium considerable funding for an urban hub an old house that will accommodate spaces for creative and innovative industries and enterprises (see picture 2). it will comprise, among others, four different civic labs (unilab, water lab, blue economy lab, music lab) and other spaces for start-ups, soft-ware building etc. this will be the place and organization where some of the smart city proposals will be materialized and further developed for possible presentation at the milano world expo in the spring of 2015. one additional major outcome of the course was that it empowered, at least some of the students to act for the local community. in fact, one of them claimed in their ex-post evaluation that "the course was the turning point of my life". picture 2 schema of the urban hub in piacenza. discussion and conclusions we have shown in the article that the smart city is a buzz word that has been promoted by several international companies, universities and cities, but also severely criticized by academics for its top down, business-driven approach. concurrently, a myriad of small smart city-projects are emerging from citizens, who are involved in the application of community informatics for self-organization in urban settings. thus, the smart city as a concept and an initiative is still under social and political construction. we argued that smart cities can be better understood and implemented from an expanded urban planning approach that builds further on communicative and deliberative planning with a multidimensional vision for a smart city as a sustainable and liveable community (figure 1). the aim of the article was to present and discuss the expanded urban planning approach as an alternative story to smart cities. so, how did these future professionals adopt and apply this approach to urban planning when shaping smart cities? what were their interpretations of this framework and, how did they see their future role as professionals in the smart city context. finally, we will examine the role of community informatics in the shaping of smart cities. expanded urban planning as a vehicle for smart cities the assessment of the relevance of the expanded urban planning approach in the light of the case study disclosed that the students interpreted the shaping of smart cities as a multidimensional, multi-scalar and multi-vocal integrative practice. this took place at the formal (negotiations with the administrators of the city), semiformal (panel at the university) and informal spheres (discussions with citizens) involving a variety of public, private, people-partnerships. the students embedded urban planning in community development and co-governance (horizontal expansion). they also integrated the global with the local (for example in the hub), institutional and everyday life (for example in uninet), long term and short term (in ipc), as well as the virtual with the physical (in partecipenza; see table 1). thus, the outcomes confirmed that the students chose to apply many parts of the expanded urban planning framework in figure 1. however, the vertical expansion of the framework was not realized, due to the short duration of the endeavor, but also because evaluation of the whole sequence of planning from the policy and strategy to the ex-post evaluation was perhaps not sufficiently addressed during the course. anthony townsend (2014, 311) reminds us that "we need to build a systemic evaluation of social sustainability into the planning of smart-city services". this is all the more important, as expanded urban planning is a complex approach in which collective knowledge building and knowledge management are of key importance. urban knowledge is currently scattered and the challenge is, how the knowledge produced by various parties can be successfully brought together and incorporated in the long process of urban planning (väyrynen, 2011). it is evident that on-going collaborative evaluation in terms of values, policy and objectives requires interaction, deliberation and coordination. on the other hand, here lies the wicked problem: " who will and how orchestrate the two fundamentally different logics and rhythms of the political-administrative machinery and local civil society"? (anttiroiko, 2012, 18) nevertheless, the best proof of the relevance of the expanded urban planning approach was the amazing energizing potential that was mobilized among the students. the future planners and architects saw the smart city as a new way of creating architecture of hope and opportunities which also happened in the finnish examples, described at the beginning of this article. this took place due to the building of a supportive infrastructure of everyday life that encourages citizens to participate in the co-production of their local environment, on the basis of daily and future activities, at different scales (horelli, 2013). in the italian case it meant a contribution to the future urban hub in piacenza (picture 2) with civic laboratories for creating, among others "situational software" some of which may have the potential dna for global markets (townsend, 2014). the urban hub can also be seen as a nexus for open innovation (paskaleva, 2011). thus, the expanded urban planning approach can be seen as a potential vehicle to understand and shape smart cities depending of course on the context. in terms of urban planning history, it is a contribution to the tradition of collaborative and deliberative planning (healey, 1997; forester, 1999). however, it differs from these by relying on critical pragmatism and the third generation of deliberation theory (mäntysalo & jarenko, 2014), which allows for diverse views and even conflicts, in addition to the application of icts. an ethical but paradoxical story by the future planners and architects so, how did the future architects and planners interpret the smart city and their own role? the interpretation of the data produced by 39 students who took the planning course at the politecnico di milano can be presented as an alternative story about smart cities. unlike the heroic, corporate storytelling (söderström et al., 2014), the story of the students future planners and architects is highly ethical, stressing the responsibility of the citizens to take care of their city, which is part of the planetary culture (raskin, 2014). the smart city is a glocal, but liveable place, which requires active management of change and participation of its citizens and leaders through democratic co-governance. however, there were two different but parallel storylines that might increase tension: a strong faith in active citizenship in the sense that the smart city is the fruit of self-organized activities in the form of urban events, happenings and performances in urban space that is embedded in interactive icts, such as energy tiles, smart screens, augmented reality equipment etc. the use of these spaces is enhanced by public investment in people who in turn will become savvy users of information from different sources, co-producers and innovators, a need for a systemic integration of services, which will enhance the fluency of everyday life. however, it usually involves a large publicprivatepartnership (ppp) and complex technological infrastructure the management of which might complicate self-organization. both orientations are human-centric endeavors which share the self-evidence of using high-tech, not as the main focus, but as embedded in the participatory context. the students could easily cross-over the different silos of municipal sectors social and health care, infrastructure building etc. but a real problem is, as well as with the multi-dimensional framework (figure 1), the fact that its application requires a multi-disciplinary team with expert knowledge of political economics, computer science, big data analysis, planning and so on. in addition, it is apparent that the implementation of the expanded urban planning framework also benefits from the application of the critical systems analysis approach (reynolds, 2014). thus, it can be noted that the students had a new way of seeing their role as architects and planners. however, they had almost over-positive expectations about the smart city and very little criticism was raised (cf. vanolo, 2014). in fact, there was no reflection over the potential pollution brought forth by icts as contamination or as an incentive that increases consumerism (viitanen & kingston, 2014). neither were there thoughts about the political economy of the country, or the challenging consequences of the next stages of smart cities dominated by intelligent robotics (grey, 2014). in this sense the students could be regarded as idealist and non-realist. community informatics is a necessary but not a sufficient condition community informatics as a concept was not known to the students, but they applied icts for the empowerment of the community in a natural way. ci was not the master, but the servant. in the light of the two different storylines above, community informatics: directly supported self-organization and active citizenship in many of the students proposals (table 1), thus corroborating the normative nature of community informatics, and functioned as one component part of the integrated service system. if the system is large and its implementation is top-down and centralized without direct links to the experiences with and meanings of everyday life, the danger is that ci loses its various normative goals. the latter is one of the biggest challenges which the expanded urban planning approach also has to meet. the question arises, how to apply community informatics in large integrated (service) systems? currently, these types of systems are more or less monitoring control-systems built from the perspective of decision-makers and managers, not from that of participatory citizens. thus, we can conclude that ci is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the shaping of smart cities. it has to be embedded in expanded urban planning, which then might lead to the creation of sustainable and liveable smart cities. the role of ci in this case study was definitely that of an enabler and even a catalyst (see also saad-sulonen & horelli, 2010). so far there are, however, too few studies on the role of ci in the creation of smart cities and it is too early to predict its potential. nevertheless, the ease with which the future planners worked with ci to shape sustainable and liveable solutions for smart cities are encouraging signs. this article can be regarded as an alternative narrative seeking to contribute to the discussion about the nature and type of smart cities that young women and men from different backgrounds, cultures and continents desire. the narrative has moved beyond the mere contrast to corporate stories (söderström et al., 2014, 318), but the challenge remains, how to transcend what might be perceived as anecdotal small-scale actions. however, there is increasing evidence that local, bottom-up self-organization, supported by ci, can have systemic power. michael gurstein (2014) has also tinkered with a promising community informatics model that emphasizes smart communities rather than smart cities. these examples might impact the quality of life and urban space with transformative consequences also for urban planning (pulkkinen 2014, horelli et al. forthcoming). we just need many more alternative stories which eventually will make a difference. endnotes self-organization refers to active citizens and their endeavours in urban space, such as the building of a community yard, local web sites or producing a special event. it can also be understood as an emergent property of adaptive complex systems, something in which government does not predominate (boonstra & boelens, 2011). glocal is the result of glocalisation i.e. the interdependent processes shaping the local and the global, often enhanced by icts. local and global are not polarities but interdependent categories representing multilayered space. public or discursive sphere is, according to nancy fraser (2007), the arena or arenas in which citizens engage in deliberation of political affairs. manuel castells (1996, 428), in his extensive trilogy on the information society, reminds that even if the function and power of cities are organized in the space of flows, people still live in places. also mccrea & walters (2012) emphasize the importance of liveability for residents as an end in urban planning. urban liveability can be regarded as part of overall quality of life, comprising both objective and subjective dimensions in the context of the urban environment. these may then vary by social group, geographic scale and levels of domain specificity (ibid, 2012, 3). single loop learning asks: are we doing things right (adaptive learning)? 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(eds.)(2010). digital tools in participatory planning. espoo: aalto university, centre for urban and regional studies. series c27. http://lib.tkk.fi/reports/2010/isbn9789526032603.pdf appendix 1 table 1 smart city proposals for piacenza by students. ict-mediated adaptive capacity of environmental third sector in australia subas p. dhakal lecturer, school of management, curtin business school, curtin university, western australia. email: subas.dhakal@curtin.edu.au introduction with the united nations' proclamation (2011) that equates prohibiting people's access to the internet with the violation of universal human rights, the information and communication technologies (icts) agenda has truly become globally significant. in australia, faster internet connection became a national political priority in 2008, when the then newly elected labor government announced the australian broadband guarantee initiative focused on providing high speed services to 98% of australian homes and businesses (dhakal, 2010a). one of the likely reasons for this push at the time was the oecd (2007) ranking of australia: 23rd in broadband cost and 31st for download speed. notwithstanding the political debate over the mode of delivery (optical fibre, fixed wireless or satellite) and the ballooning cost of an ongoing national broadband network (nbn) rollout (johnson, 2011; beltrán, 2013), australia has now entered into a hyper-digital era (ibis world 2012, p.2). the most recent data available from the australian bureau of statistics [abs] (2011) supports this view, as almost three quarters (73%) of all households in the country already have access to broadband. as the role of icts in enabling civil society and improving planning outcomes has been increasingly recognised in australia and beyond (foth & adkinson, 2006; gordon & manosevitch, 2010; schroeter 2012; fredricks & foth, 2013) this field note draws on the state of ict uptake amongst environmental third sector organisations (etsos) in perth, western australia (wa). identifying as charities in australia, etsos are not-for-profit entities that are part of a broader civil society (dhakal, 2010b). based on the description of environmental charities by the australian taxation office (2000, p. 49), formal or informal organisations that operate locally to care for the environment and engage in local environmental planning are referred to as etsos for the purpose of this field note. since the early 1990s these organisations have participated in on-the-ground activities ranging from formulating the management plans for nature reserves to restoring degraded eco-systems through various environmental strategies (dhakal, 2012). because of the ongoing contributions of etsos in environmental planning and implementing strategies there is an urgent need to secure the future of these organisations across australia (simpson & clifton, 2010; tennent & lockie, 2013). however, although the role of etsos has been a subject of interest within policy and planning studies (alexander, 1998; moriarty 2002; thomson & maggin, 2010) etsos have generally been overlooked by ict-oriented practice such as 'community informatics' (dhakal 2010a, p. 214) which is described by gurstein (2000, p.2) as 'an approach concerned with enhancing civil society and strengthening local communities for self-management and for environmental and economically sustainable development, ensuring that many who might otherwise be excluded are able to take advantage of the enormous opportunities the new technologies are presenting'. this field note responds to this gap and aims to analyse the differences in adaptive capacity between ict adopter and non-adopter etsos in perth, wa. it begins by briefly introducing the nexus between etsos and icts. following this, a framework for exploring the ict-mediated adaptive capacity of etsos is presented. drawing on a study carried out between 2008 and 2010, the ict-mediated adaptive capacity of etsos in perth is then assessed. the field note ends with the recommendation that existing environmental strategies that rely on etsos need to institutionalise ict-specific support for these organisations. icts and etsos icts have been playing an instrumental role in enabling aspirations of civil society including various forms of community organising that shape socio-environmental outcomes, ranging from political transformation to local environmental planning across the globe (hawken, 2007; dhakal, 2008; dunn, 2011; ritter & trechsel, 2011). consequently, there is a growing emphasis on ict-mediated policy and planning engagement at the community level (dhakal, 2011; dhakal et al., 2013; fredricks & foth, 2013) e.g. community informatics initiatives. the core intention of the practice of community informatics is significant in the hyper-digital era for two reasons. first, ict priorities need to be inclusive and geared towards enabling diverse actors within the third sector that are often outside, deliberately or otherwise, the formal planning processes. second, both inequitable access to icts and the inability to benefit from them the digital divide needs to be addressed if icts are to strengthen smaller third sector organisations. attempts to enable australia's third sector through the access and uptake of icts date back to the 1990s and etsos were the first third sector organisations to experiment with their uptake (dhakal, 2011). the national landcare program, a landmark environmental strategy of the late 1990s, and the university of melbourne jointly experimented with 'landcarenet' in the early 1990s (hawkins et al., 1992). this networking project was instigated when the need for better communication channels was realised amongst etsos in order to coordinate environmental activities. however, the lack of funds as well as skills within etsos led to the demise of landcarenet (curnow, 1996). the department of environment, sports and territories (dest) initiated the development of an e-network called 'coastnet' in the mid-1990s. coastnet aimed to enable etsos to exchange information and share expertise with other organisations involved in environmental planning and management of coastal areas (dhakal, 2011). while the network eventually provided a number of separate online discussion forums related to environmental issues (local environs, 1998) it never really took-off because of obstacles such as cost, time and the workload involved in accessing online services during that era (minter, 1995). the difficulties etsos had with landcarenet and coastnet did not necessarily come as a surprise. a survey of 209 community organisations conducted by the australian council of social service (acoss) in 1996 found that most of the organisations surveyed were not in a position to take advantage of the benefits of ict due to a lack of access and poor skills (acoss, 1996). the 2002 centre for community networking research (ccnr) survey on ict adoption amongst 923 community organisations revealed that nearly 90% of etsos had access to the internet and around 61% of organisations were hosting websites (denison, 2003). the ccnr findings indicated a significant positive change when compared to the findings of the 1996 acoss survey, in which only 38% of organisations reported having access to the internet with 14% hosting websites. the most recent community sector report (acoss, 2013) no longer captures the trend of access to the internet and instead largely focuses on the uptake of social media. the report states that 'the high levels of need reported for information technology support and assistance with marketing and communications, use of social media and online campaigning reflects the sector's increasing use of the internet and social media as fundraising, communications and campaigning tools' (acoss, 2013, p. 46). nevertheless, what other contemporary reports reveal is that smaller third sector organisations in australia are still vulnerable because they are struggling to access and effectively utilise available ict opportunities (the nous group, 2010; notara, 2011). adaptive capacity framework and data collection the central aim of this field note is to analyse the differences in adaptive capacity between ict adopter and non-adopter etsos in perth, wa. although different disciplines differ in terms of identifying what constitutes adaptive capacity, common to most is the idea of the capacity of a system to overcome vulnerability (folke, 2006; strichman et al,. 2008; dhakal, 2013). according to florin et al. (1992), the systems approach views the organisation as a system with incoming inputs and outgoing outputs. inputs refer to the resources that organisations acquire and outputs refer to the products, which in the case of etsos are the benefits associated with environmental outcomes resulting from the utilisation of acquired resources. adaptive capacity therefore relates to the system's ability to overcome resource scarcities with minimal disruption by coping with changing organisational circumstances (staber & sydow, 2002; mcmanus, 2008). on the one hand, organisations can be vulnerable when the inputs of financial resources are disrupted through government budget cuts or as a result of other reasons. on the other hand, organisations can overcome vulnerability by influencing the flow of volunteers in order to accomplish organisational goals during financial hardship. however, it is the positive outlook that has been identified as a valuable resource for the viability of organisations and has been linked with an improved adaptive capacity (colussi, 2000; hegney et al., 2008; molyneaux et al., 2012). it is in this context that this field note proposes a framework in which icts play a central role in building the adaptive capacity of etsos (figure 1). since community informatics is not about techno-centric solutions to societal problems (mciver, 2002; gurstein, 2007) by putting the needs of etsos at the centre, the framework repudiates technological deterministic stances on ict. figure 1: a framework for assessing the ict-mediated adaptive capacity of etsos the field note makes use of an exploratory research approach to answer the central question. firstly, an exploratory approach is particularly useful in order to clarify emergent issues. bhattacherjee (2012) suggests that: 'exploratory studies are often conducted in new areas of inquiry, where the goals of the research are to scope out the magnitude or extent of a particular trend, challenge, or norm; to generate some preliminary ideas or "hunches" about that phenomenon; or to test the feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study' (p. 6). while the outcomes of exploratory studies may not always influence policy and planning immediately they do have the potential to provide significant insights into future interventions. secondly, the field note draws on quantitative and qualitative data of a phd research study strengthening environmental stewardship in perth, western australia: an investigation of linkages between organisational social capital and information and communication technologies in environmental community organisations (dhakal, 2010a). the research relied on a survey of 81 etsos, 14 interviews with leaders, and the content analysis of their organisational online presence carried out between 2008 and 2010. in addition, this field note incorporates post-phd consultations with the leaders for an up-to-date assessment of the state of ict uptake. for the purpose of analysis, self-reported responses on the likelihood of the organisation to keep going recorded on a likert scale unlikely (1), unsure (2), or likely (3) are used as indicators of a positive outlook (po). in addition, the self-reported number of funding sources (fu) and affiliated volunteers (vo) are used as indicators of organisational capacity to acquire financial and human resources. in order to protect the privacy of the respondents and organisations findings are presented using respondent designations and organisational ids without specifically naming the leaders or the organisations. findings the average age of responding etsos was 14.2 years. nearly two-thirds (65%) of responding leaders were female and the majority (84%) were aged between 41 and 70 years of age. a total of 2,907 volunteers were affiliated with the 81 responding organisations. on average etsos had 37.1 (median 15) volunteers. the survey responses indicated that governmental support (local, state and federal), private sector grants, and membership fees and donations were the main sources of funding. the average number of funding sources stood at 2.44 (median of 3) per organisation. the majority (70%) indicated they were 'likely' to keep going until their organisational objectives were fulfilled. the state of ict uptake firstly, the majority of organisations (88%) had internet access and used email. this finding is nevertheless discouraging when compared to the findings of denison (2003) which indicated nearly 90% of community organisations had access to the internet nearly a decade earlier. while the lack of email usage amongst 12% of etsos is clearly an indicator of the digital divide, there are other multifaceted causes as to why some of these organisations do not use email. the comments of leaders provide some insights. for instance, etso #36's coordinator indicated that most of the interactions happen face-to-face and there was no need to use email despite having a computer for word processing. similarly, etso #59's president concisely commented that: a) older/senior volunteers affiliated with the organisation don't use email/websites, b) it is necessary to try to reduce the number of emails and the length of e-mails otherwise it just becomes 'noise', and c) excessive adoption of icts can overload volunteers who are involved in multiple causes. in addition, etso #38's coordinator commented on the reluctance of volunteers to trust email because of a concern about being forwarded unwanted emails. these accounts suggest that issues such as need, age, information overload ('noise'), and trust could be responsible for resistance towards ict adoption in some etsos. this might be due to the lack of perceived or demonstrated benefits associated with ict use in an organisational context. secondly, less than one-tenth (7%) of organisations posted blogs and nearly 14% used social media. a recent community sector report (acoss, 2013) notes that 24% of community organisations did not use any form of social media and only 4% posted blogs. while the rate of blogging by etsos is slightly higher than the national trend, social media use is clearly well below the average. nonetheless, some leaders have clearly realised the value of social media. for instance, etso #58's convenor indicated that most of the volunteers were over the age of 65 and do not use social media. the organisation only recently began to use social media in order to inform younger, ict-savvy community members. whereas etso #66's secretary (who was clearly concerned about being 'liked' or 'tagged' in the photos) felt that blogs were a better option for smaller etso like hers because it is much easier to upload and manage the content when compared to websites. these findings are consistent with the observations of merkel et al. (2007) that the complex and evolving nature of icts can be barriers for organisations that are not necessarily tech-savvy. thirdly, more than one-third (41%) of etsos had websites. this is not particularly encouraging when compared to the 2002 ccnr survey which indicated over 61% of community organisations across australia were already hosting websites (denison, 2003). qualitative observations in part help explain the under-utilisation of websites by etsos. for example, etso #80's executive director remarked that the organisation had been able to establish a web/email presence only through sponsorship and grant support and that ongoing maintenance/technical support is quite expensive and is an issue for the organisation. similarly, a volunteer responsible for designing and maintaining etso #58's website commented: 'as this site is geared towards promoting habitat conservation, some basic information with a proactive stance should infuse the content, or document events, or invite people to join. the goal all along has been to bring information to life within the site but getting contributions to build the content has been difficult.' in addition, a 'wetlands officer' of etso #64 stated that the constant need to update the website as well as cater to email requests generated a bigger workload for an organisation run primarily by unpaid volunteers. while dutton (1999) argued that putting information on websites will ultimately save time required to organise collective action, the case of etso #64 suggests: a) counterproductive effects of ict or the 'rebound effect' (hilty et al., 2006, p. 19), and b) the lack of a demonstrated increase in productivity despite investment in icts or the 'productivity paradox' (macdonald, 2002, p.1). furthermore, interviews with leaders of etso #58 and #66 (both female and over 70) indicated that their organisations' websites were designed by kin of affiliated members/volunteers. however, the websites are not updated regularly because of the lack of necessary skills to do so. these results are consistent with the observations of age and gender divide in australia; that is, female senior citizens are particularly vulnerable to being left out of the rapidly evolving social media landscape (dhakal, 2010b; palmer, 2011) and perhaps demonstrate the utility of action research-based medium to long-term ict-related capacity building instead of shorter-term financial assistance. ict-mediated adaptive capacity in order to explore the ict-mediated adaptive capacity of etsos the survey data was used to construct two-by-two cross-tabulations (table 1) between websites (yes and no)/social media (yes and no) and a dichotomised count of volunteers (up to 15 and 16 or more)/funding sources (up to 3 and 4 or more), and positive outlook (likely to keep going or otherwise). table 1: significance of websites and social media the dichotomy of volunteers and funding sources was based on the median number as reported earlier. in tables such as this the percentages across the columns help to interpret the association between two categories because they provide an estimate of effect (peat et al., 2008). the cross-tabulation revealed several significant differences between ict adopters and non-adopters. a significantly greater percentage of etsos that have websites and use social media have more volunteers and funding sources, and are optimistic. although it is necessary to be cautious of a causal link between icts and adaptive capacity, these findings do have plausible explanations. firstly, it can be speculated that organisations with a positive outlook are more interested in exploiting the potential benefits associated with icts than those with a negative outlook. secondly, the link between ict adoption and the higher number of human and financial resources suggests that some etsos are using icts as an additional avenue to acquire volunteers and seek additional funding opportunities. conversely, it might also be the case that the uptake of icts has benefited etsos that are already adaptive to a certain extent, rather than serving the needs of organisations that are vulnerable. these statistical findings, however, do not suggest that the etsos that are non-adopters are inferior to those of adopters; instead organisations that have adopted icts might simply have additional means with which they can overcome resource scarcities. this interpretation is consistent with the 'networked society' stance (castells, 2000) which associates the lack of ict utilisation with missed opportunities (floridi, 2001; hacker et al., 2009). conclusion the aim of this field note was to examine the differences in adaptive capacity between ict adopter and non-adopter etsos in perth, wa. the findings indicate that the majority of organisations are either overlooking or under-exploiting the potential of icts. while it is generally accepted that etsos often operate in a turbulent environment (mcdonald & warburton, 2003), the role etsos play in environmental planning and implementation in perth will remain vital for the foreseeable future. etsos can build or damage adaptive capacity in multiple ways and this short field note does not aim to underestimate the complexities of vulnerability by equating it with the lack of ict uptake. in the case of etsos in perth, however, the uptake of icts stands out as a distinctive factor associated with enhanced adaptive capacity. this finding resonates with the observation that icts have become an essential ingredient of successful environmentally-oriented civil society actors that often have to 'do more with less' (kutner, 2000; horton, 2004; neto, 2008; dhakal, 2009). on the flip side, these organisations were willingly or unwillingly and/or overlooking or under-exploiting the potential of icts in general. this observation is consistent with the low utilisation of icts amongst etsos elsewhere in australia (johanson et al., 2013). since etsos with a higher uptake of icts were in a better position to foster adaptive capacity, efforts to strengthen these organisations may benefit from action research-oriented community informatics intervention. mainly because, although the uptake of icts is an insufficient but necessary ingredient of adaptive etsos, the community informatics approach as an inclusive approach can engage relevant stakeholders ranging from local educational institutions and internet service providers to environmental planning agencies and peak not-for-profit bodies in order to institutionalise ict-specific capacity building support. notwithstanding the limitations of icts for smaller civil society organisations (stewart-weeks & barraket, 2002), existing environmental strategies that rely on etsos should support ways to exploit the potential of icts as a driver of equal opportunities and equity relative to the larger civil society organisations. with more than 5,000 etsos across australia (dhakal, 2011), future studies might usefully build on the current analysis and longitudinally investigate the ict-mediated adaptive capacity of etsos in perth and beyond. references abs (2011). nearly three-quarters of australian households now have broadband. canberra: australian bureau of statistics (abs) retrieved october 15, 2013 from http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbycatalogue/180ccddcb50afa02ca257522001a3f4b?opendocument acoss (1996). acoss electronic communication and the community sector final report. paper no. 81. sydney: australian council of social service (acoss). acoss (2013). australian community sector survey 2013 national report. paper no. 202. sydney: australian council of social service (acoss). alexander, i. 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(eds.) planning australia: an overview of urban and regional planning (pp 17-33). melbourne: cambridge university press. united nations (2011). report of the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. geneva: office of the united nations high commissioner for human rights (ohchr). retrieved november 15, 2013 fromhttp://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/17session/a.hrc.17.27_en.pdf microsoft word copyedited article text-personcentredanonv1.docx the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 1 articles relational and person-centered approaches to archival practice and education anna sexton, university college london, a.sexton@ucl.ac.uk elizabeth shepherd, university college london, e.shepherd@ucl.ac.uk wendy duff, university of toronto, wendy.duff@utoronto.ca the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 2 relational and person-centered approaches to archival practice and education abstract in 2013 terry cook identified four paradigms that have shaped archival theory and praxis over the last 150 years: evidence, cultural memory, societal engagement, and identity and community. more recently, jennifer douglas, mya ballin, and sadaf ahmadbeigi (2021) identified a fifth emerging paradigm, person-centred archival theory and praxis. person-centred approaches to archival science shifts the discussion from a focus on records to a focus on “the people that create, keep, use and/or are represented in records.” a person-centred archival approach can also be traced to calls to better understand and consider the needs of archival users (rhee 2015, duff 2002) and applications of trauma-informed approaches to recordkeeping which focus on the needs of archivists, recordkeepers and creators and users of archives (laurent & hart 2021). this paper argues that a person-centred approach to archival theory and practice must acknowledge the deep emotional impact of working with records and the people whose lives are captured in records and who create and use archives. this leads us to the concept of the ‘traumatic potentiality’ of records, the heart of the original contribution of this paper, and to considering how to embed such potentiality in a trauma-informed approach to archival education. keywords: archival education; person-centred recordkeeping; affect; emotion; relational models; traumatic potentiality. introduction in 2013 terry cook identified four paradigms that have shaped archival theory and praxis over the last 150 years: evidence, cultural memory, societal engagement, and identity and community. more recently, douglas, ballin, and ahmadbeigi (2021) identified a fifth emerging paradigm, person-centred archival theory and praxis. person-centred approaches to archival science shifts the discussion from a focus on records to a focus on “the people that create, keep, use and/or are represented in records.” as douglas, ballin, and lapp (2022) acknowledge, “person-centred approaches are evident in and across recent archival scholarship, especially scholarship related to personal and community archives and in scholarship that draws on indigenous, queer, feminist, anti-racist, antiand de-colonial, and disability studies” (p. 7). person-centred archival practice foregrounds the “perspectives of individuals and communities, especially those that have historically been harmed by archival work” (p. 11). a person-centred archival approach can also be traced to calls to better understand and consider the needs of archival users (rhee 2015, duff 2002) and applications of trauma-informed approaches to archival practice which focus on the needs of archivists, recordkeepers and creators and users of archives (laurent & hart 2021). it is not our intention in this paper to examine whether or not person-centred approaches the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 3 represent a fifth emerging paradigm, but rather to analyse what person-centred approaches might comprise or how they might be better understood. this paper argues that a person-centred approach to archival theory and praxis must acknowledge the deep emotional impact of working with records, recordkeeping and the people who create and use archives. historically, recordkeepers were viewed as neutral observers who were not personally invested in or emotionally affected by their work with records. archival education has traditionally focused on developing approaches to the processing of records and not on the personal investment of the archivist. the paper responds to caswell’s (2020) call to “take emotions seriously in tandem with an analysis of power, to acknowledge them as valid bases for knowing, as valid bases for archival theory and practice, and most importantly, to address emotions in relation not just to our own personal lives but also to dominant oppressive power structures.” this paper asserts that working with records, users and donors evokes emotional responses both negative and positive, which the records profession must acknowledge, understand and address. in seeking to address these challenges, the paper draws together existing literature mainly from archival science and presents it to the community informatics audience in order to share ideas and emerging understandings. the first section of the paper considers some recent literature, mainly from archival science, which addresses the role of affect and emotion in archives and brings in literature on relational models which study the value of trusted relationships in different settings, using the literature to establish some frameworks for the topic. the second section reports on collaborative research undertaken by two of the authors at ucl (university college london) into the information rights and needs of care leavers, that is adults who were in out-ofhome care as children (the mirra project). it draws on the existing published findings from mirra to consider how new research areas can extend archival understandings and practices in the context of person-centred participatory research. the final section brings in literature from trauma studies to present a new conception of the “traumatic potentiality” of records. this is the heart of the original contribution of this paper which we believe advances the conversation in the field and enables new understanding of person-centred recordkeeping. the final section then turns to how recordkeepers need to be prepared and supported to work with traumatic and affective records and considers how archivists can be educated to be “trauma-informed” in their practices. we believe that embedding the concept of the “traumatic potentiality” of records in a trauma-informed approach to archival theory and praxis requires deeply ethical engagement with individuals, for, about and with whom records are created and asks us each to fulfil our recordkeeping obligations to wider societies, past, present and future. affect and emotion two key areas emerge from the existing archival literature which frame our discussion of personcentered approaches to archival practice and education: affect and emotion, and relational models. the role of affect in archives has gained significant traction in recent years. cifor and gilliland (2016) foregrounded the important link between social justice and the affective impact of archives in a special issue of archival science. since that time affect theory has framed studies the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 4 on radical empathy, ethics of care, grief work, and the emotional impact of archival work. discussions of the affective turn in archives appear in conference papers since at least 2014 including at the archival education and research initiative (aeri, 2022) annual symposium. recent research has shed light on various dimensions and the importance of archival affect. for example, douglas (2019, 2021) built on work from grief studies to propose that the recordkeeping praxis of bereaved parents was a type of grief work and an act of love. brilmyer’s (2022) study of disabled people’s archival experiences revealed a new affective dimension of using archives, anticipation. brilmyer explained “anticipation…helped some participants prepare for encountering harmful representation as well as possible trauma” (p.183). the archival profession requires more research to gain a better understanding of the important role that archival affect plays in our work. the last decade has also seen a growing acknowledgement that emotions are an important factor in the use of archives for social justice. this literature includes calls for us to acknowledge the emotional dimensions of archives (gilliland, 2014), work aimed at building a global community of practice to support archivists who work with difficult records (laurent and hart, 2021), and research that investigated the emotional impact of archival work (sloan et al, 2019; regehr et al., 2022). australian archivists have led the way in developing resources to support archivists emotionally impacted by their work. laurent and hart (2018) appealed for a community of care to support archivists experiencing vicarious trauma. more recently laurent and hart (2021) urged archivists to develop a global community of practice involving “academics, practitioners and other interested parties, to share resources, skills, learnings and ideas to improve the implementation of trauma-informed approaches and ensure everyone is supported while doing this often difficult and challenging work” (p. 27). the australian society of archivists developed the first online course to prepare archivists who may be emotionally impacted by their work (laurent & wright, 2020). in 2021, wright and laurent also proposed a framework of trauma-informed practice based on the principles of safety, trust and transparency, choice, collaboration, and empowerment. the work included detailed advice for changing archival practices that, if implemented, may reduce the risk of emotional harm. while australian archivists have promoted trauma-informed practice, canadian archival scholars have conducted some of the few empirical studies on this topic. sloan, vanderfluit and douglas (2019) conducted a survey of canadian records professionals to understand the impact of working with “traumatic records.” based on data from 155 respondents, the study identified five themes: 1) the challenge of defining a “traumatic record”; 2) the challenges associated with helping users and donors; 3) the impact of organizational and professional cultures; 4) the role of archival education and archival associations in preparing archivists to work with difficult material; and 5) the empathic effects of working with traumatic records. aton, duff and shields (under review) also surveyed archivists to reveal how record professionals were emotionally (positively and negatively) impacted by the work of acquiring, arranging, describing, and preserving records. the 330 respondents identified both positive and negative impacts of their work. approximately one third of respondents indicated their institutions failed to care about their employees’ emotional well-being; many respondents also highlighted a need for different education to prepare them for working in an archive. furthermore, the study concluded that some archivists were motivated to fight for social justice as a result of their work experiences. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 5 more recently a study by regehr, regehr, birze and duff (accepted for publication) investigated issues surrounding access to the video evidence presented at the trial of paul barnado (a serial killer who recorded his crimes on a camcorder, his trial was one of the first criminal cases to use video recording as evidence). building on the work of caswell (2014), regehr et al. recommended that archivists employ a survivor-centred approach when archiving video records of violent crime. the authors also drew on the principles of the trauma-informed model proposed by the us substance abuse and mental health services administration including acknowledging the widespread impact that trauma has on individuals, families, and communities; identifying indications of trauma in people; “integrating trauma knowledge into policies, programs and practices; and avoiding re-traumatization.” regehr et al. concluded that a survivorcentred approach should include “providing an environment that promotes physical and emotional safety; creating an organizational climate that involves a shared purpose and openness to learning and change; respecting, collaborating with and empowering service users as decisionmakers; and providing peer support for staff.” relational models over the last decade, researchers have studied the value of strong, trusting relationships in numerous settings including business (pérezts et al., 2020; bartels & turnbull, 2020), childcare homes (munford, 2022) and institutions of learning (aspelin, 2014; hinsdale, 2016; gravett et al., 2021). research indicated that strong caring relationships are correlated with better outcomes in various situations. archival science has long heralded the importance of preserving the relationships among records and between records and record creators, donors and subjects of records, but the value of relationships among archivists and archival researchers has received scant attention. more recently scholars working with indigenous communities, however, have recommended that archivists focus their efforts on building supportive trusting relationships with communities. for example, christen and anderson (2019) proposed a “slow archive” model, which asked archivist “to undo, redo, and build again structures that embody meaningful and mutual obligations to see, hear, and enact different ways of knowing, being, and relating through multiple temporal sovereignties” (p. 107). they called for “undoing limitations on research time, updating reading room and special collections policies around the handling of materials, and inviting relationships to be a part of archival practice and sustainability models” (p. 113). mccracken and hogan (2021) also invited the archival profession to focus on relationships and to build meaningful and ongoing relationships with indigenous communities. only through these relationships, they wrote, “can [archivists] begin to understand how to build safer, more accessible archives that welcome and support indigenous visitors, even to the spaces that have and continue to be extensions of the colonial institutions that marginalize indigenous peoples” (p. 108). more recently, duff, et al. (accepted) proposed that archives adopt a relationship-based access framework to support users, especially researchers studying difficult histories. based on findings from interviews with 16 archivists and an analysis of the literature on archival reference, ethics of care, emotions and archival work, relational pedagogy, and slow archives, the authors the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 6 urged archivists to adopt a new archival ecosystem and a multi-faceted relationship-based access framework. they defined relationship-based access as a multi-dimensional framework grounded on a temporal model of slow archives and the theoretical construct of an ethics of care. this framework draws on relational pedagogy research, adopting the five tenets of relational pedagogy as discussed by hinsdale (2016) and the reconceptualization of relational pedagogy proposed by gravett, taylor, and fairchild (2022). a relationship-based access framework encompasses the interactions among archivists and researchers but also acknowledges that “human relationships are entangled within the spaces, places, contexts, and environments” (gravett et al., 2022). it posits that the archival physical infrastructure, the finding aid system, the institution’s rules, processes, policies and procedures, and the institution’s support systems, as well as power, trust, communities and personal contexts of archivists and researchers, impact relationships among archivists and researchers and the use of and access to the archives. the mirra project two of the present authors were researchers on a collaborative participatory research project at ucl which brought together care leavers, academics, social workers and information professionals to explore information rights in the context of child social care in england. mirra (memory, identity, rights in records, access) is a uk arts and humanities research council funded project, co-produced with a third sector partner, the care leavers’ association. we draw here on the existing published findings from mirra to consider how new research areas such as this one can extend archival understandings and practices for person-centred recordkeeping. the terms “care leavers” and “care experienced people” refer to adults who were in out-of-home care as children and young people, such as in local authority care, children’s homes or children’s charity care. the mirra research project findings focused particularly on the perspective of careexperienced people who sought access to records about their childhood later in life. the findings evidenced strong support for a fundamental shift towards participatory recordkeeping approaches in child social care settings to explore more human-centred, relational and participatory approaches to recordkeeping (published in hoyle et al., 2020; shepherd et al., 2020; lomas et al., 2022). in family settings stories, photographs and memory objects document significant events, celebrations and milestones and support narratives of identity and belonging, affect and emotion. records and archives give families and individuals access to shared histories and relational values. but for some people, such as children and young people in out-of-home care, these are missing. research into the information and emotional needs of care leavers in england builds on multi-disciplinary work undertaken in other national settings, particularly in the context of supporting the information rights of marginalised communities (evans et al., 2015) and attentive to the ways in which records are created, managed, activated and theorised by multiple agents through time (mckemmish, 2001; reed et al., 2018). projects such as the rights in records by design project in australia build on longstanding archival research to address how to re-imagine recordkeeping systems better to support “accountable child-centred out-of-home care” and enable “historical justice and reconciliation” (evans et al., 2018). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 7 affect and emotion looked after children often lack access to family narratives, especially where their experience has been complex, disrupted or traumatic. they may be unable to fill gaps in their memories or answer simple questions about their early lives. this discoherence can lead to feelings of anger, frustration and guilt, and may have negative impacts on their sense of worth and belonging. care leavers may have very few photographs, keepsakes or memory objects from childhood. yet they are extensively scrutinised and documented in detailed care files, a compilation of observations, reports, assessments and plans that has no equivalent in family life. if they request access to their official record they are confronted with the product of a bureaucratised system that has methodically analysed their experiences and actions. as australian care leavers jacqueline wilson and frank golding (2016) have observed, the “scrutiny” of this “official gaze” may be experienced as a dehumanising form of surveillance. most of these records are now “born digital,” created as part of digital recordkeeping systems for social care. however, the records are designed around the needs of the “corporate parent,” with a focus on risk management and mandatory reporting to regulators. many services contribute reports, assessments and opinions to the care file, including foster carers, social workers, schools, the police, health and mental health services. the files are not, however, designed to support the affective and emotional value of the records to the children themselves. mirra research found that a lack of chronology, certainty and narrative compounds the trauma that children faced before they came into care and, in response, developed a journalling app that could enable young people to collaborate in the creation and content of records while they are in care (shepherd et al., 2021). the uk independent review of children's social care, “the case for change” (macalister, 2021) also found that care experience carries stigma, can weaken identity and that “accessing care files … can play a role in the lifelong memory and identity needs of care-experienced people” (p. 71). mirra identified a range of preservation and access challenges associated with child social care recording systems. organisational records contain looked after children’s personal histories, but many care leavers find their files are missing or heavily redacted. young people often do not know what has been written in their care file. most critically, however, the voices, experiences and feelings of the children in care are rarely heard or recorded. in these ways, social care recordkeeping reflects their broader experience of powerlessness and lack of selfdetermination over their own lives, an inequality which may have long term impacts as they deal with questions of personal history, identity and belonging. the lack of voice is one of the most powerful symbols of the information inequality experienced by care leavers. as john-george, one of the mirra care experienced co-researchers, said: one of the most profound things for me about the file, and it screams the loudest, is my lack of voice. and i just appear, my scrawled out writing, on like page 52. my voice is totally stolen and words are put in your mouth, saying this is how you feel about certain occasions and certain people, and at times there’s conflict with what i believe. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 8 john-george also said: i feel like the file is built around the immediate, keep them safe…. all the legal stuff around care, but there’s a duty of care for our soul as well. it’s not just the duty of care for our wellbeing, as in keep them in school, keep them healthy. this is a long game – life so there’s that duty of care to think about. another of the mirra care experienced contributors, susan, on finally seeing her care records, expressed why these files matter so much to her. i read them and i was crying to myself…. i can’t possibly explain or say how important those records were … for anybody who’s in care, … it’s equally important to have them… you see, to them it’s just paper, words on paper, but to the person who’s reading it, who it’s about, it’s everything. it’s their life. this testimony shows how powerful the affective value of care records is for the people whose childhoods are captured there. as the mirra research demonstrated, records are a vital emotional resource, most especially to the care experienced person themselves in understanding their own life. relational models mirra found that seeking access to records is both emotionally and practically challenging, highlighting recordkeeping issues of relational power, informational inequalities and unequal ownership (shepherd et al., 2020). in the absence of family records, care leavers turn to the records created about them by social workers and care providers to reconstruct personal histories. care leavers in england must use the generic ‘subject access request’ process under the uk data protection act 2018 to access their files. they need to identify the organisations who might hold their records, which can include several different local authorities and charities if they were moved between instances of care, before navigating bureaucratic processes that are explained in exclusionary language, using specialist legal terms, in order to make the access request. care leavers are offered little practical guidance about how to access their records. they are not usually offered the emotional support they may need. to help fill this gap, mirra coproduced resources for social workers (including the british association of social workers (2020) top tips on recording) and publicly available guidance for care experienced people on how to find and access their care file. a free web resource, familyconnect, based on mirra research findings has been produced by family action (2022). familyconnect helps adults who have been adopted or in care to find answers to questions about their origins and understand more about why they were separated from their birth family, as well as to understand their legal rights when accessing their birth and care records and how to go about searching for records. these resources bring together an interconnected web of support for care leavers. in another part of the relational landscape surrounding care leavers and care records, records and information professionals also need better support since they face challenges in processing access requests (shepherd et al., 2020). information practitioners are often illthe journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 9 equipped to provide the emotional support that care experienced people need, both in order to understand the context of their care and to process the emotional impact of revisiting what may be difficult or traumatic events. one information professional, lynne, said there should be “a counselling service, or some support service within the council to be able to give the care leavers some support.” she also felt she lacked time, saying “i always think we want more time to give more consideration to the records, because sometimes you do feel like you’re rushing through it and maybe sometimes you can’t give it [redaction] the attention it deserves.” most significantly, information professionals lack specific and adequate training in what care leavers need. mirra research reframes child social care recording as “a caring and loving activity rather than bureaucratic necessity” (shepherd et al., 2020). such an approach rebalances information ownership and recognises more fully the child as information owner. however, recordkeepers need training, education and guidance in order to fully appreciate and perform their relational role towards care leavers and their records. education for recordkeepers in dealing with traumainformed records, which include records of organisational care, is addressed in the next section. mirra also developed a set of principles for caring recordkeeping in child social care (lomas et al., 2022). in developing the framework, a new approach to child social care recordkeeping was conceptualised, which combined existing participatory continuum models with a capabilities approach to social work, setting care records into a relational model (rolan, 2017). the first principle is that: care-experienced people should be able to participate in every stage of child social care recordkeeping, if they choose; including the creation of records while they’re in care, the management of records during the period of retention, and the provision of access to records at any stage of life. lomas et al. (2022) argue that the context of care-experienced people “provides a powerful focus for shifting viewpoints of records creation and ownership.” children in care are situated within organizational systems which act as surrogate corporate parents. these systems are complex networks of relationships and embrace sometimes conflicting needs of diverse actors including social workers, information and records managers and researchers. mirra’s work asks us to rethink the relationships and responsibilities around the records and systems to build a framework which enables person-centred recordkeeping for child social care. participatory recordkeeping seeks to balance the needs of different stakeholders whilst also meeting key legislative and governance requirements. reconfiguring recording as a participatory and relational practice collapses boundaries of expertise. it empowers children, young people and care leavers to take control of their own stories. it requires that care providers accept that by creating and managing records they have a lifelong responsibility for people’s memories, identities and emotional responses. participatory research such as mirra enables us to develop deeper understanding of the affective nature of records, their value and meaning to those whose lives are captured in them and the urgent need for person-centred approaches to be developed as an essential step towards a more socially just society. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 10 archival education, trauma informed archives and the ‘traumatic potentiality’ of records how then should we educate, train, prepare and support recordkeepers for working with traumatic records? in this third section, we examine the “affective turn” that has occurred within archival studies over the last decade as a growing body of theory has coalesced around an articulation of the affective qualities of archives and records. this work is embedded in a broader landscape of critical archival theory development which has facilitated thinking in new ways about the power dynamics involved in recordkeeping as well as the impact records have on individuals and communities and how recordkeeping practice needs to shift in the light of these understandings. this leads us to introducing the concept of the ‘traumatic potentiality’ of records, the heart of the original contribution of this paper, and considering how to embed this in a trauma-informed approach to archival education. within the “affective turn” there has been an emerging discourse around how affective understandings of the record can guide recordkeepers towards an embrace of more empathetically grounded recordkeeping practice. notably caswell and cifor (2016/2021), building on decades of feminist scholarship, argue for a new ethical stance to archival work that seeks to address social justice concerns. drawing on feminist ethics, their theoretical model seeks a shift away from a legally driven framework for recordkeeping practice centred on individual rights, towards a model that is centred on radical empathy as expressed in a feminist ethics of care. they describe this “as a learned process of direct and deep connection between the self and another that emphasizes human commonality through “thinking and feeling into the minds of others” and the “obligations of care” that arise within the “web of mutual affective responsibilities” encircling the record. this focus demands a shift in the relationships “between archivists and records creators, between archivists and records subjects, between archivists and records users, and between archivists and larger communities” so that those most implicated in and by the record become the central focal point for guiding actions within the recordkeeping endeavour. the attitudinal and relational shifts bound up in a feminist ethics of care necessarily lead archivists to commit also to structural care that acknowledges and addresses the harms caused by oppressive systems by building liberatory structures. whilst advocating for radical empathy and a feminist ethics of care as a mindset to inform practice, caswell and cifor (2016) draw attention to the complexities within the approach, in particular the need to guard against eliding meaningful distinctions between bodies when seeking to make sense of another’s experience. this requires careful attention to power differentials and difference, and finding ways of maintaining the boundaries of embodiment when acknowledging that the experience belongs within someone else, an issue which is reflected in the mirra research findings. caswell and cifor (2016) also unpack what it means to talk of archivists as care givers with recognition of the dangers of reinforcing hierarchies in the care giver to care recipient stance, and the harmful consequences that arise from tropes around rescuer and victim, which ultimately uphold unequal power differentials. for those of us engaged in postgraduate education of archivists and recordkeepers, fundamental questions emerge around how to shift our teaching models in ways that effectively the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 11 embrace these new and emerging understandings of what archival work entails. the pedagogical question of how we transform the methods and practice of our teaching to enable our students to become more empathetically grounded, person-centered practitioners is brought into focus by a need to work through some of the conceptual, theoretical and practical complexities around person-centred approaches to archive and recordkeeping work. we seek to unpack some of these complexities here, by considering the recent rise in archival studies scholarship around trauma and secondary trauma and its impacts on archive workers, researchers, users and donors, which has emerged in tandem with calls for the profession, including those involved in educating, training and supporting the workforce, to develop trauma-informed approaches to archive and recordkeeping (laurent & hart, 2018/2021; laurent & wright, 2020). these studies have enriched the archival discipline by surfacing the links between records, trauma and secondary trauma and have demonstrated the lived reality for many archive and recordkeeping professionals who have been adversely impacted by the emotional, affective and traumatic demands of their work. however, the implications of adopting the language of trauma, coupled with an unpacking of the conceptual and theoretical worldviews, frames and positions that underpin archival understandings of trauma, is vital groundwork if we are to develop meaningful and inclusive methods for helping archive workers to become “trauma-informed.” we approach trauma conceptually to surface understandings of what trauma is in an archival context and the conditions in which it occurs. we introduce trauma-informed approaches emerging from survivor knowledge and lived experience of trauma and use these explorations as a springboard for beginning the necessary conceptual groundwork to place trauma-informed approaches to recordkeeping as a pre-requisite for considering how we educate recordkeepers. troubling the concept of trauma: the “traumatic potentiality” of records trauma is recognised to be the result of disturbing or distressing experience. trauma can occur from a singular traumatic event, or it can result from repeated and prolonged traumatic experience. it can be complex, that is related to exposure to varied and multiple traumatic events, often of an invasive, interpersonal nature. in some instances, records can act as representations of disturbing or distressing experiences: what we might call “traumatic records.” in thinking further about how we might define what traumatic records are, furner’s (2004) concept of ‘record potentiality’ is useful. furner wrote, “documents and other artifacts stored in archives are often considered as potential evidence (or potential sources of evidence) of events that occurred in the past. such artifacts are known as records in virtue of this potentiality.” he developed the concept in the context of talking about the relationship between the record and evidence, saying that records are not necessarily evidence in and of themselves, but are defined by the potentiality to act as evidence. in a similar vein, records that document traumatic experience also carry what we could call “traumatic potentiality” and that “potentiality” can be heightened or lessened depending on the individual’s relationship to the the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 12 experience being documented. trauma is, of course, an embodied experience and records therefore have the potential to trigger deep and painful psychological, emotional and physical responses in an encounter with them. on the surface, it may appear obvious to suggest which types of records are likely to trigger a traumatic encounter, such as records that are directly linked to acts of violence or abuse or harm. to extend our conception, we can also draw on sutherland’s (2019) scholarship around the concept of the “carceral archive” which describes how institutional and government archives function as instruments of state power, and how violence is perpetuated through processes of dehumanization and exclusion which are then codified, reinforced, reinscribed and reified in the documentary record. this leads to the idea that any record which documents the power of an individual or a group over another individual or group carries traumatic potential, not just a small subset of records. “traumatic potentiality” therefore exists in many of the records held in institutional archival spaces. the mirra research discussed above demonstrates from a care leaver perspective how trauma is inherent in the direct encounter with the record, but crucially that trauma can be reinforced, compounded and added to by having to navigate a legally and instrumentally-driven system around the record, rather than a human-centred one. this additional trauma is a consequence of the bureaucratic power that is baked into recordkeeping systems, processes, and institutions. therefore, recordkeeping systems, processes, and institutions also carry ‘traumatic potentiality’. the complicity and culpability of practitioners and others embedded in these systems and institutions in compounding trauma also needs to be foregrounded. we might envisage layers of traumatic potentiality: trauma through recordkeeping systems and processes such as selection, retention, description and access; trauma through the representation of personal experience in the record; and the links between traumatic experience and traumatic memory, which can be intergenerational. since we know that the records and the processes and structures that we impose on records and access to them can both document but also compound trauma, it is vital that we consider how to educate archivists to work in trauma-informed ways as a means of radically rethinking our recordkeeping practices. first, however, there are issues that need to be confronted and addressed around the complexities of adopting the language of trauma, and this requires some digging into the “archaeologies of knowledge” that we reflect.1 according to the oxford english dictionary (2022), the introduction of the noun ‘trauma’ to the english language can be traced to blankaart’s a physical dictionary of 1684 where the definition of trauma is “to indicate a wound from an external cause.” with its etymology rooted directly in the greek word “to wound,” trauma was first used in relation to physical bodily trauma, and indeed it is still used today as a medical term to describe serious physical injury occurring to the body, typically from wounding. the oxford english dictionary credits william james, a philosopher and psychologist, as first using the term in a psychological sense within the psychological review of 1894 to describe “shocks” that enter the “subliminal consciousness” to act, if unchecked, as “thorns in the spirit.” 1 an analytical method developed by foucault in l’archéologie du savoir, 1969, which requires us to re-examine our modes of knowledge. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 13 since then the notion of trauma has been taken up by western psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis and connected to the mind as part of descriptors for defining particular nervous conditions that are psychological responses to deeply disturbing or distressing experience. from within, the ‘psy’ disciplines, psychological trauma is commonly recognised as (pearlman & saakvitne, 1995): the unique individual experience of an event or enduring conditions in which the individual's ability to integrate his/her emotional experience is overwhelmed and the individual experiences (either objectively or subjectively) a threat to his/her life, bodily integrity, or that of a caregiver or family. strong associations are made within these fields between trauma and the concept of mental disorder. in the most recent edition of the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (dsm-5) (2022), the overarching category of “trauma and stressor related disorders” is used as a descriptor for conditions including post traumatic stress disorder and acute stress disorder. dsm-5 has a strict definition of trauma and related traumatic conditions with criterion for diagnosis requiring exposure to “actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence.” it therefore does not encompass or envisage other types of distressing and disturbing experience as contributing factors. dsm-5 foregrounds pathology, symptoms, diagnosis and medical treatment of disturbed bodies and minds. within the history of western psychiatric intervention, when human distress manifests as mental disturbance it has been controlled by psychiatry’s mastery of the operations of the mind and body. historically this involved manipulation, constraint and oppression of those suffering from mental disturbance from within coercive systems of control, including the mental asylum. often this coercive control masqueraded under the guise of care. threads of this history are still active in the present and can be seen in the power afforded to the dsm definition, which still pervades our everyday understandings of a variety of human experience, including embodied reactions to traumatic events. the power of this rhetoric and the consequences of that power must be opened up for critique. if traumatic experience is subjugated under a language that only seeks to articulate symptoms, which in turn is linked to a history containing elements of abuse of power and manipulative coercion over minds and bodies, then this framing of trauma must be problematized and contested. in exploring the applicability of an “ethics of care” as a guiding principle for creating digital colonial archives, agostinho (2019) draws attention to the ways in which notions of care are predicated on a vision of a “benevolent affective relationship.” agostinho draws on postcolonial critiques of power, and particularly the scholarship of murphy and mooten, to caution against an untroubled romanticizing of care as a concept capable of realising the aims of social justice, highlighting that the feel-good factor of caring acts cannot be uncoupled from the geopolitics, situational contexts, temporality and history that shape the relational dynamic underpinning notions of care giving and receiving. agostinho demonstrates a link between notions of care and the ‘non-innocent’ history of colonialism to suggest that “rather than conceiving care as an exclusively positive affect immune to power differentials” we must instead understand how the concept of care creates its own particular power dynamic, where the care giver is cast as the heart-giving selfless actor, and the recipient is subjugated as the passive inferior. agostinho’s the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 14 purpose in unsettling the concept of care and its use as a guiding principle for recordkeeping around colonial records, is not to foreclose the potential inherent in recordkeepers adopting a feminist ethic of care in reparative modes of recordkeeping practice, but instead to harness an understanding of the concept’s “entanglement with colonial and non-innocent histories to reorient an ethics of care more firmly towards the identification and contestation of colonial legacies that continue to produce harm and neglect (as well as privilege and rewards) in the present.” here, we seek a similar movement to that achieved by agostinho in relation to notions of trauma and care as defined within the psychiatric narrative, where “care” has similarly troubling associations with a non-innocent history where mental difference has been treated both historically and in the present through methods of coercion, constraint and control over the minds and bodies of those perceived to be mentally ill. this is not a foreclosing of the concept of trauma or care as frames for orientating recordkeeping practice, but an exploration of both the potential utility and limitations that these concepts have in guiding understandings and approaches to recordkeeping. it is a laying bare of the troubling entanglements, and what this means in relation to moving the recordkeeping field towards operating in more emotionally aware, person-centred and socially just ways. what may be helpful to our profession is to consider how survivor perspectives on trauma and those emanating from psychiatry and therapeutic settings coalesce and differ as a means of understanding the trajectories we want to develop: and it is that to which we turn now. relational models: from “traumatic potentiality” to “reparative potentiality” individuals that have lived through traumatic experience are often referred to as “survivors” and many, but by no means all, individuals with lived experience of trauma choose to self-identify using this term. terms of self-identification are always socially, culturally, politically, geographically and temporally located. this means that within specific communities, including peer-support collectives, it is possible to trace trajectories of self-identification as individuals come together to define themselves in order to act within the specificity of their particular time, place, circumstance and wider context. survivor generated knowledges of trauma place a higher value on experiential knowledge (such as the lived experience of care experienced adults) than other forms of knowledge circulating around trauma (i.e. secondary, expert, professional knowledges). writing from a survivor/mad studies perspective, filson (2016) defines trauma as always an external event, that is, no one traumatises themselves. it is also subjective and only the person can say what haunts them. it is pervasive, inhabiting every corner of one’s life. however, healing happens and the haunting can end. filson’s definition makes two important points. one is that although trauma is subjective and embodied it is the result of external events which are real, brutal and harmful, so that reality and exteriority should not be lost in the discourse of subjective response. the other is the janus-faced nature of trauma and healing. where we have “traumatic potentiality” at one end of the scale in relation to the record, we have “reparative potentiality” at the other, and an individual’s experience of the record can be both, perhaps moving between the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 15 those states over time. the process of working through the affect of the record, and the nature of its contents, is often a long and complex process. in filson’s words “trauma matters. it shapes us. it happens all around us. it destroys some of us, and it is overcome by many of us. to ignore it is to ignore who we are in all our complexity.” filson (2016) goes on to articulate that taking a trauma-informed approach is fundamentally about learning to see, understand and deal with human distress and pain. in beginning to lay out here the survivor/mad trajectory around trauma we seek to encourage the archive and records profession and archival educators to engage fully in a critical engagement around the semantics of trauma and the archaeologies of knowledge and understanding that we are aligning with, as we develop education around “trauma” and “traumainformed” approaches to recordkeeping. we encourage the archive profession and archival educators to follow in the footsteps of theorists such as cvetkovic (2016) who in examining how trauma circulates in relation to lesbian public culture has been careful to articulate the trajectories within trauma studies that they both draw from and depart from. in rejecting individualist approaches to trauma bound up in clinical psychology, cvetkovic considers trauma as a collective experience that generates collective responses and in doing so develops a queer and sex positive approach to trauma, which is consciously positioned in relation to threads of trauma theory from critical race theory, marxism, queer theory and feminist theory. it is this kind of conscious examining, unpicking, framing and positioning along, through and beyond existing trajectories that we need to do in order to properly articulate what trauma means for archivists and recordkeepers. such work can then form the underpinnings of educating archivists and recordkeepers to become “trauma-informed.” we argue therefore that a trauma-informed approach to recordkeeping teaching must be conceptually and theoretically grounded in a way that takes into account different perspectives on trauma. it needs to recognise that individual or community experiences of the record may be powerful for both trauma or healing, reinforced oppression or reparation and liberation, and that the record itself exists in complex environmental contexts and can be subject to recordkeeping structures and processes that hinder or enable its potentialities. we can then go on to consider the ways in which the recordkeeper can develop qualities, strategies and approaches that they may need to manage secondary trauma and emotional labour, and in striving for meaningful practice. a thorough theoretical and conceptual grounding will also then help us to identify interpersonal skills needed by recordkeepers, which may include listening, communicating, acknowledging, balancing, perceiving, empathising, cultural competence, prioritising work-life balance and the ability to understand and set boundaries around ourselves and others. teaching methods and principles which might be applied to these issues include valuing experiential knowledge, including experts by experience in delivery, using role play, employing case study approaches and real world examples. however, grounding our conceptual understandings around notions of trauma carefully and critically is the first and most fundamental step to enable us to move forward to develop inclusive and meaningful education around trauma and, ultimately, developing a trauma-informed recordkeeping profession. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 16 conclusion this paper has brought together different perspectives from the literature on adopting and developing a person-centred approach to archival theory and praxis in an attempt to acknowledge the deep emotional and affective impact of working with records, recordkeeping systems and the people who create and use archives. drawing on literature from archival science, the first section brought together ideas from the affective turn in archives, recognising the link between affect and emotion in archives and historical and current social injustices. it reflected on research into trauma-informed archival practices and ways to better support users and archivists working with traumatic records. the second section of the paper considers participatory archival science research where these ideas have been applied to help us to better understand the role of records and recordkeeping in the specific example of information rights of care experienced people, using a case study from england, which builds on work done elsewhere, especially in australia. in the third section, the paper draws on a range of disciplinary literature, including from trauma, radical empathy, survivor studies and mental health studies, and relational models in various settings including mental health recovery, relational pedagogy and ways of building meaningful and ongoing relationships. this section proposes a concept of the “traumatic potentiality” of records which we believe advances thinking in the field and might enable us to more fully consider what person-centred recordkeeping theory and praxis looks like. finally, we turn to the question of how we should educate, prepare and support recordkeepers to enable them to work through trauma-informed practices and with traumatic records. the paper draws together themes from literature and uses conceptual development to examine ways of understanding archival practices and archival education embracing different perspectives from the broad landscape of the affective and relational turn in the literature, the specific case of care leaver rights, and developing a trauma-informed approach. we consider some consequences for the education which archivists need if they are to be equipped to respond to the “traumatic potentiality” of records and the challenges posed by the nascent “fifth emerging paradigm, person-centred archival theory and praxis.” references agostinho, d. 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(2021). safety, collaboration, and empowerment: trauma-informed archival practice. archivaria, 91, 38–73. https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13787 4828-article text-23698-1-11-20220922 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 27 research article digital literacy and long-term labor outcomes: impacts of the one laptop per child program in costa rica jaime a. meza-cordero, department of economics, university of southern california, jaime.meza@usc.edu the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 28 digital literacy and long-term labor outcomes: impacts of the one laptop per child program in costa rica abstract technological skills are critical for high-productivity occupations. between 2012 and 2017, a selected group of primary schools in costa rica were provided with one laptop per enrolled student. this paper evaluates this ambitious intervention by elucidating the effects on students’ educational and labor market aspirations, school outcomes, and time allocation after six years of access to a computer with connectivity. using baseline, midline, and endline primary data from program participants and a control group, and a difference-in-difference strategy, this study shows that the program influenced treated students to increase their school motivation, their target education completion, and their intention to migrate in adulthood. the results do not find conclusive evidence of positive change toward pursuing computer science-related occupations or office-based jobs. the findings show evidence of a significant increase in computer usage for treated children but no impacts on the time spent performing homework, outdoor activities, and home chores. keywords: program evaluation, technology adoption, education inputs, economic development, one laptop per child introduction digital literacy has become a critical skill for higher-productivity occupations. at the same time, using information and communication technologies (icts) has proven essential for improved and consistent educational provisions at every level. the uneven access to icts threatens to expand schooling gaps that will have significant long-term outcomes in the labor market and lead to broader social inequality. as an attempt to modernize the education system and as a response to public health hazards, governments have implemented policies to update public education by using digital media, such as computers in class, online platforms, projectors, audio devices, and digital materials, among other inputs. understanding the implications of access to digital literacy in the school system is crucial for an assessment of both the education quality and future labor market outcomes. global labor research shows that ict-related occupations have the highest productivity per worker, reflected through increased wages. according to sachs (2019), both artificial intelligence programming and digital technologies overall will reduce the demand for unskilled labor and limit the dependence on labor-intensive occupations. this trend will affect lessdeveloped countries that compete in the production of agricultural and manufacturing goods by paying lower wages. however, digital technologies can also allow for a substantial increase in per-worker productivity for a variety of goods and services when there is access and training in icts. lower-income countries have the opportunity to train their labor force in icts to take advantage of these higher productivity occupations, as their main challenge is how to offer alternative income-generating opportunities to low-skilled workers who will face a lower labor demand. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 29 ict-related occupations require updated computer literacy capacities. in the present day, labor markets continue to thrive for those with skills in programming and robotization at the expense of occupations that heavily rely on manual work. the great divide has restructured occupational categories into routine-production workers, in-person service workers, and symbolic analysts. this last group relies heavily on ict use and experiences the largest increase in wealth share (warschauer and matuchniak, 2010). the international labour organization (ilo) has warned of the disruptive nature of technological change and the potential for large-scale job destruction. in one of their research papers, nübler (2016) warns of the unintentional consequences of technological change on the labor market and social cohesion, arguing that there is a need for public policy to guide societal learning and economic transformation. in a literature review conducted by balliester and elsheikhi (2018), the authors present calculations of jobs at risk of being automatized, which range from 20% to as high as 70% over the next 20 years. in addition to the need for updated work skills, the 2020 global pandemic and the threat of future similar health hazards that could temporarily restrict mobility (including pollution and climate change) have accelerated the need for icts in school and the workspace (commonly known as remote learning and working, respectively). those who do not have access to icts will find themselves educationally and socioeconomically vulnerable, while those who adapt to these changes are likely to improve their education and labor outcomes. mandatory remote learning delivery has widened inequalities caused by heterogeneous socioeconomic status (ses). students who have a computer and connectivity at home can receive differentiated education services over those who do not and are more affected by in-person class cancellations. the challenges associated with virtual education also include equity and access, testing and grading policy, graduation requirements, service provision to students with disabilities, portals, and materials, among others (reich et al., 2020) most research on education quality has focused on topics such as teacher training, access to school, infrastructure, materials, and other classroom inputs, administrative reform, and monetary subsidies. however, there is not enough research documenting the causal effect of the development of technological skills on student performance and labor market outcomes. it is hard to imagine that a student without access to a computer will have the same occupational aspirations as another with computer access. in an attempt to raise awareness on this important topic, the world bank has presented the concept of xxi century skills needed for future jobs. training for these occupations is not always adequately developed under the existing school curricula, particularly in less developed countries. the main component of these skills is digital literacy, which requires access to inputs such as computers and smartphones with connectivity. for the case of latin america, studies from the world bank have warned of an overproduction of traditional vocations and skills, such as law, economics, accounting, and medicine, accompanied by an underproduction of xxi century skills (for more details, see aedo & walker, 2012). different programs have been designed to improve digital literacy in primary and secondary schooling. many interventions sponsored the construction of computer laboratories in schools, while others included technological literacy classes in the curriculum. an intervention called the one laptop per child (olpc) program focused its efforts on providing students with their own computer equipment for school use and home self-use. according to ames (2019), the the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 30 olpc program was initially promoted as an idealistic tool to drive social change by incorporating interphases designed for play, freedom, and connectivity into a laptop device for children. the author also highlights that three million laptops were distributed by 2019, eighty percent of them in latin america. latin american and caribbean countries that have implemented olpc programs include brazil, peru, colombia, uruguay, haiti, paraguay, nicaragua, and costa rica (nugroho & londsale 2009). the olpc interventions in these countries have been implemented in a similar way, with slight variation in the number of computers provided per student (one per student or a fixed number of students sharing), connectivity access, training offered, and after-school computer access. the overarching goal of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the olpc program implemented in costa rica. this intervention has been funded and implemented by the quirós tanzi foundation since 2012 with an initial distribution of 1550 computers across 15 public primary schools within four low-income districts.1 the program selected public primary schools that did not have computer laboratories and were located in communities with low access to technological inputs. besides providing laptops for each student, the program installed internet connectivity in each school, provided teacher training, and offered bi-weekly maintenance for repairs.2 control schools were chosen from the same four low-income districts. this paper intends to show how the olpc program impacted students during the first six years of implementation, accounting for a full primary school cohort.3 in late 2017, the implementer decided to retire the original stock of computers and agreed to support this endline evaluation of the program. the underlying hypothesis is that possessing a laptop computer generated causal effects on outcomes of computer usage, time allocation, and technological skills. the intervention is also expected to alter the access to information by the students, influencing their occupational aspirations. the research questions guiding this evaluation are: a) what are the final outcomes generated on educational and labor market aspirations after six years of access to a computer with connectivity? b) how did the technological input affect the intermediate outcomes of altering the time allocation of the program participants, and c) how are these outcomes different for those students in secondary school? a difference-in-difference strategy is used to answer these questions. the changes in outcomes of treated students are compared to the changes of a control group serving as a counterfactual. the data comes from baseline data collected in 2012 from all students in the four targeted districts, as well as a 1-year follow-up data collection in 2013, and a final 6-year post-intervention data collection round that took place in late 2017. literature review 1 in 2013, 1,500 laptops were provided to 10 additional schools within the same 4 districts, completing the provision plan for these communities. additional computers were distributed in future years to different areas of the country, which are not included in this study. 2 teachers across treatment and control schools had the same training and qualifications before the intervention. 3 in late 2017, a representative 6th grade student (being a 1st grader in 2012) had a laptop during the entirety of the primary education years. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 31 the literature on education program evaluation has analyzed interventions such as teachers’ incentives, vouchers to increase school choice, grants, and decentralization (see glewwe and kremer, 2006 & muralidharan et al., 2012). novel research on school inputs has focused on understanding how the provision of computers and other technologies influences test scores. angrist & lavy (2002) found that a computer distribution program in israel led to very low effects on test scores, while banerjee et al. (2007) found that computer use during mathematics classes in indian schools elevated test scores for math but not for other subjects. not all results are as encouraging regarding school performance. malamud & pop-eleches (2011) show how providing computers in romania led students to allocate more time to playing video games and lowered test scores. zheng et al. (2016) conducted a meta-analysis of ten different one-to-one laptop computer programs in k-12 education in the united states. they find that these programs generally deliver positive effects in english, writing, mathematics, and science. nogry & varly (2018) co-studied an olpc intervention in madagascar and found that the laptop became a very important part of the children’s routine, mostly used for playing games, listening to music, watching videos, sharing content, and doing their homework. empirical studies of computer provision in latin america have found little to no effects on school performance measures. they commonly argue that the lack of connectivity, teacher training, and guidance to students on best computer usage limited any potential change in performance (see barrera-osorio & linden (2009), cristia et al. (2012) & beuermann et al. (2012) for further details of olpc evaluations in colombia and peru). ames (2019) evaluated the olpc intervention in paraguay within 2 phases. in the first phase, an adequate level of complementary support to the laptops led to modest improvements in both math and reading tests, while in the second phase, the lack of this support led to no effects from the program regarding test scores. the author argues that the lack of complementary infrastructure, teacher support, and maintenance hinders the effectiveness of the program and is cause of olpc failure. for the case of the olpc intervention in costa rica, meza-cordero (2017) showed that after one year of laptop provision and adequate support structure, students increased their computer usage both in school and at home, allocated less time to homework and outdoor activities, and did not increase their school performance. ict literacy is also expected to lead to long-term outcomes as education and training are the main inputs for human capital accumulation and labor productivity. the existing literature on school completion reveals that an additional year of schooling can be translated to an increase in earnings of 9 percent, a result that has been consistent globally over the last six decades (psacharopoulos & patrinos, 2018). however, it is far from clear that the incorporation of icts in the school curriculum and the information on returns to education is used by students (and their parents) when optimizing their education completion target. appadurai (2004) argues that in the context of poverty, development and cultural change are personal and future-oriented, originating from economic calculations that involve needs, wants, and aspirations. access to information helps the individual update these aspirations to become more realistic. in this context, students would optimize their choice of education completion contingent on labor market aspirations to improve their lifetime well-being. jensen (2010) studied the changes in aspirations after providing information to students in the dominican republic to test the accuracy of students’ desired occupations and salary perceptions. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 32 through an experiment involving eighth graders, the author finds that students who obtained information on the measured returns to education completed between 0.2 and 0.35 additional years of schooling. this finding suggests that students underestimate the returns from education and that this misperception leads to an undersupply of skilled labor that slows down development. zheng et al. (2014) conducted a study in the united states to measure the effects of computers on fifth-graders interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem). they conclude that computer-based instruction is likely to increase students’ motivation for stem-related professions. this paper about the olpc program in costa rica intends to fill gaps in the existing literature by providing empirical evidence on the long-term effects of ict access and training on education completion and labor market aspirations. data the data comes from three primary data collection rounds constituting a panel of 7,571 observations. baseline data was collected in 2012 before the first lot of computers was distributed. a questionnaire was given to the population of 25 schools in the four districts where the participating schools were located, plus three schools from neighboring districts that were very similar based on socioeconomic characteristics. students from 15 schools started participating in the program in 2012, while students from 10 schools started one year later, and students from the three schools in neighboring districts never joined the program. the total number of surveys at baseline was 3,022 students. the second round of surveys took place one year after baseline and included the same students plus the incoming first graders, totaling 3,587 students.4 the third round of surveys was conducted during the last month of classes in 2017, capturing exactly six school years of exposure for those who received a computer in 2012 (and five years of exposure to those who received it in 2013). this final round was targeted at students that had the computer for at least four years. thus, only students in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade of primary school were surveyed. additionally, a sample of students participating in the program during primary school and were attending a nearby secondary school were tracked and interviewed. in this final round, 3,962 students were given a survey to be filled out individually and in person. 692 of them in grades 4 through 6 of primary school and 270 in secondary school. figure 1 summarizes the data collection timeline. figure 1: timeline of the data collection february 2012 february 2013 october 2017 baseline survey was applied laptops were distributed to 15 primary schools 1-year follow-up survey applied laptops were distributed to 25 primary schools (15 that started in 2012 + 10 additional schools) endline survey was applied the three survey instruments administered were nearly identical. however, due to the young age of the respondents at the baseline and 1-year follow-up, the questionnaire included specific questions for students and other questions for parents. the third round was designed to 4 10 control schools became treatment schools in 2013 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 33 have only students as respondents since only students in grade 4 and higher were interviewed. the first section of the questionnaire gathered socio-demographic information from the household, such as the individual’s name, id, phone number, age, gender, size of their household, number of children in their household, family income, expenses on the children, gender of the head of the household, education completion, and whether there was access to a computer and internet at home. the second section of the questionnaire contained questions on future aspirations, such as the student's educational objective and desired occupation, their preference for the child to continue living in the same town in adulthood, and school motivation. the third and final section focused on time allocation, including the time that the parents spent helping the children with their homework, time that the student spent performing homework, home duties, outdoor activities, weekly computer use by the child and other family members, and functions for which the computer is believed to be useful. figure 2 presents the fraction of households with computer and internet access during 2012, 2013, and 2017. the figure shows a positive trend for both computer and internet access across time, which is consistent for both treatment and control groups. figure 3 presents the trends for educational and occupational aspirations. occupational aspirations were cataloged according to the first two digits of the current international standard classification of occupations (isco-08) from the ilo. these cataloged occupations were then divided into occupations considered to be white-collar and non-white-collar. white collar jobs take place in an office environment and require a professional degree where a computer is a necessary tool (including government officials and medical practitioners). white-collar occupations were disaggregated into computer science and engineering-related occupations. non-white collar jobs are mostly part of manufacturing and agricultural labor, relying on the use of industrial machinery and physically intensive activities. in 2012, over 77 percent of students wanted to complete a college or vocational degree. this number increased in 2017 by approximately 12 percentage points. the aspiration for white-collar occupations remained nearly constant during the study period, ranging from 75 percent to 69 percent. notably, the proportion of students who desire to work in computer science or engineering increased substantially, from 12 percent to 18 percent. figure 2: computer and internet access figure 3: student aspirations 34 table 1 presents the descriptive statistics for the socioeconomic characteristics collected each year. the first column for each data collection round shows results for the entire sample, while the second and third columns present the statistics for the treatment and control groups, respectively. both groups were equivalent in observable characteristics at baseline (see mezacordero, 2017 for baseline analysis). the 2012 and 2013 student surveys have a mean age of 9.6 years for primary school students. the 2017 survey presents an average age of 12.20 years, a considerable increase by design given that this round gathered information from students in grades 4, 5, and 6 of primary school and those attending secondary school. the average household size was consistent throughout the six years of the study, with nearly five members on average, out of which 2 were children under age 12. the head of the household is male in approximately 70 percent of the cases. as noted in figure 2, there is an upward trend in computer and internet access at the household level. the availability of computers at home increased from 31 percent in 2012 to 49 percent in 2017. internet connectivity in the house more than doubled in this period, increasing from 21 percent to 44 percent. it is also important to point out that 81 percent of the households in 2017 reported having at least one person other than the beneficiary student using a computer (an increase of 15 percent during the six years of the study). weekly hours of computer use at home was 3.35 in 2012, with a considerable difference across groups because the treatment group was selected in areas with lower computer access. the number of hours dropped to 1.92 in 2017, in part because students in secondary school had to return their laptop when graduating from primary school. weekly hours of computer use outside of the house show a similar pattern, decreasing from 1.98 to 0.92 during the six years of the study. hours performing outdoor activities and doing homework also decreased from 6.14 to 4.05 and from 5.70 to 3.01, respectively. the education objective remained near constant with a mean aspiration of 3, mapping a desire to complete university. empirical strategy the effects of the computer provision program are identified by comparing the outcomes of the treated students to a counterfactual. the unbiased effects of the intervention are estimated through a difference in difference (did) strategy that quantifies and subtracts the time trends of the control schools (to serve as the counterfactual trend for treatment schools). yi is defined as the outcome variable for student i. the outcome variables for future aspirations include a whitecollar occupation plan, education level objective, school motivation, intended area of residence, and intent to pursue a career in a computer science related field. the outcome variables for weekly time allocations include time using a computer at home, time using a computer outside of the home, total time using a computer, time performing outdoor activities, time doing homework, time performing household chores, and time of other household members using a computer. t=0 is defined as the baseline period, and t=1 is the endline period. d=1 denotes the students that belong to the treatment schools, while d=0 denotes the students in the control schools. 35 table 1: descriptive statistics 2012 2013 2017 all treatment control all treatment control all treatment control mean sd mean sd mean sd mean sd mean sd mean sd mean sd mean sd mean sd so ci o d em og ra ph ic age 9.60 (2.11) 9.24 (2.08) 9.79 (2.10) 9.58 (2.14) 9.47 (2.21) 9.69 (2.04) 12.20 (2.00) 12.50 (2.06) 11.23 (1.42) sex 1.48 (0.50) 1.46 (0.50) 1.49 (0.50) 1.49 (0.50) 1.48 (0.50) 1.50 (0.50) 1.50 (0.50) 1.51 (0.50) 1.49 (0.50) age head household 36.10 (8.50) 35.93 (8.65) 36.20 (8.41) 35.70 (7.86) 35.19 (7.41) 35.72 (7.91) 37.00 (6.63) 39.00 (4.24) 35.00 (9.90) male head household 0.72 (0.45) 0.72 (0.45) 0.71 (0.45) 0.72 (0.45) 0.73 (0.44) 0.69 (0.47) 0.67 (0.46) 0.69 (0.46) 0.61 (0.49) education head household 1.87 (1.35) 1.83 (1.35) 1.90 (1.34) 1.82 (1.28) 1.78 (1.32) 1.79 (1.12) 1.50 (1.00) 2.00 (1.41) 1.00 (0.00) household size 4.87 (1.68) 4.95 (1.77) 4.81 (1.61) 4.72 (1.66) 4.72 (1.64) 4.72 (1.67) 4.97 (1.76) 4.96 (1.76) 4.99 (1.78) household kids 1.89 (1.23) 1.94 (1.15) 1.84 (1.31) 1.83 (1.18) 1.81 (1.18) 1.81 (1.13) 1.57 (1.53) 1.51 (1.50) 1.82 (1.61) computer home 0.31 (0.46) 0.30 (0.46) 0.33 (0.47) 0.33 (0.47) 0.31 (0.46) 0.46 (0.50) 0.49 (0.50) 0.45 (0.50) 0.62 (0.49) internet home 0.21 (0.41) 0.21 (0.41) 0.22 (0.41) 0.21 (0.41) 0.21 (0.41) 0.31 (0.46) 0.44 (0.50) 0.40 (0.49) 0.60 (0.49) other member comp. use 0.66 (0.47) 0.64 (0.48) 0.69 (0.46) 0.67 (0.47) 0.67 (0.47) 0.81 (0.39) 0.81 (0.39) 0.80 (0.40) 0.86 (0.35) co m pu te r & t im e u se computer home 3.35 (5.24) 1.93 (4.51) 4.11 (5.45) 3.87 (5.48) 4.22 (6.18) 4.48 (5.20) 1.92 (3.80) 1.82 (3.62) 2.24 (4.31) computer outside 1.98 (6.80) 0.60 (1.89) 2.71 (8.20) 1.97 (4.12) 2.22 (4.85) 2.17 (3.82) 0.92 (2.39) 0.84 (2.07) 1.18 (3.21) hours outdoors 6.14 (6.23) 6.82 (7.02) 5.47 (5.28) 5.76 (6.64) 5.72 (7.16) 4.65 (4.64) 4.05 (4.86) 4.12 (4.89) 3.74 (4.73) hours homework 5.70 (4.39) 6.41 (4.52) 5.05 (4.16) 5.15 (4.70) 5.18 (5.24) 4.66 (3.71) 3.01 (3.63) 2.90 (3.33) 3.49 (4.69) hours home duties 3.17 (4.35) 3.03 (4.08) 3.31 (4.62) 2.86 (3.75) 2.82 (3.81) 2.28 (2.76) 3.93 (4.99) 3.95 (4.87) 3.84 (5.49) hours parent help 5.20 (5.26) 6.03 (5.86) 4.41 (4.48) 4.97 (6.06) 5.17 (7.34) 4.54 (4.47) 2.11 (3.80) 1.80 (3.10) 3.44 (5.74) hours computer others 4.53 (10.03) 5.45 (11.49) 3.57 (8.15) 4.01 (9.24) 4.00 (9.02) 5.25 (10.90) 2.49 (5.20) 2.28 (4.96) 3.38 (6.03) a sp ir at io ns school enjoyment 9.09 (1.66) 9.26 (1.33) 9.00 (1.80) 9.08 (1.77) 9.12 (1.74) 8.93 (1.88) 7.96 (2.57) 8.33 (2.05) 6.78 (3.56) college education 3.07 (0.65) 3.07 (0.60) 3.08 (0.70) 2.93 (0.82) 2.86 (0.87) 3.05 (0.73) 3.16 (0.59) 3.18 (0.54) 3.06 (0.75) white collar job 0.77 (0.46) 0.74 (0.44) 0.71 (0.45) 0.75 (0.43) 0.75 (0.43) 0.75 (0.43) 0.69 (0.46) 0.70 (0.46) 0.67 (0.47) computer science job 0.11 (0.31) 0.12 (0.32) 0.10 (0.29) 0.09 (0.29) 0.09 (0.28) 0.10 (0.30) 0.18 (0.39) 0.18 (0.39) 0.18 (0.39) observations 2876 1094 1890 3579 1439 1578 962 737 225 notes: this table reports descriptive statistics of sociodemographic characteristics and outcomes of interest. the mean for each variable is reported with the associated standard error in parenthesis. columns 1-6 reflect year 2012, columns 7-12 reflect year 2013, and columns 13-18 reflect year 2017. for each year, the first columns include both groups, while the next columns are disaggregated to present the treatment and the control group, respectively. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 36 equation (1) represents the equation used to obtain the did estimators: y = α + βd + δt + γdt + φx0+ ε (1) where x0 is a set of baseline control variables. these variables include age, age squared, gender, gender of the head of the household, having a computer and internet at home, having used a computer in the past, size of the household, and number of children in the household. equation 1 is first estimated through repeated cross-sections of data, where the parameter γ captures the att. however, given that individuals were followed over time, a panel data strategy with the following structure will also be used: yit = α + βdi + δt+ γdit + φxi+μi + εit (2) where μi represents any unobservable fixed effects for individual i, and the effects of the baseline control variables, φt, are allowed to change with time. by subtracting the baseline period from the post-intervention period at the individual level, any time-invariant fixed effects are eliminated, resulting in the following equation: δyi =δ + γdi+ σxi+ ηi (3) where σ is equal to δφ and ηi is equal to δεi. since di is the dummy variable indicating treatment, γ will indicate the average treatment effect on the treated. finally, a time series strategy is implemented for the case of treated students that were tracked and found attending a local secondary school. continuous variables are estimated through ordinary least squares, while dichotomous variables are estimated with logistic regression. the robustness of the results is analyzed for these three strategies. results the results present an analysis estimating repeated cross sections for primary school students only. this structure has 1889 baseline observations: 1053 treatment and 836 control. it also leverages 707 endline observations: 497 treatment and 210 control. these observations include students from grades 1 through 3, for which baseline data was collected in 2012, plus students that were interviewed in 2013 when they started school (1st graders). the endline observations include students who were in grades 4 through 6 in 2017 at the time of the interview. repeated cross sections for primary school students aspirations the results for student aspirations are presented in table 2. the estimates show positive but not statistically significant program effects on a preference for white-collar aspirations. there is a positive and statistically significant effect showing that program participants have a higher education aspiration and are more motivated to finish school. there is a negative effect on desiring to continue living in the country, showing that many students want to move (presumably to the metropolitan area). however, this effect is not statistically significant. finally, specific occupational aspirations in computer science or engineering are analyzed, yet no significant effects are found. 37 table 2: student future aspirations and plans cross-sections white collar aspiration (1) college aspiration (2) school motivation (3) same county (4) informatics aspiration (5) treatment group 0.320*** -0.253 0.136* 0.740 0.0149 (0.117) (0.219) (0.0638) (0.480) (0.0184) time trend -0.751*** -5.978*** -7.293*** -0.836*** 0.0311*** (0.0938) (1.342) (0.432) (0.300) (0.00689) program effect 0.164 6.767*** 6.449*** -0.872 0.0503 (0.356) (1.459) (0.498) (0.549) (0.0340) age baseline 0.191 0.589 0.198 -0.0739 0.0155 (0.231) (0.459) (0.276) (0.344) (0.0401) age squared baseline -0.0144 -0.0403 -0.0166 -7.98e-05 -0.000873 (0.0161) (0.0264) (0.0163) (0.0199) (0.00249) gender 1.932*** -0.122 0.355*** -0.844* -0.0830*** (0.159) (0.175) (0.0322) (0.493) (0.00631) gender hh head -0.0556 0.0744 -0.0601 0.0612 -0.00365 (0.108) (0.194) (0.0795) (0.0895) (0.0115) family size baseline -0.0241 -0.00700 0.0285 0.0469 -0.00673 (0.0398) (0.0542) (0.0161) (0.0398) (0.00508) family kids baseline 0.00968 -0.133* -0.0114 -0.0105 -0.00381 (0.0399) (0.0794) (0.0358) (0.0424) (0.00398) computer at baseline -0.0711 0.996*** 0.177 -0.161 -0.0143 (0.156) (0.257) (0.147) (0.138) (0.0176) internet at baseline 0.151 -0.211 -0.0921 -0.0112 0.0207 (0.173) (0.315) (0.139) (0.137) (0.0133) computer use other -0.101 -0.0545 -0.0774 -0.146 0.0175 (0.176) (0.158) (0.112) (0.110) (0.0217) computer use past -0.142* 0.00365*** -0.00048*** 0.00471*** -6.62e-05*** (0.0827) (0.00124) (7.49e-05) (0.00156) (1.73e-05) constant -2.209** 0.536 8.232*** 2.434* 0.155 (0.892) (2.112) (1.178) (1.440) (0.138) observations 1,707 1,788 1,784 1,784 1,788 r-squared 0.402 0.036 notes: this table reports estimates from a regression of future plans and aspirations of the students on an indicator for being assigned a laptop computer and a set of covariates using repeated cross sections for primary school students only. covariates include age, age squared, gender, gender of the head of the household, size of the household, number of children in the household, having a computer and/or internet at baseline, other household members that use computers, and having used a computer in the past. binary variables have a value equal to 1 for “yes” and equal to 0 for “no” (aspiring to a white-collar occupation, planning to attend college, staying in the same county, and planning to study an informaticsrelated major, columns 1, 2, 4 and 5 respectively). column 3 contains school motivation and is a numeric value. the regression models are estimated using a logit regression for binary variables and ordinary least squares for numeric variables. standard errors are presented in the parenthesis below each estimate. significance levels for the estimates are determined as: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p <0.001 time allocation table 3 shows the weekly time allocation of the students. the beneficiary students reallocated their time so that computer use and homework time increased at the expense of hours outdoors and home duties. the effect on computer use at home is statistically significant, showing an increase of approximately four additional hours per week. all other effects are not statistically significant. 38 table 3: student weekly time allocation cross-sections computer total computer home computer outside home duties hours outdoors hours homework use others (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) treatment group -3.861 -3.085* -0.786 5.839 4.444 -11.50 -0.845 (2.594) (1.614) (1.121) (10.44) (5.949) (14.22) (10.59) time trend -5.152 -4.452* -0.750 -0.343 3.113 -24.83 -5.775 (3.070) (2.143) (0.986) (5.222) (6.585) (13.96) (9.473) program effect 4.281 3.820* 0.477 -4.005 -12.45 17.81 -2.475 (2.881) (1.816) (1.204) (9.060) (8.115) (16.10) (13.91) age baseline 1.638 1.295* 0.404 11.31 -5.100 -7.261 11.82 (1.355) (0.614) (1.071) (15.36) (8.234) (15.85) (14.08) age squared baseline -0.100 -0.0829** -0.0210 -0.448 0.370 0.609 -0.487 (0.0790) (0.0352) (0.0656) (0.900) (0.522) (1.138) (0.798) gender 0.372 -0.0185 0.414 4.114 -0.423 -4.250 6.513 (0.535) (0.211) (0.488) (5.887) (2.494) (7.616) (6.389) gender hh head -0.517 -0.0552 -0.477 -7.031 0.521 -0.647 -6.760** (0.511) (0.194) (0.537) (8.796) (3.823) (5.741) (2.727) family size baseline -0.185 -0.00506 -0.188 0.374 -2.393*** -1.906 -0.108 (0.128) (0.0515) (0.115) (1.823) (0.736) (1.154) (1.571) family kids baseline 0.298* 0.218 0.0922* -2.932* 1.237 -1.233 -4.755** (0.146) (0.123) (0.0473) (1.576) (0.979) (2.102) (1.927) computer at baseline 1.134 1.776*** -0.634 -8.904 1.217 -6.791* -8.853 (0.853) (0.426) (0.725) (6.431) (3.154) (3.157) (8.011) internet at baseline 0.246 0.311 -0.0916 -6.438 0.706 7.997** 4.997 (0.398) (0.293) (0.211) (5.535) (3.984) (3.288) (7.941) computer use other 1.107 0.0995 1.020 5.769 -2.948 -18.38 8.095 (0.650) (0.248) (0.633) (8.483) (5.001) (13.32) (5.520) computer use past -0.0014*** -0.0011** -0.000288 -0.0096 -0.0080 -0.0087 -0.0039 (0.000366) (0.000378) (0.000443) (0.00641) (0.00701) (0.00924) (0.00506) constant -0.659 -1.311 0.448 -42.18 38.37 80.33 -38.97 (6.912) (3.391) (4.357) (53.91) (33.12) (49.78) (53.31) observations 1,788 1,768 1,761 1,735 1,729 1,713 1,729 r-squared 0.085 0.145 0.018 0.012 0.004 0.012 0.012 notes: this table reports estimates from a regression of weekly time allocation of the students on an indicator for being assigned a laptop computer and a set of covariates using repeated cross sections for primary school students only. covariates include age, age squared, gender, gender of the head of the household, size of the household, number of children in the household, having a computer and/or internet at baseline, other household members that use computers, and having used a computer in the past. all columns contain numeric values regarding total hours using a computer, hours using a computer at home, hours using a computer outside, hours on home duties, hours performing outdoor activities, hours performing homework, and hours of computer use by other family members. the regression models are estimated using ordinary least squares. standard errors are presented in the parenthesis below each estimate. significance levels for the estimates are determined as: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p <0.001 panel data for primary school students the second data structure used is a panel of primary school students tracked and interviewed in 2017. the baseline data used for all students is from 2012, with the only exception being the incoming class of first graders in 2013. the panel consists of 410 observations, of which 158 are treatment students, and 47 are control students. aspirations table 4 shows the effects on future aspirations and plans. there is little to no effect on whitecollar aspirations, but the other four measures are statistically significant. education aspirations 39 and school motivation increased, showing an increased interest in higher levels of formal education completion. there is a negative effect on wanting to stay in the same county, which means that the treated students want to migrate, presumably to the metropolitan area, where there are more jobs in manufacturing and services. there is a positive and statistically significant effect on computer science job aspirations, meaning that more students trained with a laptop during primary school intend to pursue a career in computer-related disciplines. table 4: students’ future aspirations and plans panel white collar aspiration college aspiration school motivation same county informatics aspiration (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) program effect -0.0670 1.027*** 6.269*** -0.196** 0.0916* (0.0762) (0.0607) (0.230) (0.0757) (0.0471) age baseline 1.200*** -0.315** -0.696 0.0863 0.151 (0.288) (0.136) (0.887) (0.161) (0.197) age squared baseline -0.0878*** 0.0204* 0.0454 -0.00822 -0.00880 (0.0183) (0.00936) (0.0574) (0.00891) (0.0114) gender -0.0710 0.0381 -0.153 0.142 -0.0711 (0.157) (0.0441) (0.333) (0.0951) (0.0712) gender hh head 0.0809 0.0137 -0.130 -0.00235 -0.0212 (0.0742) (0.0761) (0.394) (0.103) (0.0384) family size baseline -0.00135 -0.00192 0.0537 0.00747 -0.0156 (0.0240) (0.00833) (0.0742) (0.0379) (0.00903) family kids baseline 0.00577 0.0113 -0.0608 0.0442 0.00751 (0.0501) (0.0179) (0.0787) (0.0496) (0.0114) computer at baseline -0.202 -0.0629 0.0840 0.283** 0.0181 (0.120) (0.0677) (0.378) (0.0944) (0.0772) internet at baseline 0.225** -0.0256 -0.250 -0.194 0.0157 (0.0780) (0.0666) (0.349) (0.136) (0.0466) computer use other 0.391** -0.166 -0.739 -0.196** 0.0627** (0.123) (0.150) (0.912) (0.0666) (0.0234) computer use past -0.160* -0.0615 0.332 0.147 0.0183 (0.0743) (0.0451) (0.394) (0.0829) (0.0412) constant -4.197** 0.446 -4.268 -0.882 -0.513 (1.443) (0.509) (3.994) (0.499) (0.945) observations 173 197 191 191 197 r-squared 0.098 0.587 0.640 0.101 0.031 notes: this table reports estimates from a regression of future plans and aspirations of the students on an indicator for being assigned a laptop computer and a set of covariates using a panel of students that were surveyed while in primary school. covariates include age, age squared, gender, gender of the head of the household, size of the household, number of children in the household, having a computer and/or internet at baseline, other household members that use computers, and having used a computer in the past. binary variables have a value equal to 1 for “yes” and equal to 0 for “no” (aspiring to a white-collar occupation, planning to attend college, staying in the same county, and planning to study an informaticsrelated major, columns 1, 2, 4 and 5 respectively). column 3 contains school motivation and is a numeric value. the regression models are estimated using a logit regression for binary variables and ordinary least squares for numeric variables. standard errors are presented in the parenthesis below each estimate. significance levels for the estimates are determined as: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p <0.001 time allocation the estimates for weekly time allocations are presented in table 5. there is an increase of 11.3 additional hours of computer use per week. these hours consist of 8.4 hours at home and 2.8 outside. estimates for hours on home duties, outdoors, homework, and of computer use by others are omitted due to the lack of consecutive observations for the control group. 40 table 5: student weekly time allocation panel computer total computer home computer outside home duties hours outdoors hours homework use others (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) program effect 11.30*** 8.417*** 2.847*** (0.740) (0.540) (0.286) age baseline 2.600 1.111 1.440 (2.211) (1.687) (1.321) age squared baseline -0.147 -0.0636 -0.0795 (0.123) (0.0948) (0.0759) gender 0.0344 -0.167 0.228 (0.840) (0.690) (0.279) gender hh head -0.205 0.0461 -0.232 (0.491) (0.356) (0.196) family size baseline -0.224 -0.273 0.0582 (0.204) (0.161) (0.0510) family kids baseline 0.469 0.506* -0.0297 (0.329) (0.269) (0.117) computer at baseline 1.362 1.268 0.148 (1.265) (0.750) (0.634) internet at baseline 0.00811 -0.561 0.474 (0.800) (0.548) (0.436) computer use other -1.645 -1.675 0.0298 (1.952) (1.390) (0.682) computer use past 2.463** 1.932** 0.604 (1.010) (0.656) (0.437) constant -24.48** -14.32** -10.22 (8.509) (5.961) (5.862) observations 197 191 188 r-squared 0.460 0.478 0.216 notes: this table reports estimates from a regression of weekly time allocation of the students on an indicator for being assigned a laptop computer and a set of covariates using a panel of students that were surveyed while in primary school. covariates include age, age squared, gender, gender of the head of the household, size of the household, number of children in the household, having a computer and/or internet at baseline, other household members that use computers, and having used a computer in the past. all columns contain numeric values regarding total hours using a computer, hours using a computer at home, hours using a computer outside, hours on home duties, hours performing outdoor activities, hours performing homework, and hours of computer use by other family members. the regression models are estimated using ordinary least squares. standard errors are presented in the parenthesis below each estimate. columns 4 – 6 are omitted due to lack of observations in both periods. significance levels for the estimates are determined as: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p <0.001 pooled cross sections: primary school students & secondary school students. a larger sample is obtained when pooling together primary and secondary school students. all primary school students (grades 1-6) interviewed at baseline are included. the observations are kept for students with information for 2012 and/or 2013, accounting for 4911 observations in total. all observations gathered in 2017 are included, which include grades 4-6 in primary school and 7-11 in secondary school, accounting for 962 individuals. aspirations table 6 shows the results for student aspirations when pooling together the entire sample. the results are very consistent with what was found for primary school students. no statistically significant changes were found for white collar aspirations, higher education completion, school motivation, and moving out of the county in adulthood. additionally, no change was found when 41 narrowing for computer science occupation aspirations, although the results show that girls are less likely to aspire to these careers. these effects are consistent with previous results and were expected as primary school students represent the largest proportion of the sample. table 6: primary and secondary student’s aspirations pooled white collar aspiration college aspiration school motivation same county informatics aspiration (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) treatment group 0.346*** -0.145 0.132* 0.665* 0.0213 (0.130) (0.144) (0.0712) (0.395) (0.0186) time trend -0.329*** -4.098*** -6.623*** -0.616** 0.111*** (0.115) (0.309) (0.469) (0.310) (0.0226) program effect 0.0973 4.762*** 5.292*** -0.936** -0.0110 (0.193) (0.395) (0.462) (0.393) (0.0296) age baseline 0.218 0.322 0.0519 -0.157 0.0269 (0.175) (0.261) (0.136) (0.220) (0.0151) age squared baseline -0.00675 -0.0174 -0.00954 0.00215 -0.000547 (0.00898) (0.0135) (0.00753) (0.0119) (0.000784) gender 1.723*** -0.0361 0.283*** -0.923* -0.0942*** (0.152) (0.105) (0.0407) (0.486) (0.00790) gender hh head -0.0630 0.119 0.0147 0.0421 -0.0262* (0.0550) (0.110) (0.0835) (0.0842) (0.0135) family size baseline -0.0576** -0.0758 0.0434*** 0.0376* -0.0106*** (0.0225) (0.0513) (0.0125) (0.0203) (0.00287) family kids baseline 0.000596 -0.000726 0.00111*** -0.00177*** -0.000140*** (0.00124) (0.000707) (8.36e-05) (0.000617) (1.72e-05) computer at baseline -0.0306 0.640*** 0.0111 -0.0727 0.0131 (0.138) (0.171) (0.118) (0.113) (0.0141) internet at baseline 0.187* -0.0167 -0.0342 -0.0258 0.0311* (0.0954) (0.241) (0.0755) (0.107) (0.0139) computer use other 0.0872 0.256** -0.0611 -0.153* 0.00944 (0.0992) (0.126) (0.0690) (0.0814) (0.0187) computer use past -0.00151 -0.00147 -9.55e-06 0.00676 -8.55e-05 (0.00211) (0.00173) (0.000602) (0.00697) (5.02e-05) constant -2.733*** 0.872 8.875*** 3.070*** 0.105* (0.742) (1.333) (0.649) (0.965) (0.0559) observations 3,090 3,221 3,207 3,213 3,221 r-squared 0.270 0.053 notes: this table reports estimates from a regression of future plans and aspirations of the students on an indicator for being assigned a laptop computer and a set of covariates pooling data of all students in primary and in secondary school. covariates include age, age squared, gender, gender of the head of the household, size of the household, number of children in the household, having a computer and/or internet at baseline, other household members that use computers, and having used a computer in the past. binary variables have a value equal to 1 for “yes” and equal to 0 for “no” (aspiring to a white-collar occupation, planning to attend college, staying in the same county, and planning to study an informaticsrelated major, columns 1, 2, 4 and 5 respectively). column 3 contains school motivation and is a numeric value. the regression models are estimated using a logit regression for binary variables and ordinary least squares for numeric variables. standard errors are presented in the parenthesis below each estimate. significance levels for the estimates are determined as: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p <0.001 time allocation the effects on time allocation are consistent with those found for primary school students. table 7 shows a positive and statistically significant computer use increase of approximately 5 hours, 3.9 of them at home. there are no statistically significant effects on the other variables. 42 table 7: primary and secondary student’s weekly time allocation pooled computer total computer home computer outside home duties hours outdoors hours homework use others (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) treatment group -4.597** -3.080* -1.547* 2.035 4.173 -16.58 -4.525 (1.990) (1.425) (0.811) (8.460) (7.990) (18.87) (14.07) time trend -5.264* -4.000* -1.322* -1.144 -8.623 -23.67* -19.39 (2.560) (1.997) (0.687) (5.189) (5.010) (11.33) (11.50) program effect 4.902* 3.879* 1.035 -4.088 -4.067 15.83 5.619 (2.608) (1.963) (0.796) (9.074) (7.720) (18.88) (14.06) age baseline 1.010 0.609 0.475 10.48 1.667 0.217 27.86 (0.835) (0.369) (0.560) (7.631) (6.832) (7.045) (20.57) age squared baseline -0.0399 -0.0247 -0.0189 -0.538 -0.0332 0.0612 -1.441 (0.0416) (0.0196) (0.0261) (0.422) (0.341) (0.418) (1.073) gender 0.0156 -0.255 0.279 4.066 0.248 0.0738 3.565 (0.362) (0.157) (0.309) (4.110) (3.494) (6.322) (1.985) gender hh head 0.159 0.144 0.00200 -4.836 -3.571 -10.52* -1.399 (0.612) (0.291) (0.405) (6.675) (3.542) (4.681) (6.301) family size baseline 0.0269 -0.0241 0.0555 0.0825 -1.599** -2.377 -0.983 (0.187) (0.0751) (0.156) (1.840) (0.632) (1.443) (1.668) family kids baseline -0.00395* -0.00275 -0.00128* 0.389*** 0.190 -0.0357* 0.377*** (0.00208) (0.00181) (0.000693) (0.0606) (0.174) (0.0177) (0.0655) computer at baseline 1.007 1.780*** -0.811 -4.346 3.303 -4.973 -6.351 (0.648) (0.326) (0.650) (5.178) (6.735) (5.607) (11.90) internet at baseline -0.0992 0.189 -0.298 -8.246 -4.040 0.455 -2.802 (0.497) (0.292) (0.255) (6.024) (7.744) (4.593) (10.00) computer use other 1.450* 0.196 1.299 5.633 5.602 -8.496 7.592** (0.723) (0.171) (0.784) (6.548) (3.599) (5.071) (2.547) computer use past 0.00453 0.00437 0.000126 -0.00816 -0.000425 -0.00934 0.319 (0.00539) (0.00508) (0.000442) (0.00821) (0.00489) (0.00656) (0.331) constant 0.0859 1.026 -1.239 -39.42 8.913 59.03 -107.1 (6.491) (3.111) (3.912) (33.33) (35.13) (35.49) (82.91) observations 3,221 3,174 3,177 3,166 3,143 3,110 3,145 r-squared 0.095 0.137 0.031 0.037 0.010 0.010 0.030 notes: this table reports estimates from a regression of weekly time allocation of the students on an indicator for being assigned a laptop computer and a set of covariates pooling data of all students in primary and in secondary school. covariates include age, age squared, gender, gender of the head of the household, size of the household, number of children in the household, having a computer and/or internet at baseline, other household members that use computers, and having used a computer in the past. all columns contain numeric values regarding total hours using a computer, hours using a computer at home, hours using a computer outside, hours on home duties, hours performing outdoor activities, hours performing homework, and hours of computer use by other family members. the regression models are estimated using ordinary least squares. standard errors are presented in the parenthesis below each estimate. significance levels for the estimates are determined as: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p <0.001 secondary school students the final set of results considers only secondary school students. a panel of 227 students interviewed in 2012 while in primary school were found in secondary schools within neighboring districts in late 2017. all of them were part of treatment schools, so a difference-in-difference estimation is not feasible. the estimation strategy used is ordinary least squares with a treatment dummy variable indicating the year. an issue that arises is that this model does not capture a time trend, which makes it a biased result that must be interpreted with caution. 43 aspirations table 8 presents the effects on secondary school students’ aspirations. the time trend plus program effect for secondary school students shows no effect on aspirations for white-collar occupations. the effect on aspiring to attend college or vocational training is positive and statistically significant. school motivation is now negative and statistically significant. planning to stay in the same county remains negative and statistically significant, which indicates the students’ wishes to move out in adulthood. a positive and statistically significant effect is found when looking into aspirations that include only computer science and engineering. an additional finding is that girls are less likely to be the ones aspiring to these occupations. table 8: secondary school student’s aspirations – time series white collar aspiration college aspiration school motivation same county informatics aspiration (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) time trend + -0.0402 0.793*** -2.109*** -1.363*** 0.160*** program effect (0.290) (0.236) (0.106) (0.188) (0.0325) age baseline 1.312 -1.482 -0.318 -0.855 -0.100 (1.429) (0.951) (1.144) (1.503) (0.152) age squared baseline -0.0523 0.0719* 0.00259 0.0388 0.00856 (0.0757) (0.0435) (0.0583) (0.0778) (0.00771) gender 1.317*** -0.161 0.270 -0.923*** -0.157*** (0.225) (0.315) (0.155) (0.177) (0.0347) gender hh head 0.150 0.0793 0.233 -0.0880 -0.0334 (0.179) (0.608) (0.305) (0.0996) (0.0237) family size baseline -0.316*** -0.212 -0.0723 0.0416 -0.0355** (0.100) (0.206) (0.0633) (0.106) (0.0136) family kids baseline 0.0333 -0.289* 0.0327 -0.0989 0.00106 (0.0707) (0.169) (0.0805) (0.105) (0.0158) computer at baseline 0.507** 0.721 0.138 0.153 0.103 (0.245) (0.607) (0.417) (0.253) (0.0934) internet at baseline -0.219 0.105 -0.408* -0.468* -0.0111 (0.240) (0.615) (0.216) (0.262) (0.0295) computer use other -0.232 -0.350 0.0514 0.455*** 0.0961*** (0.482) (0.362) (0.155) (0.137) (0.0201) computer use past -0.499*** -0.779* 0.264 0.0204 -0.0293 (0.173) (0.450) (0.143) (0.203) (0.0309) constant -5.932 12.99*** 11.56* 6.903 0.617 (6.199) (4.717) (5.461) (7.333) (0.695) observations 321 325 324 324 325 r-squared 0.305 0.155 notes: this table reports estimates from a regression of future plans and aspirations of the students on an indicator for being assigned a laptop computer and a set of covariates using a time series strategy for treatment students surveyed in primary school and again in secondary school. covariates include age, age squared, gender, gender of the head of the household, size of the household, number of children in the household, having a computer and/or internet at baseline, other household members that use computers, and having used a computer in the past. binary variables have a value equal to 1 for “yes” and equal to 0 for “no” (aspiring to a white-collar occupation, planning to attend college, staying in the same county, and planning to study an informatics-related major, columns 1, 2, 4 and 5 respectively). column 3 contains school motivation and is a numeric value. the regression models are estimated using a logit regression for binary variables and ordinary least squares for numeric variables. standard errors are presented in the parenthesis below each estimate. significance levels for the estimates are determined as: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p <0.001 44 time allocation analysis of treatment secondary school students shows a positive and statistically significant effect of using a computer at home. considering that these students participated in the olpc program but no longer have an olpc laptop in secondary school, we can infer that they purchased a computer at home. given the single difference strategy used in this estimation, it must be noticed that this result could also be a consequence of a time trend of more computers at home during adolescence. table 9 shows no statistically significant effects on computer use outside or home chores. there is a negative and statistically significant effect on hours outdoors and hours doing homework. note that these effects could be a result of time trends. table 9: secondary school students weekly time allocation – time series computer total computer home computer outside home duties hours outdoors hours homework use others (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) time trend + 0.437 0.588* -0.213 1.453 -13.93** -9.404** -7.776* program effect (0.311) (0.262) (0.219) (0.983) (5.581) (3.120) (3.679) age baseline -1.836 -3.201** 1.209 -0.122 -2.530 28.64* 35.34 (1.760) (1.323) (0.896) (2.117) (30.40) (13.80) (23.41) age squared baseline 0.103 0.165** -0.0535 0.0180 0.385 -1.334* -1.774 (0.0831) (0.0611) (0.0411) (0.108) (1.667) (0.647) (1.187) gender -0.265 -0.324 0.0306 0.353 -2.878 -5.975* 6.707*** (0.505) (0.407) (0.225) (0.345) (2.163) (2.983) (1.953) gender hh head 0.114 0.0135 0.0614 -0.251 -11.20*** -7.018** -2.089** (0.272) (0.172) (0.196) (0.448) (3.027) (2.454) (0.652) family size baseline -0.0939 -0.191 0.0906 0.215 -3.676 -2.255*** 3.507** (0.158) (0.124) (0.0620) (0.292) (2.529) (0.646) (1.247) family kids baseline -0.474* -0.341** -0.159 0.273 8.714 4.757** -2.040 (0.251) (0.123) (0.128) (0.245) (4.978) (1.510) (1.308) computer at baseline 1.208** 1.279*** -0.0431 -0.342 -1.216 -7.154* 3.536*** (0.446) (0.350) (0.182) (0.358) (1.602) (3.557) (0.776) internet at baseline 1.987*** 1.790*** 0.262*** -0.389*** 3.469* -4.028 6.674** (0.293) (0.223) (0.0771) (0.0879) (1.837) (2.842) (2.126) computer use other 0.521 0.462 0.179 -0.374 12.19*** 9.604** 2.385 (0.590) (0.449) (0.160) (0.734) (3.544) (4.056) (3.018) computer use past -2.092*** -1.336*** -0.656** -1.583*** 9.700 1.509 4.617* (0.416) (0.310) (0.216) (0.222) (6.399) (1.870) (2.031) constant 13.53 19.35** -5.192 4.028 -2.110 -122.2* -197.8 (8.563) (6.570) (4.423) (11.08) (139.1) (65.38) (121.9) observations 325 319 319 323 322 319 319 r-squared 0.183 0.193 0.049 0.069 0.039 0.031 0.027 notes: this table reports estimates from a regression of weekly time allocation of the students on an indicator for being assigned a laptop computer and a set of covariates using a time series strategy for treatment students surveyed in primary school and again in secondary school. covariates include age, age squared, gender, gender of the head of the household, size of the household, number of children in the household, having a computer and/or internet at baseline, other household members that use computers, and having used a computer in the past. all columns contain numeric values regarding total hours using a computer, hours using a computer at home, hours using a computer outside, hours on home duties, hours performing outdoor activities, hours performing homework, and hours of computer use by other family members. the regression models are estimated using ordinary least squares. standard errors are presented in the parenthesis below each estimate. the lack of information from a control group does not allow for a difference in difference strategy, so the results are found using a time series specification in which a time trend could bias the estimate. significance levels for the estimates are determined as: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p <0.001 45 limitations this study has limitations from the challenges in locating program participants (and the control group) 6 years after the program started. a potential source of bias arises from the fact that most students found and interviewed in 2017 are still in the education system and in the same study districts. those who were not found may be systematically different from those who were. for example, students who did not perform well in school may have dropped out and were not found. another limitation is that it was extremely hard to find students in secondary school that participated in the olpc program or that were in the original control group. the total sample size of secondary school students is 255, which is smaller than ideal. because of this limited number of observations, it was impossible to execute a difference-in-difference approach for the secondary school subsample. conclusion this paper investigates if education policy should consider incorporating technological equipment as school inputs and teaching students how to develop digital literacy skills from an early age in order to better their education completion and labor market outcomes. due to the nature of the olpc program, there was expected to be an increase in students’ interest in computer science aspirations and their pursuit of white-collar occupations. the results suggest that treated students increased their school motivation and interest in pursuing higher education levels. however, except for secondary school students, the findings show no effects on aspirational changes toward computer science disciplines and white-collar occupations. this result may be because these primary school students are very young and have not yet received information about the returns to education for each occupation. it is important to mention that the findings suggest that treated students increased their intention to migrate out of their district, presumably to attend college in the city or to pursue a job not provided locally. this paper's second area of focus analyzed the role of a computer in a student’s daily activities. the findings show that the program has statistically significant positive impacts on hours of computer use across all groups and specifications. for the case of hours performing household chores, no significant effects were identified. negative and statistically significant impacts on hours outdoors and doing homework were found only for secondary school students. the results obtained display robustness across repeated cross-sections and panel data strategies, presenting little change in the sign of the coefficients and statistical significance. future research will help explain the lack of effects regarding aspirations on computer science disciplines and white-collar occupations. further studies are needed to shed light about the effectiveness and efficiency of the program through a cost-benefit analysis, as well as to calculate the effects of laptops and other devices with connectivity on education outcomes through remote learning. acknowledgments i thank the quirós tanzi foundation for allowing me to evaluate 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(2016). learning in one-to-one laptop environments: a meta-analysis and research synthesis. review of educational research, 86(4), 1052-1084. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654316628645 1449 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 case studies what do mobile-connected cambodians do online? considering recent developments related to government monitoring of the internet in cambodia and a renewed push in civil society to improve access to information for cambodian citizens, we wondered: what do cambodian owners of smartphones do on the internet? this article reports on how respondents use the internet, use smartphones, perceive benefits of the internet, and use social media. a survey was developed iteratively by the research team with ongoing support from members of the in-country team located in phnom penh, cambodia. a planned missing data research design was utilized. the survey was disseminated to 35,000 cambodia smart phone users. 429 responses were gathered on questions focusing on the personal, political, social activities on the internet. this study adds to the growing body of knowledge on how various societies are getting access to the internet and what they do when they are on the internet. !85 jayson w. richardson university of kentucky, usa corresponding author. jayson.richardson@uky.edu john nash university of kentucky, usa john.nash@uky.edu john eric m. lingat university of kentucky, usa johneric@uky.edu richardson, j.w., nash, j., lingat, j.m. (2018). what do mobile-connected cambodians do online? the journal of community informatics, 14 (2), 85–108. date submitted: 2018-08-14. date accepted: 2018-12-04. 
 copyright (c), 2018 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1449 mailto:jayson.richardson@uky.edu mailto:john.nash@uky.edu mailto:johneric@uky.edu http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1449 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1449 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction as people of the world become increasingly connected via the internet, the role smartphones play is becoming hard to ignore. in developing and emerging countries, there has been a noted rise in the number of people who access the internet via a smartphone (pew, 2016). the pew research center (2016), in a survey of 12 emerging nations in 2014 and 2015, noted significant increases in the percentage of adult internet users who reported accessing the internet several times a day (e.g., nigeria, up 20 points; ghana, up 19 points; and china, up 13 points). likewise, access to the internet by cambodian citizens is also rapidly increasing. estimates on the number of internet users in cambodia as of 2012 range from 2.7 million to 3.8 million, depending on the source (social media agencies network, 2016; telecommunications regulator of cambodia, 2016). at the end of the second quarter of 2015, 6,795,908 internet subscriptions (fixed lines plus mobile access) were in place (telecommunications regulator of cambodia, 2016). this is an increase of three to four million subscriptions in just over two years. this increase in subscriptions indicates a trend in the number of cambodians who use internet-enabled smartphones. in 2013, the internet penetration rate reached 33% of the population, or roughly five million subscribers, this is up from 3.8 million subscribers the year before (cambodian daily, 2014). this growth has been spurred primarily by the availability of internet connected mobile phones, known as smartphones. buddecom (2016) reported that mobile phone penetration rates reached 167% in cambodia as of the end of 2015. the pace of mobile subscriptions appears unabated, with 1.2 million new mobile subscribers added to the rolls in the first two quarters of 2015 alone (telecommunication regulator of cambodia, 2016b). certain technological and language-localization advances (in this instance, khmer) have spurred smartphone use in cambodia. phong and sola (2014) noted how the creation of the khmer operating system by the open institute in england, and later, the standardization of a khmer script in the mid-2000s, allowed for the quick adoption of smartphones in cambodia. today, khmer script is native on most smartphones. in their study of 2,066 cambodians, phong and sola (2014) found that 93.7% of respondents ages 15-65, owned a phone, 100% had access to a phone, and 28.4% of those phones were smartphones. !86 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 in light of recent developments related to government monitoring of the internet in cambodia (cambodian center for human rights, 2014a, 2014b) and a renewed push in civil society to improve access to information for cambodian citizens (cambodian league for the promotion and defense of human rights, 2015), we wondered: what do cambodian owners of smartphones do on the internet? as an avenue to reduce communication gaps and increase equitable practices, social media as accessed by smartphones in countries in transition, such as cambodia, might provide insight to the relationship of technological advances and social progress. ict4d and social media in southeast asia cole and crawford (2007) listed a number of examples in which social media was utilized to exercise political activism. for example, in southeast asia, the authors mention a specific large political movement coordinated through mobile phones and texting that influenced the resignation of joseph estrada, former president of the philippines. maftuh (2011) presented an extensive evaluation of the integration of icts in southeast asian countries. as part of a campaign from the southeast asian ministers of education organization (seameo), the organization tracked the ict4d advancements in member countries, which were brunei darussalam, cambodia, indonesia, lao pdr, malaysia, myanmar, philippines, singapore, thailand, timor leste, and vietnam (p. 1). the countries were categorized based on the usage level and pedagogical integration of ict4d practices. brunei, malaysia, and singapore have been found to lead the integration of ict, with cambodia, myanmar, lao pdr, and timor leste lacking the infrastructure and technologies for integration. although examples of positive uses of ict4d and social media have been described, it would be erroneous to ignore that all types of organizations utilize these vehicles to disseminate and provide access to information, regardless of intent. moir (2017) described the use of islamic state in iraq and levant (isil) to mobilize their terrorist agenda in southeast asia. foreign-trained fighters (ftf) from iraq and syria use facebook, telegram messenger, and extended sharing apps. becoming wise to the negative uses of their services, these social media platforms have taken action to block activities related to terrorism. moir painted a hopeful situation in the region, stating that continued cooperative efforts, such as those between governments and islamic communities in particular, are perhaps the most important measures towards challenging the ideological potency of isil. on this point, southeast asian countries, and especially those with moderate religious constituencies, appear to be on the right track. (p. 104) !87 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ict4d and social media in cambodia researchers (duggan, 1996; 1997; dy & ninomaya, 2003; lin, hsieh, yuok, svaary, & sum, 2004;) have identified cambodia as a nation experiencing multifaceted reform and technological renaissance, with national goals to meet 21st century demands by integrating innovative information and communication policies in educational systems. despite this small country’s transition into peace and stability in the 1990s, cambodia consistently ranks near the bottom of different ict metrics and indicators (cia, 2005; dutta, lopez-claros, & mia, 2006; moeys, 2004a, 2004b; world bank, 2001 as cited by richardson, 2010), including integration of ict in education systems. several barriers have been identified that corroborate these rankings (minges & gray, 2002; richardson, 2011), including outdated, scarce, and malfunctioning machines, internet and electric infrastructure limitations, and skills associated with integrating technology (i.e., language, on-going training, technical) were identified as leading barriers. other countries share these issues, such as ethiopia (bass, 2011) and zimbabwe (bhukuvani, zezekwa, & sunzuma, 2011). but, in cambodia, these limitations are met with ambitious programming. for example, the informatics for rural empowerment and community health (ireach) program established hubs in rural villages equipped with wi-fi and telecommunications capabilities to increase information access and knowledge sharing. in comparison to more developed countries such as japan, students in cambodia have been found to hold the same beliefs regarding the positive attributes of ict and future uses of technologies, despite the disparate country contexts and availability of technologies (elwood & maclean, 2009). this promising similarity is a hopeful indicator that ict4d in cambodia is set for a positive growth due to the cultural capital that is associated with positive dispositions towards technology integration (emmison & frow, 1998). social media has had an interesting reception in this religious country as issues of morality associated with an increase of tech-based access have emerged. according to a reuters article (2006 as cited by richardson, 2010), prime minister hun sen banned third generation mobile phones that can facilitate social media use due to unsolicited, inappropriate materials that his wife and her friends received. the prime minister’s concern is an example of the complex views of the variety of adopters in cambodia. richardson (2011) described the different adoption groups in cambodia by using rogers’s (2003) model of diffusion of innovations, finding that early adapters perceived ict skills advantageous, whereas issues of trialability and complexity were most often discussed by late and reinvent adapters. lastly, discontinuers and rejectors in cambodia voiced concerns about complexity and observable results. in light of these differences, earlier work by richardson (2009) found that demographic variable did not impact adoption rates in cambodia. rogers’ model has been applied and produced similar recommendations for government supports in other countries, such as saudi arabia (al !88 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ghatani, 2003) and south africa (chigona & licker, 2008). in addition, other countries have found that media has caused distortion in the integration of information and communication technologies, which include social media (chigona & mooketsi, 2011). a modern use of smartphones now includes social media access and connectivity. phong and sola (2014) found that 57.2% of the cambodian smartphone owners used it to check facebook. of those who had khmer-enabled smartphones, 95.5% used it to check facebook. furthermore, richardson, king, and nash (2017) found that four out of five cambodian smartphone users checked facebook several times a day. social media agencies network (2016) reported that 23% of the internet activity in cambodia was conducted through a smartphone. social media agencies network also reported that as of early 2016, there were more than 1.7 million facebook users in cambodia and 1,100 new cambodian facebook users are added daily. that equates to about one new facebook user every two minutes. some authors have cautioned however that factors such as cambodians having multiple facebook accounts and cambodians living abroad may distort these numbers (see chak, 2014). internet and improving conditions in cambodia the advancements and use of ict—specifically an open internet—in cambodia contribute to the changing cultural, social, and political landscape of this country in transition. marshall and taylor (2009) recognized the potential improvements that can result from the adoption of ict and open internet use, especially in ldcs primed for impressive advancements, such as cambodia. according to the authors, addressing the role of ict would “meet the demands and expectations of increasing global competition” in a variety of fields, such as accounting, agriculture, public health, and a host of other socioeconomic issues across the international setting (p. 2). richardson, nash, and flora (2014) reported that as cambodian students increase technology use, their beliefs regarding future job opportunities and acquiring new skills increases as well. unfortunately, the researchers identified barriers regarding this finding, stating that existing challenges to “internet accessibility could be drastically improved for the entire school system… student’s fear of looking incompetent and damaging the machine by using the computer or internet indicates a lack of hands-on experience and adequate support” (p. 73). this lack of access may contribute to the stagnant status of cambodia as an ldc. in his review of internet usage in ldcs, albirini (2008) concluded that “access is a crucial condition of informed citizenry, providing grounds for conscious decision-making, freedom of expression, and intellectual development” (p. 58). !89 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 as observed in south africa, halse and mallinson (2009) found that the latest generation (i.e., generation y) entering higher education and the labor market has changed the learning and training environments. ict innovations and open internet access has been the norm for these students. thus, a variety of technologies such as social networks and e-learning platforms have propelled socio-economic improvements that may not have occurred with previous generations of students and workers. this can also be seen in the post-khmer rouge baby-boomer (cambodia’s millenial) generation, which soeung (2016) believes are even better primed for technological innovations and socio-cultural and political reform. as identified by vuth, huor, and than (2006), cambodia in an asean foundation symposium, there is government interest to increase access and improve education by expanding distance learning opportunities using e-learning and ict. at this same symposium, research was presented that directly impacts this directive—internet capabilities come with high costs and limited geographic accessibility. as a work around to attain increased access and connectivity, cambodians use their mobile phones for a number of internet-based activities, such as accessing the world wide web, e-mailing, and texting. with the increased capabilities of smartphones and an aging generation primed for high use of technology, the potential for improving conditions in cambodia seem promising. methods the cambodian center for independent media (ccim) was our partner in the survey development and dissemination. the population for this study was mobile-internetusing cambodians. we choose to reach this population via text messages. ccim contracted with smart axiata to achieve this task. at the time of survey dissemination, smart axiata was cambodia's second largest mobile provider in terms of subscribers. at the time, smart had more than five million subscribers nationwide, covering an estimated 96% of the population. in terms of geography, smart provides complete or 1 partial coverage to all of cambodia's 25 provinces. survey design and dissemination a survey was developed iteratively by the research team, with ongoing support from members of the ccim team located in phnom penh, cambodia, and with advice and guidance from various stakeholders. the survey was piloted in two rounds to ensure the question sets measured the intended constructs. each pilot round included a group of participants who engaged in cognitive interviews and another group who engaged in testing the updated mobile-delivered online survey. in each round, the english survey was created, translated into khmer, then back-translated into english. http://www.axiata.com/operating/company/smart1 !90 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 to lower the cost of data collection and reduce participant time burdens to take the survey, a planned missing data design was utilized (graham et al, 2006). all participants were asked z-block questions about demographics. all participants were additionally asked to complete x-block questions that focused on online freedom of expression. ablock questions focused on internet use and access. b-block questions focused on social media use personally and around political issues. c-block questions focused on freedom of the internet and politics. table 1 describes the three-form approach the current research focuses solely on a subset of the broad survey approach described above, reporting only on forms 1 and 2 of z-block and a-block (demographics and internet use and access). a link to an online survey, hosted on the survey monkey system, was sent via a bulk sms containing a link to the survey to smart axiata subscribers who had an internet-enabled smartphone. the sms was disseminated on march 12, 2015, to 35,000 randomly chosen mobile smartphone users. from march 12-16, 2015, 884 responses were received from those who accessed the survey. a follow-up sms also containing a link to the survey url was sent on march 17, 2015, to 32,375 of the initial recipients who had not yet completed the survey. from march 17-18, 2015, an additional 243 responses were received. in total, 895 cambodians participated in the study. of that number 464 completed block a, 429, completed 2 block b, and 429 completed block c. response rates per form are reported in table 2. table 1. overview of the study’s three-form design form no. z-block x-block a-block b-block c-block 5 questions (demographics) 5 questions (online freedom of expression) 7 questions (internet use and access) 8 questions (personal and political social media use) 15 questions (political freedom on the internet) 1 yes yes yes yes no 2 yes yes yes no yes 3 yes yes no yes yes the survey invitation was in khmer. from that invitation, respondents could opt to take the 2 survey in english. this technique caused day-to-day response rates to be higher than the total number of respondents due to english respondents being initially counted twice (once on the language preference question of the initial khmer survey and once on the actual completed english survey). !91 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 3 details the response times by language. the english version took respondents an average of just under 18 minutes to complete, while the khmer version took respondents an average of 29 minutes to complete. *19 respondents removed because they remained active in the survey for multiple days. results demographics linguistic preferences roughly 75% of respondents selected to take the survey in khmer. the remaining 25% chose to be redirected to an english-language version of the same survey, which featured an additional question confirming the respondent’s cambodian citizenship before starting the survey questions. non-citizens were disqualified from participation. age respondents’ average age was approximately 25 years old. this finding is in line with national data that indicates that the country’s population is relatively young, with about 60% of cambodians under the age of 30. !92 table 3. survey response times response time * english khmer ab blocks 0:13:38 0:22:36 ac blocks 0:16:39 0:29:13 bc blocks 0:17:52 0:20:14 table 2. survey response rate by block block surveys started surveys completed % complete a 530 464 85% b 507 429 88% c 531 429 81% the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 gender 632 respondents (74.9%) were male, whereas 186 (22%) were female. one percent indicated “other” and 2% preferred not to answer. place of residence the survey gathered respondents from 22 of the country’s 25 provinces (missing were kep, mondulkiri, and stung treng). notably, 66.6% of respondents were from phnom penh where mobile phones are widespread. other provinces drawing substantial amounts of respondents, including siem reap (6.2%), have urban areas or, in the case of kandal (5.9%), are located near a large city (i.e., the capitol city of phnom penh). !93 table 4. in which language would you like to take this survey? language n percent khmer 735 74.8 english 248 25.2 total 983 100.0 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 !94 table 5. in which province do you currently live? province n percent phnom penh 552 66.6 banteay meanchey 3 .4 battambang 12 1.4 kampong cham 31 3.7 kampong chhnang 6 .7 kampong speu 18 2.2 kampong thom 8 1.0 kampot 13 1.6 kandal 49 5.9 koh kong 9 1.1 kratie 5 .6 oddar meanchey 3 .4 pailin 1 .1 preah sihanouk 12 1.4 preah vihear 2 .2 pursat 7 .8 prey veng 12 1.4 ratanakiri 3 .4 siem reap 51 6.2 svay rieng 8 1.0 takeo 18 2.2 tbong khmum 6 .7 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 education survey respondents were better educated than the general population with just over 55% of respondents having completed their bachelor’s degree, and with 25.5% having earned their high school diploma. this represents a considerably higher level of education than the general population, wherein only 39.4% of male and 35.8% of female students enroll in secondary school, according to unicef. income the majority of respondents (63.1%) made less than $500 usd per month, with the largest single percentage of respondents (35.2%) indicating that their personal income was between $100 and $299 usd per month. 25.5% of respondents chose not to answer this question. !95 table 6. what is the highest level of education you have completed? type n percent primary school 17 2.1 secondary school 74 9.0 high school diploma 210 25.5 bachelor's degree 455 55.2 graduate degree 69 8.4 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 use of ict devices smartphones most respondents (97.5%) reported using their smartphone to access the internet at least occasionally, with 77.6% indicating that their smartphone is their preferred device for accessing the internet. this confirms statements from the kingdom’s telecom regulator in march 2015 which claimed that up to 98% of the country’s internet traffic originates from smartphones. table 7. what is your personal monthly income? n percent less than $100 usd 95 11.6 $100 to $299 usd 289 35.2 $300 to $499 usd 134 16.3 $500 to $999 usd 57 7.0 $1,000 to $2,999 usd 27 3.3 $3,000 to $4,999 usd 2 .2 $5,000 usd or more 7 .9 prefer not to answer 209 25.5 table 8. please choose the statement that best describes your use of your smartphone type of use n percent i never use this device to access the internet 13 2.5 i only use this device to access the internet if another is not available 102 19.8 this is my preferred device for accessing the internet 399 77.6 !96 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 laptop computers ninety percent of respondents reported using their laptop computer to access the internet at least occasionally. however, only 47.2% identified the laptop as their preferred device for accessing the internet. about 42% reported they only use their laptop if another device is not available. additionally, 10% of respondents reported they never use their laptop to access the internet at all. desktop computers a desktop computer was the least popular means of accessing the internet among survey respondents. around 27% of respondents reporting that they never use a desktop computer to access the internet and another 44.7% reported that they only use a desktop computer if another internet-enabled device is not available. table 10. please choose the statement that best describes your use of your desktop computer n percent i never use this device to access the internet 138 27.2 i only use this device to access the internet if another is not available 227 44.7 this is my preferred device for accessing the internet 143 28.1 !97 table 9. please choose the statement that best describes your use of your laptop computer primary use of laptop computer n percent i never use this device to access the internet 51 10.0 i only use this device to access the internet if another is not available 219 42.9 this is my preferred device for accessing the internet 241 47.2 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 frequency of internet access most respondents (91.2%) reported that they access the internet at least once per day, with almost 66% of respondents reporting accessing the internet “continuously” through pushout (i.e., automated) updates to their phones. this data corresponds with the large number of respondents (97.5%) reporting they prefer to access the internet via a smartphone in table 10. expenditures on internet access despite frequent internet use, as shown in table 13, the majority of respondents (60.9%) spend less than $10 per month to access the internet. only 7.2% of respondents reported paying $20 usd or more per month. given the high rate of smartphone use among survey respondents, the low expenditures on internet data can likely be attributed to cambodia’s highly competitive telecommunications market. !98 table 12. how much do you normally pay to access the internet? amount n percent less than $5 usd per month 144 28.9 $5 to $9 usd per month 160 32.1 $10 to $14 usd per month 104 20.8 $15 to $19 usd per month 55 11.0 $20 to $49 usd per month 26 5.2 $50 usd or more per month 10 2.0 table 11. overall, how often do you access the internet (from any device)? amount n percent infrequently 11 2.2 weekly 8 1.6 2-4 times per week 25 5.0 more than once per day 127 25.3 continuously 331 65.9 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 adoption of the internet a few respondents were early adopters of regular internet use. however, the majority started regularly using the internet after 2005, with significant year-by-year increases in the number of adopters seen since 2010. figure 1. year in which respondents report using the internet regularly. perceived benefits of internet use the following data tables report findings about how cambodians use the internet. tables 15 to 17 demonstrate that respondents find the internet useful in their daily lives in a number of ways, including for improving performance in their jobs (78.8%), use in their studies (73.7%), for accessing news (75%), for entertainment (66.1%), and for connecting with friends and family (69.2%). fewer respondents however reported that the internet was useful for e-commerce. many respondents (75.3%) said the internet is useful in providing them with news and information that they cannot find offline in the country’s mainstream media. notably, only 33.7% of respondents said the internet makes it easy for them to shop online. only 29% of respondents reported that the internet made it easy for them to manage their finances online via online banking or bill pay. 0 25 50 75 100 be fo re 2 00 0 20 00 20 01 20 02 20 03 20 04 20 05 20 06 20 07 20 08 20 09 20 10 20 11 20 12 20 13 20 14 20 15 17 5 7 7 5 9 20 17 25 29 41 96 50 52 62 50 5 table 13. does the internet make your job easier or contribute to your professional development? and does the internet help in your education and studies? does the internet make your job easier or contribute to professional development? does the internet help in your education and studies? n percent n percent yes 387 78.8 362 73.7 no 104 21.2 129 26.3 !99 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 social media use the overwhelming majority of respondents reported holding accounts on three or more social media platforms. remarkably, 99.2% (all but four respondents) reported having a facebook account, and 81.6% reported using facebook several times per day. this data reflects the growing influence of facebook in cambodian society. though not as popular as facebook, google+ demonstrated a wide following among survey respondents, with 88.5% of respondents reporting that they have an account with the social media network. however, google+ users were less likely to check their accounts as often as facebook users, with only 28.2% of respondents reporting that they use their google+ account multiple times per day. the messaging network line also proved popular among survey respondents, with 84.7% of respondents reporting having a line account. though not as active as facebook users, line account holders outpaced google+ users in terms of use, with 31.2% reporting logging onto line multiple times per day. roughly half of respondents (49.3%) reported holding an instagram account. however, as with google+ and line, instagram account holders were substantially less active than facebook account holders, with only 12.4% reporting accessing their instagram account several times per day. twitter was by far the least popular social media platform. only 32.4% of respondents reported having a twitter account. moreover, respondents who did have twitter accounts used it less frequently than facebook, google+ or line users, with the majority of account holders reporting that they used twitter only “every few weeks or less.” !100 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the researchers created a social media use score, derived from an average of the reported use of all social media channels covered in the survey (e.g., facebook, google+, line, twitter, and instagram). the social media scores range from zero (no use on any channel) to five (use of all channels several times a day). the average social media score across all respondents was 2.57, suggesting that, on average, users engage in one or more social media channels 3-4 days a week. there is no statistically significant difference in social media use between residents who live in urban provinces versus those who live in rural provinces. limitations the study has two noted limitations. first, cambodians often have more than one mobile number and more than one mobile data subscription. thus, we are uncertain how many of the smart subscribers targeted in this study were duplicates. second, participants had to use their own data to participate in the study. this may have limited the number of participants willing to participate in the study. conclusion we examined devices used, their frequency of use, expenditures by users, the perceived benefits of the internet, and users’ social media use. we found that in terms of devices used to access to the internet, respondents overwhelmingly rely first on a smartphone (78%). they report using a laptop to access the internet occasionally, but only about half (47%) use it as a preferred device. table 14. how often do you use the following social media platforms? facebook google+ line instagram twitter n % n % n % n % n % no account 4 0.8 54 11.5 74 15.3 246 50.7 330 67.6 every few weeks or less 2 0.4 77 16.3 69 14.3 66 13.6 79 16.2 1-2 days a week 4 0.8 52 11.0 55 11.4 28 5.8 20 4.1 3-4 days a week 13 2.7 59 12.5 47 9.7 38 7.8 22 4.5 about once per day 66 13.7 96 20.4 88 18.2 47 9.7 28 5.7 several times per day 394 81.6 133 28.2 151 31.2 60 12.4 9 1.8 !101 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 globally, 43% of phone users say they own a smartphone (pew, 2016). in 2016, 48% of cambodians own at least one smartphone, more than doubling the penetration rate of 2015. this number is even greater in urban settings (asia foundation, 2016). by design, our sample was limited to smartphone users, so it follows that the device of choice for accessing the internet was a smartphone. pew (2016) noted that the share of smartphone owners in developing countries has increased dramatically since 2013. we would expect more cambodians to own smartphones in the coming year, and thus their use as a primary access point to the internet will follow. in the current study, most respondents (91%) reported they access the internet at least once per day. two thirds state they access the internet continuously via content pushed to their smartphones. in contrast, pew (2016) reported that “[r]oughly three-quarters of adult internet users across… 40 countries [stating] they use the internet at least once a day, with majorities in many countries saying that they access the web ‘several times a day’” (p. 5). our respondents reported finding the internet useful in their daily lives in a number of ways, including for improving their performance in their jobs (78.8%), education and studies (73.7%), and for connecting with friends and family (69.2%). however, fewer respondents felt the internet made it easy for them to shop online (33%) or bank online (29%) and two-thirds (66%) stated the internet does not serve as a mechanism for entertainment. in terms of accessing news and information, 75% of the respondents felt the internet provided them with access to news and information they could not find elsewhere. other reports state only 8% of cambodians use the internet to shop (hale, 2016), a finding which is not inconsistent with our findings. we asked whether respondents felt the internet made it easier to shop. as to how many of them actually do, we cannot say from our study. some of our findings in this area appear consistent with findings by other researchers on cambodian online habits. for example, cambodians had a positive response to reading or watching content from ads on social media (59%), and were second to brazil in being open to sharing information about brands if offered a reward (kantar tns, 2016). !102 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 cambodian smartphone users have a heavy social media diet. all but four respondents (99%) reported having a facebook account, and 82% reported using facebook several times per day. 88.5% of respondents reporting that they have a google+ account, but only 28% check it multiple times per day. the messaging network line also proved popular among survey respondents with 31% of respondents logging in multiple times per day. roughly half of respondents (49.3%) reported holding an instagram account. the high penetration of facebook among our respondents is not surprising in light of other reports. according to social, a social media agency in singapore that tracks digital indicators in cambodia, the number of facebook users is 3.4 million (tan, 2016), fueled in large part by the high use of mobile connections. in sum, most of the cambodia internet connected mobile users in this study felt that the internet is a mechanism to improve personal, professional, and civil duties. only an open and unmonitored internet will allow citizens to express themselves freely and use the internet as tool to stay informed and engage in the world, their nation, and their culture. this study thus aimed to understand how cambodian citizens play an active role in their online society. implications as cambodians integrate the use of smartphones into their daily lives and changing culture, modern uses are constantly developing. policies that support the productive and safe use of mobile phones can usher a new era of connectivity for cambodians. learning from early adapters of mobile-based technologies, cambodian policies can reflect the social advances that technology and innovation can facilitate. research on the use of mobile devices by cambodians can focus on further mining the individual utility of this growing practice. questions remain as to particular benefits as well as drawbacks of mobile connectivity. further explorations on how cambodians utilize social media platforms, such as facebook, would provide insight on the popularity of the site. for example, is facebook used to meet new people beyond the physical borders of the user or is it a means of direct messaging to other users with the same access. references abbott, j. p. 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(2001). world development indicators. washington, dc: the author. !108 case studies what do mobile-connected cambodians do online? introduction as people of the world become increasingly connected via the internet, the role smartphones play is becoming hard to ignore. in developing and emerging countries, there has been a noted rise in the number of people who access the internet via a smartphone (pew, 2016). the pew research center (2016), in a survey of 12 emerging nations in 2014 and 2015, noted significant increases in the percentage of adult internet users who reported accessing the internet several times a day (e.g., nigeria, up 20 points; ghana, up 19 points; and china, up 13 points). likewise, access to the internet by cambodian citizens is also rapidly increasing. estimates on the number of internet users in cambodia as of 2012 range from 2.7 million to 3.8 million, depending on the source (social media agencies network, 2016; telecommunications regulator of cambodia, 2016). at the end of the second quarter of 2015, 6,795,908 internet subscriptions (fixed lines plus mobile access) were in place (telecommunications regulator of cambodia, 2016). this is an increase of three to four million subscriptions in just over two years. this increase in subscriptions indicates a trend in the number of cambodians who use internet-enabled smartphones. in 2013, the internet penetration rate reached 33% of the population, or roughly five million subscribers, this is up from 3.8 million subscribers the year before (cambodian daily, 2014). this growth has been spurred primarily by the availability of internet connected mobile phones, known as smartphones. buddecom (2016) reported that mobile phone penetration rates reached 167% in cambodia as of the end of 2015. the pace of mobile subscriptions appears unabated, with 1.2 million new mobile subscribers added to the rolls in the first two quarters of 2015 alone (telecommunication regulator of cambodia, 2016b). certain technological and language-localization advances (in this instance, khmer) have spurred smartphone use in cambodia. phong and sola (2014) noted how the creation of the khmer operating system by the open institute in england, and later, the standardization of a khmer script in the mid-2000s, allowed for the quick adoption of smartphones in cambodia. today, khmer script is native on most smartphones. in their study of 2,066 cambodians, phong and sola (2014) found that 93.7% of respondents ages 15-65, owned a phone, 100% had access to a phone, and 28.4% of those phones were smartphones. in light of recent developments related to government monitoring of the internet in cambodia (cambodian center for human rights, 2014a, 2014b) and a renewed push in civil society to improve access to information for cambodian citizens (cambodian league for the promotion and defense of human rights, 2015), we wondered: what do cambodian owners of smartphones do on the internet? as an avenue to reduce communication gaps and increase equitable practices, social media as accessed by smartphones in countries in transition, such as cambodia, might provide insight to the relationship of technological advances and social progress. cole and crawford (2007) listed a number of examples in which social media was utilized to exercise political activism. for example, in southeast asia, the authors mention a specific large political movement coordinated through mobile phones and texting that influenced the resignation of joseph estrada, former president of the philippines. maftuh (2011) presented an extensive evaluation of the integration of icts in southeast asian countries. as part of a campaign from the southeast asian ministers of education organization (seameo), the organization tracked the ict4d advancements in member countries, which were brunei darussalam, cambodia, indonesia, lao pdr, malaysia, myanmar, philippines, singapore, thailand, timor leste, and vietnam (p. 1). the countries were categorized based on the usage level and pedagogical integration of ict4d practices. brunei, malaysia, and singapore have been found to lead the integration of ict, with cambodia, myanmar, lao pdr, and timor leste lacking the infrastructure and technologies for integration. although examples of positive uses of ict4d and social media have been described, it would be erroneous to ignore that all types of organizations utilize these vehicles to disseminate and provide access to information, regardless of intent. moir (2017) described the use of islamic state in iraq and levant (isil) to mobilize their terrorist agenda in southeast asia. foreign-trained fighters (ftf) from iraq and syria use facebook, telegram messenger, and extended sharing apps. becoming wise to the negative uses of their services, these social media platforms have taken action to block activities related to terrorism. moir painted a hopeful situation in the region, stating that continued cooperative efforts, such as those between governments and islamic communities in particular, are perhaps the most important measures towards challenging the ideological potency of isil. on this point, southeast asian countries, and especially those with moderate religious constituencies, appear to be on the right track. (p. 104) as observed in south africa, halse and mallinson (2009) found that the latest generation (i.e., generation y) entering higher education and the labor market has changed the learning and training environments. ict innovations and open internet access has been the norm for these students. thus, a variety of technologies such as social networks and e-learning platforms have propelled socio-economic improvements that may not have occurred with previous generations of students and workers. this can also be seen in the post-khmer rouge baby-boomer (cambodia’s millenial) generation, which soeung (2016) believes are even better primed for technological innovations and socio-cultural and political reform. as identified by vuth, huor, and than (2006), cambodia in an asean foundation symposium, there is government interest to increase access and improve education by expanding distance learning opportunities using e-learning and ict. at this same symposium, research was presented that directly impacts this directive—internet capabilities come with high costs and limited geographic accessibility. as a work around to attain increased access and connectivity, cambodians use their mobile phones for a number of internet-based activities, such as accessing the world wide web, e-mailing, and texting. with the increased capabilities of smartphones and an aging generation primed for high use of technology, the potential for improving conditions in cambodia seem promising. methods the cambodian center for independent media (ccim) was our partner in the survey development and dissemination. the population for this study was mobile-internet-using cambodians. we choose to reach this population via text messages. ccim contracted with smart axiata to achieve this task. at the time of survey dissemination, smart axiata was cambodia's second largest mobile provider in terms of subscribers. at the time, smart had more than five million subscribers nationwide, covering an estimated 96% of the population. in terms of geography, smart provides complete or partial coverage to all of cambodia's 25 provinces. survey design and dissemination a survey was developed iteratively by the research team, with ongoing support from members of the ccim team located in phnom penh, cambodia, and with advice and guidance from various stakeholders. the survey was piloted in two rounds to ensure the question sets measured the intended constructs. each pilot round included a group of participants who engaged in cognitive interviews and another group who engaged in testing the updated mobile-delivered online survey. in each round, the english survey was created, translated into khmer, then back-translated into english. to lower the cost of data collection and reduce participant time burdens to take the survey, a planned missing data design was utilized (graham et al, 2006). all participants were asked z-block questions about demographics. all participants were additionally asked to complete x-block questions that focused on online freedom of expression. a-block questions focused on internet use and access. b-block questions focused on social media use personally and around political issues. c-block questions focused on freedom of the internet and politics. table 1 describes the three-form approach the current research focuses solely on a subset of the broad survey approach described above, reporting only on forms 1 and 2 of z-block and a-block (demographics and internet use and access). a link to an online survey, hosted on the survey monkey system, was sent via a bulk sms containing a link to the survey to smart axiata subscribers who had an internet-enabled smartphone. the sms was disseminated on march 12, 2015, to 35,000 randomly chosen mobile smartphone users. from march 12-16, 2015, 884 responses were received from those who accessed the survey. a follow-up sms also containing a link to the survey url was sent on march 17, 2015, to 32,375 of the initial recipients who had not yet completed the survey. from march 17-18, 2015, an additional 243 responses were received. in total, 895 cambodians participated in the study. of that number 464 completed block a, 429, completed block b, and 429 completed block c. response rates per form are reported in table 2. table 3 details the response times by language. the english version took respondents an average of just under 18 minutes to complete, while the khmer version took respondents an average of 29 minutes to complete. 632 respondents (74.9%) were male, whereas 186 (22%) were female. one percent indicated “other” and 2% preferred not to answer. the survey gathered respondents from 22 of the country’s 25 provinces (missing were kep, mondulkiri, and stung treng). notably, 66.6% of respondents were from phnom penh where mobile phones are widespread. other provinces drawing substantial amounts of respondents, including siem reap (6.2%), have urban areas or, in the case of kandal (5.9%), are located near a large city (i.e., the capitol city of phnom penh). survey respondents were better educated than the general population with just over 55% of respondents having completed their bachelor’s degree, and with 25.5% having earned their high school diploma. this represents a considerably higher level of education than the general population, wherein only 39.4% of male and 35.8% of female students enroll in secondary school, according to unicef. the majority of respondents (63.1%) made less than $500 usd per month, with the largest single percentage of respondents (35.2%) indicating that their personal income was between $100 and $299 usd per month. 25.5% of respondents chose not to answer this question. most respondents (97.5%) reported using their smartphone to access the internet at least occasionally, with 77.6% indicating that their smartphone is their preferred device for accessing the internet. this confirms statements from the kingdom’s telecom regulator in march 2015 which claimed that up to 98% of the country’s internet traffic originates from smartphones. ninety percent of respondents reported using their laptop computer to access the internet at least occasionally. however, only 47.2% identified the laptop as their preferred device for accessing the internet. about 42% reported they only use their laptop if another device is not available. additionally, 10% of respondents reported they never use their laptop to access the internet at all. a desktop computer was the least popular means of accessing the internet among survey respondents. around 27% of respondents reporting that they never use a desktop computer to access the internet and another 44.7% reported that they only use a desktop computer if another internet-enabled device is not available. most respondents (91.2%) reported that they access the internet at least once per day, with almost 66% of respondents reporting accessing the internet “continuously” through pushout (i.e., automated) updates to their phones. this data corresponds with the large number of respondents (97.5%) reporting they prefer to access the internet via a smartphone in table 10. despite frequent internet use, as shown in table 13, the majority of respondents (60.9%) spend less than $10 per month to access the internet. only 7.2% of respondents reported paying $20 usd or more per month. given the high rate of smartphone use among survey respondents, the low expenditures on internet data can likely be attributed to cambodia’s highly competitive telecommunications market. the overwhelming majority of respondents reported holding accounts on three or more social media platforms. remarkably, 99.2% (all but four respondents) reported having a facebook account, and 81.6% reported using facebook several times per day. this data reflects the growing influence of facebook in cambodian society. the researchers created a social media use score, derived from an average of the reported use of all social media channels covered in the survey (e.g., facebook, google+, line, twitter, and instagram). the social media scores range from zero (no use on any channel) to five (use of all channels several times a day). the average social media score across all respondents was 2.57, suggesting that, on average, users engage in one or more social media channels 3-4 days a week. there is no statistically significant difference in social media use between residents who live in urban provinces versus those who live in rural provinces. limitations the study has two noted limitations. first, cambodians often have more than one mobile number and more than one mobile data subscription. thus, we are uncertain how many of the smart subscribers targeted in this study were duplicates. second, participants had to use their own data to participate in the study. this may have limited the number of participants willing to participate in the study. conclusion we examined devices used, their frequency of use, expenditures by users, the perceived benefits of the internet, and users’ social media use. we found that in terms of devices used to access to the internet, respondents overwhelmingly rely first on a smartphone (78%). they report using a laptop to access the internet occasionally, but only about half (47%) use it as a preferred device. globally, 43% of phone users say they own a smartphone (pew, 2016). in 2016, 48% of cambodians own at least one smartphone, more than doubling the penetration rate of 2015. this number is even greater in urban settings (asia foundation, 2016). by design, our sample was limited to smartphone users, so it follows that the device of choice for accessing the internet was a smartphone. pew (2016) noted that the share of smartphone owners in developing countries has increased dramatically since 2013. we would expect more cambodians to own smartphones in the coming year, and thus their use as a primary access point to the internet will follow. in the current study, most respondents (91%) reported they access the internet at least once per day. two thirds state they access the internet continuously via content pushed to their smartphones. in contrast, pew (2016) reported that “[r]oughly three-quarters of adult internet users across… 40 countries [stating] they use the internet at least once a day, with majorities in many countries saying that they access the web ‘several times a day’” (p. 5). our respondents reported finding the internet useful in their daily lives in a number of ways, including for improving their performance in their jobs (78.8%), education and studies (73.7%), and for connecting with friends and family (69.2%). however, fewer respondents felt the internet made it easy for them to shop online (33%) or bank online (29%) and two-thirds (66%) stated the internet does not serve as a mechanism for entertainment. in terms of accessing news and information, 75% of the respondents felt the internet provided them with access to news and information they could not find elsewhere. other reports state only 8% of cambodians use the internet to shop (hale, 2016), a finding which is not inconsistent with our findings. we asked whether respondents felt the internet made it easier to shop. as to how many of them actually do, we cannot say from our study. some of our findings in this area appear consistent with findings by other researchers on cambodian online habits. for example, cambodians had a positive response to reading or watching content from ads on social media (59%), and were second to brazil in being open to sharing information about brands if offered a reward (kantar tns, 2016). cambodian smartphone users have a heavy social media diet. all but four respondents (99%) reported having a facebook account, and 82% reported using facebook several times per day. 88.5% of respondents reporting that they have a google+ account, but only 28% check it multiple times per day. the messaging network line also proved popular among survey respondents with 31% of respondents logging in multiple times per day. roughly half of respondents (49.3%) reported holding an instagram account. the high penetration of facebook among our respondents is not surprising in light of other reports. according to social, a social media agency in singapore that tracks digital indicators in cambodia, the number of facebook users is 3.4 million (tan, 2016), fueled in large part by the high use of mobile connections. in sum, most of the cambodia internet connected mobile users in this study felt that the internet is a mechanism to improve personal, professional, and civil duties. only an open and unmonitored internet will allow citizens to express themselves freely and use the internet as tool to stay informed and engage in the world, their nation, and their culture. this study thus aimed to understand how cambodian citizens play an active role in their online society. implications as cambodians integrate the use of smartphones into their daily lives and changing culture, modern uses are constantly developing. policies that support the productive and safe use of mobile phones can usher a new era of connectivity for cambodians. learning from early adapters of mobile-based technologies, cambodian policies can reflect the social advances that technology and innovation can facilitate. research on the use of mobile devices by cambodians can focus on further mining the individual utility of this growing practice. questions remain as to particular benefits as well as drawbacks of mobile connectivity. further explorations on how cambodians utilize social media platforms, such as facebook, would provide insight on the popularity of the site. for example, is facebook used to meet new people beyond the physical borders of the user or is it a means of direct messaging to other users with the same access. references intah ready pdf the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 case studies connecting with youth at risk: indigenous organizations use of facebook a qualitative study in which we conducted four interviews with two communication managers and two youth program managers of three indigenous organizations with offices in ottawa, the data generated from the interviews were coded based on factors identified through thematic analysis. indigenous organizations use facebook for two main reasons. the first reason is to promote the work of these organizations to the public and for them, in turn to listen to the public’s opinions about news related to indigenous peoples’ wellbeing. secondly, facebook is also used to engage urban indigenous youth at risk with indigenous organizations that provide social programs and outreach. indigenous organizations use facebook because many urban indigenous youth in ottawa are using facebook and it is the fastest way to connect with them when they are or feel at risk. channarong intahchomphoo university of ottawa, canada corresponding author. cinta088@uottawa.ca andre vellino university of ottawa, canada corresponding author. avellino@uottawa.ca odderik gundersen odderik.gundersen@gmail.com !98 intahchomphoo, c., vellino, a., gundersen, o. (2019). connecting with youth at risk: indigenous organizations use of facebook. the journal of community informatics, 15, 98-115. date submitted: 2018-03-31. date accepted: 2018-10-31. 
 copyright (c), 2019 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1439 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1439 mailto:cinta088@uottawa.ca mailto:avellino@uottawa.ca mailto:odderik.gundersen@gmail.com http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1439 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction farzindar & inkpen (2015) describe social computing as “an area of computer science that is concerned with the intersection of social behaviour and computational systems” (p.109). similarly, facebook (2016) defines social computing as “computational techniques and tools to study human social behaviour”. social computing is thus comprised of two essential elements: social behaviour and the computer systems that enable this behaviour. we believe that social behaviour is closely tied to norms of cultural behaviour in specific populations and in this research, we propose to use social computing perspectives to study how and why indigenous organizations use facebook to engage and disseminate information with urban indigenous youth at risk in ontario. our assumption is that indigenous organizations can reduce risks among urban indigenous youth in ontario by engaging and disseminating information on facebook. given that urban centers pose significant risks for urban indigenous youth (miller et al., 2011), it is critically important to develop an understanding of how indigenous organizations use social media like facebook to disseminate information to their targeted populations, particularly urban indigenous youth, who use facebook and other social media heavily and daily. one problem is that help for vulnerable indigenous youth frequently arrives too late. it normally takes some time for family, friends, community members, and government agencies to identify indigenous youth in danger. it also usually takes some time for people voluntarily seeking help to inform their family members and friends about their situation. besides these barriers, some matters are associated with social stigmas especially drug addiction and mental health. the delayed identification of indigenous youth at risk poses great challenges for how to provide assistance and treatment. we explore how the indigenous organizations use facebook to engage with urban indigenous youth at risk in ottawa through conducting in-person interviews with two communication managers and two youth program managers of three indigenous organizations based in ottawa. the interviews were conducted during the spring and summer of 2017. our contribution is an analysis of how indigenous organizations could reduce risk among urban indigenous youth by engaging and disseminating information on facebook. we have found that many indigenous youth living in ottawa experienced remote-to-urban forced migration. many of them came involuntarily to ottawa in order to receive medical care not available in their remote home communities. urban indigenous youth in ottawa are using facebook to combat their loneliness by contacting their families and friends who reside in rural and remote communities. background unesco (2016) defines youth as the population group ranging from 15 to 35 years of age. youth, according to that definition, are the most at risk age group in populations !99 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 across societies and cultures. this stage of life comes with changes in hormones, physical state, mood, and social behaviour while having to find one’s identity and become autonomous. youth in vulnerable and impoverished populations face an even a higher risk since dealing with poverty and vulnerability add to the transitional challenges. in this research, the term “at risk” means that individuals face a high probability of being exposed to physical and/or psychological harm or danger. for this research, we focus on urban indigenous youth because they face increased risks in terms of health care, education, housing, unemployment, racial and cultural discrimination, substance addiction, murdered and missing indigenous women, sexual abuse and domestic violence, and youth suicide (boksa, joober, & kirmayer, 2015); (drache, fletcher, & voss, 2016). we chose to further narrow the geographic scope of this study to urban populations in the city of ottawa, ontario given that data from statistics canada shows that the majority of indigenous peoples in canada live in the province of ontario and mostly in urban areas rather than on reserves which are often more rural and remote. census data collected in 2011 indicates that out of canada’s total indigenous population of 1.4 million, 21.5 % (301,425) reside in ontario (statistics canada, 2015a). this amounts to 2.4% of the population of ontario, considerably lower than the national percentage of the indigenous population in canada at 4.3%, (statistics canada, 2015b). the percentage of indigenous peoples with registered indigenous status living offreserve in canada stands at 50.7% (statistics canada, 2015b). many of them now live in urban areas of ontario such as toronto, ottawa, thunder bay, sudbury, hamilton, and sault ste. marie (ontario federation of indigenous friendship centres, 2013). ottawa is the capital of canada and has a population of approximately one million people (city of ottawa, 2014). it is the seat of parliament and as the main location of the federal government, it is where important policy decisions are made that have an impact on all indigenous communities across the country. according to the 2011 statistics from the city of ottawa there are about 18,180 indigenous peoples living in ottawa (statistics canada, 2015c). the number is quickly growing and many of the indigenous peoples in ottawa are young with 4 in 10 being under the age of 25 (statistics canada, 2017). therefore, ottawa is a good location for this study since the city attracts indigenous youth from many communities within ontario and from other provinces as well. the city of ottawa has a number of diverse indigenous organizations; no other city in ontario has the same characteristics. ottawa’s indigenous organizations look after the basic needs and wellbeing of indigenous residents, including their housing, education, health, and culture. these functions are similar to the indigenous organizations in other cities in ontario but ottawa is only the city in which many national-level indigenous organizations have chosen to locate their headquarters. at the time of writing this article, there are 15 indigenous organizations located in ottawa. of these entities in terms of focus 9 are policy-oriented and 6 are community outreach organizations. policy-oriented indigenous organizations negotiate and participate in political matters with the canadian federal government and parliament who are also located in the capital. community outreach-oriented indigenous organizations focus on providing !100 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 support to all indigenous people living in ottawa. the characteristics of indigenous organizations in ottawa are unique and position this study well to gather both regional and national information about how the indigenous organizations use facebook to engage with urban indigenous youth at risk. in recent years, researchers have looked at social media and internet usage by indigenous people who live in rural and remote areas around the world, mainly in australia, canada, united states, and new zealand (gauvin, granger, & lorthiois, 2015; filippi et al., 2013; ormond-parker & sloggett, 2012); (mcmahon, gurstein, beaton, o’donnell, & whiteduck, 2014; kopacz & lawton, 2011; mcmahon, 2014; singleton, et al., 2009; watson, 2015). the purpose of social media usage among indigenous peoples include cyber-activism (warf, 2009; elwood & leszczynski, 2013), digital channels to record and promote their culture (huang, chen, & mo, 2015; dalseg & abele, 2015), connecting and maintaining relationships with other people (watson, 2015), and seeking health information and establishing virtual health support groups (stephens-reicher et al., 2011; carlson, 2013; laakso, armstrong, & usher, 2012). there is no academic literature documenting the voices of the indigenous organizations in urban areas, who work diligently to offer services, run outreach programs, and advocate for indigenous rights, and how they use facebook to connect with youth at risk. research methodology research design we interviewed two communication managers and two youth program managers who are responsible for social media campaigns in the three indigenous organizations in ottawa. their social media activities are followed by many of the indigenous youth in ottawa. we conducted four interviews in total. each interview lasted between 45 and 60 minutes. these interviews aimed to discover their facebook strategies and practices for engaging with urban indigenous youth at risk. recruitment we recruited participants by approaching them directly with a formal email that explains the research project. the information sheet, informed consent form, and interview guidelines were also attached. we used email addresses that were found on indigenous organization websites with office addresses in ottawa. we waited for their email responses in order to schedule the interview and we followed up by telephone. data collection we held our interviews at the participants’ offices in a private meeting space. in this research, the interviews were semi-structured and used interview guidelines. this allowed interviewees to freely express their personal opinions and to add their own comments beyond the prepared questions. the interviews conducted with communication managers, whose roles included generating and sharing content on their organization’s facebook page, and youth program managers whose roles are to run !101 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 cultural and social activities for indigenous youth in ottawa and act as the first responder in identifying indigenous youth at risk and help them to receive or access necessary assistance. this was followed by inquiries focused on their professional use of facebook, the types of content they read, generate, and share on facebook for their organizations, whether their facebook content targets urban indigenous youth who feel at risk physically and/or psychologically, their observations when an urban indigenous youth is at risk through the language or verbal tone of the content that he or she has generated or shared on facebook, and the support of indigenous culture toward generating and sharing content on facebook. there was no financial compensation for their participation. data analysis our interviews were audio-recorded and done in-person. the data generated from the interviews were manually transcribed in english and coded based on patterns identified through thematic analysis (braun, & clarke, 2006). based on our research question, how and why indigenous organizations use facebook to engage with urban indigenous youth at risk, and interview guidelines, we developed predetermined codes and then created additional codes to capture specific emergent themes when we were more familiarized with the data. our data analysis codes include facebook usage frequency, account control and access, type and format of information generated and shared on facebook, motivations, challenges, indigenous attitudes toward facebook, and their observations on facebook usage among urban indigenous youth at risk. then we did the second and third level content analysis to identify relationships between themes. as the number of our interviews was not large, we were able to make comparisons between each interview to find the similarities and differences to further improve our data analysis with special attention to the type of indigenous organizations (1. national; 2. regional) and their work mandates (1. advocacy and political issues; 2. social programs and outreach). we presented our preliminary findings to our interviewees in this research in september 2017, which helped to enhance the quality of our findings (c. intahchomphoo, personal communication, september 19, 2017). ethics this research received ethics approval from the health sciences and science research ethics board of the university of ottawa (file# h02-17-01). we asked research participants to give written consent in willingness to participate in the interviews. they were given time to read the consent as much as they needed and prior to the interviews taking place. we also read the consent aloud to the participants. in the results section, we omitted all personally identifiable information including participants’ names, organizations, addresses, and physical appearances. we used pseudonyms for our participants in this paper. no data from this research was stored online in a cloudcomputing environment. data will not be shared with any third parties. in terms of the assessment of risks, we only publish results where we have explicit permission from the !102 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 indigenous organizations and the communication managers and youth program managers from which we obtained data. results indigenous organizations in ottawa frequently use facebook and their facebook accounts are being controlled by communication managers and management level personnel. “i, the executive director, and one of the managers are pretty much the people who focus on communications through facebook.”alinga all of our four interviewees (whose pseudonyms are: adoni, alinga, alba, and alkina) said that their indigenous organizations use facebook on a daily basis. we discovered that many indigenous organizations in ottawa do not have a high capacity to constantly generate new content for their facebook accounts due to human resources limitations. as a result, they also read and share other organizations’ and individual’s posts to display on their organizations’ facebook walls. generating new content of their own is usually done internally with a small team consisting of members from administrative staff, community outreach staff, and communication managers. those people have full access to the organizations’ facebook accounts. indigenous organizations in ottawa use facebook to share information about the important events and meetings that staff attend, to listen to public opinion about emerging indigenous peoples’ issues and concerns, and to promote their outreach campaigns. “a couple weeks ago, he (organization leader) was in new york at the united nations. i will post pictures of him there.”adoni two interviewees mentioned that their indigenous organizations use facebook to share information about the attendance by their directors or staff at prominent social events and work-related meetings taking place in ottawa or other urban cities and rural areas in canada, as well as abroad. furthermore, we learned that sharing information about such events on facebook is being done at two out of four indigenous organizations we interviewed in ottawa. moreover, from our interviews we discovered that indigenous organizations in ottawa use facebook to listen to public opinion about issues and concerns arising in indigenous communities. these are some examples of quotes from our interviewees on this matter: “i think that we found a lot of strength on facebook. we were able to connect with other people in term of understanding indigenous issues. i find that there are power in mini voices and sharing information” alba “i use facebook often to find news stories that people shared from other parts of the country that might be interested … for example, the missing and murdered indigenous women inquiry”adoni !103 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls was discussed in two of our four interviews. we were told that information and opinions about the inquiry are also being shared and discussed on the indigenous organizations’ facebook accounts. when the inquiry was starting, there were a lot of different opinions about whether they were doing a good job or whether an inquiry should be held at all and a lot of people shared their thoughts on facebook. some indigenous organizations in ottawa would use the peoples’ thoughts on facebook to get a sense where the organizations should stand on this issue. facebook is also used to see what other peoples in the indigenous world are doing and what communities’ issues and challenges are like in different parts of canada. adoni expressed the personal opinion that facebook is a good tool for indigenous organizations to keep track of other politicians and other indigenous leaders to see what they are doing that could impact the wellbeing of all indigenous peoples in canada. in addition, we noticed another aspect of facebook usage among indigenous organizations in ottawa especially the ones with a mandate to provide communitybased programs and services: they put a very strong emphasis on using facebook to promote their outreach campaigns. below are some sample quotes from our interviewees: “we have an upcoming campaign about childhood sexual abuse. this campaign will disproportionately be on facebook.”alinga “we post information (on facebook) of our programs and any helpful information about safety or knowledge about abuses.” alba “through facebook we actually reach [out] to some of the youth that are on [the] street and our outreach people [are able] to access them and find them and get them into shelters.” alkina alinga, alba, and alkina advised us that in ottawa as well with other parts of canada, there are conversations being held about indigenous youth’s mental health, suicide crises, and substance abuse. these are also significant social problems among urban indigenous youth in ottawa. substance abuse has a strong relationship with mental illness and suicide (agrawal et al., 2017). our interviewees commented that there really should be more public discussion and facebook campaigns on those specific topics. interestingly, in our interviews we also were briefed that they have to ensure that whatever content they post on facebook targeting urban indigenous youth must not be too manipulative, controversial, or emotionally taxing. this is particularly the case when the facebook post targets urban indigenous youth who are at risk. otherwise, it is possible they might see the organizations’ facebook outreach campaigns and react with psychological or emotional discomfort, which may have social repercussions particularly since urban indigenous youth in ottawa do not necessarily know where they can get help. therefore, indigenous organizations in ottawa are extremely mindful of the sensibilities of urban indigenous youth when creating facebook outreach campaigns. !104 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 other campaign materials such as posters and press releases that the indigenous organizations have created also go through their facebook pages. some of our interviewees indicated that their organizations also use twitter to disseminate information about their outreach campaigns, but remarked that it is not as popular as facebook. they found that twitter is difficult for the indigenous organizations’ outreach campaigns in part because of the limited word count of tweets. they also believe that facebook functionality is better suited to oral expression, which aligns with the indigenous peoples’ rich oral history traditions. indigenous youth can use facebook video functionality to verbally express and share their thoughts and feelings disseminated in the form of moving images and sounds to their circles of friends on facebook. sharing a video does not require an indigenous youth to input any text. furthermore, facebook videos can be produced and uploaded very easily on smartphones, which are the devices that most urban indigenous youth in ottawa are using. many urban indigenous youth in ottawa are unaccompanied and they were forced to migrate to the city. they use facebook to connect with their families and communities in the rural and remote areas from which they came. “it is very overloaded in the urban setting, it is very challenging. it does compound with race and class… i think when you are here alone your connectivity is so important and that why they are relying on facebook to get in touch to their home community.” alinga the data from our interviews helped us to recognize the crucial relationship between remote-to-urban forced migration (darling, 2017) and urban indigenous youth in ottawa. unfortunately, many of them are also living in ottawa without any family members accompanying them from their home communities. in many cases, they were forced to migrate to ottawa to receive medical care or better education, which are not available in their more remote communities. so, those indigenous youth often end up living alone for a long period of time in ottawa, as some medical care can be very lengthy. because they reside in ottawa on their own, the connection with their families and communities in rural and remote areas is often done through facebook on their personal cellphones. for the unaccompanied urban indigenous youth in ottawa, it is very important to maintain ties with their home communities, so their facebook connectivity is not only about maintaining social connections but it is also about staying connected to their indigenous cultures. here we see the use of facebook by unaccompanied urban indigenous youth is at the intersection of personal relationships and cultural identity. when they use facebook to connect with remotely located family and friends, they are also being updated with a lot of social news what is happening in the community, which nourishes and sustains a very important part of their cultural identity. one of our interviewees said that urban indigenous youth in ottawa who wish to return to their rural and remote indigenous communities face many challenges because of the high cost of transportation to their homes. in addition, there is also now a housing crisis !105 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 in many indigenous reserves in ontario and other provinces and territories (anaya, 2015). for urban indigenous youth in ottawa to return home, they must find a place to live and their families often experience overcrowding with multiple families in one house. in many cases this situation would have worsened since they left their communities. therefore, many urban indigenous youth who leave remote communities for southern cities like ottawa do not have much choice but to continue to stay in the city. they therefore have to live alone for a longer period than they had expected in a place that has a very different culture with different social interactions than their home communities. unfortunately, these circumstances are contributing factors to the struggles that many urban indigenous youth faces. the circumstances increase risks such as drugs and alcohol, which are readily accessible in urban settings. using minimal text and simple language with images and short videos on facebook posts. “the number one thing that people (indigenous youth) said is to cut back on the text (on facebook).” alinga “i was editing some videos ... i just promoted the event on facebook. the video i did is about 30 seconds.” adoni indigenous organizations in ottawa prefer to use short videos to communicate on their facebook pages. for them, it is essential to use minimal text with simple language. this is due to the fact that neither english nor french are the first language of many urban indigenous youth living in ottawa although many do speak english or french as a second language depending on where they were raised. therefore, indigenous organizations in ottawa prefer to use audio and visual media to communicate with indigenous youth. we observed that indigenous organizations in ottawa use symbolic imagery on their facebook posts such as the ancient traditional indigenous arts and paintings with the cultural representations about the concepts of spirituality, human beings and animals, and the relationship to the nature. normally, they cut back on text as much as they can and they keep the english or french text to a reading level that is appropriate to their readership. they also ensure that the images they use represent indigenous peoples. in terms of being culturally appropriate, our interviewees indicated that this is very important because otherwise indigenous youth will just scroll right past it on their facebook’s news feed if they have non-indigenous themed designs. in our interviews, the research participants discussed at greater length the fact that facebook posts are fast paced and its news feed has a rapid turn-over rate. however, they have to ensure whatever they post is eye catching, colorful, and not too wordy, in order to capture indigenous youths’ attentions. adoni added in her opinion, facebook has contributed to shortening indigenous youths’ attention spans. a study on the future of on-line news video by kalogeropoulos, cherubini, & newman (2016) suggests that, to have an impact, even videos on facebook have to be short and tight. !106 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 indigenous organizations in ottawa have different motivations for their facebook strategies. “we are trying to figure out how to get into the indigenous peoples’ facebook algorithm for them to see our posts on their facebook walls. that is one of our motivations—how to get ourselves out there more.” alinga some indigenous organizations in ottawa explained that they want their facebook posts widely shared to help their organizations to better connect with urban indigenous youth. one way to evaluate social media strategies and to measure the public reach of facebook posts is to count the number of “shares”. all of our interviewees want to maximize the extent to which their messages reach the public on facebook. however, the indigenous organizations in ottawa with a facebook outreach mandate sometimes find it difficult to get across information about programs and services that they have available to assist indigenous youth. on the other hand, there are other indigenous organizations in ottawa who are working on the political side and advocating for indigenous peoples’ rights. their facebook motivation is more about how to quickly inform all indigenous peoples about forthcoming laws, amending legislation, the house of commons and senate debates, and the prime minister messages to the members in the chamber and the public that will be introduced in the canadian parliament, which they believe may have a great negative impact on their people. their motivation for posting on facebook is more to address political and legal changes and to raise awareness, which in some cases might lead to public mobilization (wood, 2015). challenges with facebook usage by urban indigenous youth in ottawa include: language barriers, personal interests based on age, content creation during slow periods, and cellphone data plan limits. “when you are 13 years old, you are usually not thinking of the term ‘mental health’. so, interest is difficult”. alinga “not all the youth have a data plan on their cellphones … a lot of them do not own [a] cellphone. it is very important that we actually reach out to somebody.” alba we found the first main challenge of reaching out to urban indigenous youth in ottawa via facebook is the language barrier. across the board, language is the most common challenge for indigenous organizations in ottawa. language barriers among urban indigenous youth create a sizeable communication gap. for example, a study by arnaert & schaack (2006) in a different context suggests that inuit patients in the emergency department at hospitals in montreal should have a direct access to a nurse or interpreter who can speak their language. overcoming language barriers helped to improve their experiences with medical care. alinga mentioned in our interview that urban indigenous youth speak a wide variety of languages and dialects. their understanding of english or french is often very basic, which creates a significant language barrier between them and the indigenous organizations who are trying to reach out. !107 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 personal interests based on age are another challenge. alinga thinks that youth of all societies usually do not think much about the complex truths of their lives, especially their own mental health. therefore, it is difficult to engage urban indigenous youth in ottawa with facebook posts related to mental health. another challenge described by adoni is about creating new content when there are few significant events happening, especially within indigenous organizations that work on politics and advocacy at times when there is not much political activity. all the interviewees were not inclined to visit their facebook pages unattended and they like to update these pages as often as possible. this is another challenge for these organizations: finding new content to post about when there is not necessarily much going on, such as when the canadian parliament breaks for summer. one last challenge shared by alba was that urban indigenous youth in ottawa who own a cell phone typically do not have a data plan on their cellphones. many of them rely on free wi-fi offered at public libraries, schools, and indigenous organizations. interestingly, alba also told us that a lot of indigenous youth in ottawa do not own a cellphone. they access to their social media accounts by using public computers or their friends’ cellphones. alba faces this technological barrier in reaching out to this population and this challenge becomes more acute when reaching out to urban indigenous youth who are actually at risk and require emergency services. indigenous culture supports generating or sharing content on facebook. “it is interesting how indigenous cultures have embraced facebook. indigenous peoples still have powwows but you will find information about powwows on facebook, like the electric powwow from the tribe called red.”adoni “we are able to reach more people through facebook. we put out our survey and we put out other things how people can access our services.” alba adoni further explained his quote above by referring to the idle no more movement that began in 2011, the indigenous rights demonstration that was organized through facebook. nowadays, it seems any kind of social event, gathering, or movement of indigenous peoples is certainly driven by social media. our interviewees suggested in several group meetings that the indigenous organizations in ottawa should consider facebook as a main source of communication for giving notices and sharing other valuable information. from our interviews, we were told that indigenous youth claim that they check email but in fact they do not like to do so and they are more easily reached on facebook since they already log-on to facebook multiple times every day. in conclusion, indigenous communities are supportive of generating or sharing content on facebook. facebook is the easiest way for many of the urban indigenous youth to connect with others at home without the restrictions of geography and hence a natural channel for urban indigenous organizations to connect with them. indigenous organizations have urged facebook [the company] to help them detect the presence of urban indigenous youth at risk. !108 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “i can see how certainly it (facebook) will help someone who is feeling with suicide or depressed to be reminded the good things in life when everything seems bad.” adoni “i think a lot of youth who are having a hard time will end up throwing all that out. they vent. they put it in text and a lot of youth are putting music. they put out videos of different songs that are sad.” – alkina all of our interviewees agreed that facebook is now a big part of their organization’s social media strategy. in term of indigenous youth at risk, our interviewees think facebook has at least shined a light on many of the issues faced by urban indigenous youth at risk. adoni gave an example of somebody who was living in a fly-in community in northern ontario and feeling depressed. prior to the era of social media, nobody in the world would have known about this person’s state but because people can express their feelings and their thoughts more easily on social media and reach a wide audience, there is a higher likelihood that such people could be found and helped. our interviewees felt strongly that facebook could help urban indigenous youth at risk especially the ones who are struggling with mental illness and suicidal ideation. adoni explained to us why so many of the urban indigenous youth are facing mental illness, as evidenced by the language and verbal tone of the content that he or she has generated or shared on facebook. one of the main causes, he says, is the intergenerational trauma of the residential schools’ policy implemented and enforced by the canadian government between 1880 and 1996 (miller, 2012). adoni began by referring to the truth and reconciliation commission and commented that it had done a good job of showing how residential schools stole a generation of indigenous peoples. in that one generation, children were sent to schools away from their families and never learned what it was like to have a parent. therefore, they often did not learn to parent themselves and it is hard to break that chain of dysfunction when they have children of their own. they do not know how to be parents for their children and pass on this inability to their own children thus perpetuating intergenerational trauma (see: bombay, matheson, & anisman (2014) and elias et al. (2012)). whereas another interviewee remarked that instagram has recently become popular among urban indigenous youth, it would not necessarily be a good enough medium to be able to express or identify their mental health, in part because instagram has different purposes and modalities of expression. our interviewees indicated that urban indigenous youth feel more of a community base with facebook whereas instagram is more like twitter, less engaging with a community. instagram is more about publishing user-generated content mostly pictures and it is less about news (phua, jin, & kim, 2017). they know their people on facebook and they can configure privacy controls for their groups and communities. it is also a more group platform with more ways to share thoughts, opinions, and feelings. so, it was noted the youth feel that they can talk about their mental health issues more freely on facebook including depression and suicide. discussion study findings !109 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 our interviews revealed the unexpected fact that many indigenous youth living in ottawa experienced remote-to-urban forced migration. many of them came involuntarily to ottawa in order to receive medical care not available in their remote home communities. unfortunately, they are not able to return to their reserve communities because of the length of their treatment. often, this forced migration also made them unaccompanied youth migrants. they had to migrate to ottawa without being under the care of a parent or legal guardian. this situation is a result of the poor access to health care in rural and remote indigenous communities in canada and the health care funding inequalities between rural, remote, and urban settings in canada (marrone, 2007). consequently, urban indigenous youth in ottawa are forced to live alone for long periods of time without family interactions, which adds to their existing risks such as drug use, dropping out of school, and lack of access to good quality food. we learned from our interviews with indigenous organizations that unaccompanied urban indigenous youth living in ottawa use facebook to connect with their families and communities in rural and remote areas. facebook is a therefore a tool for them to stay connected to their roots while they live in the city. facebook is being used as a place where urban indigenous youth seek dignity, love, and care from their own people and to stay connected to their culture, things that they cannot find in the city. they can also gain spiritual support when they learn about what their friends, siblings, parents, and other community members are doing from facebook news feeds. even simply seeing short texts, images, and videos on facebook, generated and shared by their circle of facebook friends can help these youth cope with their experience of loneliness in ottawa. our interviewees indicated that encouragement and support are what these young people benefit from the most in their facebook usage. when indigenous organizations in ottawa create facebook campaigns for local indigenous youth they address the broad diversity of indigenous cultures, languages and dialects by creating facebook posts with few words and focus more on images and videos. we observed that english is the lingua franca that indigenous peoples use to communicate with other groups of indigenous peoples whose first languages are different from their own. this explains why our interviewees mentioned their use of simple english syntax on their facebook posts. also, these organizations’ use of images and videos is not straightforward because they have to come up with the materials that are culturally appropriate while avoiding possible misinterpretations caused by cultural differences. for example, when an organization envisages running a campaign about hiv prevention and safe sex practices among indigenous youth, they have to carefully consider how to disseminate the campaign information including images and videos on facebook in a manner that is culturally appropriate given that sex is still a taboo topic in many indigenous communities (mill et al., 2008). we also noticed that there are differences in the ways in which facebook is used by indigenous organizations in ottawa, differences that depend on their mandate and their target population. for organizations who are working on outreach programs, facebook accounts directly target urban indigenous youth in ottawa and many of those youth are also following the organizations' facebook posts. these outreach programs can identify !110 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the urban indigenous youth at risk of drug addition, homelessness, unemployment, hiv, health care access hardship, and dropping out of school and their posts are aimed at this population with these issues. on the other hand, in the case of indigenous organizations whose mandate is advocacy and political issues, their facebook accounts seldom target urban indigenous youth in ottawa. they look more broadly at the governing bodies of indigenous peoples across the country in order to work and communicate with the canadian federal government. their facebook pages target all indigenous people across the country, ngos, and government. limitations our study has some limitations. we restricted our interviews only to communication managers and youth program managers of indigenous organizations with offices in ottawa, the capital city of canada. we did not conduct this research in other cities in the province of ontario, nor did we conduct research in other provinces and territories of canada where many other indigenous youth also reside. thus, we do not aim to report findings of all indigenous organizations on the national level. conclusion indigenous organizations use facebook for two main reasons. the first reason is to promote the work of these organizations to the public and for them, in turn to listen to the public’s opinions about positive and negative news related to indigenous peoples’ wellbeing. secondly, facebook is also used to engage urban indigenous youth at risk with indigenous organizations that provide social programs and outreach. indigenous organizations use facebook because many urban indigenous youth in ottawa are using facebook, and it is the fastest way to connect with them when they are or feel at risk. communicating with urban indigenous youth in ottawa via facebook is difficult because there are several cultural and language differences among the diverse indigenous peoples in ottawa. indigenous organizations have solved this issue by using a minimal amount of simplified english as well as images and videos in their messaging. we learned that urban indigenous youth in ottawa are using facebook to stay in contact with their families and friends in remote communities in order to combat their loneliness and other risks that they are experiencing in the city. moreover, we discovered some unexpected realities about the forced migration and unaccompanied youth migration of indigenous youth in ottawa. acknowledgments the authors would like to thank the research participants, for sharing their stories and reviewing the manuscript and their encouragement of this research and mr. danny vollant, innu indigenous scholar and candidate in licentiate in law (lll) at the university of ottawa, for reviewing the research proposal for the current study. this first author would like to thank scholarships partially used in this study: the 2016 queen elizabeth ii graduate scholarship in science and technology. the opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the organizations and funders with which the authors are affiliated. !111 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 references agrawal, a., tillman, r., grucza, r. a., nelson, e. c., mccutcheon, v. v., few, l., ... & hesselbrock, v. m. 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(2015). idle no more, facebook and diffusion. social movement studies, 14(5), 615-621. !115 case studies connecting with youth at risk: indigenous organizations use of facebook introduction references community-based pedestrian mapmaking konstantinos chorianopoulos1 department of informatics, ionian university, greece. email: choko@ionio.gr introduction contemporary digital maps are elaborate and contain detailed information, but they lack meaningful knowledge in terms of collective habits and preferences. they might depict a very detailed instance of the real world, but their philosophy is car-driven, excluding anthropocentric features, which mainly characterize pedestrians and their behavior while walking through the city. for example, if a city path has an accessible pavement and offers fast and safe movement far away from car traffic, then a pedestrian does not care if that path is a few dozen meters longer than an alternative path between two points. nevertheless, pedestrian navigation software is going to suggest the absolutely shortest one, just because it is a few meters shorter. some navigation services (e.g., google maps) provide pedestrian options (e.g., footpaths, bike lanes, etc) and highway avoidance, but the rest of the suggested itinerary does not regard the qualities of interest to pedestrians, because the majority of city paths are not associated with this kind of rich meta-data. in practice, humans select a path with some regard to actual distance, but they also consider several other factors such as personal preferences, motor ability, weather conditions, time of day, etc. thus, there is a need to collect data that facilitates the creation of meaningful digital maps that consider the needs of urban pedestrians. this work is focused on pedestrians, but the same methodology and arguments are also applicable to urban cyclists. according to lynch (1960) paths are the predominant city elements, alongside edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. neglecting the mismatch between the represented and the experienced image of the city reinforces infrastructures that already marginalize some types of mobility. urban planners have already recognized the importance of designing for pedestrians (southworth, 2005). in the case of rural mapping, bidwell (2012) describes how walking in rural southern africa revealed incompatibilities between the point-based representations that dominate technology, and local knowledge and communication practices. moreover, srinivasan (2012) has collected spatial data from the local human community and he combined it with data from other technological sources, in order to facilitate stakeholders making informed and accurate decisions regarding development activities in the respective rural region. indeed, saad-sulonen and horelli (2010) have highlighted the value of map-based community informatics in participatory urban design. this work is focused on the data collection aspect of urban pedestrian street maps with local subjective knowledge, which might facilitate a pragmatic understanding of the city by urban planners. the suggested pedestrian data collection methods might be employed in the development of geographic information systems that are anchored on community informatics, rather than just technological representations of land use. the idea of meaningful subjective urban maps is not new. the most popular one is probably the london tube map, which has been redesigned in order to become more suitable for the common task of switching between lines (figure 1). notably, the original london tube map had been designed, just like contemporary digital maps, for the purpose of accurately depicting the actual geographic location. more recently, vertesi (2008) has suggested that the map (digital or not) is very similar to a computer user interface that provides an abstraction of what is actually happening inside a computer. indeed, when being moved by a complex system of public transportation one does not care much about geo-accuracy. thus, any map that is supposed to be used for moving through a city, should focus primarily on the needs of its users and on their subjective perceptions of urban space with regard to mobility. figure 1 the original london tube map was very accurate in terms of cartography, but it was not as meaningful as the contemporary version, which provides valuable information, despite being geographically inaccurate. the case study of tube maps is beneficial for re-conceptualizing pedestrian mapmaking, but it should not be taken too literally. geo-accuracy plays a bigger role in the route choices of pedestrians than for tube users. for pedestrians, too much additional distance could potentially be much more important than for tube users. therefore, digital maps for pedestrians should consider several qualities, but they should not ignore the distance aspect. for example, map navigation for pedestrians might employ an algorithm that prioritizes the streets preferred by fellow dwellers, as long as they are not too time consuming, or too distant. previous research on community informatics has examined digital maps and geographic information systems. researchers have demonstrated the usefulness of digital locative media as a shared experience (willis et al., 2010) and as a placeholder for community annotations (ringas et al., 2011). neverthless, the growing importance of informatics in map making is also a source of novel research issues (griffin et al., 2012). in particular, the importance of pedestrian maps for urban planning cannot be overstated. kasemsuppakorn and karimi (2013) have concluded that: "a pedestrian network is an essential resource in a variety of applications, especially in pedestrian navigation services and urban planning projects." the above works have established the importance of pedestrian maps in urban planning, but there is still a missing link between the represented image of the city and actual pedestrian preferences. this work presents a community-based data collection that facilitates the design of pragmatic pedestrian maps and also enhances urban planning. the aim of this article is to frame contemporary data collection techniques for mapmaking and in particular to highlight a more humane data collection that might facilitate future research and practice in new cartographic visualizations for pedestrians. although the ultimate practical outcome of this stream of research would be an alternative visualization of the city, this work lays the groundwork and makes a feasibility study of this concept. this article provides empirical evidence that contemporary urban mapmaking is not suitable for pedestrians, and makes suggestions for a pedestrian-friendly mapmaking research and practice. the rest of the article is organized as follows: 1) a survey of related work, 2) the methodology of community-based data collection, 3) the results from a case study in the city of corfu, greece, 4) implications for theory and practice of community-based mapmaking, and 5) suggestions for further research on community-based mapmaking in the context of urban planning. understanding the city and pedestrians through cartography cartography or mapmaking is an ancient art and craft. the first maps were based on a subjective understanding of the known world as provided by cross-checking reports of travelers, or confirmation by personal observation by the cartographer, who then analysed and assembled the collected data on paper and in visual format. on the other hand, contemporary mapmaking is considered to be an objective science. surveying and observation (data collection) is based on digital instrumentation, such as aerial and satellite photos, as well as local photography and gps recordings. then, cartography employs the above tools (e.g., satellite photos, gps recordings) and techniques (e.g., survey, traveler report) in order to analyse this geographical data. the mapmaking process stands on the following pillars: 1) data collection from the field, 2) data analysis according to user needs, and 3) visual representation. this article is focused on data collection from pedestrians. moreover, it makes suggestions on the analysis of data and presents implications for further research and practice in the visualization (cartography) phase. the proposed methodology is effective in terms of effort and cost to replicate in any city and the respective case study stands as a proof of the concept. although the proposed methodology is not sufficient to create a new kind of pedestrian map, the assessment of its feasibility is necessary before new techniques are devised that collect, analyze, and map pedestrian data at the city scale. mapmaking and pedestrians vector maps are usually combined with satellite photography (e.g., google maps) and they seem to be accurate and objective representations of the earth, but this is a fallacy. actually, any two dimensional map of the earth is subjective at least in one way, because it is not possible to represent a sphere (the earth) as a rectangle (brotton, 2012). thus, every known two-dimensional map of the world has an underlying subjective assumption, which is usually related to the purpose of that map. for example, the mercator projection is the most popular type of map and has been employed by digital maps, but it distorts the size of items proportionally to their distance from the equator. this is not an issue for the main users of the mercartor projection map; navigators who cross the sea (mostly in a horizontal manner) between continents (figure 2). in addition to the map projection issue, there are many cases of subjective cartographic design for various reasons (brotton, 2012), such as type and quality of data, propaganda, analytical process, cartographic techniques, etc. every map has design assumptions that usually serve the purpose of its users or creators. although the distortion introduced by the widely used mercator earth projection is not significant at the scale of the city, mapmaking has additional assumptions with regard to data collection and analysis, which are outlined next. figure 2 mercator (left) and cahil (right) earth projections to a two-dimensional space. although the latter map is more representative of actual land mass (e.g., africa, south america), it is not as usable as the former one in sea navigation contemporary digital maps provide an option for pedestrian navigation, but they do not really account for subjective preferences in the calculation of the optimal path, which is usually provided in terms of absolute distance. nevertheless, our personal experience of pedestrian navigation in several familiar cities around the world suggests that the digital maps do not offer pragmatic suggestions. moreover, digital maps may provide navigation functionality, but they do not account for subjective preferences in the calculation of the shortest path. in practice, pedestrians select shortest paths by considering multiple criteria, such as safety, traffic, weather, season, time, day, levels of noise, and accessibility, but contemporary digital maps mainly consider distance traveled, which is just one of the many parameters considered by a pedestrian. besides, the incomplete parameters employed in pedestrian path calculation, the visual design of digital maps favours vehicle mobility and does not depict the viable options for walking. figure 3 digital maps (left: google maps, right: microsoft bing maps) provide efficient shortest path, but is it the preferred one by knowledgable locals? it is technically straightforward to have a gis that stores the attributes of each street, but the difficult part is the collection and analysis of the data required for a pedestrian-friendly map. in previous work, chorianopoulos (1999) presented a system that facilitated the creation of alternative paths through a city based on personal preferences, such as places of interest, shopping, and eating. therefore, each city street could be feasibly weighted with a pedestrian accessibility ranking. a similar system of weighting the importance of routes with values other than pavement width has been developed for the case of bikers (bíl et al., 2012). the latter work has collected the data through volunteer who logged their biking routes with gps. it follows that a pedestrian-friendly cartography should be based on pedestrian data collection (e.g., gps traces created by pedestrians), instead of aerial photography. in summary, any two dimensional orthogonal map, regardless of scale (world, country, city) is subjective in some sense (e.g., selection of a projection system with particular assumptions, or data collection focused on cars and land-use instead of pedestrians). it thus is apparent that a pedestrian-friendly cartography, should start with community-based data collection. community-based data collection for pedestrian mapmaking mapmaking has been done with various tools and practices over the course of history. most notably, herodotus (c. 484-425 bc) was the first to raise the issue of how the data was collected and analyzed by mapmakers (brotton, 2012). on the one hand, contemporary scientists employ accurate apparatus in the measurement of space and movement, while, on the other hand, on the other had designers employ the human and social scale in their map design. it is suggested that there is continuum of approaches between the two extremes that combines aspects of both to varying degrees. since most maps are made for human use, the data collection technique should also concern pedestrian behavior. table 1 outlines some recent cases of data collection and mapmaking, in order to provide context for the proposed methodology for pedestrian mapmaking. digital map providers have recognized that their very detailed and realistic cartography might have mistakes or not include some streets. for example, nokia here maps provides a layer called "community", while google maps provides mapmaker, which allow users to manually edit maps. nevertheless, those edits operate on top of established map designs (base maps), so there are limited degrees of freedom for genuinely new maps. the most popular user-contributed maps are those using openstreetmap (haklay & webiter, 2008). in other words, openstreetmap is the equivalent of wikipedia for maps. nevertheless, the above approaches do not have any particular focus on pedestrians neither during data collection, nor during mapmaking. in practice, the best case of pedestrian-friendly design is to highlight the paths over an existing base map, which is usually full of data not relevant to a city dweller, or a tourist. although there is plenty of research that provides techniques for analyzing the data that originates from pedestrian gps traces, there is no research on how to contextualize gps traces with meaningful subjective perceptions. notably, kasemsuppakorn and karimi (2013) have employed gps traces from pedestrians in order to create streets maps that depict walking paths. at the same time, bierlaire et al. (2013) have raised the issue of inaccuracy of traces created by simple gps devices and provided solutions based on probabilistic modeling. despite the widespread use of maps either directly on mobile computers (e.g., navigation), or indirectly by dependent applications (check-in at a place on behalf of a social network) the cartography has not been adapted to the new users and their subjective perceptions of space. table 1. an overview of data collection and mapping techniques employed in participatory cartography. mobile computers (e.g., tablets, smart phones, and navigators) are influencing the ways we experience and perceive the city. although the majority of digital maps depicts a static image of place, in practice, urban spaces are full of motion, particularly pedestrians walking around. ingold (2007) has argued that walking and movement are most representative of the ways in which we experience the city. thus, mobile devices should be employed as a method for understanding how people experience places. moreover, this work has been inspired by the following quote (stilgoe, 1998): "outside lies unprogrammed awareness that at times becomes directed serendipity. outside lies magic." with that in mind, my research question is shaped: "could one take advantage of highly precise technology (e.g., gps, digital mapping), in order to inform a more humane cartography with a focus on pedestrians?" the next section provides early empirical evidence of the feasibility of this idea by performing a study which serves two purposes: 1) it proves that contemporary digital maps can be misleading for pedestrians, and 2) it provides a methodology to collect data for new types of pedestrian maps focused on city dwellers and which can be the basis for tools for community informatics and urban planning. methodology since many pedestrians employ gps enabled devices, e.g., smartphones, it is feasible to collect and analyse gps traces, in order to explore actual pedestrian behavior. mehta (2008) has argued that urban studies lack empirical data on walkability as experienced by pedestrians. for this purpose, a study was carried out with ten local pedestrians, who were asked to navigate from point a to point b in a fast manner. the pedestrian routes were recorded by means of a gps device and then plotted on a map for comparison with existing pedestrian navigation applications. three pedestrians were interviewed during the first round of pilot studies in order to elaborate their motives for selecting routes and in order to adjust the basic parameters of the study: 1) starting and ending point, 2) duration, and 3) possible alternative paths. the participants of the main study were not interviewed, in order to keep the study simple and focused on actual behavior (e.g., route choice). the total number of subjects in the study (three in the pilot followed by seven person in the main study) is small, but it is enough to reveal a popular path in the context of the respective physical space and time constraints. more subjects might be needed if there are more alternative paths between the two points, or if more time is given to subjects to perform the walk. subjects the users' compliance with certain criteria allowed the collection of a clean data-set and the minimization of incorrect assumptions regarding the selected routes. in particular, the participants enjoy and have a habit of walking around the city, have a good knowledge of the city's streets, are healthy and capable of walking one thousand meters, and are adult but not more than fifty years old. it was essential for the user to have lived in and experienced the area, since local knowledge is the source to derive from and depend on, in order to re-examine pedestrian cartography and in order to propose revised techniques for community-based mapmaking. procedure the main criteria for selecting the starting and finishing points of the trajectory were: a) the variety of connecting paths able to be generated between them and, b) the possibility to create a specific scenario. the destination point is within a 750 meters radius from point a, thus linking to the 800 meters 10 minutes' walk that is considered as a medium walkability radius in neighborhoods (moudon et al., 2006, canepa, 2007). the in-between topography is slightly steep, mainly towards point b; depending on the chosen path the inclination differs. the landscape is an urban provincial town and it includes a variety of sceneries; streets of high, low or no traffic, traffic lights, pavements of larger or narrower sections, trees, shopping streets, pedestrian zones and a promenade by the sea as possible alternatives the combination of which is closely related to the participants' choice. for the experiment's requirements, the subjects were asked to walk from point a to point b along the fastest path in a time frame of 13 minutes maximum, moving quickly, efficiently and without stopping. the duration of the task was defined by taking into consideration the suggestions of popular navigation applications in relation to the proposed route connecting a to b, which was reported to be eleven minutes by the google maps pedestrian option. having set the starting and finishing point of the trajectories, a plausible navigation scenario was then created. the scenario from point a to point b encouraged fast movement: "you are a student at the local university and today is your/the graduation day. the ceremony starts at 11:00 and you are supposed to be there at least 15' minutes earlier. although it was a day you were not supposed to be late, due to several unforeseen incidents, you found yourself being at the department's secretary at 10:30. hence, you have approximately 13 minutes to arrive on time for the graduation ceremony." the pedestrian routes were recorded by means of a gps device and then plotted on a map for comparison with existing pedestrian navigation applications. results the acquired gps trajectories were analyzed to produce results regarding the users' route choices. the subjects of the study have followed different trajectories, but all routes had several common parts, which are highlighted on the new map (figure 4, left). in brief, it was found that the perceived shortest path is significantly different from the one suggested by a navigation application (google maps pedestrian option). table 2 overview of the preferred shortest paths (the one suggested by google maps is 11min, 0.85km) the paths that users chose to follow, while quickly moving from point a to b, demonstrate a great variety and significant divergence from the suggested trajectory, proposed by a popular map application (figure 4, right). in terms of distance, the participants' choices are fifty or more meters longer than the ones suggested by google maps, but in terms of time the participants' are faster. the results clearly expose the monolithtic reasoning behind the suggestions of the popular map navigation application, in contrast to the multi-factorial thinking of human beings. thus, the computerized perception of pedestrian navigation can be out of track, since minimum distance does not always signify the fastest or safest choice. it is noteworthy that the application's suggestion goes along main roads of heavy traffic and noise. although quite large pavement zones are provided for most of the path, they were not the primary selection of the users. figure 4 the collectively perceived shortest path (left) is significantly different from the path suggested by google maps (right) which is accessible but the pavements are narrow and next to car traffic. the above findings are interpreted as pedestrians' behavior. their choices were based on personal experiences and preferences. in an urban setting, users evaluate conditions, preferences and circumstances and navigate accordingly. although weather, season and time of day do not appear to play an influential role, this is due to the good conditions under which the study took place. if the study had taken place in a longer period of time, throughout the year and day, it is expected that those three factors would become essential in route choice. for example, during the night the same person might select a different route that has better lighting. community-based mapmaking participatory design and community informatics have already considered the active involvement of few responsible and knowledgeable users, but they have not considered the collective local knowledge of aggregate patterns of pedestrian movement in the city, which is suggested by the findings of this article. although the case study stands for a geographic methodology, it is also a motivation for leveraging trajectory data uploaded on social media platforms (e.g., openstreetmap gps traces), in order to design user-driven digital maps. in case there are concerns about individual privacy, it is suggested that route data is deployed in an aggregated form and only with the consent of individuals. the notion of significant differences between perceived and actual use of information technology has been documented in contemporary urban research. papinski and scott (2011) found that the actual routes selected for traveling from home to work are not the most efficient ones either in terms of time, or in terms of distance. notably, their subjects reported that both time and distance are important factors in selecting the sub-optimal observed routes. similarly, the main finding of this work is that the widely available shortest path functionality for pedestrians might not provide subjectively optimal results, at least in the case of urban centers with a complex set of available paths. the findings of this research inform the development of mobile applications and the design of new map layers for city dwellers. they serve as the raw data to inform the learning process for the creation of pedestrian-friendly maps. previous research has considered the analysis of gps traces and the design of new types of digital maps separately. the analysis of gps traces has been elaborated by zheng et al. (2009), who have collected and data-mined a large data-set of trajectories in order to find out interesting places, means of transportation, and travel habits. more recently, they have extended t heir research to provide social recommendations based on the itinerary habits of locals. nevertheless, they have not examined the requirements for constructing new types of digital maps and they have not considered pedestrians. pedestrians have been considered by kasemsuppakorn and karimi (2013), who have employed data-sets of gps traces to construct street maps for pedestrians. they have successfully compared the pedestrian streets to aerial photography, but they have not accounted for the behavior of pedestrians. moreover, chen (2011) has created isochronic maps based on the time required to travel by public transportation. the work described here complements the above efforts by providing a community-based view of mining pedestrian gps trajectories and creating new types of digital maps that can be used as a tool for urban planning. the concern for the information needs of pedestrians is not new, but the focus on the information needs of moving pedestrians has been neglected. indeed, there has been significant research and commercial efforts on location-based, context-aware, and urban informatics (lindqvist et al. 2011). for example, there are social media services for commuters, and tourists, as well as shopping and historical applications. nevertheless, the majority of those approaches, has considered the pedestrian as a static subject and not regarded the needs of pedestrians as they are moving between points of interest. the former subjective approaches to urban informatics have considered maps as a platform, but then have not explored how maps themselves could evolve as part of the collective local knowledge. for example, ringas et al. (2011) have found that citizens benefit from the public sharing of personal stories in various formats (text, voice, photo, video). moreover, traunmueller et al. (2013) have focused on alternative leisure paths through social media voting. nevertheless, the above works assume an extra effort on behalf of the user to share their story and they have not yet considered the potential crowdsourcing of the subjective data on a collective image of the city. there is a difference between urban informatics that considers the map merely as a platform for mash-up services and the digital maps which become part of collective local knowledge (heipke, 2010). this case study stands for a new approach to cartographic data collection that might facilitate the design of maps that serve pedestrians or other marginalized mobility types. the methodology of this study might be useful to other researchers, who wish to replicate and to extend these findings. moreover, practitioners and researchers might be interested in deploying new ways for involving users in cartographic data collection or in leveraging existing data-sets in order to provide pedestrian-friendly cartography. it is not suggested that all mapmaking should be subjective, but that the subjective element should play a role during data collection and analysis, and inform other tools and techniques. srinivasan (2012) has claimed that: "mashing up remote sensing information with local community knowledge can help identify patterns and theories regarding future trends in resource use and possible stakeholder conflict." moreover, according to brown et al. (2007) subjective experiences of walkability should be explored further and should be an additional focus of urban design. in sum, participatory or community-based mapmaking can be a useful tool for urban planning. in particular, community informatics and participatory data collection should inform the design of maps that represent the behavior of pedestrians. conclusion and further research subjective mapmaking techniques are as old as the art and craft of making maps. digital tools have made maps widely available, but the majority of digital maps have been designed with an incompatible data-set and for different purposes than walking in urban streets. it is rather curious that mobile computers (smart phones, tablets, wearables, etc), which are usually employed by pedestrians provide the exact same cartography that is employed for car navigation. in addition to raising the need for pedestrian urban maps, this article has proposed a methodology for collecting and analyzing pedestrian data. further work is required in order to create a usable visualization of popular pedestrian routes in a map format. the main benefit of such map is to highlight opportunities for improving the walking network. the same methodology is applicable to any urban area that has been misrepresented by technology-oriented cartography. in ongoing research, a dynamically crowd-sourced mobile map application is being designed, where the most frequently used streets will be illustrated and dynamically modified, according to users' feedback. the most popular streets will have larger line widths, whereas the less popular ones will have narrower lines. the dynamics will not only be controlled by frequency, but also by personal preferences and user profiles, depending on several parameters, such as the weather conditions, time of day, possible health problems, etc. they will generate paths tailored to the user's specific demands and safety. the maps' priority will be the pedestrian and the biker, and they will be addressed to all people, locals and visitors. this article has demonstrated that the image of the city as depicted in popular geographic information systems does not stand for pragmatic pedestrian preferences. as a remedy, the article has described how community-based data collection for pedestrian mapping might provide a better understanding of the perceived image of the city. in addition to hi-fidelity digital maps that emphasize automobile paths and geographical accuracy, community-based mapping is a potential tool for urban planning. in conclusion, the image of the city as produced by each one of the past, current, and future methods is an image of those methods, as much as an image of the object of representation. therefore, it should be remembered that current digital maps on mobile and desktop computers are the result of available tools (satellite photography) and intended uses (land use and car navigation), and not just maps intended for other equally beneficial uses and aspirations, such as walking and biking. further work should elaborate the methods of transforming community-based data collection for pedestrian-friendly cartography. acknowledgements i am thankful to iro armeni for assisting in the data collection, and to the anonymous reviewers and to liisa horelli for constructive comments on the early drafts of this article. references bidwell, n. j. 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(2010). shared encounters. london: springer. larquemin the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles, special issue: odscsd open government data and evidence-based socioeconomic policy research in india: an overview public entities are one of the main producers of socio-economic data around the world. the open government data (ogd) movement encourages these entities to make their data publicly available in order to improve transparency and accountability, which are the two important pillars of good governance. thus, ogd by virtue of making quality data available can promote evidence-based public policy through empirical research. therefore, in this paper we discuss the current status of ogd initiative in india, and feedback on the same from researchers working on india’s socio-economic issues. !120 larquemin, a., buteau, s., mukhopadhyay, j.p. (2016). open government data and evidence-based socio-economic policy research in india: an overview. the journal of community informatics, 12(2), (special issue on open data for social change and sustainable development), 120-147. date submitted: 2015-08-07. date accepted: 2016-05-09. copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1254 aurelie larquemin institute for financial management and research, india corresponding author. aurelie.larquemin@ifmr.ac.in jyoti prasad mukhopadhyay institute for financial management and research, india jyoti.mukhopadhyay@ifmr.ac.in sharon buteau institute for financial management and research, india sharon.buteau@ifmr.ac.in mailto:aurelie.larquemin@ifmr.ac.in mailto:jyoti.mukhopadhyay@ifmr.ac.in mailto:sharon.buteau@ifmr.ac.in http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1254 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1254 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction in recent times, open government data (ogd) has gained a lot of currency across the globe, 1 thanks to the open government partnership (ogp) initiated in 2011. more than 50 countries have committed to improving ogd access as a means for promoting important issues such as economic growth, transparency, development and governance. the launch of ‘data.gov’ in the us in 2009 and ‘data.gov.uk’ in the uk in 2010 mark the beginning of the ogd movement. subsequently, other developing nations have joined ogp and are gradually catching up. as per the open government working group guidelines issued in 2007, ogd must be ‘complete, primary, timely, accessible, machine processable, non-discriminatory, nonproprietary, and license free’ (open government working group guidelines cited in yannoukakou & araka, 2014, p.336). without doubt, ogd has important implications for research. researchers in all areas rely on quality data to conduct their studies and test their research hypotheses. one of the first steps in any rigorous and systematic empirical research study is to determine what kind of data is needed to answer the research question being studied and whether the required data is currently available, and if not, how to collect it. if the chosen topic of research is fairly specific, then collection of primary data becomes inevitable for researchers. however, the cost of data collection, the time and other resources required to do so often pose serious challenges. secondary data disseminated by various government departments under the ogd initiative appears to be the next best option available to the researchers, subject to their scope and quality. ogd, with proper quality checks, can be envisaged as a viable avenue to provide data and to promote applied social science research in any country. however, in the context of developing countries like india, this option remains relatively scarce. over the last decade subsequent to the enactment of right to information (rti) act in 2005, the government of india has undertaken a number of initiatives such as the national data sharing and accessibility policy (ndsap), an ogd portal in india (data.gov.in), the national data bank and devinfo india. little is known about the effectiveness of ogd for research in india. this study fills this particular knowledge gap in the indian context. against this backdrop, we examine in this paper awareness about ogd availability among researchers working on india-specific issues, use of ogd by sector and shortcomings of existing ogd. in order to achieve our stated objective, we surveyed researchers and academics who had been conducting socio-economic studies in india using a structured online questionnaire. additionally, we conducted interviews and a workshop with relevant stakeholders in india. our results suggest low level of awareness among researchers about ogd. we find that to be considered ‘open’, data must be available as a whole, and at no more than a reasonable reproduction cost, 1 preferably by downloading over the internet. the data must also be available in a convenient and modifiable form. it must be provided under terms that permit reuse and redistribution including the intermixing with other datasets. the data must be machine-readable. everyone must be able to use, reuse and redistribute — there should be no discrimination against fields of endeavour or against persons or groups. for example, ‘non-commercial’ restrictions that would prevent ‘commercial’ use, are not allowed (open data handbook, 2012). open government data means data produced or commissioned by government or government controlled entities which is ‘open’ as per the open data definition – that is, it can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone. open data can also be generated by corporates by disclosing information pertaining to their business and related activities. similarly, open datasets created by research institutions or individual researchers are termed as open research data. in this paper we focus exclusively on open government data in socio-economic areas. !121 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 downloading large datasets, non-availability of metadata, and format of the datasets pose serious challenges to the use of ogd available in research. the rest of the paper is organised as follows. in section ii we briefly discuss status of ogd initiatives in india. in section iii we describe how research can influence policy-making and, in particular, how ogd, through its effects on research, can inform evidence-based policymaking. section iv presents the methodology we adopted to gather feedback and views on ogd from researchers conducting applied socio-economic research in india. results are presented in section v, and section vi concludes. status of open government data in india access to quality ogd is quintessential for effective policy-making in any developing country like india (davies & alonso, 2013) open data is at the heart of open knowledge and transparency. organizing open data day on 22 feb every year across various countries has added further momentum to global open data movement. the idea behind this particular event is to promote adoption of open data policies by governments at all levels: national, regional and local. embracing the importance of ogd for good governance, the government 2 of india (goi) adopted a number of strategies which we discuss briefly next. the first stepping-stone to ogd is to set up a sound statistical system. towards this, the goi constituted the national statistical commission in 2000. subsequently the commission submitted a report in 2002 with recommendations for strengthening and improving india’s statistical system. this comprehensive report also identified the extent of critical data gaps in 3 every ministry and government department. based on the recommendations, indian statistics act 2008 and collection of statistics rules 2011 were enacted. around the same time, in 2005, india enacted the right of information (rti) act which ‘mandates timely response to citizen requests for government information’. enactment of rti was a commendable step towards greater transparency and good governance. in fact rti and ogd can act in tandem 4 to achieve the same goal: ‘to increase transparency of government by releasing information generated and collected by public funds in order for the citizenry to be benefit from its social and economic value’ (access info, cited in yannoukakou & araka, 2014, p.336). in the same year, goi constituted the national knowledge commission headed by sam pitroda which made several recommendations to improve india’s knowledge network. one such recommendation was to enhance government data dissemination through a national webbased portal for certain key sectors such as agriculture, industry, water, energy and environment. later, in 2006, goi also introduced the national e-governance plan (negp) with an overall goal of making government services more efficient, transparent, reliable and accessible to a common man in india through common service centre (csc). in 2012, goi went one step further in terms of active dissemination of government data by adopting the see http://opendataday.org/2 see srinivasan (2003) for a critical appraisal of the report submitted by national statistical commission (2002)3 under this act a person can obtain required information by submitting a request to the public information officer (pio) 4 of the respective government department. !122 http://opendataday.org/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 national data sharing and accessibility policy (ndsap). following ndsap, the ogd data portal http://data.gov.in was launched later in the same year. 5 ogd is by and large released through public entities’ portals, the dedicated ogd portal www.data.gov.in and also through an extended network of intermediaries such as research centres and other ngos. at this juncture, it is worth mentioning that the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (mospi) adopted a pro-active role in data dissemination before the advent of rti or nsdap by publishing a national data dissemination policy in 1998. mospi has set up a metadata repository powered by the national data archive (nada) software developed by the international household survey network (ihsn). the metadata provided in the archive includes, survey methodology, sampling procedures, questionnaires, instructions, survey reports, classifications, code directories etc. while the metadata is available, to access the datasets, a fee must be paid to the computer centre, in charge of the dissemination of the collected data by the ministry. hence, although the metadata catalog is listed on the ogd portal, the database is not, and it is accessible only on payment. therefore, such data cannot be classified under ogd. the process of payment is another obstacle to easy access of the data by researchers as payments are to be made by demand draft issued by an indian bank. 6 in 2004, reserve bank of india (rbi), india’s apex regulator of banking services, made its internal database on indian economy accessible to the general public. the rbi dataset, database on indian economy (dbie), is rich in terms of its content. a few private initiatives 7 which source information from government departments, organise and disseminate them under different thematic topics for free are also worth mentioning. open knowledge foundation in india has launched a web portal, india city open data census, to track openness of seven major cities in india in terms of annual budget, expenditure, election results, etc. another civil society initiative which is worth mentioning is indiagoverns which 8 seeks to make development data accessible and useful for policy-makers, researchers and general public. india water portal (iwp) is another such web-based portal dedicated 9 exclusively to water management knowledge dissemination. 10 the ogd portal gathered datasets from the following government entities as on april 2015: comptroller and auditor 5 general of india(cag) (16); department of atomic energy (1); department of space (15); lok sabha secretariat (100); ministry of agriculture (367); ministry of chemicals and fertilizers (14); ministry of civil aviation (3); ministry of commerce and industry (17); ministry of communications and information technology (18); ministry of corporate affairs (26); ministry of defence (23); ministry of development of north eastern region (1); ministry of drinking water and sanitation (mdws) (16); ministry of earth sciences (10); ministry of environment and forests (10); ministry of finance (124); ministry of health and family welfare (199); ministry of home affairs (244); ministry of human resource development (67); ministry of information and broadcasting (13); ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises (14); ministry of mines (26); ministry of new and renewable energy (12); ministry of panchayati raj (3); ministry of petroleum and natural gas (26); ministry of power (5); ministry of road transport and highways (133); ministry of rural development (2); ministry of science and technology (92); ministry of statistics and programme implementation (345); ministry of tourism (3); ministry of water resources (557); planning commission (776);rajya sabha (154). an online payment system to purchase mospi data is currently being implemented.6 see http://dbie.rbi.org.in/dbie/dbie.rbi?site=home7 for more information see http://in-city.census.okfn.org/8 see http://www.indiagoverns.org/. currently it focuses only on karnataka.9 see www.indiawaterportal.org10 !123 http://in-city.census.okfn.org/ http://dbie.rbi.org.in/dbie/dbie.rbi?site=home http://www.indiawaterportal.org http://www.indiagoverns.org/ http://data.gov.in http://www.data.gov.in the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the effects of research results on policy-making: how ogd could increase evidence-based policy-making. do research findings lead to evidence-based policies? to assess how ogd can promote evidence-based policy-making, it is useful to understand how research findings can lead to evidence-based policies. the common assumption about research is that the findings should have a direct impact on the decisions made by policymakers and practitioners. however, in reality, a deeper analysis is required to discern the various paths in which results from research penetrate into policy and practice. this issue is not new, however, and with the progress of technology to facilitate dissemination of research, as well as easier access to data through ogd, the topic merits further discussion. the emergence of evidence-based public policy making can be traced back to 1833 when a study was conducted to show that education did not reduce crime (guerry, 1833). much later in the 1970s, it became evident that research findings often failed to have an impact on policymaking. subsequently research was done to identify the failures in this process. what researchers came to understand was that their findings were only a minor component in the equation leading to policy-makers’ actions. other elements contribute to the policy-making process: political interests, ideological convictions, concerns about resources (staff and budget) to implement new activities, bureaucracy, weight of tradition, etc. research findings were rarely acknowledged and often drew little attention of policy-makers. hence, the use of research appeared more complex than initially considered. this process was conceptualised and refined over the years. whiteman in 1975 describes a two-dimensional perspective on research use in policy-making: a concrete and instrumental process where research findings are a fundamental component of public policy, and a conceptual and indirect path to influence policy-making, by giving policy-makers a deeper understanding of issues in their field, new ideas or motivation, and a new perspective on the targeted issues. greenberg and mandell (1991) in their work on research utilisation in policy-making adapted and refined this framework by considering that in both cases research could affect policy-makers in different ways starting from a substantive manner to a more influential way or in a strategic purpose. in this model, each dimension– concrete and conceptual – is envisaged as a continuum. this same framework was also adopted by nutley, walter and davies (2007) in their study on how research can inform public services. the authors also argue that evidence-informed or even evidence-aware policy would be a better description of the aspirations for the role of research in the policy making process. several efforts have been put in to identify this complex process and to eventually improve the use of research in public policy making. webber (1991) in a study titled ‘the distribution and use of policy knowledge in the policy process’ argue that policy knowledge is not effective if it is not shared. it should be efficiently and extensively communicated and explained to policy-makers in order to influence policy decisions. to achieve this, a better understanding of the barriers to research affecting policy, as well as the research and policy connection are essential (watt, 1994). !124 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 1: research use as a two-dimensional continuum source: adapted from greenberg & mandell (1991); nutley, walter & davies (2007). figure 1: a continuum of research use (adapted from nutley, walter & davies (2007)) source: adapted from nutley, walter & davies (2007) barriers to research affecting policy it is now becoming increasingly clear to the research community that the context in which the research is being conducted has an influence on the uptake of the findings by policy-makers (nutley et al., 2007). some conditions seem to predispose policy-makers to take research findings seriously. indeed policy-making in developing countries have specific characteristics and the way to conduct and consider research can affect the uptake and adoption of research findings by policy-makers (carden, 2009). according to carden (2009), elements like the number of points of access through which research findings can flow, the openness of the political system to the entry of new ideas and the democratic nature of decision-making determine the degree to which research can influence policy making. carden (2009) study the consequences of 23 research projects funded by the idrc and found evidence that development research, if done correctly, can improve public policy and help accelerate development progress. these findings highlight the fact that well-designed research, if properly executed and disseminated, can influence public policy. however, on many occasions development research frequently fails to register any apparent influence in substantive elaborative strategic concrete research shapes the core of a decision or an issue peripheral use of research to further refine a position research is used to justify a position that has already been adopted conceptual research shapes a core orientation towards an issue or a basic understanding of the issue peripheral use of research to further refine an orientation or understanding research is used to confirm an orientation or an understanding that has already been adopted !125 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 developing countries. carden (2009) also identify certain stylised facts about research and policy-making environment in developing countries that could explain this failure. first, often policy-makers have less autonomy. second, staff turnover in research organisations and in government is high which weakens the link between research and policy-making. third, developing countries often lack the intermediary institutions that may influence research to policy. lastly, implementation challenges are greater, both for research activities and for policymaking. carden (2009) conclude that researchers in developing countries often lack access to required data and hence they might have to resort to the creation of a database through primary surveys. however, even if all those issues were addressed, another aspect to consider is scientific uncertainty. this can lead to distortion and lack of clarity in policymaking. if policymakers receive disaggregated or opposite information from many different research projects, they may be unable to assess what action to take. several other studies reach similar conclusions. for instance, court and young (2003) undertake a comparative analysis of 50 case studies collected during the first phase of the global development network (odi, 2003). the authors identify gaps in the theory of the path of research to influence public policy due to a failure to take into account specific characteristics of developing countries. according to them, ‘the key issue affecting uptake was whether research provided a solution to a problem. policy influence was also affected by research relevance (in terms of topic and, as important, operational usefulness) and credibility (in terms of research approach and method of communication)’. court and young (2003) also highlight the importance of a clear and well-conceived communication strategy and strong advocacy efforts from the very beginning, relating to the local context and concepts familiar to local policy-makers. 
 
 therefore, international development agencies and other research funders are placing increasing emphasis on the need to communicate research evidence to policy-makers, taking into account not only the demand side of evidence from research, but also supply side of making evidence accessible to policy-makers in a comprehensive and timely manner. it is recommended that researchers ought to pay greater attention to their communication and dissemination strategy and ensure that it is made available to policymakers when the research would be the most useful. assessing the research–policy connection following the international conference on evidence-informed policy-making held from 27 to 29 february 2012, in ile-ife nigeria, newman et al. (2013) prepare a paper titled ‘what is the evidence on evidence-informed policy-making? lessons from the international conference on evidence-informed policy making’. in this paper they present an updated model which explains how research results can affect policy-making. lavis et al. (2010) study the engagement of researchers in bridging the gap between research findings and policy-making. the authors identify three sets of activities: providing systematic reviews of the research literature to their target audience, giving access to a searchable database of research products on their topic, and establishing or maintaining long-term partnerships related to their topic with representatives of the target audience. they survey 308 researchers who has been conducting research on one of four health issues critical for the achievement of millennium development goals (prevention of malaria, care of women !126 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 seeking contraception, care of children with diarrhoea and care of patients with tuberculosis) in each of ten lowand middle-income countries (china, ghana, india, iran, kazakhstan, laos, mexico, pakistan, senegal and tanzania). their results show that important research findings often remain poorly disseminated: less than half of the researchers surveyed reported that they engaged in one or more of the three potential dissemination activities: 27% provided systematic reviews of the research literature to their target audiences, 40% provided access to a searchable database of research products on their topic, and 43% established or maintained long-term partnerships related to their topic with representatives of the target audience. among the factors explaining the respondents' engagement in these activities were (i) the existence of structures and processes to link researchers and their target audiences; (ii) the stability in their contacts; (iii) having managers and public (government) policy-makers among their target audiences. figure 2: factors contributing to evidence-informed policy (newman, capillo et al. (2013)) can ogd promote evidence-based policy making? there are various hypotheses on how open data in general and ogd in particular may affect policy-making. these hypotheses are considered for ogd in particular. the oddc conceptual framework (open data in developing countries, 2013) has outlined three hypotheses, each of which have a distinct focus area: table 2: how open data (od) can influence policy (oddc report, researching the emerging impacts of open data: oddc conceptual framework, july 2013). hypothesis key focus key disciplinary traditions/ streams od can bring about greater transparency in government, which in turn brings about greater accountability of key actors to make decisions and apply rules in the public interest. the state 
 (political domain) political science, public administration, legal studies !127 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the state many studies on ogd tend to argue that the release of ogd will improve transparency and accountability of public authorities, and will eventually lead to better governance. (arzberger et al., 2004; chun et al., 2010) the publication of data increases transparency in governance and its accountability, which generate confidence in government’s actions. this encourages public engagement which in turn leads to more efficient policies. according to chun et al. (2010), the ogd movement is an integral part of governance, and the release of such data tend to act as a bridge between citizens and public authorities. therefore, ogd can result in better governance and increased accountability of public authorities. in may 2015, at the university college london’s department of information studies (dis) research symposium: open data and information, shepherd (2015) in her address emphasises the fact that simply publishing data would not be enough to achieve the stated objectives. additional endeavour is needed to make raw data usable and reusable with the support of an organisation which will ensure non-redundancy of efforts and consistency and will guarantee data sharing, data integrity and quality. countries are therefore required to build this much-needed system to ensure that ogd can have the expected impact, including on evidence-based policies. public bodies are among the largest collectors and producers of data in many different domains. these data domains range from traffic, weather, geographical, tourist information, demographic statistics, taxes and business, public sector budgeting and performance levels, to all kinds of data about policies and inspection (food, safety, education quality, etc.). the ogd movement in most cases assumes that public agencies are ready for an open governance process. one of the inevitable fall outs of such a process are discussions, discourses, debates and exchange of ideas, views and inputs. however some studies have shown that in several countries the political class can be reluctant to adopt open government measures. janssen et al. (2012) list the reasons for this reluctance which includes the shift from a closed to an open system of governance that can have significant impact on relationships between the government and the civil society. some remain sceptical about the expected positive outcome of the ogd initiatives compared to a system with barriers, and so far no systematic research is available that addresses this concern. the market shepherd (2015) points out that in countries where the ogd movement has been initiated early on and is continuing successfully, it has received strong support from the political class. od can enable non-state innovators to improve public services or build innovative products and services with social and economic value; open data will shift certain decision making from the state into the market, making it more efficient. the market (economic domain) economics, business models, regulation od can remove power imbalances that resulted from asymmetric information, and will bring new stakeholders into policy debates, giving marginalised groups a greater say in the creation and application of rules and policy; the ‘excluded’ (social domain) social science, community informatics !128 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 she cites the example of ogd in the uk pointing out that politicians argue that ogd ‘would benefit the uk economy by creating jobs and stimulating innovation and at the same time increase transparency and accountability […], empower the citizens' public participation’ and improve public services. however, the return on investment from open data in general remains unclear, since ‘open data has no value in itself; it only becomes valuable when used’ (shepherd, 2015). a multiplication of studies regarding the potential economic gain following the implementation of open data policies can be observed. mckinsey global institute in a report published in 2013 suggest that open data could have an important economic impact on societies. they claim an estimated usd three trillion in annual economic terms that could be unlocked across seven domains. these benefits include increased efficiency, development of new products and services, and consumer surplus (cost savings, convenience, better-quality products), without quantifying social benefits. they estimate the economic impact of improved education (higher wages), but not the benefits that society derives from welleducated citizens. they estimate that the potential value would be shared by the united states (usd 1.1 trillion), europe (usd 900 billion) and the rest of the world (usd 1.7 trillion). the study clearly brought out the fact that, to reach a potential economic or political benefits, open data initiatives need to focus not only on release of data but also on the infrastructure, developers and researchers to make the data openness a reality and useful for addressing some of the development challenges faced by a country. this conclusion is valid for ogd initiatives, as part of the broader open data initiatives. third parties, including researchers, have to be involved and they should play an essential role in cataloguing, cleaning, and other data related activities. they have to perform analyses to uncover valuable insights. releasing metadata will make open data, including ogd, more usable and comprehensive. investments in key skills including the ability to perform analyses, creating useful reports and tools, and incorporating data and results into managerial decision-making processes are the other necessities to make this movement successful. the ‘excluded’ there is consensus that ogd needs researchers to maximise its potential in terms of better governance, accountability, economic benefits, etc. it is important to point out that researchers also benefit from ogd initiatives. first, ogd offers opportunity to conduct new research studies by giving access to new datasets. using ogd the researchers are also afforded the opportunity to identify new problems and conceive new research studies. according to guo xu (2012), among the benefits of open data initiatives on research is that the publication of data helps avoid redundancy and therefore waste of resources. the publication of data following best practices and open data standards avoids researchers repeating the same procedures (cleaning datasets, compiling, merging, formatting, etc.). there is no reason why this should not apply to ogd as well –open data and ogd allows for a better allocation of research resources, which are often scarce. a database collected for one study can feed another researcher’s work on completely different problematics. secondary data can be the key for important research work and ogd initiatives aim to make more secondary data available. .groves (2012) in his paper on open science and reproducible research argues that data sharing can greatly increase dissemination, meta-analysis, and understanding of research results; it can also aid confirmation or refutation of research through replication, allow better implementation of research findings, and increase !129 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 transparency about the quality and integrity of research. hence open data in general and ogd in particular, by increasing transparency and replicability of the research studies, should reinforce scientific rigour. ogd and openness in research could stimulate research activities and outcomes, but this virtuous circle depends also on the willingness of researchers to share openly the data they use and their findings. while examining this issue, azberger et al. (2004) opine that the openness of data is a way to ensure that both researchers and the public receive optimum returns on the public investments in research. it is also a means to build on the value chain of investments in research, and its data resource with the underlying principle being that ‘publicly funded research data should be openly available to the maximum extent possible’. although many calls for proposals and study datasets have been published to mark the beginning of this movement, many have concerns regarding the open publication of their data and results. shepherd (2015) rightly points out that researchers may be reluctant to release data, as there is a fear that original ideas and research will be stolen or misunderstood. other studies also insisted on the fact that the idea of open access to data in research is professed by many but not practised by many (hamermesh, 2007). the advantages for the research community and beyond generally fail to outweigh researchers’ fears and ‘costs’ to create the supply of data and replicable results (anderson et al. 2008). versbach et al. (2013) use a dataset of 488 economists from the top 100 economics departments and the top 50 business schools, and provided evidence of the status quo of data sharing or data access facilitation in economics. using an ordered probit regression they identified that the likelihood of sharing dataset is positively associated with a number of factors such as sharing of other material, being full professor, and being affiliated with a higher-ranked institutions. in another study piworar (2011) examine 11603 articles published between 2000 and 2009 that described the creation of gene expression microarray data. using a multivariate regression, piworar (2011) find that authors were most likely to share data if they had prior experience of sharing or reusing data, if their study was published in an open access journal or in a journal with a relatively strong data sharing policy, or if the study was funded by a large number of (full form) nih grants. also the use of ogd and openness in research could greatly benefit young researchers and phd students in the learning process. few studies have been done to assess the obstacles faced by researchers, both in india and abroad in accessing socio-economic databases collected by the government. it is important to assess whether the cost and payment methods are the only barriers encountered by the researchers. chattapadhyay (2014) conducted a study to assess research and advocacy organisations’ difficulties in accessing ogd pertaining to india. one of the key challenges identified is the fact that most of the data collected by public authorities are not made available anywhere in digital format. the flows of information emanating from the prevailing reporting system between local, state and central public authorities prevent the publication of many datasets in a timely manner. bureaucratic hurdles and reluctance to innovate also prevent the publication of original databases. there is a need, to overcome these fault lines, to invest in the capacity of the government agencies and reinforce their motivation to publish original data, and to develop direct interactions between data producers and data users. this project also highlights the danger generated by the lack of publication of government data, to create a space for a data reselling industry and a closed community of re-users of data. public !130 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 authorities are rarely aware of the existence of such ‘data black market’. data intermediary organisations consulted for the study mentioned downloading ogd almost always from the government websites and almost never used the ogd portal, mostly because they were used to collect these datasets from the public authorities’ websites long before the ogd platform was launched and they continued doing so. they also highlight that some ogd come most often in closed formats (that is, pdf files and html tables), even if recently efforts have been initiated to make datasets more researcher friendly. this poses an important barrier in converting data into formats amenable to rigorous analysis. wright et al. (2010) identify the benefits and challenges of ogd in india. first benefit identified is for the goi itself: the data becomes more accessible for internal use and government’s own information gathering and processing procedures can be improved as and when incorrect and outdated data are identified. second, this may be one step forward towards fulfilment of its commitments towards the right to information (rti) act. among the challenges identified, upgrading the entire infrastructure of information gathering, processing and sharing (which is currently being implemented, e.g. new dgcis portal) tops the list. insufficient standardisation is being discarded, as well as the need for system and semantic interoperability. currently there is no use of common standardized formats and software standards, and different departments are gathering different information under the same heading, or the same information under different headings which make data consolidation extremely difficult. the literature available allows the identificaton of a theoretical linkage among ogd, research findings and evidence-based policies. at the beginning of this virtuous process are the researchers and their ability and willingness to use ogd, a mandatory step for the next ones to take place. however there is a dearth of literature focusing on the demand-side of ogd. methodology our study seeks to understand the awareness and use of ogd by researchers in india by examining responses to the following questions: (1) do researchers know about ogd? (2)do they use ogd? if so how, if not why? (3) what are the types and sources of open data used and why? (4) what is the perceived quality of ogd? (5) what are the key concerns about using ogd for research? (6) are there any gaps in available ogd? research design due to the nature of our institution, activities and network, we delimited our study to socioeconomic research in india. we collected data and triangulated results from the following sources: (1) a workshop was conducted with stakeholders from the goi and researchers (indian and international) working with indian datasets. (2) an online survey. the survey was conducted among a sample of researchers selected purposively from our extensive network of researchers and academics. (3) interviews. from previous experience, we were aware of the difficulty in gathering information from government representatives through an online survey. we therefore started this study by !131 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 inviting government officials to a workshop with researchers from various universities around the world who have been working on indian socio-economic issues empirically. to keep the discussions focused, we selected specific topics which included status of data availability on industry, micro, small and medium enterprises (msme) and employment in india. a white paper had been prepared beforehand by asher and novosad (2015) to gather the views of the academic community on industry data in india and the results so obtained were used to set the agenda for the workshop. the paper was shared with official statisticians and other participants a few days before the meeting for their comments and feedback on the same. a presentation on the results was made by dr asher to initiate discussions. the workshop was conducted to identify issues with industry data availability and quality in india, and scope for making it a part of ogd available in india, hence, ogd and closed industry data were discussed during the workshop. for example most industry data in india is accessible upon payment and therefore cannot be considered as ogd. however, scope for making such data freely accessible was one of the points discussed during the workshop. therefore, data not yet available as ogd were also included for researchers to explain why the payments modalities and other related issues can pose obstacles to applied researchers. participants at the workshop were representatives from the national statistical commission, from the directorate general of commercial intelligence and statistics, representative of the chief statistician of india, from the economic statistics division at mospi, representatives of the sampling and official statistics unit (sosu), isi kolkata, formerly members of rbi, cso, nsso, representative from world bank delhi, adb india and adb manilla, a representative from the indian council for research on international economic relations (icrier) and from economic and political weekly (epw), igc india central representatives and ifmr representatives. professors with a track record of research on indian socio-economic sectors were identified and those working specifically on industry, msme and employment issues in india were invited to take part in the discussions. professors joined the workshop from oxford university, university of california san diego, pennsylvania state university, from the university of michigan, university of delhi, harvard university, and the city university of new york. the discussions were divided in sessions, with each session introduced by a short presentation from a participant on his/her work regarding indian datasets and then opened to discussions. each session was facilitated by a participant familiar with the specific topic discussed. three professors and three official statisticians made presentations. the topics discussed in depth were: what india should do to improve the status of data availability on industry in the country; the sectors in the indian economy which would benefit for having more data available and more research studies being conducted; !132 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 how critical it is for researchers in these sectors to have access to micro-level data, and the need for the indian authorities to allow researchers accessing this confidential microdata; the latest efforts and initiatives from the public authorities regarding data collection and data dissemination; the difficulties to generate panel data considering the actual design of the data collection process; confidentiality issues related to dissemination of ogd; the limitations in dissemination due to the regulatory framework; and the organisation of data collection and the multiple players involved on a similar topic. all presentations were shared with the participants and organizers in powerpoint® and notes were taken by four reporters. the entire workshop discussions were also audio-recorded. to complete and confirm the insights from the workshop, we designed a detailed 61-question online survey questionnaire, using the online software survey monkey®. we focused on researchers in india and abroad working on socio-economic issues in the indian context. we reached out to 28 among the top universities and schools in india actively engaged in research on socio-economic issues. we contacted faculty members and phd candidates at the national level through personal emails and also contacted their administrative division to ensure internal spread of the survey link. in total 411 emails were sent, including 274 to indian nationals. we also shared this survey with 137 researchers and phd students located abroad who had been conducting studies on socio-economic issues in india, based in 71 top ranking universities and schools. our fellow researchers at international research institutions such as the world bank, global development network (gdn) and the international monetary fund were also contacted. we received 70 fully completed responses after sending reminders periodically. the first questionnaire appeared to be too long and too detailed; some questions were confusing and ambiguous due to a lower level of knowledge about ogd among the respondents than we had expected. we chose polar questions and bipolar scale responses to facilitate the data analysis given the time allocated to the study. however, unstructured response formats were also used to collect the respondents’ opinion. based on the answers obtained to these questions, more guided multiple-options might have been more appropriate for several items asked. our initial results led us to restructure the questionnaire, making it shorter and sharper, with multiple-options questions based on the preliminary results. a second survey was then conducted among the initially contacted researchers who had not responded to the first survey and nine answers were collected. !133 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 3: summary of responses received we completed our data collection with two interviews through email with two official statisticians who could not take part in the workshop. the online interviews focused on the following aspects: why is your institution making data more available/open to the general public? is it an obligation regarding the legislation (right to information (rti) act, the national data sharing and accessibility policy (ndsap)) or/and also a policy of your institution? who do you think/know are looking at and using the data your institution publishes? does your institution benefit from publishing its data? how? (feedback from users, external research projects, etc.) what are the next steps for your institution regarding data publication? (for example, making the data available online, making data available for free, publishing more data, in other formats, on other websites, etc.). the workshop helped us immensely to understand the challenges in using ogd for research and identifying potential solutions during the discussions between academics and official statisticians. the survey responses gave us insights on the level of understanding and use of ogd in india. they also confirmed some challenges that had already been identified in the workshop. limitations in this study we focus on ogd released at the national-level while bearing in mind that various departments of state governments and local governments also release public data which are outside the purview of this paper. what about other open data sources? this study focuses on the ogd released at the national level and by public entities. there is a wider ogd network available in india with many public institutions at sub-national levels who publish data. there are ngos, think-tanks and other data intermediary organisations who also publish data gleaned from public entities. such types of data are outside the purview of this paper. however, studying these data sources can certainly provide valuable lessons and insights on ogd in indian context. the methodology adopted in this paper has some limitations. first, our methodology fails to control ‘nonresponse bias’ emanating from heterogeneity between respondent and nonrespondents. second, our study sample potentially suffers from sample selection bias due to convenience sampling since the study was conducted among researchers in our extended first survey: emails sent 411 national: 274 international: 137 responses received 70 second survey: emails sent 341 responses received 9 !134 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 network. third, the workshop we mentioned earlier did not focus solely on government data openly accessible and their usage in applied research, though more emphasis could have given on this particular issue. however, the purpose of the workshop was also to generate an interaction and dialogue between researchers using indian ogd and the government officials in charge of data collection in an attempt to push towards more data being made available in the public domain. findings of our exploratory study our online survey received responses from faculties, phd scholars or post-doctoral and research fellows which amounted to 79 completed surveys. our respondents were actively involved in research studies with 75% of them having been involved in a socio-economic research project pertaining to india over the last two years, in areas as diverse as anthropology, finance, development, environment, etc. 78% of the researchers were involved in the design of the study, and 83% of them had used secondary data for their research. figure 3: have you been involved in a socio-economic project over the past two years? if yes: what was the main domain of research? (n=79) (online survey results) the relationship between researchers and ogd in india: do they know and use ogd? at the initial stage of our research we were under the impression that researchers were well aware of the ogd movement and such data availability in india, on either ministries’ portals or ad hoc web based data platforms. but from our survey responses we realized that ogd is still not very popular among the research community. only 57% of our respondents were aware of what ogd is.
 !135 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 4: have you heard of open government data? (n=79) (online survey results) although the degree of knowledge among researchers familiar with ogd in india is relatively low, among those who had responded positively to this question, 25% and 38% considered that they had a low and average understanding of ogd respectively. only 32% assessed their knowledge as satisfactory and only 6% felt they had extensive knowledge of ogd. figure 5: how would you define your knowledge of open government data sources? (online survey results). among the researchers familiar with ogd, only half of them had consulted the official ogd portal, while 88% of them have already consulted data from the various ministries’ portals. it would have been interesting to establish the reasons for this apparent low level of ogd use among researchers and to find out if it is due to a lack of awareness or for reasons intrinsic to the website. !136 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the respondents familiar with the official ogd portal appreciated mostly the easy access and the fact that such data was not available elsewhere to the best of their knowledge. considering that most, if not all, the data published on the official ogd portal is also available on their respective public data collectors’ websites, a low level of ogd publication awareness in india can be suspected. figure 6: how would you rate the quality of open government data available in the indian context? (n=79) (online survey results) most of the respondents declared that they judge the quality of ogd available in india to be average (42.0%) or satisfactory (32.3%). figure 7: have you ever worked with secondary ogd for socio-economic research purposes? (n=79) (online survey results) 20% of the respondents have never worked with ogd in a socio-economic research project. interestingly we found that while 39% of the researchers had used ogd in such circumstances from the website of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (mospi), only 28% have done so from the official ogd portal. this might be due to the fact that some datasets are referenced or indexed on the ogd portal through only a link to reach the dataset, and hence sending the user ultimately to mospi website to access the actual data. !137 0.0 % 10.0 % 20.0 % 30.0 % 40.0 % no devinfo india other ministry other (please specify) 13.9 % 16.7 % 33.3 % 30.6 % 38.9 % 27.8 % 11.1 % 38.9 % 27.8 % 19.4 % the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the share of researchers using secondary data collected by public authorities is higher than the numbers presented above. of the respondents who had been involved in a socio-economic study in india in recent times, 80% used secondary data and they declared that they gathered it from public sources, but not only from open sources. a majority (60%) of them had to pay a fee to obtain the data (at a cost exceeding usd 100 for 70% of them). this shows tremendous potential for more public data to be released on the ogd portal and to be used by researchers. these datasets, despite being paid for, were not accompanied by any metadata as reported by 70% of the respondents. no additional services were offered by ‘pay-to-access’ portals compared to the ogd portal (metadata, troubleshooting/q/a website). so there is no reason as to why researchers would not choose no-cost accessible datasets over data they have to pay for. advantages and challenges of using ogd in research in our survey, we dedicated a section and a list of questions to understand researchers’ reasons for using or not using ogd in their research to assess the challenges they had been facing and what their suggestions would be to improve ogd to maximise their use for socioeconomic research. the same approach was adopted during the workshop and researchers and official statisticians discussed the difficulties they faced, and the suggestions they would make while public authorities presented their methodologies and the latest changes and improvements put in place in this matter. findings from the on-line survey among the main advantages identified by the survey’s respondents is the easy access of ogd if they are available. the platform data.gov.in allows one to quickly identify the database one is looking for. many ministries and public institutions are also investing in making their platform more user-friendly and the datasets more accessible. another advantage frequently pointed out is the fact that the access to these datasets is free. as previously mentioned, while exploring the ogd platform and other ministries websites, it was noticed that many key data on socio-economic research is only listed on these open portals but remain accessible only after paying a fee. many datasets (e.g. mospi collected datasets) are by and large accessible on the payment of requisite fees. figure 8: what was the most positive aspect you found about the portals consulted and the data displayed? (n=79) (online survey results) !138 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the formats of ogd publication and dissemination have been unanimously criticised. current formats are not consistent across datasets and sometimes across years, and require a fair amount of researchers’ time to make them amenable to analysis, for instance when they are delivered only in paper or in pdf format. from the data, there seems to be no concern about the intrinsic quality of ogd. but many researchers expressed concern over the slow pace at which the public authorities make certain datasets available. consequently, many datasets soon become outdated. for instance data from the census 2011 have been published only recently, and hence many studies conducted over the past couple of years had to rely on data from the census of 2001. many faced issues with downloading large quantities of data at once, and regretted that the source and data collection methodologies were often unclear and are far from comprehensive. moreover, it was hard to get any support from the official side, while some lamented the lack of standardisation among datasets. a minority of the researchers who had consulted these ogd sources did not work with those datasets eventually (18%). figure 9: what was the most negative aspect you found about the portals consulted and the data displayed? (n=79) (online survey results) despite their current level of usage, an improvement could be expected and researchers might be willing to work with ogd datasets in the future if some necessary improvements were carried out in dissemination practices. these necessary changes include the provision of metadata and the possibility to reach out effectively for troubleshooting. the format of dissemination has to be standardised and be made more user-friendly. 65% of the respondents familiar with ogd judged their quality as average or below par. another challenge that brings a consensus among the data users surveyed is the absence of good quality or even total absence of metadata associated with ogd. the lack of information regarding the public entities’ methodology for their data collection is an important issue. understanding the available data is of utmost importance for researchers to be able to use data meaningfully. furthermore, a clear definition of the variables is rarely given and a variable name can have different meaning over different ogd depending on the data and the !139 0.0 % 12.5 % 25.0 % 37.5 % 50.0 % difficult to download outdated data/ lack of updated data 23.5 % 38.2 % 44.1 % 38.2 % 47.1 % 20.6 % the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ministry considered. a table of concordance sometimes exists within one entity, but not always. there is also the possibility that data are conceived to be used at the national or state level but researchers may need the data disaggregated at a lower level, like the district level, which requires many manipulations and assumptions. insights from the workshop with researchers and official statisticians asher and novosad (2015) identified challenges faced by researchers in using industry, firm, msme and employment data in india. most of them can be extrapolated from this specific area and remain relevant to socio-economic data sources in india, and among them ogd. they noticed the difficulty in linking records among them, even when collected by the same public entity. there is a strong need for standardisation and cooperation among official data producers. for instance in the case of microdata at the firm level, a unique identifier could be put in place and the same can be used in all similar datasets. during the workshop’s discussions many researchers expressed their dissatisfaction with the low quantity of datasets published by the public authorities compared to the amount of data collected. lack of comprehensive data interferes in several ways with the research work. professors from a top statistical research and training institute in india lamented the loss of statistical significance in their study due to the need of compiling different datasets coming from varied sources. this often compels researchers to make various adjustments in the data and also to make simplifying assumptions necessary to circumvent the problem of certain datasets not being made available by the government. this is particularly true for micro-level data or data related to public finance. the goi must consider these issues in future while making data publicly available as part of ogd. several researchers also highlighted that more datasets on many sectors and transversal questions could be collected alongside major data collection exercise regularly organised by the government, through a small add-on questionnaire for instance. these datasets could be disclosed only on the official ogd portal and be a source of differentiation from other ogd sources. more broadly, the set-up of such portal could be complemented by the creation of transversal, inter-sectors and inter-disciplines data collection exercises and data collection teams. the selection of the data to gather could be extracted from the comments and requests posted on the portal. during the workshop the representative from the computer centre of mospi described the initiatives undertaken over the past few years to make their data more accessible and also more usable through the preparation and publication of metadata files. referring to the ogd official portal, the official explained that this active website is extensively used (satisfactory number of users per month) but it is only a data repository where all official agencies upload data without following-up on its usage. moreover, this website generates many queries related to the datasets and those are sent directly to the computer centre. this centre, given its current staff complement and volume of work, cannot always respond to such queries in a timely manner. the absence of troubleshooting tools and any further assistance were also generally recognised as critical issues faced by researchers to be able to use ogd successfully for their studies. he also admitted that the high turn-over within these services was inimical to the rapid implementation and success of these initiatives. more detailed insights from the workshop discussions are provided in annex i. !140 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 suggestions to improve the use of ogd in india among the challenges complicating the interaction between ogd and researchers is the lack of awareness of the ogd available. in developing countries the ogd movement is less popular, in particular among junior-level local researchers. an awareness campaign targeting the research community can be beneficial for promoting the use of ogd among them. in general, the consultation of these datasets and their use by the civil society is lower in india and in developing countries. an awareness campaign targeted all potential end-users and the civil society would also be appropriate. regarding data collection by official statisticians, from our research it can be said that they are aware of most of the limitations identified in this paper. for instance, officials at mospi indicated that a commission is in charge of improving the design and data collection system in place, including reviewing suggestions made by the data users. they are willing to make changes and improvements, especially as they see positive outcomes from the publication of data. they recognised that by publishing data the visibility of the institution increases. official statisticians also declared that discussions in media and socio-economic journals help to give feedback on their work and decide on data collection priorities of the ministry. despite limited resources and capacities, mospi admitted the necessity to invest in such capacities and infrastructure to bring their data dissemination system to the next level. researchers from the civil society are willing to participate fully in this effort. consideration was given to how researchers could be involved in the reinforcement of these capacities. for instance suggestions were made to develop short internship programs to improve dissemination practices. official statisticians have never denied the fact that many datasets were kept unpublished, mainly due to the lack of necessary resources. within public agencies and even within one entity, it is crucial to improve cooperation and standardisation among data producers and data collection exercises. however, the indian ogd portal appears to lack the possibility of establishing a real interaction among data users and data producers. this was a common conclusion from both sides, many official statisticians admitting that they did not know much about the data use by the researchers and that they did not have the structure or the resources to respond to the questions and feedback sent by the researchers about the data. to respond to the problems generated by inappropriate data dissemination formats, the major one being the time taken to make them amenable to any kind of scientific analysis, datasets should be published in ready-to-use formats, like csv files, xml etc. and must be accompanied by at least a brief description of the variables, data collection methodology, sampling design, etc. moreover, the data should be disseminated online, without any charges, to conform to the ogd policies followed worldwide. all public portals should have a user registration process to gather useful information on data users and data use, and should also include an effective assistance tool and a medium to interact with data specialists. due to the public resource scarcity, a third party, such as a data intermediary organisation, could host a wiki or other documentation portal. they would act as an intermediary between researchers with questions and data producers and official statisticians with answers. asher and novosad (2015) made a series of suggestions in their paper, applicable to all ogd. they suggest following best practices in the use of information technology in data collection. !141 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 for instance tablets and other electronic devices should be used for data collection, as was the case with the 2011 socio-economic and caste census. this provides an immediate opportunity to improve data quality: ‘time-stamps and geo-coordinates ensure that enumerators are actually moving from location to location and conducting surveys in a realistic time frame’ (p15). the authors also suggested setting up a data extraction centre possibly through a third party (with secured machines, and export results tables, but without the possibility to download confidential data). this system has been implemented successfully in other countries and provides access to required data after removal of confidential information, and will be of great interest for researchers. finally we suggest, in line with most researchers consulted that data access should be made more available and free of charge as the public authorities have more to gain from an expansion of the social-economic research being conducted about india and from an increased cooperation from researchers than from a misinterpretation and misuse of data. more datasets need to be released among those already collected, with solutions to be found for any legislative or confidentiality issue. more datasets should also be collected, on specific points not yet covered by major data collection exercises or on transversal topics which study is limited due to the difficulties identified in combining datasets. regarding the official ogd portal and its efficient use, it should include all datasets easily downloadable, and not just a link to further sources. one recommendation to the public authorities and official statisticians to increase the traffic and use of the data displayed on this website would be to conduct a dedicated study among their selected target group to identify the key features expected. an interesting direction for the official ogd website would be to offer unique data dissemination and representation tools. this would also allow civil society to understand the data better and to contribute to the objective of transparency and accountability. conclusion the study provided an overview of the literature on the broad topic of evidence-based policymaking and ogd. it highlighted the main barriers to research affecting policy, as well as the need for a more efficient research–policy connection. it further elaborated on the various possibilities arising with the use of ogd for impacting policy-making. the ogd initiative is well set up in india with a strong legal framework and support from the public authorities. however, the movement remains confined among local researchers and could benefit more if sufficient awareness and outreach efforts are undertaken. researchers aware of ogd were generally using open public data long before the launch of the specific ogd portal. if they value its accessibility they expect more from ogd: more data released, in a better and more user-friendly format and accompanied by relevant metadata. those elements would help researchers to make better use of ogd in their work. policy-makers are generally not aware of the research studies conducted using the data they have produced. more interactions between data users and data producers are desired for better dissemination of findings which may influence public policies. further in-depth reviews of the literature are warranted to identify knowledge gaps in defined areas highlighted in the literature review. !142 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 an online survey conducted among researchers in our extended network highlighted several insights about their use and knowledge of ogd. among these insights, is that researchers are not aware of data that could be valuable to carrying out their work. it could be said that ogd movement in india is not being used by the indian citizens to its fullest potential. the main impediments to use are the lack of awareness and the non-availability of metadata. the study also highlighted that researchers who do make use of ogn in india, often struggle to understand the dataset being made available. no additional supporting information is provided that describes the dataset or its underlying sampling design and it is often difficult to reach out to official statisticians with queries to get answers in a timely manner. the issues discussed above need to be considered in the next steps of the ogd movement in india and possibly in other developing countries, and new policies should be designed to fulfil these gaps and overcome these challenges. some of the recommended improvements are: (1) building better links between government data providers and researchers by involving them throughout the data collection and distribution process. 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(2011). report on open government data in india. centre for internet and society. retrieved from http://www.transparencyinitiative.org/reports/open-government-data-study-india xu, g. (2012) the benefits of open data (part ii) – impact on economic research. open data knowledge international. retrieved from http://blog.okfn.org/2012/10/23/thebenefits-of-open-data-part-ii-impact-on-economic-research/ yannoukakou, a., araka, i. (2014). access to government information: right to information and open government data synergy. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 147, 332-340. 
 !145 http://www.transparency-initiative.org/reports/open-government-data-study-india http://blog.okfn.org/2012/10/23/the-benefits-of-open-data-part-ii-impact-on-economic-research/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 annex i: takeaways from the workshop with governments stakeholders and researchers challenges recommendations • denomination of the datasets can be misleading; census and survey do not design the same type of data. this can lead to misuse for research. • some data sources do also mix both methodologies like the annual survey of industries. • misclassification can be an issue. if there are some categorical changes over time, such changes in the data collected should be carefully documented. • researchers would need the government to release more of the datasets they collect periodically. • the government should also ask for external studies to complement the internal analysis. • need to increase collaboration and dialogue between researchers and government on data collection and research topics. short internship programs could be created or expanded for instance to improve dissemination practices. • a platform to keep the discussion going about the data available, their characteristics and aggregate all the information available would be a needed tool. • cases of misreporting, need to find an efficient and fixed way to collect data rigorously without putting too much burden on the respondents (firms or individuals) with limited resources. • efficient self-reporting system is missing. but low corporate governance system/level in india is interfering. • solutions were found in other countries, for example a rotating panel could be a solution, and firms are sampled occasionally for some years. • it is critical to document how respondents interpreted the question while conducting a data collection exercise. • several law restrictions identified limiting the publications of data: taxes/tariffs info cannot be released to the public by law, this is the case in many countries not only india. it does not discourage honest reporting. firm level data can also not be released as per the statistical act. • statistical act revision and other relevant regulations. • it could be worth thinking about what kind of data could be shared respecting all confidentiality rules to researchers. • confidentiality issue • difficulties encountered to combine data from different sources, to link record over time. • new common identifier to introduce. it would allow panel data to be generated and deeper studies to be conducted. • unique identifiers system to be adopted by all agencies. coding should be made mandatory by law at all stage, otherwise codes disappear on documents. • on this topic there is a consensus that the creation of a data centre could be a good initiative, if the framework put in place is respecting all confidentiality rules. • duplication of efforts, new models and methodologies among the different public agencies involved in data collection. • it would be necessary to coordinate the efforts and changes made by government entities for increased consistency through different databases. the resources being limited, a duplication of efforts and a multiplication of methods and models should be avoided. • in general ogd improvement needs reinforced state level support. • most of the data collected by public authorities is not released. many sectors in the indian economy would benefit for having more data available and more research studies implemented. • creation of a data centre and publication of more already collected datasets. !146 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 • some data collection exercises in india are very big and mobilize lots of resources. • needed data could be collected through small surveys done randomly, or small extra questionnaire being conducted during the conduct of a bigger survey to limit the extra costs. the resource mobilization would be minimal but it can have far reaching impact on policy-making. • data is collected to match the government agenda first. public statisticians are mostly unaware of academic researchers’ focus and interests. • the government fully recognized that opening up scope for conducting more research in these sectors would also be very conducive for knowledge enhancement in the particular sector. • for example on panel data, taking the panel perspective to get more accurate results, and panel will inform on data quality. looking at both panel and cross sectional data would give information on the gaps on both sides. it’s very interesting for indian government and policies, they would have the primary benefit, and secondly it will be beneficial for researchers. • design of data collection is being revised by some agencies already, but difficulties in finding ideal and common frame, and structural bottlenecks due to the data collection system and bureaucracy. • changes in the data collection design are a problem for researchers if it is not properly documented in metadata. • the sampling methodology is often not adequate, for example the chosen sampling unit of the surveys. • more internal cooperation among official statisticians, and public authorities conducting data collection exercises and between external researchers and public authorities. • provide precise metadata along with datasets explaining data collection methodologies and designs, and changes that have taken place over time. • other frames are being considered by public authorities (i.e. taxes submitted, size of investment, etc.) but no adequate unit has been found yet. • difficulties to access data due to payment process, especially from abroad (need to provide bank draft from india based bank for example). • data available for a fee to ‘restrain’ its use by non –professionals. authorities are concerned that data could be misinterpreted and false conclusions shared with public. • some agencies are making needed changes: dgcis has improved on the dissemination aspect with the creation of an online portal to disseminate authorized data. trade data are available for download against payment of fees by credit/debit card online. • data should be made available for free. !147 1340-7719-2-ce the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles the geoweb for community-based organizations: tool development, implementation, and sustainability in an era of google maps recent advances in web-based geospatial tools (the geoweb) show promise as low-cost and easy-to-use methods to support citizen participation. this research presents two case studies of geoweb implementation set in community-based organizations in rural quebec, canada. when comparing the development and sustainability of each geoweb tool, the implementation time frame plays a key role. two implementation time frames are defined; a discrete, or ‘one-off ’ time frame associated with lower resource requirements, and a continuous, or ongoing time frame, that has a higher total resource cost, but can fulfill a different set of goals than a discrete implementation. introduction the geospatial web 2.0 (geoweb) is an online framework for collecting, distributing, and using geospatial data in a collaborative manner (haklay, singleton, & parker, 2008). the geoweb consists of a framework of multiple components, such as geographically referenced data sources and digital earths, that can be interlinked, or !92 peter a. johnson university of waterloo, canada corresponding author. peter.johnson@uwaterloo.ca renee e. sieber mcgill university, canada renee.sieber@mcgill.ca johnson, p.a., sieber, r.e. (2017). the geoweb for community-based organization: tool development, implementation, and sustainability in an era of google maps. the journal of community informatics, 13(1), 92—108. date submitted: 2016-07-26. date accepted: 2017-01-22. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1340 . http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1340 mailto:peter.johnson@uwaterloo.ca mailto:renee.sieber@mcgill.ca http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1340 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ‘mashed up’ via application programming interfaces (apis) to create an online map (hudson-smith, batty, crooks, & milton, 2009; lake & farley, 2009). information exchange on the geoweb is multi-directional, in that it supports use both in a traditional ‘read-only’, informational manner, and in a web 2.0 ‘read-write’ fashion that encourages users to contribute and share information (batty, hudson-smith, milton, & crooks, 2010; o’reilly, 2005). the geoweb is generally built on the development of free or low cost online mapping platforms, such as google maps and open layers, assisted by the provision of open, shareable data from governments, organizations, and companies, and the acknowledgement that individuals can provide information based on their own experience (volunteered geographic information, or vgi) (goodchild, 2007). the geoweb has been applied within a variety of contexts, such as data gathering and communication in crisis situations (goodchild & glennon, 2010; liu & palen, 2010; zook, graham, shelton, & gorman, 2010), the facilitation of citizen science activities such as invasive species identification and environmental change (connors, lei, & kelly, 2012; ricker, johnson, & sieber, 2013; wiersma, 2010), and to map the location of injuries in urban areas (cinnamon & schuurman, 2013). these applications frame the geoweb as a rapidly deployable, low-resource cost framework that non-experts, or ‘neogeographers’ can use to gather, visualize, and share geospatial data (beaudreau, johnson, & sieber, 2012; haklay et al., 2008). the potential of the geoweb for community development is as a way to engage with citizens and communities of interest (ganapati & reddick, 2012; johnson et al., 2015; johnson & sieber, 2012b). this approach can be seen in the use of geoweb as an enabling technology for citizen science, where organizations provide a geoweb site as an input portal for data collected by citizens. despite the broad enthusiasm for the geoweb, the process of developing, implementing, and sustaining a geoweb site can present a barrier to adoption for many organizations (newman et al., 2010; sieber, robinson, johnson & corbett, 2016). while at the national, state, and city levels or within private enterprise, there may exist both the resources and expertise to develop, implement, and sustain a variety of technology tools, these resources can be lacking in regional and municipal governments, not-forprofit and volunteer-run organizations, and particularly in rural areas (beaudreau et al., 2012; corbett, 2013; johnson & sieber, 2012b). if the promise of the geoweb is to be broadly realized at the community organizational level, there must be greater focus on the implementation and sustainability issues that are created by the context into which the technology is being deployed. the popularity of the geoweb has been driven by a perception that these tools are simple, easy to use, inexpensive, and thus able to be quickly adopted by any organization (hall, chipeniuk, feick, leahy, & deparday, 2010). this perception considers the geoweb to be fundamentally different than its precursors, desktop gis and web gis, both of which have a significant history of organizational adoption constraints that are well articulated in the literature (z. d. budić & godschalk, 1994; onsrud & pinto, 1991). despite the supposed evolution of the geoweb as a potentially more democratic and participatory form of gis (haklay, 2013; johnson & sieber, 2013; miller, 2006) it remains to be seen if the type and nature of organizational adoption constraints differ accordingly. !93 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 this concern for the implementation context surrounding geospatial technology, particularly in community-based organizations, is mirrored in the literature on gis and ppgis, and on the implementation of gis in local government (budic, 1994; sieber, 2000). budic (1994) found that major constraints on the adoption of gis were a poor fit to the tasks of the organization and an implementation process that was too complicated or required more resources than the organization could provide. though developing a geoweb site is arguably much less of a financial burden than the purchase of a commercial desktop gis of the 1990’s (haklay et al., 2008; ricker et al., 2013) we will describe how these concerns of resource requirements, particularly human resource requirements for implementation remain valid when considering the development and sustainability of the geoweb within community-based organizations. the long-term sustainability of a given technology is a significant concern for many types of community-based organizations. budgets are both smaller and funding often fluctuates from year-to-year, constraining the ability of community-based organizations to commit to long-term support, both financially and with staff time (johnson & sieber, 2012a; rideout & reddick, 2005). to date, very few published results have investigated the sustainability of geoweb technology within community-based organizations. rather, focus has been on emphasizing the lower cost of entry to the geoweb, both financially and in required level of expertise (beaudreau et al., 2012; hall et al., 2010; johnson et al., 2015). this ostensibly means that the geoweb has lower implementation and sustainability concerns compared to traditional desktop gis or web-based gis (haklay, 2013; turner, 2006), though this remains largely unexamined. this paper presents research on the implementation and sustainability of the geoweb in a community-based organization context. we aim to clarify questions concerning the adoption path(s) of the geoweb, primarily the implementation and sustainability of the technology in community-based organizations. we compare the development path of two geoweb platforms with community-based environmental management and economic development organizations in rural quebec, canada. both geoweb platforms were used as vgi portals to gather information from citizens, but over different implementation time frames, one discrete, and one ongoing. we describe the development and application of each platform within its organizational context. we then discuss how differing implementation time frames affect the development, implementation and sustainability of the geoweb within each organization. the geoweb for community-based organizations: two case studies this paper compares the implementation of the geoweb in two community-based organizations. these case studies are set in the rural area of acton (population ~16,000), located one hour east of the major canadian city of montreal (figure 1). the acton region is located in the agricultural heartland of the province of quebec, its economy largely dominated by agriculture and light manufacturing. like many rural areas in north america, acton is experiencing a low level of economic growth, coupled with depopulation as young people migrate to nearby city centres. environmental !94 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 degradation is also an issue in acton, as years of agricultural pollution have resulted in severe impacts on water quality in the area lakes and rivers. ! figure 1: map of acton in relation to montreal, quebec, canada in conducting this research, the authors were involved as part of a multi-year collaborative research partnership between provincial, municipal, and local organizations to investigate the potential for and constraints to the use of the geoweb in a community context. as part of this research, we worked in partnership with two acton-area community-based organizations to develop and implement geoweb tools as a way to increase citizen participation in local development issues. in conjunction with project partners, we developed and implemented two geoweb tools; one for community-based watershed mapping, and one for community economic asset mapping. these tools were implemented within two different community-based organizations, each with different structures, funding sources, and mandates. the first organization is the corporation de développement de la rivière noire (cdrn), a community-based watershed management organization with a mandate to mobilize citizen efforts to protect and improve water quality and management practices in the region. this organization is largely volunteer-run, and takes an activist role in directing community effort and working with municipal and provincial partners. for the cdrn case study, we used a google my map geoweb tool, a platform developed and hosted by google that allows for the rapid creation and sharing of simple maps annotated with user-contributed points, lines, and polygons. this tool is deployed by cdrn to gather citizen reports of erosion, pollution, and other watershed issues. the second organization we worked with is the acton centre local de developpement (cld), a community economic development organization with a mandate to develop, market, and support economic growth in the area. acton cld is funded directly from the provincial government, with multiple full-time staff and a strong presence in the local area. for this case study, a geoweb tool was custom-created by the research team using the google maps api. called ‘acton 2.0’ this tool allows business owners in the !95 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 acton community to add a point to a map and fill out a relevant form with information. both the point and form information are then immediately added to a server-side database and made publicly viewable and searchable. acton cld used this tool to create a series of community asset maps, providing the location and description of local businesses. despite key differences in terms of organizational structure, funding source, and operational mandate, there are parallels that can be drawn between both organizations. first, they both operate within the same rural milieu, and must negotiate the unique challenges inherent in that context, including low levels of population growth, a transitioning economy, tension between long-time residents and newcomers, and a dispersed population (markey, halseth, & manson, 2010). most importantly however, each of these organizations has had little exposure to the use of the geoweb. this makes a comparison between two organizations, operating in the same area, but with different resources and structure, a useful comparison for the tracing of the adoption path of the geoweb. we frame these case studies in three areas of concern induced by geoweb technology use: the development, implementation, and sustainability of the geoweb for each community-based organization (onsrud & pinto, 1991; rogers, 2010). this analysis then is used to frame a discussion of the opportunities and constraints to the use of the geoweb within a community-based organization context, with a particular focus on developing strategies to improve the sustainability of the geoweb. watershed issue mapping with google my map development google my map provides individuals and organizations with a free tool that can facilitate the quick and easy creation and sharing of personalized web-based maps. as with most digital earths, it offers ease of use in panning and zooming as well as search functions, shareability of data and mashability with other applications. users can augment the content of base map and satellite imagery layers by contributing their own points, lines, polygons, and annotations, essentially adding additional layers of geographic information. to access google my map, the user must login to maps.google.com with a free google account password. users can then create a map using a palette of tools, drawing attributes and adding descriptions, media, and hyperlinks. users can then share a given map by making it publicly searchable, sending an email link to others, embedding in a website, or inviting others to collaborate on the map. the human and technical resources required to set up and use a google my map are minimal. to set up a google my map, the developer must have a general understanding of the internet, email, web-based applications, and a general level of spatial literacy. no knowledge of computer code is required. google hosts google my map, so an organization or user need not purchase or invest in servers. the only technical requirements to use the google my map implementation are a modern computer and preferably a high-speed internet connection. from a financial perspective, the google !96 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 my map tool is provided free of charge, making this implementation extremely costefficient, other than the cost of a computer and internet connection. implementation the google my map tool was implemented as part of a mapping workshop conducted by the research team and cdrn with citizens in the region of acton. in total, five workshops were held, with 18 citizens participating. each workshop followed a similar pattern. participants were engaged in a discussion of environmental issues in the region, using post-it notes to tag areas of concern on paper maps. participants were then introduced the google my map interface and given the opportunity to each use the website to contribute their personal opinions of environmental impacts in the region. users were required to log on to the site, either by using a google account set up by the research team, or by creating or using their own google account. in this way, the user is logged and their participation either in adding or modifying a point on the map, is registered. this type of user authentication can possibly reduce vandalism to the map by only allowing it to be accessed by those with some connection to the process, though this may also reduce participation by preventing users from leaving anonymous comments. once participants were logged into the account(s) they were asked to add comments about environmental concerns to the map. to do this, users added points and lines to familiar areas in the region, found using the google maps satellite imagery. a sample of the google my map interface and commentary contributed to the google my map is presented in figure 4. despite the promised ease of use, some end users in the cdrn workshops demonstrated a low level of both spatial and digital literacy, reporting difficulties situating themselves on the map and navigating using the pan and zoom controls. these difficulties were attributed to a level unfamiliarity with web applications and challenges interacting with a computer. we also could not discount the lack of spatial (map-reading) literacy of some of the users. !97 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ! figure 2: google my map interface and workshop map during the five workshops a variety of comments on environmental and erosion management issues were added to the google my map. participants used the conventional base map, satellite imagery, and google street view to locate specific areas of concern. data collected in this manner was seen as valuable for cdrn, as it describes issues that are of importance to local stakeholders and gives those issues an explicit geographic context. the further use of the geoweb in this manner was seen by cdrn to have potential as a way to both generate community-level interest in watershed management and as a way to rapidly gather information in a low-cost manner. sustainability when considering the long-term sustainability of the google my map tool within an organization such as cdrn, the low level of resources required to implement the google my map should be seen as a positive factor. with a staff comprised largely of volunteers, and a project-to-project budget, for cdrn, google my map is a free tool and one that can be set up and delivered with only a general level of understanding of the internet. despite this low level of financial and human resource requirements to maintain the tool, the way in which google my map was used by cdrn was on an adhoc basis. cdrn has no immediate need for the google my map and workshop protocol to be used continuously. for this organization, the geoweb was a tool that can be used in a discrete, project-based, manner. when required, it can be used, paused, and then used again in the future without requiring ongoing organizational resources to sustain it. this makes google my map a relatively sustainable tool for communitybased organizations, as there is little commitment required by cdrn to continuously invest in the tool, but rather it remains a tool in their tool box, ready to be applied to a specific problem if deemed appropriate. !98 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 acton 2.0: a google maps api geoweb tool development acton 2.0 is a geoweb tool built using the google maps api. this approach allows for significant customization of the geoweb tool, in both appearance and functionality. compared to the google my map implementation, which is supported by google through hosting, acton 2.0 requires a web server on which to store and serve the backend database where user-contributed information and other code that displays the various webpages are hosted. though it is increasingly easy to purchase server space (e.g., for the web, application, database, and file servers) and support, this makes the financial requirements of the acton 2.0 tool higher than the free google my map. a typical cost for web hosting with required level of server capabilities at the time of writing could cost $100 (cdn) per year, though this cost is minimal compared to the expertise required to develop and maintain a geoweb site. embedded as a participatory component within a pre-existing economic development site, acton 2.0 is built around a standard google map interface; the user double clicks on a location on the map to add a point. data that is entered into this form is stored in the hosted database where it can be retrieved in a number of ways. the simplest form of retrieval is for the user to click on an existing point (figure 3) this produces the pop-up balloon of a single point. multiple points can be queried according to set categories. visitors can use the associated search box and category selection box to filter results for different categories, including commercial sector, products available, and municipality. for example, visitors could use this interface to search for all restaurants in the region, or all manufacturing enterprises with a certain focus. from a skills perspective, developers must have familiarity with common web programming languages, such as html, javascript, and php. to make any customizations, developers must still be comfortable working within a programming language and web server environment. !99 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ! figure 3: viewing user-contributed information on acton 2.0 when considering the implementation of acton 2.0, the base functionality for these maps was designed by the research team, in collaboration with a professional web developer contracted by the acton cld to create and support their economic development website. this meant that the technical details concerning the development and implementation of the site were handled by trained individuals, either the research team (geoweb development) or the web developer (integration with the existing website, server-side deployment, ongoing maintenance). though cld staff were involved with design and overall concept of the site, the technical aspects of implementation were handled outside the acton cld organization. implementation acton 2.0 was used by acton cld to gather information on specific community assets from citizens and business owners in the acton region. the goals of this geoweb implementation were to expand and enrich a recently re-designed regional economic development website with community-sourced information. acton 2.0 was implemented to engage citizens and business owners to gather information on the location and select information for businesses and services in the acton region, and to display this information on a publicly viewable map. upon visiting the acton 2.0 site, users click to add their business, and fill out a relevant form with key information or the addition of a photograph. this information is then stored in a database and users could return to edit or modify the information for that feature. the acton 2.0 tool has no process of !100 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 authenticating users, an intentional choice designed to encourage participation by making the contribution of an entry as quick and easy as possible. any visitor to the site can add a point or edit an entry. once an entry is edited, however, a notice is sent to any email address that had been previously present in the entry, as a way to alert a business that their entry had been altered. this site was seen as both a way to engage the community in regional-level marketing of their businesses on-line, as a form of economic development, and also to provide a sense of pride in the range of businesses and services offered within the community. sustainability the nature of the technology introduced to acton cld requires a greater organizational commitment in development, implementation, and maintenance, compared to the google my map tool. acton 2.0 was embedded within an existing, recently re-designed website, which necessitated the hiring of a professional web developer so that acton 2.0 matched the look and feel of the existing site. this integration of acton 2.0 into an existing site suggested that the organization was committed to its development. because organizational resources, both financial and time, had already been committed, the organization was much more invested in the development, implementation, and sustainability of the site. we argue that the greater technical complexity and implementation resource requirements of the acton 2.0 site led to greater support by the organization. long-term sustainability is still unknown; in the short term, acton 2.0 is maintained as a component of the outreach and advertising strategy of the cld. in this way, acton 2.0 is a type of geoweb implementation that was designed to be continuous both in its availability online and in the interaction of users to add or modify points. this ongoing nature (as opposed to the discrete cdrn google my map) requires a higher level of financial and human resources investment to ensure that acton 2.0 is available, maintained, and active for business users and any visiting community user. the adoption of geoweb technology by community-based organizations we compared two geoweb tools for their suitability in community-based organizations through three phases of the adoption process: tool development, implementation, and sustainability. from this analysis, we look to develop a better understanding of the adoption path of geoweb technology in community-based organizations. our results indicate that the potential for sustainability of the geoweb within a community-based organization is mediated by two connected factors; first, the implementation time frame of the geoweb tool, and second, by the resources available within the organization. we classify the use of the geoweb by implementation time frame a discrete, or ‘one-off’ time frame compared to an ongoing, or ‘continuous’ time frame. both geoweb tools presented here can be implemented within either time frame, depending on the organizational goals. within these case studies, the sustainability of the geoweb tool is connected to the chosen implementation time frame, and the resulting implications this has for resource requirements. !101 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 a discrete geoweb implementation time frame many of the most well-known examples of the geoweb are implemented in a discrete timeframe. this is often seen in crisis mapping applications (goodchild & glennon, 2010; zook et al., 2010). these applications are often developed in an ad-hoc, decentralized manner by volunteers, and with a minimal budget using free and open source software components (roche, propeck-zimmermann, & mericskay, 2013). these tools are used for a specific purpose the sharing of information in the context of a crisis, and for the hopefully limited duration. the google my map tool developed for cdrn is a discrete implementation of the geoweb. as a discrete implementation, the google my map is developed to serve a specific, time-limited purpose, in this case, the gathering of watershed information during a series of workshops. as an example of this specificity, the pool of participants is limited to those who attended the workshops or were invited by project participants. once this task or series of tasks is finished, the google my map no longer needs to be used or maintained. all sustainability requirements on the part of cdrn can be put on hold until a time when the organization chooses to use the google my map again. in this situation, cdrn would revisit the development stage in the context of a new or modified application area. the way that the google my map is implemented by cdrn supports use in a discrete manner. the tool is not available to the public, as a login control restricts use to those attending workshops, and a final series of maps that are not publicly distributed, but rather kept for the use of cdrn. this lack of public distribution or requirement for the tool to be open to ongoing commentary and participation means that there is no need for cdrn to make a long-term investment in the tool. this discrete nature of the google my map has implications for the resources needed to develop, implement, and sustain the tool. we propose that in the context of the discrete cdrn implementation, the google my map tool has a high level of sustainability. this high level of sustainability is based on the short required time frame for the technology to be active, its low cost of entry in terms of resources, and the lack of ongoing maintenance costs. contrast this to desktop gis, where even if an organization is not actively using it, they still must pay for a license to have it available and a trained staff member to use it. similarly, the cost of simply having access to geospatial data, such as satellite imagery to use for citizen participation workshops is prohibitive. for an organization with low resource capacity (both financial and human resources) the ability to access, essentially on demand, a basic participatory mapping platform complete with satellite imagery data is a substantial asset. this discrete use of the geoweb, and in particular the low resource google my map, is a technology that has great promise for sustainability within the context of a community-based organization. an ongoing, or continuous geoweb time frame geoweb tools and technology can also be used within an ongoing, or continuous time frame. by ongoing, we mean that it is an implementation intended to be continuously available for user input and public viewing over an undefined time period. prominent examples of this type of geoweb site include e-democracy style sites, such as fix my street, where citizens post complaints to municipal government. this type of site is !102 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 operated as a service, often as a response to a government or organizational failing or gap. other continuous time frame geoweb sites include citizen science projects, (connors et al., 2012; wiersma, 2010) and open street map, the crowdsourced global base map (haklay & weber, 2008). these types of sites are intended to form a social network around the geolocation and identification of animal and plant species and topographic features respectively. the acton 2.0 tool developed for acton cld can be considered as an ongoing implementation of the geoweb, as users must be able to revisit the site, to revise or update listings. acton 2.0 is intended to grow and change over a longer time frame, compared to discrete geoweb implementation used by cdrn. this ongoing time frame of acton 2.0 is a product of the tasks that the tool was designed to accomplish. due to its use as a type of marketing tool, acton 2.0 needs to be accessible and continually updated, maintained, and even given a refreshed look to remain current. this means that both financial and human resources are needed to ensure the longer term sustainability of acton 2.0. for example, business listings contributed by users may become outdated. though the intention is that business owners themselves will return to the site to update their listings, the responsibility for contacting these business owners may fall to the acton cld staff. other maintenance tasks such as removing vandalism, obsolete, and erroneous listings are other tasks that must be performed by acton cld staff over time. these types of resource requirements are symptomatic of an ongoing geoweb implementation. this contrasts significantly with the intermittent allocation of resources required to support a discrete implementation of the geoweb. this higher level of required resources gives an ongoing geoweb implementation a similarity to conventional desktop gis, where regular maintenance, updating, staff training, and associated costs are major considerations. the sustainability of such an implementation within a resource-constrained community-based organization is questionable, as resource availability in such organizations tends to fluctuate (johnson & sieber, 2012a; sieber, robinson, johnson & corbett, 2016). classifying the geoweb by resource requirements and implementation time frame this research suggests that geoweb tools can be classified on the basis of implementation time frame, itself a factor of the application purpose (figure 4). figure 4 compares the two geoweb tools described in this research, providing an example of the impact that differing implementation time frame has on resource requirements. the google my map used by cdrn has a low initial cost that persists for the discrete duration of the project. should the tool be used again, a similar resource cost should be expected. comparably, the google maps api tool used to create acton 2.0 for acton cld agency has a much higher initial resource cost. these costs then gradually decrease, yet are ongoing, due to the implementation time frame. this leads to a higher overall lifetime resource cost to support a geoweb tool. additionally, organizations using an ongoing geoweb implementation should expect periodic spikes in additional resource cost to update, refresh, or otherwise maintain the geoweb tool. for community-based organizations with limited and fluctuating budgets, this presents a distinct choice for geoweb adoption path, based on resource availability both in the short term, and for long-term sustainability. !103 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ! figure 4: geoweb typology of resources and implementation time frame conclusions when considering the long term sustainability of both geoweb tools described in this research, the issue of tool ownership must be acknowledged. both the google my map and acton 2.0 tools use services provided for free by google. compared to the traditional software ownership model, where a user purchases a hard copy of software for their use, both geoweb tools use what is termed a software as service (saas) model. saas is an approach to distributing software whereby users do not actually own or retain a copy of the software locally on their computer, but rather access software hosted remotely (‘in the cloud’) on a company server. many popular web email clients follow the saas model, as does geoweb software such as google maps and arcgis.com. the google my map tool used by cdrn and the google maps api used in building acton 2.0 are both examples of saas. by using this saas, both organizations are essentially borrowing a service and set of software components provided by google. accessing this service provided by google implies no long term commitment to supporting or using the service on either part of the transaction. google can end the service or change the terms of the loan at any time. in exchange, the organization receives access to a useful service, provided for no cost, as-is with no guarantees of fit to organizational task, but also with no requirement for continued use. there is an assumption that some form of google my map and google maps api will always be available in the future should an organization desire to use it again, though this cannot be predicted, as companies change product direction and feature set regularly (dalton, 2013, 2015). there is a significant disconnect between the promise of the geoweb and the on-theground reality for community-based organizations. many citizen science and online community participation activities are led by community-based organizations that may lack the resources to invest in tool and technology development. a better understanding !104 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 of the constraints to the use of the geoweb at the community-based organization level is required. this research presents two case studies of the use of the geoweb by community-based organizations, outlining the development, implementation, and sustainability challenges for each organization and tool. a classification according to implementation time frame emerged the google my map tool was implemented on a discrete time frame and the acton 2.0 tool was intended to be ongoing. we found that the implementation time frame for each tool was a significant factor in determining the resources required for development. we suggest that future studies into the use of the geoweb at the community-based organization level consider that sustainability of the technology not as a sole function of resource availability, but as a linked property of the implementation time frame and organizational resources. despite current emphasis on the potential of the geoweb as a rapidly deployed, and lightweight tool, the reality is that for community-based organizations, the adoption path must still overcome resource limitations. !105 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 references batty, m., hudson-smith, a., milton, r., & crooks, a. 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(2010). volunteered geographic information and crowdsourcing disaster relief: a case study of the haitian earthquake. world medical & health policy, 2(2), 6-32. !108 <h2 style="text-align:center">data template for district economic planning</h2> <h3 style="text-align:center">sharadini rath</h3> <p>the place of data in governance is central and indisputable, yet complex and difficult. there are two parts to the centrality of data in governance: how accessible it is, and how easy is it to ‘read’. for many, many years, the accessibility itself was in deep distress in india. however, since the passing of the right to information (rti) act in 2005 by the parliament of india, great strides have been made in transparency in governance. while systems still have some way to go before gaining the desired level of openness, there is no question that far more data is available far more easily now than ever before. does this mean that one can vet decisions taken by governance institutions against ‘data’ that depicts the reality of needs? this is where the record of data ‘use’ becomes difficult to interpret. </p> <p>the achievements and challenges related to open government data in india have been outlined by the recent report by the transparency and accountability initiative [1]. the report correctly points out that beyond accessibility per se, it is the ‘information’ content of data that needs focus. this is especially true when it comes to decision-making within governance. post facto accountability is a somewhat meaningless exercise if the decisions whose outcomes are being measured were made in an ad hoc manner. </p> <p>in some sense, the data does not become ‘open’ until the insights it might potentially contain get revealed, and utilised fruitfully. but, all analysis needs a context, a question to answer, an insight demanded for a particular purpose. so openness is not only a matter of applying methods of data analysis, but also of fixing the context. if both exist, then openness works as a demonstrable principle, well beyond accessibility alone. while data collection might be done in a fairly systematic, timely and unbiased fashion, analysis of the data for meaningful insights and disseminating the results to the concerned decision-makers remains a very large challenge.</p> <p>so, who sets the context? who decides what insights to look for? this interesting and very basic question always remains unanswered. asking questions of a set of data is a highly learned process. it requires experience to ask the right questions for a given dataset and skill to extract the answers. do elected representatives have the required experience to be able to do this meaningfully? can they formulate very clearly what kind of structured input they are looking for while making budgetary allocations and policy decisions? maybe not, but they can articulate their concerns in some way. is there an agency that can discover the questions implicit in the concerns being expressed by elected representatives and analyze available data accordingly to take the process of debate and consultation forward? </p> <p>there are very few agencies that might fulfil this function. the first and best placed among them is the bureaucracy. in fact, it is one of their primary functions. they bring both sides to the table: a) they assist in decision-making and are privy to the concerns being expressed by elected representatives and, b) they know the data and have the required skills to analyze it. and yet, this ideal relationship does not yield ideal results, only incremental ones. there can be many reasons for this, but perhaps the most important among them is the fact that in a democratic system, governance is fundamentally political. elected representatives are not necessarily looking for ‘the best decision’. they are more likely to be looking for ‘the best politically advantageous decision’. this distinction is by no means meant pejoratively. in fact, in an electoral democracy, this is highly desirable. to reflect the concerns of the people they represent is the fundamental duty of the representative. but politicians do not represent monolithic electorates with unitary opinions or demands. in fact, they are frequently juggling contradictory demands from different sections of their constituencies. and so the question of context comes to the fore again. who sets the context to an input for a decision? and here, traditionally, the bureaucracy bends to the one set by the ruling dispensation, which in turn is governed by a politically calibrated approach to decision-making, hopefully satisfying more than those who are left out. in such a complex and highly charged atmosphere of decision-making, the bureaucracy has limited enthusiasm to present varied analysis and possibilities. this enthusiasm usually diminishes further as one gets closer to the village government, and the ‘distance’ between a largely rural body of elected representatives and a well educated bureaucracy widens so much, that there is not even any pretence of informed decision-making based on accurate data. </p> <p>the other important agency is the civil society organisation (cso). the cso approach is usually to focus on a particular issue, gather evidence in its support and put pressure on the system to decide in its favour. they set the context for themselves, and generally do a thorough job of analyzing data to support it (when they do use it). while this is a straightforward way of using data and its insights, their record of success is not always what one would expect it to be. and again, it is politics that is the un-factored parameter. csos frequently work from outside the political system and have limited success in convincing elected decision-makers that this is not only a good decision, but it is also good for them. listening for the questions implicit in the concerns of the elected representatives and addressing them by giving nuanced input is not a function that csos are known to perform. </p> <p>so openness of data in the specific arena of decision-making in governance remains a challenge. creating information from data that will shape the debate on any decision is an approach adopted by the higher levels of government rather than the local bodies. however, local governments are far closer to the ground in both terms; assessing what is required, and delivering it. the constituencies of their elected members are smaller and they are more visible to the people than those elected to higher levels of government. their responsibilities also tend to impact the day-to-day lives of their electorate far more directly, and they can be held accountable for failures in these matters also in a more direct manner. they are also much better placed to give input regarding local conditions to higher levels of government regarding policy decisions, especially for regional development. however, it is precisely at this level of governance that data based inputs become rare. the bureaucracy, local csos and the elected members are ignorant of the sheer range of data available to create inputs for local decision-making. asking questions and creating contexts remains a huge hurdle. the distance between data collection agencies and users at local levels is very large, creating conditions that essentially mean that the data is simply not used, even when this data is open and available. </p> <p>this paper deals with one concrete example of such a case of lack of data use at the local level. economic development is an area of governance that is frequently allocated to higher levels of government, while village or city level institutions are viewed as service delivery agencies. however, when it comes to the knowledge of local economies and what ails them, local elected leaders are likely to have a much greater depth of understanding. can they not be brought into the ambit of consultations and action on regional economic development? if so, how accessible is the existing data? can it be used to create insightful inputs to a debate at the local level? this paper will present work done to assess the degree to which data can be opened for discussion among local decision-makers. it will also make an attempt to gauge the capacity of institutional mechanisms of democratic political governance to take the process forward. </p> <h3>the planning system in india</h3> <p>planning for social and economic development is an essential function of all governments. india has gone through a tumultuous history of planning. it has seen some radical paradigm shifts in the very ideology and method that goes into deciding the how and what of planning. from being a highly centralised planner till the late 1980’s, india shifted to ‘decentralised’ planning by amending its constitution in 1992 and placing highly local constituencies at the frontlines of planning for many sectors of government action. the weight of expectations from government was thus sought to be shifted to the shoulders of those who were closest to the communities they represented; the elected governments of villages and municipalities. a structure of decentralised ‘panchayats’, or local governance institutions, was created that, ideally, linked the village to the union government. this involved a step-by-step devolution of mechanisms for setting priorities, making decisions, handling finances and governing by participatory means. planning was made a central tenet of this whole structure and each successive institution in this structure was given specific responsibilities to incorporate plans (or demands) of those in the tier below them in an upward cascading process of convergence that would then organically arrive at a plan for large regions. </p> <p>the administrative structure of governance in india, viewed from this perspective is seemingly simple. </p> <ul> <li>village (rural) </li> <li>several villages make up a gram panchayat (gp) </li> <li>municipality (urban) </li> <li>several gps and municipalities make up a block or taluk panchayat (tp) </li> <li>several tps make up a district or zilla panchayat (zp) </li> <li>many districts or zp’s make a state</li> <li>many states make the union of india</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>the governance units in this structure are the gp, municipality, tp, zp, state and union. the trio, zp, tp and gp are commonly referred to as panchayati raj institutions (pris). there is, by and large, a clear separation of functions of each level of governance and this is set down in the constitution. the states and the union were created and are very well defined since independence. the existence of districts as strong administrative units goes back to the british and has persisted. in fact, the administrative office of the district collector remains a major power centre and even today the elected zp is a parallel and much weaker body. blocks or taluks were a somewhat late entrant and were minor administrative units. by and large, the real governance and political gainers in this process of decentralisation have been the gps. in a vastly rural country like india, this is perhaps not surprising. however, the politics of sharing power in the age of decentralisation is very complex, and some of its nuances will be highlighted in this study.</p> <p>indian states have distinct governance ‘personalities’ and histories right from pre-colonial times. since the country was created as a union and states were given great autonomy of legislation, these differences have persisted. some states, like maharashtra and madhya pradesh, experimented with decentralised governance, creating elected bodies at the district level and strong gps. others stayed highly centralised with the state functioning mainly through the administrative machinery of the district collector with elected bodies only in the gps. the political equations between state legislators (members of legislative assembly or mla) and gp members were shaped by these realities. since all programme and spending decisions were made by the state, there was a strong top-down nature to governance and state legislators (mlas) enjoyed great power. however, all this was set to be changed with the passing of the decentralisation amendments.&nbsp; </p> <p>the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments [2] in 1992 formalised not only the notion of the gp, municipality, tp and zp as ‘local self governments’ (lsgs) with elected bodies, they also laid down the functional and financial space for each: to deliver economic development and social justice. there are some key features of the defined ambit of their functions that are worth keeping in mind:</p> <p>it is the responsibility of each state government to devolve by an act of the state assembly, the required funds, functions and functionaries to enable all lsgs to attain legal status and perform. this has led to an uneven record of decentralisation in india. some states have done better than others, but none have reached the level of lsg empowerment and functioning envisioned in the constitution.</p> <ul> <li> <p>most lsg functions are service oriented, such as drinking water, sanitation, watershed development, education, health, and so on. </p> </li> <li> <p>lsgs have limited financial resources. gps and municipalities have some powers to tax and levy service charges. however, both tps and zps have scant sources of their own revenue. for most part, all lsgs depend heavily on state governments for devolution of funds to meet the expenses of their programmes. </p> </li> <li> <p>the functional relationship between states and lsgs is mediated first and foremost by the lsg bureaucracy, whose appointment is entirely in the state ambit. the second arm of the state present in lsgs constitutes all departments (or ministries) of the state that function at lsg level. so, education, health, irrigation, public works, and so on, all have functions at the lsg level that are independent of the lsg and controlled by the relevant state minister. </p> </li> <li> <p>elected representatives for gp, tp, zp and state government share voting constituencies, and state assembly members have ex officio positions on important bodies such as the district planning committee. the functions of the four levels of governance institutions are different, but they are meant to dovetail. only the state has legislative powers, and the power to devolve state revenue for lsgs. </p> </li> <li> <p><span>the combined administrative, political and financial footprint of the state is very large in lsg jurisdictions.</span></p> </li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>these developments created two shifts: one in the functional and financial arena and the other in the political. the power equations between the mlas and gp (and now tp and zp) members shifted, with a perceived dilution of the clout of the former. with deeply overlapping voting constituencies, much had to be shared and negotiated, a new experience that the mlas resented [3]. the unresolved struggle to come to terms with this upending of the old political power hierarchy is seen in this study also. with the creation of pris left to state assemblies, this shift in the power balance is one of the main reasons why it took states a long time to operationalise pris and remains an on-going process.</p> <p>since planning was a highly centralised function at the state and union levels, it has taken even longer to bring it into the ambit of the decentralised governance regime. it was only in 2006 that the planning commission of india created the first direction for states to create district plans and has since come up with the manual for integrated district planning [4] giving details of the planning process to be followed by all lsgs. it is comprehensive on process, data management and integration. it emphasizes visioning, participatory methods and social audits. many civil society organizations are taking part in awareness building, training and demonstration regarding the implementation of this whole exercise. vast numbers of administrators, elected representatives and citizens have come into their ambit and have benefited tremendously [5].</p> <p>planning in this system of governance, ideally, follows an upward aggregation path. each gp and municipality makes a plan for its own needs, based on public consultations and available resources. all gp plans are aggregated at the tp level. the zp takes into account all tp plans and adds items that are usually pan-zp and cannot be split, such as long distance roads or irrigation projects. the state government then takes into account zp plans, adds items that are pan-zp, along with those prepared by each of its ministries for functions that only the state could perform. it then balances its financial resources among all these needs and creates the state plan. </p> <p>however, the reality is quite different. planning has historically been an administrative bastion, with only a few state level ministers overseeing the process. it remains so today, even in the decentralised regime. this is formally so. the zp has a planning department that is given the responsibility to plan according to the various directions of the planning commission. this plan is supposed to be based on the wish lists presented by the zp members from each of their constituencies and the gp and tp plans. even if one grants that the district planning office is efficient and reflects these wish lists to the best possible extent and the resultant plan is passed by the elected body, there is a catch. the zp plans have to be ‘approved’ by the state. this is not an arbitrary process in principle. the state must prepare a comprehensive plan that includes pri plans, and its own cross-state programmes. in effect, there is a re-casting of the entire plethora of plans. and not everybody can get everything they want. the matter is down to a balance between what must be done, and what can be negotiated. this is an essentially political arena, where elected leaders from different regions compete for a limited resource i.e., state funds. </p> <p>in this crucial process, the zp is represented at the state level by the zp chief administrator and not by the elected president. this is true of all states. from this point onward, the elected body has no control over what happens to the plan that they have passed [6]. it is at this crucial juncture that the disconnect between the zp members from the mlas proves fatal. with no political weight to be exerted at the state level on behalf of the district working to a single plan, they are left with having to approach bureaucrats in various ministries to grant them their wishes. </p> <p>there is a tendency among civil society organisations who work with the pris to view the process of decentralised governance as an essentially apolitical one: if ‘good’ technology, intentions, methods are deployed, the principle of subsidiarity will work at the village and district levels and people’s concerns will be reflected in the plans and programmes. they consider the state bureaucracy to be more of an ally in the battle for the rights of the pris, than mlas. however, the very act of the creation of pris under the 73<sup>rd</sup> and 74<sup>th</sup> caas is essentially a demonstration of political will at the state level. governance at the state level is deeply political, and the upward integration of pri plans cannot be set outside this ambit. while the bureaucracy can mediate, it does so at will, and can only accommodate such approaches within the limits set by state level political agenda for governance.&nbsp; </p> <p>so, whither decentralisation? it’s still a patchy business in india, with many battles being fought on many fronts, most of them fundamentally for greater political space at all levels of institutional governance. it is this that makes the institutional evolution of this idea so fascinating to watch. as local players learn more with each passing year about how the system works and does not work for them, there is upward pressure created from below to correct the perceived imbalance, that generates some give and some push back. and so the cycle continues. the change is slow and incremental, but then in a vast and messy democracy like india, perhaps it is best to let loose a large idea and allow it time to become something unique within the existing institutional structures.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <h3>aim of study</h3> <p>this work began as a way of testing the ability of data generated by various government agencies to give meaningful, detailed input to the process of district (zp) planning. the study did not address planning at any other local level, such as gp or tp, but was restricted to district planning at the zp level. there are many processes of district planning being put in place over the past few years, with their methods, detail and focus becoming more diverse since the passing of the 73<sup>rd</sup> and 74<sup>th</sup> caas. the focus of this study was economic planning.</p> <p>there are two parts to assessing the database for economic planning: 1) existence of open, accessible, usable, relevant data and 2) the engagement of the stakeholders, such as elected zp and state assembly members, and administrative zp staff, in the process of economic planning. </p> <p>there must be some factual information about the district and its economy on which planning for further development can be based. identifying past and present trends in the performance of different sectors of the economy is necessary to make an assessment of what will work in the future. many lessons can be learnt from such analysis. regional imbalances can be identified in far greater detail. this data can be used by many levels of governance to further their agendas for development. the data used in this study, for instance, was a census of enterprises. however, its analysis was greatly enriched by discussing it with the local stakeholders. <i>why</i> did various factors of the local economy change the way they did? this is not a question that the data can answer, but the officials could. in fact, unless such data is discussed thoroughly with local populations, it is difficult to see how the underlying processes of change can ever be fully understood, much less used as the basis of planning for the future. </p> <p>the aim of this study was to verify whether there is already sufficient data available in sufficient detail within various government agencies to make for a usable and accessible database that can be of interest to all levels of government, from the state government to the gp. the second aim was to create a way of presenting this data to various stakeholders to assess its usefulness on the one hand, and their ability to absorb the information on the other.</p> <p>the first phase of this study used data from the population census of 1991 and 2001 done by census of india and the economic census of 1998 and 2005 done by the central statistical organisation (cso) [7]. data on state and district-wise agricultural productivity was taken from the directorate of economics and statistics, department of agriculture and cooperation, ministry of agriculture, government of india.</p> <p>the location of the study is madhubani district of bihar. the study was conducted at the zp level. </p> <h3>data provenance and use</h3> <p>when it comes to using data to the smallest geographical unit like the village, there are not too many choices. the population census conducted once every ten years is one major source. state governments have a system of data collection for health, education and a few other social services for which data is maintained on an annual basis at the village and town level. it is contested [8], many times, but it exists. by and large, in many states, the formats are consistent and the data is usable. finances of lsgs are available, but their usefulness is quite limited, since the reporting system followed is very far from intuitive and at times positively opaque. much of this data can be obtained, ideally, with an application under the right to information (rti) act.</p> <p>some states do post such data on their official websites, but not for every village. very few gps have websites. most zps have websites which contain some interesting data. for example, district websites give the entire database of village census to identify households ‘below the poverty line’ (bpl) which are eligible for subsidised food, housing and other services. these are available by household and are updated whenever a new census takes place, generally once every five years or so. many small and large municipalities have websites, and in many states they post some data online. while the manual on district planning advocates the use of gis and map technologies, this has not been implemented yet.&nbsp; </p> <p>the national informatics centre (nic) [9] is the union agency created for e-governance solutions, with offices in all district headquarters, tasked with creating, maintaining, and upgrading all government websites. while their task is far from complete, they can be credited with going a long way towards that goal. they have created a gis based planning atlas for a few states[10]. however, these are quite limited in their imagination of the planning process, and it is not clear how much they are actually used even at the state level. </p> <p>it must be understood, of course, that data is ultimately political. it is also used differently by the political class (from gp to state), and by the bureaucracy. the basic power imbalance and adversarial relationship between gp/zp members and the mlas has been outlined above. the bureaucracy, on the other hand, is highly integrated from the highest state level right down to the gp secretary [11], and does close ranks. data is a weapon that is much sharper in the hands of the bureaucracy than in those of the politicians and has always created a fundamental imbalance between the elected and administrative wings of governance at all levels. but by and large there is less collusion within the political hierarchy than there is within the bureaucratic one in the matter of biased or selective use of data, or even outright data manipulation. with low education levels, inability to understand the (very important) detail of how data is collected, analysed and used for planning, and limited tenures, politicians at all levels of governance are at a basic disadvantage in asserting themselves in a tussle with the bureaucracy[12]. </p> <p>technology and data have increasingly become synonymous in the governance arena. the use of computers has penetrated into governance in the developed states much more than in backward ones, but the momentum has been built and resources made available to complete this process down to the gp level. availability of electricity, skilled users and technical support remain the main stumbling blocks in this process, especially at the gp level. however, all zps have computers for all kinds of record keeping, and also internet access. even so, it is clear to all stakeholders that the introduction of new technology alone is not going to make processes of governance more accessible, especially in matters of planning. its <i>use</i> must become much more inclusive and intuitive for primary decision-makers, the elected representatives. as of now, it is yet another layer of separation between them and the bureaucracy. this work attempted to demonstrate that, in fact, technology can be used intuitively to provoke constructive thinking in the planning process.</p> <p>in fact, the term ‘open data’ can be applied to the process by which data is made usable through its analysis and interpretation. it is made open to learning and debate. raw, unit level census data can hardly be considered ‘open’ from the point of view of any elected representatives, even though it is easily accessible. in principle, it is the function of the planning machinery, and civil society organisations, to be the transformative intermediaries that ‘open’ such data for them. </p> <p>this paper deals with data that is not of great interest to anybody at the local or state level, is the result of periodic census exercises, and for these reasons, highly unlikely to be subjected to manipulation. it also reflects the ‘economy’, for which no local elected body takes clear ‘responsibility’, unlike schools or health centres. given this political tendency, the administration was quite sanguine that there would be no difficulties created by the elected body based on this unwanted information offensive.</p> <p>most data on the economy is collected in the form of sample surveys by union agencies, which are rarely, if ever, statistically significant below district level. as a result, sub-district, regional spreads of various economic indicators are very difficult to obtain. this is also because state governments have never taken the trouble to institute state wide data collection mechanisms that match the methods used by union agencies, but go below district level for their own planning purposes. this is ironic, because the union agencies use state and district level offices to collect their data. so there has always been a large data gap for state level use, and the states alone are responsible for it. this also reflects the highly centralised economic planning process that has been the tradition in india.</p> <p>the economic census of enterprises conducted by the cso is really the only means available to do a detailed regional, sub-district study of the non-farm economy in india. it can be broadly supported by occasional surveys of specific sectors done by the national sample survey organisation (nsso), and the annual surveys of industries done by the cso for large industry.</p> <p>both population census and economic census unit level data is available for purchase in machine readable format for more recent years. there are no restrictions on its use. state maps are published by the census of india after every census and are available to the level of the village boundary. these are also available for purchase. all transactions are reasonably straightforward, and the cso offers continued long distance support for clarifications and missing bits long after purchase. </p> <p>the real question to ask in the context of this study is: was this data being used within the planning process at the district level in madhubani? and if not, could its possible use be demonstrated? after all, data is not just about numbers filled out in a form, but what they tell one about the quality of life of people in the country. data needs to be interpreted from as local a perspective as possible to get the most out it. </p> <p>since village census is done for bpl or other beneficiary identification purposes once in a while, the dependence on population census is not very heavy. the data that is not collected locally periodically, but is available in the decadal census, such as worker data, is not used. in fact, there is very little data used on the economy. for example, a powerful indicator of the state of employment in the district, agricultural and otherwise, is the number of marginal workers, who do not work for more than 6 months of the year. even the simple changes in the number of marginal or full time (main) agricultural and non-agricultural workers over a decade are not used to understand how employment opportunities are shifting and why this may be happening. </p> <p>madhubani zp has a vision 2020 [13] document on its website that gives an overview of its status, a swot analysis and suggestions for development over the next 20 years. this was prepared as a part of the mandated planning process by a reputed civil society organisation on its behalf, a common practice. however, it is more an enumeration of some of the available data, than its in-depth and localised analysis, and consequent suggestions for possible paths to be taken for development. this document also did not use the economic census data. </p> <p>the service sectors of governments, especially subsidised ones, such as health, education, housing, public distribution of food, water, electricity, roads, receive the most attention in participatory planning processes. this is logical and easy to understand. these are day-to-day issues that impact the immediate quality of life very significantly. for most of rural india dependent on agriculture, irrigation, availability of seeds and fertilisers, and a support structure for failed crops are also imperative factors. the track record of the provision of these services is so poor, in such vast swathes of india, that a fierce focus on them from local stakeholders is inevitable and highly desirable. and these concerns are repeatedly reflected in the plans that come from the gps. </p> <p>however, who is to look at long term issues of generating employment and planning for an economy that must take into account the stagnation in agriculture and the lack of employment opportunity? which agency at the district level is responsible for this analysis and its propagation among key decision-makers within the planning process? in the case of madhubani, not one agency was willing to lay claim to this task. employment generation and the rethinking of local economies were contended to be the task of ‘state governments’, not the zp or the gp. </p> <p>as a result, data on these issues, readily available from sister agencies, was never used. in some sense, data use at local levels is more reflective of issues that are traditionally considered immediate, quality of life concerns. while employment, wage and the long term growth of the local economy are also factors that will greatly impact quality of life, they have never been cast as such in the various manuals and training courses on planning, and so receive little attention. even though the constitutional amendments put the responsibility of providing ‘economic development and social justice’ onto lsgs, this is not the case in practice. </p> <p>given this state of planning, it was worth putting together the most broad-based data on the economy, to see how it could be used to create intuitive information and disseminate it. was such ‘opening’ possible, and how did stakeholders react to it? </p> <p>the following sections give some of the more successful lines of analysis that were used in this study, and their reception at various levels of local governance. </p> <h3>outline of madhubani district</h3> <p>let us start with an overview of madhubani district. one of the northern districts of the northern state of bihar, with a border with nepal, this is one of the most backward districts in the country. it is spread over 3501 sq kms, and has 21 blocks, 399 gps with 1034 villages. it has more than 10 large and small rivers and numerous streams running north-south, bringing flood waters from the himalayan foothills in nepal. the district is dotted with over 800 large and small ponds.</p> <p>the population of the district was 3,575,381 in 2001. male literacy was about 57%, and female 26%. while 323 villages had domestic electricity connections, only 232 had some medical facility. paved approach roads connected to 547 villages, and only 164 villages had bus services. infant mortality was 62 per thousand births. </p> <p>a very backward district on all fronts, madhubani is a planner’s challenge. poor infrastructure, flooding, and a very long history of poverty give it a historical disadvantage. however, bihar as a whole has a strong political tradition, with some remarkable leaders having emerged from these regions. while politics remains dominated by caste divisions, madhubani exhibited a strong understanding of the spirit behind decentralisation, in no small measure due to the efforts of civil society organisations. the ‘rights’ of lsgs and ‘duties’ of the state were regularly invoked by zp members to convey the lack of real empowerment of lsgs. the relationship between elected zp members and the bureaucracy remains a balancing act, with each side claiming superiority over the other to get their way. the president of the 56 member zp was a young woman from a backward caste, who had won her seat in a non-reserved category. </p> <p>meaningful inputs for economic planning for such a district had to take into consideration not just the data but also methods of dissemination that would appeal to a very diverse audience. </p> <h3>lines of analysis</h3> <p>data sorting is a fairly technical exercise. to bring data from two different agencies, census of india and cso, in line with each other poses a number of difficulties. starting from spellings of village names to the location codes used, sorting them out requires painstaking effort, repeated runs and constant cross checking for accuracy. however, while highly time consuming, for those who understand the data structure, this is the smaller hurdle to cross.</p> <p>the challenge is to come up with lines of analysis that accurately identify the major events and trends in the history and geography of the economy of the district. they must logically link the demography and economy down to the village level, and present scenarios for what can be done in the future. intimate familiarity with the obvious patterns in the data is important. field visits, while very necessary, make the most sense when the overall data is already in place. this study certainly benefited tremendously in this respect by travel within the district, conversations with civil society organisations and their local workers and elected representatives such as members of state legislative assembly (mla), zp and gp members. they all had some input in pointing at different areas of concern, making for a much more vetted analysis.</p> <p>apart from the data itself, an extremely useful tool was introduced to the study, that of digital maps of the district. census of india prepares maps of the district every 10 years, down to the village boundaries. these maps also have a great deal of other information: locations of schools, health centres, post offices, banks, rivers and streams, roads, railway lines, and so on. digitising these maps [14] and linking them to the data about the economy proved to be the final link in creating a remarkably clear picture of the history and geography of the development of the district from 1991 to 2005. </p> <p>all maps given in this document have been created using data for villages only, not for blocks. block boundaries are marked for ease of visual identification. there are no averages in the maps. </p> <p>there are three lines of analysis given here about the economy of madhubani district. this is not an exhaustive account of all the work done, but more illustrative of what emerged as important issues for this district.</p> <p><span>1)</span><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span>agriculture</span></p> <p><span>2)</span><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span>urbanisation</span></p> <p><span>3)</span><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span>non-farm employment</span></p> <p>these areas of interest have been chosen not only on the basis of their importance for an analysis of the economy of madhubani district, but also from the point of view of similar concerns operating in large parts of india. </p> <h3>case 1: agriculture</h3> <p>at the time of the 2001 population census, madhubani was a highly rural, agricultural district, with 96 percent of its population living in villages and female literacy at 26 percent. rice is the main crop and staple, with rabbi wheat a close second.</p> <p>many large and small rivers run through this district. they flood every year and inundate large areas. embankments have been built over some stretches to contain floods, but they seem to have only a partial mitigating effect. while ground water depths are fairly shallow, there is still a demand for irrigation for the rabbi crops. the kosi canal cuts through the district east-west and carries water during the monsoon, but very little later. </p> <p>agriculture is the main employer in the district. table 1 gives some basic numbers.</p> <h3 style="text-align: center;">table 1: basic demography and employment profile for 1991 and 2001</h3> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="462"> <colgroup> <col style="width: 124pt;" width="165"> <col style="width: 53pt;" span="2" width="71"> <col style="width: 116pt;" width="155"> </colgroup> <tbody><tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 124pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="165"> <span><font size="2">basic demography</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 53pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="71"> <span><font size="2">1991</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 53pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="71"> <span><font size="2">2001</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 116pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="155"> <span><font size="2">decadal growth rate</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">total population</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2,832,024</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">3,575,281</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">26.24</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">main cultivators</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">372,262</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">291,565</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">-21.68</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">main agricultural labour</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">370,731</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">416,627</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">12.38</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">total main in agriculture</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">742,993</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">708,192</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">-4.68</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">main others (non-farm)</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">96,185</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">169,220</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">75.93</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">total main workers</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">839,178</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">877,412</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">4.56</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 124pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="165"> <span><font size="2">marginal male</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">4,435</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">133,381</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2907.46</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 124pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="165"> <span><font size="2">marginal female</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">76,639</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">216,930</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">183.05</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 124pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="165"> <span><font size="2">marginal in agriculture</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">na</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">311,807</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">na</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 124pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="165"> <span><font size="2">total marginal workers</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">81,074</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">350,311</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">332.09</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 124pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="165"> <span><font size="2">total workers</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">920,252</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">1,227,723</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">33.41</font></span></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p align="center"> <i>marginal workers: those who have worked for less than 6 months of the year<br />source: population census of 1991, 2001</i></p> <p>a very high rate of population growth has not been accompanied by rising employment in agriculture. while nearly 81 percent of main workers are engaged in agriculture in 2001, this number has seen a small decline since 1991, when about 88 percent were main agricultural workers. cultivators have reduced substantially. however, marginal workers have seen a sharp rise, especially male. basically, agriculture has seen great stagnation over these 10 years and the rise in total workers is largely driven by the rise in marginal workers, 90 percent of whom were in agriculture in 2001. non-farm employment has seen a rise, but the numbers have remained small. a crisis of employment has gradually set in over the decade of the 1990’s.</p> <p>these numbers in themselves are sufficient to give an overall idea of what the economic scenario of this district has been. however, using maps adds a further degree of refinement, giving a clear picture of the intra-district imbalances. </p> <p align="center"> <img src="826-5063-1-pb.jpg" alt="map 1: progression of marginal workers in the district from 1991 to 2001; yellow: marginal workers less than 30 percent of total workers, green – more than 30 percent" height="916" width="970"> </p> <p>it becomes clear from map 1 that the central and eastern parts of madhubani district have suffered the most in terms of the rise of marginalisation of labour. laukahi, khajauli, kaluahi, ladania, andhratharhi, lakhnaur, bisfi and babu barhi blocks have seen a large proportion of their villages having high rates of marginal workers. western blocks such as benipatti and madhwapur show marginalisation to a smaller degree. </p> <p>so not only is it possible to understand the overall employment conditions in the district, it becomes possible to understand which geographical areas have suffered the most set backs and where poverty levels are likely to be high. targeting such areas preferentially with programmes like the national rural employment guarantee act then becomes feasible and defensible. </p> <p>there is no reason why gps should not use such data to demand a commensurate level of assistance. it is also possible to devise schemes for boosting agricultural productivity in these areas, making sure agricultural extension work is made more targeted. </p> <p>embankments or not, if floods are inevitable, causing a large amount of down time in agricultural activities, then methods of cropping have to be devised to make sure that the rabbi and summer crops yield enough to make up for it, both in terms of days of employment and productivity. table 2 gives the position of madhubani district in rice productivity in comparison with other states.</p> <p>it can be seen that for the most part madhubani district produces less rice per hectare than the bihar average, and lags far behind many other rice producing states. the wheat statistics shows similar trends. </p> <h3 style="text-align: center;"><b>table 2: rice productivity in tons/hectare</b></h3> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="358"> <colgroup> <col style="width: 45pt;" width="60"><col style="width: 26pt;" width="35"> <col style="width: 34pt;" width="45"><col style="width: 42pt;" width="56"> <col style="width: 26pt;" span="2" width="35"> <col style="width: 69pt;" width="92"> </colgroup> <tbody><tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 45pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="60"> <span><font size="2">year</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 26pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="35"> <span><font size="2">ap</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 34pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="45"> <span><font size="2">bihar</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 42pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="56"> <span><font size="2">punjab</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 26pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="35"> <span><font size="2">up</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 26pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="35"> <span><font size="2">&nbsp;wb</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 69pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="92"> <span><font size="2">madhubani</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">1996-97</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.6</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">1.44</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">3.4</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.1</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.2</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">&nbsp;na</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">1997-98</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.4</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">1.4</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">3.47</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.2</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.2</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">&nbsp;na</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">1998-99</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.8</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">1.33</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">3.15</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">1.9</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.3</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">&nbsp;na</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 28.5pt;" height="38"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 28.5pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="38"> <span><font size="2">1999-2000</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.7</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">1.45</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">3.35</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.2</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.2</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">1.36</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">2000-01</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.9</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">1.49</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">3.51</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.3</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">1.14</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">2001-02</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">3</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">1.46</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">3.54</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.1</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.5</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">0.96</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">2002-03</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.6</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">1.42</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">3.51</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">1.8</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.5</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">0.77</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">2003-04</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">3</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">1.52</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">3.69</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.2</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.5</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">1</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">2004-05</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">3.1</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">0.79</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">3.94</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">1.8</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.6</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">0.28</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">2005-06</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.9</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">1.07</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">3.86</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2.5</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">0.89</font></span></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p align="center"> <i>source: directorate of economics and statistics, department of agriculture and cooperation, ministry of agriculture, government of india</i></p> <p>with such low, and declining, productivity it is not surprising that there is large scale marginalisation of labour in agriculture. the sector has been able to absorb only marginal workers after 1991. population growth is too large to be sustained by such trends. the distress in agriculture is very deep, indeed, and the following case studies will show its impact on other sectors of the economy.</p> <h3>case 2: urbanisation</h3> <p>urbanisation as a phenomenon arouses much interest among economic planners in particular. it is assumed that economic progress can be measured in terms of the degree of urbanisation, since most of the gdp is generated by non-agricultural enterprises, which are largely urban based or give rise to urbanisation in their vicinity.</p> <p>the data of population census of 1991 and 2001 was used to map the patterns of urbanisation in madhubani, with the following definitions:</p> <p>urban: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; workers in agriculture &lt; 50 percent of total workers</p> <p>semi-urban: &nbsp;&nbsp; workers in agriculture between 50 and 65 percent of total workers</p> <p>semi-rural: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; workers in agriculture between 65 and 80 percent of total workers</p> <p>rural: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; workers in agriculture more than 80 percent of total workers</p> <p>map 2 shows that urbanisation, as defined above, has taken place preferentially in west-central areas of the district, largely around the town of madhubani, the district headquarters. </p> <p>it can be seen very clearly from map 3 that most urbanisation (red, pink and green), or an increase in non-farm employment, has taken place in areas where there is the most dense road network, along with a railway line. most of the eastern and some of the northern blocks exhibit very little urbanisation and have extremely few roads.</p> <p>it will be useful to remember that the most urbanised area of the district encompasses madhubani, pandaul, rajnagar and kaluahi blocks, with a lesser amount in jhanjharpur and lakhnaur. bisfi block shows both, large scale marginalisation of workers in agriculture, and has become semi-rural with an increase in non-farm employment. this has been mainly due to the presence of a railway line and proximity to a road link from darbhanga to the south.</p> <p>it is also easy to see that while a great deal of marginalisation of labour has taken place in the eastern blocks, they still do not see a viable option in non-farm enterprise coming into play. the economy is so poor that non-farm employment has not taken hold to any degree at all. the absence of roads is an added handicap.</p> <p>this gives even further impetus to the planning needs of programmes like nrega. these areas are in multiple distress conditions, and should be targeted on high priority basis for employment generation and creation of public assets. since this data is available at the village level, identification would be very easy. </p> <h3>case 3: non-farm employment<b> </b> </h3> <p>the economic census done by the central statistical organisation for the years 1998 and 2005 is invaluable in tracking patterns in the non-farm enterprise sector. the economic census is a census of enterprises, giving various details about ownership and employment. again, data is available at the village level. the basic data for these two years for the district as a whole is summarised in table 3.</p> <h3 style="text-align: center;">table 3: economic census of 1998 and 2005; sectoral distribution of enterprises and employment</h3> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="1115"> <colgroup> <col style="width: 180pt;" width="240"> <col style="width: 88pt;" width="117"> <col style="width: 96pt;" width="128"> <col style="width: 111pt;" width="148"> <col style="width: 122pt;" width="163"> <col style="width: 106pt;" width="141"> <col style="width: 134pt;" width="178"> </colgroup> <tbody><tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 180pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="240"> <span>sector</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 88pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="117"> <span>workers 1998</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 96pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="128"> <span>workers 2005</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 111pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="148"> <span>enterprises 1998</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 122pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="163"> <span>enterprises 2005</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 106pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="141"> <span>% rise workers</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 134pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="178"> <span>% rise enterprises</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 180pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="240"> <span>primary sector</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 88pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="117"> <span>4414</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 96pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="128"> <span>2144</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 111pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="148"> <span>2982</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 122pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="163"> <span>1173</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 106pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="141"> <span>-51.43</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 134pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="178"> <span>-60.66</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 180pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="240"> <span>manufacture and repair</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 88pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="117"> <span>15783</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 96pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="128"> <span>17770</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 111pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="148"> <span>6987</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 122pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="163"> <span>9739</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 106pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="141"> <span>12.59</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 134pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="178"> <span>39.39</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 180pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="240"> <span>wholesale and retail trade</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 88pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="117"> <span>20575</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 96pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="128"> <span>34628</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 111pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="148"> <span>13755</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 122pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="163"> <span>21799</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 106pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="141"> <span>68.3</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 134pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="178"> <span>58.48</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 180pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="240"> <span>hotels and restaurants</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 88pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="117"> <span>3228</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 96pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="128"> <span>5275</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 111pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="148"> <span>1719</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 122pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="163"> <span>2988</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 106pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="141"> <span>63.41</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 134pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="178"> <span>73.82</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 180pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="240"> <span>public admin, education, health</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 88pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="117"> <span>22247</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 96pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="128"> <span>14076</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 111pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="148"> <span>7478</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 122pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="163"> <span>5570</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 106pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="141"> <span>-36.73</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 134pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="178"> <span>-25.51</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 180pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="240"> <span>others</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 88pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="117"> <span>3079</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 96pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="128"> <span>3133</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 111pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="148"> <span>996</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 122pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="163"> <span>1402</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 106pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="141"> <span>1.75</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 134pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="178"> <span>40.76</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 180pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="240"> <span>total</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 88pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="117"> <span>69326</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 96pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="128"> <span>77026</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 111pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="148"> <span>33917</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 122pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="163"> <span>42671</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 106pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="141"> <span>11.11</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 134pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="178"> <span>25.81</span></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p> the trends in non-farm enterprise employment are as alarming as those in agriculture. the primacy of employment held by public administration, health and education services in 1998 has lost ground very heavily in just 7 years. instead, by 2005 the dominant sector is wholesale and retail trade (more than 90 percent of this is just retail trade). manufacture and repair see a small increase but in absolute numbers they remain small. even the primary sector, which includes animal husbandry and fishing, has lost ground in spite of the fact, that there are more than 800 large and small ponds, and many rivers in the district. fresh water fish from andhra pradesh is sold in local markets at the same price as local fish. the number of buffaloes has actually declined. the one makhana (seed of pond vines, used in sweet making) plant in jhanjharpur was lying vacant, and production was still done on an individual scale. fishing and makhana production were mired in highly inefficient and near defunct cooperatives.</p> <p>a more detailed look at each of these sectors reveals a pattern of rapid withdrawal of the organised sector as a whole. large rice mills, spinning mills, handloom and power loom units have shut down. the most job losses have been in public administration, at nearly 43 percent, followed by education at about 35 percent. </p> <p>in 1998 about 76 percent of all enterprises were own account with 53 percent of all workers, by 2005 this proportion was 91 percent own account enterprises with 86 percent of all workers. the hiring capacity of the non-farm enterprise sector drastically reduced over this period. in 1998 the proportion of hired workers to total workers was 41 percent, but by 2005 this proportion was down to just 29 percent. </p> <p>did different areas of the district display different kinds of behaviour in the non-farm sector as well? was there a geographical pattern to the decline seen in the economic census data? was it indeed the case that as agriculture went into distress, it was the urban areas that held up the non-farm sector to whatever degree possible?</p> <p>to check this, each village and town in the economic census was marked by the urbanisation category of 2001 as outlined in case 2 above. this effectively linked the two data sets, creating a composite picture of the economy of the district. table 4 gives the spread of hired workers for 1998 and 2005 by urbanisation category.</p> <p>it becomes clear from table 4 that the biggest loss in hired employment was suffered by urban areas. this is partially due to the fact that most offices of public administration are located in urban centres. but not all losses in urban areas are in this sector. decline in small and medium manufacturing has also played a large role. the only area to see a small growth in hired workers was, in fact, rural!</p> <h3 style="text-align: center;">table 4: hired enterprise workers in 1998 and 2005 by urbanisation category of 2001</h3> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="622"> <colgroup> <col style="width: 106pt;" width="141"> <col style="width: 135pt;" width="180"> <col style="width: 121pt;" width="161"> <col style="width: 105pt;" width="140"> </colgroup> <tbody><tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 106pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="141"> <span><font size="2">region</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 135pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="180"> <span><font size="2">hired workers 1998</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 121pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="161"> <span><font size="2">hired workers 2005</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 105pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="140"> <span><font size="2">% rise</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">urban</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">8268</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">3962</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 105pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="140"> <span><font size="2">-52.08</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">semi-urban</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">5102</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">3588</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 105pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="140"> <span><font size="2">-29.67</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">semi-rural</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">5406</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">4125</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 105pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="140"> <span><font size="2">-23.7</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">rural</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">9499</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">10535</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 105pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="140"> <span><font size="2">10.91</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">total</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">28275</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">22210</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 105pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="140"> <span><font size="2">-21.45</font></span></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p>map 4 of hired workers showed this phenomenon in greater detail, giving a visual image of the withdrawal of the non-farm sector and its employment capacity. </p> <p>the most marked withdrawal of high hiring capacity (more than 60 percent of all enterprise workers in a village are hired) in non-farm enterprises has been from the most urbanised areas of madhubani, pandaul, rajnagar and kaluahi blocks. similar losses can be seen in jhanjharpur, benipatti, ghoghardiha and laukaha.</p> <p>the proliferation of own account retail trade has been a reaction to tremendous distress in agriculture and a failed organised sector. it cannot and should not be counted in the ‘contribution to gdp’ logic attributed to the non-farm sector. for want of any other sustained avenue of work, people are putting up shops in the hope that the daily sale will take care of daily food needs. however, it is highly unlikely that this is the case. enquiries in the district indicate that the daily sale proceeds of such establishments amount to about 35 rupees. urbanisation is not always an indication of ‘economic progress’ and panacea for the ills of agriculture.</p> <p>complex, yet highly localised analysis is possible with data available from various government agencies, without resorting to primary data collection and other time consuming and debatable activities. if the goal of the planning exercise is clearly defined, lines of analysis can be thought of that give the most relevant input. maps add tremendous fresh insight to the numbers, making for a powerful planning and monitoring tool. targeting for delivery of social sector services, especially in states like bihar, with large rural hinterlands and poor connectivity, can improve manifold with a tool like this.</p> <h3>communicating data</h3> <p>this kind of analysis is best presented in small groups, rather than to large audiences of largely uninterested members of governance institutions. tabular data is hard to explain, but the maps made lasting impressions, and retention of key trends and conclusions was much better with maps. </p> <p>it is also necessary to be ready with some idea of how the difficulties of the situation presented can be remedied. it need not be a ‘plan’ in the formal sense of the word, but it must point the way to action. this could include institutional functioning, utilisation of existing programmes and funds, collaboration with others, and even entirely new ideas. it is only then that the discussion becomes animated and participatory. </p> <p>a large proportion of this analysis was presented to the members of the district planning committee (dpc) of madhubani zilla panchayat and to the members of state assembly (mlas) from the district. some mlas are official member of the dpc.</p> <p>there were very different responses from the two sets. the dpc members basically thought that giving them an analysis is not sufficient, but a plan must also be provided for what should be done. further, the agency that makes the plan must also ensure that the state government then funds it. they knew the state of their economy in a general way, but were clearly unwilling, and perhaps unable, to engage in a discussion about their role in improving it. </p> <p>this is not hard to understand. the zp as an institution has really never planned for anything ever since it came into existence. more recent efforts to get them to plan have resulted in various ngos doing the planning on their behalf, in the absence of even rudimentary ideas about the whole concept. what has happened, though, is that they have suddenly become highly aware of ‘their rights’ under the 73<sup>rd</sup> constitutional amendment. they are also now aware that operationally, they do not seem to have many of these rights. most interaction with dpc members frequently revolves around the demand: <i>get us our rights</i>. at the same time there is no demonstrable ability regarding any structured thinking about planning. all they can do is to prepare somewhat disconnected and long winded wish lists, demanding that the state and union governments fund them. </p> <p>while they are aware that the state does not wish to give them their rights, they still expect the state to fund their wish lists. to expect both funds and rights from the same entity in a political setting gives rise to confusion about ones own ‘duty’ to act. sometimes they do, and sometimes they do not. for most part, they do nothing, justifying their lack of action by their lack of ‘rights’. </p> <p>very few dpc members had a clear idea of how lack of rights translates into the lack of funds for the zp. also to resolve this conundrum they need to work in concert with their mlas, who have the mandate in both arenas, legislative devolution of rights and allocation of funds. but in the entire time that this dpc had been power, there had not been a single meeting of the dpc with the mlas. they have nothing to do with each other. the tremendous confusion about their respective roles was clear. </p> <p>for one meeting with the mlas to present this data, the zp president and a few other dpc members were invited. the mla from madhubani said this was the first time he was talking to the president about the district as a whole. the president said later that this was the first time that she had been in the same room with most of the mlas, and had never discussed any plan for the district with any of them. some dpc members said they had never met any mla. </p> <p>in some sense, the whole process of doing the analysis and attempting to present it to the zp and the mlas has led to a much better understanding of their respective roles and vast gaps in institutional functioning and connectedness.</p> <p>the zp president did understand the motivation behind this study. she showcased the entrepreneurship in the district by pointing at the case of carpet weavers in basopatti block. these people had been trained in government run initiatives for skill development in carpet weaving. they had then got jobs in the bhadohi area of uttar pradesh. after working there for some years, they wanted to come back to their villages and set up their own units. however, the major hurdle was lack of capital to set up the weaving machines and other ancillary units. they could only work at daily wage level for their employers in up, but could not do the crucial value addition locally that would have pushed up incomes and created much more employment. bihar was still not considered a safe destination for even this kind of investment. </p> <p>the mlas, however, did not outright reject the idea that planning for the economy fell within their mandate. in fact, they seemed to have a much clearer idea of what they could and could not do. they also reacted very positively to suggestions about how their ability to deliver could be improved. they did have a much longer line of sight in governance, far better than any zp member, understood the issues quickly and clearly, and were willing to engage in extended dialogue about remedies. it was clear that they are the only realistic allies that the zp has in its struggle with the state about funds and rights. but there is absolutely no intercourse between them. </p> <p>the mlas from pandaul, babu barhi and kaluahi were quite perturbed by the withdrawal of small and medium organised industry from their areas as shown by the analysis. pandaul’s small but well developed industrial estate was a ghost town. one major problem often repeated across the district was the lack of electric power. however, some mla’s were of the opinion that this was something that could be dealt with locally. yes, there were severe shortages, but something could be made available to industry if it was seen to be functioning. at that point in time, there was no such incentive at work. in fact, most of them insisted that the reasons for the failure of industry was not the lack of power, but other issues, such as competition from bangladesh, poor labour management, and in some cases, straightforward corruption. the last was held responsible for the demise of all 3 sugar mills in the district, and with them, the demise of highly profitable sugarcane cultivation.</p> <p>during discussions with mla’s, the opinion was expressed that it was not sufficient to show the details of madhubani, but to also show how other places in india were performing, so that they get an idea of what a better developed area looked like in terms of diversity and density of enterprises along with their hiring capacity. they felt isolated in terms of being able to imagine lines along which they could think about pushing sectors of their own economy. this was a reasonable demand. in the next round of interactions, they were shown a comparison between the states of bihar and andhra pradesh. </p> <h3>areas of its economy that bihar must target to see growth</h3> <p>this analysis is done from the point of view of giving ideas to state and local governments in bihar about the possible routes they can take to target areas of the economy that can most likely have far reaching impacts on growth. it attempts to take some lessons from another state, andhra pradesh, to compare and contrast what has worked and why. </p> <p>sources such as the state economic surveys give gdp figures and an overall sense of which sectors of the economy have contributed to what degree. however, the focus here is on the issue of employment, rather than gdp. in india, it is employment, the availability of work for a reasonable period of time and at a reasonable wage, that is the most sustainable path to poverty reduction. however, finding ways of achieving high employment rates is not simple. it is for this reason that andhra pradesh was chosen as a comparison, from among all the states that the mlas have visited. a diverse economy, but with a strong agricultural sector, it presents lessons for how the spread of employment has taken place, with the interplay between the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors playing a pivotal role.</p> <p>let us start by taking a look at some relevant demographic figures for the two states from the 2001 population census as shown in table 5. </p> <h3 style="text-align: center;">table 5: some demographic numbers from the population census of 2001 for ap and bihar</h3> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="909"> <colgroup> <col style="width: 97pt;" width="129"><col style="width: 48pt;" width="64"> <col style="width: 99pt;" width="132"> <col style="width: 107pt;" width="142"> <col style="width: 109pt;" width="145"> <col style="width: 106pt;" width="141"> <col style="width: 117pt;" width="156"> </colgroup> <tbody><tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 97pt; font-weight: 700; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family: calibri,sans-serif; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" align="right" height="20" width="129"> <font size="2">2001</font></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-weight: 700; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family: calibri,sans-serif; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64">&nbsp;</td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 99pt; font-weight: 700; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family: calibri,sans-serif; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="132"> <font size="2">population</font></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 107pt; font-weight: 700; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family: calibri,sans-serif; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="142"> <font size="2">workers</font></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 109pt; font-weight: 700; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family: calibri,sans-serif; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="145"> <font size="2">persons per worker</font></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 106pt; font-weight: 700; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family: calibri,sans-serif; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="141"> <font size="2">% marginal workers</font></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 117pt; font-weight: 700; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family: calibri,sans-serif; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="156"> <font size="2">% agricultural workers</font></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td rowspan="3" style="border: 1px solid ; height: 45pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="60"> <span><font size="2">andhra pradesh</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">total</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">76,210,007</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">34,893,859</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 109pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="145"> <span><font size="2">2.18</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 106pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="141"> <span><font size="2">16.77</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">62.16</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">rural</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">55,401,067</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">28,172,888</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 109pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="145"> <span><font size="2">1.97</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 106pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="141"> <span><font size="2">18.44</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">75.04</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">urban</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">20,808,940</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">6,720,971</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 109pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="145"> <span><font size="2">3.1</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 106pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="141"> <span><font size="2">9.79</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">8.18</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td rowspan="3" style="border: 1px solid ; height: 45pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="60"> <span><font size="2">bihar</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">total</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">82,998,509</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">27,974,606</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 109pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="145"> <span><font size="2">2.97</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 106pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="141"> <span><font size="2">24.74</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">77.25</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">rural</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">74,316,709</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">25,752,569</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 109pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="145"> <span><font size="2">2.89</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 106pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="141"> <span><font size="2">25.78</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">82.4</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">urban</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">8,681,800</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">2,222,037</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 109pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="145"> <span><font size="2">3.91</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 106pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="141"> <span><font size="2">12.69</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">17.58</font></span></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p> out of a total population of 76 million, nearly 35 million people in ap were workers. in bihar, out of a nearly 83 million population, only about 28 million were working. the number of persons per worker statistic makes this clear. in rural ap, there are 1.97 persons dependent on one worker. in bihar this number is 2.89. this shows the degree to which bihar suffers from unemployment as compared to ap. even if the basic wage rate was to be the same in the two states, in ap about 2 people will depend on that wage, while in bihar it will need to support 3 people. </p> <p>the crisis in employment in bihar becomes clearer by looking at the figures for the proportion of marginal workers (those who have worked less than 6 months in the year). with a much larger workforce, ap has only about 17 percent marginal workers, while in bihar their proportion is nearly 25 percent. so not only are a vast number of people unemployed in bihar, among those who are working, there are large numbers who are not working even half the year. bihar is projected to have a population of about 96 million by 2010, and if these basic proportions have continued through the past decade, the size of the unemployment problem in bihar will be enormous.</p> <p>that bihar was still heavily dependent on agriculture as its main employer in 2001 is clear from the percentage of agricultural workers in the total. agriculture supported about 82 percent of workers in rural bihar, while in rural ap 75 percent workers were engaged in it. it can be said that the economy has diversified much more in ap, creating employment in areas other than agriculture. </p> <p>it is instructive to see at this point what the agricultural productivity trends have been over the past several years in the two states to understand the capacity of this mainstay of employment. </p> <h3 style="text-align: center;">table 6: average rice productivity over 10 years from 1996 to 2005 in kg per hectare [15]</h3> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="349"> <colgroup> <col style="width: 117pt;" width="156"> <col style="width: 70pt;" width="93"> <col style="width: 75pt;" width="100"> </colgroup> <tbody><tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 117pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="156"> <span><font size="2">rice productivity</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 70pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="93"> <span><font size="2">season</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 75pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="100"> <span><font size="2">kg/hectare</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td rowspan="3" style="border: 1px solid ; height: 45pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="60"> <span><font size="2">andhra pradesh</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">kharif</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 75pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="100"> <span><font size="2">2555.7</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">rabi</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 75pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="100"> <span><font size="2">3331.6</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">total</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 75pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="100"> <span><font size="2">2800.4</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td rowspan="5" style="border: 1px solid ; height: 75pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="100"> <span><font size="2">bihar</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"> <span><font size="2">autumn</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 75pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="100"> <span><font size="2">1139.4</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">winter</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 75pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="100"> <span><font size="2">1359.7</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">kharif</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 75pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="100"> <span><font size="2">1325.2</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">summer&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 75pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="100"> <span><font size="2">1738.9</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20"> <span><font size="2">total</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 75pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="100"> <span><font size="2">1337.4</font></span></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p> table 6 shows that bihar lags far behind ap in basic rice productivity, which is the major crop in both states. in short, there can be no surplus generated in agriculture in bihar with this productivity <i>and</i> large population to worker ratios. agriculture remains a subsistence enterprise in bihar. </p> <p>what of the large range of non-agricultural sectors of the economy? for a comparative assessment we turn to the 2005 economic census of enterprises done by the cso. </p> <h3 style="text-align: center;">table 7: number of enterprises by sector for ap and bihar -2005 economic census</h3> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="688"> <colgroup> <col style="width: 188pt;" width="250"> <col style="width: 97pt;" width="129"> <col style="width: 63pt;" width="84"> <col style="width: 98pt;" width="130"> <col style="width: 71pt;" width="95"> </colgroup> <tbody><tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; padding: 0in 1px; height: 15pt; width: 188pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" height="20" width="250"> <span><font size="2">2005 economic census</font></span></td> <td colspan="2" style="border: 1px solid ; width: 160pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="213"> <span><font size="2">ap</font></span></td> <td colspan="2" style="border: 1px solid ; width: 169pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="225"> <span><font size="2">bihar</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 188pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="250"> <span><font size="2">enterprise type</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 97pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="129"> <span><font size="2">no. enterprises</font></span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 63pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="84"> <span><font size="2">% of total</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 98pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="130"> <span><font size="2">no. enterprises</font></span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 71pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="95"> <span><font size="2">% of total</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 188pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="250"> <span><font size="2">animal husbandry, forestry, fishing</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 97pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="129"> <span><font size="2">994,937</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 63pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="84"> <span><font size="2">24.39</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 98pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="130"> <span><font size="2">34,974</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 71pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="95"> <span><font size="2">2.86</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 188pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="250"> <span><font size="2">manufacture and repair</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 97pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="129"> <span><font size="2">735,594</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 63pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="84"> <span><font size="2">18.03</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 98pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="130"> <span><font size="2">227,869</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 71pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="95"> <span><font size="2">18.61</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 188pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="250"> <span><font size="2">wholesale and retail trade</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 97pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="129"> <span><font size="2">1,259,022</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 63pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="84"> <span><font size="2">30.86</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 98pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="130"> <span><font size="2">700,451</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 71pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="95"> <span><font size="2">57.19</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 188pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="250"> <span><font size="2">hotels and restaurants</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 97pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="129"> <span><font size="2">140,646</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 63pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="84"> <span><font size="2">3.45</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 98pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="130"> <span><font size="2">52,623</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 71pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="95"> <span><font size="2">4.3</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 188pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="250"> <span><font size="2">public admin, education, health</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 97pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="129"> <span><font size="2">570,123</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 63pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="84"> <span><font size="2">13.97</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 98pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="130"> <span><font size="2">155,814</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 71pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="95"> <span><font size="2">12.72</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 188pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="250"> <span><font size="2">others</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 97pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="129"> <span><font size="2">379365</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 63pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="84"> <span><font size="2">9.3</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 98pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="130"> <span><font size="2">52,977</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 71pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="95"> <span><font size="2">4.33</font></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 188pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="250"> <span><font size="2">total</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 97pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="129"> <span><font size="2">4,079,687</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 63pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="84"> <span><font size="2">100</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 98pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="130"> <span><font size="2">1,224,708</font></span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 71pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="95"> <span><font size="2">100</font></span></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p> the first and most striking feature of table 7 is the fact that with a much smaller population, there are a staggering 3.33 times as many enterprises in ap (4 million) as there are in bihar (1.2 million). this means that the population of ap is far more extensively served by all kinds of products and services than that of bihar. a notable difference is the number of enterprises in public administration, health and education. the spread of these services in ap (5.7 lakhs) is vast compared to bihar (1.5 lakhs). perhaps this is one of the reasons why bihar lags so far behind in human development indicators. public and other basic services simply are not sufficient to serve the population of the state. </p> <p>the major difference between the economies of the two states is exemplified by the first sector: animal husbandry, forestry and fishing. while in ap this sector has 24 percent of total enterprises, in bihar they amount to only about 3 percent. for a land of many rivers and ponds, this is very surprising. but it reflects the deep distress in agriculture already seen in the productivity figures and in the 2001 employment profile. another sign of this distress can be seen in the figures for the wholesale and retail trade sector. in ap this forms about 31 percent of all enterprises, but in bihar it is the dominant sector forming a huge 57 percent of all enterprises. the distress in agriculture is driving people into putting up petty trade shops, rather than keeping a buffalo or some goats to sell milk and meat. </p> <p>in fact, the sheer size of the ap non-agricultural enterprise in 2005, in comparison with bihar, is underpinned by those productivity figures in agriculture. without substantial surplus being generated by crop husbandry, it is not possible for there to be enough buying capacity in the population to support such a large and varied non-agrarian enterprise. </p> <p>what is the hiring capacity of these enterprises and how does it compare between the two states? table 8 gives the data from the 2005 economic census.</p> <h3 style="text-align: center;">table 8: number of enterprises by sectors and number of hired workers for ap and bihar from the 2005 economic census</h3> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="731"> <colgroup> <col style="width: 185pt;" width="246"> <col style="width: 48pt;" span="4" width="64"> <col style="width: 65pt;" width="86"><col style="width: 48pt;" width="64"> <col style="width: 59pt;" width="79"> </colgroup> <tbody><tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td rowspan="3" style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; height: 45pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="60" width="246"> <span>enterprise sector</span></td> <td colspan="7" style="border: 1px solid ; width: 364pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="485"> <span>no. of hired workers</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td rowspan="2" style="border-top: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; height: 30pt; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="40" width="64"> <span>0 5</span></td> <td rowspan="2" style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>06-oct</span></td> <td rowspan="2" style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>oct-30</span></td> <td rowspan="2" style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>30 100</span></td> <td rowspan="2" style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>above 100</span></td> <td rowspan="2" style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>total</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>% 0-5&nbsp;</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; height: 15pt; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="79"> <span>in total</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>andhra pradesh</span></td> <td colspan="7" style="border: 1px solid ; width: 364pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="485"> <span>no. of enterprises</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>animal husbandry, forestry, fishing</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>984,595</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>5,501</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>2,061</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>1,803</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>977</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>994,937</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>98.96</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>manufacture and repair</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>696,287</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>25,501</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>6,974</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>4,661</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>2,171</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>735,594</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>94.66</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>wholesale and retail trade</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>1,230,073</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>15,392</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>6,985</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>3,621</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>2,951</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>1,259,022</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>97.7</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>hotels and restaurants</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>133,462</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>4,926</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>1,390</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>513</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>355</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>140,646</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>94.89</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>public admin, education, health</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>507,481</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>36,415</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>19,619</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>4,729</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>1,879</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>570,123</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>89.01</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>others</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>359,304</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>11,129</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>5,609</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>1,867</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>1,456</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>379,365</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>94.71</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>total</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>3,911,202</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>98,864</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>42,638</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>17,194</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>9,789</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>4,079,687</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>95.87</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>% total</span></td> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>95.87</span></td> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>2.42</span></td> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>1.05</span></td> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>0.42</span></td> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>0.24</span></td> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>100</span></td> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>95.87</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>bihar</span></td> <td style="border-style: solid none solid solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-width: 1px medium 1px 1px; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64">&nbsp;</td> <td style="border-style: solid none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-width: 1px medium; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64">&nbsp;</td> <td style="border-style: solid none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-width: 1px medium; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64">&nbsp;</td> <td style="border-style: solid none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-width: 1px medium; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64">&nbsp;</td> <td style="border-style: solid none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-width: 1px medium; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86">&nbsp;</td> <td style="border-style: solid none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-width: 1px medium; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64">&nbsp;</td> <td style="border-style: solid solid solid none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-width: 1px 1px 1px medium; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79">&nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>animal husbandry, forestry, fishing</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>34,775</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>181</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>12</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>3</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>3</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>34,974</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>99.43</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>manufacture and repair</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>224,850</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>2,228</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>342</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>328</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>121</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>227,869</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>98.68</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>wholesale and retail trade</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>697,510</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>2,677</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>150</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>74</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>40</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>700,451</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>99.58</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>hotels and restaurants</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>51,976</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>568</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>62</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>12</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>5</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>52,623</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>98.77</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>public admin, education, health</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>142,994</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>9,825</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>2,040</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>735</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>220</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>155,814</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>91.77</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>others</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>50,992</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>1,360</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>499</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>104</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>22</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>52,977</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>96.25</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>total</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>1,203,097</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>16,839</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>3,105</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>1,256</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>411</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>1,224,708</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>98.25</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-left: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 15pt; width: 185pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="246"> <span>% total</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>98.24</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>1.37</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>0.25</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>0.1</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 65pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="86"> <span>0.03</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>100</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 59pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="79"> <span>98.24</span></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p>let us look at the manufacturing sector a little more closely in table 9. diversity in this sector is highly desirable, since it means that employment will be available in many different types of work, requiring a range of skills, and the sector as a whole need not suffer due to a slow down of any one type of manufacturing. </p> <h3 style="text-align: center;">table 9: percentage distribution of different types of manufacturing enterprises in ap and bihar in 2005</h3> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="651"> <colgroup> <col style="width: 137pt;" width="183"> <col style="width: 48pt;" span="2" width="64"> <col style="width: 76pt;" width="101"> <col style="width: 48pt;" span="2" width="64"> <col style="width: 83pt;" width="111"> </colgroup> <tbody><tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td rowspan="2" style="border: 1px solid ; height: 40.5pt; width: 137pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="54" width="183"> <span>type of manufacturing</span></td> <td colspan="3" style="border: 1px solid ; width: 172pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="229"> <span>ap</span></td> <td colspan="3" style="border: 1px solid ; width: 179pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="239"> <span>bihar</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 25.5pt;" height="34"> <td style="border-top: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; height: 25.5pt; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="34" width="64"> <span>number</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>% in total</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 76pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="101"> <span>above 100 hired</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>number</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>% in total</span></td> <td style="border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; width: 83pt; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="111"> <span>above 100 hired</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 137pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="183"> <span>food, beverages</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>187,404</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>25.48</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 76pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="101"> <span>405</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>109,047</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>47.86</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 83pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="111"> <span>17</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 137pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="183"> <span>tobacco products</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>70,186</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>9.54</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 76pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="101"> <span>385</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>4,099</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>1.8</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 83pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="111"> <span>1</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 137pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="183"> <span>textiles</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>121,393</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>16.5</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 76pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="101"> <span>303</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>8,263</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>3.63</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 83pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="111"> <span>7</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 137pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="183"> <span>apparel, dress, fur</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>124,104</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>16.87</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 76pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="101"> <span>318</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>17,685</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>7.76</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 83pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="111"> <span>0</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 137pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="183"> <span>wood, cork, straw products</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>68,457</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>9.31</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 76pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="101"> <span>98</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>15,561</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>6.83</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 83pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="111"> <span>1</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 137pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="183"> <span>brick, glass, ceramic</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>29,702</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>4.04</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 76pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="101"> <span>87</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>14,810</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>6.5</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 83pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="111"> <span>77</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 137pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="183"> <span>metal products</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>15,112</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>2.05</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 76pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="101"> <span>59</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>7,621</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>3.34</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 83pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="111"> <span>3</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 137pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="183"> <span>machinery, equipment</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>11,440</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>1.56</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 76pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="101"> <span>41</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>5,512</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>2.42</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 83pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="111"> <span>0</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 137pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="183"> <span>furniture</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>68,143</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>9.26</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 76pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="101"> <span>111</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>26,627</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>11.69</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 83pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="111"> <span>3</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 137pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="183"> <span>others</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>39,653</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>5.39</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 76pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="101"> <span>364</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>18,644</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>8.18</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 83pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="111"> <span>12</span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;" height="20"> <td style="border: 1px solid ; height: 15pt; width: 137pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" height="20" width="183"> <span>total</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>735,594</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>100</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 76pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="101"> <span>2171</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>227,869</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 48pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="64"> <span>100</span></td> <td style="border: 1px solid ; width: 83pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: normal; color: black; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="111"> <span>121</span></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p>there are lessons here for bihar. a much more diverse manufacturing sector in ap is seen to be relying less on food and beverages (which includes agricultural produce processing) and furniture than bihar. given the hiring capacity of these enterprises in ap, many of the units in textiles and apparel are larger ones. these are areas in which bihar has traditionally had plenty of skill, with handloom and khadi in widespread use. however, this entire sector has been allowed to decline considerably, leading to the disproportionate dominance of food and beverage manufacture. in fact, in bihar, the largest employers, hiring more than 100 workers (77 out of 121 hiring 100 or more workers in table 9), are brick making units. there is no other enterprise worth mentioning. </p> <p>boosting agricultural productivity in major crops and diversifying its manufacturing sector, especially based on available skill within its population is the way forward for bihar. the first is imperative. without a substantial increase in agricultural productivity, its peripherals such as animal husbandry and fishing will not take root, creating substantial employment in the primary sector as a whole. in manufacturing, it will boost agricultural produce processing units. it is also time bihar started taking note of the vast skill pool available within its borders, to target investment in key areas, such as textiles, to diversify away from brick making. </p> <h3>reactions to the bihar – ap comparison</h3> <p>there was considerable dismay among the mla’s at the sheer distance between bihar and ap. some of these mlas had visited ap and other states as part of their duty, and were aware that it was, by and large, a more advanced state. however, the scale of that advance and the work that was needed to catch up was overwhelming. for a while, there was very little discussion, and some mlas simply stopped thinking at this point. however, a few persevered and made a spirited attempt to identify areas in which they could move forward, especially for the specific case of madhubani. one of them made the effort to get me a hearing from the state deputy chief minister, who was also the finance minister. a report of all the work done was given to him. he appreciated the effort.</p> <p>one such area was sugarcane cultivation and sugar production. madhubani had 3 sugar factories until about the mid-1990’s. they were government owned and there was large scale sugarcane cultivation. mlas had personal memories of farmers living very well by cultivating sugarcane and selling it to the local sugar mill. however, all mills had shut down, mostly due to poor labour management and corruption. now, there was no sugarcane cultivation in the district. there had been some recent attempts to revive the sugar mills, but these too had failed due to procedural and administrative delays and inefficiencies.</p> <p>the other area was spinning, weaving and production of ready made clothing. again, there was a great deal of local expertise and skill available and these could be ear marked as priority areas. </p> <p>at this point in time, assembly elections for bihar were announced and within one day, everybody lost interest in the whole exercise and all conversations stopped. they were apologetic about this, but were firm in their assessment that their ability to give time and energy for this was almost zero, as they now had to engage in the whole business of getting a ticket and if successful, campaigning for the elections, for themselves and others. </p> <p>the few conversations with senior administrators were as expected. they knew all this, and much more. but this was a very large problem, and nobody at the local level could be expected to engage with it or have any input for its progress in any useful way. the state would have to take care of it. and it was doing so. </p> <h3>conclusions</h3> <p>can data on the economy be opened to local decision-makers? there is a vast amount of highly detailed data available for district economic planning. most of it is never used. it can be turned into intuitive insights by using maps to create awareness and discussion about the details of the economy of the district, its evolution over time, and its regional imbalances. it is also possible to give very targeted, on demand, comparative analysis to push the discussion into creative and feasible ideas for paths of development. local elected representatives are most suitable for this task, as they are quick to point at the reasons behind the trends, and come up with solutions based on their deep knowledge of local conditions and possibilities.</p> <p>however, for this to become a vital process that produces results on the ground, some critical links in governance need to be fixed:</p> <p>the presence of at least one agency, preferably from within the government, to take charge of scouting for data that can be used at sub-district level, and to analyse it in consultation with local elected representatives, from village to state. an agency that is tasked with listening to the concerns inherent within the decision-making process and which responds to them by creating data based inputs to widen the arena of possibilities. this can be a combination of the planning department and the national informatics centre (nic) offices at the district level. while the former participates in the planning process, the latter has the technological know-how to come up with imaginative and locally adapted data based inputs. in principle, they already have these mandates. however, they need to be far more proactive in implementing them. the process needs to be continuous and highly interactive. </p> <p>union and state agencies that collect data at district and sub-district level need to be proactive about advertising its presence, to begin with, and its usefulness. this can be done through the offices of the district statistical officers, who are tasked with collecting the data in the first place. </p> <p>csos can also help by pointing at different sources of data, the many issues on which it might contain insights and methods to extract and present these. </p> <p>the presently non-existent link between the village and district representatives and those at the state level needs to be established and strengthened. they need to work to an agreed plan and then mobilize politically at the state level to push it through. depending on non-governmental actors for local planning has reduced the possibility of such planned political economic governance further. while a great deal of attention is being paid to creating awareness and capacity for local governance, no effort is being made to integrate the mlas into this process by giving all levels a clear idea of their roles. it has created confusion, resentment, turf wars and false competitions, with the casualty being effective local governance.</p> <p>in fact, the progress of decentralisation depends a great deal on a dynamic and energised engagement between local and state level representatives. this will clarify many issues of devolution of functions to local governments on the one hand, and their inputs to state level policy making on the other. </p> <p>csos need to work with the political governance process and help to bring the various levels together on specific issues for better results. using the bureaucracy as the only ally is highly limiting and ultimately unrealistic. they need to listen to the concerns of all parties and present acceptable solutions for striking local compromises. while they have done a great deal to create empowerment of the local governance process, they have not been able to mediate a creative political dialogue between levels of government, rather than pitching them as adversaries.&nbsp; </p> <p>these suggestions are by no means simple to implement. in fact, political will is required both within and outside government to make some of them workable. institutional egos will have to be set aside and political power sharing will have to be negotiated on a scale that at present looks very difficult. however, if one looks at the distance the country has travelled along the decentralisation path, there can be a great deal of hope of achieving these. pressure created from below, based on an understanding of expanded notions of local governance and its place in regional development, is going to be the crucial factor. and open data is likely to play a pivotal role in building that pressure, to make it focused, and to create realistic bases for working together across political divides. there is much to celebrate in the sheer depth and diversity of india’s data regime and its accessibility. but a long way to go before the fruits of these labours become the bedrock on which governance rests. </p> <h3>acknowledgements</h3> <p>this work was funded by the asia foundation and their continued interest is gratefully acknowledged. lalitha kamath, asha ghosh and nick langton were supportive of the unexpected turns that the work sometimes took, and their accommodation of these changes resulted in some very rich insights in governance. shankar k.n. of latticebridge infotech gave enthusiastic support long after the actual contract was completed. in field work, the help and support provided in madhubani by parmeshwar singh negi was invaluable. friends at the bihar seva samiti showed madhubani in all its beauty and despair, anaro devi provided an insiders’ view of the travails of her district, and these remain memorable lessons. the mlas of madhubani were gracious in their time in the face of persistent requests for discussions and finally came up with ideas that if taken forward in the future will surely benefit the district. and finally, editors of this special issue, who with great patience helped shape a field report into a detailed commentary on the place of data in planning, are gratefully acknowledged.</p> <h3>endnotes</h3> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; text-indent: -0.21in;"><span>[1] glover write, pranesh pakash sunil abraham, nishant shah (2010). open government data study: india, <a href="http://www.transparency-initiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/open_data_india_final.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.transparency-initiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/open_data_india_final.pdf</a></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; text-indent: -0.21in;"><span>[2] the constitution (sevety-third amendment) act, 1992, <a href="http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/amend/amend73.htm">http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/amend/amend73.htm</a>, the constitution (seventy-fourth amendment) act, 1992, http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/amend/amend74.htm</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; text-indent: -0.21in;"> [3] as one state legislator in maharashtra put it: am i supposed to take orders from the gp president now? </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; text-indent: -0.21in;"><span>[4] manual for integrated district planning, planning commission, government of india, 2008,&nbsp; <a href="http://planningcommission.nic.in/reports/genrep/mlp_idpe.pdf">http://planningcommission.nic.in/reports/genrep/mlp_idpe.pdf</a> </span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; text-indent: -0.21in;"><span>[5] status report: pri capacity building and training in india (2011), <a href="http://www.pri-resources.in/materialupload/status%20report%202011.pdf">http://www.pri-resources.in/materialupload/status report 2011.pdf</a> </span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; text-indent: -0.21in;"> [6] as one zp president told this author: the administrator does not have the passion that i have, to push hard for what we want. they are afraid of their seniors at the state level and never argue with them. </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; text-indent: -0.21in;"> [7] economic census data for 1998 was provided by the indian school for political economy, pune, india.</p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; text-indent: -0.21in;"> [8] there are manipulations of records by officials to project better (or worse!) performance in education and health, for example. data on school attendance and maternal mortality is seen to be most prone to these. ngos, press, local activists and politicians are some of the contestants. however, their success rate in getting such data corrected is difficult to track. many district statistical officers, the nodal office between the district and the state, complain that they get ‘bad’ data from different departments, but can do nothing about it.&nbsp; </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; text-indent: -0.21in;"><span>[9] national informatics centre, government of india, <a href="http://www.nic.in/home">http://www.nic.in/home</a> </span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; text-indent: -0.21in;"><span>[10] bihar infrastructure mapping – geomatics oriented application model, national informatics centre, bihar, <a href="http://gis.bih.nic.in/map/planningatlas.aspx">http://gis.bih.nic.in/map/planningatlas.aspx</a> </span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; text-indent: -0.21in;"> [11] there have been instances in the author’s observation where district level administrators have colluded with state level planners to undercut a zp plan to accommodate higher level political functionaries. </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; text-indent: -0.21in;"> [12] wolfgang hoeschele (2000). geographic information engineering and social ground truth in attappadi, kerala state, annals of the association of american geographers, vol. 90, no. 2 (jun., 2000), pp.293-321</p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; text-indent: -0.21in;"><span>[13] madhubani district vision 2020, submitted to district planning committee, madhubani, bihar, by pria, <a href="http://madhubani.bih.nic.in/">http://madhubani.bih.nic.in/</a> </span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; text-indent: -0.21in;"> [14] census maps for madhubani district were digitised by latticebridge infotech pvt ltd.</p> <p style="margin-left: 0.3in; text-indent: -0.21in;"> [15] source: directorate of economics and statistics, department of agriculture and cooperation, ministry of agriculture, government of india</p> 1114 90porciento the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles understanding information needs and media habits of poor farmers in bangladesh the relationship between information and communication technologies (icts) and poverty remains unclear. the result is likely to remain such if focus is not given to the understanding of needs of the poorer community whose problems ict interventions are supposed to solve. the present study is an attempt in that direction and it does so by trying to understand the media habit of poor farmers in bangladesh. the study covered seven major agricultural sectors across 15 districts (out of 64) of bangladesh. it is hoped that the detailed sector disaggregated findings of the study can be used in better designing of interventions to leverage icts, which can address key constraints in different agricultural value chains within bangladesh. background one of the constraints faced by farmers in developing countries is the lack of access to timely and accurate information. the government agricultural extension service (aes), in spite of being the highly reliable and frequently availed upon source of agriculture information, is not always adequate to serve the large number of farmers effectively (poole, 1994). as such, many organizations and individuals have come to see information and communications !202 jalil, m.m., jalil, m.s. (2016). understanding information needs and media habits of poor farmers in bangladesh. the journal of community informatics, 12 (2), 202-216. date submitted: 2014-02-04. date accepted: 2015-12-07. 
 copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1114 mohammad muaz jalil group manager, monitoring and results measurement group, katalyst swisscontact, bangladesh corresponding author. muaz.jalil@alumni.ubc.ca mohammad shahroz jalil director, services group, katalyst swisscontact, bangladesh shahroz.jalil@swisscontact-bd.org http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1114 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1114 mailto:muaz.jalil@alumni.ubc.ca mailto:shahroz.jalil@swisscontact-bd.org the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 technologies (icts) as potentially powerful tools for achieving sustainable development through timely delivery of such services (paz, russell, & johnson, 2006); the central idea being that individuals, small and medium enterprises (smes) and farmers, would obtain information via ict channels that could help them make better decisions. in most cases development projects or governments have responded by promoting the availability of more computers, introducing tele-centers, widening the telecommunications network, and hastening the growth of internet service providers (isps) (warschauer, 2002). while ict definitely can be a successful tool in ensuring proper dissemination of agricultural information, it is a fallacy to assume ict as a priori solutions to societal and economic problems, giving rise to terms like “technophilia” and “cyber-fetishism”, which seem to be rampant in popular discourse (mclver, 2003). providing information via telecommunication/ internet is not a very difficult task but the major challenge is the transformation of data into meaningful knowledge and the availability of the social resources to do so (avgerou, 2003; gigler, 2004). therefore while icts can be an innovative tool for development, the critical focus should be on the needs and requirements of the community and not the technology itself. unfortunately emphasis has often been placed on the means (icts) rather than on the ends (access to timely and accurate information for the community or rural population). focus should be on how icts can help achieve community’s social, economic, cultural, or political goals (gurstein, 2000) and the critical problems they pose for developers of information systems (leigh & loader, 2001;mciver, 2003). the present paper discusses the findings of a study conducted in the rural areas of bangladesh, on the media habits of poor farmers. the study covered farmers engaged in seven major rural value chains, and provides sector-wise disaggregated information. the detailed findings from the study will significantly assist in the future undertaking of more informed decisions on the part of private sector and public sector enterprises, who wish to engage the rural economy through ict products and services. literature review an overwhelming majority of government ict projects have failed in the past because they fail to take in to account what kind of information rural entrepreneurs need and how they seek it (mciver & elmagarmid, 2002). thus warschauer (2002) and gurstein (2003) stated that the focus should not simply be on access to information but rather on meaningful access (gurstein uses the term “effective use”) to icts. furthermore what has often been overlooked in the traditional ict debate is that there has been another information revolution especially in the south, this refers to the other icts of radio, television and the press (deane et al, 2003). hence many ngos are currently arguing for attention to be paid to these traditional icts. unfortunately traditional media is seldom viewed as a key player in private sector development, which may require specific attention and support (anderson & hitchins, 2007). there has been significant media liberalization across many developing countries in the last fifteen years and government media monopolies are increasingly being replaced by diverse media industries (anderson et al, 2007). around three billion people in the world earn less !203 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 than three dollars a day and in bangladesh it is around 77% (world bank, 2015). thus access to information through the internet may be difficult to obtain, but traditional media can provide the information, perspective and analysis that enable these people to make more informed decisions (deane et al, 2003). in bangladesh, agriculture is one of the major driving forces of the economy. it provides employment to around 48% (world bank, 2015) of the workforce and contributes 20% of the gdp, although this has declined from 30% in the 1980s. however it still constitutes perhaps the largest proportion of the poor, either as producers or laborers. numerous constraints impinge on this sector and result in its underperformance, ranging from poor sourcing of quality inputs to lack of information regarding better farming practices, irrigation, crop care and market prices; and poor market linkages that result in reduced farm productivity (mondal, 2009). however these are symptomatic outcomes to underlying constraints, one of which is lack of access to timely and accurate information. the government aes is not adequate to serve the large number of farmers effectively. the estimated workforce of approximately 13,000 extension officers falls considerably short in being able to cater to 15 million farm holdings. 1 in addition to seeking agriculture information the rural farmers and smes also tend to look for various basic it-enabled services (ites). given the situation it is possible to deploy information and communications technologies (icts) as potentially powerful tools for ensuring access to such critical information. however it is prudent to be aware of the aforesaid discussion on the pitfall of looking at icts as a kind of a panacea; the present study is an attempt to examine these issues. before one plans to develop ict based solutions for rural farming households in bangladesh, it is important to actually look at the media habits of the poor and to contextualize the environment where an ict-based solution can be deployed. thus it is hoped that the findings of the study can be used in better designing interventions to leverage icts, which will address constraints in different agricultural value chains within bangladesh. the following section discusses the objectives and the study methodology, with specific emphasis on the research design. research methodology broadly the objective is to understand the media habits of the rural poor, focusing on key economic sectors. in order to achieve this broad objective, the following questions needed to be answered: • what kind of information do farmers/smes need for business/ agriculture? • how and where do they seek it now? (peers, government worker, input retailer, media, community information centre (cic kiosk), etc.) • why do they use media? (entertainment, news, business information, voice, sharing experience of others) • how do they use media for accessing business information? • how do they raise their voice to policymakers and other stakeholders? http://www.moa.gov.bd/statistics/bag.htm1 !204 http://www.moa.gov.bd/statistics/bag.htm the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 • how do they access and use different types of media? (radio/tv/print/internet) the study covered seven rural sectors across 15 districts (out of 64) of bangladesh. sectors included maize, vegetables, fish, prawn, jute, potatoes, and rice. most of these sectors are the major agricultural ones in bangladesh. sample size per sector was 100, with a total of 700 farmers. the study used a quantitative face to face farmer survey with structured questionnaires, which were administered via trained enumerators. the survey was conducted in the first two weeks of march, 2011. the location of the survey was based on production concentrations at district, sub-district and village levels. in order to select poor farmers within a sector in a village, the progress out of poverty index (ppi)‑ was used as a screening question. ppi uses ten verifiable indicators to get a score that 2 is statistically correlated with the poverty status. the scorecard is based on data from the 10,080 households in the household income and expenditure survey (hies 2005) conducted by the bangladesh bureau of statistics (bbs). the ppi scorecard measures a particular household’s “poverty likelihood”, that is, the probability that the household has a per capita expenditure below a given poverty line (chen and schreiner, 2009); in this paper we will use the usd 2.5/day 2005 ppp (purchasing power parity). in defining who falls under the stipulated poverty line a threshold or cut-off ppi level was defined, so that households with ppi scores at or below the cut-off points are labeled poor— for program purposes—and thus were considered to be below the given poverty line (chen & schreiner, 2009; katalyst, 2012b). for the present study a cutoff point of less or equal to ppi score of 49 was chosen, which gives a poverty likelihood of 92.7% . the choice of the cutoff 3 point was based on the various methodologies and suggestion (total net benefits method, total accuracy method, preset poverty rate etc.) made by chen & schreiner (2009) in their paper. in total over 1400 respondents were contacted in order to reach a sample size of 700 with each sector having 100 respondents with a ppi score of equal or less than 49. systematic random sampling technique was followed to locate and interview the target respondents (schematic diagram provided) in the following section we will discuss in detail the findings from the study. study findings it is not surprising that the most sought information was relating to one’s own area of economic activity. thus 100% of the agricultural farmer respondents mentioned agriculture related information as the most sought information while it was aqua farming related information for the fish and prawn farmers. however, in general, news, education, entertainment and health were the most sought information by the target audience, mentioned by 90% to 76% of respondents in descending order. the following table gives a detailed cgap, grameen foundation and the ford foundation endorse the use of rigorous poverty assessment tools 2 and believe the progress out of poverty index™ (ppi) is a highly effective tool for those institutions interested in measuring the likelihood of client poverty. retrieved : http://progressoutofpoverty.org/ understanding-the-progress-out-poverty-index a farmer who has a ppi score of equal or less than 49 has a 92.7% likelihood of being below the usd 2.5/3 day 2005 ppp poverty !205 http://progressoutofpoverty.org/understanding-the-progress-out-poverty-index the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 breakdown of the major source of agricultural information for the selected agricultural sectors. table 1: major source of agricultural information (%) tv appears to be the main source of most sought information, followed by respective service providers and peer groups. it is interesting to note that in the case of jute farmers little reliance is placed on input dealers or wholesalers but there is a disproportionately higher reliance on extension officers. in the case of fish and prawn farming (table 2) the main source still remains tv, however greater emphasis falls on peer groups than others. table 2: major source of aqua farming information (%) it is interesting to note that radio does not come into this list; this is likely to change with increasing penetration of smartphone based fm radio apps and proliferation of community radios. another reason for low radio listening could be poor quality programs and the lack of adequate radio stations (bangladesh betar, the state run station, is the only one authorized to operate nationally). for agriculture farming most of the information (table 3) that involved high yielding crops , technology, seed, fertilizer pesticide, irrigation, etc. were rated as important almost universally. while for aqua farmers (table 4) the pattern was the same, rating fish/prawn cultivation related information such as farming techniques, information on high yielding varieties, weather forecasts, fish/prawn care etc. as important by most; percentage figures ranging between 84% to 100%. however both aqua and agricultural farmers did not rate packaging and transportation as of high importance; this might be due to their lack of knowledge regarding the significance of packaging. in the farming sectors, for technical !206 source fish prawn tv 61.00 51.00 peer group (friends/ relatives/ neighbours) 39.00 61.00 fisheries office/ fisheries officer 52.00 47.00 lead farmer 34.00 53.00 agro-input's detail/ wholesale traders 12.00 19.00 source rice potato vegetable maize jute tv 62.00 60.82 52.00 49.49 46.00 agriculture office/ agriculture officer/ block supervisor 59.00 34.02 40.00 55.56 73.00 peer group (friends/ relatives/ neighbours) 51.00 51.55 51.00 35.35 54.00 agro-input's detail/ wholesale traders 50.00 55.67 50.00 51.52 12.00 lead farmer 23.00 31.96 32.00 13.13 34.00 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 information relevant service providers (agricultural offices, etc.) appeared to be the major source of the aforesaid information, followed by tv. for weather forecasts it was found to be tv, for seeds, pesticides and fertilizer it’s the wholesaler, and for crop care, irrigation, market information and access to finance it’s the peer group and lead farmer. the following tables give detailed sectoral level disaggregated data. table 3: major source of different agro information (%) as mentioned before, tv is mostly used for weather forecasts, but it is interesting to note that a substantial number of respondents also got information on cultivation techniques from the same source. there is also a difference between the behavior of rice farmers and others. it seems rice farmers depend on their associates far more than others do. most farmers do not seem to receive information on packaging techniques and that is probably the reason why farmers did not rate packaging and transportation as of high importance. other media such as radio, newspaper, mobile phone or tele-centers were almost never used for gathering such information; although around 68% of the respondent had access to a mobile phone. in the following table we look at the response of the fish and prawn farmers. tv still remains the major source of information regarding weather. from the table it becomes obvious that unlike !207 medium information rice potato vegetable maize jute tv weather forecast 80.00 54.00 42.00 54.00 81.00 cultivation techniques 38.00 33.00 22.00 21.00 9.00 information on high yielding crop / species 13.00 30.00 26.00 24.00 4.00 agriculture officer/ block supervisor soil condition 41.00 28.00 17.00 37.00 54.00 information on high yielding crop / species 39.00 17.00 29.00 34.00 55.00 crop care 6.00 9.00 15.00 35.00 40.00 cultivation techniques 11.00 10.00 12.00 38.00 32.00 information on quality, affordable seed 9.00 15.00 8.00 42.00 26.00 agro-input's detail/ wholesale traders pesticide usage 70.00 67.00 79.00 58.00 52.00 fertilizer usage 57.00 55.00 72.00 50.00 44.00 information on quality, affordable seed 46.00 39.00 38.00 19.00 53.00 information on high yielding crop / species 18.00 32.00 23.00 22.00 17.00 associates (friends/ relatives/ neighbours) market access (e.g. price information) 74.00 35.00 41.00 29.00 26.00 access to finance /financial issues 60.00 35.00 18.00 21.00 38.00 crop care 59.00 25.00 41.00 21.00 13.00 transportation 72.00 12.00 22.00 21.00 11.00 irrigation methods 51.00 8.00 20.00 24.00 15.00 don't get any information packaging techniques (crate, basket) 70.00 48.00 62.00 58.00 47.00 transportation 25.00 59.00 60.00 51.00 40.00 irrigation methods 19.00 33.00 38.00 36.00 29.00 access to finance /financial issues 7.00 30.00 60.00 27.00 19.00 soil condition 22.00 23.00 40.00 25.00 27.00 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 homogeneity in behavior among different agricultural sectors, the behavior of the fish and the prawn farmers are in some respect significantly different. table 4: major source of different aqua culture information (%) quite a few fish farmers seem to get information on aqua farming technique from tv but this is not the case for prawn farmers. both in the case of prawn and fish farmers, it is the associates and peer groups who provide most information on access to finance and not necessarily the ngos. transportation is critical for both fish and prawn farmers, however in the case of prawns it seems associates and peer groups are sufficient in providing relevant information. this is clearly reflected in the fact that only about 37% of the prawn farmer respondents suggested that they did not get information on transportation whereas for fish this stands at 63%. in line with the agricultural farmers we see that the fish and prawn !208 medium information fish prawn tv weather forecast 61.00 85.00 aqua farming techniques 31.00 18.00 information on high yielding fish/prawn 34.00 11.00 fisheries office/ fisheries officer/ block supervisor soil condition 22.00 44.00 aqua farming techniques 31.00 30.00 information on high yielding fish 28.00 30.00 fish care 21.00 22.00 fertilizer usage 19.00 19.00 ngo access to finance /financial issues 20.00 9.00 retail trader of agriculture input/ large trader pesticide usage 23.00 38.00 fertilizer usage 14.00 34.00 associates (friends/ relatives/ neighbours) access to finance /financial issues 39.00 67.00 market access (price info, where to sell etc) 21.00 33.00 fish care 29.00 22.00 information on quality, affordable fry 20.00 30.00 transportation 2.00 40.00 lead fish farmer/ wholesaler market access (price info, where to sell etc) 70.00 50.00 information on quality, affordable fry 42.00 47.00 transportation 32.00 19.00 information on high yielding fish 13.00 29.00 don't get any information packaging techniques (crate, basket) 83.00 48.00 irrigation methods 74.00 46.00 transportation 63.00 37.00 soil condition 59.00 12.00 pesticide usage 43.00 19.00 fertilizer usage 42.00 13.00 access to finance /financial issues 27.00 16.00 weather forecast 28.00 6.00 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 farmers also believe that they receive very little information on packaging techniques. so there is a significant gap in information pertaining to the area of packaging. across the sectors tv was mentioned as the most common media as a source of awareness, mentioned by 74% of the target audience. nearly 50% watch tv 5-7 days and 32% watch 1 to 4 days a week. as a whole, most people (41%) watch tv at a market place, followed by home (27%), and 15% watch at a neighbor’s house. however, females mainly watch at home (45%) and at a neighbor’s house (29%). in regards to viewing time, 7 pm to 10 pm is the most popular time slot of watching tv. the peak is reached at 8 pm -9 pm when 72% of the target audience have reported as watching tv, followed by 7pm -8 pm and 9pm -10 pm with around 50% each. there is very little heterogeneity in regards to tv viewership across the selected 8 sectors. while both males and females watch tv more during the hours of 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm, a significant portion (88%) of females also watch tv between 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm, when males watch less (38%). a few also mentioned radio (9%) as the common media source of awareness for such information, however around 14% of the respondent mentioned that they do listen to radio. newspapers (6%) were also mentioned as a common media source of awareness after tv and radio even though newspapers are read by about 28% of the target respondents, most of whom read at least once a week. the main place of reading newspapers is the market place, read by 23% out of the 28% i.e. roughly 82% of the sample population that reads newspaper. only about 7% of the target audience as a whole reported to have received agriculture related information from newspapers. this might explain why so few cited newspapers as a major source of information. from this it becomes evident that both radio and newspaper have the potential to be used as a vehicle for providing agriculture related information. in the case of newspapers however lack of literacy might also be a hindrance. however, when lead farmers were interviewed it was found that usage of radio as a source of farming information was 3% while for newspaper it was 17%. it seems in the case of lead farmers because of their higher income, radio was substituted for by tv which was rated by 98% as the major source of such information. obviously the lead farmers were also found to be more literate and as such 70% of the lead farmers were found to read newspapers. thus with higher incomes tv and newspaper become the major media platform for sources of information. among the tv channels btv was the most mentioned channel (52%), of whom 31% mentioned mati o manush and 13% mentioned krishi diba nishi while 56% did not 4 remember the program. this was followed by channel i (6%), with the program mentioned being hridoye maati o manush (49%), and 51% did not remember the program name. around 63% of those who were aware of media that covered issues concerning agriculture/ farming claimed to have shared information received from the media with others. the incidence of sharing information, among those who are aware, was highest among fish farmers (72%) and lowest among potato farmers (49%). the farmers when they receive any information with respect to farming or marketing of agricultural products from any media, on average mostly shared with 4-6 persons and some even claimed to have shared with more than 10 persons. however, on average information was shared with 5-6 persons. this figure was higher for lead farmers, who on average shared mati o manush, krishidiba nishi and hridoyemaati o manush are tv programs which exclusively deal with farming issues and in 4 some cases other rural nonfarm activities. btv (govt. owned) and channel i (privately owned) are local tv channels. !209 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 information with 6.33 persons. farmers mostly shared the information with neighbors and other farmers (66% each), and around 25% also shared with family members. there seems to be very little difference in media behavior and preference across the different sectors. with regards to voice and advocacy (table 5) the farmers take up issues that affect their activities mostly with their peer groups, input retailers and relevant government offices/ officials. consulting with lead farmers is also common. table 5: raising voice by the farmers (%) only 18% of the respondents were found to be aware of the internet, and 0.13% reported using this service. they all used it at a cybercafé, 3-4 times a week. potato and prawn farmers were most aware about internet services (28%). mobile phone penetration appears to be quite high (68%). prawn farmers use it most (94%), while vegetable (35%) and maize (39%) farmers use it the least. the following section discusses the possible implication and opportunities that can be drawn from the aforesaid findings. summary primary findings indicate that the rural poor need information specific to their respective crops cultivated/areas of activities. types of information sought are mostly technical in nature, concerning farm practices/activities across sectors. the study also shows that farmers use various sources in gathering information. while they might use some form of triangulation in validating the information that they receive in most cases there is significant preference or bias towards a particular source for a particular type of information. for instance tv is found to be the major source of weather related information followed by cultivation techniques. however in the case of maize and jute, farmers rely more on agricultural extension officers when it comes to cultivation techniques. for information which is more technical in nature such as soil condition and information on high yielding crop / species, extension officers are most relied upon followed by agro input dealers. extension officers are also the major source of crop care related information for maize and jute farmers but for the more traditional crops like rice and vegetable, associates and neighbors provides the most information. associates and neighbors are also the major source of information when it comes to market access. agro input dealers/retailers seem to be the most important and reliable source of agro farming information. for inputs like pesticide and fertilizer they are the most important sources of !210 informants rice potato vegetable maize jute fish prawn peer group (friends/relatives/ neighbours) 55.00 57.00 42.00 43.00 56.00 54.00 74.00 input retailer/trader 56.00 82.00 77.00 66.00 47.00 22.00 33.00 agriculture or fisheries office/ officer/block supervisor 55.00 39.00 46.00 57.00 77.00 58.00 54.00 large aqua/agro farmer /party leader 25.00 38.00 47.00 15.00 53.00 68.00 62.00 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 information but they are also relied upon when it comes to information on seed as well as crop care. additionally one has to remember that while tv was mentioned to be the major source of information, it is in the market place or in agro retail stores that the farmers watched tv most. similar patterns were observed in the case of fish and prawn farmers, only that they relied on lead farmers for information on quality, affordable fingerlings rather than input retailers as was the case for seed. an interesting anecdote is that when farmers were asked to recall the names of the agro-program they saw on tv, many of them could not recall it; the underlying reason for that was that it was usually the retailer who had control of the tv’s remote and most of the time, the audience, i.e. the farmers who came to see the program saw it after the opening credits and titles were shown. it is surprising to note that most farmers, in both agro and aqua farming (slightly less in prawn), did not receive sufficient information from any source on packaging techniques (crate, basket) and transportation. on the other hand they received adequate information on their soil conditions, which is rather technical information. the following figure shows the information flow connecting major members of the agricultural sectors; the dotted line implies limited connectivity. figure 1: farmer's information network notwithstanding the complex interconnectedness, it becomes quite evident that retailer or input sellers along with the lead farmers are the most important source of farming related information for a farmer. most of the other sources are in some form connected to these critical players. additionally survey suggests that input sellers and lead farmers are considered to be credible sources for farmers. source credibility is a crucial factor since farmers are justifiably risk averse and thus the mere presence or access to information does not necessarily translate into action unless it comes from a credible source. information seeking can be viewed as a process of sense-making where the person is trying to develop their point of view which fits in with what he or she already knows (dervin, 1983; kuhlthau, 1991). therefore it is crucial that the ict solutions are embedded within the context of pre-existing information sources and are consistent with it. people seek !211 farmer television internet/ tele center retailer lead farmer/ associates extension officer mobile phone the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 information within a context. thus solutions have to be designed with the consideration as to how the result integrates with the user’s own life; effectiveness of information retrieval depends on this consideration (james, 1983; bates, 1986a). social context and social situation are essential to the understanding of information seeking (bates, 2010). one can thus understand why tele-center focused interventions solely based on providing access to farming information, with no understanding of wider social context, almost always fail (mciver & elmagarmid 2002). we can look at the mode of information seeking (bates, 1986b and 2002) as a function of “directed vs undirected” and “active vs passive”. “directed" and "undirected" refer, respectively, to whether an individual seeks specific information, or he/she is more or less randomly exposing themselves to information. while "active" and "passive" refer, respectively, to whether the individual does anything actively to acquire information, or is passively absorbing. table 6 : mode of information seeking conclusions the objective of this paper was to provide a clear understanding of the media habits of poor farmers in bangladesh. based on the above, it may be concluded that among the mass media, tv plays the most important role, especially due to its wide coverage in disseminating agro based information. primarily information on weather, high yielding varieties and cultivating techniques are sought after in this media. most farmers watch tv in the market place, near and around the shops of input sellers. the role of radio, newspapers, mobile phones and internet are either limited or nil. however, mobile phones due to their high penetration can potentially be an important vehicle, if services can be designed and disseminated appropriately. furthermore with the penetration of economical smartphones, it might be possible to promote radio program as well (community or fm radio based programs). the internet or tele-centers can also play an important role if promoted more intensively-targeting lead farmers, focusing on trust building and third party endorsement to ensure source credibility. additionally such centers have to provide services above and beyond agricultural related information in order to be sustainable from a business point of view. relevant government and input sellers, peer groups and lead farmers play a vital role in this regard. information specific to their respective crops cultivated/areas of activities are mostly sought from these sources. the type of information demanded is mostly technical in nature, concerning farm practices/activities across sectors. however, packaging and transportation were not given high priority by any sector although neither did they receive any information !212 active passive directed searching monitoring undirected browsing being aware the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 on this topic from any of their current sources. hence there seems to be scope to further strengthen these agents. from a media business perspective, the fact that a significant population holds them with such high value shows much promise. as chomsky has argued, what media basically sells is audience, hence it should follow from this, that media should target the rural population who are such high in numbers as one of their core target groups. this would help media get more sponsorship from companies who are also targeting the same clients and at the same time address the information need of the rural population. recommendations farmers may not find the tele-centers as a credible source of agro information unless endorsed by other lead farmers or retailers or even extension officers, who are considered to be more credible. however getting buy-in from retailers or input sellers on endorsing such tele-centers might be difficult as it may directly impinge upon their domain as a monopoly source for such information. this implies that agro-tele-centers ought to be self-sustaining business unit and have to offer other value added services beyond agricultural information in order to make them business viable, at least for the time period during which they build their credibility as a source of agricultural information. however fundamentally third party endorsement (local input sellers or extension officers) is a must to ensure farmers and others integrate ict as one of the source of such information. mass awareness, especially above the line (atl) advertisement, though necessary, may not be a sustainable way to attract farmers to such centers. farmers’ courtyard meetings, probably including lead farmers, might be organized to promote such tele-centers. lead farmers also might be more receptive to such technology as survey shows that they have higher awareness regarding internet than others. retailers or input dealers can be better trained to provide farming related information to farmers. most input (pesticide, fertilizer, seed etc.) companies already hold retailers training programs regularly as part of their marketing strategy. these are usually half day programs held in a sub district town (there are 500 sub districts in the country) with participants of around 30-50 retailers. the training programs are product specific and as such are primarily used to launch a new product of the company and to enhance company loyalty on the part of the input sellers. it is possible to improve such training programs to include more general topics like cultivation techniques, judicious use of fertilizers and pesticides, disease recognition etc. these are likely to make such programs more interesting for the attending input sellers and thus for the company. additionally as a credible source such input sellers may provide this information to farmers as an embedded service thus improving their own customer loyalty. also it might be useful to promote mobile phone based agricultural ‘helpline’ service directly to these input sellers. while in theory a farmer can easily access such service if he or she possesses a mobile phone, it is more likely that if the input seller endorses such service he or she will be more willing to do so. television surprisingly seems to be a more significant source of farming information rather than radio. this is rather surprising since all over the world the trend is rather the opposite. in bangladesh, radio seems to be a more or less nonexistent source of information. in the case of television, it is basically the national btv and privately owned channel i, which is the most viewed. however, in the case of tv, farmers virtually draw all their information from one !213 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 particular program, namely maati o manush (btv) or hridoyemaati o manush (channel i). further improvement of the program is a possibility, particularly promoting issues related to packaging and the importance of post-harvest loss. survey results show that an overwhelming majority of farmers and lead farmers do not get any information on packaging and the importance of post-harvest loss. therefore it is not surprising that farmers do not rate packaging related information as of significant value. an assessment conducted by katalyst and gmark showed that the average post-harvest wastage rate in the vegetable sector is 20-30%, with the loss being borne by both the poor rural farmers and producers, as well as the end consumers (katalyst, 2011; katalyst 2012a). in the case of potato postharvest loss, this was found to be 15.50% including farm level storage loss (hossain & miah, 2009). therefore raising awareness in this arena is crucial and such popular agricultural programs might be an appropriate vehicle. acknowledgements the authors wish to acknowledge katalyst swisscontact for supporting this study. the article is written on a personal title and views expressed are not necessarily that of katalyst swisscontact. the author also wish to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions. finally the authors acknowledge ms tasnuva ahmed for her support and strategic input during the preparation and finalization of the revised manuscript references amariles, f., paz, o. p., russell, n., & johnson, n. 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(2002).reconceptualizing the digital divide. first monday issue 7. retrieved from http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_7/warschauer/index.html world bank (2015). "world development indicators". world bank. retrieved from http:// databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=world-development-indicators. !216 http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_7/warschauer/index.html http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=world-development-indicators naudea main the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles scholarly impact: a bibliometric and altmetric study of the journal of community informatics demonstrating scholarly impact is a matter of growing importance. this paper reports on a bibliometric and altmetric analysis conducted on the journal of community informatics (joci). besides the bibliometric analysis the study also looked into joci article-level metrics by comparing usage metrics (article views), alternative metrics (mendeley readership), and traditional citation metrics (google scholar citations). the main contribution is to provide more insight into the metrics that could influence the citation impact in community informatics research. furthermore, the study used articlelevel metrics data to identify, compare and rank the most impactful papers published in joci over a 12-year period. introduction community informatics (ci) is the use of information and communication technologies (ict) to enable and empower the community as a complex sociological phenomenon (stillman & linger, 2009). in this convergence of the community with information sciences and technologies, it integrates the oldest social institution of human kind with the newest frontiers of material society (carroll, shih & kropczynski, 2015). community informatics, as interdisciplinary research, presents challenges to professional librarians and scholars who aim to characterise and delineate the subject area (less, 2008). this can negatively affect research impact as measured by citation ! 152 filistea naude university of south africa, south africa corresponding author. fnaude@unisa.ac.za judy van biljon university of south africa, south africa vbiljja@unisa.ac.za naude, f., van biljon, j. (2017). scholarly impact: a bibliometrics and altmetric study of the journal of community informatics.the journal of community informatics, 13(1), 152—175. date submitted: 2017-03-01. date accepted: 2017-03-18. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1378 . the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 indexes. global academic literature remains dominated by northern hemisphere research and developed-world models that do not always take into account the specific sociopolitical environment of the developing regions (alperin, 2015; neylon et al., 2013) and the challenges faced by researchers from developing and emerging economies (using the characteristics proposed by roztocki and weistroffer (2011) to distinguish between developed, emerging, and developing economies). the global political environment requires transparency, accountability, and demonstrable return-from-investment, and tertiary education institutions are under increasing pressure to provide evidence of the value of the services they provide (neylon et al., 2013; von solms & von solms, 2016). the term impact is generally agreed to refer to the effect of research beyond academia and captures the idea that there are a range of impacts of different types, which may be of different levels of importance to various stakeholders (neylon et al., 2013). the measuring of research impact is contested (bornmann, 2014); the criteria include the quality of the research outputs, funding associated with research outputs and the related citations (neylon et al., 2013; von solms & von solms, 2016) as measured by bibliometrics and alternative metrics (bornmann, 2014). therefore, publishing research outputs and being cited are some of the premier demonstrations of academic success, both to the researchers and sponsoring institutions involved. the ci researcher, like all other researchers, is subjected to performance evaluation measures for the purpose of appointment, promotion, and awarding of grants and research incentives. against the background of the interdisciplinary ci landscape and the mounting pressure to show research impact, the research question guiding this study is: what research metrics should be considered in supporting ci research impact? as noted, the concept of research impact is contested. however, a wider discussion of research impact is beyond the scope of this study, which will conclude with the definition of research outputs making impact when they are read, used and/or cited (von solms & von solms, 2016). the impact of research is assessed by using qualitative measures (peer review) and supplemented with quantitative measures (bibliometric indicators and citation-based metrics). agarwal et al. (2016: 297) defines bibliometrics as “the process of extracting measureable data through statistical analysis of published research studies and how the knowledge within a publication is used”. it is a method to systematically count the number of publications within a discipline. more recently altmetrics (alternative to citation metrics) measures are steadily gaining ground in the global political environment, and research institutions are under increasing pressure to provide evidence of not only scholarly but also societal impact of the research (bornmann, 2014; neylon et al., 2013). altmetrics (also referred to as social media metrics) measure scholarly performance of individual articles based on engagement of scholars and the public with research articles in an online and social media environment (lin & fenner, 2013). in general, three types of research outlets are currently available to disseminate such research outputs, namely journals, conference proceedings, and books. alternative metrics hold the promise of developing indicators for measuring scholarly work outside these customary outputs (niso, 2014). these non-standard artefacts can include ! 153 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 software, scientific data sets, video, and images (galligan & dyas-correia, 2013; kousha & thelwall, 2015). impactful research needs to be done and be seen to be done. the rationale of this study is to investigate traditional citation metrics and altmetric measures in the field of ci research. the landscape of community informatics research has similarities and overlaps with development informatics (stillman & linger, 2009); therefore the literature on bibliometric analysis and authoring patterns in di is considered relevant to ci research. based on a recent bibliometric study of the ict4d field, naude (2016b) identified an absence of bibliometric studies in this academic area. alperin (2015) pinpoints the need for studies that investigate the altmetrics of research, journals, and articles published and read in a developing country towards an emerging region's perspective (alperin et al., 2014). the lack of altmetrics research and data from developing nations make it difficult to determine the impact and value of altmetrics in the developing context. in this paper we present a bibliometric and altmetric analysis of the journal of community informatics (joci). joci is an international peer-reviewed, online open access journal, established in 2004 to create a space for ci in the academic environment (less, 2008). the ulrich’s global serials directory indicates that journal of community informatics (issn 1712-4441) is a quarterly publication, published by the centre for community informatics research in canada. ulrich’s also indicates poor indexing coverage of joci in subject-specific bibliographic and abstract databases, which limits the accessibility, discoverability, and visibility of articles and authors that publish in this journal. joci was selected for analysis due to the emphasis on community and development informatics research and the relevance thereof for ci researchers’ profiles. this study which analyses the publication data from 2004 to 2015, complements our previous study (van biljon, naudé, & lotriet, 2016), which focused on the article production, authorship, and collaboration patterns in joci and the correlation between the following article-level indicators: usage metrics (article views), altmetrics (mendeley readership), and traditional citation metrics (google scholar). furthermore, the indicators were used to identify, compare, and rank the most impactful joci articles. literature review bibliometric and altmetric analyses a single journal bibliometric study is a quantitative tool to profile and characterise the scholarly literature published in a subject discipline by systematically analysing the articles published in an academic journal in a selected time period. a bibliometric assessment of an individual journal will reveal elements such as publication trends, article productivity and growth, authorship patterns, collaboration style, as well as the influential papers and authors in a research field. a review article by wan, anyi, zainab, anuar and anyi (2009) summarises 82 single journal bibliometric studies published between 1998 and 2008 from various disciplines. a number of single journal studies published in all disciplines in the literature show the value of bibliometric analysis ! 154 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 (bakri & willett, 2008, 2009; dwivedi, lal, mustafee, & williams, 2009; dwivedi, kiang, lal, & williams, 2008; dwivedi & kuljis, 2008; jeyasekar & saravanan, 2014; minas, wright, zhao, & kakuma, 2014; rao, sharma, devi, & muralidhar, 2014; sanni & zainab, 2010; swain, swain, & rautaray, 2013; swain, 2013, 2014; swain & panda, 2012). citations are an accepted standard of measuring research impact (von solms & von solms, 2016). alternative metrics, such as downloads and mendeley readership hold the promise of developing indicators for measuring scholarly work outside the limitations of traditional citation metrics (niso, 2014). mendeley is a reference manager which was launched in 2007 and acquired by elsevier in april 2013. mendeley readership can be defined as the number of mendeley users who have added a paper to their personal mendeley library. alternative metrics are particularly useful in interdisciplinary research which challenges the traditional delineation of subject areas. however, to propose altmetrics as a credible measure of research impact it is necessary to consider the correlation between citations and altmetric measures. table 1 summarises a literature review of the correlation between citations and article views or downloads by considering the comparison detail, the results and the findings. table 1: comparison of studies on the correlation between citations and downloads comparison detail results findings citation google scholar citations and social science citation index (ssci) relationship to the 200 top downloaded papers in the repec digital library in 2006. a single downloaded paper on average receives twice as many citations from google scholar as from ssci. downloads appear to have a moderate relationship with citations. chu & krichel (2007) google scholar citations and downloads by examining the top 50 most downloaded papers between january 2000 and december 2002, published in the journal intelligent systems in accounting, finance and management: an international journal. the number of downloads and citations were highly correlated. downloads are a leading indicator of citations even years into the future. o’leary (2009) randomised controlled trial of open access publishing involving 3245 articles in 36 journals in the sciences, social sciences and humanities. open access articles received significantly more downloads. downloads had no effect on article citations within the first three years after publication davis (2011) evaluated the scopus citations and download figures for the 50 most viewed articles from five biomed central open access oncology journals. correlation between downloads and citations was limited. limited correlation nieder, dalhaug, & aandahl (2013) ! 155 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the contrasting findings reveal that there is no clear and decisive answer to the question whether views or downloads can predict citations yet. however, there is some logic inherent to the fact that a paper needs to be downloaded in order to be cited and therefore downloads are considered an important usage metric. it will be used in this study when investigating the metrics that support the sustainability of a ci researcher’s profile. given the increasing impact of social media, it is necessary to consider alternative metrics. this paper will consider mendeley readership as the alternative metrics indicator with the most significant correlation to traditional citations. table 2 summarises studies that compare traditional citation counts with mendeley readership. table 2: comparison of citations with mendeley readership differences between citation and downloads from 2002 to 2011 for four sciencedirect categories that included arts and humanities, computer science, economics, econometrics & finance, and oncology. results indicated that 50-140 downloads corresponded to one citation. the disciplines with the highest download rates were different from those with the highest citation rates. gorraiz, gumpenberge, & schlögl (2014) a cross sectional study of the papers published in the international review of research in open and distance learning journal, for the period 2008 to october 2013. a significant and positive relationship between the total number of google scholar citations and the number of views or downloads received by the articles. significant and positive relationship between the total number of google scholar citations and the number of downloads. (martinez & anderson, 2015) comparison detail results findings citation a sample of 1613 papers published in 2007 in nature and science. the correlations between the mendeley readership counts, google scholar and web of science citations showed a nearly perfect relationship. statistically significant correlations between the mendeley readership counts and traditional citation sources. li, thelwall, & giustini (2012) 1459 articles published in the journal of the american society for information science and technology, between 2001 and 2010. citation counts from web of science, scopus and google scholar were compared to mendeley readership counts during april 2012. significant correlations between mendeley readership counts and citation counts. bar-ilan (2012) random sample of 20 000 publications, from all disciplines, published between 2005 and 2011 and covered by the web of science compared mendeley, twitter, wikipedia and delicious. mendeley had the highest coverage for altmetric data. mendeley is currently the leading and most important altmetrics indicator across all research disciplines. zahedi, costas, & wouters (2014) use and coverage of mendeley among 71 bibliometricians. moderate correlation between scopus citation counts and mendeley readership. mendeley was the most popular citation manager among the bibliometricians surveyed. haustein et al. (2014) ! 156 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the findings as presented in the third column of table 2 substantiate the importance of mendeley as an altmetric indicator for which evidence of correlations with citation counts have been found. this supports the selection of mendeley readership as an altmetrics indicator during the research design of this paper, to investigate the metrics that support the impact of a ci researcher’s profile. previous studies on the journal of community informatics a survey of the literature revealed only one citation study of joci and one bibliometric analysis. less (2008) conducted a citation analysis on 29 articles published in joci for the publication years 2004 to 2005. the list of references sections of the 29 articles was analysed. a total of 541 citations were evaluated. the most influential authors, articles and journals were analysed. dr michael gurstein, executive director of the centre for community informatics research, development and training (ccirdt) and chief editor of joci, was the most influential author, with 93% of articles examined in this study that cited dr gurstein. dr barry wellman from university of toronto was also influential, with 76% articles citing him. authors with academic affiliations were cited more than authors affiliated with government, corporate or non-profit institutions. the highest number of academics cited was affiliated with the university of toronto (canada) and queensland university of technology (australia). the highest number of author citations for an academic institution came from the university of toronto and for a non-academic institution was the ccirdt. results indicated that the largest proportion of authors was affiliated with the academic disciplines of sociology (24.40%), communication (11.20%), and library and information science (11%). the results also showed that most of the publications cited in joci were published within the last four or five years. the bibliometric analysis was performed on the articles published in joci for the publication years 2004 to 2015 (van biljon et al., 2016). that study presented the article production, authorship and collaboration patterns in joci as well as the results of an initial investigation into the correlation between the following article-level indicators: traditional citation metrics (google scholar), usage metrics (article views or downloads), and altmetrics (mendeley readership). in summary it can be said that the two previous studies that investigated joci do not provide the annual distribution or authorship distribution of the article views, mendeley readership, and google scholar citations. previous analysis on the most influential papers have only been for the publication years 2004 to 2005 whereas this study extends the period to 2015. scopus articles published between 2004 and 2014 in five broad fields and 50 subfields in agriculture, business, decision science, pharmacy and social sciences. positive correlations between mendeley readership counts and scopus citation counts for all years examined. correlations between citation counts and mendeley reader counts for journal articles tend to increase over five years and then stabilise. thelwall & sud (2015) ! 157 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 methodology the journal of community informatics the focus and scope of joci is described on the joci website (http://www.cijournal.net) as follows: “community informatics (ci) is the study and the practice of enabling communities with information and communications technologies (icts). ci seeks to work with communities towards the effective use of icts to improve their processes, achieve their objectives, overcome the "digital divides" that exist both within and between communities, and empower communities and citizens in the range of areas of ict application including for health, cultural production, civic management, and e-governance, among others. ci is concerned with how ict can be useful to the range of traditionally excluded populations and communities, and how it can support local economic development, social justice and political empowerment using the internet. ci is a point of convergence concerning the use of icts for diverse stakeholders, including community activists, non-profit groups, policymakers, users/citizens, and the range of academics working across (and integrating) disciplines as diverse as information studies, management, computer science, social work, planning and development studies. emerging issues within the ci field include: community access to the internet, community information, online civic participation and community service delivery, community and local economic development, training networks, telework, social cohesion, learning, e-health and e-governance.” the target audience of joci is academics, ci practitioners and national and multilateral policy makers. the readership focus of joci is global, including the developing world. no subscription or registration is required to access the full-text articles of the journal. the articles are published in html and pdf format. the citation analysis tools available are the academic citation enhanced databases web of science (thomson reuters) and scopus (elsevier), and the free academic search engine and internet resource, google scholar. the joci is not indexed in web of science or scopus, making the citation enhanced databases unfeasible for a citation study of joci. the absence of electronic bibliometric tools and citation data complicates the assessment of scholarly productivity as well as the identification and comparison of popular papers and distinguished authors in the ci discipline. joci is discoverable, accessible and visible via the free non-commercial resources google scholar and mendeley papers crowdsourced research catalogue. ! 158 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 data collection and analysis a single journal analysis was the focus of this research study. 260 articles published in the 11 volumes of the open access peer-reviewed journal of community informatics (joci) for the period 2004 to 2015 were analysed. only research articles were included; editorial introductions, reports, points of view, case studies, reviews, commentaries, notes, and cases from the field were excluded. all articles were in english, except for five articles in spanish and portuguese that were published in 2007 (volume 3, issue 3). the data for this study was collected during july 2016. the joci bibliographic details for the publication years 2004 to 2015 were imported from google scholar into mendeley. the 260 bibliographic records were exported from mendeley to refworks and subsequently to an ms excel spreadsheet for analysis. figure 1 shows the data collection process. ! 
 figure 1: data collection process the bibliographic data retrieved were checked for completeness. the joci contents pages on the online e-journal homepage, published on the free, publicly available, open access journal archive on the joci website (http://ci-journal.net), were compared to the bibliographic data downloaded from google scholar. missing bibliographic items were imported from the joci website into the mendeley account. the following descriptive bibliographic details for each article were collected: • article title • author names • source information: journal title, volume and issue • year of publication the number of authors, google scholar citations, mendeley readership and article views were recorded manually and added to the spreadsheet for each article. this study used free web-based public data sources to record the following article-level data: • usage data: joci article views (i.e. number of times an article was viewed on the joci website) • mendeley crowdsourced readership scores (i.e. the number of mendeley users that added a joci paper to their personal mendeley library) (gunn, 2013). • google scholar citation counts (i.e. number of citations per joci article). joci website google scholar mendeley refworks ms excel ! 159 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the journal usage statistics (article views) that are freely available on the joci website (http://ci-journal.net/reports) were recorded on the spreadsheet. all articles had views, except for one 2015 article published in volume 11 number 1. mendeley readership scores are freely available in the mendeley papers research catalogue (http://www.mendeley.com). to access and search the mendeley papers research catalogue, users need to register for a free online mendeley account. a mendeley public group was created “journal of community informatics 2004-2015” (https://www.mendeley.com/groups/9033091/journal-of-communityinformatics-2004-2015) the joci bibliographic data for the period 2004 to 2015 was shared from a mendeley account to the public mendeley group. this enabled the researchers to view and record the mendeley readership data for each article. mendeley readership statistics were available for all 260 items. the mendeley readership data was recorded manually on 14 july 2016 from the mendeley group for each article and entered into the excel spreadsheet. each article was searched individually in google scholar to find the number of citations it received. the google scholar citation data for each item was recorded on the spreadsheet. the final article count of 260 items of bibliographic data served as the study population for this study. the investigation is limited to one open access journal, which limits the generalisability of the results. results and discussion article productivity table 3 depicts the article productivity for joci over a 12-year period (2004 to 2015). a total of 260 journal articles were published in 11 volumes and 33 issues (excluding the editorial introductions, reports, points of view, case studies, reviews, commentaries, notes, and cases from the field). table 3 indicates that the highest number of articles was published in 2013, totalling 40 articles and the lowest publication rate was in 2004 with 9 articles, when the journal was launched. the mean number of articles published per year was 21.75. table 3: joci annual number of volumes, issues and articles year volume number number of issues number of articles % 2004 1 1 9 3.45 2005 1 2 14 5.36 2006 2 3 28 11.11 2007 3 4 22 8.43 ! 160 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 authorship the results for the number of authors per article are depicted in figure 2. overall 571 authors were involved in publishing the 260 articles in joci between 2004 and 2015. of those articles, 37% had only one author; this was followed by the percentage with two authors (32%) and that with three authors (19%), and so forth. those with more than six authors (those with 7, 8 and even 11) were all grouped under seven, which add up to 1% of the papers published. from observation it seems like the number of authors could be inversely related to the number of papers published per number of authors. this means that 37% of the 260 articles were single-authored while 165 (63%) were multi-authored articles. this shows that joci has a collaborative authorship pattern, with collaboration varying between two and eleven authors. a study by naude (2016b) of the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries (ejisdc) research articles, showed similar results, with 34% single-authored compared to 66% multi-authored articles. ! figure 2: percentage of number of authors per article 2008 4 3 13 4.98 2009 5 3 20 7.66 2010 6 2 18 6.90 2011 7 2 15 5.75 2012 8 3 25 9.58 2013 9 4 40 15.32 2014 10 3 32 12.26 2015 11 3 24 9.20 total 33 260 100 one author two authors three authors four authors five authors six authors seven authors ! 161 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 collaboration subramanyam defines the degree of collaboration in a discipline as “the ratio of the number of collaborative research papers to the total number of research papers published in the discipline during a certain period of time” (subramanyam, 1983, p. 37). subramanyam’s formula: c = nm/ (ns + nm), where c = the degree of collaboration, nm = the number of multi-authored papers, and ns = number of single-authored papers. this formula was used to calculate the degree of collaboration, as shown in table 4. the degree of collaboration per year varied between a minimum of 0.48 in 2012 and a maximum of 0.80 in 2011. the average degree of collaboration in joci was 0.63. therefore, more than 60% of papers involved collaboration between two or more authors and the collaboration trend shows no signs of diminishing. the results can be compared to the ejisdc study (naude, 2016a) that showed a similar collaborative publication culture. the overall degree of collaboration in the ejisdc was 0.66. table 4: degree of collaboration by year article-level metrics the article-level measures captured were article views for the joci articles, the mendeley readership, and the google scholar citations. annual distribution of article views, mendeley readership, and google scholar citations table 5 shows the annual distribution of article views, mendeley readership and google scholar citations over a 12-year period. the 260 articles in joci received a total of 1,668,042 article views, 3,583 mendeley readers and 2,781 google scholar citations, as measured in july 2016. the average (arithmetic mean) number of article views was year single authorship multi authorship degree of collaboration total articles 2004 3 6 0.67 9 2005 5 9 0.64 14 2006 8 20 0.71 28 2007 8 14 0.64 22 2008 6 7 0.54 13 2009 9 11 0.55 20 2010 8 10 0.56 18 2011 3 12 0.80 15 2012 13 12 0.48 25 2013 12 28 0.70 40 2014 11 21 0.66 32 2015 9 15 0.63 24 total 95 165 0.63 260 ! 162 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 139,003, the average mendeley readership was 298 and google scholar citations was 232. table 5: joci annual distribution of article views, mendeley readership, and google scholar citations authorship distribution of article views, mendeley readership and google scholar citations table 6 shows the authorship distribution of article views, mendeley readership and google scholar citations. table 6: joci authorship distribution of article views, mendeley readership and google scholar citations year vol nr nr of articles % article views % mendeley readership % gs citations % 2004 1 9 3.45 41519 2.49 102 2.85 284 10.21 2005 1 14 5.36 63215 3.79 324 9.04 615 22.11 2006 2 28 11.11 142140 8.52 455 12.7 512 18.41 2007 3 22 8.43 211030 12.65 272 7.59 209 7.52 2008 4 13 4.98 265574 15.92 180 5.02 228 8.2 2009 5 20 7.66 172884 10.36 205 5.72 111 3.99 2010 6 18 6.90 108975 6.53 212 5.92 121 4.35 2011 7 15 5.75 87896 5.27 222 6.2 102 3.67 2012 8 25 9.58 288794 17.31 441 12.31 335 12.05 2013 9 40 15.32 158978 9.53 470 13.12 144 5.18 2014 10 32 12.26 100838 6.05 391 10.91 113 4.06 2015 11 24 9.20 26199 1.58 309 8.62 7 0.25 total 260 100 1668042 100 3583 100 2781 100 number of authors number of articles % article views % mendeley readershi p % gs citations % 1 author 95 36.54 602328 36.11 1293 36.09 1030 37.04 2 authors 83 31.92 678997 40.71 1228 34.27 1154 41.5 3 authors 50 19.23 255471 15.32 647 18.07 361 12.97 4 authors 15 5.78 67598 4.05 223 6.22 129 4.64 5 authors 11 4.24 39662 2.38 114 3.18 59 2.12 6 authors 3 1.15 13591 0.81 38 1.06 16 0.58 7 authors 1 0.38 4521 0.27 15 0.42 31 1.11 9 authors 1 0.38 3664 0.22 13 0.36 0 0 11 authors 1 0.38 2210 0.13 12 0.33 1 0.04 ! 163 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 statistical comparison of article views, mendeley readership and google scholar citations a spearman correlation analysis was conducted to examine whether there is a relationship between article views, mendeley readership, and google scholar citations. table 7 shows the relationship (spearman correlation) between article views, mendeley readership, and google scholar citations: • a statistically significant and positive linear relationship (p <0.0001) of medium strength (r=0.51; n=260) between article views and google scholar citations. • a statistically significant and positive linear relationship (p <0.0001) of medium strength (r=0.50; n=260) between google scholar citations and mendeley. • a statistically significant and positive linear relationship (p <0.0001) of medium to weak strength (r=0.25; n=260) between mendeley readership and article views. for this journal, the results in table 7 seem to indicate that the highest correlations (spearman) were between google scholar citations and article views, a slightly lower correlation between google scholar citations and mendeley readership, and the lowest correlation was between mendeley readership and article views. table 7: spearman correlations between article views, mendeley readership and google scholar citations this results can be compared to an article-level metric study of the ejisdc (naude, 2017) that showed that the highest correlations (spearman) were between google scholar citations and article downloads or views, a slightly lower correlation between google scholar citations and mendeley readership, and the lowest correlation was between downloads and mendeley readership. joci influential articles in this study, the impact of joci articles was assessed by counting how many times it was viewed, read, or cited. three article-level indicators were used to sort joci articles, based on usage indicators (views in table 8, in the appendix), readership indicators (mendeley in table 9, in the appendix), and citation indicators (google scholar in table 10, in the appendix). the influential articles are listed in tables 8, 9 and 10 and show how the ranking and impact change, depending on the indicator used. total 260 100 1668042 100 3583 100 2781 100 variable variable correlation signif prob article views google scholar 0.5116 <.0001* mendeley google scholar 0.5001 <.0001* article views mendeley 0.2558 <.0001* ! 164 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 an influential article, for the purpose of this study, is defined as an article that is among the leading 20 articles, ranked by article views, mendeley readership, or google scholar citations, published in the joci during the period 2004 to 2015. article views table 8 (in the appendix) lists the 20 joci articles that were viewed the most. it also indicates if the article was among the top 20 influential articles as ranked by google scholar citations and mendeley readership, as indicated by the symbol✓. of the 20 heavily viewed articles in table 8, five of the articles were among the top articles by google scholar citations and five were also among the top articles ranked by mendeley readership scores. the most viewed article (143,425 views) was an article by kate williams (university of illinois) and joan c. durrance (university of michigan), published in 2008 with the title “social networks and social capital rethinking theory in community informatics”. this article was listed among the top 20 articles by mendeley readership and by google scholar citations. mendeley readership table 9 (in the appendix) lists the top 20 articles with the highest mendeley readership scores. it also shows if the article was among the top 20 influential articles as ranked by google scholar citations and article views, indicated by the symbol ✓. of the 20 eminent articles listed in table 9, ranked by mendeley readership scores, twelve were among the top articles by google scholar citations and five were also among the top articles ranked by article views. the article with the most mendeley readers (85 mendeley readers) was a solo-authored article by harekrishna misra (institute of rural management anand, india) published in 2015 with the title “information kiosk based indian e-governance service delivery: value chain based measurement modelling” this article was not listed among the top 20 articles ranked by google scholar citations or by article views. google scholar citations table 10 (in the appendix) lists the articles with the most google scholar citations. it also shows if the articles were among the top 20 influential articles as ranked by mendeley readership and article views, indicated by the symbol ✓. of the 20 eminent articles in table 10 ranked by google scholar citations, 12 were among the top articles by mendeley readership and five were also among the top articles ranked by article views. the most cited article (134 google scholar citations) was by ke pigg and l.d. crank (university of missouri), published in 2004 entitled “building community social capital: the potential and promise of information and communications technologies”. ! 165 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 this article was not listed among the top 20 viewed articles, but as a top 20 article by mendeley readership. top articles by article views, mendeley readership, and google scholar citations table 11 lists the four top joci articles overall in the publication period 2004 to 2015. this represents the overlap in the top 20 articles (tables 8, 9, and tale 10) as ranked by article view statistics, mendeley readership scores, and google scholar citations. only the four articles listed in table 11 are among the top 20 articles that were the most viewed, had a high mendeley readership, and were highly cited in google scholar. all four articles were authored in developed countries. table 11: top articles by article views, mendeley readership and google scholar citations conclusions there are unique challenges that confound the dissemination and impact measuring of ci research. this investigation revealed that joci has poor indexing coverage in commercial subject and bibliographic databases, complicating the accessibility, discoverability, and visibility of ci research. focusing on joci as the main journal for the dissemination of ci research, it is concluded that traditional citation metrics have limited application in ci, due to the exclusion of joci in the sophisticated commercial electronic citation tools (scopus and web of science) used to conduct bibliometric and citation assessments. this is intensified by the shortage of high-impact journals in the rank article title year authors affiliation country article views mendeley gs 1 social networks and social capital rethinking theory in community informatics 2008 k williams j. c. durrance univ. of illinois univ. of michigan usa usa 143425 32 105 2 this is what modern deregulation looks like: co-optation and contestation in the shaping of the uk’s open government data initiative 2012 j. bates manchester metropolitan university uk 22469 52 68 3 too old for technology? how the elderly of lisbon use and perceive ict 2012 b.b. neves f. amaro univ. of lisbon univ. of lisbon portugal portugal 43828 66 50 4 towards participatory action design research: adapting action research and design science research methods for urban informatics 2011 m. bilandzic j. venable queensland univ. of technology curtin university australia australia 18689 50 38 ! 166 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ci discipline, the open access status of the journal and the interdisciplinary nature of the field (naude, 2016a). the bibliometric analysis presented in this paper sheds light on the article production and authorship over a 12-year period and showed that ci is characterised by a collaborative or multi-authorship style. furthermore, the coverage of joci in the new and emerging altmetric tools such as mendeley, shows the increasing importance of new generation metrics, and highlights the significance of a multi-metric approach in measurement and evaluation of ci researchers or ci article impact. in response to the question, namely what research metrics should be considered in supporting ci research impact, it was thus concluded that altmetric indicators such as mendeley readership or article views can be considered. given the complexities mentioned around ci as an interdisciplinary field and the lack of bibliometric data, the addition of altmetrics can make an important contribution to demonstrating research impact by drawing on a wider, richer and more representative data set. the limitation of this study is that it focuses only on joci, and therefore more research is needed to compare altmetrics measures from related journals. the usage data, altmetric data, and citation metric data were used to identify and compare the influential articles published in joci. in the absence of electronic citation tools to find the most cited papers, this analysis is valuable in that it gives an indication of the joci articles with the highest usage, readership and citation over a 12-year period. the result is a portrait of the leading papers in the field of ci. in a single journal bibliometric study on ejisdc research articles (2000-2013), naude (2016b) found that single-authored papers are cited more often than multi-authored papers. this joci study did not examine the relationship between citations and the number of authors in this study, but further exploration would be useful. the strong positive correlation found between citations (in google scholar) and the altmetric indicator (of mendeley readership) supports the use of mendeley as an altmetrics measure and the potential of altmetrics as a measure of research impact in the ci field. altmetrics can indicate the broader impact of ci research on societies and communities, that cannot be measured by traditional citation metrics (bornmann, 2014). altmetrics can reveal the engagement of wider non-academic audiences, for example public, communities, stakeholders, and ci practitioners with ci research. given the complications with visibility of research from developing and emerging economies, this is an important insight towards ensuring equitable representation of research impact. the purpose of this study was to investigate research metrics to support the impact of ci research. based on the joci analysis (2004-2015) and the strong positive correlation between traditional citations measures and altmetrics we propose that altmetric should be considered in measuring ci research impact. however, more research is needed to consider other ci journals and to investigate the correlations between other alternative metric measures (like twitter and facebook) and traditional citation measures, before the findings can be generalised. ! 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(2014). how well developed are altmetrics? a crossdisciplinary analysis of the presence of “alternative metrics” in scientific publications. scientometrics, 101(2), 1491–1513. ! 170 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 appendix table 8: top 20 joci articles ranked by article views rank article title year no of authors authors affiliation affiliated country article views gs mendeley 1 social networks and social capital rethinking theory in community informatics 2008 2 k williams j. c. durrance university of illinois university of michigan usa usa 143425 105✓ 32✓ 2 too old for technology? how the elderly of lisbon use and perceive ict 2012 2 b.b. neves f. amaro university of lisbon university of lisbon portugal 43828 50✓ 66✓ 3 guidelines for designing deliberative digital habitats: learning from eparticipation for open data initiatives 2012 1 f. de cindio università degli studi di milano italy 35337 23 27✓ 4 sostenibilidad de proyectos de desarrollo con nuevas tecnologias: el caso de la organizacion de regantes y su sistema de información en huaral (spanish) 2007 1 j.f. bossio not indicated peru 24595 4 12 5 myknet.org: how northern ontario's first nation communities made themselves at home on the world wide web 2009 3 p. budka b. bell a. fiser university of vienna univ. of prince edward island university of toronto austria canada canada 23553 24 12 6 stakeholders' perceptions of the impact of a global system for mobile communication on nigeria’s rural economy: implication for an emerging communication industry 2007 4 t. adeyinka j.o. ajiboye a.o emmanuel j.i. wojuade university of botswana university of botswana university of ibadan university of ibadan botswana botswana nigeria nigeria 23390 12 9 7 the role of social entrepreneurs in deploying icts for youth and community development in south africa 2009 1 c. j. evoh new school university usa 23255 9 11 8 this is what modern deregulation looks like : co-optation and contestation in the shaping of the uk’s open government data initiative 2012 1 j. bates manchester metropolitan university uk 22469 68✓ 52✓ 9 call centres and their role in e-governance: a developing country perspective 2008 2 s. as-saber k. hossain monash university oxfam australia bangladesh 22269 4 10 10 anytime? anywhere?: reframing debates around community and municipal wireless networking 2008 1 l. forlano columbia university usa 19201 35✓ 21 11 the potential and limits of mobile phone for development in africa: topdown-meets-bottom-up partnering 2012 2 l. hosman e. fife illinois institute of technology university of southern california usa usa 19072 3 11 12 towards participatory action design research : adapting action research and design science research methods for urban informatics 2011 2 m. bilandzic j. venable queensland university of technology, brisbane curtin university, perth australia 18689 38✓ 50✓ 13 unintended behavioural consequences of publishing performance data: is more always better? 2012 2 s. mcginnes k.m. elandy trinity college trinity college ireland ireland 18049 8 19 !171 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 7 towards participatory action design research : adapting action research and design science research methods for urban informatics 2011 2 m. bilandzic j. venable queensland univ. of technology curtin university australia australia 50 38✓ 18689✓ 8 social impact and diffusion of telecenter use: a study from the sustainable access in rural india project 2006 2 r. kumar m.l. best. massachusetts inst. of technology georgia institute of technology usa usa 42 88✓ 5684 9 is community informatics good for communities? questions confronting an emerging field 2005 1 r. stoecker university of toledo usa 40 87✓ 4548 10 a research design to build effective partnerships between city planners, developers, government and urban neighbourhood communities 2006 2 m. foth b. adkins queensland univ. of technology australia 35 30 5561 11 building community social capital: the potential and promise of information and communications technologies 2004 2 k.e. pigg l. d. crank university of missouri university of missouri usa usa 32 134✓ 12851 12 social networks and social capital rethinking theory in community informatics 2008 2 k williams j. c. durrance university of illinois university of michigan usa usa 32 105✓ 143425✓ 13 a review on mhealth research in developing countries 2013 3 w. chigona m. nyemba-mudenda a.s. metfula university of cape town university of cape town university of cape town south africa south africa south africa 32 15 8276 14 an interpretivist case study of a south african rural multi-purpose community centre 2005 2 j-p. van belle j. trusler university of cape town university of cape town south africa south africa 28 35✓ 5647 15 the value of community informatics to participatory urban planning and design: a case-study in helsinki 2010 2 j.c. saad-sulonen l. horelli aalto university aalto university finland finland 28 29 9499 16 sustaining community access to technology: who should pay and why 2005 2 v.n. rideout a.j. reddick university of new brunswick university of new brunswick canada canada 27 48✓ 3312 17 some perspectives on understanding the adoption and implementation of ict interventions in developing countries 2007 3 m. ashraf p. swatman j. hanisch university of south australia university of south australia university of south australia australia australia australia 27 20 9284 18 guidelines for designing deliberative digital habitats: learning from eparticipation for open data initiatives 2012 1 f. de cindio università degli studi di milano italy 27 23 35337✓ 19 mapping the virtual in social sciences: on the category of “virtual community” 2006 2 s. proulx g. latzko-toth université du québec université du québec canada canada 26 12 4955 20 inside the "people of the wheelbarrows": participation between online and offline dimension in the post-quake social movement 2010 2 m. farinosi e. trere university of udine university of udine italy italy 26 28 11299 !173 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 9: top 20 joci articles ranked by mendeley readership 14 the rhetoric of transparency and its reality: transparent territories, opaque power and empowerment 2012 1 b. raman french institute at pondicherry india 17352 13 15 15 la promocion de las tic para el desarrollo y los pueblos indigenas: extension o comunicación? (spanish) 2007 2 s.m. urquiaga e.h. velazquez not indicated mexico 16543 3 8 16 digital technology access and use among socially and economically disadvantaged groups in south australia 2010 3 l.a. newman k. biedrzycki f. baum flinders university flinders university flinders university australia australia australia 16280 24 21 17 economic and social empowerment of women through ict: a case study of palestine 2009 1 k. s. rabayah arab american university palestine 15501 5 1 18 towards place-peer community and civic bandwidth: a case study in community wireless networking 2008 1 h hye-na cho hallym university korea 15069 17 14 19 e-governance in the developing world in action: the case of districtnet in uganda 2008 2 a de jager v. van reijswoud international institute for communication and development divine word university netherlands papua new guinea 14722 15 8 20 from associations to info-sociations: civic associations & icts in two asian cities 2012 1 d. sadoway university of hong kong hong kong, china 13204 10 9 rank article title year no of authors authors affiliation affiliated country mendeley gs a r t i c l e views 1 information kiosk based indian e-governance service delivery: value chain based measurement modelling 2015 1 h. misra institute of rural management anand india 85 1 1124 2 community informatics and sustainability: why social capital matters 2005 1 l.e. simpson queensland univ. of technology australia 80 119✓ 7666 3 using a sustainable livelihoods approach to assessing the impact of icts in development 2006 2 s. parkinson r. ramirez university of guelph university of guelph canada canada 67 75✓ 10047 4 too old for technology? how the elderly of lisbon use and perceive ict 2012 2 b.b. neves f. amaro university of lisbon university of lisbon portugal portugal 66 50✓ 43828✓ 5 this is what modern deregulation looks like : co-optation and contestation in the shaping of the uk’s open government data initiative 2012 1 j. bates manchester metropolitan univ. uk 52 68✓ 22469✓ 6 digital inclusion without social inclusion: the consumption of information and communication technologies (icts) in homeless subculture in central scotland 2006 1 c.e. bure university of edinburgh scotland 50 53✓ 7679 !172 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 10: top 20 joci articles ranked by google scholar citations rank article title year no of authors authors affiliation affiliated country gs mendeley article views 1 building community social capital: the potential and promise of information and communications technologies 2004 2 k.e. pigg l. d. crank university of missouri university of missouri usa usa 134 32✓ 12851 2 community informatics and sustainability: why social capital matters 2005 1 l.e. simpson queensland university of technology australia 119 80✓ 7666 3 cybercafes and their potential as community development tools in india 2005 1 a.m. haseloff universität augsburg germany 113 23 4623 4 social networks and social capital rethinking theory in community informatics 2008 2 k williams j. c. durrance university of illinois university of michigan usa usa 105 32✓ 143425✓ 5 social impact and diffusion of telecenter use: a study from the sustainable access in rural india project 2006 2 r. kumar m.l. best. massachusetts institute of technology georgia institute of technology usa usa 88 42✓ 5684 6 is community informatics good for communities? questions confronting an emerging field 2005 1 r. stoecker university of toledo usa 87 40✓ 4548 7 crisis, farming & community 2005 2 c. hagar c. haythornthwaite university of illinois at urbana-champaign university of illinois at urbana-champaign usa usa 77 7 5995 8 using a sustainable livelihoods approach to assessing the impact of icts in development 2006 2 s. parkinson r. ramirez university of guelph university of guelph canada canada 75 67✓ 10047 9 this is what modern deregulation looks like : co-optation and contestation in the shaping of the uk’s open government data initiative 2012 1 j. bates manchester metropolitan university uk 68 52✓ 22469✓ 10 digital inclusion without social inclusion: the consumption of information and communication technologies (icts) in homeless subculture in central scotland 2006 1 c.e. bure university of edinburgh scotland 53 50✓ 7679 11 too old for technology? how the elderly of lisbon use and perceive ict 2012 2 b.b. neves f. amaro university of lisbon university of lisbon portugal portugal 50 66✓ 43828✓ 12 sustaining community access to technology: who should pay and why 2005 2 v.n. rideout a.j. reddick university of new brunswick university of new brunswick canada canada 48 27✓ 3312 13 open government data and the right to information: opportunities and obstacles 2012 1 k. janssen university of leuven belgium 46 14 12992 14 the impacts of community telecentres in rural colombia 2006 4 f. amariles o.p. paz n. russell n. johnson cgiar colnodo, administration cgiar cgiar colombia colombia colombia colombia 44 17 7774 15 towards participatory action design research : adapting action research and design science research methods for urban informatics 2011 2 m. bilandzic j. venable queensland univ. of technology curtin university australia australia 38 50✓ 18689✓ !174 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 16 an interpretivist case study of a south african rural multi-purpose community centre 2005 2 j-p. van belle j. trusler university of cape town university of cape town south africa south africa 35 28✓ 5647 17 anytime? anywhere?: reframing debates around community and municipal wireless networking 2008 1 l. forlano columbia university usa 35 21 19201✓ 18 n-logue: the story of a rural service provider in india 2004 3 a. jhunjhunwala a. ramachandran a. bandyopadhyay indian institute of technology tenet tenet india india india 32 14 6197 19 a way forward: sustainable icts and regional sustainability 2005 4 g. hearn m. kimber j. lennie l. simpson queensland univ. of technology queensland univ. of technology queensland univ. of technology queensland univ. of technology australia australia australia australia 32 23 4022 20 the canadian research alliance for community innovation and networking (cracin): a research partnership and agenda for community networking in canada 2004 7 a. clement m. gurstein g. longford r. luke m. moll l.r. shade d. dechief university of toronto new jersey institute of technology university of toronto university of toronto ontario concordia university concordia university canada canada canada canada canada canada canada 31 15 4521 !175 1453-article text-8240-1-6-20181022 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 sidpdf: articles critical importance of emphasising workingclass parents in digital inclusion: a us latino/ a case study in this article, we draw on extensive qualitative data to analyse the specific case of a digital inclusion program launched by the non-profit organisation river city youth foundation, located in central texas. the case is particularly interesting because the organisation, which is primarily a youth centre, realised they needed to start including parents in their programs in order to achieve their first and foremost institutional goal: to increase the number of low-income youth in us colleges. for this study, we use pierre bourdieu’s theories of capital to analyse how the organisation integrates education in their digital inclusion program—called ¡techcomunidad! — and thus how they instil techno-dispositions and cultural capital about how us education works in parents of children in kindergarten to 12th grade (k-12). this case is also relevant because it is related to a specific community of low-income latino immigrants, mostly of mexican descent, who live in a neighbourhood, where most of the residents are cláudia silva madeira interactive technologies institute (m-iti), portugal claudia.silva@m-iti.org corresponding author adolfo r. mora department of communication, schreiner university, usa amora@schreiner.edu joseph d. straubhaar the university of texas at austin, department of radio television and film (rtf), usa jdstraubhaar@austin.utexas.edu !183 silva, c., mora, a.r., straubhaar, j. (2018). critical importance of emphasizing working-class parents in digital inclusion: a u.s. latino/a case study. the journal of community informatics, 14(1), 183–-205. date submitted: 2018-10-01. date accepted: 2018-10-15. 
 copyright (c), 2018 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1453 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1453 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1453 mailto:claudia.silva@m-iti.org mailto:amora@schreiner.edu mailto:jdstraubhaar@austin.utexas.edu the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 hispanic. the ¡techcomunidad! program may take between six and eight weeks, and at the end of the training, grants participants a chromebook – a laptop with a google os that only works with internet connectivity. our results suggest that the organisation managed to instil techno-dispositions and knowledge of education, but parents may still face other sorts of divides, once they bring their chromebook home. introduction the purpose of this article is to analyse the specific historical case of the texan nonprofit organisation river city youth foundation (rcyf) that, in order to strengthen its focus on youth , decided to include parents in the process of digital inclusion. this, we 1 argue, addressed the digital divide from one of its major sources: homes that have no broadband access to the internet, and parents with an undeveloped techno-capital and little awareness of the importance of both education and technology skills for children growing up in a high-tech economy such as austin, in the united states of america. this non-profit organisation operates in a large working-class latino neighbourhood, mostly of mexican descent, in a texas city with a rapidly growing technology economy: austin, texas. specifically, between 2008 and 2012, more than 43 thousand people were estimated to live in this neighbourhood, and about 14 thousand of its residents had children younger than 17 years old. the ethnic composition of the area is primarily hispanic (roughly 77%), and among them, less than a third (30%) were foreign-born whose nationality can be traced to latin and central america (97%). whereas the city annual income was on average 53 thousand dollars, the median income was far below at an estimated $43, 375 (austin chronicle, 2014). about 15 years ago, one of the main leaders of the organisation, realised that a major problem for its youth was that the parents in some immigrant low-income communities 2 did not understand the increasing importance of education in general for the us workforce (musel-guilley, personal communication, march 2014). on top of this, many working class parents were not aware of the place of technology in the workforce for the us in general and even less so for the economy of austin, texas, which sees itself as a technopolis – a city whose economy focuses on recent technological developments and industries (straubhaar, spence, tufekci & lenz, 2012). we are aware that ‘youth’ holds pejorative meanings and may be deemed offensive for some, as it is regularly 1 associated with negative realities such as ‘at risk youth’ or ‘disaffected youth’. in this article, however, we adopt the language used by the organisation studied herein, as it defines itself as a ‘youth centre.’ we also use it in the sense provided by the oxford dictionary: ‘the period between childhood and adult age,’ which refers also to k-12. although the overwhelming majority of these parents are mothers, in this article we adopt the organisation’s 2 language, which does not regard gender but parenthood in general. for this reason, we use the term ‘parents’ or ‘parent-students’ to refer to ¡techcomunidad! participants. !184 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 this observation led the organisation to launch the digital inclusion program ¡techcomunidad!. the program is important to study because it focuses on both youth 3 and their parents. although the organisation is called a youth centre, the directors of the rcyf, mona gonzales and oné musel-guilley, also started focusing heavily on adults who are caregivers of schoolchildren, for specific reasons examined throughout this case study. we consider this an interesting case that merits extra consideration given the current global digital divide, where new social divides related to knowledge and disposition (bourdieu, 1984) are emerging and others are persistent (more in the next section). we relied on qualitative data that was collected between 2012, when ¡techcomunidad! was launched, and spring 2016 to contribute to discussions about the digital divide. the data emerged mainly from the long, five-year relationship that the lead author had with the organisation in different roles: volunteer, researcher and instructor. although we used fieldnotes, interviews, and also written stories, we took a special interest in the lessons given to ¡techcomunidad! participants for us to better speculate what technodisposition was deemed appropriate for us latinos to navigate the technopolis in which they resided. we were particularly interested in what skillsets and desires about information and communication technologies (hereafter, icts) were shaped by the organisation. in this article, we begin with a discussion of the global digital divide, then we proceed to discuss the role of community technology centres in addressing and bridging the digital divide. afterwards, we present our theoretical framework based on the theories of capital by pierre bourdieu (1984). then, our conversation shifts to the qualitative methods used, including the history of ¡techcomunidad!, followed by discussion and conclusions. global digital divide briefly, the digital divide refers to the gap between those who have or do not have internet access as well as the skills and knowledge to operate icts (norris, 2001; gonzales, 2016). generally, debates are still around structural issues such as inequalities in access to the internet and computers (first level) and use of icts (second level). along these lines, recent studies have found persistent gaps in terms of physical access to technology among poor communities (gonzales, 2016) or that ‘digital divide access is here to stay’ (hilbert, 2016). gonzales’ (2016) findings provide support and extend the theory of technology maintenance by emphasising a shift in the us digital divide from issues of ownership to issues of sustainability. in her study with 72 low-income participants, gonzales found ‘that nearly all used the internet, but technology maintenance practices were widespread, including negotiation of temporarily disconnected service, broken hardware, and logistic limitations on public access’ (2106, p. 1). similarly, büchi, just & latzer (2016) provides evidence that internet access does not correspond to equal see http://rivercityyouth.com/events/techcomunidad/ 3 !185 http://rivercityyouth.com/events/techcomunidad/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 usage, and thus the authors confirm the existence of a second-level divide in highpenetration countries such as the united states of america, new zealand, sweden, switzerland and united kingdom. with not so positive findings, hilbert argues that, while ‘the digital divide in terms of subscriptions is rapidly closing, the digital divide in terms of bandwidth is rapidly evolving and here to stay’ (2016, p. 12). for hilbert, it is urgent to develop indicators to track the digital divide in terms of bandwidth (hilbert, 2016). a number of studies have observed that even as access divides begin to narrow, divides in disposition (straubhaar et al., 2012) and attitudes (tondeur, sinnaeve, van houtte & van braak, 2011; lutz, 2016), knowledge (balboni 2007; ginossar & nelson, 2010; radovanović, 2011), skills (van dijk, 2006), participation (hargittai & walejko, 2008) and capabilities (cunningham 2009; lalorek, 2016) may be holding constant or even growing. despite the current discourse about technological revolutions, inequality in terms of technology access is still a reality, as past research has found that new technologies benefit those who already have access to other resources than those with fewer resources (van dijk, 2006). in the next section, we discuss the active role of technology community centres in addressing the digital divide. community technology centres community technology centres (hereafter, ctcs) provide classes and access to icts as well as internet connectivity for neighbourhood residents who otherwise do not have these (or face limited) resources at home (lentz et al., 2012; servon & nelson, 2001). like public libraries, some of these centres remain open after school hours and on the weekends in order for students and parents to complete and continue their school and homework tasks that require online submissions or specialised computer software. in fact, low-income parents and other adults go to such sites mostly or exclusively for their internet connectivity and computer use, even if the access is slow and the technology old (dixon et al., 2014; strover et al., 2015). ctcs are especially valuable due to their fostering of techno-capital, a form of cultural capital that is related to the knowledge of, and access to, technology, especially in a way that is personally useful (straubhaar et al., 2012; lu & straubhaar, 2014, mcconnell, 2014). techno-capital is usually achieved through general and short-term classes about how the internet operates, how computers work, online storage opportunities, open-source or other software, and e-mail (straubhaar et al., 2012). those who complete these ict courses, typically adults, have reported a better understanding of word-processing programs, e-mail, or search engines (dúran, dúran, perry-romero & sanchez, 2001; machado-casa, sánchez & ek, 2014; rivera, 2008). their success is partly due to the leaders of ctcs listening to the needs of the communities they serve (rivera, 2008). at least in the case of digitally excluded latinos, as in the case in our research, ctcs recognise the linguistic barriers and family dynamics that hinder a successful integration of icts at home. ctcs in latino neighbourhoods offer ict classes in spanish (whether partially or entirely if the instructor is bilingual) and often provide services like childcare during classes. !186 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the learning environment of the learners in ctcs presents challenges to what technocapital can be developed. not all centres have desktop computers, and teaching occurs through laptops or tablets, which means the learning is usually restricted to one device not across devices. instructors might not be bilingual, placing non-english speakers at a disadvantage if lesson delivery is in english. the location of ctcs might not be within walking distance, adding an extra expense for commuters who take public transportation. not all those participating in classes are beginners, therefore making introductory classes irrelevant to them. parent-students might not have a media broker at home (katz, 2010), because they live alone, or children are not of age to help them navigate icts. classes may only be offered on a morning or evening basis, which means people with typical working hours have difficulty attending morning classes. river city youth foundation, where the ¡techcomunidad! took place, defines itself as a ‘youth and technology center’ with seven core areas including ‘community development’ and ‘college and career’ (rcyf, n.d.). the ¡techcomunidad! program targets parents instead of youth and offers two sessions, in the morning (10 a.m. to noon) and the evening (6 p.m. to 8 p.m.). parents who attend the evening class may bring their children, who are integrated into other programs of the organisation. students are granted a google chromebook upon graduating the training, which has been offered as a sixor eight-week class depending on availability of instructors and holidays in the calendar. theoretical framework and research questions structural factors have often been found to explain the digital divide, because ethnic, gender, and income groups are seen as either ‘haves’ or ‘have nots’ regarding the access to broadband and mobile internet in addition to owning computers and smartphones (lopez, gonzalez-barrera & patten, 2013; strover et al., 2015; tsei & rains, 2017). it seems to some that closing the gap is as simple as having internet access and ownership of digital devices, since so many policy programs still focus on access, yet the picture is more complex than this. culture and social networks are also key in determining who adopts and uses the internet and what significance is placed on icts (lu & straubhaar, 2012; straubhaar et al., 2012). having friends who can help with troubleshooting devices or translating websites and growing up in households that recognise the benefits of computers in social mobility and creativity are some examples where relationships and culture shape people thinking and attitudes toward icts. recently, bourdieu’s (1984) capital framework has been useful in explaining many aspects of the relationship between culture and technology. among the capitals are social (i.e., such as networks of friends to learn from), economic (e.g., wealth to buy connectivity and devices), and cultural (e.g., taste, knowledge of how to use computers and the internet); each is separate but can be converted to another. theoretically, this article focuses on two extrapolations from bourdieu’s concept of the capitals (1984). we build on some work that expands on his ideas of disposition and cultural capital. disposition is a set of attitudes and orientations that we learn initially from our parents, from those in our neighbourhood, from peers, school, etc. cultural !187 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 capital is the useful skills, ideas and knowledge we learn first from our parents and then schools, peers, work, etc. that we have extrapolated into an idea of technology specific capital or techno-capital, that we learn from those same sources. disposition interacts closely with capital. if our parents, peers and neighbours do not seem to think something is important, then we are probably less interested in learning it (bourdieu, 1984). we are building on work that extrapolates disposition into techno-disposition (rojas et al., 2004 ), the orientation we develop about whether technology access and skills are important to us. the development of a techno-disposition is not a given in working class latino communities, where children may not know many adults working with technology (rojas et al., 2012). our interest was in the lessons provided to parent-students through ¡techcomunidad! so they were able to grasp what is important for them to know about the internet and computers in the cultural context of the neighbourhood. we also looked at the extrapolation of cultural capital into technological capital, or techno-capital, to see what techno-capital seemed most relevant and useful to these parents. we looked closely at the curriculum strategy for imparting both an increased techno-disposition as well as focusing on what is perceived to be the most important general capital (like the importance of education for their children) and the techno-capital that is most relevant to parents trying to help their children in both general and technological education (such as learning how to communicate with teachers via email and how to use the schools district’s website for monitoring their children’s progress in school). eventually, we continued the scholarly work on techno-capital and techno-dispositions by conceptualising further what ict orientations ctcs prioritise in teaching parents residing in a homogeneous ethnic neighbourhood. as such, we addressed the following research questions: rq1: how does ¡techcomunidad!, as part of a ctc, incorporate learning about icts and education into its curricula? rq2: what is the impact of focusing on parents as well as youth in the overall ¡techcomunidad! program? methods this study took the case study as a method (yin, 1989) with an ethnographic approach to offline participant observation. this study was part of a research project on the community computer-training program of ¡techcomunidad! that spanned several years (2012-2016). the lead author conducted extensive ethnographies, including working first as a volunteer, and then as doctoral researcher, and later on as a teacher and administrator in the program. during the latter period, the organisation was aware that the researcher, who was a graduate student at the university of texas at austin, was conducting observations for research purposes. this role of being an instructor allowed the researcher, who speaks english and spanish, to collect fieldnotes and conduct informal interviews during that period. this is to say that the relationship and rapport of the researcher with the organisation and community was built over time and with care. !188 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 we used other qualitative data about the organisation. some data came from the participant observations and interviews conducted by undergrad students who were taking a course on technology and culture, offered by one of the authors, in east austin. we also analysed the lesson plans of ¡techcomunidad!, hard copies of which (both in english and spanish) were given to parent-students in a binder. one class assignment was included in the analyses too. it was a written assignment that parents turned in for extra credit and involved them interviewing another parent-student in ¡techcomunidad!. our data sources are discussed in more detail below. yin (1989) presents participant observation as a major strategy in developing case studies. case studies are of most benefit when the researcher takes active roles in their research instead of being a passive observer. among the advantages of this technique are: gaining access to events or groups that are otherwise inaccessible to scientific investigation; the ability to perceive reality from the viewpoint of someone ‘inside’ the case study rather than external to it; and the other opportunities for data collection that arise as the investigator has the ability to manipulate events or situations. the lead author of this study took such a role in this study. first working as a volunteer and assisting with the teachings of the non-profit organisation in 2012 and 2013 and later as the lead instructor in 2015 and 2016, while also being the person in charge of selecting parent-students and conducting community outreach occasionally in 2016. this study had approval from the institutional review board (irb) from the university of texas at austin, where this research was conducted. participants’ privacy was ensured through the use of pseudonyms. the directors of the non-profit organisation rcyf provided written consent for the disclosure of their own names as well as the organisation’s name in this article. data sources and data analysis curriculum analysis the curriculum of ¡techcomunidad! can unfold within six or eight weeks. regardless of its overall length, there are four sets broken into subsets of lessons, which muselguilley prepared. although instructors are generally not allowed to change the 4 curriculum, the first author had some freedom during her time as lead instructor to add examples for clarification purposes. it is important to say that we did not analyse the curriculum of all years since ¡techcomunidad! started. rather we analysed the curriculum that started in 2014, when the organisation integrated chromebooks and cloud computing into its training (figure 1). briefly, the lessons had ict terminologies and step-by-step instructions, followed by assignments related to the content taught. lesson set 1 was about using email for education purposes. the lessons taught parents basic terms (e.g., email sender, inbox and sent email, compose button), and how to set up a gmail account using a chromebook. lesson set 2 (2.1, 2.2, 2.3) was about the internet and its benefits, including a brief history of the internet and basic terminology (e.g., url, search engine, domain, bookmark, scroll bar, cloud computing and types of the director and founder of the program ¡techcomunidad! has extensive experience in leading educational 4 programs across the united states of america, working as a consultant. !189 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 websites). lesson set 3 taught parents how to monitor their children’s grades online. and finally, lesson set 4 (4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4) was dedicated to google apps (e.g., how to use google calendar, google drive, google docs, video and image searching, google play store, app launcher, terms such as ‘chromie’). we conducted a thematic analysis of the curriculum, looking for a logical order in the lessons (figure 1). our analysis was guided by how the organisation incorporated education into its computer training, in response to community need. extra-credit project stories more data came from typed assignments that ¡techcomunidad! parents turned in close to the end of the course. the assignment helped participants gain extra credit or to make-up a mandatory course requirement (e.g., attendance). as an incentive for completing the project, parents were automatically entered in a special draw at their graduation ceremony. the instructions generally read: ‘you will need to use your chromebook and the organisation’s computer lab to complete the project.’ muselguilley, the founder and manager of ¡techcomunidad!, came up with these assignments and its steps. parents had two options for their extra-credit project. option one was to attend a youth class, write an article (blog) in google docs about what the class was working on, and email the story to the organisation manager. parents were told that their article could be used on the organisation and on the program websites. the document must contain the following: ‘your name as the author, 3 photos you take of the class in action, a summary of the project students are working on, an article that is 400 or more words long.’ option two was to ‘write an article (blog) in google docs about the journey of one of your ¡techcomunidad! classmates as they have completed the course. you will need to set up a time to interview your classmate outside of class. you may use the organization computer lab to conduct your assignment. email the story to the organisation manager. !190 figure 1. steps and lessons encompassing techcomunidad. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the article document must contain the following: “your name as the author, 1 photo you take of your classmate in the rcyf’s computer lab, a summary of what your classmate has learned in the class and what their plans are for using their new 
 knowledge and in moving forward with their new chromebook, an article that is 400 or more words long.”’ 
 we only used the second option in this article, because it dealt with the topic of digital inclusion directly and was from the perspective of the parents. we included their stories as a means of supporting what techno-dispositions were learnt through quotes and experiences. the parents’ names were changed to project their identities. our case study: the digital inclusion program ¡techcomunidad! ¡techcomunidad! came to be in the fall of 2012 as a response to the lack of awareness among low-income parents about technology, education, the city economy, and the work force. the aim of the program was to enable parents to: 1. guide their children’s education from pre-k to college and career 2. improve the quality of life for their family 3. improve the community around them. the computer training did not stop in supplying parent-students the skills and knowledge about handling icts, but it also granted them a (chromebook) device after completing classes. in so doing, ¡techcomunidad! tried to address the first and second digital divides. the creator of ¡techcomunidad! did not want to create a digital inclusion program without a device giveaway. the program starts with a kick-off oneday event, in which very big white tents are installed at the organisation site. the creator of ¡techcomunidad! called this one-day event ‘mobilization day.’ the families were selected ahead of time and they need to have an event packet with an invitation ticket in order to participate in this event. the parents were required to take their children, if they are a ‘mother’ or ‘father’, and their spouses to this event. (grandparents with charge of children were also included.) the event was a strategy to inspire and engage the families with technology. spanishand english-speaking parents were organised into different groups to facilitate the training with bilingual instructors. parents had to undertake two activities: (a) an email scavenger hunt, and (b) to create a visual mural with collages responding the question, ‘how do you want to guide your children’s education?’ the organisation aimed to have about 100 families on site during its one-day event. parents and children were split into different groups, and each cluster was further divided by age. the participants were exposed to basic computer tasks such as emailing and using search engines, and they also had to create a visual board, expressing their goals to improve their families. !191 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 after this event, attendees were surveyed via telephone to see the best time and shifts for sessions. once the schedule was made by the organisation, the classes began. parents could partake of this program by either coming to sessions in the morning or in the evenings for four hours divided into two lessons each week. these sessions lasted about six weeks or eight weeks, as the time frame was contingent on many factors such as weather, holidays, and the learning curve. musel-guilley, the founder of ¡techcomunidad! believes the program creates bonding. she says, ‘this program is very special, because there is a bond. we make it feel safe for parents. when they go to take other computer classes, they feel it is not the same.’ besides providing tailored content, the organisation provides food (dinner for the evening shift, and light breakfast for morning shift) for parents and their children who attend classes and childcare, so stay-at-home mothers are more likely to enrol in the program (fieldnotes, 15 september 2015). through ¡techcomunidad!, musel-guilley intended to achieve at least two simple technology abilities: (a) for parents to have complete mastery of email, and (b) for them to know how to use search engines. besides computer and internet skills, ¡techcomunidad! had a larger goal of educating parents about helping their children have better prospects for work and social inclusion through technology. in this sense, the program is consistent with community informatics goals: to focus on community needs first and foremost, and to integrate technology training and use to focus on those community needs (gurstein, 1999). throughout the program, she made sure the instructors asked parents to bookmark weblinks that could help parents with their children. in a personal communication, musel-guilley explained how in 2007 she was an integral part of an innovative learning fair hosted by austin independent school district (austin isd). they had never had an event that targeted spanish-speaking parents. their focus was to link organisations and non-profits with the parents so they would be better able to guide their children from pre-kindergarten to college. she thought it was important because growing up, she believed that the more parental involvement there was, the more likely the student would succeed. she felt that any program that only focused on the youth would be missing out on the parents. musel-guilley always had a passion for technology, and in traveling across many large cities in the united states of america with a version of the learning fair, she could see that the program was going to change families and their lives, but many of the parents could not grasp technology. musel-guilley learnt that although they had put a lot of energy into such events, with numerous entities trained on how to target/market spanish-speaking families, the events lacked two essential elements: families needed technology access and information, and training about how to use computers and the internet. musel-guilley realised then the organisation needed to educate parents about technology. it was important for her to target those families that do not know how to turn on a computer. she felt strongly about building children’s education for increased skills. a local texan tech and computer manufacturing company gave the organisation !192 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the opportunity to work with them because they saw that ¡techcomunidad! would be different and innovative, and it would also create a partnership. selection criteria for ¡techcomunidad! to participate in the program, parents needed to be selected and approved through a two-step process: the completion of an application and a face-to-face interview. the criteria for selection included being a resident in a specific zip code and being a parent of children between the ages of five and 17. there was an exception for grandparents who lived together with their grandchildren and were their caregivers. they could not have a computer at home. however, the majority of the parents had smartphones and used the internet on their mobile devices. most of the parents had e-mail and facebook on their smartphones, although several did not remember their passwords and were unable to access their emails on computers. this group of parents was very mobile phone-oriented. for example, throughout the classes, several parents said they had never seen a facebook page on a computer. at the end of the training, parents had to take a final exam, indicating that they had mastery over basic technology skills, which included using an online search engine, using an email account, and using the cloud to store files. the parents were required to attend a graduation ceremony where they were given a computing device with internet access capability. in the past years, it was a tablet, and since 2014, it has been a samsung chromebook – a computer based on an operating system by google that works only with internet connection and is based on the concept of cloud computing. findings to respond to the question: how is education and technology integrated into the program, we organised our findings of the curriculum of ¡techcomunidad! into three large categories: (a) basic internet skills, (b) monitoring skills, and (c) device skills (see figure 1). before discussing these, it is crucial we start with the sessions before the formal classes. parents were part of an orientation and a motivational talk, where musel-guilley, the founder of the program, delivered in english, and instructors translated it into spanish simultaneously. the orientation class was about informing parents of the attendance rules and the logistics of the program, such as childcare and youth classes for their k-12 children (fieldnotes, 11 november 2015). ¡techcomunidad! in the evenings also provided educational activities for the participants’ children. those who achieved perfect attendance were told that they would enter a raffle with the chance to win a laptop given by the local texan tech company. it was during the orientation session that parents were surveyed about their tech knowledge and skills, so ¡techcomunidad! could be organised into group levels. participants were asked if they had an email account, if they used it, if they had a computer at home, which social media websites they used, if they currently used the internet, if they had smartphones with data plans, and if they had the internet at home. !193 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the motivational talk, we argue, was responsible for initially setting-up the technodisposition for this group of parent-students that was contextually grounded in the city of austin, texas, and the state itself. in this session, musel-guilley asked the parents (mostly mothers) if they knew how many universities were in texas, and what it took to become a student in them. she went on to explain that only the top 7% of high school students would make it, to which she added: ‘how are you going to help them? they will need your help!’ (fieldnotes, 18 november 2015). she also talked about how austin is ‘an epicentre of technology’ or ‘a technology hub’ by providing and showing examples on a projector of austin start-up companies (e.g., monster project). musel-guilley challenged the parents in the room by saying that they should not ask their daughters or sons for help. in the same occasion, she said: ‘we don’t want you to go to them to ask for help’ after asking: ‘how many of you can help your children to get into the university system?’ (fieldnotes, 18 november 2015). musel-guilley also showed compelling examples of tech job offers in austin by showing a number of news articles, explaining that ‘less than 2% of all texas high school students are taking a computer science [class]’ and thus there is a high demand from tech companies for a qualified workforce. in order to show the impact, she also talked about how much the participants’ children could earn if they choose a tech career: ‘they could earn $57 per hour or $117,000 per year.’ (fieldnotes, 18 november 2015). ¡techcomunidad!’s founder also emphasised the content as she said, ‘we will cover sophisticated subjects, we have to because of the device we’ll give to you.’ she introduced the concept of cloud computing and explained how the cloud is a place that is online, an invisible network that enables computers to talk to each other. throughout her talk, she made statements such as ‘we want you to have the latest device’ or ‘technology makes austin special’ (fieldnotes, 18 november 2015). on top of offering a context, musel-guilley also went over the differences among tablets, laptops and smartphones. she showed the participants the three devices and went over what can be done with them. she also covered the advantages of a computer and software not available through chromebooks. this compact session served its purpose of motivating parents, and above all, instilled the significance of techno-capital in their lives as low-income and low-education parents with children who have the opportunity of attending higher education. learning basic internet skills ¡techcomunidad! deliberately targeted the 8% of austinites who appeared to have little-to-no skills with icts and no access to broadband internet at home (strover et al., 2015). in fact, the screening interviews to get into the program tried to screen out those who already had access, or knew quite a bit already, in order to concentrate on the most needy. to help address this lack, early in the program, parents created an e-mail account with google, learnt to change the language setting of google chrome to spanish, and acquired the vocabulary to differentiate between browsers and search engines, as well as !194 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 learning to use key websites, like the school district website that allowed parents to monitor their children’s attendance and grades. this activity brought an enthusiastic response from the parents, who often did not know how their children were doing in school. essentially, ¡techcomunidad! sought to equip parents with basic internet skills. one student, in her extra-credit assignment, remarked that her interviewee was able to reconnect with family members thanks to her ability to use e-mail. another noted: one other thing that maria learned was how to search for a doctor, dentist, etc. for her children…google searches for places nearby and also gives her additional information like what language the doctor use…’ these basic internet skills, while pedestrian for most millennials and younger cohorts, can engender techno-dispositions and techno-capital that enhance, motivate, and create awareness about icts and quality of life as it relates to communication, health, business, and education for spanish-dominant latinos who find themselves in the digital divide. developing the skill sets in the areas mentioned above and technologies, as most participants put it on their typed essays, have become knowledge necessities. not so much for catching-up with the technological arena of the 21st century but for its cultural capital value. that is, being able to take classes about handling computers and the internet can open up the possibilities for latino participants to widen their cultural capital, such as learning and improving their english competence through apps and open-source computer software. on one essay entry, a participant wrote: she plans now, thanks to the knowledge that she acquired, to have a better job so she can use what she learned and to have a better quality of life for her family and be a better person in the community. from now on, she will continue using the programs to better her english, because her dream is to be bilingual. eventually, the techno-disposition being created through basic internet skills was one that transformed techno-capital into other types of cultural capital. for instance, after the training, mothers frequently went home and persuade their husbands to invest in an internet connection, so that their children could do their homework better and more easily. interviews with librarians over several years at the library near the non-profit organisation showed that many children and youth went to that library to do their homework. this was because their parents did not have internet connectivity or a computer at home. monitoring skills through icts as ¡techcomunidad! advanced, so did the harbouring of internet skills. one clear goal of ¡techcomunidad! was to help develop the care about and desire for the educational advancement of the participants’ children. creating an e-mail account was the first step !195 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 for parents to be able to contact their children’s teachers and to sign-up for the parentcloud system of austin isd. the next step was to familiarise parents with its website and set-up the account by linking their e-mail to it. now, parents were able to get updates about their children in regard to conduct, absences, grades, and any deadlines the school had for the submission of forms or registration. having an e-mail that was easy to access meant that parents could communicate with teachers from home. it saved them time. one parent-student noted from her interview with, and essay about, another: maria, like me, had never used a computer before. she didn’t know how to turn it on or off, and even less, how to navigate the internet (…). now, maria can be up-to-date about the grades of her children with only click. before, maria had to go the school and ask them for their grades, or wait until it was time for teachers to send the grades home (…). she can send an e-mail to communicate with teachers without interrupting classes. time-saving practices involving children, as well as not feeling guilty for interrupting teachers, suggest education-oriented techno-capital is valued by the parents, nearly all mothers. while this kind of monitoring of schooling is very valuable in the overall social mobility of the families (bertaux & bertaux-wiame, 1997), it does show that these concerns are gendered alongside motherhood lines. the advantages of icts in their children’s education did not stop after parents learnt to use e-mail or access websites like the school district parent cloud. later in the course, parents learnt about storing and organising photos, creating text documents in google drive, using google calendar, and downloading free educational video games through the chrome or play store. parents came to understand these as ‘new sites of learning’ through google online products. helping their children now became an interactive activity that involved the search for and use of multiple resources with more steps (like cutting, pasting, storing, linking) to complete a homework assignment. through ¡techcomunidad!, parents learnt ‘how to find free programs to help me create all types of documents, letters, flyers, posters and pamphlets.’ google calendar was also seen as ‘practical, because you can add events, conferences, and homework because you can add the hour, date, and place for each school event in order to stay update with your children.’ on their essays, parents frequently wrote about both their and other parents’ increased confidence in helping their children become ‘good students’ who will essentially go to college, as a result of the ¡techcomunidad! course. parents tended to gain a good sense of how to guide the schooling of their children and their own know-how, or technocapital, of digital techniques (like e-mail and taking advantage of google drive) to feel competent, proud, and assertive. in an interview with one woman before she took the class, she said she felt like she was ‘the only dumb one’ at home, since her husband at least knew how to use the internet on a mobile phone, and her children were already digitally literate from school. ¡techcomunidad! enabled her to feel more knowledgeable and confident with technology. the techno-disposition created here was one that married personal and technological fulfillment with a parental desire for upward social mobility to feel active !196 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 in helping their children’s educational attainment. when it comes to shaping technocapital, this techno-disposition does so by instilling the idea that parental self-esteem as well as knowledge is significant in matters involving the participants’ children, icts, and education. device skills (how to operate their chromebook) the parents were trained on google chromebooks in part because google was one of the major sponsors of the program. the organisation cooperated with google in helping promote sign-ups for google fiber , a fibre-optic internet and television service, in the 5 neighbourhood, for which they received free connectivity for the organisation. the parents were also promised a chromebook to take home if they graduated. interviews, during the selection process, showed that the promise of earning a computer was a major motivating factor for some people to complete the course. our results show that the organisation created a positive techno-disposition among the parents by delivering information about the latest technological concepts such as cloud computing. the chromebook device, which the participants started using in lesson 1, had the parentstudents’ own names labelled on them. however, they were told that we would be given the device only by the end of the training after attending the classes (they were allowed to miss only two classes) and passing an exam. prior to that, parents had to return their chromebooks after each class. before the launch of ¡techcomunidad!, the organisation had had its own computer lab filled with local texan tech company desktop computers as well as laptop computers. however, the directors of the organisation felt that learning on ‘their own’ computer would help motivate the participants. this choice seems to have been a good approach according to our qualitative data. right from the start of ¡techcomunidad!, parents knew they were using the latest device, which required covering ‘sophisticated subjects’. this section of the training encompassed learning about google products that could be used on the chromebook such as google docs, google drive, and google calendar. one parent noted on her written assignment: as they taught me, with a chrome i can use my applications without having to use a hard disk because google has created a new program to store in the air and it is safer and without risks of losing the information its name is called (the cloud). parents also learnt how to operate the camera in the chromebook and how to take snapshots. given the strong emphasis in learning about google products and software, some parents began to call themselves ‘chromies’ which the instructor introduced in the class during the teaching of lesson 4.4. such individual is defined in the handout ‘a google enthusiast who owns a chromebook and who operates their daily life and business with google apps and a chromebook device’. one of the parents when writing her extra-credit project wrote: see more at https://fiber.google.com/intl/es/cities/austin/ 5 !197 https://fiber.google.com/intl/es/cities/austin/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 we are pleased with the achievements of valuable and enterprising women in our hispanic community. thanks to ¡techcomunidad!, we will not lose the focus of taking advantage of all the resources available to us, we will be able to become chromies. there is also an empowering effect of using the latest device in the way the participants understand how ¡techcomunidad! impacted their lives and their use of technology. besides highlighting several good takeaways of the training, one parent wrote about what her colleague had said about ¡techcomunidad!: thanks to this course you can say that you have changed your life in a drastic way by the simple fact of having learned to use a google-chrome computer. this comment, and specially the use of the term ‘simple facts’, illustrates how these parents may feel better empowered in a technopolis by being able to use cutting-edge technologies. discussion it has been postulated that the relationship between techno-capital and technodispositions is a complex one (lee & chen, 2016; lu & straubhaar, 2014; straubhaar et al., 2012), and we also find that the associations among techno-dispositions is equally intricate and relational. three techno-dispositions were discussed and conceptualised in regard to ¡techcomunidad! and its digital inclusion efforts with these latino/a parents, analysed in this study (see figure 1). first, technology was useful and relevant tool for all the parents and children (basic skills). second, technology could help parents track and help their children’s performance (monitoring skills). and third, parents realised that they could understand and use technology, that they did not have to be ‘dumb’ while everyone was smart about it (device skills). while there might be a starting point in teaching computer skills and orientations, techno-dispositions are not necessarily linear or chronological. most parents admitted that their handling of computers/ smartphones was not the best in taking full advantage of the websites/applications they accessed. it was the decision of the community technology centre to first harness basic internet skills coupled with talks about the benefits of these skills to parents. then, parents were given their google chromebook to practice on, learn from, and experiment with applications, websites, and services that could be crucial in the educational attainment of their children. digital education was therefore complimentary and simultaneous, as illustrated in figure 1. so, as parents learnt about the parent cloud system, they also learnt about how to access it on their computer, enhancing both an awareness of services that were important to them and the device itself. it is thus hard to pinpoint and delineate a proper progression of techno-dispositions, for these are highly inter-dependent. in order to highlight a few ideas, this discussion will be organised into four subsections. goals and aspirations ¡techcomunidad! has laid out its goals since its orientation. it was imperative for the class to help parents with the education of their children using and handling icts. our analysis of the lesson plans of ¡techcomunidad!, in addition to what parents wrote about their fellow students, strongly suggests that this objective was successfully met. !198 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 thanks to ¡techcomunidad!, parents were not only able to develop the techno-capital and techno-dispositions to guide their children scholastically but themselves too. many expressed in their essays a desire to learn english, to continue with their education, or the possibility of advancing at work. through these aspirations, and in some occasions actual achievements, ¡techcomunidad! fulfilled its second goal – to improve the quality of life for parents and their families. having a curriculum that prioritises education, while culturally significant in fostering social mobility, may possibly restrict the technodispositions of parents. we see it as possibly limiting, because overcoming the digital divide is a matter of expanding techno-capital to a variety of digital skills including creative uses of the internet and computers. also, unlike other digital inclusion programs involving parents (e.g., machado-casa, sánchez & ek, 2014), ¡techcomunidad! lacked parent-and-child together lessons, which could have been useful in identifying children’s needs from their perspective. the classes could thus run the risk of becoming a strict top-down educator, making it difficult to consider community needs outside the ones previously laid out. the organisation offers a number of classes, after-school programs and summer camps with youth, including a very substantial focus on helping them think through and set personal and career goals. afterwards, they link those goals to the education required to reach them. adoption of language the results from this study suggest that the acquisition of techno-capital and technodisposition is also fostered through the teaching and adoption of a language that denotes a sense of belonging to a community of chromebook users and google products. the self-presentation of themselves as chromies show that some of these parents incorporated slang terms that have been created around a specific device, a specific technology, which gives them a sense of pride, as they were said they were learning ‘sophisticated technology.’ in fact, chromies is part of a larger phenomenon called by usa education leaders as the googlification of education. although the research about this effect is still scant, according to the new york times, chromebooks account for more than half of all devices shipped to usa’s k-12 schools (singer, 2017). that represents huge growth for google and some decline for apple as the computer that children learn from at school. like the participants from ¡techcomunidad!, more than 30 million students – more than half of all those in the usa – use free google apps, such as docs or gmail, in the classroom. the debate around this phenomenon has to do with the goals of the company behind the donation of chromebooks to schools, or in the case of this article, to digital inclusion programs. is it to get more people hooked on its products and services earlier in life? this has led to the questioning of chromebook usage in classrooms around the united states of america. some have looked at it with scepticism and caution (singer, 2017). while some of the ¡techcomunidad! participants may feel a sense of pride and belonging in being chromies, drawing on the debate around googlification, we argue that in order to expand techno-dispositions, programs like ¡techcomunidad! should include a lesson about other technologies. in the orientation session, however, the participants are briefly told that there are advantages of having a computer, other than a !199 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 chromebook, that allows the user to have a broader range of software (fieldnotes, 16 february 2016). connectivity to a larger community one particular problem with chromebooks that emerged after the training was that many graduates of the program still did not have internet access at home. since the chromebook is almost entirely dependent on accessing online software to let the user get access to both programs and data, it is not very useful without connectivity. in fact, follow-up interviews by the lead researcher with past participants after the program showed that a number of the chromebooks were sitting in a closet, for lack of broadband at home. many of the women felt they had learnt quite a bit, but they were back to using smartphones as their main device instead of computers. that tendency was reinforced by social capital, since many of their friends primarily used smartphones, and it was easy to fall back into the larger habitus (bourdieu, 1984) or pattern of the people they associated with in the neighbourhood. while these parents gain techno-dispositions, they may face what gonzales (2016) argues is a shift in the usa digital divide from issues of ownership to issues of sustainability. these parents were granted a device that operates only with internet, but they might struggle to maintain stable access to home broadband internet. along these lines, perhaps what is missing here is an investment in technology maintenance practices, ensuring that these parents can have sustainable access to the internet and technology. despite the limitations of the chromebook, a googlified curriculum, and the difficulties of technology maintenance problems, the participants of this program benefited in acquiring techno-dispositions from the context-bound training, in learning how to navigate the parent cloud, to check their children’s grades online, how to access informational websites in their native language such as the univisión website and the new york times website in spanish. one of the factors that influences technodispositions is geographic location (straubhaar et al., 2012). the neighbourhood where the organisation is located is, in some ways, a classic example of an ethnic enclave. in fact, some women, particularly those less educated housewives, interviewed early in the project, were afraid to drive out into the rest of the city, because they were not familiar with it and because many people outside did not speak spanish. one benefit of the program was to help them feel more a part of the larger city, particularly the school system, through use of the austin isd parent cloud website . 6 teaching challenges one of the biggest challenges for teaching the program participants was explaining the difference between a browser (e.g., google chrome, safari, and firefox) and a search engine (e.g., google, bing, and yahoo). this difficulty was related primarily to the similarity of names, since the only browser participants had on their devices was google chrome, and the search engine most used was google. being confused about the two could also be explained by the fact that most of the participants were mobile see here: https://www.austinisd.org/technology/parents-guardians/cloud 6 !200 https://www.austinisd.org/technology/parents-guardians/cloud the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 phone users, therefore not used to going online via a browser. the curriculum did not include an extensive explanation of the difference between the internet and the web. furthermore, this learning difficulty could have arisen due to the generational gap among ¡techcomunidad! participants, because older parents or grandparents needed more time and repetition to learn than younger parents. it also did not help that many of these older parents or caregivers were not smartphone owners. eight weeks of computer course (with cloud computing concepts) was possibly not enough for the older participants to grasp certain concepts such as search engines and browsers. finally, some trends in our work merit closer attention. first, there is a possibility for gendered techno-dispositions to ensue from community classes about computers and the internet. past research found that men do not only outnumber women users in public libraries, but men associate these spaces with technology while women expressed ‘library nostalgia’ that did not include technology, and were likely to be technophobic, especially older women (dixon et al., 2014). the parent-students in ¡techcomunidad! were not only predominantly (latina) women, but they also seemed to value the class for helping them be better connected, widening their communication venues, and be able to perform nuanced research online. secondly, one of the future goals of ¡techcomunidad! is to transform some of those parents or mothers into active community/technology mentors, in order to reach more easily those 8% of adults who do not use the internet in the technopolis studied in this article. this, if achieved, would be another level of digital literacy effort, with a bottom-up and cultural approach. several parents expressed an interest in participating on their intake forms used during the selection process for ¡techcomunidad!. these mentors would be further incentivised and rewarded with a stipend by the organisation. we are left wondering how this will be achieved, and more so, how icts will be involved. future research should consider studying how parents (mostly mothers) transition from graduates to technology instructors and mentors for other community members, and the strategies that ctcs use in producing them. conclusions this article has two particularly important sets of conclusions that may have implications to policymakers and curriculum creators of digital inclusion programs, such as ¡techcomunidad!. based on the material covered in ¡techcomunidad!, the computer took centre stage as opposed to icts that parents already knew and perhaps were more comfortable in using. for digital inclusion curriculum creators, it might be worth thinking about how to integrate the technology that the parents already have, usually basic smartphones with some kind of minimal connectivity, into the training so the parents also become more proficient with the technologies that they are already using the most. in a parallel program in the same city, one of the authors observed that older learners bring in their smartphones to training and put them down next to the computer, hoping to leverage what they already know on the smartphone to what they are trying to learn on the computer. it is worth highlighting again that technology education for the parents is undertaken in the context of a technopolis. parents are being encouraged to learn about technology !201 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 primarily so that they could help their own children in school. this was done after a careful assessment by the program founder that technology education for children and youth was not enough without including their parents. the organisation decided to focus on the techno-disposition of both youth and parents to learn technology for a specific, practical reason: to improve their ability to do well in school or workforce training, and to learn technology skills that would enhance that. and finally, the other set of conclusions concern the critical importance of educating working class usa latino/a parents in two different kinds of material. first, it is the importance of helping them understand the changing nature of the job market in the usa, particularly in technology-oriented cities like the one in which they live. related is helping them understand the importance of completing high school, specialised skill education, or college education for their children. the program examined here literally starts the parents’ education with two full days on these topics, setting an agenda or working to increase the parents’ dispositions and cultural capital toward seeing these issues as important. acknowledgments the authors of this article are thankful for the river city youth foundation, where this study was carried out. we also acknowledge the participants of techcomunidad. the first author also thanks the portuguese funding agency fct (fundação para a ciência e tecnologia), as during the initial phases of this project, she had a doctoral scholarship under the grant sfrh/bd/51304/2010. !202 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 references river city youth foundation. 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(1989). case study research: design and methods, revised edition. applied social research methods series, v5. thousand oaks, california: sage publications. !205 howard ready pdf the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles social movement theory and the italian radical community archives: a question of valence? the theory and practice of the radical community, and a capacity for self-organisation, demonstrates the ability to control the symbols and language of society, to define new conventions of meaning, and to offer alternative reasons and explanations for action. however, the predominant sociological account of italian social movements of the 1960s and 1970s censures potentially relevant discursive practices of the radical community. this is evidenced by the lack of diversity amongst the epistemic sources of anglo american social movement theory (smt). the assumptions in play in disciplinary thought disqualify the practice and theory of radical social movements as a credible mode of analysis of the social and political condition. ultimately, this discounts the radical subject as knowledge producer. by reflecting on my personal experience of conducting doctoral research at three key community archives in italy i contemplate an alternative approach, which considers the valence of these radical communities as essentially epistemological and not simply ‘political’, or social. !3 mark howard teaching and research associate, school of philosophical, historical and international studies, monash university, australia corresponding author. mark.howard@monash.edu howard, m. (2019). social movement theory and the italian radical community archives: a question of valence?. the journal of community informatics, 15, 19-xx. date submitted: 2018-03-31. date accepted: 2018-10-31. 
 copyright (c), 2019 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1414 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1414 mailto:mark.howard@monash.edu http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1414 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction i travelled to italy in 2011 to conduct doctoral research at three key radical community archives: the archives of primo moroni (apm) hosted by the cox 18 social center in milan; the workers’ archives of augusto finzi (aaf) managed by the marghera public library; and the centre of documentation in pistoia (cdp). prior to these archival visits, my inquiry into the nexus of the radical community and politics in italy for the period 1968-78 had primarily leveraged the theory and epistemic systems of angloamerican social movement theory (smt). consequently, the latter informed my habits of attention, with a modernist vision of the intersection of the political institution and social conflict guiding my choice of research subjects and materials. i deferred to the epistemic evaluations of leading figures in this field, such as donatella della porta and sidney tarrow, whose combined vision of a contemporary “movement society” describes a strategy-oriented radical community whose activism is centered on political strategy. 1 one afternoon, after finishing my research at the apm, i took time to thumb through some counter-cultural magazines in the cox 18 bookshop. during this time the musings of jacques rancière (1989) in the nights of labour came to mind: “is it possible that the quest for the true word compels us to shush so many people? what exactly is the meaning of this evasion (...)?” that moment would alter the trajectory of my research. subsequently, my interest in the disciplinary approach of sociology to the discursive work of the radical political subject and the holdings of radical community archives has been informed by my personal experiences of conducting research at the aforementioned archives and my ensuing intellectual engagement with italian radical theory. this is my attempt to redress the disciplinary prejudice i became aware of while encountering the social documents of the italian radical community. i argue that the predominant sociological study of italian social movements of the 1960s and 1970s involves a willful exclusion of potentially relevant theoretical practices such as those of radical political subject in the analysis of the nexus of the radical community and politics. this censure is evidenced by the lack of diversity amongst the sources of justification, knowledge, and evidence — epistemic sources – of smt. vitally, i assert, the choice of materials and subjects (habits of attention) is founded on presumptions of testimonial credibility assigned on the basis of the sociological identity that smt affords the radical political subject. coupled with academic positivism and a reductionist approach to the epistemology of testimony, disciplinary thought treats the discursive work of radical social movements (rsms) (speech acts and written communication that develop and articulate ideas of the radical actor) as the material of the theorist, an objectification that abstracts the social documents from their context and prejudices the response of smt to the archival work of the italian radical community. see, for example: sidney tarrow, democracy and disorder: protest and politics in italy, 1965-1975, 1 new york, oxford university press, 1989. !4 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the radical community, discursive work and epistemic agency when we put ourselves in contact with a mass movement, in reality we are opening a relationship with organisms which are already politically mature. so this completely changes the vision which makes the political elite an active subject and the mass movement a passive subject: the political elite, a kind of stratum endowed with knowledge and, instead, the mass movement, a stratum endowed only with wishes, with desires, with tensions and so on. (bologna 1995) before my archival visits in italy in 2011, i had drawn my research materials almost exclusively from the smt store of documents. vitally, the smt habit of attention is guided by a modernist vision of a political system progressively improved by the presence of social conflict. within this image of the contemporary “movement society” 2 the important activity of the radical community is limited to political strategy and social interaction. consequently, i argue, the knowledge work of the italian radical subject is mis/underrepresented amongst the epistemic sources that smt relies on to navigate their field of research. having initially shared these sources, i was liable to think that the important discursive work of rsms was exhausted within identitarian, rationalist, and structuralist aspects of social action. further, i believed that the political concepts and arguments of the italian radical community 1968-78 were adequately represented within, first the ‘official transcripts’ of the italian state informants (the pentiti); second the journals of key social movement organisations such as potere operaio (po/ workers’ power) and; third the theoretico-political interventions of historic marxism and neo-leninism. contra my experience with the epistemic sources of smt, the expansive collection of social documents — the products of the radical subject’s discursive work — at cdp, aaf and apm ranged across newspapers, journals, counter-sociology periodicals, leaflets, magazines, anthologies, historiographies, interview transcripts, life-histories and more. the cdp, unique amongst these archives was established as a “place of critical research” in the 1960s, does not represent a specific political tendency. in 3 contrast aaf, as d’agostino (2013) relays, presents local histories and gathers documents that aim to preserve social and political memory specific to the radical community of the veneto. finally, the apm is hosted by a milanese social centre, and continues to offer a place of resistance and to fulfil a political purpose; however, the diversity of materials addresses the accusation of exclusive habits of attention. certainly, the apm promotes militant publications of the far left, yet the depth and breadth of its holdings go some way toward achieving its stated aim to “socialise knowledge without establishing power”. this, i observe, is an attempt to redress the 4 this is patent, for example, in the research of avowed consensus theorist sidney tarrow (1989).2 http://www.centrodocpistoia.it/index.php?menu=sub2item2&page=storia3 http://www.inventati.org/apm/index.php?step=introduzione4 !5 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 epistemic harm experienced by the radical community, a result, as i explain below, of the social identity and location afforded them by traditional knowledges. after exploring these archives i left italy appreciating the radical community’s discursive work as an authoritative and credible body of work analysing the nexus of politics and the radical subject. their social documents demonstrate rational authority: they generate expertise, offer new theoretical insights, produce arguments and questions, and as casas-cortes (2008) and her co-authors spotlight, are ‘acts of knowing’ potentially equivalent to those of social theorists. while the italian radical community archives may be, in certain instances, integral to the agency of the radical community, foregrounding their values (wright, forthcoming), the social documents they hold are not limited to the resources of political practice. in two important aspects, the discursive practices of the radical community are, i assert, in line with the standards of knowledge creation recognised as legitimate by social epistemologists such as fuller (2012). in particular, the radical communities involved in the production of the social documents exhibit the features of an epistemic community: they judge the credibility of testimony based on shared schemas of epistemic evaluation; they demonstrate the capacity for epistemic agency — the ability to “make sense of one’s experiences” (dotson 2014) and; their documents affect knowledge outside of the context of creation. how then are we to explain the censure of the radical community, and the absence of its mass communications within the prevailing anglo-american theory of the nexus of politics and the radical community? knowledge practices the theory and practice of the radical community, their documents, discursive works, and a capacity for self-organisation, demonstrates their ability to control the symbols and language of society, to define new conventions of meaning, and to offer alternative reasons and explanations for action. key, as i have argued elsewhere (howard, 2017), is that rsms exist marginal to the political community, acting outside the established standards of behaviour. this has the effect of disrupting social order and the discourses that have that order as their object. by conceptualising the nexus of politics and the radical community in this way, we imagine a collective actor that generates both practical (real life/subjective) and theoretical (discourse/objective) discontinuities which are exemplary of radical activity. their self-aware practices of immediacy achieve real life outcomes by directly dealing with the impediments present in the environment. the correlate effect of the observation of these practices in the discourse on politics, is an undermining of existing schemas of thought, driving theoretical renewal. a case in 5 point, amongst the self-activity of the contemporary italian movement sector, is the early risers of the workers movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s who intended to my conceptualising of the radical community here is indebted to deranty and ross’ introduction in 5 (deranty and ross 2012), and rancière’s elaboration of revolutionary practice in (rancière 1991). !6 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “change the relation of the factory workers to the political and industrial systems (howard, 2017).” as castellano (1996) and his co-authors note, the early risers were self-organised and took charge of their work environment through direct action. this worker was fundamentally different to that elaborated within the traditional or classical theories of class antagonism (cuninghame 2002), and created redundancies and gaps in established political thought, notably the marxist thought of the italian communist party. accompanying the self-activity of the workers, responding to theoretical discontinuity, was an emerging and novel theoretical expression of the relation of the worker to the state and capital. this theoretical renewal resulted in the intellectual circle that crystallised around the seminal journal quaderni rossi and were drawn into the social conflict. as bologna (1995) observes amongst his historiographic notes, the coming together of the intellectual stratum and the mass movement revealed the latter was already endowed with knowledge and the capacity for self-activity. radical communities, when manifest as social movements, are widely recognised to generate knowledge of the conditions underlying social and political conflicts (diani and eyerman 1992). invariably, however, the anglo-american study of the radical actor grants certain intellectual circles a monopoly over the comprehension of the ‘object’ of study, limiting explication to the confines of traditional expert knowledges. the outstanding question is why does a discipline, which zwerman, steinhoff, and della porta (2000) assure us is attentive to the ‘vicissitudes’ of the entire social movement milieu, collapse the italian social movement sector into the political process, flattening the context of the radical community and conflating its innovation and creativity with strategic reason and political rationalism? the beginning of an answer, i suggest, is available in the confluence of social epistemology and community informatics, and their conjuncture with the contemporary methodology of smt. researchers must continually discriminate between competing sources of evidence, knowledge and theoretical justification, argument and counter-argument, selecting what we believe to be credible informants and reliable testimony. typically, as goldman (2011) explains, we utilise methods of evaluation that reflect the social processes, institutions and procedures, and interpersonal influences common to our disciplinary milieu. cumulatively, these influences form ‘epistemic systems’ that aim to promote truth and, as goldman continues, embedded within these systems are schemas of epistemic evaluation that “affect the epistemic outcomes of its members.” schemes of epistemic evaluation are employed to validate, for example, judgements of expertise. such validation utilises properties of the hearer and informant (such as social location) to exclude or promote potential testimony (goldman 2001; 2011). while conceding that knowledge practices are not egalitarian, epistemology attempts to avoid unfair discrimination and partisan habits of attention. therefore, epistemology is concerned 6 on this topic, refer to fricker (2011) and dotson (2014) 6 !7 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 with, among other things, choices of epistemic sources. these choices are ubiquitous in research and documentation environments, and are affected by variables such as doctrinal attachments, methodological and theoretical commitments, institutional and cultural practices, and the social and political context of investigation. as a result, the privileging or trivialising of social subjects, research materials, and memory is a common concern of applied social epistemology and community informatics. their concerns share territory that covers the objectifying of testimony and its abstraction from community contexts; the place of ‘official records/memory’ in research strategies and knowledge practices; and the role of the radical community in the presentation of social documents in archival situations. 7 of concern to politically-minded social epistemologists, such as miranda fricker (2011), is that social identity and location can affect the rational or cognitive authority afforded to certain informants. these decisions are often founded upon “societal norms of credibility” that reflect existing social hierarchies and power relations (e.g. man/ woman), and involve the legitimising of certain ‘rhetorical spaces’ that generate “presumptions of credibility.” code (2011) explains that these spaces, areas of discourse, limit and structure what can be uttered and trusted as testimony and grant authority to certain speakers and interpreters, dependent on their positioning within the space. the result is considered unfair epistemic discrimination (fricker 2011), which, key to our concerns, can take the form of either exclusion from, or promotion within, a community of knowers. such ‘political standards’ of discrimination, dotson explains, is the unwarranted hindrance to epistemic agency, constraining the “ability to utilise persuasively shared epistemic resources (...) in order to participate in knowledge production.” the outcomes of unfair discrimination include impediment to effective and accurate communication and recognition of the capacity to “make sense of one’s experiences” (dotson 2014). as is discussed below, the italian radical community suffers both forms of harm at the hands of disciplinary thought and interventionist intellectuals. in the italian situation, disciplinary thought sweeps aside localised actions and discourses of various subgroups within the social movement environment, and treats the radical community as the material of the theorist. the rhetorical spaces, schemes of evaluation and epistemic sources of smt have the effect of disqualifying the practice and theory of the radical actor as a credible mode of analysis of the social and political condition. crucially, i contend, smt wilfully excludes relevant theoretical practices in the modelling of rsms based on ‘political standards’ of epistemic evaluation and partisan habits of attention. as a discipline, it limits the valence of radical thought to that of political strategy, or social interaction, and fails to acknowledge the potential for radical action to co-exist with epistemological work. smt has an intrinsic aversion to the intellectual labour of the radical community, and a distrust of the social documents similar themes are discussed from the perspective of community informatics in stillman & johanson 7 2009. !8 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 held in radical community archives, evidenced by its sources. however, as i have argued elsewhere (howard, 2017), to understand the knowledge practices of the radical community we must recognise their valence, which is essentially epistemological and not simply political, or social. this is to claim that the radical subject is at least 8 potentially a credible informant, and that we can learn from their theory and practice. the radical community, through their actions, verify a common capacity, as rancière highlights, for the invention and demonstration of political concepts, arguments, objects, and the like (baronian, rosello et al. 2008). the valence of the radical community during the first half of the twentieth century the study of social movements marginalised movement participants based upon the image of the activist as defective and collective behaviour as outside of reason (mcphail and tucker 2003). however, during a period of social foment in the 1960s, typified by the rise of left-libertarian movements, the dividing line between theorist and activist, intellectual and movement, was often blurred. in italy, innovative forms of practice and theory, alongside collective violence, typified a movement sector embodied by a class of movements that railed against the standard place of the radical community in politics. the redundancies and breaks this social movement sector created in established thought engaged the intellectual in a process of theoretical rejuvenation. against this background, smt began to reconstruct its explanatory framework, disenchanted with aspects of the disciplines contemporary inheritance (eyerman 1989). at the same time, a similar process was occurring amongst the radical community and a counter-sociology movement in italy. as the polarisation of the political climate faded, theoretical renewal translated most prominently into the ascendance of the rational choice frameworks of smt, the autonomist marxism of italian radical thought, and the post-marxism of european social movement theory. smt also employed the ‘classical agenda’ of research in an effort to ‘civilise’, ‘politicise’, or ‘organise’ the radical subject by repatriating them to institutional politics. this had the effect of promoting the political valence of the radical community, and, as mcadam (2001) and his collaborators state, the overarching intent was to repopulate the territory of modern politics with a strategic and reasonable radical subject, specifically, one identifiable and explicable within a framework of political rationalism. guided by this agenda, after a period of theoretical upheaval, the discipline returned to a more traditional subject/object split, with the sociologists adopting a ‘disengaged’ and ‘neutral’ position (diani and eyerman 1992). the theoretical implications of this approach, as discussed by casas-cortés, osterweil, and powell (2008), include, first, objectifying the radical community, which discounts them as alberto toscano (2010) discusses the importance of considering the valence of radical communities in 8 his work on fanaticism. !9 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 knowledge producers, and second, a distrust for non-traditional sources of expertise and the unique insights available amongst localised and particularised practices. in this context, a further crucial factor shaping the re-birth of the anglo-american study of social movements, and its subsequent interaction with radical thought, was the summary dismissal of marxist social theory as a credible epistemic source. the negative valence afforded marxist thought is evident in the hostile post-marxist approach of smt, which attempts to purge the analysis of contemporary social movements of the knowledge and praxis of marxist radical subjects. crucially, this effort relies on a caricature of marxism that firstly invokes a monolithic image of historical marxism and then promotes neo-leninism as representative of marxist renewal in italy. carried forward by a superficial encounter with historicist marxism and the aggressive brand of marxism-leninism associated with the italian area of organised violence, smt affords italian radical thought diminished credibility in the rhetorical space of social movement study. consequently, smt avoids critically engaging with the marxist renewal that occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. significantly, the coarse classificatory net utilised to disbar marxist thought from the status of interlocutor in the italian situation overreaches, capturing the theory and practice of autonomous and self-organised collectives that circulate within a political territory typical to marxist interventionism. effectively, smt isolates marxist thought and uses its caricature to quarantine the practice and theory of the radical community. the assumptions in play are used in a strategic fashion to disqualify certain agents and aggrandise others; however, their justification for epistemic discrimination is tenuous. first, marxist theoretical renewal in italy was driven, as bologna identifies (cuninghame and bologna 1995), by an attempt to open a relationship with a radical community already ‘endowed with knowledge’ and a capacity of self-organisation. its ambitions were not leninist. in addition, autonomous marxism, a theoretical thread that ran throughout the italian movement sector, was critical of orthodox and historicist marxism and at its foundation it was a sociological investigation of the dynamics of social inequality. accordingly, its status within the rhetorical space of sociology deserves careful consideration. second, the dismissal of the practice and theory of rsms obscures the conjunction of the subjective and objective modes of radicalism, which involves an exchange between the movement and the intellectual, discrete, yet intimately entangled layers of the radical community. consequently, thinking on the radical subject that proceeds largely unaffected by the specificity of a radically different theory and practice of politics risks, as toscano has illuminated, reduces the thought and action of the radical community to an ‘empty philosopheme’ (toscano 2009) — the emblematic statements and pronouncements of leaders and political elite. this reductive approach to the knowledge of the radical subject ignores its creativity and efforts to rethink politics itself. the contemporary sociological study of the nexus of politics and the radical community proclaims, as mcphail and tucker (2003) note to address the inequity of previous !10 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 governance based theories of social movements that defended the existing social order and normalised the domination of the ruling classes (the men of reason/progress) over the lower classes (the crowd, the irrational and desirous masses). however, implicit to the persistence of theoretical positivism is the relation of knowledge and ignorance (those who know and those who do not know), that underpins knowledge hierarchies of unequal societies. the ontological division of society into the ‘two humanities’ of the active thinker and their passive medium, the masses (rancière 2009), that reassured marxist science of its guardianship of knowledge, also shores up the authority of disciplinary thought. this approach places the scientist and their account ahead of the participant and their expressions (rancière 2004), creating an intellectual asymmetry that promotes the testimonial credibility of the former. as kristen ross spotlights, the ‘new sociology’ energised by the events of 1968 is accused by rancière, among others, of “deriving its authority from the presumed (...) ignorance of its objects of study” (ross 1991). knowledge hierarchies, whether exploited by sociologists, movement leaders, and philosophers or similar, assign manual and intellectual labour to certain social identities based on schemes of epistemic evaluation. this creates a sense of entitlement and grants the strategic reason and political rationalism of certain intellectual circles a monopoly over the comprehension of the movement. 9 rational authority, afforded on the basis of positioning in rhetorical spaces, occludes the capacity of those dominated in the existing social order to articulate and organise their experience. this hinders the epistemic agency of the radical community and undermines the credibility of their document work. the relevance of this assertion for smt is evident in the thinking of della porta (1992). she states that there is a “lack of scientific interest in the publication of “high fidelity” transcripts, without comment or interpretation”. to extract the sociological content ‘hidden’ within the testimony, or to provide a scientific account of oral history, requires “the presence of research hypotheses and a good background knowledge.” she continues that “even more important, sociological concepts and hypothesis are indispensable in selecting material and ‘making sense’ of it” della porta (1992). the point is clear, della porta believes that the discursive forms of the radical community require further explication, with sociological interpretation necessary to redress the ‘vagaries’, ‘aesthetics’ and ‘distortions’ present in their expressions and social documents (1992; 1995). effectively, the credibility of the testimony of the radical actor is considered a function of the sociological employment of research ‘devices’ to counter “characteristic patterns of distortion.” (della porta 1992). the interpreter or social theorist, and not the speaker, is considered key. della porta’s method of intervention, and a general aversion toward the radical community’s analysis of their condition, is manifest in her privileging of select wright (2005) makes an important point when he asks whether we can accept the political elite as a 9 necessary consequence of the radical community without assuming that they must form a “single political unit designed to monopolize the broader movement’s ‘strategic reason’?” !11 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 materials and subjects. first are the ‘official transcripts’ of the pentiti: radical left activists who turned state informant and were central to the judicial case brought against the radical left. the italian state approached political dissidence in the second part of 10 the 1970s through a narrative of political illegality, reducing the radical community, as discussed by moss (1997), to the social identities and locations of criminal, terrorist, marginal, or enemy. such social categories disbarred the radical community from the intellectual labour associated with understanding the politics of radical social movements. however, the italian state reintegrated repentant radical activists into the interpretive community as informants, part of the judicial interpretation that secured the meaning of high-cost activism (moss 1997). the transcripts of pentiti interviews hold a central place in della porta’s account of the nexus of politics and the radical community, with the reliability of their testimony thought to be enhanced or rehabilitated by the judicial situation and subsequent sociological intervention. second, while not exclusive of left-wing media, della porta’s habits of attention (and tarrow) further mimic those of the italian state, relying on the theoretical interventions of historic marxist and neo-leninist intellectuals to explain the italian radical political subject. this promotes social documents that represent the more ‘aggressive’ thread of ‘high-risk’ activism, associated with groups gathered around journals like senza tregua and rosso. ultimately, having shared numerous epistemic sources with the state’s judiciary, della porta cannot avoid becoming similarly enthralled with certain radical organisations and their leaders. the reduction of the radical subject in italy to the status of citizen solely in the eyes of the law afforded the judiciary interpretive privilege in the political and social conflict, providing authority to their fixing of the ‘public’ meaning of radicalism. the state’s 11 interpretive community identified the ‘political dissident’ by associating them with terrorism and a leninist ideology. the prosecution claimed an intellectual ‘marxistleninist’ vanguard was leading the mass movement and had effectively quietened the voice of social movements outside the organisations of the worker. however, these ‘censored’ social movements themselves thought leninism, while making lots of noise, had little to contribute in the face of the practices of the movement of ’77. ultimately, it was the state and the armed organisations that afforded the leninists an important voice by verifying their place at the centre of the radical community, a situation that has its correlate in smt, which privileges these ‘experts’ of political violence. the strategic radical subject smt’s effort to repatriate the radical subject to western democracy is facilitated by employing a theoretical framework that forms around an unchanging nucleus of instrumental reason and modern politics, limiting its account of the radical subject to an see: portelli, 1989.10 moss (1997) makes a similar point.11 !12 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 exposition on how collective actors do things with strategic resources. this devalues the epistemic agency of the radical community, a community arguably irreducible to its political strategies and decisions. as alain touraine famously argued: “the concept of social movement is useful when it helps one to rediscover social actors (…) buried beneath either structural marxist or rationalist theories of strategies and decisions” (touraine 2008), both of which subordinate the radical community to programmatic and organised forms of politics. such relegation is common to sociological accounts of social movements, where an organisational intent and explanatory purpose expropriates the radical subject from its knowledge of social struggle. central to smt’s explanatory framework is frame theory, which is accommodated to the extent that it complements a strategy-oriented modelling of the nexus of politics and the radical community. as mcadam (2004) discusses at length, this approach categorises the discursive work of rsms as a ‘framing activity’, part of a ‘strategic challenge.’ frames are essentially enabling, that is, they facilitate the ‘problematic accomplishment’ of meaning and significance through the “… weaving, (this) blending, (this) knitting or stitching together of strands of history (…), beliefs or ideology (…), and selected events …” (snow and byrd 2007). the consolidating of a frame of reference makes it possible, best (2003) explains, for individuals to orient themselves, and translate (strategically) social, political, and historical conditions into orienting meanings: meanings that delineate problems and prescribe specific responses. this interpretation, however, conflates acts of knowing with the organising task of ideology, and relegates the epistemic agency of the radical subject to an explanatory device of sociologists. the radical community’s knowledge of the social and political environment is regarded as little more than a coercive construct of movement leaders and political experts. the social world may be unintelligible and agents’ acts incomprehensible if they are inexplicable in some sense as strategic. however, the new struggles in italy, whether of the late 1950s or mid-1970s, were organised, intelligent, imaginative, and driven by an independent knowledge of their situation. strategy oriented approaches to explicating the role of radical schemas of thought in politics appear to limit the opportunity for radical theory and practice to inform our sociological account of the radical community. much of the discursive work of the radical subject that developed and articulated ideas, have become categorised as the ‘resources’ of collective action. smt’s account of activism builds on the presupposition that social agents are guided by instrumental reasoning, which, deploying the classical notion of rationality, is focused on the best means of achieving a contingent end. this bonds the knowledge practices of the radical community to political activism, and disbars it from epistemology. strategy-oriented modelling of the dynamics of radical action concentrates on how collective actors do things with the available resources. as such, della porta asserts, the disruptive, disorderly, and innovative activities of marginalised communities are a means to gain !13 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 voice and achieve visibility through persuasion or coercion, attracting public attention, which, when successful, activates the support of organisations within the political arena (della porta 2008). as such, the discursive work and documents of the radical community are thought incapable of speech in the rhetorical spaces of the political institution. however, if we accept radical theory is a factor in the realisation of the radical community, then, equally, we must be mindful of what is at stake in radical thought. theoretical representations, political organisation, and frames of reference interweave elements of explanation and prescription, analysing the self-activity of the movement while advancing abstract political goals. this ‘entanglement of politics and epistemology’, as toscano refers to it in fanaticism, complicates the separation of prescription and political commitment from explanation (toscano 2010). this is problematic for smt, which at certain theoretical junctures dissolves the knowledge of the movement into that of the ‘experts’. as previously mentioned, this risks fusing the self-awareness of the radical community with the emblematic statements of the political elite or ‘interpreters’, and in the italian situation this theoretical tendency has welded the subjectivity of the movement to caricatures of historical marxism and a neo-leninist vanguard. this entitles the elite to speak as the representative of the radical community and facilitates the facile recovery of the latter’s knowledge within the frameworks of the relevant interpretive community, promoted ahead of the knowledge practices of the broader radical collective. alberto melucci, renowned for his work in the field of new social movement theory, observes a challenge similar to that witnessed by toscano. in challenging codes melucci (1996) states that the discursive dimension of social movements contains elements of knowledge, ideology, and integralism, which must be deconstructed if used to theorise the meaning of collective action. integralism and ideology perform a strategic function, organising the plurality of interests within the movement, rationalising and representing the actions of the social actor. this strategic function overlays the knowledge practices of the radical community, where they struggle against the hegemony of social knowledge inscribed in the discourse of dominant interests (melucci 1996). accordingly, the existing order of society and discourses that have that order as their object, have a role in maintaining the intellectual subordination of the radical community. however, as previously argued (removed for blind review), the nature of the radical subject is to disrupt the hegemony of social knowledge. emancipatory practice breaks from the political and epistemic communities that pacify the radical actor and subordinate it to organisation from above, theoretical intervention, and the statements of political elite. if we are dismissive of this dimension of the radical community and their epistemic agency, falling back upon presumptions of credibility formed around social identity and location, our exposition presents an abstract and deformed subject. !14 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the radical community and access to knowledge melucci claims that the fundamental conflict in contemporary society is over who has access to knowledge, which is inequitably distributed, and involves a struggle to ‘reclaim knowledge’, or more accurately, to refuse “the exclusion from knowledge (melucci 1981).” as mentioned above, this exclusion against which they struggle is explicable as the outcome of rhetorical spaces and the associated presumptions of credibility. therefore, vital to contemporary movements is access to the epistemic resources deemed necessary to knowledge practices. a similar exclusion has befallen the social documents held in radical community archives at the hand of disciplinary thought and other interpretive communities such as the italian state and the social movement organisations of the neo-leninist intellectuals. these entities twice exclude the radical community from the knowledge practices of antagonism. an example is the popular portrayal of the counter-cultural movement as “unable to participate in public assemblies with sensible speeches” (torealta 1980). within this rhetorical space, counter-cultural collectives were not granted the rational authority to speak, looked upon as merely noise-makers. through my research, i have come to believe that contemplating the nexus of politics and the radical community requires more than its evaluation in terms of political rationality and organisation. essentially, it involves questions of the hegemony of social knowledge, and requires the recovery of radical thought and deconstructing of organisational analyses that reduce radical practice to strategic abstractions. however, smt, through traditional schemas of epistemic evaluation and partisan habits of attention, reduces the capacity of the radical community to create new concepts, arguments and questions to the instruments of persuasion and coercion, treated similarly to proselytising ideologies. subsequently, smt fails to engage critically with the theory and practice of the radical actor in italy. such a failure of engagement is an example of the unfair epistemic discrimination on behalf of mainstream sociology, dismissing the veracity and value of the knowledge practices of radical communities, especially that of the grass-roots participants. this has the consequence of granting smt rational authority and allows the discipline to monopolise the concepts and explanatory categories of the nexus of politics and the radical community. further, the disciplinary modelling of the radical actor promotes the abstract thought of movement leaders and their efforts to organise and politicise the radical community, escalating the importance of the political elite and interventionist intellectuals in radical action. this expropriates the wider movement of its knowledge of antagonism, which is significant for at least two reasons. first, as melucci states, one of the most important functions of the radical community is the legitimising of alternative knowledge practices and modalities of communication. collective actions, he contends, provide “different ways of addressing things and of imagining them (...), beyond those inscribed in the hegemonic codes of scientific and technological discourse” (melucci 1996). !15 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 second, bologna (1995) argues that initially the creativity of the grass roots movement, consisting of ‘thousands of comrades’, displayed consciousness and independent knowledge. by participating in italy’s radical social science, the hope of the intellectual was to generate theories attentive to the experiences of the worker. the focus was on opening a relationship with a movement with its own histories of struggle that endowed them with knowledge and the capacity for self-organisation (cuninghame and bologna 1995). however, while the original intent of co-research was to record the creativity and innovation of the worker, and to learn from their practice and discourse, in the end the intellectuals would alienate the movement of their knowledge, which they would ‘ideologise ex-post’ (cuninghame and bologna 1995). the resultant mistake was the 12 reimposition of a discourse upon the radical community rather than a comprehending of their revolutionary form (bologna 1980). a consequence of this ‘failed dialectic’ between the movement and the intellectual, noted by castellano (1980), was the misrepresentation of the actual movement in the frames of leadership. this misrepresentation is compounded when smt affords the political experts, particularly the leninists, a voice that resounds beyond their actual position in the radical community, discounting other far left initiatives. radical archives and knowledge practices what has happened to the discursive materials of the italian radical community, discounted as epistemic sources by so much sociological thought? this ‘surplus’ crucially finds a place amongst the italian community archives, alongside privileged social subjects, research materials, and memory. accordingly, i promote an alternative approach to archival work favoured by rancière, who, as deranty (2010) acknowledges, studied the multiplicity of voices and forms of speech “below the overbearing discourse of organised marxism.” this is testament to rancière’s belief that, contra smt, the reasoning of those subjects dominated within the existing social order (discounted as speakers and interpreters in certain rhetorical spaces) is the equal of the rationality and logic of the so-called experts and specialists who govern the dialogue on the natural order of society (rancière 1989). rancière takes seriously the perspective of the exploited and their capacity to articulate and organise their experience, a theoretical commitment reflected, as deranty (2012) shows, in his effort to relay ‘thought from below’. the capacity of the radical community for discourse and reason, on display among the social documents held across the italian radical community archives, questions the reasons for their exclusion from intellectual labour, staking a role in knowledge practices. in the first instance, we should avoid treating ‘knowledge from below’ as a partial epistemological phenomenon that requires an intellectual intervention or further explication for understanding to occur. we should acknowledge that the radical this review of co-research also forms part of a previous study on radical thought and critical 12 pedagogy in (removed for blind review). !16 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 community can speak about and organise their experience. this is to recognise their epistemic agency, to raise their position in the relevant rhetorical spaces, a position partially justified by the myriad of social documents available in the italian radical community archives. therefore, we must be aware the role of the radical community in the presentation of social documents in archival situations, while remaining vigilant to avoid the pitfalls of unfair discrimination, partisan attention, and the aggrandising of certain histories. common to all the collections i visited in 2011, is a preservation of memory and knowledge practices that continue to contest exclusion from disciplinary areas of discourse. this is critical, for i contend that it is important to ensure that those twice excluded from the knowledge practices of antagonism in the 1960s and 1970s, do not suffer the same fate at places of research and documentation. certainly these archives are discriminatory, but we recognise that epistemology is not egalitarian. what is important is that the discrimination is not unfair, and the hope is that instead of excluding certain voices from the area of discourse, the archives help elevate those who are typically stripped of their rational authority. conclusion in the rush to naturalise the radical subject, giving it a social identity, assigning it a location and task, and designating its time and place in contemporary society, theories of the nexus of politics and the radical community submerge the specificity of marginalised groups beneath identitarian, rationalist, and structuralist aspects of social action. the endeavour to present the radical actor as a stable empirical category of high risk and high cost politics appears motivated by the desire to dignify a theory of radicalisation through its subject, what bologna (2005) refers to as the ‘creation of alibis’. however, this approach is prone to false witness where an ideological hegemony is observed amongst the diversity, innovation, and creativity of the radical community. such hegemony denies the radical subject rational authority and diminishes its epistemic agency, reducing the vicissitudes of the movement sector to the epiphenomena of political struggle. the outcome is that the prevailing sociological models of the ‘movement society’, which attempt to organise or politicise the radical community as a political actor, efface the difference and particularity essential to that community. a corollary of this is the underrepresentation of radical thought, and an exclusion of the social documents in place at radical community archives. by limiting who can speak and what can be said in the rhetorical space of sociology, smt excuses itself, whether deliberately or inadvertently, from engaging with the discursive work of the radical community as epistemic sources. the creativity and innovation of the italian radical community of the 1960s and 1970s tried to break from the austere and organised forms of political involvement and traditions of militant anti-fascism. it is the latter, however, that draws the attention of smt, with such beacons of political violence illuminating the sociological search for !17 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the politics of the radical subject in western democracy. what could the prevailing sociological accounts of the radical community learn if, instead of focusing on the interventionist intellectuals, marxism-leninism, political violence, and the organisational perspective, they were attentive to the historiographical stream of italian radical thought, the outliers of the movement, counter-sociology, and myriad other intellectual figures presented in the community archives? while the former are important aspects of the movement, they need contextualising within the dynamics of the radicalisation of social movements, and the ongoing interplay to be found there between practice and theory. for instance, while the political elite may pose itself, as giovannetti (1980) reflects, “as the relatively stable expression of social antagonism, as its memory, as the bearer of social values,” and we cannot understand the movement without contemplating their role. equally, we must realise this group is but one layer. while intimately entangled with the movement, at times the instrumentalist projects of organising dissent beguiles the theorist and leadership, and in these moments, the theory and practice of the movement and the intellectual come apart. it is amongst these fragments that we may discover the nascence of new knowledges, arguments, concepts, reasons, explanations and the like. the most likely place to uncover the documents of such intellectual labour, i contend, are radical community archives, not among emblematic statements, theoretical interventions, or disciplinary thought. rancière (2006) tells us, his archival project creates a space where, for example, the workers’ words are removed from their usual situation – ‘social stuff’ – and enter into a dialogue as the equal of philosophical narrative. in such instances, he continues, differentiating between those who have speech and those who have voice, is no longer based on a ‘principle of discrimination’, where the capability of an individual is tied to their social occupation and location. this is an ideal we should have in mind as we engage with the documents and discursive work of the radical subject. !18 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 references baronian, m.-a., rosello, m., & 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(1981). ten hypotheses for the analysis of new movements. in d. pinto (ed.), contemporary italian sociology : a reader (1st ed.). cambridge: cambridge university press melucci, a. (1996). challenging codes: collective action in the information age. cambridge: cambridge university press. moroni, p. (1994). origine dei centri sociali autogestiti a milano. appunti per una storia possibile. in f. adinolfie (ed.), comunità virtuali. i centri sociali in italia. rome: manifestolibri. moss, d. (1989). the politics of left-wing violence in italy, 1969-85. london: macmillan. moss, d. (1997). politics, violence, writing: the rituals of 'armed struggle' in italy. in d. e. apter (ed.), the legitimization of violence. london: macmillan. portelli, a. (1985). oral testimony, the law and the making of history: the 'april 7' murder trial. history workshop, 20(autumn), 5-35. rancière, j. (1989). the nights of labour: the workers dream in nineteenth-century france. philadelphia: temple university press. !20 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 rancière, j. (1991). the ignorant schoolmaster: five lessons in intellectual emancipation. stanford: stanford university press. rancière, j. (2004). the politics of aesthetics: the distribution of the sensible (g. rockhill, trans.). london: continuum. rancière, j. (2006). thinking between disciplines: an aesthetics of knowledge. parrhesia, 1, 1-12. rancière, j. (2009). aesthetics and its discontents. cambridge: polity press. ross, k. (1991). translator's introduction the ignorant schoolmaster: five lessons in intellectual emancipation (pp. xxiii, 148 p.). stanford: stanford university press. snow, d. a., & byrd, s. c. (2007). ideology, framing processes, and islamic terrorist movements. mobilization: an international quarterly review, 12(1), 119-136. stillman, l., & johanson, g. (2009). constructing and sharing memory: community informatics, identity and empowerment: cambridge scholars publishing. tarrow, s. g. (1989). democracy and disorder: protest and politics in italy, 1965-1975. new york: oxford university press. torealta, m. (1980). painted politics. in s. lotringer & c. marazzi (eds.), italy: autonomia post political politics (vol. 3, pp. 296 p.). new york: semiotext(e). toscano, a. (2009). a plea for prometheus. critical horizons: a journal of philosophy and social theory, 10(2), 241-256. toscano, a. (2010). fanaticism: on the uses of an idea. london: verso. touraine, a. (2008). an introduction to the study of social movements. in v. ruggiero & n. montagna (eds.), social movements: a reader. london: routledge. wright, s. (2005). a party of autonomy? in t. murphy, s & a.-k. mustapha (eds.), resistance in practice: the philosophy of antonio negri. london: pluto press. wright, s. (forthcoming) the weight of the printed word: operaismo in text and context. amsterdam: brill. zwerman, g., steinhoff, p. g., & della porta, d. (2000). disappearing social movements: clandestinity in the cycle of new left protest in the u.s., japan, germany, and italy. mobilization: an international journal, 5(1), 85-104. !21 articles social movement theory and the italian radical community archives: a question of valence? introduction the radical community, discursive work and epistemic agency knowledge practices the valence of the radical community the strategic radical subject the radical community and access to knowledge radical archives and knowledge practices conclusion references wright ready pdf the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles the nature of ‘document work’, and its implications for radical community archives and their holdings around fifty years ago, much of the world experienced a new cycle of mass social unrest. in their wake, the movements of that time have left a mass of records and other documents such as leaflets, journals, newspapers, posters and bulletins. today, many of these materials are curated by community-based archives that continue to identify in some manner both with those movements and their successors. but what might these materials be able to tell us about the ‘document work’ (to use ciaran trace’s useful concept) that originally led to their creation and use – and, in a broader sense, the experiences of the movement participants who utilised them as integral components of their political engagement? this paper will explore the meaning of document work within the practices of members of potere operaio [potop], one of the most influential of the revolutionary groups formed in italy during the late 1960s. the paper concludes with brief reflections as to the implications of this for the present day work of radical community archives. !43 steve wright senior lecturer, faculty of information technology, monash university, australia corresponding author. steven.wright@monash.edu wright, s. (2019). the nature of ‘document work’, and its implications for radical community archives and their holdings. the journal of community informatics, 15, 43-60. date submitted: 2018-03-31. date accepted: 2018-10-31. 
 copyright (c), 2019 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1411 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1411 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1411 mailto:steven.wright@monash.edu the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction there have only been two world revolutions. one took place in 1848. the second took place in 1968. both were historic failures. both transformed the world (arrighi et al., 1989, p. 97). the 1960s and 1970s saw a wave of radical social movements across the globe. some of these were connected to earlier periods of social conflict (above all, by women, workers, and anti-militarists/pacifists), while others were seemingly new. judged in terms of their stated goals, such movements could well be considered a failure; all the same, their impact continues to be felt. in their wake, a mass of records and other documents – from leaflets, journals, and newspapers to posters and bulletins – were generated. in italy, where 1968 [sessantotto] proved to be ‘a year that lasted a decade’ (circolo gianni bosio, 2006), many documentary materials were destroyed or lost during ‘the years of cynicism, opportunism, and fear’ (balestrini & moroni, 1997, p. 669) that characterised the 1980s. that some materials nonetheless survived was in large part thanks to a handful of community-based archives – such as the centro documentazione di pistoia – that continued to identify, however critically, with those movements and others that have succeeded them. in more recent times, some of these texts from forty and fifty years ago have reappeared in print: above all, those penned by individual theorists who rose to prominence during the period (for example, negri, 2005). less attention has been paid, by contrast, to those more workaday documents, such as leaflets and newspapers, which thousands of anonymous militants had handled in the course of political activity. what might these materials tell us about the experiences of those who had utilised them as integral components of their political engagement? in particular, what happens when we consider these documents not simply in terms of their content, but also in light of a) their distinctive genre forms, and b) the ‘document work’ (to use ciaran trace’s term) bound up with their creation and use? indeed, as trace has argued, documents must be understood not only as ‘objects that have meaning in context’, but also ‘as part of the practices that documents, in turn, help to constitute’ (trace, 2016, p. 55). this paper concentrates on this second question, the routine practices associated with documents within radical social movements of the time. it does so by exploring the nature of document work amongst members of potere operaio (workers power, nicknamed potop by its members), one of a number of revolutionary groups formed in italy during the late 1960s, before concluding with some brief reflections as to the implications of this for the present day work of radical community archives. in many ways, potere operaio was typical of the four or five national organisations that emerged to the left of the italian communist party (pci) following the mass unrest that gripped italy’s universities and workplaces in 1968 and 1969. like other such groups, it vied for leadership over the popular turbulence that continued to brew and ferment throughout the following decade. and again, like its political competitors, potop’s membership was largely drawn from students or former students, with a sprinkling of industrial workers: in this instance, most notably from the petrochemical plants of porto marghera, near !44 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 venice. in other ways, the group was quite different to its radical rivals. for one thing, potere operaio was somewhat smaller, with strongholds confined to three regions: the veneto, tuscany, and lazio. most of all, it differed from others in terms of its political perspectives, which were shaped by a distinctively italian approach to marxism known as operaismo [workerism]. as a consequence, members of potop spoke and wrote in their own version of leftist dialect [sinistrese], using terminology such as ‘class composition’, ‘refusal of labour’, and ‘planner-state’ that referenced concepts often quite alien to the marxist-leninist common sense then predominant within italy’s far left. while this difference in vernacular made it easier to identify individual militants of potere operaio whenever they opened their mouths, it is also true that in so much of their daily routine, the document work of the potoppisti was typical of that within the italian far left as a whole. as a consequence, examining how the group created and used documents within its practice helps in better understanding that broader experience of half a century ago (scavino, 2000, p. 83). like all of those ensnared by the spell of modernity, members of the political community known as potere operaio ‘live[d] in a web of documents’ (hartland et al., 2005, p. 75; see also ferraris, 2013). at the same time, they also worked with the printed word in a number of particular ways, towards specific purposes. documents were created (an overarching term that encompasses the acts of writing, setting in type, laying out and printing – each of which needs to be unpacked in its own right) for a number of ends, from informing and/or persuading others, to promoting and/or justifying some course of action. once created, they needed to be distributed (another overarching term that denotes a range of acts). finally, after all this, with any luck these documents came to be consumed: studied, discussed and otherwise utilised by readers. in this regard, the exploration of that ‘communications circuit’ of which robert darnton has written with specific reference to the book – a circuit stretching from authors to publishers, printers, distributors, retailers and finally readers – can fruitfully be extended to other documentary forms found within the broader world of the printed word (darnton, 1982, p. 67; see also darnton, 2007). each kind of document work within this communications circuit carries its own specific attributes, while also being connected to other communicative practices within the circuit and beyond. the sections below aim to trace out the rough contours of the communications circuit in and around potop, to see what might be learned about political engagement in the process. producing documents: writing …the paper as this collective agitator struck me as an old-fashioned communist idea, to tell the truth. but i believe that scalzone above all needed to produce a paper like he needed to drink coffee every morning (roberto rosso, in guicciardi, 1988, p. 96). we can start our survey of document work within potere operaio with the question of who in fact conceived of and wrote the group’s texts. in part, the answer depends upon which specific materials are under consideration. like all political organisations of certain size, potop deployed a full-blown suite of documentary forms, from internal bulletins to posters and pamphlets which is what wanda orlikowski and joanne bates (1994, p. 542) have called a ‘genre repertoire’. if hundreds of activists had at various !45 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 times written local leaflets for potere operaio, and many dozens contributed copy to its national publications, rather fewer had a direct hand in the programmatic statements issued in the group’s name, let alone the essays that attempted to distil workerism as a distinctive theoretical and political current. in a recent overview of operaismo’s evolution, sergio bologna (2013, p. 121) suggests that an intricate process of popularisation connected the latter texts with the former: the first generation of italian ‘workerists’ studied and elaborated on marx’s writings between the early sixties and the mid-seventies … once broadly received within the political space that was defined as workerism, the fixed reference-points established by such readings and interpretations came to constitute a sort of common ground. they were transformed into a series of ‘mental prototypes’ and underwent the well-known process of vulgarisation described by geiger in his writings on intellectual labour. they became slogans, eventually finding their way into the politico-ideological discourse that provided the ‘workerist’ group with its identity and public image. then, a new research-effort would be undertaken, again on the initiative taken by an individual, continuing where the last exploration had left off. guido borio (2001, p. 8) has asserted that ‘only a very few people’ – not all of whom became members of potop – were ever located at the summit of this process: three, four, or at most five. they were the subjects who really gave and represented a direction, the driving forces within operaismo: [mario] tronti, [antonio] negri, [romano] alquati, in certain respects bologna, and maybe someone else. according to borio and his fellow authors of the book futuro anteriore, this small elite of theorists was linked to the wider movement by what they have called ‘a stratum of diffuse militant intellectuality’ (borio, pozzi & roggero, 2002, pp. 27-8; cf. pp. 210ff). speaking with his own political past in mind, borio (2001, pp. 6, 5) has insisted that the intermediary location is central: it provides a level of continuity, that is of militancy understood as growth and presence not within individual struggles, but within trajectories [percorsi] that elaborate and organise matters with some degree of intention. it has the role of extracting, making evident and providing potentiality to the intrinsically political dimension present within struggles ... this is the central dimension for any project that aims to creates ruptures within capitalist compatibilities, and from these beget [scaturire] a possible anti-systemic alternative. within the organisational setting of potere operaio, the numbers involved in crafting documents that laid down shared aims and purpose were somewhat greater than ‘three, four, or at most five’. for the most part, however, such texts could not command the same sense of gravitas as those produced by the thinkers listed by borio. but if the documents that were circulated in the name of potere operaio were generally of another ilk to the essays in tronti’s book operai e capitale, it is also true that a quite narrow list of names was to the fore whenever ‘tasks and perspectives’ were debated within the group. reading through potop’s press and internal documents, it is clear that time and time again, negri, oreste scalzone and franco piperno dominated the stage in debates over direction and tactics, even if space was normally granted for other members to have their say. given the arenas within which these debates were waged (most notably, the potere operaio national conference), another important dimension on the genre front !46 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 is the role that the spoken word – distinctive in form from the mode of expression found in essays or newspaper articles, if less so from leaflets or wall posters – came to assume within these kinds of communicative practices amongst the workerists. the printed rendering of speeches was not overly common in the published outpourings of operaismo during the time of potop; some of those that do exist, like the extract below from a 1971 speech by negri, may only have been transcribed from tape recordings years afterwards so that they could be presented as evidence in court proceedings. whatever the case, such speeches often times bear witness both to the novelty of the organisation’s outlook when compared to dominant left traditions in italy, but equally to the ongoing legacy of those tradition’s rhetorical flourishes and cadences: because, comrades, what we are setting out to do can mean a great leap forward for the whole movement. what we are planning is something that involves all of us in the most profound way. comrades, the fundamental instruments of organization are men [sic], they are the militants. here each of us needs to know that being militants means staking everything (negri, quoted in scarpari, 1979, p. 270; see also may, 2013). as for the group’s newspaper, much of its copy was produced by a small core of writers, amongst whom scalzone long played a central role. when the paper was relaunched yet again as a weekly in 1972, it fell to a new circle of scribes to craft the requisite number of columns needed to fill each issue. as a physical artefact, potere operaio del lunedi was visually striking, and would go on to win at least one industry design award during its short life. in terms of its content, some effort was made – due in part to the influence of some sympathetic, older journalists working in mainstream media – to render its content more accessible than the rather ponderous writing typically found in potop’s theoretical output. beyond this, considerable effort was placed in soliciting material from the wider membership, although this task was not without its own challenges. in the words of massimo d’alessandro, piperno carried forward the political line, mediating between various positions at the national level – although this only occurred on important occasions. in reality we solicited various pieces from the branch offices, by telephone. then we as editors stitched the articles together. often we found ourselves mediating things that struck us as too extremist … (in grandi, 2003, p. 213). with divisions within potop becoming more acrimonious by early 1973, control over the organisation’s press was one of the more obvious fronts where war was waged between the competing factions. and if one camp was ultimately able to secure its hold upon the weekly publication, the latter’s increasingly poor production standards, combined with the growing length of time between each issue’s publication, made it ever more clear that potere operaio as a group was by then on its last legs. the physical production of documents without its own printing press, many documents within potere operaio’s genre repertoire could only be manufactured by outside entities. books, periodicals, pamphlets: each depended in certain ways upon commodified systems of production and distribution. this reliance upon commercial firms that were, with a few important exceptions, largely indifferent to the group’s project bore certain consequences for its !47 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 documents’ creation and use. scalzone’s memoirs, published for the twentieth anniversary of 1968, are enlightening on this score. finding the money to support potere operaio’s newspaper was a challenge from start to finish, he relates, so the preparedness of the leftist publisher giangiacamo feltrinelli to pledge his bookshop chain to buy ‘five thousand copies of the paper every week, sight unseen’ must have been very handy indeed. despite this, publication was forced to cease temporarily at the end of november 1969 due to a lack of money, the first of a number of such breaks during the newspaper’s lifetime (scalzone, 1988, pp. 136, 151, 159). other kinds of documents could be and were produced in-house: first and foremost, leaflets for external agitation, and internal materials intended for the eyes of members only. leaflets in particular were a staple of local political work, with branches regularly expected to write and print their own flyers for distribution at the beginning or end (sometimes both) of the shift in some nearby factory (grandi 2005, pp. 115-116). as in other revolutionary organisations of the time, the internal division of labour involved in the creation of documents was often revealing. potere operaio was not immune from the phenomenon of ‘gestetner angels’ [angeli del ciclostile], an expression coined in the 1960s student movement to designate the activity of those (typically women) engaged in ‘behind-the-scenes support work for those (mostly men) who had a public presence as leaders, speakers, and writers’ (barkan, 1984, p. 31). on this front, the words of stefania sarsini (in grandi, 2005, p. 290) suggest that the gender relations within potop were then par for the course within the italian far left as a whole: lucia, despite her militancy, always remained scalzone’s woman, as i was verità’s woman, and grazia zermann was daghini’s woman: we were all ‘the woman of’. our identity as persons didn’t exist, and this made militancy all the harder. no documents were elaborated by women. and the ‘gratification’ of gestetnering leaflets until late at night, or of cleaning a branch office soiled by the [remnants of] sandwiches and cigarette stubs smoked by dear [male] comrades intent on staying awake so that they could elaborate revolutionary theories, was certainly rather minimal for a revolutionary militant! distributing documents the national secretary reminds comrades that the militant diffusion of the paper must be considered the first task of each potere operaio branch (potere operaio, 1972). once printed, documents needed to be distributed. when it came to the circulation of the weightiest of the group’s texts, which typically assumed book form, the commercial realities of dependence upon market mechanisms were never far away. during the latter part of potere operaio’s existence and beyond, the feltrinelli book column ‘materiali marxisti’ and the pamphlet series opuscoli marxisti acted as crucial conduits for the dissemination of workerist theoretical ruminations (moroni, 1996). no doubt negri (1980, p. 260) was exercising his characteristic sarcasm at the time, but there was also an uncomfortable truth in his admission of 1979 that it had been years since he had addressed ‘a movement assembly: i’d be booed off the stage. i have instead written books, articles, pamphlets which i have sold: my rapport is organic with the market’. !48 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the often uneven apportionment of print media within the italian far left of the early 1970s held ramifications of its own. two of the largest groups, lotta continua and manifesto, each had their own daily newspaper by 1972; in 1974 avanguardia operaia became the third. by contrast, the best that their many smaller radical competitors could manage was a weekly publication. some of the implications of this in terms of document work were made clear when a number of female comrades chose to abandon potop altogether and establish a new organisation in 1972. in response, a section of the group’s male membership attempted to disrupt a seminar organised by lotta femminista at the university of rome: breaking windows, hurling water-filled condoms, and injuring some of the participants. while lotta femminista (1972a) circulated a leaflet a few days after the attack, its efforts to make its views known on the national level were largely dependent upon letters sent to publications associated with other sections of the far left: in particular, the eponymous daily papers belonging to lotta continua and manifesto. in each case, furthermore, lotta femminista’s missive had to endure a certain degree of editorialising from the publication in question. without a daily publication to its name, the local leadership of potere operaio was likewise forced to use the newspaper of a rival organisation to convey its stance on the matter. the resulting statement is a curious text, claiming to take lotta femminista’s views on class exploitation seriously and threatening ‘disciplinary procedures’ against those who attacked the women, whilst being unable to resist a sideswipe at ‘the comrades of manifesto’ for trying to capitalise on potere operaio’s woes (lotta femminista, 1972b, pp. 11-20). making potop’s weekly paper available to the general public meant securing distribution through the country’s dense network of newsstands. getting issues to the news kiosks depended in turn on a contract with the state railway company (grandi, 2003, p. 216). making the organisation’s paper available to workers and other leftists relied on a different practice: what then was called ‘militant’ distribution. as anyone who has been taken part in far left politics knows only too well, selling an organisation’s publications is one of the key duties that unites members of a movementwide ceto politico [political class] who may otherwise be deeply divided along lines of ideology, perspective, and group loyalty. for alessandra de perini, casting her mind back to the days of ‘selling the paper potere operaio’ conjured up ‘a contradictory image of myself: a young woman of twenty, twenty-one, in a mini-skirt, distributing “democracy is the rifle in the workers’ hands, on the workers’ shoulders” ’. this memory was also inseparable from her sense of identity at that point in time: what it then meant to be ‘in quotation marks, a “militant” … at the beginning, the adhesion was complete, total’ (in sacchetto, 2009, p. 197). the use of documents in political work within potop itself, much was made of the need for members to study a host of documents, whether written by the group’s leading members, or by classic authors old and new (which in this case meant marx, lenin, and tronti). interviewed in 2001, ferruccio gambino – who had helped organise seminars on marx in padua after 1968, both at the university and outside it (grandi, 2005, p. 28) – would suggest that !49 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 explaining the grundrisse via rosdolsky, in certain peripheries abandoned to their own devices by the regime of that time, might seem a mistaken ambition – and even back then, amongst ourselves, we sometimes waxed ironic over this. but the principle and dedication were sacrosanct, and when these fell away by dint of force majeure at the end of the 1970s, the disorientation that followed was frightening … in potere operaio, militants who did not dedicate time to study were bound to fail, even if they were able to produce some sporadic fireworks at the local level. there was a part of one’s life in which you could not simply wander around leafleting or showing yourself to be hyperactive: it was also necessary to reflect and to study (gambino, 2001, p. 10). studying was a prerequisite for other activities as well, amongst them the possibility of taking part in the organisation’s internal debates. as andrea leoni remembered, ‘there was almost a snobbishness in avoiding simplifications in interventions and writings. if you wanted to understand and participate you had to study, there were no shortcuts’ (in grandi, 2005, p. 175). the same held for making sense of the world outside. another former roman militant, massimo casa, has stressed the importance of carefully appraising prospective sites of political intervention: you needed to know about the organization of work in the factory, about pay rates, hours and bonuses, about foremen and hierarchies, you had to learn how to construct a stable organization and clarify in practice [nei fatti] why we were different from the union. but above all you needed to understand the class composition in every situation. class composition was for us what the philosopher’s stone had been for sixteenth century alchemists. they set themselves the problem of finding the formula for extracting gold; we shared their intellectual intensity, their artisanal industriousness, and the same risky pleasure. so when we went anywhere – a school, a factory, a university faculty, a neighbourhood – we sought to identify, and go and speak with, that part of it that was the central motor of social insubordination (in grandi, 2005, pp. 91-2). in order, therefore, to understand the disposition of the contemporary working class, along with its potential for social conflict, members of potop were dependent not only upon their own observations and the contacts they had made with sympathetic workers or residents, but also upon a host of printed materials. these latter ranged from the minutiae of pay slips and industry-specific contracts, to foundational works like the first volume of marx’s capital, with its detailed account of the working day and the place of machinery within large-scale industry.‑ offering a bridge between these two very 1 different kinds of texts were printed materials emanating from the rapidly evolving operaista canon, particularly those that made claims to framing strategic perspectives. yet for all the enthusiasm that essays or pamphlets penned by their most prominent here is how one participant later wrote of this process of collective study: ‘i decided to attend a 1 seminar that ferruccio gambino was holding in the faculty of political sciences, in which they discussed das kapital by karl marx. i began to understand the meaning of many concepts and categories that were used in the movement, but which had for me at that time a vague meaning. the most important things i learned in ferruccio’s class on marx were the basic concepts of class, capital, working class, labor, productive and unproductive labor, surplus value, and so on, but reshaped in a way that could effectively capture all the changes produced by capital in the history of society after marx, and especially in the society in which we lived. the consequent reading of society proposed by ferruccio was very different from the vision of orthodox marxism that the communist party was elaborating and proposing’ – fortunati, 2013. !50 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 theorists might generate amongst italian workerists, there was also general agreement around the relative difficulty of many of the concepts in use, as well as the language used to express them. patrizia violi (1977, p. 40) was not alone in observing of the newspaper potere operaio that ‘not only the average reader, but probably also many militants of potere operaio itself, would find decoding the journal difficult to the point of absurdity’. and yet, if francesco bellosi is to believed, that struggle with the printed word, if successful, could bring its own rewards: i understood that toni negri and the others were right, they were the only ones able to read what was happening [in the factories]. but they spoke in a difficult manner, and they wrote like german philosophers. it took a lot of effort to translate those languages into something i could understand. in como a group of intellectuals (including worker intellectuals) pondered matters: older than me, they had followed and participated in the whole evolution of operaismo, from quaderni rossi to classe operaia. they supplied me with all that theoretical material, which i spent whole days going over. and finally it all became clear (in grandi, 2005, p. 25).‑ 2 alongside the practices discussed thus far, documents could be worked with in ways that are sometimes less than obvious. the collection of essays by tronti brought together in the 1966 volume operai e capitale was the single most important workerist document of the 1960s, a formative text for successive generations of italian operaisti. this book, claudio greppi once declared, was ‘the bible of potere operaio’. having quickly gone out of print, its circulation to a wider audience then largely depended upon the initiatives of amateur enthusiasts, at least some of whom produced ‘horrendous photocopies that almost nobody could read’ (greppi, 2000, p. 8; grandi, 2005, p. 92 – cf. pp. 66, 74). and finally, for a little light relief, we may note the somewhat unusual role that the book came to play within the love life of valerio morucci, who was then involved with potere operaio’s rudimentary clandestine apparatus. morucci relates that on at least one occasion, operai e capitale served as both an aphrodisiac and a would-be instrument of seduction: those words inebriated me, and i hoped that they would inebriate her as well. so i sat down on the couch, with her stretched out, my hand in her hair, and i read her a passage. ‘but in any case, whoever said that this was the pinnacle of human civilisation? large scale industry and its science are not the prize in the class struggle – they are the very terrain of that struggle. and so long as that terrain is occupied by the enemy, we need to fire upon it, without tears for the roses’. i was close to orgasm, but for her: nothing. it was like i was reading little red riding hood … (grandi, 2005, p. 74; morucci, 1999, pp. 69, 70).‑ 3 potere operaio’s documents in the hands of the judiciary perhaps the most far-reaching unintended consequence of potere operaio’s document work was the use made of workerist publications by sections of the judiciary in their efforts to criminalise revolutionary politics throughout the peninsula. within months of potere operaio’s appearance, the comrade registered as legally culpable for its quaderni rossi and classe operaia were journals produced during the 1960s.2 this passage from tronti would also inspire a poem by nanni balestrini (1969).3 !51 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 publication had been sentenced to seventeen months in prison on the charge of ‘instigating the workers of all italy to revolt against the state, and in particular the metalworkers of fiat turin to damage vehicles’ (potere operaio, 1969). as the thenminister of the interior put it, if politically-motivated property destruction was in general on the rise, more insidious still for democratic public order is the propaganda of violence as a method of political struggle advanced by these groups, and potere operaio in particular, through a series of regular and irregular periodicals, posters and leaflets (quoted in grandi, 2003, p. 110). as was often the case in the world of italian far left publications, the individual who provided this legal cover was not even involved in the journal’s production, although he had been an important figure in operaismo’s evolution within the veneto, and had played the same role earlier in the 1960s for the workerist journal classe operaia. as scalzone explained, the offending headline – ‘yes to workers’ violence’ – had been his, but article 57 of the penal code demanded that the paper’s ‘direttore responsabile’ rather than its editor be placed in the dock: ‘i had never met nor seen [francesco] tolin – we had only spoken on the telephone. when we did meet i could only apologise, because it was my fault that he had ended up inside’ (grandi, 2005, p. 330; grandi, 2003, pp. 108-9). this would not be the only such case in the group’s history: a couple of years later, emilio vesce was likewise imprisoned in connection with its press, found guilty in that instance of contempt of court (grandi, 2003, p. 215). by the early eighties, with the mass arrests against the armed groups and their alleged supporters in autonomia in full swing, the most forceful reading of workerist documents and the connotations they might bear was that put forward by the magistrate pietro calogero, the central architect of the ‘7 april’ mass arrests of 1979. after the initial charges of involvement in the killing of aldo moro fell apart, much of the judges’ focus shifted to the period – long before autonomia became a movement of any consequence – when potere operaio proclaimed the necessity of building the armed party. suddenly negri and co-defendants found themselves facing trial not so much for supposed membership of the brigate rosse, but for having attempted to stage an insurrection back in 1971. for many individuals, the mere fact of having once belonged to potere operaio now became grounds for investigation (bugno, 1981). through all these twists and turns, calogero assigned a particular importance not only to what certain documents said, but also to who possessed them and in what form. a significant component of his accusations against negri and others revolved around textual analysis. but this in itself was not enough: the physical presence of documents was equally seen as a crucial means of identifying an individual’s location within the tangled networks said to bind the only-apparently fractious autonomist collectives, together with the major armed groups, within a single web of social subversion. as calogero (2010, p. 134) later recounted, i explained to the collaborators from digos‑ the significance of the most recurrent 4 terms in the language of extreme left militants (‘autonomy’, ‘counterpower’, ‘combattent vanguards’, ‘destabilisation’, ‘destructuring’). i also drew their digos is a national police body responsible, amongst other things, for combating terrorism.4 !52 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 attention to the importance, particularly in house searches, of tracking down documentary materials (manuscripts, communiqués, resolutions, political programs, journals and various printed matter) rather than a weapon. arms, i made clear, could reveal to us at most a suspect’s role as a subordinate or follower, whereas documents could indicate the suspect’s leadership rank [rango direttivo] and unveil important organisational events and associations concerning the group to which they belonged. even more creatively, on at least one occasion, the draft version of a document later circulated in potere operaio’s press would be presented instead as a hitherto unknown clandestine text, uncovered and brought to public attention only thanks to the diligence and vigilance of the prosecution (comitato 7 aprile, 1979, pp. 140-1). in this instance, as with the so-called ‘calogero theorem’‑ more generally, the group’s documents were 5 used by the sections of the judiciary less to establish the veracity of criminally culpable activities, than to reread the past decade of mass social conflict as ultimately the handiwork of a few powerful individuals able to manipulate events from behind the scenes. documents, identities, and trajectories we can conclude this discussion of ‘document work’ in potop by considering the close association between certain genres and the political identity of groups and individuals. circles grouped around the production of a journal were commonplace in the italy in the decade or so following 1956 – so common, in fact, that the period is often referred to as ‘the years of the reviews’.‑ indeed, after 1968 many organisations of the italian 6 new left shared a name with their primary publication: lotta continua, potere operaio, manifesto, avanguardia operaia (at least in its early days, before the establishment of the daily newspaper quotidiano dei lavoratori). indeed, within the movement of autonomia in the 1970s, some groups (collettivi politici operai, comitati comunisti per il potere operaio) were best known by the name of their papers (rosso, senza tregua), not unlike a number of dissident communist groupings back in resistance times (bandiera rossa, stella rossa) (peregalli, 1995). more unusual, but equally striking, was the temporary nomenclature assigned to a small turin-based formation, before its members finally hit upon the moniker of collettivo lenin: lacking a name, [they] began to distribute some leaflets and pamphlets. someone jokingly dubbed the group ‘read and pass on’, because this was typically the signature/slogan that closed their leaflets (allare et al., 2009, p. 66; cf. rieser, 2001, p. 6). with newspapers assigned such a key place in militants’ shared identity, did this also mean that documents penned by individual members were similarly beholden to the organisation as a whole? if franco berardi (2000, pp. 4-5) is to be believed, the answer the ‘calogero theorem’ alleged that the mass movement of autonomia and terrorist organisations 5 such as the brigate rosse were twin emanations of negri and his closest associates. pacifici, 2015 discusses various perspectives developed by the judges in the 7 april case. see for example the essays collected in classe 17 of june 1980, organised around the theme of ‘the 6 years of the reviews (1955-1969)’. !53 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 to this question within potop was one factor that led him to drift away from the group in the early 1970s: the spring of 1970 saw the publication by feltrinelli of my booklet entitled contro il lavoro (against work), which referred above all to the discussion within potere operaio, and had an explicitly anti-leninist character, against the [recent] change in line. in that period (i remember precisely on what occasion) toni negri – before the book had come out, so while it was with the typesetter – said to me: ‘i’ve read your booklet, you should have discussed it first within the organization.’ i told him that it had never even crossed my mind to do something like that. the whole thing was very amicable, he didn’t reproach me; he simply noted that a militant needed to behave in a certain way. i noted instead that it seemed to me that if someone wrote something, it was their business, and not the organisation’s. berardi (2000, p, 5) has gone further, arguing that the day-to-day sensibilities of many members were actually often at odds with potere operaio’s formal pronouncements, whether set out in print or otherwise: …on the one hand an official discourse was made at congress, at meetings, in other words in the places of political discussion, where the basic assumption was a leninist type of hypothesis (therefore the construction of the party structure, the identification of the organization as the place that in some way must lead the movement) … however, in unofficial discussion, the self-perception of the po militant was as a spontaneist. finally, documents – or indeed their absence – could also provide significant markers in the identity of individuals, signposts for the choices made at decisive moments in their life history. one of bologna’s lingering regrets, he stated in 2001, concerned the manner in which he had quit both his leadership position and potere operaio itself just a year or so after the group’s foundation: more youths paid dearly because they weren’t able to see a public clarification: if there had been a public clash between me and them [negri and piperno] where it was said ‘i agree on this and that’, it would have put things in black and white, and young comrades would have had something to grapple with. instead it was ambiguous, i left without producing what we could call an ‘exit’ document, for the usual reason: ‘the situation is delicate, let’s not create difficulties, if i say why i don’t agree, i’ll have to reveal publicly proposals that are still nebulous, with the implicit risk of betrayal’ (bologna, 2001, p. 4). as one of those who remained in the rump of potop after negri and others left to join the autonomist movement, giovanni contini (in grandi, 2005, p. 84) recalled a similar moment of truth, marked in his case by the arrival sometime in 1974 of …a national document, in which it was said that the situation was mature for an insurrectional turning point, that the revolutionary party had to commit itself to carrying into the future the struggles and hopes of a mass worker now certainly destined for defeat. after years of militancy, of frenetic activism, always immersed in the language of our sect, i remember that it was not easy to criticise that document … over the years i have thought that [unlike others] we were lucky to ‘disassociate’ ourselves in time, before making certain experiences and committing irreparable actions … we were very lucky … to understand from that document that the story was now over. !54 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 in conclusion: some brief implications of document work for radical archives i hope that this brief introduction to potere operaio’s genre repertoire and communications circuit has helped not only in making sense of how such documents were created and used, but has also provided some useful insights into the practices of an important ensemble of political militants from the 1960s and 1970s in italy. while kristin ross (2015) in her book communal luxury reminds us that the past does not ‘give lessons’, there are nonetheless ways in which its critical evaluation might prove ‘untimely’ in nietzsche’s (1997, p. 60; cf. de lorenzis, 2010) sense: ‘that is to say, acting counter to our time and thereby acting on our time and, let us hope, for the benefit of a time to come’. for not only is historical research from this perspective ‘always a self-critique’ (karl heinz roth, quoted in de lorenzis, 2010, p. 160), but as massimiliano tomba (2013, p. 54) has argued, ‘history does not, in reality, stand before the materialist historian as an object to be represented objectively, “as it really happened”, but as a kampfplatz in which to intervene’. as is well known, to be radical means ‘to go to the root of things’. in this sense, perhaps the project of a ‘radical archives’ able to support such research is less about the content it might hold, and more about the ways in which that material is organised and presented. if trace (2016, p. 55) is right in arguing that documents must be understood not only as ‘objects that have meaning in context’, but also ‘as part of the practices that documents, in turn, help to constitute’, then perhaps those responsible for a radical archives must strive, so far as they can, to devote particular attention to the kinds of contextual information that can be provided about its holdings. doing this well is a labour-intensive process, and there is always the risk of drawing energy and resources away from other processes essential to the maintenance of an archive’s collection. then again, the potential rewards in terms of making an archive’s holdings relevant to its interlocutors are immense. here, therefore, are a few suggestions. first of all, an extended use of the humble finding aid. existing collections at a number of movement-related archives in italy are typically physically organised as an individual’s papers – and there is a good deal of sense behind why that might be so. this is the case, for instance, with the centro studi piero gobetti in turin (http:// www.centrogobetti.it/), the source of many of the potere operaio leaflets that i am using for my current research. while detailed listings are available online for each such deposition within the fondo marcello vitale there,‑ what would also be very useful are 7 further overarching guides that seek to provide pointers as to how the genre repertoire of an organisation like potop might be reconstructed. this approach is something that, albeit in a different context, the australian lesbian and gay archives (www.alga.org.au) has attempted with some success through the thematic guides it has begun to produce. see http://catalogo.archividelnovecento.it/scripts/geacgi.exe?7 reqsrv=reqexplore&id=119974&lev=2&sort=n_nuap_nuap_dcf . !55 http://catalogo.archividelnovecento.it/scripts/geacgi.exe?reqsrv=reqexplore&id=119974&lev=2&sort=n_nuap_nuap_dcf http://catalogo.archividelnovecento.it/scripts/geacgi.exe?reqsrv=reqexplore&id=119974&lev=2&sort=n_nuap_nuap_dcf http://www.centrogobetti.it/ http://www.centrogobetti.it/ http://www.alga.org.au the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 a second suggestion comes from the late primo moroni who, together with nanni balestrini, was responsible for one of the best anthologies of italian social movement documents from these years. in his view (moroni, 1999, pp. 32-3), a critical reconstruction of the period requires that the printed word be evaluated alongside a series of recorded interviews that encourage individual militants to recount – for hours if need be – their subjective history, their perception of the world, their relations with institutions, their understanding of the political context. of course, oral sources need to be treated as carefully as textual sources – all the more so, when they record observations made with hindsight (boccia, 2011). again, if such an undertaking demands considerable effort, recent years have seen a number of important studies that provide important oral accounts of the period, including the crucial perspectives of so-called ‘rank and file’ activists (circolo gianni bosio, 2006). on the other hand, there is a certain urgency here, with militants of the 1960s and 1970s beginning to pass away – as was the case recently of mario dalmaviva, who had played a crucial role in the history of potere operaio, beginning with its intervention amongst fiat workers during the hot autumn of 1969 (bologna, 2016).‑ 8 as a final, more ambitious example to consider, there is the series of books produced by the centro documentazione di pistoia. within this, pride of place belongs to two guides edited by the late attilio mangano, which offer detailed and thoughtful commentaries through which to frame the journals of the period held by that archive (mangano, 1998b; mangano & schina, 1998; see also gori n.d.). for our purposes, these guides are noteworthy for how they address the documents in question, given that they ‘avoid a pure and simple history of the reviews as a “cultural history” of their principal ideas’, in favour of an approach that takes seriously ‘the relationship between politicisation and daily life’, and thus ‘the multiplicity of flesh and blood individuals, and the extraordinarily capillary way in which they were involved in the movement, starting from their workplaces, within institutions, the family, and every form of associated life’ (mangano, 1998a, p. 19; mangano, n.d., p. 9; pier paolo poggi, cited in ibid.). in all of this, important lessons can be taken from interpretative frameworks such as continuum discourse, starting with leisa gibbons’ culture heritage continuum model, which adds the dimension of curation to established continuum thinking concerning cultural practices (gibbons, 2014, p. 73). whether or not the suggestions raised above prove useful, the case remains that much needs to be done to further the pluralisation of materials held in radical archives. indeed, without such efforts to extend ‘the use or construction of records beyond management and organisation and towards use as a collective memory’ (gibbons 2014, p. 73), it will prove extremely difficult to challenge ‘the enormous condescension of posterity’ (thompson, 1980, p. 12) with which the fiftieth anniversary of 1968 is likely to be greeted in a year’s time. for despite the efforts of a small band of independent publishers and individual enthusiasts utilizing those of mario dalmaviva’s papers deposited in the fondo marcello vitale are listed at http://8 catalogo.archividelnovecento.it/scripts/geacgi.exe? reqsrv=reqexplore&id=120085&lev=3&sort=n_nua_nsf_dcf !56 http://catalogo.archividelnovecento.it/scripts/geacgi.exe?reqsrv=reqexplore&id=120085&lev=3&sort=n_nua_nsf_dcf http://catalogo.archividelnovecento.it/scripts/geacgi.exe?reqsrv=reqexplore&id=120085&lev=3&sort=n_nua_nsf_dcf http://catalogo.archividelnovecento.it/scripts/geacgi.exe?reqsrv=reqexplore&id=120085&lev=3&sort=n_nua_nsf_dcf the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 both print media and web-based archives, the great bulk of the printed materials of the 1960s and 1970s are still difficult to access. as a consequence, the portrayal of sessantotto and its aftermath, not as successive waves of massive social conflict, but simply a private war waged by bloodthirsty, isolated cliques (the so-called ‘years of lead’) too often goes unchallenged in italy and beyond. given this, as marco scavino (1996, p. 10) has argued, recovering and evaluating such documents is important not only in terms of historiography, but above all because …every initiative that serves to make these documents known constitutes therefore an important contribution to historical awareness of that season of movements that, variously evoked or exorcised in current political debate, continues to represent one of the unresolved nodes of democratic italy’s recent history. acknowledgements i would like to thank amanda cossham for copy-editing an earlier version of this essay. bibliography allare, c. et al. 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(1977). i giornali dell’estrema sinistra. milan: garzanti. !60 urban acupuncture in the era of ubiquitous media: cases from rome and turin salvatore iaconesi1, oriana persico2 professor, isia design florence, italy. email: salvatore.iaconesi@artisopensource.net professor, isia design florence, italy. email: oriana.persico@gmail.com introduction when we experience territories, we create stories. we model these stories using mental maps. a mental map refers to one person's point of view perception of their own world, and is influenced by that person's culture, background, mood and emotional state, instantaneous goals and objectives. in the density of cities, this process happens for potentially millions of people at the same time. in his work, "the image of the city", kevin lynch (1960) described cities as complex time-based media, as symphonies produced by millions of people at the same time in their polyphonic way of acting, moving, interpreting, perceiving and transforming the ambient around themselves: a massive, emergent, real-time, dissonant and randomly harmonic work of time-based art with millions of authors that are changing all the time. the simultaneous presence of this myriad of mental maps suggests the possibility to compare them, to measure their intersections and differences. in this, it is possible to adopt extended definitions for objects such as landmarks (haken & portugali, 2003) to refer to any distinguished city elements that shape our mental maps, thus including urban elements which possess even temporarily some personal, historical, or cultural meaning (appleyard, 1969; golledge & spector, 1978). in a further step, in the direction of citizen activation, we can also imagine to make the information and understandings of these mental maps and their similarities, differences, correlations and flows widely known and usable, through the description of a 'relational ecosystem'. this would come under the form of a multi-dimensional map (of the perception of the city, along the axes of time, space, emotions and themes) in which subjects (city dwellers) appear not only in terms of their perceptions (a dot on the map, for example, would describe a specific element of perception in the urban context, described in terms of where it is, at what time it is, and expressing emotional themes), but also according to their interrelations, both subjective (because the expression is meant to be communicated) and objective (because two or more expressions are related in a certain way). the theory of urban acupuncture has been confronted with similar issues from an interesting perspective. this process tries to use small-scale interventions to transform the larger urban context. sites are selected through an aggregate analysis of social, economic, and ecological factors, and developed through a dialogue between designers and the community. urban acupuncture produces small-scale but socially catalytic interventions into the urban fabric (casagrande & harrison, 2013). this strategy views cities as living, breathing organisms and pinpoints areas in need of repair. sustainable projects, then, serve as needles that revitalize the whole by healing the parts. by perceiving the city as a living creature, thoroughly intertwined, "urban acupuncture" promotes communitarian machinery and sets localized nucleus ? similar to the human body's meridians. satellite technology, networks and collective intelligence theories, are all used in this practice to surgically and selectively intervene in the nodes that have the biggest potential to regenerate. the term was originally coined by barcelonan architect and urbanist, manuel de sola morales (1999 and 2004). in our working hypothesis, this possibility of employing mental maps suggests the reframing of the concept of 'urban acupuncture' (casagrande, 2008, 2010), transforming it into a technique which uses the mental maps of the city and the information about its relational ecosystem to enable the emergence of collaboration and participation patterns in which administrations, citizens and organizations perform small-scale interventions to transform the larger urban context. the sections of this research note that follows, identify our study objectives and research questions and methodology. this will be followed by a discussion of our study's interim results and conclusions. objectives and research questions smartphones and their applications allow us to merge our physical understanding of the world with the digital one. the two have, in fact, become so interwoven and interconnected as to form a new physicality, visuality and tactility (de kerckhove, 1997). moreover, according to works such as mitchell's "city of bits" (1996), mccullough's "digital ground" (2005), zook's and graham's "digiplace" (2007) we are constantly immersed in emergent networks of interconnected data, information and knowledge which is produced by myriad sources and subjects in the course of our daily lives. this data and information radically shapes the ways in which we have learned to work, learn, collaborate, relate, consume and perceive our environment. situated and ubiquitous information is able to powerfully transform, in real-time, the ways in which we experience places, objects and services, by providing wide accessibility to people's stories, emotions, expectations and visions. for example, casagrande defines the concept of 'time-ecology' (2008) as the relationship between the human-made structure, nature and the human being. in our proposed approach, this relationship can be extended to include the infoscape, the data and information landscape, as it manifests itself onto physical space, through people's expression and the ones of digital information systems. this extension can include the part of the infoscape which is generated by city dwellers on digital social networks. in this way we can describe an accessible, usable version of the 'relational ecosystem' of the city. in our research process we have used this approach to try to provide answers to the following questions: how can we observe, analyze and measure the digital relational ecosystem in a city and how is it expressed on major digital social networks such as facebook, twitter, instagram, linkedin and foursquare? how can we model the ways in which information, knowledge and emotions flow in the urban digital ecosystem? how can we make information on the urban digital ecosystem accessible and usable to administrations, citizens and organizations, to facilitate the emergence of 'urban acupuncture' practices, in the way in which we have redefined them? the next section describes the methodology we employed in our two case studies to observe, analyze and measure the fluid urban digital ecosystem in two italian cities. methodology the discussion on the methodology we employ is divided into 3 sections focusing on data harvesting, data processing; and visualization and open data. each of these will be discussed respectively below. data harvesting data can be harvested from social networks in a number of different ways, each describing both the qualities and quantities of data that can be obtained, and the constraints which have to be applied to its usage. for example, regulations are provided by the 'terms of service' documents published by data providers. while some individuals use the possibilities for public expression on social networks as if they were in public spaces, the 'terms of service' documents (which are legal contracts) expose limitations and constraints to their usage which go well beyond the ones enforced in the public domain: even if the data and information is produced from social network users as a form of their own expression, their possibility to use it for their own purposes or even for public good is somewhat limited, due to the fact that it represents the major source of revenue for the aforementioned service providers. in our case data was extracted from social networks in one of two areas: using the publicly available apis (application programming interfaces) offered by major social networks; purchasing datasets from the large data dealers that have established agreements with major social network operators. starting from the latter: it is possible to define time, geographic, textual and other forms of personalized queries to access the hose, that is, the continuous stream of content that is constantly produced on social networks and which satisfies the criteria established through a query itself. in our research we have chosen to operate with the gnip provider to obtain a dataset which would be impossible to retrieve in other ways (such as some sets of data from facebook and linkedin). we have decided to use this possibility geographically, accessing all the data which was generated by users across relevant locations (inside the case study cities, in our case). for the other social networks (twitter, instagram, foursquare) data was captured using the public apis which are made available by each provider. for each provider we have defined geographical queries which allowed us to capture all relevant data generated in the area of interest. in both cases the results were delivered through persistent or non-persistent http connections, using json or xml formats. after the elimination of possible duplicates, the harvested data we gathered was stored in a nosql database (mongodb was used in our case), after being mapped onto a common format. a series of 10 storage spaces were used to store most of the relevant information including the following parameters: users: user identifications; content: physical structure of the content, including user attribution, time, geographical position, source; users relations: allowing to identify the relations among users including direct (friendship, follower), slack (retweet, share...), or strong (reply, re-iterated replies across different topics...); content relations: allowing to identify relations between content in the same social network (a retweet, a share...) or across networks (from twitter to facebook; from foursquare to facebook); user metadata: including all the metadata that is generated for a single user in the processing stages; content metadata: including all the metadata that is generated for a single content in the processing stages; user relations metadata: all metadata for user relations; content relations metadata: all metadata for content relations; user clusters: identifying communities, clusters and identities (same user across multiple social networks); content clusters: identifying clusters, topics, emotions and identities (same content across multiple instances and social networks). the next sub-section describes how the digital data we went about gathering was processed. data processing various different processes were applied to the harvested data, including: identity analysis; geo-coding; emotional analysis; topic analysis; network analysis; and clustering. this sub-section further discusses these processes. the objective of the identity analysis was to identify the same users across different social networks, and different instances of the same content inside or across networks. to do this, very simple pattern matching algorithms were applied on the textual representation of both user profiles and contents (e.g. matching user names, nicknames, content strings and substrings); and in relation to the recurrence of patterns (e.g. a certain user on twitter tweets exactly the same things which are posted on a certain facebook profile). a number of different possibilities exist in trying to attribute a geographical context to user generated content (ugc), including users doing the following: employing the features offered by social networks for geo-referencing their own messages (either using the gps on their smartphone, or by providing additional information); including in their message information which can lead to finding out a location (from the context) that they are talking from or about; none of the two possibilities above, but including an indication of their geographical position (either current or by default) in their profiles; none of the above, in which case it is not possible to gather the user's location. the third case has a low level of reliability. for a number of reasons, users may falsify or misrepresent their current or "home" location. for example, they may commonly choose their favorite city, or a cool city, or a totally fictional location. on the popular social network foursquare our research lab currently resides in 'mordor' (taken from tolkien's "the lord of the rings"), which we have placed, using the standard features offered by the system, a few meters away from our lab. for this reason, in our research we tend not to use these kinds of location specifications. the first case is also very easy to deal with: a geographical location (often paired with extensive sets of meta-data, such as in the case of facebook and foursquare) is explicitly provided in the message for the best-case scenario. from the analysis of the results of our experiments, it turns out that the geo-location features offered by social networks are not commonly used. this varies from service to service, from region to region, and across contexts. from what we have been able to understand, the most location aware social networks are foursquare and instagram, with respectively 92% and 30% of the contents which have a location attached to them. then comes twitter, with 10-15%, according to time and context. then facebook for which. if we exclude the posts related to events (which have a location attached to them), the percentage drops to about 4%, and comes almost completely from messages generated using the mobile applications. these results are based on the messages we have collected over time in our experiments (from our earliest ones in 2010, to the current ones in 2014), and vary significantly across time and context. for example, many more messages with a location are generated on holidays and during vacation times; and in the case of special events, such as the riots and revolts in cairo, egypt, during 2013. in this last case, for example, twitter messages linked to a specified location rises to as much as 18%. the second case in the list is more complex and interesting. it takes place when users do not use the platforms' features to include their location in the message, but, rather, mention the location which they're talking from or about within the text of the message itself. in this respect, it becomes important to try to determine whether the mention of a geographical location in a message is indicating that the message was produced in that location, or if it was talking about or referring to it. according to the service which one wants to implement, these two possibilities may completely change the relevancy of the message. we have attempted to formulate a working procedure with which to try and add location information to these kinds of messages. in particular, we implemented the following procedures: we built databases of 'named places' for the case study cities, including landmarks, street names, venues, restaurants, bars, shopping centers, and more. this involved drawing upon information from the following sources: publicly available data sets such as the ones available accompanying public cartography sets (for example for italy we have used the named places provided by istat, italy's national statistics institute); the list of named places contained in the openstreetmap databases, for example the ones described in the references section; the list of named places provided by social networks themselves, which allow using their apis to discover the locations in users messages, for example on facebook or foursquare; lists of relevant words and phrases, such as event names or landmarks. we used text representations in various forms for named places in a series of phrase templates. the purpose was to understand if the user writing the message was in the place, going to the place, leaving the place, or talking about the place. templates have currently been generated in 29 different languages, for a total of more than 20000 different templates. for example, the template "*going to [named place]*" would identify the action of going, while "*never been in [named place]*" would identify the action of talking about a place; for each template we assigned a degree of confidence. the purpose was to evaluate the level of certainty according to which the sentence could be said to identify the intended information. for example: "i'm going to [named place]" has a relevance of 1 (100%), while the "[named place]" taken by itself has a relevance of .2 (20%) as it might be a false match (e.g. a bar with the same name of a famous landmark); a threshold was established, if the sum of relevance degrees for templates matched to sentences was above such threshold the information about content location was kept, otherwise it was discarded. currently the threshold for this is set at 90% . by applying these rules we have been able to increase the percentages of geo-located messages quite successfully. for example on twitter, we garnered an increase from the original 15% to around 27% after using these procedures. this change was judged from a series of sample-based statistics we produced on the messages that had not been directly geo-coded by the user. to our knowledge, the rest of the messages were not dealing with a specific location, or were not intended to deal with locational information. 'emotional analysis' and 'topic analysis' were performed using natural language processing techniques and technologies. we approached the possibility of recognizing emotions by identifying in text the co-occurence of words or symbols that have explicit meaning. as suggested by ortony et al. (1997) we must separate the ways in which we handle words that directly refer to emotional states (e.g. fear, joy) from the ones which only indirectly reference them, based on the context (e.g.: "killer" can refer to an assassin or to a "killer application"). each of these has differing metrics for evaluation. for analyzing affective meaning, we have used the classification approach found in the wordnet extension called wordnet affect. the approach we employed was based on the implementation of a variation of the latent semantic analysis (lsa). lsa yields a vector space model that allows for a homogeneous representation (and hence comparison) of words, word sets, sentences and texts. according to berry (1992), each document can be represented in the lsa space by summing up the normalized lsa vectors of all the terms contained in it. thus a synset in wordnet (and even all the words labeled with a particular emotion) can also be represented in this manner. in the lsa space an emotion can be represented at least in three ways: the vector of the specific word denoting the emotion (e.g. "anger). the vector representing the synset of the emotion (e.g. {anger, choler, ire}). the vector of all the words in the synsets labeled with the emotion. this procedure is well-documented and used, for example in the manner shown in strapparava (2008), which we adopted in our technique. we also adapted the technique found in berry (1992) to handle multiple languages by using the meta-data provided by social networks to understand in which language messages were written (and performing a best-effort analysis on those cases in which the meta-data seemed to be incorrect due to the high number of non-existing words in a certain language), and using a mixture of the widely available wordnet translations (along with those produced during the research for specific cases). we also tried to address the wide presence of irony, jokes and other forms of literary expression which are difficult to interpret. to do this, we have followed the suggestions described in bermingham & smeaton (2010) and in carvalho et al. (2009), with varying results. we applied the same technique for the classification of the topics discussed online. instead of providing words, phrases and sentences intended to describe and characterize emotions, we provided ones that were suitable for the topics of interest (if any), or reversed the technique using statistical and differential analysis to derive the recurrence of words, phrases and sentences that could represent the emergent topics under discussion, after filtering out a blacklist of elements and templates. these previous stages supported the network and clustering stages. in these procedures all of the relational metadata were used to construct a multi-layered graph model, denoting relationships between users, users and content, content and content. from our research on the two case study cities and related datasets we developed a unique role topology system, defined for user-based relationships, derived from their layout in the ecosystem. these included the following roles: influencers: they are able to influence many people; the content they share is not only seen by many other users, but also becomes an object for discussion and for further propagation, across different networks and communities; amplifiers: the content which they share is seen by many other users, and shared across multiple networks and communities; hubs: they have many bi-directional connections, but they do not act as either influencers or amplifiers; experts: they have many incoming connections and are the object of requests for expertise or opinion; bridges: they have one or more sets of connections to different, disjointed clusters (communities, groups, topic areas), and can act as bridges between them, passing information back and forth, and creating cross-pollination patterns; brokers: they interconnect people and content together; they actively notify other users about content that might interest them, make introductions, ask opinions from multiple users, creating spaces for discussion; simple nodes: all of the other instances. through this classification we have tried to create a framework dedicated to gaining better understanding about the distribution and flows of information, knowledge and emotions in the city. the purpose is to be able to identify the "pressure points" onto which enact interventions, as hypothesized in 'urban acupuncture theories'. a k-means clustering algorithm was applied in multiple dimensions to achieve the definition of such "pressure points", grouping content and users according to different strategies. for example, we have focused on establishing parameters which would allow us to understand the changing boundaries of communities, cultures, emotional approaches to topics and the propagation of information, knowledge and emotions throughout the urban information ecosystem. in general, we have set up, through conceptual analysis and software production, a set of tools which make the whole configuration process and the processing stages (described above) as accessible and usable as possible, given the time and resources that were available to us. all the software is released as gnu public license (gpl), and thus can be freely downloaded and used (iaconesi, 2013). the next subsection discusses the importance of data visualization in our research cases. visualization and open data during this stage we produced a series of visualizations and interactive systems to represent the relational ecosystem of the city, and to create a source of real-time open data. visualizations were produced to represent the time, space, topic and emotional dimensions. in addition, a graph visualization was created to highlight the relational aspects of the data. both entertaining, interactive and more analytical versions of the visualizations were produced, to obtain experiences and tools intended for different usage scenarios. the space/time/topic/emotional visualizations were implemented as geographical maps showing the data through colors, shapes and surfaces (see discussion below). the relational visualizations used a 3d network representation to represent users and relations, color-coded according to roles, topics and emotions. in each visualization, filters were applied to highlight specific topics, emotions and subjects. this also led to the opportunity to implement a "find yourself in the ecosystem" experience, through which users could locate themselves inside the relational ecosystem of their city, and start its exploration from a subjective point of view. this kind of approach resulted in this being possibly the most effective tool to suggest people's participation. citizens were able to find themselves in the ecosystem, visualize information about the communities which they took part in, and explore the rest of the ecosystem, finding like-minded people, people who had different opinions, cultures and emotional expressions. such an approach facilitated the process of attempting to create collaborative patterns by establishing bridges among different communities. this allowed people to easily conceive urban acupuncture processes, for example by selecting a certain topic, locating themselves inside the selected topic, and trying to establish how they could interconnect with other people interacting with it. examples included "how do we clean a park together"; or "how do we create a more secure environment for our neighborhood". as for the open data source, in the current situation, it remains a basic configuration, that will need to be expanded in the future, by invoking two http addresses (one for users and one for content), one is able to obtain a list, starting from a certain timestamp, of the relational ecosystem. the next section presents some of the interim results of our research in rome and turin. interim results experiments and working processes are currently being held in rome, turin, berlin, malmö, helsinki, london, kansas city, san paulo, hong kong and bangalore, with the support and active participation of local city administrations and organizations. in this section we will provide some of the interim results which we have gathered from two of these experiments. figure 1: love vs. turin: the city of turin as expressed on a digital social network in the italian language. an early project in turin and a current one underway in the city of rome. love vs. turin in 2011, on the occasion of the 'piemonte share festival', held at the natural science museum of the italian piemonte region we have launched a first instance of this research path, called versus (iaconesi, 2012), in which we observed the digital life of the city of turin to search where in the city people of different cultures expressed emotions of "love" using social networks. during the timeframe running from august 1st 2011 to october 1st 2011 we harvested more that 3.5 million unique content elements on twitter, facebook, foursquare and linkedin, originally generated from around 12 thousand unique users (as first originators the total number of users was more than 180,000) in 18 languages (of the 29 that we were monitoring). figure 2: love vs. turin: the city of turin as expressed on a digital social network in the arabic language. a first mapping visualization of the digital social network revealed a city that was completely different according to the languages that were taken into account. as the images disclose (figure 1 and 2), even a simple comparison in the places in which the social media messages were generated revealed different ways of living the city, according to which language citizens speak. people familiar with the city of turin will not fail to recognize the high presence of messages in arabic language in the city area around the piazza republica and porta palazzo market, one of the largest multicultural areas of the city. the analysis performed in italian showed completely different results. for this particular case, further inspection showed different movement patterns across the city, as well as differences in the expressed motives for being in a certain place. again, in the porta palazzo market we were able to find a single corner of the street which, according to which language was taken into account, was used as a place for business, for worship, for romantic encounters and for a fight, also depending on context and the time of day and week in which one was observing the location. figure 3: love vs turin: a moment in the visualization of love as expressed in the city using social networks. as for the original scope of the work, "love vs. turin", we produced a visualization which showed the peaks of love, as identified across the different parts of the city (figure 3). in terms of 'ubiquitous acupuncture', a series of live, collaborative experiments, involving research performed through visualizations, uses of the online tools, field trips across the city, visiting the "emotional landmarks" and discussions with people about their possible motives for these kinds of expression. the latter type of experiment was particularly insightful when combined with the practice of direct user engagement. users were identified for expressing "love" in different parts of the city with recurring patterns and modalities, and they were directly contacted and engaged with the planned objective of collaboratively designing ways in which more love could be easily expressed in those same favorite locations. thirty five people were engaged in this way through an organized workshop and a participatory field experiment. the next sub-section contrasts our work in turin with that of rome. ec(m1): the cultural ecosystem of the city of rome in august 2013, with the collaboration of the cultural council of the first municipality of the city of rome, we initiated the ec(m1) project, aiming to create the first 'cultural ecosystem' of the city. this system was built to capture in real time the public activity of citizens and operators using social networks to express themselves about music, theater, cinema, the arts, publishing, traditions, history and heritage, sports, tourism and media. our observations started on august 15th 2013, and are currently on-going. up to the time of writing more than 3 million content elements have been harvested in 29 languages. of these languages, 15 have been confirmed as being the most common languages spoken daily across the city. in our analysis, about seven thousand formal and informal cultural operators have been identified (4186 informal ones, and 3654 formal ones), promoting and communicating their projects and initiatives in the city of rome (event organizers, associations, artists, education operators and more). about 1.5 millions of user profiles have been identified, including tourists. from these data, a series of initial results have already been identified, including the following: figure 4: ec(m1), the cultural ecosystem of the city of rome: the techcrunch italy 2013 event as it is happening, in the northern part of the city. abundance of operators with weak interconnections and a wide presence of outsiders. the more than 7000 operators which have currently been identified are joined by a vast number of smaller operators, artists and various other different profiles (from food bloggers, to writers, to designers and makers) enacting a rich cultural dialogue; a few operators are found to be extremely well connected among themselves; less than 10% of the actors implement more than 50% of the initiatives which are communicated and which effectively reach their targets on social networks; apart from a minimal number of exceptions, operators work alone (about 34%), or with the collaboration of a maximum of 2 other operators (about 25%); the vast majority of operators (around 86%) do not perform collaborative and/or synergistic communication with other operators; low interest in discovery: citizens take part in events with a limited number of operators, the majority of the audiences take part in events promoted by only 1 operator (12%), or 2-5 operators (49%); results have a large variation according to the cost of the events: in the case of events which are not free the part of the public that accesses events from 1 single operator increases up to 62%; evidence of niches which act as inter-connectors amongst different communities. perfectly distinguishable subjects act as bridges among communities, and establish push-pull dynamics among the different communities; these user profiles are particularly interesting in their ability to traverse audiences and to create thematic mobility; limited, but present, user mobility. the mobility to reach the events has turned out to be quite limited; about 20% of the identified users go to 3-5 different neighborhoods to attend events, and only 3% openly avoid moving from their own neighborhood; an interesting phenomenon concerns the "univocal destination", with about 30% of the identified citizens expressing the will to attend events which take place in a single neighborhood (as it happens for example for the pigneto, san lorenzo or monti districts); in 4% of these cases, the chosen neighborhood is the one they live in. concurrent with our observations, the techcrunch italy event was held in rome, at the maxxi museum of contemporary arts, on 26-27 september 2013. this allowed us to take a snapshot of the cultural ecosystem before, during, and after the event (i.e. 3 days, 5 days and 15 days after the event). figure 4 uses the geographical visualization to show the social media eco-system in rome concurrent with the techcrunch italy. the objective of this type of observation was to gain better visual understandings about the impacts that such a large event would bring into the city's relational eco-system. during the techcrunch event a large number of social interactions took place (more than 80 thousand content elements were generated for that event alone), establishing instantaneous relationships. the scenario radically changed in the days following the event. of the almost 15 thousand new relations that were formed during the event, almost none showed any sign of persistence at the 15 days mark. to describe this using a metaphor, the event was like a "clap of hands", creating excitement during its execution, but leaving almost no trace after its end. this trend was also confirmed at the level of content production. for example, during the 3 days following the event there was a high number of commentaries which focused around the event and on the topics which were discussed-with cross-references among users that confirmed the newly created relations. but as early as the 15 days mark, almost no trace was left of the event in the context of discussions: only about 94 of the newly formed relationships still showed some mutual interaction, declining even more steeply in the following days. basically everyone that attended the techcrunch event in rome was part of a series of communities which remained substantially unchanged as quickly as 15 days after the event. this observation opened up a set of fundamental questions for the administrations, also based on the previous experiences and results. for instance, how can an administration, an event organizer, or a group of citizens create an eco-systemic event? this would be an event that is capable of bringing change and transformation to the wider society, effectively creating new relations and fostering a higher level and persistence of citizen participation and engagement. another question is: how can such a process be measured, researched through simulations and provoked through direct interventions so as to leverage the human topography of the ecosystem, using the novel definition of 'urban acupuncture' that we are giving to this process? or, how can guidelines and best practices be created to facilitate this opportunity? our ongoing research has identified the importance of dealing with the complexity of human relations and with the desire to bring change and new enabling models in 'urban eco-systems'. to further assess these questions and issues, we have started, with the support of the rome city administration, a series of open meetings focused on the 'cultural eco-system'. each 'cultural eco-system' meeting starts with a presentation whose objective is to highlight the possibilities (to include into the discourse the people and organizations which might have not attended previous meetings), and to introduce the state of the art of the eco-system, bringing into light the current state of the experiment, our findings, the feedback we received and the changes which we adopted to take them into account. we then proceed with parallel workshops-some of which are thematic and vertical (e.g. arts, music, funding opportunities, etc.), and some of which are horizontal-to deal more closely with the eco-system. the former meetings are intended to form focus groups in which people and organizations are able to promote their visions and proposals on each verticalization. the latter meetings contribute to the creation of what we are explicitly calling the "eco-systemic office", a place (physical or virtual) to which citizens and organizations can refer to position themselves in the eco-system, learn how navigate, understand and use it to find collaborations, resources, participation and the possibility to confront with common issues. objectives of this office include re-establishing and enhancing the flows of relations, information, knowledge and participation across subjects and communities, the public body of the urban ecosystem. the final section of the paper discusses some of the conclusions we have devised from our interim research in turin and rome. conclusions the current outcomes of this series of projects are many and touching-upon a varied set of fundamental issues. we will now try to answer our initial research questions, and discuss six synoptic conclusions that we have derived from our interim research in rome and turin below. as we have seen from the large number, variety and ubiquity of the content that we have collected, it is possible to approximate the relational eco-system in a city by using people's expressions on social networks, and to observe, analyze and measure this, with a few precautions and context-dependent considerations. our main concern, in this sense, is with the presence of multiple types of divides: cultural, technological, educational. social networks host only part of the population: young people are more represented; people from different neighborhoods, backgrounds, cultures, jobs etc. use them in different ways; people use them for various reasons and contexts. the reasons are many, and their description is beyond the scope of this note. it is important, here, to highlight how it must be clear the way in which these analyses take into account a part of the city, not its entirety. this, in our case, has also transformed into an opportunity, as we have been able to collaborate with cities, using datasets such as census and other statistics and demographics in their possession, to understand the consistency and variety of what is not represented in the relational ecosystem expressed on social networks. one example among many concerns the wide variety of asian communities, from chinese, to bengalese and others. with the administration, we have observed the social networking messages in their languages, and used them to describe their 'part' of the relational eco-system of the city. then we compared this with the demographics and statistics (immigration, census) in the administration's possession, to understand what was missing (22% of the immigrant population from asian countries did not seem to use social networks), and their interconnections with the rest of the eco-system (for example, a remarkable finding was confirmed on the role of 2nd generation immigrant children and young adults, who were revealed to be the most influential bridges and brokers, as defined in the previous sections, between the different ecosystems). in the end, this kind of issue is both a problem and an opportunity. given the answer to the first question, it has proven to be fairly simple to give an answer to the second: having taken notice of the limitations (and opportunities) of this approach, it is in practice straightforward to capture and model the ways in which information, knowledge and emotions (for example on specific issues, topics or news) flow among the communities: within them and across them. the data is accessible and can be aggregated, compared, weighted, measured, modeled in networks and graphs, simulated and, in general, used to gain better understandings of the communication in cities, within and across communities, and in its continuous transformation. the third question has been, to all effect, answered through practice: open data and accessible information visualizations have been made available and usable to administrations, citizens, organizations and associations, and has been used, for example in rome, by hundreds of people to shape the way in which they collaborate with their administration, their fellow citizens, their audiences, communities, thematic groups and more. a few considerations on the modalities according to which this data and visualizations has been made available can be found below, in the six synoptic conclusions which will form the end of this note. first of all is the shifting definition of public and private spaces in the 'information era', and the impacts of this transformation on our perception, on the possibility to effectively use (perceived) public spaces, and on fundamental rights. as stated in the previous sections, citizens perceive the digital spaces of social networks as potentially public spaces, in which to express their emotions, visions, desires, and often establishing profound, engaging, wide conversations about the (near) future of our cities and lives as citizens. it is for this reason that the need to define more advanced regulations for the fair, open, transparent usage of these spaces (and of the public information which they contain) should be among the priorities of governments and administrations. this also involves taking care of the necessary educational and regulatory initiatives to foster a growing degree of literacy which is needed to help and support citizens to protect their basic rights to privacy, and their freedom of expression and information. second, a series of technical and technological issues have also been identified for further investigation. this includes the need to achieve better, more meaningful strategies for content classification. while the current setup allows for the potential to achieve an acceptable level of adaptability (to the emerging trends, for example) and configurability, more tools and techniques are still needed to allow users of the eco-systems to easily configure their own classifications of interest. third, we have also identified digital social network content clustering strategies to be still somewhat too simple for the objectives we set forth. while they are appropriate for content classification by theme and emotional expression -, communities and other forms of user clusters by language, topic, geographical area, timeframe, and any recombination of these parameters, they still lack the flexibility that would enable users of the eco-system to autonomously and accessibly build their own clustering strategies. fourth, one item that needs immediate attention is the open data component of the system. a more complete set of functionalities must be quickly implemented to allow other researchers and practitioners to use them for their own research and other purposes, so that the rate of adoption and engagement would be able to rise exponentially. fifth, new tools, visualizations and report templates will be needed to support further design and development, in order to allow non-technical users to benefit from an augmented degree of accessibility and usability, especially in the areas of comparative analysis (such as in the techcrunch italy scenario), or in the execution of simulations. sixth, all of the above and more issues will form the next steps of the research. the positive results that were achieved in studying rome's events show the opportunity to further develop the renewed definition of 'urban acupuncture' which we described at the outset of this research note. from the perspective of finding localized "pressure points" onto which to act to provoke wider results to appear, we have found the relational-oriented visualizations and tools to be truly effective. by using network views to understand the flows of information and emotion across communities and territories, researchers and citizens have been able to autonomously form their own strategies for urban intervention. simple questions such as "how can we organize citizens to clean this park?" were asked to explore new research possibilities for our work. our analysis started from observing communities and their relational topographies to understand how single users that expressed interest in urban decor, for example, could be engaged to obtain high visibility and emotional response. relevant community bridges and influencers could be easily recognized and directly contacted through social networks to form small focus groups that had shown the potential to engage large number of citizens. basic communication strategies were collaboratively designed and, then, the communication was started, bearing substantial levels of user engagement, which eventually led to activation beyond the digital domain (as the more than 500 participants to the second event have shown). more complex questions have also been explored in our research process. for example, the teatro valle an occupied theater in rome is currently working to use the 'human ecosystem' to enact multiple 'urban acupuncture' processes intended to form the venue's next event season. by using the relational visualizations small, but well interconnected, communities of theater and performing arts lovers have been engaged to organize the collaborative processes which will lead to the definition of next season's events. again: small interventions identified by gaining better understandings of information, communication and emotional flows in the city, lead to larger, participatory results. all of these considerations represent, from our point of view, a definite incentive towards expanding and enhancing this research path. references appleyard, d. (1969). why buildings are known. environment and behavior, 1, 131-156. bermingham, a., smeaton, a.f. (2010). classifying sentiment in microblogs: is brevity an advantage? cikm '10 proceedings of the 19th acm international conference on information and knowledge management, 1833-1836. berry, m. (1992). large-scale sparse singular value computations. international journal of supercomputer applications, 6(1), 13-49. carvalho, p., sarmento, l., silva, m.j., de oliveira, e. (2009). clues for detecting irony in user-generated contents: oh...!! it's "so easy" ;-). tsa '09 proceedings, cikm workshop on topic-sentiment analysis for mass opinion, 53-56. casagrande, m. (2008). cross-over architecture and the third generation city. epifanio 9. retrieved 31 october 2013 from http://www.epifanio.eu/nr9/eng/cross-over.html casagrande, m. 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(1960). the image of the city. cambridge: mit press. mccullough, m. (2005). digital ground: architecture, pervasive computing, and environmental knowing. cambridge: mit press. mitchell, w.j. (1996). city of bits: space, place, and the infobahn. cambridge: mit press. mongodb, http://www.mongodb.org/ retrieved on october 31st 2013 openstreetmap, key:place. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/key:place retrieved on 01/09/2013. openstreetmap, map features. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/map_features retrieved on 01/09/2013 ortony, a., clore, g.l., foss, m.a. (1987). the psychological foundations of the affective lexicon. journal of personality and social psychology, 751-766. strapparava, c., mihalcea, r. (2008). learning to identify emotions. text in sac'08. techcrunch italy 2013, http://www.techcrunch-italy.com/ retrieved on 31/10/2013 wordnet affect, http://wndomains.itc.it retrieved on 01/09/2013. zook, m.a., graham, m. (2007). mapping digiplace: geocoded internet data and the representation of place. environment and planning b: planning and design, 34(3), 466-482. community informatics in cities: new catalysts for urban change editorial joci special issue on urban planning and community informatics liisa horelli1 & david sadoway2 aalto university, finland. email: liisa.horelli@aalto.fi concordia university, canada (editorial advisory board: jennifer cowley, marcus foth, reinout kleinhans, joanna saad-sulonen, carlos nunes silva, & patrick sunter) over a year and a half ago, we proposed a journal of community informatics (joci) special issue on urban planning and community informatics (ci). from the wide array of 32 original proposals that we received in response to our call, eight peer reviewed articles and five research notes were selected. this assemblage of papers-representing a trickling-up of urban digital experiments-originates from a breadth of locations from across the world. if we undertake another call in the future, we hope to deepen our coverage by encouraging contributions from informatics scholars in african cities and many others to participate. our initial call for papers in 2013-devised by a geographically and disciplinary diverse editorial advisory board-posed a range of questions and issues for the authors to reflect upon. overall, we sought to elicit knowledge about the unique digital initiatives that are continuously emerging in urban and regional planning and urban governance practices. in particular, we were interested in information and communication technology (ict) enabling civic engagement and local decision-support experiments, innovations and experiences, including the roles of various publics and planners in them. we were also curious about the provision and maintenance of ict tools and infrastructures, and pressing issues about public interests, public goods and service provisions in fast-changing urban digital landscapes. another area of concern in our original call related to how 'expert' urban planning technologies work with 'mundane' technologies, especially in community-based applications (see also thrift, 2014). in addition, we were also eager to learn about the changing role of 'big data' and 'open source' software in civic decision making. however, even in the short period since our original call, the deployment of icts in cities has continued to explode and increasingly ci-based self-organizing has been taking place in cities, as manifest in the ongoing diversity of local non-profit and civic-cyber innovations. furthermore, the 'smart city' boom has also hit the urban stage all over the world with the seeming promise that digital technology and ict infrastructures will solve current and future wicked problems-despite, however, possibly creating entirely novel wicked problems in the process (staffans & horelli, this issue; sadoway & shekar, this issue). the collection of papers in this joci special issue provides us with specific insights into local experiments or adaptations. these are windows into how fast changing digital technologies are being shaped by (and in turn shaping) urban planning and community-based practices in disparate global locations. this editorial therefore seeks to identify some of the key associative patterns ('streams') of informatics themes that are identifiable in the studies, analyses, reports, and notes that were submitted. we will briefly discuss the similarities, differences and exchanges between the 13 papers assembled here; and we will attempt to identify what thematic streams of ict-related praxis are emerging in local urban community informatics experiences internationally. the blurring of real and virtual; local and global the 13 papers in this joci special issue all represent a variety of perspectives, foci and scales of analysis, but they share an urban context that is characterized by the global-local and real-virtual dialectic-illustrated, for example, by staffans and horelli's article (this issue), expanded urban planning as a vehicle for understanding and shaping smart liveable cities. their work attempts to devise an integrated framework for understanding the 'smart cities' agenda from a new approach to urban planning enhanced by ci. the paper by staffans and horelli also builds on an interest of urban community informatics scholars in how icts are increasingly being implicated in the production of city-region space-including with the involvement of big ict firms-thus interlinking the global to the local. in relation to the production of g/local spaces, memoravic et al. (this issue), depict how mobile phones and computers have transformed cafés in paris into new hybrid versions of so-called 'third places' or 'third spaces.' discussions about how digital tools are shifting the perception and conception of urban places and spaces is notable in the paper of rienwald et al. (this issue), whose research focuses on augmented reality (ar) applications in participatory urban transportation planning in vienna. their piece, augmented reality at the service of participatory urban planning and community informatics , demonstrates how the blurring of the 'real' and the 'virtual' can help in developing an instrument of city planning that enables lay people to better understand future urban contexts (see also gordon & manosevitch, 2010); and at the same time prevents the potential for manipulation of expert-devised models by experts themselves. interdependencies between the local and the global scales are also demonstrated in, community-based pedestrian mapmaking, a paper by konstantinos chorianopoulos (this issue). his work shows how community-based cartography and data collection for local walking paths might facilitate urban planning and design-rather than being solely dependent on geographic information systems (gis) that typically employ road-oriented global maps. chorianopoulos's study also demonstrates how gis digital representations of space can lock-in pre-existing infrastructural dependencies, such as the bias of digital street maps towards car navigation, but also how this may be overcome in digital data collection approaches that emphasize pro-pedestrian urban planning and design. antoniadis and apostol, in their paper, the right(s) to the hybrid city and the role of diy networking (this issue), address longstanding urban power issues that pre-date contemporary icts. linking to the larger debate on the right to the city (brenner et al ., 2012), their work-which toggles between bologna, italy and brooklyn, new yorkexamines how traditional notions of rights to the city and urban spaces are morphing in the digital and do-it-yourself (diy) network society (see also iveson, 2013). drawing upon urban theory (including henri lefebvre's classic work from 1991) and contemporary digital practices, they engage in a type of thought experiment that inquires if and how citizen's can 'compete' with large ict corporations in reclaiming their rights to the city. as the discussion above illustrates, the ict-linked changes in the co-production of city spaces and their g/local interdependencies are two of the key conceptual streams of narratives that emerged in this collection of papers. however, important differences between these publications can also be seen in their foci on how ci and urban planning interrelate. the next section elaborates on these distinctions. from specific digital tools to embedded socio-technological systems technology is of course a common issue in all of the articles, but some authors focus on the uses of specific digital tools , such as in, exploring the use of ppgis in self-organizing urban development, by schmidt-thomé et al.,(this issue); whereas other authors see icts as potentially part of a socio-technical system that requires careful planning. the former is evident in the paper by schmidt-thomé et al., which chronicles the development of a 'softgis' tool in a san diego neighbourhood (pacific beach) as a means to connect local community organizations and experiential knowledge with the aim of devising participatory planning geographic information systems (ppgis; see also sieber, 2006; sui et al. , 2013). the latter, ict praxis interwoven within socio-technical systems, is evident in benjamin stokes et al´s article, neighborhood planning of technology: physical meets digital city from the bottom-up, (this issue) which examines how the embedding of technology is a long-term effort that requires different types of social scaffolding. his work poses the important question: can a community-embedded process be sustained beyond short-term hackathons and planning meetings? the importance of looking beyond specific digital tools to how icts are shaping and shaped by socio-technical systems is also notable in the paper, ict-mediated adaptive capacity of environmental third sector in australia, by subas dhakal. his work leads to the claim that ci is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for enhancing the mobilization of citizens and the betterment of the environment. are icts prompting novel forms of urban governance and citizenship? another thematic stream we identify in the papers relates to how ict practices are reshaping both urban governance and ideas about citizenship and civic life . for example, geisa bugs points out in her research note, improving citizenship and the right to the city by using icts, (this issue) how the increasing uses of social media enhances the ability to communicate and interact not just amongst peers, but also with local administrators and politicians. this use of icts, she argues, is slowly changing citizen's relationship with their governments and urban spaces in brazil. the theme of citizens and government is also taken up in katia balassiano and christopher seeger's paper, empowering newcomers with low-tech workshops and high-tech analyses , (this issue). their work examines how recent foreign immigrants to semi-rural american 'new gateway communities' in iowa might benefit from new informal or semi-formal sites of co-governance. for example, in shopping malls immigrant women discuss local affairs and access information. this work suggests that a combination of 'low tech' face-to-face participatory planning workshops when augmented with a 'high tech' (gis) spatial mapping and modelling approach shows potential to empower and integrate new residents into the community. some of the urban technological solutions that the papers identify not only blend the physical and the virtual, but they also identify novel redefinitions of what public space and public spheres mean. for instance, corelia baibarac suggests in her article, the 'urban spacebook' experimental process: co-designing a platform for participation , that new forms of participatory urban governance are being prompted by new digital ways of understanding city spaces. her overview of digital experiments in dublin, ireland, suggests that icts can illicit new conversations and co-participation in urban planning and local governance. the research note by sadoway and shekhar (this issue) also examines how a non-profit organization has devised citizen-driven online crowdsourced and open data approaches to educate, enable, and activate residents of chennai, india. their work, (re)prioritizing citizens in 'smart cities' governance: examples of smart citizenship from india , seeks to provide examples that contrast the valorisation of consumer or corporate driven approaches to 'smart cities' with the importance of 'smart citizenship' in local urban governance. similarly, staffans and horelli (this issue) also indicate that new forms of urban informatics linked to urban governance are increasingly relying upon deliberation and self-organization. thus, local digital co-governance can be regarded as an endeavour that takes place in varied spaces and places-ranging from the formal (city councils); to the semi-formal (local forums); and informal (citizens); and varying in terms of activities, networks, partnerships, structures, or public spheres (see also mccall & dunn, 2012). their work suggests that it is the mixed digital / non-digital spheres-where different public, private and third sector parties can meetwhich urban planners should direct their attention to. novel urban planning praxis emerging in smart cities? as noted above, both staffans and horelli's and sadoway and shekhar's works inquire about how citizenship and urban governance are being reshaped in relation to the 'smart cities' agenda. but what about urban planning approaches and practices? at the same time as communities and planners employ and engage with icts and smart city concepts (see e.g. townsend, 2013), the papers in this joci special issue also prompt us to ask whether novel forms of urban planning are emerging in the process? noteworthy is how new urban imaginaries are being articulated and abetted through digital praxis. for example, memarovic et al. (this issue) explore neighbourhoods in france, brazil, and the u.s. to examine an updated concept of 'third places' in their article, rethinking third places: contemporary design with technology . they demonstrate, how third places or the informal and semi-formal urban living room uses, such as barber shops, bars and cafés, remain highly relevant for addressing the contemporary liveability of cities. the emphasis on the continued importance of understanding and attending to the needs and aspirations of neighbourhoods in urban planning is also identifiable in iaconesi and persico's research note (this issue), urban acupuncture in the era of ubiquitous media . their work-focused on cases in rome and turin-devises a unique methodology for understanding the emergent urban 'infoscape' in relation to interactions between digital social networks, sensors, and cloud computing. their exploratory investigations and article refers to, 'urban acupuncture' as small-scale but socially catalytic interventions into the urban fabric with the potential for 'sustainable projects' which could "serve as needles that revitalize the whole by healing the parts." deployment of urban acupuncture, they suggest, comprise a technique that devises mental maps of the city based on visual analyses-drawn from harvested big data on commercial digital social network services-and in turn, reveal an information rich relational ecosystem. the challenge for urban planners and others that remains is how to understand or create an ecosystem event with more meaningful impact rather than just examining digital traces of a momentary concert or a spectacle. other papers envision evolving forms of participatory planning which could be enabled by digital tools or platforms that encourage collaborative and co-production in urban planning (baibarac, this issue). according to staffans and horelli's paper (this issue), expanded urban planning represents a vehicle to co-create smart and liveable cities. this involves the intertwining of planning, community development and co-governance, enhanced by community informatics. this approach is based upon multiple community participations, including in the design of digital tools. expanding also suggests on-going challenges, such as: integrating the local with the global; reconciling institutional demands with everyday life; addressing long term and short term concerns and needs; dovetailing or sorting the virtual digital and the physical, while at the same time attempting to balance formal, semi-formal and informal activities and processes. such ambitious conceptualizations of urban planning, as well as the trickling of tools, experiments and ideas are suggested in this special number. these issues will be further elaborated in the final section. do many trickles make a stream of urban community informatics themes? we have identified some of the key thematic narratives that emerged from the publications that were collected for this joci special issue. some of the conceptual streams that were touched-upon are: ict-linked urban participation and engagement; how digital tools and techniques were (or could be) redefining and conceiving of urban spaces; and potentially new modes and models of urban governance and citizenship. another theme is related to authors envisioning novel, though perhaps tentative, forms of urban planning-particularly in the era of 'smart cities.' while the papers and research notes are primarily focused on distinct digital tools (or methodologies), their g/local contexts all vary greatly, and the authors represent a diversity of research, observations, and experiences from activists, academics, or planners. given that these papers did not involve the perspective of corporate men or women, nor politicians among them, this trickling of ideas represents one set of community informatics practices and visions. these community-interested or community-informed studies all serve to illustrate how community informatics in its different forms can mobilize urban citizens and residents to improve their environs and everyday life. such approaches can provide guidance to future urban scholars and urbanists with an emphasis on the responsibility of citizens to take care of their 'urbs`, which is not just a local affair, but part of a planetary culture. the emerging message in this assemblage of work is that community-shaped digital experiments or ci approaches can potentially be catalysts for change. several of the works emphasize, however, that ci-related approaches need to be embedded in new forms of participatory urban planning and governance that take seriously the g/local context. whether local, bottom-up community initiatives, aligned with a ci approach have transformative systemic power in the long run remains to be seen-however, we argue that ongoing knowledge exchange and networking remain a crucial part of this long-term endeavour. references antoniadis, p. & apostol, i. (2014). the right(s) to the hybrid city and the role of diy networking. journal of community informatics 10(3). baibarac, c. (2014). the 'urban spacebook' experimental process: co-designing a platform for participation. journal of community informatics 10(3). balassiano, k. & seeger, c. (2014). empowering newcomers with low-tech workshops and high-tech analyses. journal of community informatics 10(3). brenner, n., marcuse, p. & mayer, m. (2012) (eds.), cities for people, not for profit. critical urban theory and the right to the city . new york: routledge. bugs, g. (2014). improving citizenship and the right to the city by using icts . journal of community informatics 10(3). chorianopoulos, k. (2014). community-based pedestrian mapmaking . journal of community informatics 10(3). dhakal, s. p. (2014). ict-mediated adaptive capacity of environmental third sector in australia . journal of community informatics 10(3). foth, m., choi, j.h. & satchell, c. (2011). urban informatics. in proceedings of the acm 2011 conference on computer supported cooperative work (cscw '11). acm, new york, ny, usa, 1-8. doi=10.1145/1958824.1958826 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1958824.1958826 gordon, e. & manosevitch, e. (2010). augmented deliberation: merging physical and virtual interaction to engage communities in urban planning. new media & society , 13(1), 75-95. lefebvre, h. (1991). the production of space . oxford uk: blackwell. iaconesi, s. & persico, o. (2014). urban acupuncture in the era of ubiquitous media. journal of community informatics 10(3). iveson, k. (2013). cities within the city: do-it-yourself urbanism and the right to the city. international journal of urban and regional research , 37(3), 941-956. mccall, m. & dunn, c. (2012). geo-information tools for participatory spatial planning: fulfilling the criteria for 'good' governance? geoforum, 43, 81-94. memoravic, n., fels, s., anacleto, j., calderon, r., gobbo, g., & carroll, j.m. (2014). rethinking third places: contemporary design with technology. journal of community informatics 10(3). reinwald, f., berger, m., stoik, c., platzer,m. & damyanovic, d. (2014). augmented reality at the service of participatory urban planning and community informatics. journal of community informatics 10(3). sadoway, d. & shekhar, s. (2014). (re)prioritizing citizens in smart cities governance: examples of smart citizenship from urban india . journal of community informatics 10(3). schmidt-thomé, k. et al (2014). exploring the use of ppgis in self-organizing urban development. journal of community informatics 10(3) sieber, r. (2006). public participation geographic information systems: a literature review and framework. annals of the association of american geographers , 96(3), 491-457. staffans, a. & horelli, l. (2014). expanded urban planning as a vehicle for understanding and shaping smart liveable cities. journal of community informatics 10(3). stokes, b., bar, f., baumann, k. & caldwell, b. (2014). neighborhood planning of technology: physical meets digital city from the bottom-up. journal of community informatics 10(3). sui, d., elwood, s. & goodchild, m. (eds.) (2013) crowdsourcing geographic knowledge. volunteered geographic information (vgi) in theory and practice . dordrecht: springer. thrift, n. (2014). commentary: the promise of urban informatics: some speculations. environment and planning a , 46, 1263-1266. townsend, a.m. (2013). smart cities: data, civic hackers, and the quest for a new utopia. new york: w.w. norton & company, inc. 06-1358-8079-4-ce the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles bringing community back to community health worker studies: community interactions, data collection, and health information flows community health workers (chws) have the potential to be a great resource in the further growth of fledgling healthcare systems in developing countries. through their position as community members, chws can interact with other individuals in the areas where they live and work, serving as valuable health resources by providing basic health information and referrals up the healthcare chain. however, few studies examine chws from a community-based perspective. this study analyzes the work and relationships of several chws working for the mashavu mhealth venture in nyeri, kenya. using participant observation and interviews, the workflows of these chws were investigated with a specific eye towards interactions between chws and their communities and how these interactions affect potential health data collection opportunities. this community-based perspective reveals unique insights into the workflows of the chws as well as how technology might be designed to support them. !75 eric ryan obeysekare pennsylvania state university, usa corresponding author. eric.obeysekare@gmail.com khanjan mehta lehigh university, usa krm716@lehigh.edu carleen maitland pennsylvania state university, usa cmaitland@ist.psu.edu obeysekare, e., mehta, k., maitland, c. (2017). bringing community back to community health worker studies: community interactions, data collection, and health information flows. the journal of community informatics, 13(3), 75—97. date submitted: 2016-10-24. date accepted: 2017-08-21. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1358 . http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1358 mailto:eric.obeysekare@gmail.com mailto:krm716@lehigh.edu mailto:cmaitland@ist.psu.edu http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1358 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction access to healthcare in the developing world is a pressing concern, affected by factors including location, finances, and availability of health resources (peters et al., 2008). among these, the most significant is an overall lack of healthcare professionals in lowresource contexts (world health organization, 2014). community health workers (chws), individuals who receive limited training in healthcare (as compared with better trained nurses or doctors), are one way to address this deficit (swider s. m., 2002). chws are community members with an interest in public health who work, often without pay, to promote better health within their own communities. in recent years, chw programs have been growing, with the world health organization estimating in 2011 there were over 1.3 million chws worldwide (world health organization, 2011). given the relative novelty of these programs, governments and non-governmental organizations (ngos) are still identifying how they can best be used to improve fledgling healthcare systems in developing countries. one potential role for chws is serving as data collectors. a lack of data, particularly for understanding general health trends and challenges, is an ongoing problem in developing country healthcare provision. data collection is seen as one way to improve healthcare delivery and is an area where chws can be harnessed. research on the use of information and communication technologies (icts) in health data collection in developing countries focuses on several areas: the use of mobile phones for healthcare and health information purposes (trause et al., 2014; braun, catalani, wimbush, & israelski, 2013; kahn, yang, & kahn, 2010), the deployment and evaluation of health information systems in developing countries (odhiambo-otieno and odero, 2005; kimaro and nhampossa, 2005; braa, hanseth, heywood, mohammed, & shaw, 2007), and how health data from developing countries can be harnessed (bram, warwickclark, obeysekare, & mehta, 2015). however, the impact of these efforts has been disappointing, with some considered outright failures. understanding the reasons for these failures, and more specifically the factors that affect health data collection in these contexts, will help improve chw programs and unlock their true potential. to address this goal of generating a greater understanding of health data collection, our research focuses on one of the most valuable characteristics of chws: their status as community members, which enables them to effectively reach the people they are serving. chws can communicate easily with and are well-known in their communities. for example, chws in a study conducted in kenya emphasized the importance of being friendly in their interactions with others, mentioning that this can aid in the sharing of important information (trause et al.). furthermore, chws’ relationships with the community members they serve is a critical factor affecting their success as healthcare workers (strachan et al., 2012). it is clear chws’ position within their communities influences their work as healthcare providers. however, research has yet to examine this broader role, outside the context of communicating health information, despite calls for just that type of research as far back as 1984 (nichter, 1984). viewing chws as community members, not simply health workers, raises a critical question: what types of interactions take place between chws and their communities and how do these affect potential health data collection? !76 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 this article addresses these questions through a case study of mashavu, an mhealth venture focused on health information provision in kenya. expanding from a narrow view focused solely on health data collection to a broader picture of information flows between chws and community members enables a more careful analysis of how information and communication technologies might be effectively used by chws. in what follows, we begin with a review of the literature on chws, health information systems, and social capital, and then describe the methods of this study. a short introduction to mashavu is then followed by the findings of this research. a discussion of the implications of these findings is then given. finally, recommendations for the design of technologies to be used by chws are outlined. this article will be of interest to three groups, namely those working with chw programs in developing countries, academics studying the role of community in the use of technology, and designers developing data collection technologies for use in low-resource contexts. related work relevant related work for this study comes from three bodies of literature: chw studies, health information system studies, and social capital and trust studies. the following section will highlight important points from these bodies. chws the world health organization’s alma ata declaration in 1978 established health as a basic human right. achieving this goal in developing countries requires the expansion of healthcare systems, many of which are experiencing a shortage of trained healthcare workers (naicker, plange-rhule, tutt, & eastwood, 2009). to address this deficit many countries are turning to community health workers (chws) (swider s. m., 2002). community health workers can be described as “community members who work almost exclusively in community settings and who serve as connectors between health care consumer and providers to promote health among groups that have traditionally lacked access to adequate care” (witmer, seifer, finocchio, leslie, & o'neil, 1995). literature on community health workers, summarized below, consists of three general themes: general information about chws and their effectiveness, empowering chws with technology, and studies of the working networks of chws. individuals facilitating health services in their own communities is an idea that has existed for more than 50 years (lehmann and sanders, 2007). however, following the alma ata declaration, formal chw programs began to emerge as a means of reaching this goal (christopher, le may, lewin, & ross, 2011). a report by the world health organization states “chws can make a valuable contribution to community development and, more specifically, can improve access to and coverage of communities with basic health services” (lehmann and sanders, 2007). but who are community health workers? the characteristics and demographics of chws vary widely both within countries and between countries (lehmann and sanders, 2007). some national chw programs utilize only women while others have no gender requirements and are composed of both male and female chws. a study conducted in !77 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 kenya found the gender of chws did not change their effectiveness (trause, et al.). chws are often of adult age (lehmann and sanders, 2007). however, unlike gender, age can have an effect on chws as they do their jobs – younger community members often are more comfortable talking to chws closer to their age about sensitive topics (trause, et al.). while the education requirements for individuals wishing to become chws vary by country and program, most chws have little or no education beyond the secondary level (lehmann and sanders, 2007). while this does limit the level of care that chws can provide, it also makes the programs accessible to a large group of individuals. much of the literature on community health workers focuses on their effectiveness as healthcare providers. christopher et al.’s review of studies on chws’ impact on the prevention of child mortality and morbidity in sub-saharan africa recommended expanded chw programs in these regions, an effort that could have a noticeable impact on certain childhood illnesses (christopher, le may, lewin, & ross, 2011). another review arrived at similar results for childhood morbidity and mortality and also found chws can be effective in combating common illnesses (lewin et al., 2006). other studies look at the effectiveness of chws in fighting specific diseases like dysentery (ronsmans, bennish, & wierzba, 1988) or tuberculosis (islam, wakai, ishikawa, chowdhury, & vaughan, 2002). these studies are largely conducted by medical professionals interested in the use of chws to improve community health. a segment of the literature also examines how chws can be empowered to be more effective with technology. advances in information and communications technologies (icts) have the potential to improve healthcare systems, especially in developing countries (chandrasekhar and ghosh, 2001). this can be accomplished in multiple ways including the use of icts as an educational tool and using them to improve healthcare delivery in underserved areas. community health workers who are part of telemedicine or mhealth programs can use technology to both learn more about health issues and to communicate patient health data from remote areas to those with a greater number of trained healthcare professionals (trause et al., 2014). data collection is a task often relegated to chws and is an area where technology can be applied (braun, catalani, wimbush, & israelski, 2013). additionally, providing chws with innovative technology solutions will empower them to be more effective in their work (buehler, ruggiero and mehta, 2013). finally, research has also examined the social networks of community health workers. a study by campbell et al. (2014) focused on chws in malawi. recognizing these chws lacked important health information critical to their work, the research team designed a system, using mobile phones, to facilitate the flow of information. using social network analysis techniques, they then mapped the flow of health information among the chws and other support organizations. kaonga et al. (2013) used a similar approach, introducing a mobile phone system to a ghanaian health team. after analyzing communications between members of this health team, the researchers considered the organizational structure of the team with an interest in improving it. the organizational structures of several community health worker programs and organizations supporting them have also been studied in kenya and ethiopia aiming to increase the effectiveness of those chws (liu, sullivan, khan, sachs, & singh, 2011). !78 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the common theme between these studies is healthcare work done by community health workers and improving their effectiveness. a second commonality is their failure to recognize the relationships between these workers and members of the community. health information systems data and information flows generated by chws contribute to larger national health information systems. these systems and the analyses they enable aim to make more efficient use of scarce health resources. in kenya, the ministry of health created the health information systems department to collect health data and use it to improve the country’s healthcare system (odhiambo-otieno and odero, 2005). another study looked at the use of geographic information systems to better understand the spread of malaria across developing nations (omumbo et al., 1998). health information systems were also used in kenya to understand the impact of referrals from lower levels of the healthcare system, like rural clinics, on higher levels of the system, like hospitals (macintyre, lochigan and letipila, 2003). the use of technologies such as health information systems stands to benefit fledgling healthcare systems in developing countries. mhealth or mobile health systems are one specific type of health information system, that employ “mobile communication technologies to revolutionize healthcare service delivery and improve beneficiary health” (chib, 2013). a review of mhealth applications showed they can be used to spread health information over the internet, sms, and other mobile communication platforms, as well as connect community members with healthcare professionals, collect health data, and aid in health resource distribution (kahn, yang and kahn, 2010). mhealth programs are often targeted at chws, with successful ventures making chws more effective (braun, catalani, wimbush and israelski, 2013). the characteristics of mhealth venture users (the community members receiving mhealth services) is an area that has not been widely researched. a study examining mhealth quality did examine user characteristics, including demographic variables like age, sex, and income. it also examined situational phenomena such as service cost, past experiences, and social influence, as factors that affect the perceived quality of mhealth services (akter, d'ambra and ray, 2010). other studies give basic demographic characteristics about their customers. in a review of telemedicine business models, chen et al. examine the customer segments of several telemedicine ventures operating in developing countries, but little information is given about the demographics of customers, aside from one venture that focuses on women (chen, cheng and mehta, 2013). other mhealth programs are targeted specifically at pregnant women and women with children (chen, cheng, & mehta, 2013; larsen-cooper, bancroft, rajagopal, o'toole and levin, 2016). however, despite brief mentions, these studies do not provide any additional information about the users of mhealth services (for example, their motivations or behaviors). a more in-depth analysis of the customers of mhealth ventures is needed. implementing these health information systems, mhealth and national systems alike, is no easy task, with challenges ranging from workflows and standards to the very basic !79 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 issue of having data to share. a case study conducted in tanzania and mozambique found that creating sustainable health information systems faced several challenges, including the integration of these systems into the existing workflows of healthcare workers (kimaro and nhampossa, 2005). a need for standards in complex health information systems in developing countries is also identified as an important challenge for systems developers (braa, hanseth, heywood, mohammed and shaw, 2007). additionally, collecting data to be processed in these systems is necessary before any of their frequently spoken of benefits, like improved efficiency and better resource allocation, can be achieved (bram, warwick-clark, obeysekare and mehta, 2015). health information systems require data to be truly effective; data that could be collected by chws. existing literature has, for example, examined the reliability of data collected by chws in rwanda finding that while chws could collect reliable data, monthly reports created from these data were not of the same quality (mitsunaga, 2014). another study focused on the technical flow of data being collected by mhealth systems, investigating issues related to, among other concepts, data storage and security (prasad, 2015). data collection can also be challenging due to non-technical factors like a lack of incentives for chws to collect data, a lack of training about data collection, and privacy concerns (shovlin, ghen, simpson, & mehta, 2013; derenzi et al., 2011). it is also important for data collection tools to fit into existing workflows. this point is touched on in (chen k., 2011); however, their study focuses on data and technological aspects of the workflow. these challenges, as well as others, can lead to failure, either outright or from a sustainability standpoint. social capital and trust as chws are embedded in their communities, their work is likely to be affected by their social capital. perhaps the first occurrence of the term ‘social capital’ appeared in american literature in a 1985 translation of an earlier work of pierre bourdieu (bourdieu, 1985). bourdieu’s original definition of social capital explains it as “the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition” (bourdieu, 1985). that is to say the resources that are connected to membership in a group of which the members share some common traits. this therefore requires two things: membership in a group and some resources, tangible or intangible, that can be given to someone you know (portes, 1998). fukuyama, who has written extensively about both trust and social capital, calls social capital “any instance in which people cooperate for common ends on the basis of shared informal norms and values” (fukuyama, 2002). these definitions all have two things in common: social relationships based on something in common and the benefits one gains as a result. this is the basic definition that will be used in this article. trust and social capital are two concepts forming the basis of many parts of human interactions. the two concepts are closely related and both play an important role in the development of a community (fukuyama, 2002; fukuyama, 1996; humphery and schmitz, 1998; woolcock and narayan, 2000). because of their role in economic development, trust and social capital have important implications for researchers and !80 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 humanitarian aid workers in developing countries. according to fukuyama, “most developing countries actually have an abundance of social capital” (fukuyama, 2002). for researchers of information and communications technologies’ impact on economic development (ictd), these are important concepts as the introduction of technology may be able to increase both factors (heeks, 2008). examining social capital and trust in the specific domain of mhealth, akter et al. identified service quality and trust as two important factors potentially affecting the ability of an mhealth venture to continue operations (akter, ray, & d'ambra, 2012). trust is a key factor that customers consider when deciding whether to continue use of an mhealth service. another similar study looking at mhealth service quality identified interpersonal interaction quality and satisfaction as components of mhealth quality (akter, d'ambra, & ray, 2010). if chws are to work with mhealth programs, trust and social capital will be essential for their success. relationship maintenance, an integral component of social capital, is also likely to have implications for chws. given that social capital is predicated on a relationship between two parties, maintenance of that relationship is vital. trust and relationship maintenance are especially important in regard to service relationships – those relationships where one individual receives a service from another (aurier and n'goala, 2010). a study of banking relationships in bangladesh found that customer interaction is key to maintaining ties (fatima and razzaque, 2013). another study looking at banking in ghana found that relationship maintenance and maintaining a trustful relationship with customers increased their satisfaction (narteh and kuada, 2014). trust was also found to be central to selecting a healthcare service in brazil (fregidou-malama and hyder, 2015). together, these studies demonstrate that maintaining a strong relationship between service provider and customer promotes satisfaction and loyalty. research questions in summary, chws’ play a critical role in healthcare and health information systems. the data they collect can serve as the basis for effective national health systems, and technologies have been developed to help improve these systems’ information flows. however, their successful adoption needs to consider workflows as well as the relationships, shaped by social capital and trust, of the chws both with one another and with other members of their communities. despite their name, to date little research has been conducted about community health workers, community, and interactions between the two. for mhealth ventures and other attempts to design and deploy health information systems with chws, this is especially important. chw-community interactions are central to the success of such systems and factors such as trust and social capital must be investigated. therefore, by taking a community informatics perspective, this article will answer the following research questions: 1. how do chws’ interactions with the members of their communities affect information flows? 2. how do community ties and social capital affect the work of chws? !81 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 3. how do social factors, related to community, affect data collection and technology use by chws? methods this article presents a case study of mashavu, an mhealth venture operating in nyeri, kenya. nyeri is a town located in the central highlands of kenya. it has a daytime population of around 300,000 and a nighttime population of about 100,000; this difference is caused by the amount of regional business and social affairs that take place in nyeri due to it being the seat of the eponymous kenyan county. mashavu employs chws to provide basic health information to community members for a small fee. most chws in kenya operate as volunteers; mashavu gives chws the opportunity to earn some money while working. the venture exists as a larger action research project of the authors’ university’s humanitarian engineering and social entrepreneurship (hese) program. researchers work with mashavu and the venture’s chws to develop low-cost, sustainable solutions to healthcare issues seen in nyeri. this study was conducted during three weeks of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in nyeri, kenya in may 2014. the intent of this fieldwork was to evaluate a customdesigned data collection device that would allow the chws to collect digital health data (details of the design of this device can be found in wenner, marino, obeysekare, & mehta, 2014). during this time, data were collected using participant observation, semistructured interviews, and unstructured interviews. six 3 to 4-hour observation sessions were conducted with three mashavu chws. along with the three chws, these observations included several hundred community members, some of whom also answered questions from the researchers. observation in this study can be considered participant observation as the researchers also took part in the chws’ work while in the community (patton, 2002). participation included assisting the chws with measurements as they requested, as well as short conversations with community members while the chws worked with them. participant observation is a technique sometimes used in chw studies (harvey et al., 2008; kobetz et al., 2009) and its use has even been advocated for studies of community health and chw programs (nichter, 1984). throughout the participant observation sessions, unstructured or conversational interviews (patton, 2002) were conducted with the chws and community members to clarify phenomena seen during observations. after several observation sessions, interviews were scheduled with each of the chws to collect more information about their work and place in the community. these interviews were semi-structured interviews, another common technique in chw research (stekelenburg, kyanamina, & wolfers, 2003; cherrington et al., 2008), designed to discuss certain topics with the chws but in an open format that allowed them to express their opinions on a variety of different subjects. as the health data collection device needed to be directly integrated into the mashavu chws’ workflows, observation began without use of the device in order to better understand how the chws normally conduct their work for mashavu. this time also allowed for a rapport to be established between the chws and researchers before a new device was introduced into their workflow. following multiple sessions of observation !82 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 without the device, a meeting with the chws was conducted to demonstrate the health data collection device. observations then continued with the chws each taking a turn using the device during their workdays. as they used the device, feedback was collected from both the chws and the community members with whom they were conversing. results and findings of observations conducted during fieldwork are presented in this article. mashavu case study mashavu is a social entrepreneurial mhealth venture that was launched in 2011 by the pennsylvania state university’s humanitarian engineering and social entrepreneurship program. the mashavu venture has several goals: • to provide pre-primary healthcare to community members • to create a source of income for chws working with mashavu • to increase community member’s knowledge of basic health information • to create profits that can be re-invested into the growth and improvement of mashavu mashavu began its life as a telemedicine system designed to connect community members with professional nurses. in its first iteration, mashavu utilized stationary kiosks where individuals could come to receive health consultations (holmes, suffian, lackey, & mehta, 2014). chws working at these kiosks would collect health information about each patient that would then be transmitted via the internet to medical professionals who could make a preliminary diagnosis. subsequent models moved to make the chws more mobile by storing data on a mobile computing device until a connection could be established to send this data on to the nurses (qin, dzombak, amin, & mehta, 2013). efforts to improve mashavu resulted in further evolutions of the venture’s service and business model. these changes were aimed at maximizing the potential income that could be earned by mashavu chws while also making mashavu itself financially sustainable. in its current form, mashavu accomplishes its four goals by offering a service called “know your numbers”. mashavu chws are given basic medical equipment including a scale, tape measure, and blood pressure device, and are trained in their use. they then travel throughout nyeri and the surrounding communities and for a small fee provide interested individuals with their height, weight, blood pressure, pulse rate, and body mass index (bmi). this service costs 30 kenyan shillings and is priced to be the same price as a bottle of coca-cola. in addition to the medical information, these interactions allow chws to communicate medical advice about improving aspects of their health related to the provided information. during fieldwork in nyeri, the authors had the opportunity to extensively observe the chws as they provided the know your numbers service. at the time of data collection, there were three chws who were in good standing with mashavu. that is to say that they were consistently working and active within the organization. the three chws are all older women, the youngest roughly 45 years old !83 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 and the oldest roughly 60 years old. they all grew up in the nyeri area and speak the kikuyu language that is widely used in the area. although they speak kikuyu most often in their day-to-day lives, their english is quite good, and the researchers were able to easily communicate with all three chws in english. during their day-to-day work, the three chws each focus on communities throughout the greater nyeri region, communities that they themselves are a part of. findings and discussion results of this study can be grouped into four categories: the place of chws in their communities, interactions and health information flows of chws and community members, how social capital and health information flows affect chw entrepreneurship, and the data collection processes that the chws utilize. community health workers and their place in the community in this article, three different chws were interviewed and observed. literature on community health workers notes that chws are often women of adult age with little education (lehmann and sanders, 2007). all three community health workers fit these characteristics. the literature also notes that gender does not have a large effect on the work of chws (trause et al.). however, beyond these largely demographic qualities of chws, the literature does not contain much information about different types of chws. this study expands on that literature by identifying some characteristics of these particular chws. for example, some differences were noted between the working, social, and entrepreneurial attitudes of the three chws. one of the chws was noted to be the shyest member of the group upon first meeting her, something that was confirmed during subsequent observations and interviews. although she was quite active in one neighboring town, she was content with relatively fewer customers than the others. in addition, all her customers are individuals she met simply by offering the mashavu know your numbers service. this chw also conducts no other economic activities in the geographic areas analyzed, instead preferring to spend her time at home. rather than a critique, this is merely an observation of differences in her working and social styles as compared to the others discussed below. further, it appears she has received the least secondary benefits from the social capital gained as a result of working for mashavu. nonetheless, she enjoys working for mashavu and is still having a positive impact on her community through her work as a chw. the other two chws were observed to be more social. while walking around town with these two chws, it was clear they had many contacts in the community. they would often stop to talk to other individuals they knew. these conversations would often involve a short explanation of what they were doing with mashavu and would sometimes result in a know your numbers consultation being performed, if requested. both of these chws have a mix of customers; some met through mashavu as well as those met through other means. also, these customers might be one-off or repeat clients. one of the chws knew 6 out of 20 of her repeat customers prior to working with !84 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 mashavu. the other met the majority of her repeat customers (27 of 46) outside of her work with mashavu. she was able to effectively use her existing social networks to find new customers, provide them with the know your numbers service, and turn them into long-term repeat customers. also, both of these chws engage in many different entrepreneurial activities outside of mashavu. the social capital built through mashavu has been valuable as they conduct business activities with individuals met through mashavu work. a finding of this research is the value these reciprocal ties generate for health services, the clients and the chw. whereas the majority of existing literature about chws concentrates on their role in health interventions (e.g. (christopher, le may, lewin, & ross, 2011; lewin et al., 2006; ronsmans, bennish, & wierzba, 1988; islam, wakai, ishikawa, chowdhury, & vaughan, 2002), our research suggests a broader view of relations provides a more complete understanding of the context of healthcare work. hence, it is important to recognize that chws are first and foremost members of their community. this point was identified by several chw experts as important – we need to better understand the chws themselves in order to create better programs for them (strachan et al., 2012). this article offers some data in response to this prompt. in practice chws play complex roles within their communities that involve a variety of other community organizations (church and school groups, for example) as well as personal businesses (like raising animals or running a small motorcycle taxi business). better understanding of the role that community health workers play in their communities, beyond health facilitation and other health services they conduct, can lead to better interventions by international development organizations and may bring forth projects intended to benefit the chws themselves. chw-community member interactions and information flows the three mashavu chws were observed to have two different types of customers: repeat and transient customers. repeat customers received the know your numbers service from the chws on a regular basis, whether once a week, once a month, or somewhere in between. the chws have developed relationships with these individuals and make sure to visit them regularly. transient customers, on the other hand, are individuals who pay the chws for the know your numbers service, but without any regularity. understanding the different ways that individuals seek and consume health information can contribute to health information theories as well as chw program implementation. additionally, by understanding heterogeneity of health information needs and interests, it is possible to design programs that specifically target each type of individual. in this case, individual differences in information needs and interests were observed as four types of information flows between the mashavu chws and their customers: general health knowledge, personal health information, paper receipts, and data collection by the chws. general health knowledge refers to general information the chws communicate to individuals about health (for example: eating healthily, keeping things clean, etc.). personal health information refers to the know your numbers service. paper receipts are given to some (but not all) individuals as a record of this !85 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 information and data collection occurs when the chws keep track of this information for their own and mashavu’s records. figure 1, below, shows a model of the chws’ interactions with the two types of customers. all four types of information flows occur between chws and repeat customers. transient customers, however, only receive personal health information and general health knowledge. the “group of transient customers” block represents individuals who may be present during a mashavu interaction but do not directly receive the know your numbers service themselves. these individuals still receive general health knowledge from the chws by overhearing and participating in discussions between the chws and the paying customers. ! figure 1: customer types and information flows while accompanying the chws during their work, several repeat customers were visited. most of these visits occurred at the customers’ places of work, which the chws would occasionally go out of their way to visit. the interactions between the chws and the repeat customers were usually one-on-one interactions and involved both measurements and a discussion of that individual’s health trends (personal health information and general health knowledge). repeat customers almost always get the full know your numbers service including height, weight, bmi, and blood pressure and receive a paper receipt with a record of their numbers. the chws keep carbon copies of these receipts that are intended to be used in broader health data collection efforts. the repeat customers seen during fieldwork were interested in losing weight and decreasing blood pressure. some just wanted to be healthier while others were concerned about diabetes, a disease that is becoming more widespread in the area where mashavu operates. the overall motivations of repeat customers can be considered to be health-related – they have a definite interest in their own personal health. the second type of customer are referred to as transient customers. transient customers are seen by the chws while they are walking around the towns and villages where they work. during their work, the chws spend most of their time in the outdoor markets !86 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 and other public areas where there are large numbers of individuals gathered during the day. these individuals might be working in the market (for example, a group of women who were each selling vegetables in the market were seen) or spending time with their friends. when a chw interacts with a transient customer, it is often in a group of five or more individuals. these group interactions are valuable for the chws because they enable communication of personal health information and general health knowledge to multiple individuals simultaneously. transient customers rarely receive paper receipts and may also choose to get a partial know your numbers service. this means that they will pay less and in turn only receive their height, weight, and bmi or alternatively, just their blood pressure and pulse rate. offering these partial services allows the chws to have more business as transient customers may be unwilling to pay the full price or uninterested in receiving the full service. while repeat customers were mostly motivated by a desire to be healthy, transient customers seemed to have different motivations. many of the groups of transient customers observed appeared to be treating the know your numbers service as a form of entertainment. some interactions would turn into a competition amongst the group interacting with the chw. this could involve individuals competing to see who weighed the most or who was the tallest. competitions often occurred when there was a group of young men with whom the chws were conversing. in such situations there might be one individual who has some money he or she is willing to spend. after getting his or her own health information, this individual would then encourage others to do the same and may then end up paying for the others to get the service. differences in health information seeking behaviors in developing countries have yet to be systematically researched and reported in the literature. while some studies do mention basic demographic characteristics of customers, including those targeted at pregnant women and women with children (chen, cheng, & mehta, 2013; larsencooper, bancroft, rajagopal, o'toole, & levin, 2016) and akter et al.’s study that identifies age and sex as user characteristics that can affect the success of mhealth ventures (akter, d'ambra, & ray, 2010), no studies have taken an in-depth look at how customer behavior might affect mhealth. findings of this study suggest customers of the mashavu mhealth service are motivated both by health concerns and entertainment. further research is required to systematically investigate these differences and identify whether these motivations are consistent across a variety of developing country mhealth ventures. social capital, health information, and entrepreneurship the three chws also used increased social capital, grown through their mashavu work, to conduct new types of entrepreneurial activities, providing additional sources of income. in kenya, as well as many other developing countries, community health workers are unpaid volunteers. this results in many chws needing to find other sources of income to support themselves and their families. this is one of the reasons mashavu and the know your numbers service was first created – to provide a source of income for some chws. during data collection, the chws were asked about other business activities they conduct in the various towns and villages where they work. !87 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 there are a wide range of these activities including raising animals, sharing resources, saving money, employing a motorcycle taxi driver, and providing other health services like a diabetes support group. the individuals with whom they conduct these businesses are similar to their group of customers (in fact some are their mashavu customers) – they are a varied group of individuals spread across several communities in the area. unlike more arms-length business relationships in the west, developing country business relationships tend to be more personal, tied in with existing social relationships (fukuyama, 2002). consequently, social capital is extremely important. during interviews, the chws were asked about various relationships they have with other individuals in the community and how they have changed. based on their recollections, network diagrams were constructed showing the chws’ various types of connections. these networks suggest growth occurred – the chws expanded their networks by adding individuals met through mashavu. figure 2 below shows an example of this growth. the network diagram on the left shows the three chws’ (black circles) networks before they joined mashavu, while the right diagram shows the growth in their networks that occurred due to mashavu. this growth occurred in a variety of different types of relationships. of the three chws interviewed, two of them participated in a number of different entrepreneurial activities within their communities. one of them used contacts met through mashavu work to increase her network of business partners from 10 individuals to 15, while the other increased her network of business partners from 16 to 25 individuals. this suggests their work as chws enabled them to increase their own personal social capital and then use it to enter new business opportunities. like many individuals in the developing world, these chws were engaged in a variety of different economic activities (rather than having one primary source of income). being part of mashavu allowed the chws to amplify an existing behavior. this finding is line with extent research that suggests social capital can be used to increase economic development (fukuyama, 2002). figure 2: network diagrams showing mashavu chw social capital growth. left shows connections made before mashavu, right shows additional connections made through mashavu. circles represent women, while triangles represent men; chws are filled-in circles. despite the potential positive economic impact, the secondary benefit of chws growing personal social capital while conducting their normal chw work is rarely discussed. future research should investigate this potential benefit as a motivating !88 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 factor for chw recruitment and operations. furthermore, to date, studies of chws’ networks are limited to health information networks within the healthcare system (campbell et al., 2014; kaonga et al., 2013) or organizational structures in which chws are embedded (liu, sullivan, khan, sachs, & singh, 2011). these studies each focus on only one specific type of chws’ relationships. however, results shown here suggest chws’ networks are much more complex than previously portrayed, involving many different types of relationships. a holistic view of these relationships and their resulting social capital is needed to truly understand the networks of chws and how they might be used to promote their work and affect development. specifically, future research should systematically investigate whether and how chws can use increased social capital, operationalized in this study as additional relationships established with diverse individuals, to spread health information and undertake entrepreneurial activities that provide them with a source of income. such studies would contribute to the existing literature about chws that until now only concentrated on formal health networks and organizational structures. chws’ data collection processes before the field work reported here, past mashavu health data collection efforts attempted to introduce digital technologies ranging from laptops to smart phones to basic feature phones. despite these multiple attempts, the mashavu chws never bought into the idea of digital data collection. to remedy this, paper receipt books were created. these books contain removable receipts with spaces to record the information from the know your numbers service. using carbon paper, the chws fill out the removable receipts while also leaving a copy of the receipt in the book. if these data needed to be analyzed or transferred, they could be digitized by hand into a database. however, this is not currently being done as the mashavu organization lacks the resources. consequently, for the purpose of understanding community health trends, the data currently being collected is largely wasted. furthermore, these paper receipts are not given out to every individual who receives the know your numbers service. rather, the receipts are mainly given to repeat customers. for example, during one day of observation, a chw saw approximately 100 customers yet only distributed about six receipts. when asked why they were not giving receipts to everyone, the chw replied that the majority of people they would see during the day were not interested in getting a receipt of their health information. further observation revealed that the transient customers (who make up the majority of individuals a chw sees in one day) were the ones who did not want receipts. some of the customers were asked if the reason that they did not want receipts was because their personal information was being recorded. however, they replied that this was not the case and they just had no need for the receipts. because the customers are not interested in getting receipts, their data never gets recorded, significantly weakening the potential of the mashavu chws to serve as data collectors at this time. in addition to the lack of interest, there are several other factors which affect data collection from repeat customers, those more likely to want receipts. these factors can be summarized by saying that the technological solutions tried by mashavu do not fit !89 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 into the workflows of chws (something that can cause data collection to fail (chen k. , 2011)). first, the large groups that often accompany a chw-customer interaction require a great deal of attention from the chw. when talking to these groups, there will be multiple people asking questions of the chw at the same time. then, when the time comes for measurement, the chw may be measuring multiple customers simultaneously. while taking the height and weight of the first customer in the group, the chw may give the blood pressure to another customer to begin their measurements. before this second customer’s blood pressure is measured, the chw may have taken the height and weight of one or two additional other people. this method allows the chws to quickly provide service to larger groups. however, it also causes most measurements to occur in an asynchronous fashion making individual record collection quite challenging. the chw would have to keep track of multiple customers’ records switching back and forth as each measurement is taken. this would be challenging when using paper receipts and would require specialized technology designed to solve this problem for digital data collection. additionally, an operational principle of mashavu requires the chws to work in a mobile fashion and travel to different towns and villages around nyeri. while in these towns, they spend their time walking around and talking to as many individuals as possible, providing information to those who desire the know your numbers service. in previous iterations of the mashavu business model, the chws worked at stationary kiosks providing medical services. the more mobile business model currently being used was found to be more productive and allows the chws to reach more community members. however this mobility also has some negative consequences related to data collection. the chws must carry everything they need to work with them. this currently includes a weighing scale, tape measure, blood pressure cuff, receipt book, and some other documents that can be used to help communicate health information. several of the chws also carry blood glucose meters to provide an additional service to some of their customers. any device used to aid in digital data collection would have to be added to this set of objects. the chws must also conduct almost all their work on their feet in the middle of the market (or other public area). this means there is rarely anywhere to put the numerous devices while they are being used and the chws must hold them (or move the devices back and forth from their bags). juggling an additional data collection device, like a smartphone, could therefore be undesirable for the chws. data collection is an important organizational goal of mashavu. health data can be used to improve the healthcare systems in developing countries like kenya (macintyre, lochigan, & letipila, 2003). unfortunately, past mashavu data collection efforts involving technological solutions have largely failed. in the case of mashavu, social factors had a major impact on data collection and technology use, ultimately leading technology-based data collection solutions to fail. findings of this research expand on challenges to mhealth data collection like those listed in shovlin, ghen, simpson, and mehta (2013) and derenzi et al. (2011). shovlin et al. define four categories of challenges to the collection of digital health data in developing countries: contextual, business, communication and coordination, and technological (shovlin, ghen, simpson, & mehta, 2013). !90 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 as shown in table 1, the findings of this research as well as findings of mhealth data collection challenges mentioned by derenzi et al. (derenzi, et al., 2011), were grouped into four categories: contextual challenges, business-related challenges, communication and coordination challenges, and technological challenges. this study suggests the addition of a fifth category: social factors, which was not included in existing literature. these additional social factors challenges were observed through extended time spent with the mashavu chws and the resulting in-depth comprehension of their workflows. understanding the reasons for the failure of technology will allow researchers and designers to create better solutions that may work in the future. table 1: challenges to mhealth data collection shovlin et al. derenzi et al. findings of this study contextual 1. infrastructure limitations 2. transportation and geography 3. security 4. privacy 5. regulations 6. lack of expertise 7. unique patient identifiers 1. privacy concerns 1. mobility – juggling multiple devices business 1. employee turnover 2. mismatched incentives 3. startup costs 4. scalability 1. complexity in deploying workflow management communication and coordination 1. status quo 2. standardized language 3. training 4. assumptions of inaccuracies 1. general communication and coordination challenges 1. lack of consistency with paper receipts and data collection in general technological 1. backup and management 2. accuracy 3. equipment reliability and theft 4. equipment misuse 1. loss or theft of mobile devices 2. data exchange and interoperability 3. poor or absent connectivity 4. difficulties keeping batteries charged 1. fear of theft !91 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 while many researchers have looked into and recommended the use of mobile phones as data collection devices (braun, catalani, wimbush, & israelski, 2013; kahn, yang, & kahn, 2010; derenzi et al., 2011), this was determined to be a poor fit for the mashavu chws due to their need to engage in conversation with customers, which is a type of relationships maintenance seen as important by both parties. existing literature about relationship maintenance appears to be largely focused on banking (fatima and razzaque, 2013; narteh and kuada, 2014) and other types of service relationships (aurier and n'goala, 2010). however, one study did look at the role of trust and relationships in selecting a healthcare service in brazil (fregidou-malama and hyder, 2015). findings of this research expand on those results and show that relationship maintenance is also important for chws working with mhealth programs. the in-depth observations about the nature of workflows and interactions reported here shed further light on the failure of mobile phones as a data collection tool for mashavu (for more details see (shovlin, ghen, simpson, & mehta, 2013) and (wenner, marino, obeysekare, & mehta, 2014)). as mobile technology develops further, and more techsavvy individuals become chws, this may change but at the current time the mobile phones proved to be more of an annoying distraction than helpful tools. fear of theft, something mentioned as a challenge to mhealth data collection (derenzi et al., 2011) was also a concern of the mashavu chws. recommendations for design the research reported here suggests several areas for improvement in health information flows and digital data capture and analysis. first, design implications for data capture by chws with the goals of central storage and analysis are discussed. this is followed by design recommendations for enabling repeat customers to add to their data stores and potentially provide automated analyses of their data. finally, design recommendations related to the many, varied types of relationships that the chws engage in are given. given the challenges facing data collection mentioned here, a data collection device would need to be able to handle the multiple individuals that the mashavu chws often interact with. this could be done using a voice recognition system that is able to distinguish between the multiple individuals who are part of a typical mashavu health facilitation interaction. using this type of technology would also require software that is able to understand the language spoken where chws are working (in the case of the mashavu chws this is kikuyu). the device would also need to analyze the content of social factors 1. social interaction deterrent 2. certain customers do not want receipts 3. multiple simultaneous customers !92 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the conversation into separate reports for each individual that could then be relayed to them by the chw, printed out as a paper receipt, or sent electronically to the individual. the second challenge that must be addressed is matching health records with the same individual if they receive multiple consultations. this is especially important for repeat customers so that they can track their health information over time. voice recognition could be used to assist in customer identification along with biometric technologies such as fingerprint readers or facial detection systems. this type of device would also need to be portable and potentially hands-free to facilitate the mobile manner in which the mashavu chws work. the system should ensure data are sharable with customers, potentially transferring to a mobile application that provides visual results, like many mhealth applications used today. the number of varied relationships and entrepreneurial activities of chws were shown to have important implications for their work. designing technology to help the chws manage these relationships could be very beneficial. such a system might keep track of the chws’ other activities and groups. then, when a chw is providing the know your numbers service to an individual with whom they have additional relationships, the system could also show them information about these other activities. this type of device, targeting the ease with which individuals manage multiple complex relationships, would have broad applicability. it would likely be useful not only to the chws, but also many others around the world engaging in ‘gig economy’ or other informal work. this would not be just a specialized health information tool, as was discussed in the other design recommendations, but a more general relationship information management platform. understanding other instances of this type of work in developing countries could provide further design recommendations and could also consider privacy, security, and other issues. while there are many technical challenges associated with creating these devices, the technologies mentioned here are currently being developing by industry members and these technologies are slowly trickling down to consumers. harnessing these new innovations for use in developing countries will be a powerful tool for development organizations in the near future. conclusion community health workers are first and foremost members of the communities where they live and work. their status in the community enables their work. in the case of the mashavu chws, social connections in the community were harnessed and augmented into repeat customer relationships with an emphasis on health information. chws can also use their social status as health professionals to influence their relationships with individuals in the community who they do not know. these transient customer relationships may not have the longevity of repeat customer relationships but still involve the transfer of health information. each of these different types of relationships involve different information flows including personal health information, general health knowledge, receipts reflecting this information, and data collection (see figure 1 above). in addition to relationships formed around mashavu work and health information, the chws also engage in many entrepreneurial relationships. these !93 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 entrepreneurial ventures can be based on prior existing relationships but can also be the result of mashavu interactions and health information relationships. the nature of community in this context also influences the chws’ workflows. to see more of their communities, the chws operate in a mobile fashion and must carry all their supplies. interactions between chws and community members are communal, group interactions. while the chws can easily manage these types of interactions, creating appropriate mobile technology solutions that can enable data collection is much more challenging. this research begins to fill a gap in the literature around community-focused chw studies. by looking at the ways community affects the work of chws, and also how they use technology, we can better understand chw programs, their effectiveness, and how to best enable them with technology. future research could build upon the results of this study by investigating chws in other developing countries and 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(2014). world health statistics 2014. geneva: world health organization. !97 1457-article text-8262-1-6-20181022 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 sidpdf: articles the supportive roles of adults in designing with young deaf children involving users in the research and design of new technologies is particularly relevant for groups affected by digital exclusion and lacking in cultural power, such as people with disabilities, people from cultural minorities, and children. design with young deaf children lies at the intersection of these three groups, as the medical community defines physical deafness as a disability; deaf communities around the world identify as minority cultural groups with their own languages; and young children traditionally lack power in interactions with adults. deaf children bring particular needs, abilities and experiences related to their youth, physical deafness and cultural deafness to the technology design process, making their involvement in design vital. their involvement presents a unique set of challenges and ethical considerations, including matters of consent and behaviour management. adult involvement in supportive roles can facilitate young deaf children’s involvement in design activities and address some of the challenges of designing with deaf children. this article presents a case study that involved young australian deaf children as design partners, with their family members and deaf and hearing education professionals in supportive roles, for the purpose of providing recommendations to researchers and designers who wish to jessica korte school of information technology and electrical engineering (itee), the university of queensland, australia. j.korte@uq.edu.au corresponding author. !82 korte, j. (2018). the supportive roles of adults in designing with young deaf children. the journal of community informatics, 14(1), 82–-104. date submitted: 2018-10-01. date accepted: 2018-10-15. 
 copyright (c), 2018 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1457 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1457 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1457 mailto:j.korte@uq.edu.au the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 undertake similar design activities with young deaf children and supportive adults. the case study involved a series of 30-minute design sessions with four deaf children (ages 3-5). reflections on this case study will discuss the roles adult design team members took throughout the design sessions, the benefits and challenges of involving adults as members of design teams with young deaf children, and ethical considerations to be addressed when designing with young deaf children in design teams. the article concludes with recommendations for researchers and designers conducting design sessions with young deaf children and adult supporters, so that young deaf child designers are well-supported and have the freedom to explore their preferences, desires, requirements, and to contribute to design solutions. introduction in a world in which technology has become ubiquitous, it is important that the design of technologies considers the needs and abilities of marginalised groups, or they will be left behind, in a phenomenon known as digital exclusion. design philosophies such as user-centred design and participatory design have emphasised the importance of identifying, designing for and designing with end users (druin, 2002; iivari & iivari, 2011); but the people who are most in need of specialised support and consideration in technology design are also the ones most likely to be excluded (clayton & macdonald, 2013; roy morgan research, 2016). young deaf children represent one group that faces digital exclusion, as they fall at the intersection of three identities that lack traditional power: the medical community defines physical deafness as a disability; deaf communities around the world identify as minority cultural groups with their own signed languages; and young children traditionally lack power in interactions with adults. deaf children also have unique needs when it comes to technology (potter, korte & nielsen, 2014), and their input is needed to ensure new technologies consider their needs. the literature on designing with children with ‘special needs’ (guha, druin & fails, 2008) or across cultures (kam et al., 2006) recognises that additional adult support is necessary; at the bare minimum as translators when a language is not shared by all members of a design team. this article presents a case study of a series of design sessions in which young deaf children aged 3-5 years, their family members, and deaf and hearing educational professionals undertook design activities to the goal of creating a design method. from this case study, we will present recommendations for researchers and designers who wish to work with deaf children and adults in technology design. identity representation and language conventions within this article, the terms deaf and deaf will be used according to deaf cultural norms and the co-operation agreement between world federation of the deaf and the international federation of hard of hearing people. capitalised ‘deaf’ refers to cultural !83 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 deafness and identity. lower-case ‘deaf’ refers to physical deafness. this article will use terms such as ‘deaf children’, rather than the forms ‘children who are deaf’, in recognition of the australian deaf community’s preference for identify first language. identity first language will also be used when discussing literature focusing on other disability/identity groups, such as ‘autistic children’, even when the original literature has used person-first terminology, such as ‘child with asd’, as this is expressed as the preference by autistic self-advocacy groups (autism mythbusters, n.d.; brown, 2016). where direct translations of australian sign language (auslan) signs are included, they will be indicted as small caps glosses, as translations between auslan and english are not exact. some auslan signing will be paraphrased for translation. all written translations have been undertaken by the author for data analysis purposes, based on an elementary proficiency in auslan (interagency language roundtable, 2011a; 2011b) and supported by live interpretation by deaf and hearing educational professionals during the design sessions. literature review digital exclusion and participatory design with deaf children interactive technologies have become ubiquitous in everyday life. user-centred and participatory design approaches have been developed and used since the 1980s to improve the usability of technologies and responsiveness of designs to users’ needs and abilities (druin, 2002; iivari & iivari, 2011). however, even with user involvement in participatory design, decisions about how technologies are used and designed often focus on the social majority, meaning groups that face social exclusion also face higher risks of experiencing digital exclusion (clayton & macdonald, 2013; roy morgan research, 2016). two groups that are likely to experience social, and therefore digital, exclusion, are people with disabilities and people from cultural minorities (bathgate & romios, 2011; vinson, 2009). children have also historically been overlooked in terms of inclusion in participatory design, although this has been changing since the mid-1990s (druin, 2002), and childcomputer interaction is now seen as a field of research in its own right. adults can be resistant to working with children as equal design partners, even while recognising the importance of acknowledging and incorporating children’s unique insights into the design of new technologies (druin, 2002; scaife & rogers, 1999). based on a historical review of children’s involvement in technology design, druin proposed a hierarchy of design roles in which children act when involved in technology design with adults: user, tester, informant, design partner, and software designer (druin, 2002; guha, druin & fails, 2013). as users, children have no direct involvement in technology design, but may be observed by adult designers. as testers, children interact with milestone or prototype technologies to give feedback that may be used to alter relatively minor aspects of the final products. as informants, children give their input at times when it ‘is considered to be most valuable’ (guha et al., 2013, pp. 57–58), but are not actively involved in the design process, and their contributions are filtered through the decisions of adult designers. the informant role covers a wide spectrum of involvement, from !84 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 children providing direct input to a project (korte, 2012; scaife & rogers, 1999), to children sharing their understanding of topics relevant to the design project’s aim (bekker, beusmans, keyson & lloyd, 2003; dindler, eriksson, iversen, lykke-olesen & ludvigsen, 2005; van doorn, gielen & stappers, 2014; van doorn, stappers & gielen, 2013), to children inspiring adult designers through their actions (druin, 1999; druin et al., 1999; larsen & hedvall, 2012). informants’ input may reveal new ideas and information, or confirm the decisions already made by the adult design team (druin, 2002; scaife & rogers, 1999). children who are design partners work as equal partners with adult designers, making significant contributions throughout the entirety of the design process (druin, 2002; guha et al., 2013). as software designers, children work to design new technologies without major adult assistance, although they may have adult support (guha et al., 2013; harel, 1991; kafai, ching & marshall, 1997). a number of design approaches have been developed to involve children in the design of new technologies at each of these design roles. the most famous of these is druin’s cooperative inquiry, in which children are design partners in intergenerational design teams (druin, 1999). however, children with disabilities, especially those with a communication gap, may face exclusion from higher levels of involvement, as they require extra support to facilitate their full participation at higher design roles, such as specialised technology or adult assistance (allsop, gallagher, holt, bhakta & wilkie, 2011; guha et al., 2008; rabiee, sloper & beresford, 2005). ‘vanilla’ versions of design methods intended for designing with school-aged children without disabilities do not provide sufficient support without modification (guha et al., 2008). young children face similar, though less significant, hurdles to their design involvement, as they may struggle with aspects of design activities, such as abstract communication, ideation, collaboration, and writing (druin, 2005; druin et al., 1999; farber, druin, chipman, julian & somashekhar, 2002). cross-cultural design with children also requires extra considerations and support. the obvious barrier to communication is language, and interpreters and/or translators are usually included in situations in which there is not a shared language between the children and the adult designers (antle & bevans, 2012; kam et al., 2006). other differences that have been seen in the literature, and that should be considered, are cultural norms and values, educational approaches, and relative exposures to technology and other resources (antle & bevans, 2012; hamidi, saenz & baljko, 2014; kam et al., 2006; korte, potter & nielsen, 2017). in the case of deaf children, the support required to facilitate their involvement in participatory design is multifaceted. in addition to the resistance to collaboration with children displayed by some adults, physical deafness is medically recognised as a disability, and cultural deafness represents a linguistic and cultural divide (korte et al., 2017). physical and cultural deafness contribute to unique characteristics of deaf children, which influence their need for support during participatory design activities (potter et al., 2014). deaf children tend to have slower language acquisition, lower literacy levels, and slower academic development than their hearing peers or the children of deaf parents (masataka, 2000; sass-lehrer & bodner-johnson, 2003; traxler, 2000). this can lead to behavioural and attention problems, and reduced social !85 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 and emotional development compared to their peers (barker et al., 2009; calderon & greenberg, 2003; mitchell & quittner, 1996; sass-lehrer & bodner-johnson, 2003). culturally deaf children use visual-spatial cognitive processing (ebrahim, 2006), and develop more sensitive peripheral vision (hirshorn, 2011). these factors mean deaf children can be more sensitive to visually distracting stimulus (mitchell & quittner, 1996). norms of deaf culture have an impact on communication with deaf children; relative locations of communicators, and the getting and retaining of visual attention are important considerations during interactions with deaf people (korte et al., 2017). deaf children are creative communicators when they are motivated to communicate (potter et al., 2014; williams, 2004). these differences can all impact participatory and collaborative design approaches undertaken with deaf children. designing with deaf children requires greater levels of adult involvement than designing with hearing children of the same age. however, with appropriate support, they can be valuable contributors to the design of technologies (guha et al., 2008; potter et al., 2014). adult involvement in design with children: proxies, partners and supporters in designing technologies for and with children, the terms ‘proxy’ and ‘partner’ seem to be at opposite ends of a spectrum of children’s involvement. adults acting as proxies in design activities speak for the children, offering their insights into the needs and abilities of particular groups of children, usually based on expertise or training in child development, as in the case of psychologists or teachers (guha et al., 2013), or close personal experience with children in the target demographic, as in the case of family members, friends or carers (brereton, sitbon, abdullah, vanderbert & koplick, 2015; tan, 2017). consulting adult proxies in lieu of children is more common when designing for children with whom communication is difficult, such as those with disabilities (allsop et al., 2011; allsop, holt, levesley & bhakta, 2010). another common use of proxies is that proxies such as family members, teachers, carers, or other experts, may be involved in information gathering and/or the initial design of a technology; members of the target audience are then involved as testers or informants in evaluating and elaborating on future iterations of the technology (allsop et al., 2011; brereton et al., 2015; tan, 2017). the philosophy of the field of child-computer interaction is that it is not sufficient to work solely with proxies, even for ‘difficult’ populations of children (guha et al., 2013), as children have unique abilities and understandings of their abilities and the realities of being a child in the modern world, which adult proxies cannot capture; this may be even more true for children with disabilities or communication difficulties, who may self-identify differently than their carers or parents might describe them (allsop et al., 2011; guha et al., 2013; potter, korte & nielsen, 2011; scaife & rogers, 1999). in contrast, and as described above, adults partnering with children in design activities work with children as their equals, contributing to designs through collaboration and elaboration of ideas proposed by other design team members (druin, 2002; guha et al., 2013). !86 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 a third role underlies the spectrum, that of supporters. in any level of involvement, children may be supported in design activities by adults. guha, druin and fails codified this in their inclusionary model for designing with and for children with special needs (2008), which advocated for involving children with ‘special needs’ in design activities by considering the desired level of children’s involvement; the nature and severity of their disability; and the availability and intensity of support that could be provided. greater levels of support are required to enable children with disabilities to participate in design activities at a greater level of involvement. such support is sometimes technological, such as providing accessibility hardware or assistive technologies (allsop et al., 2011); but often extra adult assistance during design activities is required (allsop et al., 2011; guha et al., 2008; korte et al., 2017). such assistance may include interpretation to bridge language barriers (antle & bevans, 2012; guha et al., 2008; kam et al., 2006; korte et al., 2017), or individualised support from adults to support the children in staying focused, or undertaking activities they would struggle to complete alone, from reading and writing, through to focus and memory (allsop et al., 2011; guha et al., 2008). in some roles, such as interpreters, those adults require specialised skills and training; however, in many cases, specialised training is not required (guha et al., 2008). adult roles through children’s eyes in identifying the four design roles for children, druin also identified that there were three dimensions to each role. one of those dimensions was the children’s relationship to ‘designers’ – meaning adults. the relationship is summarised in table 1, below. table 1: the relationship children have to adult designers at each level of design involvement, excluding software designer. adapted from druin (2002, p. 4). table 1 can be ‘flipped’, to see through the children’s eyes what interactions adults are likely to have when designing with and for children in each design role. this relationship is shown in table 2, with justifications from the literature provided below. role of children relationship to adult designers indirect feedback dialogue elaborate user x tester x x informant x x x design partner x x x x !87 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 2: adult roles when interacting with children. adapted from korte (2017, p. 75). druin, in her review of the history of designing with children, found that observation was a core part of many design methods with children as users (2002). in addition to observing children, adults designing with children as testers have more interactions with the children. a core theme at this level is providing technologies for children to interact with – usually prototypes – sometimes with set tasks to be completed, and often seeking feedback from the children (barendregt, bekker & baauw, 2008; druin, 2002). the children’s role as informant can be seen to have three overall approaches: children providing design inspiration; children exploring and explaining subject matter; and children providing design direction. design methods in which children provide design inspiration can have a great deal of overlap with those in which children are users or testers, as the children’s everyday experiences or interactions with technologies act as springboards for adult designers’ ideation. this can be seen in druin’s collaborative inquiry approach, in which designers focus on experiencing the children’s world through the children’s eyes, to better understand the children’s needs and desires (druin, 1999; druin et al., 1999); or the sid for snoezelen method, in which children with disabilities interacted with technological artefacts to inspire adult designers to create new technologies (larsen & hedvall, 2012). what distinguishes this informant role from that of children as users or testers is the underlying philosophy that recognises that the children have their own ideas, which cannot be identified if adult proxies are the only informants in design activities. in sid for snoezelen, for example, the children adult interactions with children role of children user tester informant d e s i g n partner s o f t w a r e designer collaboration or partnership x supporting and facilitating x x x interacting with children’s world x seeking children’s advice x seeking children’s opinions x x setting tasks x x x providing technologies x x observing x x x !88 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 were seen to interact with technologies in ways that adult designers had not previously considered (larsen & hedvall, 2012), sparking new directions in technology design, rather than prompting minor modifications to an existing prototype as would have been the case if the children were testers. the other two approaches of children as informants are more clearly distinct from the less involved roles, as adult designers tend to support and facilitate children in undertaking activities that inform the format or content of new technologies. this may involve testing or creating prototypes, as seen in informant design (scaife & rogers, 1999); researching a new technology’s subject matter, as seen in the kidreporter project (bekker et al., 2003); or educating someone on a technology’s subject matter, as seen in the mission from mars project (dindler et al., 2005). when children are design partners, the relationship between children and adults is intended to be one of equal collaboration, with children and adults equally proposing new ideas and elaborating on existing ideas (druin, 2002). in druin’s writings, children working as design partners may interact with children involved in other design roles, such as user or tester (druin, 1999). when children are software designers, adults tend to set the task of what they are developing – who the audience is, what the subject matter is, what type of software is to be developed – and then provide varying levels of support and facilitation (harel, 1991; harel & papert, 1990; kafai et al., 1997). it is worth noting that, in all cases, adults are expected to maintain traditional ‘adult responsibilities’ for issues such as safety, and mediating conflicts if they arise (guha et al., 2008; 2013). parental involvement in design with children there are few examples in the research literature of parents working with their children as supporters, and even fewer of parents working with their children as equal design partners. a possible contribution to the lack of parental involvement in design with children is that many design projects undertaken with children occur in a school context (allsop et al., 2011; harel, 1991; harel & papert, 1990; kafai et al., 1997; korte, 2012; scaife & rogers, 1999; scaife, rogers, aldrich & davies, 1997), which would limit the ability of parents to be involved in the design activities. however, even in situations that involved interacting with children in home environments, such as the embodied narratives project (giaccardi, paredes, díaz & alvarado, 2012) or contextual inquiry (druin, 1999) parents do not often seem to have been involved. read et al.’s web site design day project (2002) provides an example of parents taking a supportive role while children are design partners or informants, as a number of ‘parent helpers’ acted as facilitators in a workshop in which children designed a new website for their school. however, read et al. do not discuss their involvement or contribution to the design activities (2002). brereton et al.’s mycalendar project for autistic children may provide an example of parents and teachers acting as both supporters of their informant children, and proxy informants themselves (2015). the project initially involved parents, teachers and !89 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 autistic children in a pilot study that encouraged parents to treat their children as equals in allowing them to guide conversations supported by technology, inspired by the therapeutic hanen approach (abdullah & brereton, 2012). these interactions inspired the mycalendar technology, and a larger project involved parents, teachers and autistic children as informants in ‘design after design’. they interacted with the prototype mycalendar technology, to discover new use cases for that technology, which had been designed by expert proxies and one parent of an autistic child, also acting as a proxy. this ‘design after design’ resulted in teachers and parents supporting the children in creating new uses of the technology, and developing their own new uses, which informed future development of the technology (brereton et al., 2015). it can be seen from these interactions that there may be potential for parental involvement in design sessions with children, but they have not been explored in depth. case study: youngdeafdesign case study overview the research project undertaken in the case study involved a series of 25 exploratory design sessions undertaken over a five-month period, with a design team of deaf children and deaf and hearing adults, at an education queensland early childhood development program in queensland, australia. the project was undertaken as the author’s phd research project (korte, 2017). the primary goal of the research project was the creation of a design approach for working with young deaf children, titled youngdeafdesign. it was intended that young deaf children would be able to work with adults as design partners using youngdeafdesign. to support this goal, the design sessions were modelled on druin’s bags of stuff technique, which is a low-tech prototyping approach using art supplies (druin, 2010; guha et al., 2013). each session involved some members of the design team using expressive materials to explore an idea or theme (such as emotions or people) or solving a problem (such as blowing up a balloon through a straw). these activities were intended to be indicative of the types of creative interactions seen in bags of stuff, which enable children and adults to solve problems and design technologies together. the design team was composed of: • four deaf children aged 3-5, who will be referred to as participant d (female, 4.5 years), participant e (female, 4 years), participant s (female, 3.5 years) and participant sh (male, 3.7 years), each of whom attended classes at the early childhood development program; • one deaf and one hearing staff member of the early childhood development program (referred to as the auslan language model and the educational interpreter throughout this article), who acted as sign language interpreters and design team members in their own right; • participant d’s mother and both of participant e’s parents, who were not initially intended to join the design sessions, but who became involved to support their children and acted as design team members in their own right; and !90 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 • the author as lead designer. there was also an adult observer present in each design session, who took notes of events and interactions as they occurred. participant s’s mother and participant sh’s carer observed a handful of sessions each. every design session was attended by at least one child and the lead designer. most design sessions were attended by multiple children and at least two adult design team members. no session was attended by all members of the design team, although there were sessions that all four children attended. all of the children were learning auslan (australian sign language) and english at the early childhood development program. participant s and participant sh were also learning arabic and dari, respectively, at home. participant s had down syndrome, and participant d had been diagnosed with an intellectual disability. comorbid medical conditions are not uncommon for deaf people, with gallaudet university reporting that 38.9% of deaf children surveyed in 2009-2010 had ‘additional conditions’ alongside their deafness (gallaudet research institute, 2011, p. 12). none of the children were fluent in auslan, and communicated in a combination of auslan key-signing and nonverbal forms of communication, including acting out things they wished to communicate and expressive body language. participant d’s mother and participant e’s parents all knew some auslan, and, importantly, were very familiar with their child’s communication style. the lead designer had an elementary proficiency in auslan, but was not familiar with cultural norms for communicating with young deaf children. case study extract participant e was interacting with design artefacts that her parents had made from chenille sticks when a staff member from the school picked up a packet of plasticine and waved to get participant e’s attention. the staff member signed to her, look, then signed and mimed kneading and rolling the plasticine. she then pointed to the animals depicted on the packet, and signed the name of each one: crocodile, beetle…. look, she signed again, and mimed opening the packet. participant e nodded, so she opened the packet and asked participant e which colour she wanted. participant e pointed to one, and the staff member asked her to sign the colour-sign. the staff member then gave her the plasticine, and she showed it to her father. the staff member got her attention again, and signed to ask if her father wanted one, and what colour to give him? participant e thought about this, until her father tapped her on the shoulder and signed pink. participant e’s father, the staff member, and the lead designer then spent some time showing participant e different ways of using plasticine. later in the design session, after a packet of googly eyes had been introduced as an expressive material, participant e’s father created a plasticine fish, and put it on the table. participant e picked it up and tried to cut it with scissors. the lead designer signed, no!, so participant e hesitated. she put the plasticine fish into a plastic bowl that she had earlier ‘filled with water’ from a toy sink in the design room. she happily signed fish, and began dropping !91 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 small pieces of plasticine into the bowl, signing food. (extract from the second design session.) children’s role in youngdeafdesign despite the goal of young deaf children being design partners, in the final youngdeafdesign method the children’s design role fell between that of informant and design partner when considered in terms of the children’s relationship to adult members of the design team (see table 3). table 3: a comparison of the relationship children have to adult designers in each design role (druin, 2002) with the children’s role in youngdeafdesign (korte, 2017) children and adults within the design sessions elaborated on each other’s creations and games, exploring new ideas together in a way that druin attributes only to the design partner role (druin, 2002). the children also provided feedback – sometimes verbally, but often non-verbally – about design sessions, design session artefacts, and prototypes created based on earlier design session activities. decisions about future directions for areas of exploration or problems to solve within the design sessions were made by adults based on the children’s indirect communication – their demonstrated abilities and preferences. the gap between taking a full design partner role came from the children’s lack of language fluency, which meant that it was not possible to hold abstract dialogues with the children, such as discussing their role in designing new technologies for other children. therefore, children’s role in youngdeafdesign can be seen as more than informants, due to the elaboration with adults; however, it is also less than being full design partners, due to the lack of potential for dialogue. adult interactions in youngdeafdesign a summary of which adults were involved in which design interactions during youngdeafdesign has been provided in table 4; each group of adults has been discussed in more detail below. role of children relationship to adult designers indirect feedback dialogue elaborate user x tester x x informant x x x design partner x x x x youngdeafdesign x x x !92 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 4: how adult roles were implemented in youngdeafdesign. educational staff as sign language interpreters, supporters and partners the intended role of the deaf and hearing early childhood development program staff members was as sign language interpreters and support assistants (allsop et al., 2010). they would be able to contribute to the design sessions as design partners in their own right, while also acting to support the children’s involvement in design sessions linguistically and practically. as auslan interpreters, they: • interpreted signs for the children to understand; and • interpreted the children’s signing. this was important, because even though the lead designer had learned some auslan, she was not fluent, and there were situations where interpreters were needed to convey understanding between children and the lead designer. there was also an instance of confusion, in which participant e tried to sign something, but neither the lead designer nor the auslan language model was able to understand what she meant. having educational backgrounds and existing relationships with the children seem to have influenced the educational staff members’ behaviours within the design sessions, because they also: • educated children and the lead designer to increase sign vocabulary and clarity; • educated children and the lead designer in deaf cultural norms, which promoted communication; adult interactions with children adults involved in youngdeafdesign collaboration or partnership lead designer, auslan language model, participant e’s parents supporting and facilitating lead designer, educational staff, parents interacting with children’s world familiar adults (educational staff, parents) were present to emotionally support the children. an unintentional interaction with the children’s world was that some children brought toys from home, and the design sessions were held in a room that had toys from the school. the children incorporated the toys into the design activities. seeking children’s advice lead designer, auslan language model, participant e’s parents seeking children’s opinions lead designer, auslan language model, participant e’s parents setting tasks lead designer, educational staff, parents providing technologies lead designer observing observers !93 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 • encouraged the children to communicate using auslan; and • encouraged or instructed children to undertake the design session activities. as noted, two early childhood development program staff members joined the design team. however, they had different levels of willingness to work with the children as equals. the auslan language model, who attended the majority of sessions, seemed to see herself as a member of the design team, and was willing to work with the children as fellow designers in exploring and elaborating on their ideas. the educational interpreter, however, seemed to see her role as being only an interpreter and an educator. as a support assistant and design team member in her own right, the auslan language model: • actively encouraged children’s involvement in design session activities, especially when children were hesitant or unsure about particular activities; • elaborated on the children’s creations; • created artefacts for the children to elaborate on; • trained the children in the use of expressive materials with which they were unfamiliar; • played games with the children utilising design session artefacts; and • helped to build trust within the design team by being a ‘familiar face’ during unfamiliar activities. children’s parents as supporters and partners it was not originally intended that the children’s parents become members of the design team; as discussed in the literature review above, in the majority of literature involving designing with children as design partners, parents are notably absent. however, their involvement had a number of positive effects: • in early design sessions, participant e and participant d expressed nervousness about the design sessions, and were calmer and more engaged with their parents present, and with their parents’ encouragement to become involved in the design activities. • participant e’s parents acted as design team members in their own rights, creating artefacts, which the children iterated on through modification and/or game play. • participant d’s mother, while not a fluent signer herself, was very familiar with participant d’s communication and vocabulary, and could interpret to and for her. she was also able to suggest alternative vocabulary that would be clearer (e.g. auslan has several signs that mean love; participant d was more familiar with one than the others). !94 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 lead designer as partner and supporter the lead designer set the subject or problem for each design session, and provided expressive materials that were appropriate to that subject or problem. she learned elementary auslan before the sessions began, to facilitate communication with the child participants and members of the deaf community, including the deaf staff of the early childhood development program. throughout the design sessions, she emphasised the equality inherent in the design partner role, and focused on supporting children in their choices of activities and explorations. she identified directions for explorations in future design sessions based on the children’s preferred activities and themes. this included creating technological prototypes based on the creations and activities within the design sessions, and providing them for the children’s feedback and elaboration. observers each design session was observed by one of two observers. the observers were not intended to interact with the children; however, some of the children chose to interact with the observers. participant d greeted the observer when she entered the room in several design sessions. participant s liked to show her creations to the observer, who reacted with impressed shock. this seemed to please participant s, and may have helped to keep her focused on the design activities. adults outside the design team the children were eager to show off their creations from the design sessions to adults outside the design team, and there were many instances in which one or more children ran out of the design session room to show a staff member or parent an artefact they had created or were playing with. this was usually greeted with praise and impressed looks, then the children were encouraged to return to the design session room. lessons from the case study adults managing young children’s behaviour vs being equal partners adult design team members played a role in managing the children’s behaviour during the design sessions. in some cases, such as mediating disagreements over issues such as ‘who gets the scissors next’, or safety concerns such as telling participant s not to place small objects into her mouth, these fall into the category of traditional adult responsibilities, acknowledged in the literature as remaining the purview of adults even when working with children as design partners or software designers (guha et al., 2008; 2013). another type of behaviour management commonly seen in youngdeafdesign was in helping the children to focus on the design activities. when the children were uncertain about joining in the activities, encouragement from the early childhood development program staff members or their parents would often get them to join in. this extended !95 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 to adults who were not technically part of the design team, as there were situations in which the children wished to show off their creations to parents or to early childhood development program staff members who were not part of the design team. those adults usually praised and interacted with the creations, and encouraged the children to return to the design session room and continue the activities. there were situations in which adults’ attempts to manage the children’s behaviour demonstrated a lack of respect for the children as equal design partners, for example, when the educational interpreter picked up participant d’s hands to show her how to form signs, or when participant d’s mother took her hands away from a prototype while telling her to watch the lead designer’s signed questions. in these situations, we see a trade-off between the adult’s role as a design partner, in which they should be working with the children as equals, and their traditional roles as educators and parents, trying to promote ‘good behaviour’ – in this case, good communication behaviour, which did benefit the design sessions in other ways. this highlights an important consideration in forming a design team: adults’ willingness to commit to the design sessions as members of the team, and their willingness to work with children in ways that are respectful, accepting, and promote equality. participant e’s parents strongly demonstrated this, as their actions within the design sessions promoted participant e’s involvement in the design sessions and created artefacts for further exploration and iteration. participant d’s mother demonstrated this in many, but not all, of her interactions within the design sessions, as shown in the example above. known adults being supporters and partners promoted trust and involvement the presence of known and trusted adults within the design team, be they parents or staff members of the early childhood development program, seemed to promote confidence in the children. as noted, in early design sessions, participant e and participant d in particular seemed uncertain about the design sessions, and reluctant to get involved in the design activities. encouragement from their parents and the auslan language model was needed to draw them into the activities. in addition, the auslan language model and parents acted as trainers within the design sessions, showing children how to use materials they were unfamiliar with, and assisting with any difficulties they had. the lead designer also provided training and assistance, but in the earliest sessions, the children seemed more inclined to turn to adults they knew for help. over the course of the design sessions, as the lead designer because more familiar, they were more comfortable learning from the lead designer and asking them for help. adults acting as design partners in their own rights also facilitated the children’s involvement in the design activities, because they created design artefacts with the expressive materials, which the children interacted with and elaborated on. many sessions had spontaneous games created by the children that utilised an adult’s creation, such as participant e feeding the fish her father had created, and that provided contextual information about how the children saw the design artefacts. they could also provide areas of interest to the children, which suggested new avenues for design activities and themes for exploration within the design sessions. !96 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ethical considerations of designing with young deaf children design approaches that treat children as design partners and informants draw from a philosophy of respecting the children’s unique abilities, and the need to understand their abilities and needs from their perspective, to inform technology designs. this philosophy is also relevant in research. traditional power imbalances between adults and children, between able and disabled people, and between dominant and minority cultures, must all be considered when conducting design and research activities with deaf children. within the youngdeafdesign project, ethical clearance was sought from the author’s university. within that process, there were two major threads of consideration: the benefits and risks posed by the project, and ethical informed consent. prior research on the impacts of design involvement on children had suggested that children benefited from high levels of involvement in design projects, with increased confidence, and increased communication, team working, and problem solving skills being identified as some of the positive outcomes (druin & fast, 2002; farber et al., 2002; guha, druin & fails, 2010; harel, 1991; harel & papert, 1990; kafai et al., 1997; knudtzon et al., 2003). further research has since identified that there is also a significant risk of anxiety that is likely to be experienced by children at the start of design projects (korte, potter & nielsen, 2017b). the risks identified through the ethical clearance process for the youngdeafdesign process included recognition of the likelihood of anxiety, and of frustration that children might experience in trying to communicate across the communication gap. as seen, the presence of familiar adults was helpful in alleviating the children’s anxiety and promoting their involvement in design activities. the inclusion of sign language interpreters and parents who were familiar with their children’s communication styles helped to bridge the communication gap, although, as noted, it did not completely address it. a commitment by the lead designer to be aware of the children’s non-verbal communication was also helpful, as the children’s body language and expressions often communicated feelings of frustration that they could not express in signs. the ultimate example of such body language was that, when participants were no longer interested in a particular activity, they disassociated from it by moving away, or pushing away the materials involved in the activity. the presence of expressive materials themselves was also helpful in supporting communication, as children used the materials and design artefacts to augment their communication, and adults could use them as props to reinforce communication to the children. design and research projects that aim to create technologies for groups likely to be subject to digital exclusion may claim a benefit to the communities they are designing with, if and when their technologies become available. in the case of the youngdeafdesign project, the creation of a design approach to support designing with young deaf children was intended to enable the creation of better technologies for the deaf community. !97 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 from the perspective of informed consent, young children are not legally able to consent, so within the youngdeafdesign project, consent was sought from first the early childhood development program, then the parents of the children involved. the informed consent pack provided to parents included a simple consent form for the children, with smiling and frowning faces to indicate the children’s willingness or otherwise to participate in the design sessions. it was intended that parents should explain the project to their children, and the children would be able to mark their agreement to participate. however, all of the child consent forms were returned marked in pen, suggesting the parents filled them out. this may be due to the difficulties identified above in communicating abstract ideas to young deaf children. conclusion participatory design approaches tailored to the needs and abilities of minority groups can help to address digital exclusion by providing avenues for supported involvement in design activities, thereby resulting in technologies that are accessible to those minority groups. one such group is young deaf children, who fall at the intersection of three minority groups, and are therefore at high risk of digital exclusion: the deaf community is a cultural minority; physical deafness is identified as a medical disability, and often has other comorbid conditions; and young children lack power in traditional relationships with adults. this article has focused on youngdeafdesign, a new design approach created for conducting design activities with young deaf children taking a role somewhere between informant and design partners, with educational professionals and parents acting in supporting and partner roles. adult interactions with children in youngdeafdesign spanned a wide range. of particular note are the roles that the children’s parents took, as the involvement of parents in design approaches in which children are design partners is noticeably lacking in the literature on design with children. this conclusion will provide a number of recommendations for designers and researchers wanting to design with young deaf children, based on the learnings from the case study. these recommendations will interleave the practical and ethical considerations addressed in this article so far. sign language interpreters it is vitally important, when designing with young deaf children, to have sign language interpreters to support communication between all members of the design team. this is not merely a practical consideration, but an ethical one. without understanding the children’s communication, their input into the design activities has not truly been gathered, and their perspective will not be addressed in the final design of new technologies. an inability to communicate can also cause frustration for children and adults alike. in the youngdeafdesign case study, professional educators acted as sign language interpreters. an unexpected finding was that parents of young deaf children could also act as sign language interpreters for their own children in some situations. being familiar with their child’s particular approaches to communication meant they !98 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 could support one-on-one communication. i recommend that designers and researchers wanting to work with young deaf children should also take steps to familiarise themselves with the children’s sign language and deaf cultural communication norms, as these will help to promote communication. designers and researchers should further commit themselves to awareness of non-verbal communication, as young deaf children are expressive and inventive communicators when motivated (potter et al., 2014; williams, 2004), and this provides another opportunity to understand them, their needs, and their abilities. treating children with equality and respect professional educators and parents have the capacity to work with young deaf children as equal design team members, and as supporters and facilitators of the children’s involvement. in the youngdeafdesign sessions, parents and educators encouraged children to get involved in the design session activities, trained them in ways of using unfamiliar materials, assisted them when they had difficulties, and created design artefacts that the children elaborated on and interacted with in ways that provided design information. however, professional educators and parents may maintain or revert back to their traditional teaching roles, undermining the equality and respect necessary to work with children as equal design partners. it can be a fine line, as certain adult responsibilities, such as addressing safety concerns and mediating disputes, remain as adult responsibilities despite the otherwise equal relationship expected in a design partnership. i recommend, therefore, that designers working with young deaf children and adults should discuss the importance of equality and respect with adult design team members before beginning design sessions. such discussions may help to remind adults about the need for respect and equality before they act ‘like an adult’, however further research is needed to confirm this. mitigating children’s anxiety another ethical and practical consideration is that young deaf children involved in design activities for the first time may experience anxiety. the presence and involvement of adults who were familiar to the children, both parents and educational professionals, helped to ease the children into design session activities, and helped to build trust between the children and the lead designer. we recommend that familiar adults should be involved in design sessions with young deaf children, particularly early design sessions, to help ease any anxiety the children experience. from an ethical consideration, this can help to decrease any suffering such anxiety causes the children. from a practical standpoint, collaboration is more likely when the children trust the adults on the design team, and more useful design information will be generated to inform the design of new technologies. children’s explicit and implicit consent-giving in terms of informed consent, the ethical approach should include informing the children about the activities they are to be involved in, and seeking their personal !99 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 consent. however, from a practical perspective, it was extremely difficult to communicate abstract ideas about designing new technologies to young deaf children in the case study. i recommend that attempts should be made, with the assistance of adults familiar with the children and their styles of communication; however, we recognise that it will not always be possible to gain informed consent from the children. in this situation, it is important to work closely with adults such as parents and teachers to ensure the children’s best interests are being addressed through involvement in design activities. i further recommend that if children demonstrate that they do not wish to be involved in a particular design activity or in design sessions overall, even after encouragement from trusted adults, this should be recognised as the child withdrawing their consent to be involved in the design activity or design sessions. conclusion involving young deaf children in the design of new technology can have benefits for the children involved, and to the wider deaf community, through the creation of technologies that enable their digital and social inclusion. it can also be rewarding for designers and researchers involved, as young deaf children are innovative communicators with abilities and interests of their own. it is my hope that the recommendations and examples provided here assist other designers and researchers in working with this minority group. these recommendations may also be of use to designers and researchers working with other groups prone to digital exclusion, but further research is needed to confirm this. acknowledgements i would like to thank tan ching ying michelle for being the inspiration behind this article. thanks also to my phd supervisors, dr leigh ellen potter and dr sue nielsen, and to the staff and students of the early childhood development program for participating in my research. !100 the journal of 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(2016). open data and sub-national governments: lessons from developing countries. the journal of community informatics, 12(2), (special issue on open data for social change and sustainable development), 99-119. date submitted: 2015-08-12. date accepted: 2016-05-09. copyright (c), 2016 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1260 mailto:mikocanares@stepupconsultants.com?subject= mailto:satyarupa.shekhar@cag.org.in http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1260 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1260 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction open government data (ogd) as a concept is gaining currency globally due to the strong advocacy of global organisations as the open government partnership (ogp). in recent years, there has been increased commitment on the part of national governments to disclose information proactively. this trend is significant, especially for countries where right to information is not legislated and the only way by which citizens or their intermediaries are able to access public data is through proactive disclosure by government. the argument in favour of ogd is that it has the potential to unleash economic, social and political benefits. one report claims that the economic benefits of open data will amount to usd one trillion in seven economic sectors (manyika et al., 2013). there are also claims that ogd has the potential to improve public service delivery (granickas, 2013) and allow more opportunities for civic engagement, bringing citizens closer to their governments (kucera & chlapek, 2014). there is also a strong normative argument that opening up government data and providing information to citizens in reusable formats will promote greater government accountability and transparency (o’hara, 2012). however, much of the discussion on ogd is at the national level, especially in developing countries where commitments of proactive disclosure is conditioned by the commitments of national governments as expressed through the ogp national action plans. despite significant moves towards proactive disclosure at the national levels, one can observe that the debate on public accountability overall has been overshadowed by talk on data standards, software, digital architecture, and the access and availability of information (yu & robinson, 2012). the focus on open government data at the national levels also glosses over the differences in the political, social, economic and digital divides that exist at the sub-national levels. the approach to being an ‘open government’ seems to be similar across several countries, and where ‘the preparation and launch of open data initiatives follows an orthodox approach involving hackathons, training events and outreach activities’ (davies, 2014b). in general, little is understood regarding the context, supply of open data, technical platforms and standards, governance setting, intermediaries, and actions and impact of open data in the 1 context of sub-national governments – in provinces, cities, municipalities – of the developing world. in this context, the exploring the emerging impacts of open data in developing countries (oddc) project produced a significant amount of literature that can aid us in understanding how open data emerges, develops and matures in the context of sub-national governments in developing country contexts. this paper is structured in four parts. the first part provides a brief introduction of the oddc project from which we take the analysis of this paper. in this part, we also discuss the research framework used, the questions we wanted to answer and the methodology for arriving at a qualitative summary of the findings from the cases. the second part briefly reviews the literature used to frame our analysis, particularly in the context of decentralised governance. the third part summarises the findings of the study, with particular attention on context, governance setting and actions that hasten the emergence of ogd in sub-national for an elaboration of these analysis parameters, see davies, perini and alonso (2013).1 !100 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 contexts. the fourth part presents the conclusion and offers suggested actions for future open data work and research. background and methodology the oddc project was a multi-year, multi-country project that looked into how open data is used and is generating impact in the developing world. more specifically, it ‘explores how open data can foster improved governance, support citizens' rights, and promote more inclusive development through looking at the emerging impacts of existing open data projects in developing countries’ (davies et al., 2013). the project, with the support of canada’s international development research center (idrc), funded a total of 17 case studies in africa, asia and latin america. at least nine of these case studies focused on sub-national governments in different thematic areas – sanitation in cities in chennai, india; health service delivery and municipalities in the philippines; urban slums and rural settlements in kenya; open data and cities in brazil, argentina and uruguay; open legislature in brazil; and budget and fiscal transparency in brazil and the philippines. a summary of the cases included in this study are presented in table 1 below. 2 table 1: list of cases reviewed country title of study author(s) sector/theme sub-national area india the quality of civic data in india and the implications for the push on 0pen data shekhar, s. & padmanabhan, v. health chennai(city) uruguay opening cities: open data in montevideo scrolini, f. urban development/cities montevideo (city) brazil open government data in rio de janeiro city matheus, r. & ribeiro, m. urban development/cities rio de janeiro (city) kenya open government data for effective public participation chiliswa, z. poverty and slums nairobi (city) philippines exploring the role of open government data and new technologies: the case of the philippines ona, s., ulit, s., ching, m., hecita, i., padilla, t. & angeles, s. health and economic development bacolod, bago, iligan, iloilo (cities) brazil open data in the legislative: the case of sao paulo city council matheus, r. & ribeiro, m. city governance – legislation sao paulo (city) argentina opening cities: open data in buenos aires fumega, s. urban development/cities buenos aires (city) philippines opening the gates: will open data initiatives make local governments in the philippines more transparent? canares,m., de guia, j., arawiran, j. & narca, m. fiscal transparency bulacan, bohol, south cotabato (provinces) the respective research reports can be found at http://www.opendataresearch.org/reports2 !101 http://www.opendataresearch.org/reports the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the questions posed by this synthesis paper, drawing from these case studies, are the following: a) what context, governance setting and actions hasten the emergence of open government data in developing countries? b) what facilitates or hinders the supply and use of government data in sub-national contexts in developing countries? c) what lessons can be learned from the cases in terms of creating and sustaining the supply and use of open government data at the sub-national level in developing countries? to answer these questions, more particularly questions (a) and (b), a re-reading of the nine cases was done in order to develop a comprehensive and complete list of responses to the questions. the list was coded and themes were generated from these coded responses. the answers to these questions were analysed in order to come up with key themes that respond to the third question regarding lessons that can be learned to ensure better supply and use of open government data at the sub-national level in developing countries. a workshop was held at the open data lab in jakarta in february 2015 to write the preliminary draft of the synthesised research findings and results. the framework used to analyse the case studies is presented in figure 1 below. figure 1: research framework brazil measuring open data’s impact of brazilian national and sub-national budget transparency websites and its impact on people’s rights beghin, n. & zigoni, c. fiscal transparency sao paulo (city) !102 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 1 above is adapted from the research framework of oddc where: a) the context for open data – includes the political, organisational, legal, technical, social and economic context of the locality. b) the supply of open data – including data availability, legal frameworks for data, data licenses, and the stakeholders involved in providing data. c) technical platforms and standards – including data formats and data standards used, and any data catalogues, apis or analysis tools provided by an open data initiative d) the context of the specific governance setting – including a description and history of the issues in focus, details of key stakeholders, and analysis of how data plays a potential role in this setting. e) intermediaries and data flow – documenting the means by which data is made accessible in the governance setting: how, and by whom? f) actions and impacts – documenting the experience of those seeking to use data, and providing evidence of intended or unintended consequences. each of these areas were looked into in the cases reviewed, and the facilitating and hindering factors were identified in each of the components above (a to f), whenever possible and as the data of the cases would allow.as the synthesis is based largely on the research papers mentioned, the analysis of results is limited to what were provided in these documents. there was no opportunity to ask for more information from case authors, except for the cases from the philippines and india whose authors also wrote the synthesis.finally, the answers provided by each of the case studies for each of the elements mentioned in (a) to (f) above were coded, clustered, and titled in order to arrive at common themes that characterise the state of open data in sub-national governments. these form the basis of the findings and conclusion of this paper. why the local? decentralisation, as an integral component of the good governance discourse, has been implemented in developing countries, pushed by different forces and actors in the last 20 years. for some, decentralisation is a consequent effect of democratisation, recognising that representative governance can only work in contexts when local participation is assured (stoker, 1996). for others, decentralisation is driven by the globalisation phenomenon as more national governments acknowledge the limitations of centralised planning and management in dealing with more globalised challenges confronting nation states (shah and thompson, 2004). in the context of developing countries, it is argued that decentralisation, as part of the democratization process, is largely influenced by international agenda, especially because of ideological shifts in the more developed economies and the international organisations working in governance reform (mkandawire, 2006). the world bank, for example, spent a total of usd22 billion between 1990 and 2007 in 20 countries for decentralisation reforms (world bank, 2011). however, the changing political dynamics and the challenges associated with it, also pushed developing country governments to implement waves of decentralisaton reforms (faguet, 2011). !103 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 decentralisation, therefore, is something we have to contend with in any context of governance program or intervention, open government data included. it is important to define decentralisation in this case. this paper takes ojendal and dellnas’ (2013) definition that decentralisation ‘generally refers to the transfer of powers and resources from the central government to lower levels in the state hierarchy’ (p.10). it can be a form of devolution (political or democratic decentralisation), delegation or deconcentration (administrative decentralisation) or fiscal decentralisation.to date, almost all countries, regardless of system of government, have some form of decentralisation in place, whether political, administrative or fiscal. ogd falls under the gambit of open government that has transparency, participation and accountability at its core (tai, 2014). it requires that the public understands how their government is working, that the public has a say in governance and that the public can call their leaders to account for their performance. in decentralised government structures, this characterisation extends to the local level, where most governance activities take place, where the relationship between the government and the governed is proximate, and where demand for public services exact acccountability of elected leaders. focusing on the local level has strong substantial evidence. those that have studied decentralisation extensively in the last 20 years suggest that decentralisation makes government more responsive to the needs of local citizens (alderman, 2002; faguet 2004), promote inclusiveness in development (helmsing, 2004), and thus eventually leads to increased citizen satisfaction with regard to government’s delivery of public services (diazserrano & rodriguez-pose, 2012). as such, focusing on the local level in terms of ensuring openness in governance will make the impact of open government data more real to citizens as programmes become more responsive to local needs, increase citizen participation, and thus improve citizen satisfaction with governmental services. these results, however, are not automatic and a strong argument that decentralisation does not result to these perceived effects has been put forward by grindle (2007) who highlights the tension between decentralization as a theoretical and a practical construct. grindle argues that among the different hypotheses regarding how decentralisation can work, electoral competition and political entrepreneurship have the greatest effects on the quality of decentralised governance. arguably, it is not decentralisation per se that brings about the positive effects to the quality of governance but a myriad of factors including the complex interactions among political institutions, societal demands and political stakeholders as politicians and citizens. like any governance reform programme, the complexity of the interrelationships between actors and their interests needs to be considered. inarguably, development and change is not a result of one factor. in the case of open data, for example, publication of ogd will also not necessarily lead to outright improvement in people’s lives (davies, 2014b).davies argues that for open data to lead to outputs, outcomes and impact, there are many factors to consider – how open data is used, how people are able to access technology, how committed leaders are, how much resources are put into open data initiatives, how active civil society and other intermediaries are in governance, among others. !104 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 a more recent review of decentralisation reforms summarises the major arguments on how and why decentralisation can work. manor (2013) argues that decentralisation can work only when there are substantial powers at the local level, matched with sufficient resources, and kept in check by institutionalised accountability mechanisms. this echoes agrawal and ribot’s (1999) argument that efficient decentralisation happens when representation and downward accountability is strong matched with countervailing powers to hold local powers accountable. we take these views in framing the analysis of the different cases in this study. indeed, the local level is important in the context of open data. in decentralised contexts, it is where data is collected, where data is stored, where there is strong likelihood that data will be published, and when used, it is where data can generate the most impact. however, the context of open data is also important. questions on whether there is a strong regulatory environment for openness, whether there is a sustained demand and interest in government data, whether there are resources retrieved from the sub-national level to harness the potential of open data are critical. we therefore wanted to look at the overall context which influences local power, local resources and accountability mechanisms that affect how open data can be initiated at the sub-national level. we consider these three elements on both the demand and supply side of open data. for example, intermediaries can be positioned as part of local accountability mechanisms. technical platforms and standards as well as local legislation may define local power, while the condition of technology is part of local resources. however, to streamline the presentation of findings, we present the results using three major headings – factors that need to be in place to initiate open data practice, facilitating/hindering factors in open data provision and facilitating/hindering factors in open data use – keeping in mind that success at the local level can only happen when two factors exist: ‘a bottom-up demand from citizens for accountable government closer to the people’ and ‘top-down agenda aimed at improved governance at the local level’ (ojendal & dellnas, 2013, p.7). research findings what needs to be in place to initiate open data practice? across cases, the primary driver of openness at the sub-national level is the presence of national or local legal framework promoting the same. the legislation sets the stage for civil servants at the local level to comply with the required standard of openness and paves the way for institutional sustainability. these laws can be about freedom of information (foi), proactive disclosure or open data. each of the countries covered by these studies has different legal frameworks for openness (see figure 2). there are countries with legislated freedom of information (foi) laws backed by policies that ensure proactive disclosure. for example, transparency law in brazil, promulgated in 2009, requires all public entities to publish on the web detailed budget data in real time. the same law requires that by 2013, more than 5500 brazilian municipalities must publish financial and budget data on its portal. brazil also promulgated the information access law in 2012, which is roughly equivalent to a foi act. india passed a right to information (rti) law in 2005.in terms of open data, the country implemented in 2012 the national data !105 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 sharing and accessibility policy (ndsap) which was intended to promote data sharing and enable access to government data. ndsap requires that government publish government data in re-usable formats but targets central government specifically. there is no similar policy directing state-level governments to do the same. figure 2: countries and legal frameworks for openness there are countries where the main basis for information disclosure is an foi law, without any policy that promotes open data. for example, uruguay passed a foi law in 2008.despite deficiencies (e.g. the lack of a definition for what constitutes public bodies) it is considered an achievement in the country’s efforts to cultivate transparency. recently, uruguay also passed the free software and open standards in the public sector. though not necessarily an open data policy, it sets the stage for government preference of non-proprietary file formats. the city of montevideo is purportedly the first city in latin america with an open data policy. there are countries without any foi law but with policies or regulations that require proactive disclosure. in this category belongs the philippines, which does not have a foi law but has the full disclosure policy (fdp) issued by the department of interior and local government. the fdp requires local government units to disclose proactively certain types of data on their websites or on the fdp portal, a dedicated portal where local government units (lgus) can upload and citizens can access finance-related information. despite the insufficiency in the number and type of data required to be disclosed publicly, this is considered a significant step in transparency, especially in a context where there is no foi !106 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 law. the provinces and cities studied in the two cases reviewed for this synthesis are compliant with this policy. finally there are two countries without any foi law and no national policy on open data or proactive disclosure: kenya and argentina. while kenya enshrined in its constitution the right of citizens to information, the country does have its own foi law. it also does not have an open data policy that governs the country’s open data initiatives but has invested heavily in an open data programme called the kenya open data initiative. in the same way, argentina does not have an foi law or any policy related to proactive disclosure. given these contexts, one can ask, why do provinces, cities and municipalities covered in this study, despite absence of legal framework, proceed with implementing open data initiatives? the question largely applies tithe cases of kenya, argentina and india. in kenya, it was the effort of the ict ministry that launched open data initiatives despite the lack of a solid legal basis. but in argentina, the case was very different – while the federal state does not have an foi, the city of buenos aires passed its own foi law. in india, because the ndsap does not focus on sub-national levels of governance, a civil society organisation pressed the chennai city government to ensure information provision by working with government and building its own portal. the same happened in bahia blanca, in argentina, but it was government who initially developed a portal that was taken forward by a programmer by making the data from the portal more understandable by citizens (chao, 2013). a major insight that emerges from these cases is that while a national legal framework is critical, the absence of such is not a major hindrance in making data open to the public at the sub-national level, as the cases of chennai in india or buenos aires in argentina suggest. but national laws and regulations are critical, especially in cases when other frameworks like the foi are absent. proactive disclosure in the philippines only happened due to a policy that carries both rewards (e.g. the grant of the seal of good housekeeping for compliant local government units) and sanctions (e.g. public officials who do not follow are administratively liable), because foi is still under debate among legislators. what facilitating and hindering factors exist in open data provision? across the cases, we found six factors, namely, political leadership, implementation structure, availability of governance data, technical capacity of suppliers, presence of intermediaries, and implementation of concrete open data initiatives that facilitate or hinder open data provision. a positive condition of each factor is considered a facilitating factor while a negative condition is considered a barrier to the provision of open data in sub-national contexts. these factors are discussed in more detail below. political leadership as with any governance intervention, political leadership is critical in data provision. in buenos aires, the chief executive serving his second term in office enacted a decree on open government that focused on proactive disclosure of data in reusable formats. in the provinces of bohol and south cotabato in the philippines, the success of transparency efforts owed much to the fact that governors of both provinces ran on a platform of transparency and committed their efforts towards this. !107 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 however, the chennai case in india provides an antithesis regarding the high degree of importance of political leadership. with nsdap focusing on national government apparatus and no law requiring sub-national governments to undertake proactive disclosure, a civil society organisation compelled the city government to improve data collection and does the function of community profiling on its own. in which case, when government does not perform its role, civil society can hold it to account. this resonates with the experience of nepal (not part of this synthesis) where the country’s open data portal is not maintained by government but by a consortium of non-governmental organisations. however, it is important to highlight that the state of civil society and its extent of participation in local governance is a determining factor in their ability to take on the role that governments failed to play. implementation structure even with the existence of a law or a policy, without the existence of a functioning implementation structure, no concrete results are likely to be seen. in montevideo, an open data working group was organised to undertake open data initiatives. in the case of sao paulo, implementation was spearheaded by the sao paulo city council, the department of information technology and the department of communication. in buenos aires, the office of information and open government and the ministry of modernisation spearheaded the implementation of open data projects. in the philippine cases, the information and technology departments of the provincial governments ensured the uploading of required documents on the fdp portal and the provincial websites. some local governments make use of decentralised implementation structures in the proactive release of governance data. in buenos aires, each agency in the city government is responsible for maintaining the data and authorising its release. the office of information and open government will seek the authorisation of city agencies before publishing data on the portal. across all cases, we found that implementation mechanisms and the corresponding allocation of human and financial resources are necessary to ensure that laws on open data and action plans are implemented. availability of governance data sub-national governments that have certain degree of automation in their data management systems (e.g. data is systematically collected and held in digital formats) have greater potential to disclose data; and more so in sub-national governments that use highly sophisticated systems in managing data. in rio de janeiro, at the time of the study, there were 1200 datasets and 30 files in 13 categories. these data were habitually held in digital formats by the agencies dealing with education, environment, enterprise, social development, sports, taxes, tourism, among others. in the philippines, compliance by local government units with the fdp was at more than 80% when it was first implemented – made possible by the fact that data required to be disclosed under the policy came from financial systems with clear data collection, aggregation and reporting procedures. thus, disclosure is easier because no additional effort of digitisation is required. in several of the cases, provision of open data to the public usually commenced with data that was readily available–and particularly data collected and held in digital and in open formats. !108 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 this approach was seen as the best option to jumpstart open data provision. for example, the fdp in the philippines required local government units to disclose data that they habitually prepare as spreadsheet files – budgets, procurement plans and utilisation reports. publishing these datasets does not require significant effort on the part of civil servants, except uploading them to websites as csv files. in montevideo, the city government decided to disclose data progressively on its portal, starting off with geographical and transport data. the government decided to use these datasets because these were the ones that were already collected and held in open format, and the policy could therefore be put into motion in a shorter span of time. technical capacity of suppliers the availability of governance data that is ready for proactive disclosure is invariably linked to the technical capacity of sub-national governments. high technical capacity makes data provision easier. in montevideo, the it department of the city government has high capacity, including software development. this is the result of a long tradition of systems development, especially in the human resource sector. in rio de janeiro, technical capacity is high in both skills and it infrastructure – they have sensors on street lights, gps on buses and a data centre with skilled people set up by ibm. this facilitated the provision of real-time transport data. however, in chennai, this is not the case. the case study points to the almost non-existent technical capacity at the level of the bureaucracy – even manual data systems are plagued with data quality and timeliness issues. for example, when transparent chennai worked with the government to geo-locate public toilets, they discovered that the data is not compiled, in most cases outdated, and when available, these are not in open formats. this point to the fact that when technical skills are deficient within government, especially in collecting, aggregating, storing, curating and publishing data, open data as a governance agenda is likely to be difficult. across all cases, we found out that if skills and technical capacity, including infrastructure, are high, the likelihood that the open data initiative will be implemented and sustained is increased. presence of intermediaries however, government does not necessarily have to possess high technical capacity in open data. the chennai city government, because of evident weakness in improving data quality, was aided by transparent chennai, a local ngo, who worked with the government in raising the quality of health and sanitation data from within. transparent chennai was used to making right-to-information requests to get government data that nevertheless had quality issues. at the time of writing, the organisation had a memorandum of understanding with the city government to improve data quality and to help solve real-world problems, like in the provision of public toilets. intermediaries can also be from the business sector. when the rio de janeiro city government decided to use data to better manage natural disasters as flooding, after the heavy rains in 2010, it partnered with ibm to establish the centre of operations for rio de janeiro, where secretariats of different city agencies collect, aggregate and analyse geo-referenced data on several aspects in the city from river levels to transport. however, intermediaries from the !109 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 private sector can also act on their own even without the prodding of government. an independent data programmer in buenos aires created a public expenditure portal, enhancing open data provision. intermediaries also exist within governments. in the case of argentina, intermediaries, referred to in the paper as policy entrepreneurs, led to the introduction of open data into the local and national policy sphere. in the philippines, an internal audit office in a province made sure that the local government complied with the fdp by checking regularly the documents disclosed on the government website and reminding document owners about their responsibilities. this system was created to ensure that the local government does not miss out on incentives (e.g. awards for good local governance) and that it maintains its reputation as one of the best governed provinces in the country. the role of these intermediaries is critical in open data provision. however, more research is needed to ascertain their motivations. implementation of concrete initiatives the true test of the functionality of open government data in sub-national contexts is the implementation of concrete open data initiatives. these initiatives can be classified into two categories – those that relate to open data provision, and those that relate to the promotion of open data use. most of the sub-national governments covered by this paper, except for chennai, make use of portals to supply data publicly and proactively. the latin american cities of montevideo, rio de janeiro and buenos aires each have their own open data portal. kenya has a national data portal developed through the kenya open data initiative, but this portal also contains local data. the provinces covered in the philippine case each have their own website where they also proactively disclose data apart from the fdp portal. several of the cases use hackathons as a way to increase data uptake. sao paulo, rio de janeiro, buenos aires and montevideo held hackathons based on sub-national data while in the philippines, kenya and india, hackathons were held based on national data. there were other creative citizen engagement strategies employed in some cases. in buenos aires, the city established the government laboratory which is a physical space where various stakeholders discuss public-interest problems and work collaboratively to achieve solutions. all these initiatives by local governments hasten open data use by making citizens more aware of the data and by improving understanding of the data. what facilitates or hinders open data use? the case studies showed at least five critical factors that hasten or prevent open data use. these are (1) existence of real-life problems or challenges to be solved, (2) the quality of the data, (3) technical capacity on the part of users, (4) the existence of intermediaries, and (5) the incentive and interest to participate. as in the previous section, the presence of these factors facilitates open data use, while the absence of any of these factors is a barrier. these factors are discussed below. !110 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 existence of real problem to address the cases suggest that the initiatives where there is evidence of use are those where the open data were used to address real problems faced by citizens. for example, in rio de janeiro, applications related to transport (e.g. easy taxi) and also one related to public toilets, especially during carnival, showed high data uptake. this indicates that data use occurs when data provided relates to an actual issue or problem identified or articulated by citizens or governments. in the case of the philippines, where the majority of the data relate to public financial management, it is the business community that has the greatest uptake especially because procurement data is used to anticipate government procurement activities. this also reaffirms the finding that open data does not only serve social purposes but also economic ends. if data, regardless of whether it is open or not, serve political, economic or social ends, it will always be sought by people who need the data. without any apparent need of a dataset, despite the volumes released, data use will not be a natural consequence of disclosure. data quality for data to be used, data should be credible in terms of quality, and users should trust the usefulness of the data. in the case of chennai, because quality issues abound in the city government’s health and sanitation data, transparent chennai decided to improve the quality of data from within rather than to use the data. together with the city government, it improved data on public toilets so that government could proactively respond to the challenges. in sao paulo, while initially the budget data provided was useful, the lack of disaggregation and detail in the data dampened people’s interest in the data. ciudando do meu bairro , a tool 3 to monitor implementation of the city budget, was not fully implemented because the budget data is not geo-coded. while textual analysis of budget data was attempted, full analysis could not be done because the budget data are described in a generic way and presented in an aggregated manner. technical capacity of users without the capacity of users to access and make use of data, even when data provided is of sufficient quality and quantity, there is no data impact. in a context where internet penetration is low, citizens may prefer modes of accessing government data other than portals. in the kenyan case, 77% of respondents prefer to access information through the radio and less from government portals. in rural settlements in kenya, besides radio and tv, citizens also prefer accessing information from traditional modes as churches or mosques, and also from community centres. it is therefore naive to say that opening data and disclosing data on portals will lead to use. the primary question is whether users have capacity to access data. capacity can refer to technical skills (explicit knowledge and methodologies), organisational capacity to function http://cuidando.org.br/3 !111 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 (in the case of organisations) and enabling conditions such as laws, systems and strategies (pearson, 2011). in some contexts, one of the greatest barriers to data use is lack of technical capacity. capacity will be different at the organisational and individual levels. in some contexts, like in the kenya and philippine cases, capacity of individual users is significantly lower than the capacity of the organisations because often organisations have more resources. in kenya, most citizens do not access government data and information form portals, but from intermediaries such as local churches. local churches have more capacity to access and understand publicly-disclosed government information. in the philippines, organised groups, and not necessarily ordinary citizens, know that the government discloses information through its website and portals. however, the capacity of organisations is also differentiated; some organisations have more resources to access data compared with others in such a way that they are able to benefit from the data. in the philippine case, for example, business organisations with regular access to the internet and who employ staff who regularly monitor government’s public disclosure of data were the ones who benefitted more. these businesses used government budget and planning documents to anticipate procurement opportunities that they could participate in within a local government’s calendar year. existence of intermediaries given a context of a lack of capacity, intermediaries which hasten open data use are important. an open data intermediary ‘is an agent positioned at some point in a data supply chain that incorporates an open dataset, is positioned between two agents in the supply chain, and facilitates the use of data that may otherwise not have been the case.’(van schalkwyk, et al., 2016). the definition positions the intermediary in terms of reuse rather than solely in relation to its connection to data providers. the cases covered by this synthesis point to at least three conditions to consider when it comes to intermediaries. first, intermediaries are critical to ensure data use, especially in contexts like the philippines where awareness regarding the existence of the data is low, or when the capacity of users to make use of and derive results from data is limited. second, the role of intermediaries is largely dependent on context. in rio and sao paulo, the world wide web consortium and open knowledge foundation acted as hackathon sponsors. in montevideo and buenos aires, civil society organisations, the private sector and journalists played significant roles in developing applications, in increasing socialisation processes for open data, and in advocating for more transparency. in chennai, transparent chennai simplified data and conducted training for data suppliers and users alike. third, data intermediary organizations need not be open data intermediaries. this is the case in kenya where local chiefs, community centres, churches and mosques, function as intermediaries between governments and citizens. opportunities and incentives to participate it is important that for citizens (or citizen groups) to use ogd, they should be able to discover the value of using the data to influence governance (opportunity) or to improve their lives (incentive).without the opportunity to influence and/or realize the benefit that would !112 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 result from participation, sustained use of data by citizens (or citizen groups), is not likely to occur. for example, if citizens find that through engaging with government budget data, they can actually influence how social funds are being allocated and spent, and benefit as a result of the process, they will most likely sustain their level of participation in governance. in the urban slums of the kenyan case study, data on the number of bursaries awarded by government to students is the most sought after information. this information is important for parents to know how many bursaries are available and how likely it is that their children will be successful in obtaining a bursary. this, however, relates more to the incentive than to the opportunity, as local citizens do not see their ability to influence how bursaries are allocated or awarded. in brazil, an organisation called centro feminista de estudos e assesoria (cfemea) continuously undertakes budget analysis of the federal government to influence gender budgeting. this sustained process of engagement led to parliamentary amendments to the public budget, perceived to benefit more women in the process. while cfemea operates at the federal level, it highlights how the opportunity to influence linked to a perceived benefit can lead to sustained use of open government data. this affirms the findings of scholars in participatory governance who argue that citizens who feel that they have control over the resources of government have the higher incentive to participate in governance (mcgee, 2003). conclusion: what can we learn from these cases? the cases covered in this review showed how open government data can potentially unlock economic, social and political benefits. city and provincial governments have improved planning of transportation, electricity and other services. they have also enabled businesses to use government data to innovate on solutions to these governance problems. the case studies considered in this paper also demonstrate how national and sub-national governments have adopted similar approaches to open government data one that rely on websites and portals to publish government data. however, upon closer examination one finds that the contexts of these developments differ vastly, as the discussions above demonstrate, as do the capacities of the governments and intermediaries involved. the cases highlighted three insights in this regard. 1. there is substantial effort on the part of sub-national governments to proactively disclose data, however, how this is implemented delimits citizen participation, and eventually, use. the legal context for each of these case studies is one where there is a legislation mandating access to information, either proactively or reactively. we see that the sub-national governments have released open datasets which can improve government efficiency and have potential social and economic benefits, such as data on bus routes and health services. however, we have also seen in several cases the limited use of these data sets by people who have the power to hold governments more accountable. the efforts to release open data on gender and development in the philippines and on budgets in sao paulo aim to inform citizens about their governments but the ability of citizens to participate in decision-making as to how these funds should be allocated and used seems to be limited. in the philippines, while gender budgets are available online, !113 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 this information was not widely disseminated thus women groups were not even aware that the budget information exists. in sao paulo, while budget data is publicly available, this does not contain the level of detail that people needed so that they will be able to influence budgeting and spending of government funds. the choice of what data to make available is typically made by the government rather than by the people. there are limited examples where data and apis were disclosed and provided by governments based on demands made by users – such as the hackathon in buenos aires and the public workshop in montevideo. in almost all the cases, technology has been used to make government data available. however, these governments have not used technology to bridge the gap between governments and citizens, nor to establish feedback loops that would be durable or could connect with hard-to-reach communities. the intention and willingness of governments to engage citizens through data and to make governance more inclusive and participatory is largely dependent on political leadership. the cases covered by this synthesis suggest that when political leaders are committed to disclosure and transparency, with or without the prodding of other actors within and outside government, open data initiatives can happen, attract the necessary resources and generate results. this goes back to grindle’s (2007) argument that politicians acting within this new context have the ability and the power to shape governance patterns, processes, systems, and eventually outcomes. if political leaders will design open data initiatives in such a way that it is more demand-driven and relevant to citizen’s needs, initiatives can potentially result to improved citizen participation in governance. 2. governance context demands different roles for stakeholders and different types of initiatives to create an enabling environment for open data at the local level. political, organisational, legal, economic, technical and social contexts will either support or undermine open data initiatives, especially at the level of decentralised governance .for example, national laws and pronouncements directing sub-national governments to disclose data are important, but without the technical capacity of government personnel to make this happen, this will not likely result to compliance. in the philippine cases, the local governments studied were regarded as the best governed provinces in the country, thus the presence of implementation structures and responsibilities to ensure compliance. however, in contexts where there is no law at the national level, capable governments with the vision and intention can make the open data a priority agenda, like in the city of sao paolo in brazil. before open data use can occur, open data provision has to take place. as indicated earlier, leadership is crucial, but this has to be complemented with available resources – technical, human and financial – because open data initiatives are not inexpensive. subnational governments with resources will find it easier to make proactive disclosure happen and generate results, but admittedly, this is not the case in all local governments in developing countries. the status of decentralised open data in developing countries brings back manor’s (2013) argument regarding the promise of decentralisation: it can only work if at the sub-national level of government, there are substantial powers matched with sufficient resources. !114 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 manor (2013) also highlights one critical dimension for decentralised governance to work – institutionalised accountability mechanisms. while this can include structures within government such as audit institutions and anti-graft courts, civil society organisations can also hold government in check. while manor (2013) is sceptical about the importance of civil society, he acknowledges that in some contexts it contributes to the deepening of democracy in decentralised systems. civil society organisations can intermediate democratic change, as cheema (2013) argues – bridging citizens and governments in a process of negotiation and contestation. in this case, context also determines the kind of roles that intermediaries will play. in the latin american cases, it is observed that the intermediaries in the supply and demand for open government data have largely been technical experts, academia and journalists, and their engagements have been directly with sub-national governments. reports and manuals that were prepared to explain how to access and use the data portals were done keeping hackers and the technical development community in mind. in contrast, the intermediaries in the african and asian cases have been civil society organisations that work on frontline public service delivery and with communities. in the case of kenya, india and the philippines, we see that the intermediaries expended their own resources to access data from government – either from online sources or hardcopies from government officers – and transformed those data into formats that are useful for advocacy efforts within the communities with which they worked. this reflects the low levels of access and literacy of the communities that the intermediaries work with, but highlights the need for ogd initiatives to be designed for such social and economic contexts. 3. the capacity of government and its attitude towards proactive data disclosure is one of the critical challenges for sub-national governments in developing countries. these cases signal that opening government data or open government initiatives do not necessarily or automatically translate into improved service delivery or enhanced transparency and accountability. while there are several ways in which open (government) data can ‘enhance democracy’– among others, to control corporate lobbyists, fight corruption and hold politicians to account – these are premised on the availability of complete, accurate, updated and open data. however, the overarching concern in most developing countries is the extreme poverty of data. yet, those that have the potential to improve equity of access to basic services, such as water, sanitation and health, remain inaccessible in open formats. in several of the cases, the ‘easy-to-disclose’ data are the ones that are being proactively disclosed. the lack of transparency and accountability in some contexts can be attributed largely to the lack of data on public services and government performance, rather than to the lack of resources or technology. for open data at the local level to generate value, standards of quality need to be established and maintained (mckinsey, 2014).but quality data has its costs. in the case of chennai, city government officials admit that they are unable to provide comprehensive and correct information. though there is a large amount of data about the city, spatial and non-spatial, digitised and otherwise, that is available in different government departments and agencies, the data are collected and stored in various !115 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 formats and locations, making it difficult for both citizens and public officials to access the data. there is no central data repository that can facilitate sharing and consequently, different agencies either do not have complete data or collect again data that were collected by other agencies. in this context of poor quality data, any push for open data will, in parallel, have to include a push to improve the quality of the data, and to ensure that the data used for planning in the future does not lead to the further exclusion of the poor simply because of the poor quality of available information. this problem is not peculiar to chennai. one of the case studies in the philippines highlighted the lack of quality data in both health and micro-enterprises – two sectors that can provide valuable data to help sub-national governments plan better health and economic development services to achieve social and economic ends. however, data is used for transactional and record-keeping purposes only and kept in printed formats. in kenya, rural residents interviewed by the researchers complained that the data contained in portals are not updated and useful, preventing them from making better decisions based on data. this does not only point to the lack of capacity, but also to lack of attitude in valuing data on the part of sub-national governments. in some cases, like in the philippine case mentioned above, data is kept and maintained for internal accountability purposes – as evidence to show that work has been done for a type of transaction and for a set of clients – and less as a means to achieve external accountability. data was not even kept to plan better or perform future services in a more effective and efficient manner. it has been argued that there is still a need for governments to see the value of open government data (ubaldi, 2013). a basic building block for this to happen is for them to see the value of data, above all things. admittedly, this synthesis is largely dependent on the written research papers and, as indicated previously, there was no opportunity to go back to case authors to provide more information. despite limitations, this synthesis is able to point out current gaps in our understanding of open government data especially in the context of sub-national governments, and these are presented below for consideration in future research. first, there is limited understanding on how, like in the case of governance reforms in decentralized contexts, the different levels of governance (e.g. national, province, district, city, municipality) interact to create an environment that would be conducive to greater openness in sub-national data or to greater openness of sub-national governments. it is important, in this case, to understand how open data evolves within different natures of central-local relations. while this paper highlights the role of national legislation in shaping sub-national openness, it also presents cases of sub-national governments creating open data initiatives on their own, even without a national mandate. understanding these relations is critical in the design of future open data initiatives. conceptually, context extends beyond the description of national situation or local idiosyncrasies and becomes a description of relations between different actors across various level of state governance. second, weave a limited understanding of how different stakeholders access and use open data, or if not, government data, in sub-national contexts. except for the kenya case study where we know that rural residents, for example, prefer the radio to access governance !116 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 information, there is limited discussion in the other cases on what data citizens, or citizen groups access and use, and how they gain access to these datasets. who are the users of government data? what data do they need and have? what mechanisms are in place for data access? how are these mechanisms established and implemented? these are critical questions that will help us understand how to create an enabling environment for open government data in sub-national contexts. finally, there is a need to define, test and evaluate hypotheses on achieving impact through open data, especially at the sub-national level where the relationship between government and citizens is more proximate and pronounced. in the cases mentioned in this paper, little is said about how open data is theorized to achieve transparency or better service delivery, and how this change can be measured when change occurs. in building the case for open data, we need to have more clarity about how open data can lead to the desired political, social and economic impact. references agrawal a. & ribot j. 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(2016). open data intermediaries in developing countries. the journal of community informatics, 12 (2). !119 https://ieg.worldbankgroup.org/data/reports/decentralization_eval.pdf http://opengovguide.theideabureau.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/all-topics.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5k46bj4f03s7-en the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 141-153 issn: 1721-4441 141 notes from the field lessons from the field: what researchers learned from evaluating ict platforms for rural development and education the field of information and communication technology for development is a field constantly changing as new ict tools emerge and new knowledge is gained by field researchers while performing their duties. the research problem: the ict field is littered with examples of failed projects because field researchers did not know the best way to carry out their work. this paper is about knowledge imparted by six monitoring and evaluation field researchers after working for almost eight years, from 2010 to 2018, in ict platform (dd) projects. these platforms were deployed across south africa’s remote rural areas. the work followed interpretivism as its philosophy and was underpinned by qualitative research methods. written project reports, face-to-face interviews and questionnaires were used to collect data and also to triangulate the findings. participatory evaluation formed the basis for a complete understanding of the findings. (i) planning; (ii) deployment; and iii) usage were found to be critical elements for a successful implementation of the dd. although well planned, numerous lessons were still learned for the benefit of future projects. foko, t., mahwai, n.j., and phiri, c.a. (2020). lessons from the field: what researchers learned from evaluating ict platforms for rural development and education. the journal of community informatics, 16, 141-153. copyright (c), 2020 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/index thato foko nare joyce mahwai charles acheson phiri principal researcher, council for scientific and industrial research, south africa tfoko@csir.co.za researcher, council for scientific and industrial research, south africa nmahwai@csir.co.za researcher, council for scientific and industrial research, south africa cphiri@csir.co.za https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/index mailto:tfoko@csir.co.za mailto:nmahwai@csir.co.za mailto:cphiri@csir.co.za the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 141-153 issn: 1721-4441 142 introduction numerous research papers have been written about recipients of development projects but few have dealt with field workers and the knowledge they gain when executing any such projects. this paper attempts to address this knowledge gap through the personal feedback of six respondents who, from 2010 to 2018, crisscrossed the country to carry out monitoring and evaluation (m&e) of the digital doorway project (dd). the dds were deployed in many multi-purpose centres and schools across the country. the council for scientific and industrial research of south africa (csir) researched, deployed, and maintained these dds on behalf of the funding government departments of science and technology (dst), now known as the department of science and innovation (dsi), from 2002 until 2013, and from 2013 up to 2020 the department of agriculture and rural development, formally known as the department of rural development and land reform (drdlr). the dd is a south african local innovation that supported computer literacy as part of the government’s service delivery policy of providing rural communities with access to icts. it was meant to make a fundamental difference in computer literacy and associated skills by providing access to computers, the internet, and data to south africans living in rural areas (van der vyver & marais, 2013). this ict platform was based on principles similar to those demonstrated by an indian project called the ‘hole-in-the-wall’ whose objective was to show that minimally invasive education (mie) was a viable form of education (stillman et al., 2012, mitra et al., 2005). it was initiated to test whether children possess the cognitive ability to acquire functional computer skills without any formal training, with the aim of stimulating their natural curiosity (smith, 2012). these platforms were deployed in rural and peri-urban areas of the country's nine provinces. during the dds’ evaluations the respondents, who were field researchers, visited scores of schools and multi-purpose community centres (mpcc) in all provinces and interviewed dd users, community members, and leaders while collecting huge amounts of data. these included participatory evaluation, outcome mapping, and narrative enquiry. for these visits, researchers were always paired to ensure that data was corroborated and was of good quality. many quarterly and annual reports were written and submitted to the departments. background and context before providing the context to this study it is critical to understand our theory of change which was the basis for the work which had been carried out through the many phases of the dd project. for this article we adopted the definition from comic relief (2011) where cathy james defined theory of change as “an ongoing process of reflection to explore change and how it happens – and what that means for the part organisations play in a particular context, sector and/or group of people”. she went further to state other important considerations such as understanding how change comes about and acknowledgement of “the complexity of change: the wider systems and actors that influence it”. theory of knowledge allows researcher/students to reflect on their learning process, how they interact and use knowledge in the complex world (mthembu, 2013). in the early 21st century for south africa to develop it is crucial to harness its human capital potential and to provide ict access to the poor and marginalised communities who are missing out on the benefits of ict technologies (konyana & konyana, 2013). the legacy of apartheid has left a country with a huge socio-political and economic chasm the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 141-153 issn: 1721-4441 143 where the country’s majority people are unemployed and are still living in abject poverty excluded or marginalised from any meaningful economic activity (stats sa, 2019). therefore, most learners in rural communities have little or no access to icts resulting in poor learner performance (leibbrandt, et al. 2010). to address learner performance, the dd project was established by the dsi and later drdlr, both in collaboration with the csir. these dds were rolled out in public schools, community halls, and multi-purpose centres by the two departments. elaborate consultations with the relevant stakeholders such as community members and their leaders, school principals, teachers and learners, dd champions, and government employees were held. many assumptions were made including that through learner’s curiosity, if ict technologies such as computers with adequate content are deployed, learner and adult groups will use them to discover, with minimal assistance, information from the preloaded content or from online sites where wi-fi was available (smith, 2012). this assumed that people, especially learners, would become self-taught in the use of computers and discover content and information on their own. the purpose of study the respondents, young researchers and post-graduate students, learned a lot from the year 2010 until 2018 when they began crisscrossing the country to carry out the m&e of the dds so that they could share this knowledge with the world. these students work mostly in unfamiliar environments. therefore, the purpose was to ascertain what the researchers learned through their interactions with the multiply community stakeholders and school children when evaluating the dds that were deployed in the rural and semirural areas of south africa. research problem statement in an ideal world, field researchers would have all the necessary skills to collect perfect data, and equally perfect knowledge of the communities they need to work with when implementing research projects. however, in the real-world researchers, even skilled ones, do not always have an ideal understanding of the communities they work with, and field workers are not the most experienced people in any organisation. in most instances, they need training on how to collect data, engage with communities, develop presentation skills, etc. before they can embark on the journey of data collection. their learning continues through their interactions with these projects' beneficiaries. it was this new knowledge which the researchers were requested to share with the world. objectives there are two main objectives of this study: • to interrogate respondents on the lessons they learned during their interactions with the different community members and stakeholders when carrying out the monitoring and evaluation of the dds since the year 2010 until 2018. • to develop a framework that future researchers, particularly novice researchers, could use as a blueprint for carrying out research in environments they are unfamiliar with. research question what are the factors that affected the success of the dd project? the answer to this question is provided by the lessons learned by the team. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 141-153 issn: 1721-4441 144 scope of the research this paper covers only the information generated by interrogating the field researchers and the reports they assisted in compiling as part of the deliverables at different times during the projects. in scope are the data generated from the respondents’ expressed opinion and experiences, verbally or through written reports. the views of other senior researchers who hardly engaged with communities were not considered for this research because they formed part of the learning by respondent views through commentary and suggestions over the years. the dd in context the initial project began in 2002 as a joint initiative between the department of science and technology, before the involvement of other departments, with 40 standalone (fig.1) robust computer terminals, which envisaged a network of over 1000 dds reaching even the remotest areas of south africa (smith et al., 2006). available on the dd was the classroom (educational resources) which provided the user with a variety of educational resources. most of these resources were pdf documents and science simulations. with the new container dds, the content was accessible by directly engaging with the ict terminal or via wi-fi enabled devices such as tablets, laptops, or smartphones (walton & johanson, 2012). users were provided with access to networking menus with basic text chat which took place between computers. users could create and post their own content and could view other users' posts. the “new content” link led to a basic content management system where an administrator could access the dd. fig. 1: three terminal standalone dd fig. 2: solar-powered container dds the later version of the dd was a solar-powered container dd (fig. 2) consisting of three dds, one or two printers, wi-fi access point, satellite dish and router, lockable access doors to the rear of the housing, room light with day/night sensor, and 20 tablets. this version allowed for direct internet access due to the availability of wi-fi. the cost of the wi-fi was covered by the participating government departments. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 141-153 issn: 1721-4441 145 the lessons from the respondents were derived from evaluating the usage of these two different dds. these evaluations were complex as these dds were not only deployed in schools but also in inaccessible villages and in community centres. dd facilitators the dds were run by the dd champions, volunteer facilitators who received minor stipends from the participating departments. adults and learners from grade 1 to grade 12 used these dds for their different needs but in the main to educate themselves on how to use computers. participatory evaluation: benefits and challenges why did researchers carry out the evaluations of the dds? evaluation is a reflection on the process of how the planning and implementation of certain actions in a project or programme take place; in addition, evaluators reflect on the results of the project, anticipated or otherwise (springett & wallerstein, 2008). evaluations were carried out to improve the performance of programmes and projects. participatory evaluation is carried out in collaboration with stakeholders, that is, those that benefit from the project, and those that fund or have a close interest in the project (better evaluations, 2001, sufian, grunbaum, akintobi & dozier et.al 2011). sufian et al. further indicate that participatory evaluation involves not just the interests of stakeholders, but also those of beneficiaries who see value in the project. the participants see the value of collecting quality information and how the project can improve their lives (springett & wallerstein, 2008 & sufian, grunbaum, akintobi & dozier et.al 2015). the benefits of participatory evaluations were summarized by intrac, (2017) and better evaluation (2001) as follows: (i) participatory evaluation empowers beneficiaries to understand their situation better and contribute toward the improvement of their lives; (ii) it offers beneficiaries the opportunity to contribute to the formation of decisions which directly influence their lives, (iii) it improves the relationship between the project leader and the beneficiaries, (iv) it improves the quality of information collected and analysed through evaluation because beneficiaries understand the impact of the project/program on their lives and understand their situations better than other stakeholders, (v) beneficiaries were better placed to explain how the project changed their lives and what changed, why and when they started experiencing the difference, and (vi) allows for accessing a wide range of perspectives on the project. participatory evaluations can be difficult to undertake, as one would expect from such a process that involves many different stakeholders with differing skills. the challenges of a participatory evaluation were summarised by intrac (2017), springett & wallerstein (2008) and better evaluation (2001) as follows: lack of facilitation skills, need for more evaluation time, beneficiaries not being involved from the beginning, lack of clarity of purpose of participation, lack of cultural and contextual understanding, and the implications of these for the evaluation design, among others. research design and methodology value derived from participatory evaluation if the respondents had been involved in the participatory evaluation, outcome mapping, and narrative inquiry, why did we concentrate only on participatory evaluation? the basis for this stemmed from the following assertions: the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 141-153 issn: 1721-4441 146 • because the dd was designed in such a way that knowledge is self-acquired, it was crucial to hear and learn directly from the beneficiaries and respondents to share the lessons from other dds. • they learned and derived most pleasure by engaging with all groups of stakeholders and beneficiaries in finding solutions to problems; • the participatory evaluation helped dd champions, community leaders and members, government officials, teachers, and even learners to improve project implementation on the go. they were able to analyse problems, obstacles, and bottlenecks and instantly propose solutions. this led in many instances to immediate corrective action and improvements to the implementation of the dd project. • they found it easy to embrace the participatory evaluation method as it generated knowledge which resulted in immediate application of lessons learned. • they realized that this evaluation process provided beneficiaries and stakeholders with the tools to be transformative. • this means that narrative evaluation was infused in the lessons they are providing which will assist other new cohorts of field researchers. participants in the research the respondents acquired their knowledge by evaluating at least 46 centres across the country. the respondents in this study were six researchers form the csir. they were trained on outcome mapping, logical framework and narrative enquiry in order to prepare them to carry out their research fieldwork. this background provides an insight into why they found certain things new to them as they were not specialists in participatory evaluations. at the time of collecting the data, four respondents were still working with the csir, while two had left the organisation. interpretivism philosophy this study uses interpretivism as its philosophy, a social sciences approach which accepts the notion that individuals create meaning within a specific context (hanson 2008). “interpretive methods start from the position that our knowledge of reality, including the domain of human action, is a social construction of human actors” (walsham, 2006). both hanson and walsham agree that interpretivists attempt to discover the way people make sense, within the context of their own environment including its culture, of their own world. qualitative research methods qualitative methods were employed together with relevant strategies for data collection. the strategies included keeping journals/notes, reports, and semi-structured questionnaires. for the two researchers that were no longer in the employ of the csir, telephonic interviews and questionnaires were administered via the whatsapp messaging tool. for the four participants who were still with the csir face-to-face interviews were undertaken. in order to triangulate the responses a short questionnaire was sent out to the six respondents to verify and to seek clarity on previously provided face-to-face and telephonically given answers. the objectives of all these questions and the ensuing analysis was to assist with compiling a document of lessons learned by the respondents over the eight year period of the the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 141-153 issn: 1721-4441 147 programme. the respondents were allowed to express their feelings and perceptions about the way they had carried out these evaluations. it was important to understand if there were other things they could have done differently had they known better. the responses were coded and led to the themes which will be covered in the findings data analysis data collected using the different collection tools were subjected to a thematic analysis. the responses were written on a microsoft excel spreadsheet and as they were written the big themes were identified. these themes were classified in terms of the number of occasions they were expressed by the respondents and also by question(s). findings and analysis the following is based on the results provided by the respondents through the different data collection tools. the format of the questions were based on literature reviews and classified mainly under following four categories: (a) planning, (b) deployment, (c) usage, and (d) outcomes. the diagram (fig. 3) below is a summary in a diagrammatic form of the study results as expressed by the respondents. fig 3: results from the respondents a) planning the respondents recognised early on that planning was critical for the successful implementation of the project. planning involved (i) carrying out the baseline study, and (ii) marketing and awareness creation, as shown in fig. 3. these elements were realized through time, identification of stakeholders and participants selection, introductions (teams and individuals), language for engagement, and participant consent. • time and message: the respondents found that the identification of the start of a project and sticking to that time is critical: everyone must know it and stick to it. this goes with a clear message of why the project is deemed important. they indicated that where these two were at odds with each other the dd project was less successful. • identification of stakeholders: they found that all identified stakeholders or their representatives should be involved during planning stage. the respondents found that the community’s involvement was critical to the successful implementation of the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 141-153 issn: 1721-4441 148 projects. it was crucial to involve everyone from planning to the end so that during evaluations everyone had the same understanding. • language: the respondents found that speaking the local language or identifying a community member who is multilingual to fulfill the role of translator was critical. • consent and incentives: the respondents found that the issue of incentives was not that critical to the communities they worked with because people in the communities found the project to be an incentive on its own. parents, teachers, and learners believed that the project contributed to their well-being and that the will to participate in the project was self-driven. they discovered that in many cases teachers were forcing learners to participate which is unethical but also did not engender any willingness to fully engage in the dd due to lack of individual’s consent. b) deployment the respondents identified three main components for a successful dd deployment, and these were: (i) infrastructure: this included all the ict infrastructure and systems such as the hardware, software, networks, etc. which the public needed for the provision of the services. therefore, the timely installation of the equipment was deemed critical and at the core of this was the functionality of the infrastructure. • functionality in this case was a subset of this infrastructure and was about the usability of the installed equipment for the benefit of the community members. (ii) personnel: communities needed certainty. dds which were predictably ready for usage were extensively used. predictability included knowledge of when they were open and closed, and the knowledge that there was readiness on the part of the staff to serve the public while managing these dds. (iii) handover: proper handover of the dd to the recipient communities was crucial because it was usually preceded by much fanfare, marketing, and awareness creation, which all contribute to the knowledge about the existence and purpose of these dds. the respondents contended that wherever one of these three was missing the likelihood of the project to experience problems increased. c) usage the respondents found that usage of the dd was a critical and complex element of any well-functioning technology. usage depended on access and skills. no one had anticipated at the beginning of the project that issues of physical access would become a challenge. after the equipment deployment the problems associated with usage were identified: (i) access: to the premises where dds were located (physical access) and access to the actual machines became an unexpected problem. people were employed to open and to manage the daily activities at these premises and to see to it that all machines were always working. however, many people were not able to physically access the infrastructure because of staff absenteeism. to avoid this problem, volunteer staff who lived outside of the areas where the dds were the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 141-153 issn: 1721-4441 149 deployed should not be hired because once their stipends got depleted some people stop going to work. this issue hindered the use of computers, printers, wifi, etc. and just the basic provision of services. (ii) skills: the main aim of the dds was to empower people to learn to use the computers without any help or with minimal intervention from the champions. however, their lack of skill discouraged several elderly people from using the dds, especially where there were problems with the champions. d) outcomes the respondents learned that these dds were able to achieve the desired outcomes. for example, learners became champions and started teaching their peers on the use of dds. these learners did not need any encouragement from teachers or champions but wanted to be around the dds. due to political tensions in certain areas community members looked to the researchers for a voice of reason and this led to some leaders opposing the use of these dds. where there was trust between community members, their leaders and the researchers, engagement was smoother and the property was better protected than in areas where trust was absent. analysis a) planning for the successful design and good implementation of any m&e activity planning is critical and is a precondition (undp, 2009). the credibility of the project was questioned where some people felt left out. it is at this time that introductions are paramount because everyone knows the go to stakeholder when problems arise. it is crucial to identify the different stakeholders and introduce them to other partners to ensure that there is “a clear understanding of their perceived and stated partnership needs” (world bank, 2010). language is another critical element of planning. in many of these development projects, at times field workers do not necessarily speak the local language. it is always important to speak the ‘local language fluently’ although research is still manageable with the assistance of translators (walsham, 2006). another critical issue is that of consent and incentives: consent forms part of the buyingin to the project and reassures participants from the start about the purpose and confidentiality of the research. this is universally accepted (world health organisation, 2013, walsham, 2006). however, a more controversial issue is that of incentives. vance (2011) argued that although the issue of incentives was debatable, incentives are the only way to get research participants to give up their time. b) deployment the respondents showed that deployment needs to be planned for properly. poor deployment, indicating lack of readiness could lead to the failure or unsustainability of the project (gorgens & kusek, 2010). c) usage physical access to the infrastructure is easy to manage, but the challenge the respondents identified was that of skills. there was a need to balance the adoption of a flexible approach that supported “an empowerment process of social change” and the need to show “results and fulfill internal rules and regulations” (holland & ruedin 2012). it is, the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 141-153 issn: 1721-4441 150 therefore, the work of these champions to guide the elderly whenever they wanted to use the dds. d) outcomes the respondents learned that these dds were able to create their own outcomes. for example, learners became champions and began to teach their peers on the use of dds. these learners did not need any encouragement from their teachers or the champions but loved being around these dds. again, for a successful implementation of a project of this nature it is imperative for the funders, researchers or anyone coming from outside the area to understand the local politics and dynamics. understanding local politics is critical to the success of any development project (oecd, 2008). due to political tensions in certain areas community members looked to the researchers for a voice of reason and this led to some leaders opposing the use of these dds. “effort to build trust with key stakeholders, to provide public education and to institutionalise forms of public engagement with council have begun to build the layers of public accountability that can best protect the hardware investments of council” concurred smith (2011). where there was trust between community members and leaders and the researchers, engagement was smoother, and the property was better protected than in areas where trust was absent. the need for social dialogue where there is a constant conversation between researchers and other stakeholders such as learners, teachers, community leaders, government officials, etc. is critically important (foko, 2006). study weaknesses the major weakness of this study was the involvement of the six field researchers as the respondents to the research. some respondents found it difficult to realise that they were no longer researching the dds, but the objects of a different study. it was difficult for them to transition from being researchers asking questions to being respondents and answering questions. however, to minimise this weakness several data gathering tools were used, as proposed by reeves and hedberg (2003) who noted that this weakness can be lessened by conducting and obtaining qualitative comments from the respondents. conclusion the lessons imparted by the researchers were crucial to future research as they reflect the experiences gained on the ground while carrying out research. the study shows that regardless of how well a project is implemented, there are numerous lessons which can still be learned, and from which future projects can benefit. future researchers must be aware that these lessons are generally not new but scattered in many journals and reports. acknowledgments this work acknowledges the dd project, which is supported by the south african government department and the dd team of next generation enterprises and institutions, for allowing us to collect data from the participants in the different provinces, enabling us to put our experiences together in the form of this article. special recognition has to be given to all those the team interacted with in the various rural communities including, among others, government officials, community leaders, local communities, learners and parents and all who have embraced this initiative and became co-creators of their own destiny. last but not least, our gratitude also goes to the anonymous reviewers whose comments have enhanced the quality of this work. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 141-153 issn: 1721-4441 151 references better evaluation. 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(2011). community advocates and ict diffusion in a poor community a measure of community informatics. cirn prato community informatics conference 2011. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292125087_issues_in_participatory_evaluation http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=12121 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/communityengagement/pce_program_background.html http://web.worldbank.org/wbsite/external/topics/extsocialdevelopment/extpceng/0,,contentmdk:20509352~menupk:1278203~pagepk:148956~pipk:216618~thesitepk:410306,00.html http://web.worldbank.org/wbsite/external/topics/extsocialdevelopment/extpceng/0,,contentmdk:20509352~menupk:1278203~pagepk:148956~pipk:216618~thesitepk:410306,00.html http://web.worldbank.org/wbsite/external/topics/extsocialdevelopment/extpceng/0,,contentmdk:20509352~menupk:1278203~pagepk:148956~pipk:216618~thesitepk:410306,00.html http://www.undp.org/eo/handbook https://rmsresults.com/2011/03/14/qualitative-research-incentives-5-reasons-why-more-is-better/ https://rmsresults.com/category/market-research-tips/ https://rmsresults.com/category/market-research-tips/ the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 141-153 issn: 1721-4441 153 world health organisation. (2013). information for researchers concerning informed decision making, viewed 10 april 2019 from http://www.who.int/rpc/research_ethics/informed_decision/en/ http://www.who.int/rpc/research_ethics/informed_decision/en/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 61 research article constructing household routines with the internet: assessing the role of the internet in normalizing household productivity michel mersereau, faculty of information, university of toronto, m.mersereau@mail.utoronto.ca the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 62 constructing household routines with the internet: assessing the role of the internet in normalizing household productivity abstract despite an abundance of literature highlighting the necessity of achieving digital parity in lowincome communities, a concrete characterization of the internet as essential household infrastructure remains elusive. the original research presented in this paper uses social systems theory as a framework for investigating how social housing residents use at-home internet to support their household activities and domestic routines. the findings illustrate how internet use within the household can increase the efficiency and breadth of routine activities, and become normalized within the household as a result. the results also highlight the motivations for internet adoption in older adult households, as well as the implications for household labour and finances associated with internet service termination in family households. these findings are relevant for scholars interested in domestic internet use in elderly and family households, and for policymakers hoping to alleviate digital inequity in low-income communities. keywords: digital inclusion; digital inequity; urban digital divide; internet policy; household internet use; internet as essential infrastructure introduction the following discussion presents results of research into the internet supported household activities of residents at the toronto community housing corporation (tchc), north america’s second largest social housing1 undertaking, comprised of 60,000 residential units that provide housing for more than 100,000 low-income individuals. the primary objectives of the study were twofold: to explicate the role of the internet in normalizing household routines associated with the provisioning of basic needs; and to ascertain changes in household routines related to the adoption of, and any unanticipated disconnection from at-home internet services. primary data was collected from rent-geared-to-income (subsidized) residents at three residential facilities whose dominant populations are characterized by elderly, single, and family occupants. the study was conducted prior to the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, between december 2018 and april 2019, and employed a combination of semi-structured interviews, activity visualization exercises, and analysis of secondary documentation (governance reports, capital budget reports, government support benefit schedules, etc.). 1 publicly subsidized rental housing the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 63 novel contributions to scholarship concerned with issues of digital inequity, the consequences of precarious internet access in low-income households, and public policy intended to redress the “digital divide” is provided through the use of social systems theory (sst) as a theoretical framework guiding the conceptual, methodological and analytical design of this study. social systems theory conceptualizes human activity in domains of discursive and purposively organized activity, and that are contingent on resources which may or may not be shared with other systems (bailey, 1994; parsons, 1951; seidl, 2004). by defining the households of tchc residents as social systems, the sst framework employed in this study helps to resolve blind spots in topical literature where the infrastructural characteristics of the internet may be obscured; whether by reconciling internet need against discrete tasks (fontur international inc. & mdb insight inc., 2017; public policy forum, 2018), or within quantitative analyses that fail to resolve heterogeneity between households (haight et al., 2014). for the purposes of this research, understanding how tchc residents use the internet to organize their domestic activities highlights how the technology has informed change and adaptation within their households, and illustrates the implications of precarious internet access for households that struggle to maintain stable internet services. data collected from tchc residents suggests that household internet services inform the organization and efficiency of household routines by minimizing the labour and financial expenditures2 associated with the household activities. once normalized, productive activity within the household can become contingent on at-home internet services, and may be subsequently destabilized during periods of unanticipated internet service disruption. the data also suggests that the ongoing challenges faced by tchc residents in maintaining productive levels of household activity are compounded during periods of long-term internet service disruption. rationale & motivation scholars from a range of disciplines have contributed to a contemporary framework wherein digital inequity can be broadly understood as an experienced, observed, and enumerated differential in the abilities of individuals to access, maintain, and make use of digital technologies to better themselves. as a discursive concept, the problem of digital inequity is underscored by an inherent unjustness (stratton, 2021), and evidenced in the unequal distribution of resources and capital necessary to benefit from normalized technology use. scholarly efforts to understand the intractability of digital inequity demonstrate that the problem is much more than an urban/rural divide, or one of technology access alone. research into the characteristics of digital inequity in urban centers has foregrounded persistent gaps in the availability and affordability of high quality broadband services, and broadened our understanding of the relationship between the urban digital divide and underlying socio-economic inequality (eubanks, 2011; gonzales, 2015; warschauer, 2003). while barriers to physical connectivity (service quality and affordability) do persist in urban centers, a larger problem emerges in equity deserving communities who face barriers in utilizing their social, economic, and cultural capital to realize 2 all dollar values presented are in canadian funds the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 64 the constructive outcomes associated with digital inclusion. gonzales (2015) argues that barriers to community betterment owe more to entrenched and systemic inequalities than to technology divides alone, and that the inequitable distribution of digital resources compounds existing socioeconomic deficits. this view is evidenced in more recent work confronting the myth of "disinterestedness" towards broadband use in low-income communities. fernandez et al. (2020) describe how affordability barriers contribute to a dismissive attitude towards technology adoption in disconnected households. contrastingly, low-income households with broadband access demonstrate a breadth of instrumental online activities including education and job seeking, and place a high value on remaining connected despite financial constraints. similarly, reisdorf et al. (2020) dismantle criticisms of low-income community members engaging in a limited breadth of online activities by demonstrating that the nature of activities performed online are more closely associated with the connection modality itself (mobile versus fixed, public versus at-home). affordability barriers can press individuals into having to choose between one modality over another; subsequently limiting the breadth of online activities they can pursue. urban connectivity divides are most apparent in communities faced with poverty, precarious housing, and homelessness, and where internet service providers have few market based incentives to invest in upgrading legacy infrastructure (anderson, 2021; rajabiun & mckelvey, 2019). in these settings, connectivity gaps are typically filled by so called “third spaces” comprised of public libraries, community centres, outreach organizations, and a host of commercial wifi networks (coffee shops etc.) (dailey et al., 2010, p. 38; graham & marvin, 2001). these community intermediaries, both formal and informal, are instrumental in filling physical connectivity gaps, and in acting as proxies for local community technology interests. the latter role, arguably, is especially significant for communities characterized by unique needs such as new residents, older adults, and youth, and where trusted social bonds are a primary determinant of constructive technology outcomes (erete, 2013). despite the important role played by community intermediaries in bridging connectivity and literacy divides, they can nonetheless exclude populations who face mobility, language, or employment barriers. as such, a meaningful public policy intervention must consider multiple connectivity modalities (rhinesmith et al., 2019), with provisions for at-home services as the locus. the research presented below is motivated by a need to deepen our understanding of the role of broadband in supporting a range of basic activities of daily living. building on recent scholarship highlighting how limited connectivity options in low-income urban communities has informed a dependency on mobile and public space access (reisdorf et al., 2020; rhinesmith et al., 2019), this study directs its attention to the internet supported domestic routines of social housing residents. this level of analysis illustrates how at-home broadband services are instrumental in helping residents maintain their households in the face of limited financial and labour resources, as well as the risks associated with dependency on a precarious household technology. providing evidence-based rationale for framing broadband as an essential service has the potential to inform contemporaneous policy debates surrounding digital equity. for example, policymakers may wish to consider the long-term socio-economic benefits of providing secure and non-excludable connectivity in certain low-income households, such as elderly the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 65 residences and in households with children, instead of lower impact but politically popular public wifi networks. social systems theory as a general descriptor, a systems theory can be described as an interdisciplinary approach to understanding complex biological, mechanical, or chemical relationships. the systems perspective argues that we are not able to fully comprehend a social system by breaking down its constituent components for individual analysis; we must instead investigate a system in its functioning state (capra & luisi, 2014). while systems based approaches are not unique in the field of community-technology studies, they tend to be focused at intermediate and macro levels of analysis (i.e. between neighbourhoods and cities) rather than in the domain of highly localized, day-to-day domestic activities (heeks & ospina, 2014). the most general and fundamental property of a social system is the purposeful and nonrandom arrangement of the human and technical constituents of the system. understanding the purpose of these arrangements is what lends sst its unique characteristics as a framework for investigating how the capabilities of social systems are contingent on the ways in which its human and material constituents are organized to acquire and process necessary resources. a social system’s ability to resist disorganization constitutes the fundamental principle of organization between its human and material components (bailey, 1994; bogdanov, 1912; schwaninger & scheef, 2016). the threshold at which disorganization begins to compromise the social system can be operationalized as a minimum level of productive activity (goldspink & kay, 2009). below this threshold, sst suggests, a social system will no longer be able to maintain its normal state. demands for labour, information, and financial resources constitute extractive forces that continually act upon the social system (bailey, 1994). the relationship between resource availability and the resources extracted from a social system highlights two key characteristics that are important to the discussion presented below. first, that a social system maintains itself variably at or above a minimum level of productive activity; a threshold which itself is constituted by external demands for resources that, in low-income households, typically exceed the resources available to the system itself. fluctuations in a social system’s level of productive activity are informed by changes in its ability to extract and utilize available resources. and though these fundamental processes are shared by all social systems, this explanatory model highlights differences between the capabilities of social systems of varying means. unlike higher income households, low-income households tend to operate in a fixed and ongoing state of resource deficit (canada without poverty, 2011; laurie, 2018). the second characteristic concerns the implications, or consequences for social systems unable to maintain the minimum levels of productive activity. productive activities are those whose primary purpose are to reconcile the resource demands of the system, and subsequently prevent disruption that would otherwise alter or change the normal conditions of the system. disruption in the availability of resources does not indicate that a social system will collapse, rather, it suggests that the system will be unable to maintain its activities at a nominal level, and over a period commensurate with the scope and permanency of the disruption. the question posed by this application of sst is the the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 66 extent to which adaptation in the face of short or long-term disruption to household broadband service may be untenable for the people who comprise the social system. the normalization of household activities, evidenced in routines, allows for a degree of predictability and replicability necessary to perform the activities of daily living (taylor & swan, 2005). it is at this juncture that sst provides a rationale for explicating how these activity patterns change in relation to the use of broadband within the household. the experiences of tchc residents presented below demonstrate two novel contributions to our understanding of the interdependency that can emerge between household stability and broadband access. first, as evidenced through the experiences of late adopters (elderly residents), broadband is adopted in order to help sustain aging-in-place (ivan et al., 2020; rogers et al., 2020), without ready access to connectivity outside the home, and absent many of the mobility, financial, and social supports available to higher income retirees. the distinct practice areas that motivate broadband adoption amongst late adopters provides a clearer means of operationalizing change in the organization of activity within these households. second, the incorporation of broadband into the household activities of late adopters (families) implicates the well-being of all members of the household. there is a corresponding increase in demand for devices and costs associated with broadband services in these households. broadband is utilized by primary caregivers to help manage their own labour in provisioning for the household, supporting the needs of dependents, and in many cases, to supplement household income, the consequences of this interdependency become apparent when the financial burden of maintaining connectivity exceed the household’s ability to pay; with periods of service termination (temporary and long-term) resulting in significant shock and disruption to household stability, and extraordinary measures undertaken to compensate for the shortfall. research sites & recruitment process the toronto community housing corporation (tchc) is the second largest social housing provider in north america, currently housing twelve percent of the city of toronto’s rental population and six percent of its total population. the tchc owns and manages more than 2,000 individual facilities located in some of toronto’s lowest income communities, predominantly occupied by fixed income families, and whose resident populations are exposed to higher rates of social and economic marginalization including; seniors, non-traditional families, refuges and new immigrants, and persons with disabilities (social development finance & administration, 2010; toronto community housing corporation, 2014). residential facilities were identified and selected in consultation with a tchc research liaison whose role was to ensure appropriate protocols were followed throughout participant recruitment and data collection. these protocols included ensuring confidentiality in data collection, and that no data would be published that might compromise tchc operations (proprietary and sensitive data). the following criteria were developed for site selection: 1. tchc facilities with subsidized tenant populations exceeding 75%; the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 67 2. a facility whose tenant populations was comprised of elderly residents (65 years and over); 3. a facility with a majority of family households. recruitment posters were prominently displayed in the common areas of residential facilities (lobbies, laundry rooms, social spaces), the posters described the nature and purpose of the study, expected time commitment, nature of the interview questions and visualization activities, information about compensation, and the protocols for protection of participant privacy. key characteristics of the three residential facilities and participants included in the study: 55 rankin cres. a 16-story building and one of 83 facilities dedicated to housing elderly residents. the building is located in the emerson-wallace neighbourhood with a low-income cut off score (lico) at the city average of 17%. acquired by the tchc in 2005, 98% of the building is occupied by subsidized tenants. • sixteen participants were recruited from 55 rankin cres. the average length of residency of participants is 7 years, only two of the participant households have more than one occupant. 50 regent park blvd. an 18-story building located in the regent park neighbourhood, this is one of the most recent additions to the tchc’s portfolio. the development is an example of the tchc’s efforts to procure new housing assets through private partnerships, and under the city’s “mixed-use” planning model intended to combine subsidized with market valued rental properties. seventyfive percent of the building is occupied by subsidized residents, and the regent park neighbourhood itself has a lico score that is 18% below the city average. • six participants were recruited from 50 regent park blvd. average length of residency is 2 years, three of the participant households are occupied by adult families, the remaining households are single occupancy. 2739 victoria park ave comprised of three 18-story buildings located in the pleasant view neighbourhood. some of the older buildings in the tchc portfolio, these properties were acquired in 1990 and are slated for demolition in 2024. ninety-five percent of the buildings at 2739 victoria park are occupied by subsidized residents, and the pleasant view neighbourhood has a lico score that is 2% below the city average. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 68 • seven participants were recruited from 2739 victoria park ave. average length of residency is 5 years, six of the participant households are comprised of families with school age children (k-12), one household reported private vehicle ownership. data collection methods theoretical concepts derived from social systems theory were employed to operationalize the primary indicators of the household social system (bailey, 1994; parsons, 1951), these include; household composition, organization of basic needs activities (type, frequency, duration), resources (material, human, financial), and expenditures (labour and financial). questions about the routines associated with provisioning for basic needs constituted the entry point for data collection, and in establishing the normal operating state of the household. the basic needs activity areas which were operationalized in the study (education, health, nutrition, finances, and childcare) were derived from the social determinants of health (mikkonen & raphael, 2010), a framework widely utilized in public health research to ascertain the social, economic and environmental conditions within which physical health can be improved or impaired. this framework describes poverty and low-income as mutually constituted conditions, and inequitable wealth distribution identified as a primary determinant of material deprivation. poverty, subsequently, is understood as a conditional state wherein resource barriers can foreclose on the capabilities of individuals to meet their basic needs (laurie, 2018; raphael, 2011). semi-structured interviews were undertaken with participants in private rooms reserved at the participant’s home facility. a mean interview length of 122 minutes (sd 15.9) resulted from the twenty-nine interviews conducted. participants were asked to describe the ordering of tasks that comprise the activity, the frequency of activities, the amount of time expended, any direct costs incurred (public transit, delivery services, etc.), and to identify the primary technical resources employed. all interview questions were open ended, written and spoken in plain language, and complimented with an interview guide (appendix 1). activity visualization exercises, conducted during the second half of the interview session, were undertaken in order to expound upon the patterns of household activity and to illustrate any changes to routines informed by internet service use or disruption (figure 1). these exercises were facilitated with the use of a whiteboard provided by the researcher. participants were given the opportunity to illustrate task processes in single or multiple visualizations, and photos were recorded of each attempt. a mean average of 4 (sd 1.5) visualizations per participant were produced from the twenty-nine interview sessions. all interview sessions were audio recorded with typewritten notes taken throughout. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 69 figure 1: activity visualization exercises labour and financial resources constitute superordinate constraints on household activities. operationalized as expenditures over the course of data collection, participants were asked to explicate, to the best of their ability, these expenditures in terms of actual time and financial costs. expenditures associated with basic needs undertakings are calculated by reconciling the time expenditures (labour-time) and the financial expenditures reported by participants. tables 1 and 2 illustrate the coding of expenditures associated with the performance of a healthcare related activity (prescription refill) by a participant from the elderly housing facility at 55 rankin cres. performing this bimonthly activity online requires less than one out of a reported total twenty labour-time hours committed to household maintenance per month, with a financial cost of $100.00 per month (prescription and delivery cost) (table 1). prior to adopting at-home internet services, the same activity required six out of a reported total twenty-six labour-time hours committed to basic household activities per month, and a financial cost slightly less than $100.00 per month (table 2). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 70 table 1: household activity labour & financial expenditures – internet supported tasks financial cost total labourtime monthly frequency total monthly access pharmacy website initiate delivery request prescription cost = 45 delivery service cost = 10 < .5 hour 2 labour: < 1 hours financial: > $100 table 2 household activity labour & financial expenditures – no internet support tasks financial cost total labourtime monthly frequency total monthly telephone pharmacy n/a 3 hours 2 labour: 6 hours financial: > $100 transit to pharmacy transit fare = 3 pick-up prescription prescription cost = 45 transit from pharmacy transit fare = 3 experimental design methods were not employed in this research. the validity of income and financial expenditure data collected from participants was assessed against secondary sources including schedules published by the ministry of children, community and social services (2019), service canada (2019), and the tchc (2019). for example, the benefit schedule for the ontario disability support program (odsp) indicates a payment of $2,030 per month for a single parent household with three dependent children in a two-bedroom unit. the tchc’s subsidy schedule indicates that this rental unit would be provisioned to this family at a cost of $780 per month, resulting in a net household income of $1,250 per month. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 71 data analysis all of the tchc households who participated in the study describe employing the internet as a technical resource in the course of their basic needs activities. two primary participant cohorts emerged through the data collection phase. late adopters, localized to the elderly care facility at 55 rankin cres., characterize themselves as having recently adopted internet-based technologies coinciding with their term of residency at the facility. early adopters, localized to the facilities at 50 regent park blvd. and 2739 victoria park ave., describe longer-term and normalized experiences with internet-based technologies, and having incorporated internet use into their household activities prior to their residency at the tchc. late adopter households late adopter households were localized to the cohort of elderly residents at 55 rankin cres. participants described remote access to health and financial services, as well as mobility constraints compromising their abilities to access in-person services as primary motivations for adopting at-home internet services. routines associated with basic needs provisioning constituted the lion’s share of activities supported by household internet use, with all but two of the households from this cohort subsisting on fixed government and pension-based income sources. the online activities described by these residents were largely characterized as nonintensive. not surprisingly, fourteen of the sixteen participant households subscribe to low cost internet service plans with moderate upload/download speeds (50/10 mbps) provisioned by rogers telecommunications at a fixed rate of $10.00 per month. for these participants, routine stability was described as necessary in terms of maintaining their physical and psychological wellbeing, and in contributing towards their overall sense of independence: when you get old keeping things predictable becomes very important, and also much harder (laughing). that’s really why i got hooked on the internet, the reminders, i get emails from my bank and my doctor. it’s just part of my routine every day now go on the computer and check all my bookmarks with the websites i need, check my calendar. i don’t need a care attendant, yet, but i’m hoping i can delay that and remain self-sufficient as long as possible. a deliberate and motivated approach to internet adoption was apparent amongst the residents of 55 rankin cres, with several describing increased efficiencies in the context of specific outcomes (e.g. saving time in banking and refilling prescriptions), and qualifying the benefits they perceive as being associated with changes to their domestic routines. compared to participants from the early adopter cohort, these residents do not describe using or accessing the internet through community intermediaries, such as libraries or coffee shops, nor do they perceive internet access as a “taken for granted” technology. at-home internet services constitute the sole means of accessing the internet for these residents. as such, several noted a fear of disruption to their domestic routines should they lose access to the internet. appreciation for the convenience and independence afforded by their use of the internet was tempered by an the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 72 awareness of how precarious those routines are having been made contingent on internet access: i’m always afraid it will go out, not like losing the power during a storm or something like that, but just go out for good. i don’t know what i’d do, do you know who runs it? i always thought the government made sure it was on, like water. anyway, i got along for 60 years without the internet but things were different, i wasn’t on my own like i am now, had a car and a job. now i keep most things organized online with my bills, appointments, and other stuff. the mean length of occupancy for the participants from 55 rankin cres. is seven years, and thirteen of the sixteen participants from this cohort indicate that they adopted household internet services during their tenure at the facility. 55 rankin cres. was notable for the strength of social ties between residents. social engagement between residents emerged as a key indicator of the ways in which social ties within close-knit communities can inform technology adoption (mattie et al., 2018). several participants from this cohort describe their preliminary introduction to the internet emerging from observations of the internet activities of their fellow residents and neighbours: [name omitted] one floor down from me goes to the same clinic that i do, and he’s been on the internet for years. he was always talking about how he gets all his medication online, gets the newsletter from second harvest, has his supplies delivered from the internet and all that stuff. i never used it myself, but i know a lot of people who have been on it for a long time. i wouldn’t say that’s the only reason i got the internet myself, but it did make me ask the doctor and nurses at the clinic if they thought it would be helpful for me. they thought it would be a good idea, and told me they could email me important stuff about appointments and medication. i ended up getting a donated computer, and when i got the internet installed in my unit some of my friends helped teach me how to do the basic stuff. banking, healthcare, transportation and nutrition emerged as the primary areas where participants from this cohort reported using the internet to support their basic needs (table 3). online banking activities, in particular, suggest the development of fundamental digital skills, and have been observed as an indicator of general financial health (crocker & williams, 2021). late adopters, in particular, were able to provide concrete descriptions of changes to their activities and routines after adopting the internet, illustrating how the technology has elevated productive activity within their households. participants were asked to describe the organization of their routines in key basic needs activity areas (healthcare, finance, nutrition, etc.) with an emphasis on identifying labour-time differences between the two states. comparing monthly labour-time expenditures reported by residents across banking, nutrition, and healthcare activity areas prior to and after the adoption of household internet services evidences a decrease of 32% in the overall hours expended on these activities across the participant cohort (table 4). prior to the the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 73 adoption of household internet, the majority of labour-time expenditures associated with healthcare, finance, and nutrition activities involved transiting outside of the home: most of us are in here because we can't afford assisted living, so you have to be able to be independent, and that's hard because a lot of us can't get around very easily. i used to spend half of my day just going here and there, to the bank, supermarket, you know, just normal stuff, but with my health it took a lot for me. i do most all of that stuff on my computer now, so i really just go out when it suits me, to the park, down to the common room, there's a lot less stress worrying about just getting around. incorporating internet-based technologies into these activities allows participants to forgo transit time (e.g. using online prescription refill and delivery services), to incorporate new activities into existing practice domains (e.g. medical calendaring, emailing practitioners), and to increase the amount of surplus time available for social activities (exercises, group meals). these personal care and social activities, in particular, were noted by participants as critical to their general sense of well-being and happiness. the operationalization of expenditures associated with basic needs activities lends a unique perspective to our understanding of the ways in which internet services are employed to support productive activities within tchc households. the value of using the internet for these activities is observed in the savings of labour-time which can then be redistributed to other areas of household activity. this subsequently informs a nominal level of predictability and efficiency in the labour-time expectations associated with household activities. this also suggests that disruption to internet services are likely to result in household resources (labour and financial) being diverted to make up for the shortfall in efficiency informed by loss of the internet. table 3: distribution of labour hours at 55 rankin cres. basic needs activity area monthly hours % of total reported hours banking healthcare transportation nutrition 63 90 64 37 24.8 35.4 25.2 14.6 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 74 table 4: reported monthly labour hours per household at 55 rankin cres. cohort total 𝒙 per household no internet support 25 22 26 n/a 25 n/a 24 25 20 20 26 24 n/a 28 20 20 305 23.46 internet supported 12 15 18 15 20 12 18 16 15 16 20 18 15 18 12 14 254 15.87 % change -16.72 -32.35 in discussing the ways in which internet access has informed changes in their own household routines these participants also frequently described the apparent challenges faced by facility residents who do not maintain household internet services of their own. when pressed to elaborate, participants employed two framing devices to support their perceptions of the challenges faced by these residents; the apparent time and labour expended in the performance of basic needs activities, and the frequency with which they have provided support to these residents using their own online resources: i know when i was without internet my neighbor would invite me over to use her computer and she showed me how to set up my facebook account so i could keep in touch with my kids and grandkids. that was pretty simple, but eventually i started to see how she used the computer for her prescriptions and to get money from her relatives. when i got my own computer with internet i started doing the same things, but i also use it for a bunch of other stuff i hadn’t known about, like cooking and ordering clothes, there’s a lot of cheap clothes on ebay. i know there’s a lot of residents here that aren’t on the internet, but they’re also the ones who are usually asking “where did you get that?” or “how do you get the groceries delivered?” i can’t say if they’re better off without it, all i know is that it’s made my life a bit easier. focused discussions regarding internal adaptation on the part of internet enabled households as well as the perceived constraints in non-internet households produced two salient observations with regard to the normalization of productive activity constituted by at-home internet services, as well as the implications of internet use for the distinctive health, well-being, and security needs of elderly communities. non-internet enabled households, or those disinterested in adopting internet-based technologies, may indeed maintain themselves absent the technology, but should not be situated as a standard for comparison when assessing the merits of universal internet provisioning, from either an economic or public interest perspective. and while internet service the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 75 disruptions are less likely to result from affordability barriers amongst this cohort, the performance of critical self-care activities that intersect with online delivery of healthcare, government, and transportation services highlights the non-commercial characteristics of basic needs activities that rely on internet access; illustrating the affordances that may accompany broadening access to the internet within elderly communities. early adopter households early adopter households localized at 50 regent park blvd. and 2739 victoria park ave. similarly describe the organization of household routines around internet access. internet access was largely perceived as a normal and routine affordance amongst this cohort of residents. the economic imperatives associated with internet supported activities was more concretely described in early adopter households, with basic needs activities explicitly tied to the need to secure income and manage expenses. periods of internet disruption were likewise framed in terms of the constraints on a household’s financial stability: tuition, banking, submitting my invoices so i can get paid, it’s all online, i don’t really think about how i could earn money and pay my expenses any other way, who does? you asked me about how much labour goes into all this online stuff, well i guess i never really saw it that way, but when we’ve lost the internet at home i had to make time for it out of the house, so i guess it saves time yeah, but definitely i got less done overall. periods of long-term internet service disruption were most prominent in early adopter households, and though long-term internet service disruptions were not reported as regular occurrences, when they do occur, the resulting constraints illustrate a heightened level precarity that exists within family households. residents from single occupant households describe few service disruptions, and noted the ease with which they were able to adapt their internet activities outside of the home, and with relatively few compromises to their household routines: i had no service once for a week when i first moved in, it sucked overall but gave me a chance to get out and explore the neighbourhood. there’s coffee shops nearby that are open late so i just plopped myself there until they closed to get my work done. i did manage to sort through all my stuff, clean and paint the apartment when i was at home that week though. service disruptions related to financial constraints and affordability barriers were indicated by the family households located at 2739 victoria park ave. higher cost internet service plans, necessitated by the demands of multiple family members and a wider range of internet enabled devices, place strains on income resources that are already liminal to the poverty threshold. participants from these households described the organization of household routines over the course of a standard work week (five days). as such, long-term internet service disruption was operationalized as a disruption lasting five days or more, with a total of seven periods of long-term disruption reported by participants from this cohort during their residency at 2739 victoria park ave (table 5). the longest period of service disruption was reported at 45 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 76 days. where long-term service disruptions were reported, participants were guided in describing and visualizing the reorganization of household activities in-lieu of internet access, as well as any labour, task completion time, or financial constraints associated with the period of disruption. table 5: reported long-term internet service disruptions at 2739 victoria park ave. hh 1 hh 2 hh 3 hh 4 hh 5 hh 6 hh 7 periods of longterm internet service disruption (days) hh = household n/a 7, 10 14 30 5 14 45 𝒙 17.85 daily activity patterns in family households were reported to be highly contingent on internet access, particularly in households with residents in caregiver roles. labour-time expenditures by caregivers was understood for its economic value (income maintenance) and for its social value (provisioning for children). focused discussions with these participants highlighted the ways in which these periods of disruption have compromised their abilities to maintain household routines, including those associated with the care of child dependents: that month was horrible [participant emphasis]. we lost internet at home and on our mobiles. everything got turned upside down, you can’t load the kid’s presto card by phone so i had to take the bus to the station to use the machines, i don’t have a laptop so i had to go to the library to send emails to my case worker, i guess i could have done all the banking and ttc stuff there too, but the passwords are all saved on the browser, i didn’t feel safe putting all that stuff into a public computer. let’s see what else, i missed my email reminders for my prescriptions, missed my deadline to send my income statements to odsp so my payment was late the next month, kids couldn’t do their homework at the house so i had to get them to the library and stay there because i don’t like them taking the bus alone late at night, so there goes any work i can do in the evening when they’re usually on the computer. i managed to get it back on but i had to borrow money from my sister to do it. it was out for two weeks but felt like eternity. the detail these participants provided in describing adaptations to household routines was instructive in assessing the labour and financial implications associated with periods of longterm internet service disruption. monthly household income was operationalized as income after fixed housing costs. housing costs at the tchc are assessed at a fixed percentage of total the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 77 household income (30%), and constitute the single largest resource demand faced by tchc households. financial costs associated with increased labour-time expenditures during periods of long-term internet service disruption, indicated as income to labour value, was assessed by dividing the monthly household incomes of the affected households by the labour-time hours reported in both normal and internet disrupted conditions. average government support income (less subsidized rent) for the family households who participated in the study is $1,238 per month (table 6). under normal internet supported conditions, a mean average of twelve labour-time hours per week associated with performing basic needs tasks and activities was described by participants, this yields an income to labour value of $24.32/hour for this cohort (table 7). of the two households who reported periods of internet service disruption lasting 30 days or more, monthly household labour-time hours increased by 30% to sixty-eight hours per month, lowering the income to labour value by 23.5% from $19.19/hour to $14.66/hour (table 8). residents from these households describe lowered overall levels of productive activity during these periods, as well as a “triaging” of household resources (labour and financial) by primary caregivers in an effort to mitigate the loss of a key household resource. table 6: composition & net monthly income of family households at 2739 victoria park ave. hh 1 hh 2 hh 3 hh 4 hh 5 hh 6 hh 7 𝒙 household composition 1 adult 2 children 2 adults 3 children 1 adult 3 children 1 adult 1 child 3 adults 2 children 1 adult 3 children 1 adult 2 children net monthly income 1100 1370 1250 900 1700 1250 1100 1238 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 78 table 7: reported household labour hours at 2739 victoria park ave. hh 1 hh 2 hh 3 hh 4 hh 5 hh 6 hh 7 hours per household (𝒙) income to labour value (monthly income / hours) internet supported (weekly) 10 12 15 12 16 10 14 12.7/week 50.9/month 24.32/hour table 8: change in household labour hours during long-term internet service disruption hh 4 hh 7 𝒙 labour hours internet supported 12 14 13/week, 52/month income to labour value internet supported 18.75 19.64 19.19/hour labour hours during internet disruption 16 18 17/week, 68/month income to labour value during internet disruption 14.06 15.27 14.66/hour % change in labour hours +33.3 +28.57 +30.93 % change in income to labour value -25 -22 -23.5 the primary tactics employed to offset the constraints associated with the loss of household internet services include the elimination of discretionary activities and expenses, followed by a reorganization of primary household activities. residents report a near doubling of average transit time outside of the home, as well as increases in debt incurred (borrowing, credit, etc.) in order to reestablish their household internet services: my ex-husband wasn’t any help so i did what i had to do to manage, you know? my part-time work is online but i can’t do that at the library, they have a time limit you know, so when my son was at school i spent what time i had at the library looking for another job. i borrowed my mom’s laptop for him, so i’d pick him up from school and take him to starbucks so he could finish his school work. i did what i could on my phone. our car needed work but that wasn’t going to happen so i actually posted an ad to sell it. applied for another credit card but didn’t get approved. first thing i did when we got the service back was take the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 79 away his playstation, that’s what put us in the hole with rogers to begin with. he’s still mad at me about that. limited labour resources constrained by incomes that are liminal to the poverty threshold within these households are further strained by the increase in labour-time expenditures and household debt associated with periods of long-term internet service disruptions. the adaptations to household routines necessitated by the loss of household internet services were described by residents as untenable and requiring support from outside of the household in order to maintain primary needs (e.g. after school care for children, and borrowing from extended family). these losses, both in productivity and finances, were deemed unrecoverable. household conditions described by residents during periods of long-term internet service disruption highlight their struggles to maintain the minimum levels of productive activity characteristic of normal household conditions. discussion tchc households are constrained by labour and income resources that are liminal to the poverty threshold (toronto community housing corporation, 2016), are insufficient to reconcile the resource demands they face, and constitute an ongoing material resource deficit (mikkonen & raphael, 2010; toronto community housing corporation, 2019). ascertaining the role of household internet services in helping tchc residents to maintain minimum levels of productive activity constituted the primary focus of this research. in this way, at-home internet services are framed as a technical resource whose role is to support the organization of productive activities within the household social system. the data collected in this study suggests that the benefits associated with household internet use, as well as the precarity that results from struggling to maintain household broadband, is most apparent in households that are susceptible to disruption (elderly and family households). this also suggests that tchc households with the highest stakes in obtaining and maintaining stable household internet services struggle in both respects. although common tasks and activities were evidenced across tchc households (paying the rent, grocery shopping, etc.), the heterogeneity of individual households is reflected through the agency of residents in organizing household routines. no two households are the same despite performing similar activities. it is through the organization and normalization of productive household activities where the necessity of at-home internet services becomes apparent, and must be considered in the context of the increasingly digitalized service environments in which basic needs activities are undertaken. the primary affordances of the internet as a household resource can be observed in the economic and social value derived from the labour of residents employing the technology to sustain their households. the consequence is that the technology enables this by "squeezing" more labour out of residents over shorter periods of time, and normalizing a level of household productivity that is contingent on maintaining access to the internet. online service provisioning in key basic needs activity areas, such as health, education, public transit, government, and retail the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 80 services, compounds the necessity of household internet services for tchc residents. though community intermediaries, such as public libraries and local coffee shops, play an important role in filling connectivity gaps for communities faced with precarious access to the internet, this support is both temporary, excludable, and primarily utilized for short-term access needs and discrete internet tasks (reisdorf et al., 2020; rhinesmith et al., 2019). internet adoption in older adult households was characterized by residents as a necessary response to the constraints faced by older adults in social housing, and who have fewer options to age-in-place. this cohort constitutes an under studied cross section of the urban digital divide, facing unique barriers, and without ready access to community connectivity supports typically accessible to younger residents. decreases in the labour-time expenditures of these residents was reported after household internet adoption. family households demonstrate similar outcomes in their use of the internet to manage household activities. responsibility for maintaining minimum levels of productivity was shouldered by residents charged with caring for dependent family members. even under "normal" internet enabled conditions, higher deficits between household resources and demands for resources were apparent in family households. internet use by caregivers was described as increasing task efficiency by limiting the time spent in transit outside of the home for many activities. conversely, disruption to household internet services results in significant “shock” to the household social system, with long-term disruptions compromising the household’s ability to maintain its fundamental activities, and pushing it closer to minimum levels of productive activity. these periods are characterized by constraints on caregiver activities and a loss of overall task efficiency associated with labour being diverted to securing internet access outside of the home. of all the family households who participated in the study, primary responsibility for executing and performing basic needs activities tended to be shouldered by individual caregivers (in both single and multiparent households). conclusion combining the observations and data obtained over the course of this study with the broader portrait of poverty illustrates the dividends that could be realized through efforts to universally provision non-excludable internet services in low-income households. the annual provincial dollar cost associated with poverty average $11.75 billion dollars [6.05% provincial gdp], distributed at a cost of $2,597 per provincial household. the provincial healthcare system absorbs an average of $2.9 billion dollars per year in costs associated with poverty remediating services (laurie, 2018). moving low-income households up an average of one income quintile is projected to generate between $1.0 and $1.5 billion dollars (canadian centre for economic analysis, 2019; laurie, 2018), further suggestive of the importance of policy mechanisms and public service provisions to stabilize low-income households, the latter of which, at present, do not include fixed at-home internet services. scholarship in the field of geron-technology studies has highlighted relationships between long-term technology adoption, generational cohorts (ivan et al., 2020) and social the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 81 network strength (mattie et al., 2018). while instructive for scholarship concerned with bridging digital connectivity divides amongst older adult populations, these research efforts have primarily assessed the use of digital technologies in the domains of popular and social media consumption, rather than as a technology employed to support the primary and basic needs of older adults. the data collected over the course of this study present a compelling rationale for inductive research into the hypothesized increase in task efficiency and household productivity associated with internet adoption by older adults living in publicly subsidized housing facilities. constructive changes to the organization and performance of household activities appear to yield long-term benefits in older adult households where broadband use is normalized, and where financial and social supports are limited. employing a combination of standardized scales, such as the enhanced activities of daily living (eadl) scale (rogers et al., 2020) and the technology acceptance model (tam) scale (davis & venkatesh, 1996; hoffman et al., 2004), future research efforts could be directed towards assessing changes to the characteristics of household activities and routines amongst older adults prior to, and over the course of household internet adoption. primary indicators of change to household routines may include time expended in the performance of basic needs activities, changes in financial costs associated with these activities, as well as changes in surplus time made available within the household. should the outcomes of the covid-19 pandemic not result in significant momentum towards a universal service framework, one inclusive of provisions to protect low-income households from service exclusion, it will represent a fundamental policy failure. the crisis has situated government itself as a primary stakeholder in the enfolding digital service ecosystem with access to critical health information, emergency financial aid, assistance for immigrants and refugees, education, municipal services, court services, pharmaceutical and mental health support, all facilitated through the internet (canada revenue agency, 2020; innovation science and economic development canada, 2020; lee-shanok, 2020; office of the premier, 2020; service ontario, 2020). under these circumstances, it is incumbent upon policymakers to consider broadband service delivery models that do not rely on the support of competitive service providers alone, but that also allow room for delivery models that are more closely aligned with the provisioning of common or public goods (anderson, 2021; lane, 2017). as this research has demonstrated, even prior to the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, there is no justifiable reason to compel low-income households to find ‘workarounds’ to digital exclusion. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 82 references anderson, k. m. 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(2003). technology and social inclusion: rethinking the digital divide. mit press. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 86 appendix appendix 1 – resident interview guide the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 87 05-1388-8099-1-ed the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles mobilities of the community health work practice: mobile health system mediated work new technologies have been implicated in various forms of mobilities creating new realities and questioning normative categories and order in contexts where they are applied. our study argues that through understanding technology mobilities, we uniquely bring to light new forms of social phenomena that materialize with interactions between mhealth systems and the work of community health workers in malawi. through the analysis, we also elaborate the role of both human and non-human actants in work transformations. this is important in managing technological innovations and theorizing electronically supported work practices. introduction we are witnessing an era where information and communication technology innovations have taken center stage in our social activities and work places, spurring intensive transformation processes. as kling (1996) noted, the introduction of technologies makes work complex, creating various ways for users to reconstruct and restrict their work. barley (1986) has also cited technologies as enabling many novel practices to !54 esther namatovu department of informatics, university of oslo, norway corresponding author. estherna@ifi.uio.no johan ivar sæbø department of informatics, university of oslo, norway johansa@ifi.uio.no jens johan kaasbøll department of informatics, university of oslo, norway jensj@ifi.uio.no namatovu, e., sæbø, j., kaasbøll, j. (2017). mobilities of the community health work practice: mobile health system mediated work. the journal of community informatics, 13(3), 54—74. date submitted: 2017—04–10. date accepted: 2017-12-19. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1388 . http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1388 mailto:estherna@ifi.uio.no mailto:johansa@ifi.uio.no mailto:jensj@ifi.uio.no http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1388 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 emerge. these transformations are not only due to the influence of technology but also its interplay with social systems and organizational structures. in contemporary healthcare, a range of technological innovations are developed to aid health service provision. in the developing world, mobile technologies offer new opportunities for healthcare delivery even in the remotest regions of those countries. community health workers (chws) provide simple healthcare to populations in communities often far away from health facilities (lehmann & sanders, 2007). they sometimes conduct administrative functions at health facilities. mobile health (mhealth) systems are often presented in light of their potential to assist chws (braun et al, 2013; källander et al, 2013; agarwal et al, 2015), yet we do not fully fathom their interaction with the work practices of chws. there is a need to understand how and what changes emerge. we use the concept of mobilities which not only refers to human movement but also includes dimensions of human interactions (urry, 2000; kakihara & sørensen, 2002). scholars like urry (2000) sought to elaborate how mobilities undermine traditional forms of stability associated with endogenous social structures. mobilities have especially been of interest to sociologists but they should be important to information systems research as technology has been implicated in the facilitation of various kinds of mobilities. kakihara and sørensen (2002) argue that technologies like mobile phones afford various forms of mobilities to human interactions. they expand the concept beyond mere human movement to include three interrelated dimensions of human interactions: spatial, temporal and contextual mobility. this article concerns itself with understanding the mobilities constituted by mhealth systems and how they are implicated in new social order. we study a group of chws in malawi also known as health surveillance assistants (hsas). lash and urry (1996) argue that an understanding of mobilities contributes to an understanding of changes in social relations such as the organization of work. our study thus focuses on this question: what is the nature of mobilities implicated in mhealth mediated community health work? we illuminate normative work interactions and use the concept of mobility to understand how social order is influenced in the presence of technology. referring to kakihara and sørensen’s (2002) categorization of mobilities, we further identify social mobility to emerge from our study, thus expanding on their work. we explain the unfolding of human-technology interaction processes with the social context to understand the outcomes of technology use. we believe the study contributes to our understanding of the contextual influence on systems’ use and technology’s role in influencing work. it has important implications for the use and management of mhealth systems. the article is arranged as follows: in section 2, we discuss our background literature leading up to our theoretical framing. section three presents our research approach followed by section 4 with our empirical findings. section 5 indicates our analytical discussion and in section 6, we reflect on the implications of the study. section 7 presents our conclusions. !55 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 literature review mobilities studies of mobility have emerged in globalization studies, geography, and anthropology among others (sheller, 2011). technology has been implicated as a means to mobilities (sheller, 2011; sheller, 2014; urry, 2000) questioning our notions of social order and organization. mobility refers to movement and kakihara and sørensen (2001) stretch the concept to suggest three interrelated mobilities that encompass human interactions. that is, spatial, temporal and contextual mobilities (table 1). spatial mobility refers to the movement of people, objects, space and symbols like information with geographical independence. this has been credited to invoke complex patterns of human interaction. temporal mobilities are related to the acceleration of work and saving time, thus creating new temporal orders in the organization of work. these mobilities are related to influencing structural orders and interpretive frameworks for action. contextual mobilities have also been related with modern technologies especially icts. contexts in which actions occur, organize human interaction. they frame and are framed by the recursive performance of actions and they capture aspects of human interaction such as ‘in what way’, ‘in what particular circumstance’ and ‘towards what actors’. technologies influence contextuality through affording diversified modalities of interaction. these modalities of interaction can range from unobtrusive to obtrusive depending on how they impose obligations to notice or react. interactions can also range from ephemeral (where interactions only exist in the flux of unfolding events) to persistent (where interactions leave behind traces for further inspection and discussion). table 1: three dimensions of mobility (extracted from kakihara and sørensen (2002) sociological studies have often pointed to social mobility described by lipset and bendix (1959; sheller, 2014) as the process by which individuals move from one dimensions of mobility aspects of interaction extended perspectives spatiality where geographical movement of not just humans but objects, symbols, images, voice, etc. temporality when clock time vs. social time * objective vs. subjective monochronicity vs. polychronicity contextuality in what way in what circumstance towards which actor(s) multi modality of interaction unobtrusive vs. obtrusive ephemeral vs. persistent weakly & strongly tied social networks !56 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 position to another in society. these positions often have specific hierarchical values. these mobilities raise concern of structures, hierarchy and power (sheller, 2014). john urry in his 2000 discussion of ‘mobile sociology’ introduces contending views of structures as unstable. he notes that, “…in certain contexts, order generates chaos.” this according to him is because the social world/system is a social hybrid where several individuals’ iterative actions are subsumed under the notion of structure, ordered and reproduced through continuous interaction. he notes that giddens gives us an understanding of how structures are drawn on and are an outcome of numerous iterative actions by knowledgeable actors but gidden’s view insufficiently examines the complex character of the iterative processes composed of various elementshuman and nonhuman and the iterative process of how order (structure) can generate chaos or change, unpredictability and non-linearity (sheller, 2011). urry notes that it is through the iterations over time that agents may generate unexpected, unpredictable and chaotic outcomes that revert to structures. to emphasize his assertion, de certeau (2004, p. 1248) later noted that, “human agency has some leeway to “err” or wander from the lines prescribed by the overarching structure of society”. human agents can do this by tactfully eluding structural determinism. so how does the repeated action towards structure produce change? urry introduces the notion of mobilities and flows as being at the heart of many transformations in contemporary society. urry (2000) centers his arguments on mobilities that destabilize structures. mobilities involve the interaction of different and sometimes conflicting linkages between people, technologies and practices across time, space and cultural conditions. the elements in social systems that interact physically and informatively over time do have both positive and negative feedback loops. these mobilities can help understand the iterative process that changes structures. to giddens, structures are changed by human agency but through the lens of mobilities we can understand the role of both human and non-human actants like technology. we can understand how structures are transformed and what influences the change in community health work. instead of merely highlighting what changes, we try to understand why it changes in the presence of technology. we use the mobilities lens to understand this. technologies have been linked to being channels of mobility and they break the way individuals, groups and society conduct their everyday actions. they add new dimensions to our understanding of the social world (molz, 2014). we shall in the article seek to understand the community health work practice, illuminating who and what is mobilized or not mobilized and how this influences work practices. in this way we shall understand the changes influenced by both technology and social systems in implicating work practices. research approach our empirical data is based on the work practices of health surveillance assistants (hsas) as we seek to understand their everyday mundane work and interaction with mhealth systems. hsas in malawi receive 6-8 weeks training and work at the lowest level of healthcare providing primary healthcare services to populations in rural areas. !57 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 organization mhealth (a pseudonym) in 2014 developed a mobile decision support system to aid decision-making for hsas during assessment of expectant mothers and infants. the project started in 2014 with six hsas and by the time of the study (september and october 2015), six more were involved. the system was developed based on existing paper protocols that were incorporated into a mobile phone system to support hsas in accurately assessing, diagnosing and treating mothers and infants. in the pilot studied, new protocols were introduced and adjusted according to emerging needs that were not in the previous version. for example, the current version includes a provision for malaria testing. there have also been attempts at integrating the system data with the national health information system. the system guides hsas through a step by step analysis and treatment plan for health conditions like malaria, pneumonia, and malnutrition among others. for example, if the hsa is assessing an infant’s health, he/she has to go through a step by step inquiry and based on the answers entered into the system, a diagnosis or a recommendation for action such as a referral to a health facility is generated. data collection the work of community health workers (chws) is in many ways ambiguous with a general lack of clarity of the various networks that build this practice. their work differs from country to country. to uncover the ambiguity of their work, the first author empirically borrowed ideas from the rhizomatic approach (deleuze & guattari, 1987) where she explored the various networks in the practice to understand and explain how the work of hsas is structured and built. it was important to study the community as a whole (nodes) in the chw practice, their dynamics and how they inform each other. with this approach the current research studied the different nodes that make up the micro-phenomena/elements of hsas’ work and how they connect, collaborate and influence each other to make up the practice. this relational view of the nodes was intended to give a comprehensive overview of the chw practice, understand how things come together and the logic of how chws work, and identify micro-elements in the nodes and consequences of their interactions. this was done to understand processes involved and the interactions between the micro-dynamics of practices and work change (labatut et al, 2012). chws were studied to learn and identify work practices and how they are interpreted to give meaning to shared action. in this way, it was possible to link the micro-level of the individual to macro societal system/ community health work practice. the role of technology in these nodes was also examined to understand how it interacts with the work practice. figure 1 illustrates the various networks in the chw practice. !58 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 1: illustration of the nodes in the chw practice the study was conducted in zomba and dowa districts for two months (september and october 2015). participants were 12 hsas, three health personnel, two members from organization mhealth, and four community members. upon its introduction, hsas were given training by officials from the district health office, along with smart phones and the system. data was collected through observation and semi-structured interviews with hsas to understand their work practice, the dynamics of their everyday work and interactions with technology. community members and health personnel also gave accounts of their interactions with hsas in semi-structured interviews. the first author aimed to understand the local relationship and rationality between the nodes. she attended training sessions when the system was introduced and later observed activities such as child growth monitoring for children under five years to understand hsas’ interactions with their new mhealth system. there were informal chats to gain a further understanding of why certain actions were taken. analysis the analysis aimed at understanding the normative order of the work practice of hsas and how they change with technology mediation. we sought to understand how the different nodes influence each other and to not only understand the role of technology in influencing change but also uncover the layers of meaning brought to technology by social systems (desanctis & poole, 1994). our theoretical themes grew and changed with continued data collection, analysis and literature review. data was analyzed alongside data collection. initially in the early phases of the research, the two concepts !59 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 of structures and agency by giddens (1984) were drawn upon to guide data collection directing us to understand the normative order of the chw practice during the fieldwork. we also drew on the work of barley (1986). we sought to address questions such as: how did chw’s actions reproduce their work structure? how did hsas draw on the structures for their actions? continued data collection, analysis and further literature review revealed that it would be important for us to incorporate urry’s (2000) ideas of mobilities to understand technology and work practice transformations. with later reading, it became clear that technology can also subject work practices to transformation (labatut et al, 2012; markus & silver, 2008). we examined our interview transcripts and field notes and grouped data with similar experiences and meanings into codes and later identified themes and concepts from the data relating to the use of the mhealth system, including themes such as: work practices, their normative order, role of human agency and technology agency, emerging mobilities and the relationship between mobilities and work practices. we also reflected on the themes and related them to the data to account for their relationship with the data. these themes were related to our theoretical basis when we developed the study’s reflections. presentation of findings we highlight hsas’ reflections of how work was previously organized and changes with the introduction of the mhealth system. organization of work the ministry of health (moh) develops structured activities for hsa programs aimed at primary healthcare provision in communities. such activities include: mandatory home visits to follow up clients, treating and educating communities. hsas follow guidelines on paper registers and either do their work individually or jointly with colleagues and village health committees (vhcs) depending on workload. we report on two main programs described below. the community case management (ccm) program focuses on childhood illnesses with activities such as treating children aged two months to five years for simple illnesses like cough, diarrhea, and fever. more complex health cases and children below two months are referred to the health facility. immunization exercises occur in villages and at health facilities. community education is done jointly with colleagues and vhcs. village sanitation inspections and home visits occur in over 150 households per hsa. all activities are recorded in registers and reported monthly to the ministry of health. the community based maternal and neonatal heath (cbmnh) program addresses challenges associated with pregnancy and early infant life. it involves conducting at least three home visits to expectant, post-natal mothers and infants. hsas used registers to guide these visits. hsas must refer all expectant mothers with danger signs. child growth monitoring, health education, hiv testing and counseling are other activities conducted in homes or the village clinic. all are recorded and reported monthly. !60 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 in addition, the logistics program complements the two programs. hsas make monthly logistics requests on paper forms and submit them to the hsa coordinator, who aggregates these requests and submits a report to the health facility in-charge, who submits a request for the health facility’s logistic needs to the district health office every month. each of the two programs was performed by six of the 12 hsas. following the implementation of the mhealth system, the two programs were combined making all 12 hsas work on both the ccm and cbmnh programs. “all the programs are now combined on the phone which means that a single hsa does the activities from all the programs. at first those hsas that focused only on ccm, were seen as mere growth monitors by the community. the incorporation of cbmnh requires all hsas to have drugs. their responsibility was elevated to incorporate treating simple illnesses. and the ones that did not get phones were asking me when they would get phones. they felt they were missing out on the opportunities the ones with phones had. they did not feel at equal measure and saw their colleagues with phones as more professionallike…” (hsa coordinator) hsas reflected on how work was conducted before and after introducing the mhealth system as presented below. care related work care related work was mainly attached to the ccm program. it was organized and performed by hsas following guidelines on paper registers. hsas are trained to treat some illnesses like; malaria, cough and diarrhea and refer patients to health facilities. in practice, patient treatment and referral depended on the hsa’s analysis of information s/ he recorded in the paper forms. this took over 30 minutes and occurred at the village clinic or an individual’s home. one hsa narrated: “from the training we gained skills to assess danger signs in infants. we have paper registers which we still use sometimes. they have the questions we ask... after an analysis, we decide to either refer an infant to a health facility or treat the baby if they simply have a cough, fever etc...” (hsa) presently, paper protocols were duplicated into the mhealth system and hsas enter similar information. they replaced paper forms with the mhealth system due to its quick assessment of data leading to fast decisions on treatment or referral. hsas take about 15 minutes attending to a patient with the mhealth system. upon data entry, the hsa gets an immediate diagnosis and recommended protocols to follow while treating or counseling a patient. two hsas narrated: “…we are following the same protocols, but the system helps us make decisions on what course of action to take. it simply states whether to refer a pregnant woman or counsel her following a particular form. it even reminds me what questions to ask which we honestly sometimes forgot. we used to carry around many forms, but we now just carry portable phones.” (hsa) !61 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “the phone offers a holistic approach. not only one diagnosis is conducted but it is used to manage and identify other conditions... i am more equipped to address health challenges and i feel more competent now in my job. also, with the phone you cannot skip questions. this was very possible with the paper forms. for example, when reviewing a child, you might forget to ask questions about ear infections, but this cannot be skipped in the phone…the precise nature of the system allows for reaching precise conclusions…the right diagnosis, treatment etc. this helps reduce the number of visits to the health facility hence reducing the workload of health providers because all action is taken in the field and only those that need to visit the health facility do.” (hsa) besides using the decision support system in care, hsas developed other uses. for example, utilizing the phone’s torch light at night when attending to patients and the timer to assess infants’ breathing. work also always continued with the mhealth system unlike with paper forms whose delivery was sometimes delayed. work related to data practices data collection cuts across all programs to facilitate planning, supervision and monitoring of hsas’ field activities. monthly paper reports are still physically delivered to supervisors as directed by the ministry of health. “… we still record activities on paper forms because the ministry needs these reports. we have so many paper registers, it is tedious. we then summarize the daily paper entries at the end of each month into a monthly register and submit it to the hsa coordinator. the hsa coordinator then submits a summarized report from all hsas’ reports to the health center in-charge who then submits it to the district health office.” (hsa) feedback is mandatory from supervisors but is seldom given. in a group discussion one hsa said, “we never hear from the ministry. we don’t get feedback from the reports we send. they are there, and we are here in the field…” (hsa) with the mhealth system, captured data while examining a patient is simultaneously reported into the system’s server skipping all organizational hierarchies. paper reporting as required by the moh continues alongside system reporting by organization mhealth. hsas however complained of an increased work load from double data reporting. one hsa narrates, “…when we are in the field, we are required to use our phones by the implementing partner because if we do not they will take them away, yet they help us in decision-making…they see when we enter data and question when we do not. we prefer to use the phone in the field. and at the end of the day, we retrieve the information from the phones and then record it into our daily activity registers.” (hsa) !62 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 preference to use the mhealth system in the field over the paper forms was due to it enabling quick decision-making when diagnosing patients. the app has replaced paper use in the field. communication practices generally, communication of events in the field to superiors is still done with monthly paper reporting. requests for logistics were still communicated through monthly paper forms. additionally, word of mouth among hsas and the community was used to communicate during weekly meetings and in the field. impromptu communications were sometimes done over the phone. immunization and child growth monitoring days at the village clinic were also used to pass on information to villagers who in turn were urged to spread similar information to their neighbors. information on important events was and is still written on the village clinic walls, as in figure 2. figure 2: a communication written on a village clinic wall. “tonse sikero tibwere miwa pa 23 september mwezi wa mawo tidza twere pa 27 october.” loosely translated as “let us come together on the 23rd september and the 27th october.” also, ten volunteers representing different villages make up the village health committee. hsas routinely meet this committee to discuss health concerns, mobilize communities and utilize them to relay information to communities. village chiefs are also involved to announce vital information in communities. with the mobile phone, communication is facilitated to different groups across the field and the health facility. to community members, communication can be done over the phone although it is expensive. therefore, previous communication practices continue. the system captures individual’s contact details that hsas use to follow up with patients. with the village health committee, calls are made to ascertain the organization of work activities in communities. among hsas, communication improved reaching each other whenever need arises. they created a whatsapp group allowing constant communication and removing dependency on their coordinator to pass on information. one hsa narrated: “we have a whatsapp group now and we share experiences of what we have found interesting in the field, we make inquiries and seek assistance from colleagues. it is easier to communicate now…we all work in catchment areas far !63 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 away from each other. it is important that we stay in touch especially when we need assistance.” (hsa) communication patterns with superiors become more direct surpassing previous bottom up flows through organizational hierarchies. this is because the system affords frequent field updates. hsas also communicate their needs more often and logistics requisition is a case. “a health surveillance assistant sends a message to the ministry requesting logistical supplies. the ministry then sends me a message to check and organize for the hsa to receive the drugs. i check our drug store to see if the drugs are available. then i send a message to the ministry that such and such drugs demanded are available. the ministry then sends the hsa a message confirming the availability of the drugs at the health facility drug store for pick up or their absence and requests the hsa to wait for the next delivery. honestly they still deliver drugs only on a monthly basis and not when we demand for them but at least it is faster now to know what is available and what is not especially for hsas away in the field.” (hsa coordinator) the mobile phone also facilitates communication for consultations with health personnel. the short vignette below from one of the authors illustrates this. it is 3pm at a rural health facility in zomba, i am conducting an interview with a hsa who is today having duties at the health facility. we are almost through with our interview and a child comes calling the hsa informing him of a patient in need of urgent attention. as he asks me to pause our interview, a lady rushes into the room and asks him to come right away. “dokitari (doctor), my daughter is very sick” she says in chichewa which my colleague interprets. he rushes out and finds a girl laying on the floor covered with a thin shawl. he bends over as he reaches out to her neck to check her fever and rushes to another room. he comes out and immediately rushes to some of the other offices and realizes the doctor is not around. he gets his phone and immediately makes a call. from the conversation which my colleague interprets, he is informing the doctor that there is a patient in need of immediate attention. the doctor is a couple of hours away but is now on his way back after the notification and tells the hsa what to do in the meantime. the hsa paces around, goes into another room and comes out with a syringe, thermometer and gloves. this time he takes her blood and the mother helps him hold her daughter’s arm. “i will take her blood to test for malaria while we wait for the doctor so that when he comes, we know what we are dealing with. we should also take her to a room”. he reassures her mother. !64 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 figure 3: hsa attending to a patient the narration depicts the hsa intervening in a situation in the absence of professional medical personnel. his phone aids communication between him and the doctor instructing him on actions to take. mobilizing and coordination practices coordination of work activities across the field and the health facility often follows formal procedures developed by hsas and their supervisors. it continues to involve plans developed with various networks depending on the activities’ location. for instance, with immunization exercises, the hsa supervisor coordinates and allocates tasks within hsa blocks . some blocks stay to immunize children at the health facility 1 and others conduct field activities. in the field, plans for activities like growth monitoring of infants are arranged with village health committees (vhcs). hsas’ catchment areas are vast and vhcs coordinate communities for events. hsas in need of support would engage the hsa coordinator to mobilize other hsas’ assistance. activities started to be coordinated over the phone, for example, organizing home visits with expectant mothers and informing vhcs of events to mobilize communities. hsas cited this as time saving and efficient in the fast coordination of field activities. coordination of activities with colleagues is also done in a whatsapp group. “we have a designated day we meet in the week and on this day all hsas meet to draw plans of their activities and those that are going to be done together with colleagues. but now we do not have to wait for monday to organize, plan or ask about something. with these phones…, we call to clarify certain aspects of work that need to be cleared...” (hsa) collaboration in work joint endeavors are undertaken to accomplish some big tasks like immunization, child growth monitoring, and community education. vhcs assist with community mobilization in outreach activities and the hsa coordinator was responsible for assigning joint work to teams/blocks. these collaborations are currently arranged over the phone. joint tasks can be organized through whatsapp eliminating the hsa hsas attached to a health center are divided into groups referred to as ‘blocks’. these blocks take turns 1 working in the field and at the health facility. depending on the amount of work, the blocks also help each other both in the field and at the health centers. !65 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 coordinator’s role. calls eliminate previous physical movement for hsas, easing and quickening collaboration arrangements. “sometimes when a hsa is in the field, there could be a lot of work to do and he/she calls the coordinator to find out if there are some hsas to assist him/her. in that way it is easier and quicker to identify who to collaborate with ... the villages are far, and you cannot simply walk to another hsa’s village to find out if you can work together. instead, you call the coordinator to see if such an arrangement can be made. sometimes the hsa coordinator also has to call other hsas if they are not at the health facility to see if they can assist you in the field” (hsa) supervision in the past, hsas’ supervisors solely depended on monthly reports of aggregated daily activities physically delivered to the hsa coordinator. it was the only way superiors got to know what was done in the field. now, the hsa coordinator currently has more access to information about field activities because, as hsas attend to patients, this field data is captured by the system. this makes work activities visible and immediately accessible for follow up by supervisors. consequently, hsas increased their work effort. “before, we only used registers that were tallied monthly by hsas and delivered to me. from their reports, i make a report of all their work and submit it to the health facility in-charge, who then sends it to the district. now with the phone, data entered goes directly into the implementing partners’ servers and it shows how much work hsas do. if there is less data entry, it could imply that the hsa is not working... so, the implementing partners get in touch with me to follow up on such cases and find out whether it is a case of a hsa not working or there are other reasons for why data is not showing up from an hsa’s phone.” (hsa coordinator) discussion in this paper we have taken a mobility perspective to analyze the relationship between technologies and the social order of work. this develops previous related work on the relationship between technology use and work by exploring the motion in the social organization of work. work structures are often presented as stable (giddens, 1984; orlikowski, 2000) unless influenced by human agency. urry (2000) however argued that structures are not stable and involve various elements (human and non-human) that interact to create feedback loops. he calls for a critical understanding of the complex iterative processes that may undermine normative accounts and induce the emergence of new orders. we discuss the three mobilities presented by kakihara and sørensen (2002) and introduce social mobilities to expand their categorizations of mobilities as they emerge from our empirics. see table 2 for a summary. !66 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 2: different mobilities identified, adapted from kakihara and sørensen (2002), with new dimension of social mobility d i m e n s i o n o f mobility example from empirical research spatial hsas live more networked lives through communicating on their phones. they are no longer geographically dependent to organize, collaborate, mobilize, and consult with colleagues and health personnel in work. whatsapp group keeps hsas connected across the field. online data reporting skips physical organizational hierarchies going directly to the organization’s servers and moh. this facilitated supervision of work. temporal replacing paper protocols with the mhealth system due to the system’s quick assessment of data leading to faster decisions on treatment or referral 30 minutes to assess a patient with paper forms and only 15 minutes do the same with the mhealth system. direct communication with superiors surpassing previous hierarchies when requesting for logistics. faster communication among colleagues and health personnel in case of consultations, activity mobilization and coordination contextual daily interactions bypass protocol to enable immediate logistic requests from the moh and in return resulting in responses and traceable requests hsa coordinator bypassed to arrange collaborations with colleagues. these interactions also allow immediate responses and follow up in the whatsapp group. new dimension social “…at first those hsas that focused only on ccm, were seen as mere growth monitors by the community. the incorporation of cbmnh requires all hsas to have drugs. their responsibility was elevated to incorporate treating simple illnesses. and the ones that did not get phones were asking me when they would get phones. they felt they were missing out on the opportunities the ones with phones have. they did not feel at equal measure and saw their colleagues with phones as more professionallike…” (hsa coordinator) feelings of competence on the job as they use the mhealth system !67 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 spatial mobility spatial mobility has several aspects such as the increased human geographical movement of objects, space and symbols like sound, images and information that evoke complex patterns of interaction (kakihara and sørensen, 2002). in our empirical research, we identified geographical mobility as an aspect of spatial mobility. it refers to humans’ independence from geographical constraints in movement. hsas live more nomadic lives but with reduced physical movement as they gain more interactional mobility over time and space through their mobile phones (kakihara and sørensen, 2002). phone communications cut back on geographical dependence and previous physical movement required for home visits, organizing, planning and mobilizing work, seeking collaborations are sometimes forgone. with communication affordances on their phones, communication practices changed with less dependence on word of mouth and paper reports. mondays at the health facility are no longer the only days to plan and organize work activities. physical presence was no longer necessary to coordinate with vhcs to mobilize communities for health events. as geographical dependence decreases, space mobility increases. mobile phone communication has melted the distance between here and there in hsas’ work. hsas’ appropriation of mobile phones led to the creation of a virtual community on whatsapp, based on a shared practice, knowledge experiences and common work interest (essén & yakhlef, 2012). hsas are thus becoming independent workers that do not necessarily depend on physical arrangements made by the hsa coordinator to get assistance from colleagues. consultations with health personnel are also happening on their phones, enabling knowledge sharing across space; an example in the vignette indicates this interaction and knowledge being passed on to the hsa from a professional medical staff. this suggests that the mobile phone itself is an enabler of mobilizing activities in space supporting hsas to live more networked lives. it is a technological consequence (hutchyby, 2001) where the mobile phone affords hsas virtual spaces of interaction and connectivity. we further identified information mobility as part of spatial mobility. mobile phone communication grew, and the system became a place where immense amounts of information traveled beyond the health facility and communities. as technology structures made of paper protocols inscribed in the system (orlikowski, 2000) are enacted in care, data practices were altered to bypass traditional reporting hierarchies. as patients are attended to in communities, their data is simultaneously captured in the organization’s database shared with the ministry of health. however, it is important to note that previously held data reporting practices persist as organization mhealth, an external player, cannot dislodge them from the institution of the ministry of health. changes are happening at the ground level with hsas opting for the mhealth system first and later entering similar data into their paper registers. an aggregated paper report is made from the paper registers and submitted as previously. temporal mobility !68 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 in addition to spatial mobility, we identified temporal mobility in our empirical work. it occurred through speeding up and saving time in especially the care related work of treating and referring patients. the mhealth system offers hsas quick automated recommendations for action, making it possible to attend to more patients within a shorter time. consequently, hsas replaced paper protocols with the mhealth system in the field and duplicated paper reports for the ministry of health. there is also an element of temporal interpretation in the sense that hsas realized a potential to plan, organize, collaborate and consult across geographical spans through quicker communication enabled by their mobile phones. therefore, the temporal order of getting work collaborations done was re-arranged with hsas bypassing their coordinator and forgoing the weekly meeting day to directly communicate, arrange inquiries and collaborations among themselves on whatsapp. logistic requests are made immediately the need arises and home visits are arranged over the phone to manage big catchment areas with more flexibility and less temporal constraints. the mhealth system thus restructured the structural and interpretive framework of the temporal order and action (kakihara & sørenson, 2002). this restructuring presents risks associated with mobilities of work and changing work relations. hsa coordinators lost some roles and managing new networked work relations from a distance required new skills. there is need for ‘soft skills’ (d’mello and sahay, 2007) like communication skills on the mobile phone with the work network. managing and maintaining connections among the network is however costly for hsas. contextual mobility there was also an emergence of contextual mobility. hsas’ interactions are predefined within a context of ‘in what way’, ‘in what circumstance’ and ‘towards what actors’ they occur. for example, during drug shortages, all hsas made monthly paper requisitions. the hsa coordinator aggregated these demands and submitted them to the in-charge who made a general facility logistics request to the district health office. the mhealth system afforded hsas with a new modality of daily interaction enabling immediate requests that replaced monthly logistic demands. consequently, logistic requests are accompanied with obtrusive-persistent interactions prompting immediate responses to hsas’ sms logistic demands from higher authorities. these interactions become persistent as traces of logistic requests are left behind captured in the system. the system freed hsas from contextual constraints of interaction that occurred monthly with the mediation of the hsa coordinator, in-charge and the district health office. it also altered communication practices, and the mhealth system created a new social reality where hierarchies of social order were broken. another form of contextual mobility is realized through the virtual space on whatsapp in which hsas connect with each other in distant places. hsas in need of assistance make their requests known in this group moving away from involving the organization of their coordinator. consultations and collaborations made through the whatsapp group are obtrusive-persistent as they enable immediate responses and possibilities for follow-up. contextual constraints like having to make consultations only on mondays at the health facility or the village clinic for community members are therefore reduced in !69 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 hsas’ interactions. they are afforded through virtual spaces where everyone is accessible. social mobility we also identified a new form of mobility that kakihara and sørensen (2002) do not cover in their descriptions of mobilites associated with technology. social mobility was observed to occur with shifts in social position and status among hsas and as seen by the community. social mobility has similarly been linked to a movement in social status and position in society (sheller, 2014; glass, 1954; lipset and bendix, 1959). there were no economic gains among hsas, but a growing sense of status when they used the mhealth system. with the mhealth system, hsas reach precise diagnosis, treatment and make referrals. this impacted care practices with hsas taking on more treating roles and responsibilities from the combined tasks in the ccm and cbmnh programs. as hsas enacted the structures and protocols in their mhealth system, the community built a more ‘doctor-like position’ view of them in their engagement with patients. instructions from health personnel and colleagues through their acquired mobile phones enable hsas to conduct more treatment and deal with health challenges in villages. their structural positioning in the health system and short training, established hsas in an assistant position to perform simple tasks in villages. these created constructions of meaning (nicolini 2013) attached to being assistants with modest roles of referring patients and treating simple illnesses. the mhealth system amplifies this position by affording hsas with more potential to treat patients using precise courses of action. these roles are likened to doctors’ tasks, and the community does not view hsas as mere assistants to the formal health system but with almost equal roles as professional medical personnel. hsas do not refute being called ‘doctors’ by community members. in the vignette, we see a mother entrusting the health of her daughter to the hsa as he is instructed on the phone by a doctor. hsas expressed growth and an improved level of competence in their work as they used the mhealth system. however, mukherjee (2017) in a similar study with chws in india using a mother and child tracking system found that data entry was used for surveillance and control by supervisors. consequently, chws felt that their roles were undermined. the same system led the community to lose its credibility in their chws as private data became open. notably, among this group of health workers, technology use in their practice opens dialectics in social status creating social mobility. in this study we saw that hsas without the mhealth system did not consider themselves with equal measure to those that had it. the mhealth system enabled hsas to perform care practices easier and utilize the mobile phone affordances to communicate, mobilize and collaborate in their work. what we see here has also been referred to by d’mello and sahay (2007) as existential mobility where workers evaluate their social positions in work. in our case, the recipients of care services, the community, also evaluated hsas’ social position. those with the mhealth system are enthusiastic about the prospects of the system although increased surveillance creates agitation. hsas without the system seem to doubt their position. !70 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 implications this paper investigated how normative order in the work practices of health surveillance assistants (hsas) is destabilized. we used the mobilities lens to identify how work structures shift when they are mediated by a mobile health system. we identified spatial, temporal, contextual and social mobilities to emerge as hsas use an mhealth system. to place this discussion into context, we return to our main arguments and discuss the implications of the study. first, our study adds to previous studies on technology and work transformations by emphasizing that a sole focus on human actions and interpretations (barley, 1986) underplays the material in work transformations. we redress the balance by using a mobilities perspective that envisions a distributed agency in both humans and nonhuman actants (urry, 2000; hernes, 2014; sheller, 2014). we have seen for example that through facilitating connectivity, the mobile phone has agency (labatut et al, 2012; monteiro & hanseth, 1996; latour, 2005). additionally, the intentionality of hsas’ agency is shown to align this connectivity with their work interests. we therefore look beyond the deterministic approaches (technology and social) and understand the interactive process of both social (work environments, structures and people) and technology actants. accounting for the role of technology and the social in work transformations is complex (monteiro and hanseth 1996) and therefore each actant is not simply given equal status and measure. we account for changes according to responsible agency. in this way we get a more dynamic view of agency in relation to work transformations. second, we show the importance of examining power relations in the broader social structures of community health work. an emergent aspect here is how power relations are part of understanding how technologies influence mobilities of work. leornadi and barley (2010) are concerned that a focus on the here and now of practice makes it difficult to address pre-existing social structures and how they shape technology use. we take a historical perspective as suggested by nicolini (2013), orlikowski (2002) and labatut et al (2012) to understand the context and how it influences existing orders of data reporting. the ministry of health has had predefined data collection rules that still stand despite outside interference from organization mhealth. data must still be reported on paper forms every month. the ministry does not however see that hsas replaced paper forms with the mhealth system in the field. this relates to what urry (2000) describes using the metaphors of ‘gardening’ and ‘game keeping’ in society. in gardening states, power relations try to maintain structures as stable and paralyzed while in game keeping states, power relations allow free movement in structures. as the ministry tries to garden working routines and structures, technology loosens this power by allowing hsas to use a single mhealth system in this previously carefully husbanded work. however, it should be noted that information mobility has also fostered a more stringent form of surveillance breaking away from the lax supervision previously done through monthly paper reports. daily data capture has made it possible for low performing hsas to be questioned. however, there is no information feedback to hsas regarding reported data. !71 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 third, we also contribute to understanding how mhealth systems can be managed among community health workers. hsas’ use of the mhealth system has especially created changed work relations that have been transferred from physical spaces to virtual spaces. this requires a new understanding on how to for example supervise workers that have become more independent. d’mello and sahay (2007) suggest the development of soft skills like communication skills to manage growing virtual work networks. shifts in social status also need to be managed to maintain work expectations for both the community and the community health workers. conclusion this study adds to our understanding of mobilities by extending accounts that richly describe the work context of hsas. we add to urry’s (2000) agenda for the development of a ‘sociology of mobilities’ by making thick descriptions of the various kinds of mobilities that characterize their work. kakihara and sørensen (2002) take on the mobility concept and attempt to describe three kinds of mobilities in ict mediated contexts. using their categorization of spatial mobility, we identified two distinct aspects in hsas’ work. hsas’ interactions were stretched over time and space making them less dependent on geographical movement. in addition, information mobility occurred, skipping traditional reporting orders. temporal mobility allowed more efficient and quicker delivery of primary healthcare services to villagers through the mhealth system. contextual mobility allowed new modalities of interaction between hsas and those higher up in the health system hierarchy. kakihara and sørensen (2002) however do not explore social mobilities linked to work identities that we describe in the study. we see that as hsas enact the structures or care protocols in the mhealth system, they destabilize other practices in their work. this is mainly because hsas start to collectively utilize the affordances of the technology to push their work interests. urry (2000) urges a better understanding of the iterative process between structure and agency. our observation is that mobilities in hsas’ work do not simply occur with the emergency of technology in work. in this case, technology is introduced with an attempt to imitate and continue existing work structures. however, social agency with the intention to make work quicker and better, utilizes technology affordances (mobile phone, mhealth system) in social relations across hsas’ work networks which leads work orders to shift. consequently, social agency eludes structural determinism (de certeau, 2004). in conclusion, this study illustrates that although technology flows into the ‘gardened’ (urry 2000) work of hsas, mobilities occur mainly as social agency utilizes technology affordances. it is an entanglement of material and social agencies. by using the mobilities lens we contribute to walsham’s (2005) call to “letting a thousand theoretical flowers bloom” for understanding the interaction of human and machine agency in information systems and community informatics research. we suggest future research to aim at understanding how technology affordances or material features of technology influence the mobilities paradigm. !72 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 references agarwal, s., perry, b.h., long, l. and labrique, b.a. 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(2014). sociology after the mobilities turn. in p. adey, d. bissell, k. hannam, p. merriman and m. sheller (eds.), the routledge handbook of mobilities (pp. 45-54). new york: routledge. urry, j. (2000). mobile sociology. british journal of sociology, 51(1): 185-203 walsham, g (2005). agency theory: integration or a thousand flowers? scandinavian journal of information systems, 17(1): 153-158 !74 1451-article text-8217-1-2-20181021 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 sidpdf: introduction the digital fringe and social participation through interaction design digital inclusion and its implications for social participation is emerging as a key issue for researchers, designers, educators, industry and communities, as contemporary society shifts from topdown decision-making to a more inclusive process that collaborates with a variety of demographics. yet, this shift tends to predominantly focus on mainstream communities of highly urbanised settlements, often neglecting segments of society that lack access to resources, digital technology or telecommunications infrastructure. likewise, people from culturally diverse and marginalised backgrounds, or who are socially excluded, such as people living with disabilities, the elderly, disadvantaged youth and women, people identifying as lgbtqia, refugees and migrants, indigenous people and others, are particularly vulnerable to digital under-participation, thereby luke hespanhol the university of sydney, australia luke.hespanhol@sydney.edu.au corresponding author hilary davis swinburne university of technology, australia hdavis@swin.edu.au joel fredericks university of technology sydney, australia joel.fredericks@uts.edu.au glenda caldwell queensland university of technology, australia g.caldwell@qut.edu.au marius hoggenmüller the university of sydney, australia mhog5401@uni.sydney.edu.au jane farmer swinburne university of technology, australia jcfarmer@swin.edu.au !4 hespanhol, l., davis, h., fredericks, j., caldwell, g., hoggenmüller, m., farmer, j. (2018). the digital fringe and social participation through interaction design (introduction to special issue) the journal of community informatics, 14(1), 4–-16. date submitted: 2018-10-01. date accepted: 2018-10-15. 
 copyright (c), 2018 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1451 . mailto:luke.hespanhol@sydney.edu.au mailto:hdavis@swin.edu.au mailto:joel.fredericks@uts.edu.au mailto:g.caldwell@qut.edu.au mailto:mhog5401@uni.sydney.edu.au mailto:jcfarmer@swin.edu.au http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1451 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1451 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 compounding disadvantage. this special issue presents practical, innovative, and sensitive design solutions to support digital participation for older adults, children with barriers to digital access and urban and regional fringe communities. the intention is to foster digital skills within and across communities, investigate the role of proxies in digital inclusion as an enabler of social interactions, and discuss design strategies and methods for sustaining digital inclusion to eliminate the dilemma of under-participation in the future. introduction digital inclusion the use of interactive technologies (i.e. smart phones, tablets, apps, smart watches) has become an integral part of daily reality in many areas of the globe. growing way beyond their original technical domains, they have over time pervaded social segments as diverse as engineering, health (waycott et al, 2014; davis et al 2015), entertainment, matchmaking, government, urban planning (fredericks & foth, 2013), public art, architecture (caldwell & foth, 2017; hoggenmüller, wiethoff, vande moere, & tomitsch, 2018), community engagement (chamorro-koc & caldwell, 2018; fredericks, hespanhol, parker, zhou, & tomitsch, 2017; davis & farmer, 2018), digital placemaking (fredericks, hespanhol, & tomitsch, 2016; hespanhol et al., 2015), smart cities (hespanhol, 2017) and many others. likewise, the increasing affordability of interactive technologies, coupled with more widespread digital literacy among larger social segments, has also led to their increased adoption by people from non-technical backgrounds. this results in the development of tools and platforms to support the emergence of communities of practice and more participatory exercise of citizenship. due to its empowering character, digital inclusion has become a de-facto basic right. digital inclusion is critical to allow individuals and communities to connect, build networks, learn from each other, work, collaborate, play and participate in social and political life. however, digital inclusion is a complex topic, involving a variety of factors such as accessibility, affordability, usability, skills, and relevance of features to the context of a particular person (roy morgan research, 2016). the digital fringe evidence suggests that among those most likely to experience social exclusion are indigenous people, people with disabilities, young people, women in disadvantaged situations, older people, unpaid caregivers, lgbtqia people, and migrants and refugees (peace, 2001; silver, 1994). socially excluded people and their communities are particularly vulnerable to digital non-participation and under-participation, thereby compounding disadvantage (clayton & macdonald, 2013). for those who are connected digitally, one of the key challenges is sustained digital participation (armenta, serrano, cabrera, & conte, 2012). !5 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 community-based digital inclusion interventions tend to fail when they ‘only take into account telecommunications infrastructure and hardware, leaving social and human factors unattended’ (armenta et al., 2012, p. 347). not all design solutions become readily applicable or make equal sense to all segments of society. many people, as shown above, are explicitly or accidently left out in the planning and design of digital innovation. this includes the effects of policies and design practices by many political and technological leaders who tend to target their discourse towards the core profile of the population when considering digital inclusion. albeit large and relevant, those sectors of society who have less access to technology feel increasingly disenfranchised and powerless, facing widening gaps between digital ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. we refer to those neglected or marginalised communities, collectively, as the digital fringe. although not included in the main discourse on digital design, individuals on the digital fringe are not oblivious to technology either, and movements towards greater inclusiveness have occasionally sprouted. evidence of ad-hoc technological appropriation has been observed, for example, among displaced groups such as networks of support to refugees in europe and asia (world food programme, 2016), or the agência de notícias das favelas (‘slums news network’), connecting slum communities in brazil . likewise, large corporations have occasionally made inroads 1 towards greater accessibility for their products, like the example of microsoft’s recent push for more thoughtful design centred around people with disabilities (microsoft corporation, 2016). yet, it is apparent that those developments are both still rare and isolated. likewise, despite the strong recent focus among the academic research community around prospects of smart cities and smart citizens, those are usually restricted to higher density metropolitan centres, and the more visible communities of dwellers, workers and visitors to prominent public spaces. unintentional segregation can also arise through social media and the well-known phenomenon of filter bubbles (foth et al., 2016). in addition to forging stronger ‘communities of thought’, the use of social media tends to isolate even further communities lacking equal access to those platforms in the first place, worsening the matter even more. to counteract those dynamics, we propose a more concerted effort to identify shared concerns and needs, raise awareness about potential synergy in the design approach to different marginalized segments of society, and learn from stories of both success and failure in designing for those communities. the digital fringe is, by definition, fairly broad and highly diverse in itself, being an overarching term for the wide range of demographics and communities often excluded from the mainstream discourse about digital technology adoption and innovation. yet, these groups can be significantly different from each other. as an initial step to facilitate a framework of analysis for communities within the digital fringe, we propose their general classification into the six categories shown in table 1. these categories are based on chief drivers for digital exclusion, as well as some potential examples which are not exhaustive, and which we discuss in the sections below. http://www.anf.org.br/ (in portuguese)1 !6 http://www.anf.org.br/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 table 1. types and examples of fringe communities. preliminary analysis as previously outlined, the digital fringe is vast and diverse. yet, we can illustrate examples of work being developed in the field through relevant case scenarios in some of the core themes outlined above. for instance, among the various aspects contributing to the low digital inclusion of elderly people, three are particularly relevant: (a) accessibility to digital platforms; then, partially as a consequence, (b) lack of digital literacy, and (c) social isolation. an example of a project designed to address the latter is speaking exchange , a multi-2 awarded pilot program developed in 2014 by cna, an english language school based in brazil. it paired local students with english-speaking elderly people living in retirement homes in the usa. it offered a context for mutual learning and addressing social isolation among the elderly by providing them someone to regularly chat to. it also gave them a purposeful and meaningful activity, the feeling of being useful and provided direct impact on their well-being. at the same time, it offered the brazilian students with the opportunity to train their newly acquired language skills with experienced people with lots of stories to tell. a similar initiative – but addressing disadvantaged youth, particularly living in remote areas or country towns – is offered by the australian charity the smith family: their itrack program works with schools in low socio-3 economic neighbourhoods to make available to students a computer with internet and dedicated chat software, and then pair each student to professionals in various fields. in fringe community examples geographical communities in small cities, suburbia, regional, rural or remote areas. socio-economic people in lower income neighbourhoods, teenagers in custody or in care, housebound people, homeless people, drug addicts, sex workers, people in prison, former detainees (immigration and prison). age-driven elderly people, children. gender-driven women, women in stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) professions, women in politics, gender-x, lgbtqia. disability-driven people with disabilities, congenital disorders, mental illnesses, and in disability careers. cultural and ethnic indigenous people, migrant communities, refugees, minority ethnic groups, immigrants. https://www.cna.com.br/sobre-cna/exchange (in portuguese)2 https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/get-involved/volunteer-with-us/itrack-registration 3 !7 https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/get-involved/volunteer-with-us/itrack-registration https://www.cna.com.br/sobre-cna/exchange the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 addition to increasing digital literacy among students, the program also connects them to a professional and cultural network they might otherwise never have access to. another segment attracting growing attention is digital connectivity for migrant and refugee populations. according to the unhcr (2016), 65 million people worldwide currently live as refugees, the largest number since the second world war. internet access is deemed as a survival tool for people stranded in unfamiliar places, struggling to secure physical safety and economic support, sustain continuous education, and to establish new social connections while retaining ties to family and culture. yet, refugees are 50% less likely than the general population to have an internet-enabled phone, with 29% of refugee households having no phone at all (unhcr, 2016). these statistics have prompted the emergence of various projects aimed at facilitating the digital inclusion of refugee communities, both those in transit and those already settled in host countries. for example, the world food programme has, in 2016, launched an innovative wireless internet access system to the 31,000 syrian refugees living in domiz refugee camp in kurdish province of northern iraq. it provides a social bridge that helps them to overcome their sense of isolation and to feel connected to the outside world (world food programme, 2016). similarly, kiron university, a berlin-based social enterprise company, offers refugees a cost free blended learning model to accelerate their access to a university qualification. this model creates employment opportunities for refugees once they are settled in the country. further initiatives include the redi school of digital integration , also located in 4 berlin, which offers coding classes for refugees with the aim to provide them with valuable digital skills that they can use personally and professionally, potentially finding a job in the it industry, a sector in germany which lacks specialists. despite their value, however, these initiatives often develop in a scattered and isolated manner, as a response to emergencies rather as proactive design solutions. a more concerted effort to address the shared needs posed by the circumstances of a refugee life – as well as the constraints of low budget and a challenging context – is still largely lacking. moreover, could the insights from those projects leverage similar initiatives elsewhere – or potentially even across other domains within the digital fringe (e.g. temporary shelters for homeless or those recovering from drug addiction)? using media architecture as a framework, which combines people, place and technology (foth et al., 2011) and emphasises social, ethical and aesthetic concerns over technological considerations (hoggenmueller et al., 2018), wouters (2016), for example, investigated the potential for media architecture to become an intercultural interface in public space for stimulating interaction between community members and refugees. his project, stories of exile, involved architectural and interaction requirements, and included the development of participatory design activities with refugees and in-the-wild evaluation of the resulting interactive projection mapping. it also provided further understanding to the new challenges that contextually embedded and socially relevant media architecture introduces regarding the roles of the content, the carrier, the environment and the researcher. https://www.redi-school.org/ 4 !8 https://www.redi-school.org/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 a third popular front includes ‘one-dollar’ initiatives, whereby the increasing affordability of digital techniques and platforms is employed towards producing lowcost solutions to deprived segments of society, therefore increasing accessibility to goods otherwise unavailable. for example, onedollarglasses is an organisation 5 launched in germany in 2009 to teach people in deprived areas how to produce glasses with low-cost material and accessible technology. the initiative aims to address a significant social issue, since about 150 million people worldwide are unable to afford glasses, and thus cannot learn, work, go to school or partake in social activities. the glasses consist of a lightweight, flexible spring steel frame and prefab lenses and can be locally manufactured with simple bending machines. the material costs are low – approximately us$ 1. this was also the original motivation behind the raspberry pi foundation : to provide scholars and teachers with a low-cost, high-power computer, 6 and renew excitement about computing among students – something then perceived as somewhat inaccessible to regular students, after information technologies had become efficient and user-friendly, and the activity of tinkering through hardware and software a privilege of few. designing participation for the digital fringe the scenarios captured in the preliminary analysis above reveal hints of the types of participation and interactions unavailable to individuals at the digital fringe: mutual support and coaching, in a basic level, as well as basic skills, creative development, storytelling for mutual understanding, and awareness among communities who would otherwise hardly engage with each other but which, together, can promote each other’s advancement in life. but how exactly can technology help? are there specific roles technology can play in designing solutions to address those needs? what are the current trends? motivated by those questions, we have organised a series of academic workshops on the theme of designing digital participation with human-computer interaction . this 7 particular special issue on designing participation for the digital fringe presents the outcomes from two of those workshops (davis et al., 2017; hespanhol, davis, fredericks, caldwell, & hoggenmueller, 2017), and the subsequent call for submissions on their wake. this special issue is organised into an introduction section, followed by three sections dedicated to specific topics: (a) older adults; (b) children facing challenges; and (c) urban and regional fringe communities. the recurrent theme emerging from the submissions is building self-confidence through nurturing social connections. individuals at the digital fringe are usually in a position of disadvantage where they tend to lack power relative to their peers in society, and are often unaware of this position. that makes them potential victims of manipulation, but more broadly their lack of http://www.onedollarglasses.org/ 5 https://www.raspberrypi.org/ 6 https://digitalparticipationhci.wordpress.com/ 7 !9 https://www.raspberrypi.org/ http://www.onedollarglasses.org/ https://digitalparticipationhci.wordpress.com/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 awareness translates into an inability to perform tasks and engage in empowering social connections that could substantially improve the quality of their lives. this is a situation which the majority of other people would nowadays take for granted. as part of the introduction section, article 2 by panah, de cotta, farmer and aryani provides a method to assess existing social connections with a social visualisation tool, developed in partnership with red cross australia. in particular, it aims at developing more resilient communities by increasing awareness of the existing connections (or lack thereof) that people have with others, and therefore establishing pathways for social support and connectedness. section 1: older adults is composed of articles 3 and 4 that investigate methods for achieving and enhancing digital inclusion of older adults by promoting intrinsic motivation in the process of teaching them new digital skills. article 3, by davis, mccosker, bossio and schleser describes how the researchers used mobile digital storytelling as an educational strategy, encouraging community building through the sharing of stories via social media. likewise, beh, pedell and mascitelli (article 4) used intrinsic motivation as a driver for digital inclusion, where they designed teaching curriculum that matched the specific needs within this cohort of older adults. for example, many of the participants in their study had children living overseas and thus wished to learn more about how to communicate with them. both articles present the affordances of technology for effectively enabling social interactions and, consequently, a better quality of life for elderly people through the reawakening and sharing of social skills and stories. section 2: children facing challenges visits the opposite end of the age spectrum, and is dedicated to the topic of children with barriers to digital inclusion. given that children traditionally lack power in interactions with adults, there is ongoing concern for identifying their needs and designing solutions that truly benefit them. in article 5, korte presents a project seeking to involve adults as members of design teams with young deaf children. in this research the adults assumed the role of supporters and proxies. as the author points out, this is a peculiar scenario, as it falls into the intersection of three of the digital fringe communities identified in table 1: age-driven and disability-driven, of course, but also cultural and ethnic, as deaf communities around the world identify as minority cultural groups with their own languages. in article 6, ireland, farr-wharton and bradford provide a creative solution for this relationship between children with disabilities and technology. they investigated the possibility of integrating chat-bots into the community of children with autism. the chatbots were programmed to function as a sympathetic companion addressing children’s struggles to express ideas and feelings, while helping to foster resilient behaviour. once again, this is an excellent example of a project employing interactive technologies to facilitate broader social interactions by eliminating the power differential that is characteristic of the bully/victim relationship. another compounding factor for the feelings of isolation experienced by kids with disabilities, particularly autism, is living in geographically remote areas. in an attempt to address that, schutt (article 7) describes the pilot of a video-based technology mentoring program carried out with young australians with high functioning autism !10 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 who are socially and geographically isolated. the program sought to enhance the social connectedness of young people with autism via online sharing of technological interests and projects. similar to the previous two projects discussed in section 2, this project also used technology as proxies, working very closely with the children in order to (a) gain a better understanding of their needs, and (b) build resilience and better equip them for social interactions out in the world. stimulating awareness of creative practices between communities living geographically or socially apart, and the potential collaborations between them, is another increasing trend in designing for digital inclusion. while isolation plays an interesting role in bringing like-minded people together and shaping local communities, it also significantly limits their capacity to exchange ideas outside their circles, to scale up and thrive. section 3: urban and regional fringe communities deals with these particular obstacles, presenting a range of ways technology has been used in meaningful research to help communities to overcome social interaction barriers of three recurrent types: geographical, socio-economic, and cultural-linguistic. furthermore, technology is strongly adopted as both connector and enabler, mediating contacts between outcast creative communities and cultural agents in the mainstream. in article 8, sarantou, akimenko and escudeiro discuss margin to margin, a collaboration between artist communities in four geographically isolated areas: outback south australia, finnish lapland, russian kola peninsula and namibia. the project utilised technology to help participants exhibit their art in various formats, while raising awareness about their practices and promoting greater understanding about the realities faced by marginalised communities. similar patterns of creative isolation are often also at play within urban environments, fed by differences in social status, cultural and linguistic background, accessibility to technology and simple lack of mutual awareness about similar trades practiced by different communities. in article 9, bilandžić, casadevall, foth and hearn highlight the issue of the potential exclusion of creative voices from the innovation discourse, particularly those not technology-centric, and then propose a way of mitigating that issue. firstly, the authors analyse the increasing relevance of so-called ‘innovation spaces’ as shared areas to foster creative thinking, designed to accommodate informal work and social encounters by professionals with entrepreneurial mindsets. the authors frame the perceived problem of homogeneity in those innovation spaces, where typical users have little loyalty to established corporations, and are commonly known as ‘digital nomads’. secondly, they posit the problem raised by the currently available mechanisms to find those places, which, rather than promoting diversity, actually often rely on either recommendation algorithms based on data gathered from current space users, or direct suggestions from within their already established social networks. this, in turn, ends up leading to more ‘like-minded’ people frequenting particular innovation spaces, rather than nurturing diversity and constructive idea friction. finally, the authors propose their initial study of an application to increase awareness about existing filter bubbles, as well as ways for people to learn about spaces with diverse activities, which they named skunkworks finder. !11 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 article 10 in section 3, by silva, mora and straubhaar addresses the lack of englishlanguage proficiency as a barrier to social interactions between latino migrants in the usa and their broader community. notably, the project, ¡techcomunidad!, sought to equip working class parents with basic internet skills, while children in those communities were actually already digitally literate from school learning. their parents – mothers, in particular – felt they were ‘the dumb ones’ for lacking basic internet skills and technology understanding. as part of the project’s results, parents not only gained confidence in helping their children perform well at school, but also learned how to monitor their children’s performance, increasing feelings of self-worth and participation in their family’s and community’s lives. inclusion outcomes and the roles of technology by analysing the ways researchers made use of technology in the projects presented in this special issue, it is clear that technology played very specific roles in addressing the digital fringe in each case – which in turn led to different outcomes for digital inclusion. based on that, we identify four key roles technology can play in regards to promoting social inclusion, and four corresponding outcomes, as illustrated in figure 1. ! figure 1. technology roles and corresponding inclusion outcomes. notably, rather than being mutually exclusive, these roles are incremental. they address social interactions operating all the way from the ‘low-level’ of direct, intimate interpersonal relationships within a family or immediate neighbourhood – enabling basic social interactions – to the facilitation and mediation of interactions that nurture collective creativity, collaborations, citizenship, cultural awareness and the identification of potential new partnerships at a community level. table 2 illustrates the digital fringe communities (as presented in table 1) addressed by the articles in this special issue, the different roles technology played in each case !12 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 (figure 1), and the corresponding outcomes for digital inclusion within each community. table 2. communities, technology roles and inclusion outcomes addressed in this volume. ! as table 2 indicates, older adults’ technology use (ipads, social media, whatsapp) was encouraged by supporting them to leverage existing social interactions or connections with people, places, or by highlighting familiar activities undertaken in their local communities. in the case of children with disabilities technology played the role of behavioural coach, nurturing the interaction in a way that increased their selfconfidence while, in the process, gathering valuable data to interpret, as a proxy, their emotions and preferences, thus informing further co-design and refinement of the solutions. in both of these scenarios, technology assists with the immediate interpersonal interactions of the lives of the individuals involved, a basic intervention to restore dignity and ensure newfound agency remains. the design of participation aiming at urban and regional fringe communities, on the other hand, intervenes at a higher level, targeting social interactions that, once encouraged, can assist with greater cultural, creative and professional integration between different sections of society which might not have come into meaningful contact otherwise. in addition to provide mapping between the fringe communities and the different technological roles addressed in the articles of this special issue, table 2 also points out areas and ‘fringe gaps’ that require further research endeavours. this includes designing for people that belong to multiple fringe communities, and are therefore facing specific challenges that cannot be addressed through design strategies specifically targeting these groups individually. for instance, refugees who identify as lgbtqia are often marginalised within their own communities, having specific reasons for leaving their existing communities. similarly, older adults identifying as lgbtqia often face significant disadvantage and exclusion. people with intellectual disabilities may also have complex needs such as mental health concerns, and experience significant digital !13 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 exclusion. these groups and others living on the digital fringe, are not represented in articles in this special issue, indeed, there is a dearth of research which addresses their experiences specifically. it is these multiple levels of disadvantage, and the increasing complexity of experiences of those living on the digital fringe, that human computer interaction researchers, designers and others should seek to learn from and address. we recognise that a ‘one size fits all’ approach is not appropriate when working with, or designing for these communities. indeed, it is important that we draw upon the expertise of various practitioners, and employ sensitive and ethical design techniques (waycott, davis, warr edmonds, taylor 2017a; waycott et al., 2017b) and diversity in terms of existing and imagined technologies, to reflect upon the experiences of people inhabiting multiple fringe communities. the authors of this special issue recognise both the strides taken, and limitations to, this special journal focus. we view this special issue as a starting point in our journey. conclusions the purpose of this special issue is to highlight the innovative efforts of researchers from distinct disciplines and interests to tackle the dilemma of digital underparticipation. in particular, people who are investigating the capabilities of a variety of technologies (including apps, digital stories, and social media) to ultimately improve the experience of people living on the digital fringe. fostering collaboration with a variety of stakeholders can assist in addressing the generic approaches embedded in current technology design. designing bespoke and inclusive technologies for specific fringe communities can help alleviate this global generic prejudice. our hope is to inspire future research and professional practice that carefully considers collaboratively designing technologies that helps increase participation. this type of digital innovation is crucial in closing the gap which divides communities categorised as the digital fringe. as such, true success can be evaluated by the ability to design and embed high quality digital solutions that help to create positive systemic change for people on the digital fringe, rather than addressing issues that do not employ collaborative approaches. as technology continues to become increasingly pervasive on a global scale, we believe that strategies to promote inclusion will be progressively more necessary. the process of inclusive design (although unique to different contexts and issues) in the case of the digital fringe, provides creative approaches to research and industry practice. the examples outlined in this special issue demonstrate the value of trans-disciplinary approaches, for example, collaborating with a variety of different stakeholders, and being responsive to the needs of different fringe groups. we are inspired by the dedication of the researchers who are addressing complex social problems through the use of inclusive technology that has been meaningfully and collaboratively designed. !14 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 references armenta, a., serrano, a., cabrera, m., & conte, r. 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(phd), university of leuven. !16 pine et al the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 3 articles addressing fragmentation of health services through data-driven knowledge co-production within a boundary organization kathleen h. pine, arizona state university, khpine@asu.edu margaret hinrichs, arizona state university, mhinrich@asu.edu kailey love, arizona state university, kailey.love@asu.edu michael shafer, arizona state university, msshafer@asu.edu george runger, arizona state university, george.runger@asu.edu william riley, arizona state university, william.j.riley@asu.edu the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 4 addressing fragmentation of health services through data-driven knowledge co-production within a boundary organization abstract behavioral healthcare services involve multiple disconnected sectors and providers serving the same populations. efforts to identify and address service delivery problems are hampered by fragmentation of organizations and datasets. we conducted an action research project in which we formed a boundary organization and developed a knowledge co-production process (datadriven knowledge co-production or ddkco) centered on collaborative data sharing and visualization. multisector participants in phoenix worked to access and share data and to collectively interpret the resulting integrated data through visualizations using four knowledge co-production practices: collective interaction with data, perspective taking, reflection & debrief, and iteration of visualizations. the knowledge co-production process was evaluated using qualitative methods. this research extends knowledge co-production literature by proffering collaborative data sharing and visualization as a knowledge co-production process that can extend across disconnected and disparate social groups and contributes to community informatics by highlighting the role boundary organizations can play in facilitating data sharing and data-driven problem solving between fragmented sectors. keywords: data sharing; knowledge co-production; boundary organizations; behavioral healthcare; action research introduction the field of community informatics (ci) has long been concerned with the collection, integration, and use of data for community health services (namatovu et al., 2017; obeysekare et al., 2017). in the united states, behavioral health is a major issue (nami, 2019). while a wealth of community based behavioral health services data is available (and thus could be used to identify service problems and improve health services delivery), use of these data is hampered by the fact that individuals with behavioral health disorders are served by multiple service sectors and providers in a community (bhugra et al., 2014). though these providers have overlapping partial information about the populations they serve, datasets are siloed, making it hard to detect or address problems that go beyond singular organizations. data sharing is a process that often hinges on social connections between those sharing data and tacit knowledge that allows different users of data to assess its availability and quality, along with an understanding of the conditions under which data were collected and the various limitations of datasets (cragin et. al., 2010; faniel & jacobsen, 2010; wallis et al., 2013; zimmerman, 2008). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 5 still, data sharing across disconnected organizations is crucial. according to theories of knowledge, data are a first step in achieving knowledge (ackoff, 1998). empirical research shows that data must be taken up in practice and contextualized to be made actionable as knowledge (alvarado-garcia et al., 2017; nafus, 2014; ottinger & zurer, 2011). knowledge co-production in multisector collaboration is vital in alleviating complex problems (howarth & monasterolo, 2017) such as those present in the behavioral health care delivery system. knowledge co-production refers to processes that iteratively unite ways of knowing and acting, including ideas, norms, practices, and discourses, leading to mutual reinforcement and reciprocal transformation of societal outcomes (vindrola-padros, 2018), as well as increasing the usability and value of science for society (meadow et al., 2015). the knowledge co-production literature shows that it can be beneficial for a guiding organization to facilitate the process of knowledge co-production. however, in complex health services where there is a need for data sharing amongst multisector providers serving the same patient population, identifying a single organization to lead knowledge co-production may be difficult. an unexplored solution for organizing such multisector data sharing and knowledge coproduction efforts is the formation of a boundary organization. boundary organizations are defined as organizations that cross the boundary between science and policy and draw on the interests and knowledge of multisector stakeholders to facilitate evidence-based and socially beneficial interventions (guston, 2001). boundary organizations are known to have the following attributes: they involve participation by researchers and policymakers as well as professionals mediating between these groups; they provide incentives for the creation of collective artifacts; and they are accountable to both research and policy communities (cash, 2001; crona & parker, 2011; guston, 2001; white et al., 2010). starting with a problem (i.e., the fragmentation of organizations and datasets hampering systems-level problem solving for behavioral health services) identified by stakeholders working in behavioral health services in phoenix, arizona, we worked alongside stakeholders to find a means to address this problem. as a result, we developed a novel process drawing on boundary organizations and the knowledge co-production literature. we extend past ci research on identifying and overcoming barriers to data use such as data literacy (frank et al., 2016; frank & walker, 2016) and uptake of open data initiatives (lupi et al., 2020) by proposing data-driven knowledge co-production (ddkco) as a process to promote data integration and delivery of community-based behavioral health services. through our analysis of semi-structured interviews and participant observations of stakeholder activities, we answer the following research questions: how do boundary organizations promote data sharing and knowledge co-production in a community health informatics initiative? what are the situated processes through which knowledge co-production occurs between multisector participants? finally, what are the outcomes produced by facilitating data sharing and knowledge co-production among multisector participants? introduction health data sharing the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 6 research on data sharing shows that socio-cultural aspects of data sharing are crucial in datadriven initiatives. trust and relationships are of paramount importance in scientific data sharing. faniel & jacobsen (2010) described key factors that impact whether scientists share data and reuse others’ shared data. these factors include: 1) knowing what data are available; 2) understanding the circumstances under which data were collected well enough to use it properly; and 3) being able to accurately assess the quality of data and value for their own intents and purposes. because researchers draw on their own experience in making determinations about data quality and data utility for their own needs, much of this guiding knowledge is informal (zimmerman, 2008). moreover, relationships are a crucial part of data sharing both outside and inside of formal organizations (alvarado-garcia et al., 2017; cragin et al., 2010; wallis et al., 2013). studies of organizational and patient data sharing in the healthcare domain are quite limited (rowhani-farid, allen, and barnett, 2017), despite a growing body of literature that focuses on promoting interoperability (kasthurirathne et al., 2015; liyanage et al., 2015) and the integration of disparate healthcare datasets (gay & leijdekkers, 2015; marceglia et al., 2015) to improve health services research and practice. these studies have indicated a strong belief that sharing health services data would lead to improvements in healthcare delivery. however, there is a pressing need for studies of data sharing across healthcare sectors and organizations. similarly, calls for data sharing in the public health field demonstrate immense interest in capitalizing on the potential of data sharing, particularly during acute public health crises (edelstein et al., 2018; pisani et al., 2016). yet, little research examines the practices and pitfalls of sharing public health data (dye et al., 2016). focusing on behavioral healthcare specifically, we were unable to find research that examined the need for sharing behavioral healthcare data at either a conceptual level or in terms of systems and practices for data sharing, despite the calls for data sharing in other health contexts. knowledge co-production in health services knowledge co-production is defined as the active engagement and involvement of actors in the production of knowledge, which takes place in processes that either emerge from or are facilitated and designed to accomplish such active involvement (frantzeskaki & kabisch, 2016). knowledge co-production refers to knowledge created through interaction as well as to a culture that supports negotiating, creating, and sharing knowledge (vindrola-padros, 2018). there are two sets of conditions that influence the way knowledge is co-produced: (a) conditions surrounding the way knowledge co-production processes are set up like openness and inclusivity of the process; and (b) conditions related to the added value to society like usability of the knowledge co-produced (frantzeskaki & kabisch, 2016). literature has examined various forms of co-production such as research co-production (graham, 2019) and co-production of health services (batalden et al., 2016). however, these concepts are distinct from knowledge coproduction as we use it and as it is described in other disciplines. there is a growing body of literature regarding knowledge co-production in health services. in the health sector, knowledge co-production rests on the assumption that there are diverse stakeholders of healthcare services who all have valuable knowledge which is useful for the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 7 making system improvements (vindrola-padros, 2018). in contrast to the concept of knowledge translation, which focuses on synthesizing and accelerating innovations in knowledge (e.g. insights from health research) into practice (greenhalgh & wieringa, 2011), knowledge coproduction focuses on producing knowledge collaboratively with relevant stakeholders. because insights from knowledge co-production emerge directly from collaborative practice, knowledge co-production often leads to fewer difficulties in implementing new innovations because these innovations are rooted directly in the vested interests of stakeholders (greenhalgh & wieringa, 2011). there are calls from academics, policy analysts, and the popular press to share and combine data, thus creating integrated datasets that can be mobilized to illuminate and address major problems with health services delivery systems (khoury & ioannidis, 2014; lohr, 2012; raghupathi & raghupathi, 2014). the literature on knowledge co-production suggests that initiatives that take a knowledge co-production approach may lead to higher levels of satisfaction among participants and more robust decision-making processes (taylor-phillips et. al, 2014). this led us to believe that developing a large multisector dataset about the behavioral health care delivery system would benefit from a knowledge co-production approach. however, while there is a growing body of literature on knowledge co-production in healthcare, we found no studies of knowledge co-production in healthcare focusing on knowledge co-production related to data sharing and analyses. bridging fragmentation through boundary organizations boundary organizations are arrangements in which collaborators on either side of research, policy, or practitioner boundaries rely on an organizational arrangement to provide them with necessary resources (guston, 2001), such as knowledge, data, and financial support. boundary organizations involve participation by researchers and policymakers as well as professionals mediating between these groups. further, boundary organizations provide incentives for the creation of boundary objects and are accountable to both research and policy communities (cash, 2001; crona & parker, 2011; guston, 2001; white et al., 2010). thus, boundary organizations offer sites for collaboration, formation of new relationships, and the infusion of research and scientific information into policy (schneider, 2009). organizations from the local to the global scale have been identified and analyzed as examples of boundary organizations, such as arizona state university’s decision center for a desert city (crona & parker, 2011) and the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc) (humphreys, 2009; hoppe & wesselink, 2014). boundary organizations are designed to bridge multisector fragmentation by 1) providing an opportunity and incentive for creation and use of standardized processes; 2) involving the participation of actors from both sides of the boundary and mediating professionals; and 3) existing at the border between multiple relatively different worlds with distinct lines of accountability to each (guston, 2001). if successfully implemented, boundary organizations can develop less-politicized multisector collaborations where members of various stakeholder groups co-produce knowledge that will be utilized to bridge divergent worlds and inform decision making (crona & parker, 2012). they do this by providing a mechanism that both reinforces convergent the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 8 ideas between participants while allowing divergent ideas to continue (o’mahony & bechky, 2008). as previously mentioned, the u.s. healthcare system suffers from significant fragmentation across sectors. this fragmentation leads to significant “distance” between stakeholders which the literature suggests can make it more difficult to share data and communicate embedded knowledge utilized in practice (carlile, 2002). boundary organizations may present a useful means through which collaborators can organize around data sharing and interpretation. our project was designed so that our research group and the university setting comprised a boundary organization that provided structure and a site of collaboration for multisector participants, representing almost a dozen organizations across five key service sectors. methods context this study occurred in phoenix, arizona. in arizona, publicly funded behavioral health services are managed through organizations designated as regional behavioral health authorities (rbhas), subcontractors responsible for managing service contracts, service capacity, and finances. in 2014, the rbhas were required by the state medicaid agency to integrate physical health care and behavioral health care for a certain class of patients who have been designated “serious mental illness” (smi) patients. as a result of this data synthesis requirement, the data center at our university gained access to a large, state-wide dataset of medicaid claims. this existing data holding made it much easier to activate a project geared toward integration of additional datasets that could shed light on issues regarding multisector services for patients with behavioral health illnesses. in addition, our project drew on the data visualization and convening facilities of the “decision theater” located within arizona state university (hereafter referred to as dt). the dt is a unique center that partners with stakeholders and researchers to build computational models and convene diverse groups of decision makers across academia, government, and industry. the computational models integrate machine learning and predictive analytics to digest structured and unstructured data. we used a physical meeting space for the project referred to as the “drum.” the drum is a 26-foot-wide circular room that presents interactive models to participants across seven panoramic hd monitors in a 270°display. project our project followed action research (ar), defined as a systematic approach to research that focuses on developing solutions to problems encountered in everyday life (stringer, 2013). thus, ar provides a systematic and rigorous means for people to investigate problems and design means of addressing problems that is appropriate for their particular contexts and concerns (stringer, 2013). we began by looking at the situation alongside community stakeholders. this largely occurred through past projects in which members of the research team and stakeholders the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 9 worked to address various problems with behavioral health services in phoenix. these groups were hampered by the fact that many organizations serve the same populations, but their services, data, and efforts to solve problems are all siloed. to address this issue, the research team developed a novel intervention in collaboration with community stakeholders and applied for funding to support the intervention. specifically, the intervention sought to develop a boundary organization that would convene multisector stakeholders and, using the existing resource of the university’s data center, integrate data from across the behavioral health system. further, in addition to integrating datasets, the collective study team planned to hold multiple sessions in which community stakeholders would work with the data together to collectively make sense of system problems. our intervention consisted of two parts starting in december 2017 and continuing over the next 1.5 years. the first part of the intervention consisted of the creation of an integrated multisector dataset through acquisition of patient-level datasets from five sectors related to behavioral health service delivery (behavioral healthcare, physical healthcare, jail, courts, and housing). the second part of the intervention consisted of design and interpretation of a series of data visualizations created using the newly acquired and integrated multisector dataset. to build our core team, we first needed to identify key community organizations in each of the relevant sectors for our target geographic area. we identified 50 organizations and invited them to send members to the kickoff meeting to introduce the project goals and timeline. 50 people attended the kickoff meeting. of those who attended, 14 (described below) representing different organizations and all relevant sectors became highly engaged in the project, which required a substantial time commitment. because participants in the upper levels of their organizations can influence the practices and policies of a given organization, most participants were in high-ranking roles with decision making authority. in future projects it may be valuable to enroll participants working at all levels of the care delivery system (including patients). the research team had prior knowledge of the functions and data capacities of these organizations as an outcome of past collaborative projects. the research team formed an advisory committee composed of members from key sectors to provide oversight and feedback on all aspects of the project. after the kickoff meeting, three workgroups with specific tasks were convened: 1) analytics and visualization, 2) dissemination and engagement, and 3) policy. the analytics & visualizations workgroup met three times to brainstorm the specific data analytics and visualizations they would like to carry out and design, assess patient-level data capacity for different organizations, and develop privacy safeguards for data. the dissemination and engagement workgroup met once to discuss successful engagement of participants over the course of the project. the policy workgroup met three times to discuss how the project could inform local, state, and national policy efforts. during this time, the research team worked with participants to secure permissions and access patient-level datasets from their respective sectors. the research team then secured and cleaned these datasets before integrating newly sourced datasets with existing data held in a data center at the university according to all applicable hipaa and other patient and subjectsafety regulatory requirements. by integrating newly accessed datasets with the current the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 10 medicaid claims data and other holdings of the data center, we created a comprehensive integrated dataset that achieves interoperability at the level of the individual patient, over time, and across multiple related sectors. integrated datasets included medicaid claims, hospital discharge records, jail booking, and adult probation records. data visualizations drawing on the integrated dataset were designed initially by the analytics and visualization working group and built by the dt programmer, and the research team plus the programmer presented the in-progress visualizations to participants during four data design meetings held in the drum (figures 2 and 3). visualizations developed and refined through these meetings depicted multiple facets of interaction between different behavioral health sectors. examples of visualizations include degree of integration between physical and behavioral health services for severe mental illness (smi) and non-smi patients and social network analysis of which services patients interact with across different data sets/sectors. data design meetings were held roughly once a month over a four-month period. each lasted two hours. the goal of these meetings was for participants to interact with the data visualizations and with each other, together driving the workshops through collaborative interpretations and making meaning of the data. approximately 7-10 participants attended each of the data design meetings. each meeting had at least one participant representing each of the five sectors engaged in the intervention. privacy of individuals whose data were contained in the datasets was of utmost importance in the study design. to protect the privacy of individuals, aggregate, summary data were presented to participants outside the center. while we had capability to drill down to the individual level in data analysis the research team used differential privacy protections to protect the identity of individuals. qualitative evaluation of knowledge co-production process to understand the effect of the intervention, we conducted a qualitative evaluation. at each meeting multiple note takers took detailed notes to capture the ways participants discussed the data and visualizations, as well as the ways in which they contemplated real-world issues with behavioral health service delivery and how they connected the data visualizations to these service delivery problems. after each meeting the research team met to debrief and compare observations. in addition, the research team conducted semi-structured interviews with participants after the close of the project. the criteria for inclusion in the interviews was that the participant had to have attended both the kickoff meeting and at least three out of the four possible data design meetings. these criteria ensured feedback would be longitudinal, capable of reflecting on the ongoing process of collective data analysis and design of the data visualizations. from the 14 highly engaged participants who met this criteria, the research team interviewed 11 people. all interview participants served at a directorial position or higher within their organizations. interviews lasted between 30 to 90 minutes and were audio recorded and transcribed. observation notes and interview transcripts were analyzed using an interpretive approach (tracy, 2013), characterized by careful study and close reading of recorded and the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 11 transcribed talk and text, using data exemplars and excerpts to support scholarly claims and arguments. the research team created a codebook and reread each of the interview transcripts, expanding on the beginning list of codes where necessary to create greater depth of understanding for emergent interview themes. after several meetings to discuss and compare the meaning, relevance, and salience of different codes, the research team reached consensus on a codebook for the final analysis. data driven knowledge co-production process the knowledge co-production process, which we refer to as the “data-driven knowledge coproduction” or ddkco process (figure 1), involved four key practices centered on multisector data sharing and visualization which were carried out through “data design workshops.” importantly, this process was nested within a boundary organization and required a crucial antecedent which we call protected time and space to interact. boundary organization the boundary organization consisted of three key elements: (1) organizational members; (2) a physical location; and (3) a specific organizing mechanism by which stakeholders interfaced with the research community. figure 1: process for knowledge co-production in the boundary organization there were two primary categories of organizational members. the first included public stakeholders external to the university who contributed subject matter expertise regarding the provision of public and private sector behavioral health services, as well as the interthe journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 12 organizational relationships which constrained or enabled multisector service provision for people with serious mental illness. these included, but were not limited to, the following stakeholders: the chief medical officer (cmo) for a state healthcare provider; a county-wide director of correctional health services; a crisis services liaison for a healthcare provider; vice president of clinical services for a health organization; the ceo of a behavioral healthcare provider; the ceo of an organization with a focus on strengthening the native american community; a senior director of informatics for a healthcare provider; a police detective/crisis intervention coordinator; and the deputy chief of county assessment and programs for probation. the second category included a cohort of university faculty with subject matter expertise in health information research, public health policy, capacity building in behavioral health services, health care finance, statistical programming, and biomedical informatics. members of the faculty research team also brought methodological expertise and long-term working relationships with many of the organizations involved in the project, providing a grounded, contextual awareness of the local system. the physical location of the boundary organization was the dt drum. because of its community-engaged, solutions-focused heritage, convening organizational meetings within the physical location of the dt helped to support protected time and space for participants to engage with each other and the university. the primary organizing mechanism for the boundary organization was the repeated manipulation, analysis, visualization, and discussion of a large statewide data set compiled and organized by a center for health and information research located within the university, as part of an existing agreement with the state medicaid agency. the data center has an ongoing series of projects to analyze and make use of the statewide medicaid data set. by the time the boundary organization described here was formed, the data center had an established, credible reputation among physical and behavioral health care providers across the state. as a statewide bank of physical and behavioral health medicaid claims, the existing dataset held by the data center was valuable but not useful. it was only through the convergence of multiple forms of expertise, active listening, and facilitated discussion that insights regarding potential uses and analysis of the data set emerged. protected time and space to interact a key element of the framework was protected time and space to interact with people from other sectors in the form of repeated meetings. almost every participant commented on the role of these face-to-face interactions with diverse groups of participants from different sectors on their increased ability to understand and appreciate the complexity of approaches to behavioral healthcare. one participant, a chief medical officer (cmo) for a healthcare provider described: “…the project created a reason for people to come together and talk…when a data slide was presented or when a hypothesis was provided, it allowed a reason for people who are otherwise very busy and doing their day-to-day work to say, ‘…i need to stop for an hour and look the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 13 and contemplate this with other stakeholders in the broader system.’ i think that creates interactions that don’t happen in real life [where] …everybody’s way too busy to think.” thus, while data provided a justification to convene, our participants overwhelmingly reported that having protected time (in the eyes of their workplaces) and a space to gather together was one of the most important elements of our knowledge co-production process. data design workshops the second key element were data design workshops, which contained four distinct and iterative knowledge co-production practices centered around the multisector datasets: 1) collective interaction with data and visualizations, 2) perspective taking, 3) reflection and debrief, and 4) iteration of visualizations. these practices tended to occur in the order listed, although these are not perfect “stages.” next, we describe each practice. collective interactions with data interacting with data together helped multisector participants to grasp the complexity of the data collected and held by different sectors, as well as the disciplinary logics and other contextual factors that are embedded in datasets from different sectors. while participants had prior knowledge of the datasets collected and analyzed by their home organizations and sectors, for many participants the workshops were the first time they saw their data plotted next to another organization’s data and began to understand how other sectors depict their clients and services. when asked whether their participation in the project changed their understanding of the healthcare delivery system, a police detective and crisis intervention training coordinator recalled the first data design meeting in the following excerpt: …we were just starting to look at preliminary data. a lot of the graphs were very physical, and mental claims data…looking at the rough data, side by side – and talking collaboratively about what conclusions we could draw from it sparked that discussion, and sort of made the biggest impact. then, in successive meetings, as we were coming back to that topic and talking about it, it fleshes out what that actually means in practice. the cmo for a healthcare provider recalled the effect of collectively discussing “why this piece of data was important or this perspective important” to understand a given topic: it allowed people to say, ‘well, what elements should be measured and included in the analysis?’ people…got into the challenges into how do you define that, how do you measure it, is it available, do we know it, all those kinds of things. hearing what others thought was important to measure or to be able to evaluate was very helpful. through collective interactions with data, participants also discussed social and ethical aspects of datasets. for example, during the social determinants of health data design meeting, three participants (the vice president of clinical services for a health organization, the ceo of a behavioral healthcare provider and the ceo of an organization with a focus on strengthening the native american community) discussed which subgroups should be included for analysis. the vp commented that it might be hard to get substance abuse data to help understand trends in subgroups. the behavioral health ceo agreed that substance abuse data was important, saying the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 14 “…literature shows that, of people with smi, 60 percent have substance abuse. but the way things get coded and paid for, those trends get masked.” the third participant quickly interjected that “the native american population will not want substance abuse to be part of the determinant for smi” and explained the issue from the perspective of her client population, including the ethical issues it could raise to examine substance abuse data alongside smi data for her organization’s clientele. thus, collective interactions with datasets and visualizations increased participants’ understanding of both the datasets held by other sectors and the actual services, cultures, and ethical concerns of other sectors. perspective taking we define the second practice, perspective taking, as the ability of diverse stakeholders to contextualize their positionality, experiences, and approach to behavioral health relative to the other participants in the workshops vis a vis datasets and visualizations. as they worked with data, participants let their expertise shine and often provided in-depth explanations and anecdotal examples to the group as they explained how data were collected, the limitations and implications of datasets, and how their home organizations used data. these interactions led participants to take the perspectives of participants in other sectors, seeing the behavioral health service system and client population from different vantage points beyond their own. engaging with individuals during meetings led to seeing things from the point of view of participants from other sectors. the president of a behavioral healthcare agency described his experience in getting to know more about the perspective of a public health specialist, saying, there are things he thinks he understands but really doesn’t about health plans and the delivery system. by the same token, there are things i think i understand about what he’s doing, but i clearly don’t [laughs]. part of the iterative process is coming to a level of understanding of each other’s worlds and what’s really needed as a whole to make it impactful. participants reported a new understanding of the daily challenges that other participants face in carrying out their jobs related to behavioral health—for example, a behavioral health provider described how they gained a new appreciation for the intense “legal and regulatory barriers” that a police detective faced in doing their job. examples such as this illustrate how our project allowed participants to understand the worldview of participants from other sectors. participants also engaged in perspective taking on behalf of their agency and the sector that their agency represented. throughout meetings, participants often used the collective “we” when referring to themselves, their coworkers, and their overarching organization and/or sector. this was reflected in statements such as “we engage in periodic follow-ups, we create intake forms for all patients and/or inmates, etc.” when asked if there was a time during the project when he was able to take the perspective of another agency, the deputy ceo of a mental health services agency shared: … we’ve been able to take the perspective of [county] correctional health...they would describe bringing people in and what could’ve been successful alternatives to keep people in [behavioral health] care. they also talk about this ability to keep people out [of jail] by the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 15 making strong connections in the community. we started thinking through from their perspective what our outpatient teams could do a little bit better to support success and avoid recidivism. another participant, a physician, described how a key undertaking of the workshops was gaining “the whole-system view,” which is crucial because “everybody knew their trees or felt like they knew their own trees pretty darn well, but people really did want to see what others see and wanted to see the whole.” reflection and debrief reflection and debrief occurred when participants connected data directly to service problems through reflecting on insights from the discussion of the data visualizations with diverse participants. for example, during the ‘high utilizers’ data design meeting, the group carried out a reflection activity, after which the system manager for a crisis services center described breakdowns in treatment and referral programs due to differences in transport reimbursements between psychiatric hospitals (reimbursed at $300) and medical hospitals (reimbursed at $1,200). they explained that patients with purely psychiatric needs would be transported to medical hospitals due to the higher reimbursement rate. there was an audible response from the entire workshop—the information was a complete surprise to most other participants and formed the basis of a conversation about misaligned incentives and the need for policy level change. such reflections that connected data to real word problems often came at the very end of the workshop, once participants had time to center their thoughts, think about the data they had seen and discussion they had heard, and think critically through focused reflection activities about systemic breakdowns and opportunities for change moving forward. dedicated time for reflection activities within the time constraints of the meetings offered time for participants to discuss the insights that they had together. iteration of visualizations during internal debriefs after each data design workshop, the research team shared their own key observations and insights after having listened to participants’ reactions to the visualizations and on-the-ground experiences. through conversation between the research team and the visualization team, visualizations were then tweaked and re-designed. for example, one visualization focused on the utilization of different health services, including physical health, behavioral health, and pharmacy services, for the top five smidesignated people who utilize health services overall. this visualization showed use of these different services on a time-lapse basis over the course of a year (figure 2). it was not included in the first data design meeting. rather, it was created based on participants’ comments of wanting to understand the highest utilizers as a starting point for intervention. after its creation and inclusion, participants found this visualization to be useful because it showed how individuals utilized different types of services, which allowed participants to discuss how patients interact with different sectors and the health care delivery system overall. after its first iteration, participants asked for more granular data about individuals who utilized different levels of the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 16 service. the internal team then iterated this visualization—the next version allowed participants to select a “decile” of utilization and see the time-lapse service utilization for the top five utilizers in each decile (figure 3). figure 2: time series representation of health utilization for the top 5 highest total cost smi patients. data has been slighted fuzzed to protect against re-identification. gender has not been altered. age (+/up to 5 years). cost amounts have been rounded ceiling/floor to nearest two thousand. figure 3: a later version of the time series representation of health utilization for smi patients. like the first iteration of the visualization (figure 2), this visualization shows time series data according to different categories of healthcare cost, and also allows the user to look at the top five utilizers along 10 deciles of healthcare utilization across the population. iterating visualizations in turn led to a new round of collective interactions with data. participants were then exposed to the updated visualization in later workshops. while the four knowledge co-production practices did not always happen in the chronological order reflected in figure 1, and at times overlapped and melded together, the process outlined above is the best approximation of the temporal and practical ordering of the knowledge co-production practices that took place. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 17 evaluation: outcomes of ddkco multisector systems awareness and alignment of systems knowledge because one of the primary goals of the project was to understand continuity of care across multiple health sectors, we asked participants about the extent to which they thought differently about problems in behavioral health systems after having participated in the project. participants reported that they gained a new awareness of behavioral health systems. this awareness was specifically focused on a systems perspective that considered multiple sectors germane to behavioral health care. we refer to this type of awareness as multisector systems awareness. one awareness that participants reported was a new understanding of just how fractured data are across the multiple sectors and information systems that touch behavioral health patients. participants also reported that they gained awareness of the breadth of the system. meaning, their view of the “system” itself expanded beyond its former bounds, or they gained concrete evidence supporting their understandings of the expansiveness of the behavioral healthcare system. for example, a senior director of informatics for a healthcare organization said: …[the project] provided more concrete thinking about the importance of these noncovered services…like housing and employment supports or things like that and just a better appreciation for how that can be thought of at a higher, broader level and any other results of those interactions or lack of those interactions. finally, participants reported that they gained a sense of their own sector, and its attendant needs, priorities, and patterns of thinking, in relation to those of other sectors. a deputy chief of assessment and programs for probation described: what i really noticed was that we all talk from our own discipline. i learned more about the health industry–i knew a lot about it–but i probably got more idea of what they pay attention to, their performance. what they’re looking at to improve their system...i definitely could look at [healthcare delivery] from a state medicaid perspective or a health plan perspective, also probably the rbha perspective. engaging in perspective-taking during meetings led to a more durable ability to understand the broader behavioral health systems from the perspective of other sectors. augmented systems-level problem solving participants were aware of the limitations of prevailing approaches to decision making. for example, the cmo of a healthcare provider said: we are an organization that primarily uses…financial data. we use claims-based data…we intuitively know it’s important, but we do not use data from housing or justice the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 18 or other social sectors to be able to improve our insights, and it’s that kind of information that’s actually needed in order to be a little bit more proactive about the planning. our interviews revealed that participants perceived that their participation in the ddkco process had increased their ability to make decisions about behavioral health service delivery at the systems level. this increased ability to make systems-level decisions came from elevated awareness of the diverse consequences of their organization’s decisions on other organizations (and vice versa) and access to an integrated multisector dataset. not only did participants acquire new abilities to engage in systems-level problem solving, but they also put these abilities to use using newly integrated datasets. this problem solving occurred through spontaneous creation of new projects by participants. for example, participants from an indigenous health organization, county corrections, and city government created a new project when they realized through the ddkco process that the highest recidivism rates in the jail system were related to cases where individuals had experienced severe mental illness and homelessness. participants created a new project to try and address the housing needs of this population to see if that would decrease rates of recidivism. further, discussing services at the systems level pointed out goal misalignments between sectors. the discrepancies in reimbursements between psychiatric and medical hospitals raised by the crisis services center manager discussed earlier was a key example of misalignment between patient care and the health financial system. this example illustrates the potential for increased augmented decision making as a result of greater understanding of the effects of one organization’s decisions on another that arose from interpreting and reflecting upon data together. finally, many meetings spawned discussions between participants about the usefulness of future data tools they would like to create. throughout the interviews, participants echoed the realization that incorporating datasets from different sectors could help them improve or enhance the decisions they make regarding healthcare delivery for behavioral health patient populations. prioritization of and increased knowledge about data sharing the final outcome revealed in our evaluation was prioritization of data sharing and increased knowledge about data sharing among participants. before starting the project, many participants knew that sharing data between sectors might be beneficial, but they did not know which datasets existed nor how to go about sharing them. participation in the project raised awareness of the need for data sharing, as well as the opportunities and limitations for data sharing present in their organizations and the broader context. for example, a former senior medical director of a behavioral healthcare agency described the importance of integrating data: “the thing that would help would be to pool all of the data that we’re talking about that i believe is available to a degree and start sharing it better. to make it publicly available. to have datasets the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 19 as timely as we can. i understand not all data is in real time, but we can start analyzing and truly understand the need and understand the impact of our services.” this quote exemplifies a general sentiment expressed by participants that they were more aware, ready, and able to share data after participating in the ddkco process. this is important since many of the participants are gatekeepers of data for their organization. non-gatekeepers left the project with an increased sense of why data sharing is important and how it might be accomplished in practice. discussion through leveraging a boundary organization, the ddkco process described above resulted in a newly integrated dataset that bridged fragmented behavioral health sectors. equally important, our process produced a group of multisector participants who had new capacity to use the integrated dataset to address behavioral health problems fueled by knowledge co-production. this is evidenced by the outcomes uncovered in our qualitative evaluation: multisector systems awareness and alignment of systems knowledge, augmented systems-level problem solving, and increased knowledge about data sharing. as detailed in related work, approaches proposed to address data fragmentation in the literature thus far seek to reduce fragmentation through broad, high-level policy and large-scale technical interventions. in contrast, our intervention sought to address fragmentation through a local knowledge co-production process utilizing ar methods. our approach resonates with literature on data sharing that shows that successful data sharing often draws on social relationships and an ability for sharers to draw on tacit knowledge about how data is collected and what they can make of it in their own practice (faniel & jacobsen, 2010; wallis et al., 2013; zimmerman, 2008). critical data studies literature shows how all data are inevitably local, collected in particular times and places, for specific audiences that are conditioned to receive them (loukissas, 2019). the university health data center had sufficient expertise to integrate datasets using patient metadata, clean, and curate data (although these activities of course required considerable work). what was most lacking was a social and institutional environment supportive of data sharing such that the needed datasets could be acquired with sufficient contextual information that they could be appropriately integrated, analyzed, and interpreted. thus, our approach focused on creating the platform of human relationships needed for data sharing to occur and used data sharing and visualization as an occasion to build these relationships. participants became institutional navigators who worked to gain needed permissions for data acquisition in their different sectors. given how difficult data sharing of healthcare data has proven to be at a broad scale, we propose that our approach is a relatively expedient way to integrate datasets across sectors in specific geographic locales/service systems. because the multisector system had neither established social relationships nor an understanding of the data held by different sectors, our intervention provided an opportunity for the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 20 participants to develop the necessary conditions (individual relationships and formal and tacit knowledge of one another’s work and data) to share data with one another. through the ddkco process, participants were able to create understanding and alignment in the meanings they attached to data (“data valences” in neff & fiore-gartland’s terms) (2015). to successfully share and analyze data across sectors, our findings point to the need to align data valences among these different sectors, and to the utility of knowledge co-production for doing so. past community informatics literature has sought to increase use of open data initiatives and actionability of data by identifying appropriate data needed to support local actions, rather than publishing ‘disconnected data’ (lupi et al., 2020). while not technically an “open data” project, our work supports lupi et al.’s assertion that producing datasets in relation to particular needs is a fruitful approach, and further shows how knowledge co-production within a boundary organization is one potential way to do so. the goal of our process was not only for participants to share data across sectors, but to collectively interpret data as well. visualizations, even scribbles on napkins during conversations, are powerful communicative devices (snyder, 2014). creating visualizations of the newly integrated dataset helped participants re-contextualize familiar data within a newly depicted “multisector system view.” creating data visualizations together with other participants entailed discussion of what data analytics should be performed, how the population of patients should be “cut” for different data views, what questions were of most interest, and what privacy and ethical protections were needed. carrying out these discussions with other participants over time as visualizations were designed, built, and tested allowed participants to gain an understanding of the “data frictions” (e.g. institutional and regulatory pressures) shaping their practice domains and datasets (edwards et al., 2011; nafus, 2014). further, developing data visualizations helped participants to see their sector as part of a larger service system. the ddkco process required participants to develop metaphorical “bifocal glasses” that allowed them to look closely at their own sector’s datasets, then take in the more distant, larger view of the multisector service system. this understanding, along with the relationships that were built, allowed participants to engage with the integrated data and visualizations to begin real-world problem solving, such as when participants began the spin offprojects to address homelessness as a factor in recidivism among the smi population. finally, our findings point to a new connection between the role of boundary organizations in initiatives to integrate data and co-produce knowledge among disparate groups, organizations, and sectors. existing research supports the notion of employing boundary organizations as depoliticized arenas for work, which can lower cultural barriers between stakeholder groups and align their interests (crona & parker, 2011; o’mahony & bechky, 2008). rather than isolating itself from external political authorities, our project’s boundary organization played an important role in negotiating knowledge between the science and policy realms (white et. al, 2010). it is important to note that this role does not have to be filled by a university. there are a number of non-academic organizations with the resources to support facilitated data sharing and design projects like the ones described here. this study inspires many opportunities to connect public health literature on multisector alignment with literature on data sharing, data visualization, and collaborative design. the the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 21 context for the design of information technology is increasingly an interconnected mosaic of responsive adaptive systems including people’s ideas, organizations, communities, markets, and culture (furnas, 2000). future studies that seek to support multisectoral, interdisciplinary, complex problems should attend to the relational component of these forms of work (hinrichs, 2017). we argue that initiatives that seek to bridge sectoral divides must attend to relational data work (e.g. meng et al., 2019; møller et al., 2020; pine & bossen, 2020) that is necessary to successfully share and interpret data, and include resources to support these processes. further, although the ddkco process was informed in part by public health literature on multisector alignment, our approach could be used in any number of multisector problem spaces by developing appropriate boundary organizations and convening stakeholders to engage in datadriven knowledge coproduction. lessons learned a number of important lessons were learned over the course of the project that could inform subsequent projects. first, having a large dataset within the boundary organization (in this case the state medicaid claims data) helped to facilitate data sharing because participants felt confident that procuring additional datasets would be beneficial due to the availability of existing data. it may be more difficult to acquire data from multiple organizations and sectors without forming a boundary organization that has data holdings already. second, participants were largely working in high-level executive, managerial, or director roles in their organizations. as a result, knowledge co-production did not include knowledge from multisector front line workers and behavioral healthcare patients. it would be beneficial to include these perspectives in future versions of the project or similar projects. third, it was challenging to iterate visualizations quickly. it would be beneficial to plan and create capacity for quick turnaround in data visualizations. fourth, participants commented that it would be helpful for them to take visualizations back to their home organizations to engage colleagues in conversation about how the integrated datasets and data visualizations could be applied. it would be useful to create ways for non-co-located stakeholders to access data visualizations, and to explore ways that data design meetings could take place virtually or in addition to or in place of in situ meetings. fifth, the dddkco process is resource intensive, requiring ongoing time and attention from participants. it is important to consider that stakeholders who are resource poor (for example, those who cannot allocate person hours to such an effort) may be excluded, leading to knowledge co-production that excludes some stakeholders. future research should seek to understand the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in the dddkco process and test mechanisms to ensure inclusive processes. conclusion sharing of healthcare data and mobilizing shared data for problem-solving is notoriously difficult due to fragmentation of healthcare providers and the fact that multiple sectors provide healthrelated services to the same populations. large-scale data sharing and interoperability initiatives the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 22 have struggled. the process presented in this paper sought a new approach through using a boundary organization and knowledge co-production practices to collaboratively create an integrated multisector dataset and visualizations. this research extends literature on knowledge co-production by delineating a new process that can extend across disconnected and disparate social groups, helping different stakeholder groups make meaning of data related to overlapping populations, align datasets and problem-solving efforts from the local organizational level to the multisector system level, and lay the relational groundwork for knowledge sharing across siloed health providers. this work also highlights the important role that boundary organizations can play in facilitating data sharing and alignment of multiple health sectors. acknowledgements we thank the participants and partner organizations in this project without whom this work would not have been possible. we also wish to thank the editor and reviewers for their thoughtful reviews which helped us improve the paper. this work was funded by a grant from the robert wood johnson foundation (no. 75584). arizona state university is located in the salt river valley on ancestral territories of twenty-two native nations who have inhabited this land for centuries, including the akimel o’odham (pima) and pee posh (maricopa) indian communities. we acknowledge the sovereignty of these peoples, whose care and keeping of these lands allows us to be here today. references ackoff, r.l. 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(2008). new knowledge from old data: the role of standards in the sharing and reuse of ecological data. science, technology, & human values, 33, 5, 631-665. 1383-8023-1-ed the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 notes from the field pie news. a public design project toward commonfare the new poor are a group of people composed by precarious workers, working poor, neets, and people left behind by the safety nets, accounting for approximately 25% of the european population. commonfare is a new collaborative form of welfare provision based on equitable governance and grassroots democracy, entailing the involvement of diverse stakeholders to facilitate the bottom-up emergence of collective practices tackling the needs of the new poor. the paper mainly describes the concepts and building blocks of the pie news project, a public design project which started in july 2016 with the aim to foster the emergence of commonfare as an alternative model to satisfy the needs of the new poor. pie news leverages on 3 pilots (italy, croatia, netherlands) with grassroots organizations in order to create a commonfare model through the development of a collective awareness platform and a digital currency tool. the network supporting the project is constituted by organizations that account for approximately one-hundred thousand social media contacts. these organizations include ethical banking, networks of associations, activists for basic income, and many others. finally, the paper briefly presents some results of the project at one year from its start. keywords: new poor, commonfare, public design, collective awareness, digital currency !87 francesco botto fbk create-net research center, italy corresponding author. fbotto@fbk.eu maurizio teli madeira interactive technology institute, portugal maurizio.teli@m-iti.org botto, f., teli, m. (2017). pie news. a public design project toward commonfare. the journal of community informatics, 13(2), 87—105. date submitted: 2017-03-28. date accepted: 2017-08-21. 
 copyright (c), 2017 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1383 . mailto:fbotto@fbk.eu mailto:maurizio.teli@m-iti.org http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1383 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1383 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction across europe there are social groups that are particularly at risk of poverty or social exclusion, and the european commission identifies them as “women, young people, people living in single-parent households, lower educated people and migrants.” (eurostat, 2015). however, due to the enduring crisis conditions and the insufficiency of social policies in some eu countries (cantillon, 2011), new forms of poverty have turned up – also triggered by transformations in the labour market that have accelerated during the crisis (jenkins et al., 2012). indeed, before the crisis, the most common factor triggering a situation of poverty was the exclusion from the labour market and hence a lack of income. today there are several other factors contributing to the rise of the new poor (bauman, 2004) condition including: the precarious job conditions; and the increase of working poors, young people not involved in both employment or training, and people who do not qualify for social safety nets. the main objective of the pie news project – 3 years ec-h2020-ict-2015 funded since july 2016 – is to sustain the emergence of the commonfare as a new and collaborative economic model, connecting the new poor and relevant stakeholders like public administrations, advocacy organizations, and ethical financing organizations. such general objective will be achieved relieving the pie (poverty, lack of income and unemployment) conditions people may experience through: 1) the provision, aggregation and sharing of useful information; 2) the support to sharing existing good practices on their daily efforts to cope with such conditions, and 3) supporting the strengthening at the european level of the most promising of these practices. the project is deeply involved in community informatics because of the involved technology and methodology. pie news foresees the adoption of information technologies as a way to help people facing their economic problems, therefore the consortium decided for the development and adoption during the project timeline of a collective awareness platform (cap), including a reputation system, and a digital currency component. the three pilots will be led by community management institutions that are already deeply involved with grassroots’ associations and working poor individuals in netherlands, croatia and italy. pie news technologies will be designed participatory and developed with the help of people using a public design approach. this paper describes the building blocks of the pie news project in its very early phase, aiming to: (1) contextualise the novel condition of poverty that is affecting europe in the last years; (2) present commonfare as a possible part of the solution; (3) describe the technologies and methodologies adopted in order to participatory involve new poor in – a tentative of – establishing the commonfare, with two concrete user scenarios; and (4) assumptions and plans for making sustainable innovation. finally, the paper briefly describes some early results of the project after one year of activity. !88 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 theory new poor in the european union, more than 122 million of people (about 24% of the population) are at risk of poverty or social exclusion (eurostat, 2015). even after social transfers, 17% of the population remain in such condition. among them, 9% of the european population is severely materially deprived that is, for example, being unable to pay the bills or face unexpected expenses. a series of factors are actually triggering a novel condition of poverty in europe. a first relevant factor is the type of labour contracts and the spread of precarious conditions (standing, 2013; fumagalli, 2013), which lead to discontinuous income and unstable jobs. current research also shows that women, young people and migrants are the groups more experiencing precarious conditions (mckay, jefferys, paraksevopoulou, & keles, 2012). a second factor triggering poverty in many european countries, are the decreasing wages characterizing the last years, even for stable workers. wages have not been able to maintain purchasing power and, as a result, the amount of working poor has quickly been rising in europe (fraser, gutierrez, & pena-casas, 2011). a third factor is linked to the deteriorating labour market conditions for early entrants (e.g. unreported jobs, unpaid jobs) and early school leave (e.g. school dropout) which together have been contributing to the emergence of the phenomenon of neets, that are young people not in education, employment or training (eurofound, 2012; fumagalli, 2013). last, a fourth factor is the growing number of people who do not or no longer qualify for social safety nets because of the enduring crisis and the declining adequacy over time of those nets (such as unemployment benefits and social assistance, e.g. nelson, 2013). we will refer to these four social groups as the new poor (bauman, 2004), as the forms of poverty which are triggered by these factors differ from the ones traditionally related to a lack of employment. in fact, the people experiencing new forms of poverty do not necessarily need to be outside the labour market although a prolonged expulsion from the labour market or the educational system may cause long-term marginalization. unfortunately, the number of new poor in europe is still unknown. one of the objectives of pie news is to get an image of this phenomenon while collaborating with people experiencing this condition. commonfare the main needs of new poor relate to the access to a primary income but also to a cluster of social services, which has to do with housing, training, or mobility. addressing these needs requires novel and unconventional approaches, like housesharing, peer-to-peer training, ride-sharing, or access to information about skill acquisition. these novel approaches can beneficially be supported and fostered with digital technologies, siding the conventional welfare state approaches and promoting the emergence of new economic models, like the commonfare. !89 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 commonfare is an emerging direction for thinking and practicing welfare provision, and the concept has been elaborated in recent years by researchers and activists interested in alternative ways to overcome the european crisis (provisional university, 2014, fumagalli 2015a, fumagalli 2015b). with the reduction of vital welfare services and the rise of poverty caused by austerity in some european areas, it has been noticed that precarious conditions caused by shortage of “common goods” for poor population could be overcome by initiatives concerning “self-managed commons”. in simple words: selfmanaged commons can take many forms, always situated and negotiated between a particular community and the resources they depend on. it requests equitable governance and grassroots democracy as well as the involvement of stakeholders in order to facilitate the emergence of good collective practices: the welfare of common is therefore a form of welfare provision supporting such collective practices (fumagalli and lucarelli, 2015). the concept of commonfare is not still academically mature and it grounds on theoretical and practical reasoning on “cognitive capitalism” and austerity politics in europe (fumagalli, 2008; vercellone, 2014). one of the pie news objectives is to develop this concept from a theoretical/activists’ understanding to a design-oriented and empirically-grounded research one. public design pie news relies on design methodologies to involve directly the target social groups in shaping the pie news platform, in order to successfully adapt the potential digital tools available into effective instruments for people empowerment. to do that, the consortium relies upon the design tradition known as participatory design (pd), originated in scandinavia in the ‘70s of the last century, to include directly the perspective of the future users into the technology design. pd is a form of co-design strongly oriented toward users’ empowerment, both as a general social goal as well as during the design process of the technologies that will affect their lives (simonsen & robertson, 2012). recent developments of pd referred to as community-based participatory design (disalvo, clement, and pipek, 2012), participatory development (de angeli, bordin, & blanco, 2014), or “public design” (teli, bordin, menendez blanco, orabona, & de angeli, 2015), allow getting pd out of the workplace, its original main locus of research, to work in the wider social domain. public design, in particular, starts with the concerns of people for their everyday life to promote their emergence as an organized collective sharing information and collaborative action, in an open-ended design process (teli et al., 2015). due to the open-ended nature of co-design, pd, and public design, the technological objectives indicated here are going to act as elements participating to the design process as sensitizing concepts, not as design choices already made. in relation to participatory design, public design promotes the enlargement of the design space from the workplace to the public dimension. moreover, in relation to existing public design projects (like the ones conducted by di salvo and colleagues already cited), pie news has the ambition to engage in a large-scale, multi-lingual and international design process, starting with the locations of the specific pilots but not !90 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 limited to them. in relation to the larger field of hci, the public design approach promoted here goes beyond the attention toward vulnerable populations, like homeless (woelfer, iverson, hendry, friedman, & gill, 2011) to actually sustain the formation of a recursive public able to gain long-term sustainability (teli et al., 2015). practical strategy given the objective of fostering commonfare emergence by connecting new poor and relevant stakeholders, “informing” “sharing” and “supporting” are the three specific objectives (figure 1) to be achieved through a comprehensive approach that will benefit from the complementarity among the partner organizations, beginning with the civil society organizations that have domain knowledge and networks to be mobilized. in a commonfare perspective, the three specific objectives begin with the new poor and connect them to the relevant stakeholders, improving the capabilities for distributed interventions not only by individuals but also by domain organizations. consortium and funding the design approach used by the pie news consortium, together with the involvement of three civil society organizations like bin (basic income network, italy), cms (center for peace studies, croatia), and daniela paes leão & merel willemsen acting for the art project mdc (museu da crise, netherlands), is what makes the pie news deeply user-driven. bin, cms and mdc have domain knowledge, local networks to be mobilized and a high level of motivation to do it at its best. therefore, the three partners represent the pulsating core of pie news by supporting full involvement of the three pilots’ people in continuous design, adoption and evaluation. on the technical side three other partners take care of the community awareness platform, the digital currency system, and the reputation system. they are createnet fbk (italy), dyne (netherlands) and abertay university (uk), that will work in collaboration with the university of trento (italy) in the role of design – and project – coordinator, and with the madeira interactive technologies institute (m-iti, portugal) as research and innovation coordinator. !91 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ! figure 1: pie news specific objectives technological approach and building blocks in spite of the economic barriers to access, 49% of the lower-income people are regular internet users (eurostat, 2014). a clickstream based study has actually shown that people in pie conditions indeed use the web more than others, looking for information about employment, career and services (martens & pantea, 2013). this scenario suggests that there is a wide number of pie people having not only the skills and the means, but also the motivation to become part of this project for a concrete improvement of life conditions. due to the open-ended nature of the co-design approach adopted, public design, some key decisions about the technological community awareness platforms (cap) are taken with the relevant groups and based on the pilot outcomes. nevertheless, it is already possible to identify the key components that have a high degree of probability of being included in the pie news platform. this is possible considering the pie news objectives of informing, sharing, and supporting, in combination with the existing technological tools that provide such capabilities. to summarize, we can foresee the public design and implementation of the following core elements: 1. pie news information hub: the organized provision of information on welfare state provisions and other opportunities (training, mobility, etc.); 2. pie news stories hub: the organized collection of existing stories and tools to facilitate the production and upload of new stories; !92 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 3. pie news networking hub: the organized collection of networking tools, each one well described and open to incremental improvement via people intervention. ! figure 2: pie news technological approach figure 2 highlights the main functional elements that pie news as a digital platform will provide. this will represent the reference functional architecture and it will be the background for the implementation of the technical solutions during the project lifecycle. from an architectural perspective, pie news technical solution will be composed according to three main layers: 1. external social networks are the main channels in order to trigger user engagement. they complement the platform in order to forge effective communication channels and foster the setup of relationships with target users and with all the relevant stakeholders. pie news platform will structure itself as a social network supporting concerned publics at local level, fostering the bottom-up emergence of a european public. 2. front-end: pie news platform will also provide a dedicated web portal responsive for mobile use, whose front-end will be structured according to the following main components, the pie news information, stories, and networking hubs. 3. backend services of pie news platform will provide core services needed to support users in the access and interaction with the platform, and more specifically: curation tools, storytelling tools, collaborative economy tools, social tools, users and groups management, security and privacy, reputation !93 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 system, digital currency management, network dynamics management, and further others. the design principles that are followed for building the technical solution can be summarized as follows: 1. maximization of reuse of existing external services and open source components; 2. usage of “responsive design” to maximize multi-channel access to the platform; 3. “privacy-by-design” in order to address privacy issues in a systematic way; 4. perform technical components selection and integration to guarantee scalability of the platform to a large users’ base; 5. address horizontal multilingual support and translation capabilities in order to support and facilitate both user participation at the local level and content internationalization (passing through english language). the core modules of the platform for reaching a concrete participation of users and enhancing a new form of collaborative economy are the reputation system, the digital currency system, and the network dynamics system. reputation system pie news conducts research on the use of reputation and reputation systems as social mechanisms able to support engagement, collective action and offer incentives for participation (dellarocas, 2003). in social media projects, reputation can trigger what farmer and glass (2010) call the “reputation virtuous circle”: people receive reputational rewards for their participation and production of good quality content and this in turn triggers strong motivation for participation and increases the likelihood of attracting new participants. a key assumption of pie news is that the real challenge for fostering participation of people in caps platforms does not lie in the creation of novel algorithms or novel interface representation of reputation. rather, the challenge is to use existing models in line with what are the user needs (e.g. farmer & glass, 2010; jøsang, ismail, & boyd, 2007). therefore, by coupling direct participation of the user in the design process together with the adoption of reliable models will support the scalability of a caps project. for pie news, we rely on a similar strategy, by using well established reputation metrics and interface solutions such as simple and direct feedbacks and their aggregation (average value). this approach has also the advantage that the users are able to use well-known and established interface patterns. one project task is devoted to the identification of appropriate existing models to be used in pie news, for example to promote the upload of stories, their rating, their translation in different languages, or their curation in thematic folders. in line with the perspective of the public design approach (teli et al., 2015), we work alongside the users in the co-design of the reputation systems for pie news. !94 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 digital currency the pie news digital currency is a useful tool to better implement the access to basic social services, first of all to a minimum income. we face a lot of examples which testify the relevant role played by complementary currencies in many parts of europe, especially in the phase of circulation (see wir in switzerland, sardex in sardinia, italy, just to quote the most well-known). but only a few are able to build up a monetary circuit from the beginning to the end: starting from the finance role, as way to support local investment activities (i.e. to increase the quality of life in a given territory) to the finance of direct and indirect income till the possibility to spend the complementary currency in participating shops and in purchasing public services (like transport). as a starting point, pie news will implement an income via the pie news digital currency in two ways: (1) to give each pie news member a periodical amount of digital tokens (basic income); (2) to harness the storytelling capabilities of pilot participants (reward for labour). in both cases, the digital tokens can be spent on the networking hub of the pie news platform. in either cases, tokens will then circulate as a form of welfare gained through a knowledge co-creation process on a collective awareness platform. from a theoretical perspective, the idea to experiment in the design of complementary currencies represents an increase in the possibilities to frame the features of a means of payment in new and innovative ways. on the one hand, conventional money is mere bank debt bearing a positive interest. on the other hand, what we call complementary currency (lietaer, arnspenger, groener, & brunnhuber, 2012) are all the design alternatives to the conventional blueprint: interest-free, negative-interest/demurrage currencies, time currencies, social-purpose currencies and their crypto-currency counterparts are all examples of design variations from the main template: debt at positive compounded interest. network dynamics pie news network dynamics tools can be used to boost the operational properties of the pie news platform using complex networks technology. a crucial aspect for the platform is to engage users' participation: this in turn requires the users to be active on the platform, to produce contents and to engage with each other and with social groups across the various pilots. in particular, there is a key aspect related to user's participation: the evolution of the topology of the pie news network. the platform owner has therefore the possibility to perform actions which engender users' engagement and participation, e.g., by acceleration, that is by prioritizing the visualization of specific contents. all social media platforms possess a critical point of activation: below a threshold of engagement of users onto the system, the platform operations become critical, e.g., the platform may become not sustainable economically or it may fail to provide global connectivity or to diffuse information among the involved social groups timely and efficiently. to this respect, it is possible to leverage on imitation processes and to model them using evolutionary game theory to predict the !95 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 effect of certain actions involving the platform users and, more important, to predict where the resources should be allocated the most in order to reach above the threshold activation level. activation of pie news users, i.e., the process of engaging them onto the platform dynamics, will permit reaching for a critical mass which can let the system develop over time and grow to a global scale, e.g., the national or even the eu level. there are several mechanisms that we can leverage in order to permit such an uptake, like incentive design of user engagement tools (chahin, widi, el-azouzi, de pellegrini, & walrand, 2013) and cooperative schemes for online advertisement (maggi, 2014). design and pilots leveraging on the public design methodology, the pie news design and implementation cycles (figure 3) is enhanced by the following tools: (a) workshops with pilots’ leaders and subsequent specific pilots design activity (the pie news design workshops dws); (b) mock-ups as outcome of the local design activities; (c) software releases informed by mock-ups, and (d) evaluation reports as investigation of users' technological experience. ! figure 3: pie news design and implementation approach five iterative cycles are planned to involve the design, implementation and evaluation tasks: !96 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 1. basic architecture design and information: starting from the workshop 1 the project has been presented to local communities and the first early requirements have been gathered with the help of future platform users. accordingly, the first platform mock-up and release has been generated. 2. advanced distributed storytelling functionalities in the pilot sites: starting with the workshop 2 the advanced storytelling tools are being co-constructed with users, with subsequent generation of the second platform mock-up and release. 3. design of currency and reputation and basic collaborative economy: starting with the workshop 3 both reputation system and the early stage of the collaborative economy functionality will be shaped with the help of users, allowing the creation of the third mock-up and release. 4. advanced collaborative economy and sustainability: the workshop 4 will open a period of participatory investigation on improving the collaborative economy functionality, trying also to increase the sustainability of the platform. this will produce the ford mock-up and the final release of the platform. 5. platform improvement: a final cycle of work with users will help the consortium generating a final revised release of the pie news platform. the project objective is to concretely involve 240 and 450 users respectively in design in evaluation activities. the evaluation approach plays a crucial role in pie news, in fact complementing design activities with a cyclic and continuous analysis of: involved off-line networks/communities, users and stakeholders’ evaluation of technological solutions, and pie news on-line activity. during the second year of the project an “evaluation dashboard” will be published and updated online in order to share with users the main evaluation results. even if feedback-improvement cycles will be continuous during the pie news timeline, the evaluation process will produce three yearly “evaluation reports” as macro evaluation reviews and two “risk detection internal reports” in order to informally create awareness in the consortium on possible issues affecting project activities. the pie news continuous evaluation adopts on the following tools: 1. online: platform web logs/analytics, pie news network dynamics analysis, pie news networking event analysis; 2. offline: focus groups, questionnaires. offline analysis will mainly leverage on focus groups involving pilot’s partners, which constitute an essential gateway to platform users and stakeholders, during pie news design workshops. !97 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 scenarios scenario i carlo, a self-employed artist, finds himself in line at the local food bank. it had never been easy for him to make ends meet, but lately it seemed virtually impossible. the cuts in cultural funding over the previous years had a distressing effect on his standard of living. knowing that the number of households that depend on the food bank increased by a staggering 30% over the past year made carlo feel a little less ashamed. that and the fact that he was in good company: next in line were an architect and a journalist. they started talking and at some point the journalist asked the others if they had heard of the pie news platform. carlo's curiosity was aroused and at home he got behind his laptop and searched the project the journalist had been speaking of. after a simple registration process and a few clicks, he stumbled upon a story from a fellow artist in a similar situation. in a short video she explains how she and a few others have set up a ride sharing initiative and invites locals to participate. he gives a high rating to the video, as he found it very instructive. in another story, a man from ukraine demonstrates how to recognize edible mushrooms and how to preserve them for later consumption. not particularly interested in mushrooms, carlo clicks on to discover a series of links to financial aid provisions in his city; some provisions he had never even heard of. then his eye is drawn to the upper corner. next to his profile picture he sees an icon that looks like a currency symbol. he discovers that he was awarded 50 pies for supporting the ride sharing initiative and would monthly receive 500 pies just for being active on the platform. a few weeks later carlo is on his way to participate in one of the pie news networking events, including art foundations as participants. he figured that if he could update his website with his latest projects, it might result in a new commission. he exchanged his pies for the workshop and the ride. he is in the car with two others: a consultant and a carpenter. they started talking and at some point the carpenter asks... scenario ii helena has been active on the pie news platform for almost a year. she is a single mother with two kids. she has met some nice people in her neighbourhood through the platform with whom she sometimes shares a nice meal and good conversation. she has commented on a few stories and also uploaded some of her own. most of her stories deal with providing kids with warm and comfortable clothes at low costs; a strategy she has mastered by necessity over the past few years. her neighbour is also a single mother, raising a five-year-old daughter. every other day the girl plays at her house in the afternoon because her mother is at work. sometimes in the afternoon she, her kids and the girl take the dog of an elderly lady living across the street for a walk at the beach and do some grocery shopping for her on the way home. helena isn’t financially compensated for her neighbourly services, nor does she expect !98 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 to be, even though it is at times hard for her not to compare her contributions to a liveable neighbourhood with the effectiveness of those actions by well-paid officials. at the pie platform helena receives 500 pies unconditionally each month that she can spend either way she sees fit. this motivates her to do not only the things she is supposed to do for a reward, such as sharing and voting, but also to discover some completely new and unforeseen ways to support the pie community, similar to what she is doing in her own neighbourhood. the sustainability challenge the open problems to achieve a full sustainability of the model, that will be explicitly addressed by the pie news consortium within a specific project task, are: 1) to provide an institutional guarantee for the circulation of the pie news digital currency, something that will be investigated starting with the supporting municipalities; 2) to sign an agreement with the governance institutions (municipality, category associations, trade unions, entrepreneur associations, financial institutions…) to coordinate the emission and redeem of the pie news digital currency. this value chain is strictly correlated to the pie news project, since that aims at supplementing the actual welfare state towards the commonfare, supporting pie news sustainability. figure 4 represents the “commonfare” social hypothesis that is promoted by the pie news project. as for every complementary currency system, also the pie news digital currency will act in parallel as a complement to the conventional money that individuals experiencing pie conditions are already able to acquire. in general, a complementary currency takes root when a group of people decides to use something as a means of payment alongside conventional bank debt as a result of lack of performance of the latter. when incentive mechanisms are put in place that sustain the various bridges among unused resources and unmet needs of the members of the group, then a complementary currency circuit is running optimally. for all these reasons, the consortium is confident that relevant stakeholders can be convinced to sustain pie news digital currency. !99 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ! figure 4: the pie news social hypothesis on commonfare participants from all three pilots in italy, croatia and the netherlands will be endowed with access to the pie news digital currency and they will be allowed to spend the currency created endogenously within the platform. however, in italy and the netherlands, the experimentation will go further as the plan is to involve local authorities both in milan and the pilot cities in the netherlands. this strategy suggests the relevance of relating to existing institutions in order to promote sustainability for collaborative projects, in particular to sustain the economic basis of existing collaborations. the main weakness of pie news is to consider only new poor who are internet users. unfortunately, the collective awareness platforms framework places technology at the center of a social problem resolution and it is difficult to include people without internet connection in this activity. nevertheless, we should consider that: (a) our local networks are also purely social and associations on the territory work also with no-internet users; (b) a project “risk detection” activity will monitor technology illiteracy and internet limited access of target groups, trying to find solutions like organizing training sessions and suggesting pilots to engage in collaboration with public libraries, bars, and community centers that offer free wifi and computers; (c) unemployed and precarious workers are very often smartphone users (eurostat, 2014); (d) it is reasonable to consider a future gradual reduction of the digital divide. core early activities and results of pie news year 1 between the many tasks, activities and results of pie news in its first year (july 2016 – june 2017) some specific issues deserve to be highlighted. first, piloting activities should be underlined, but relevant issues have been developed also on the communication, research, design and development sides of the project. !100 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 in terms of grassroots activities, between october 2016 and march 2017 the pilot leaders involved 235 people in croatia, italy and the netherlands, organizing 20 focusgroups, identifying 29 good practices to be considered within the project and developing the first 67 welfare cards to populate the first informational block of the platform. each pilot country also started informing a wider number of people about project activities and started monitoring institutional sources to update scenario data about every six months (poverty, income, unemployment, etc.). thinking back the communication style one of the first issues handled by project partners regards how to interact with people at the pilot level and online in general. piloting partners oversee face-to-face communication (together with online tools like website, platform and facebook page) and the pie news approach aims to empower grassroots institution (like bin, mdc and cms are) following the action research guidelines that inspired the participatory design methodology. after 6 months from the project start, based on feedbacks from the grassroots level, the consortium decided to change the project communication style as follows: 1. hide the “pie news” label (except for institutional communication with the european commission and some scientific activities) in favour of “commonfare”, because of a problem of homonymy and because the labelling was rejected by the people participating to our empirical research. this impacted on the already-implemented visual id, projects website and templates, flyers and promotion material in general. 2. furthermore, it has been decided to call what we do simply “commonfare” and not “commonfare.net” because, even if the online platform is – formally the core element of the project, strategically thinking it is much more important to underline the social dimension of project activities. to participants it would sound like “we are working with you while technology is just a tool”. 3. reflect on the terminology in use at the front-end (by pilot leaders with pilot people), where economy-centric and technicalities are banned, and try to adopt it also for the back-end of the project. this will probably complicate the project and research activities, but it clarifies how the bottom-up dimension is relevant for us. at the end of the first year, the bottom-up request to find new language to describe what we are working on together with people, pointed to the need of redefine the project language and to build a shared glossary. the commonfare glossary during the design phase of pie news project the need to have a common glossary among partners emerged. a good plan of communication and a general agreement about !101 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the main terms at the basis of the project are necessary elements for the success of the cooperation and of the project itself. given the sensitivity and the extent of the themes faced by pie news, the consortium started developing a glossary in order to identify the most recurrent terms that are open to different interpretations and to find definitions that could represent all the sensibilities of the consortium. in particular, the idea was to build each definition through a participatory approach, giving all the partners the possibility to provide their point of view about the selected issues and combining the different contributions. the participatory approach at the basis of the glossary construction has been developed through a wiki where project partners can collaboratively agree on the best terms to be used in the back and front-end of the project. the partners decided to develop a limited wiki in order to limit the access only to the members of the consortium through specific accounts. the admin of the wiki provided the users a selection of terms with the relative first drafts of definition, then all the process continues spontaneously. commonfare glossary may be seen first of all as a tool that fosters the communication among partners, because it involves a regular confrontation between them. secondly, it represents an occasion to construct meanings and to reinforce the shared values and ideas at the basis of pie news. finally, the glossary underlines the importance of the language as a means to align the actions of the partners. some early terms on which the pie news communication is being concentrating are: advocacy groups, basic income, commonfare, commonshare community, digital currency, labor, participation, poverty, precarious, reputation, solidarity, stakeholder, stigmatization, story, subjectivity, user. design activities and the first release of the platform a complex process of participatory design has been activated from september 2016, with a recursive process of (1) creation of the first concepts and ideas for the informative section of the commonfare.net platform, and (2) the involvement of people at the pilot level for mock-ups evaluation and the identification of new issues to be considered within the process. this helped the technical team delivering the first release of the platform (figure 5) at the end of february 2017, basically a simple architecture with some contents constituting the first idea for the commonfare info hub. !102 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ! figure 5: the first "information" release of the commonfare.net platform. leveraging on the first release of the platform, pilot partners started working with local people in order to improve the “information hub”, especially for the accessibility of the content, and start shaping the “storytelling hub”. actually the idea is to find the best equilibrium of social network functionalities and visualization solutions. the intent is to conduct activities with participants at each of the pilot sites to inform and shape the design of commonfare.net, regarding the role of stories and how they are designed. in the meantime the research side of the project is working in order to rethink the reputation system – guarantying user anonymity – in connection network dynamics analysis, and a digital economy module with very rich social wallet functionalities. in all the activities, as shown by the glossary, one of the most challenging efforts is to coordinate partners with such a diverse background while maintaining and improving the level of participation and engagement on the field. acknowledgements the research presented in this paper is supported by the european community within the h2020-ict-2015 program (nr.: 687922). references bauman, z. 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(2015). a first look at online reputation on airbnb, where every stay is above average. retrieved from http://ssrn.com/abstract=2554500 !105 http://ec.europa.eu/social/blobservlet?docid=7926&langid=en http://ec.europa.eu/social/blobservlet?docid=7926&langid=en https://provisionaluniversity.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/the-abduction-of-europe-iii-commonfare/ https://provisionaluniversity.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/the-abduction-of-europe-iii-commonfare/ http://ssrn.com/abstract=2554500 rethinking third places: contemporary design with technology nemanja memarovic1 , sidney fels 2, junia anacleto 3, roberto calderon4 , federico gobbo5 , john m. carroll6 phd student, faculty of informatics, university of lugano, switzerland. email: nemanja.memarovic@usi.ch professor, electrical & computer engineering, university of british columbia, canada associate professor, federal university of são carlos, brazil phd student, the university of british columbia, canada special professor, university of amsterdam, the netherlands professor, college of information sciences & technology, penn state university coffee shops, bars, and barbershops are some of the typical third places named by ray oldenburg (1989). according to him, these places are neither work, nor home, and are places where local communities gather to unwind and discuss a broad range of topics (e.g., current political situations, increased prices in the local grocery store, or latest sports results). these places allow for community life to unfold. as discussed by oldenburg, third places are low profile, neutral, inclusive, accessible, accommodating, filled with regulars, conversational, and playful. these characteristics of third places were outlined before information and communication technologies (icts) like the internet, mobile phones, and social networking services (sns) e.g., facebook and twitter became widespread and integrated into the "fabric of everyday life" (weiser 1991). yet many of oldenburg's properties describe characteristics of some contemporary icts. for example, facebook or twitter (soukup 2006) have many attributes that describe third places, e.g., they are inclusive as anyone with an account can post his or her comment and opinion about any topic of interest; facebook is accessible by allowing anyone to look up people's profiles, while twitter allows public search for tweets; both social networks focus on allowing conversation and discussion to occur; and both networks offer a diverse range of topics that cater to different audiences. however, much has been written on how the use of icts in physical places isolates people (anacleto & fels 2013; turkle 2011) and how some cultures have preferences towards their use over physical contact with other persons (turkle 2011). contemporary icts provide virtual space for people to interact with each other, but sometimes they lack the design and functions that transform them from an online space to an online place, e.g., by not allowing people to adapt and appropriate the virtual space in a closer fashion as one would appropriate and adapt his/her living room (harrison and dourish 1996; tuan 2001). this raises important questions: three decades later, how are oldenburg's properties of third places relevant, operative and effective for today's third places where ict is becoming widespread? what social and technical connections exist between today's widespread icts such as the internet, mobile phones, and social networking sites and oldenburg's properties of third places? what are the connections between people's interactions in third spaces and similar online spaces? in order to answer these questions and understand what icts are used at third places and how icts can aid in stimulating and supporting the role of physical third places we conducted a field study in paris, france documenting affordances and properties of nine cafés and bars. through this field study we have reconsidered and reemphasized the relevance of some of the original characteristics of third places outlined by oldenburg, both in terms of the influence of icts and social impact on the functions they play. based on our observations and findings we draw initial implications for icts that aim at supporting properties of third places. the contribution of this paper is two-fold: we discuss how icts and society changed the role and attributes of third places as defined by oldenburg. based on a field study in parisian third places we revisit oldenburg's properties of third places and provide new characteristics that describe contemporary third places. we inform how existing icts can be integrated into third places to support and stimulate their properties. this paper has the following structure. after we summarize the related work on third places, we describe the conducted field studies that inspired us to rethink oldenburg's characteristics of third places in the context of icts that is currently introduced into these spaces. we then revisit oldenburg's properties of third places and discuss the proposed changes to oldenburg's definition of third places. finally, we provide design snippets for new icts and summarize how icts change the concept of third places before providing concluding remarks. related work third places and icts oldenburg (1989) defines "third places" as places that are neither work, nor home, where people come together to socialize. coffeehouses are the typical third places, as their openness, low key features and architectural qualities allow for lingering and conversation, and provide regulars of all ages with a home away from home and a neutral ground from where to work, rest, and converse with friends and strangers. third places are essential to the shaping of local communities and key to the well-being of city life. oldenburg posits that it is in third places that "the human being is a person... he or she is an individual, unique and possessing a character" (ibid). third places play an important role in society as they provide a catalyst space between the privacy of home and the sterility of work, allowing one to engage with "familiar strangers" (milgram 1977), and allowing for the creation of social bridges that shape a community's social capital. oldenburg (1989) argues that there are several key properties of third places. these include neutrality, democracy, inclusiveness, publicness, the ability to become levelers, conversational, exhibiting a low profile, playfulness, and welcoming to regulars and newcomers alike. yet, some of oldenburg's key properties often fall short when defining contemporary third places, virtual third places, or ict-supported third places (farnham et al. 2009; karnik 2011; mclean 2013; nyden, hossfeld, & nyden 2011; paul, jensen, wong, & khong 2008; rao 2008). when oldenburg and blissett (1982) introduced the concept of third place, icts were in an infancy stage in respect of their influence in shaping society. the fundamental idea of oldenburg's third places, that is "a home away from home", was found in places open to the public across the world, such as the english pub, the american tavern, or the french café (oldenburg 1989). people inspired by oldenburg's definition have used his concept to instantiate "third places" in gardens, photo shops, and even prisons (oldenburg 2009). yet, many of these implementations are still attached to a notion that considers icts inauthentic, distant, and henceforth not compatible with third places. in fact, oldenburg (2009) sporadically mentions icts in pejorative terms, like "dehumanizing", "pixilating". we argue here that the dichotomy virtual-real does not work in contemporary third places. movements like 1tree1like (where a tree is planted for every facebook like), or the new possibilities opened by 3d printing are witnesses of wide adoption of the virtual as part of our physical, social and cultural environments. for example, 20% of the european union citizens spent some time every day in the infosphere (floridi 2011), and not for work reasons. we argue that the design of contemporary third places should include icts as a crucial part, along the physical design of third places, their furniture, and the walls that contain them. the concept of "third place" has its roots in the concept of public, which has, over the years, been shaped by technologies used in places where people come together to socialize. public is defined by habermas as "the site of collective performance that brings together those who are different from one another precisely because they are different..." (habermas 1956). he argues that it was the architectural nature of the classic 17th century coffeehouses (one large room with one large table) and the nature of media found therein (gazettes read aloud and discussed) that forged our contemporary understanding of public. today icts are weaving into "the fabric of everyday life" (weiser 1991). today they play an important role in redefining the public sphere by enhancing physical space and multiplying the informational role of places and things (anacleto & fels 2013). the layout and functioning of today's coffeehouse bear little resemblance to the coffeehouse of the 17th century. tables are smaller to accommodate private media consumption, power outlets serve to control seating dynamics, and complementary wireless is used to attract customers. visited by telecommuters, coffee enthusiasts, neighbors, students, or on-the-go visitors, third places play the roles of internet-hub, meeting place, coffee distributor and study room simultaneously. here, conversation is either augmented through, or replaced by, laptop computers, tablets, mobile phones, and situated displays. as a result, the classic role of the concept of third place is called into question, as is our understanding of "public". for many researchers, the concept of third place takes different shapes and plays different roles in allowing social interaction and the shaping of communities. the following paragraphs present some of the most relevant contemporary adoptions of the concept of third places, as well as some of the proposed roles that technologies play within these places. icts that are tightly related to communities should emphasize social engagement, groups of people, long-term social impact, social capital, and engagement of members of a community with little or no technical knowledge (carroll 2011). the use of social networking services has become ubiquitous, especially through their connection with mobile phones/smartphones. sambasivan, rangaswamy, cutrell, and nardi (2009) indicate that icts need to address communal ownership and interactions that include the use of profiles, physical robustness, and accessibility. hosio, kukka, and riekki (2010) have focused on the paradigm of "isolation-by-choice" in third places and have explored the usage of personal data (e.g. photos) found in online social networking sites to promote face-to-face interactions in serendipitous ways. kim, lee, lee, and paik (2010) have explored geo-location and social links mined to promote collaboration in public spaces. with respect to online social networking sites (snss), and their connection with third places, rao (2008) claims that some social networks, like facebook, could more closely fit oldenburg's definition of third places mainly because online social networks were founded on conversational affordances. rao describes how facebook became what can be considered a virtual third place, based on the playful nature developed from earlier iterations of online social networks like massively multiplayer online games (mmos). farnham et al. (2009) describe an innovative use of sns in third places and in their cocollage system that highlights photos and quotes from present customers' online social network profiles onto a situated large screen. their findings show that such technology can increase the sense of belonging to a third place within people who already have a strong notion of belonging. an interesting work is presented by gajadhar, de kort, ijsselsteijn, and poels (2009), where researchers installed a chinese-style cyber café in the netherlands. while originally the café was utilized by people in china to have some privacy and time alone, the introduction of new technologies in a different country promoted people meeting friends and playing together and collaboratively. in this case, the characteristics of the promoted third place was bound to community needs and cultural values that might not be valid somewhere else. uncovering properties of modern third places a field study of parisian third places in order to better understand how third places changed since oldenburg coined its definition we conducted a field study in paris, france. places we worked on were chosen to fit the paradigms and characteristics of oldenburg's definition of third places. the observations were performed as a brief confrontation with paradigmatic third places to understand the roles that technologies can play in such places. we carried out the investigation as part of an international meeting, so our observations were a brief encounter with a setting we did not know well. methodology nine places were chosen based on the following criteria: a) places (often cafés) that had a long history, often founded in the early 1900s or before, b) places that are considered as prototypical third places by oldenburg, c) places seen as "hubs" for social activity by locals, and d) places within geographic areas where historically social interaction between classes has occurred. historical places (a) were gathered by searching for places mentioned by researchers of third places (ellis 1956, habermas 1956). places considered prototypical examples of third places (b), and places considered by locals as "hubs" (c) were chosen by searching for "coffee house" and "café" in online review sites yelp and google and a final list was constructed in collaboration with two native french parisians that volunteered for reviewing our proposed list of third places. places with geographic importance (d) were found serendipitously during our field study; the limits of our field study were determined, in collaboration with two native french parisians, to be within the 5th arrondissement of central paris. researchers were organized in international teams to make observations bringing multiple cultural sounding boards to bear on what was recorded and observed. we were deliberately outsiders to the situations we observed; in fact, we spoke english between us so that parisians perceived us as tourists. the research team was divided into three groups; each group had three to four members. observations were documented using an ethnographic method of participant observation, focusing on the functioning and design of third places. researchers aimed at investigating a wide range of third places. our selected places included a traditional parisian café (see figure 1) and a modern sci-fi themed café/bar. we documented and observed these places paying particular attention to: how people behave in these locations, how the establishment was structured, how technology was integrated into them. at each location researchers took written notes, drew motion diagrams, took photographs and video, and performed architectural sketches. they documented key design characteristics, technologies found in the places, and media found within the place (e.g. news clips about the place or ratings from trip advisor). the field study was conducted on saturday, apr 27, 2013 and lasted five hours. figure 1(a-c): seating arrangement for the spectators and actors (a and b). there were also arrangements for more private talks and social interaction (c). observations one of the most prominent characteristics of the majority of visited places was that chair seating was arranged facing outward to the public and public space. there was no sharp boundary between their border and the public space, and third places extended into the public space and had tables outside (figure 1-a and 1-b). the seating arrangement was such that visitors of the place could easily and incidentally observe activity in the adjoining public space. one of the researchers noted the affinity to a real-time, real-world version of a "big brother tv show", where the majority of the third place visitors were watching the public while they were engaged in another activity, like talking and eating. even when a close group of friends would enter the place the waiter or host would suggest that the guest sat facing the public scenery, which could be a cultural trait specific of parisian cafés. observing what others are doing is one of the important properties of public physical spaces (carr, francis, rivlin, & stone 1992) and virtual spaces (khalid & dix 2009). however, our observations suggested that in the parisian café setting, this seems to operate unidirectionally people watch the street, but the street does not look inwards. there were also arrangements that invited relatively more private talk and social interaction embedded within the larger public setting (figure 1-c). the seating and the activities of the observed third places seemed to support the roles of spectators (café visitors) and actors (people in the public space). these two roles were distinct and autonomous: spectators sitting in the café observed the stage and the actors in a one-way communication act the actors generally did not reply to or even acknowledge their audience. the actors carry on their normal activity as if no one was viewing them. when actors did interact with the spectators it caused disruption and unease. in one particular instance one person stepped close to the café tables and began talking loudly to all the people in the café. this person was quickly shooed away by a burly waiter. this incident challenged some of oldenburg's named characteristics of third places, like neutrality. yet, there were also places whose seating arrangement was such that chairs around the table were across each other suggesting close and closed group conversation. another observed property was ad-hoc formation of groups and the sporadic formation of third places. for example, we observed a group of people standing on a highly congested street corner as shown in figure 2. they were facing each other in a circle, forming a transient third place. similar characteristics can be seen online where a public space can have an ad-hoc third place (e.g. a closed group). this ad-hoc notion of third places was also observed in more stable places like cafés. for example, we observed ad-hoc formation of groups in one of the cafés. one girl was sitting alone, enjoying her coffee. she was approached by two friends who stayed with her for a couple of minutes. after they left, and within a minute, the same girl was approached by a different group of friends. this shows how some of the observed third places support ad-hoc characteristics often mimicked online, like "staying" on facebook and "bumping" into different people. this behavior also suggests that people tend to cope with others on snss and physical third places in similar ways; in other words, the distinction between the physical and the digital worlds is going to be partially blurred. figure 2: third place emerging on a busy public corner (marked with red square). while conducting observations at one of the cafés, we noticed the place became more crowded. as a result, people were very close to each other, and as a researcher noted: "almost sitting on top of each other." this is one of the properties of third places that is not materialized online, e.g., you cannot see how crowded facebook is but only how many of your friends are there in a given moment. we noted that some places were thematically decorated and offered entertainment specific to a given community. an example is depicted in figure 3. this third place seemed to have been designed to attract and appeal to people with interest in movies and science fiction (scifi) to sit down and have a coffee. artifacts representing the theme could be found all around the place, ranging from restroom signs (figure 3-a) to quite distinctive art artifacts (figure 3-c). figure 3: thematic third places: a) restroom sign, b) the ambience, and c) art piece during our observations we noticed heavy presence of one type of technology in third places mobile phones. often times people would be occupied and interact with them, instead of interacting to a person near-by. such an example is depicted in figure 4-a. sometimes this type of interaction caused curiosity from near-by people who peeked into what others are doing on their phones. another example of how icts changed third places can be seen in figure 4-c and 4b. the observed third places had the capability to observe its visitors and record every activity. similarly, visitors can do the same thing, e.g., take photos and videos of activities happening in the place. some of the owners of third places are aware of that and do not appreciate this as can be seen in figure 4-d: visitors of a book store are asked to respect the time and activities of others and are asked not to take photos in this place. figure 4: technology in third places: a) an illustrative example people in physical third places interacting with their mobile phones instead of interacting with each other. in b) we can see a person curiously looking at a person near-by and her interactions on a mobile phone. in c) we can see how technology allows third places to observe and record its visitors, while in d) we can see that sometimes the opposite is not allowed the most notable change from oldenburg's world with respect to icts and third places is that contemporary third places often have an online presence as shown in figure 5. most of the observed places had some form of digital presence. in other words, contemporary third places have a digital counterpart in the virtual world. some of the places have a url and a website as in figure 5-d, but some also display qr codes that are operable only if one is standing right in front of a place with a phone. thus, we observe in this form, their digital presence is strongly place-based and operates only locally. the most interesting example of digital identity of third places comes from a restovisio.com service (cf. figure 5-b). this service allows place owners to describe and categorize their place according to the most prominent social activity that third places support. visitors of the website can choose a place to visit depending on the group they are with (friends or family) or activity they are seeking (to mingle, for romance, or business). people can then pick-and-choose from a discrete menu of social functions and visit the third places catering to that need. figure 5: online/digital representation of third places: a) trip advisor, b) resto visio website that classifies third places according to their activities, c) google map, and d) a website. contemporary third places contrary to oldenburg's description of third places, presence of icts in such places is prominent, witnessing the double trend of replication of the virtual and virtualization of the real (fernback 1999). according to our observations, this occurred in two ways: on one hand, people quite often connected to snss while in third places; on the other hand, third places themselves have a presence within snss, sometimes in order to strengthen the links between customers and aficionados. a typical example of the first phenomenon can be seen in figure 4-a where two people are sitting next to each other, but focused on their phones. although they are in a physical third place that affords the ability to talk to each other, these people have chosen to temporarily access a virtual place (often an sns third place) and partake in a conversation taking place online. examples of the second phenomenon are depicted in figure 5, where third places can choose from a variety of digital representations, and often they have more than just one. in rethinking third places to take into account a post-internet and globalization influence we first examine the assumptions made by oldenburg and then offer alternative characteristics that include a larger variety of places but still serve the same functions. we draw upon and reflect on our observations during our field study in paris and weave in examples from it. third places remain places of contemplation and meeting for individuals wishing to develop beyond their work and home activities. however, as today's icts, such as the internet, mobile phones/smartphones, and social networking services, are becoming more pervasive, people's link to physical spaces has shifted importance, and the cultural specificity originally outlined by oldenburg's original characteristics falls short. our perspectives on the main characteristics that oldenburg introduced are summarized and explained in detail below. neutral ground: originally this property states that people can leave and enter the space whenever they see fit. this was also observed in our field study where people entered and left places freely. however, we want to note here that places were not necessarily neutral, but rather formed roles between the people. for example, as shown in figure 1-a) and 1-b), in a café in paris, cliques of patrons form to watch people passing by in the street. in this setting, closer to theatre style seating, there are distinct roles around who is watching and who is being watched as discussed in the previous section. the people watching have a common experience to interrupt the flow of conversations and provide opportunities for reflection. similarly, sns spaces online may or may not be neutral depending upon the structure of the community; nonetheless, they are places for conversation or observation and contemplation. leveler: oldenburg suggests that third places provide a level-playing field for participants where people come and interact freely. this was also observed at most of the places. however these places were not equal in terms of providing access to their online counterparts and people could access them only if they had a paid data plan, as most of these places did not offer free/complementary internet access. an illustrative example is shown in figure 4-b where a person "peaks" into another person's mobile phone to see what is happening (we want to note here that this is just an illustrative example and we do not know if a person peaking-in was really looking into online activities of the other person). conversation is the main activity: often many of the activities in cafés are related to watching people pass by, rather than engaging in conversation. we observed many third places where entertainment and leisure activities provide a common ground for patrons such as: electronic/board games and hobbies such as public gardening. we found these in a sci-fi themed bar and café in paris shown in figure 3. thus, while for some groups, engaging in conversation forms a bond, others find common ground and bonding through shared activities in third places. also, another common activity as depicted in figure 4-a where people interacted with their mobile phones. accessibility and accommodation: in our observations, physical accessibility and accommodation were also an important part of third places. big outside seating areas were facing outwards to the public area inviting people to sit down, and heat lamps were placed next to the (outside) tables so guests would not feel cold. there were also seating arrangements meant for more private discussions within closed groups. this can be connected to the behavior on social networking websites where, for example, one can openly invite people to comment on and like his/her status update, or can send a private message to a selected few. as noted before, although some places had also online presence in the form of facebook or tripadvisor pages, these locations did not provide internet access making their "extensions" online inaccessible, unless one has a data plan. having regulars: oldenburg suggests that an important characteristic of a third place is that regulars are available to welcome newcomers. however, in many cases, the staff or the context of a third place is sufficient for encouraging contemplation and socialization. for example, the observed sci-fi themed café and bar established the context for socialization of like-minded people. thus, even if tourists interested in sci-fi themselves entered the third place, even when they are not welcomed by regulars they have an easy access to the rituals and customs of that particular place, without the need of regulars. online social networks also support this ability by having explicit rules of entry. this does not diminish the importance of regulars in some third places, but it does suggest it is not a characteristic that is necessary. low profile: oldenburg argues that a low and under-advertised profile is one of the characteristics that allows for people to feel comfortable and welcomed. however, we noticed that most of the places tried to advertise their online presence as shown in figure 5. similarly some of the places did not have a "low" interior profile as shown in figure 3. for example the scifi café had the very opposite as it tried to appeal to a certain community (in this case scifi fans). likewise, online social networks provide both low profile and high profile locations with many communities putting efforts to raise their profiles by providing search keywords and other advertising mechanisms. also, there are thematic groups as well as dedicated social networks that connect communities with certain interests. the mood is playful: different people derive community connectedness through serious activities as well as playful ones. the two differences are depicted in figures 2 and figure 3 where we can see two third places that emit/promote different moods and/or different levels of the same mood. while the scifi bar explicitly promotes playfulness by having board games and extraordinary artifacts, bars depicted in figure 4-a) and 4-b) were "plain" and did not offer much for "playful" activities. in these situations guests found their interests in other third places, i.e., online. a home away from home: oldenburg suggested that third places were linked to a suburban lifestyle providing a comfortable out-of-home environment. although there were places that offered this type of environment, there were other ones that were quite different. figure 4-c illustrates an extreme example where icts reach into a third places with cameras observing its patrons, something that you would not typically find at home. similar behavior is show in figure -d where patrons cannot take photos of people inside. this shows the power relationship between third places and its visitors introduced by icts undermines a "home away from home" feeling. we also want to point out the emergent property of third places. this is best illustrated in figure 2 where a group of people grouped on the corner and created their own third place. similar behavior can be observed also online where people form ad-hoc groups in otherwise "public" places such as facebook. this emergent property is consistent with how spaces become places in virtual worlds (harrison and dourish, 1996). some additional properties have been introduced by icts that did not exist in oldenburg's study. for example, before the internet, people would have to enter the third place in order to know what that place offered, the kind of people that visit the place, or the conversations that take place therein. however, today people can get this information peeking into the life of a third place in advance through online social networking services like facebook, twitter, or foursquare, which allow place owners and their customers and visitors to showcase photos, comments, and likes. similarly, these places were previously all simply characterized as "being social", differencing themselves by the services they provided (hair dressing, coffee drinking). nowadays services like restovisio.com allow owners of third places to declare in more details what kind of social activity they are supporting: this is a place to mingle, go out with your friends, or go on a romantic date. in other words, advances in internet and mobile phone technology are allowing third places to be self-declared and self-documented. another change introduced by the technology is online and virtual activities associated with third places. for example, today people can "like" a place on facebook, create events and invite their friends, or even see comments coming from the place itself. as illustrated in figure 4-a, although people can be physically present in a third place, they can be detached from it and accessing their third place somewhere online, forming an ecosystem of social presence for them. table 1 revisited and original characteristics of third places. implications for icts in third places we look first at the functions that are served by social spaces and the characteristics that afford these functions. as mentioned before, just as people appropriate icts (anacleto & fels 2013), people will appropriate places as needed to provide these functions as best as possible. however, different aspects can provide better affordances to support community socialization needs. based on our findings and reflection on them we think four characteristics should be supported and stimulated by today's emerging icts. however, we want to point out here that this is not a comprehensive list of properties that should be followed blindly; rather think of them as design strategies that can enhance the notion and spirit of third places. the four characteristics are: 1. comfortable to observe and be observed: third places are places for contemplation: whether it is people watching, local gossiping, talking about movies, or starting a political movement. having a place where people feel just as comfortable entering a conversation as they are not entering is important for establishing social awareness and belonging (goleman 2006). for example, by leveraging existing online social profiles people interested in chatting with others could announce their presence and interests on particular topics when they enter the space on a public display, similar to situated commenting described in du, rosson, & carroll (2012), in order to find like-minded people. 2. emergent property of third places: boundaries between third and public places do not have to be complex and may be transient. for example, it seemed that in paris third places leak onto the sidewalks by design. sometimes third places become the sidewalk, as demonstrated by our observation of the group of three men standing at a corner passing round a bottle, facing in toward one another to make a human boundary, and letting the world outside their third place go on outside (cf. figure 2). cafés and taverns are training grounds for third places, but once people understand the characteristics of third places they can appropriate any place as a third place. different cultures and groups establish different characteristics of their third places suited to their needs. hence, it is important to determine these needs and support them explicitly, or provide the primary characteristics of third places above and then the third place qualities of the community will emerge. we speculate that a user-centered design (preece, rogers, & sharpe 2011) for a given community will lead to appropriate affordances whether they include technology, or be physical or virtual or both. a very simple ict enabled solution for supporting emergent properties of third places would be to allow "virtual tables" for a physical third place in the form of chat rooms where people can gather and discuss or provide digital traces of emerging physical third places, e.g., by creating the online representation of the place and supporting simple facebook check-ins to it. 3. extending the notion of third places to include digital properties and create bridges between the two: in oldenburg's time, third places and all of its properties existed only in a physical setting. however, as we observed through our field study, this has changed: today people can access virtual third places in a physical third place (cf. figure 4-a). similarly, third places express their digital identity and representation online (cf. figure 5). this can lead towards competition between the two, or complementarity and diversity. at the moment only online third places visited by the guests of a third place are invisible: when a person accesses an online third place that place is only visible to him/her. a simple solution for this that would complement a third place and would lead towards diversifying it would be to display information about online third places that people are accessing on a public screen. this could lead towards increased shared activities in the space, e.g., socializing online. although this example might be too simplistic it can be seen as a first step towards bridging the two, i.e., offline and online third places. 4. playing with technology to establish a power structure/relationship between third places and its visitors: in oldenburg's description of third places, third places are not characterized with technology being present. also third places should act as a leveler for its participants. however, during our field study we observed some discrepancies within established norms in third places: it is somewhat normal to expect that a third place can monitor and even record activities of its visitors, while the opposite, i.e., visitors recording activities of happenings in a third place, is sometimes not appreciated or allowed (cf. figure 4-d). this example shows how technology introduces a power structure within third places: it is ok for one party to observe the other, while the opposite is not. this also shows how technology can be used as a design material. this design characteristic is meant to show how technology can be used to create a power structure and is not meant to be seen as a must. while the above example shows how technology creates an unequal relationship, it can also be used to create an equal one. for example, activities recorded within a third place could be classified and displayed on a public screen and its online/digital identity, e.g., number of people in the place/how crowded it is, discussions, topics, etc. this type of transparency would support the first three design characteristics. summary and conclusions twenty-four years ago oldenburg described the need for and properties of third places. third places such as cafés, bars, and barbershops provided the "neutral ground" for people to gather, unwind, and socialize freely. these places represented a central point in the life of local communities where people would come to discuss upcoming controversial changes in government policies/laws, success from a yearly harvest, upcoming music festivals, or the latest painting made by one of the local artists. oldenburg described a diverse set of places that were democratic and public where people gathered to discuss various topics, both highly local and global in nature. however, society and technology have changed these places since oldenburg introduced the concept of third place. in order to better understand the roles of today's widespread icts, such as the internet, mobile phones/smartphones, online social networks, and other technology in contemporary third places and how they can enhance its values we conducted a field study that looked into affordances of nine third places in paris. we found that some of the characteristics of third places as described by oldenburg have evolved, following changes in our societies and communication technologies (cf. section contemporary third places and table 1). the characteristics and affordances of third places described in this paper provide groundwork for understanding new roles, shapes and workings of contemporary third places and how icts might relate to them. based on our field study and reflection on oldenburg's properties of third places we propose that icts for third places should: (1) consider the possibility to observe others and to allow others to observe you, e.g., by announcing your presence on a public display with a list of your topics and interests; (2) include the emergent nature of third places and build upon this notion; (3) and extend the notion of third places to include digital properties by, e.g., displaying online third places that visitors and regulars are accessing on a public display. also, it is important to acknowledge that, (4) icts can be used as material in establishing power relationships between the third place and its residents: more often third places are the privileged ones and can record people's behavior while the opposite is sometimes not allowed (cf. figure 4-c and 4-d). from this starting point, icts can be designed to support and promote the third placeness needed to evolve the critical role third places have in society. acknowledgments the research leading to these results has received funding from mitacs, nserc, the grand nce, fapesp, microsoft and boeing. also, we would like to thank organizers and participants of the chi 2013 workshop on human computer interaction for third 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(1991). the computer for the 21st century. scientific american, 253 (3), 66-75. empowering newcomers with low-tech workshops and high-tech analyses katia balassiano1 & christopher j. seeger2 assistant professor, community and regional planning, iowa state university, iowa, usa. e-mail: katiab@iastate.edu associate professor, landscape architecture, iowa state university, iowa, usa. introduction scholars and practitioners recognize the need to empathize with 'the other' and customize participatory processes to account for different socio-cultural needs (umemoto, 2001; lane, 2005). little, however, has been written on public participation in 'rural new gateway' communities. rural new gateways are those communities in the united states that were transformed in the 1990s by more than 100 percent net increases in their foreign-born populations coming directly from abroad rather than from traditional interstate settlement destinations such as california, florida, illinois, new jersey, new york or texas (bump et al., 2005, 21-33). explanations for the demographic changes in these rural new gateway communities include: united states immigration laws and policies that legalized the status of nearly three million undocumented persons in 1986 (massey, durand & malone, 2002); settlement patterns that reflect desires for better schools, lower crime, more affordable living and higher quality of life (fennelly & leitner, 2002; fennelly, 2005); changing labor markets; and shifting corporate recruitment practices (parrado & kandel, 2008). extant ethno-racial research primarily uses electoral participation as an indicator for overall civic engagement, and focuses on socioeconomic status, psychological orientations, social context, and resource mobilization to explain the participatory behaviors of mainly anglos and rarely latinos in the united states (marschall, 2001). rather than continue to focus on indicators of integration into community life, or conversely segregation, we instead focus on an integrative process. as denton suggests, "... to move from segregation to integration requires thinking about process, rather than looking at how much or little segregation indices change" (2010, 25). denton notes that local demographic change alone-the result of current minority groups becoming majorities in the future-may force more integration. regardless of whether this actually occurs, we agree with denton's suggestion that integration policies must be space-specific-that is customized for specific spatial contexts. we suggest that community informatics is fundamental to facilitating positive change by increasing involvement in integrative processes. we extend denton's work with a place-specific participatory process and analytic tools that can help determine potential venues for inclusive community decision-making as a means toward integrating newcomers. our research contributes to the scholarship of community informatics, urban planning, and newcomer integration in local governance. as in other rural new gateways in the united states, the newcomer population in perry, iowa, since the 1990s, consists primarily of latinos. efforts to integrate new latino immigrants and encourage their participation in community affairs abound. and yet, institutionalized integration efforts continue to flounder (trabalzi & sandoval, 2010; rioz & vazquez, 2012). rural american towns, in general, differ from large cities in terms of size, attitude, economic base, appearance, and aspirations (daniels et al., 2007). rural new gateways have additional unique circumstances, but share the characteristics of rapidly changing demographics, similar physical geographies, and comparable administrative and financial capabilities. civic engagement strategies need to reflect these characteristics. we suggest that the following research question will provide important insights into the involvement of newcomers in american new gateway communities: with what processes and methods can newcomers in rural new gateway communities be empowered to participate in local governance and how do these processes and methods relate to planning and community informatics? this article reports on community-based participatory research that was empirically tested in a particular rural new gateway and was designed to alter patterns of participation in local governance. described within is a low-tech workshop methodology that facilitates sharing knowledge about community resources, particularly where people go to discuss community affairs. the next section of this article builds on the idea of integrative, participatory processes, by profiling research that explores the intersection of civic engagement and the use of information communication technologies. the data generated during the workshops are then analyzed using a high-tech geographic information systems (gis) modeling process. maps are produced that help communities visualize and understand how, and by whom, certain spaces are used. the maps allow community leaders to identify and select more inclusive venues for public meetings and create opportunities for more diverse participation in local governance. we suggest that the low-cost, low-tech workshop methodology discussed in the article is readily transferrable to other rural new gateways. in addition, while the analysis may be considered 'high-tech', the gis processes described here were designed to be easily customized for use in other communities. the article concludes with a discussion on the practical implications of the methodology's effectiveness and its replicability. methodological background local city or town halls, although traditionally intended to serve as central locations for decision-making, can alienate newcomers (and established residents) with their physical arrangements and formal meeting rooms that reinforce arcane communication styles (innes & booher, 2004). in fact, as our research demonstrates, people often find alternative locations to discuss community-wide issues. certain places are inherently conducive to these sorts of discussions; others are not. we call the places that are widely accessible for a variety of uses and users 'civic spaces.' civic spaces allow for discussion of any topic and generate engagement in social relationships. douglass, ho, and ooi define civic spaces as: "those spaces in which people of different origins and walks of life can come together without overt control by the government, or by commercial or other private interests, or the de facto dominance of one group over another" (2002, 346). local matters need not be discussed in only public places, but may also be addressed in privately-owned spaces or those managed by non-profits. people also discuss community affairs in private residences, but for the purpose of this article our focus is on those places that may accommodate face-to-face discussions, can comply with open meeting laws, and can be made more inviting or inclusive with public investment. operationalizing a normative concept of civic spaces, saad-sulonen and horelli (2010) examine the relationship between participation and technology in governance, urban planning, information systems and interaction design; citizen activism; and community development. they conclude that information communications technologies (icts) can facilitate participation in urban issues. for example, cognitive maps (also known as mental maps) are a form of ict-mediated citizen participation tools that metaphorically describe how people acquire, organize, and store information in their minds. although there are other participation tools that lend themselves to linking participation and governance, geographic information associated with civic spaces-revealed through cognitive mapping exercises-can serve as a starting point for value-driven discussions and information sharing about community planning and development (manzo & perkins, 2006). our research builds on the work of two kinds of cognitive mapping that are commonly put into practice with technology for displaying and analyzing information: asset mapping (mcknight & kretzmann, 1993); and power or stakeholder mapping (bryson, 2004; noy, 2008). asset mapping results in identifying physical and intangible community strengths. power mapping is compiled in a series of tables, concentric circles, or venn diagrams and illustrates political relationships, or the relationships of stakeholders. power and stakeholder mapping, unlike asset mapping, is not necessarily linked to a particular geography. in comparison, our research offers a spatial approach demonstrating that the selection and use of physical spaces by community members reveals power, or the lack thereof. to generate reliable and useful information, urban planning practice must be customized for the intended population (innes, 1995; sandercock, 1998; umemoto, 2001). for example, certain immigrants to the united states may never have participated in a participatory, public process or been asked to discuss topics potentially fraught with conflict. with such populations, cognitive mapping can potentially stimulate deeper discussion or engagement. along these lines bradley and scheider (2004), for instance, suggest: "creative and visual stimuli like pictures, diagrams, colours and physical activities increase the effectiveness of dialogue in any group ... because they engage the more powerful right side of the brain, allowing the full potential of the brain to be used for perceptive analysis [and] visual methods tend to be more inclusive and democratic, since everybody is able to express their opinion directly [and] visual methods can also be used to manage conflict. participants can be encouraged to address their arguments to the diagram, rather than directly confronting each other." (33-34) cognitive mapping can also help people gain control over their own lives. for instance, parker (2006, 477) summarizes the thematic literature associated with how mapping can empower individuals and communities as follows: "(1) the ability to self-define and represent place; (2) the acquisition of control over natural or other resources; and (3) the mobilization of collective action" (e.g., aberley, 1993; peluso, 1995; clifford, 1996; lydon, 2003; offen, 2003). the process of cognitive mapping can therefore be as beneficial as the data generated. this mapping approach has relevance for newcomers in gateway communities because newcomers typically feel less empowered than established residents (jupp, 2008). customized participatory processes can empower individuals and institutions if participants play an active role in the research. community-based participatory research, a variant of participatory action research (mcintyre, 2008), ensures cultural and community specificity and creates new social relationships between participants that can potentially alter participation in governance. community-based participatory research generates data and involves a process that directly benefits participants. the participatory process that was tested in perry and described herein involves a community-based participatory research approach. although it is now common for communities in the united states to express strong interest in broadening and deepening participation in governance, the primary means for generating participation still falls under the aegis of 'open government' processes such as: publicizing meetings, voluntary service on boards and committees, and engagement with the election process (zukin et al., 2006). newcomer integration in local governance can be facilitated with the implementation of participatory planning processes under the umbrella of ict. adapting participatory techniques from the disciplines of community informatics and urban planning, we explore an approach, as o'neil (2002) has, that links ict uses to normative aspirations associated with building social capital and enhancing democracy. we argue that the participatory processes must account for limited administrative and financial flexibility, changing demographics, and unique physical geographies in rural new gateway communities in the u.s. the discussion above suggests the potential for linking civic engagement and ict praxis. in the section that follows we demonstrate how both icts and civic engagement are being adapted in the case of a typical rural new gateway community. the case study site perry is a small city in central iowa's dallas county with a population of 7,702 (u.s. census, 2010). perry was selected as the study site because it met the criteria of a typical rural new gateway-namely, a rural community that has undergone rapid demographic change as a result of becoming a first destination for foreign-born immigrants. located 50 miles northwest of the state of iowa's capital of des moines and surrounded by farms, perry is on the edge of telecommunications connectivity. as discussed by bilandzic and venable (2011), ict has become an established component of our cities, infrastructure, and daily environments, but the digital divide still exists for the elderly, poor, disabled, and residents of rural communities in the u.s. (ntia & u.s. dept of commerce, 1999). "the economics of providing telecommunications in rural areas are vastly different than in urban areas-especially for broadband technologies, such as dsl and fiber-to-the-home. with fewer business customers (usually, less than 10% of the total) and much lower population density, the cost of rural telecom networks averages five times that of urban networks" (riita, 2009, 5). the broadband service inventory map of dallas county indicates that perry has access to cable broadband, fixed wireless, and dsl broadband, but its neighbors are limited to wireless or dls broadband services (connect iowa, 2012). while there are a total of five broadband service providers in iowa, perry has only three providers and its adjacent surroundings have two or fewer providers (connect iowa, 2012). as of this writing there are only two types of broadband technology in and around perry (connect iowa, 2012). in sum, as in other american rural communities not directly adjacent to urbanized areas, access to broadband providers, services, and technology to perry and its more rural neighbors is limited. apart from the limited telecom connectivity, another typical characteristic of rural new gateways is their circumscribed administrative and financial situations. as daniels et al. (2007) report, the biggest shortcoming that small american towns face is limited financial and human resources. for example, the city of perry has no planner or information technology person on staff, but receives support from county officials or contracts out assistance. it also partners with the local universities to supplement community planning and development efforts. unlike a large city, it is difficult for small communities to shift resources from one budgetary line item to another. thus, regularly conducted planning and analysis activities cannot be expensive and must carefully rely upon a combination of local assistance or partnerships with colleges and universities. perry's population is multicultural, with latinos comprising the largest minority group. perry's primary employer, a meat packing plant located on the city's western border, began recruiting latino immigrants in the 1990s as a means of lowering labor costs. in 1990, 47 latino people resided in perry, compared to 2,692 in 2010, or approximately 35% of the city's population (u.s. census, 2010). businesses catering to latino households' needs were established following their uptake of meat packing jobs. the latino population continues to grow and perry is now home to many second-generation latino families. the percentage of latino schoolchildren is just over 40% (city of perry school district, annual report 2012). it is now common to find employees fluent in both spanish and english in the public sector and in the larger businesses throughout the city. and yet, the latino population has had little say in the decisions that guide perry's future. perry's experience is similar to those of other rural new gateways, that is, with many foreign-born immigrants, the city struggles with incorporating newcomers in local governance processes. opinions regarding the degree to which latinos have been welcomed and integrated into perry vary widely. apart from the occasional programs designed to promote dialogue, like 'study circles' sponsored by a coalition of civic and government groups to discuss population changes in 2005 (swilky & newman, 2007) and a 2006 visit to michoacán, mexico, by city and civic leaders (sandoval, 2012, 58), the public sector regularly attempts to recruit bilingual workers. spanish-speaking employees facilitate access to services, and in the private sector, attract a more diverse clientele. perry also has various organizations that administer social services for low-income or underprivileged populations-more of whom are latino, as latino households earn less than anglos in perry. social networks linked to broader community matters center primarily on churches, but there are also non-religious civic organizations such as hispanics united for perry, the lions club, the rotary, etc. while latinos have been characterized as not trusting formal public sector institutions (rios, vazquez & miranda, 2012), they recognize the effectiveness of, and participate in, the work of local non-profits. marschall summarizes this participatory perspective among latinos in the u.s., as a "combination of low trust and high efficacy that significantly increases their involvement in community life" (2001, 239). latinos are engaged in local affairs and are committed to community betterment, but do not regularly work to influence decisions made by elected leaders or governmental agencies. as a result, "latinos' social milieu acts as a critical context for socialization, information dissemination, and mobilization, thereby providing some requisite resources central to facilitating participation" (hritzuk & park, 2000, 151). a bridging process between the social milieu and public sphere is lacking. furthermore, perry's residents, like other residents in small, rural communities, engage in passive and active self-segregation (go?dziak, 2005, 7). like some latino minorities, the cautious, self-sufficient, established anglo residents in rural areas also lack trust in government (daniels et al., 2007). the rapid pace of demographic change exacerbates the feelings of mistrust among ethno-racial groups in perry (sandoval, 2012). perry possesses all the characteristics of a rural new gateway community-limited administrative and financial capabilities, rapidly changing demographics, and a physical geography that hampers digital connectivity-making it well suited to serve as a case study representing a typical rural new gateway. in the next section, we discuss the empirical methods by which we tested our research question in perry. the workshop method community-based participatory mapping workshops a low-tech, community-based participatory mapping approach, customized to reflect the characteristics of rural places, was developed in this study to identify places used for informal discussions about community affairs and the salient characteristics of these places. the approach was also intended to empower individuals and civil society organizations by providing forums for information sharing about community resources. overall, the approach was intended to be easily transferrable to other u.s. gateway communities and to be an analytic process that is both replicable and adaptable. in spring and fall of 2012, 96 participants (54 latinos and 42 non-latinos) attended one of ten workshops that we were involved in organizing in perry. each workshop used the same format, namely, a set of exercises that participants could complete within one and a half to two hours. regardless of how many people attended each workshop, participants worked in small groups of five to seven persons. members of local organizations participated in developing the research design and ultimately hosted the workshops-that is, they invited participants, promoted the event, and provided the venue. local hosts included churches, social service providers, private social clubs, university extension service providers-the latter of which included university employees who engage citizens and provide assistance through research-based educational programs, and the local recreation center. we anticipated that taking a leadership role in this project could signify an organization's commitment to creating opportunities for engagement in community issues and improving the community's overall livability. working with local leaders and colleagues at the university-and drawing from research associated with culture-specific communications (see for example sandercock, 1998 and umemoto, 2001) and u.s. census data (as interpreted by bump et al., 2005, 34-40)-we identified a target audience, developed demographic profiles, and established a logistical framework to structure an approach for improving civic engagement with perry's latino community. for example, the language and education abilities of the target audience dictated that the workshops be offered in english and spanish and that written instructions be supplemented with verbal ones. consensus was not sought, as consensus generally privileges the opinions and needs of speakers trained in the form of making rational arguments (zapata, 2012, 158). because meatpacking employees recruited for working in perry have settled into the community with their extended families, accommodations were made for gender, age and intergenerational differences. maldonado's and licona's (2007) research with latina immigrants suggests that women have smaller circles of acquaintances and limited mobility compared to men. cost issues coupled with a commitment to the cohesive familial unit might prevent one family member from leaving the home without other household members. additionally, the household may be a way station for new migrants, documented and otherwise, and not contain people who are all directly related by blood. as such, in order to maximize participation, entire households were invited. workshops were designed to replicate the comfort participants find in group activities, as opposed to an interview format that forced individuals to be alone with interviewers. youth (ages 14-17) were encouraged to participate in the workshops, and on-site care was offered for younger children. including youth was a means to facilitate a household's participation and also ensured that youth were represented. like minority ethnic populations, the perspectives of youth are underrepresented in community planning efforts in the u.s. (kelly & becker, 2000). even in planning or engagement activities to meet the needs of youth-such as park design and school systems-youth rarely participate. planning and public policy efforts "underplay the potential significance of everyday informal participation of young people in community life and in the construction of a shared experience" (head, 2011, 542). in the approach we are studying here, workshop facilitators included local residents and university students and facilitators were trained and provided with written instructions (including an explanation and reason for each exercise). the instructions were drafted and field-tested with local residents during 2012. apart from introductory and concluding remarks (including a request to complete an exit survey before departing), the participatory exercises were organized sequentially as follows: brainstorm important places and their characteristics. during this stage, participants brainstormed a listing of places they could go to discuss community issues, and discussed the functionality and attractiveness of each place identified. facilitators subsequently asked a series of eight questions to reveal the degree of placemaking at each community place. generate categories of important places. during this stage, participants created categories of spaces identified in the first task (above) and assigned each space with a category or multiple categories (e.g. schools, parks, restaurants, municipal offices). create personal maps. during this stage, participants were each given a printed black and white street map of the city and asked to circle the location-using the previously agreed upon categories where they actually go to speak with others about community affairs. create group maps. during this stage, participants worked in small groups on large four-by five-foot aerial photos to identify the places they collectively go to speak with people. they also identified where 'others' go, that is, places where they themselves may go, but where they also see other people of a different demographic gathering. identify most important places. during this stage, participants were given self-adhesive dots, and asked to revisit the places identified in the brainstorming exercise and asked to apply dots to three priority places. the five exercises were iterative in that participants could revisit and amend previous statements, and somewhat repetitive to illicit deeper thinking with each subsequent task. the tangible workshop products included: individual and group maps illustrating where people discussed community matters; the characteristics of key meeting places; how participants prioritize their identified places; observer notes capturing nonverbal forms of communication or comments that record group interactions and responses; and exit surveys designed to assess perceptions of the workshop. a municipality can use the data collected through this project to make local governance and civic engagement more inclusive. the workshop design-low cost; low technology; customized towards the needs, interests and abilities of a target audience; and using existing social networks-was intended to align with the characteristics of rural new gateways. although the research findings were assessed using analytic software, the workshops did not require any computer software or hardware to implement. participant volunteers recorded brainstorming results on paper note cards and large paper pads on easels. participants documented the places they go to discuss community matters with pens on paper street maps and with self-adhesive arrows on large aerial photos of the city. after a two-hour training session, and with the help of a bilingual 'facilitator's guide,' students and local residents were able to facilitate groups of five to ten participants. paid consultant-facilitators were not needed. having seen how paid consultants had previously alienated participants in a project to update perry's comprehensive plan, we believed, and the exit surveys confirmed, that participants were comfortable with less-polished facilitators being involved in this workshop engagement process. workshop findings the community-based participatory approach effectively identified places used for informal discussions about community affairs, and the salient characteristics of these places. although the number of participants at the ten workshops varied, the workshop process itself generated the interaction and data we had anticipated. in particular, workshop participants collectively identified more than 176 places in perry where people discussed community affairs, of which 134 locations were identified once, 13 locations identified twice and the remaining 29 locations identified by three or more individuals. the focus of the remainder of this article is on the workshop process and related analytic efforts whereas what the data reveal about civic spaces in perry has been summarized elsewhere (balassiano & maldonado, 2013). in the workshops participants exchanged information about the quality of the places they identified on the maps. in comparison to the places participants identified alone, the group work generated more detailed, specific information. working as a group, participants exchanged information about community resources and often corrected one another in the process or provided more nuanced, experience-based information. exit surveys revealed that the participants thought the process was well organized and informative. although we have yet to connect participation in such workshops to participation in local governance, we are satisfied that the workshop approach empowers individuals by facilitating the sharing of community-specific information that does not always get disseminated by way of physical bulletin boards or websites. besides empowering individuals in perry, the workshops and data analysis strengthened existing civil society organizations and the linkages to local universities. various voluntary and mandatory processes designed to engage the citizenry in rural communities in general already exist and some of these processes are institutionalized within the public sector while others are initiated by civil society, or more specifically, non-profit organizations (sanoff, 2000; creighton, 2005; kelly & becker, 2000). however, over time such organizations can lose the energy or momentum with which they were formed. the task of hosting a local engagement workshop can demonstrate an organization's continued commitment to helping members. similarly, institutions of higher education have a variety of reasons for partnering with local communities ranging from altruistic to the need for 'learning laboratories' that connect theory to practice for research and teaching. in accordance with community-based participatory research, the workshop approach and analysis (described below) sought to ensure that university involvement benefited the community and researchers (and their faculty). the method of spatial analysis and interpretation while the low-tech approach to data collection and participant interaction provided the opportunity for extensive dialogue and data collection, it also resulted in a significant amount of analog data that could not be easily visualized and analyzed. with the aim of synthesizing these data the researchers established protocols for recording the results, allowing the information to be digitized and entered into a gis for identifying and ease of communicating visual patterns. the spatial analysis protocols established for the workshops included assigning each workshop, participant and group table a unique multi-digit number-for example, table 2 during workshop 3 would be assigned the number 0302-to ensure that any record could be quickly identified and not convoluted with other data. a participant would be assigned a number such as 03020087, indicating that they were participant 87 sitting at table 2 during workshop 3. this information, along with participant age, gender, and ethnic information gathered through the survey, made it possible to identify the overall compositions of table groups. data was recorded in a tabular format compatible with gis standards to ensure that the information could later be imported and linked to any spatial information that the participants had provided. during the workshops, participants identified where they actually went to speak with others about community affairs on paper maps. later this was transferred into the gis by manually digitizing the points over an aerial image of the community. each point included the category and participant's unique id. points were placed exactly where the participant marked them on the map even if the location was incorrect by a few blocks. once all points from the personal maps had been entered into the gis, the data set was copied and a new reference map was created containing datapoints for each categorized item submitted. using the reference map as a base, the map containing the copied data was edited and the points located by the participant were moved to the correct location. this step served two purposes: first, the 'points map' increased the accuracy of subsequent spatial analyses; and second, the original and the edited file could be analyzed for any trends involving the participants' ability to map the locations they visited. digitizing the data produced during the group mapping workshop exercise followed a similar process. the groups identified locations where they went using one set of colored arrows (sticky notes) on the map and the locations others went using another color (figure 1). each arrow's location and color was subsequently transferred into the gis. once the individual and group maps were digitized and linked to workshop participant demographic variables, the data were organized and analyzed with esri's arcgis desktop software. results were not normalized for this pilot case study, but could be for future comparison of demographic groups across municipalities. however, given that this was applied research was intended primarily for the benefit of communities and that the locations where people gather were unique to a particular community, normalizing the data is not of primary importance. the remainder of this section discusses the data analysis modeling and various gis procedures used in analyzing the paper map data derived from the workshops. figure 1: example of the aerial photos used during the workshops (pink arrows indicate where workshop participants go to discuss community affairs; yellow arrows indicate where other demographic groups go). analysis model and the need for a uniform grid during the data analysis process, it became apparent that repeating gis functions each time a variant on the analysis process was tested would be extremely time consuming and increase the likelihood of error. furthermore, the gis steps needed to be easily replicable, adaptable for use with different variables, and quickly and consistently able to analyze data in order for the study to be replicable in other settings or with different demographic groups. the researchers solved this problem by generating a series of process models using esri's 'model builder' software. these models allowed for input parameters to be adapted to differing research questions and unique spatial characteristics of the study area. following is a brief description of the components contained in our analysis model. the first step of the analysis was to transfer the point data into a grid cell system that could enable easily quantifying the number of points occurring at a given location. the fishnet grid tool is a simple, efficient geoprocessing tool that requires only a cell size and a defined workspace (esri, 2014). the tool expedites grid creation so that several grids of various sizes, representing multiple sets of input data, may be generated quickly. the 'create fishnet' function allowed for the creation of a uniform grid of 57,200 15-square-meter cells in and around perry. the analysis grids were used to calculate the number of times participants identified a particular location. therefore, each cell was comprised of its own inherent values, without reference to the values of surrounding cells. populating cells with values allowed us to conduct a point pattern analysis with the entire body of points, or data set, and then display data in the form of frequencies and heat maps (chou, 1997). although capable of producing these uniform grids, the default esri 'fishnet' tool was deficient in two areas when run as an independent tool. first, the grids generated often failed to include all of input points, primarily because of the location of the origin and cell size. thus, points that fell directly on the cell boundaries, rather than within them, were omitted from the output. while it was possible to set an initial extent parameter, this approach did not allow the grid to be dynamically generated from the data points. the solution was to utilize model builder and create a tool that would generate a bounding box that encompassed all of the points and then buffer this box by a distance equal to the specified cell size used for the study grid. the resulting grid included both the area within the boundary box as well as the buffered bounds area, ensuring that no points were excluded, thereby improving the accuracy of the analysis. the second limitation was that the output polygon grid was cpu intensive when generated with a small grid over a large area. to overcome this issue, the output grid was generated in memory and then converted into a feature layer. only the grid cells containing an input point were then exported to the gis workspace. this process ensured that only the relevant grid cells were included (figure 2). as part of the modeling process, the file name of the output grid identified it as an individual or group grid, and included the cell size as part of the name. more importantly, the tool creates only the grids necessary for the next step of the analysis which involved analysis of multiple data attributes. figure 2: grid cells at the desired scale are generated using a flexible modeling process adaptable to new locations and study inputs. using the 'iterate field' tool for multi-attribute data analysis to analyze various data combinations, an additional field containing the concatenate values (participant gender, ethnicity, age group) of categories was added to the attribute table. this new field allowed the gis researcher to analyze the multiple attributes represented by each unique point. the output was a unique text identifier for each category group that could be used by the software's 'iterate field' tool. for instance, a structured query language (sql) statement such as "iterate_field = 'gender' & 'ethnicity' & 'age group'" could be used to calculate the iterate field if the researcher was interested in the variables of gender, ethnicity, and age group. the resulting value might appear as 'mang18' for a male anglo age 18-30 or as 'flat30' for a female respondent that identifies herself as a latino person between the ages of 30-50 (figure 3). this design automated the time-consuming process of identifying all possible combinations of demographic characteristics. in addition, the single step of manually adjusting the sql statement allowed the researcher to analyze different combinations of variables in order to differentiate where diverse people went to discuss community affairs in perry. figure 3: a calculated field contained the unique codes that represented the combinations of participant characteristics by iterating through the various data sets. individual workshop member spatial analysis model once those records matching the value provided by the 'iterate field' process were selected, the 'criteria frequency' was determined and later used to calculate the overall frequency of the location in the model (figure 4). selections were spatially joined to the previously produced analysis grid, a frequency field was added to the table, and the map layer converted to a 'feature layer'. to increase the model's efficiency all grid records with a count of zero were deleted. the frequency of a location was calculated by dividing the 'count' field by the 'criteria frequency'. finally, grid polygon features were converted to point features and saved to a defined workspace. each exported file included the criteria value as part of its name. for example, the density of the male latino population age 30-50 would appear as 'densitymode_mhis30'. figure 4: individual analysis model utilized a calculated criteria frequency to identify the frequency of locations visited by latino residents in perry. group workshop member spatial analysis the group analysis portion of the project utilized a process similar to that of the individual analysis, but with fewer points representing groups. as previously described, individuals were grouped by tables during the workshops. each table's participants identified the places that they went to, as well as the places where they believe others went. this necessitated that the model identify the total number of tables that met search criteria so that, in turn, the percentage of tables identifying locations where people went to discuss community affairs could be calculated. frequency values were determined by dividing the total number of points meeting each criterion by the number of workshop tables meeting those criteria (figure 5). the 'get field value' tool provided the functionality necessary to complete this step; however, this tool is only available within esri's model builder and cannot be run as a stand-alone tool (esri, 2014). the flexibility of the models allowed the researcher to rapidly generate new analysis grids, meaning that the model could be customized to address the specific geographic characteristics in a particular community. furthermore, as community demographics continue to change, the researcher can quickly generate new analyses, using various grid sizes and different sets of criteria. analysis of a new data set only requires that a new field containing the calculated criteria (the 'iterate field' function) be created to characterize the record. for instance, a researcher can examine spatial patterns among all male workshop participants or all latino workshop participants, or perhaps all male latino participants ages 18-30. figure 5: group analysis model requiring the total number of contributing table groups. visualization the symbols used on the resulting maps were chosen so that patterns and trends were easily recognizable. points were represented as hollow circles, allowing points to be seen even when they were overlapping. the size of each symbol corresponded to the percentage of the study population represented. this symbology creates clarity and continuity across maps of various scales. the scale changes with the size of the grids used. as analysis grids increase in size the percentage of activity within that grid increases. thus, it would be inappropriate to compare (visually) 15m and 100m maps unless they both used the same symbology scales. with the interactive tools built using model builder software, new data sets with the appropriate symbology can be quickly created. thus, the interface becomes portable and widely transferable. the spatial arrangement of point features-their locations and relationships quantified by proximity-generated a distribution or pattern that can be characterized as clustered, scattered, or random. in perry, the point features correlated with land use density and large use generators (the places people go) on the outskirts of the city center. the clustering of points was particularly evident in, and proximate to, the central business district. scattered points illustrated the location of the schools, recreation center, hospital, and strip malls further from downtown. another arrangement was less obvious, but coincided with the location of formal and informal recreation opportunities. the recreation center and its nearby soccer fields, the public parks, linear trail and bicycle paths, and a sidewalk system that leads to recreational opportunities revealed a spatial arrangement that was both linear and occasionally clustered. generally, the two ethno-racial groups use different locations throughout perry. places frequented by both groups include the recreation center, high school, grocery stores, and library. the customized gis modeling allowed us to examine gender-specific patterns as well. from the visual representation of the data in our analysis, one can conclude that females (latina and non-latina) go to more locations in the community than men to discuss community affairs; and yet, the spaces females use are also segregated by ethno-racial groupings (figure 6). figure 6: modeled data identified few places where both latinas and non-latinas discuss community affairs. by contrast, men discuss community affairs in fewer places. compared to men, more women who live in perry also work there. and thus, they spend more time in perry, accessing a greater variety of the community's offerings, than do males. another interpretation-supported by the participant dialogues recorded during the mapping tasks-was that men (anglo, more so than latino) used city hall as a primary place for decision-making and dialogue pertaining to public affairs, whereas women engaged in such dialogues informally and concurrently as they satisfied their households' other needs locally. the combination of point frequency and heat maps indicates both specifically and generally where people go to discuss community affairs. these maps (and methodology when applied in other communities) can be used to determine potential new venues for public meetings-based on a gis-analysis of places where diverse people regularly go and informally discuss community affairs. in perry, the most highly frequented places where both latinos and non-latinos discussed community affairs included parks and recreation facilities, the city's larger places of employment, schools, libraries, and civil society organization meeting sites. figure 7 illustrates that the local recreation center was the primary place where latino participants went to discuss local affairs. figure 7: the research revealed that the perry recreation center was the most popular place where latinos discuss community affairs. meeting sites often also coincided with community festivals and events (balassiano & maldonado, 2013). the city hall is not currently one of the most frequented places. community-wide decision-making would generate more inclusive participation if meetings were held in places a diversity people already go to informally discuss community affairs. in the sections above we introduced and tested a workshop process that deliberately orients newcomers toward participating in local governance. this process also provided a means of gis-based modeling and analysis that potentially allows for the improved selection of public meeting venues in gateway communities. the next section concludes with additional insights pertaining to the integration of new residents and their involvement in local affairs. conclusion given that traditional methods of engaging the public in planning and local decision-making (lowry, adler, milner, 1997) are often ineffective, and that rural new gateways require an approach to public engagement that accounts for unique geographic challenges, inflexible budgets, limited staff and rapidly changing demographics, our research sought to explore the following question: with what processes and methods can newcomers in rural new gateway communities be empowered to participate in local governance and how do these processes and methods relate to planning and community informatics? in this article we sought to examine how a 'low-tech' workshop methodology could contribute to integrating newcomers in an american new rural gateway community. as previously reported in an article related to this research in perry (balassiano, 2013, 31), rural new gateways in the united states require participatory processes that: do not rely solely on mobile telephone and internet technologies, are not expensive or reliant upon professional facilitators, respect and reflect the cultures of newcomers and long-time residents, offer alternatives to the passive segregation of the population, and use particular means to circumvent feelings of government mistrust. community-based participatory research centered on determining where people go to discuss community affairs. we presented a new 'high-tech' gis-based approach for analyzing the data and producing maps that could help communities visualize and understand how certain spaces are used and by whom. our distinct approach blends cognitive mapping and ict-linked civic engagement, and allows community leaders to create opportunities for more diverse participation in local governance. the workshop processes described herein satisfy those practical concerns. the workshops should also appeal to those municipalities that are serious about integrating newcomers. community-based participatory mapping can be tailored to respond to the particular demographic-related needs of newcomers. the approach itself is designed to empower individual participants through the knowledge they gain from others, and by sharing their own knowledge of the community. the project's participatory mapping workshops bring together newcomers and established residents, allowing both groups to exchange ideas and share knowledge about community resources. while municipal staff and community members can implement the workshops, nearby institutions of higher education can conduct the high-tech spatial modeling. the project utilizes a dynamic modeling process to analyze the data collected at the workshops and generate maps that can be distributed electronically and in paper form. although the workshops are time intensive, the models, once created, allow for the data to be updated frequently in response to rapidly changing demographics. the combination of low-tech data gathering and high-tech analysis generated specific, actionable data. a critical issue for the gis analysis was the development of the process models using arcgis's model builder software. the models allowed the research team to develop several combinations of variables to be used to categorize the data sets by simply setting the parameter in a single variable. the reproducibility of the analysis models allow the location and scale (grid size) to be modified, thus allowing the models to be used in future projects in other communities or with different demographic groups. university extension leaders with whom we shared our findings expressed interest in replicating the workshops in other communities. extension specialists located in other rural new gateways in iowa a natural conduit for connecting to communities suggested these workshops could meet multiple community needs, but that the extension specialists would require such tasks to be formally assigned to them. both the workshop facilitation and gis digitizing and analysis work could become the basis for experiential and service learning in the classroom setting. as thompson (2005) effectively argues, universities have an important role to play in information and community informatics. as the digital divide dissipates, the workshops can be modified to incorporate more technology, thus moving from an information systems approach to urban informatics (bilandzic & venable, 2011). ultimately, we imagine residents of rural new gateway communities initiating and managing both the workshops and analytic process, in a manner more similar to participatory gis (dunn, 2007) or facilitated-volunteered geographic information approaches (seeger, 2008). other methods exist that can facilitate the integration of newcomers into communities. go?dziak and martin's (2005) compilation of best practices associated with integrating latino newcomers include programs to facilitate english-language acquisition, access to culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate health care services, vocational training, and community development. we envision our research complementing these efforts, but also prioritizing physical spaces. as urban informatics theory suggests, place, space, and location significantly affect the user's situated context and experience (lentini & decortis, 2010). the spaces where people study english or receive health care are likely to be used for other purposes. the question for designers becomes: 'how can these spaces be improved to encourage interactions and socio-political conversations?' or, specific to the approach we have described herein: 'would such service providers consider hosting a workshop?' recognizing the importance of social service providers and civil society organizations and requesting their assistance is a form of outreach that empowers social networks. participation in local governance could broaden and deepen if the spaces where people informally gather become the places where decisions important to the entire community are discussed or even made. local governments can use the maps generated through the approaches we've described in this article to select venues for more inclusive local decision-making and thus broaden participation in governance. changing meeting venues is a form of outreach that involves locating meetings where people already gather to discuss community affairs. such an approach will arguably generate more participation than will standard notices for meetings at city hall. the places where people gather to discuss community affairs can be understood as 'local resources' that serve to empower individuals and groups by providing or enabling knowledge, spiritual or social companionship, or financial or other physical assistance. the uses of such spaces for participatory workshops can continue to strengthen organizations and, ultimately, communities. civic spaces are places where newcomers needs' can be met and where community matters are discussed. our research in perry, iowa suggests a deliberate approach involving the targeted uses of gis mapping can improve the understanding of a municipality's gathering places for civic engagement as resources thus empowering people and civil society organizations. the approach we have described seeks to generate interest in community affairs and build the confidence of people who have not traditionally participated in face-to-face engagement or community planning. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank dr. marta m. maldonado for her assistance with the workshops and extensive knowledge of perry, iowa. references 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(2006). a new engagement? political participation, civic life, and the changing american citizen. oxford university press. chundur_final_author the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 118 articles digital justice: reflections on a community-based research project suguna chundur professor of information technology, university of cincinnati-clermont college, usa suguna.chundur@uc.edu as technology use permeates many parts of society there are still groups where the penetration of technology is low, including: adults with little exposure to technology during their traditional learning years; users from lower socio-economic status (ses); and lower education levels; which has resulted in a digital divide between the digital haves and have-nots. in this study, horton’s cultural education, freire’s critical consciousness, and eubanks’s critical technology education provided the pedagogical lens to understand the importance of the critical learning process in digital education among nontraditional adult learners. the findings from the study support the concept of situated or contextual technology that seeks to increase the benefits of technology for adult learners while providing them the tools to manage complex digital environments through relatable instruction, user-centric design for technological tools and interfaces, and more robust government action through well-designed digital literacy programs that empower adult learners to take control of their own learning and thereby attempt to influence and shape the technology with which they interact. chundur, s. (2020). digital justice: reflections on a community-based research project. the journal of community informatics, 16, 118-140. copyright (c), 2020 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/index the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 119 introduction the digital revolution heralded by an explosion in technology in terms of both affordability and range has brought about extraordinary change in many spheres of our lives with the world wide web playing a critical role in delivery of information to a wide swath of the population. beyond the educational and work spheres, technology has also influenced the social, cultural, legal, and ethical aspects of our lives in recent years. research has focused on the affordability and availability of technology as well as skills and abilities of users in acquisition of technology or the lack thereof that has resulted in a “digital divide.” while the rapid changes in our lives brought about by technology do not seem to slow down, the gap between those enjoying the benefits of the digital world and those who do not will only widen in the future (van dijk, 2005; van dijk, 2017; warschauer, 2003). this is a recipe for a continuing and increasing inequality in all spheres of our lives where technology seems to play an increasingly larger role. this community-based study is grounded on the premise that there needs to be equal opportunity to access and use of sources of critical information and knowledge in a democratic society. the goal being to enable citizens to make civic decisions, participate in representative government, and to share in the prosperity of the information age. community-based digital learning initiatives have been researched extensively over the years (eubanks, 2011; lankester, hughes, & foth, 2018; lin & hsiu, 2017; traxler, 2019; warschauer, 2003) as a means of providing localized and contextual solutions to the digital divide problems among the more disadvantaged. these studies have centered the lived experiences of the participants in the context of their day-to-day lives (freire, 1970/1996)—a concept that has guided this study’s participatory approach to investigating how non-traditional adult learners of digital technology relate technology in their own lives. the research was conducted in three stages using the following mixed-methods participatory methodology: action research with photovoice, group level assessment, and qualitative interviews. the intent was to answer the following research questions: q1: what is adult novice digital learners’ understanding of technology learning? q2: what constitutes their personal and professional agency in the digital skills learning process? q3: what is the role of conscientizaçáo or critical consciousness (freire, 1970/1996) in the sphere of digital skills acquisition in terms of the obstacles they face and their thoughts on the actions that may ameliorate these obstacles? in order to provide a framework to guide the research process, the terms “digital literacy” and “digital empowerment” need to be defined. one early definition of digital literacy available in the literature is “the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide variety of sources when it is presented via computers and particularly, through the medium of the internet” (gilster, 1997, p. 1). while we see successive researchers arriving at a more in-depth definition (e.g., see buckingham, 2007; eshet-alkalai, 2004), warlick’s (2009) definition of 21st century literacy as involving “a range of skills to find, navigate, access, decode, evaluate, and organize the information from a globally networked information landscape” (p. 17) appeared succinct and applicable to this research project. the term digital empowerment represents a more expansive state and is defined as an individual learner’s ability to understand and apply digital skills in various spheres of their lives to fulfill economic the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 120 goals, to engage with the social and cultural aspects of the digital world for personal fulfillment if they so choose, and the ability to apply conscientizaçáo in interrogating the relationship between technology and inequality for a more just digital world (chundur, 2016). a participatory research setting was an apt choice to examine the role of personal and professional agency in achieving conscientizaçáo, as learners come to perceive the contradictions in their own environments and seek to take action against unjust elements. the location chosen was a community-based technology center located in a mid-sized midwestern city, that serves non-traditional learners seeking to enhance their digital skills, open to all, with little to no obstacles to enroll in terms of minimum skills requirement or cost. this community technology outreach center’s mission is to improve quality of life for the people of the economically-depressed location where the center resides through offering introductory classes in digital technologies. this paper will begin by presenting a literature review on the digital divide and then examine the integration of multiple theoretical frameworks underpinning the study. the paper will then detail the specific research methods used– photovoice, interviews, and group level assessment before discussing the results of the research methods and concluding with recommendations. digital divide in the literature in 1995, with the world wide web in the early stages of development and personal computer ownership showing a brisk upward trend, the us national telecommunications and information administration (ntia) published a report titled “falling through the net: a survey of the “have nots” in rural and urban america” that first identified the fact that “disparities in access to telephone, personal computers (pcs), and the internet across certain demographic groups – still exists and in many cases, has widened significantly” (national telecommunications & information administration, 1995). while there exist conflicting reports on who coined the term “digital divide” and confusion on its usage (warschauer, 2003), it has been widely used to represent a social phenomenon to describe the gap between those engaged with technology and those who were not. a literature review of the digital divide often surfaces the following themes: access to technology, acquisition of technological skills, and usage of technology with prominence being attributed to the study of digital divide in terms of missed economic and political opportunities. a few researchers have looked beyond mere access and usage to study this phenomenon as a democratic and social justice issue to combat existing power structures. mossberger et al. (2003) propose a broader definition of the problem as consisting of multiple divides: an access divide, a skills divide, an economic opportunity divide, and a democratic divide. the authors identify issues beyond access such as ability to use technology, naming it the skills divide which in turn perpetuates the inability of disadvantaged groups to leverage economic opportunity, as well as the opportunity to participate in the political arena. it is the latter two types of divide relating to economic opportunity and democratic participation representing equality of opportunity and democracy that marks the digital divide issue as a social justice issue and an important area of public policy (mossberger et al., 2003). the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 121 dimaggio et al. (2004) called to expand the focus of digital divide research from haves and have nots to the full range of digital inequity that considers equipment, autonomy, skill, support, and scope. servon (2002) identifies access, information technology literacy, and relatable content as three dimensions of digital divide that need to be addressed in order to create holistic solutions that address underlying issues of inequality. her approach to alleviating the digital divide as “part of a larger effort to address historic and deeply entrenched problems” (p. 21) resonates with the intent of this project as such an approach that contextualizes the phenomenon of the digital divide and provides a broader foundation to solve this multi-dimensional problem. fewer studies of the digital divide have considered the digital divide in terms of challenging existing power structures to promote social inclusion and democratic equality (cushman & klecun, 2006; selwyn, 2004). klecun (2008) prefers the term “digital exclusion” rather than digital divide as it captures the idea that digital exclusion compounds social exclusion. klecun critiques technologically deterministic solutions to the divide as objectifying the non-technology users as the “other” that further alienate them and reinforce their digital exclusion. klecun’s conception of the digital divide as a social and political issue, rather than a developmental issue, helps in framing a definition of the term that acknowledges the missed political and social opportunities of novice technology users. later work in the literature by hur (2016), njenga (2018), and serrano-cinca et al. (2018) have elaborated on the need for a more expansive definition of digital divide and its related concept of digital exclusion (brown & czerniewicz, 2010; gangadharan, 2017). according to kvasny (2005), the digital divide is a political outcome rooted in the historical systems of power and privilege. systems that have excluded women, racial and ethnic minorities in terms of employment, housing, health, education, and consumption opportunities. kvasny’s work at a community technology center, and her efforts to understand technology learning in the context of the life experiences of learners, provides a strong model for this research project that attempts to understand the underlying economic, socio-cultural, and political causes of the digital divide for learners at the community technology center that serves adult learners. many researchers have pointed to the underlying social inequality that may aggravate digital inequality. kvasny (2006) states that “digital inequality is concerned with equitable access to the benefits derived from internet and computer use. digital inequality does not only reflect disparities in access to ict; it also reflects ongoing social inequities in the us” (p. 161). social inequities in the quality of education, work, consumption opportunities, and democratic participation are at the heart of digital inequality (norris, 2001). van dijk (2005) conceives of digital divide as a social and political problem, rather than a technological problem, stating that the divide is “deepening where it has stopped widening” (p. 2). he also observes that where the question of access is being solved, the gaps in skills and usage show up as well-throwing light on prevailing social divisions as well as creating new inequalities. he shuns the dichotomous division of haves and have-nots as being too simplistic and speaks of digital divide in terms of “relative inequalities” (p. 4). subsequent work by eubanks (2011), van deursen and van dijk (2015) and van dijk (2017) support the main assumption underlying this study: the benefits of the information revolution have not reached all sections of society even in advanced countries such as the united states. digital inequality highlights both a social divide and a democratic divide that prevent parts of society from fully participating in the digital world. in response, a multidimensional study of digital divide (barzilai-nahoon, 2006; dimaggio et.al 2004) is required that accommodates the lived experiences of disadvantaged learners. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 122 a multi-theoretical framework for digital empowerment many scholars frame the concept of digital divide as a social justice issue (duff, 2011; eubanks, 2011) which focuses on a lack of digital skills that prevents the disadvantaged from reaping the benefits of the information revolution. daniel bell (1973/1999) prophesized that knowledge and information would supersede land, labor, and capital as the source of wealth and power, which would ultimately create its own inequalities. the complexity of this phenomena required a broad-based approach that could engage the different realms of this issue such as economic, socio-cultural, and political spheres of adult learners’ lives. the critical pedagogies of freire, horton, and eubanks have been used as a theoretical lens in this project to explore digital divide. a brief review of this integrated theoretical framework is provided below while a more detailed explanation for this theoretical framework has been found elsewhere in the literature (chundur, 2016, 2017). technology education particularly for non-traditional learners needs to acknowledge them as historical beings, as freire advocates. these learners are likely to have been left out of the benefits of the technological revolution, impacted by other socio-economic and age-related variables that affect their abilities to adapt to technological innovations. freire coined the term “conscientizaçáo” to refer to an engaged learning process that provides the learner with the skills to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions in her life and to take action to overcome such contradictions. applying freire’s concept of conscientizaçáo, or critical consciousness, in the field of technology education recognizes a dynamic and continuing cycle of action and reflection that can provide a true learning experience (poveda villalba, 2018). critical consciousness is particularly important to digital learning as technology is constantly changing, due to improvements in hardware and software as well as due to market forces that guide its adoption and use. when learners use the lens of critical consciousness in technology learning they can understand how changes in technology impact their own lives and can identify and overcome oppressive elements of such changes through their actions. myles horton’s cultural education is another critical pedagogy approach that has been used here. horton’s experience in establishing and running the highlander folk school (now the highlander research and education center) and its work in educating adults in the area in matters ranging from union organizing, to voting rights, and overcoming segregation is an example of how adult education can be directed to the current social and economic issues that are related to “situations that affect their total lives” (horton, 2003). digital literacy programs that aim to bridge the digital divide can similarly be strengthened if they provide an alternative perspective that speaks to the situations that affect the lives of the participants to help them identify with and perceive the value of digital knowledge as a means of empowerment in their lives--in addition to the knowledge to be acquired mainly for employment purposes. eubanks (2011) was deeply influenced by the ideas of freire and horton in her work with disadvantaged adult women leading her to coin the terms “popular technology education” and “critical technology education.” as eubanks found, the technology experience can be dehumanizing for persons not in a position of power where technology is used for surveillance and as a means of control. she calls for popular technology education based on three concepts: popular education proposed by myles horton based on the idea that knowledge grows from social experience and critical reflection, participatory action research that prompts social change through ordinary the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 123 people’s analysis and action, and participatory design where people using software play a critical role in the design process. the multi-theoretical framework provided by freire, horton, and eubanks has been used as the lens of critical pedagogy in this three-stage research project process and has resulted in specific recommendations for an inclusive digital literacy policy to address the digital divide. figure 1 represents and synthesizes this project’s integrated theoretical framework as a model for the way forward in critical technology education: figure 1: theoretical framework research methods and results participatory research methods have been used by eubanks (2011) and goedhart et al. (2019) to interrogate the concept of the digital divide among disadvantaged populations in community settings. as this project was also aimed at understanding the contextual and situational aspects of the acquisition of digital skills in a community technology center, a participatory action research-oriented approach with its emphasis on the liberatory and emancipatory aspects of education for social change (freire, 1970/1996) best suited this study. participatory action research methods such as photovoice, combined with specific qualitative research tools such as interviews, provided the flexibility to accommodate and value the time constraints of the participants while also providing ample opportunities to pursue the research questions. the three stages of research were: the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 124 1. photovoice a participatory action research method in which community participants use photography to identify and highlight the strengths and weaknesses of a community phenomenon (wang, 1999). photovoice is used as an action research tool that is part of the process of inquiry, reflection, and action (lykes, 2006). 2. participants from step 1 were interviewed using a semi-structured interview format providing a rich and comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of digital divide. the content and nature of the questions in the interview were based on the data analysis from step 1. 3. the findings from step 1 and 2 were presented to participants for a group level assessment (gla), a participatory group level activity that enables participants to view and interact with the data, reflect on its meaning, and provide their perspective as feedback (vaughn, jacquez, zhao, & lang, 2011) as a group. during the course of data analysis, glaser and strauss’s (1978, 1987) grounded theory practice was adapted and modified in the following manner: simultaneous data collection and analysis through the three stages of research, using comparison at each stage, and analyzing the data in each stage using the project’s theoretical framework. the results of the analysis were used to build a model of an ideal digital learning environment. participant information the focus of the research project was to understand the digital divide among adult learners in disadvantaged groups. the criteria for deciding which locations should be included in the study included those which served non-traditional learners seeking to enhance their digital skills, particularly in community-based locations that were open to all with no minimum skills requirement or tuition charges involved. the research location that was finally selected out of the four different technology centers considered was a community-based “tech-reach” program at a local catholic high school. this location offered courses in basic computer skills, microsoft office software skills, and basic internet skills to working adults among the under-served population of an economically depressed area where the center was located. the researcher attended many of the technology classes to understand how the center worked and how students engaged in the learning process, over a period of three months before beginning the recruitment process for the research project. a total of 7 individuals participated in the research project consisting of three stages: photovoice (5 individuals), interviews (7 individuals), and gla (5 individuals), with many participating in 2 of the three stages of the research. all participants were over 21 years of age and were actively interested in furthering their digital skills for personal and/or professional development. participants’ educational backgrounds were diverse and included those seeking a ged, those with a high school diploma, and at least one with a college degree. the one common underlying characteristic among them all was the need to acquire more digital skills. during the participant orientation, the attendees were provided with background information on the research project. photovoice the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 125 description and application the participants were given the following photovoice guidelines for taking/interpreting the photographs/images as follows (wang, 1999): swhat do you see? (observation) hwhat is really happening? (interpretation) ohow does this relate to our lives? (contextualization) wwhy does this problem/condition exist? (politicization) ehow could this image educate policymakers/decision makers? (action) dwhat can we do about it? (action) the participant group met after the agreed-upon time to take the photographs. the group decided that each participant would select 5 photographs representing important benefits, drawbacks, or significant aspects of their own digital learning experience and speak about their thoughts on the selected photographs, as this would provide a more focused discussion. after each participant’s presentation, the group discussed main ideas and shared experiences with each other exchanging their different perspectives. the transcript of the focus group discussion on the photographs was analyzed for initial coding. the main themes were identified by reviewing the coding along with the photographs. photovoice results the subjects of the photographs taken by the group and presented for discussion show a range of phenomena and issues that the group considered to be important, including from concrete problems such as safety and privacy issues to pressure from outside forces such as marketing pressures and transition/change due to changes in technology. while the group acknowledged the many benefits of digital resources there was also a recognition of the complexities that novice digital users confront and have to overcome. the most fascinating theme was “cultural transformation.” this was an in vivo theme, coined by one participant and enthusiastically supported by other participants. the participant group showed an awareness of the larger, more intangible issues involving digital technology that affect their lives in many ways. this included taking a critical view of how certain practices and behaviors were triggered and encouraged by the digital revolution and how they affect society at large. table 1 presents the major themes identified in the analysis of photovoice data and their mappings to the research project’s integrated theoretical framework, along with some of the individual participant comments that exemplify these themes. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 126 table 1: major themes of photovoice research stage themes comments applicable theoretical concepts cultural transformation • interaction o interruption to family time o people not calling nowadays (fb/text) o “preoccupied with themselves” • addictive • “takes away from what is really important” • “i need every bit of energy i have to live in the 3d world. don’t have any to spare for digital world” • “so many devices. put one down and pick up another” presence/absence of agency privacy • wearable tracker devices – health related o affects insurance coverage and are also an infringement on privacy hippa • others posting your pictures on media • permanence of information on the internet • easy to search for information on people • no expectation of digital privacy at work absence of agency complexities of digital life • “mastery of technology” – achievable? • having to re-learn complex tech – ex dashboard of newer cars • difficulty accessing customer service due to automated voice systems • difficulty manipulating advanced features of smart phones • difficulty using apps such as kindle, icloud lack of empowerment/absence of agency safety/security • physical safety • driving while texting • digital safety • personal health records/personal financial records lack of empowerment/absence of agency transition/change • change forced upon us due to acceleration of technology (flip phone to smart phone) • smart tv – time and technical knowledge required to figure out • interfacing and compatibility issues due to multiple pieces of technology lack of empowerment/absence of agency marketing • little choice – users pushed into upgrades • contextual/situational marketing based on browsing patterns • selling more products to consume – may not be necessary role of conscientizaçáo digital resources/benefits • ability to look up “how to” on any topic on youtube • qr code – useful but not available to non-smartphone owners • library resources – downloadable • gps on smartphones • easier shopping – coupons online, information online • useful apps, such as skype “creates a visual connection with family faraway” conscientizaçáo participants’ photographs/discussions have generated themes that highlight benefits along with many challenges. for example, the theme “privacy” was generated from a discussion based on participants’ photographs showing how data about them may be collected by agents outside their control, resulting in a loss of privacy. one photograph showed a wearable tracker device that monitored the health of the device owner. the group discussed the possible repercussions if insurance companies and others gained access to their health data. another photograph captured a person searching facebook for information about her colleagues, which led to a discussion on the loss of privacy due to social media. while these two photographs formed part of the discussion on the the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 127 theme of privacy, a detailed discussion of how other themes were generated can be found elsewhere (chundur, 2016). the three themes: “complexities of digital life,” “safety/security,” and “marketing” demonstrate participants’ lack of empowerment and inability to act. for example, the “safety/security” theme primarily highlights participants’ experiences with having little to no control over their personal or financial information in the digital world. this lack of empowerment or agency may be attributable to rapid changes in technology as well as to participants’ lack of awareness or knowledge of how to manage the changes that directly affect their lives. the “marketing” theme also highlights the market forces that exist beyond participants’ control pushing them into products/services that they do not need. the overall picture of digital technology uses show benefits for various groups of users. however, users with higher education, skills, and other forms of social and cultural capital appear to benefit more than users with lower levels of education. this imbalance in diffusion of digital benefits merely leads to a perception of disempowerment and a lack of agency in the case of the participants who are novice digital learners. the photovoice/discussion data that represent the theme, “complexities of digital life” highlight non-traditional digital learners’ challenges with technology in their everyday lives signifying disempowerment. one participant raised the question of her inability to attain mastery over technology. this comment encapsulates the tensions between an older way of thinking about employment where mastery of specific skills was required for a job and the current expectation of a fluid job market that requires different skills at different points of time with the only common denominator being the ability of the employee to adapt to newer technologies. the “privacy” theme permeates the personal as well as the professional realm as participants grapple with how to maintain their privacy in a world of multiple social platforms driven by users’ private information posted voluntarily. navigating a digital world that is seemingly free of financial cost but with a high cost to privacy requires continuing vigilance and a high level of critical awareness. participants’ comments about changes that technology has brought to their lives as shown in table 1 lead to the identification of the “transition/change theme. the speed of technological innovation presents unique challenges in these users’ personal lives whether it is keeping up with changes in cell phone technology or the usage of multiple devices that give rise to interfacing problems. here again, the need to constantly keep up with changing technology indicates a lack of agency for users. finally, the theme of “cultural transformation” represents a wide-ranging commentary and critique of the effects of digital technology in their personal, professional, and social lives. the results of stage one of the research project turned the spotlight on the tensions apparent in participants’ experiences with technology as a useful tool, while highlighting the multiple challenges participants faced due to the complexities of technology. the work of resolving these differences and building upon the theory constructed in this stage of the research focused on gaining a fuller picture of the phenomenon of digital divide and digital learning, which was also continued in stage two and stage three of the project. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 128 interviews description and application the intent of the interview stage of research was to highlight any gaps that may exist in the photovoice data analysis and examine specific technology experiences that may influence each participant’s perceptions of technology that were not discovered in the previous stage of the research. the interviews were 60-90-minute single, in-depth semistructured interviews with each of the seven participants. the questions started with gathering information about the interviewee’s experiences and progressed towards a more open-ended format with interviewees asked to elaborate on their answers or speak on related topics that were not initiated by the interviewer. interview results the data analysis of interviews indicated that though there were some aspects of the individual experiences that were captured by the interviews, many of the vignettes shared by participants included more details about the themes generated in the photovoice research. hence, the data generated by the interviews provided a more comprehensive and rich description of the phenomenon of the digital divide, as experienced by the participants. table 2 shows the interview transcript analysis with an overall view of the categories generated from the interview transcripts as a result of coding. table 2: main categories from personal interviews concerns usage tech learning concrete socio-cultural approaches impediments • children o safety o boundaries o family time • general o data security o data backup o safety of financial transactions o different ways of doing o eliminating jobs • frustrations • addiction • replacing human interaction • fear of cultural change • loss of language of description • generating a culture of add/adhd • feelings of helplessness • drawing energy away from physical life • discomfort • takes away personality • lost in translation • access of information • entertainment • professional development • job search • applying for jobs • staying in touch • tool of empowerment • tool to overcome disabilities • tool to overcome language barrier • seeking help from o others o internet o help button o start over • learn to not be afraid • preferred in small groups • to not be treated as stupid • refresher classes • practice • motivation/drive • “you need to want to do it” • “embrace failure” (in vivo) • needing to learn slowly • tech moving too fast • less advantaged not prepared • time consuming • extensive job application process • tech requirements for entry level jobs • fear of going back to work after a break • time limits in library • poor connectivity at home to illustrate an example of how a category was derived from the interview data, interviewees were generally concerned about the permanence of their data on the internet with phrases, such as “data never going away,” “being caught in a data breach,” the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 129 “safety of shopping online,” and “reliability of financial transactions” online. these phrases representing various vignettes narrated by the interviewees, formed the basis for the concrete concerns’ category listed in table 2. a detailed analysis of how other categories were derived by interview data can be found elsewhere in published literature (chundur, 2016). mapping connections between photovoice themes and personal interview categories the broad categories gathered from the personal interviews were mapped to themes identified in the photovoice stage of the research, which showed connections and patterns between the themes from stage one of the research process and categories from stage two of the research process. below is a discussion of some of the mappings between the two stages of research while a more detailed set of mappings are discussed elsewhere in literature (chundur, 2016). the concerns of participants in the interview stage, such as concern for safety, data security, and data backup can find echoes in the themes of “privacy,” “safety/security,” and “change” as represented by some of the discussions in the photovoice stage. the safety of health and financial transactions online was discussed in the photovoice session and was elaborated upon by many participants in the interviews. the category of “socio-cultural concerns” is reflected in many of the issues voiced under the “cultural transformation” theme in the photovoice discussions. the comments in the photovoice discussion such as, “addictive,” “takes away from what is really important,” “i need every bit of energy i have to live in the 3d world,” have been mirrored and extended in the interviews. in following up the theme of “cultural transformation” from stage 1 with the interviewees it was found that they had ideas that portrayed their perceptions, including “addiction,” “replacing human interaction,” “loss of language of description,” “feelings of helplessness,” “drawing energy away from physical life,” and “takes away personality.” these social and cultural concepts brought out through interviews helped provide a nuanced view of individual experiences in this realm while also falling under the broad theme of “cultural transformation” identified in the photovoice stage of research. participants highlighted benefits of digital resources in both stages of research, such as the particular ways in which participants used the internet, including as a tool to overcome disabilities, to overcome a language barrier, and as a job-search tool. however, in the mapping of the category of “impediments to learning” in the interview stage to the theme of “complexities of digital life” in the photovoice stage, participants identified very specific issues that were problematic for them in the realm of digital learning, such as: difficulty with automated systems, trouble with advanced smartphones, and more specific issues such as poor internet connectivity. additionally, there were very precise comments on impediments, such as “needing to learn slowly,” “technology moving too fast and less advantaged not prepared,” and “fear of going back to work after a break” that speak to participants’ experiences of the obstacles they face. in the area of technology learning, “approaches to learning” was a category that revealed important, individual attitudes to technology learning that were not put forward during the photovoice discussion. phrases such as “learn to not be afraid,” “you need to want to do it,” “embrace failure,” and “need motivation/drive” highlight important the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 130 meta-cognitive, critical consciousness on the part of participants that may be important for their learning. while many of the concerns expressed in the interview stage could be mapped to the themes of the photovoice stage of research, the narration of specific experiences of individual participants provided a rich and in-depth picture of technology use in their lives in its many facets. the descriptive nature of the interview data also helped in identification of categories representing more specific and, in some cases, concrete concerns under the general umbrella of the photovoice themes. group level assessment description and application the third and final stage of research brought the participants together for a group level assessment (vaughn & lohmueller, 1998, 2014) to reflect on their group and individual concerns, perceptions, and experiences on the phenomena of digital divide and digital literacy. gla, a participatory, data-generation tool, is useful in generating timely and valid data collaboratively for evaluation or needs-assessment purposes. in the context of this research project, gla was used in the third stage of research, extending the research findings from the earlier two stages by providing space for participants to collaboratively identify needs and issues in the digital realm, that were relevant to them. five of the seven participants from the interview stage participated in the gla. a modified version of the gla process (vaughn et al., 2011) was followed in this stage of research with the participants being taken through the following steps: 1. climate setting – an overview of the gla process was provided followed by a small warm-up exercise. 2. generating – the group worked at responding to prompts written on flip charts placed around the room. 3. appreciating – the group looked at data written on the wall charts. 4. reflecting – participants spent time alone thinking about what the data means. 5. understanding/integrating – the researcher facilitated discussion with the group to understand the prompts and responses. 6. selecting – the group prioritized data and identified main themes. 7. action – based on the previous steps, the group determined actions that can be taken by individual users as well as recommendations for institutions/government to improve the digital learning process. based on the initial analysis of data from the photovoice and interview stages of the research, the prompts for the gla stage were generated. the questions were a mix of direct questions and open-ended, semi-structured questions to provide participants a flexible forum for the exchange of ideas and generation of themes. the prompts were written on flipcharts and placed along the walls of the room. participants were first asked to walk around the room, view, and enter their comments on individual questions in the sheets. subsequently, participants viewed responses from all participants to the prompts and spent a few minutes reflecting on their readings. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 131 gla results table 3 provides a few gla prompts and some of the participant responses for each of these prompts: table 3: gla prompts and responses gla prompts participants’ comments what are digital skills? a. “adding my skills to technology (often it is not a hand in glove (poor fit)” b. “everything is digital: such as banks, stores, food, water, gas” c. “anything involving technology, knowing/learning how to use computers etc.” when i work with technology at the work place i feel…….. a. “having to learn whole new way – feeling intimidated at times –can i figure out by self or have to keep asking and how does that make me look to supervisors, fellow workers especially younger ones” b. “upset because many of my peers come in with technological skills and no experience while i come in with experience and no technological skills. perhaps the 2 could mesh” c. “empowered: i can successfully do what i was hired for. frustrated when the internet is down, i can’t do anything!” the main difficulties i face when working with technology are…. a. “not able to ask a human questions when i don’t understand. ex. applications online b. “i get frustrated because i am alone” c. “when walking into ss office – no signs anywhere – no people at that instant-just a screen – felt idiotic” when i have difficulties with technology, i feel…. a. “angry, upset” b. “intimidated/helpless/frustrated” c. “get it right/not to give up” d. “sometimes overly motivated to learn, sometimes not” e. “hopeless, i want to give up and do things the old-fashioned way” i can pinpoint structural problems in how adults learn to use technology such as… a. “they were not raised with it; it’s totally new and foreign to a lot of older (and not so old!) adults” b. “things happen too fast. technology doesn’t have much of a ‘muscle memory’ component” c. “there isn’t just one way of doing anything->word, excel, etc. this can be overwhelming and cause some to give up” d. “technology is hard to use and if you don’t learn it as soon as it comes out you are behind for a while until a new way comes out” my feelings about rapid changes in technology…. a. “some are good, some are not (changes are too much)” b. “as technology changes, it ought to build in that many of us did not grow up with the www nor did we have parents that stressed education (perhaps technology ought to have tiers) advanced, intermediate, beginning” c. “not happy. i am upset that everything is becoming based on technology. although i think some things will be better on technology as well” d. “sometimes moves in better technology are too fast to keep up with across the board and is sometimes difficult to figure out the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 132 what is best for you. some people talk to you like you are an ‘idiot’ because you forgot something. that’s demeaning.” i believe i can learn better if…. a. “in a hands-on interactive environment” b. “hands-on, smaller class size, class is controlled so someone doesn’t take over class” c. “hands on learning works best for me. also, small class sizes with a class full of people who want to learn vs people in high school who just have to be there” d. “clear head, lots of rest and time” in the discussion that followed, the group progressed through the gla process while viewing and reflecting on the prompts, understanding, and analyzing the generated data through discussions and arriving at the final condensed themes: “contextual instruction,” “awareness of diversity,” “learner traits,” and “satisfaction of basic needs of learners.” for example, identification of the “learner traits theme was generated through the group’s understanding that each learner was unique in their own way, bringing to the table the set of experiences that shaped them. the progression of the group from identification with applications of technology in their own lives and how their learning can be improved through personal agency (attitudes, personal life circumstances), as well as through institutional/teaching methodological improvements (non-judgmental, relatable teaching) situated in context (awareness of racial, cultural, and ethnic differences), exemplifies a process-oriented approach of understanding and integrating the results of the gla. through gla, the participants explored what freire calls the “dimensions of a totality” (freire, 1970/1996, p.122) rather than a “focalized view” of the problem. integration of themes and categories from three stages of research table 4 provides the photovoice themes, interview categories, and gla themes and forms the basis for the mapping process explained in the sections below: the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 133 table 4: themes and categories across the research stages photovoice themes interview categories gla themes • cultural transformationin vivo • privacy • complexities of digital life • safety/security • transition/change • marketing • digital resources/benefits • concerns o concrete o socio-cultural • usage • tech learning o approaches o impediments • contextual instruction • awareness of diversity • learner traits • satisfaction of basic needs some of the mappings between the three stages of research were more easily identified. for example, the theme “safety/security” in the photovoice stage was reflected in the “concrete concerns” category of the interview stage—with the identification of “contextual instruction” in the gla stage acting as a possible solution to such issues. other themes such as “cultural transformation” in stage 1 mapped to “socio-cultural concerns” in stage 2, which included “addiction,” “fear of cultural change,” “feelings of helplessness” that were in turn leading to identification of “alleviation measures,” such as better instruction based on the “learner traits” and “contextual instruction” themes in the gla stage. there were also threads that could be tracked from the “transition/change” and “complexities of digital life” themes to specific concerns in the interview categories such as “changes to workplace,” “elimination of jobs,” and “need to learn newer ways of working with technology.” again, the gla stage themes such as “awareness of diversity,” “learner traits,” and “contextual instruction” were identified as means of dealing with “transition/change” and “complexities of digital life.” on the more positive side, the theme of “digital resources/benefits” directly mapped to “technology usage” category in the interview stage, as these constructs reflected the positive aspects of technology identified by the participants. the results of data analysis of the three-stage research process enabled the researcher to distill the many themes and categories generated into two major categories: (1) the benefits of technology and (2) impediments to its use that adult users experience in an environment. these were mediated by the following structural characteristics of the digital environment: constant change, complexity of technology use, privacy issues, and security issues. in this setting, participants’ identification of the factors that can improve their learning have been condensed to contextual learning, instructional approaches that are aware of learner characteristics, as well as diversity of learners. these constructs are placed within a framework where the basic needs of the learners need to be met to the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 134 prepare them to learn well. figure 2 encapsulates the results of the grounded theory approach to the analysis of the three stages of research: figure 2: digital learning model throughout the research process, participants acknowledged the clear benefits of technology as well as the impediments that affected their digital learning. thus, the inner circle in the figure above is the current digital environment, mediated by concerns of privacy, complexity, security, and change, within which the adult digital learners enjoy the benefits, as well as work to overcome impediments. the proposed theory is grounded upon the research findings that the digital learning environment can be made more supportive to novice digital learners with instruction that is contextual, aware of learner diversity and learner characteristics, and acknowledges that the basic needs of the learner need to be met before meaningful learning can happen. the outer circle is the proposed support system that can be built around the existing digital environment to help users navigate the digital world with personal and professional agency. recommendations for action the approach to managing the complexities of technology can be two-fold: relatable training and critical education. educational and community organizations that provide the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 135 digital skills to novice users can provide more contextual instruction. coming to technology later in their lives, adult learners may benefit from a more relatable teaching and learning approach to help them make lasting connections to digital knowledge. hence, the concept of situated learning (brown, collins, & duguid, 1989) can be used to teach technology, situated in the context in which users live and work as this would create a more authentic learning experience that is meaningful to the learners. situated technology learning experiences could help alleviate concrete concerns of technology users (interview stage) with regards to specific privacy and security issues (photovoice stage) through contextual instruction. for example, many research participants mentioned using the internet to search for information. one authentic situated learning task would be to assess the reliability of information on the web. given a task to search for information on a topic of their personal interest, learners can then be guided through the process of evaluating the trustworthiness of the information with criteria such as assessing the credibility of the organization hosting the website, the currency of the information, additional resources provided by the website together with evaluating the advantages and drawbacks of using information clearing-houses such as wikipedia. another important aspect of adult technology learning is acquiring the skills to manage the complexity of digital life (photovoice stage). organizations that teach digital skills to novice users can provide more contextual instruction, i.e., specific, grounded skills in evaluating technology, the role of technology in public and private life, as well as hands-on instruction in how to manage specific privacy, safety, and security threats. another recurrent theme in the data analysis stage was the issue of security of financial information indicating a common concern among novice adult digital learners. instructors could use a test case and demonstrate the various measures that a user can adopt in order to protect herself from theft of financial data that may range from reading the privacy policy of the financial institution to specific actions such as choosing a strong password, never writing down the password on a piece of paper, and never giving out the password to any other person. an additional authentic activity would be to ask learners to research ways by which they can recover their data in case of a breach of their financial data. such an activity would encourage critical thinking skills vis-à-vis technology and a sense of personal agency. it is to be noted here that such activities place the learning within the context of users’ technology experience while also promoting critical thinking on the strengths and concerns of technological applications that they use. due to the changing nature of technology, the nature of security and privacy threats also evolve, and authentic learning tasks need also to be reviewed and revised accordingly. user-centric design of digital interfaces would help novice users to a large extent in managing the complexities of their digital life, a category identified in the photovoice stage of research and would also help manage the concrete concerns of safety and data security identified in the interview stage of research. in particular, such design approaches to information systems associated with social welfare programs, employment programs, and health services can have a huge impact on disadvantaged citizens who access such programs. approaches such as norman and draper’s (1986) “user-centered design” and schuler and namioka’s (1993) “participatory design” provide design methodologies that involve engaging the end-users extensively throughout the software development process. these approaches can lead to more userfriendly information systems, particularly those that affect human welfare, livelihood, and heath accessed by users who do not possess sufficient technical knowledge to navigate complex systems. such a participatory process would fall within the realm of the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 136 critical technology education proposed by eubanks. it would also help learners value the benefits of digital technology while also providing a sense of empowerment as they participate in the design process that help them overcome barriers to use these systems and make them more user-friendly. congressional action through legislation together with rules published by governmental agencies has encouraged universal access and inclusive design in the united states for people with disabilities through section 508 of the rehabilitation act of 1973. additionally, the world wide web consortium (w3c) – an international organization which is a collaborative effort among the international technology community and the public – has created the web accessibility initiative to develop strategies, guidelines, and resources to make the web more accessible for users with disabilities. such initiatives for people with disabilities could be a model for technology interface design for disadvantaged adult learners who lack the skills and knowledge to navigate the internet and other complex digital platforms. the recommendations listed in this section address specific concerns raised by participants during the research process and also emphasize a transformative and critical pedagogical approach to technology learning (eubanks) that is rooted in the learners’ lives (horton) and provided a critical education experience (freire) that can be sustained by learners throughout their lives. limitations and implications for research the research participants represent a small set of adult learners who have enrolled in adult digital literacy classes and, as such, they do not represent the entire range of adult learners with their own specific backgrounds and histories. the nature and process of participative research as well as the time constraints of this project precluded the possibility of recruiting a large number of participants across a range of adult demographics. this is a feature rather than a limitation of this research, as the focus on a small number of participants in one location helped create a collaborative and participatory learning experience for the group. individual user experiences were drawn together to sketch a larger picture of the status of digital divide and digital literacy applicable to a particular demographic of participants with the larger themes transferable to similar environments. additionally, repeated interactions with the same participants in three consecutive stages of the research resulted in the collection of rich snap-shots of participant experiences using three different lenses. the digital divide and digital literacy are wide-ranging in nature resulting in some of the recommendations for action and future research being necessarily very broad. the expectation is that there will be continued interest and research efforts on each strand of the findings such as contextual digital instruction, user-centric design, management of digital complexity, as well as the role of government action in moving the digital world towards a more inclusive environment, allowing for users holding varying technical skill levels to find personal, professional, and social value in the digital world. conclusion technology advancement has provided real benefits in the personal, social, and professional lives of its users, while also creating an environment where there is constant need to catch up with its explosive advancement. users without a solid the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 118-140 issn: 1721-4441 137 educational foundation struggle with the “keeping up.” despite the rhetoric regarding the empowering nature of digital skills, it is technology situated in the socio-cultural context of the users’ lives that has the most enduring impact, resulting in lasting knowledge to help negotiate the digital world. adapting the ideas of freire and horton, there needs to be a concerted effort to provide a more holistic learning experience for adult digital learners, embedded in their social and cultural contexts where learners do not feel that they are merely consumers of knowledge but that that they have the tools to critically evaluate and consume technology. eubanks’s call for a popular technology education to develop critical consciousness aiming for equity, justice, and critical technological citizenship is a good starting point in designing effective community technology programs. by leveling the digital playing 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(2003). technology and social inclusion: rethinking the digital divide. cambridge, ma: mit press. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 72 point of view ethics in online collaborative platforms and sociotechnical system design: definitions, models, and perspectives marie kettlie andre associate member, orbicom, network of unesco chairs in communication. andre.marie_kettlie@courrier.uqam.ca new computer technologies and virtual social systems have caused an uproar in several fields of study, such as social sciences, philosophy, politics, nanotechnology, and bioethics. the design of technological products and services has rapidly increased, going from virtual communities to collaborative platforms. their development and use do not necessarily include any transparent ethical or legal framework. we have encountered significant issues regarding easily cracked computer technologies, endangering many lives, causing loss of privacy, and financial loss. many studies have highlighted the moral and ethical issues related to using and designing information and communications technologies. some online platform architectures contain embedded algorithms that promote racism, racial profiling, social inequities, hate speech and could become detrimental to democracy. it is also worth mentioning that most software design contains security flaws that require constant updates, sempiternal revisions, and patches. some previous attempts were to create suitable rules for utilizing sociotechnical systems and collaborative platforms to establish codes of conduct to regulate their design and use. with the convergence of technology, it becomes more urgent to find a way to design online platforms where several entities (organizations and individuals) can collaborate independently and responsibly on-site in their respective spheres on social projects. this paper aims to provide different perspectives and lines of thought for responsible and safe virtual socio systems and collaborative technology platforms. keywords: collaborative technology, social system, computing, ethical norms, accountability, privacy, creativity, ethics, value. introduction computer technologies and sociotechnical systems are shaping our world. according to tavani (2004; 2012), with the unparalleled technological convergence, we are witnessing the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 73 a revolution in social affairs that we would otherwise never have been able to predict in the 1980s, generating concerns at the professional, social, and ethical levels. considerable arguments have emphasized that this revolution has become one of the main challenges of information and communications technology design. the problem is quite severe as we conduct most of our banking, civic, and social engagement through computers. furthermore, communications and information systems have become part of our lives as they become instrumental to developing communities and collectivities and filling the digital divide. the communities now rely on virtual social systems and collaborative platforms to share information and knowledge and facilitate a participative innovation culture. therefore, collaborative platforms and sociotechnical systems have increased exponentially, extending across different fields such as business, commerce, education, health, and social and political spheres. this emergence of social informatics permeates our daily lives, invades all aspects of our lives, and has drastically changed how we do things to the extent that we can no longer live without them. these social systems emerged spontaneously without any well-thought-out policies for their management (kizza, 2007; see also quinn, 2006). “computer networks have turned the world into a “global village.” information is transferred through radio waves and other waves and other means that reduce national borders to a meaningless concept” (oz, 1994, p. 19). more troubling is that computer technology and cyberspace have also turned the world into a jungle where anyone can steal intellectual content, post fake news, invade privacy, and hack into computers, manipulating data without taking responsibility for their actions. as oz (1994) points out, in that “new global village,” any computer connected to a network is technically accessible by anyone who has access to a computer connected to the web (p. 22). according to moor (cited by tavani (2012), increasingly collaborative design platforms and sociotechnical systems are engineered to provide new possibilities for limitless human actions. in turn, it produces “policy vacuums” as there are no explicit policies or laws to manage or direct the recent choices made possible by computer technology (p. 12-13). furthermore, the virtual collaborative platforms and social systems designed to enhance humans and facilitate the social appropriation of emerging technologies have turned into something dreadful. of particular concern is how some users have used social systems and cyberspace to conduct illicit activities with impunity. among these activities are hacking, bullying, sabotage, invasion of citizens’ privacy, to name a few (lauriol & mesure, 2003). the information technology (it) professionals conduct questionable activities as well. for instance, they can install spywares onto people's computers without their knowledge; they also believe they can afford to do anything such as peeping without consequences. meanwhile, the designers of these innovative technologies continue to engineer them without any regulation, regardless that most of these designs are flawed. in our view, whether it is a virtual community or a collaborative platform, any social system that is poorly managed, poorly constructed, and devoid of ethical norms can give rise to cyber-related crimes or transgressions. these reasons validate the need to develop ethical standards in computer technology and social system design and usage. therefore, what kind of policies do we need to fill these social systems’ ethical and governance vacuums? who will implement them and, in case of misconduct, reinforce them? however, it is merely impossible to regulate these platforms, given their condition of ever-changing states. the purpose of this paper is to stimulate reflection on the ethical issues and governance in sociotechnical systems and collaborative information technologies, which have given the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 74 life to unreasonable forms of action. we also reflect on regulating collaborative technologies to prevent misuse and abuse while suggesting some avenues and recommendations. ethical issues for collaborative platform design all information systems have one weak link: people. as long as human beings are users, developers, and administrators of these systems, we cannot dismiss the possibility of someone utilizing their capabilities to harm. thus, not only technological safeguards but ethical guidance is needed. dr. ramon c. barquin1, president of computer ethics institute before the preponderance of social systems, philosopher vilém flusser (1993) pleaded for the integration of ethic codes in the design of collaborative platforms to meet the normative structure of science in his work on the word design. in the beginning, the ethical standards would promote and maintain social systems’ integrity and prevent mistakes. in other words, they would encourage knowledge and truth; prohibit the fabrication, falsification, or distortion of research data; and avoid mistakes. furthermore, collaborative platforms provide research support, which often involves cooperation and coordination between people from different disciplines and institutions to discuss the moral issues emanating from system design. ethical standards remain an essential tool for promoting critical values for collaborative work, such as trust, accountability, mutual respect, and fairness (churchman, 1971; checkland, 1976, 1981). however, we are past the internet era; we are bombarded with virtual platforms and artificial intelligence that can make life easier and help with processing information. everything we used to do ourselves is done via machines, remotely. the machines that use algorithms, codes, analytical models, and predictive analysis to assess information and manage decisions, rule worldwide. in automating inequality, eubanks (2017) found that the digital age has drastically changed how we make decisions, whether in politics, finance, health, social services, and even jobs, mortgages. previously, the decision-makers were human beings who acted like computers, yet they could still use human discretion. however, nowadays, much of these decisions have been delegated to sophisticated machines. “automated eligibility systems, ranking algorithms, and predictive risk models control which neighborhoods get policed, which families attain needed resources, who is short-listed for employment, and who is investigated for fraud” (p. 3). having said this, the algorithms that target people through filtering programs; how do they work, what is screened? if there is a technical error or a few missing digits, how does it get rectified? she argues that the enmeshment of automation within service social punishes the poor confining them to an inescapable state of poverty. she claims that the data collected by the government contribute to worsening inequality instead of eliminating poverty. considerable arguments have emphasized that this revolution has become one of the main challenges of information and communications technology design. in the opinion of eubanks, we are entangled in a digital world surrounded by information sentries visible and invisible. they collect our information and know all about our habits, 1 cited by paul de groot, “bits and bytes: needs for computer ethics prompts “thou shall not,” in the edmonton journal, published on july 30, 1992, page d13 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 75 where we live, the community history. they know about the product we attempt to buy, the websites we visited, our finances, and our life history, which can sometimes raise reg flag or trigger an investigation. the information that they collect allows them to monitor our access to resources and even make assumptions about our behavior. we are constantly being watched so much that every little device we use can give away information about us. for instance, our cell phones contain codes that register our global positioning. we have police drones that fly over political protests. algorithms, “the invisible pieces of code,” as she calls them, have permeated our social media interactions, platforms, public institutions, and social services to such an extent that they have become integral parts of our community and our way of life (2017, p. 5). online collaborative platforms and social systems designed to enhance humans and facilitate the social appropriation of emerging technologies have turned into something dreadful. the reason is that people are the target of algorithms. they know that they are being watched, but they do not know to what extent. the surveillance conveys a “sense of a pattern in the digital noise, an electronic eye turned toward you, but you cannot put your finger on exactly what is amiss” (eubanks, 2017, p. 5). according to eubanks, so far, no legislation compels companies to release data they have on us, apart from credit reporting. we know that specific algorithms, equations, and models shape our life chances; however, we have limited access to them (2017, p. 5). noble (2018), in her work, “algorithms of oppression: how search engines reinforce racism,” argues that the online platforms are designed to reflect the value of the dominant power and have turned into tools that promote discriminatory practices, pervasive racism; a machine of oppression that serves the purpose of the people they benefit. she claims that technology systems can discriminate as certain complex decisions are being made without being transparent. whenever online practices appear as abuse or some type of marginalization, it is downplayed as a system glitch. the main challenge is how to develop ai / as platforms that are accountable, transparent, and do not infringe on fundamental freedoms and unbiased. pasquale, professor of law at the university of maryland, and author of the black box society (2015), states that we are no longer in the early stage of the internet. rules govern these spaces (online spaces or virtual platforms): the algorithms; however, the governance is implemented without transparency in a close circle that excludes the public and outsiders. human activities are managed in the systems that manipulate them with broad social implications. from her part, eubanks (2017) observes that most people subjected to digital examination are not targeted as individuals but rather as members of social groups who are mainly disadvantaged. these groups include migrants, the poor, sexual minorities, and other oppressed and marginalized groups who face much more scrutiny than privileged groups when they need public assistance. they must provide much more information than other groups. eubanks also points out that, generally, these groups are not aware that they are being monitored or targeted. the data collected against them are used to emphasize their marginality, put them under extra scrutiny, or make them subject to heavy suspicion. “those groups seen as undeserving are singled out for punitive public policy and more intense surveillance, and the cycle begins again. it is a kind of collective red-flagging, a feedback loop of injustice” (2017, p. 7). most of the time, the data collected are not aligned with the objectives or policies of the platform; they are collected for the simple reason of spying on people in the united states. computerized algorithms have taken over humans and social services with little or no political debate on their the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 76 implications and how they affect marginalized groups (eubanks 2017 and 2015; shneiderman, 2016). in the same line of thought, pasquale (2015), criticize the rise of big data, predictive analytic, and the impunity of computerized algorithms deeply normalized in the user experience online and the internet. the author claims that the uses of algorithms are not transparent in many critical sectors such as finance and media. giant corporations such as facebook and google use algorithms to further their interest unbeknownst to the users either by law or because outsiders can not be privy. in his view, algorithmic modeling interfaces may be biased or limited. in this case, how accurate or appropriate are they? many professional associations in the information field and many designers of collaborative platforms have attempted to incorporate codes of ethics in these platforms. however, the decision-making and challenges related to information sources, services, and the management of these platforms become significant sources of discussion regarding the impact on social communication and civil society. of particular concern is, to what extent are the ethics policies, the models for ethical decision-making, and the governance systems unbiased? when creating collaborative networks, designers should adhere to appropriate norms and regulations that prevent misuse and security breaches. they should also create a governance system and conditions that would prevent misuse from users. however, when designing artificial intelligence and online platforms, there is a lack of transparency in terms of norms ideal and practical applications. there is a whole gray area around the rules and norms around the designers and the users. for instance, which organizations oversee the administration of these rules? finally, there are some suggestions for regulating the design and use of cybertechnologies in the guise of declarations, obligations, and constraints. in the event of a transgression, which legal authority would strengthen the sanctions? the challenges in establishing ethical ground for online collaborative systems banathy (1971) and checkland (1990) affirm that human systems have become networks of problems. they argue that collaborating with them involves dealing with problematic situations that constitute a system of issues rather than a collection of problems. these problems are embedded in uncertainty and require subjective interpretation. therefore, we must consider the personal elements that include examining the sources of knowledge, social practice, community, interest, and ideas commitment, particularly moral idea, affectivity, and faith. we must also acknowledge that individuals/social systems are boundless. besides, these problems are increasingly specific and refer to more general issues. finally, many factors are intertwined, making it impossible to find solutions using linear or sequential methods (checkland 1980; churchman, 1970; rittel & webber, 1984). in pasquale’s view (2016), “although the policymakers attempt to address these issues, they face two major obstacles. first, how can regulators apply expert judgment given rapidly changing technology and business practices? second, when is human the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 77 review essential-and when will controversies over one algorithmic ordering merely result in a second computational analysis of a contested matter?”2 from harvey’s perspective (2014), “the ethics of communicative design refers to the standards to which designers and multiple stakeholders decide to adhere to learn to live together and make critical collective decisions for the future of rising generations” (p. 435). therefore, many adjustments and adaptations are necessary to meet the environment’s standards, the system’s culture, the actors’ objectives, and intentions. we also find that systems adapting to environmental changes have been ongoing; adaptation is not always sufficient because the entire system can suddenly change. therefore, the process of change through co-creation and co-evolution between systems and their environment becomes a mutual and recursive phenomenon. artificial and natural social systems are nothing more than systems of human activity based on human perceptions; in other words, they are systems within which the individual is free to attribute a meaning to it. in this case, there can never be a single testable activity, but rather a set of possible accounts based on the peculiarities of the weltanschauung, claims checkland (1990) in the soft systems methodology. the author maintains that human social activities are composed of people engaged in processing information, making plans, scripting, monitoring performance, and much more. however, how will platforms regulate free speech and misinformation, conspiracy theories, and extremist content? like many online social platforms, facebook claims to have created a safe environment where users interact and have a voice; according to the company, they have also provided the conditions by which everyone feels comfortable to express themselves safely, with privacy, dignity, and authenticity. they have embedded a transparency center with a clear definition of the standards and their enforcement. conforming to their safety objectives, they have embedded artificial intelligence and human reviewers to monitor “violence and criminal behavior, users’ safety, objectionable contents such as hate speech, adult nudity, and sexual activity, integrity, and authenticity, respecting intellectual property, and content-related request and decisions such as additional protection of minors. in addition, facebook collaborates with local laws and receives reports from governments and courts as well as non-government entities (facebook community and ngos). when there is an infringement of the term of use of the platform, facebook can delete the content. they may also decide to restrict contents in certain countries where it is deemed illegal. the restrictions apply to products and content types such as album, comment, page and groups, post, profile, and event3. however, facebook faces some harsh criticism in terms of its regulation and management. the critics formulated against facebook are that its digital space is too vast, making it impossible to manage and control it and prevent possible harmful implicit in its technology. the foremost critic is that so far, facebook has not taken a very responsible approach to preventing toxic speech propaganda and misinformation from being delivered to millions of people. only recently, facebook began to acknowledge that its platform displayed harmful information and attempted to address the harms done. however, according to sullivan (2020), they implemented corrective measures in moderation by a small army of reviewers, so much so that the perpetrators of the harmful 2 retrieved november 2, 2021 from https://www.lse.ac.uk/lse-player?id=3350 3 https://transparency.fb.com/ about:blank the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 78 find new ways to avoid detection (sullivan, 2020), which explain why ai is not enough to keep the harmful content away. nevertheless, a data scientist, frances haugen, a former facebook employee, came forward and accused facebook of valuing profit over people and that the platform only sought to maximize profits. haugen claims that, “there is no will at the top to make sure these systems are run in an adequately safe way.” (…). “until we bring in a counterweight, these things will be operated for the shareholders’ interest and not the public interest” (waterson & milmo, 2021; ferris, 2021). she maintains that facebook needs to be held responsible for the content published on its platforms. because they coded algorithms to direct users to the extreme content that bad actors usually generate. facebook barely attempts to protect users from harmful content that can lead to a political division, alienation, addiction, and mental health issue. she also mentioned that facebook knew that its platforms had negative impacts on children’s health. yet, they chose to ignore it. haugen urged senators to make mark zuckerberg, the chief executive of facebook, accountable for the misinformation promoted by the company’s algorithms and make the regulatory changes needed to address several issues identified on the social platforms. haugen’s testimony has confirmed that the architecture of social media platforms can promote controversial or shocking content. the whole question is to regulate the social platforms and their performance. according to some researchers and social organizations, in the case of facebook, its dismantlement appears to be the simplest and fastest solution. however, this will not solve the issue of platforms’ regulation. in the united states, after debating so long on social media platforms’ regulation, there has finally been some controversial approach to its regulation. for instance, what constitutes a violation? what is hate speech? what is freedom of expression? for example, on january 6, 2021, twitter decided to kick former president trump off twitter. was it an infringement upon his freedom of expression? the recent events surrounding facebook’s platform demonstrate the challenge in establishing ethical grounds for online social platforms, especially when their orientation is unclear and confusing the public. some experts suggested that they create an organization that will oversee the major platform companies. however, social platforms are constantly evolving; setting a rigid and sclerotic regulatory process is impossible (jackson, 2021). nevertheless, they are ways to respond to the ethical challenges constantly present in social platforms, considered human systems. ackoff and emery (1972) suggest classifying the human system as systems that have determined deliberate parts of larger conscious systems. his hypothesis allowed him to identify three fundamental functions of the systems: designing and managing human systems to serve their purpose efficiently and effectively, motivating parties and individuals in the system, and eventually applying it to the entire system. these functions use three concepts named by checkland (1990), namely self-management, humanization, and environmental organization. if human systems are to evolve constantly, then selforganization alone could not respond to this constant process. therefore, it requires that we add other values such as adaptation, self-transcendence, and creativity to force the human system to go beyond its borders. in this case, creation becomes the central pivot at the heart of evolution by motivating users’ participation and ensuring social systems’ survival. according to the cyberpeace institute (2021), although some instruments and principles hold actors accountable, they are usually voluntary non-binding due to a the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 79 general reluctance to apply legal and normative frameworks. closing the accountability gap implies more than attribution alone. it also involves identifying the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders involved and the applicable laws, norms, and principles required to ensure security, dignity, and equity in cyberspace. consequently, in virtual social systems, a very structured and well-defined approach is needed to solve problems, considering the initial conditions, the objectives, and the necessary specific operations. finally, poorly defined, or structured systems from the beginning will require other types of procedures: implementing security-by-design, reporting vulnerabilities, especially those in critical infrastructure (cyperpeace institute 2021). therefore, to find solutions to their problems, they must be well structured. moreover, since most social issues are inherently complicated, the solutions proposed may only be temporary and incomplete (mumford, 1983). ultimately, when designing collaborative virtual systems, harvey (2014) found that ethical and safety standards must be part of the risk assessment from a cultural and national perspective; there are no international conventions to date. in designing these norms, what values should we consider? in their analysis of social systems, several researchers emphasize the need to include the government, the industrial sectors, and academia in the design of social networks; they have shortcomings in users’ and stakeholders’ accountability within these social systems. churchman (1971, 1968) is among those who preach those social systems should be value-oriented and guided by the social imperative showing the subordination of technological efficiency to social efficiency. churchman has admitted that we need a theory of design centered on ethical systems that convey a morality applicable to all social systems, which we could evaluate. for now, only the science of values and the development of methods make it possible to verify ethical judgments. flusser and cullars (1995) and hoven (2007) have reminded us that designers and computer specialists would also have to respond to ethical obligations (imperatives) and adopt a moral stance on the development of sociotechnical systems. when designing software, they would prioritize their technical object's security/safety and reliability. they should also focus on ethical considerations and actively remember the main reason for developing these systems (romm, 2006). on the other hand, they must also question the software’s final orientation and ponder whether users and designers will use it for the greater good or harm humankind. in this regard, the ieee global initiative on ethics of autonomous and intelligent systems (2019) suggested creating ethically aligned designs to enhance and extend human wellbeing and freedom values (p. 8). many observations or investigations have led us to believe that technologies are misused most of the time. these misused activities include government control, dissemination of confidential data, software piracy, data collection and manipulation, electronic monitory, invasion of privacy, hacking, service theft, and more. as social networks become essential tools for governments and businesses, the power of machines also continues to grow to the extent of robbing us of our privacy. for instance, in the usa, a new digital tool to manage poverty, automated eligibility, discourages the poor and the working-class people from seeking public resources that they need to thrive and survive. the government uses complex integrated databases to collect their personal information without offering them anything in return. their situation places them on the radar of law enforcement, neighborhood surveillance, and social services. they watch their every move, their behavior which are collected for government, commercial and public scrutiny (eubanks, 2017, p. 11). for all these reasons, we must integrate moral values and ethics-technical the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 80 standards in the context of software development, sociotechnical systems, and social network design. ermann (1990) stresses that there is nothing inherent in computers that can cause loss of intimacy and privacy other than the actions of technology experts, computer “designers,” or network designers. however, any system needs governance to survive in that every society relies on values, codes of conduct, and norms to sustain itself. these codes of conduct are general laws that reflect most the skilled population’s moral values. the ethical principles that define rights and wrongs are generally culturally specific. the ones that allow us to discern right from wrong and be responsible for our actions are at the core of the ethical behavior standards that we need to function in social systems. since these experts in computer technology can create programs that can encroach on our lives, it becomes imperative to develop an ethical framework and a catalog of standards and identify standard principles in systems design. such regulations and standards should protect users against privacy breaches and promote better use of the technologies. they should also support or promote the initiatives of users and stakeholders of these systems for more equity. how would we define the ethics of social-technical systems when it turns out to be such a problematic notion? we also reflect on ethical issues, governance, and the user and designer’s responsibility to prevent social systems’ structural problems. moreover, according to kizza (2007), although some experts have tried to find a viable solution to prevent cybercrimes, these crimes continue to multiply, creating more ethical dilemmas. the issues generated by the lack of security in computers and collaborative networks make these attempts very elusive due to our dependency on these networks. meanwhile, society continues to fall prey to cybercriminals, frauds, vandals, and invasion of privacy. it is not surprising that legrain (1993) and papanek (2008) strongly recommend the development of norms and standards to support the use of information technologies. after all, to use kizza’s (2007) words, it is only through applying ethical standards that we will get there. however, much research will object to the application of norms and moral principles in these creative spaces. luhman4 emphasizes that a society divided into functional systems must do without moral integrations at the heart of the argument. similarly, jonas (2006) claims that imposing ethical rules on social systems is like “prescribing oneself a tranquilizer under the name of ethics.” they will only serve as a source of distraction to prevent a meaningful understanding of modern society with its different functional systems. moreover, the author strongly suggests letting social systems develop without constraint if collaborative technologies become a scientific discipline because science requires autonomy and objectivity. conversely, flusser (1993) and dallman (1998) stressed the necessity to have a code of ethics in social systems design and use that space to promote and maintain social systems’ integrity. the ethical principles will advance knowledge and the truth, prohibiting the fabrication, falsification, and distortion of research data. this analysis brings us back to our premise at the beginning: there is a moral deficiency in the use and apprehension of new collaborative technologies. should we be alarmed when several authors point out a state of nature in the socio-technological domains? how 4 cited by dallmann, h. (1998). niklas luhmann’s systems theory as a challenge for ethics. ethical theory and moral practice, 1(1), 85-102. retrieved november 2, 2021 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27504013 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 81 can we improve the accountability and verifiability in the autonomous and intelligent system? how do we make sure that these automated systems, whether governmental or non-governmental, profitable or not, are respectful of individual rights? furthermore, are the artificial intelligent systems designed to be accountable for the harm caused by these systems? note that the actions taken on these collaborative platforms do not meet the sustainable reasoning criterion. in this case, can an ethical standard apply to social systems that resemble a jungle? furthermore, to what extent will these rules not inhibit creativity, spontaneity? do we need a new or unique ethic in collaborative platform design? governance and accountability in online collaborative platforms at the outset, for people to make sound technical decisions, they must learn to make the right ethical decisions.5 concerning ethics in design proposals, should a collaborative platform have one? what does this mean in practice? is there a possibility that the design is misused or misdirected? several reasons demonstrate the importance of applying ethical standards in collaborative platform design to protect users and designers. harvey (2014) suggests issuing guidelines to protect copyright and patent policies, intellectual property interests, and data policy sharing. the problem is not to identify the merits of ethical standards but rather to discover how to apply them in a way that does not cripple creation (wolgan, 2006; dallmann, 1998). how can we ensure the recognition of users, researchers, designers, and collaborators for their contributions? how can we protect ideas and prevent their disclosure prematurely? more importantly, how can we make users accountable to the public? for example, how can we prevent users from posting data that may harm society or human beings? moore and parker (1999) propose free arbitration of rational human beings based on logical argumentation. jurgens harbemas in the theory of communicative action emphasizes that individuals interact using a standard moral code in which participants must respect each other as equal communicators. since we know with certainty that human beings or social systems cannot survive without ethical standards, how can we prevent all kinds of abuse in social networks? more importantly, how to get people to adopt ethical standards? we should note that long before the preponderance of new information technologies, some research communities have anticipated the misuse of computers and the internet and have pointed out the ethical issues that may arise. therefore, many national bodies have published a moral code for their members to follow. for instance, in 1972, computing machinery’s association drafted their code of ethics and professional conduct, considered the oldest (kizza, 1996, p. 88). similarly, in 1990, the four united states-based computer societies agreed-upon ten ethical themes to serve as a driving guide or ethical behaviors for users, designers, and computer professionals facing ethical issues. these themes are: personal integrity/competence, persona accountability for work, responsibility to employer/client; responsibility to the profession; confidentiality of information; 5 dolce, developing online computer ethics. retrieved november 2, 2021 from https://edocs.uis.edu/kmill2/www/dolce/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 82 conflict of interest; dignity/worth of people; public safety, health, welfare; participation in education; increase public knowledge. (kizza,1996, p. 89 90) the four united states-based computer societies also grafted an international code to reflect cybertechnology’s international and multicultural scope. they are “specific statement to social responsibility, certification standards for professionals, emphasis on quality of life, protection of intellectual property, consequences of networks, basic human rights, rights of the user, equity/respect for cultural diversity (kizza, 1996, p.90)”. furthermore, in june 2020, the ieee, the professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity’s benefit, has made a series of recommendations to promote good ethical behavior within its members and the community they serve. the report recommends that every member recognizes the preponderance of technologies in the world and their impacts in the world must agree to conduct themselves with the highest ethical standards and: to uphold the highest standards of integrity, responsible behavior, and ethical conduct in professional activities. to treat all persons fairly and with respect, to avoid harassment or discrimination, and to avoid injuring others. to strive to ensure this code is upheld by colleagues and coworkers.6 nevertheless, the stakes are too complex to be solved by simple rules or reports. our natural constitution ensures that we act to satisfy our tendencies and aspirations in a state of nature while avoiding what thomas hobbes (1588-1679) calls aversion. we can always refer to a social contract model in collaborative platforms by relying on rules and laws “designed” to protect individuals from harm and injuries caused by other system members. still, “an abundance of information and data may be decidedly useful in improving life, but it can be equally useful in lessening and even threatening our existence. an avalanche of details and facts may only push aside our moral perspectives; cause us to lose sight of our goals and become buried in routine and self-interest.” (dejoie and al, 1991, p. xi) moreover, many professional associations, government agencies, universities, and other influential organizations must comply with specific codes formulated in rules and policies relating to their operation. in a collaborative platform design, one must envision a multitude of ethical considerations. namely, as designers of social systems and collaborative platforms, what are our values? why do we “design”? furthermore, what values do we incorporate into our designs and why (alvarez et al (2016); papanek, 2008)? we have only scratched the surface on the importance of using a collaborative platform for the time being. what are the ethical standards to promote and define? while exploring these ideas, we end up with a plethora of concepts related to the use of the platform. however, how good are these concepts, given the nature of these collaborative platforms? generally, choosing between what is the right and wrong thing to do is easy. unfortunately, differentiating what is good or bad in social systems is not always that 6 ieee, advancing technology for humanity: code of ethics retrieved november 2, 2021 from https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-org/ieee/web/org/about/corporate/ieee-code-ofethics.pdf about:blank about:blank the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 83 simple. “designers” are confronted with many ethical decisions every day, and most often, the answer is simple: the act must be morally right. for many “designers,” being ethical is all about being honest and straightforward (wilson 1984; see churchman, 1974; checkland 1990). sometimes, it is challenging to decide the right thing; in this case, the moral code, based on reason and responsibility in society, may not suffice. when these situations occur with facts based on real-life issues, the answers may not be that simple. therefore, it is crucial to promote standards and principles that allow users and designers to act appropriately and be accountable. in sum, ethical standards remain an essential tool in promoting the values critical for collaborative work, such as trust, accountability, mutual respect, equity. for some reason, oz (1994) seems to think, “balancing the interests and rights of different parties in a free society is difficult. the problem of protecting individual privacy while satisfying legitimate government and business needs is typical of the information age. it seems that giving up some personal privacy is a toll we all have to pay now” (p. 70). nonetheless, there are other ways to solve moral dilemmas by understanding ethical truth, argues michael c. mcfarland 7in bowyer (1996). for mcfarland, the likely alternative would be to resort to some metaethical principles that will allow us to end all ethical disputes. although the methodology is not accurate, it can help distinguish the good moral arguments from the wrong ones, thus enabling us to choose. he suggests four conditions that apply to a valid ethical argument: 1. it must be consistent with the facts. 2. it must be reasonable and logically consistent. 3. it must be based on sound principles and uphold the highest good. 4. it must be universalizable. (bowyer, 1996, p. 15). for several other authors like papanek (2008) and bowyer (1996), ethics is an analytical study of man’s moral dilemmas in action. they believe that morality in the world of information technology barely contains norms except for a few codes or guides of conduct (implicit or explicit), based on long-term personal beliefs and values or those of the surrounding society. nevertheless, from an ethical perspective, an individual act can be moral, immoral, or amoral. • moral an act or thought related to moral codes of society or based on a personal code; • immoral an act or thought that contravenes the moral codes of society or its principles; • amoral an act or belief that does not reflect choice based on moral codes.8 for many scholars (dakin, 1996; see also dajoie, 1991; dallman, 1998), ethics includes accepting responsibility for our actions and their consequences. for others, it is only a set of moral criteria to which human activities must comply. in other words, “ethics is a personal code of behavior. they represent an ideal we strive toward because we presume that to achieve ethical behavior is appropriate, honorable, and desirable --both on a 7 michael c. mcfarland is a professor of computer science at boston college. he wrote, “urgency of ethical standards intensifies in computer community” in bowyer (1996). 8 victor papanek (2008). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 84 personal level and within the groups we belong to” (dakin, 1996). bernier (1985) formulated a more existentialist version, defines “ethics as the science of social survival and then what is ethical promotes the survival of individuals and civilizations, cultures, and societies 9.” legrain (1993) further substituted social integration in place of technological ethics in social systems design. as solutions to the lack of rules in the social system, the author advanced that there must be a series of “coordinating mechanisms for action involving collective intelligence and ingenuity; public participation, to an ethics, rubbed with the taste of solidarity with a shared desire for conviviality” (1993, p. 424). beck and or (1990) suggest, from their end, a practical action founded on a pragmatic philosophy. they believe that designers of collaborative systems, the same as the users, need a coherent set of values and principles to justify acting. “they suggest that the effort to produce a cohesive system of the practical tenets, establish what needs to be to enable to live in conformity with them and show they can be directives of men’s choices remains a significant intellectual activity” (1990, p. 415). it is essential to remind the users about their obligations and values regarding using a social system and sharing it with others. moreover, more importantly, to think about our choices and commitments in this society and question ourselves about the type of action allowed. so far, there seems to be a consensus on the lack of transparency concerning the standards and norms that govern the online platforms and the artificial machine and on the fundamental principles that network users must adhere to for ethical purposes. there are no clear guidelines on the rights and responsibilities when using online collaborative platforms or designing them. who will be responsible for protecting the privacy and personal data in the networks and within the social systems and against the giant corporations? accountability looks more elusive than ever. conclusion could a robust accountability framework increase responsible behavior in cyberspace? when it comes to virtual collaborative systems design, ethical standards should be coconstructed by designers and users using a multidimensional and complex model. most work shows that ethical or good governance rules are more user-centric than designeroriented; we have realized that designers must be accountable for their actions. the cyberspace institute (2016) suggested closing the accountability gap to secure the vulnerable communities by “identifying the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders involved as well as the applicable laws, norms, and principles required to ensure security, dignity, and equity in cyberspace.” they must also detect the weak spots and the origin of an attack (p. 82). therefore, there would be a double contingency. first, we must identify and use technological standards to support the social network’s construction. it is also necessary to create standards of conduct that promote the proper use of social systems by users and designers without infringing on their creative process. schomberg (2007) is among those who feel that we need “an ethic of collective co-responsibility, where everyone has a personal moral obligation to engage in the collective debate that forms the context for collective decision-making” (p. 284). for schomberg, “it is not only engineers who carry out social experiments; in a sense, all human beings are engineers as 9 bernier (1985) quoted by dejoie and al, 1991, p. 57. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 85 they are caught up in and engaged in the modern project” (p.284). our research has uncovered that it takes an ethic of technical development and technological practices in a social system for proper regulations. in this case, to paraphrase hoven (2007), these ethics of information technologies should allow both to open the “black box” of design and development of technologies and describe its rich and heterogeneous contents. we also propose to ensure that the design does not become a generalized and fixed framework. otherwise, it risks being reductive because one can end up with a single trend. we support creating platforms where communities and users can design their projects and manifest various voices or tendencies. therefore, the framework must be adaptable and customizable. we also need to develop standards that will be used for the greater good and not influence the general users (mumford, 1983). this observation takes us to the dilemma between the common good and individual good, which leads us to question the possible coexistence of the common good and self-interest. they both must coexist because if one dominates the other, problems may arise. will people be free to create and innovate without being forced to choose between innovation and tradition? will ethical and governance standards have an impact on how to design? should all users adhere to a convention? up until now, according to cyberpeace institute, “there is a lack of transparency in the norms and laws to hold threat actors accountable for actions; there are no transparent and independent mechanisms to track accountability in cyberspace”. therefore, how to make users and designers accountable? there have been several attempts to set ethical standards to empower users and designers within social technology practices. although researchers and designers have tried to make people accountable for their use of cyber technology through the governance of the internet and management of social systems, we encounter some enormous deficiency in accountability in these technological structures, which remains unclear. firstly, there are no legal instances to strengthen the rules in the event of a rule violation. secondly, whether it is regulation or self-regulation, the supervision of information technology practices is still ineffective. the very nature of the technologies gives us the impression that any attempt at regulation more seriously will not be followed closely given the global scale of the network and the differences of viewpoint between europe and the united states. (lauriol & mesure, 2003, p. 102) so far, online collaborative platforms and cyberspace remain the “most unregulated social experiment of our times” (noble, 2018, p. 6). for the time being, many countries have found numerous ways to combat online criminal activities using algorithms and artificial intelligence to monitor and detect norms’ infringements and crimes. however, this only gives the big companies and the government more significant interference in individuals’ privacy. moreover, those who misuse computer technologies will always find a way to bypass the system, which is why we must again appeal to reason, create a social contract in the information society, and renew faith in values in the process of collective choice. we must not create a police state in the sociotechnical systems but rather encourage users to participate in this cyberspace project, as they responsibly had in the 19th century, and regulate themselves through reasonable action. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 86 references ackoff, r.l., emery, f.e. 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(april 2019). retrieved november 2, 2021 from https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/area/center/justice/document/dtag_re port_5.22.2019.pdfwaterson, j., & and milmo, d. (2021, october 25). facebook whistleblower frances haugen calls for urgent external regulation. the guardian. retrieved november 11, 2021 from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/25/facebook-whistleblowerfrances-haugen-calls-for-urgent-external-regulation wilson, b. (1984). systems: concepts methodologies and applications. london: john wiley & sons. about:blank about:blank about:blank https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jim-waterson https://www.theguardian.com/profile/danmilmo https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/25/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-calls-for-urgent-external-regulation https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/25/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-calls-for-urgent-external-regulation the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 3 article actionable open data connecting city data to local actions open data are recognised as invaluable resources at the city level for improving local services, community engagement and businesses initiatives, but their use still struggles to have the desired impact. this work addresses the underuse of open data by exploring the connection between data and actions in everyday urban activities implemented by local governments, public agencies, businesses, non-profit organisations and research institutions operating in the city. the empirical results of this exploratory study outline a structural misalignment between a) roles of local actors in city activities and their data-related activities, b) provision of open data and information needs of local lucia lupi interuniversity department of regional and urban studies and planning, politecnico and university of turin, italy lucia.lupi@polito.it alessio antonini knowledge media institute, the open university, united kingdom alessio.antonini@open.ac.uk anna de liddo knowledge media institute, the open university, united kingdom anna.deliddo@open.ac.uk enrico motta knowledge media institute, the open university, united kingdom enrico.motta@open.ac.uk mailto:lucia.lupi@polito.it mailto:alessio.antonini@open.ac.uk mailto:anna.deliddo@open.ac.uk mailto:enrico.motta@open.ac.uk the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 4 actors, c) expected uses of data in local actions and forms of support to the users provided by current city open data portals. the envisioned alternative approach to foster the use of open data at the city level rely on identifying the appropriate data to be produced for supporting local actions, instead than focusing on publishing data disconnected from real information needs of organisations working for local communities. lupi, l., antonini, a., de liddo, a., and motta, e.. (2020). actionable open data connecting city data to local actions. the journal of community informatics, 16, 3-25. copyright (c), 2020 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/index https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/index the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 5 introduction city data, intended as the corpus of data produced in the city by urban sensors, organisations and communities, are metaphorically considered as the new gold of our times. indeed, city data are often perceived as resources able to provide value on their own, promising to reveal the solutions to local problems and opening new unforeseen economic opportunities and development. in a data landscape dominated by private data, open data represent the public part of these new urban resources, constituted by all those data publicly released that can be “freely used, shared and built-on by anyone, anywhere, for any purpose” (james, 2013). open data are not necessarily produced at the city level, but it is at that scale that there are the major expectations in terms of enabling public authorities, communities, and business sector to make effective use of data for local projects and services. while open data represent a small segment of city data, their importance is sustained by the idea that they can contribute to improving transparency, accountability, efficiency and productivity of local governments and public agencies, promoting active citizenship and democratic participation of local communities, supporting businesses in developing new services and commercial activities (kitchin, 2014). the shared point in these arguments is that open data could be used to make better decisions at individual and collective levels, informed by the use of data, and that these decisions could generate broad benefits for society. despite these high expectations of open data, their use remains marginal and still struggles to have the desired impact. open data are a yet-to-be fulfilled promise to generate significant changes for the activities of city groups at local level (goldstein & dyson, 2013; regan, & sweeney, 2014; sieber & johnson, 2015) both under the perspective of enabling them to act (power-to) and rebalancing the role and capacity they have to influence institutional and informal decision making processes (power-over) (schneider, eiband, ullrich, & butz, 2018). the underuse of open data is nowadays becoming an urgent problem, considering the institutional efforts and investments in producing and publishing open data, but also the growing requests of civil society organisations and local businesses to access public and free data on topics of public interest or relevant for their activities. for these reasons, the problem of the underuse of open data has been investigated (barry & bannister, 2014; beno, figl, umbrich, & polleres, 2017; janssen, charalabidis, & zuiderwijk, 2012; zuiderwijk, & janssen, 2014), identifying that the most challenging barrier to overcome is the lack of understanding of the needs of potential users of open data and data portals (sieber & johnson, 2015). the link between users’ needs and open data is still unclear, in particular in reference to what could make the use of city data appropriate and suitable in the everyday activities , such as providing educational services, monitoring social issues, organising citizens initiatives, and running commercial businesses. to study the users’ needs connecting data and actions in an urban context, we introduce the concept of actionable open data. its working definition is: open data produced for enabling individual and collective actions that are generated, supported, or mediated through the access, manipulation and use of data by local governments, public agencies, businesses, non-profit organisations and research institutions. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 6 building on this concept, this paper explores the modalities in which city data, whether currently released as open data or not, are or could be connected to local actions by addressing the following research questions: ▪ how do local actors operating in the city connect their activities to the production and use of city data? ▪ what types of data are or can be considered as actionable by local actors engaged in city activities? ▪ what are the expected uses of these actionable data in local actions? the contribution of the paper to research on information technologies supporting local communities is two-fold. firstly, the empirical results of this exploratory study outline that there is a structural misalignment between a) the perceived roles of local actors and their activities in the production and use of data, b) the provision of data and the actual information needs of local actors, c) the expected uses of city data in local actions and the forms of support provided by current open data portals. secondly, relying on the frame of open data portals as civic technologies, the results of the study envision a possible shift in approaching the problem of the underuse of open data, moving the focus from fostering the use of available data to the identification of the appropriate data to be produced for supporting local actions. the remainder of the paper is structured as follows. section 2 examines the problem of the underuse of open data and the key aspects to be explored. section 3 indicates the methods for data collection and analysis used for conducting the exploratory study. section 4 reports the results of the study addressing the three research questions about the connection between data and actions, and section 5 contains a discussion on the implications of these findings to reframe the problem of the underuse of open data in local actions. background and related work this section is organised into two parts. to start, we explain how the problem of the underuse of open data is connected to the implementation of the open government paradigm and the focus of open data technologies on the needs of data producers. then, we review the related work providing the basis for an alternative framing of open data and open data technologies as civic technologies, highlighting the aspects that require to be explored for addressing the underuse of open data in local actions by connecting data to actions. the underuse of open data the underuse of open data had been extensively studied, identifying the key barriers preventing their broad use (barry & bannister, 2014; beno et al. 2017; janssen et al. 2012; zuiderwijk, & janssen, 2014). among the identified barriers, the most important are: the lack of self-evident uses and value of the available data, the inaccuracy and obsolescence of information, the lack of standardised metadata or significant information complementing the datasets, as well as the format of files often requiring specific software to be explored. looking at the open data portals as the key technologies for accessing to the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 7 open data, the fundamental barrier to the use of data is the lack of support (offline and online) for understanding the content of the available datasets and the restrictions to their reuse. the barriers identified in previous studies take into account primarily the perspective of governmental authorities and the use of open data across different public organisations (attard, orlandi, scerri & auer, 2015; chan, 2013; ubaldi, 2013; veljković, bogdanović-dinić, & stoimenov, 2014). these studies also expose that the overall barrier in the use of open data beyond public bodies is that “there is no insight into the user’s perspective and the users’ needs are not known” (janssen et al. 2012, p.23). as a consequence, the design of open data portals is centred on the needs of data producers (mostly local government and public agencies) that are known, instead than configuring a digital environment to support users coming from private and civil society organisations in adopting open data in their activities. the production of open data is indeed entangled with the paradigm of open government and led to frame the publication and release of data as an “act of transparency” of local governments and public agencies toward the general public (goldstein & dyson, 2013; lnenicka, 2015). indeed, the produced data are mainly traces of the actions of these public bodies, in the form of census data, spatial data, administrative records and budgets, public reports, local plans and policies, public services delivery records. on this background, the scope of open data portals is to facilitate the publishing of documents and data related to the administrative activities by the competent public officers (lnenicka, 2015; sáez martín, rosario & pérez, 2016; umbrich, neumaier & polleres, 2015), and secondarily enabling users (often intended generically as “citizens”) to scrutinise data for controlling and monitoring the work of public institutions. the result is that the actual users of open data portals are in general the institutions publishing or exchanging data with other public bodies, or a small niche of occasional users such as journalists, activists, researchers, or professionals working in ict companies (attard et al. 2015; lee, almirall & wareham, 2015). while the efforts of this small niche provided a few showcases and examples about the potential applications of open government data for the benefit of local communities, they had a limited impact (lee et al. 2015; worthy, 2015). in some ways, these examples also involuntary sustained the myth of the intrinsic value of open data, waiting just to be unveiled for realising their empowering aims, even though the reality of open data remains to trace transparency acts of local government and public agencies and not intentionally enable local communities to use data in their activities, projects, services. reframing open data as digital civics in the city open data ecosystem the dominant vision of open data as expression of open government processes started to be challenged in the last years by the new vision of open data as commons (hess & ostrom, 2005) intended to enable citizens, communities and local actors to build their own insights from publicly available data to use, reuse and integrate these data. this new vision calls for reframing the intended users of open data from being recipients of public information to become active subjects having the right to use these shared resources to generate value for their own activities. in this sense, the vision of open data as digital commons (bollier, 2011) has two main outcomes. it brings back attention to people and their actions regarding the use of open data, instead of to data itself. then, it the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 8 enlightens the importance of the interrelations between data and actions at the local level that are defined by the communities accessing to shared informational resources. the vision of open data as digital commons has not yet found a concrete translation in new approaches to the production and use of open data. however, recent literature on open data ecosystems and digital civics provides some essential building blocks for starting to develop these alternative approaches. the framework of open data as an ecosystem is centred on the dynamic relationships between actors, context and technology. the actors play the roles of data producers, infomediaries, and data consumers. the context is defined by cultural, institutional, financial, and technological resources. technology is seen as the operative medium between the actors in the ecosystem (davies, 2011; harrison, pardo & cook, 2012; heimstädt, saunderson & heath, 2014; zuiderwijk, janssen & davis, 2014). in regards to the actors, the framework of the open data ecosystem identifies the unit of action not at the level of the individual users of data, but at the level of structured organisations (davies, 2011; harrison et al. 2012) having resources, capacity, and motivations to set up collective actions on/with/through data. in addition, within the open data ecosystem it is explicit that each actor “play” a role in connecting data to actions, and that this role can change, and it is not necessarily attached to the identity of a specific organisation as a public institution, or business. by adopting an ecosystem view of open data, we recognise that the dichotomy of government/citizens is not representative of the dynamics connecting data and actions because they these dynamics are developed mainly at an organisational level, with organisations that can cover multiple roles in the process of data production and use. what still needs to be explored is how these roles are managed and how they impact on the connection between data and actions in the city context. regarding the role of technology, the framework of the open data ecosystem does not specify how the relationships among data producers and data users can be mediated by technology. however, research on digital civics (boehner & disalvo, 2016; vlachokyriakos, crivellaro, le dantec, gordon, wright & olivier, 2016) frames technology as an enabler of new models of organisation, service provision and citizen empowerment (vlachokyriakos et al. 2016), and outlines three possible forms of support provided by technology to this community-development oriented process. these forms of supports are synthesised in the categories of computed civics, mediated civics, and proxied civics. technology can provide access to informational resources and the means to process data for civic purposes (computed civics). technology can also provide a new frame to activities and processes that not necessarily have a civic meaning or are of public interest as civic activities and processes (mediated civics). more radically, technology can facilitate different modes and forms of actions by and in between different organisations working together or independently on an issue (proxied civics) (disalvo, jenkins & lodato, 2016). open data technologies cover so far only the role of computed civics, but without overcoming the threshold of niche users and triggering significant changes in the production and use of open data. the alternative roles of technology as mediated and proxied civics remain to be explored in relation to open data technologies, especially in the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 9 the city context. indeed, most of the everyday urban activities (commercial, recreational, cultural, social activities) not only have a profound impact on the way we live in cities, but shape the characteristics of the public sphere in which we act in cities (see madanipour 2003). these activities, while not usually framed as civics, generate outputs (and also data of public interest) having a civic value that could be enhanced by technology. moreover, the diversity of local actors operating in the urban context, but in a shared space and frequently dealing with common issues, requires building technologies that can facilitate their different forms of actions by using shared informational resources such as city open data. as regarding the context in the framework of the open data ecosystem, the understanding of the key dimensions and dynamics in the city context is still an open challenge. indeed, while the literature connecting technology and civic design (disalvo, & dantec, 2017) focus the attention on the relation between data and action (forlizzi, 2018; hanna & ashby, 2016) for the empowerment of local communities, the information needs of communities and how data could be used to address local issues are still unclear (goldstein & dyson, 2013; harding, knowles, davies & rouncefield, 2015; sieber & johnson, 2015; taylor, lindley, regan & sweeney, 2014; taylor, lindley, regan, sweeney, vlachokyriakos, grainger & lingel, 2015). a significant example is the work with local communities of taylor et al. which explored the implications of “data-in-place” and indicates the crucial importance of discovering the actual needs and the potential use of data taking into account the interconnection between data, people, and things constituting the social geography of local practices (taylor et al. 2015). the exploration of the information needs of local communities to rethink the production and use of open data, but also the design of open data portals as civic technologies, requires the adoption of participatory processes with local actors and the shift of the design focus from transactional (producer-consumer exchanges) to relational interactions (asad, le dantec, nielsen & diedrick, 2017). opening the design process of a city data portal to the inputs and involvement of multiple local stakeholders is functional to study the appropriate support for a variety of goals, unpredictable practices, inter-organisational issues and unheard voices currently unaddressed (taylor et al. 2015; harrison et al. 2012; vlachokyriakos et al. 2016; taylor et al. 2014). moreover, the involvement of local actors is crucial to building communities of potential end-users around open data portals considered as civic technologies in order to provide infrastructure (bødker, 2015; ehn, 2008) for the community reframing of open data as commons and create the conditions for organising offline and online support to datadriven actions (asad, fox & le dantec, 2014; bäck, friedrich, ropponen, harju & hintikka, 2013; taylor, clarke, skelly & nevay, 2018). methodology driven by the purpose of studying the underuse of open data from the perspective of different city stakeholders, and relying on the key points highlighted in the previous section, we designed our study to explore: a) the roles of local actors in the city open data ecosystem, b) the information needs associated with their actions and c) the expected uses of city data that should be supported by open data technologies, coherently with the research questions listed in the introduction. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 10 the exploratory study presented in this paper had been carried out in the city of milton keynes (uk) by organising a 5 hour-long workshop attended by the representatives of the major local organisations involved in the production and use of city data and facilitated by two authors of this paper. the 18 participants in the workshop gave voice to the different types of structured local stakeholders interested in city data: ▪ the local administration of the milton keynes area ▪ public agencies involved in the delivery of public services ▪ non-profits organisations working on community projects ▪ local businesses ▪ and the university located in the city. the participants had been divided in five groups composed by representatives of different types of stakeholders and each group worked on one of the following five themes: ▪ community well-being: social, health and education services ▪ urban development: planning, housing and energy ▪ mobility: infrastructures, transportations and environment ▪ economic growth: employment, industry and business ▪ sustainability and smart living. the workshop activities were organised to guide the participants in constructing stories reflecting their organisational challenges and practices in the production and use of data, but most important how access to data was linked to the specific actions at a local level, as reported in table 1. table 1: themes, participants’ groups and topic of the stories developed in the workshop. theme user id stakeholder story id story topic: actionable open data for community well-being p1 jr public agency n.1 tracking the progresses of health care programmes p2 ls non-profit n.2 setting up a community agency to implement waste reduction projects p3 jk local gov n.3 improving the management and impact of the social services delivery p4 rb non-profit n.4 developing individual and community resilience initiatives urban development p5 vk public agency n.5 elaborating guidelines to improve the safety of housing and public spaces p6 pl non-profit n.6 developing and promoting a new local plan as housing association p7 sw business n.7 developing new data services for building groups, professional and residents mobility p8 mk business n.8 providing monitoring services on use and status of urban infrastructures the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 11 p9 mt academia n.9 studying and prototyping solutions to promote alternative mobility options p10 ln local gov n.10 supporting mobility services for elders through public/private partnerships p11 jq local gov n.11 promoting and organising collective transportations for daily commuting economic growth p12 in business n.12 organising a large-scale innovation testing programme in the city p13 dd business n.13 providing services to support emergency response units, police and residents p14 mr local gov n.14 attracting and retaining highly skilled workforce in the city p15 ql non-profit n.15 improving the management of water infrastructures and water supply sustainability p16 nn academia n.16 developing projects for social inclusion with local community and technology providers p17 nr academia n.17 bringing university educational and training initiatives to local needs p18 sr local gov n.18 encouraging home-working and low-impact individual behaviours we asked participants to build their stories by assuming the perspective of representatives of their organisations and completing five consecutive tasks: 1. selecting a challenge to overcome in their activities related to the use of city data and the role to play in the story covering one of the following six characters: promoter, implementer, influencer, beneficiaries, decision maker and resource holder. 2. identifying and mapping the other actors involved in the story, their activities contributing (or hindering) to meeting the selected challenge 3. identifying the information needed by each actor to implement their actions in the story 4. annotating how every piece information would be used in the story 5. highlighting positive and negative factors associated with the information need or their use in the activities represented in the story. the story building was supported with basic paper tools such as a set of cards, for indicating the actors in the story and their roles, other cards for tracing their activities, and a gameboard on which to place these card and sketch the connections among the actors and actions in the story (see fig. 1). the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 12 fig. 1. tools provided to each group after the construction of the stories, the participants were involved in discussing all together the critical and positive factors highlighted about the link between data and actions in their stories. data collection the data used to elaborate the analysis came from: • five visual artefacts representing 18 stories through a composition of role cards, activity cards, and other descriptions and signs sketched by the participants directly on the game boards (see fig 2). • notes taken by the facilitators interviewing all participants during the workshop activities to clarify and integrate the texts written on boards • notes and transcripts of the group discussion with the participants carried out after the story building session • transcripts of the post-workshop interviews with facilitators and external observers to document their observations, remarks, impressions. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 13 fig. 2 example of the visual artefact produced during the workshop data analysis we have executed an in-depth qualitative and interpretative analysis (schwartz-shea & yanow, 2013; walsham, 2006;) of the stories traced in the visual artefacts. the analysis has been organised in two steps. firstly, we have focused on understanding the dynamics in the city information ecosystem represented in the stories built by the participants. then, we have analysed the information needs associated to the actions included in their stories. the first part of the analysis covered: goals and roles set by the participants to build their stories, roles and activities of the other actors involved in the stories, and lastly the relationships connecting actors, actions, and data. all the information traced on the visual artefacts or included in the additional sources (interviews, notes, transcripts) had been iteratively conceptualised in dimensions characterising the production and use of data by local actors in the city information ecosystem, and then coded and interpreted to highlight the significant and recurrent patterns. the second part of the analysis involved the 87 information needs associated with the stories. firstly, a factual analysis of the required information has outlined the characteristics of potential data sources covering the identified information needs. then, we have analysed the expected uses of the desired or required data sources in relation to the actors indicated in the stories and at higher level by considering the specificities of each theme developed by the five groups. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 14 findings in this section, we present the results of the analysis of the city open data ecosystem represented in the participants’ stories, their information needs and the expected uses of city data in local actions to address the three research questions listed in the introduction. challenges and roles of city stakeholders in the city open data ecosystem as mentioned in the methodology section, we explored the dynamics in the city open data ecosystem by focusing on the perspective of each actor in the story as representative of one of the five classes of city stakeholders defined for the study: local government, public agencies, business, non-profit organisations, and academia. we examine firstly the challenges for the use of data in local actions set by the participants in the study, and then the identities and roles of other stakeholders mapped in the stories and operating in the city data ecosystem. the challenges reported in the stories ranged from very abstract goals, such as “improving health and well-being of population though safe and secure housing for all”, to operative objectives such as “to understand and predict the supply and demand status of the water [infrastructures] to devise solutions for water-stress issues”. it was evident that the representatives of local government and public agencies preferred an abstract definition of their goals, differently from all other stakeholders. moreover, the stakeholders with a recognised public mission, such as local government, public agency or no-profit organisations, define their goals under the light of their social mission and projecting the outcome of their data-related actions toward the collectivity and the common good. however, also in those cases, the implicit or operational goal referred to the specific interests of their organisations. for instance, “retaining high qualified workers in the city” was linked to the goal of “sustaining local growth”, but also more specifically to the fact that highly qualified workers residing in the city contribute to the municipal budget more than low skilled workers because of their preferences for bigger houses generated more tax. on the contrary, the representatives of the business sector preferred to define their challenges in operational terms, highlighting the importance of making explicit and publicly known that the interests of their organisations were the priority. the mapping of other city stakeholders represented in the participants’ stories brought out three recurrent elements in the narratives: a) the holders of data considered as essential to carry out local actions are not known, or their identity is unclear or underspecified. b) the structure, capacity and competencies of the organisations involved as external actors in the participants’ stories are oversimplified, exaggerating or underplaying their real capabilities to produce, manage, process and use data. c) the relationships among different organisations built on the exchange of data are critical due to uncertainty in the roles of actors, the communication protocols, and the conditions and contents of the required datasets. a significant example of the omission of key data holders can be found in story n.2. in this case, the entire flow of activities to start-up a community agency is based on the access to data about city waste reduction initiatives, such as “how many the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 15 staff/residents/entities are in collaboration with enterprises [implementing the waste reduction measures]. how much (weight) saved from landfill? how much money is saved? income generated? jobs created? people in crisis helped?”. while knowing this information is central to the story and the participant’s actions, the real or potential data providers are missing. in the story n.3, the data holders are instead underspecified and indicated generically as “external data sources […] providing data to the milton keynes council”. as regarding the second point, story n.4 provides an example of a participant overlooking the scope and competences of other two actors in his story. strong expectations had been oriented toward the public health authority and the technical team managing the city data portal to “help them [the participant’s organisation] access to relevant data […] to engage citizens in defining issues, interests and ideas at local level”. data that could be relevant for having these results are not specified, while it is assumed that it will be up to the two other actors to make such evaluation. in the same story, the participant expressed confidence in the capacity of his non-profit organisation to “monitor the impact of community resilience measures at local level” as one of the key skills gained from their experience working with communities. it is worth noticing that in 13 out of 18 stories the ability to assess the impact of actions at the local level relying on complex information is considered a highly valuable skill, but it is never associated to the competencies available within community organisations. in reference to the third point, story n.6 outline a process in which city data are elaborated and exchanged in synergy among different units of a housing association, building up the value of data step by step and enabling the activities for implementing a new urban development project. however, this positive constructive flow is threatened by the uncertainty about how their “data product” will be received and used by the local council (as an external actor) to support or stop their project. similarly, the story n.13 presents a very positive data workflow involving different organisations to set up a service of citysafety monitoring. the critical elements in the process are due to the uncertainties about contents, conditions and protocols for access to an essential data source: “what data do the gov[ernment] collect, where is stored, how accessible is it? for whom?”. indeed, as emerging from the stories, the access to city data is regulated by established protocols and specific agreements only in rare cases in which there is a stable partnership between the actors involved in a specific action, whether they have different purposes or they need to progress a joint flow of activities. in almost all other situations, the relationships between data producers and organisations interested in using data are not formalised, therefore generating uncertainties. mapping the roles attributed by the participants to the various actors represented in their stories (beneficiaries, decision maker, resource holder, promoter, implementer, influencer) with the roles that these actors have in the process of producing or using data within the city data ecosystem (data subjects, data collection promoter, data provider, data processor, data consumer, data communicator) highlighted the difference between ideal and real roles covered by city stakeholders in connecting data to actions. for instance, while citizens are considered as beneficiaries of data-related actions in 17 out of 18 stories, they are framed prevalently as data subjects and in a few cases as data consumers. local government, conventionally considered the data provider, covered instead mostly the role of data consumer and data collection promoter, because of the need to make its own informed decisions and build plans and services based on evidence. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 16 interestingly, the local government is indicated in the stories as resource holder and decision maker, especially with respect to providing financial resources for supporting data-related initiatives, rather than as an actor able to produce or release data useful for local actions. beyond the dichotomy local-government/citizens, the business sector plays a relevant role in all the stories, as implementer and resource holder, because businesses are assumed to possess the financial and technological capacity, as well as skilled human resources to collect and process data and then enabling the use of data for local actions. on the contrary, public agencies and non-profit organisations play a marginal role in the stories, being mentioned only in 5 and 7 cases out of 18. academia is consistently seen as implementer and promoter of local networks connecting technical, financial, administrative and community partners to implement data-related projects, but not as a subject able to produce data for supporting local actions. information needs in local actions the analysis of the participants’ stories allowed us to identify a set of 87 desired or required datasets indicated as potential sources connecting data to local actions. we used this sample to study the characteristics of the information needs in local actions and address the second research question. we stated by considering the licencing categories of data proposed by the open data institute (2015) and dividing the data spectrum in open, public, restricted access to groups or specific persons and organisations, private closed data. the analysis of the data sources associated with the collected information needs and this categorisation show that only a marginal part of their needs are covered by open data (6 out of 87). many of the information needs are linked to public data (23/87), accessible but not freely reusable, or to data available under restricted access (28/87). what is relevant is that around a third of information needs could be met by data produced for internal use by local stakeholders (35/87) and a quarter of them is not produced (21/87) due primarily to the uncertainty about the organisation that should take in charge their collection and elaboration. the remaining information needs are linked to data produced by privates for commercial purposes (15/87). the most prominent type of data required to take actions in the stories is represented by structured profiles of the local context, people and organisations (30 out of 87). for instance, this type of information needs includes the “skills of the residents and community members”, “data about producers of recyclable wastes in the city”, and the “land profiles including amenities and public services”. complementary to the profiles, the participants often required lists of local actors (6/87), factual data about environment monitoring (6/87) and behavioural patterns in the use of mobility infrastructures (5/87). the second core of information needs includes data documenting ongoing processes, initiatives and services (5/87) such as the “level of civic engagement in community projects”, “data about trends/process/status of waste collection and treatment”, “data about historical/existing provision of social care services”. we also highlighted an interest in projects and plans (6/87) envisaging the future transformation of the city, as well as data supporting the impact assessment (5/87) of past and future actions. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 17 lastly, the request of statistical data (16/87) is often associated to the need of tailoring broader datasets for a specific audience or extracting only subsets, such as “population data for urban planners”, as well as “data about the users of city walkways break down by age” to plan mobility services for elderly people. surveys (11/87) depicting perceptions and opinions about specific topics were also indicated as a desirable complement to statistic data, especially in the scenarios of planning, mobility and business development. for instance, surveys about “who is not traveling and why”, “experiences related to the use of infrastructures and services”, “the perception of wellbeing of residents”. by focusing on the nature and volume of the “actionable data”, a significant majority of information needs pointed toward “qualitative data” (69/87), if necessary associated with “quantitative data” to make sense out of the recorded indicators (36/69). less than a fourth are centred on quantitative data (18/87) when the needs are, for instance, costs, performances and size of user basin for a specific service. story n.3, developed by a data expert of the city council, highlighted as a critical factor that the local government “got a lot of data”, but “more resources and skills [are required] to do the analysis of the qualitative data”. consistently, only a marginal part of the information needs requires big data, such as requests associated with monitoring traffic levels, energy consumptions and environmental parameters. almost the totality of the information needs (79/87) could be fulfilled by small data providing a contextualised and comprehensive representation of the topic of the request. for instance, some requests concerns “data about the impact of social services at local level”, as well as “data about the economic growth of the city”. looking at the temporal features of the actionable data, the information needs highlighted strong demand for timely information about the ongoing activities and status of the city services and city resources (31/87), as well as indications for future actions based on the analysis of historical trends and current initiatives (25/87). data about the past are relevant instead when connected to the assessment of the current state of affair to measure the impact of initiatives or as historical context for planning (31/87). the spatial aspects linking data to their actionability highlighted that the same data could have often different uses at different scales, such as the "list of local stakeholders and asset holders" as well as the "household consumption" or the governmental data about "safety and risky area". this interscalarity of a part of information needs is reflected in the level of detail of the required datasets ranging from the individual units to their aggregations, such as the "cost of housing" the could be measured at the city scale, neighbourhood scale or in reference to a specific building. the last aspect to be considered in studying the information needs is that of data ownership, which can be concentrated in a single organisation, fragmented among different organisations or potentially distributed among individuals and organisations able to provide just a small portion of the overall dataset. data sources owned by a single organisation could address less than a fourth of information needs (18/87). most of the required datasets, in our sample, are under fragmented ownership (43/87) or could be produced by collecting distributed data within local communities (26/87). the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 18 expected uses of the data sources associated to the information needs we focus the last part of our study on analysing the expected uses of the desired data sources in local actions represented by the collected information needs to address the third research question. the intended uses of these data sources depend strongly on the level of expertise of users in data processing and the level of knowledge on the topic covered by the information need. their analysis outlined four stable patterns. information needs related to a narrow selection of themes and types of data, such as data on mobility and traffic, economic data to assess investments and performances of business initiatives, and statistical elaboration of population parameters, are associated to users with high level of expertise both on data operations and on the topic. they expect to have direct access to raw data for performing specific data analysis required to implement or manage routine services provided by their organisations. information needs related to the factors influencing or potentially impacting the operational environment of local organisations, such as the overall economic growth of the city, the positive/negative perception of local services and the participation in community initiatives, are associated with users who are not necessarily experts on data processing. they expect to occasionally explore the requested data sources to find pieces of evidence, trends, specific factors affecting their own activities. information needs covered by lists of local resources, context profiles, projects files, reports of past initiatives are associated with user experts on the topic of data sources, but not necessarily with strong technical expertise. in these cases, they expect to build over time a comprehensive map of all the available information for one-time decisions about, for instance, future housing projects, local partnerships to set up, and the feasibility of new entrepreneurial initiatives. the fourth pattern is defined by the information needs associated with the evaluation of the performances and results of local services and projects, or the assessment of changes over time, such as the impact of social care services, the security and safety risks in the city and trends in water consumption. in this case, users with a mixed level of expertise about data manipulation and on the topic expect to use the data for performing ad-hoc analysis, making sense of local phenomena, but also simple explorations and evidence seeking. by looking at the set of stories build on each of the five themes, the collected information needs outline specific constraints in the production and use of city data inherent to each theme. in the community well-being scenarios, data are required to facilitate the understanding of the context by complementing statistics with local insights based on direct lived experiences. the major challenge here is the lack of the appropriate data to set up new community initiatives, to improve local services or to address issues and problems of residents because official data do not reflect significant aspects of the community life. in the urban development scenarios, data are instruments for coordinating service provision, planning and housing projects, interests and complementary business needs. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 19 the challenge, in this case, is harmonising heterogeneous data collected by different actors for different purposes to enable the coordination of these different local actions. in the mobility scenarios, data are mainly used for discovery by monitoring local infrastructures, optimising the use of facilities and resources, and setting new datasupported business initiatives on transportation. the challenge, in this case, is that the data collection on mobility phenomena requires a structured and systemic effort of multiple organisations to produce the required data, while their link to systemic actions remains weak. in the economic growth scenarios, data are needed to support analyses of the business environment to identify new opportunities. the challenge, in this case, is the governance of the data sharing process because of the investments for data collection and the competitive advantages related to the exclusive access to data. in the sustainability scenarios, data are intended to foster behavioural, organisational and social change at the individual, institutional and community level. the challenge is triggering and keeping track of the on-going changes. interestingly, these use patterns for the data sources (both at the level of the single information needs or at the higher level of general themes for local actions) pointed out how the information needs and the challenges in the production and use of city data unite different type of organisations and stakeholders, despite divergent goals. discussion the findings of this study indicate that there is structural misalignment between the production of city open data and their potential use in local actions. this misalignment involves: ▪ competencies and capacities of the various local actors within the open data ecosystem ▪ the mismatch between information needs associated with local activities and data currently released as city open data ▪ the capabilities of open data technologies to support different profiles of users, with different levels of expertise and operating in different domains. in this section, we discuss the implications of these three aspects of the misalignment between city data and local actions, outlining alternative lenses to approach the problem of the underuse of open data by city stakeholders. local stakeholders in the city data ecosystem the stakeholders’ profiles emerging from the analysis of the local actions represented by the workshop participants and their mapping of the other actors are significantly divergent from the conventional roles attributed to public and private institutions in the city open data ecosystem as data producers and data consumers. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 20 first of all, each organisation, and in general each class of stakeholders, cover multiple roles in data-related local processes: data collection promoter, data provider, data processor, data communicator, data consumer and data subject. from the perspective of the local actors in the city data ecosystem, it is crucial to make public the plurality of roles in the implementation of data-driven activities and in the process of data generation and use. moreover, the results of the study point out the importance of letting the different stakeholders in control of defining and maintaining a consistent public representation of their organisational or social mission as strong motivation for being engaged in data use and production. indeed, the perception of local organisations by other actors in the same city ecosystem is strictly related to their roles in local activities. therefore, publicly communicating the reasons why a specific organisation undertakes the effort of producing and releasing data of public interest is important to benefit the secondary effects of that effort: authoritativeness on a topic, corporate ethics, and competitive advantage in building local partnerships. on the other hand, the potential users of open data (and city data more in general) need support in identifying the data providers in the local open data ecosystem, and assessing if the organisational structure, capacities and competencies of the data providers are compatible with their needs and goals. it is worthy to highlight that the organisations holding the information required to implement local actions are often actors not considered central in the open data ecosystem, such as civil society organisations. in these cases, these organisations are aware of the value of their local knowledge, but the difficulty to cover all the roles in the data production process prevents them from being recognised as potential and valuable data providers. in the complex relational context of the city data ecosystem, the challenge of the underuse of open data is a two-fold problem: assessing the compatibility of available data with the goals of local actions and accessing to the actors able to provide the integrative sources of information that could facilitate the use of data in the city context. accordingly, the challenge of open data technologies is not providing access to data, but enabling the contact and engagement of people that can provide the context of data and supporting the navigation of the city data ecosystem. however, it is worth considering that these issues cannot be overcome without addressing the misrepresentation of local actors in the data-related processes and the marginality of the organisations' ability to connect data to a specific context. making valuable, transferable and usable the direct knowledge of the city context by transforming local organisations in new data providers can alter the current equilibrium of power among city stakeholders. thus, alternative configurations of relationships mediated by data between consolidated data providers and new data providers can encounter a strong resistance specifically because of the risk associated to empower the latters in the city data ecosystem and over other stakeholders. features of actionable open data this study shows how open data that is currently available does not reflect the information needs of city stakeholders for their activities, not even of the local government and public agencies. the offer of city open data includes (in milton keynes and many other cities) datasets, reports and documents tracing the administrative activities and aggregating socio-demographic, environmental and geographic the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 21 information. the information needs presented in this study highlight how these types of data (licenced as open, conceived as static finished products documenting past activities, and published by one only data producer) cover only a marginal part of the needs of potential users. the “status” of open data is a desideratum for most of the city data. on the basis of our analysis, actionable open data includes most data sources that are now public data (not granting the right to reuse them), and also data produced for internal use by local stakeholders, whether public or private, that do not constitute monetizable resources in their core business. the licencing of these data and the difficult access to part of them are problems that can be addressed by local policies, but also providing technological support to aggregate these data sources. lastly, other actionable data sources not currently produced because of the uncertain attribution of responsibility for their production could be considered as potential “data commons” requiring a coordinated effort to their collection. the types of data considered as actionable are a structured elaboration of information. as a participant points out “we don’t have the right words to talk about data, a vocabulary for that. we all say just “data” but what we want is much more”. indeed, actionable open data are composite entities, possibly including statistical data and raw data in general, but mostly aggregating the available information in structured profiles at different spatial and temporal granularities (for instance, from the neighbourhood to the city, from weeks to decades) that have the “relational properties” of open data in terms of impartiality and reliability. in this sense, actionable data sources are mainly “qualitative data” making explicit the meaning and purpose of the measured indicators or the description of processes, and are small data illustrating a clear in-depth connection between factors of local phenomena. lastly, actionable data sources provide information on the present and on the future to orient the decisions to be taken by local actors. the set of all these features represent actionable data sources as modular dynamic products, built over time. in other words, actionable data sources are those that can be progressively integrated with new information referred to additional spatial and temporal units respect to the original source, presenting potential aggregation tailored to the purposes and constraints of typical applicative scenarios. the modular evolutive nature of actionable data sources requires the collection of the needed information from multiple organisations or even individuals having pieces of local knowledge built on their direct experience of the context. in this frame, the ownership of data become a complex relation among multiple actors to recompose fragmented or distributed information to generate an actionable data source. these three highlights suggest that the problem of the underuse of open data should be approached as a problem of data collection for the collective and coordinated production at the local level of actionable data sources. under this light, the technological challenge for open data technologies is not supporting users in using data, but providing support to the aggregation of the users' information needs to orient the data collection, and then facilitating the organisation of the data collection itself. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 22 open data technologies in local actions the analysis and interpretation of the intended uses of data considered as actionable by the workshop participants indicate the priority of the type of task to be performed over the type of data to be used in the expected forms of support provided by technology. considering the different levels of expertise on the topic or data technologies, the users’ profiles appear to be very diversified. similarly, the data-related activities to be performed at the individual level and because of the organisational goals can significantly vary for each user over time and for each local action. however, regardless of the specificity of their profiles or activities, the users’ priority remains to identify a strategy (in terms of data sources, tools and techniques) to accomplish their data-related tasks or, in other words, operationalise the fulfilment of their information needs. despite the wide range of data-related activities (e.g. planning, decision making, resource management), users tasks can be divided into four macro-clusters: a) exploration of data, b) identification of one specific piece of evidence in data, c) elaboration, mapping and aggregation of information, d) data analysis relying on raw data. thus, forms of technology support centred on the common users’ tasks could embrace the needs of a plurality of activities. besides tasks recurring across different data-related activities, each domain of city actions (e.g. services provision, urban development, mobility) also presents specific patterns of activities and consequently requires specific combinations of forms of support to the users’ tasks. therefore, the definition of the forms of support could be grounded in identifying the patterns of activities and tasks in common within each domain of city action. looking specifically at open data portals, the problem of the underuse of data is a problem of shifting the focus of the technology support from the acquisition of data sources to the identification of the correct operational path to manipulate data for the users’ goals, accordingly to their expertise and to the domain in which they work. conclusions the results of the exploratory study presented in this paper suggest that the underuse of open data is connected to a structural misalignment between the representation of local actors and their activities in the production and use of city data, the offer and needs of data for local actions, and the focus of technology on data sources rather than data activities and users’ tasks. the implications of these results can be instantiated in three new lenses for reframing and analysing the problem of the underuse of open data considering the actors in the open data ecosystem, the context of the city and the role of technology. these three lenses shift the focus of the problem from: ▪ accessing data to identifying organisations and people that can provide knowledge for making effective use of data ▪ fostering the use of available data sources to organising the production of data reflecting shared information needs in city activities the journal of community informatics 16 (2020,) 3-25 issn: 1721-4441 23 ▪ supporting the acquisition of data to infrastructuring data-related activities by focusing on the common patterns of users’ tasks in different domains. on this basis, the directions to make open data actionable in local actions point toward open data technologies as systems actively aligning the production of data to the dynamic evolution of the information needs of the local stakeholders in the city data ecosystem, working at the same time as mediated civics and proxied civics (disalvo, jenkins & lodato, 2016). in this new frame, grounded on the vision of open data portals as civic technologies and open data as commons, a city data portal will act as community infrastructure, fostering synergies among the diverse actors operating in the city by translating local knowledge and capacities in new relationships oriented to data-supported local development aims. references asad, m., le 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(2014). innovation with open data: essential elements of open data ecosystems. information polity, 19(1, 2), 17-33. 1456-article text-8259-1-6-20181022 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 sidpdf: articles margin to margin: arts-based research for digital outreach to marginalised communities this article discusses the artistic activity titled ‘conversations with the edge’ that was executed by communities in australia, russia and finland, and curated for an exhibition at the helinä rautavaara museum in espoo, finland in 2017. this activity was created in the context of margin to margin: women living on the edges of the world, a larger arts-based research project that took place between four geographical margins: outback south australia, finnish lapland, russian kola peninsula and namibia. margin to margin was a collaboration between artist communities with the aim to explore the relationship between art-making and empowerment of makers living and working ‘on the edges’. the aim of the project was to understand the realities marginalised communities face whilst giving voice to these communities by exhibiting their art in various formats, stimulating digital participation and utilising technology for digital inclusion. the purpose of the article is to develop a model that will guide virtual arts-based project mediation for digital outreach in both urban and regionally situated marginalised communities. melanie sarantou postdoctoral researcher university of lapland, finland melanie.sarantou@ulapland.fi corresponding author daria akimenko phd candidate university of lapland, finland daria.s.akimenko@gmail.com nuno escudeiro independent filmmaker. finland / italy nmp.escudeiro@gmail.com !139 sarantou, m., akimenko, d., escudeiro, n. (2018). margin to margin: arts-based research for digital outreach to marginalised communities. the journal of community informatics, 14(1), 139–-159. date submitted: 2018-10-01. date accepted: 2018-10-15. 
 copyright (c), 2018 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1456 mailto:melanie.sarantou@ulapland.fi mailto:daria.s.akimenko@gmail.com mailto:nmp.escudeiro@gmail.com http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1456 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1456 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction the arts-based research project ‘women living on the edges of the world’ (2016-2018), also known as margin to margin, aimed to connect through art-making and narrativesharing four geographical margins: outback south australia, finnish lapland, russian kola peninsula and namibia. the three-year project, that concluded in 2018, was an art and research collaboration between artist communities with the goal to explore the relationship between art-making and empowerment of artefact makers living and working ‘on the edges’. the project was realised through a series of artand storysharing workshops. the mutual empathic response of the workshops’ participants, who stem from a wide range of demographics, facilitated the creation of a safe environment for the ones who made art, shared their stories and for their immediate and future audiences. the members of the research group created, discussed, exhibited and shared art with and by communities in fowlers bay and port augusta in south australia, rovaniemi in finnish lapland, murmansk in russia and windhoek in namibia. the aim of the project was to understand the realities marginalised communities face whilst giving voice to these communities by exhibiting their art in various formats, stimulating digital participation and utilising technology for digital inclusion. margin to margin gave voice to peripheral artists and their communities through documentary video, blogs and social media platforms. the research explored, through art-based approaches, data collection, analysis, presentation and public display of the art, the processes of the artists in their full variety (leavy, 2015). this cross-continental collaboration viewed the concept of marginality predominantly from the viewpoint of geographical isolation. the challenges of isolation and remoteness took centre stage in the research and art processes. thus, the project recognised and responded to sensitive topics such as postcoloniality, indigeneity, marginality and gender issues. the main findings of margin to margin are based on the project’s case studies that were conducted in the mentioned geographically peripheral communities. these findings were presented in peer-reviewed papers, book chapters and exhibitions. in all four locations of the research art-making, as well as physical and digital artefacts, served as connective and empowering tools amongst global communities who face various challenges (miettinen, akimenko, escudeiro, sarantou & wallius, 2017). empowerment came about through the sharing of creative outcomes that communities produced, such as voices, texts and various visual and digital expressions of storytelling and art-making. in addition, these art-based activities permitted artists and makers to negotiate and sustain their identities, while storytelling and personal narratives offered ways for working through particular life challenges and making sense of difficult circumstances (akimenko, sarantou & miettinen, 2017). the exemplary art activity that will be discussed later in this article well illustrates the strong interplay of identity processes and sense-making in actions of sharing of personal stories and (self-made, or handmade) artefacts, whether sharing occurs through physical, virtual or digital modes. !140 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ! figure 1. mapping the workshops and case studies of margin to margin. additional findings include the key facilitative role of mediation in art-based activities for building empathy between peripheral groups and researchers (akimenko, 2018; miettinen, sarantou & akimenko, 2016a; farkhatdinov, 2014). mediation is a crucial process that has the potential to empower all stakeholders as it enables them to immerse themselves into, and learn from, local storytelling and contexts. additionally, new connections will continue to (re)shape during the project, which offers another opportunity for empathic mediation to thrive throughout a project and beyond. it is here that mediation in digitally enabled contexts can make a difference to marginalised communities. the power relations that may develop in digital environments, when stakeholders cannot control the physical movement of artefacts, stories and people, as well as ethical considerations, become vital, calling for rigorous planning, open discussion and plausibility. through access to key information via valuable platforms the co-creation of social media content, exhibition texts, blog writing, artistic expression and information sharing was encouraged. another important finding that is valuable to mediation is the role of intimate bodily spheres, such as laps, that facilitate multiple and complex social and cultural activities, including art and craft making, storytelling and social media participation (sarantou, 2017). the inclusion of these spaces in workshop and activity planning contribute to the valuable emphatic (re)connections that are needed throughout the lifetime of a project. this focus on intimate spheres and personalised art activities is another key to facilitation of participant engagement as local meanings develop, thus enabling reflection and retrospection when dynamic psychological processes such as narrative !141 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 identities (ricoeur, 1992; somers, 1994; mcadams & mclean, 2013; akimenko & kuure, 2017) come into play during art-making and storytelling. this article focuses on how human-computer interaction (hci) can be utilised to develop solutions for virtual approaches to the mediation of art-based research in marginalised communities (akimenko, sarantou, escudeiro & miettinen, 2017). in margin to margin hci methods were applied to capture, analyse and represent data such as digitally represented stories, texts and other technological artefacts. margin to margin drew on various platforms to enable mediation and the sharing of information, art processes and stories. the art activity that will be discussed later most broadly incorporated all the resources that the researchers and communities used throughout the project. the activity was approached bottom-up, which required continuous planning, but also for the connective role of improvisatory processes to ensure activity flow and continuation. arts-based activities, which are often underpinned by improvisation, were not only used to create empathy, but also for problem solving in a complex project that spanned continents. improvisatory processes stimulated empowerment and community participation despite facing complexities and the limitations of resources (sarantou, kontio & miettinen, 2017; sarantou & miettinen, 2017). this article focuses on generating knowledge about the challenges that geographically marginalised communities of practice (wenger, mcdermott & snyder, 2002), in this case art-making communities, experience around digital participation. the three researchers who participated in margin to margin were also contributing artists. understanding the challenges for participation in more inclusive research agendas that involve both communities and technologies, can uncover novel strategies that may contribute to digital participation. digital tools are indispensable for mediating, planning and continuing collaborations between geographically marginalised global communities. this was an additional finding of the project. however, technological platforms need to be ethically implemented and mediated. this article reflects on the case of intercontinental collaboration aiming to contribute to the understanding of the realities marginalised communities face whilst providing platforms for sharing their narratives. in margin to margin this was achieved through exhibiting their art in various formats, stimulating digital participation and utilising technology for digital inclusion. the kinds of digital engagement, both planned and spontaneous, that occurred while taking into account the age and other demographics of the participants is illustrated through an art activity and case study titled ‘conversations with the edge’ (hereafter referred to as ‘conversations’). the agency of all of the involved parties in this engagement, from inception through to its end, will be discussed in the sections: ‘conversations with the edge: participatory art avenues for communities’ and ‘findings’. the purpose of the article is to develop a model that will guide virtual arts-based project mediation for digital outreach in both urban and regionally-situated marginalised communities. this article asks: how do we connect to, and coordinate collaborations !142 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 with, geographically remote communities and how do we maintain, in the long term, established empathy with communities of research? methodology the project drew on a variety of research methods, such as arts-based, ethnographic and narrative approaches. the selected ethnographic methods for the project’s field studies were participant observation, diarising, interviewing and video documentation. these methods enabled the researchers to learn from the participants while bringing their own personal backgrounds, work, research and artistic experiences to the field. the data was accumulated over time throughout the fieldwork encounters and during the planning and analytical stages as the researchers’ discussions were digitally recorded and stored. the means of documentation included field journals and digital audio, video and photo, which were key instruments for the project’s data collection. apart from mere data capturing, the documentation aimed to preserve processes and experiences as this adds value in situations of short-term engagements with remote and marginalised communities. working alongside the communities of participants and creating shared experiences and spaces called for possibilities to revisit and reflect upon experiences by all of the involved parties. when documenting the encounters aesthetically, as well as ethically and factually, viewers, participants and researchers can experience the occurrences in the field. the digital documentation tools that were used are discussed in ‘the use of digital tools to connect to communities’, alongside those that were applied in different stages of the project. arts-based approaches were applied in two different ways throughout the research encounters. the researchers acted as mediators by creating spaces for the research participants to produce artworks and tell their stories, but the researchers also took on artist roles to produce, curate, and mediate individual and group artworks. the research participants shared and implemented their knowledge of traditional craft, visual and media arts, while they engaged in peer-to-peer learning with their colleagues and the researchers in a collective manner. radical inclusion (akimenko, 2018) was adopted as an ethical approach in margin to margin. this approach focuses on working with communities and was formulated by one of the authors of this article in her doctoral thesis (currently submitted for preexamination). it derives from bell hooks’ (1989) notion of ‘radical openness’ that finds empowerment through complex and whole experiences, whether they are positive or traumatic. radical inclusion is a model that ‘aims to create a space and time for an open dialogue through the multiplicity of voices and perspectives’ (akimenko, 2018). it accounts for all the unfamiliar and unexpected field situations including potential conflicts. the researchers do not dictate, but rather, include research events as they unravel. this approach also derives from soja’s (1996) concept of thirdspace that aims to move away from dichotomies (such as self-other, here-there) through the inclusion of a third (or an endless number of) components. !143 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 another methodological approach to this article includes the case study titled ‘conversations’. this art activity was one of the exemplary activities of margin to margin as it well illustrates the ethical approach of radical inclusion. while the project’s community interventions in the mentioned peripheral and remote areas included more than eighty, predominantly female, participants (between the ages of 20 and 92) whose art-making and storytelling were observed, photographed and video documented, the case study included forty, predominantly female, participants (between the ages of 20 and 72). this article’s analytical approach will draw on the reflections, documented notes and digitally recorded group discussions of the researchers, as well as the participants’ recorded interviews, video messages and artwork. digital mediation and facilitation the approach of radical inclusion was applied in the analytical stage in order to accommodate the collected narratives holistically and represent the project in its full complexity. the researchers used ethnographic and narrative approaches to analyse the processes, artefacts and stories that were shared amongst the communities. this enabled the curatorial and exhibition processes, whether these were conducted locally, virtually and/or digitally, so that meanings could be understood, established and shared. these processes took place continuously throughout the conceptualisation and planning of the project, the fieldwork, and subsequent processing and curation with the aim to communicate to wider audiences outside the project. throughout these processes the researchers engaged in ongoing reflection, while simultaneously facilitating the processes of the participating artists and defining ethically-sound strategies for presenting the art and voices of the participants to the audiences. ! figure 2: the illustrated role of digital participation and mediation in the project margin to margin. !144 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the diagram (figure 2) illustrates how the project’s researchers facilitated and managed the project, despite often being dispersed over three continents and four countries, from its development to its end. the diagram shows two large diamonds in which smaller diamonds are placed to indicate key activities of margin to margin. the top of the diagram represents physical actions and events, while the bottom shows the virtual and digital activities. thus, the project was built on strong virtual and digital processes and tools. the large diamond on the left in the mediation diagram represents strong preparatory and explorative processes that were underpinned with ethical approaches to research and community, as well as arts-based approaches. the large diamond on the right represents the developmental processes in mediation, for example the representation of communities and their art through digitally produced stories that were exhibited in galleries and museums, as well as via documentary video and blogs . 1 2 the centre line of the diagram (figure 2) does not represent an accurate timeline of the project as some activities took longer than others. the project planning and funding applications started in september 2015. the planning included a virtual introduction meeting via skype, community consultations in the various locations and human research ethics committee (hrec) applications in south australia and finland. the project implementation kicked off in 2016. the three researchers were professionally practicing artists whose roles were supported by two further artists, one in film and the other in visual art. in the centre of the two large diamonds are indicated the four workshops that took place between october and december of 2016. the five significant workshops are the grey diamonds, shown as ws1 to ws5, which took place as follows: workshop 1 (ws1) in fowlers bay, south australia; workshop 2 (ws2) in port augusta, south australia; workshop 3 (ws3) in rovaniemi, finnish lapland; and workshop 4 (ws4) in murmansk, kola peninsula, russia. workshop 5 (ws5) was hosted later in 2017 in windhoek, namibia. the moss green diamonds represent the two larger exhibitions. the first was ‘naisia maailman laidalla’, which means ‘women from the edges of the world’ (hereafter referred to as ‘naisia’) , was hosted at the helinä rautavaara in 3 espoo, finland. the other exhibition was ‘voices’ , which was hosted at the port 4 augusta cultural centre – yarta purtli in south australia. the ‘voices’ exhibition also marked the end of the project (2018). the three small diamonds indicated as ex1, ex2 and ex3 were smaller art exhibitions that were locally curated and managed. one collection of work was exhibited at the platform gallery in south australia, one at arktikum in rovaniemi, finland, and the last at the hämärä gallery at the university of lapland in finland. https://vimeo.com/margintomargin 1 https://margintomargin.com2 https://www.kulttuuriespoo.fi/fi/event/10897-naisia-maailman-laidalla, http://tinyurl.com/naisia-3 helina www.margintomargin.com/voices4 !145 https://margintomargin.com https://www.kulttuuriespoo.fi/fi/event/10897-naisia-maailman-laidalla http://tinyurl.com/naisia-helina http://tinyurl.com/naisia-helina https://vimeo.com/margintomargin http://www.margintomargin.com/voices the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the main activities of the project, as discussed above, mostly consisted of both physical, in situ, as well as complex digital activities that had to be taken care of due to the location of the research team in various global settings. however, this dispersed situatedness of the researchers had an important impact on the selection of the participating communities. a strategy was selected that ensured that at least one of the researchers was familiar with one of the participating communities. this familiarity was defined as either positive and previously established connections, knowledge of culture and language, paired with well-established insights into the local contexts of the participants. this strategy was successful as it ensured a rigorous project design because researchers were able to draw on past experiences during the fieldwork. however, the downside of this approach also was that an over-dependence on one researcher in a given context resulted in much pressure being placed on one member of the team in that context. for example, in russia the team had to heavily depend on the language abilities of one of the researchers (akimenko, sarantou & miettinen, 2017), while in fowlers bay another researcher had to focus most of her time taking care of logistics and the practical arrangements of the large group of participants. in fowlers bay, south australia, the sensitive cross-cultural contexts that the researchers faced, with forty-two participants from at least a dozen different cultural and language groups who gathered from all over the world, including indigenous groups from south and west australia, placed much pressure on the ‘local’ researcher and the south australian art project management team. the physical actions and events, mostly indicated in the top of the diagram (above the broken line) constituted the process that can be followed in the diagram from phase a to d: (a) exploration of contexts, (b) definition of roles and activities, (c) development of art activities, and (d) representation of stories, art and communities. the virtual meaning-making process, which can be followed below the broken line from phase a to d is: (a) establishing connectivity and on-line conversation, (b) establishing virtual identities (through social media, blogs, website ), (c) community participation through 5 digital platforms, and (d) retrospect, analysis and new knowledge production (virtual storytelling). the digital platforms that offered the researchers, artists and communities many possibilities for knowledge and experience sharing were skype, google docs, dropbox, messengers (especially the use of group messages amongst some of the communities became popular as the project progressed), the project website, blogs and various social media sites. communities shared ideas about art processes, how they used materials and developed their artworks or concepts. the researchers shared sometimes complex processes such as project planning and design, ethical research and funding applications, art planning and making processes, exhibition design and coordination, knowledge development and analysis, and dissemination of research data. all research meetings were documented digitally and stored in dropbox where they were accessible for further use and referencing. the importance of digital plausibility (illustrated in the first large diamond) through information sharing via enabling platforms was well-managed since the www.margintomargin.com5 !146 http://www.margintomargin.com the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 inception of the project. a suitable virtual communication and project structure was adopted, while the ethical approach of radical inclusion (akimenko, 2018) was embraced. trust, respectful conduct, the acknowledgement of personal identities and on-time delivery were the values that the team adopted early on (weick, sutcliffe & obstfeld, 2005; alavi & tiwana, 2002; curşeu, schalk & wessel, 2008). the ability to respond to salient cues through interpretation, explanation and application in virtual and local contexts (weick, 1995; nemiro, beyerlein, bradley & beyerlein, 2008) strengthened the trust and mutual support amongst the team. with a solid digital filing system in place, the ongoing production of large numbers of digital video, photo, and other data files enabled analysis, transcription, knowledge production and representation of the digital narrativity processes that made up many of the digital activities later in the project. for example, many videos were produced and translated into english, finnish and russian. additional representational considerations also resulted in large amounts of digital information as various exhibitions were developed that had unique aims. the ‘naisia’ exhibition, for example, was executed for an ethnographic museum and so the stories of women from the edges of the world were in focus. in this exhibition, their stories covered meaning-making and identity processes in relation to place, social, cultural and natural environments. later on the ‘voices’ exhibition focused on more personal works of artists and art communities, narratives of fulfilment and happiness. all these stories and many of the art processes were digitally captured and processed. in the case of the last exhibition, for example, the voices of all fifty participating artists were represented on the website. the use of digital tools to connect to communities the participating researchers aimed at co-creating artistic work with the participating communities. based on the collected materials and artwork, storytelling was captured through documentary video and research diaries. the researchers mediated processes with the communities to make sense of these materials through curatorial practices. a common goal sought by both the participating communities and the researchers was to ethically produce and reproduce materials that could be presented to local, global and online audiences. apart from many other processes, the artworks and their making processes, story-making and telling, were carefully captured through video due to the vast possibilities this medium offers. the main activities of the workshops of margin to margin consisted of art-creation that was based on personal life-stories that were narrated by the members of the involved communities. with the aims of documentation, data-collection and the display of artistic results, the researchers resorted to digital tools, such as photo, video and audio recordings, to capture the narratives that underpin the artworks. in addition to the material aims of the documentation, the researchers found that the use of video cameras also served as a catalyst for narrative sharing as they reinforce ‘a sense of commitment or engagement with the immediate, intimate, and personal as it occurs’ (nichols, 2017, p. 136). the results were fruitful for the objectives of the research. the moments of sharing and empathy that were created between the participants and artist-researchers !147 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 came about due to the retelling of personal narratives in the field and in later phases of the project. during the fieldwork, the researchers had several objectives for digital documentation: 1. creating outputs immediately and ‘on the go’ for the sake of, and to instil a sense of, inclusion for the communities; 2. the transparency of online representation of the participants and communities and offering opportunities for contemplation and discussion about the digital outputs; 3. to instil trust and create empathy; 4. to create physical and digital outputs that were shared with the participants; 5. the creation of audiovisual works for further video editing and creation, analysis and dissemination; and 6. providing opportunities for the withdrawal of consent, especially in cases where the participants did not control digital video editing processes. thus, digital documentation acted in tandem with social media and online tools as the project blogs and photo snapshots were immediate and shareable outcomes alongside the video field journals that were ongoingly and skilfully edited ‘on the go’ in south australia, rovaniemi and murmansk while the fieldwork and workshops unfolded. in all of the workshops the video documentaries were shared with the communities with the aim to reciprocate the time they had invested in the workshops. the final exhibition outcomes of audiovisual documentation were shared not only with the exhibition audiences, but were brought back to the participating communities through online platforms and social media (such as facebook and vimeo) to enjoy and reflect on the research encounters. throughout the fieldwork, 5 hours 42 minutes of interviews with 54 research participants and four artist-researchers were audioand video-recorded in four locations (fowlers bay, port augusta, rovaniemi, and murmansk). the sampling of the project was almost twice this size, but some participants only contributed artistic outcomes, whilst others shared only narrative data or both. additionally, 22 audio-interviews that lasted between 7 and 29 minutes were conducted with randomly selected participants in all the workshop locations. apart from the interviews, other unedited video footage amounted to 5 hours 56 minutes of the making and arts-based processes and 13 hours 7 minutes of contextual observation (travelling, walking, the ‘feeling of place’). two examples of using digital platforms for including the remote communities are worth mentioning here. firstly, the ‘voices’ exhibition, the key exhibition of the desert fringe festival in port augusta during march 2018, attempted to recreate the display and the ‘feeling’ of the exhibition for the contributing artists from rovaniemi, murmansk, windhoek, helsinki and berlin, many who were not able to attend in person, but also for those who are geographically and economically marginalised. this was achieved through placing photographs on the website of the artists and their 6 www.margintomargin.com/voices6 !148 http://www.margintomargin.com/voices the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 artworks, as well as textual and audio messages that narrated the stories of the artists and their work. the interactive website increased the shareability of the exhibition to external audiences. an artist talk was organised via skype for the local audience in port augusta during which finnish artists conversed with their south australian colleagues and audiences. secondly, the artistic activity, and case study of this article, ‘conversations’, resorted to video in a different way. this activity was initiated by the enthusiasm of the research participants themselves. their wish was to send video messages between the different communities with the aim to present groups, themselves as individuals, their cultural backgrounds and information about their environments. the participants’ objectives were also to send positive wishes and thoughts to one another. this activity is introduced in the next section. conversations with the edge: participatory art avenues for communities the case study ‘conversations’ presented multi-layered artefact-making and narrative outcomes from february 2016 until august 2017. however, the activity was not initiated by the researchers, but by one of the participating communities in margin to margin. this community, the fibrespace incorporated textile art group (hereafter referred to as fibrespace), is dispersed over regional south australia. this activity project set out to attract a reactive response from other global communities by sending personal handmade textile artefacts or notes to artists in lapland and elsewhere. the first virtual contact between fibrespace artists and the researchers of the project had happened months before a meeting in port augusta during october 2016. the artists’ initiative to reach out to their finnish counterparts had resulted in a collection of work, mostly textile art, which was titled ‘conversations with lapland’. the work included a set of stories and artefacts telling about the individual artists and their art practices, interests, homes, families, lives and connection to the south australian natural environment. one fibrespace member introduced the group: fiberspace is more a textile-based group. it is a group of people who meet three times a year. and in different places just to foster their interest in textile arts, or really i think it is just creative thinking as much as anything. we just love to get together to see where our creative thoughts might take us. but i really quite enjoy that lurching into something new and seeing where it takes you and being prepared to make the most of whatever situation that comes my way. (participant, port augusta, 2016) the textile artist group created a selection of artefacts, from february until july 2016, which were then presented by the researchers to the participants in rovaniemi and murmansk during december 2016. the response to the fibrespace artists was somewhat unexpected. not only artefacts were shared, but also video messages were initiated in rovaniemi in which spoken messages were captured. these videos were then sent from community to community. the receiving communities also started to contribute video messages in return to the ones they received. the narratives of the !149 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 participants, those that were captured in both the artefacts and video messages, were constructed around the notions of belonging, home and place. specific artefacts and messages strongly narrated personal identity. through these artefacts, video messages and their making processes, participants reflected on their personal margins and how they cope with, or overcome them. ! 
 figure 3: the display of ‘conversations’ during the ‘naisia’ exhibition at the helinä rautavaara museum in espoo, helsinki. photo credit: daria akimenko. the larger body of work, that consisted of artefacts, videos, photographs and written field notes, later was titled ‘conversations with the edge’ (figure 3). this collaborative work was curated by the authors for the exhibition ‘naisia’. the exhibition ran from 6 september 2017 until 7 january 2018. one of the researchers took care of the artefacts’ display and representation of their underpinning stories. she also mediated the process of artefact exchange between the artists, which was documented in field notes. another was responsible for editing audiovisual data into video artwork that represented in a holistic way the encounters and sending of messages ‘from one edge to another’. the third researcher aided both colleagues in the selection and curation of the vast amounts of digital and physical materials. the activity instigated links between remote communities ‘on the edges’ through the sharing of a collection of stories and artefacts between them. this alternative process of sharing, collection, reception and curation of the artefacts and video messages was a challenge to curate. the diverse artefacts and video messages that constituted ‘conversations’ had to be collected and brought together into one space as one narrative, yet the curatorial team did not want to compromise the voices of the individual participants and their communities. the act of making, collecting, sharing and curating happened over many months. illustrated in figure 2 is the approximate duration of ‘conversations’ in relation to the project activities, which indicates that the activity commenced in the first quarter of !150 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 2016 when the fibrespace group met and decided to reach out to unknown artists in lapland, and ended with the ‘naisia’ exhibition. the idea to connect to lapland came about due to a suggestion from one of their members, and one of the researchers in this project, who had previous connections with artists in finnish lapland. the fibrespace group took on the challenge without hesitation and decided to produce artefacts that would be sent to lapland with the aim to introduce themselves as individuals, but also as a textile artist group. this gesture was keenly adopted by the lapland artists. as a further result, the fibrespace artists agreed to participate in margin to margin. fibrespace invited a group of lapland artists and the researchers to participate in a workshop in port augusta at the platform gallery during october 2016. the workshop consisted of a textile installation that was constructed with life story mandalas at the platform gallery (miettinen et al., 2016a), art-making, peer-to-peer learning and story sharing activities. one artist from port augusta shared: i came to port augusta in my first teaching job, from adelaide. and i have been here ever since, and i married a local boy who swept me off my feet, i guess. in those days it was kind of an outback town and there wasn’t a lot of cultural aspects to it. so, i have really felt i needed to connect with something in the arts. because i come from that. my parents and my grandparents were quite into art. so coming here then finding it very difficult to find like-minded people, i had to gravitate to the local art group. then i started to find people who spoke my language. (participant, port augusta, 2016) however, the idea of the sharing of artefacts from fibrespace continued after this workshop when lapland artists reacted in the rovaniemi workshop by making artefacts and digital greeting messages that were returned to fibrespace, but also passed on to murmansk in russia. this was also an initiative that was improvised in rovaniemi, with the aim to create connections between the participating global communities. during the workshop in murmansk, the artist community there reciprocated in a similar fashion by sending handmade artefacts and video messages to both communities in lapland and australia. one participant from murmansk shared her ideas about her handmade artefact that was sent to fibrespace: it is not something just written like ‘hello’ and ‘how are you’, because you can do it on facebook. if people receive something material that you made with your hands it is different, because you send your warmth to another person, and maybe your love or the mood you were in while you made it. from this bookmark i made the person who received it will remember me while reading. (participant, murmansk, 2016) for the communities the sense of connecting with others was an identity-shaping process in itself, as the communities displayed and communicated their specific identities to render themselves ‘different’ or ‘same’. identity processes included the acts of mediating, collecting, and participating as makers, senders and receivers of artefacts and messages to strangers with a common passion: art-making. !151 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 ! figure 4: an example of a video message to australia: a narrative via video interview in murmansk. the two documentary artists and co-authors of this article, mediated the process of digital message sharing (figure 4). this involved time-consuming filming and editing, transcriptions and translation into the three relevant languages: english, finnish and russian. findings the transcriptions and translations were analysed through open coding, which means to determine category systems or headings under which data is grouped (burnard, 1991; berg, 1989). it became clear that the messages that were shared by participants carried similar themes that related to identity narratives and expressions about place, belonging, feelings, their environments and what they appreciated most within their local contexts. the following narratives illustrate the connections that the participants sought from creative communities and individuals around the world, through narratives as means for sense-making and identity formations (sarantou, 2014). memories, sense of atmosphere and location and place were strongly narrated through the digital messages related to participants’ memories and experiences of places, such as the moods and atmospheres that surround them and which identities render them as unique. one participant said: ‘a lot of time in the year it is dark here, and the city is decorated with little lights. when i was small and used to come to murmansk, those lights used to really mesmerise me. and nowadays i still like them a lot.’ many participants expressed memories from their homes where they currently live, or the places, cities and countries that they identified with at some stage in their lives. one participant remembered kuopio in finland and said: ‘i think i would like to bring the atmosphere, the silence and the boats which are whistling there on the lake. i live on the harbour and there are those boats which go in the lake side.’ another participant stated: ‘all these beautiful things that we have now in the winter in portugal, that are tendentiously sunny days that i wish i can bring a little bit of sun to your dark days that you are living through now.’ a participant that was born in thailand, but who travels regularly reminisced about the memories and buzzing atmospheres of the places she knows and has lived in: ‘maybe the momentum of living in bangkok. one thing happens after another. like in rome. !152 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 so maybe that can give the rhythm in there as well. going at a fast pace and something surprising happening all the time.’ an australian participant’s memories were tied up in the festive atmospheres of one of the states when she said: ‘from australia i would probably like to bring some festivity from there and i think the nicest festive substance that you can have from south australia is the wine. because south australia makes beautiful wine,’ while a russian participant added enthusiastically: ‘we have a wonderful café called youth here. besides, our city is young with many talented and creative people. i would like that it is the same not only here, but everywhere.’ a sense of environment and natural phenomena that shape identities of place was narrated by many participants from the arctic who identified with the weather conditions of cold and snow, which they understood to be a harsh contrast to the hot australian summers. seven participants from murmansk made references to the snow and cold when they answered the mediator and video artist’s question about what they would like to send to the artists in australia. some replies were: ‘a bit of frost for them to feel more vigorous. it’s our most available commodity, therefore…’ additional comments included ‘to australia i would send snow, lots and lots of snow’. also, ‘i would take all of our snow and transport it there, also for us to have less of it’ and ‘do you think they would appreciate if i wish them some snow?’ additional comments from participants on this topic were: ‘with australia i would share, perhaps, some snow’; ‘some fresh breeze from kola gulf’; and ‘some snow.’ additional references to the arctic environment, thus also to arctic identities, were ‘for australia i would wish to experience how our polar night feels.’ more references to the northern lights included: ‘and of course our northern lights. i wish that everyone who has not seen them saw the northern lights at least once’; ‘to australia i would send northern lights. one can talk about its beauty a lot, but you have to see it for yourself!’; and ‘yes, to try something new is always good. i would also wish to everyone to see our northern lights, because they are mesmerizing.’ there were also references made to the many flies in australia. stating that it was ‘a problem’ perhaps indicates that the participants in murmansk had difficulty identifying with the many flies, thus rendering, in an amusing way, identities of ‘us’ and ‘other’. one participant introduced the topic as follows: ‘i’ve heard that there is a big problem with flies in australia’ while another continued: ‘i wish them to solve it and to live comfortably without flies.’ one participant offered a solution to the ‘problem’ and suggested what she would like to send to the artists in australia: ‘i guess... lots of sticky tapes to catch all the flies.’ the sense of cultural elements that shape identities was included in the participants’ narrations of various cultural elements that they identify with. when answering the question what they would like to send to artists from the other participating communities, one participant from murmansk said: ‘to rovaniemi i would send some kazakhstan heat, maybe a couple of camels. i hope they don’t have them there. and perhaps some asian warmth and openness.’ a participant from finland reminisced: ‘the most that i like there is the peace. there are not too many people, there are lots of lakes there and you can find quiet environment and forests if you want.’ !153 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 two russian participants added, in a jovial tone, thoughts about cultural elements and values that underpin local identities, or ‘russian spirit’: ‘i’m not sure how to say this. like vodka, balalaika and a bear!’ also: ‘a bit of our russian crazy, our ease and joy’; ‘courage and openness, or honesty. some kind of sincerity, but also courage. not to be afraid of being open;’ and ‘perhaps, just some russian spirit.’ finally, a turkish-born participant and artist that currently studies in helsinki explained the value she attaches to stories. in this narration she alludes to the value of how stories enable her to render her personal and group identities according to the places she lives in and identifies with: ‘i am from istanbul, currently i am living in helsinki. i like how istanbul has lots of stories. and i like how helsinki lets me focus on my personal story that i would like to bring you.’ mediation for the researchers who mediated the processes, the acts of collecting, whether they were the stories or artefact of the communities, became identity processes in themselves. the sensitivity of connecting group identities and personal identities into webs of meaning making was a delicate undertaking. suggestions were made by the communities and researchers alike, but the process remained fragile in the sense that some (in)activities could abruptly interrupt the cycles of sharing, enactment and meaning making. however, the processes continued due to the stories and conversations the participants established in their local groups and wanted to explore amongst faraway communities on the ‘edges’. this diagram (figure 5) is informed by weick’s (1995) theoretical framework for virtual sense-making properties that include social content, retrospect, personal identity, salient cues, ongoing events, plausibility and enactment amongst teams (nemiro, beyerlein, bradley & beyerlein, 2008). the challenges for virtual teams can be summarised as follows: 1. the coordination of effective conversations must be designed to create meaning from relationships; 2. cultural diversity is important to the establishment of identities and roles; 3. access to information is crucial for shared understanding and meaning making; 4. the interpretation of salient cues is essential to continued actions and conversations; 5. ongoing events drive both face-to-face and virtual teams, but the demands of physical workplaces are not always evident; 6. plausibility depends on information sharing in social context, retrospect, salient cues, language and cultural understanding; and 7. enactment (the process of acting on something) follows understanding and meaning making. (nemiro, beyerlein, bradley & beyerlein, 2008) !154 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the diagram (figure 5) illustrates the virtual, and digitally enabled, process for mediation that came about in the arts activity ‘conversations’. the model suggested in figure 5 evolved from the analysis of the case study and the experiences that derived from mediation processes in margin to margin. ! figure 5: virtual mediation. interpreted from the centre, the diagram illustrates connections between art activities and creativity, narratives and conversation to plausible interpretations and reflections on actions and events. once this sequence of events is stimulated and enabled, enactment and meaning making is the next step in the sequence of events. however, this step is crucial as it depends on the interaction of meaning making and enactment. this means that once art, or creativity, and narrativity leads to plausibility, meaning making and enactment follows. this process represents empowerment, because once the artist is empowered through this sequence of events, she is able to participate in coordinated events that lead to the strengthening and formations of identities that can be expressed via digital and narrative platforms. this is an inside-out process that is dynamic and offers new possibilities. this process was evident in ‘conversations’, but it also illustrates the ethical process of radical inclusion that involves all stakeholders in shared dialogue. therefore, this model guides virtual arts-based project mediation for digital outreach in both urban and regionally-situated marginalised communities. interpreted from the outside, this model shows how coordination, related events and identities that determine digital narratives and platforms from the outside, thus dominant to the reflective, art and narrative approaches, impacts on the arts and creativity. this impact is stagnant, and it ends, most probably, in an art product that is !155 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 determined by outside and dominant narratives. the approach of radical inclusion, or the bottom-up approach, is illustrated as an inside out approach in this diagram. the dynamic creation of new possibilities in art, stories and plausibility (also interpretation and reflection) lead to the dynamic interaction of meaning making and enactment, or empowerment. as a result, it also leads to the empowerment of coordination processes, events and identity formations that are expressed, in the case study of ‘conversations’, in physical and virtual actions and digital platforms. conclusion this article set out to conceptualise a model for guiding virtual arts-based project mediation for digital outreach in both urban and regionally situated marginalised communities. it based itself on the three-year experience of mediation by the artistresearchers who collaborated with remote communities in australia, finland, russia and namibia within the scope of margin to margin. virtual mediation was explicated through the overall processes of this project with the specific examples from the case study ‘conversations’ that is of a particular interest to the study due to its initiation by the research participants themselves who sought connectivity and belonging to a wider global community of artistic practice. in practical terms, the principles of mediation in the project relied on a number of digital tools and processes. photographic, audio and video equipment allowed for quality documentation with both data-capturing and aesthetic purposes, while also helping to create spaces of dedicated and empathic narrative sharing. the employed digital tools varied between social media platforms, email, messengers, website and blog, and cloud storage platforms. all these aided the two important goals of the project: keeping the process transparent throughout all of its stages and recreating the encounters online for the participants to revisit and the audiences to experience. the article inquired about the ways to connect to, and coordinate collaborations with, geographically remote communities. as has been outlined in ‘digital mediation and facilitation’ and throughout the article, remoteness can be overcome through digital means, but in-person activities are crucial for establishing researcher-participant empathy within the communities. thus, initial outreach can be achieved through virtual mediation that also enables the continuation of the established connection. it was also concerned with how to maintain, in the long term, established empathy with communities of research. the answer to this question lies in understanding of empathy within or without digital contexts. as elaborated in a framework for empathy that resulted from analysis and the encounters within margin to margin (miettinen, sarantou & akimenko, 2016b), empathy within communities of research is not a given, but an ongoing process. once formed, it requires ongoing activities and revision of interest and agency, much like the ethical issues of informed consent (akimenko, sarantou, escudeiro & miettinen, 2017). the complexity of dealing with real feelings and sentiments that come through the participants’ narratives and making processes should be acknowledged in mediation. the project encompassed many continuous activities !156 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 after the actual in-person encounters through mediation between physical and digital spaces (such as exhibitions and online platforms). while the methodology of the project was planned by the researchers with the objectives of connectivity and outreach to remote communities, the actual field situations uncovered these same objectives within the communities themselves. as exemplified through the art activity of ‘conversations’ the concept of (digital) inclusion was intuitively sought by those who were less familiar with this concept. ‘conversations’ presented a good example of the ethical approach of radical inclusion (akimenko, 2018), or the so-called bottom-up approach (e.g., sabatier, 1986), but it also illustrates the need for digital participation amongst geographically marginalised communities to share experiences, their stories and art. additionally, this case study illustrated that the acts of identifying with somethings and not with others, sensemaking through narrations and stories, practical digital and physical representations, may lead to meaning making and enactment. in other words, ‘conversations’ illustrated, in a practical sense, how empowerment works, namely, the self-empowerment that acts from within towards outward expressions. as the project neared its end, the researchers realised that one of the shortcomings of the project was the lack of resources to establish a digital platform such as a webdoc. this kind of platform could enable an improved digital environment for storing, dissemination, and representation of data such as digital artefacts and stories. the digital resources and on-line tools that were included in the planning and inception of the project were widely used digital applications, such as social media, online platforms and real-time document collaboration platforms, which improved the communication and connectedness within the project. this means that communities were able to communicate freely, randomly and in organised ways, amongst themselves and with the researchers to share and arrange activities and events. no purpose-built digital tools were used, which allows an opportunity for further development next to planning a perhaps more ambitious and purpose-built technological platform that can better accommodate the needs of the communities and researchers alike. such a platform would need careful consideration of privacy, online security and intellectual property rights of all participating artists and makers. !157 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 references 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(2002). cultivating communities of practice: a guide to managing knowledge. boston: harvard business press. !159 improving citizenship and the right to the city by using icts: brazilian examples geisa bugs1 1phd researcher, urban and regional planning, federal university of rio grande do sul, porto alegre, brazil. email: geisabugs@gmail.com introduction information and communications technologies (icts) are the technical means to handle information and aid communication (foldoc, 2008). with the advent of the web, icts evolved significantly, creating new communication systems that reshape the processes of acquisition, organization, representation, and construction of information and knowledge (di felice, 2007; haller & höffken, 2010). the so-called "information age" is characterized by the widespread adoption of web technologies in all spheres of our lives (castells 1996; centelles, 2006). social media refers to a group of web applications that allow for the creation and exchange of user-generated content (kaplan & haenlein, 2010). users share all kinds of information about themselves and interact with one another in these applications (rocha & pereira, 2011). social media are also widely used to coordinate events in the physical world in real time, because they offer access to social networks, expanding significantly the social sphere (pereira et al., 2013). in other words, social media enable social networks to be easily formed and to become more visible. also a country of contrasts such as brazil has been showing the technology conditions and a public interest in the use of social media and icts. over the last decade, some 40 million people have risen out of poverty. now, more than half of the population can be found in the middle of the national income distribution (c and b classes) 1. the number of smart phones with internet access and broadband has grown enormously. according to a national survey from ibge (brazilian institute of geography and statistics), the number of internet users (77,7 million) grew 143.8% and of mobile phone users (115,4 million) 107.2%, between 2005 and 2011 2 (ibge, 2014). a survey conducted by the brazilian internet steering committee (2012), called research on the use of information technologies and communication in brazil households and business 2011 shows the popularity of online networking among brazilians. in 2011, 69% of internet users in brazil were participating in online social networks such as orkut, facebook and linkedin. increasingly, brazilians are using online tools to call for social change as well. on change.org (2013) one of the largest platforms for online petitions the number of participants has risen 646% in 2013. thus, to illustrate the use of social media and icts for citizen empowerment, collaborative projects, online activism, and civic engagement, this paper presents a number of brazilian examples of bottom-up practices originated or supported by icts. as the initiatives are evolving at an increasing rate, the article provides up to date examples of what is going on in this context. a hypothesis can be drawn from the observed examples: icts and especially the social media are promoting changes in the citizen's relationship with government and urban space. following, each section presents a short introduction, followed by the example's description and discussion, in order to tie it to the literature on icts and social media, as well as to the local context. citizen empowerment heng and more (2003), among others, believe that the web has the potential to promote social change by creating a space for the weaker and marginalized voices. the web allows an efficient distribution of information, reduces the technical and financial barriers to activists, and transcends the state's direct regulatory control. the following two examples illustrate cases where "the weaker" are using technologies for community empowerment. the new social cartography project of the amazon (pncsa, in portuguese), supported by the ford foundation (2010), is collaborating with indigenous communities to map their territories, combining local knowledge with scientific and policy expertise (acselrad & coli, 2008). more than 100 communities have taken part so far, mapping more than 1 million hectares (figure 1). in their words (ford foundation, 2010): "the brazilian amazon is vast, encompassing an estimated 500 million hectares. largely as a result of progress made by the indigenous rights movement, 22% of the region is now officially protected as indigenous people's land, and another 22% is designated for conservation or sustainable use. still, 41% remains contested. with no official owner, undeveloped land can be seized and exploited by private interests or government. one community at a time, the pncsa is establishing the rights of traditional communities to their territory, protecting natural resources and strengthening the social movement." the wikimapa project (2013) from rede jovem (2013) is a collaborative virtual map focusing on identifying sites of public interest (i.e. hospitals, schools, shops, parks, sports fields, restaurants, bars) in low-income communities favelas (slums) of rio de janeiro. the process is powered by several participants, through mobile phones with internet access (figure 2). it aims to cut social gaps, through the exposure of what exists and happens in low-income communities, breaking the stigma of violence and marginalization. in their words (wikimapa, 2013): "from the use of new information technologies and communication, wikimapa enables access and democratization to information, increasing social participation of adolescents who become information providers for local disclosure, not just consumers, and they create new cultural and geographical references." the project has received several international awards, such as the stockholm challenge (2010). figure 1: beija flor community map. source: ford foundation (2010). figure 2: wikimapa project. source: wikimapa (2013). both of these examples, show how marginalized groups are using icts to have a louder voice in society. the first is helping indigenous communities fight their territorial disputes. as the map is a specific set of assertions of power and knowledge, not only the state but also others are able to make powerful statements through maps (crampton & krygier, 2008). the second example shows the wish to appear, literally, "on the map". undoubtedly, favelas are becoming a recognizable part of brazilian culture. the artist helio oiticica has been strongly inspired by the favela's architecture (jacques, 2001). nowadays rio´s slums are an affordable world cup accommodation3 . according to the stockholm challenge (2010): "wikimapa meets all the development and empowerment criteria. it reaches out and into the poverty areas. the grass roots approach with young people and their familiar ict environment is a unique aspect of the project. it has the high potential of making "invisible" areas more visible." collaborative projects the web's communication flow recognizes the freedom to share and reuse content, a kind of uncontrolled collective intelligence (pereira et al., 2013). lévy (1998) defines collective intelligence as a form of universally distributed intelligence, coordinated in real time, which results in effective mobilization of skills. the collective production phenomena, also known as crowdsourcing (howe, 2006), takes contributions from the collective intelligence, and by using the knowledge and work of voluntary users is able to solve problems, create content, and develop new technologies. the following examples illustrate cases where people voluntarily collaborate by adding information and/or participating in discussions about city life. wikicrimes (2013), from the federal university of pernambuco (ufpe), allows users to search, view, and post criminal events on a map. users can select crimes by group, place a marker at a specific place, and fill in information. the web page automatically displays statistics on the contributions (figure 3). the creator's concern is that victims of crimes usually do not report the events, or the police monopolize the information concerning crime. according to them, public security departments have refused to collaborate with the project. such behavior, demonstrates how data transparency is still a taboo in brazil. thus, maybe more than becoming a tool against criminality, this is an initiative that brings transparency to public security. figure3: wikicrimes interface. source: wikicrimes (2013). the project new cartographies (2013) approaches mapping as a creative instrument of recognition, reflection, and action on the urban territory. with the sponsorship of the city of rio de janeiro, the project develops partnerships and research on participatory maps that seek to go beyond simple representation of the physical city space. one experiment attempts to map the ways in which rio comprises different zones. another relates social indices (e.g. life expectancy, population aging, and property costs) of the policy pacification units (upp in portuguese favelas formerly controlled by traffic)4 . there is also a collaborative project where users can view the paths made daily by cyclists through videos and texts sent by volunteers (figure 4). the last one is a continuous production process that reinforces the feeling that "i can also create/join something" and generates visualizations for the understanding of city realities that, in general, are not otherwise available. figure 4: new cartographies interface. source: new cartographies (2013). online activism today, the internet is being identified as more strongly associated with civic engagement than the printed media , television, and even face to face discussions (rothberg, 2008). internet activism has more participants due to the ease of connection between people, the speed of information flow, and low operating costs. through online activism, projects such as the urbanias (2013) looks to alter aspects of urban reality. the site collects citizens' complaints and sends them to the competent bodies, asking for a response (figure 5). via podcasts, the site administrators show their relationship with government agencies, what kind of problems are difficult to solve, and their work routines in details. currently, the site only meets the demands of the city of são paulo. according to the creators, the proposal is to promote activism, providing mechanisms and tools that help and encourage personal entrepreneurship and improvement of all aspects related to the quality of life in the city. in other words, urbanias aims to end the inertia of the citizens vis a vis urban problems, as well as the inertia of the competent bodies to solve them. an alternative journalism group formed in 2011, called ninja narratives independent journalism and action (2013), which has more than 225.000 likes on facebook (figure 6), and has became known worldwide since the live transmissions of the public demonstrations during the confederations cup5 . their work is known for socio-political activism, claiming to be an alternative to the traditional press. the ninja's transmissions are a realtime video stream, over the internet, using mobilephone cameras6 . in the words of one participant: "people were expecting more coverage about what was happening in the streets [and] i think the [traditional] media could not read quickly what was happening in the networks and on the streets, and we were always present in the protests, broadcasting everything live, photographing and taking the point of view of the protesters" (soares, 2013). they encourage anyone to send live videos for upload via ninja. in this sense, they encourage people to start acting like journalists, but closer to the origin of the facts and sources that usually would be left out of the "traditional" reporting of the mainstream media. figure 5: urbanias blog. source: urbanias (2013). figure 6: media ninja webpage on facebook. source: ninja (2013). civic engagement the mass adoption of icts in all areas of society is forcing governments to become more citizen-oriented. the literature recognizes icts skills as a means to intervene in the relationship between citizens and their government, resulting in significant changes in the operational mode of contemporary politics (centelles, 2006). a new model is emerging in urban governance, formed by all stakeholders participating in decision-making, each voice providing different perspectives of meaning attached to the same specific issue to be considered (castells, 1996). initiatives such as the votenaweb (2013) aims to discuss the decision-making between government and the public. votenaweb is a nonpartisan site of civic engagement, which presents simple and brief proposals that are being presented to the national congress (figure 7). anyone can vote symbolically for or against the proposals and give opinions. the goal is to offer an easier way for citizens to follow the politician's work and to keep informed about what happens in the national congress. moreover, it is possible to compare their votes with others and with the parliamentarians (wikipedia, 2013). figure 7: vote on web interface. source: votenaweb (2013). the center for advanced studies on digital democracy (ceadd) from the federal university of bahia (ufba) conducted a study on people's expectations on the platform (ceadd, 2013). from the 2.833 people who responded to the survey, 26% have as their primary intention to affect the decisions of lawmakers. when asked what votenaweb means to them, 37% claimed that it was a way to affect the political life of the country. regarding what else the platform could offer, 37% of the users wanted to be able to talk directly with parliamentarians. according to the authors, these results show that people feel they are being rarely heard by their representatives. thus, there is a willingness to be heard. in the words of castells (2013) in an interview about the case of taksim square in istanbul: "…most citizens do not feel represented by democratic institutions. they are not against the democracy (...) they are against this democratic practice in which the political class appropriates the representation, does not report back, and justify anything based on the interests that really matter to the state. it does not respect the citizens (...) that is what citizens feel and think: that they are not respected?" final remarks the above examples illustrate that nowadays a growing group of citizens are able to get involved by using icts and especially the social media. an increasing number of bottom-up initiatives aim to improve citizenship and the right to the city. the ability to communicate and interact, not only with peers but also with institutions, and political representatives, opens new possibilities for the idea that citizens can play an active role in the civic sphere. for some time now, critical currents speak of the obsolescence of the state, favoring a social order that recognizes the movement and flows within organized networks that emerged with icts (castells, 1996). regarding changes in the relations with urban space, the words of pereira et al. (2013, p. 10) are remarkable: "social networks are now the space where people, especially the young ones, connect, communicate, display and interact much more than the streets, plazas and malls (...)the categories of "public" and "public space" must be revised (...) how this affects architecture and urbanism is still a matter of debate among professionals, but changes are underway." accordingly, it is reasonable to suppose that new forms of governance and civic engagement are emerging, and that these phenomena are producing changes in the citizen's relationship with government and urban space. nevertheless, its real effect is yet to be proven and understood. a further analysis should focus on the analysis of the nature and ways how these changes occur. acknowledgements thanks to capes foundation, ministry of education, brazil, for supporting part of this research during a phd exchange program in finland. endnotes 1 see news available at folha de são paulo online newspaper. retrieved january 23, 2014 from http://frombrazil.blogfolha.uol.com.br/2013/03/22/what-is-middle-class/ 2 see news available at ibge webpage. retrieved january 23, 2014 from http://saladeimprensa.ibge.gov.br/en/noticias?idnoticia=2382&view=noticia 3 see news available at the new york times. retrieved january 23, 2014 from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/22/world/americas/now-taking-world-cup-bookings-rios-slums.html?_r=0 4 the police pacification unit is a law enforcement and social services program pioneered in the state of rio de janeiro, which aims at reclaiming territories, more commonly favelas, controlled by gangs of drug dealers. by may 2013, 231 favelas had an upp (wikipedia, 2013). 5 see news available at the guardian. retrieved november 4, 2013 from www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/29/brazil-ninja-reporters-stories-streets 6 see news available at afp news agency. retrieved january 23, 2014 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhim8hjppns references acselrad, h. & coli, l. r. (2008). disputas cartográficas e disputas territoriais. in acselrad, h. (ed.), cartografias sociais e território (pp. 13-44). rio de janeiro: ippur/ufrj. brazilian internet steering committee. (2012, september 22). pesquisa nacional por amostra de domicílios (pnad) 2011. retrieved july 11, 2013 from www.cgi.br/publicacoes/pesquisas/index.htm#tic-domicilios-2011 castells, m. (2013, july 15). manuel castells analisa as manifestações civis brasileiras. fronteiras do pensamento: interview. retrieved july 11, 2013 from ww.fronteirasdopensamento.com.br/canalfronteiras/entrevistas/?16,68. castells, m. (1996). the rise of the network society: the information age: economy, society, and culture. united kingdom: wiley-blackwell. ceadd. 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(2008, september 19). information and communication technology. retrieved april 22, 2014 from http://foldoc.org/information+and+communication+technology ford foundation. (2010). new social cartography project of the amazon. retrieved september 9, 2011 from www.fordfoundation.org/about-us/2010-annual-report/expanding-community-ownership-for-a-sustainable-future/helping-traditional-communities-claim-their-territorial-rights#satellite-view haller, c. & höffken, s. (2010). new communication tools and eparticipation: social media in urban planning. in m. schrenk, v. popovich, & p. zeile (eds.) realcorp 2010 15th international conference (pp. 18 20). vienna, austria. heng, m. s. h. & moor, a. (2003). from habermas's communicative theory to practice on the internet. information systems journal, 13 (4), 331-352. howe, j. 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(2013). retrieved november 1, 2013 from www.wikipedia.org 1425 final the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles using q-sort methodology to test the nonhierarchical online learning community (nholc) framework the non-hierarchical online learning community (nholc) conceptual framework was designed to leverage the understanding of sociocultural learning theory and community informatics to inform design principles for citizen science online learning communities that inspire online collaboration and local environmental action. the study presented here applies the nholc framework, using a q-sort methodology, to three online learning communities for citizens that were successful in fostering online collaboration and environmental actions. the findings of this paper provide tangible design principles that can be used to develop or revise online learning communities for citizen science instead of reinventing the wheel for each newly emerging project. ruth kermish-allen maine mathematics and science alliance, usa rkermishallen@mmsa.org corresponding author kate kastelein maine mathematics and science alliance, usa kkastelein@mmsa.org !17 kermish-allen, r., kastelein, k. (2018). using q-sort methodology to test the non-hierarchical online learning community (nholc) framework. the journal of community informatics, 14(2), 17–-38. date submitted: 2017-11-02. date accepted: 2018-11-22. 
 copyright (c), 2018 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1425 . mailto:rkermishallen@mmsa.org mailto:kkastelein@mmsa.org http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1425 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1425 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction citizen science projects have traditionally been based on the scientific community’s need to gather vast quantities of high quality data, neglecting to ask what the project participants get in return. how can participants be seen more as collaborative partners in citizen science projects? online communities for citizen science are expanding rapidly, giving participants the opportunity to take part in a wide range of activities, from monitoring invasive species to identifying far-off galaxies. these communities can bring together the virtual and physical worlds in new ways that are egalitarian, collaborative, applied, localized and globalized to solve real environmental problems. this vision is in direct alignment with that of the community informatics (ci) field. for example, ci is defined as the use of data from various technological communications from within a community (dara o’neil, 2002), with the goal to use the data to improve the community (stoecker, 2005). application of ci to improve the community can relate to community sustainability, learning opportunities, workforce development (eagle, hague, keeble, & loader, 2005), and can facilitate increased civic engagement (stoecker, 2005). with this in mind, ci and the more participatory and co-created variants of citizen science have a great deal to learn from each other. the study presented here is designed to dive deep into citizen science projects that are realizing this shared vision of citizen science and ci to provide insights into how the field can learn from examples of successes and amplify outcomes in online collaboration and solutions to real environmental issues that matter to participants. defining the nholc conceptual framework the non-hierarchical online learning community (nholc) conceptual framework (kermish-allen & kastelein, in press) provides a powerful starting point for designing and studying online spaces. the nholc framework is rooted strongly the sociocultural learning theories of communities of practice (lave & wenger, 1991; wenger, 2000b, 2000a), knowledge building (scardamalia & bereiter, 2006), place-based education (smith & sobel, 2010; sobel, 2005), and funds of knowledge (gonzalez, moll, & amanti, 2005; moll, amanti, neff, & gonzalez, 1992). communities of practice (cop), focuses on how a group of individuals work and learn together. integration of cop theory helps inform how an online community might function. place-based education (pbe) links the work of the community to the relevant interests and place of the participants. knowledge building (kb) guides the community with the intention to build new knowledge together related to the citizen science question mind. funds of knowledge (fok) provide the framework with guidance for how to value diverse lived experiences and not just the “usually suspected” forms of expertise. !18 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 this conceptual framework incorporates diverse participant groups, real-world investigations rooted in place (local contexts), valuing lived experience as essential to building new knowledge, a recognition that knowledge generation is not a top-down process but instead a dynamic multi-directional process between participants, and finally leveraging the power of a digital culture to build a knowledge-building community that transcends geographic limitations of traditional place-based education to answer questions people care about. strengths of the nholc framework image 1: visual representation of the theoretical frame of nholc conceptual framework this interwoven framework places emphasis on: 1. bringing together diverse participant groups from widely differing areas of expertise to enable multi-directional learning opportunities in which everyone who joins the community has something to offer and teach others within the community !19 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 2. enabling participant-driven real-world investigations personally relevant to participants’ lives 3. sharing project purpose and goals 4. enabling communication structures to build relationships and roles among diverse participants 5. sharing place-based data across geographic boundaries image 1 above highlights how the core concepts of each guiding theory have been woven together into the five focus areas of the nholc conceptual framework. as the strengths of these theories weave together to create a new genre for collaborative online learning – the nholc framework – the question we now must ask is: which components of this new framework are most important for fostering collaboration in online learning communities? understanding which components are most important to online collaboration can begin to define design principles for successful applications of the nholc framework. as described at the start of this paper the realm of citizen science provides a valuable context for the use of the nholc framework. to test this proposition, the sections below detail a q methodology study that addressed the research question: what are the essential theory-based design elements of online learning communities for citizen science projects that resulted in environmental actions? methods – identifying the cases to answer this question the most appropriate strategy is to find best-case scenario examples of projects that have characteristics of the nholc framework embedded in their design. with this in mind, a multiple-case study design is the best methodological fit to understand the implementation and design of an innovation (yin, 2014), in this case online learning communities for citizen science that have been successful in supporting online collaboration and on-the-ground environmental actions. a wide variety of citizen science projects use online learning communities. however not all are locally focused or personally relevant for the individual participant. for example, galaxy zoo asks members to classify distant galaxies from images captured by the hubble telescope and the sloan digital sky survey. others, such as the 1000 genome project, asks for help from the general public to identify novel genetic variants in examples of y chromosomes from across europe to track the historical migrations of humans. these are exciting ways to engage in citizen science and scientific questions but they do not necessarily relate to a participant’s everyday life and the world around them. the filter this study chose to use was projects that have shown success in implementing local environmental actions due to engaging in online collaboration. “action” in this sense does not refer to modifying specific individual behaviors like recycling or saving water, but instead to engage learners in planning and taking action on !20 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 community-level environmental issues they find relevant (schusler, krasny, peters, & decker, 2009). results of these types of action can be seen in policy changes such as land use regulations to conserve or restore sensitive habitats; efforts to eradicate invasive species; sociological changes that promote car pooling or public transportation use; and activities such as planting butterfly gardens. participants learn to critically analyze information, make informed decisions, and take an active role in accomplishing tasks to enable those actions. the key components of the action of interest in this study are solutions that the citizen scientists produced to address the problems they identified. this study does not analyze the actions in any way: it simply documents the types of actions resulting from the projects and the design elements and practices present in the project that supported its development. the site selection requirements can be found in box a (below). to tease out the most important, or essential, components of these online communities a q-methodology is used to assess participants’ priorities about an issue. the issue in this case is – what are the most important components of the nholc framework that foster collaboration and environmental action in online learning communities for citizen science. box a: site selection criteria !21 site selection criteria 1. the citizen science project uses an online space to: a. bring multiple stakeholders together to answer questions relevant to the project (diverse ages and areas of expertise – for example, teachers, students, scientists, interested citizens, etc.) b. bring together geographically diverse individuals to share place-based data c. upload and share data via mobile and/or desktop technology with all users d. analyze data e. identify new areas of inquiry f. provide an opportunity for users to connect with each other via a variety of means (discussion posts, messages, etc.) 2. the online space has: a. been in use for 6 months or more b. has funding to remain active through june 2016 c. the ability to record and capture discussions online between users 3. the overall citizen science project: a. have evidence of environmental actions implemented by participants due in part to the project b. be committed to working with individuals of different ages and expertise (e.g., youth and adults; students; civic and science professionals) c. be willing to share activity log data with this researcher d. be willing to reach out to project participants for surveying and interviewing purposes e. be willing to support staff time and opportunities to participate in researcher interviews and observations the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 q – methodology q-methodology, originally developed by william stephenson (1935) to assess individuals’ priorities about an issue, is designed to recognize the different value systems of different constituents (brown, 1980). this approach can also illustrate underlying patterns between groups or individuals that have broad shared values, and can capture ‘the way in which meaning is organized and patterned’ (brewerton & millward, 2001). the basic difference between q-methodology and standard survey analysis is its design to establish patterns within and across individuals rather than patterns across individual traits, such as age, class, etc. (barry & proops, 1999). in this study, q-methodology uncovers the most important components of the nholc framework – the underlying essential design elements for collaboration and local environmental action common across individuals’ experiences of online learning communities for citizen science. a total of 30 citizen science participants took part in the study. the sample includes project coordinators/founders and other participants including scientists, teachers, local community organizers, and the general public. these individuals came from across the country including maine, california, new york city, new orleans, and everywhere in between. all participants are active on one of the online communities. the sample includes all the major types of stakeholders involved in each of the case’s learning communities. fifteen participants, five from each of the three cases comprise this q-sort. each case includes one project founder/coordinator, two scientists or technical experts, and two members of the general public at varying levels of participation. descriptions for case study sites public lab is both an online community and a non-profit that grew out of a grassroots initiative during the deepwater horizon bp oil spill to enable communities impacted by the spill to access data from “community satellites” helium balloons, kites with mounted inexpensive digital cameras about where and how much the oil was spreading. public lab participants can learn how to investigate environmental concerns of interest to them using inexpensive do-it-yourself (diy) techniques. today, public lab is an international community with participants active in every hemisphere. the types of environmental monitoring range from water quality to air pollution, and others as the community defines its interests. the online community is an open network of educators, technologists, scientists, and researchers working to create, share, and use low cost solutions to solving local environmental problems. this community has supported environmental actions ranging from aerial mapping for monitoring purposes (measuring waterway pollutants, drought conditions, plant health, invasive species, industrial pollution, etc.) to water quality testing to air quality monitoring—with opportunities to engage in local actions related to the research. !22 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the goal of vital signs, a project of the gulf of maine research institute, is identifying and documenting invasive plants in the northeast united states. the project originated as a citizen science project focused for the k-12 classroom, but has since grown to include adults at environmental organizations like land trusts, master gardeners, and others. the online community provides a venue to learn about which species others are finding in the region, participate in “missions” to find specific invasive species, and then a space to upload their findings. participating scientists, or species experts, confirm or deny species identification of user data. recently, vital signs has added a “design your own mission” function that allows participants to design their own investigations into local environmental questions. many participants have engaged in action by hosting community events to educate the public about the presence, spread, and concerns connected with specific invasive species. others have conducted removal or remediation of invasive species. weatherblur, a project of the maine math and science alliance, brings together scientists, fishermen, and k-8 students and teachers to explore the local impacts of shifting weather and climate change via an online community. the wb learning community uses online technologies to provide users with the opportunity to participate in an evolving set of “cocreated” citizen science projects. the projects are rooted in place-based weather and climate data and questions that matter to citizens and provide highly valued data to scientists. during the pilot phase of this project, a bycatch study used lobster traps to investigate organisms that live among lobsters. members asked questions about each other’s data and provided suggestions for more accurate data collection. in august 2014, a task force on green crabs solicited a summary of the weatherblur investigation. this report played an important role in developing new regulations to minimize threats posed by the crabs. each of the cases described above provide an online space for diverse stakeholders scientists, youth, teachers, interested community members such as representatives from natural resource based economies to ask questions, share and analyze data, collaboratively solve personally relevant scientific questions, and build new knowledge together. the goal behind all these projects is to increase the participatory involvement of local people in environmental monitoring that can lead to highly accelerated research findings and policy changes to tackle environmental challenges. development of qstatements q-methodology typically includes a concourse stage during which statements are generated to capture the full range of subjective experiences on the study topic. the most representative statements constitute the q-sample (mckeown & thomas, 2013). the qstatements for this study were designed to highlight two different contexts. first, a series of 45 statements reflect the core ideas of the original four socio-cultural learning theories community of practice, knowledge building, place-based education, and funds of knowledge – gathered largely from existing literature and design principles specific to each !23 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 individual learning theory. second, a series of 55 statements reflect the emerging ideas of interwoven nholc conceptual framework. each set of statements were then culled to limit repetition, increase clarity, and to reach a manageable number of unique statements that reflected the range of literatures reviewed. in accordance with the recommendations of mckeown & thomas (2013), the final set of statements were limited to no more than 50 statements. the final 49 statements included in the q sample are presented in table 1 in the findings section. the first column of the table denotes the origination of each statement – original theoretical frame or nholc conceptual frame. any statement with a nholc represents the new interwoven framework. data collection the q-sort template for this study was forced-choice and arranged in a quasi-normal pattern (figure 2). statements were sorted on a nine-point scale, ranging from -4 (least important) to +4 (most important), as shown in figure 1. each of the three case study projects – weatherblur, public lab, and vital signs – were all equally represented with 10 participants each. to ensure equal representation only adult participants from the united states were included in this study. in addition, the different participant groups from each project were equally represented in the sample of 10 individuals from each project including research scientists/technical experts, project coordinators, teachers, local activists, and general participants. q-sorts were completed using online video conferencing and screen sharing. each interview was approximately 60 minutes. the remote participants completed the q-sort online using flash-q software (hackert & braehler, 2007). the interview began with an introduction to how the online flash version q sort functioned. the participant manually sorted each statement with his or her own mouse. all 30 participants were presented with the statements in random order, and asked to arrange them initially into one of three piles (important, neutral, not important). next, participants were asked to sort their cards according to the template below by placing cards in one of the nine columns – forced choice placement (see figure 2). after completing the sort, participants were interviewed to document the reasons they selected statements as most or least important and to gather their perceptions of the overall themes for the kinds of statements that were most and least important to productive collaboration in an online citizen science community. each q-sort and associated interview took no more than 75 minutes per person total and was completed in one session. !24 prompt used during q-sorts with participants “we are interested in learning about the pieces of the _______ project that were most successful at helping participants work together on the project to meet goals. please think about the _______ project and sort the statements below to identify those that are most and least important for collaboration online with other participants to reach the goals of the project.” the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 image 2: q-sort distribution for 49 q statements defining factors: perspectives on what was most important for online collaboration and on-the-ground action the q-sort data were analyzed using pqmethod software (schmolck, 2002), which conducts a principle components (factor) analysis with a varimax rotation. following the criteria set by green and salkind (green & salkind, 2010), the three-factor solution was chosen to interpret the range of perspectives captured. the three-factor solution with the equitable representation across projects accounts for all individuals in the sample, and explains 49% of the total variance. table 1 (below) shares the findings of the q sort. column 1, theoretical frame, denotes whether the statement originated from one of the four original theories alone (cop, kb, fok, or pbe) or if it is a statement describing the new interwoven nholc conceptual framework (xxx/nholc). column 2, statement, simply restates each of the statements that participants ranked during the q sort. columns 3, 4, and 5 factor #, provides the average ranking for each statement from the individuals that were grouped together into each factor. column 6 simply restates which factor each statement fit best within based on the amount of agreement amongst the individuals in that factor. for example, the first 11 statements in the table are statements that all members of factor 1 agree with. the statements that have a “1,2,3” in this column are statements that could fit into each of the separate factors, but each factor had a different perspective on how important or unimportant it was. the statements that have an “na” in this column are statements that did not fit into any factor. the statements that have a “consensus” in column 6 are statements that everyone in the entire sample shared agreement on. !25 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 see table 1 for the factor rankings of q-sort statements, including consensus rankings. table 1: factor ranking of q-sort statements and consensus statements theoretical frame statement factor 1 factor 2 factor 3 three factor solution kb the online learning community provided a structure to encourage the sharing of responsibilities and decision-making. -3 0 -1 1 cop/nholc the online learning community connected individuals who have similar interests, but did not use the same resources for work (the same language, tools, experiences, definitions). -2 0 0 1 cop/nholc the different perspectives of online learning community members assisted in developing individuals’ roles on the online learning community. -3 -1 -1 1 cop/nholc the online learning community encouraged members to value the variety of expertise present in the community. -1 1 1 1 cop/nholc the different perspectives of online learning community members aided in developing relationships with others in the community. -2 0 1 1 fok/nholc the online learning community encouraged members with historic and cultural knowledge relevant to the project to share that knowledge with others. -2 1 0 1 kb/nholc the online learning community brought together the diverse stakeholders needed to achieve the project’s goals. 0 2 2 1 cop the online learning community’s overall shared purpose motivated members of the community. 3 -2 -1 1 kb online learning community members had a commitment to the same overall goals. 3 -3 -2 1 kb/nholc the online learning community had a mechanism that provided the opportunity to critique and help shape new ideas that emerge from the members of the community. 1 -3 -2 1 kb online learning community members had a commitment to building knowledge that could be used by the whole community. 1 -1 0 1 !26 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 cop/nholc the online learning community attracted new members by showing the relevance of the project to potential member’s lives and interests. -1 1 -2 2 cop the online learning community provided a starting point for conversation. 1 3 1 2 kb/nholc the online learning community encouraged any community member (no matter his/her age, expertise, or perspective) to propose new questions or investigations on the site. 0 2 0 2 kb/nholc the online learning community provided the opportunity for members from multiple perspectives to respond to and build on the ideas of others to advance a project. 1 4 0 2 cop the online learning community’s overall shared purpose united members of the community. 0 -4 0 2 cop online learning community members felt like they were working toward the common goal of building new knowledge together. 2 -4 2 2 kb/nholc members joined the online learning community because they wanted to build knowledge related to the shared goals of the project. 2 -3 2 2 cop/nholc a shared purpose was important in fostering collaboration on the online learning community amongst its various stakeholders. 1 -1 1 2 cop online learning community members had the ability to move from new-comer to experienced members as they enhanced their skills and relationships on the site. -1 0 3 3 cop the online learning community provided members with the freedom to express opinions and offer suggestions without fear of how the other members would judge it. -1 -2 2 3 kb the online learning community provided all members with a way to track and understand how and why a project changed over time. 0 0 -4 3 kb the online learning community provided the opportunity to develop investigations that represented evolving ideas in the community. 1 0 -1 na cop/nholc the olc provided a starting point for discussion with stakeholder groups that otherwise not connect to share ideas. 0 2 1 na !27 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 cop the online learning community provided the opportunity for community members to develop roles on the site. -4 -2 -4 na cop/nholc the online learning community brought together people with different levels of expertise and/or experience. 1 2 3 na kb/nholc all members of the online learning community had the potential to influence the direction and focus of projects. 0 3 -1 1, 2, 3 cop the online learning community provided a place to put resources that were used by the community. 3 1 -1 1, 2, 3 cop the online learning community had a structure for notifying members of where information came from and how it had been used in the past. -1 1 -3 1, 2, 3 kb/nholc the online learning community provided the opportunity for members to propose emerging project/investigation ideas that were relevant to their interests. 2 3 0 1, 2, 3 cop the online learning community encouraged community members to apply information on the site to their own situations and questions. 0 3 -3 1, 2, 3 kb/nholc the online learning community highlighted and made clear the different groups / stakeholder perspectives involved in the project. -3 1 -1 1, 2, 3 cop/nholc the online learning community provided the opportunity for community members to share the relevance of the projects to their lives. -2 2 0 1, 2, 3 cop the online learning community’s overall shared purpose helped the project feel significant. 4 -3 1 1, 2, 3 fok/nholc the online learning community provided members with the opportunity to share their knowledge of where they live and what they have experienced in their life. -4 -1 2 1, 2, 3 cop projects on the online learning community solved authentic, real-world problems. 4 1 4 1, 2, 3 fok each member of the online learning community brought knowledge to the community based on where they live and what they have experienced in their life. -2 0 3 1, 2, 3 kb/nholc the online learning community provided the opportunity to connect with members who had the expertise needed for an investigation. 2 -1 4 1, 2, 3 cop the online learning community brought people together from different locations. 1 0 3 1, 2, 3 !28 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the nholc statements that defined each factor were of interest, as those characteristics had the potential to bridge the existing models of collaborative learning in the sociocultural learning theory literatures explored with the new emerging genre of the nholc experiences. the characteristics of each factor, consensus statements, and interview data were used to create descriptive titles and narratives of each perspective/factor. using a participatory approach, the project coordinators of each case study were presented with and asked to give feedback and refinements on the factor descriptions and optimal q-sorts during a one-hour long video-conference focus group. during the focus group participants were invited to share their interpretation of the factors as well and assist in further refining the factor titles, narratives, and implications for design principles. their feedback is included in the factor descriptions and discussion sections below. cop the online learning community provided the opportunity for community members to develop relationships with other members on the site. -1 -2 -2 consensus cop the goals of the online learning community are defined and refined by members. -3 -2 -2 consensus cop the online learning community connected individuals who use similar resources for work (same language, tools, experiences, definitions). -1 -1 -3 consensus kb/nholc the online learning community provided members with various ways to connect with any member of the community. -2 -2 -2 consensus cop/nholc the online learning community helped community members connect to and work with members who had submitted information in the past. 0 -1 -1 consensus cop/nholc starting with a shared purpose was important in generating trust amongst the various stakeholders. -1 -1 0 consensus cop the online learning community helped foster relationships and built trust among community members. 0 -1 1 consensus cop the online learning community provided the opportunity for community members to share information with one another. 2 2 1 consensus cop/nholc the different types of expertise present on the online learning community were a factor in making members feel like they were working toward the common goal of building knowledge together. 2 1 2 consensus cop the online learning community provided access to the tools and practices needed to solve authentic, real-world problems. 3 4 3 consensus !29 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 the factor analysis teased out three primary factors/perspectives that represent three distinct groups of participants from across the projects. each group has their own distinct perspective on what is important to collaboration online for citizen science projects. the descriptions below explain how each distinct group viewed what was and was not important in their experiences of collaboration online in the citizen science project they participated in. factor 1: clarity of purpose is important, but not members’ backgrounds a shared purpose and a focus on real world problems foster collaboration online, while knowing community members’ backgrounds is not important. demographic information: factor 1 has 7 significantly loading participants and it explains 19% of the study variance. the participants in this factor represent participants in all case study sites, including 4 teachers, 1 scientist, and 2 general participants. factor interpretation: a clear understanding of and commitment to the project’s shared goal (114: +3) generates motivation (76: +3) for collaboration online. collaboration online can be fostered by projects that solve authentic, real world problems (145: +4). a shared purpose of the collaboration can make the work of the project feel significant to participants (117: +4). collaboration in an online learning community happens when participants have a commitment to building new knowledge that can be used by the whole community (180: +1) and a mechanism to critique and shape those new ideas that emerge from the community (114: +3). a structure within the online community to share responsibilities and decision-making (11: -3) was not of importance to online collaboration within the experiences of individuals in this factor. bringing together diverse stakeholders (109: 0) or valuing the variety of expertise present in the community (111: -1) was not a driver to online collaboration or the development of roles in the online community (83: -3). role development was not an ingredient for collaboration online. in addition, the ability to share historical and cultural knowledge (194: -2) or knowledge of where they live and what they have experienced in life (118: -4) relevant to the project with others was not part of this factor’s experience in fostering collaboration online. factor 2: diversity of perspectives and stakeholders matter, but shared goals are not needed projects that are relevant to participants’ place and lived experience, as well as diverse participants that range across multiple perspectives are important to fostering online collaboration, while it is not as important for everyone to have one shared goal since everyone comes to the project for a somewhat different purpose. demographic information: factor 2 has 4 significantly loading participants and it explains 13% of the study variance. the participants are from public lab and weatherblur, !30 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 including 1 project coordinator and 3 active participants (a fisherman and 2 local organizers). factor interpretation: providing an opportunity for participants from multiple perspectives to build on the ideas of others to advance a project (174: +4) and encouraging diverse stakeholders no matter his/her age, expertise, or perspective to propose new questions (107: +2) is important in fostering online collaboration. to foster collaboration the online space attracted individuals to participate in and propose projects that are relevant to their everyday lives and interests (14: +1 and 57: +3). knowing the different stakeholder groups involved in a project encouraged collaboration online (79: +1). encouraging community members to apply information on the site to their own situations and questions fostered collaboration online (60: +3). the online space was a starting point for conversations amongst the various stakeholders (38: +3). having shared goals/purpose or working toward building new knowledge together was neither a starting point, nor a uniting or motivating factor for collaboration online in the experience of these participants (186 & 92: -4 and 95: -3 and 138: -1). factor 3: building skills and trust amongst diverse stakeholders is important to collaboration, historical context of the collaboration is not this group believes that collaboration can move forward by sharing lived experiences and making new connections across boundaries. the ability to connect with individuals that had a diverse array of expertise and geographies in a safe supportive environment was important to online collaboration, whereas building on past historical knowledge of the community is not as important. demographic information: factor 3 has 5 significantly loading participants and it explains 17% of the study variance. the participants are active in both weatherblur and vital signs, including 1 teacher, 2 project coordinators, and 2 scientist participants. factor interpretation: solving authentic real world problems (146: +4) and the ability or each member to share knowledge based on where they live and what they have experienced in their life (165: +3) fostered collaboration online. to foster collaboration it was important that the online space provided the opportunity for members to connect with others that had the expertise needed for an investigation (187: +4) and were from different locations (191: +3). to foster collaboration it was important that the online community provided the opportunity for members to move from new-comer to experienced members as they enhanced their skills and relationships on the site (81: +3) and that they felt freedom to express opinions and offer suggestions without fear of how the other members would judge it (127: +3). in the experience of these individuals the ability to track and understand how and why a project changed over time (28: -4), notifying members of where information came from and how it had been used in the past, or applying information on the site to their own situations and questions (60: -3) were not important in fostering collaboration. !31 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 consensus statements given that the goal of this study is to explore whether there are characteristics that participants considered essential design elements for collaboration in online learning communities, the statements that are agreed by all respondents to be important or not important across all participants are equally relevant (if not more so) than the factors themselves. three statements were ranked as important by all factors, and are considered foundational in defining design principles for collaboration in online learning communities. the strongest consensus amongst the participants is the importance of the online space providing the access to tools (data collection protocols, research notes, maps, data analysis) and practices (user suggested improvements on how to collect data, how-to guides) needed to solve authentic, real-world problems. in addition, all participants identify the importance of being able to share information online with a wide array of expertise present in order to build knowledge together. four statements were ranked as not important by all perspectives, and thus not considered imperative components for collaboration online. first and foremost, goals in the online community that are defined and refined by its members are not important to online collaboration. connecting members who have similar skillsets, interests, experiences, and practices is not important to collaboration online. in addition, based on the interviewees’ experiences to date, 1) providing multiple ways to connect and 2) developing relationships with others on the site is not important to online collaboration. implications for designing online learning communities using the nholc framework it is encouraging to see representation from each of the three cases in each factor. this cross-factor representation shows that there is enough consistency in each participant’s experience of the various online citizen science programs to uncover potential design principles that can work for all projects. the consensus statements indicate that all participants think that authentic, real-world problems and the tools necessary to solve them are essential for establishing online collaboration. a somewhat unexpected, but eagerly welcomed, emergent design principle is the importance of having an online community that brings together individuals from diverse stakeholder groups with vast areas of expertise (lived experience, skill sets, ages, jobs, etc.). such as bringing representatives from a rural mining community together with technologists who can design low cost water monitoring equipment and electro-chemical engineers. together this cast of unlikely characters that can only connect via an online community can define an potential issue in the rural community, develop a means for data collection when high end scientific equipment is not an option, analyze the data to !32 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 understand what hard metals are in the water, and define a solution to mitigate the polluted water. in addition, consensus statements highlight that access to others with a similar skillset or interest to one’s own does not foster collaboration; this suggests that many areas of expertise and experience are necessary to solve the relevant real-world problems on which these projects focus. this finding emphasizes one component of the nholc framework bringing together diverse stakeholders with a variety of expertise and lived experiences. building on the community’s past knowledge is also a component of the original theoretical framework that varies across the factors. factor 3 did not see building on the community’s prior knowledge as important, while the other factors were neutral about this component of the theoretical framework. these findings can be based on the fact that each of the case studies has a different level of prior knowledge available for participants to use. for example, the weatherblur project is new and does not have a large store of past data. public lab, on the other hand, has a glut of past knowledge about regional environmental monitoring projects and low-tech tools to use for data collection. vital signs has a valuable store of past knowledge and data but participants do not necessarily need to use it to complete their projects. based on the findings of this study, building on past knowledge is not a key design principle of online collaboration but is worthy of further study. participant-driven inquiry and decision making is a component of the original theoretical framework that was hotly contested among the factors. statements related to shared goals, user-driven inquiry, shared responsibilities and decision-making fell all over the map. as factor 1 highlights, a clear understanding and commitment to the shared goal of the project and user-driven inquiry is extremely important. factor 2 can be interpreted to believe that it is not important for everyone to have one shared goal since everyone comes to the project for a somewhat different purpose and individual goal in mind. in juxtaposition, factor 3 considers shared goals and user-driven inquiry of neutral importance. this might be for a variety of reasons. although each of the cases studied offer the ability for users to create new inquiries and define new goals, not every participant took advantage of that ability. many participants expressed interest in doing more user-driven inquiry, but for a variety of reasons including time and low-confidence in their ability to do so, they did not take advantage of this design element in the online community. this low-confidence in participants’ abilities to do user-driven inquiry, but a high level of interest highlights a gap in the field that new citizen science initiatives should begin to address with professional development and added supports for user-driven inquiry. within two of the cases, the democratization of science as driven by the public was a core founding philosophy while one of the cases did not start out with that ideal but has been moving toward user-driven inquiry in recent years. for all of these reasons, the theoretically driven design principle of user-driven inquiry and the evolution of shared goals should remain an important and highly valued design principle for online collaboration in citizen science but how they are operationalized in online environments needs further exploration and explanation. !33 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 reflecting on the findings of this study it is clear that the original nholc conceptual framework should be revisited and revised. the findings from the q sort seem to suggest that emphasis should be heavily placed on the diverse participant groups component of the framework. the fact that participants can collaborate with individuals who have new information relevant to their interests that they may never have had the opportunity to connect with if it were not for the online community is an important and powerful driver in these communities. the findings also suggest that authentic real-world problems that are relevant for learners needs to be a highly prioritized component of successful online communities for citizen science. across all of the projects and factors that emerged, real-world relevance was core to each individual’s experience. this emphasized component of the framework brings a new question into focus. namely, how does an individual define or determine relevancy and real-world applications. in reflecting upon how important this component was to individuals, but yet somewhat undefined, highlights the need for further study to answer this emergent question. image 3: original versus revised nholc conceptual framework the three additional components – communication, sharing place-based data, and a shared purpose – were all very variable in levels of importance to collaboration in each factor. but each still played a key role in individual’s experiences. additional research is needed to better understand the role of each of these components and how they could be revised to increase the impact of the nholc conceptual framework. !34 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 limitations of the study the design principles presented here could be viewed as “common sense” and nothing new to the field. however, simply having a starting point that filters out the other potentially important design principles is an advancement that did not exist prior to this study. many researchers across the country are asking similar questions and the design principles outlined here provide productive pathways to address these lines of inquiry. in addition, the findings presented rely upon members of the community that have positive intentions as they populate the databases, comment, discuss, and share information. without strong values in the online community and the drive to self-monitor content these online communities intended for positive community change and understanding could quickly devolve into unsafe learning contexts. this study is not without limitations. first, the case studies were all chosen based on whether or not the projects showcased the core characteristics of a nholc. this best-case scenario sampling method provides a focused lens to the study, but it also places limitations on the findings of the design principles. therefore, one must keep an open mind to additional design principles that do not fall within the nholc framework. the study at hand emphasizes non-hierarchical models to understand how those specific environments function. therefore it does not explore the ways that a more hierarchical model may contribute to online collaboration and local environmental action. it is the hope that additional research studies will simply use the findings of this study to ask additional research questions, perhaps by applying new theoretical and conceptual frameworks as lens to highlight design principles. a second limitation of the study comes from the sampling of the interviewees. the sampling of project participants is not random. the study asked each project coordinator to suggest potential interviewees. the study incorporates individuals that had been some of the most active in the online communities and could hopefully provide the greatest insight into how and why it worked for them. due to this method the findings of this study does not include the perspectives of individuals that joined the communities and dropped out, those that were not highly active, or those that did not want to participate in the interview process. linking the nholc conceptual framework back to the future of citizen science this paper explores how sociocultural learning theory can inform design principles for online citizen science learning communities in order to inspire local environmental action. to answer this question the research presented applied the new interwoven nonhierarchical online learning community (nholc) framework to a multiple case study of !35 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 three citizen science projects that use online learning communities as a core component of their program. past research in citizen science contexts has shown that individuals have greater motivation to engage and learn if the topics being explored are relevant to their everyday lives (falk, 2001; dierking, 2010). individuals gain additional motivation if they can directly affect the learning process, content, or outcomes/actions (bonney et al. 2009; falk 2001). in addition, the ability of participants to have the opportunity to do the work of scientists as they experience the same thrills of inquiry, debate, and new questioning that happens during true scientific inquiry relevant to their interests (bonney et al., 2009) is an extremely valuable experience. the findings of this study certainly align with this prior research, but it also adds some fresh new insights into how online spaces specifically can be structured to enable collaboration between participants in online communities for citizen science. the findings represented here present the theoretical foundations, conceptual framework, and essential design principles for online citizen science projects. the findings provide a starting point for researchers and practitioners to further develop this area of work. findings from this study suggest, the design elements of the nholc framework that rise to the top as important design elements for use in online learning communities for citizen science are: 1. access to tools (data collection protocols, research notes, maps, data analysis) and practices (user suggested improvements on how to collect data, how-to guides) needed to solve authentic, real-world problems; and 2. diverse stakeholder groups from vast areas of expertise (both professional and lived experiences). the other elements of the nholc framework are important to collaboration for specific participant types and are worthy of additional study related to how to foster or challenge collaboration online within specific contexts (e.g. targeted audiences). in addition, further research is needed to understand exactly what forms or tools and practices are needed to solve problems, as well as foster collaboration and local action. further research is also needed to explore the range and variation of the nholc framework components by diving deeper into participants’ experiences of the projects, with special attention to the technological functions and programmatic components of the online community, and how they supported the participant experience and informed participants’ responses to the study presented above. for instance, which technological supports in the online community provided a participant with access to diverse stakeholders and how they were used. this instrumental case study combines the lessons learned across three innovative online citizen science projects that have all been successful in fostering localized environmental actions. the nholc framework serves as a lens with which to better understand the !36 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 structural make up of the online functions and the experiences of the participants. in addition, the nholc framework and its associated design principles empower citizens with data, tools, and the necessary networks to find solutions to the environmental questions they have about their own communities. it is hoped that the findings of this study will contribute to the design of other citizen-based online communities that want to leverage the power of our modern digitally connected society to solve local and global environmental problems acknowledgements this research was funded by national science foundation’s cyberlearning: transforming stem education program (award #1451315). special thanks to dr. karen peterman and dr. sue allen for their guidance and assistance in the development of this study and the q sort statements. special thanks are also in order to dr. janet kolodner, dr. christopher hoadley, dr. james karlan, dr. jean kayira, dr. mike mueller, and david sobel for their mentoring, advice, and support throughout the entire process. references barry, j., & proops, j. (1999). seeking sustainability discourses with q methodology. ecological economics, 28(3), 337–345. https://doi.org/10.1016/ s0921-8009(98)00053-6 brewerton, p. m., & millward, l. j. (2001). organizational research methods: a guide for students and researchers. sage. brown, s. (1980). political subjectivity: applications of q methodology in political science. yale university press. dara o’neil. (2002). assessing community informatics: a review of methodological approaches for evaluating community networks and community technology centers. internet research, 12(1), 76–102. https://doi.org/10.1108/10662240210415844 eagle, d., hague, b., keeble, l., & loader, b. d. (2005). community informatics: shaping computer-mediated social networks. routledge. gonzalez, n., moll, l. c., & amanti, c. (eds.). (2005). funds of knowledge: theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms (1 edition). mahwah, n.j: routledge. green, s. b., & salkind, n. j. (2010). using spss for windows and macintosh: analyzing and understanding data. prentice hall press. retrieved from http://dl.acm.org/ citation.cfm?id=1894956 lave, j., & wenger, e. (1991). situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation (1st edition). cambridge england ; new york: cambridge university press. mckeown, b., & thomas, d. (2013). q methodology. sage publications, inc. moll, l. c., amanti, c., neff, d., & gonzalez, n. (1992). funds of knowledge for teaching: using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. theory into practice, 31(2), 132–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405849209543534 !37 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 scardamalia, m., & bereiter, c. (2006). knowledge building: theory, pedagogy, and technology. the cambridge handbook of the learning sciences, 97–115. schusler, t. m., krasny, m. e., peters, s. j., & decker, d. j. (2009). developing citizens and communities through youth environmental action. environmental education research, 15(1), 111–127. smith, a., g., sobel, d. sobel, d. (2010). gregory a. smith,david sobel’splaceand community-based education in schools (sociocultural, political, and historical studies in education). routledge. sobel, d. (2005). place-based education: connecting classrooms & communities. great barrington, ma: orion society. stephenson, w. (1935). technique of factor analysis. nature, 136, 297. https://doi.org/ 10.1038/136297b0 stoecker, r. r. (2005). is community informatics good for communities? questions confronting an emerging field. the journal of community informatics, 1(3). retrieved from http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/183 wenger, e. (2000a). communities of practice and social learning systems. organization, 7(2), 225–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/135050840072002 wenger, e. (2000b). communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity (1 edition). cambridge, u.k.; new york, n.y.: cambridge university press. yin, r. k. (2014). case study research: design and methods. !38 introduction defining the nholc conceptual framework strengths of the nholc framework methods – identifying the cases q – methodology descriptions for case study sites development of qstatements data collection defining factors: perspectives on what was most important for online collaboration and on-the-ground action factor 1: clarity of purpose is important, but not members’ backgrounds factor 2: diversity of perspectives and stakeholders matter, but shared goals are not needed factor 3: building skills and trust amongst diverse stakeholders is important to collaboration, historical context of the collaboration is not consensus statements implications for designing online learning communities using the nholc framework limitations of the study linking the nholc conceptual framework back to the future of citizen science acknowledgements references exploring the use of ppgis in self-organizing urban development: the case of softgis in pacific beach (california) kaisa schmidt-thomé1, sirkku wallin2, tiina laatikainen3, jonna kangasoja4, marketta kyttä5 research fellow, department of real estate, planning and geoinformatics, aalto university, finland. email: kaisa.schmidt-thome@aalto.fi research fellow phd candidate phd candidate associate professor introduction discussing public participation geographic information systems (ppgis) together with 'self-organizing urban development' is challenging, as the two research fields have different foci. the debates around self-organizing urban development have concentrated on empowerment (boonstra & boelens, 2011), agent-based systems (portugali, 2000) and urban regeneration led by local stakeholders (van meerkerk, boonstra, & edelenbos, 2012). when utilizing technological solutions to support community building, the tools have usually been found within community informatics (gurstein, 2007; saad-sulonen & horelli, 2010). public participation gis (ppgis) solutions, in turn, draw on geospatial technologies for collecting and analyzing public, place-based knowledge. they have been developed to expand "spatially-explicit public participation" (brown, 2013, p. 1) in land use planning as well as natural resource management (brown & reed, 2009; brown, 2012b; kahila & kyttä, 2009; mclain et al., 2013). the involved end-users of ppgis applications have often consisted of government organizations, and this array of users has seldom included community organizations, which in reality, have a central role in the debates around self-organizing urban development (cf. boonstra & boelens, 2011) 1 . the demanding participatory setting described above holds true also for the case at hand, which introduces a ppgis application called 'softgis' as a potential facilitator of self-organizing urban development. the softgis approach, which has been in development since 2005 at aalto university, finland, has been advanced in cooperation with urban planners with the aim of improving the user-friendliness of physical settings (kyttä & kahila, 2011), by collecting and analyzing large datasets of experiential knowledge from lay people (kyttä, broberg, tzoulas, & snabb, 2013). the reported study-discussed in this paper-was carried out in mid-2013 in pacific beach (pb), san diego, california and represents the first time softgis was used in cooperation with a community organization. in this article we ask the following research questions: can a ppgis application facilitate self-organizing urban development? in addition, what prerequisites for sound ppgis-linked facilitation can be identified in the pacific beach case study? in more concrete terms, we study the outcomes for the participating partners and ask which factors appeared to be critical in the implementation of the softgis study in pacific beach. the outcome was quite positive, but a number of observations point to the fact that the process could have ended up rather differently, if we, for instance, had chosen another community organization to start with. in addition, the degree to which the finnish approach to studying perceived environmental quality would 'travel' successfully to the u.s. remained an open question throughout the research process 2 . the case also brought up a number of technical issues related to the transposition of various technical solutions from one continent to another. the aim of the article is to describe and analyze the first softgis study undertaken with a community organization in the context of self-organizing urban development in pacific beach, san diego, and to reflect over the suitability of ppgis in the fields of community informatics and urban planning. the paper begins with a discussion of the applied theoretical framework used. we then present the pacific beach softgis case study and discuss how it can be linked to the self-organizing urban development process in that community. in the paper's conclusion, we discuss the prerequisites for ppgis to successfully contribute to self-organizing urban development. we argue that despite having been developed for formal urban planning processes, ppgis applications can correspond with the ideals commonly set out in the community informatics literature. we also call for a deeper exchange of ideas between the scholarly discussions on ppgis and community informatics. positioning ppgis and self-organizing urban development self-organizing urban development we use self-organization in urban development to refer to the initiatives for spatial interventions that originate from civil society via community-based networks (boonstra & boelens, 2011). when citizens and other stakeholders are motivated and become engaged in shaping their cities, it is neither necessary nor possible that governments always direct the process. public sector planners may be entirely absent or merely act as facilitators (ibid.). the adoption of the self-organizing perspective is also a way to distance oneself from the development of formal participatory urban planning methods (wallin et al., 2012). why should people merely participate in certain predefined issues, if co-production is also possible? according to huxley (2013), participation is often used uncritically as a synonym for democratic urban and land-use planning, or as "a given ideal and aim, in which, to a greater or lesser degree, residents as citizens have a right and a duty to take active part in decisions affecting the environment of their local areas" (ibid., p. 1532). saad-sulonen (2014) calls this 'staged participation', coming from governmental institutions, which stands in contrast to self-organization, where citizen-led initiatives are recognized. we are not suggesting that (participatory) urban planning should be converted into self-organizing urban development. rather, we stress the complementary roles of formal planning processes and community-based self-organization (horelli, 2013; saad-sulonen, 2014; wallin & horelli, 2010). however, in this article we focus on situations where self-organizing as such suffices to harness the will of the citizens to bring about certain changes in spatial development. boonstra and boelens (2011) claim that community-based self-organization can play a significant role in shaping urban development both in countries with and in those without a strong planning regime. in the us and the uk contexts they mention the business improvement districts (bids), which are consortia of property owners and businesses that collectively contribute to the promotion and maintenance of their local district. although boonstra and boelens (2011) stress that bids can be successful only when they are strongly embedded locally and there is a shared feeling of urgency as well as reciprocity in relation to investments, they do suggest that the bids clearly represent one possible way forward for these communities. other scholars, however, view bids as "encapsulat[ing] the neo-liberalization of the city" (ward, 2006, p. 55) and are critical of these public-private partnerships whose main priority is business profitability (cook, 2009). against this background it is interesting that the community organization at the heart of our study is trying to initiate a partnership which would resemble a bid but would not only include businesses or commercial property owners, but also other property owners and residents. this concept is referred to as a community benefit district (cbd). cbds are often non-profit organizations through which local businesses and community members can empower a single organization to improve the district in ways that the city governments do not cover but that go beyond what is manageable for individuals 3 . empowerment tools from community informatics and beyond self-organizing may gain strength through the use of information and communications technologies (icts)-and many scholars have acknowledged the use of icts, especially social media, as enablers and arenas of the self-organizing movements (wellman & al., 2003; wenger & al., 2009). saad-sulonen and horelli (2010, 1) have mapped the broader field of "ict-mediated citizen participation in urban issues", covering a wide array of fields that utilize technological tools to engage different stakeholders in shaping their cities. where citizen activism would draw upon tools from e-activism; governance actors drawing upon tools from e-participation; and urban planning praxis drawing upon ppgis (public participation gis) tools-community development would turn to community informatics tools for ict-mediation. for example, in their study of a participatory process in helsinki, saad-sulonen and horelli analyzed the role of chosen community informatics tools in both empowering the participants and achieving a joint design outcome. they concluded that the combination of face-to-face and ict-mediated methods worked well for the studied collaborative design task; as such methods did in digital citizenship capacity building amongst a youth group. similar interpretations of successful ict-mediated community building and empowerment of community organizations are readily available in the literature (evans-cowley, 2010; foth, 2009; fredricks & foth, 2013; wallin, saad-sulonen, amati, & horelli, 2012.saad-sulonen and horelli (2010) see a close connection between urban planning and geographical information systems (gis) as well as planning support systems (pss) including their participatory arms in ppgis. they characterize existing gis-related solutions as mostly expert-driven and view this as a hindrance to community development. community development stresses the enabling and empowering perspective and thus shares an affinity with community informatics which identifies the importance of communities in steering or shaping digital technologies (gurstein, 2007). while helpful for this overview, the juxtaposition of expert-drivenness and empowerment potential could prove problematic elsewhere. as saad-sulonen and horelli (2010) note, community informatics seeks to introduce information systems that are "able to translate the essence of how the community functions or should function" and thus facilitate self-organizing and the empowerment of the (local) community. why should these aims not be achievable with the help of ppgis tools4 ? although the ppgis tools have often been developed alongside official planning processes and with the help of advanced software, community organizations may be able to utilize ppgis solutions on their own. our case shows how community organizations autonomously employing ppgis tools can work with only a small supporting effort from local service providers. ppgis evolution and the softgis application with ppgis we refer to methods that use geospatial technologies to engage the public in order to integrate place-based knowledge to inform land-use planning and other decision making that has spatial implications (brown, 2012a) 5. the ppgis application discussed in this article is called 'softgis'. the softgis approach described in this paper involves the pioneering effort of collecting geocoded, experience-based data from the citizens online through the use of map-based questionnaires (kyttä & kahila, 2011). development of this approach first began in 2005 with a thematic emphasis on perceived environmental quality but has since been developed both to improve its applicability in the different stages of the urban planning process (kahila & kyttä, 2009) and for better analyzing everyday urban life (kyttä, kahila, & broberg, 2011; schmidt-thomé, haybatollahi, kyttä, & korpi, 2013). previously, softgis has primarily been discussed in the context of ppgis developments (brown & kyttä, 2013) or planning support systems (kahila-tani, 2013), and has had little, explicitly, to do with the discourses around community informatics (apart from knudsen & kahila 2012 discussion of softgis in the context of vgi, voluntary geographical information). within the range of ppgis applications softgis belongs to those that aim for large and representative datasets, in particular when contributing to various established scholarly discussions, such as perceived environmental quality (kyttä et al., 2013) or health promotion studies (broberg, salminen, & kyttä, 2013; kyttä, broberg, & kahila, 2012). the rigor displayed in terms of data collection and analysis has two main motivations. on the one hand, the datasets have to meet the requirements of advanced statistical analysis. on the other hand, much of the potential with respect to the softgis tool is seen to lie in its deliverables for the broader public instead of merely echoing the most active community members (brown & kyttä, 2013). as brown (2012b) has elaborated, the explosion in internet mapping applications has created a favorable environment for the expansion of ppgis. however, it seems that technological innovation has not yet come coupled with a proper understanding of human factors and agency barriers-resulting in the suboptimal implementation of ppgis (ibid.). we will explore this claim further in what follows, and try to bypass the "intellectual tug-of-war" (brown & kyttä 2013) between the two dominant components of ppgisgeographic information systems (gis) and public participation (pp). we believe that this "uneasy merger of two contrasting knowledge paradigms" (ibid.) may have added to the impression that ppgis is overly expertise-driven and establishment-serving, making it difficult to open up to or augment work in community informatics. it would, however, be detrimental to the broader field of ict-mediation in urban issues, if this impression were allowed to prevail unchallenged. thus, our aim is to seek a rapprochement between ppgis and community informatics 6 and, as such, we welcome saad-sulonen's (2014; also horelli, 2013) suggestion of 'combining participations' as a major conceptual step forward in this respect. serving the 'civitas'? we should search for "protocols that actually open up better forms of civility and interaction and new domains of possibility for a wider range of citizens" (aurigi, 2008, 8). the various fora for dialogue with and among citizens are there to utilize "the power of internet-based communication channels to consolidate existent social aggregations as well as to create new ones" (ibid.) in a context where the actual and the virtual are intertwined. foth et al. (2011), in turn, talk about urban informatics as an intersection of place, technology and people in urban environments, and explore how dealing with knowledge (collection, classification, storage, retrieval and dissemination) can matter. the expected contributions from ict tools range from rather instrumental considerations (e.g. how proper data contribution mechanisms can enhance data accuracy; see e.g. song & sun, 2010) to broader themes of community-related concerns (facilitation of self-organizing and empowerment, cf. saad-sulonen & horelli, 2010; horelli et al, forthcoming) and even more broadly working towards civic change through participation (dunn, 2007). indeed, numerous expectations have been have been forwarded in this respect. ganapati (2011) hopes to see "new forms of activism, participatory democracy and neighborhood empowerment" supported by vgi. pfeffer et al (2010) call for "inclusion, empowerment and accountability in urban development" and "participatory and empowered public action and democratized decision-making" from the use of spatial knowledge digital tools (pfeffer et al., 2013). evidence is available of such progress. mccall & dunn (2013), for instance, have studied the uses of geo-informatics tools against a checklist of good governance, asking if these tools have the potential to support legitimate, respectful, equitable, competent and accountable systems. in practice their study did not cover these five criteria but focused on participation and the recognition of local knowledge. in our case study we will not strictly adhere to the checklist, although we will touch upon some of the listed issues. an illustrative case study in pacific beach, california searching for a test case a research exchange presented an opportunity to test softgis for the first time with community-based organizations, without any formal connection to publicly employed urban planners or other city officials. in order to find a suitable community organization, the aalto university research team first considered the case study areas utilized by the other visiting scholars of the same research exchange 7 , but soon decided to instead map the 'organization landscape' of the area that they were living in with their families, namely, the community of pacific beach (pb in common parlance). pacific beach is a part of san diego, california. in broad terms, it covers the area between the pacific ocean and the highway i-5, with la jolla to the north and ocean beach to the south. in the light of the census data 8, the population of roughly 40 000 person community is mainly white (87%) and english-speaking (84% speaking only english) with the largest five-year age cohort being 25-29 year old men. in pacific beach 29% of the population lives in detached single family units, which is far less than in san diego region in general (47%). for potential visitors the san diego tourism authority describes the area as "the iconic southern california beach town" and as "a favorite spot amongst college students and young adults living the california dream". pacific beach is a popular destination for both one-day visits and longer vacations, and quickly becomes crowded during the most important holiday weekends. the websites 9 of the local administration and the press, in turn, tell us about an ordinary neighborhood where most people wake up early to go to work or school. when searching for a community organization representing broad community interests, there appeared to be two main candidates, the 'pb town council' and the newly established 'beautiful pb'. the purpose of the former non-profit organization is to provide a discussion forum and to communicate the views of the community in the direction of governmental agencies and to take other action on issues considered important. the recently formed, beautiful pb, describes itself as "a group of active pacific beach residents, business and property owners working collaboratively to improve the environment of our southern california beach community". formally it is a registered non-profit organization with five board members representing actors considered important in fostering the aims of beautiful pb. although beautiful pb is a newcomer among the community organizations, it has an ambitious agenda it has argued that a sustainable community master plan should be created10 , which indirectly implies at least a modification of the existing community plan (from 1995). later we discovered that one reason for the establishment of this new organization was the fact that none of the existing organizations were in the position to initiate a community benefit district (cbd) in pacific beach. another candidate organization was the 'pb planning group', which has the mandate to make recommendations to governmental agencies on land use matters. it is voluntarily created and maintained by members of the community. a final candidate could also have been the business improvement district (bid) of the area. the bid called 'discover pacific beach', in operation since 1997, is a registered company with 1300 business members from pacific beach and neighboring mission beach. at the scoping stage of our study in early 2013 we were not aware of the 'save pb' group, which had been established in 2005, to deal with neighborhood issues, in particular, with the nuisance associated with the party scene and alcohol consumption in pacific beach. process of the pacific beach softgis study we chose to address beautiful pb first as it had articulated an interest in improving the built environment of the community. our first e-mail to beautiful pb members in late february 2013 proved to be decisive, as the feedback was positive from the start. the community organization was interested in hosting us for testing the softgis application in pacific beach. the aalto university researchers were welcomed by the organization, and the survey-related issues found a firm place on the agenda of their regular meetings11 . from initially being the final point to be dealt with, time permitting, at their meetings, the softgis survey gradually rose up their list of priorities. considering that our offer to introduce ppgis in pacific beach came out of the blue, the organization quickly agreed on cooperating with the research team. however, the preparatory phase turned out to be long (see figure 1): revising the questionnaire and related guidelines took longer than initially expected due in the main to the fact that the board members, who had agreed to review the survey manuscript in order to adapt it to local circumstances, were all volunteer staffers. having finally got the go-ahead (on 6th may 2013, in the beautiful pb meeting) the researchers proceeded quickly to launch the survey 12 in cooperation with beautiful pb. as there was no true budget for carrying out the survey, it was not possible to take a sample of the population and to address people by mail with invitations to respond to the internet-based questionnaire. the only option was to spread the message in the area. important community organizations were listed and contacted via e-mail with a request to inform their members. small invitation cards were printed and brought to key meetings and events. the local press was contacted and informed comprehensively about the project and its background, which yielded results on the 23rd of may, as the survey invitation appeared on the first page of the beach & bay press. some of the potential key distributors of our survey invitation took quite a while to include the invitation in their regular newsletters. when, for instance, the 'friends of pacific beach secondary schools' proceeded with their newsletter, it was already time to begin the initial analyses based on the data gathered up to that point, so that the information could be fed into the final workshop of the research exchange. it was thus agreed with beautiful pb that the data collection stage could continue beyond the original cut-off point and that a new round of analysis would be carried out as soon as the number of respondents was judged to be significant. figure 1: timetable of the survey process in pacific beach in 2013 the pacific beach softgis survey was divided into four main parts. the first part consisted of questions concerning background information, including a page where the respondents were invited to locate their current residence on the map. in the second part they were asked to mark the places they tended to visit in their everyday lives as well as the routes they considered important. in the third part, it was possible to evaluate the environmental quality as perceived by the respondents. they were asked to mark positive and negative attributes on the map, following four predefined perspectives with sub-categories13 . then they were asked to give an overall estimate by utilizing a slider (moving along the scale from very bad to very good). in the fourth and final part of the survey, it was possible to suggest local improvement proposals by marking possible measures on the map. the survey also included several fields for open feedback in case the respondent wanted to be more precise or otherwise complement the response. figure 2: evaluation of the living environment (within the third part of the survey) in order to be able to produce the first set of maps in early june, the data collected up until then was retrieved from the server on june 3rd. one researcher, located in finland, began the spatial analysis while others locally situated continued their efforts to solicit further respondents to the survey. the draft summary included a set of maps and an accompanying analysis about pacific beach as a living environment. selected comments from the open feedback forms of the questionnaire were included to give examples of both the content addressed and the attitudes of respondents. the draft summary report was available on june 8th and was forwarded to the beautiful pb. on june 9th the chairman had already worked through it and sent it to the other board members with his interpretations (an issue that will be returned to in the next sub-section). despite the still rather low number of respondents at that stage14 , many of the salient issues pertaining to the area could already be clearly discerned. the centrality of garnet avenue as the main commercial district and everyday hub of the community was obvious-but so was its problematic nature as the feedback suggested. it was also clear that many people wanted this important commercial and community zone to be upgraded. another key message was that few if any parks and beach sections were criticized at all, and the same also applied to the majority of the residential areas in the study. by june 12th the number of respondents had risen to 221, and it was decided to repeat the analysis with the new dataset. approximately 155 respondents provided more or less full background information and responded to most parts of the questionnaire. during the summer months the report was updated, though it did not have to be fully rewritten: the picture remained pretty much the same. the report included sections on data collection, respondents' background variables, overall perceived environmental quality, positive and negative hotspots, residents' everyday networks (routes and most frequented places, according to various sub-categories) and proposed improvements (also according to various sub-categories). as a summarizing statement it was noted that: "there is a clear tension between pb being both an ordinary town where people wake up early to go to work or school, and pb as a beach community attracting party makers. in concrete physical settings these perspectives have to be reconciled both along the main service/business axis of garnet avenue and the ocean front walk." the report was finalized on 23rd september with beautiful pb making it available online on 7th october 15 . figure 3: analysis examples from pacific beach: frequented places and their perceived environmental quality (the maps correspond to those of the september report from 12 june data) besides learning from the constellation of trying out softgis with a community organization for the first time, the research team had also to take note of other, more technical issues with respect to the study. in anticipation of future projects, the pacific beach study provided an opportunity to identify risks and to avoid costly mistakes by doing them first 'for free' on a smaller scale. technical issues (e.g. internet browsers accomplishing the required tasks) seemed rather unproblematic16 , while the general amount of responses matched initial expectations. the cooperation between the softgis home base (located in finland) and the researchers located in the case study area also worked well despite the 10-hour time difference17 . the questionnaire was criticized primarily for being too long. the potential outreach of the survey with respect to its ability to handle different language groups was not tested in pacific beach, which is primarily english-speaking. in most other parts of san diego, however, it would not have been feasible to launch the study only in english. outcomes relating to the community organization having received the summary report, the board members of beautiful pb reviewed the results and discussed them among themselves in june, although the chairman also forwarded his interpretations when the researchers asked for feedback. he had concluded to the other board members that the findings of the summary report seemed "to confirm our current focus on the areas of oceanfront, mission bay gateway and business district". in the same e-mail he also noted that "the summary seems to be right. i think it is possible to preserve the things people like about the garnet business district and make it better". clearly the survey results gave substantial backing to the board members' intentions. for instance, the identified hotspots (i.e. where negatively perceived quality and high frequentation by the residents coincided) matched their views about possible intervention measures. the survey made it clear that concrete action was necessary in the same places, where the board had envisioned interventions. one of the aims of the beautiful pb was to be, in the not too distant future, the midwife to a new organization, the community benefit district. in order to inform citizens of this possible development model and to attract keen protagonists to the endeavor, beautiful pb has tried to access grants to introduce 'model blocks'. indeed, the summary report of the softgis survey has already been utilized in these model block considerations with the board reviewing which areas were the most suitable showcases for possible larger future investments and other arrangements. besides the cbd considerations, the material (both the summary report by the research team and the raw data) is also being utilized in the initiation phase of a pb-based 'eco-district' as it is currently promoted by the american institute of architects, san diego. some beautiful pb board members are active in both the cbd and the eco-district preparations, thus creating a direct link in terms of the utilization of the softgis results. the first opportunity of this kind was to compare the survey results with the inputs gathered from the residents during the first town hall meeting, which launched the public eco-district preparation efforts on june 29th. there it was also made known that the sustainable design assessment team (sdat) will offer supervision to the community. while preparing for further meetings associated with the eco-district 19 , beautiful pb signaled to the research team that a further update of the summary report would be very welcome, as well as access to the raw data gathered by the survey. later we were told by the beautiful pb chairman, that (besides putting the report on their website) they had also presented the report at several public meetings (planning group, town council etc.) in october and november, to attract people to their december events. one of the key problems here, however, is that the established residents' perspective dominates the survey. as the 'average person' taking the survey was a 46-year old woman who is working and whose household had on average, 2.2 cars-suggesting that the survey had not attracted many responses from the biggest population cohort of young men (cf. census data in the first sub-chapter on the case). beautiful pb has been trying to change this by starting a campaign to get the younger generations to respond to the survey. the research team promised to have a new look at the data, if a significant number of new respondents could be attracted. besides the direct e-mail feedback 20, this commitment to search for supplementary respondents is also a tacit acknowledgement that beautiful pb has benefited from the cooperation with aalto university. we have come to know the self-organization of pacific beach mostly through the cooperation enacted with beautiful pb. with this in mind it would be useful to attempt to separate the various phases of the survey process in accordance with which groups took part in the study (fig. 4). the survey design and analysis phases primarily concerned the research team only-however, when reflecting on the local implications of the survey results, beautiful pb clearly played a major role. the survey launch and later campaigns to invite people to participate were phases which were experienced across the broader community, as was the phase when the results were put online and discussed in connection with the eco-district intentions. it was something of a happy coincidence that the survey themes matched these considerations in the end. if the gathered knowledge continues to travel well, along with the cbd intentions and the eco-district process, the future updates to the current community plan are also likely to be informed to some extent at least by the survey conducted in 2013. figure 4: different phases of the study and the degree to which the different groups (research team, beautiful pb and the broader community) were involved with the study the softgis tool in the context of self-organizing urban development we can see that the softgis study played three main roles in the self-organizing urban development of pacific beach. with 'self-organizing' we are referring to the existing, self-contained local activism designed to improve the neighborhood. the first role was simply to be a tool among others, facilitating a particular 'move' in the organization landscape of the area. the survey being of a certain kind, its profile added to the impression people already had about the recently established beautiful pb. it also provided beautiful pb with an opportunity to inform the broader community about its existence and a chance for the established organizations to react and to adopt a stance towards the action of the newcomers. in this light we witnessed the reaction of savepb, which was introduced to us as the local neighborhood watch group. the contact person of savepb was contacted in order to gain access to the largest e-mail list available of pacific beach residents, but she refused to forward the softgis survey to the list21 in spite of the efforts made by beautiful pb and the researchers. this was very unfortunate in terms of data coverage, but it also provided beautiful pb with an opportunity to show a previously existing organization (savepb) that it was an important new player that would, in future, have to be taken seriously. the second role played by the study was to be a catalyst in a process where the residents' perspectives had gradually been gaining ground within the self-organizing approaches of local groups. the softgis survey was therefore available at the point where the community had a demand to understand itself beyond the business owners' perspectives that, traditionally, held a strong position due to the position held by the existing business improvement district. the survey seemed to tap into a local desire on the part of the residents to finally 'have their say'. previous efforts of this kind, advanced by savepb, had decreased after savepb managed to force through the prohibition of alcohol consumption on the local beaches, with the focus increasingly now on the security of the residential areas. as such, there was clearly room for new initiatives such as those proposed by beautiful pb which the ppgis application happened to complement. the rather over-enthusiastic journalist, who had taken the story about the survey on board, e-mailed the research team after he had heard of the intention to use the survey results for discussing the future of pacific beach as a sustainable community or eco-district: "this is something that has needed to be done, and you are the driving force now behind something that could change the very future of pacific beach!" based on the above, as well as on the various beautifulpb meetings attended, it can be inferred that a survey addressing the residents appeared to complement the self-organizing tendencies in pacific beach. the parallel grant which enabled the eco-district preparations (supported by sdat, sustainable design assessment team) in the area to take place undoubtedly played a bigger role with its clear commitment to listen to the community. with regard to this one of the beautiful pb board members wrote to aalto team in an e-mail, in july 2013: "the mapping will be of great service to the sdat who was here last week on a preliminary visit, preparing for the entire team visit in the fall. they were very interested in the results." this citation brings us to the third identified role. in pacific beach ppgis was a provider of legitimacy for those community organizations aiming at concrete interventions in the physical environment. in particular, the spatial analysis of the perceived environmental quality provided substantial backing material supporting the choice of interventions prepared by beautiful pb. for a small newcomer in the organization landscape, the ability to talk on behalf of hundreds of survey respondents was also clearly welcome. in our attempt to relate these three roles to the broader aim of "augmenting civitas" with spatial data tools (de cindio et al., 2008), we remain hopeful but wary of the obstacles still to be dealt with. as such, we were careful not to load the introduction of any ict-mediated tools with unrealistically high expectations in terms of empowerment (see next section), but rather chose to focus on: the interplay of the virtual and social networks (cf. de cindio et al., 2008); on the appropriate choices from an "ecology of [digital] tools" (wallin et al., 2010); and, finally, on applying the ppgis tools "in a sensitive and modest way" (mccall & dunn 2012, 93). in the end, it is the community that makes the most crucial decisions and in our case the ppgis application simply found fertile ground. the driver behind the interest in the aalto research efforts in pacific beach appeared to be a willingness to promote participation and good governance (mccall & dunn 2012, 93). a common interest in improving the everyday living environment took care of the rest. identified limitations of softgis: both potential and actual with respect to the interplay between community organizations, we identified a number of control and ownership issues concerning the implementation of ppgis that were critical (cf. dunn, 2007; mccall & dunn 2012). if the research team had tried to run the survey on its own, in order to simply test the technical applicability of the survey with a small number of respondents, it would have been feasible but still problematic. we would have inconvenienced people with a comprehensive survey that may have had no local repercussions because its recommendations would never have been put into effect. on the other hand, the cooperation efforts with beautiful pb meant that it was up to the community organization to decide how to handle much of the process and, above all, how to deal with the study results and their possible implications. according to brown (2012b), ppgis represents for many non-governmental organizations something of a 'wild card', as they may have less control over the outcome than when they manage a process, where they can define what counts as public opinion. beautiful pb did not appear to be afraid of getting the 'wrong' result, but was instead very open throughout the process, which the researchers observed at first hand, particularly during the preparations for the june town hall meeting. another ownership issue related to the role of the local press. once the local weekly newspaper had been convinced to publish the survey invitation in late may, many other avenues with respect to spreading the message about the survey suddenly opened up. after people had seen the news, many became more receptive to the invitation than they had initially been. the appearance of the story of the survey in the newspaper probably also opened some gates that would otherwise have remained closed. for instance, the agreement by the friends of pacific beach secondary schools to include the survey in the newsletter sent to parents at the end of may was obtained only after it appeared in the newspaper. the fact that the spatial analysis contained in the survey tapped directly into the core of the previously identified important local issues also represented something of a threat to the process as a whole, since old cleavage lines could have been activated and the study could have been sidetracked or silenced in order to avoid conflict (cf. dunn, 2007). in the current case, however, this appears not to have been a serious threat. nevertheless, this situation may change, if the active beautiful pb members, or the eco-district protagonists, start to employ the data themselves22 as indeed they have already anticipated. the open feedback fields of the survey, for instance, attracted a great deal of constructive comment, but they also saw some very negative statements made about the issues that respondents consider problematic in the area. disseminating this material more widely throughout the community may however generate unnecessary polarization. as beautiful pb, was the only community organization with direct access to the results it was in the position of being able to filter them in such a way that met its own advocacy requirements. it showed no indication, however, of having done this in the communications we observed. a skeptic could perhaps note that it did not have to be selective, as the results actually supported its agenda without need for 'filtering'. in any case, it is hard to see why the organization would have sought the need to misuse the advantage it had in respect of being closest to the information source. the community organization appears to know its own area rather well and has really tried to generate a positive narrative in terms of increasing livability and sustainability. it seems that even the bid-related development model (community benefit district) might be in good hands despite the critique of the (neoliberal) model often advanced in the literature (ward, 2006; cook, 2009). returning to the association of ppgis with expert-driven systems (see introduction), it is obvious that beautiful pb is not, strictly speaking, a layman-based community organization. there are several urban development experts in this community organization, who are able and willing to interface with the broader professional communities such as the sdat. during our study this expertise existed in parallel with a ppgis tool that has a long development history both in terms of public participation and gis (cf. the tug-of-war coined by brown and kyttä, 2013). therefore, it is not easy to simply repeat this kind of experiment in communities with less skilled and organized residents. however, the development of softgis has clearly been enhanced by taking further steps in the direction to facilitate citizen activism. a new 'do-it-yourself' toolkit, launched in 2012, is aimed at users who seldom have had the opportunity to engage with the techniques used by planning experts or their university partners. this web-based ppgis 23 service allows lay publics, even those without coding skills, to create their own ppgis survey, collect data, use the online analysis tools and download data to various programs for further analysis. conclusion: ppgis in self-organizing urban development the purpose of this article has been to conceptualize the role of ppgis in the fields of community informatics and urban development. we have shown that the use of a ppgis application with a community organization can facilitate the self-organization of urban development. we identified the following kinds of facilitations that augment civitas. firstly, the introduction of a softgis survey can be a suitable method to enhance the interplay of community organizations. secondly, the softgis can also legitimize a process in which the community organization initiates concrete interventions to the physical environment. we have not, however, tried to evaluate the larger issue of empowerment in pacific beach. however, we assume that the self-organization of pacific beach, supported by the beautiful pb, represents the kind of activism that paulos et al. (2009) as well as innes and booher (2010) have found to be an essential driver of social and spatial transformation. in addition to the role of ppgis described above, we identified a number of prerequisites for viable facilitation of this tool in relation to self-organizing urban planning. the first prerequisite of feasible facilitation was the shared field of interest of the key groups that were working with the built environment, environmental quality and the localization of possible interventions. the second prerequisite was that the spatial analysis matched sufficiently well with the understanding that the community organization had of the development options in the area. what mattered also was the long-term interest embedded in the softgis applications to reliably measure perceived environmental quality for urban planning purposes. the softgis study contributed to a local self-organizing process despite the fact that the approach has been developed in close connection with formal urban planning processes. in our view, the fact that this was the case was specifically because of such connections and not despite of them. the built-in expertise of softgis in relation to issues of built environment did matter, because the intended path of the self-organizing development in pacific beach was rather ambitious, aiming at local interventions usually initiated by the formal planning apparatus. as the case shows, ppgis can work relatively well in the hands of a community-based organization, at least when it is supported by service providers. however, the case study shared the problematic offset of many studies on ict-mediated urban issues. as its initial focus was on testing a specific technology with an interested partner, it did not start from the actual needs of community organizations or from those of the broader community. whether ppgis was a better solution in pacific beach than other potential ict-based tools, thus remains something of an open question. endnotes 1 we do not follow sieber's (2006) notion here of 'ppgis' as a conceptual umbrella which would also include 'pgis', the participatory solutions often utilized by grass-root organizations, usually in developing countries. as sieber (2006) and brown (2012b) note, pgis applications have been developed with the goals of non-governmental, community-based organizations in mind, whereas ppgis often refers to government agencies' efforts to effectively expand public participation. brown and kyttä (2013, table 3) list further basic differences (not only between ppgis and pgis but also in relation to vgi, voluntary geographic information) that support our conceptual choice. in our case, we are dealing with an urban setting of the developed world, where it made sense to prioritize data quality and to collect data in the digital form from individuals (instead of prioritizing empowerment processes and organizing the data collection through a series of participatory workshops, for instance). 2 over the years, softgis development projects have been carried out with finnish, australian, japanese, portuguese and us based cities and universities. the projects have also included individual researchers from poland, brazil and iran. 3common cbd activities include cleaning, signposting and other beautification measures concerning the street scene as well as event organization and joint marketing. 4 the pgis applications have already shown clear empowerment potential in smaller (often rural) communities of the global south (brown & kyttä, 2013). 5 with this definition we exclude the discussion which focuses on improving direct public access to gis data sources analyses, which some scholars (e.g. elwood, 2011 in sage handbook) also include in ppgis. see also footnote 1. 6this would also entail a rapprochement of ppgis and pgis towards a joint toolbox. ppgis would catch up in terms of empowerment potential and pgis in technological efficiency, making it possible to engage the public of large urban settings without laborious attempt to involve the community in its totality. 7cluds (commercial local urban districts), supported by the european community under the marie curie irses action of the 7th framework programme. http://www.cluds-7fp.unirc.it/ 8data from year 2000, although some key figures from the 2010 u.s. census have by now been made available by sandag at http://profilewarehouse.sandag.org/ 9for instance pb town council http://www.pbtowncouncil.org/ and the beach & bay press http://www.sdnews.com/pages/home?site=bbp 10 http://beautifulpb.com/ 11 one of the researchers attended most of the meetings during the research exchange; the team leader also joined in once. a third team member supported the survey launch in pacific beach, and a fourth one carried out the gis analysis in finland in dialogue with the researchers on site. for additional information from the audit trail of the case study, contact the first author. 12 http://www.softgis.fi/pacificbeach 13 the sub-categories are a modification of the preq (perceived residential environmental quality) scale (bonaiuto, fornara, & bonnes, 2003). the four main themes included in the scale are (1) functional possibilities, (2) social life, (3) appearance, and (4) atmosphere of the environment. 14 of the around one hundred respondents approximately 80 had provided comprehensive responses. this could be anticipated, as the survey was made very comprehensive in order to test as many sections as possible. a thorough response must have taken 20 to 60 minutes of respondent's time. 15 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.722626137754793.1073741847.570748036275938&type=3 16 some exceptions did apply. this time the newest version of internet explorer did not show the sliders properly but opened an open feedback field instead. judging from the data, this may have confused some five to ten respondents. 17 having at least one local 'agent' from the research team in the area was absolutely vital in terms of initiating and accompanying the survey process, as well as with respect to gathering knowledge about the area concerned in relation to the analysis phase. 18 http://beautifulpb.com/projects/sustainable-communities/ 19 such as the event when the sdat (sustainable design assessment team) of the american institute of architects comes to the area "to listen to the community, work with local stakeholders and assess opportunities for implementing community projects" in december. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=738311676186239&set=a.721570247860382.1073741846.570748036275938&type=1&theater 20 including the chairman's comment in september after having read the revised report: "i appreciate all the work [the research team] did on this and i think it is very helpful for us". 21 the reasons here had to do with "context and timing". the contact person knew about the cbd-intentions and thought the survey would solely serve that purpose. she anticipated confused enquiries from the members and invited beautiful pb to their meeting to explain things in a little more detail. after the research team informed her of the broader picture, she promised to consider sending the survey invitation when informing the members about the new beautiful pb website, which was supposed to be ready soon thereafter. 22 most of the data was pre-organized and sent to beautiful pb in early 2014. 23 the service is provided by mapita, a spin-off company of the softgis team at aalto university. a demo version of the maptionnaire tool is available at: http://maptionnaire.com/en/. it can be used for free when addressing small audiences. references aurigi, a. 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(2009). digital habitats: stewarding technology for communities. portland: cpsquare. 1379 final the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 articles wider worlds of research for health equity: public health ngos as stakeholders in open access ecosystems this article examines research uses and knowledge stakeholder politics that emerged in an exploratory study of the relevance of open access policies to a spectrum of u.s.-based public health nongovernmental organizations (ngos). this study demonstrated the clear relevance to public health ngos of open access to peerreviewed articles, as one form of community informatics. though not always visible to those oriented toward academic knowledge ecosystems, public health ngos utilize and conduct a wide range of research, both peer-reviewed and otherwise. hence, findings indicate that public health ngos should be more fully recognized, by researchers and policymakers in other contexts, as key stakeholders in knowledge, research, and open access ecosystems. these findings contribute to examination of community information seeking and use in the public health field, with an eye to leveraging community informatics on behalf of health equity. !1 holzmeyer. c. (2018). wider worlds of research for health equity: public health ngos as stakeholders in open access ecosystems. the journal of community informatics, 14 (2), 1-16. date submitted: 2017-03-31. date accepted: 2018-08-31. 
 copyright (c), 2018 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1379 cheryl holzmeyer sociologist and visiting scholar, department of environmental science, policy, and management. university of california, berkeley, ca, usa corresponding author. c.holzmeyer@gmail.com http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1379 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1379 mailto:c.holzmeyer@gmail.com the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 introduction this article examines research uses and knowledge stakeholder politics that emerged in an exploratory study of the relevance of open access policies, such as the u.s. national institutes of health (nih)’s public access policy, to staff of a spectrum of u.s.-based public health non-profit, non-governmental organizations (ngos). overall, this study demonstrated the clear relevance to public health ngos of open access to peerreviewed articles, as one form of community informatics. though not always visible to those oriented toward academic knowledge ecosystems, public health ngos utilize and conduct a wide range of research, both peer-reviewed and otherwise. participants’ reported uses of peer-reviewed articles ranged from policy advocacy and program management to publications, grant writing, and educational outreach. hence, findings indicated that public health ngos should be more fully recognized, by researchers and policymakers in other contexts, as key stakeholders in knowledge, research, and open access ecosystems. these findings contribute to examination of community information seeking and use, which researchers have attended to less often than individuals’ information seeking for their personal use (nkechi and gurstein 2007). in addition, this article contends that is it crucial to avoid the reification of information and communications technologies (icts) and community informatics initiatives, to broaden the lens of what these may entail. this point goes back to the recognition in the very first issue of this journal that: “community informatics (ci) – enabling communities with information and communications technologies (ict) – is a very new development in the academic world, but in reality a very old one in the daily life of communities. it is very new in that only since the arrival of the internet and low-cost personal computing could those without a direct professional or financial interest begin to engage with and appropriate information technology. it is very old, in the sense that information and communications, and using technologies to support these, are as old as communities themselves” (gurstein 2004). attuning to this longer history, of the everyday intertwining of communities with myriad communication practices and information technologies that could be conceived of as icts, helps to steer clear of reifying icts. from this vantage, “community informatics” encompasses not only initiatives to deploy new technologies, but also efforts to include diverse stakeholders in existing knowledge infrastructures – for example, through open access policies. such a perspective lends itself to an expansive approach to analyzing knowledge ecosystems and their stakeholders, while raising questions about both logistical and discursive inclusion. decentering technologies: “who is the community/what is the community?” on that note, environmental and medical sociologist phil brown’s article, “who is the community/what is the community?” observes that, “our widespread use of the term ‘community’ often masks a multiple reality in which there are diverse types of communities, as well as differences within communities” (brown 2005), while noting, “the history of defining community is long and detailed. one scholar located 94 different definitions, and that was over a half-century ago (hillery 1955, cited in patrick !2 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 and wickizer 1995).” though the present article does not attempt to delve into all the complexities identified in brown’s article, it acknowledges the need to situate community information seeking and use in social, political, economic, and other relevant contexts. in the case of public health ngos, it is especially relevant to consider community informatics in the context of social justice movements, particularly those that challenge socio-economic inequalities and structural racism – since these are core social determinants of health that impinge on the work of public health ngos. in addition, it is fruitful to investigate information seeking and use in communities that span university-based research as well as social movementand ngo-based “street science” (corburn 2005; corburn 2009; brown et al. 2012), to examine continuities and discontinuities across sectors. such contextualization helps to center social institutions and social structures, and decenter information technologies, in community informatics research. this framing builds on longstanding arguments in the field to understand community informatics as a member of the “supporting cast” for community development. as stoecker writes, “ict is simply one category of tools for community development, just like housing, small business incubation, family support, and the wide array of other community development tools. as a consequence, community informatics becomes part of the supporting cast, not the lead player. in fact, the most important lesson we learned in building the catnet [coalition to access technology and networking in toledo] community networking project in toledo was not how to develop small telecenters around the city, but how the process of developing those centers could build relationships among community members” (stoecker 2005). such an approach strives toward more reflexive analysis of community informatics and knowledge ecosystems. ultimately, situating community informatics, including open access initiatives, in the context of community development enables clearer assessment of how such initiatives fit into broader social problem-solving landscapes, shaped by unequal power relations. as david eaves underscores in “building power through data-sharing,” it is crucial to have “a goal for sharing data – and focus on building power” (eaves 2014). yet, eaves notes that one of the most common mistakes he has observed in open data initiatives is that they focus on technology and tools – the how, rather than the why. questions of power tend to be sidelined within such initiatives, while knowledge and data are foregrounded. moreover, knowledge and data are too often uncritically equated with power, which in turn is not recognized in its multiple forms (e.g. economic, political, social, and cultural power). from how to why: toward community informatics for health equity as for the “why” of community informatics in the public health field, this paper argues for leveraging community informatics on behalf of health equity – as discussed further in the conclusions. indeed, this goal is intertwined with recognizing public health ngos as key stakeholders in knowledge ecosystems. health equity emphasizes social justice and “attainment of the highest level of health for all people” (healthy people 2020) as the foundation of a flourishing society, in which all people are valued equally. as the american public health association elaborates, achieving health equity entails that, !3 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 “we optimize the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, learn and age. we work with other sectors to address the factors that influence health, including employment, housing, education, health care, public safety and food access. we name racism as a force in determining how these social determinants are distributed” (apha 2018). most of all, the rationale for considering community informatics from the vantage of health equity is to examine how public health knowledge ecosystems address – or do not address – the upstream, root causes of core issues, such as poverty and racial residential segregation (corburn 2009; bayer and galea 2015), with which public health ngos grapple. in sum, health equity provides a touchstone to consider public health knowledge ecosystems’ orientation toward health promotion for all – or not. methodology the findings below are drawn from a larger mixed-methods study of the relevance of open access to publics beyond academia, namely public health ngo staff or physician participants. this study comprised quantitative analysis of web-log data as well as qualitative data from surveys and interviews. the quantitative findings have been published separately, including data on participant awareness of the nih’s public access policy (moorhead et al. 2015). here, to attend to participant particularities and broader issues raised, findings from initial and exit surveys of public health ngo staff indicate the range of reported research uses. the study provided all participants, including 92 staff representatives of 46 public health ngos, with access to the research resources of stanford university library through a study web portal, designed to track quantitative patterns of research access in pubmed over time. the ngos in this study encompassed a diverse array of organizations, both in their scope as well as the substantive public health issues they addressed. these issues ranged from primary health care access and disease research advocacy to environmental health and homelessness, among other issues. ngos approached these issues from both downstream (treatment-oriented) and upstream (prevention-oriented) vantages, while working at multiple levels and scales – from ngos focused on local communities to those oriented toward municipal, regional, state, national, and, occasionally, international scales. hence, study participants came from both community-based organizations and larger research and advocacy organizations. of the 65 public health ngo staff that completed online surveys, 47 (72.3%) reported having previously used pubmed in their work. prior to registration to the study web portal, one staff person from each of these 46 ngos also took part in an initial online survey and an in-depth, semi-structured interview. organizations were asked to identify the staff member most responsible for research to take part in this portion of the study. interview participants were also given the option to take part in an orientation to pubmed and strategies for navigating its research resources; 34 participants expressed interest. at the end of the 12-month period during which public health ngo staff could access the study web portal, all 92 staff participants were invited to complete online exit surveys, to report on the usefulness of the study’s research access. the data below are from the initial and exit surveys completed by public health ngo participants, conducted between march 2013 and june !4 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 2013 (initial surveys) as well as from march 2014 through july 2014 (exit surveys). specifically, this article examines survey data on participants’ initial self-reported need for access to peer-reviewed research; their formal educational backgrounds; examples of participants’ reported uses, if any, of peer-reviewed articles available through the study; as well as participants’ reflections on the value of open access and the general impacts of the study’s research access on their work. the stanford institutional review board approved this study and participants consented to participate through the study’s web portal. summary of findings inadequate access to peer-reviewed research in public health ngo field an overarching finding of this study was that peer-reviewed articles – and hence, open access policies – are relevant and of potential value to public health ngo staff working to address a range of issues. in the initial survey, public health ngo participants (n = 46) overwhelmingly reported inadequate access to academic articles, with 74% describing their access as “poor” or “very poor.” subsequent web-log data further confirmed participants’ interest in peer-reviewed research articles, and the general relevance of open access initiatives to public health ngo stakeholders, as reported elsewhere (moorhead et al. 2015). formal educational backgrounds of public health ngo staff to better understand the range of formal educational backgrounds represented, the study asked participants to report on their postsecondary degrees, if any, when they registered for the study web portal. their responses are notable for the range of formal educational backgrounds represented, as well as the high representation of graduate degree holders, as summarized below. table 1: public health ngo participants’ formal educational backgrounds given that the majority of public health ngo staff participants had completed a b.a. or b.s., as well as some type of graduate degree, study participants comprised a group with considerable formal education. consequently, the access to peer-reviewed articles total participants 92 participants with a ba or bs degree 91= 99% of total participants participants with at least 1 graduate degree 73 = 79% of total participants participants with mph degree 21 = 23% of total participants participants with phd or drph 20 = 20% of total participants participants with jd degree 7 = 8% of total participants participants with msw degree 6 = 7% of total participants !5 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 facilitated by the study could be expected to enable participants to further leverage their formal education and expertise in conducting and evaluating research on behalf of public health. participants’ uses of peer-reviewed articles in their work are discussed in greater detail below. uses of peer-reviewed research articles by public health ngo staff in reporting on their uses, if any, of peer-reviewed research articles available through the study, participants in the exit survey (n = 47) mentioned a range of activities and research uses when prompted with the following questions: “in a few sentences, please describe how the research access facilitated by the study web portal (http:// nihpublic.stanford.edu) affected your work practices over the past year, if at all. (note: if you did not utilize this access, please describe the reasons or the other research resources that you used instead.)”; and, “are there articles you accessed through the portal that you found especially useful? if possible, please cite articles and/or groups of articles that you used for specific projects or inquiries. how or why were these articles useful?” participants’ responses to these questions help to fill in the picture of public health ngo staff research practices and uses of peer-reviewed articles. these practices may be conceptualized as types of community information seeking, use, and knowledge mobilization. they are presented here under categories that emerged through participants’ descriptions, with survey quotations illustrating each activity category. they are organized in terms of research practices (literature reviewing, developing models, etc.) as well as organizational knowledge mobilization activities. these categories help to highlight continuities between ngo-based research practices and university-based research practices, on the one hand, while surfacing research uses and research intermediary roles that may be more particular to the public health ngo field, on the other. empirically, many of these activities are often intertwined, not mutually exclusive – as reflected by quotations that illustrate multiple activities. finally, several responses describe how open access to peer-reviewed articles affected the overall dynamics of participants’ research practices and knowledge mobilization activities. public health ngo staff research practices literature reviews and meta-reviews public health ngo staff reported using peer-reviewed articles for an array of research activities, including activities that paralleled those of university-based researchers, such as conducting literature reviews and meta-reviews. • “we were able to conduct literature reviews to assist us in developing a survey o n t r a u m a t i c b r a i n i n j u r y , a n d t w o r e s e a r c h a n n o t a t e d bibliographies.” [ch-370] • “we conducted a meta-review of the peer review and gray literature on healthy food access not long after joining the study.” [ch-76] !6 http://nihpublic.stanford.edu http://nihpublic.stanford.edu the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 developing models, hypotheses, and research agendas in addition, participants reported developing models and broader research strategies and agendas, based on their access to peer-reviewed articles. • “[this past year] i was spending a lot of time on a mathematical model that estimated hiv transmission…. many of the reference articles were accessed through the web portal.” [ch-53] • “the research access through the study web portal was incredibly valuable in facilitating my work. i used the portal daily and reviewed journal articles…to inform my work and set strategies… an example: i had identified intercellular communication as a research area for funding. i was able to inform our research strategy by reviewing the literature…and identifying specific target areas where the science…could be advanced.” [ch-237] research and writing of peer-reviewed publications participants drew on peer-reviewed articles, as well, to research and write their own papers for peer-reviewed publication. • “i would estimate that a few dozen articles that i downloaded through the portal were crucial to either writing articles or answering research questions. i cited many of these in a recent paper published in [an environmental health journal].” [ch-181] public health ngo knowledge mobilization activities grant writing and reporting as for ngos’ organizational uses of peer-reviewed articles, various participants mentioned that writing adequate grant proposals and carrying out grant-funded activities often relied on access to peer-reviewed research. • “public access study was immensely helpful in helping me craft grant proposals and publications via access to sources that otherwise are out of (easy) reach for our agency (cost, time, etc). the expanded access expedited the entire process and increased the quality/depth of my research.” [ch-208] • “funders need to be aware of the barriers that applicants might face gathering information. when there are requirements for applications, reports, and published findings, funders need to be aware that many entities (applicants and recipients) don't always have resources needed to complete those requirements. a lack of access to published reports and research is a barrier that many public health entities face, as i suspect your study found.” [ch-130] !7 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 • “the research access facilitated by the study was immensely helpful. i work for a research nonprofit, and typically only research staff with a university affiliation have access to paid research databases. i work on a couple nih grants, and i use online research databases on a daily basis.” [ch-422] carrying out professional mandates more generally, some participants emphasized that their professional responsibilities entailed review of peer-reviewed literature or otherwise deploying research to serve their professional roles and fields. • “i did not previously have access to research databases through my organization though some of my responsibilities include a review of pertinent literature. having access to the web portal provided me full text documents of research for my review to enhance the delivery and quality of information included in my work reports.” [ch-419] program management and development given that many public health ngos sponsor programs and initiatives, participants reported using peer-reviewed articles in these activities as well. • “[the study’s research access] [a]llowed me to find published ideas to assist with making decisions about programs and initiatives.” [ch-130] education and outreach activities participants reported using peer-reviewed articles for a range of education and outreach activities, often intertwined with program management and development. these included the creation of web content, printed educational materials, and the identification of speakers for organizational conferences. • “being able to access these resources allowed me to spend less time and effort trying to find the information in other ways. i used these resources to find information to create web content and educational materials for my organization.” [ch-115] • “i used the service in spurts. i know there were many other projects i used it for but the ones that come to mind were to finish up a brochure on understanding a lung cancer pathology report, i did massive amounts of research on the effectiveness of support groups for cancer patients (and what facilitators need as well), and also researched information on lung nodules and bronchoscopies in lung cancer.” [ch-331] • “we have used a wide variety of articles during the past year. it would be impossible to cite them. we used articles to identify authors who would be potential speakers for our conferences. we analyzed articles and discussed them !8 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 on our blog. and, we used articles specifically for two lit review projects: one on individual adults experiencing homelessness and one on transitional housing for homeless populations.” [ch-314] updating expertise and informing advocacy another form of knowledge mobilization reported by participants was the use of peerreviewed articles in advocacy activities. some participants also emphasized the need to continually update their expertise in specific issue areas. • “i think the period i used this the most was when i was doing background research for some of the health team’s advocacy on [the state’s affordable care act program], and recommending that they not use drug retailers as certified enrollment entities. finding recent research regarding nonprofit hospitals’ community benefit was also really useful to some of our other advocacy.” [ch-16] • “there were several times when i needed access to a protected [i.e. non-open access] document in order to complete my work as an hiv and hepatitis c advocate and the study access to the printed literature was very helpful.” [ch-112] • “i work in public health (opioid overdose prevention with naloxone) and the pubmed access was invaluable in giving me access to the most up to date articles, which allowed me to keep my public presentation and role as a source of expert advice up to date.” [ch-128] watchdog activities some ngos participate in especially contested fields of knowledge and practice, facing off with industrial lobbyists and other commercial interests in their efforts to shape policy and practice. these ngos may position themselves as public watchdogs of rigorous science and controversies in their fields, using the latest peer-reviewed articles to stay abreast of developments in those fields. • “the articles that i accessed through the portal were incredibly useful. the most useful way that i used the portal was to access studies referenced in the work that i do. for example, as a watchdog organization, we respond to breaking news related to breast cancer. when a newspaper refers to a study, being able to a c c e s s t h e o r i g i n a l s t u d y t o r e v i e w a n d u s e a s e v i d e n c e w a s invaluable.” [ch-51] advancing policy work participants also reported using peer-reviewed articles to advance organizational policy work, often overlapping with advocacy on behalf of specific constituencies or with other activities. !9 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 • “i was able to access articles that i cited in a white paper on child-centered health homes i wrote, and generally accessed articles that deepen my understanding of the policy issues i am working on.” [ch-414] extending public health practice, to address root causes of health inequities finally, this participant noted the possibilities to use peer-reviewed articles to inform rationales to extend public health perspectives to new domains, to address the root causes of health inequities. • “most of the work was done in the early phase of access and i do not remember specific articles except for some in: critical public health, health promotion international, the international journal of health services, social science & medicine. i mostly searched for specific articles rather than for references. they were useful in supporting arguments regarding the need for expanding the boundaries of public health practice, with respect to confronting the root causes of health inequity.” [ch-184] overarching dynamics of open access research practices and uses facilitating positive feedback loops of research and learning more generally, these quotations capture the dynamics of increased interest in and uptake of peer-reviewed articles when they are freely available to ngos, on a par with university-level research access. • “loved it. gave me more access to research. i looked for articles more frequently, knowing i was more likely to be able to read them once i found them. i had better information to inform my policy work.” [ch-407] • “the web access was extremely helpful to my research. as a scientist, i am constantly downloading articles, and often one can lead me to another. having the ability to instantaneously download articles as needed kept my work moving forward.” [ch-457] fostering organizational development another participant articulated how such research access, by fostering positive feedback loops of research and learning through multiple domains of ngo activity, can contribute to overall organizational development as well. • “[our organization] is not able to gain access to the medical and scientific databases this study made available because it does not have the financial resources necessary. however, access to these databases make it possible for the organization to stay abreast of developments, and more importantly, enable it to get the information needed to support its policy positions, clinical programming, and development work. this access directly facilitated some advances for [the !10 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 organization] over the last year that would not have been possible otherwise. the loss of the access will have a definitive detrimental effect on the organization.” [ch-351] together, these reported uses of peer-reviewed research articles by public health ngo staff constitute an array of community informatics and organizational knowledge mobilization practices. they indicate ways in which public health ngos, across diverse constituencies and issues, are crucial research intermediaries, both conducting research and mobilizing research in practice, as discussed further in the article’s concluding section. participants’ reflections on the value of open access to their work lastly, participants completing the exit survey (n = 47) shared reflections on the value of open access, including the potential impacts of the study’s research access on their future work, when prompted with the following questions: “do you think your participation in this study will have any ongoing implications for your work, beyond the study’s end? if so, please describe”; and “any other thoughts, comments or questions about the study or research access that you would like to share?” higher expectations, greater commitment to open access some participants noted that the study’s research access had significantly raised their expectations and altered their reference points for adequate access to peer-reviewed articles. they also voiced greater interest in and commitment to open access, as an ideal. • “i feel much more committed to the idea of open access. before i felt it was important but through this study i felt firsthand how important open access can be (and how frustrating closed access is). without the open access through the study portal, i have already felt as if i have lost a limb.” [ch-51] • “it will make me more frustrated with my current research access, now that i have tasted the forbidden fruit. :)” [ch-407] • particular value of open access to non-profits and the public health sector finally, participants noted the particular need for open access and peer-reviewed articles in the non-profit sector, as well as in the public health field, given the perpetual shortage of these sectors’ resources relative to the challenges they face. • “thanks for doing this study. access to research is priced so far out of reach for nonprofits. this has been a barrier for some time and really slows down research at institutions without deep pockets.” [ch-129] • “i work with local health departments, and there is an increasing emphasis in our field on using research-based evidence to inform public health practice. like my non-profit, most lhds do not have access to many peer-reviewed journals. !11 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 finding ways to increase access to research results is a critical component in increasing the use of these results in public health practice.” [ch-182] conclusions and discussion: mobilizing a broader knowledge ecology on behalf of health equity these study findings indicate the clear relevance of access to peer-reviewed research articles to publics beyond academia, including public health ngo staff, for a wide range of activities on behalf of public health and health equity. participants’ reported research practices and uses of peer-reviewed articles help to fill in the picture of public health ngo community information seeking, use, and knowledge mobilization. they underscore the research capacity of the public health ngo field, including the continuities between ngo-based research practices and university-based research practices (e.g. literature reviewing, developing models, publishing peer-reviewed articles and white papers, etc.). these organizations, working to advance healthier communities and a healthier society for all, should be recognized as key stakeholders in knowledge, research, and open access ecosystems, as both authors and users of the latest peer-reviewed research articles. open access policies, especially when publicized and oriented toward a wider array of stakeholders (moorhead et al. 2015), contribute to public health ngos’ community information seeking and “effective use” – i.e., “the[ir] capacity and opportunity to successfully integrate icts into the accomplishment of… collaboratively identified goals” (gurstein 2003). such goals include communitydefined, grassroots innovations (gurstein 2013), from organizational programs to policy innovations oriented toward health equity. this recognition of public health ngos as valued stakeholders in open access ecosystems is crucial, among other reasons, because these organizations often mobilize research in unique ways that go beyond academic practices and uses. in the process, public health ngos serve as research intermediaries. as one issue brief on research use to promote children’s health articulates, “an intermediary facilitates knowledge exchange and brokers information among stakeholders, providing value-added contributions to decision-making” (biebel et al. 2013). another analysis of the use of health research in policy-making observes, “a key barrier to the use of research is the potential users' lack of awareness of a study or body of work and why it may be relevant. intermediaries…can support better connections between the policy needs of users and findings from researchers” (gold 2009) – as when public health ngos mobilize research, whether studies conducted by others or via their own research. indeed, “analyzing pathways that link research to its use shows that the world does not divide itself neatly into ‘researchers,’ who generate knowledge, and ‘users,’ who apply it” (gold 2009). this point underscores why it is valuable to investigate information seeking and use in communities that span university-based research as well as social movementand ngo-based “street science” (corburn 2005; corburn 2009; brown et al. 2012), examining both continuities (literature reviewing, developing models, etc.) and discontinuities in practices across sectors. !12 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 as reported in this article, public health ngo research and knowledge mobilization activities range from publishing peer-reviewed articles, to grant writing, to program management, to the development of educational materials, to policy and advocacy work. they span activities focused on the downstream provision of treatments, services and programmatic interventions, to activities to prevent illness and promote health by changing the upstream policies and systems – the social determinants of health (who 2008) – in which treatments, programs, services, and communities are embedded. findings also indicate how open access to peer-reviewed articles may affect the general dynamics of public health ngos’ research practices, fostering positive feedback loops of research and learning. these positive feedback loops may occur at staff and organizational levels, while also fostering greater awareness of the value of open access to peer-reviewed articles in new communities of stakeholders. often such academic and professional research is synthesized with local knowledge and community-based research (corburn, 2005). public health ngos thereby also contribute new insights to scholarly knowledge and professional debates. additional research could investigate the types of knowledge infrastructures and processes that best support such organizational development and capacity-building over time, with an eye to multi-sectoral promotion of public health and health equity (who 2010). on that note, intertwined with recognizing public health ngos as key stakeholders in research and knowledge ecosystems, this paper argues for leveraging community informatics initiatives on behalf of health equity. most of all, the rationale for considering initiatives from the vantage of health equity is to examine how public health knowledge ecosystems are oriented toward health promotion for all – or not; it is to emphasize the why, not only the how, of research and knowledge mobilization. it is crucial to observe, for instance, which community informatics initiatives are oriented toward “confronting the root causes of health inequity” [ch-184], as one participant put it, including through extending public health lenses to upstream domains of political and economic decision-making (frumkin 2005; corburn 2009). community informatics and open access initiatives are not panaceas, nor can they provide solutions to the deep social inequalities and institutional failures that translate into health inequities, as analyzed by social epidemiologists (krieger 2011). as another open access analyst writes, “the system of scholarly communication is a complex environment made up of various stakeholders…[which] exert some degree of power upon all other groups while at the same time being influenced, directly or indirectly, by external forces” (reinsfelder 2012). initiatives can aid efforts by public health ngos to promote health for all, as illustrated by some of the activities reported in this paper; but they will tend to mirror unequal social playing fields, rather than to level them. yet, given the prevalence and popularity of technological interventions with some funders, especially interventions emphasizing new information technologies, community informatics initiatives could better ally with health equity agendas by continually highlighting inequalities of power of many kinds (economic, social, political, cultural). doing so would help to situate icts and academic research in broader problem-solving landscapes on behalf of social justice – to put them in perspective. in the case of public health ngos, it is especially relevant to consider !13 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 community informatics in the context of social justice movements, particularly those that challenge socio-economic inequalities and structural racism – since these are core social determinants of health, which impinge on public health ngos’ work. as jonathan smucker writes, “in the case of economic inequality, we could certainly use a few more left-leaning economists, but, much more so, we need to construct a broadbased political alignment…” (smucker 2017). in other words, not only new knowledge, but new social relations, attuned to reconfiguring multiple forms of power, are needed to advance health equity. health equity touchstones are consistent with the social justice aspirations of many who are engaged with ngo work and community informatics projects. so there is a particular opportunity to consider how to better leverage these fields, as highlighted previously in this journal (newman and alsanousi 2013). so even as open access policies and journals proliferate, in some ways disrupting corporate journal publishing markets, it is crucial to recognize their limitations in a world where publishing markets are themselves embedded in multiple other corporatedominated, neoliberal markets that impact health (holzmeyer 2018). moreover, even within their domain, open access publishing options often maintain financial hierarchies by passing on their publishing costs to authors, who may not have funds to cover them – as some public health ngo staff in this study pointed out. indeed, the sci-hub platform (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sci-hub), which has drawn many publishers’ ire by allowing users to bypass paywalls through educational institution proxies, both states its support for the open access movement and operates outside-the-box of most open access initiatives. rather than instituting new payment schemes, for example, sci-hub instead disregards the paywalled status of articles entirely – a more fundamental challenge to corporate journal publishing markets. created by kazakhstani graduate student alexandra elbakyan in 2011, to date sci-hub has stored tens of millions of papers in its own repository. additional allies in leveraging community informatics for health equity may include those calling for more communal and cooperative forms of social organization to accompany information sharing platforms, such as advocates of platform cooperativism (scholz 2016) and of community data commons (bloom 2013). all of these efforts are relevant to institutionalizing, at multiple levels and scales, supports for grassroots, community-based innovations on behalf of health equity. as a recent report from the u.s. institute of medicine frames work toward health equity, “the major health problems of our time, especially as related to fairness and equity in health and wellbeing, cannot be solved by health care alone. they cannot be solved by public health alone. all of our nation’s institutions, public, private, and nonprofit, have important roles to play even if they do not think of their purpose as fundamentally being about health and well-being” (marks et al. 2018). such multi-level, multi-sectoral initiatives are needed to promote health equity and to support the work of public health ngos as stakeholders in open access knowledge ecosystems – especially, ngos representing the least enfranchised communities and defining their missions around social and environmental justice. !14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sci-hub the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 acknowledgements most of all, the author is grateful to participants for sharing their time and experiences, as well as to john willinsky, khosla family professor at the stanford graduate school of education, for his postdoctoral mentorship throughout this research, and to laura moorhead and lauren maggio for their contributions to the larger study. in addition, the author thanks the following colleagues for their helpful discussions and comments on earlier iterations of this research: lisa börjesson, michael buckland, alina engelman, alastair iles, akos kokai, jean lave, ellen moore, silvio carvalho neto, vivien petras, rodrigo ribeiro, janaki srinivasan and lee worden. this research was funded by the u.s. national science foundation’s science of science & innovation policy program (grant #1158673). competing interests: none. ethics approval: stanford university institutional review board. references american public health association on health equity: https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/ health-equity . bayer, r. and galea, s. 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(2009). pathways to the use of health services research in policy. health services research 44(4): 1111–1136. gurstein, m. (2003). effective use: a community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. first monday 8(12). gurstein, m. (2004). editorial: welcome to the journal of community informatics. the journal of community informatics 1(1): 2-4. gurstein, m. (2013). community innovation and community informatics. the journal of community informatics 9(3). healthy people 2020: https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/about-healthy-people. hillery, g. (1955). definitions of community: areas of agreement. rural society 20: 111-125. holzmeyer, c. (2018) open science initiatives: challenges for public health promotion. health promotion international, day002: https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/day002. krieger, n. (2011). epidemiology and the people’s health: theory and context. oxford university press, oxford. marks, j., gayle, h., and proctor, d. (2018). introduction: social and structural determinants of health and health equity. perspectives on health equity & social determinants of health. washington, dc: the national academy of medicine. moorhead, l.1, holzmeyer, c.1, maggio, l., steinberg, r., and willinsky, j. (2015). in an age of open access to research policies: physicians and public health ngo staff research use and policy awareness. plos one, july 2015: 1-15. newman, l. and alsanousi, a. (2013). overview of icts and health. the journal of community informatics 9(2). nkechi, n. and gurstein, m. (2007). towards supporting community information seeking and use. the journal of community informatics 3(1). patrick, d. and wickizer, t. (1995). community and health. in amick, b., levine, s., and tarlov, a., and chapman walsh, d., eds., society and health (46-92). new york: oxford university press. reinsfelder, t. (2012). open access publishing practices in a complex environment: conditions, barriers, and bases of power. journal of librarianship and scholarly communication 1(1), ep1029: 1. scholz, t. (2016). platform cooperativism: challenging the corporate sharing economy. new york: rosa luxemburg stiftung. smucker, j. (2017). hegemony how-to: a roadmap for radicals. ak press, chico, ca. stoecker, r. (2005). is community informatics good for communities? questions confronting an emerging field. the journal of community informatics 1(3). world health organization (who), commission on social determinants of health (2008). closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health. geneva: who. world health organization (2010). adelaide statement on health in all policies. adelaide: who, government of south australia,. !16 https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/about-healthy-people https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/day002 shakya_drechsler_final the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 1 articles ict and institutional transformations in the global south: a study of the rejuvenation of the guthi institution in nepal shobhit shakya, ragnar nurkse department of innovation and governance, taltech, shobhit.shakya@taltech.ee wolfgang drechsler, ragnar nurkse department of innovation and governance, taltech, institute for innovation and public purpose, ucl, and davis center for russian and eurasian studies, harvard university, wolfgang.drechsler@taltech.ee the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 2 ict and institutional transformations in the global south: a study of the rejuvenation of the guthi institution in nepal abstract at a juncture where various streams questioning the role of information and communication technologies (ict) in democratic governance have joined, this paper explores how a traditional south asian institution – the guthi – is rejuvenated, if not resuscitated, by ict. furthermore, this study examines how the guthi was transformed, especially – but not only – by the communication aspect, prompted by a cataclysmic event, and also propelled towards global normative priorities. the case came to attention after the major earthquake of 2015 in nepal. the guthi, the traditional institution of cooperative self-governance prevalent primarily amongst the newars of kathmandu valley, was in serious decline and the earthquake laid bare the void it had left behind. leveraging on ict and following their traditions, the communities put forward the case for their participation in rebuilding efforts. especially the case for community participation, but also possibilities through ict in general, “spun off” new iterations of the guthi: neo-guthis, sub-guthis, and quasi-guthis. we argue that much of the criticism that is levelled against the guthi today ignores these newer iterations of the institution and solely focuses on the ancient guthis. as we put forth, it was the reaction to the demand of the time as well as utilizing the digital tools available, and even adapting the organization(s) to do so, that enabled the rejuvenation of an indigenous institution for the common good. keywords: guthi, nepal, ict, cooperatives, e-participation, deliberation, social media introduction with the rise of information and communication technologies (ict)1, especially since the 2000s but also even before (olphert & damodaran, 2007), barriers to decentralization and citizen involvement were supposed to be resultantly ameliorated. the more specific genre of scholarship known as information and communication technology for development (ict4d) has extensively dealt with research in its eponymous area (walsham, 2017). yet, increasing evidence suggests that e-participation projects do not easily achieve success in transforming governance as 1 by now, ict has become a self-explanatory term that is generally understood as a collection of technologies and components which deals with individual and societal units to interact through transfer and storage of information in digital format. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 3 anticipated (bright & margetts, 2016; falco & kleinhans, 2018). despite the large volume of literature in favor of the implementation of participatory democratic governance, how it actually can be achieved through ict is still a learning process; a fortiori when it comes to diversified contexts (kostakis, 2011; thomas et al., 2017; walsham, 2001). our paper starts with the assumption that resilient, context-suited institutions enable socio-economic development in the broadest sense of improving the human condition, both materially and regarding equity, in time and space (nussbaum, 2011; sen, 1985, 2000). our interest in the research is to explore whether ict has a role to play in furthering the resilience and sustainability of indigenous “democratic” institutions, and if so, how. we are offering a study in which a traditional south asian institution is rejuvenated, if not resuscitated, by ict. furthermore, the research examines how the guthi were transformed, especially – but not only – by the communication aspect, prompted by a cataclysmic event, and also propelled towards global normative priorities. the case in question is that of the nepalese guthi2, an institution characterized by community-based cooperatives with a centuries-old tradition. this institution often includes heavy endowments, part of buddhist economics (drechsler, 2019, 2020) and a typical institution of the newars3, the inhabitants of the urban core of nepal in the kathmandu valley. the victim of government discrimination and “modernization”4, the guthi resurfaced in the wake of a devastating earthquake and reestablished itself, in various permutations, through facilitation by ict. research approach and methodology research motivation for our research approach, we consider the common occurrence of traditional institutions often getting side-lined from mainstream practices, with such institutions often being underresearched. yet, many studies have shown that in a situation with void of a government’s institutional framework, with regard to the fulfilment of a specific necessity, traditional practices and institutions can come back and re-establish themselves (e. g., boonjubun et al., 2021; pur & moore, 2010; urinboyev, 2011). 2 we do not italicize guthi, and use the capitalized singular, with definite article, to refer to the institution as such, whereas individual guthis are not capitalized and can be singular (guthi) or plural (guthis). 3 newars are the indigenous inhabitants of the kathmandu valley, historically also referred to as nepalmandala (also written nepal mandala; see slusser, 1982). the newar culture arguably climaxed during the reign of the malla kings in the 18th century, until the region governed as a system of three cities was conquered by the gorkhali shah dynasty (levy, 1992, p. 35; sharma, 2015; toffin, 2008, p. 8; whelpton, 2005). 4 in today’s general academic parlance, “modernization” is a theoretical concept associated with a linearity of socioeconomic development, which is premised on the assumption that societies progress with technological and scientific advancement, and that there are leaders and laggards in this process, with the latter catching up to the former on an identical trajectory (see kreutzmann, 1998). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 4 theoretical perspectives from a historical institutional perspective, pre-existing institutions and the path dependency they create are essential in considering policy implementation (steinmo, 2008). the framework of non-western public administration and governance (nwpa) asserts that in contrast to the global-western paradigm in public administration (pa), alternative paradigms do exist (drechsler, 2013). these institutions and elements, if relevant to the specific context, are worth studying even without the need for an elaborate theoretical scaffolding. but from the perspective of resilient institutions, traditional institutions are embedded into the societal fabric and thus either create challenges to change or provide advantages in some respects (peters, 1999). resilient institutions also characteristically tend to utilize collective action and are contextually grounded with the ability to absorb disturbances and keep the ability to perform (ostrom, 2005, 2008; ratner et al., 2017). through the right institutional arrangements, the social capital within a population can be utilized to achieve set goals collectively (ostrom & ahn, 2009). through a historical institutionalist perspective, we follow the trajectory of the transformative process of the guthi and consider its interaction with ict against the backdrop of the devastating earthquake of 2015. research for the paper started in 2017, when early signs showed that community-led collective action following the blueprint of the guthi could have an important role to play in the process of reconstruction, especially concerning built heritage (lekakis et al., 2018). given the reach of ict within the urban population of the kathmandu valley, it was likely from the outset that this would be a factor too, but its key role became eventually visible. it therefore became relevant to pursue our topic from the angle of ict-enabled institutional transformation. methodology as suggested by the subject matter itself, our inquiry takes an interpretivist qualitative approach which can be categorized as an ethnographic case study methodology. the research formed a continued long-term endeavor of over 5 years which has produced other published material as well (see lekakis et al., 2018; s. shakya & drechsler, 2019; s. shakya, 2021). a mix of qualitative data approaches was used: informants were selected based on responsiveness and knowledgeability; key individuals (activists, scholars and politicians) who were influential within the newar community were shadowed through social media; 21 interviews were conducted of which 12 are directly relevant for this paper and 6 interviews have been quoted in the paper5; key scholars with knowledge in the field (studies concerning the newar community from and anthropological and/or historical perspective) were consulted; and active participation in online forums and discussion groups were established. all these were activities were done in addition to field work, conducted in march 2017, july 2018, and july 2019 in kathmandu and in january 2019 and february 2020 in london. for our inquiry, because of the phenomenon being activities influenced by and reflected in digital media, it was necessary to go in parts towards digital methods employing digital 5 interviews were not conducted particularly with this paper and ict transformation in mind and as a result, not all interviews were considered here. see infra exclusion criteria. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 5 ethnography (pink et al., 2016). data were sought from evidence available online through social media and other digital materials posted by relevant community members. while digital technology has been a medium to study the phenomena, in parts, from afar, it was ascertained that some of the phenomena under review were or had become completely digital or digitaldependent. the cyberspace which contains “archived moments” of the interactions of people online is relevant for study and often also produces additional insights which otherwise are not possible to access (postill, 2017, p. 66). active engagement with the community through an online medium such as chat groups and social media platforms, continually following up and communicating was therefore highly relevant. the first author is a member of a guthi associated with rudravarna mahavihara (a vajrayana buddhist temple and monastery) in patan, and a member of the world newah organization, and took an active approach to the research that reflected a participatory action research process. a similar approach termed ethnographic action research (ear) has been utilized in ict4d research (tacchi, 2017) as well. the availability of a rich repository of literature from historical and anthropological perspectives concerning the guthis (and newars generally) meant that a significant study could be achieved through their work. gellner (1986, 1992), regmi (1977), sharma (2015), shrestha (2012; 2015), toffin (2008; 2016), vergati (1995) and several others provided key material, while direct correspondence with some of these authors also helped provide direction to the research. as in most ethnographic studies, the analysis was done through the employment of heuristic means of utilizing an “iterative-inductive, reflexive” process of data collection and conceptualizing of the phenomenon (o’reilly, 2009). ethnographic data analysis goes along a “grounded theory” approach where making sense of the data produced through a variety of methods would be iteratively used to produce a theory rather than to approach logical deduction from a priori assumptions. selection and exclusion of data was done reflexively through constantly considering the theoretical framing and using the knowledge gained through the prolonged immersion into the context (the newar community and guthi institution in this case). in doing so, we have followed the classical hermeneutical approach of cultural and textual analysis for which gadamer’s work forms the foundation (1960/1990), particularly as its utilization in the social sciences is concerned (drechsler & fuchs, 2023). this implies that the tension between data gathering and how that information must re-inform the questions cannot be resolved and must therefore be borne (drechsler 2016). the case of the guthi in nepal in this section, we provide the background to the guthi institution in nepal, largely based on literature review, in order to build a cohesive narrative that links the historical perspective to the present context and to the findings of the research. the guthi, or गो#ी (goṣṭhī) as per the sanskrit terms historically used, is an institution of community governance prevalent amongst the newars since the rule of the licchavi clan more than 1600 years ago (vajracharya, 1973). guthis, in essence, are community organizations tasked with private matters associated with members of the organizations themselves or with public utility. their functions are diverse; they can range from social and cultural functions, like arranging funerals and organizing rituals in temples, to the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 6 alternative public-service provisions like the maintenance of water sources (see toffin, 2005). although cooperatives abound in human time and space, the guthi is so distinct, resilient, and important that there are calls to even declare it a unesco intangible cultural heritage (gellner, 2019; m. maharjan & barata, 2020). but well beyond this aspect of cultural importance, the guthi was and can be an effective (alternative) public-sector institution (s. shakya, 2020; gellner, 1992; toffin, 2005). in fact, this was so already during the licchavi times, gleaning from inscriptions that mention guthis established for public utility tasks, such as cleaning and maintaining the roads (vajracharya, 1973). an example of the public utility function of guthis is the maintenance of water sources. in the kathmandu valley, these generally took the form of ponds or hiti (hitis for plural), which is a specific structure that taps into underground water channels with sunken courtyards, providing running water for public usage – and in parallel with modern water supply, they are still in crucial and everyday use (molden, 2019; un-habitat, 2008; shrestha, 2012). hitis along with other water resources, such as ponds and dug wells, were maintained by guthis and were available for general public use (molden, 2019; un-habitat, 2008). even though most of these structures were constructed by ruling monarchs (whelpton, 2005), hitis came from philanthropists as well with the kin of the donor often establishing a guthi for continued maintenance of the common resource in future. for example, alkwo hiti in patan, which was established in 1415 ad by tumha dev bajracharya (un-habitat, 2008). tumha dev constructed the hiti, allocated a significant area of arable land for maintenance costs, and established a guthi for its maintenance and conducting the ritual requirements. additionally, instructions were left behind in the form of inscriptions (un-habitat 2008). tiwari (2007) argued that channeling “individual wealth” to the public through committees, recognized as permanent entities, was the main point of the guthi. the wealth of an individual was utilized for the benefit of many and its sustainability ensured, adhering to the buddhist principle of “bahujanahitāya bahujanasukhāya” or the welfare and happiness of many.6 buddhism is an integral part of the newar identity (gellner, 1986/1992), and the guthi is a distinct and in many ways typical form of buddhist economics (s. shakya & drechsler, 2019).7 this makes it particularly interesting, at least as a model from which to learn, in a context where buddhist economics has become prominent in its happiness and sustainability orientation, as well as its conduciveness for attaining the sustainable development goals (drechsler, 2019/2020). however, its buddhist nature was especially objectionable to nepali-hindu homogenizing nationalism, already since the late 18th century8, as well as to economic and development 6 this expression often appears in the buddhist pāli canon (see, e. g., pali canon, itivuttaka 84) and is generally regarded as the main reason for teaching the buddhist dhamma. 7 that said, they were also fairly common amongst hindu residents of the kathmandu valley and its periphery, and some of them, especially among hindu newars, still remain despite the buddhist origins (gellner, 1992; levy, 1992; s. shakya & drechsler, 2019). 8 tiwari (2007, pp. 81) mentions that the property of many of the guthis associated with the buddhist institutions of patan was expropriated and transferred to others as a result of the political changes after 1786 (the year of the the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 7 ideologies that were less communityand permanence-driven and more market-, exploitation-, and material-gains-focused (m. shakya, 2008). the membership within a particular guthi would usually be based on kinship or territory (gellner, 1992), and memberships would pass down through lineage (toffin, 2005). though a sense of hierarchy exists within the organizations, with seniority being honored, the institution has been acknowledged to be democratic and egalitarian with the duties passing amongst the members in a rotational manner and decisions being made through mutual agreements (gellner, 1992). there is a principle of sharing too, with properties of a guthi being shared assets of all the members. the surplus of the income from funding the activities of the guthi would be shared amongst the members (sharma, 2015). in its essence, the newar guthi existed as an institution of participatory governance which oversaw several aspects of the administration of urban spaces in the kathmandu valley. the decline after the prithvi narayan shah takeover in 1768 (whelpton, 2005), eventually a hegemonic, hindu rule of the parbatiya bahun and chhetri communities (hindu “higher class” groups mostly from the hills of western nepal) was established and structurally discriminated against several, previously existing now minority groups, including newars (bhattachan, 2003/2005). nepal then went through a phase of autocratic rule by the hausmeier rana dynasty from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century (whelpton, 2005). after a short stint of democracy, the returning shah monarchy took absolute power from 1960 to 1990 in the so-called panchayat regime, after which multi-party democracy was (re-)established if often in a highly deficient version (bhattachan, 2005; gellner, 2016; whelpton, 2005). the panchayat regime’s ideology of the time was based on developmentalism, suppression of political parties, pro-hindu religiosity, and nationalism (gellner, 2016, p. 17). legal reforms were introduced to sideline the pre-existing institutions of governance, including the guthi, thus reducing either of them to semi-formal status or abolishing them altogether (for example, the kipat system was completely abolished). the land reform act of 1964, the guthi samsthan (corporation) act of the same year and the subsequent act of 1976 sidelined the guthi, with most of their property nationalized and brought under the control of said guthi samsthan9, a non-newar state agency. their scope was restricted to primarily religious and cultural activities completed gorkha takeover of kathmandu). prithvi narayan shah’s vision of “asali hindustan” (“true hindus’ land”) (see bhattachan, 2003, 2005) and jung bahadur’s “muluki ain” (national code) of 1854, based entirely on a hindu framework (see khatiwoda et al., 2021), would seem to indicate that gorkhali policy, since the takeover of nepal mandala, was geared towards hindu homogenization, which continued with the later panchayat period (whelpton, 2005). 9 guthis were categorized as raj guthi and niji guthi. properties of the former were expropriated, nationalized and brought under the ownership of the guthi samsthan while niji guthi were deemed private and allowed to keep their property (regmi, 1977). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 8 (m. maharjan & barata, 2020; s. shakya & drechsler, 2019).10 additionally the land acquisition act of 1977, which allowed for the expropriation of private or guthi land for development purposes), was part of the reforms aimed at modernizing and developing the country. the act, in effect, worked against the newars with their guthis being left without resources to self-finance, and their lands were acquired for infrastructure projects (k. maharjan, 2017; n. pradhananga et al., 2010; sunar, 2017). but while the anti-guthi reforms did largely sideline the institution, they did not cause a complete demise. having been embedded into the fabric of the newar lifestyle, the guthi continued to be the means of self-governing, but more privately as the friction between the state and the interests of the newars continued, despite the democratic transition in 1990 and further political shifts. the earthquake, the heritage movement and ict in 2015, a massive earthquake struck nepal, taking over 9,000 lives (dpnet-nepal, 2015). in the kathmandu valley, historical monuments were destroyed, several of which were part of the sites inscribed in the unesco world heritage list (unesco world heritage centre, n. d.). the urgency for the heritage structures to be reconstructed was strongly felt locally, nationally, and internationally (sengupta, 2015; wolfson, 2015). the government’s flawed initial efforts at reconstruction drew criticism with the lack of focus on the authenticity and use of vernacular materials and methods in reconstruction (for example, the rani pokhari and balgopaleshwor temple project, see s. b. pradhananga 2016). resultantly, a “heritage movement” emerged, led by the local community of the valley, demanding stakeholder participation and focus on authenticity and integrity with use of indigenous building techniques, methods, and materials (bhattarai, 2018; a. tuladhar, 2018). the guthi was at the center of this discussion given the role of the organizations in the past (kc, 2016; sekhsaria, 2016). few cases of successful community involvement emerged, even if only indirectly or partly involving guthis (lekakis et at., 2018; s. shakya & drechsler, 2019; s. shakya, 2020; s. shakya, 2021). as newar youth activists started to take their agenda to social media through groups and pages on facebook, which was and is still by far the most popular social media platform in the country (statscounter, 2021), ict became a driving factor. pressure groups (see save heritage, n. d.; save nepa valley movement, n. d.; nepal sanskritik punarjagaran abhiyan, n. d.) started to increase their activities largely utilizing the “affordances”11 provided by the internet to disseminate information and collaborate in protest activities. there was evidently a strong critical agency amongst the newars. this was the key factor behind the success of the massive “guthi protest” of 2019 as series of demonstrations that were 10 historian tri ratna manandhar has argued that the legal reforms introduced during the panchayat regime ended up being the root cause of the decline of the guthi, although the reforms were ostensibly intended to improve the economic status of tenant farmers (manandhar, 2019; manandhar, triratna, personal communication, july 2018). 11 “affordance” concerns the “transactional” relationship between human beings and their environment (see gibson 2015). the concept has been extensively used in information systems literature. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 9 directed against the “guthi bill”, which attempted to bring all guthis under an authoritative government body lacking local representation, in effect being designed to finish them off once and for all as serious players (gellner, 2019; s. shakya, 2019; toffin, 2019). the bill was eventually withdrawn (sunuwar, 2019). the demonstration held, considered exemplary in terms of size and coordination, was not led by political parties, but by an ad-hoc committee involving newar community leaders and directly involved guthis, thus hinting at the potential of the guthi in generating social capital and effective collective action (sunuwar, 2019; satyal, 2019). ict played a vital role in all this, with several coordinating and dissemination activities organized via ict means. the events from 2019 clearly showed that the guthi institution was evidently in a transformative process exhibiting institutional resilience with ict in the mix of things. the question of how needs a better elaboration. findings: the guthi goes digital and different the communication aspect of ict is relevant for guthis which organize festivities and see value in advertisement of such events. a prime example is the festival of bunga dyo, the prebuddhist “god of rain”, who is worshipped by buddhists as an aspect of the avalokiteshvara (vergati, 1995; slusser, 1982). “it is not officially [part of the guthi] but there are several yonwā and sons of pānejyu associated with the facebook page. everything is purely non-profit oriented.” (robinson maharjan, personal communication, 23 april, 2021) the festival involves pulling a massive wooden chariot around the city of lalitpur, uniting more than a dozen guthis that work together. there have been several social media pages dedicated to promoting and organizing the festival which effectively emboldens the cultural practice.12 the point here is not a generic “they’re-on-fb-also,” but that potentially fading-away community practices were rejuvenated cross-generationally, as we shall establish. many guthis that are more private, such as those that organize worship of tutelary deities and maintain their temples, also find use of ict in their organizational activities. these guthis mostly have used private facebook groups, examples being bishnudevi guthi (etee tole bishnudevi guthi pariwar, n. d.) and upakarma guthi (upakarma guthi lalitpur, n. d). correspondence with the guthi members showed that the social media, specifically facebook groups, was primarily used to communicate and make general announcements within the membership. we conduct our meetings on zoom already since the pandemic… we have also create a it group amongst the guthi members to help other members with online meeting and working through internet… before the pandemic we shared decisions of meetings to private groups; on facebook page we share more information regarding public functions… time related of technology has been adopted, but for formal requirement 12 see, for example, rato machhindranath (n.d) the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 10 we still deliver papers to home of each guthi members and send sms to them too. (bhushan sharma, upakarma guthi, personal communication, july 16, 2020) in addition to facebook groups, these guthis were using traditional sms for this purpose, which was much more convenient than the even more traditional way of going door to door making announcements. yet, to uphold the traditions they still use door-to-door visits on formal occasions for general discussions and announcements, the guthis have increasingly relied on ict tools. that has arguably made them more up-to-date, inclusive, and relevant. close observation of the guthi in present context reveals there are organizations in their penumbra that are closely related to the ancient institution. however, not all principles behind the guthi are being followed by the newer iterations. for instance, kinship might be a principle central to traditional guthis that have been discontinued with newer iterations. yet other principles like consensus decisions, honoring seniority within the organizational dynamics, and some level of rotation of duties are often continued. this likeness of characteristics in new organizations in comparison to the traditional institution has also been noted in the secondary literature (pathak, 2020; toffin, 2016), without there being a taxonomy built on this. classifying and typologizing guthis, however, is a time-honoured practice among experts. gellner (1992) has presented a typology based on functions and toffin (2005) has presented his own typology. broadly, there can be three types based on their functions: (1) public utilities and organizing of festivities; (2) community welfare; and (3) religious rituals. but we look at functional organization, as this will help us to recognize what the guthi now is and what part ict plays here. we argue that to understand the 21st-century guthi, it is pivotal to recognize how the ancient guthis in various ways have “spun off” other forms of related organizations that are best understood as iterations of guthi. this is crucial because if one focused on the ancient guthi only which is limited by the socio-political context, one would not be able to recognize how they are rejuvenated. the ancient guthis remained how they always were, but both technologically and sociologically, “progress” was “outsourced” to other variants. in our ict context, it is those other forms that have been created for or even by ict. we see three types of guthi having emerged in parallel to the ancient one: quasi-guthis, neo-guthis, and sub-guthis. the first are guthis that are “created” by nepali anti-guthi discrimination, i.e., organizations with the guthi purpose that are not allowed to emerge due to the existing laws making it difficult to establish a new guthi. therefore, at the end of the 20th century, new organizations started being registered in the form of non-governmental organizations (ngos) with some keeping the guthi name (see some listed as ngos in social welfare council, 2019). being in essence a group of new guthis, but not in legal form, we call the form quasi-guthi. studying them close-up (also partly discussed in s. shakya, 2020) shows that they are extensively using ict. their ict-based activities range from virtual meetings and seminars as well as conducting language classes to posting notifications or announcements. generally, all these activities take place in addition to offline activities, but one notices a much greater propensity towards ict. a prime example of such a guthi in function and name, but not in a legal sense, is nepal lipi guthi (nepal lipi guthi, n. d). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 11 nepal lipi guthi (nlg) was established as ngo in 1980 with the aim of promoting nepal’s native scripts (lipi).13 the mode of establishment is similar to how the guthis of the past would have been established with a charitable purpose in mind. guthi is newa tradition for social and community activities. so we followed the newa tradition ... we developed nepal lipi and ranjana lipi true type and unicode fonts too … we also engaged for unicode project of nepal lipi since 2008 and are coordinating for finalization. (anil sthapit, nepal lipi guthi, personal communication, march 12, 2021) though the earliest activities of nlg were not always ict-based, it became important for the organization to adapt to ict-based activities. for a guthi that specifically dealt with preserving and promoting endangered native writing scripts, enabling the use of such writing scripts in digital mediums was an obvious goal. nlg has also been collaborating with activists and youth volunteering teams for various activities like developing smartphone apps and fonts and organizing online classes (p. tuladhar, 2018). one such team that has been collaborating with nlg is the callijatra team, a group formed by youth activists (callijatra, n. d.). though nlg was already working on creating fonts for word processing and digitally encoding the native scripts as unicode (hall et al., 2014; p. tuladhar, 2018), activities have been more leveraged by the use of ict through collaborating with callijatra (deupala, 2018). then, there are several newar organizations even in nepal (outside the nepalmandala), but most prominently abroad, that have been largely established as community groups in the diaspora, focusing on social interaction and welfare among their members. taking up the important concept of the guthi (in itself a sign for its resilience), these are what we call neoguthi. the most prominent and active, even activist, neo-guthis are the ones in the united states and the united kingdom, such as pasa puchah guthi uk (n. d.), founded in 2000, and newa guthi new york (newa guthi ny, n. d.), founded in 2007. canadian newa guthi (n. d.), founded in 2005, has been similarly active. there is a better visibility of neo-guthis outside of nepal, but there have been active neo-guthis within nepal too, an example being tansen guthi (n. d. a/b), established in 1993. our community organization is not a guthi per-say but we followed the tradition to name our organization guthi… in one of our program, culturist satya mohan joshi commended us for choosing the guthi name. (shanti shakya, tansen guthi, personal communication, june 30, 2021) it almost goes without saying that the organization of the former two neo-guthis happens primarily via ict. it is even questionable whether they could have emerged and be maintained without such a platform (s. shakya, 2022). the biggest challenge to tackle is to retain the members of younger generation… we have technical difficulties to maintain website… but we do use viber and facebook to 13 nepal lipi guthi, personal communication, 12 march, 2021. see also hall et al. (2014). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 12 engage communication and organize activities of the guthi. (prami shrestha, tansen guthi, personal communication, june 30, 2021) the fact that the geographically very dispersed neo-guthis have closely cooperated has led to an almost automatically ict-based federation. the world newah organization (wno), an organization registered as a non-profit in the us, functions as a federation of non-nepali neoguthis, with several neo-guthis such as canadian newa guthi and newa guthi new york being affiliated with the organization. wno was established through a series of virtual meetings between 26 scholars and activists from various parts of the world (s. shakya, 2022; wno, 2010). once conference calls were possible to do via skype, we started using skype for communication … it was in the us that the idea that an international guthi like organization should be started. (bal gopal shrestha, world newah organization, personal communication, july 21, 2019) their activities, too, go beyond just being ict-based, with key activities including the development of an online dictionary (wno, 2020), organizing online conferences (wno, 2021a), and organizing online quiz games with self-developed software (wno, 2021b). the neo-guthis, via the wno, have even gone a step further – not being ict-enabled, but enabling or at least influencing and creating key content for the ict world. their latest project has been to make nepalbhasa14 available for google translate. the project was initiated by wno and taken forward through community contributions with joint sessions held on a daily basis over zoom to feed translation data to google’s translation algorithm. a beta release of the translation service has already been launched on google translate (wno, 2021c). the level of importance of ict in the establishment and organization of neo-guthis within nepal may not be exactly the same as compared to those outside. taking the example of tansen guthi, however, the relationship of ict with neo-guthis remains similar. tansen guthi was established in 1993 in kathmandu by newars who returned from tansen in the palpa district back to their ancestral cities. owing to the fact that many families still remained in tansen and some even migrated to other cities in nepal, two additional branches of the guthi were established, one in butwal and one in tansen itself (s. shakya, 2018). this created a scenario not different from that of neo-guthis outside nepal, where organizational efforts needed to utilize electronic communication channels. looking at the twitter handle of the guthi (tansen guthi, n. d. b), it is clear that already by 2015, the organization was internally promoting use of ict amongst their members. today, the organization’s organizing is completely based on the messaging app viber, and the members of the guthi see the further use of ict as the only possible way forward.15 and finally, since the ancient guthi is under such duress in nepal, guthis themselves have adapted to the laws and regulations in the country, as well. guthi members started registering “committees” with the municipalities, thus making it easier to receive grants from the 14 nepalbhasa is the native language of newars and the historical lingua franca of nepalmandala. though the term “newari” is often used, the correct term is nepalbhasa. 15 shrestha, prami, personal discussion, 30 july, 2021. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 13 municipality offices. in general, for many temples and quarters, committees handling them consisted of a subset of the members of the guthi in question. as these are not independent organizations but depend on specific ancient guthis, but are legally autonomous, we call them sub-guthi. we decided to establish a new parallel organization that would help the seniors of the guthi to better manage the guthi … if we are to formally register the guthi itself, we need to report everything concerning the guthi to the authorities … we also cannot deny membership to people outside from our kinship … it is impractical to formally register a guthi. (bhushan sharma, upakarma guthi, personal communication, july 16, 2020) the need to become transparent regarding their activities and spending, as well as showing appreciation to donors, became important for these organizations, and social media became a useful outlet. the renovation committee is registered formally registered with the kathmandu city office, we cannot get grants from the government without it … it is all the members of the mahavihara who are involved in the committee. (milan ratna bajracharya, maitripur mahavihara, personal communication, july 1, 2018) several committees established to conduct reconstruction/renovation of the monasteries and monuments or to handle other activities of importance amongst the communities have used social media in attempts to make their activities more transparent. guthis associated with maitripur mahavihara (n. d.) in kathmandu as well as rudra varna mahavihara (rudravarna mahavihar, n. d.) and upakarma guthi in patan (upakarma guthi lalitpur, n. d.) are among the many which have registered such committees to officially work with the municipal offices. in short, the typology we suggest can be summed up as follows: the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 14 table 1: typology of organizations that form the contemporary guthi (source: authors’ own elaboration) description social character role of ict key ict tools used ancient guthi corresponds to the description provided in section 3. traditional, mirroring newar culture rather than challenging it internal communication; advertising • sms • messaging apps • social media quasi-guthi new nepali orgs which are contemporary iterations of the guthi principle less but still traditional more ict-based • sms, messaging apps, and social media • online conferencing • video and multimedia • creation of font faces neo-guthi new guthis, also in name, founded abroad (or outside the kathmandu valley) for the diaspora places of reflected, “progressive” transformation often primarily ict-based • online conferencing • contributing to google translate • cloud storage, social media • animation tools • video and multimedia software • capable of selfdeveloping ict solutions sub-guthi orgs related to ancient guthi in order to operate better in today’s nepal more pragmatic and technical using ict also for communication with the government and especially for transparency • sms • social media • word processing and spreadsheets how important it is to differentiate between these, but also to look at all of them when we discuss the guthi today, is reflexively shown if we emphasize ict. this is because if one just looks at the ancient guthis, arguably less than half the picture is seen. but this is even more strikingly visible if we look at the challenges the latter face in local and especially global academic and social-media discourse. we will examine this issue next. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 15 discussion although generally praised, global-northern criticism of the guthi is not missing either. rankin (2003/2004) provides a good example of this by outlining the standard critique from a traditional global-academic perspective. rankin sees the guthi as a kind of “honor economy” of the newars, which works “agentively to maintain and defend caste and gender hierarchies.” according to her, guthis, being strictly segregated by caste, mark the differences within the newar society. regarding gender discrimination, she claims that the guthi “marginalizes women from the maledominated centers of ritual life – and attendant circles of political power – while at the same time depending concretely on women’s labor for their routine functioning” (rankin, 2003, p. 118). she also sees the guthi as a practice that puts newars at odds with accepting modernity – “the surest mechanism for protecting ‘traditional newar culture’ against ‘outside’ influences of modernization” (rankin, 2004, p. 123). beyond passing normative judgement of newar culture from the outside, regarding whether some of it may be acceptable from a perspective of modernization (shrestha, n. r., 2006), seeing the guthi as something that blocks modernity in a technical sense has been a common view. among the newars, too, this narrative is not uncommon. however, misunderstanding the guthi as ancient, even atavistic, and immobile is frequently premised on outdated modernization theories – which often go hand in hand with authoritarianism, not least in asia – and implicit global-western standards of normal progress (attir, 1981; fakih, 2020). possibly more prominent, however, is a lack of au courant, empirical, stakeholder-driven research among newars and guthis, and a misconception of what the guthi really is today. as we have just outlined, there are four discernible forms of the guthi today. functionally speaking, all four are guthi; all four are part of what newar cooperative self-determination means. the standard criticism as mentioned above, however, almost universally goes against the ancient guthi. whereas the other three types are the ones in which progress as envisioned, technological as well as with societal according to the newars’ own best standards, is actually and demonstrably taking place. when it comes to caste discrimination, this is a serious issue as newars, being a hierarchal community, do have upper and lower castes and traditional occupational roles assigned to community sub-groups, even though not as rigid as it may appear to be.16 but today, there are on-going efforts for unification and cooperation among different caste-based associations (ashanbare, 2020). quasi-guthi and neo-guthi tend to be much more open and nondiscriminatory in this respect, with the ict-driven neo-guthis, ppguk (n. d) and newa guthi new york (ngny, n. d) having members from all newar castes (s. shakya, 2022). guthi australia has also been noted by pariyar (2019, p. 97) for including all newar castes. it could be argued that the guthi is developing into being instrumental for creating a platform for cooperation among the several sub-groups (castes) among the newars. in spite of different developments in history, 16 the fluid nature of newar caste hierarchy historically and today is, e. g., discussed in gellner & quigley (1995); levy (1992); sharma (2015). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 16 space and subgroups, the essence of buddhism is anti-caste, both originally and with high political relevance in the last century and even today (omvedt, 2003; wright, 2020). the criticism of the guthi around gender-related issues is similar, meaning that it is a rightly serious charge and with obvious prima-facie validity, given that guthis are traditionally male-member-only organizations with women involved but in exactly such supporting roles as in male social and service clubs in western contexts. however, the ancient guthi of category 1 is part of a historically male-dominated society, and therefore, first of all, one might ask, even while risking a copout, whether they are not reflecting, rather than promoting, traditional gender roles. once the latter are changing, it is correct to say that such organizations might reinforce what is now the past – but once again, this is only the case if we fixate on the ancient guthis, which is problematic at best inasmuch as their inflexible makeup is arguably caused by state discrimination against them, so that we cannot know how they would develop otherwise. within the sub-guthi already (2), but especially among quasi-guthi and certainly neoguthi (3 and 4), even short-term change is not only possible, but even happening as we speak. for example, ppguk and ngny have had inclusive executive committees for around a decade now, with the former already having a female vice president in 2012 and as of december 2021, having a female president (ppguk, n. d.). the latter had a female vice president until september 2021, who had previously been appointed treasurer in 2013 (ngny, n. d.). here, both buddhist traditions which diverged from a more gender-inclusive concept since the times of the buddha merge with recent advances in buddhist feminist approaches and implementations as well (farrer-halls, 2002; tsomo, 1999; yeng, 2020). conclusion and implications there is a spontaneity to how the guthi has taken up utilizing ict for their benefit. it has not been planned, but rather it was a reaction to the demand of the times as well as utilizing the tools available and even adapting the organization(s) to do so. such process of “enactment” or “appropriation” of digital technologies have been looked at through the lenses of structuration theory (vyas et al., 2017). the use of ict across the newer iterations of guthis has led not only to better information dissemination, discussion, and engagement among and beyond the community, but also made their activities more transparent, inclusive, and capable towards providing efficient public utility functions – at a juncture when the ancient guthi seemed poised to fade away. in the case of nepal, the centralized and top-down planning and reforms brought about under the panchayat regime in a bid to “modernize” the country (in an authoritarian way), despite having been in line with the global standards of the time, failed to take into consideration how pervasive pre-existing practices were within the population. despite conscious efforts and plans to slowly cull the guthi and community participation, the institutional design stuck on. the communities retained the ability towards grassroots initiatives and critical agency following the same blueprint as in the past, which then ict would resuscitate, meanwhile also creating new the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 17 permutations of the institution. and this building-back is building-back better, more inclusive and more equitable, nota bene by the newar’s own buddhist standards. the guthi certainly was (and is) not perfect from today’s standards and values in many aspects, but the core characteristics of the institution were clearly effective in what they were intended for – governing through participation. ict, not least together with a hostile political environment, and other factors as well, prompted the creation of various iterations of the guthi that had and have an at least indirectly equity-propelling effect, as well. the rejuvenation of the guthi in its current form is hardly imaginable without ict. this becomes obvious when analyzing the institution through the typology provided in this essay. not only are the ancient guthis using ict for communication, the newer iterations in the form of quasi-, neoand sub-guthi are largely ict-enabled. so we can say, even without any globalwestern pretense or linear theories of development and technology, that the case of the guthi and its rejuvenation is an example of ict helping to recreate an indigenous institution for autonomous yet solidary human living-together in the 21st century. as colton (2016) has said, a country – and we can widen that here to an organization like the guthi – “can and must become a better edition of itself” (p. 248). ict has enabled the guthi to do just that in virtually all realms that matter. even though most ‘niche’ area related studies like the one that we have undertaken are limited towards generalization, this does open various points of consideration for future research and practice. seeing the institution’s significance both nationally for nepal and internationally as an example of how cooperativism can work successfully across the centuries, we submit that this is an important example not only for the global south that will have implications in various dimensions of researching communities, institutions, and informatics. acknowledgements this work has been supported by the european commission through the h2020 project “finest twins” (grant no. 856602). references ashanbare, v. 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(2020). buddhist feminism: transforming anger against patriarchy. springer. hassan ready the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 article internet non-use among the canadian older adult population: general social survey (gss) benefits of internet use for older adults include the ability to access informational resources, facilitate social connections and use online communication resources. further research on identifying the characteristics of older adult internet non-users is warranted. the present study aims to examine the prevalence and characteristics of internet non-use among canada’s older adult populations. the analysis was based on the 2016 general social survey (gss)– canadians at work and home. analysis was restricted to canadians of 65 years of age or older. the outcome was internet non-use, which was defined as having not used the internet in the 30-day period prior to survey data collection. demographic, socio-economic, health related, and social support and relationship factors were considered for a multivariable logistic regression analysis. !61 hossam ali-hassan assistant professor: glendon college, york university, toronto, canada. corresponding author. hossama@glendon.yorku.ca vineeth sekharan research associate: york university, toronto, canada. vineeth.sekharan@mail.utoronto.ca theresa kim post-doctoral research fellow: the hospital for sick children, research institute, toronto, canada theresa.kim@sickkids.ca ali-hassan, h., sekharan. v., kim. t. (2019). internet non-use among the canadian older adult population: general social survey (gss). the journal of community informatics, 15, 61-77. date submitted: 2018-03-31. date accepted: 2018-10-31. 
 copyright (c), 2019 (the authors as stated). licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1447 mailto:hossama@glendon.yorku.ca mailto:vineeth.sekharan@mail.utoronto.ca mailto:theresa.kim@sickkids.ca http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1447 http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1447 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 overall, the prevalence of internet non-use among canadian older adults was 31.9%. characteristics significantly associated with internet non-use included: lower educational achievement, decreased socioeconomic status, poor mental and physical health, having a partner / significant other, and being a cigarette smoker. the province of residence was significantly associated with non-internet use with residents of quebec being at increased odds of non-internet use compared to residents of british columbia (or =2.09, 95% ci= 1.51-2.88). additionally, increased age among older adults was associated with increased likelihood of not using the internet. the findings from this study can be used as the basis for future research and to aid in the development of effective policies and programs directed towards the needs of this unique population. introduction the benefits of internet use are multifold, and include the ability to access informational resources, facilitate social connections, use banking and retail services, and consume audiovisual media. however, internet use varies greatly among different demographics and population groups, with lower adoption rates present in older adult canadian households (middleton & sorenson, 2006). this is despite older adult populations being capable of reaping many of the same benefits from the internet as their younger counterparts, which include accessing social supports, reducing loneliness, as well as achieving better life satisfaction and psychological well-being (heo et al., 2015). as populations age, social isolation has been found to progressively increase (lelkes, 2012). older adult use of the internet has been strongly associated with significant decreases in social isolation levels and reduced risk of depression (cotton et al., 2014; tsai et al., 2015; khosravi, rezvani & wiewiora, 2016; chopik, 2016). lelkes (2012) analyzed cross-sectional data from the european social survey, and found that internet use among older adults corresponded with higher scores of life satisfaction, increased happiness and reduced social isolation, even when controlling for potential confounding variables like income and education. the study also found that use of the internet may help facilitate increased social interactions offline (lelkes, 2012). these findings suggest that the benefits of internet use and associated information technologies is associated with positive social effects for older adults. the technology acceptance model (tam), proposed by davis (1989), identifies numerous factors that influence decisions to use technology, with a focus on the perceived usefulness and ease-of-use of a technology. identified factors of technology acceptance among older adults include usability, gender, perceived benefits of use and socio-demographic markers (ma et al., 2015; arenas-gaitan, peral-peral & jeronimo, 2015; niehaves & plattfaut, 2014). as noted by mcdonough (2016), the presence of disparities in use rates of the internet among older adults varies by ethnicity, education and income. similar findings are present throughout published literature in studies !62 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 conducted in the united states and europe, establishing that older adults are a heterogeneous group, with diverse traits and characteristics, some of which are closely associated with digital exclusion (van deursen & helsper, 2015; yu et al., 2016; van boekel, peek & luijkx, 2017). as the internet and its use becomes increasingly integrated with everyday life, failure to recognize and address disparities among older adults in computer literacy, perceived usefulness of internet use, and barriers to internet access will only broaden existing digital divides that exist within older adult populations (mcdonough, 2016). for example, the internet plays an increasingly important role in the development of new health technologies and informational resources for older adults (bujnowska-fedak & mastalerz-migas, 2014). this includes advances in patient monitoring, mobile health applications in healthcare, and online applications designed to promote improved medication adherence and mental health (ray, 2014; hussain et al., 2014). failure to identify and address existing discrepancies will only further disadvantage current subsets of the canadian older adult population who do not use the internet. to date, there has been limited analysis on the prevalence and characteristics of internet non-use in older adult populations in canada. by elucidating the factors that impact internet use in the country, better services and targeted programs that facilitate uptake of new technologies among older adults may be provided. therefore, the aim of this study is to examine and identify prevalence and characteristics of internet use among older adults in canada, using the nationally representative general social survey. methods study design and data collection this study used data from canada’s 2016 general social survey (gss) canadians at work and home. administered once every five years, the gss currently contains focused questions on caregiving, families, time use, social identity, volunteering and victimization as well as a standardized set of socio-demographic questions. the survey is administered by statistics canada, a federal government agency commissioned with gathering statistical data and producing statistical reports. the objectives of the gss are to collect data to monitor changes in social trends, as well as the general well-being of canadians. survey data was collected between august 2, 2016 and december 23, 2016. the gss has a cross-sectional survey design that used stratified sampling with a twostage sampling design from all the canadian provinces. at each of the sampling stages, statistics canada employed probability sampling with random selection. units in the first sampling stage consisted of groups of telephone numbers that were assigned to households based on a frame that combined landline and cellular telephone numbers from various administrative sources within statistics canada’s sampling frame. units in the second stage of sampling consisted of individuals within each of the identified households. for each household, only one non-institutionalized person of 15 years or !63 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 older, was eligible to complete the gss. interviews were primarily conducted in english and french, using a computer assisted telephone interview (cati). the design and methods of cati techniques have been described in further detail elsewhere in the literature (choi, 2004; st. pierre & beland, 2008; laflamme & karagannis, 2010). ethics approval for the study was not required as analysis was based on a secondary analysis of gss data collected by statistics canada. access to survey data was obtained through the research data centre in toronto, canada. measures for the present study, data analysis was restricted to older adults defined as a person of 65 years of age and older (ramage-morin, 2009; quaan-haase, mo & wellman, 2017; statistics canada, 2017). the main outcome variable of this study was internet non-use. specifically, this was collected by the gss in a question that asked respondents, “in the past month, how often have you used the internet?” this outcome was dichotomized into: “used internet” (includes responses of “daily”, “a few times a week”, “once a week”, “few times in a month”) and “did not use in the past month.” independent variables included demographic, socioeconomic, health-related, and social support and relationship factors. demographic factors included age, sex, living arrangement, province of residence, immigrant status, and aboriginal status. socioeconomic factors included employment status, educational achievement and social class standing. healthrelated variables included consumption of alcoholic beverages in the past month, current status of cigarette smoking, general health status, mental health status, and amount of stress. social support and relationship variables included social support, satisfaction with personal relationships, and marital status. social support was assessed by asking respondents if they had people in their lives who they felt they could depend on. marital status was dichotomized into “having a partner/significant other” (includes responses of “single, “never married”, “widowed”, “separated”, and “divorced”) and “not having a partner/significant other” (includes responses of “married” and “common law”). data for both the outcome and the independent variables were collected through self-report. statistical analysis chi square tests were conducted to determine bivariate associations between different levels of each of the demographic, socioeconomic, health-related, and social support and relationships factors and reported internet non-use among older adults. to assess which factors were independently associated with non-internet use, a multivariable logistic regression model was conducted with the outcome being non-internet use and the independent variables being all the demographic, socioeconomic, health-related, and social support and relationships factors. population weights were applied to all estimates to make the results representative of the target population at the time of the survey. to account for the complex sampling design, bootstrapping was performed to calculate the 95% ci estimates. population weights and bootstrap weights were created !64 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 by statistics canada and provided with the gss data file. all analyses were conducted with stata data analysis and statistical software (stata, version 13.0) and set at alpha <0.05 for two-tailed tests of statistical significance. results for the present study the weighted sample size analyzed was 5,782,818 older canadian adults. figure 1 shows the distribution of internet non-use by provincial groupings, as well as the overall average for internet non-use across all provinces. the overall rate of internet non-use in canada, for older adults, was 31.9%. the rates of internet non-use ranged between provinces from a low of 23.5% in british columbia to a high of 38.5% in quebec. figure 1: percentage of internet non-use among older adults across canadian provinces table 1 presents the descriptive data and unadjusted analysis of potential characteristics, and frequencies associated with internet non-use among canadian older adults. older adults aged 65-69 had the lowest percentage of internet non-use, at 15.2%, while the oldest age group, older adults aged 80+, had the highest percentage of internet non-use at 59.1% (p<0.05). internet non-use was also more prominent among female older adults (35.3%) than male older adults (28.0%) (p<0.05). internet non-use was also higher among older adults who were aboriginal persons (42.4%), compared to those who were not (31.7%) (p<0.05). older adults whose highest education completed was less than high school had much higher rates of internet non-use (60.4%), than those who had completed greater than high school (16.2%) (p<0.05). higher social class standing also corresponded with decreased rates of internet non-use among older adults, with rates of 40.7% internet non-use among lower/low-middle class households and rates of 16.8% internet non-use for upper-middle/upper class households (p<0.05). table 1: descriptive data and unadjusted analysis of potential characteristics and internet non-use total internet non-use n(%)a n(%)a p-value* demographic factors !65 atlantic quebec ontario priaries british columbia percentage internet non-use among seniors 0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 24 % 31 % 31 % 39 % 35 % canada 
 (31.9%) the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 age (years) 65-69 70-74 75-79 80+ 1,966,315 (33.9) 1,448,839 (25.0) 1,020,344 (17.6) 1,366,338 (23.5) 297,962 (15.2) 360,320 (24.9) 387,353 (38.1) 799,377 (59.1) <0.0001 sex male female 2,678,908 (46.2) 3,122,928 (53.8) 747,269 (28.0) 1,097,742 (35.3) <0.0001 living arrangement not living alone living alone 4,170,042 (71.9) 1,631,794 (28.1) 1,122,400 (27.0) 722,611 (44.5) <0.0001 province british columbia prairiesb ontario quebec atlanticc 833,037 (14.4) 840,324 (14.5) 2,224,345 (38.3) 1,457,991 (25.1) 446,139 (7.7) 195,539 (23.5) 260,364 (31.1) 674,324 (30.5) 560,501 (38.5) 154,284 (34.7) <0.0001 ever landed immigrant no yes 4,316,230 (74.4) 1,485,607 (25.6) 1,406,769 (32.7) 438,242 (29.6) 0.1416 aboriginal person no yes
 
 5,689,279 (98.4) 94,624 (1.6) 1,796,035 (31.7) 39,112 (42.4) 0.00704 socioeconomic factors currently employed no yes 5,166,867 (89.1) 634,969 (10.9) 1,756,599 (34.1) 88,412 (13.9) <0.0001 total internet non-use n(%)a n(%)a p-value* !66 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 highest education completed less than high school high school greater than high schoold 1,562,873 (27.1) 1,442,352 (25.0) 2,756,249 (47.9) 939,015 (60.4) 440,705 (30.6) 445,812 (16.2) <0.0001 social class lower/lower-middle middle upper-middle/upper 827,393 (14.6) 3,888,853 (68.7) 944,095 (16.7) 334,171 (40.7) 1,298,141 (33.5) 158,379 (16.8) <0.0001 health-related factors alcohol in past month none once a week/once or twice in past month 2-3 times/week or more 2,212,085 (38.2) 1,819,922 (31.4) 1,756,898 (30.4) 987,570 (44.8) 474,993 (26.2) 375,091 (21.4) <0.0001 current smoking no yes 5,307,681 (91.5) 489,607 (8.5) 1,663,015 (31.4) 181,214 (37.2) 0.0366 general health poor/fair good very good/excellent 1,175,267 (20.3) 2,017,970 (24.9) 2,589,582 (44.8) 518,105 (44.4) 697,067 (34.6) 624,678 (24.2) <0.0001 mental health poor/fair good very good/excellent 358,091 (6.2) 1,895,490 (32.8) 3,527,193 (61.0) 188,197 (52.6) 756,031 (40.1) 888,811 (25.3) <0.0001 amount of stress on most days not stressful stressful 3,534,157 (61.4) 2,224,111 (38.6) 1,110,710 (31.6) 717,279 (32.3) 0.6496 social support and relationships factors total internet non-use n(%)a n(%)a p-value* !67 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 a sample sizes are estimated using normalized weights, b prairies provinces include alberta, manitoba, and saskatchewan, c atlantic provinces include new brunswick, nova scotia, newfoundland, and prince edward island, d greater than high school indicates those with trade certificate, college, university, or bachelor and above, *bolded values and cis denote significance (p <0.05) table 2 shows the unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios (ors) of internet non-use among older adults in canada. in the adjusted model, when compared to the youngest age sub-group among older adults (65-70), increased age was associated with increased odds of not using the internet for older adults aged 70-74 (or: 1.83, 95% ci: 1.41-2.37), for older adults aged 75-79 (or: 3.42, 95% ci: 2.61-4.48) and for older adults aged 80 years or older (or: 6.74, 95% ci: 5.08-8.95). when compared to residing in the province of british columbia, those residing in the province of quebec were at increased odds of internet non-use, after adjustment to all other factors (or: 2.09, 95% ci: 1.51-2.88). reduced educational achievement was associated with increased odds of internet non-use for older adults whose highest education completed was high school (or: 1.95, 95% ci: 1.56-2.43) and less than high school (or: 5.05, 95% ci: 4.01-6.36) when compared to older adults whose educational achievement was greater than high school. lower social class standing was also associated with increased odds of internet non-use when compared to upper-middle and upper class status, for both older adults who were middle class (or: 1.82, 95% ci: 1.36-2.44) and lower/lower-middle class (or: 2.01, 95% ci: 1.38-2.94). in the adjusted model, alcohol use was associated with reduced internet non-use whereas current smoking was associated with increased odds of internet non-use. poor/fair general health and mental health were associated with increased internet non-use was associated with poor/fair general health (or: 1.46, 95% ci: 1.11-1.91 poor/fair general health compared to very/good/excellent health) and (or: people you can depend on never/rarely/sometimes often always 1,011,725 (17.6) 1,498,622 (26.1) 3,239,925 (56.3) 360,233 (35.7) 397,146 (26.6) 1,063,105 (32.9) 0.0004 satisfaction with personal relationships not really satisfied moderately satisfied completely satisfied 2,862,375 (49.8) 975,340 (17.0) 1,912,691 (33.2) 871,767 (30.5) 253,390 (26.0) 690,801 (36.3) <0.0001 marital status no yes 1,957,575 (33.7) 3,844,261 (66.3) 865,593 (44.5) 979,418 (25.5) <0.0001 total internet non-use n(%)a n(%)a p-value* !68 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 2.19, 95% ci: 1.443.32 for poor/fair mental health very good/excellent mental health). when analyzing the relationship between satisfaction with personal relationships and internet non-use, being completely satisfied with relationships was associated with internet non-use (1.30, 95% ci: 1.05-1.62). after adjusting for other independent variables, not having a partner or significant other was also associated with increased likelihood of internet non-use (or: 1.49, 95% ci: 1.01-2.19). table 2: unadjusted and adjusted odds ratio of potential characteristics and internet non-use among older adults in canada (n = 5,498,203a) unadjusted odds ratio adjusted odds ratio or (95%ci)* or (95%ci)* demographic factors age (years) 65-69 (ref) 70-74 75-79 80+ 1 1.85 (1.48, 2.32) 3.44 (2.72, 4.33) 8.07 (6.54, 10.11) 1 1.83 (1.41, 2.37) 3.42 (2.61, 4.48) 6.74 (5.08, 8.95) sex male (ref) female 1 1.40 (1.20, 1.63) 1 1.13 (0.93, 1.38) living arrangement not living alone (ref) living alone 1 2.17 (1.88, 2.50) 1 1.09 (0.75, 1.58) province british columbia (ref) prairiesb ontario quebec atlanticc 1 1.46 (1.13, 1.90) 1.42 (1.11, 1.82) 2.04 (1.58, 2.63) 1.72 (1.34, 2.21) 1 1.35 (0.97, 1.87) 1.33 (0.98, 1.79) 2.09 (1.51, 2.88) 1.33 (0.97, 1.82) ever landed immigrant no (ref) yes 1 0.87 (0.72, 1.05) 1 1.00 (0.79, 1.27) aboriginal person no (ref) yes 1 1.59 (0.95, 2.66) 1 1.12 (0.55, 2.28) !69 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 socioeconomic factors currently employed no (ref) yes 1 0.31 (0.23, 0.42) 1 0.82 (0.58, 1.16) highest education completed less than high school high school greater than high school (ref)d 7.90 (6.52, 9.57) 2.28 (1.88, 2.78) 1 5.05 (4.01, 6.36) 1.95 (1.56, 2.43) 1 social class lower/lower-middle middle upper-middle/upper (ref) 3.40 (2.56, 4.52) 2.49 (1.98, 3.13) 1 2.01 (1.38, 2.94) 1.82 (1.36, 2.44) 1 health-related factors alcohol in past month none (ref) once a week/once or twice in past month 2-3 times/week or more 1 0.44 (0.36, 0.53) 0.33 (0.28, 0.41) 1 0.57 (0.46, 0.71) 0.61 (0.48, 0.77) current smoking no (ref) yes 1 1.29 (1.03, 1.62) 1 1.90 (1.39, 2.59) general health poor/fair good very good/excellent (ref) 2.51 (2.06, 3.04) 1.66 (1.39, 1.98) 1 1.46 (1.11, 1.91) 1.24 (0.98, 1.57) 1 mental health poor/fair good very good/excellent (ref) 3.28 (2.46, 4.38) 1.98 (1.68, 2.34) 1 2.19 (1.44, 3.32) 1.38 (1.10, 1.72) 1 amount of stress on most days not stressful (ref) stressful 1 1.04 (0.88, 1.21) 1 0.91 (0.75, 1.11) unadjusted odds ratio adjusted odds ratio or (95%ci)* or (95%ci)* !70 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 a sample sizes are estimated using normalized weights, b prairies provinces include alberta, manitoba, and saskatchewan, c atlantic provinces include new brunswick, nova scotia, newfoundland, and prince edward island, *bolded values and cis denote significance (p <0.05) discussion overall, 31.9% of older adults did not use the internet in the last month at the time of survey. the results document that in canada, older adults who use the internet are markedly different from older adults who do not use the internet. after adjustment, factors identified as being associated with internet non-use among older adults were: increased age, living in quebec, lower rates of education, decreased social class standing, decreased alcohol consumption, being a cigarette smoker, poor general health, poor mental health, being completely satisfied with personal relationships, and having single or never married marital status (in comparison to married and divorced marital status). these findings are significant, as older adults who are representative of many of these traits are much less likely to use the internet than their counterparts, thereby limiting their ability to reap many of the benefits associated with its use. demographic factors in the present study, the percentage of internet non-users increased with age among older adults. while 16% of older adults aged 65-69 did not use the internet in the previous month, this percentage increased to 25% among older adults aged 70-74, and 50% among older adults aged 75 years of age or older. this is in line with findings of research studies completed in other developed countries. research conducted by the pew research center found that after age 75, internet use dropped off significantly, with only 34% of older adults over 75 using the internet social support and relationship factors people you can depend on never/rarely/sometimes (ref) often always 1 0.65 (0.51, 0.82) 0.88 (0.72, 1.09) 1 0.85 (0.64, 1.14) 1.02 (0.78, 1.32) satisfaction with personal relationships not really satisfied (ref) moderately satisfied completely satisfied 1 0.80 (0.64, 1.00) 1.30 (1.09, 1.53) 1 0.96 (0.73, 1.26) 1.30 (1.05, 1.62) partner/significant other no yes (ref) 2.34 (2.01, 2.71) 1 1.49 (1.01, 2.19) 1 unadjusted odds ratio adjusted odds ratio or (95%ci)* or (95%ci)* !71 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 (zickuhr & madden, 2012). van deursen and helsper (2015) conducted a national telephone survey in the netherlands using random digit dialing and found very similar increases in non-use with age, as their study found non-use in 24.4% of older adults aged 71-75 and 48% non-use in older adults over the age of 75. these findings suggest common trends exist globally among developed countries in internet non-use among older adults. socioeconomic factors the present study found lower socioeconomic status to correspond with lack of internet use. there are many ways in which low socioeconomic may be related to reduced access and use of the internet, including: inability to afford internet-capable devices, difficulty affording the cost of wifi and data connections, as well as inadequate knowledge and awareness on the potential benefits of internet use. this is in line with the findings of studies that have previously investigated the relationship between internet use by older adult populations and socioeconomic status in other countries (carpenter & buday, 2007; elliot et al., 2013; berner et al., 2014; hargittai, piper & morris, 2018). carpenter and buday (2007) examined barriers to internet use in an older adult us-based retirement community and found that cost can act as a direct barrier to the purchase of internet-enabled devices, especially for lower income adults. elliot et al. (2013) conducted a large cross-sectional data using survey data in the united states and found significant differences across socioeconomic groups in the rates of older adults’ use of information and communications technology. the digital divide that exists between socioeconomic groups among older adults extends to the general population, both abroad and in canada. in canada, 95% of individuals belonging to the highest income quartile are connected to the internet, while only 62% of canadians in the lowest income quartile have internet access (cira factbook, 2014). additionally, the present study found that lower educational attainment was found to be a factor that corresponded with reduced internet use among older adults. similar findings have been found in other studies, albeit not in a canadian context (helsper & reisdor, 2013; morris, goodman & brading, 2007; jensen et al., 2010). jensen et al. (2010) conducted a study in the midwestern united states that examined whether lowincome adults’ utilization of internet technology was predicted or mediated by numerical and written literacy skills. they found that individuals with lower health literacy skills were less likely to use internet technology. health-related factors the present study also found cigarette use and none drinking alcohol to correspond with increased odds of not using the internet. there is no previous literature that discusses the potential relationships that may exist between both of these variables. however, further investigation is warranted, as both cigarette use and alcohol consumption are highly studied behavioural substances, whose use is closely linked to mental and physical well-being outcomes. in the current study, poorer self-reported overall health among older adults was associated with being less likely to use the internet. one potential explanation for this finding is that older adults who suffer from debilitating health issues, and disability, are less likely to use the internet because of difficulties associated with living with their !72 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 physical condition. as noted by choi and dinitto (2013), “medical conditions, disabilities, and associated pain that restrict use” are all examples of common physical health related factors that can directly serve as a barrier to internet use for older adults. physical symptoms associated with common diseases and increased frailty can directly inhibit the ability of older adults to use the internet (mazur et al., 2018). keränen et al. (2017) conducted a population-based survey to identify how use of information and communication technologies among older adults living with and without frailty differs in northern finland. the researchers found that physical frailty was associated with decreased information communication technology use by older adults, independent of educational achievement and opinions about the internet (keränen et al., 2017). higher scores on mental health items in the gss survey in the present study were also associated with increased likelihood of using the internet for older adults. jung et al. (2010) conducted an investigation that looked at the potential role that psychological factors, such as levels of anxiety and low feelings of self-efficacy, serve as barriers to bridging the digital divide for low-income minority older adults. jung et al. found that psychological variables, like higher levels of anxiety, served as stronger predictors of enrollment into educational programming and training, than the age of older adults, or even their experience using computers (jung et al., 2010). forsman and nordmyr (2015) conducted a systematic review of conducted qualitative and quantitative research studies that investigated associations between internet use and mental health among older adults. the synthesis approach adopted by the researchers indicate internet use is associated with higher scores for self-reported mental health, and associated psychosocial variables like self-efficacy. social support and relationship factors interestingly, the present study found that being ‘completely satisfied’ with personal relationships was significantly associated with increased likelihood of internet non-use among older adults. while similar findings are not replicated in literature focused on older adults, there are examples in the literature which demonstrate similar themes in the association between relational support and internet use and access in the general population. for example, a study by liang, peng and yu (2012) studied the relationship that exists between the internet and overall quality of life in taiwan for individuals aged 15 and older. one of the key findings from their study was that individuals who regularly accessed and used the internet had lower satisfaction in the dimension of community support, as it related to quality of life. in the present study, individuals who were married or in a common-law relationship had increased odds of using the internet when compared to individuals who were single, never married, widowed, separated or divorced. choi and dinitto (2013) conducted a similar investigation using a large sample (n=6680) of us medicare beneficiaries aged 65 and older, and found that married couples were overrepresented among internet users. while the reasons for this relationship are unclear, the presence of similar findings elsewhere in the literature, in a different population group, suggest the need for further research to explore the relationship between marital status and internet use among older adults. !73 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 strengths and limitations the study had several strengths. first, the data has a representative scope, allowing for generalizability of results across canadian provinces. additionally, the relatively large sample size for the gss allowed ample statistical power to draw meaningful conclusions from the data. the study also controlled for various potential confounding variables in the analysis, including several variables that have not been examined previously in association with internet use by older adult canadians. however, there are also major limitations. firstly, one potential source of information bias is the reliance on self-reporting in the gss, especially considering that older adult participants in the gss may be unaware of what activities may constitute internet use, resulting in potential misclassification bias. furthermore, since the study was cross-sectional in its nature, causal relationships cannot be inferred based on the significance of study findings. lastly, the gss does not sample canada’s territories which include nunavut, the yukon, and the northwest territories. unlike the canadian provinces, canadian territories do not have inherent sovereignty, and have their power delegated to them by the federal government. territories are also more sparsely populated than provinces, and have a significantly greater proportion of individuals who identify themselves as being aboriginal. while only 4.3% of the total population of canada self-identify as being aboriginal, 64.7% of residents in the territories self-identify as being aboriginal (statistics canada, 2011). accordingly, findings are only applicable to older adults living in canadian provinces and is not representative of residents living in canadian territories. conclusion the present study suggests significant differences may exist between canadian older adults who are internet users versus non-users. these differences may contribute to adverse living situations, and other social disadvantages, as internet non-use has been associated with increased social isolation, and reduced access to informational resources like health education resources. provided the many documented benefits of internet use for older adults, emphasis needs to be placed on addressing existing disparities. one of the more interesting findings from the study was that individuals who were married or in a common-law relationship had increased odds of using the internet when compared to individuals who were single, never married, widowed, separated or divorced. a potential reason for this finding may be that older adults in a married or common-law relationship are more likely to use the internet because they have the support of their partner to help address any technical issues they may face. the use of qualitative methods in a future study would allow researchers to directly ask older adult couples who are married or in a common-law relationship about what role, if any, they feel their partner has on their internet use, and general acceptance towards the use of information communication technologies. the technology acceptance framework (tam), widely used in the literature, can be used in such a study to better understand how perceived usefulness, ease of use, and intention to use may contribute to actual !74 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 internet use or non-use among older adults who are single when compared to older adults in a relationship. more in depth qualitative and quantitative studies should aim to understand common traits possessed by older adults who do not use the internet, as well as their individual needs, to inform and direct services and policies. conducting a detailed needs-based analysis of older adults who are internet non-users can identify existing barriers to internet use. it is recommended that the design of such a study should be mindful of the everyday realities of older adults who do not use the internet, and provide an opportunity for respondents to detail the need for supports (ex: technical assistance, peer encouragement, educational supports). references arenas-gaitán, j., peral-peral, b., & jerónimo, m. 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(2012). older adults and internet use. pew internet & american life project, 6 !77 article internet non-use among the canadian older adult population: general social survey (gss) introduction methods study design and data collection measures statistical analysis results discussion strengths and limitations conclusion references 4216-article text-22292-1-11-20211126 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 93 review the promise of access: technology, inequality, and the political economy of hope by daniel greene the mit press, cambridge, ma, 2021. 272 pages, price: ca$40.00, isbn: 9780262542333 reviewed by: farhan latif phd candidate, school of environment, enterprise and development, university of waterloo, canada farhan.latif@uwaterloo.ca the discourse on how capitalism influences social reproduction is perhaps as old as capitalism itself. instead, the recent literature on the subject may ask, which capitalism? due to the rise of technological innovations and disruptive ideas, there are a few narratives to pick from. among many, there is surveillance capitalism (zuboff, 2019), platform capitalism (silva neto, 2019), and techno-capitalism (suarez-villa, 2001). although these notions of capitalism(s) reflect unique perspectives, there is a common theme among the contemporary critique of capitalism, which cautions that technology will not redeem us from the transgressions that gave rise to structural poverty, racial, class, and gender inequalities. on the far end of this scholarly discourse spectrum is the techno-centric development ideology that gains legitimacy through political support. this market-oriented philosophy presents its reasoning that the future is digital, and a slow digital transition is essentially reassuring slow progress towards achieving numerous human development goals. the staggering growth of the digital technology sector is a sign to keep faith in the digital revolution keep pursuing the goal of a highly digitally networked society, and success will follow. scattered across this spectrum are policymakers, managers, and administrators of social institutions who gain hope from this techno-optimistic ideology, to solve complex social issues with simple technological solutions – and that’s what the promise of access is about. in the promise of access, daniel greene’s ethnography research from 20122015 provides readers a window into the racialized construct of digital skills, technology-centered development policies, and the social determinants of the digital divide at washington dc’s selected institutions, i.e., libraries, schools, and tech the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 93 startups. the promise of access conceptualizes the techno-centric development strategies that attempt to reproduce hope to eradicate poverties by constantly shaping and reshaping institutional norms and operations. it is a process greene labels as “bootstrapping” where social institutions’ priorities and identities are continuously restructured using techno-centric solutions and programming in the hope of solving complex inequalities with technology. however, as greene contends, this techno-centric institutional response reproduces the same inequalities it aims to reduce. greene uses the term “access doctrine” to draw attention towards the mythical nature of the assumptions that access to digital technology may eliminate poverty and class imbalances. greene reasons that the constant reinforcements within the political institutions that marginalized communities lack the “right” digital skills needed to be successful have resulted in a public policy environment where the problem of poverty is transformed into a problem of technology. the book's first chapter establishes a historical construct of employment skills gaps phenomena, the critical gaps within this phenomena, and the systemic challenges that shift social institutions’ priorities. greene points out how the political economy of information economy uses the human capital theory to frame the digital divide and skill gaps as the pillars of broader inequalities, and why it attracts widespread political and institutional support. greene contends that “inequality is a feature of a capitalist economy, not a bug, and the access doctrine makes this inequality sensible and navigable” (pg. 14). the political construct of skills gaps, as greene discusses, is central to understanding why the problem of poverty is understood as a digital divide. the promise of access demonstrates the implicit relationship between technology and poverty policy in the neo-liberal era by clarifying how the approaches to reduce the digital divide solutions often align with the coordinated reforms of unemployment insurance, criminal justice, and job training initiatives. the following three chapters take the readers to dc’s different sides of the digital divide, where the ethnographies reveal how the access doctrine reproduces hope. on the one end is the emerging sector of tech startups, where success depends on the competence to harness value from extreme uncertainty. here, companies constantly “pivot” to become successful, as does the entrepreneurial-minded talent that forms and conforms to the culture of these startups. greene reasons that the political economy of technology perceives such startups as a culture that is on the “right” side of the digital divide. the contrasting side of this digital divide is the bootstrapping social institutions, i.e., dc’s libraries and charter schools that work with technology have-nots. greene reasons that, tasked with managing complex poverties and inequalities, these institutions take the access doctrine as their mission. the promise of access explores discourses on the library's purpose and how patrons' identities and life circumstances shape the workers' professional identities. greene points out how the tech-centric visions of libraries’ future and digital professionalization objectives often do not align with the challenges faced by the homeless crowds that populate these libraries every day. yet, the immediate use of these public spaces and the needs of patrons are often overlooked; as greene mentions, “the idea that preserving the hope in personal computing to change the future requires partitioning it from today’s messy needs” ( pg. 107). similarly, charter schools, which are the hallmark institutions of the access doctrine, use data-driven digital infrastructure to provide the discipline needed to achieve a high-performance academic culture. however, this mission collides with the the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 93 hard-to-maintain social justice values. at times, the data-driven school management systems favor upgrading students’ human capital over the school’s racial justice values. the promise of access is a valuable addition to the growing literature on the social complexities of the digital divide and the intersections of critical race theory and information capitalism, e.g. (dyer-witheford, 2017; lebovits, 2019; srnicek, 2017; thylstrup, 2019; zuboff, 2019). greene makes a clear case as to why understaffed institutions, overwhelmed by the magnitude of poverties and inequalities they are tasked to address, conform to the techno-centric problem-solving narratives – hope is a powerful motivation. still, outcomes of this change are not the same as the resource base, and the mission of social institutions is different than that of tech startups. the use of ethnography research methods to establish a theoretical foundation for conceptualizing bootstrapping helps readers recognize how abstract capitalism theories correspond to on-the-ground realities of social institutions where the research participants such as ebony, shawn, and josie use public libraries as their digital sanctuaries, and staffs struggle to enforce the ever-changing narratives of right and wrong use of technology. the vivid background information and the genuineness of interactions documented in the book make it easy to understand how greene is comfortable with his research participants whose lives are impacted by technology in various ways. greene makes readers understand that bootstrapping is the new institutional culture and a sub-organizational script for social reproduction that competes with the public service culture of the past. how technology is used to subvert institutions’ values to meet new tech-centric missions and how corporate partnerships, grants, and external groups of philanthropists redefine these missions is a process that outlines who will be included in the future. the concepts such as bootstrapping institutions and pivoting startups have notable similarities to the notion of disruptive innovation and the culture of disruptive innovation among social institutions (christensen et al., 2006; hwang & christensen, 2008; lepore, 2014; nisbet, 2014). readers may find it interesting to recognize how similar ideas from different schools of thought develop and mature side by side. nonetheless, these similarities demonstrate how a radical reorganization of how society functions is a powerful motivation that attracts the attention of policymakers and academia, and how the lure of technology provides unrestrained optimism to reduce inequalities and promote just and equitable development practices. a challenge for the promise of access is then to distinguish the critique of technology from the critique of capitalism and proclaim the subjectivity towards the role of digital technology in contemporary society. such a distinction appears significant in the presence of certain scholarly perspectives that demonstrate how digital technology plays a significant role in rearranging social support systems, e.g., ( lee & wellman, 2012), and how without a just participation of marginalized groups, multifaceted inequalities remain embedded in the design of technology, e.g., ( benjamin, 2020; mosco, 2017; o’neil, 2016). these perspectives may insist that the access doctrine still has a valuable role in changing the system by working within the system. about the reviewer farhan is a sustainability management ph.d. candidate in the school of environment, enterprise and development, at the university of waterloo, canada, with several years of field experience in designing and managing digital literacy initiatives and digital skills upgrading programs for underserved communities. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 93 references benjamin, r. (2020). race after technology: abolitionist tools for the new jim code. social forces, 98(4). https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soz162 christensen, c. m., baumann, h., ruggles, r., & sadtler, t. m. (2006). disruptive innovation for social change. harvard business review, 84(12). dyer-witheford, n. (2017). cyber-proletariat. in cyber-proletariat. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt183p1zg greene, d. (2021). the promise of access: technology, inequality, and the political economy of hope. the mit press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11674.001.0001 hwang, j., & christensen, c. m. (2008). disruptive innovation in health care delivery: a framework for business-model innovation. in health affairs (vol. 27, issue 5). https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.27.5.1329 lebovits, h. (2019). automating inequality: how high-tech tools profile, police, and punish the poor. public integrity, 21(4). https://doi.org/10.1080/10999922.2018.1511671 lee, r., & wellman, b. (2012). networked: the new social operating system (vol 10). the mit press. lepore, j. (2014). the disruption machine. the new yorker. mosco, v. (2017). becoming digital. in becoming digital. https://doi.org/10.1108/9781787432956 nisbet, m. c. (2014). disruptive ideas: public intellectuals and their arguments for action on climate change. wiley interdisciplinary reviews: climate change, 5(6), 809–823. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.317 o’neil, c. (2016). weapons of math destruction: how big data increases inequality and threatens democracy. crown. silva neto, v. j. da. (2019). platform capitalism. revista brasileira de inovação, 18(2). https://doi.org/10.20396/rbi.v18i2.8654960 srnicek, n. (2017). platform capitalism (theory redux). in platform capitalism. suarez-villa, l. (2001). the rise of technocapitalism. science & technology studies, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.23987/sts.55133 thylstrup, n. b. (2019). the politics of mass digitization. in the politics of mass digitization. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11404.001.0001 zuboff, s. (2019). the age of surveillance capitalism: the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. profile books. <div id="article"> <h2 id="article_title"> from pebble to avalanche: how information and communications technologies empowered actors through the ages </h2> <div id="article_author"> piotr konieczny </div> <h3 class="article_subhead"> introduction </h3> <p> whether we look at the use of twitter in iran, moldova or tunisia, the importance of facebook in the recent presidential elections in the united states, or the struggles of dissident bloggers in china, we can see how the social movements and other agents of social change are increasingly relying on the new information and communication technologies (icts). however, those digital revolutionaries, so often capturing the headlines, are only the most recent example of a trend that has been continuing for millennia. </p> <p> in this paper i present the results of my recent survey of international social movements in the context of the case studies ranging from centuries past to the events of the last few years. employing theories of literacy and social movements i will illustrate how the developing icts, in a mixture of literate and post-literate icts, are perceived by social movement activists, particularly with regards to being empowered by those tools. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> importance of literacy and icts </h3><em>theories</em> <p> until the mid-20th century, the social sciences paid relatively little attention to the study of literacy, communication technologies and their impact on society. the focus of ongoing research was on the histories of individual technologies with little attention to their wider implications. first attempts to paint a larger picture were concerned with the modern technologies; hence patterns and trends linked with the historical perspective were not apparent. with sociologists studying the literate, and anthropologists the illiterate, only a few studies looked on the partly literate cultures even though this was the dominant type of society for the past few millennia. within the field of sociology this became remedied only in the 1960s, and since then a growing body of studies has contributed to our understanding of those phenomena.<sup>1</sup> </p> <p> the theoretical foundations of this research are built on studies of literacy (such as goody &amp; watt 1963, markoff 1986), community informatics (gurstein 2000, 2007, williams and durrance 2008, de moor 2009), studies of social movements (such as mcadam, mccarthy and zald 1996, van de donk et al. 2004, tilly 2009, rohlinger 2007), studies on evolution and impact of communication technology and resulting changes of organizational form, (such as katzman 1974, eisenstein 1979, fang 1997, ling 2004, yang 2007, briggs and burke 2010), theories of sociotechnical change (such as ackroyd 2005, bijker 1995 and weick 1990, van de donk et al. 2004) and social constructivism (such as carey 1992, fang 1997, furet and ouzuf 1981, fulk 1993, gough 1968, markus and robey 1988, stone 1969, woolf 1994). </p> <p> already in 1981 graff noted that an attempt at a complete bibliography of only the study of literacy contains over 4000 items; the related but separate fields of communication studies and organizational studies are even larger (markus and robey 1988). in such a rich territory, there are many competing scholarly approaches and definitions (markoff 1986). markus and robey (1988) in their overview concluded that "it is no secret that research on information technology and organizational change has produced conflicting results and few reliable generalizations". in order to set a straight course through this maze, we cannot simply define literacy as "the ability to read and write". already mcluhan in his classic 1962 work differentiated between pre-literate, literate, and post-literate societies, which he distinguished based on their primary mode(s) of communication. as the internet brings forth an increasing number of post-literate media (podcasts, videocasts, infographics, and so on), even if usually mixed with more traditional textual information, the basic literacy is no longer enough, as the "new literacies" roughly defined as the ability to use new, mostly digital icts became a necessity of the modern world (buckingham 1993). thus, when referring to literacy in modern context, i mean both the traditional and new literacy. </p> <p> ackroyd (2005) and bijker (1995) presented the sociotechnical change theory, which bijker presented as follows: "society is not determined by technology, nor is technology determined by society. both emerge as two sides of the sociotechnical coin during the construction process of artifacts, facts, and relevant social groups". a similar argument is found in williams and durrance (2008), who noted that "technology use is directly influenced by social networks, and social networks are directly influenced by technology use". weick (1990) perhaps most clearly and succinctly presented this logic in saying that technology is both a cause and an effect of many social changes. </p> <p> according to social constructivist theories of communication in organizations, organization members "share identifiable patterns of meaning and action concerning communication technology" (fulk 1993). markus and robey (1988) in their overview of the relation between information technology and social change stressed that different meanings can be assigned to the same technology, depending on social setting and cultural context. a similar argument can be found in the works of goody and watt (1968) who noted that in tibet literacy was so ingrained in the realm of mystical, religious experience, that it became a goal in itself, with no connection to the mundane world. its fate was quite different in many other parts of the world, from europe through middle east to china, where the skills of reading and writing were increasingly used in the realm of the mundane (furet and ozouf 1982, eisenstein 1979). this has crucial implications, starting with the fact that the same technology can empower both states and anti-state organizations (like certain social movements) as well as communities and individuals. </p> <p> from the field of social movements, the resource mobilization theory offers valuable insights on how technology is one of the crucial tools for acquisition of resources and mobilization of supporters (mccarthy and zald 2001). crucially, as the new icts make communication cheaper and more efficient, it becomes much easier for the new challengers to spread their message and take on the established order. </p> <p> finally, the most recent contributions to our understanding of how different icts can empower communities, facilitating the achievement of their collective goals, comes from the interdisciplinary field of community informatics, which emerged at the turn of the millennium. research in that field focuses prominently on computerized new media and its empowering use by modern communities aimed at expanding social capital and capacity building (gurstein 2000, 2007, williams and durrance 2008, de moor 2009). even with the community informatics focus on new media, as williams and durrance note, understanding the historical process that shapes the use of icts is important, as the use of the new tools and the resulting empowerment are most successful if they are able to engage with the historical community. as i will show below, this long term historical engagement and resulting growing empowerment can be traced throughout most if not all of our history. </p><em>the tools of the revolutionaries</em> <p> development of more efficient information and communication tools has provided a significant boost to the established actors, such as the state. yet while governments certainly use such tools to further their social control (lipsey and carlaw 2005), they have always been a double-edged sword, as tools of communications increasingly become weapons of social revolutions (fang 1997). mcluhan in one of his most widely cited statements wrote, "the medium is the message". some messages are vital, most are not, but the medium itself persists, enabling social change to occur when the conditions (perception of the medium) are right (fang 1997). consider the example of writing. it has a significant degree of symbolism; texts were often used to create a psychological impact both by governments and by the individuals or movements in opposition (woolf 1994). the writing operates not only as a tool of communication, but also as a symbol with mystical or magical qualities (woolf 1994, gough 1968, fang 1997, carey 1992). as long as the writing is associated with only a specific group, it empowers that group (empowerment being defined<sup>2</sup> as the ability to control the environment around itself, including the behavior of other entities), but once the writing becomes widespread, it encourages rationality and critical thinking among the wider population, making revolutions and social change more likely (goody &amp; watt 1963, stone 1969, furet and ouzuf 1981, markoff 1996, fang 1997). bowman and woolf (1994) have built upon goody and watt's (1963) work on the importance of writing for governments, illustrating the significance of the type of medium (the easier it is to use, the harder it is to control). </p> <p> despite new tools available to it, the governmental big brother's control is far from complete, perhaps because the governments do not adapt as quickly as individuals (fang 1999). literacy which certainly influences people's behavior (markoff 1986) is hard to control (bowman and woolf 1994). once the new information technology (a new type of media) spreads, it is next to impossible to put the genie back in the bottle (woolf 1994, furet and ozouf 1982). the dissemination of tools of mass communication has increased the potential for social protest, by increasing the power of the individual to communicate, gather and disseminate information. new tools of communication allow greater anonymity than do public meeting places, encouraging participation (fang 1997). information revolutions make people more equal and pave a road to democracy, greater egalitarianism, and sharing of influence and power (goody 1968, fang 1997). </p> <p> it is commonly accepted that writing was first invented and widely used in the sumerian empire between 4000 and 3000 bc (lipsey and carlaw 2005). it is difficult to discuss with any degree of certainty the changes that took place with the invention of writing, simply because we have no written records from before that time; this is why goody &amp; watt (1963) noted that the introduction of writing separates history from prehistory. nonetheless despite our relative lack of knowledge about the transition from pre-writing to the writing period, there is a consensus among scholars that this event marks a milestone in human history. </p> <p> writing was an essential element of the greek democracy, and thus much of western culture (carey 1992, fang 1997, innis 1972, innis and watson 2007, goody and watt 1963). even before the rise of the true social movements in the late 18th century (tilly 2009), proto-social movements relied extensively on the media. the polish-lithuanian commonwealth, where 10% of the population the nobility (<em>szlachta</em>) was highly literate, became one of the very few countries in europe where the absolutist monarchy failed to take root (wyczanski 1965, topolski 1994).<sup>3</sup> </p> <p> paper was introduced to europe around the 12th century. the pace of correspondence and information exchange quickened, a prelude to the printing press revolution (eisenstein 1979). printing lowered the costs of distributing decisions made by policymakers (lipsey and carlaw 2005). however, in a sign of things to come, it also weakened many of them, from the roman catholic church to the secular leaders (the protestant revolt, the end of traditional monarchies). traditional power holders often opposed the spread of literacy and the printed word: consider examples such as the attempts to limit slave literacy in the us (robbins 2006), the secret polish language education in partitioned poland, an important form of resistance against russian and prussian restrictions on polish education (lukowski and zawadzki 2001), or even the implications of the orwellian newspeak, the deliberately impoverished language promoted by the state. literacy facilitated separation of law from the political power, increasing stability and uniformity of law (lipsey and carlaw 2005). the leaders could no longer so easily alter the policies and law, now codified, to suit their purposes. the redefining of the relation between the state and the individual, the relation which stresses the rights of the individual and the state's obligation to him, was made possible by the spread of the written culture. </p> <p> the printed word was at the heart of the religious conflict tearing europe apart, during the religious wars of the reformation period or before and during the french revolution (furet and ozouf 1982). writing broke out of the monasteries and influenced an increasingly secular and rational administration (gough 1968b, furet and ozouf 1982). the printed word was essential in the french revolution (markoff 1986). lipsey and carlaw (2005) write that "the protestant revolution could not have occurred [...] without the printing press". </p> <p> lawrence stone (as cited in furet and ozouf, 1982) notes that the three "great revolutions" of modern times in mid-17th century england, late 18th century france, and early 20th century russia all coincided with the moment at which over half of the male adult population became literate. printing played a significant role in the french and american revolutions, helping to sell their ideas (darnton and roche 1989, furet and ozouf 1982, graff 1981, lockridge 1981). the lower classes were needed for the revolution and even if (as they often were) illiterate, they could look at posters and listen to others read and were more easy to organize (fang 1997, furet and ozouf 1982, markoff 1986). furet and ozouf (1982) note that jacobinism was "an expression of an already-dominant written culture among the masses". by the time bastille fell in the french revolution, more than 900 publishers, writers and booksellers had been imprisoned there (fang 1997). </p> <p> newspapers would become a "force for freedom", giving rise to objectivity but also to scandal-mongering and yellow journalism. in the united states, in synergy with growing literacy and the values of the free american nation, the concept of the freedom of the press evolved (fang 1997). similar developments occurred in the united kingdom and much of continental europe (popkin 1987, tilly 2009). </p> <p> muckrakers boosted their messages with photos, spearheading many a movement for change (schneirov 1994, schudson 2008). photographs precursors of the film documentaries vastly contributed to the establishment of the first us national park in yellowstone and the child labor legislation of the late 19th century (fang 1997). in the next century, radio and television replaced print as the delivery mode of information, making individuals more susceptible to emotional messages (lauer 1997). </p> <p> the inventions of microphone, radio and movie allowed charismatic leaders to address masses. to some extent nazism and the atrocities of world war ii were a terrible product of technologies that allowed hitler, the charismatic madman, to captivate millions (ess 2004). </p> <p> in many developing countries, television sets and videotapes sent by the government in villages to show propaganda were used to air opposition cassettes. in the philippines, a video of an assassination of a prominent politician benigno aquino was copied, rented, and even mailed by enthusiasts (ganley 1992). the soviet union crumbled alongside its state monopoly on information. asked what caused the fall of communism in eastern europe, polish president lech walesa simply pointed the journalist who was interviewing him to the cameras and microphones pointed at him (fang 1997). it was the information, unstoppable and spreading, that facilitated the fall of communism throughout europe in 1989 (fang 1997). people could hear and see the other side's point of view, could see the gap in wealth that encouraged emigration but also social changes at home (fang 1997; kennedy 1993). information about one revolution encourages another; for example, polish solidarity in 1980s became a model for other revolutions of the autumn of nations period (fang 1997, kenney 2002). media was a major factor in the iranian revolution (fang 1997, teheranian 1979). the recordings of the tiananmen square massacre became the haunting ghost for the chinese government. the wall street journal reported on the chinese youth two decades ago: "the fax machines are ... a fuel of the revolution. ... they have become the wall posters of this generation..." (fang 1997). </p> <p> social movements learned how to use media, even through sometimes those were painful lessons (gitlin 2003, tilly 2009, kenneth and caren 2010). martin luther king organized demonstrations to gain maximum television coverage; the images of police brutality gained him waves of support in the north (fang 1999). tv beatified king, kennedy and the space race, and at the same time vilified nixon, mao and the vietnam war. it generated support for conflicts that produced media such as chinese opposition after the tiananmen square massacre and led others, such as most conflicts in continental africa, to be forgotten (fang 1999) . </p> <p> in the end, luther's theses and mao's little red books, lenin's pro-communist smuggled writings and anti-communist samizdats, ayatollah khomeni's audiotapes and bin laden's videotapes, iraqi's blogs and iranian tweets they are among the fuels of social movements and revolutionaries. such fuel that became even more empowering with the arrival of a new technology, the internet. </p><em>the arrival of the digital age: the more things change...</em> <p> when we consider how recent the digital age that has by now penetrated every aspect of our world is, we have every right to be shocked with its novelty. darnton (2008) noted that this revolutionary change "took place yesterday, or the day before, depending on how you measure it." an editorial stated that "something that people think of as just another technology is beginning to change our lives, culture, politics, cities, jobs..." (the economist 2008). </p> <p> the internet developed from the military project arpanet, dating back to 1969; the term was coined in 1974. the world wide web as we know it was shaped in the early 1990s, when graphical interface and services like email became popular and reached wider (non-scientific and non-military) audiences and commercial interests. internet explorer was first released in 1995. google was founded barely a decade ago, in 1998. napster, which greatly popularized digital music, file sharing and digital piracy, was created in 1999, the same year that the free and open source software movement's most popular portal sourceforge.net was launched. windows xp, currently the most popular operating system, was released in 2001. that year saw the birth of wikipedia, the free encyclopedia now the largest encyclopedia of the world; the creation of ipod, the most popular player of digital music; and the founding of creative commons, both a license and an organization spearheading the free culture movement. most popular online social networks are even younger myspace, for example, dates to 2003, and its main competitor, facebook, to 2004. internet telephony began around that time, as the skype software was released in 2003. online video, now seen everywhere, has became popular even more recently with the switch from old modems to modern broadband networks. the most popular online video sharing site, youtube, was founded in 2005. twitter dates back to only 2006. in 2007 we saw the introduction and quick diffusion of the iphone smartphone, quickly followed by the android platform. wherever we look, the case is clear internet is a very recent, emerging phenomenon, likely shaping an entire new generation (mannheim 1952). </p><em>social-movements.com</em> <p> charles tilly defines social movements as a series of contentious performances, displays and campaigns by which ordinary people make collective claims on others. he also defines the movement's repertoire: employment of combinations from among the following forms of political action: creation of special-purpose associations and coalitions, public meetings, solemn processions, vigils, rallies, demonstrations, petition drives, statements to and in public media, and pamphleteering (tilly 2009). all of those are deeply related to communication tools available to the specific movement. </p> <p> ruling classes are more likely to have access the new tools of communication than the underprivileged populace (fang 1997). but in modern society, the border between ruling classes and the opposition is much less clear. dimaggio et al. (2001) noted that communication technologies are usually developed in response to the agendas of powerful social actors and those may include the social movements.<sup>4</sup> further, with the cost of new technologies (cell phones, computers, internet connection) spiraling down, even individuals, local communities and poor ngos can quickly put their hands on the equipment rivaling or exceeding what a decade ago was straining budgets of well financed business or governmental organizations (smith 2001, buttel and gould 2004). new inexpensive and effective technologies have given voices to organizations that previously would not have been able to have them due to low resources. a movement, even a transnational one, can be coordinated from the proverbial "teenager's bedroom". lin (2001) describes the recent case of china's falun gong organization, which used the internet to establish a powerful, hierarchical religious movement under the noses of an authoritarian regime. </p> <p> it is rarely the social movement that invents or even sponsors the invention of the new communication technologies. some may be sponsored by the governments (arpanet...); most are the result of accidental breakthroughs. but they always have unintended consequences, consequences that shake businesses and governments, and are exploited by social movements (tilly 2009) just as the printing press was used by the protestants in 17th century, and by the polish solidarity in the 20th. </p> <p> schramm (1988) noted, "if it seems far fetched to relate the french and american and british revolutions to the bible that came off the press in mainz in 1455, it is less far fetched to relate them to news sheets, newspapers and political traits". social networks, mobile phones, blogs and podcasts, empowering individuals and local communities, repeat the story of the past, allowing them to chip away at the governments, businesses and even undermine traditional media. they are helped by wikis, videocasts, online petitions, instant messengers, listervs, and other media of the digital age. </p> <p> the past two decades have witnessed increasing use of the modern technologies such as the mobile phones and the internet by social movements (buttel and gould 2004, denison and johanson 2007, smith 2001, van laer 2010) and communities (gurstein 2000, 2007). their usage gave a new meaning to the term "wisdom of the crowds" the crowd is certainly better organized if most of its members are fed regularly updated information, gathered by the few individuals deep in the internet web of information. </p> <p> how is that possible? demographics offer a partial answer. we see the influence of the "net generation" the baby boom echo for whom the web is a life force that empowers their social networks. myspace, facebook, technorati, flickr, twitter are not the future for the teenagers and many young adults, they are already here and now. lenhart and madden (2005, 2007) presented statistics for mid-2000s that show that more than half of us teens (64%) are content creators: they blog, they edit wikis, they create websites, they post videos and photos. data from 2005, compared to 2004 data, show that those numbers are on the rise: 57% of teens surveyed a year before were content creators. </p> <p> as seen in the 2004 us presidential campaign, and even more so in the 2008 one much of the political discourse takes place online (trippi 2004, kohut 2008, smith and rainie 2008, dadas 2008). consider these numbers: 35% of americans say they have watched online political videos; 24% and the number raises to 42% for ages 18-29 say they regularly learn something about the campaigns from the internet; and 10% say they have used social networking sites such as facebook or myspace to gather information or become involved. </p> <p> putnam (2000) described the decay of traditional social networks, but noted that internet may offer a solution. indeed, there is evidence that new icts are strengthening local communities and organizations (hampton and wellman 2003, hampton 2007, gurstein 2000, 2007). tapscott and williams (2006) speculate that the denizens of the internet, especially the younger ones, have a very strong sense of common good and collective social and civic responsibility. the net generation is accustomed to a world built upon principles of <em>openness</em> sharing ideas with talented outsiders; <em>peering</em> moving towards more horizontal organizational forms; and <em>sharing</em> of intellectual property, stimulating innovation on a worldwide scale. initially the internet, like any other tool, shaped itself to the existing customs, but as happened with all such technologies it is now shaping its users and creating new customs. </p> <p> new social movements have arisen on the net. consider the growth of the free and open source software movement (stallman 2006), the free culture movement (lessig 2004) or the revitalization of the open access movement, shaking the ivory towers of academia itself (suber 2009). all of them are concerned with changing the copyright law stifling our economy, culture and science in the aftermath of the digital revolution. </p> <p> dimaggio et al. (2001) noted that the internet is much more versatile than tools of the past because "it combines point-to-point and broadcast capability within a single network". it can be any and all of the past communication tools. for decades or centuries, we had capabilities to communicate in various ways with different tools, but the internet allows one to do all of these things at once. this versatility makes it an excellent tool for social actors who want to influence the world. </p> <p> finally, in the ever evolving sea of information, it is doubly interesting to look at one of the newest tools that has just begun to spread throughout the world of the social movements: the wiki (a type of a web page that anybody can edit). unlike the blogs, which have already attracted increasing attention from scholars (kahn and kellner 2004, dadas 2008), the relation between wikis and the social actors has not been well researched. this can be explained by the fact that wikis are very recent barely a few years old and they have only recently begun to spread through organizations. while they are increasingly popular within the free and open source software sector of the social movement industry, they have only begun to appear within the more traditional social movement organizations, many of which still lack their own wikis. not all the wikis are run by organizations; many are topic-centered (for example, the animal rights wiki, or the anti-war wiki). this is not surprising. as john seely brown, former chief scientist of xerox, noted, a lot of early adopters throughout various organizations "are using wikis without the top management even knowing [about] it" to bypass organizational inertia (tapscot and williams 2006). </p> <p> wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, one of the top 10 most popular sites of the internet, is a flagship of wiki technology. it has over 8,000,000 registered accounts; some nations' population are only a fraction of that number. its goal of creating an encyclopedia can be seen as a promise-driven<sup>5</sup> type of social movement (konieczny 2009). among the ten wikis listed in the "politics and activism" section at wikia one of the biggest wiki hosting providers none is connected to a well known social movement organization, and they are all fairly recent. one was started in 2004, two in 2005, six in 2006. with regards to wikis hosted by individual organizations, indymedia is likely one of the pioneers, dating to june 1999, but most wikis used by social movements are much more recent. the wiki for the free culture movement dates to february 2004; the social movements across europe wiki was started in may 2006; the new orleans wiki (concentrating on recovery and rebuilding) dates to june 2006; the amnesty international wiki dates from may 2007. at the beginning of that year the washington post wrote about wikileaks, a site that "allows anonymous posts of government documents" (with the stated aim of combating corruption and spreading transparency). wikileaks' popularity has been steadily growing since then (alexa 2008). it may appear that traditional social movements are slow to adopt wikis but new social movements, like changecongress, launched in january 2007, are often built around wikis from their very birth. without doubt, usage of wikis by social movements is just beginning, but the number of social movements' wikis and their users is growing as the very knowledge of wiki technology existence and potential spreads beyond the early adopters and among the mainstream activists </p><em>empowering individuals</em> <p> as organizations challenging the status quo are becoming empowered, so are individuals, inside and outside them. the empowering effect of computer technologies on organizations was seen even in the early days of the digital age (rubinyi 1989, straub and werherbe 1989, mahmood and mann 1993). some authors depicted the impact of information technology on organizations as replacing closed, hierarchical, bureaucratic workplace structures with flat networks in which a local initiative takes over the authoritative chain of command, reshaping strategy on a nearly daily basis; unfortunately such claims are too often based on case studies that may not be very generalizable (tapscott 1999, tapscott and williams 2006, 2010). </p> <p> in 1972 marshall mcluhan and barrington nevitt suggested that with newly developed computer-based communication technology, the consumer would become a producer. alvin toffler named this individual a "prosumer". the emergence of the prosumer has transformed many businesses, and change has accelerated in the internet era (with practices where companies encourage their "prosumers" to write free reviews of their produces, and advertise it to their friends on social networks). tapscott and williams (2006) describe this phenomenon as the emergence of the "wikinomics", a "new art of science of collaboration", best exemplified by the wikis, which for them are much more than just as a type of a collaborative software. they describe them as "a metaphor for a new era of collaboration and participation". organization of the wikinomics era is based around the principle that contributing to the commons accelerates growth and innovation. </p> <p> the argument about ict potential to empower social actors and influence social changes, however, needs to be tempered with few words of caution. governments (and businesses) have not given up on trying to adapt the new tools as a means for information control and there is no denying that they have powerful tools of surveillance with which to threaten privacy and freedoms (lessig 2004, 2006). there are persisting and new social inequalities (from illiteracy to the digital divide) that cannot be ignored. to whatever degree society is being empowered, we cannot forget about underprivileged groups such as the poor and the old that are in danger of being left behind. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> methodology </h3> <p> in order to test the hypotheses of whether social movements and their activists truly find icts empowering, i have carried out a survey of international social movement organizations. as noted by denison and johanson (2007), other surveys on the use of icts by community organizations exist, but they are usually not international in scope, and primarily focus on managerial issues. the following survey aims to fill in some gaps in our knowledge, as noted in their overview. </p> <p> for the purpose of this analysis, empowerment has been operationalized as the number of respondents who agreed that a given ict gives their organization or them more influence. influence is the term used in the survey itself. respondents were asked, "does [a particular ict]" give you more influence"? </p> <p> a likert scale was used. respondents with strong views had their responses weighted as 1, and the remaining respondents, as 0.5. this was used to calculate the perceived value of a given ict. </p> <p> the 2009-2010 edition of the international yearbook of organizations was employed in this survey as the base of the sampling scheme, providing a list of over 2,000 international social movements.<sup>6</sup> the yearbook has been positively reviewed by scholars (alger 1997, modrow 2004). it is seen as a reliable source for research on international organizations, including international social movements, and was used or recommended for such research by smith and johnston (2002), minkoff (2002) and smith (1997, 2008). </p> <p> despite words of praise, it is important to consider how comprehensive and unbiased the yearbook truly is. in addition to its exclusion of non-international organizations, possible inefficiencies in the yearbook's information gathering methodology mean that three major potential biases need to be taken into consideration. they can be summarized as follows: </p> <ol> <li>the yearbook seems biased towards long-established organizations; </li> <li>the yearbook seems biased towards the developed countries (and within them, towards the english-speaking countries); </li> <li>the yearbook, affiliated with the un, is unlikely to include organizations that do not want to be associated with this organization. </li> </ol> <p> to what degree those biases are a result of delays in yearbook's publishing cycle and inefficiency in its information flow from developing countries, and to what degree they simply reflect the findings in the literature on the high failure rate in new organizations and their concentration in the developed, english-speaking countries, is nearly impossible to answer without further research. </p> <p> upon analysis of the categorization scheme in the yearbook, the category of organizations concerned with "societal problems" appeared to be the best fit for the purposes of this study. the organizations listed within it were reviewed, and governmental organizations (as well as the few organizations that appeared to be profit motivated) were excluded. controlling for duplicate entries, and inactive organizations, in the period the survey was carried out (january-june 2010), the above procedures resulted in a population of 2,619 active social movement organizations (smo). the entire population was surveyed. </p> <p> the survey was carried out through email. we do not have any reliable numbers on the worldwide distribution of social movements; nonetheless, existing literature offers some useful indicators. smith (1997), smith, chatfield and pagnucco (1997) and smith and west (2005)<sup>7</sup> noted that around 80% of the international social movements are based in the developed world. smith and west (2005) also reported that 75% of the international smos have members in the western europe and the us, while merely 50% have members in other parts of the world. as it is estimated that in the developed world over 90% of voluntary organizations have access to the internet (surman 2000), the results should be representative of that population and not affected significantly by the problem of digital divide. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> findings </h3> <p> as of october 30, 2010, 196 out of 2,619 respondents responded to the international survey, resulting in a response ratio of 7.4% with 6.7% confidence interval at the 95% confidence level. </p> <p> respondents were asked if <em>the existence of a given ict provides their organization with more influence</em>. two icts are tied for the most influence given email and the website. similarly, two are tied for the 2nd spot mass emails (discussion lists, listerv) and phones. they are followed by self-publishing, mobile phones, mail, newspapers and magazines, social networking and visual tools (cameras, photos, etc.). demonstrations and rallies are placed in 11th position. see tables 1 and 2 and figure 1 for details. </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/2751/version/1998/3532/12767/table1.png" class="article_image" width="580" height="427" alt="table1"> <img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/2751/version/1998/3532/12768/table2.png" class= "article_image" width="580" height="214" alt="table2"> <img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/2751/version/1998/3532/12764/figure1.png" class="article_image" width="580" height="514" alt="figure1"> <div class="image_caption"> figure 1: icts by influence given to the organization </div> <p> next, the respondents were asked <em>if a specific ict gives them more of a say within and outside their organization</em>. within the organization, email once again takes the lead. it is followed by phones, mass emails, social networking, traditional mail, texting and self-publishing. see tables 3 and 4 and figure 2 for details. </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/2751/version/1998/3532/12769/table3.png" class="article_image" width="580" height="478" alt="table3"> <img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/2751/version/1998/3532/12770/table4.png" class= "article_image" width="580" height="197" alt="table4"> <img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/2751/version/1998/3532/12765/figure2.png" class="article_image" width="580" height="551" alt="figure2"> <div class="image_caption"> figure 2: icts by influence given within the organization </div> <p> outside the organization email retains its top position, followed by websites, phones, mass emails, social networking, traditional mail and self-publishing virtually the same order as within the organization. see table 5 and 6 and figure 3 for details. </p><img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/2751/version/1998/3532/12771/table5.png" class="article_image" width="580" height="425" alt="table5"> <img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/2751/version/1998/3532/12772/table6.png" class= "article_image" width="580" height="199" alt="table6"> <img src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/2751/version/1998/3532/12766/figure3.png" class="article_image" width="580" height="514" alt="figure3"> <div class="image_caption"> figure 3: icts by influence given outside the organization </div> <h3 class="article_subhead"> discussion </h3> <p> the respondents perceived the icts as highly empowering. an empowerment ratio was calculated, with a weighted score of those finding a given ict empowering divided by a weighted score of those finding a given ict not empowering; not a single icts scored below 1 with the singular exception of faxes for the use of individuals outside the organization. </p> <p> the new icts (email, websites) are seen as the most empowering; particularly noteworthy is the high position of social networking (a technology less than a decade old), which is listed high not only with regards to empowering individuals outside organizations (6th place), but also as empowering organizations (9th) and individuals within them (6th). compared to the existing data (see denison and johanson 2007), this suggest that facebook-like social networking is the most important of the new media icts to have emerged within the last decade or so. </p> <p> with the exception of social networking, other internet-based icts of the last decade blogs, microblogs, wikis, podcasts, videocasts are not scoring high, even if we control for the number of respondents (fewer respondents use and reply to the question on newer icts than on older icts). nonetheless when aggregated empowerment score was calculated, the internet-based technologies obtained the ratio of empowerment of 16:1, while the non-internet had the ratio of 14:1. thus it appears that the internet-based technologies are seen approximately 15% more empowering than non-internet based technologies. while this does not lend itself to the argument that the new, internet era icts are spearheading a revolutionary era of empowerment, it fits with existing literature on small to moderate impact of new media (ex. williams, wallace and sligo 2006) and does support a historical argument that the new media are continuing the trend of increased empowerment through the development of new means of communication. </p> <p> it is interesting to note the different types of literacy, both old and "new" (buckingham 1993) needed to deal with the presented icts. both textand voice-based icts are highly ranked. emails are usually highly textual, but websites and facebook-like social networks can be much less so, particularly through the use of embedded video and infographics. no single group of icts holds primacy, whether we would focus on literate and post-literate division, or on specific mode of communication (text, voice, video). this suggests that what matters to individuals is not so much one (or a group) of specific icts; rather, what they perceive as the most empowering, the sheer and growing number of tools they can use to express themselves. </p> <p> this fits our understanding of social movements' repertoires of contention: they are usually composed of multiple elements, elements that are known to evolve, multiply, or disappear (tilly 2009). earl and kimport (2011) note that while new media can create new effects, they are also often used in a more traditional way, "supersizing" traditional activities. there never was one dominant, "ultimate" communication technology; nor should we expect it to emerge in the future. new icts contribute to the empowerment of their users not only because they are more efficient, but also because they add to the pool of options available to the actors. the existence of multiple modes of communication, steadily cheaper, useful in an increasing number of scenarios, and available to an increasingly literate population, is an essential part of the story of the empowerment by icts. </p> <p> overall, while the individual ranking of the specific icts and the rationale behind that order deserves further analysis, the evidence seems sufficient to confirm the hypotheses that both the social movement organizations and their activists find icts highly empowering. there is also evidence to suggest that new media are seen as more empowering than the old. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> conclusions </h3> <p> information and communication technology, in a symbiotic relationship with growing literacy, empowers social actors, including those previously underprivileged, contributing to social change. people seeking change embrace the more effective ways of communication, the receivers are introduced to the medium, embracing it as well and in the end, the media first embraced by the spearheading revolutionaries become commonplace (lakshmann 1993, fang 1997). this trend started centuries ago, and continues into the modern day, as social movements and perhaps all organizations are increasingly reliant on icts and staffed by members of the net generation, who cannot imagine the world without the now-popular tools like twitter, youtube or facebook. those new icts do not seem to be ushering an instant revolution, but they are consistently seen as highly empowering, and slightly more than the older icts, lending evidence to the claim that throughout known history, proliferation of new icts have increased empowerment of individuals and communities. </p> <p> although ict has often been the "necessary" factor in enabling social change, it has never been the "sufficient" factor. ict can be seen as the enabler, but it does not exist in a social vacuum instead it is only one of many forces working on a society; this sociotechnical argument should not be mistaken for technological determinism. as goody (1968) noted, the focus should be on "liberating effects of changes in technology". development of those technologies does not guarantee change but when it falls on fertile soil, effects can be rapid and fundamental; in other words, revolutionary. social revolutions do not require information revolutions, but are often encouraged by them; the relation between information and social revolutions can be seen as symbiotic as each encourages the other (fang 1997). </p> <p> spreading literacy, as historical and present evidence shows, commonly translates to the erosion of traditional paradigms. one may dispute whether growing literacy necessarily translates to the weakening of states (drezner 2004, lessig 2006), but as the scholars of community informatics have shown, it has a rather good record in empowering non-state social actors, from individuals to local communities and entire social movements, giving them more rights, more freedoms, and more abilities to influence social change (lipsey and carlaw 2005, fang 1997, tapscot and williams 2006). thus the lesson that one can take from studying historical patterns of growing literacy and development of the new tools of communication is as follows: most social actors, notably including many non-state and non-business actors such as social movement organizations and their activists, value the increased availability and usefulness of icts, strongly perceiving them as tools of empowerment. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> acknowledgements </h3> <p>this research was supported by research settlement fund for the new faculty of hanyang university.</p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> footnotes </h3> <p> <sup>1</sup> unlike sociologists, political scientists have paid more attention to the issues of literacy since the 19th century consider for example the classic works of de tocqueville (1960). or the early 20th century works of michels (1915), who focused more on particular icts, and argued that one of the main reasons for his iron law of oligarchy is the inefficiency of available modes of communication, which do not permit a sufficiently large number of people to be able to properly engage in dialogue. </p> <p> <sup>2</sup> for the operationalization of empowerment, see the methodology chapter. </p> <p> <sup>3</sup> other interesting cases include switzerland and the italian city states particularly the republic of venice. </p> <p> <sup>4</sup> for a real time example, see a list of tools developed by activists for activists at the global voices advocacy project (http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/projects/) </p> <p> <sup>5</sup> a promise-driven or grievance-creating movement is one that first creates a grievance (like a demand for a "free encyclopedia") and then rides the wave of popular support. this can be contrasted with the more traditional movement approach, where a movement is formed in response to an existing grievance. for more on the difference between those types of movements see gamson (1990) and for a discussion of the popularity of the promise-driven approach in the new online movements, see kling (1996). </p> <p> <sup>6</sup> as the yearbook does not have a category for social movements, the category of organizations concerned with "societal problems" appeared to be the best fit for the purposes of this study. the organizations listed within it were reviewed, and governmental organizations (as well as the few organizations that appeared to be profit motivated) were excluded. </p> <p> <sup>7</sup> whose research was based on the yearbook. </p> <h3 class="article_subhead"> references </h3> <div class="reference"> ackroyd, stephen (2005). <cite><cite>the oxford handbook of work and organization</cite></cite>. oxford university press </div> <div class="reference"> <cite><cite>journal of computer-mediated communication</cite></cite>. vol 3. issue 4. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol3/issue4/ahuja.html </div> <div class="reference"> alexa.com. <cite><cite>alexa traffic rankings</cite></cite>. 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(1988). <cite>in the age of the smart machine: the future of work and power</cite>. new york: basic </div> <h3 class="article_subhead"> attachment 1: tables </h3> <table class="msonormaltable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style= 'margin-left:2.75pt;border-collapse:collapse'> <tr> <td width="587" colspan="13" valign="top" style= 'width:440.5pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="tablecontentscxspfirst" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>table 7. are the following icts giving your organization more influence?</span> </p> <p class="tablecontentscxsplast" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>the largest number of responses per row is shaded.</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="tablecontents" style='layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>icts</span> </p> </td> <td width="84" colspan="2" valign="top" style= 'width:62.9pt;border-top:none; border-left:solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right: none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspfirst" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"microsoft sans serif","sans-serif"'> strongly disagree</span> </p> </td> <td width="84" colspan="2" valign="top" style= 'width:62.9pt;border-top:none; border-left:solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right: none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxsplast" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"microsoft sans serif","sans-serif"'> disagree</span> </p> </td> <td width="84" colspan="2" valign="top" style= 'width:62.9pt;border-top:none; border-left:solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right: none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="tablecontents" style='layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>no opinion</span> </p> </td> <td width="84" colspan="2" valign="top" style= 'width:62.9pt;border-top:none; border-left:solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right: none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspfirst" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"microsoft sans serif","sans-serif"'> agree</span> </p> </td> <td width="84" colspan="2" valign="top" style= 'width:62.9pt;border-top:none; border-left:solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right: none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxsplast" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"microsoft sans serif","sans-serif"'> strongly agree</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="tablecontentscxspfirst" align="center" style='text-align:center; layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>respondents (n)</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="tablecontentscxsplast" align="center" style='text-align:center; layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>respondents (%)</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>phones (landlines)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>18</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>31.03%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>22</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>37.93%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>49</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>84.48%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>faxes</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>8</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13.79%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>20.69%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>9</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15.52%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>43</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>74.14%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>phones (mobile voice)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>7</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12.07%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>16</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>27.59%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>18</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>31.03%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>44</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>75.86%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>phones (mobile texting)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25.86%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>34</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>58.62%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>self-publishing (of books, booklets, pamphlets, etc.)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>16</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>27.59%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>22</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>37.93%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>42</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>72.41%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>newspapers or magazines</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>14</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>24.14%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25.86%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>33</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>56.90%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>radio</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>20.69%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>28</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>48.28%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>television</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>11</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>18.97%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>27</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>46.55%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>demonstrations, rallies or public speeches</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>9</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15.52%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>16</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>27.59%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>32</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>55.17%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>mail (traditional post)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>19</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>32.76%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25.86%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>45</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>77.59%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>cameras (taking photos, videos)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>16</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>27.59%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>22.41%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>33</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>56.90%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>email</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>11</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>18.97%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>35</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>60.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>49</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>84.48%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>mass emails (online newsletters, email discussion groups, listservs)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>14</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>24.14%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>24</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>41.38%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>41</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>70.69%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>website</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>22.41%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>34</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>58.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>48</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>82.76%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>online petitions</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25.86%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>23</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>39.66%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>internet forum / bbs (bulletin board service)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>22.41%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>23</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>39.66%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>blogs</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>7</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12.07%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>22</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>37.93%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>microblogging (twitter)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>9</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15.52%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>29.31%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>podcasts</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>8</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13.79%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25.86%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>videocasts (such as youtube)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>8</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13.79%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>20</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>34.48%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>wikis</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25.86%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>instant messengers (aim, msn, yim, google talk, etc.)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>8</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13.79%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>8</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13.79%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>21</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>36.21%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>social networking (myspace, facebook, etc.)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>20.69%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25.86%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>33</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>56.90%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>social tagging (digg, technocrati, etc.)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>7</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12.07%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.45pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>11</span> </p> </td> <td width="43" valign="top" style= 'width:32.25pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>18.97%</span> </p> </td> </tr> </table> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>n=58</span> </p> <table class="msonormaltable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style= 'margin-left:2.75pt;border-collapse:collapse'> <tr> <td width="588" colspan="13" valign="top" style= 'width:440.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="tablecontentscxspfirst" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>table 8. is the following ict giving you more of a say within the organization?</span> </p> <p class="tablecontentscxsplast" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>the largest number of responses per row is shaded.</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="tablecontents" style='layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>icts</span> </p> </td> <td width="83" colspan="2" valign="top" style= 'width:62.35pt;border-top:none; border-left:solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right: none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspfirst" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"microsoft sans serif","sans-serif"'> strongly disagree</span> </p> </td> <td width="83" colspan="2" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none; border-left:solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right: none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxsplast" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"microsoft sans serif","sans-serif"'> disagree</span> </p> </td> <td width="83" colspan="2" valign="top" style= 'width:62.35pt;border-top:none; border-left:solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right: none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="tablecontents" style='layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>no opinion</span> </p> </td> <td width="83" colspan="2" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none; border-left:solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right: none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspfirst" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"microsoft sans serif","sans-serif"'> agree</span> </p> </td> <td width="83" colspan="2" valign="top" style= 'width:62.35pt;border-top:none; border-left:solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right: none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxsplast" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"microsoft sans serif","sans-serif"'> strongly agree</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="tablecontentscxspfirst" align="center" style='text-align:center; layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>respondents (n)</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="tablecontentscxsplast" align="center" style='text-align:center; layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>respondents (%)</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>phones (landlines)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>11</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>18.97%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>29.31%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>16</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>27.59%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>48</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>82.76%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>faxes</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>7</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12.07%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>34</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>58.62%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>phones (mobile voice)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>19</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>32.76%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>14</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>24.14%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>45</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>77.59%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>phones (mobile texting)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>14</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>24.14%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>35</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>60.34%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>self-publishing (of books, booklets, pamphlets, etc.)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>18</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>31.03%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>30</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>51.72%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>newspapers or magazines</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>8</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13.79%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>27</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>46.55%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>radio</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>7</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12.07%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>7</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12.07%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>22</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>37.93%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>television</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>7</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12.07%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>19</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>32.76%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>demonstrations, rallies or public speeches</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>11</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>18.97%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>26</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>44.83%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>mail (traditional post)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>7</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12.07%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>7</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12.07%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>14</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>24.14%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>36</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>62.07%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>cameras (taking photos, videos)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>11</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>18.97%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>43.10%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>email</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>22.41%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>29</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>50.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>45</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>77.59%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>mass emails (online newsletters, email discussion groups, listservs)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>11</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>18.97%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>29</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>50.00%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>website</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25.86%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>14</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>24.14%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>38</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>65.52%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>online petitions</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>7</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12.07%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>20</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>34.48%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>internet forum / bbs (bulletin board service)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25.86%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>blogs</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>29.31%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>microblogging (twitter)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>8</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13.79%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>29.31%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>podcasts</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>14</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>24.14%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>videocasts (such as youtube)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25.86%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>wikis</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>18</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>31.03%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>instant messengers (aim, msn, yim, google talk, etc.)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>29.31%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>social networking (myspace, facebook, etc.)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>11</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>18.97%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>29</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>50.00%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>social tagging (digg, technocrati, etc.)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>8</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13.79%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>14</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>24.14%</span> </p> </td> </tr> </table> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>n=55</span> </p> <table class="msonormaltable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style= 'margin-left:2.75pt;border-collapse:collapse'> <tr> <td width="588" colspan="13" valign="top" style= 'width:440.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="tablecontentscxspfirst" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>table 9. is the following ict giving you more of a say outside the organization?</span> </p> <p class="tablecontentscxsplast" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>the largest number of responses per row is shaded.</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="tablecontents" style='layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>icts</span> </p> </td> <td width="83" colspan="2" valign="top" style= 'width:62.35pt;border-top:none; border-left:solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right: none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspfirst" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"microsoft sans serif","sans-serif"'> strongly disagree</span> </p> </td> <td width="83" colspan="2" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none; border-left:solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right: none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxsplast" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"microsoft sans serif","sans-serif"'> disagree</span> </p> </td> <td width="83" colspan="2" valign="top" style= 'width:62.35pt;border-top:none; border-left:solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right: none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="tablecontents" style='layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>no opinion</span> </p> </td> <td width="83" colspan="2" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none; border-left:solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right: none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspfirst" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"microsoft sans serif","sans-serif"'> agree</span> </p> </td> <td width="83" colspan="2" valign="top" style= 'width:62.35pt;border-top:none; border-left:solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right: none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxsplast" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"microsoft sans serif","sans-serif"'> strongly agree</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="tablecontentscxspfirst" align="center" style='text-align:center; layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>respondents (n)</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="tablecontentscxsplast" align="center" style='text-align:center; layout-grid-mode:char'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>respondents (%)</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>phones (landlines)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>8</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13.79%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>20</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>34.48%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>14</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>24.14%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>45</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>77.59%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>faxes</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>7</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12.07%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>9</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15.52%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>30</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>51.72%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>phones (mobile voice)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>18</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>31.03%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>14</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>24.14%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>40</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>68.97%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>phones (mobile texting)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>29.31%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>31</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>53.45%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>self-publishing (of books, booklets, pamphlets, etc.)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>16</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>27.59%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>8</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13.79%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>30</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>51.72%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>newspapers or magazines</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25.86%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>8</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13.79%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>29</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>50.00%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>radio</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>22.41%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>24</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>41.38%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>television</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>11</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>18.97%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>22</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>37.93%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>demonstrations, rallies or public speeches</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>28</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>48.28%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>mail (traditional post)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>8</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13.79%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25.86%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>9</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15.52%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>37</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>63.79%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>cameras (taking photos, videos)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>43.10%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>email</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>20.69%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>32</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>55.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>45</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>77.59%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>mass emails (online newsletters, email discussion groups, listservs)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>11</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>18.97%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25.86%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>31</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>53.45%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>website</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>14</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>24.14%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>22</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>37.93%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>39</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>67.24%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>online petitions</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>9</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15.52%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>21</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>36.21%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>internet forum / bbs (bulletin board service)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25.86%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>blogs</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>7</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12.07%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>29.31%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>microblogging (twitter)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>8</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13.79%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>29.31%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>podcasts</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>8</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13.79%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>15</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>25.86%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>videocasts (such as youtube)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>7</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>12.07%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>3</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>5.17%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>29.31%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size:11.0pt'>wikis</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>29.31%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>instant messengers (aim, msn, yim, google talk, etc.)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>5</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>8.62%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>6</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10.34%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>1</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>1.72%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>16</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>27.59%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>social networking (myspace, facebook, etc.)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>4</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>6.90%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>22.41%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>10</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>17.24%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>29</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>50.00%</span> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style= 'width:62.3pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" style= 'layout-grid-mode:char;text-autospace: ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size:11.0pt'>social tagging (digg, technocrati, etc.)</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>0</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>0.00%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; background:#e6e6e6;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>8</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;background:#e6e6e6; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>13.79%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.15pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style='font-size: 11.0pt'>2</span> </p> </td> <td width="42" valign="top" style= 'width:31.2pt;border-top:none;border-left:solid black 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>3.45%</span> </p> </td> <td width="44" valign="top" style= 'width:33.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: solid black 1.0pt;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:none; padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>14</span> </p> </td> <td width="45" valign="top" style= 'width:33.85pt;border:solid black 1.0pt; border-top:none;padding:2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt 2.75pt'> <p class="msonormalcxspmiddle" align="right" style= 'text-align:right;layout-grid-mode: char;text-autospace:ideograph-numeric'> <span lang="en-us" style= 'font-size: 11.0pt'>24.14%</span> </p> </td> </tr> </table> </div> ali et al the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 48 towards a connected commonwealth: the roles of counties in broadband deployment in virginia christopher ali, phd, bellisario college of communications, penn state university, cali@psu.edu abby simmerman, department of media studies, university of virginia, ars4qj@virginia.edu nicholas lansing, college and graduate school of arts & sciences, university of virginia, ntl2muq@virginia.edu the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 49 towards a connected commonwealth: the roles of counties in broadband deployment in virginia abstract this paper identifies the roles of counties in the deployment of high-speed internet (“broadband”) networks in the united states. counties play crucial roles in local governance, but have been absent from discussions of broadband policy, planning, and deployment by both lawmakers and scholars. rectifying this, we report the results of a survey of counties in the commonwealth of virginia. using thematic coding analysis, themes from our survey include: (1) mapping and the ongoing issue of identifying unand under-connected areas; (2) funding and the use of public money; (3) strategic partnerships with electric cooperatives, investor-owned isps, and other counties; and (4) urban bias. based on these themes, we argue that counties play three crucial, but heretofore neglected, roles in broadband deployment: funder, partner, and mobilizer. moreover, we argue that counties are eager for greater responsibility and authority over deployment. this paper concludes with recommendations for how virginia can amplify the roles and responsibilities of counties in broadband deployment. keywords: broadband, rural broadband, broadband localism, digital divide, counties, virginia introduction the covid-19 pandemic clearly demonstrated the importance of high-speed broadband to contemporary life in the united states. broadband was already crucial for everything from economic development to housing values, telehealth, education, civic engagement, public safety, and quality of life. during the pandemic broadband access became, according to the united nations, a matter of “life and death” (guterres, 2020). covid-19 also illuminated broadband’s absence in many regions of the us. upwards of 42 million americans lack access to broadband because of infrastructure availability (busby & tanberk, 2020). millions more lack access because of affordability (chao & park, 2020). the lack of broadband infrastructure is particularly acute in rural areas as providers have traditionally refused to serve rural communities because of a lack of return on investment (ali, 2021). past research has documented the vital roles federal, state, and municipal governments play in bridging the various manifestations of the digital divide (grubesic & mack, 2017; whitacre and gallardo, 2020; pew charitable trusts, 2020). at the policy level, this has predominantly the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 50 taken the form of subsidies (loans, grants, or loan/grant combinations) to offset the high cost of connecting rural and remote areas and to offset expensive monthly subscriptions. between 2009 and 2017 the federal government spent $47 billion on broadband deployment (gao, 2020). the latest federal initiative is the broadband programs of the 2021 $1.2 trillion infrastructure investment and jobs act (iija, also called the bipartisan infrastructure law [bil]). $65 billion is allocated towards broadband, including $42.5 billion for infrastructure deployment and $14 billion for affordability.1 the national telecommunications and information administration (ntia) will administer the $42.5 billion broadband equity access and deployment (bead) program in conjunction with individual states who will ultimately select grant awardees (iija, 2021). the prominence of states in doling out such large amounts of public money demonstrate the importance of sub-federal governments to broadband deployment. sub-federal level governments, be they municipalities or states, are crucial to broadband deployment, underscoring a practice of what oliver sylvain (2012) calls “broadband localism.” missing in this conversation both in policy and in scholarship, however, are counties. in the us, counties exist between state and municipal governments and perform crucial regional governance tasks (cigler, 1995). counties have been called both “governments of the future” and the “foundation of local government” because states empower counties to make crucial local decisions, especially in economic development (cigler, 1995, p. 52).2 with such roles in mind, it is curious why counties have been apparently omitted from extant broadband deployment policies and conversations. the iija, for instance, orders states to develop broadband plans in conjunction with “local and regional entities” but omits specific mention of county governments (iija, 2021, sec. 60102(d)). in 2021, the national association of counties echoed this bewilderment, noting how “counties are working to come up with solutions to bridge the digital divide” (looker, 2021). the discrepancy between the actions of counties with regards to broadband and their lack of official regulation begs the research question: “what roles do counties play in the deployment of broadband in the commonwealth of virginia?” 1 the iija includes funding for the following: • $42.45 billion for infrastructure • $14 billion for affordability • $2.75 billion for digital equity • $2 billion for usda broadband programs • $2 billion for tribal connectivity • $1 billion for middle mile connectivity • $600 million for bonds (iija, 2021) 2 counties have also been called “the forgotten level of government” (kelleher and yackee, 2004). there is a paucity of research regarding counties, especially with respect to economic development (pink-harper, 2018; reese, 1994). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 51 to answer this question, we undertook a survey of counties in the commonwealth of virginia. virginia was chosen because there have been celebrated examples of county-level initiatives to deploy broadband, such as the partnership between firefly fiber broadband and nelson county (gonzalez, 2019) and louisa county’s funding of wi-fi enabled school buses during the pandemic (milby 2020). counties also factor into virginia’s broadband deployment plans, as they are eligible to compete for public-private broadband grants offered by the virginia telecommunications initiative (vati) program (commonwealth connect, 2021). lastly, virginia is unique in the country in that cities and counties are separate political entities (peaslee & swartz, 2014), thus allowing for a case study of consisting solely of counties. to better understand the role of counties in broadband deployment in virginia, we invited all 95 counties to participate in a survey regarding their broadband priorities, planning, and policy. given the broad nature of the research question, the survey was exploratory in nature, and included both close-ended and open-ended questions. four trends emerged from the results: (1) mapping and the ongoing issue of identifying unand under-connected areas; (2) funding and the use of public money; (3) strategic partnerships with electric cooperatives, investor-owned isps, and other counties; and (4) urban bias (what thomas et al. (2013) call “urbannormativity”). based on these themes, we argue that counties play three crucial roles in broadband deployment: funders, partners, and mobilizers. we argue that counties are eager to play a larger role in broadband deployment but require state support to do so. subsequently, state policymakers, along with researchers, need to meet counties where they are, rather than dictate the parameters of connectivity in generic terms. literature review definitions and uses in the us, broadband is defined by the federal communications commission (fcc) as an “always on” internet connection with a minimum download speed of 25 mbps and minimum upload speed of 3 mbps (commonly written as “25/3”) (fcc, 2021b). in contrast, the congressional research service (crs) has taken a more expansive approach to its definition: broadband is provided by a series of technologies (e.g., cable, telephone, wire, fiber, satellite, mobile, fixed wireless) that gives users the ability to send and receive data at volumes and speeds necessary to support a number of applications including voice communications, entertainment, telemedicine, distance education, telework, ecommerce, civic engagement, public safety, and energy conservation. (2019, p. i) as the crs suggests, broadband is more than just speed; it also includes performance and usability. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 52 the lack of broadband due to availability (as opposed to affordability) is particularly notable in rural america, where decades of telecommunications neglect has left only “islands of availability” scattered across the country (grubesic, 2006). at least 17% of rural americans (over 10 million people), lack broadband because of availability (fcc, 2021). even more are plagued with underconnectivity (zimmer, 2018; whitacre et al., 2018). a lack of competition in rural america also means that residents often pay over 30% more for a monthly subscription than their urban counterparts (broadbandnow, 2019). qualitative research has documented how rural residents often spend hundreds of dollars a month on multiple subscriptions (mathews & ali, 2022; dawson, 2020). the issue is even worse in tribal lands and nations, where connectivity hovers around 67% (it’s more likely less than half that) (fcc, 2021; duarte, 2017). affordability is also a major issue, with more americans lacking broadband because of cost rather than availability (see chao & park, 2020). almost two decades of scholarship has demonstrated the importance of broadband to contemporary life. in rural communities, broadband has been linked to lower unemployment and higher gdp (whitacre et al., 2014; stenberg, 2010). connectivity factors into corporate decisions to relocate to rural areas (kim & orazem, 2017), impacts rural migration (mahasuweerachai et al., 2010) and agriculture profits and productivity (kandilov et al., 2017), and raises property values (deller & whitacre, 2019). for these reasons, and more, upwards of a quarter of rural residents in a recent pew research center survey identified broadband as a major issue (anderson, 2018). in both rural and urban areas, broadband has also been linked to increased civic engagement (whitacre, 2017; whitacre & manlove, 2016; mossberger, tolbert & mcneal, 2012). both before and during the pandemic, studies documented the importance of broadband to healthcare (whitacre, wheeler & landgraf, 2016; bauerly et al., 2019) and education (gallardo, 2016; chandra, et al., 2020; hampton et al., 2020; sims et al., 2008). bauerly et al. (2019), for instance, call broadband a “super-determinant” in healthcare and lament that “despite telehealth’s great potential to improve healthcare access, the promise of telehealth is stymied by the lack of reliable broadband coverage” (p. 40). in education, the term “the new homework gap” has been coined to demarcate those students with and without broadband (rosenworcel, 2015). a 2020 study by michigan state’s quello center found that those without broadband will likely suffer half a grade point difference from their connected peers (hampton et al., 2020). common sense media reported in 2020 that upwards of 30% of all k-12 students, or some 15-16 million young people, lacked adequate internet access or devices “to sustain effective distance learning at home” (chandra et al., 2020, p. 3). moreover, 37% of k-12 students in rural areas lack adequate connectivity, while 26% of latinx students, 30% of black students, and 35% of native american students lack adequate access (chandra et al., 2020). the digital divide also tracks on to income inequality, with 35% of households with school age children (ages 6-17) and with an annual income under $30,000 lack broadband in comparison only 6% of households with an annual income over $75,000 lack broadband (anderson & perrin, 2018). the digital divide is more than just a rural issue. as van dijk (2020) demonstrates, connectivity, which often plagues rural and remote areas is simply the first phase of the digital the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 53 divide. other issues captured in the term “digital divide” include affordability, hardware access, and skill development (van dijk, 2020). even connectivity, however, is not an exclusively rural, remote or tribal issue. millions of those living in urban centers lack a high speed, affordable broadband connection. in new york city alone, 29% of the population lack home broadband access (city of new york, 2021). some have critiqued policies seemingly directed exclusively towards rural broadband infrastructure for reducing the complexities of the digital divide to one of geography (seifer & callahan, 2020). seifer and callahan (2020), for instance, argue that the federal government’s efforts to close the rural infrastructure gap “studiously ignor[es] tens of millions of urban americans who still lack high-speed internet service… it is also structurally racist, discriminating against unconnected black americans and other communities of color.” the many logics of the digital divide, which extend beyond the rural-urban binary have thus led both scholars and policymakers to speak of digital inclusion and digital equity to capture holistically the dynamics involved in connectivity. digital inclusion, as defined by the national digital inclusion alliance (ndia), refers to the activities necessary to ensure that all individuals and communities, including the most disadvantaged, have access to and use of information and communication technologies (icts). this includes five elements: 1. affordable, robust broadband internet service; 2. internet-enabled devices that meet the needs of the user; 3. access to digital literacy training; 4. quality technical support; and 5. applications and online content designed to enable and encourage selfsufficiency, participation and collaboration. (ndia, 2022) several academic studies have taken up the call for digital inclusion rather than focusing solely on deployment, infrastructure, and policy (gallardo et al., 2021; strover et al., 2020; rhinesmith, 2016). studies of the crucial role of libraries have been notable in this regard (strover et al. 2020; strover, 2019). strover (2019), for instance, analyzed the hotspot lending program of the new york city library system, coining term “digital dignity” to capture the feeling new internet users get by being “just like everybody else.” federal policy precipitated by both the need and the absence of broadband during the height of the covid-19 pandemic, various levels of government in the united states have voiced their desire to close the digital divide. heretofore the bulk of funding for broadband has gone to deployment, which is the most expensive aspect of digital inclusion efforts. it has been reported that it will cost upwards of $80 billion to connect 100% of the population of the us with high-speed broadband (de sa, 2017). extant literature on broadband policy is sparse and largely focused on the limited success of federal programs offered by usda (kandilov & renkow, 2010; dinterman & renkow, 2017; kandilov et al., 2017) and the fcc (grubesic & mack, 2017; glass & tardiff, 2015). some have focused on the failure of the fcc to produce reliable maps of broadband deployment, thus leading to poor policy and funding the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 54 decisions (gao, 2018; meinrath, 2019). according to these highly cited sources, the maps produced by the fcc exaggerate the availability of broadband in the us by upwards of 50% (meinrath, 2019; bode, 2018). the reason for this discrepancy is because of the data collection process for the fcc’s “form 477”. data are reported by the census block rather than the address level, meaning that a census block is considered 100% “served” so long as an internet service provider (isp) can report that at least one building in the census block has broadband. the 2020 broadband data act ordered the fcc to improve its data collection methodologies, although recent reports suggests that any improvement could still be years away (tibken, 2021). state and local policy another set of literature shifts analysis away from federal policy to state and local initiatives. these studies generally find greater success of state programs than federal programs. said differently, while federal programs have garnered either critique or lukewarm findings from relevant studies, local and state initiatives and policies have been met with greater applause. whitacre and gallardo (2020), for instance, found that the existence of a state broadband office yields positive impacts on deployment. their “results make a strong argument that state broadband policies are having a measurable impact on broadband diffusion across the u.s., including in rural areas” (p. 11). their study built on a comprehensive report by pew charitable trusts (2020) on state broadband offices. here, the authors observed, “while most of the conversation about broadband deployment may focus on the federal and local levels, states play a critical role in deploying broadband, and their efforts are making a significant difference in expanding access” (p. 32). pew identified five key functions of state broadband offices: stakeholder outreach and engagement; policy frameworks; planning and capacity building; funding and operations; and program evaluation and evolution. many have also held up minnesota as the example par excellence of state broadband offices and broadband deployment strategies (pew charitable trusts, 2021; ali, 2021). outside of minnesota, researchers have turned watchful eyes to alaska (hudson, 2015), indiana (beaulieu & gallardo, 2019), illinois (taglang, 2020), and pennsylvania (meinrath, 2019). there is also a robust body of literature on municipal and local broadband provision. oliver sylvain has called the municipal broadband approach one of “broadband localism,” championing the ability of municipalities to fund, own, and operate broadband networks. heretofore, municipal broadband has been repeatedly championed (crawford, 2019; grubesic & mack, 2017; cobb, 2018; dunne, 2007). such endorsements are notable because as of 2021, 18 states have prohibited or inhibited municipalities from funding, owning and/or operating their own broadband networks (cooper, 2021b). crawford (2019) observes that, “it turns out that america’s awful, expensive data connectivity is a national problem for which the solution is intensively local: cities and localities are leading the way” (p. 67). some seven years earlier, sylvain (2012) reached the same conclusion: the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 55 local governments are lighting the spark for broadband infrastructure build-out. they are mobilizing an array of local anchor institutions and resources to bring service to residents. that they do this is no surprise. after all, local governments are best suited to appreciate the characteristics or “terroir” that distinguish their constituents from others. (p. 805) whitacre and gallardo concur, giving empirical evidence to conclude that “a county in a state with municipal restrictions in place could expect to see their rural availability rise to 74.7% if the restrictions are removed” (p. 11). in addition to the policy literature on municipal broadband and broadband localism, there is also a growing body of work that examines broadband and community development. literature from the uk, for instance, examines the relationship between community broadband and resilience. roberts et al. (2017) speak of “resilient rural places”, “whereby local resource are developed so that rural communities have the capacity to steer wider processes in a global context and highlighting the non-linearity, processual and messiness of rural places” (p. 373). similarly, ashmore et al. (2017) found that “community-led broadband…strengthen[s] local rural identity for individuals” (p. 408). similar results of community formation are found in north america. shade and powell (2012) write of municipal connectivity programs throughout canada as forms of “community infrastructure,” while powell (2012) writes about “wi-fi publics,” exploring how lay technologists formed a community in the building of “ile sans fils” in montreal. in the united states, jessa lingel (2021) keeps the torch lit with her recent work on community mesh networks and how such networks can combat the “gentrification of the internet.”3 to be sure, there are objections to municipal or community-driven broadband projects.4 these typically take the form of critiques against municipal broadband projects and manifest in arguments from burdensome financial risk to accusations that municipalities lack the technical expertise to manage a broadband network. nevertheless, those who critique municipal broadband are outnumbered by those in favor, both in terms of the policy perspective and the community development perspective. there is significant agreement, therefore, as to the importance of broadband localism and community-driven projects. again, the absence of counties or regions is palpable. moreover, many of the above excellent studies are singular in topic, focusing on rural broadband, urban broadband, affordability, connectivity programs, or policy. as noted above, however, the digital divide is dynamic and multiple, leading to diverse array of academic studies and a myriad of federal policies and interventions (the iija being the most recent). our study adds to this complexity both empirically and methodologically. while primarily policy-focused, we also strive to understand the material challenges to broadband deployment in both rural and urban counties, and the attitudes towards (rather than just the outcomes of), policy decisions. 3 see also the work of rob mcmahon who has spent years chronicling community broadband projects among canada’s indigenous communities. mcmahon and mangiok (2014), for instance, call their method a “first mile approach that foregrounds how community-based institutions are driving development.” 4 for an example of opponents to municipal broadband see yoo and pfenninger (2017). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 56 methodologically, this is the first academic study to focus on counties in broadband as an object of study. our aim is to stimulate more research and conversation on this topic in agreement with others on the need for more scholarship on local broadband (e.g., shade and powell, 2012). this study thus agrees with previous work in the field, notably broadband localism, and extends it by introducing another stakeholder into the study of local broadband deployment in the united states: counties. broadband in virginia virginia is comprised of 95 counties and 38 cities that are independent of counties (peaslee & swartz, 2014). while cities and counties are politically separate, this does not mean that counties are not urban. counties range from rural to urban according to usda’s rural-urban commuting area codes (usda, 2020). for example, arlington county, adjacent to washington dc is rated as a “1” by usda, meaning a “metropolitan area core,” bath county is a “10” meaning a “rural area” with minimal traffic to an urban area or urban core. bland county sits in between, with some census blocks rated a “2” and others a “6” meaning a “micropolitan low commuting area” (see appendix a for a list of urban-rural designations for virginia counties). broadband deployment in the state varies by source. the fcc reports that 94.2% of the state’s population (of 8.541 million) has access to broadband at 25/3 (fcc, 2021). accordingly, the fcc reports that 82.2% of rural virginia and 98.1% of urban virginia have access to broadband at 25/3. others demure. in august 2019, the industry association us telecom released a report arguing that the fcc had overestimated the number of connected virginians by 39% (stegeman, 2019). broadbandnow – a consumer data website – found that only 51% of virginians have access to an affordable broadband plan and that the commonwealth currently ranks 15th in broadband connectivity among us states (cooper, 2021a). crucially, the state government lacks a significant amount of data when it comes to broadband deployment and relies heavily on the erroneous findings of the fcc (commonwealth connect, 2020). authority over broadband in virginia is split between two bodies: the governor’s broadband advisors (the chief broadband advisor also holds the position of executive director of the tobacco regional revitalization commission), responsible primarily for planning and advice, and the virginia office of broadband assistance, housed within the department of housing and community development (dhcd), which is responsible for administrating the virginia telecommunications initiative (vati). the chief deputy of the dhcd also serves as the governor’s deputy broadband advisor. broadband access factored significantly into then-governor ralph northam’s policy priorities (commonwealth connect, 2020). this included raising the funding levels for the state’s flagship broadband grant program – the virginia telecommunications initiative – from $4 million in 2018 to $19 million in 2020 (commonwealth connect, 2020). the tobacco region revitalization commission’s broadband program contributes another $3 million annually. during the pandemic, the state also created a $30 million fast track broadband funding the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 57 program with funds delivered by the coronavirus aid, relief, and economic security (cares) act (discussed in more detail in the findings section). doubling down on this, governor northam announced in summer 2021 a $700 million commitment to broadband deployment in the commonwealth as part of virginia’s $4 billion american rescue plan act (arpa) allocation (lai, 2021). this brings virginia to par or ahead of other states like new york and illinois in terms of broadband funding (see dawson (2021) for a list of state investment in broadband). there is considerable momentum by the federal government, and state and local governments, to end the digital divide (at least in terms of network availability). what is less clear is the role counties have played, and will play, in these endeavors. our research seeks to amend this knowledge gap with a focus on counties in the commonwealth of virginia. this study is particularly crucial and timely given the iija’s commitment of $65 billion for broadband deployment and affordability. for this funding to be put to the best possible use, all stakeholders must be mobilized and engaged. materials and methods to answer the research question, “what roles do counties play in the deployment of broadband in the commonwealth of virginia?” we developed an exploratory survey. surveys are crucial tools in the methodological toolkits of communication policy scholars (hasebrink & holig, 2019). given the broad scope of the research question, our survey was exploratory in nature, focusing on questions of deployment, policy priorities, broadband planning, grant applications, partnerships, challenges and opportunities, and personal opinions of the value of broadband. a survey was the logical methodological choice given that we wanted to reach as many counties as possible with our questions. the survey was comprised of 41 questions, including both close-ended (i.e. dropdown and ranking questions) and open-ended (i.e. short and long answer). an example of a close-ended question is: “has your county or an internet service provider (“isp”) in your county applied for one (or more) of the following grants/loans. select all that apply.” an example of an open-ended question is: “what best practices would you recommend for a virginia county starting to develop a broadband plan?” the ethos of our survey followed the precedent of the exploratory qualitative interview which seeks to “uncover[] technical knowledge” and is particularly useful to “orient oneself in a new and/or complex field” (van audenhove & donders, 2019, p. 185). we created our survey in consultation with members of the virginia governor’s broadband advisors office. we secured irb approval from our research institution (approval no. 3902) and constructed our survey using the qualtrics platform. we then invited all 95 counties to take the survey. in wanting to focus specifically on counties we deliberately left out the 38 independent cities in virginia. to not duplicate submissions, email invitations were first sent to county administrators. failing a response, we approached it officials and economic development officers. the survey was live for three months, from february 2021 to april 2021. ultimately, we the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 58 had 42/95 completed or mostly completed surveys, giving us a response rate of roughly 44%. one county did not agree to take the survey and three others began the survey in terms of inputting county and office name but did not answer any of the questions. “mostly completed” surveys mean that the closed-ended questions were completed but some or all of the openended questions were blank. 39 surveys were fully complete and 3 were mostly complete. of the completed or mostly completed surveys, 16 were filled out by county administrators, 13 by information technology (it) directors, 3 by economic development officials, and 10 were filled out by those occupying relevant roles such as a member of the broadband advisory committee, or an assistant to the administrator. as noted in appendix a, the counties that responded to our survey ran the gamut of urban to rural. according to the usda commuting codes, the most urban was york and several counties tied for the most rural (including bath and northampton). the bulk of our respondents came from counties with metropolitan and micropolitan (suburban/exurban) areas. according to hasebrink and holig (2019), surveys lend themselves to comparative research. this is particularly true if our goal is to “widen the horizon of options”, “enhance the knowledge base,” “define policy priorities” and/or “explain differences” (hasebrink & holig, 2019, pp. 154-155). we endeavored to complete each of these tasks. after collecting the survey results, we compared results across counties to look for themes and patterns. this was done through thematic coding analysis, which is an inductive and qualitative methodological approach predicted on the identification of themes, patterns, and categories (herzog et al., 2019). four key themes emerged from our survey: mapping, funding, partnerships, and urbannormativity. these themes demonstrate that counties play three crucial and passionate roles in broadband deployment in virginia: funders, partners, and mobilizers. counties are keen to play an even expanded role and provided us recommendations and best practices to make realize this aim. to protect the privacy of our respondents, closed-ended questions are reported by county name, and, open-ended answers, which are more opinion-based, are anonymized. results mapping the theme of mapping came up in our survey in two ways: discrepancies and best practices. in the first regard, academic, political, and journalistic research all demonstrate the failure of the fcc’s current broadband maps and broadband deployment data collection methodologies (e.g. gao, 2018; bode, 2018). some reports suggest that the fcc has exaggerated broadband deployment by upwards of 50% (meinrath, 2020; busby & tarnak, 2020). all agree that to solve the digital divide we must first know where it exists. we asked respondents to estimate their levels of connectivity at 25/3 mbps, 50/10 mbps, and 100/20 mbps, respectively. without surprise, we saw significant discrepancies with the fcc’s data (see figure 1; appendix a). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 59 figure 1: difference between fcc-reported broadband coverage and county-reported broadband coverage over 90% of the counties that responded to our survey were overcounted. one county was undercounted (york county, although the discrepancy was so small that it could be due to a rounding error), and two fell within rounding distance. of those counties that were overcounted, the discrepancies ranged from 5.8% in stafford county to 94.8% in orange county. indeed, the fcc reports that orange county is 100% served by three providers (fcc, 2021), whereas the county informed us that they are 5% served. amongst overcounted counties, the average discrepancy was 31.18%. self-reported data comes with its own veracity issues. to triangulate findings, we look to third-party reports. ustelecom, the trade association for the major telecommunications companies found discrepancies between fcc reported coverage and their own coverage reports in 53% of rural virginia counties (stegeman, 2019). indeed, ustelecom reported 39% of rural locations in virginia that the fcc had reported as served were in fact unserved. as a result, the data do not pinpoint the definitive levels of connectivity in each county but rather adds vital missing local voices to the critique of the fcc’s data. in addition to questions of deployment, we asked counties to report on challenges and to offer recommendations “for a virginia county starting to develop a broadband plan.” several the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 60 counties pointed to the need for better maps to inform broadband deployment decisions: “properly identifying unserved and underserved areas so that federal and state resources are optimized for physical deployment” noted a county in the eastern part of virginia to the question about challenges. a central county noted their frustration with their inability to locate middle mile fiber lines: [our county] has 6 long-haul fiber routes that bisect our community and yet enjoys no access to them. this is the equivalent of building a highway through our rural community with no access ramps for our residents to drive on it. because vdot [virginia department of transportation] approves the land use permits for row [rights of way] we often do not even have correct maps of their locations. other counties conducted their own broadband mapping projects, noting that they not only looked at deployment but also at the communication needs of residents: “survey your citizens. we did multiple surveys to see truly what the pain areas are (location, geography, price etc.) it helped us to deploy an ‘open network’ and incorporate various technologies.” another county agreed, suggesting “any county get a study completed about how to best to serve its citizens.” anticipating the partnership theme in this paper, another county noted that counties cannot always trust isps to accurately report their deployment: accurate mapping is achieved not through polling isps but by speed studies directly from the business/residence. an isp can claim that a wide area around a cabinet is served, but if it is via dsl, the pipeline is diminished with additional concurrent user online. as noted in the literature review, mapping is arguably the most crucial broadband policy issue needing to be solved. providers and policymakers cannot connect the unconnected without knowing where they are. that the ntia’s broadband equity access and deployment (bead) program relies exclusively on the revised fcc maps serves to underscore both this point and the concerns around mapping (dawson, 2022). as broadband consultant doug dawson (2022) has recently noted: “i think it’s a huge problem if we need corrected fcc maps before we can decide which parts of the country are eligible for these grants.” our data show that counties understand the crucial importance of accurate broadband maps, see the faults in the fcc’s current mapping iterations, and have taken it upon themselves to map their areas. county maps may be particularly useful for the augmented $700 million vati program, which allows applicants to submit their own maps (dhcd, 2021). funding unsurprisingly, our findings demonstrated that funding is one of the greatest challenges to broadband deployment in virginia. just over 60% of respondents indicated that funding was among the top barriers to deployment in their respective counties. answers to the qualitative questions in our survey elaborated on this finding and identified several major funding the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 61 challenges. the first challenge is the refusal of private isps to deploy the costly infrastructure in large areas of low population density. the neoliberal argument here is that there are not enough subscribers to see the necessary returns of investment. many have called this an example of “market failure” where the private market is unwilling or unable to provide an essential public or social good (bator, 1958). high quality broadband infrastructure is incredibly expensive (upwards of $27,000 per mile for fiber optics), and most areas rely on the investment of private companies. one county reported that their major challenge to deployment is in the eastern rural area where it is “not cost-effective for the isps” to achieve full broadband coverage. counties also struggle with winning grants. while the virginia government provides grant opportunities for broadband deployment, areas are sometimes disqualified if they have already received fcc support. a western county described a circumstance where they received a vati grant that was subsequently canceled when an isp challenged the county’s eligibility. in this case, the isp in question received fcc funding. despite the isp receiving fcc funding, however, the county reported that it is almost entirely unserved at 25/3 speeds. the county ended up rerouting their 2020 project area and removed the area from the grant project because of the isp’s challenge. when asked about how they use public funds for broadband, a majority (2/3) of counties said they use general tax revenues. this means more densely populated counties and counties with higher incomes are at an advantage. counties with smaller populations and therefore smaller budgets will have to prioritize broadband over other projects, potentially needing to make cuts to other essential programs. a central county specifically described this problem writing, “school renovations and other needs” need to be addressed in their budget, making funding broadband even more difficult. if counties are forced to rely solely on their tax base, especially if unable to fund a private partner, they will have to make sacrifices in other areas to deploy broadband. still, the fact that counties are drawing from their general annual tax base is indicative of their level of commitment to deployment. at the onset of the covid-19 pandemic in spring 2020, the us congress passed the cares act to shore up the economy. states, municipalities, and counties received funding for multiple programs established under cares. spending was largely discretionary, meaning that county governments had the ability to direct money towards issues specific to their locality. broadband emerged as an important target for cares funds (mchale & simmerman, 2021). of responding counties, over half (55%) used cares act monies on broadband projects (see appendix b). high levels of county spending on broadband derived from cares funds suggest that counties have high funding needs for broadband infrastructure that were not met by private isps, state grants, or taxes. at the top of the list, nelson county used a full 59.04% of money it received from the cares act ($1.535 million) on a broadband project to provide residents with full fiber coverage by 2023. the amount of cares act spending on broadband highlights the need for more funding of broadband projects at the county level. to its credit, the commonwealth of virginia responded the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 62 to this need by creating a $30 million fast track grant program using some of the general cares act funding awarded to the commonwealth. many of the counties in our survey accessed the fast track program, with some, such as albemarle county and culpeper using both cares act and fast track funding for broadband. in total 47 counties received fast track broadband grants (commonwealthconnect, 2021). respondents praised the virginia office of broadband assistance for this program, although the office itself was not universally liked (see the “urbannormativity” section for more on this topic). counties rely on a multitude of funding sources to meet their broadband deployment plans. these sources include regular tax revenues, state grants, such as vati, fcc grants, such as acam, and recently appropriated cares act funding. the ingenuity and diversity of funding and strategies of counties demonstrate their desire to connect their areas as quickly as possible. partnerships echoing recent literature on broadband deployment in rural america, public-private partnerships (“p3’s”) were a major theme in our research. the theme emerged both artificially (we asked counties to list private provider partnerships and co-operative partnerships) and organically (in response to questions about best practices and challenges). out of the 42 counties that responded to our survey 32 had or were exploring partnerships. surprising was the disagreement on what type of entity is considered a legitimate partner. some advocated partnering with “multiple isp providers, ideally with the capacity to perform fiber and wireless projects.” others went so far as to suggest that counties back off on their own broadband deployment plans and instead let isps implement their own plan: isp's are not enthusiastic about using a consultants fully engineered plan despite some localities thinking this is the first step necessary. the only plans that would be worthwhile are engineered by the isp and are part of a multi-year deployment strategy that includes funds for implementation. this county suggests that counties should partner with everyone and anyone willing to provide service, regardless of whether the entity is a large isp or a smaller entity. the issue here is the extent to which a county can trust large investor-owned providers, such as centurylink or comcast, to deploy broadband efficiently and democratically to all areas of the region (mitchell & trostle, 2018).5 such is the risk noted by one of our respondents: finding private partners that are willing to work with you on the project. companies only want to work with you until you eliminate almost all risk (regulatory and financial). this is understandable, but localities are taking the risk on them by subsidizing a project they will financially benefit from not knowing that the quality of the services and customer 5 centurylink defaulted on its broadband deployment commitments in both 2018 and 2019 (brodkin, 2020). comcast tends only to serve densely populated areas (mitchell and trostle, 2018). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 63 experiences. no political board wants to be the blame for using tax dollars to subsidize a horrible business/community partner to the area. exemplifying this disconnect between provider needs and county needs, one county representative told us that one large provider had “challenged recent applications or delayed agreements needed to support progress.” this is particularly notable given the fact that this county endorses partnering with any provider willing. other counties were more vocal in their opposition to partnering with large isps: fcc needs to stop protecting telecom lobby and push to give munis a one time i-net use permit to help us use institutional networks (from our cable franchise agreements) to do a one-time sharing with industry players to help close gaps using municipally shared infrastructures. telcos won’t like it. but it would make sense. also, broadband franchise agreements should be in place just like cable franchises were done. give us counties some in-kind contributions for fiber and backhaul from broadband industry. they are not sharing like they used to…but we need them to! this particular county wanted greater authority and autonomy from virginia to deploy its own network. the commonwealth remains ambiguous on this issue.67 another county echoed the concern for a regulatory system that favors large providers: “the current process seems to be leaning to funding large corporate interests with lobbying support.”8 in total, seven counties argued for partnerships with any provider, including investor-owned isps, while ten were either against investor-owned isps and/or specifically advocated for partnering with an electric cooperative. 14 additional counties noted the importance of partnerships but refrained from giving a partnership preference. partnerships with electric co-operatives was a significant sub-theme, with over a dozen counties listing such partnerships. electric co-operatives have been praised in recent years for offering retail, last-mile broadband in rural areas (trostle et al., 2019). in virginia, firefly fiber broadband, a fiber-to-the-home (ftth) subsidiary of the central virginia electric cooperative (cvec) is notable for its aggressive expansion within nelson and neighboring counties. other electric co-operative broadband provider programs include rappahannock electric cooperative’s exploration into retail broadband in madison, stafford, caroline, clarke, orange, culpeper and rappahannock counties; craig-botetourt electric cooperative provision of broadband in craig and botetourt counties and prince george electric cooperative’s provision in prince george, surry, and ise of wight counties. dominion power, an investor-owned electric utility also recently announced that it will open its middle mile fiber network to last mile providers in multiple counties (dominion energy, 2021). gloucester, bland, westmoreland, prince william, botetourt, 6 virginia is a state that makes it difficult, but not impossible, for municipalities and counties to fund, own, and operate their own retail networks (cooper, 2021b). 7 virginia is a “dillon’s rule” state, meaning that counties derive their power from the state and cannot go beyond what is permitted by the state (peaslee and swartz, 2014). 8 for more on the lobbying efforts of large isps see getachew et al, 2021. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 64 pulaski, montgomery, culpeper, king george, grayson, all reported that they were working with dominion or appalachian power on pilot programs. only one county in the survey gave voice to the worst-case scenario of p3s: “we do not have isps willing to invest in the rural parts of the county.” as virginia requires counties to have a private partner when applying for state funds, not having one is not only detrimental to deployment, but also access to future funds. the absence of a private partner is not something discussed in virginia broadband policy and may require revisiting in light of the $700 million influx to the vati program. ultimately, we learned that counties are keen, if not desperate, for partnerships whether with co-ops, isps, or other counties and localities in the area. overwhelmingly, they want to have a provider to help to get infrastructure set up and operate the network rather than do it themselves. urbannormativity contemporary journalism and scholarship are replete with examples of rural-urban frustrations and divides (emont, 2017; maxwell, 2019; mitchell, 2008). from a critical rural perspective, “urbannormativity” describes the “assumption that the conditions of urbanism found in metropolitan areas are normative; a corollary is that a departure from an urban lifestyle is deviant” (thomas et al. 2013, p. 151). on the other side, rural sociology and rural political economy have well been aware of the so-called “rural penalty,” connoting the literal and figurative costs rural residents and businesses pay to live away from the cultural and economic urban centers (hite, 1997). such sentiments were reflected in our survey of virginia counties, with rural counties accusing state policymakers and lawmakers of urbannormativity and a bias towards wealthy areas of virginia. in its response to a question about challenges to deployment of broadband in the state, for instance, one county representative wrote: the general assembly money committees believe that car lane miles in northern virginia and hampton roads are more important than meeting greater needs of the entire commonwealth, most importantly educational facilities and broadband. until urban legislators change their attitudes toward rural virginia, broadband access funding is unlikely to ever be a priority. this county is not alone in its perception of the virginia legislature. another told us that the general assembly has been lobbied into creating programs that support isps over the rural areas of the commonwealth. there exists in rural and sparsely-populated counties the perception that they are “left behind places” (hendrickson et al., 2015) and that the commonwealth prefers to support isps and urban areas. there is perhaps an innate bias within state broadband policy towards urban areas and away from rural areas. on funding, urban areas are more densely populated and tend to have the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 65 higher general income, meaning a greater tax income to work with when creating government broadband initiatives. population density also gives the advantage of isp cooperation. large isps will not build expensive infrastructure in rural areas where their investment won’t be returned (ali, 2021). urban areas generally have isps willing to deploy infrastructure where rural areas do not. rural areas also have challenges when it comes to topography. virginia has incredible diversity of terrain, meaning some counties may be made up of largely flat land while others are near completely mountainous. building infrastructure in these mountainous areas presents additional financial challenges not found in urban (and flat) locations. one county described to us the rural-urban divide: virginia as a whole has two primary types of regions that are very different in their needs. the urban areas are so dense that available broadband is stretched. in the rural areas, the density is so light that it is not cost effective to provide service to a large number of their citizens. the same sentiment was shared by another county, which argued for greater parity between rural and urban areas: “the government needs to ensure equality of connectivity between urban and rural virginia.” a third county was more forceful: recognizing the disparity in broadband access between the affluent and those less so and being able to do something about it. this is displayed by the difference in the speed and capacity in urban/suburbs verses the more rural areas. the areas surrounding nova [northern virginia], richmond and the tidewater msa's [metropolitan statistical area] have the wealth and capacity for consumer supported improvements. most rural areas with more space and fewer affluent subscribers do not have that as a possibility. allowing those regions to fall behind is not in the best interest of any virginia. the phenomenon described by these counties is not unique to virginia. rural broadband is a market failure throughout the country and tends to suffer more from gaps in infrastructure than urban areas (grubesic, 2006). nevertheless, the respondents from rural virginia described what they see as a state policy apparatus that privileges urban areas and wealthy communities at the expense of rural areas. a related issue is the role played by the virginia office of broadband assistance. respondents had mixed feelings regarding its efficacy. counties who received state support praised the office, while those unsuccessful at state grants were more critical. one county wrote: “we have heard very little from them,” while another added: “until the announcement of the supplemental cares broadband grants, we had not received any direct benefit from this office.” a third county pointed to the unique situation in virginia where broadband authority is actually split between two policymaking bodies the governor’s broadband advisors and dhcd “you need to define who the office is – cit [center for information technology], cdbg [community development], governor’s assigned staff.” to our question, “what county needs are being met by the virginia office of broadband?” one respondent simply stated: “not sure this office exists.” the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 66 state broadband offices play crucial roles in broadband deployment, planning, and funding (whitacre & gallardo, 2020). the absence of a centralized office in virginia may contribute to the feelings of rural penalization expressed by some rural and remote counties. conclusions and recommendations the four primary themes from our survey of virginia counties – mapping, financing, partnerships, and urbannormativity – point to three crucial roles performed by counties in broadband deployment: funding, partnering, and mobilizing. in the first role – funders – counties used innovative measures to fund broadband projects, including aggressive applications for federal and state grants, and the use of public funding, including general tax revenues and cares act provisions. the commonwealth of virginia should be commended for developing the cares actfunded fast track grant program, of which counties eagerly availed themselves. for their part, many counties praised the virginia broadband office for this program, although the office itself was not universally liked by all counties. second, counties are essential public partners in broadband deployment. as has been well documented (hovis, sherman, & schulhof, 2021), public-private partnerships will be key to bridging the broadband infrastructure gap in rural areas. public funding, such as virginia’s vati program, the ntia’s bead program, the fcc’s rural digital opportunity fund, and usda’s reconnect fund, are crucial to attract private investment. as hovis, sherman, and shulhof (2021) argue: the potential for public-private collaboration changes that binary and attracts private investment to areas where return is low or nonexistent but can be improved though collaboration with the local community. and the potential for collaboration unlocks local public investment in already-served communities where policymakers want better broadband but prefer to do so in partnership with the private sector. (p. 6) counties are keen to partner with providers, especially electric cooperatives. nelson county is the leader here, partnering with firefly to deploy ftth throughout the county and surrounding areas. conversely, some counties are finding it difficult to traverse the intricacies of broadband funding programs, and, at some points, have found their efforts challenged by private providers. as one county reported, their two major challenges are “how to expand broadband when we are ineligible for grant funds” and “getting providers to provide maps of areas they serve.” continued the respondent: “we may not grow fast if we had broadband but it is guaranteed we will not grow without it.” third, counties play the role of mobilizers, which manifests in their commitment to broadband, their mapping of broadband deserts, and their frustration with extant state broadband policies. counties are both living and identifying the discrepancies in fcc mapping data and in some cases have taken it upon themselves to not only map broadband deployment the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 67 but to survey the communication needs of county residents. bad maps breed bad decisions, including double funding areas that already have service and neglecting areas that are considered “served” on the map, but unserved in practice. county-initiated mapping and community assessments emerged as a key best practice amongst our respondents. moreover, some counties are frustrated with what they see as an influx of urbannormativity in virginia broadband policy that favors wealthy and urban areas, and a lack of support from the virginia office of broadband assistance. counties are indeed eager to play a larger role in broadband but need to be both encouraged and empowered to do so. as one county wrote: “there’s still a lot of work to do.” this article makes four major contributions to the literature on broadband and the digital divide in the united states. first, by introducing the county as a key stakeholder, we build on and expand sylvain’s notion of “broadband localism” adding new local actors to the conversation. next, to the literature on broadband policy and program evaluation, our findings temper the critique of federal programs, noting how counties have used federal funds in innovative and dynamic ways. third, we add to the discussion of digital inclusion and digital equity by noting how counties should be part of all conversations about all aspects of the digital divide. fourth, and perhaps most importantly, this project reminds policy scholars of the importance of engaging directly with people and places most impacted by digital inequalities when contemplating the digital divide. understanding the roles counties play in broadband deployment has never been more important. with $65 billion in federal support coming down to states, counties, and municipalities in the next few years, key stakeholders must be identified, and their roles clarified. the iija mandates local and regional entities to work with states to develop statewide broadband plans – a requirement for states to access the hundreds of millions of dollars in broadband funding available. counties, therefore, will help shape the next generation of broadband deployment. to aid them in this endeavor, we offer five recommendations for virginia policymakers: 1) the 2021 virginia budget bill ordered the dhcd to develop a statewide broadband map. counties should be encouraged to submit data and have input on the development of the data collection methodologies. 2) the virginia office of broadband assistance should encourage greater knowledge sharing and best practices among counties. while the office does offer a useful toolkit, it is clear from our research that counties do not often seek advice from other counties. counties should be seeking out best practices from each other with or without help from the state. 3) counties should have a definitive voice in the development of virginia’s statewide broadband plan that is required by the iija to access bead funding. 4) the vati program, with its $700 million windfall, should prioritize areas where broadband is unavailable and where the county has had trouble attracting a private provider. this can be done in the form of enhanced funding for incentives and/or strategizing alternative methods of deployment. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 68 5) continue to champion the expansion of partnerships with electric cooperatives and investor-owned utilities, which have proven especially effective in virginia. this can be done in the form of additional grant incentives or tax incentives for electric cooperatives contemplating entry into retail broadband. counties play crucial roles ensuring broadband deployment in the commonwealth of virginia and will continue to do so. with $65 billion in federal funds for broadband infrastructure and affordability, and a $700 million commitment from virginia’s arpa 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(2020, august 14). illinois addresses the digital divide. digital beat. https://www.benton.org/blog/illinois-addresses-digital-divide thomas, a. r., lowe, b., fulkerson, g., & smith, p. (2013). critical rural theory: structure, space, culture. lexington books. tibken, s. (2021, february 19). millions of americans can’t get broadband because of the fcc’s faulty map. there’s a fix. cnet. https://www.cnet.com/features/millions-of-americanscant-get-broadband-because-of-a-faulty-fcc-map-theres-a-fix/ trostle, h., kienbaum, k., andrews, m., & mitchell, c. (2019). cooperatives fiberize rural america: a trusted model for the internet era. institute for local self reliance. https://ilsr.org/wpcontent/uploads/2019/12/2019-12-rural-coop-policy-brief-update.pdf usda. (2020). rural-urban commuting area codes. https://www.ers.usda.gov/dataproducts/rural-urban-commuting-area-codes.aspx van audenhove, l., & donders, k. (2019). expert interviews and elite interviews. in h. van den bulck, et al. (eds.), the palgrave handbook of methods for media policy research (pp. 179– 198). palgrave macmillan. van dijk, j. (2020). the digital divide. london: polity. whitacre, b. (2017). fixed broadband or mobile: what makes us more civically engaged? telematics and informatics, 34(5), 755–766. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2017.02.006 whitacre, b. e., & manlove, j. l. (2016). broadband and civic engagement in rural areas: what matters? community development, 47(5), 700–717. https://doi.org/10.1080/15575330.2016.1212910 the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 77 whitacre, b. e., wheeler, d., & landgraf, c. (2017). what can the national broadband map tell us about the health care connectivity gap? the journal of rural health, 33(3), 284–289. https://doi.org/10.1111/jrh.12177 whitacre, b., & gallardo, r. 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(2018, february 16). fcc concludes satellite internet is good enough for rural broadband. broadband now. https://broadbandnow.com/report/satellite-internet-goodenough-rural-broadband/ the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 78 appendix a: virginia county broadband deployment estimate county urban-rural designation9 fcc (% served at 25/3) county broadband survey (% served at 25.3) accomack 9.9 90.48 - albemarle 1.37 92.58 60% alleghany 6.3 93.62 unsure amelia 2 70.44 40% amherst 2.3 94.22 60% appomattox 2.28 76.73 50% arlington 1 98.1 - augusta 1.85 98.36 - bath 10 72.63 10% bedford 2.37 81.75 60% bland 4 78.95 15% botetourt 1.6 80.39 80% brunswick 7.4 29.62 - buchanan 9.14 100 - buckingham 2 39.76 40% campbell 2 79.14 - caroline 2.42 64.07 50% carroll 7.42 94.86 - charles city 2 100 - charlotte 9.6 52.63 - chesterfield 1 97.26 - 9 determined by averaging the commuting codes usda provides for each census block in a county. according to usda, 1-6 represent metropolitan or micropolitan areas or commuting areas, while 7-9 represent small town cores and commuting areas. 10 means an area is entirely rural with little commuting to major cores. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 79 clarke 2 99.47 unsure craig 2 74.72 20% culpeper 4.37 99.87 67% cumberland 5 19.65 - dickenson 7.75 97.77 - dinwiddie 2.85 54.76 - essex 2.33 74.93 unsure fairfax 1.04 98.48 - fauquier 1.7 90.32 - floyd 4.66 75.95 - fluvanna 2 82.18 - franklin 2.3 88.11 - frederick 1.42 83.05 - giles 2 95.9 - gloucester 1.65 94.9 86% goochland 3.6 66.9 - grayson 8.8 75.22 43% greene 2 99.86 - greensville 8.66 23.99 - halifax 7.88 71.76 - hanover 1.39 88.04 - henrico 1.17 98.18 87% henry 4.42 96.23 unsure highland 10 48.17 - isle of wight 1.87 85.83 50% james city 1.09 94.64 85% king and queen 2.5 22.35 - king george 7 93.35 80% the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 80 king william 2.25 41.11 - lancaster 10 100 - lee 7.83 88.92 - loudoun 1.15 99.56 - louisa 4.83 68.02 - lunenburg 5 29.35 - madison 4.5 100 10% mathews 2 96.06 - mecklenburg 8.77 57.16 - middlesex 8 97.38 - montgomery 1.18 99.35 40% nelson 4.66 94.88 75% new kent 2 76.64 - northampton 10 94.08 65% northumberland 10 100 - nottoway 4 55.74 - orange 6 99.77 5% page 7.75 99.48 - patrick 4.8 44.24 20% pittsylvania 5.93 70.56 - powhatan 2 83.48 77% prince edward 7.4 63.68 30% prince george 1.28 89.6 30% prince william 1.14 97.3 90% pulaski 4.1 99.79 65% rappahannock 6 91.78 15% richmond 10 98.71 - roanoke 1.11 98.77 75% the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 81 rockbridge 9.25 85.09 50% rockingham 1.78 98.9 - russell 2.42 89.5 - scott 1.66 82.58 - shenandoah 6.77 91.17 - smyth 8.55 93.5 65% 70% southampton 7.8 47.55 - spotsylvania 1.3 98.45 - stafford 1.14 98.8 93% surry 3 91.82 - sussex 5.2 45.28 - tazewell 6.1 98.89 - warren 3.5 91.91 - washington 1.61 99.2 - westmoreland 7.5 93.93 60% wise 6.18 96.37 65% wythe 7.16 89.74 30% york 1.07 98.34 100% the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 82 appendix b: county use of cares act funding county cares act award cares act $ allocated to broadband cares act $ allocated to broadband (approx) % of cares act $ spent on broadband albemarle $19200000 + $230,245 from the broadband office fast track yes $927,439 4.77% amherst $4000000 yes 1700000 42.50% amelia $2,293,702 yes $50,000 2.18% appomattox $2,776,346 yes $528,059 19.02% bath $409,500 fast track yes $409,500 100% from fast track bedford $13000000 yes $4500000 34.62% bland $1,045,000 yes $30,000 2.87% botetourt $7200000 yes $3600000 50% buckingham $3,200,000 no n/a 0% caroline $5200000 yes $54,000 1.04% clarke $250,000 considering it n/a 0% craig unsure considering it n/a — culpeper $6,600,000 + $1,000,000 fast track yes $1,175,000 17.80% essex not stated yes not stated — gloucester over $6,000,000 yes $238,000 3.97% grayson n/a no n/a 0% henrico $83,000,000 no n/a 0% henry unsure no n/a 0% isle of wight $6,400,000 no n/a 0% james city $13,000,000 yes $88,000 0.68% king george $5,000,000 no n/a 0% the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 83 madison $2,737,718 yes $164,000 5.99% montgomery $8,000,000 yes $132000 1.65% nelson $2600000 yes $1,535,000 59.04% northampton $2200000 yes $500,000 22.73% orange $6200000 + $2000000 from fast track yes $2000000 from fast track 0% from cares 100% from fast track patrick $3,000,000 no n/a 0% powhatan $5,100,000 yes $1,000,000 19.61% prince edward $3,900,000 no n/a 0% prince george $6,600,000 no n/a 0% prince william 41,000,000 yes $450,000 1.10% pulaski $6400000 yes $500,000.00 7.81% rappahannock $1200000 no n/a 0% roanoke $9,000,000 yes $1,200,000 13.33% smyth $5,252,000 yes $379,192.00 7.22% stafford $26,525,000 yes $825000 3.11% westmoreland $3.5 no n/a 0% wythe $5,500,000 yes $40000 0.73% york unsure no n/a 0% rhinesmith_editorial_final the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 1 editorial envisioning the future of community informatics colin rhinesmith, co-editor-in-chief, the journal of community informatics, crhinesmith@metro.org this november marked the 20th anniversary of the community informatics research network (cirn) conference at the monash centre in prato, italy, co-sponsored by monash university and the metropolitan new york library council. the conference theme, “20 years of cirn: examining the past, present, and future of communities and technology”1 offered several opportunities to consider how this ci community of researcher/practitioners has grown worldwide since the conference and this journal started and where this field might see itself in the next 20 years. in this context, i am excited to announce a few new people and ideas in this editorial. first, i am pleased to announce the addition of two new associate editors to our editorial leadership team, dr. nova ahmed and dr. sara vannini. dr. ahmed is a researcher and faculty member in the department of electrical and computer engineering at north south university in bangladesh. dr. ahmed’s area of interest covered systems and human centric computing in feminist hci. dr. sara vannini, a lecturer/assistant professor at the university of sheffield information school in the uk. dr. vannini’s research is at the intersection of critical studies of technology and society, information and communication technologies and social change, and information ethics. peter johnson and i are pleased to welcome them both to this journal’s leadership team and to help us envision its future. a second announcement is that the community informatics research network (cirn) discussion list has a new home2 hosted by the metropolitan new york library council (metro). we are grateful to metro for hosting this new listserv, which will provide the administrative support and capability to manage members and support this community discussion space online. we hope that contributors to this journal will join this new discussion list as a way to participate in the discussions and to receive additional updates, particularly in-between journal issue publications. lastly, i am excited to announce that in the new year we will begin our planning to offer additional types of submissions to the journal of community informatics (joci), including creative works, such as poetry and visual art. as part of this process, peter and i are considering new 1 https://www.conftool.net/prato2022/sessions.php 2 https://metro.org/ciresearchers the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 2 structural and visual changes to the joci website to help support and encourage these new submission formats. we also hope that this will encourage new individuals and groups to contribute to the journal, particularly those who may not have previously been able to submit their work. in the coming months, the proceedings from this year’s prato cirn conference should be available online along with previous proceedings.3 once again this year, this journal offered an option to publish papers from the prato conference, as we have done in the past. moving forward i hope this journal will continue to find ways to partner with the prato cirn conference, as well as other community informatics conferences in other parts of the world. one message from this year’s prato conference was clear: cirn must find ways to become more accessible and inclusive for those who live in the global south. in the next 20 years, i hope we will all work together to prioritize convenings in more regions of the globe to engage more diverse voices not only in participating in community informatics, but also in leading this space. 3 https://www.monash.edu/it/hcc/dedt/prato-conferences the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 44 research article surfacing human service organizations’ data use practices: toward a critical performance measurement framework alexander fink, school of social work, university of minnesota, finkx082@umn.edu ross velure roholt, school of social work, university of minnesota, rossvr@umn.edu the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 45 surfacing human service organizations’ data use practices: toward a critical performance measurement framework abstract community-level data systems, often called collective impact, increasingly define the landscape of human service data creation. collective impact strategies develop shared performance measurement metrics across numerous human service organizations (hsos) in a geographic region to move the needle on specific social problems. such systems encourage funders to support the development of client tracking and data sharing infrastructure, meaning more hsos have more information about any given client. however, while many hsos are using more data than ever, questions remain: how is this data being read, understood, and utilized in hsos? what differences can we discern in organizational operation and service provision? this study builds on three years of participant observation as program evaluators in youth-serving organizations (a subtype of hsos) around the world. it also included a national study of youthserving organizations with a strong focus on data use. finally, it includes interviews with program staff in youth-serving organizations and focus group data with young people. situating this data between the literature on performance measurement in hsos and critical data studies, we surface emerging tensions in the ways youth-serving organizations are creating and using data, drawing to the fore salient questions for those invested in supporting the just use of data and technology for our communities. keywords: critical data studies, performance measurement, human services, youth work, data use data in youth-serving organizations data collection and use within youth-serving organizations and their counterparts in social services has a unique history that has arguably evolved more from political movements than evolutions in technology. this history is seen by those in the field of surveillance studies as overlapping with efforts to surveil and control the poor in significant ways (gilliom, 2001; henman & marston, 2008). responding to trends in human service organizations (hsos) more broadly over the last 30 years (influenced by government and funder policies and practices), performance measurement has become one of the primary ways youth-serving organizations (ysos) understand and communicate their work and impact on social problems (lynch-cerullo & cooney, 2011). additionally, though many ysos have long tracked young people to better shape interventions to their needs, rapid improvements in the accessibility of robust databases to track and share data about young people inter-organizationally has led to ysos creating, sharing, and using more data about young people than ever before. data and its use are rapidly becoming a ubiquitous part of practice in youth programs, often without thorough consideration of its intended uses and consequences (fink, 2018; donovan, 2020). further, the unintended uses and the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 46 consequences resulting from the labor to create and use this data are under-documented and rarely discussed by those pushing for more data use. this study aims to understand an emerging shifts and tensions in the operation of ysos based on the increasing demand to create (some say collect, but we say create in recognition that no data is neutral), share, and utilize data – to become “data-driven.” it addresses a gap in the existing literature between performance measurement in hsos and the critical lenses that fields like critical data studies and community informatics bring to the examination of the effects of data practices on young people and the organizations that serve them. performance measurement in hsos performance measurement in human service organizations has a long history in the form of program evaluation, a process used to understand a program’s achievements (outcomes) and its impacts (broader change resulting from these achievements). over the last 30 years, in part due to a “what gets measured gets done” attitude, driven by the government performance and results act (1992), the focus of many organizations has been on developing internal data tracking and reporting systems. organizations are responsible for proving to donors and funders that they are achieving desired outcomes and most non-profits (91% according to one survey) collect outcome data (benjamin, voida, & bopp, 2018). the study of performance measurement strategies as they rapidly grow due to lower barriers to technology access is relatively new, but already frameworks are emerging that detail successes, challenges, and limitations of these strategies (carnochan et al., 2014). these include challenges defining outcomes (including tensions between funder-mandated measures and service worker ideas about client progress), problems in the design and use of data systems, and issues adapting organizational processes (carnochan et al., 2014). one of the major (though still understudied) impacts of a drive toward performance measurement is what bopp et al. (2017) refer to as a cycle of disempowerment, wherein frontline workers, some managerial staff, and clients are left out of decision-making processes around data. the absence of these voices leads to creating/using data without a feedback mechanism about the ways these data are impacting clients/staff interactions or services provided, leading to further decisions using collected data that may further disempower clients and staff. this phenomenon is one of the few in this area that recognize the problematic foundations and impacts of performance measurement strategies in a way that demonstrates awareness of systematic oppression and injustice in data use. critical perspectives on data use the use of the term “data” in ysos (at least in youth-serving organizations) has traveled far beyond its dictionary definition: “individual facts, statistics, or items of information.” (dictionary.com, 2019). indeed, spend a few days in nearly any youth-serving organization and you are bound to hear staff talking about “the data” in one form or another (almost always in reference to something quantifiable). however, this is always in reference to the data that is the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 47 recorded. the dictionary, researchers, evaluators, and many youth workers are quite aware of the other kinds of data that exist that are not “the data.” as we observe a young person, this includes: body language, energy, language they use, what they say and do not say, do and do not do, who they do these things with (and who they do not), what they carry and wear (and do not). a seasoned youth worker might walk into a building housing a youth program and notice a great deal of data: what is (and isn’t) on the walls, the level and type of noise, who is present (and absent), the ethos and energy of the space, and so forth. these same people also know that what becomes “the data” is less objectively determined than it is a product of organizational processes and decisions. take attendance at the start and end of a youth program. a great youth program might have better attendance at the end than at the beginning. and the opposite for a terrible program. take attendance 20 minutes into a youth program and the numbers might be quite different than taking it at the moment the program begins. discussing school with a young person you know well might yield very different answers than a youth you’ve only just met. “the data,” in other words, are a creation of a specific person, at a specific time and place, with a specific viewpoint, recording in specific categories. this is not neutral far from it, it is almost entirely shaped by relationship, context, question, and time(ing)! therefore, we refer to “creating,” rather than the traditional “collecting,” of data. despite this complexity (and the possibilities it opens), “the data” has come to have a very specific meaning in ysos. it must be collected to convince funders outcomes are being met. and to be convincing, it must be quantifiable, preferably using a well-tested instrument. with these basic assumptions in place, getting data has become trendy enough that we want it, even if we don’t understand what it is we want or why. scholars of data call this phenomenon “data fetishism.” as sharon and zandbergen write, ‘“data fetishists,” [are] enamored by the authority of numerical data and motivated by a desire to control and optimize the overwhelming complexity and uncertainty of life’ (2017). this authority, and the temptation to reduce our incredibly complex relationships and work with youth into understandable numbers and metrics, is leading the field to move increasingly in the direction of collecting more data about as much as possible. perhaps the result of all this data is “datafication,” or the conversion of a whole, individual person into a constellation of available data points (van dijck, 2014). in other words, the person and the data that represents them becomes synonymous to us, and to treat the data is to treat the person (van dijck, 2014). these critical inquiries into data collection and use recognize the always-biased nature of data and the ways that data are weaponized to surveil and control (gitelman, 2013; eubanks, 2017). they recognize that this biased nature might be caused by, and cause, discrimination (gangadharan, eubanks, & barocas, 2014). further, they recognize the ways that presented data may cause us to interact differently with a client, forcing us to see and respond to this client in particular ways. they recognize that “performance measurement” is not only a strategy for accountability, but significantly alters the everyday practice of working with young people, in ways that may be harmful and helpful (fink, 2018; fink & brito, 2020; gillborn, warmington, & demack, 2018). this includes the ways a focus on labels like “at-risk youth” distract from environmental, community-level, and systemic problems, like gentrification, racism, and socioeconomic differences (cahill, 2006; yosso, 2005). the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 48 this study looks at the field of performance measurement in youth-serving organizations (as a sub-type of hsos) through a critical lens, attempting to surface the ways that increasing demands for performance measurement are causing shifts in service provision that bring to the fore significant ethical questions about how a community engages with, responds to, and tries to control, the young people who live in it. methodology starting in 2014, we began a community based participatory research (cbpr) collaboration with an intermediary organization and five community program sites (wallerstein & duran, 2006) in the midwestern united states. in 2016, we negotiated requirements and agreements around data creation, analysis, publication, and ownership over the first few months of the study. typical practices of research, especially in marginalized communities and when researching youth programs, are well-documented and include: researchers designing studies without community input and then gathering ‘data’ (cochran et al, 2008), study participants being treated as objects and data sources without considering community needs or potential harm of research process (walters et al, 2009), and the production of damage-centered studies (tuck, 2009). we were not interested in these practices and instead followed a research process we call a ‘learning partnership.’ in this model, we seek to collaborate with programs and sites and situate our research in their expressed interests, concerns, and desires. in addition to our commitments to cbpr, we submitted and were approved by the institutional review ethics board at our university. using a multiple-method, grounded theory approach, we collected data from a variety of sources in ysos from 2016-2019, both our partner organizations and those outside of the partnership who also agreed to participate in the study. our goal was to surface a holistic picture of the practices at play in organizations surrounding data. in the process, we conducted participant observations in three organizations. we worked in this role as collaborators on youth programming, and we both had conversations directly about and observed unfolding practices surrounding data as part of these efforts. we had two major questions in mind: • how is the demand for data re-shaping the practices of youth programs? • how are these changes impacting young people and those who serve them? as participant observers and collaborators, we also contributed to these conversations. we worked alongside organizations as they tried, explicitly and unconsciously, to make decisions about data collection and use. this collaboration informed both the emergent themes and suggestions that follow. the irony of creating data about creating data was not lost on us (or the organizations we worked with) and we suspect these interactions brought more conscious attention both to our process of data gathering and the organization’s use of data than would otherwise be present. the result of this is that the youth and staff we worked with, as well as ourselves, have done more thinking about data use than we otherwise might have. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 49 in addition to these participant observations, we conducted interviews with staff at these organizations and several others. these staff ranged from direct service youth workers to citylevel program managers to nonprofit executive directors. the organizations that participated ranged in annual budget from $70,000 to multi-millions. some organizations were based locally, and others were participants in national youth programs. a few of these organizations created almost no data at all, several were extremely data-oriented, with staff dedicated to data creation and analysis and even holding semi-annual organization-wide “data summits.” our interviews were 60 to 90 minutes and semi-structured (rubin & babbie, 2011). they asked participants to reflect openly about the data their organization collected and how they used that data. interviews used the term “data” loosely and allowed it to conjure up whatever meanings it prompted for participants. if participants got caught on particular understandings, which happened often around quantitative measurement, we would follow-up with questions that asked about other meanings of data. we also asked how staff and youth were involved in the organization’s data processes, their motivations for data use, and about data they did not explicitly collect or collect at all but wished they did. these interviews almost all concluded with interviewees expressing that this conversation was important, was absent in their organization or professional development opportunities, and was a conversation essential to the future of youth services. finally, we spoke with young people in a focus group setting to understand some of their experiences with data. though we had many similar conversations during our participant observations, we wanted to sit down with a group of youth and explicitly learn about their experiences around data use in the organizations they took part in. the midwestern united states carries a particular sociopolitical context that constrains the results of this study. though some government funding drives nonprofit work, many nonprofits are supported partially or entirely by funds from private philanthropic organizations. due to multiple funding streams, many nonprofits (including those in our study) report to multiple funders, each with their own unique reporting structure and data gathering needs. further, unlike colleagues in the european union, there is a minimalist regulatory regime regarding data collection, even about minors. laws are in place to protect minors’ data in schools (ferpa) and in health care (hipaa), but there is very little comprehensive regulation of data collection and use. data was interpreted using a thematic approach, adapted from van manen (1990). data sources were first read individually, with attention focused on the themes within individual data source. these themes were then compiled together and analyzed again looking for themes from across the entire data set. as themes emerged, we brought this back to both the individual data source and to the entire set of data sources to seek out confirmation and challenges to the emergent themes we developed. the themes that met these tests are included in our findings. findings five primary themes emerged from the thematic analysis of our data. these themes are presented in the forms of tensions, as this is the frame through which they were most often named for us in our research. these tensions emerged most frequently between perceptions of the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 50 reality and a desired ideal. these tensions were also intersectional, which will be addressed in the discussion. data, use-full and use-less two contrasting understandings of “data” were presented to us: data that was used in meaningful ways, and data that felt like “hording junk.” in this case, data was discussed in its popular use, with numbers stored in a database to be aggregated or to track an individual. while staff and youth alike could see the value of having aggregated numbers (how many attended, how many graduated, etc.) to talk to funders or even to support young people, they also saw ways that this kind of data collection was problematic – both wasteful to collect and not particularly helpful to use. for example, one staff person told us: [funder] requires us to ask like stupid questions like satisfaction surveys, like: were you happy with this program? okay, not at all kind of neutral, or useful, super useful. the most ridiculous survey questions ever. further (and this was echoed by other participants), this individual went on to say that they already collected this data in other formats and in ways that felt more relevant to improving their program, but due to funding requirements, were required to utilize this survey as well. many see the present focus on tracking as too much data. for some, the data is not useful and is therefore occupying precious organizational resources. similar to what [funder] requires, but also like, you know, specifics about what they did every day and kind of, you know, interesting information. but we don't have a full time evaluation person. so there's no point in asking information and just holding it… the first thing we did when i became the associate director was revise all of our goals and outcomes for the organization, because each program has their own, even though each program had a leadership goal, and enjoying being in a diverse community goal, whatever, right? they all ask them differently, and then evaluated them differently. so then you could talk about the organization as a whole. and then you people would just add more on, they'd be like, oh, well, i want to know this. and then all sudden, you're asking the young person 100 questions at the end of the year, when you could have asked them 25. this kind of data was not always disparaged by these organizations. at least two used data to make initial decisions about program focus. for example, one organization used these data to ensure they were delivering services to the right youth and that they could try to reach out to young people who might otherwise be ignored by the system: as well as just to try to, like, watch for trends and see if we have, you know, like yeah we got a lot of girls in fifth grade, i wonder what that means, you know, i mean, i don't know, it's, sometimes it means nothing, a lot of times, it means nothing, but sometimes it helps us as we're trying to make sure that we have, you know, fair and equitable access to our programs. and, you know, we want to make sure that, for example, that we're like, the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 51 engaging enough, like homeless, highly mobile kids, right, who are hard to enroll and keep in after school, and so will track that kind of stuff. and watch, their enrollment and attendance to try to make sure that we're removing barriers as needed. staff at another program reiterated this point in their use of data to identify holes in programmatic delivery: you know, so it's showing us, when you get when you're able to just aggregate it like that, it shows you where you have those pockets of kids that are not getting the services they need or the support they need? nearly everyone in our study saw data in these sorts of nuanced ways – that it had the potential to be very useful if it was engaged with meaningfully. however, they saw a large part of it as useless, necessary to collect to satisfy supervisors but wasteful in the sense that it consumed limited time, distracted from meaningful work with clients, and was often duplicative. examples of data being useful were much rarer, and in most cases came up mainly when talking about hopes and dreams, rather than reality. data contextualized in relationship in contrast to “datafication” (van dijck, 2014), which turns real people into abstractions, study participants named a kind of data that comes into existence in the context of a relationship with a particular person and is used within that context. the young people we interviewed told us unequivocally that this was the only way they felt comfortable with and respected by data collection about them when it existed in the context of a relationship they trusted. many staff we spoke with agreed, for example: like you need, you need to have relationships, to make sure that things are going well, like computers are great. technology is great, but it has a beginning and an end point of its usefulness. and it can't replace human beings. and in developing relationships and understanding that things are going well. because a young person, i mean, like from a very simple standpoint, a young person could just lie. and the supervisor could just lie on there, right? because we know that young people try to please, right, so they answer more favorably than they may be their real expectation or their real experience. several organizations collected data almost exclusively within the context of relationships, and this data typically remained in these relationships or a connected network of relationships. one organization collected attendance data only to provide to funders. otherwise, they relied on extensive conversations with staff to understand whether the program was accomplishing its desired outcomes successfully. another (relatively small) organization accepted only private donations with no strings attached and therefore did not require any data at all to provide to stakeholders. in the case of both these organizations, however, staff developed strong and ongoing relationships with youth participants. staff usually had many ways to contact youth and went to tremendous efforts to help young people through difficult situations. though both could collect significant data on young people, and likely this data could be used to develop new the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 52 revenue streams and expand the program, they were unwilling to compromise the program’s ethos to collect this kind of data. data use that involved young people while using data to track outcomes was common practice, involving young people in data collection and use was rarer. however, many organizations saw benefit to involving youth in these practices and some were involving youth in significant ways. the most basic way young people were involved in data use were in conversations with program staff. this often sounded something like, staff: your math scores are relatively low given your other grades, so we need to switch you into math tutoring. young person: i get that, but i am only keeping my grades up in reading because i’m working really hard in that class and i can’t afford to miss it. staff: okay, we’ll figure out another option. though this appears quite basic, even this interaction only occurred in the context of a program or relationship with a staff member who appeared to the young person to care and be open to feedback. otherwise, this type of decision often went unchallenged and without the input of youth. many staff we spoke with involved young people more significantly in the organization’s data use. this most frequently occurred in the practice of data analysis whether as part of a youth leadership council or advisory board, as youth program evaluators, as program participants, or as part of a data summit, young people were asked to evaluate data the organization had collected and offer their opinions about it. for example, as one participant stated, “... the young people who are helping us then evaluate data would like then look at and go, ‘oh, how come … we don't serve any latina girls?’” much rarer was the invitation to participate in the entire process of data use from choosing organizational outcomes to measurement instruments or other data collection and use strategies. most staff we spoke with had not considered this possibility. however, a few organizations worked to involve young people in the management of the organization, either through a youth advisory/leadership board, the board of directors, or on the organization’s staff. in these cases, young people participated in shaping the program, deciding on the program’s goals and desired outcomes, and communicating success (or failure) toward those outcomes to funders. young peoples’ involvement worked to increase reflection on what data was collected and how it was used. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 53 inefficiencies in data collection and tracking a consistent theme across many organizations was present inefficiencies in data collection and use. staff at all organizations indicated that they are now required to collect more data than ever before by funders, administrators, and other stakeholders. they also indicated that this occurred in ad hoc ways. most organizations maintained more than one database and more than one measurement instrument. in fact, some organizations had several databases, all recording the same information. several had staff whose role in part or full is simply to copy data from one database to another (clearly a use of staffing that did little to improve the work or increase program outcomes). others administer multiple surveys to participants to meet requirements. this provides a constant source of headaches for staff and to most, this consistent requirement for data that had no use did not look likely to be resolved in the near future. yeah, so there's a whole ‘nother database, i kind of forgot about that. we don't, that the [funder] runs, called [database name]. hopefully, we like to use the one that we have and has more data in it, we have to re enter young people into the [funder’s] database. okay, so we have a clerical trainee. that's 30% of her job is doing all the data entry into the [funder’s] database. for several, these additional databases were additionally frustrating because of the ways they duplicated, seemed to provide so little value, and its use seemed to be of minimal value even to the funder: it doesn't come back to us like we can look things up in the [funder’s], the [funder’s] database, the [database name], whatnot, and we could look stuff up if we wanted to. but we don't cuz we already have it? i don't know exactly what they do with it. for some, the inefficiencies of these databases (and the stakeholders that required their use) felt like they compromised their ability to execute best practices and/or to have data in relationships. as one participant told us: and then i think some of the most frustrating data that we have to use is for government contracts, so for instance, i oversee [a grant], which is federal funding that goes from the feds to [...] the state to the [city], to us, so guess what, there's three layers of bureaucracy to deal with. and obviously, sometimes even the different layers will get into conflict around how to translate the policy because the policy isn't written for practitioners to actually do anything with. so then we'll be like, no, we know this is the best practice, we're going to do this. and then the city will be like we think it may be and then they'll have the state and the state said "no", and like, because of this, or this or this, and you're just like, "oh my gosh", and then the things that we're wasting so much time tracking, and like: 30 day follow up, 90 day follow up, when like, that's not how you have relationships with youth. the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 54 others also felt that they compromised the quality of youth programs to ensure compliance with data collection systems for stakeholders. this was especially frustrating when the data collection seemed pointless (the stakeholder did not seem to use it or care about it later) or redundant (using multiple surveys to collect the same data because different stakeholders use different systems). though all participants acknowledged that it was sometimes reasonable for funders to ask for outcomes data, most thought that many current practices impeded everyday work without being otherwise useful. this connected to a concept we came to refer to as data hoarding, in which programs collected and saved as much data as possible, without any plan for its use. some participants felt this was necessary: it was difficult to tell when data would be needed to justify their work, and it was better to have that data historically than to need to gather it in the future and have no history. others felt this was a practice that violated both the privacy of participants, required youth and program staff to fill out too many forms and data entry terminals, and created a bunch of “junk” that needed to be maintained and potentially parsed. data quality and biases many staff expressed concerns that the kind of data collected, the instruments used to collect data, or the ways data were being used were either of poor quality or contained significant biases. in some cases, this was due to a dearth of measures on particularly complex or tricky outcomes to conceptualize. as one interviewee told us: yeah, but we don't have any we don't have any measures yet on financial literacy, in particular. and that one might be yeah, i think that one's a little bit harder. so i think that'll probably just end up being like, this many young people participated in financial literacy classes. though measures exist for financial literacy, these measures felt like they failed to capture the efforts of the program the focus was wrong. in other cases, though measurement instruments had gone through significant testing and analysis, staff and young people experienced them as biased and even racist. in these cases, staff were forced to decide whether and how to implement these problematic tools given funding requirements and other stakeholder demands. as one staff told us about a commonly used measurement instrument for youth outcomes: well and our staff just started with the well, it's culturally biased from the beginning, right. so you're asking all of these questions that have nothing to do that are just totally irrelevant for the young person living at [subsidized housing] townhomes, right, in your public assistance housing, who are immigrants or children of immigrants, right? … so let's say they do fill it out. and now you're telling me that they need to work on their resiliency. and so as a youth worker, i now have a list of my 15 kids. yeah, and what thing they need to work on, and our staff are like, this is terrible. and i think they gave a lot of feedback, the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 55 like just on the cultural relevance or irrelevance of the of the stuff that they were asking, but just the idea that a kid could take a quiz, or that you could fill out a form for a young person, and then it tells you what sel [(social emotional learning)] skill they need to build for it. right. this was a common experience for those we spoke with. the expectation that these instruments could provide solutions, or even areas of focus, for participating youth, when the instruments themselves seemed irrelevant to the lives of those youth, was very frustrating for staff. staff were not against these instruments wholesale, but felt they needed to be significantly modified to be applicable to the youth in their programs. as one participant told us, “they need a lot more folks of color and indigenous folks at the table for that to give feedback on how we do those surveys.” other staff were concerned that these types of instruments are fundamentally flawed in that they seek to transform all children into particular types of children namely, middle-class white children. in other words, that the focus of the instruments is on making all children culturally and behaviorally similar to white, middle class kids: “we're trying to i mean, because of reuse that framework, we're trying to create little middle class white kids everywhere. erase all culture.” though many were required to use instruments and database systems they believed failed to capture important data or were biased, many were aware of and tried to mitigate these flaws. where possible, they tried to create change in these instruments. if this was not possible, some would administer the surveys but also talk with youth about the problems. discussion the five themes that emerged from our analysis form a response to our research questions. the demand for data is re-shaping the youth programs in our study. without much input from clients (young people) or front-line workers, programs are expected to use more data gathering instruments and databases. these instruments, and methods for using them within programs, seem to orient programs toward achieving specific outputs and outcomes as defined by a funder, organizational leadership, or even the company creating the databases in use. all participants indicated that data was collected about them or that they collected data about others, despite significant concerns on the part of young people and front-line workers (and even some program leaders) about: the ethics of collecting this data, the impacts of the data collection process on the programs, the exclusion of positive views of youth, and the consent of participants to collect this data in the ways it is currently collected. to collect this data, they were forced to change the ways they worked, and often were pushed to even change the focus of their work. finally, the added effort of all this work distracted from program operations, especially the essential work of building relationships with young people. those that participated spoke to these many problems with the data work happening in their organizations. they also spoke more hopefully about what might be possible. if instruments could be designed to work against bias and oppression, perhaps they would help the organization the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 56 achieve its goals of working toward anti-racist or anti-oppressive goals. if data collection strategies were designed with young people and front-line workers, perhaps they’d be more useful in supporting youth and providing data about the real outcomes of the work. if tracking data looked at young people’s strengths, dreams, aspirations, hobbies, and desires, rather than only their “failings”, youth workers and young people would find it not only more useful, but more ethical. the themes are also not cleanly distinguishable – there is some intersection. for example, data that was “use-ful” most often came in the context of relationships. it was also done in ways that were less biased, and more efficient. indeed, looking across each of these themes, it felt as though participants had given us a framework for a more critical, just, and equitable engagement with data in ysos. based in our analysis of their responses, we propose this framework as a series of questions: 1. how can we co-create data collection systems that begin with the needs of young people and front-line workers and primarily aggregate data that views young people from the perspective of their strengths, aspirations, talents, hobbies, and desires? 2. how can data collection instruments be revised or co-created with the involvement of young people, front-line workers and the specific communities that will be surveyed by them? 3. how can funders, who have greater resources and ability to manage technological change, adapt to the data collection systems of organizations, rather than vice versa (as most often happens now, creating duplicative systems and significant data hoarding)? 4. how can data collection processes center first around developing and maintaining real relationships of trust and caring between young people and youth workers? how can it occur only through consent of all involved? 5. how might data collection focus on data about systems, institutions, and environments that affect young people’s lives, rather than young people themselves? although the themes that emerged do not speak directly to this, there was some fear amongst participants that inter-organizational data sharing was leading, or would soon lead to, the misuse of data for harmful ends. for example, if we share data about attendance in a youth program, will that be used as evidence against a young person who is delinquent from school or has been arrested? we therefore add a final potential question, which we believe echoes some of these concerns: 6. how can data sharing processes ensure that young people do not come to additional harm from systems and institutions that surveil and police them? this actionable framework of questions, derived from the themes in our data, provides an approach that could be used to revise or create data collection systems in ysos. it still offers the the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 57 opportunity to fulfill performance measurement requirements given by funders, governments, and non-profit review systems. it also considers many of the challenges involved in performance measurement, as outlined in the existing literature (carnochan et al., 2014). for example, it responds to tensions between funder-mandated measures and staff/client views on progress, addresses the divide between quantitative and case-specific data, and involves staff and youth in design and organizational process change (carnochan et al., 2014). however, it also integrates perspectives from critical (data) studies, which are concerned with the biases and prejudices of data collection, the use of data for surveillance, the ways data processes disempower clients and front-line workers, the lack of consent in most data work (wilbanks & friend, 2016) and the deficit focus of most data (yosso, 2005; tuck, 2009). it addresses concerns about the datafication of young people by involving them in the process and focusing on data that exists within the context of interpersonal relationships with front-line workers (van dijck, 2014; fink & brito, 2020). it potentially upends traditional models of data collection in ysos, which involve tracking young people (eubanks, 2017), replacing it with environmental-level or social analysis that study the worlds young people struggle through (couldry & powell, 2014). it echoes a data feminism framework, that addresses the problematic ways data is framed and inverts these frames by reinserting emotion, embodiment, and pluralistic interpretations of data (d’ignazio & klein, 2020). though such concerns have been raised in the fields of health and education (ex: the social determinants of health, geronimus et al, 2006), they have not yet altered data collection for the participants in our study. of course, the questions in this framework all fall into the “easier said than done” category. to have these conversations, funders, leaders, workers, and young people all require some education about the problems of current data collection models (both practical and systemic) and about potential alternatives. they need to make space to have robust conversations about organizational processes and data collection instruments, including space for authentic critique. they need to have the ability to speak back to funders, who may not be open to hearing these kinds of critique and might aim to take funding elsewhere. some data collection instruments critiqued by study participants have existed for decades and are backed by significant psychometric research, thus making it difficult to argue for replacement. perhaps most importantly, organizations and funders need to see data work as part and parcel of how their organization functions, not as an “add-on” that must be suffered. the ways an organization does data work is a direct and exact reflection of the way an organization does everything else. conclusion this study attempts to open conversation, research, and practice around data work in youthserving organizations, and more broadly, in community informatics. for those in performance management and measurement, the problematics of data work are limited primarily to their efficient implementation and management, along with their productive use. however, for those in critical data studies, this sea change in data collection and use represent significant dangers to young people, youth programs, education, community work, and so on. this field surfaces serious problems and demands that others start to pay attention. unfortunately, these two fields are the journal of community informatics issn: 1721-4441 58 rarely engaged in serious dialogue. this study recognized that this dialogue is already taking place in the field – with front-line workers and young people themselves. they are concerned and are critically engaged, but often go unheard and feel they need to just “make due” with what they are given when it comes to data systems. they also recognize a need for some of the data tracking and performance measurement tools and procedures pressed upon them. emerging from their concerns and critiques, in conversation with the existing literature from both fields, we believe we have presented an actionable outline that could be used to design and revise data systems and procedures within organizations. future research should test this framework, ideally by using it (or something like it) to guide the creation of a data system for a yso or other community organization. does it lead to the creation of a system that performance measurement scholars might agree fits their needs? does it also address the legitimate and significant concerns of critical 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(2005). whose culture has capital? a critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. race ethnicity and education, 8(1), 69–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332052000341006 https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332052000341006 the 'urban spacebook' experimental process: co-designing a platform for participation corelia baibarac1 researcher, department of civil, structural and environmental engineering, and department of geography. trinity college dublin, ireland. email: baibarac@tcd.ie introduction urban planning, and urban development more generally, are moving towards a more participatory direction due to both external and internal pressures. the world commission on environment and development and the rio de janeiro earth summit culminating with agenda 21 (united nations, 1992) pointed to a need for greater dialogue involving many public stakeholders at different levels-from the local, regional and national levels through to the international level. nevertheless, some argue that policies and planning interventions aimed at local sustainable urban development have failed to consider the thoughts and actions of urban residents. this represents a "major obstacle to the pursuit of an 'overall sustainability' in practice" (jarvis, et al., 2001, 139). it is also important to consider that cities are transformed through the everyday practices of their inhabitants, who collectively add meaning to places through their rhythms and use of space (kuoppa, 2013). rapidly developing information and communication technologies (icts) offer interesting opportunities for improving knowledge regarding the everyday life practices and experiences of local residents, thus potentially informing and enhancing local planning and urban sustainability processes. moreover, the rapid expansion of social media and web 2.0 applications has opened up additional opportunities for people to be involved in planning their environments through the uses of seemingly everyday, mundane technologies and outside formal planning processes. for example, icts can support methodologies such as soft geographic information systems (softgis), which facilitates the collection of residents' perceptions about the quality of their environments and the creation of an experiential, or 'soft', data layer for use in urban planning (kahila & kyttä, 2006, 2009; kyttä, et al., 2013). while these forms of participation are acknowledged in fields such as participatory e-planning, more research needs to be done in relation to how digital tools used for participation are being designed; particularly how existing technologies are appropriated and linked together as part of broader participatory information ecologies (saad-sulonen, 2013). this article advances research in the area of participatory e-planning by extending work on user participation to the design of digital technology, along with focusing on inhabitants' everyday life experiences of urban space (i.e. experiences embedded in everyday life practices). the author seeks to examine innovative approaches in the design of ict platforms for public participation. two specific questions are being addressed in this paper: first, how might the communication of experiences embedded in everyday life practices, such as movement through the city, enhance participation in urban planning? second, what kinds of tools might facilitate better public participation in urban planning processes? inspired by open-source digital sharing culture, the research presented here approaches the design of a potential digital platform as a collaborative process, undertaken from the perspective of urban inhabitants. the article focuses on the design process of the "urban spacebook" platform and discusses three spatial-technological experiments, which informed this concept. it is argued that an urban spacebook platform offers opportunities for sharing everyday life experiences of, and in, urban space. it also offers opportunities for enhancing the co-governance of such city spaces, by creating an arena where ordinary inhabitants and city decision-makers can come together to discuss and envision possibilities for the future development of these spaces. the article will start with an outline of the theoretical background of the research, followed by a brief discussion of the dublin context where the experimental co-design approach was developed and implemented. the methodology-which includes three distinct spatial-technological experiments-will then be described. building on these experiments, the article then proposes the prototype urban spacebook ict platform for public participation. the paper concludes with a discussion of the wider implications and challenges of the proposed platform. theoretical background one way of enhancing public participation in local planning processes, and indeed for stimulating greater participation in the democratic process, has involved the use of gis in public participation initiatives, or public participation gis (ppgis) (sieber, 2006). ppgis's proponents acknowledge that a planning process cannot be based exclusively on technical knowledge, but that it must also consider citizens' needs and collect the experiences of those living in a local territory (magaudda, et al., 2009). developments in ict have provided additional opportunities for gathering data concerning residents' perceptions of the quality of their local environments. in combination with ppgis, these approaches give rise to new and interesting possibilities regarding the collection of 'soft' data, which can be usefully employed to complement 'hard' planning data (kahila & kyttä, 2006). one example is the softgis methodology-developed at aalto university-which has been tested in several finnish cities as a way to collect experiential knowledge concerning urban environments (kahila & kyttä, 2006, 2009; kyttä, et al., 2013). at the same time, the rapid expansion of social media and web 2.0 applications has introduced a paradigmatic shift in relation to civic participation and the ways in which geographic data are produced. it is now difficult to differentiate data 'producers' and 'users' in an environment where many participants function in both capacities. one example of this is the growing impact of collaborative online mapping tools in which the notion of 'map user' no longer implies a singular consumer of cartographic communication (goodchild, 2007). platforms such as google maps and openstreetmaps encourage individuals to develop interesting applications using their own data, while the increased availability of global positioning systems (gps) and websites such as flickr allow users to upload and locate photographs on the earth's surface by latitude and longitude (ibid). such developments open up opportunities for new forms of participation outside formal face-to-face meetings and consultations, in everyday life situations (horelli, 2013). moreover, they lay at the core of the recent field of participatory e-planning, which acknowledges multiple participations (saad-sulonen, 2013). however, while the expansion of social media and web 2.0 has increased the scope and toolkit available for citizen participation, it has also introduced new challenges. for example, while many e-participation projects are initiated to increase citizens' (particularly young citizens') participation in politics, few to date are apparently successful. sæbø et al. (2009), for instance, believe that one reason for the failure of such digital public participation projects is a lack of involvement of citizens when designing and developing the e-services-in essence, people do not necessarily become more willing to participate simply because internet-based services are provided for them. more than representing a mere technological development, web 2.0 environments and the forms of interaction encouraged by social networking sites (e.g., facebook, twitter) have brought about social evolution (ibid). these media's characteristics include principles of free access to information, self-organisation, mass collaboration, non-exclusive services and user participation, which are also reflected by the 'open-source' digital movement. changes in how people interact and collaborate with each other in the online world have introduced new demands in relation to e-planning initiatives and urban planning more generally. as saad-sulonen (2013) argues, there is a pressing need to expand the concept of participatory e-planning to collaboration in the actual design of the digital technologies involved-a form of participation that has sometimes been neglected in the e-planning and urban planning discourses. two considerations are also seen by saad-sulonen to be particularly important: participation as design-in-use (i.e. users are involved in the design also during ict use and not only at the initial stages of the design process); and the state of the current technological landscape including online tools and possibilities for digital map mash-ups (ibid). besides these technological advances and participatory developments in the urban planning field, it is also important to acknowledge that, at a local level, "governing takes place through the everyday and the material practices of urbanism" (bulkeley & castán broto, 2012, p.5). urban space is thus transformed not only through urban planning or policy interventions, but also through the everyday practices of city inhabitants. as well as rational considerations and perceptions of one's surroundings, understanding experiences embedded in everyday life practices can also contribute to studying how people use their local environments1, and in turn, to how the city is shaped through the practices of everyday life. rather than representing a feature that can be achieved by city planners alone, a sense of place tends to be created by the users of those spaces, inter-subjectively through their rhythms and everyday practices (kuoppa, 2013). at the same time, familiarity and attachment to place can motivate people to become more involved in improving their local neighbourhoods (or those areas that they use in their daily lives) and, thus, to participate in local planning processes (manzo & perkins, 2006). moreover, everyday life practices such as urban walking offer opportunities for finding a much needed common ground between planners, inhabitants and other stakeholders when discussing spaces in the city and their future development. besides formal meetings, consultations or surveys, first-hand interactions with those spaces targeted by planning interventions offers opportunities for learning about the local environment and better understanding its problems, potential and local resident's needs (halprin & burns, 1974; kuoppa, 2013). yet, it can be argued that the planning literature has generally overlooked the importance of everyday life practices and experiences (kuoppa, 2013), with few exceptions (e.g., jarvis, et al., 2001). the next section extends this discussion about the interactions between local urban practices and potential participatory digital tools in the context of dublin, ireland. the dublin urban context the irish capital, dublin, represents a useful case study partially because the current programme for local government in ireland promotes the use of online platforms and social media to engage with the citizens (department of the environment, community and local government, 2012) as a means for addressing concerns about limited public participation in planning (taskforce on active citizenship, 2007). this programme, for example, identifies a platform (fixyourstreet.ie) that was prototyped initially in dublin and which enables the public to report non-emergency issues such as graffiti, road defects, street lighting faults, water leaks or drainage issues, and litter or illegal dumping to the local council via an online map. moreover, dublin city council (dcc) has experimented with novel approaches in the design of public services and urban development, such as through the 'street conversations' approach, which employs on-street questionnaires to explore what people like, dislike or could be improved about a particular area (conroy & mooney, 2011; conroy, et al., 2012); as well as through 'your dublin your voice', an online citizen opinion panel seeking feedback and suggestions on a range of issues that impact on quality of life in the city (cudden & sheahan, 2011). both approaches are aimed at informing urban development plans and policies. while these examples illustrate the progress made regarding public engagement, some important limitations of these approaches can also be observed. rather than improving participation and using the benefits of interactive mapping and social media (e.g., active user participation and collaboration), the negative reporting promoted by fixyourstreet.ie reflects (and continues) the reactive forms of participation noted within the irish planning system, such as 'negative objecting' (mcguirk, 1995). the two dcc initiatives noted here represent a step forward through their aims to include citizens in identifying potential local improvements before they are developed into plans. however, in these approaches communications remains top-down and unidirectional. for example, the (your dublin your voice) panel members respond to topics established by experts; and the (street conversations) survey respondents do not have the opportunity to engage in how their input will be integrated into future dcc policies or plans. building on the theoretical background outlined above, the urban spacebook digital platform concept and the co-design process through which it emerged has been designed to address the limitations in dcc civic engagement processes. the methodological approach and influences that shaped this process are discussed in the next section. methodological approach the methodological approach undertaken to address the two previously noted research questions was to start from the ground-up, with three 'experiments' that focused on everyday life experiences of urban space and include potential users in the design of a potential platform for participation. this approach builds on research into creating open and adaptable ict solutions for collaborative urban planning (saad-sulonen & botero, 2010; saad-sulonen & horelli, 2010). moreover, such an approach was also seen to provide a useful and needed alternative to the existing tools for participation employed by city planners in dublin. acknowledging the importance of everyday life practices and experiences in the transformations of urban space (kuoppa, 2013), the three experiments discussed below were designed to examine how resident's everyday life experiences of space might be elicited and represented. in turn this process served to inform the development of the urban spacebook platform. the research employed a dynamic approach, which focused on those experiences associated with resident's movement through urban space. as kevin lynch noted in, the image of the city, "people observe the city while moving through it" (1960, 47). our approach suggests that traditional approaches to urban planning-typically using static analyses of urban phenomena-can benefit from a more dynamic perspective, such as the lens of urban daily mobility (jirón, 2008). at the same time, relatively recent developments in ict practices, such as location-aware technologies, arguably have made everything and everyone potentially locatable (gordon & silva, 2011). this implies that the city's dynamics can now be fruitfully explored by using global positioning system (gps) technology as a valuable tool to track people's interactions with the city through movement (calabrese & ratti, 2007). in addition to this choice of a dynamic methodological lens, representational techniques and strategies were also considered in our work. as the study included gps technology for tracing movement through space, it was considered useful to search and gain inspiration from fields with traditions in gps-linked mapping. one such field is the locative art domain, where gps technologies have been used for over a decade as a way to explore movement and the environment, and their relationships. the emerging art forms are typically collaborative (between artist and the audience) and participatory (requiring participation in order to take place). their representations and aesthetics can be employed as a way to affect discourse (e.g., amsterdam realtime, noted in polak et al., 2002), or can become part of interventionist approaches in which the explicit intention is not to produce more data but instead to intervene in provocative and creative ways that may lead to change (e.g., traverse me, noted in wood, 2010). moreover, since this study focused on experiences of space and aimed to include potential users in the design of the platform, inspiration was sought from the creative and collaborative planning approaches prototyped in the late 60s in the united sates by lawrence and anna halprin. for example, their 'take part' process aimed to facilitate citizen-formulated decisions in a more egalitarian design approach, by enhancing people's creativity and awareness of their environment (merriman, 2010). it also sought to develop a "common language" amongst those taking part, which was seen to be necessary in order to make collaborative decisions about the future of the community (halprin & burns, 1974). halprin's senses-focused process was employed in the dublin research as a way to enhance and bring to the surface what may already be experienced, but in an unconscious way, in movement through (and interactions with) urban space. inspiration was also obtained from situationist practices, such as dérive (sadler, 1998), as a way to interrupt the 'usual' by slowing down, and provoking new experiences of and in city space. this approach also reflects the links between situationists and locative media art practices (mcgarrigle, 2010), on which the dublin research project draws in terms of representational techniques. the next section discusses three ict-linked experiments undertaken in dublin which characterized the co-design process and in turn helped to shape the development of the urban spacebook platform. three co-design experiments in dublin the co-design process for the urban spacebook platform included three urban spatial-technological experiments variously using icts and which build on the methodological approaches outlined above. these three experiments varied in their participatory and collaborative aspects, as well as in the extent of their spatial focus. the approach was aimed at making the transition from a researcher-mediated process to one that encouraged interactions among the participants through the use of web 2.0 tools, with the aim of enhancing their role in the design process. the methodology used for each of the three experiments undertaken in dublin will be described in the three sub-sections that follow. experiment 1 hybrid diary-camera-gps study this experiment-undertaken from september to november 2011-consisted of a hybrid diary study, which combined gps-tracking, photography and text inputs, and was developed as an individual exercise (i.e. conducted and discussed individually with the participants). the experiment was aimed at obtaining a written and visual image of the participants' daily interactions with the city through movement, as initial exploratory step in the research process. diaries were kept by eight dublin-based volunteers2 over one full week of their choice, including the weekend and days off. the participants were self-selected, since the aim of the study was not to offer statistically representative data but rather to explore how everyday experiences of space might be elicited and represented, the diarists were given a toolkit containing a blank notebook, a gps-tracking device3 and a gps-enabled digital camera4 (figure 1). they were asked to trace all of their movements over the chosen week, to record their experiences in the notebook and to take photographs of any elements of the city that they felt was meaningful in their daily experiences. the analysis included examining the diary contents and interviews with the participants about their experience of diary-making. the analysis of the photographs focused on their subject(s) (e.g., landmarks, parks, positive or negative features) and whether these subjects were mentioned in the diary written text and how. as basis for the interviews, the participants were presented with maps showing their own contributions and also collective input (i.e. gps tracks and photographs mapped using arcgis explorer desktop, and visual representations produced using adobe photoshop). because the interviews were conducted individually, this was a way of encouraging reflection not only on their own journeys, but also on other diarists' input as expressed in the map synopses. figure 1: diary toolkit including notepad, camera and gps-tracking device (image source: author's photographs) experiment 2 collaborative workshop the second experiment-undertaken in june / july 2012-consisted of a collaborative three-week workshop taking place in dublin5, and was aimed at making the transition between the insights of the diary study and the extended use of online and mobile technologies. it explored ways of gathering and visualising experiential aspects of the city and movement through it, and on representing them in a collective way mediated in a digital environment (i.e. a map-based digital prototype). building on halprin's process (halprin & burns, 1974) and situationist practices (sadler, 1998) the methodology for this workshop experiment included a series of 'urban awareness walks', which took place in a designated area of dublin. the test-bed area was centred on the location of the workshop and was sufficiently large to allow for different routes to emerge, but also relatively small so that the research area could be covered on foot (approximately 1.7 x 0.75 km). moreover, the research area included parts of the re-developed docklands where dcc had conducted 'street conversations' (conroy, et al., 2012). the walks were conducted both individually and in groups and ranged from open, exploratory dérives (individual, figure 2) to guided, pre-determined routes (group, figure 3). their aim was to encourage direct interaction with space, to enhance an awareness of how the area was being used and to open up opportunities for a better understanding of the local area's qualities, deficiencies and potential. inspired by the diary study, the participants tracked their routes, this time using a free gps-tracking app, everytrail6, which they installed on their smartphones. they were also encouraged to take photographs of features of interest encountered along the way, and to make notes of their experiences. moreover, the participants were given stickers to place in those locations that they identified to be of interest (e.g., the fence of a derelict site that could become a garden). they were asked to photograph the sticker as placed by using the app, which generated a unique geo-tag; and they had the option of adding a comment (one the app) to briefly explain their locational choice. together with the gps tracks, these photographs and comments were added to an initial digital platform prototype developed later in the workshop. figure 2: individual explorations in dublin. figure 3: group walks (image sources: workshop participants) experiment 3 online study the third and final experiment was conducted as an online study-undertaken for a one week period in november / december 2012-which examined the potential of locative media and collaborative online mapping tools to translate and adapt the previous two studies to a web 2.0 domain-thus making the transition to a fully digital platform (i.e. urban spacebook). in order to do this, two existing platforms were employed: first, a trip-recording mobile application (everytrail, used also in the previous experiment), which the participants installed on their smartphones; and second, an online mapping platform (crowdmap)7 through which participants could visualise their individual and collective inputs. similar to the previous experiments, ten volunteers who offered to participate used these digital tools to track their routes through the city (this time over a common week); to take photographs; to make notes about features that were relevant to their daily urban experiences; and to share their contributions on the group website. the use of web 2.0 tools was aimed at enhancing the participants' role in the ict design process, and also at making the transition towards wider public participation. results of the three dublin digital experiments this section presents the results of the three spatial-technological experiments identified above, by highlighting those findings that helped to inform the urban spacebook digital platform concept. the three experiments sought to address the first research question of this study, namely, how the (digital) communication of experiences embedded in everyday life practices, such as movement through the city, could potentially enhance participation in urban planning. the three subsections below further detail the key findings from the three digital experiments in dublin. results of experiment 1 hybrid diary-camera-gps study the diary and camera study highlighted a number of interesting issues regarding inhabitants' habitual interactions with the city. one finding which was particularly revealing was that the diary-making as a whole (i.e. the diary-making and the reflective interviews) led to seven out of the eight participants reporting a heightened awareness of their knowledge and daily use the city. the exception was one diarist, who noted being interested in street photography and therefore to usually paying close attention to his surroundings. this heightened awareness effect, which was discussed as part of the post-diary reflective interviews, varied in length. for example, one participant experienced an enhanced awareness only during the diary-keeping week due to an otherwise busy everyday life; for another diarist the effect involved taking more notice of her surroundings, especially those features she omitted to note in the diary although meaningful for her impressions of the city. furthermore, she became more aware of the effects her travel choices had on her children-specifically, the differences in their experience of their surroundings when brought around by car rather than by bicycle. this experiment reconfirmed that besides concrete, rational factors, such as getting from a to b, people's movements throughout the city are also affected by experiences embedded in everyday practice, typically difficult to be consciously rationalised or recognized (spinney, 2010) because of their habituality. diarists' examples include experiences of noise and the visual effects of street litter, which prompted them to avoid certain areas; or places from which their children could watch trains passing by and which they included as part of their everyday routes. taking part in the diary study enabled some of these experiences and related aspects of the city to be noted and expressed by the diarists, as discussed above. this took place 'on-the-move' through the lens of the camera, which brought about an increased sensitivity to what was being captured; and was also linked to the post-diary activity, by visualising the collective gps-based maps (of all eight diarists), which prompted further discussion and reflection. when seeing their individual traces in the context of those of the other diarists, the maps made participants more aware about their own uses and knowledge of the city. they realised that they shared their everyday routes with others and also that the same space may be seen, known and used very differently by different people. for example, one diarist realized that he might take the same route everyday without properly knowing its resources or amenities-as was the case when another participant who shared his daily route identified a local park that was previously unknown to the first diarist, even though he lived nearby (figure 4). figure 4: park photographed by one diarist but unknown to another participant who lived nearby (each of the two diarists is represented in a different line colour) thus, even if they were conducted individually with the diarists, the map-based discussions suggested the importance of sharing experiences and local knowledge among the participants, and indicated the potential value of expanding the diary-making process to a wider audience, which could generate engagement amongst those taking part. this was taken forward in the next two experiments, which focused on facilitating interactions between the participants and exploring tools that are now pervasive (e.g., locative technology and collaborative online mapping tools) as a way to enable this collaborative process. results of experiment 2 collaborative workshop while the individual urban awareness walks were more passive in terms of participant engagement (i.e. individual route mapping), the group walks had the important characteristic of concluding with collective discussions of the individual experiences through organized reflection and brainstorming sessions. these workshop discussions indicated that although experienced (and reflected upon) individually, the urban walks offered a common basis for discussing the local city area where the workshop was conducted and opened up ideas about its potential by encouraging first-hand interactions with urban space. the experiment also led to an initial digital prototype8, an online map, which served to visualise the collective contributions of the diarists (i.e. their gps traces, photographs and notes taken using the everytrail app). one of the features of this prototype map was the absence of a 'base-map'. instead, building on the diary study, the city was seen as being 'drawn' by inhabitants' movements (i.e. gps traces) and 'coloured' according to how each person experienced it, mediated via their photographs and notes about experiences along their routes (figure 5). this recalls the concept of 'city image' (lynch, 1960), which suggests that each person holds a different 'mental map' of the city based on how it is experienced. the prototype is therefore conceptualized as a re-drawing of the city based on inhabitants' movement, and it encourages sharing and discussion of individual experiences and local knowledge of the city. figure 5: digital prototype (image based on existing website: http://eclectronics.org/infinitecity/) by providing a space where individually-created maps can be shared and visualised together, a digital platform can offer opportunities for enriching and expanding individual city images. in turn, not being limited by one's own experience through a process of learning from each other might also increase individual awareness of how the city is used and experienced by others, thus open up alternative possibilities. moreover, the prototype also allows users to identify, annotate and discuss routes and urban spaces that they consider interesting or with unused potential. such spaces, which may be neglected by formal planning and policy-making procedures, are important for how people move through and experience the city; using a digital platform, they can be identified by inhabitants (i.e. made visible) and brought to the attention of the city council decision-makers. results of experiment 3 online study the limited time of this experiment (i.e. one week) did not allow for deep interaction and extensive communication among the participants, their contributions consisting mostly in recording and sharing their routes through the city. however, there was some dialogue on the group website regarding features such as the speed of a route and participants' personal knowledge about particular places. the possibility of commenting on other group members' input (i.e. gps tracks and photographs) in similar ways with other commonly-used social media, e.g., facebook, proved particularly useful for this. moreover, the collective maps proved useful for visualising all the input in one place. crowdmap, the platform employed to create these maps, is particularly suited for localized content, e.g., geo-tagged photographs, but less so for gps tracks (figure 6). this suggested the need for a more dynamic platform, which could allow contributors to upload both localized and also continuous data points (i.e. gps traces). figure 6: localized input (red dots) and static gps layers (routes) the two platforms used in this experiment indicated the value of merging the communicative and networking aspects of social technology (e.g., facebook) with the visual aspects of maps. this allows bringing conversations conducted through social media channels in one place, on a map, which makes such conversations locatable and easier to relate to. however, while this experiment was part of the design process for a platform that could be used in planning, feedback from the participants indicated that people might actually be more willing to use such a tool if it was not targeted specifically, or primarily, at urban planning. this concern referred particularly to its potential uses as a crowdsourcing platform for commercial interests. instead, what was seen to motivate people to use it was the possibility of sharing, and finding out about, 'quirky' features of routes or spaces in the city (e.g., unusual building details, 'secret' gardens or quiet places in the city). this could offer a personal interpretation of the city, make one's habitual journey more interesting and even make it appear shorter when perceived to be long. the overall results therefore address the first research question and provide valuable findings, which inform the 'urban spacebook' platform concept put forward in the next section. the 'urban spacebook' platform the three experiments discussed above were conducted as part of a co-design approach to devising a participatory digital platform, which employed mobility as a 'conversation starter' for expressing and sharing experiences of the city. the first experiment indicated the need for increasing awareness of individual habitual interactions with the city as a prerequisite to communicating such experiences. this was achieved 'on-the-move', through the lens of the camera, and also through the use of collective maps, developed by seeing individual mobility traces in the context of others. locative media and collaborative online mapping tools can extend this process to a wider audience and enhance awareness at a collective level. as illustrated in the second experiment, an online collective space offered opportunities for enriching one's personal local knowledge of the city and it opened up alternative possibilities (e.g., routes or uses of space). it also allowed for identifying spaces of interest or with unused potential from the perspective of their everyday users, which can augment the knowledge of city planners. moreover, the last experiment highlighted the value of merging the communicative and networking aspects of social media with the visual features of maps. this can enhance interaction among users so that a collaborative process can take place, while making the content of the discussions locatable. by alternating between spatial/physical and technological/virtual features, and encouraging first-hand interactions with urban space, the three experiments identified the importance of 'provoking' an enhanced awareness of local urban knowledge. this highlighted the importance of those urban experiences embedded in everyday practice and sometimes taken for granted to come to the surface and be expressed. thus, the three experiments indicated the importance of complementing technology (e.g., gps tracking) with reflective methods (e.g., written diary) and/or spaces for reflection (e.g., collective maps). this approach allows individual experiences to be expressed and shared among users-and potentially between city inhabitants and decision-makers. based on the results of the three spatial-technological experiments, the prototype ict platform, dubbed urban spacebook, is discussed here in relation to the second research query of this study. as the name suggests, urban spacebook is conceptualized as an interactive map-based platform-essentially a website and a mobile app-which merges the communicative and networking aspects of social network technology (e.g., facebook) with visual representations of movement and city experiences (e.g., gps-based maps). at a broad level, the concept employs mobility as a starting point for discussions about the city and gps technology as a tool that can facilitate a re-mapping of the city from the perspective of its inhabitants. the prototype consists of an open-source web 2.0 platform (i.e. a map-based website and a mobile application) for geo-tagging user-generated content. users can share their experiences and connect with others through interactive maps that include their uploaded photos and notes (e.g., images, text, sound recordings) plotted along gps traces of their routes. besides findings from the experiments conducted, the website and app features and potential uses are also informed by feedback from the participants to the experiments, and from dcc planners to whom a prototype platform was presented. each of the two core elements of the urban spacebook concept are further elaborated upon in the two subsections below. mobile app the mobile app offers improved functionality compared with the experiments in two key areas: it allows for the provision of location-related information and data logging on the move. drawing on the work in experiment 2, the location-aware feature encourages the user to take a detour from his/her usual routes or ways of experiencing them, and discover what others may have shared (figure 7). as suggested by the participants in experiment 3, this may include 'quirky' features, local uses or activities that may be found in the area. this can offer an augmented experience of the city, which can break the routine of everyday movements and allow users to notice features of routes usually taken for granted, as discussed in experiment 1. moreover, looking at everyday spaces with the eye of a tourist (or from the perspective of other residents) can enhance one's awareness of the environments people inhabit and their familiarity with such places (gordon & silva, 2011). by becoming more aware of their environments through first-hand experiences, users can better define existing issues and suggest relevant improvements such as through the use of geo-tagged photographs and comments. furthermore, increased familiarity with, and attachment to, places in the city can motivate efforts to improve them and enhance participation in related planning processes (manzo & perkins, 2006). rather than promoting 'negative objecting' (e.g., fixyourstreet.ie), the mobile app can enable a proactive role for those who use it. the possibility of proactive engagement was an important feature for the planners to whom the prototype was presented as it can contribute to a more positive and collaborative relationship between them and city inhabitants. figure 7: location-based suggestions of alternative routes and/or places of interest the city council could also use the app to communicate with the users 'on-the-move', through a form of location-based notifications. by using social media instead of surveys, a conversation could take place and also expand-not only between the council and the individual user, but also amongst other users-in a potentially less resource-intensive and more comprehensive way than by conducting on-street surveys (e.g., street conversations). such discussions would be geo-located and time-related, thus allowing the contextualisation and documentation of potential issues and suggestions. this can make city inhabitants' participation more flexible and spontaneous, and offers opportunities for transforming their civic engagement into an ongoing process, which can enhance current forms of participatory planning consultations (presently undertaken at discrete moments in the irish planning processes). map-based website building on the findings of experiment 3, the map-based website offers a space where individual users can come together through the generation of collective data visualisations, interactions and communications among users. besides making visible shared routes (and potentially different types of local knowledge regarding them), the visual and interactive aspects of the digital map website can bring to light shared concerns or ideas, and connect users that might not have been able to meet or enter a conversation otherwise. this interaction can develop into suggestions for improvements that are meaningful to them, such as the 'kids'-only garden' suggested by some of the participants to experiment 2 (figure 8). while some of these proposals may be dealt with by groups of inhabitants, others can be brought to the attention of the city council. these may refer to spaces, buildings or other urban features that are currently outside of formal city plans-yet mediated through the map, can make planners aware of their importance for the ordinary city users. as noted by the planners with whom the prototype was discussed, this could offer opportunities for new ideas regarding the public realm that might not have occurred to them otherwise. figure 8: location-related suggestions for improvements ('energy points') the visual features of the map-based website also represent a way to spatially indicate the outcome of the public engagement process and monitor progress. for example, an increased concentration of gps traces could show an increased use of a formerly avoided area or improved pedestrian links. this was an important feature for the dcc principal city planner9 interviewed in relation to the prototype, which he saw as a potential way of complementing current quantitative metrics with visual representations of 'soft', abstract data. the map website also allows the recording and documenting of the process through which a proposal has emerged, thus improving its transparency-something which currently is not possible. the concluding discussion, in the section below, addresses the implications of the three experiments in dublin and identifies the possibilities raised by the proposed urban spacebook prototype. discussion and conclusions this article has discussed how the communication of experiences embedded in everyday life practices, such as movement through the city, could potentially enhance public participation in urban planning. it also described a prototype tool-the urban spacebook platformas a medium which could facilitate such participation. this experimental and co-design approach arguably represent a potentially innovative and effective addition to recent endeavours to expand the role and means for participation of ordinary inhabitants in the planning and development of their everyday urban environments. the aim of this work-to understand people's experiences of their local urban environments-is not new, as illustrated by the renowned work of kevin lynch (1960) and the more recent developments involving the uses of web-based gis technologies to facilitate the collection of location-based experiential knowledge (kahila & kyttä, 2006, 2009; kyttä, et al., 2013). the dublin-based research discussed in this paper was intended to extend these aims to those everyday practices, which are difficult to access, including unconscious elements of people's everyday interactions with the city (brown & spinney, 2010). in order to access everyday life experiences of city spaces, our study combined spatial and technological aspects with qualitative and reflective methods, and undertook this process on two levels-the individual; and the collective level. the hybrid diary-camera-gps experiment sought to elicit and represent everyday experiences of urban space at an individual level. the two subsequent experiments investigated possibilities for conducting a similar process of digital data collection and spatial representation on a broader scale-a collective level. the diary study (experiment 1) indicated the value of enhancing awareness of participants' surroundings (e.g., everyday routes) in order to access everyday experiences of space. this notion was extended further in the urban awareness walks (experiment 2), which were explored as de-constructions of experiential aspects that could be transposed into digital features. the alternation between physical and virtual features highlighted the need to complement technology (e.g., gps tracking) with reflective methods (e.g., written diary) and/or spaces for reflection (e.g., collective maps). this allowed individual experiences to be expressed and digitally shared among users-and potentially between dublin city inhabitants and decision-makers. the experimental co-design process indicated how everyday experiences of urban space might be communicated using technology. moreover, the tool put forward, urban spacebook, offers opportunities for enhancing the co-governance of urban spaces which people use in their daily lives, by creating a digital arena where they can discuss such spaces and their future development with the decision-makers. the research employed the notion of mobility as a 'conversation starter', which offers a common starting point for expressing and sharing experiences of the city. when complemented by technology, mobility becomes a tool that can facilitate a re-drawing of the city from the perspective of its inhabitants-by using gps-tracking, inhabitants can produce user-generated maps of the city. while gps technology has already been used in tracing city maps with the help of inhabitants (e.g., openstreetmaps), this paper suggests a new purpose for its use. sharing mobility experiences and drawing city maps can become part of a collaborative process between ordinary city inhabitants and city decision-makers, aimed at rebalancing power relations and at placing inhabitants in a co-productive capacity. rather than using icts only to gather or count data, technology can become a tool for a collaborative production of knowledge for, and about, the city. beyond the present role of data-generators, urban spacebook offers therefore opportunities for ordinary inhabitants to become part of the important process of local knowledge production about urban spaces and their future development. thus, the urban spacebook encourages a framework for a form of urban governance that is based upon a collaborative, ongoing and iterative process, as distinct from the usual one-time participatory initiatives (jarenko, 2013). this conceptualization is inspired by open-source approaches, which place an emphasis on collaborative forms of knowledge production rather than consumption (haque, 2007). from this perspective, ordinary inhabitants are seen as co-producers of the city together with the decision-makers, and not simply as passive participants in planning processes or mere consumers of services. this suggests that residents can become active participants in the development of their city, by sharing its quintessential (yet very little known) aspects-what city living is about and how it is experienced in daily life. moreover, expanding on the notion of gps-drawing (wood, 2010), such digital maps can become a way of critically engaging inhabitants in the development of the city. for example, its visual qualities with concentrations of traces and 'energy / activity points' clusters can be employed to draw attention to those spaces that have been neglected and raise awareness of potential solutions, as envisaged and needed by their inhabitants and users. in summary, the prototype urban spacebook platform potentially provides viable opportunities for sharing everyday life experiences of urban space and also for enhancing the co-governance of such spaces, by creating an arena where city inhabitants and city decision-makers can come together to discuss and envision possibilities for future spatial development. we suggest that future work needs to be conducted to develop the platform beyond its conceptual stage (outlined here), by potentially prototyping it in various urban locations in order to compare different contexts and to experiment with different types of data; different visualisations; and distinct applications such as commercial applications or local public initiatives from city governments or community groups. challenges to implementing such ict prototypes are also acknowledged, including issues around data privacy and local motivations for initial and ongoing participation in urban planning processes. for example, gps data represents a sensitive issue because of its potential negative connotations, such as surveillance (crang & graham, 2007). participation could also be challenging if the platform is perceived as a one-way data mining tool, not giving something back to its users; or it could be limited to particular groups, thus deepening contrasts between city areas and leading to biased results. however, based on the findings of the experiments conducted in dublin, it is believed that if the platform is carefully designed and offers individuals a meaningful exchange for their time and effort these challenges could potentially be overcome. finally, the experimental and co-design approach discussed in this paper illustrated how the communication of everyday experiences of urban space could enhance participation in urban planning. by alternating between physical and virtual features, the experiments discussed above indicated the need to complement digital technologies (e.g., gps tracking) with physical reflective methods (e.g., written diary) and/or spaces for reflection (e.g., collective maps). these approaches allow individual experiences to be expressed and shared among users-and potentially between city inhabitants and decision-makers-representing the substance of the collaborative approach proposed. by using mobility as a conversation starter and gps technology as a tool, ordinary inhabitants can produce user-generated maps of the city, which can complement those drawn up by city planners. this potentially frames a new form of urban governance, which is based on a collaborative, ongoing and iterative process, and could expand the role of city inhabitants to that of co-producers of the city together with the decision-makers. acknowledging the need for deeper cultural and practice changes regarding how public participation is implemented in urban planning processes, the urban spacebook platform embodies the potential for enhancing interaction between those who inhabit and those who govern cities. acknowledgements i would like to thank the research participants for their time and contributions to this study, dr niamh harty and professor anna davies (trinity college dublin) for their support in my work, and the reviewers for their invaluable advice and help with this article. infinite thanks also to the interactivos?'12 workshop collaborators: gabriela avram (university of limerick), alessio chierico (university of art and industrial design linz), christine gates (independent artist), eulàlia guiu (university of girona) and kathryn maguire (independent artist); and technical advisors: tim redfern (independent artist) and max kazemzadeh (gallaudet university). this research was part of a graduate research programme in sustainable development, in conjunction with the award of a grant from the irish research council (former ircset/irchss). endnotes 1 a useful discussion regarding the differences between the rational, deliberative thinking system and the irrational, intuitive and 'auto-pilot' system as related to people's decision-making processes can be found in the work of psychologist daniel kahneman (e.g., kahneman, 2012). in relation to the study reported here, this refers to the difference between rational considerations such as way-finding and perceptions of one's surroundings, and those aspects of everyday practices of movement, which are habitually repeated and contribute to 'auto-pilot' forms of interaction with the city. 2 the diary participants had been involved in the previous research stages of a wider study into mobility practices and participatory approaches to urban planning (e.g., baibarac, 2014). 3 the gps tracking device used in the diary experiment was a trackstick mini (http://www.trackstick.com/products/mini/intro.html). 4 the camera model used in the diary experiment was a casio exilim hybrid-gps. 5 experiment 2 was conducted during a workshop entitled interactivos?'12, part of "dublin hack the city" exhibition. this was organized as an open call by science gallery, dublin, together with medialab prado, madrid (http://sciencegallery.com/interactivos). 6 everytrail is a free iphone and android app, which allows tracing one's route on a map, geo-tagging photographs and uploading the gps files on the user's webpage. users can comment and vote on others' trips and photos, create groups and share their trips via facebook and twitter (http://www.everytrail.com/). 7 crowdmap is a ready-to-use online mapping platform, which allows users to set up their own projects without having to install the platform on a web server (https://crowdmap.com/). 8 the digital prototype was developed with the help of tim redfern (independent artist) using open source code-openstreetmap and leaflet, among others, during the interactivos?'12 workshop in june / july 2012. the website was populated with the data collected by the participants using everytrail. 9 the dcc principal city planner has overall responsibility for strategic / forward planning and development management in the city, and has introduced a sustainability framework as part of the current 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(2010). gps drawing. retrieved 24 april, 2012, from http://www.gpsdrawing.com/ <h2 style="text-align:center;">guidelines for designing deliberative digital habitats:<br /> learning from e-participation for open data initiatives</h2> <h3 style="text-align:center;">fiorella de cindio<br /> dipartimento di informatica e comunicazione<br /> università degli studi di milano, italy</h3> <h3>abstract</h3> <p>this paper provides a framework and design guidelines for designing deliberative digital habitats, and relates them to issues of interest in the current development of open data initiatives . it identifies three dimensions that define deliberative digital habitats: the <span style="font-style: italic;">gemeinschaft</span> dimension; the <span style="font-style: italic;">gesellschaft</span> dimension; and the technology dimension; the latter with four different spaces. it will also show the mutual enrichment that online deliberation and open data initiatives can get from each other: on the one hand, the development of open data improves the quality of&nbsp; online participation by making new resources available to support public discussion and deliberation; on the other hand,&nbsp; the availability of web sites designed according to the proposed guidelines would provide the appropriate context for taking advantage of open data&nbsp;&nbsp; as part of the process of democratic engagement. meanwhile it would help to avoid an outcome where open data initiatives remain —&nbsp; as unfortunately may happen —&nbsp; solely in the technical domain. finally, access to the datasets collected in online deliberation web sites gives back to the relevant community, and to interested researchers, the civic intelligence resulting from these grassroots conversations.</p> <p>while not a how-to manual, the proposed conceptual framework, rooted in both existing literature and in more than a decade of e-participation field experimentation, should prove helpful to digital democracy designers, either for public institutions or grassroots movements. as a contribution to the growing body of scholarship on online deliberation, it organizes critical issues so that they will not be overlooked. examples from field cases illustrate such issues. as well, this paper provides the beginning steps of a methodology for linking on-line deliberation as a means for the effective use of open government data for the enhancement of democratic processes.</p> <p><span style="font-style: italic;">keywords:</span> online deliberation, digital habitat, open data, public policy-making, digital citizenship, digital democracy design, e-democracy, community informatics, web site design, facebook</p> <h3> introduction</h3> <p>the oecd report on citizen participation (caddy &amp; vergez, 2001) identifies access to information as a basic precondition for involving citizens in consultation and decision-making processes.&nbsp; open government data, (i.e., giving open online access to government datasets),&nbsp; contributes to this requirement, enforcing transparency and enabling citizen participation. e-participation initiatives carried on in the last decade often suffered because of a lack of access to government data: proactive publishing of open data has only recently become a quite well-established government policy. nevertheless, lessons learned from these early experiences of online deliberation may help designing online environments that take advantage of open data for empowering citizenship in the digital era. </p> <p>this is the goal of this paper&nbsp; which is rooted in field experiments carried out since 1994 by the civic informatics laboratory at the università degli studi di milano, in cooperation with the rcm foundation, a non-profit body which grew out from it in 1998 to manage the milan community network (rcm) (de cindio, 2004). </p> <h3>why design deliberation?</h3> <p>since its inception, the internet has been viewed as a platform for renewing democracy (blumler &amp; coleman, 2001; coleman &amp; blumler, 2009; de cindio, 2000; rheingold, 1991; schuler, 1994).1 the inventor of the web, himself, tim berners-lee, recognizes the importance when “designing the future web” of exploring “how the web can encourage more human engagement in the political sphere” (hendler, shadbolt, hall, berners-lee, &amp; weitzner, 2008, p. 67). this is both an opportunity and a challenge. work in the last two decades of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first, in fields such as human-computer interaction (dix, finlay, abowd, &amp; beale, 2003; preece, rogers, &amp; sharp, 2002), community networking (schuler, 1996; venkatesh, 2003), community informatics (gurstein, 2000; keeble &amp; loader, 2001), e-participation (macintosh &amp; tambouris, 2009; tambouris, macintosh &amp; glassey, 2010), and online deliberation (davies &amp; gangadharan, 2009; schuler, 2008), has shown that, despite great effort, advancement towards renewing democracy and extending the role of “citizens as partners” of public institutions (caddy &amp; vergez, 2001) has been slow and often controversial. as wright &amp; street (2007, p. 864) point out, there is a “stand-off between those who believe that the internet destroys deliberation, and those who argue that the internet enhances it.” cases of unmitigated success are rare, and even cases cited for their positive features present weaknesses [1]. the lack of access to government data supporting informed participation can be one, but not the single, reason for these difficulties. </p> <p>at a time when human society urgently needs new ways to cope with major problems, and young generations see the internet as a “platform for change” (beer, 1975), as recent events in north africa and the middle east have shown, we find ourselves at the very early stage of this enterprise (hendler, shadbolt, hall, berners-lee, &amp; weitzner, 2008, p. 65). the capital that computer scientists can and should bring to the challenge of renewing and extending democracy is not mere technology: rather, it lies deep in the roots of the discipline, as outlined by nygaard (1986). it requires conceiving of informatics (the term nygaard suggested using instead of “computer science”) as an empirical discipline whose phenomenology is the impact of computing technologies on society. </p> <p>being empirical implies that “successful models evolve through trial, use, and refinement.” (hendler, shadbolt, hall, berners-lee, &amp; weitzner, 2008, p.67). but, if feedback from trials is to be beneficial, the trials must be conducted in real-life settings, a requirement illustrated in hendler, shadbolt, hall, berners-lee, &amp; weitzner (2008, p.62) by scaling up from micro to macro. this is to say that it is not sufficient to perform tests “in vitro”, with a limited number&nbsp; of participants or with a “special” population, as often happens. furthermore, trials must be consciously designed according to a conceptual model so that their actual outcome can be assessed and compared to an expected outcome. only in this way can the underlying model be confirmed or refuted, or, as usually happens, adjusted. this perspective raises software applications running in real-life settings to the rank of field experiments testing the conceptual model behind the design.</p> <div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="figure 1" src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3040/version/2081/3944/15537/918image001.jpg" /> </div> <h4 style="text-align: center;">figure 1. the web presents new challenges to software engineering and application development; from (hendler, shadbolt, hall, berners-lee, &amp; weitzner, 2008, p. 62, figure 2)</h4> <p>design is actually a key aspect of informatics, but the ease of use of current web-based technologies often leads to underestimating its importance. it is all too easy for designers, let alone practitioners, to be seduced by mashup techniques (i.e., the ability to merge existing data and reuse applications) that give the illusion of quickly creating an interactive social environment. websites set up to establish some form of dialogue between a public institution and citizens may have an accurate and attractive graphic interface, and include a ‘collage’ of popular net applications: a discussion forum, a blog area, maybe a wiki and some social-networking features, placed side by side, in the vague hope that this will somehow attract citizens and engage them in public dialogue. unfortunately, this is not the case. wright &amp; street (2007, p.864) have shown that, even in the case of a simple discussion forum, design choices (e.g. adopting a prior moderation policy) or software features (e.g. a threaded message system that encourages replies) influence whether the software “impedes” deliberation or “facilitates” deliberation. software features and design choices are what shapes the social environment. this is not surprising. in his influential book, bringing design to software, winograd (1996, p. xvii) states: “software is not just a device with which the user interacts; it is also the generator of a space in which the user lives.” he also claims: “software design is like architecture: when an architect designs a home or an office building [...] the pattern of life for its inhabitants are being shaped. people are thought of as inhabitants rather than as users of buildings [...] focusing on how they live in the spaces the designers create.” </p> <p>this paper aims to draw attention to the design of online spaces where both civil society and those public institutions that actually want to involve citizens engage in effective, online, deliberative processes whose purpose is to augment offline participation with a web-based environment. therefore, our subject is the design both of government-run deliberative sites and of online spaces promoted by civil society organizations with civic purposes. the notion of a deliberative digital habitat helps us characterize the scope of the work and then frame a set of issues worth considering when designing a digital habitat that enhances deliberation.</p> <p>in keeping with the empirical nature of informatics noted above, this paper has a strong empirical basis, being rooted, as previously mentioned,&nbsp; in the field experiments carried out since 1994 by the civic informatics laboratory at the università degli studi di milano. all these field experiments have been analyzed to collect feedback and presented to the scientific community to improve the approach. we thus began to draw up the framework presented here, which is mainly rooted in the fundamental literature on virtual communities (rheingold, 1993), community networking (schuler, 1996; venkatesh, 2003), online communities (preece, 2000), technology for communities (wenger, white, smith, &amp; rowe, 2005), and online deliberation (davies &amp; gangadharan, 2009; schuler, 2008).</p> <p>to illustrate design issues with actual cases, the following are referred to repeatedly:</p> <ul> <li> <p>fixmystreet in the united kingdom, the internet reporting information system (iris) in venice, and sicurezza stradale, or “road safety,” in milan allow citizens to use a map to report problems for local government to fix. (these sites are to be found at http://www.fixmystreet.org, http://iris.comune.venezia.it, and http://www.sicurezzastradale.partecipami.it.). </p> </li> <li> <p>partecipami is the umbrella under which sicurezza stradale takes place: it represents the evolution of a web site — comunalimilano2006 — that was set up to foster dialogue between candidates and electors on the occasion of milan’s 2006 municipal elections (de cindio, di loreto, &amp; peraboni, 2008). partecipami was renewed for the spring 2011 municipal elections (de cindio, krzątała-jaworska, &amp; sonnante, 2011) and is now increasingly taking on the role of a significant online public square for the city. </p> </li> <li> <p>e21 for the development of digital citizenship in agenda 21 project is aimed at supporting the well-known local agenda 21 participatory process with a suite of integrated software tools. it was funded within the “call for selecting projects to promote digital citizenship (e-democracy)” issued in 2004 by italy’s ministry for technology and innovation, and involved ten different municipalities in italy’s lombardy region. its results were presented in de cindio &amp; peraboni, 2009.</p> </li> <li> <p>the popolo viola (literally, “purple people”) movement (mello, 2010), which sprang up, completely online in 2010 on a facebook page, to organize a demonstration asking prime minister berlusconi to resign. </p> </li> </ul> <p>in addition to these cases cited repeatedly, other examples are introduced and presented when called for. most of the design issues are well known and discussed in the literature. however, we believe our work makes a new contribution by identifying a framework for understanding the relevance of the issues. some empirical evidence that the framework fulfills its promise will be sketched out in the conclusion.</p> <h3>three dimensions for designing deliberative digital habitats</h3> <p>in recent years, participatory or deliberative initiatives launched by public institutions and grassroots movements have often been promoted with the “web 2.0” label to suggest active citizen involvement and participation. however, most such initiatives actually only support sharing information and/or gathering it, as explained in de cindio &amp; peraboni (2011). only in a few cases do governments use ‘web 2.0’ to hear citizens’ opinions on policy issues or involve citizens in the decision-making process. the peertopatent.org initiative is one of the few cases in which citizens have an actual impact on the decision-making process, since the information citizens provide influences the decision outcome (noveck, 2006). </p> <p>the online participation environments to support peer-to-peer communication, participation, and deliberation that we wish to design are complex “spaces for human communication and interaction” (winograd, 1997, p.156) and require a “better understanding of the features and functions of the social aspects of the systems” (hendler, shadbolt, hall, berners-lee, &amp; weitzner, 2008, p. 66), coupled with the technical knowledge needed to develop simple, straightforward solutions. following wenger, white, &amp; smith (2009), we term these online environments digital habitats, i.e. habitats in the ecological sense that have been created and mediated by digital artifacts.</p> <p>it is useful to apply the expertise and knowledge accumulated during studies of early online social interaction environments to the analysis of modern digital habitats. virtual communities (rheingold, 1993), online communities (preece, 2000) and web communities (kim, 2000), as well as communities of practice (wenger, mcdermott, &amp; snyder, 2002) and civic and community networks (schuler, 1996; venkatesh, 2003) have been studied extensively. preece (2000) and wenger, mcdermott &amp; snyder (2002), with minor differences, both define these early online environments as a set of people who: (a) freely interact over time and recognize a common interest that bonds them together through shared knowledge, experience, practice, history, ritual, and so forth; (b) define implicit or explicit policies to regulate their interaction; (c) use a system based on information and communication technology.</p> <p>following rheingold (1993), who applied the term “community” to early examples of online aggregation, in de cindio, gentile, grew, &amp; redolfi (2003) we adopted sociologist ferdinand tönnies’ (1887) distinction between community, <span style="font-style: italic;">gemeinschaft</span>, and society, <span style="font-style: italic;">gesellschaft</span>. online spaces are defined both by voluntary interaction among people who thus build a shared culture, the <span style="font-style: italic;">gemeinschaft</span> dimension and by the body of rules that govern online life, the <span style="font-style: italic;">gesellschaft</span> dimension, analogous to the normative features of a well organized society (de cindio, gentile, grew, &amp; redolfi, 2003). the first dimension is determined by the members of the community. the second dimension is determined by the social pact that binds them together. a third dimension is a function of the technology on which the environment is built. the social environment of the digital habitat is shaped by its <span style="font-style: italic;">gemeinschaft</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">gesellschaft</span> dimensions, the physical environment by the technology dimension.</p> <p>in terming these independent but interrelated factors “dimensions,” we are grounding the metaphor is physical space, i.e. the habitat conceived of as volume in a metaphorically cartesian sense. applying a different metaphor might be another useful way to look at the problem. we could follow giddens (1999, p. 78 rev. ed.) who states: “a well-functioning democracy has been aptly compared to a three-legged stool. government, the economy and civil society need to be in balance.” changing the vehicle of our metaphor, we conceive of the digital habitat as a platform and thus might say that <span style="font-style: italic;">gemeinschaft</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">gesellschaft</span>, and technology are the three legs to consider during design for a well-balanced environment. the three-dimensional digital habitat, on the other hand, allows for greater extension of any of its dimensions into space beyond, including, critically, deliberation or interaction that takes place outside the specific volume of the digital habitat but is connected to it along one or more of these dimensions. a meeting or referendum held offline may indeed be part of the <span style="font-style: italic;">gemeinschaft</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">gesellschaft</span> dimension, even though not within the habitat per se.</p> <p>the design process for a digital habitat (be it an online community, a social network or a deliberative web site) thus ought also to unfold along these three different dimensions. such an approach can be seen as an extension of preece’s claim that “designing for usability is not enough; we need to understand how technology can support social interaction and design for sociability” (2001, p. 349). the design of technology includes, but is not limited to, usability considerations. sociability, in and of itself, has these two interrelated but somehow independent design dimensions. and sociability relates to what wright &amp; street (2007, pp. 857-859) have found in showing that a given technology – namely, a discussion forum – may produce different effects upon dialogue depending on the policies (the rules shaping online conversations) adopted to manage it. actually, we suggest that it is useful to work the other way around: first designing the desired social contract (the <span style="font-style: italic;">gemeinschaft</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">gesellschaft</span> dimensions) and then choosing the technology that best enables and supports it.</p> <p>although our proposed framework has also been successfully applied in non-civic contexts (like restyling the italian basketball federation’s web site to include an interactive space), this paper focuses on designing deliberative digital habitats, online spaces used for civic purposes, where citizens and public officials engage in public dialogue about public affairs, hopefully achieving a decision. abstracting from our field experience and from established literature, we identify here a set of issues to consider when designing the three above dimensions. these issues are phrased as a set of questions below.</p> <p>examples discussed by wright and street (2007, p. 858) show how these issues may be overlooked when a public institution promotes a site for involving citizens in a participatory or deliberative process. cases cited elsewhere in the literature, including chapters in davies &amp; gangadharan (2009), provide confirmation. citizens themselves may also neglect such issues when they open an online venue: “we want to discuss the election of the new university rector” or “we must protest the ad personam laws that prime minister berlusconi wants to enact.” the immediate response, in both cases, was: “let’s open a group on facebook,” and that was it, as far as the design effort went. the first case achieved total failure. the second, popolo viola, was a great success, initially, but has since run into serious problems precisely because of the lack of design in <span style="font-style: italic;">gesellschaft</span> and in technology.</p> <p>“we need to study the processes by which web sites are commissioned and the parameters that are designed into the software,” (wright &amp; street, 2007, p.859) state.&nbsp; the following paragraphs attempt to contribute to that effort ex ante, i.e., by providing a framework for discussing design choices. like wright &amp; street, we feel that: “a fully-fledged analysis falls beyond the scope of this article.” however, we hope to add some plumage to help the fledgling along. examples from field cases show how design of the three dimensions can be addressed well, as well as how easy it is to overlook design.</p> <h3>designing the gemeinschaft dimension</h3> <p>it is widely recognized among those who work on social interaction environments that there is no recipe for triggering participation and keeping it alive. the spark that fires participation is largely unpredictable. wenger, mcdermott, &amp; snyder (2002) aver that (online) communities (of practice) need to be cultivated: the gardener prepares the ground, chooses and sows the seeds, waters and fertilize the plot, checks that seedlings sprout, and fosters growth by cutting dead branches. yet, in the digital – as in the physical – world, several accidental, hidden, even unknown factors may heavily influence the yield. hendler, shadbolt, hall, berners-lee, &amp; weitzner (2008, p. 66) note that a purely ‘technological’ explanation cannot account for the success of wikipedia built on top of the mediawiki software versus the failures of many other sites using the same software. “similarly, the protocols used by social networking sites like myspace and facebook have much in common, but the success or failure of the sites hinge on the rules, policies, and user communities they support.”</p> <p>in this context, it might appear ambitious to propose guidelines for designing the community-participation experience that characterizes a social environment, because this would require identifying ways to enable community to be created. however, empirically learned lessons are worth sharing. inspired by caravita’s (2002) analysis of success factors for commercial web sites like amazon and ebay, reflections are offered here on the reasons that motivate various social actors (citizens, stakeholders, public officials, politicians) to interact and participate in the online public arena. such participation can be seen as a win-win game. especially in public political settings, various individual participants and more or less organized groups may have quite different goals. it is important to identify, for each kind of participant, the motivations that lead to participating. creating a substrate online environment of sharing and mutual trust is a sine qua non for deliberation.</p> <p>this task of identifying a “social glue” is easier in the case of grassroots movements because they usually arise and mature around a shared issue. it can be harder in the case of top-down, government-run deliberative digital habitats, where topics to be dealt with are usually (already) defined. comparative analysis of the ten government-run e-participation field experiments in the e21 project (de cindio &amp; peraboni, 2009, p. 119) showed that previous online community experience was certainly a positive factor, indicating the importance of a properly designed <span style="font-style: italic;">gemeinschaft</span> dimension.</p> <h3> who are the social actors in the game?</h3> <p>the first issue to consider is how to establish who has to be involved in the online initiative. in an augmented social environment, where technology breaks down time and space barriers, this choice becomes even more influential and affects the notion of citizenship in a certain way.</p> <p>different categories of citizens are traditionally distinguished when the deliberative platform refers to a geographic reality: permanent residents, who spend their lives there, temporary residents, such as students, who dwell in it, and commuters, who come in daily to work or study. whereas only residents are eligible voters in local elections, people in the other categories may also be significant social actors in a deliberative initiative promoted by a public institution. actually, this decision has to be made for each phase or activity in the participatory process. while temporary residents and commuters might be allowed to participate in public forums — both the offline meetings and their online extension — perhaps only residents would be considered eligible voters in a more cogent decision-making activity, such as a citizen consultation with a binding outcome. </p> <p>for example, both fixmystreet in the uk and iris in venice, italy, allow anyone to use a map to report problems for local government to fix. similarly, vigevano, one of the ten municipalities in the e21 project in italy’s lombardy region, allowed anyone to join discussions among civil servants, elected officials, and the citizenry on the e-participation web site it set up as part of the project (http://e21.comune.vigevano.pv.it, no longer online). however, when drawing up new regulations for equal opportunity in municipal government, vigevano allowed only the civil servants actually affected by the decision to participate in the deliberation process.</p> <p>not surprisingly, this issue is also significant for grassroots movements, which have to decide who can participate in their online environments: the citizens of a territory, only movement members, anyone registered on a platform (e.g. facebook) or those who meet some other criterion. for example, on the 40xvenezia web site, which belongs to a movement promoting innovation in venice, only city residents could participate at the outset. now, however, anyone can register on the site but must explicitly declare how s/he is involved with the venice area and be accepted by the web site administrators. moreover, the movement restricts some of its (online) activities, such as voting on ideas, to official members of the 40xvenezia association.</p> <h3> what participation activities and what benefits for each social actor?</h3> <p>when defining the <span style="font-style: italic;">gemeinschaft</span> dimension, above, we posited a shared interest that holds people together but avoided assuming a shared goal. we have discussed this issue before (de cindio &amp; ripamonti, 2010) and believe it has major consequences for the design of effective deliberative digital habitats. a rather common assumption is that the social actors who engage in a participatory or deliberative process do this because they have a shared goal. in fact, the actual goals may differ for each participant. yet, though their ultimate goals might differ significantly, all the social actors may be interested in sharing knowledge and opinions on a given issue. the promoters and designers of the deliberative digital habitat need to ask themselves: “what stake have the various actors we want to engage in public discourse got in participating?”</p> <p>this is what we mean when we say that the participation experience should be conceived of as a win-win game that motivates the various social actors to participate in the online public arena. this requires identifying a set of activities (both online and offline) that trigger the social actors’ participation. of course, the reward is not necessarily (if ever) monetary. a citizen who takes the time to report — through a web site provided by (or in collaboration with) city government, like fixmystreet, iris, and sicurezza stradale — a problem, a hazard or something broken, reasonably assumes it will be fixed, or at least noted, in a reasonable amount of time, and awaits news. in this case, the reward consists of contributing to the quality of one’s habitat. of course, if nothing happens, the citizen gets frustrated and is unlikely to make another report.</p> <p>the iris initiative is an example of an effective win-win game. citizens report problems, which are handled directly by venice city government. the iris system lets citizens keep track of reported problems by making the procedure visible. the web site displays the report’s date, its reference number, the office it was assigned to, its status (“received,” “assigned,” “solved” or “closed”) and messages from that office explaining its current status (e.g., why a problem was closed, unsolved).</p> <p>when a public institution calls citizens to a more complex participatory process, such as participatory budgeting or a local agenda 21, participants are asked to devote more time and expect correspondingly greater reward for their engagement. if unforeseen events delay the process, the hindrances need to be prominently published. for example, in the case of the e21 project, most of the deliberative initiatives failed for political reasons, such as the alderman in charge of the participatory process being replaced or the governing coalition that had promoted the initiative falling. in none of these municipalities did government explain the situation. citizen participation consequently abated (de cindio &amp; peraboni, 2009).</p> <h3>what is the initiative’s common identity?</h3> <p>if a new digital habitat is to actively engage people, its planning needs to include strategy for consolidating — or, if need be, creating — a common identity for participants to recognize themselves as a community. the goal is to create interest and curiosity about the initiative and, at the same time, to foster the growing sense of community. in establishing common identity, helpful factors include an effective slogan, a logo or brand, a shared history, and a common present (kim, 2000). </p> <p>the creation of a common identity is particularly critical for grassroots movements, which need to aggregate various people around a shared cause. such design of a common identity is epitomized by the case of the popolo viola. from the outset, this movement characterized its online identity with: (a) a simple, strong message, summarized by an effective slogan: “no b. day”; (b) a color, identity-making purple, chosen in lively discussion on facebook (mello, 2010, p. 161); (c) a shared logo, proposed by a graphic designer participating in the discussion (mello, 2010, p. 166).</p> <p>creating common identity may also factor into the success of public sector initiatives, especially in coping with citizens’ growing disaffection with government and for elected officials (coleman, 2005). an example of such success comes from italy’s apulia region, puglia, an administrative division with some four million people in six provinces, which decided to create a public ‘brand’ as part of policy measures aimed at young people. the regional government named the initiative bollenti spiriti (or “boiling-hot spirits”) and used this brand to create a community of young people (at http://bollentispiriti.regione.puglia.it) and involve them in the initiative (scardigno, f. et al., 2010). the site’s popularity was a major factor in the measures’ success.</p> <h3>how to design participation over time</h3> <p>when designing the participation experience, it is also important to take into account that participation, rather than a continuum, is a discrete phenomenon characterized by peak moments when the actors are more inclined to participate (de cindio, di loreto, &amp; peraboni, 2008). the peaks may be due to specific situations such as election campaigns, protests against an ongoing or upcoming policy or mere dissent. dissent may arise even over some minor decision that affects people’s territory and lives, such as inverting the direction of a one-way street or opening a new decentralization office (two real-life examples from sicurezza stradale and partecipami, respectively). when shaping the win-win game, designers should be well aware of this. it would be risky to assume that hard-won citizen participation will continue to increase. because this is not the case, the win-win game needs to be designed flexibly enough to seize the opportunities offered by these hot moments and then consolidate peak participation into a more ongoing practice.</p> <h3> designing the gesellschaft dimension</h3> a key choice in digital habitat design, especially for a participatory and deliberative habitat, consists of the contractual aspects and of the behavioral rules that shape and govern online interaction. the following paragraphs discuss the main issues to be considered. <h3>what is the participatory contract?</h3> <p>in order to set up an effective deliberative digital habitat, the win-win game, once identified, needs to be formalized in a ‘participation contract’ that binds the parties: the initiative’s promoters, its participants, and the government agencies involved. the participation contract also defines the interplay between online and offline participation, outlining online impact on the ‘real’ world [2].</p> <p>the participation contract of many ‘web 2.0’ initiatives is often not as clear as one might wish. fixmystreet, promoted by the independent body mysociety, is a very successful initiative. but even here, uk town councils’ commitment vis-à-vis citizens’ reports on the web site remains vague. nor is it prominently displayed online. for a long time, only in the fixmystreet.org faq section might one discover that: “[the problems] are reported to the relevant council by email. the council can then resolve the problem the way they normally would.” a recent improvement has made interaction among the parties clearer, but this information can now be found only indirectly through a link to mysociety.org.</p> <p>the situation worsens when the initiative (such as mybikelane.com or caugthya.org) is independently promoted by (groups of) citizens with no connection to a public institution. in these cases not only is the relation with government unclear but the commitment between promoters and participants is also left unspecified.</p> <p>when the initiative is directly promoted and managed by a government organization — as, for example, in the cases of the iris system run by the city of venice and of peertopatent.org run by the u.s. patent office — it is the organization’s job to define and publicize the commitment made to those who participate. public institutions should never make promises that they cannot fulfill: in our experience, citizens agree to engage even if the actual participation boundary is quite limited, but they are firm in demanding that the participatory contract be observed. public organizations, on the other hand, are often inclined to promise more than they can, or actually want to deliver, and it is difficult to convince them that this may be a sort of boomerang.</p> <h3>which identification policy?</h3> <p>according to the theory of the communication disciplines proposed by c.a. petri (1977), identification regards the attribution of an identity to the source of a message with different levels of accuracy. this process “involves demonstrating the identity of the source [..] of phenomena down to the mere technical details” (petri, 1977, p. 175) and includes (but is not limited to) users’ authentication on a web server. authentication concerns the technical aspects of identification and refers in particular to accounts, roles, permissions, and the like. the identity of the sender is part of the significance of a message.</p> <p>authentication and identification policies are crucial for an effective habitat, and are closely linked to the selection of social actors discussed above. to facilitate participation and avoid entry barriers at registration time, several web&nbsp;2.0 participation initiatives analyzed in de cindio &amp; peraboni (2011) adopt a weak authentication policy. often no registration is required and, even when mandatory, participants have to provide only a nickname and maybe an email address, which is actually checked in only a few cases. because of this choice, posts are signed by a virtual identity, which makes them de facto anonymous. anonymity is a right that must be protected in contexts where freedom of speech is restricted by non democratic regimes (clinton, 2011). naturally, it “free[s] interaction participants from potentially feeling socially inferior to their counterparts and, thus, facilitate[s] expression of everyone” (rhee &amp; kim, 2009) and indeed may be acceptable in some contexts, e.g., when rating a movie on the internet movie data base. however, anonymity does not foster the rise of mutual trust that online environments set up for deliberative purposes need to inspire. public dialogue on significant civic issues with a group of digital ghosts is neither gratifying nor stimulating.</p> <p>in this regard, it is worth recalling the case of san precario (where san means “saint” and precario translates as “temporary employee”), the anonymous identity who founded, owned, and managed popolo viola’s facebook ‘page’ for quite some time. according to mello (2010), san precario is a virtual identity created in 2004 at a meeting of underground groups in trento to promote a demonstration to be held on international worker’s day as an alternative to the traditional trade union demonstration. initially the page administrator’s choice to remain anonymous fostered the idea of a collectively led movement (mello, 2010), but its critical nature became clear when san precario, “saint temp,” banned several participants who had argued against his proposals and, even worse, removed other administrators’ administrative privileges and banned some of them (caravita, 2010). finally, on sunday, august 22, 2010, san precario decided to resign as administrator of the page, leaving it “to three of the people who have most contributed to its growth.”</p> <p>our long community-network experience suggests that this weak form of identification is inadequate, if a trustworthy social environment that encourages public dialogue and deliberation is to be created. online identity should, insofar as possible, reflect offline identity: if citizens wish to get a public answer from someone who plays a public role and appears online with her/his actual identity, they must do the same. they have to ‘show their face’ and take responsibility for participating under their actual identity (casapulla, de cindio, gentile, &amp; sonnante, 1998). this serves also to root the online community in the “proximate community” served by the network (carroll &amp; rosson 2003).</p> <p>nevertheless, even in online deliberative contexts, there are cases in which it is worth protecting participants’ privacy. this might occur during public consultations and discussion on sensitive issues or public assessments of an official that could bounce back on the participants, as in the case of the assessment of a teacher by his/her students as well as in the case of doctors rated by patients (e.g. http://www.patientopinion.org.uk/). in all these cases, there is the need to integrate a strong authentication policy (so that, e.g., only the students who have actually taken a class can rate the teacher) with secrecy techniques for protecting participants’ identity. software can help achieve this by obscuring the identity of the sender of a message in such critical discussion areas. </p> <p>the recommendation to use actual identities online does not mean adopting a rigid and strict authentication and identification policy. it should be flexible and appropriate for each participation level: weaker levels of involvement require weaker responsibility, higher ones, higher. so, for instance, unverified identities are enough for writing a comment in a blog, whereas strong authentication is required for participating in a deliberative consultation.</p> <h3> how to preserve civil civic dialogue?</h3> <p>for public dialogue to be purposeful activity, as a deliberative civic habitat requires, conversations must have certain distinguishing features: interactivity (winkler, 2007, p. 188), rationality (fishkin &amp; luskin, 2005, p.40; winkler, 2007, p. 188), and a chance for each participant to feel at ease and have equal opportunity to express ideas, in a climate of nondomination by a “minority of frequent posters” (coleman &amp; blumler, 2009, p.100). we return to these features below in considering how technological choices foster them. however, technology in itself does not suffice, especially in sensitive or conflictual habitats. rules are needed to prevent flames, limit trolling, and harmonize “the tension that exists between individual and community rights” (schuler, 1994). only through such harmonization can a positive climate characterized by mutual trust among participants be created, as has been widely recognized (see, e.g., edwards, 2002; schuler, 1994; and wright, 2009). </p> <p>inspired by early free nets, community networks, and civic nets (schuler, 1993) and wary of the difficulties that public initiatives such as santa monica pen (public electronic network) had encountered (docter &amp; dutton, 1998), all the online civic sites we manage have, from the very beginning (casapulla, de cindio, &amp; gentile, 1995), adopted a guide to participants’ behavior we term galateo. this term, inspired by benevento archbishop giovanni della casa’s famous treatise on manners (della casa, 1558), also aimed to translate the then-neologistic english term “netiquette.” more recently, terms like “code of conduct,” “rules of engagement,” and “terms-of-service agreement” have gained currency with reference to documents very much like what our galateo has evolved into. we have kept the term galateo to stress that its purpose is to define a set of standards and specific rules for online behavior that, above and beyond common netiquette, on the one hand, and (italian) law, on the other, should guarantee fair dialogue in a welcoming environment, where everyone can feel at ease expressing her/his own ideas and opinions (de cindio, gentile, grew, &amp; redolfi, 2003). the galateo has to be precisely written, published in highly visible fashion within the online environment, and signed by participants when they register and create their accounts. thus, every participant is acquainted with it and nobody can protest in case of disciplinary sanctions due to repeated violations. </p> <p>while a well-defined galateo helps avoid long follow-ups to unpopular decisions, it needs to include rules affecting the behavior not only of generic participants but also of those in special positions: moderators, community managers, officials, and technical staff. negotiation about these rules and roles should be possible (edwards, 2002, p. 18) but such negotiation, unchanneled, risks triggering a complex, tiring, never-ending process, which can ultimately weaken mutual trust, as our experience, partly described in de cindio, gentile, grew, &amp; redolfi (2003), shows.</p> <p>the participation contract, the identification policy, and the galateo are the three official statements that define the mutual commitments among a digital habitat’s social actors and shape its social structure. this principle implies the need for there to be a trusted person (or group) committed to having these agreements respected. this raises the issue of moderation.</p> <h3> who is the referee?</h3> <p>the role of moderator has been widely discussed (kim, 2000; preece, 2000; rheingold, 1993; schuler, 1994). in forums on public issues, the role played by moderators is especially significant because it affects the basic principles of democratic discourse (see, e.g., edwards, 2002; wright, 2009; and wright &amp; street, 2007). this holds true both for discussions initiated and managed by a government organization and for grassroots initiatives by generic citizens. in both cases, the main, though not sole, issue is to guarantee that the declared participation contract binding the social actors be observed. it is this guarantee that calls for a trusted person to make sure the galateo is honored. trust comes from personal disposition and reputation, as well as from institutional role. we discuss the trusted person’s community relations here and her/his institutional role thereafter. </p> <p>if the ultimate role of a moderator is to make sure the participation contract is adhered to, s/he needs to be authoritative enough to act “as an ‘arbiter’ [who] may designate certain postings as inappropriate and decide to remove them” (edwards, 2002, p. 4). in order to do this without being considered a censor who removes postings that fail to comply with the galateo or a policeman who bans participants, s/he has to gain people’s trust so her/his work is seen as a service to the community. the way for the moderator to acquire this reputation is to help participants state their ideas in fair, civil fashion, acting as a digital communication expert who helps less-skilled participants (public officials, politicians, and elected representatives, as well as members of the public) cope with the dynamics typical of online environments. this is to say that the roles of discussion facilitator, host, discussion leader, and online helper, discussed by edwards (2002) while surveying the vast literature, are ultimately ancillary to acquiring the reputation needed to act as referee when circumstances warrant. however, moderators spend most of their time performing these ancillary functions, in the hope they will be never need to use their authority. for this reason, we prefer to speak of community managers rather than moderators.</p> <p>facilitating more inclusive participation is another task among these ancillary functions and is important in public environments where politicians as well as generic citizens may lack the skill necessary to participate. the community manager prods unregistered participants who often contribute to register, so they can play a greater role and access higher levels of participation. similarly, in order to increase participants’ visibility as community members, the community manager should also encourage registered users to complete their profiles.</p> <p>defining the galateo and identifying one or more community managers to oversee ongoing activities is therefore a truly crucial and very tricky issue. when the deliberative habitat is run by government, this also involves the moderator’s independence, as discussed in the following subsection. for non-institutional, grassroots initiatives, the main problem is that a fully volunteer community manager is unlikely to be able to assure the needed continuity. in both cases, sharing the community-manager role among more than one person may prove even more complex, as the experience discussed in de cindio, gentile, grew, &amp; redolfi (2003) and the experience of popolo viola described below show.</p> <p>the way popolo viola originally managed its facebook page is an effective example of collaborative community management. a group of the page’s most active supporters “monitored the discussion on the wall, when necessary intervening with posts [to steer discussion away from digressions] and, in the most serious cases, reported problems to the administrators, who could remove the message and/or ban the poster. administrators could act independently” (renzi, 2010). it is important to note how strongly the digital environment chosen for the initiative, facebook, determined what moderation actions were available to page administrators (removing comments or banning people). policies for removing posts or comments and for banning people were not explicitly stated on the page. however, the praxis evolved to consist of removing messages or banning people because of two kinds of problems (renzi, 2010): (a) style problems: hot tone, angry words; (b) popolo viola image problems, which arose when someone complained about a promoter’s behavior, often san precario’s. </p> <p>these moderation choices began to show their limits just few weeks after the successful demonstration when (in february 2010), following disagreements among administrators on specific movement decisions and with no clear rules, the anonymous san precario, decided to ban all the other administrators from the page (caravita, 2010). this set in motion a never-ending crisis that led the popolo viola to disappear from the political arena in the space of about a year.</p> <h3> who guarantees the game?</h3> <p>whereas in grassroots initiatives the moderator or community manager is usually a participant who plays this role as primus inter pares, when the deliberative habitat is promoted and run by a government institution, the moderator’s independence becomes an issue (edwards, 2002, p. 17). who does s/he ultimately answer to? to the government organization or to the citizenry? this is closely related to another issue: while the moderator has to guarantee that all participants respect the galateo, there is also a need to ensure that the participatory contract itself is honored. these issues raise the question of a possible role for a third-party ‘guarantor’ of the deliberative environment.</p> <p>furthermore, even if the participatory contract is well defined, directly managing an online environment is not necessarily the easier solution for a government institution. it may be critical, for instance, to host a discussion in which citizens strongly criticize the administration or some of its key figures. this happened in the 1990s on the rete civica di roma (rome civic network), which was hosted on city of rome servers. moreover, if the public institution does not fulfill the participation contract, citizens have no one to turn to for help. a trusted third party, acting as an intermediary between government and citizenry, might help avoid such problems.</p> <p>the need for new bodies to play this role has been recognized from different perspectives: blumler &amp; coleman (2001) call for “an entirely new kind of public agency, designed to forge fresh links between communication and politics and to connect the voice of the people more meaningfully to the daily activities of democratic institutions.” bellezza &amp; florian (1998) identify the need for new, third millennium bodies to lend stability to various cultural initiatives. we created just such a new body in 1998 to oversee the milan community network (“rcm” by its italian acronym). the rcm participatory foundation brings together – in different roles – local government institutions, the university, private enterprise, and exponents of civil society, i.e. individuals, nonprofit associations, and schools (a structure fully documented in de cindio, 2004). mysociety, set up in 2003, is another relevant example of such new bodies.</p> <p>for the purposes of this paper, it is worth understanding these new agencies’ roles within the similar online initiatives they promote, fixmystreet.com and sicurezza stradale, where their fundamental roles are:</p> <ul> <li>to establish a relationship with the relevant government organizations (several borough, district, city, and county councils in the uk, or, respectively, the milan city council and the governing coalition);</li> <li>to define the commitment the government organization undertakes with respect to what happens online and to specify what it requires from citizens in terms of authentication, identification, and fairness;</li> <li>to guarantee that all social actors fulfill their commitments;</li> <li>to assure participants about the ownership of the data involved in the process. this concerns both personal data provided at authentication time and all the knowledge resulting from the public conversations. this civic intelligence (schuler, 2001) is a common good, a “social capital”&nbsp; (putnam, 1995),&nbsp; that has to be preserved. </li> </ul> <p>regarding this last issue, it is worth noting that right now, when public conversations take place through “free” online spaces managed by private businesses, such as facebook, under a policy which gives them the ownership of all the data, not only personal data provided at authentication time but also all the civic intelligence resulting from people conversations become the private property of the corporate host. while there is an increasing public concern about the ownership of personal data, this loss of&nbsp; public wealth due to the alienation of this form of civic intelligence has gotten much less attention.</p> <p>one post by a milan city council member in the “citizenship and democracy” forum (http://www.partecipami.it/?q=node/7903) of partecipami aptly illustrates how significant the role played by a trusted third party can be:</p> <p>the discussion started by claudio edossi about the ecopass [traffic access] policy, which has involved several city council members, both from the majority and from the opposition coalitions, highlights the growing importance of the role played by partecipami (and by the rcm foundation): it represents a ‘no-parties land,’ a place where councilors feel free to take part in a political discussion, while thinking of the city’s actual interests, regardless of their membership in a given political party or of the balance of power between political parties. [...] this situation might appear paradoxical, but it ought to sound a political alarm. the results and the impact of the ecopass policy — which is the only new structural measure to reduce traffic and pollution in a major italian metropolitan area — are being discussed neither in city government meetings nor in city council meetings: council members and city managers discuss it on partecipami! (bold in original)</p> <p>it is worth noting the importance of the nonprofit nature of the third parties involved as guarantors and how risky it might be to assign such a role to a business-oriented company. an example of the problem with private interests in this context can be seen in the case of beppe grillo’s blog. grillo is a well-known italian comedian-turned-political-activist. his blog&nbsp; is by far the most-visited blog in italy, and a political movement, movimento cinque stelle arose from it. in italy’s spring 2011 municipal elections, members of cinque stelle were elected in several cities. this shows that beppe grillo is playing an increasingly significant role in the italian political arena. however, his blog is fully managed by a private company, casaleggio associati, whose mission is to develop strategy for its clients’ web presence. the company offers a centralized management model. it decides strategies and rules by applying extensive control over several web 2.0 environments. when applied to grillo’s blog, this model mixes the company’s strategy (driven&nbsp; by marketing and business issues) and the movement’s political strategy, casting doubt on its use in the political arena (orsatti, 2010). these misgivings found confirmation in the recent decision made by another political party, italia dei valori, to cease relying on casaleggio associati to manage its online presence.</p> <h3>designing the technology dimension</h3> <p>as noted, current practice for setting up a deliberative web site too often comes down to the choice of a few tools (a forum, a blog, a calendar, etc.). the implications of technological choices are not always well thought out. in recent years, for instance, the rush to set up such sites has tended to include opening a page or group on facebook and a channel on twitter. although technology is not always the key success factor, it can nevertheless play a significant role in shaping participation. as early experiences with online communities have taught, “good technology in itself will not a community make, but bad technology can sure make community life difficult enough to ruin it” (wenger, white, smith, &amp; rowe, 2005, p.9). technology should, insofar as possible, support the social game and the social structure that has been designed.</p> <p>because of the increasing popularity of facebook among politicians, it is worth briefly discussing the impact of some of its technical features (as they stand at this writing). a facebook page is characterized by a very limited groupand permission-management facilities, which rules out assigning specific permissions to sub-groups of participants. the administrator can set permissions only for the people who like the page (its supporters), without any further level of granularity. moreover, the facebook page imposes “the wall” as its main interaction and debating tool. indeed, it is not possible for the administrator to set a different tool as ‘home page,’ say, the discussion tool (similar to an online forum) or the note tool (which can be seen as a sort of blog). the facebook wall allows for fast and volatile interaction. each post (and its comments) is easily accessible only for a limited time: the more intense the activity, the shorter this interval. on crowded and popular pages, the driving rhythm leads important materials to quickly disappear. no permalink is provided to allow interested users to retrieve them. the wall is appropriate for giving live news and for people’s microblogging activities, but it is not suitable for deliberating on subtle, sensitive, thorny issues: its use leads to a real restriction on how dialogue can take place. moreover, a page’s participant-identification policy is inherited from the facebook environment and cannot be changed or hardened.</p> <p>in the above case of popolo viola, this allowed an anonymous identity such as san precario to establish and own the movement’s page. but it might also leave room for political provocateurs acting as net trolls. this is what happened on october 1, 2010, when, just as most of the page administrators were traveling to rome for another national demonstration, several anonymous postings appeared. the anonymous poster had used an avatar including the five-sided, red star that had been the symbol of the red brigades in the 1970s. if any violence had broken out in the public square the following day, public opinion might easily have been convinced that the purple movement had fallen into the hands of terrorists! in addition, any change to policies for managing pages or groups carried out by facebook affects the movement’s power structure. this happened, for example, when facebook introduced a new rule that allows each page administrator to remove any other administrator, including the creator of the page, who had previously been a sort of super-administrator that could not be removed (renzi, 2010).</p> <p>another facebook feature that significantly influences communication on a page is worth noting. currently, several politicians and representatives own a page set up to establish a communication channel with citizens. however, citizens who want to engage in dialogue have to subscribe to the page by clicking on the “like” button. thus, regardless of their political opinions and preferences, interested citizens appear among the people who “like” the politician or representative. the name of this simple feature structures the communication.</p> <p>these examples highlight what a slippery slope using an existing ‘container’ such as facebook can be for public organizations or grassroots movements that want to involve people in their activities. the container dictates the rules that affect the democratic structure of the hosted group. changes motivated by facebook’s business goals may alter the room for maneuver available to the various roles (founder, administrator, subscriber) in some subtle way that might not be obvious to people of diverse technical ability. only for some of them is the impact of a technical choice actually clear.</p> <p>as gladwell observes (gladwell, 2010), social media are very effective when social networks are needed to mobilize people. built around weak ties (granovetter, 1973) they are effective at spreading ideas and information. however, social media “have real difficulty reaching consensus and setting goals.” (gladwell, 2010, p. 4) deliberation requires rich, effective communication infrastructure that can collect and coalesce information, ideas, opinions, and participants from various web sources into trustworthy, democratic digital habitats. as a response to these issues let us outline a conceptual framework for designing the technology dimension of these online environments.</p> <p><span style="font-style: italic;">what spaces and what balance among them?</span></p> <p>as stated in the introduction, according to (winograd, 1996), technology shapes the “spaces for human communication and interaction.” designing the technology dimension of a deliberative digital habitat thus consists, first of all, of designing online spaces to enable social interactions planned as part of the gemeischaft and gesellscahft dimensions.</p> <p>in designing a software platform to support online deliberation and assessing it in several real-life settings, we have incrementally tuned the original model presented in de cindio, de marco, &amp; grew (2007). we now believe these spaces should support:</p> <ul> <li> <p>free interaction without a specific purpose that creates a sense of community and mutual trust among participants (community space);</p> </li> <li> <p>purposeful interaction for achieving, whenever possible, shared outcomes and decisions (deliberative space);</p> </li> <li> <p>the opportunity for each participant to build visibility, reputation, and ties to others, (essential in motivating people to participate, as the emergence of social networking sites (boyd &amp; ellison, 2007) has shown (personal space)); and</p> </li> <li> <p>gathering, distributing, and sharing relevant content from the other spaces (information space).</p> </li> </ul> <p>figure 2 depicts these four spaces. let us note that it represents an evolution of wenger, white, smith, &amp; rowe’s (2005) proposal. in discussing software technologies for communities of practice, they point out the need for tools to be used in cultivating the community (i.e., for designing the community space) as well as the need for tools supporting individual participation (i.e., for including a personal space). it is also worth noting that the community space is very close to what wright &amp; street (2007, p. 855-856) call the “‘have your say’ section,” while the deliberative space is what they call “policy forums.” wright &amp; street also explicitly envision mixed models that include both kinds of space. the reason is precisely the need to join community space with deliberative space.</p> <p>the design of the technology dimension should aim at finding a good balance among these four spaces and deciding what functionality each space must provide. for example, a discussion forum in community space, a provision for online citizen consultation in deliberative space, and personal profiles to enhance mutual acquaintance among participants.</p> <div style="text-align:center;"><img alt="figure 2" src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3040/version/2081/3944/15538/918image002.jpg" /></div> <h4 style="text-align: center;">figure 2. the four spaces of a deliberative digital habitat.</h4> <p><span style="font-style: italic;">what technology for each of the spaces?</span></p> <p>these functionalities can be provided in various ways. in the framework for analyzing technology for communities proposed by wenger, white, smith, &amp; rowe (2005), designers:</p> <ol> <li>can either identify platforms (designed by certain vendors or software developers) that package all the needed functionality;</li> <li>or they can identify a set of tools that support the required functions, and undertake to merge them into an integrated software environment;</li> <li>and, in either case, they need to consider which features of the tools or platforms make them usable and differentiate one offering from another (a discussion board may have multimedia attachments, “new” flags, different visualizations, and so forth). </li> </ol> <p>these choices may be influenced (or sometimes constrained) by prospective participants’ technology profile. for instance, if social inclusion is a relevant issue in organizing a citizen consultation, the designers need to consider the rate of adoption of pcs and mobile phones and choose suitable technology or combinations thereof. wenger, white, smith, &amp; rowe (2005) refer to this situational context as the “configuration of technologies level.” </p> <p>of course, existing software tools and platforms, conceived for different purposes and contexts, are often adapted to be reused. however, as noted at the beginning of this section in reference to facebook, existing solutions may be inappropriate for supporting participation initiatives. tools to support online deliberation should be firmly rooted in the democratic tradition. for example, a tool that supports structured, synchronous, online debate whose goal is to make decisions (i.e., an enriched chat) should guarantee that a basic property of democratic debate is fulfilled: the majority, if any, is guaranteed the chance to decide, while the minority is guaranteed the right to express its opinions. thus for example, the public sphere project’s e-liberate tool (schuler, 2009) fulfills this requirement by including robert’s rules of order (robert, 1876) in the software.</p> <p>opendcn was designed within the e21 project precisely for deliberative purposes as an open-source, bespoke platform built from the ground up on democratic principles. the dcn in the name opendcn stands for deliberative community networks (de cindio, de marco, &amp; grew, 2007). it consists of several tools that support various participation modalities, including one that draws inspiration from e-liberate (de cindio, peraboni, &amp; sonnante, 2008). note also that a given tool does not necessarily belong to just one space. for example, the opendcn citizen-consultation tool, typically used in deliberation, can also be set up to survey participants’ ideas with the aim of using the results to spur debate or to foster the sense of community.</p> <span style="font-style: italic;">which features support effective public dialogue?</span> <p>fostering peer-to-peer, public dialogue among participants is a key factor in establishing a climate of mutual trust. such dialogue is often missing in web 2.0 civic initiatives, including open data portals and projects. comments are typically optional add-ons to posts (as in caughtya.org and mybikelane.com) or to the problem reported (as in fixmystreet.com and the iris project). in some cases, comments are not even allowed (e.g., on patientopinion.org.uk and ratemyteachers.com). thus, as lovink (2007) notes, there are often “zero comments”. and even when there are, they tend to remain isolated remarks rather than exchanged opinions.</p> <p>as wright and street (2007, p. 853) observe, “online discussion forums can be designed differently — in ways that facilitate deliberation”. we believe that, insofar as possible, these design choices have to be translated into software features and embedded into the deliberative environment to naturally induce people to adopt good practices. for this reason, the opendcn platform’s “informed discussion” tool incorporates the following three features:</p> <p>the first aims to improve the rationality (winkler, 2007, p. 188) of the discussion by encouraging participants to “support their arguments with appropriate and reasonably accurate factual claims” (fishkin &amp; luskin, 2005, p.40). all the materials attached to posts or directly uploaded by participants are gathered in the information space to provide an organized view of the information resources (video, audio or text documents, links) that support the discussion. subsequent participants who view the thread can thus access its materials directly. of course, the development of open data makes new resources available to support rationality. (for example, tim berners-lee’s&nbsp; 5-star system (berners-lee,&nbsp; 2009), outlined several levels at which open data can be brought into deliberation. the features embedded in the opendcn “informed discussion” tool support several of them: one can add data documents in any fixed format (e.g. a scanned table); one can make data available in re-useable forms that allow viewers to check the claims made about it; one can link to a data resource available on the web by providing the url, and that linked resource can then provide context, meaningful names, and annotations of the data (linked open data)).</p> <p>the second feature concerns interactivity (winkler, 2007, p. 188) during the discussion itself. usually, in the classic template of forums and blogs, messages are shown in strictly chronological order, thus losing the thread of the discussion. answers to specific previous posts do not appear adjacent to the query. to overcome these display limitations, the dialogue tool should allow messages to be presented in indented threads that help citizens visualize how posts and replies are nested, and, if they wish, to put their own comment in the proper location. interactivity can support conversations around open data, and allow datasets to be enriched with peoples’ comments. a simple example concerns the city of milan’s press releases: they are published on the municipality web site without a comment facility. however, when one of them is relevant within an ongoing conversation, the community manager of the partecipami web site, posts it in the relevant thread, thus allowing citizens to consider the city news in the appropriate context and to comment on it. when the news is significant per se, and no relevant discussion thread already exists, the community manager opens a new one. thanks to this, almost all the municipality’s press releases get comments and enrich citizens’ discussions. unfortunately, from the perspective of civic dialogue those who issued the press releases do not participate in these conversations. </p> <p>the third feature imports a trait typical of social rating environments and provides (technological) support for what edwards (2006) calls different styles of citizenship: one “stronger,” more active, and another, apparently “weaker.” an effective dialogue tool should indeed allow citizens to express their (degree of) agreement and to flag posts or information materials they consider relevant. this feature enables people to express agreement or disagreement without forcing them to write a post.</p> <p>although developed in advance and independently, it is worth noting that these technical features embed three of the four recommendations proposed by ramsey &amp; wilson (2009) to support “the ‘informed’ participant”. both posts and the information resources attached to them show the author, whose personal profile is available (first recommendation, p. 265). the information space aggregates the resources provided by the various posts. in this way, if controversial views are presented, each participant has access to documents and critiques that support different political positions (third&nbsp; and fourth recommendation, p. 265).</p> <h3>examples from field cases</h3> <p>the ability of the proposed framework to foster deliberation can be seen through a direct comparison of the somewhat similar initiatives we have discussed throughout the paper fixmystreet, iris, and sicurezza stradale, the latter designed according to the proposed framework (using the opendcn software platform). all these platforms are, to a significant extent, (problem) data-driven, but the way in which they visualize reported problems is different (cf. figure 3): fixmystreet and iris do it in table form, while sicurezzastradale adopts a geo-referential representation on a city map. fix my street already generates a feed of open data; opendcn will provide such a feature is the short-term. access to the dataset collected in these initiatives, and more in general in online deliberation web sites, provide the relevant community and researchers of a valuable wealth of&nbsp; knowledge.</p> <div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="figure 3" src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3040/version/2081/3944/15539/918image003.jpg" /></div> <div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="figure 4" src="https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/article/download/3040/version/2081/3944/15540/918image004.jpg" /></div> <h4 style="text-align: center;">figure 3. summary of problem reports visualization in fixmystreet and in sicurezza stradale.</h4> <p> sicurezza stradale, went online march 31, 2008 in response to a request from “ciclobby,” a nonprofit bicyclists’ association, to coincide with the opening of a forum set up by the milan alderman responsible for traffic. in its first nine months, the site gathered 142 reports from 97 different participants, without domination by any single group or participant. just over half the reports (i.e., new problems) include comments that reinforce the original post, question it or dispute it, thus assuring interactivity. both fixmystreet and iris, on the other hand, suffer from the “zero comment” syndrome (lovink, 2007). on sicurezza stradale, 55 of the 142 reports (≈ 40%) include a proposed solution, a phenomenon not found on the other two sites, which simply leave it to the relevant government bureau to solve the problems reported by citizens. advice, proposals, and related arguments are often illustrated with photographs, attesting to the discussion’s rationality. pictures, which are not supported by the other two sites, have been used both to document the problem and, in a few cases, even to simulate a solution. </p> <p>at the end of nine months (on january 13, 2009) a summary of citizens’ reports was compiled and delivered to the alderman in charge of the forum (gentile, 2009). during that period, a thread in the community space had been used by those involved, (who included the president of ciclobby, the alderman, and three members of the opposition in the city council), to monitor progress in the forum, as well as providing the related documentation. after the presentation of the report summary, despite the total lack of feedback from city government, citizens continued to offer advice, although at a slower rate. on november 15, 2009, milan’s mayor discharged the alderman. nevertheless citizens continued to inform one another and discuss traffic problems, as well as possible solutions. in one case, citizens organized a petition to force the administration to change a decision: the sicurezza stradale site was used to inform them where signatures were being collected. in another case, the information contained in a thread was used by a member of the opposition to present a formal question in her district council: the web site had been used to monitor progress on the issue. the municipal elections held in june brought a change, with those formerly in the opposition now in charge of governing. a few days after the elections, a citizen’s comment on the site revealed hope that “things will change with the new party in power”.</p> <p>these vicissitudes show that, thanks to design choices and software features that induce behavior inclined to deliberation, the site is more than an online area where citizens can report problems for local government to fix. it is an environment where, according to changing political conditions, the social actors, and engaged citizens in particular, undertake a variety of actions to cope with traffic problems.&nbsp; from a data oriented perspective, the comparison shows that these design choices and software features support engagement around open data (davies, 2012) as they enable conversations around data points and promote people’s collaboration around data as a common resource.</p> <h3>conclusions</h3> <p>this paper introduces the deliberative digital habitat to denote appropriately equipped online environments that support participatory or deliberative initiatives launched by government institutions or by grassroots movements. we have presented a framework for designing such habitats by identifying three dimensions — a <span style="font-style: italic;">gemeinschaft</span> dimension, a <span style="font-style: italic;">gesellschaft</span> dimension, and a technology dimension — and issues critical for each dimension. </p> <p>while almost all these issues have already been discussed in the literature, what was missing — and what we hope to have provided — is a framework that embeds them and helps digital democracy designers bear in mind significant factors and concepts. rooted in different disciplinary perspectives and validated by real-life experience, these concepts may be applied to assure projects good initial conditions.</p> <p>although focused on design and design issues, this paper represents neither a method nor a handbook. in this it differs from what kim (2000) offers web communities, or wenger, white &amp; smith (2009) providing digital habitats for sharing knowledge in professional settings (formerly known as communities of practice), or porter (2008) giving social web designs through the aof method (actions, objects, and features). our work does not provide designers with checklists, tables, and grids to be filled in, but aims rather to outline a more general conceptual framework and a collection of concepts that help foster deliberation in data rich environments among others.</p> <p>emerging technologies will challenge the framework’s ability to deal with new concepts, tools, and applications. at the same time, it will be put to the test by the success, failure, results, and setbacks of each specific case, precisely on the basis of the assumption, discussed in the introduction, that “successful models evolve through trial, use, and refinement.” in so evolving, our framework, we hope, will contribute to understanding how the future web, in the words of hendler, shadbolt, hall, berners-lee, &amp; weitzner (2008, p. 67), “can encourage more human engagement in the political sphere.” data —&nbsp; “the web of data” —&nbsp; is an essential part of this effort, and we hope that our work helps researchers, professionals,&nbsp; and activists seeking to use open data as part of a process of democratic engagement while avoiding open data initiatives remaining —&nbsp; as unfortunately it may happen —&nbsp; solely in the technical domain. </p> <p>louis brandeis, a member of the us supreme court&nbsp; from 1916, claimed that “publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.” (brandeis,&nbsp; 1914). recently, several authors, including the us white house office of information and regulatory affairs administrator cass r. sunstein,&nbsp; mentioned brandeis’s claim (sunstein , 2010) to point out that transparency is crucial for (renewing) democracy. building deliberative online environments around open data can help in realizing this opportunity.</p> <h3> references</h3> <p>beer, s. 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(2009). the role of the moderator: problems and possibilities for government-run online discussion forums . in t. davies, &amp; s. gangadharan (eds.), online deliberation: design, research, and practice (pp. 233-242). stanford, ca: csli publications.</p> <p>wright, s. &amp; street, j. (2007). democracy, deliberation and design: the case of online discussion forums, new media and society, 9(5), 849-869.</p> <h3>acknowledgments</h3> <p>signed by a sole, responsible author, this paper uses the first person plural because as a revised version of a paper presented at the forth international conference on online deliberation, leeds 2010, it gathers the work of several people. i acknowledge a debt to my co-author on that paper, cristian peraboni, for work done jointly, summarizing some five years of stimulating collaboration. i am also extremely grateful to the anonymous referees and editors of the special issue from that conference for their careful reading and precise remarks on the initial version, which i hope to have employed wisely. i also wish to thank philip grew, who both revised the english and contributed ideas and suggestions. finally, my sincere gratitude to&nbsp; the editor of the journal of community informatics, mike gurstein, and to the editors of this special issue, tim davies and zainab bawa, who allowed me to resume this long effort from the black hole where is was finished because of some, let me say, stupid, academic and editorial procedure. it has been a intellectual pleasure to interact with them, and to consider&nbsp; their suggestions and remarks.</p> <p>this paper would have never been possible without the tenacious, continuous, and indefatigable work of the rcm foundation staff who manage all the online initiatives mentioned it day in and day out. finally, i want to thank my husband beppe and my son ruggero, who accepted my stressful company during the writing. let there be no doubt that it is stressful to combine the demands of managing rcm foundation initiatives with the concentration required by research and teaching. may my efforts prove helpful to others who see great opportunity in the net for people to shape a better society for future generations.</p> <h3>author information</h3> <p>fiorella de cindio is associate professor at the department of informatics and communication, università degli studi di milano. her teaching includes programming languages, software engineering, virtual communities, and social interaction environments. her research follows two main lines: participatory design methods for system development and social interactive system design in real-life settings. </p> <p>de cindio founded the civic informatics laboratory and the milan community network rcm in 1994 and continues as president of the rcm participatory foundation. in 2001 she was awarded the ambrogino d'oro, milan’s highest civic honor for contributions to the city development. correspondence can be addressed to the author at fiorella.decindio@unimi.it.</p> 3489-article text-19220-1-11-20201227 the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 100-117 issn: 1712-4441 100 articles an analysis of information and communication technology policy for agriculture in mali to harness the potential of information and communication technologies (icts), developing countries need to develop national ict policies that serve as frameworks for integrating icts in all spheres of society. in the absence of such policies, there is often a lack of coordination of ict-led interventions which often leads to a waste of resources. thus, there is always a need to define a national framework for the promotion and application of icts in various sectors of a country’s economy. the purpose of this study was to analyse the national ict policy regarding the field of agriculture in mali. the study adopted the theory of knowledge as its guiding theoretical framework. in addition, this study adopted a qualitative research method as data was collected using policy documents and semi-structured interviews. data were analysed using the qualitative content analysis (qca) method with the aid of nvivo version 12 software. the results showed that mali had two policy documents that articulated the country’s strategy towards the use of icts in the agricultural sector. these documents were the agricultural orientation law and the national strategy for the development of the digital economy. further examination revealed that these two policy documents did not support agriculture in modern mali’s landscape. this resulted in the under-utilization of digital tools by agricultural extension officers, reducing the dissemination of agricultural information for higher yield towards farmers in the country. this study recommends the recasting of both documents in response to the study findings. macire kante patrick ndayizigamiye postdoctoral fellow, department of applied information systems, university of johannesburg, south africa mkante@uj.ac.za senior lecturer, department of applied information systems, university of johannesburg, south africa ndayizigamiyep@uj.ac.za the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 100-117 issn: 1712-4441 101 pour exploiter le potentiel des technologies de l’information et de la communication (tic), les pays en développement doivent élaborer des politiques nationales des tic qui servent de cadre à l’intégration de ces tic dans toutes les sphères de la société. en l'absence de telles politiques, il y a souvent un manque de coordination des interventions fondées sur les tic, ce qui conduit souvent à un (possible) gaspillage de ressources. par consequent, il est toujours nécessaire de définir un cadre national pour la promotion et l’application des tic dans divers secteurs de l’économie d’un pays. le but de cette étude était d'analyser la politique nationale des tic dans le domaine de l'agriculture au mali. l'étude a adopté la théorie de la connaissance comme cadre théorique. de plus, cette étude a adopté une méthode de recherche qualitative, les données étant collectées à l'aide de documents de politique et d'entretiens semi-structurés. les données ont été analysées en utilisant la méthode d'analyse qualitative du contenu (qca) à l'aide du logiciel nvivo version 12. les résultats ont montré que le mali disposait de deux documents de politique qui articulaient la stratégie du pays pour l’utilisation des tic dans le secteur agricole. ces documents étaient la loi d'orientation agricole et la stratégie nationale pour le développement de l'économie numérique. un examen plus approfondi a révélé que ces deux documents ne correspondaient plus au paysage agricole du mali. cela a entraîné une sous-utilisation des tics par les agents de vulgarisation agricole, réduisant l’acces des paysans a une vulgarisation agricole pour une meilleur rendement dans le pays. cette étude recommande la refonte des deux documents en réponse aux résultats de l'étude keywords: ict policy; agricultural productivity; extension services; developing countries; mali mots clés: politique des tic; productivité agricole; services de vulgarisation; pays en voie de développement; mali kante, m., & ndayizigamiye, p. (2020). an analysis of information and communication technology policy for agriculture in mali. the journal of community informatics, 16, 100-117. copyright (c), 2020 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/index the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 100-117 issn: 1712-4441 102 introduction information and communication technology (ict) policy is a dominant feature in the improvement of agricultural productivity in developing countries. ict-driven agricultural information is one of the ways to realize higher yields (kante, oboko, & chepken, 2019). furthermore, it has been argued that ict policies can help increase agricultural production (chavula, 2014; kunyenje, 2019) in developing countries. as agriculture constitutes the backbone of the economies of many developing countries (aker et al., 2016; kante, oboko, et al., 2017; msoffe & ngulube, 2016), it is imperative to adopt and implement national ict policies to enhance agricultural productivity. in the absence of appropriate policies, different stakeholders often engage in diverse actions for the same beneficiaries to achieve the same objectives which leads to a waste of resources (au, 2008). many developing countries have developed or are in the process of developing ict policies. kunyenje (2019) argues that about 84% of african countries have adopted national ict policies. some developing countries have put in place ict policies aligned with their development objectives (diga et al., 2013) in agriculture (kunyenje, 2019) and e-government (sullivan & clarke, 2010). for instance, nigeria (yusuf, 2005), kenya and rwanda (waema et al., 2005), uganda (waema et al., 2005) and senegal (sagna, 2018) have all implemented national ict policies in the agricultural sector. despite the adoption of ict policies by many developing countries in africa, the improvement of agricultural productivity remains an issue. for instance, kante et al. (2019) argue that mali’s agricultural practices yield low productivity. a similar observation has been made regarding the agricultural sectors in ethiopia (berhane et al., 2018), senegal (seck, 2017), kenya (warinda et al., 2020), uganda (warinda et al., 2020) and rwanda (warinda et al., 2020). hence, one may assume that ict policies in those countries have not yet led to an increase in agricultural production. the low agricultural productivity of these countries has been linked to policy-related issues, amongst other factors. for instance, the food and agricultural organisation (fao, 2017) reports that mali’s policies present inconsistencies between the overall policy objectives, measures adopted to pursue these objectives and the effects they generate. additionally, makoza (2017) reports that the intended policy outcomes have not been adequately realised in southern africa. furthermore, it has been reported that the main constraint in the agricultural sector is the lack of innovative technologies such as information technology (it) for development. information technology (it), or information and communication technology (ict), plays a vital role in advancing economic growth and reducing poverty (hlungulu et al., 2010; minges, 2006; ordóñez, 2015; türen, gökmen, & keser, 2016). therefore, there is a need to assess these ict policies regarding agriculture and to suggest ways in which they could be enhanced to assist in increasing agricultural productivity. there is a growing body of knowledge that portrays the nexus between ict policy and development in developing countries. for instance, kunyenje (2019) uses the case of malawi to investigate the influence of external actors on national information and communication technology policy formulation in developing countries. ordóñez (2015) has studied the impact of the information society in the global south and has highlighted the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 100-117 issn: 1712-4441 103 the link between ict policy and development. furthermore, diga et al. (2013) have explored the link between ict policy and poverty reduction in africa. nevertheless, a much-debated question is whether these ict policies in the field of agriculture have been implemented and the results thereof. although a country may have an ict policy, this does not imply its implementation (collin & mmapeteke, 2018). for instance, kunyenje and chigona (2019) report that although malawi has adopted a national ict policy, its implementation remains an issue. the ict policy for agriculture in mali has been reported as inconsistent (fao, 2017). additionally, collin & mmapeteke (2018)argue that in east africa none of the southern african development community (sadec) countries have implemented the ict policies that they have adopted. it has been noted that the implementation and adequacy of these ict policies remain under-researched issues thus far. furthermore, while ict policies for development research is a growing field (kante, 2020), publications regarding ict policies for agriculture in developing countries remain sparse. thus, there is a need to further investigate the implementation and adequacy of national ict policies in the agricultural sector of developing countries. it was in this context that this study explored the adoption and implementation of ict policies in agriculture in developing countries, using mali as a case study. the specific research questions guiding the study were: a) to what extent does the national ict policy of mali support agriculture? b) to what extent are icts used in the agricultural sector of mali? yusuf (2005), quoting hafkin (2002), argues that ict policies can be categorized as vertical, infrastructural, and horizontal policies. vertical ict policies address sectoral needs such as education, health, agriculture, and tourism. an infrastructural ict policy, on the other hand, deals with the development of national infrastructure such as telecommunication infrastructure. a horizontal ict policy deals with the impact of ict on broader aspects of society such as freedom of information sharing, tariffs, and pricing, privacy, and security. a national ict policy is a formal specification of the “objectives, goals, principles and strategies” that are “intended to direct and control” the implementation and application of icts (kunyenje, 2019:151). this study considered the mobile phone as the ict means used to deliver extension services to the farmer as the literature (aker et al., 2016; barakabitze et al., 2017; bertolini, 2004) reports that it is one of the best ways to disseminate agricultural information to farmers in africa. furthermore, the paper begins by reviewing the context of mali’s ict policy concerning agriculture. followed by a description of the theoretical framework underpinning the study. this is followed by the literature review and methodology sections. the results and discussion section presents the findings and discusses them considering the literature. finally, the study’s conclusion recalls the objectives and what was achieved as well as recommendations for further investigation. the conclusion also highlights the study’s limitations. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 100-117 issn: 1712-4441 104 literature review mali has experienced a slowdown in economic development since 2015, with a real gross domestic product (gdp) increase of 5.2 per cent (compared with 5.8 per cent in 2014) due to the poor performance of the agricultural sector with a growth rate of only 3.9 per cent, down from 14.8 per cent in 2014 (fao, 2017). agriculture accounts for more than 35 per cent of gdp and 80 per cent of overall malians’ livelihoods. the literacy rate is approximately 33.1% for adults (15 years and above). however, in rural areas, this rate is about 24.4% (instat, 2015). mali’s agriculture is dominated by small-scale farmers (68%) who contribute 37% to the country’s gdp (fao, 2013). cereals constitute the main part of the agricultural production of the country (aparisi & balie, 2013). the low agricultural production in mali has led to a low food security level. mali’s institut national de la statistique (2019) reports that about 33 per cent of households in rural areas in mali have difficulty in providing enough food for themselves. thus, there is a need to improve the country’s agricultural productivity. however, mali has established some policies to improve its agricultural productivity. mali’s main objectives of fostering socio-economic development and improving food security are expressed in four main documents: the growth and poverty reduction strategic framework 2012–2017 (cscrp), the agricultural orientation law (loa), the national food security strategy (snsa) and the strategic framework for economic recovery and sustainable development in mali 2016–2018 (credd) (fao, 2017). the trend of these policies for the agricultural sector has focussed on increasing domestic rice production, reforming the cotton sector, maintaining input subsidy programs, and improving access to land. nevertheless, there are still some challenges in mali’s agricultural sector. for instance, the food and agricultural organisation (fao, 2017) reports that mali’s (ict) policies present inconsistencies among overall policy objectives, measures adopted to pursue these objectives and the effects they generate. a literature review has revealed that only a few studies have been undertaken on the issue of an ict policy in the field of agriculture in malawi (kunyenje, 2019), kenya (waema et al., 2005), tanzania (bwalya & silumbe, 2007) and senegal (sagna, 2018). at the time when this study was conducted, there was no data available on an ict policy on agriculture in mali. hence, there is a need to investigate whether mali’s ict supports\ the agricultural sector and the extent to which it does so. theoretical background this study has used the theory of knowledge of foucault (1977). the theory draws a close link between knowledge and power. foucault (1977) maintains that human experience is based on communication, with structures arising from the rules of communication. furthermore, knowledge gives way to power that generates further knowledge. it is often assumed that whoever has knowledge or information is empowered and whoever lacks it, is incapacitated. in the case of an ict policy in agriculture, the concept of information is translated as the implementation of an ict policy (through the dissemination of agricultural information through ict) and power could be labelled as the farmers gaining knowledge on how to increase their productivity (through ict means). the literature (msoffe & ngulube, 2016) suggests that well-informed farmers the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 100-117 issn: 1712-4441 105 make wiser decisions which, in turn, results in an increase in agricultural yields (kante et al., 2019) and hence, more agricultural productivity (barakabitze, fue, & sanga, 2017; kante et al., 2017; siyao, 2012). however, for farmers to be empowered, the extension officers themselves need to be firstly empowered. the extension officers could be empowered by making ict tools such as cell phones available to them and by training them on their use. in the context of the theory of knowledge, an ict that supports agriculture (rq1) is related to the knowledge construct of the theory while the extent to which icts are used in the agricultural sector of mali (by extension officers) (rq2) is related to the power construct of the theory. the conceptual framework is hence displayed in figure 1 below. figure 1. conceptual framework material and methods this study was conducted using qualitative methods. qualitative research methods are used in the social sciences and particular management studies and applied social policy research (srivastava & thomson, 2009). data collection policy documents (qualitative data) were collected and analysed. as the introduction of ict in mali was traced back to the 1990s (kante et al., 2017), we collected policy documents that covered the period from 1991 to 2018. an online search was carried out in four academic databases (google scholar, researchgate, scopus, and web of science) and on the websites of mali’s regulatory services from august 2018 to may 2019. we were able to access 17 documents that reported on the laws, ordinances, and reports on icts. an initial screening of the search results led to a selection of 10 documents to be analysed (after removing duplicates). in addition to the policy documents, we interviewed ten (10) stakeholders in the field of ict and agriculture (policy-makers, agricultural extension officers and researchers). the sample size of 10 interviewees was acknowledged as adequate in previous qualitative studies (guest et al., 2006). the 10 stakeholders (one policy-maker, two ict4d researchers, three ict practitioners and four public extension officers) were from the autorité malienne de régulation des télécommunications, des technologies de l’information et de la communication et des postes (mali’s regulatory authority for telecommunication, information and communication technologies and postal services [amrtp]); agence des technologies the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 100-117 issn: 1712-4441 106 de l’information et de la communication (the information and communication technologies agency [agetic]) and the direction nationale de l’agriculture (national directory of agriculture [dna]). the choice of these three institutions was informed by the fact that: a) the amrtp is the ict regulatory authority in mali; therefore, it is supposed to be aware of any public policy on icts, including any policy that applies to the agricultural sector b) the agetic is the implementing agency of ict services of the state and implements all public policies in the field of ict c) the dna is also mali’s public extension service; hence, it was deduced that the dna should be aware of any existing public ict policy in agriculture and the current state of its application. data collected from these stakeholders was used to complement the policy documents to answer the research questions. data analysis the content analysis technique has been used to analyse the data coupled with a deductive approach. this technique has been widely applied in similar settings and recommended by various scholars (gomez, 2013; hsieh & shannon, 2005; kohlbacher, 2006; siyao, 2012). content analysis is a research method used for replicating and validating inferences from data to their contexts to provide knowledge, new insights, a representation of facts and a practical guide to action (elo & kyngäs, 2007). deductive content analysis is often used in cases where the researcher aims to retest existing data in a new context (catanzaro, 1988). this may also involve testing categories, concepts, models or hypotheses (elo & kyngäs, 2007). for the collected documents, the analysis process entailed checking whether one of the following terms was present in each of the 10 documents that were selected from the initial search: information and communications technology/technologies, ict, agriculture, agricultural, e-agriculture or agricultural extension. these terms constituted the first inclusion criterion for the study. only five documents met the inclusion criterion. since the study was only concerned with public policies on ict and agriculture, we applied another round of screening by searching for the words information and communication technology/technologies and agriculture/agricultural in the five documents. two of the five documents were then selected: the loi d’orientation agricole (loi) (law of agricultural orientation) and the stratégie nationale de développement de l’economie numérique (national strategy of development of the digital economy) (digital mali, 2015-2020). the final analysis then focused on these two documents. the interviews were transcribed and coded using the nvivo version 12 software. the first step of the analysis was to assign codes to the data (data from interviews and documents). secondly, we grouped these codes into categories. thirdly and finally, these categories were grouped to form the themes based on the research questions. these research questions were mapped to the constructs of the theory of knowledge as shown in table 1. the knowledge and power constructs were respectively operationalized as the rq1 and rq2. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 100-117 issn: 1712-4441 107 the codes, categories and themes used to answer the research questions are presented in table 1. the first theme of agricultural policy is found in the loi d’orientation agricole (loa) document. table 1. coding schemes codes categories themes research question theory of knowledge’s constructs gender in agriculture gender_in_agriculture agricultural policy to what extent does the national ict policy of mali support agricultur e knowledge lack participatory approach lack participatory approach farmers agricultural stakeholders ngo state department productivity productivity productivity to what extent are icts used in the agricultur al sector of mali power public policy public policy public policy horizontal policy horizontal policy ict ict ict4d ict4agtool encounter ict tool vertical policy vertical policy ict4ag policy lack participatory approach no ict4ag policy recommendation actions to be done recommendations the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 100-117 issn: 1712-4441 108 results and discussion this section presents and discusses the results. to what extent does the national ict policy of mali support agriculture (research question 1)? research question 1 (to what extent does the national ict policy of mali cater for agriculture?) was investigated using the loi d’orientation agricole (loa) (agricultural orientation law), the plan mali numerique 2020 pour le développement stratégique par les tic (2015-2020) and the interview data. firstly, we analysed the two documents by looking for the words tic (ict), agriculture, agricole (agricultural), e-agriculture, vulgarisation électronique (electronic extension) and e-extension. these words/phrases were completely absent in the loa, while they appeared in the second document. a word cloud depicting the results of the analysis of plan mali numerique 2020 pour le développement stratégique par les tic is presented in figure 2. these results reveal that certain words such as information, promotion, économie numérique (digital economy), technologies, productivité (productivity), connaissance (knowledge), accès (access) are present in the document. these depicted words can be linked to the creation or scaling up of a digital economy. . figure 2. word query results from the national strategy for the development of the digital economy document the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 100-117 issn: 1712-4441 109 furthermore, we looked at the nodes (codes) derived from the two documents. this revealed that the terms used in the documents were not linked to any action or objectives that could help to achieve the intended goals. only one node reported that “(the state should) increase the use of digital technology in all sectors of the national economy … (to) identify priority project leaders to implement with an appropriate business model in the areas of e-learning, e-health, e-commerce, e-tourism, e-agriculture, e-culture, etransport, etc.”. that node was not mentioned anywhere else neither in the plan mali numerique 2020 nor the loa document. ironically, the loa specified in title i, article 2: the agricultural orientation law covers all the economic activities of the agricultural and peri-agricultural sector including agriculture, livestock farming, fishing, and fish farming, aquaculture, bee-keeping, hunting, forestry, gathering, processing, transport, trade, distribution, and other agricultural services, as well as their social and environmental functions. can one achieve what is proposed in the loa without ict? the answer is “no”, according to recent literature (isaya, agunga, & sanga, 2018; lwoga, ngulube, & stilwell, 2010; kante et al., 2019). furthermore, kante & ndayizigamiye (2020) argue that an (ict) policy comprises the content, context, actors and process that are interrelated. in the case of mali, that has not been the case, as the content (objectives) and the actors (extension services through the loa) of the ict policy are not related. hence, we can conclude by arguing that the ict policy barely addresses the agricultural sector in mali. this conclusion is corroborated by findings from the interviews. for instance, one interviewee, when asked if the ict policy dealt adequately with the agricultural sector in mali, said, “. . . not at all . . .” on the same question, another said that “i do not think that the state has nothing to do with the use of ict in extension services . . . it is our personnel initiatives . . . in koulikoro, we have only 175 extension officers to serve more than 1,000 villages. could you imagine that ratio farmer to extension officer? has the state given us any mobile phone? no!!!! the state cannot hire more extension officers . . . the least that they can do is to provide us with mobile phones, airtime so that we can reach more farmers.” other responses included “i cannot tell”, “i do not know”, “. . . maybe but not sure . . .”, “. . . i have not seen any document regarding ict policy in agriculture”, “i do not think so . . . we have elaborated the agricultural orientation law, the content of which we do not know. there has not been sufficient upstream work on this document . . . and it does not consider ict.” we can, therefore, argue that the ict policy does not adequately deal with agriculture in mali. a note of caution is drawn here since we were looking at the policy from the view of extension officers (practitioners). a contrasting point on the same question came from one interviewee (an ict practitioner): “. . . we (agetic) are working with un women on the project buy from women mali.buy-from-women.org . . . that means that the state through us (agetic) is doing something towards ict application in agriculture.” for this interviewee, the state is “doing something about ict in agriculture”. one could now ask if this was the result of a policy or not. our dataset did not reveal any results suggesting that the “. . . doing something about ict in agriculture” is the result of a policy. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 100-117 issn: 1712-4441 110 to what extent are icts used in the agricultural sector of mali (research question 2)? research question 2 was answered using data from the interviews and the policy documents. more than 80 per cent of those interviewed reported that icts played a role in mali’s agricultural sector. when asked whether they had met or worked with an ict based agricultural extension service, about 50 per cent responded positively with a “yes” answer. however, naming these icts was problematic for most of them. only the ict practitioners from agetic and two other extension officers could report the name of ict-based extension service. the reported ict-based extension services were myagro (n’gasene), senekela from orange mali, buyfromwomen and mali agro météo. myagro is a private extension service that helps farmers obtain information that can help increase their crop yields such as using modern planting techniques. it uses the platform (ict tool for extension services) n’gasene. the service further provides access to simple agricultural machinery that can make agricultural work more efficient and effective, and eventually helps farmers generate more profits from their produce (kante et al., 2019). senekela is an ict valueadded service (vas) launched by orange mali (network provider) in 2014 in the region of sikasso. it has set up a call centre with agronomists who advise farmers in french and in bambara (a local language) on issues related to farm inputs such as planting methods, the use of seeds and fertilisers, sowing times, market prices and other agricultural issues (kante et al., 2017). un women is piloting buyfromwomen, a data-driven enterprise platform that combines an open-source end-to-end, cloud-based and mobile-enabled supply chain system to connect women farmers to information, finance and markets (unwomen, 2017). this product innovation enables women farmers to have a better understanding of their business lifecycle. it provides real-time reports in dashboard form of key performance indicators, including forecast yields and sales revenue (unwomen, 2017). the only public tool reported is mali agro météo, which is deployed at the weather agency (mali météo). three main points can be derived here: a) public agricultural extension agents (often) use ict tools in their work. b) these tools are not made available to them by their services (or department). c) the private sector might be working with these public agricultural extension services. the pending question is whether the use of ict tools is driven by the state policy or whether it is isolated actions of these public extension officers. to that observation, the respondents (the extension officers) reported that “[o]ur (extension) department does not have an ict based extension service, i only saw it when the private services came to present theirs” (i.e. the ict tool senekela or n’gasene). an apparent interesting point is that some respondents reported that the ict policy in agriculture had been implemented. for instance, a respondent, when asked if the state had implemented the ict policy in agriculture, reported, “. . .of course, through the agetic, which is a state-owned technological agency attached to the ministry of digital economy and foresight”. however, the data from the interviews showed that agetic was the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 100-117 issn: 1712-4441 111 working with the un women on ict-based agricultural information dissemination called “buyfromwomen”. this application (app) was neither known to the extension services department nor to the policymakers whom we interviewed. this meant that it was out of the reach of the extension services. the explanation could be that the external actor (un women) was playing a key role in the implementation of the policy but that agetic, mali’s department that was supposed to disseminate the policy to the other departments (extension services), had not yet done so. this explanation was supported by the policy process theory of makoza and chigona (2013). the theory stipulated that the policy implementation was done through activities of the executive departments of the state. these departments in our case included agetic and the dna (extension services). since the respondents did not report any activity of the dna related to an ict policy in agriculture, we could say that the implementation of the policy remained an issue. based on the above results and observations, it is difficult to ascertain that the current ict policy caters for agriculture in mali. it is true that the analysis of the document mali numerique 2020 indicates the adoption of ict in agriculture (electronic agriculture and agriculture based on information and communication technologies). however, this document is barely linked to the loa. it is based on the analysis of the loa document which clearly reveals that the words/terms tic, e-agriculture, technologies de l’information et de la communication are missing from that document. the loa aims to promote a sustainable, modern and competitive agriculture relying first and foremost on recognized and secure agricultural family farms by maximizing the country’s agroecological potential and agricultural know-how, and the creation of an environment conducive to the development of a structured agricultural sector (loi d’orientation agricole, 2006). can the loa policy achieve it without icts? this is not possible, according to many studies (aker et al., 2016; kunyenje & chigona, 2019; kante et al., 2019). several other studies in mali (de la rive box et al., 2015; kante et al., 2019; palmer, 2011; palmer, 2015), tanzania (barakabitze et al., 2017; isaya et al., 2018), kenya (wyche & steinfield, 2015) and china (amin & li, 2014; zhang et al., 2016) have also pinpointed that this cannot be achieved without the use of icts. however, almost all respondents reported a similar recommendation which was “the state (of mali) must integrate ict in the agricultural production process”. a public agricultural extension officer reported that this could be done by “training extension agents on icts” while another respondent indicated that this could be achieved by reporting “(and) provid[ing] an ict-based agricultural extension service for the dna and its departments everywhere in the country”. furthermore, there was a lack of vertical policy in the field of ict for agriculture (and perhaps in many other fields) in mali. the amrtp did not have any framework on ict implementation in the agricultural sector. this corroborated the findings of yusuf (2005), who indicated 15 years ago that the vertical policy had been neglected. it also pointed to the poor state of vertical ict policy research in mali and elsewhere, as reported by gillwald (2010) and heeks (2007). implications of the implementation of an ict policy in agriculture in mali the agricultural sector accounts for more than 35 per cent of the gdp of mali (fao, 2017). it is dominated by small-scale farmers (68%) (aparisi & balie, 2013). the agricultural sector in mali is characterised by low productivity (kante et al., 2019) due to many factors such as drought, lack of extension services (with a ratio of 11,891 farmers for one extension officer), amongst many others. this has resulted in lower food security the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 100-117 issn: 1712-4441 112 levels in mali where 37.7 per cent of households have difficulty nourishing themselves (instat, 2014). food insecurity is, therefore, a concern for farmers, researchers, the practitioner (extension officers), policymakers and the general population. one way to address the issue of low productivity in the agriculture sector is through the use of information and communication technologies (icts) (isaya et al., 2018; kante et al., 2019) to disseminate extension services to farmers. in the context of this study, agricultural information (the knowledge construct of the theory of knowledge) acquired through ict may empower (power construct of the theory of knowledge) extension officers to guide farmers in their quest to increase productivity. in this case, farmers will gain basic knowledge to increase their agricultural productivity (msoffe & ngulube, 2017). however, to achieve this, there should be a policy that guides extension officers on how to disseminate extension services using ict. the use of ict will empower them to reach more farmers (aker et al., 2016; sylla et al., 2019). without appropriate policies, the use of ict by (public) extension services will remain problematic. in other words, without an adequate implementation of an ict policy in agriculture (by extension services) the outcome (productivity) will remain problematic. that is why many of the respondents of this study reported as a recommendation that “it (the state) must integrate ict into the agricultural production process” / “i think that the state must be able to put valid conditions to make a political policy (on ict in agriculture)” / “given the importance of icts in development in general and the agricultural sector in particular, the state must invest in supporting the capacities of the structures (public extension services) in this area to ensure the growth of the country.” in conclusion, low productivity can be linked to the state not having developed a clear and comprehensible ict policy. this confirms the report from the fao (2017), stating that mali’s policies present inconsistencies within overall policy objectives, measures adopted to pursue these objectives and the effects they generate. therefore, concerning the theory of knowledge, without information (without a policy that guides how ict should be applied in agriculture) at the disposal of extension officers, these officers continue to lack the knowledge that forms the basis for extending their services to empower farmers. conclusion this study set to analyse the implementation of the national ict policy in agriculture in mali using the theory of knowledge as the theoretical lens. specifically, the study responded to two research questions: a) to what extent does the national ict policy of mali support agriculture? b) to what extent are icts used in the agricultural sector? findings from this study revealed that current mali’s ict policy does not adequately deal with agriculture. regarding the second research question, we pointed out that the extension officers were not empowered (enough) by the ict policy to use ict-based extension services for agricultural information dissemination towards farmers as suggested by the theory of knowledge. so far, the current ict policy has not translated into an increase in agricultural productivity in mali. it will then be of interest for mali to have a policy that provides guidelines on how to use ict in agriculture to increase agricultural production and food security. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 100-117 issn: 1712-4441 113 this study did not investigate the opinions of farmers regarding the implementation and use of ict in agriculture, which is a limitation. therefore, it is recommended that a followup study involving farmers (as participants) be undertaken. furthermore, a quantitative study could be devised to investigate the factors (and their interactions) that lead to the current status quo (about 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(2005). information and communication technology and education : analysing the nigerian national policy for information technology. international education journal, 6(3), 316–321. zhang, y., wang, l., & duan, y. (2016). agricultural information dissemination using icts: a review and analysis of information dissemination models in china. information processing in agriculture, 3(1), 17–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inpa.2015.11.002 the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 45 article ict framework to support a patient-centric approach in public healthcare: a case study of malawi richard pankomera darelle van greunen centre for community technologies, school of ict, nelson mandela university, south africa rkbpankomera@yahoo.com centre for community technologies, school of ict, nelson mandela university, south africa darelle.vangreunen@mandela.ac.za although information and communication technologies (icts) in the healthcare sector are extensively being deployed globally, they are not used effectively in developing countries. many resource-poor countries face numerous challenges in implementing ict interventions. for instance, most health applications deployed in malawi are not user-centric. as a result, such ict interventions do not benefit many health consumers. furthermore, the dearth of a patient-centric ict framework in malawi renders ehealth and mhealth interventions less sustainable and less cost effective. the aim of this study is therefore to develop an ict framework that will support patient-centric healthcare services in the public health sector in malawi. the comprehensive literature review and semi-structured interviews highlighted many challenges underlying ict development in malawi. this ict framework was validated by five experts selected from different areas of expertise including mhealth application developers, ict policy makers, and public health practitioners in malawi. results show that the framework is relevant, useful, and applicable within the context of malawi’s public health sector. the framework can also be implemented in various countries with similar settings. this paper builds on the proposal made earlier on the formulation of an ict framework for patient-centric care in malawi. pankomera, r. and van greunen, d. (2020). ict framework to support a patient-centric approach in public healthcare: a case study of malawi. the journal of community informatics, 16, 45-76. copyright (c), 2020 (the author as stated). licensed under the creative commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike 2.5. available at: https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/index mailto:rkbpankomera@yahoo.com mailto:darelle.vangreunen@mandela.ac.za https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/joci/index the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 46 introduction despite the wide usage of information and communication technologies (icts) in the healthcare sector in the world, many developing countries do not effectively utilize these new technologies. a number of ehealth and mhealth applications have been deployed within the malawi healthcare context. such initiatives include the development of the health management information system (hmis) across the country in 2002 and the webbased district health information software (dhis) in 2009. currently, dhis2 has been rolled in all the district hospitals of malawi (chikumba, 2017). however, the malawi public health sector faces a myriad of challenges, including the following: inadequate ict infrastructure; poor maintenance strategies for ict equipment in health facilities; lack of standards for smooth integration and interoperability of multiple systems; lack of policies to support governance of the ict infrastructure; major gaps in ict knowledge; and a lack of sustainability strategies for implemented or proposed systems (ministry of health ehealth strategy, 2014; ministry of health and population information systems strategy, 2017). these challenges are exacerbated by insufficient funding since the health budget for malawi is heavily dependent upon donors (borghi, munthali, million, & martinez-alvarez, 2018). as a result, such ict interventions do not benefit many healthcare consumers. this means that many patients do not make full use of these ict interventions. in fact, it is a concern that most of the data from hmis is not used for decision making because the data are usually incorrect, incomplete, and untimely (ministry of health and population information systems strategy, 2017). despite having many mhealth projects in malawi, most of these are not centrally run and coordinated by the government. as a result, these mobile health projects are duplicated, leading to a waste of resources. some are even difficult to scale up to other locations since these mhealth projects only focus on specific areas of health interventions (pankomera & van greunen, 2018). the lack of an ict framework to support patient-centric healthcare services in malawi renders the ehealth and mobile health interventions less sustainable and less cost effective. the aim of the study was therefore to develop an ict framework to support patient-centric healthcare services in the public health sector in malawi. a patient-centric healthcare approach enables the patient to take full ownership responsibility of their own health and well-being. this approach strives to provide healthcare services based on the preferences, beliefs, and values of the healthcare consumer (allen, stewart, roberts, & sigal, 2017). it is therefore envisaged that the proposed ict framework will act like a reference tool for the deployment of ict interventions for patient-centric care. this framework could also be applied in other developing countries that face similar challenges. adhering to the ict framework will also ensure that mhealth and ehealth interventions are scalable and sustainable. the next section therefore discusses the literature review of the research study. literature review this section gives an overview of the context of the study, and the approaches to the healthcare services in the public health sector in malawi. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 47 public health landscape in malawi the healthcare system in malawi is mainly composed of the public health sector and private health sector. the private health sector is further divided into private-for-profit (pfp) and private-not-for-profit (pnfp) sectors. pfp comprises private hospitals, clinics, laboratories, pharmacies, and even traditional healers. pnfp sectors are usually religious institutions, non-governmental organisations (ngos), statutory corporations, and companies. in malawi, the christian health association of malawi (cham) is a prominent religious healthcare provider. it offers approximately 29% of all healthcare services in malawi (ministry of health and population information systems strategy, 2017). unlike the public sector, most pfp providers charge user fees for their services. there are four levels in the public health system in malawi namely: community, primary, secondary, and tertiary and an established referral system links all these tiers (ministry of health, 2017). the ministry of health (moh) is responsible for formulating policies for the healthcare system in malawi. most of the healthcare services are offered by the moh. this implies that a small proportion of the population of malawi receive healthcare services from the private sector. in each of the 28 districts in malawi, hospitals provide secondary level care services. ict development underlying public healthcare in malawi health management information system (hmis) an integrated routine health management information system (hmis) was introduced in the public health sector in malawi in 2002. the aim of the system was to integrate all routine data collection activities and to decentralize the generation of information activities (chikumba, 2017). the integrated hmis had the following subsystems: financial management information system (ifmis); human resource management information system (hrmis); logistic and supply management information system (lmis); and physical assets management information system (pamis). currently, the web-based district health information system (dhis2) has been successfully rolled out to all the 28 districts in malawi (ministry of health and population information systems strategy, 2017). electronic medical records (emrs) and electronic health records (ehrs) a number of non-governmental organisations have developed a number of emrs and ehrs to address specific needs of the health sectors in malawi. some of the modules developed so far, border on the management of the following areas: antiretroviral therapy (art), outpatient department (opd), general patient registration, antenatal care (anc), maternity, and chronic care. table 1 highlights some of emrs and ehrs in malawi and their respective locations where they are implemented. table 1: emrs and ehrs in malawi no provider emrs and ehrs aim location 1 baobab trust (baobab health trust 2020) tb electronic health record system • martin preuss centre -bwaila hospital in lilongwe the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 48 no provider emrs and ehrs aim location improve the management and prevention of tb • mchinji district hospital • ntchisi district hospital • limbe health centre in blantyre national art system improve hiv/aids management, prevention, and treatment • health facilities, district • central hospitals antenatal care (anc) system improve the continuum care of pregnant women • health facilities, district, • central hospitals electronic birth registration system laboratory information management system capture births in health facilities improve the management, storage, and reporting of lab data • health facilities, district, • central hospitals hiv testing and counselling system improve hiv testing and counselling • health facilities, district, • central hospitals electronic death registration system improve the recording of certified deaths • health facilities, district, and central hospitals 2 luke international (luke international malawi 2020) anc hiv compute radiography improve the management of hiv, radiology, and antenatal services • mzuzu central hospital • rumphi hospital 3 medecins sans frontieres – malawi (medecins sans frontieres malawi 2020) circle of care system improve the management of hiv and tb • chiradzulu, • nsanje. • lilongwe • dedza, • blantyre, • zalewa 4 nkhoma mission hospital(memory business solutions 2018) afyapro 2.0 connected care system improve patient record management and billing processes • nkhoma hospital in lilongwe 5 jsi (gilbert et al., 2020) logistics management information systems improve the procurement of medical goods and services • some districts in malawi the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 49 mobile health systems there are also mobile health systems that have been deployed to complement emrs and hmis. mhealth applications target various areas of health interventions such as maternal and child health, supply chain management, women’s health, and childcare (groupe speciale mobile association, 2014). table 2 illustrates names of mhealth projects, mode of delivery, target audience of the mhealth project, and reported benefits realised from the system (malanga & chigona, 2018; pankomera & van greunen, 2018). furthermore, table 2 depicts that sms is a predominantly mode of delivery of health information for mhealth applications. table 2: mhealth projects in malawi name of mhealth mode of delivery target audience benefits chipatala cha pa foni [ccpf] (health centre by phone (village reach 2020) voice, sms, apps pregnant women, community health workers, caregivers • improved antenatal care • increased use of bed nets • early initiation for breastfeeding • increased knowledge of maternal health • increased home and family-based care rapidsms: nutrition surveillance project (clinton health access, 2020) sms, web nutrition managers, health surveillance assistants (hsas) • improved nutrition community case management (rodríguez, banda, & namakhoma, 2015) apps community health workers (chws) • improved drug consumption and stock outs • increased satisfaction from caregivers about services remindmi (groupe speciale mobile association, 2014) sms hsas, mothers through hsas • increased in timely attendance of hospital by patients • reduction in missed or delayed client appointments the malawi k4health mobile learning pilot (cunningham et al., 2016) sms chws • timely reporting of side effects • timely information about supervisory support visits • teleconsulting partners in health – yendanafe (partners in health 2020) sms and apps chws • early detection, referral, and treatment of hiv, malnutrition and maternal health the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 50 challenges in implementing hmis in malawi implementation of hmis and mobile health projects suffer from a couple of challenges as discussed in the subsequent sections. 1. inadequate monitoring and evaluation health information system (mehis) human resources. there are only nine positions to monitor the complex hmis at the national level. most established positions remain vacant. furthermore, training for new hmis staff is also inadequate (ministry of health and population information systems strategy, 2017). 2. over-reliance on manual data collection tools. over 90% of registers and data collection tools in various health facilities in malawi are paper-based (ministry of health and population information systems strategy, 2017). paper-based data collection tools are bulky, inefficient, inconvenient, and costly. 3. lack of coordination in implementing mehis activity. most activities within the hmis are not harmoniously coordinated. this results in misallocation of resources and duplication of activities. there are also parallel reporting structures that lead to data redundancy and interoperability problems (ministry of health, 2017). 4. poor data quality. there is evidence that data from the dhis2 are not usually used for decision making because these data are inaccurate and sometime unavailable. there are still some discrepancies between the data in registers or reporting forms and the data in the dhis2 (ministry of health and population information systems strategy, 2017; o'hagan et al., 2017). challenges in mobile health systems 1. poor ict infrastructure. there is still a relatively low level of mobile penetration with 39.01% mobile subscriptions in 2018 in malawi (statista inc., 2020). additionally, poor network coverage and high internet tariffs negatively affect the accessibility of mhealth applications by health consumers and providers (pankomera & van greunen, 2018). 2. lack of coordination. most pilot mobile health projects are not centrally managed by the government. as a consequence, their results are not propagated to other projects. moreover, fragmentation in mhealth service delivery leads to inefficient use and misallocation of scarce resources. (pankomera & van greunen, 2018). 3. lack of human skills and development. inadequate skilled personnel such as systems analysts and programmers still remain a challenge in developing mhealth applications. reliance on expatriates compromises the sustainability of projects (ministry of health and population human resources, 2018; pankomera & van greunen, 2018). the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 51 4. cultural barriers. change of mindset due to cultural values has an impact on adopting mhealth technology. for instance, during the assessment of chipatala project, it was highlighted that women were reluctant to reveal their estimated delivery date of their pregnancy to a person they did not know. this was likely to have an impact on the adoption of the mhealth project (malanga & chigona, 2018). 5. intermittent power supply. most rural areas, where mhealth projects are, have no electricity. furthermore, the supply of electricity in malawi is not reliable. the intermittent power supply has a negative impact on the operations of mhealth applications (malanga & chigona, 2018; pankomera & van greunen, 2018). patient health care approaches there are many approaches to providing quality care services to healthcare consumers. these approaches define the level of relationships between the patient and a healthcare provider. three approaches of patient health care discussed in the subsequent sections, are (1) provider or physician centred approach, (2) patient-centred care, and (3) patientcentric care. the provider or physician centred care this healthcare approach is paternalistic in which the physician assumes a leading role in treating a patient (franzen, 2017). the assumption is that the health professionals have the medical knowledge and as such they can make the best decision for their patients. this healthcare approach is predominantly being used in malawi. patient-centred care this approach aims at providing healthcare services based on the values, preferences, and needs of a patient (fix et al., 2018). the following are the dimensions of patient-centred care: coordination and integration of care, patient empowerment with information, involvement of family and friends in patients care, physical and emotional support for patients (picker, 2015). patient-centric care patient-centricity is a dynamic process through which the patient regulates the flow of information via multiple pathways in order to exercise choices that are consistent with their preferences, values, and beliefs (leecher, 2012; robbins, curro, & fox, 2013). this approach is different from the patient-centric care in which the patient takes the ownership of their health and well-being. for the purposes of this study, the patient-centric approach is more than patient-centred care that embraces the dynamic and continuous doctor and patient relationship with a focus on preventive care rather curative care (pankomera & van greunen, 2017). family-centred care the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 52 this approach provides healthcare services to children and members of the family as a whole entity (uniacke, browne, & shields, 2018). woman-centred care the woman-centred care focuses on the needs of a woman such as antenatal care, reproductive health (floris, irion, bonnet, politis mercier, & de labrusse, 2018). relationship-centred care in general, relationship-centred care promotes the caring of individuals so that they feel a sense of security, continuity, belonging, and worth in a relationship (soklaridis, ravitz, adler nevo, & lieff, 2016). benefits of patient-centric care this study adopts the patient-centric approach owing to its various benefits. firstly, the adoption of patient-centric care promotes health literacy since a patient is empowered to make informed health decisions after understanding basic health information (uddin, 2016). second, shared decision-making entails that patients become active partners with health professionals in choosing a particular healthcare option (vahdat, hamzehgardeshi, hessam, & hamzehgardeshi, 2014). third, the notion of self-care enables a patient to take an active role in the management of own health and wellbeing. an active healthcare consumer becomes well informed and therefore makes informed decisions about their own health (pankomera & van greunen, 2016). fourth, patience safety is also considered as healthcare providers can work in collaboration with patients to reduce adverse outcomes. fifth, the patient-centric care model advocates equal accessibility of healthcare services irrespective of one’s affordability to pay for such services. for instance, new modes of communication such as e-mails, video conferencing, and mobile phones have assisted to widen access to healthcare services these modes of communication have subsequently promoted patient experience in such a way that patients get engaged in developing, planning and implementing healthcare interventions (rigby et al., 2015), theoretical background the development of the proposed ict framework was based upon a combination of integrated patient-centred model (icd) and user-centred design (ucd) model. the integrated patient-centred (icd) this model has a number of aspects of dimensions namely principles, enablers, and activities. first, the principles of the model include the essential characteristics of the clinician, good clinician-patient relationship, a patient being treated as a unique person, recognition of patient’s biological, psychological, and social characteristics. second, the enabler aspect of the model comprises the following: available access to care, better coordination and continuity of care, teamwork and teambuilding, integration of medical and non-medical care to better support the patient and clinician-patient communication. third, the activities aspect incorporates the sharing of knowledge and information, patient involvement in care, families, and friends involvement to support the patient care, patient the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 53 empowerment, physical and emotional support (scholl, zill, härter, & dirmaier, 2014). the motivation for choosing icd in this study is that it focuses on the integration of patient-centred health services thereby making healthcare delivery more accessible, sustainable, efficient, and cost effective. the user centred design (ucd) this framework is usually used as the basis for the development of useful and usable ehealth or mhealth applications. this human-centred design process focuses on the user needs and requirements as they are involved at each stage of the design process. this approach ensures that tasks and actions are easily determined and visible to the users. the basic steps of the ucd are identifying a need; specifying the context of use; specifying requirements; developing and evaluating design solutions (us dept. of health and human services, 2018 ). ). ucd was used in this study because it focuses on the user when designing health applications thereby making them more useful and usable. the proposed ict framework is expected to support the patient-centric healthcare services in the malawi public health sector. it is therefore envisaged that this framework will be used by software developers, policy makers, and regulators to ensure that ict interventions in the health sector are patient-centric. furthermore, the framework can also act as a model for other ict interventions with similar settings in the healthcare around the world. the next section discusses the methodology that was followed during the research study. methodology this section endeavours to elucidate the research objectives and the research design process of the research study. it also discusses data collection methods and data analysis techniques that were used during the research. research objectives the primary objective of this research was to develop an ict framework that can support patient-centric healthcare approach in malawi. to accomplish the aforementioned primary research objective, the following secondary research questions were formulated: a) what are the challenges underlying the healthcare ict development in the public sector in malawi? b) what are the components of an ict framework that can support a patient-centric approach in malawi? methods the research followed the philosophy and paradigm of design science. by definition, design science is the paradigm that produces an artifact by providing a technological solution to a social problem within a particular context (vaishnavi & kuechler, 2015). semi-structured interviews and comprehensive literature review were used to collect qualitative data. thematic content analysis technique was employed to analyze data that the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 54 were obtained from semi-structured interviews. the ict framework for patient-centric healthcare services is therefore the output artifact, which focuses on technology-based solutions within the public health sector in malawi. to ensure the rigor of the ict framework, the artifact was validated by experts who had diverse backgrounds. the paper subsequently serves as the last step of the design science process to communicate the artifact to a technology-oriented audience in the form of a peer reviewed publication (vaishnavi & kuechler, 2015). research design process the research design process is divided into four major phases namely problem identification, framework development, evaluation, and conclusion (vaishnavi & kuechler, 2015). figure 1 depicts the research design process that follows the concept of design science in which each step is iterative. the figure shows that each of the objectives has to iteratively undergo the following phases: awareness, suggestion, and development. as a logical argumentation, abduction was used in the awareness and suggestion phase while deduction was employed in the development phase. inductive reasoning was used to understand the contextual health landscape in the public health sector in malawi while deductive reasoning used logical premises to a reach a conclusion that informed the development of an ict framework. furthermore, the ict framework development followed 8 steps as proposed by (jabareen, 2009). the following are the steps employed in constructing a conceptual ict framework: mapping the selected data sources; extensive reading and categorizing of the selected data; identifying and naming concepts; deconstructing and categorizing the concepts; integrating concepts; synthesis and re-synthesis; ensuring it all make sense; validating the conceptual framework; and rethinking the conceptual framework. these steps are also illustrated in figure 2 and are also further explained in subsequent sections. furthermore, the ict framework evaluation tool was developed and administered online by the experts. this tool consisted of major components of the ict framework, such as contextual setting, legal setting, and non-functional attributes of the artifact. the experts were requested to rate the phases and their related activities based on the importance of the component from their point of view. they were also given an option to recommend either to add or remove some components from the proposed ict framework. data collection qualitative data were collected to achieve the development of the ict framework which was proposed to support patient-centric healthcare services. the first step of mapping data sources of the ict framework used comprehensive literature and semi-structured interviews with a total of 16 participants. a profile of participants is attached in appendix 1 and a sample of questions in appendix 2. the participants were drawn from health providers, policy makers, software developers and ict regulators. a purposeful sampling technique was used to select the participants. this technique was chosen because of the varying backgrounds and expertise of the participants. this purposeful sampling was combined with a snowball sampling in which some experts were allowed to suggest more participants that had a particular expertise in a specific field. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 55 before the interviews were conducted, informed consent was requested from the participants. the interviews were audio recorded by the researcher. additional written notes were also taken. on average, each interview took approximately 30 minutes. the participants for the interviews were drawn from all three regions of the country namely the northern region, central region, and southern region. the questions during the interview comprised four sections. the first section was on the biographical data included the experience levels, areas of expertise and highest academic qualification. the next section solicited information on the challenges underlying the ict development in the public healthcare sector. this was followed by a section on the status of electronic health and mobile health applications in the public health sector in malawi. another section sought information about the requirements of an ict framework. the last section bordered on the availability and feasibility of patient-centric healthcare services in malawi. results and findings this section explains the process of the formulation of the ict framework. the major components of the ict framework are further discussed. data analysis thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data of the research study. this analysis followed the six steps of thematic analysis ((braun & clarke, 2006). audio recorded interviews were transcribed. each participant was given a code identifier to ensure anonymity. the duration for transcribing each interview was approximately one and half hours. transcriptions were typed in microsoft word 2016 and later imported into a qualitative data analysis software called atlas.ti version 7.5.10. the analysis process started with the identification of preliminary codes, which indicated the context of conversation. these preliminary codes were combined or split depending on their relevance to the research questions of the study. this phase produced more codes, subthemes, and themes, which were later redefined or renamed. the frequency of each code was important as it determined its grounding in the study. the whole coding process was iterated to ensure accuracy and completeness of the themes. this process was further validated by an independent peer researcher. challenges underlying ict development in public health care the comprehensive literature study and findings from the semi-structured interviews highlighted many challenges underlying the ict development in the public health sector. first, there is inadequate human capacity to sustain ict interventions. one participant who leads a team of ict health applications in a non-governmental organization stated: “there are few systems analysts and programmers to develop healthcare systems.” participant 8 (p8). second, inadequate ict skills for healthcare and medical professionals compromise the quality of delivery healthcare services. this challenge was echoed by another interviewee the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 56 who said “sometimes, ict is taken as a barrier to the operations of a healthcare practitioner” (p2). third, there is a gross inadequate funding in the public health sector as was bemoaned by another participant heading one of the ict sections in the ministry of health, “...the funding is not enough, and sometimes it comes haphazardly.” this interviewee further bemoaned that “…the lack of funding contributes to adequate ict infrastructure and equipment...”(p6). figure 1 research design process adapted from (vaishnavi & kuechler, 2015) the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 57 fourth, there is a lack of coordination in ehealth and mhealth interventions. according to one interviewee, “ngos ict interventions are localized and have difficulties in rolling out to other communities and therefore there is no continuity when a pilot project is phased out” (p6). fifth, there is unreliable power supply. a user of the health information management system at a central hospital said, “when there is no power, we do not do any work here, and the system is not connected to the backup power.” six, there are no standards for data, security, and architecture for interoperability of multiple systems. one interviewer commented “we have many systems that do not talk to each other...” (p2). seventh, there is a resistance to embrace new technology. one interviewee said, “there is a mentality among the health professionals and others that the ict intervention may take up their jobs.” a number of participants indicated that ict can be a catalytic factor to enhance patient satisfaction in the delivery of healthcare services. one participant said, “we need to have systems that are friendly and easy to use, just as in perceived ease of use of applications.” on the sustainability of mhealth and health projects another interviewee suggested that, “there is a need for a regulatory framework to evaluate projects”( p7). emerging major themes the analysis produced broad themes such as contextual factors, legal frameworks, health applications, patient-centric care services, monitoring and evaluation. table 3. themes and subthemes for requirements of the ict framework main theme subtheme categories context • technology • ict infrastructure • technical skills (human capacity) • research and education technology • knowledge management tools • health facilities and equipment • availability of technological facilities • social • literacy/education levels • acceptance of new technological change • population growth rate • health and safety awareness • cultural values, attitude, and beliefs • ethics • economical • funding levels • poverty levels • affordability of medical healthcare scheme • employment opportunities • political • political will/ support the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 58 main theme subtheme categories • political stability • corruption levels legal framework • policies • ict policies • strategies • ehealth strategies • standards • mhealth strategies • regulation • interoperability standards • legislation • regulatory bodies • health and safety laws • privacy and security laws health applications • non -functional attributes • accessibility, integrity, accuracy, uniqueness, availability, simplicity, flexibility, reliability, scalability, mobility robustness, usefulness, usability, auditability, valuable • applications • portal, telemedicine • electronic medical records • personal health records • electronic health records stakeholder • policy makers • ict and health policy makers • ict regulators • malawi communications and regulatory authority • monitoring and evaluation team • system developers • health consumer • health provider patient-centric services • principles • essential characters of a clinician • patient being treated as a unique person • recognition of patient’s biopsychosocial characteristics • clinician-patient relationship • enabler • access to care • better coordination and continuity • teamwork and teambuilding • integration of medical and nonmedical care • clinician-patient communication • activities • sharing of knowledge and information the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 59 main theme subtheme categories • patient empowerment • physical and emotional support • families and friends’ support care • patient involvement in care development of the framework the following steps describe how the framework was formulated as illustrated in figure 2. step 1: map the selected data source the semi-structured interview was used to gather the primary source of data while a comprehensive literature review was a secondary method. it is noteworthy that a combination of literature review and semi-structured interviews were purposely designed to ensure data triangulation. coupled with the researcher’s personal experience and technical background, existing theories were used in formulating a patient-centric ict framework for the public healthcare sector in malawi. step 2: reading and categorising of data. data from a comprehensive literature review were compared with that from the semi structured interviews to answer the research question. the resultant data were further categorised according to its relevance and importance. some preliminary emerged categories are challenges underlying ict development in the public healthcare sector in malawi; and components requirements for an ict framework to support patient-centric healthcare services in malawi. these preliminary categories provided vital inputs into the formulation of an ict framework for patient-centric healthcare services in the public healthcare sector in malawi. step 3: identifying and naming the concepts this step involves re-reading the data sources to understand various categories and emerging concepts. it is an iterative process that requires going through previous steps again. step 4: deconstructing and categorizing the concepts analysis of various concepts from the previous steps culminated in a number of different themes and subthemes. in this case, names, attributes, assumptions, roles, and descriptions of concepts and categories were further refined. step 5: integrating concepts the main themes from the thematic analysis of the semi-structured interviews were subsequently compared with factors from the comprehensive literature review. table 3 outlines a summary of some themes and subthemes for the ict framework that can support patient-centric health services in malawi. based on similarities and differences, various themes were merged into major concepts as depicted in table 4. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 60 step 6: synthesising and re-synthesising to make sense of the data. the major themes and concepts from the previous step were synthesized to formulate the proposed ict framework. this was an iterative process aiming at making sense from the data so as to create the aforementioned theoretical framework (jabareen, 2009). the figure 3 depicts the proposed ict framework for the support of patient-centric healthcare services. figure 2: research process for developing ict framework (jabareen, 2009) step 1: mapping the selected data sources step 2: extensive reading and categorizing of the selected data step 3: identifying and naming concepts step 4: deconstructing and categorizing the concepts step 5: integrating concepts; synthesis and re-synthesis step 6: making it all make sense step 7: validating the conceptual framework step 8: rethinking the conceptual framework semi structured interview and literature review • preliminary codes and categories reanalysing the categories split or merge categories major codes emerge theoretical framework formulation test the relevance of framework incorporate suggestions from validation process the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 61 step 7: validating the conceptual framework this step ensures that the proposed framework is relevant and useful so that it meets the needs of the stakeholders within the context of the study. most experts recommended that the framework is relevant. a few experts suggested that some components were not very important. some of the features suggested to be added were cultural aspects, religious aspects, and means of sustaining health applications. these features were put into the framework under some relevant major components. for example, the cultural aspect was incorporated into the contextual component of the framework. furthermore, although there were some disagreements on political will, over 60% agreed that it has a significant role in health systems. with a number of suggested modifications, the experts unanimously agreed that the framework was relevant, useful, and applicable within the setting of malawi. step 8: rethinking the conceptual framework the suggestions from the validation process were then analyzed and incorporated into the final ict framework. this dynamic framework can also be customised to be redeployed in developing countries with similar settings. table 4: emerging major concepts major concepts subthemes infrastructural context • technology • social • economics • political statutory and legal framework • policies • strategies • standards • regulation • legislation health applications • non -functional attributes • mhealth applications • dhis2 stakeholder • policy makers • ict regulators • monitoring and evaluation team • system developers • health consumer • health provider patient-centric services • principles (values) • enabler • activities the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 62 discussion this section gives a description of the proposed framework as depicted in figure 3. the ict framework has six components: context, legal framework, health application, patient-centric services, monitoring and evaluation and stakeholders. these are further discussed in detail in the subsequent subsections. components of the framework context the contextual setting in which the ict framework operates, consists of factors such as technological factors, social factors, economic factors, and political factors. first, the technological factors such as ict infrastructure; technical skills (human capacity); research and education technology; knowledge management tools; health facilities equipment and availability of technological facilities contribute to the success of ict interventions in public health sector. these technological factors are necessary for the provision of quality healthcare delivery. second, social factors include: literacy levels of the citizenry to interpret and analyze health information; acceptance level of new technological change; population growth rate; health and safety awareness; cultural values; attitude and beliefs; and ethics. for instance, patient-centric healthcare approach ensures that patients are treated according to their own values, attitude and beliefs thereby enhancing patient care satisfaction and experience (bhandari & snowdon, 2012; leecher, 2012). third, economic factors encompass the following: funding levels; poverty levels; affordability of medical healthcare scheme; and employment opportunities. for instance, studies have shown that there is a strong correlation between poverty prevalence and mortality (hodgetts & stolte, 2017). fourth, political factors include political will, political stability, and corruption levels. for example, political will plays a role in improving access to healthcare services especially in developing countries (oronje, murunga, musila, & zulu, 2013). in general, the aforementioned are essentially the basic requirements for successful ict interventions of patient-centric healthcare services. legal and regulatory framework this component ensures that the following: ict policies; ehealth and mhealth strategies; interoperability standards; regulatory frameworks; health and safety laws; and privacy and security laws enable efficient and secure utilization of ict interventions in the public health sector. policy and legal frameworks protect health information from unauthorized access. it may also enforce penalties in case of misuse and abuse of patient information. in addition, policy and legal frameworks may ensure the adherence to professional ethics as they may guide patients and healthcare practitioner on how data can be collected, stored, and reported. health applications there are many health applications, such as: portal; telemedicine; electronic medical records (emr); personal health records (phr); and electronic health records (ehr); that the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 63 may offer various health services to patients. a portal provides a platform for patients to access their health information on the web. telemedicine involves the diagnosis and treatment of patient over a distance by means of telecommunication technology. emrs keep the medical and treatment history of a patient at one healthcare provider. ehr enables the sharing of emrs among various healthcare providers. while ehrs and emrs are controlled by healthcare providers, phrs enable the patient to control and manage their own personal health information (heart, ben-assuli, & shabtai, 2017). for these health applications to offer patient-centric healthcare services, they should have the following quality attributes: accessibility; integrity, accuracy; uniqueness; availability; simplicity; flexibility; reliability; scalability; mobility; robustness; usefulness; usability; and auditability, among others (pettus, vanderveen, canfield, & schad, 2017). such systems must be accessible by authorized users ubiquitously. a health information system of high integrity must provide trustworthy and accurate information which must be readily available when it is needed. besides providing security control measures to circumvent unauthorized access to information, patient-centric systems must be usable and useful. patient centric services the aim of the ict framework is to ensure that healthcare services are patient-centric. this means that a patient must be treated as a unique person with personal, biological, and social characteristics. with patient-centric approach, healthcare practitioners need to have good communication skills, empathy, and medical competency. a good communication relationship between a patient and healthcare practitioner cements mutual trust. it is also highly important that patients’ needs, preferences, values, beliefs, and expectations are considered when providing healthcare services (robbins et al., 2013). unlike the provider-centred care, the provision of patient-centric healthcare services is a continuous dynamic interaction between the patient and the healthcare practitioner over a patient’s whole life. it is a collaborative teamwork that involves patients, family members, friends for physical comfort and emotional support in the provision of healthcare. this means that a patient must be empowered with information to be able to make an informed decision about their own health and wellbeing. monitoring and evaluation monitoring and evaluation teams must ensure that standards, policies, and laws are adhered to. this is a critical and continuous assessment phase during the implementation of an ict framework. it involves a collaboration among various key stakeholders, such as healthcare providers, health applications developers, patients, and policy makers to make sure that health services meet the needs, preferences, beliefs, values, and expectations of the patients. stakeholders many stakeholders must collaborate to ensure that all standards and needs are met. such stakeholders are ict and health policy makers and malawi communications and regulatory authority (macra), among others. these stakeholders play various pivotal roles in an effort to make the provision of healthcare services more patient-centric. for instance, the moh is mandated to develop and review health policies and standards in the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 64 collaboration with other stakeholders in malawi. on the other hand, macra regulates the broadcasting, cellular, and internet services in malawi. figure 3: proposed ict framework to support patient centric services 5 . m o n it o r a n d e v a lu a te a g a in st s ta n d a r d s a n d p o li c y 6 . s ta k e h o ld e r s 1. context technology social economic political others 2. legal framework policies strategies standards regulation legislation others 3. health application systems usefulness usability interoperability availability mobility others portal telemedicine hmis phr emr/ehr others nonfunctional attributes applications requirements/enablers tasks/activities • attitude of health practitioner • health practitioner -patient relationship • uniqueness of a patient • a patient as a whole • coordination and integration of care • collaborative communication • teamwork • continuity of care • access to care • empower patient • patient, family, and friends in care • teamwork • provide information and educational support patient-centric health care services values/principles the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 65 interrelationships of the components of the ict central to the ict framework is the provision of patient-centric services. these are the services that consider the values, principles, and preferences of the healthcare consumer. for such services to be effective, there are many players from various aspects. there exists a number of relationships among the components of the ict framework as depicted in figure 4. mhealth and ehealth applications must be designed in a such way that it facilitates a better provision of quality patient-centric care. they must be developed specifically for the patient. for instance, one interviewee suggested that mobile health applications must be designed in the language that can be understood by the local person in the remote areas. continuous collaboration among policy makers, system developers, monitoring and evaluation teams, and the patients need to be put in place. there is a strong relationship between the legal framework and the patient-centric healthcare services. public health laws and ethics ensure that both the healthcare consumer and healthcare provider are safe in the course of providing healthcare services. health and medical ethics must be adhered to. more so, violations of professional code of ethics can be systematically addressed. policies need to be formulated to benefit the healthcare consumer that the healthcare provider. the infrastructural context is related to the provision of patient-centric healthcare services. the availability of mobile networks, for instance, enables patients to access mhealth applications in rural areas where it is difficult even to consult a healthcare practitioner. the availability of health clinics within a short distance has provided many healthcare consumers with better quality and more convenient healthcare services. the quality of healthcare professionals and health literacy of patients also have a great impact on the delivery of patient-centric healthcare services. both healthcare providers and healthcare consumers need to be empowered with necessary information, if both players have to mutual benefit from a patient-centric healthcare approach. holistically, various key stakeholders are involved in ensuring that the delivery of healthcare services is more patient-centric. there is a need for close collaboration among various key stakeholders, including: healthcare consumers; healthcare providers; policy makers; health and medical experts; health application developers; and monitoring and evaluation teams. noteworthy is to mention that the monitoring and evaluations team is related to the components of the framework as it ensures that all the activities conform to the established standards, norms, and best practices validation of the framework the ict framework was validated by five experts selected from different areas of expertise including mhealth application developers, ict policy makers, and public health practitioners. the aim of this validation process was to determine the relevance and usefulness of the proposed framework in a resource constrained setting, such as malawi. much as the experts agreed with most of the components of the framework, emphasis was made on the sustainability of mhealth and ehealth applications. appendix 2 provides a the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 66 profile of the validation experts. table 5 gives a summary of the responses by the experts who unanimously agreed that the framework was relevant and applicable. figure 4: interrelationships of components of ict framework (researcher’s design) uniqueness of the ict framework context many health information frameworks have been developed, but this ict framework will be operational in a unique context of the public health sector in malawi. it was specifically designed for a resource constrained setting. malawi public healthcare sector suffers from a myriad of ict challenges. it also heavily relies on donor support. there are also low literacy levels in addition to inadequate health and ict personnel. while providing patient-centric healthcare services, the ict framework emphasises on continuous monitoring and evaluating the managing of resources so that health applications become easily sustainable and scalable. the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 67 design science as a methodology this ict framework used design science as methodology, which is rigorous in nature as each step is iterative. it is a methodology which is self-validating because of its iterative phases. there are many outputs of design science, but the output of this research study was the patient-centric ict framework for the public health sector in malawi. the iterative steps involved: the identification of the problem in malawi’s healthcare landscape; defining objectives of the research study; designing and developing an ict framework; and evaluating and disseminating the research output. this publication forms the last step of communicating the output of design science to the technology-oriented audience. table 5: summary of responses from experts strongly agree (sa), agree (a), disagree (d), strongly disagree (sd) sa a d sd efficient ✓✓✓ ✓✓ operational ✓✓ ✓✓✓ well designed ✓ ✓✓✓✓ relevant ✓✓ ✓✓✓ useful ✓✓✓ ✓✓ applicable ✓✓✓ ✓✓ valuable ✓✓✓✓✓ customisable ✓ ✓✓✓✓ adaptable ✓ ✓✓✓✓ formulate the assessment criteria ✓ good requirements ✓✓ ✓✓✓ requires improvement ✓✓✓✓ ✓ project leadership skills ✓ involvement of various stakeholders ✓ evaluation ✓ maintenance ✓ components of the framework data triangulation from comprehensive literature and semi-structured interviews conducted in malawi produced a number of components that informed the ict framework. interviews were transcribed. codes were gleaned and merged into major themes. this implies that the components for the framework were obtained from the local the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 68 settings. it is therefore safe to conclude that the ict framework will be tailored to solve the problems in the public healthcare sector in malawi although some components were still similar with other existing frameworks. ict framework is locally validated after the conceptual framework was developed, it was therefore locally validated by various experts so as to ascertain its relevance and applicability. review experts were drawn from various disciplines in malawi such as academicians, health professionals, policy makers, and health applications developers. the review experts were sourced from malawi because it is expected that they are aware of malawi’s public health infrastructure. targeting a specific user most health applications developed so far are being used by healthcare providers to manage electronic medical records of the patients. they usually assist to make the work of healthcare providers easier. however, the target of the patient-centric ict framework is the healthcare consumer who must be empowered with health information to help them manage their own health. with a patient at the centre of the healthcare system, the ict framework facilitates the collaboration of many stakeholders including health applications developers, healthcare providers, and policy makers. technological solution within the local context this ict framework endeavours to provide an ict solution to the delivery of patientcentric healthcare services. there is evidence that ict has accelerated adoption of patientcentric approach in the public healthcare sector. the integration of emrs, ehrs, and phrs has increased the availability and access of health information among healthcare providers and healthcare consumers. the roll out of dhis to all districts in malawi, prompted the need for an integrated framework to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and scalability of ict interventions in the public health sector. additionally, dynamic advances in artificial intelligence, fog computing and internet of things (iot), are expected to revolutionise the healthcare industry locally and globally, thereby making it more patient-centric. multidisciplinary approach the ict framework was developed from multidisciplinary perspective including information and communication technology (ict), health informatics, nursing, and governance. it is expected that the multidisciplinary approach will be beneficial to both patients and healthcare professionals. this would enhance efficient resource utilisation for the healthcare provider and improved health outcomes for the patients. descriptive and not prescriptive approach the framework focuses on providing the solutions to the problems within the context of the study, without specifying how it will be implemented. the advantage of this approach the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 69 is that the framework can be deployed differently in any similar settings. this ensures that the ict framework is adaptable and scalable. holistic approach in local context the ict framework also took a holistic approach to focus on how the whole person interacts with their environment rather just focusing on their illness. the five areas considered are physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual. for a person to be healthy, there must be a good balance of these factors including physical exercise, maintaining a positive attitude, socializing with others, and spiritually enhancing oneself. the ict framework needs to facilitate these aspects of health and well-being. artificial ignorance this approach takes an advantage of analyzing outliers or unusual events in a particular system. during the course of developing the ict framework, unusual responses by interviewees were considered and were further analyzed to determine if they had any significance in the delivery of healthcare services. conclusion the findings from the semi-structured interviews were integrated with those from the literature review to reveal a number of challenges underlying ict interventions in the health sector in developing countries, such as malawi. most participants reported that they were concerned with the inadequate financial funding for the public health sector. poor funding ultimately leads to inadequate ict infrastructure. lack of strategies to sustain ehealth and mobile health systems compromise the delivery of quality healthcare systems. as a result, most healthcare consumers and healthcare providers therefore do not effectively benefit from the ict interventions since some systems are not scalable. a number of participants therefore suggested implementing an ict framework which will be used as a guide to coordinate ict interventions in the public health sector. this framework can be used by various stakeholders, such as policy makers, decision makers, health professionals, ict developers, and others when devising and implementing ict interventions. it is envisaged that the framework will ensure that such interventions are used cost effectively by both healthcare providers and healthcare consumers. this will consequently make the provision of healthcare services in the public sector more patientcentric. it is soothing to that note that icts have proven to play a pivotal role in making sure that healthcare services are more patient-centric. a number of participants therefore suggested some ict related factors that may improve the patient-centricity in the public healthcare sector. one example of such ict related factors is the availability of usable and useful mhealth and ehealth systems. data from the semi-structured and comprehensive literature study were used as input for the formulation of the framework. the development of the framework was also based on the principles of patient-centric models, design science paradigm, and user-centred design the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 70 processes. the following were the components for the proposed framework as gleaned from the participants and literature review: contextual framework; legal framework; health applications; patient-centric services; monitoring and evaluation; and involvement of stakeholders. the framework was further validated by experts to ensure its validity and relevance. the experts unanimously agreed that the framework is relevant, useful, and applicable within the setting of malawi. the framework can be also applied in any context with similar characteristics in the world. in conclusion, the study has proposed an ict framework for supporting patient-centric healthcare services in the public health sector in malawi. the challenges underlying the ict development in healthcare systems have been considered. it was highlighted that social, economic, legal frameworks are vital for mhealth and ehealth applications to provide patient-centric healthcare services. health systems need to be useful and usable focusing on the needs of the users. icts can indeed play a role to sustain patient-centric health applications. as a curative and preventive healthcare approach, a patient-centric healthcare approach empowers a patient to take responsibility of their own health and wellbeing. this ict framework can be customized so that it is redeployed in other developing countries with similar environments in the world. the adoption of a patient-centric healthcare approach can not only enhance satisfaction but also enhance a patient’s experience while utilising healthcare services cost effectively. empowering patients with health information encourage them to take full control of their own health and wellbeing. patient empowerment can be augmented by good collaboration among healthcare providers and healthcare consumers. these key health players should have a conducive environment to share vital information over ict infrastructure. by empowering patients, family members and friends with health information, caring for patients at home becomes easy, thereby reducing hospital congestion and expenses. this curative and preventive patient-centric approach therefore improves the 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(2015). design science research methods and patterns: innovating information and communication technology: crc press.doi: https://doi.org/10.1201/b18448 village reach (2020). chipatala cha pa foni (ccpf) a lifeline for family health accessed on 19 november 2020 retrieved from https://www.villagereach.org/impact/ccpf/ https://doi.org/10.1201/b18448 https://www.villagereach.org/impact/ccpf/ the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 74 appendix 1: profile of participants for semi-structured interviews no designation organisation highest qualification experience (yrs.) 1 product manager baobab trust, lilongwe phd in health informatics 6 2 deputy director ministry of health, lilongwe master’s in public health 15 3 associate professor chancellor college, zomba phd in health informatics 25 4 deputy director (ict) ministry of health, lilongwe bachelor of science, computer science 20 5 senior systems administrator college of medicine, blantyre master of science in health informatics 8 6 chief systems analyst department of e-government, lilongwe bachelor of science in computer science 9 7 chief systems analyst department of e-government, lilongwe master of science. in information telecommunication technology 30 8 ict consultant business and management systems, blantyre master of science in computer science 24 9 deputy director of legal services the malawi communications regulatory authority, blantyre bachelor’s in law 9 10 health informatics technical assistant ministry of health, lilongwe master of science in health informatics 15 11 systems developer team lead saint luke, mzuzu master of science in health informatics 9 12 health information management officer machinga district hospital, machinga diploma in information and communication technology 4 13 statistical clerk machinga district hospital, machinga malawi school certificate of education 4 14 health information management officer zomba central hospital, zomba advanced diploma in information and communication technology 6 15 statistical clerk zomba central hospital, zomba malawi school certificate of education 5 16 director of ict services mzuzu university, mzuzu master of science in information theory, coding and cryptography 13 the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 75 appendix 2: sample of questions during semi-structured interviews section a: personal information 1. please introduce yourself by providing your full name, your designation or position in your organisation , name of your organisation, number of years of experience , and your highest academic qualification section b : challenges underlying ict development in public health care in malawi this section seeks to determine the challenges underlying the ict development in public healthcare in malawi. 1) what are the challenges or barriers or problems underlying healthcare ict development in the public health sector ? 2) what are the possible solutions to the aforementioned challenges? section c: ehealth and m-health applications in malawi ehealth is the use of ict tools such as computers, mobile phones, communications satellite, and patient monitors for providing health services and information. mobile health is the use of mobile devices such as mobile phones to provide health services. therefore m-health is a subset of ehealth. 3) outline m-health and e-health applications that are being used in malawi, of any? 4) from both the perspective of ict consumer and ict service provider, what do you think are the challenges that are encountered in providing mobile health and electronic health services in malawi? 5) what are the possible solutions you can suggest to resolve the challenges that hamper the provision of ict services in the healthcare public sector? section d: patient-centric care in malawi patient-centric care places more emphasis on the patient than the illness itself. it is a dynamic process through which the patient regulates the flow of information to and from him/her via multiple pathways to exercise choices consistent with his/her preferences, values, and beliefs. the proliferation of icts has increased the access and sharing of health information among patients, families, and health providers. 6) what ict related factors or ict enablers can enhance patient-centric care in malawi? section e: components of an ict framework that can support a patient-centric approach in malawi there is a lack of an ict framework that can support patient-centric healthcare services in malawi. 7) what do you think are the requirements or the components of an ict framework that can support patient-centric healthcare services in malawi? 8) what do you think are the benefits of implementing ict framework that can support patient centric approach in malawi? the journal of community informatics 16 (2020), 45-76 issn: 1721-4441 76 appendix 3: profile of participants of validation reviewer (r) r1 r2 r3 r4 r5 gender male female female female female designation/ occupation head of computer science/ academician, software developer it manager registered nurse nurse nurse range of years of experience 11-15 years over 21 years 3-5 years 6-10 years over 21 years highest qualification phd masters bachelors bachelors masters location university of malawi, chancellor college, zomba, malawi malawi digital broadcast network. lilongwe , malawi lilongwe, kamuzu central hospital, malawi queen elizabeth central hospital, blantyre queen elizabeth central hospital, blantyre